Preparation 1.7

x-x-x

Wednesday, April 6, 2011.

The next day after my meeting with Amy's family I decided to go out on patrol.

I was going to keep playing it smart, minimizing my risks. Most of the capes, especially independent ones, had a high risk of death in their first six months. Even if my swarm should keep me up to date to the threats around me and my costume could easily hold against small caliber fire and blades, I was still vulnerable to all the other threats. Most of the capes from the three major gangs of Brockton Bay had the capability to injure or kill me. My greatest defense was that I didn't have to show myself to them if we fought.

Fortunately, as long as I wasn't going to go against another cape, I doubted that I'd be in any real danger.

I traveled again to Merchant territory and sent out my swarm to scout. I started to move deep inside their territory and was surprised at the difference compared to the edges. Here, there were more gang signs and more of their thugs were present. Everybody looked pretty relaxed, though. That was probably because the people on the streets here were either Merchants, those who worked with them or their clients. The civilians here, probably knew better than to wonder out at night.

At the edges it was a bit more different when I patrolled. Most of the conflicts happened there as the gang tried to expand. It was probably rare for conflict to happen deep inside one of the gangs' territory.

I stopped when I found a good concentration of drug dealers and street thugs. I hid behind a building and concentrated on my bugs. What I needed most was information. Fortunately, I was getting better at hearing with my swarm. I spent over an hour listening to them. Most of it was useless information, but I did get a few good tidbits.

All of the street dealers got their drugs from central distribution centers - generally the homes or apartments of mid level bosses. These places distributed drugs not only to places inside the Merchants territory, but also supplied to those who peddled in the rest of the city. That was where a lot of money and drugs were concentrated. And that was where I was going to strike.

I followed one of the drug peddlers who was apparently going to one such place.

Once the Merchant arrived at his destination, I found a new place to hide, about a block away from my new target. It was a normal looking house with five people living inside. An exchange was made, the newcomer gave money and received more drugs. The money was taken upstairs in a locked, windowless room and was carelessly thrown on a table.

Once the room was empty, I carefully moved a few insects all over the room. I found no monitoring devices in the room and the walls and door to the room were thick and solid.

On the table in the middle of the room were a few small bags of drugs and a lot of money stacks.

I didn't need to physically get inside the room to rob them blind. Their locked room meant nothing to me if the door had a few millimeters of space between it and the floor.

I grinned under my mask and went on with a more comprehensive scan. I carefully explored the rest of the house, finding no surveillance equipment and most importantly a few small windows on the second floor. They were so small that not even a young child could fit, but some were opened and my insects were more than small enough to use them.

I waited until all the people in the house went to sleep, before I went to work.

I split my bugs in five groups.

The first wave of bugs went inside the room, chewed around the elastic band of one of the stack of money and pushed each paper note down to the floor.

The second wave moved the notes from where they landed, took them to the door, put the front of the bill in the space between the door and the floor and moved it forward.

The third wave waited outside the room, in the hallway, got the front of the bill, and took over, moving it toward the window.

The fourth wave waited at the opened window. They stacked bills together and then, spiders used silk to tie them together. Once that was done, the stacks were thrown down to the ground.

From there, the last wave, made mostly of beetles, transported them to a place that was a block away from both me and my target. Once there, the money were stacked and tied together, again.

While my swarm worked like an assembly line, I was carefully monitoring the residents of the drug house to make sure they were asleep and scouting the surroundings of the path that the money were taking.

I was careful to even transport the elastic bands that were cut. No need to give anyone any clues of how I did it.

Twenty minutes later I was done. I carefully examined my surroundings one more time and went to grab my loot. I wished I could have done something about the drugs, but unless I wanted to use my bugs to transport each grain of drug out, I didn't see how I could do it. If they got too covered in the powdery drugs, the insects might even develop some problems. If they started to die or get sick, I might leave traces of my presence.

x-x-x

Tuesday, April 7, 2011.

Next day, I counted my money... or better said I had my swarm count the money. I still haven't worked on using the visual senses of the swarm, but I didn't need to.

First, I had my swarm cut all of the silk lines around the money.

Next, I had groups of insects grab notes from the pile. My own eyes provided the type of note and the bugs moved each type of note into a different pile.

Interestingly, once I was done with this, I knew how many notes were moved in each pile. A quick bit of mental math gave me the total sum. I had a bit over eleven thousand dollars. I grinned to myself, that was pretty good for a night's work.

Absentmindedly, I had groups of bugs stack each type of note into piles, while I thought on what I could do with all of these money.

What I wanted to do most of all, was to rent the abandoned house above my lair, reconnect the utilities and use it to dye my spider silk. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to go about it without giving out a real ID - an adult's ID. I had the same problem with making payments in my cape identity. I had no idea how to acquire things like Darwin's bark spiders or other types of useful insects. Perhaps I could use the PRT and the Protectorate as an intermediary. Otherwise, I'll have to learn how the independent heroes and villains do it.

x-x-x

Saturday, April 9, 2011.

Saturday, I met again with Amy in my civilian identity at the Boardwalk.

"Hey Amy," I said happily.

"Taylor," she smiled and gave me a quick hug. "How have you been?"

"Pretty good," I said. I looked around to see if there was anyone paying attention to us. There were a lot of people, many of them tourists window shopping on the Boardwalk. No one was looking at us, but there was no need to not be careful. I maneuvered our path to a more secluded spot, where we could look at the ocean and no one was close to us.

"Well?" Panacea asked expectantly.

"I went out twice this week and robbed two Merchant drug-houses. I got over seventeen thousand dollars from them."

"So much?" Amy asked. "You should be careful with this."

"Why?"

"Technically, independent heroes aren't allowed to take loot from villains," Amy explained. "Practically, it happens all the time, but the PRT and the Protectorate turns a blind eye to it. You can get a share of the loot legally, but that involves a lot of paperwork, it takes weeks and you only get a certain percentage instead of the full sum. New Wave does it, but Carol takes care of the paperwork."

"I see," I sighed. "Well, I don't really think I want to go through the bureaucracy. Though I probably won't concentrate so much on stealing from the gangs."

"That might be for the best," the healer said. "It might also be dangerous with the gangs. If they found out that you are stealing from them, they might target you more than if you were just patrolling and stopping normal crime."

"I kind of noticed it already. I made the first hit on a Merchant drug house on Wednesday and I didn't have any problem, so I did it again the next night. The merchants were more alert then, so I had to be more careful. Friday however, when I got to their territory, they were as active as a hive of bees. Their capes and some of Squealer's Tinker trucks were out too, so I decided to play it safe and retreated. I'll probably stay away from their territory until they cool off."

Amy smiled in relies. "Good," she said. "I'm glad you're careful."

"Don't worry, Amy. I don't plan to make robbing my main activity anyway. And when I'll do it, I'll be staying far away from the danger and let my bugs take the risk. I don't even plan on letting them find out that I do it using bugs, either. Once I find some way to sell my silk, I'll get a really good source of income anyway, so no need to worry that I'm going to piss off all the gangs too much."

"I could help you with selling your silk," Amy said. "I can put you in contact with someone from the PRT or the Protectorate."

I thought for a moment and shook my head. "Hm... not yet," I said. I wanted to be taken seriously when I talked to them. I didn't want to be walked all over them just because I was a new cape whose power was bug control. "I still want to get a bit more experience before talking with them."

"Well, if you meet them, don't be too surprised if they want to talk to you about it. My sister already talked with the wards about you, so I'm certain that the word about you got out to their higher ups."

"That's not a problem, I'm not trying to hide from them." I grabbed her hand and nodded toward the stores. "Now, how about we have some fun," I grinned. "The Merchants are paying."

Amy giggled and squeezed my hand gently. "You know, If you were a guy, my sister would totally date you."

My eyes snapped to the healer, who glanced away from me. "She likes to date guys who spend a lot of money on her."

Amy's cheeks blushed in embarrassment and I wondered where it came from. Was it just because she made a joke or was she embarrassed on behalf of her sister? "Well, I guess you can't blame her too much," I said. "A lot of the ones she dated are probably mainly doing it because of her cape identity."

"And her looks," Amy added with a wry smile.

"That too," I nodded. "Her body is pretty much perfect, so I don't find it surprising that guys would throw themselves at her."

"And worst of all," Amy sighed, "is that she also keeps trying to arrange dates between me and kids with powerful and rich parents."

"So, what do you do?" I asked.

"When she manages to force me into one of her double dates, I make sure to show that I'm not interested and don't accept a second date no matter what."

"Well, I'm sorry your sister tries to drag you where you don't want to," I said in commiseration. "If you need an excuse why you can't go out with her on dates, you can always use me as an excuse."

Amy's eyes widened. "W-what?" she stuttered.

"You can tell your sister that you'll be busy hanging out with me whenever she decides to drag you on her dates."

"Oh," Amy said looking a bit relieved. "I guess that might work. She might try to make it a triple date, though."

I screwed my face in distaste at the thought. "I think not," I said. "Victoria is not my sister, so I'd have no problem with saying no to her. And since I know you don't actually want to go, she can't make me go for your sake."

"That... sounds logical to me," Amy nodded.

"Of course," I grinned. "Your sister has no power over me."

Amy giggled.

"Now, let's enjoy the day," I said. "And then, maybe you can help me buy a laptop."

"A laptop?"

"Yup, I can't buy a PC, because dad would want to know where I got the money for it, from. A laptop is small and silent enough to hide in my room without drawing attention to it. I'll finally have internet at home."

x-x-x

Author's Notes: Well, I'm done with the first arc. The next arc should be interesting. Taylor, for now calls herself Weaver. That's not going to last.

Amy, the poor girl, is beginning to be interested in Taylor, who of course only thinks of her as a friend. It's unfortunate for them that they are both way too shy and socially awkward to actually confess even if they do realize their feelings.

On the rest of the Dallons: specifically Victoria and Carol, I do dislike them a lot.

Glory Girl not too much, because she's just too dumb and unaware of the consequences of her actions. That said, she still addicted her sister to her aura and she's insensitive to Amy's issues and problems. That also said, Amy doesn't make it too easy by holding everything in.

Carol however, I truly despise. She literally fucked up Amy's mind. That canon Amy got sent to the Birdcage was mainly Carol's fault. Two strangers - Skitter and Tattletale tried to help Amy far more than her family ever tried to.

Carol is also the head of New Wave. She's probably the one that decided to unmask her team. That not only resulted in the death of a team member, but she also put the New Wave children in tremendous danger.

One other thing: When New Wave captured Amy's father, they went after him in his civilian identity. If they'd done that to someone else like... let's say Kaiser, who would have went all out even if it meant that his kid would have died, he would have murdered them all.

Published: August 28, 2014