The magics of Mysterio!

It took the Fantastic Four mere minutes to reach Park Row where the news channel showed Mysterio attacking the police headquarters and anyone else getting too close. From there susan played it smart and made their entry invisible to the attacking illusionist to hide their approach. The moment they came at least 100 meters of the building, reality seemed to warp, twist and change like melting wax. Ben had to shake his head and blink back at the insanity happening around him and keep the Fantasticar steady and in the air.

In front of them, the buildings all around them cackled like jack-o-lanterns, vomiting winged monkeys that swarmed overhead where other monsters and beasts flew around a woman in a green cloak who raised her hands to the sky, controlling them like a conductor at an orchestra.

“I think we found her…”

“Yeah…” Winced Johnny, seeing the insanity happening outside the comfort and safety of the Fantasticar. “So how do we take her… LOOK OUT!”

Seeing a massive serpentine dragon fly by in front of them, Johnny panicked when it flew through the hull and made its way inside the Fantasticar, the Human Torch screamed looking straight into its mouth as it passed through him and the wall behind him like a ghost. Everyone else watched on in shock, but finding they were all no worse for wear when the tail tip of the creature was the last thing they saw exit the craft. Falling to the floor, Johnny checked himself over to find he was perfectly okay, leaving the others to watch the dragon fly off unaware of their presence.

The beast flew back to its master and coiled around Mysterio like a serpent. It didn’t take long for it to make another pass after the woman pointed down onto the streets where it roared and blasted apart an armored car with its fiery breath.

“The hell happened there?” Asked Ben.

“Yeah, how did it go through us, but not with the armored car?”

“Interesting…” Reed moved over to the controls opposite to Ben’s pilot seat as he watched the calamity outside. “No substance, yet the creature is causing damage, perhaps… Because SHE can’t see us!”

“Are you saying it only attacks what it sees?” Asked Susan.

“I’m saying its not a dragon at all, nothing out there is real.” Going over a set of controls on the panel, the front visor of the Fantasticar began to give off a soft blue glow. “Here, the Fantasticar is built for us to travel through space and the windows are designed to block out harmful light rays. Here, let me try something.”

For a few seconds the front windshield of the Fantasticar began to change the frequencies of visible light they could all see through, making the outside world look almost muted when colours were stripped away one after the other until it was almost monochrome. There, in the tint of black and white, the Fantastic Four could make out what was happening outside their vehicle.

Nothing.

The illusions were stripped away. The vibrant colours and the veil of warped reality all gone to show that the city was NOT in shambled or turned into a nightmare realm. Instead, they found the robed woman was standing on a disc of solid invisible light like a platform, pointing towards the city below where she created basic shapes from the same powers the Invisible Woman had to strike at cars and fleeing police. Resetting the dials, the madness returned in full ****, showing skyscrapers laughing with claws made of girders and glass, the sky a hurricane of colours, until Reed flicked the switch again and it was all gone.

“A hologram?”

“A VERY powerful one at that. Not only that, but it also seems to be emitting some kind of chemical into the air…” Answered Reed, noticing the way Mysterio used her staff as a focus for her attacks. “Some kind of psychotropic hallucinogen coupled with the illusions she’s creating. Making everything seem more real than they should be. It must be generated by the pommel of her staff, the power demands, the complex programming needed to create such illusions on the fly. Where did she get such technology?”

“Probably stole it.” Shrugged Ben, Looking back over his shoulder to Reed. “She doesn’t strike me as bein the smart one in the group… Err sorry Suzie.”

“No need Ben.” Smirked Susan, eyeing the green robed villainess outside. “Bitch has to be stupid if she thought she would attack my family and not get away with it.”

“Here, here.” Said Johnny, getting to his feet and igniting his body in flames. “How about we add some pyrotechnics to her little light show.”

Heading to the side exit of the fantasticar and opening the door, outside the insanity played out in full **** all around him, just as he was about to step out, he heard his sister call out for him to be safe, prompting him to look back with a smirk.

“Don’t worry sis, this is one rave party I can handle.”

Launching out of the invisible Fantasticar like a missile, Johnny flew around Mysterio, alerting the woman to his presence as he flew fiery circles around her.

“SO, THE FIRE MAN DECIDES TO FACE THE MASTER OF SORCERY HERSELF? WHERE ARE YOUR COMPATRIOTS?” She boasted, waving her staff, and changing the setting all around them. Immediately the skies changed colour to a blood red, the buildings looking like gothic castles and the streets dark with blackened trees like some sort of horror novel. “WHERE ARE THEY? OR DO THEY NEED A BRIGHT LIGHT TO BRAVE THEIR JOURNEY THROUGH THE DARK? NONE ARE SPARED THE MYSTICAL MIGHT OF MYSTERIO!”

Hovering there for several seconds, Johnny eventually broke into a chuckle, clutching at his sides, leaving the green cloaked woman to stand and wring her free hand in frustration.

“Lady, I don’t know what reality you come from, but YOU ham it up better than Shatner. My sister could pull the wicked witch of the west bit better than you any day and she gave up acting years ago!”

“YOU DARE? YOU DARE?!!!!!”

Raising her staff overhead, the maelstrom in the sky churned violently, firing arcs of lightning, and crashing thunder all around. Aiming her staff right at the Human Torch, a column of magical energies from the skies vomited forth to strike him like a freight train. Seeing all that madness coming down, Johnny’s smirk never left him as he waited there in mid-air waiting for it to hit.

“That’s right… Keep up the lightshow you hack.”

Mere feet from his head, the impact struck something invisible, yet the illusion kept moving forward, swallowing up Johnny as the intense heat he gave off warbled and deformed the illusion around him. Smiling, he recognised how his sister’s powers created a wall to block the oncoming strike, looking back to see the Invisible Woman smirk back at him from her perch at the Fantasticar with her hand out, keeping up the barrier.

“Thanks sis, HEY! MAGIC BITCH!” Looking up at the stunned face of Mysterio, Johnny created a ball of intense flame in his hand. “Check what I got up MY sleeve.”

Throwing the ball of fire, the woman guarded herself thinking she was the target, gasping in surprise when it instead struck the pommel of her staff, shattering the swirling orb into a hundred pieces. Instantly her illusions fell apart like a house of cards, the hallucinogens it pumped into the air burning up from the explosion as well as Johnny’s searing presence burning it up out of the air.

Stunned, and slipping off her invisible disc of hard light she stood on, Susan lowered her hand to where she was falling. “I got her!” A bubble of solid light enveloped the now **** woman as Ben brought the Fantasticar down to make a landing.

Stepping out of the vehicle after it landed, everyone that was caught in the insanity in Mysterio’s attack climbed out of their hiding places, their senses clearing now that the source of the hallucinogens was gone. Many of them cheering, just as Johnny landed to his feet, looking proud of himself. The rest of the Fantastic Four stepping out of the vehicle with Reed stretching out to be the first one there to check the Susan Variant over.

Bending at the knee to check Mysterio over, Reed pulled back her hood to show an almost identical twin to Susan Storm, but this woman’s hair was a dirty blonde, and her face had what looked like burn scars. Something Johnny caught sight of and winced.

“Didn’t think I hit her that hard.”

“This wasn’t you Johnny, I think these are years old.”

“Hmm, well then.” Brushing his hands clean, Johnny rested his hands at his sides. “That was easy.”

“Come on now hot head.” Grumbled the Thing. “Yer gonna jynx it if you say that out loud.”

“I dunno, I think I handled it pretty well.”

The sound of electricity buzzed overhead as the street lights sparked and fizzled sparks out of their light bulbs, nearby car alarms blared off and other electrical equipment went haywire until raw currents of electricity shot out from all over and pooled together high above in the air, taking shape until it was in the form of a woman glaring down at the Four, and causing the bystanders to run in a panic.

“Toldja.”