บท 139: Chapter Fifty Seven: "One and the Same Part Three."
Chapter Fifty Seven: "One and the Same Part Three."
Karen's eyes were on her doppleganger. She stood in the shadows and looked the same, except for perhaps a few subtle differences. Those differences were the fact that she had a somewhat darker shade of hair but other than that she had the same short gorgeous hair that framed her face, along with her amazing breasts and flat stomach. The long shapely legs were added to the equation once again and it caused Karen to be distracted. She wore a tight black top that strained against her breasts and even tighter black pants.
The dark haired woman jumped up to her feet, she had a bright smile like the cat that had eaten the canary. Karen took a half of a step back as the dark haired woman repeated her statement. "You are obsolete, therefore you must perish. "
Karen moved forward first but she picked up the desk and hurled it right at Karen. The blonde dodged as her desk and her computer smashed against the ground. Glass shattered everywhere and the blonde gripped the woman around the throat. She was put against the edge of the window.
The dark haired woman headbutted Karen and staggered her back. The blonde was not someone who was going to go down without a fight.
A series of jabs rocked her against the side of the face and the dark haired woman smiled even brighter, these punches made her feel rather alive and she continued to blow through her adversary with all that she could give her.
The blonde dropped down to one knee, the breath escaping her face. The blonde rushed her from behind and with a solid boom, she was nailed in the face. The punches were exchanged with a fury that could not be matched by anyone else.
"Just who are you anyway? " Karen demanded and the woman smiled as she tried to put her through the window.
"You may call me Divine. Know the name well, it will be the one that will lead to your doom. "
With that declaration the newly dubbed Divine shot forward like a cork from a bottle and tried to plant Karen into the ground. The blonde edged her way around the attacks, her heart hammering against her chest as she tried to figure out what to do next. She was not having a good time, as she knew her moves.
All of the moves that she thought of before at the very least, and the blonde frowned, which meant that she had to adapt to doing something completely different. There were a few thoughts that resounded in her mind as she tried to determine what to do.
Up and down with a kick across the back of the head and both of them flew through the windows of the STARR Facility.
Faora scrambled up the stairs, her mouth halfway open. She had reached the battle a little late to the party and her mind…..well it was going a million miles a minute. There was something that she could only say at what she saw. "Well, this is starting to get interesting…..no, I have to help, that's right, I have to help. "
Now Faora scrambled as she tried to go outside where there was a cyclone that was created by the two clones battling for dominance over the city. Their punches slammed into each other like a whirlwind and it was hard to keep up with everything.
In fact, if it was not for the hair color, Faora would not have been able to tell either them apart. "Hey, you want a fight, why don't you pick on someone who could give you one? Unless you think that you aren't able to stand up and fight a real challenge! "
That got the attention of the mystery female clone and she gave Faora an enraged glare. Her eyes squinted and heat vision fired through the air. The clone returned fire and it was a heat vision battle, with both pushing back and forth. Whoever managed to overpower the other would have something that would be to brag about.
The problem was that Faora did not fight to lose, oh no, far from it. She fought to win and win she would. Her eyes glazed with fury as she pushed further and her enemy, she pushed back. It was back and forth between the two of them. Her teeth gritted.
Karen once again dropped down from the heavens and nailed her enemy with a punch to the back of the head. She turned to Faora. "So thanks….um maybe we should find a way to contain her. There is something back in the STARR labs facility, go there and put a stop to it, now. "
Faora nodded, although she did not appreciate being ordered. A super powered gust of wind caused her flying to be thrown off guard.
Galatea turned up and nailed her in the face. The blonde nailed this Divine with a few more punches which rocked her over and over again. The side of her face was drilled one hundred percent of the way and her knees buckled off to the side.
The battle would continue and Kara showed up. The four Kryptonians prepared to do what they could to get this one tempered. There was something in her eyes that none of them liked and the fury continued to burn through their eyes.
'So Harry, you've got to think…..you've got to come down here immediately, ' Kara thought but there was no answer. 'Um, Harry…..Harry!'
There was no answer; to say that Kara was worried would be grossly understating the seriousness of the situation. She was extremely worried but she watched the two clones fighting each other from high above, like a tennis match. She could not keep her eyes off of the event.
Spider-Man wondered what the hell was happening. Naturally he was concerned with what happened with his friend and the explosion at the Daily Bugle was also something that caused his blood to run cold. There was no question about it, the web slinger was wondering what was going on in the world.
'Well this is becoming a really tricky night to be me, ' Spider-Man thought to himself desperately as he threw his head backwards. There was no two ways about this, he was more than confused and he had been confused many times before. 'I wish I would know what the hell is going on, hell, I wish I even had half of an idea what was going on. It just seems like I'm running around in circles like a monkey on a wheel or a hamster, or some kind of animal. Don't confuse the issues, see if you can find a clue. Good thing Jameson's not dead….he'd likely come back as an obnoxious ghost and who really wants that?'
He slipped into the shadows and he could hear two cops who were holding a very interesting conversation. Needless to say the web slinger was more than curious to what they were talking about. His heart drummed a few beats as he listened in carefully.
"I heard it was Spider-Man who tried to blow up Jameson, " one of the cops said as he looked into the shadows.
"Spider-Man, you're shittin' me! "
"No man, I'm not shitting you, there was someone slinging away on a web, who else could it be, the Hulk? " the cop said as he was annoyed that his partner did not get what he was saying. The web slinger kept watching. "Just goes to show you what people have been saying for years. The web head is guilty as sin. "
"I don't know about that, "the cop argued as he shook his head. "Spidey, he doesn't seem the type….even though Jameson's been railing on him for years. "
"Well, we have orders to investigate it from…. " the other cop said but they heard something and the sounds of two Kryptonians that were fighting brought their attention elsewhere.
Spider-Man saw the battle and his eyebrows raised. He could not even begin to figure out what was happening and the last time that he got in the middle of a Kryptonian battle, while he held his own, he still had a few broken bones, cuts, and bruises to be left.
'Well, I suppose that I should try and get involved….yeah that might not be the best idea, but I've got to try, ' Spider-Man thought as it went off and he could see that there was something around the area of the Baxter Building.
The web slinger kept swinging forward as he could see it in the shadows. He avoided the helicopters that tried to get a light on him, knowing that if they locked onto him, there would be trouble. Reaching the edge of his destination he ran smack dab into the middle of a great big heaping pile of nothing.
'Okay things have just gone from weird, to super weird, and that's even weirder than weird can be, ' Spider-Man thought, wondering who was playing mind games with him and more importantly how. Actually there were a couple of good ideas to exactly how and he saw that missing girl on the street. That caused his blood to run cold more than anything and his heart beat against his chest.
Spider-Man could have sworn that he saw Madelyne Pryor and given what happened every time she showed up, he braced himself for doom. That and his Spider Sense was acting like an alarm bell and it rang on his head. The back of his head thumped as that early warning system kept going off. The web slinger wondered what was going to happen as he kept looking around.
Nothing which was far more alarming than something and Spider-Man kept looking around.
His spider sense would not shut up any time soon and he knew that he would have needed to get some help. The web slinger saw and there was someone standing there.
"Okay, what are you doing, who are you? "
He swung over to the Gargoyle but much to his dismay, she was off of it rather quickly. The web slinger was once again baffled.
"Get back here, you're mangling my already mangled reputation! " Spider-Man called after her but he was not getting any direct answers. Peter Parker was perfectly pissed now and he kept going after her, calling after her and yelling at her. "HEY, don't….oh this is insane, I'm chasing after someone who is playing games with me. "
The girl disappeared into the shadows and Spider-Man's spider sense once again went haywire. He was not sure if he was too happy about that or not. His heart drummed against his chest and he once again peered over his shoulder very lightly.
The web slinger hung around and he could see the ending of the battle between the quartet of Kryptonians and there was one statement that echoed through his head regarding the whereabouts of a certain individual.
'Just what in the hell is happening here? 'Spider-Man thought and that was the question.
He could have seen something on the street and he could see them going down the subway tunnel. The Marauders were there, at least Riptide, Blockbuster, and Harpoon were. The web slinger hurled himself down towards the tunnel and landed in front of them.
Burning hatred blazed through their eyes and Spider-Man slid back, wondering how much he bit off and if it was a fair bit more than he could chew.
The web slinger was going to throw everything behind these attacks and he latched the fist of Blockbuster but the large mutant blocked him and pulled Spider-Man forward. The web slinger dodged the attack and jumped behind his back.
'Don't cause him to do the splitting thing, whatever you do, ' Spider-Man reminded himself and he webbed onto the side of the walls and set a trap for Blockbuster. Bumping into him would cause dupes to explode in every direction.
His enemies went behind him as there were many questions that went through Spider-Man's mind. He caught Harpoon around the ankles with a line of webbing. The man fell flat on his face but Riptide sent a barrage of shurikens.
Spider-Man dodged them with his reflexes but the moment that he had a chance to take a breath, the man went down the rabbit hole and who knew where he would end up.
The certain swung from back and forth as she saw her double go down into the subway. She was pretty sure that those goons were up to something. She had only scant memories of her past and she felt…..well she was not sure what her connection to that particular individual was.
However, she knew that he might have been in trouble and the entire city was going to be in trouble along with it. She swung down the hole, her knees nervously clanking together as she inhaled and exhaled. Her hands clutched nervously, her knuckles turned white as she kept her gaze firmly locked on the prize. There was only one sound that escaped her mouth.
'They'll lead me to the answers I want, that I think that I need, ' she thought as she could see them closing in on her. Her heart once again pumped even more blood and Blockbuster moved after her.
She dodged his attacks with nimble precision and sent him hurling ass over tea kettle onto the ground. She snapped a line of webbing around his ankles and swung around. She reminded herself that touching him was perhaps one of the worst things that she could have done.
She turned around in time to see the Harpoon from Harpoon.
"Oh, it's you of all people, the one that tried to frame me for murder….well….! " Spider-Man shouted, unable to believe that this person showed up. His eyes bugged out but he was nearly taken down himself as he was distracted. The female web slinger was someone that caught him off guard and he did not get taken off guard that easily.
A running knee to his kidneys and Blockbuster took him down. There was a sense where his skull was going to be caved in. Spider-Man thought that this was going to be the end, there was going to be no two ways about it. This was pretty much it, the end was nearly here.
She webbed her way around the barrels and hurled them into the air. They smashed against his face and caused him to split in half. That caused her to groan as she did the one thing.
"Take the girl and eliminate her, she was only a trial run, to see if the process worked, " Riptide informed them and the Marauders surrounded her, trying to box her in. She could see half of Riptide's face beginning to melt like a wax mannequin left out in the sun but she doubted very much that it would help her.
There were more of them below, she could tell, but what were they doing. Never the less, she was not going to find out as Spider-Man was hoisted up by the scruff of his shirt like a rag doll dangling as he kept kicking his feet.
"You know, I'm going to send you the bill for this costume if you keep stretching it out, " Spider-Man managed as he tried to return himself to some good humor but these men did not have any good humor.
There was something that came down and collapsed the tunnel. The female web slinger made a break for it, there was something that was down here. Her heart skipped a couple of beats as she scrambled but she knew that time was running out and most certainly not on her side.
She plowed through her enemy, punching the adversary hard in the face with a violent rocket buster of a punch. That caused her knuckles to crack and she kept scrambling forward, trying to take her enemy down. A right hook rattled him in the ribs.
'Okay I think that I've figured this….ARGH, ' she thought as she was knocked out with a nerve pinch by a mysterious attacker from behind. Her knees buckled and she landed on the ground.
Spider-Man lured the Blockbuster dupes to one side and caused them to punch each other out, which reverted them into one clone.
Slowly, Spider-Man stepped back and allowed him to fall to the ground. He landed with a huge thud, having been knocked down just like that.
One harpoon was tossed onto the ground, another harpoon followed, and a third harpoon stuck the ground. The end result was Peter's spider sense going off to the point where it nearly caused his head to split wide open.
'What….oh no, no, no, no, no! ' Spider-Man thought to himself and the ground once again shattered beneath him which caused him to fall through the floor and land into parts unknown.
The Marauders laughed as they finished activating the device, both web heads were down and out, buried alive and soon they would be no more, along with those disgusting Morlocks. Once they were gone, then their master's plans would finally be realized.
Divine took a deep breath, she would be lying if she was not confused. In fact, she was well beyond confused. Karen looked back at her as Galatea and Kara were there, although Kara was halfway out the door.
"So we're all calmed down and now trying to kill each other, so I'm going to go after Har-Rell now, because I don't like the fact that he's gone so long, I'll radio if I hear anything," Kara said and there was no one who was going to stop her.
"Yes, I'm calm, I'm good, I hope that I'll stay well," Divine said as she was calmed down. There was a chip that was implanted in the back of her neck that was making her erratic. "He used me as a pawn for his game….whatever that game is, I don't know what it was. "
Pawns might be an interesting way to describe what they were turn into. It was some demented game of chess and Divine really had no idea what to make of it.
"So, sorry for trying to kill you….because I didn't mean to do that, "Divine said sheepishly but her head rang like hell. It was going to be a long time before she regained all of her senses.
Karen once again returned in an attempt to see if she could contact Harry by any other means. She did not reach Harry but she did reach the stronghold. "Finally, it's time to reach out and touch someone, I was getting worried. Has Harry checked in? "
Lara piped in over it. "No, he hasn't and I'm worried, Har-Rell must have seen something that was urgent and he did not have any time to call for backup. Which means that he might have met something by now….but the Fortress can't find him, it's almost like something is blocking our signal. "
Karen frowned, there was something about this that unsettled her even more than most things unsettled her. The blonde rocked nervously back and forth. Tonight was one of those nights where a million things seemed to be happening and even less made sense. The blonde sunk her feet into the ground and whistled, blowing her hair out of her face.
"We'll find him, although I think that we've been all unsettled by this entire Madelyne Pryor thing, " Lily said as she tried to piece together the mystery of where her son was. "Every time she turns up, bad things might have happened, although it seems obvious that Miles Warren and Essex are involved in some way. "
"That makes about as much sense as anything else that's been happening lately, " Karen nodded, she was pretty sure that Harry had gone after Warren, she knew that he was going to meet Fury. Exactly where Fury went from there, Karen did not have the foggiest idea. "I hate playing the waiting game! "
"We all do but I guess we're going to have to do….thankfully Kitty was able to rig up something where we could keep in touch outside of the bond link, " Rogue chimed in over the communication link and Kitty piped in with a few words of her own.
"Not sure how much this can….not sure how well this could hold, but I suppose that it's better than nothing until we figure out what in the hell is going on, "Kitty said with her voice quivering in nervousness. They could not use the mental communication link but they were able to use the secondary backup that the RAO Corporation formulated rather well and they thanked their lucky stars for that. " "
Chloe jumped onto the link immediately and she seemed rather frazzled and there was a good reason. "Bad news, really bad news, I mean super bad news, you're not going to believe it….but I have some bad news. "
"Chloe just calm down, the real bad news is if you're going to have a stroke trying to tell us, so just take a deep breath, chill, and calm down, okay, don't totally get stressed out and stuff, " Kitty said in a reassuring voice, she could tell that Chloe was having a long night. They all had the same long night.
"Calm, you expect….okay fine, calming down, oh boy, I'm calming down, even though I'm stressed out, I'm so calming down! " Chloe said as there was an instant where she paused and managed to collect her thoughts. Deep cleansing breaths were what she needed to do if she hoped to focus and win. The blonde was not going to win anything or convey her thoughts if she lost her mind. "Well, your little components, when put together…..they are able to break down molecules to their finest forms. "
"Well that doesn't answer any questions, " Karen blinked and she figured out that much. She switched Helena in. "So the components…. "
"They can shrink molecules, compacting them into a small area, " Helena said and that was not surprising. The tone in her voice showed that she was this close to figuring everything out. "And some would be mad scientist thinks they can put together a shrinking device. "
The detailed outlook of what had been pieced together, well things did not look all that good. Helena's news caused them to feel extremely grim and it was Kitty who summed it up for all of them.
"Well that's going to suck. "
"Public education surely has not been wasted upon you, but I would have to agree with your sentiments, no matter how crude they might be, "Emma added, a bit annoyed that she had to speak this way and not through any kind of telepathic uplink. "So what are we looking at? How bad is it? "
"Well, New York would be gone in a blink of an eye….kind of like Kandor, " Karen suggested trailing off, it was odd that these particular components were, especially considering that the scope of it would blow the city off of the map. "I'm beginning to see everything clearly now. "
"What? " Kitty asked as she frowned and thought about it. "OH SHIT! "
"My thoughts precisely, " Lara said as the realization slowly dawned upon her who was up to this and right now Kara was going after Harry, and she might be flying into a maelstrom.
Karen noticed that Kara, in her haste to leave, managed to drop her communication device. That was a bit careless of her but none of them got any sleep in days, so they were not going to hold her to it.
'It was him, it has to be him, he was hiding all of this time, just biding his time, and this entire plan, it was a distraction so….how could we have been so stupid? ' Karen thought, the answers had been all under their noses.
"And I found something, did a bit of research, and almost a year ago, Miles Warren was seen meeting with Milton Fine, " Jean said and that was a shocking statement but they knew what was up immediately.
Brainiac had been crafty enough to slip underneath the radar and escape detection after all that time. There had been other things on their mind and they wondered if he had left Earth for a brief time before doubling back or if he was always there, always waiting. That point was something that they could discuss, right now, Karen had other problems.
The devices, they had to find them, and shut them down because every potential outcome that the devices could use were not good at the slightest. The blonde nervously chewed on her lip until the point where she drew a tiny amount of blood.
"Find them, and find Brainiac, before it's too late," Karen whispered as she could see the clock working against them.
Although she suspected that Har-Rell was on that trail so the group put all of their efforts in finding whatever device Brainiac had planted, likely somewhere in the city.
Harry was trying to track the mysterious individual that he saw, although to be fair, he was not so mysterious, given the fact that he recognized the man right off of the top of his head. The green eyed wizard frowned as he followed him into an abandoned lab complex. Gwen's research indicated that it belonged to Miles Warren, when he worked for OsCorp although it was abandoned.
Abandoned but not forgotten as he pushed open the side entrance. He kept walking forward his heart drumming against his chest. The wizard looked over his shoulder and went down the hallway. It was dimly lit as he kept walking down the hallway. His breathing became hitched as he walked down the hallway.
He could hear a humming from one of the adjacent rooms which was never a good thing. A mysterious hum was an awful thing and something that he never was a fan of.
Although he was trying to pinpoint exactly what this humming meant and if he did find that out, he would be closer to determining the source of this insane mystery. The green eyed wizard kept coming down the hallway and his heart drummed across his chest.
"So, you found where I am, well done, but I would have expected you to follow the trail of bread crumbs that I laid down for you. "
Harry did not even turn around, a shadow of a smile crossed over his face. "Madelyne….well it seems like you've been playing some mind games, but the real mind game is who is behind this. "
Maddie stood there behind him and she looked at him with a calm and stoic expression. Her tone matched the gaze that she gave him but Harry was not one who was going to back down, no matter the circumstances. "Surely you have figured this out…. "
Harry could tell that he had touched at least a couple of nerves with his calm look. He also decided to let her onto a secret. "You let the real one out of her cage once or twice…..but I'm sure that most of the mysterious encounters have been done by you, wouldn't you say, Brainiac? "
Maddie paused, she thought about trying to deny it but why would she deny what was being said. There was honestly no part in denying any word of it. Her smile got even wider and more prominent. It was almost creepy, like the type of smile a slasher movie was made of. Harry could feel his blood start to run cold.
Immediately, she went for the same pulse that she tried to use to take out Miles Warren but Harry was just a bit quicker. He threw a metal sphere into the air and caused her to be shocked. The girl flew into the wall and Harry once again nailed her hard with a rocket buster punch to the face. He slipped on a pair of brass knuckles and plowed her in the side of her face.
Kara turned up just in time and she came to the same conclusion. Her eyes were diverted by a display in her corner as she saw Madelyne, half of her face torn off.
Brainiac got up to his feet, his silver face pulsing and he shot metal cables at Kara and Harry, both of them who dodged the attacks. Their heat vision sliced his attempts to hold them into place.
Another spell caught The BrainInteractive Construct off guard and rattled him. "This is going to be the end of you. "
"I think not, it will be the end for Earth and the two survivors of Krypton will go with it, although there are more survivors, as Kandor tells the tale, " Brainiac argued and Kara saw it. "Yes, you see it, don't you? "
"It's….it's Kandor, " Kara whispered as she was mostly distracted and she saw Kandor sitting there. She wondered if….no it was impossible. There could be no way that it could be….but yet it was staring next to her. Her mind was flying into overdrive and there was a few seconds where she shook her head.
"Yes, and soon New York will join it, and Earth will suffer the same fate of Krypton, " Brainiac crowed, enjoying his crowning moment of triumph. The smile that crossed his face was pretty much the most deplorable think and Kara wanted to rip his head off of his shoulders and smash it. Harry only kept her close and she bit down on her lip. "But perhaps I should spare you the misery and put you out of it, so you do not see Earth languish. The end comes, and not even the two children of Krypton can stop it. "
Harry had a good idea that statement was not a good and sure enough there was a bright light. He dodged the orbs that were sent at him but there was a far bigger problem at hand.
The buzzing sound outside of the city could be heard.
"What the…. "
Before they could react, a beam of light shot out of the bottled city of Kandor and engulfed Harry and Kara and then much to everyone's surprise, including Brainiac, they were gone.
"This was unforeseen," Brainiac said, although he was not about to complain about that. Equipment on his ship had been damaged previously, so he could not shrink the city through his normal methods. However, after painstaking research and using Milton Fine's contacts, he was able to piece together alternative means to take New York under his wing.
And with Nathaniel Essex unwittingly releasing the Legacy Virus, all would perish, as the BrainInteractive Construct would be supreme.
A large laser sliced outside of New York City and much to the shock of the civilians, the city began to break off of the pavement. Several helpless civilians fell of the edge of the city and others were buried underneath falling rubble. Some were trampled in a panic as they fled for their life.
The second device caused New York City to shrink particle by particle, until it was small enough to shove in the bottle with the population.
Spider-Man pulled himself up and saw that there was nothing but a smoking crater in the ground where New York used to be. SHIELD arrived but they were much too late.
They saw New York spinning in a bottle before it was sucked up in a tractor beam and pulled into a ship.
"It may have been delayed some time from Har-Rell, but humanity will be put down like the rabid animals that they are, " Brainiac stated in his prerecorded message, there was no humor, no amusement, no nothing in his voice. "There will be nothing on Earth, no force on Earth that will be able to stop it. The virus has already been deployed, my pawn has no idea what happened, he thinks that it will wipe out the weakest among you all but it targets everyone, weak and strong. There will be no organic life left on Earth. Already some of you may have felt the symptoms and once mutants get infected, it will mutate out of control. "
Essex had already opened the canister and the virus would be spread, with the only company with the capabilities to counteract it trapped in the bottle. The RAO Corporation would not stop them.
Spider-Man watched, as his mouth hung agap. There was no question about it, New York was preserved in a bottle and this deadly virus was being released into the air for all to consume.
Yet, where there was life there was still hope, as Spider-Man hoped to find out a way to counteract the virus before it was too late. And there was only one individual who could help him do it, trapped in Ravencroft outside of New York.
It was going to be a bargain truly worthy of Faust.
'I can't believe that I'm doing this, but I'm out of options, just hope someone can find a way to bring New York back, ' the web slinger thought in despair, as he hoped that The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, any heroes trapped inside the city could find a way to restore it. Some great scientific minds were trapped in the city and hundreds had perished already.
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