Deplorability 2.7

Dark Brute was already out of his vehicle and halfway to us by the time Tattletale and I had shut the doors of the van. He was using his power at a low degree over the entirety of his body. The darkness soaked into and through the porous leather of his costume, making him look like a living shadow. Mac had showed me how the visor had vents at the edges, to direct the effect of his power around the sides and top of his head, so it wouldn't obscure the face. It wasn't that he couldn't see through the effects of his own power–he could. He'd explained that the vents were there to create an effect where you could see glimpses of a black-painted skull floating in the vaguely human-shaped form of even darker black. When he had the money to spend, he had told me he was going to get a more complete costume custom made for him in the same way, to expand on the effect.

"Alright, let's do this as fast as possible." His voice echoed, reverberated, with a hollowness to the sound, like something alien and far away. He was using his power to play with the sound, "Tattletale, go to the door bug. You're with me."

"Since when are you the leader?" Dogman said.

"Ch-Dogman. I have always been the leader. Like I led you and me to spend all the money in Frank's bank account."

"Pretty sure that was Charlie," Tattletale said.

"What? Noooooooo. I was totally leading the whole pack. You can back me up, right Charlie?"

"No."

"Well thanks, you can go fuck yourself." Dark Brute said with a happy tone.

"Guys?" I spoke up. "The mission?"

"Ohrightohrightohrightohright."

Together with Dark Brute, I returned to the van Frank had been driving. Dark Brute grabbed the handle of the sliding door and hauled it open, then scrambled out of the way as the contents came pouring out.

I chuckled at the image of this spooky supervillain being caught off guard. I'd packed the entirety of the van, minus the driver and passenger seats, with bugs. As the door opened, they spilled out to pool on the wet pavement beneath the door.

Dark Brute screamed. Then immediately looked at me. "Oh, I-I wasn't screaming at the-the bugs…well I was. But it was a scream of dominance! You know how monkeys scream while they're having sex?"

"What?" I said flatly.

"It was like that. I was screaming, to showcase power! And superiority!"

My eyes darted all over the place. "Are you saying to want to bang the bugs?"

"What? Ew. No."

"Are you saying you want to bang…" My thought trailed off. Not wanting to finish that sentence.

"No! No! I'm not a pedophile. I wouldn't want to bang you. I mean, no offense! You're very pretty. Not-Not saying I want to bang you." His voice was affected by the influence of his power. But it was easy to tell he was nervous. "I'm just not a pedophile. I mean, it wouldn't be pedophilia. It'd be Ephebophila."

"Oh my god.

"Not that that's an excuse! I…Wanna go inside the Bank?"

"Yes please"

A drive earlier in the morning had given me the opportunity to gather this swarm. It was surprising how many bugs there were in the city, hidden from sight. At any given point in the city, I could generally draw out tens of thousands of bugs from inside walls, sewers, attics, lawns, trees and even places you would think were too clean or occupied to have any creepy crawlies lurking about, and I could do it over a matter of minutes.

These weren't just the bugs I could draw in at a moment's notice, though. Traveling the city had given me the chance to be picky. These were the good ones, each of them fast enough to keep up with me, or capable of being carried by those that were. More than that, though, the majority of them were either durable sorts like the larger centipedes, cockroaches, and beetles or capable of stinging and biting, with bees, wasps, ants, and blackflies making up their bulk. To round out their number, I'd gathered moths, houseflies, and mosquitoes, who weren't the best attack bugs out there, but were easy enough to get, and served to distract the enemy or bulk out the swarm. There were three hundred and fifty cubic feet inside the rear of the van. Tattletale had told me that. When they were packed in just tight enough that they wouldn't damage each other or spill past the barrier and into the front seats, it added up to a pretty amazing amount of insects. I called them out of the van and watched as their mass seemed to expand as they spread out.

We joined Tattletale at the side door of the bank. I had to say, He put no effort into actually CHANGING into a different persona. His mask was narrow, only really surrounding his eye sockets, covering his eyebrows, some of his nose, and some of her cheekbones, sure. But his hairstyle was distinct, Anyone could've told it was him. His costume was embarrassingly skintight. Don't care if it sounds mean, old people shouldn't weather spandex. Lavender with bands of black across the chest and down the sides of her arms, legs, and body. An image of a stylized eye, only visible in the right light, given it was dark gray on black, was worked into the costume's design. A compact 'utility belt' sat diagonally across his hips, sporting a variety of compact pockets and pouches.

The Golden God was keeping watch a few feet away. From what I'd seen while we prepared, I now knew his costume was deceptive. He still wore the hard white mask with the silver coronet, but he had shown me how the interior of the mask had foam shaped to the contours of his face, with only his mouth left free, so he could talk without being muffled. In a similar vein, the loose Golden spandex he wore covered up a mesh vest that was molded to the shape of his body. He was idly twirling a scepter in his fingers. The scepter wasn't purely thematic–apparently, the crowned orb that topped the scepter had two electrodes built into the tines, for the taser that was built into it. It was all about misdirection, misleading, and giving the impression of vulnerability. He also had a red codpiece, which he said was for containing something 'massive'. I didn't press on and he didn't say. So I just rolled my eyes and changed the subject.

Dee, or as I should call her 'Forget-Me-Not', had the same costume I saw in her picture with the rest of The Gang except not that I got a closer, clearer look at it. It looked even sillier and goofier than I thought it would look. It was literary a duck mask and she called herself 'Forget-Me-Not'? She might as well call herself 'The Duck Queen' and leave it at that.

Note to self: I apparently wasn't one of those capes that was good at the repartee, banter, or name-calling.

"The fire exit at the back is protected by a digital passkey," Tattletale explained while he crouched at the keypad, staring at it, "Every single employee has the number to get in if they need to, but that rarely happens because opening the door sets off a whole bunch of alarms. That password is easy. The interesting thing that the employees don't even know is that the capes and SWAT teams have a special code they can put in if they need to make a quiet entrance with no alarms going off. To do that, you punch in the regular code, 3-7-1, but you hold the one down, then press the number sign and the asterisk keys down at the same time… Voila." He snickered.

"Did it work?" Dark Brute asked.

"Try it."

Dark Brute was about to put his hand on the door, but then pulled away, then he was going to put his hand on the door, then pulled away again, and again…and again…

Eventually, he pulled on the door, only to immediately cover himself and let out a gasp in anticipation. I'll admit, shamefully I might add, I waited in tense silence for a moment for the angry blare of the alarm. To be honest, I think we all did. Except for Tattletale, who was confident nothing could go wrong.

He was proved right when none came. Tattletale grinned at us. "What'd I tell you?" Dark Brute signaled, and we were joined by The Golden God, Forget-Me-Not, and Charlie with his three dogs. The animals were the size of small ponies, their flesh having swelled and expanded enough that their fur had split at the seams. Muscle and bone showed beneath, and the arrangement of said anatomy wasn't exactly typical. The change was slow enough that you couldn't see it if you were looking for it, but if you looked away and looked back a moment later, you could tell they were bigger, that bone at the shoulder was longer, the eyes were deeper set, and so on. Spikes, spurs, and an exoskeleton of bone growths had appeared to fill or cover gaps and grow in at places where the bone was already close to the skin. The tail of the smallest dog – Angelica, I think Rachel called it – was twice as long as normal and prehensile, now, and the other two were well on their way. It looked like someone had torn out a pair of human spines, the meat still hanging off them, and attached them one to the other before tacking the end to the dog's hindquarters.

Dogman, for his part, was just wearing a green jacket with a fur ruff collar and a cheap, hard plastic mask of a bulldog. The dogs had been given the rear of the second van, allowing Dogman to work his power on them as Frank drove. Being able to do the change more slowly meant she wouldn't prematurely exhaust herself or the animals by rushing the job on site.

We made our way into the back hallways of the bank's ground floor, Dogman's dogs leading the way, my swarm pulling up the rear. The clock had started running down from the moment we'd parked in the alleyway; that was the point where people might have thought something was up. Now that we were inside, though, someone knew or would know any second.

At this very moment, chances were, some guard in the room with the security cameras would be making a call to 911 and reporting a crime in progress by costumed criminals. If Tattletale was right, the Protectorate was too far away to be called in, so they would contact the Wards. We had five or ten minutes before trouble showed.

Each time we passed a room, Dark Brute, The Golden God and I would double-check it. The first few were empty, but as we reached one room, a dog took notice, and Dark Brute raised a hand to plunge the room into darkness. A second later, he stepped back into the hallway, twisting the arm of a cringing thirty-something man in a gray suit behind his back. I hadn't even realized Dark Brute had entered the room in the first place.

In the next room, The Golden God grabbed another hostage. "If you don't want to be controlled for life, you'll do as I say. Understand?"

I caught a glance of the man, graying hair and thick around the middle with a pink dress shirt and no jacket, staring at us with eyes wide. He opened his mouth. I think his intent was to cry for help, But The Golden God put his fingers on the old man's lips and shushed him. "Silence elder, unless you want to face the wrath of my taser."

"The wraith of your taser?" Dark Brute said. "That was the coolest one-liner you could come up with?"

"Shut up!"

A second later, he keeled over and collapsed onto the floor. He tried to climb to his feet, but his elbow buckled and he hit the ground a second time. While he continued to struggle, The Golden God strode into the room with an almost lazy air, grabbed him by the collar and tased him.

"What are you tasing him for?"

"Because he wasn't following my orders!"

"So? you don't just tase him! You want assault on our charges?"

"We're already robbing a bank!"

"Yeah but-"

I decided to tune out the conversation. It seemed the most rational thing to do around these people. I only walked to signal we had to go. They followed, while still arguing. The Golden God shoved him towards the hallway where we stood. Defeated, Pink-shirt didn't resist, half-walking, half-crawling forward as he joined us. He met eyes with the other employee but said nothing.

We only passed a dozen offices, but it felt like three times that number. Dark Brute and The Golden God weren't even paying attention, too busy with their argument, which had gone way off the rails, to pay attention to the damn mission. I don't know how they haven't been caught yet.

That meant I was paying attention to the rooms on the left, right, and in front of us. As well as keeping an eye out by way of the swarm to our rear. Each time I looked into an office, lunchroom, or conference room, I prayed it would be empty. I didn't want to be any more responsible for all this than I had to.

When I saw the last office on the left was vacant, I was relieved enough that I nearly forgot my role in the next stage of the plan.

We reached the front lobby of the bank, and Charlie's dogs charged into the room. They were nightmarish, barking, growling and shaking themselves in a spray of bits of fur and blood as they abruptly grew another foot taller at the shoulder. I turned to The Dark Brute, who was still fucking arguing with The Golden God.

"We all know Levithan has a penis!" Dark Brute said.

"No, we don't!" The Golden God argued. "Mostly because it's fucking stupid!"

"He's a lizard, which are animals, which has sexual reproductive organs-"

"Yes, I know how mammals work!"

"Guys…" I said.

"Lizards aren't mammals! They lay eggs!"

"Then they don't need penises!"

"Guys!"

"They still have them. Haven't you seen any nature documentaries?"

"Are you telling me the Behemoth and the Simurgh have penises?"

"GUYS!"

"Of course not, Simurgh is a-hold on Bug."

Are you fucking shitting me?

While they were arguing about whether or not Simurgh was a tranny, the civilians were all staring at the dogs and us, confused and slowly pulling out their phones.

Tattletale sighed. "Bug?"

I nodded and filled the room with bugs, covering their eyes.

Dark Brute turned to me. "Bitch! What are you doing!? It was my job to cover the room!"

I slowly turned to him.

"I mean…just saying…I was gonna do it."

"Just do it." Forget-Me-Not said.

"Ok."

Dark Brute used his power, and he plunged the room into darkness, the volume of the screams and wails dropping to utter silence in a matter of seconds. We stood in the entryway to the lobby, and there was only nothingness where the bank lobby had been.

"Your move, Bug girl," Tattletale said, reaching forward to put a hand on my shoulder.

I closed my eyes. With a mental command, my bugs flooded into the room from the hallway behind us, flying and crawling over, under and around us to spread through the room. I noted each person in the lobby as my bugs made contact with them, and left several bugs crawling on each individual. I took five seconds to double-check I'd gotten everyone, and belatedly remembered the two employees we had brought forward from the back offices. A group of bugs returned from the darkness, brushing my skin on their way to make contact with the pair.

"Done," I said.

Dark Brute swept his arms forward, and the darkness parted. We moved into the room as a group. Pink-shirt and the younger guy collapsed to the ground as we walked. I supposed it was The Golden God's work there Some of Dark Brute's darkness clung to the surfaces of the doors and the windows, but the room was otherwise clear in a matter of moments, lit only by the florescent lights. Everyone except for us was lying on the floor, crouched behind a desk, or huddled in the corners. Two of Charlie's dogs were standing in front of the main entrance, while the smallest was standing near the vault. All three of the monsters were the size of cars, now.

"Fifteen minutes," I called out to the room, my heart in my throat, "We won't be here any longer than that. Stay put, stay quiet, we'll be gone before fifteen minutes are up. You'll be free to give your statement to the police and then go about your day as usual This isn't a TV show, this isn't a movie. If you're thinking about being a hero, don't. You'll only get yourself or someone else hurt.

Dark Brute whispered something in The Golden God's ear, but he brushed him off.

Dammit, was I getting more suspicious?

I held up my hand, finger outstretched, a familiar spider perched on the tip, "If you are thinking about running, making a phone call, or getting in our way, this is a good reason to reconsider. This little creature and her one hundred sisters that I just brought into this room are under my complete control." I had the spider drop from my fingertip, dangling by a thread, by way of demonstration.

"She's a black widow spider. A single bite has been known to kill a full-grown human or put them into a coma. You move, talk, try to find or kill the spiders I just put on your bodies, in your clothes, in your hair? I'll know in split second, and I'll tell them to bite you several times."
I stopped to let that sink in. I looked over the room. Forty or so people. I saw a full-grown man with a tear rolling down his cheek. A teenager with freckles and brown curls was glaring at me with raw loathing in her eyes. At one of the counters, a matronly bank employee was shaking like a leaf.

Dark Brute walked over to me. "You feel good about this?"

I turned to Dark Brute. "We have to do this. For the mission."

"Still messed up."

That stung. Even he thought it was messed up? Have they never done something like this before?

Putting on my strongest face, I said, "I'm willing to do what is necessary to win."

Dark Brute stared at me. Then said. "Ok."

He walked away, and I was left thinking about what he said.

The problem wasn't that it was messed up, or that even Dark Brute thought it was.

The problem was that I came up with it.

My taking hostages like this? It had been my idea, so help me. As horrible as it was, it had been necessary. The worst-case scenario was some regular schmuck in the bank pulling some stunt and getting themselves or others hurt or killed. I couldn't let that happen if I was in a position to help it. If it meant keeping them quiet and out of the way, I was willing to terrorize them.
As I saw the effect I'd had on these people, that justification felt really thin.

I was going to hell for this.

Author Notes: Here's the next chapter. Thank you so much for supporting me! Things are going to fly off the handle pretty soon! So stay tuned for that!

Also, I wrote a new story! a crossover between My Hero Academia and Worm called Lighting Bug. It's going to have humor, action, and even a little romance. Check it out if you're interested!

That's all I had to say. This is Super Ultimate Number One, sighing out. Peace!