Bast | Lyger | Radiance | Thunderbolt | War-Pulse | White Witch
Above the factory that acted as Doctor Diplodoc’s base of operations, the Silver Sorceress and the White Witch stared down one another, just as if they were in some sort of Western movie where they waiting to unsheathe their guns and let the bullets fly. However, being anyone did anything, the genius behind this whole operation contacted the Silver Sorceress via earpiece.
“Victoria, do I need to remind you about the embarrassing defeat that those creations of mine handed to you when one of them had some sort of anti-magic protection on their side? I would suggest something a little more, well, indirect.”
“Multiplicatio!” The Silver Sorceress shouted out load. A cloud of smoke suddenly appeared and hide her from the White Witch. And when the smoke dissipated, six copies of herself remained instead of just one and none of them was hovering where the Silver Sorceress had been. Three of these ‘copies’ headed back down towards where the fight was still raging, while the remaining three stayed up in the sky with the White Witch.
“The decision is yours, witch.” One of the ‘copies’ taunted the White Witch. “You can go after those three in the hopes that one of us are not the
real me. Or you could stay up here, where you can finish me.”
Meanwhile, back on the ground, the unexpected arrival of four more ‘heroes’ made things interesting for Diplodoc’s allies, although not impossible to achieve victory. One of them, Skull-Thrasher, began unloading his pistols at the spideresque Black Widow. However, her reflexes allowed her to dodge the bullets without any harm done to her. As she moved to dodge these bullets, someone could describe her movements as almost dance-like in its elegance. Then, she thrust her arms forwards, sending two web blasts that covered up the Skull-Thrasher’s firearms.
At the same, Lyger did his best to save Bast from the Black Widow. And with the timely intervention of both his allies and the newcomers, the two metahumans did not have to find out what is was like to be plant food.
“Are you alright?” Lyger asked Bast as he offered a hand to her.
“Of course. Any girl would be with you covering her back.” Bast answered back as she was helped up from the ground, trying to make sure she did not sound too infatuated with him and therefore distracted from the battle at hand.
Then, the Black Widow descended to the ground from a dragline spun from the spinnerets on her spider abdomen. “Want to switch dance partners?” She asked Jaws with a smile. The giant sharkman just gave a toothy grin and a nod to show his agreement in her plan. Black Widow then began barraging Thunderbolt and Boom with web bullets, while Jaws charged at Lyger and Bast, throwing a fury of fists at them.
The three Silver Sorceresses finally arrived back where the others were, although two of them remained above the hole that the four newcomers had made in the ceiling. The third floated down to the floor and just in the nick of time. Effigy obviously had gotten in over his head when he had engaged with War-Pulse. However, when he saw that the Silver Sorceress had returned, Effigy could not help himself but mutter a taunt to the man who held him.
“I don’t know.” He barely could speak, “I think I have a date with a superman, or at least a power girl.”
Then, a blue aura began to surround the Silver Sorceress’ hands, which also did the same with Effigy’s entire body. In one quick motion, the Silver Sorceress yanked back her arms back towards her own body, as if she was pulling Effigy back towards herself. In response to the sorceress’ hand gesture, Effigy was flung towards her out of War-Pulse’s grip and past Skyquake. While in midair, Effigy began to change his appearance again, this time to what seemed like a homeless man. However, as soon as his transformation was completed, a bright light shrouded him. And when the light had dimed, he was gone.
Arachne | Icon | Pendragon | Raptor | Vigilante | Wasp
After the second team had escaped from their first obstacle, the six heroes came upon a crossroads. Two hallways heading both to the left and right, while a third one continued forward. Kelly closed her eyes and focused so that she could remember which way they should go. After a few seconds, the wasp-girl pointed toward the right passage.
“It’s this way.” However, before they could proceed, the six heroes heard a loud pop, which was followed by a bright burst of light. Effigy, in this appearance that the heroes had not seen yet, landed on Arachne’s spider abdomen. As soon as he had landed on her, Arachne immediately began to try to knock him off herself. However, due to her drider anatomy, it proved difficult for her to reach him.
“In this case, knowing my allies’ weaknesses has proved quite fruitful.” Effigy taunted the young girl while she continued to struggle against the limitations of her own anatomy.
“Why don’t face me like a man so that we can see how useful those weakness really are.” Arachne, realizing that her natural reach was not going to get this newcomer off her, used her webs to extend her reach. Once she had a hold of him, Arachne flung him off herself and into a nearby wall. However, before she did this, Effigy was able to slip in one short taunt.
“How about like a woman?” Even before the shape shifter had hit the wall, he was already changing into a different form. Once the transformation was complete, before the six heroes lay an exact duplicate of Arachne, costume and all.
“Beyond your ridiculous ‘counter-weights’, this form is pretty much identical to Black Widow’s” Effigy spoke, even though it sounded like Arachne’s voice was saying those words,
“Far easier to train with than that stupid mercenary’s form.” “Icon,” Kelly whispered to the blue marvel while Effigy boasted about his training with Black Widow’s form would translate into Arachne’s,
“Although you’re our biggest piece here, it might be wise to keep your distance from him.” Kelly then paused for a moment when she realized that she might not have used the proper pronoun for Effigy.
“Wait, what pronoun are we supposed to be using? ‘She’?” “How about ‘it’?” Raptor interjected. However, this momentarily distracted ‘their’ Arachne, turning back towards the others as if they had also called her an ‘it’.
“Don’t worry. It’s blatantly obvious that you’re a ‘she’.” Although he could not see Arachne’s expression under her mask, Raptor knew that she was giving him a death glare at the moment.
While she was distracted, Effigy took this opportunity to lunge forward at Arachne, tackling her to the ground. After a short scuffle on the floor, one of the Arachnes pushed the other off of herself.
“Um, guys.” Raptor scratched his head,
“Did anyone keep track of which Arachne was ours?” “I’m the real one!” Both of the Arachnes claimed in unison,
“She’s the imposter!”
Eddie Brock
Master Bruce
Half Pint
Supermaxx
Altered Tundra
Sep
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