Moon Shadow Issue #2 Weaver Alone
Moon Shadow
Issue #2
"Weaver Alone"
A hairless elder gentleman whose obesity is positively morbid waits in a dimly lit computer room near freezing in temperature. Goggles glint in the near light as they cover his eyes. He seems to be waiting for someone as laser lights suddenly alight in the form of a spider's web.
In the middle of the room a man in a high tech sneak suit including a harness displaying a quartet of legs of decidedly insectoid manner rises from the web; his head sports goggles that make his head look vaguely spider like. The fat man in a lab coat smirks at the others entrance before clapping for him mockingly. While the makes his face unreadable the technological spider-man bows to the applause.
"Melodramatic as usual, Weaver," The fat man says in greeting to his guest. "But I suppose this is what I get for hiring a super villain."
"Kettles and pots, Professor Moreau," The Weaver says with a wagging finger to chastise the mad geneticist, "Kettles and pots. But what sort of problem do you have that one of your pets can't handle?"
"Good point," Moreau concedes, "I have not been in the business of monster for sometime. I get more kicks playing with other people's DNA. Which brings us to the matter at hand."
"Test subjects escape on you?" Weaver asks.
"In a nutshell," Moreau concedes, "And before you ask, I want them dead."
"I can do dead quite well," Weaver says in a pleased tone. :"Evidence?"
"Their head will do," Moreau says simply before tossing Weaver a CD.
"I take it this is a copy of the files of our targets?" Weaver asks to which Moreau simply nods. "I'll get right on it."
"Quite correct," Moreau says with a smile as he reaches for a button on a console near him.
"Slowly, Moreau," a voice growls behind him that turns out to be a ninja woman in a Noh mask with a similar harness as Weaver with the addition of a robotic tail that has a stinger missile system at its terminus. "We want money; not your gas."
"Of course, Scorpiona," Moreau says with a smirk, "I was just arranging electronic transfer of your payment."
"It just cleared, Mon, he's on the level," Weaver says.
"For now at least," Scorpiona says disdainfully.
They both depart and the web dissipates. Moreau smirks and goes for a walk in his own facility. In a barely lit lab with cages in the water Moreau is greeted by a mass of weaving tentacles as soft music plays on the speakers.
"A pity Moon Shadow hasn't puzzled out your secret, my pet, " Moreau says softly at something out of Lovecraft's yachting nightmares rises to face the fat geneticist. "But I doubt even he knows how to destroy you. Go! Keep up the legend of the curse."
It departs as Moreau returns to his monitoring station to keep abreast on the night's events. Among the channels he monitors is the new. One item in particular on how Moon Shadow apparently has friends interests him greatly as he turns up the volume.
"This is Wendy Wu reporting live from Asiaville where members of the Yakuza and Triads have been killed by the Moon Shadow and his aids Glimmer Shade and Rabbit Ears..."
"Rabbit Ears?" Moreau asks in a giggle, "Is that really what she wents to be called? Maybe I should inquiry the wolf himself."
From: [email protected]
Subj: Seriously?
Really, Michael, one of your companions wants to be known as Rabbit Ears? Is she some sort of gadgeteer? I would have though that slang term had gone out of style.
From: [email protected]
Subj: RE: Seriously?
More or less she is very hardy with tools. She's got almost mutant knack for it. BTW I happened to see what might be a mutual "friend" leave your lair tonight. Tell, old boy what music do you use to soothe the savage beast? Wagner? Gounod? Do you play it "In the Hall of the Mountain King"? It wouldn't surprise me. Or maybe Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D-", is more your style. Perhaps Einstein is inappropriate for you. If you're into monster making maybe you should be called Victor. Have fun romancing the Bunsen burner to keep you warm at night.
>Really, Michael, one of your companions wants to be known as Rabbit Ears? Is she >some sort of gadgeteer? I would have though that slang term had gone out of style.
From: [email protected]
Subj: Monster Making 101
How very droll of you, Michael, as fate would have it, Victor is my middle name. But you witnessed my pet going for a swim did you? I have others that I keep around for special clients and occasions. Gojira and his friends are a guilty pleasure of mine. You'd be surprise how many I've menace to recreate in miniature.
Who knows? Perhaps one day I'll treat the city to very special creature feature. I have wanted to "Rock this Town" for some time now. But will you be able to stop them? Somehow I doubt it.
The Moon Shadow stands on the skeleton of an unfinished sky scraper in down town Bastion. He plays his ocarina softly even though the acoustics of his current position allows the tune to carry for miles Rabbit Ears and Glimmer Shade soon join him as a laser web starts to form among the girders.
Glimmer Shade and Moon Shadow exchange a look between them about the web as Rabbit Ears starts dropping grenades. Rabbit Ears has no way of knowing that her bombs would drop into the teleportation circle Weaver and Scorpiona are using but the wanted effect is much the same. It takes the pair longer to materialize as they need to make sure Rabbit Ear's grenades don't wreck the place while they're gone.
Upon swinging out of his teleportation circle the first thing Weaver does is go after the rabbit. Once he has her ensnared Weavers whips Rabbit Ears into his web whose strands are now razor wire. Assorted bits and pieces of Rabbit Ears hit the floor for below bit by bit until her head impales itself on some rebar on such an angle she might as well be somebody's hunting trophy.
If Weaver's intent was to intimidate the other two he failed, however if he wanted to piss them off...he succeeded splendidly. Moon Shadow drops out of a pool of darkness to take a slash at Weaver with his butterfly swords before disappearing into the darkness below. Glimmer Shade tosses kunai at him as she uses her acrobatic abilities to move about.
Scorpiona uses the machine gun portion of her tail harness to get Glimmer Shade off of Weaver's back. Glimmer Shade turns her attention to Scorpiona as she dances about to avoid getting hit. But a well thrown shuriken plugs the muzzle of the machine gun in time to make it misfire, fouling the barrel and rendering it useless.
Glimmer Shade snickers at Scorpiona to get her off her game and succeeds as she activates her power claws before charging to attack. Weaver activates a remote camera to record the fight as he looks to capture Moon Shadow in order to kill him. Unfortunately it's at this time he switches to his hand cannons to get the spider themed villain to back off as he is getting himself and Glitter Shade to safety.
Moon Shadow gets a lucky shot on Weaver's knee that cripples his movement and spoils his shot with his web gun. The wild shot hits his partner in crime as she reaches for the fox. Glimmer Shade nods to her partner and they embrace as they tumble into the shadows.
"We had them!" Weaver grouses as he tends his knee, "Damn dog got a lucky shot and we only manage to take out the rabbit."
"Not a were critter," Scorpiona says as she holds up the rabbit's head, "She remained a bunny girl after we killed her."
In Michael's Winnebago:
"They almost had us!" Moon Shadow growls then heaves a heavy sigh, "Irma; what are we going to tell her dad? She was one of the only people keeping him solvent. The man is on a suicide watch already!"
"I don't know," Glitter Shade says somberly, "I failed her. I didn't want students to teach my family's tricks to," She looks over at Michael, "Unless we have kids that is. How much do you want to bet that bastard Moreau is behind this."
"It wouldn't surprise me," Moon Shadow says then sees a note on his computer screen, "Here comes the bragging..."
From: [email protected]
Subj: Poisonous Pursuit
It seemed to me you would get awfully bored as I am not much of a super villain. But I did manage to find you some proper playmates. Enjoy.
From: [email protected]
Subj: 1 Down
2 to go. How do you like your hasenpfeffer? The hot dogs are proving to be a little harder to cook.
From: [email protected]
Subj: RE: 1 Down
The "Hot Dogs" are what's important especially the black one. Keep that firmly in mind. Otherwise the hunter will find himself the prey.
>2 to go. How do you like your hasenpfeffer? The hot dogs are proving to be a little >harder to cook.
From: [email protected]
Subj: Preying 4 Keeps
I wouldn't suggest leaving your cage, Long Pig could be on the menu. If I get my way we'll see how much control you have over your own creations, Victor. Rabbit Ears has made devices I'm simply dying to find a use for. But your friends will be first on my list. Enjoy the fireworks; because they're done, so are you.
From; [email protected]
Subj: You Bet Your Life
The stakes weren't high enough for you? Weaver is psychotic and you let him loose on the city. Do you want to turn this town into a Graveyard? Do we have some special formula under your umbrella?
From: [email protected]
Subj: RE: You Bet Your Life
Not my department, I'm a geneticist not a pharmacist.
>The stakes weren't high enough for you? Weaver is psychotic and you let him loose on >the city. Do you want to turn this town into a Graveyard? Do we have some special >formula under your umbrella?
"We need to teach him a lesson," Wendy growls to Michael. "He's basically put a hit out on us."
"Granted and if we beat the bugs he'll bring in somebody else," Mike says in agreement as he looks over his laptop monitor. "Bingo, I thought he was on the loose again."
"Holocaust? Are you serious?" Glitter Shade asks with an alarmed tone. "Honey he's a walking bomb! He eats plastique as his four square!"
"What do you say we put him on a diet?" Moon Shadow says with a smirk.
"Wait a sec," Wendy postulates, "Are you suggesting we steal some of Holocaust's food and blow something up?"
"Yup," Mike says simply, "Specifically I want to blow up the bridge connecting his island to the mainland."
"I like how you think," Glitter Shade says as she presses her boobs to the back of his neck.
Finding one of Holocaust's ammo dumps is not hard the only thing to get hard is Moon Shadow getting a boner as Glimmer Shade gives him a boob hat. Moon Shadow's sexual excitement amuses Glitter Shade no end as she reaches down to undo his crotch. Glitter Shade strokes his shaft slowly and purposefully as Moon Shadow manages to send the location they want to hit to the RV's navigational computer.
Glitter Shade impales herself along Moon Shadow's length through strategically placed holes in her cat suit. The cat suit was bought for an expose she was going to do as Wendy Wu that got cut and the money was never reimbursed. Now she uses it as Glitter Shade to distract male opponents when the ruse brought about by her powers falls through.
Moon Shadow parts the top of Glitter Shade's cat suit to access her chest; licking and suckling at her tits and causing Wendy to moan in pleasure. Glitter Shade lays down on their bed and lets Moon Shadow do as he pleases with her, gripping the sheets as she pants in pleasure. The yiff session is actually quick and to the point which only just satisfies both parties.
Wendy wants to perform fellatio on Michael but he does not let her as they approach a large public storage area. Moon Shadow Goes alone to gather the plastique, which curiously have a nuclear symbol on them, and get back to the RV quickly as a fifteen foot tall being that looks like it is composed entirely of volatile chemicals approaches the lot. As the RV drives away, the walking humanized bomb that is Holocaust gives chase which alarms Glitter Shade but makes Moon Shadow smile as he gets an idea from the monster following them.
Mike gets his RV within fifty feet of Moreau's island and shadow walks under the bridge. Wendy is half hiding inside the RV as Holocaust walks past her to follow the bombs Michael stole. One hour after he left, Michael returns and detonates his stolen ordinance.
Einstein Moreau is thrown to the floor as evocative mushroom clouds erupt on either side of his island laboratory. Initially the mad scientist is shocked; not too sure if he understands what has just happened then he gets angry and rightly infers who just did this. He is about to email Moon Shadow when he hears Holocaust roar.
From: [email protected]
Subj: Bastard!!!
What have you done!?! Holocaust looks like he's going to be attack my lab! Defend me!
From: [email protected]
Subj: RE: Bastard!!!
Why don't you use one of your precious pets? I got bigger fish to fry. The bugs you brought to town for instance. Are we still feeling so damn smart for setting all this in motion?
>What have you done!?! Holocaust looks like he's going to be attack my lab! Defend >me!
"How much you wanna bet he's shitting his pants right now?" Moon Shadow inquires of Glitter Shade with a smirk.
"You realize he's going to be even more pissed off at us?" Glitter Shade responds with a smirk of her own. "Granted he deserved it...." She checks her pager, "I'm being paged by the station, hold on," The she uses her cell phone: "Wendy Wu, checking in; Holocaust is attacking Moreau Labs? I have no clue why maybe the old mad scientist stole something for his experiments. You want me to interview him? In his facility? Do I get hazard pay? Alright, I'll meet the crew there." She turns to Mike with a dark look. "You owe me, woofie. I just hope that Moreau doesn't suspect me yet."
Wendy Wu walks across a swaying temporary bridge to Moreau's facility as a bald black man and his Asian assistant watch her suspiciously. Neither side know it yet but Weaver and Scorpiona witness Glitter Shade invade their space with a camera crew in tow within Moreau's place where they have temporarily set up shop. Moreau's facility is badly damaged from the altercation with Holocaust as the man himself is in a heavily air conditioned room to contain his nerves.
"Miss Wu, so nice to see you, my dear," Moreau says pleasantly as the camera pans to him.
"Thank you, Professor," Wendy returns somewhat seriously, "I see the nuclear nightmare that's Holocaust hit you pretty bad."
"Are these readings off?" Scorpiona whispers to Weaver as she shows him the results of a scanner pointed at the lady reporter.
"I just calibrated that one this afternoon," Weavers says as he looks at the findings and cocks his head to the side. "Paranormal activity centered around her alright, and no way of contacting him discreetly." Then somebody shoots out their scanners. "What the!?! Somebody took a pot shot at us. Find out who bitch!"
Weaver slaps Scorpiona's ass to get her moving which causes her to activate a switchblade to threaten Weaver but he has his wrist blaster pointed at her. Grumbling to herself, Scorpiona does a sweep for the sniper and gets multiple readings. As she goes to check up on the nearest one she sees Moon Shadow dash from shadow to shadow and the mystery of who took that shot at them gets very clear very quickly.
"So what drew Holocaust to your lab, Professor?" Glitter Shade asks pointedly. "Did you take some of the uranium and/or plutonium he eats to keep up his strength?"
"How very droll," Moreau frumps, "I'll have you know I run a well kept shop here. The Moon Shadow led that atomic titan to my door to annoy me."
"Why?" Glitter Shade asks point blank. "What have you done to piss him off?"
"Persons of that nature don't need much to set them off, Miss Wu," Moreau growls, "He perceived some slight by me and decided some slight by me and decided to retaliate with a third party."
"I see," Glitter Shade says and does her best to only inwardly smirk as she knows what provoked the attack but she is careful not to say anything to give herself away. "An unnamed source has implicated you in monster making. Any truth to these rumors?"
"My word!" Moreau exclaims. "I don't know what you're talking about. This is a research facility..."
"Researching what exactly?" Glitter Shade asks to press the matter.
Elsewhere in the facility Weaver and Scorpiona tag team to search for Moon Shadow who is accessing Moreau's files and making copies to study later. He also takes tour of Moreau's private menagerie of monsters he has created. Eventually Weaver catches up to Moon Shadow in and automated lab with injectors of Moreau's mutagen of the ready.
"Mad scientists have all the best toys," Weaver quips darkly as he webs Moon Shadow to a wall. "I hear this stuff can be fatal." He picks up a syringe of the stuff as does Scorpiona behind. "I wonder what happens if you get a second dose?"
"How about you get a first?" Scorpiona asks as she fires a syringe into Weaver via her tail gun.
"What? Why?" Weaver feebly asks as he drops to his knees.
"Moreau paid me extra to do you," Scorpiona coos. "Nothing personal just like that job they pulled in Baghdad."
"You're still sore about that?" Weaver asks. "Bin Laden paid big bucks to fuck you."
"I'm not some whore for you to pimp out, Weaver!" Scorpiona thunders. "But while you're convulsing allow me to fulfill part of our contract and kills Moon Shadow." She aims for the spot he was but he has since vanished. "Where did that furball get to?"
"Not too far, dearie," Moon Shadow growls as he slips out of the shadows and starts shooting at her.
"You're a shadow walker!" Scorpiona growls; "That wasn't on the disc that I saw but I can deal with that. I just have to make things bright in here.
Scorpiona throws up some flares and immediately wishes she hadn't as the creatures with all their juxtaposed parts are quite disturbing. Reconstituted dinosaurs, extinct mammals and birds and things rarely seen out of Japanese horror or the confines of what constituted for Lovecraft's creative muse in Plexiglas cages on display as it were,. Many of the monstrosities would gladly have either one of them for dinner.
Weaver is convulsing on the floor writhing in agony as his body undergoes severe and quickly initiated mutations. He has long been fascinated by spiders and regularly injected himself with the venom of many different types to bolster his immune system. Unfortunately for him this gives the mutagen something to work on as it alters his DNA.
Scorpiona and Moon Shadow are too busy fighting each other to notice Weaver's plight as his skeleton becomes an exoskeleton, giving him a centaur like appearance. Another set of arms grows under the first pair as his face grows six more eyes and his mouth becomes a set of mandibles. Spinnerets form in his palms as he lashes out blindly with his webbing and captures Scorpiona.
Weaver bites Scorpiona and begins to devour her like a spider eats its prey. Speech is lost to Weaver now that he is a kind of anthropomorphic spider but he gains telepathy in its place; a power he is mot eager to test. Moon Shadow is the first to get a piece of Weaver's mind broadcasted to him.
<Well, that was weird,> Weaver states mentally. <Fun really, but I can only do that once.>
"And I though I was a freak," Moon Shadow half jokes, "The mutagen did that to you?"
<Yeah, but I wouldn't be throwing that term around too loosely, Moon Shadow," Weaver says with a mocking mental tone. <Neither one of us is exactly human any more after all.>
"True, but I'm more of a vigilante now," Moon Shadow quips, "I never was and never will be an assassin."
<Sticks and stones, Moon Shadow,> Weaver returns as he picks up an assault blaster as he looks menacingly at Moon Shadow. <Time to finish the contract.>
"Not tonight," Moon Shadow says as he throws down a flash pellet and blinds Weaver temporarily as he shadow walks to safety.
In the RV Moon Shadow and Glitter Shade discuss what happened.
"Moreau is a real piece of work," Glitter Shade grumbles. "He fosters division in his own hirelings, probably so he doesn't have to pay them and wants to get a witch hunt set up for things like us that he created in the first place so he can dissect us."
"I just hope Weaver doesn't need people exclusively to feed upon," Moon Shadow says. "Right now, Moreau is small potatoes in comparison."
"At leas now we have some of his files," Glitter Shade concedes, :"So we can possibly reverse the process if need be. Not that we want to become human again but it could come in handy in the future. But a predator like Weaver is a slightly higher priority."
"I may need to play with my guns to take him down," Moon Shadow Speculates.
"Right now, I want to play with your gun," Glitter Shade says lustfully, "Fat bastard was eyeing me in a way I found very uncomfortable. I wanna make sure I wasn't turning lesbian."
Moon Shadow chuckles and lets Glitter Shade lead him to the bedroom knowing full well what's to follow. She pulls down his pants while he pulls off his shirt before she kisses his scrotum. He pulls her rump towards his muzzle and sees that she isn't wearing panties as he takes off her skirt.
Glitter Shade licks and suckles at Moon Shadow's nuts as he licks and sucks at her clitoris in a near perfect 69 position. Her objective is to get him hard enough to penetrate her folds and prepares her rear for his invasion. When the time comes for penetration, she gets on all fours as he comes in her front door.
Moon Shadow reaches around and takes off her shirt as he begins to grind his hips with hers. Glitter Shade is too busy moaning and panting to do much else as she grinds back at him. Neither is overly concerned for their surroundings as Weaver creeps closer; drawn by the sounds of sex and his own gnawing hunger.
The RV is parked in a secluded spot which helps both of them out even as both males can smell each others which causes different reactions in each. Moon Shadow thinks the scent is vaguely familiar in a dangerous sort of way as he takes out his hand cannons just in cast. Weaver senses that taking on this prey could be disastrous for him and moves on.
When he is sure the other has left, Moon Shadow goes back to attending his lover's needs. His hands kneed her breasts as sensuously as he knows how. Glitter Shade is moaning almost non stop now as she is beginning to enter a trance of pure pleasure.
Pleasure has quickly become the priority of the evening as Glitter Shade submits herself to Moon Shadow's desires. Wendy internally sighs as sessions like this were a bone of contention between her and Maria as Wendy is more willing to be submissive to Michael than Maria ever was. She reflects on this as his knot begins to inflate inside of her.
Wendy consoles herself that Maria was also disapproving of Michael's furry interest, which Wendy shares and is the main reason neither one of them are in a hurry to change back to their original human forms. Father Cid Quixote, also known as the Templar, a semi retired meta human who, unbeknownst to Mike and Wendy, raped and murdered Maria when she sought his advice on what to do about Michael, is going through Maria's files and personal information on the monster he feels must be destroyed back at the precinct where the pair worked. He finds out pretty much all she knew about Michael before he killed her and makes both copies of the materials and plans on what to do about the demon he feels Michael has become.
At some point in the evening the Templar is beset by the new and improved Weaver and is able to drive him off only through using his fading powers of mental might. Weaver is forced to take out his frustrations on the homeless that night and the husks of their bodies are found in the morning by trash collectors. Templar talks about the attack on his weekly radio show that Moon Shadow and Glitter Shade tune into in memory of Maria whom they both miss.
"Good evening, children and welcome to the Templar's Tourney, and what a program do I have for you this evening," Templar says in a calm voice over the radio. "I must confess to a bit of excitement recently as I was forced to use those supernatural abilities granted to me by our Almighty Father in Heaven to fight off an attack by a man spider."
"Sounds like Weaver chose the wrong target," Glitter Shade jokes.
"I wonder why though," Moon Shadow speculates as he massages the breasts of his beloved who now lies on top of him.
"It would seem to me that our great city has come under siege by the very forces of Hell itself," Templar says with dark conviction. "I pray that our Lord in Heaven will divine a way to purge these evils from the world. And by this I mean this Moon Shadow and Glitter Shade as well as the demon I fought tonight."
"Great," Glitter Shade says as she rolls her eyes. "And I sent Maria to visit this nut job about you."
"What church does he operate out of again?" Moon Shadow asks.
"The Cathedral of the Sacred Martyr I think," Glitter Shade answers, "Why?"
"I think I may need to pay the place a visit for clues as to Maria's whereabouts." Moon Shadow returns plainly.
"What are you thinking, Michael?" Wendy asks fearfully.
"That Maria is no longer among the living," Michael answers honestly in a grim tone as he sighs darkly. "The way he's talking, I can just see him killing Maria to save her soul."
"Gods of Light and Darkness I hope you're wrong!" Wendy blurts out.
"I hope so too," Michael says sadly as he holds her close, "I hope so too."
As news of dead homeless filter through the various media outlets, Wendy gets details as a reporter that she sends back to Mike. Michael in the meanwhile steals into the fortress of faith the Templar calls home. He doesn't find Maria but he does find enough of her affects to trigger a kind of flashback that recalls what transpired which only serves to anger the wolf man.
The Templar and Moon Shadow fail to run into each other but Cid does find the stash where he his Maria's effects that he could not easily destroy had been disturbed. Utilizing his psychic powers he finds out that Moon Shadow was here and he found the things that the Templar wanted to keep hidden and recognized who he was from various reports he has be privy to peruse. He also sees that Moon Shadow is a shadow walker which means keeping him out will prove difficult but not impossible in the future should that precaution prove necessary as the Templar begins to make plans.
Unbeknownst to many the Disciples that was mentioned as just one gang victimized by the Moon Shadow in issue #1 "Opening Gambit" are actually a national "gang" that are secretly funded by the Vatican as potential members of the Damned. Members of the Disciples are told to terrorize neighborhood that have fallen out of God's favor and need to be punished. Depending how well they do and how discreet they are, members then graduate to Damned College where they receive official training as members of the Vatican's own terrorist organization dedicated to ridding the world of wickedness by whatever means necessary.
The gang the Moon Shadow disposed of were deemed unworthy by virtue of the fact that a monster could kill them so easily. Since then there is a new crew of Disciples in town that secretly report directly to the Templar himself. Cid Quixote hand picked this crew among altar servers brought to the Templar's attention by nervous priests of the parishes that noticed that the boys and girls displayed certain abilities.
Cid then had these children made orphans by members of the Revelation Riders a vicious biker gang that are another proving ground for potential members of the Damned. The children were then turned over to the orphanage at the Cathedral of the Sacred Martyr where the Templar could attend to them personally. It took a lot of beatings and other forms of disciplines to bring the mutants in line but as far as the Templar is concerned he is redeeming their souls by beating the devil out of them.
Mack Hammer is a hulking African American boy whose strength is phenomenal but as his name suggests he isn't the sharpest tool in the shed but he is fanatically loyal to the Church so Templar finds him the most pliable of the gang and thus the one he had to beat the least to accept his authority absolutely. Juanita "Pyre" Cortez is a Latin spitfire in the making with her pyrokinetic abilities just the emphasis on her personality that Cid has only just recently brought under control with Mack's help; her fanaticism is tempered by fear of the Templar and what he'll let Mack do to her sexually if he doesn't perpetrate it himself. Ronald Skinner and his twin brother Donald are masters of the knife, juggling them between them and using them to cut and gut helpless victims with Donald able to use meat cleavers even better than Bowie knives so Ronald is Skinner while Donald is Butcher and both are psychopaths who believe they can build a stairway to heaven with bodies they kill in service to the Vatican; a belief the Templar actually subtlety encourages.
Jamira "Oracle" Jaxon is an ebony esper whose ability remote view is uncanny but she learned early to watch what she says about she has seen lest she incur the Templar's wrath but she also willingly sleeps with Mack as a matter of course. Rebecca "Huntress" Mahoney is an uncanny archer who makes herself seem like Little Red Riding Hood turned legal and red hot but it's her uncanny accuracy and her ability to discern lies as well as her ability to sense "demons" whether they true denizens of the lower planes or just other mutants that caught Cid's attention and after taking her maiden head as part of a discipline session she has not questioned Father Quixote's wisdom again. Finally Herbert "Warlock" Liebowitz is the shining jewel of this dark crown as he is a truly powerful sorcerer that is really going places as someone who understands magic but approaches it from the "proper" perspective and acts as the leader of the team as groomed for that position by Quixote himself.
While Pyre, Oracle, Hammer, Skinner and Butcher follow Quixote blindly and will lay down their lives for the Church, Warlock and Huntress are secret dissenters. Huntress in particular has a crush on Moon Shadow while Warlock is secretly gay; an orientation he knows will get him killed if he makes it known even as he wants to be Templar's favorite altar boy even into his bedroom. Oracle does her best to divine suitable locations and methods to entrap all three and kill them at once.
Einstein Moreau manages to find out what Cid Quixote is planning and sends along some tidbits of information such as the fact that Huntsman's Island is part of Michael's holdings and they should make that the staging ground for their challenge. He also informs them that there is another monster there that they might want to investigate. With all that information given them, Quixote and his Disciples can't get there fast enough as Moreau sends Mike a note about this latest maneuver.
From: [email protected]
Subj: Midnight Mass
Just to let you know, the Disciples are taking a visit to your lighthouse tonight. It would seem the Templar is interested in taking his charges on a field trip. Did I mention the Disciples are the Damned's farm team?
As intriguing as the email is Michael decides not to respond to it and feed Victor's ego but he does act on it. Wendy tags along more out of curiosity than anything else. The story of the area has always intrigued her especially if there is any truth to the rumors.
The lighthouse is actually fairly imposing as it rises from the river and stands sentinel at the delta. It's design harkens back to the Victorian period as the place could be a house for someone with architecture of that period in time. Once they arrive on the grounds they are observed by Oracle watching from the balcony above them who tells Hammer who is on the grounds and Warlock who casts a spell to seal the island from outside teleportation, meaning he can shadow walk all he wants within the island but he cannot leave until either they let him or he kills Warlock to end the spell.
Glitter Shade detects the magic use and brings it to Moon Shadow's attention. Moon Shadow is more interested in the human behemoth charging at them like an angry rhino. Hammer is spouting profanity at the demons Templar wants him to destroy as Weaver swings in behind him.
Pyre attacks Weaver from the balcony with Oracle as Huntress poses dramatically on a balcony area higher than them directly in front of the glass portion of the lighthouse that projects light out to sea. Glitter Shade throws kunai at Hammer as Moon Shadow draws his butterfly swords. Huntress fires arrows at Weaver as well as keeping an eye on Moon Shadow.
Skinner and Butcher ambush Glitter Shade and try to kill her as Skinner digs his knives into her shoulders to hold her down as Butcher tries to de-breast her. Glitter Shade gives Butcher a swift kick to the balls and stops him in his tracks as she moves to throw Skinner from her back as she stabs him in the scrotum with her ninja-to. While both boys are stunned Glitter Shade splits Skinner from crotch to chin with her sword and kicks him off her.
Moon Shadow hamstrings Hammer and proceeds on into the lighthouse itself. Glitter Shade ninjas her way to follow him as Butcher just stands there dumbfounded. In the parlor of the house there is a magic circle of the Kabal in chalk on the floor that glows as he walks into it.
Glitter Shade gives him a look as if to ask him: "Are you THAT fucking stupid?" Moon Shadow rolls his eyes as Templar and Warlock emerge from a room above them with a gloweringly smirk on their faces as they look down at Moon Shadow but fail to see Glitter Shade. Warlock performs a banishing to send Moon Shadow back to Hell as Templar says he belongs.
Angry red light erupts from the chalk lines as guttural chanting fills the room. Moon Shadow flips both of them the bird before crossing his arms and taps his foot expectantly. Of course Moon Shadow isn't some escaped demon from Hell so the ritual doesn't work as intended.
This is not to say that nothing happens as wisps of brimstone waft from the circle. Moon Shadow invariably breathes in the fumes. And that's when the fun begins.
Hellfire shoots out from Michael's eyes as he is forced first to his knees and then on all fours as a pair of demon wings rip out from his bag. His weapons turn to slag as he turns his fiery gaze at both of his antagonists. Moreau, who is watching all this via hidden cameras, loses all bowel control as he stares dumbfounded at the screen.
"What have you done to me!?!" Moon Shadow screams at Warlock and Templar. "I'm not a fucking demons you limp dicked cock suckers!"
"That was not supposed to happen," Warlock says with wide eyes.
"You fool! You miscast the spell!" Templar growls as he smacks Warlock upside the head.
"You made a wrong assumption!" Glitter Shade yells as she throws a kunai at the circle
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" Warlock and Templar yell as one.
The kunai disturbs the circle and it frees Moon Shadow from its confines. The first thing Mike does is hit both of them with a major blast of hellfire. Templar fares better than Warlock who is thrown back and breaks his neck from the force of the blast.
Despite the fact that the restrictions are off, Moon Shadow's ire makes him stay as he focuses his rage strictly on Templar. In his mind the death of Maria plays over and over as Michael roars while charging at her murderer. Templar creates a sword of pure psychic energy and moves to attack Moon Shadow.
Meanwhile Weaver is stalking the rest of the team as Moreau's pet starts to rise and goes to attack Hammer. Hammer takes one look at the thing and screams in terror as it grabs him and swallows him whole. Oracle and Pyre stare at the scene in disbelief as Weaver grabs Oracle with his webbing and hauls her into the shadows to feast upon her.
Pyre looks around to see where Oracle has gone and ignites herself to provide some light. Weaver is temporarily blinded and drops Oracle's corpse in reaction which causes Pyre to freak out. The thing that ate Hammer recoils at the site of a flaming Pyre, which Moon Shadows clearly sees through a window in the Parlor which allows Templar to flee.
Moon Shadow maybe distracted by the scene of the monster in the river recoiling at a flaming woman but Glitter Shade is not as she gives chase. Huntress shoots arrows at Glitter Shade in the fairly narrow stairway leading to the platform that grants entrance to the lantern room. Glitter Shade is forced to let Templar go but then Weaver grabs the Huntress seemingly out of nowhere with his webbing.
Templar attacks Weaver and frees Huntress from his webbing but then Moon Shadow flies up to blast him with hellfire and knows him over the balcony into Pyre who falls over her balcony and breaks her neck upon landing. Upon landing the thing grabs Pyre and strips her nude.
She is paralyzed from the neck down but Pyre is still very much alive as the monster stuffs her every orifice with its tentacles. Juanita can't even scream as she is molested completely. The thing also starts to shake her which finishes the job of killing her that the fall started and once it detects that she is dead, it swallows her whole like it did Hammer.
Moon Shadow blasts the thing with Hellfire after it ate Pyre more to kill one of Moreau's precious pets than anything else and it recoils from the force of the blast. Tentacles start to lash out to hurt Michael but he manages to blast or avoid all flailing limbs sent his way. He turns on the heat and boils the monster to death in the river but it's remains do not remain long as whatever animals Moreau fused together to create the thing made it very biodegradable; so within the hour its entire body minus the contents of its stomach dissipates into the water.
Back at his facility, Moreau is beside himself with grief and anger over the destruction of his monster. It took the mad geneticist ten years to create the monster and it only took Moon Shadow ten minutes to destroy it. But the destruction of his most powerful creation is the least of his worries.
After taking a shower and changing his clothes Moreau visits his private menagerie of monsters to find fully half of them dead. The culprit is caught in the act as Moreau catches Weaver feeding on one of his lesser creations. Weaver captures Moreau in his webbing and slams him against the Plexiglas of one of his now deceased specimens.
<You thought you could use me as one of your test subjects, Moreau!?!> Weaver asks in a thundering mental voice. <ME!!!>
"Calm yourself, Weaver," Moreau pleads. "You wanted power and I gave it to you."
<I conduct my own experiments, Moreau!> Weaver mentally growls. <You had no right!>
"It is the right, the privilege and the obligation of any who pursue science..." Moreau starts to preach when a bolt of hellfire frees him from the webbing.
"Save it for lecture circuit, Moreau," Moon Shadow growls. "I can't believe I'm actually saving your fat ass." Moreau looks like he's about to say something. "Save it, fatty Frankenstein, I really don't want to hear it." Then he turns to Weaver. "I'm going to give a ten second head start before I hunt you down."
<And do what? Kill me? Somehow I don't think so.> Weaver challenges.
"With the list of charges they can bring against you, I don't have to," Moon Shadow says with a smirk. "I'll just hand you over to the authorities and let the judicial system take over."
<I'd never see a trial!> Weaver protests. <Some black project would steal me to turn me into a living weapon of some sort!>
"Just so long as it gets you out of my hair," Moon Shadow says.
<I'll find some way to escape!> Weaver threatens as he starts to run.
"Then I get to hunt you down all over again," Moon Shadows says with a smirk and a mocking tone.
"And what about me?" Moreau asks.
"Like Templar you're crimes can't be proven in a court of law," Moon Shadow spits and then gives him a fiendish grin. "But vigilante justice has no term limits. Enjoy the fireworks, I'll roast you later."
"I wonder if he actually regrets what he has done?" Moreau speculates.
"I sincerely doubt it," Moon Shadow rumbles. "But do tell him I'm after his ass as well won't you? He's higher on my list of folks who need to die than you at the moment. He knows why."
"Care to share?" Moreau asks as Moon Shadow flies out of sight. "I guess not."
"But unlike my mate," Glitter Shade says as she walks up behind him with her sword drawn, "I'm not so forgiving. You set up a death trap on that island for both of groups. Fortunately Moon Shadow was able to fricassee your precious pet. But I'm pissed."
"He'll be angry at you if you kill me!" Moreau shouts in a feeble attempt to save himself.
"Oh, I have no intention on actually killing you," Glitter Shade says with a dark smirk. "I just want make your life as miserable as I can before he comes to kill you. Starting with a reduction in your quality of life."
She then presses the fat scientist against a wall and uses her sword to castrate him through his pants. His severed scrotum drops to the floor as she leaves him in agony. Moreau's eyes narrow as he kneels on his own floor before he passes out from a loss of blood. An ambulance will come for him soon enough to save his life but not quick enough to save his testicles and of course she is long gone by then.
Weaver does his best to lay traps for Moon Shadow as he flies between skyscrapers to keep a bird's eye view on the situation. Police and Media helicopters scramble to respond to a bat winged wolf man flying above the city. Wendy Wu is one of them with an exclusive.
"This is Wendy Wu with an exclusive as the Moon Shadow has apparently been given wings and is flying above Bastion." Wendy reports to the camera, the feed of which interrupts programming wherever her station broadcasts.
Cid Quixote is beside himself with anger at the idea that he inadvertently made the demon even more powerful as he recovers from his wounds in the Cathedral of the Sacred Martyr's special infirmary built for the Church's super powered servants. The Templar is writing down and crossing out ideas on how to best destroy the demon and is not having much luck keeping a notion viable for more than a few seconds. A quick check of the internet isn't making him any happier as the city is starting to warm up to its dark defender with one paper going so far as the call him the "Angel of Darkness" which makes Quixote's blood boil just reading it.
Of course part of the reason Michael is earning that appellation is because even as he hunts for Weaver he is not above using his powers to help others. Mob thugs try to kill an inconvenient witness by tossing her off a skyscraper only to be frustrated when Moon Shadow swoops down and saves her only to roast them with Hellfire. The police are only too happy to clean up the leftovers as the police choppers are soon called off to more important matters than chasing the flying vigilante.
Media outlets directly and indirectly controlled by the Vatican decry the Moon Shadow as a menace that needs to be hunted down and destroyed. Glitter Shade, as Wendy Wu, is putting a more positive spin on things even as the hunt for Weaver drags on. Weaver for the most part has gone to ground somewhere and the pair are hard pressed to find him.
Within the criminal underworld and especially among super villains there are resources and safe houses one can go to hide until the heat blows over and Weaver is privy to these resources. His reputation as an assassin only increases with the news of his latest transformation. In fact the world wide super villain community is actually more responsive to him now as a freak than they were when he was a costume, an irony that actually amuses him now.
A day or two after he accepts a hiding place in the bowels of the city's underground train system he decides to test his abilities to find out what he can do. His web spinning ability is phenomenal, even by his own high standards as he can do practically anything he might want to do with the material and as long as he keeps himself well fed he has an unlimited supply of it. Wall crawling and leaping abilities are on par with what he expects of himself given the situation as he finds he a lot stronger now than he ever thought he could be.
The accolades Moon Shadow receives irk Weaver something awesome. He contemplates sending a challenge to the wolf man if it were not for the fact he feels he is not ready for a confrontation just yet. While he does not feel he is ready, Weaver's predation of the homeless is giving Moon Shadow clues as to his whereabouts.
Homeless across the city are ending dead as Weaver uses them to satiate his endless hunger. Advocates are crying out for someone to do something and Glitter Shade uses her morphing ability to appear as an old crazy lady to infiltrate the bums and get the skinny on what is going on. She intimates she knows the Moon Shadow and can bring him in to take care of the problem and this vague promise of help makes inroads as some of the leaders among the tribes of the indigent ask for a meeting.
Glitter Shade ends getting outed as a kitsune but delivers her boyfriend to a meeting of homeless leaders and their advocates in the larger world. Moon Shadow meet with what can only be described as an urban shaman calling himself the Rat Catcher. Rat Catcher is a mystically empowered wino in touch with the city's spirit or so he claims and neither hero is willing to doubt him as, in their minds at least, stranger things have happened to them and if he is what he says he is they would rather have him as an ally than an enemy.
Rat Catcher agrees to help Moon Shadow remove Weaver from the midst of the homeless as he knows the best way to deal with a monster that is preying on your people is let another monster fight it. To the Rat Catcher's way of thinking the City has told him that Moon Shadow and Glitter Shade are guardian monsters that he should help and that is exactly what he intends to do. He gives the pair all the information he and together they piece together a rough idea as to where the Weaver is hiding.
Deep in a forgotten part of Bastion's underground is an area known to the homeless as the Graveyard of Trains for it is here that engines of the present and the past were dumped and forgotten. Rusting wrecks of so many different makes and models a modern day train enthusiast would weep if ever they would lay eyes on the site lay scattered about like so many husks of one facet of transportation technology. It is here that Weaver plays and lairs as the place serves as a reminder to him of what could happen if he gets too careless.
Unfortunately, Weaver is not alone in this lamentably labyrinth, for unbeknownst to him and the world at large an older monster than he lays dormant here. Weaver thinks the pieces of the clockwork killer are just oddly shapes of metal but once, a long time ago when he was active, this steam powered man prowled the streets of Bastion almost in a mechanical imitation of Jack the Ripper who was terrorizing London at the time. Deprived of blood to fill his boiler and souls to fuel his furnace, the Clockwork Killer starved and has remained dormant ever since waiting for the spark that will rouse him from his deathless slumber.
Weaver has spilled enough blood from homeless, cops and thrill seekers out for a lark to his boiler again and again as the souls of those he slaughter occasional become trapped in his furnace. Inadvertently the mutant monstrosity of a man has slowly but surely roused the semi sentient robot from its slumber. As Moon Shadow, Glitter Shade and the Rat Catcher enter the area the Clockwork Killer stirs and observes, curious as to what strange things are going on as Weaver flits through ruined engines and forgotten cable cars to stalk them.
<Welcome to my parlor said the spider to the flies,> Weaver broadcasts mockingly as he observes them, <I didn't think you'd find me so fast, Moon Shadow. And you brought the old fool with you, how touching, I've been meaning to have him over for quite some time now.>
"And by dinner you mean me as the blue plate special," Rat Catcher calls out. "I've been a lot of things in my life but rarely have I been a complete fool."
<Bold words, Rat Catcher,> Weaver challenges, <but killing you won't be as much fun as killing them. You're shadow walking ability won't save you here, Moon Shadow.>
Even as he makes that statement, Moon Shadow rises behind him and gives him a taste of Hell followed by a firm uppercut. Weaver is forced back in surprise as he was hiding so well or so he thought. Michael refuses to speak as he punches Weaver again and again.
Weaver bites Moon Shadow only to get a blast of Hellfire for his trouble. Glitter Shade gives him a flying kick to the head that knocks Weaver off balance as Moon Shadow knocks him for a loop. The they all notice the angry red dots of laser sights and back off as a team of men in black, armored from head to foot rush in.
Moon Shadow, Glitter Shade and the Rat Catcher fade into the darkness as taser bolts are shot into Weaver. Glitter Shade gives Moon Shadow an inquisitive look to which he only smirks. At least until they are safely back at the homeless shelter.
"O.K. what the fuck was that all about?" Wendy asks in an annoyed tone.
"I dropped a dime to some acquaintances of mine in the military." Michael admits.
"Those were Collectors weren't they?" Rat Catcher asks simply, with tone of malice or disapproval. "We see them often enough for some of their staged abductions."
"Yes, Rat Catcher, those were Collectors," Michael admits honestly.
"I thought they were a myth!" Wendy exclaims. "Or at least I hoped they were..."
Meanwhile, down in the Graveyard of Trains the Clockwork Killer rises to its feet and just looks around as a prostitute and her John come down for a little bit of fun...