There comes a time in a man’s life when you have to embrace your destiny but I never thought of myself as evil.  Circumstances force your hand and decision that are made in haste guide your path through life. I never tore anyone’s head off; I never ate anyone’s heart, maybe it was about time I did. I was always a scientist first. Although I will admit I did have some trouble deciding what my field of study would be. I’ve always had a knack for understanding how things work, and school was no problem for me because of that. When I was 4 I picked up my older brothers guitar and started playing. I had watched him practice several times and I couldn’t understand why he would have such a hard time with it. I zipped through grade school and high school in 6 years. Personally I feel I could have done it in 4 but the academic advisers suggested I take my time. In an attempt to give my maturity level a chance to catch up to my intellect.

        My mother was upset at speed I was growing up. Every time she’d look at me her eyes would well up and the inevitable comment would be heard “My baby isn’t a baby anymore.” So before I started College my parents decided a family vacation down to Austin Texas to visit my grand parents, was in order. People who say half the fun is getting there, obviously never traveled with my family.  The only interesting thing that happened while we were in Austin was when Goldleaf station disappeared. My Brother and I watched it happen from the back seat of the family Mini-Van. My Parents were in the gas station across the street from the old derelict train station, when a green glow started to emanate from the boarded up windows. It quickly became so bright I had to shut my eyes and bury my head in the upholstery of my seat to avoid being blinded. I had thought a bomb had exploded and I was waiting for the concussive force to flatten the Van. But nothing ever came. I finally opened my eyes again when I heard my parents get back into their seats. As they drove away, oblivious to the change in the scenery, I stared out the window trying to find signs of debris or the ruins of the building but there was nothing. Just an empty hole in the ground where once a turn of the century train station had been. My brother’s eyes had glazed over as though he couldn’t believe what he had just seen, so he decided to ignore it as if it had never happened. I spent the rest of the trip reading newspapers trying to find reports in what had happened. The only information I ever found was a footnote sunk down beneath the obituaries about the “recent accidental demolition of the fabled Train station during a movie shoot”. I didn’t buy it, but I couldn’t investigate further because before I realized it the vacation was over.  I had other things to occupy my mind. I remember that day being the day, when I realized that the future offered me near infinite possibilities.

The next five and a half years of my life proved to be more daunting than my childhood. I went to college on a full scholarship in hopes of finding a challenge. I started out in Medicine but after a year of yawning in that program I realized I needed to changed career paths. So I switched over into Organic Chemistry, only to discover that the building blocks of life were boring as hell. So I switched into their Physics program, that kept me entertained for half a year before it got tedious. Then I found myself looking to Mechanical Engineering for some satisfaction. Which in turn led my to the study of computer science and robotics.

 Then my scholarship ran out. I was eighteen and no longer the miracle whiz kid the College Board had been promised. Worse after 6 years in their institute for higher learning I didn’t even have a degree stating my accomplishments.

         I didn’t have a degree but I still had a dream. I may have left that school penniless, but I was the richest man in the world because of all the knowledge I had attained there. Using my laptop I developed a series of useless applications for mobile technology. 2 stupid games and a group of Rate me programs for everything from spas to Pubs. My apps were run away successes, and that was how I funded my real projects. I had a dream of ushering in a golden age for all mankind. However in my rush to proclaim my genius to the world, and maybe rub it in the face of the trustees who expelled me. I had made my first lethal miscalculation. I had trusted a supplier. A man with extraordinary ambitions cannot go to the corner store to pick up the ingredients for his devices. So I went to the black market.

 There is a Black Market for anything you could possibly desire in this wonderful country of ours. I once had a man offer me a set of radioactive giant frogs legs, he was pretty eager to get rid of them and promised me a great price. He even started waving one around at me. The damn thing took 2 hands to lift and had to of been 5 feet long. I move along quickly after that, I decided I did not want to be around this guy if those beasts came around looking for revenge.

But I digress; I needed Equatium 426 . Equatium is a chemical compound derived from multiple highly restricted elements. It was usually only used by government contractors in military projects. You needed to be on a list to get some legally. Regardless, I had developed a method of converting Equatium from a Solid state into a Plasma state. Which freed it’s electrons and when combined with a little piece of technology I’d invented. Created an Infinite power Loop. A Clean Power source, feeding off itself and generating it’s own fuel. I needed the purity of the Equatium I had been promised to be exemplary.  My Spectral-analysis of the sample proved inconclusive, and I had a deadline to meet so in truth the fault lies with No one but myself. My clean power source was to be a boon for mankind, and I offered it as a gift to my city. When attached to the grid, the subway system would run independent of the local power supply.  My science was sound! But the Equatium I was given had trace elements of mercury in it. The mercury turned my clean power source into a trans dimensional flare. That effectively alerted twenty different parallel realms of reality to our existence and opened pathways to each. As a species I quickly realized we were not ready for that announcement to be made. Surprisingly, of all the visitors and emissaries who came to investigate the sudden incursions into their realities only one turned out to be aggressive. And because of that one, the President himself branded me a terrorist. A strike force was assembled to bring me in, but as quickly as they were united to hunt me down the invasion began. The Spider came, those magnificent spiders from beyond our dimension. From the space between space, where they were the weavers of the fabric of reality. The creatures who allowed me to discover how to pull away and reorganize the curtain of consciousness that binds our world. When the spiders attacked, the president decreed a state of emergency. He instituted a mandatory draft for all C.A.P.E (Costumed Associates Policing the Extraordinary) members.

 I was just a scientist at the time. However I decided to try and redeem my reputation through a round about course of action. Maybe even generate a little cult of personality for an alter ego. After having purified the remaining equatium I used it to power a little side project I had been developing for the military. It was a self-regenerating micro fiber impact suit with kinetic absorption and redirection capabilities.

My suit of armor was built out of a material I had theorized could be developed when I was ten. The concept was simple after I realized that the universe was made of essentially all the same things, quarks, atoms, and molecules. By using an 3d printer I built a synthetic pliable fabric loosely based on a medieval chain mail design, but on a microscopic scale. In its neutral state my "probability polyester" trademarks pending could be manipulated by any tailor, cut and sown into anything. However when it was plugged into my power source, the electron count on my fabric shifted changing it from soft cotton into a pseudo titanium alloy. Once I had designed my costume on paper and scoured several cos-play websites to find a tailor who would be willing to work with my fabric. My tailor worked out of Chicago, and had done costumes for a major comic book publishing house so I knew that the quality of his work would be beyond reproach. The costume design was based on a set fourteenth century tournament armor that knights would joust in. I added in the twenty second century technology over the classic retro style and then I was ready to make my first appearance.

 It was a beautiful piece of technology. The circuitry allowed the wearer to convert any physical trauma into fuel for a weapon system. So basically the harder you got hit, the harder you could hit back. An Active suit would encapsulate the wearer in oxygenated impact gel to reduce any possibilities of injury. Nanotech incorporated into the project allowed for wounds and tears to heal up of their own volition.  It also had top of the line sensors. I implanted an experimental digital transport device; which would allow me to move equipment around without time constraints.  90 percent of the time it worked without a hitch, but that 10 percent was still giving me grief and that 10 percent was also the reason I hadn’t tested it on anything alive yet. As an after thought I decided to incorporate a bunch of really cool gadgets. Things like surround sound Dolby stereo and a cigarette lighter built in to my thumbs in case a nice young Lady ever needed a light.  I went with a crimson and black color scheme. Added some padding to change my physique just enough so I would not look like the 98pound weakling I was. Then I introduced myself to the world. I wanted to call myself the Crimson Hammer, but the media took one look at my fighting style when I was thrown into my first conflict, and tagged me with the moniker of Trauma. In order to generate the energy needed for my plasma bursts my armor needed to convert a hell of a lot of kinetic impact trauma.  Basically I had to let my opponents beat the crap out of me so that my offensive capabilities charged.

 I was doing pretty well for myself as far as new capes go, even with the rag tag group I had been allocated to. I had even made it into the headlines of major media outlets. It was our “third sortie” as the military men say, that I first witnessed the invaders reality alteration abilities. My team walked into an ambush at the north gable mall, we were only supposed to be a recon expedition meant to get in and out and report back with what we found. What we found was a danger beyond what most of the “good soldiers” I was teamed up with were capable of understanding.

 Five of us went in that day; I stood by the Omega Martian as his head exploded because he wasn’t able to make sense of what he was seeing. I was really happy I took the time to scotch guard my armor when that happened, little bits of pink and green all over the place. Reality was shifting right before our eyes. We decided to split up, gather as much information as we could and then make our exit as quickly as possible. The Great Dane our Dog headed swordsman and Spore the Mushroom Queen took off down an ominous looking corridor.  Leaving me alone with Neon the Illuminator. These names were to much for me, I quietly resigned myself to the fact that it was inevitable, I would have to add an adjective after my cape name. Neon sadly was an arrogant arse, who had no intention of working as a dynamic duo. He looked at me condescendingly threw his head back so his nose was actually in the air. Neon muttered something about babysitting the sidekick and then stated that he “felt a disturbance in the Light spectrum emanating from the second floor". and that he was going to investigate. A disturbance in the light spectrum I thought, what did that even mean? And that was how I came to be alone in a hostile ever-changing environment. The food court had become something horrible and alien; the Spiders were superimposing their reality over our own.

I had attended a briefing concerning the invaders before the mission. Even with the descriptions that were given, I wasn’t prepared for the shear jaw dropping horror of coming face to face with a hairy five-foot tall eight-legged beast. You know they can’t possibly be spiders. They skitter about like creatures from your darkest nightmares and it really is all they could possibly be. I kept close to the walls as I managed to glimpse my first beast. Its segmented legs arched up a foot before bending at a ninety degree angle to come back down to the ground. Each leg was split into 4 joints and covered with thick black hair that didn’t continue onto its body. Its body was black as midnight and had tuffs of hair sprouting out of great blisters and sores. Their worse feature however had to be their heads. Eight eyes rotating independent of each other jammed into two grapefruit sized sockets. Above a mouth set with two serrated mandibles that glistened in the dim light, as drool leaked out of their perpetually open jaws onto the floor of the corridor.

 My armor kept me from being detected as I snuck through the strange new reality but two other of my teammates hadn’t been so lucky. The spiders overwhelmed them, and I guess they didn’t have the common sense to flee. While I didn’t watch them meet their end, I heard enough to know that if their families wanted the remains they would have to wait a while for digestion to run its course. It was truly phenomenal. By the time I reached the food court there was nothing left to my teammates, aside from their communication equipment and two bandoliers of concussion grenades, which I gladly strapped across my shoulders. There is no such thing as overkill, dead is dead. The air was thick and heavy in this new world, and judging from the readings I was getting from my sensor array prolonged exposure wouldn’t be healthy. Radiation levels were spiking which is how I assumed they were rewriting the atomic structure of our world.  I needed to know how they were doing this. As I walked further and further into the nest, I began to realize that the walls of the court had taken on an organic texture they seemed to spasm and flex as I walked through them. Near what I deduced to be the center of the construct the radiation levels normalized. As though the imprint hadn’t been reject by our reality and no longer needed to be forced upon it, much like a stamp being crushed down against paper when the ink on it had nearly run out.

This molecular reorganization was amazing, what a boon this would be for mankind our planets resources could be enjoyed rather than exploited. I needed to know its secret! At the heart of the nest I saw her, (please understand I use the term, her, loosely here. I saw no breast, or any recognizable genitalia. I simply assumed that this was their Queen) She was sitting on throne of skulls some human, some unrecognizable and she was I control here.  Every other spider was scurrying about taking care of unspoken plans all the while she sat there, legs twitching, eyes darting back and forth observing everything in her domain. For a long moment her gaze remained focused in my direction, I stood still as a flagpole on a calm summer day my heart pounding relentlessly in my ears. My breathing ragged despite my best efforts to control it sounded like a tornado raging across a plain in my helmet. After what seemed like an eternity her attention shifted again a I allowed myself to relax a little bit wishing I could wipe to cold sweat which was currently pouring down my back. Memo to myself, I needed to invest in some wicking sports clothes I couldn’t help but wonder if other heroes had to deal with this problem. Standing there in the hallway I could feel reality shifting once again. Opening up every sensor I had in my suit I began to realize that the shifting emanations of radiation were actually coming from the queen. Steeling myself against the scurrying hoard I struggled to find the strength to advance towards the mound of bleached skulls. I knew would have to be done. If the queen were the source of this reality alteration she would need to be studied in a sealed controlled environment. Avoiding as best I could eight legged beasts, I placed three teleportation beacons around the mound bones. All the while recording every piece of data my suit could collect for future study.

While circling the throne I realized to my amazement that the queen had hoses and probes penetrating her body flowing down into a device under the bones. I had to get a better look, and in that moment of scientific curiosity I forgot where I was and foolishly tried to remove some of them. The queen rested on a pillar of stone, no... To my disbelief the pillar was bone and not one solid bone but many flat bones. It looked like a spinal column with industrial elements weaving in and out of the structure. The hoses carried mystery fluids of varying solidity and revolting colors. The probes ran parallel to the hoses and seemed to have electrical currents run up them intermittently. Completely entranced with the mechanics, I didn’t notice the alert registering on my head up display. So there I was. Squatting under the biggest damn spider I had ever seen in my life. With my arm shoved shoulder deep into a small mountain of skulls. I was Groping at the massive bone column when the last surviving member of my team decides to break radio silence. I nearly jumped out of my skin.  I twitched so violently that several of the skulls above me crashed down and rolled across the floor. A small legion of monsters stopped what they were doing and looked directly at me.

 It’s surprising how much the eight-eyed gaze of a dozen, dozen giant spiders can weigh on you. Neon was the most experienced cape on the team, but you would never have known it by the way he was carrying on over the com. Trying to convince a hysterical man that it really wasn’t a good time to chat turned out to be a daunting task. I knew that I was in trouble when the damn Arachnids started to advance on me; I think they were attracted to Neon’s shrill screaming. Eventually I had to assure him that I was coming to get him. That everything was going to be Okay and all I needed was his coordinates. Pulling up a map of the mall I located the Trench store on the mezzanine above the fountain.

 That was the point I saw the true depth of the trouble I was in. The sensors in my suit were going crazy, registering a massive radiation spike building. I looked up to see the full attention of the QUEEN was now focused directly on me. This time she saw me, my mind raced 1) there were probably a thousand 5-foot tall hairy minions between here and Neon at the other end of the mall. 2) I needed to move fast, radiation levels were already dangerously high. I didn’t design the suit to withstand a meltdown situation. 3) When the Rad levels climaxed, if my theory was correct, reality would be rewritten and I might very well be erased from it.  I had to choose distract, deter, or dismay - fight, flight, or faint and after weighing all opportunities I had chosen my best option in a second. Accessing my favorite music play-list, I selected a David Bowie track and activated my external speakers. Turned to face the column I bowed deeply and calmly enunciated ’your majesty’. Just as Ziggy Stardust started to blare, I bolted for the exit.

In my head I envisioned myself as an elegant ballet dancer, or perhaps even doing a waltz while I made my escape. Dodge, pivot, parry, thrust, but as I took my first steps forward. I realized that I was going to have to fight for every inch I advanced leaving me looking more like a drunken rhino than an agile dancer. I pounded my fists through their carapaces, tore off limbs, and gouged eyes out leaving a trail of awful behind me. And for every two I dismembered or killed four more came at me. The only saving grace I had going for me that prevented me from being crushed and ground underfoot was the fact the pulsating fleshy hallway was far to narrow for them to rush me. Pummeling my way around a sharp turn in the corridor. I came face to face with the colony waiting for me in an enormous stalactites filled chamber. The good news was that I could see the break in realities. Across the chamber I could clearly see the fountain located below the Trench clothing shop. The bad news was that it was fairly obvious to me that her majesty had called home all her soldiers to stop me from getting away. She’s acting all offended. It’s not my fault I didn’t like the idea of being announced in her court. The screams of my devoured comrades still hung freshly enough in my mind to make me shudder. In hindsight I was really beginning to regret not having installed any blades in the suit, this constant punching and tearing was beginning to wear me down. The lactic acid had begun to build up in my muscles. My ligaments where strained, and the burn was close to overpowering me at this point. I imagine the fine elegant strokes of Katana blades dismembering at will with ease. Yes there were definitely going to be some redesigning of the suit going on when I got back to my lab. There is nothing like a field test to show you your equipments flaws and inadequacies. Sighing to myself I remembered that Neon wasn’t going to save himself. David had stopped singing, which meant I had only been fighting for three and a half minutes; it felt like it could have been three and a half hours. I guess I needed to work on my cardio too. That exit wasn’t getting any closer with me standing here contemplating my navel. Activating my external microphone I launched myself into the fray. “Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more” 2 steps forward punch rip tear 2 steps forward. “Or close the wall up with our English dead!” 2 step forward punch tear rip 2 steps forward. “In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man”2 steps forward punch tear punch 1 step forward. “As modest stillness and humility” 1 step forward tear rip tear. “But when the blast of war blows in our ears,” That was when I was overpowered by the shear mass of bodies in front of me, on top of me as a second flank dropped down from the tumor like protuberances dangling from the ceiling. I was flattened to the ground harder than a quarterback who didn’t quite get rid of his ball fast enough. I felt the weight starting to buckle the joints of my suit and knew it was time. Reaching to the belts still hanging off my shoulders I pulled the pins on the grenades all 16 of them and waited for the fireworks to begin. Inside the suit it sounded an awful lot like popcorn, after the first explosion I become acquainted on an intimate level with the term Shell shock silence. Even through the Impact Gelatin that flooded the suit, it was like someone was holding a giant tuning fork against my head. I had been momentarily disoriented, not a feeling I enjoyed but my mind being my greatest asset I forced myself back into control of my body. Standing upright I looked around to survey the damage. I was standing in a crater 3 feet deep by 9 feet wide. Spider chunks had been flung as far as the eye could see, and I could smell the wonderful aroma of barbecue and not so pleasant smell of burning hair. I had a clear perimeter of about 20 feet, and that left me 10 feet to fight to the fountain. That was when I noticed the 2 new blinking lights on my H.U.D. The radiations levels where reaching a critical point. Which meant the alteration event, was undoubtedly imminent, but also now my Kinetic plasma generator was fully charged. I couldn’t help but smile; things were about to get a hell of a lot more enjoyable and easy for me and far less so for the Colony. Jumping out of the pit I had inadvertently made for myself. I decided to finish my monologue

“Then imitate the action of the tiger. Never interrupt me when I am Monologue-ing!” I charged towards the fountain unleashing a hail of energy balls on the unsuspecting spiders. Clearly they had no response to this new attack.  As the first dozen members of their group had holes burned straight through them, they started to fall back. It looked like they might be panicking. I would have to file that away for future consideration; panic might indicate a sense of self-preservation and in turn sentience. The remaining arachnids scattered before me.  I strode forward manipulating my energy balls as easily as a pitcher might toss baseballs around at a pre-game practice. I felt rejuvenated, despite the ringing in my head and the feeling of warm fluid flowing out of my ears. With the fountain within reach, I turned to see the fruit of my labors. That was when the second boot dropped, staring down the pink and purple twitching chamber and corridor. I became aware that my sensors had just switched from red to green as a massive explosion began working it’s way towards me. I watched as the oncoming wave of flame incinerated the remains of all the fallen spiders. Like an unyielding tide gaining force and speed as it maneuvered the twists and turns. I saw the hallway-changed color, it became scorched scarlet and then blackened charcoal the pace ever quickening. I was trying to get a reading on the energies barreling towards me, but all my systems could tell me was unknown. When the shock of this realization hit me, when I realized that I couldn’t be sure my armor could withstand this new factor a feeling of terror rose in me. Throughout this entire mission I had always felt in control, even when Neon rudely interrupted my visit to the queen’s court I always could see multiple options. Now with the panic spreading throughout my body I could only see one option. RUN!

Turning I decided to used the pedestal around the fountain as a platform to launch myself up to the mezzanine. Then go running straight through a plate glass window to freedom and the exterior and the first part of my plan was executed flawlessly. Gaining momentum and using the enhanced strength my armor provided I ran. Stepped up and promptly threw myself into a massive web spread across the opening gap between the 2 rows of stores on the second floor.

I couldn’t help but think to myself “really? You’ve been battling giant spiders all day and you don’t think to look for webs before you fling yourself through a vast open space. You deserve to get eaten dumb-ass!” Dangling there suspended in midair I couldn’t help but notice how the mall looked like Morticia Adam’s living room. These spiders had been busy covering most of the open areas with their fine silk. With the explosion still charging towards me the pathway down to the colony was acting like a barrel to a gun, funneling the incinerating flash straight toward me. The air before the explosion was being displaced, it was being pushed forward at ever increasing speeds causing the loose webbing to seemingly dance like terrifying banshees. Floating on the wind raging against the bonds that kept them tied to this earth. My time was short; my enhanced strength was insufficient against the web’s sticky resolve. I may deserve to be eaten for my lapse in judgment but I refused to be barbequed! Channeling every last electron of energy my suit had left in it through my plasma generators I created a flash burst. Which fried three quarters of my systems but also reduced the manacle like grip that the web had on my to a feeble lackluster one which snapped almost immediately. Sending me toppleling backward into the fountain, falling backwards is an awkward sensation. I tried to twist around to see where I was going but all I succeeded in doing was re-orienting myself so that my helmet encased head impacted the marble edge of the podium surrounding the fountain. An Impact I felt! Before I sunk into the 3-foot deep pool of water and un-conscientiousness I realized my kinetic conversion system must have been one of the systems knocked offline. I struggled to focus as the darkness embraced me, I couldn’t tell if my life support had gone out too. Sliding into the shallow pool, unable to command a response from my limbs I lost the fight, blacked out and found myself standing in a stainless steel corridor. I was out of my armor and dressed in my Sunday best. The only derivation was that over my black Dockers and white three-button pull over i was wearing my white slightly stained lab coat. Rubbing and scrapping absently at the engrained marks on my chest I decided to make a memo to develop an industrial grade laundry detergent. It would have to be cheaper than constantly replacing my coats and with the potential royalties on such a product it would inevitably pay for itself. While contemplating the most effective way to formulate my cleaner I became aware of the distinct sound of high heels clacking against a steel surface. Looking down the hall a distinct form began to take shape. Far off it looked like an old crone of a woman hunched over to a fifty-degree angle with a tangled bird’s nest of gray hair on her head. As she approached the lights flickered and suddenly her hair was as golden as the morning sunlight. The lights flickered again and it was no longer a messy mop but instead long and flowing.  The lights flickered once again and her slow methodical steps changed into an alluring saunter while her back straightened out. She lost the gray tone to her skin replaced by a healthy bronze hue. She looked remarkably like a woman I knew from my one of my graduate classes. Standing in front of me she cocked her head to the left and asked me.

 “Why, why is the food destroying the colony?” I was completely taken aback by the question. Instinctively, I knew I was talking to the Queen. There was no explanation for how I knew other than describing it as a feeling in my bones, a certainty unlike any other I had experienced in my life.

 “Excuse me” I stammered “what was that?”

“Food exists to be ate, why do you fight us? The sun gives us light to hunt, the night gives us time to rest and the food gives us strength to endure, why do you deny us the strength to endure?”

“But,” I stammered, “We are not food! We are sentient we aren’t meant to be eaten”.

“Sentient or not you are food, you are different from us only four stems not eight and you only use two to move. Everything about you says cattle. Your colony is weak and ugly and the noblest purpose it could serve would be to feed its superior. We are the watchers, our place is in-between and in-between is where we see all. Every reality, every deviation which occurs is seen by the colony, but we have never found any way out of our between, until the beacon showed us a way into your delicious realm.” As she spoke to me I noticed her eyes, there was nothing human about them. In fact they appeared to have four eyes crammed into each socket. Like marbles rotating each in their own independent directions examining everything at once. As repulsive as it was, I could not help but stare I was enthralled. Like driving past a car accident on the way to work, you don’t want to look but you can’t help yourself. I mean what if it’s somebody you know lying there dead on the street. It could be your ticket into the corner office if Bob suddenly bit the dust. All this time the girl in front of me has been speaking and I cursed myself for my ADD. But here let me show you she said, at an unnerving speed she stepped forward and put her hand to my forehead. a sudden flood of images poured into my head. I could see eternity stretching on before me. I could see the catacombs where the spiders lived between realities. In this place between spaces these weavers created the unending tapestry of reality, condemned to witness it all and never be a participant in it. Death was non-existent between, time was non-existent, and all that mattered was the weaving. Until the day that something different occurred, when the Beacon lit up eternity showed the weavers the side way out. The urge to participate in reality as opposed to just weaving it proved to be overwhelming to one group of spiders who charged head first into the doorway. However once out of their realm, all natural urges and obsessions came into play, & they reveled in it, but with the pleasures came the hazards as well. They had never known death in their space. Before they had eternity and now they have been introduced to oblivion. The Queen had decided the benefits of our world far outweighed the risks and the satisfactions of the flesh would never be restrained again. And with the horrible realization made clear my eyes snap back into focus on the creature in front of me. Her image kept shifting in front of me. Rippling as though I was looking at her through a waterfall “you have seen my power “she stated “ Your species will fall you will fall and I will build a castle with your bones.” With that, her mouth began opening inhumanly wide and she shed her human disguise. I tried to turn and run. I tried to be the smart-ass and say.

        “ Well that escalated quickly” but the hand against my forehead had turned into one of her hairy spider legs and she had sunk one of her claws into me and the Queen had me paralyzed. She was uncomfortably close almost on top of me; I could feel her breath on my cheeks. She whispered in my ear “your minds are so incredibly feeble that I have to wait for one of you to be unconscious before I can communicate with you. I have shown you my mind, now it’s time to see what’s in yours.”

My mind raced, unconscious I thought of course, that would explain the surreal feel in the air, the way I could instinctively know something I should not by any other means know.  I’m dreaming that is how she’s managing to communicate with me she’s communicating with my subconscious mind. But if this is a dream I think it is time to change it into a nightmare, for her. Time to take control; willing my protective armor into existence around me I made some quick modifications on the fly.  I was suddenly freed from the Queen’s influence and she recoiled away from me in pain.  

“Sorry your majesty” I said  “but my mind isn’t open for public viewing that’s one thing you’ll find about our species we tend to be close minded.”

        I activated my first modification, and 2 18-inch blades extended for my forearms. They were wide blades and resembled something an Orc from Middle earth might swing around rather than an elegant katana blade had envisioned. Still they would serve their purpose. Striking the best combat pose that years of Hollywood viewing taught me I stated arrogantly that this food was off the menu, I was about to close the restaurant entirely. As I launched myself into an attack as if I could fly unaided by wires but instead I found myself pulled backwards through the air in the corridor. The fluorescent lights began shining so brightly I had to close my eye to avoid being blinded.

I heard the commotion around me and became aware that to soldiers were dragging me over asphalt long before I regained my ability to see. I was still in my armor, but now I was laying down on a cot in a makeshift field hospital set up in the parking lot. A paramedic was trying to figure out how to pry me out of my casing to see if he could get some vitals on me. I managed to mumble

         “Please stop that. You will only hurt yourself” loud enough for the medic to hear me. Before I fell back into a restless sleep full of dreams of possibilities, potential opportunities and gratefully no spiders.