The bullets rained down, cutting through the swarm above us and nearly ripping us apart.

Space twisted, rapidly expanding and thinning. The hail of bullets all missed us, each round from the heavy gun in Butcher's hand impacting the floor around us. Vista's hands were raised, having reacted nearly instantly to the assault. Her mouth was set in an uncomfortable grimace, heavy breaths escaping her.

Butcher exploded, appearing in front of us and aiming her gun at Vista. The young hero didn't even have the time to look down as the bullets hit her. Miss Militia roared as her gun changed into a large rifle and fired.

"Vista!" The bullet hit against Butcher's knee, making her buckle and jump back. The young girl didn't even tilt back or recoil from the shot. She stood in the same pose she had been not a second ago, Clockblocker's hand on the small of her back. Butcher appeared behind the male hero, twisted and fired rapidly at us.

Fuck! Foil! The swarm near Foil screamed out my desperate thoughts, getting her to run for a window.

The bullets hit the man Miss Militia was carrying, turning his head into bloody chunks. The older hero flinched, the bullets went through her arms and chest, sending her flying back with wet grunt. Butcher's went to rotate to take the rest of us out, a knife came from over Clockblocker's head flying straight and its aim true. The knife cut right into the machine gun's barrel and caused the large gun to let out a small fiery explosion as the weapon malfunctioned. Heated bullets escaped haphazardly, the bullets nicked my right thigh, hip and arm and tore through Clockblocker's left shoulder.

We fell, and Butcher flinched back as she looked at her weapons in shock. Fuck me, that was fucking lucky. Foil was ready to jump out, to join the fray against Butcher. "No! Stay here, provide cover!"

"Fuck, do you really expect me to let Parian and everyone else alone with Butch!" Foil was trying to climb out of the building. I used my Swarm to cover the entire alleway.

Butcher dropped the damaged gun with a grunt as she righted herself, grabbing her bow and arrow as she focused on Parian. The thread user was already making something, anything to fight against Butcher and just try and survive. My swarm moved and covered Parian.

"Don't attack her." The swarm buzzed into Parian's ears. Towards Foil, "Don't fucking interfere unless you want to get us all killed!"

Foil hesitated at that, just as Butcher raised her bow and cocked back an arrow towards a shaking and heavy breathing Parian. Butcher paid no heed to the insects crawling, trying to bite her or wrapping her feet and fingers with spider silk. The arrow cocked was covered in silk, pulling trying to get it out of her fingers. But it wasn't working.

Shit, shit, need to distract her. "Butcher! Why are you attacking us!?" I spoke through my swarm, the words coming with thousands of buzzing and clicks. That gave the powerful cape pause, even if just for a second.

"I was only here to ambush the PRT trucks, actually." Butcher tilted her head towards where I was crawling away, trying to find some other vantage point where I could attack from and leaving a swarm clone behind.

Fuck me, she has some power that lets her see hearts and veins. I stopped my endeavour and sat up. "And now, you're seeing a great bargaining chip, aren't you."

Butcher tilted her head. "You assume too much."

"I'm not dead yet." Miss Militia was coughing heavily, the bullets having punctured one of her lungs. She's going to drown in her own blood. Vista unfroze, and nearly fell over as her entire surrounding was nothing but my swarm. Butcher focused on her, aim moving to fire at the younger girl. "Wait! I'll go with you, willingly!"

Butcher stopped again, focusing on me. Yes, keep your focus here. I had my swarm telling Vista and Parian to stay quiet and to keep still.

Butcher again tilted her head. "Again you assume too much. There was never a choice in the matter."

"But there's more to gain by doing this. Take me and the Undersiders will have to concede areas of the city to you, you're too strong and experienced." Miss Militia was trying to get up and I couldn't help but curse as Butcher turned slightly in her direction. "If you take me, and even the Wards then you'll have a better chance at taking over the city!"

Butcher was silent, ignoring the fact that her fingers and the tips of her boots were wrapped in spider silk. She knew, just as much as I knew, that she could break out of her bonds. The older villain cape then shrugged.

"It's not a bad deal…but I don't need the dead weight." She turned in the direction of Miss Militia, raising her bow.

She didn't teleport.

"Now!" The swarm around Clockblocker buzzed, and the fallen Ward used his powers on the silk he had in his hands. The silk froze in its entirety, leading from his hands all the way towards the connected threads that were bound to Butcher's fingers and feet.

I heard the sound of flesh tearing apart, blood splashing on my swarm and Butcher falling to the floor with a surprised grunt. She teleported, appearing a short distance away and falling again to the floor. Butcher let out a bestial cry, only managing to get to her knees as her bloodied as the missing toes didn't allow for even an attempt to stay on her feet.

She exploded again, and again, moving to rejoin the rest of her team. I sighed, and got on one knee and cleared the swarm a little to allow the others to see. Clockblocker was hissing.

"Shit, fuck…I really need to incorporate ropes or something to my suit." He looked up, got to his feet and hurried towards the gasping Miss Militia. He placed a hand on her and froze her. "Can't move her like this, but it should help for now."

"What happened…?" Vista asked, confusion coloring her tone. I looked at her.

"Came up with a plan, fast. Can't beat Butcher in a fight, so I decided to cripple her. Took her toes and fingers." I gestured towards the bloodied end of boots and the pieces of fingers on the floor, alongside the bow and arrow discarded beside the damaged machine gun. "Took a little more of her hands and feet just to be sure, not enough to where she would bleed to death, but enough to keep her out of the fight for now."

"I swear, if this gets me Butchered, I'm going to haunt you," Clockblocker grunted.

"Not much of a choice if something like that happens," Parian said with a grimace, then turned towards me. "What now? We can't move Miss Militia…"

I didn't respond, looking up just as Foil jumped out of a window, grabbed onto a pipe by the side of the building wall and slid down. She landed and immediately went to Parian.

"Are you okay?" Foil asked, checking to see if the older girl was hurt.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Parian gave the ex-Ward a nod. I got to my feet with some difficulty, watching Vista go to stand beside the kneeling Clockblocker. Miss Militia was unfrozen, a shivering gasp escaping her lips before the male Ward placed her back into stasis with a touch. "Skitter, what now?"

I turned towards Parian and hummed. "The priority is still getting the supplies."

"You're going aren't you?" Vista voice was cold, hostility creeping into her lips.

"No," I answered simply and Vista turned to look at me with a frown. "Believe it or not, I do like Miss Militia and I dare say she was once an inspiration towards me before all of this. She still is in some ways. Letting her die isn't right...and if I'm being honest with you, we need more people like Miss Militia in the PRT."

"Huh, something I don't necessarily disagree with," Clockblocker said.

I shook my head. "Right now we need to get your people to come here and help her get medical attention. But there's the other Teeth we need to worry about."

Foil looked around, lips pulled down in confusion. "Where's Butcher?"

"Heading back to her team, if she retreats because of her injuries, it'll be something to breath easy…" Though, there's still the matter of the stolen supplies...

"If she bleeds to death…!" Foil looked aghast; I couldn't blame her.

"I was careful to just cripple her, she won't bleed to death over a few missing fingers and toes. She can get some healing and stop the bleeding."

"What if she doesn't and lets herself die? If either of you two end up being another Butcher…" Foil trailed off, cringing.

Parian walked up to me, placing a hand on my uninjured shoulder and steadying me. "Not much of a choice...either we did something or everyone got killed. I don't think you were really going to convince her by throwing yourself as a hostage."

"She seemed to consider it…had a chance to get to the supplies though, I think." I sighed.

"The medical cargo you promised to share?" Vista asked.

"Yeah, but now negotiating for them seems like an impossible task...might need to get one of the other Teeth and get the answers out of them." I frowned, and through my swarm I sensed Butcher moving towards the forcefield generator and the clone maker.

"Boss! The fuck happened!?"

"What do you think, Vex? Sprained my fucking wrist and lost a few fingers," Butcher sneered, plopping against the wall besides the two capes and glaring at the swarm around her. "Fucking underestimated them, thought I took out the time stopper when my gun got fucked up and left him to bleed out. Didn't even bother with the spider cobwebs, easy enough to get rid of, Undersider bitch is smarter than I gave her credit. Spree!"

"Yeah?" The clone making cape stood at attention as Butcher looked at him.

"Flood this fucking place, I don't even care any fucking more. Fuck this city, our explosives get stolen, now this, fuck it, just get that bug cunt and fucking make her suffer."

"Understood." Clone after clone started to appear, fifteen more every three seconds. They ran eyes focused at first, by the time ten seconds had passed it was as if they lost all intelligence and began raving and screeching. They ran in every direction, flooding the streets as they entered the building without care. My swarm attacked them, putting many of them down in quick succession with toxins and venoms, stinging them and making them halt in their advance as they screamed in pain.

But there were too many, and they just kept coming. A cat moved into one of the rooms, avoiding the clones all together. He was carrying something, a phone? It was Morgana, he was navigating the building, trying to get out. I kept an eye on him, just in case, but kept my attention on my enemies.

"Where's Animos?" Butcher asked.

"Tried pulling Hemorrhagia out to safety, still over there," Vex stated, pointing at the large body of Animos, covered in silk and restraining his movements.

Butcher sneered. "Get him out."

"Need to keep the forcefield here or I'll-!"

"I don't fucking need to repeat myself, do I?"

"N-No boss, sorry…" Vex and Spree winced as the razor sharp force fields were dropped and tore through the bonds holding Animos down. My Swarm went for the two capes, capitalizing on the moment of respite and flooding the space they were hiding in. Their screams tore through the air, as Butcher teleported towards the now free Animos. Despite this the clones didn't stop appearing.

"Animos! With me!" Butcher snarled. The large animalistic cape nodded, looking down at the blood coated Teeth member and leaving her behind as my swarm flooded around her.

"We'll hold the fort here, just get the back up," I said to Vista and Foil after discussing the plan. Foil looked uncomfortable while Vista's lips seemed to be pulled down in a frown set of stone.

"Are you sure?" Foil asked, her head tilting in the direction of Parian slightly. I sighed.

"Butcher is coming back." That grabbed the attention of the two girls. "Do as we planned. Go and find the other PRT officers. You and Vista are just the quickest way to get this done. We need to keep them from getting to Clockblocker."

"Let's go." Vista turned around and used her powers, compressing the space between her and the end of the alleyway down to just a foot away. She started jogging away, Foil following after her, until they turned the corner and the space snapped back to normal. Parian already had a ten feet gorilla construct up, a combination of my silk and her thread. I leaned back against the wall, using it for support as I kept track of the approaching Teeth.

I let out a grunt. "Animos smashed through the building wall. Clockblocker, take this silk, I'm forming a tripwire. Use it like you did against Butcher on my signal."

"Got it." The young Ward nodded, keeping close to Miss Militia.

"Parian, the moment Animos comes through, don't let him scream. His scream was making my control over my swarm in his general area stutter."

Clockblocker straightened up at that. "That's because he has a nullifying power when he roars, so yeah, don't let him scream anywhere near us. Spree's clones will turn into pulp after some time, I don't know how much though. Maybe ten or twenty minutes, somewhere between that."

"Whatever the case, Spree is out and has stopped producing clones, though he made plenty of clones to make that fact irrelevant. Vex will not be getting into this fight, same for Hemorrhagia and the other one up on the rooftop. So we've got a power nullifier, crazed clones and Butcher. We need to hold the fort until help arrives."

"I'll do my best to keep Animos from getting his scream off," Parian assured me. I nodded.

"His movements are already hampered by the silk I'm using on him...and he's about to smash through the wall. Get ready," I warned Parian and Clockblocker, noticing how they got tense. The wall exploded into pieces. "Now!"

Animos just howled.


Author's Note

Hey, its been such a long time since I got down and written author's note. I just wanted to say thanks to all of you who have followed, favorite and reviewed. It was a story I had in mind for a while and didn't think it would really get any traction. So really, thanks and I hope you've all been enjoying the story.