Please forgive the formatting issue earlier in the day.

The Escape

Six inches of Tinkertech Glass. That was the defining feature of this room. Six inches of Tinkertech Glass. It could take anything short of a nuke and not even start to crack.

Six inches of Tinkertech Glass separated the room into two portions. On one side was a table with an uncomfortable metal chair. The table had a manilla folder and a steaming cup of coffee. Black, no sugar, no cream. The chair held a fat woman. Director Emily Piggot.

On the other side of the Glass was Taylor. She had a calm smile on her face. If she could move a single limb, she'd be examining her fingernails to give the air of disinterest the room demanded. Instead, stuck from the neck down in containment foam, she kept her pink and green eyes on Piggot. She blinked occasionally, just to make them change color, but didn't say a word.

This was a battle of wills, and it was only happening because of six inches of Tinkertech Glass. Without that, Piggot wouldn't even be down here. This girl, whoever she might have been before, she was dangerous now. She hadn't killed anyone at the Charity Ball, but that was at her own admission of just wanting to get her name out there. After seeing some of the girl's feats, Emily wouldn't bet on her being able to keep her own head on her shoulders, were it not for the various safety measures in place to keep Taylor from ripping it off.

The staring contest between the two of them was only ever interrupted when one of the agents in the blank black masks would come in and replace the coffee. It must have went on for the better part of an hour.

Piggot broke first.

"You are in quite a bit of trouble, Miss Hebert."

"You are in quite a bit of trouble, Miss Hebert." the girl repeated in a nasally voice.

Emily narrowed her eyes, but went on, "Assault with a parahuman power, robbery, multiple counts of unlawful detainment."

"Assault with a parahuman power, robbery, multiple counts of unlawful detainment."

The woman's teeth ground just a little, and the teenager's smile grew just a bit more vicious.

"You have two options, girl!" Director Piggot growled.

"You have two options, girl!" Skitter whined.

"Stop that!" the woman slammed a hand on her table.

"Oh, dear," Taylor feigned shock, "Haven't you ever heard that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery? I was just admiring your generous...ness."

Emily grit her teeth and tried to remember what the spiel was supposed to be to get this wretch on the side of the law. It was a thing they were doing with most villains these days. It was a boon every time they could rehabilitate them.

She decided to bring out the big guns.

"Your father must be so proud."

The smile dropped from Taylor's face and her eyes went half lidded.

"Touched a sore spot, have I?" the Director had to resist the urge to smirk, "He's here, you know? We've been questioning him, too."

"Really?" the girl asked in monotone, "Why? He doesn't know anything about this. You're wasting your time."

"You know, I don't think so," Emily told the girl, "After all, you might be an unrepentant reprobate, but your father is just a normal human. You've made enemies today, girl. The Empire doesn't look kindly on those that humiliate one of their own, and everyone knows your name, since you unmasked at the Ball. Do you really think they won't use him to get at you?"

"And what makes you think I care?"

The woman pulled open the manilla envelope and looked through it, a smile almost tugging at her lips, "You care. Tell you what. We'll let you have some quality time with Danny. Then we'll see how cooperative you'll be." She got up, with no small amount of effort, and exited the room. A few minutes later, Danny Hebert was lead in.

"Oh, god! Taylor…" the man breathed, seeing his daughter. She was so different. He placed a hand on the glass, staring at her with tears in his eyes, "What happened to you?"

"What happened?" Skitter tilted her head at him, "Do you really want to know?" Inside she was grinning.

"Please," he begged.

"Be careful what you wish for," the smile spread across her lips again, "You killed me."

"What!?"

"Well, not just you, and certainly more metaphorically than anything else, but yes, you played a hand in it. Tell me, Danny," it hurt that she didn't call him dad, "When your wife died, your daughter needed you. Where were you?"

"I-I-"

"You were wallowing in your own misery," she closed her eyes and clicked her tongue at the man, "Too bad. You might have been able to bond with me over her death. Maybe we'd have become the type of Father-Daughter team that you see in those sappy after school movies. I'd help you cope with mom's death by making you do girly things, and you'd help me cope by teaching me to box," she shrugged as much as she could, "Who knows, in a few years time, we may have even ended up as lovers."

"Gah!" the man started to turn green.

"Yes," she drawled in a sultry tone, "I'd start to make you breakfast one morning. You'd quietly enter the kitchen, seeing me in only an apron. You'd put your hand-"

"Stop!" Danny yelled, "Please, Taylor!"

"Well, it was just getting to the good part, but if you insist," her grin showed her sharpened teeth at the corners of her mouth, "Even after you 'came to your senses,' I wasn't your daughter anymore. I was just a mouth to feed. Don't believe me?" Taylor's grin turned nasty as her eyes glowed, "The summer before high school, you sent me to a summer camp. When I came back, Emma had a new friend and decided I wasn't worth her time anymore. Long story short, Emma Barnes is an unrepentant bitch. She's one of the others that killed the girl you once knew. But, did you really?" she shrugged again, "You certainly didn't notice it when Emma stopped coming over. Did you even question it? Did you care enough to do that?"

"Taylor," the man started to sob, "Please, don't…"

"Don't what? You'll have to be more specific. Don't talk about your failures on camera? Don't show the world how little you care when it really matters? Don't start taking bets on how long it will take for the Empire to get the mistaken belief that I'll do everything in my power to save you?" She grinned at him, "They will try to use you, just like the Protectorate is trying to do. And it will fail just as hard."

The man sniffled, but she could see it was starting to make him mad.

"Piggot thought she was using you as leverage. She even said, 'Your father must be so proud.' I'll be honest, the girl I was wanted to see you one last time. Now that I have," she shrugged one last time, "You can go. Your usefulness ended when Annette did."

The man punched the glass, hurting himself more than anything.

"God damn it, I am your father! You will listen to me! You will join the Wards, take their probation! Now, young lady!" He tried to appear stern.

Taylor stared at him without changing her expression. The dark smile remained, the glowing half lidded eyes, the disinterest.

"Taylor?"

"Oh? Was I supposed to respond to your impotent little tantrum?" She laughed, "And what if I don't listen? What will you do if I don't join the Wards? Ground me?" Another bark of a laugh, "Face it, Danny. You have as much power over me as anything else in your life. That is to say, you are useless. If you died tomorrow it would end up helping the Dock Workers Association, because at least there would be an opening for someone qualified to take over."

The door hissed open and Piggot walked in again, flanked by Miss Militia and Armsmaster.

"Escort Mister Hebert back to his home," she said, staring at the girl.

"Bye, Danny! Best of luck in life," Skitter would have given a pleasant wave if she'd had an arm free.

After her father was gone, Piggot sat in the chair again, Armsmaster standing to her left.

"I'm going to say this once," she started, waiting for the girl to try mocking her again. When it didn't happen, she went on, "You have two options. Join the Wards, or face the Birdcage. Decide."

Taylor's ever present smile didn't waver in the slightest. She tilted her head forward and spoke.

"Funny thing about birdcages," she drawled, "Birds might be stuck, but bugs are always slipping through the bars."

Emily started to open her mouth, but Skitter continued, leaning back as she did.

"I'm implying that I'll escape your impenetrable prison. I understand you government types are rather literal minded, so I'm just making sure you know I'm not actually talking about real birds, cages and bugs. It's what the educated call a metaphor."

Armsmaster growled, but Piggot held up a hand to stop him.

"Birdcage it is." The two left the room, Taylor watching them go without blinking.

-909

Sending a cape to the Bauman Parahuman Containment Facility, or the Birdcage, was not so simple as Piggot liked to make it seem. She couldn't just stamp a few forms and have it done.

It was mostly a formality, but a trial had to be held. It was to determine if the Birdcage was really necessary. Sure, Skitter was going to be incarcerated, but did she need to be placed in the most secure prison known to mankind?

"Be honest," the prosecutor said, not expecting any such thing from her, "Could you escape from a normal prison with your abilities?" He had a list of her abilities and their ratings. When she denied it, he'd show them to the judge.

"Absolutely," Skitter said, nodding her head. She was still behind the Tinkertech Glass, but the foam had been neutralized by a spray. She wasn't in the courtroom of course. It was being done by video conference.

She was instead seated on a stool and maintaining a rigid upright posture. Rather than the somewhat eerie smile she normally wore, she had only the slightest upturn of her lips while she sat there in her prison orange jumpsuit, as provided by the Protectorate.

"What?" The prosecutor almost stuttered.

"I said that I could absolutely escape. It wouldn't even be hard. I'd use my control over insects to break through the walls, slaughter every guard in my path, feed the warden to the inmates he feared the most, then be back to business in Brockton Bay."

"..." The lawyer turned to the judge for a moment, who had a fierce scowl on his face, "Right… I move to have the defendant detained in the Birdcage."

"Me, oh my," she fluttered a hand to the side of her face, fanning herself, "Whatever am I to do? Escape the inescapable? How would I do such a thing?" her smile turned into a fanged grin, "I suppose we'll have to see."

Judge Gerard grunted at the girl. She wasn't the first to boast about being able to escape the Birdcage. She wouldn't be the last. He handed down the sentence without a second thought. He had children, grandchildren. None of them deserved to be exposed to any of these villains. The more he put away, the better.

He handed down the sentence with a bang of his gavel, "Taylor Anne Hebert, you are hereby sentenced to life imprisonment in the Bauman Parahuman Containment Facility. May God have mercy on your soul."

"Uh-huh, buh-bye useless mortal," she waved just before the feed cut out.

Only a week later, she found her cell being filled with foam again.

"You're in luck, girl. We already have a couple of criminals heading to the Birdcage," Skitter could hear the pleasure Piggot's tone as she spoke, "You won't have to wait for a ride, and you'll have a little company. You remember Lung, don't you? The man whose genitals your bugs stung and poisoned repeatedly?"

A shiver went down her spine at the memory of that night. The fear of death that had overtaken her, and the acceptance of it, was one of the few sentiments she still felt.

"Yes," Taylor said without her usual cheer, "I remember Lung."

"Good. We mentioned you'd be joining him this morning. He seems eager for your reunion." The speakers clicked off.

"That woman," the dual haired girl shook her head, "She seriously needs to release some stress," she looked up as four of the troopers and Dauntless entered the room, "Tell me, when was the last time your boss got some… action?" she waggled her eyebrows at the men. She giggled when she saw the barest hint of green on the small amount of Dauntless' visible features.

The glass slid into the ceiling and two of the men pointed foam guns at her. The other two started spraying some of the neutralizing agent on the foam around her. They were very careful about it, making sure to loosen her chunk of foam, while not freeing her from its grasp.

That done, they started to lift her up.

"Very good, boys," she teased them, "Lift with your legs, not your backs."

"Do you ever stop talking?" Dauntless grumbled.

"Not when there is amusement to be had," she gave him a wink, then said, "Tell Aegis that, though we part ways now, our paths lead to the same destination. Never to falter, our hearts will guide us true," she briefly affected a tearful goodbye, then added, "And tell him to wear a little less. Mama likes muscles. Rawr!"

"Whatever," the hero scoffed. This girl was an idiot. No one escaped the Birdcage. She could boast and bluster and bluff all she wanted. Plenty before her had. No one escaped the Birdcage. No one.

"I hear I have travel mates," Taylor said, sounding serious for once.

"Yeah. Lung and Bakuda."

"Lung has a grudge to bear against me," she said, "Will there be any barrier between us?"

"The Containment Foam will prevent him from assaulting you. There is no need to separate you."

"Oh, he can't punch me. Wonderful," she drawled, unimpressed, "It's a good thing he doesn't have the ability to spew flames from his mouth at people who have attracted his ire. I'd be in real trouble, then."

The men carrying her paused as they all looked to Dauntless.

He turned over his shoulder to look at the teen girl, "Then I guess you shouldn't annoy him." He turned forward again, "Keep moving!"

-909

The transport they were on was not actually a car or bus, though they called it the latter. In truth it was a transport ship flown by the Tinker, Dragon. She wasn't actually in the cockpit, but she still had complete control of the craft.

"The journey will take six point four hours," came the modulated voice of the world's premier Tinker. "Escape from this craft is not advisable. As of the time of this message, we are thirty thousand feet in the air. That fall would even be lethal to you, Lung."

The man that would be a dragon was barely paying attention. His glare was on Skitter. He would kill her. Not yet. Not on the transport. Let her feel his anger. Let her suffer under the weight of her anxiety.

As soon as they made it into the Birdcage, he'd rip her head off with his bare hands.

It would serve two purposes. First, he'd show everyone in the prison that he was not the man with whom to fuck. Second, and more importantly, it would allow him his revenge on the girl that, even temporarily, melted his genitals. No man should ever have to experience that.

Bakuda, the Tinker he had recruited in January, was being odd. She had been talking with him all morning. Planning how to escape. Then they wheeled this Skitter in and she'd gone silent. Lung had looked at her for a moment, only to see her staring unblinking at the bug Master.

At first, he had thought it rage, if lesser than his own.

Skitter mumbled something in her sleep, snorted a little, and just continued to drool on herself. She had been asleep since shortly after liftoff.

At the mumbles though, Bakuda flinched as if smacked.

The Mad Bomber feared this weakling. How… strange.

Skitter smacked her lips and her eyes slowly opened. She looked around then met Lung's gaze.

"Ah, are we fairly high, yet?" She asked him.

He just grunted, glaring death at her.

Taylor just laughed at his expression, "Either way, I suppose it's time to drop the charade." She closed her eyes again and furrowed her brow.

She dissolved into thousands of bugs. Bakuda started screaming. Skitter reformed just at the edges of the containment foam, smile on her face and bowler hat on her head. Her jumpsuit had been replaced with her pinstripe suit once more.

"Ah, much better," she said, tugging on the lapels of her suit jacket and admiring the feel of the material. "Nothing quite like one's own clothes. Wouldn't you agree?"

Bakuda was still screaming.

Lung just continued to glare at the girl. He could feel the fire in his belly starting to burn at the base of his throat. He'd roast this-

"Bakuda, be a dear and do shut up," she tapped her centipede cane on the floor of the craft. Bakuda immediately closed her mouth, but her breathing was irregular and her eyes were wild with fear.

"Perfect," she turned back to the man, "Lung, the Dragon of Kyushu. Years ago, you fought the Merchants, the Empire and the Protectorate all at once. You brought them to their knees! And then!" Taylor shrugged, "You went off and started a gang. How banal. I have to ask. What happened?"

A growl tickled the back of Lung's throat.

"I mean, did your balls drop off?"

He let loose with a decently sized fireball. It should be more than enough to kill this slip of a girl.

He did not foresee a giant ant appearing and eating the flames.

Nor the extraordinarily strong hand that grabbed him by the face. The claws on the end of her fingers started to dig into his flesh as she pulled his head in her direction.

"I would not do that again, boy," her tone still held only mirth, but in her mismatched eyes was murder, "I have a use for you. Do not confuse it for need."

She let him go, and the subtle darkness that had been creeping into the craft receded. Lung hadn't even realized he was having trouble breathing until he started gasping.

"Back to it, why didn't you kill them?" She didn't wait for an answer, "You had them all at your mercy. The other villains, the Protectorate, and then you just stopped. You were inches from total control of Brockton Bay, then backed down."

He opened his mouth to answer, but she cut him off.

"It doesn't matter. Whatever answer you have, it's the wrong one. If you were really a villain, you'd have followed through. If it had just been the Protectorate, or just the Empire, I could understand letting them live. It would be a message, counting coup, so to speak. Letting them know that they can't stop you. I did the same myself, recently," she smiled beatifically, "But you had them all at your mercy! You didn't even need to kill them! You could have forced them into servitude, made a base out of the rig and forced Kaiser to make you a throne of metal skulls!"

Skitter shook her head in disappointment, "You didn't do any of that, though. Now, you're on your way to the Birdcage, some idiotic bomb Tinker put explosives in all your men, and the world doesn't remember the Dragon of Kyushu, the only man to singlehandedly fight Leviathan to a stand still. All they think of when they remember you is that you were just another gang leader."

The man growled at her. He was convinced that she was wrong. He hadn't killed them because… because… Because they'd put out a Kill Order on him, duh!

Then why didn't he just claim the whole city? He could have kept most of the capes alive, killing only those he needed to. It would have been better for his image than just taking over all the various Asian gangs as he had.

"You're starting to see it, aren't you?" She said, "You're not a Villain. You're just a gang leader, and you don't need power for that," she gave him a predatory smile as she continued, "I have come here with an offer. I could use some Minions. Sure, I have plenty of bugs, but I would like something that could act autonomously, if still following my orders," Skitter looked Lung in the eye, "I could make you feared again, Lung. Your name will be second only to mine when people think of villainy. You will be great again!"

The girl let her eyes fall half lidded, as she then said, "Do not misunderstand. This has very little to do with your powers. If those were all I wanted, I'd have Peppy eat you and assimilate them. I want Lung, the Legendary Rage Dragon," she tapped her cane on the floor again, "You have sixty seconds to decide. Will you serve me, become a true villain, be feared once again?" She almost yelled dramatically, then said in a monotone, "Or do I feed you to Peppy, and see if Uber and Leet are interested?"

Lung scowled at that last comment. As if those bumbling idiots could be compared to him! He was… everything she said he was. A powerful parahuman, capable of taking over, or destroying, Brockton Bay on a whim, yet he had settled for a scrap of territory in a dying city. What happened to him?

There was a thump, and the craft shook for a moment.

"Time's up," the girl said, "Will you join me?" Two black claws tore through the metal of the siding and ripped a massive hole in it. Outside was nothing but whipping winds, a few wispy clouds, and a pair of giant insects.

"Yes!" Lung yelled to be heard over the rushing air.

"Yes, what?"

"Yes! I will join you! I will be feared!"

"Very good," Taylor spit into her left hand, and an abnormally large assassin bug formed in the sludge. It leapt off her palm, and started spraying the foam around Lung with the neutralizing chemical.

As it was melting away, the third person in the room finally spoke again.

"Take me too!" Bakuda screamed.

"Why would I take you?" Taylor honestly asked.

"I could be useful to you! I could build bombs like you've never seen. Things that wou-"

"Oh, right. You're one of those Tinkers, aren't you?" The woman nodded at the girl eagerly, "Able to build things hundreds of years ahead of current technology," Bakuda grinned, preparing for her escape, "I'll pass."

"Wha? But I-"

"You are useless to me. So what if you can make something. Can you explain how to do it? Make it so anyone with the right fabrication facilities could do the same? No?" Skitter pushed Lung onto the back of the beetle, "Then you are useless. If you were half an ounce more impressive, I might have had Lung kill you to prove his loyalty, but you're not even worth that. The Birdcage will do for you."

From there she ignored the indignant, and then panicked, screams from the Mad Bomber, simply stepping on Pippy's back. She and Lung were carried away on the backs of giant bugs.

Moments later, Dragon's voice came through the speakers again.

"What happened? Why did I lose contact?" The camera visibly swiveled around the craft, "What happened to Skitter and Lung?" The lens focused on Bakuda.

The bomb Tinker hung her head in defeat, "They're gone. They left me here. They're gone," she repeated.

-909

Skitter's lair was not quite what Lung expected. Given every other detail about the girl had become so grandiose, he almost expected her to have taken over the Medhall building and announced it to the world.

"It is…" he searched for the right word to describe the four bedroom apartment, "Quaint."

"Oh, this isn't the lair. It's just home," she sat down at the dining room table, "This is my place away from it all. As my first minion," she waved away the look he gave her at that, "Yes, there will be others. Anyway, as my first minion, you will be allowed to sleep in the guest quarters," a small swarm of bees made an arrow pointing at a specific door.

Lung considered this for a long moment. Everything about this entire situation was going to be awkward for a while. How was it supposed to be otherwise? He'd just have to tough it out.

"Thank you," he started heading for that door, when a wall of insects blocked him.

"Ah-ah," Taylor's voice came from behind him, "I'm sure you'd like to sleep, or just see what kind of facilities are available here, but we have some details to iron out."

The man turned around, a slight scowl on his face, "What details?" he slid into a seat at the table, placing his palms flat on its surface.

"Just a little of this and that. Including, but not limited to," the girl moved faster than the man could perceive, stabbing the table just barely between his fingers with a steak knife, causing the smallest knick in the webbing between his fore and middle digits, "When you address me, it will be as 'Ma'am', 'Mistress', or 'Lady Skitter'. The first time you forget this will be a warning. The second time I will stab you. The third time and after? Well, I'll start removing pieces of you, to see how long before they grow back. Am I understood?"

"...Yes…" Lung growled. At her raised brow, he added, "Lady Skitter."

"Good," she patted the side of his face, "Number two, when I give you an order, it is to be immediately followed. I don't care what, or who, you're doing at the time, all other matters are to be dropped and you will obey."

"Yes, Lady Skitter," he repeated.

"Third, I'm running a three strike policy here," Taylor told him calmly, a dog sized spider handing her a tea cup and then pouring steaming tea into it, "You may fail me horrendously due to your own arrogance. You may cross me. You may break rule two. But you may only do so three times. If it happens for a fourth, you will spend a month in my sex dungeon, then your spent, dehydrated soul will be given to a being of unfathomable evil. Understood?"

Lung blinked twice then slowly nodded, "Yes, Lady Skitter."

"Wonderful!" Skitter exclaimed putting down her tea cup, "For now, rest. Tomorrow, we begin your training. And by 'we' I mean you will be having your face pushed in by the second most dangerous creature I know," she leaned across the table and patted his hand, "If you're curious, I'm not the most dangerous creature. And you? You don't even make the top fifty." She finished her tea and stood. The spider came back and cleared the table.

Lung sat there for a minute or two, thinking about how it had come to this. He desperately hoped he hadn't made a terrible mistake.