Reticence Saga
Severed Web
Chapter 34: New Night City (Part III)
"To anyone who reads this journal later, I am Gary Lesog. I write this down in case we do not defeat Dracula.
"Perhaps I should start at the beginning. My colleagues and I aren't from this world, but have traveled from another. We have been pursuing a villainess named Lady NegaMorph, who has stolen the body of my beloved, Megan. In this world, she had made an alliance with the king of vampires, Dracula.
One of our number, Chloe Lynch, has managed to infiltrate Dracula's household and has been acting as our spy on the inside. She has been able to provide with many news. The most disturbing is that Dracula has in his possession a reality bomb, perhaps from a Nullspace ship that crashed here. With a reality bomb, one could reprogram all of reality on a planet in any way they wish. With a push of a button, Dracula could make everyone on Earth his obedient slaves.
"In order to stand strong against Dracula, we must build alliances of our own. This world's Spider-Man, Blood Spider, has been an uneasy ally, his harsh experiences leaving him distrustful of the supernatural. We've been trying to appeal to the leaders of the other factions in New Night City. But it's hard to find compromise when the only thing they can agree on is that they don't like each other."
Matt held his head in his hands as he heard the angry voices trading barbs. It had taken a week to get the leaders to just meet. He should have expected it to be like herding cats, physically in the case of the newly-named White Tigers.
Admittedly, he should have expected some jingoism between the werecats and werewolves. It was only natural. However, the lizards weren't quite as willing to play ball as Matt expected. The other factions have attacked them in the past and the cold-blooded ones knew how to hold a grudge. Naturally, the remaining humans didn't trust the non-humans. Though it didn't particularly help that the humans' champion and elected representative was Frankenstein's Monster.
Matt sighed. "Which idiot decided Frankenstein's Monster should lead their negotiations?" he muttered to himself.
"In my opinion, it was a popularity contest," said NegaMorph, "Though I might hazard a guess that they want negotiations to fail."
Matt paused, before he said angrily, "Bugger that." shifting to dragon form and bringing a forepaw down on the table hard enough to collapse the legs. "ENOUGH!" he roared, and when a dragon really wanted to roar dust would fall from the ceiling.
"You morons! No wonder Fang Face took over so easily! You're too busy stabbing one another in the backs to stab him in the front!" he snarled, his eye twitching as the others watched.
Gary, watching from the sidelines with Megan, whimpered, "Mon dieu...he's literally going to kill them."
"Frankly, I'm more than half-tempted to just leave you to your petty squabbles while the vampires just wait to pick off who's left. But there are bigger things afoot than what your neighbor looks like," snapped Matt.
Once he was sure their attention was on him, he snarled, "Dracula's got a weapon that could vaporize everyone not a vampire in the country or vegify you so you march into his arms happily."
"If Dracula has a weapon like that, he would have used it as soon as he got it," said Werewolf-by-Night.
"It's got access codes on it. One that Lady Nega can eventually break. None of us alone can storm his base. My sister tells me it's locked up tight," snapped Matt.
"Right, and I suppose your sister has already wormed her way up to the upper echelons of Dracula's court," said Werewolf-by-Night dryly.
Matt stiffened at that, Megan muttering "Oh no." in a dull voice, before Matt slowly turned his head to look.
"I beg your pardon?" he said coldly, cracks of lights around his eyes.
"Uh, I'm sure he didn't mean anything disrespectful," said Connors with concern.
"No, no, I want to know exactly what he meant by 'wormed'," said Matt. He leaned in, snarling faintly. "Go on. Say it again," he said coldly.
"And people say Frank is dumb," said Frank.
Matt smirked at Werewolf-by-Night as he remained silent before leaning in and whispering, "You insult my sister again, and timeline relevance or not, I'll rip you apart." before he shifted back to human, all smiles as if he hadn't just promised certain death. "Now then. It's no surprise Dracula's walked all over you. A divided enemy might as well give up to save time."
"Well, we all know who Dracula's favorite hounds are," said White Tiger.
Matt turned at that. "My sister is risking her neck for you..." he began.
"The Chloe that I met doesn't seem like the type to keep cool under pressure," said Tiger Queen.
Matt glared at that. "She's sent accurate reports all week. I believe she's fine," he said after a deep breath.
"You realize she's running on luck right now," said Connors, "And it will eventually give out."
"Another reason I want you people to drop the squabbles so we can rip Dracula's head off," snapped Matt.
"Dracula can't be killed," said Frank, "He's been beheaded, stabbed, burned, and even drowned. He just doesn't stay dead."
Matt growled at that. "So we grab the bomb off of him," he snapped.
Gary noticed as Megan seemed to zone out, her eyes glowing for a second. "Uh, Megan, are you there?" asked Gary, tapping her shoulder.
Megan seemed to be muttering before she came to her senses, eyes wide in panic.
"Has your machine contacted the afterlife?" asked Tiger Queen dryly.
"No need for that, because we're all heading there," said Megan.
Matt paused at that.
Jupiter Orbit
The stillness of space rippled for a second before a multicolored portal appeared, several sleek, predatory ships flying out. They bristled with weapons, shield generators, launch bays for drones...but no lights...no windows...no airlocks.
These were ships designed for one job, the eradication of a planet's surface...and long ago, the NSC had learnt that, while organics would hesitate, computers would not. The theft and attempted hack of a reality bomb had been detected and declared a threat to Nullspace and so the Sanitizer corp AIs had been given their mission.
A broadcast to the nearest mechanical on the target world had been sent. The bomb's threat would be neutralised, one way or another.
The group was silent as Megan recited the message the incoming ships AI had sent, Megan shuddering at the presence of it. Unlike Human AIs, Sanitizer Corps were made by other computers. Their connection to her was like some insectoid intelligence, one that had no thoughts of mercy...programmed to ignore such plea's...this warning was the closest it got to it.
There was a long silence afterwards before Werewolf-by-Night asked, "So, are we all doomed no matter what?"
"No...he...it said if the bomb's turned off before they arrive, they'll abort," said Megan with a shudder.
"Ok, we have a deadline now, people," said Matt, "I strongly recommend to set aside petty squabbles... No, make that all squabbles, until this situation has been dealt with." There was a silence at that, the group looking at each other, Matt snarling "Are you kidding me?"
"Well, you're calling for a full-frontal assault on the Vampire State Building, right?" asked Werewolf-by-Night.
"I refuse to acknowledge it by that name," said Matt flatly.
Connors sighed, "The Empire State Building is a fortress. We simply do not have the numbers to attack it directly and Dracula's minions made sure any blueprints of the building were destroyed."
"If it were that simple, don't you think we would have tried it?" asked Tiger Queen.
"So what's the plan? We wait till magma bombs melt the planet?" snapped Megan.
"We wait for our Trojan Horse to open the gates for us," said Matt.
Chloe looked at the message that had been sent. She'd been impressed that Matt had decided to use silent texts sent to her nanites, meaning only she could see it. At least that meant she wouldn't be heard, so it was surprising that this one came on her wristcomp...with bad news.
'So, I just need to deactivate the cloud cover, disarm the bomb, and open the gates. Sure, nothing too hard,' she thought to herself.
She moved to delete the message, only for a hand to grab her wrist. Chloe growled at that. She also mentally scolded herself for not paying attention around her. She should have at least picked up his scent.
A second later, she was spun and pinned to the well by a hand to the chest, Man-Wolf leering. "So...that explains why our raid on that human building 2 days ago failed," he sneered, another hand pinning her by the neck.
"One of those hands better move or you're going to need a replacement," growled Chloe.
Man-Wolf snarled at that, slamming her against the wall. "Back before you were a traitor, I'd have listened. Dracula's gonna be interested to hear about this," he sneered.
"Is it really worth being on Dracula's side?" asked Chloe.
Man-Wolf paused before saying, "Better than being against him. He ripped through what army was here with the Lizard King then mopped up the rest. The entire coast is his."
"And even still, he treats you with a minimum of respect. He gives you only table scraps and leaves the wolves to fend for themselves with everything else," said Chloe.
Man-Wolf paused at that, before his eyes crossed as Chloe put a knee to good use before she headbutted him out cold. Chloe glared down at Man-Wolf. Unlike the John Jameson she met back in Spider-Man's world, this one seemed to take more after JJJ. Her warrior side told her it would be simpler to just kill and hide the body before he makes more trouble.
However, her hellhound side pointed out he was too good-looking to be killed...plus he'd hesitated, meaning he could maybe be negotiated with
Chloe groaned, knowing she was going to be putting up with too much already before heaving Man-Wolf over her shoulder. "You're lucky I don't take your hand in recompense," she grumbled.
Luckily the way she'd found in for the gang was also a great way out too, an old technical tunnel that went to a shelter and then out to the subway. From there it was a simple walk to the next meeting point. That said, to say the group were...annoyed at her passenger was an understatement.
Gary and Spider-Man were having to hold Blood Spider back. "Out of all the people you had to bring out, you brought him?!" snapped Blood Spider.
"Would you rather it have been one of Dracula's brides?" asked Chloe dryly.
There was a pause before Spider-Man asked, "Does he actually have brides?"
"Not that I've seen," said Chloe, dropping the gagged and bound Man-Wolf to the ground.
"You realize Dracula is going to notice his lieutenant's disappearance," said Gary.
Chloe actually barked a laugh at that before clearing her throat. "Not quite sure where that came from," she said with a bit of embarrassment, "Dracula doesn't give two hoots about Man-Wolf and his pals. They're just cannon fodder to him."
"You know, we heard that, but it sounded like propaganda," said Spider-Man.
"I saw it," said Chloe grimly, Man-Wolf just glaring behind his gag.
"Even so, won't Dracula notice his absence?" asked Gary.
"That depends if he cares," said Matt darkly.
"Then what's the point in bringing him here?" asked Blood Spider.
"Because he's got alot of packmates," said Chloe, tearing the gag off.
"YOU SMARMY BI-" snapped Man-Wolf before Matt kicked him in the stomach.
"Language," he admonished.
Chloe snarled, "Listen here, you mutt. Dracula won't need you if that bomb goes off. You and your mutts'll be lucky to be reduced to pets."
"What bomb?" asked Man-Wolf.
"Oh, big surprise, the lord of the castle doesn't bother to inform his servants," said Blood Spider dryly.
"Your boss has something he shouldn't. So bad that my bosses have sent a fleet to crack this planet open like an egg. I'm sure Dracula has an escape plan if he knew they were coming. Are you included?" said Matt evilly.
"You're...you're bluffing..." said Man-Wolf weakly.
"Nope," said Matt.
Megan shook her head. "It's not a joke," she said, her eyes glowing faintly, saying, "The ships are just passing Mars now. They'll be here in about...6 hours...30 minutes more to prep their weapons..."
"So there's no real time to dilly-dally," said Spider-Man, "I mean, I've worked with tighter time limits, but I think every minute counts here."
Man-Wolf glared before finally saying, "Me and mine are allowed to go north if I agree to help."
"Fine, plenty of open room in Canada," said Matt.
Blood Spider spoke next, "I can speak for everyone when I say, if we see you in the US again..." Man-Wolf gulped.
"And don't expect us to help you if you stir up the wendigos," said Megan.
"What's a wendigo?" asked Man-Wolf.
Megan smiled nastily and said, "Oh, you'll see..."
Lady NegaMorph, meanwhile, had also gotten the alert. Her attempt to sneak off hadn't ended well and now she was under guard at the reality bomb, wondering if she could decode it and make it to her ship before the sanitization corp sterilized the area.
Of course, she had been tempted to use it herself. Just a little reprogramming and she'd be the goddess-empress of this Earth. The end result would be the same: if the NSC were aware, and the fact a fleet was on its way was proof they were, she wouldn't enjoy it long.
"Faster," hissed the guard behind her.
"This is delicate work," said Lady NegaMorph, "You put in the wrong codes and it'll be apes who'll be ruling the world."
"Lord Dracula wants it done," snapped the vampire.
"This isn't a kettle that you can just slap and-" Lady NegaMorph snapped, hitting it, the cover over the controls raising, as the two stared. Lady Nega said, "Suddenly I feel alot less safe."
"Well, get to work on it," snapped the vampire.
"It's ready. The program was in, it just needs to charge," said Lady NegaMorph.
The vampire grinned. "Then we don't need-ack," he managed, Lady Nega rolling her eyes and using a shadow blade to decapitate him.
"I quit!" she snapped as he collapsed into dust.
Fortunately, Lady Nega had been preparing for this moment. Her ship may have crashed here, but it wasn't destroyed. It took a lot of time to repair it, especially when she had to act as Dracula's advisor. But now she was ready to leave. A quick shadow portal and she was in her ship. "Screw this city and screw this planet," she muttered.
That was one reason she'd 'forgot' to notice that Chloe was somehow resisting Dracula's glamor. The Lynches would make a good distraction. She just had to sit and wait…
Man-Wolf led the group down a different tunnel. "Dracula doesn't bother to ask how me and mine get in and out the castle," he said quietly, leading the small group.
"At least it's not the sewers," said Spider-Man.
"Sewers aren't so bad, once you get used to them," said Blood Spider.
"Oh hell no. It's worse than tear gas down there," said Chloe weakly. Man-Wolf raised a hand for them to stop, pointing round to where his pack was in front of some sort of service elevator, laughing and joking.
"Ok, that I can live with," said Chloe.
Man-Wolf walked round first at that, his pack jumping to their feet. "Boss? Lord Fang Face is pissed. Wondered where you and the bitch..." one began before they all began snarling as the rest came into view.
"What did you just call my sister?" asked Matt, his eyes glowing.
"Ease up, boys. We're ditching Fang Face," Man-Wolf said, most of the pack calming down, though some looked angry.
"He might not care about us, but he'll never let us go," said one of the wolves.
"That's why he's being chased out," Man-Wolf said.
"Chased?" asked a wolf.
"We're evicting him. You wanna let us past or do I walk over you?" asked Matt.
The wolves exchanged looks before they burst out laughing.
Matt sighed. "Ok, that's enough warning," he said, shifting to hybrid form and igniting a fireball in his hand.
The laughter quickly died at that. There was a bit of whimpering in the back now.
"Now...who wants to go with your boss and who wants to fight us?" asked Matt.
The wolves quietly moved out of the way, many of them with their tails between their legs. Chloe glared as they passed, both the wolves in her body agreeing that this was beyond cowardly. And knowing that Man-Wolf was the leader of these cowards... Well, it pretty much killed any attraction there was towards him.
Man-Wolf spoiled that by walking past, head held high, pausing at Matt before saying, "I coulda taken you." not even flinching as Matt snapped at him.
Matt watched him go before looking at Chloe to see her trying to keep stern, though her wagging tail betrayed her. "HEY!" he snapped.
Chloe shook her head and said, "He meant nothing to me. I've got a better mate back home."
Matt paused, looking at the Spiders and the others. "I believe we have a bomb to diffuse?" he snapped.
Fortunately, the interior of the Vampire, er, Empire State Building has not been warped to the Escheresque dimensions of Castle Dracula. Climbing up the stairs was bad enough as it is.
"Ok...so which floor's the bomb on?" asked Matt.
"The 59th floor," said Chloe.
"I'm sorry, what?" asked Matt flatly.
"He keeps it in Room 14 of the 59th floor," said Chloe, "Apparently he originally died in 1459."
"What floor are we on?" asked Gary, shining a light at the wall and whimpering to see the number '12' on the wall.
"Ok, why aren't we taking the elevator like any rational, sane person?" asked Matt.
"Because they'd know we were coming," said Blood Spider.
"There's gotta be a faster way," whimpered Chloe.
"Oh, a little cardio won't kill anyone," said Megan.
"Says the girl in the tireless machine body," said Matt.
Chloe turned to the Spiders and said, "Can't you two just zipline us up?"
"I'm not sure I'd have enough clearance to get up there in one zip," said Spider-Man.
"And we'll go through most of our webbing," added Blood Spider.
NegaMorph rolled his eyes, "I could just shadow portal us up there."
Matt glared, "No thanks. I am not-" before Nega opened a portal under Matt's feet.
"It may take a few stops to get up there," said NegaMorph, "Not so used to doing portals vertically."
The jumps went well, till there was a slight overshoot to floor 69. By unanimous agreement, they walked down to the right floor. Chloe had noticed though that she seemed to be the only one without what the gang called 'shadow nausea'. Well, Megan didn't seem affected. Obviously because of her own experience and being in a robot body.
Floor 59 however had definitely had a few changes, a more gothic look in the corridors beyond. The faint sounds of fighting below and outside indicated the other groups were attacking the tower, which hopefully meant no guards.
"Ok, Room 14, that's where we find the bomb," said Matt.
At those words, the corridor started to fog up. "That's not just for atmosphere, is it?" asked Spider-Man.
"So, you have the audacity to come into my home," said Dracula's voice from everywhere.
"Well, you wouldn't come out to play, so we just let ourselves in," said Spider-Man, "Unlike you, we don't need to be invited."
"Impudent mortal. The outsider weapon is already armed," sneered Dracula's voice. Chloe shuddered as it sounded like it came from behind her. "Such a shame. It seems my attack dog had more free will than I expected."
Chloe turned, half-expecting Dracula to be right there. Of course there was nobody there. Dracula's voice laughed, "I have more important things then to deal with you. I leave you in the capable hands of my newest minion."
The others gave Chloe a somewhat leery look. "Hey, I'm not doing that leech's dirty work anymore," said Chloe.
Just then, a red light shone from above, illuminating a black multilimbed figure floating in midair. It took only a moment to recognize her as Lady Nega, though her head was hanging limp. "Ok, that's pretty creepy," said Megan.
Matt said weakly, "I second that." Lady Nega's head twitched at that.
"What did he do to her?" asked NegaMorph.
The dragon head on the end of her tail opened and Dracula's voice echoed out of it, "The witch thought she could run while I was busy. But I was already prepared for her treachery. And since I needed to keep a tighter leash on her, I added some strings as well."
Lady Nega's eyes shot open at that before Dracula said, "Kill them."
Beams shot out of Lady Nega's eyes as the group scattered. "Boy, it's a good thing Morph isn't here," said Matt, "He'd go ballistic over the puppetry."
Chloe snapped, "Just shoot her."
Megan winced as Chloe fired several shots into her organic body. "Hey! I want to have my body back in one piece!" snapped Megan.
"You have your uncle's healing factor, don't you?" asked Chloe.
"I never tested its limit," said Megan.
"Now's as good a time as any," said Chloe.
Lady Nega hissed almost ferally before firing her eye beams again.
The Spiders' usual strategy was to swing away from their opponents and use their webbing to tangle them up before closing the distance. Fortunately, the corridor they were in gave them enough room to swing.
"So how are we supposed to stop her without killing her?" asked Blood Spider dryly.
"We just have to keep her off-guard until- Whoa, whoa, hold it," said Spider-Man before zipping to one wall and pointing at the door opposite of him, Door 14.
Blood Spider paused with him, their spider-senses going nuts as they approached the door. Beyond was a practically bare room, a large cylinder occupying the center and beeping softly away, a row of runes visible on a small LED, the far right rune changing, rather like a countdown.
"Ok, this is way too advanced technology for me to handle," said Blood Spider, "Can you disarm it?"
"Uh...I think I need to borrow Matt," said Spider-Man.
There was a clunk and a whining noise at that from the bomb, the top opening and a glowing orb slowly rising, pulsating. "1 minute to detonation," said a female voice politely.
"Uh, Matt?!" yelled Spider-Man.
Matt slammed against the wall, pinned by Lady Nega. "BUSY!" he yelled.
"45 seconds to detonation/" said the reality bomb politely.
"No choice, we gotta disarm it ourselves," said Spider-Man.
"How?" asked Blood Spider.
"Trial and error," said Spider-Man, "Good thing our spider-sense tells what not to do."
The two went over to the bomb, Blood Spider pulling a panel off to reveal a bank of gems, no wires visible. "30 seconds to detonation. Alert. Unauthorized access to internal circuitry."
Both Spiders reached for a gem, only to yank their heads back when their spider-sense said 'no'.
"20 seconds to detonation...charging main array," said the bomb cheerfully.
Fortunately, between the two of them, they were able to quickly eliminate the gems to avoid pulling out before they were able to pull out the right one.
"Sys-sys-system failure..." said the warhead, the energy orb fizzling out.
"You think we were in time?" asked Spider-Man.
In orbit, the black ships had finished settling into orbit, their guns trained at the surface, when the mind controlling them sensed the change.
Sensor scan indicates warhead disarmed
Re-assessing threat...threat level lowered
Mission parameters altered...retrieval of weapon
Scanning...cause of weapon armament traced to class Z lifeform in vicinity of Eastern Europe
Meanwhile, the fight with Lady Nega was slowly revealing one nasty fact: she had been holding back on them. Whether it was Megan's influence restraining her, Lady Nega not wanting to exhaust or hurt herself, or believing she was above this kind of savage fighting, she's never fought as hard as this before. But now there was no conscience, no self-preservation, nothing more than a single-minded urge to kill.
Megan was the last one left standing and she was already missing an arm. She readied herself for another attack before the night outside turned to day for a second, the ground rumbling. Even Lady Nega turned her head to look, everyone looking seeing red beams lancing down from the sky to the horizon, before the shots finished, Lady Nega blinking slowly.
Lady Nega blinked, before shaking her head, before looking at Megan. "Oh...someone's on their last legs," she grinned, readying a blast. But then there was a 'clung' noise, Lady Nega blinked before her eyes wandered apart and she collapsed, Chloe behind her holding Megan's arm.
"I'm sorry, did you want to do that?" asked Chloe.
"You realize I need to put my mind back in that head," said Megan in an annoyed tone.
"Oh please, we get hit upside the head all the time and it does us no good," said Chloe, Megan raising a skeptical eye brow at that as soon as Chloe had said that her left eye twitched.
"Just to be sure, let's make sure she can't get away," said Spider-Man before he webbed together Lady Nega's arms and legs. He glanced over at NegaMorph who just shook his head. Spider-Man then applied more and more webbing until Lady Nega was completely wrapped up except for her eyes and nose.
"Now, let's get rid of that..." began Spider-Man before his spider-sense went off again, several shapes shimmering into view. They seemed like simple floating orbs, but he knew from SHIELD that a bot's looks could be deceiving, more so when an apparent human appeared between them.
"You are the ones who averted the class Z event?" he said coldly, one thing to notice being that his pupils seem to have a red tint.
"I'm pretty sure I did," said Spider-Man, "But wouldn't it have been a class V event?"
"We are not wrong, Mr Parker. I will be taking the bomb and the one who armed it," said the figure, two of the bots hovering off, two more heading for Lady Nega.
"Wait a minute, I still need her," said Megan, "That's my real body."
"That is not my concern. She threatened the existence of this entire reality," said the figure, one of the drones extending a claw that dragged Lady Nega to her feet before another went to grab her only to be webbed, the other drones turning and unfolding various weapons.
The human turned to look at Spider-Man. "Are you really prepared to take me and my hive on for the life of a person who tried to kill you and destroy your friends?" he said with amusement.
"I know she's bad, but it's not entirely her fault," said Spider-Man, "She's not even a whole person. Just Megan's dark impulses that have gotten amplified beyond what she could control."
The human frowned before he said, "The next time she steps out of line..."
"Believe me, we're not going to treat her with kid gloves anymore," said NegaMorph.
"You'd better," said the human before vanishing, the drones following shortly after, a glow from Room 14 indicating the drones there had gone too. A quick check confirmed the reality bomb had been taken as well.
"Could someone explain what happened just now?" asked Gary, "Namely what was that light and what made Lady Nega stop."
"I think that light was the sanitization fleet vaporizing Dracula," said Matt, shaking a little.
"Dracula? No way. He's burned by sunlight and he still comes back," said Blood Spider.
"He just got hit by cutter beams. He'll probably recover, but by then you guys will have plans in place to stop him," said Chloe.
"Yeah, I might suggest making the securest coffin ever designed and hiding it someplace he won't be able to escape from easily," said NegaMorph, "Like outer space."
"It's been done," said Matt.
"That shows it works," said NegaMorph.
"They don't have the means of sending Dracula into space," said Chloe flatly.
"Not with that attitude," muttered NegaMorph.
"Anyways, Dracula isn't coming back to this city for quite some time," said Megan, "Now would be a good time to fortify this city against his return. Starting with smashing that cloud generator."
Chloe nodded, "This way."
The machine had been pretty easy to deal with, and there was already some difference in the sky, moonlight shining through in pockets. "Now isn't that a pretty sight?" asked Chloe, wagging her tail.
"Now don't go wild," said Matt, "We've already had more than enough of that."
Chloe rolled her eyes before looking over to where two of Werewolf-by-Night's pack were dragging Lady Nega. "You think she can be fixed?" asked Matt.
"Ultimately, she's a Virk personality. And we've been able to deal with our own," said Chloe.
"Mine's done a runner in a clone body and I'm not sure if you ever specifically developed a Virk personality," said Matt.
"Yeah, her other personalities are tough enough competition," said NegaMorph.
A clunk got their attention, turning to see Man-Wolf leaning against a wall in an alley, giving them a wave before running. "We should probably hold off telling the others. He did kinda earn a headstart," said Chloe.
"Ok, but if we ever come back and it's now werewolves ruling the city with him in charge, don't say it wasn't your fault," said Spider-Man.
Matt's eye twitched before he turned slowly to look. "Come back to Undead Land? No...not a FREAKING CHANCE!" he said, manically.
"Yeah, I've been turned into a mindless hound and then into a lizard," said Chloe, "I will not be sorry to see the last of this place."
"And if I ever see that backstabbing splitter..." muttered Matt before grinning, "Then again...he left us his ship
"Then let's leave so I can have my head placed back in my head and hers into a deep, dark pit," said Megan, carrying Lady Nega.
Spider-Man just had one last thing to take care of. He wanted to make sure his dimensional counterpart was all set. "So, things working well with your friends?" asked Spider-Man.
"It's not easy adjusting, you know," said Blood Spider, "You spend years hunting monsters and now you're teaming up with them."
"You know, what makes someone a monster isn't how they look, it's how they act," said Spider-Man, "The wolves, tigers, and lizards can be good people, you just have to be able to tell the good ones from the bad."
"Would that have been considered sappy back in your world?" asked Blood Spider.
"Kinda sappy," admitted Spider-Man.
"Yeah, well, I get the point you're trying to make," said Blood Spider, "At least I know who to trust."
Matt looked at the controls of their new ship blankly before sitting down, the computer saying tauntingly, "Does somebody not know how to fly a bird of prey?"
"You're a trophy of war," said Matt bluntly, "You could end up collecting dust on my main ship if you don't watch the attitude."
"Yeah...bad mouth the autopilot of the ship you don't know how to drive, that'll help," sneered the computer.
"Can we get going?" asked Gary, "I want to enjoy our current streak of good fortune while it lasts."
Chloe sighed, sitting at the controls and setting a course. "Who's keeping an eye on Megan and Lady Nega?" she asked.
"NegaMorph is," said Spider-Man, "He's still got that itching problem though."
"Don't worry, it'll go away in a day or so," said Chloe offhandedly.
NegaMorph glared at Lady Nega who just smirked back. "You just gonna look or you gonna say something?" she sneered.
"You've caused more than enough trouble and yanked us around too much," said NegaMorph, "You've got this coming to you."
"Oh please. If I could run your friends around and the best that Earth's superheroes had to offer couldn't catch me either..." sneered Lady Nega.
"This time you've got nowhere to run and you have no one wanting to help you," said NegaMorph, "You've very effectively pushed them all away."
"I don't need help," sneered Lady Nega, reaching into her shadow
"What do you think you're doing, young lady?" snapped NegaMorph.
Lady Nega grinned before her shadow hit NegaMorph, blasting him back as she took out a scroll. "Dealing with you all in one foul swoop," she sneered, flicking the scroll open, "It's amazing what a vamp has in his library."
"Oh no you don't!" snapped Megan.
Lady Nega shrugged, sending a blast through Megan. "Nope..." she said cheerfully, before starting to read the scroll.
The scroll promised a powerful spell of living death. Lady Nega might have worried about it affecting her too, but as her uncle pointed out, she had nothing left to lose.
"Warning: Necromantic energy detected...holding cell 9," said the computer, adding, "Attempting to contain."
"I knew it wouldn't last," said Gary as he rushed down to the holding cell.
"Please make her stop, we're between dimensions right now," said Chloe.
Matt grabbed a blaster, before following Gary. The two almost barrelled into Spider-Man, the ship shaking at that. "Alert...necromantic infection x 2...3...targets on move."
"Oh, not now," groaned Matt.
The shadows at the end darken before NegaMorph walked into view, his eyes solid green. "That's not normal," Matt said before NegaMorph hissed.
"Don't let him bite you?" asked Spider-Man.
"Not something I'd let him do normally, but this time is particularly bad," said Matt.
"Warning...energy overload. Jump drive destabilizing," said the computer.
"Lady Nega, if you're sending us to a zombie dimension, I will never forgive you!" snapped Matt.
"Overload...real space emergence..." said the computer before everyone was thrown off their feet.
From the outside, the ship was shaking as necrotic energy spread over it. Suddenly, it made a big lurch sideways, plowing through a green wall of energy that wasn't there before.
And there's the last part of the New Night City arc. This could have been a lot more involved, but I had to simplify it before it became a four-parter. Even so, the multiverse arc isn't quite over yet. Just one last chapter to go and that should be up soon. Keep an eye out for it and please review.
