Was today a good day. Yes?

Today at school was a weird one. I wasn't bullied by the trio, most of the mindless people that followed the trio's lead left me alone. Hell, Sophia was actively intercepting people from messing with me, she was glaring daggers at me the entire time, but she still stopped people. She ended up leaving a few hours into the day though.

I spent the whole day thinking they were going to be planning something, like how the day led up to the locker incident, but in the end nothing happened.

What the hell did Owl say. The smile she had when she was talking to Sophia still gives me shivers when I think about it.

At the end of the day I leave the school still feeling apprehensive, and walked home with none of my confusion being cured.

The next day when I leave the house, Owl is sitting on the curb with her hands planted behind her, cloud watching.

"Aren't you cold out here."

She looks up until she's looking at me upside down. "Tay" Jumps to her feet, and starts walking over "Nah, temperature don't really affect me to much, makes finding fun easier in bad conditions."

May as well get to the point. "What did you say to Sophia yesterday, She left me alone the whole day, and she just shot me dirty looks once in a while."

"Who?" She tilts her head to the side in confusion.

I shake mine. "The girl you talked to at my school before you left, the people that we're... bullying me."

"Oh, her." There's a little fire in Owl's eyes now. "Well, Sophie and Red were saying mean things to you, so I had to set them straight. And Sophie smelled nice, but she reeked of containment foam, so I figured that she would know who I was."

Containment foam, and "What does her smelling nice have to do with anything?"

"Oh, that's simple." Then she looks around and gives me a conspiratorial look. "You also smell nice, but what's something that's unique to you, that we both have in common."

"We're girls?" I hope that's not it, but at the same time I'm starting to get a sinking feeling in my gut that tells me I wish it were that simple.

"No." She then turns and points at a beetle. "Hey, can you make that bug do a flip quick" I do, and give her a questioning look. "Wow Tay, that's a pretty unique thing you can do."

Well yeah, we've already gone over our powers. We both have powers, We're both ca...

I stop dead. My eyes go wide, and fists clench.

No.

It can't be true.

I've been bullied by a cape for a year and a half?

Who is she, has she used her power on me and I didn't even know it? She smelled like containment foam? Only the PRT use containment foam. And the only capes they have that are Sophia's age are Wards. Sophia's a Ward!

I'm shaking, in horror or rage, I can't tell. I'm gasping for air, then I'm hyperventilating.

My eyes are open, but I'm not seeing anything, I'm so pissed. I've being bullied by a Ward. But which one is she. Fuck, the only one that fits is Shadow Stalker. I feel like I'm being moved, but I just close my eyes. The shaking intensifies though.

Fuck, fuck fuck fuck. This can't be happening.

I feel a hard slap to my face as my head is knocked to one side. Whoever did it, is cover with insects on reflex. I turn to see who hit me, but all I see is a is a form covered in bugs and shadowed by them, Shadow!

In a panic, I yell and tackle Shadow Stalker, she must have been so pissed yesterday that she came to deal with me. We land on the floor and I start punching and hitting with all my might.

"You came to deal with me you bitch! I put up with it for more than a year, you're not getting me!"

I'm putting everything I have in this, every shattered dream, ruined school day, and every memory of that damned locker into my hits. I keep going for a few minutes, but I start to slow.

I'm crying now, my hits getting weaker as more tears streak down my face. My screams of rage turn into sobs. I just stop hitting altogether, and I'm just holding her down.

A bug covered hand moves up, and I brace for a hit, but after a second I feel the hand cup my cheek and turn my head to look.

I hear something but can't make it out, the adrenaline pumping through me makes my blood sound like jackhammers in my ears. I keep hearing it, and it gets clearer and clearer as I start to calm until "Tay."

I disperse the insects as quickly as possible and see Owl on the ground, hair a mess, clothes bitten through, and covered in blood. She just looks up at me and smiles softly.

"Owl!" I look at her, just smiling at me kindly, then I look at my hands, splattered with blood. Her blood. My only friends blood. I gasp and get off her quickly. I turn and see that we're in my kitchen. I hear her moving and see she's getting up slowly. She brushes off her hoodie and takes a step towards me. I flinch and close my eyes, readying for the payback, and it would only be fair, hell I would deserve it.

But I feel her arms go around me and pull me close "Owl" I say shakily.

"Shh, it's okay, it's my fault. I should have been softer in telling you something like that." And pulls me into the embrace.

"But, I thought you were her and hurt you." I start to shake again. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I'm so..."

"Shh, Tay it's okay, I understand." She softly rubs my back, and pulls my head into her shoulder, and whispers. "It's okay, I don't blame you. It's going to be okay."

Owl stays with me at home, again. And I skip school, again.

Me and Owl spend the day talking about my freak out, and I finally tell her about the bullying I've gone through. The more I tell her, the more agitated she becomes. She lets me talk uninterrupted, and talking about it hurts a little, but it also feels like a weight is finally being taken off my shoulders. The pain lessens the more I share, until I've told her everything from Emma leaving me behind, to the locker incident a few months ago.

After she gives me another hug and some consoling words, I can confidently say that Owl is the greatest friend. That and Owl hugs may be the best hugs.

We then talk about capes, and how dangerous being alone is. Since I now absolutely refuse to join the Protectorate, Owl suggests that me and her team up, mostly so she can keep a closer eye on me due to how 'horribly squishy' I am. Her words. We plan out how we would work as a team and come down to some simple ideas. Mostly it boils down to me harassing everything from range, and anyone that wants to keep fighting, Owl will beat the piss out of.

She even talked me into skipping school tomorrow to help her find things to make a costume. I told her I could make her a costume, but she said she doesn't need armor and that it would take to long.

We messed around, and had fun until dad walked through the door.

"Taylor, I'm home." He gave his usual greeting as he hung up his coat and walked into the living room. He turns and sees me and Owl on the couch. "Oh, who's this." He tries to put on a friendly face, but he can't help but to look a little distrusting at the stranger in his house.

"Dad, this is my friend, Owl."

She looks from me to dad, then gets a big smile and walks up to him. "Hi, it's nice to meet you, I'm Owl." She says cheerfully, and sticks out her hand.

He looks a little taken back by Owl's energy, but recovers and shakes her hand. "Uh, hi I'm Danny, Taylor's dad. Are you one of her school friends."

I cringe a little when he says school friends

"No, Tay and me are jogging buddies. The bestest jogging buddies." She then puts an arm over my shoulder and pulls me closer, and gives dad a beaming smile and a thumbs up.

"Well that's good. It makes me feel better knowing Taylor isn't going out alone." He smiles a little.

"Don't worry, I got her back. I know karate." She then looks very smug about that fact.

"Oh, um, okay that's good hear." He doesn't look as impressed as Owl was probably hoping.

"Anyway, I better get going, see you tomorrow Tay." She gives me one last hug, waves at dad, and leaves.

Dad then turns back to me. "So, your new friend seems... nice?"

"She's a little weird, but don't worry, she is really nice, she's a good friend." I give him the best reassuring smile I can give.

He sighs. "Okay, if you're vouching for her, then she can't be to bad. Just try to be careful, okay. Well I'm going to start dinner." Then he goes to the kitchen.

The rest of the night returns to the normal routine me and dad have, and passes quietly.

The next day, me and Owl go for our normal jog. After that we come back to the house to plan out her costume.

We brainstorm for a while, Owl provided some ideas, but when her first idea was just her in a bikini and a domino mask, I shut her down and took over as lead designer.

"But Tay." Owl whines "It would save so much money on costume maintenance. Not to mention, it would be easy to change into in a pinch."

"Your not going out in just a bikini."

"It's not just a bikini, I'll have a mask on to." I shoot her a deadpan look. She smiles. "Fine, fine show me your ideas, oh grand master of costumes."

I nod my head. "Damn right, now try to follow the master at work, grasshopper." We both laugh for a bit.

After a while we have a rough concept and guideline we want to follow, but won't really know what the finished product will look like until we see what materials we're able to scrounge up.

We then get ready to head out to shop at some thrift stores around the city to get stuff, and just burn the day away with sightseeing. Owl insists I bring my costume in case something 'fun' happens.

Her sense of 'fun' encompasses basically anything that could possibly happen in a day, but I pack it to make her feel better.

After we got all the things we'd hopefully need for the costume, Owl insisted she pay for her own costume, we started to walk through the city. We chit chatted for a while and slowing headed deeper into the city.

A few hours into our sightseeing adventure three cop cars go zooming past, with their sirens blaring, heading towards the nicer part of the city.

Owl slowly turns to me with a look of enlightenment plastered on her face. "Wanna go check it out, this might give you a chance to be super heroic."

"Should we though, the cops seem to be on it already." She doesn't stop smiling though, damn I can't fight that look. "Fine, let's go." I didn't really put up much of a fight, but I guess I'm curious to. She gives a cheer in response and we both jog towards where the sound of sirens went.

We catch up after a couple minutes of jogging and see a barricade of cop cars aligned in front of the bank. The police are organizing themselves behind their cars and radioing in information.

"Awesome an old fashioned bank heist, now we have to help." She looks even more excited now somehow, and grabs my arm, dragging me into the nearby alley. "We can change in here."

Owl takes off her hoodie, and starts to rummage through her bag.

"Owl, I don't think we should interfere, what if it serious."

She pulls out a teal beanie and stuffs her hair into, then puts it on. "Don't worry, I'm sort of bulletproof, and you'll be out of range with your bugs. It'll be fine."

I nod "As long as we try to help some people, I guess we could." Well I wanted to be a hero, I guess it's time to act like one. I start to put on my costume, and when I'm done we both hide our bags in the alley and run back to the scene.

As we approach, an armored van pulls up, and out pops the Wards, Aegis, Vista, Clockblocker, Gallant, Kid Win,and Browbeat. I also see Glory Girl fly up and settle on the roof of the bank. Their really pulling out all the stops for this one.

We get closer and Clockblocker notices us first. "Hey, you can't be here right now, you need to leave for your own safety." He puts his hand up to stop us.

"We're capes, we're here to help." I tell him.

He thinks for a second. "You're heroes." we nod "okay, the help would be appreciated, what are your names and what can you do."

Damn, knew I was forgetting something important. "I don't have a name yet, but I can control bugs." I shake his hand.

"Were you the one that fought Lung a few days ago?"

"Yeah, that was me."

He nods. "Okay, well we didn't get a name for you so we came up with Skitter, just something to put on paper to refer to you as. If you don't like the name, just give me a different one and I can get that sorted out."

Owl cuts in. "Cool you got a name now, and that means I get to call you Skitty from now on." She's practically glowing at the idea of giving me a new nickname, and Clockblocker gives off a laugh.

"Well it seems the choice was made for you." He turns to Owl. "And you Miss?"

"Oh, I'm a high level brute, I hit hard and take hits." She goes to shake his hand. "My names Owl."

He reaches to shake her hand, but stops half way and tenses. "Did you say Owl?"

"Yeah, name's Owl, I'm here to help." I look at Clockblocker, he's very tense, then I look over at the other Wards who were watching the introduction and see they're all tensed as well.

"Who are you here to help exactly?" He questions.

"You guys, you're Wards right? I love helping you guys, that and I've never stopped a bank robbery before." She's still smiling despite the situation.

Clockblocker slowly relaxes, but doesn't take his eyes off her. "Yeah, I guess you do help Wards now and then." He audibly gulps. "F-follow me then." He walks us over to the other Wards.

"Okay, guys this is The Owl, she's here to help today. Quick thing to catch you two up, I'm Aegis." Clockblocker, now Aegis, starts to inform us. "Me and Clockblocker switched costumes to try and fake out one of the robbers, named Hellhound. She has monster dogs, the plan is for the dogs to hopefully target Clockblocker, dress as me, so he can freeze them and take them out of the fight sooner rather than later. With the dogs pacified, the rest of this should be much easier. Holed up in the bank are the rest of the Undersiders. Grue, who emits so form of smoke that's impossible to see through. Regent can affect your movements which will make fighting him a little tricky. Last one is Tattletale, who is some form of thinker, we don't know if she's a precog or a combat thinker but approach her with caution." Aegis finishes his explanation. "Skitter, do you think you'd be able to be ranged support for this, just to try to distract them?"

"Yeah, I'd be able to do that easily. I could get some bugs into the bank to scout a little if you want me to."

He nods. "Do that then, more information will only help at this point. Owl, would you be able to help distract the dogs and support anyone who needs help?"

"You can count on me Captain." She stands at attention and gives a salute.

Before we can get any farther the bank doors open and out pours what can only be Grue's smoke. We all get into position and I start to gather my insects and send a small swarm into the bank. I set at least one bug on each person in there and slowly build a picture of where everyone is and sense four people who must be the Undersiders. I sense a crowd of people start walking towards the entrance.

"Aegis, possible hostages being sent through the smoke right now." As I say that he starts guiding the Wards. The hostages come through the smoke with arms up, and go to one side of the street and lay down.

As soon as the hostages are all down I sense three large things start making their way to the doors. "Dogs incoming, one person is riding on back of one of them, the rest of the Undersiders are still inside. There are still hostages inside."

Owl and Clockblocker move to the front, with Aegis a little off to the side of them. Vista is in the back, watching intensely and I set up by her. Kid Win is floating on his hoverboard, laser pistols trained on the bank entrance. Gallant and Browbeat stand in front of me and Vista, ready to jump in at any moment. Glory Girl is perched on top of the bank, ready to dive down to attack.

A couple seconds pass, then the dogs leap out of the smoke and head straight at Owl and Clock. As they get closer, one breaks off and dives toward Aegis. Kid Win peppers the beasts with lasers, but it doesn't seem to be doing much. Aegis jumps and flies at the dog and hits it head on sending it reeling for a second, but it recovers and clamps down on his arm and forces him to the ground.

The dog with the rider goes at Clock, and the other attacks Owl. The dog makes it to Clock and swipes a paw at him and sends him tumbling head over heels, he comes to a stop when he impacts against a cop car, he starts moving but can't get his feet under him. He managed to tag the dog though when it hit and stopped it in time, sending Hellhound flying off the back from the sudden stop. She gets up and looks at her dog, then starts running to Clockblocker to keep fighting him. I start to harass her with bugs, but she soldiers through.

Vista starts expanding the distance between the two. Browbeat buffs up a little and sprints over to Aegis and tackles the dog off him. Now free, Aegis and Browbeat team up to fight the dog.

Owl's beast collides with her and the two start a ferocious grapple, she throws it back and with some room between them she sends out a kick at it's head. It connects with a sickening crack and removes the dogs lower jaw. The dog lets out a gargled yowl, Hellhound turns and sees the dog and gives up on Clockblocker. She runs over and calls out to it. The dog disengages and runs to her, letting her mount it.

Clockblocker finally gets up, and dizzily makes his way over to where Aegis and Browbeat have pinned the dog down, and tags it.

It looks like we're doing pretty good, with only Hellhound and the dog she's riding still in the fight. As soon as we take them down, it should be rather easy clean up in the bank.

Then from the bank comes Grue and Regent, with Tattletale behind them. Browbeat starts to run at them, but Regent does something and Browbeat trips over his own foot and face plants. Grue starts giving off smoke and runs over to Browbeat to fight him.

Then things go from bad to horribly worse.

With the quick distraction from the other Undersiders, Hellhound's dog pounce at Owl. It's tail coils around her waist and throws her. Unfortunately, Gallant was lining up a shot at Hellhound at the same time. The shot nears her, but Owl intercepts the beam in air due to being thrown.

She hits the ground and doesn't move for a second. Then she starts shaking. Two blade arms explode out of her back, and her quills emerge from her back in all their glory. She gets to her hands and knees and screams, repeatedly slamming her extra arms into the pavement. Everyone hears it and all the fighting stops, all attention guided to Owl. After a minute she looks up, and I see that her eyes have changed as well. The whites have turned to deep black. The blue has changed to a blood red, and the look of pure rage is plastered on her face.

She turns to the dog, then almost quicker than I could follow, leaps at it. She lands at it's shoulder and back hands Hellhound off the animal, sending her tumbling. She focuses back on the dog and with a rapid swipe of her blade arm, separates it's head from it's body. It's body slumps to the ground.

"Judas!" Hellhound screams, and runs at Owl.

Sh pulls back and launches a punch at Owl, but Owl grabs her forearm before the hit connects. With a quick flick of her hand, Hellhound's arm snaps. Owl lets go and Hellhound falls backwards, screaming in pain. While on the ground, she kicks at Owl, but her foot is caught. Owl plants a foot on Hellhound's stomach, pulls her leg straight, and the most horrible thing I've ever seen happens.

Owl bends down and takes a bite out of Hellhound's leg, straight through shin. I don't think I'll ever forget her screams. She's calling out for help, but everyone is paralyzed by what's happening. Owl keeps taking chunks out of her leg. Hellhound beats against Owl, but Owl doesn't even notice.

Grue suddenly runs out of his smoke towards Hellhound, with Regent trailing just behind him, scepter raised. Grue punches Owl in the back of the head and she lets go of Hellhound from the hit. She then focuses on him.

Grue goes into a boxing stance and hits Owl in the face a couple times with some rapid punches, but Owl kicks out suddenly, and one of Grue's knees is now facing the wrong way. He starts to fall forward, but Owl intercepts his fall with an uppercut. His helmet is violently ripped off his head, and his jaw looks pulverized.

With her back turned Regent stabs her in the back with his specter, Owl gives a little jolt, but recovers. She then starts cackling madly. Without turning around, one of her blade arms swings out and takes off Regents hand, the scepter sent flying away. She then grabs the front of his shirt and headbutts him twice. He falls backwards with a now ruined face. Owl steps over him and plants her foot on his head.

Just as she's about to turn his head into paste against the asphalt, there's a bang and a hole forms in Owl's forehead. Tattletale is on the bank steps, shaking, but the gun trained on Owl's head is perfectly still. The hole in her head rapidly closes, and she turns to Tattletale and starts to slowly walk to her.

Shots start to ring out as quickly as Tattletale can pull the trigger, everyone a perfect headshot, but none of it slows Owl in the slightest. Tattletale pauses only to reload.

When she stops to grab another magazine, Owl reaches behind her and plucks a quill from her back and throws it at Tattletale. It hits her right shoulder, sending her arm with the gun falling one way, and the rest of her falls screaming in the other direction. She tumbles down the steps, clutching madly where her arm use to be.

Owl starts to cackle again, but it's interrupted when she starts to convulse madly. She drunkenly stumbles over to a lamppost, still shaking, and rest her head against it. She sags and goes limp against the post, but stays standing.

The only sounds on the street are the Undersiders calling out for help, or mercy. And the faint sound of Owl sobbing softly against the post.

What the fuck just happened.

AN/ Finally getting to see Owl cut loose a little. Damn those Gallant lasers.

This one took a while to get out because I went to Hawaii for vacation, I heavily recommend if you have the chance to go, take it. Now I'm back and will be trying to keep to an every other week update schedule, but let's be real, life happens in the worst ways sometimes so that schedule might not stay consistent

If you liked the chapter, leave a review and tell me what you liked. If you didn't, also review and tell me what you didn't like. It'll keep me humble.

-Killa