Spirit of Nature 14 - "More and more arrived, blessing our city with their presence. I am glad to have lived until this moment. Glad indeed."
Her every step was deliberate, her head held high. It was as much confidence as it was annoyance as she stepped through the streets of the Sacred City. Taylor didn't give the people a second glance. More and more bowed down as she walked near them.
Imp was still asleep, but she couldn't find such easy rest. Considering the nightmares and the excitement of finally finding her friends, it wasn't a surprise. When the news came that spirits were arriving riding on beasts, Taylor was up already.
The problem was that this city was a lot larger than the southern quarters would indicate, and without a car, she was barely halfway through. Her range barely extended far enough to finally reach the northern gate.
Apparently someone had sighted them and rushed through the streets, shouting it at the top of their lungs. The problem with that was that every priest and pilgrim had gathered on the same path as her, making it even harder to walk through the masses. While most of them had actually gotten out of her way, others hadn't quite grasped the situation, and how she had been in a hurry. Some had even gone to their knees and started praying, blocking her way.
Taylor had her costume on, meeting the heroes without one wouldn't have been smart. It was unlikely she could hide her identity for long, but if they tried anything, Tattletale, if she could actually get them out of their predicament, wouldn't help them.
And Taylor knew that Miss Militia, compared to some other heroes, had at least a modicum of respect for the villains, and they respected her in return. If it were possible, Miss Militia would have made a great leader for the PRT.
The walls of cut stone began to blend into each other, one house looking like the next and every temple looking like the other, a different statue or inscription on it.
The crowd thickened as she nearly reached her destination.
"It's- it's the spirit Skitter!" one of them pointed at her, and the crowd bowed down.
"Let me through," she said. They scrambled out of the way, their knees scraping on the street from the clumsy attempts at bowing and moving at the same time.
Taylor stepped forward and the gate was finally in sight.
She could feel them now. Taylor was impressed, actually. The size of the walls allowed them to see Bitch and her dogs in the distance.
By the time she reached the gate and stepped out - the guards of all the kingdoms standing along the wall - she could see them herself.
They arrived on giant monstrosities indeed, each one riding another of the dogs, and even Regent was with them. They weren't just four, though, they were five. Bitch, Regent, Miss Militia, Clockblocker and… Newter?
Newter of Faultline's Crew? She could see the powered dog he was sitting on had quite a lot of blankets over it so Newter wouldn't accidentally knock it over with his powers.
The dogs slowed down, and came to a halt only a few meters away. They stepped off.
"See?" Regent said, turning to Newter who was looking rather sick. "I told you it would be fun!"
"Never. Again."
Newter sat down, the giant dog next to him growling slightly, making him scramble away.
When the others approached, and the soldiers behind her began to bow deeply, Taylor simply waved.
"Hi."
Bitch gave an affirmative grunt, while Regent spread out his arms.
"Skitter! Nice change of style! Did you do something with your hair?"
"Yes," she said. He stopped slightly, actually taking a look now, and she grinned behind her mask, invisible. Miss Militia and Clockblocker kept their distance, so Taylor took the first step. "Long time no see."
She would've loved to go hug Bitch and Regent, but she knew those two weren't really 'huggable', so to speak.
"Yes," Miss Militia nodded. "Admittedly, I would have prefered to meet under different circumstances."
Clockblocker didn't say anything, choosing to stare behind her, towards the crowd that was bowing ever since she walked in.
"You got quite the crowd here," Miss Militia said, her arms crossed.
"Not mine," Skitter admitted. "I haven't been successful in stopping them."
"Prayers and the like?"
Skitter nodded. Regent actually broke out in laughter at that.
"She got prayers," Regent said, looking towards Newter. The Case 53 shot Regent a dirty look.
"You didn't?" Skitter asked, wondering just how he was so fortunate.
"No, we got prison time," Regent said.
"... how?" Skitter asked.
"An epic story," Regent said. "So we landed in this city and the people were really suspicious but actually quite cool and there was this chick, can't remember her name-"
"Maria," Newter supplied.
"Right, Maria, and she really had the hots for me," Regent continued. Clockblocker coughed, Miss Militia's eyes twitching towards Regent. "So it turns out she's actually the president's daughter there, they got a president, I don't know why, and she had this fiancé…"
"Regent," Taylor urged him on.
"So she invited him to visit her at night, her father caught them and she just barely managed to convince the judges to be lenient and give him life imprisonment instead of an execution."
Everyone stared at Newter at the sudden reveal. Regent's shoulders sagged.
"You're such a cockblock, man, I was about to get to the part where I valiantly fought of swarms of knights-"
"You fought one, and you lost," Newter corrected.
"No, I had to be the villain of this story, I let him win!"
"Okay, enough," Skitter waved him off. "Let's get you inside. Imp is waiting too."
"Imp?" Miss Militia asked. "And Tattletale?"
"She's not here," Skitter confirmed. "Yet. They're on their way. Weld too, for that matter."
No need to hide information while they were stuck in this together. Miss Militia nodded, and the dogs began to shrink all together.
Well, 'dogs'. Brown wolves, apparently, who followed Bitch as well trained as any dog she had seen before.
"Come on," Skitter walked in, the crowd parting again. The rather impressive sight was ignored by Bitch and Newter, who was still nursing his stomach at the motion sickness he felt. Regent whistled low while Miss Militia and Clockblocker took in their surroundings."
Before they were even halfway towards the middle of the city, a familiar sight was there, dressed in the yellow-tinted silk that Taylor prepared for her, Amal was running towards them, shouting her name loudly.
"Goddess Skitter!" Amal's voice drowned out the mutters around them. "Why have you not awakened me to go with you?"
"I didn't want to bother you," Skitter said. "We're on our way to Izhar's temple, walk with us."
"Of course," Amal said, not hesitating to fall into step with Skitter as they continued.
"This is Amal," Skitter introduced. "Amal, these are Bitch, Regent, Clockblocker, Miss Militia and Newter."
Amal stopped for a moment before bowing to them.
"It is an honor to meet you, spirits," she said. "I am the High Priestess of Skitter, Amal of Heth."
Regent choked out laughter again.
"She has a high priestess," he muttered rather high-pitched. Newter shot him a dirty look again.
Clockblocker actually laughed too, Skitter noticed from the bugs she placed on him, but he was better at hiding it. Miss Militia sighed, almost unnoticeable.
Regent suddenly fell over, and everyone stopped to look.
"What the-"
Imp appeared, standing behind him, laughing as he stood up and dusted himself off. She jumped on him again, this time staying visible and taking him into a choke hold.
"Did'ya miss me? Come on, say you missed me," she said.
Skitter coughed, making Imp look towards her.
"Not right now, let's find some place quiet," Skitter said. Imp nodded, understanding why exactly this would be a bad place to talk.
The rest of the way was rather quiet.
They were seated in the dining room, Izhar giving them the privacy they needed. Miss Militia, Clockblocker and Newter sat to Skitter's left, while Imp, Regent, Bitch and her wolves, were to her right. Amal also sat there, suspicious looks thrown towards the wolves every few seconds.
There was a lot of food on the table, apparently prepared at the moment of the news.
Regent wasn't shy about eating, neither was Bitch. Miss Militia was a bit more hesitant, while Skitter could see Clockblocker physically struggling not to take off his mask.
Skitter sighed, gritting her teeth. She didn't actually want to do this, but considering how everyone had seen her face anyway, it wouldn't matter on the long run, and she knew that Miss Militia wasn't the kind of person to rat her out.
She grabbed her mask, slowly pulling it off. Miss Militia didn't comment on it, but Clockblocker reacted quite strongly, his head snapping towards her before he looked towards Miss Militia.
"We're in this together," Skitter said. "And we need to work on helping each other."
"Do we?" Miss Militia asked. "I don't think it's unreasonable to claim that Tattletale is responsible for this."
"You're not wrong," Skitter admitted. "But fighting about this isn't going to help us get home. What we need is information, and I can't remember anything."
"I do," Miss Militia said bluntly. "It's blurry, which is new for me, but I can tell you what happened."
Skitter looked at her, surprised at the news, but didn't say anything, instead urging her to go on.
"The portal changed at the last moment and a hand came out, huge…" Miss Militia said. A pang of pain, memories resurfacing. Taylor could remember. The dream, the chains. "It grabbed you, and when it pulled you in, there was a strong wind that dragged more of us in. All of you, Newter, us, and Weld."
"Gee," Newter muttered. "Nothing but good news with capes nowadays, huh?"
"Come on, we met a princess," Regent said. "She even helped us escape!"
Newter glowered at him.
Taylor took some of the food from Clockblocker's side of the table and began to eat.
"There's nothing to worry about here," Taylor said. "We all want to get home, right? I've been here as long as you've been, and I just can't find any energy to be hostile or fight you."
Miss Militia glanced to Clockblocker, who shrugged.
"Really mellowed out, hm?" Regent teased. "But if that's what our Goddess wants~"
Taylor scowled, but didn't say a word as he also removed his mask. Imp followed suit.
"You all really don't look how I imagined you to look," Clockblocker admitted. "Miss Militia?"
The woman reached around her neck and slowly pulled off the scarf. She wasn't really one of the more costumed heroes, but it did rather well at hiding her features. Miss Militia grabbed something to eat as well. Clockblocker sighed.
"This is really crazy," he said, pulling off his mask as well. "What next, we gonna share our names?"
"No," Taylor said. "No need for that. This is enough for a show of trust."
"Don't get me wrong," Miss Militia said. "I don't actually trust you, but I trust that you understand just why exactly we need to return. Between Jack Slash and the aftermath of the Echidna attack, I don't think that Brockton Bay might stand long without…"
Without the Undersiders and the PRT. Miss Militia understood, Taylor thought, she really did.
Taylor nodded.
The middle-eastern looking woman began to eat, while the red-haired boy followed suit. Amal was looking between them as if trying to find something to say, but failing miserably.
Taylor and Miss Militia sat in a study, the map in front of them.
"We started here," Miss Militia pointed at the northern part of the map. "Regent was here, Bitch said she started very far south."
"So we all landed on these islands, except for Tattletale, Weld, and maybe Grue, who landed further south at the main continent," Taylor said. "There's something wrong about this, isn't there?"
"The hand grabbed you, the people who were pulled in first landed much closer here?" Miss Militia asked. "No, that's not it, we all landed somewhere, we fell from a great height and landed on solid ground."
"There is a lot of water," Taylor nodded. "And we were placed on land deliberately. This entire thing hasn't been random, it was whatever came out of the portal, it didn't want us dead, it wanted us here."
It wasn't really a stretch to imagine that there was some strong parahuman in another world, considering the existence of things like the Sleeper and Earth Aleph. Whatever this was, however, it was dangerous.
"So we find the thing that brought us here, we find a way home?" Miss Militia asked.
"Not unlikely, but I wouldn't count on it," Taylor sighed. "It wanted us here, it might not want to let us go."
"Why haven't we seen it in over a month, then?"
"Well… it wanted me here," Taylor said. "It grabbed me, you said. I remember the hand from the dreams I had recently, there's… not a lot I can remember from them, I haven't rested well for a while."
"Clockblocker didn't have any nightmares," Miss Militia said.
"What about you?"
"I don't sleep."
Taylor felt a pang of jealousy. "I'd kill for a power like that."
Miss Militia actually smiled. "You're not the first one to say that."
When she didn't elaborate further, Taylor glanced back at the map.
"There's only one place that's a mystery for now, the unmapped part to the north-east," she pointed at the large part beyond the mountains. "If most of us landed on these islands, it wasn't just random."
"The thing that brought us here might be there?" Miss Militia asked. Taylor shrugged.
"It might be our only lead," Taylor said.
Miss Militia nodded.
"So we will go there when everyone is here?" she asked.
"No," Taylor shook her head. "We will wait for Tattletale's information before we go on a fool's errand. We don't know how to get over the mountains anyway. They're high enough that climbing them is dangerous."
Miss Militia nodded again, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall.
"Let's do that, then," Miss Militia said.