A/N: To respond to some reviewer questions, no, I'm not on SpaceBattles or any other fanfic/forum site. I'm terrible with coding, so even so little as putting together a chapter index on SpaceBattles seemed like too much trouble. If you really think I should try posting, please PM me with some basic instructions as to how. The less stress I have to go through to post, the more often I can put up new chapters!

Essence 2.02

For the second time in a week, my arm felt like it was being ripped out of its socket. I collapsed to the floor and managed to open my eyes, blurry vision solidifying into Rachel looming over me. She reached down and I braced myself for the pain to come, but instead she hauled me to my feet. "We have to go," she said simply before whistling. One of her dogs, already the size of a pony, trotted in. Its flesh was still slick with blood and whatever other fluids burst from it during the transformation. "Get changed, then climb on Angelica." She stooped low to the ground, looking like a hound on guard. The tension in her posture was infectious and I felt my own body coiling to react.

I was too tired to protest or ask further questions. I slipped out of my clothes and into my Skitter costume, then staggered over to drape myself over the dog, keeping my legs tucked up and linking my arms around her ribcage. Angelica swelled a bit more to compensate for my weight and followed Bitch down the stairs.

Brutus and Judas were already there, grown to the size of Clydesdales. Grue, Regent and Tattletale were likewise in full regalia, and I noticed belatedly that Grue had clogged all the windows and doors with his darkness.

"What's going on?" I managed to croak out the question despite every nerve telling me to just fall back asleep.

"Bakuda's gone off the deep end," Grue replied. His power caused his voice to echo and distort, the result very unsettling. He took in another breath but winced as the building rumbled. I realized that was the shockwave from an explosion. "The ABB are going berserk, attacking anyone and everyone they can reach. Others are planting bombs and destroying whole buildings."

"Is this retaliation for Lung getting taken down?"

"Possibly," Tattletale replied. "Bakuda's also a complete psychopath, so maybe without Lung to rein her in she just decided to play cut-price Armageddon."

"Point is," Grue continued, "the bombs are following a pattern for the most part, spiraling out from a spot on the Boardwalk. If that pattern holds, our base might get hit." He climbed atop the dog, offering Tattletale a hand up. "Our best bet is to move into areas that've already been bombed, take shelter and plan our next move."

I put the facts together as Bitch hauled Regent onto the other dog. "My dad–"

"Will be safe for now," Tattletale said with an air of certainty. "The initial bombing pattern will pass him by and the city is already organizing an evacuation. Protectorate and Wards are mobilizing, as well as the DHS and National Guard."

Angelica grew again, this time to the size of an average horse, and Bitch gave a yell. She took the lead on her beast and the other dogs followed.

(BREAK)

I'd never seen a warzone firsthand but I was willing to bet that the aftermath of Bakuda's bombings approximated one well enough. Buildings were collapsed or gutted with flame, others seemingly shaken apart. There was such a wide variety of carnage and destruction. Of course one of the villains here in Brockton Bay would have to be an evil Tinker, and a mad bomber no less.

I'd gathered a decent-sized swarm as we rode, keeping the bugs to back alleys and rooftops to avoid drawing attention. I wasn't sure how useful they would be, but I was damn sure I wouldn't be caught unarmed.

"So," I spoke up as we sheltered inside one of the gutted-by-fire buildings, "what did you mean when you said the bombings were mostly following a pattern?"

Tattletale hopped off and hit the ground talking while Grue helped me stand. "It's mostly a pattern sort of like the Milky Way." She drew the multiple spiraling arms in ash on the wall. "But then," she poked several random dots around the pattern, "she's hitting other locations. A grade school, a hospital, a fucking used car lot..." She shook her head. "It's so precise and then she does this. It doesn't make sense."

"Down," Bitch whispered in a steady tone and her three monsters laid on the ground, staying silent. We followed suit, letting Grue shroud us in darkness.

"ABB patrol," his voice echoed around me, "three guys. Leave them be for now. Until we have a plan, we don't want to draw attention."

I could tell Bitch wasn't happy about that decision, but Grue grabbed her by the leg and she relented. I understood his reasoning. Of the five of us, only I was wearing reliably bulletproof gear and even then I wouldn't expect my costume to last long under automatic fire.

While we waited, I turned around and looked at the drawing Tattletale had made. Perhaps I could sort it out. "...Tattletale," I whispered, "what other spots have been hit outside the pattern?"

"Uh...grade school, hospital, car lot... A parking garage, an apartment complex, and a fire station."

I sat in confusion. Sure, a school and a hospital were high-value targets, as was a fire station, and an apartment complex would require a lot of search-and-rescue, but the garage and lot? None of these sounded special enough to matter. It was just random nonsense in the middle of a mad bombing.

"Maybe that's it." I didn't realize I'd said that aloud until Grue, Regent and Tattletale had turned to look at me. I blushed a little at the attention. "Look, none of these spots really matter in the grand scheme of things, right? And certainly not to the ABB. But they do matter to the city. The car lot and parking garage are huge destruction-per-square-foot, while the others are important for search-and-rescue." I turned to face them. "I was thinking that these spots are nonsense, but it's all nonsense. What if this isn't to send a message or to destroy a certain target? What if it's all a distraction?"

Regent waved his hand. "...For?"

"For busting out Lung, I'll bet. On the one hand the ABB get to show that even with their leader gone they're still a threat – and maybe even a bigger threat, which should give the PRT pause in arresting him next time. On the other, with everyone focused here on Brockton Bay, who's paying attention to whatever's taking Lung to the Birdcage?" My mind was racing as I spoke. I couldn't tell if this was a genuine deduction or just rambling while grasping at straws, but it was the best I had.

It was Regent who spoke up. "Skitter, can you spread your bugs around?"

I nodded, doing as he asked. "Sure. Why?"

"Because if you're right, Lung will probably be on the warpath when he gets back. I'd like for the ABB to have as few members as possible once he gets here." He turned that fucking mask toward me. "I say we start setting up some ambushes."

(BREAK)

I decided that, for future endeavors, we'd need to get bluetooth earpieces or something so we could better coordinate across distances. For the moment, we were limited to about a block, giving each other signals from windows. The plan was simple enough, and I was thankful to Regent for thinking of it. The only thing that killed us now was the waiting. Bitch especially was getting restless. Thankfully, before anything could come of it, a patrol happened along.

There were four of them this time, coming from the same direction as the previous group. The ABB must have been planning to hold all of the bombed territory. Sucked to be them.

I watched, waiting for the opportunity. As the quartet came to the middle of the street, the one in the rear suddenly had a spasm in his leg and fell with a cry. The others turned, looking around for the culprit. The moment they looked down to their comrade, I struck. Thousands of bugs poured off the rooftops, undulating curtains of dark chitin. They landed on our targets, biting, stinging, scratching, harrying. The point wasn't necessarily to kill, so I kept the majority of spiders on silk-weaving duty.

Several seconds after my assault started, Grue blanketed the area in his darkness, muting the sound. We ducked back inside as bullets snapped against the buildings' walls, the gunshots lost in the ebon miasma. I could still feel the figures inside struggling until, one by one, they lost hope and fell to the ground. I brought in my widows to drape silk over them, leaving them bound.

I wiggled my smartphone through the window, the metal back catching the sunlight and flashing repeatedly. We all came out of the buildings and Grue pulled back his darkness. Regent systematically tased each one of them, I got them zip-cuffed, and we dragged them into the building's interior. Even better, now we each had a submachine gun. Well, except Bitch, but she was insistent that she only needed her dogs. As the beasts were now the size of small SUVs, I couldn't disagree.

Grue dusted his hands off and straightened up. "Great work. I figure we can follow that strategy a few more times before anybody starts to catch on."

I felt some of my outlying bugs die, an earbug picking up what might have been the roar of engines. "Shit." I ushered the others deeper into the building. "Something's coming this way. A vehicle of some sort, moving fast."

I got us ensconced deeper into the bombed-out depths of the structure and coughed up some eyebugs to check what was going on. Three vehicles pulled up, two dune buggies with trailers loaded with bangers – at least twenty ABB grunts – and one contraption that looked like the mutant love child between a humvee and a pick-up truck. A huge machine gun was mounted in the bed, and leaning on the roof of the cab was the only person in costume: Bakuda.

"Oh dear," she called out, her acting intentionally bad, "whatever has happened to my soldiers? I sent them here to patrol, and they never reported in!" Her lips split in a sadistic grin. "Oh well..."

The room where we'd stored the gangbangers exploded with enough force to launch me through a window. I impacted another building and my vision was shot, seeing in blurry quadruple-scope. I tried to focus on my bugs but most of them had been blown up or baked by the resulting heatwave. I dropped to my hands and knees and heaved, much like a cat with a hairball, coughing up a waterfall of several hundred mutant bugs. Eyebugs and earbugs, certainly, but also some of my older inventions: a bumblespider for spreading silk; a ladydragon that was immune to most poisons and could, in large numbers, airlift a body; and lots and lots of pissed-off yellow widows, their stingers filled with potent spider venom. My limbs gave out and I collapsed in a boneless heap. I'd never called up that many bugs at once, and I was paying for it. I closed my eyes and let my senses leave my body. I couldn't do anything with my own self, so my bugs would have to suffice.

So many eyes. It hurt my mind to process so much at once. Touch and location was simple enough, but having to process such detailed information from so many different sources, it felt like my brain was on fire.

Regent was bleeding through his shirt, Tattletale trying to staunch the hemorrhage. I sent my bumblespiders to her, laying silk over Regent's wound to serve as an exterior clot. I left them on autopilot to finish their work and then rejoin the swarm, so that I could conserve my brainpower.

Angelica (somehow it was easier to identify the different dogs through my bugs' eyes) lurched to her feet, concrete and glass lodged in her side. Brutus and Judas stood guard around Bitch, who was barely conscious. It was difficult – Bitch was stocky and heavier than I'd expected – but my ladydragons lifted Rachel onto Brutus' back and rested her there. Then I sent some more bumblespiders in to help secure her to the monster-dog's back.

And Grue... Bakuda's footsoldiers were loading Grue onto the technical. I launched my yellow widows after her and the ABB grunts, ready to inject them with potent venom. Inches before I could strike, Bakuda slapped something onto Grue's chest. "Stop or I vaporize him," she shouted.

My yellow widows froze midair. Damn it all... If I made a move Grue would die. I knew Bakuda would make good on her threat.

"So you're the bug bitch who took down Lung," she sneered. "Come on out so we can say hi."

Damn it. I couldn't move. I couldn't reveal myself. I just pulled my bugs back further, praying that Tattletale or Bitch could intervene.

Pain. I was bring grabbed by the neck. My senses surged back into my body. "Hi there," an Asian girl sneered at me, chapped lips curling back over yellowed teeth. She slammed the butt of her gun into my forehead.

(BREAK)

Again, I felt the pull on my wrists, my shoulder sockets. My toes brushed the ground and I felt moderately seasick, swaying slightly. My environment faded into view and I whimpered.

We were in a warehouse, each of us hanging by our wrists in a sort of suspended pillory. We were arranged in a sort of pentagon, so we could see each other. "Hey there, Skitter," Regent murmured.

I frowned. "Regent. How long have we been here?"

"Unno. Prob'ly a few hours, at least."

As if on cue, a heavy metal door slammed open. Bakuda sauntered in, a sadistic smirk on her face. "Yo." She stepped over and jostled Grue's helmet. "Wake up!"

Tattletale just stared at Bakuda, analyzing her in silence. I likewise did my best not to be noticed, as I brought in a parade of bugs. I had them squash themselves against my cuffs from top and bottom, their gooey innards dripping into the gaps between the metal and my wrists.

"So you're the Undersiders," Bakuda sneered as she slipped some metal knuckle dusters onto her right hand. "You fucks've been making things very inconvenient for the real gangs of this city." She juked forward and delivered a hard jab to Grue's ribs. "But on the other hand," she punched lower this time, probably bruising his intestines, "you gave me the chance to run the ABB. As useful as Lung is at keeping the PRT away, he's not an ideal leader. So," another punch, she wound up this time, "I'm not going to kill you. I'm just going to break your fucking bones." She finished with a punch to Grue's helmeted head, the impact leaving him reeling. Bakuda moved over to Regent next.

This would take a lot of concentration, but I had to focus. Very carefully, I spit up an earbug as quietly as I could. I then flew it in formation in front of Tattletale: TALK with an arrow pointing to my little listening insect.

"The room's rigged with explosives," she whispered as I brought the earbug as close to her lips as I safely could. "Same with her new recruits. It's all hooked to a dead-man's switch, so if she dies everything explodes. She controls the bombs with processors in toe rings." I looped the fly like one might rotate their hand in a 'keep talking' gesture. "Right foot," Tattletale concluded.

Regent cried out in agony, and I told myself I didn't just hear his ribs crack. I kept the procession of bugs, wriggling my wrists. The pain was excruciating and I was certain I'd break my hands, but I fought through it. I scanned the room and saw the combat knife on Tattletale's hip. I put together a plan as my left hand slipped free. I gripped the metal bar and wrenched, biting my lip hard enough to draw blood so that I didn't cry out. I timed my landing with Bakuda's next blow to Regent's midsection, then lunged for Tattletale's belt. Every last one of my bugs charged the bomber, doing everything they could to harry her.

I unsnapped the holster and drew Tattletale's knife, stalking toward Bakuda. Since I still didn't know how to punch, I let loose with a left-handed backhand slap, throwing my body weight behind it. I threw so much weight that I fell forward, throwing out my right arm. I aimed and prayed that I was accurate.

The asian madwoman screeched in agony when the knife separated her toes from the rest of her foot. I probably broke my elbow on impact but all that mattered was that I kept Bakuda from setting off her bombs. I grabbed her leg and stabbed again and again, intent on severing every last toe just to be safe.

Bakuda fell on me, using the same trick I had in order to slam her metal knuckles into my spine. I rolled under her, throwing the knife to the side. I couldn't afford to accidentally kill her. As we grappled, I was thankful that she wasn't a Tinker like Armsmaster, who worked on his body as much as his equipment. Without our powers, we were just two gawky young women wrestling on the ground. I eventually managed to yank off her armored mask and headbutt her, which did more damage to her than me. I received a fist in the mouth for my trouble and Bakuda managed to leverage me onto my back, where she latched her hands around my throat.

I was taller than her, with longer limbs, so I pushed against her chest with every ounce of strength I had. If I could push enough, she couldn't keep her grip on my neck. My vision, which had already tunneled from the panic of such a feral fight, was blurring as she cut off my air supply. I couldn't breathe and I was slowly weakening.

For the first time, I willingly put myself back in the locker. I remembered the pure panic, the fear, the determination that, even if I died, they would pay. With one last maddened shove, I managed to push her back. I pressed my newfound advantage and planted my foot in her solar plexus, using the last reserves of my strength to do whatever damage I could.

Bakuda crumpled into a heap but, much sooner than I would have liked, she rolled onto her hands and knees before vomiting up the contents of her stomach. The psychopath didn't even bother to wipe her mouth before she started crawling toward me again. I tried to do anything: put up my hands, crawl away, kick at her. My body wouldn't respond. I was completely spent. The world began to go black as she clawed her way up my torso.

Then a pair of black gloves grabbed her by the shoulders and hurled her backward onto the ground. Grue kicked her in the chest then landed on her, lifting her shoulders off the ground with one hand and punching her in the head with the other. Bakuda's head bounced off the concrete floor and she went still.

I could barely see the purple-and-black form of Tattletale picking the locks holding Regent before I slipped into unconsciousness.

(BREAK)

Intersect.

Intersect. Trajectory.

Agreement.

Exchange.

Defer.

Exchange.

(BREAK)

Voices. They swam through my mind like koi fish, occasionally putting on bursts of speed but mostly just lazily drifting. I tried to draw them closer, to understand them or even put a name to each voice, but it was like trying to reach through plastic. No matter how hard I pushed, I couldn't reach.

Colors blurred. Was I seeing them with my eyes? Were they blotches from irregularly firing nerves? Or was I seeing through my bugs? A white ceiling, or maybe a floor. A shock of gold. No, yellow hair. Brown fur. A bald scalp. Mine? White clothes. Regent. No, a coat. Labcoat? Doctor?

The sounds were making colors now. They rippled through my nerves, tickling. I'd been high on painkillers once. This was so much better. I giggled and the sound was strange, like hearing through tapioca.

Shiny. Silver, like ice skates. Glided along pink, leaving trails. White within, rising in spots like rocks under the tide. Unhappy sounds. I could understand now. No words, but I understood pain. Was I coming back? Where had I been?

The earth swirled like a flushing toilet. I could feel it now. My mind had been within my bugs. It had left my body. Why? I thought it was a good enough body. I reached out and plucked bits of myself from the swarm, cradling them close and squishing them together, trying to put myself back into one piece.

Slip. That's a weird sensation, entering yourself. Not in the concept of the spirit entering the body, but in the context – that's what I was looking for, context – of pieces coming together. It felt slick, like warm butter. Things were getting clearer. A body thrashing on a metal slab, two broad shapes holding down the limbs. I couldn't feel scared yet; couldn't really feel.

(BREAK)

Our eyes see everything upside-down, then our brains turn that image right-side up. Each eye was whirling, the images flipping again and again. I clenched my eyelids shut, ordering my brain to start making sense. I could hear Alec screaming. I needed to help. I opened my eyes again.

I was in a doctor's clinic, or what passed for one. Bitch and Grue were holding Regent down while the doctor did something in his chest. Flecks of white. I guess Bakuda must have broken his ribs after all. I could only hope that he'd be alright. A wet cloth passed across my forehead and I turned to see Tattletale sitting beside me. She jumped a little.

"Oh! You're finally lucid." She gave me a warm smile. "We were worried. You lost oxygen flow to your brain for a bit, then you just went all glassy-eyed and catatonic."

I coughed and had to swallow down the slime. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah. You and Regent got it the worst. Grue's gonna be bruised for a while, but nothing broken. You've got two sprained wrists and will need to wear turtlenecks for the foreseeable future. Doc Q says Regent's gonna be okay."

I winced as the brunet screamed again. "Are...are you sure?" I eyed the younger boy with concern.

She just nodded. "I'm sure it hurts, bad, but he'll live. We'll need to lay low for a while after this."

"How'd you get free, anyway?" I needed to keep the conversation going; I was starting to fade out again.

"You inspired it, actually. I saw what you were doing with your bugs and, well," Tattletale held out her hands, to show me her bandaged wrists. "I didn't have an army of critters to suicide themselves for me, so I needed some other lubricant." She gave me a guilty look. "Hey, I don't want to impose, but...can we stay with you and your dad tonight? I'm not sure if the base survived and it's too dangerous to go through there anyway."

"How can I say no?" I watched as the doctor started to stitch Regent's chest shut. "This doctor's trustworthy, right?"

"He has to be. Works on anyone who can pay. If he squealed, he'd have an army of pissed-off parahumans and other assorted psychos after his blood." Tattletale reached over and squeezed my shoulder. "You were amazing tonight."

We sat in silence until it was time to leave. Grue sat on Brutus and held Regent upright, taking care not to touch the stitches. Bitch did the same with me, and Tattletale took Angelica.

I felt the world swim again and slumped against Bitch, resting my head on her shoulder. She held me tighter.