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!

Interlude 8.x

Melanie was tired of this city. She was tired of this life. She was tired of the unanswered questions. She was tired of the pain. Sometimes it would've been easier to just let it all go, move out to the country and just…stop. Raise chickens or something. Her parents had done that after the Empire had burned down her synagogue.

That sort of thing had just never seemed like an option before however. Not with her team there. She'd taken them in, built them up, protected them. She'd promised them answers. And now they were gone. The difference between one moment and the next, they were just…gone. It was just Emily, Elle, and herself left.

And then she'd had to push Emily away too, because Elle couldn't bear to be in the same room as the girl. Between the two…well Melanie knew who she would choose every time. Elle was, special. She was damaged, yes, but she was sweet and so very innocent. She was the younger sister that Melanie had always wanted and if she needed Emily to leave for that to happen…

At least Queen was taking care of the girl.

Maybe now, with the Palanquin being sold off, she'd be able to move Elle out to that farm. Elle didn't like chickens, but she did like horses. A horse ranch would be nice. And Elle could make such beautiful worlds if they stayed put…

Melanie slammed a fist onto the table, a scowl etched across her face. "Motherfucking Nine! Motherfucking rules!"

"Rules are for protection. For us, and for you." Melanie froze as the cold, detached voice drifted into her office. Her hand settled onto her gun as her eyes searched the darkness. It didn't take long for a small spark to illuminate from the shadowed corner near the door.

"Burnscar." The flame from the lighter bounced from one hand to the other, the fire's arc casting a small shifting light onto the face of one of the most unstable and unpredictable members of the Nine.

"Hello. Is Elle here? I was told I can speak with her before we get started in earnest. I would like to speak with her."

"You're not going anywhere near her," Melanie snarled. She carefully pushed her chair back and stood up. "What the fuck do you want?"

The flame danced, it grew larger for a moment and Burnscar's eyes locked onto it before she shook her head and clenched her fist around the flame, smothering it. "I want to talk to my friend. It's been…a very long time since I've had a friend, and I would like to talk to my friend. I think I did a bad thing. I think I told Jack I wanted my friend and I think he took that the wrong way. I would like to apologize. I would also like to warn her that I doubt I will be holding back when we start."

Melanie shuffled two steps to the right to move away from behind her desk and narrowed her eyes at Burnscar. "If you are so upset about putting Elle in the line of fire, then why fight her? How does that make any sense?!"

Burnscar scowled and pushed off from the wall as the lighter in her hand flicked open and shut several times in quick succession. "Surely Elle has told you about me. There will be fire. Jack will make sure of it, even if I don't. There's…always fire when we start. Once there's fire…it's too late. I want to apologize while I still care enough to remember why it still matters."

Melanie opened her mouth to speak, but Elle stepped to the doorframe and cut her off. "Apologies aren't enough, Mimi. I may have been your friend once, but you remind me too much of that place to truly be one of mine. If you want to be my friend you need to change. You need to stop letting the monster win."

"It's not me, it's the fire," Burnscar replied softly. "You know I can't control it."

"Then you go to someone who can, or you go somewhere where there is no fire!" Elle yelled. "You can't stay a monster and expect an apology to be enough Mimi!"

"No one can help what I am. It's better to just let the fire win." She flicked the lighter open and clicked it igniting the flame. Melanie brought her gun to bear with wide eyes as the tiny flame grew to the size of a softball in mere moments.

Elle stride forward and slapped Burnscar. Melanie sucked in a breath and everything in the room seemed to freeze, the fire slowly dwindling back down to a small spark. "You remind me of the Bad Place, Mimi, because you stopped fighting a long time ago. Fight back."

"…I don't know how," Burnscar whispered.

"Go to Queen," Melanie burst out, the thought slipping between her lips before she'd even realized she'd spoken aloud. Her eyes widened as Elle turned her head and glared at her. It was too late now though; the damage was done. Burnscar was gazing her way as well. "Queen, she…rumor says she can talk to powers. Maybe she can help."

"…Okay." Burnscar turned and walked past Elle towards the door. She paused at the threshold. "Jack and the others will still keep testing you, Elle. And…depending on how much fire there is, I may too. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I never wanted any of this." She ran and Melanie collapsed back against her desk.

Elle turned fully to face her. "You shouldn't have said that."

"I know."

"We have to warn them."

"Yeah. I know that too."

"Darwin, are you sure that it's okay to be in this area of town?" Vista asked adjusting her new orange visor and glancing to the side. "Not that I'm against patrolling, but this seems like it's too, I don't know, high class?"

Stormtiger shook his head. "See you'd think that kid, but these crazy bastards like to use that against you. A lot of gangs stay out of the well-off sections of town. Not the Nine. They target rich folk just as much as poor folk. Kaiser gave us a run down of the last time they came through the city. One member almost exclusively stuck to the wealthy as their targets."

Vista frowned. "Why? Doesn't that just call more attention to them?"

"Don't ask me to run a psych profile on murderers."

Darwin snorted. "You're a Nazi. Yet you draw the line at murder hobos?"

"You're sheltering a Nazi."

"Ex-Nazi."

"Actually," Vista commented, "she prefers the term 'recovering insensitive idiot'. Just saying."

Stormtiger laughed. "Always liked that girl. Did she come up with that or did you?"

"She did. At my suggestion."

"Well kudos, ex-mini-hero."

Darwin paused as her new leg glitched and froze midstep. Sighing, she held up a hand and looked down to the leg. It was currently covered by her costume and while she wasn't a tinker, but…fuck it. Slapping a hand onto the side of the leg, Darwin sighed as it still stubbornly refused to complete the forward step onto the red sidewalk. Instead, it actually stepped backwards almost knocking her completely off balance as she had to hop backward on her real leg to stay standing.

Darwin scowled and turned towards her current teammates for assistance. Her words died in her throat and her eyes widened as she saw both Stormtiger and Vista frozen in place on the sidewalk as soon as they had stepped on the spray-painted portion of the walkway.

The spray paint that wasn't spray paint, now that she looked closer. That spray paint that was moving. What she had previously taken for paint was moving up the legs of both Stormtiger and Vista, it stopped climbing up them just as it got past their boots and reaching their costume, but Darwin could see small filaments shooting through the fabric - presumably - touching direct skin.

"Do you like my latest idea?" a high-pitched voice asked from just to her side. Darwin gulped as she snapped her head towards the sound, only to see a small girl smiling at her, blond curls bouncing on either side of her face. An oversized lab coat was wrapped around her shoulders and a belt with an assortment of tools was hanging around her waist. In one hand she held a remote while the other was waving enthusiastically towards the scene. "I'm not super good with the really tiny stuff, but a mini machine/virus hybrid thing was somewhat simple. Making it all clump together until I activated it was the really hard part. I feel like that should have been easy, but viruses like to spread and it's reeealllyy hard to override that when you ramp up a lot of the other stuff that they are doing. Tiny machines help, but putting tiny machines in viruses doesn't always work for me. I'm better with putting bigger stuff in bigger things! What about you?"

"What are you doing to my friend, Bonesaw?" Darwin managed to get out through her gritted teeth. She stepped back, further away from the biosludge and Bonesaw both. The youngest member of the Nine just smiled wider and skipped out onto the sidewalk as she shrugged.

"It's mostly a paralytic until I activate it. Once I do push the button though, things can get interesting. Some of the base ingredients are necrotizing, others are hemorrhagic, some will make the body liquify…I honestly forget some of the cooler things I added. I was sorta in a fugue when I made that stuff. I'm not really sure how to redo it. It's a limited supply and I didn't know what to do with it so I thought 'why not see what my new big sister can do!' Perfect plan right!" Bonesaw spread her arms and bowed. Her grin never left her face. "This is a perfect mini test! Even I don't know what half of it can do, so surely if you can fix them once I start it, then you show you have as much potential as I thought!"

"That doesn't even make sense." Darwin tapped out a sequence on her leg; to anyone watching it would just be a nervous tic, but thankfully, Armsmaster had left her with an innocuous distress code with her upgraded prosthetic.

"Sure it does," Bonesaw said frowning. "I know that at least part of it affects the nervous system. I was actually hoping you would also get some on you so you'd have to affect it directly and then make it airborne to fix them since you'd be paralyzed, but, hey this works too! I know you don't like brains, but I don't know why. Your power shouldn't have an arbitrary limit like that. It's just stupid. Manton limits are internal or external not partial internal." Darwin started to sweat and her eyes widened ever so slightly as Bonesaw hit a little too close to home with her babbling. "So that means that you can work on brains, you just don't want to. So I'm going to have to make you! It'll be progress! It's gonna be fun! It'll be good for you! You'll see. This is a plus."

Darwin shook her head and took another step back. "You are insane." How long did it take for Armsmaster to respond? Or Dragon? Or…anyone? Monarch. She wasn't Taylor, but Monarch was still her power right?

Please. I don't know what your real name is, no, wait, I DO! Shaper, please, if you can hear me, send Monarch or have it send something to help me now!

There was enough time for her to start despair that she was going to be forced to go up against this nightmare plague demon alone, while trying to save the youngest member of their team and a fucking Nazi, and avoid any civilian casualties…And then a soft whisper of something in her head brushed against her consciousness and Amy had to hold back a smile as she felt a distant flap of wings before the connection broke.

"It's not very nice to question people's sanity," Bonesaw said frowning. "You should really watch your language."

Darwin couldn't help the snort of laughter that bubbled out of her. "Watch my language? Yeah, sorry bitch, fuck you. You hold my friend hostage with a virus that could liquefy her just because you want to test me? And this is in the middle of a part of the city that actually isn't that bad off after a fucking Endbringer? Screw you!" She just needed access to something. She couldn't make a super bug to kill Bonesaw without knowing what sort of genetics the girl had, otherwise she could take out the entire block by accident before she could get the virus back under control. And who knew what sort of defenses Bonesaw had under her skin to defeat viruses anyway? She was a biotinker. Any biotinker worth their salt would immediately make themselves immune to anything that could be infectious. The little bitch was probably a walking plague herself.

Bonesaw's frown devolved into a full scowl. "That's not polite. I'm trying to make you better and you're cursing at me. Cursing me. You should be taught a lesson. Bad girls have to deal with consequences." Before Darwin could react, Bonesaw had pressed the button in her hand. The remote gave a single beep, then it was crushed in the blonde's hand. "Better hurry if you want to save them, Amelia."

"My name if Amy you sick fuck," Darwin snarled. She leaped towards Stormtiger and Vista as they both started to tremble, the red biosludge almost seeming to pulse from the point it had connected to their legs. Darwin was only a few steps from them, but in the second or two it took to reach them, their shakes had grown into near convulsions even while their legs remained locked in place on the ground. She scowled, dropping to one knee as she reached out to slip a hand onto the exposed wrists of both.

The anatomy of both Vista and Stormtiger surged to clarity in her mind. Darwin bared her teeth at the thing that was invading them. Bonesaw had created a nightmare alright. It wasn't quite the worst infection she had ever seen, but it was acting fast. And it was destroying everything it touched while spreading rapidly through their systems.

Shit. It was too fast. Too much, too fast. She didn't have enough time. If she had been trapped in this too…a shudder rippled through her. Maybe…maybe if she focused on one and crafted a counter-virus that could directly repair what Bonesaw's work destroyed…no, too complicated, not enough time, they'd both die before she was done. But if she…she could make the counter-virus seek and destroy…and stabilize the areas it passed…then she could fix them later. Yes, yes, that would work.

Taking her hand off Stormtiger so that she could sink it into the altered virus, Darwin closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. She could do this. Using the virus itself as a base, she started making adjustments to the portion that was already in Vista's body. The damage had reached to her spinal cord, but Darwin was able to create a counter to the neurotoxin fast enough that it didn't have a chance to do more than affect the feeling in Vista's legs. She worked on the necrotic effects next as that would likely be some of the most damaging aspects of the biosludge. That portion was cut off quickly enough that she was able to switch to the hemorrhagic effects long before the virus had spread to any major systems.

Fixing the femoral artery's bleeds took a bit longer than she would have liked, but she was able to do it while the counter-virus started its work. Bonesaw's experiment fought back, and a new mutagenic component reared its head as she finished healing Vista's internal bleeding. Scowling, Darwin adjusted her own agent and the terror virus started to die off en masse afterwards. Nodding, Darwin adjusted a portion of the main mass of the biosludge into her offensive counter then quickly took her hand off and it reached for Stormtiger again.

Her eyes widened and she gasped. She'd only been working on Vista for a minute maybe 70 seconds! Stormtiger's system was ravaged. His entire spinal column had been nearly eaten away and he was bleeding from so many places it was hard to count them all. Parts of his legs were starting to dissolve and the mutations that were plaguing the rest of his legs were simply horrific.

But it was his brain which was the real problem. She could fix the rest. It was bad, but she could fix it…except there wasn't any point anymore. His brain had large sections just melted and there were holes all throughout the rest of his grey matter. Even if she was willing to break her rules for this man, there wasn't anything left to save…She'd taken too long…

Darwin did the only thing she could as she saw another pain indicator flash across what was left of his brain. She smothered all electrical signals at once. A quick death. It was the only thing she could reasonably do for him at this point. Stormtiger dropped to the ground like a puppet with the strings cut and Darwin's hand tightened around Vista's wrist. She ran another quick scan of Vista and signed in relief. The counter-virus had worked while she ran over Stormtiger. None of Bonesaw's work was left in the girl.

Jerking Vista forward, Darwin yanked her out of the central mass of the remaining biosludge on the ground. She settled Vista onto the roadway out of reach of the questing biotinker destruction and, snarling, Darwin reached back into the mass and set more of her counter-virus directly into the mass further destroying it from within. She turned back to finish fixing the damage left in Vista from the virus, but nearly fell back on her ass as Bonesaw was there smiling down at her and clapping.

Fuck. She was right there! Lashing out with her hand, Darwin nearly managed to grab ahold of Bonesaw, but the girl bounced back, still smiling. "Well done! You saved one! You could have done better of course, but hey, one is better than none! Good job, Amy. We'll do great work together."

"You fucking psychopath! Get back here so I can kill you, you little bitch!" Darwin shouted. She pushed off the ground and jumped forward reaching out for Bonesaw. The blonde gasped and fell backward. It wasn't much, but it was just enough to avoid Darwin's lunge. She scrambled forward, reaching for Bonesaw's calf. Her fingers had just brushed against the skin and Bonesaw's biology expanded in her mind when a razor blade lashed out, pinning her hand to the sidewalk. Darwin screamed, the pain in her hand lancing through her head and drowning out everything else. Her vision blurred and her breath came in short pants.

After what seemed like an eternity, the claw was pulled from her hand and Darwin scrambled back cradling her, lightly smoking, hand to her chest. She grabbed a handful of the modified counter-virus to her side and draped it over her hand, altering it into a coagulant and biogel to fill in the hole in her palm. Still panting through the pain, and tears leaking from her eyes, Darwin finally was able to see what had stabbed her.

That was when she knew she would be breaking her rules today.

"Sorry about that, Amy," Bonesaw said. She was standing up behind the creature - no, person - with a small hand on the bowed head. Darwin's lips pulled back into a snarl at the familial move. "I can't let you touch me just yet. You see, it's not really safe for me, not until Mister Jack says it's fine. But you can play with Murder Rat instead! Do you like her? Ravager asked us to kill Mouse Protector for her. We caught the little mouse, but well, people really shouldn't get the idea that they can ask the Slaughterhouse Nine to do things for them right? So Mister Jack said I could have some fun! I tried to combine them. It's mostly worked. Ravager is more or less dead and her power is just kinda there. I'm still trying to figure out why since she's, you know, gone. That part isn't so good. I don't know why her brain couldn't connect with Mouse's…maybe you can figure that out when you work with me later? We can make more like her! We can make them better!"

"I. Am. Going. To. Liquify you!" Darwin hissed.

Bonesaw frowned. "That's not very nice."

Darwin didn't even dignify that with a response. She heard a flapping from above her as well as several loud buzzing noises and she leaped forward. Monarch's latest creations dove into battle right next to her, one on each side. She didn't look over, but somehow she was aware of what they were: E. Aloeus, Eresimus. Both were about four feet tall and had blades for arms as well as wings and spring-like structures in their feet allowing them to either fly or pounce as they moved. Their exoskeletons were tough enough to withstand a bullet and they each had a small acid gland in their chest cavity. "Don't kill Mouse! Just kill Bonesaw!" Darwin shouted.

A Regina Amauris buzzed as it settled down over Vista, extruding another creature from its swollen abdomen, and the Eresimuses altered their direction ever so slightly. Bonesaw's eyes widened and she backpedaled. One of the soldiers struck the sidewalk with its legs and jumped straight over Murder Rat as she slashed downwards towards it. The soldier landed behind the damaged hero and continued on towards Bonesaw. The blonde gasped and grabbed for her toolbelt throwing a vial towards the soldier.

Darwin was too busy focusing on the other person needing help in the area to concentrate on Bonesaw any further. With Vista already stable and being attended to…she needed to save Mouse Protector, bring her back from the thing that Bonesaw had turned her into. Murder Rat tried to slash at the second Eresimus, but the woman's blades were met by the soldier's own. Her elongated mouth lashed out, trying to bite through the exoskeleton. Darwin heard teeth crack as the jaws snapped closed. The Eresimus didn't even flinch. It just shoved back, knocking Murder Rat off balance. Before she could regain her balance, the soldier had pounced forward, using a flap from its wings to redirect its momentum. The blades struck Murder Rat's own, pinning her hands against the ground as the Eresimus fell on top of the woman. It used its legs to similarly pin Murder Rat's legs as well and kept up a constant stream of pressure from flapping its wings.

"Keep her steady. Don't let her up at all. I got a glimpse when she stabbed me and I don't think I can put her to sleep or shut down her mechanical parts without killing her. She's going to have to stay restrained until I can force her body to push out the internal mechanisms completely. Regina, we might need a second Eresimus if this one starts to tire. I'm also going to need to need more biomatter." The butterfly buzzed, another creature already bumping up against her hand with its long snout and spitting raw undifferentiated stem cells into her palm. "This'll do." Darwin carefully knelt beside the two struggling opponents as a motorcycle sounded in the distance. She tuned it out and focused solely on the biology before her.

Mouse Protector was still in here. Ravager's brain only seemed to exist for the minimum functions required to sustain a corona pollentia and gemma. In contrast, Mouse was the base, everything that was Ravager was grafted on. There was little to no damage to what made her her. It was just the body structure that had been morphed into an abomination. And bodies were Darwin's bread and butter.

She could fix this. She'd have to break almost every rule she'd set, but…well she'd already bent or broken a lot, and Taylor or the others would bring her back if she started to get megalomaniacal. She could do this.

She was going to save Mouse Protector; and damn all of the consequences.

Armsmaster stopped his bike besides the coffee shop, Miss Militia pulling up behind him. "Why are we stopping?" she asked.

"I need…something. I want to tinker, but I've been warned that it sends the wrong message if I descend into the lab immediately after a traumatic experience like this. And you…need a friend. And I should…we can't just ignore this."

"But…a coffee shop?"

"It seemed like a good compromise."

She blinked. "You just saw this as we drove past and realized you needed caffeine so thought you could kill two birds with one stone, didn't you?"

He sighed and nodded. "It's either this or go to the Outcasts base and that…didn't seem wise at the moment. Not in costume at least."

Miss Militia grimaced under her mask. "Yes, probably not. There is already going to be enough of media storm playing out regarding how Darwin was able to…was…"

"Yes," Armsmaster said. He waved towards the shop. "As I said, you need a friend. This works and is closer than the twenty minutes it would take to get back to the Rig or the fifteen to get to their house."

"Perhaps coffee isn't such a bad idea. Hopefully, if we are seen being mundane, people are less likely to incite a witch hunt against Darwin."

"Yes."

They claimed table in the back since his armor wouldn't have fit in a booth. It was amazing that he was able to keep from destroying the chair he sat on with the bulk. He sighed thinking through the hours of calculations and adjustments it had taken to reach this point. He'd only encountered three chair manufacturers that still gave his primary suit issues these days.

"Do you think it'll still be her?" Militia asked softly, her hands wrapped around her steaming mug.

There was little danger to them being overheard. Most of the patrons had taken a few photos then quickly vacated the building. He stopped himself before he let out another sigh. It was good that they were running. It wasn't exactly safe for people to be around capes at the moment. Not that it was safe to be in Brockton Bay in general right now. Especially not after Bonesaw's quite public…dismemberment. The Nine would not take that well at all. The worst of it was, he couldn't even bring himself to feel an ounce of pity for the monstrous child. Bonesaw's biosludge had managed to kill four people before Darwin had neutralized it, Stormtiger was just the most visible of those infected. He wasn't even sure if anyone had mentioned it to the teenager yet that she hadn't gotten to the other people affected…not that it would have mattered. From the reports, even helping Vista had been a near thing.

And Darwin had given her orders to Monarch after the thing that had once been Mouse Protector was brought onto the field. Not because of anything that the biosludge had done.

"Yes, I do. I don't think that Darwin would have spent four hours kneeling beside her with Monarch's creations hovering around her if she couldn't bring Mouse Protector back to us."

"And yet…"

"And yet, she'll still have been captured by the Slaughterhouse Nine and made into an abomination for god knows how long."

"Two months," Miss Militia whispered. "The last message I got from her was two months ago. She had said something about Ravager sending her a message with just two words: 'I'm sorry.' Less than a week later she had dropped off the face of the Earth; until now. I thought…I thought she was taking a break. Trying to find Ravager and sort things out…I never…"

Armsmaster shook his head. He nearly activated the program to contact Dragon so that she could help him through this, but…no. He was getting better. He needed to be able to interact with people without a crutch. "This isn't your fault. You couldn't have known. And she'll be alright. Once she gets counseling, she'll be alright."

"Do you think they will let her get counseling?"

He frowned. "Why wouldn't they? Queen has been incredibly helpful considering the nature of the events surrounding her. She could easily have turned into one of our worst enemies, especially considering how she seems to acquiring nearly every unattached parahuman in the city, even stealing several capes from basically every other group. If I hadn't known the circumstances involved, I would've said it was a Master power. She has no reason to prevent Mouse Protector from being seen by psychologists."

Miss Militia simply stared at her coffee. "Unless Mouse doesn't want to talk to them. She was…never very trusting of the Protectorate, PRT, or any of the affiliated groups. It's why she went Independent as soon as she got out of the Wards. She…we will setup Yamada, or one of the other 'approved' psychologists, and she'll balk, and Queen will support her, thinking they can handle it in-house. And Mouse will get worse, and my friend will never return to me."

He needed Dragon for this. Interacting with people was not something that made sense. Why couldn't people be simple like his bike or his halberd? "Darwin is giving her her life back. Queen's friends will ensure she has support even if she doesn't prove willing to work with our people, but I think you overestimate her dislike for the PRT. She'll get help."

"I wish Darwin hadn't killed Bonesaw. I wish we had been faster responding to her distress call so that I could've done it myself. I hope it hurt. I hope she died screamed and choking on her own blood." The simple, calm, utterly detached statement sent a chill down his spine.

"I understand."

"You don't." He winced at her words. She looked up at him for the first time and his breath stilled. The blankness in her eyes was something he had not seen for a very long time. "I have participated in Endbringer fights countless times. I have seen what Hookwolf does to people. I have seen other A Class threats and S Class threats. I walked through a minefield as a child. Nothing approaches what that creature did to my friend. Whatever Monarch's creations did to her, it was not enough, it did last long enough, and it did not hurt her enough."

"Perhaps…you should speak with Dr. Yamada as well."

"Or you could talk to me. I give really good pep talks!" Armsmaster's blood froze in his veins as the voice registered and his eyes sought out the front doors to the coffee shop. Two figures had just walked inside. Jack Slash was grinning and flicking a knife between his fingers like a circus performer. To the man's side was the bane of all tinkers, Mannequin, the separate sections of his body each containing a viscous fluid, barely able to be seen through except for the vague impression of shadows inside them.

A soft squeak sounded from the counter and serving girl ducked down, the flap of a door a moment later reassuring Armsmaster that at least there wouldn't be any civilians in the way.

"Jack Slash. I could ask what you are doing here, but I suppose that is self-evident." Armsmaster slowly stood from the table along with Miss Militia, both gripping their weapons tightly.

Jack bowed his head and Mannequin whirled. "Well I should hope so. You both are supposed to be intelligent after all, and neither would make for good candidates for our missing ninth member of the Nine if you couldn't even figure out we were here for nothing near nor far beyond narrowing the names. Now narrowing will need to be a bit nonchalant since we apparently have a new newly vacant position!"

Miss Militia growled as her weapon shifted to an Uzi submachine gun. "Choosing me then Jack? Congratulations on signing your death warrant early."

"Oh ho! Love the spunk. Bit high on the overconfidence however. I mean, come on, sweetheart, how many capes do you think have said something similar to me over the years? I'm still here." He held his arms out to the side and put one leg behind the other for an elaborate bow.

"You are not immortal." She chuckled and her weapon morphed into a shotgun. "Bonesaw was the next best thing to it and that didn't help her very much. She looked rather adorable with her limbs strewn all over the sidewalk and her head cracked open like an egg don't you think?"

Jack's pleasant mask dropped into a snarl for a bare instant. The smile was back in place as he took a breath and nodded. "My delightful darling of a doughnut loving derring-do has done and upgraded me a bit. If you think her upgrades will break down due to her dear loss, you don't understand biotinkers."

Armsmaster scowled. "If you think that will stop us, you have another thing coming, Jack. A teenager proved you people could be killed, easily and publicly. The Protectorate will destroy you."

"Not true! A soaring, cheating butterfly and its serendipitous brood were the saviors. We shall see who the sorrowful seas carry to the shore with the sea glass in our next surreal encounter."

He frowned. "That doesn't even make sense."

Jack sighed. "Yeah, that was a stretch. Speaking with alliteration is hard. So, let's move this along because I'm bored of that. And if I keep going I'm going to just kill you instead, and there's no fun in that. Like my delightful candidate here noted, sometimes drawing things out is a pleasure in itself. And you fuckers deserve this shitstorm you've brought on yourselves for killing the little blonde." His smile dropped again and the knife in his hand lashed out, striking a gouge through the booth to his side. He shook his head and seemed to draw himself up as he smirked at them. "In case it hasn't been spelled out for you both, being heroes and all, here are our rules. Rule 1: No new capes in the city, otherwise I release one of Bonesaw's plagues that she left with me and kill - hmm, let's say half the population. Plus most of the animals just for giggles. Rule 2: Candidates have to try to put forth their best. Rule 3: Penalties will be invoked if a candidate remains hidden for too long. Let's say, one day. One day is reasonable for recovery."

Miss Militia's Uzi morphed into an assault rifle in her hands. "And if we kill you? Is that an instant win? Will the rest leave immediately?"

Jack laughed, holding his side as he nearly collapsed over the back of the booth next to him. "Oh sweetheart, bless you, you really think you can do it! Sure, I'll make that a condition. In exchange though, I'll up the ante. For every day we don't whittle down a candidate, we kill someone else. Could be a civilian, could be a cape. You don't know who, I don't know who! I'll toss a coin and we get to have some fun with it."

"I have a better idea," Miss Militia said. Armsmaster tightened his grip on his halberd. Any moment now.

"Hmm?"

She leaned forward as if to speak, however instead of words, her gun let loose with a blast of automatic fire towards the two Nine members. Armsmaster spun his halberd and shot out a lightning burst akin to a taser from the prongs on the bottom at nearly the same instant.

Neither of the attacks hit Jack. He was already laughing and jumping back through the double-doors. Armsmaster's attack did little against Mannequin and while several rounds from Miss Militia had penetrated the central casing causing leaks, those leaks sealed up within seconds. Mannequin in turn grabbed a table from beside the door and heaved it towards the Protectorate members just as Miss Militia had shifted to a grenade launcher. She dived forwards as Armsmaster cleaved the table in two. Both were already moving towards the mad tinker; she fired her grenades as he vaulted the debris to get closer.

Unfortunately, Mannequin just leaped backwards out one of the windows. He landed besides Jack Slash, the two visible sitting in a convertible with the top down so that Mannequin could fit inside.

"Goodbye my candidates! Do try not to die, I love seeing heroes fall to the darkness and watching you beg for mercy as I tear the Outcasts to pieces in memory of Bonesaw will be music to my ears!" The car sped off as Miss Militia and Armsmaster both ran into the street. She fired several rifle rounds into the back of the vehicle, but unfortunately none were able to stop or slow it. Scowling she turned to Armsmaster.

"We need to go after them!"

"Not alone."

"We aren't - "

"NO!" he roared. "You are emotionally compromised and so am I! That is why they came to us here and now. Think Militia! They want us to follow them. This is a trap and we will be killed or worse, captured. We go back to base. We regroup."

He didn't have to see her mouth to know she was scowling. "I almost prefer Endbringers. At least they are mindless beasts of destruction."

Turning she stalked back to her motorcycle and slammed the starter.

As he walked back to his own transport he frowned and shook his head, muttering to himself, "No…they aren't mindless. They just apparently don't have a choice. Jack and his ilk do…I wonder which is the worst monster of the two…"

Sophia tossed her ball at the wall catching the rebound without even needing to shift positions from her spot on the floor. "200," she muttered throwing it again and again catching the return.

"Will you fucking stop that already?" her cellmate, some butch bitch that Sophia had never bothered to learn the name of, hissed. "It was amusing at first, now it's just fucking annoying!"

"205."

"I will shove that ball up your goddamn cunt if you don't stop."

"Bite me, bitch. 207."

The woman growled and jumped down to the floor setting her feet into a wrestler's stance. Sophia grinned. They'd had this dance before. The bitch never learned. Just because you were big, didn't mean you knew how to fight and a swept leg was a swept leg. She had never learned her place. Just like Hebert hadn't.

Hebert. Taylor Fucking Hebert. That four-eyed freak was why her life had gone to shit. Everything had been fine before Taylor Fucking Hebert had started blabbing. It wasn't even like Sophia or the others had done anything bad to the little bitch. So what if she got triggered from the locker stunt? Was it Sophia's fault that Taylor Fucking Hebert couldn't stomach a small thing like that? That she wasn't even strong enough to see why she should just die and leave the rest of them to continue on?

No, she had to go and stop going to school like the coward she was. She had to draw attention to things! Then she had to go and tell Mother Fucking Miss American Mom about them all! Hebert hadn't even had the decency to drag Madison down with them. No. And Emma had managed to stay out of prison too because she was damaged and influenced by a psychotic Ward.

Fuck them all. She was only here in this shithole prison for another year. Then she'd be out. And she could find them all. She could find them and make them remember their place. Sophia Hess was the apex predator of this city! Hebert and Clements and Militia…they were all just prey waiting to be slaughtered.

"I said stop with the goddamn ball already!"

Sophia grinned and caught the ball in one hand. Even with the electrocuffs, this would fun. She hadn't once needed powers to take down the bitch and she needed to feel a bit of blood pounding through her muscles right now.

She'd just shifted her weight to the side in preparation for the kick when the wall of her cell nearly exploded inward. Sophia rolled into a ball and was just able to shield her face from the flying concrete and rebar. She sucked in a breath as one of the electrical cords that encircled her cell landed sparking a few inches from her face.

"Ah, good. We did choose right. Siberian, be a dear and pick up our new friend will you."

Sophia felt her blood chill as she uncurled herself and watched a monochromatic woman prowl into her cell. She stepped onto the bitch from the top bunk, literally crushing her foot through the woman's back without a moment's hesitation. Sophia flipped to her feet and set her stance. She wouldn't go down like this. She…she couldn't. Not before she'd had a chance to finish things!

"Now, now, calm down there, gassy. No need to get all up and at 'em." The new man walking in was fingering his knife and smiling. Her eyes widened. She may have been in prison, but they had tv here and Jack Slash was recognizable. "See we've got a bit of an annoyance. Generally Siberian is a bit more, hmm, shall we say hands on."

Sophia froze again as the Siberian casually reached forward and flicked a finger through her handcuffs, letting the pieces fall to the floor. "What do you want?" she asked narrowing her eyes.

"You have a history with one of our candidates. Siberian wants a bit of a psychological test. I want the bitch's friend to suffer and hurting Queen is a good way to do that. So…two options: you follow us out and I cut you loose at the right time and the right place, or we give you a warrior's death right here and now. Your choice."

Sophia grinned, all of her teeth on display. "Point me at Hebert."

Siberian chuckled, the sound low in her throat and Jack nodded. "Good choice."

AN: Amy names Monarch's creations a bit differently than Taylor…Taylor's version of the names for these new ones should come up shortly and might be rather amusing at the extreme difference between the two girls.

Fanfic Rec: 'The Monsters in Her Mind' by Aldrian Kyrrith. On SB, Fanfic, and I think SV as well. This one is complete too! Think Worm isn't quite Cosmic Horror enough for you? You want more? Well this is the one! Taylor is one side/part of Yog-Sothoth and when she starts to…crack, it starts to wake up. And then when she befriends Lisa and Lisa/Coil start to lose the war on keeping Taylor grounded in being human instead of cosmic…the universe forgets how what 'existing' tends to mean. Very excellent and very cool fusion with the Cthulhu Mythos