I wasn't expecting much from my flight home from Los Angeles. I didn't really want to go back, I enjoyed being free of the dull daily grind, even though one thing I found in my older age was I wasn't so good at pulling all-nighters as my boyfriend had been doing for years. Something to blame on the whole domestication thing that'd come from my work as a librarian.
Except, as I watched in what felt like slow motion as the plane disintegrated, I wish I'd kept my damn wishes to myself. Through the outright panic that was going through my head, one clear thought occurred to me before I was knocked out cold by a flying headrest, What are we flying over right now?
I swam back to consciousness as I felt grit beneath my prone form, though it was hard to pry my eyes open thanks to the congealed mess of blood and desert dust. I could see the orange flicker of flames, smell the pungent scent of many things burning... I'm pretty sure part of it were human remains, and hear... footsteps? Though I saw in triplicate, I could make out there were indeed things of a humanoid stance walking around, but I couldn't quite make out what they were saying.
Knowing that I wasn't nauseated, I decided to chance moving, trying to show some indication I was alive! Though as I attempted to move, I suddenly gurgled with an explosion of pain from my chest. Looking down, I noticed a jagged spear of metal had me rather handedly pinned to the ground. I wasn't about to make myself anymore freaked out by looking to see how large the spear I'd been impaled on was. Instead, I raised a hand, clawing at the air as I choked out, finding myself rather short of breath - fucking shit, did it punctured a lung - "H-help...!"
Immediately after, I collapsed back where I was. The humanoid blurs stopped doing... whatever it was they were doing, and something approached. It wasn't footsteps, but the flapping of... leather?
"One potential lives.", said a high pitched voice as someone stomped down, grit-laden dust exploding around it's feet like a whirlwind. The other humanoids converged on me, and I cried out weakly as I was jolted up into the air... into strong but cold arms. Whatever held me turned me on my back, and I could see... it was not human. I shuddered weakly, eyes widening as much as they could before pain and shock took my consciousness away again.
The last thing I heard before everything was shut out was unbelievable:
"Fear not, you shall rise again for the glory of SHOCKER!"
"EE-EEE!"
I swam back to consciousness again somewhere bitingly cold... and found that I couldn't move. I stared at the impossibly high ceiling as a kaleidoscope of lights played across the strangely smooth concrete material that made up what part of the room I could see, trying hard to just breathe... just chill...
But something ran through my head over and over:
"Rise again for the glory of SHOCKER!"
"Glory of SHOCKER!"
"SHOCKER!"
I knew what those words meant. It was just... impossiblewrongterrifying... this isn't real, this isn't happening, I was supposed to just go home and go back to work and now...
Images of atrocities flittered through my brain, my imagination adding to the scenes, causing me to whimper out. I shut my eyes tightly as a small tear trickled down the side of my face.
"Tears? You must be crying with JOY at the gift you are about to receive, Paige Shepard!", the awful, high pitched voice from earlier intoned. I gasped as my eyes were forced open by some device that looked like it had come from Orin Scrivello's dental office, and though blurred by fresh tears...
...I knew what the hell I was looking at, and the knowledge just made everything worse.
"Do you not delight at my transhuman form?", the Bat (...kaijin? Cyborg? ...What the hell do you call it in ENGLISH?) continued as his face - very much not a helmet like the mid 00's remake - leered down over mine, "I can assure you that yours will be just as fetching... oh yes, we have a marvelous idea for you... but spoilers~!"
He cackled in my face as he danced out of sight, and I felt myself moving - whatever I was strapped to slid out into a small corridor of spinning circles, like an MRI machine.
I really... really hate knowing what I know. Like this... looks just like SHOCKER has learned a few things in the half century of their existence.
LIKE BRAINWASHING FIRST.
I couldn't help it - I began to scream, and not in a 'metal vocalist' way, full on high pitched shrieks of terror. I felt my eyes burning as they opened too wide, and though I tried, I still couldn't move anything other than my face.
Outside, the Bat-Man swayed giddily, gesturing with his hands as if conducting an orchestra made out of my fearful cries.
I must have passed out from screaming, as I looked around and saw myself somewhere else.
Somewhere nice… I could hear the gulls and smell the sea – which was a little more pungent thanks to all the dead crabs that had washed up on the beach – and I noticed… he was sitting beside me. I looked up at my boyfriend with a bright smile, only to see that he was frozen… everything was frozen. A chord of terror struck in my heart – is this what it's like to be brainwashed by SHOCKER? Your true consciousness locked away in a quiet dream?!
"...It's alright.", came a voice from directly in front of me, but as I looked up...
I awoke once more to a pleasant surprise for once. I could tell I was still myself. I had my own thoughts. SHOCKER still scared the holy shit out of me.
...As I became fully aware of my surroundings, I noticed there were klaxons going off… other than that, the base was eerily silent.
And I could move again. I sat up slowly, wincing in pain from where I supposed the jagged metal spear had gone through my torso. I took a few moments to just breathe, noting that was fixed at least, even though I still felt quite fleshy and human, before I tried sliding off the restraint table. Slowly but surely, I made my way out of the corridor, looking around for my captor.
Instead I found brackish blood coating the wall where he had been standing, leering over my prone form. Shivering, I hugged my hospital gowned form as I made my way out of the room and into the catacombs that made up…
...A real life fucking SHOCKER base.
As I wandered the dark, silent halls, completely lost thanks to what felt like MC Escher-esque construction, I found more evidence of a great deal of violence in the form of 'Combatmen Puddles', but not the cause. Stray sounds of the base settling would occasionally cause a jolt of fright, but otherwise… nothing. Not a soul to be found.
I began to wonder if I'd ever find the way out of this madhouse when I felt an intense pulse of pain behind my eyes. I collapsed against the nearest wall and slid down as a cluster headache blossomed in my forehead, my ears swelling with an awful screech. Everything seemed to twirl and lurch – if I had anything left in my system, I would have vomited. Abruptly, it stopped. I laid there for a few moments, breathing deeply as I tried to stymie the nausea that continued to rise. I suddenly lurched up – despite not wanting to move – when I heard something moving above me. I loved the Alien films… okay, I loved the first two, which again meant my 'meta knowledge' sent me into panic mode as I imagined some Golgom mutant horror bursting out of the ceiling because of a grudge match between the two organizations…
Silence remained. I shivered, picking myself back up, forcing myself to keep moving, searching for an exit.
In the service ducts above me, eight silver eyes gleamed brightly, watching as I shuffled off.
Light! I think that's…
I stepped into a massive chamber much like the operating room I had awoken in… except this new room made it very obvious where I was. The floor was covered in plush red carpeting, massive pillars stretched from floor to ceiling, the light I thought was coming from the outside instead streamed out of a stained glass image of the Great Leader's mono-eyed form, and beneath that, like a cross in a church hung the nephandic 'cross' and eagle of SHOCKER. It was… I wasn't religious, but the way this was set up… it was sickening. People saw that… that thing as a god. But… it wasn't the cold hard metal floors I had been walking on barefoot for what felt like hours, and it was just an image… I could turn away from that and get some rest.
I let myself fall to my knees again, then back onto the carpeted floor with a soft flop. Resting my arm over my eyes, I felt myself drifting into a peaceful slumber… until the screaming cluster headache exploded in my brain again. I rolled over with a groan just as something slammed into the floor where I had been laying. That made me shoot up into a seated position, and I looked over in horror at the harpoon glistening with greenish sludge and tied to a white cord as thick as my thumb. I sat frozen as my eyes traveled up the cord to the dark ceiling.
That's where the staff was - cocooned in thick white cords, dangling in random positions from the cathedral ceiling. I could even identify Bat-man. None of them were moving, and considering the dark stains… I knew damn well why they weren't struggling. Then I saw what caused their deaths, and I… I wasn't sure what to make of it. The arachnid humanoid moved gracefully down the taut cord towards my paralyzed frame. I noticed as it got closer that it was clothed in golden garb adorned with strange runes, and on it's back were two… …
No…
No no no…
My eyes hurt from how wide they were opened. I kicked feebly at the ground, attempting to scoot away, but could get little traction on the plush carpeting as the…
...It paused as it's most humanoid hands folded into a gesture that continued to help puzzle together what new impossibility I was seeing. It kept it's pointer and middle finger out, middle and pinky in, then slid it across it's face in a 'Z' gesture as it hissed out in a whispering, acidic voice, "A...gi...to..."
I felt my head throb as every fiber of my being was suddenly flooded with adrenaline. I finally shot to my feet, stumbling forward in a run… but the Spider Lord was faster. I felt the thick wad of webbing hit my foot, and suddenly I was slung backwards with breakneck speed into one of the cathedral's pillars. Pain exploded through my body, but I wasn't allowed to rest.
The Spider Lord was suddenly on me, grabbing me by the throat, slamming me back into the pillar. Studying me closer with it's eight silver eyes. It's mandibles clicked, greenish drool dripping from it's aberrant maw as I shuddered, turning my head away… I knew this scene too well – remember my love of Alien? I could feel more tears burning in my eyes, fucking shit at a time like this…
If only this were…
...We had always laughed about 'what if', didn't we?
But that 'what if' doesn't exist… the bad parts exist… the potential might exist… if this thing does…
...But it's too late for that now, isn't it?
I closed my eyes. I knew what came next but…
I 'heard' a single word in my head from a voice that… didn't sound like a voice, "Awaken."
I felt a jolt of… something. Something in my chest. Something that slammed the Spider Lord back off of me, and I dropped limply to the ground. Clenching the center of my torso, I let out a groan of pain and nausea, the world swam as a fever more intense than any I had ever suffered through exploded in me. The only thing keeping me up – my free hand - clawed at the debris strewn ground. I looked up, seeing a slightly blurred triplicate of the Spider Lord's form approaching me again as every muscle in my body tensed, pulsing with my rapid heartbeat.
...And then there was calm. Though fever wracked my body, my eyes felt dry and bloodshot… I stood and let out a scream. I let the scream envelop my being along with the fever, along with the pain in my chest… and I saw red as I transformed.
The Spider Lord paused as I surged forward with strength I had never known before, taloned fingers flashing out at it's chitinous chest. It casually caught the wild lash and kicked me backwards, but couldn't throw me as far as it could before. Taloned toes gripped the carpet as I launched again, undaunted, unafraid… uncontrolled!
Even as I watched myself in this berserk state, I wasn't afraid. For the first time in this… day… week… however the fuck long I had been in this godawful place, I had been given a leg up. One hell of a leg up, and like fucking hell was I going to start crying about being a monster. For the first time in my life, I had an advantage – no matter how troublesome it might be in the future – and I was going to fucking use it to survive.
I had finally won some ground with my thrashing punches, pushing the Spider Lord back… but that wasn't enough. As soon as we were separated by some distance, it webbed me up, then leaped to the cathedral ceiling it had made it's nest, dragging my thrashing form with it. I snarled and snapped futilely at the cords that bound me, my rational mind now deciding to panic about my berserker state, as I wouldn't have the right mind to force some kind of… Amazon spikes or something…
And then I roared out as I felt something jab through my leg, agonizing pain exploding from the wound. On the one hand, I now felt… in control, but on the other…
...It was that fucker's harpoon in my leg! Blood gushed from the wound thanks to the weapon spearing me through a major artery, but it also carried the creature's venom quickly to my brain, spreading pain more intense than I had ever felt in my life. I thrashed even more wildly as I screamed out… and suddenly felt something erupting from my arms, handedly shredding the webbing but sending me plummeting fifty feet to the ground below.
I shook as I rolled to my hands and knees, feeling the venom… and immediately the Spider Lord was on me, kicking me across the cathedral. I squinted my eyes as I clawed the ground, stopping my wild roll… but then I swayed, shuddering in agony and sickness...
Not like this, dammit… not like this…!
I could hear it's mandibles clacking as it was right on top of me…
NOT LIKE THIS!
I screamed my anger as I lunged forward, ramming my head into the Lord's torso… and kept running. I felt a sickening crunch as we hit a nearby pillar with full force. I continued to scream as I started to lash the creature with all my hatred and pain, if this fucking piece of shit was going to be what killed me before I really got to enjoy this… I was going to make sure it went back to it's fucking prettyboy master in PIECES.
The creature screamed as I railed into it, and brought the last of it's strength up to kick me away again with both legs. Too weak from it's venom to catch myself this time, I tumbled across the carpet, only trying to move when I'd stopped rolling. The Lord lurched towards me again… I could see the end of this… I just…
My arms quivered as I pushed myself up, barely able to stand, my knees threatened to drop out from under me… but I glared at the Spider Lord… then threw my head back and howled all my fury. Behind me, the stained glass visage of the Great Leader cracked from the force erupting from my body, and massive spikes akin to the ones on my arm burst from my heels. I put the last of my strength into the somersaulting leap, slamming both of my heel-spikes into the Spider Lord and falling to the ground and launching the Lord into the stained glass icon – a final 'fuck you' to this unwelcome diversion from my life for both of them.
I could hear the explosion as the Spider Lord met it's end thanks to… Agi… to… po-power…
I had collapsed from the venom.
I awoke in a decrepit motel somewhere off Route 66 hours later, my leg bandaged, my head still swimming... nose nearly choked by the smell of old cigarettes and must... and I was clothed. Beside me on the bed I was laid in were two items - a cellphone and a wallet - both mine, though... I wasn't sure how safe it was to use my own identity.
Fully awake, I pulled myself from bed, wondering... how the hell I even got here. I would have had my answer if I could see the small mark on the back of my neck:
A calligraphic J with a small dot at the top.
Outside, I could hear someone singing. The voice was familiar, but I was still too out of it to really make a correlation. However... whoever the voice belonged to was getting closer.
...And then I heard a knock at my door.