Chapter 9: Something Wicked This Way Comes

In which our heroes receive some bad news and get help from an unexpected source.

For the first time in months, Eddie woke up feeling warm and comfortable. He had such a nice dream… He dreamt that his beloved symbiote was back. That he wasn't alone anymore…

"It wasn't a dream, Eddie."

Eddie gasped and bolted upright, not quite daring to believe that everything had been real.

And yet, the truth was staring him right in the face. Literally.

V was draped over him like a blanket, but they had formed a head with a long serpentine neck and were looking up at him with love in their eyes.

"V… It's really you…" Eddie whispered, kissing the top of their head.

They nuzzled into his cheek. "I'm here, Eddie. You are free now and we are together again."

Eddie looked around as the memories of their escape from Ravencroft poured back into his mind. This wasn't his cell, this was Cameron's home, offered to them freely as a place to lie low and get their bearings.

Cameron himself was probably still sleeping in his own room. After bluntly stating that after playing human taxi for an alien, she was entitled for compensation, Leslie had claimed the other bedroom for herself. (It had been unanimously decided that it was better to stick together for a little longer, until things calmed down and they were sure it was safe to go their separate ways.)

That left Eddie to sleep on the couch in the common room-slash-kitchen, but he didn't mind: this was leagues above Ravencroft.

He cradled V closer and felt his heart ache as he realized that these kids, these complete strangers, had shown more care and concern for him than his own family ever did.

And they really were only kids.

Eddie knew from V's memories that Klyntar didn't have much of a childhood, being expected to take care of themselves from the moment they were born, but Carrie was still less than a day old. Leslie and Cameron might be adults on paper, eighteen and nineteen years old, but they were still only teenagers, who shouldn't have had to put themselves in danger by breaking into a prison.

And if Mordo kept lurking around, they might still be in danger.

Eddie felt a sudden surge of protectiveness. Whatever Mordo was plotting, he and V would do their best to make sure that these kids remained safe.

It was the smell of food that woke Cameron up. He sleepily patted Carrie's retreating tendrils as they seeped under his skin, "Morning, Carrie."

"Good morning, Cameron."

Cameron climbed out of his bed and stumbled into the kitchen. He was surprised to see Eddie cooking something on the stove.

"You have found food?" Cameron asked incredulously. He was pretty sure that his fridge had been empty.

"There were some eggs," Eddie replied. "But the milk was spoiled."

"I found coffee," Leslie added, raising the mug she was holding. "And sugar, but it's about to run out."

"Oh, and salt. That's about it," Eddie finished.

Cameron awkwardly scratched the back of his head, "Yeah, I kinda forgot to make a grocery run. Sorry."

Leslie raised an eyebrow, "You raced off to buy a video game, but you forgot to get any food?"

Cameron blushed, "Well, we all have our priorities…"

Leslie ruefully shook her head, "Cam, how are you still alive?"

"Uh… Ramen? Which I also forgot to buy."

She snorted, "You're a disaster. What kind of an example are you setting for Carrie?"

"You should eat better," Carrie agreed.

Cameron crossed his arms in annoyance. "I did not bring you to my apartment just so you could criticize my eating habits! And it was my roommate who was responsible for getting the groceries. It's not my fault he found a job in another city and had to move out."

Inwardly though, he could admit that Leslie had a point. With Carrie bonded to him, their health depended on his own. He would have to take better care of himself.

"And here I've been wondering how you could afford an apartment this nice," Leslie commented, "because mine is a shoebox."

Cameron winced, "Yeah, it's fine when you have someone to split rent with, but the cost is pretty high if you're living on your own." He sighed, "I've been searching for a new roommate, but now that I have Carrie, I think I might be better off finding a smaller apartment and living alone. I like this place, but I don't want to spend every cent I earn on rent."

"Sorry, Cam."

"Nah, not your fault that the prices are so high."

Sure, his parents would gladly help him out if he asked, but Cameron wanted to prove that he could live independently.

…Which also meant that he would need to remember that all chores were now his to do.

"I'll help!"

Cameron smiled. "Thanks, Carrie. You're a treasure."

After the makeshift breakfast that consisted of fried eggs and coffee (mostly coffee), the three (five) of them had gathered in front of the TV.

"Alright, let's see what the news have to say about us," Cameron said, turning it on.

"Hopefully nothing," Leslie replied.

She doubted that anyone had seen her face that night – her companions were a little more noticeable – but it was better to double-check. After riding on Carnage's back all the way from Ravencroft, Leslie wasn't sure of anything. It had been the worst rollercoaster ride of her life, and she had been mostly concerned with not throwing up rather than watching her surroundings.

Cameron flipped through the channels, until he finally found the news.

"–Not the only one to break out of the Ravencroft Sanitarium," the newscaster was saying. "This morning, recently apprehended Cletus Kasady has escaped as well."

"What?!" Leslie and Cameron shouted in unison.

"Oh, the crazy guy? He was in the cell next to mine," Eddie commented when the newscaster showed the photo of the escapee.

Leslie almost choked, "Cletus fucking Kasady was your neighbor?!"

Eddie frowned, "I guess? He never told me his name. Why are you freaking out about it so much?"

"Because he's a fucking mass-murderer, that's why!" Leslie yelled. "He tried to blow up an entire city block like a week ago! And now he's free because–"

She froze in realization.

"He's free because of us," Cameron finished in a horrified whisper.

Leslie felt nauseous. V had tried to be careful when breaking through the outer wall, but the damage they had inflicted could've spread to the neighboring cells. Or maybe the guards, rattled from the break-in, had made a mistake and let Kasady escape.

Cameron clenched his fists, Carrie wrapping around them to turn his fingers into claws. "We're going to stop him. We're going to find him and drag him back to prison."

Carrie slithered up his arms in a wave of mottled red, but before they could transform him fully, Eddie grabbed his hand. "Kid, you have no idea where he is. And we're not letting you run off half-cocked after a crazy serial killer!"

"It's our fault that he's free! We have to stop him!" Cameron snapped. "And he's just a guy, we can take him on!"

"…I wouldn't be so sure," Leslie said and pointed at the TV. "Look!"

The footage on screen showed Kasady's cell in the aftermath of his escape. The place looked like it had been doused in gasoline and set on fire. Whatever happened in there, the heat was so great, the steel bars had melted into a pile of sludge and the outer wall had been reduced to charred rubble.

"The eyewitnesses claim that Kasady has shown an ability to create and control fire," the newscaster said. "After destroying his cell and attacking the guards, he has flown away in unknown direction. Anyone who sees him is advised to exercise extreme caution and immediately call the authorities."

"What?" Cameron asked incredulously. "If he had powers, then why wasn't there better security? Why was he sent to Ravencroft in the first place and not to one of those supermax prisons that deal with superpowered criminals?"

"Did he just spontaneously develop them?" Leslie wondered. "How? I thought mutants only got their powers at puberty. He is like forty."

"…I know how he did it," Eddie said suddenly. "I know where he got these powers!"

It was so obvious once he thought about it. Eddie had refused to work for Mordo, so he had found a new pawn. Kasady had certainly seemed eager, not caring what he had to do as long as it got him out of prison.

Eddie quickly recapped his encounter with Mordo and the conclusions he came to.

"I think you're right," Leslie agreed. "Damn, what does this creep even want?!"

"We'll find that out after we stop him. Both of them," Cameron interjected. Then he winced, "…Which might be easier said than done, because Carrie just told me that fire is one of the main weaknesses of their species."

"Oh, great…" Leslie muttered. "Wanna bet that Mordo did this on purpose?"

"No bet," Eddie flatly replied. "He was really pissed off when I refused to work for him."

Cameron dug his claws into his hair, Carrie's tendrils rippling around him, "How the hell are we supposed to stop them if Kasady can hit our weak spots and Mordo only appears as a ghost?"

Leslie chewed on her thumb. "Do you think it might be possible to depower Kasady? I mean… If that power can be given, it can be taken, right?"

Now there was a thought…

"Makes sense," Eddie agreed. "The question is how."

"We need to figure out what Mordo has done to give him these powers in the first place," Leslie said. "Then we might get an idea on how to remove them."

"So we should go back to Ravencroft and look for clues?" Cameron asked.

"Or perhaps I could be of assistance," a new voice said suddenly.

Cameron flinched, completing his transformation in seconds. "Who's there?"

Eddie and V had transformed as well, looking warily around.

Something akin to purple smoke drifted through the air. It swirled around them, changing their surroundings into something completely different.

They were no longer in Cameron's comfy apartment. Instead, they were in a strange room with walls made of dark mist. In the middle of it was an elaborate chair with a back that resembled a giant spiderweb.

Upon it sat an old woman. She looked human, with grey hair and eyes hidden under red glasses. The strange crimson suit she wore bound her legs together and stretched over the floor like a serpent's tail.

"What is this? An illusion?" Leslie asked warily.

Carnage pulled her closer and stretched out several long tendrils, waving them through the air. "No. Can't feel the walls or the furniture."

"So we've been teleported somewhere? Great."

"Who are you? Where have you taken us?" Venom snarled, Eddie and V synchronizing to the point they were almost a single entity. They stepped forward, keeping the kids hidden behind their bulk.

The woman smiled, "Such protectiveness… It is good to see you coming back to your true selves. For a while, I thought that both of you had been lost to hatred. I'm glad that you have managed to find a way back."

Venom growled warily, "How do you know all that?"

The woman clicked her tongue, "That's not the question you should be asking. What you should ask is what else do I know." She gestured to the side and the purple smoke drifted through the air again, forming a static-filled screen with uneven edges. "Observe."

The static cleared, forming an image of Cletus Kasady sitting in his cell in Ravencroft. A guard approached him, holding a package.

"A delivery for you," the guard said in a monotone voice, pushing the package between the bars.

"A gift? For me?" Kasady giggled. "Oh, you shouldn't have!"

Then he pounced forward, grabbed the guard's hand, and bit it strongly enough to tear through his skin and make him bleed.

The guard didn't react. He didn't cry out in pain, didn't try to pull his hand back, didn't even change his expression. His face remained blank and his eyes were completely empty.

It was incredibly unnerving, enough to rattle even a maniac like Kasady. He let go and took a step back. "What's wrong with you, man? I thought lunatics were supposed to be behind the bars!"

The guard didn't reply. He simply turned around and left.

And the mysterious package remained on the floor.

"Well? Aren't you going to open it?" Mordo asked, appearing in the corner in his usual translucent form.

"Oh, I remember your voice!" Kasady grinned. "You've been here yesterday, right?" He cackled madly, "I've heard it all! Brock ditched you, didn't he? I told you he was a bad choice!"

Mordo ground his teeth together, clearly unhappy to be reminded of his failure to recruit Eddie, but when he spoke, his voice was calm and even. "That's why I'm here. I have hypnotized the guard to deliver this little gift to you, so why don't you open it now?"

Kasady immediately dropped to the floor and ripped the package open, revealing a glass box inside. Suspended within it was a long jagged shard made of some kind of faintly glowing orange crystal.

"Pretty thing…" Kasady breathed out. He stared at the gem, looking completely entranced, and tapped the glass with his fingertips, "You want out, pretty thing, don't you? You want to burn…"

"This gem can grant you incredible power," Mordo said. "But to enjoy it, you must first swear to serve master Dormammu for all eternity."

"No problem, man!" Kasady laughed. "He sounds like my kind of guy. Let me have this power!"

"Then it is all yours," Mordo said. "For as long as you can hold it."

He gestured at the box and it shattered into pieces. The orange crystal fell out and Kasady caught it in one hand.

The skin that touched it reddened and blistered with a horrid sizzling noise. The gem glowed brighter, and Kasady laughed as his hand was engulfed in flames, reducing it to a mess of blackened flesh and charred bone. "Oh, it burns! It burns so good!"

The fire crept up his arm, but it looked like Kasady felt no pain from it. Or was too insane to care.

"You want more, pretty thing? You do, you do, I know you do!"

And with a wild laugh, he grabbed the gem with both hands and stabbed it into his chest.

His shirt caught on fire and the skin beneath it started to crack and peel back from his flesh. Blood ran down his chest, boiling and evaporating in a cloud of steam.

"I'll show you a good time, pretty thing!" Kasady cackled. "We are going to have so much fun together!"

The crystal glowed even brighter, as if reacting to his words, and started to move on its own, sinking deeper into his chest until it was completely buried inside. The shard had been so long, it must have pierced straight through Kasady's heart. The fire had spread over his entire body, yet somehow, he was still alive and still laughing.

"We will destroy everyone and everything that stands in our way! The whole world will burn in the inferno we create!"

"Inferno, eh?" Mordo mused, rubbing his chin in thought. "I like the sound of that."

Then, at long last, the other guards had arrived, having heard the commotion.

"What the hell is that?!" one of them yelled, pointing his gun at Kasady.

By this point, he was nothing more than a hideous living corpse with blackened flesh and exposed bones, completely wreathed in flames.

Kasady lazily flicked his hand in their direction. A wide stream of fire burst out, reducing the bars of his cell to molten sludge. The guards had barely managed to dive out of the way in time.

Kasady flexed his fingers that were nothing more than bones held together with charred sinew, "Now that's what I call power!" He rose into the air, and the flames around him grew until they filled the entire cell, "I'll burn this whole place to ashes!"

"Don't forget your promises, Inferno!" Mordo rebuked. "From now on, you belong to master Dormammu and you will do as he commands! We don't have time for pointless destruction!"

The flames diminished, and Kasady, Inferno, flippantly waved his hand, "Sure, sure, sure… Whatever the big boss says."

Then he threw a fireball at the outer wall, reducing it to rubble, and flew out with another mad laugh.

The screen dissolved into static once again.

"Oh, what the hell…" Leslie whispered. "I knew that guy was a total psycho, but this was so messed up…"

"So how are we going to remove that crystal without burning our hands off or getting a fireball in the face?" Carnage asked.

"No, better question is, where are we going to find him?" Leslie interrupted.

"Show us what Mordo is planning!" Venom demanded.

"You already know that," the woman said. "You have everything you need. Just remember: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."

Then she disappeared in a swirl of purple mist, depositing them back into Cameron's apartment.

"No, we don't!" Carnage yelled. "We don't know anything! We don't even know who you are! And what's with the stupid riddles?!"

A sudden gust of wind blew in, even though it couldn't have naturally appeared inside the building with all the doors and windows closed. The wind brought a sheet of paper with it and smacked it right in their face.

Carnage peeled off the paper and looked down at it, reading aloud, "Madame Web?"

"Well, at least we have her name now," Leslie said flatly. Then she shouted, "But we still don't know what those creeps are planning!"

Faint laughter echoed all around them, but Madame Web refused to give them any other hints.

Carnage fell on the couch with an exasperated sigh and transformed back. "Alright, I guess it's brainstorming time."

"Don't look at me," Leslie said, raising her hands. "Mordo hasn't said a single word to me."

"At least you have seen him," Cameron countered. "Because Carrie and I haven't."

Then they both turned to look expectantly at Eddie.

He sighed, letting go of his transformation as well. The kids were right: out of all of them, he was the only one who had actually spoken to Mordo.

Eddie closed his eyes and felt V dig into his memories, dragging them to the surface and replaying his conversation with Mordo in an attempt to see any hint of what he was planning.

Until finally, they had found it.

'How dare you make jests at my master's expense! Once he is free of his dimensional prison…'

Dimensional prison.

Eddie opened his eyes. "I know what they are going to do."

A/N: Inferno is based on the character Ignus from "Planescape: Torment" (aka one of my favorite games ever). In the game, Ignus was a pyromaniac mage who burned down a street, killing all the people who lived there. As a punishment, he was turned into a living conduit to the Elemental Plane of Fire, a burning corpse that refused to die. Except it wasn't much of a punishment: he was so obsessed with fire, he actually liked being burned alive.