"The Teeth!? Are you sure, Skitter?" Miss Militia asked with a grunt. I turned towards the front of the overturned PRT van. I couldn't see her all that well in the dark hole we got punched into, but I could hear the older hero unbuckling her belt and the rough thud as she landed.

A large figure moved towards us, Animos, the one who had crashed into us. My swarm wrapped around it, and the animalistic creature roared and thrashed about as it tried to swipe the swarm away. Its movement became restricted as I wrapped spider silk all around it, arresting its resistance and leaving Animos to roar in fury. I frowned, feeling my control over the bugs jitter off slightly the moment its roar reached a high crescendo.

The other Teeth members were on the move, except for one who was carrying a large gun. Butcher, probably. One of the Teeth capes multiplied, loud and guttural screams escaping the copies as they grabbed whatever was on the floor to surround the fallen vehicle.

Vista and Clockblocker were on their knees, the male Ward helping her steady herself to her feet. The young girl shook off the help, then winced, holding onto her sides. I turned towards Parian and Foil, who were both getting to their feet as well. A low grunt came from underneath and I stared at Morgana wincing, shaking his head and hissing.

"Ow…!"

The older hero checked the driver of the truck, a low curse in a language I didn't understand escaped her lips and she looked back to her Wards. "Vista, Clockblocker! Support! We need to get Jhonattan out of here and get medical treatment."

"Is he fine?" Clockblocker asked.

"Still breathing, but with difficulty."

I shook my head and looked at my companions. "Foil, find some vantage point and target Butcher. I'll use my swarm to guide your attacks."

"Uh…?" Foil looked upset at my words. "Are you crazy! If I attack Butcher and she moves even a single inch in the wrong direction, I'll end up becoming the next Butcher!"

"Trust me. I'll be guiding your attacks to immobilize, not to maim or even defeat, I know the risks. But you're good at long range, right?" She glared at me, then nodded reluctantly. "Then that's what I need, somebody who can get her focus off us when she comes after us. I'll cover you with my swarm if she decides to change targets. I'll keep you inside the buildings so you can use them for cover and jump from one to the other if the others go after you. I just need Butcher separated from her team, I don't think we can handle them all at the same time.

Foil had a red tear rolling down a gash on her forehead. Her eyes sharpened and she grabbed a pair of throwing knives tucked away in her boots. "Right."

"Parian, start weaving whatever you need and form a barrier between us and them." I looked back at Miss Militia. "There's a front door, through the building, we can use that to get through the city block and out into the main street."

"Do you have a bead on the location of the others?" Miss Militia pulled the driver out of his seat buckle, then started to drag him out. She formed a weapon in her hand, the green glow of her energy gun illuminating the inside of the van.

The older hero was stained in cuts and blood. Pieces of glass stabbed through some of the exposed flesh around her arms. The officer she was dragging had his right knee bent uncomfortably too much to the right. Everyone in the back, barring Clockblocker, had cuts and bruises everywhere. Parian's mask was cracked and I could see her left eye. Miss Militia moved to the back of the van, attempted to open the backdoor, but grunted with difficulty. Clockblocker stood on wobbly legs and moved.

"I'll open it."

I bowed my head towards Morgana and whispered. "Zero five, eleven, eleven, thirteen. The phone is besides Crow's, get Grue and the others to come…!"

Morgana's eyes lit up, staring up at me and he nodded. He scampered off, going after my bags in the front. I stood up right as Clockblocker got the backdoor open and the van started to get assaulted.

The clones from the Teeth cape started to hammer into the vehicle, but it was a pointless endeavor as whatever they were holding just broke or got bent in their hands. I glared as the clones started to whale on the truck, not even bothering with how they tore apart their own flesh with the ragged pieces of metal. The space in between the clones and the vehicle was distorted. Hundreds of miniature razor sharp distortions tore into the vehicle and the clones with disregard. The front of the vehicle was shredded into pieces, allowing the clones to pour in raving with lunacy and drool.

They crashed into the closed back door, and my swarm attacked them, ripping into them with furious bites and stings that had them screaming. It echoed through the dark halls of the building we were in. Clockblocker looked back, then focused on me.

"You think you can scare them into submission with that show?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you really have time for the pointless sarcasm?"

"I'm not being sarcastic," he said simply with a shrug. The vehicle was torn to pieces by the razor sharp spatial distortions, blood and gore filling the floor. The raving clones poured out, grabbing everything around them once more and smashing everything within reach. Morgana was underneath the van, hairs standing straight and a nervous shake in his legs as he typed on my phone.

"Enough! Skitter, where to?" Miss Militia looked back at me, I nodded and gestured for them to follow me. Parian lagged somewhat behind, focusing on weaving a large feline like-doll. The tail was too long, and a hard ball of fiber was wrapped into its end. A flail. The head of the feline had two long horns curved inwards like that of a goat. It still looked frail, but Parian was already putting the finishing touches as the construction started to swell rapidly.

On the floors above Foil was on the move, knives in hand as she followed after the wasps I had to guide her right to where Butcher was standing. The big animal cape started to shrink, revealing a man, he got out of his bonds quickly before my silk could fall onto him. I took the opportunity to swarm him. He screamed, and a woman approached, sharp and jagged blade in hand. She swiped my swarm of wasps, bees, mosquitos and spiders as she approached her fallen companion. All my insects moved to sting her and bite her into submission, but there was a protective layer all around her skin.

Dried off blood, using it to form scabs all around her as some sort of shield. It protected her, but she left her eyes open for my swarm to attack. So I aimed for that, and she screamed as well. The two were being wrapped in silk to arrest them. The clones had stopped; I had found where they were originating. The cape had pulled back and hid, I'd sent my swarm after him, but the one that could form the razor sharp distortions — force fields, they look like force fields — stood close to him and was protecting him. My swarm stormed around the two, trying to overwhelm them, but the forcefield generator upped his game and managed to force my assault to a stand still.

I focused on going after Butcher, then gritted my teeth as I noticed another cape standing by her side. They got swarmed, and the other cape hurriedly pulled back for cover and tried to escape my range. He got wrapped in spider silk, bit, stung and crawled all over. Butcher's skin proved hard to pierce through with my swarm, so I moved to trap her, but she exploded and appeared a short distance away.

Pity. I was already on a roll, dominating the rest of the Teeth with my swarm, that I had thought I would get the opportunity to finish the entire team by myself. I moved my swarm away, caging her, but not restricting space for her. I hummed as Animos started transforming again. He lunged for the downed blood user and roared, making my control stutter slightly again as his scream grew in intensity. During that momentary lapse of fine control, Animos crawled away, his companion dragged away by as he tried to create distance away from my swarm.

The beast stumbled, legs being restrained by the silk and once again trapping him. More clones appeared from the cape making them. My swarm attacked them, bodies piled the floors as they writhe and screeched. But their numbers were in abundance, some reaching the down vehicle and getting through in their pursuit. The others I had dispatched in the hallway were moving, crawling or getting up despite the great swellings and venoms in their bodies. They moved, desperation fueling their movement. Silk wrapped around their ankles and they fell face first, nose breaking and blood splattering the floors. Still they moved, the new batch of clones reach the inside of the building, their numbers made the objective of wrapping them all in spider silk become more of a hassle and a waste of resource. They trampled over their fallen comrades as they lunged for the hall we were in. I turned towards Parian.

"Get ready, some stragglers clones got through my swarm and are heading our wat," I told her and she nodded. She made her chimera-like doll turn around, the intensity of the footsteps from the crowd becoming noticeable as they got closer. We entered into a room that lead us straight into the front desk, at that moment the clones appeared in the hall behind us screeching. "Parian!"

"I got it!" Parian's doll lunged forward with a flicker of her wrist and bulldozed through the crowd. The sound of broken bones and loud pain filled howls echoed through the building as the clones were swatted aside. A pile of bodies were left in the wake of Parian's attack, making the others stumble in trying to get through their brethren. The chimera doll swiped left and right with its dull flail tail and knocked the rest of the crazed doppelgangers against the walls.

Miss Militia gave a sigh of relief, tension easing slightly off her injured shoulders. I noted the Wards hands were raised, ready to join in on the action. Even Miss Militia was tensed, hands clenched tightly around her gun as she looked back. I felt a small prickle of satisfaction at having Parian take care of the clones. We moved towards the front door of the building to exit out and get into the alleyway-

Butcher twisted, aimed her gun down and exploded. She appeared in midair, falling down, above the alleyway we were about to get onto. I felt my swarm being torn into pieces by a hail of bullets before I even heard the gunshots, I grabbed Miss Militia's strap and pulled her back roughly.

"Get down!"

The front door was blasted into oblivion as heavy artillery fire rained down. The deadly stream of fire moved up, taking away the wall and almost reaching our feet. I felt dread as the bullets nearly got to my already hurting thigh, but the space between the bullets and my body expanded as the floor rose up and created a barrier. I crawled on my back hurriedly, getting to my feet and looking at Vista, who had her hands outstretched. I nodded at her as Miss Militia got to her feet with a grimace, and she looked at me.

"Damn it, Butcher...we can't fight her." She looked at the officer she was carrying and cringe. "We need to find a way to get out of here. We're under-equipped and not at all prepared for a fight against Butcher right now."

"How do we deal with her then?" Tattletale would've come up with a solution to deal with Butcher quickly. My own solution would've been to pour paralysis venom through the arachnids I had in my swarm and get her to stop moving. Silk was useless as she could teleport, poisoning her or biting her into submission wouldn't work either due to how tough her skin was.

"Vista, get ready to create as much space between Butcher and us." Miss Militia order. "We're going to head out into the alleway, so we need every bit of an advantage to get away."

"Skitter, what about Foil?" Parian asked me in concern.

"I'm already guiding her away from Butcher and to spot where we can meet up, I made a bad call earlier." I admitted the last part in a slight whisper only Parian could hear. My swarm was already gathering around the area where the powerful cape stood. "Vista she's still outside, shooting, so don't drop that floor."

"I'll try and keep elongating the space between us and her then," Vista stated.

"Hey, Skitter." I turned towards Clockblocker. "Have any of that silk with you? Because it would be a great delaying tactic to use against her."

I nodded. "I've got some, Parian's thread should help with the traps."

"Absolutely not!" Miss Militia turned towards us. "Using it against Butcher runs the risk of accidentally killing her."

I understood her words, but I couldn't fully discard the possibility, especially with that big gun in Butcher's hands. If used carefully then we could disarm Butcher and only have to deal with the super strength and teleporting, which would be a nightmare still. Still, if we could get away and meet up with Foil, we can get rid of her gun. But I doubt a frontal assault would work, a surprise attack to get her gun off her hands and leave coat one of Foil's knives with paralysis poison could work. But, the risk of accidentally killing her is too great. I made a large number of bugs gather around Morgana, who was crawling low through the floor and sneaking close to the forcefield and clone maker capes.

"What are you doing?" my swarm buzzed close to the cat. The feline nearly jumped, but kept his composure and just glared around. Morgana hissed and meowed with an intense frequency. I felt the corners of my lips pull down at this. Fuck, don't tell me the cognitive shenanigans don't transmit through the passengers? "I don't understand you, just nod or shake your head."

Morgana's eyes widened and then glared at the floor thoughtfully. A sigh escaped him and he nodded.

"Did you text Grue?"

A nod.

"Is he coming here with reinforcements?"

Morgana nodded again.

"Good, then stay out of trouble," I said and the cat looked in the general direction of where I was. "No, Butcher is teleporting and getting into the building. We're planning to make a stand and fight them off. So stay here."

Morgana shook his head, pointed at himself, then at the bugs around and pantomimed something. I couldn't pay attention to him as Butcher broke into the building where I and the others were from the floors above. There was a loud bang, then a rain of fire down the hall we had come through, and Butcher crashed down with one knee cracking the floor. She stood up, kicked the door that led towards the front desk and opened fired right into the swarm that had moved on her.

She exploded, appeared right by the front of the door we used to escape through and looked at our retreating backs. She raised her gun, aimed-she exploded again, avoiding the rush from Parian's chimera doll in the air. Butcher moved to fire at the construct but the flail came fast and hard, smacking the Teeth cape on the face and sending her sailing into the opposite wall in the alley. Butcher recovered midair, exploded, appeared beside the doll, reached for one of her arrows and tore it in half with the sharp blade tip. She threw her gun up, grabbed her bow and fired the same arrows after us.

It traveled fast, blurring through the air. Vista twisted space, making the space between the building become nothing and crushed the arrow before it could reached us.

"Fuck." I just couldn't help but curse and looked up, as Butcher aimed her weapons at us. Miss

Militia noticed, eyes widened. "Cover!"

Butcher opened fire.