XLVI
Wolves, some of the most majestic, frightening and beautiful predators of all, and werewolves as their evolutionary descendants are most true to that nature. How they enjoy a good hunt, eh? When was the last time she ever had any? For the looks of it, I daresay a long time… Shouldn't really give her a hard time for enjoying this so much. Not everyday you get to be a superhero and… I get it, she's a hunter, I'm a hunter too.
Spiders, we are hunters, the difference is that for the most part, the great majority of us we're passive hunters. We don't usually go out actively seeking for a prey, instead we set traps, we spin our webs and sit patiently until a nice meal arrives, we wrap them like a nice burrito and then we feast — not for the weak hearted or easily impressed, so we don't usually bring many or any non spider to dinner. Compared to fighting (and I cannot possibly stress this enough, hunting is a fight if not battle in itself) we can say is like the three types of jin: positive for when you're intently attacking, negative for when you retreat either because you're losing or because you don't want to fight, and then neutral for when you're patiently watching, listening and waiting for a most convenient opening — the perfect opportunity to attack, to strike and bite hard where it hurts the most. Can't recall where did I learn that, though. Ever since we got here I seem to suddenly know a lot of things I should — would know as a seasoned superhero, which is weird… Anyhow, as I was saying, we spiders are passive hunters, we wait patiently til the moment comes and we bite. But that is usually when we got the privilege to get our preparations right… this is not the case…
Webarella thinks as she faces the horde of wraiths surrounding her.
I have spun webs wide around the city, but I would exaggerate if I'd say have one in every corner or dark alley. Specially here, I haven't gotten this close to the fortress since I tried to rescue Enchantress… the infil was a success, the exfil…
I'm out of my turf and knee deep in theirs, which means I have to switch from neutral to active… and that means terrible news… for them. Not making the same mistake twice…
Little unknown thing about spiders, we don't always fight, but when do… that's when things get really nasty. But the bright side for them is we like to wrap things up quickly. This supergun I carry with me does it quick and clean, delivering a healthy dose of poisonous bullets, sounds an overkill but I was going with super hero gone super spy when I put on this costume and I figured no spy leaves any loose ends and a bullet isn't always an instant kill, so what would be more fitting for me as a super spy if not using venom bullets just in case? Think is strange? Only strange thing is how even my props are real weapons now and work just as I had in mind. I had only imagined it as a super high tech pistol and and now they're frighteningly real… and I'm unsettling comfortable with it now. Webarella thinks, while dodging the attack of the wraiths with movements so nimble and quick that no wraith can react in time to lay a hand on her or move before getting webbed to the ground or each other.
There is no real conscious thought behind her actions though. Sure, she's aware of the enemy's every movement as she watches and listens them intently, but even before she can register their attack or their intentions her instincts, which ever since getting here have been gradually growing to the point where they mirror psychic perception, have already determined how they'll move next and her body moves on its own not allowing a single scabby hand to touch her not even once, with only her lower right hand moving at her command to reach her gun and shoot. Naturally, the level of her instinct — her arachnid sense as she calls it — isn't high enough to reach the level of future foresight but it sure reaches the point of preternatural precognition, and this far it has easily guided her to the optimum answer in every fight scene she's had.
Landing with perfect grace on top of a rooftop, she reminiscences the last three nights since this happened and how they feel almost a lifetime. The first time this all happened, everything was more chaotic than even now, she was frightened and only jumped into action by sheer instinct, she got a lot of people to safety, still she felt so many doubts, but not even once she faltered or sat idly by, letting those fully transformed into comic characters do her fighting for her. By the second night she was beginning to enjoy this whole superhero thing and in battle she was only but a piece of art, a true thing of beauty. In each battle she was ever moving and ever lethal as a deadly ballerina, all grace tightly hugged by recklessness, she jumped and spun and swung around through space as a red, white and black blur barely seen by the enemy and wherever she landed they would only fall. And always talking relentlessly.
By her third night here, she was becoming more like the super spy she had envisioned her character before the party — she and Ghoulia even came up with a little idea of how she got trained by the best of all super soldiers in history for her to revive her fanfic, she was already re-imagining them all, granted she couldn't find the original work or recall much of it so yay, more fun for me, the zombie girl thought gleefully. And it seems that little idea was enough for this world to provide her with the training she needs and it kicked right in when she needed it the most, stuffing all the fear and worries of the first two days in a vault, locked in the cellar of her mind where all the useless things belong. Now all color drains from view and she reads the battle as you would read a chess board, always moving one step ahead of the enemy biting only when she sees the opportunity and with every fight she sees more… her instinct helps a lot with that.
A stark contrast to her companion who darts across the enemy with seemingly (though not entirely) brainless savagery. Striking fast, hard and loud as a green and purple lightning bolt of sheer rage, leaping from foe to foe, devastating one after another, fueled by her reveling — reveling on her muscles, reveling on the chase and the hunt! And fabulous, always fabulous with almost all the dirt falling away from her or her hair as though it dreaded the consequences of touching her, and what little dust or debris dares to fall on her does nothing to diminish her beauty.
After three days of fighting wraiths I have learned two things: they always got a flock leader and they can't take sudden turns very well. Killing the leader doesn't stop them, but they get very disoriented when it falls, flying around aimless until one shouts louder and takes charge. So a quick shoot to the head and — her weapon fires without booming, only a quick and barely there sound indicating the high speed projectiles exiting towards the target, her instinct helps with her aiming too, where her cold and clinical mind can't and perhaps even then, hitting the leader wraith in between the eyes.
Every night here she's done this and every night she felt something different, first there was some fear and doubt not knowing if they're any real or if they feel pain — andi if they're real in the slightest, then was it right to do so? She found the answer to that rather quickly as a blatant yes, then there was some joy to it, like shooting in an arcade and maybe at this point due to lack of sleep, the excess of adrenaline and the surrealism of it all, she had become divorced from any and all sense of reality and treated this whole thing as a waking dream of a video game… one of which she would soon grow bored, then it set in colorless and joyless, a job done dutiful out of a sense of responsibility that wouldn't end.
It is now when they're distracted that I got time to make my move. My organic silk is stronger and stickier than my chem-made silk, but my wrist spinnerets are faster and still have more synthetic fluid, and I see just the perfect spot to set a nice web for these flies. She reasons swinging with her silver thread to a wide enough dark alley. Now the question is, cobweb, woolly, orb, sheet or funnel type? Decisions, decisions… so many options, so little time. All right, sheet's good for flying insects like them but kinda useless here, cob just has too much order behind its disorder, no time for carefully set every thread with a façade of randomness — so useless here too, and I don't have enough magnetic fluid for a woolly web, better save that for later. I feel like I've overused the orb webs pattern and last time they broke free so I'm thinking I'm going with funnel this time. She decides quickly, and ends with only barely enough time to behold at her work with satisfaction, before moving into the shadows within her web, blending perfectly with them as the wraiths turn in search for her.
Funny how even when fighting for leadership they can keep an eye on their prey. But now is I who waits for her prey…
Outside in the real world, in nature that is, funnels can be found in many spider nests, being a main feature of web design, and pretty impressive as well. Typically a sheet which spans on the exterior of the funnel, which is used to entangle prey, and the spider retreats and waits patiently inside the funnel for the springy web to vibrate indicating dinner has come.
And now I bite…
Webarella doesn't get to enjoy the calm and peace that comes with waiting, and she's all okay with it, as there is no time to waste. In seconds all the wraiths left are trapped in her web, they struggle pointlessly to break free but only succeed in wasting energy. It doesn't last for long though, for they all feel the sting of the widow soon as they fliy in… and it all ends quickly…
Turning out of the alley, her vision is raptured from her weapon's magazine, which this far hasn't failed to instantly reload itself by magic providing endless ammunition unlike her web fluid which takes a while and only when they're empty, by the sight of Wonder Wolf lost in glorious battle with the skeletal dragons — a wild hunt like she's never seen outside a screen, demanding their enemy for more prey.
"You don't seem to be enjoying yourself."
That voice is… not from the comlink. The cat, I was wondering where did she go. But why can't I see her?
"What's there to enjoy? People might suffer here and because I got the power to do something I must be responsible for them!"
"First of all, you're in a dreamworld where you're a badass superhero and a super spyder with the power to do whatever you want. If you're not enjoying this, maybe you're not doing it right, unlike somebody here who's doing it far too well and enjoying it a little too much."
"Sure, just a little," she adds staring at Wonder Wolf as she destroys her enemies with a single blow from her fists.
"Yes, you're right on that. Maybe you shouldn't have left this one alone," Selina says jumping to her side.
"Yeah, that's how you do it!" Wonder Wolf barks.
"I thought her boyfriend sent you with us to keep an eye on her."
"That's what I'm doing, I'm keeping both my eyes on her from a safe distance in this safe spot I made for myself — seriously, ghoul!? I'm not getting anywhere near that maniacal beast!" answers in between licks on her paws. "I don't think she needs my help yet anyway. Maybe I'll wait til she does something really stupid. By the way, care to reminder her who she really is? Seems she's blending too much with her Skin in this world."
"What?" Webarella asks, feeling as though the cat talks in riddles not made for her.
"Just tell her she's losing it and none of this is real so no need to take it so serious." Replies cuttingly.
"Is it really? I can't even tell how long I've been here anymore, but with every fight I feel I have been here a lifetime."
"Forget it, I see you lost it too. Just go there and try to have some good a old fashioned superhero fun if you still can, like when you were a careless kid, but better."
"Fun… I do remember I had plenty of it at first…"
"Then what happened? This ain't even the real world, this a movie which I'm sure will get lots of spoilers by tomorrow. You gotta enjoy it. Everyone is safe back at that rat nest. Now you get to be a superhero who's actually free from responsibility and free to have some fun like her, just don't forget who's behind that mask… like her."
The talking cat is right, I gotta remember none of this is real… so why do I feel like it is? It all started as a dream come true and now I feel as if I had been here in an endless war for years, swinging into every fight just diligent, out of some sense of responsibility… like a soldier holding the line — living battle by battle instead of day by day, not even waiting for my tour to end but just wondering if this war will ever be won… wow, that's just so grim. Got too real really soon. Keep it together girl, listen to the cute talking cat in a witch hat, none of this is real, simply a dream so try to have some fun again. You can do it…
"I don't get why the witch hat, but you're way cute." Webarella says striding to Wonder Wolf's side.
"I'm a magical cat with many magical powers! That's why the hat!"
When did superheroing stop being funny and become so serious and dark and… grim? I guess is what happens when you mix superheroes with espionage and war and such things, but just because things are tough and… dark, doesn't mean they can't be fun… the cat's right. I should try to enjoy this once more, after all I'm living the dream we all have had at least once since we were kids, aren't I?
I am Webarella! I am as badass as they come and they can't hurt me because I am the best! And I wanna have fun being a superhero saving lives… well, there is just the one we got to save, but whatever.
Things might be confusing here, magic has a way to do that, messing with people's minds, but there's one thing she's clear now, dark or light, grim or colorful, real or illusion, she's a superheroine now and is time for her to enjoy it again. Even though her sense of self is dangling from a thin thread as a leisured spider with too much free time.
Happy new year, constant are prolems pasting the format,.so you gotta guess which is Inner dialogue, sorry