HOME | DD

Description

Spiderwoman: Strands of Destiny by Jade Gretz

Rain slashed against the grimy windowpanes of Jessica Drew's makeshift HQ, mirroring the turmoil within her. Sleep was a stranger these days, replaced by a relentless pursuit of a chilling rumor – whispers of a new drug spreading through the city's underbelly, a drug causing users to morph into monstrous parodies of themselves.

Jessica, known as Spider-Woman, had witnessed horrors in her time, battling supervillains and facing down her own dark past. But this new threat held a different kind of terror – a creeping dread that burrowed into the very fabric of reality.

The first case had been gruesome. A petty crook named Louie "The Lip" Larocca, known for his slick tongue and quick fingers, had become a grotesque chimera. His limbs stretched and contorted, his face a mask of bulging eyes and gaping maw. He died in a panicked frenzy, a horrific testament to the drug's gruesome effects.

Now, armed with blurry photographs and a name – "Metamorphosis" – Jessica prowled the city's underbelly. Neon signs bled into the slick asphalt, each alleyway a potential den of monsters lurking in the shadows. Her enhanced senses, a legacy of the bizarre experiment that gave her powers, were on high alert, picking up every rustle, every heartbeat.

Suddenly, a guttural scream pierced the night – a sound that wasn't human, but a warped echo of someone in unimaginable pain. Jessica followed the sound to a dingy warehouse, its windows boarded, a skull and crossbones spray-painted on the rusted door. A shiver ran down her spine, an echo of fear battling with her unwavering sense of justice.

Kicking down the door, she was greeted by a scene from a nightmare. Several figures, their bodies twisted and mutated in various ways, huddled around a barrel with a biohazard symbol plastered on it. Their eyes, however, held a spark of humanity, a desperate plea for help trapped within their monstrous visages.

Then, from the shadows, a figure emerged. Tall, shrouded in darkness, its features obscured by a gas mask, it held a syringe filled with a glowing blue liquid. In its distorted voice, it cackled, a sound that sent shivers down Jessica's spine.

"Ah, Spider-Woman. Come to join the party?"

Jessica snarled, her spider-sense screaming with a primal warning. "This ends now."

The ensuing fight was a blur of violence and grotesque contortions. The figure, calling itself "The Sculptor," fought with a feral fury, utilizing its warped body parts as grotesque weapons. Jessica, fuelled by years of honed instincts, countered with precision blows, dodging mutated limbs and razor-sharp claws.

But The Sculptor wasn't fighting alone. The drug-addled victims, their minds clouded but still clinging to a shred of their humanity, moaned and attacked, their monstrous forms a terrifying wave of claws and teeth.

Jessica fought with the ferocity of a cornered spider, her psychic powers kicking in. She could sense the fear, the pain, the lingering humanity within these twisted figures. With each well-placed attack, she strived to incapacitate, not destroy.

Just as she managed to disarm The Sculptor, it lunged for the barrel, ready to unleash another wave of this horrifying transformation. In a desperate move, Jessica launched a web at the barrel, pulling it towards her. It toppled over, drenching both her and The Sculptor in the glowing blue liquid.

Both of them screamed, the pain unlike anything Jessica had ever experienced. Her vision blurred, her body burning. Then, a terrifying silence. Her enhanced vision flickered back on, revealing a scene as nightmarish as the fight itself.

Jessica stood unharmed, her suit somehow absorbing the mutagenic properties of the liquid. The Sculptor, however, wasn't so lucky. It had…melted. Flesh, bone, everything dissolved into a pulsating pool of blue goo, dissolving into the grimy floor.

Relief washed over Jessica, but it was a hollow victory. The warehouse was filled with the moaning victims, their horrific forms a testament to the devastating power of the drug.

She went to work, carefully weaving cocoons from her webs, immobilizing the mutated individuals. With a heavy heart, she contacted S.H.I.E.L.D., knowing their resources would be needed to deal with this unprecedented threat.

As the sun began to peek over the city skyline, bathing the grimy scene in a sickly orange glow, Jessica felt a gnawing sense of unease. Had she truly stopped the problem? The Sculptor might be gone, but what about the source of the drug? Who was behind it, and what was their endgame?

More importantly, how had she, Jessica Drew, become immune? Was it a random quirk of the experiment that gave her powers, or something more sinister? The horrifying possibility that the antidote might

...be tied to some dormant part of her own transformation gnawed at her.

Days turned into weeks as S.H.I.E.L.D. researchers studied the recovered drug and the victims. The transformation process was unlike anything they'd encountered; it wasn't a simple mutation, but a horrifying metamorphosis, a rewrite of the victim's very DNA.

The victims themselves were a challenge. While physically restrained, their minds were trapped in a constant state of flux, a nightmarish dance between human consciousness and the feral urges of their mutated bodies. S.H.I.E.L.D. medical experts managed to stabilize a few, offering a flicker of hope.

But for Jessica, the unease only intensified. Tests revealed her immunity was indeed linked to her own genetic alterations, a twisted side effect of the very experiment that gave her powers. The immunity wasn't complete; exposure to large amounts of the drug could still have dire consequences.

Worse, a horrifying truth emerged. The drug wasn't a random street-level poison; it was specifically designed to target individuals with enhanced abilities – mutants, super-soldiers, even beings like Jessica. It was a weapon, a way to turn the city's protectors into grotesque parodies of themselves.

The question of who was behind this remained unanswered. Whispers of a shadowy organization, one obsessed with genetic manipulation and power control, began to surface. Jessica, alongside a begrudgingly cooperative S.H.I.E.L.D., set her sights on uncovering this organization and stopping them before they unleashed their twisted agenda on a larger scale.

The investigation plunged her into the city's underbelly, a murky world of biohackers, gene tinkers, and the desperate fringe of the mutant community. Each lead, each dead end, chipped away at her resolve, leaving her drowning in a sea of suspicion and paranoia.

One rainy night, while combing through a digital trail of encrypted messages, a familiar name leaped out – Dr. Miriam Weathers, head of a prestigious genetics research institute. Her research, on the surface, focused on gene therapy for debilitating diseases, was hailed as groundbreaking. But a deeper dig revealed hidden patents, cryptic references to "human potential maximization," and most disturbingly, a funding stream leading back to the organization at the center of the drug crisis.

Jessica knew she had her target. But confronting Dr. Weathers would be dangerous. The woman, surrounded by heavily armed security and likely her own creations, would be a formidable opponent.

A plan, audacious and risky, began to form in Jessica's mind. Using her enhanced senses, she infiltrated the institute at night, navigating a labyrinth of sterile hallways and research labs. The sterile white walls, once a symbol of progress, now felt cold and ominous.

Finally, she reached Dr. Weathers' private lab. Inside, the doctor, a woman with sharp features and steely eyes, was hunched over a workstation, analyzing a glowing blue sample. The sight of the drug, the source of so much suffering, sent a surge of anger through Jessica.

Before Dr. Weathers could react, Jessica burst in, webs snagging the door shut. The doctor turned, her face a mask of surprise before morphing into a smug smile.

"Ah, Spider-Woman. So, you've finally graced me with your presence."

A hidden panel on the wall opened, revealing several hulking figures clad in bio-engineered armor. Their eyes, devoid of any human emotion, glinted with a cold, predatory light.

"These enhanced gentlemen will ensure you don't leave here," Dr. Weathers said, her voice dripping with disdain.

The ensuing battle was brutal and terrifying. The guards, infused with the same technology behind the Metamorphosis drug, were grotesquely powerful. Jessica used her agility and spider-sense to her advantage, dodging razor-sharp claws and enhanced strikes.

But the guards were relentless, pushing her to her limits. Just as despair began to creep in, a memory surfaced – Dr. Weathers' research notes mentioning a failsafe in the drug, a weakness to a specific frequency.

With a desperate gamble, Jessica focused her bio-electric powers, projecting a concentrated pulse of the specific frequency. The guards, their enhanced physiology going haywire, crumpled to the floor, moaning in pain.

Dr. Weathers, enraged and cornered, grabbed a vial of the drug, a twisted glint in her eye. "If I can't control them," she snarled, "I'll join them!"

Before she could inject herself, a web snagged her wrist, yanking the vial away. Dr. Weathers screamed a string of curses, but it was too late. S.H.I.E.D. agents, alerted by a pre-placed beacon, swarmed the room, apprehending the doctor.

The battle was won, but the war was far from over. Dr. Weathers was a pawn, a fanatic obsessed with pushing human evolution beyond its limits. The true mastermind, the entity pulling the strings from the shadows, remained a mystery.

News of the confiscated drug and its horrifying effects spread like wildfire. The city, once jaded towards superpowered individuals, now looked to them with a mixture of fear and dependence. Jessica, thrust into the unwilling role of savior, felt the weight of responsibility heavier than ever.

But the ordeal had changed her too. The residual effects of the drug, lingering in her system from the warehouse incident, manifested in subtle ways. Her enhanced vision developed a tendency to flicker, revealing glimpses of a distorted reality – flickering scenes of monstrous figures lurking in the shadows, a chilling reminder of the potential for transformation that resided within her.

More disturbingly, the fight with Dr. Weathers' security guards had triggered a dormant aggression within her, a feral edge that surprised even herself. It was a constant struggle to keep this newfound darkness in check, a chilling mirror to the monsters she fought.

Despite the internal battles, Jessica pressed on. With S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources and her own relentless pursuit, she tracked down and dismantled several clandestine biohacking labs, each a potential source for further distribution of the drug.

But the organization behind it all remained elusive. They were like a virus, mutating and adapting, their tendrils reaching into every corner of the city's underbelly.

One night, patrolling a particularly rough neighborhood, Jessica stumbled upon a street artist painting a chilling mural - a grotesque figure with multiple limbs, its form constantly shifting, a single glowing blue eye staring out from the canvas. It was a perfect depiction of the Metamorphosis victims, a horrifyingly accurate portrait of the nightmares Jessica carried within.

Beneath the mural, scrawled in dripping red paint, was a message – "We are legion. The transformation is inevitable." A shiver ran down Jessica's spine. This wasn't just a warning; it was a declaration. The organization, whoever they were, was bolder now, openly flaunting their power.

Looking out at the city, its neon lights a distorted reflection under the full moon, Jessica knew this was just the beginning. The fight against this shadowy threat wasn't just about apprehending criminals; it was a battle for the very definition of humanity, a fight against the potential for horror that lurked within them all. As Spider-Woman, she stood as a guardian, a lone spider in a web of corruption and fear, determined to stop the Metamorphosis before it consumed them all. But with each victory, the question gnawed at her – was she truly the hunter, or was she simply another potential victim, waiting for the right moment to succumb to the darkness within?

...for more supergirl, chun li, batgirl, tifa, lara croft, wonder woman, rogue, power girl, poison ivy and much more, please visit my page at www.deviantart.com/jadegretzai - Thanks for your support

Description

Spiderwoman: Strands of Destiny by Jade Gretz

Rain slashed against the grimy windowpanes of Jessica Drew's makeshift HQ, mirroring the turmoil within her. Sleep was a stranger these days, replaced by a relentless pursuit of a chilling rumor – whispers of a new drug spreading through the city's underbelly, a drug causing users to morph into monstrous parodies of themselves.

Jessica, known as Spider-Woman, had witnessed horrors in her time, battling supervillains and facing down her own dark past. But this new threat held a different kind of terror – a creeping dread that burrowed into the very fabric of reality.

The first case had been gruesome. A petty crook named Louie "The Lip" Larocca, known for his slick tongue and quick fingers, had become a grotesque chimera. His limbs stretched and contorted, his face a mask of bulging eyes and gaping maw. He died in a panicked frenzy, a horrific testament to the drug's gruesome effects.

Now, armed with blurry photographs and a name – "Metamorphosis" – Jessica prowled the city's underbelly. Neon signs bled into the slick asphalt, each alleyway a potential den of monsters lurking in the shadows. Her enhanced senses, a legacy of the bizarre experiment that gave her powers, were on high alert, picking up every rustle, every heartbeat.

Suddenly, a guttural scream pierced the night – a sound that wasn't human, but a warped echo of someone in unimaginable pain. Jessica followed the sound to a dingy warehouse, its windows boarded, a skull and crossbones spray-painted on the rusted door. A shiver ran down her spine, an echo of fear battling with her unwavering sense of justice.

Kicking down the door, she was greeted by a scene from a nightmare. Several figures, their bodies twisted and mutated in various ways, huddled around a barrel with a biohazard symbol plastered on it. Their eyes, however, held a spark of humanity, a desperate plea for help trapped within their monstrous visages.

Then, from the shadows, a figure emerged. Tall, shrouded in darkness, its features obscured by a gas mask, it held a syringe filled with a glowing blue liquid. In its distorted voice, it cackled, a sound that sent shivers down Jessica's spine.

"Ah, Spider-Woman. Come to join the party?"

Jessica snarled, her spider-sense screaming with a primal warning. "This ends now."

The ensuing fight was a blur of violence and grotesque contortions. The figure, calling itself "The Sculptor," fought with a feral fury, utilizing its warped body parts as grotesque weapons. Jessica, fuelled by years of honed instincts, countered with precision blows, dodging mutated limbs and razor-sharp claws.

But The Sculptor wasn't fighting alone. The drug-addled victims, their minds clouded but still clinging to a shred of their humanity, moaned and attacked, their monstrous forms a terrifying wave of claws and teeth.

Jessica fought with the ferocity of a cornered spider, her psychic powers kicking in. She could sense the fear, the pain, the lingering humanity within these twisted figures. With each well-placed attack, she strived to incapacitate, not destroy.

Just as she managed to disarm The Sculptor, it lunged for the barrel, ready to unleash another wave of this horrifying transformation. In a desperate move, Jessica launched a web at the barrel, pulling it towards her. It toppled over, drenching both her and The Sculptor in the glowing blue liquid.

Both of them screamed, the pain unlike anything Jessica had ever experienced. Her vision blurred, her body burning. Then, a terrifying silence. Her enhanced vision flickered back on, revealing a scene as nightmarish as the fight itself.

Jessica stood unharmed, her suit somehow absorbing the mutagenic properties of the liquid. The Sculptor, however, wasn't so lucky. It had…melted. Flesh, bone, everything dissolved into a pulsating pool of blue goo, dissolving into the grimy floor.

Relief washed over Jessica, but it was a hollow victory. The warehouse was filled with the moaning victims, their horrific forms a testament to the devastating power of the drug.

She went to work, carefully weaving cocoons from her webs, immobilizing the mutated individuals. With a heavy heart, she contacted S.H.I.E.L.D., knowing their resources would be needed to deal with this unprecedented threat.

As the sun began to peek over the city skyline, bathing the grimy scene in a sickly orange glow, Jessica felt a gnawing sense of unease. Had she truly stopped the problem? The Sculptor might be gone, but what about the source of the drug? Who was behind it, and what was their endgame?

More importantly, how had she, Jessica Drew, become immune? Was it a random quirk of the experiment that gave her powers, or something more sinister? The horrifying possibility that the antidote might

...be tied to some dormant part of her own transformation gnawed at her.

Days turned into weeks as S.H.I.E.L.D. researchers studied the recovered drug and the victims. The transformation process was unlike anything they'd encountered; it wasn't a simple mutation, but a horrifying metamorphosis, a rewrite of the victim's very DNA.

The victims themselves were a challenge. While physically restrained, their minds were trapped in a constant state of flux, a nightmarish dance between human consciousness and the feral urges of their mutated bodies. S.H.I.E.L.D. medical experts managed to stabilize a few, offering a flicker of hope.

But for Jessica, the unease only intensified. Tests revealed her immunity was indeed linked to her own genetic alterations, a twisted side effect of the very experiment that gave her powers. The immunity wasn't complete; exposure to large amounts of the drug could still have dire consequences.

Worse, a horrifying truth emerged. The drug wasn't a random street-level poison; it was specifically designed to target individuals with enhanced abilities – mutants, super-soldiers, even beings like Jessica. It was a weapon, a way to turn the city's protectors into grotesque parodies of themselves.

The question of who was behind this remained unanswered. Whispers of a shadowy organization, one obsessed with genetic manipulation and power control, began to surface. Jessica, alongside a begrudgingly cooperative S.H.I.E.L.D., set her sights on uncovering this organization and stopping them before they unleashed their twisted agenda on a larger scale.

The investigation plunged her into the city's underbelly, a murky world of biohackers, gene tinkers, and the desperate fringe of the mutant community. Each lead, each dead end, chipped away at her resolve, leaving her drowning in a sea of suspicion and paranoia.

One rainy night, while combing through a digital trail of encrypted messages, a familiar name leaped out – Dr. Miriam Weathers, head of a prestigious genetics research institute. Her research, on the surface, focused on gene therapy for debilitating diseases, was hailed as groundbreaking. But a deeper dig revealed hidden patents, cryptic references to "human potential maximization," and most disturbingly, a funding stream leading back to the organization at the center of the drug crisis.

Jessica knew she had her target. But confronting Dr. Weathers would be dangerous. The woman, surrounded by heavily armed security and likely her own creations, would be a formidable opponent.

A plan, audacious and risky, began to form in Jessica's mind. Using her enhanced senses, she infiltrated the institute at night, navigating a labyrinth of sterile hallways and research labs. The sterile white walls, once a symbol of progress, now felt cold and ominous.

Finally, she reached Dr. Weathers' private lab. Inside, the doctor, a woman with sharp features and steely eyes, was hunched over a workstation, analyzing a glowing blue sample. The sight of the drug, the source of so much suffering, sent a surge of anger through Jessica.

Before Dr. Weathers could react, Jessica burst in, webs snagging the door shut. The doctor turned, her face a mask of surprise before morphing into a smug smile.

"Ah, Spider-Woman. So, you've finally graced me with your presence."

A hidden panel on the wall opened, revealing several hulking figures clad in bio-engineered armor. Their eyes, devoid of any human emotion, glinted with a cold, predatory light.

"These enhanced gentlemen will ensure you don't leave here," Dr. Weathers said, her voice dripping with disdain.

The ensuing battle was brutal and terrifying. The guards, infused with the same technology behind the Metamorphosis drug, were grotesquely powerful. Jessica used her agility and spider-sense to her advantage, dodging razor-sharp claws and enhanced strikes.

But the guards were relentless, pushing her to her limits. Just as despair began to creep in, a memory surfaced – Dr. Weathers' research notes mentioning a failsafe in the drug, a weakness to a specific frequency.

With a desperate gamble, Jessica focused her bio-electric powers, projecting a concentrated pulse of the specific frequency. The guards, their enhanced physiology going haywire, crumpled to the floor, moaning in pain.

Dr. Weathers, enraged and cornered, grabbed a vial of the drug, a twisted glint in her eye. "If I can't control them," she snarled, "I'll join them!"

Before she could inject herself, a web snagged her wrist, yanking the vial away. Dr. Weathers screamed a string of curses, but it was too late. S.H.I.E.D. agents, alerted by a pre-placed beacon, swarmed the room, apprehending the doctor.

The battle was won, but the war was far from over. Dr. Weathers was a pawn, a fanatic obsessed with pushing human evolution beyond its limits. The true mastermind, the entity pulling the strings from the shadows, remained a mystery.

News of the confiscated drug and its horrifying effects spread like wildfire. The city, once jaded towards superpowered individuals, now looked to them with a mixture of fear and dependence. Jessica, thrust into the unwilling role of savior, felt the weight of responsibility heavier than ever.

But the ordeal had changed her too. The residual effects of the drug, lingering in her system from the warehouse incident, manifested in subtle ways. Her enhanced vision developed a tendency to flicker, revealing glimpses of a distorted reality – flickering scenes of monstrous figures lurking in the shadows, a chilling reminder of the potential for transformation that resided within her.

More disturbingly, the fight with Dr. Weathers' security guards had triggered a dormant aggression within her, a feral edge that surprised even herself. It was a constant struggle to keep this newfound darkness in check, a chilling mirror to the monsters she fought.

Despite the internal battles, Jessica pressed on. With S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources and her own relentless pursuit, she tracked down and dismantled several clandestine biohacking labs, each a potential source for further distribution of the drug.

But the organization behind it all remained elusive. They were like a virus, mutating and adapting, their tendrils reaching into every corner of the city's underbelly.

One night, patrolling a particularly rough neighborhood, Jessica stumbled upon a street artist painting a chilling mural - a grotesque figure with multiple limbs, its form constantly shifting, a single glowing blue eye staring out from the canvas. It was a perfect depiction of the Metamorphosis victims, a horrifyingly accurate portrait of the nightmares Jessica carried within.

Beneath the mural, scrawled in dripping red paint, was a message – "We are legion. The transformation is inevitable." A shiver ran down Jessica's spine. This wasn't just a warning; it was a declaration. The organization, whoever they were, was bolder now, openly flaunting their power.

Looking out at the city, its neon lights a distorted reflection under the full moon, Jessica knew this was just the beginning. The fight against this shadowy threat wasn't just about apprehending criminals; it was a battle for the very definition of humanity, a fight against the potential for horror that lurked within them all. As Spider-Woman, she stood as a guardian, a lone spider in a web of corruption and fear, determined to stop the Metamorphosis before it consumed them all. But with each victory, the question gnawed at her – was she truly the hunter, or was she simply another potential victim, waiting for the right moment to succumb to the darkness within?

...for more supergirl, chun li, batgirl, tifa, lara croft, wonder woman, rogue, power girl, poison ivy and much more, please visit my page at www.deviantart.com/jadegretzai - Thanks for your support