Issue #3
"The Morbius Project, Part 4"
"Guilty Menagerie"
Written by Gary M. Miller
"...at the latest news, the Alchemax guardian known as Spider-Man has apparently apprehended the super-villain known as Venom. Seen here are holos taken by one onlooker of the Hudson River area during the battle. At last word Venom, formerly known as the mysterious Roman, is being transported to Alchemax Industries for study..."
WHAM! With a thud out goes the holovision as with tremendous force the man now known as Morbius throws a brick at the huge monitor, shattering the picture tube into a million pieces.
"Just what we needed, man!" one of his new-found friends shouts at him. "That's enough of corps, enough of experiments, and soon, it'll be enough of Spider-Man!"
From a large perch on the side of a tall building, Morbius looks cannily down at the motley crew which he has gathered--or rather, has gathered around him. Some are dressed perfectly normal, while others are dressed in the garb of other cults in the area--Spiderites, Thorites, and more. He sighs, knowing that many of them believe their original saviors have deserted them--Thor turned out to be a phony (editor's notes: as seen in the "Fall of the Hammer" storyline) and Spider-Man has gone corporate.
Morbius turns to all of them, himself dressed in a special insulation suit he has found in a shop downtown--stolen, but worth it--and speaks in a loud and enraged voice: "I shall not desert you, my friends! Unlike your past saviors, I am not one who will be wished away, whisked away. I do not portend to be a savior but for the chance to rectify the mistakes--the genetic errors--which make me this way. You see me before you--chalk-white skin, long hair and gruesome teeth--and I am glad that you do not take me at face value. Surely men would believe me a monster, an outcast--as many of you are here in this Downtown. That is why we have united."
"What shall we do?" yells one of the crowd to him.
"We shall avenge ourselves--free ourselves from the corporate filth which has bogged down this part of New York!"
"Who shall we go after?"
"All corps--in search of what made me this way--what made me a monster."
"And then what?" asks another.
"And then we discover all that this corp has been hiding, as the corp must be doing--we find the technology to cure me and any other unfortunate ones, and we kill them!" Morbius, once known as the Son, jumps off his mini-pedestal to the ground below and runs away. The group begins to follow, and then hears his voice, like nails on a chalkboard:
"I do not need you for a while. Go in peace and I shall call for you when you are needed. And believe me, need you I shall." He then walks away while mild sobs are heard from the group as they disband.
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Tyler Stone waits at the runway for his plane. He breathes deeply, but the air is obscured by the scent of his medicines filtering in through the tubes up his nostrils. He sits in his hover-chair, unable to walk or move a muscle in his defense. SHIELD agents accompany him, flanking him at left and right, as a private hovercraft lands near him. He can see the black jet and a curious logo, a giant "W" painted like a snake.
He sees a shape take form on the craft, but ignores the greenish-skinned, bony man. The laughing man.
The hovercraft stops before the three men, the small craft opening, and a staircase brought out to the door. A man steps out from the vehicle, one dressed in all-black and wearing dark sunglasses in the night.
"Mr. Stone," he says, "welcome aboard. Come inside, please."
The SHIELD agents are wary and their expressions convey as much, but Tyler is not a patient man and so commands his hover-chair to the door. He disappears inside and the craft lifts off into the night air.
Tyler looks out the window of the craft, down at the ground. He sees Alchemax Tower in the background and says to himself, "Oh Mike, now you're in charge. Damn you for it. I wonder if I should've told you all you needed to before I left. Oh the shock with it, I suppose you'll find out if you can handle a megacorp sooner or later!" With that, he laughs sinisterly and the craft disappears into the sky.
As he leaves, the green man reappears on the roof of the building behind the two SHIELD agents. It is Halloween Jack.
"Oh, my luck! The great Tyler Stone is gone! Yippee-yip-yip! That means it's rip pickin's over there at the 'Max! Oh, look out world, look out Mike-- just plain look out, 'cause I'm here and there ain't nothin' gonna stop me now! Oh yes, to avenge Vegas! And luring that Son closer--that's an added bonus for you, O'Hara!!!"
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Morbius soon arrives at the temple of his first new friend, the voodoo woman Le'Osha. She, slim and lithe, dark-skinned, black-haired, see him and as he sits down begins to speak.
"Young one, you have returned! Where have you been? Son, I trust that you have some idea of why you are what you are now. Is this not so?"
"Do not call me Son anymore. Now and forever I am Morbius," he says through gritted teeth.
"Yes, I had sensed as much. You choose the name of your champion from the twencen. A name infamous for his battle against the blood disease which transformed him into a living vampire--as well as his many battles against Spider-Man (editor's notes: beginning with Amazing Spider-Man #101), as well as his membership in the Midnight Sons order (editor's notes: see "Siege of Darkness" crossover). I had suspected you would. You have a shock of a reputation to uphold."
"Shock you," Morbius says in response. "I have gathered a cult of my followers. We will find who did this to me, who made me this way, and exact vengeance."
"Is that what you really want?" Le'Osha asks.
"It's the only way I have to go," Morbius replies, standing up and walking toward the door.
"If you'll excuse me," he says, "I have pseudo-vampires to kill." He phases through the door and exits.
"Thor be with you, then," says Le'Osha.
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He spies them from afar, watching the whole deal go down from several stories above. Five or six of them. One of them, the trenchcoated one, looks like the dealer. Morbius stares down at them and feels the familiar tingle all over his body. His teeth sharpen into fine points, his hands become claws, and his body now feels very light yet powerful at the same time. His body strengthens as he feels his muscles harden, tighten. He pounces upon the group.
Morbius lands on the ground with a near thud, but immediately attacks all, trying to get his hands on the dealer and his product, the "Vamp-X" which transforms the ordinary men into vampires. He is nearly too late, as most of the group have already ingested the virulent drug, and are already mutating into drug-crazed pseudo-vamps.
Morbius swiftly kicks two as they transform, and they are knocked out onto the ground. Two more come easily, as he punches them in the jaw then the stomach before the full effects of the drug can be felt. One more is a bit more trouble and requires a number of punches and kicks before he falls.
**Almost too easy,** Morbius thinks, and then feels something enter his back. A jab. The jab of a needle.
"Check and mate," the dealer says, revealing himself to Morbius. Morbius tries to fight against him but finds his limbs leaden and himself unable to move. Again and again, he is hit across the face, in the stomach, and everywhere else, falling, collapsing in a heap on the ground.
"As you may have guessed, my name's The Dealer. I suppose you must be Morbius. You've been taking down everyone I've been supplying with my wonder- drug. Give me a call sometime and tell me how you like it for yourself!" With that he departs and Morbius threatens to blackout.
However, he does not. He feels something, an inexplicable rush through him. The drug the Dealer gave him, it was the Vamp-X! But somehow it was different--perhaps it was laced with something other than the drug itself?
Morbius feels his body twist and contort, becoming material, then immaterial, then material again. It twists like a snake. He sprouts hair all over his body, a fine blue fur. Hands shape themselves into claws and a human face becomes like an animal's. He grows taller and more muscular, and leaps up to the rooftops of Downtown, looking for salvation in one form or another while bellowing a savage, guttural howl.
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Le'Osha lights her ceremonial candles in an early Sunday morning mass, waiting for Morbius to return. She sits down to pray when she hears the howl of a beast bursting through the cracks of the building. It is loud, perhaps too loud for her gentle ears, and she opens her eyes to see a form crash through the ceiling fixture, the stained-glass window shattering into tiny pieces as the creature lands in a collapsed heap at room's center, crashing onto pews, splintering them into pieces as well. The creature, eyes large and blood-red, stands up, hunched-over, and howls again, this time with the basis as Le'Osha's own name.
"My Son? Morbius? Is that you?" She sees the exaggerated features, the distended brow, the full and long fangs, the claws and the bluish fur eclipsing the white skin, muscles bursting through the fabric of his tattered clothing. It looks at Le'Osha, snarling but then reduced to whimpering. It abates for the briefest of moments, and Le'Osha walks over to the creature.
"What's happened to you? What be happening? Tell me, so I can help!"
"Help...?" it stutters. "Hurts... heal... drug infected... dealer... help...!" It mutters these words, trying to say more, but frustrated it shatters the fallen pews, leaping to light fixtures above, swinging from them like a wild ape, screaming over and over and over. Finally, within an hour of the shouting and pain, the sun begins to rise and Morbius, or the thing which was once he, senses this, collapsing in a heap at Le'Osha's altar.
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"You're going to be all right. Rest is what you be needing."
The voice the beast hears is Le'Osha's as he awakens. He knows it is night now, and visions flood his shattered mind. Visions of dealers, and pseudo- vampires, and Vamp-X, and Spider-Man; of worshippers and voodoo priestesses and the true Morbius; assorted visions of Tyler Stone and the doctor who made him this way (what was his name?); and alas he jolts awake, the fever subsiding but still there. He reaches for his throat. Mentally as well as physically, he is better. He finds his voice again, but as he looks himself over, he realizes that the changes have not reversed themselves. He is what he is.
"Oh shock," he says to no one in particular. "Le'Osha, what the shock--?"
"Rest, I said. You came in this way last night. Do you know what happened to you?"
"No, I--" he winces in pain as he tries to move. Again he looks at himself and is reminded of the monster he has become. "Yes, I do. Someone, a Dealer, made me change into that thing. Injected me with that Vamp-X stuff. Don't know how it reacted to my metabolism. Something's terribly wrong though. Dizzy. Can't seem to stand. Hard to think."
"I helped you last night. I wove some spells to make you rest, then worked on some voodoo to heal you. I hesitate to think what may have happened had I not tried those methods to fix your state of mind."
"Yes," he says in return. "And I thank you. But I have to get out there-- the Dealer knows what I must--knows the name of the corp which I'm sure supplies him. I'll be able to rid myself of this curse, forever, and then..."
"You can't go," Le'Osha retorts. "The magick still must work or you may never be well in your mind. Saying nothing of your physical appearance."
"I don't care," Morbius says with another snarl. "I have to get those rat-bastards for doing this to me. I need it. Need my alliance to help me. Bring down the corps, bring down---!" He winces in pain again but pushes the feeling of sickness away and rises slowly to his feet. He leaps like a master gymnast into the air and out the hole he left the night before.
"Again. This has got to stop. Control your impulses which may come to destroy you, or I fear for all of us," Le'Osha says as he leaves.
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Again. The same rats as before, as yesterday. Morbius spots them easily with his night vision. He realizes that his eyes have been red the entire time he has been awake since the metamorphosis--perhaps he has permanent changes to his sight now. He doubts being able to see in the light at all, sensitive as his eyes have now become.
On the other hand, his senses have multiplied a thousandfold. He feels the concrete particles in the ledge beneath his hands and feet, knows how each hair is affected by the wind blowing. He can hear exactly what the people below are saying and it annoys the shock out of him. He can taste and smell the acrid and pungent gases as they enter his mouth, and smell the precise drug that is Vamp- X.
Able to put the feeling off no longer, he pounces as he had before, roaring savagely, cutting into the gang with his huge claw-like hands. He smells their blood and tastes it on his tongue. Tainted. Drugs.
Killing the others savagely, Morbius turns to recognize the Dealer. He corners him and takes him down.
"You're going to tell me what I want to know," Morbius says. "And then you may go. If you lie, you die."
"All right, all right, I'll talk! What'd that drug do to you, man??? You look like--"
"I know shockin' well what I look like!" Morbius hisses, moving in closer. "I want to know where the drug comes from. I want it off the streets and I need to go to its source for that, understand?"
"Please, man, anything but that! I don't want to die but I can't tell you! I don't know!"
Morbius senses the man's heartbeat, speeding faster. "You're lying," he says. "Tell or die."
"It's. . . it's. . . Alchemax. . ."
"Alchemax? Home of the corporate Spider-Man? And who is in charge of this Alchemax?"
"Miguel O'Hara!" the man replies, shaking.
Morbius lowers his fangs and rips open the neck of the Dealer's shirt, looking at his neck. "You have been most helpful. I reward you by allowing you to be my feast for the night!" he exclaims, then pushes his fangs deeply into the Dealer's neck, draining him of his energy. He does not, however, kill him.
"Strange," Morbius remarks afterward. "The life-energy seems to refresh me as well as make me more lucid, more normal. Even now I am reverting back to my original form. This requires more research." With this, he flies off.
"At least I know now. Miguel O'Hara and Alchemax, as well as Spider-Man! My three enemies! All in one convenient place. We shall see if any provides a sufficient challenge. . ."
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EPILOGUE 1
"Here we are, Mister Stone. London, England, Home of Drekk. Enjoy your stay."
Tyler Stone hovered in his chair off the craft to behold the huge set of buildings that comprised the Drekk Foundation. He was greeted by armed security men. One thing bothered him though:
"You say, as I've heard you ad nauseam since I was on the plane, that I am staying shortly. I have a job here at Research and Development, as I was told."
A man walked up, dressed in white, and Tyler assumed he was a doctor. He carried a full syringe.
"Now Tyler, you know that these people know what they're talking about. So why don't you just relax?" And with that, he entered the syringe into Tyler's neck, squeezing the fluid in until Tyler collapsed in his hoverchair.
"Prep him. We need to get started right away," the doctor said to the guards before walking away.
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EPILOGUE 2
Michael Fielding thinks he is much. But, friends, he is not.
His life--what else would it be but--planned? Worse case, a carefully- constructed lie?
He looks in on the patients for the Drekk Foundation every day. What caused them to be this way? There must be some way to find out what did this to them. And furthermore, if this mental illness seemed akin to a communicable pathogen, why hadn't Fielding been affected, so to speak? What had made him better than the hapless souls treated like rats in cages at this series of white rubber rooms?
There must be some way, Fielding thinks even as a group of orderlies comes to him, one male and one female. In their hands is a straitjacket, and some other device--a neural destabilizer. It is time.
"Come on, 'doctor'. Your duty is ended today. Ready for some rest?"
"Until tomorrow morning," Fielding says and holds out his arms for them to bind. They start wrapping him up when he bursts free with a sudden rush of adrenaline. He flings the orderlies across the hall, but one of them luckily does not lose consciousness and gets back up immediately, neural stabilizer freed from his partner's hand. Fielding comes at him, but the disruptor changes the situation.
Fielding is unconscious, so the orderly finishes straitjacketing him and leads him into his cell.
After he seals him away, he helps the other orderly to her feet.
"Just another one of the patients? What makes him able to be on the premises, in the halls instead of in his cell?"
"Special case. He is a doctor, or at least he used to be."
"What happened to him?"
"Daddy Alchemax treated him bad, I heard. Took his toys away. He came to Drekk a nervous wreck. You'd have to ask the higher-ups as to the exact conditions of his confinement, but that takes someone a bit more courageous than me."
"Not me, I'll see what they're up to. They've got to be testing us..."
And they stride off down the hall. Behind them, Fielding wakes in his cell. His one thought is of who had disturbed his activities at Alchemax, and he'd soon be here with him, yes he would, yes he would. . .
And Tyler Stone would come to regret the day he eliminated the Morbius Project.
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EPILOGUE 3
Miguel O'Hara never particularly cared for nights such as these. But he couldn't complain--it really was nice--for a night's rest before once again heading off to Alchemax as CEO in the morning. And especially today, after catching Roman--or Venom, whichever name you use.
He jumped into bed hours ago and is now suddenly jolted awake again by a slight draft.
"Lyla! What the shock is with--"
He stops then to see a shadow across the room from him. He looks beside the bed, puts on his glasses, and gazes straight into the eyes of Morbius, floating like a ghost right inside at the window.
And Morbius, fangs fully extended, is not particularly happy.
Our first FALL OF ALCHEMAX tie-in! Continuing from the pages of SPIDER-MAN 2099 UG #2, it's the rematch (sort of) that you've been waiting for since issue #0-- Morbius vs. Spider-Man--the 2099 version!!! What more need be said, except be here for something totally unexpected! And yes, we strongly suggest you read that book before coming back here...
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