The spread...

Prowling sensually back and forth from one end of the barrier to the other, Susan eyed her family like a tigress staring at raw meat. Tracing a talon across the energy barrier separating her from them, steam simmered off its surface until she pulled away, her green lips pursed in a smile. The fear and anxiety her family showed looking up at her alien, statuesque figure aroused her to no end. “Aren’t you going to let me in Reed? You’re extended family SO wish to greet you.”

Reed Richards was stunned, so much so he almost couldn’t process what he was looking at. Hundreds of predatory monsters that looked like they had come straight out of a Lovecraftian nightmare surrounded the humanoid female creature that wore his wife’s face and spoke with her voice. “My God Susan… What have you become?!”

“I’ve become PERFECTION Reed.” Susan answered, almost offended. “I tried fighting it for so long, but I know better now, I’ve become something incredible, powerful, god-like.” Reed had returned to the work desk, scrambling through genetic code and rapidly researching her perfect DNA. He had seen enough! Drowning out everything around him, Mr. Fantastic poured over as much as he could, trying to find a weakness he could exploit, ANYTHING that could stop this nightmare from growing further out of control. “I can read your body language Reed, I can smell your fear, see the blood vessels in your body contract out of a fight or flight response, eventually you’ll come to the same conclusion I did, I am the future of this world.”

“You’ve gone NUTS Suzie!” Grunted Ben, trying to avert his eyes from Susan’s nude physique, shamelessly flaunting her inhuman body as she continued to pad and pace back and forth while her horde of ‘children’ hissed and snarled behind her. Playfully petting the slithering scalp of one of her spawn like one would pat the head of a loyal pet, Susan gave the stone skinned man a leer that made him uncomfortable. The swarm of monsters parted at the ruined door to allow new beings to arrive, their presence shocking Ben when she spotted Alicia, now nude and twisted into a predatory creature herself. Pressing up against Susan side, the queen smiled back and pulled the formally blind woman up for a lurid kiss, their tongues could be visible through their murky translucent flesh exploring each other’s mouths and esophagus’s. “You don’t know what your missing Ben.” Purred Alicia, drapping her talons down her heaving chest. “Join us…” Flying into the lab on a pair of diaphanous wings, Wasp hovered nearby, appraising the family contained in the energy barrier before landing delicately at her feet to join the other women. “Join us…”

Separating from the two women and looking back at the entrance to see the other females join the swarm in the large room, Susan purred with laughter. “Do you see it now? If everyone sees things YOUR way, then YOU become the standard of sanity Benjamin.” Seeing her human children grip at their father’s legs, horrified of the creature Susan had become, Susan’s smile grew predatory, exposing razor teeth and a long tongue lick at her fangs. “Do not worry my children, I have PLANS for you, you shall join my hive and know pleasures like you would never imagine.” Standing between her and the rest of his family, Johnny flared out a corona of flame, keeping her attention on him. “Over my dead body sis.”

Bringing a clawed finger to her pouting lip, Susan giggled at the bravado. “Such courage, I wonder how mighty our sons will be when we join together my sibling.”

Keeping himself from retching again, Johnny glared back at the alluring monster that had taken his sister. The Susan Storm he knew would never entertain the thoughts she was speaking out loud. Only showing just how far his sister had fallen. “So, what are you going to do?”

Giving her brother a coy look, Susan gracefully stepped over to the far wall, tracing her talon against the metal in an almost zig-zig fashion, her tentacles slithering over the metal like serpents until she stopped dead at a junction in the wall. With in human strength, she dug her claw into the metal as if it were a sheet of tin, prying the wall open and grabbing a bundle of power cables that sparked and hissed in her hand. Looking back at her brother with a smile best found on a shark, the swarm queen casually raised a clawed hand and flicked out a single talon like a jack-knife before plucking at the wires one by one.

With each wire severed, the power to the lab’s functions died; display screens went black, lights went dark and computers dulled to a quite hum. It was at this point the Richards family discovered she was taking her time, toying with her prey before she finally did the deed. She wanted to savour this moment, flaunt her superiority to her human family. A hiss of air at Reed’s side told him the vial of fluid he concocted had finally filled, just as Susan cut the power to the main computer. “Everyone, to me, we only have one shot at this!” Called out Reed, gripping the vial in his hand… And then smashing on the ground. Leaving the final cable that powered the energy barrier up, Susan looked at her former family and made a look of disappointment. The auras they gave off changed, before they were a healthy pink in her eyes, but that colour soon changed and dulled until they all looked dark purple, the aura of sickness.

“You made yourselves… Tainted.” Susan pouted, seeing her husband begin to cough, his face going red from coughing fits as the others quickly did the same. “How disappointing…” Holding his children close as they sneezed and sniffled, Reed gave his former wife a defiant look.

“You can’t turn a sick host, can’t you? I won’t let you turn our children into monsters.”

Glaring back at the man but slowly smoothing her features, Susan shrugged. “Shame… But my swarm have other appetites.” Snipping the final cable, the energy barrier died, letting loose the horde of monsters onto the Fantastic Four. Closing in with claws, teeth, mandibles and tentacles, the first creature raised its chitinous talon to strike… When it began to convulse. Stepping back and going into a violent coughing fit, its flesh turned a sickly yellow, oozing phlegm and puss from its mouth before collapsing to the ground. In the span of seconds, the same occurred to the rest of the swarm, hundreds falling to the ground coughing and vomiting bile and fluids as their flesh rapidly decayed.

Collapsing like a dead weight, Janet wheezed and coughed, clutching at her blistered throat gasping for air. “Wha… What’s happening?!” Collapsing to her hands and knees, Alicia threw up hard, her translucent skin blistered and decayed before she collapsed into a fetal position, the rest of the swarm around her dissolved into an oozing pile of organic matter.

“YOU SICKENING LITTLE MAN, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO US?!” Hissed Susan, her reptilian eyes sallow and her tentacles rotting off her like clumps of hair.

“I gave you the flu…” Answered Reed, getting to his feet as the rest of his family backed away from the growing pool of decaying flesh on the ground. “Your DNA IS perfect… Except for one thing, your metabolism is so explosively high that even the common cold will kill you if you don’t have the immune system for it, and by the looks of your… Our kids, they never got their flu shots.”

“You think this will stop us? Cough…Stop ME?! I am perfection! I’ve existed… COUGH, Cough, cough, cough… Existed for millions of years in the vacuum of space… COUGH, cough, cough… I’ve devoured worlds! Empires! The UNIVERSE!!!” Falling to her knees and collapsing to the grease slick floor, her breathing grew shallow and laboured, her vision blurring as all her strength betrayed her.

“I’m perfect…”