Name: Arachne/Gabrelle Azral of Earth-152
Height: 8 feet
Species: Infected Aswang
Stim: Quantum Strings
Name: Dark Empress Wasp/Billy of Earth-0
Height: 8 feet
Species: Infected
Stim: Messianic Physiology
Name: Dragonfly/Billy of Earth-1
Height: 8 feet
Species: Infected
Stim: Messianic Physiology
Name: Scarab Saint Queen/Grub of Earth-0
Height: 8 feet
Species: Infected
Stim: Messianic Physiology
Name: Damselfly/Grub of Earth-1
Height: 8 feet
Species: Infected
Stim: Messianic Physiology
Name: Saint Kong of Earth-1
Height: 8 feet
Species: Infected
Stim: Messianic Physiology, Ape Physiology
Name: Velocity of Earth-0
Height: 8 feet
Species: Infected
Stim: Superhuman Speed
“800 years ago? Or was it a thousand? Two thousand!?” asked Diana Prime, also known as Velocity. “Damn. Absolutely crazy…”
“It could be up to five thousand years…” said Billy Prime, also known as the Dark Empress. She tapped her fingers repeatedly, bobbing forward and backward. “Bam, bam bam…”
“Five thousand…” sighed Billy Silver, also known as Dragonfly.
Damselfly, also known as Grub Silver, gives a soft sigh, brushing her black hair backwards.
Saint Kong Silver grooms her hair, eating off bugs from her scalp. “Ogh… Ogh…” The Ape Man pant hooted. “4000 years ago? That’s how old Dad is?”
“I’m guessing that is probably why the old man hated his life,” said Damselfly.
“Tch-...” mocked Grub Prime, also known as Scarab Saint Queen. “Any signs of life?”
The group of young warriors are all huddled together in a cave, camping while Saint Kong is looking out for some enemies. They have built a fire, even managed to hunt for meat and gather some healthy vegetables and fruit.
“None…” said Saint Kong, looking out in the distance.
“Why’d we sign up is absolutely stupid…” said Damselfly. “It’s not like we’re gonna be Saint King. Neither did we nor Dad ever want us to be Saint King.”
“He wanted us… Ogh… to live… our lives…” said Saint Kong. “Not to pursue everything… he.., was… The strangest thing about this is that the Multiverse always punishes, because Fate, by definition, is like a wild animal. It grazes on our kind, mortals, and reaps us for what we sow. Reaper existed because he reaps what others sowed.”
“No. He existed to reap Aswangs. Almost as terrible as those damned Seedsowers,” said Dark Empress. “I… remember when Beatle first encountered me. I was crying in the snow. My… caretakers were killed by an army of Zodiacs, and Beatle closed my eyes. It almost felt like it was supposed to mean something.”
“Did it mean something?” asked Dragonfly.
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“It meant everything. I just… don’t require myself with the idea that I still want to even think about it. It was… scary…”
“Mmm…” said Dark Empiress. “It is strange that our Moms haven’t come back yet.”
“Think they’re comparing boobs again?“ smirked Damselfly.
“Honestly, I don’t doubt it,” said Scarab. “I wonder what wacky villain we’re going to encounter today?”
Arachne, with her cigar in her mouth, blows some smoke out of her mouth and inhales it through her nostrils. “My father is out there somewhere. Strange the Miguel left their young in this cave. Scampering in darkness.”
“Help! Help!”
Arachne hears someone outside, and she nods to Saint Kong.
Saint Kong masterfully climbs the cave walls and manages to get to the high ground, searching, observing. “It’s a Tyrone Variant,” said Saint Kong.
“Tyrones are bad news,” said Velocity. “I should know.”
“He’s about to be killed by… A Hellish Demon. Why bother? Guy’s useless,” said Damselfly, peeking out from the darkness. “Your call.”
Arachne squints her eyes. “Let him in.“
“What!?” asked everyone else.
“I said let him in. If my Dad and variants of my own father taught me anything, it’s that kindness and basic human decency is what always pushes us through. Move.”
Damselfly grabs Gabby Azral Silver and Antlion, hiding them in another section, a basement of sorts under the cave.
Meanwhile, Dark Empress bared her fangs.
And Velocity ran outside, before zooming back in with the Tyrone variant.sighs in relief.
“Oh, thank you! Thank you-! OH GOD that is an Ape Person!”
Saint Kong snarls at him.
“Hello! Hello, all of you!” smiled Tyrone. “I’m Tyrone Bernardo!”
“Why’d you sign up?” asked Arachne.
“Sign up? Isn’t this…?” Tyrone stops talking. “The… Tournament for the Saint King?” he smiled.
“Why’d you pull him in?” asked Velocity.
Arachne halts her. “Why are you here?”
“You put me here!” smiled Tyrone.
“Bullshit. I mean in this tournament. Why?“
“Because I’m very, very afraid, y’know? I’m afraid… I’m afraid of MABUS!”
Arachne is interested. “You know MABUS?”
“Yes… I’m his nemesis. I uh… I’m the version of Tyrone who uh… became Doom Leopard. Cool name, huh? Been uh… fighting him for years!”
Arachne touches her fingers and twists each. “My web says you’re dangerous and we must eliminate you immediately.”
“Sure! If it means helping the movement, do go on!” smiled Doom Leopard.
“What movement?” asked Arachne.
Dark Empress notices her change in demeanor.
Arachne begins to gulp, sweat, and her heart beats faster.
“The movement? For the Saint King?” smiled Tyrone.
“If he’s against MABUS, he’s on our side,” said Damselfly.
“No. That’s too simple,” said Velocity .”Just kill him now.”
“Why in honest hell should we?” asked Dragonfly. “We know nothing about this variant.”
“Tyrones are bad news!”
Tyrone sighs and sits down. “Just kill me! Sheesh!”
Arachne is utterlfy confused.
Arachne sighs and prepares to kill him, and with a swing of her blade, Doom Leopard blasts at her with the Abelkiller Blaster from the Hellish Demon.
Everyone is horrified.
Tyrone points it at her jaw. “I am sorry. I am so, so sorry, okay? God, I hate Beatle’s eggsack spawns just… GRR!!! Everyone is Beatle! Everybody is Beatle’s kid at this point! Wow! That is such a relief!” He beats Arachne, causing her nose to bleed and bones to fracture.
“What did you do to her!?” roared Velocity.
Tyrone points to the blaster. “Abelkiller. Classic Demon Blood! I can kill all of you with this stuff! Reheheheally! It’s really, so so pathetic… that you guys thought you could hahahaha hide from me!”
“What are you?” asked Velocity, as she approaches.
“Ah, ah, ah, ah!” Tyrone points the blaster into Arachne’s eyes. “Do take another step because it seems that I really, really wanna kill Beatle’s variant daughter! It’s cute! In a wholesome weird retroactively creepy way!”
“You’re just…a Human. A smart one…” said Saint Kong.
“That undersells what i am. So, I have the God Empress in gunpoint… i really should desire for you to listen to my demands.”
Arachne growls. “Fuck you-...”
Tyrone blasts her ear clean off and coldly pucklers his lips and lower shis eyelids. “Listen to my demands. Did you all forget who you’re talking to? I just outsmarted the children of the gods. I deserve SOMETHING! Imagine… God Empress felled by a common blaster. I almost find the pleasure in the idea of it… That is if I still allow myself to feel anything. Then, again, I hate autists. Fucking costumed autists running around like they own the fucking world I think that… You all are nothing but unfeeling dogs who deserve to be leashed. I fear the firehose meant to protect us because any wrong move it could shred someone’s skin off.”
“How the hell did you outsmart Arachne? She can see anything?”
“Wrong. Based on my research, Arachne can sense anything. She’s never sure, which explains why she’s paranoid all the time. She can see everything if she chooses, but that would sensory overload her. Autists don’t like that-... DON’T FUCKING-!!!”
Arachne had tried transforming, so Tyrone jabs her face with the blaster.
Tyrone fixes his hair. “I have fought for too many years to try and kill every Infected and Aswang and HERE I AM. STANDING. IN FRONT OF NOBODIES WHO THINK THEY CAN OUTSMART ME!!! I see you! Stop that!”
Saint Kong’s eyes are darting to the kitchen knife on the table.
He blasts Saint Kong’s hand off and Tyrone blasts the knife in a perfect angle that its handle lands on his hand.
“Woo! Still got it!” roared Tyrone. “Now… LISTEN. TO MY. DEMANDS you INSUBORDINATE MAN MONKEYS!!!”
Everyone is just terrified, and silent.
“Fine. Perhaps I owe you an exposition. I am Tyrone Bernardo, MABUS’s Death Leopard, renamed Doom Leopard. I represent the Slayers Movement, which slays any form of Neurodivergent Crapfest Superpowered Individual, A.K.A. the Infected. I have an IQ of 200, and I am the smartest man on Earth-9. I always believed I had savant, but apparently, I was just that intelligent. I met MABUS when he was still Miguel, I hated him and was envious of his kindness, like every other Tyrone. Then, I watched my world burn because fo Miguel, but I didn’t give a single fuck because the world didn’t listen to me that I was right. I pretty much jacked off to the world’s end. I don’t have neurodivergence, I am just Tyrone. An anomaly in the Multiverse who has incredible intelligence. No powers. No gifts. Just an obsession with the clown. He had all the power in the world that could make him unstoppable, and what does he do with it? He puts on a birthday clown suit and gives HOMELESS PEOPLE PUMPKIN PIE THAT FUCK!!! Yes, I am jealous. I am normally a jealous man, BUT HE PUT IT IN A NEXT LEVEL!!! Now he thinks he’s saving the Multiverse… By making more of himself. My demands are simple. Stay out of my way. Or I will kill every single one of you my resolve is unstoppable DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?!?” Tyrone yelled, as they all nodded.
Tyrone sighs and sniffs. “Good.” Tyrone walks away. Velocity tries to attack him only to be shot in the leg by the knife from earlier, which had seemingly disappeared during his monologue. “Saw that a mile away, simpleton.”
“Now, what?” asked Dark Empress.
“I’m gonna face my Dad…“ said Arachne.