Boxed In
2-5

There was, I realised, some deep, dark part of me that was enjoying this. Tracking my unaware 'prey' through the city, ready to strike at a moment's notice. I suppose it made some sense; I was part-dragon now, a predator to some degree.

Knowing that didn't make it any less creepy to realise, so instead I tried to focus on what I was doing and now how it made me feel.

The streets below us were filled with flower-spiders, packed so tightly together that they almost resembled a carpet, all of them marching in a single direction, seemingly ignoring anything around them.

Twice now, a spider had emerged from a door or window mere feet away from me, only to walk blindly past, and I was starting to suspect that nothing short of lighting them on fire would draw their attention.

The dark figure we had been following was likewise focused on his destination. He walked camly down the street, his pace unchanging while the spiders parted like a river around him. At this point, I wasn't sure if he was truly unaware of us, or simply uncaring.

His unrelenting march had taken us towards the northwest part of the city. At a guess, I would put us a stone's throw away from the hospital, which should be a bit further south, and I had a nagging suspicion about where those spiders were going, but I pushed it aside for now and focused on tracking our target.

Ahead of us stood the remains of a high-rise building. From the front, it seemed mostly intact, but as we got closer, I realised that two of its walls had collapsed and the remaining ones were being held up by what could only be described as a nest.

It was nearly seven stories tall and made of vines as thick as trees, twisted and wrapped together like a wasp's nest. Flower-spiders skittered across it, vanishing into holes dotted across the mound. The carnivorous gourd-like flowers ringed the bottom of the nest with their tendrils snaking off into the streets, rapidly producing more spiders.

Most of the block was covered in flowers, trees, vines, and various other assortments of greenery, and we were forced to slow down to avoid tripping over anything or risk damaging a larger-than-normal flower and possibly draw attention to ourselves.

Well, I had to slow down. Aisha was apparently agile enough that she could skip from clear spot to clear spot without slowing down, and even then, she had her stranger power to fall back on.

Reaching the edge of the roof, I laid down flat and stared at the structure ahead of us. "This isn't a nest, it's a fucking hive!" I hissed. "How does the hospital not know about this?"

It hadn't been on any of the maps I'd seen in the brief time between our arrival and departure to find Madison.

"Maybe they didn't know," Aisha muttered, her breath hot on my neck. "They said monster attacks were getting worse. They might've stopped patrolling this far."

I hummed in agreement, but it was still hard to believe that no one had risked coming this far. Then again, with how distance worked in this city, I wouldn't have been surprised if a patrol had walked past it without even knowing it was there.

"Assuming they are patrolling at all…" The thought came suddenly. The only capes at the hospital had been New Wave, who were now off hunting for a missing Glory Girl. Would the people left behind risk leaving the 'safety' of their walls?

I couldn't just leave this, but I wasn't sure what to do beyond sprint for the hospital. The hive was just too big to deal with —

"Taylor!" Aisha hissed, making me twitch in surprise. "Where did he go?!"

Blinking, I looked down at the street and realised with a sickening lurch that we had lost sight of the man in black.

"Shit, we need to —" there was a loud chirp behind us and I jumped to my feet, spinning around to see one of the spiders standing on the far side of the roof, eyeless face tilted quickly as it watched us.

The hairs rose on my neck and I turned to see a large vine, thicker around than me, rise above the roof, the man in black dangling by one arm under it.

"Run!" I shouted to Aisha and tried to sprint for the other roof edge, only for the spider to jump forwards, landing in front of me with an angry hiss as I collided with it.

We rolled across the roof, its legs flailing as its foreclaws gripped my arm. It wasn't strong enough to pierce my scales, but it still felt like my arm was stuck in a vice.

With a growl, I drove the claws of my free hand into its head, the soft flesh parting with a wet pop.

Pulling myself free, I hadn't even got my feet under me when a large hand closed around the back of my top and pulled, lifting me off the ground with seemingly no effort. I twisted in my attacker's grip and realised I was being held by the man in black. Lashing out with my hand, I knocked his wide-brimmed hat off.

My body went limp, the air vanishing from my lungs as Dad looked back at me with a dead eyed stare, his skin wrinkled and grey like rhino hide.

I tried to say something, but the words were little more than a whimper.

"Fuck you!" Aisha screamed, appearing from thin air, a small switchblade clutched in her hand, and Dad grunted as she drove it into his side.

He spun to face her, quicker than should've been possible, the arm holding me keeping me off the ground so I ended up being swung at her like a club. Aisha backpedaled, trying to keep some distance between them as Dad marched forward.

The insanity of the situation finally snapped me out of my stupor, and I forced my body to move. I grabbed his arm with my claws, trying to pull myself free but unable to truly hurt him.

"Dad! Please!"

Grey eyes turned to look at me, his body going still.

"It's me, Taylor!" I hadn't changed that much, my face was mostly the same. He had to recognise me!

Aisha dove under his arm, jumping into the air so that she could stab at his head. I screamed as the blade sunk deep into his neck and Dad bellowed like a wounded animal. He lashed at her with the arm that was still holding my top.

I felt more than heard the cloth rip, and I went flying through the air, the rooftop vanishing from under me and Aisha's screams echoing in my ears. Or maybe it was my own?

I twisted as I arced through the air, wings snapping open in an effort to control my fall, but one of them was still bound together, and I was sent into a dizzying roll. The last thing I saw was the brown-green wall of the hive closing in on me, then everything went dark.

##

The gunfire had already started; Madison could hear it in the distance, broken occasionally by the shouts of the guards as they tried to hold back the spiders.

The hospital was ahead of them now. The wide-open street in front of it that acted as a buffer was carpeted with the red flowers of the spiders that were attempting to scale the walls.

Men and women lined the walls, guns and improvised melee weapons in hand; occasionally, there was a flash of flame or glint of ice as the monster-girls used whatever innate abilities they had to knock the spiders back to the ground, but it was clearly a losing battle.

Every spider that fell was almost immediately trampled by the others as they clambered over each other in a mindless frenzy.

"W-what are you planning?" Madison hissed, looking up at Victoria, who was biting her lower lip, flashes of fire reflected in her eye.

"I need to find Amy," she said firmly. The slightly haunted look that lingered around Victoria ever since they had met was gone now, replaced with a grim determination that reminded Madison of Taylor when Dragon had first asked them to enter the city.

"First," Victoria said, giving her a quick glance, "I'm getting you somewhere safe. I know it's been a bit rough, but can you bear with it a little longer?"

"Y-yeah."

With a nod, Victoria moved back from the edge. Then, with a running start, she leapt from the building.

There was shouting from the hospital as Victoria landed with the force of a car, flattening a number of spiders with her weight alone. Scrambling to her feet, she sprinted through the 'battlefield'.

Her long legs ate up the distance, impaling anything that got in her way, one of her larger clawed hands slapping spiders aside while the other shielded Madison from harm.

Pressed tightly to Victoria's chest, Madison screwed her eyes shut, listening to the wet splats of dying spiders and the shouts of the guards on the walls, gunshots ringing in ears. Her stomach dropped with a lurch as Victoria jumped.

Madison barely had time to brace herself before they landed with a crash. Forcing her eyes open, she was met with three people all pointing guns at her and Victoria.

Straightening her back, Victoria raised her clawed hands into the air and barked her name, followed by a chain of nonsense words.

"Well?" she said when none of them lowered their guns.

"Put those down you idiots!" a man in a PRT uniform shouted, storming past the gunmen and giving Victoria a calculating gaze.

"Glory Girl…" he called over the sound of gunfire. "Didn't think you were still alive."

Madison nearly swallowed her tongue in shock, looking again at the girl who had been carrying her all this time.

"Neils," Victoria said, then she carefully lowered Madison to the ground. "Get her to Amy, tell her to fix her up and I'll be back soon!"

"What are you planning?!"

"I'm going to fight, of course," Victoria said with a smile that boarded on feral, her horns and claws visibly lengthening. Then, without a word, she turned and leapt back over the wall, ignoring Neils' shouts to stop.

Huffing, he gestured at two of his men and pointed at Madison. "Get her to Panacea!"

##

When I woke, it was to darkness. I was lying on my back inside the hive. A hole in the wall above me marked my passage, giving me a clear view of the foggy sky outside.

That couldn't have been Dad. He wouldn't attack me like that. But that face with its dead eyes stared at me from the shadows.

I wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and cry, but I could hear the skittering and angry chirps of the flower-spiders, and I didn't know if 'Dad' would be coming after me.

I rolled over with a groan and slowly pushed myself up. My back felt like one giant bruise, and the bindings that had held my wing closed had been torn free by my passage through the wall. The freshly-stitched-together skin was still discoloured, but I couldn't see any blood, so either I hadn't torn the stitching, or it had healed enough on its own that I didn't have to worry about it.

I tried to walk forward, but had to stop after a few steps to lean against the wall. The ground felt like it was moving under me, and my head felt lopsided. Carefully reaching up, my fingers brushed across the jagged tip of a broken horn.

Thankfully, my horns were effectively nails or hair, so there were no nerves or anything inside them, but the change in weight still felt weird.

I was still trying to steady myself when there was a chirp followed by a long rattling hiss behind me, and I looked over my shoulder to see one the spiders glaring at me, the faint light coming in through the hole letting me see the shadows of more moving behind it.

"Fuck me!" Pushing off the wall, I half ran, half fell down the tunnel, the spiders following behind me.

The light from the hole was quickly cut off as the tunnel twisted around, plunging me into darkness that even my enhanced vision struggled with. I could see little more than vague shapes and shadows, and I could hear more than see the spiders behind me.

I was moving as fast as I could, well aware that they could overtake me at any moment, but they didn't. They seemed content to stay behind me, never getting closer unless I slowed. When I reached a junction, I found all but one of the paths blocked by spiders, all of them hissing angrily, forearms waving at the air.

It didn't take a genius to realise I was being herded.

The tunnel they led me through sloped gently downwards and to the side, widening as it went. I couldn't be sure, but I was almost certain I was being led into the deepest parts of the hive. I slowed briefly, letting my hand brush against the wall, which had the texture of bark that was dry and crumbling.

I almost fell when the dirt under my feet was replaced with vines and the tunnel opened abruptly into a wide open cavern, the spiders stopping at the entrance.

"Now what," I growled, squinting into the gloom.

The ground dipped down, then rose up again towards the center of the room. A large flower, almost like a fly trap but bigger than me, sat in the center, surrounded by giant, brightly-coloured petals, and long sinuous vines were reaching out from it, waving gently in the air.

"I'm guessing you're the queen…" I called out, not really expecting an answer. "I don't suppose you can talk?"

Its arms waved vaguely in my direction as the 'fly trap' twitched. "Hhghgsskskss….hekkk.." The noise bubbled up from deep inside the flower, "heee…. Heeep… mmmmeeee".

The words made the hair on my neck rise and for just a moment, I very nearly charged forward, but something stopped me and I stared at the plant. This wasn't right.

"No…" Something moved in the air above me, and I ducked as a vine the width of my arm dropped from the ceiling, missing my head by inches.

On instinct, I spat fire at it, and the 'flower' screamed as the orange flame hit the ceiling and started to spread. The light of the fire lit up the room, and I could see corpses on the floor, vines wrapped tightly around the bones of people long dead.

The 'Queen's' scream filled the air, vines lashing out blindly at me and the fire, which only caused it to spread faster. Behind me, spider-flowers rushed through the opening, hissing angrily. Without a thought, I spun to face them and roared fire.

##

Madison hissed as the two 'soldiers' carrying her all but dropped her onto a bed. One of them almost immediately ran out of the room while the other called for Panacea.

They were in the hospital's ER, the room around them packed with injured people and a girl in a filthy robe who was running from one person to the next. Every person she touched climbed to their feet or was carried out of the room by a large woman covered in rocks.

Madison knew who she was, of course. Even under all that dirt and grime, Panacea was famous as the most powerful healer in the city. It seemed, however, that she was fighting a losing battle. For every person removed from the room, two more were carried in as the battle outside raged.

"If she's not dying, she'll have to wait!" Panacea shouted over the noise. "I don't —"

"Glory Girl sent her!" the man shouted back, and almost immediately, Panacea sprinted across the room, grabbing Madison's wrist in a grip so tight it was almost painful.

"What did you say!?" she hissed, her eyes wild, and for just a moment, Madison felt a jolt of fear.

"Victoria found me in the city! She's outside fighting the spiders!"

Panacea stared at her, mouth hanging open.

"Ma'am?" the soldier said, making Panacea jump, her mouth closing with a click.

"Vicky's outside?"

"Yeah… but —" Madison fell silent as a shiver ran through her body. The fire in her chest and the cold burn on her back vanishing like they were never there and her exhaustion vanished.

"Take me to her!" Panacea snapped, pulling Madison up.

"Wha—"

"Take me to Vicky, NOW!"

Staring at the healer's manic expression, Madison shared a worried look with the equally surprised soldier.

"Alright," she said slowly, knowing this couldn't end well.

Regardless, she led Panacea outside, the sound of the fighting almost deafening now, gunfire, screams and shouting all blending together to form a noise that was almost a physical force.

Several voices shouted something at her, but Madison ignored them, leading Panacea past the soldiers and up onto the wall.

Just in front of the gates was Glory Girl, the light of various fires shining in her eyes, her claws and sharp-tipped legs dripping with gore as she carved through the monsters. Blood was running from open wounds on her bare torso, but her feral grin was undiminished.

"Panacea!" Neils shouted, running towards them. "You shouldn't be out here!"

Panacea ignored him, her eyes fixed on Victoria.

"Vicky...?"

Then everything went to hell.

##

My claws sliced through one spider while my tail slapped another aside. The queen was still 'screaming', but it was getting weaker as fire spread through the room, the dry walls of the nest burning quickly.

A burst of fire forced the rest of the spiders back, and I gasped for breath. The spiders weren't very strong, but their numbers seemed endless, and while I was resistant to heat and smoke, the chamber was quickly turning into an inferno.

A vine whipped past my head, and I threw myself to the side, glaring over my shoulder at the queen.

Spinning on my heel, I took a deep breath and roared, a gout of flame washing over the queen, its feeble screams rising in pitch. It lashed blindly at me, but there was no strength left in its vines, and I barely felt the impact.

I took all my anger and my frustration and balled it up in my chest, using it to fuel my fire as I sent one last blast at the queen, not stopping until it was nothing more than a pillar of flame.

The fire was spreading faster now; the entire ceiling was burning, thick black smoke rolling across it like a carpet, and I was starting to get light-headed.

Covering my mouth with my hand, I ran for the tunnel, only to find myself faced with a dozen more spiders. Three of them charged me outright, but the others had turned on each other, tearing themselves apart even as I killed the ones that attacked me.

Further up the tunnel, I could see more spiders, hesitating to cross the fire that was spreading across the floor, and I knew it was only a matter of time before they got brave, or desperate, enough to come at me.

I couldn't keep this up. If they hadn't been fighting among themselves, the monsters would have quickly overwhelmed me with pure numbers.

Instead, I turned to face the wall. The tunnel had sloped downwards, but I was almost certain I'd started off near the middle. I hit the wall with a burst of flame and struck the burning material with my claws. Tearing through the weakened structure, I found myself in another tunnel.

I gasped for air as I tried to summon another blast, but it was getting harder and harder to do. My vision was going blurry, and I felt like I'd run a marathon already, but I kept going, punching through a second and third wall, fire licking at my heels.

The world was going grey as I hit the fourth wall; every movement took an age, and I felt like I was drowning in thick black smoke that stank of rotten wood. My claws glanced off the wall, carving deep lines in the material, and it took me two more attempts to break even a small hole in it.

Cold air rushed through the break and across my face, giving me enough strength to widen the hole. In that moment, the world went still, and I had only a moment to realise my mistake before a fireball struck me from behind.

The world around me exploded, the fire that had been trapped inside the hive rushing through the hole, the force of it exploding the wall in a shower of splinters and flame that tossed me through the air.

Arms over my head, I was barely able to right myself in time, my injured wing screaming in pain as the barely-healed skin pulled tight. I hit the ground hard enough to bounce, only stopping when I hit a brick wall on the far side of the road.

I lay there, not daring to do anything more than gulp down mouthfuls of cold night air, unable to hear anything beyond the ringing in my ears and the pounding of my heart in my chest until a hand closed on my wrist.

Twisting with a scream, I brought my other hand up, ready to gut my attacker, only to see the tear- and blood-stained face of Aisha, her purple eyes glowing in the dark.

I froze, my eyes fixed on her mouth as she said something to me that I couldn't hear over the ringing. Her mouth moved again as she gave my arm a tug, and I realised that she was trying to lift me up.

With limbs that felt like they were made of lead, I struggled to stand, leaning heavily on Aisha as she tossed my arm over her shoulder and half-carried me down the streets.

Behind us, the hive was engulfed in flames, flower-spiders scuttling across the nest in a mindless attempt to stop the fire even as they burned and a giant plume of smoke rose up into the sky.

AN: Chapter written under commission

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