By the time Emma left, thankfully, I'd been able to get back in touch with Tattletale, and work it all out.
Sort of. I hoped. Er...anyway.
The plan was that we'd let Emma go meet with her control. When she did so, I'd follow, and we'd try to get a good idea of where said control was, and what he or she might look like (or be).
When we'd found her controller, I would let her go home, to get her out of the line of fire. Then my mice would kill all the spiders, and neutralize that threat.
Then, it would be Ms. Controller's turn.
I was willing to put up with a lot of things, but turning my best friend into a weapon to use against me...somebody was going to bleed for that one. And if they were very lucky, they'd bleed enough to die fairly quickly. I've been patient for a long time...but at the end of the day, I am my father's daughter, and if somebody thinks they can do something like this without consequences, they're in for a rude surprise.
Emma's course wasn't what I'd expected, to be honest. I'd thought she'd go to a park, or to someplace like the mall—someplace where people met all the time, and where there was always a degree of privacy to be had. Surely, nobody was going to be stupid enough to conduct this kind of meeting in their secret lair.
Right?
Sigh. If only.
It took a bit of work to follow Emma across the bus lines without her noticing, and there was one time when things got real nervous, and I ended up having to board the same bus she was using at the opposite end—thankfully, she never checked out the seats behind her, so I got away with it—but eventually, we wound up down by the docks, near some abandoned warehouses and buildings. Emma, without hesitation, walked into one, but something drew me away from the building, as I realized that there was something odd about one of the nearby buildings.
Namely, that it was accessible from above, but not from below.
Don't ask me how I knew this, by the way. I'd tell you it was from the rats, but they didn't really pay attention to human-sized entrances anyway, so they wouldn't have known. But as I checked the place out, it became clear that my initial impression was correct—the ground-level doors were either warped shut, locked, both, or just plain blocked, while the fire escapes were massively rusted, and in several places had holes instead of steps. And yet, I could feel from the rats inside the building that people came here every so often.
Obviously, this was a safehouse for either a hero, or a villain.
While this was going on, according to orange jumpsuited mouse ninja spy, who had managed to transfer to Emma's jacket while she was getting ready to go out, Emma was basically just...standing there. Alone. In the dark. Waiting.
And waiting.
And waiting.
Despite being visibly impatient, though, she didn't make any moves to leave, or to pull out her phone, or anything.
Eventually, there was a rustling, and something emerged from the building's shadows. What it was, I couldn't tell you. It looked like a spider, crossed with a woman, crossed with two or three more spiders. And it was moving along a massive web that I was prepared to swear hadn't been there a moment before.
"You're late," the spider-woman told Emma, and my former best friend swallowed, and nodded.
"There was a delay with the bus," she said. "One of the gangs-"
"Your excuses don't interest me," the spider-woman snarled at her. "Remember who holds your leash, girl, and what it might cost you if you fail me. Now. Do you have what you were told to get?"
"No," Emma said, her voice small. "But—but-but I know where they are!"
The spider in her hair stopped, its fangs just barely resting against Emma's skin.
"And?"
"It's in the principal's office. I'm sorry. I don't have any way to get in there right now. Maybe on the weekend, when the staff goes home, I might be able to find a way inside. Otherwise, I'm sorry, I don't know how I'm going to be able to get it for you."
"Find a way, child," the big spider hissed. "Without your little...entertainment, your survival depends on your usefulness. And there are others in this town who have access to far greater resources than you."
"I...I will," Emma stammered, swallowing, and then, abruptly, the shadows in the building vanished, and she was back in an old, long-forgotten building.
Huh.
Following Emma back to her house was much easier than following her to her meeting place. Mostly because I already knew where she lived, and didn't have to keep her in range.
Which was good, because now that I knew what I was looking at, I had other things on my mind.
With the spider-woman showing up in that old building, there was no question that Tattletale and Assault had been right. I was looking at a spider demon, one which had, presumably, been behind my friend's abrupt change in attitude.
I still wasn't sure what to make of that. On the one hand, it was a relief to know that it hadn't really been her saying all those things. On the other...on the other, Emma had made me miserable for the last two years, almost. As hard as I might try, I wasn't really sure that I could forgive her for that. Not entirely, anyway. Not right away. It wasn't logical, I knew...but there was a part of me, I knew, that would always be a little bit wary, a little bit scared, that any secrets I shared would be turned against me, from here on out.
Voluntary, or not, she'd made it awful hard for me to trust people. And, voluntary or not, what she'd said, what she'd done...it had really hurt. Hurt in ways that I couldn't even begin to describe.
All of that said, though, I knew that I was going to have to do something about this. And since I didn't have proof...that left the Undersiders.
I had a feeling that I wasn't going to like what they asked me for in return. But that was for later. What mattered now was getting that spider-woman out, and making her regret ever showing her face in my city.
Fishing the phone out of my pocket, I pulled up the sparse contacts list, and dialed a number.
"Okay," Tattletale said, as we crouched down behind the parapet to watch the building. "Assuming the pictures on the internet are right, and that I haven't horribly misunderstood your description, than what we're looking at is definitely jorogumo. Maybe. Kind of."
"Kind of?" Regent asked, turning an incredulous face towards the blonde supervillain.
She shrugged.
"They're supposed to be able to use magic," she said. "Supposedly, they're some kind of low-grade Master, and a Changer. But they're spiders. Really, really big spiders, but spiders. So-"
"Wait, what? That thing's a Master?"
"Over other spiders," Tattletale said patiently, and Regent visibly relaxed. "But she can also turn into a human, so-"
"I thought Changers changed away from human," Grue interrupted, visibly irritating the girl.
"I assume that in this case, she's changing away from her base form," she said. "It would make sense."
Grue nodded at this. "That's a Changer, alright," he said. "I suppose somebody needs to update the definition, then."
"Right," Tattletale said. "Any more stupid questions? No? Now's your chance. Any? Any at all?"
I raised my hand, and the others all turned to me.
"If you had to cross the International Date Line on your birthday, would you still get presents?" I asked her with a straight face.
There was a moment of silence, as they kept staring at me.
"Wow," Regent said, sounding a bit breathless with suppressed laughter. "My compliments. That is a really stupid question."
"I know," I said proudly. "I've been saving it for a while, now. Just in case somebody asked for one."
"You know," Tattletale mused, thoughtfully, "I think I might hate you guys a little, right now. Just so you know."
"Can we get on with it?" Bitch growled, and we all turned our focus back to the matter at hand.
"So," Grue said. "Spider Changer and Master. What else can she do?"
"According to Wikipedia, she can use illusions...somehow. It wasn't very clear on how. And...well, she's a really big spider. Expect lots of spider webs all over the place."
"So...what, we burn the webs?"
"Maybe," I said, thoughtfully. "Maybe not."
"What? Why not?"
"Spiders can sort of use their webs to hear," I mused. "I bet if we could set off...I dunno...some kind of really loud noise, I bet we could deafen her."
"The dogs wouldn't like it," Bitch interrupted, and that was that.
"Alright," I said. "Burn the webs if you can. If not, we'll figure something else out."
"One other thing," Tattletale said. "Her webs are supposed to be strong enough to capture people, and she apparently likes to snack on, quote, 'handsome young men'. So there's a good chance that she'll appear, but if what Inverse told us is real, and not just an illusion, that she can disappear at any time, once the shadows disappear. So we're going to have to figure out a way to make sure that doesn't happen."
"That's easy enough," Regent said. "Use Grue's darkness. Block the windows, and the shadows stick around. Right?"
Tattletale nodded, thoughtfully.
"Assuming it's not an illusion," she said. "If it is, that both complicates, and simplifies, our problems."
"If it is an illusion, we dismiss the shadows, and then we can fight however we want," he pointed out. "I doubt she'll be able to block her scent, and if they can smell her, Bitch's dogs can track her."
"As long as she doesn't climb up into the air to get away from the dogs," I said, thoughtfully. "But...yeah, I think we can use that. And I can try to disrupt her as well."
"Plus, if that doesn't work, you can always blast her with a lightning bolt or two," Regent said cheerfully. "That ought to at least surprise her, even if it doesn't kill her."
"Yeah, I guess," I said, thoughtfully. "Okay, sounds like we've got a plan."
Tattletale gave me a dubious look, and then she nodded.
"It's an insult to plans everywhere. But I don't have any better ideas," she admitted. "But just in case I'm missing something, I'd suggest we be careful, and stay away from the webs."
I nodded.
"I'll bring some rats up," I said. "Make sure she's still there, and if I can find a lighter or something to start some fires with, maybe start setting the webs on fire even before we get inside."
Tattletale nodded at this.
"Just don't get too carried away," she cautioned me. "I don't want to have to do this big dramatic fight inside a burning building."
"Oh, please," Regent said with a magnificent snort. "That kind of cliché is so last year."
"Okay," I said, as I got ready to start. "Just give me-"
"Hey," Grue said. "Quick question."
The rest of us turned to glare at him, and he shrugged.
"I was just going to ask how sure you were that this woman wasn't going to go after your friend when we attacked her," she said, and I could feel the blood draining from my face.
"Oh, shit!" I whispered. "I don't know. Fuck!"
"Well, can you set your rats to act as guards?" Tattletale asked.
"Uh...maybe? I've never tried giving them orders, and then leaving them to it," I said, dubiously. "I mean, I'll give it a shot, but-"
"Then let's do it," she said. "Deal with the spiders on your friend and her family, and then we can come back here, and take care of this bitch."
"But what if she escapes?"
"Then Bitch can track her with the dogs," Tattletale pointed out. "Really, it's not that big a deal. Honest."
I hesitated, and then, finally, I nodded.
By the time we got back to the building across the street from the spider's lair, Emma was crying into her mother's shoulder, the orange jumpsuited mouse was patting her shouldering comfortingly while gnawing on the remains of the spider in her hair, and the rest of my mice had neatly neutralized all the spiders we'd found so far. And then, just to be sure, I'd called in extra mice to patrol the place, and make sure no new spiders came in.
Whether they'd keep doing it while I wasn't there, I couldn't say, but it was all I could do right now. Thankfully, none of new mice were in costume, so I didn't have that inflicted upon my already rapidly-fraying sanity.
Seriously. I mean, I know rats are smart, and all that, and intelligence, sooner or later, means you develop a sense of humor. But I swear, these rats are trying to drive me crazy.
And it's working.
"No, I don't care," I told Squire Rattus, who was glowering up at me. "I know you're supoosed to protect me, but I still have to go in there with them. If there's some kind of magic that the spider-demon is using to hide itself, I'm the only one who has a chance of being able to neutralize it."
"Squeak!" Rattus said, crossing his forelegs and glaring. "Squeak, squeak, squeak-squeak squeak!"
"Hey, now, that's not fair!" Grue said from beside me. "I'll have you know, we've been in lots of fights, and we've just about always won. And even when we didn't, we're very good at knowing when to run!"
Tattletale, on the other side of me, turned to glare at Grue.
"Did you actually understand that, or were you just making it up on the spot?" she asked.
He stared at her, and then he shrugged.
"I mean...sort of?" he said. "I got the gist of it, anyway."
Her glare intensified.
"How?!" she spat. "I can barely figure out what he's getting at, and I've got super-powers for that! How the hell are you doing the same thing without powers?!"
He shrugged.
"I dunno?" he said. "I guess...maybe it's because we're both males? I guess?"
"Yeah," Regent said, from over by the parapet. "It's a guy thing, Tats. You wouldn't understand."
For half a second, I thought Tattletale was going to brain the other two, but she shook her head, and visibly brought herself under control.
"Right," she said. "Right. Alright. Moving right along...Bitch? You sure she's still there?"
Bitch shrugged.
"Dogs seem to think so," she said, gesturing to her three monsters, which were pacing and growling at the building across the street. In the dark, it somehow looked even more ominous than before, and I wondered how much of that was because of the darkness, and how much was from...other sources.
"Alright," I said, before we could have any more delays. "Any more reasons to wait?"
Regent raised one hand. "Actually," he began, "I think I left my-".
"Then let's go," Grue interrupted, cutting him off with what looked like the ease of long practice. I nodded, and unzipped my backpack, allowing the thirteen mice I'd brought from home out, and giving them a careful look.
"Be careful," I told them. "And don't forget—stay safe!"
And then, ignoring Tattletale's confused looks, we each climbed up on one of Bitch's "dogs", and headed down for street level.