April 10th, 2011.

Saturday, 9:02 AM.

I was lazing on the couch watching the morning news. The Brockton Bay Wards were getting a new member, again. Shadow Stalker had joined last year sometime around August I thought. She looked like a Death Eater though, he wasn't going to lie. Creepy ass mask and a black hood over an almost entirely black costume. Triumph bless his little heart, had gone and aged out of the Wards, who only allowed people below the age of majority. Triumph had joined the Protectorate straight away; They grow up so fast, he wiped an imaginary tear from his eye.

The newest addition to the wards should have called himself 'Absolutely Jacked Man' but instead, was getting introduced as Browbeat, I wondered idly if he had been given a stern talking to about his choice of name, heh. Browbeat was a tall guy and his muscles looked like they belonged on the top level of body builders, he was super swole. His costume covered all his body except for his eyes. It was dark blue body suit with a simple repeating lite-blue diamond pattern.

Browbeat was standing between Vista and Shadow Stalker and he absolutely dwarfed them both the size disparity between the three made him look even bigger my comparison, and it was probably done on purpose for exactly that effect. I watched them answer question after question from the press, they paused thoughtfully before answering. Either being fed the lines through an earpiece or the questions were curated. They were all softballs, all part of the show, I sighed. This was boring, I was sitting around doing nothing again but at least I was getting paid.

Coil had contacted me a couple of weeks ago, out of the blue, he had a job he wanted me to look over, only this time the client was him. I hadn't done an actual job for Coil in the entire time we worked together, he was simply my hook-up for finding jobs, so this was very strange, and had the potential to mess up our relationship if it went badly. The job he proposed was a long-term contract, which wasn't something I had done before, which he knew, but I let him give me the elevator pitch anyway.

I would be on call, for the next few months. I would get paid a small amount for each day I was on call, regardless if he a task for me to complete. If he did have a task, I would get paid a fair amount appropriate for the task. If the task involved combat, bonus pay would be negotiated based on the perceived difficulty. It was a good deal all round, and I was tempted to take it outright. But I was more hesitant then ever when it came to just agree to things these days, what was the catch, I asked him.

Coil straight up told me that the targets I would be expected to fight could be anyone. The Wards, Protectorate, New Wave, Azn Bad Boys, Empire Eighty-Eight, The Merchants and any number of other people. It depended entirely upon on who was between Coil and whatever his goal was at the time. A goal I wouldn't be made aware of, unless it was necessary for the job, Coil had added.

This worried me a bit, I had worked with Coil for around two years at this point and as far as I knew he had never intentionally fucked me over or ratted me out to anyone. Even when the bounty had popped up, he hadn't blinked an eye and continued to send work my way. We had a good but distant working relationship, but I was worried if I said no, that it might come to an end.

This wouldn't be as crippling as it would have, a year ago when I hadn't been as well established as I was now. Now I was smarter and stronger than ever; I even had a reputation for kicking the ass of any bounty hunter that thought they could take me. I had money to spare, I even had some connections which I could use to find more work. I could have said no and gotten along just fine without him, but he had helped me out for years, so I'd help him out in return.

I told him to call me when he had a target in mind.

April 11th, 2011.

Sunday, 11:57 PM.

It was just before midnight when Coil called for the first time. I snatched the phone up from my bedside table and answered it immediately.

"Yes?" I asked, getting out of bed.

"The Undersiders, who are currently working for me," Coil said calmly, "Are about to be attacked by Lung and Oni Lee."

I didn't say anything for a moment, and then Coil continued.

"I need you to stop them." He said simply. "You know what both of them can do?"

Come on man, the first job is Fucking Lung of all people? With a side of Oni Lee? Of course, I knew what they could do, who didn't? I thought but didn't say. I took a deep breath, and then let it out. I had a job to do.

"Where are they?" I asked after a brief pause.

My phone dinged and I move it in front of my face to see what it was, the docks, the Undersiders base, and the last known location of Lung were all listed on a map application that I hadn't installed on my phone. Yikes, there were some pictures I needed to delete ASAP. I didn't think Coil was the type to be looking at my longboi, but I hadn't made it this long by taking risks.

"I'm on my way." I agreed after a moment of studying the map.

"Very well." Coil replied, hanging up.

The entire time I was on the phone I had been dragging my costume on with wires, and by the time Coil had hung up I was ready to go. I hopped out of the window of my apartment and shot off into the sky in an instant.

It wasn't until a minute later that I realized; I had no idea who the fuck the Undersiders were.

April 11th, 2011.

Monday, 12:02 PM.

I had initially gone high to get my bearings and set out towards the blinking dot on my phone. I started moving lower when I got towards the docks, trying to see if any fighting had broken out already. I saw a burst of fire over a rooftop in the distance and changed direction immediately. I came across a man who was shooting fire all over the place and yelling in anger. That would be Lung, I couldn't see Oni Lee anywhere. Lung was a big dude, covered in awesome tattoo's and a mask covering his face. I spotted who he was fighting after a moment, there was a girl in a dark costume hiding on a roof nearby unmoving. Probably one of the Undersiders.

Lung leaped from the street straight up onto the roof in a single jump. Holy fuck, that was some crazy strength. I brought myself closer and drew his attention away from the girl.

"Hey, Burnt-Face Man!" I yelled and slapped him with a person sized wire-construct shaped like a hand. "Try this on for size!"

Lung dug his now clawed feet into the roof and face checked my construct. It pushed him back about halfway across the roof instead of sending him flying. What!? The girl on the roof was looking at us in shock still not running away. Come on lady get moving.

"Uh," I said weakly. "Did it fit?" Lung bellowed and shot a massive blast of fire at me.

I twisted out of the way and Lung raised his hands and fired off a barrage of fireballs I moved out of the way but he keep shooting them where I had been before. I watched him strangely for a moment, what was he doing? He stopped firing but kept his arm outstretched but he hadn't turned to follow me.

"What are you aiming at?" I wondered aloud, Lung yelled again and adjusted his aim. He began to mercilessly blast the area I had been in before I moved away again. What in the seven hells was this guy on? Was he setting up a god damned 'hell-zone grenade' or something?

"He can't see!" The girl yelled suddenly and dived out of the way of Lung's sudden leap towards her. Oh.

I caught her with wires and brought her up beside me. She was struggling and trying to escape like a crazy person she stopped and just looked down at the distant ground terrified. Lung tried to shoot us again and I moved out of the way once more. He bellowed angrily, scratching at his eyes with his claws.

"Hey, chill." I said, to the girl. "I'll take care of this guy; you should get out of here. Coil's orders." I gave her a giant wire thumbs up and put her on another nearby roof.

Lung raised his head and it was a mess of gouges and cuts. It started healing slowly and then he was looking straight at us, there was a fire in his eyes.

"He has high-speed regeneration," The girl said, "Super hearing, pyrokinesis and he gets bigger and stronger the longer he fights."

All useful information, Urchin thought, but I knew all of that except the super hearing part.

"I blinded him with pepper spray already," She continued, trying to give me every bit of tactical advice she could between each breathe. "I also made hundreds of insects bite him on his,' She hesitated, 'You know.' She jerked her her strangely.

"I don't know, bit him on his what?' I asked, curious. Her posture looked very uncomfortable.

She pointed down to his crotch area. Urchin felt a slow realization come over him.

Lung was getting bigger now, pumping himself up. He must have heard us talking because he let out a yell and jumped at the building we were on. I slapped him back down with a hand three times the size of the first one. He hit the roof with an explosion of debris and went straight through it. There was now screaming coming from the buildings nearby, but I was much to upset to care.

"You did what to his dick?!" I said outraged, "That's messed up, and what's this about insects?!" I tried to picture it and flinched away from the mental image. She let out a noise of protest.

"I didn't bite him on the dick." She said angrily, "I made the insects do it."

That's what I said, you crazy woman. Lung had started to climb back onto the roof, he was even bigger.

"It was a combination of bees, wasps, black widows, brown recluses and some fire ants." She said, "I tried to get as much venom in his system as I could; to slow down his healing."

I was horrified, I made sure to tighten my wires around myself locking down all of the gaps. I was going to buy some heavy-duty ski goggles, or a visor or something, and a cup! I wasn't stepping near this chick without full coverage ever again. Spider bites on the dick, fucking what.

"Lung!" I yelled down at him, he turned and looked at me. "Your dicks gonna fall off, man! You need to get to the fucking hospital or something!"

His mouth was open a bit in surprise. The girl was looking at me like I was an idiot.

"Skin necrosis and shit man!" I continued wildly, waving my arms. "That shit is fucked up!" I swear he looked down at his dick for a moment.

I shivered once massively and shook my hands and feet out; I made a loud guttural noise of disgust. Lung suddenly let out a yell of rage. I fucking feel you, bro, that shit is nasty. He leapt at us again and this time I hit him with two hands from both sides and turned it into a big ass ball around him.

I was tempted to throw the poor guy towards a hospital or something, but he was far too angry, and his junk probably looked like a 'Bad Dragon' product now. You couldn't take that kind of stuff into a hospital, they had rules against that sort of thing. I wondered idly if that tinker Dragon had ever tried for that sponsorship, before I shook my head and refocused on the situation at hand.

I lifted both the constructs up into the air and then flung them down towards the ground, releasing Lung to smash into it. He impacted with the noise of shattering concrete and completely cratered the ground. He also got right the fuck back up as if nothing had happened. Jesus Christ.

Lung stopped advancing for a moment and looked behind us. Three gigantic things suddenly leaped off the building behind us and landed right next to us. I had to stop myself from slapping everybody off the roof out of reflex.

"Who the fuck are you guys?" I demanded from the closest beast. It tilted its head strangely. I realized suddenly that there were people on the things. I raised my head and repeated the question.

There was a tall dude in black leather wearing a motorbike helmet, his costume looked like what Dean's bargain bin version wanted to be when it grew up. Sitting behind him was another guy who was dressed like he was royalty or something, he had a fancy circlet on his head. A thickly built girl with short dirty-blonde hair sat on a different creature, she wore a big fur-lined jacket and a dog mask that she must have bought for two-dollars. Woof. The final girl had long messy blonde hair and a skin-tight purple bodysuit that had black highlights and a large 'Tt' on the front

The group had climbed off the giant spiky beasts and the dog-girl whistled and pointed down into the alley. Where these giant creatures' dogs? They dove off the roof and attacked Lung. I watched him get tossed around for a moment before turning back to the group.

The Tee-tee girl opened her mouth to speak but I cut her off.

"Why do you have such large Tee-tees on your chest, woman?" I asked with a shit-eating grin that nobody could see, but everybody could hear.

She immediately looked annoyed; I was truly a master at first impressions. The guy that was dressed like royalty started laughing his ass of. Heh, finally someone that wasn't a psychopath was laughing at my jokes. I was worried for a bit there.

The girl I still held in the wire shifted uncomfortably from her spot next to me. I eyed her warily for a moment, ain't nobody biting me on the dick. I let her go onto the roof and made the 'I'm watching you' gesture at her, she stepped back a bit from us all. The tee-tee girl finally spoke up still looking annoyed.

"Hilarious." She said and turned to the bug-girl. "We're the Undersiders. Thanks for the help."

What?!

"Hey! What about me," I said, "I helped too." Tee-tee just nodded at me. Wow, unbelievable.

Wait if they were the Undersiders, then who the hell did I just save. My gaze snapped to the big guy with the helmet when he moved, he stepped forward to look off the roof at Lung and the giant doggies.

"What did you do to him? He's supposed to be stronger than this." I turned to watch the battle.

Lung was tossing them everywhere, clearly stronger, but the dogs were durable enough that they kept coming back and grabbing onto his limbs, before he would fight them off all over again. The bug-girl spoke up, repeating what she told me before, minus the dick thing. I watched her wearily.

"Introduction time. I'm Grue." The guy in the helmet said and pointed at Tee-tee. "That's Tattletale." He turned and found the other girl.

"That's Bitch." He said. Wow rude. "She also goes by Hellhound." Why not call her that then, Urchin thought.

He didn't say anything about the last guy.

"Fuck you, Grue!" The guy with the circlet said annoyed, "I'm Regent."

"What are your names?" Grue asked. Pointing first to me than the bug-girl.

"Urchin, mercenary," I said gamely, wondering if they knew about the bounty. Grue nodded hesitantly after a moment. We turned to the girl and she shrunk in on herself at the attention.

"I," She started hesitantly. "haven't picked one yet." She finished more quietly.

"I know what we can call you!" I said, but she cut me off immediately.

"Absolutely not!" She shouted and crossed her arms in front of her, like a game show. Well shit.

Tattletale stepped forward suddenly.

"The heroes will be here in about a minute," She said, calmly. "If they see all us baddies duking it out, they will definitely arrest us all. We better skedaddle."

Who the fuck says skedaddle? I'm also totally not a baddie, I'm a goodie who does work for baddies. There's totally a difference, I thought but didn't say. Bitch whistled and the dogs came back instantly. Lung was crawling out of a hole in a building that they had managed put him through.

Lung was really fucking big now, taller than the giant dogs and he just kept getting bigger. I was going to have a hell of a time trying to contain him now, I might have to go for operation toss Lung into the ocean. The Undersiders hand climbed up onto the dogs and turned to leave, they waved and tore off into the night leaping across the rooves. Which left me alone on the roof with the girl who murdered Lung's dick.

"Hey," I said to her, she looked at me, worried for a moment. "Don't bite anymore dicks okay?"

"Shut up!" She yelled angrily, then looked surprised at herself.

Strange girl, I thought and started to respond, which was when Armsmaster popped his head around the corner of the building and shot Lung in the crotch.

"What the fuck is wrong with you people?!" I yelled in anger.

Lung yelled with me, furious at the world. He took two stumbling steps towards Armsmaster before he fell on his face. He abruptly started shrinking and Armsmaster immediately started to tie him up. He cuffed his hands and feet and tossed him over his motorbike which had rolled around the corner a moment later.

"You need help getting out of here?" I asked the girl, but keeping my eye on the hero.

I was getting ready to bail, if I stayed Armsmaster might try and bully me. The bug-girl looked at me then down at Armsmaster and back again.

"You're going to let me go?" She asked. I blinked at her from behind my mask. What?

I started to respond but Armsmaster cut me off, he was standing at the foot of the building looking up at us. I watched as he crossed his arms, he truly was a master at using those things, what an honour.

"Urchin." Armsmaster said, "Who's the girl?"

I picked her up with wires and both her and Armsmaster tensed. I moved her off the roof and lowered her down to him before vanishing the wires. She stumbled a step before moving backward out of arms-reach. Heh.

"She was beating the crap out of Lung before I got here." I said, "I was just passing through, thought I should help."

Armsmaster took a step back from the girl at the news, realizing that anyone that could tangle with Lung would be dangerous. I looked down at them, and the girl was looking back up at me. I've got her this time, Urchin thought. Armsmaster might be able to talk some sense into her, I just had to warn him.

"Bug-girl!" I said abruptly, "Don't bite anymore-"

"Shut up!" She shouted angrily again, and I fled.

Fuck it, I was afraid of her, I'm not going to lie. Armsmaster watched me go worriedly, be careful man, I thought, she's got dick spiders.

April 11th, 2011.

Monday, 1:18 PM.

My phone started to ring so I pulled it out and answered.

"Hey." I said.

"Urchin." Coil sounded pleased. "Well done, I've received word that Lung has been taken into custody."

"Yeah," I replied. "I never saw Oni Lee though. Want me to go after him?"

Coil seemed to give that a moment's thought, before speaking.

"No," He said, "I'll call you with your next task."

You better not leave me waiting for three fucking weeks this time man, I thought but didn't say.

"Alright." I said, and he hung up. Say goodbye next time asshole! Rude.

April 11th, 2011.

Monday, 12:17 PM.

I watched as Dean and Chris ate lunch on the other side of the cafeteria. They chatted and messed around, looking like any other group in the cafeteria. They hadn't changed that much in a year, but I saw them every day so maybe I just couldn't tell. I narrowed my eyes, they were both a bit taller, probably. I looked to the other side of the room and spotted Rory Christner talking to Victoria and Amy Dallon, celebrities in the school. I wondered if they knew he was Triumph, Victoria suddenly leaned over and pulled Rory into a hug.

Oh, they were dating, there was no way that they didn't know who he was then, right? Amy rolled her eyes and looked away from the two in disgust. I laughed quietly to myself and stood up. Taking my tray to the rubbish bin and cleaning it off, stacking the tray on top with the others.

I was studying everyone else at the school too, nearly everyone I had encountered during the Lung fiasco had looked and sounded around my age. Did the Undersiders all go to Arcadia as well? Was the school secretly being overrun by villains? I shivered, or worse? I couldn't protect myself at school with my wires, so I was still wearing my cup, just in case. I walked past the heroes on my way out the door, they didn't even give me a second glance.

Authors Note:
That's chapter 16 finished. One year later, another big time skip, 2011, the year that worm starts. We are going to jump straight into it. Poor lung.