I sighed, putting down my books to take another sip of the steaming mug of tea. This whole paying attention thing really wasn't working out right now. I could be helping Harry and Lisa chase down the nightmarish spirit running around attacking. I could be helping mister Carpenter hunt down ghosts roused into attacking people, hell, I could even be studying anything but algebra.
But no, Revel insisted I get my G.E.D, and to get that, I'd need to master the material the same way I mastered my bugs.
No, bad Taylor, stop turning into Harry…
I leaned back in my chair, looking around the small coffee shop with my eyes, and taking stock of the area around it with my invertebrate armies. It was pretty late in the afternoon, and a combination of cold, rain, and quite possibly good instincts, kept people indoors, the streets emptier than they usually were at this hour. The little cafe was equally empty, with just a few guests on the ground floor beneath me, and no-one else taking a seat on the second floor.
It felt weird, doing nothing when I could be doing something. With the Undersiders, I'd gone from fighting Lung, to robbing a bank, to fighting Bakuda, to teaming up against the ABB, to attacking the fundraiser, to our scuffle with the Empire when their identities had been made public.
Compared to all of that in a manner of weeks, my time in Chicago had been rather dull. There'd been the whole werewolf thing, as well as Genoscythe's death, couldn't forget that one, literally. Using my wizard's sight for the pseudo-trigger event there hadn't exactly been a good idea, nor was thinking of it.
Satisfied that the room was empty, I put away my mathematics textbook, and pulled out my mathemagics textbook. Eb's work, which focussed on the movement and manipulation of energy, and the way that magic interacted with the laws of thermodynamics.
For a while now, it had been getting colder outside, making it more difficult for my bugs to stay active in the cold.
Were I Harry, I would have simply conjured a few fireballs, linked their heat to my bugs thaumaturgically, and then simply lobbed some more fireballs.
But I wasn't Harry, and I didn't have his energy reserves. I couldn't power through this with strength alone, so I'd need to get the energy from somewhere else. Problem was, if I used my body heat, I'd grow cold myself, and if I used an external source, I'd have to be very careful not to use too much heat, or I'd fry both the bugs and, with some bad luck, myself as well.
So, for the past few weeks, I'd been working on the thermal distribution equations. They were a painful reminder of lacking algebra skills.
***Of Monsters and Masquerades***
It was getting late, and the store had finally kicked me out for not buying anything in two shifts. Making my way through the streets, I checked ahead with my bugs, making sure there wasn't anything dangerous ahead. There was a dangerous spirit on the loose, and I really shouldn't have stayed out so late, but I'd gotten distracted by my studies.
It'd felt good, being able to lose myself into something intelligent, with a subject untainted by the trio's bullying.
The streets were even emptier than before, the weather and the late hour keeping people locked inside. I wished I'd had the foresight to do the same, but for now, my Skitter-cloak worked to keep me dry and warm.
Taking the scenic route through a small park, I noticed people at the edge of my range. A small group, moving with purpose, searching for something, or perhaps someone.
They weren't people I recognized, but it was easy to know who they were, or at least who they were aligned with. Half of them were junkies, people not caring for their clothes, their food or their health, they cared only for their next fix. In most places, that would be cocaine, or perhaps heroin. In Chicago? It was vampire spit, laced with everything you needed to stop caring and start giving away your blood. I hated it, the way they manipulated people, took advantage of their weaknesses. These guys? They weren't even really my enemies, they were the people that needed rescuing.
No, the enemies were the three other people with them. One of them was the type of person Coil had hired. Broad-shouldered, with a good stance, and hidden weaponry all over his body, hidden beneath a suit that was sure to be bulletproof. In addition to that, there was a vampire and, well, his floozy. THe vampire, hidden behind a skin-suit, I identified through my mosquitos, which were able to pick up on the blood still stuck on its teeth. The girl besides him, skimpily dressed with a scarf wrapped around her neck, was probably the source of the blood.
I wondered about her clothing choices, since they couldn't be comfortable in this weather. I knew the White Court was actually into the whole sexy vampire thing, but did members of the Red Court also have urges? Did they simply surround themselves with pretty people for aesthetic reasons?
I kept a few thousand eyes on them, trying to figure out what to do about this. Did I call it in? Get reinforcements? Ask Harry or Revel for help? Show them that all I was good for was scouting out enemies?
No, all things considered, I was basically on a routine patrol, and I'd come across them by accident. Plus, I was still about a thousand feet away from them, and they had no idea where I was.
Checking to see if there was anyone looking at me, I opened my book-bag's largest compartment, grabbing mask and implement. I wouldn't have the time to put on all my gear, but the protective spells on my cloak that protected me from the weather would also work against were far more effective than the armored design I'd made back in the basement had been.
Then, kitted out with my focus, a chain of silk wound through differently enchanted beads of assorted materials, I started gathering my swarm around the vampire squad, moving them through places where the rain and the cold wouldn't get at them.
Out of sight for them, a horde of insects started preparing, the spiders spinning cords of silk, the fliers taking up position where they could drop a variety of payloads, mostly other bugs. The biggest problem would probably be the armed man they had with them. A shotgun, a handgun, and what I thought was probably a flashbang on his belt. I was more worried about him drawing his weapons and firing wildly than anything else. The others? They didn't even really register.
They walked on, checking different alleyways as I prepared my spell. Then, as the frontmost of their group entered an alleyway in which I had a sizeable army, I swarmed them.
Flies and cockroaches formed the bulk of the swarm, but within the groups were stronger fliers carrying strings of spider silk. The same type of silk that had been roped through the beads of my focus. I whispered the magic words, adding a please for good measure as my minions flew around my enemies.
Energy flowed from me, through the connection provided by my shard, into my bugs. It followed the flow of the lines of silk, strengthening them and providing extra material from ectoplasm. They were shouting now, panicking as an intelligent swarm attacked them, getting in between their clothes, stinging their arms the moment they tried to go for their weapons.
I smiled, this was just too easy. Within seconds, the group was taken out, and I was creating more silk to hang them from a traffic pole, the way superheroes in movies in Aleph always did. Then, without warning, the girl I'd thought was just portable lunch suddenly disappeared, immediately appearing a few dozen meters in front of her old position. She'd brought along the normal silk, as well as the bugs I'd had on her body, the same way Oni Lee had done. The magical silk though, she'd left behind, where it now laid useless on the ground. She took a few seconds to strike at bugs on her body, smashing before she returned to the middle of my swarm, in the position she'd disappeared from.
Annoying, but not impossible to deal with, as long as I could figure out how exactly she worked. What did she carry along? Did she need sight of her target? Could she decide how long she staid?
I went to work, using real silk to target the area around her eyes, while using my magic to keep her occupied otherwise.
"Fulgur," I spoke, charging my bugs. I wasn't necessarily strong when it came to raw magic power, but I hit her point blank from over a hundred different directions, sending her into a spasming fit. It took a fair amount of energy, but it seemed to help in incapacitating her.
Rolling over the ground, she tried to teleport again, appearing a few feet away from her starting position, a bit above the ground, leading to an immediate fall to the floor.
She needed concentration to target, and I was taking that away. This would work, as long as I could get her completely disabled without inflicting permanent damage. Which was easily said, but would take me a bit to actually do.
After half a minute or so, the girl stopped teleporting around, having her herself too much with her ineffective teleports. I breathed out a sigh of relief, and was about to go looking for a phone, when I noticed a flaw in my plan.
The young woman hadn't been my principle opponent. She'd been the distraction. While I'd been dealing with the parahuman, the Red Court Vampire had escaped its flesh-suit, and the silk binding it, somehow.
I dispersed the swarm that had been attacking, using them to look through the area, adding in more bugs that had still been hiding in buildings. They were sluggish, and had some difficulties with the increasing rain, but I had a rough read on where he would be, so the area I'd have to cover was much smaller than the entirety of my range.
Quite quickly, I found him, closer than he'd been before, smelling at the air while his paws were busy with a device in his hands.
A phone, the screen not working correctly when confronted with the pouring rain and his clawed hands. Was he sending a message? Trying to call someone? Either way, I'd have to put a stop to him, so I'd have to use one of the simplest tricks I knew.
"Hexus" I spoke, my mind connecting to the flies that had found the vampire, and the effect spreading from there, instantly destroying the device.
I'd done something right, because the threw it away in anger, breathed in through his nose some more, and started running.
Straight towards me… That was less than optimal. Quick as a fly, I went through my backpack, looking for something I'd normally put in my utility compartment. A small inscribed piece of wood, thaumaturgically linked to two others, one located in the PRT base, another in a police station across town. I send a small magical pulse through it, attracting the other two sticks, which would point my way and alert someone to the change. It wasn't as good as a phone, but it would give the PRT my position, and I could actually keep it working for longer than a day or two.
Knowing someone would be on his way to help out and pick up the trash, I got out my combat knife, and prepared myself for the vampire's arrival.
It escaping had been annoying. Sure, I could try again, but my swarm was hampered by the weather, and I didn't have my full energy reserves. If I failed here, I probably wouldn't be able to cast if the vampire actually reached me, so it was probably best to let him approach first, allowing me to take follow up my magical attack with a blade and my fists. I'd trained with Lieutenant Murphy in the last few months, and I was pretty confident in my hand-to-hand skills. I wasn't going to be defeated by a single vampire the way I'd been humiliated after meeting Harry for the first time.
It'd take a minute or so for my swarm to make its way to my position, but I was protected and armed, and had a small group of them around me to assist in my spellcasting. Harry had recommended that I get myself a gun for cases just like this, but Revel had nixed that. All fine and good from a PR perspective, but a .44 caliber gun would really help out right about now. I was just happy I still had my knife, which I was pretty sure wouldn't be allowed if I'd joined the Wards.
I spotted the vampire, slavering drugged saliva from its mouth as it crawled along the ground, teeth long and white. Its skin was limy, the layer normally between its true body and the human form still clinging to it, the thick liquid providing it a measure of protection from my bugs.
"What do you want, vampire?" I asked, standing up with my knife in my hand.
It reacted, standing upright, observing me.
"Skitter, I presume?" it asked, the words slightly slurred by its deformed mouth. "We've been looking for you,"
Well, that wasn't something I wanted to hear. Why were the vampires after me? Wasn't it Harry they had a problem with? Or did they want to get at him through me? I knew the ghost-killer Harry had met last night was after me, so did this mean the vampires and the killer ghost were working together?
"Well, I haven't been looking for you," I replied. "Now leave, or I'll make you leave."
"Big words for a little girl," it said, its tongue flicking around its mouth, wetting its lips.
This was going to be difficult. I wasn't sure if I had the magical mojo to spell it down, and the majority of my swarm was still making its way towards me. I could try to buy some time, but there was no guarantee that would help, and vampires were generally smart enough to see a blatant play for time coming. That left me with one more option. Rush in and take it down, using its own strength against it.
"Lucky for you, I know even bigger ones," I replied. "Fulgur!" I shouted as I dashed forwards, lightning zapping along the wet exterior of the vampire. It wasn't affected to the degree the cape had been, either because its skin had a higher resistance than a human, or simply because it was more resilient. It was, however, a useful distraction.
The beast tried to strike at me, its aim wildly off, and the knowledge my bugs gave me meant he wasn't going to hit me by accident. I dove beneath the strike, bringing up my knife and slashing its arm open.
Almost immediately, it cried out, taking a step back to reorient before dashing back towards me. It was angry, blood seeping from its arm as it bared its fangs and swiped at me with his other hand.
It was faster than me, but I had bugs all over its body to track its movement, and had experience fighting Tera West, whose predatory instincts were far more refined than those of this thing.
I danced past the strike, bringing my cloak in between us, covering it and the area with bugs to take away his sight of me while I could keep track of him through my power.
Was this any other day, I would've gone for the belly instead, the place where they stored the blood of their victims. Open that up, and you literally bled them dry. But I'd been feeling especially useless today, and I wasn't going to lose to a Red.
I took a few mosquitos, guiding them to my blade as I put a small magical energy signature on them to keep track of which ones they were. If nothing else, it would be useful to have some of this thing's blood in case I needed to use thaumaturgy on it.
The vampire clawed wildly at my cloak, hoping to use its overpowering strength and speed to take me down, but speed meant very little if your enemy could figure out your moves just as fast as you could. I ducked down again, this time kicking out. The blow made contact, striking at the vampire's maybe-ankle right as it puts its weight on it.
Ligaments tore, and the vampire's limb twisted in a way I was quite certain it wasn't supposed to, destroying the joint.
The creature, no longer able to support its own weight, fell, and I held my combat knife up, letting gravity poke out the creature's eye.
I let go once the knife was in and took a step back while the vampire flailed around wildly, only increasing the damage done by the blade stuck in its eye socket.
It wasn't down yet, but I still had my combat baton, and my swarm was almost here. A few more well-aimed strikes, and I'd have a high-ranking prisoner. He'd been turned, given actual immortality instead of just promises and addictive substances.
The vampire rolled over, pulling the blade from its eye and stood up again, heaving and moaning, its tongue hanging out of its horrid mouth.
I took a single step forwards, my enhanced spatial awareness making sure he was just on the edge of my range, and made a large sweep with my crowbar, striking the beast in its temple. I then took a step back, manoeuvring myself so that I could retrieve my knife from the ground. The spellcasting and fighting was starting to tire me out, and I'd have to end this quickly.
The vampire lunged, but my ever-increasing swarm obscured its vision, and it aimed to the side of me. I took advantage of its mistake, swinging my baton underhanded into the creature's stomach just as it thought it would be clawing at my face.
The beast rolled over, unable to scream as blood seeped from its mouth. I kicked it over, placing it on its back, then stomped on its belly again, the liquid sloshing around wildly inside of it.
As most of my swarm finally arrived, I set it to the creation of more silk to bind my captive while I took a much-needed breather, and used the bugs I'd left behind to check on my other prisoners. They were still stuck, the junkies rolling around to escape while the cape was too hurt to try and the mercenary had simply given up.
I finally retrieved my knife from the ground, looking at the bound vampire before scouting the area. In my hurry to gather reinforcements towards me, I'd been forced to sacrifice coverage for density, and I'd lost sight of quite a few streets and alleyways.
The streets were empty, emptier than I'd expected the night before Halloween, and somewhere in my fight with the vampire, the streetlights had gone out, probably while I'd hexed the phone. I hadn't really noticed because I was used to fighting in the dark, having been in a team with Grue.
I send out my swarm again, spreading through the nearby streets while I waited for reinforcements to arrive, hoping I hadn't missed anyone else sneaking up on me.
I had.
Somehow, the group I'd just taken out had managed to get a message through, either from the vampire, or through some other method, and now, people were approaching from all sides, stalking through the alleyways and streets.
A lot of effort for a lone vigilante, but the one I'd taken out had already said they'd been looking for me.
I called my swarm to me, hoping that reinforcements would quickly arrive while looking for an escape route. There was a nearby entryway to the undertown, just half a block away, if I could reach that, I'd be able to…
I ran, trained legs sending me forwards into a nearby alleyway, where I knew two vampires were waiting, one in its flesh-suit, the other clinging to a wall on the side in its true form.
The standing man opened fire the moment I turned the corner, the bullets smashing into my hardened cloak. It held but the impact hurt and I wasn't sure if I'd cracked a rib or not as I was thrown back just a bit by the impact.
Normally, the thing in movies where people flew back after getting hit by a shotgun was nonsense. With a vampire? Using a gun powerful enough that normal humans couldn't actually use it? Perfectly reasonable.
As I stumbled to get my feet properly under me, the second vampire pounced, hoping to take me by surprise. Luckily, my bugs perfectly informed me of its movements, and I managed to hold out my knife like a spear meeting a cavalry charge, the sharp tip meeting the beast's fat belly.
Crawling out from under the vampire, the flesh-suit stepped forward and grabbed my cloak while i was still distracted, and lifted me up.
"Annoying little bitch!" he spat out in equal measures of saliva and words. I held my lips carefully pressed together until he was done speaking, and replied with a single word answer.
"Fulgur!"
Lightning raced through the vampire's body, and I managed to twist myself out of its grip, running past it in exhaustion without taking the time to disable it. The rest of the horde was now hot on my heels, and I didn't have the time.
Running through the alleyway, I sensed them turning the corner behind me, and was promptly thrown backwards, landing ass-first on the ground.
Telekinetics? I stood up again, obscuring the area behind me with my swarm as I noticed a glowing line on the ground in front of me, one I remembered seeing before.
Turning around, I saw one of the vampires step out in front of the others. It wasn't wearing human skin, and it looked somehow even more disgusting than the others, its teeth rotten and missing, Its skin pale and it was missing its slime in some places.
"Why are ya runnin Skits?" Skidmark asked. "Aren't we all bloodsuckers here?"
I swallowed a lump that was coming up in my throat, and felt a vague sense of shame that I would ever be afraid of Skidmark of all people, even if he'd turned and was now leading a small army of vampires.
"Speak for yourself shit-for-brains," I replied, wiping my knife clean on the edge of my cloak. I'd stopped trying to bring the phone towards me, instead trying to call 911 on it at a distance. This was going to be a problem.
I checked my options. I had a small cross hidden away in a pocket, but I wasn't all that religious, and it wouldn't work all that well on red court vampires either. I could start a general panic, but that wouldn't help me in the here and now. I could…
I'd have to take out Skidmark first, no matter what I managed to think up.
"Y'know, I love myself a feisty one," Skidmark replied. "Haven't had one of those since mah lil piglet left me."
"You want me? Come and get me," I replied. "Just you and me, or are you scared of a little girl?"
Skidmark's crooked vampire mouth smiled, and he stepped forward, making crude movements with his body, but the rest of the vampires seemed to stay back.
I'd need to finish this fast, taking out Skidmark would hopefully take down the barrier behind me, allowing me to flee into the undercity, where the locals would be just as angry at me as they'd be at the vampires.
I took a step forwards, and Skidmark's coked out reflexes were immediate, stepping to the side before I could get anywhere close to him.
I did so again, quickly feinting left and right, trying to spot any weakness in his defenses. Training with Murphy had made me good, but I couldn't underestimate my enemy, even if it was Skidmark.
He was fast, his reflexes insane, but he wasn't exactly good. He fell for every feint I made, and there was no grace to his movements. I could work with that.
I lunged forward, aiming roughly for his face with my knife, and he dodged to the side before I could get anywhere close. I took advantage of the movement, changing our relative positions. As I struck to the left, he dodged to the right, and vise versa. Manipulating that, I turned us around, my back to the horde of vampires, while his was towards the area affected by his own ability.
"What the hell do you want with me?" I asked, gathering my remaining energy.
"Bait," Skidmark replied with a twisted smile.
"So what, you want to get at Myrddin through me? Then why invite him?" I asked. I just needed a second or so.
"The Pissard? Nah girl, we just wan our Nightmare back," he replied.
I concentrated, hoping I could get even a fraction of the type of sheer magical muscle Harry possessed, and shouted "Forzare!"
Skidmark was thrown backwards by the wave of force, hitting the barrier provided by his own ability in mid-air. It turned him around, launching him back towards me without a measure of control, and I was waiting with my knife, impaling him as he smashed into me.
Unlike the other vampires, he didn't cry out in pain or struggle, probably because the drugs had gotten to his pain circuitry. Instead, he just whispered something in my ear.
"Aren't ya fergettin sumthing?"
I tried to push him away the moment I felt the movement start, but it was too late. As Skidmark clung to me, a horde of vampires descended upon us from behind.
***Of Monsters and Masquerades***
"You sure you can't tell me which way she went?" his uncle asked with his trademark smile.
"Look, you're cute, but if two guys go around looking to stalk a teenage girl, it's not a good look, okay?" the young woman replied as she cleaned the counter.
"We're old friends," he said. "Haven't seen each other in, well, must have been half a year or so now."
"Look, all I know is that she left half an hour ago and took a right turn. Can't really help you with anything else," she replied.
"Thanks for the help," Thomas smiled, tipping an imaginary hat as they left the store. As they walked down the streets, the older man turned to him. "Was worth a try, but it's looking for needles in a haystack."
"We barely missed her," he replied. "Not much of a haystack."
"I guess," Thomas replied as they walked further down the streets, not bothered by the rain the way mortals were.
He saw a disturbance in the distance. Cop cars, a PRT van, and a flying cape with a lantern. Revel, leader of the local Protectorate.
His uncle had also spotted it, and turned to him once more. "Hey Alec, want to bet your girlfriend was responsible for all this?"