Corrupted Queen

Worm/Spider-man alt-power

As Carlos sat in the meeting room with Armsmaster, Miss Militia and Director Piggot watching the news replay a recorded clip of the fight earlier, he had to admit that he made a lot of mistakes as team leader during the bank robbery. Of course, he had expected it to be "Show up with force, so Undersiders surrender" type of fight, not "Wards and Glory Girl get their asses handed to them".

The first mistake had been to switch costumes with Dennis, in order to surprise the villains. At the time it had sounded a good idea, but now he realized that maybe a normal hero switching costumes with a brute was BAD idea. The second mistake was allowing Dean to invite his girlfriend with them; sure, Panacea had been at the bank, but it didn't mean that they weren't responsible for the collateral caused by her fight with Spider-Queen.

"And the next time you take MY credit for taking down Lung, I'll tear your gilded palace in the bay apart!" Spider-Queen yelled on the TV, as she threw Browbeat through a brick wall before dodging a shot from Kid Win's now destroyed (and apparently unapproved) Alternator Cannon.

At least they'd manage to salvage the power source; a little comfort, as Piggot confiscated it immediately on their return to base.

Which brought them to their third mistake; going in with no proper intel on who they were fighting while using unapproved tinker weaponry. As Carlos glanced at Director Piggot, he could see her glaring at Armsmaster, who stayed silent as he continued watching the fight.

Carlos already knew Armsmaster was facing difficulties after Lung nearly died due to his tranquilizers; to have his deception of solo credit revealed on TV was even worse. As he turned to look at the fight again, Carlos vowed to never steal a villain's credit…

Three Hours Earlier

"Are you ready" Carlos asked, while dressed in Clockblocker's costume. Dennis gave him a thump's up in his Aegis costume, while Vista, Gallant, Browbeat and Kid Win gave affirmatives. Nodding, he exited the PRT van, as they began to move towards the bank as a group, glancing as Glory Girl hovered over the bank.

The rain wasn't helping them, as they lined up on the street opposite of the bank, waiting to see how the villains would react. From what they'd been told, it was the Undersiders; relatively unknown band of thieves, of which Carlos was thankful that Sophia wasn't there, otherwise she'd have her hate-on with Grue.

Dennis took point at the center as 'Aegis' in the rust red costume, while Carlos took his place on the left as 'Clockblocker', in the clock-themed white costume. Vista stood dozen feet away on 'Aegis' right, in her green armor and white/green skirt. Hovering on the air, Kid Win stood on top of his board, laser pistols drawn in his red and gold armor, while chatting with Gallant, who stood next to him in silvery knight-themed power armor, while the newcomer Browbeat stood at the other side of the line in dark blue spandex, his body displaying the power-given muscles.

The plan was simply to wait a moment for villains to react; if they made a run for it, Glory Girl would delay them while the Wards closed in. If not, the Wards would go in, with Gallant, Aegis and Browbeat taking care of the villains while Vista and Kid Win would evacuate the hostages, with Glory Girl and Clockblocker providing assistance where needed.

Of Course, that plan went out the door pretty fast…. quite literally.

The door of the bank swung open, with a cloud of darkness sweeping out and covering the front of the bank. The wards spread out, just before one of Hellhound's dogs came running from the darkness; a huge, mutated dog with bony spikes jumped through the air, tackling 'Clockblocker' while Hellhound jumped out of the darkness, riding another mutated dog.

As Carlos hit the ground and began his fight with the monster dog, a new cape stepped out of the cloud; dressed in black bodysuit and grey armor panels that looked like carapace covering every part of her, from head to armored boots. It shifted naturally, to allow free movement from the wearer, with layers overlapping like pillbug, giving free movement.

The helmet was a solid piece, covering the entire head with yellow lenses on the eyes. The only portion of the mask not solid was the mouthpiece, which hung on the capes neck, leaving mouth uncovered, revealing the thin wide lips and pale skin within the costume.

On her chest, Gallant noticed a hauntingly familiar symbol; a spider painted in gold, with symbol of Omega painted in red on the abdomen.

"Keep Aegis busy" The cape yelled, as she waved her hand towards the wards; a black wave of insects exited Grue's darkness, spreading into five tendrils as they each moved to attack the remaining ward.

Kid Win took the air, blasting the wave of bugs with his lasers, while Vista expanded the distance between the swarm and the wards. Gallant started to attack the swarm with his blasts as well, while Clockblocker started to spin as he moved away, freezing bugs as soon as the touched him. Browbeat however ignored the insects, as he ran through the swarm, before jumping through the air to tackle the insect master…. only to be send flying away, as the unknown cape revealed her far greater brute rating with a lightning fast swing to Browbeat's chest.

"Vista! Give me an opening!" Clockblocker yelled out, with Vista following orders as the area between Dennis and swarm grew to dozens of feet, giving Clockblocker a change as he ran towards the master, arm outstretched as the distance shortened to few feet.

Unfortunately, while that tactic might have worked against other master, it did not work against this one.

Clockblocker froze mid-step, as he was lifted off the ground by telekinetic force from the cape's outstretched hand, before it closed into a fist, slamming Dennis' arms to his torso.

"I am Spider-Queen! Remember that!" The woman yelled angrily, before taking a deep breath and screeching towards Clockblocker, who was almost within arm's reach. Aegis watched in horror, as waves of sound similar to those Triumph could generate hit Clockblocker at full force, who screamed in pain while twitching in the telekinetic grip of Spider-Queen, before he stopped as he went limp.

A laser blasts from Kid Win made her stop, as she blocked the blasts with one hand while throwing the unconscious Clockblocker at him with the telekinesis, before focusing on Browbeat as he jumped in; the two began trading blows as Kid Win caught Clockblocker, before flying quickly away to find a safe spot for him. With Kid Win and Clockblocker now out, Aegis was left to play tug of war between Hellhound's two dogs, while she and the Spider-Queen's swarm of insects converged on Vista. Gallant started taking shots at both the swarm and Hellhound, which enraged her enough to yell out while pointing at Gallant; one of the dogs followed the order, releasing its jaws on Aegis as it began to charge at the tinker armored blaster.

It was at this point, that Aegis managed to free himself from the lone dog's jaws, knocking it down temporarily before flying straight at Spider-Queen; she was the highest threat here, so without hesitation he tackled her just as she jumped to the side to dodge another blow from Browbeat.

"Stupid fool" She yelled, before screeching right at Aegis' face; a wave of vertigo hit as his eardrums ruptured, body shaking as it adapted to the sonic attack. Still, this gave her a change to release herself from confused Aegis' grip, before punching him in the chest with speed and force strong enough to send him flying, while breaking his entire rib cage.

AS he hit the wall across the street, Aegis took a moment for his body to adapt, before wheezing out as his body adapted to punctured lungs; Clearly, Spider- Queen was not holding back, as that would have killed anyone else. Glancing at the fight, he stood still for a moment as he watched Browbeat trading blows with Spider-Queen, who dodged them with great speed, before sending fast hits back with equal strength.

"And the next time you take MY credit for taking down Lung, I'll tear your gilded palace in the bay apart!" Spider-Queen yelled out, as she caught on Brownbeat's arm and threw him through a brick wall of nearby store, before quickly dodging a shot fired from newly returned Kid Win's huge cannon. The cannon was easily fifteen feet long, turret mounted to a flying platform as the three-to-four feet long barrels were trained on Spider-Queen, who made a motion with her hands; sending Kid Win flying from his new cannon just as Browbeat entered the fight once more.

Carlos decided that he hated this grab-bag cape; Telekinesis, insect mastery, brute rating, sonic attacks; what else did she have?

Apparently, Aegis would get would his answer, as Spider- Queen threw Browbeat over her shoulder, smacking him straight into concrete before opening her mouth; though instead of screeching, she revealed last of her abilities as a stream of thick webbing came out, covering the ward quickly and sticking him to the ground.

And Carlos had thought the mouth piece was only because of the screeching… clearly, she had named herself Spider-Queen for a reason other than the insects she commanded.

Direct blasts from Kid Win's cannon send her flying however, as it hit Spider-Queen directly in the chest, before the cannon turned towards the other dog, sending it flying across the street with bolt of light, before shooting another after it. A swarm of bugs changed their target, only to be decimated as Kid Win pulled a lever, before a stream of lightning and sparks spewed forth like a flamethrower, decimating the swarm.

Aegis took flight, surveying the situation; Browbeat was stuck on the concrete, Clockblocker was evacuated, Gallant was struggling with hellhound and her dog while… dammit, Vista was down, tied up and slumped against the wall, as Regent disappeared into a cloud of darkness near the bank entrance. Three of the six wards were out, with Carlos not in good condition; glancing up, he saw that Glory Girl wasn't there anymore.

He didn't have much time to ponder that one, before Kid Win yelled out. Turning towards him, Aegis saw the huge cannon twisting and bending, metal screeching as it began to compress into a ball.

Looking back towards where Browbeat was, he could see Spider-Queen holding her hands together towards the cannon, like she was compressing something with her hands. Surprisingly, she seemed to be doing fine; The armored chest was in pieces, revealing bare, unharmed skin beneath with burned edges of her costume barely hiding her modesty, while the rest of her stood relatively unharmed, beyond the discoloration on the armor of her arms from Kid Win's laser pistols earlier.

Just as the ball of metal that was Kid Win's Cannon dropped to the ground, Glory Girl appeared from the darkness surrounding the bank, flying and tackling Spider-Queen, before flying them both through the wall of the office building across the bank…. same one Spider-Queen had send Carlos into.

As Kid Win was forced to return to his pistols, he turned them against the dog attacking Gallant; Hellhound wasn't much more than a distraction, while other Undersiders stayed inside the bank and Glory Girl was keeping Spider-Queen busy.

Making a decision, Aegis flew as he tackled the second dog running below him, the same one that Kid Win had send flying with his cannon, before it could reach Gallant. Whatever the outcome of this fight, it was clear that it was not going to be good.

Tattletale glanced outside, as Regent nursed his broken arm; Glory Girl hadn't been exactly gentle when she burst into the bank, but her attention had been drawn outside when she noticed that three out of six wards were down, while other three were in a bad situation.

"So, what do we do with her?" Grue asked, as he motioned to unconscious Panacea in civilian clothing. None of them had been aware that Amelia Dillon had been in the bank; otherwise they'd have had lot more leverage since the fight began. Would have saved Regent the trouble of getting his arm broken at least… though using a Taser on her to unconsciousness once she failed to knock him out with a fire extinguisher seemed like a bad idea; that's why Glory Girl broke Regents arm, because he was standing over her unconscious sister with a Taser on hand.

"Nothing; time's nearly up, we need to leave before the rest of protectorate arrives" Lisa said, before glancing at the two team mates "Get ready, I'll get Bitch and Spider-Queen" she said, before pulling a gun out as she walked towards the bank doors.

Stepping outside, she looked at the wards as they struggled with Hellhound's dogs, before she took aim at Glory Girl, as she brawled with Spider-Queen, who was looking worse to wear (especially since her power told that she was getting exhausted).

"Hey Glory Hole!" Tattletale yelled out, causing Glory Girl to stop as she glared towards the bank. It was long enough distraction, as Tattletale bullet the trigger just as Spider-Queen threw her punch; the bullet flattened against Glory Girl's shield, while Spider-Queen's fist impacted her unprotected face, shattering her lower jaw and causing her to scream in pain.

Something a hero should make a note of; if you have a shield on every time you brawl with someone, you're not suddenly going to get used to pain when you don't have it… especially when you get your lower jaw shattered and upper jaw fractured.

As Glory Girl fell to the ground screaming in pain, Aegis, Kid Win and Gallant stopped their fighting at the sound of gunshot and screams that followed "Bitch, Spider-Queen; we're leaving" Tattletale said, as she aimed her gun at Kid Win, who took aim at her with his pistols.

Only to have said pistols ripped from his arms as the board under him folded in two, breaking the tech as he stumbled on the ground, with no weapons or vehicles to use. Spider-Queen seemed satisfied with her work, as she threw Gallant and Aegis away from the dogs, as Bitch reluctantly began walking towards the bank.

"No more heroics; your team is down, so just accept the defeat. We're leaving, so you can get your team mates treated" Tattletale said, as Aegis looked around him, before bitterly accepting as he stood down, letting the three Undersiders go, as they entered the bank.

A moment later, Grue's darkness swept over them all, lasting few minutes before dissipating; the bank vault cleaned, wards and new wave members injured and Undersiders on the wind.

The sound of Glory Girls screams were only thing left, besides the rain that kept pouring down all around them.

Aegis cursed out loud, as he walked to the bank, with Kid Win and Gallant going to screaming Glory Girl's side. As the old saying went; you win some, you lose some.

And today, they lost a lot…

Author notes; so that's that. The plan is to make Taylor a modified Spider- Queen from the marvel comics, as result of drinking a Cauldron Vial that mixed with her natural trigger, giving her lesser master abilities than her canon ones.

So, her vial powers; Spider physique gives her enhanced strength, speed and webbing, thus Blaster/Brute ratings, Shaker from telekinesis (which she also uses in her sonic attacks). Combination of telekinesis and enhanced speed will be combined into Mover rating as well.

And as for her modified, weaker canon powers; Mastery powers to control insects as waves instead of individuals, while Thinker powers due to multitasking capabilities.

On note; while Marvel Spider-Queen has telepathy and mutagenic enzyme in her saliva that mutates people into anthropomorphic spider-monsters., I thought it would have been too much to give Taylor, since she'd be able to control these spider-people. Feel free to argue for or against implementation of mutagenic saliva in reviews.

While she right now looks human, I'm 50/50 on whenever I'll second trigger her into a 20 stories / 200 feet tall spider monster (because there will be an error/glitch between her natural and vial powers not mixing properly). Not an Endbringer level threat, but certainly an S-class of her own due to increased power on… everything really.