Nazi Spider Witch Attacks Chicago Street

The number of metahuman and supernatural incidents in Chicago has been on the rise lately, and the trend seems to continue unabated.

Case in point: On a fine, cold morning a few days after Christmas, an entire alleyway in Chicago finds itself thick with webs, the inhabitants of the buildings having quickly vacated their apartments and businesses; else they find themselves cocooned in web, hanging paralyzed in the webs of a particularly malevolent being.

“...Insipid flesh bags, wandering around like flies... your flesh is better served as food for my younglings! Hahahaah! Dr. Van Mordeheim returns to the land of the living!” A cloaked figure emerged from the shadows of the webs, holding an arachnid themed staff, his face and visage completely hidden by voluminous, slightly torn red robes.... sporting the Nazi swastika.

“Why are you doing this?!” an unfortunate passerby who tried to get away wandered too near, and was ensnared by a large hunting spider’s webs. Slowly she became enveloped in webbing.

“Why... to finish the mission of the Third Reich of course, my dear! To show you Americans how arrogant and corrupt your society is!” The robed being said, speaking in a female German accent, but sounding like a hundred voices. The woman was cocooned in web and dragged into the alleyway, to join nearly a dozen other hostages.

Police have, of course, appeared on the scene, fighting the giant spiders that occasionally emerge from the webs, the leaping arachnids making short work of human law enforcement. A steady aim and shotgun slugs put down the spiders, but their speed and number make human intervention difficult. The perimeter has been established, and people are on the lookout for the National Guard, who would be arriving within the hour, or superheroes, who usually respond within minutes.

First on the scene, Xiaolongnu was dressed up and masked, finding discomfort in fighting a large hairy spider, right outside a bakery where she was buying bread for breakfast. Unwilling to strike the bike sized monster with her bare fists, she picks up a mail box and promptly squishes it – repeatedly- until it stopped moving, or twitching for that matter. “...I hate spiders!” She remarked, holding onto the crumpled mailbox, hitting it one final time when a leg twitched. The spider was clearly dead now, but the mailbox unusable. A yellowish-green substance, likely its mutant blood, poured slowly from its mouth and broken limbs, staining the pavement with a horrible smell.

Xiao watched as more giant spiders emerged from the alley, attacking police cars. Some fell to concentrated gunfire, but most of the policemen couldn't get a bead on the fast moving things; going straight for the mad wizard inside his webbed sanctuary was going to be difficult. The worst part right now though, was all the horrible, HORRIBLE spider hair that went everywhere when they died- the hairs were strong enough to punch through the mailbox, and stuck everywhere. Xia foudn herself spending time to take hairs out of her nano-swimsuit as much as trying to protect innocent bystanders by chucking mailboxes, payphones, garbage cans and sewer grates at the creatures.

On a clear day, you could normally witness the means of your murder in Chicago. Today upped the ante with a few more senses overloaded. Following up on a lead pertaining to an organization with which Imena knew nothing, the outdated woman followed the sounds of order falling into chaos. Something about the skirmish looked off to Imena, but her track record of knowing what this century called normal did not heap praises. For all she knew, this seven foot tall girl punching giant spiders leaping from webs covering the streets. "Excuse me." Imena tugged on the sleeve of a woman cowering behind the relative safety of an alley. "How often does this kind of scenario play out?"

"One time too many for me." Fear pulled the woman away like a magnet.

Imena turned her head to watch her depart. "I don't know this accent enough to know if she was overstating..." It felt like rain would begin soon, until the unpleasantness of the liquid brought Imena back to the large girl. "She could probably use some help." Releasing the sash from around her overcoat, Imena draped the coat over a crawling police officer. "Do be a dear and hold that constable." The chilliness of the climate brought a more sensible outfit from Imena's wardrobe, but the same Victorian mask, or as Imena called it, a 'mask', stretched across her face with her familiar choker across her neck. A few wires ran out of the choker and into a pair of insulated tubes moving the course of her shoulders and down into her gloves. A black corset snuggly pulled a white shirt into place before her hips could adjust to her newly donned jeans.

She ran her finger up and tapped once on her choker to activate a light blue glow that lit up the few strands of blond hair dangling down from the carefully placed hairline she so meticulously kept under control. Pulling a cane the length of her forearm from her back, a quick snap pulled the cane to a staff bearing a more aggressive and lethal demeanor. The tips burst with slight hints of electricity from the natural abilities of the English tecnomancer. With a quick step she lunged forward and dug her staff into a spider before allowing a jolt of electricity to surge through the creature and hopefully arc into an adjacent foe. All things considered, she felt she made the right choice siding with the girl over the spiders. Perhaps prejudiced in nature, but her times were a time where profiling a human as 'good' and giant arachnids as 'bad' was acceptable.

Bringing the quarterstaff to a forty-five degree angle relative to her body, Imena flashed a hint of electricity and the white of her smile. "Timestream Technomancer at your service. You can call me Winters for short." In the midst of stance, a course feeling rubbed oddly in her mouth. Pulling a long hair from her mouth, Imena dropped it from her fingers before resetting her gaze on the beasts with a thought: these hairy little monsters truly did leave their mark everywhere.

Brandon grunted lightly as his foot slammed hard into the body of the arachnid, feeling the ichor splash across his leg as he pulled it away. These things were beginning to crawl around paces that they did not belong, and the hair was really annoying too, some of it jabbing into his nigh impenetrable flesh and itching like crazy. Strong fingers brushed over the itchy hairs that clung to his arms and legs, the parts that were most exposed, watching them fall in small clouds. Arianna Hale stepped up behind him, holding a blade that radiated with an otherworldly energy, one that felt much like aether within the texture, and that reminded him somewhat of the little Sean that once clung around them, much like an adorable plague.

”Wow, this was not how I wanted to spend my morning.” Brandon grumbled kicking the corpse of one of the spiders hard into a tree, wood splintering under the pressure alone, before thudding loudly against the ground. His shoe was soaked within spider ichor and that would have taken some heavy duty cleaning to wash away, something like a water hose or whatever. The clean up would have to take place rather quickly, Brandon felt like rain was coming and that meant that he would have to get wet if he stayed outside. One thing that Brandon did not like was getting rained on, it did not feel like a warm shower at all.

The male wiped away a small amount of the ichor from his fist onto jaded demin jeans, muscles not hidden by the wifebeater rippling ever so slightly from underneath. ”I’ll deal with the buggers around here, you go somewhere else and clear up there. If we spread out it should be done in time for pie.” Arianna chirped wistfully as he flipped backwards, slamming the blade into the head of a spider, before proceeding to bisect it. Twisting the ring on his finger, Brandon prepared to jump, legs propelling him through the air with an amazing speed and within seconds he slammed onto the ground a street away, another spider being smashed under foot.

”Hellz yeah!” He whooped, running forward, slamming both fists down onto the head of another, something about this carnage seeming to fuel a battle lust within him, yet he soon found himself calm, or at least approaching it. The male did not like spiders, especially those that seemed to crawl out of a sci fi flick. It seemed that he wasn’t the only one dealing with these arachnid horrors, which was a good thing. If The Hales were expected to clean up every mess that crawled into their city, then it would have been doomed long ago. There was a strong looking amazon of a woman chunking things at the creatures and Brandon found himself curious, joining in with this chunking business. ”Hey guys, mind if I help? Oh, the names Brandon Hale by the way.” He noted slamming a car into the head of one of the spiders, smiling while he did so.

Xia plucked one final super spider hair from her costume, thankful that her dragon skin protected her from the mutant hair. Two more figures seem to arrive, likely to assist the beleaguered police.
“...Why are there so many unusual things happening in America...” Xia muttered, as she gestured for the police to flee.

The first one demonstrated weapon skill and possessed technological weapons of unusual make, totally different from her guardian’s advanced tech. “I don’t what that means, but thank you very much.... Winters. Any help is welcome...” Xia answered Winters, deciding to speak in her original halting asian accent as a hero. She spoke like that when she first wore the mask, and decided to retain it to distinguish herself from her more americanized civilian identity. The electrical shock left the spider a burnt corpse, and a foul smelling one at that. It twitched disgustingly, reflexively expelling hairs.

The second comer showed off his immense strength and power, though was a bit careless, his blows sending foul smelling blood and demonic hairs all over the place. Xia felt he might be stronger than her... in human form anyway. “Any help is welcome mister Brandon... but that evil witch has taken several people hostage. Her webs are too thick to penetrate as well. I believe a strategy is needed... perhaps one of us can draw out the witch while another attempts to penetrate the webs?” She plucked one more of the needle like hairs off Bradon’s shirt, though she had to do so carefully as to not rip the fabric.

The destruction of these hairy spiders by the superheroes seemed to have a worsening effect on the environment. People were fleeing as the hairs slowly drifted through the air, damaging cars and injuring people. The hairs themselves carried a toxin that quickly paralyzed humans, leaving them bleeding on the ground. Movement aggravated any wound caused, and they drifted down onto everyone and everything and made life hell. Xia coughed and tried to scatter them, but found only more sticking into her nano-fiber uniform, as well as onto Winters and Brandon.

The commotion with the spiders would eventually garner the attention of the witch. Wall crawling with four freakishly long spider legs emerging from her back, she calls out the heroes, though not quite distanced from her webbed lair.

“You there! Filthy American teenagers! How dare you harm my precious children! You will suffer terribly for this slight!” the witch pointed her seemingly living arachnid staff at Brandon, the most destructive of the heroes, and shot with a gout of magical, steaming acid, potent enough to inflict harm on the most durable of foes. Droplets fell onto the buildings and streets, rapidly dissolving them like superglue and Styrofoam. “Filthy wretches!”

Erica Von Manstein AKA "Wraith Renegade" found the street she'd been looking for, the sound of sirens, shouting, gunfire, and screams guiding her their as a beacon. She didn't come around the streets of Chicago much anymore, usually only heading outside her dank little North Side apartment if it was time for work. However this certainly garnered her attention, perhaps more than anything in her decade of "Peace", which saw Wraith Renegades battles again outward adversaries turn inward, as the fragile walls that kept decades worth of horrors tumbled down inside her mind. Wraith's past keeping her in chains in the present and future.

Her past was also the reason she'd made the surprise journey from her North Side apartment to this street where seemingly everyone with a right mind was fleeing. She'd caught a glimpse of a shadow from her past on the nightly news.... But it couldn't be.... I have to be completely losing my mind... Or else my sins from seven decades are here to revisit me... she thought to herself. Wraiths mind dwelling on the fact that she'd seen this all before, but a continent away and decades ago. She was in the secretive "Outfit 27" of the SS Führungshauptamt then, at a time when Hitler was obsessed with using early Meta's, the occult, and pseudo-science to combat the enemies of the Third Reich. It was in "Outfit 27" that she first met a witch with power over arachnids. She was just another one of Hitlers as she was, the two never really seeing much of each other but in passing.Yet here this witch was.... Seven decades later, a continent away, and in the same very city she was. It couldn't be mere coincidence... It just couldn't be... Somehow she had to be connected to what was going on... Or perhaps that was her paranoia speaking.

Upon learning the horrors Hitler and his minions had inflicted upon the entire world, Wraith Renegade switched her allegiance to the allied forces, fighting against the Nazi's in order to relieve guilt towards unknowingly supporting the Reich. She'd then worked off and on for Uncle Sam over the decades, working to spread peace, democracy, and the American way by killing whoever stood in the way of these ideals. Certainly a bit of a strange concept, but the CIA's checks always cleared. After serving everywhere from Korea, to Vietnam, Iraq, and El Salvador, Erica Von Manstein had come to hide here in Chicago. She thought she was completely off everyone in her pasts radar..... Until now. If by pure coincidence or not, this Nazi witch coming to Chicago could be traced back to Erica, which she could not allow. She didn't like intruders in her own private hell, especially intruders from the past.

The weather was chilly, so Erica wore a black hoodie, black leather pants, and black tactical boots. She didn't carry any weapons, as her mind was all she truly needed. However her mind felt uneasy, maybe for the fact her past had come back to find her, or maybe because she'd missed her morning "Dose". She tried to put all of these thoughts in the back of her mind as she raced towards the makeshift perimeter the Chicago Police Department had erected. Once there she sought cover behind a Chicago PD squad car, as she looked down into the street inhabited by spiders as strange hairs floated in the air... Hairs which seemed to release some sort of toxin, which made it difficult to breath for even her, and sent most of the Police and onlookers packing.

A burly plain clothed Chicago Policeman wearing a backwards Chicago Cubs baseball cap and carrying a shotgun ran towards Erica and shouted "You need to get out of here ma'm.... Things are about to get real bad when the National Guard shows up!". Erica smiled and turned towards two of the Chicago PD cars and levitated both a few feet in the air with minds terrific telekinetic gifts, both of her arms slightly outstretched as if to guide the cars. Turning to the stunned policeman she said I wouldn't be worried about the National Guard..... With that she threw her arms forward violently, both police cars then suddenly raced through the air, smashing through several layers of spider web and smashing at least three of the spiders before getting stuck in the tough webbing.

Erica then charged headlong into the thick of things, heading to where she saw a group of what looked like teenagers Hero's no doubt.... she said with almost contempt in her voice. She wasn't into working with others, but from what she remembered of this witch she also didn't think she'd be able to easily take her down alone. Especially since she'd spent the last decade trying to find every way possible kill herself. She reached the hero's just in time to hear one say “Any help is welcome mister Brandon... but that evil witch has taken several people hostage. Her webs are too thick to penetrate as well. I believe a strategy is needed... perhaps one of us can draw out the witch while another attempts to penetrate the webs?”. Without missing a beat Erica said I can help with the diversion. as she levitated a large dumpster into the air and sent it crashing through the web, the eerie sounds of massive spiders quickly following.

Winds gently blew the strands of hair around the pounding surrounding the two companions Imena found. The rough noise of them beating the squishy centers of the toxic beasts turned into a visceral display as the innards spilled onto the concrete. Unfortunately, the innards did not wish them harm. Strands of the hair kept falling as the beasts died. A battle of attrition would linger against the villains, and Imena found herself naturally ill suited to deal with the toxics. Scattered police lay still and dormant as Imena looked back to the officer she left her coat with.

"I do not feel as though I would be suited to excavate the hostages from these webs, but I could be better suited in distracting this witch. Do you know where she is?" Before Imena could end her sentence, the haunting visage of the mastermind presented her voice to menace the young man among their midst. "I believe she to be some kind of arachnid hybrid possibly created through malevolent science or dark magic. Unless, that of course is common in this age; I do mix up what is common occurrences these days. However, I do not originate from this nation, nor would I classify myself as a teenager, but I also have difficulty placing my age at 165."

A new comer arrived just as Imena pressed a button on the side of her staff to propel six rods out from towards the apex of the staff. "We have a another wishing assistance who appears to have made it past the barrage." The rods formed the skeleton of an umbrella and slowly filled in the gaps with jolts of electricity. "Pardon!" Imena sprung forward with a flick of her wrist to spin her sparking umbrella to block an influx of hairs from clinging to Brandon.

"I've got a device or two to assist, but shall we split up equally, or send two to save the hostages and two to engage with the witch?" Imena brought a focused specialty, but would have a hard time getting into position without succumbing to the toxic of the strands and becoming a hostages herself. She knew rescuing the hostages would put her in a greater harm from dealing with the webbing than engaging the spider in a battle where she could actively dodge attacks coming towards her. "I usually have a cowgirl who tells us how her ghost dog wants us to handle the situation, so I'm open to other ideas."

With a slew of electric inspired gadgets and an unnatural control over electricity, Imena hoped to step forward with a quick demonstration. Placing her gloved hand right behind the pulsing electricity surging through the cone atop her staff, Imena began to take control of the raw electricity to spiral. As the current grew with more intensity, Imena finally let out a blast from her staff towards the direction of the webbed lair in an attempt to hit the spider witch.

The strands of spider hair were beginning to prove annoying, seemingly trying to pierce his impenetrable flesh, and finding that it was impossible. That being said, it did not stop them from being annoying, and that was more than enough to anger the Hale who was trying to fight off the spider horde. Strong fists seemed for now like they would be more than enough to deal with them however, so he went with that action. ”Webs need breakin? I think I can manage that.” Brandon said with a toothy grin, brown eyes narrowing upon where the bugs seemed to be coming from. So now he needed to smash bugs and free the people from the webs, easy enough. "I swear this is like the seventh weirdest thing involving spiders I’ve seen.” Brandon grumbled ripping the leg from one spider, and bludgeoning the spider with it until its off colored guts spilled onto the streets.

In an instant what looked like an electrical shield appeared, blocking a shower of hairs that would have fallen upon him, these hairs creating sputtering hisses upon contact with the electrical field. One of them dressed rather steam punk seemed to have some insight upon the situation or the mastermind behind said situation, something about an arachnid hybrid, or something. It meant that these spiders were controlled by a greater spider, and that Brandon would likely have to squash that one too.So much squashing to fo and so little time to do it, though he was not quite expecting the acid splash until it was too late. Brandon found himself raising arms against it, and the painful liquid splashing against the forearm as well as part of his chest. The male painfully hissed through his clenched teeth as it seemed to burn even his skin.

Skin would burn, but not melt. So he would have to pay back this master mind for that as well it would seem. Well he would have of this strange Imena character did not already begin her assault, gathering electricity and creating a powerful vortex of it. His eyes widened in awe of the electrical control, though that could have been because he had never seen such a great show of power, his mind turned upon the damage done to his arm, and that his shirt was now partially a blackened mess.

The web lair strained under the large objects being thrown its way, tearing through a few layers before sheer mass stopped them. Webspinning Spiders move to repair the damage done by the dumpster and cars. The webs hold up to the weight, and slowly thicken. It became clear the webbing was becoming a nest, and the witch had a strong position to fall back to. “A telekinetic. Hmm... She seems familiar.” The witch muttered under her breath, seeing Erica arriving to the battle.

The hairs seemed quite flammable and ignited in a flash upon contacting the barrier. It turned to ash and was blown away, though to no more ill effect.

Seeing Brandon not dissolve into a pool of organic goo caught the witch’s attention.“Resilient child. It seems ze metahuman gene has been proliferating in this time.” The witch’s gaze was now on this group of would be heroes attempting to thwart her.
The doctor was then struck by the unexpected electroblast, screeching slightly from the pain, though having the benefit of a home field meant she easily took cover and shook off some of it. A clump of small spiders fell from the doctor’s robed form, roasted and dead.

“Aagh! Insolent fulminmancy!” She retorted angrily, and in retaliation, the witch waved her staff upon Imena, and casts a spell of web upon the streets, materializing rapidly and magically underfoot. Swarms of tiny, normal sized black spiders burst from several sacs within the web and go for the electromancer, hundreds of the tiny creatures attempting to overwhelm her.

A few foolhardy civilians who lived in the apartments emerged onto the roof and chucked Molotov cocktails at the nest. The webbing seemed particularly flammable, eating through as many layers as the heavy cars, and the spiders fled from the fires before the moist inner webbing cancelled out the flame. “Get out of our city, freak!” they shouted.

Xia wanted to tell Brandon to fall back; the acid that ate at his skin was deadly... but now there were civilians complicating the situation. The apartments hadn’t been evacuated yet? “Get away!” Xia yelled at them, waving them back inside; spiders pursued and they retreat. She was not yet particularly good at appraising tactics for a situation; that was Ellie’s job, and Xia realized she’d eventually have to learn to take charge during these situations.

She looked about at the environment and her ad-hoc companions as if the answer were on their faces. “We should... ahm... get up there, miss Winters... I saw the hostages were in the upper nest, before the webs got thicker... and uhm...”  When the web spell came, Xia could only react by leaping up and clinging to a wall, only to realize Imena was the target. The dragon girl called out to her, unable to react to the swift creeping webs.

Erica arrived just in time to hear one of her new found companions say "I believe she to be some kind of arachnid hybrid possibly created through malevolent science or dark magic.". Erica didn't like to devulge to much of herself to those she considered friends, much less people she'd just met on the street.... But the information was prudent, potentially even vital to their now common cause. As Erica prepared herself to send another volley of cars into the webbing she said "You're correct.... She's an arachnid hybrid... A very old arachnid hybrid, either born with a very unlucky Meta-gene or one of Hitler's more grotesque experiments. Her name's Ursula, she's Waffen SS.... Outfit 27.... The Third Reich's "Special" Meta unit. I thought she died in the war, yet here she is....", a puzzled look coming across her face.

As the others took in this new information, the average citizens of Chicago began to fight in defense of their city. A group of them tossing Molotov cocktails at the webbing from the roofs above, as they tossed insults at the Meta-human SS witch. Surprisingly the Molotov's along with several of the Meta's in the groups attacks seemed to be quite effective, as the webbing quickly went up in flames. However this brought its own set of problems, as there was quite a few people trapped in the webbing, quite literally spun into the web as they were kicking and screaming for the spiders consumption at a later time. If the Meta's didn't act quickly these people would be burned alive, probably one of the more terrible deaths one could imagine.

Try as she might, Erica couldn't let this happen. She'd spent the last decade indifferent to the world, yet in this sort of situation some strain of her vested interest in humanity remained, calling her to action. Xia was thinking along the same lines, saying “We should... ahm... get up there, miss Winters... I saw the hostages were in the upper nest, before the webs got thicker... and uhm...” . However before Imena could react, Ursula cast a spell, sending a legion of spiders after her. The spiders quickly tried to overwhelm Imena, who'd have to fight for her life, now totally unable to save those trapped in the webbing.

Erica lofted another dumpster with her telekinetic powers, with a motion of her arms the dumpster was hurtling towards the spiders rushing Imena. She couldn't get them all, but the dumpster crashed into three of the spiders, sending the flying into the brick wall of a nearby building, either severely injuring or killing the three arachnids. Hopefully this gave Imena a better chance to defeat the horde rushing towards her. Once she'd tried to even the odds for Imena, Erica turned to Xia and said "I'll help with the hostages... You need a lift?". As Erica said that she moved her hands towards a few flat pieces of metal, which had broken off from the dumpster. Within fractions of a second the pieces were moving, Erica skillfully moving them towards her until she slowed them, then stepped up onto the metal she was using to levitate her skyward. She waited for Xia to give an answer before launching herself into the webbing.

Meanwhile some of the citizens who were battling the spiders began to throw rocks and debris at Erica. One citizen yelled "Fuck you Meta scum!!! You're just like the rest of them.... Destroying are city with your personal battles!! We won't let Chicago become another New York!!!" as he threw a Molotov cocktail towards Erica. Erica reacted quickly however, outstretching one arm, while steadying herself on the metal platform with the other. Instantly the Molotov cocktail stopped in its place. Angered, Erica sent the Molotov sailing back at the citizens. The glass bottle crashing on the brick roof, sending flames across the rooftop and scattering the citizens who ironically in defense of their city had set a fire which was threatening to burn down the whole block.

Beyond the chagrin beaming from the newly named arachnid, Imena found herself in the debt of an incoming trashcan repelling the giant spiders invading the alley. Her companions made good on the direction the quartet hoped to move, but the well placed planning drew Imena's attention away from the task at hand. A host of multitude skittered upon eight legs as they made a vicious assault directed towards Imena. Her favor not lost, the technomancer kept her staff nearby to continue pulsing electricity with a sinister resolve through the malicious little beasts.

Broken bottles set fire to the quickly deteriorating webbings surrounding the fortress. Before Xia and Erica could make their leave for the hostages, Imena took stock of the path standing before her and the silk Bastille she sought to storm. Any number of crevices rotted out by the overflow of venom and the tenacity of the clawed creatures could hold a certain demise to the diversionary party. The flames began driving the beasts back, but the vacancy left by the fanning of the flames left shadows to cover their return.

Imena lowered a pair of goggles and rushed forward into the gaps the charred webbings left kindling. Her eyes set forwards on the goal, but the danger rested within the dumpster used a battering ram against the spiders. Four legs lunged through the metal siding and scrawled a message etched in aggression in the air around Imena.

With her back to the smoldering remains of a trashcan lit ablaze by citizens and fueled to inferno by the obstacle they hoped to remove, Imena shot forward to place her staff against the dumpster while keeping her form inside the grasp of the appendages. Electricity coursed through the staff and into the catalyzing force, turning the dumpster into an incinerator for the spiders trapped with the delusions of their own security.

The burned smell of a bad ambush left a better lingering scent than the adrenaline of the near death experience. Only a few meters drew out the distance between Imena and her mark. While Xia and Ericd a sought to save the hostages, Imena knew allowing the spider queen the advantage of using the hostages directly would compromise any attempt they could draw up.

Imena continued to blast her way through the alley under the burden of her staff began to weigh heavily. She took time to think of the adrenaline coursing through her, the elevated heart rate and frequent breathing. By all accounts, nothing should slow her down, yet the fatigue still set in. The strands of hairs continued to fall and the harsh air filled with soot did her no favors, but try as she may, the hostile environment played her for all it could. Struggling to get through the web lined fortress, Imena found an opened window and crawled through.

Imena kept her staff bright and deadly with all intent focused on destroying the animosity the witch held either through incapacitation or all out destruction.

The sickening stench rose from his arm, along with the pain that was coursing through it, acid slowly damaging the arm that it had fallen upon. It was quickly fading in effectiveness, but that did not keep it from hurting like hell upon the wounds that opened on the males arm. Brandon found himself muttering a few curses over the pain that he was enduring, but it was nothing compared to what the people of Chicago would be feeling, all thanks to this arachnid spell slinger. The telekinetic would prove useful within the fight, but if they knew almost nothing about their foe, then all the power within the world would do them no good. If only he had some kind of super cool arm that absorbed souls like Niall, then things might have been going better for him.

Tearing away what remained of the wife beater that was being eaten away by the corrosive acid, Brandon found himself bare-chested, muscles ripping as he rolled his shoulder. It was in fact the telekinetic that revealed the name of their foe, someone that held a connection to the Nazi’s or something along those lines. She knew more than perhaps he would have given her credit for, and that meant that she was older than physically assumed. Perhaps at least sixty if not older than that, maybe even old enough that she predated his mother. Much like the Caster patriarch, the one who had been rumored to have been alive before the country they now stand within was founded.

”Looks like things have just gotten interesting.” He said with a sly smirk, fists clamping into tight bundles as he forcefully flexed the muscles of the damaged arm. His part of the fight would have ensued, but the witch had other ideas, slamming her staff against the ground and summoning a large amount of spiders from large egg sacs. Brandon growled lowly, eyes narrowing as more of the damn bugs would appear upon the battle field that was The Chicago streets, as if there would be no end to their troubles. The Chinese girl seemed more worried about the civilians, people that were within the way of the battle that was being waged, and one that Brandon himself was embroiled in. His family was likely still dealing with them somewhere else, and he could not besmirch the Hale name, not again.

”Hehe, Niall would hate this.” Brandon chuckled to himself with a small toothy grin as the critters began to flood the streets. Fires began to spread among the webbing, people seeming to throw improvised fire weaponry into the fray, burning webs and anything else that the fire licked again. They were helping, but in the long run there was also a potential hurt that they would bring upon their own city, not including anyone that was caught within the webs that were going to burn. Listening to the Chinese girl, Brandon loudly cracked his knuckles, and let out a harsh sigh. A silver ring flashed upon his right index finger, one that seemed to serve as only decoration but it was more than that.

Fire was what mostly drove back the spider horde, one that would have fallen upon him like a wave and his eyes caught sight of something, the electrical female running somewhere; towards the lair of the spider queen. She was probably going into a dangerous situation and Brandon felt like that was also where he would be more useful. If he could kill the one controlling these spiders, then he could end the assault upon the city. With powerful legs he would run after Imena, feet pounding hard against the concrete as he ran, faster and faster. Wind whipped through blonde hair as the shirtless male seemed to follow the lead of the steam punk woman. Luckily neither heat nor this exertion would have drawn fatigue from him, or he would have been drenched in sweat.

What really allowed him to follow was the light of the woman’s staff. ”Hey wait!” Brandon called out, catching up with the woman and slowing down enough that they were equal in pace. ’Mind if I join you in…whatever you’re doing?”

Xia frowned at Erica’s decision to endanger the people on the roof. They could not help but despise super powered beings for bringing misery, but to compound that hate was only going to hurt all metahumans in the long run. “Hey! Why did you do that? We are not here to hurt those people! We are supposed to save them!” She sighed; it seemed this person did not care so much for helping civilians as to simply defeating the witch. From hanging on the wall, she leapt onto Erica’s platform, her arms flailing slightly to keep her balance. Xia was still unused to using her strength to jump.

“Come on then. Let’s go save them... without hurting them. Those two seem to have the witch’s attention for now.” She said, piling on the thick Chinese accent, before wobbling on the platform, then jumping up on the burning roof. Fire did not persist in the cold winter, so at least burning down an apartment was a distant possibility.

“Hey! Let me in you idiots!” He banged the roof access door, the African American man calling to his companions who left him on the roof.

“I’ll borrow this. Please and thank you!” Xia grabbed the burning Molotov in the man’s hand, making him panic slightly. “Okay take it!” he said, going to hide elsewhere on the roof. Xia faced a few spiders and waved about the burning bottle, the burning cloth already igniting the liquid inside- Xia winced as her hand caught fire, but it was an effective deterrent against the few spiders, which distanced themselves from the Dragon Girl. She even manages to punt one off the roof and all the way to the next block.

She leapt onto the nest, and used the fire to ignite webbings and began tearing them away with her bare hands. The webs eventually extinguish the flame. The first hostage was still alive and struggling, and Xia already began to extract her; Xia could tell it was a small girl.

“Please do not move too much the web is very sticky...” Xia had to say it, and found herself stuck on a sticky web... and the more she struggled, the more she got entangled. “...Very sticky!”

Below, The spiders closed in on Imena and Brandon, while the Witch seeming to pause between her spell castings. The eldritch glow of her staff subsided, and she retreated into the nest, as she was content to let more of her minions to hold them off. Her attention was now divided between these attackers and the foolish rescuer above. The hairy attack spiders feared the electric fields though, and this allowed Imena and the swiftly following Brandon to advance to within the deadly shadows beneath the nest. The Witch’s malevolent red eyes gazed down on Imena.

The ground underneath the nest was a mess of shattered concrete and garbage, a not unexpected sight given the attack. However, a giant trap door Spider – larger than a pick up and most of the surface spiders - suddenly emerges from the ground, having webbed together the broken alley to become a door just as they entered. Its ambush was swift, as it attempted to grab Brandon and Imena with its spidery clawed legs, and drag them into the trap pit that was its lair, as the thing did not mind having some hero elevensies.

As Erica readied to raise the metallic platform she'd hastily constructed, the "Dragon Girl" yelled “Hey! Why did you do that? We are not here to hurt those people! We are supposed to save them!”. Erica scoffed, this was exactly the sort of "Righteousness" that was going to lead not only the relations humanity and Meta's being fractured, but also relations between all Meta's. As it stood there were more humans then Meta's, the last thing the Meta population was for humans to start some sort of civil war between Meta-kind. Erica was against pointless violence, but defending oneself from the ignorant? That she certainly believe was not only just, but also right, and it certainly annoyed her that this Meta failed to see that.

Responding, Erica said "I'm here to settle a score... If I happen to save a few innocents in the process so be it... But those ignorant fools throwing fire bombs? I say let them burn! Better they burn now, then they burn us tomorrow. Besides.... Never hurts to remind our lesser's of their place in things...". Erica noticed that the "Dragon Girl" seemed unmoved by her words, but there was little sense in arguing in a time and place such as this. As the "Dragon Girl" unsteadily jumped aboard the makeshift platform, she said “Come on then. Let’s go save them... without hurting them. Those two seem to have the witch’s attention for now.”. Erica nodded, then with a upward motion of both of her arms the platform lifted into the air, above the roof tops.

Atop one of the apartments roofs, the pair ran into one of the humans who was retreating from battling the spiders. The man pounded on an access door atop the roof, yelling "Hey! Let me in you idiots!”, as he'd clearly been left behind by his compatriots. As the "Dragon Girl" took the Molotov Cocktail out of the startled mans hand and said “I’ll borrow this. Please and thank you!”, Erica frowned and said "You see... They'll abandon their friends to be eaten by a pack of mutant spiders in order to save their own skin. Now tell me that's worthy of even borderline respect!". Once the "Dragon Girl" responded she hopped off the platform to set about freeing the hostages that she could, while using the Molotov Cocktail to distract the spiders, though she seemed to light herself on fire if only for a brief moment in the process.

Deeper inside the webbing Erica could hear the cries of "Help me!!! Please help me!! Someone, please!!" from what sounded like a middle aged man. Erica lifted her metallic platform into the air, pushing it into the webbing in order to rescue the stranded man, when out of the corner of her eye she saw her again... Erica stopped the platform halfway between where she started and the man, who cried out "I'm over here... Please save me!". Erica tuned him out however, her focus solely fixed on Ursula, who after battling the other two Meta's, was now moving deeper into the webbing. An army of Ursula's mutant minions moving rushing forward to take on the Meta attackers as she retreated into the webbing.

With Imena and Brandon having their hands full with Ursula's minions, the "Dragon Girl" busy saving humans caught in the webbing, Erica high above the web had the best vantage to attack Ursula directly. It was an opportunity that the nearly one century old telekinetic was not about to miss... Facing the trapped man she shrugged her shoulders and casually said "Sorry.... There's bigger game down there, and I'm a big game hunter.", as she rocketed her platform down through the webbing. As the disappeared, leaving the man, he cried out "Nooo!! You bitch!!!". By this time Erica was dodging, ducking, and weaving in between pieces of the massive, sticky web, as she descended to ground level.

As she nearly reached the bottom there was a great rumble from beneath the street, as the sound of cracking pavement and cars alarms filled the air with more sounds of battle and chaos. As the ground below gave way, a giant burrowing spider came from under it, ambushing Imena and Brandon who were fighting on the street level. The gargantuan spiders disgusting, razor sharp hairy legs reaching out to grab both Imena and Brandon, to take them to its liar and an early grave down below. As Imena and Brandon battled this new monstrosity, it was clear to Erica that they had their hands full, but she believed they were skilled enough to not get themselves killed if she didn't help them. Erica not wanting to miss an opportunity for single combat with this shadow from the past.

Erica's metallic platform delivered her safely to the ground level, where she stood face to face with the hybrid-arachnid Queen, who wore Nazi regalia all over her monstrous body, and seemed to have evolved even more into an arachnid, with only a few strands of her DNA looking to hold her to whatever links to humanity she had. Standing before this monstrosity Erica said "Ursula.... I see times been good to.... Well I actually I wouldn't say times been good to you. Actually you're looking as hideous as usual.".. Ursula responded, but just as she finished one of her minions crashed into Erica, throwing her from her platform, and sending her crashing to the pavement.

In an instant the spider was on her, causing Erica to have to move side to side to avoid its powerful killing strokes. Undettered the spider moved its jaws close to Erica's face in order to rip it off, Erica feeling the warmth of the spiders breathe, as she starred into its razor sharp jaws. Using both arms to keep the spider at bay, Erica used all of her strength to stay alive. Then out of the corner of her eye she noticed a piece of steel bar, which the large subterranean spider had left broken off and exposed from the rest of the road. Quickly Erica moved her right arm towards the bar, while she just barely held the spider off with her left. In an instant the bar was in her right arm, just as the spider overpowered her left, and impaled itself on the bar that Erica held just above her chest.

With a great scream and hiss the spider died atop of Erica, who shrieked "Ewww!!! Disgusting!!!". Then came searing pain as acid dripped from the spiders wound down onto Erica's closed and exposed flesh. Quickly she flipped the dead spider to the side, stood up and dusted herself off as she looked to see where everyone else was at. Ursula having escaped her clutches for the moment.

Opening up from the storefront Imena barraged into, a broken visage of a former business looked to be in tatters. Nothing else immediately shot out for her undivided attention, but any enemy would seek to shoot out from where she least expected. Her recent encounter in the alley forgot itself as the way out closed behind her. A laugh echoed through the store as the villain made her reproach to deal with the others.

With her path blocked from behind, Imena could only push forward into Ursula's lair. An odd move only indicating Imena would need to prepare herself as she pushed forward into the darkness. Darkness faded under the lights coming from the lights installed on the side of Imena's goggles, lighting up the path held in secret by the encompassing webbings. A quick shift in her balance felt too strong to be nervous anxiety. Something pulled on her, but as she turned to fight back against the pull, her boots refused to give way.

Webs gave her no reprieve as she tried to shake herself free. Lunging from beneath the depths of the alley, a giant spider hissed a savage omen directly into Imena's face. The rancid smell of rotted flesh hung around her, upping the ante of what would become of her in the grasp of the spider. A sharp barb shot directly towards her abdomen, causing her to exert tension on her ankles in order to dodge the impaling shot.

Whipping her staff around her body, Imena lunged the jolting umbrella towards the mocking mouth of the tenacious creature. Landing the business end directly into the spider's mouth, Imena fired out a bolt of electricity to drive the creature back for a moment. With her lull won, if only temporary, She unlatched her boot and stepped back on her foot. Another swipe came for Imena's rooted leg. Not wanting to deal with a mobile opponent, the creature won its objective and pulled its prey into the air.

Dangling precariously over her sudden demise and witnessing its slow retreat back into the lair, Imena readied a blast to impact the nerve bundle near where the appendage bended to hold its grasp steady. Imena fell from the grasp of the creature and scurried to grab her lost boot and hide behind a fallen shelf. Anything in the store giving her an advantage would help her, but a pair of car batteries looked the best. Picking up the soon to be makeshift explosives, Imena tossed both batteries at the arachnid and fired a blast of electricity to overload both batteries and send fire and corrosive acid against the spider.

The concussive force of the blast sent Imena flying backwards further into the lair of the Nazi spider queen. She began to gather herself with her staff still lit and lethal while pointing the staff in all directions to challenge anything hiding within the shadows of the deadly chamber.

Brandon was following the steam punk electrokinetic, his mind running over how they would deal with the powerful spider witch that had so generously attacked him earlier. There were many ways really, and considering his rather durable nature, many of them included simply running through any attack that she would throw at him. The only problems with that was the fact that Brandon hated taking damage, so he tried to avoid that when art all possible. The further that he ran into the darkness of the alleyway, the more that Brandon was realizing that this was more of a one way street really, they were treading upon dangerous territory. This was first relied upon Brandon meeting with the…spider that had erupted from a small den within the concrete street, its slavering maw hungry to bear down upon their flesh. Brandon cursed lightly under his breath as he took a step back, but he was too slow.

His eyes shot to the woman awkwardly, as if wondering if she needed him to assist her but it was him he needed to worry about now, she seemed like she was rather powerful. So it was the two against this large arachnid, one that seemed powerful enough to tunnel through concrete as well as catch him off guard and pull him in. Some of the webbing lining the hole cliung to Brandon as he found himself falling in, fingers grasping for some kind of hold and yet finding nothing, other than the powerful legs of the spider slapping against his superhuman body. Brandon grumbled lightly as he swatted at the lags, forcing them back far enough that he could get a bearing upon his own surroundings, which were rather dark. Pressing upwards one of the legs slammed into his gut and Brandon slid further into the trap.

Air for the most part gone. ”Dammit.” Brandon grunted running a finger over his slightly pained stomach, glaring at the stomach of the spider as he once again grabbed onto the wall, and fingers dug deeply into it. A battle was raging above him between the female and the spider, but that was about all Brandon knew at the moment and he planned to join in that fight right now. Crawling from the pit in which he was caught in, something caught him off guard and threw Brandon against the wall, brick shattering under the force his body was thrown. He was for the most part unharmed, save for the small scorch marks that ran along his pants, small smoking black marks that over all would have gone unnoticed. The spider dazed fell into the hole that it had attempted to drag them in, into its own den of death.

Pulling himself from his stupefied state, Brandon dashed over to where the thing had fallen in, looking down, only to have one of the legs hook around his body and pull the blond in. Teeth fell ineffectually against his skin, much like a child trying to gnaw through concrete, only really scraping the surface and not enough to let the poisons take effect. One hand wrapped around an oversized fang, and with a jerk it was ripped form the things mouth, a burst of ichor following this as the thing roared loudly in pain. With back pressed against the wall, Brandon thrust the fang outwards towards thew spider, aiming to damage it anyway possible, its outer shell seeming to puncture, followed by another screech of rage.

With that opening, Brandon used all of his strength and forced it against one end of its den, and slammed a fist into its abdomen, sinking deeper into it, as the warm ichor soaked his fist. Another fist, and another until it would cease even the spasms that were racking its body, and with that Brandon crawled from the trap door like pit, soaked in both ichor and small clumps of webbing.