Summary:The Spider-Hunt ends…who lives? Who dies? Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Rainsford did not smile. "I am still a beast at bay," he said, in a low, hoarse voice. "Get ready, General Zaroff."
The general made one of his deepest bows. "I see," he said. "Splendid! One of us is to furnish a repast for the hounds. The other will sleep in this very excellent bed. On guard, Rainsford."…
Richard Connell, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME
OCTOBER 30TH, 2019
7:55 PM
As Spider-Man made his way through the financial district, he felt more exhausted than he had ever felt in his life. If this worked…he was going to sleep for a week.
If it didn't…then he'd never have to worry about sleep ever again.
He was a mile away now. He could see the southern shoreline coming up, and the brick building marked with a waypoint.
And Morlun was getting closer.
<Spidey here…almost…at the Quicktime Event. If all…goes well…I will appear at the place where this all started…the waterfront warehouse, where the initial…massacre happened. Where is…everyone…?>
God…please help…I don't know if I can do this…but whatever happens…I will not die a coward…
Sarah's voice comes over the comms: <Spider Actual, Black. On station, ready for your go. Standing by.>
Jessica Drew had no way to hack into the Spider Comms, but throughout this ordeal, she had been trying to find a way in. Some way to help. Some way to let them know she was trying to help. She had set up a beacon to be broadcast on every imaginable wavelength through her SHIELD comm system. And at this point, all she could do was try. Jessica pressed a button to start the broadcast, and if all went well, she would show up as a red and gold icon, on Spider-Man's display. On a map, she would show up a little closer to him than Morlun, but off to Spidey's left. If it worked, she could not access the comms, but she could at very least let him know she is there, and keeping pace with the webslinger, ready to swoop in, if Morlun gets too close.
Anya Corazon has not been idle.
Her absence from the last encounter was due to being locked inside of a Faraday Cage at the GIRL building, evaluating the data captured by Agent Simmons' DWARVES.
But that's not all.
The waterfront warehouse has been decorated, in a manner of speaking. It's outer facade, like its interior, has been draped with black and silver spider webs, laid out in a haunting, eerie fashion; the echo of black feelings shared by many who have endured this plight.
Inside of the warehouse, similar webbing has been hung from the walls, the ceilings… it's everywhere. However, it isn't mere decoration, for some of those spooky webworks conceal a series of four contraptions hidden behind the black and silver.
<Spider-Girl, at the destination point.> Clicking off the spider-comm, Anya swings from one end of the building to the other with a heavy cable in tow, one that she's webbing to the ceiling next to other pipe work. "How we doing over there, Spider-Woman?" she asks of the young woman who is with her.
Assuming Gwen followed her instructions to the letter, they are mere minutes away from finding out just how good Anya Corazon is with electrical engineering.
Gwen Stacy is here, doing her best to make her father proud of her for something he'll never know she did, if everything goes according to plan. If it doesn't… well, there's a spot in the cemetery next to her Mom.
"Getting there!" she calls back to Spider-Girl. "Never really got into wiring up X-Ray machines, but it turns out the best way to learn is under intense, life-threatening pressure!"
<Spider-Woman on station, with Spider-Girl. Let's show this creep what happens when you fight Spiders on their home turf.> She finishes hooking one thing up, and scurries to the next. "Come on, come on," she mutters, working as fast as she can to follow Anya's instructions without taking the risk of missing a step. "This is for my Dad, and Peter, and MJ, and Anya, and Anya's Uncle, and everyone else you've hurt," she mutters. "Spider-Girl! I'm almost done! Just need a couple more minutes! How's your end?"
Robin is here, dressed in his vigilante regalia. He narrows his eyes as he scopes out the situation. <Robin, ready and waiting.> He had laid out just a few ideas in his plan to fight with Morlun. Unlike practically everyone else here, Robin had no superpowers, so relied on technology and martial skill. But martial arts are -almost- useless when you have someone faster, stronger, and tougher than you in the extreme.
Lets just hope they can all use teamwork to take this bastard out. Spiders and a Bat.
Thea is there, all in black from boots to her blouse, and loaded for bear. She's got her favorite weaponry strapped and tucked and hidden, but the important thing is the canister she's handling as gingerly as if it was a bomb. That's not too far off, really. She also has her pills of potassium iodide and Prussian blue.
She can't seem to stop pacing back and forth in a tiny part of the warehouse, to try and keep her body busy without being in anyone's way.
Spidey looked down. Morlun was SMILING at him, the alien bastard.
"Okay…let's try this…"
He spots Spider-Woman (really, how can you miss her?) and points to the brick building, chosen for the three-foot wall around the roof…
…which hid the glowing portal, courtesy of one Miss Sarah "SHIELD Sorceress" Black. He was going to call her that.
He swung low and fast, rising up to launch himself at the portal.
In one end of the city…and out the other.
Spider-Man flew out of the magical Einstein-Rosen bridge and rolled to a stop. He looked around to see the interior of the warehouse. He looked towards the portal, waiting for Spider-Woman and Sarah, his heart hammering against his ribs. He spotted Thea out of the corner of his eye, and realized he was going to do this.
Sarah doesn't have a fancy mask with a built-in HUD. But she does have her SHIELD-issue up-gunned StarkPhone, now tied into the Spider-Comms for the duration of the current crisis. She had the phone in one hand, watching the rapid approach of Spider-Man's icon, and when he was a few seconds out, she gestured with her free hand and concentrated, and the pre-arranged portal irised open, ready for the webslinger to go on through without even slowing down.
Once Spider-Man is through, Sarah keeps the portal open long enough for Spider-Woman to follow, and then steps through herself, the passage winking shut smartly behind her.
Jessica was prepared to take Spidey's cue, and she turns on a dime, using a pivot point to swing around and toward where he had disappeared. With trepidation, but not hesitation, she follows Spider-Man into the portal and out the other side, never fully prepared for the disorientation that follows.
"Oh, you know," Anya answers Gwen, "just doing something that all of my professors would lose their shit over, probably gonna blow every transformer in a four block radius, but whatever." Her voice bounces around the warehouse from different directions as she swings to and fro, finishing a power rerouting job that would make Montgomery Scott either proud or very, very cross. "Just another day in the life."
Spider-Girl lands upon the warehouse floor next to Thea. Reaching out, she takes the woman's elbow briskly, then gestures toward an area at the middle of the warehouse. "If this works, I've got 1,280 Grays pointed at that spot. Sixteen times what's normally used in radiation therapy. Get Morlun in that spot, it might slow him down."
Its a long shot, and she knows it, but it's a much shorter shot than trying to fight him in ways they have before.
As soon as the portal opens, Spider-Girl is flipping into the air, headed for her lookout spot concealed by black webbing. A private channel is opened to Gwen. <We're out of time, Gwen. You finished?>
Now hidden from view, she looks on with trepidation as the three arrive. Jessica is unfamiliar to her, but she wastes no time; with one hand, she's dialing things in on what appears to be a medical control device, and with her left hand, she's using Arana to search for comm signals coming from Jessica Drew.
<I'm not done yet, I'm not done yet!> Gwen is seriously hurrying, glancing at her checklist, then at what she's doing, then the list, then the work. Attach a wire, plug this in, flick a switch, attach two more wires…
<I'M DONE I'M DONE!> Gwen replies at last to Anya, before she drops down from where she was working and lands on the ground. <I sure hope this works, Anya. But if it doesn't, you get Peter out, okay? He's gonna be tired and we're fresh.>
Spider-Woman (The young one) takes a moment to pop a couple fresh cartridges in her webshooters, and bounces up and down on her feet. <I think we're ready here,> she reports on the open comms, just as people are arriving. She moves to stand with Spider-Girl, getting herself out of sight.
<We're gonna get him,> she murmurs, switching back to the private channel with Anya. <We are. He came to the middle of the web, he can't beat us here.> Maybe she's saying it as much to psych herself up as Anya, but hey.
Damian was on the other side of that portal. He was in position, he was ready. «Ready to receive. Try not to fuck it up.» Damian, the best pep-talker in the history of pep-talk. He waits, pulling out his Birdarangs in preparation for the arrival of their enemy.
Grabbing Thea right now is like grabbing hot metal. One can almost feel that she's ready to explode. She will follow where she is pointed, a nod. She will hand a pill bottle to Anya. "Make sure everyone takes two of these. If we're unleashing radiation in here, I want to protect everyone. I have some of the other arrivals."
Thea has presumably taken her own, before she will toss tiny tubes to Peter, Sarah, and Jess. "Take those!" She will be heading for Peter, requested package in hand as she starts boosting her adopted brother's vitals and clearing lactic acid away from his muscles. "I have Prussian blue and an ass kicking for you, after we do this." She will mutter to him, holding out the canister. "Just enough, you hear me? I only need one good crack in his armor."
Spider-Man headed over to Thea immediately once the other two come through the portal, then took a deep breath and dry-swallowed the contents of the tube tossed to him. He takes the canister from Thea as he broadcasts to everyone.
<Morlun's coming here. He will be here in ten minutes, give or take. I don't want ANYONE to do ANYTHING until I give the go-ahead. The phrase will be, "HEY RUBE." Until then, don't do ANYTHING.> He opens the canister slowly, then shakes it as the syringe slides out. Jeez, it even LOOKS like poison. He lifts the syringe, looking at the green liquid inside. Anyone with a dosimeter built in will detect beta particles emanating from the syringe.
He looks to Thea. He tries to find the words. He looks to each person's face, masked or not. They came here to help him. Gwen was nearly killed. Anya lost her uncle.
Some friend HE was.
Before sanity could stop him from doing something suicidal, he jabbed the needle into his own chest, the green liquid shoved into his body. He drops the syringe into the upturned canister before the stuff hits.
Spider-Man cries out and goes to his knees. His entire body shudders, his hands fisted, clenching, unclenching.
He begins dying within seconds…
Sarah takes her pills, and quickly moves to her pre-designated spot. Once she's in place, she casts her invisibility glamour and settles down to wait, repeating a mantra in her thoughts to try to keep herself centered and calm. It's even almost working.
Jessica takes the contents of her tube without question. In her experience, when shit is going down and someone on your side says "Take this," you take that. "Ready. Let's just get this…" She pauses to look at Spidey, then nonplussed at the others. "…over with."
<Bet your ass,> Anya tells Gwen over their private channel. She will get Peter out if it goes south. That's her plan. Not to engage, unless absolutely necessary. She hands over the pills given to her by Thea, along with a spare set for Robin. <Get these to Robin. Two of them.> She then pops her own pills into her mouth, swallowing without question.
There's no time for feelings. Not right now; while she's hacking into Agent Drew's comm system to interface it with the Spider-Comm with one hand, and finishing out the calculations of her 'roided out X-Ray system with the other. Ten minutes. That's enough time for calculations, but not enough time for a test.
The young woman spares a brief moment to look down from her hiding place, watching as Peter injects himself with P-33. A soft sigh is given, and she turns away; she cannot watch, she cannot listen. All she can do is check the junction box at her feet, make sure everything is wired up correctly, and begin praying that she doesn't fry herself or blow something up when the time comes to flip the big red switch.
<Agent Drew.> Her voice comes over Jessica's comms. <I'm patching you into the Spider-Comm network. Standby.>
There's a clicking sound, and with that, Jessica is in.
<Dad always told me not to bet that.> Gwen accepts the pills from Anya, and pulls her mask up over her nose long enough to pop two in her mouth and gulp them down one after the other. <But I guess tonight's kind of… different.>
Gwen scoots over to where Robin is positioned, and holds out her hand to deposit the last couple of pills into his. "Take these," she instructs, "Courtesy of Angel, they're you're don't-die pills." With those handed over, she finds something good to hide behind.
She looks up just in time to see Peter injecting himself; and even though he's the one who's doing it, she has to put her hand out to steady herself. That's her best friend over there, being brave beyond measure, according to her estimation. She opens another private channel; <You got this, Peter,> She murmurs. <We're all here to back you up. We're all here for you. Just be your usual, awesome self, okay?>
Robin turns his head to Gwen as she scoots over to him, he holds his hand out to accept the pills. "Interesting name." he then looks back forward as he crouches down. He watches Peter put himself in a cardiac arrest-kind of situation, whatever he injected himself with -going- to kill him.
But he watches.
He knows Peter can make it. But how hard is he going to make it? Damian swears if he doesn't pull through that he'll find a reviving pit somewhere.
It's all Thea can do, to let Peter do this. She will take the canister away from him, to reseal it and find somewhere out of the way to stash it. Her jaw is clenched, her features resembling emotionless marble. She will pause, to take a deep breath, before she will return to Peter's side.
Though it doesn't look like there's anything going on, Thea's not going to move. She's using her powers to keep the radiation from tearing through Peter like a hot knife from butter. The second, the /second/ she is sure Morlun is down, she is shoving water and prussian blue down his throat, and flooding his body with her powers. Right now, she's standing with her feet lightly braced, one hand wrapped around the opposing wrist behind her back in a mock 'parade rest' position.
Spider-Man's healing factor can deal with a lot, but the decision to inject 51 milliliters of Phosphorus-33 into his own body is too much for his unaided body to deal with.
But his Angel was there, and her energy was flowing into him, supercharging the healing factor, destroying cancerous cells soon after they appear. It takes a few minutes, but when the pointer detects Morlun within two miles of the warehouse, Spider-Man has not only stopped convulsing, he is on his feet, and the tremors have stopped. Inside his body, there is a full-scale radioactive riot…but beyond the skin, not a single radioactive particle escapes. As long as the mask is on, and Morlun cannot see his eyes, and Spidey can keep the nausea down…
…and then there is no time left. The loading bay door seems to fly inward as Morlun, not a hair out of place, storms into the warehouse. The face perks with some obscene nostalgia. He can still smell the blood he spilled here. There were too many bodies, too many messes to clean up. The job couldn't have been well done, and he let his senses fill with the aroma.
Morlun sneered at Spider-Man, ignoring the others…because why should they rate any attention? "You picked a fine place to die. One would think the last 24 hours of your life could have been negated, and you…or your friends…would have no need to suffer. Do you feel any guilt for those that are dead because of you?"
All the time. Every day. "…I'm tired of running…of hiding…of tricks…of traps…" Spider-Man's voice is ragged and tired. "But if you think I'm going to lie down and just give up, you're crazier than an outhouse rat."
He lifts his fists, in the pose of a boxer. Uncle Ben didn't know martial arts, but he had known boxing. And Rocky Balboa was his hero.
"Come on, Morlun…ya wanna shot at the title? Hunh? You talk a big game about big game, but you're not a hunter…you're a PARASITE. Living on others. Why come after me now, Morlun?"
Morlun's smile seems to falter, his face darkening. "You know nothing of the grand existence of my kind, Spider-Man."
"I know you're coming after me because you want easy kills. You getting OLD, Morlun? Not at the top of your game anymore? Having trouble keeping up…?"
Morlun stops smiling. "That's it. After I feast on you, I will come back for every single one of them. And their families. And their friends. You will regret bringing them into this!"
I ALREADY DO. "Parasite. Leech. A WORM, feeding off of people like a vampire. Why don't you go to White Castle, Morlun? Have yourself a dozen sliders, call it a da-"
And then Morlun is RIGHT THERE, moving like a mountain lion on meth. He almost carelessly knocked Spidey's upraised fists aside…
And then Morlun's teeth are buried in Spider-Man's shoulder…
…as he begins to feast.
Sarah might not even be cognizant that her last repetition of that mantra is no longer silent, but murmured aloud. "I walk in your footsteps. I stand for your watch. I will not fail you. I love you, brother."
And then Morlun is there. And against every part of her mind that is screaming for her to act — and the roiling of the demonic energies within her urging her to lash out — the magess remains stock still, waiting for the signal, waiting for the cue from Spider-Man that the moment has come for all of them to unleash their fury upon this monster.
Jess may not be in on the plan, but she's figured out enough to know where this is going. She isn't happy with it. For a fraction of a second, she sees the face of the little girl in the Dominican Republic, wearing Jess' own too-big and too-blasted mask. Clinging to her leg and giggling. She sees that face in place of Spidey's too-young face, and she can't take it anymore. A scream wells up inside her, and it is all she can do to squelch it. Behind her mask, which keeps the blood from flowing from the cracks in her skull, tears are a torrent it cannot contain, and they slip down from behind the vacant and expressionless lenses. When the sign is given, if she can hold on that long, there will be every circle of hell to pay.
Behind the mask, Anya Corazon's eyes become a cold, murderous fury when Morlun steps in. She goes deathly quiet over the comms, and when she recognizes that her hand is shaking, she reaches the other over to calm it. A deep breath is drawn in through her nose, then released quietly through chapped lips.
When the bite takes place, she makes her first move. Crouching precariously upon a metal rod high above near the warehouse's ceiling, with black webbing concealing her position and her contraptions, she flicks the first switch; this one large and black.
The warehouse's lights flicker, then dim ever so slightly for all of two seconds, before they return to normal.
Anya's eyes are now wide as they've ever been. There's enough electricity surging through the junction box at her feet to fry all of them, and it's being fed through the best conduit she could find, but even that is not rated to handle what's about to happen. She can feel the heat rising from the junction box, and so begins the countdown timer in her mind's eye. Each second that ticks away brings her closer to the point when she either has to shut the current down, or feed it into her array of juiced up x-ray generators, to avoid the junction box blowing up right in her face.
<When he gives the signal, get Morlun into the target zone.> Her voice is cold and dark over the Spider-Comm; those with HUD's will see the target zone overlaid upon the floor, and Thea knows the location as well.
eleven… twelve… thirteen…
Gwen cringes behind the ceiling support post she was using for cover when Morlun enters. Here is the man — no; not the man but the monster — who has killed people to get attention, killed more people to make a point about something, and used her as nothing more than a shiny fishing lure, by threatening her father and even more innocents. And now here he is in the flesh, and all she feels welling up in her heart is abject terror — an absolute overriding fear that this wild plan isn't going to work, and that she really is going to lose her best friend and a lot more besides.
But then there's everyone else here, right? With this many people, against just one, the plan will work. Steady, Stacy, passes through her mind. Remember what *you* said, about the center of the web. Here it is, and here he is.
Gwen waits until Morlun's back is turned — not that he seems to give a damn about her anyway — and jumps the short distance back to where Anya is waiting. She makes sure she knows she's there, and lays a hand on her shoulder for support.
<Got it,> Gwen whispers. <The sooner the better. Let's kick his butt.>
Robin sees Morlun enter and he sticks to the shadows. Spider-Man does his trash talk as per the usual…but then it would appear as if Morlun is going to feed on Spider-Man. He hasn't given the signal yet, But Robin is prepared to throw his birdarangs at a moments notice. If he goes too long…Damian might have to throw them anyway.
<Understood.> Robin replies on comms.
Thea hadn't moved, but Peter did, and Morlun was just ignoring her. Hands have shifted almost imperceptibly, sibilant sound of steel against leather as she unsheathes her long bladed Chinese ring daggers. Most people would think the biokinetic was bored from her expression, even people in this room may think she's unmoved somehow. - It couldn't be further from the truth. But her training had her emotions buried under observation. Watching how this parasite moves, waiting, praying, for the radiation to start to work. She will count silently to herself. Even if the radiation doesn't weaken him enough to let her see inside him, she will attack - and she will not stop. Her eyes will leave Morlun only to glance at Peter, though she can hear Sarah's softly spoken words. It gives her the tiniest flame of hope - not for her. For Peter.
Morlun, for a moment, is in heavenly bliss. THIS is what it is all about. The thrill of the kill, the moment of satisfaction. He would mark this world, return to it often between hunts. It deserved his special ire. They would all pay for their impertinence, their rebellious nature. They…
They…
Then it hit him full force. The bliss was gone, replaced by a growing WRONGNESS within him. He could evade any danger, but he could not evade what was already within him. It was…
IT WAS COMING FROM HIS PREY.
For a moment, he could not pull away. For all his refinements, the predator would not willingly give up its prey. He had to consciously tear himself away, ripping flesh and muscle from Spider-Man's shoulder as he forced his body back, pushing Spider-Man from him. Spider-Man rolled along the pavement, ending up against a crate, his back thudding against it.
He was still alive. Whaddaya know about that?
Spidey looked to Morlun, and it was unreal. Morlun was tearing at his clothes, shredding the waistcoat, the vest, the white shirt, to reveal his broad, muscled chest. But the skin was not the perfect, porcelain pale he had expected to see.
It was…MOTTLED. Discolored. Tainted. Tainted meat! he thought inanely, thinking of a guy on a TV show about zombies. The guy had been caught by cannibals who amputated his leg, had cooked it, and was eating it, when he revealed the zombie bite mark on his shoulder. The same shoulder that was now ripped open, bleeding slowly.
Morlun looked at Spider-Man with all the hatred in ten universes. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??" Morlun bellowed.
Spidey looked back at him, exhausted beyond belief. "TAINTED MEAT…" he said as loud as he could, the act sapping what little strength he had left.
But he had energy enough to say one more thing.
<HEY, RUBE…> was sent to one and all. Then he slumped back against the crate, barely conscious.
The signal was given. Sarah steps from her concealment, and her disembodied voice speaks from her invisibly-glamoured self. "I do not fear you," she states, her voice like cold iron. "Worse monsters than you have disassembled me alive, and I am still here. They are not." The next words from her lips are in an tongue older than some mountains.
And the glamour shatters, Sarah standing there as a blast of pure, white light sears the air between her outstretched palms and Morlun's face. To the rest of the room, it's nearly painful to look at. To Morlun? Just how much does it take to strike him blind, if even for a short time?
Morlun, at his prime, could handle such things easily. But he was no longer at his time, and when the light came is seemed to shear through his sight, temporarily blinding him. He turned to look at Spider-Man, and Spidey saw Morlun was bleeding from the eyes…and his eyes seemed to be filling up with blood.
Jessica is crouching on the floor, watching the others. With nothing more to do, she has been drawing energy from the floor beneath her hands and feet. Drawing energy from the very fibers of the crimson gradient suit she wears. From the shining gold embellishments, the spider, and it's web. And from her very being. "How does it feel, Morlun? You who believed you needed no one, and mocked anyone who did? How does it feel to finally know that you knew nothing?" Jess rises smoothly to her full stature and lifts her hands. "How does it feel to be truly alone, at the end of your pathetic and parasitic existence?" And with that, Jessica fires off a roiling ball of green electricity directly into face and cheat of Morlun, followed by a web of netting that she can only hope will help contain any last minute tricks he might have had up his now nonexistent sleeve.
Morlun did not see the energy crackling towards him, but he could hear it a split-second before it grounded out through him. His entire back arched, and he let our a bear's bellow as every muscles contracted and released. He would have fallen, but the webs immobilized him and kept him upright at the same time.
nineteen… twenty… twenty-one…
Anya looks on as the beast below tears at himself, then glimpses the black webwork she'd hung all over the place. Most of it a ruse, to conceal the 'borrowed' x-ray generators hanging from the ceiling in their most perfect positions. It reminds her, in many ways, of her soul; her own hardships, her obsession with dark music, her disdain of capitalism, the list goes on. As it rolls through her mind, she finds the strength of will to resist just a moment longer, but two words echo in her mind.
TAINTED MEAT
TAINTED LOVE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcyCQLewj10
The music fills her mind and brings a piece of her back from the ether, where all of these horrors have come close to driving her mad.
The blinding light from Agent Black throws her attention down to the junction box, which is beginning to smoke. twenty-five… She glances back to see Jessica ensnaring her in her electric webs. twenty-six…
She's running out of time.
A sudden burst of bravery and determination fills the young Latina, and she bursts from her hiding place, swinging along the rafters in a rapid circle. She's never thrown her hands so quickly, nor has she ever pulled her weblines to their breaking point; her frame zooms at an alarming speed, even while her body undergoes its arcane transformation from a young woman into an arachnid monstrosity; a terror to match the decor she's strewn around the warehouse.
"HEY ASSHOLE!"
The words are screamed as she comes flying at a dead zoom toward Morlun's midsection, aimed just below what should be his center of gravity. The data she'd mined and gone over with Nadia at GIRL informs her of this, it should be right. It must be right. It's her only chance of knocking him into the kill zone.
The moment her armored feet make contact, her hand drops to pull a webline that runs from her hip, into the air, back toward her hiding place, and that little tug pulls the big red switch.
The warehouse lights suddenly begin to glow a brilliant white, and the modified x-ray generators come online. Four of them, juiced up to four times their normal maximum output power, aimed at the kill zone where Anya's hoping her onslaught will throw the monster.
Morlun suddenly is SHOVED into a supposedly empty area…
…only it felt as if he had stumbled into a furnace. He flailed around, thrashing as he tried to get away from the fire that seemed to be all around him, and then he felt an alien sensation. He had felt in centuries ago, and here it was again.
FEAR.
He lunged out of the furnace, stumbling forward. His skin had taken on an ashen color. He looked…DESSICATED, as if he had gone on some hunger strike weeks ago. He looked…dwindled.
When the word is given, Gwen explodes into action, burying her fears at least for a moment and rushing into the fray. Last time she faced this monster hand to hand, he pummeled her half to death without much effort, but this time it's going to be different. Very different. "This is what you get for hurting my friends!" she screams as she jump and rushes Morlun pretty directly.
Gwen Stacy has never trained in martial arts; not formally. But she has seen all of the low budget, late night martial arts movies. Like all of them. Some of 'em twice. And she's been practicing. As she closes with Morlun she leaps the last few feet, following Anya and Jessica and Sarah in and delivering a kick to the mid-section, bouncing off of him and landing a couple feet back.
Her hands go up in front of her, balled into fists. "You hurt my DAD!" she shouts, jumping forwards and unleashing a flurry of punches. "You hurt my FRIENDS! Her foot come straight up to kick him in the chin. "You lying, parasitic garbage! You're not a hunter, you're scum," she gasps, her voice breaking with emotion as she aims a kick to the knee. "I hate you, I hate you, you're not a criminal, you're not a creep, you're not even good enough to be called a super-villain, even they have some sort of code!"
Gwen breathes heavily after screaming at the Monster. "And now you're gonna get what's coming to you," Gwen finishes, and steps forwards to try and push him straight back into Anya's furnace.
Morlun thought he was safe, for a fraction of a second. But all good things must come to an end, and it was followed by a savage beating with a familiar voice. Had she been anything else other than a voice?
This was not happening. THIS COULD NOT BE HAPPENING!
He opened his mouth to say something…some kind of plea, as abhorrent as the idea was…and then he was back in the furnace. He had the good sense to go with the punishment, using it to pass through Hell instead of stopping for a hot time in the old furnace tonight, and then he was on the other side, prone. His skin looked mummified, and it was…SMOKING slightly.
Robin leaps down from his hiding spot then when Morlun got knocked into the furnace. Narrowing his eyes, Robin approaches, puts a hand on Gwen's shoulder to tell her to calm down, lest her anger get the better of her reasoning. He looks at Morlun as he looks mummified, but he remains unconvinced. Remember those birdarangs? He makes a twist with his hand and he promptly drops them on Morlun if he doesn't move out of the way or otherwise stop the Bat.
They will explode.
Just icing on the cake.
The bird-a-rangs hit with almost absurd ease. The concussive force pushes him along the floor, rolling like a bag of soiled laundry. He rolls to a stop about 15 feet away from Spider-Man, at the same time the X-Ray array finally gives up the ghost and overloads, the system going dark as the lights brighten.
Morlun is still alive. Amazingly, he is still alive. His rheumy eyes look to Spider-Man, who responds, "Rough day, hunh?"
"…please…" Morlun moans. "Let me go…I…promise…I will never come here again. I…swear…just…you don't understand. I was just…hungry…"
She's watched, while quietly boosting Peter's healing, keeping him alive without any actions Morlun could /see/. She will follow his trail as he skids across the floor. She will pause, a look at Peter, before she will bend down and speak softly.
"Look at him. Look at his friends you bullied and threatened. And know that he did this to you. We are loyal to him because of how he is, not who he is." That said, there's that spin of steel before Thea will drive one of her daggers into his chest, and use her powers to finish the job and rid this world, and others, of Morlun.
Spidey's eyes widen. He had been beaten, weakened. He hadn't the heart to see him dead. But he didn't have the strength to raise his arms, let alone stop Thea.
So all he could do was watch as Thea literally drove the point home. Morlun gave a harsh gasp…and then his entire body seemed to come apart, losing cohesion. And then the body collapsed into dust, deflating into a layer of used up DNA.
Spider-Man sagged, sighing in release.
For better or worse, it was over…and look at the cost.
Invoking The Sight, Sarah watches as the lights go out in Morlun's form under Thea's inexorable will, before his form itself ceases to be. Blinking back to normal vision, she steps forward and lays a hand gently on Thea's shoulder. "It is done, sister," she says softly. "As it needed to be."
Jessica takes note of who breathes, and who does not. It is over. And she moves to Spider-Man's side. All here are friends now, and all are heroes. But this was the one who wrenched her heart from her chest. She lays a hand on Spidey's shoulder. "Such things are never easy," she says softly to him, pulling off her mask to look him over. "Are you all right?"
There is a rush of satisfaction at watching him cook, suffer, even plead for his life.
For the briefest of moments, Anya considers whether any of them will try to stop Thea, and she considers whether she would do anything to stop them from interfering. The answer goes unspoken, but when the armor fades back into her soul, the exposed lower half of her face shows a grim expression. She's not just relieved, she's happy… so why isn't she smiling?
Walking forward, she takes a knee next to the dust that remains. A handful of it is scooped up into her hand, some of it falling between her fingers, but then she clenches her hand tightly, keeping some of it for herself.
Her eyes briefly look from one to the other, lingering for a moment or two longer upon Thea, Gwen, and Peter. Then she turns around and walks away, fist clenched tightly at her side.
Gwen was almost about to leap into the X-Ray furnace to follow Morlun and keep beating him, when Damian's hand on her shoulder dissipates the build up of absolute rage she'd allowed to form inside her. So she just stops, and watches; and watches right up to the moment when Morlun crumbles to dust, and it's over.
It's over.
Gwen's shoulders sag, and she backs away from the spot, almost stumbling as her knees go a bit wobbly. she presses a hand to the side of her head, sucking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly.
It's over.
Spinning on her heel, she turns and dashes back to where Peter is laying, skidding to a stop on her knees beside him, and putting one hand on his shoulder and the other under his back to prop him up.
It's over.
"You're okay," she gasps, "He's gone, you're okay, you're gonna be okay." She looks up, "Angel!" she calls out, before looking back down at her best friend. "It's over," she gasps. "It's over."
Robin watches as Morlun skids across the floor from his bird bombs, so he just stares at the defeated vampire, and lets Thea get rid of him. After all, Robin didn't kill…but he sure as hell didn't have to save either. So he just stayed back, eventually looking at Gwen as she runs over to Peter. Robin seems to do a simple scan to ensure Morlun's cells aren't regenerating…and surprise surprise, they ain't.
So, Robin seems to stand back and let people have their happy and tear-filled victory. After all, he was a helping hand but overall played a minor part.
The dagger is cleaned and sheathed before Morlun is even fully ash. She will move without waste of energy. She will fetch her backpack and kneel in front of Peter. Two bottles of water, a slender tube of the Prussian blue pills, and a handful of protein bars. She will look at Gwen, sitting back on her feet. "Help him take those pills, will you? Then he needs to start eating." She will take her own hands now, and rest them against Peter. His shoulder will buzz and burn like a fury, her head bowing forward as she focuses.
Spidey looks at Jessica, sighing. After what had happened he could understand why Thea did what she did. But in his heart, he hates himself for not doing something to stop her.
He is about to speak when Thea hands him the bottles of water. He finishes them off, then grabs the bottle of iodine, which he opens and gulps down the whole bottle. It tastes like gangrenous feet, but it'll help flush out the residual isotope. He takes the Prussian Blue pills afterwards, hoping it will wash the taste of iodine out of his mouth. He is feeling better as a result of Thea's help. "I'll…be all right," he tells them, these people willing to risk their lives for him, the people who have lost because of him. "I just need to get home…go to bed…sleep for a couple of years…and I'll be fine, really." He gets up slowly. "I should…get home anyway. Some people are going to be worried sick." His Aunt May among them. "I…should have been a better friend. A better person. Thank you…thank you for saving my life. All of you."
An hour later, his body recovering (with a LOT of help from Thea, leave us not gild the lily), Spider-Man crawls in through the window of the Parker house. He makes it to the bed and slumps into it. He tugs the mask off, then slowly pulls the upper part off, dropping it on the floor. He lay back on the bed, walking to rest his eyes for just a moment before…
He is still asleep hours later. He does not wake up even when the door opens, and does not stir as Aunt May looks down at his exposed, battered body, the ripped costume still pooled on the floor. She wears a look of complete and utter shock as she puts it all together.
Her nephew, Peter Parker, is actually Spider-Man.
Happy Halloween.
He had never slept in a better bed, Rainsford decided.
Richard Connell, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME