Of Wasps and Wizards, Part 5
I woke up to the sound of someone singing, and water running in a shower. For just a second, I thought I was back in the shelter, but my bugs informed me of my location before I could even open my eyes.
Opening my eyes showed me that I was still in Myrddin's dimly lit basement apartment, with a nearly depleted fire crackling away in the fireplace. Something moved under my blanket, and I was surprised by a couple of paws, followed by Mister's head appearing from underneath the covers, asking me for head-scratches with soft meowing. I obliged, and he seemed to accept me.
Then again, he'd spend the entire night using me as his own personal heater, so he was probably happy with me already.
I slowly sat up, and noticed a pounding headache, one that was probably an aftereffect of the vampire-guy's drugged spit. Or maybe it was the singing, both explanations seemed possible.
Looking around, I noticed the little kitchen, set off to the side, and went for a glass of water while thinking about the events of the day before.
The day itself had been strange, including the encounter with the supervillain vampire I'd stabbed in the stomach, but the real weirdness had started once I'd arrived here.
And then there was the Stranger. The invisible figure that had saved me last night, as well as Harry's weird behaviour, as if there was someone else there. I mentally went over the capes in the local Protectorate, but I was pretty sure there weren't any strangers in there. Then again, if there was one, they would probably keep it a secret, in order to make him or her more effective. At least that's what I would have done, you never knew what kind of stupidity ruled the PRT's thought processes.
As I finished the glass of water, Mister started meowing next to what must have been his water bowl. I grabbed it, refilling him for it, and he ignored it while walking to a different empty bowl, obviously the one usually filled with his food.
"I guess he forgot to feed you before leaving in the middle of the night?" I asked him while I started looking around trying to find where Harry kept his cat food. Mister had kept me company through a night filled with bad dreams and strange, drug-induced emotions, so I figured I owed him some breakfast.
It also was a good excuse to take a good look at what must have been the strangest apartment I'd ever seen. The furniture was a strange mixture between old-fashioned, second-hand, and high-quality, and my guess was that it had all been old and second-hand before he'd gotten his job with the Protectorate. Seeing high-quality pans that couldn't have been more than a year or two old right next to a wood-fire stove was just plain weird.
"He keeps the cat food in the closet above the sink," a female voice said, taking me by surprise.
I looked around, and spotted a woman in the doorway to Harry's bedroom. She had straight dark hair cut to the nape of her neck and eyes of the type you saw in eyeliner commercials. I pegged her as a Latina, slightly shorter than I was, maybe twenty-five years old or so.
"Susan Rodriguez, investigative reporter," she supplied when I kept looking at her.
"Taylor," I replied.
"Better known as Skitter," she supplied, saying it as if the words had no weight at all.
"How did you?"
"I've been investigating the whole bug thing, had it pegged as a guy called Billy Towers, an exterminator that died in a freak beehive accident, but investigated you in order to cover my bases. Anyway, when a girl with your build and hair shows up to Myrddin's home in the middle of the night asking for help? It was an easy guess. Plus, I've been talking to your friend's ghost."
Her explanation made sense, especially if you counted in the fact that she already knew Myrddin, and might have known he'd had a conversation with Skitter yesterday morning. I sighed, I'd kept the back of my head free because I loved my hair, but it looked like it could bite me in the ass here. Sure, back in Brockton, I was just one in many teenage girls that Skitter could be. Here however, there probably weren't all that many teenage Brocktonite refugees, let alone tall girls with long, curly black hair.
And, of course, she had been talking to my friend's ghost. So she was quite obviously insane. Ghosts were real, sure, but they were also safely locked away in the birdcage with their master.
"A ghost, yeah, sure," I answered her.
"I'm guessing you're one of those people that don't believe in the supernatural, aren't you? Even after having that encounter with the vampire?"
"It's this new thing called a parahuman, they study it in universities? Ever heard of it?"
"And it just so happens that hundreds of parahumans, the world over, have the exact same power-set, that happens to coincide with age old stories about vampires?"
"Power-granting Trumps, like Teacher and Galvanate? I mean, seriously, this has been studied, there's reputable, well-written articles about it and everything."
"Ouch, no need to make it personal," she replied, smiling.
I turned away from her and grabbed the cat food, finally filling an indignant Mister's bowl. He immediately started lapping up the hard pellets, completely ignoring me now that my job had been done.
"Anyway, I should've known better than to make a bet with a high-level Thinker, I guess I owe her twenty bucks now, although I'm not sure what a ghost is going to do with the money," she continued.
"Who are you talking about?" I asked her.
"Your friend, Tattletale. You know, the ghost I told you about?"
It annoyed me, the casual way in which she made fun of my losses. Pretending ghosts were real all to make a quick buck from gullible idiots who believed in that sort of thing.
"Very funny, I guess crazies attract each other right?"
"You're in a wizard's apartment, hiding from a vampire, which you only beat with the help of your undead teammate."
"Lisa is dead! Why the fuck are you pretending like you talked to her!" I shouted at her, losing my temper.
She sat down on the couch with a sigh.
I stood back against the wall, pointedly ignoring her, and looking at Mister, who was happily eating away at his food.
"I'm going to take a shower," I said, walking towards the door of Harry's bedroom, form where I'd heard the water and the singing.
"The hot water doesn't work," Susan supplied.
I ignored her, and closed the door behind me when I found the bathroom. It was small, only sort of clean, and it was very much not warm, with none of the warm air and steam you'd expect after someone had taken a shower.
I made sure there was a dry towel, and tried the water before taking my clothes off.
It was cold, not freezing, but not warm enough to get a nice shower. I took off my clothes, jumped under the stream of water, screamed for a second or two, quickly rinsed every part of my body, and got out again before becoming undercooled.
The worst thing was, by the looks of it, the hot water wasn't just broken, it was never there. The shower didn't even have a heat dial.
I cursed, quickly drying myself off and putting my clothes back on again. But, I had to admit that the shower helped, made me just a bit less angry at Susan, and helped relieve the headache.
I walked out, and saw Susan still sitting on the couch. Mister, the filthy little traitor, was sitting on the armrest, happily getting petted by her.
I looked at her, and decided to be the bigger person.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you," I told her.
She turned to me, took a deep breath, and started talking.
"And I'm sorry for being insensitive, I should have known it was a sensitive subject, and should have brought it up more gently. But, I'm telling you, she was there. Harry just took her to work to make her a sanctuary, something she can use to get around and talk to people. Interact with the world. I mean, I only know she was there, and I can't give you a definite answer on whether she was a ghost or something else. Maybe she had a second trigger, something that made her capable of surviving death. Like the Butcher, or whatever Glaistig Uiane does to people. If you think that's a more logical explanation, then you can believe that," She said.
"So what, you want me to believe she second triggered with a new power-set that made her a ghost?"
"You bought the vampire power-set, so why not this?"
"Because it's ridiculous!" I said, taking care not to let the conversation deteriorate into yelling again.
"I know, which is why I choose to believe it's her spirit, living on beyond death. She wanted to help you, you know? It's what drove her to invite you to her team. Everyone dying, you losing your home and your family, it means she had unfinished business, enough to bring her back, or at least stop her from moving on."
"You're crazy."
"And you control bugs with your mind. I'm not asking you to believe my interpretation of things, just to keep an open mind."
"You can't just expect me to, well, to believe she's back."
"She punched the vampire, and she told you about his weakness, the stomach. Isn't that enough to at least trust me a little bit on this?"
"No…" I replied, although I wasn't sure. Was Lisa the Stranger? And how had I known to hit the creature in its apparent weak spot? Telling me about that seemed like it was the kind of thing that Lisa did, but the whole thing was just…
"Look, how about you follow me around for a few days? Call it an internship of sorts. If you still don't believe in the supernatural after seeing what I see for a week, I'll eat my hat."
I looked at her, and she seemed to being entirely serious. Then again, crazy people usually were. But, she was at least sane enough to have a real job that didn't rely on her having superpowers, so maybe there was something there.
"And if you need a place to stay, I have an empty room in my apartment, as well as hot water that actually works."
It… I had to admit, a warm shower actually sounded like it would be a good idea.
"So what, you'd have me get you coffee?"
"I was thinking of something closer to you helping me out with those bugs of yours, all sneakylike and stuff like that, get into places I can't usually get into."
I thought about it for a second, deciding on how much to tell her. I didn't really know her all that well, but then again, Myrddin seemed to trust her, and he seemed to be a decent person, and she was offering me a place to sleep and a warm shower.
"I can't actually hear or see with them, not well at least. Just sort of feel where they are," I told her. "Although, maybe I could use them for tiny microphones and cameras? Carry them around at a distance or something like that?"
"Sounds like an idea, means we immediately have evidence too, and footage we can use," Susan replied.
"So, when do we start?"
***
Susan's apartment was much closer to the city center than Harry's had been. It also wasn't in a basement, which helped improve it as well. The only thing that was actually missing was Mister, who would have greatly improved it with his presence. Not that I was a cat lady, it was just that Mister was a really nice cat.
"So, let's try this out shall we?" Susan said, placing her laptop on the table.
The laptop itself was unimportant. The important thing was what it was connected to. Three tiny cameras and a set of microphones, currently being carried around the apartment by my bugs.
"What's the range on these things?" I asked her.
"The box says a thousand feet, but I don't exactly believe that claim."
I looked at the screen of the laptop, on which the three different camera feeds were being shown. One of them showed me and the laptop from above, and was being carried around by a group of spiders. Another was pointed out of the window, overlooking the streets below. The third was half-covered by spiderweb and looked at the bottom of a dragonfly.
I moved the swarm around it a little, trying to get a different grip, and within a few minutes I had it looking in the direction I wanted, its screen largely unobstructed.
"Looks like it might work," I said.
Susan walked to the window, opening it, "Then let's do it live."
I commanded my bugs, sending them out into the city, carrying their clandestine equipment. It wasn't all that stealthy yet, but it wasn't as noticeable as an actual person with a camera was. Plus, it helped me actually see what my bugs are seeing, and gave some context to the things I was able to piece together with my mental map.
Once they were properly at range, half a block away, I turned on the microphones, and we heard the sounds of the street. People talking about absolutely nothing, cars driving by, that sort of thing.
"Looks like it works," I told her.
"Seems like it, makes for a neat little trick, should help us get footage of some more exclusive places."
"Wouldn't that be illegal?"
"Says the bank-robber."
"I told you, I'm trying to turn things around."
"Think of it like this, they can only sue us if they admit that the footage is real."
"That doesn't sound like a very good excuse," I told her.
"Look, journalism is about getting the scoop, figuring out what's going on. Sometimes, you have to break some laws in order to find the information that the people deserve to know."
"Sounds like a worthy cause, but didn't you publish an article about how Jack Slash was a vampire sympathiser?"
"Exactly! What do you think Crimson was? And that just shows, I'm not afraid of the Slaughterhouse, and I'm not afraid of the government. Not if the people have a right to know the truth!"
"I'm not entirely convinced, but I can believe that you believe that."
I made the insects roam around with the cameras a bit more. Two of them were being carried around on the outside of the building, and the smallest one was getting carried around by a group of flying bugs.
"Hey, I think we've got Wards incoming," she said. "You want to check out how well the mic's work?"
I looked at the screen she was pointing at, and noticed what she was talking about. Three of the Chicago wards were on a patrol, taking advantage of the weekend to get some work done.
"Let's see, we've got Wanton, Annex, and I think that's Grace?" I said.
"Yep, seems to be, probably just a general patrol if they're here though, showing the flag and everything. Now, let's get those microphone's in closer."
I focussed on the small groups of bugs carrying the microphones, and brought them closer, hiding them beneath ledges and behind metal grates to stop them from noticing the insect activity.
Luckily, none of them were Thinkers, nor were they particularly observant. Someone like Lisa would have noticed almost immediately, but the cameras helped me see what was visible and what wasn't, and allowed me to hide my mini-swarms in broad daylight, as long as people didn't look too closely.
"So, uhm, Grace, you know that friend of yours?" The microphone picked up. It took me a few seconds before I matched the voice to Wanton.
"Which one? I mean, you know some people have, like, multiple friends, right?" Grace replied.
Teenage drama, as I'd expected from a bunch of high-schoolers with superpowers. Then again, the Undersiders had been teenagers too.
"I think he means the hot one," a third voice that could only belong to Annex said.
"No I don't," Wanton defended himself.
"Yeah, sure, you wanted to ask for the ugly one's phone number," Annex replied.
"So, which one are you talking about? I mean, you've met them exactly once, so don't go pretending you're not after whichever is the hot one," Grace said.
"He's obviously talking about Molly," Annex said, half-joking.
"What, no, ewww," Wanton replied.
"Why ewww? What's wrong with Molly? She's nice," Grace said.
"Just, you know, black lipstick and everything? Not my thing."
"So superficial, not what you'd expect of a hero."
"Well, like you said, I can only really judge them on their looks."
"So, which is the hot one?"
"She's not the hot one, but, I mean the one with the short brown hair? You know, she was wearing that Canary shirt at your party."
"Wait, you think Olivia is the hot one?"
"I told you, I'm not saying she's the hot one."
"Why isn't she the hot one? What's wrong with Olivia?"
"Nothing it's just… help me out here Annex,"
"No way man, you dug your hole, you lie in it."
I turned down the volume on the laptop, and looked at Susan. "You know, for spying on a bunch of superheroes, their conversation is remarkably boring," she said.
"What, you're not going to write about the scandalous love life of the Chicago Wards?"
"Not really, I mean, first of all, they're children, and speculation like that would dig into their civilian identities. That's not a good idea. Plus, no one is really interested in that beyond pure scandal, the real scoop lies in figuring out stuff about the more famous heroes."
"Oooh, maybe you could write an article about how Myrddin is feeding info to a journalist because she's sleeping with him."
"Maybe you could stop being a smart-ass," Susan joked.
I turned on the sound again, trying to keep up with the moving patrol with my bugs, and seeing if I could match the sounds the microphones picked up to the sounds the bugs heard. I couldn't, but it didn't hurt to try.
"So, guess what Myrddin did this morning?" Wanton said, having changed the subject.
"Oooh look, conveniently relevant conversations," Susan said to me.
"Let me guess, he threw a piece of garlic at you in order to check if you were a vampire?" Annex asked.
"Nahh, I bet he drew a circle around you and told you you couldn't leave because I was a magic circle," Grace added in, obviously happy with the fact that the conversation had moved away from which of her friends was the 'hot one.' The solution to Wanton's problem had, obviously, been to tell Grace that she was already the hot one, but that he couldn't possibly date her because they were on a team together, but you couldn't expect boys to be able to do that.
"It's not that I couldn't leave, It's that I would lose my wizard powers, that's how it works."
"Dude, you're not even a Trump, let alone a wizard."
"Fuck off, I can be a wizard if I want to."
"Don't fucking swear Wanton, do you want another workshop on proper image?" Grace said.
"What was that about relevant conversations?" I asked Susan after the conversation had deteriorated into whether or not Wanton was an actual wizard instead.
"Just… you need to have patience while eavesdropping. That's like, the first rule of journalism."
"Just what kind of journalist are you?"
"I work for a tabloid that published articles about Hookwolf being an actual werewolf, what did you expect?"
"Not a Hexenwolf? That's what Harry called them."
"Hexenwulf means external artifact, Hookwolf obviously used his own power."
"Yeah, right… his own parahuman power."
I turned away from the conversation, and back to the superpowered teenagers.
"Anyway, he said it was a sanctuary or something for a ghost," Wanton said.
"Yeah, right, so, obviously a master power," Annex replied.
"Yeah, but a really cool one. Remember that thing Cuff had? He turned it into something that can actually talk and shit."
"So, did Heathrow yell at him again?"
"Nahh, he didn't even tell the guy."
"So, what ghost is it supposed to be?"
"Dunno, he said it was a supervillain, but she didn't sound like one, so I think it's just Myrddin being Myrddin."
"Ooh, Revel's gonna be mad. Remember that thing with the faerie?" Grace said.
"What, Toot-Toot? Toot-Toot was cool," Wanton replied.
"And totally not PG."
"One hundred percent hilarious though."
"Still wondering how someone's power eats that much pizza," Annex said.
"Harry's power eats pizza?" I asked Susan.
"No, I think Toot-Toot is an actual faerie that Harry met once," she replied.
The conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door, and I quickly turned off the sound, and alt-tabbed into a different window. Whoever was visiting didn't need to see what we were looking at.
Given that, who was knocking on the door? I checked with my bugs, but they didn't actually find anyone standing there, at least nothing like a person. Further down the hall however, I did find someone slowly walking towards the apartment. Someone tall. Myrddin?
I turned around, and saw Susan opening her door, and just when I started wondering why they were knocking instead of using the doorbell, I noticed what had been making the sound.
A small, round-ish metal ball, giving off blue lights through a few LED's, was floating in the air using what looked like some sort of tinktertech anti-gravity thing, and it looked like it had simply been throwing itself against the door repeatedly in order to knock.
"See, I told you they'd be here!" It called out in a feminine voice, obviously talking to Harry, who was still walking towards the doorway.
As I heard the voice, I couldn't really believe it. I recognized it, recognized it very well. It was Lisa's voice. Harry had taken Lisa's voice patterns and used it for his fucking powers…
The blue drone rushed forwards again, and bumped into the doorway, as if the door was still there. It reminded me of something from a game I once played with my father, back when I was a lot younger.
"Hey, the fuck? You have a glass door?" the thing asked.
"I told you, it's a boundary, she has to invite you in," I heard Harry say.
"Well, come In Lisa," Susan said, playing along with Harry. Of course, because she actually believed it.
The next time the drone flew forwards, it didn't bounce into an invisible barrier. Instead, it flew straight at me, stopping right before my face.
"Hey, good to see that you're safe," it said.
"Fuck off Harry, I'm not in the mood for your delusions," I replied. I really didn't want to have to deal with his bullshit.
"Look, Taylor, it's… Susan, could you and Harry give us some privacy?" the drone said.
"Sure thing, don't ruin anything," Susan said, stepping out of the door. From what my bugs could sense, she was talking to Harry, being all flirty.
"Taylor… We should have a talk. About Coil, about a lot of things," it said.
Strange… how had Harry known about Coil? Or had his power just somehow gathered that information from thin air.
"I know what you're thinking right now, so just let me finish. I mean, we didn't really split up on the best of terms. What with me manipulating you, and you being a hero, planning to betray us from the start," the drone said. I could almost believe that it was really Lisa, almost.
"You knew? For how long?"
"From the start you silly, before we even met. Thinker, remember? Look, back before I joined the Undersiders, I was living on the streets. I didn't really have a plan or anything, and I just wanted not to be close to my parents. Anyway, that's about when I first met Coil, at the point of a gun-"
***
It took about half an hour, Lisa's voice droning on in my ears, telling me her story. Her brother, Coil, how she met the Undersiders, Coil's power, meeting me, wanting to help me. The thing with Dinah, what happened during the Endbringer fight, the monster, Echidna, getting into the shelter, which was apparently filled with several supernatural nasties that it started cloning, Eidolon destroying everything within the shelter, Leviathan smashing her body apart within half a second, and waking up above the sunken city. The worst part of it was that she didn't need to breathe, let alone drink anything to keep her throat from drying out
"Lisa," I interrupted.
"Yeah?" she asked, even though she probably already knew what I was going to say.
"Just shut up and give me a hug?"
Lisa dashed forwards, bumping into my chest. The metal was cold and hard, but that didn't matter, because I had my best friend back.