As Blue Lantern continue to drain the remaining energy from Sinestro's ring, stopping him from breaking out of Deadpool's ropes, he saw that the Goblin Queen had become a problem for the remaining heroes. From his knowledge of his allies, none were particularly powerful against psychics so they'd have to take a different strategy. He created two large floating fists and slammed one into the Goblin Queen whilst shouting in order to distract her.

"Queen. I should think your reign will end before it has had a chance to begin."

While he did so, he purposefully turned her attention away from the other heroes, allowing whoever recovered fast enough to land a blow stealthily.

The Matriarch

the Matriarch sat in an old abandon home that no one had lived for many years. she didn't mind having to stay in the place for a little while. right now she was looking for possible allies to join her plans for global domination. right now she was in New York which seemed like it would very promising in her search, and with her powers it would not take long to find suitable villains to join her. she had many of her birds to go and look for super powerful villains. when they found someone, she would enter the bird's mind and share its vision and senses. this made it easy to spy on her enemies since most cities had big populations of birds, they would never guessed that the birds who were spying on them were sent by her. the Matriarch held the staff of Aves in her right hand snd wondered how long her search would take until she found individuals worthy enough to join her.

Spidey nodded quickly as his attention was focused elsewhere. As Sinestro's powers were drained away and the Yellow Ring was no longer an issue for the heroes, Spidey moved to rope him up nice and tight. Then, just like the dip-shit he was, Deadpool wrapped a rope around the villain and said he was gonna bring him in. Yeah, like that was gonna happen. When Deadpool ran to go and assist Thor (but got his un-killable ass handed to him), Spidey rolled his eyes and quickly roped Sinestro upside down on a lamppost. "That oughta take care of you for a while.." Spidey whispered to himself before he turned around to see Goblin Queen absolutely destroying everybody. While he didn't know much about her, he knew she had incredible psychic powers and could command an army of hell-spawn at any given time. However, the fact remained that he had just kicked the shit out of her new boyfriend, so after Legacy and Thor were down, she turned her enraged gazes to Spidey. "Ooooooh, this isn't gonna be good." Spider-Man exclaimed before a sudden extreme pain shot through his head. The young hero screamed in pain and collapsed to the ground, wriggling like he was having a seizure. In his head, his "spider-senses" were going off all at once on their highest frequency. It would have been exactly like if Dylan were a dog, and a dog whistle was being blown.

As Spidey continue to writhe in pain, Goblin Queen began to laugh maliciously. "Oh, you all.. You're all pathetic. Did you really think you could defeat me? How cute.." She cackled in a sinister tone before she walked towards Spider-Man. Roughy gripping him by the throat, she lifted the teen hero over her head, the concentration of her psychic powers still intact. "As for you, Spider... You'll pay for whatever you've done to my Goblin! I'm going to split your head open like a watermelon!" She whispered before her grip increased, her sharp nails digging into the sides of his neck. The insane screeching of his spider-sense was killing the hero, and he was slowly losing consciousness. He needed to act, and fast. With a quick motion from his hand, he fired off a web-bolt towards Goblin Queen's stomach and caught her off-guard. As she stumbled backwards, her focus on the group was broken and the pain instantly stopped in Spidey's head. He wasn't sure if she had completely lost focus on the others, but he was free from her grasp for now.

"I know that a gentleman should never hit a woman.." Spidey menacingly said before he fired a web off towards the building behind Goblin Queen and forcibly pulled himself forwards. As his fist collided with her fact at around 3mph, he said "But I think for you, I can make the exception, lady." The force of his punch knocked her off her feet, temporarily stunning her. As he released the webs and stopped himself, he began to charge to Goblin Queen's position and strike again. However, she raised a quick hand and stopped him dead in his tracks, before tossing him roughly at the side of a building. As he tried to get up, her powers levitated him once again and slammed him roughly on the hood of a car. Now, Spidey was throughly in trouble. The bottom part of his mask and adios areas on his costume were torn, revealing the skin underneath. His mouth was red and swollen as he began to cough up blood. This was already a long night, and this bitch wasn't making things easier. As she lifted him into the air once more with her powers and slammed him into the street, breaking some more of his bones, Spidey began to think it was the end of Spider-Man and Dylan Robertson. What would Aunt Alexandra and Uncle Joe say if they found out that not only was their nephew a super hero, but also that he died during a battle with a super villain.

However, as the young man felt water from a pipe that had been broken from his impact slowly leaking out across his back, a small tingling sensation began to grow at the back of his head. No, he didn't have a concussion, but it felt more like his spider-sense. As he tried to see what was causing it (aside from the obvious inevitable painful death he was about to experience), he saw a small strange object that resembled black goop moving across the pavement. As it would seem, the goop had reached his left hand and seemingly sniffed it. Curious about what this creature was or why it was there, but not curious enough to risk its life, Spidey wiggled his finger to indicate the creature go away before the Goblin Queen acted again. Rather then leave, the creature suddenly extended a thin black limb and latched itself onto his finger. Now panicking, Spidey tried to shake his hand more to get it off him. The creature, however, did not budge and even began to grow in size, quickly consuming his hand, then his arm. As he tried to get rid of the black sludge creature, Goblin Queen had finished laughing and slowly began to approach him. "Just as I expected. You put up a fight, Spider.. But it wasn't good enough. I wonder how my Goblin will thank me after he learns that I've killed the Spider-Man for him?" She maliciously whispered as her boots clicked against the pavement. For all Spider-Man knew, the others had gotten up by now and were fighting with her, but he wasn't paying attention to that. His mind was focused primarily on this strange creature. As whatever happened was going on, the creature continued to grow and cover his body, repairing the parts of his suit that were destroyed in the process. Finally, after a few minutes or so, the creature stopped wriggling around and solidified on his suit. Strangely, Dylan felt a surge of power running through his body and he felt reinvigorated. He began to stand up slowly, a hand on his head. Once he was fully standing, he looked down at his hands and observed them. Somehow, the creature had morphed itself into the exact design of his suit and moulded itself onto his body without causing him harm. Still distracted by what had happened to him, he turned his head slowly to the glass building beside him and looked at his reflection in the mirror. "What the hell just happened?" he asked himself as he observed the black suit he was now wearing.

Legacy was still recovering from the mental assault that Goblin Queen had attacked him with, and he looked to see the villain beating down Spiderman. he saw the web slinging hero knocked down by Goblin Queen, and he was trying to clear his mind quick enough to go on the attack. when he was ready to make a move against the villain, he saw that Spiderman was now where a different colored suit, it was black and Legacy had never it before, was it something new that the hero had created? no matter, he had to help take down Goblin Queen. he fired a blast of white concussive energy at the villain, and when it hit it would feel like being hit by a wall of bricks.

<Is it time?>

A hissing voice of a symbiote questioned its host, Scipio, as the two gazed upon a hazy image of Treseklion Laboratories from the dark realm of Sheol. The image gave them a "live video feed" of what was currently going on within the secretive and well guarded facility, something which proved to be quite useful in the last few days Scipio and the symbiote had spent planning their little assault on the place. They had seen many of Treseklion's dirty little secrets: genetic experimentation on both animals and humans, weapons testing, and probably of most importance...

Their experiments with the alien creatures known as symbiotes. There were many of those wretched little beings down there in the underground of the lab, and Abaddon was going to raid the place and free every last one of his "kin". To some extent this was a bit of an altruistic mission, but its true purpose was to prepare the way for something Abaddon had been planning ever since he realized the severity of the crime and injustice in his city and its neighbors.

With a wave of his hand, Scipio made the image dissipate into the murky air of the realm.

"Yes... it's time..."

<Finally...>

The symbiote began to spread over its host as he stretched his hands outwards to create a portal back to the realm of Earth. As the alien finished covering Scipio's entire body, a purplish rift tore open in front of him, through which Abaddon jumped through with growing and wicked anticipation.

---

"So, how are the new experiments coming along? Any progress in working with these damned things?"

"No, sorry sir. The little bastards keep on killing any potential hosts that come their way, as well as anyone who gets near them. It's kind of strange too, considering these 'simisots'-"

"Symbiotes," corrected the questioning scientist.

"Right, symbiotes. Like I was saying, its odd how they act aggressively to potential hosts considering their species is supposed to bond to any living thing in order to survive."

The lead scientist who had been asking the questions sighed in frustration. Years spent working with these creatures, and they still hadn't found a way to get them to bond to a host they picked out for them. The only times some symbiotes actually bonded to a host were escape attempts, quickly taking over the individual's mind in order to try and make their way out of Treseklion. Those attempts had ended in failure however, and then subsequent "punishment" for the guilty symbiotes.

"We're losing serious funding because of this! What's it going to take for-"

BUZZ

BUZZ

BUZZ

*ATTENTION TRESEKLION EMPLOYEES. THERE HAS BEEN A SIGHTING OF AN UNIDENTIFIED INDIVIDUAL WITHIN THE FACILITY. SCANS INDICATE THE INTRUDER IS NOT HUMAN.*

One of the workers immediately punched a few buttons on the wall to bring up a flatscreen visual of where the intruder was last spotted. The video feed was grisly, showing the corpses of several guardsmen and scientists lying slaughtered and dismembered upon the ground. In the distance, there was the silhouette of a hunched over figure ripping off the head of several guardsmen at once.... with tendrils.

"Another escape attempt?!"

"No sir.... no one has even touched a symbiote container since this morning, there's no way one of them could have gotten out and infected someone here!"

The screen froze and zoomed in upon the savage intruder.

"That's... that's not even one of ours..."

"How the hell did it even get in then?! We're supposed to have state of the art security!"

"I'm reviewing video feeds from minutes ago, it seems that this guy literally just appeared out of nowhere...."

---

Abaddon hissed at the intercom as he heard the announcement for all the security forces to hone in on him and neutralize him. Pathetic. No one could stop him, and nothing was going to stand in the way of his current goal. He would destroy any machine and slaughter any person who came near him, just as he had been doing for the past several minutes as he advanced upon the control room.

"HALT!"

Abaddon turned to see a man armed with hi-tech weapons. He quickly dodged the first shot and lashed out a tendril towards him, successfully severing his arms from his body.

"Karma is a bitch, isn't it?" Abaddon questioned mockingly as he bounded down the corridors and deeper into the facility. As he had seen in Sheol, several experimental subjects floated in glowing containers. A horrible sight, but it would all be gone soon...

---

SEVERAL MINUTES LATER

"Nothing's stopping it! At this rate-"

BOOM

A machine came crashing through the door way with Abaddon following closely behind.

"What, we'll show up here in no time?!"

The Treseklion employees all stood there in shock at Abaddon's bloody figure. He had made short work of anything that had come his way, devouring the humans the symbiote told him would be the tastiest.

"Ah... the final room... my destination..."

Abaddon pointed a tendril to the control panel behind the workers as he advanced forward.

"Wait!" Called out the lead scientist. "I know what you're going to do... release your 'family' or something... right? Please, to the human within the suit.... don't do this. You have no idea of the destruction and chaos these things will cause if you let all of them loose!"

"Actually..." Abaddon suddenly speared the man with an extended claw. "We do, but this chaos and destruction will bring forth a much needed change. And the best part about it is-"
Many tendrils sprang forth from his body as he skewered the remaining scientists.
"We'll be the ones overseeing everything about it!"

Abaddon sprang forward upon the control panel, stretching out his symbiote to punch in multiple commands into the machine. A sealed doorway suddenly revealed itself as it opened for entry, through which Abaddon rushed through. Before him was a massive room lined and stocked with several capsules containing different colored, amorphous forms. Further down was the controls for opening all the containers.

"Now then..."

---

Alarm blared as all of the symbiote containers opened to let loose their alien captives. Abaddon was long gone, deciding to watch the creatures destroy what remained of the facility. Everything had gone perfectly today....

as the facility was being destroyed by the symbiotes, several of Matriarch's crows had spotted the destruction while flying to find worthy allies to join their master. they flew over to where the destruction was happening to get a better look at the perpetrators, and saw that they were strange gooey like beings. crows were smart creatures and they could tell what creature was not from earth and what was, and these monstrosities were certainly not from this planet. they telepathically called out to Matriarch to tell her what they found.

"what have you found my servants?" she asked in their minds.

they all said in unison, "we found a human facility that is being destroyed by strange goo like creatures that do not seem from this planet"

Matriarch smiled after hearing the news and told her crows, "stay and keep track of the creatures, try and follow them wherever they go"

"yes your majesty" the crows replied, and flew around above the facility, keeping an eye on the commotion going on below them.

Hybrid had escaped in the midst of the chaos his fellow symbiote made. He started arguing with himself.
'We should go hunting for a host.' (Phage)
"Well, that would be nice, yes, but a brown blob moving around would cause suspicion." (Riot)
;Plus, people have been known to walk through these places all the time.; (Agony)
<Yeah, only low-lives who smell like beer and tobacco.> (Lasher)
'Well, what better do we have? We look like a puddle. Anyone could step on us'
;That would be the point.;
'How so?'
"Some unlucky man steps on us, and then we get a host."
<Exactly>
'well, then, we wait.'
>Agreed< (All at once)
Gordon was walking through an alley to get back home, when he stepped in this... what the hell!?
The thing he thought was a puddle was in fact some brown sort of goo. It leaped from the ground, and started climbing up his leg. He tries to run off, but it kept him anchored to the ground.
'ooo, this one is giving us some sport!'
;he's quite the fighter.;
Gordon tries to get it off with his hands, but then it just gets onto his arms. He rips his hands away, and starts fighting off the symbiote. All the while tendrils start flying out and destroying cars and large balls of the stuff fly out and bash holes into buildings.
"Stay.. still you idiot!"
The symbiote makes one final leap, and connects with his head. Gordon stops as four minds meld with his own thoughts.
H-Hello? Who the hell are you?!
;Relax, we are not trying to harm you. Now, let's get to a more private spot, eh?:
"These humans are ridiculous."
;shhhhh, this one seems appropriate.;
Gordon walks away, feeling like he could run faster.
'try it. We gave you some things to test out.'
He starts running, the whole world almost becoming a blur. He laughs, and jumps, going two times higher than any human could. He lands onto a wall, and starts to climb it with ease.
<You have flight as well. Trust us?>
Not really
>Jump, we will stop the fall.<
He jumps from the building, and finds himself speeding through the air. He looks to his side to see large wings lifting him into the air.
>You have plenty of combat abilities as well. If you want you can go test them out somewhere.<
Gordon nods in understanding, but decided to scour the city first. He sees a group of some pretty well-known heroes fighting the goblin queen.
How about that?
>If you wish.<
He dives towards them, and brings his wings out to slow his fall at the last moment, landing on his feet. The wings go back into the symbiote, and Hybrid says "Need some help?" shards of the symbiote material start launching at the goblin queen from his shoulders, and his hands get long claws on the ends. He charges her, his long tongue hanging out in anticipation.

James waited patiently to be seated and started flipping casually through a menu, trying to be both conversational and polite as he tried to think of what to order and waited for Valeria to do the same thing.

"So, if you don't mind my asking, miss, what brings you to New York City exactly? I used to live here for a while but I travel a lot and I'm...sort of on vacation myself, so it's nice to meet another traveler in such a big place."

He tapped on his menu thoughtfully, struggling to choose between his original goal of trying a hamburger and just ordering apple pie, the internal debate tearing his psyche apart on a massive level. He supposed he could order both, but then which order to have them in, and was it really a good idea to order dessert? What if an army of SHIELD operatives burst into the restaurant or some kind of superhuman attacked them while they were eating? Then he wouldn't get to enjoy his pie at all. Well, he supposed he could eat it while he fought off an army or two, but wouldn't that seem just a little lacking in humility? His dad probably wouldn't approve...but what if his dad were the one to show up, or if his mother was the one heading the SHIELD strike team? Would they think he was on a date with this bizarre girl?! He'd probably die of embarrassment at the misunderstanding before they could try and capture him. And what if-

James shook his head violently to try and clear his mind. Sometimes being trained and able to envision so many outcomes to any given situation was a lot more of a weakness than an asset.

Valeria picked up her menu, and began to flip through it. From the looks of things, this restaurant was some kind of patisserie. Which was fine by her, really. In fact... it was the best thing she could have hoped for! She'd order some kind of small lunch(those sandwiches looked pretty good, really) and then have some delicious cake. But there were so many different kinds of cakes to choose from... well, she could always simply order one of each. She had plenty of money, so it wouldn't be as issue at all. That sounded perfect for the small blonde girl.

As the boy asked his question, Valeria's response was an irritable one. However, her irritation was not directed at him.

"I'm here because my idiot father didn't think that I might want to do something other then be his heir with my life," she began, putting her menu down and folding her arms with a huff, "Sure, he had me educated and everything, but I don't want to just turn into a female version of him or whatever! But no, he wanted me to just follow in his footsteps. I don't want to do anything that stupid! Just because my father is the ruler of Latveria doesn't mean I'm going to just go along with whatever he says!"

It wasn't as if Valeria had a secret identity, after all.

*Back in Sheol...*

"Everything went according to plan," Abaddon mused as he created a purple and crimson vortex in front of himself. He began to make a swirling motion with his hand, in turn causing the dark energy to swirl even faster. As he did this, several demons flew overhead, each one tossing a frightened prisoner into Abaddon's vortex. They all screamed in agony as they were churned within the burning power of magic, and though they were burning, they weren't exactly consumed by the energy as would normally happen with just about anything that came into contact with it.

"Filth," Abaddon growled. "It's ironic how you all cry out for mercy, because that is the very thing your victims cried out for when you committed your atrocities against them."

<Murder, rape, torture,> hissed the symbiote.

"And the sad thing is... there are many more like you lot who continue to do such crimes even though they know there are beings stronger than they who could easily obliterate them..."

Abaddon was now mainly talking to himself now, keeping the vortex active as he observed the dozens of other tortures being carried out in his twisted realm.

"Perhaps the reason your kind still persists is because the punishment which comes to them is not nearly as harsh as it should be. The prisons of the world still treat you 'ethically', and the heroes are all but unwilling to strike you down where you stand."

The power of the dark magic intensified until it eventually did consume the bodies that were being churned within it.

"All that will be gone soon, however. We'll bring about true punishment and destruction for everyone, and then from the gore and ashes we'll reconstruct a new society..."

James stopped his tapping and his worrying and had to resist staring at this girl. After all, it wasn't every day that some haughty girl you meet on the street announces herself as the princess of an entire nation and the daughter of one of the most feared and well-known villains in the entire world. It was somewhat known that Doom had a daughter but if he thought the one person in the entire city of New York he'd happen to stop and help would be her he might have...no, if he was being honest with himself he'd probably have wound up helping her anyways even if common sense told him to run far, far away.

"Still a heck of a coincidence that I spend a whole year trying to get away from being a cape or whatever and the very first thing I do afterwards is sit down to lunch with Doctor Doom's daughter, What next, Rogers, take Darkseid to an all-you-can-eat pancake house?" talking to himself was a habit he'd never been able to break, though he'd often tried.

He turned back to Valeria again after his minor freakout. "Anyways um, I kinda know what you mean. My parents are always trying to force their expectations and plans on me too without even considering what I want and my father's...kind of a tough person to live up to, too."

That felt like kind of an understatement for James, although at least he knew well enough to take a bare minimum of effort not to mention his identity casually. Though come to think of it he wasn't sure if it mattered if people knew who Valeria was, since very few people would be willing to take advantage of the knowledge if it meant hurting the daughter of Doom.

Valeria raised her eyebrow as she listened to the boy's outburst. So he was familiar with being a superhero? And yet, trying to get away from it. Hmph. That was quite the opposite of what she was intending! However... finding an opportunity to be heroic was admittedly difficult. All the muggers and criminals she had attempted to valiantly beat up so far just ran in terror the moment she announced her identity! Certainly, this stopped them from doing the crime, but she couldn't actually beat them up and bring them to justice if they just ran away in terror. It was really hard to catch them! Valeria wished she'd gotten to do some research into teleportation magic, that would make that a lot easier...

"I didn't really expect some kind of monologue," she said, finally, waving her hand as she spoke, "But you're right. And I don't even want to live up to him! It's exactly why I'm trying to do something different. Father wanted me to grow up to be his successor, but he's a huge idiot! I'm going to be one of this world's heroes!"

With that, Valeria allowed herself a smug smile. Yes, it was perfect. She did want to try out saving people, anyone. Except for the mean dumb jerks. Someone else could handle them. But the regular people? She could try that! And on top of that, it would spite her Father. Doctor Doom wanted her to become a villain and ruler like he was? No way! She'd be a hero!

The blast of energy hit Goblin Queen directly in the abdomen and she was sent flying backwards. Legacy wasted no time and went in ready to make a huge barrage of punches at the villain. Goblin Queen used the time in between Legacy's blast of energy and his punches, to create a protective field of telekinetic energy . When Legacy's blows began to make contact with her, he found that the barrier would not break. He began punching at Goblin Queen with even greater force than before to try and was planning to break through the field telekinetic energy.

"Being a hero's a really great goal anyways, so I guess spiting your dad is a bonus on top of it if you want to look at it that way, and um, sorry about the rambling to myself, it's something I'm trying to work on."

It wasn't that James didn't want to become a superhero or the ultimate secret agent or whatever, it was more that he actually wanted to have a choice in the matter before anything else happened. Amazing hamburgers aside, that had really been the point of running away all across the globe like he had. To see the world and learn about himself before committing himself to any one thing. It could potentially have gone easier if he'd explained that to his parents first, but at the time it didn't seem worth the risk of them rejecting the plan and potentially 'grounding' him in a maximum security SHIELD facility or something.

"So um, does the menu look okay? Like I said I'm new in town and I've never been here before, so I'm not exactly sure if this place is up to the standards of Latverian Royalty."

"Whatever way you look at it, it's a good thing, right?" Valeria asked, waving her hand, "So it doesn't even matter why I'm doing it as long as I do it well."

Valeria really did want to save people(who weren't obnoxious stupid jerks), but... well, to put it simply at least she felt her chief goal was spiting her father. Though deep down... maybe saving people was higher? Not that she would ever admit it. Regardless, at the moment she was looking over the menu very deeply. As she expected, the main dish of a patisserie was the cakes. Their other fair sounded fine, but the cakes were the main draw of the place. And there were so many... so many cakes that sounded delicious... the small girl was finding her eyes shining as she read each of the names.

"It looks... it looks..."

It was around then the waiter arrived. Valeria's head snapped up.

"I'll have a chicken sandwich and ALL OF THE CAKES!"

James raised an eyebrow at the Latverian Princess's unusual order before adding

"Also a hamburger and an apple pie, please. A whole pie, not a slice."

He almost had to pity that poor waiter for suddenly finding himself in this sort of almost comedic situation, but as long as Valeria actually intended to pay for the sandwich and [i]ALL OF THE CAKES[i/] then he guessed it was okay, at least after considering the huge amount of money that would make for the restaurant in a single sitting. If they actually managed it, James would probably have to give the waiter a pretty significant tip. Ah well, service industry jobs were hard enough and the poor staff would probably deserve it.

"So, I guess it's satisfactory then? By the way, your dad wouldn't happen to be looking for you to drag you back to Latveria, prepared to utterly crush and incinerate or disintegrate anyone in his way right? Because that sort of thing might cut lunch a little short."

It would probably be just James' luck if some supervillain showed up before they could even start eating.

For a few moments, Valeria didn't hear any of this. No, she was basking in the image of her cakes. Her delicious, wonderful cakes... they all sounded so fantastic, how could she only order one? No, she was going to take one of all of them. It wasn't as if she couldn't pay... her mind was filled with images. Images of herself basking and a red velvet thrown, surrounded by her maids from the Latverian embassy. Each of them carried a cake, and many more cakes sat on tables around them. But the best part... the best part was how each of them were feeding her, taking turns, in their wonderful maid outfits and feeding her wonderful cake...

"... Huh? Wha?"

Valeria realized James was still talking to her after a few moments.

"... Oh, I don't think so! I think father is pretty preoccupied with some things," Valeria said. At least, her father hadn't yet shown any signs of pursuing her.