-/ Chapter 3: Predatory Actions /-
Friday found me the same way that every other day since I triggered had. I gasped for breath as I shot up in bed. My breath was ragged. Fuck my life, I couldn't even have a lustful dream about Brian anymore without him suddenly ending up bleeding out from a gut wound…or spontaneously being torn apart to decorate the walls of the setting like a certain meat locker. I swallowed bile and I forced myself to keep my dinner down.
I gurgled water a few times before I headed downstairs while trying to get my hands to stop shaking. It was almost an hour before Dad was going to get up. I sent a few bugs into his room to act as an early warning system as I entered the basement. Dad never went in here or at least he hadn't since I moved the widows in, I could get a sense from them about what occurred while I had been asleep or away. Their memories never included my dad, or for that matter anything larger than themselves, coming down here. Still he might get suspicious if he found I was spending any length of time in the basement.
I pulled out all the components of my costume and slipped into it to test the fit again. The body suit had been completed Thursday afternoon before I headed out to my Krav Maga lessons. I only had to dye the armor panels and reattach them to the black costume. Unlike the original Skitter outfit I actually did have some color beside the yellow lens of my mask. While the chitin was largely splotched grey, a dark reddish-brown served as a highlight color to add even more depth to the plating.
The gloves and boots were both separate from the bodysuit and ridiculously long, extending past the elbows and knees respectfully where they fastened directly to the chitin plating covering my thighs and upper arms by way of snap-style buttons that locked in place with a twist. There were additional sets of snaps across the plating and body suit in strategic locations that could be used to either attach heavier plating or bandoleers should I ever need them. Granted neither was actually made…yet so the covers I made to hide them when not in use, little more than a button with chitin over it to match where it was being set, were instead in place. It was practically impossible to spot them.
The reason the boots and gloves were so long was to both provide additional protection by way of the doubled layers of spider silk on the limbs and also because I already had ideas for alternative boot and gauntlet designs scribbled down in my hero journal. The mask was similarly going to be revised soon-ish. My spiders were already working on a second set of gloves and mask replicating the layered design that my boots and bodysuit had from when I was able to switch to Darwin's bark spider silk.
After I got out of the costume and back into my night clothes I and pulled out the sash I had been wearing as part of my costume at Peerless. I unfolded it so it'd be the hooded shawl it actually was and wrapped it around my head to secure my hair before going to work dyeing the plating. The last thing I wanted was getting dye in my hair.
As I did I checked my latest 'experiment' in bug modification. The 'weaver wasps,' as I was calling them, were not only still alive but also healthy two days after the modifications I made to some wasp workers from the nest I had going over in the Grovers'. So that step had been a success; next would be modifying the queen I had here to spawn an entire colony of these new bugs. Weaver wasps were basically a cross between wasps and arachnids. They had spinnerets that produced high quality silk and while they lacked stingers to make room for the spinnerets, they could still inject venom only now though a bite like a spider using hard-shelled chelicerae. Other modifications was adding another set of legs to give them the eight legs of a spider, enhanced their durability by way of a harder exoskeleton, and made them even stronger fliers than was necessary to offset the changes in mass. In the past I had utilized spiders to produce silk cord and flying bugs either carrying the cord or the spider itself all in order to fabricate and deploy the webbing to restrain targets. These weaver wasps were an evolution of that tactic, now I'd have fliers capable of generating silk on demand.
When the bugs in my dad's room started to hear his alarm clock go off in its monotone droning and he himself replied by slapping the small device I had just finished extricating myself from the basement. So as he went about his morning abolitions I did as a good daughter should and started breakfast hoping the smell of bacon, eggs, and sausage would hide the scent of the dyes I was using on my costume downstairs. The smell wasn't as bad or as obvious as the chemicals I used to treat the carapaces, but it was still noticeable enough for me to worry. Dad came down hair still damp form the morning shower around the time I started setting the table.
"What's that smell?"
"The sausage?"
"Sausage doesn't smell like…Lysol," Dad elaborated, "I think it's coming from the basement."
"I smelled something when I woke up; turned out to be a dead rat in the basement. I got rid of it and cleaned the area maybe I used too much cleaner?"
"Smells like it. So you woke up before me again?"
"Yeah."
"More nightmares?" Dad ventured.
"Last night's started off pleasant enough…but yeah." I glanced at him as I carried the now completed meal to the table. I had obviously cooked too much but my dad didn't say anything. We'd just throw the left overs into a Tupperware container and either Dad would take it with him to work as lunch or I'd eat it when I got home from school.
After he left for work I was able to finish dyeing the last of my armor panels and left them out to dry during the day. All that was left to complete my costume was to attach all the parts, I already had my evidence stored in a second hand duffel bag I had bought in the market the other day. The bolts I had collected were secured in evidence bags that Testament had provided during my last training session with him.
Everything was going according to plan when I left the house for school so of course I just knew the school day was going be just gr…crap. Really I was waiting for the universe's sick humor to kick in. That said I felt like I couldn't be touched anyway. Not emotionally anyway, nothing the girls could do could ruin my day because if everything went well with a certain PRT director I wouldn't have to deal with Sophia for much longer. I might not have to deal with any of them for much longer. When I thought about it I had even more to be happy about. I was getting along well with Dad, I had a budding friend forming with Felix, I was doing better than average at Peerless, and later today Skitter would make her first appearance in full costume.
Like I said, it only made sense that if everything was going so well for me that something would go wrong. The other shoe would drop so to say. This came in the form of a shock when I ate my lunch in the girl's bathroom. I blinked in surprise as grape and orange soda was spilled all over me and my thankfully closed and water proofed backpack. The shock wasn't because it was happening, but because it was happening now. This particular 'prank' was almost three months early. I must have sounded insane when I laughed in response.
"Uh, Taylor?" Emma asked from the other side of the stall door, her voice actually sounded worried.
"I think she's finally lost it," Madison said a little surprised. Had they thought that they'd been tormenting so long there was no way I'd actually lose it now? That I had become some sort of emotionless plaything they could kick without regret? Granted I did feel like I was inoculated to what they could do.
"Very funny. I didn't see that one coming at all," I said between chuckles as my laughter died down.
They didn't even try to stop me from leaving the stall and as I cleaned my glasses, furtively turning on the surveillance features in the process, I decided to see just how much they knew and needle them a bit, "So Emma? Do you know who your dad's current client is?"
"No?" She admitted in a questioning tone. Of course not, she was too busy with her social life, modeling, this bullying campaign, and beneath the bleacher rendezvous with Mark Jensen taking up her rather short attention span to care what else could be occurring at her house. I noted that Sophia hadn't said a word, but her eyes betrayed her; she was suspicious. Was she recalling our encounter while she was in costume? Did she wonder if I had the preverbal balls to attack a cape, an obvious villain even, why I hadn't stood up to them? She had been rougher in her attacks on me since that day; it actually made for real good evidence.
"My dad. We're suing the school because of the whole locker bit," I finally said as I noticed there were two other girls in the restroom with us watching the scene unfold a discreet distance away. Hello bystanders. I also noticed how each of the terrible trio reacted to the admission. Sophia glared at me in a very Shadow Stalker-like way, Madison went absolutely pale, and Emma reacted like I had slapped her…with my gauntlet, "Oh relax. My dad doesn't even know it's you three that were responsible for it."
They did. Hilariously, they all relaxed to such a notable degree that anyone who watched the video from my glasses would know they had indeed been behind it. I retrieved my backpack and left the restroom and soon after the school grounds itself without another word, a grin I couldn't quite hide playing out on my lips.
The grin stayed on my face the entire way home…well mostly. It was a little unnerving that they weren't following the sequence of pranks they pulled on me last time around. Was it because I had changed things? I knew I was more resilient not rising to bait or giving them the payoff of seeing me brake down. Did that passive resistance in turn cause them to try other ideas that they wouldn't have thought up until later because they viewed their current line up ineffective?
Or was it something else. After all things were not exactly the same as my past life in the world at large. There was a great deal of divergence between the two and it made me wonder about what else I assumed would be the same wasn't. Would the Leviathan attack occur here? Would the Slaughterhouse come to town? Would any of the events I knew come to pass? Okay so by the time I got home I wasn't grinning anymore.
I also realized that besides the obvious getting cleaned up I only really had experimenting with my powers to keep me occupied until I was supposed to turn on the disposable phone so Piggot could call me. I really didn't want to give myself a migraine before going to that meeting. I'm not sure what possessed me to do it but I pulled out the cell phone that I used as part of my costume and sent Felix a quick text asking if she was in school. I honestly didn't know why but I always assumed she was on the older side of the high school age range.
When I came out of the shower almost half an hour later – it took that long to get my hair cleaned- Felix had responded. She didn't have classes on Fridays. Which meant she was in college? That made her a little older than I guessed she was. A short text conversation later and my day turned back to being…awesome. Felix was coming over.
While I waited for her to arrive I went ahead and added today's events to my journal and the video my glasses caught to the veritable mountain of evidence I had to hand over to Piggot. It was almost an hour after I had left school that I was alerted to Felix's approach, she was humming as she reached the porch. I wrote a warning in my bugs about the first step, she skipped over the step as I opened the door and the small collection of bugs I used disappeared under the pouch.
"Hey Taylor."
"Hey…I don't actually know your real name…" Without the mask it was obvious that Felix was older then me, she had that look about her. Prettier too. Her hair was the same blackish grey as her were-form's fur and I noticed that the luchador mask she normally wore at Peerless hid a birthmark on her cheek that would have made it almost trivial to identify her by.
She chuckled as I let her in. As she looked over the living room she said, "I was always masked when we talked so I'm not surprised. I'm Sara, no 'h.' Sara Holden."
"You know. I wasn't even sure how old you are. Actually I still don't know."
"I'm nineteen. I started college right out of high school," I could see the realization hit her even before she asked, "I never actually learned your age. But I know you're supposed to be in school."
"I'm fifteen and skipped after getting drenched with soda."
"Orange, grape, and strawberry?" She asked incredulously. I was somehow not surprised that her sense of smell was that good. She probably retained the sense because it could be convenient.
"The strawberry's my shampoo."
"Oh. So…I didn't know you had enough fine control of your bugs to write words with them. What's wrong with that first step anyway?"
"It's rotted out. We've never bothered to replace it and I guess if someone was to try to break in through the front it'd serve as an early warning device," I explained as I lead us into the kitchen, "as for my bugs, you'd be surprised just how fine control I have over them. If I wanted to I could make them dance…I would use a specific dance as an example but most dances don't exactly translate well."
Sara laughed at that, "I can imagine."
We fell into a companionable silence after that Felix, well Sara right now, got herself something to drink and besides asking were the cups were we didn't speak for a minute or two before I broke the silence, "My costume's pretty much done. Want to see?"
"Sure. If it looks anything like what you've been wearing in class it's going to be badass."
"It is," I said proudly as I lead the way down into the basement. One of the oddities of our house was the idiot electrician that wired everything put the light switch for the basement at the base of its stairs instead of the top like most houses add to that the way the stairs were situated and it made the trip down somewhat dangerous due to the semi darkness that prevailed even with the light on in the kitchen.
"Holy shit," Sara said when she reached the base of the stairs. When I turned to her I noticed she had turned her eyes catlike on the way down, no doubt so see where she was going. Her green eyes were vibrant with eye shine and comically large. It took me a few moment to realize why she'd frozen like that.
"The spiders?"
She nodded.
"I control all bugs within my power's reach, remember? You don't have to fear them any more then you do me," I assured before flipping on the lights.
"They're huge," she said before making another surprised noise and adding, "and black widows?"
"They were black widows before I modified them. Even if I wasn't here they wouldn't bite."
"Modified them?"
"Yeah, they produce more silk, are larger and sturdier, and most importantly for you I'm sure, I've drastically changed their instincts. They don't bite humans, or at least she shouldn't ever bite humans."
She finally tore her eyes off the spiders that were lounging on the massive webs that covered every corner of the basement to look at me, "Your power lets you modify bugs?"
"Yeah. I never told you or Sensei that did I?" I queried. A shake of the head later I added, "Sorry, It doesn't come into play in hand to hand combat so I guess it never seemed necessary to share."
"I…yeah…I guess"
"I never thought about how it'd look to someone who isn't me. Dad hasn't come down here in ages so I never had to worry about that. And well there's even less reason for anyone else," I said as striped down to my underwear. Well, I actually had the skin tight spandex shorts and sports bra I was going to wear under my costume on too but whatever. It was basically my underwear.
"Somehow I didn't think you showing me your costume meant you were going to be stripping in front of me," the nineteen-year-old said as she turned her attention elsewhere.
I laughed at that as I pulled the body suit on, "Sorry. Should have said something. But the costume just doesn't look right unless it's actually being worn. Though I'd guess that'd be the case with any costume and I obviously don't have a mannequin to use to model it."
"Yeah, I get it. Trust me I get it. I just wasn't expecting it," Holden said as I watched her through a few of my resting spiders and noticed her take interest in the group that were more active, "What are the spiders here doing?"
"They are weaving what will be a second pair of gauntlets and mask. I already have some other ideas I want to try out for my costume."
"Yeah?" Felix asked sounding somewhat surprised. I wasn't sure why, I guess she thought that capes never really changed their costume's design unless it was absolutely necessary. And in part it was true; even if you were a tinker your costume always had certain elements so that you could be easily identified by others while fully geared. After all it would be awkward for people to constantly be asking you if you were a new cape.
"Yep. I can massively change the physiology of arthropods to the point they aren't recognizable. Those spiders are pretty much simple compared to some of the things I've tried," I called the group of weaver wasps over to land in front of her, they weren't as drastic of a modification as what I could do given what I had done under Testament's tutelage, but it served to prove my point, "The bugs I just landed in front of you combine traits of wasps and spiders. They've got spinnerets instead of stingers and their bite is venomous. And they aren't even the biggest modification give done testing that power."
"What was?"
"Well I made a spider the size of my hand and then turned around and gave the thing human fingers for legs."
"eww."
"Agreed. But what I'm getting at is that I might be able to make bugs that functions as part of my costume. Imagine if my claws were a living bug and the claws were tipped in retractable stingers so I could poison my target every time I landed a claw attack. Or maybe a muscle overlay that could enhance my physical strength allowing me to crush things caught in my grasp or deliver blows as strong as a jackhammer."
"That sounds awesome. Weird, but awesome."
"Exactly. And to top it off if any of those organic components were damaged I could repair them even easier than this costume," I stated as I pulled my mask down over my face, "So what do you think?"
Sara turned to me and paused. Her eyes roamed up and down my silk clad form. If I didn't know how badass my costume looked I'd be wondering if it came out a bit embarrassing. Or if she was checking me out though that didn't mesh with her embarrassment of my stripping down a few moments ago.
The black silk base looked complex almost gothic in the level of detail that was created by the various panels of silk. I had arranged the panels to make sharp powerful lines that accentuated the body with thinner lines crisscrossing the larger ones like the strands of a spider's web; not in a traditional web pattern, per say, but invoking it just the same. I even had time to apply the same effect to the mask and gauntlets so they wouldn't stick out against the body suit's more intricate design so that when everything was in place it was almost impossible to tell that the entire costume wasn't a single piece. The chitin armor panels were more impressive looking then before. It was all sharp compound edges, organic irregularities, and durable looking. Thanks to new techniques I used, the plating was surprisingly even light, still heavier than my old costumes given there was far more chitin in the armor panels make up than before and provided coverage for almost half again as much of the costume. Even the inorganic parts like the goggles were expert looking. The goggles were separated from the chitin around it by a thick heavy weave of silk that looked like folds of black flesh making it appear all that much more like the goggles were actual bug eyes.
"Wow" Sara said, "I don't suppose I could get you to make me a new mask?"
I laughed in response, "I think I can. We might need to sketch some stuff out though."
When Dad came home at four thirty he found Sara and me in the living room watching Pirates of the Caribbean and eating popcorn. Sara had been extremely serious about having popcorn while watching movies and proceeded to go through the cabinets until she found said popcorn. To my surprise it wasn't past the used by date. I can't remember when the last time we ate popcorn was.
"They should have stopped at the third movie," Sara said seriously before popping another crenel into her mouth, "I mean Johnny Depp is awesome as Sparrow, but the character just doesn't work as a lead."
"Hi Dad," I called to him as he walked into the room and slowly took in the scene before him. We were both on the couch. I sitting like a normal person while Sara had opted to lay across the entire thing, to accomplish this with me on the sofa as well she scissored her legs placing one behind my back and the other across my lap. Despite the fact her knees were even with my stomach we somehow ended up comfortable.
While I didn't want to I knew I needed to let him know I had skipped so he wouldn't be caught off guard in case the school called about it, "Dad. I skipped my after lunch classes at school today."
"Why?" He sounded upset at that. I briefly wondered if he was more upset at my skipping school or the most likely reason for it.
"The terrible trio gave me a soda shower at lunch," I elaborated.
Dad sighed and nodded, "I understand then. I can't imagine the prospect of walking around school like that would be any fun. …How bad was it?"
"I..." I looked to Sara I hadn't really tried to clean my clothes; I figured they were a lost cause. Sara on the other hand had taken them the second she heard about it and went to work on them.
"I threw them in the wash before we started, they might need another round before all of the stains come out," she said with a easy smile that hinted at how little doing something like that for me bugged her. It was pretty much when she cast that casual smile that I realized something. Sara was the first person since Emma to ever hang out with me at home. Moreover she was the only person since Emma's betrayal to be someone I could really call a friend.
Luckily my thoughts were disrupted before they could find a dark avenue to travel down when my dad asked, "So Taylor, are you going to introduce me to your friend?"
"Oh. Sorry Dad. This is-"
"Sara Holden. I'm in Taylor's class at Peerless" She interrupted, "You might not immediately recognize me since I'm not wearing my usual mask. The one with cat ears."
Dad tensed at the admission. He likely expected that capes' secret identities were meant to be closely guarded secrets, and not be casually given out like she had. He'd be right most of the time. He practically breathed out his response, "You're Felix."
"Only when in costume, but yes," she replied casually, "I couldn't very well come over and hang out with Taylor in costume without drawing undue attention."
"Given she just puts on that mask, I think you'd figure it out sooner rather than later," I added.
"You make it sound like I'm Kenting."
"Kenting?"
"You know Superman's paper thin disguise?"
"Oh right."
"Honestly I'm not that bad."
Emily Piggot was not in a good mood as she watched the clock on the wall slowly tick away. Vigilant had gotten into an altercation with Empire Eighty-Eight and lost his left arm to Hookwolf. All he and Velocity had to show for it was a pair of nobody capes that they had captured. The capes weren't even that notable, just a Brute 2 and a Shaker 1 whom hadn't even been on the PRT's radar.
And that wasn't even the extent of her day, something in Kid Win's workshop had exploded and Armsmaster was still ensconced with the young tinker within to figure out and prevent whatever happened from occurring again. Atop of that there was the fallout from White Knight's rampage that was still being felt and now she had to make contact with a relatively unknown but potentially very dangerous cape.
The clock struck six pm and Emily dialed the number she'd been provided. The other end had barely rung once when it was picked up. That meant Skitter had been waiting for the phone call to come as well, good.
"Director Piggot I presume," a chorus of noise said. Not much scared Piggot after Ellisburg, but the inhuman quality of the voice sent a shiver down her spine she'd never admit to having felt.
"Correct. Skitter?"
"In deed and the flesh," the voice responded oddly. Emily hoped this cape wasn't insane, insane was hard to predict.
"Your e-mail said you have evidence to turn over to me."
"Yes. There's a parking garage three blocks south of the PRT headquarters. I'll be waiting for you."
"For me."
"For you personally. I have no problem with you bringing two capes as an escort, but no PRT squad should be within a block of the garage. And preferably I'd like to know at least one of the capes you're bringing. So Aegis, Vigilant, or Testament. Failure to comply with these requests means I disappear and the media gets a hold of this evidence."
There was a long pause while Piggot considered her options. Skitter obviously didn't know Vigilant was injured or that Testament hadn't answered his phone in the past forty eight hours, likely meaning he wasn't in city limits. That left her with Aegis, the Ward was on monitor duty right now but Vista was also in the building so they could swap.
"Am I demanding too much?" the legion of sound asked conveying a surprising amount of worry for what it was.
"No, I'd like to know how you know Aegis though. I'm already aware of your connections to the Protectorate members," she stated buying herself time to consider everything.
"We have classes together."
Piggot froze, "Skitter knows more than just Shadow Stalker's identity."
"Oh. That sounded," Skitter quickly said before pausing and elaborating, "I meant we have the same classes at Peerless Martial Arts."
Emily audibly sighed cursing herself for doing so immediately afterward. She went over the details again. Aegis would have to do, so someone with more range would be a good compliment. Miss Militia, She could also carry containment foam grenade rounds that could disable and contain the cape; if she guessed right that was the reason Skitter didn't want PRT forces too close by, "Okay. I'll play along."
"Good. With the current traffic I'm guessing it'd take three minutes to get to the garage, so let's say six minutes to get here assuming you're people are already in the building."
"They are. That's a reasonable time table," Piggot stated even as her mind added, "She's already at the garage."
"Good. I'll see you in about six minutes starting…now," the phone line went to dial tone.
Piggot made the necessary calls as she pulled on her coat. In just under two minutes one of the PRT boxes were rolling out of the garage. Aegis was driving to give Miss Militia time to load containment foam grenades into her weapon, "So Director what is this about?"
"Your friend Skitter wants to meet."
"Skitter?" Aegis asked, "She told me outright on Wednesday that she wasn't going to even consider joining the Wards until she made a name for herself."
"She has apparently collected some items we may be interested in."
"Items?"
"Evidence that Shadow Stalker isn't following the rules we laid down for her."
Aegis cursed under his breath as he turned into the parking garage. He slowed down drastically, "Where now?"
As if to answer his question a swarm of bugs collected in front of the vehicle and formed an arrow.
"I guess that way," Miss Militia said.
The arrow kept pace with Aegis turning this way and that like one from a GPS device until it disappeared as they arrived on the fourth floor of the five floor structure. Bugs swarmed across the cars of the parked vehicles, the walls, ground and ceiling of the structure. There had to be millions, maybe hundreds of millions, to coat this much surface area so densely. A clear showing of the power the cape commanded in this situation. The director was already considering a higher number than she'd initially assumed for Skitter's Master rating.
"Out," the swarm ordered.
Piggot didn't like this scenario; she had expected the cape to be on the top floor so she could see the roofs of the nearby building in order to keep track of possible PRT squads. The team she had dispatched to a vantage point wouldn't be able to see them here. Emily steeled herself and said, "You heard her."
Aegis killed the engine before they disembarked. Once they had Piggot demanded, "Now your turn; show yourself."
A good forty feet from where they stood, the swarm covering the floor and ceiling bulged, extending towards one another like cave formations. A pair of yellow eyes appeared within the mass just before the swarm exploded outward from the mass and forming a dense cloud of bugs in a ten foot radius from the bug covered cape. Piggot wondered for a moment how Skitter had pulled the entrance off. She knew that the girl had appeared in a similar manner when she first met Testament and briefly wondered if she could teleport through the swarm or turn her body into a mass of bugs.
"You have evidence of these wrongdoings by Shadow Stalker."
"I never specified that it was her, but yes. Sophia Hess, aka Shadow Stalker, has been a very poor example of a hero over the course of the last month and if my source is to be believed has been a poor excuse for a human being at least another year and a half more," The cape clarified.
"Source?"
"Taylor Herbert. A student at Winslow High and Sophia's primary victim while in her civilian guise."
"Victim?" Aegis asked, "She's in one of the classes at Peerless. I can't see her being much of a victim the way she fights."
"I'm aware she attends as well. She was the one who referred me to Nakamura. The entire reason she's been throwing herself so recklessly into martial arts is because of the bullying she's been subjected to since '09."
"Wait she's been bullied for years?" Miss Militia asked incredulously, "Why hasn't she taken this to the faculty?"
"I believe they've turned a blind eye to it since they know Ms. Hess is Shadow Stalker. That's not the worst of it either; she's been utilizing lethal ammunition in her crossbows."
"You said you had evidence to back up these accusations. Where is it?" Piggot asked.
"Before that I thought it best that you know what we expect in the wake of this. I personally want to see Shadow Stalker removed from the Wards and face the consequences of her actions. I don't care if this is done publicly or not. Additionally I want you to get something going to make sure something like this bullying can't happen again, not just here but across the country. No Ward should be given such preferential treatment from authority figures. It's sickening.
"Taylor on the other hand wants to be transferred out of Winslow to Arcadia. She's lost faith in that school's faculty and I can hardly blame her. As for why Arcadia; the students treat one another with a greater deal of respect in no small part due to the knowledge of Wards attending the school. Finally she hopes that you'd lean on the Winslow itself to punish the other members of Sophia's little power trio and to resolve an outstanding lawsuit between the Herberts and Winslow. In the Herberts' favor, of course."
"Wait. Lawsuit?"
"Her father is suing the school after Taylor had a psychotic episode following being shoved into a waste filled locker. Unfortunately I wasn't investigating Shadow Stalker at the time so the only information on this 'locker incident' is in Taylor's journals and medical records you could pull from the hospital," The flag wearing heroine looked sick with just the thought of such an event occurring without reprisal.
"I'll do everything I can if the evidence leads me to believe your previous statements," Piggot said. Her voice was even but the anger she herself felt over the misconduct of her Ward was visible through her clinched fists.
The bug-themed cape nodded and a section of the swarm between them receded revealing a full size duffel bag that had obviously seen better days, "This bag contains three crossbow bolts fired from Shadow Stalker's weapon. One I retrieved after encountering Shadow Stalker engaging some E88 members the other two Taylor recovered when she was caught in a battle between Shadow Stalker and Grue of the Undersiders on Wednesday. Grue had used Taylor as a hostage and when the girl escaped his grasp Shadow Stalker fired both the bolts Ms. Herbert recovered. One of which she pulled out of the villain after he'd been hit. Taylor's report and video of the event are included. Additionally there is over ten hours of video cataloguing the bullying the girl has been subjugated to, and six note books filled with journal entries detailing every encounter since September of '09 and a flash drive containing my own reports of the events I observed."
"Sounds comprehensive," Aegis stated.
"I don't like people, especially capes, who abuse their power," Skitter stated the swarm amazingly able to carry a flat tone in its 'voice.' For the first time she appeared the cape moved appreciably, turning away from Piggot before adding, "If you have questions text the number I gave you. The phone will remain active for the weekend but I'll be too busy to answer a call."
"What are you going to be doing?" Aegis asked curiosity in his voice. The swarm was far more active now having abandoned their positions to buzz around the entire level of the parking garage.
"Introducing myself to the public and the criminals in particular," She announced before walking away disappearing into the veritable wall of bugs as every insect rushed out of the garage. So numerous were they that the level was temporarily cast in shadow as they blocked both the fading light from outside and the halogen bulbs of the garage. The massive dark comet disappeared down the alleyways.
As Piggot motioned for the Ward to retrieve the bag of evidence Emily reached up and taped her ear bud, "Report."
"We lost her, the swarm dissipated less than two blocks away. No sight of the target," a member of the PRT team she had maneuvered into position informed her. Piggot sighed and ordered everyone back to headquarters. This was going to be a long evening.
Five minutes after the last of the PRT element in the neighborhood left I walked out of the parking garage nonchalantly, costume hidden away in my ever present backpack. I had been nervous as all hell when I jumped off the side of the building but the silk cables I had used functioned admirably as rappel lines.
As I had considered using silk as climbing ropes ahead of time my body suit actually incorporated a full body harness in its design. When not actively in use the majority of the harness's spider silk straps looked like parts of the costume's detailing or slipped under the suit's chitin panels. The parts of climbing gear I had to buy, that would be the actual metal components, I had found available in a dark matte grey and seemed like it had been produced just for my purposes. I wasn't dumb about it either; I had done a fair amount of research on various climbing harnesses beforehand and tested my harness before and after sewing it into the costume.
With the sun going down I headed towards the docks to do exactly what I told Aegis I was going to do. During my 'recon runs' through the docks I had singled out a few places to make my debut as a cape and prepared by distributing the types of bugs I wanted to have around and planed the various events in detail. Well as detailed as I was willing to go considering the adage of plans and first contact with the enemy.
A bus ride and a five and a half minute walk later I slipped into an abandoned building I had chosen ahead of time and changed into costume. On the way here I had been building a swarm about half the size of the one I had used for my encounter with the Director and when I added the bugs I had left in this building, giant beetles left over from my costume making, I couldn't help but feel a pang of symphony for those I was about to target.
I walked the block to my target keeping to the shadows of alleys as the swarm covertly positioned themselves where I needed them. My target was a drug house or den or whatever they called the places where a variety of drugs were stored to be distributed to street level dealers but didn't make or refine the 'product.' This particular one was operated by the ABB and, from what I had gathered from my bugs, served as a fairly large distribution center for the ABB's sector of the docks. Already my bugs had identified every person within the building as well as a block around it; a little over a dozen targets. Silk cables were spun as other spiders suspended themselves over targets and ants and other ground bound bugs slipped through the cracks of the ill-maintained warehouse.
I pulled a lesser swarm around me as I exited the alley and brazenly strode towards the building. At the same moment the swarm surged forth; black tendrils whose dimensions were measured in feet snaked out of every alleyway, off rooftops, storm drains, and even some shattered windows. The two gangbangers that were serving as guards in the parking lot were consumed in a cloud of insects before they could draw their weapons. They thrashed and flailed about as the pair tried to fight off my swarm. I couldn't help but consider the action futile, but then again, there wasn't much you could do against a swarm as an ordinary human.
Their screams as my swarm bit and stung raised the alarm. Not a second later the swarm's tendrils hit the windows and sky light of the drug house. My heavy beetles lead the charge; their toughened carapaces and powerful flight muscles providing just enough force to trip the scale in the favor of the swarm. Countless bugs died smashing into the glass but the panes shattered all the same. The chorus of screams became louder as more voices were added. Every person within was subjected to the same terror inducing attack as the various bugs that made up my swarm stung and gnawed at exposed flesh. I took care to not have the venomous members of the swarm inject anything when they attacked; still it was a small mercy for those experiencing it.
My hands shot out striking the watchmen as I casually waded through the cloud in front of the building's entrance. I kicked one in the groin and followed it up with an armored knee to the face as he doubled over. The other caught a back hand to the face that put him down just as quickly. Coils of silk were brought down and my swarm worked to secure them even as I opened the door and entered the site at large.
One of the gangbangers rushed me almost immediately apparently having worked out how futile it was to try to attack the swarm and looking for something more productive to attack. My personal swarm thickened between us and I moved out of his path. The lead pipe he carried sailed through the air where I had been as he screamed out in rage and pain. I kicked his leg out from under him and he fell forward. A larger concentration swarmed over him. He writhed in agony as I relieved him of his cellphone and pressed on.
My swarm was already working on tying everyone up, or in some cases binding particular victims to nearby fixtures. It had taken less than a minute and a half to subdue the entire bunch. Other ABB members who had heard the commotion were already moving towards the site with weapons in hand as I found what I was looking for in the backrooms. I started stuffing stacks of hundred dollar bills into nearby bags. I started with a backpack before moving on to a duffel. I figured I could carry a largish duffel bag and the pack relatively comfortably. Paper got heavy in large amounts and I was going to have to be able to move with the 'proceeds' of this little excursion.
The reinforcements slowed down when they saw the amorphous mass of bugs that was weaving their way in and out of the shattered windows and other openings of the warehouse. I formed a swarm decoy on the roof that glided towards the edge to look down at the oncoming gang members. They hesitated to approach, instead reverting to shouting to one another in languages I didn't understand. At least they did until a heavily armored man approached and made the others fall in line. He drew a sword, a katana if I recalled correctly, and ordered the lot forward.
My swarm exploded forth rushing to meet them like a barbarian horde. The ...samurai swung his sword in arcs that created blasts of wind that literally cut through my swarm wholesale. I switched to stuffing the current bag with one hand as I pulled my requisitioned phone out and went to the internet. A few clicks here and there later I found the samurai cape's Parahumans online profile.
Fēng Lao had the ability to generate 'wind slashes' using any blade that were strong enough to cut though trees but not meaningfully damage stone or metals. He had been one of Lungs lieutenants for the past three years and wore a suit of tinker armor that combined influences from a variety of Asian armor designs, most notably the heavy armor of samurai. The profile picture showed him leading a group of ABB thugs like a general with a saber. I noted that the armor didn't cover the entire body leaving gaps that my swarm could exploit. I wasted no time in doing so drawing a large concentration of bugs to strike at him.
I finished with my looting and carried the ill-begotten gains out through a side door where I stashed them for the time being. I headed towards the fight as my spiders started securing the reinforcements Lao had been able to whip into action. There were so many common spiders nearby one that I decided to actually wrap the poor sucker in a thin cocoon. Another found himself attached to the utility pole by his arm.
Fēng Lao tripped as I approach his legs having been bound by spider silk. He slashed through the threads with his sword. I kicked the blade out of his grip before he could regain his feet. He shouted something at me in what…Chinese? He came rising with a punch the swing telling of augmented strength, likely through his armor. I danced to the side threw a kick into the back of his knee. He lashed out with his hands again, this time I caught him, redirected him and stabbed a claw into his shoulder. The padding or whatever he wore under the armor didn't offer much resistance and I found my hand digging into the muscle. He dropped to his knees making a pained sound and I wrenched the arm behind his back as I pulled my fingers free of the flesh. My swarm immediately went into the exposed flesh aggravating the wound with bites and a few well-placed stings.
The cape grunted through the pain, not opening his mouth to prevent the bugs that had gotten under his helmet from entering. I pulled some of the silk cord I had made ahead of time from my utility compartment and tied him up using his injured arm to control him. To Lao's credit he had stopped struggling as soon as he hand fallen to his knees. He was panting under his mask, worrying me that perhaps he was one of the few that were allergic to the wasps that I had made use of here.
"Are you allergic to wasp stings?" I asked with my swarm.
He shook his head.
"Good, that's the worse my swarm delivered," I informed him and I could see him visibly relax at that. He didn't react any further when I put him chest down on the ground and had the spiders in my swarm literally bind him to the ground in a loose sheet of silk.
I left the defeated cape and headed back to where I had stashed the loot while flipping open the appropriated cellphone again and dialing the police. It rang once before it was answered and a woman's voice announced, "Brockton Bay Police Department."
"There's been a cape fight at 1309 Bradshaw drive in front and within the warehouse. Twenty two ABB gang members have been captured including the cape Fēng Lao. Your people will need wire cutters to extricate some of them and most have suffered varied bug bites and stings," I informed her, the swarm enhancing my voice with their inhuman cadence.
"Right… and who was the other cape involved, I assume you?"
"Correct. The name's Skitter," I hung up and tossed the cell phone into an open dumpster before gathering my take and leaving the site. As I left I sent swarm decoys out in various directions. I left one on a roof here or there and generally thinned out my swarm to the better performing bugs by the time I made it back to abandoned building I had changed in.
A literal hole in the wall and a moth eaten sofa served as a good hiding spot for the money. I changed and stuffed some of the cash into my own backpack. As I deposited the remnants of my swarm in the neighborhood I checked a clock in a nearby house using a few flies and learned it was just after eight. I headed home to get some sleep, stashing my phone along the way so the PRT couldn't track me there. With any luck I wouldn't encounter anymore capes over the course of the weekend.
The next day I headed into the Market to pick up some more things for my life as a cape using some of the money I had requisitioned the night before. Over the course of a few hours I bought a handful of prepaid cell phones, a quality smart phone, several ear pieces, three throat mics, a few pairs of 'smart glass' which had a built in HUD that would be fitted into a future versions of my mask, and other little knickknacks.
I also found a distressed deep brown leather coat that just screamed my dad's name. The only thing was the lining was even more worried to the point it was falling out. Still I bought it and a few minutes later bought some quality padding to add to it. I had after all told myself I'd make my dad some kind of inconspicuous protective wear. I intended to replace the jacket's lining with thick spider silk to make it better than a bulletproof vest while still looking like a vintage leather coat. It would be perfect for Dad.
It was a little after five o'clock when I slipped into my spider silk and chitin second skin. The swarm I gathered today was closer to matching the few million I had called on the previous day for my meeting with the director and this time I made no attempts to hide it. The vast majority of the swarm flowed around me as my personal barrier between the world and myself. Thick tendrils of bugs slithered and snaked through open windows, storm drains, and preceding me in the streets as I headed towards my target.
My victims of choice tonight were the Merchants. One of the problems with going after them was that they didn't have any kind of uniform except looking like the bottom of the barrel. Still they reacted predictably enough when I came strolling through. They attacked. Some braved the swarm with nothing but an artificial high and a melee weapon to protect them; others fired a variety of cheap guns into the mass. Every now and then someone would use a Molotov or hairspray flame throw in a short lived moment of brilliance. Nothing really made a notable dent in the numbers I was controlling or even the numbers I sent at individuals. It briefly occurred to me that with the sheer weight of numbers at my disposal I could probably kill someone by burying them under the swarm.
I waded in to personally attack a few of their number even as I formed swarm decoys near others to for them to attack futilely. The idea here wasn't just to assault and capture these gangbangers but to make sure they knew it was a strange new cape. Make them fear me, and whisper my name as warning to others of their ilk. And for that a degree of showmanship was necessary. They needed to see me and my swarm to know what to fear or it would take that much longer for that fear to spread.
The Merchants didn't have much in the way of parahuman firepower, so it wasn't the least bit surprising that I didn't encounter a cape on this excursion to the derelict tenement that served as a drug house. Like the previous night I intended to steal a fair portion of the drug money that my swarm had guaranteed me was present. Unlike the ABB, the merchants didn't even try to organize their take in neat stacks of money so I was left to shove rolls of cash into duffels. Ironically the habit of tightly rolling the money probably allowed me to carry more bills in the bags then if they had been in the traditional stacks. Of course I knew I was going to have a much larger variety of bills compared to last night's proceeds. Still I worked diligently as my swarm bound the gang members.
Another point at which this raid differed from the previous outing was that no reinforcements came to try to stop me. I was actually a bit surprised at that. Sure the merchants were smaller in number and likely didn't have a parahuman nearby to rally behind but the gunfire and massive coils of insects should have been noticeable enough. As I zipped up the last bag, a medium sized duffel, and hoisted myself and the three bags I was burdened with off the ground I drew one of the disposable phones I had purchased earlier in the day and dialed the police.
Nothing tried to stop me on my way out either thought I knew eyes were on the building, if you could call it that, so I made a dramatic exit. My swarm exploded out the structure in great coils of bugs before snaking back around to merge with the swarm that cloaked me from view. I traveled almost a block away before I stopped and slipped down into the sewers and storm drains beneath the streets by way of a manhole. Above ground my swarm continued on along the street another block before seemingly dissipating into the air. Most of the useful bugs had either stayed with me or wound back to me after disappearing down storm drains in small numbers.
I traveled for miles underground before I got to the place I had discovered a week and a half ago. It took a fair bit of force to lever the heavy door open enough so I could slide into the facility that would come to serve as my lair. It was one of many abandoned cape bases that dotted the underground of Brockton Bay. This particular one was more than large enough for my needs and secreted away under the streets of the boardwalk. Given the trophies, plaques, commendations, and general memorabilia one could easily believe the place had once been the headquarters of a superhero team, although a small one given its overall size. It had obviously been abandoned for some time as well; dust was so thick on even the floor that it was almost like snow.
When I first found the place there had been dirty laundry, half-eaten diner, and other things that spoke of a quick abandonment of the facility. I had been understandably curious given this 'abandoned in a hurry' appearance and had investigated what happened to the previous tenants. The answer had taken the majority of a week and several visits to the library and base to discover. The team was the Heroic Five which operated primarily during the sixties and seventies (which explained a great deal of the furnishing choices) and had been wiped out during one of Behemoth's first attacks. Their deaths had served as part of the statistical model that established the Endrbinger's 'instant kill' range. To Parahuman Online's knowledge they left no descendants behind that might have received some sort of alert signal when I took over the base and decided to make it my lair.
There were a total of three entrances into the base, two of which made use of the storm drains. The one I entered, another that connected to a different storm drain that emptied out into the canal, and one that lead into the warehouse overhead. Well it had been a warehouse but some enterprising soul turned it into a club that was one of the boardwalk's major hot spots. Club Venom, as it was named, was actually well liked by both the tourists that swarmed over the boardwalk and the locals. I personally liked it because of the name but that shouldn't be surprising considering it's me we're talking about here.
The primary room of the base, what I expected to be labeled the command chamber or some such nonsense was fairly massive, circular chamber that if I had to guess was just slightly smaller than the average basketball court and about as tall as most indoor court's buildings with a second floor ringing the first before curving into a domed ceiling. The room included a bank of monitors –that largely didn't work- a thick and large round table about seven or eight feet in diameter and the aforementioned memorabilia. Every room in the base connected to this one on one of the two levels. These included A locker room and bathroom combination, a tinker's workshop with an attached armory full of antiquated power armor that the team had worn, bed rooms numbering at six, a hand full of storage rooms, even small garage connected to the canal exit that housed obviously tinker made motorcycles.
Before heading to the market this morning I had moved the previous night's proceeds and a large portion of the bugs still that area here. I added the bags I had with me to the collection that I was making in one of the storerooms. I had little to worry about security wise here, the doors had all been nearly impossible to spot from the outside and required me to make use of the bugs that had taken up residence within the base to get in.
Visiting my lair reminded me of something else. I traveled down to the edge of the docks still in costume though with only the barest of swarms around me and sticking to alleyways and disused streets. I retrieved the cell phone the PRT had the number for from its hiding place under a dumpster. There was a text waiting for me from Piggot asking me to call her at my earliest convenience.
Situating myself comfortably on the roof of a nearby building by way of a fire escape I called the only phone number in the cell's history. A moment later the Director's voice came over the line, "PRT, Director Piggot"
"Director, it's Skitter," I informed her, the swarm voice accenting my words as per standard procedure.
"Oh. Good. I thought you might want to hear it from me first. After paging through the evidence you and Ms. Herbert delivered to me I can tell you Shadow Stalker is going to be discharged from the Wards and end up in juvenile hall for what she's done in costume at least. As soon as I get any verification of some of the events at the school I'll be pressing forward against the civilian side of the problem. When we do I'll be sending an outline of a proposal up the chain of command to keep this sort of abuse from happening again."
"It's good to hear justice being served. I'm sure Taylor will be pleased to learn of the turn of events as well."
"I'm going to ask that you don't inform her. The Wards will be showing up at Winslow Monday to follow up and I'd rather her off guard so we can gauge her honest reaction."
"Understood. I had been planning to cut ties with the girl as soon as the investigation was completed. I see no reason to maintain the relationship now."
"You don't?" Piggot asked her voice carrying a tone of surprise, "I've been selectively reading the girl's journals. Just from her writing I can tell that her outlook on life improved with your association."
"I would assume that was because of the fact I was helping her. Not because of my 'wonderful' personality," I stated the bugs managing to sound deprecatingly ironic.
"Maybe," Piggot's response didn't covey any belief in the idea.
"The day before you asked me about how I knew Aegis. He didn't get in trouble for not mentioning me did he?" I asked trying to pitch the swarm voice to sound somewhat worried. I wasn't really concerned about it but it would suck if he had gotten in trouble for it.
"No. Part of our agreement with Nakamura is that we don't require any of our people he trains to report on things that occur within the walls of Peerless Kung Fu's dojo. Aegis did tell me a great deal about you afterwards though."
"Good. Well, I'm glad he didn't get in trouble with you for not sharing that and I expected he'd have to give some kind of report in regards what he knows of my capabilities. I hope his words were more flattering then not."
Piggot chuckled in response. I had a feeling that she was very okay with the idea of Aegis building a rapport with me through our connection at Peerless. She may have even ordered him to try harder. That didn't really bother me since I was pretty cure at some point I would be joining the Ward or if I waited too long, the Protectorate. The oversight might be annoying but having the backing of an organization did help expand that one could accomplish, having a team to work with did as well. I'd get both as a member of either group.
"Speaking of events of the last few days you've been a busy…bee…haven't you?" the PRT Director asked her tone of voice shifting to the serious despite the pun.
"I have. And I've got another, um, excursion planed for tomorrow using the same general tactics. Do I need to modify my plans?"
"No. Your raids were far more dramatic then I prefer but you capes are all more dramatic than suits my tastes. I do have some unfortunate news regard your raid on Friday. Fēng Lao escaped in route to PRT holding facilities so he's still on the streets."
I didn't want to sound…pretentious, but I don't think he was that big of a deal. Of course I didn't tell her that instead opting for a simple, "Thanks for the heads up."
"No problem; that pretty much covers everything I wanted to inform you of. Did you have anything else?" the director asked and it made me think of the lair I hadn't been able to do much more then move some things around to clear some space for my own stuff. I had the inkling of suspicion that the tinker tech was well beyond what I could hope to deal with. Tones of questions came to mind but I eventually settled for not mentioning any.
"No, that's all for me too," I stated.
"Alright; I'll let you get on with your day. Stay safe and stay on the right path, Skitter," the phone hung up almost immediately after.
I visited Peerless Sunday morning after my daily run. The martial arts studio was generally closed until about noon but given that Gui Nakamura's apartment was actually part of the building I knew there'd be a high likelihood of my sensei being present. He was and he seemed particularly pleased to see me.
"Come in," he instructed. Once we had walked into the main room he asked, "To what do I owe this visit?"
"I was wanting to change some things," I said unslinging my backpack. Inside it I had my costume, some bugs, and a few other things. It was actually a new pack I had bought Saturday. I was going to be making modifications to some of the backpacks I had gotten my hands on, primarily lining them with wire and spider silk. The wire was there to help it hold its shape so I could store bugs comfortably inside it.
"Oh?"
"You've been giving me extremely discounted classes because you know...my situation. I'm now in a position to pay full price for both the classes I've already had and will take in the future."
"Does this have to do with your debut attacks on the gangs of the bay?"
"Yeah. I had scouted out the a few places that they use as stash houses and beyond attacking the place and drawing police attention to it I um…confiscated a lot of money."
"It's called taking spoils. It's covered in the 1947 Vigilante Bills. You should read up on them at your earliest opportunity. Just know that currency can be legally considered a 'spoil of war' so you're generally safe from legal repercussions from taking it," Gui explained.
I let out a sigh of relief as we entered his office; I had no idea if it had been legal to take the money. I definitely needed to look up those laws later. I unzipped the bag and pulled out a neatly folded wad of cash and handed it to Nakamura. He didn't bother counting it or anything; he just put it in his desk drawer.
"That's not all I wanted to talk about Sensei. Yesterday I got a chance to hang out with Felix outside of class. I um, know her without the mask now," I said elaborating, "While we chatted we realized I've never actually explained exactly what all my powers entail."
"I seem to recall you telling me in pretty graphic detail."
"Yeah I remember. But that was just when it comes to controlling the swarm. I can also modify the physiology of anything I can control at touch. It's a focus intensive process and I have to obey the law of conservation of matter. But while I can only affect or use mass from members of the swarm, I can add biological systems from other species and manipulate basic aspects of my target. Using the same example I gave Felix of one of my more extreme experiments I made a spider grow to the size of my hand then changed its legs into human fingers."
If the image I conjured in Nakamura's head bothered him he didn't let it show on his face. Instead he was the portrait of thought, "Why didn't you mention this power before?"
"It didn't seem pertinent to my training here," I admitted.
"I see. How have you used this power so far?"
"I made large beetles to harvest the exoskeleton of for my costume's armor panels; similarly I enhanced a colony of spiders to produce more durable silk in larger quantities to make a stronger costume faster. For combat purposes I've also made larger more durable varieties of certain bugs and mixed the aspects of spiders and wasps to create an airborne web spinner to compliment some of my tactics," I explained drawing out a waver wasp from my bag and having it set down prominently on his desk. I had brought it with me for just this sort of show and tell.
Nakamura looked the bug over as he asked "And you want me to find some way to apply this capability to your fighting and tactics?"
"That would be nice, but I also want to bounce ideas off of you on occasion. I recognize the possibility of letting my imagination and this power run wild and producing true monsters. I want you in on things to help me find and not cross the proverbial line."
"That makes a certain about of sense. Anything I can do for you now?"
"I… I found myself wanting more ways to render someone unconscious, or at least unable to struggle while my spiders bind them in place."
"Your costume?" he inquired motioning to my pack. I nodded which resulted in a simple, "Go change."
Say what you want about Kaiser but the guy is not a moron. Having heard about the attacks on the other gangs' drug houses Kaiser had seen fit to reinforce his own stash houses, well at least the one I was looking at. The building was a small well-maintained apartment complex that looked as if it had never been abandoned and indeed may not have ever been. Not surprising since Empire Eighty-Eight thinks of itself as superior to the other gangs of Brockton bay; not just in strength of arms or what have you but in the superiority of its white supremacist membership. My advanced scouts had already mapped the changes that had occurred since my last covert recon of the place. The house's money stash was in the basement alongside more pounds of 'product' then I wanted to even consider.
It was only two in the afternoon, my previous attacks had been at or near nightfall I was changing things up significantly for this raid. The empire was generally considered to be the most powerful gang in Brockton Bay and I intended to make a very public showing that being big and powerful didn't make you untouchable. I formed a swarm clone in an alley way two blocks away and provided it with a dense nebula of bugs. The swarm itself was of similar size as the ones I had been using the last few days and was congregating in the alleyways and just behind various storm drains in the area. With my preparations nearly complete I turned towards my advanced scouts to listen in on the activity inside the building.
"So what do we do if this crazy cape doesn't show up?" one of the gangbangers asked his compatriot. He looked the part of a mindless E88 drone; white, shaved head, swastika tattoos, wearing a sleeveless shit to show off his many other tattoos despite the cold, and armed. In particular he carried a shotgun.
His compatriot on the other hand was intelligent enough to wear clothing appropriate for the season and had a full head of hair, though the giant 88 stitched onto the back of his winter coat and the hand gun stuffed into his waistband were clear indicators of his allegiance, "We get to collect a nice bonus for showing up."
"And if the dude does?"
"We kill him and collect and even bigger bonus," Thug two stated dryly. Like it would be that easy. My swarm-self started making its way towards the drug house moving around out in the open like I had yesterday.
"Just like that?" Thug one asked incredulously as I slowly maneuvered other portions of my swarm into position with excruciating patience. It was still too early in the year for bugs to really be out in force so if someone noticed two or three bugs they might think something up; especially considering that they were expecting me.
"Just like that. You got a problem with that?"
"No it's just that…how do we deal with the bugs?"
"We kill the bitch controlling them and that's that," the thug stated with finality as my swarm-self closed in with the swarm erupting forward to assault the gang members whom had just started opening fire on the decoy. Thanks to my swarm I could 'feel' the trajectory of each bullet as it passed through the swarm. Bullets went well wide of the decoy most of the time even before my swarm started biting and stinging; in short they were already panicking. I smiled behind my mask; seems my reputation was already catching on.
The sounds of the battle outside reached the ears of the henchmen inside and they quickly readied their firearms. A lot of good it did them considering the next wave of the assault came not from without but within. The bugs I had been smuggling in attacked. They weren't as numerous as the group outside but I had utilized only the most effective of my swarm here and they themselves were all the harder to counter given that the bugs weren't forming easy to see masses.
Outside without me to provide the knockout strike, I resorted to sending my bugs crawling up nostrils and into mouths of my victims to cut off their air supply and thus rendering them unconscious. Others found themselves being bound if they stopped struggling for any appreciable amount of time. That was actually a larger percentage of the empire's neo-Nazis than I had expected. More than one had simply curled up into the fetal position and cried. I didn't know how to feel about that.
I grabbed the shotgun and pushed the barrel away from my opponent and I; my shoulder stinging from where the last blast had caught me. I sent a few bugs to examine the impact site not feeling any pain but knowing the adrenaline would have dampened it. I threw my chitin topped boot into the soft tissue between his legs as the bugs told me the shoulder's chitin cover hadn't even been penetrated by the two bits of shot that hit me. When he reflectively let go of the weapon I reared back and swung it like a golf club. I don't know exactly how hard I hit him with the sawed-down pistol grip, but it was enough to drop the goon like a sack full of potatoes. I had kept enough bugs back with me that I still had my own personal swarm shrouding me and my movements. I made heavy use of the swarm to conceal quick movements making it appear to those who saw me as if I was moving distances as the swarm itself.
I made the last of the goons choke on bugs before I went to work loading down duffels full of tonight's proceeds as my swarm continued to assault the larger number of gangbangers that had made their way outside. The entire reason I had chosen this particular stash house out of the four I had investigated was because the large basement concealed an entrance to the sewers. I'm not entirely sure if it was some sort of addition made by capes of the past, if it was meant to be some sort of maintenance entrance, or what; but since the sewers and storm drains shared a certain amount of interconnection it allowed me to covertly enter and exit the building while my swarm drew attention. This time instead of just taking what I could carry I literally took the entire stash of cash. It took three trips to get it all into the storm drains and onto the appropriated shopping cart I had positioned beforehand. On the last trip I pulled out my cellphone and informed the police of the raid. They were only just showing up when the site fell out of my range.
-/ Interlude: The Undersiders
Tattletale smiled that vulpine grin of hers as she stated, "She's here."
"Awesome," Regent stated his voice thick with apathy. He had nearly managed to be lazy enough to not come meet the prospective member. Tattletale had worked her usual magic by enticing him with comments about the petitioner's attractive frame.
Grue sighed; he didn't like appearing weak and right now that's how he felt. The stitches and bandages were hidden from view by the black leather of his costume, but the fact that they were there was enough. The abdominal wound had caused a lot of bleeding but thankfully the crossbow bolt hadn't hit anything vital; even with that girl pulling the bolt out the injury hadn't been too bad. No what had been worse was Tattletale gleaming what happened; she hadn't gotten all the details right but just her knowing how bad he fumbled was enough to put a dampener on his spirits. He straightened himself up, medicinally dulled pain reminding himself of the injury.
The girl…woman, he wasn't entirely sure which, that walked into the abandoned warehouse was wearing a skin tight black suit that was made of several types of material and the way the pieces were fitted together only served to accent the cape's curves. Her mask covered everything but a scalp full of waist-length onyx black hair and looked to be composed of an old school gasmask, oversized headphones, and had small cut outs for her eyes. No lenses. The base of the mask seemed to connect to the bodysuit seamlessly. Hell he didn't want to admit it, but just looking at the level of detail in her costume he bet she wouldn't need the money they were going to offer her to join their group.
"Let me test her. She looks soft." Bitch said from nearby.
The black garbed woman glanced around, her eyes roving; they settled on Grue whose darkness was snaking out from his body to make him look more ethereal, "So there's going to be a test right? Not going to let me just join especially given the cash Tattletale said would be involved."
"Yes. Bitch here is going to attack you. You're going to use your powers to not get maimed."
"Charming," she said with an obviously fake European accent he couldn't guess at the intended origin she dropped when she spoke up next, 'When do we be-"
Her words were cut off by Rachel's whistle and her dogs burst forth each were about shoulder high and had been waiting for the signal behind crates. The cape jumped and leaped back in surprise just avoiding Brutus' jaws. Her body shifted into an inky shadow as her powers activated. She gracefully avoided Angelica and when the dog whipped its prehensile tail about and caught her at the waist and she was …split in half. But it looked more like a cloud of dye in liquid or creamer in coffee then an actual wound. The two parts reattached themselves like oils flowing into a depression.
When Judas tried to pounce on her she dropped down into a puddle and crossed several yards in a few seconds before returning to a humanoid form. With a sincerity that couldn't be faked, especially given the circumstances, she called out, "Uh. Am I supposed to hit back? I mean they're dogs right? I don't want to hit dogs."
She continued avoiding the hellhounds as Tattle tale leaned over and mutter, "She's not Shadow Stalker and she's holding back."
"I never said she was."
"You were thinking it. The only thing they have in common shadow based powers"
"And hot bodies," Regent interjected. Grue couldn't help but shake his head in response as the cape kept avoiding the dogs utilizing a mix of acrobatics and general tumbling.
"Fight back you weakling!" Bitch shouted as Judas barreled through the black clad cape before she could recover from avoiding Brutus' previous attack.
As if a switch was flipped she disappeared in a streak of black on the floor before slamming bodily into Brutus. The dog tumbled over as if a midsized car had hit him. Tattletale muttered something about shape shifting as the behemoth of a dog recovered with a supernatural quickness. Brutus swung a paw in retaliation and this time when limb made contact it didn't sweep through her body; instead she was thrown like a rag doll with streamers of darkness unwinding from her body as she rolled with the blow and disappeared in the shadows of the warehouse.
A canine grunt of surprise drew the group's attention to a spot some thirty feet away. Grue barely had time to comprehend the image of the female cape swinging Angelica in a circle by the tail before it went sailing through the air and right into Brutus. She tumbled maintain the momentum from the spinning and disappeared in shadows again. There was no question where she emerged next as Judas yelped as he was knocked onto his haunches by what looked like some sort of springing inverted drop kick to the dog's chin from its own shadow. From there she launches a quick series of kicks before following up with spinning back heel kick that splayed the hellhound onto the ground. A twist of moment later she disappeared into another shadow.
Brian heard her first, or at least the swish of her body through his personal darkness before Bitch herself grunted in surprised. Even as his mind registered that she had just used his darkness as a teleporting medium he turned to find Rachel in an iron clad headlock, "Can we stop now?"
"Holy shit?" Regent yelped in surprise at her proximity as the dogs bolted toward their master's aid.
"Yes. Bitch call them off," Grue ordered. He had seen more than enough the cape Lisa had found could likely tear them all apart. As much as he didn't like to think about it, he'd have to ask Tattletale how they could possibly counter her power if she ever decided to betray them.
Bitch waited till the hellhounds were nearly upon them to order them to stand down and found herself released from the hold in nearly the same moment.
"So you can teleport through darkness?"
"And control my density and shape to a degree, but only while in this state," she stated as her body turned from inky shadow to seemingly solid obsidian.
"Got a codename yet?"
"Wraith," she sated as she shifted again this time returning to her natural state considering the black on black nature it was almost impossible to tell the difference unless you were paying attention to the way light hit her, "So do I get to join?"
Grue turned towards the rest of the Undersiders instead of answering directly. Tattletale gave a small nod, Regent wore an appreciative grin as he surveyed her body, and Bitch simply muttered, "She's not weak"
"That's a yes then?" Wraith asked.
"Yeah."
The five of them made their way to the hideout in the docks in relative silence most of the conversation interestingly was from Wraith asking questions about Bitch's dogs. Bitch for her part seemed to be willing to tolerate the questions since they were specifically about the dogs themselves and that Wraith got visibly upset when the hound master explained how she rescued the dogs.
Inside the hideout everyone removed their masks reintroducing themselves by their civilian name. Wraith's waist long black hair was actually a wig sewn into the mask, a clever trick to hide her identity. She had jaw length chestnut hair framing a fairly attractive face that was made distinct by a beauty mark under her lip. She introduced herself with a simple, "And I'm Moira Langley."
"So what are your limitations?" Grue asked as he settled onto the couch muffling a grunt in the process. He noticed that without the mask on Wraith seemed more...subdued. He briefly wondered if that would cause problems with Rachel.
Alec dropped on the couch next to him with a box of pizza from the fridge in hand as she spoke, "I have limitations on pretty much everything I can do. I mean I know I can do more with my powers then most capes but everything has its limits. With my density adjustments I can make myself feather light or heavy enough to crack pavement just standing there, but I can't reduce my density enough to phase through something."
Brian noted the expression on Lisa's face as Moira continued explaining what she knew of her own powers. She'd likely have drawn out additional details much like the radiation shielding effect of his darkness. Good, the team had needed another heavy hitter and from what the woman was describing there was a great deal of synergy and versatility potential within her power set.
"I can be injured while in wraith state but as long as I'm able to recon situate myself there's no lasting damage," She motioned to the area of her side were Brutus had caught her. There wasn't even any damage to her costume, "I can stay in wraith state for a good long while, I'm not really sure what the upper limit is last time I tested I fell asleep and woke up in my human state. But I can't actually see, smell, feel, hear, or taste like normal. My senses get replaced with this ur-sense that's hard to explain; expressions like 'tasting emotions, smelling colors, and hearing texture' come to mind, but that's more how my brain is attempting to correlate the new sense. It took me a while but now that I have a handle on it I can detect my environment better than I can with my normal senses, and as far as I can tell nothing really disrupts it. For example I was able to sense through your darkness."
"My power tells me that there's no duration limitation on any of your powers."
"Your power?"
"Think of it as super intuition."
"Oh. Neat."
"And those sick moves?" Alec asked.
Moira sighed and continued, "Shadow striding, when I'm moving low to the ground like a living shadow, is just me morphing my body and snaking it in the direction I want to go. I can only move along surfaces and stuff but it's a little disorienting especially with the speed it can get up to when I get into a good rhythm. My shadow jump is more like using shadows as portals then actual teleportation and is limited to straight lines and no greater than about a hundred feet."
"Man you're a dork." Alec commented.
The reply came so quick that it was almost supernatural, "Says the guy dressed like a renaissance fair reject."
"Oh she's got spunk can we keep her?" the son of Heartbreaker asked wiry.
-/ Author Notes:
So I wanted to go ahead and state outright that one of the chief reasons why this one took longer to get out was because I got sick. Like sick enough that it was hard to do anything but play video games. I wish I had more superhero video games… hell I wish there was a larger selection of 'good' superhero games. In case you're wondering I've been playing Arkham City. This also got delayed because I kept writing; I've already got six thousand words for the next chapter bashed out.
Before it hits the fan let me point something out about some the things she does, how much action she gets (bow chika bow wow?), and things she gets away with in this chapter.
Let's start with the meeting with Piggot since it's one of the chief things in this chapter. Hell I wrote it before I wrote the morning's events. Piggot I know seems to be too happy, this is chiefly because she is getting a reason to get rid of Shadow Stalker. I can see Piggot as having been very annoyed with having a rebellious PR nightmare with a penchant for overly aggressive action dumped into her lap. Shadow Stalker isn't helping the public's opinion on capes in their midst. Her power has a lot of power perversion potential, she was an outright vigilante before she is forced to join and she's for lack of other words crass and brutish. Further Emily knows, everyone knows, that she isn't adhering to the probation's terms but they can't nail down proof of it. And here comes Skitter with a duffel full of evidence and only requesting that they do the right thing with it. The icing on the cake? The fact that Sophia turns out to have been a bully only gives Piggot that much more reason to proverbially nail her to the wall.
Skitter does a lot of subterfuge and sleight of hand in this chapter. We have things like when she and the bag of evidence 'appears' from nowhere during the meeting with Piggot (they were both there from the beginning laying in the open hidden by the swarm), the use of climbing gear to repel out of the garage when she made her dramatic exit stage left, or the use of swarm clones to make her appear elsewhere while she's otherwise busy. You'll see more of these theatrics in coming chapters.
I was told that I had made the new capes I added to the 'verse too powerful, especially Starlight since he was a 'throw away' villain. As such when I wrote Feng Lao I did so because I wanted to show that the ABB has more capes then was present in Worm and show a much weaker cape then my previous examples. Yes, that's less powerful.
Taylor hauls in about two million in drug money during these three raids. To put it in perspective, anyone of those duffels could have contained a million if they were filled with only hundred dollar bills, and from what I could find would only weigh in at a little over twenty pounds. That said beyond the ABB raid, few of those stacks or rolls of money were all hundreds; most wore twenties or even tens. In Wormverse or in any superhero centric universe for that matter I'd imagine that there would actually be some sort of law for legally seizing 'spoils of war.' After all the only other method I could think of for solo heroes to fund their misadventures without getting some sort of sponsorship would be to have a bounty heavy system. Hence the Vigilante Bills which among other things allows people to legally make a completely separate costumed identity.
The Undersider's interlude was the last thing I wrote. The aforementioned writing for the next chapter was done well in advance. Wraith is one of the characters I wrote ahead of time complete with the idea of her joining the Undersiders. As for why she seems to potent, she's already had her second trigger (it came minutes after her first) with occurred in November of 2010. Criticism on her would be more than welcomed.