Of Wasps and Wizards, Part 10
"So what was it like, being a supervillain?" Cuff asked.
I was about to respond to her question, when she did so herself.
"Is it true that you, like, actually stole candy from a baby?"
"What? No, of course not. Life is not a comic book you know."
"Well, you say that, but you robbed a bank right? So you stole from people's bank accounts. So what if a baby had a bank account there? And then the baby was going to use that money to buy candy? So basically, by robbing that bank, you stole candy from a baby," she replied.
I had to admit, I wasn't entirely sure how to even start arguing against hypothetical, it was just incorrect in so many places.
Then again, this was the girl that had almost been convinced she was a metal construct by Tattletale.
"Well, you work for the government right? And you get paid with government money, which is gathered by taxation. Even babies have to pay tax, so whenever you get a paycheck, you're taking a tiny piece of candy away from a baby."
"That's bullshit and you know it!" she said, stubbornly folding her arms.
"Hey, you started with the shitty arguments."
I dropped the line of conversation, and sank back into the hospital bed, trying not to think about the pain my broken ribs were giving me now that the adrenaline had worn off.
I thought back to the last time I'd been in a hospital bed like this, slightly more than a week ago. Back in Brockton Bay, or at least someplace very close to it.
I still wasn't sure whether what I'd done had been stupid or brave, and whether it had been any sort of skill on my part, or pure luck that had allowed me to survive. It was probably the latter.
A few hours ago, I'd gotten beaten up by a shitty werewolf, what had I been thinking, going up against Leviathan on my own?
Oh, right, I'd been thinking that my dad could've been in that shelter. And now, Danny was dead, while mister Gladly had somehow managed to survive.
With my eyes closed, without me controlling them, I felt my bugs fall back into their natural routines. I felt the ants respond to chemical trails that led them to food, felt patterns that weren't quite like the flowers I knew, heard strange tones that I knew should have been voices, felt the air move around flies that were dodging slaps from people. It was weird, withdrawing into their world like that, figuring out what was going on by using a thousand different senses from a thousand different species, each completely different from a human's. I felt a fly land on a glazed donut, that didn't taste anything like what I had been expecting from a donut, but was still delicious to the tiny little body eating it. I felt a butterfly land on someone's hat, thinking it was food because of the pattern of strange colours. I focussed on it, trying to figure out what made it choose to go there, what stimuli had motivated it, but as I paid more attention to it, it's senses became sharp and concrete in my mind, and I started to get a headache from the abnormal information feeding into my brain.
"You allright?" Cuff asked, a caring smile on her face. She must've noticed something.
"Yeah, just a headache. My powers," I replied.
"I thought only Thinkers got those?" she asked.
"Don't know about that. I mean, I know Tattletale used to get these massive migraines, but I'm not quite sure how that works. I just get headaches trying to actually see through my bugs. They have weird eyes that don't work how you'd expect them to."
"Oh, that's gotta be annoying. Do you, like, see ultraviolet and infrared? I saw a documentary about flowers once, and they said there were lots of weird colour patterns on them we couldn't see."
"Maybe, that might be part of it, my brain not knowing how to see those colours, but I think it's the faceted eyes too, maybe. It's been getting better. I mean, when I just triggered, I spend a few days in the mental ward because I couldn't shut them out, and just felt things crawling everywhere."
"Oh, I'm sorry. Do you want to talk about it?" Cuff asked, nicely.
"Not really. I'm… trying to put that part of my life behind me. I mean, I miss my friends, a lot, but I don't miss the whole villain thing. Hurting people and making them fear you."
Cuff just nodded, unsure of how to reply.
"So, what's being a hero like?" I asked.
"Dunno really. Not what you'd think. Not what they make it look like on tv," she replied.
"In what way?"
"Mostly, it's boring. Patrols, learning regulations, safety stuff, meetings on possible new supervillains in town," she said, giving me a silly wink.
"So, do you regret joining then?"
"Not really. I mean, it's not like I ever wanted to be a hero, so there's not really anything to be disappointed in. I guess."
"What do you mean? Were you arrested or something?"
"Not really. I mean, it's complicated. It was… let's just say you're not the only person who lost a lot to the Endbringers. I… I wanted to fight them, wanted revenge, but the thing is, I'm not much of a fighter. I spend half of my few fights trying to bring myself to do something, and then by the time I build up the courage it's already over. So, I guess I don't mind not having to do a lot of that stuff, instead just training for stuff that's probably never going to happen."
"Stuff that's not going to happen?"
"I mean, like, we all know the Endbringers, how they're probably going to kill everyone. How us parahumans are probably the only thing that can stand up to them. I think, maybe, that that's why there's parahumans, you know? The planet defending itself from these all-destroying invaders by giving us powers, and us then abusing them. So, if we have to fight Endbringers, why are they teaching us hand-to-hand combat? I mean, do they expect me to perform a Tombstone on the Simmurgh or something?"
I thought about it for a second. From what Harry had told me, and for some strange reason I believed him, parahumans and Endbringers were probably related. Parahumans, however, most definitely weren't some sort of natural defence mechanism. There was very little natural about the thing I had seen, chained and locked up in Harry's mind.
"You learned how to do the Tombstone?" I asked her.
"If only. Lieutenant Murphy, the woman giving the classes? She's a real hard-ass in class. Especially to me and Grace. Grace likes it, learning all that stuff, but I think Murph's going hard on my cause of my Brute stuff."
"I thought you were a metallokinetic?" I asked her.
"Well, yeah, but I got this minor Brute thing going on too. Murphy says it means I have amazing joints, something about my ligaments being unnaturally sturdy, stuff like that. Nothing that would protect me from a bullet, but it's enough to make sure I never twist my ankles or anything like that."
"Sounds pretty sweet. I mean, I just got my bugs, and that's it."
"Yeah, but you've never had to do a hundred push-ups because of that. Trust me, it gets really boring after the first fifty or so."
"I guess, but it's not like villains don't have hand-to-hand classes. Brian pounded me hard," I said, before realizing what words just left my mouth.
"Really?"
"No… he saw me as more of a sister… all the physical contact was fun though, strong sweaty guys grappling with you."
"Tell me about it, you should see Tecton out of his armour. Trust me; he's a looker, especially for a Tinker."
"Like, stupid muscles? Or just well-toned?"
***
I had to admit, talking to Cuff, to Ava, like that had been fun. Sure, I had Lisa, but whenever I talked to Lisa, it always seemed like she was in charge, explaining stuff to me, instructing me in the ways of supervillainy. Maybe it was unfair to do that, Lisa was a good friend, a great one, but she herself had admitted her powers messed with her brain a bit, making her functionally asexual. It was probably worse now that she was a ghost, although I'd have to figure out exactly who this Bob person was she'd been talking to.
Rachel had been nice too, but she was very, well, special. Not in the bad way, but in the descriptive way. The one time I'd talked boys with her, she'd advised me to go up to Brian and just ask him to have sex with him, although she'd somehow said so in an even cruder way.
With Ava, I'd just had a half-hour conversation on superhero butts, without any political bullshit around it. It had been fun, which led to me laughing, which led to my ribs hurting, which led to me realizing that morphine was amazing.
What I'd also noticed was that, when my mind was fucked up on opioids, the data from my bugs didn't hurt as much. I dimly remembered something like that happening before, after one of Bakuda's bombs had fried my nervous system, I think. It was all a bit fuzzy, what with the damage to my nervous system.
I laid back in my bed, and started observing the building, vaguely seeing shapes move around.
I looked at the lobby, spotting people walking back and forth. In the building next to it was the merchandising store, selling t-shirts, mugs, posters, and a whole lot of Myrrdin memorabilia.
Say what you want about the way he acts, it gets people buying stuff, and that's at least part of what the PRT wants. There were fake wizard robes, with a smaller Wanton-based set as well. They sold pentacle-hangers, wizard staffs, and a little bracelet with tiny Protectorate shields on it, mimicking the one Harry had on his left hand.
Then there were the action figures. I could make out Revel with her lantern, Myrddin with his big robe and staff, a larger new figurine of Campanile, and what I was quite sure was a Tecton with removable power-armour, dressed in some sort of spandex-like undersuit. The tiny plastic butt was well-defined, although that could have just been marketing.
In another room, one that was well-secured and only contained two flies total, I could sense an interrogation. The hexenwolf, the one Harry had caught in his banishment spell, was sitting there, chained up, being interviewed by someone that must have been the director, and Tattletale's floating drone. Nearby, I felt the belt he had been using in a containment room. Apparently, it was black magic, corrupting the mind of the user. By the vitriolic behaviour of the captured criminal, I could believe that.
I started putting flies on the back of everyone's heads, trying to get a sense of how everything worked in the offices. Someone would walk in, talk to the people at the reception, and then either take a seat in the lobby, waiting for their appointment, or walk right on through the building, usually with an escort, but not always.
The people walking around without an escort usually had a lanyard with a card attached to it, showing it to people at various security checkpoints, often with an additional piece of ID. From the way the checkpoints were set up, the medical bay was quite deep into the building, covered by a lot of security. It made sense, this was probably both where they treated villains and their own, meaning they needed it secure to protect from escapes, as well as to defend the people lying here.
One of the people I'd been following, a professional-looking woman with a toned physique, was making her way deeper into the building, in the direction of the medical bay. I wouldn't have thought anything off it, but every now and then she stood still, sniffing the air or something like that, I wasn't quite sure. Then, she'd take a turn again, and start sniffing at the next corner.
"Cuff, there's someone acting weird, I'm not sure why, but I don't trust it."
"What do you mean?" she asked
"It's this woman; she keeps smelling the air, coming closer."
"You think it's one of them?" she asked, and I could hear the fear in her voice. It'd been true, she wasn't much of a fighter.
"Probably," I replied as I started to gather bugs in the walls and vents nearby, preparing for battle.
If this was a rematch, I couldn't let her get closer to me.
I looked at the checkpoint closest to me, with two troopers standing next to a door somewhere, and started using my bugs to write something on the floor in front of them.
"Suspicious person" was the text I wrote, with an arrow pointing towards the strange woman.
They said something to each other, called something in over the radio, and followed the arrows, leading them to the woman.
They talked to her, probably asking for ID and being bureaucratic obstructionists. She responded by yelling at them angrily, in a way that reminded me of the man sitting in an interrogation room nearby. I couldn't exactly understand what they were saying, but she was angry, I knew that.
Something happened, one of the men said something that triggered her, and she reached for something at her side.
I could only barely make out the belt hidden below her suit jacket, when she turned into a large, sturdy wolf, clawing at the two troopers.
"She's one of them!" I yelled, and I send forth my bugs.
The troopers had almost immediately recovered, and started firing at the wolf, which responded by dashing through them, turning a corner with incredibly agility, only to crash headfirst into a swarm of biting, stinging insects.
The wolf howled out in pain, and Ava winced, holding herself to a wall. Luckily, she was having a hard time figuring out which room we were in. The hospital smell probably didn't help, especially with her enhanced nose.
Around the building, I noticed people running towards our position, ready to react to the infiltrator, but they were too late, only halfway there when the wolf smashed through the door of the room I was in.
From my position, sitting up in the bed, I could clearly see her murderous eyes, seeping fluids both clear and red from the bugs biting and stinging at it. Blood seeped from her wounds, but she wasn't down yet. Maybe she was mentally too far gone to feel the pain, maybe she just didn't care.
"I don't get it. What're you trying to accomplish here? Your buddy already got arrested. The jig is up," I taunted.
She snarled in anger, unable to make human sounds through her inhuman jaw. I could easily figure out what it meant though. She was going to try and kill me. This was just what I wanted. Before she could pounce on me, Ava smashed a heavy piece of medical equipment into her. She was launched across the room into another expensive looking machine I didn't recognize.
I heard a loud snap, and what I thought was the sound of her bones cracking, but it apparently hadn't been enough. The beast, not yet defeated, turned towards Cuff, snarling at her, blood and spit being launched through the air.
Ava screamed, and curled up in a ball in the corner. I couldn't expect more back-up from her, she was too afraid for that.
Having scared the girl, the wolf turned towards me, its beastly jaw grinning in a way that was far too human for something of its shape. I looked over her, seeing the places where my bugs had removed the fur and torn into the flesh, and where quickly growing boils covered the skin. One of her front paws was broken, the bone visibly piercing the skin, but it ignored the wound completely.
Sure, she wasn't as big as Rachel's dogs had been, but she was actually coming for me.
My bugs, covering almost its entire body in a desparate attempt to stop it, told me it was going to move before my eyes could see it. Almost instinctively, I rolled away from her just as she pounced, and while was soaring through the air, I managed to clear the hospital bed, landing on the ground with a painful thud.
The hexenwolf, having misjudged its leap, flew over my head, crashing into another piece of medical equipment, something big and electronic.
It shook its head, and looked at me again with that impossible smile, happy, even though it's face had been torn apart by my minions. Slowly, she got ready to pounce, and go for the kill. This time, however, I wouldn't be able to dodge. Time seemed to slow down as I looked at my impending death, desperately trying to find a way out.
My eyes flitter around the room, looking for a solution but not finding one. People were running towards us, but they wouldn't be there in time. There weren't any weapons around either. My combat knife, extendable baton and pepperspray were safely locked away in my utility compartment, which was in a storage locker somewhere.
The room itself didn't give me any options either. The bed had been secured to the ground, and the furniture was solidly built into the walls. The only thing I could think of was the piece of electronics the wolf was still standing in.
I could see the exposed wires, could see that they were probably charged, I just had to find a way to get them to touch each other, or rather, to both touch the hexenwolf.
Maybe I could create some sort of replacement wire out of bugs? Line them up and use them as a conductor?
The beast smiled, blood and drool seeping past its lips, onto some of the exposed wires, creating a small spark.
If only that spark somehow managed to make its way to the beast, I thought. I tried with some bugs, but they electricity stopped me from properly controlling them.
For the second time, I felt the beast shift ever so slightly, getting ready to pounce, and I knew that this time, I was done for.
If only those wires had fallen just a little differently.
Suddenly, the small spark grew into a bigger one, connecting two of the wires. Then, out of nowhere, the electrical spark started lashing out, connecting to each and every one of the bugs swarming the hexenwolf, frying them, and the beast with it, encased in some sort of electrical webbing.
Half a second later, the arc of electricity shifted to a wire in the wall, arcing through it, as well as connecting to the rest of the machinery and the electrical lighting, each and every bit of electrical energy returning to the wolf, making it spasm uncontrollably, and give off the smell of burning fur.
Then, Ava, having gathered her courage again now that the beast was stunned, dashed forward, punching with one of her massive metallic gauntlets, which she had formed into a metal spike.
The beast, its muscles spasming, was unable to dodge, and Ava's hit went straight through its jaw, into its skull, splattering gore everywhere as the electricity subsided, leaving us in a completely dark room.
Then, it seemed like time started moving at its normal rate again. The two troopers I'd asked for help before dashed through the door, one of them trying to activate a flashlight, with the other having given up on his. At the same time, Cuff started screaming, having realized what she had just done, and the fire alarm noticed the smoke from the half-burning wolf, and decided to quench us in some stale water.
The guard without the flashlight ran for Ava, trying to calm down, while the other was still struggling with his flashlight.
Half a minute later, I saw a light appear, and my bugs told me it was Tecton, using a headlight build into his armour. As he entered the room, I started to see the mess we'd made in our short fight. The machinery, the bugs, and whatever had happened with the electricity arcing around.
Part of me thought I was dealing with a mysterious stranger acting as a guardian angel again, but something told me that that wasn't what was going on. There was something else there, and I was pretty sure I was responsible.
As Tecton approached and saw me lying on the ground, I nodded in Ava's direction. Tecton got the hint, and started comforting her, while one of the troopers, now able to see something, picked me up from the ground.
"Oww, ribs…" I said, and he shifted slightly getting me out of the room. Behind me, Tecton followed, holding a panicked Ava, and behind the two of them I could feel the wolf slowly start changing, part of the wolf-body sloughing off it into a strange liquid, leaving behind the woman, her head almost entirely destroyed by Ava's enhanced strike.
Around me, I could hear the troopers and other personnel chattering, making plans to secure the building, that sort of thing. The trooper holding me put me on a movable stretcher. As he did so, I sat up, but he pushed me down and insisted I stay there. Not feeling all that amazing, I was all right with that, and tried to relax through the hubbub around me.
From what I could gather, whatever had happened had destroyed most electronics in the building, leaving behind only Tecton's tinkertech tools. At first, I thought I'd somehow caused a power outage, but apparently stuff with batteries wasn't working anymore either. Some of them started arguing, something about Myrddin and an involuntary Shaker effect, but I was honestly too tired to follow the conversation. I'd been drifting away before we'd been interrupted, and the adrenaline wasn't enough to counter the wave of exhaustion coming over me.