Snuggles the Symbiote

There was something charming about bringing a little kid to the public library for the first time. Ashley was looking around, excited, even though the Brockton Bay Public Library wasn't anything particularly special. Looking around myself, I saw a rather belligerent young boy being dragged out of a side entrance while claiming that he was a genius worthy of worship and at one of the computers, there was a white man who thought cornrows looked good on him.

"The history books and encyclopedias are in the back," I said, ushering Ashley in the general direction and away from the weirdos.

Ten minutes later, the two of us were seated at a relatively secluded table with a textbook of modern history, the most recent World Atlas I could find, and a notebook and some pens I'd brought from home.

Ashley was looking at a map of Africa. "Huh. So Wakanda just doesn't exist here?"

"Apparently not," I said, "what's Wakanda?"

She looked around for a second, to make sure there wasn't anyone listening. "It's a country in Africa in my world. It's got the largest deposit of unadulterated vibranium in the world, and because of that, they're a really rich country with lots of really advanced technology. Everyone there has a flying car and I heard rumors that their doctors had a cure for most cancers, but there's no way that's true because their king, T'challa, is also a superhero and there's no way that a superhero would ever hoard something that could save that many lives." I didn't have the heart to tell her that I could think of dozens of political and economic reasons why a king might be willing to hoard the cure for cancer. "And it's one of the few places in the world that doesn't and never has had any anti-mutant policies, so..."

"That's nice. What are the others?" Knowing that there were some places where people like Ashley weren't treated like shit would be nice, in case...

She grimaced. "Uh, as far as I know, it's just them and Atlantis." I blinked. Of course, her world has a real Atlantis. Why wouldn't it? "And I don't think Atlantis counts because the Atlanteans are a different human-species, except for their king, Namor the Sub-Mariner, who is half mutant and as far as I know the only mutant in Atlantis, so of course they're not gonna have Anti-Mutant policies."

"Well, you don't have to worry about that kind of thing here," I said. She smiled at me and flipped the atlases page to a map of Russia and East Europe.

"Huh," she said, "no sign of Latveria, either… Taylor," she said looking up at me, "I've got something really important to ask you: Have the Savage Lands been discovered here?"

I thought about it. "Describe them to me."

"A terraformed and climate controlled pocket-reality located in Antarctica that contains the evolutionary descendants of dinosaurs and contemporary plants and animals from various locations and time periods collected and studied by aliens millions of years ago, some of whom still resemble their ancestors enough to be classified as the same species, part of which is now a hybrid nature preserve/amusement park."

"...I'm pretty sure that I've seen that movie and read the book it was based on," I said, wide-eyed, "but uh…. Yeah, sorry. As far as I know, there's nothing like that here."

Ashley looked me in the eyes, as serious as I've ever seen her. "So, what you're telling me is that unless I can find a way home, there's no chance that I'll ever get to ride a Triceratops?"

I frowned. "Yeah. Sorry."

She got the grumpiest look on her face and went back to reading, and we spent the next few hours giving her a crash course in history with her filling in details about her world's version. I have to say, the idea of the King of Atlantis personally helping the Allies fight the Nazis gave me a rather interesting mental image.

Snuggles the Symbiote

I had to admit, it was impressive that costuming was able to get a temporary costume that fit the general design I'd agreed to, basically Cuddlebug's outfit in white and purple where hers was gold and blue, on such short notice and managing to get lenses that matched my prescription no doubt, but in comparison to my silk and chitin costume the fabric felt so flimsy. It was padded a bit in a way that my previous wasn't, which was supposed to add some protection, but honestly, I couldn't wait until that shipment of Darwin's barks came in and I could make a permanent costume.

I had forgotten to pick it up yesterday, after, well… everything with Shadow Stalker, so I'd had to do it coming in today and awkwardly change in the unisex bathroom in the back of the costuming office to keep my ID secret.

Right now, I was standing outside the Brute and Changer Training Area while Ashley was finishing up her power testing. Under normal circumstances, I'd be in there with her instead of just keeping an eye on things with a couple of bugs, but a little fly on the wall had told me that Shadow Stalker was using the cardio room on this floor.

Speak of the devil, it seemed like she was finishing up. I leaned up against the wall as casually as I could manage, and when she walked past… "Hey, Stalker? Can I have a word with you?"

She paused and turned to me but didn't say anything, "about yesterday, I-"

"Look, I already got chewed out for that," she interrupted, "I'd have used different examples if I'd know that I was hitting her trigger buttons but-"

"But you didn't get chewed out by me," I said, grabbing her collar. "Cuddlebug's been through a lot. And for all intents and purposes, I'm her big sister now. So if you talk to her without a good reason, touch her, get too close to her, or even look at her the wrong way, there will never be a time where your underwear isn't full of spiders." This totally wasn't a rather cathartic moment for me. "And take it from somebody who knows, this town is lousy with black widows."

I wasn't expecting her to laugh. "About fucking time," she said. "The whole team are a bunch of wimps and weaklings, and when we finally get someone who knows how it really works, we get two at once." She laughed again. "Fine, I'll leave the kid alone," she said as she freed from my grip, "if it's that important to you. Now, I've got console duty that I want to get out of the way, see you later." And then she just walked off.

Nothing, not even The Locker, had made me feel as filthy as being complimented by Sophia Hess had.

I forced the feeling from my mind. A few minutes later Ashley came out of the training room, floating an inch off the ground and with her wings deployed. Her eyespots were positioned in a way that I think implied that she was smiling.

"Have fun?" I asked.

"Yep!" And then without another word she took my hand and we went to the Wards Headquarters in the basement. Down the elevator, hit the buzzer, wait a minute for the doors to open, and then we're in. In a room full of bored-looking teenagers. And one giant teenager with cartoonishly large muscles in a diamond-pattern costume whose mood wasn't readily readable.

Then he came up to us and extended a grotesquely enlarged hand to me. "Hello. I am Browbeat. You are Weaver and Cuddlebug?"

"Yeah," I replied while awkwardly taking his hand.

"You are the most enormous person I have ever seen," Cuddlebug said in slight awe.

"Thank you," Browbeat answered, taking it as a compliment. And with that greeting finished he went off to go back to whatever it was he was doing before, and Cuddlebug and I went to the couch to sit with Vista.

"Hey," Vista greeted. "Uh, Cuddlebug, are you alright?"

"Yeah," Cuddlebug said.

"Look," Vista continued, "don't worry about Shadow Stalker. She's a bitch but that's about all she is."

"Language," Cuddlebug chastised. This made Vista laugh.

"Okay," she said, "did they fill you in on what's happening today?"

"Yeah," I said, "The Protectorate are Wining and Dining the city's upper class to earn some good PR. The Agents are patrolling the streets at a slightly higher rate, but if something major goes down the Wards deploy en masse."

"Officially, Weaver and I aren't supposed to be 'revealed' until this weekend," Cuddlebug added, "but if there's an emergency we go with you guys and the Public Relations department will spin it as a sneak preview of the new members of the team."

"Yeah, that's the gist of it," Vista confirmed. "If I had any say in it, we'd all be out there patrolling right now and picking up the slack, but the folks in charge don't want us all out in force when there isn't a direct problem because it makes Soccer moms bi-complain about the PRT using child soldiers." I couldn't see her eyes through the visor, but I got the impression that she was rolling them. "So unless and until something public happens, we're just sitting here bored. I don't even know what the point of the vocational program is then." The vocational program was something I'd learned about while Dad and Alan were working out the contracts. Basically, the PRT had hashed out a deal with Arcadia: As long as the Wards maintained decent grades, they could skip out after lunch and come to the PRT to learn skills that would help them in a career of Super-Powered Law enforcement. Which mostly amounted to doing the things that the Wards did anyway. Apparently, it was a scam to get around some regulations regarding the Wards requiring regular School Hours, but I wasn't complaining: I'd get a shot at it once my transfer to Arcadia was complete and so would Ashley if she actually pulled off her attempt to skip all of the grades. Of course, the Wards in the program weren't officially being sent to work for the PRT, and Arcadia also had a legit Vocational Program which, from what I could tell, was either the reason the PRT could get away with this or cover for this scheme. I legitimately didn't know which came first.

Looking around, Aegis seemed to be doing paperwork. Clockblocker was building something out of toothpicks, and Gallant was just standing there.

Cuddlebug got off the couch, gave her wings a few good flaps, and jumped, flipping in the air to land on the ceiling, where she stuck and then crouched down. Or up.

Clockblocker looked up from his toothpick tower. "Why are you on the ceiling?"

"Because it's fun," Cuddlebug answered in the same tone that someone would say that water is wet.

"Fair enough," Clockblocker replied. He then ran his fingers gently down his now finished tower of toothpicks and then knocked out the bottom, leaving a small wooden pyramid floating in the air. Cuddlebug clapped.

"Are you trying to be cute," Vista asked, "or is this just how you are?"

Cuddlebug cocked her head to the side, her eyespots widening a bit. "What do you mean?"

"Marketing is going to love you," Vista deadpanned. "Anyway, maybe now that you're here, people will stop trying to pigeonhole me into being the cute one."

Cuddlebug fell down from the ceiling and landed in a crouch on the floor, her wings melting back into her back. "What's wrong with being cute?"

"N-nothing," Vista said quickly, "But… Look, I've been a member of the Wards for years now. With Triumph graduated out, I'm the senior most member of the team."

Cuddlebug gasped and said "That is so cool!" at the same time Clockblocker mumbled something about doing this again.

"Thank you," Vista replied, "but when people, people on the street, the higher-ups here, when they look at me, they don't see my years of experience or the criminals I've brought in, they just see a cute little girl."

Cuddlebug's eyespots blinked. I didn't know they could do that. "Well, aren't you?"

"That's beside the point," Vista countered, "the point is they don't respect me. I'm the most experienced but they made Aegis the leader because he's the oldest."

Aegis meanwhile seemed content to stay out of the conversation, until Cuddlebug called out to him. "Uh, Aegis, how's your arm?"

"It's fine," he answered with a wave of the arm he'd broken yesterday, "thanks for asking."

"Uh, Vista?" I asked, "thought: Most Wards are expected to join the Protectorate when they graduate from the program, right?"

"Yeah?" She replied.

"And the Protectorate leads PRT Squads," I continued.

"Your point?" She asked.

"If they had made you the leader when Triumph graduated out," I finished, "then Aegis, Clockblocker, Gallant, Shadow Stalker, Kid Win, Browbeat, and I wouldn't get any leadership experience before graduating the program."

Vista opened her mouth to respond. Then closed it. She raised a finger and opened her mouth again, then put her hand down and closed it. Almost a full minute had passed before she finally said "...Just because it makes sense, that doesn't mean I have to like it." She then crossed her arms and leaned back into the couch with a pout, looking cuter than she probably hoped.

Cuddlebug shifted to look straight at her. "Vista, would you like a hug?"

"What?"

Cuddlebug shrugged, "you sound like you could use a hug."

Vista sighed. "I'm fine."

"Cuddlebug," I asked, "would you like a hug?"

"I'd always like a hug," she answered cheerfully.

"Come here," I said, waving her over. She hopped on the couch and snuggled up to me for a hug as I wrapped an arm around her.

A little later, a PRT Agent escorted Kid Win into the room. After sitting him down on a chair and leaving, Clockblocker turned to him. "Tinker fugue?"

"Tinker fugue," Kid Win confirmed.

"Kid," Aegis said, "You were still here when I left last night and I didn't see you at school, were you up all night Tinkering?"

"...No." Kid Win said. "I was up late, but I slept. I had a doctor's appointment this morning and when that was done I would have been at the school for maybe ten minutes before the 'Vocation' program started so I blew it off and came here to finish tinkering."

Behind Kid Win, Gallant flashed a thumbs up to Aegis. He caught it and nodded. "Okay then."

"But seriously," Kid Win went on, "like I started on a pair of gauntlets with integrated lasers and the next thing I knew I had a third of a suit of armor ready. I'll need to talk with Armsmaster about miniaturizing the repulsors in my hoverboard but..." and then I kind of started tuning out the technobabble.

Nobody was directly addressing me right now, so I decided to practice with my powers, gripping onto the senses of every bug and the building and picking up on my mapping of the ventilation system from the other night in the director's office and I kind of lost myself in the experience until I heard Gallant call "Cuddlebug," causing the girl leaned up against me to jump and bringing me back to the room.

"Wh-what?" Cuddlebug asked?

I looked down at her. "Did, did you fall asleep?"

"...no," she denied in the same tone she'd used to deny her obvious fear of needles. I think her bedtime might have to be adjusted.

"I was just asking," Gallant began, "if you'd be willing to share a bit more about where you're from?"

"Oh yeah," she said cheerfully. "Uh… um... Browbeat! Yeah, do you know about, uh, me, or…?"

"I was informed about the evidence to suggest that you are from an as of yet unknown parallel reality where superpowers are the result of genetic mutations and extraterrestrial interference rather than the spontaneous development of benign brain tumors in response to severe stress." Browbeat went quiet for a second, then continued, "thinking about it, I think your reality's superpower mechanics make more sense than this one's."

Cuddlebug blinked again, "...Okay then. Uh, what should I talk about? Uh, the PRT people want me to tell them about some of the people who might have been cloned and brought here when I was so, you wanna hear about that?"

Gallant nodded.

"Well, okay, the most important person to know about if he or a clone of him is here is Doctor Doom. Except he's not a real doctor because he never finished his degree and for some reason, he doesn't think that Victor von Doom is a cool enough name on its own-"

"Wait," Clockblocker interrupted, "is that his real name?"

"As far as I know," Cuddlebug confirmed, "now the real Doom is the ruler of a country in Europe called Latveria which doesn't seem to exist here, so even if his clone has all of his memories he won't have diplomatic immunity or be rich enough to build a bajillion robot versions of himself that he can switch out with if he needs to, so the hard part of beating him is already taken care of," Cuddlebug's eyespots scrunched up as thought to imply she was in deep thought. "The problem is that even without his money, he's got an ego the size of a planet and is one of the top ten smartest people in the world, the second or third most accomplished scientific mind, and the fifth or sixth most skilled sorcerer-second if you don't count Gods and demons-"

"That stuff's real where you're from?" Vista interrupted.

"Yep!" Cuddlebug replied, "Thor bought my Grandpa a beer once." Vista didn't look convinced, but Cuddlebug continued on."Um, after Doom the next biggest issue would probably be Magneto: Master of Magnetism. He's a mutant, but uh… He's an Alpha or Omega class one. He can control the entire electromagnetic spectrum and anything even vaguely made of metal. He's also a Holocaust survivor and a mutant supremacist: He was the guy who came up with the Homo Superior garbage."

It was at this time that I desperately hoped that this guy wasn't here. While a man with electromagnetic powers and a grudge against the Nazis would probably deal with this city's Neo-Nazi problem swiftly, there's no way in hell it'd be done without a lot of blood and this city was unstable enough as it is.

"Then there's Sauron and Stegron," Cuddlebug continued oblivious to my thoughts, "Sauron named himself after the guy from the ring books and Stegron is his real name. They're genius geneticists who like to turn people into dinosaurs when they could be curing cancer. Sauron is half-quetzalcoatlus and can hypnotize people and suck out their life energy, Stegron's half-stegosaurus and regenerates. Sometimes they work together and sometimes they don't and-"

She was interrupted by Aegis getting a call on his Wards issue phone. "Yes, yes, yeah…" Then he hung up. "Wards, we need to move, someone's attacked Brockton Central and took the people inside hostage."

I stood up and braced myself: My first super-heroic act as a Ward. As we were leaving, I placed a convenient ladybug we happened to pass by onto Cuddlebug to better keep track of her in case this went south, but after our fight with Lung and that spider-lady and her power testing, I had faith that she could take care of herself.

Snuggles the Symbiote

The bank was surrounded with squirrels. Cuddlebug took one look at them all, strategically placed and oddly calm despite the rain, and started muttering "please no evil clones" over and over again.

Just as we got to the bank, the doors opened and out came a handful of people. I recognized Bakuda, a member of the AZN Bad Boyz who wore a gas mask, and the blue-skinned, elf eared, six-eyed, fuzzy armed, bug mouthed naked feral woman that Lung had taken as a pet, but it had also seemed that Bakuda had hired a couple of mercenaries, or at least, I assumed so since they weren't Asian. My attention was drawn to the hostage she was holding, a brown haired girl with freckles who'd been forced into a bomb vest, but Cuddlebug's attention was on one of the mercenaries.

A young redheaded woman with a long, fluffy, squirrel-like tail.

"We," Cuddlebug said. "Are. Screwed."