The Fear of Violence 1

Finding things to do and evil people to put down became a bit easier when she was connected to a network dedicated exclusively for that purpose. It shouldn't have been a huge surprise, but Taylor still couldn't quite accept it as it was. The system the Protectorate had in place was deeply flawed, almost to the point she would call it non-functional.

Perhaps it was about its appearance. Taylor only saw it because she saw the sock from the inside out now, where the knitting had been done for it to appear cute and trendy. Or perhaps it was just that they didn't understand the true potential she held. It wasn't as if she was less of a parahuman because she was a teen, and she would show them. If the opportunity presented itself.

"Hey, bug girl. Fancy meeting here." Tattletale turned around and waved in Taylor's direction even before she had appeared in the villain's field of vision.

"Weaver now." The young heroine stated.

This was a huge argument with the heroes. Weaver just couldn't understand how these guys had escaped. Like, sure, misdirection and being slimy in general was their modus operandi. But they escaped Protectorate containment! How?! Wasn't Armsmaster alone kind of a big shot? Why couldn't they just… Not let these teenage villains escape?!

"Weaver. Ok, cool. Fitting, even." Tattletale was probably remembering how Taylor (now Weaver) had tied them all up that night almost a week ago. That or she was just trying to give her teammate -Grue- time to deal with a very pissed off Hellhound at Weaver's presence "Did the big guys help you come up with it?"

"No."

They did, in fact. But Tattletale's power was an unknown asset, so assuming she already knew things she asked about didn't mean Weaver would just answer honestly.

The swarm ascended. The creeks and small holes around the building became engulfed by the dark mist that was Taylor's bugs. It was so dense it almost rivalrded Grue's absolute darkness, except more figuratively than literally… Or something like that. Taylor wasn't in the mood for analogies.

Tattletale took out something. Probably bug spray, but Taylor simply made an applause once.

The Undersiders felt a singular sting each, and then the swarm parted ways and got away from the teen villains.

Weaver had her back turned to Tattletale when the jewelry store got cleaned of all bugs around. The villains were down, from grunting to openly screaming as the groups of fire ants she placed on them got either swatted away or started moving towards Weaver.

They bit the same spot together, so maybe she could pass it as a single 'warning shot' to her superiors.

She sent her minions scooping on the adjacent blocks, making sure to be as thorough as possible. Last time, the Undersiders had been too close to where Uber and Leet had been operating for the heroes' liking. And knowing beforehand if there was a relation there, was a good idea.

The dogs tried going after her, but Taylor had their paws fixed to the floor with spider web, and more spiders were reinforcing the trap and trying to build towards the closest walls where possible. These monster dogs were probably strong enough to break the concrete and go after her, but she was staying to figure that out.

The barking and groaning wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. Her swarm returned to her when they were more or less done, some groups of bugs still sweeping as one could never be too sure what could happen.

Weaver looked for a fire escape and climbed up to avoid being easy prey for the dogs if they broke free.

Actually, Weaver chose to use more bugs to fix them in place. Even when Grue darkened the area when Tattletale's talk failed, Weaver kept her minions working. They didn't quite manage to spray the bug spray on the monsters, so she had an easy time doing it.

Weaver took out the phone given to her and fiddled a bit with its menus. She wasn't that familiar with it, and one week wasn't enough to compensate for so much time without so much as holding a cellphone in her hands.

"I hate to say this, but this is exactly what Shadow Stalker does." It was a good thing Aegis was so far from her, because that just made Weaver feel things the swarm chose to express by murderizing itself a bit.

"Undersiders captured." She sighed and chose to say. There was no reason to argue after finishing a mission by herself.

They had been prepared for her. Not just with the repellents, but there was only so much they could do to stop her when they couldn't even see her coming. Individually bugs were discreet like that, and a team that specialize in being slimy and hit and run tactics would inevitably choose to not let paranoia slow them down.

Well, technically they could use the dogs to detect her. But since their last encounter, the Undersiders had nothing to use for that purpose. Not even the piece of costume Denji tore, since they had been apprehended already when that happened. So she had a faith in being safe from their detection, at least by a fair amount.

"Contacting PRT now, don't move." Aegis reported, prompting Weaver to cut communication since she didn't have anything else to report.

Of course, that was the moment Weaver detected movement from one of the Undersiders. The villain slowly made her way to one of her teammates and took an object Weaver recognized, though didn't really think they would have again.

The dogs were still struggling against their bindings, so Weaver released a wavering sigh to calm down and leaned on the railing of the fire escape as casually as she could.

"I meant to ask before." Weaver raised her voice when Tattletale entered her vision field, letting the villainess know her location and face her "How did you guys escape?"

Tattletale's face was contorted in a grim visage of pain, yet she steadied her breathing and forced a wide smile to the forefront.

Weird. Did Weaver not use enough ants? Or was Tattletale used to mind-boggling pain?

"A good magician never reveals her trick." She dropped her stance, Regent's scepter resting parallel to her right thigh, apparently giving up on climbing up to Weaver's location "And speaking of… How did you find us?"

She was trembling, so the effects of the bites were indeed taking their toll.

Weaver didn't know how to answer that without giving out too much, so she simply stayed quiet. There had been a lot of research. Checking out and double checking the sparse information on the Undersiders the Protectorate had.

In the end, Weaver was hoping the guys would try to get back Hellhound's dogs in spite of everyone believing it wouldn't happen (and honestly, hitting the HQ for three dogs did sound too fat a chance in the end), but things still worked out in her favor… Even if Hellhound had dogs to spare.

Tattletale opened her mouth, and Weaver snapped her finger. It was unadvised to let her talk, so of course she dropped three spiders on top of her head to make her stop.

The closest thing to pointing a gun at her face Weaver could manage.

Tattletale closed her mouth.

"Sorry." Weaver said before the silence could stretch for too long and she started feeling awkward "Consider this… A praise on how seriously we take you."

The blonde villainess nodded slowly, walking very slowly to the wall. Weaver allowed the girl to put her back to it, making the black widows walk to the girl's face, and slide down until she was sitting on the floor.

Guess her pain resistance went only so far, if her breathing was any indication.

Was this too much? Perhaps. Panacea wouldn't be thrilled, but then again what did? Weaver honestly felt like the healer had a thing against her, but seeing her mood worsen whenever Denji was in the room allowed Weaver to sort of shrug it off. Then again, seeing the guy oogle Glory Girl like he did was indeed uncomfortable. They needed to seriously educate the guy, but a single week wouldn't cut it.

No matter. With one of the Endbringers dead and the Protectorate running around like headless chickens, Weaver had some breathing room to do the things she wanted.

The Director seemed to be the kind of woman that ruled with an iron hand; but having to send Armsmaster and Dauntless out, having to deal with Weaver's case, Sophia's infractions of her contract (which Weaver found out from the last source she expected), the power shift in the gangs, and Denji had her hands full. What could the woman do but accept Weaver's charity in helping her deal with so much stuff?

She wasn't an official Ward, not yet at least, but Weaver figured out she could pull this off. Denji listened to her, at least more than the rest of the people in the HQ. Digging evidence on Sophia's case was hilariously easy for her, especially after getting most of the picture of what made Sophia… Well, Sophia. And now, just a week after joining efforts with the Wards, she re-captured the Undersiders.

This was going to work. Weaver would make damn sure it did. She was almost thankful to the Simurgh, no matter how dangerous that thought was, and to her teacher in the art of violence. That initial spar with Denji had been eye-opening... After she recuperated from the injuries.

Holding back gets you killed. Even after everyone and their mother assured her no one would be trying to kill her, Weaver couldn't shake off the words the translating lady uttered. It wasn't rocket science, nor some unraveled truth that made her worldview change… No.

It was something smaller, like… A change of focus, maybe. Or the unlocking of something deep within Weaver.

It went along, almost hand by hand really, with the first demonstration of how to throw a good punch: Denji had raised his stance only to throw the equivalent of a sucker punch with his foot.

She hated it, but there was simplicity in there. His head might have been screwed, his common sense non-existent but Denji was really damn good at winning fights. The heroes disapproved, of course, but they had flashy powers and a lot of training. They didn't need to spin their heads to figure out a way to win fights with their powers, didn't have to spend hours on end to come up with ideas on how to perform better… Well, maybe Armsmaster and Kid Win did. But the others? Weaver didn't think so.

And as it turned out, Weaver didn't have to either… At least not as much as she did.

Hit as hard as you can. Give no chance for retaliation.

When Weaver imagined herself being a hero, she tried coming up with ways to look the part with the powers she got. But showing off didn't win fights. Violence did. She didn't have to be present, she only needed to know where her targets were, what tools of violence (powers or otherwise) they had at their disposal, and how to deny them to their users before striking.

She had millions of minions at her disposal. One bug didn't seem that much, two didn't either. But a whole plague-sized swarm? Commanded by a single mind? Only people like the deceased Hookwolf could realistically stop her. And even if the other Wards would help little with that sort of threat, 'accidentally' seizing Denji onto them should be possible… At least if Weaver found a way to get him out of the HQ. That was still work in progress.

But that wasn't here or now. The first course of action was showing off as much as possible. She didn't like thinking she was usurping Sophia's place in the Wards… But the Wards certainly would be better off without a bitch in their ranks. And if that meant Weaver had to join them so the empty seat left behind wouldn't harm their performance, she would do it with pleasure.

"Good… Work." Aegis appeared after some time, and immediately made a double taken when he saw Weaver's bugs playing tic tac toe on Tattletale's face "What…"

"It's fine." Weaver was just keeping pressure on the girl "That thread can just be washed off."

"Right."

"We'll need Panacea, though." Weaver tried being professional now "They got fire ant… Bullet ants? Ant venom. In their system… Hurts."

Well, at least she didn't go full caveman mid-report. She still needed to work on her professional voice, she couldn't just start stuttering in the middle of it, that would make her look awful.

If Aegis thought anything about it, he didn't show it on his face. Probably for the sake of the blonde's unknown power, lying below them.

She would probably get yelled at at the HQ but… Yeah. She still didn't like that one bit. Should she play nice to get some heat off her back?

"Should I head-?"

An explosion interrupted Weaver, shaking the very foundation of the building she was resting on. She immediately made her bugs undo the webbing on Tattletale's face and the dogs inside.

"Get them out!" Weaver ran stairs down as Aegis used his flight to get inside the building, Tattletale tailing him on foot, and grabbed at the Undersiders inside.

The barking was loud, and Weaver could sense Tattletale trying to talk to her teammates in spite of that.

The shaking stopped, but the teen villains were already outside, with Aegis holding Regent on his arms bride-style and Grue on his back. Tattletale more or less led Hellhound out with the help of the dogs, smaller than before, but still a very real threat.

"I…"

Before anyone could talk, Weaver made her swarm buzz even louder. She kept it out for a couple of seconds, then made them as silent as possible.

"You guys are behaving. You are still under arrest." Weaver stated, voice firm in spite of the scare and the effort of running downstairs just a couple of seconds before. All she got in response was a pained wheeze from Regent.

"Cooperate." Aegis turned to face the girls that were standing "We'll get you to a safe place."

"That explosion shouldn't have reached here." Tattletale groaned "That was power-made."

"And that's why we're evacuating you." Aegis nodded "Something tells me this wasn't just a freak accident in a boiler room."

A van entered Weaver's range. She nodded in the direction it was coming, and Aegis allowed the male villains to stand on their own before flying higher to try and see in the dark if it was the PRT.

These night encounters were getting old really fast. Then again, it was at night that Weaver's costume got the most utility given its dark color.

Tattletale whispered something to Hellhound, prompting Weaver to turn her head and point a finger at the girls.

"Oh fuck me, you can hear through your bugs too?" Tattletale groaned. Body tense, as if waiting, for a few seconds until she realized nothing was happening "...Huh, okay. Seems like that's not the case."

What was her power anyway? To know things? No wonder the Undersiders had escaped arrest so far.

A second explosion shattered the windows of the adjacent buildings. The villains covered their heads, thousands of bugs dying at the same time when rubble and glass ripped at their fragile bodies where their heightened senses didn't let them dodge in time.

That had been a massacre, one that only Weaver could witness. She had sent her bugs looking for people after the first explosion, trying to feel out if no one was trapped under rubble or something like that. She did find a couple of fires about to start and did her best to stop gas sources where she could using spider web. It helped her stay centered, even after the second, bigger explosion, but that only got her so far.

Her phone was out before Aegis went down to ground level.

"Do we tie them up and go see what's going on?" Weaver asked, all but ready to drop more spiders on the villains.

"No." Aegis replied.

"Please don't." Tattletale wheezed.

"Velocity has been dispatched." Aegis continued "I'll escort Hellhound's dogs. You go in the van with the rest of the Undersiders."

"It's Bitch." Hellhound swore under her breath. These guys sure were resistant to pain, huh. Maybe Weaver should have been meaner…

"Do you understand, Weaver?" Aegis used his flight to get closer to her. Voice colder than Weaver had heard before.

She almost stood her ground and tried to challenge that tone, but her swarm was working as they spoke. Which let her remember that they were technically on the same team, even if she didn't have to follow his orders officially just yet.

"Loud and clear." Wait, that wasn't the correct answer… Just… Just keep going, pretend it didn't happen "...I'll get in contact when we get there."

"Please do." Aegis couldn't quite carry the three dogs in his hands, they were still too big, so he opted for letting them seize him and bite down at him. Then he took flight with three monster dogs in tow like mockeries of capes and hurried back to the HQ.

Weaver stared.

Hellhound stared.

Tattletale stared.

Weaver sent a quick order for her swarm to keep working. That was something Weaver didn't want to see, so she chose to pretend she didn't see it.

"Gross." Almost as much as seeing Denji cut through the monster dogs and die electrocuted.

But she agreed.