AN: Thanks again to my beta Grey Raven 09 for his assistance!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Worm. If I did, I would be FAR more productive.

Please enjoy and let me know what you think in a review if you feel like it!

Altercation 01

"Hey, can you hear me?" A musical, frazzled voice echoed around inside my head. No, above my head. That's right, above my head. I smiled and flexed my hand, only realizing after I squeezed my fingers that there was another hand holding my own.

"Better. If I didn't have a direct line to your hormone and chemical balances I'd swear you that get high off of me healing you, what with how often this is happening now."

I just smiled wider. This was nice. The ground was hard though. Why was the ground hard? Why was I loopy? Was I loopy? I had to be loopy.

"We should get her fluids or something right? That's…a lot of blood." That was a different voice. I knew it though. That was…Puppy? No, that wasn't right, only Assault could call her that. I wasn't supposed to know that name. Oh she'd be mad if she knew I knew that name!

"Yeah, she definitely needs something to drink. If you can spare a ham sandwich though I should at least be able to get her lucid again."

I giggled and opened my eyes. "I'm lucid. I know what's going on. The bird sang and everything exploded!"

My two friends looked at each other. Battery shrugged. "Well, she's not wrong."

"Taylor, what's my name?"

"Amy."

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Six."

"…Any biomatter you can spare would be appreciated." Amy sighed and squeezed my hand again. "Taylor, you had a lot of glass in your back. It's gone now but you lost a lot of blood. Do you think you can call one of your swarm clusters here for me? I can use them as fuel and that should help you think easier. And to put on some weight. I'm seriously starting to worry about how much muscle mass you have left, especially if I have to keep healing you. You have basically no fat reservoirs left already!"

My face fell. "A lot of my bugs died…It hurt…It hurt a lot. I can take some of those I have left. They'll be here in a minute."

Battery frowned. "It hurt? I don't understand. I thought she just controls them?"

"If she sinks too deep into the swarm sense she feels their pain when they're hurt. She might've dropped into the bugs to try and escape the pain of the glass, but if the majority of her swarm was still in the path of Shatterbird…"

"Fuck."

"Yeah. No wonder she's loopy. Taylor, I need you to focus on me okay?" I nodded; the pretty voice was easy to focus on.

My cockroach cluster marched around the corner as Amy started to say something else. Her face swam in front of me and I blinked a few times as her mouth moved. "Your lips are pretty. Voice too. And face."

"What? What does that have to do with anything I just said? I mean…I'm flattered! That's-that's great and we should probably talk about this when you are actually thinking straight, Taylor!"

As the bugs came closer and Amy stared down at me babbling more I just blinked again and focused in on her lips. Pretty lips. Lifting my head, I pressed my lips against hers. Amy froze. It was almost like Cease had gotten her. I flopped back onto the ground smiling and giggled as the swarm reached my legs. "Clock isn't around, Ames. You don't have play peek-a-boo with his shard!"

Battery knelt down on the ground next to the two of us and looked between me and Amy. "Is she…okay?"

"Not by a country mile. Fuck. She's dating Lisa. Fuck. I…I thought I wanted…but now she's back and we're talking and…I can't deal with this right now. Fuck! Taylor, do you mind if I knock you out until I finish fixing you?"

"I'm fine."

"You are not!" Amy looked at Battery. "I'm just knocking her out. Call Assault so we can move her inside?"

"The troopers right inside should be fine. But don't you want to go back to your base?"

"It'll just be for a few minutes and she'll want to listen to whatever meeting you have about the Nine being in town. Taylor, I'm putting you to sleep now."

"Okay. Night, Ames! Night, Battery!" As my eyelids grew heavy, I smiled and curled up around my friend's arm. "Pretty lips."

Groaning, I reached a hand up to my head and muttered a curse. "Someone get the number of that Lung?"

"Oh thank god," Amy muttered next to me. "Taylor, how do you feel this time?"

"My head hurts. My brain hurts. I need to stop reaching for the swarm when the swarm is in danger too. Ouch. What just happened? I remember you talking to Battery and saying something about knocking me out and pretty lips and - " I cut off and my eyes went as wide as saucers while my face grew red as a beat. "Oh."

"Yeah. 'Bout that. It's okay, Taylor. You'd be surprised what people do when they are drugged up and I might have toned up the painkillers I hit you with a bit too much at first. I didn't realize you were out of it from your swarmsense too and by the time I did you were really out of it. Coupled with blood loss, well…yeah."

I turned to her. She was carefully avoiding looking at me, but with my power and a few flies in the area it wasn't hard to see her thin lips and tense muscles…and surprisingly red face. "Amy, um, we should probably…talk."

"Later, Taylor. I really can't deal with this right now and we need to get to the meeting. The Protectorate and the Wards are about to discuss something with the Nine. Some of the big wigs have bull rushed us into spots on the table."

Right. If she was willing to ignore a polka dot elephant, who was I to argue? Nodding, I swung my legs over the side of the small…cot? Wow. "Where are we?"

"Side room. Behind the main desk. Come on."

As she stood to lead the way I frowned. "How are you okay? You were driving. Didn't the windshield explode?"

"More like fell to pieces and crumbled. I've been a part of New Wave since almost before I can remember and we live with Lisa. Did you seriously think either of the two of us would buy a vehicle that couldn't survive a Shatterbird attack just in case?" Amy asked turning to me.

My frown grew larger as we walked through a security checkpoint and one of the troopers to the side handed the two of us domino masks. "How much money do we have that you can buy a car for that 'just in case'?"

Amy rolled her eyes. I didn't even have to peek through my bugs to know she was doing it. "Queen, seriously, until a few days ago, you were a paranoid mass of nerves that would've been praising me to hell and back for it. And Insight and Mockingbird both have shitloads of money; plus your father if we feel like begging. A beat up, junker, minivan with fancy windows and dashboard costs about the same as a nice, brand new car without the extra protection. It runs perfectly fine so why not be better prepared? Obviously it was a good choice."

"Suddenly I'm finding downsides to not being as paranoid as before Emma whammied me," I muttered.

Amy opened a door and waved me in ahead of her. I stepped through and sucked in a quick breath of air at the assemblage in front of me. Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Battery (with a new visor, one with a slightly color), Dauntless, Velocity, Aegis, Clockblocker, Triumph, Kid Win, Heartsight, a new girl I didn't know holding a souped-up crossbow…jeez, had they gotten every associated cape in the area into this one room? Wasn't that a super bad idea? The only one I didn't immediately see sitting down was…

"Good to see you up and about, Bugsy," Assault murmured from the wall right next to the open door. I nearly jumped at the sound of his voice and proceeded to glare at the man. The demure smile he had quickly removed all of the heat from my expression and I nodded back to him.

"Good to be up. How's Battery?"

"She's fine, thanks to you. I owe you big, girl. Don't think for a moment that either one of us are going to forget that. You need us, any of your people need us, you call," he replied softly as he leaned forward, basically whispering in my ear. He clapped a hand on my shoulder and the other on my side turning me towards the table. I watched him slip a small card into my pocket during the turn - sleight of hand was far more difficult on someone who could see multiple angles through surrounding houseflies. "Now, your seat's over here next to Clockblocker. Please ignore his comments. Or just slap him. Vista isn't here so that's your job now, Bugsy."

"Yeah, I can do that. I did apparently steal your Ward so it's only fair that I substitute for her role while she's not here," I said smirking as I took my seat.

Clockblocker glanced over at me and snorted. "Who'd you kill to get a seat at the High Table and do you want to just take mine instead of owing blood money? Apparently I didn't quit fast enough to get left out."

"Don't know, I was unconscious for the negotiations."

[Cease] can explain! [Cease] overheard!

I groaned and slammed my head on the table. "QA, please, tell me you can put that on mute. I really don't want to hear a puppy for the entire goddamn meeting."

Piggot turned towards me from the front of the room as a face formed up in the bugs behind me. The bugs just laughed. "Are you sure you want me to quiet the shards?"

"For the moment, yes. It's not like I can hear all of them anyway. Only this jerk's shard is so eager to talk and it's annoying."

"I'll screen them. Cease is cute. So far only a few want to listen to me. I'm not turning any away that want to follow without being actively subdued, so you might have to put up with a bit of noise, Taylor."

"I have a mask on! Call me Queen!"

The bugs frowned. "That's not your name. Your name is Taylor."

"Just make Cease be quiet! And then you be quiet! This is important and everyone is staring," I finished in a mutter.

"Man, I should've brought popcorn," Clockblocker said eliciting a few chuckles from around the table. I couldn't even bring myself to give him a dope slap. That comment was entirely warranted even if it was at my expense.

Piggot frowned, her lips in a line. "You really do talk to your power," she stated as QA dissolved and the houseflies fell back under my control.

"No, I've just been pretending because it's cool to be crazy. Yes, I talk to my fucking power."

"That was not a question, girl. Now do you have any more childish insight into your own mental instability - which was only cleared through the barest of margins by the way - or shall we proceed?"

"I'm unstable? Fuck you bitch. I'm more stable than I've been in two years thanks to Heartsight here," I spat back glaring at the woman as I waved a hand towards Emma's costumed figure as the redhead curled in on herself. Amy laid a hand on my leg and squeezed but I ignored her and shifted some of my emotions around to properly glare at her. "You're the one who keeps hiring on psychopaths as Wards and letting them have free reign! Like Shadow Stalker for instance. Heartsight at least seems to actually be trying to do better even if she used to be just as bad. Maybe your old age has gotten to your brain, but bullies aren't heroes! Try evaluating your own people before you throw stones in a glass house during a Shatterbird attack." Did that even make sense? Whatever. She was annoyed, so it worked. Piggot was apparently very annoyed, as she actually growled at me as she slammed a hand onto the table.

"Not to be the wet rag here," Assault said raising his hands. "But can we stop with the one-upmanship on who has the craziest followers and focus on the actual bad guys? The ones out there? 'Cause they have you both beat for insanity!"

"Yes, let's talk about the crazies out there instead of the ones in here…" Piggot muttered still glaring at me.

I took a breath and let it whistle out through my teeth. "Screw it, I'll be the bigger woman here. I'm sorry for disrupting the meeting before it could get started."

Dauntless nodded. "Very well, if no one has anything else at the moment…okay then, I will commence the briefing." Everyone shook their heads so the armored man continued. "Now, earlier this morning the Slaughterhouse Nine announced themselves in Brockton Bay with Shatterbird doing her thing. We've since received these photos of their initial activity in town late last night. Before I place these up, if you have a weak stomach, I recommend you close your eyes."

He clicked a remote and I gulped, fighting the turning of my stomach as a series of photos were splashed across the wall in a horrific collage. Skidmark had been placed onto a pike with his arms spread above his head and his legs splayed. His entire chest had been torn open straight down his ribcage, his heart and lungs on clear display while the rest of his chest was hollowed out and replaced with a large card that read: Drugs are bad!

Squealer on the other hand was almost unrecognizable. She was on display next to Skidmark; what was left of her. It was mostly just her head and bits and pieces of smashed body parts. Most of her body had been crushed or had acidic holes eaten through it or was just straight up missing. The only thing that truly showed it was her was that her head was largely untouched.

Trainwreck was there as well. I hadn't even realized the man was a Case 53. I thought he had just been a weird homeless guy who liked living in the trainyard…with his destroyed suit arranged around him, and the strange pink gooey tentaclish form smashed to pieces on display inside it…I felt sorry for the poor bastard. He'd only joined the Merchants last week.

The remote clicked again and the images disappeared. "As you can see, this is what we have to look forward to. Don't be captured. It's better to just die. Even then, if you can make sure your body is destroyed it would probably be kinder to your family afterwards. Clockblocker, the images are gone, you look again."

"Could've at least pretended not to notice, dude," the white-clad hero muttered.

Dauntless just continued on. "Mush has been notified, but we don't expect him to try to escape just to take revenge. He is…not stupid enough to believe he can stand against the Nine. Now, to discuss how things usually work with these psychopaths…"

"Queen," Velocity said, coming over to me as the meeting broke up. Piggot had wasted no time in departing with a heavy scowl and glare at most present and some of the heroes were leaving as well, though most were shuffling towards the corner table presumably for a drink before leaving for parts unknown.

"Yes? Can I help you? I don't think we've actually talked much…or at all. You don't want to join the Outcasts too do you? Clock is already in negotiations," I said gesturing to my side.

Clockblocker nodded, waggling his eyebrows. "Strenuous negotiations."

"Behave. The meeting might be over, but I can still have Vista dope-slap you later on, so don't be crude."

"Yes potential future Mistress."

Velocity just groaned as Amy chuckled and I rolled my eyes. The adult hero beckoned me and I shuffled after him to the corner where we at least had a modicum of privacy. "I understand that the Director is difficult to work with, but we would appreciate it if you could perhaps tone down your antagonism, or at least the sniping."

I stared at him. "Seriously? That bitch put a Kill Order on my friend, threatened one for me and just finished leaving me in what amounts to solitary confinement for days just because she doesn't like me. I came to you for help and she spat in my face."

"I know," he said rubbing his temple. "I'm not going to make excuses. I'm just saying we have larger problems right now. And, to be perfectly frank, she has no teeth anymore concerning you and your team. Orders from on high, straight from Chief Director Costa-Brown. Unless your people are making overt hostile gestures you're to be left alone at worst, treated as allies at best. Piggot can't do anything to you and the Protectorate and PRT are all fully aware of that. She's riling you up, yes, but she can't follow through. She's hard to work with. We. Understand. But please, just drop it? The Nine are in town and we're still trying to get our feet back from Leviathan. We have much bigger fish to fry without you making things more difficult for us all by getting into a pissing match with the local Director."

I grimaced. Fuck, I hadn't even considered it like that. "Okay, yeah, I'm sorry. I'll try not to let her provoke me."

"Thank you." He waved me towards the refreshments. "Do you want some food before you and Darwin drive back to your home? And do you want an escort? The city isn't exactly safe anymore."

"The city hasn't been safe since I was born, but I get your point. If you can spare one or two people we won't turn them away. I'll just grab an apple and see what else Clockblocker was wanting to talk about, then we'll head out."

I had barely taken the fruit before said junior hero popped up near me with crossed arms. "I wanted to talk about my sex change."

"Your what now?" I asked blinked. I had to have heard that wrong. It didn't help that half the surrounding conversations died as everyone turned to stare at the teen.

"My sex change. You have a team of super powered girls! So when do I change? Before I get settled or after we sign any paperwork you need me to fill out? Is there paperwork? This job had tons but you girls don't seem the type to want to deal with that sort of thing."

"Okay no. I'm just saying this right now in front of all of these witnesses, Clock," I said, gesturing towards his groin with the apple in my one hand and towards Amy with my other. "If you want to join up, that's perfectly fine. However! Membership does not require you to have a sex change! Amy can help if that is you want but you don't have to be a girl to be a part of my team."

"But you're all girls!" he whined waving his arms wildly. Assault had both hands over his mouth on the wall behind us and I saw Velocity hiding his head in the crook of his arm. Poor Dauntless was left with a confused expression as he switched back and forth between me and Clockblocker like a softball.

"We have one honorary - "

"Two," Amy cut in. She didn't elaborate but I did notice Assault wink at me. Oh right. Guess we did get another honorary uncle/father. Huh. Cool.

"Right. We have two guys who are associate members of the team already. You'll just be the first official guy."

"Yeah, name the other two."

"Classified."

"See? All girls."

Armsmaster groaned and moved to get a drink from the machine in the corner as Dauntless gave up and chuckled.

"Clock, seriously, I'm not making you change genders. Piggot already hates me. Don't give her another reason." I paused and smirked. "Though if you just want to see how the outer half lives for a bit, we can arrange a suitable price for compensation. What do you think Amy? Five grand for a week?"

"I was going to say ten. Are you giving him the team discount?"

"You have team discounts?! Cool!"

I shrugged. "None of us have used it before. Guys are gross. Who would want to be one?"

"So you do have a lesbian harem! I knew it!"

I stomped my foot and looked to the heavens. "Why does everyone keep saying that! I have a team with mostly girls and yes I'm dating one, but I don't have a harem."

"You have a harem, Queen. I'll explain later," Amy deadpanned without losing a beat. "Hey Clock, if you join you get to be the only guy in the harem."

"Yeah but it's not my harem so I'd just be the boytoy. That's not nearly as fun," he pouted, he actually pouted! "Ah but I suppose I need to protect Vista from your predatory ways. Darn you crazy warrior lesbian lovers." He shook his head and chuckled.

I just groaned. "I am seriously going to regret this aren't I?"

"Probably," he agreed with a full laugh this time. Amy nodded along as did most of the remaining Protectorate heroes in the room with us.

"Excuse me, I just recently arrived so I'd like to clarify a few things," the white-clad, new girl said as she stepped closer to us. Her giant crossbow thing was leaning on the wall nearby and she was smiling as she looked between the three of us. "You're representing the Outcasts right?"

"Yes, that's right. I'm Queen, this is Darwin."

"I'm Flechette. It's nice to meet you, though I wish it was under better circumstances."

I shrugged. "Honestly I've barely had a chance to slow down at all for the past two months so one crisis is kind of blending into the next at this point for me. Are you transferring in?"

She nodded. "Yes, from New York. Because of you actually. Legend was worried that Vista was dropping out of the Wards and there was a rumor that Clockblocker was leaving too."

"Confirmed now apparently," he said nodding. "Gotta watch over the squirt and I'm not really liking how things have been going down recently. I'd prefer to be more independent."

"Yes, well, anyway, my boss felt the people here needed more backup." She tilted her head and her smile shifted to something a bit more…coy? Maybe? Was that coy? What was that? Where was Lisa when I needed her? "Do you really have a lesbian harem?"

Assault lost his internal battle and bent over double, holding his sides in almost silent laughter. Triumph patted his back with a smile on his face and Armsmaster cast me a sympathetic head nod. "I am going to hurt the next person that says that."

"Shame. I was almost hoping to be recruited."

"Wait, what?" I asked snapping my head back to her and narrowing my eyes.

Amy snorted and shook her head. "That just went right over your head didn't it? Forgive my friend. I thought she was dense because she was paranoid, but apparently she's just naturally dense. She's also semi-dating someone."

"Still," Flechette sighed shaking her head with an exaggerated shrug, "no better chance to find a girlfriend than in a group of lesbians."

Clockblocker's mouth fell open as he stared at the new girl and I wasn't far behind him. I made some sort of noise but I don't think it qualified as words.

Amy shrugged. "Queen's harem is pretty open at the moment and if you stick around us long enough, you'll be naturally pulled in. It seems to happen more and more. Stay near us while you're in town and I'm sure you'll join up eventually. We've been slowly consuming everyone else. It's a secondary power for her at this point."

"Stop poaching all of our Wards!" Dauntless shouted half-hearted from the table.

Amy just ignored him and continued. "By the time we finish killing a few of the Murder Hobos I'm sure you'll fit right in and if you try hard enough you might even have a shot of fighting off Insight for top haremette."

"Amy! Stop!" I squeaked. "Don't encourage this!"

Flechette frowned and she stood up straighter losing a lot of her joking flair. "Wait, kill some of the Slaughterhouse Nine? What are you talking about? We can't kill them. They're like an evil force of nature. They might as well be hurricanes that talk. The best we can do is hope to survive them and minimize the damage."

Amy smirked. "You have not been around this city long enough honey. Welcome to Brockton Bay, where the monsters come to hunt, and then we hunt them."

Fanfic Rec: 'Éclair de Lune' by tmthesaurus. On Ao3 and SV. This fic is set in dual time periods and alternates each chapter. The present is after Gold Morning where a Taylor with a different power set is married to Madison who works/helps run a local bakery while trying to be a good Cape Wife to Taylor as she goes off heroing and worrying poor Madison's heart every time. The past is slowly building up to how they started dating to begin with after they started working in the same bakery during the summer. Both sets are told from Madison's viewpoint. Scion is not the focus nor is capes in general, it's largely a Slice of Life story with a bit drama. It's great and still being updated if slowly.