AN: I'm actually curious from the few female readers that seem to be following this: How poorly am I handling the female characterizations?

Further, are your sensibilities offended at all? By having a pansexual / non-inherently monogamous Shepard and slowly converting two of the other female characters sexuality to Bi I'm crossing a lot of notes in the list of possible offenses.

Does it come across as male fantasy or am I doing a believable job of handling teenage females in these specific situations? (Rushed plot and coinciding lack of perceived time and on screen development aside)

Note: This is a question specifically for female readers.

...

My life had taken a pretty weird turn I reflected as I rode towards our destination. Less than two weeks ago I was an extraordinarily bullied and damaged fifteen year old with nothing else to cling on to but my desire to be a Hero. Now? Now I was on my way to rob a bank so I could be a real hero. Funny how that worked.

I'd done some research. Well, I'd been doing an exuberant amount of research. This particular set was more relevant to the matter at hand though: going under cover. When I cop went undercover they typically had to pass certain psych evaluations as well as maintain contact with a handler on the outside to insure they weren't becoming what they were infiltrating.

I pondered what it would have been like had I encountered Lisa before Shepard. She certainly had a charm and I think with her power she could likely have befriended me despite the hero / villain line. Beyond that she was intelligent enough to at least see some degree of the power I could bring to bare.

Of course, I would have wanted to bring the Undersiders in. Without the outside handler, without someone like Shepard to serve as an unflinching force in the face of the environment that she was in, I think I almost certainly would have become the mask. Excuse after excuse as I justified my actions. Where would it have stopped? Would it have stopped?

Would my first meeting with Dragon had been as antagonists rather as one of mutual respect? Well. Apparent mutual respect. It was respect on her side and a lot of internal squealing on mine.

Even then... was I already losing that "Happy young girl" that ate lunch with Shepard, Dean, and Dennis anyways? Or perhaps I had already lost it.

My internal reflections were brought up short as we pulled into the alee behind the bank. I opened the doors in the back of the van and stepped out before turning around to grab the large riot shield like slab of Limpet tooth that had been one of mine and Amy's projects. I'd decided on it over the cloak to allow for more mobility but was certain it would prove useful if Gallant or Kid Win showed up. Shepard had even designed the grips to be quick release in case I had to use it to juke Clockblocker.

The boys gave a quick pause at the sight of me strapping the shield to my arm.

"How strong is that thing anyways?" Brian asked.

I shrugged with my free arm. "Will stop small arms fire no problem. If we're up against the wards it should be sufficient to avoid the emotion effect from Gallant. And if Kid Win's lasers were sufficient to cut through it they would be lethal. I doubt he's permitted to use such."

He nodded. "So why the whole bone thing and not just get a proper riot shield in that case?"

I tilted my head slightly. This whole expression emotions thing in a full face mask was a skill I certainly didn't have yet. "One, it's free. Two, likely for the same reason a Tinker likes to use their own things. Pride, I suppose. Three, plastics melt against lasers."

He smiled lightly. "Ah, yeah. And a lot of tinkers use lasers. That's pretty good thinking."

"Hey, Skitter. You get it taken care of?" Lisa asked as she came around from the passenger side of the van.

"Yeah, it's handled." I said with a nod.

Her almost ever present grin widened slightly. "It was a good idea. I'm surprised I didn't think about it. Settingup a few cheap cameras near Arcadia so we know when and who."

"Don't see what the big deal is. Whoever they send we can handle." Bitch spoke up as she finished unloading her dogs.

"True." I said with a nod. "But I like to be prepared. We'll beat them if we have to but any fight you engage in is one you might take damage in. Being injured lowers your ability to be effective. It's why a lot of wild animals avoid humans despite being more deadly than we are. The scraggly amount of meat we have isn't worth the possibility of getting injured and being unable to hunt the next day."

I waved my free hand. "It's risk vs. reward. If we don't have to fight them we get our reward for free and there's no risk of us being injured for the next job."

She held my gaze for a moment before nodding very slightly. "Ok. Makes sense." She turned to look at Lisa. "Why can't you explain things simple like that?"

She shot me a look but her smile didn't phase. "Just not as good at is as our insect Queen here. Maybe it's both because you have animal themes."

I chuckled. "Mm. A bee that gets injured is useless to hive. A dog that gets injured slows down the pack. I guess there's similarities there."

Bitch growled. "We don't leave pack behind."

A nod. "Yup. Never leave a packmate behind. That's why it slows you down. So every packmate should do their best to make sure none of the rest get injured."

Another nod from her. Doing research into animal and pack behavior the previous night was certainly paying dividends with her. She wasn't stupid by any means. She just thought dog not human.

"You get your part handled?" I already knew the answer but it was best to share with the group.

"Yup. Wasn't had to pay off someone to open up the manhole covers and put up the caution tape around them. Will probably take the city a day or two to notice it's not actually part of any maintenance."

I grinned under my mask. "Good. I have a veritable biblical plague worth of insects ready to flood out on command. Just remember I'm handling the hostages and this will go smoothly."

I turned to where Lisa was at the door. "We good?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I've got the code. Trick is, you have to hold down these two buttons after entering it or it triggers a silent alarm to the police to send someone down to investigate."

She proceeded to open the door for us and we proceeded inside. Along the way Bitch started growing her dogs so they would be ready for transport duty. There were a few offices we had to poke in to gather up a few of the workers that were back here which my bugs found for us. The day manager has made an aggressive move in my direction but had changed his mind when the cloud of insects started to roll around me from out of my suit.

More animal research. This one was basically mimicking things like ducks aggressively raising or flapping their wings and instinctually triggered "Danger" in people's minds.

Our new hosts filled into the lobby in front of us and behind us bitches dogs, grown to the extent that they could still fit through the doorways ladened with money bags, crashed in behind us making sure everyone's attention was on us.

There was a current of panic and I even had a slight pang of guilt as someone towards the back screamed as I walked around to take up position in front of the doors.

"Alright everyone. As I'm sure you can all tell, this is a robbery. If everyone would be so kind to place themselves on the ground, I'd appreciate it." My tone was cheerful which hopefully would alleviate a touch of the stark terror.

"Now, I'm sure you're all intelligent people." Appeal to logic, yay! "As such, you know that we have no reason to hurt you and you're only being held here to prevent the heroes from finding out about our party early. Speaking of which, did you know that certain bugs can detect electricity? It's pretty awesome. There are a number of these bugs in the room so if you would kindly refrain from interacting with any electronic items such as cell phones I'd appreciate it." And I was indeed watching for this through a combination of electric and heat vision.

"Interesting statistic while I'm giving fun facts: did you know you have a 20% greater chance of being seriously injured when resisting a robbery? The best way to approch the situation is to ask yourself if whatever you're thinking about resisting is something you'd be willing to risk serious injury over."

Now to make it someone else's problem rather than theirs, while behind them the team was already loading up the money and Lisa was sorting through files. "Now, that satisfies your concerns over your personal health. What about your welfare in general you ask, Mr. Hypothetical gentleman? I can assure you that the bank is insured. Once the numbers are settled it's the insurance company we are currently taking money from."

I made a show of looking around the room at everyone that had complied and was on the ground watching me intently. "Now, to sum up: There's no reason for us to hurt you. We're also not stealing from you. You're only being held to prevent you from calling in the heroes before they find out. Once I'm notified that the heroes are on their way you will be free to go. We're not interested in a hostage situation." I paused. "Any questions?"

There was silence as the crowd on the floor just stared at my dumbfounded.

"Well. That was the most informative robbery speech I've ever heard." I heard a voice I recognized from in the crowd. I turned a few of my dragonflies to see who it was and had to suppress a slight curse when I noticed Amy mixed in with the crowd.

Perhaps unfortunately for her the rest of the crowd heard as well given the silence and attention was on her. Probably best to throw her a bone.

"Ah! Panacea! We have a celebrity present. Could you explain to the crowd why you're not doing hero stuff? Also. Mr. Security guard to my side reaching for his gun? I'll remind you that you're not a civilian. I have no moral qualms with inflicting a fair deal of harm to you should you continue your course of action. Also, I'm bullet proof." He promptly ceased going for his firearm.

She glared at me, likely for being put on the spot and was silent for a moment thinking it through. "My power doesn't let me fight, first of all. Second, someone's more than likely to get hurt if I do. The most heroic thing to do is make sure everyone gets out safely. If you're really planning on letting everyone go if a few minutes then the best thing I can do for everyone is make sure that happens."

There were some general murmurs at this and I smiled. Hanging out with me and Shepard and clearly beaten some logic into her head.

Well. That and she knew why I was doing this, but I doubt that would stop her if I was doing something like terrorizing the hostages.

"Wards are mobilizing." Tattletale called from the back and I gave her a nod.

"Well, you heard the lady. If anyone wants to snap a picture of me on their way out and upload it to my profile on their way out I'd appreciate it! And remember, I'm Skitter and this has been a bank robbery brought to you by Brockton Bay's own Undersiders! Be sure to tell your friends! Oh, and Panacea. If you could stop by over here for a second I'd appreciate it. My shoulder's been bothering me."

The entire crowd seemed to be stuck in a permanent state of stupor as it took them a few seconds to realize that no, the people starting to stand weren't being attacked and yes, they were free to go. The crowd filled out shortly and I was amused to note a few younger people actually taking pictures of me. I gave them a few villainous poses like arms crossed and head tilted menacingly as I waited for Amy to make it over.

"Bank robbery, really?" She asked low when she got over to me.

"Eh. Coil wanted it done. Probably for a distraction for something since the heroes are out of town. I tagged along to make sure no one got hurt."

She thought about that for a second. "Oh, right. Mom mentioned something about a fundraiser today."

I nodded. "Yeah. Why are you out of school?"

She frowned slightly. "Felt like grabbing something other than school lunch for a change and forgot my card at home. Just bad luck."

I grinned under my helmet hoping the amusement would carry through. "Or good luck. You being here helped calm them down and our discussion distracted them."

She rolled her eyes. "How'd you think to handle it that way?"

"Watching Shepard. Calls it "Refuge in audacity." Basically just break everyone's mental thought process so hard that they get knocked out of any existing patterns and then have to form a new one from scratch. Helps prevent preconceived notions and actions from cropping up without thought. Anyhow, reason I called you over was to ask you to keep your sister out of this. She's the only hero I can't deal with without seriously injuring her"

She raised an eyebrow. "How would you manage that?"

My voice was grim. "She still breaths, right?"

Amy winced. "You'd do that?"

I shrugged. "With you on hand? If it's the difference between that and getting turned to paste by her being trigger happy self preservation says yes."

She sighed. "Well. Fortunately it's not an issue today. She's grounded from heroing after her and Shepard's little event. Wouldn't have stopped her if I was a hostage in here but with me out there I can keep her under control with the reminder of her grounding."

"Good!" I said with humor. "Now you better run along before they think I really am taking you hostage out there."

She gave me a nod and then headed out while I walked back over to the group.

Grue paused in his packing to shoot me a look. "What did you talk to Panacea about?"

I shrugged. "Girl stuff."

"Girl stuff?" Yup. Incredulous.

"Yup. I mean, I look damned good, but..." I cupped my chest. "I think my breasts could stand to be a bit bigger don't you?"

He skipped a beat before shaking his head and going back to packing. "Not the time or place Skitter. Couldn't she have put you to sleep or something?"

"Oh. No. I was just getting a cosultation. I'd hate to have my chest trying to burst out of this costume while we're on the job..."

There was the flinch I was looking for.

"How are we looking?"

"This is the last of it. How's things on your end Tattletale?"

"Just wrapping up now. Which is good, because the white hats are here."