Chapter Seventeen:
Spider-Girl made her way to a warehouse. The moment she got a good look at her surroundings all she could do was sigh and sigh extremely hard.
"Always with the creepy abandoned warehouses. And they always seem to be in abundance as well for some reason."
Gwen swung down and dropped onto the ground with a solid thud. The web slinging woman turned her head from one side to the other and then approached the entrance with a rather casual amount of caution. Hoping that she can get the drop on whatever is behind this door.
A hand on her shoulder makes Gwen jump up a half of a second later. She turns and Alex stands at her shoulder with a smile on her face.
"Let's do this."
"Glad that you're here."
"Come on," Alex said as she prepared to pry open the door on one side. "Did you really think that I was going to let you go into this all alone?"
She was really glad that Alex did not because something stirred a couple of thoughts in Gwen's mind. Not to mention her spider sense had been tripped something fierce. She jumped back about half of a step and turned around.
A large metal ball dropped down onto the ground. Instantly, Gwen threw herself into purely defensive mode and for good reason. It retracted several long legs, and one of them pointed up at her. A beam of fire came close to hitting her. Gwen turned around and then smashed down onto the object.
It only summoned a bigger object, the size of a bus, with multiple legs. This Spider Slayer charged towards Gwen and sent several bubbles flying in her general direction. All Gwen had to do was duck and dodge the bubbles before they trapped her. She tucked her head and kept rolling around. Gwen's heart beat a tiny bit faster with the Slayer coming inches away from taking her head completely off.
Alex jumped up and blasted the slayer. The armor of the slayer blocked her projectiles and turned its attention to Alex. It scrambled in her general direction. Alex flipped over onto the ground and two more Slayers came after her. One of them shot a beam at Alex's back.
The beam caused the symbiote great distress and as a result of that, dropped Alex to her knees. Alex threw her head back, and moaned, holding the top of her head. She dug her nails into the top of her head and whipped her head back and forth.
Gwen came across the symbiote only to have it fire what could only be described as a giant staple at her. It pinned Gwen down against the wall. The symbiote prepared to scan her. Gwen broke free and send the debris flying at the symbiote. She yanked more debris off of the wall and flung it.
The hurling rubble smashed down onto the top of the Spider Slayer and damaged it ever so slightly. Gwen wiped a trickle of blood down off of her mouth and dropped down to one knee. Her breath came out of her throat and made her sigh intensely. Gwen heard the rumbling above her.
A beam of energy shot high from the air and almost nailed Gwen. Gwen performed a graceful side roll and then webbed onto the ledge above. Until the ledge crumbled underneath her.
Alex pulled herself up. The sonic weapon pointed at Alex one more time, but a blur shot it and flew through the Spider-Slayer, damaging it completely.
Kara dropped down to the ground, covered in oil from smashing through the symbiote. Another drone came from her and Kara nailed it with an uppercut punch.
"It's going to be alright, it's going to be okay," Alex murmured to her other.
"Head's up!" Kara called.
Another one of the drones sent an intense beam down to the ground. Kara dodged the attack a second before it blitzed down onto both of them. Astra came from behind them to plant her fist directly into the back of the drone and drop it down to the ground completely.
Gwen pulled herself back up into the battle. Off in the distance, Astra, Lucy, and Kara moved. Alex put her hand on Gwen's shoulder as they looked to the door where the Symbiote stampeded out of.
"Someone knew my weakness," Alex said in a matter of fact voice.
"Someone accessed my work," Gwen said. "And there are very few people who are that high up...there are only two in fact."
The plot thickened, as the saying went and there's a huge part of Alex who wondered what would happen next. She needed to keep her wits about herself.
Now that her other had been calmed down, they can joint he fight.
Kara engaged one of the drones in a high end fight in the air. She blasted it with heat vision. Kryptonite bullets rained down and Kara made it her business not to get in the way. The hot burning fire of the Kryptonite caused her to cringe when it came even close.
Astra powered through and took down the drone from behind.
"How did they know about Alex's weaknesses?" Kara asked. "How did they know."
"Stay focused!" Astra warned her niece as the General slammed one of the smaller drones into one of the larger slayers.
One of the drones charged at Astra and Kara returned the favor. She flipped into the air and nailed the drone to send it into the side of the building with a huge crack. Kara flipped the drone down onto the ground and came down as hard as possible on it, driving the drone into the ground. Kara wiped a trickle of blood from her mouth and rose up completely before breaking out into a smile.
Suddenly, a figure slammed down onto the ground with an immense force which rocked them all.
"If you're not going to get a job done properly, then you should go and do the job itself."
The figure had greasy dark hair, red eyes, and a thick body, but it was obvious by the look of him, that he was not human, not in the slightest.
Alex turned her attention towards the figure.
"Alestair Smythe I presume."
"Yes, you did."
The sonic cannon pointed towards Alex caused her to roll onto the ground and avoid being blitzed by it. Alex swiped at Smythe and came inches away from knocking him back. Her breath becomes a bit more labored, with Smythe hitting her with numerous attempted attacks.
"The symbiote was supposed to be ours," Smythe said. "And it will be ours again...after we pull it off of….."
Gwen jumped down onto Smythe's shoulder and punched the back of his neck. Her knuckles hurt from the impact and Smythe grabbed Gwen around the torso before whipping her back. Gwen smashed down onto the ground, the air being knocked out of her when she hit.
Smythe slammed his feet down onto Gwen's chest and caused her body to deflate. He raised two arms at the same time. Kryptonite projectiles slashed at Astra and Kara who dodged them. The field of energy around Smythe being made of Kryptonite made it very hard to go in.
Gwen flopped underneath Smythe, barely able to pull himself together. Blood trickled down her mouth from the brutal pushing down on her body. She only had one question.
"What happened to you?" Gwen breathed in agony.
Smythe gave Gwen one of the harshest and most brutal looks someone of his level can imagine. He pulled Gwen up to a standing position, hanging her by the hair.
"I became something more powerful!"
His drones came down from a concentrated attack by Supergirl. But that did not distract from what was happening thanks to the Mega-Slayer, who pounded Gwen back onto the ground.
"I was built to destroy," Smythe said.
He smashed down onto Gwen's shoulders and whipped her down to the ground. Gwen's fingers twitched in an attempt to pull up. Smythe hammered her several more times against the chest and nailed her up against the wall.
Lucy rushed in, knowing she had to do so something. One of the Slayers targetted her for its master. Lucy slammed through it, like a hot knife through butter. She grabbed onto Smythe, and then spun him around with a surprising amount of super strength.
A huge punch ripped through the chest of the Ultimate Slayer and tore out his Kryptonite power source. She passed it off to Alex, who managed to get the Kryptonite away from the Kryptonites.
"You don't...you weren't figured in….."
Lucy smiled at Smythe.
"The first rule of basic training is you should expect the unexpected," Lucy told him before punching Smythe as hard as humanly possible. She rocked his body and caused Smythe to collapse down to the ground. "I bet you didn't expect that one, didn't you?"
Smythe rolled over and the backup power caused his body to fade. Astra slammed down onto Smythe and performed the exclamation point.
His twitching body moved to a sudden stop, the breath barely able to come out of it. Astra leaned down onto Smythe and looked him dead on in the eye.
"That was pretty amazing," Kara said.
"And there will be a time to gush later," Astra said. "Do you hear that?"
Kara leaned in for a beep, and the beep grew louder and louder. Astra flipped Smythe over and ripped open his back to reveal some kind of control module. In the move that made everyone cringe, she ripped the module out of Astra's spine.
Alex, without any words, moved over to help Astra track. The DEO Agent and the Kryptonian noticed something very peculiar.
"This leads to a lab….out by the sea," Alex said. "Or maybe underwater."
"Well, that's perfect," Gwen said.
"There's nothing out there," Lucy said. "At least nothing under the government's radar."
Kara crinkled up her nose and sighed.
"That would make it perfect," Kara said. "I guess we're one step closer."
"And I guess someone faked their own death," Gwen said. "So…."
Everyone moving off towards the source of the signal gave Gwen all of encouragement she needed to move on with them. She hoped they would not bumble head on into a trap.
As far as creepy underwater labs went, this one was took the cake. Kara, Astra, Lucy, Gwen, and Alex stepped through the lab. Gwen stayed ahead of the pack, knowing that they would be warned of any traps thanks to her Spider Sense and they would be able to react and adjust accordingly. At least that was the working idea.
"I recognize this handiwork," Gwen said.
Astra, Alex, Kara, and Lucy all stopped completely cold.
"That right there is the very obvious work of Otto Octavius," Gwen said. "And yes, before you ask the really obvious question, he was supposed to die at an explosion at OsCorp."
"Looks like the rumors of his demise are pretty much exaggerated," Kara responded.
"Looks that way, yes," Gwen confirmed a half of a second later. "Let's go."
Astra and Kara moved forward in front of a door. It was locked, but not locked to Kryptonians. They ripped it open with a combined effort. They stepped inside with Gwen coming along with them. Lucy and Alex followed in closely.
Several hovering drones locked onto them. They scanned the area, and the five women prepared for some kind of fight, but that fight did not come just yet. There were so many questions with very few answers to go along with them. Gwen takes a deep breath.
"Okay, I should know better than to tempt fate," Gwen said.
"I'll do it," Kara said. "Why are the creepy drone things not trying to blast us?"
"That's because I haven't given them the order to. Because, we really need to speak face to face."
The lights came on and several robotic limbs came out from the shadows first. A rotund looking man with greasy hair and a gaunt face, with sunglasses on appears. He appeared to be hooked into some sort of machine. A glowing power source is active above his heart. Hell, it might even be his heart for all they know.
"Octavius," Gwen breathed.
"That's right, Spider-Girl," Octavius said. "I don't know how it happened, but I did survive my end. Then again, the explosion hopefully took Osborn to where he belonged. He never appreciated my work. No one appreciated my work."
"All of the awards, all of the accolades, and you didn't think people appreciate your work?" Gwen asked.
"Mere trinkets, I should have been heralded as the foremost scientific mind of my era, the Einstein of my time," Octavius said. "But, no, nothing...other than being mocked by some megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur. I could have brought this world into a new age and I still might...but some will have to perish so others can rise up."
All of the warning bells of an extremely insane and manic rant was about to come off. Ock's drones hovered above them. Gwen looked for a way to pull the plug.
"You can't stop this from coming, although I do look forward to your pitiful attempts to do so," Ock said. "Know this, I hold all of the cards and you will not stop me."
One of the multi limbed drones fired a warning shot. Alex jumped up and nailed the drone as hard as possible to smash it down onto the ground. Ock just responded with a very tired smile.
"I've locked onto the remaining meteors and have sent them onto the collision course for Earth," Ock said.
Kara broke into a cold sweat. She knew exactly what meteors Ock talked about. The remaining parts of Krypton, hovering in limbo. Ock found a way to attract them to Earth.
"You have to stop this," Kara said. "This is madness."
"No, this is destiny!"
Kara rushed over to try and grab onto Ock. Ock wrapped his robotic limb around her and flung her back. Gwen tried a similiar attack. Ock nailed her with the end of it. Astra rushed in and Ock send a hail of Kryptonite beams down at her.
"Everything you can do, I have an answer for," Ock said. "The blast zone is the middle of National City. That will be the beginning of my new world order."
"You will kill countless!" Gwen yelled.
Kara does the math and realizes that the fallout will cause ramifications across the entire west coast. To say her entire body ran with a chill would be the understatement.
They teamed up to stop Ock, as they did not know if the meteors got to Earth.
"Keep him busy!" Lucy yelled.
Lucy had a mad idea, she just hoped it worked. Kara nodded and kept the drones off of her back.
Lucy really hoped that this plan would work. Because right now, they had nothing else.
To Be Continued.
