At the heart of New York City traffic was busy, cars and people crossing the street to get to work, everyone was busy to get somewhere. So busy they almost didn’t notice what was going on overhead… Floating high up in the sky dozens of floating machines circled and surrounded the island of Manhattan. Hovering over key areas of the city they started to emit a wave of energy, a force field was being raised that very quickly surrounded and caged the island. Even digging deep into the Earth the force field cut into subway, tunnel and cable lines. It was only THEN when everyone’s television went dead did the city notice and looked up at the energy bubble holding their city prisoner like some massive snow globe.
The gathering crowd looked up to see the dome, pointing and screaming in panic. "What’s going on? Who’s doing this?" At that moment three of the machines shun out a holographic image of the perpetrator responsible. Blurry at first the image cleared, showing an armor clad man wearing a green cloak and hood, his face masked in the same metal that covered his body. "Oh… It’s a person."
Glaring down at the city the steel faced Victor Von Doom narrowed his bloodshot eyes and spoke. "CITIZENS OF NEW YORK, I VICTOR VON DOOM DECLARE THAT YOU SHALL BE DETAINED FOR RANSOM FROM YOUR PATHETIC COUNTRY, FOR RECOMPASE TOWARDS TRANSGRESSION YOUR… UNITED NATIONS HAS WROUGHT AGAINST ME YOU SHALL BE MADE AN EXAMPLE OF FOR YOUR COUNTRY’S ARROGANCE AND TORPIDITY"
Silent the crowd looked up, terrified and… confused. "Why’s he doing this?"
Looking straight down at the lone citizen as if he could actually hear him Doom’s eyes rolled. "I’m mad, you are my hostage. When I’m pleased you will be free." Collectively the city blinked, finally realising the situation they were in. An outcry of screams and panic filled the streets along with complaints by those who STILL didn’t get the message.
"HEY! How’s I supposed to see the news? The TV’s dead." "I got tickets to the game, how am I going to get there with the subway not working?" "Are the stores still workin? I need to get smokes." "Hey JERK, down here in Brooklyn we’s got a name for Tyrants like yous." Snapping his attention at the one man pointing his finger up at him Doom’s hologram suddenly shrank down and zipped right in front of the surly New Yorker, with Doom glaring hellfire down at the surprised man. "I’m perfectly comfortable with being called a Tyrant, you think YOU know a word that would make me feel ashamed of that?!" Looking around the man lowered his head, shrugging his shoulders. "That’s right! Think before you speak you dull-witted animal." Snapping back to being an image overlooking the city Doom continued. "ANIMALS! THAT’S ALL YOU REALLY ARE, AND UNTIL YOUR NATION COMPENSATES ME FOR THEIR FAILURES, ANIMALS ARE WHAT YOU WILL BE!!!"
With the hologram gone the flying machines making up the force field containing the city began spraying out a blue mist over the sprawling metropolis. Covering the town like a blue fog it billowed and floated through the streets and buildings.
When it reached the people below everyone smelled in the faint blueberry scent… and started coughing.
***
Swinging back into the window of his apartment Spiderman closed the window behind him and pulled off his mask. "Awe jeez! That stuff smells awful, there should be a law against cruel and unusual punishment." Sniffling and sneezing Spiderman rubbed his running nose and staggered over to the kitchen to get a paper towel, from the bathroom he could hear MJ throwing up in the toilet, making the man wince after blowing his nose. Pulling out a couple bags of tea and a kettle Peter shuddered when he heard his wife throw up again, flushing repeatedly afterwards.
"You OK in there Mary Jane?" Staggering out of the washroom and clutching her sore stomach Mary Jane collapsed on the couch and groaned, her eyes heavy lidded. "Hey Tiger… Ugh… Why do we live in a city where super powered Assholes want to reduce it to a crater every week?"
"Beats Jersey."
Stiffening her lip, MJ nodded. Moving over to give Peter room to sit she accepted the mug of tea he heated up for the two of them. Sneezing loudly the couple looked out the window where the blue cloud still hadn’t dissipated. "Wonder what the UN did to cheese off ol’ Chrome Dome."
"I dunno, all I do know is the TV’s dead and I can’t get to my shoot today… This sucks."
"Hey MJ." Squinting at his wife Peter Parker scratched his head in confusion, coughing lightly while doing so. "When did you dye your hair blue?!"
"My hair?"
***
"REED? ‘Cough… Cough’ REED!" Storming through the Baxtor building and into her husband’s lab Susan Storm found Reed Richards going over a microscope, his hands eagerly taking notes while gauging the nobs of the lenses. "Ah Suzy, I found a strange virus airborne in the air filtration system, its rather fascinating."
"Reed haven’t you been looking outside? Doom’s got the entire city contained in a bubble and now… Wait. Did you say there’s a virus?"
"Oh yes and in large quantities too, if this got out it would infect the entire city rather quickly."
"THAT’S WHAT THAT CLOUD WAS?! OH MY GOD WE’RE GOING TO DIE!!!"
Looking up from his microscope the elastic man raised an eyebrow at that before shrugging and looking back in his microscope. "Nonsense Susan, the virus is non-lethal, if anything its VERY similar to the flu."
"Oh god oh god oh… Wait, what? The flu?" Immediately halting her panic the Invisible Woman was taken back. Shaking her head she looked out the window where the cloud eventually disappeared, a cough escaping her lips when she looked back to her husband with arms raised in confusion. "Doom trapped the whole city so he could give us the flu?! Is he running out of ideas?"
"Maybe he’s bored." Covering his mouth to halt a sneeze Reed never noticed his skin taking on a tint of sky blue. "Oh my, this is quite fascinating, it almost looks familiar."