The Power of Ten Book Four: Dynamo

-Kill him?- Mattie /blurted out, jumping into the chat. Martha Franklin was a mutant with spider-derived powers, not technically a Totem, but her psignature matched a Pact so cleanly it was plain they were connected. Her Arachne pseudonym left her lumped in with the other Spiders, which she was all-for as a big fan of the Big Three.

-If I’m reading his Aura right, he’s murdered and sucked out the life of Peter Parker alternates at least fourteen times, you thrice, and Miles at least six times.- Sent with waves of exactly what it would feel like. -Along with their friends, family, and children. Veer off, NOW.-

She could feel the two of them shudder, but they obeyed and split off, less than half a mile away, aiming for a building where they could look down the road and see the action via their Masks. They didn’t have Specs yet, after all...

-Jessica! Emergency request for your presence!- Maintaining the surge of current on the rumbling train, DiDi whipped up a Portal in mid-air, and the startled Red Widow trainee came somersaulting through, stolen in midair from her early-morning training.

“Hey!” she protested, adjusting in midflight to flick out a web to DiDi’s arm, looping up and around and landing on her shoulders deftly. “My teachers are gonna be so pissed!” she said down to DiDi, then paused at the sight of the subway train rumbling to a stop down the middle of a street.

“No, they aren’t.” DiDi pointed behind her. “Go help your brothers. There’s a mass murderer of Spider Totems over there who has sucked out the souls of Spider Totems from at least fifty alternities. Kill him, reclaim the Totem energy he murdered your counterparts to steal, and lose your Vatted status.”

She blinked at me. “Oh!” she said, her head whipping around as her mind filled with the echoes of dying Parkers, Moraleses, and Franklins perishing in ghastly manners. In a bound and a blur, silent and controlled, she was off and heading for her brothers, giving off a lethal intent that all the Clones suddenly bore.

They were all clones of Peter, and the psychic echoes I was reading were hitting them directly in the feels. This fucker had murdered them all, multiple times, laughed while doing it... and killed their children and spouses!

They’d already been exposed to death and merciless masters, relatively younger than Peter had when he made his fateful turn in space. Crystallized lethal intent was now oozing from the Spiders, who were gathering to hunt, not be hunted. They’d been ready to join Peter up in the stars, but had delayed to look after the city in his place for a short time, training Miles and Mattie up to spec.

-Miles, Mattie, block off the traffic from the road. No more civilians getting involved, and stay out of his line of sight.- “This is Dr. Dynamo,” she Said dryly, her Voice radiating out to everyone within two miles. “There is superhuman combat going on against a mass-murdering vampiric figure near the Brooklyn Bridge and Water Street. It has already derailed a train and has murdered civilians. Stay out of the area and keep your heads down if you are already here!”

A bunch of cars nearby suddenly veered away, turned corners, slowed down and pulled U-turns, or hastily did not take the exit ramp from the bridge nearby.

-John, pop an Interdiction Sphere as soon as you can. The thing is an alternity-traveler. We can’t have it leaving or bringing in reinforcements!- There was already an intergalactic war going to happen because of dimension-hoppers...

-Got it!- the biggest of the Parkers /ground out. -How strong is this bastard?-

-Probably as strong as you!- Ben /returned, shooting the pale sot full of charged stinger-darts that were mostly being shrugged off. -Taking stinger juice without any problem. Used to venom blasts or something?-

-Man...- /swallowed Miles from down the road, reading directly into what that meant.

-It’s fine,- Jessica /said, as all four of the Parker clones were suddenly in place around the tall, rangy bastard with pale skin, an old-style upscale British suit, and a cocksure attitude. They were all perched on light poles and staring at him intensely with the white eyes of their Masks, making no sounds.

White handfangs very much like spider mandibles had drilled out from all of their palms. The curving spikes glittered with inset Runework, and then ignited with ghostly white fire that gave the vampiric thing pause despite himself. -Set the murdering thing on vivus, right, DiDi?- Ben /asked with deliberate calm.

-Burn it to ash,- she /confirmed, paralleling the train as it slowly ground to a halt. -Hank, I’m going to need emergency services for the injured passengers after I shuffle this train to another location. I’ve got at least four dead inside from broken necks or skulls.-

-On it, DiDi,- McCoy /acknowledged quietly, while the listening Spiders grew even grimmer. -Portaling them to an empty line, or making one?-

She glanced back at the Parkers who had surrounded the vampiric thing stalking them, who was now much quieter as it realized the tables had turned. -Spiders got this, give me a location.-

There was a precious moment of gratitude at the acknowledgement, and then absolute focus on fulfilling it.

The Portal Gate she didn’t need to use for single-shot uses swirled out of her Masspack and assembled itself out in front of the train. She flitted overhead and Said, “Engineer, we’re taking this train right to the New York Presbyterian emergency room, they’re being notified as we speak. On my signal, ahead slow.”

The shaken man in the cabin firmed up his mouth and waved back at her through the glass, ready to do his part as the Portal assembled in a half-circle in front of him and flickered to life, the scene of another street in the city forming beyond it. “Ahead slow!”

With a whine, the brakes released, the gears turned as she kept feeding juice to the engine, and the derailed subway train that had just come to a stop moved forwards again, through the Portal and into the street right outside the emergency department of the hospital, where the nurses were already hurrying out to start the triaging.

DiDi prepared to save who she could, and trusted to the Spiders to handle the fight.

---

Morlun was mean, unscrupulous, strong, fast, and had experience fighting Spider Totems.

Unfortunately for him, his experience fighting Spider Totems were mostly those unprepared to face beings like him, with lofty moral codes who wouldn’t employ lethal techniques, and didn’t have the array of Gear on them that this particular foursome did.

Particularly the Death Wards that didn’t allow him to drain them, and the Mandibles which impaled him and set him on vivic fire.

They moved together like one oiled unit: superhumanly fast, graceful, and telepathically aware of one another’s intentions. Webs from multiple angles bound and pulled, and even if he could erode them away in seconds, seconds were far, far too long before the first burning Mandibles were driven into him, and he howled in agony.

They were setting his soul on fire!

There was no let-up, no hint of mercy. John was capable of matching his strength, and with his full Rooting able to anchor himself much better. The other three were completely capable of taking advantage of all the openings, and they did so.

Jessica went for all the classic weak points: the armpit, the groin, the kidneys. Terry went up under the ribs, while Ben opened up his throat and ripped out an eye. John pulled Morlun down to the ground smoothly and Jessica impaled him through the spinal cortex, starting a virtual explosion of vivus along his body as he still writhed impossibly, and died.

They didn’t need to be told what to do, all of them impaling him with their Mandibles and helping feed the vivic fire.

Totemic energies surged up into them, and with them the sensation of consumed souls being set free, avenged, family and loved ones finally released from the horror of this bastard’s life, and gifting them in passing with something more, something firmer and harder that they hadn’t known they lacked, but once they felt it, realized had been missing.

Individuality, and complete souls.

It took five long minutes for the bastard to burn down to vivic dust, and the four Spiders kept at it grimly the whole time, tears running beneath their masks as they put the bastard down forever.

-----

-They all good, Hank?- DiDi /asked, attending to the injured outside the hospital. The nurses had done rapid triage so she could attend to those who needed it first, Lightning Healing Reserve treating the head and neck injuries before they became permanent. She also had to stay on site to keep the Hard Air rails up for the train.

-Yeah, Uncle Ben and Aunt May popped up and took them away. They were all sobbing. What did this protozoic fish food do to them?- the Beast /half-spat as he went through the remnants of that Morlun bastard.

-Murdered their counterparts,- DiDi /replied coldly. -It leave anything behind?-

-Yes. A very sophisticated doo-hickey of sublimely fine design. Reed, you seeing this?- the Beast /asked, looking the armband over.

-I definitely am, Hank,- Dr. Richards /replied promptly. -What’s the spectrometry?... I see...-

-Personal alternity-hopper, nice and compact...- DiDi shook her head slightly, giving a reassuring nod to a young man as she pulled his arm and set the broken humerus with brute strength and unerring precision. Lightning numbed the pain and he barely felt it, staring at the lights inside his arm as the visible break in the bone within began to seal. -That gluttonous brute didn’t have near the intellect required to make something like that.-

-So he had friends, family, allies? Engaged in the same culinary pursuits?- Hank /pondered slowly.

-Bring it back, take it apart. I imagine it has a record of the places it has been to,- DiDi /snarled knowingly.

-Which should lead us right to where they come from,- Reed /understood instantly. -What of the rail line?-

Hank glanced that way, saw a woman in dark reds with a dramatically fluttering crimson Cloak waving her hands over it, and debris and scrap torn away from the bridge there were reforming and returning to its proper places. -Looks like the Scarlet Sorceress has matters in hand.-

-Morgan, do a trace of that sunuvabitch’s backtrail, see who else he murdered. He had fresh deaths on his hands. Hank, make sure any trackers on that thing are down. Get it back to Reed and into the scanners. We should be able to track anyone using such things if they come into our reality again.-

-Of course,- Morgan /replied smoothly. -I don’t keep conventional coms. LJ, if you would be kind enough to come with me and inform the authorities of what we find...-

-Sure!- Firetop /answered, swooping down in a arc of flame from the sky to hover next to the Sorceress.

-Heading for the lab with Sue now. We should have a decent prototype ready for calibration as Hank returns,- Reed /agreed, obviously thinking ahead of what needed to be built. -This will be a nice local model that should be easily modularized to adapt to sensing similar technologies and powers...-

DiDi politely shunted Reed’s and Hank’s /voices to a private /channel as they all began to talk shop. -Miles, Mattie, you all right?-

-We’re with Uncle Ben and the others.- Miles' /voice sounded like his eyes, round and swollen. He’d felt the echoes of his counterparts dying, too, as had Mattie.

There were lines that were rarely crossed here in this universe. This bastard had stormed across them and thought they were too weak or stupid to do the same, and that they’d be easy prey.

-Take care, and don’t bottle it up,- was all she /said, and left the family alone. A glance at the Markspace showed Peter and MJ had already been fetched and were with the others, so nothing else to do for now but prep for the inevitable follow-up.

==========

There’s a dead Badger Totem in the cargo hold of the ship from Germany that Morlun took, per his first appearance in Marveldom. Probably more than a couple sailors taken in passing as he got off, too.