Random art
Half an hour ago.
The crate hit the concrete with a boom. Silvija gripped the crowbar and pried the lid off, splintering wood in the process.
Inside, nestled in foam padding, sat a cylindrical device.
A sonic disruptor array—an equipment to emit directional, high-frequency soundwaves. After a manual calibration, every one of these could be used to destabilize symbiote bonding at a cellular level.
They had over fifty of these.
Silvija brushed the metallic device with a grin. "I love free stuff."
The White Queen, the one who had paid for the shipment, chuckled. "I'll squeeze more benefits out of your precious."
Today, too, Emma had dressed to impress. The white business suit and pants gave her a professional aura.
Silvija slammed the crate shut and pushed it to the side. She planted her hands on her hips. "Emma, you sure you aren't just obsessed with my boyfriend?"
"I'm only interested in his value. Take that away, and I won't even glance at him twice."
That insult made Silvija frown. She crossed her arms, glaring at Emma. "He'll still be an honest man I can trust my back to. More than you could ever be."
She admitted she wouldn't have become his sweetheart if he was weak and stupid. However, his honesty and integrity was something she would never hate.
"An honest man without value is worthless. You can find plenty of them on the streets."
"Find me one who can stay honest after getting Death's favor. Someone who won't become a monster like Norman Osborn."
Emma arched an eyebrow, thinking. She couldn't come up with an answer so she shifted the topic. "What's the price to smack you in the face?"
Silvija raised one finger with a smirk. "One billion."
An insane amount that could catapult Symkaria's economy into the next decade.
Emma snorted. "One billion in Iranian Rials. Take it or leave it."
Silvija ran the math in her mind, finding that roughly around a hundred thousand in US currency. It made her snarl. "Go fuck yourself."
While a hundred thousand was a big sum, she wouldn't let herself be slapped for that.
Just as she was about to lay it all out on Emma, the phone in her jeans began ringing. "One moment please—it's Norman."
Emma's playfulness disappeared instantly, and she showed a serious expression. "Take it. We need more time to prepare our counter-measures."
The sonic devices weren't the only countermeasures prepared against the symbiotes. Gwen and Felicia had created a serum to instantly separate a symbiote from its host, thanks to Gwen's Anti-Venom symbiote suit. Emma had already sent the formula to every competent hand in this field for mass production. Money was one thing Emma could burn like paper.
But even with all those resources, they would need three or four days to ramp up production. They weren't just facing one or two hordes by a whole army.
Silvija picked up the call. "Silver Sable speaking."
"Silver Sable, I'm shifting the contract of Oscorp Island to a smaller site in Brooklyn." Norman stated seriously. "I need you at my office within an hour to finalize the new terms."
"Understood, Boss." Silvija hung up and sent a troubled look at Emma. "I gotta go."
"It's a trap," Emma warned. "He knows Dante, aka Skullfire, is your boyfriend. This is a trick to keep you hostage in case Dante shows up to ruin his public appearance. That's my two cents on his new contract."
Silvija quite agreed with Emma's take. "I still have to go. My rep will tank if Norman broke the contract and spread rumors about it. Many orgs decide who to choose based on reputation. Many don't hire untrustworthy mercs."
Emma's phone suddenly rang. She glanced at the caller ID and frowned.
"Trouble?"
"Not at all." She silenced the call. "Get out if things go wrong."
Black tendrils crept up Silvija's neck from beneath her jacket collar. "I'm not throwing my life away."
This was easily the happiest period of her life. She wasn't planning on dying before leaving a worthy heir for Symkaria.
A worthy monarch to replace her.
Emma nodded and lifted the phone to her ear. "What's the matter now, Jean Gray?"
***
This was how Silvija found herself facing Norman sitting in his luxurious office, still wearing that corporate perfect smile.
"I'll invest one and a half billion in your enterprise. Leave Skullfire and join Oscorp."
Silvija flinched at the offer. Just a hundred million dollars would massively help with the national budget. One billion could stabilize the entire country and reshape its economy. And one and half billion could literally change Symkaria.
To gain this investment, all she had to do was turn her back on one person.
Just one person.
An entire country against a single person.
Anyone in her position would make the decision in one breath.
"Choose wisely," Norman reminded her. "Symkaria won't get this chance to prosper again."
Silvija took a deep breath and answered, "No."
She could almost hear Emma calling her "Stupid woman" in that dramatic yet elegant voice. But she could also imagine Dante and Felicia's faces as they smiled at her.
'Associating with an evil person won't end well for me or Symkaria.'
The decision wasn't just based on her emotions. She knew Dante would bring her more value than one and half billion in the long term. Just the exposure alone from being "Silver Symbiote" had boosted her tremendously. And she had taken the chance to promote her country yesterday after defeating the symbiote criminals trying to rob a mall.
Norman stood up from his chair. "You will regret this decision. I'll make sure of it."
"No." Silvija pointed a finger at him. "YOU will regret this. My boyfriend will make sure of it."
Norman's hand froze before he clenched his fist and slammed it on the table. "Come."
Skullfire and Natasha were the only two capable of making Norman shiver in his boots. Because, no matter how big the army he had, he could never touch those two.
The elevator opened and seven muscle in suits entered the office. Their suits ripped as they approached, becoming symbiotes.
Powerful symbiote hosts.
Silvija grinned and punched her palm. "I'm gonna beat all that arrogance out of you."
Maybe she should've waited for Norman's reveal as the Sovereign. That way, both her and her enterprise would've gotten a lot more famous.
"You can try."
A shadow grew behind Norman. He, too, felt its presence and went completely stiff. He didn't get a chance to do anything as a hand ripped out of his chest, holding the still beating heart. He stared with wide eyes while thick blood sputtered out of his mouth.
The hand crushed the heart.
A crimson-colored symbiote immediately tried to cover Norman, but another hand ripped it away.
"Hurry."
Silvija's heart leaped at the familiar voice. The voice she had been yearning to hear.
Dante appeared behind Norman, holding the crimson symbiote, which was wrapped in a dark aura. The presence he oozed was a clear sign of Death's power being used.
He wasn't alone as Emma and an unfamiliar redhead stood on his side.
"Skullfire…" Norman squeezed out a word as more blood colored his mouth. "I… can't die..."
Then his body went limp.
The six symbiote hosts immediately rushed to stop him. Silvija grabbed one and stabbed a syringe in the back of its neck. It writhed on the ground before the symbiote screeched and left its host.
A black aura erupted from Dante and formed five arms—each grabbed the five symbiote hosts and completely crushed the life out of them. Five symbiotes merged into one and slithered away.
Silvija took out another syringe and stabbed it into the symbiote mass. The black slimy mass shrunk until it was only a few centimetres long, completely immobilized. This was another serum created to gather as many symbiotes as possible. Gwen had thought it on her own and finished it without anyone's help.
Silvija sucked the liquid back into the injector and locked it shut before hurrying to Dante's side. Rather than disturbing the process, she watched it quietly.
Dante held the symbiote in his arms, covering it in more and more of death aura. While Emma Frost and Jean Gray stared it down, both of them frowning in concentration.
'He brought two telepaths to stop Norman from ordering his symbiote army.'
The last ditch effort everyone feared needed two telepaths (she assumed the redhead to be one) and Dante in his Death form to contain. Even then, all three of them looked tense.
Nobody knew how many symbiotes were under Norman's command. It could be thousand, two thousand, or ten thousand. There would be a bloodbath if such a large army was commanded to kill.
She dragged the chair with the dead Norman to the side. He had died sitting behind his corporate desk in his corporate office. Not a terrible death as far a villain's end could be.
'I lucked out.'
She and everyone in her mercenary squad would've become a part of the symbiote army if she hadn't randomly decided to choose a Vice-Captain.
Without him, Norman might have succeeded even with Natasha being as strong as she was. Ultimately, she was one person, and Norman had too many cards up his sleeve.
'Dante ruined you.'
Still, she had to applaud Norman. To make Dante, the lover of Death herself, stress out on many nights was an amazing accomplishment.
Dante gritted his teeth. "Why the hell is it not afraid of dying?"
"It wants to execute Norman's command," Emma muttered. "The hive-mind is ridiculously strong."
"Interference from everywhere." The redhead gritted her teeth. "Emma, sync your wavelength with me. We need to break through together."
"No." Emma refused in an instant. "I'm not opening my mind."
Emma Frost refused to share her mind—her vulnerabilities with anyone.
The redhead looked toward Dante, asking how to proceed with her eyes.
"Emma, please," Dante said. "Just this once. I promise it'll be fine."
Emma glared at him. Her clenched hand trembled in anger. The request might've been a little too much for her, who prioritized profit over everything ninety percent of the time. Exposing her weaknesses to someone could put an end to all her ambitions.
"You—" Emma growled. "You'll owe me another for this."
Dante showed a small smile. "Thank you."
Silvija stared at the surprisingly easy agreement from Emma.
'Dante wasn't wrong.'
Emma could act evil and arrogant at times, but at the core, she was just a woman who wanted to protect herself from being exploited by the world.
Emma held the redhead's hand and touched her forehead with hers.
Dante continued suppressing the crimson symbiote with his death aura. A few seconds after Emma and Jean joined their minds, Norman's symbiote stopped struggling. It went limp on the desk.
He placed the symbiote on the desk and disengaged Death's powers. Silvija went forward on instinct to support him.
"Silvy," he whispered, gently hugging her. "I'm not that weak anymore."
"What if I want to hug my boyfriend? I'm not allowed?"
He wrapped his arms around her to give her what she wanted. "I didn't know I was worth more than one and a half billion."
Silvija felt her face flush. Of course, he had been sneaking around to watch her make that decision. "I didn't choose you. I hate Norman."
He was already full of himself, wanting multiple lovers and whatnot. She couldn't let his ego inflate further.
"Yet you want my child," he whispered. "Speaking of which, do you want to give it another try?"
She pinched his waist. "Wait till we get back."
His hand, which was naughtily going down her back, froze. A deep, resonant hum filled the air. Emma and the redhead were suddenly knocked away by an unknown force.
"Emma."
Before Silvija could finish, Dante dashed. So fast that he appeared a blur in Silvija's eyes. She saw him vanish and appear on Silvija's side with Emma and the redhead on his shoulders, both unconscious.
Where Emma stood, a red energy began to swirl. The mass of energy made Silvija breathless, like she was witnessing a phenomenon outside of this world.
Her grip on his coat became firmer. "What is… this?"
He shook his head. "I have no idea."
The red, or rather, the crimson energy formed a vertical rift like a gash in the reality itself. Two demonic claws appeared in its middle and ripped it open.
"A demon," Dante whispered, narrowing his eyes on Sovereign—Norman's symbiote. He seemed to want to move closer, but the unconscious women on his shoulders made him hesitate.
A pale withered arm slowly emerged and clutched Norman's desk—the desk where Norman's symbiote had been unconscious. The symbiote suddenly screeched to life—a last message to Earth before it was dragged into an unknown world.
The crimson energy scattered with another deep hum.
Roars and screeches echoed from every corner of Manhattan. Silvija's Agony formed a small head on her shoulder and screeched. From their bond, she knew the little creature wanted to threaten the others, showing this was its territory.
"Fuck," Dante cursed. "All my effort went to shit."
As if decreed by fate, Norman's last wish to unleash true hell on Manhattan had come true.
***
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