Adaptation 3.05

I parked Atlas under cover of Grue's darkness as Bitch progressively shrank the dogs until they could fit through the front door. Dad wasn't home, but when I checked the home phone's messages I found he'd left one for us. "I saw the news, congratulations! I'll be bringing home pizza to celebrate, so call me up with your orders before I leave." I just had to grin as I relayed his message.

"Before that, however," my grin widened and I had to exert real effort to keep from exposing my teeth, so wide had my smile stretched, "I have a surprise for you all."

Our house was only a one-story number, but it had a basement. Well, 'basement' is a generous appellation. Really, it was an oversized boiler room to keep the heat as concentrated as it could in the harsh Brockton Bay winters, particularly with the cold from the open water wicking away any warmth it could reach. However, there was enough room for my purposes. I used bugs to navigate as I carried the large cardboard box upstairs, through the laundry room and into the living room. The box wasn't heavy; pre-changes me could have handled it, but it was bulky and unwieldy as all hell.

To be extra magical, I sent an eyebug into the box so I could identify the items before even pulling them out. "Alec, you're up first!" I pulled out a white bodysuit decorated with metallic gold paint to imitate royal decadence. In addition, the bugs airlifted a Two-Face style dramatis personae mask, the right half laughing and the left maudlin. I had to admit to myself that the Batman movies from Aleph might have had a bit too much influence in this particular design, as the smiling half of the mouth curled almost to the edge of the mask while the frown was a cross between sadness and a derisive sneer. "Made from spider silk and 'silk-mache'," I grinned. "What do you think?"

"Holy shit," the brunet whispered as he accepted the outfit. "It looks like you got my measurements perfect. How...oh christ, I don't want to know, do I?"

I smirked, which – considering my glowing eyes – was probably pretty disturbing. "I had bugs crawl on all of you while you slept. A few nights to get every angle, and then I could get to work." I saw Lisa shudder theatrically in my peripheral vision. "You can still wear your puffy shirt over it, but this should keep you safe from most gunfire, at least for a few shots."

Alec gave me what I figured was the closest to a genuine smile I'd ever get out of him. "Thank you, Taylor."

"You're my friends," I said simply. "I wasn't going to leave you vulnerable when I could do something about it. Now," I smiled as I reached back into the box, "Brian's next!" His bodysuit was all black, planned to be worn beneath his leathers to make him doubly hard to put down. The real beauty, however, was the mask to be worn under his helmet. It covered his entire face, with tinted lenses to help maintain the alien appearance. The design, however, was no longer a white skull: the paint was the off-white, almost-yellow of skeletal bone depicting a grinning demon skull inspired by the Queen Anne's Revenge itself. Since Grue was a master of showmanship-style intimidation, I figured it was only fair to draw from one of the original greats of that art.

Brian couldn't stop grinning long enough to properly thank me. That wide smile of his was all the thanks I needed, though.

"And little sis gets hers next. Aisha, where're you hiding?" I did my best not to jump when she appeared beside me. Imp's bodysuit was all black as well, and I'd taken some creative license with her mask. Well, by 'some creative license', I mean I'd scrapped everything except for the little devil horns at the top. The entire mask was a matte ebony, fitted with black lenses. The horns were slightly more gray and more candy-painted to approximate real horns. I was mostly drawing from what I'd seen of rhinos on Animal Planet, but I thought it worked. Around the eyes I'd had the idea to make stylized flames, like a burning gaze or something, but clearly flames weren't my strong suit. It looked more like she had empty, bloody eye sockets.

"Bad-ass!" ...And of course that would be her reaction. Aisha pounced me with a hug and snatched the outfit from me.

"Y'know, I was gonna hand it to you..." I just chuckled and shook my head, giving up the argument as a lost cause before it started. "Rachel," I turned to the dark-blonde girl, "I had the idea for the extras just before we left. I set the wasps and spiders to work, but I wasn't there to direct them so I hope you like your outfit." First came her bodysuit, also all-black, and built to her proportions. Rachel was the bulkiest of us all, naturally thick-set and further filled out with equal parts muscle and the kind of fat that the homeless need when they don't know when their next meal will be. Next was her mask. I would freely admit that my painting skills on Grue's mask came from using the bugs to move the airbrush, but everything I made was stylized. I knew it was a lost cause to try making a realistic-looking dog mask or even a cartoonish one like she'd buy from the drugstores, so instead I went the route of a full-head mask, almost a helmet, depicting one of her dogs in its monstrous form. The uneven proportions and bone-spur growths were perfect for my silk-mache and chitin shards.

Rachel gawked at the mask. "It looks like Angelica," she said simply.

"It gets better." I pulled out the last part of her ensemble: one of her beloved jackets, fur collar and all, with snarling monster-dog pauldrons on the shoulders. "Cerberus should have three heads, after all." I barely managed to remain upright, though the wind was knocked out of me, as Rachel suddenly surged over and hugged me tight. As soon as I realized what was happening, I didn't hesitate to hug her back. I wanted Rachel to understand that we were friends; maybe now she was really getting it.

The stocky girl took her new costume and walked over to the couch, sitting down as though nothing had happened. I figured it was best not to press it.

"And lastly, Lisa, your costume isn't entirely finished." I cut her off before she could do her extrapolation thing. "Yes, my work is done, but hear me out. Your voice is your greatest weapon. Before, you were taking on heroes, who you could mostly trust to fight fair if only to maintain the Endbringer truce."

"Now we'll be dealing mostly with villains," she continued my thought, "most of whom wouldn't hesitate to break my jaw or other nasty things to shut me up." Lisa nodded to me. "I'll see if I can get a helmet."

I pulled out her bodysuit, which was her black-and-violet color scheme in alternating panels. On the upper body, the right half was violet while the left was black, and the colors were reversed on the bottom half. A segmented utility belt of alternating colors was designed to sit at the intersection of the upper and lower halves. Lisa's signature golden Egyptian eye was located in the center of her chest.

"So," Alec said as he continued looking his outfit up and down, "where's your costume?"

I blushed a little. "Well, I basically had to redesign mine from the ground up, so it'd be easier for me to just get changed and show you. Wait here?" I didn't stick around for an answer, heading to my room to dress. It was certainly a relief to get out of the PRT jumpsuit. I knew that it would have been much more comfortable for me to ride to the courthouse in my new costume, but that would have ruined the surprise. Plus, I wanted us all to appear in our new outfits together as the new heroic Undersiders.

My bodysuit itself was mostly unchanged, the armor in the same places, but let out some to account for my new physique. I had forgone boots so that I didn't have to worry about my claws getting stuck or something else awful, instead reinforcing the soles of the suit and leaving slits for the retractable nails. I figured they might be useful for climbing or for close combat; they were definitely sharp enough to count as weapons. I had made similar adjustments to the hands, nixing the chitin claws in favor of my own. I instead placed some light plating on the knuckles for if I had to throw a punch. It wouldn't make too much difference, but it would be enough.

The biggest change was my mask. Before, it had been mostly spider silk and had fit over my entire head. Now that I needed to leave my new hair free, I'd rebuilt it entirely as a solid chitin/silk-mache piece. It covered my entire face from my hairline to the tip of my nose, the sides running down along my jaw to form the protective mandibles but leaving my mouth exposed. The only spider silk fabric on the mask covered my neck and the underside of my jaw, tucking into the neck of my bodysuit. I mixed silk with chitin around the back of my head at the bottom of the hairline there, to help the mask stay anchored. With luck, having fit it to my face as I had, I wouldn't have to worry about it slipping loose or going crooked in combat. Finally, because my own eyes now glowed orange, the mask's new lenses had barely any tint: just enough to pick up and amplify my own color for sheer intimidation factor.

I checked myself over in the mirror. Yeah, I definitely struck an imposing figure. I reminded myself of Alexandria, in a way: her costume too was very dark and intimidating, though her invulnerability meant that she didn't need to worry about armor. She had a cape, though, and very few people could pull off that look. Most just ended up looking like cosplayers. However...

My mind started to spool up again. I could conceal bugs under cloth, more than I could hide in my armor plates. In that respect, I decided to start weaving a cape and a skirt for the sole purpose of keeping even more of my swarm on hand. I wouldn't use them except in emergencies, keeping a few thousand (or a few hundred thousand) venomous creepies as my ace in the hole. But that could wait. For now...

I walked back into the living room, put my fists on my hips, and gave my best pre-fight smirk. "Introducing the new and improved Skitter!"

(BREAK)

After a round of compliments and teasing flirts (courtesy of Alec until Brian and Lisa joined in and managed to make my blush visible even under my mask), Rachel's eagerness to try on her new costume turned the rest of the afternoon into a fashion show, with each of us taking turns getting kitted out and showing off the new look. I had to admit, I did good work. My only nagging concern was that we actually looked a bit more villainous than when we'd actually been villains, but I figured the gangs and villains could use a little intimidation.

Aisha, queen of suddenness, proposed that we remain in full costume and surprise my father when he got home. I figured it would be good to break in the new suits, so we relaxed around the house for the rest of the day. Rachel took to wearing her mask on top of her head like a mutant pope hat so she could snack while in costume, and I had to admit that her sitting there like that was oddly adorable. After a couple of hours, I announced dad was coming down the street and we got fully dressed. Alec actually had a good idea for how to greet him, so we went with his plan.

My father unlocked the door, tired after a long day of work, but wearing a smile. He came bearing pizza, several boxes' worth of large pies. I gave him a casual smile from my position on the couch. "Hey."

"Hey." It was like something out of a cartoon. Dad paused, did a double-take, and let his eyes wander over each of us. "Holy shit," he said in a hollow voice, then composed himself. "You guys look amazing. Terrifying, but amazing." He finally grinned. "For a second, I thought we were under attack." He walked further into the living room and set down the boxes. "Bottom one's mine. Touch it and die, you little ingrates."

I couldn't help giggling. Dad had adjusted to my parahuman life so well. "Let me get changed so my armor doesn't stab you, and I'll give you a hug, dad." I trotted off to my room while the others got to argue over who would use the bathroom to change first.

"You do that," dad called after me. "I'm gonna get changed, too."

Once we were all back in our civvies, we sat down and started going after the pizzas like madmen. Aisha bit Brian's hand when he was moving the veggie pizza box, while Rachel and I sat down and split the Hawaiian pizza we'd ordered. Dad played up the angry caveman schtick as he growled at anyone who approached his three-meat dish.

Brian and Lisa shared a look and the blonde nodded. He produced an envelope from his pocket. "We have a couple surprises as well. First off, Lisa hired some private contractors to help rebuild headquarters, so we now have what we talked about: a kennel for Rachel's dogs, and a pen for your critters," he smiled at me. "We wanted to wait to tell you until after our hearing, pretty much for the same reason as you and the new costumes. It's still pretty bare-bones and will probably take a while to fill in with our knick-knacks, but it's functional as-is. Moreover..." Brian leaned past me and handed the envelope to my father.

Dad gawked as he read the contents. "What...?" He looked up. "What!?" He looked back down at the paper in his hand. "What!?"

Everybody was smiling. I thought I even saw a tiny upturn of Rachel's lips. I scooted next to dad to read over his shoulder. As I read the contents, I couldn't help imitating him. "What!?"

Inside the envelope was the deed to a new house in Renaissance Park, the neighborhood right next to Arcadia High. The house was on Yonkers Road, because there always had to be a Yonkers. I resolved to put Google to the test and finally find out just who the fuck Yonkers was and why there was a street named that in practically every major city.

Lisa's voice brought me back to the present before my thoughts could get too pedantic. "We figured that, since you can't hide your changes, you'd be worried about someone going after your dad to get to you. What better way to keep you both safe than to have you live right in PRT central?" Her foxy grin widened. "Oh, don't start gushing gratitude. We're still gonna be rooming with and mooching off you until we can secure places of our own."

I was still trying to process everything (and my brain kept going back to Yonkers), so dad answered for us. "This is..." He stopped, swallowed, and steadied himself. "No, I can't say it's too much. After everything that happened, I couldn't in good conscience turn this down especially when it's for our safety." He looked around the room, really looking at it: the ceiling, the baseboards, every little detail was as though he was studying it for the first time. "There are so many memories in this house, good and bad. But..." He hugged me tight. "Things change. A house is just a house, and we can take our memories with us wherever we go. I suppose, with you guys getting a new start, we could do the same." He gave me a smile, which I returned. "By the way, how much did it cost?"

"Only about seven-fifty K," Aisha chirped.

"Yeah, prices tanked during the war," Lisa added with a smirk.

I was later told that my dad and I had identical slack-jawed expressions of shock.

(BREAK)

The next morning, dad let Kurt and Lacey take over administration for the day so he could plan out how we'd pack up the house. He was currently utilizing Lisapedia for that, the blonde following him around and mentally noting all of his comments. While I had justifiably ribbed dad about letting those two have free rein of the Union, I was also excited. Kurt was uncle and goofy older brother rolled into one, while Lacey had the cool older cousin vibe. Arcadia was starting back up soon, so I'd be able to reveal myself to the world and regain some semblance of a normal life. That alone was humorous, that outing myself as a cape would be a return to normalcy, but it was true: while I hid my identity I couldn't leave the house and we couldn't have visitors. I was sure people suspected that we were housing the Undersiders, but without proof it had all been rumor and gossip. When I finally stepped up and showed the world my parahuman changes, I would be able to have friends over again, make new friends, and dad could invite his own friends to the house for booze and bad sports games.

I was seated in the living room, watching Blue's Clues reruns with Rachel. She would make idle comments about the show being dumb or imply it was condescending, though not in such big words, but she hadn't asked me to turn the channel yet so I suspected she found it as childishly cute as I did. I heard my phone start to ring and hopped off the couch, heading down the hall while I had a platoon of flies collectively transport it to meet me halfway. The number was the main PRT signal tower.

"Hebert residence," I said into the receiver.

"Skitter," came a voice I recognized. I could tell Miss Militia was smiling over the phone. "Congratulations on the pardon. Are you and Regent free today?"

"I think so," I replied, "but it sort of depends on what you want us for."

"Well, we're planning to test a new parahuman for probatory entry into the Wards, a parahuman that you know personally, and since we don't have any Masters or Strangers for her to demonstrate her powers, we wanted you to come lend your expertise."

"So her therapist cleared her for duty?" I was happy for Emma, but it seemed a little fast.

"Not duty, but she could benefit greatly from the guidance and education of the Wards program as well as learning to control the urges that come with her powers. Being exposed to capes every day in a controlled environment should be very helpful to her." She couldn't hold in a chuckle. "Though the beginning could be rough. I anticipate as many complaints about her as there were about Assault."

"Well, I'm up for it. Let me check on Regent." I held the phone away from me and hollered. "Hey Regent!"

"The fuck you want!?" he called back.

"Wanna go legally screw with people?"

"Always!"

I placed the phone back against my ear. "Yeah, he's in. We'll see you this afternoon? I mean, I don't want to be in too big a hurry..."

"Afternoon is fine," Miss Militia replied. "Around 1 PM at the Rig. If you bring your beetle, you can land on the helipad and someone will escort you."

"Sounds good. We'll see you there," I smiled and hung up the phone.