A small village burned brightly into the night sky, and near it lay the cemetery as one girl was happily digging up the gravestones. "Hmhmhmhm~" She hummed, shoveling away until she hit the casket. With a grin, she opened up the casket to see what it contained.
She frowned right after, letting out a sigh. "Nope, does not have any Faunus-like features. Phooey." She said, climbing out of the hole and looked around the graveyard, seeing all the gravestones that she had dug up.
The girl in question had blonde, shoulder-length hair topped with a fluffy cyan accessory and blue eyes. She wore a silver, long-sleeved shirt, with a jet black ribbon on her neck and gray pants. Above her shirt, she wore a sleeveless, dark blue dress, with a black bodice and white frills.
"Guess this was a waste of time… oh well! I'll just find another graveyard. No biggie." She said, placing her shovel over her shoulder and hummed as she wandered out.
She pulled out a book, flipping through the pages and marked something on it. "This village had no Faunus for me… a shame, really… the last village had a couple for me to snag, alive and buried. Ah well, it's not like I have plenty of 'em."
She stopped walking shortly, hearing the sound of a stick being snapped as she turned her head and saw a Fanglar approaching her. "Oh, it's just a new Grimm. Go back to your den, there's probably lots of food there." She said and walked off to ignore it, but the Fanglar followed her before tapping her on the shoulder.
She let out an annoyed sigh as she gripped her shovel tightly before swinging the shovel to knock the Fanglar on the head. "I said buzz off, you Pokemon reject!" She said, swiftly kicking it in the groin as it fell to the ground with a groan as she walked off in a huff.
"Honestly, the things I have to put up with while grave robbing." She mumbled as she continued to walk off, but then a Clurkrahnna came jumping in and grabbed a hold of her. "Wah!"
The Clurkrahnna chuckled, placing her on its back and started to run… but the girl smacked him upside the head to knock him out, sliding a little bit. "Go find some clownfish or something, you'd be better off wasting your time with that!"
She walked off grumbling to herself. "Honestly, these things are becoming worse than Faunus. Brainless with nothing going on upstai-" A Feargull came swooping down and grabbed a hold of her. "Whoa! WHOOOOA!" She yelled as the beast held her by the shoulders. "HEY! HEY BUDDY! I'M NOT YOUR BIRD FOOD!" She yelled, swinging her shovel at the Feargull, making it yelp and had her fall to the ground as she gracefully landed on the ground, tucking and rolling in the process.
"There, that should do it." She said as she continued to walk, but the Feargull came back, this time yanking the shovel out of her hand and then grabbed her by the back of her collar with its beak and then flew off. "OH YOU PIECE OF CRAP! LET ME AT YA!" She yelled, trying to fight back while the Feargull simply let out a small caw. "Oh, you think that's funny, hmm? Well, you'll be wiping that smirk off your beak when you drop me off wherever it is you're taking me!"
The Feargull dropped the girl off at Castle Avalon... literally. "Ooof!" She grunted as the Nevermore flew up and dropped the shovel off on her head, which to the Feargull's amusement, the blunt metal smacked her on the head. "YOWCH!" She yelled, holding on to it while a goose egg formed on her head, as the Nevermore flew off.
"Yeah, you better fly away!" She glared, rubbing her head with pained tears forming in her eyes. She got up. "Where the devil am I?" She wondered, picking up her shovel and looked at the doors in front of her and with a deep breath, she fearlessly walked in.
As she wandered around the castle, she would eventually come across a room that had a large vortex behind it, in the vortex, there were numerous souls screaming in pain and agony. "Hmm, this must be a meeting room or something." She mused before she felt a presence behind her as she turned around and swung her shovel, only for it to be stopped by a being that was cloaked in a full-length black coat with a hood and a waist-high slit going up the back (similar to a duster). It had a large silver zipper that fastened at the top and zipped down to seal the coat. It had silver drawstrings for the hood decorated with a large silver bead hanging from the end and a silver chain ornament adorned with four large cylindrical silver beads that fastened to a loop on either side of the collarbone region. The being had a gray tail and two large wings that were red on the inner side, and blue on the outer side, and showed only his glowing red pupils with black sclera. "Who the hell…? Wow, no wonder you hide your face, you probably have one only a mother could love, which by looking at you, she doesn't have high standards."
The cloaked dragon, Necerophanes, the Master of Masters, rolled his eyes beneath the hood. "I've been watching you for quite a long time, let me tell ya."
"Ew, creeper much? …Wait a minute, judging by your appearance, you're probably a dragon that everyone in every continent ever is talking about."
"Name's Necerophanes, kid… I've been scouting you and 5 other individuals for a long time. You're Arya McBonesly, correct? The number one grave robber in Remnant, orphaned at the age of six. Runs in the family, since your parents are grave robbers themselves. Or rather, were. Went grave robbing one night when two Faunus guards showed up and tried to put a stop to your shenanigans. They fought them off only for the Faunus guards to shoot 'em dead. And you just so happened to have witnessed the whole thing hiding behind a tree… and that's what made you despise Faunus with a passion."
"Well, you somehow got it all-" A voice spoke up as CatNap approached them. "Faunus are all not that bad. Sure, there's a few stink pots but not all Faunus are bad. …Says the serial killer, AHAHAHAHAHA!"
"Yeah, you're definitely right on that, buuuuut I'm not willing to turn the other cheek any time soon."
"Such a shame, perhaps we should take this time to get to know each other." CatNap smiled, his tail popping out and plucking his hat off his head, the cat man running up to her, his face inches from her face but she didn't even flinch.
"Oh, you're a cat faunus. Why don't you go back to your little box so we humans can have a private conversation, you skin walker?" She snarked.
"Bold words for someone who's one breath away from being put to sleep. And I'm not Faunus, I'm a mutant." He smirked.
"Oh, sleep? I thought you were going to use those claws of yours to scratch my back. Better yet, your tail could be used as a table for an all you can eat buffet while you hang on a wall after a taxidermist is done with you."
CatNap gleefully chuckled. "I like this one. She definitely has the cajones to insult a serial killer."
"Oh, is that what you skin walkers call yourselves these days? Fitting for you beasts."
"Surely, this girl is something else." Tenebrie said as he walked in. "Tends to speak her mind while throwing in insults. Reminds me of someone we know."
"So, what exactly do you do?" Noxmar asked. "What is your semblance, little girl?"
"Okay, for the record, I've fifteen. Second of all, my sem-"
"Hold up. We have someone else coming in right about now."
Dropping in before them was a panther mutant about the same height as Kuroto. His clothing consisted of a pair of skin tight black pants with a gold colored panther head shaped belt buckle and a purple tank top. He smirked at everyone before chuckling. "Name's Bruce Chesney, please, just call me Panther, as I'm sure you know why. So, I'm working with a human, huh? Not my first choice, but she's got potential."
"Eugh, a skin walker…and a panther at that! Don't you have a tiger faunus to fight?"
"Oh please, like I would let that happen, little miss prissy."
"Oh, you're a REAL charmer." Arya rolled her eyes. "So, how did you end up like...this?"
"It was about a year ago. I had just gotten back from my part time job from working at the zoo. My job was to give the panther its bath. Then a canister of ooze fell onto me and I turned into this. Since then I used my new abilities to steal what I could to make a living. That's how I met Bandit Racoon. We were an unstoppable duo, until he betrayed me. We're higher up on the food chain. People like us deserve to have whatever we want. I don't even know what he was thinking."
Arya sweatdropped. "Okay, I'm not one to curse but holy SHIT, can we PLEASE euthanize this asshole? Seriously, I may be rotten on the inside but even I think he's too much!" Arya said. "I can euthanize him myself… with my shovel!"
"No one is euthanizing anyone." Necerophanes said.
Drat… Arya thought as she saw Panther wipe his brow and breathe a sigh of relief. Oh, I'm gonna enjoy cutting off his hand.
"So, I have brought you both here because I have been scouting you both for a long while. Arya, your semblance is intriguing, as is Panther's skills."
"Huh, I always did think I felt someone was watching my every move since Bandit left."
"Let me guess, you wanted to scout us because you're low in numbers?" Arya guessed.
"No, but I need five more to add to the Shadow Hunters, as I personally brought one more." Necerophanes said.
"And that would be?" Panther said.
"I was beginning to get uncomfortable waiting for you to stop talking. Though really, the pride of the blonde girl is most impressive." A man said as he walked up, dressed like he was from medieval times.
"Really?" Panther asked. "What is this guy, some demon?"
"NOT a demon," he replied. "My name is Imshael, and I prefer the term choice spirit."
"And what choice put you here with us?" Arya snarked.
Imshael strolled about thoughtfully, admiring seemingly unimportant and unnecessary objects around the room as if they were valuable pieces of art. Arya recognized his actions as reading the energies of his surroundings, but even to someone like her, Imshael's actions felt foreign and bizarre.
"What a poor choice it was for Lord D'Onterre to keep his mage daughter under lock and key," Imshael said. "A choice that led to the slaughter of an entire household... Or perhaps it was the Inquisition's choice to play the hero by destroying the demon and putting the undead to rest... Or maybe still it was your interesting choice to move into such a place. So many choices, all leading us to this very moment."
"And, what's that greenie kid holding?" Arya asked.
"The last thing we got from the crazy lady." The greenette, Siobhan McDougall, said. "Allow Kyle to demonstrate."
"Stand back." Kyle McDougall, aka Mist, said as everyone stepped back a bit. "More." Everyone stepped back a bit more, as a freeze cannon shot out the window and froze a nearby bird.
"Whoa." Imshael said.
"I know, right?" Silver Banshee said. "And this button turns it off." The big guy, Rough House, slapped the weapon, making it shut down.
"Y'see, I was considered the lowest of all the Teigu clan, considering I could only manipulate smoke and ash." Necerophanes said. "But now, I'm about to get the respect I deserve. What do you say? Ready to make history?"
"Well then, we're in." Silver Banshee said, Mist and Rough House nodded with her.
"And your semblance intrigues me the most." Necerophanes said to Arya. "It's fascinating… what do you call it, exactly?"
Arya smirked gleefully. "Reanimation."
"Reanimation?" Imshael repeated. "How does this work?"
"It's simple, really… I just need to collect DNA samples. Small patches of rotten flesh, blood stains or small organs would do. I either take them for ordinary every day people ooooor from famous huntsmen or huntresses, then I add them into this little tome right here." She said, pulling it out. "That said, I typically use Faunus or Beowulf Grimm as a primary living sacrifice material for my semblance."
"Mind if we have a demonstration?" Necerophanes asked. "I'm curious to see what it looks like up close."
"Sure, I just need a test subject. Any skin walker would do." She glanced over at Panther or Megafin. "Personally, I'd say let it be one of those two but I figure those two are off limits."
"Indeed, which is why I figured these two would suffice." Necerophanes said, snapping his fingers as the doors opened up to see something chained to the floor by its wrists was something that looked like a bipedal caribou. It had small, undersized antlers, and was rangy and scrawny as if it had wandered into the beginnings of puberty and failed to cross the intervening distance. Its only article of clothing was a loincloth that hung loose on its skinny hips.
It was doing nothing at the moment but standing there with its head hanging down. Then, it glanced up and saw them-- and exploded into a torrent of screaming profanity that would have boiled lead. "Fucking sluts! Whores! I'll get you all! You too, Fag! You Faggy whore and your whore mares and your little slut-trained filly! I'll make you choke on your own @@@ and @@@ you with my @@@@@!!"
They all jerked back. Imshael gasped in shock at how profane this caribou got. The worst thing about it was that he wasn't screaming in rage. No. He seemed to be taking glee in making his obscene, vile threats, shouting them with a hideous grin on his face.
Arya, on the other hand, was not smiling. She just stood there staring at the foul mouthed caribou, utterly confused. "Who, or what, is that skin walker?" She said, in the calm voice of someone plotting out how exactly to break someone's neck.
Necerophanes' lip curled. "The star attraction in one corner of the Fanfic Pits," he said. "They normally use this pit for the pedo sleaze, but this guy demanded special treatment. Fall of Equestria. Cute little fella, ain't he? Some crusty little manchild out in the Beyond decided to cope with his lack of actual manhood, squeezed out all his dysfunctions into one creative abortion, and made a fanfic where Equestria is invaded by rapist caribou."
"Ra-rapist...??" Arya stammered.
"Who, of course, won without even trying and proceeded to screw everything with a pulse."
"And they take over this Equestria, just like that?" Silver Banshee asked "HOW? How're they supposed to beat all the soldiers in the army an--"
"By the power of Mary Sue magic and epic level shitty writing," Necerophanes said, curling his lip. "Basically a bunch of these moose understudies cast a spell that makes all unicorn magic useless. Then they cast another magic Mary Sue spell that turns all the stallions and little colts into 'enlightened' rape-happy cockslappers like this twerp... and another one that turns all the mares into submissive, subservient sluts." He gagged and spit. "Even the little fillies."
The rest of them balked in horror. "Yeah, Pinkamena and Miguel agreed on one thing, that was NOT a fun weekend at all," Necerophanes snarked. "The sick freak who made him started a whole movement among other sick freaks... art work, side stories. It took about another month or two in the Outer World before him and his fellow tally whackers ended up in the news under the headline 'kiddie porn ring busted.' and were subsequently murdered in jail by some man named Bubba Jones, as even prisoners agree that kids are something that should NOT be touched in that way. Anyway, the damage was massive. F.O.E. started spreading like a tumor. Every few weeks, the Meta Brigade had to take a purge team and clear out another entire alt line with flamethrowers." He glared at the jeering madman. "Till they got smart. Then things got a lot harder for ya, didn't they, Fowey?"
The caribou's leer turned into a sneer of hate. "Fuck you, you $#$%$#$$!"
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, dinky binky," Necerophanes said. "Yeah, with a sexually deviant Marty Stu writer so far out on the fringe, we didn't have to look hard to find alt lines where the whole dang universe didn't revolve around fulfilling the desires of Fowey's dick. They just let him march into a few alts where Celestia and Luna DIDN'T fold like wet toast just because the Elk King came marching into the room. Just to rub in how pathetic and impotent he is." She cackled. "The teeniest, tiniest drop of Canon Verisimiltude and his God Mode Sue tribe and their "the author is compensating for something" leader, the Elk Lord Diddles-Little-Foals, gets the bitch slapping of his life. Every. Single. Time."
Necerophanes smirked evilly. "That first run in with Competentlestia the Caribou ended up castrated, and their mighty leader beheaded. And it gets uglier each and every time. His pedo elk warriors get pimp slapped into the dirt and curb stomped, his "tribal shamans" run up against Equestria's canon magitek society and get squished, his mighty warrior-king Gonad the Barbarian gets his spine ripped out through his mouth...Just for variety, they started letting him loose in alts with Tyrantlestia, or Nightmare Sun, or even Molestia... when we got him back from that one we had to dunk him in a vat of penicillin for three days, and he didn't stop sobbing the whole time..."
"@$%@ YOU!"
"Awww, he's listening. Last time they dropped him on his head in an alt line for the Conversion Bureau." He pointed over his shoulder at the cage that was dragged into the room on a trolley pulled by some Stooges. As if on cue a gout of magical flame shot up out of the pit and a stentorian voice shouted:
"Release us! We must stop the Human Plague! They are vile! They are evil! Their world must be exterminated and they must be transformed to ascend them out of their evil--"
Megafin pulled out a spray bottle and sprayed at the pony inside the cage. Boiling clouds of steam rose. The godlike voice hissed and fell silent.
"Oh, and that was Conversionlestia, newbies," Kronos said with a theatrical wave of the hand. "Before you ask--an insecure hack version of Princess Celestia plotted to destroy the Human world with a wave of human-killing magic sos he won't have to accept that she has flaws and is NOT little miss special pony, and enslave the human race by turning them into dimwit ponies."
"???" None of the newbies even needed to SAY the word.
"You heard me. By turning them. Into. Dimwit ponies," Kronos repeated. "An alt line so fucking stupid that it practically self-destructed. Sometimes, the OVDF opened the divider between these two and let nature take its course. Well, before Imshael stole them, anyway."
"I figured they had to be good for something." Imshael shrugged it off, nonchalantly.
"Indeed. I show them my face, and since they saw madness itself, they're rendered powerless." Necerophanes said, approaching the two before getting behind the cage, opened it, and unceremoniously snapped the white alicorn's neck.
Arya didn't even flinch as she watched the pony fall. "You're not so keen on mercy, are you?" She chuckled. "But considering these two are nothing but disposable parts of fanfiction, apparently, I'll let that slide."
"I've done the prep work for you. Now recall the soul of the one I just killed and revive her with the other with this unique Semblance of yours."
Arya bowed. "As you wish." She said and walked to Conversionlestia's corpse. "Now, there's a few things you need to know about my semblance. First of all, you need to know that my Reanimation basically involves recalling souls of the dead back from the afterlife and bringing them here to the land of the living." She knelt down, pulling out a knife. "To do that, I first must obtain a certain amount of flesh from the person I wanna revive."
She cut through his stomach, as some blood splattered on her cheek. "In other words, a DNA sample that contains personal identification material. Because without them, my Semblance won't work and the reanimation process would fail. I've already mentioned that other DNA sample materials may include blood stains and small organs."
"Wow…" Birch stared in awe.
"However... another important point you should know is that the soul of the person I wanna revive has to reside in the afterlife."
"Essentially, there are limitations where any attempts to bring souls that reside in another plane of reality or are in the mortal realm as ghosts can't be revived. Am I right?" Kronos guessed.
Arya nodded. "That is correct, uh…"
"Kain Onos, just call me Kronos."
"You are correct, Kronos." She said before sighing in annoyance. "Sometimes, the DNA samples I collect are so rotted to the point that I couldn't even properly recognize who I'm trying to resurrect."
"Generally speaking, you commit grave-robbing as a hobby." Necerophanes said.
Arya shrugged. "Pretty much. Regrettably... I often meet a lot of failures along the way due to wrong personal information materials I've extracted from countless graveyards." She said, applying the blood on her tome. She then clapped her hands together with a sadistic smirk as an aura surrounded F.O.E as he found herself being overtaken by her semblance.
"Wha…?! What the fuck's going on?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" He yelled before his body was taken over by Conversionlestia, and to make things creepier, his body was now a white female alicorn body, the sclera was now permanently black and had cracks over her body, and the hair was flowing, black and silver with white streaks, and the regalia was cracked.
Calamity whistled. "Niiiiice."
"Hmmhmhmhmhm~" Arya chuckled. "Just think, with this powerful semblance, we can have anyone by our side, even the most powerful undead!"
"What...did that human do to me…?" Conversionlestia wondered, terrified by her new body.
"Oh, speaking of which…" Arya aimed her tome at Conversionlestia as the tome lit up as it sucked her in, causing her to scream before disappearing into the tome. "And now she's my pawn, isn't that wonderful?"
"Hmph. Yes indeed. Quick question, though. What would you consider your strongest puppet?" Imshael asked.
Arya's eyes sparkled. "Oh, I'm so glad you've asked!" She said. "Three years ago, I came into contact with this Faunus in Mantle. He was one of the top dogs of the Winter Ops and from what I can guess, he was General Esdeath's best friend… maybe something a bit more, I dunno. He was called the Hunter Hero of the North, AKA Numa Seika."
"What is his power if he's considered that strong?" Silver Banshee asked.
"Good question! I never bothered asking, but if I had to guess, it was lightning manipulation with how much he tends to throw electricity around." Aria shrugged. "Not my problem honestly… I killed him. Nothing like a little ambush to throw him off his game."
"Ah, so you're nothing but a dirty coward?" Panther said, casually putting his hands over his head.
"Oh kiss my butt, skin walker!"
"Perhaps we should put these six to the test." Megafin said. "I'm curious to see what these lots can do in a fight."
"Personally, I'm more of a scholar than a fighter myself." Arya said. "That said, I'm not afraid to get down and dirty. You have an arena?"
"We do." Necerophanes nodded. "Imshael, as you have captured Conversionlestia recently, her minions will come running to save her, right? Maybe you can work with Arya, Panther, Silver Banshee, Mist and Rough House to get rid of them together."
Imshael giggled and bowed. "As you wish."
"…I have to work with HIM?!"
"What's the matter, you thinking I'll kill more than you?" Panther smirked as Arya snarled at him before they walked toward a large room where they would see a large group of ponies banging at the gates with many primitive weapons.
"Aw, boring, they look like they don't have any good weapons." Arya said. "Oh well! Makes things easier." She said, pulling out her tome. "I summon you… Numa Seika!"
A young man came out of the tome with long black hair and blue eyes with black sclera. He wears a grey suit of armor on top of a purple high-collared shirt. He also wears a metal headpiece with a symbol of a snowflake which matched the ones on his chest plate and shoulder guards, as well as a purple cape. Interestingly, he had gills on his neck.
"A fish faunus?" Noxmar wondered.
"Manta Ray, actually."
"You don't see those every day." He mused.
"Come on, let me just get to killing these ponies already!" Panther said, gleefully laughing maniacally as Silver Banshee put her mask on, Mist pulled out a gun, Rough House pounded his fists together and Imshael conjured up a few lightning balls.
"Alright Numa…rip and tear!"
"As you wish, Lady Aria…" Numa brought out his spear as he and Panther lunged at their hapless victims.
Imshael immediately grabbed hold of a pink pony, holding her by the shoulder as an aura wrapped around the pony and enveloped her in lightning as the pony soon fell lifeless to the ground, then turned to a blue pony as Mist shot him in the head.
Numa, meanwhile, impaled several ponies and ripped into them, blood splattering everywhere as he would then clap his hands as electricity came out and hit an orange pony in the head before swinging his spear to decapitate him as Silver Banshee screamed her lungs out as many pony heads exploded as Rough House snapped many other pony necks.
"Oh, look at these wonderful souls for me to collect!" Arya's eyes sparkled.
"Hmm..." Silver Banshee asked. "You said you're fifteen, correct?"
"That's right."
"So basically, you killed this man when you were twelve!"
"Yup!"
"That's awesome, girl!" She let out a small laugh. "I'm starting to like you even more!" Rough House said, as Necerophanes had his arms folded, impressed by their work as Panther strangled one individual before sinking his teeth into another pony's neck.
And thus… all of their victims were helplessly destroyed where Arya would dismiss Numa. "Ah, wonderful!" Arya smiled.
Necerophanes slowly clapped his hands. "Very impressive. You will do well to serve under me, assuming you want to take over the omniverse."
"I'll join you. After all, this isn't just taking over New York, right? This is about taking over every single reality. And some men just wanna watch this world burn." Panther said.
"If it means I get a lot of new puppets, I'm all in." Arya smiled. "I am at your mercy, Lord Necerophanes."
"Very well, just get us a cut of the money, and we're all yours." Silver Banshee said.
"Well then, seems I'll make the right choice working with you." Imshael said.
"Excellent." Necerophanes smirked.
"Ha!" Panther gave Arya a taunting smirk. "Funny how we're teaming up. Just don't get in my way."
"Pah! I wouldn't dream of it, you dumb skin walker."
Silver Banshee smirked. "You know, you're pretty cute, plus if you somehow turn into something like a jackal mutant, you'd be even cuter."
Arya's left eye twitched. "THAT DOES IT!" She yelled as she tackled her to the ground as it resulted in a blushing Arya being lifted up by Silver Banshee, who was bridal carrying the grave robber as Mist did the 'I'm watching you' gesture at Arya as Rough House patted her on the back, as Imshael facepalmed at the shenanigans his new teammates are getting into as Panther laughed.
"D'aww, baby's first crush!" Kronos exclaimed.
"This lot is quite rambunctious, wouldn't you say?" Megafin asked.
Birch chuckled. "Well, there's never a dull moment around here." She said.
"Grave robber." Silver Banshee flirted.
"Knock off ghost!" Arya snapped, blushing deeply, as her pathetic lesbian heart couldn't handle how cute the greenette is.
"You're gonna have to do a lot better than that." Silver Banshee joked.
"OH, BITE ME! AH! I DIDN'T MEAN LITERALLY!" Arya said, as Silver Banshee nommed on her neck, making her blush deeply and prompting her to cover her face.
The new ride flew over the landscape, where the mountain was shaped like a sheep.
"So this is Sheep Mountain. Home of our Night Hooligan friend, the Sheep Mage. You know, Flynn had a mountain once. Mount Flynn. It was completely made of cake." Flynn said.
"So, Goo-Goo Baa-Baa, how did you and your element come to be?" Akame asked.
"I used to be an ordinary sheep, and grazed in the fields with his flock, with not a care in the world. That is, until the Sheep Mage came, trying to find recruits for his sheep army to go to war. When we instantly refused, ol' Sheep Mage was infuriated, and he tried to force us to join him by making his Slime Gear Golems try to kidnap us. Infuriated by the unfairness, I started to lead a resistance to fight back. Once the war had started, I started to collect Slime Gear Golem parts and collect their slime. Soon, I made an awesome Slime Tank, in which I used to defeat the Sheep Mage and his golems, and lead my brothers to freedom. While I just wanted to continue my life after that, I knew I was meant to do other great things. So I joined the Skylanders, and remained a proud member today." Goo-Goo Baa-Baa said.
"Pretty awesome backstory." Jax said. "We're coming up on the village of the mountain now, but I'm not picking up Mine anywhere. Also, if we find out if Sheep Mountain is made of cake, I get first dibs."
"No promises." Tatsumi said. It was only halfway into the village where another Skylander entered. It was a fat light blue creature with a cyan traptanium boomerang.
"Gusts and Glory!" He said. "Gusto, Air Trap Master, at your service!"
"Good to see ya, mate." Snap Shot said. "Gusto here used to be a disciple of a Cloud Dragon until hunters showed up. He only had his boomerang, but took em out. And believe me, you don't want to see this Boomerang in the outback."
"So, who wants to ask where Deja Vu got her powers from?" Chelsea said.
"Glad you asked, I got them from a fateful encounter with giant sea slugs. I set the Tower Of Time's hands to 13 and caused a time overload, and thanks to that, I became a master over time itself." Deja Vu said.
"Now then, we have a Sheep Mage to trap, don't we?" Gusto said as they got moving. Inside the village, a shark man was there.
"Figured I'd rally the Mabu villagers into a defense force. But my voice scared em off. I tend to get pretty intense in these situations." Buzz said.
"You could learn a thing or two from the boss. She stays calm when planning our hits, so we'll find the Mabu you scared and rally them together." Chelsea said.
They were able to round them up and head to the first bridge repaired, screwing in a top of the gate.
"I bet if we get all three of those, the gate to the inside will open." Tatsumi said as they approached a second one as a battle mech crashed down at the next switch. "But we'll have to get through him first."
A large ship rolled by with the Sheep Mage riding in it.
"It is I, the Sheep Mage, and you are not sheep, so I don't like any of you!" Chompy Mage said as he opened fire at them.
"I never understood his obsession." Soda Leech said.
"I also do not like bridges either." Chompy Mage said, destroying the rebuilt bridge.
"Have a taste of your own medicine!" Tatsumi said firing a cannon and hitting the ship.
"Agh! Hit by my own cannons, no fair!" Sheep Mage called out.
"Hey, you're the one who left them lying around." Neo signed.
"I will have to run away now. But the next time we meet, I'll make sure not to leave any cannons lying around." Sheep Mage said flying off.
Meanwhile...
The Shadow Hunters were being escorted to an industrial factory with the word "Oscorp" written on the façade in big bold lettering. After they landed their gliders in the hanger, the Goblins that captured them unhooked the hapless villains from them but kept their arms bound. Gaz and Arya both struggled to get free, but the titanium bonds were made too well and the Goblins' were too strong. They were forced into a large office space deeper in the building where two men were already there conversing with one another.
One of the men was a fairly normal looking guy, heavyset and bald and sporting a white suit. Kronos recognized him quite well from his talks with Rexard: Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. The other man, by contrast, was inhuman in appearance, sporting mutated flesh that was an eerie gray color, pins protruding from his shoulders, and yellow lenses covering his eyes. While Kronos was fairly sure Rexard has seen someone similar looking, he couldn't place him.
"We need to be careful, Smythe," the Kingpin warned his companion. "Our very survival is now in-"
"We're baaaaaack," the Hobgoblin announced in a sing-song voice. "Did you two miss us?"
Kingpin sneered at the question. "What is the meaning of this? You two said you'd picked up interdimensional readings from the city, yet you return with nothing but a pair of civilians. Have you two not brutalized enough?"
"Is that a conscience coming from the mighty Kingpin?" the Green Goblin asked. "As a matter of fact, these two are the source of the readings we picked up. They know where Spider-Carnage went! Yet they refuse to tell us."
"Is that so?" Kingpin bellowed. "You had better speak up quickly. The consequences will be most unpleasant if you don't!"
"For the fuckin' hundredth time," Satsuuki said, "we don't know anything about this Spider-Carnage dick. We were just passing through."
"Are you absolutely certain these two know anything at all?" Smythe asked.
"Spider-Carnage vanished into a time dilation portal just before the explosion of Crime Central," Hobgoblin said. "These two showed up just two days after. Coincidence? I think not!"
"Correlation is not necessarily causation," Smythe argued.
Kingpin held up a hand to silence Smythe. "Perhaps a few days locked in the cellblock without food or water will loosen their tongues."
"An excellent idea, Kingpin," the Green Goblin agreed. "Come, Hobgoblin, let's escort our guests to their new rooms."
"Move it!" Hobgoblin said, giving Steve a shove.
Siobhan gritted her teeth and resigned to kill Hobgoblin later if it was at all possible. After the Goblins escorted the villains out of the room, Smythe turned his attention back to Kingpin.
"Why are you indulging in this nonsense?" Smythe asked. "Spider-Carnage is likely gone forever, and the chances of those two having encountered him are slim. The Goblins are insane and looking for any excuse to torture and shed blood."
"Exactly," Kingpin replied. "And if they are preoccupied with the strange visitors, that removes the eye of scrutiny from my actions. With them distracted, you and I can plot their destruction and finally start putting my city back together."
"I did warn you not to trust them or Spider-Carnage," Smythe reminded him. "We wouldn't be in the mess if you'd simply listened to me."
"If I listened to you every time you told me not to forge an alliance, I'd never have any allies!" Kingpin replied.
Smythe smirked. "And because of that, you'd probably be more successful."
The Goblins threw the Shadow Hunters into a cell together and took off cackling, vowing to return in time to torture the prisoners. Once the Goblins had left, presumably to go terrorize someone else, Gaz summoned Vathek, who proceeded to try and bite at the door. However, the door didn't budge. It was becoming rapidly apparent that trapping Vathek had also weakened many of his abilities. Vathek turned his glare onto Gaz.
"Don't think for one ssssssssecond that I believe you didn't try to make me your pet," Vathek said. "I don't know what, but it'sssssss your fault I'm in this messssss."
"Our fault, huh?" Gaz sneered. "Let's just conveniently ignore the fact that if it weren't for me, you'd still be on square one. Perspective. And are you of all people are really going to blame me for conspiring for power? That's a riot, you hypocritical snake."
"Right, becaussssse people like you always just love to share their power, don't they?" Daken said. "And I'm just the uppity undead dragon for trying to fight for my seat at the table."
Gaz groaned. "Why did you have to play the race card? This isn't about race!"
"Do you hear yourself?" Vathek replied with a harsh laugh that clearly wasn't born of any amusement. "Race card? You know what, that'sssss exactly my problem with you in particular, masssssssster. You're just another brat who thinks because she became a part of a so-called villain group that she ssssssssuddenly undersssssstandsssss what it'ssssss like to have the entire world against you. Well, guesssssss what? You are the reason I had every ounce of power ssssssssssstripped away from me."
Gaz was silent for a minute after that and didn't try to say anything else. She knew she was and still is an all around dick, but she'd always figured that those days were behind her now, and she didn't have to worry about it any more. But maybe the past for her wasn't as buried as she thought.
"You're right," Gaz nodded. "I was that person, and I guess I still am even though I don't want to be. My father left me alone to my games. And I've tried to put as much of my past behind me as I could, but... I guess I've still got a lot of nasty habits to unlearn. And I'm not trying to make excuses or whatnot, but can't you understand what it's like to be alone."
Vathek thought back to a little hatchling, with no friends, to watching his brother get the throne while he only got a seat at the council table, where he was mocked and harassed for being undead.
"Yessssss, I can," Vathek said softly.
"You hate your older brother too?" Gaz asked.
"Yesssssss," Vathek nodded.
"Do you wanna talk about it?"
"No."
Gaz sighed, leaned up against the cell wall and slid to the floor. "Well, either way, we're stuck now. Now we're gonna get nothing."
"Nothing," Vathek repeated with a sigh. "That word has defined my whole life. I've been a ussssurper, a bad guy, a monsssster. Thissssss whole mortal coil has taught me that beyond abssssssssolute power, everything elsssssse isssss nothing."
Vathek sat down next to Birch, and Birch gave her ally a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.
"I used to feel like I had everything figured out before I met these guys," Birch said. "They showed me that there was a whole wide world of stuff that I was missing. Maybe... maybe you just need a friend to learn on."
"I've never exactly been one for meaningful relationssssssshipssssss," Vathek said.
"Never too late to give it a try," Megafin said with a shrug. "Well, I mean, I guess it kinda is too late now. Our survival is lookin' pretty... Wait. I just remembered hearing Kingpin saying that he and Smythe were in a similar position. What if they're just as much a prisoner of the Goblins as we are?"
"Hmm," Kronos pondered this for a moment. "From what Rexard told me, Kingpin was a builder of empires, not a destroyer of cities. If this guy's anything like the Kingpin who I'm familiar with, and I believe that he is, he probably hates this random destruction. That Smythe guy seemed the same. Think we can sway them?"
"We have to try," Calamity said. "They might be our only chance. But they're not gonna stick their necks out for us without incentive."
"That part's not hard," Jack said. "Megafin's Manipulas Serpent can get us half-way there, and consider this: Rexard told us that in all universes he studied, Kingpin ran New York City's underworld in full daylight with no one able to touch him. The man's got a talent for controlling cities, and we just so happen to have something to offer him, a chance to run everything."
"Good idea! That might actually seriously help us too," Kronos admitted.
"Unfortunately, the immediate problem ssssssstill remainssssssss," Vathek said, gesturing to the locked iron door.
The sound of a guard pacing outside of their cell quickly changed both of their demeanors. Megafin smirked, and pulled out his Manipulas Serpent, a blast of black energy spraying into the guard's eyes. They had their exit strategy.
"The Goblins have left the building again," Alistair Smythe announced as he walked into the office space that the Kingpin was using for a temporary base of operations. "We should be safe to speak freely."
"I thought they'd never leave!" Kingpin said with a sigh. "Curse Osborn for creating those two low-life lunatics! If he were still alive, I'd break him in two!"
"A fate he'd more than deserve after how he forced my father to stay inside that burning building," Smythe remarked coldly.
Kingpin's face grew grave at the mention of Smythe's father, and Smythe's cold fury was practically tangible. This was, of course, one of many realities. One such world had birthed a Peter Parker who had managed to rescue all of these tangential realities, but this world was not that Peter's point of origin, nor had it fully seen the effects of his work. Yet the history between Kingpin and Smythe had been similar to a point in both realities. Osborn had hired Spencer Smythe on Kingpin's behalf to destroy Spider-Man, but that incident led to the alleged death of Spencer. In reality, Kingpin abducted Spencer and had him cryogenically frozen, a fact he hid from Smythe. After which, Kingpin had recruited Alistair Smythe to be his lieutenant, a partnership that lasted for years.
However, after a crippling fallout involving Kingpin's son and the discovery of Kingpin's involvement in Spencer's cryogenic freezing, Kingpin had Herbert Landon turn Smythe into the cyborg monster he was today. After that moment, he and Smythe spent years trying to destroy one another, with Smythe throwing in his lot with Kingpin's archenemy Silvermane. Yet the paths of the realities diverged there. After Kingpin was betrayed by Herbert Landon and Silvermane had Spencer Smythe killed, Kingpin and Smythe put aside their differences to destroy their common enemies.
The two supervillains still had a great deal of bad blood left hanging between them, but with the apocalyptic state of New York City thanks to Spider-Carnage, the two found that they still needed each other's comfortable presence in order to survive. But that didn't mean that all was forgiven.
"It is best not to harp on such things," Kingpin said coldly. "We must focus on destroying those Goblins! Have you successfully recreated Dr. Ohn's time dilation accelerator technology?"
"I am close to a breakthrough," Smythe said. "The science needs a bit more testing before I am comfortable using it. If not, we could wind up stranded in limbo."
"I'd like to find a portal to limbo and throw the Goblins into it," Kingpin huffed.
"Sounds like we've got a common goal," Codi said as the Shadow Hunters entered the room.
"GUARDS! GUARDS!" Kingpin bellowed.
"Hold on! We only wanna talk," Kronos said. "The four of us all want the same thing here, and you can trust us way more than you can trust the Goblins."
"I don't trust anyone," Smythe replied.
"Smart man," Megafin said. "But hear us out anyway. We've actually got a pretty sweet deal for you two."
Kingpin scratched his chin and sat down at his desk, gesturing to the chairs on the opposite side.
"You're not actually indulging this, are you?" Smythe asked. "After everything with Spider-Carnage and the Goblins?"
"It rarely hurts to listen," Kingpin shrugged. "If I do not like what they have to say, I can always have them destroyed."
Megafin smiled. "I think you and us are gonna be friends, Kingpin."
Meanwhile...
The squad found the second switch next to a troll in a dragon mech suit with radioactive waste cannons.
Curb Stomp! (Toxic Element)
"Get em!" Snap Shot said damaging the mech and Chelsea dodging a punch and getting in front of it.
"Who are you guys?" Curb Stomp asked, as he shot toxic sludge at them. "I'm trying to guard this mountain for the Sheep Mage and you're making me look bad!"
"Just a couple of people who believe in freedom." Chelsea said, as Ridley gored the mech with his tail, shutting it down. "Who better than that?"
Curb Stomp Defeated!
"I never got a chance to poison anythiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!" Curb Stomp called out as he vanished through the sick green vortex.
They screwed on the last two switches and moved on into the caves. They moved through them and rescued the defense force, then met another Villain.
"A block of sentient cheese?" Akamei asked.
"Cheese Boy was framed, okay?" it said in a New Jersey accent.
Cheese Boy! (Fire Element)
"Then don't fight us and come quietly. Fighting cheese is just weird." Graham said.
"Don't got no other choice. Cheese Boy gotta do what Cheese Boy gotta do!"
"I dunno why you're talking in the third person, but okay." Drakus said.
"Cheese Boy gonna beat your asses now." he said, waving a baseball bat around. Akamei then hit him with the back of her sword.
Cheese Boy defeated.
"You talk too much." Akamei said.
"Oh great, why does this always happen to Cheese BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY?!?!?!?!?!" he called out as he vanished through the vortex.
"Now we get a villain who heals us, ain't that some shit." Roman said.
"Now for the Sheep Mage." Akamei said as they scaled the mountain to the top, where the mage himself appeared.
"It is I, the Sheep Mage, and you're still alive and not sheep, so I still don't like you." Chompy Mage said.
His puppet laughed. "Let's Rock!"
Sheep Mage! (Magic Trap)
"Rise my friends!" As the battle commenced, Sheep Mage waved his staff and sent several Sheep Eggs (don't know how that works) down to attack the squad. The X-Squad, knowing that having the eggs land on them would hurt, dodged the eggs and fought off the Feral Sheep that hatched from them as Sheep Mage called more eggs to attack.
"There's so many of them!" Tatsumi said as they beat wave after wave.
"Are you two still here? How irritating. I suppose I should make this a little tougher!" Sheep Mage said.
"Round Two!" the puppet said as the mage transformed himself into a giant sheep.
"That's not gonna scare us." Tatsumi said. "This is scary for even you! INCURSIOOOO!"
He surrounded himself in the armor as him and the squad rushed at the mage and started pummeling the mage back to normal.
"So that's Incursio eh? I realize what's wrong here, I'm not using my full strength against you. Instead I've merely been raising the difficulty. WelI that's about to change. Storm Form!" He called out, as the room turned blue as he grabbed the Eternal Air Source and became a giant sheep in a tornado.
"So this is the true strength of a Night Hooligans." Akamei said as the giant sheep bounced around, creating miniature tornadoes that grew in size.
"Guess we need backup. Curb Stomp!" Tatsumi said, as an orange trap materialized.
Summoning….Toxic!
Drink the Poison
Drink the Poison
Don't ya know
Toxic!
"Poison Time! Get behind me!" Curb Stomp said, as he braved the storm and shot waste at the mage. Spotlight then attacked using a blast of concentrated light laser and halos, as Konata leapt up, and sliced the Sheep Mage, the Eternal Air Source being knocked out of him.
Sheep Mage defeated!
"What's going on now, Sheep Puppet?" Sheep Mage asked.
"I don't know, man." Sheep Puppet replied.
"Something called, you get captured now!" Sabrina said, as she slammed a Magic Trap into the ground.
The Mage was dazed as a vortex opened up in the sky. "What the? What is this?! This can't happen to me! What did I do to deserve this? Oh yeah. All that stuff I did." he said as he stuck his staff into the ground and held on to keep out of the portal's reach. "Who will look after the sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep?!" he cried out finally vanishing in the vortex.
The screen from before opened up. "Oof. Looks like I landed on Traptainium. Anyway, where am I? It's very dark here, and it kind of smells like mustard!" he said.
Sheep Mage Trapped!
"Uhhh. I suppose I should just accept this. Right, Sheep Puppet?"
"Yeah. Go with the flow man."
Back at the academy…
"Two down, five to go." Roman said, as they saw the Eternal Air Source clear debris from the platform and put stone guardians on its edges.
"But who do we go after next?" Akamei asked.
"Doctor Mignon. And I know where he might strike. Ever hear of the Lodge Leviathan?" Jet-Vac asked them.
"Oh yeah!" Sheep Mage said. "Mignon always likes to cook up the most dangerous meals. Exotic is his thing, and he likes it a lot."
"How much we talking here?" Akamei asked.
"Enough to blow up entire villages, that's what. The Leviathan only lays its eggs once a year, and Mignon will probably line up to make an omelet so zesty, it could take out an entire sky island." Buzz said.
"Finally, an actual mission that involves stopping a killing spree. What's our destination?" Akame asked.
"Murder Lodge, and yes, that really is what it's called. Rest up for an hour and we'll get going." Najenda said.
It had taken some convincing, but eventually, the Shadow Hunters had managed to win Kingpin over to their side. Smythe remained skeptical, but even he started to seem open to their proposition, which Daken figured was about as good as anyone was going to get with him. They'd even managed to talk Kingpin into getting Vathek a change of clothes so that he wouldn't just be basically sitting around with his privates hanging out, and he took to a black ripped cloak with a hood.
"Here they come," Smythe announced when he saw the goblins flying in from the horizon. "Are you certain this will work?"
"No, but you don't have a better alternative to get rid of them," Kronos pointed out.
"This will work!" Kingpin declared. "There is no reason to doubt the brilliance of the Kingpin!"
Smythe shot the villains a look that conveyed the message that there were a plethora of reasons to doubt his associate's "brilliance." The Shadow Hunters moved into position, crouching in the rafters. Kingpin and Smythe, meanwhile, tried to act natural, though their jittery anticipation was obvious to Kronos looking down.
"We're baaaaaack!" the Green Goblin announced with a laugh as he and the Hobgoblin flew into the room, still riding their gliders.
"Ah, yes, welcome back, gentleman," Kingpin said. "I'm afraid there are matters we must discuss. It is high time we face the simple fact: Spider-Carnage isn't coming back."
"Oh ye of the little faith!" Hobgoblin scolded. "Our prisoners are going to lead us right to him!"
"I'm afraid not," Kingpin said. "I have conducted an open and honest interrogation of Daken Akihiro and Steve Newlin, and I can assure you, they are a dead end lead. We must now focus on the future rather than the past."
"We don't work for you, Kingpin," the Green Goblin reminded him. "If what you say is true, then you've just given up your one chance to survive this. You've been left alive because Spider-Carnage needed you. If that's no longer true? Well then, it's time for you to pay for your sins against Norman Osborn!"
"I think not," Kingpin said. "NOW!"
BGM: Meat and Greet (Ice Nine Kills)
On Kingpin's signal, the Shadow Hunters dropped from the rafters and knocked the goblins off their gliders. The two goblins tumbled to the floor as their gliders spiraled off in different directions. Megafin extended his claws and ran towards the Green Goblin, but the goblin was swift and threw a pumpkin bomb directly at his opponent that exploded less than a foot away from the mutant's face. The blast seared the skin and knocked him backwards, although the burns began to heal immediately, the pain certainly wasn't any less.
The Green Goblin scrambled to his feet and hopped back onto the glider, eagerly trying to regain altitude. Smythe, meanwhile, had taken to his cybernetic hover chair and flown into the fray. Smythe targeted the goblin with his chair's weapons system and launched a small compact missile at the glider. The Green Goblin barely managed to roll in midair out of the way, allowing the missile to collide with the wall and blow a hole in it.
The Green Goblin fired another pumpkin bomb from his glider, this time aiming directly for Smythe. Smythe's chair was clunkier and harder to maneuver than the Green Goblin's glider, and so Smythe did the only thing he could do and jumped free of the exploding chair. The goblin laughed as Smythe tumbled back down to Megafin's side.
"I warned you he was practically invincible on that flying wing of his," Smythe said.
"So it seems, but I have seen that even the gods bleed," Megafin said with determination. "Kronos, Birch, Calamity, Ink Blotch, Codi, Satsuuki, Jack, Gaz, Vathek, keep him busy. Smythe, Pokey, Montana, Circe, Darla, Max, Princess, you're with me, we'll have to ground him!"
The Green Goblin swooped down upon Daken and Smythe. Smythe dashed off to the side while Daken continued to run directly in front of the glider's path, practically daring the goblin to pursue him. The Green Goblin dropped countless bombs as he cackled maniacally, with Daken barely able to stay ahead of the blast radius. With his focus so locked onto Daken, the Green Goblin had left Smythe unattended.
Smythe knew that he had one shot, and it had to be perfect. He charged the fins protruding from his shoulders with energy and unleashed them both, aiming for the steering mechanism on the underside of the glider. The laser blasts connected, and immediately the goblin seemed to wobble about aimlessly. It wasn't long before the Green Goblin crashed directly into the wall, causing the bombs in his glider to all detonate at once. Despite the heavy blast, the Green Goblin tumbled down to the ground, still alive and in one piece.
As the goblin struggled to get to his feet and reoriented himself, Daken ran up behind him and stabbed his claws through his opponent's back. The goblin cried out in pain and tried to squirm free, but Daken had made sure that his claws would pierce directly through the Green Goblin's heart... or whatever there was that was left of it. Finally, the goblin went limp, and Daken threw the supervillain's corpse down onto the floor, exposing his bloodied claws.
Smythe knelt down to the Green Goblin's corpse and pulled off the madman's mask, exposing Norman Osborn's face.
"I knew it," Smythe said.
"I've always wanted to do that to Osborn," Daken declared.
"As have I," Smythe agreed with a nod. "I suppose my father has now truly been avenged."
"And how does it feel?" Daken asked.
Smythe smiled. "Quite pleasant."
Whilst Daken and Smythe dispatched the Green Goblin, Kingpin and Steve Newlin had taken to battling the Hobgoblin. The Hobgoblin caused his two opponents to scatter with a well aimed pumpkin bomb in their direction. Just like the Green Goblin, the Hobgoblin knew he was infinitely more powerful atop his glider, and he scrambled towards it. Steve Newlin, with a burst of vampiric speed, dashed over to tackle the Hobgoblin before he could re-mount the glider.
It was only after Steve was rolling on the ground with the Hobgoblin that the young vampire realized that his vampiric strength had waned yet again. Though the Hobgoblin had no superhuman strength aside from armor that strengthened his muscles, he was easily able to get the upper hand over Steve who, prior to becoming a vampire, had barely been able to bench press the bar when working out. The Hobgoblin cackled as he pinned Steve down and pulled out a razor bat to slice the vampire's throat. With his powers waning, Steve doubted that he'd be able to heal from this.
Hobgoblin, however, found himself blasted off from on top of Steve. Kingpin held his diamond tipped cane threateningly as it smoked from the laser blast that he'd fired from it. Kingpin ran over to Steve and helped his comrade to his feet.
"Thanks for that," Steve said.
"This blasted pest has been a thorn in my side for some time!" Kingpin declared. "I was more than happy to do so!"
"Oh Kingpin, I'm hurt by your words," Hobgoblin said with a mocking sense of betrayal. "We've had some good times, haven't we? Remember that time I took over your empire? I'll have to do that again once I destroy you once and for all!"
"That will NOT happen!" Kingpin said with an angry roar as he hurled a nearby coffee table at the Hobgoblin.
The Hobgoblin rolled out of the way of the crashing table and tried to get to his feet. However, Kingpin was coming for him now, cane in hand. With strength unmatched by ordinary men, Kingpin brought down his cane on the Hobgoblin's shoulder. The goblin yelled out in pain and anger as he could feel the shoulder dislocating. Hobgoblin's only option was to keep Kingpin off of him by delivering the crime boss a well place kick to the knees.
Kingpin stumbled at the kick, and with his balance upset by the kick, he tumbled to the floor just long enough for Hobgoblin to get back up. The Hobgoblin drew a laser pistol from his holster and began to fire upon Kingpin. Kingpin scrambled to dodge the blasts and run for cover behind the desk. Steve saw his chance. While the Hobgoblin's attention was focused on Kingpin, he could wrestle the gun away.
Steve dashed up and grabbed onto the gun, forcing Hobgoblin to cease firing on the Kingpin. The Hobgoblin, however, did not relent the weapon. The two men tugged on the gun and struggled to wrest it free of the other man's grasp. Steve, however, became so focused on getting the pistol out of the Hobgoblin's hands that he did not notice where the barrel of the gun was pointing. The Hobgoblin pulled the trigger, and Steve screamed as the laser beam shot right through his side.
Steve doubled down in pain, and, just as he'd suspected, he wasn't healing. Steve looked up to see what the Hobgoblin was doing now, only to find the barrel of the gun in his face.
"Wasn't really a challenge," Hobgoblin said. "You're off your game, kid. Spider-Man is a bigger challenge than you, and you can die knowing just how pathetic your attempt at a fight was."
Steve closed his eyes and prepared for the worst. He heard a squishing and snapping noise that didn't sound like any gunfire that Steve had ever heard. He opened his eyes to see the Hobgoblin's headless corpse laying in front of him. The location of the Hobgoblin's head, however, was of far greater interest to Steve.
"Did you miss me?" Russell asked with a grin as he used the supervillain's severed head as a hand puppet to mouth the question.