Post by DiscipleofBob on Aug 30, 2015 19:40:13 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #9:
Along Came A Spider
By Adrini and DiscipleofBob
Along Came A Spider
By Adrini and DiscipleofBob
Even when every conceivable safety precaution was taken, the lab could always be a dangerous place. That's why safety precautions existed in the first place. That's why when someone like Reed Richards thought he knew better than the official safety precautions, even if he did, something was bound to go wrong, and when it did, go horribly wrong. If he ignored the safety precautions.
None of the safety precautions assumed the safety of someone a centimeter tall. Anything could be a danger. Everything could be lethal. What may have been something as small and harmless as a small pack of experimental drones suddenly became a plague of locusts.
A black cloud of yellow neon lights rose from the shelf and started to gradually descend on where the four were recovering. "Janet," Sue said softly, carefully moving. "What the hell are those?"
"More importantly, should we be running for cover, or do these things respond to motion?" Reed asked as the lights started to descend.
Janet hesitated, shaking her head. "They shouldn't be dangerous. They're just harmless repair drones. Camouflaged as insects so as to minimize interference with the habitats." Though even she was uncertain as she said it.
"What do they make repairs with?" Sue asked cautiously.
The drones descended, hovering above their heads. Each one was designed to resemble a winged insect, though at this size their electronic parts and bright circuitry were clearly visible. As was the mandible on each "head" that started to glow bright before firing welding lasers.
Sue threw up a forcefield to block the lasers, and Reed contorted his body around them, which left Hank with no way to protect himself except run for cover beneath nearby shelving, slipping between the cracks where the flying robots would have difficulty reaching.
"When did you get the idea for an army of lethal robot wasps?!" Sue yelled angrily while defending against multiple lasers. To be fair, the lasers would probably leave only a minor burn on a full-size human being. This was no longer the case though.
"I... may have cribbed off of some of Doom's robotic schematics for the design," Janet admitted, getting accusatory glances from Sue in the process. "They were just to cut down on lab maintenance!"
Reed twisted around multiple lasers fired in his direction, twirling around them and grabbing onto one of the drones, wrapping his elastic arms multiple times around the abdomen and propelling himself up into the air, his arms unraveling just in time for the robot insect to crash into the desktop with an explosion. "Whoops, honestly didn't mean for that to happen." While Reed was stuck in the air, fortunately these things weren't fast and took a while to aim. He grabbed another one and this time perched on top of it, being careful to avoid the wings and disturb its aerodynamic balance. At this size, even his fingers would be suitable enough to take apart the chassis to see the delicate circuitry inside. "Fascinating. Sure, I can see Victor's influence, but for a woman with no background in robotics you've really done an excellent job here, Jan."
"I'd be more grateful for the compliment if they weren't trying to kill us!"
Meanwhile, Sue was continuing to shield both she and Janet from a barrage of laser blasts. Forcing her force field upward and extending it out was like bench pressing a bus, yet in one forced push, she threw her barrier in a wave that knocked all the nearby robots away. Most of them fell to the floor. Some went inert on impact, others were already righting themselves. "Run for cover!"
The two women made a break for it. Sue tried to keep an invisible umbrella hovering over them while they ran for the relative safety of shelving they could hide under. Neither of them could see a few of the downed robots from behind flicker back to life and take aim.
The first laser shot right between them, giving Sue panic but notice as well. She threw up a force field to protect Janet from the next oncoming blast, but in her haste only managed to cover Janet. Several blasts were repelled, but one caught Sue square in the chest and knocked her off her feet as Janet watched her friend and best chance for survival fall. "SUE!"
As soon as she went down, her force fields went with her, and suddenly another laser caught Janet in the back and she went down.
Hank watched in horror and dashed out to reach them, but a barrage of more lasers scared him back into safety. He continued to watch as the robot wasps descended down, two at a time, to pick up both of them and begin to carry them off. "Reed, do something!"
"Hold on, I've almost got this," he replied, fiddling away with the circuitry of the wasp he was aboard. "Here we go!" The lights on the wasp flickered as the robot started to wobble in mid-air, gradually turning before powering up its laser and firing it on one of the drones holding Sue.
The drone's wing disintegrated and Sue quickly fell back down to the desktop. "Sue! Are you all right? Say something!"
"I'm all right," Sue rose and grabbed her abdomen, where her blouse had been torn and her skin had been singed. It hurt like hell, and a concentrated laser might have done some serious damage, but these weren't weaponized robots. Their lasers were meant to do minor repairs only.
Reed tried maneuvering the controlled drone to his Janet's captors, but she was already at a higher altitude. Each drone "I can't get a good shot! I'll hit Jan! Sue, can you-"
*thwip thwip*
Suddenly, one of the drones let go of Janet and dropped out of the sky, spiraling out of control as it crashed into the desktop but didn't shatter, covered in a viscous, white, sticky fluid that bound it together. The other could only keep hold of Janet by one arm and was slowly descending, but a red and blue blur passed by and suddenly the drone was falling apart, ripped apart by some unseen force.
Janet was in freefall, and although Reed and Sue moved to help her, the same red and blue blur intercepted her in midair. Once Janet saw her supposed rescuer though, she would have preferred the wasps.
The spider was the size of a house. It was as large as a daddy longlegs, without the comfort of a small body or thin legs. Rather this had thick, chitinous, naturally armored legs of red and blue. It had the hairs of a tarantula, but at this size they resembled more like spines in both appearance and practical use. Its body was covered in the same red and blue markings violently tattooed across its entire abdomen. Its eight black eyes watched every direction while a set of sharp, slime-dripping mandibles gradually unfolded in hunger.
Janet screamed. She vastly preferred the robot wasps to being pinned between the legs of a giant spider. Not even a career in entomology could desensitize her to this, especially when it started to wrap her body in spider silk.
The robot wasps changed targets. It was unclear how they were interpreting their programming in the face of such foreign elements, but at least it was certain that the large spider was the greater priority.
In the faces of a dozen armed flying robots, if the spider was the slightest bit threatened, it didn't show it. Instead without interrupting its work on its prey, the spider lashed two of its spiny legs out and started smashing the robots apart with a single swipe each.
The spider was stationary, so Sue's defensive powers were limited. She threw a few force waves but the spider was too strong, deflecting the invisible barriers easily. Reed piloted his hacked robot wasp around to try and get a better shot at the spider's body, but, as if sensing danger before it happened, the spider shot a glob of web fluid at the robot. Without its wings, the insect flew out of control, and Reed only barely managed to pry himself loose before crashing, only unharmed thanks to the elasticity of his body.
"HANK--" Janet managed to scream one last time before her mouth was covered.
While the logic of Sue and Reed having actual powers might have kept Hank from leaving his hiding place, Janet's cries for help overwhelmed his rationale and he ran out of cover again, beelining for Janet with no idea of what he could possibly do.
With one swift movement one of the spider's spare legs lashed out and stuck Hank in the torso, knocking him across the desktop. He sailed to the edge, bouncing and rolling across the surface along the way. He tumbled over the edge, the virtual canyon between the desk and wall obscured by darkness. Just before he plummeted to the floor his fingers grabbed the edge, somehow managing not to rip them off from sheer force.
The spider, sick of the nuisances the robots and superpowered, finished packing its lunch, still letting out muffled screams, and shot a line of webbing at some unseen hook, yanking itself away to the distant safety of the wall.
"Hank!" Reed yelled as he picked himself back up. "Sue, go after Janet, I'll get Hank!" Reed started to stretch his legs to take powerful strides.
Hank's voice quickly shouted back. "No, stay back!" Reed stopped in his tracks. "You and Sue need to go save Janet! She's the one in danger!"
"But you-" Sue started to protest.
"If I go along, I'll just be a burden. You're the ones with powers. The best thing I can do is push forward. Maybe try to get a head start on getting us all back to normal," Hank explained, his voice unsure of himself but insistent. "Just promise me, no matter what, you'll save Janet!"
"Hank, just let me pull you up. We can all go and save Janet!" Reed yelled.
"Promise me!"
Reed hesitated, but knew that Sue was not in a position to create a forcefield and he couldn't stretch fast enough either way. All he could do was trust that Hank knew what he was doing. "I promise, Hank. We'll get Janet back unharmed!"
"Thanks, Reed," Hank said with relief, before his fingers slipped and he fell into the darkness.
"HANK! NO!" Sue tried to run after him, but Reed's outstretched arm on her shoulder stopped her.
"Easy! Hank's not suicidal, if he says he knows what he's doing, then he knows what he's doing. We need to go get Janet. And I have an idea, but we'll need to act fast," Reed explained as he eyed the many damaged robots around them.
[Central City High School]
Johnny Storm, Alicia Masters, and Jimmy Darnell sat nervously, but quietly just outside the principal's office while a hard-nosed, wrinkled secretary with thick glasses scratched away at a notepad, occasionally casting accusatory glances at the three teenagers. The only sound was the tick of an antique grandfather clock in the corner, which seemed to be getting slower by the minute as the three students awaited their fate.
Finally, the principal stepped out of his office to address the children. "James, I've contacted your parents about this incident. They're sending your sister to come pick you up." Jimmy turned white. His sister, Ann, could be borderline abusive at times. "You're excused for now." Jimmy standing up and walking out the door was like watching a prisoner on death row.
"Bye, Jimmy, it was nice to meet you," Alicia said meekly.
"Ms. Masters, I'm having difficulty contacting your legal guardian."
Alicia winced before replying. "My brother works long hours. I hardly ever see him. I drove myself here."
The principal huffed, "Well, don't think I won't be speaking about this incident with him at some point. You're not off the hook yet, young lady. I hope you realize that this sort of tomfoolery and wanton destruction is not tolerated here."
"Yes sir," Alicia said looking down.
"Dismissed for now," the principal said. Alicia slowly got up, shot Johnny a look of pity, and reluctantly left.
"Mr. Storm, in my office now, please," the principal beckoned as he escorted Johnny into the privacy of his chambers. "Please sit." Johnny did so quickly. The principal sat in his chair and, with a heavy sigh, spoke. "First of all, Mr. Storm, I want to hear your version of what happened." Johnny squirmed in his seat, trying to decide exactly what was even safe to tell the principal. Obviously he took too long because the principal started with his own question. "Are you a mutant?"
"What?! No!" Johnny was quick to respond.
"Then how, may I ask, did the bleachers spontaneously catch fire? And keep in mind, before you answer, we do have surveillance cameras on the school premises."
Johnny sighed. "When the space station crashed, I got... powers. Along with everybody else on board. When we got back we were tested to make sure we weren't dangerous though. I'm not really supposed to talk about it until Mr. Richards and Sue decide whether this should be public or not."
The principal nodded along. "And I suppose showing off to other students counts as keeping it secret?"
"Jimmy found out, and... he just wanted to see. So I showed him where I thought no one else could see anything. Things... got a bit out of hand though. It won't happen again, I promise."
"See that it doesn't, Mr. Storm," the principal said with a suddenly warm smile. "To be perfectly honest, the school board is pressuring me to legislate policies involving certain abilities on campus. Some would even have me ban students due to what is, in my understanding, simply a genetic condition."
"I'm not a mutant though!"
"No, I suppose not. But I'm almost certain if we did enact such a policy, it would apply to you as well. I personally would find such a discriminatory policy to be abhorrent, but mine is not the only voice in such a matter. Incidents like these would make it more difficult to keep such a policy from our school grounds. Do you understand, Johnny?"
Johnny's eyes went wide. "Am I... not in trouble, sir?"
"Well, I do intend to speak with your sister on the matter. Unfortunately, like Ms. Masters's legal guardian, she was unavailable when I called. However, since this is a... unique situation, I think can let you off with a warning, with the consideration that you keep your abilities under control on this campus. We'll call what happened an accident, since that's what it really was, but I warn you that future infractions of this nature will incur punishment. Is that clear?" Johnny nodded vigorously. "Good, now will you need a ride home?"
"No thanks, sir. I can get home myself." The principal's suspicious gaze let Johnny know to be more specific, "That is, I can take the city bus."
"Very well, dismissed, Mr. Storm." Johnny had to stop himself from propelling out the principal's office door, eager to leave before the principal could change his mind.
It was going to be a long walk. He considered trying to fly straight home, but Sue would have grounded him for life and then some. He could take the city bus as he said, but that had its own nuisances. Depending on if they were even running on time today, he could be on the bus for hours as it made its rounds. Hours that he'd have to spend bored to death with nothing even decent to read except for a textbook. And what was the point of homework without TV or at least music playing in the background?
Fortunately, any such dilemmas were forgotten when Johnny saw Alicia standing outside waiting for him. "I was wondering if maybe you could use a ride?"
Johnny smiled. The day was gradually getting better.
[Baxter Building Lab #4]
Whether by design or by ironic accident, the robotic wasps operated off of a sort of hivemind. They were each linked, transmitting data between each other and acting in tandem. It was how they didn't fly into each other or do redundant work. Something in their programming took the data sensed by all of them, compiled it, and calculated flight plans, formations, and tasks to the entire swarm.
Janet must have passed out at some point, either out of sheer fright or due to the lack of oxygen. She hoped everything in recent memory was just a terrible nightmare, but her bonds proved it was still all real. Somehow she managed to retain enough sanity to slowly but surely cut free from the web fluid holding her. Once she felt gravity's pull though, she quickly grabbed onto the webbing and actually hoped it would hold.
The red and blue markings of the spider were very familiar. Breeding insects, or in this case spiders, using genetic manipulation, splicing, and bursts of different radiation to see what potentials could be reached. The result was some kind of 'super-spider' which, if introduced into the general populace, would absolutely dominate nearly any ecology.
Janet's eyes darted around her surroundings. At the edge of the web, the spider was already turning and heading back towards her, apparently having noticed the disturbing vibrations through the web. She guessed that the only reason she was still alive was because the spider originally intended to save its lunch for later.
She could try to climb away, but this web was the spider's domain. There was nowhere she could go that it could not reach. Falling from the ceiling to the floor would almost certainly be lethal. It seemed to be a completely hopeless situation.
The spider suddenly paused. Its head looked away from the web to what for Janet looked like empty space. The air started to shimmer like a mirage, and when the invisible barrier faded, a small army of robotic wasps were hovering around the web, facing the spider. It hissed at the offending swarm nutrient-less machines.
In perfect synch, the wasps unleashed a barrage of lasers on the spider and the web surrounding it. The spider tried to shoot the robots down one by one with globs of web, but with the wasps staying out of the range of its legs and consistently firing on it and it alone, even this super-spider had trouble doing more than taking down one at a time. Eventually the spider gave up on trying to defend its web and attached a line to the ceiling, swinging into the fray to tear apart the wasp robots with its long, spiny legs.
Several strands of the web either caught on fire or snapped apart entirely, leaving Janet to hold on all the more as the web's stability wavered. Janet was sure she was going to die soon, either by falling to her doom, getting killed by robot bee lasers, or being eaten by a giant spider. She didn't even notice another, smaller mirage shimmer away to reveal another few drones right next to her, these holding Reed and Sue.
"Can you get free?" Sue said as quietly as she could while still being heard above the nearby commotion.
"I managed to tap into the drones' collective core programming and give a new set of directives that should keep the more aggressive specimen over there long enough to..."
"Don't care how. Very grateful. Just get me the hell out of here!" Janet quickly said as she pulled herself from the webbing, with a little help from Reed and Sue, and boarded the drones with them.
"It's a fascinating creature. It seems to have some instinctive sense of oncoming danger, even when other senses are blocked or otherwise fail it. It's quite the amazing specimen, Janet."
"And yet suddenly I'm considering a career in fashion," Janet grumbled. "Please, just get me out of here and let's end this nightmare already!"
As Janet cautiously stepped onto the robotic wasp, it was taken from under her as a giant ball of webbing exploded into its side, wrapping everything from the wings to the circuitry in spider gunk. Janet nearly fell right there, but Sue's drone managed to catch her.
"I don't think it's going to let us go that easy," Sue grimaced as she threw up a force field to block another ball of webbing. The spider was now all but ignoring the horde of attackers and was instead focusing purely on the prey that was trying to escape. "Go go GO!" Sue yelled as Reed furiously worked the controls to get the remaining wasps to turn in midair and start to beeline away.
The spider lashed, its hooked legs ripping through one of the remaining drones. Reed quickly abandoned it and leaped over to the one remaining drone Sue and Janet were aboard, just as it rocketed away. "Hopefully the other robots will distract the creature long enough for us to escape," Reed said as he stretched his limbs to keep a grip on the robot.
It wasn't long until they started to lose altitude. "This thing can't hold all of us! We're going to crash!" Sue yelled as she tried in vain to stabilize their vehicle.
"Just keep trying to steer. I'll see if I can slow our descent," Reed replied, thinking quickly. While his hands and feet wrapped around the wasp's limbs for stability, the rest of his body went loose and flat, dragging behind the rest of the craft until he caught just enough air. What could have been a quick, very lethal crash would now be a rough, but survivable landing much closer to the other side of the room.
[Yancy Street Bar]
As strange a sight as a giant orange rock in a trenchcoat speaking with a one-eyed stranger in black leather was, when Ben took the corner booth with the man, all it took was a wave off for the other patrons to not only leave them alone, but shoo away any other unwanted guests if they got close enough.
"The night's getting late, and we've got a lot to talk about," the man said as he leaned forward out of the shadows. The bald, dark-skinned man in the black trenchcoat glared at Ben with his one good eye, the other covered by an eyepatch. "A lot has changed. We're going to need to be very careful and very thorough with how we continue this after that crash. So let's get started, Agent Grimm." Fury's good eye glanced around the room. "You sure this is a safe place to talk?"
"As safe a place as any. If anyone asks, yer just my boss at NASA or somethin'," Ben tried to sound casual, but like Nick Fury he was on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary. Besides them at least. "Ya find out what happened to Doom?"
Fury shook his head. "Don't worry about that. Doom's someone else's assignment now."
"O'course," Ben grimaced. Having fled the country, that would unfortunately make sense. "What about the crash? SHIELD excavated the debris right?"
"The majority of it, yes. Though it looks like somehow Doom's people got to it first though."
"You figya out what caused the station to crash yet?"
Fury's continued disappointment answered the question before Fury himself did. "We were hoping you could tell us more about that, Grimm."
Ben shook his head. "Don't remember much. Doom had just come aboard. Everyone was frosty to him 'cept for Reed. We were gettin' ready for a New Years broadcast. Other than that, everythin' was business as usual. When we started losin' altitude, we didn't have time to try and figure out the cause. Somehow we didn't die and, well, y'know the rest."
"Except for this whole thing," Fury replied, motioning to Ben's deformed body. "You aren't the only one who changed after the crash."
"I got no idea on how this happened. Heck, Reed don't even have an idea on how. Granted, he's been a bit busy lately, what with everything goin' to crap lately," Ben downed a few more gulps of beer, liquid streams pouring down the corners of his mouth. "Sorry," he apologized as used his sleeve to wipe clean. "So how do we handle this going forward? SHIELD's gonna need to be more directly involved now, right? Don't suppose ya got some kinda SHIELD doohickey that'll make me appear less golem-ey?"
"Afraid not, Agent Grimm. And Reed Richards is no longer any of your concern," Fury said deadpan.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means someone else will take over the assignment of keeping an eye on Richards, just as tracking down Victor Von Doom will fall on someone else's shoulders as well," Fury explained in detail. "You're no longer qualified to continue reconnaissance on Richards or Pym or anyone at Von Doom. Hell, in your current condition, I couldn't put you in charge of tailing a cheating husband! This isn't just a report, Ben. This is a reassignment."
Even with the parachute made out of Reed's elongated body, the wasp drone couldn't handle the weight. Handling one person was difficult enough, although person was a relative term considering the size and mass of the persons it was holding. Carrying all three of them was an impossibility. All it could do, even with Reed's aid, was gradually descend across the room and eventually crash, albeit a lot closer than before.
"Jump!" Reed yelled shortly before they crashed. Everyone leaped off, tucking and rolling across the floor. The drone shattered into pieces before sliding to a stop. "Everyone all right?"
"I think so," Sue said as she and Janet picked themselves up. "Can we go one week without crashing something into the ground? What's next? A hot air balloon in the Rockies?"
"Leave me out of the next one," Janet grumbled. "Now tell me: Where the hell is Hank? Is he still alive?"
Sue hesitated, "We lost Hank."
"You 'lost' him? I know we're all tiny, but he can't be that hard to lose."
"What I mean is..." Sue started, trying to find the gentlest way of breaking the news, but Reed interrupted.
"We were separated. Hank has the sonic device he was working on, and said he was going to go on ahead. Perhaps start working on getting us back to normal if he got the chance. We're supposed to meet him by the remains of the experiment, where we were all headed before."
"Reed! We saw Hank go over the edge of the desk. He could be..."
"Hank knew what he was doing. We can't assume otherwise," Reed said confidently. Before Sue could protest about the dangers of false hope and blind optimism, Reed spoke again with sudden urgency, "Sue, put up one of your barriers, now! Make sure we're all completely invisible!"
"Don't you tell me-"
"No time! Do it!" Sue quickly complied, even though all Reed and Janet could see was her throw her arms up. Everyone remained silent as something clattering across the floor grew louder, quickly becoming a large army of somethings.
A horde of ants trampled by, some carrying various metal parts and pieces. A few of them broke off and headed towards Reed and the others, but stopped short of Sue's force field. They probed around for a bit before giving up and rejoining the swarm. Whether or not they would have been safe to talk, the three scientists remained silent until the sounds of stampeding insects had faded.
"Oh great. I was so relieved at escaping the giant monster spider and the swarm of robotic wasps that I nearly forgot the swarm of ants in the first place," Janet grimaced as she angrily marched over to the wreckage of the drone, prying through the remains and tossing aside useless debris.
"Did you see what they were carrying? Why?" Reed asked.
"Ants usually gather anything that smells like food for the queen and larvae, but some species bring reinforcements for the hive. Since these recently had their habitat destroyed, they're probably rebuilding the nest for the queen," Janet explained as her hands continued working. "They'll be on edge. Hostile even. But they'll be busy securing their own nest, so if we stay out of their way, they should leave us alone."
"What are you even doing over there?"
Janet pried the engine with the attached wings off the drone, mostly still in one piece. The laser torch was seemed to be mostly working, though not as originally intended. Janet had to make a few adjustments. The jetpack and wings she strapped to her back, a few loose, now redundant wires wrapped around her chest to make sure it was secure. The laser was barely attached by a few loose wires, but as long as Janet carried it manually, she could at least get enough energy from the remains of the drone's power supply to fire the makeshift weapon. "Making sure the most proactive thing I've done today isn't 'getting kidnapped by a giant goddamn spider.'"
To Be Continued...