Black Holes
The refreshing air of her hidden base gently cooled her tortured skin. Too much time in her armor and in fiery conditions was nigh unbearable with her wounds. She'd had enough with fire, flames, and high temperatures, and was more than eager for fall to make its presence felt. She imagined the cool breeze on her during a boardwalk run, the smells of the sea and maybe Brian with a coffee and pastries at the end. Right now the only fire she wanted to see was the maple leaves from the surrounding areas change color.
Taylor's thoughts drifted, she imagined the steam from her tea cup wafting towards her face, then the steam forming a cartoonish hand beckoning her to drink it. Yet her territory and her people needed the presence of her swarm, or at least she wished after the damage Burnscar, Mannequin, and Bonesaw did. Hopefully her remaining people would see she did her best for them.
The teen warlord reached for her cup and sensory info from one of her swarm duplicates was coming in garbled, effectively blinding her while it lost mass at a steady rate. She sent a second duplicate and this one was blown apart by an explosion she could hear from her base.
By the time she gingerly slipped on the rest of her armored parts of her costume, a third and fourth swarms were wiped out in seconds. Alarmed, Skitter massed reserves of spiders, mosquitoes, horse flies and a small enclave of Yellow jackets she was saving for a less than rainy day.
Traversing the sewer access was a blur, her focus torn as swarm duplicates were becoming a waste of resources. Skitter had them scatter, leaving some to direct her people who hadn't already taken cover to safer areas where duplicates were untouched. She demanded much from her legs, and her undigested bits of burger and fries were fighting for the blood her muscles needed.
Skitter surfaced and raced to the heart of her territory, smoke touched her nostrils, and her scattered swarms were still disappearing, their senses she used to triangulate and map her entire range were disrupted en masse. Small flesh colored things darted and flew through the air. One creature snapped up a dragonfly several meters from her.
It was a bat.
That would explain why her swarms were both disrupted and disappearing. Many North American bats were typically nocturnal creatures that preyed on insects as a food source. They'd use echolocation to navigate and some species could use the same echolocation to disorient their prey and pick them off in midair. Scarily enough if you found a bat in broad daylight it was probably suffering from rabies.
Taylor's armor could protect her from a rabid bat but her people were not as safe, and there was more blue sky left than orange-red sunlight to suggest otherwise.
Above Skitter a blood curdling shriek sounded and a massive gust of wind blew her long curly locks to and fro which didn't stop moving until the beast landed in front of Skitter. It was a giant bat creature much the size of Bentley or Bastard but with an incredible wingspan, it's mouth released black smoke with every breath, and a rider sat astride it.
"Hey, you Skitter?" The rider called out, their voice modulated by their crudely modified motorcycle helmet. Bat ears were sculpted out of a mix of molten Plastic and scrap metal, mounted to each side of the helmet, and speakers had been built into them which was the source of the digitally altered voice.
A small swarm of gnats, flies, and other flying insects grew in the air above them, "This is Skitter's territory, so I must be."
The rider snickered and hopped off the neck of her beast, "Fuck yeah, big fan, baby. Big fan. I like your whole schtick, it's very spooky with the whole crawling all over you thing."
Taylor eyed the rider, she wore a super cropped black velvet jacket with the sleeves pushed up; a red singed and torn sports bra; a policeman's belt with holstered pistol, cuffs, and taser; a black silver studded choker; red tight workout shorts and black heeled combat boots. Tattoos covered much of her exposed flesh with Motor Club and biker gang ones standing out the most.
"Ahh, rude. I know you, yet you don't seem to know me. I'm Batty Boom and I'm going to ask you just once to come in with me..."
"Or?"
"Or - I'm going to get Hellion here and all his baby brothers and sisters to annihilate your territory."
Batty lifted an open palm to the sky and from her flesh bubbled up a cat sized bat. She wasted no time hurling the creature at a boarded up building. It's wings unfurled, and it smacked into the building with a sickening squelch. It detonated, blowing out the roof and knocking the whole front of it down.
Taylor sensed no one in the wreckage with her insects she left in every building. "Get. Out. Now!", her anger and aggression reverberated through her swarm speech.
"Ehh getting paid way too much to fuck off so early", Batty Boom raised both her hands to the sky and a swarm of her bats streamed from their perches all over the surrounding area. Some of the creatures were on fire and dived dangerously close to buildings with people hiding in them.
Taylor kept attempting to land insects to track Hellion and his rider, but a swarm of tiny bats kept eating any insects that came within inches of rider and mount.
"C'mon, face it, Bats eat Bugs for breakfast, lunch and dinner, baby. I promise, just come with me and no harm will come to the innocence here, Skitter."
Batty drew black fuzzy cuffs from the holster on her belt and tossed them at Skitter's feet.
~~x
"Operation: Bait went as planned, Dragon. Flechette and Clockblocker are en route with Parian. Depending on Parian's terms the PRT medical staff should be ready to receive and care for surgical victims of the Nine."
"Dragon is unavailable but PRT officials and medical staff are being notified. Thank you for your update and success, payment is pending for Dolltown's neutralization. Also teams are standing by in Hellhound's territory to take her in and her capes."
Dust Devil slapped the side of his van twice and the vehicle pulled away with a lurch. Ray inwardly cringed as Clockblocker rode the brakes too much for someone who swore up and down that they had their learner's permit.
"That Clock Kid lied to me, pinche culero", he flipped off his own van's tail lights as they grew smaller in the distance.
"Forget him, the kiddies are going back, now who're we after next?"
"Ahh, texts from Bunny coming in. She says her and the Rogue, they're nearly done handling Hellhound for us."
"Bunny?"
"Called in a favor from a friend. Just a friend, an older chick, she's cool. Got spines that grow out of the body with poison venoms."
"Bunny?"
"She's got Sea Slug powers. Got these sensor organs on her head like bunny ears... Ahhh don't be like that, Shadow. She's older than us combined. You know I only got horns for you."
"Right."
"Aww, c'mon, seriously out of everyone ever I love your booty. It's not just nice on the eyes, it's kind and considerate right down to the optic nerve. It's a shame you hide it behind the cape, though."
The stern countenance of Shadow Stalker's mask betrayed the rest of the vigilante, chuckling to herself, "Whatever, Skitter or Regent?"
"Huh?"
"Skitter or Regent, pick?"
"No, we'll help mop up Bitch then we'll get to back up Batty Boom who's already hitting Skitter."
Behind her mask Sophia's eyes narrowed at the mention of Skitter, "I still don't know how you even came up with everyone you asked the PRT for, but fine we'll hit Bitch first."
"Let's just say I worked with some scary ass people who know more scary ass people. Anyway, we'll take all the Masters first then their stranger and thinker. Grue last."
"Why do you even worry about me so much? I was doing this shit during your Junior year of highschool."
"I'm a gentleman, and I wanna see you naked later. Purely out of curiosity and to compare new battle scars."
Shadow snorted, "Shut it, now how are we going to get there? The van is gone."
Dust Devil finished typing his texts then scooped up Shadow Stalker in his arms, "Don't go breaker state. Seriously, I mean it, resist the urge to shift states. I'm going to try something."
Ray started to diffuse.
~~x