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!
Desecration 05
One of the PRT troopers ran up to me coughing from the dust in the air as I moved to the side of the overturned table. "I can help," she said, jamming her hands under the oak with me. Together we were able to get the heavy piece of furniture off of Lily, who gasped as the weight was lifted off of her. I looked down and couldn't help the scowl that crossed my features or the buzzing of the swarm that had gathered outside at my siren call. Her leg was broken and her arm was bleeding where a piece of debris had gotten wedged into her shoulder. She barely even looked conscious.
"Taylor," Lisa grunted, stumbling to my side. She glanced down and winced. "Damn. She'll be fine, but she needs a doctor. I found Paige. She's knocked out; it looks like some concrete smashed her in the chest, but she's breathing fine so I don't think there's any internal injuries."
I nodded. "Vista?"
"Here!" her attempt at a response was pained and I saw one of the chairs and several pieces of debris on the far side of the room fall to the ground as Vista levered herself up to a sitting position. "I tried to step away, didn't quite make it. Oh, this hurts. I don't think I can walk, something landed on my foot."
"Don't try to move, I'll take care of it." I turned to the trooper. She had to be the leader; she was the only one without a foam gun. "Assault and Battery?"
The trooper shook her head. "Battery is down, hard. Assault is…coming around. He sounds out of it though so I don't know how useful he'll be."
"Your name?" I asked, my eyes skipping across the scene. Two of the PRT troopers were down as well. Two others were helping Assault and Battery. Only one was watching over Mimi, who was in turn leaning against the counter and breathing hard.
"Danica, Ma'am."
"Right. Here's what we're going to do, Danica." I turned back to her and drew myself up to my full height, squaring my shoulders back and setting my mouth into a thin line. "You and your people are going to stay here and watch over everyone who is hurt until the doctors arrive. Vista can give you support and Firelight will as well. If Flechette wakes up, she'll help. This might just be a distraction, so when the doctors get here, get everyone out of my house and somewhere safe until I contact you. If Mouse Protector comes back here, have her stay to provide more security."
"And if she wishes to help you?" Danica asked.
"No, keep her here. Madison was kidnapped by the Nine. So was Mouse Protector. She could very well be a liability if she tries to force herself to help before she's ready. I'd rather have a capable, experienced fighter helping protect the wounded than getting in the way in the field."
"Understood, Ma'am."
"One more thing," I said looking to the side. Mimi had fallen to the floor and settled her back against the island, her eyes closed and continuing to breath hard. "No one hurts Firelight, no one takes her into custody. She's mine now. Your bosses will probably complain. I don't care. Tell them I threatened you if you have to."
Danica nodded. "Consider it done, Ma'am. Miss Hebert, what are you going to do?"
I bled off all my emotions into the swarm. While their buzzing increased to an absurd degree, my next statement was delivered in a completely deadpan tone as I said, "I'm going to save my friend. And I'm going to fucking kill the last of the Nine."
"Taylor, when did you get your permit?" Lisa asked from the passenger seat. She winced holding a hand to her side.
"Never. And you should've stayed. You're hurt too."
"I can walk, I can run, I can fight, and my head doesn't hurt enough to keep me incapacitated. You need someone for backup and Amy, Dennis, and Armsmaster are still 15 minutes out."
I grimaced. "We really need a teleporter."
"I'll put it on the To-Do List," Lisa muttered. "Seriously, pull over, let me drive."
"I know how to drive. Just because I haven't gotten the test since my birthday doesn't mean I didn't get the training."
"Could've fooled me." The car skidded around another turn and I blared the horn at the idiot in my way as I swerved around him. "Taylor, please don't kill us before we get there."
"I can literally drive with my eyes closed thanks to the swarm," I snapped. "Last chance, Lisa, are you sure you're okay to go in there? The absolute last thing I need or want is to give them another hostage." I asked as I slammed on the brakes and the smell of rubber assaulted us through the open windows.
Lisa glared at me. "Madison is my friend too. I wouldn't be here if I didn't think I could help. You take care of Jack, have QA keep the Siberian distracted, and I'll find Madison and/or deal with Cherish."
I nodded and we got out of the car. I scowled as I stared up at my last prison. "I hate this place so much…How would she know to choose this building?"
"Either Jack did his research well, or we have more enemies," Lisa replied. She cracked her neck and let out a breath, Insight dropping over her mannerisms. "Keep your eyes open."
I strode forward, splitting half of my swarm off to search the building and the other half to find Manton. Siberian's Host hadn't been staying close in the last few encounters so instead of starting in and searching out, I'd start out and search in this time. A two-mile radius should be fine for an initial distance. If I didn't find anything out there I would just contract it. That was close to the edge of my range anyway and I had a hard time imagining Manton could project further than me. Everyone's privacy was being invaded with this search. No Miss Nice Queen. This was a quick and dirty accounting of everything around me as fast as possible. I was going to find this fucker and I was going to make them wish they'd never even heard of me.
Some of my swarm in the building died as it reached the gymnasium. I smirked. "Dead bugs, gym. How much you want to bet they're there?"
"Could be a distraction, but yeah, no bet," Insight said. She stopped and pulled me to her, wrapping her arms around my shoulders and squeezed hard waiting just long enough for me to hug her back before letting go. "Taylor, be careful."
"I will."
I pulled free of her grip and ran to the stairs, leaving small arrow markers for my teammate. I reached the roof faster than ever before and as the door banged shut behind me, I found myself glaring at the women standing across from me. "Sophia," I growled, my voice barely audible through the rage-induced hatred that distorted my tone. "So, you decided to come back instead of running while you had the chance. Did you tell that bitch to take Madison?"
Sophia smirked as the Siberian, standing behind and to the side, smiled. "I just mentioned that you had a friend who used to be my friend. Jack Slash took it from there."
"What happened to wanting to be a hero?"
"Oh I still want to be a hero," she said shrugging and taking a step closer. "When the Nine tell you to do something or die though, it's generally better to do it. Besides, the strong survive and the weak…don't. Madison was always just a scavenger hanging around real power to take what little scraps she could. She never had the chops to last in this shit world."
My eyes narrowed and my swarm flew up to surround the room in a sea of bodies. "If you've hurt her already…"
"Nah," Sophia said, her smirk widening. She took another step. Siberian just laughed behind her. "It would be so much more fun to make you watch as these fuckers hurt her."
"You hate me that much?" If I could keep her talking long enough…
Sophia's face devolved into a snarl and her fists clenched. "You ruined everything. I had it all planned out. I had it all together. And then you come along and not only could not stay in your place at the bottom of the ladder, no, you had to flip the entire board. You got me sent to juvie you fucking bitch! And to top everything off, you stole Emma away from me too. Do you know how hard it is to find friends who understand that only the strong survive?! Do you?!"
I smiled, there was no humor in my expression. "You are just as insane as them, Sophia. And for the fucking record, Emma was my friend first, bitch!"
"I'm going to kill you, you fucking cunt!" Sophia roared as she lunged towards me. I jumped back and had a good chunk of my swarm surge towards her. Better to just have my minions eat her face off now. I could figure out how to stall the Siberian after Psycho Bitch Number One was down.
Unfortunately, the plan didn't work out quite so well. As soon as my bugs passed the boundary of the roof, they started to die and I was forced to jump to the side as Sophia lunged towards me fist first. She snarled and twisted on her heel, her other foot lashing out to strike across my ribs and driving the air out of my lungs. I grabbed for the can of mace I kept on my belt and managed to aim it fast enough to spray it towards Sophia's eyes as she jumped towards me again. She screamed and danced backward, wiping at her eyes with her hands and sleeves while I tried to catch my breath and glared.
Siberian just chuckled as she looked at me. "Problem little Host? Are you perhaps looking for this?" She asked, her echo screeching through my head. Pointing between herself and Sophia, I saw a small little device blinking away merrily. "A bit of a present left over from Bonesaw. The radius is small, but it works rather well on all things below a certain biomass threshold, don't you think?" That was why my bugs couldn't enter the gym either. Fucking bitch!
I needed stronger creatures. I reached out to Monarch and called for my Enhanced. They were almost here already, following in the wake of Armsmaster, Amy, Clockblocker, and Miss Militia. A Princess was en route as well and it was flying next to Artillery and…Hookwolf and Cricket? Whatever. More muscle was more muscle. I just needed to hold out.
Why didn't I have any Monarch bugs with me as it was? I was home with Monarch and - FUCKING CHERISH! I shuffled my entire emotional range to QA and the swarm and slowly straightened back up.
"Touché, you people really are subtle bastards."
"That is an amazing tool you possess," Siberian commented, cocking her head. "Do you even realize how few Hosts can push their operating parameters onto us?"
"Don't know, don't care." My eyes narrowed and I smiled as I found a van stopped just inside about one-and-a-half-mile radius of the school. It was suspicious in how unsuspicious it was. No bumper stickers, tinted windows, perfectly clean, no personalized plates, no air fresheners, everything about it screamed 'I'm normal, don't look at me.' If I'd learned anything while spying on people and patrolling, it was that nobody has a car that normal.
I sent a few exploratory bugs to thread inside the van and encountered a sealed system like I had only seen once before. Earlier that day actually. With Mannequin.
Found you. I redirected all of my divided swarm towards the van, leaving just the ones around the roof and in the building alone. It would take a minute, but they would get in. I could already find the weak points. A van needed to have some exhaust sections in order to function as a working vehicle after all.
I recentered on my body just as Sophia dashed forward again. She tried to punch me, but I was able to twist to the side and jab at her side. She just smirked and grabbed my arm before I even connected. I tried to kick her, but she stepped in and used her strength to throw me, leaving me bruised and gasping on the roof. Sophia followed that up with an elbow aimed towards my face which I was only barely able to roll away from.
"Stop moving you little bitch!" Sophia shouted. "Take your fucking beating!"
"Screw you!" I yelled back. Not super intelligent, but it was enough to have her gritting her teeth and kicking towards me. I was finally able to get my collapsible baton free from the belt as I rolled and I knocked her foot away leaving her off balance. As she stumbled, I scrambled to my feet and lunged for the blinking device. The Siberian just laughed and stepped forward, flicking a hand on my chest and sending me flying back into the brick near the door.
I gasped, losing my grip on the baton and breathing hard as I slumped to the ground.
Where was my backup?
[Negotiator] requesting to join [Queen Administrator] network. Request network elevation.
"What?" It was hard to breathe. Something grated in my chest. Sophia had picked herself up and she was yelling at Siberian. I didn't bother to pay attention.
[Broadcast] continually requesting [Host] movement information. [Negotiator] requesting to join [Queen Administrator] network. Request network elevation.
"QA…do it," I murmured. I tried to pick myself back up, and coughed, blood showing on my hand.
You don't know what you're asking Taylor. I only have a local ad hoc network. Network elevation is…it's much more than that. It might draw notice.
[Negotiator] requesting to join [Queen Administrator] network. Request network elevation.
"Lisa's in trouble and her shard is asking for help to avoid giving away her actions to Jack. Help her," I hissed. I was finally able to get my feet under me and I took two steps forward, stumbling back to one knee. I was close to the edge of the roof here. Maybe if I got closer to the edge I could get outside the range of that stupid tinker device? I couldn't beat Sophia in a straight fight. She had training for this sort of thing and was an athlete on top of that. I…didn't.
Taylor…
"Deal with the consequences later, QA!"
Okay. It paused and then I felt something like a switch being thrown in my head as QA spoke again, this time it was louder and I could almost taste it, like it was on a completely different channel from when QA was responding just to me.
[Queen Hub] network established. [Negotiator] invited to join network.
[Negotiator] has joined the network. Handing Administrative access to [Queen Hub].
[Broadcast] requesting operational parameters.
[Broadcast]'s permissions and access are denied.
[Broadcast] -
[Broadcast] is denied. Access is locked. [Queen Hub] to all networked devices, drop all packets from [Broadcast].
I smiled as Sophia finished her argument and started walking back to me. I dragged myself closer to the edge of the roof and tried to get a few bugs to me. They still died. Damn. Not far enough from the device.
Awareness of the gym flooded into me as several of my bugs were able to finally get inside. She'd done it. Lisa had gotten past whatever Jack and Cherish had tried and taken out the tinkertech. I swarmed the gym. Madison was already free and she and Lisa were both dodging around mats and exercise equipment, keeping something between them and Jack. The man himself was snarling, spittle flying from his mouth as he shouted at them, waving a gigantic knife and tearing into the surroundings. A wound on his arm was heavily bleeding as well as one in his stomach. Cherish was off to the side and she was rocking back and forth, her arms wrapped around herself.
My bugs descended and Jack screamed. I was able to get them to eat through his entire knife arm and they were shifting to his head when he slammed his remaining hand onto his belt and my awareness of the gym dyed again. But this time, I was able to see through the doors thanks to Madison and Lisa rushing through them and running down the hallway. Jack's right arm was gone and his face was a mess. Cherish was still rocking from side to side as he grabbed her with his single arm and started to hobble towards the back door.
My view was interrupted as I felt myself being lifted into the air. My grin split into a laugh as Sophia held me up. "Something funny, Hebert? I'm apparently not supposed to kill you, but I'm thinking if the striped bitch isn't quite careful enough to avoid it, why should I have to check myself?"
The swarm finally chewed through the exhaust system on Manton's van and surged inside. I laughed harder. "Hey Sibby!" I said through my chortles. Sophia snarled though Siberian placed a hand over hers. "What's pale and sickly and wears a denim jacket?" Siberian's eyes widened while Sophia just frowned. "Gotcha you fucker!"
Siberian grabbed Sophia and tore her arms off me, throwing the girl halfway across the roof in her haste. I was just barely able to catch myself on the lip of the roof and kept laughing as she grabbed my shirt. My reinforcements were just about here too. Barely a block away. "You cannot kill him. I will just find a new Host," she hissed.
"See, here's the thing, Sibby," I said smiling. Even with most of my emotions still bled off, I could let myself feel this much. "I wonder how well he can drive or move without any legs or arms? Some of my minions can cauterize wounds. Nobody ever said I had to kill Manton. I just have to keep him from getting away."
"I could do the same to you," she whispered, her teeth next to my ear.
"I have a healer, Manton doesn't. Good luck getting to him fast enough Cunt!"
She snarled and almost before I could notice, she was gone, jumping from building to building as my swarm started to feast over a mile away.
I smiled at Sophia as she climbed to her feet. "Guess I win, Sophia. Care to surrender?"
"You look pretty broken, Herbert."
"Nothing that can't be fixed," I replied. "What's left of the Nine are running scared minus several limbs. And my friends are here. So…juvie again? Or do you just want to die? Cause I can help with that too, bitch."
She stalked towards me and grabbed my shirt. "Tell you what Hebert. How about we see if you can fly? Because I fucking can." My eyes widened as she pushed me backwards over the lip of the roof. Me and my fucking motormouth. I grabbed Sophia's shirt and started to yank her over the edge with me. I could see in the smile on her face what she was going to do before she did it.
No. She didn't get to get away. We were far enough away from the tinkertech now that my bugs could get to her. I had several Discharge Bugs Amy had made after Sophia's first attack fly down just as she started to change into her Breaker form. The Discharge Bugs let loose their electric charge and Sophia screamed, flashing back to solid form.
She fell over the edge with me. I had more Discharge Bugs continually zapping Sophia as we flew down together. I tried to twist to get her below me, but she was able to punch my ribs and I gasped out, my back straightening as the ground rushed up below. My last thought before we struck was a final order to the swarm following us down.
Eat her!
Fanfic Rec: 'The End Bringer' by Materia-Blade. On SB. In this one Taylor is a White Mage from Final Fantasy. She starts off as a straight up healer and progresses to becoming…MUCH more impressive. She is also good friends with Amy. Very good (like most of Materia-Blade's works) and it's still in progress if somewhat slow with updates.
