This fanfiction draws inspiration from the creative ideas and original content of L3187, including the characters Alex Algird, Dave and Goron Algird, Driada, Crazdal, Xanad/Adam Watcher who are creations of L3187. You can show your support for them by following L3187 on TikTok. Thank you for your support!
One Month Later:
In the dimly lit streets of Shepherd's Rest, a borough nestled in the southernmost gate of New Oros. The enigmatic vigilante known as The Ghost Spider prowled in the shadows.
The cool night air is disrupted by the startled cries of a lady as a purse snatcher took off with her handbag.
With a swift and graceful motion, The Ghost Spider swung into action, a green and silver blur against the moonlit sky. A cascade of web fluid flew through the air, coiling around the thief's wrist like a python. Attaching him to a lamp post, preventing his escape.
The thief was stopped, but struggled against the webbing. As the thief struggled against his bonds, The Ghost Spider lands gracefully in front of him.
With a voice shrouded in mystery, they inquire, "Well, well. If it isn't my dear old friend, Vermin. Is this how you spend your evenings now, preying on innocent citizens?" The vigilante's eyes, hidden behind a mask, narrow in mock disappointment.
Vermin, a low-level rat-faced punk with a nervous glint in his eye, stammered, "I-I didn't mean no harm, Spider! It's just... times are tough, ya know? Every man's got to eat!"
The Ghost Spider chuckles softly, their tone dripping with irony. "Times may be tough, Vermin, but trust me, I'm tougher." With a flick of their wrist, they encase the thief in a cocoon of webbing, leaving him helplessly immobilized. "And another thing, if you were so desperate for food then go to the food bank that just opened in Eclipse. Don't go stealing things from people!"
Before swinging away into the night, The Ghost Spider leans in closer to the ensnared Vermin and whispers, "Consider this a lesson in life choices, my friend. Next time, maybe think twice before tangling with the Ghost Spider."
The Ghost Spider collected the purse from Vermin and gave it to the woman who watched everything. After they received thanks from the woman, The Ghost Spider leapt into the night, and disappeared into the darkness. Leaving Vermin to await the arrival of the constables, his pride wounded as much as his freedom, the thief muttered, "This is some bullshit!"
Duskhaven.
The borough was known for its sprawling oak trees that covered the streets and limbs that blocked out most of the sun's rays of light.
This was also where the Mystic Mysterium was located.
The Ghost Spider swung close by and landed on top of the roof of the Mysterium. They found the port hole that their friend, Steven Strange the Sorcerer Supreme, had installed for them.
They tapped on the porthole with their foot, the hole opened up, and the Ghost Spider leapt in.
They landed gracefully onto the ground of the inner sanctum of the Mysterium. Alex Algird, removed their mask and stretched their body.
Alex had made it a point to stop by The Mystic Mysterium every couple of days to touch base with Steven and The Black Cat, who was looking for traces of Dominique across New Oros for Steven.
They saw Steven at his workbench hunched over sleeping on it, snoring lightly, a bit of drool escaping his lips.
Alex couldn't resist a smile at the sight. They walked over to the spare closet in the hallway, and got a blanket and walked back over and placed it on Steven.
Startled, Steven Strange stirred, wiping the drool from his mouth. "Ah, Alex it's you, what time is it?"
Alex chuckled, "Time really doesn't matter much when you're here in the Mysterium, but to answer your question it's just about to be morning outside."
"Any news," He asked, rubbing his eyes, before putting his blanket over his chair as he rose up.
Alex recounted the encounter with Vermin and the retrieval of the stolen purse. Steven listened intently, "Well done. I will say though things do seem to have quieted down, but that's not a bad thing."
Alex nodded and looked at the map of New Oros that was looking for any trace of Dominique, "What of Dominique? Any leads on her whereabouts?"
Steven shook their head solemnly. "I'm afraid not, Alex. The trail remains cold for now, but I won't give up the search."
Alex nodded, they knew that they would find some trace of Dominique out there.
A large blip radiated on the map. It was emanating from the Starcrown borough, smack dab in the middle of New Oros.
Alex's eye widened, "Stoney!"
Steven turned to the map and saw the blip.
"Could it be Dominique?"
Steven nodded, "It could be."
However, a rumbling began which became more violent. Things started to fall over in the Mysterium, and Stoney and Alex went to stop everything from falling over.
Then a loud monstrous roaring was heard that sounded like it could pierce the stars and the celestial heavens above.
Both Alex and Steven covered their ears. As the roaring was incredibly loud.
A loud explosion followed the roaring, which in a way seemed quieter than the roaring.
"What the hell was that?!" Alex looked at the map which showed the blip on Starcrown had shone bright on it.
Steven gathered his bearings and got a few things. "I think we should investigate, wouldn't you say?"
Alex nodded and put his mask back on. "Let's."
The Ghost Spider and Steven Strange wasted no time. They swiftly made their way to Starcrown borough, and as they approached, the destruction became more evident. Buildings were in ruins, and the once serene streets were now in chaos.
The two heroes cautiously advanced, their senses alert for any signs of the source of the disturbance. The roaring had subsided, but an eerie silence hung in the air.
Suddenly, from the rubble, a figure emerged. Ghost Spider went to help the person, only to see it was Doctor Crazdel Octavius. Better known to the Ghost Spider as Doc Ock.
The Ghost Spider and Steven Strange exchanged wary glances as Doctor Octavius emerged from the rubble. The notorious villain, Doc Ock, known for his brilliant mind and his mechanical tentacles, looked disheveled and exhausted.
With caution in their movements, The Ghost Spider stepped backward, ready for any sudden moves. "Octavius," They said, their voice tinged with a mix of curiosity and caution. "What are you doing here in Starcrown? Are you the one causing all this chaos?"
Doc Ock's lab coat was tattered, and his mechanical arms were scorched and damaged. He rolled his eyes and sighed, "Obviously, I'm here to redecorate the place. I'm starting my new career as an architect! What does it look like, Ghost Spider? You gigantic pillock!"
Steven Strange couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the sarcastic response. "Whatever happened here is unlike anything I've ever encountered," He murmured, focusing on the task at hand. Steven focused his powers to sense the high levels of energy, "This power is highly unstable, and if left unchecked, it could lead to even more devastation."
Doc Ock let out a sarcastic chuckle, as they began to clap for New Oros' local sorcerer. "Well, congratulations, Sorcerer Supreme, on your keen observation skills! I suppose you're here to state the obvious while I clean up this little science experiment gone wrong?"
The Ghost Spider and Steven exchanged a glance, maintaining their resolve despite Doc Ock's sarcasm. "Octavius," The Ghost Spider said, "We'll help you with whatever has happened, but you have to cooperate. We can't let what happened wreak havoc on New Oros."
Doc Ock raised an eyebrow, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "Oh, how kind of you, Ghost Spider. I was just hoping you'd invite me along!" They got up to their feet, "Thanks, but no thanks! I have better things to do.'
Doc Ock was about to leave, but Stoney wrapped them up in magical bonds that bound their arms to their body. "My friend here asked you a question."
He tightened Doc Ock's bonds by clenching his hands. "Are you responsible for this?"
Doc Ock couldn't help but grin mischievously, looking at Steven with a wicked glint in his eye. "Harder!" He exclaimed, clearly enjoying the uncomfortable situation.
Steven couldn't hide his discomfort and released the magical bonds, causing them to disappear. "Ergh," Steven muttered. "He made it weird!"
The Ghost Spider stepped forward, their patience wearing thin with Doc Ock's antics. "Allow me Steven." They quickly webbed up Doc Ock to the closest wall.
"Hey! Don't you know how hard it is to get your thick white fluid off my clothes?!" Octavius cackled, not taking this seriously at all.
"Doc, I mean it. Last warning, are you responsible for this?!"
Octavius backed down, knowing that The Ghost Spider was serious. "Alright, already. To answer your question, no I wasn't."
Another survivor came stumbling out of the wreckage. They were covered in some sort of chemical compound. They appeared to have the head of a giant ant that appeared to have grown near instantaneously after the explosion. They screamed and chirped in pain and terror before falling over dead.
Steven and Ghost Spider were horrified at this, and then turned back to Doctor Octavius.
"Okay so, perhaps I was involved a bit closer behind the scenes, but all this wasn't my doing!"
Ghost Spider and Steven stepped closer, they both were dead serious. "Start talking."
Doctor Octavius sighed as he started explaining.
Twenty Minutes Prior
In the dimly lit underground laboratory beneath Starcrown, Doctor Crazdel Octavius had been toiling away for weeks on Xanad's secretive room was filled with a vast array of scientific equipment, and the walls were adorned with complex equations and diagrams. His work centered on creating an immortal super soldier, harnessing the potential of the sole surviving subject, the young boy. Test Subject 3187, as he was known.
With the completion of his research, Doctor Octavius felt a mix of pride and unease. He had succeeded in unlocking the boy's latent powers, creating a formidable power, capable of withstanding nearly any harm. However, this achievement came at a great ethical cost.
As Doctor Octavius observed the boy in his chamber, he was restrained, wires and tubes connected to his body. His body now resembled a pincushion. His eyes radiated with a mixture of confusion, anger, and fear.
Just as Doctor Octavius contemplated the consequences of his actions, the heavy metallic door leading into the laboratory swung open, revealing Xanad, in his human persona of Adam Watcher. He entered the room, a sinister grin on his face, accompanied by his newest mercenary, Mac Gagarin, a hulking brute of a man with no intelligent thought behind his eyes.
Crazdel turned around to face his brother, partaking in Xanad's charade, addressing him as Adam Watcher. "Mr. Watcher, are you here to show off your new mercenary of the week, or are you here to keep me company?"
Adam Watcher cackled, "While my presence is a present enough, I am actually here to get an update on your progress. How is our dear test subject doing?"
Doctor Octavius adjusted his glasses and hesitated for a moment before responding. "He's... he's a remarkable success, Mr. Watcher. The enhancements I've made to his physiology have made him nearly invulnerable, and his strength and agility are beyond anything I could have imagined."
Adam's eyes glittered with anticipation. "Excellent. I knew you wouldn't disappoint me, Crazdel. My enemies won't stand a chance against an army of these super soldiers."
"That will take some time to make more soldiers, but now that we have a prototype in place the process will go quicker." Doctor Octavius' unease grew, and he took a deep breath before continuing. "Mr. Watcher, we need to talk."
Adam was looking over the data and showed it to Mac Gagarin, "Yeah what is it?" Half paying attention to then, grinning as he read the data over.
"I just…think we should consider the ethical implications of what we've done. This boy, he's just a child. We've taken away his humanity."
Adam Watcher's grin faded, replaced by a cold, calculating expression. "Ethical implications, Crazdel? We left those behind long ago. The world is a cruel place, and we must do whatever it takes to survive and thrive. Sentimentality will be our downfall."
Crazdel felt a knot in his stomach, torn between his loyalty to his brother and his moral qualms. "Look I get that, believe me. I've done lots of messed up things in the name of knowledge and discovery…but we can't keep this boy imprisoned and subjected to experiments for the rest of his life. He's done his duty, and we have to consider his well-being."
Adam's eyes hardened, and he nodded to Mac Gagarin. "Crazdel, you've always been the compassionate one, but I can't afford to let your last remnants of humanity cloud my judgment. Dispose of the boy, Crazdel. He's served his purpose."
Doctor Octavius's heart sank, and he pleaded, "Xa…Mr. Watcher, there must be another way. We can find a solution that doesn't involve... this."
Watcher's tone grew cold and final. "No, Crazdel. The boy's fate is sealed. Do it, or I'll Gagarin will, and he will take his sweet time doing it!"
Mac Gagarin snarled and laughed as he pulled out a knife out and traced the cutting edge with his thumb.
Adam Watcher glared at Crazdel as he whispered, "Or perhaps I should get Driada to do it?"
"No!" Reluctantly, Doctor Octavius nodded, his heart heavy with guilt and sorrow. The ethical cost of their actions weighed heavily on his conscience as he prepared to carry out Xanad's ruthless command.
Crazdel Octavius realized the gravity of the situation. His brother had made up his mind, and there was no changing it. Reluctantly, he activated the controls on his console. Flooding the boy's chamber with a poisonous gas, sealing his fate.
As the gas filled the chamber, the young boy's movements became sluggish, his eyes losing their spark. Doctor Octavius watched in silence, quiet tears welling up in his eyes, knowing that he had condemned the boy to a fate worse than death.
Adam Watcher turned away, satisfied with the outcome. "Dispose of the body," He ordered Mac Gagarin, his voice devoid of remorse.
"Yessir," Mac Gagarin eagerly approached the chamber, ready to carry out Adam Watcher's command. The brute of a mercenary had no qualms about such gruesome tasks. As he reached for the lifeless boy, Doctor Octavius couldn't help but feel a profound sense of loss and guilt.
Doctor Octavius left the chamber, burdened by the profound weight of the boy's tragic death. He stepped into another laboratory, a sprawling space where a myriad of scientists, clad in white lab coats, diligently worked on their various experiments. The room hummed with the ceaseless activity of machinery, and the air was thick with the intellectual chatter of researchers.
Navigating through the bustling laboratory, Crazdel couldn't shake the haunting image of Gagarin's cold indifference as he callously carried the lifeless body of the boy, whistling as he did so.
Every fiber of Crazdel's being burned with the desire to lash out at the heartless mercenary, to make him pay for his cruelty. Yet, Crazdel knew that challenging Xanad's ruthless enforcer would be a perilous gamble, but it was a gamble worth taking.
However, fate had its own twisted plans. Just as Crazdel was steeling himself to confront Gagarin, the brutish mercenary's eyes fell upon a nearby vat.
In his utter disregard for the consequences, Gagarin made a costly assumption, he believed the vat contained a corrosive acid that would swiftly dissolve the boy's remains into oblivion. Without hesitation, Gagarin unceremoniously dumped the boy's lifeless body into the vat, convinced that the matter would soon be resolved.
Crazdel's eyes widened in sheer horror, and he lunged forward, desperation flooding his senses. "No, you damned imbecile! That's not acid!" He cried out with frantic urgency, his voice a piercing exclamation of warning.
Gagarin, caught off guard by Crazdel's frantic intervention, turned to face the distraught scientist. His features twisted in a bemused expression, his immense stature casting a long shadow. "What's gotten into you?" Gagarin grumbled, his thick brows furrowing in confusion as he failed to grasp the gravity of the situation.
Amidst the chaos that unfolded, a deep and ominous rumbling emanated from the vat that held the boy's body. The very foundations of the laboratory shuddered under the reverberations of this awakening power. Contrary to Gagarin's misguided belief, the boy's form was not melting away. Instead, a miraculous and terrifying transformation was taking place within the confines of the vat.
As if possessed by an unstoppable force, the boy's physique underwent a dramatic metamorphosis. He grew exponentially, his previously lifeless body now swelling into a gigantic, green, musclebound behemoth. Formidable horns erupted from his skull and his shoulder blades, adding a menacing aspect to his colossal frame, and parts of his face began to undergo the decay, as his lower skull began to be eaten away by the moss.
Gagarin's realization struck him with the force of a sledgehammer blow. The vat's contents were not corrosive acid but, in fact, a concentrated, high-dosage variant of the super soldier serum – a serum so potent that its effects defied nature itself.
Panic rippled through the laboratory like wildfire, as the creature burst out of the vat. All the other scientists and researchers were inadvertently splashed with this miraculous yet horrifying elixir, triggering bizarre mutations.
Gagarin, drenched in the super soldier serum, was not exempt from the harrowing transformations that swept over the room. His already immense form began to twist and distort further, transforming in a great amount of pain, as he sprouted a monstrous scorpion's tail, complete with a venomous stinger, and grew a colossal pincer that resembled those of an arachnid.
The transformed creature, a nightmarish amalgamation of raw power and rage, let out a deafening, ground-shaking roar. Its roar echoed throughout the laboratory, a chilling symphony of chaos and terror, breaking every window and pane of glass in the facility. Without further ado, it launched itself through the laboratory's ceiling, bursting into the experimental reactor chamber above.
The resulting explosion was nothing short of catastrophic. The facility trembled under the colossal force of the blast, as if nature itself rebelled against the unchecked power that had been unleashed.
Fire and destruction cascaded outward from the epicenter, threatening not only the lives of those unfortunate enough to be present but also the very foundations of the laboratory that had been their crucible of ambition and hubris. Crazdel braced himself against the explosion, and passed out.