Spider-Man of Earth 65

Boom.

Boom.

Boom.

"M-miss? I'm scared…"

"I know you are, sweetheart."

Emma Frost, billionaire philanthropist and woman of unshakable poise, found herself clutching a little girl tightly to her chest. Orphanages had always been a place of hate for her. A time when government scientists experimented on her and tried to tear her apart. Through her own sense of strength and self, she learned to turn that hate to good. To dreams.

But today, those dreams had become a nightmare.

Boom.

The sound was deafening, a deep reverberation that shook the very foundation of the building. Glass shattered, plaster fell from the ceiling, and the lights flickered before cutting out entirely.

Boom.

Emma held firm. The little girl in her arms whimpered, burying her tear-streaked face into Emma's neck. Around her, children screamed and cried. 

'Oh god. Oh god. It's close,' Emma thought. 'What even IS that thing?'

She was a telepathy. She had been trained to control animals and pests and people. But this…the brain waves this thing was sending it…it was chaos incarnate. It hurt to feel it. 

"Stay calm," Emma said, calm through her best efforts. She stroked the girl's hair, smiling trying to soothe her even as terror gripped her own heart. She didn't want to die. She wanted to escape. But how!?"

"It'll be alright. I promise."

Another boom, louder this time. Closer. The entire room swayed as if the ground beneath them were liquid. A vase fell from a shelf, shattering into a million pieces. She gleaned at the window.

Scales. Thick and green and nasty. 

The creature was right next to them.

From the corner of her eye, Emma saw her personal guards shouting into their radios. The door here wasn't opening. They were trapped. The words "Creature Z" and "evacuation" echoed in her mind and her ears. The NYPD was coming to fetch her. She was a VIP after all.

'Come on, come on, you can't die here.' Her breath stayed in her through even as she said such passionate thoughts. Her eyes were utterly focused on that which was in the window. 'Don't move, you fucking lizard. Don't you dare move…!' 

It moved. 

The leg disappeared.

Oh no.

The walls trembled, and then came the sound of splintering wood and cracking stone. Emma turned up in time to see the ceiling collapse.

It was coming down. 

The creature's clawed feet.

It probably didn't even know they were here. Casually, just existing, the five-toed green scaly foot came down with a thunderous crash, crushing the east wing of the building as if it were made of paper. Half the room disappeared in an instant. The door disappeared. The guards disappeared.

Almost all of the children. 

Screams were silenced, replaced by the horrifying crunch of destruction. Dust and debris filled the air, choking and blinding.

The only voices she could hear were those of the kids with her. Five of them. 

Emma did not say a word. Nobody did. The billionaire's pristine white suit was covered in dirt and blood, but she didn't care. She was frozen, paralyzed with horror as the monstrous foot lifted slightly, the immense size threatening to bring down the rest of the structure.

The creature didn't even notice. It didn't care. It was a godless force of nature, moving with the indifference of a hurricane.

Emma's mind raced. If it took one more step, if it lifted its foot from this spot, everything would collapse. Everyone would die. They were on the third floor and a fall would kill them. 

'No,' she thought. 'Not like this. I won't let it end like this.'

Closing her eyes, Emma reached out with her mind. Her telepathic powers surged forward, slamming against the creature's consciousness like a tidal wave.

Nothing.

She pushed harder, her mind straining as she clawed her way into the abyss of the creature's thoughts. It was massive, alien, chaotic—a storm of rage and instinct. It had no language, no reason, nothing she could grasp. But she didn't stop. She couldn't.

"Stop," she whispered, her voice breaking. "Please…stop."

And then, impossibly, it did.

The creature's dimmed, its foot remaining buried where it was. The remnants of the building groaned from the fact that it did not move. Better than collapsing entirely. Emma opened her eyes, gasping for air as sweat poured down her face. She could feel the creature's mind thrashing against hers, trying to break free. It was like holding back a tsunami with nothing but her bare hands.

"Run." She gasped. She wanted to scream. She couldn't. A hand reaching, on her knees, she focused and focused and focused. "E-everyone, run…! Get out of, nngh, here…"

The five children didn't move. They stared at her, wide-eyed and terrified. 

"I said run!" Emma shouted. She couldn't hold it much longer. Her vision blurred, her head pounding with the effort of keeping the creature in stasis.

No staircase, no door. They were going to have to climb down its acidic, radioactive leg. Either that or…

"O-outside!" Behind them was a window. The same window where she originally saw the foot. And guess what? "The NYPD! They are here!"

The oldest orphan was thirteen years old. Not quite a teen and also not quite a child. He understood. "C-come on, guys, let's go! They're bringing up ladders. We just have to…ngh1"

He flicked the window open. Great. If only she could be relieved. She watched as the youngest child went out. Then the second…

But not the third. Not the little girl in Emma's arms who refused to let go.

"No!" the girl cried. "I won't leave you!"

Emma felt her heart shatter. "Sweetheart, you have to go. Please—"

But then she felt it. Hands. Small, trembling hands pulling at her arms, her legs. It wasn't until the thirteen year old picked her up. 

"L-let's go," the thirteen year said, stifling his fear. "Come on, Mrs. Emma. Come on, let's go."

This boy…

So young, so innocent, and trying so hard. He didn't know why the monster had stopped, only that he had to save everyone. It was his responsibility as the eldest of this orphanage. All of a sudden, she remembered this boy's name: Tyrone Johnson. A boy whose temper often led him to trouble, who had not yet found a family, and who held a strong sense of justice. 

She was carried, through the window, down the rooftops, and into the arms of the emergency NYPD officer. 

"What's wrong with her? Can Mrs. Frost on walk?"

"M-maybe the shockwaves?"

"I see…!"

Every moment was agony. Coming down the ladder, she couldn't break her focus, couldn't let go of the creature's mind for even a second. It roared in her head, its rage threatening to consume her.

Creature Z. A monster of radiation and horrific air. It was hard to breathe with its shadow looming overhead, its monstrous form blotting out the stars. Emma could feel it straining against her hold, its will as massive and overwhelming as its physical form.

Finally, she was down on the ground. She saw rubble, corpses, twisted metal and shattered glass. The children's faces were streaked with dirt and tears and being hurried into a VIP military van. She and Tyrone were the last to be brought inside the van.

The engine revved and they started moving.

"M-Mrs. Frost…?"

Emma gasped and trembled as she held on to the last threads of her strength. She could feel the creature breaking free, its mind slipping from her grasp.

Suddenly, she was struck by memories.

This thing…

It was born some weeks ago during an explosion. Oscorp? A factory? A laboratory? Both? She winced, images searing and imprinting themselves in her. 

It was a lizard in a cage. An ordinary lizard that was eventually taken by a scientist with one arm and experimented on. The one-armed scientist left. Oscorp swooped in and took it. They experimented on it too. The lizard had brothers. Most of them died.

Then she came.

A woman of many faces.

A woman who shifted shapes and smiles. 

A woman who experimented on the lizard with amateur skills and radiation that she did not understand but wanted to understand. 

She made a mistake. Her mistake was covered up. The boss of everything did not notice. Nobody noticed. He was but a lizard among many. 

The day came when the experiment started working. The brothers healed. The brothers grew fatter and stronger. Pumped with calculated radiation and sampling. Many died. It did not matter to the humans. The humans saw success—and he was the oldest and biggest success. 

Everyday, they would chop off his tail. After every two seconds, it would regrow. They chopped, they chopped, they chopped—

Emma Frost saw herself. Her blonde hair, her cocky smirk. She also him. Felix Faeth. This was…

'The tour.'

Harry Osborn.

The factory explosion. This lizard was from back then—

'Ngghhh!' 

Everything went red. Everything exploded. A nuclear meltdown. A radioactive disaster. 

The lizard did not die.

He fed. He ate. He consumed the radiation. He adapted.

When the Lizard was found, it was by the eyes of the Chameleon. The Chameleon pointed him to the right direction in the sewers. It kept him fed.

Then the Chameleon stopped coming. 

With no feed, it decided to venture out. Humans attacked. The Lizard killed. Red and blue lights shone upon him. The Lizard camouflaged the same way the Chameleon did. It started to learn. It started to fight. It started to smell radiation.

So it consumed. It ate the humans who possessed that old stench. The Lizard grew, grew, grew, grew, and left New York. It found nuclear waste. It grew more and more and more—

Emma Frost heaved.

Until this. 

"It's searching for something," Emma muttered out. "Something stronger than the nuclear waste it found…"

Something that suddenly appeared in New York City. Something that wasn't there before.

But what…?

"Gah!"

Emma Frost's head banged against the car seat and she fell unconscious.

Creature Z started to move again.

****

The streets of Brooklyn were a war zone. Cars abandoned in the middle of the road. Sirens wailing. Screams echoing through Highland Park, Brooklyn. Panicked children and parents fled in all directions. Creature Z, the massive kaiju lizard was here.

Ready to crush. Ready to kill. Ready to hunt.

A foot was about to crush dozens. Worlds about to go black.

But they didn't.

"We're…saved?"

A fluorescent blue light yanked them out of the way. Suddenly, they were floating. Some people whipped out their phones. Camera drones buzzed and followed the lone superhero responsible.

"I-it's her!"

"She's back!"

Susan Storm strode through the sky, her green cape billowing and her smile wide. The green cape connected to a hood drawn up to frame her golden hair. It flowed in tandem with the breeze stirred by the presence of the kaiju.

Flying above the green of the park, saving the many men and women with telekinesis, the formerly retired superheroine was nothing more than a goddess personified.

Creature Z saw her and faced her adequately. The radiation dripping from her was…adequate. 

A beat passed and a flame appeared beside her. Her brother, Johnny Storm. The twins had went into retirement and now…

Now they were back.

"Uhh, sis?" Johnny called out. As fiery and mighty as he might have seen, his personality was the utter opposite. "That thing is huge. Like…bigger than the Empire State Building huge."

Her telekinetic grip gently lowered a group of terrified civilians, setting them safely outside the park. Her powers were awesome and humbled what she had previously demonstrated Spider-Man. She had trained herself. Tuned her Doom armour. Did everything she could to turn her into the flying goddess she was now. "Don't get cold feet now. We're wearing Doom's armour. Activate Instant Kill Mode."

The limitors that once behold them were gone. A shockwave blasted from the soles of her feet. Yet reality did not change. Creature Z did not change. It stood impossibly tall, larger than anything they'd ever encountered, its massive form exuding an aura of primal devastation. The kaiju's leathery, mutated flesh shimmered with a sickly greenish hue as waves of gamma radiation rippled off it in visible distortion.

"Okay," Johnny said with a forced laugh, "but I'm just saying—Doom's tech or not, it's got teeth the size of planes, Sue. What are we, snacks?"

"We're Storms." Susan turned her head slightly, her blonde hair glowing faintly under the light of her force fields. Instant Kill Mode not only increased her telekinetic abilities but also her defence. She was confident she would not die. "Snacks fight back."

Creature Z let out a roar that ripped through the air like a thunderclap, sending shockwaves rolling across the park. Its eyes, glowing with unnatural malice, locked onto Susan. Even its massive bulk seemed purposeful as it took a step forward, its colossal foot flattening what remained of an already crushed bus. The park quaked violently, throwing bikes into the air and knocking over lampposts like twigs.

Susan lifted a hand, and with a flick of her fingers, an invisible shield expanded outward, catching a collapsing overpass before it could crush a cluster of civilians. With a twist of her wrist, she hurled the debris aside like an afterthought.

"Johnny, do it."

"R-right. Activate Instant Kill Mode." 

His entire body ignited in a burst of heat and light, turning him into a streaking comet as he charged toward Creature Z's face. The kaiju swung one of its enormous clawed arms, attempting to swat Johnny out of the sky. But Johnny was faster, zipping under the claws and unleashing a stream of fire straight into the creature's glowing eyes.

Creature Z actually roared in what seemed like pain. 

He zipped behind its neck and hurled a ball of fire. "Take this! Fire Style: Fire Ball!"

Call him a nerd for it but it bolstered his confidence. Creature Z bellowed, rearing back and shaking its massive bulk, sending waves of green, irradiated slime splattering onto the park below.

"Johnny, keep it distracted!" Susan Storm's voice crackled through their comms. 

"What?"

"I said keep it distracted!"

Susan was already on the move. She darted higher into the sky until she was in the clouds. 

"Yeah, yeah, keep it distracted, sure. It's only the size of a skyscraper, Sue!" Johnny yelled. "What the hell are you gonna do!?"

"I'm going to send it to orbit!"

"...fuck it, I'm better off not doubting you. Let's do this. Flame on!"

He rocketed higher, flames roaring around him as he blasted a concentrated beam of fire straight into Creature Z's face. The monster reeled, its massive head snapping back as the fire seared across its snout. A guttural roar echoed through the city, shaking windows for blocks.

This park was honestly the only place to combat this thing. Neither could imagine fighting it in the middle of the city, with people and buildings to consider.

"How do you like that, ugly?" Johnny yelled, looping around for another pass.

The monster turned its glowing yellow eyes upward, tracking him with unsettling precision. Its tail whipped around, slinging huge amounts of dirt.

"Woah! This thing is good!"

Johnny Storm didn't have to move. His natural form burned away the dirt.

"Good, keep it still, keep it…occupied." 

Susan closed her eyes and focused all her power into a single massive force field. Her hands glowed as the energy swirled around her, forming an enormous, translucent barrier that began to encase Creature Z. The kaiju did not notice. It was too occupied, whipping its tail and looking at Johnny Storm. 

Click!

The barrier was in place. Manifested and powerful and lighting up the night park with blue. 

Clap! Her hands came together and the barrier doubled in density. Hundreds of feet tall and she had captured it like a Pokémon.

"Gotcha," Susan hissed and grinned. The kaiju tried to walk only to realize it couldn't. The barrier was underneath it. The barrier was slippery and kept it from moving.

Creature Z roared in frustration and its tail trashed against the invisible walls that now surrounded it.

She could feel its immense strength pushing her powers to their limit. But she held firm.

Slowly, she began to lift the creature off the ground. It thrashed wildly, its claws and tail smashing against the glowing walls of its prison, but the barrier held.

"Hnnngg…!" 

Susan's barrier rose higher, lifting the massive creature with it. The tail slammed into the barrier one last time, but it couldn't break free. The creature's roars grew more frantic as it ascended, its colossal form rising fifty feet from the ground. 

Higher, higher, higher, higher…

She was doing it. It was working!

Eighty feet up.

Then, everything changed.

A green glow emanated from the creature's dorsal fins. A sickly green light pulsing and building in intensity. Susan's eyes widened in horror as the glow intensified, a high-pitched whine filling the air.

"Johnny, move!" she screamed.

But it was too late. 

The creature unleashed a torrent of green lasers from its dorsal fins, slicing through Susan's barrier like paper. The beams shot out in all directions, flying kilometers away, carving through buildings and sending chunks of rubble raining down onto the park. One of the beams caught Susan in the shoulder, sending her spiraling out of the sky. She screamed in pain as she fell.

Her automatic defence system just barely managed to save her in time. 

But then another laser struck her—then a third. 

"Sue!" Johnny shouted, diving after her. He caught her just before she hit the ground, cradling her limp form in his arms. Blood seeped from the wound on her shoulder, staining his fiery suit.

"You're okay, you're okay," he muttered, his voice shaking. The Doom armour she wore was calibrated to protect her from the heat of her brother's flames. But before he could fly her to safety, another beam targeted them.

Johnny turned, shielding Susan with his body as the beam struck. "No! NO!" 

The twins crashed into a nearby building. His body was smoking from the attack, cradling around Susan who was just barely alive.

Creature Z landed.

As expected, the park turned into a tidal wave. Buildings directly outside collapsed. The sewer system underground, the electricity and cellphone systems, everything was destroyed.

Dust picked up.

Everything seemed to fade to white.

Minutes passed. The Creature Z seemed to suffer under its own weight. It did not start moving. The building Johnny and Sue were in was tipping over, estimating to collapse in two minutes, maybe less. They were on the top floor and alone. 

"WARNING: RADIATION LEVELS EXCEEDING SAFE LIMITS. IMMINENT ENERGY DETONATION DETECTED."

The Doom interface. The armour's installed AI. It was warning them. Run, run, run! 

"N-not good. Not good," Johnny muttered through gritted teeth. His flames flickered, their once-bright intensity dulled by exhaustion. "Susan, wake up… we've gotta move!"

They were in a collapse, failing building with no one but each other. They had no choice but to run too. "Flame…on!" The flames of his soul emerged. He picked up Susan and hovered as fast as he could.

Don't look back.

Don't look at the monster.

Ignore the dread seeping into your stomach.

Susan groaned weakly, her shoulder bleeding from the earlier laser strike, her green cape torn and singed. Her eyes fluttered open, glassy with pain, as she murmured, "Johnny… what's happening?"

He didn't answer. He could feel it—the heat. The dread.

He went as fast as he could, which was not at all fast. He was limping through the air, limping over buildings, away from that monstrosity.

Creature Z convulsed, its massive body wracked with spasms as the glow in its stomach intensified. Its dorsal fins were burnt and peeled away. All that there was left was pulsating tissue underneath. The mutated lizard let out a guttural, pained roar, the sound resonating through the city like the tolling of an apocalyptic bell.

The monster's mouth begin to open. At first, nothing emerged but a slow, agonizing trickle of molten fire that dripped like lava from its jaws. The Doom armor's interface screamed louder.

"MASSIVE ENERGY BUILDUP DETECTED. IMMINENT GAMMA EXPULSION."

Johnny Storm peered over his shoulder. 

Run.

Run!

His flames reignited as he pushed himself to fly faster.

Creature Z's entire torso began to swell with radiant, sickly green energy. Its head lurched forward as it hacked and retched, unable to control the violent forces building within it. With each heaving cough, waves of molten fire spewed forth.

The beast was in pain. Its body trembled, its movements desperate and involuntary. Every step it took left chunks of its glowing flesh behind, and yet it pressed forward, driven by instincts it couldn't comprehend or resist. The glow in its stomach grew brighter, spreading up through its throat as cracks of energy rippled across its blackened-green skin.

Johnny already knew it.

They were dead.

Creature Z's head snapped upward, its mouth gaping wide. The fire that had been dripping from its maw transformed into a blinding green beam of concentrated gamma radiation. The initial burst tore through the air with an earsplitting crack. The beam incinerated the Brooklyn skyline. Johnny could only watch in horror.

It was a light of green. It was a swath of destruction through the city. It was a force that vaporized everything in its path.

The beam turned, turned, turned. Wiping building after building, coming closer and closer to them...

It was chasing them, it was chasing them, it was chasing them...!

The Doom armor's interface blared relentlessly.

"GAMMA BREATH DETECTED. YIELD EXCEEDS 70 MEGATONS. IMPACT INCOMING." 

The warning was futile. The impact was already here.

The world went green for the Storm twins, all but consumed.

The Gamma Breath didn't stop. It carved a fiery path through the New York in front of it, annihilating blocks of buildings in seconds. Brooklyn was reduced to ash, the beam cutting through bridges and skyscrapers and reaching what lay ahead.

The beam soared above the neighbhourhood of Astoria, burned above, Randal's Island, and then Central Park. The beam sliced through everything in between and finally reached its ultimate destination.

Harlem.

The green barreled toward Harlem. Harlem was not known for its skyscrapers. The area did not immediately collapse. However, the heat and the radiation...

Those that were too close crumbled like sandcastles. The ensuing shockwave caused further destruction.

For Creature Z, the act of releasing the Gamma Breath was as much an act of self-destruction as it was an attack. The green energy coursing through its body burned it from the inside out, its flesh cracking and sloughing off in molten chunks. Its roar of agony echoed across the ruined city, a sound of primal suffering that no living thing should ever have to endure.

The beam finally subsided. 

The monster's head slumped forward, smoke and steam rising from its scorched body. Its skin was blackened and charred, its once-massive frame reduced to a skeletal shadow of its former self.

There was peace.

Brooklyn burned. Fires raged unchecked, consuming and spreading. The once-bustling streets were now unrecognizable, a wasteland of ash and rubble. And in the center of it all…

"Monsters are tragic beings. They are born too strong, too tall, too heavy. They are not evil by choice—that is their tragedy."

The Kaiju Lizard—Creature Z.