The Glorious Demonhuntress
Skitter, Victoria decided for what must have been the fifth time, was weird.
At first, she'd thought so because the girl had been a creepy supervillain. Their first meeting involved Skitter holding a bank hostage with deadly spider bites, Amy smacking Skitter in the face with a fire extinguisher, Tattletwat going on about some sort of bullshit secrets, and Amy caving in to the wannabe psychic. Which was ridiculous, you'd need a brain the size of a barn to be a psychic.
Then again, you also needed an airplane to fly around in, so maybe the scientists in parahuman studies were just completely wrong. They probably didn't believe in magic either.
The second time Victoria had thought Skitter was weird was when the girl and her team of teenage bank robbers had randomly decided to attack a fundraiser, with half the Protectorate present. Which had been a phenomenally bad idea. The only thing that made it worse was the fact that they then proceeded to not actually steal anything.
It hadn't made any sense to her then, and recent revelations had only slightly improved that.
The third time she'd been surprised by the girl's behavior was during the Leviathan fight, when according to all accounts, she'd grabbed Armsmaster's new halberd and went into the melee with the creature for at least several seconds. It just hadn't been logical. According to Laserdream, she'd been useful in her scouting role, but did she think she hadn't been doing enough? Victoria could sympathize with that, she'd definitely felt bad during the Behemoth fight. Unlike against Leviathan, she hadn't been able to do all that much, what with Behemoth's kill aura bypassing her normally impervious forcefield.
The fourth time was during their first meeting in Chicago, where mega-Judas had decided to completely cover her in spit, far too happy to see someone he remembered again. Amy had touched her when helping her up, and almost immediately blurted out her secret identity in what must've been the most tactless meeting in the history of tactless meetings. They'd chatted afterwards, and Taylor had explained at least some of what had been going on in Brockton Bay with the Undersiders. Most of her excuse had been that Armsmaster was an asshole, which was understandable, and according to the Chicago PRT she'd turned over a new leaf as a vigilante. Which just brought to mind all kinds of questions as to why, if she was going to betray them, she was still hanging out with a ghost version of Tattletwat, because even death wouldn't shut that girl up.
And now, it turned out that Myrddin was an actual wizard, the gang with the crazy vampire team was an actual group of vampires, and Taylor was learning magic and summoning fairies called Toot, before bribing them with hamburgers.
Needless to say, she hadn't been as shocked as she should've been.
Susan however, she decided, was one of the most decidedly normal people she'd met so far. Attractive, confident, intelligent, and not a secret supervillain or something like that. Probably.
After all, she was a journalist, and if Aleph comic books had taught her anything, it was that mild-mannered journalists were all secretly Alexandria.
She looked at the woman once more, looking for traces of perfect Kryptonian skin cells, and found nothing. Which was exactly what she'd see if this woman was actually secretly Alexandria. After all, it would be foolish to look perfect in civilian guise if you were known for having skin that was too invulnerable to need skin-care products.
Then again, Alexandria probably wasn't dating Myrddin, because Alexandria probably wouldn't keep her boytoy all the way over in Chicago, and because Myrddin was already dating Chevalier, at least in her headcanon. Sure, physical evidence of Myrddin's actual female girlfriend told her that that was wrong, but all those photoshopped pictures of the two of them together were just so damn cute…
Maybe thinking about all of that was why she was zoning out when the investigative journalist and her bug-controlling apprentice asked her a question.
"What?" she asked.
"We were asking if you had any ideas," Taylor said.
"Don't really know. Aunt Sarah did most of the investigative work back home, while I just went out and punched criminals until they told me what I wanted to know," Victoria replied.
"And that worked?" Myrddin's girlfriend asked.
"Usually? I can be pretty scary if I want to be," she said, thinking of the more overt application of her aura.
Technically, it only increased the fear that was already there, using it to draw information from a terrified gang member was really no different from asking questions to a drunk person.
Sadly, there had been no underwater monsters waiting on the floor of the bay, eating shipwrecks with Tabasco sauce.
"Don't think that will work here. What's happening doesn't fit the usual MO of the cities' major players, and lone gunmen are usually pretty hard to find," Susan said.
"So what, we wait for your tiny friend to come back with some info?"
"That, and we check other sources. PHO might know something about it even if most of what is posted there is hokum."
"Why is the person responsible for the article about Aegis being a flying ghoul calling others hokum?" Victoria asked.
"Because I needed to make rent," Susan replied.
"Good point," Victoria admitted. (Sure, she and Amy had been able to get by on their inheritance, but not everyone was able to do the smart thing and inherit all their money.)
"Victoria, I'm assuming you have a working phone?" Susan asked.
"Yep, newest model, and I didn't fall for that whole microwaving thing!" she said proudly. Eric had been so pissed, the idiot.
"Good. Because apparently," Susan said, motioning towards her laptop. "The victims so far have all been homeless. If you two go ask some questions in the local community, I'll do some more research, call some sources, and get back to you when I find something.
"Good idea," Taylor said. "Though I should probably go get changed."
The wizard's apprentice disappeared behind a door while Victoria gave her number to Susan.
About fifteen minutes later, she returned, now clad in skin-tight silk, which wasn't as exciting as it sounded. First of all because it was much thicker than the phrase 'silk fabric' usually called to mind, secondly because it was covered in armor plates, and finally because, if she had to be honest about it, Taylor just did not have an amazing body
The costume did, however, transform her. Without it, Victoria thought, Taylor looked somewhat insecure, maybe even shy. A perpetual wallflower reading a book while everyone else was having fun at a party. In costume however, she commanded attention. The inhuman mask and the great swarms of bugs that accompanied her made her into someone that could not be ignored. Someone decisive that could enact her will upon the world around her. It was, she thought, the complete opposite of herself.
Sure, she had a cape name and a costume. But even compared to the rest of her family, Victoria was the same person as Glory Girl. Putting on the tiara and the dress didn't feel like a costume change, like pretending to be someone else, and without her mother and aunt getting on her case, she'd caught herself flying around without it more and more often. The biggest reason she wore it these days was because without it, the people of Chicago wouldn't immediately recognize her as a cape like they'd done back in Brockton Bay.
Two hours, four drunks, a set of junkies, a veteran that claimed to be from the Napoleonic wars (French side) and a masturbating bum later, they'd found very little of use. Yes, there had been disappearances, but not more than usual in a city like Chicago, and none of them could be tracked back to someone in a dark cloak and a crazy mustache, or whatever the bad guy would end up wearing.
"Well this sucks," Victoria said.
"I just wish Tattletale would wake up, she'd have this whole thing figured out in a couple of minutes," Taylor replied.
"What's with you and that girl anyway?" Victoria asked.
Taylor went silent for a bit, thinking about the remark.
"She… she was there for me when I really needed someone. I know it might not look like much from your perspective, but that meant a lot to me."
"Enough that you can forgive the supervillainy?" Victoria asked.
"There were… extenuating circumstances, you should probably ask her instead, it's not my story to tell."
"Extenuating circumstances huh… do all you ex-villains have those?" Victoria asked.
"Most of us? I guess? I'm pretty sure that Mockshow girl just doesn't give a shit though."
"So she stopped being a villain because it's more convenient that way?"
"I think so? I mean, part of my reason for capering was escapism, so it's not like have the right to say anything."
Their conversation was interrupted by a small light appearing from the sky, and dropping in front of them. Quickly, the light was joined by another, then another, and another, until the alley was filled with tiny floating lights that coalesced into tiny faeries. Victoria tried counting them, but there had to be more than a hundred of them there.
"You're back already? Does that mean you found something?" Taylor asked them.
Toot-Toot, commander in chief of the group of tiny fairies, nodded in confirmation.
"It was a bit tricky, cause I couldn't get enough of them to help because usually Harry offers pizza!" Toot replied.
Vicky looked around, there were a hundred of them, and Toot had had a hard time recruiting?
"Fuck…" Skitter suddenly said.
"What is it?" Vicky replied.
"Just… make sure to get them those Challengers you promised? It's a bad idea to break deals with faeries," she said.
Vicky did some quick calculations. On one hand, two hundred of the massive challengers would be a bit over a thousand bucks, so it was affordable but expensive. On the other hand, she wasn't quite sure how Bob would react after asking for two hundred burgers at a time. Was there an extra catering charge?
"You mean, like, deal with the devil bad?" Victoria asked.
"Well, it's just a burger, so it won't give them much power over you, but they take debts really seriously," Skitter said.
"Anyway, you guys find our guy?"
"Uh-huh," Toot-Toot nodded. "It took a while, but we managed to find a guy doing a whole lot of black magic out by the Harbor, it was really interesting. Lots of fun stuff."
"What was he doing?" Skitter asked.
"Well, there was a lot of kissing and all the other stuff, so we got kind of distracted," Toot answered.
"Oh great, he's got a cult," Skitter said.
"That's bad?" Victoria asked.
"Probably yeah. There's a lot of magical power in emotions, and if he's got a cult, he's using their emotions to feed his magic to make him even stronger."
"Can you lead us there Toot?"
"Sure thing!" the little faerie said enthusiastically.
Half an hour later, they found themselves at the lakeside, looking at a small warehouse from a distance. Something was definitely going on, and Skitter was using her bugs to investigate the area.
"You find anything yet?" Victoria asked.
"It's most definitely the place. Lots of dark magic around, as well as circles and focusses, and an orgy I don't want to take a closer look at," Taylor supplied. "Haven't found the guy himself though, but it just reeks of dark magic in there."
"Good, I'll call it in. Let's not go in there without backup," Victoria said, grabbing her phone from her pocket.
She pressed the button, and waited for the screen to turn on. It wasn't working, which was weird because it was fully charged when she picked it up while changing clothes. In addition to that, she wasn't Eric, so it should have been working.
"Skitter?" she asked.
"What? I'm scouting," Skitter replied. "It's hard to keep track of everything."
"Still? I thought you could control, like, all the bugs?" Victoria said. From what she'd seen back in Brockton Bay, the girl could easily control thousands of bugs, so scouting one building couldn't be that difficult right?"
"It's a magic thing. It's complicated, but basically, I sacrificed most of my multi-tasking in order to make sure that my mind wasn't affected by my powers too much."
"And that works?" Victoria asked.
"I think so. I mean, the bugs aren't reacting to my subconscious as much as they were before, and my range doesn't change with my emotions these days, so the mental influence should be under wraps," the bug girl explained.
"Huh… weird."
"Why?"
"Because it sounds sort of similar to what that girl, Ingenue, did, only she made people less stable in return for better powers. Say, you think that magic of yours could help me with my aura? Maybe I could finally do stealth."
"Wouldn't work," Skitter answered. "Can't do magic on someone else's mind, there's a whole wizard police that comes after people for that sort of stuff."
"There's a wizard police?" Victoria said, shocked by the revelation. Just how widespread was magic if wizards had their own police force?
"Yeah, they're called Wardens. They hunt down dark wizards, that kind of stuff. Myrddin told me they're really strict though, not even permitting stuff like self-defense most of the time."
"Hey Skitter," Victoria said, turning her body towards the girl. A serious undertone was in her voice.
"Look, can I just scout please?" Skitter replied, annoyance in her tone..
"Well no. Because I want to know something first."
Skitter looked at her, and Victoria imagined she was having one of those 'what-evahhh' facial expressions beneath the creepy mask. She probably didn't, because Taylor wasn't the type of girl to be all that expressive, or to have a valley-girl accent, but Victoria imagined her behaving like that anyway.
"So, if there's a group of wizard cops, whose entire raison d'etre is to kill dark magicians, why the fuck are we hunting down this guy?" Victoria asked.
Skitter looked back at her, and Victoria could see her own reflection in the orange lenses of the girl's mask.
"Because they're all in New Delhi, dealing with the aftermath of the attack," Skitter explained.
"And they couldn't just teleport over here to help out?" Victoria asked her, although it was starting to sound less like a question and more like an accusation.
"Look, we can deal with this ourselves okay? No reason to get them involved."
Victoria thought about it for a bit. Sure, she could understand the sentiment. She'd disliked having to call in help from the rest of New Wave, and all of New Wave had disliked having to call in help from the Protectorate. Then again, before she'd figured out her six hundred dollar phone broke, they'd been planning to call in the Protectorate anyway, so why not the magic cops? Had Taylor done something that was magically illegal? Were they all really smelly british men with bad teeth? Was the leader of the wardens Taylor's ex boyfriend and was it all really awkward? She certainly remembered not calling in the Wards when she was in the off-again phase of her relationship with Gallant.
"So, how's the scouting going?" she asked.
"Again, it'd be a lot easier if you managed to shut up for just a second," the irritated supervillain said.
"Fine..." Glory Girl said, preparing herself mentally. Not having a phone wasn't a problem. She'd memorized one of the more obscure numbers for the local PRT, which would mean she just needed to beat up one of the criminals and take their phone to get a direct link with whoever was in charge of troop movements right now.
"I think we have a problem," Skitter said. Before Victoria could reply, she continued: "I found the enemy, and he's got someone prisoner. Problem is, I think he also noticed me, as he's starting the ritual,"
"He's going to kill someone?" Victoria asked as she felt the adrenaline start coursing through her veins.
"Yes, but there's some sort of strange magical wards, and what I think is a demo-" Glory Girl immediately knew what to do. There was an enemy about to kill someone, and a villain to beat up. She'd taken flight before Skitter could finish her sentence, and was thinking of a plan while amping up her aura.
On her side, she had one of the more dangerous Shakers in the city. As long as it didn't have a Brute rating, Skitter could probably take it down. On the other side, an evil warlock with a horde of crazy minions that may or may not have been influenced to be there.
It seemed almost obvious. She'd fly in, aura cranked up fully. Skitter would join her with bugs, and the combination of natural arthropophobia and her own Shaker power would get rid of the mooks almost immediately. Then, she'd slam into the Warlock while the prisoner ran away. Even if the Warlock managed to get away somehow, his forces would have been scattered, and his prisoner freed.
Her massive burst of speed brought her through the parking lot in a flash, and when she crashed through the wall of the warehouse, she saw the first line of enemies.
Half-naked, drugged and drunk, the assembled followers were doing just about everything that got you killed in a horror movie. Now that Glory Girl was in their midst, followed by a small swarm of horrifying bugs, that included running into random objects and walls, as well as splitting up.
She looked around the warehouse. It was large, open, and mostly empty except for whatever the homeless people slash minions slash orgy people had been using. In the middle of the building however, was a closed shipping container. That wasn't the weird part. The weird part was the elaborate circle around the container, drawn in blood. Runes, Celtic knots, and other things Victoria couldn't categorize, but almost instinctively knew were probably related to black magic.
Skitter's swarm of bugs joined her, though it was small. Smaller than it had been at the bank. Was that because of her magic? Or because there weren't all that many bugs in the area?
As the minions quickly left the area, Skitter's bugs started blanketing the ground near Glory Girl, but she ignored whatever it was. Someone needed rescuing, and they needed it now.
Glory Girl looked at the circle. Given what she'd seen from Taylor, it was a metaphysical barrier of sorts. And given that it was big, elaborate, and drawn in blood, it was probably powerful.
Then again, Dean had told her the PRT rated her as a Brute 6, which was most definitely powerful.
As Glory Girl charged for the circle, she saw the bugs still in a largely formless cloud on the floor, slowly trying to spell something out. Victoria didn't have the time to wait for it though, because whoever was locked in that container didn't have time to wait.
She aimed for her target, and flew forwards, fist in front of her, ready for impact.
The world exploded in light, noise and dust, and Victoria felt herself being launched back. When she opened her eyes again, she was still floating in the warehouse, only the warehouse now had a sun-roof, and the ground around the circle was scorched.
Her impact, however, had destroyed at least part of the circle, and she could see something happening to the container, that had somehow been untouched by the massive explosion.
The side of the container started melting, and once it began deforming, Victoria saw what looked only barely like a claw tear through it.
Once the claw was through, it was followed by a body made of what looked like molten glass, only it wasn't hot, just wrong. The creature, whatever it was, had two legs, and thick tail that helped it keep balance, Its arms stopped at the elbows, where they turned into several long sharp-looking claws, and instead of a face, it had a hole in its head.
The torso was made out of what looked like flowing glass, twisting around itself like a glassblower was handling it. The extremities were more defined, with scaly-looking patterns of solid matter.
Victoria was almost afraid, until she remembered what she'd just barely heard Skitter say. This was a demon. A real life for reals demon. A monstrosity born out of hellfire and darkness, or maybe a fallen angel, or maybe a human soul tortured into becoming evil, she wasn't quite sure on the specifics of reality's cosmology.
Either way, in just a few minutes, she'd be able to call herself a demonslayer.
The demon jumped, the three limbs connecting it to the ground extending all at once. Victoria debated internally what to do. She could probably tank it. Probably. If the glass of it's torso was sticky, or if it managed to grapple with her, then she might have a problem. In addition to that, this didn't look like an enemy that would be intimidated if she just stood there and accepted its strongest attack.
With the demon jumping towards her, she used her superior airborne mobility to dodge under it, twisting around it to fly upwards again, before shifting directions towards one of the walls of the warehouse that was still standing.
Before the demon hit the ground, she reached the wall, and started tearing a large metal support beam out of it, ready to use the massive hunk of steel as a weapon.
When she had it out, the demon was already on its way towards her, leaving a black, gloopy trail on the ground that didn't seem very healthy.
For the second time, the demon jumped. Victoria wasn't sure why. Either because it was stupid, and didn't understand that that wouldn't work, because it had no other options, or because it wanted to use the wall behind her to wall-jump immediately after she'd dodged, hitting her on the rebound.
Not that it mattered, because Glory Girl was not going to do the same thing twice. Wielding the heavy metal beam like a baseball bat, she smashed it into the airborne demon, launching it at the container with a ridiculous speed.
Satisfying as the crunch of a demon being thrown through iron was, it wasn't as satisfying as it would have been if she'd found some way to dunk it. Even after all the bad memories, Basketball was still the superior sport.
The demon, embedded into the side of the container, managed to tear itself free, destroying the structural integrity of the iron.
As the demon slowly limped towards Glory Girl, Victoria heard three things.
First of all, there was the sound of someone both crudely cursing and screaming in pain at the same time, somewhere in the middle of the torn container. Second, there was another, different person, cursing with slightly more self-respect. Third, there was an enormous buzzing behind her. She turned around, and saw a massive cloud of bugs coming towards the building from all sides.
Hadn't Taylor said she couldn't do that kind of multitasking anymore?
Putting the thought to the side for now, Glory Girl shifted her grip on the long piece of metal, holding it like a medieval jouster would. You know, if they could fly instead of ride horses.
Then, she made her way towards the demon, hoping to spear it on the tip, and get it away from whatever was happening inside.
Flying forwards, the demon seemed ready to face her head-on. Which was a problem, because she still wasn't entirely sure whether it was stupid or not. It could just be dumb enough to stand there and get hit, or it could have another trick up its sleeve.
Given that she really didn't want to get pulled into hell or anything like that, Victoria decided to be careful, and changed her charge into a throw at the last moment, before flying off to the side to get out of the way of a possible retaliation.
The demon first blocked the metal beam with one of its claw-arm things, the claws shattering on impact. When the beam hit its torso though, it just sank into the flowing dark glass, stopping halfway through its body, meaning the demon now had metal sticking out of both its front and its back.
As the army of bugs descended on the scene, whoever was screaming in pain became silent, and the other person, probably the warlock, was shouting even louder.
Except instead of screeching about unlimited power, he was just screeching about something having gone wrong.
It didn't matter, they were already too late, and Skitter was better equipped to handle whatever the warlock was capable of while Victoria handled the demon.
Glory Girl launched herself forward, and just before reaching the demon, and the steel beam, she launched herself down, crashing into the concrete, and launching a spray of sharp fragments forwards.
The tiny little fragments bounced off of the beam and the scaly parts, but they seemed to stick to the demon's body, the black stuff slowly glooping around them. She wasn't entirely sure if glooping was a word that existed, but then again, most people didn't believe in the existence of demons either.
The demon, confused by her manoeuvre, took the opportunity to charge her, but Glory Girl was prepared for that. She waited until it was close, and as its remaining arm slashed at her, she grasped it in her hands.
The demon, obviously surprised that her hands weren't reduced to bloody ribbons, suddenly spoke.
"Parahumans… You're all so annoying," it said in a harsh voice, with an accent that was impossible to place, given that it was probably in a dead language.
Shocked by the fact that the thing could speak, despite its lack of facial features, Victoria closed her hands tighter on the arm-claws, and flung the demon over her shoulder, away from the container that was now covered in a horde of glowing bugs that had small electrical sparks flowing between them.
Way to take the term bugzapper the wrong way Skitter, Victoria thought as she flew after the demon, which was trying, and failing, to get proper footing. The large hunk of metal interfering with its ability to get its feet under it.
As she soared towards it, she noticed shadowy tendrils flowing out of the trail the demon left behind, grasping at her. Luckily, they weren't strong enough to break through her forcefield, and they tore away while she kept flying.
The Demon was barely on its feet as Glory Girl grabbed it again, this time throwing it further, and higher, so that it would land outside of the building.
Then, in the few seconds that her opponent was flying through the air, she scouted ahead where it would land, and saw that it was a mostly empty parking lot next to the waterside.
As the demon crashed, something inside it seemed to break, and the metal beam dislodged itself. Steel removed, the molten glass of its body seemed to melt even further, and the trail below its body seemed to mix with the blood into a whirling mess of tentacles, while the hole where its face should be turned inside out, showing a mouth that was only recognizable as such because it contained a ridiculous amount of sharp teeth.
Which was useful, because unlike whatever the molten stuff of its body was, she knew she could crush those teeth.
"You fight well child, you will make a fine meal," the demon said.
Victoria replied by lifting a nearby car, and flying upwards, above the demon.
The demon, obviously seeing what was going to happen, changed strategies, and started launching its fang-like teeth, firing them like a rain of arrows.
It was a smart move, Victoria had to admit. Chasing after her hadn't worked, and her improvised weapons meant that it couldn't rely on winning the melee. However, while a machine gun could be dangerous to her, the teeth were more akin to arrows. Slow moving, and dodgeable.
When she thought she'd reached a high enough height, weaving between the volley of teeth, she turned around, and flew straight at the demon, shielding herself with the car. In response to the demon's insistence on eating her, she yelled her own battlecry: "Gloryyyyy" she yelled, staying on the y as she found out she'd started her yelling too early.
The projectile vomited teeth hit the metal of the car's roof, but it wasn't enough, and Victoria felt the hard bits of the demon being crushed, heard the crunching and the snapping as the car was smashed into her target. "Crush!" she finished her battlecry.
Victoria retreated, and saw the demon make its way out from underneath the car. This time however, it wasn't just bleeding, it was limping. Another such hit, she thought, and it'd be done for. As she walked towards a second car, the demon spoke again.
"You fought well, may I know the name of the woman that defeated me?" it asked.
Victoria thought about it. Old stories always said that names had power, but her own name was rather public, so it probably wouldn't hurt. Then, she got another idea. If names were power, she would get power in return.
"If you tell me yours," she spoke.
"Azorthragal," it replied.
Victoria lifted the car above her, and threw it at Azorthragal.
"Glory Girl!" she yelled, just before the heavy hunk of steel crashed into the demon. Almost immediately, she saw the mess of tentacles go inactive, and she headed back to the warehouse, where Skitter had been taking care of the warlock with her swarm.
She selected her target, bonded, joined, budded. But the offspring was already claimed by the partner of the host's mate. She looked around, finally finding a target in a relative, and budded. Communication was key, interchanging data with other shards for new possibilities. She finalized the budding.
Again, she communicated with a fellow shard. This time, there was panic and fear. An unknown danger, threatening to destroy the shard itself, through the host. Something was wrong, this was not as had been planned.
Within the warehouse, within the bug-swarmed broken container, something pulsated. Something twisted, made out of molded flesh. It looked like a mockery of life, ever growing, mutating with a sickness that was at the same time very wrong and very familiar. Flesh turned into scythes turned into eyes turned into mouths turned into flesh.