Reticence Saga

Severed Web

Chapter 4: Aliens in the Walls

"Well, another day, another mission. But this one is a little off the radar, even the weirdness radar. Seems there are a couple of alien, uh, thingies to pick up."

Kala snapped, "Stop narrating yourself! We've been on this ship for 2 hours and that could be the last straw."

Chloe yawned, "Trust me, it could."

"Ok, ok," said Spider-Man, "You mind telling me how alien...uh..."

"Experiment pods," said Kala, "Genetic experiments that have been dehydrated for transport."

"It's a long story. Basically, just add water and up they get," said Chloe.

Kala nodded, "Pretty much. They'll probably be grouchy though so it's better I'm here. Though why we need to go to the desert is beyond me."

"On the plus side, it makes it less likely for them to get wet," said Chris.

"Yeah, that's a mercy. But it's safer if we get them locked away," said Chloe calmly, the ship shaking as it began a descent.

"So which state are we in?" asked Kala.

"New Mexico," said Chloe, looking at her wrist comp, "Desert base, apparently they relocated here after some group called the Agents of SMASH started using their main base as a clubhouse."

"Huh, small neighborhood," said Spider-Man.

Kala looked out to see a desert ghost town, 70's style by the look of things...and her dragon eyes seeing the troopers in the houses, a nasty surprise for looters. "Yeah...nasty," she said, the ship landing and a man in a blue general's uniform walking forward as the group got out.

"General Talbot, Hulkbusters. I assume you're here for the gobstoppers," said the general.

"Gobstoppers? Who comes up with these codenames?" asked Spider-Man.

Talbot turned to glare at Spider-Man at that. "You're the one from the Bugle news. What are you doing with SHIELD agents?" he said icily.

"Oi, talk to me," snapped Chloe, "We are indeed here to take the pods. We're trained in safely containing them. You've had living bombs in your basement."

"We've had living bombs taking over one of our facilities, but no one seems to be concerned about them," said Talbot in a rather unpleasant way.

"I'm sure. We're just here for the pods. Director Fury granted us full access to take it...and any other technology we identify as off-world and dangerous," said Chloe. Kala was about to say something, but Chloe gave her a look.

Talbot glared, before taking the letter. "Doesn't say anything about confiscating anything else," he said.

Chloe glared. "Ok, let's call Fury then..." she said, making a show of dialing a com.

"I wouldn't push Fury," said Spider-Man, "He and me are like this close." He crossed his fingers to show.

Talbot glared before saying, "This way..." leading them into the square of the town, where a hatch opened.

Little did they know that they were being followed over the rooftops by something. Something small, blue, fluffy, and having a few too many arms for an earthling. Kala paused for a second, the thing ducking back as she peered where it was, before shaking her head and walking into the hatch, the furball rolling into a literal ball and rolling after them


As they descended in an elevator, Spider-Man asked, "Say, this place wouldn't happen to be Area 51, would it?"

"They wish they had our security," said one of the troopers on guard, before Talbot glared at him.

"After we...lost Gamma Base, we moved our operations here," he said, the lift descending into a large hanger, scientists, maintenance and soldiers milling around.

"Who are you preparing to fight against?" asked Chris.

"Who else? It's only a matter of time before the Hulk shows his true colors," said Talbot.

"You know, there are other supervillains who are a greater threat," said Spider-Man.

Talbot glared. "You haven't seen the Hulk smash an armored division like they're toys," he said.

The group walked off, the blue ball rolling to the side. The ball rolled until it was near an air vent. Then it uncurled into a small blue koala-like creature with four arms, three spikes on its back, and antenna on its head. With an effortless pull, it yanked the grate off the vent before walking inside it, closing it shut behind it.

"What else do you make here?" asked Chloe, noticing several blast doors with radiation warnings.

"I'm betting it's not giant microwave ovens," said Spider-Man.

"We research gamma radiation, mostly to find a better way to stop the Hulk. There was rumors Banner made some sort of syphon that could do the job. We're trying to make our own," said Talbot.

"Isn't Banner the top expert on gamma radiation?" asked Spider-Man.

"He is, but he's not the only expert," said Talbot.

"Who else do you have?" said Chloe.

Talbot glare, "That's classified."

"I just hope it's not a second-rate knockoff who'll make more problems by claiming to know more than he actually does," said Kala.

Talbot doubled his glare before saying, "The pods are this way...as is what's left of the ship they were on. Thing crashed in the 90's…" leading them to a guarded heavy-duty door.

"The 90's? That can't be right," muttered Kala.

"Time dilation, remember?" whispered Chris.

Kala nodded before pausing again, sniffing the air. "Talbot...does that room get any damp?" she said.

"This is a desert," said Talbot.

"Yes, but it's not baking in here," said Kala, "That means this place has air conditioning and ventilation. Which eventually causes condensation."

"Kala..." said Chloe, before Kala said "I can smell o'hana..." Chris and Kala tensing up.

"What's that? Is that like a Southwestern dish?" asked Spider-Man.

"No...it's...a codename for an experiment on the loose," said Chris, deciding not to say that Kala had once been one of the experiments.

"Impossible," said Talbot, "Nothing gets loose in here."

"Trust me, 600 series could flatten cities. These are 700 series..." snapped Chloe, readying a dehydrator blaster.

"Then how comes we're not hearing any breaking?" asked Spider-Man, "I'm not even getting a ping from my spider-sense."

"Oh God...they're out of the vault," said Chloe, before an alarm began to ring.

"That's the armory," snapped Talbot.

"Probably don't want anyone stealing any anti-Hulk weapons," said Chris.

Kala said in a panic, "Talbot, call your men off. A 700 series'll massacre them even without weapons."

"And you can do better?" scoffed Talbot.

"Yeah..." said Chris, readying a dehydrator cannon.


The little blue creature was having a lot of fun now. He had found a pair of blasters just his size and was shooting things up, cackling maniacally. Better, these humans were only using lead projectiles, not even close to being able to hurt him. "Meega nala queesta!" he yelled, firing more shots, forcing the security team to duck back, dragging their injured with them.

An earpiece in his ear snapped, "Stop messing around. You can wreck the base after your brothers are free."

"Kella trago," snapped the creature.

"I don't care if it's too easy. This isn't a game," snapped the voice on the earpiece.

"Gabba?" said the creature before the voice said "Because those people you followed in are from Lynch's crew. They'll be geared to deal with you. I assume you haven't smashed the failsafe. Having Silvia making grief would ruin their day."

The creature looked at a gadget he was holding. "Shreka?" he asked.

"Yes, if you had bothered to ask more about it, you'd have known," said the voice, sounding annoyed, "Just attaching to their chest and it'll do the rest...just below the neck." before a crash was heard, the creature turning in time for a glob of webbing to cover it, a faint "Fuu buu." heard.

Spider-Man swung over and said, "Ok, what kind of crazy thief would be so-" Suddenly, the creature tore his way out of the webbing. "Cute and fluffy?" asked Spider-Man in confusion.

The creature grinned before extending all arms, aiming at him, laughing before Kala jumped between them. "Ta kula ne 626?" she said.


"Stitch, what are you doing here?" asked Kala.

"None of your business, traitor," said the creature, aiming at her.

"Stitch, it's me, Kala, 777. We're family," said Kala, sounding hurt.

The voice in 'Stitch's' earpiece said, "Good, she's buying it. Say you're here to arrest her for the NSC."

"Nullspace cops sent me..." said 'Stitch'.

Kala backing up, "No, Stitch, you're smarter than this. You know o'hana sticks together. Lilo would be shocked at you."

"Remember, Lilo means everything to you," said the earpiece, "You should be taken aback by that."

'Stitch' sighed mentally before making a show of dropping his blasters in shock.

Kala gave a sigh of relief and said, "That's right, Stitch. We're o'hana."

The voice chuckled, "Nice one. Now play along. You might even get to where they're based."


"Uh, did I miss a movie or something?" asked Spider-Man.

"I was talking him down. This is Stitch. Back home, we managed to rehabilitate them. Stitch helped too. We had to leave them behind. Looks like McNeil got to them," said Kala sadly.

"Who?" asked Spider-Man.

"Long story..." said Chloe, looking at Stitch before saying suspiciously, "How'd you get here? Where's Lilo?"

"Uh, spaceship, McNeil sent me," said Stitch.

"And Lilo?" said Chloe, adding "You and Lilo are inseparable."

"Not anymore," said Stitch sadly, "Lilo too busy now."

"What? Doing what?" said Chris.

"Boyfriend," said Stitch with a growl.

Kala sighed, "That's a load of blitznak. McNeil's probably implanted it to mind whammy you." Stitch seemed to look saddened by that. "Don't worry, we can fix whatever he did to your brain," said Kala.

"Least we got some help," said Chloe, before saying, "Now let's get these damn pods. Stitch, the commander here's an asshole. You'll have to pretend to be a prisoner."

Stitch gave a growl at that.

"It's that or we have to fight the entire US army," snapped Chloe, glaring in a way that caused Stitch to back up a step.

"Ok, so should I be webbing him up again?" asked Spider-Man.

"Won't hold him..." said Chris, Stitch nodding, before kicking his guns aside in a sulk.

"Chris, tell Talbot we caught the intruder. Must have been an extra pod in the base," she said.

"Right," said Chris before walking back.

"Ok, let's get these pods. Kala, keep an eye on Stitch. Spider-Man, let's go," said Chloe.


'Stitch' wasn't annoyed just because he was acting the prisoner. The voice in his earpiece was berating him as well. "That was the worst performance I've ever heard. I'm shocked they brought it. It's probably just as well they don't know you exist," snapped the voice. 'Stitch' growled before the voice snapped "You'd better not mess up, Leroy...or I'll personally dehydrate you and bury your pod on a desert planet."

"Poman cheeki, Omnirus," growled Leroy.

"Leave my mother out of this...wait, I don't have a mother. Anyways, you better start using that supercomputer brain of yours," said the voice.

Omnirus seemed to pause before a contact in Leroy's eye stung; a camera for Omnirus to view things. "Is that Kala I see? Use the damn device..."

"Gabba?"

"You're all alone, the device has more than one charge, and Kala had...more of a personality than you would think," said Omnirus's voice.

Leroy sighed before walking towards Kala. "Ta gabba?" he said, holding up what looked like a broach.

"What's that?" asked Kala, leaning down to look.

The broach whirred for a second before unfolding into a mechanical spider, before scuttling off Leroy's paw and up a small hole in Kala's pant leg, a small bump showing how it was moving towards her collar

"Hey, cut it out!" snapped Kala, swatting at the moving bump.

The device scuttled into view, before what looked like a needle came out, injecting her with a pink liquid, jumping back into Leroy's paw. "Bah-bye," said 'Stitch' before he ran off.

"Hey! You get back here!" snapped Kala, before tripping over her trouser legs, the view getting bigger as she shrunk and her head feeling foggy.

'Stitch' paused a bit, looking back at the bulging shirt that didn't seem to be moving in a straight line. "Gabba?" he said, walking back, before a red furred paw tore the clothing apart, a red and pink colored female experiment tearing her way free before glaring at him. "Uh oh," said 'Stitch' before he ran.

A plasma blast narrowly missed him before the experiment tackled him. "626, what are you doing here? Where am I?" snarled the experiment in Kala's voice and in fluent Tantalog.

"Huh, that doohickey didn't work," said 'Stitch'.

"It did. I found her old test files. Kala was meant to be a combat experiment. She got repurposed for some reason. This is the real Kala," laughed Omnirus.

"Whoda thought?" said 'Stitch', "But what am I supposed to do with her?"

"I added something else. Drop your disguise."

At that, 'Stitch's' fur swirled with color as it went from blue to red. The edges of his ears became ruffled, his antenna bent, and his teeth became an unhealthy yellow.

Kala backed up before saying, "Oh...it's you, boss."

Omnirus laughed in Leroy's ear, "The file also had the chemical compound for resetting her commander profile. She thinks you're the boss."

"Like how he thought Matt was her boss?" asked Leroy.

"Yeah...you like it? Kala 1.0 was designed for heavy combat. Even the real Stitch would struggle," said Omnirus.

"She doesn't look that strong," said Leroy.

"Trust me..." said Omnirus.

"Ok, but not all of them are gonna be rebooted like that," said Leroy.

"I also got Chloe's EXP mutation's power. You'll need her," said Omnirus.

"Can't I just smash in, grab the pods, and run?" asked Leroy.

"No, because that's not a plan. Now tell Kala to hide. If they see her, you're rumbled," said Omnirus.


"What's taking Kala so long?" asked Chris. "Maybe she just needed to use the bathroom," said Spider-Man.

Stitch came up at that, Chloe looking at him. "You seen Kala?" Stitch shrugged. "Urgh...she's probably looking to see if any other of Stitch's pals are around. Ok, let's open this up," Chloe said, the guards unlocking the vault.

"Whoa," said Spider-Man, which described the vault rather well.

Chloe, however, was not amused. "Is anything here not NSC property? That's a T-450 singularity cannon...and that's a MK 31 Jump engine!" she snapped angrily, pointing to various pieces of machinery, before turning a corner, "A Combine Interceptor?"

"Chloe," said Chris in a warning tone.

"Talbot's lucky the NSC didn't send a killsquad after this place. Anything here could smash this planet," snapped Chloe angrily.

"Not everything here can be that bad," said Spider-Man, picking up a small blaster.

Chloe and Chris immediately threw themselves to the floor, Chris saying in a muffled voice, "Please put the plasma magnum down." Spider-Man slowly put the blaster down.

"That reminds me; Matt cannot know about this," said Chloe.

Chris whimpered, "Never...ever...tell him..."

"Uh-huh, so where are we supposed to find those jawbreakers in all this stuff?" asked Spider-Man.

Chris pulled out a scanner before saying, "Top shelf on the stack behind you..."

"Got it," said Spider-Man, shooting a webline up and leaping up to the top shelf. In a small glass container, say two small marbles, both with numbers on them. One simply had '000' on it while the other was labelled '701'. Spider-Man slowly picked up the container, but nothing seemed to happen. He then jumped back to the floor with the container in hand.

"They'll be fine. They're practically indestructible like that," said Chloe, taking the container carefully.

"000? How does that even make sense?" asked Chris, looking at the pods.

"I've...heard of that. The emperor was obsessed with him. Real thorn in the empire's side," Chloe said.

"But now?" asked Chris.

"Who knows? Probably not him..." said Chloe, Stitch grinning.

"And the other?" asked Spider-Man

Chloe said, "Failed design. Johnson mothballed it...literally it seems."

"Ok, so alien pods collected, mission accomplished, time to go home," said Spider-Man before pausing, "Wait, spider-sense saying it's not over yet."

Stitch yelled "NALA QUEESTA!" jumping onto Chris's head and lunging at the pods, just as a hail of plasma bolts from the vault's rafters peppered Chloe and Chris.

"Stitch! Bad alien!" snapped Chloe.

"Nala queesta!" snapped Stitch, jumping down before picking up the singularity gun and firing a shot that just missed, an entire rack of items being compressed into a marble.

"Well, that saves us a load, but put the gun down!" snapped Chloe.

Stitch just laughed madly, aiming at Spider-Man and the pods before firing again, the shot going wide and hitting a water pipe.

Naturally, that caused a lot of water to spray down. Spider-Man jumped to the side and muttered, "Don't get wet, don't get wet." Unfortunately, there was a hole in the container, a single drop of water landing on the 000 pod, which began to shake. The pod suddenly turned into a ball of light that started growing inside the container.

"Spidey, drop it!" yelled Chris.

Spider-Man tossed the container away just as the ball of light gave a bigger flash, shattering the container. Standing in its place was an odd-looking creature. It resembled Stitch a lot, except his fur was black and his nose was purple. But the right side of his head and his arms had been replaced with cybernetic parts, as well as having three spiderlike robot legs.

It looked around, seemingly confused before it looked at Stitch, before grinning insanely and firing a shot at him.

"The heck is that?" snapped Chloe,

"How should I know?" snapped Chris before ducking as the cyborg started firing blasts everywhere while cackling madly.

"I don't care how I got here, but if I get another shot at 626 it can't be too bad..." laughed the cyber experiment, before pausing, looking around. "Oooooh Stiiiitch...come out and play. No spaceships now or no little kids to hide behind...come out!" he said insanely, giggling.

He swept his arm around to look for Stitch, but just then, his robot eye started flashing and he froze in place. "Uh, did someone hit the lock button on him?" asked Spider-Man.


"Good morning, 000...or Cyber, if you prefer. My name's Omnirus, and I made sure you got loose today..." said the text in Cyber's vision, adding, "Yes I can hear you."

"Where am I? Why did you reactivate me? And more importantly, why are you keeping me from blasting 626?" Cyber texted back.

"That's not 626, you mechanical moron. That's a clone called Leroy...and he works for me. He can disguise himself. The one firing blasts from the rafters is a 700 series experiment called Kala. If you harm them...well, I can send a virus that will literally melt your mind to the brain power of a vegetable..." came the reply.

"If you don't want me blasting them, then why reactivate me?" asked Cyber.

"Because you are useful to my plans on this world. The humans, feel free to kill as many as you want. But no nova bombs," said the reply.

"Why would I want to work for you?" asked Cyber.

"You'll get to cause mass mayhem and go to other worlds," came the reply.

"I'm in," said Cyber instantly.

"One more thing, I need you to attach something to the female human," came the message before a warning in red said, "DON'T KILL HER OR IT'S YOUR HEAD" A schematic for a device as well as a list for the necessary parts to build it was sent to Cyber's processor.

"Fine...I won't kill her...on purpose," muttered Cyber, before coming back to the physical world from his little cyberverse to see the red and blue suited human in front of him.


"Oh, too easy," he said out loud, readying all his blasters. However, the human shot something sticky over the barrel of his blasters before he could fire. "Hey, those are my fav...uh oh...HOT POTATO!" he said, throwing the blaster at the other male.

"Back at you!" yelped Spider-Man, tossing it back.

"Erm...it's your birthday, happy birthday," yelped Cyber, throwing it to Chloe.

"Merry Christmas," said Chloe, tossing it to Chris.

"It's not Christmas," he said, tossing it back.

"Happy Hanukah!" yelped Chloe, throwing it to Cyber.

"One potato," said Cyber, tossing it Spider-Man.

"Two potato," said Spider-Man, tossing it to Chris.

Chris yelped, "Three potato!" landing it on Cyber who said triumphantly, "Hah, I win" before the blasters exploded, sending him sailing deeper into the vault.

"Well, that takes care of him," said Chloe, "So where'd Stitch go?" A second later, Stitch landed on her back, holding something and laughing. "Get off!" snapped Chloe, slamming her back against the shelves. Stitch just laughed, slapping the device on her chest before jumping off and rolling away.

"Get back here, you little-" snapped Chloe before looking at the brooch on her chest, "What the heck is this?" The brooch sparked for a second before falling off. "Oh boy..." said Chloe, seeing the design...an old empire design.

"You alright, Chloe?" asked Chris with worry.

"Urgh...heartburn," she said, her eyes briefly becoming a solid iris before back again.

"Uh, should we be worried?" asked Spider-Man.

"It'll take more than that to-" started Chloe before burping, "Ugh, excuse me."


"You IDIOT, LEROY!" snapped Omnirus, via hologram in one of the base vents, Kala helping patch up Cyber with some parts she'd stolen from the vault.

"I put it on her like you told me to," said Leroy.

"Did you remember to reset it to compensate for the extra electricity?" snapped Omnirus, before sighing, "Ok, you did part of the mission. We got Cyber...what's left of him. Now we just need the other one."

"Not gonna be so easy now," said Leroy.

"Yes, because you jumped the gun," said Omnirus.

"You told me to dose her, I did," snapped Leroy.

Cyber laughed. "You guys couldn't rescue a slice of cake."

"Maybe you can do better, piecemeal," snapped Leroy.

"Has it occurred to you that she might need a bigger dose?" said Cyber.

"Come to think of it, Chloe wasn't 'born' an experiment," said Omnirus, "Not to mention she has werewolf DNA as well as dragon."

"Exactly. Kala, she started life as that...rather nice show of an experiment. But this Chloe, you'll need at least another dose," said Cyber, Leroy fuming.

"It's a good thing I sent you those schematics then," said Omnirus.

"I already made one," said Cyber, his remaining cyber arm opening to reveal a modified blaster. "One shot and she's one of us," he said smugly, adding "It's missing one thing...needs a mutating agent..."

"You're at an anti-Hulk military base," said Omnirus, "They're bound to have a gamma reactor around there somewhere."

"Gamma radiation, that could do it. If we get the dose right and don't microwave her," said Cyber, yelping as Kala welded a new blaster arm into the cyber socket in his shoulder.

"Just keep your destructiveness in check," said Omnirus.


"You destroyed half the vault!" snapped Talbot.

Chloe was shaking a little as Chris said, "And you got enough illegal alien tech that you're lucky our government didn't send a special forces team in."

"Unless you have an officially-sanctioned warrant, you had no right to be taking anything else from that vault. And certainly no right to be streaking in my base," snapped Talbot.

"Um, streaking?" asked Spider-Man.

"The NSC could take this base apart from orbit. We don't need a fucking warrant!" snarled Chris before pausing "I'm sorry, streaking?"

"Will you guys shut up?!" snapped Chloe, "We have genetic experiments on the loose in here! We don't have time to be bickering about warrants or authority or other blitznak like that!" Then she paused and asked, "What was that about streaking?"

"We found your companion's clothing in Sector 9...minus her. Naturally we're confisca-" said Talbot.

"No, you already have enough contraband in here. You're not taking any more stuff," snapped Chloe.

Chris adding, "Any one of those things in that vault could destroy several lightyears." before he said "Now we need to find those experiments..."

"You guys aren't concerned that Kala has been vaporized?" asked Spider-Man.

"Oh, she hasn't been vaporized," said Talbot dismissively, "There'd be a scorch mark, a pile of ash, radiation traces. It's clear that she just decided to strip and run off for whatever lunatic reason."

"I'm sure there's a perfectly sane reason for this," said Chris.

"Yeah, maybe she just got hit with a shrink ray," said Spider-Man. Chris and Chloe stared at him. "It could happen," said Spider-Man.

Chloe walked over to Talbot and said happily just loud enough for him, "If one of your toys hurt Kala in any way, there is no force on Earth that will stop my brother coming in and incinerating this entire facility...and you..." She patted him on the back and added, "And that includes insulting her too..."

"Maybe I should look for her," said Chris, "With my nose, it shouldn't be hard to find her."

"Ok, I'll sniff out the tin can experiment and keep the last pod on me," said Chloe, pocketing the 701 pod.

"Then I better stay with you," said Spider-Man, "Those experiments are probably going to go after you."

"Ok, just remember: web em tight and they can't swim," said Chloe.

"Yeah...can't think of how that last part will be of any use here," said Spider-Man.

"They hate water...and it'll short out the cyborg too," said Chloe, the two heading down a corridor.

"Uh, was Chris right about your government just nuking this place from orbit?" asked Spider-Man.

"No...Matt'd do it first if Kala got hurt on that jerk's watch," said Chloe, checking her scanner.

"Well, I'm sure Kala can't be in that bad shape," said Spider-Man.

"She's not really the type to go nude for a laugh," said Chloe dryly.

Her comm buzzed to life at that, a scared panting heard. "Hello?" said Kala's voice.

"Kala? Is that you? Where are you?" asked Chloe, sounding anxious.

"The gamma lab, the deserted one in sector 12. The fake Stitch grabbed me. It's Leroy..." panted Kala.

Chloe gave an exasperated groan and said, "Leroy, I should have known. It was so obvious."

"Who's Leroy?" asked Spider-Man.

"Stitch's evil twin. Well, evil clone," said Chloe.

"Evil clones are the worst," said Spider-Man.

"We need to hurry. Leroy's unpredictable," said Chloe, running for it.

"Uh, shouldn't we be grabbing radiation suits on the way?" asked Spider-Man.

"Why are you worried?" asked Chloe, "You already have radioactive blood."

"I don't-" began Spider-Man, but Chloe was already round the corner.

When Chloe came to a set of heavy doors with radioactive symbols on them, she knew she was at the right place. The armed guards were also a good tipoff. "Hey, this area's off limits," snapped one of them, aiming at Chloe, who twitched, her eyes going almond again before she grinned.

Spider-Man came around the corner saying, "You know, I tell people the spider that bit me was radioactive but it's just so-" He stopped when he saw the guards had been beaten senseless and the doors open.

"They got in my way," said Chloe with an insane familiar grin, last seen on Leroy.

"Uh, Chloe, you sure that brooch didn't do anything?" asked Spider-Man.

"I'm...I'm fine," said Chloe, taking a deep breath, before shining a light into the room.

Kala called out, "I'm in the back...are they out there?"

"Chloe, my spider-sense says don't go in there," said Spider-Man.

"I can't leave Kala in there," said Chloe.

Spider-Man said, "She's bait."

"You think I don't know that?" snapped Chloe.

"I'm thinking you don't," said Spider-Man.

Chloe glared before turning activating her armor helmet, using its scanner. "Erm...there's no humans in there..." she said.

Kala's cries ended with a sigh. "Oh well," she said, the far door slamming down.

"I'm gonna go ahead and say 'I told you so'," said Spider-Man, "Might not get a chance to later."

A green glow was seen, getting closer. "Oh no, please tell me that's not what I think it is," said Chloe, before Cyber's shape was seen in the dark, Chloe glaring and firing several dehydrator blasts at it.

However, Cyber batted them away with his arms. "Not gonna be that easy this time," he said with a cackle. Chloe glared, before aiming her palm and sending a blast of lighting, Cyber managing a "Ok, someone's telling me all she-" before he was blasted to the back of the lab.

"Easy with the lightning," said Spider-Man, "There's a gamma reactor here, remember?"

"Meega know. We needed parts," said Leroy running into view before throwing a worktop at Spider-Man with a cackle.

Spider-Man caught it and said, "I take it back. You're not cute and fluffy."

Leroy just laughed insanely, readying his extra arms and his blasters before firing randomly, Cyber getting up unsteadily. "Ok...that hurt..." he said angrily, before smirking, readying a blaster, the back of it glowing, and aiming it at Chloe, who just raised an eyebrow, surrounding herself with a lightning shield.

"You know, electricity's not a good defense against gamma energy," he said before firing his blaster. The green ray passed right through the shield and hit Chloe.

"That tickled. What was it suppose...to..." she began, stopping as she began twitching.

"Wait, did you say gamma energy? As in 'turns people into Hulks' gamma energy?" asked Spider-Man, "Is she going to Hulk out?"

"Opposite end of the spectrum, actually," said Cyber.

Chloe seemed to be shrinking a bit as Cyber said, "Once upon a time, some idiot human thought to try and make a mutagen out of my family's blood. Called it EXP, apparently, corny name. And some poor girl called Chloe Lynch got herself infected. Sad thing is all the cure does is turn the virus off...and I just switched it into overdrive."

The armor seemed to be deflating as Chloe was shrinking inside. Before long, it couldn't stay up and fell over. "Goodbye, pain in the butt human. Hello, experiment 785," laughed Cyber.

"Uh...Chloe?" asked Spider-Man, picking up the helmet's armor and peering down the neck. A second layer, a purple furred experiment tried to latch onto his face. Spider-Man's reflexes saved him from losing his mask and face. "I'm guessing this is what you did to Kala," he said.

"Gata de baga," snapped the purple one, its paws crackling.

"Yeah, yeah, I got tazer powers too," said Spider-Man, shooting his tazer webs at the purple experiment.

The purple experiment juddered before pausing mid-zap, laughing as the tazers went dead the batteries draining in seconds. "She eats electricity," said Kala's voice, Spider-Man turning to see a pink and red experiment.

Spider-Man paused to look between the experiments that were Kala and Chloe, noticing they were identical asides from color scheme. "Uh, did your creators get lazy and couldn't come up with original designs?" he asked.

Kala snarled, before looking like she was about to hurl. "Please tell me that's not acid loogey," said Spider-Man.

Kala spat a glowing blue blast, narrowly missing Spider-Man and melting the blast door. "Oh fubu," muttered Kala.

"Thanks for opening the door," said Spider-Man before running out.

"Get him!" snapped Cyber, before noticing that Chloe was glaring at him before she said "Yes...lets chase him and all get caught."

"Who put you in charge?" asked Cyber, poking Chloe. She grabbed his servo and judo-flipped him into a wall.

"We don't need to chase him," said Leroy, reaching into a pouch in Chloe's oversized armor and pulling out the experiment pod, "We got what we want."

Chloe glared. "You brought me back over a pod?" she said in disbelief.

"You're a bonus," said Leroy.

'Chloe' turned to glare at that, Kala sighed. "784, don't be such a prude. Leroy, don't antagonize someone an entire series above you."

"Whose pod is that anyways?" groaned Cyber.

"701," said Leroy.

"Hmm...always thought he'd be bigger," said the experiment Chloe had become, looking at Cyber with a smirk, before taking 701's pod and spitting on it.

The pod didn't really react. "You need more liquid," said Leroy, before yanking out a coolant tube. 784 jumped out the way as Leroy cracked it over the pod, the pod activating.

In a flash of light, a new experiment was there. She looked a lot like a dark purple rabbit, though her long ears were a bit more elephantine in appearance, her right ear having two earrings in it. She had blond hair in the form of a faux-hawk that partly covered one eye. "You?" asked Kala, showing a lot of chagrin, frustration, and dread.

The new experiment smirked and said, "What's wrong, 777? No love for your big sister Dark Start?"

Kala paused before grinning. "Yeah...been too long," she said.

Dark Start raised an eyebrow. "You're happy to see me?" she asked.

"Of course. You think I'd defend my big sis?" said Kala.

Dark Start smiling before she saw Cyber...and blasted him into a wall. "YOU!" she snarled, her eyes glowing red, and literally on fire.

"Stop hurting me," whined Cyber.

"Yeah...I remember my sis asking you to do the same," sneered Dark Start.

Leroy poked his earpiece and said, "Boss, Dark Start's up."

"About time, put me on holo," said Omnirus.

"Cyber, start projecting," said Leroy.

Cyber's cyborg eye lit up before it displayed a hologram. After a bit of rendering, the hologram took on the image of a young woman that had a very strong resemblance to Chloe, only with longer hair, a more exaggerated figure, and wearing a black halter top and shorts combo, the belt of the shorts had a busted dial on it.

Dark Start stared for a minute before staring at the dial...then smirking "Someone broke their Omnitrix," she sang tauntingly.

"Yeah, that was fun," said Kala.

"You knew how that happened?" asked Chloe, or rather, Silvia.

"You weren't there at the time," said Kala, "Omnirus tried to get payback on you, well, Chloe, but she mistook Hannah for her. Long story short, she her Omnitrix broke worse and got even girlier."

Dark Start paused, before falling backwards, laughing. Omnirus, to her credit, just facepalmed and said, "Get it out your system."

"Wait, this is the guy I'm working for?" asked Cyber.

"Don't laugh, I need you to hold the connection," said Omnirus.

"No...please laugh...it's too funny..." managed Dark Start, Kala laughing too, before Silvia snapped "Knock it off, knuckleheads."

"So, what's the plan for getting out of here?" asked Leroy.

"Well, I had it planned out, but then you had to start shooting things out and letting everyone know you're there," said Omnirus.

"So now what?" asked Leroy.

"I think you'll figure your own way out," said Omnirus.

Silvia said smugly, "You're not gonna desert us. Not after going to all this trouble..."

Omnirus glaring. "Well, anyways, there is more tech in that base that I'll need," said Omnirus, "Assuming you haven't already broken it."

The experiments all glared at Leroy, who smirked, extending one of his arms. "One Galvan DNA core," he said.

Kala said, "Good, we can get out of here."

"Great, if only someone hadn't set off every alarm and let them know we're here," said Silvia.

"Take the vents," said Omnirus, "No one ever looks in there."

Leroy nodded, "Yeah...what about the other pod?"

Omnirus paused. "What other pod?"

Leroy said, "The note on the container said there was three."

"There was?" asked Omnirus, "There were only supposed to be two."

Leroy smirked, "Big bad boss only checked the computers..." Omnirus glaring before vanishing.

"Whoever it is isn't worth going back for," said Dark Start dismissively, "Let's just get out of here."

Omnirus re-appeared. "Another 701? I'm not letting those idiotic mercs get it. Find that pod NOW!" she snapped, her eyes glowing before Cyber hung up on her with a yawn.

"For all we know, that pod has rolled into the bottom of the garbage disposal," said Dark Start, "How are we supposed to comb the whole base for it?"

Kala smirked. "I spent the first year pod hunting. That vault was full of condensation puddles. She's probably active and loose in the base. Probably has been for years without anyone noticing," she said, before the group heard footsteps. And they weren't light footsteps, they were loud thuds of something really heavy and big.

The gang turned slowly to see several green hulking power armors. "Ok...I want one," said Cyber, before a shot knocked one of his arms off.

"CHEESE IT! yelled Kala, the group scattering as a hail of heavy particle cannon fire was shot at them by the Hulkbuster team. Fortunately, the Hulkbusters were designed to take down Hulks, not deal with creatures that were much smaller and faster.

"In the vents!" yelped Cyber, the group legging it into different vents, Kala making the mistake of choosing a vertical vent.

"Oops," was all that Kala had to say before she went tumbling down.


When Spider-Man reported back to Chris, he was...less than pleased. Thankfully, he took out his displeasure on Talbot. "You...sent in...a kill team...against the two people who regularly stop Matt going nuclear...literally," said Chris in a voice shaking with rage.

"They're the enemy now," said Talbot unapologetically.

"Ok...so...you have any magic swords? Any dragonsbane rounds? Any weapons that can kill a creature made of pure plasma energy?" said Chris, getting a smile that was a little too wide.

"We have the best anti-gamma weapons there are," said Talbot.

"Gamma, right. I don't think plasma is part of the gamma spectrum," said Chris.

"I don't think that's the right term," said Spider-Man.

"It doesn't matter because they're not gonna work on him!" snapped Chris. Chris grabbed Talbot at that. "Matt took down an entire corporate private army, trained professionals. He will go through your men without breaking a drop of sweat. And then he'll probably, physically bite your head off...after he's turned me into a rug and a head on the wall!" he snarled, his eyes going lupine.

"Calm down," said Spider-Man, "We can fix this mess before Matt knows about this."

Chris paused, before dropping Talbot. "Good point. If we work fast, we can catch them, dehydrate them, convince matt they're at a spa and stall him till I can get the coffee base lab to ready some anti-virus to cure them...and nobody will know..." he said, a little manic.

Talbot gave Spider-Man a worried look and asked, "Is he normally this high-strung?"

"Not sure," said Spider-Man, "Haven't known him that long."

Chris however had a distant look.


"I warned you…" giggled Matt, Chris tied to a table, a laser slowly running up the center of the table towards him.

"Do you expect me to apologize?" said Chris.

Matt giggled, "No, Mr. Anderson, I expect you to squeal..."


Spider-Man and Talbot jumped as Chris suddenly yelled, "I DON'T WANNA SQUEAL!"

"Ok, no caffeine for you until we grab those little gremlins," said Spider-Man.

"Yes. Your men said they went in the vents. Experiments can't breathe syronite gas. It's harmless to anyone else but it's like elephant tranquilizer and tear gas rolled into one. We never used it, but some colonies used it to contain outbreaks," said Chris calmly.

"Outbreaks?" asked Talbot with concern.

"No need to worry here...and its classified," said Chris smugly.

"Uh-huh, and how are we gonna fish them out when they're out-cold?" asked Spider-Man.

"Trust me, the tear gas part comes first. They won't wanna stay in there," said Chris.

"Fine, let's flush those rats out of there," said Talbot.


Kala groaned, trying to get the stars out of her vision, to see she was on a pile of fatigues, being used as a makeshift bed. "What the? Who lives inside the ventilation system in a secret military base?" asked Kala, sniffing the 'bed'.

"777, you're awake," said a timid voice.

"Who's there?" asked Kala, looking around.

She looked to see a green furred experiment, similar to Dark Start, but with small horns visible. "You fell into my hiding place. Did that General Ross jerk catch you too?" she said.

"Never heard of him," said Kala.

"He used to run this place..." said the experiment.

Kala smirked. "I remember you...Little Zero," she said.

The experiment frowned and said, "I always hated that name."

"You got zero on your test run, Zero. That's why Dark Start got your ID," smirked Kala with an evil grin.

"Oh, just because I don't like causing mindless destruction automatically makes me a failure," said the experiment with annoyance.

"You smashed the test colony to bits instead of making a forest. You're useless," sneered Kala, pushing the experiment back. "You're the one Omnirus wants..." she said, readying a plasma blast.

"Omni-what?" asked the experiment.

"The new boss," said Kala, aiming, "So, thanks for saving me...goodbye, Zero." firing, the experiment staggering, before twitching. "Huh, you're hardier than I remember," said Kala.

"And you're…back to being...a jerk...oh...and my name...is ZIRA!" snapped the experiment.

Suddenly, the experiment started growing rapidly in size. Her body was also reshaping into a more feminine but muscular figure. The small horns on her head grew bigger and jagged. When she had finished growing, she was about human height, if not a little bigger, with a figure that several superheroines had.

Kala looked around properly, seeing she was in. "THIS IS AN OLD REACTOR HOUSING!" she snapped, before yelping as the giant (from her view) experiment picked her up.

"What's her name?" she smirked at Kala.

"Er, nice to meet you. I'm Kala," said Kala nervously.

"I'm Kira..." smirked the hulk experiment, squeezing.

"Nice...grip..." gasped Kala.

"You and Dark Start always made her life miserable. A nightmare, all of you...till the cyborg almost beat you into jam. Then she looked after you. Maybe we need a repeated show?" said Kira, Kala getting a paw free.

"Nope," she said, shooting Kira down the throat.

Kira blinked before belching flames right into Kala's face. "My turn," Kira sneered before slamming Kala into the ground.

"Ow," groaned Kala, "You're gonna give yourself away, you know."

"This entire level's deserted. It's just you...and us..." said Kira, grinning evilly, before bringing another fist down.


Inside Zira and Kira's shared mind, the two of them were having a disagreement. "What are you doing?" snapped Zira, "You can't just beat the stuffing out of her."

"It's worked the last time," snapped Kira, who looked like a color swapped version of Zira, the real-world view being shown on a TV. "Ooooh...that'll hurt," she cackled.

Zira snapped, "Not this way. She has to choose...like the originals did on Hawaii."

"That old story again?" asked Kira, "Don't give me that old 'o'hana' lecture again."

"It's true...and I'm not gonna let you hurt my little sis," snapped Zira.

"Don't think she shares the same sentiment," said Kira.

"That's cause you're beating her to death," snapped Zira.

Kira looked at the TV and said, "Oh, looks like you're right. Guess you need to take over for a bit."


Kala crawled towards one of the hatches, before she heard a crackling noise and she flinched as a paw touched her. "No, no, no more," she whimpered.

She turned slowly to see her in the old Pan Pacific lab, in the test arena...and Cyber, his claws covered in pink, walking towards her. "No more? But we're just getting started," he said.

"I...I can't..." said Kala weakly.

"Maybe you're just not cut out for combat," said Cyber, his claw being replaced by a hook.

A faint voice said, "Cyber, that's enough. Someone get syronite gas in there." Cyber smirking before slashing at Kala, the hallucination parting to show Zira.

"Kala, are you alright?" asked Zira, "Kira didn't want to beat you up that much."

"Get away!" yelped Kala, trying to get back, Zira backing up.

"I'm sorry. I dunno where Kira came from. I've been hiding in this place for years," she said sadly.

Kala paused before saying, "You do realize this is an old reactor housing, right?"

"So?" asked Zira.

"You know what gamma radiation does around here, right?" asked Kala.

"So? I didn't think it was a problem. We can breathe in space," said Zira pointedly.

"You've been living next to radiation for years," said Kala pointedly.

"Even roaches would be affected by that."

Zira blinked before asking a cockroach on the wall, "Is that true?"

The roach shrugged. "Hey, I feel fine," it said.

Kala just facepalmed at that before getting her communicator. "Guys...guys..." she hissed, while Zira had a conversation with the roach.

After a crackle, Silvia's voice, "Where are you?"

"In some old reactor housing. I found the wayward pod and it's active. It's Zero," she said quietly.

"I'm Zero," said Cyber.

"No, 701-A, was the nickname she got after she flunked her prototyping," hissed Kala, adding "Sis'll know who I mean."

"Zira? Oh yeah, I remember her. She was our old punching bag," said Dark Start.

"She's back. Dark Start, you ever heard of the hulk?" whispered Kala.

Dark Start grinned. "Best comic ever...oh no…" she said, her smile falling.

"Yeah, she's been living in near gamma radiation long enough to pick up something," said Kala.

"You gotta be kidding...to be honest, I did wonder about the snout-bleed," said Dark Start.

"Snout-bleed?" asked Kala, touching her nose. She looked down to see pink. "That..." she said weakly.

Cyber said, "Lure her out. We're in a base designed to handle Hulks."

"Yeah, she'll be the distraction and we'll get away," said Leroy.

"Ok...I'll lure her out," she said, cutting the com, before turning to see Zira snapping at the roach in tantalog. "Ze...Zira...we should get outta here."

"What's the rush?" asked Zira.

"Well, I don't wanna be a Hulk. And...I know some people who can get us out," said Kala.

"Like who? Lazard?" asked Zira.

"Urm...yeah...two of his friends are here," said Kala.

"Can we trust them?" asked Zira.

"Of course," lied Kala, "In fact, one of them is too trusting."

Zira nodded. "Ok, you don't wanna go out that hatch. It's full of gamma waste barrels," she said, pointing to the hatch Kala had been going for, before a small plant in the corner turned into a huge vine, shooting up to the vent in the roof Kala had fallen through. "I've been practicing," said Zira proudly.

"And you wondered how you got gamma-mutated," said Kala dryly.

"I was thirsty. I thought it was ecto cooler," said Zira.

"Ecto cooler? What kinda idiot mistakes gamma waste for a drink?" snapped Kala, opening a vent.

"You probably don't want to hear what I ate," said Zira as she followed.


"Ok, gas is being made. I'll put a data worm in their comp to wipe the recipe," said Chris, he and Spider-Man deep in the base. Chris had gotten the bright idea to scan for Kala's com and they'd gotten a hit on a mothballed floor.

"If it only affects genetic experiments, why wipe it?" asked Spider-Man.

"Because they could modify it to affect others or make something worse," said Chris.

Chris jumped as his com beeped at that, Matt's headshot appearing. "Accept call?" said the communicator happily.

"Maybe I should let this go to voicemail," said Chris.

"Remote override," said the communicator, Matt's face appearing. "Chris, I disabled your voicemail years ago," he said, Chris yelping.

"Hey Matt, what's up?" asked Chris, trying to sound casual.

"Megan got the local Chloe...and the local me. You got the pods? Some experiment backup would help. Tried calling sis but her com's down."

"Yeah, those guys are being a bit more of a handful than we counted on," said Chris.

"I wanna speak to my sister...or Kala..." said Matt

"They're in the ladies' room right now," said Chris.

"Put...them...on..." said Matt, his eyes glowing red.

"Oh, look at the time," said Chris before hanging up. "He's gonna kill me later," said Chris to Spider-Man.


Matt stared at the blank screen. "Armor...status of users, Chloe and Kala," he said darkly.

"Status: vacant," said the armor's computer.

Matt got a blank expression before he said, "Silvana...ever wanted to storm a military base?"


"Ok...Matt probably won't kill me if I can produce Chloe and Kala. Do we care what happens to Talbot?" said Chris.

"Probably shouldn't let him come to harm," said Spider-Man.

"Fine..." muttered Chris, before his ears twitched at the same time that Spider-Man's spider-sense went to DEFCON 1.

The two ducked into a corner as the experiments kicked a vent open and fell out. "Ok, we catch Zira, knock her out, and we all head back to the boss. Easy as pie," said Leroy.

"Mmm...pie. Think we can raid the mess hall?" asked Cyber.

"Later," snapped 'Chloe' slapping the back of Cyber's head.

"Who put you in charge?" snapped Cyber.

"Let's just get out of here already," said Leroy.

"Yeah...after I give that little plant wuss some payback," said Dark Start, the group moving towards the disused reactor room.

"They do not sound like a nice group of friends," said Spider-Man, "Who's the 'plant wuss'?"

"No idea...maybe we miscounted the pods?" muttered Chris, the two ducking back as Cyber looked in their direction.

Cyber looked about to start towards them when Silvia grabbed him by his organic ear. "Move it, you walking Swiss army knife!" snapped Silvia, dragging him along.

"Ok, we need to follow them. From the sound of things, that new experiment isn't gonna go willingly," muttered Chris.

"Yeah, I wouldn't want them dragging off anyone," said Spider-Man as they moved to follow.


"How much further? We've gone around in circles." said Zira, annoyed.

"You live here, I thought you would know the exit," said Kala.

"You said you know the way," said Zira angrily, her eyes glowing green...and not the normal green of experiment night vision.

"Take it easy. We aren't that lost," said Kala in a worried tone.

"Fine..." said Zira, before pausing, a dart in her neck before falling on her face, Cyber walking into view.

"That's the dangerous one? You sure you're back to normal, 777?" he taunted.

"You didn't see her bulk up," said Kala.

"Yeah, yeah, so scary," said Silvia, walking up and prodding Zira. "Ok, Cyber, make us an exit rip. I want a nice clean teleport," she said, nobody noticing as Zira was webbed and pulled away.

"Too much gamma radiation down here," said Cyber, "It'll mess up the teleportation."

"Then compensate. We're not leaving this dimension, we just need a site to site," snapped Silvia.

"Did you test that teleportation with Zero?" asked Dark Start.

"No," said Cyber.

"Then where did she go?" asked Dark Start, indicating where Zira had been.

Silvia glared. "Lynch is here. SPREAD OUT! FIND THEM!" she yelled.

Leroy sniffed the air and said, "Not smelling him."

"Then it's one of his team, find them. Cyber, has that EXP drone still got a charge in it?" she snapped.


Zira meanwhile had her mouth covered, the two watching as the experiments looked, Zira looking at Spider-Man before hugging his midsection, saying "Katu...katu..."

"Uh, there, there?" said Spider-Man uncertainly.

"Ika nu lata ni guti?" said the little green experiment.

"Uh, my SHIELD tech doesn't come with a universal translator," said Spider-Man.

"She's saying thank you..." said Chris, the experiment nodding with a wide grin that sadly showed off the sharp teeth.

"I'll take your word for it," said Spider-Man.

Chris looked at her, "Ok...how long have you been here?"

The experiment shrugging, "Zula ne?"

Chris blanched. "3 years?"

"How could they have noticed an alien running around their base for three years?" asked Spider-Man.

The experiment shook her head, "Zula ne," She said, scratching 30 into the metal on the wall like it was paper.

"Wow, you look in pretty good shape for living in secrecy that long," said Spider-Man, patting her head.

The experiment grinned more at that, her hands behind her back before she screamed as the back wall glowed and melted, Cyber and Silvia in view. "Zero, there you are. It's time to go home," said Silvia, a shadow solidifying into a black energy blade in her paw.

"Chloe?" asked Chris.

"I did mention how she and Kala have been made small and fuzzy, right?" asked Spider-Man.

"Oh, Chris, it's been so long...since NegaMorph threw me to Omnirus," said Silvia smugly, the green experiment growling at her.

"Uh, I'm sure there's been other times. I mean, you've shown up when Chloe gave into her Virk impulses," said Chris.

"That was the Virk Silvia, I'm the EXP Silvia," snapped Silvia.

"There's a difference?" asked Chris.

"Oh please, the Virk was an AI copycat," said Silvia, looking down in surprise as vines crashed out the floor and cocooned her.

"Meega nana queesta...hah," laughed the green experiment her horns glowing, before she screamed as black blades slashed the vines apart.

Silvia smirked, unharmed, even Cyber backing up. "I'm the real thing...experiment 784..." she said with a mock bow.

"There were 700 series experiments after Kala?" asked Chris in surprise.

Silvia laughed as Spider-Man saw to the green experiment. "Before father was forced to relocate from Pan Pacific, he was almost ready to make the first 800 series," she said.

"Wow, so are you the real 784 or just a copy of her?" asked Chris.

"The real thing. I was...used as the prototype for the first EXP. Not pleasant...but still," said Silvia, before flicking a blade that stopped an inch from Chris. "Now give me that useless Zero or I'll show you how nasty I can be."

The green experiment's eyes shot open, glowing. "Meega...not...ZERO!" she snapped, growing into the hulk form.

Everyone was stunned motionless by the unexpected transformation, though Spider-Man recovered the quickest. "Uh, could she do that before?" he asked.

"Not usually," said Chris, before the larger experiment charged Silvia who threw several blades. However, the blades either bounced off or merely nicked Kira before she got within range and punched Silvia clear to the other side of the room.

"Oh no," mumbled Chris, as the experiment roared and ran after her.

"Was that...a Hulk?" said Spider-Man.

Cyber shrugged. "Maybe she's not so bad after all? You however..." he said before firing at them.

"You got a warranty on that tech?" asked Spider-Man before using his tazer web on the cyborg.

"Owowowow...you little pest, daaance…" laughed Cyber, firing rapid fire at Spider-Man, not caring that he was doing damage. Chris charged at Cyber, morphing into Wolf-Bat as he ran. Cyber turned in shock before grabbing Wolf-Bat's arm with his mechanical hand. "Nice try...but I was designed too well," he sneered, throwing Wolf-Bat to the side before he turned in time to be kicked flying.

"Not well enough to handle a tag-team," said Spider-Man before shooting webbing over Cyber's face.

"Hey! Get off me, you little pest!" snapped Cyber as he got covered in more webbing, Chris readying an aerosol canister, before he was grabbed from behind and smashed into the wall.

"Ow," said Chris with annoyance, looking to see Kala growling at him. Spider-Man ran to help him, only for Dark Start to jump in front of him.

"Get back in your top hat, flopsy," said Spider-Man, shooting webbing at her.

Dark Start's eyes glowed red before the webbing ignited. "You first," she giggled, picking up an empty barrel and throwing it at Spider-Man.

Spider-Man webbed the barrel before throwing it back at her.

"Oh no," muttered Dark Start before the barrel was blasted out the way by Kala.

"Hey Kala, how about fighting for the right team?" asked Spider-Man.

"I am..." laughed Kala, spitting a plasma blast before she snapped, "Where the heck is Silvia?"


Silvia yelped dodging blow after blow as the hulked-out experiment tried to pulp her. "Why am I being targeted?!" yelped Silvia.

"You called me ZERO!" snapped the hulked-out Zira before managing to grab Chloe.

"Is that really the worst name you've ever been called?" asked Silvia dryly.

"MY NAME...IS...ZIRA!" snarled Zira, throwing Silvia through the wall and into several barrels, a glowing green goop covering her.

"Ugh, oh God! Oh, it's everywhere! It's getting in everything! Oh God!" cried Silvia.

"Gamma!" laughed Zira, Silvia twitching as the radiation got everywhere.

Then she said with a completely different tone, "Why am I covered with glowing green goo and who do I have to punish for this?"

Zira paused at that, glaring. "784, this better not be a trick," she said angrily.

"78-what?" asked the goo-covered experiment as she tried to stand up, though the radioactive waste was a lot slipperier than it looked.

Zira peered closer, 'Silvia' glaring before trying to punch her, causing a crack and her to stare at her paw. "The...HECK?" she said angrily.

"I believe Leroy and Cyber are the reason you're so small," said Kira.

"What...oh...now I remember...where are they?" snapped Silvia.

"Cyber's over there, not sure where Leroy is right now," said Kira.

Silvia proceeded to practically howl "CYYYYBEEEER!"

Cyber, who was busy trying to get out of his web cocoon, paused and said, "Uh oh."

"YOU...GET OVER HERE!" snapped Chloe, yelping as a black blade shot out at Cyber from her pointed claw.

"Yeah, even if I could, I definitely don't want to," said Cyber.

Chloe, meanwhile, was staring at her claws. "Ok...new..." she said weakly before twitching.

"You know, as much as I'd like to delve into this situation, let's put it on hold," said Spider-Man before webbing up Chloe.

Chris called, "Not gonna hold her." before firing his dehydrator at her, Chloe looking surprised before glowing and shrinking into a small mauve ball marked 784.

"Nice shot," sneered Cyber, shooting Chris in the back, before he paused.

"What's going on down there? Did you catch Zero or not?" snapped Omnirus in his comm.

"Some weird wolf thing's causing trouble. They dehydrated 784," said Cyber, blasting a few web shots out the air.

"Well, whatever you're doing is taking too long and I'm not risking all of you getting sun-dried. Get anyone who's still hydrated out of there," said Omnirus.

"I can take these idiots..." said Cyber.

"Do you forget I can fry you? Get out of there and make sure Leroy's among them. He has the core I need," snapped Omnirus.

"Fine," grumbled Cyber before yelling, "Girls, move out or get left out!"

Kala snapped, "But Silvia..."

Dark Start interrupted, "Is dead weight, sis. Let's get out."

"Oh, you're not leaving that easily," said Spider-Man before shooting webs at Kala.

Kala glared, before Dark Start grabbed her. "Not taking her..." snapped Dark Start before blowing a raspberry and shooting a fireball at the chemical barrels.

"Oh no," said Spider-Man before shooting his freeze webs at the barrels.

Chris threw a few cryo grenades too. "Damn," he muttered, realizing the experiments had legged it, leaving just Chloe's pod. "Matts gonna flip..." he muttered.

"Sorry I couldn't stop her," said Zira as she shrunk back to normal size.

"You speak English?" said Spider-Man.

Zira shrugged. "You don't speak Tantalog?" she retorted a little sarcastically.

Chris picked up Chloe's pod and said, "Well, we kept Matt's sister, so he might not slice me in half with a laser."


"Any last words, Chris?" asked Matt as he pulled the lever, making the log that Chris was tied to move towards the big buzz saw.

"How is this old sawmill even still working?!" yelled Chris.


Chris jumped as Spider-Man pocked him. "I'm gonna die...he'll set the spiderbots on me..." Chris said faintly.

"Hey, I've felt the same way when I lost Connors to the Lizard," said Spider-Man.

"Was Connors your girlfriend?!" snapped Chris. There was an awkward pause before Chris said, "That didn't come out right."


Matt decided to not bother with theatrics, simply landing in the square and blowing holes in the ground till he found the elevator. "Oh Chloe, Kala..." called Matt as he flew down the elevator shaft.

A few guards shot at him, the bullets bouncing off his plasma shield. "KAAALA...SAY NOTHING IF YOU WANT ME TO BLOW THIS PLACE UP!" he called, bluffing to get the guards to run.

Just then, Spider-Man came around the corner and said, "Yo, Lazard, what's up?"

"Ah...Spider-Man..." said Matt cheerfully before he said darkly, "Where's Chris?"

"He's around here somewhere," said Spider-Man, "It's like a maze down here."

"And where is Chloe and Kala?" said Matt darkly.

"Chloe is...getting moisturized. This desert heat really dried her out," said Spider-Man.

Matt blinked. "You're a terrible liar. Where are they?" he said, his eyes starting to glow.

"Chloe's nearby," said Spider-Man. "You haven't mentioned Kala..." growled Matt.

"There were...I'm sorry..." said Spider-Man.

Matt blinked before he said, "I'm gonna kill Anderson..."

"It's not as bad as you think," said Spider-Man quickly.

"Explain..." said Matt, the air getting warmer.

"Those experiments that we were after, they, er, oh let's get it over with," said Spider-Man before handing Matt Chloe's experiment pod.

Matt blinked, looking at it, before saying, "So you got the pod...so what?"

"Er, that's actually Chloe's pod," said Spider-Man.

Matt looked down, before twitching. "No...no...noooooo...NOOOOOOO…" he said, his voice getting more manic.

"And I think I should tell you where Kala went from a safe distance," said Spider-Man, web-slinging away.

"No...Chloe? You in there?" giggled Matt, shaking the pod.

Silvana dropped the shaft. "So, where is everyone?" she asked.

"I found Chloe. She lost some weight," giggled Matt insanely, holding up the experiment orb.

Then Spider-Man's voice shouted from down the hall, "And just so you know, Kala has been reverted to her experiment programming and left with the other evil experiments."

Matt blinked before he began glowing.


Talbot sighed, looking at the footage of the fight on the lower levels...if he didn't have enough trouble trying to convince the joint chiefs to let him try and retake Gamma Base. Suddenly, his office shook as an explosion was heard.

"What in the world?!" he snapped.

He ran out to see several fire response teams putting out blue flames, the 'Lazard' mutate from the news in the middle of it. "What is going on-" started Talbot before noticing a nearby locker was rattling.

He walked over to it and opened to see Chris hiding inside. "I'm not here!" yelled Chris before slamming the door shut.

Talbot raised an eyebrow, Lazard walking over. "He in there?" he said manically.

Talbot briefly considered throwing Chris under the bus. But then again, no one should have to deal with this lunatic. "Didn't see anyone. Is there a reason you're here?" said Talbot, Lazard noting the locker was shaking.

"Who's in there?" asked Lazard.

Chris, from inside, said, "Nobody...you're hallucinating." Lazard snarling and tearing the locker door off. "Mercy," squeaked Chris.

"Why? You lost Kala and Chloe. SHE'S A MARBLE!" snapped Matt, shoving the pod in Chris's face.

"She can be rehydrated," squeaked Chris.

"Ok...rehydrate her..." said Matt, darkly.

"Uh, got water?" asked Chris to Talbot.


Being dehydrated was a bit like being asleep...albeit being unable to wake up. For most experiments, their brains were wired to handle it. For Chloe, it was a bit maddening. Naturally, the first thing she wanted to do after being reactivated was punch something.

What it felt like was...wonderful, suddenly being able to move. No wonder the experiments were so hyper after waking. Looking around, she noticed a few things, such as her overbearing brother looming over her bushi-bu.

There was also that her overbearing brother was looming over her too...in fact everyone was. "Darn...it wasn't a dream," she said, twitching again.

"She's a lot smaller than I pictured," commented Talbot.

Chloe's eye twitched, "Smaller? Smaller?!"

"Chloe...how...why..." said Matt in shock.

"Stupid trogs rebooted my EXP virus, left me stuck as this midget!" snapped Chloe. Matt blinked before glaring at Chris, Chloe snapping, "Hey...wasn't his fault."

"Then whose was it?!" snapped Matt.

"Leroy, Cyber, and Dark Start," growled Chloe.

"Leroy...the weird clone Lilo mentioned once?" said Matt.

"And one such clone was seen hanging with..." Chloe paused and tried to think. Something was...blocking her memories.

"Chloe...you ok?" said Matt.

Chloe winced, "It's fine, just a headache"

Chris said, "We found an extra one too. I think she's a good guy, but I don't think we want her near the gamma reactors any longer."

"Say what?" asked Matt.

"Yes, there was another cousiiiii...experiment," said Chloe.

"So that's what happened to the third pod," said Talbot.

"You knew?" snarled Chloe

"We just thought it was lost," said Talbot.

"You should have said," said Matt icily, before saying to Chris, "So where is the little monster?"

Spider-Man swung back in and said, "She said something about 'hydrochloric'."


The old hydroponics lab had been shut down a few weeks ago after a nasty plant virus had wiped out the contents...that was then. Zira was happily indulging her programming by regrowing the dead plants. The place looked like a mini jungle when the gang came in, Zira laughing as she made a giant flower bloom

"Who's Sweetpea over there?" asked Matt.

"That's Zira...apparently," said Chloe, rubbing her jaw.

Zira spotted them before rolling over. "You're the Lazard guy from the news," she said.

"Not the best name," said Matt with annoyance.

"You're Kala's friend?" Zira said.

"Well, yes," said Matt.

"I'm sorry she went bad," said Zira in a quiet voice that caused Matt to imagine a yellow and pink Pegasus.

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time," said Matt.

Just then, Silvana walked in. "What was all that yelling about earlier?" she asked. Then she spotted Zira and squealed, "Oh, aren't you just the cutest little thing?" before picking her up and hugging her.

Zira grinned evilly, before chomping Silvana's nose.

The others watched as Silvana thrashed about, trying to get Zira off her nose. "She's lucky it wasn't me she tried to cuddle," said Chloe, "I would have been much rougher."

Zira giggled, finally letting go, Silvana glaring, before she jumped down. "Are you from Pan Pacific?"

"Silvana, I think you're gonna have company in your 'catching-up-with-history' class," said Matt.

"Wait...are you corporate spies?" said Zira suspiciously.

"Furthest thing from them," said Matt, "This...is gonna take a long time to explain."


"Gimmie, gimme, gimmie!" snapped Omnirus, as soon as the experiments popped out of the teleport.

"You do know this won't be enough to fix your belt, right?" pointed out Dark Start.

"It'll be a start. I'll be able to shift to experiment forms again," said Omnirus, grabbing the core.

"I hope that'll be enough for you to not just be the guy who gives orders," said Dark Start.

"Watch your tone, D.S. It's cause of me you aren't in an NSC vault somewhere in marble form," said Omnirus.

"And you've got a plan to fix yourself the rest of the way, right?" asked Cyber.

"There'll be other parts. There's a few other parts to get here and then we head elsewhere for the last part," said Omnirus, Kala finding herself feeling uneasy at the thought of going offworld where those mercs would never find her.

"And then what?" asked Cyber.

"Then I'm back to normal and we pick the dimension we want to conquer," said Omnirus with a smirk.

"I was expecting more steps to that plan," said Dark Start.

"Do we care? An entire Earth as our plaything. One without an annoying little Hawaiian girl trying to reform us?" said Omnirus.

"Can we wreck a big city?" asked Leroy.

"You can wreck a continent. There'll be enough cities for everyone," said Omnirus.

Kala asked, "What about Silvia?"

"Eh, if we get lucky, we'll spring her," said Omnirus, "It's not like she's a real experiment anymore."

Cyber said with an evil grin, "She will be. I added a little extra to the stuff in that drone."

"You're craftier than I would have thought," said Omnirus, sounding impressed.

"I'm as smart as they come," sneered Cyber smugly.

Kala asked, "And what's our plan when Matt comes to kill us all in revenge?"

"Doesn't he have a 700 series stuffed inside of him too?" asked Omnirus.

"No, just a standard EXP virus, if it's still in there in there anymore," said Kala.

"Well, knowing Matt, he'll probably have his hands full with some local supervillain," said Omnirus.

"He'll probably be busier with the new Virk personality he's developing," said Kala before wincing as she felt she said too much.

"Oh...really?" said Omnirus, smugly.

Kala grimaced, not wanting to say more. "But bringing Silvia back will probably be revenge enough," said Omnirus.

"784 Silvia or Shar-Virk Silvia?" asked Kala.

"Either. Both. Let them fight over who gets to run Chloe's body. What's left of her mind will probably get shredded in the crossfire," said Omnirus.

"Are you sure? Matt could just use it as an excuse to try to kill us. Something he could do," warned Kala.

Dark Start laughed, "You're scared of a human?"

Omnirus glared before reaching over and pinching Dark Start's shoulder. She froze in mid-laugh before falling over paralyzed. "I might be stuck in this...cumbersome form, but that doesn't mean I don't still have my brain," said Omnirus.

Cyber paused. "Wait...why are you scared of his guy? He has a human name. We could snap him like a twig."

"You know nothing about him," said Omnirus, "Otherwise, you'd know how much folly you just spoke."

"Enlighten me," said Cyber.

Omnirus said, "Kala?"

Kala said calmly, "He was human when we first met. He's had his DNA put through the blender so many times now though. What I do know is that some tech augmented his DNA with draconic. He'll soak up your plasma blasters like they're nothing long enough to rip your cybernetics out."

"Which is why it's so important for me to repair my Omnitrix," said Omnirus, "Because when we do fight, I want to be above his level."

"Didn't he beat you before your toy broke?" said Kala sweetly.

"For all the misfortune in his life, Lynch has uncannily good luck when it comes to avoiding defeat," said Omnirus in an annoyed voice.

"He beat you good, before he got those powers," laughed Kala.

"You know you're surplus to requirements, right?" asked Omnirus in an annoyed tone.

"Really? Kill me?" said Kala, adding, "Yeah...make Matthew even angrier."

Omnirus glared. "I don't need to kill you. Just send you someplace where you won't be able to make your way back."

"Same result...or, I could help you..." said Kala.

"With what? Your very specific healing powers for a virus that's no longer even being used?" asked Omnirus dismissively.

"No, my plasma powers, advanced combat skills...and the fact that sissy programming is gone," said Kala.

Omnirus's mouth fell open. "I...I'm sorry? So...if I told you to blow Matt's head off..." she said a little dumbstruck.

"She couldn't because Matt is plasma-proof," said Cyber.

"I can get close though. Very close. And I know the ingredients for the dragonbane rounds he helped design to use if he ever went full Virk," said Kala.

"This sounds too good to be true," said Omnirus suspiciously.

Dark Start said, "It's true. She was reset as a medic experiment after the tin can there almost maimed her in a test fight."

"You're recovering fast," observed Omnirus.

"It takes more than that to keep me do-" Dark Start began before Kala did the same pinch on her.

Cyber laughed loudly at that. "He doesn't have a weakness for laughter, does he?" asked Omnirus.

"No, he just likes laughing," said Kala, "As for your question, I'm annoyed my newer programming...fell for him. I'll happily blast him...or better. I know just the thing for him."


This chapter was a little late. I had a very busy day yesterday. It's also a bit different as it focuses on the second main villain of this fic, Omnirus. Well, mostly on the experiments who work for Omnirus. The new ones featured here are from the Stitch! anime. Cyber is a direct copy of the one that appeared there. Dark Start is based off of Dark End, but not as ridiculously over-powered. Zira/Kira is an original experiment. Also, General Talbot is from the comics, basically a stand-in for Ross after he became the Red Hulk.

Anyways, the next chapter should be up on Wednesday, hopefully without complications. Keep an eye out for it and please review.