Wolverine and Spider-Man RPG Isekai Chapter 18: Fractal, a Marvel + Dungeons and Dragons Crossover fanfic

WOLVERINE AND SPIDER-MAN RPG ISEKAI EPISODE 18 : FRACTAL

"Are you asleep?"

It was perfect darkness. Condensation from a thick summer haze dripped down their window. Outside, the veiled light of a waning moon could not hope to penetrate the dense shadows of the sleeping city, let alone their small inn room.

Here, in the blackest hours of morning, Wyn rolled over in her bed.

"No," she answered.

"Me neither," said Boksee.

"Obviously."

"Oh, right."

They laid in silence.

"We messed up," said Boksee.

"Ranger, we've gone over this. If Webs wasn't willing to tell us we were upsetting him, how could we know what to avoid?"

"It was obvious. That's not even what I'm talking about. Paladin, we don't ask enough questions. It's becoming more and more clear to me that we've made our bed in a dragon's nest. We don't have any idea what those men are and what they're capable of. Wolverine is nigh unkillable with swords for knuckles, and Spider-man has the strength of Chiliadal legend. They call themselves men, beast men recognize them as their own. They're not lycanthrope, they're not Aranea. They claim they spawned from a river, from a different world. I think we took that on its face way too easily."

"It's not unprecedented," argued Wyn sitting up. "You've heard the old stories."

"Yah but… Paladin, you know this stuff, do you think they're actually like… I don't know… fallen demi gods or something?"

Wyn laughed.

"What?"

"I'm serious," said Boksee, though she had a laugh on her voice as well. "We're chasing down a quartet of powerful dark mages to help a pair of men with god like powers get back to 'their world'. Doesn't that sound exactly like a legend from the old Chiliadal Empire? Demi gods laboring to restore their godhood?"

Wyn stopped her snickering for a moment and blinked.

"Hm," she said, brow scrunching. "If they were the heroes of a Chiliadal legend, what would that make us then?"

"You and I could be the witches," gossiped Boksee excitedly. "There's always a group of guiding witches, right?"

"But we're not witches. Besides, if anyone here is the witch it's Nih."

The women both burst out laughing.

"Hm, I think Spidey has too many hang ups to be a demi-god," concluded Wyn with a smile. "At least one mint from the divine realm. He could be one raised of men though. Like he was tossed as a baby and adopted by some nice mortal farmers."

"After he strangled some snakes."

"Yes, that's very important."

"Who would even be his parentage?" asked Boksee. "I'm pretty sure there's no god of spiders."

"Well," said Wyn thinking. "There's the drow demon."

"Are you serious?" asked Boksee pushing herself up on an elbow.

"He does like his secrets. I'm pretty sure the drow demon was worshiped as the god of spiders and secrets. If he was an illegitimate child of the drow demon, maybe that's why he got tossed."

"Ok, you can't be serious."

"No, I'm not," Wyn conceded with a chuckle. "He's way too nice. It is weird though, right? Now Wolverine, Wolverine I could buy him being a half-demon."

"He's nice too though."

"Yah, but he's ornery."

The women laughed again, then proceeded to shush themselves before waking any neighbors.

Boksee lowered herself down on her arms, her chin resting against her pillow.

"Spidey did say he wasn't raised by his parents, didn't he?" she asked losing her ebullience. "It was the man that raised him who he got killed, not his actual father. That's what he said."

She paused, deep in contemplation before continuing.

"I wonder what happened. To be responsible for the death of a family member, of your father? I can't even imagine what that feels like. How do you… how do you even live after that?"

"I don't know," said Wyn. "It's hard enough to keep going after you couldn't protect someone, but to be the very cause?"

"You… hide your face?" continued Boksee thinking out loud. "Change your name? Go fight crime? Free of charge? Prestige into a vigilante?"

"Hm."

The two laid in silence.

Neither woman noticed a single small light exit the front door below their room and head off down the street.

"He's not the only one with a new name and a mask though," said Wyn. "You didn't see it, but Wolverine came in an outfit as outlandish as Peter's when they first got here, and I'd argue Peter's the more normal one, relatively speaking."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying, if that's what happened to Spider-man, what do you think happened to Wolverine?"

Water…

…he was in the water.

No, it was just on the floor.

Wolverine stood in a stone room. Cold water was to his shins, but his hands were strangely hot.

He looked down to see they were coated red.

Hm.

Whose blood was this? He recognized it didn't he? Hadn't he had this dream before? Right, he was dreaming.

He looked past his stained palms, down into his reflection. An aged, grizzled face he recognized as his own gazed back.

"You wouldn't happen to know?" he asked himself, though he wasn't sure whether it was him or the reflection who had spoken. He watched as the reflection raised his hand and placed it over his eye.

"What?"

A shriek exploded around him!

Wolverine jumped and clamped his hands over his ears.

What was that‽

It was like nothing he had ever heard, an eldritch unnatural sound, as if every note of a woman's voice, every syllable of the English language was being blared all at once, echoing and ricocheting and distorting in a deafening feedback loop.

"AHHHHH!"

He grabbed his head and fell to his knees, splashing in the cold water. It suddenly froze solid, trapping him around the legs.

He gasped. He unsheathed his claws and moved to start hacking, but recoiled. Instead of his reflection, a woman was staring up at him from beneath the ice.

Their eyes met and the woman's face gasped with realization. The scream was growing louder around him.

She threw her hands up against the ice, the frozen surface fractalizing into a geometric pattern that repeated on for all eternity.

Logan, still trapped, yanked and pulled at his frozen legs as the unwelcomed intruder rose through the cracks. Her face was pale, her lips vivid. Her manic eyes were locked onto him.

"Who are you‽ What do you want‽" he barked over the overwhelming scream.

The woman, now above him, opened her mouth, but instead of speaking, she, her entire self, started shredding.

Logan reeled in terror as the woman's flesh started slicing away. Bone, and skin, and viscera phased away in layers revealing perfect cross sections of her living body. Organs twitched and contracted, her heart pulsed, half her tongue writhed in the gaping hole of her jaw.

Like the most perverse diagram, she had shredded completely in half. What was left of her face was nothing but the inner workings of her throat, brain and sinuses, and she was still shredding!

Pumping with vivid adrenaline, Wolverine watched her exposed diaphragm shoot up and her faceless throat lurch.

The same scream erupted anew! Louder! More dissonant! More mangled! He let out his own scream as he clamped his ears and threw his head against the ice.

"GAAHHH!"

Wolverine awoke with a start.

His eyes were still closed, but he felt himself jolt into consciousness, pulse thundering and breath shallow. He took a moment to bring himself under control, feeling the soft bed beneath his hands, the pillow under his head and reorienting himself with reality. Then he opened his eyes.

The woman was hovering over him.

"AHHHH!"

He flew out of bed, slashing and snarling at the air.

"What!" exclaimed Nih flailing awake. "What is it!"

Wolverine whipped around. There was no sign of her. Only his reflection in the window. She had been right there. Her face at his, an inch from his nose, but she was gone. It was just their inn room. Nothing out of place. He threw his hand to his brow.

"Fuck," he growled. "Oh shit."

"Wolverine, what's wrong?" asked Nih getting out of bed.

"Nothing. It was nothing. Haven't had a night like that in a minute," he said shaking it off, literally shaking himself. He retracted his claws. "Fuck."

Still scanning the room, he noticed their other bed was empty.

"Hey! Where's kid?"

"Spider-man?" asked the elf rubbing his waking face. "He left some time ago."

"Why didn't you stop him‽"

Wolverine started furiously grabbing up his stuff from around the room and stuffing himself into his clothes.

"Why would I?"

"After a night like that?" he barked storming toward the exit. "You can't just let him run off to…"

Logan threw open the door only to nearly collide with Peter. They both startled back, the younger man's hand still extended toward the handle.

"Is everything alright?" asked Spider-man bewildered. "I heard shouting."

"Fine," grunted Wolverine. He ran a hand through his spikey hair. "Where'd you go?"

"Um, shopping."

"Oh."

"Right…" said Spider-man looking into the frazzled room with confusion. "So… you guys want to get some breakfast?"

The morning at the Lost Wickie was once again alive and clattering with dishes and pouring taps. Sunlight danced across the lethargic brown water of the west river.

After a healing session between Nih and Spider-man to help the latter's still swollen jaw, the Far Marvels had reclaimed their stone table in the courtyard.

"They have a much bigger apothecary here," explained Peter uncharacteristically understated, as if he was unsure whether he was supposed to be speaking. "Or is it a potion store? Potionarium? I'm not really sure what the difference is."

The party was quietly eating their breakfast, not ignoring him but not really engaging, well, except Logan who seemed mentally pre-occupied.

"Um, yah, so anyway," continued Peter. "I saw something I thought you'd like Wyn," he said grabbing the paladin's attention.

"Oh?" she asked.

"It was like this little metal case you could put a potion in to protect it. We break a lot of potions."

"You didn't actually buy it did you?" she exclaimed nearly knocking over her drink.

"No…" he sighed. "It was really expensive. Apparently, it was made out of platinum, one of the only metals magically inert enough to be in prolonged exposure to potions without funking them up. So I gathered."

"Oh good," she breathed. "You had me worried for a moment. I wouldn't want you dropping so much coin on my behalf, at least not without a good reason," she said with a smirk. "A case like that is worth more than my entire armor set up."

"And that thing can't be cheap," said Boksee taking a drink.

"Um…right," said Spider-man. "Yah, and, and I didn't even see anything I thought you or Nih would want," he said to Boksee. "But I'll keep a lookout. You know, since I've got some cash."

At that, Boksee put down her beer.

"Spidey," she said firmly. "You don't have to buy us anything. Those are your winnings. Things like last night happen. Apologies were said. No hard feelings, right? Next time, maybe just do us the favor of letting us know something's bothering you before we get to the tree smashing, ok?" she said giving him a smile.

Peter was taken aback. He looked to Wyn and Nih who shared the sentiment.

With a relieved breath, the youngest adventurer nodded and the cloud of uneasiness lifted.

"Hey Claws, you want the rest of my beer?" asked Boksee. "I'm a little water logged this morning."

Wolverine wasn't paying attention.

"Logan?"

"Huh? What? Nah," he said waving it off.

Nih took Boksee's half drunk beer.

"So my snail ears," he asked drinking. "What brought you to the potion store? Especially so early in the morning. Logan was quite concerned at the sight of your empty bed."

Wolverine gave the elf a scowl.

"Hurh?" grunted Spider-man with a mouth full of cheese. He swallowed. "Oh! I went in asking about antimagic. It turns out you can make an antimagic potion," he said excitedly. "You just need an eye of a beholder." He swiped a sausage from the middle of the table. "How rare are those things again?"

The native adventurers grimaced.

Shaking her head, Wyn pulled out a monster manual and handed it to him.

"I don't think you're going to have any luck with that," translated Boksee as Peter read over the page with a frown.

"Hrmm."

"Did you leave empty handed then?" continued Nih.

"Oh, no! That's why I was gone so long. Well, that and finding somewhere to get all my coins consolidated into silver and gold. With some help from the guys in the potion store, I was able to rig up two new webbings! Check this out!"

Peter quickly attached a web shooter to his wrist and slotted in a new cartridge. It was marked with a blue stain.

Moving their food out of the way, he shot a small eerie blue web onto the table. As soon as it landed, ice fractalized out from the silken threads like a snow flake, covering a foot's worth of the stone in a thin frozen sheet.

"Woah!" exclaimed Boksee.

Wolverine's eyes went wide.

Continuing the demonstration, Peter pulled a coin from his pocket, one of his remaining copper ones, and gave it a flick. It glided across the ice before stopping once hitting stone.

"It's webbing that makes things slippery instead of sticky. Isn't that wild‽" he asked nerding out.

"Very impressive," agreed Wyn as the party sounded their approval. Wolverine was staring at the crystalline pattern.

"And I'm sure I could do a bunch more things with it. I'm going to need some time to experiment and play around, but I really think the potential is there."

Shaking his head, Wolverine finally snapped himself out of his stares.

"So you got ice powers now?" he gruffed. "On a scale of my room's lousy AC to Iceman what are we talkin' about?"

"You have an AC?" laughed Peter. "My horrible apartment aside, this web's got nothing on Bobby. It can't freeze the air or anything. It can only freeze what it touches and it's cumulative. See this tiny bit just froze a tiny bit," he said putting his finger to the thin ice sheet. After a second, he pulled it up to reveal a hole had been melted through. "But if I really gummed up this table it could freeze through the whole thing."

"Mm."

"But speaking of Iceman, I couldn't just make a freezing web. Obviously. It would be lonely."

Spider-man tapped his fingers and the web shooter's chamber rotated around his wrist. He took out another cartridge, stained red this time, and placed it in an empty slot.

With his new dope loaded, the mutate picked up a fork and shot a web onto it. As soon as silk met metal, the dark umber web ignited into flames, turning the fork into a small torch.

"Hey now!" said Wolverine much more excited.

The team sounded their agreement.

"This one took some different mechanisms to get to work, but I'm really happy with it," said Peter moving the flaming fork around for the party. "It self-combusts on impact and then uses the web itself as magical fuel."

"Does it burn forever?" asked Boksee.

"No. It will eventually burn the web away exhausting its fuel. During testing, a line with a half inch diameter lasted about forty-five minutes. I could have made it burn longer, but I didn't want it getting too unwieldy."

"A wise consideration," agreed Nih.

"I have fewer ideas for what I could do with this one, but having means to make fire whenever you want is never a bad idea right?"

"Absolutely. Fire is one of your most important assets," said Wyn. "And a fire you can aim at others even more so."

"How many webs is that now?" asked Boksee.

"Four, so I've got four left."

He popped out all of his magical webbing cartridges, all of which were now color coded.

"Now all that's left to do is to decide which of these are left-handed webs, and which are right," he said fiddling with them. "Hrm. Glow web? Easy, definitely right," he said loading it. "So fairy catcher is left. And then…" he said looking back and forth between the red and blue one. "Hrmm."

As Spider-man continued to sort out his gear, the table finished their meal. After their group plate was bare and their tankards empty Wyn piped up.

"Well then," she said standing. "If you all are done, we should be off. We've got work to do!"

The Newport library, located on the center peninsula, the highest-class area of the city, was a multistory reserve of tomes and scrolls. Catwalks connected together tall open rooms, towering bookshelves were scaled by ladder, and scholars, adventurers, and every day people alike were all making use of the invaluable center of knowledge.

"We got a great lead last night," said Wyn walking them through the open door. They nearly tripped over a group of excited children as they were corralled by a nun. "Getting to go through the detective's journal ourselves would have been ideal, but we can work with what we were given."

"What were we given again?" asked Spider-man. "I didn't catch it last night."

Despite the crowd, they managed to snag an empty table in what seemed to be a cartography nook. There was a shelf filled with scrolled maps and a beautiful tapestry depicting the entire country of Strana hanging on the wall.

"Well, essentially," said Wyn as they took their seats. "While he was hunting us down, Maksim had a page where he was debating whether to search in Little Monds or in Plieya. We took out Spring-"

"Hey! Maybe say that a bit more quietly," scolded Boksee looking over her shoulder.

"Oh sorry. Right. We took out Spring," she continued, trying to speak more quietly but still not quite achieving a whisper. "And if we took out one season, there's reason to think we might've been going after the others."

"Which we are."

"Who else would hire someone to take us out but another season? The detective was debating between Little Monds and Plieya. Summer was in the Little Monds area. It looks to me like his boss told him where his other two comrades were so he could check in on them. What I'm saying is," she said summarizing. "It stands to reason there's a season in Plieya."

The team mulled it over.

"Hrm, sounds like a decent conclusion to me," said Wolverine. "Even if it's wrong, he was thinking about Plieya while investigatin' us. There's something there worth lookin' into."

The party agreed.

"Right…" continued Logan. "So… where's Plieya then?"

"Oh, of course," said Wyn fumbling. "You wouldn't know what that is. Plieya…well…it's," she said her face blushing.

"What?"

"It's ridiculous! That's what it is!" said Boksee thumping the table.

"What?" exclaimed Spider-man.

"Shh!" shouted a stranger nearby.

"There's no way!" she whisper shouted. "I thought of Plieya weeks ago but never said anything because it was so absurdly obvious!"

"It does seem to lack a certain… subtlety," said Nih, his ears falling.

"What? Why? What's obvious about Plieya?" asked Spider-man. "What is it?"

"Well, you see," said Wyn trying to regain her earlier momentum. "Plieya is an island… an island, where it's cursed to be… eternally winter," she said with a bashful shrug.

"Seriously?" grunted Logan.

"I told you it sounded too obvious!" exclaimed Boksee.

"SHHHH!"

She zipped her lips and ducked.

"Sounds like Winter was the un-imaginative one of the group then," whispered Spider-man snidely. "Either that or that's where they came up with the naming idea in the first place. It is Winter there, right?"

"It better be Winter," said Boksee. "If Autumn lives on the island of eternal ice and snow I'm going to hit something. Probably Logan," she said sat beside him. He gave her a look.

"So where is this island?" he asked.

Wyn stood and moved in front of the tapestry.

"Here," she said pointing to a large island in an inland sea. It was the only prominent island off the east coast, just barely on the edge of the map. It was even weaved with white thread.

She pulled a scrolled map from a shelf and gave it a read. "It looks like taking the northern spine will be our fastest route," she said turning back to the tapestry, then ghosting her finger in a straight line across the northern half of the country. "Then we travel down the coast to Keyptaun. That's where we can catch a ship."

She looked at her paper map again.

"Let me go get a copy of this, then we should get moving."

"Take your time," said Boksee standing. "I've got to write up a letter. I told the folks I'd keep better correspondence this time."

"Just be careful. We don't know if anyone else is looking for us."

"Aye. Know the ETA?"

"At best," said Wyn considering her map. "If we keep on the move, I'd say it will probably take us at least a week to get there. At best," she reiterated.

"Ooooh," groaned Spider-man. "Ignoring my aching feet, only a week? On foot? From here clear to the coast? Small country."

"Not particularly," said Boksee pulling a piece of parchment from a shelf and looking for a quill. "We just have good roads."

"They better be," said Logan. "'Cause we're about to get real familiar with 'em,"

Catching a ride wasn't always a possibility, so it looked like the party was hoofing it, at least for the time being. After stocking up for the road and dropping off Boksee's letter at the courier's office, they were off.

Passing through the humble wooden gate of Newport, the confined crowded streets of the city were left behind and the endless wilderness welcomed them. Alleys of brick and cobblestone were exchanged for one endless road of dirt and gravel, and the vigilance of the adventurers shifted from their fellow men to the fangs and claws of nature.

Hour by hour, step by step, the great expanse of the countryside laboriously passed by - green forests and flaxen prairie, distant mountains and the rivers that cascaded from them.

The coil of a large serpent crested in a flooded valley.

The team was in their adventuring garb, though modifications had been made to account for the weather. It was a hot summer day in this land's equivalent of July. Wolverine had ditched the furrier pieces of his barbarian wear, stuffing them into his pack. Spider-man and Boksee had both done the same with their cloaks. Spider-man had done the most adjusting. Mask off, he had dropped his gloves, rolled his sleeves up under his armor, and was even wearing shoes over his spider booties. As midday approached, straw hats were broken out to protect fair skin from the intense sun.

Nih, a hood pulled over his face, was fishing around in his robes.

"How are you not burning alive under all that?" asked Boksee.

"My clothes breathe well. Ah."

Finding what he had been looking for, the dark elf pulled out a jar. He popped off the lid revealing some sort of thick green paste.

"I have a balm if anyone feels their light sensitivity becoming a problem," he said rubbing it on his cheeks. Peter scooped a finger through it.

"Hey Nih, something's been bugging me," he said smearing the balm onto his nose. "So dark elves live underground right? Like dwarves?"

"More than dwarves," said Nih. "My people inhabit the deepest depths of the underdark, where no sun has ever reached."

"Ok right. Not to sound racist, but why are you black?"

The druid did a double take.

"What?" he choked.

"I mean, if dark elves live underground shouldn't you be really pale? Like a cave cricket?"

"Oh," laughed Nih. "That's simple my snail ears. We are dark so we may hide in the shadows," he patronized.

"Oh, cool cool," said Peter thinking. "Then why is your hair blindingly white? Shouldn't it be dark too?"

Nih pushed Spider-man's hat down over his eyes.

Another few hours and a herd of deer were grazing at the edge of a forest. A large wooly herbivore, sporting its summer coat, towered amongst the smaller ungulates. It stretched up its long thick neck like a sauropod to feed from the trees above. Birds landed on its back to pick pests from its coat.

"Look, a branta!" said Wyn as they spotted it from the road.

"Neat," said Peter. "Wish I had my camera."

Boksee cupped her hands around her mouth and let out a howl causing the deer to take off leaping through the tall grass, much to the metahumans' delight. The branta just snorted and kept eating.

"I wanna ride it," said Peter flatly.

"Do it," goaded Boksee.

"You're not serious. That is a wild animal," nagged Wyn. "And brantas are notoriously ill tempered at the best of times."

"Well now you have to fuckin' do it," said Logan.

"Webs, no. If you…"

"Yoink!" said Spider-man throwing a webline and yanking himself through the air.

Boksee and Logan cheered.

"You two are bad influences!" snapped the paladin.

Peter landed on the beast's back like a crab, both hands and feet latching around it. The branta squealed.

The adventurers, Peter included, laughed as it bucked and kicked. It didn't seem afraid as much as indignant that some giant pest had landed on it.

"Hold onto the neck!" shouted Boksee. "The neck!"

"HA HA AHH!" he cried as he was thrown about like a bull rider.

"Eh," conceded Wyn. "At least it's riding experience."

"You're doing great!" shouted Boksee.

Suddenly the branta reared on its hind legs and purposely fell on its back.

"OHHH!" they shouted. Then they cheered as Spider-man, now beneath the beast, caught it, got his feet under him, and benched the entire animal over his head.

"Ha ha!" he declared.

The branta flailed its hooves in the air, then twisted its neck around to bite him right in the rump.

"GAH!"

The party burst out laughing as Peter chased the thing down. Watching Spider-man make a jackass out of himself in the best possible way, and having put many hours of hiking behind him, Wolverine had all but forgotten the unusual events of the morning.

The day was ending.

Feet ached, legs tingled, salty sweat found its way into tender blisters, but the endless road was no stranger to the adventurers. A decent meal, an evening sit down, and a good night's rest would set all right.

Strategically stacking her gathered firewood, Wyn struck her flint and steel over a pile of dead grass. Catching a spark, she leaned down and breathed the fire to life.

Nih, chanting and hands glowing, pulled water from the trees to refill their water skins.

Somewhere further into the forest, between the long soft shadows of the falling dusk, the rest of the party was gathered at a deep stream.

Wolverine had a branch he had sliced off and quickly sharpened. Spider-man was in a tree poised over the water.

"On my mark," said Boksee standing on the opposite bank. "Three, two, fish!"

Both men leapt. Wolverine plunged his spear deep into the water. Spider-man exploded a net between his hands and dunked it. He quickly pulled up a trio of decent sized fish. At the same time, Wolverine pulled one fat catfish from the creek bottom.

"Oh! Too close to call!" exclaimed Boksee shielding herself from the thrashing splashes.

"I have more fish," said Spider-man.

"I have more pounds of fish," argued Logan. He stabbed his catch through the head.

"The great debate of our age," said the half-halfling thinking. "Wolverine, I'm giving you the win."

"What?" whined Spider-man.

"Ha!"

"You might as well just throw yours back Spidey."

With Wolverine victoriously carrying the evening's dinner, the three adventurers were walking up the gurgling creek back toward camp. Darkness was beginning to fall and a cool wind, at least by the day's standard, had settled in.

"I'm sorry Webs," said Boksee addressing Peter's insistence and Logan's smug face. "Wolvie's catch clearly has more value. That catfish is going to be delicious. I don't want to even waste the time trying to clean a boney ol' chub. No one wants to eat a chub."

"You're a chub!"

"A chub who's right."

Boksee and Peter laughed. Wolverine would have breathed a snicker but something caught his eye.

"At least I don't have a branta bite on my butt."

"We don't know if it bruised."

"Want me to check…"

As his teammates continued on, their conversation drifting out of focus, Wolverine stopped to stare into the woods.

Across the creek, between the soft shadows and trees of dusk, he swore he could almost make out the shape of a…

"What's up Wolvie?" called Spider-man.

Wolverine snapped out of it to see the two had noticed him stopping.

He quickly looked back. The shape was still there. He focused harder and reflexively huffed the air. He didn't smell anyone. It must just be a trick of the light, pareidolia, a…

"Eh, it's nothing," he said still staring at the human silhouette between the trees.

He was there again.

Wolverine was in a cold stone room. The floor was covered in water and he was looking into his own reflection. Blood dripped off his hands causing ripples in his mirrored face.

"Why am I here? What is this place?" he and his reflection asked at the same time. "What am I trying to remember?"

The reflection lifted its hand and placed it over his eye.

"I don't know what that means!"

His mirrored image pulled its hand away revealing an empty socket.

"What?"

Over his reflected face, a pair of feet slid across the water.

Wolverine gasped and looked up.

The shredding woman was at his nose.

"AHH!"

As their eyes met, her mouth dropped open and she unleashed her deafening overwhelming scream. The flesh of her face phased in and out an inch from his own as the dissonant wobbling clashing scraping deafening noise rattled his skull.

He ejected his claws and tried to slice her but it passed through her like air! She wouldn't stop! He couldn't stop her!

Wolverine clamped his hands around his ears and fell to his knees.

His brain was liquifying! Tears streamed down his face! HE-

"GUH!"

Wolverine bolted awake.

It was a warm and noisy summer night. Crickets and frogs chirped and croaked. The members of his party were all sleeping, either on the ground or in web hammocks around the heated embers of their dead fire.

"Seriously?" he gasped. Adrenaline was pumping through him and he shivered from a cold sweat. "Fuck," he hissed holding his face. He had scolded Parker for starting to crack. Maybe he wasn't the one doing it.

"Wolverine?" asked a groggy voice. He turned to see Nih looking at him from his hammock. He had woken him again. "What is it? Is everything alright?"

"You a light sleeper elf boy‽" he snapped.

Nih, bleary eyed, blinked at him.

"I'm an elf," he said pointing to his ear. "You're not quiet."

"Go back to sleep!"

Leaving Nih and the rest of his sleeping party behind, Wolverine threw himself to his feet and stomped into the woods.

Under the light of the waning moon, the mutant stormed, then ran, then sprinted through the trees. Air and sharp branches whipped his face. The sting was welcomed.

He had no direction. Despite having been on the road all day, he only wanted to move.

He just had to run it out, just work the kinks out. That's what he repeated to himself. He was wired and just needed to wear himself out.

Nocturnal animals and enigmatic fae scurried from his path as he barreled through the understory, leaping and rolling through unsteady ground. In not so long he found himself back at the creek bank.

Dropping to all fours, he grabbed some water and splashed it into his face. He noticed his disheveled reflection and growled at it.

"Get it together Howlett," he scolded. "This ain't the time, this ain't the place to start losin' your shit. Get it together!"

Pushing back his wet hair, he exhaled a hard breath and fell back on his flank. He placed himself in a meditative position, legs crossed, back straight, and arms relaxed.

He took some long deep breaths, focusing on his tight chest, his pounding heart, the ground beneath him.

It took some time, but his calming technique started to work. His pulse slowed and the adrenaline coursing through him began to dissipate.

"See? Ain't so hard," he commented aloud. "Keep yourself together. Just some nightmares."

Heat rose on his stubbled face. He felt childish. Here he was, a grown man, an old man, a ruthless killer and hardened fighter sent runnin' and frettin' over some bad dreams.

Shaking his head at his own shortcomings, Wolverine huffed and opened his eyes.

He froze.

Even with the mutant's incredible night vision, he could just barely see it hidden amongst the black trees, but the pale face, red lips, and manic eyes were unmistakable.

There, standing across the creek, was the shredding woman.

Anger surged through him. Logan leapt to his feet and ejected his claws.

"YOU! What the fuck do you want‽ Who are you‽ What are you doing in… my…."

He trailed off.

Her feet weren't touching the ground. They were flat footed, but they didn't reach the dirt. Without moving, she started sliding toward him across the water.

"YOU STAY AWAY FROM ME!" he barked.

Out of the shadows he could see she wasn't fully solid. She was translucent and ghostly, yet oddly flat and immaterial. Before his waking eyes, the woman's flesh started slicing away, even more grotesque in reality than his dreams. Every exposed vein, and muscle, and organ, and bone, and fat glistened under the dim moonlight.

Wolverine took a step away as the figure, once again completely severed in half, continued to slide toward him. Then rage flooded him anew. He screamed and ran into the creek, slashing his claws at the ghostly form.

Nothing.

His blades passed through the mutilated figure like air, less than air.

What did he expect?

They were face to missing face. Wolverine had no choice but to stare at the mesmerizing, terrifying display as the woman's flesh started filling itself back in, piling layers on itself like a printing. A skull reformed. Eyes were replaced in front of brain, enormous and orbital before being sheathed behind lids. A nose grew into place an inch from Logan's.

They were suddenly looking into each other's eyes, and they both knew it.

Wolverine felt his stomach drop into his feet. A coldness ran over him. Every hair across his furry body stood on end as he realized what happened next.

The shredding woman opened her mouth.

Spider-man was asleep.

A small orb web, like a snowflake, glistened in the morning dew. An opportunistic, or perhaps familial spider had built it along the upper line of his web hammock. A rogue drop slid down one of its tiny silken strands and dropped between his eyes.

"Hrm?"

With a moan and a wriggle he came to. The women were both still asleep, Boksee in a hammock and Wyn on the ground. Nih was sitting by the remains of their fire washing some… dirty plant roots? Wolverine's sleeping bag was empty.

"Morning Nih, where's Wolvie?" asked Spider-man sitting up and stretching. "Marking his territory?"

"No," said Nih patting his roots dry before placing them in a bag. "He left early last night."

"What‽" exclaimed Peter falling out of his hammock. He landed on all fours and flipped over to him.

"Where did he go?"

"I don't know."

"Why didn't you stop him?"

"Because why would I? Your lives are short but I'm certain you are both adults."

"Oh har har elf boy."

"I suppose the next time you take off in the night I am tasked with stopping you?"

"What? I didn't mean-"

"What is going on?" asked Wyn waking up.

"Wolvie's flown the coop," said Peter.

"What?"

She threw herself out of her bag and to her feet. She was already in her armor.

"Did he give a reason?"

"No, we didn't speak," answered Nih. "I think he had another nightmare."

"Another?" asked Boksee joining them. "Has he had them before?"

"What does it matter?" asked Wyn. "Ranger, can you pick up the trail?"

"Sure," she said looking at the ground and shrugging. "Wolvie's got big ol' heavy feet. I see a print right there."

Nih's ear twitched.

"There's no need," he said pointing toward the trees. The team looked to see Wolverine lumbering back into camp. He looked very worse for wear. His spiked hair was disheveled, dark rings were under his blurry eyes, and he was soaked with old sweat.

He looked up surprised to see them all staring.

"What?" he growled.

Staggering over to the remains of their fire, he threw himself down on his sleeping bag, pulled over his pack and started stuffing jerky into his mouth.

"What do you mean what? Where were you?" demanded Spider-man.

"Guy can't take a walk?"

"You were gone the entire night."

"Didn't bother you, did it?"

"Did you get any sleep at all? You look terrible," said Boksee.

He shrugged, rummaging through his gear and pulling out a flask.

"Did something happen?" asked Wyn.

"Nope. Nothin' happened," he snarled bluntly.

He took a fat swig of whatever hard liquor he had brought with him, shaking down the burn with bleary eyes.

"Nothin' at all. Just a bad dream," he grumbled.

The rest of the party looked at each other.

The Far Marvels were back on the road. The day was cooler than yesterday. The sky was overcast and rain was on the air. The adventurers were putting as many miles behind them as they could before it started.

"There's a fork coming up in about a mile," said Wyn holding her map against the wind. "We'll need to take the left."

"Won't that take us north?" asked Boksee. "Plieya's to the south."

"Yes, but we're staying on the northern spine, remember? That way leads back toward Ries."

"Not if we cut across the lowlands," argued Boksee pointing out a different road. "It's about the same length."

"As the raven flies. The roads that way meander. The northern spine is a straight stretch. Besides, we already agreed on it."

As the party continued forward, the women fussing over direction and Nih keeping to himself, Spider-man pulled Wolverine aside.

"Wolvie, seriously, what happened?" he asked quietly.

"I told you, nothin' happened," the older man hissed back.

"Come on. You can tell me."

"How 'bout you just mind your own damn business! I can run through the woods all fuckin' night if I feel like it."

"What?" asked Peter caught off guard. "Why were you running?"

"How did you- ugh! Rrrrrr," Wolverine growled. Then he huffed.

"Look," said the mutant obviously trying to be diplomatic, a vein bulging on his neck. "I just had a rough night, alright? It. Happens," he snarled pointedly. "Went to work the kinks out. You get that."

"Yah but…"

"Sometimes you just have bad nights! You wake up too fast and you see things, but they ain't really there. Nothin' happened."

"You saw things‽" exclaimed Spider-man.

"Wha- How do you… Would you stop twistin' my words!"

"I'm not!"

"It's. FINE," he snarled landing a hand around the other man's collar. "You probably just knocked my brains around too much the other day."

"Oh! So it's my fault?" snapped Peter smacking the hand away. "That whole stupid fight club was your idea! You wanted me to knock your brains out!" he accused shoving a finger at him.

"YOU-"

"HEY!"

They both whipped around to see the rest of the party looking back at them.

"Men, is everything alright?" asked Wyn.

Wolverine stepped down.

"Everything's fuckin' peachy," he growled. "'Cause NOTHIN' happened," he snarled in Spider-man's face.

He shouldered him as he stomped past.

Spider-man moved to retaliate, but clenched his fists and resolved not to escalate. Instead, he grabbed Wolverine with a steel grip.

The mutant snapped toward him, teeth bared.

"Wolvie," he whispered nearly inaudible. "Are you sure you're ok?"

Logan looked taken aback, then he took another hard breath. He pushed the other man's hand away.

"I'm always ok."

The first fine droplets of the coming rain were spraying in the wind. It was time to find shelter.

"Well, this is cool," said Peter.

The party stood before an enormous arm and hand. It was bronze, oxidized, fallen to the ground and absolutely massive. The statue that it came from must have put lady liberty to shame. It was so old and so large that entire trees were growing from the dirt gathered atop it.

"It's the Hand of Tyr," said Boksee.

"Where's Tyr then?"

"That's just what it's called," said Wyn. "We don't know who the statue was actually depicting or where it even is. There's no other statue this big in Strana. No one knows where the rest of it is, or how this one arm got all the way out here."

"Titillating."

"Surprised it hasn't been melted down yet," gruffed Wolverine.

"It's cursed," said Boksee nonchalantly. "You'll end up killed by whatever you formed the metal into."

"Is that like a real curse or is that just urban legend?" asked Spider-man.

The first true rain drops started to fall.

"Come on," said Wyn.

The party was sat on some rubble beneath the hand's enormous palm. It was a deluge. Fast heavy raindrops sprayed and rumbled around them as streams waterfalled between their shelter's enormous fingers.

"How long do you think it's going to rain?" asked Spider-man.

"No more than an hour or two; it's just a summer squall," answered Nih.

"And I don't know about you lot, but I rather wait it out then go the rest of the day walking in wet clothes," said Boksee.

"The chaffing, the horror," agreed Peter. "But alas, I've got other plans," he said rummaging through his bag and pulling out a hunk of soap. "No one look!"

"What?" asked Wyn turning around. Spider-man's shirt landed on her face. She pulled it off to see Spider-man had escaped out the back leaving his clothes behind. She blinked.

"Webs is naked somewhere," she said flatly.

"Lad's gone feral," sighed Boksee.

"I'm taking a shower!" he called from somewhere out of sight. "I can't let this opportunity of running water go to waste!"

"What does that even mean?" asked Wyn.

"Speaking of opportunities," said Nih. He reached into his bag and pulled out a palmful of wiry plant roots. "These are roots of the valerian flower," he said to Wolverine. "They aid in sleep and relaxation. Since we have some time, perhaps you'd like to try to get some rest."

Wolverine gave him a scowl.

"That does seem like a good use of your time," said Wyn. "We've still got many hours of travel ahead of us today."

"Nnnrrr," he grumbled looking around at the party.

"There are shacks down the way," offered Nih. "Merchants frequently set up there to sell wares to passing travelers. Since we seem to be alone, they are likely not occupied. You can have some privacy there."

Wolverine looked over the party again, then to the elf, then to the roots in his outstretched palm. He finally gave a shrug.

"Sure. Whatever," he said grabbing the plant and shoving it in his mouth. "Doubt these will do anything. I burn through everything quick, but I guess I can go try for a lie down, since you're all so insistent."

"I can show you the way," said Nih standing.

Wolverine, still chewing the tough starch, shrugged again, and pushed himself to his feet.

The rain continued to pour. Nih and Wolverine were gone, but the remaining three men were sat quietly beneath the enormous metal hand. A frog croaked and leapt across the way.

A wet haired Peter attached a web shooter to his arm. Rotating it to the right cartridge, he aimed at a puddle.

A glowing blue orb web shot through the air and landed across its surface. Made from thick strands, the ice that fractalized from it managed to freeze the entirety of the shallow water solid.

"Hmm," he mumbled pleased.

He shot another web between a pair of trees. Thinner this time, the glowing silk steamed like dry ice in the humid air. The rain drops that hit it froze on contact, coating the web with ice until it fell to the ground and shattered. A shard landed by the frog causing it to shriek and bounce away.

"Huh."

"You know Spider-man, I think you had the right idea," said Wyn. "I might go wash off myself," she said pulling at a lock of hair still crusted with blood from the fight club. "Which way did Claws and Nih go?"

"That way," said Spider-man pointing.

Holding her shield over her head, Wyn walked off in the rain in the opposite direction.

"What, don't want the males seeing your skimpies again?" teased Boksee calling after her. Wyn flashed her a rude gesture as she rounded a corner. The ranger chuckled.

Spider-man attached his other web shooter and moved to fiddle around with his other new webbing. Before he could, Boksee scooted up against him.

"Oh."

"Ok, we're alone," she whispered. "Petey-boy, you've got to tell me. What's going on with Wolverine?"

Peter huffed.

"You're guess is as good as mine."

"Are we at tree smashing? I don't want to see Wolverine at tree smashing."

"No you don't."

"Is it something we did? Are doing?"

"No… Dang, oh Boksee. I'm sorry. I don't want you thinking you have to go around walking on egg shells around us. It's just…"

"I saw for myself on Midsummer Peter," interrupted Boksee in a stern whisper. "He's not a lycanthrope, but a man spending the night rampaging through the woods until the break of day, well, that's pretty familiar to me."

"Oh, that's right," he said quietly. "You've got a wereboar to take care of. What's it like dealing with that every month?"

"Eh, it's not too much trouble," she said sitting back. "Dad just gets a bit off kilter the day before. It's hard to explain, but when you know someone you can see the signs."

"Right."

"We mostly just give him extra leeway. Ma makes him a nice breakfast, I don't heckle him as badly as I could, and we just generally keep him happy and feeling normal, you know, at least until that night when we lock him in the cellar."

"You lock him in a cellar?" exclaimed Spider-man.

"Shh, shh, shh," she said looking around. "Now don't look at me like that Webs. He goes down there of his own choice. He's grateful for it. He doesn't want to hurt anyone, or rampage through the woods for three nights a month."

"I can relate to that. Well, not exactly the three days a month thing," he said flippantly.

"As a man he can fit down the stairs; he can't fit back up as the boar," she explained. "We call it the pig pen. Don't spread it around that we have it."

"Sure."

"But even though Wolverine isn't a lycanthrope, he's still something," continued Boksee. "He's still a beast man of some sort isn't he? Or is he?"

"Ehh, sort of."

"Hrrm," grumbled the halfling at the non-answer. "Well, whatever he is, is he… going through his paces, so to say?"

Spider-man let out a fat breath in thought.

"No. I don't think he goes through paces, not like that. I don't think there's any regularity to it. Sometimes, he just…" Spider-man stopped. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be telling you any of this. This is some really personal stuff. I don't even really have all the details myself, but I don't think Wolvie would appreciate me going behind his back and gossiping about it. You understand that right?"

"Of course," she conceded. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

"I don't think so," said Spider-man slumping his chin into his hand. "I'm not even sure what's wrong. Hopefully he's just in a mood and he works it out."

They saw Wyn making her way back toward them.

"What'll happen if he doesn't?" whispered Boksee.

Uh…" said the metahuman thinking. His eyes went wide.

"I'll keep you posted."

"You aren't real."

Wolverine was sat on his sleeping bag. Rain hissed and spattered on the roof of the shack overhead.

The shredding woman was in the window.

She was staring at him, those manic eyes phasing in and out, the rain having no effect on her transparent figure.

"You aren't real," he repeated again.

He refused to break eye contact. Just like any sleep hallucination, if he just kept looking at it, eventually it would fade.

Water spilled over the window seal and pooled on the floor.

She opened her mouth.

Then why wasn't she fading‽

"Wolverine!"

Logan turned to see Nih through a different window. He was making his way toward him, a hand held over his head magically directing the rain around him.

He looked back to the woman.

She was in the room with him.

"GAH!"

"What‽"

Nih threw open the door. Not even noticing the woman, he hurried toward him.

"Are you alright? What is it?"

Wolverine's jaw dropped open. Dark ringed, blood shot eyes looked back and forth. Nih was standing just behind her, nearly shoulder to shoulder. He didn't even notice.

Wolverine looked to the woman, then to Nih, then back to the woman.

Nih, puzzled at Logan's shifting gaze, looked beside himself, but still didn't seem to see anything. Even as the shredding woman sliced away, her flesh and organs opening to the air, he didn't look the least disturbed. He looked back to Wolverine.

"What is it?" the elf asked again. "Who were you talking to?"

Logan watched the shredding woman open the exposed bones and teeth of her mouth. Before any noise escaped her, she phased out entirely, disappearing into the gloom of the overcast shack.

"Wolverine!" commanded Nih snapping him out of his stares. "What is it? Did you get any sleep at all?"

"You didn't see anything," muttered Logan reaching for his mouth.

"What?"

"I knew it. It really ain't anything. It's really nothing."

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing! I just said that!" he snapped.

He noticed the rain had finished.

"Nap time's over elf boy," the old mutant snapped pushing himself to his feet. He all but shoved his team mate out of the way as he staggered toward the door.

Nih, perplexed, looked around the empty room, then watched the younger man stumble outside.

In the gloom, his red eyes narrowed.

CRACK!

With a kick, Peter broke apart an old fallen tree he had drug from the deeper forest.

"So in our world, at least in the part of the world where we live," he explained. "Every home has this beautiful, magical thing called… indoor plumbing. You can pull a lever in your kitchen and clean fresh water pours out, whenever you want. You don't have to go outside with a bucket. Unless you live in Flint Michigan."

Another long day on the road was behind them and a night threatening more rain was beginning to fall. Wyn, Boksee, Nih, and Spider-man were setting up camp.

"Though New York's water is all full of copepods, so…" he said shrugging.

"That's extraordinary," said Wyn collecting his freshly made hunks of fire wood. "Not the copepods, whatever those are, but…"

"No! It gets better! You can choose the temperature of the water. Just pull a handle and it comes out steaming hot! You don't have to heat it over a fire or anything."

"It comes out hot?" asked Boksee. She was just chilling in a tree for now. "Straight out of the tap? In every single house? That's insanity you're talking! Also, I have an axe you know."

"Huh?" asked Spider-man ripping off a hunk of log. Boksee shielded her face from flying splinters.

"Never mind."

"That should be enough for now," said Wyn arranging her wood into a stack.

"Ok, but this is the part that's really going to blow your minds," continued Peter. "So in the bathroom, which every house also has, there's a tap that's really high on the wall. It has like a watering can head. Do you guys have watering cans? Anyway, pull a lever, twist a knob, and water shoots out of the wall like indoor rain, except hot! And that's what a shower is," he said concluding his story.

"Ok now you're just making fun of us," said Boksee. "There's no way that's true. The king of Ries doesn't know such splendor." She pulled off an acorn from her tree branch and tossed it at him.

"It is!" he exclaimed catching it. He threw it back, nailing her in the chest.

"YoW!" she laughed as it bounced off and went flying.

"And I always end up taking it for granted."

Wyn looked up in surprise as the acorn hit her back with a clank.

"Heh?"

She went back to sparking the fire.

"Every time I end up back in time, or in the depths of space, or in another dimension, or in Jersey, I realize how good my crummy apartment really is," continued Spider-man. "Then two weeks back home and I'm complaining again. Why am I like this?"

Nih casually walked over to find the fallen acorn.

"A man born to the blackest soil still laments as he plows it," he said picking it up.

"Meaning?"

"That you're fickle. But we all are."

He held the acorn up under Peter's face.

Spider-man gave him a confused look, then gave the acorn a kiss like it had a boo boo.

Nih cracked up. He leaned over to poke the nut into the dirt, then turned his attention to a muddy cliff face.

"By the soil that builds form," he commanded throwing open his arms. "And the water that brings life, may these plants bend and grow. Grow!"

Roots erupted from the dirt and formed into a lean-to. With another surge of magic, Nih weaving a glowing hand through the air, moss spread across the top of its makeshift roof.

"No really, what did you want him to do with the acorn?" asked Boksee.

The druid threw a finger and a single acorn dropped from Boksee's branch and into his outstretched palm. He pulled off the seedcoat and popped the nut into his mouth, chewing it with a single loud crack.

"Uagh!" his team mates all exclaimed.

"Elf that kills men!" cried Boksee.

Wyn burst out laughing as Nih looked confused.

"I'm certain I've seen men eat acorns," he huffed.

"After they've been boiled within an inch of their lives maybe. Alright, no one eat the dark elf's cooking," teased the ranger as Peter sauntered up to their new shelter.

"Hrm," he hummed pushing at the lean-to. "I don't think this is sturdy enough for webbery. Looks like we're all sleeping on the ground tonight," he concluded. "Like peasants."

"I rather be a dry peasant than wet aristocracy," said Boksee. She pulled her cloak around her as a damp wind blew through the valley.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot," said Nih. With another chant and command, more roots wove together to form a wicker floor a foot off the ground.

"We'd be in the mud if it does rain. Is that enough elevation to raise our societal standing?" he asked Spider-man.

"Oh yah. We're totally middle management now."

Wyn shielded her burgeoning flame from another gust.

"Hopefully all this wind is just saber rattling," she said. "Speaking of sabers, are you sure it was a smart idea to assign Wolverine to dinner duty?" she asked turning to Boksee. "He's already exhausted. It must be near two days straight now that he hasn't slept."

"That's exactly why I suggested him. He spent all last night stomping around the woods. Maybe giving him a chance to do it before-hand will help him get whatever it is out of his system. Let him go hunt down some woodland creature to engage in his beast man inclinations. Get out his pent-up frustrations, whatever they are."

Wyn gave her a look, then turned to Peter.

"Makes sense to me," he said shrugging. "I mean, Boksee was going to go hunt us down something anyway. Might as well let ol' dog breath do it."

She gave them both a look.

"Well, if you say so," she said unconvinced.

"Hey, it can't hurt right?"

A line of blood splattered across the trees. The severed head of a doe was trampled under hoof as the rest of the herd ran for their lives.

Without thinking, Wolverine chased them down, throwing his claws through another. The beast cried as its abdomen was cleaved apart and its entrails went spilling. It wasn't even dead as he chased down a third, then a forth, then a fifth, sixth.

Screams barked into the evening air as the mutant, drool dripping from his fanged mouth, chased and sprinted and disemboweled the ungulates.

A shadow to his right.

What was that‽ Was it her?

He tripped over himself to stop, whipping around, his wild eyes scanning over the twisted shadows and trees of the falling night.

No, he didn't see anything.

His fine-tuned ears refocused on a deer, the sound of its gallop and the smell of its fear reigniting the urge to give chase.

Coarse hair whipping his face, he lunged forward, sprinting with inhuman speed, closing the distance on another animal and skewering it.

Behind him!

He rounded as a large buck charged. It stood no chance. In a single swipe of glistening blood drenched claws its pronged head went flying into the air.

"GGAAAARRRH!" shouted Logan whipping around. "You ain't been scared to show your face when I'm alone before!" he barked in no direction. "What's stoppin' you now ya bitch‽ Scared I'll shishkabob you‽"

What did it even matter? She wasn't even real!

But she was out there wasn't she?

He had to keep look out. Someone was after him.

Wait, who was after him?

He looked around himself again, gagging and panting. It was nothing but twisted shadows and rows of trees for as far as he could see. Blood that wasn't his dripped from his chin.

Why was he here‽ Why was he in the woods? He didn't remember! What was attacking him? Was he attacking? Why was he…

A noise from behind!

His head snapped around to the sound of the tiniest rustle.

"Sabertooth‽" his mind blared. "Enemy soldier‽ Dark brotherhood‽ Lab coat‽"

He didn't know! He didn't know anything! Why was he here‽ Where's here‽ What was happening‽ He only knew one thing.

KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL!

Wolverine leapt through the air and stabbed his claws through a bush. Blood splattered in a successful kill. His fangs were borne, his eyes were nearly glazed over. He snarled from the ever-present pain of using his unnatural claws.

Then he recognized the smell. Heart sinking, he was brought back to earth, or wherever he was.

He pushed aside the bush to see his claws were pierced through a tiny newborn fawn, still waiting in hiding where its mother had left it.

He fell to his knees as his wits oozed back into his mind. He was just in the woods, hunting something for dinner. There were no enemies here.

He lowered his head in shame.

"You lost your cool Howlett," he said to himself.

With a sigh, Wolverine sheathed himself and grabbed the dead deer. Walking back through his bloody path of destruction, he sniffed around the massacre until finding the mother. He tossed the baby down beside it. Then he smelled something else.

He looked up to see a dozen eyes reflecting in the dark. It was an entire pack of wolves, waiting.

He gave them a nod, then finding the large buck, hacked off a single haunch to bring back to the party.

"Good cut of meat. Where's the rest of it?" asked Boksee as she prepared the haunch for cooking.

"Why?" asked Wyn. "We couldn't possibly eat an entire deer tonight. That's more than enough."

"Don't put it past Petey-boy. He can pack a lot more than you'd think into those skinny little tights."

"I'm right here," he called.

"But really," continued Boksee. "A fresh kill left too close to camp could attract predators to us."

"Good point."

The women looked to Wolverine. He was sat at their fire, Spider-man and Nih giving him a wide berth as he was drenched in stinking blood and sweat.

He shrugged.

"Wolves took care of it."

The party was asleep.

Logan was not.

Just as they had prepared for, a gentle rain had settled in to fill the night. They were sleeping like a box of tin soldiers on the elevated platform, sleeping bag to bag, elbow to elbow beneath their mossy lean-to. Safe and dry within the pattering white noise and mild summer temperature, it was honestly an exceptional night to sleep through.

It was, for everyone but Wolverine.

It felt like hours. It might have only been a few minutes. Logan, despite his exhaustion, refused to sleep. He was just laying amongst his party, eyes closed but awake listening for slowed breathing and stalled movements. Finally, he felt like he was in the clear.

As silent as a ghost, he levered himself up only for the lean-to to betray him. His movement reverberated across its roots like a woody spider web, catching the attention of their resident spider man.

Peter stirred.

Feet already on the ground, Logan froze. He watched with baited breath as the younger man grunted and turned. It took a long moment but eventually he rolled back over.

"I duh nuh," he mumbled as he fell back asleep.

Wolverine quickly stood.

A hand grabbed his arm.

With a start he whipped around. Nih was staring at him, his red eyes iridescent in the dark.

"You weren't asleep at all," whispered Wolverine.

"Neither were you."

He yanked his arm away.

"Hehg?" muttered Peter trying to wake up again.

"I'm just gonna go sleep somewhere else," hissed Logan quickly. "I don't want to wake everyone."

"You don't want the others seeing you wake."

Logan gave him a look.

"I'll be back before dawn," he said flatly.

He uncorked his flask and took a long hard drink as he walked off in the rain.

The displaced mutant trudged through the darkness. The furs and fabrics of his armor clung to him cold and heavy, soaked with rain, and his boots swamped with mud. Foggy memories of trenches danced at the edge of his consciousness, of inescapable mud and rotting feet. Shaking them away, he carried on until he was good and out of ear shot.

He had to watch for elf boy, he conceded with himself. He could hear as well as he could, maybe better, and he was listening.

He cringed as his foot came down in another fresh puddle.

Eventually a scent caught him. Following it, the grizzled man found the wolf pack lounging beneath a rocky over hang, a few of its members still chewing away at fresh fleshy deer bones.

Barely even acknowledging them, and they he, he lumbered forward and joined the pile. He laid down, curling up over a rock as a wolf readjusted itself around him, its warm musky fur brushing against his cold hands. Wolverine stared out into the dark.

"Wonder when you'd show up."

The shredding woman was standing in the rain.

It was another sleepless night.

He had tried, he had really tried to just ignore her, but every time Wolverine closed his eyes he would fall into the cold room and she would be there. He tried to stay there with her, just to let his mind rest, but it was no use. He couldn't stay asleep when she was there. And when he woke up, she was there too. She was always there, watching him, and when he was asleep, she was screaming at him.

The only way to deal with her was to run, and run he did. Before she could scream, before she could reach him, he would take off, over and over and over and over again. His lungs burned and his immortal body ached, but he forced himself to spend another night running aimlessly through the woods. Hours, from night to daybreak was spent dodging shadows and sprinting from the wind.

But it was fine. It didn't matter. He could stay up a week if he needed to. Wolverine knew, understood, he wasn't like other people. He could push himself beyond any point of reason, any point. Nothing in his body would break down from sleep deprivation.

Nothing but his sanity.

He had stayed up before! He could do it now.

For how long? He had to sleep sometime, didn't he?

Did he?

When he hadn't slept in the past it was because there was a reason to stay awake, not because…

For how long…?

It was FINE.

But…

IT WAS FINE.

"Wolvie?"

The mutant jerked.

He looked up to see the entire party looking back at him. They were back on the road, hiking their endless campaign across the empty wilderness.

"You awake?" asked Peter.

Logan's face was sallow. His hair was a tangled mess of spikes. His muzzle was in desperate need of a shave, even by his standards. His mouth hung open in panting breaths and his bleary eyes looked nearly bruised from exhaustion.

He just snorted at them, then continued walking. The team looked to each other, but followed.

"You know," said Wyn. "Plieya's not going anywhere. If we need to take an extra day so you can…"

Wolverine snapped around to her with a death glare.

"Or not," she said passive aggressively.

They all continued.

With Wolverine a few steps ahead of everyone else, Peter started weaving a web between his hands. He was really going at it, even attaching lines to his elbows and chest. Eventually he opened his arms at the rest of the party to reveal written in a web:

"Too much to hope he just passes out?"

The team contemplated.

Wolverine didn't notice any of it. He was watching the road under his feet, his aching feet. His legs were nearly numb from three straight days of use. They didn't even feel like a part of his body. He couldn't stop them if he wanted to. They had spent too much time mechanically moving him forward to heed his orders.

His vision blurred.

It was fine.

His head jerked, barely able to keep itself aloft. He was tired. So tired. If he could just…

He was ok.

Feet still walking, Wolverine's eyes forced themselves closed.

He was in the water…

Logan suddenly found himself in the same stone room.

"Why here‽ Why is it always here‽" he barked looking around.

"It was her," answered a whisper.

"What‽"

The cold water began to rise, up over his knees, his waist, his chest, his neck.

With a cry, he held his breath and closed his eyes as he fully submerged, his long spiked hair floating weightlessly around his ears in the icy water.

He panicked but quickly realized he could breathe. Why could he breathe? Suddenly there was a respirator around his muzzle, a piece of machinery never having existed in this world.

The water turned hot.

Terror and fury surged through him! His eyes shot open to see he was behind glass.

"NOO!"

He lunged forward, the glass shattering just as he woke and was flung back to reality.

He was suddenly back on the road. His claws were ejected and Spider-man was before him. He had leapt between the mutant and the rest of the team, his arms outspread corralling them behind him, fear across his face. The team was startled, their hands at their weapons.

Wolverine gasped and quickly retracted his blades. His hands leapt to his head.

"Claws?" asked Wyn.

He took off into the woods.

"Logan!" she shouted running after him. Spider-man caught her.

"Let him go!" he commanded.

"We're days away from anywhere! We have to stay together!"

"He's not going to get lost. He can find his way back to us!"

"Would he want to‽"

Wolverine ran through the forest. He had no idea for how far or how long before tripping over unsteady ground and falling face first into the leaf litter.

"FUCK!"

He grabbed his spikey head.

"GET IT TOGETHER!" he shouted. "Fuck! FUCK! Oh fuck it! I can sleep if I want to! Go to sleep then! If ya' need it so bad ya' little piss baby just lay down!"

Right where he had fallen, Wolverine dug his face into the earthy scent of the forest refuse.

It was fine.

Whatever happened, he was just going to sleep through it this time.

He was ok.

He would force himself to stay asleep.

He was always ok.

He closed his eyes.

"Is he damaged?" asked a deep male voice. "Any deep cuts?"

Another replied.

"He's ok."

Wolverine's eyes shot open. He was in the glass tank, floating and wired in hot water, the respirator once again latched around his face.

The glass shattered into fractals. Hands were on him! The shredding woman forced her missing face into the tank with him screaming and shrieking, her fingers clawing into his skin and jostling his air supply.

"AHHHHH!"

Wolverine leapt from the ground as he bolted awake. He quickly looked around but found he was alone.

With an absolutely desperate whimper, he grabbed around his purple sunken eyes and keeled over, forehead landing to the dirt.

What was wrong with him? Was he really falling apart this quickly? Over some bad dreams?

He reached around his belt for his pack, only to realize he had left it behind. All his booze was back with the gang. Wasn't that just the cherry on his shit sundae?

Pushing himself back to his throbbing feet, he began to stagger back toward his party.

It wasn't hard to find his team's human stink amongst all this virgin wilderness.

He shielded his eyes from a harsh ray of orange sunlight. It was already evening again. How on earth had that happened? The grizzled mutant trudged through the lush twilight forest, but stopped when he heard voices.

"…Wolverine, short, angry, spikey hair with swords coming out of his hands. You might have heard of him," snapped Wyn sarcastically.

Sounded like webhead was getting read the riot act.

Crouching low, Logan stalked up through the underbrush and peaked out. The gang was gathered off the road right where he had left them. They had stopped for him.

"You have to tell us what's going on," she continued. The paladin was stood in front of Spider-man at her wits end. "You know more than you're letting on," she accused. "This is clearly getting out of hand. Why isn't he sleeping?"

Spider-man, standing taller than her, his brilliant red and blue armor just as vibrant as the silver rank's wasn't backing down. He bristled.

Boksee snuck a hand to him.

"Peter, listen," she said. "We're not trying to gang up on you. I absolutely understand wanting to keep some things unspoken, but sometimes what we want and what we need aren't the same thing, right?"

In the harsh orange light, his sharp hazel eyes slid down to focus on her.

Boksee felt a pit drop into her stomach, but this time she steeled herself and firmly met his gaze. Apparently, it was all the push he needed. His expression quickly softened as her words sunk in.

"Yah," he admitted deflating with a sigh.

Perking back up, he looked over his shoulders not noticing Wolverine hidden out of sight.

"Ok," he said switching to a hushed tone. It was so dense with severity the party immediately stood to attention. "Listen you guys. I don't know exactly what's going on with Wolverine, but I've got some ideas, but this is personal stuff, extremely personal, like don't even mention we talked about this. Understand?"

The party nodded.

"Basically, Logan's got some demons."

"Literally or metaphorically?" asked Wyn.

"Wha- metaphorically. Is mental illness a thing that's understood here yet? Never mind, listen. Wolverine has had some terrible things happen to him. I don't even know all the details myself, but they were so bad, sometimes he thinks those things are still happening."

"Scars of the psyche," said Nih.

"Exactly."

Wyn lowered her head and nodded.

"When that happens, that 'barbarian berserker mode' you diagnosed him with," continued Spider-man doing air quotes. "Gets triggered except it's aimed at anything and anyone in the area, because he doesn't know what's going on."

"Is it because of his time as a soldier?" asked Boksee.

"I don't think so?" said Peter. "Maybe some. That's not the main one, but… No. I'm sorry. That isn't something I should be telling you. Point is, he can absolutely lose his mind. It's not his fault. When you're treated badly enough, treated like an animal, you turn into one. And even though you work hard to fix it, you don't ever really fix it."

Wolverine, still hidden in the bushes, still listening, lowered his head.

"Spider-man," said Nih flatly. "Is it how the metal got inside him?"

Wolverine snapped to attention.

The women both went wide eyed. Peter just as much so.

They could see the gears twisting in his head before he asked:

"That obvious?"

"Yes, what possible natural process could create such a creature?"

"That was never in question!" barked Wyn. "That wasn't something he wanted to happen? To have blades built into his arms?" she asked appalled.

"It's not just the claws," said Spider-man. "Haven't you noticed? He's got an entire metal skeleton."

"That's why he's so heavy‽" exclaimed Boksee.

"Shhh!"

"But he told me people in your world are just born like that sometimes," she hissed. "With metal as part of their bodies."

"Some people are," said Spider-man. "Wolvie wasn't one of them. He was born with all his other powers: his strength and speed and healing factor and general feral-ness, but not with the metal. Some… " he thought for words. "…very bad people saw the potential of his abilities and decided to augment him, forcibly augment him. Wolvie has a long history of stuff messing him up, but that was the big one."

"Why did they do it?" asked Boksee.

"Human weapon."

"Wolverine's a rogue weapon‽" exclaimed Wyn.

"Shh! Pretty much, but don't call him that. That's not all he is. None of us are just what's happened to us, right? Especially not the bad stuff."

"Is that why you two escaped to our world?"

"No! We're just lost."

"Is that what you are?" asked Boksee. "A weapon?"

"No, I wasn't made for anything. I'm just an accident."

"You were tossed!" she blurted. "Oh Spidey," she said grabbing him in a side hug, but only reaching his hip. "You do have the aura of a foundling, it's true, but there's no shame in that."

"What? Look, we can go over all this later," he said sliding out of her grasp. "If you guys really care that much, but it's not important right now. The only reason I'm telling you all this is because you need to understand what kind of danger you're in," he said with enough command to quiet the party.

"What do you mean?" asked Boksee stepping back.

"I mean if he snaps, none, and I mean none of you will stand a chance. You have to run, you can't argue with me."

"What are you talking about?" said Wyn affronted. "You both are extraordinarily powerful, but we're experienced adventurers. We-"

"NO! You have to run," he reiterated. "It's nothing against any of you, but you have to understand! Wyn you're armored to the teeth, but steel can't stop adamantium. You've got a sword, a mace, a shield. What is that going to do to him, really?

Wyn paused.

"Boksee, you're fast. You're not faster than him. And Nih, you're not armored or fast. How long would it take to cast a spell? You've got a sickle, a thornwhip? What is that going to do against a guy who can regrow his face?" he spat pointing to his own.

"But you can take him," argued Wyn. "You handed him his ass in the fight club."

"I can take him in a fist fight. I can take him when a knockout or a pinout means we stop fighting. Wolverine does not stop. He keeps coming. He keeps coming hard and fast. You can't kill him, you can't stop him, and he's coming for blood. He doesn't know what he is or where he is or who he's attacking. He just does. If he pops a screw, I'm the only one that even stands a chance of restraining him long enough for him to snap out of it."

"But if this is a problem, one you know he has, how do you usually deal with it?" asked Boksee. "Can't you just do that?"

"I don't deal with it! Back home he has the X-Men, the normal party he lives with. I'm not even in it. He lives in an entire academy of people just as powerful as we are," he said thumbing toward himself. "And even they have trouble dealing with him when he flies off the handle. But they have Professor Xavier, their leader. He's a psychic, and a psychologist. You can't get better than a psychic psychologist and Wolvie still has problems! We don't have anything like that. We're on our own. Please, you have to promise me, if I tell you to run, you have to run. You can't argue, and you can't stop for anything."

"I understand your concern," said Wyn sternly. "But we're a team Spider-man. We're all equals. We're not going to abandon you two like fleeing children and that's final."

"You don't understand! You-"

Alright, Wolverine had heard enough of this.

"HEY!" he barked. "Is the lecture over yet‽"

The team jumped as Wolverine stepped out of the brush.

"If you were trying to talk in secret, maybe don't shout."

"Wolvie!" gasped Spider-man. "I… Oh shit."

"Yah oh shit. Heard everything," he grumped.

"You… you don't seem very mad about it."

"Ain't gonna be mad at you for being right," he dismissed. "Everyone back home knows it's a shit show up here," he said stabbing his temple. "Current team might as well know too. It's cute you seem to think I'm just this nice guy who's got a Jackal Hyde thing going on."

"You are a nice guy," said Boksee.

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"Logan," said Wyn. "You haven't slept in three days. What's going on? We want to help."

"You shouldn't have to help," he said sourly. "I shouldn't need any fuckin' help," he snarled. Then he huffed. "But it looks like that's where we're at."

The Far Marvels moved into the woods. It was a common wisdom to never sleep in sight of the road, for one never knew who might be traveling it.

They were sat in a clearing, dusk once again falling, the sun heavy and orange as it met the horizon.

"Ok," said Wolverine, eyes blood shot, words slurred, and teeth gritted. "I'll just lay it out straight. Here it is. I can't sleep, and I can't sleep 'cause I keep havin' this same nightmare over and over again."

The party looked at each other, perhaps surprised at the straight forwardness of his answer.

"Um, ok," said Boksee. "What's the nightmare about?"

"A woman. Awful bitch. Every time I close my eyes she's screamin' at me. Her scream is like nothin' I've ever heard before, like knives on glass, and her face, her whole body shreds apart in and out like…" he struggled to think. "Kid, what are those machines, the one's at hospitals that you go inside of and they show stuff inside you?"

"MRIs?"

"Yah! That! That's what she looks like, but it's her real body doin' it, not pictures. I can see all her guts movin' around.

"And that's what you see every time you try to sleep?" cringed Spider-man.

"Yah."

"Sheesh.

"Do you recognize the woman?" asked Wyn.

"No. I've never seen her before in my life. Which is weird right? It's my head. I should recognize everything in it shouldn't I?"

"Yah, but you don't recognize a lot of things," said Spider-man. "No offence."

"No, I don't remember things, there's a difference."

"How so?" asked Boksee.

"I guess it'd be hard to figure if you've never delt with it. Recognizin' is a feelin' but rememberin' is thinkin'."

"Like… deja voo?" asked Spider-man.

"Y-yah. Sort of. That's the right idea. Point is, I don't recognize this woman. I've never seen her before, so I don't know what she's doin' in here. I recognize the blood though. Don't remember, but I recognize it."

"What blood?" asked Wyn.

"There's always blood, in my nightmare, the one she keeps getting into. There's blood, there's cold water, and there's a stone room. There's…" Wolverine trailed off.

"Wolvie?" asked Spider-man.

"I know what room it is," he said, his bleary eyes going wide in realization.

"Ok?"

"It's the ruins, the ruins in the Ashen woods, that place that I recognized, that's where my dream is too. I did something in that room."

"Well, that makes sense," said Boksee shrugging. "You do say that's where you two first came from."

"But why don't I remember? How did I even get there?"

"Why don't I remember?" asked Spider-man.

"And why did she only have one eye?"

"What? Who?" asked Wyn.

Wolverine, brain completely fogged over, held a hand over his eye.

"Who Wolverine? The woman?"

"No… " he said again in dawning realization. "Someone else. There was someone else in the room. She only had one eye," he repeated in clouded thought.

"Well… I guess I hope the best for her then," said Spider-man, a hand subconsciously reaching for his own socket.

"If she's even alive," said Boksee.

The party sat quietly for a moment.

"Well, that's it then," declared Wyn.

"Huh? What's it?" asked Boksee.

"If that's all there is to it, if that's why Claws isn't sleeping, then the answer seems fairly straight forward, if not difficult. We just need to stop him from having the nightmare."

"Oh," said Boksee and Spider-man pleased.

Wolverine grimaced.

"Yah, that does seem to be the meat of the matter," said Bokse with the other two males in agreement. They started coming up with ideas. "How do we do that? Try summoning a baku?"

"It would depend on what's causing it," said Wyn.

"I think Steve's watching my dreams," said Spider-man. "I can see if I can ask him for help."

"Even if he could, I don't think alerting a hostile Ilithid to our location is a good idea. Not if you value your existence as a free and living man."

"Eh, fair."

Wolverine's grip tightened around the fabric of his trousers. He snarled.

"RRrrrr… it ain't just my dreams!" he spat.

The team stopped.

"What?" asked Wyn.

"It ain't just my dreams. I've… I've been seein' her awake… too."

"Are you serious?" asked Spider-man.

He nodded.

"That's it then," said Wyn. "If Wolverine is seeing the woman even while he's awake then the cause of all this must be something external."

"What do you mean external?" demanded Spider-man.

"You know, a separate entity. Something outside of Wolverine that's influencing him."

"Separate entity? I knocked his brains out literally the night before, then he couldn't sleep for days. He's hallucinating."

"That's a strangely firm stance for someone who lives with a ghost," said Boksee.

"Oh my gosh Dusan," said Peter suddenly distracted. "He scared the crap out of me the other night. I was going out to pee and he trapped me in this really boring conversation, but how do you excuse yourself from a ghost…?"

"She ain't like Dusan!" barked Logan shutting him up.

"How so?" asked Boksee.

"For one, she's alive. I seen enough of her guts movin' around to know that. And two, she ain't really here."

"Like a ghost?"

"No!" He struggled to link his thoughts together. "Like, she looks off. Flat and see through. And no one else can see her. You all can see Dusan."

"How do you know we can't see her?"

"'Cause you all have stood right next to her and not noticed a fuckin' thing."

The rest of the party looked to each other in unease.

"See," said Spider-man tapping his temple. "Internal."

"Not necessarily," argued Wyn. "Just because it's in Logan's head doesn't mean it's not coming from an external source. You should know that."

"Yah but what's more likely here?"

"It seems just as likely to me. You two are new to this world so you might not know, but there are many beings that can enter into one's mind to torment them." She put a hand to her chin in thought, then turned to the oldest man. "Wolverine," she said firmly. "With your permission, I would like to perform an exorcism."

"An exorcism?" he gagged. "You think I'm possessed?"

"Not possessed, tormented. There is a difference. Though tormentation is one of the steps of possession: exposure, targeting, tormentation, and possession," she explained. "During the stage of tormentation, a malevolent entity has attached itself to a living vessel."

"Malevolent entity?" asked Peter.

"The spirits of the deceased, demons, devils, night hags, perhaps even the sent curse of a living person. It doesn't matter. It all manifests in the same way. An unseen follower draws nearer, walking behind the victim's footsteps, lying in their bed, clinging to their back, becoming more and more destructive until they've broken the person down enough to take possession."

"And I will take things I never needed to hear for 800," said Spider-man.

"Where would he even come into contact with an evil spirit?" asked Boksee.

"I don't know. Maybe nowhere. The Ashen, Adaliz's manor, the Excorium, the fallout of the fire spire. We're no strangers to places of restless dead."

"Then why just me?" asked Logan.

"Who knows. Every case is different. Some entities are very picky and some aren't. Usually something about their victim draws them to them, but sometimes it's just bad luck. It can't hurt to try. If there isn't an entity present then the exorcism just won't do anything. It has no effect on the living, unless someone here is actually a haunting spirit and hasn't bothered to mention it."

"Not currently," said Spider-man shrugging.

With the party gathered around him waiting for his response, Wolverine took a long moment to think. He finally nodded.

"Fine," he grunted.

"What do we do?"

It was night.

The summer sky was clear and vast. A ring of indigo shown around the rim of the farthest horizon and crystalline stars hung above them in unfamiliar constellations.

Under the scarlet glow of their druid's orb light, the Far Marvels prepared.

Nih had gathered some plants - bushels of juniper, cedar, and rosemary. Weaving his fingers through the air, he pulled the water from them, drying them. He then handed them to Spider-man.

Boksee had fashion them some long stakes. Peter webbed the dried plants to them then stabbed them into the ground in a ring.

We all must be anointed with holy water," said Wyn pulling her bottle and sprinkling a few drops square on Boksee's scalp. "By the might of the divine, may thine anointment grant thee protection," she recited.

"If an entity is forced from Wolverine it may try to attach itself to one of us instead," she said doing the same to Peter and having Nih bend down to deliver his. "Wearing divine vestments would be ideal, but I'm afraid I don't have any more."

"It's cool. I'm not going anywhere without a crucifix from now on," said Spider-man pulling a pair of sticks he had webbed together. "You know, since possession is a thing I have to worry about apparently."

"And how does an execution device help with that?" asked Boksee.

"Sorry. Not allowed to talk religion or politics. Ask Nightcrawler."

"Who?"

"Hey, can we get this show on the road?" barked Wolverine.

He was sat at the center of the smudging circle. Wyn had put her only other holy symbol on him, a smaller one she kept on a chain.

"Yes," she answered. "Once I perform the exorcism, if an entity is dislodged, I will then perform my ritual of holy light to ward it away. Then you will need to be anointed and monitored for attempted re-possession."

"I thought you said he wasn't possessed," said Boksee.

"I mean the entity attempting to start the cycle again. You know what I mean."

"How do we know if it worked?" asked Peter.

"An entity will be exposed before us. It will violently lash out until being warded," said Wyn pulling her holy symbol. "Is everyone ready?"

Boksee and Nih nodded.

Spider-man crossed himself.

"You ain't even Catholic!" snapped Logan.

"My lawyer is."

"Claws, are you ready?" asked Wyn.

He nodded.

She motioned to Nih.

Throwing a hand, he sent a small flame ringing around the smudging stakes, its candle like glow coruscating in the darkness. The dried leaves began to burn and fill the air with their fragrant black smoke.

All around them, the adventurers saw curious fae gathering between the trees.

Wyn lowered her head and held her holy symbol to her chest. She closed her eyes and began to recite.

"I, a warrior of the divine beseech requite. Through this, my unyielding conviction, grant me thy strength to sever this affixion."

The paladin's long lavender hair began to shimmer and glow. Her holy symbol lit in radiant light. The watching fae were all forced to either flee or prostrate.

Wyn aimed the symbol at Logan.

"By thy power, no malignant force may precel me! I command this spirit rent, and of this man, I UNVESSEL THEE!"

A flash of radiant light exploded from her symbol so bright the party reflexively shielded their eyes. Startled bats and birds and glowing fae flew from the forest canopy. Frogs and crickets chirped loudly, but nothing else happened.

The adventurers looked around, then to each other, then to Wyn.

"Well, guess it's not a malevolent entity," said the paladin shrugging. She put her symbol back in her bag.

"That's it?" barked Logan.

"Yes. I performed an exorcism. Nothing happened. You're not tormented."

"But I fuckin am! So what? It's just in my head? That's it‽"

"Maybe?" said Boksee.

"Ain't there anything else that can get in there‽"

"Steves can right?" asked Spider-man. "Maybe a Steve is trying to tell you something?"

"Why would a mind flayer be tormenting Logan with a strange woman?" snipped Boksee.

"It was just a thought."

"A lousy one."

"Aren't there any other psychics here?

"What if," interrupted Nih. "Just for now, instead of treating the cause, we instead treat the symptom?"

"What do you mean?" asked Boksee.

"If you all remember, I have a spell that can force sleep upon a willing participant for twenty-four hours. If Wolverine is suffering from sleep deprivation, external cause or not, let us simply force sleep."

"What‽" gasped Logan. Cold adrenaline flooded through him and his pulse hammered.

To his dismay, the rest of the party seemed to like the idea.

"Oh yah. I remember you telling us about that," said Boksee. "Does it have to be a full twenty-four hours?"

"Yes, it's all or nothing."

"What do you even use that spell for?" asked Spider-man.

Just as Nih moved to answer, Wolverine blurted in.

"NO! Absolutely not!" he snapped.

"What, why?" asked Wyn.

"I can fall asleep just fine! That ain't the problem! The problem is she's in there too! You want to trap me in there with her?" he exclaimed. "Where I can't even wake up? For a whole day‽"

"Oh, I see your point."

"You have to sleep sometime!" argued Boksee.

"Then let me just try on my own! We did the exorcism or whatever the fuck that was. You agree it's in my head. If it's just in my head I know she ain't real and she can't hurt me! Now I can ignore her!"

"Logan, how is that going to be any…" started Wyn.

"JUST LET ME TRY!" he begged. He was actually begging, the weight of the exhaustion and his slipping sanity visible behind his eyes. "Please, give me more time. One more time. You all wanted me to tell you," he began to snarl. "Don't punish me 'cause I did."

The rest of the adventurers, very unconvinced, looked to each other.

Wyn gave Logan one last concerned look, then, with the party in uneasy agreement, she nodded.

"Want a fart bag?" asked Spider-man rigging up another web hammock.

Wolverine shook his head.

Opting for the ground with Wyn, he threw out his sleeping bag and flopped down onto it.

The party was quickly setting up for bed. It was bare bones, the group having decided to skip the fire and just subsist off their rations.

"Is that what you call these?" asked Boksee hopping into her freshly made hammock.

"No, but Wolvie does."

"Good, because I don't like that. It's already bad enough they start off slightly warm."

Peter huffed a laugh. Then he turned to Logan.

"So, um, Wolvie, maybe you should go ahead and… you know, get a head start."

The mutant gave him a blood shot side glare.

"The rest of us will stay up for a bit, just to make sure you actually fall asleep this time."

"I ain't a fuckin' toddler."

"You ain't an effing full deck of cards either," he snarked.

The mutant leapt to his feet and lunged at him. Spider-man didn't even flinch as the two were suddenly glaring at each other. The party jumped at the whiplash.

"You got somethin' to say‽" demanded Wolverine through a fanged snarl.

"Yah," said Peter holding his ground. "I said you're really cranky. I hope you feel better."

With a glower, Wolverine backed down. Then he turned with a huff.

"I ain't cRaNkY," he mocked stalking back over to his sleeping bag. "What are you, four? Bed wetters get cranky. I'm trigger happy," he said falling onto his face with a thud.

The team looked to Spider-man, who threw out his arms in a silent 'see what I mean'?"

Despite Wolverine's objection, as soon as his face hit the hide of his sleeping bag, he was out.

The rest of the party, choosing to stay awake, settled in around him.

He was in the stone room.

Wolverine, cold water splashing under his feet, looked around.

"I remember you," he declared.

At his proclamation, his surroundings began to fill themselves in. He could see the room's stone columns, the sky beyond its crumbling roof, the tiles under the flooded floor.

Suddenly the shallow water froze solid around his boots. He looked up to see the shredding woman standing at the end of the newly formed hall.

"No surprise there," he growled.

Taking a deep breath, he steeled himself.

"You aren't real," he said firmly.

The woman began to phase, her body shredding away.

"You aren't real," he repeated, thick fists clenching. "You're just somethin' that got knocked loose in my head. Just a bunch of terrible shit gettin' mixed together. So fuck off, I'm tryin' to sleep."

She screamed!

"AHH!"

Logan clutched his hands over his ears and fell to his knees, not that it helped.

It didn't matter if she was real or not, that scream! That terrible scream! It wasn't something he could ignore! It was like a thousand knives in a whirlwind of glass! A thousand microphones shoved against a million blaring speakers!

He saw her feet glide in front of him. He looked up to meet her, face to missing face.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME‽" his mouth shouted, but he heard nothing over her scream.

She grabbed him, fingers clawing into the back of his head as her open tongue nearly pushed against his lips. He stared down into the gaping holes of her sinuses.

"GET OFF ME!" he cried.

He pushed and fought but his hands passed through her like air. Her hands were solid though. They grabbed him harder, shaking him!

"OFF!"

He lunged forward! And to his great surprise, he caught her! Suddenly the woman was pinned beneath him. He grabbed her around the shoulders and slammed her up and down, whacking her wretched skull into the stone floor with all his strength over and over and over again. She started flailing! She was screaming at the top of her lungs, an awful piercing ringing sound. The bitch kicked him, hard! It hurt! He latched his hands around her open throat.

"YOU-" he roared, his hands tightening around her windpipe. The woman gagged and went silent. He was going to stop that scream forever!

That scream!

That scream…

That… that hadn't been her scream.

"LOGAN!"

Wolverine came back to himself. He wasn't in the room. He was outside. And there was no shredding woman. Instead, Wyn was pinned beneath him, his hands clamped around her throat as she kicked and punched and clawed at him, tears streaming from her eyes and face red.

He gasped and pulled back just in time to be absolutely bodied by Spider-man. A kick rocketed into his chest sending him hurtling twenty feet into a tree.

His spine and skull hit the wood with the force of a car crash. The air was knocked from his lungs. He spotted on the edge of unconsciousness as he was webbed in place.

In his spinning vision he saw Wyn scramble away. She huddled over on herself, arms clutching around her collar bone, neck already bruising as she hyper ventilated. Boksee ran to her, holding her from behind.

"Tuts!" he gagged. "Are you… I'm so sor…!"

"You're out of time Howlett!" shouted Spider-man storming toward him. "You are NOT ok! THIS is not ok!" he said motioning to the women. "Now you're going to play nice or so help me, I will web a rock to your back and toss you in the river!" he bellowed.

"DO IT! I fuckin' dare you!" Wolverine roared back. "We both know you ain't got the nerve!"

They glared at each other. Then with a scowl, Spider-man backed down.

Nih stepped forward.

He looked down at Wolverine, then with his calm cool voice he spoke plainly.

"I'm going to perform the sleep spell," he said.

"WHAT‽ "N-no. NO! I said I didn't want that!"

The elf stepped toward him regardless.

Wolverine recoiled, blackened swollen eyes going wide. He tried to pull himself free from the webbing, but Spider-man grabbed his wrists and wrenched them behind the trunk of the tree.

"Kid‽"

"You're gonna feel better Wolvie," said Spider-man cringing, but holding him in place. "You just need to get some sleep."

"WHAT‽ NO! Kid!"

"By the calmness of night…" Nih began to chant, his long white hair blowing under the moonlight and his red eyes shimmering in the dark.

Boksee left Wyn and ran over to them.

"No! STOP!" shouted Logan pulling away as Nih's slender hands came toward his face. "I said I didn't want that! I DON'T WANT THIS!"

"We know Logan," said Boksee pained. "But you're not yourself. Just trust us. Let us help you."

"Don't fight me," said Nih coldly. He latched a hand around Wolverine's crown and the other onto his sternum. "Let the cradle of darkness take you. By the warmth of the tamed fire, by the sweet pedals of chamomile…"

"STOP!"

"…may this creature slip into the blackest slumber…"

"STOP!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Just let him do it," said Spider-man. He held the other man's hands behind the tree as they fought against him with everything they had. He jumped back as Wolverine's claws ejected.

"SLEEP!" commanded Nih.

Wolverine's eyes fluttered. His strength weakened, but he didn't go down. Instead, he continued to snarl and drool and thrash under the elf's fingers.

Nih startled in surprise. He leaned forward and amplified his efforts. His hair whipped in the wind. His red eyes glowed brilliantly in the dark.

"SLEEP!" he commanded again.

Wolverine frothed and strained, veins bulging in his neck. He weakened again but again refused to yield. He quickly recovered, continuing to twist and writhe and thrash and attempt to pull himself free.

The lines of Nih's dark face betrayed his rising aggression. His nails dug into Logan's skin as his spell continued to amplify. He looked caught in a maelstrom, hair and robes whipping wildly. An entire red halo had formed around him.

He snarled at Wolverine.

"STOP FIGHTING ME!"

"NO!"

In a jerk, Wolverine freed a wrist just long enough to bring his claws slicing up through the webbing. Spider-man leapt to grab him as he lunged forward. He caught him, throwing a foot against the tree as he pulled his wrists backwards. There was a snap.

"NIH WE NEED IT NOW!"

With a shout, a shockwave of glowing red exploded from the elf. The forest cracked around them and Boksee and Spider-man were sent reeling. Wyn buried her ears in her hands.

Logan let out a gasp.

Frozen mid lunge, the furious mutant's eyes unfocused, then they rolled back and finally closed. Spider-man scrambled to catch him as he went limp. He re-webbed him upright against the trunk.

"Is he ok?" asked Boksee still reeling from the shockwave. "Is he out?"

Nih, panting, staggered forward and shoved his ear to Logan's chest. He then pulled himself up and thumbed open an eyelid. Wolverine's steely blue iris was twitching around at the top of its orbit. He was already dreaming.

"He's asleep," declared Nih.

The party breathed in relief.

"Wyn, are you ok?" asked Spider-man.

The paladin was still on her knees. It took her a second, but she nodded.

"Yes," she rasped. "It was just a great startle." She carefully pulled her hands back down from her bruised neck. "I, I'm sorry. I shouldn't be showing such weakness."

"He throttled you!" said Boksee in disbelief. "You're too hard on yourself silver. Get over here so Nih can take care of that."

Wyn pushed herself to her feet and moved to join them, not noticing the elf shake his head.

"Not, not the most comfortable bed," said Peter stumbling over his words as he checked on Logan. "But he's slept on worse. Ok!" he said gathering his thoughts. "He's asleep for a full twenty-four hours now right Nih? It's impossible for him to wake up?"

"I'm… afraid not," Nih panted. His long hair was disheveled, hanging over his face, and his eyes were dull. He leaned to support himself against Logan's tree.

"What‽" exclaimed Spider-man.

"The spell works with a willing participant," Nih explained. "It's extraordinarily difficult but it can be broken through enough force of will."

"Are you kidding‽ He could snap out of it?" he said looking at the restrained mutant.

"It's possible…" panted Nih. "Not…"

He collapsed.

Spider-man leapt to catch him.

"Nih!" exclaimed Boksee.

The women ran toward him.

"Are you alright? What's wrong?" asked Peter, the elf barely staying upright over his shoulder.

"I expended so much more mana than I anticipated," he panted. "He fought so hard. I thought… I thought he'd already be so tired but… Please, I need to rest."

"Yah, yah go rest," said Spider-man.

Nih tried to start toward his hammock but Peter beat him to it, grabbing him from the ground. The elf was surprised but didn't protest as he was carried over and put to bed. He was unconscious before the hammock stopped swinging.

"The rest of us should sleep in shifts," said Boksee. "Someone needs to be awake to keep an eye on him," she said looking toward their captive.

"I'll take first watch," said Spider-man quickly. "I'm too wired. You two get some sleep."

The women nodded.

"Here, why don't you come sleep by me paladin," said Boksee.

Wyn nodded and grabbed up her sleeping bag, moving it further from the two meta-humans.

"I don't want to use the fart bag," she said plainly as they walked off.

"They're pretty comfortable."

"No they aren't."

As the women settled in for their turns sleeping, Spider-man turned his attention to Wolverine.

He put on his mask.

The last thing Wolverine saw was the dark elf's blazing red eyes and bared teeth.

In a flash of light, he was plunged into the cold stone room. He landed on the hard floor on his hands and knees, the icy water splashing up into his face.

"WHAT‽" he snapped.

Did they really just do that to him? How could they do that‽ He was going to kill them all when he got out of here!

He looked around the stone room. It had returned to its previous state, just the vague cloudy idea of a place.

"No!" he snarled burying his face toward the water. There was no way he was stuck in here, not for an entire fucking day!

Right on time, the shredding woman appeared in his peripheral. He looked up to see her staring down at him. She was still wearing her skin for once, her eyes desperate and deranged inside her pale face.

"NO! Go away!" he shouted.

He turned around and covered his ears. The woman was in front of him. She grabbed him and unleashed her deafening scream.

"How can I make you leave me alone‽" he screamed back.

He tried to shove and fight her away, but he phased through her like a ghost.

Closing his eyes, he threw his head into the water.

Logan felt himself submerge. The scream faded as he was pushed down, down into the depths.

Eyes still closed, the water began to warm around him, eventually growing hot. Lights flashed behind his lids. He was floating, but his body was held in place by wires. Hundreds of long thick needles were stabbed through his skin, through his flesh and muscle, down to, no, inside his bones.

His eyes shot open.

He was in his glass tank. The respirator was around his mouth. Shadows moved in his peripheral, outside, around him. There were voices.

"…Is he damaged?" asked one. "Any deep cuts?"

"He's ok…" replied another.

Wolverine's eyes jerked back and forth as the voices spoke to either side.

…we can't afford leakage."

We plugged him up tight…

…"Professor… We can begin now."

A third voice, strong and clear and centered gave its command.

"Begin Feed"

"NOOOOO!"

Pain ripping through his arms, Wolverine smashed his claws into the glass wall before him, shattering it into that same fractal pattern that went on for eternity.

Leaping from the hot water he landed in a lab. The shredding woman was there. She was standing there, her medieval dress out of place amongst the white coats and medical equipment, screaming her ungodly scream, her shredding face repeating on every screen and readout. That didn't matter.

Ears bleeding, head rattling, brain liquefying, Wolverine was after the lab rats.

Technicians in white coats where running, their mouths open in screams unheard above the shredding woman's. He chased them down, skewering and disemboweling them.

"I knew this would happen!" shouted a voice.

Wolverine jerked in surprised at the sound of anything beyond the deafening screaming. A barrage of wires suddenly tightened around his body.

"AHH! ARRRRRGH!" he barked.

Roaring with rage, he rounded to see another man in a lab coat. He was holding the very wires that had snaked across the floor and strangled him.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"

With every fiber of hatred and fear and vengeance and adrenaline within him, he lunged at the man.

"Wolvie it's me!"

He attacked him with unbridled fury! Claws and teeth and feet and nails were thrown wildly, but the man was like a ghost. He couldn't land a hit! His attacks seemed to phase through him.

"SNAP OUT OF IT!" shouted the man suddenly appearing behind him.

Wolverine whipped around and charged! He threw his bladed arms open in a wide slice, cleaving apart the very air with his brutality.

"GAHH!"

The man in the coat cried as blood ruptured from his side.

Wolverine surged forward to decapitate him. Instead, the man threw the respirator around his face, yanking him down.

Logan landed on his hands and knees in the flooded floor. The water froze solid around his limbs, trapping him in place.

"HUEEHGH? HGHHERR!"

He screamed and strained and tried to pull himself free. It was no use! This had happened before, but it was different this time! It hurt! It hurt so badly! It had never hurt! His flesh was on fire and his bones throbbed from the intense freeze.

Blood oozed out onto the ice's surface. The smell met him and he recognized that it wasn't his. Of course it wasn't his. It was the man's. No, he knew this blood. Who…

Wolverine came to.

He was looking down into his own reflection. His hands and knees were still trapped in solid blood stained ice, but he wasn't in a lab. Smooth river stones were under his palms. He was in a frozen creek. Crickets and frogs croaked. It was a calm summer night in the forest, and…

"KID!"

Spider-man was fallen over on the creek bank, a hand clutched around his side as blood spilled between his fingers.

He looked up in relief when Wolverine called him.

"Hey Wolvie," he grunted with a pained smile. "Welcome back. Bad dream?"

"Fuck! I got you!"

"Yah, zigged when I should have zagged. You know how it… goes…"

Wolverine tried to pull his frozen limbs free from the ice, but they were stuck. How had this even happened? This wasn't a dream. Then he realized it. A glowing blue orb web had been shot around him. Spider-man had frozen the water. Web was hanging from the mutant's face.

He looked around. They were in a clearing he didn't recognize, and they were alone.

"What is this‽" he demanded. "Where is everyone‽

"It's…" started Spider-man. "I kidnapped you," he admitted.

"WHAT‽"

"You were… it was too risky."

"You idiot! Tuts! Darlin'! Get back here!" he shouted into the air. "ELF BOY!"

Then his eyes went wide.

The shredding woman was floating directly behind Spider-man, as visible and solid as he had ever seen her. The muscles of her already shredding face snarled in fury.

Wolverine, still trapped in place, startled back.

"Wolvie?"

Seeing the fear on the other man's face, with a pained grunt, Spider-man managed to look over his shoulder.

He let out a scream.

"What‽" cried Logan as Spider-man flailed backwards onto the ice. "Wait, you see her‽" he barked.

Spider-man nodded, his eyes locked on the grotesque figure.

"I'm not crazy!"

The flesh of the woman continued to phase away. Pulsing organs and jutting ribs opened to the thin moonlight. She held up the stumps of her arms and aimed her brain stem down at them.

"Kid! Get me out of here!" shouted Wolverine pulling at the ice. All four limbs were trapped.

Spider-man didn't move. He was crumpled over clutching his bleeding side, face frozen in terror as he stared up at the woman.

She started gliding toward them.

"KID!"

The rest of the team, geared and armed, burst from the woods and into the clearing.

They saw the two of them on the ground.

Barreling right past the shredding woman, they came running, much to the metahuman's dismay.

Wyn was shouting.

"What's wro-"

"She's right there!" screamed Peter pointing. "Why don't you see her‽"

The adventurers turned around. They shrieked and floundered backwards as the woman continued toward them.

"What by the nine hells is that‽" cried Boksee.

"You all see her‽" demanded Wolverine.

"Druid we need a shelter!" commanded Wyn.

Nih leapt across the frozen creek. His eyes regained the slightest glow as he chanted.

"By the soil that builds form, and the water that brings life, may these plants bend and grow. Grow!"

Roots and tendrils erupted up from the dirt and were pulled and woven into a tiny hut.

"I a warrior of the divine beseech requite," chanted Wyn pulling her holy symbol and aiming it at the woman. "Give me flame in this dark and wicked night. Grant me this day my pious right. Bless us now with HOLY LIGHT! Shield your eyes!"

The adventurers ducked and covered themselves as a blinding explosion of radiant light split the night.

Boksee dashed forward, grabbing Spider-man under the arms and yanking him to his feet. She helped support him as they ran toward Nih and tossed themselves into the hut.

The holy symbol around her neck still shining, Wyn double handed her mace over her head. With a shout, she leapt into the air and brought it crashing down onto the frozen creek.

Excruciating reverberation rattled through Wolverine as the ice shattered around him.

"GARRH!"

"MOVE BARBARIAN!"

Ripping his numb flesh from the ice chunks, Wolverine threw himself backwards as the shredding woman's feet glided over the creek bed. His arms and legs were black with frostbite. Wyn grabbed him and all but dragged him toward the others as the specter continued her slow and relentless pursuit.

Nih grabbed Wolverine and threw them both in. Wyn stopped at the front.

"By the might of the divine, I bless this dwelling with thy protection," she said splashing the doorway with holy water. Then she hurdled in after them.

"GROW!" demanded Nih as she landed. Falling back with a pained grunt, the roots obeyed him one last time and closed them in.

It was pitch black.

Breaths panted and chests heaved in the dark.

"I'm not crazy. I'm not crazy!" gasped Wolverine. He snarled and strained as he felt his frozen flesh begin to heal.

"Logan you sliced Spider-man open like a sausage!" shouted Boksee with the man fallen back in her lap. "You're still a little crazy!"

"Tis' but a… flesh wound…" chuckled Spider-man mildly delirious.

"QUIET!" demanded Wyn.

She peered out through the cracks. She didn't see anything.

They sat in the dark for an agonizing pause, listening. It was silent.

"Do you think it's gone?" whispered Boksee.

"I'm not sure," said Wyn.

"Did we grab any health potions?" continued Boksee holding a wad of her cloak into Spider-man's wounds. She felt it becoming heavy and hot with blood.

"Ranger, lend me your mana," said Nih.

"Aye, here."

She grabbed ahold of his arm.

In the black, both red and cinnamon eyes began to glow.

"By the flesh that gives us form, by the blood that gives us life…" he muttered softly. "By the air that gives us breath, may this creature's wounds begin to heal. Heal."

Channeling Boksee's mana instead of his own, the elf's hands glowed, bathing the tightly packed adventurers in a dim red light.

"The wounds aren't deep," he said. Three long bloody lacerations were lit beneath his palms. They opened and wept in time with Peter's breathing, the monochromatic scarlet both hiding and amplifying their graphic appearance. "No organs were pierced."

"Kid, I'm so fuckin' sorry," said Wolverine.

"Eehh," he slurred.

Under the druid's spell, and with Boksee holding the severed flesh closed, the wounds started to slowly heal.

"Where is your armor?" she asked Spider-man. He was just in his normal Spidey suit. "We got it for this very reason."

"Wolvie would've just ruined it. Careful," groaned Peter closing his eyes. "That stuff's radioactive,"

"Ok. I'm not seeing the entity," hissed Wyn. She turned back to huddle with the group. "We should give it some time. We're safe in a blessed dwelling."

"Paladin, what is that thing?" asked Boksee.

"I don't know. I don't recognize it as any entity."

"It's… really nasty," slurred Spider-man.

"Understatement of the fuckin' millennia," rasped Logan. He shifted, his foot sliding into something slimy and hot. He cringed as he realized what it was.

In the dim red light, Wolverine could see Spider-man's blood was pooling in the grass beneath them, its still black surface reflecting the faintest outline of his own ghostly red face.

As he stared down into it, something clicked inside the mutant's head. His hair stood on end.

"Turn off the ligh-" he started, but it was too late.

As if to answer his suspicion, Boksee screamed.

An inch from her head, at eye level, the manic face of the shredding woman was phasing through their wall. She was just barely visible, glowing in the same red light that bathed them.

The entire party shrieked.

In an explosion of splinters, the adventurers burst open the roots and fled from the hut.

"It didn't work! You said we were safe!" cried Boksee.

"No malevolent entity can enter a blessed dwelling!" shouted Wyn.

"Ohh, she's clipping!" cried Spider-man.

The figure, still shredding, was half submerged in the ground. She slid toward them, gaining color and form as she glided into the moonlight.

"Then she isn't one!"

"What do we do‽"

"Run!" barked Logan.

The adventurers booked it. Wyn threw herself under Spider-man's shoulder and Boksee and Wolverine all but dragged Nih as they fled toward the forest.

Just as they reached the frozen creek the druid let out a pained gasp and collapsed.

"Nih!"

Boksee dropped to her knees as he fell onto the ice and river stones.

"He's spent too much mana! He's unconscious!"

"This ain't no time for a nap!" shouted Logan grabbing him and benching him over his back.

"THERE'S MORE!" shrieked Boksee.

They turned to see her pointing into the sky. The shredding woman had lifted back out of the ground. All around her was a halo of doppelgangers. Perfect mirror images of the woman and her actions floated around her in a ring. No not in a ring, in a fractal, like a snowflake. Each mirrored image was smaller and dimmer with its own smaller and dimmer doppelgangers repeating in a pattern for all eternity.

"It's reflections!" shouted Logan. He pointed to the glimmering ice chunks littered around her. "They make her stronger! Wherever they are, she is. She can't be here without them!"

Spider-man shot a wad of fire webbing directly beneath her floating feet. The ice started to slowly melt but it wasn't enough.

The woman had shredded to nearly nothing. The remaining sliver of her spine and skin lurched.

Wolverine clamped his hands over his ears, but the rest of them weren't fast enough.

The scream erupted from the mutilated figure, for the first time filling the real air with its hideous eldritch shriek.

The adventurers startled back, stumbling and falling into the creek bed. The scream was short lived. As her bones and flesh and skin started phasing back in, they could see her enraged face. Spider-man's fire burning behind her, she glided toward them.

Wolverine landed on a hard chunk of ice with a snarl.

"Hey, Wolvie?" asked Spider-man fallen beside him.

"Wha- what‽" he barked taken aback by his nonchalance.

"I'm not getting any spider sense."

"What?"

The woman was nearly on top of them. Her form became more solid and detailed as she grew closer to the frozen creek, her halo of doppelgangers returning.

Spider-man looked to them. He looked to the hunks of ice, to the fractalized reflections, and to the shredding woman herself, the inner workings of her body exposed to the air like a perverse diagram.

"Oh," he slurred. "I get it."

Wyn threw herself over Nih's unconscious form as the woman neared. Her missing face opened its half-formed jaw and the adventurers covered their ears. Her scream exploded into the night. What was left of the ice snapped and hissed as it cracked into the same fractal pattern from Wolverine's nightmares. They cried as the unnatural sound rattled through them, shaking their eyes and lungs and threatening to burst their eardrums.

"Hey, can you stop? We can't understand you."

Remarkably, she did.

In the sudden silence, the remaining party members gasped and looked up.

Spider-man, clutching his bloody side, was standing face to face with the woman.

"You're sound is all out of time. It's awful," he continued to say to her.

"Di- did you just get her to stop‽" exclaimed Wyn.

"Huh?" he asked staggering around. "Oh, yah, I figured it out," he explained blase. "Logan's right. And I guess you're kind of right too. She isn't just in Wolvie's head, but she's also not real. She is a ghost though. She's a Pepper's Ghost, an illusion. She's not powered by reflections, she is one. Oh, also, her dimensions are all out of whack. I think she's just trying to talk to us."

"What by the divine are you prattling about?" snapped Wyn.

"The reason she looks so awful is because she's a three-dimensional human being compressed through a two-dimensional plane. We'd all look like that if we were only given two axes to work with. That's what an MRI is," said Spider-man giving a tiny one shouldered shrug. Then he put a groggy hand to his chin. "Well, I guess then you also have to view that human from the third-dimension as both parties travel in parallel across the fourth-dimension to create the illusion of…"

The woman blared! She shrieked and screamed and came at him. He reflexively startled back but she couldn't touch him. Her arms appeared outstretched but they were strangely flat, truly as if she was a projection or a reflection on a mirror.

"HEY!" he snapped. "We can't understand you! Stop that! You're literally making every noise you've ever made in your life all at once."

She quieted again.

"So, so what‽" gasped Wolverine flabbergasted. "She's just a trick? A Halloween prop?"

"No. I don't mean she's a literal reflection," said Spider-man reaching right through her ghostly form. "I think she's a person somewhere transmitting herself across a separate plane of existence," he continued casually. "And we're just getting a really butchered audio-visual on our end."

He turned to see Wyn, Boksee, and Wolverine just staring at him.

"Hey, I got transmitted through another plane. It's not a stretch." He turned back to the woman. "It's like…" he said thinking, watching her flesh and organs shutter before him. "It's like she's a shadow puppet on a wall, but we can't turn around to see the puppeteer. We can only see the shadow, but imagine that on a higher dimensional level, if that makes any sense."

"Who's the puppeteer then‽" asked Wyn. "Who is she? What does she want‽"

"Winter?" he said shrugging again, then grabbing his side in regret.

The woman screamed.

The adventurers cried and covered their ears. This time she saw their distress and stopped.

"Where did you pull that idea from‽" demanded Boksee.

"We don't know that many people. Also, we think Winter's a chronomancer right? A spaciomancer?" He started counting on his fingers. "Feedback loops, other dimensional utilization, her gross face. This has whacked out spacetime weirdness all over it. And believe me, I've seen some spacetime weirdness."

"What's she doin' in my fuckin' head then‽" demanded Logan.

"Uh duh nuh," he shrugged.

"She ain't two-dimensional in my dreams!"

"Dreams are their own thing."

Spider-man started slurring and swaying. "Guess I was wrong about you just going sleep crazy though. I'm sorry Wolvie."

"Who cares‽ What does she want‽ Why couldn't you all see her 'til now‽"

"Because…" said Spider-man squinting. "Because… you can't see a reflection from the back?"

Wolverine blinked.

"Did we ever look at her head on like you've been before now?"

"No," he said brow furrowing. "You've been beside her though… but you can't see a reflection from the side neither. Not if you ain't a little in front of it…. Huh."

"How are you so calm and rational about this‽" exclaimed Wyn.

"I can't feel my feet," answered Spider-man swaying. "And everything's blurry now so I don't have to look at her anymore."

"How do we make her leave‽" cried Boksee.

The woman screamed!

The remaining party fell to their knees as she wailed and bellowed and refused to stop.

"Winter! What do you want‽" Wyn cried. "Why are you following us!"

Her scream only seemed to grow. Spots formed in their vision as the sound of feedback intensified in dissonant wobbling scratching shrieks.

"Do you seek vengeance‽"

The entire party, Spider-man included screamed as they clutched their ears and buried themselves to the ground. What was left of the frozen creek exploded around them into shards. Peter's fire web shredded to pieces and extinguished.

Wolverine was clenching his jaw so hard he tasted blood. Fury swelled in his chest then erupted from his mouth.

"ENOUGH!"

Directly through the scream, he pushed himself to his feet and stomped toward the woman.

"I DON'T GIVE A FUCK WHY YOU'RE HERE!" he barked into her face.

She startled back, her mouth closing.

He was surprised as well, but quickly shook it off and seized the moment.

"Do you have any idea what you've put me through‽" he spat. "Now you listen to ME! We know who you are! We know what you are, we know who you're workin' with, and we know WHERE you are. We know you're in Plieya, so you better fuckin' prepare yourself because we are COMING FOR YOU!"

By luck, the shredding woman was in a phase where her full face was visible, her smooth porcelain skin glowing in the moonlight. Her red lips were slightly open as she gazed into Wolverine's furious glare, her black eyes staring into his violent blue. They went wide with awe and realization.

Her face made an expression he had never seen on it, joy. Her red lips spread in an open-mouthed smile from cheek to cheek. With a piercing shriek, she dissipated in a shock wave that sent the party flailing backwards.

It took a moment, but eventually the ringing in their ears cleared. They pulled themselves from the ground to look around. They were greeted by nothing but the sights and sounds of a calm summer night.

"Is she gone?" asked Wyn.

"I- I think so?" said Boksee. "Is, is that all she wanted? For us to say we were coming for her?"

"Does that mean it's a trap?" slurred Spider-man deadpan.

Nih was still passed out.

Wolverine had staggered, but unlike his party had remained standing. As he huffed to catch his breath, the remaining team started chattering around him, talking over each other in a panic. He wasn't even sure who was saying what.

"What do we do? We can't go there now, can we? She wants us to."

"But if we don't, she'll be back!"

"Logan I'm so sorry. I thought…"

"If that was just her Skype call, I don't want to meet the full woman."

"What choice do we have‽"

Wolverine closed his eyes with a twisted grin. He snickered, then he burst out laughing.

"What‽ What are you laughing about‽" cried Wyn. "This is serious!".

"Who cares!" he bellowed.

Throwing up his arms, he fell flat on his back with a smile. His head landed on one of Nih's legs like a pillow. Fanged, unshaven mouth falling open, Wolverine was snoring in seconds.

The remaining team was left staring down at him in surprise.

"Eh," rasped Spider-man. "Seconded." He found a decent spot of dirt beside the two of them and passed out himself.

Boksee shrugged, then she laid down and shoved herself between the three warm bodies.

Wyn stared down at the dogpile that was her party.

"Don't just stand there mouth agape paladin. You want in on this or what?"

Wyn laughed as Boksee held up a hand to her. Then she quieted. Her heavy metal gauntlet found its way to her neck and stroked at the deep bruises ringing it. She thought, then she shrugged.

In full armor, Wyn found an appropriate spot and joined the pile. She shoved a rogue foot away from her face.

"We're in the dragon's nest alright."

With nothing but each other for shelter, the Far Marvels fell asleep beneath the open summer sky.

The End