Animos howled, with agony and fury as his clawed fingers were cut off. Fortunately it didn't unleashed his nullifying powers as the large bestial cape barreled towards the wall in front of him and crashed into it violently. Parian's ten foot gorilla doll moved, faster than I had expected. It went up to the air the very moment Butcher exploded beside it. The gorilla twisted, trying to swat the powerful cape, but Butcher teleported away, higher.
"Focus on Animos," I told Parian as I kept my swarm right on the clones closing in on Butcher and the hole made by Animos. The leader of the Teeth ripped her mask off with her mutilated hands, turning upside down and letting the arrows on her quill fall. The gorilla crashed into Animos, wrapping its large arms around his bestial body and forcing his mouth closed. Animos thrashed around, trying to free himself.
Butcher's focus shifted towards Parian just as the clones started to pour in. The swarm around my teammate pulled, unfolding a cobweb of silk above her like an umbrella. My bugs raised four silk threads beside Clockblocker, and he grabbed them without hesitation, using his power.
Butcher dove down, grabbing one of the fallen arrows with her mouth before exploding. She appeared above Parian, swing her head, shattering the arrow on the time locked silk. Chunks of cloned flesh fell against the floor as they ran blindly into the webs of suspended string that hung next to the destroyed wall.
Butcher let out a guttural growl, teleporting around the protection for Parian and appearing in front of her. Parian just barely managed to raise her hands, covering her chest before Butcher landed a powerful kick that sent her careening through the alleyway, flying past me, skidding against the floor before finally stopping next t to Clockblocker.
Butcher teleported slightly above the time locked shield , appearing beside her arrows, grabbing another one with her mouth. The gorilla's hold over Animos weakened, the threads snapping as the animal cape began to climb to his feet. The gorilla's gave up on trying to hold the beast cape down, began smashing its fist into its head with as much force as it could give. At the same time Clockblockers touch on the webbing had begun to wear off, releasing the numerous clones from their frozen state. They mostly stumbled and fell as they poured through the hole.
Survived the first clash. Miss Militia unfroze from her time stasis and began to cough blood, Clockblocker hurriedly turned his attention on and Butcher gaze snapped towards the back of the white theme hero. The villain twisted mid-air as she launched an arrow straight towards him. My swarm tried to intercept it, but they were useless. "Clockblocker!" I screamed through the swarm.
He reacted on pure instinct freezing himself and Miss Militia, and the arrow broke on impact. Butcher moved to grab another arrow. She bit bugs and wasps as the swarm moved the dangerous weapons away from her. Butcher moved to try and get them, but they sunk into my swarm and disappeared out of view.
You can see veins and hearts, but I bet you can't see metal through the swarm. Butcher's head snapped towards me. That's it, focus on me. She teleported, explosions that went off with more intensity than the last until she appeared on the ground besides me. I felt my hair singe, Butcher's knee cracking the floor as she appeared kneeling. She telegraphed her intentions, and I had time to position my arms over the right side of my ribs and neck. Butcher unleashed a whirlwind of a kick, knocking even the swarm around her away with the intensity of her attack.
I felt a groan rise up my throat as I smashed into the wall behind me. I could feel it, something had broken. My arms fell to my side; the pain in my right arm was as if someone had poured hot oil in my bones. My gaze didn't waver as Butcher used the momentum of her kick to lift herself up into the air, teleport above me and proceed to try to axe kick my head into a bloody paste.
The kick never came; a malformed threaded hand swung fast and crashed against Butcher's back. The cape was squashed against the wall, then she exploded and lit the threaded hand on fire. I had to duck away from the pieces of debris from flying against me. Parian was on her feet, breathing a little hard, but her gambit had worked. She'd used her own power on her costume to protect against Butcher's kick. I grabbed my baton with my good hand and positioned myself to be ready for the next attack.
Butcher was on the floor, on her knees. Her eyes were red, her glare narrowing her eyes until they were nothing but slits. She growled, punched the ground and exploded. I tensed, but Butcher appeared besides the approaching Animos who was covered in my swarm and growling as he tried to get rid of them. Parian's Gorilla was ripped apart, threads clingy to the monster to try and stop his movements. Butcher pointed at me and Parian with her mutilated hand.
"Animos, fucking scream already! Fucking kill them!"
Fuck me! Animos's bestial mouth quirked up into a sadistic grin. Nothing to stop him from using powers, fuck, fuck, fuck! I directed my attention to Animos and the approaching, screeching clones. Bite, choke, stab, sting. I repeated again, and again as I focused on my targets. Completely letting go of all distractions and just concentrating on the objective to hurt. I made sure to clear all insects off Butcher, just focusing on the beast and clones.
Then Animos howled.
The noise was unbearably annoying, like someone scratching a chalkboard. It made my skin crawl as that exact feeling hit me. I suddenly felt very small.
A gasp escaped me, nearly making me topple to the floor as all manner of sensations exploded into my brain. I couldn't even think, because I could feel nothing but pain. The pain of a broken arm, of cracked ribs, the cold sensation of something wet on the back of my head. The stretched and cut ligaments from my thigh, the pain on my shoulder and the extreme exhaustion that was threatening to close my eyes.
Is this a side effect of Animos power? Butcher's scream and grunt made me snap in attention and look at the powerful cape gasp and moan at her injuries. A realization hit quick: No, without immersing myself into my swarm, I can't ignore all the injuries and the pain. But it's the same for Butcher.
Animos stomped hard on the ground, lips pulling back into an ugly snarl before he roared. Then he lunged forward, running at top speeds. His body was basically covered in my swarm, all black and brown as he barreled through the bugs to get to me like a speeding car.
"Fuck!" I dived to my left, the large beast destroying the floor I was standing on the moment its head met the ground. Parian let out a gasp, stumbling to the floor as the debris flew. Animos whirled towards me, claw hand moving to slice me in half. I scrambled forward, staying near its hulking body to avoid those claws. Animos moved to crush me with its chest, but it flinched and screamed, clawing at its eyes. The swarm performed their duty, their brain still following my final command.
Screeching from behind was the only warning I got before I got tackled by one of the clones. I grunted, feeling my accumulated injuries flare up as my back hit the floor. The clone on top raised his arms, balling his fists and brought them down on my mask again and again. I felt feet stomping on my arms, legs, felt everything go dark as the clones started to pile up.
Fuck!
The ground shook, a roar went off and the light hit my eyes as Animos thrashed violently, trying to get the mass of the swarm off him, and he tore the nearby clones to shreds in his desperation. He screamed, he rolled and he thrashed against the walls violently. I could hear bones break, blood splattering on the floor as the wounds ripped further open and every kind of insect that I had gathered tore into the bare flesh.
I got to my knees, breathing hard, and squinted my eyes at the alleyway, which was black and moving. Did the entire swarm move here? I couldn't even listen to anything as the buzzing and clicking increased in crescendo until it was all I could hear. Even the violent turning of Animos was absorbed by all the noise. I saw clones collapsing, bodies black and brown from all the insects around. Some were still screaming, just running towards me and flailing to get rid of the bugs.
With a groan I stood up, holding onto my baton with a clenched grip. Ignoring the pain, I swung, breaking a skull from an approaching clone and repeating the process. My swings were wild, most of the time just hitting the swarm as I moved further and further forward. I stumbled, righted myself and looked to my left. I saw a wide-eyed Butcher through the swarm.
I slammed my elbow against her face, breaking her nose.
Following the momentum of my strike I jumped on her, pressing the baton against her throat and started to choke her. "Where is it!?"
"F-Fuck you!"
I growled. "Where are the supplies you stole!?"
"Go to hell you fucking cunt!" Butcher roared, trying to push me away with her bleeding hands. I growled and started pressing harder on her throat. I was about to repeat my demand, but something hard and sharp tore through my back and sent me rolling from Butcher.
A startled scream escaped my lips, feeling the stinging, the cool air and the hundreds of legs crawling on my wounded back. I breathed hard, struggling to get to my feet, and I looked up to see Animos limping. The bestial cape growled at me as it made its way towards me, Butcher crawled away, disappearing into the swarm. I felt my lips pull back into an ugly sneer as the woman escaped my grasp, and my focus went to Animos as he raised a claw hand and brought it down to crush me.
Can't even fucking move! What a sad and pathetic choice for last words. What was more rage inducing and depressing-was the fact that I couldn't help my injured teammates. I stared death in the face, despite how cold I felt, despite how Animos stood frozen in his attack, I wouldn't flinch.
"Skitter!" I blinked, turning to see that between Animos' legs was Clockblocker. His hands were pressed against the monster's ruined flesh.
"How…? Animos roared and nullified our powers…?" I asked.
"When I time locked MM, I did the same to my suit. Guess his powers don't work if I'm trapped inside time stopped armor." Clockblocker clarified.
My lips pulled back and I snarled, ignoring my injuries I flung myself through where Butcher had disappeared to. Ignoring the male Ward's cry, I caught up to Butcher. I swung my baton and cracked her knee.
"Fuck!" I didn't give the villain time to even try and sooth the broken bone, kicking her in the stomach and pinning her down as I glared.
"One last time, where is it!?"
"Fuck off! What do you think you're going to do to me? Kill me!?" An ugly smile crossed Butcher's lips as she glared at me with wide eyes. "Go ahead! Then I'll fuck everyone in this city!"
I brandished my baton. "I don't have the time for this, I'll just knock you out."
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you fucking little bitch! I'll find out who you are, kill your fucking daddy, your cunt of a mommy and your fucking dog if I have to!" Butcher screeched with a maddened gaze. Something about those words twisted something inside me.
"Shut up!"
My scream echoed, thousands of chirps, buzzes and clicks emulating my words. It let my fury be known throughout multiple city blocks, people turning in fear as the sky darkened when the swarm surged. It was also an indicator that my powers had returned.
My gaze met Butcher's, her facial expression cooling into a quiet anger. I jumped back, pushing as much as my tired body could allow to create distance. Butcher exploded, the front of my costume singed from the fiery blast, and I stumbled down to the floor. Butcher exploded above, then teleported, again and again. She just kept going, killing as much of my swarm as she could.
"Shit, it wore off?" Clockblocker appeared behind me, and without turning I focused my attention on Butcher, preparing more silk threads. I frowned, as I noticed Morgana running towards us, phone still in his mouth. He was down by the alleyway; I tried to form walls to stop him but he dodged them and made his way towards us.
"Get rea-!?"
I couldn't finish my sentence, as Butcher appeared in front of me and she lunged forward. Clockblocker couldn't bring his arms before he got cross lined alongside me. We flew back, rolling through the floor until I crashed into a time locked Miss Militia. I gasped, desperately trying to get air to rush into my lungs. Parian noticed, a malformed doll made in haste besides her. Butcher teleported above me, legs pulled up to stomp on me. I rolled out of the way and she crashed into the frozen Miss Militia.
Butcher didn't bother to teleport and just jumped on me as I tried to move towards the dizzy Clockblocker. Parian's doll dashed above me and tackled Butcher. The villain screamed in pure anger and exploded. She appeared behind Parian and swatted her on the back, and my teammate let out an ear splitting scream of agony as her back broke. She landed on me, body angled unnaturally.
"Parian!" I could hear her gasp, wet and in shock. Another explosion and I was kicked towards my back. Butcher straddled me and ripped my mask off. She sneered at me.
"A fucking brat...and a ugly one at that." She put her hands around my throat and started to choke me. "I'm going to enjoy this…"
My swarm was around her, trying to get her off, paralyse her, or anything to make her stop. I couldn't even push her off with her superior strength and durability. I struggled, not giving up. Fuck you, fuck this. I glared at her, making my swarm buzz and click in her ears, making them crawl in, but she wouldn't stop.
Morgana threw the cellphone he was carrying above where I was being choked. Morgana stood in an aggressive stance.
"Mementos! Mementos! Mementos! Hit the button!"
I immediately began to try and grasp the phone, using the swarm to push it towards me. Butcher crushed my arms with such force as to break the ground underneath and the cellphone bounced off near Parian.
"Noisy, cat," Butcher commented, before looking down at me with a sadistic sneer as I shook from the immense pain and shock of having the bones in my arms be pulverized. "No phone call for you, no help either."
"F-F-Fuck...you…!" was all I managed to gasp out as Butcher raised her mangled hand over her head.
"Yes, yes!" cried Morgana. "That button and say Mementos!"
"M...Memen…" My eyes flicked towards Parian, shivering and sobbing as she twisted her broken body and tapped the screen of the phone. "...tos…!"
The change was immediate, most of my swarm disappeared from my control, only leaving hundreds around the now back to bipedal Morgana, Parian, Clockblocker, Miss Militia, Butcher and myself. The floor felt softer and wet, the buildings around us had given away towards a golden kaleidoscope sky.
"Skitter!"
I let out a shuddering breath as I looked at Grue, blackness rolling off him like a storm. Regent with the same bland expression in his face, but eyes narrowed, with a glint to them. And in between the two-
"Arsene."
Butcher was blasted by black and red power, ominous and cold. The villainess could do nothing but roll through the damp human shaped floor, until she skidded to a stop and glared at us from a prone position. I let out a sigh of relief, as Zorro appeared wordlessly behind the cat and a green glow enveloped everyone.
"Mediarahan," Morgana said with a tight tone and I sat up immediately, staring at my restored arms. I looked at Parian as she got to her knee shakily. Clockblocker was stiff, looking around. Miss Militia unfroze and started coughing blood, gasping and choking on her destroyed insides. "Diarahan."
Just like that the hero immediately sat straighter, injuries gone. Clockblocker just looked at her in shock as he got to his feet. "H-How…!?"
Butcher got to her knees, snarling. "What the fuck is going on…!? Who are you?"
Joker stepped close to me, "Doesn't matter, show's over. Dormina." The thief snapped his red gloved hands. Butcher stiffened, her eyes turned glassy and she collapsed down to the floor.
The ugly snore and snorts were the only signifiers that she had fallen asleep.
