-/ Chapter 8: Confrontation \\-

Madison unzipped my bag while the others assaulted me with words. They had caught me heading into school and crowded me against the railing that separated the concrete walkway and the turf of the front yard of the school. There had to be at least twenty other epople at any given time as they did this yet none could be bothered to help me. No one ever did.

"You're scum, Taylor. No boy would ever want to be with you," Emma stated as if it was the undeniable truth of the universe.

"You're too skinny."

"Too boney."

"Too ugly."

"Too much of a wimp," Sophia added.

"You're lower than dirt."

Madison made a victorious noise. I heard the scrape of plastic on plastic and I knew what was about to happen. Sophia shoved me end over end. I fell on my face on the other side of the railing eating grass. It was spring so the turf was actually grass green instead of that teal color it took in the fall as it slowly died.

"Now you're eating it. How typical." Emma said I could practically see her tossing her hair over her shoulder as she did so.

"Disgusting."

"Maybe you can make her disappear." One of the girls said to another.

"Let's find out," Madison agreed as she stood over me. I felt clumps of the gunk spatter on the back of my head and work its way south. Whiteout splatted and Sophia threw a kick into my shoulder to discourage me from moving. I wanted to cry. I wanted to hurt them. To lash out. I fought to maintain my façade. I wouldn't let them win.

The hard plastic bottle bounced off my head. Madison's voice came in a singsong tone as she spoke, "Looks like it didn't quite work. I guess we'll have to try something else."

"Let's just leave it." Emma said not even bothering to acknowledge I was a person.

I heard the scuffle of footsteps and ventured to raise my head only to be met with a departing kick from Sophia. Bitches, all of them.

I woke from the dream-memory slowly. I felt the comforting presence of the minds of the swarm. They were going about their business: hunting, mating, living. None had responded to any subconscious calls for aid, there had been none. As strange as it was to say, this was one of the more pleasant nights. The terrible trio didn't quite have the bite anymore. That particular incident was mirrored here and, if I remembered correctly, was because I had shown interest Robert Dunham. He wasn't even cute. It hadn't mattered if I showed the slightest bit of interest in even making friends with someone, the girls came up with a particularly cruel prank to put me more firmly on the back foot.

It had taken hours to get all the liquid paper out of my hair. I wasn't about to cut my hair, especially not over something they had done. I think they realized that, which was why they'd target my hair so much. Either that or the fact that it was one of my only feminine features. As ironic as it was, my memories of this world indicated that the girls had actually gotten more vicious when my breasts started coming in. Not that they were overly large or anything, but it was enough that if I had been shaved, you'd actually be able to still tell I was a girl. They had even accused me of stuffing my bra. Anger swelled in my chest over all the wrongs that I had been subjected to.

I went for a run to clear my head. I couldn't let things they'd done in the past affect me now. There was actually an end in sight. I just had to get there. I would get there. No matter how hard I had to fight to do it. I just had to get through the last three days of this week and I'd be attending Arcadia. I'd be starting over, yes, but considering what I was leaving behind, I could deal with that. I could easily put Winslow behind me. I think I needed a fresh start more than anything. I just had to get through three more days. Well, two if you weren't counting today.

As it turns out, it had taken about a week for PRT's legal department to get everything ready. Skitter had gotten a message at her SkitteringInTheShadows email address in the early hours of the day informing her that Shadow Stalker was going to be apprehended later in the day when she showed up for 'work' as a Ward. But, nothing good can ever happen to me, at least not without something going horribly wrong. As such I planned to be in the area when the PRT arrested her.

"Hey, Taylor."

I stopped. It was about time the other shoe dropped. I turned to find Madison. No one else, just her. That was odd; of all the members of the trio, Madison seemed to require an audience to do anything. I mean, sure, there were other people in the halls right now but none of them were directly with her or paying her any real mind. For all it mattered, we could be the only two here. That didn't really mesh with her at all, so I found myself drawing on the swarm.

I had long ago learned that people really didn't look up, so if I positioned bugs on the ceiling no one would really notice. They might spot a bug from far way, but in a degrading school like Winslow? That was almost par for the course. As such, no one would really notice when more than a few slipped out to look around to try to find the rest of the trio. Emma was at her locker, all the way at the other end of the hall; I tagged her with a fly. Sophia I found already lounging at her desk in her next class; given the way she was moving her pencil through the air, she must have been listening to music. Even the peripheral members of the taunting bitch brigade were missing from the area. So yeah, for all intents and purposes, we were alone in a crowd of people.

I looked her over, there was something in her stance I couldn't quite read and her overall body language was different than normal. "Taylor?"

Opps, I spent too long finding everyone with the swarm. "Yeah."

"I just wanted you to know. I'm not part of the group anymore." She said casting a sideways glance. I turned a fly's attention in that direction, no one really stood out. Who was she looking at?

"Good for you. I thought I made it pretty clear last time I don't care."

"Well I left because of what you said."

"About?"

"Emma using secrets like that," she said wringing her hands. Was she nervous? She met my eyes and I saw a bit of the Madison I knew resurface, "I had some fun with them. With Emma and Sophia, but I can't be friends with someone who would do that kind of thing."

"Was bullying me fun to you?" I asked, steel in my voice.

"Would you be mad if I said sometimes?" She asked. I wanted to punch her right then. "I only joined in because it was the requisite for being their friend. Treating you like that, that is."

I wasn't used to Madison having trouble with her words; it was as if all her social graces had just left her. She wrung her hands again. It was about then that I realized who she was reminding me of. Me. She was mimicking me or at least the old Taylor. Taylor back when I wasn't sure just how bad it was going to get; when there was no out, and no dreams of heroics to come to stem the tide. I wasn't that girl anymore, three years of pain and hardship had passed since then shaping me into someone much more confident with myself and my words. I don't know what she was getting at, but I wasn't about to let her off the hook that easily.

"No, Madison. It doesn't make me mad. If anything, it makes me sad. It makes me feel sorry for you. Sorry that you needed others validating your existence to feel any self-worth. I went through years with no one to turn to, nobody willing to be my friend because they didn't want you and your friends targeting them. Because the faculty, for who knows what reason, didn't see fit to stop you. I've spent the last two years completely alone and miserable; yet I had more self-worth. I didn't need anyone to validate me. I might have been alone because of circumstance conspiring against me, but I adapted. And now you're telling me that everything I went through was so you could have friends. And make no mistake, that's what you're telling me. And that's just sad. I feel sorry for you Madison, I really do," I turned my back on her and walked to class. I didn't need to look at her to know she was still standing their slack-jawed when the bell rang.

I hadn't needed to tear her down like that, I didn't. But like I had told Dad what felt like a lifetime ago, I wasn't a forgiving person. I couldn't just ignore what she'd been complicit in. If anything I felt …satisfaction. Sophia was going to be getting the shock of a lifetime later today and Emma would find herself without either of the other members of the trio. If Madison was leaving the clique, what did that say about it in general, she was one of Emma's most trusted friends after all. I almost wish I wasn't transferring so I could see the seeds of my actions blossom.

The rest of my day at school went by without incident. I'd say I was relieved but I was still expecting something to happen. For Emma to make some kind of play at me to try and restore the damage I had done the last time we verbally spared. It'd been over a week with no bullying and, to be honest, it was getting to me. They had to be planning something. As I walked toward the bus stop, I couldn't help but wonder if the trio hadn't actually broken up and Madison's actions earlier were supposed to be the hook like Amanda's friendship had been for the locker incident. Definitely a possibility, even if Madison had sounded honest.

I didn't know when Sophia went to 'work' at the PRT headquarters, so I couldn't dither about after school. That didn't mean I went directly to PRT headquarters; no, I made my way far enough into the Boardwalk to connect to the swarm housed in my lair. While I organized my swarm, remotely collected everything for my costume, and loaded Atlas up, I walked into the local Subway. Not eating lunch at school because you didn't have a place to hide wasn't the best thing in the world. By the time I headed out the door with my meal in hand and sipping on a coke, Atlas and my swarm was departing from my lair.

I met him on the roof of an apartment building and swapped out outfits. As I made sure Atlas' saddle was properly secured, a small portion of my swarm, weaver wasps mostly, wrapped the book bag that contained my school books and civilian clothes in spider silk and adhered it to the side of one of the ventilation units. Precautions. I climbed up onto Atlas' back situating myself in the saddle that sat between the two elytra and hooked myself into it for safety.

The saddle I had made over the course of the last week, between sessions of modifying Atlas. He still wasn't as large as Bitch's dogs could become, but he was a little larger than my original Atlas. Unlike the original, I sat further back on the bug; when in flight, the opened elytra was just ahead of me. If I was attacked from that angle they'd provide some measure of defense. Actually, a pretty damn good defense if I figured my math right. I wasn't even sure if high caliber ammunition would penetrate the armored carapace.

I felt the thrill of flight overtake me as we lifted off and rapidly gained altitude. I missed flying, I had been able to fly for a rather large portion of my time as a cape in my previous life and it was a rather liberating experience. As I angled my steed towards the PRT headquarters, I pulled out my meal and ate.

It was about ten minutes later when I descended onto the top of the parking garage I had met Piggot inside about, what two weeks before? I had been busy. I tossed my trash and settled back into Atlas's saddle. I started drawing more insects into my swarm covertly while otherwise monitoring the area. In the latter case I found that I was already under observation by a small team of what felt like PRT agents. One was pointing a sniper rifle my way while the other viewed me through binoculars. I covered the lens of the sniper's scope with a bug or three. I was about two blocks from him so the action was still within my 'established range' that I'd been limiting myself to when I myself was visible.

"Command, this is One Eye. Subject Skitter is present on the rooftop level of the Montgomery Parking Garage."

"Confirmed."

"Subject is astride a…uh…giant bug of some sort."

"Repeat that, did you say a giant bug?"

"Yes ma'am. About the size of a micro-car"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Okay." The word was drawn out with disbelief. "Continue observation of the subject. Do not engage."

"About that. The subject is aware of us. She's blocking our rifle's scope."

"Continue observation. Do not engage. Be glad she didn't decide on a more…aggressive response to you pointing a high caliber rifle at her."

"One Eye confirms," the PRT agent responded. The tone of his voice suggested that he hadn't considered what I could have done to him and his partner until 'Command' had commented on it. I chuckled.

I sensed a particular modified bug enter my senses. While I was in school, I had flash modified one of the few bugs I had carried with me in my civilian guise and tagged Sophia with it. Now that bug was blinking in and out of my power's influence as Sophia transitioned back and forth between her shadow state and normal flesh and blood on her way to the PRT building. I focused on the bug, drawing on its senses to get a picture of what, exactly, was going on.

I found that Sophia had already donned her costume and as I guessed she was simply running through the various obstructions in her path. That's not to say she was simply running straight forward, she often zigged-zagged, and on more than one occasion, jumped between floors by leaping through a ceiling or dropping through a floor. This route must have been one she ran often because her movements took her steadily through walls, storage rooms, closets, and pretty much anything that didn't have a single person where they could have spotted her.

She came out of the last building between her and the PRT headquarters through the fifth story and leaping high. With the lower density afforded to her by her shadow state, she went flying across and well over the four lanes of traffic before landing and rolling on the lawn that prefaced the building. She slowed to a jog. I could hear the surveillance team I had noted earlier report in, "Target spotted. I repeat, Shadow Stalker is on the premises."

"Confirmed, One Eye. Standby for further instructions," Command responded over the radio as Sophia slowed to a walk as she approached the doors.

And then she stopped.

I don't know how, but Sophia must have sensed something was off. Maybe she instinctively realized her position in life had turned from predator to prey because she turned sharply on her heel and ran. She flickered into her shadow state long enough to run through the sign in the middle of the yard. From there, she sprinted into traffic phasing in and out to race through vehicles or avoid being run over. Through my bugs, I heard One Eye report, "Target is on the move, command. She's high-tailing it."

"What? How? Never mind. Engage."

I felt my bugs get brushed off the rifle's scope. A second later there was the tiniest of 'cracks' as the rifle fired. The round must have missed because she didn't even flinch. She ran through the corner of a building as plain clothed PRT officers produced projectile-firing tasers and engaged her. Sophia didn't afford them any more attention than was necessary to evade the shots. She phased through another building before making a sharp turn to throw off pursuit.

"Command, Subject Skitter is mobile. Seems to be on intercept course with primary target," One Eye reported, as Atlas surged into the air carrying me aloft with a swarm millions strong trailing behind making us appear not unlike a dark comet. Sophia was already at the edge of the block when the Wards burst out of HQ. Even with Vista distorting space, they weren't going to catch her.

I jumped.

I felt Atlas lurch as the spider silk that connected my climbing harness to Atlas' saddle went taut. I hit the quick release as I was yanked by the cable and inverted. I just barely managed to right myself a moment before I hit the ground ahead of Shadow Stalker hard. Not bone breaking hard, but jarring all the same. The swarm I had accompany me to the street seemed to burst outward as it hit the ground with me; the effect was further intensified by the timed release of the group from inside my utility compartment. As I rose from the crouch I had ended up in, I couldn't help but grin. Shadow Stalker had stopped; like a car wreck, the shock of the spectacle was too much to pass up. My swarm thinned around me to let her see me. I mimed popping my knuckles as I echoed Jack Slash's words two years before, "This is not an exit."

Sophia fired one of her crossbows at me and the bolt struck me, burying itself in chitin and I fought to not stagger back more than a step. All for effect. The swarm closed around me as Sophia fired again. This time I managed to dodge the bolt with all the grace of a typical drunk. When the swarm thinned, however, I was standing upright and a few feet closer to her. I yanked the first bolt free of my armor and made a show of looking it over and mused, "Another lethal bolt? How many of these am I going to hand over to the PRT?"

The comment had the desired effect and my tormentor for too many months charged me with a snarl. She threw a right hook I easily sidestepped. Unperturbed by the initial miss, Sophia launched herself into flurry of blows that I couldn't help but inwardly sigh at. I was like a reed as I avoided swing after swing with ease; if she kept up this sort of pressure, I'd be forced to play defense for the entire battle making the encounter more of a test of endurance and my ability to evade than an actual fight. That is if I was going to let her dictate the pace.

Through my swarm, I noticed that the Wards were also rapidly closing in on the battle thanks to Vista's space warping. There was no doubt in my mind that they'd be equipped with weapons and items to capitalize on Sophia's weakness. Maybe Clockblocker and Aegis' gloves had electrical currents running through them or the rifle in Kid Win's hands was an oversized taser. It didn't matter. I wanted -no, needed to be the one to put Shadow Stalker down to close the book on that part of my life. Acting on my command, Atlas dropped out of the sky and a wall of insects formed between the Wards and our exchange, cutting off their advance. The chitinous mass murmured, "I have this under control."

"Skitter?" Aegis asked. He sounded more concerned than I had expected. But I had just dropped a rather large bug in front of him that looked like it could probably beat the living hell out of them, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Shadow Stalker let out an inarticulate cry of anger as she missed another swing. She might be a little faster while in shadow form, but it didn't amount to much of an advantage when her opponent could read her movements as easily as I could. Sophia wasn't much more than a brawler when it came down to it. She went straight for the most brutal attack she could think of trusting her ability to phase to keep herself safe. It was a very power dependent style that served her well against street thugs, but I could see why she had never managed to beat Brian. It was too easy to see though her movements.

"Allow me to take lead on this. If you must do something, fence us in just in case she tries to bolt," my swarm said to the Wards. "This will not take long."

"You're kidding?" Clockblocker asked, "How are you-"

"If you're sure you can stop her," Aegis stated his tone hesitant.

"Watch," I said. My swarm thinned out dramatically, allowing the Wards and for that matter any of building crowd of spectators to have a clear view. This time when Sophia swung, I didn't try to avoid the attack. I stepped in and threw my forearm to meet the inside of her elbow. The move normally would have been ineffective against Shadow Stalker's ability to phase through my counter. Normally.

She let out a scream as she was forced to return to normal. I followed up with a fist to the gut and the hand that had been used to block her attack grasped the cape's upper arm. I spun the bolt I had in my fist around before jamming it tip first into her thigh. She loosed another scream, only quieter due to the previous blow taking the wind from her lungs. I capitalized on my advantage by grasping the back of her head with my now free hand and repeatedly driving my knee into her body. She grunted in pain with each hit as she tried to recover from the initial shock. I finished the combination by stepping back and pulling her upper body down, before throwing all my admittedly meager weight into a knee to her mask.

Shadow Stalker stumbled back dazed, but with enough sense to send herself back into shadow form. Sophia was obviously not used to being hit as she struggled to regain her wits. Going back on the offensive, she threw a sloppy right hook that I danced out of the way of before my leg came up and caught her in the side of the knee. The attack elicited a similar response as my earlier block and sent her to the ground.

"You rely too much on your power," I said, this time channeling Armsmaster, as I danced away from the bully, avoiding another wild swing and added, "I didn't even need mine to put you down."

The needling paid off and she came surging up to meet me. She was in shadow form for all the good it did her as I backhanded her. She went back to the ground with a surprised scream. Placing my knee on her shoulder I pulled her head back by the hair and leaned in over her so that our masks were mere inches apart. For the first time this life, the swarm did not disguise my voice as I spoke, barely audible to even myself, "I just needed a taser."

She screamed in anger and then in pain as first realization hit her and then the discharge from my boot's electric organ. With my hand on her scalp, I could sense her biology as I maintained the electric shock. The moment she lost consciousness I knew and let her fall. A torrent of emotions jumped me and I fought them down, I'd celebrate when I was alone.

While I had been manhandling Shadow Stalker using the recently made shock gauntlets, I had most of my swarm's ground bound members slip back underground while the majority of the fliers had collected around Atlas. So when I pulled the remaining individuals to me, the swarm didn't hide me. I turned toward the Wards and, while gesturing toward the unconscious cape at my feet, stated, "One Shadow Stalker, all but gift wrapped."

The Wards approached cautiously and I stepped back to allow them room to secure her inert form. Despite the fact she was clearly down, Kid Win had his tinker-made rifle trained on Shadow Stalker; I could make out a high voltage warning sticker on the side of the weapon. I bet it was a compact version of the lightning gun I had encountered in my previous life. Gallant, on the other hand, had instead moved towards the crowd that had accumulated during the brief but all too satisfying confrontation. I could hear the sci-fi Lancelot calming the bystanders as Aegis asked me, "What did you do?"

"I hit her," I replied sarcastically as I brought my fists together in front of me. An arc of electricity jumped between the oversized striking plates on the back of my hands when I added, "with lightning."

"Tasers in your gauntlets and boots, you really are crazy." Aegis commented.

"You don't know the half of it," I told him, my mask hiding the smirk that made its way to my face.

Vista shook her head in disbelief as Clockblocker cuffed the ex-Ward's hands behind her back using some obviously modified handcuffs. I didn't need to guess the cuffs included a live electrical current to keep her from simply phasing out of her restraints, I had seen them in my previous life when I- Actually, I don't remember why I went to meet Shadow Stalker when she had been in juvie. I frowned.

"How did you find out about Shadow Stalker's vulnerability?" Kid Win asked.

"I've been stalking the stalker for over a month now, you pick up little things like that," I lied.

The tinker didn't look convinced, so I let out an exasperated sigh and said in a patronizing tone explained, "I may have been watching the PRT headquarters a few times and may have accidentally overheard certain individuals discuss how to contain Shadow Stalker when it came time to capture her." He shook his head in response, prompting an "Honest truth, I just wanted to see how things were progressing" from me.

"We're going to need you to fill out some paperwork on this, Skitter," Aegis said. Something felt…off about the way he had transitioned into different tone of voice, like he was emulating what he'd heard before.

"I have an evening planned," I said. It was a feeble excuse, considering that it was only a quarter until four and Skitter usually didn't start evening activities until sun down. I couldn't really slip out of this considering I had just beaten a known Ward to the point she passed out. My leaving could be construed badly and I needed to stay on generally good footing with the PRT.

"It won't take long," Aegis assured me. The hair on the back of my neck would probably be standing on end, if not of the spider silk that kept it flat.

Something definitely felt wrong, but I couldn't quite place it. Had I stepped over the line when I took down Shadow Stalker? Maybe they were going to try to pressure me to join; I had made my intention to join after making a name for myself known rather bluntly. I wouldn't be surprised if what I've done so far was enough for them to assume I'd 'made my name.' Besides announcing a new addition to the lineup at the same time you had to deliver the news that Shadow Stalker hadn't been on the straight and narrow would definitely lessen the blow of the latter to the PRT's image. More so if your new recruit was the one who took down the rogue agent.

"To PRT headquarters?" I asked thankful that the swarm voice didn't alternate with emotion unless I actively willed it to. I wasn't really sure why I felt so nervous right now.

"Yeah. Paper work, thanks for assistance, donuts, that sort of thing."

I blinked and tried to pass on the incredulity I felt through the swarm's voice, "Did you just try to bribe me with donuts?"

"Maybe." Aegis responded with mirth.

Clockblocker a few feet away from our conversation muttered an exasperated, "Smooth, man, real smooth."

Despite my suspicions on his motives, I giggled. I brought a contingent of bugs to swarm over my body and directed the remaining number, Atlas included, to take flight, "Alright. The donuts won me over."

In my previous life I had assaulted the Brockton Bay PRT headquarters on multiple occasions, it had been there that I turned myself in, and on it's roof I had taken my last steps as Skitter. This, however, was the first time I stepped foot into the structure as something other than a villain. I'd like to say I was a hero, but I bet public opinion on my position was spotty at best.

Kid Win split off from our group with several PRT security officers equipped with tasers, shock batons, and other more esoteric pieces of hardware to make Sophia's life difficult if, or rather when, she came to. Meanwhile, the remaining Wards guided me towards one of the tinker-made elevators in the back of the lobby as I considered the situation I found myself in. I was sure they were at least going to attempt to get me to join the Wards. The PRT needed it to happen in order to soften the impact on the organization's image. I also knew that I wasn't ready to join. Not yet.

"So. Come here often?" Clockblocker asked with a hint of nervousness in his voice as the elevator descended. Vista couldn't help but snicker. Gallant I could tell was holding back a laugh. Aegis just shook his head. I for my part just turned my head to fix him with a stare. Not that I was actually staring, I was too busy thinking. Worrying.

"Right. Stupid question."

"Very," I stated, the swarm enunciating the word without inflection.

Vista burst out laughing and Gallant wasn't far behind. Clockblocker shuffled his feet worriedly and turned away from me. I faced back forward, a smile playing across my features. Just as Vista was getting control of herself, Aegis muttered, "Smooth, man, real smooth."

That sent Vista and Gallant into fresh fits of laughter. Aegis joined in when he heard me snigger.

The Wards had barely regained their composure when the elevator doors opened up to reveal a plain, ordinary looking hall. The procession lead me about this way and that in relative silence and, if not for the fact I was able to map out the building with my swarm, I likely would have been lost. We ended up in a conference room that likely looked like every other conference room we had passed. I was unnerved when I took a seat at one end of the table; if I wasn't mistaken, this was the same room I was in when I killed Tagg and Alexandria.

My nervousness must have been visible in my posture because Aegis asked, "Want something to drink while we wait?"

"What happened to the donuts?" I countered good-naturedly, trying to hide my worries.

Aegis smirked, "I pretty sure the offices' morning donuts have all been devoured by now."

"So you lied to me. I'm shocked. I'm flabbergasted that you of all people would lie. You should be ashamed." I hammed it up before adding in a deadpan, "I don't suppose you have some tea."

"Pretty sure we do. Will that make up for the nonexistent donuts?" Aegis responded, ignoring Vista's latest fit of giggles.

"I'm pretty sure it will."

Aegis walked out the room leaving me with Vista, Gallant, and Clockblocker. Clockblocker hadn't really stopped watching me, or at least facing me, since we had come into the room. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed. This was the first time I really had a chance to get a good look at him and I could pick out differences like I had with Kid Win. In fact, there were more. The most obvious was his helmet. Instead of the opaque white plane that was his face plate in my last life the faceplate was…not what I'd call translucent, but you could make out the play of sharp shadows across his otherwise unidentifiable features. It allowed for some semblance of a face to be seen, enough that one could get a general gist of his facial expression, but nothing to identify him by. His left forearm was engulfed in an oversized gauntlet that added a notable amount of length to that arm. It actually looked like the one he wore when we were trying to stop the end of the world. Other than that, the interlocking plating of his costume looked thicker and hanging on his utility belt was some sort of white gun. It was what I would have expected if -

"Gallant, was Shadow Stalker being bad the big secret?" Vista asked breaking my line of thought.

"Yeah," Gallant replied steadily. So at least some of the team knew.

"Alright," the green clad heroine replied. She looked…disappointed? I think there was probably a lot of disappointment going around if they hadn't known about Shadow Stalker beforehand. I had a hard time thinking they would have a hard time believing what I had accused her of.

She let out a sigh and took a seat at the table to my right; she left one empty between us. I could see her eyes through her visor easily enough; they were roving over my costume. A pause here and there where the suit had been damaged or scraped up; they lingered particularly long on the spot Shadow Stalker had hit me with her arrow. Ironically, while it had hit my breastplate, the thickest part of my armor, it had done the most damage to my costume of any attack. Not that that was saying much, there was just a wedge shaped cut a few millimeters or so deep, but, compared to the shotgun damage to my shoulder, it looked like the hit had been more effective.

A beetle crawled over the marred plate and her eyes followed the bug. When she broke off from it, her eyes darted to mine and asked, "How can you stand having bugs crawling over you?"

I smiled, "I think it's probably the same for when Clockblocker freezes his costume or a changer shifts their biology, it just feels natural. I guess I could say the bugs in my swarm are as much a part of me as my hand or foot. You know, the whole 'natural extension of your body' bit."

She nodded before Clockblocker pointed out, "Freezing my costume is annoying and inconvenient."

"I stand corrected."

Vista giggled.

Aegis returned with a steaming cup of tea and a manila folder under his free arm; he wasn't alone however, Director Piggot came in flanked by Miss Militia and Armsmaster. The trio arrayed themselves at the opposite end of the table the women taking a seat while Armsmaster stood resting his halberd on his shoulder. I took in a breath steeling myself for what was to come as Aegis set the tea and folder down in front of me.

"That's a non-disclosure agreement," Piggot said, "To prevent you from outing Shadow Stalker or going against however we decide to spin this…incident."

I nodded, "I'll have to read over it of course. The one thing I do know about this sort of thing is to read everything. As for the spin, I think it's rather simple. I was on site and asked for permission from you before engaging Shadow Stalker. You did not expect me to be so…brutal."

"I like it. As she said, it's simple," Miss Militia chimed in.

Piggot nodded as I added, "And it allows you to play up the idea that you're someone not to be crossed, even to an unaffiliated cape known for being aggressive and somewhat brutal. As such, whatever you release about Shadow Stalker won't be as great of a blow to the PRT's image."

"She has a point," Aegis stated from where he had seated himself half way down the table.

Piggot and the Protectorate members continued talking about how to spin it as I started reading the paperwork, making sure I wasn't going to sign anything I didn't want to or at least knew about. When I noticed a break in their conversation, I asked, without looking up from the papers, "I don't imagine I rate high enough to draw you three for this. Was there something else?"

"Yes," Piggot stated, "About that …massive bug you showed up on."

"Atlas."

"Atlas then. I want to know more about it."

"Certainty, anything in particular?" I asked flipping the page.

"Skitter, take her more seriously." Aegis muttered.

I didn't look up or stop reading when I responded, "I am, ask Gallant. I believe he can read emotions, right?"

"I can, but it's not that finely tuned. Looking at you, Skitter, I can see some nervousness, worry, a lot of caution but also an ironclad resolve and determination."

I sighed and looked up from the legal papers. This was going to take a lot longer if I had to do each thing individually. Still, I should make sure they knew I wasn't being disrespectful. "I suppose it would help to point out that I'm extremely capable at multitasking. Right now, I'm using the individual sounds of the bugs crawling on my costume to speak, having my shroud weave around me, making Atlas shuffle about, watching him and the area around him with my millions strong swarm, moving the pest bugs in this building towards the roof to feed Atlas, reading this agreement, and still providing this meeting, and you in particular, with the vast majority of my attention."

Clockblocker whistled, Armsmaster and Aegis' jaws slacked momentarily. "That's good enough, I suppose," Piggot conceded. The Director seemed more put off about the fact that for a moment she had lost absolute control of the meeting.

"Next time we have to do something like this, braille would be a better choice for paper work, I could maintain eye contact then." A ghost of a smile appeared on Piggot's face for such a short time I might have been imagining it. "Now, what did you want to know about Atlas?"

"Did you create it?" Piggot asked her voice stern and cold.

"Essentially. More I modified and combined several thousand bugs. But yes, I created him."

"Can it breed?"

"As he is now, no. I'd have to further modify him to allow him to be able to so."

"How many are there?"

"How many Atlas-type bugs? Just the one. How many modified bugs do I have? Hundreds of thousands, maybe a few million now. But those are all roughly the size of normal insects. If you're worried about having giant insects taking over the city, don't be." I paused long enough to open the mandibles of my mask and take a sip of tea. When I placed the cup back down and my mask was again closed, I fixed Piggot with my gaze. I made every effort to infuse the swarm's voice with the amount of seriousness I felt on the matter as I spoke, "I realize the potential threat I can become if I let myself run wild and unchecked with my powers. I don't want to be the next Nilbog and I don't want Brockton Bay to become another Ellisburg. Right now, I'm generally running my ideas past Master Nakamura before going through with any substantial bio-modification projects. I expect I'll have to extend that to the PRT's review boards when I eventually join the Wards."

"That's correct."

"Have I sufficiently assuaged your concerns?"

"More or less," the Director stated noncommittally.

"Perhaps I can assuage them further. If you'd have someone fetch a container of some sort, I can provide you with examples of two of my more common modifications, weaver wasps and lightning jackets."

Piggot nodded to Aegis and he left the room. Two large wasps separated from my veil and flew across the table. I noticed Clockblocker, Miss Militia, and Armsmaster all tense. Vista scooted slightly away from me, only Gallant and Director Piggot didn't react. The two bugs set down a respectful distance from the Director and the Protectorate members, "The one on your right is a weaver wasp. The stinger has been replaced with a spinneret and its bite now utilizes the typical wasp venom. The other is a lightning jacket. The venom in its sting is virtually a non-issue health wise, it does however serve as a medium to transmit an electrical shock through. For that reason, I suggest care when your people study it later."

"Can either of them breed?"

"Yes."

"Skitter," Piggot began, taking in a breath like she was about to start a tirade.

I held up my hand to give her pause and elaborated, "Right now, almost all of my modified bugs that can breed are designed around the typical queen hierarchy and they can't make queens on their own. Further, the queens only recognize my lair as a suitable location for a hive so even if I lose control of a queen, it will keep itself contained within my lair. I have one lightning jacket queen and three weaver wasp queens. I was planning on making a few move weaver wasp hives, so that I could make more heavy use of the bugs."

"Almost all?" Armsmaster asked. I noted that his stance had changed to a slightly more aggressive one.

"My widow weavers and thorn flies are free breeding, but both have an instinct to migrate to my lair to breed. The former are modified black widows that are both larger and heavily modified in their instincts to make them safer around humans. I had a colony of those in my basement for the longest time, so when I say safer, I mean I trust in my adjustments enough to not have any concerns about leaving a few hundred in the same building as my father."

"Define these instincts," Piggot ground out.

"For one, they live in colonies unlike the relatively solitary black widows they're based on. I've enhanced their ability to recognize humans. When they do see people, they will retreat. Only a few widows hunt for the colony at a time and chiefly specialize in hunting rodents and other pests. I gave them a second set of venom glands that utilizes an extremely weakened variant of their normal poison. They can only utilize their more well-known poison while I'm controlling them. In the event that a human nears their nest, the widows will position themselves so that they and the classic red hourglass are easily spotted by the human. And the colonies themselves are massive web structures that are very hard to miss."

Piggot looked thoughtful, "What happens if say a child or a blind person interacts with the colony despite these warning?"

"The adult spiders will swarm over them. If the intruder does not move away from the colony, the spiders will escalate to wrapping them in a thin cocoon of silk. These responses aren't immutable; I could add further behavioral modifications if you require them. At the present, my collection of widows is nearing my target population, after that they won't breed unless I order them to."

"And this number?"

"Five million."

"What the fuck do you need five million spiders for?" Clockblocker asked incredulously.

"Weaving. Aegis knows this, so I wouldn't be surprised if Director Piggot was informed. My costume is made of spider silk and chitin plating, but I'm still modifying my costume's design. Having that number allows me to relatively quickly produce additional costumes or parts thereof." I turned back to Piggot, "If I knew I'd be coming here, I would have brought a sample of each of my modified bugs for your perusal. I honestly didn't expect that I'd be so heavily questioned on this either."

"We're very cautious about anything that even vaguely resembles Nilbog," Piggot explained.

"I can understand that, but it's not like I came in riding Mothra."

"Mothra?"

"A fictional giant moth from Earth Aleph that makes Endbringers look small." Vista giggled and Clockblocker snorted out a laugh at the images their minds must have conjured in response. Piggot just scowled.

"Look, I'm willing to work with you on this. I do want to join the Wards at some point in the future. So, maybe ask your thinkers or whoever handles this sort of thing to come up with a list of rules, requirements, and behavioral modifications that I should follow and I'll do so as best as I can without hamstringing myself in the process."

Piggot turned to Armsmaster and he shrugged. Right, Armsmaster has a lie detector. Maybe he couldn't get a sense of if I was lying or not because of my swarm voice. I took another sip of tea and I signed my nom de guerre on one of the papers.

"You mentioned joining the Wards in the future a few times now, I assume that means you're not prepared to yet?" The Director said switching topics. I found it a little surprising that it had taken them this long to get to pitching enrollment the Wards to me. Then again, perhaps Piggot recalled our previous conversations and my statements on the matter then.

"I am not. Perhaps a few months from now," I replied. After a short pause I added in a slightly quieter voice, "If you still want me, that is."

"In a few months, you may be dead," Armsmaster stated grimly.

Miss Militia let out an exasperated sigh and said, "I think what Armsmaster is trying to say is that solo heroes, especially teenage heroes, tend to not last very long on their own. We can offer you the environment and safety to develop as a hero."

Aegis reentered as I responded, "I'm well aware of the risks associated with my …lifestyle. But you're mistaking why I'm not joining. Allow me to clarify. There are still things to do yet before I feel I am both in a position to and worthy of joining the Wards. Some of these are things you don't want an active Ward associated with. My choice is to not just allow me the freedom to do what I believe is necessary, but also to provide you with deniability."

"It seems," Piggot started, "you've already set your mind to a task and nothing we can say will dissuade you."

"That's correct, Director. That is why I said 'if you still want me.' I do not claim to be so good and pure that there's not a possibility that by the point I'm prepared to join the Wards, you wouldn't want me within a mile of your team."

The silence that followed was an odd awkward thing that I only broke a minute in by calling attention to myself, "Director?"

"Yes?"

"Can you order your squad on the roof to keep their distance? Prodding Atlas is just asking for trouble."

"They're prodding it?" she sounded surprised, I like to think it was because she didn't think anyone was dumb enough to actually prod a six hundred pound chitinous horror. Not to mention the fact that there was about another ton worth of bugs buzzing around Atlas.

"An officer Gomez is…with his gun," I stated dryly, the swarm doing their best to imitate the inflection. "I considered having Atlas do everything from growling at him to disarming him and outright eating the gun. But I figured it would be better if I allowed you to handle this instead."

I heard chuckles from the Wards; Aegis had tried to mask his amusement by hiding himself behind his hand while the others showed no such restraint. Even Miss Militia seemed amused by it when she spoke, "I'll take care of it, ma'am"

"Thank you," Piggot stated flatly as the flag wearing heroine got up and left the room.

I shifted in my seat as I signed another paper before taking another sip of tea. Armsmaster spoke up drawing my attention, "Your mask, how do you control the face guard?"

"With my mind." I answered simply before elaborating, "My mask and gauntlets contain living components that my power connects to".

"So those tasers you used to fight Shadow Stalker," Aegis asked as he closed the container that now held the samples I had provided. Said container was a normal small Tupperware container whose top had been repeatedly punctured to allow air to reach my wasps. From the residue lining the container I could guess that it had been some employee's lunch bin or such.

"Modified electric organs based loosely on those of an electric eel," I supplied as I entered the minds of the two wasps and coded a very docile behavior pattern to make sure there'd be no problems when they were handled after I left them behind.

"Interesting. What else have you developed besides particular bugs and those…systems?" Armsmaster asked.

"I have bioluminescent lamps under several of the sub eye lenses; they're standing in for future additions of sensory organs. I can cling to surfaces like a human fly thanks to pads on my hands and feet. And I have many more ideas to finish working on."

"She's a fucking tinker," Clockblocker muttered.

"Appears so."

"I can only work on arthropod biology," I elaborated, "So I'd assume if you were to stick me with a tinker rating, it would be rather low. Definitely lower than yours and Kid Win's, Armsmaster."

The tinker nodded, seemingly approving of the idea that I acknowledged him as the more proficient tinker. I had no problem with that. I didn't think of myself as a tinker; from how I understood the tinker's power, there were some base differences in how we went about things. The halberd-carrying cape asked, "How would you rate yourself?"

"High master, low thinker, and low tinker."

"Thinker?"

"I can sense through my swarm," I stated. "Touch and, oddly enough, taste most easily translate into data I can use, but I can see and hear through my bugs. Those senses just aren't nearly as clear, though. I also have an upper limit on how many I can utilize the senses of at once. For example, if I find myself suffering from insomnia, I'll open my mind up to all the senses of the average number of bugs in my neighborhood. The sensory overload is sufficient to knock me out.

"I have found ways to utilizing particular senses of groups of insects in ways that provide almost negligible amounts of stress. Utilizing my swarms sense of touch, I can create topographic maps of the environment instead of using sight. Using the sight of individuals in my shroud with less developed eyes, I can create a sort of radar that detects motion. There's more, but you get the gist."

Armsmaster nodded in acceptance of my answer as I heard Vista giggle. She was watching the wasps in the container which I had dancing for the hell of it. I made them do a fair approximation of a bow towards her.

By the time I had finished reading and signing the paperwork Vista and Clockblocker had left to go on patrol and Armsmaster and Director Piggot had excused themselves, "I didn't really need baby sitters you know."

Aegis shrugged, "It's almost time for me to head to class."

"Peerless?" I asked, feigning ignorance at the fact that I knew he attended both the normal class before the cape class he took with Skitter. I had already decided to skip class as Taylor and then show up as Skitter for the cape class. With any luck, any suspicion he has that Taylor and Skitter is the same person would be dispelled.

"Yeah. I take the normal class with Taylor and the other capes from our class," the hero informed me as I sorted all the paperwork into the provided manila folder.

As I handed said folder to him, I lied, "Didn't know that."

"I'll be going as well," Gallant said. "I'm tired of Armsmaster kicking my armored butt around during our sparring sessions. Will you be in the cape class with us?"

I smiled as I answered in the affirmative before Aegis said, "Expect to get your ass kicked if she's across from you."

"Seriously?" Gallant couldn't keep the incredulous response from slipping out any more than I could the amusement that no doubt clouded his perception of me.

"Yeah," I said, "I'm not going to go easy on you just because you're new."

"Great."

Colin shifted slightly as Gallant, Aegis, and Clockblocker entered Director Piggot's office, as the room was almost too small for the six people to occupy comfortably. Piggot began the meeting by stating, "One Eye confirmed Skitter crossed the one mile mark headed north a few seconds ago. So now that there's no doubt she's no longer listening in, impressions?"

They had been waiting until they were absolutely sure that girl couldn't eavesdrop on them. Not many powers had a range of a mile, even less that could link to the number of targets she had described controlling at once. Colin had spent the time as productively as he could, given the circumstances; by reviewing his visor's recording of the meeting and any other video he had access to.

"She's willing to play ball even if she's not keen on joining the team yet. I'm not all that happy about her mention of possibly not being Ward material by the time she's completed whatever task she's assigned herself," Miss Militia stated from her seat opposite the Director. "It suggests that she may be intending to push the boundaries of what one can consider a hero."

Armsmaster shook his head, "We're giving her too much leeway. I can understand it's often necessary to use a light touch when trying to recruit powerful capes of that age, but I think we're bending too much for her."

"She did give us samples of her bugs for study and a lot of information about them," Aegis countered.

"Still too light of a touch. She is too great a potential threat to leave to her own devices."

"We go too heavy in our approach and we risk turning her against us. The situation wouldn't be unmanageable, but right now she's at least focusing on the city's drug problem," Miss Militia reasoned.

It was Clockblocker who spoke next, "I'll say the same thing I've told everyone who thought they could take her. Don't. Everyone underestimates her because she's the little girl with bug powers; but we're talking about someone who went toe to toe with Mannequin and won, killed someone who's supposed to be invincible, and took down Lung twice. You can't take her. It just doesn't happen."

"You make her sound like an Endbringer," Armsmaster stated sourly.

"The Skitter from our last life didn't have the potential to be a Nilbog level threat," Clockblocker explained. "She had to make do with pre-existing bugs. That didn't stop her from being able to thrash us repeatedly. I'm sure you've read the files, Chris and I both remember that she was only ever captured because she turned herself in."

"Guys. We don't even have to fight her. Why bring this up?" Gallant asked. Honestly Colin sometimes wondered if the boy had any sense at all. The core tenant that Armsmaster lived by was to be ready for anything. Since he heard about the cape, he had been working on tuning and modifying the taser on the butt of his halberd into a device capable of generating localized electrical blasts.

"Anything stand out emotion-wise during the meeting?"

"Not really. I told Skitter the emotions I was reading. Every now and then, I got other glimpses off her, frustration, maybe a little anger being squashed when you were asking about her bugs. Then there was the exasperation when she actually explained the bugs and her intentions. Well. No, there was one thing.

"While she was apprehensive during the entire time she was in the building, I swear she had a panic attack when we entered the conference room. And during the fight with Shadow Stalker, that was …a mess. I couldn't even guess at all the emotions I saw, but they were predominantly eclipsed by such hate and hostility that I actually thought she'd kill Stalker."

"Armsmaster, what did your social suite pick up from her?"

"It was largely useless. I had to make do with only her body language because of that voice she was using."

"She calls it the 'swarm voice' or 'voice of the swarm' or something like that," Aegis said.

"How does she fit in with your hypothesis, Aegis?" Piggot queried.

"Well, she has the same skin color and her lips look about the same as Taylor's. Then the way she insisted on taking on Shadow Stalker alone? I think it makes a strong case."

"The Skitter I knew wasn't really much one for intentionally going into hand to hand combat like that," Clockblocker chimed in.

Aegis shrugged in response before adding, "Honestly, I think the thing that sold me most about it comes from what Gallant said. She had a panic attack when we entered that conference room. Why? If her trigger event was that 'locker incident', then it's not related to that.

I would have expected that in the elevator, but she was actually teasing Clockblocker; claustrophobia and all that. I wonder where Skitter was when she killed Tagg and Alexandria."

"You think she was panicking because she suspected we were aware that she is a reincarnate?" Miss Militia asked.

"Yeah."

Flying on Atlas was a far different experience than in my previous life. My new steed was a bit larger, balanced differently thanks to the comparatively massive legs, and yet he was actually faster than the original. As if that hadn't changed how he handled enough, I didn't have to micromanage his body to get him to fly. He was a creature of instinct; even if I left him to his own devices, I didn't have to worry about him crashing into buildings or anything. As we rose higher into the air trailing a black comet of bugs, I felt my connection to the land bound insects disappear. I could have shifted my few relay bugs around to reconnect, but with only the sound of wind and near subsonic droning of Atlas' wings as my only distraction, I thought better of it and allowed myself time to simply think.

I still had a lot of work to do on my mask, incorporating electroreceptors, additional eyes tuned to things like ultraviolet and infrared spectrums or others that were attuned to long distances, maybe even sensory nodes that would allow me to smell certain odors like a mosquito or hear ultra and subsonic frequencies. I still had the smart glass to integrate in as well, but that would wait until I swapped to another mask. If I was going to be flying this high often I should probably get a police scanner or some such.

Other things, I wanted to finish the envenomed claws; I still needed Panacea's help with the valve organ. That, along with retracting design for the claws themselves, would finish off everything I had come up with for my hands. I had other ideas for my forearms that would probably take a long time to come up with all the biotech for, but I was prepared to wait. The big project was going to be converting the body suit into a living organism, so I could repair damage to the armor panels by sacrificing members of my swarm. I wasn't entirely sure how to handle that without going all in and trying to make the muscle layer at the same time.

What else? I blinked and enjoyed the view of Brockton Bay. The city was beautiful from this high up. You really couldn't see the squalor that many areas had fallen into since the shipping industry collapsed in on itself. I idly wondered how many people got to see a view like this, flying capes for sure, but how many people all together? I was, at least in this moment, the only person in the skies as far as I could see. There was a dirigible that was being used for advertising drifting lazily over the local zoo as it made its way through downtown airspace. Further out was a black dot on the horizon I bet was an airliner of one manner or another. I looked over Atlas's bulk to see if I was casting a shadow on another fly‒parachutes. I need a damn parachute.

Dean shook hands with the girl wearing the luchador mask with poorly sewn on and mismatched cat ears. He was pretty sure he hadn't heard anything about her or her power yet. She smiled as she introduced herself as Felix. He couldn't help mentally tacking on 'the cat' to her name.

"Gallant," Dean stated, identifying himself. He was currently wearing the gunmetal colored bodysuit he wore under the armor he was more recognized by. His identity was concealed by a 'half-mask' of similar material worn under the coif of the body suit.

"You sure?" she asked before actually sniffing him, "You don't even smell like power armor."

"It's really him," Aegis said.

"Alright," Felix said as another masked girl walked up to the group. Actually he was pretty sure he should be referring to her as a woman. She was taller and well-proportioned, but she still seemed childlike in her mannerisms. A disability maybe?

"Jamie," the woman said, sticking out her hand. He took it as he noted that even with the obvious worn luchador mask, her wide-eyed expression was easily visible. The emotions radiating off her reminded him of Vista, at least when the emerald-costumed heroine didn't know he was looking at her.

"Is Jamie your real name?"

"Nope. And no, it's not my official cape name either. I haven't decided on one yet," she said preempting his next question and drawing a smile from him. He remembered having trouble coming up with his own name; in the end, Glenn had helped him choose his moniker.

"Hero? Villain?"

"We're both rogues, Jamie has family on the villain side, though," Felix answered.

"Powers?"

"You don't have to worry about that stuff with us in this class, or with Jamie at all, she can't use hers."

"Can't as in untrained or-"

"Can't as in I'd level the building," Jamie said morosely.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Nope," her good-natured tone was back and Dean could tell she was enjoying herself. He shot Aegis and Felix glances. Neither face was betraying anything, seeing their emotions didn't really help either.

Piggot had been calling and teleconferencing with so many people since Skitter left that she wasn't sure she could actually remember who said what during all the conversations. The subject, of course, had been the young cape's modified bugs. Chief Director Costa-Brown had suggested a kill order be placed on the girl's head almost immediately. Emily hadn't really expected it from the woman and had been more than a little glad when the others had argued against the move.

"You can't just condemn a kid because they got the wrong power."

"We can't?"

"Director Piggot has made it clear to us that the girl wants to join the Wards."

"Yes, in a few months. Need I remind you it took less than a month for Nilbog to depopulate Ellisburg?"

"Which he did almost immediately after triggering. From what we've been able to piece together, Skitter isn't a freshly triggered cape. She's already had months," Piggot said. She was well aware of Aegis' beliefs about Skitter's origin, no matter if she went with his hypothesis or the more common one floating about, her words had been true.

"And she's only now showing up on our radar? How do we know some backwater town didn't disappear under this little girl's activities?"

"I'd like to think we're a little better informed than you're suggesting, Tagg."

Emily leaned back in her chair and steeped her fingers atop her stomach as she looked to the ceiling without really seeing it. Of all the people there, only she really had any right to bring up the similarities between Skitter and Nilbog. Probably the thing that irked her the most was how ready they had been to throw away such a powerful cape that was willing to work with them. How often did that happen, especially in a teen cape?

Her computer beeped, indicating the arrival of a new message. Leaning forward, Piggot tapped the icon and was greeted by the list of restrictions that the thinkers had put together, whoever was the last to work on the list had added a number of annotations indicating who had been largely behind each restriction. It didn't surprise her to know Alexandria had been behind some of the most heavy-handed or crippling ones, after all, she was privy to Alexandria's identity.

Piggot shifted in her seat, trying to get even marginally more comfortable. She seriously doubted the young girl would actually follow these guidelines, they were far too crippling. Piggot had tried to put herself in the cape's position and had come to a few conclusions; as much as she didn't want to admit it, maintaining hives of her modified bugs was probably similar to making certain every magazine in your kit was fully and properly loaded. Emily decided that she'd give the girl a lot more leeway than the Chief Director would be happy with. Alexandria could shove her self-righteous attitude. Still, the girl was going to be as much of a headache as Shadow Stalker was.

She sighed, "The only easy day was yesterday."

Aegis laughed as Gallant hit the mat for the fifth time since he started sparring with his current partner. Class was near its end and Dean didn't exactly look like he was going to be ready for the next one. He had sparred with roughly a quarter of the class and had so far been soundly defeated by everyone. It wasn't that much of a surprise, Dean only had a few classes of boxing lessons and Armsmaster's training to fall back on while everyone around him were brown or black belts.

That's not to say he wasn't improving, every time he got one or two moves further before he tripped up and was sent sprawling. His partners recognized the gulf in skill between them and made to accommodate him so he wouldn't be completely overwhelmed. Some offered advice when they put him on the mat or described what they saw. Carlos had noted that sometimes Gallant moved just a little slower than he should have or reflexively pulled a punch to the point it was barely a tap. Dean was too used to fighting in his power armor, too used to holding back to keep from seriously injuring someone; without the armor, those habits turned into liabilities.

He shook his head as his team member ate mat again. Aegis hadn't just been watching Dean; no, he had been keenly aware that Taylor wasn't present. He had noticed that when Taylor skipped class so did Skitter. No one ever saw Skitter arrive and he was feeling like it was just another instance that pointed towards them being the same person. So he was understandably confused that Taylor wasn't here after Skitter had told them that she would be.

"I think we'll stop here for tonight," Nakamura said as he placed a hand on the shoulder of Gallant's sparring partner, "As I understand it, more than a few of the students would like to get to know you some."

Dean nodded after he got to his feet again, he was obviously winded, "Probably a good idea for me to do more than just catch my breath before the next class."

"Indeed," the martial arts master replied with an easy smile. A murmur of agreement came from everyone else and the class broke apart, many of them moving towards the locker rooms. The majority of the remainder, and a few of the observers, however congregated around Gallant and threw questions his way. Dean was a much better people person than Aegis, even before taking his powers into consideration. Still, it was roughly half the class, so Carlos moved to step in for his teammate, or at least he was until Skitter walked into the dojo.

She had come in through the front door carrying a chitin decorated duffle bag that looked to be made of the same spider silk that made up her costume. He also noted that she was wearing a different mask, the one with the crackled mandible, and a pair of simple spider silk gloves instead of the gauntlets she wore earlier. Beyond that, she had a relatively small swarm of bugs crawling across her entire person and buzzing about her general vicinity. Carlos noted more than a few people reacted to her presence. He could only conclude that she must not have normally been seen coming in or maybe that was just his mind holding on to his theory. Could it be he was too attached to the idea and what it would mean for the Wards in the future?

He intercepted her on way towards the locker rooms, "Skitter."

"Aegis," she replied stopping, "I see Gallant is as popular as ever."

Glancing over towards where Dean was now signing autographs and making small talk with fans, Aegis replied, "Yeah. So, what's up with the different costume pieces?"

"My new mask has parts I don't exactly need when I'm here, and the gloves… well I don't want to get in the habit of holding back when I fight, so I simply swapped them out."

"I can see how that's hard. Gallant's so used to fighting in power armor he's been screwing himself by holding back to the point of uselessness."

"I guess I'm going to have to be his first opponent then." Skitter stated as if it was a matter of fact. Obviously noticing the change in Aegis' posture she explained, "I'm going to break him out the habit. Out of everyone here, I've got the most control over my powers. Not to mention, I can induce panic the quickest."

"Panic?" Aegis asked, his concern obvious. She gave in a small nod in response that didn't assuage his concerns at all. "I'm-"

"Relax, it'll be alright. Besides, I wanted to ask about something else."

"What?"

"How does your body handle electroshock attacks?"

"I," Aegis paused as he mentally shifted gears, obviously not having expected the bug themed cape's question, "about as well as everything else. I don't exactly get tasered too often."

"Good. I want to get some practice using those gauntlets more. I was having some difficulty timing the discharge correctly when I fought Shadow Stalker," she confided and the Ward couldn't help but hear a slight smile creep into the voice of the swarm.

I was smiling as I headed up to the second floor. There were three staircases that led to the second floor. The one the majority of the students used was at one end of hall that connected the locker rooms with the primary training room; the second was easily visible from the foyer area and training room. That one lead to the portioned off area where observers could watch the capes practice in relative safety. The last was only really used by Sensei Nakamura as it connected to the hall on the other side of the training room which also housed the offices. I used the office access so I wouldn't bother anyone with my swarm.

The others slowly filtered up while I stretched and did some warm up exercises; after all for once, I hadn't run to class or been present in the one before. First up was Felix talking with Jamie, followed shortly by Sensei Nakamura, and, finally, Aegis and Gallant. I also noticed that we had more spectators present on the other side of the glass. Nakamura as usual asked us, "Anyone need to stretch out before we begin? No? Alright, well since Gallant is new here, it's time for some show and tell."

Sensei Nakamura started things off by stretching his hand out. His body glowed with an inner light and a bo staff jumped to his hand from the far wall. He spun the weapon about with an obvious familiarity as he explained, "My power is typically classified by the PRT as short ranged telekinesis. I can extend this range with an act of will as I just did, but usually we're talking about a maximum range of maybe a foot away from my body, I've found that the closer to me the target is and the greater force I use in the motion to release it, the more potent the actual effect is."

To demonstrate this, he stood the bo staff on end and kicked it. The weapon hit the wall next to the weapon rack in the same position it had been in and embedded itself into the padding before rather slowly being pushed out. I knew from firsthand experience things that usually hit the wall bounced, "I can also infuse my energies into rejuvenating my body or others allowing me to heal injuries quickly in myself or at a slower rate in others."

Felix was next. I noted she had changed to one of her older, more damaged gis; likely because of what she was about to do. She crossed her bare forearms in front of her chest and, as she released a deep breath, began to change. I had seen it before, but it was always amazing to watch as her skin turned from a moderately pale Caucasian tone to stone gray before the dark gray fur grew out enough to hide all but a small portion of her face. Her nose changed at about the same time that the claws came in. There were several popping sounds as her feet elongated and the legs generally shifted into digitigrade. By this point her arms had been drawn to her sides and, as the popping sounds and ripples of growing muscle mass continued, she let out a gasp of pain that exposed the growing of her teeth. As the transformation completed, her eyes changed into familiar cat-like forms. The overhead lights reflected off of them, making them appear to glow as the pupils contracted into small slits. In the end, she ended up at about six foot one and weighed in at about four hundred pounds.

She panted for a second before she spoke. Her voice was different, a bit more guttural; I suppose it was more of a side effect of changes to her throat and vocal cords than anything conscious on her part, "As you can see, I can change into a werecat. In this form, I'm strong enough to throw a full size truck as easily as one might an empty aluminum trash can, I'm faster all around, and my senses are sharpened to an absurd degree."

The ears of her mask twitched, indicating the nearly floppy material had been filled by her actual ears as she continued, "On the downside, I'm mostly nocturnal and prone to cat naps. Also as you can see, my clothes tend to get wrecked when I change. When I revert, I'll actually shed all of the fur on my body and spontaneously regrow my hair."

"How tough are you?" Gallant asked curiosity piqued.

"I know I can take mid caliber pistol rounds and melee weapons relatively easily and I heal fairly quickly while fully beast, but beyond that, I don't know. I do know it's a matter of my muscle being extremely dense, not bullet proof skin or something," She responded earning a nod from Gallant.

"Give me some room," Jamie said as she lifted off of the floor. No one argued and once we had vacated a rather generous amount of space for her, she spoke up, "I've been doing some practice outside of town to try to get a better handle on my powers. I found out I could do this last week."

There was a pop and crack as black lightning surged around or rather along her. She looked a little started by the sounds, so I called out, "I think that was you zapping a few of my bugs"

"But it shouldn't have arced off of me, it's not real lightning."

"They were on you."

"Oh," she shook her head, but there was a smile on her face. The not-real-lightning arced between her limbs and body as she said, "I can fly, obviously, and shoot eldritch lightning. Even when I'm holding the lightning on my body like this, I destroy stuff I touch. So yeah, I'm not going to be using anything but flight in class."

"What is your range?" Gallant asked.

"I think I could hit the Protectorate headquarters from here." Gallant whistled, The headquarters was about fifteen to twenty miles from here so Jamie was probably one of the longest ranged capes in the city and likely the state. "I won't though. I don't want to hurt anybody."

I was next in the lineup. I used to believe that my powers weren't really all that impressive, after all I controlled bugs. Even with my bio-manipulation, my powers weren't going to be wining any rewards for being inspiring. That's not to say I didn't like them or would trade them for anything, they were my powers. The fact that my powers sounded fairly lame when described made people, my enemies included, often underestimate me. It might have been something that bothered me in the past, but now I only saw it as something that I could capitalize on.

Gallant and I were probably the weakest in our class, but judging relative effectiveness of powers was a tricky thing. We could both potentially end a fight in very short order and had a lot of potential utility, but also had noted drawbacks. Gallant couldn't really kill with his powers, while mine generally jumped from harassing to murderous with very little in between, at least at the moment.

I terminated that line of thought and had my shroud of bugs bulge outward and swirl around me as the veil of bugs ramped up their activity making my outline indistinct, "I control bugs. Whoopee."

There was more than one person who chuckled at my short selling of my powers. Gallant took it as an opportunity to ask another question, "What kind of range do you have, Skitter?"

"More than a block, less than the city," the swarm said, doing a good job of relating the snideness of the remark.

"Vague."

"Skitter tends to play her cards close to her chest. Unless she wants to tell you more, she won't. I didn't even know she could morph their biology until she casually did so while we were hanging out," Felix said. I nodded and Gallant seemed to take that as truth. My actual range was something I didn't want people to know. It wasn't just the tactical boon either, if people knew how large of a swath of land I could sense through bugs, I would be considered an even larger security risk than I already was. The relay bugs would only make it worse.

"You already know what I can do. Here, I'm mainly a punching bag," Aegis explained prompting a smirk in response from his teammate before continuing, "But for the sake of completion, I can fly and have an adaptive biology that I have a great deal of control over. Your turn."

The other Ward sighed, "I can see the emotions of others, like a cloud around them. But my primary power is the ability to generate blasts of emotion altering light. I can control what emotions are induced and modify their intensity and duration."

To demonstrate this, Gallant pointed a finger at Aegis and in a total deadpan called out the emotion. A brilliant lance of light crossed the short distance between them and the current leader of the Wards doubled over laughing hysterically as if someone had just told the best joke ever…of all time. The rest of us weren't silent either, many giggled or chuckled. I lasted until Aegis managed to gasp out, "You're an asshole, man. Had to make it into a fucking joke. Oh, I can't breathe."

It was maybe another minute before we all regained our composure and Nakamura said, "Alright now does anyone have specifics they'd like to start with?"

"I'm already in beast, so I'd like the chance to really go toe to toe with Aegis," Felix said as she stretched her back to such a degree that it was painful to look at.

"And I want to get a feel for Gallant," I said drawing a chuckle from the werecat. It took me a moment to realize why, "Not like that fleabag."

"I do not have fleas," Felix stated her voice laced with lingering embarrassment from when we had been first introduced after I started taking cape classes. At the time, she did have a flea problem.

"Not yet." Jamie's giggling made me realize what I was doing and I immediately apologized, "Sorry Master."

Gui waved me off, "It's fine. Well, it's fine as long as Felix doesn't spontaneously get a flea infestation. As for these parings, I like it. I think Jamie and I will be interested in watching how Gallant fights when he has his powers at his disposal."

"I'm supposed to use them?" the empath asked for clarification.

"If you want to," I responded, "I am curious about something, though."

"What?"

"Whether or not you can affect me through my swarm," I explained as I took a step back. In my place was good number of my bugs that had been crawling across my body only moments before. Pulling members of my shroud I filled out the loose swarm form making it easily substantial enough for Gallant to target. I walked a good ways from it, not really knowing if there was a blast radius involved with his power or not, after all, I had only seen his power once in my previous life.

When I motioned to my swarm form, Gallant shrugged his shoulder and fired a blast. I was watching it with every eye I could spare, so I was able to observe a ball of blinding light form before it streaked the short distance to my swarm clone and smashed into it. The comet killed the bugs it directly hit outright before it even exploded. The sunburst wasn't particularly large, brighter, or anything but I could feel the blast wave wash over a fair portion of the remaining individuals of the form and from them I got a feeling of hunger, confusion, and the intensive urge to go towards the light. And then nothing.

I blinked behind my mask and asked, "What emotion was that supposed to be?"

"It didn't work," he replied. My posture must have voiced my thoughts well enough because he followed up with, "I can see your emotions remember."

"And what should I be feeling?"

"That would be telling," he replied slyly.

I heard Aegis chuckle at that and mutter something just low enough that my bugs on him didn't make it out. I was getting flustered now, Gallant had obvious meant for something embarrassing to result from the blast. That annoyed me; I hadn't thought that he was that kind of person. I noted Felix and Aegis had moved off to the side and got ready to spar, I idly considered the fact that Aegis would actually be able to really let loose against Felix. It made me envy her. I turned my attention to Gallant, "I'm ready when you are."

"You are?"

"Yes. I recommend not holding back," I said as I adopted my combat stance.

Gallant apparently believed in starting off with minimum force and slowly escalating as he stepped in and threw a punch. I ducked the attack and came up with a quick combination of palm strikes to his ribs. From there we went back and forth, I practically dancing around him as he all but flailed about. That's not to say he looked like a complete novice, he held himself correctly, threw punches right, and so forth, but like Aegis had pointed out, he was pulling his punches and suffering for it. And I do mean suffering, considering that I wasn't pulling my own. I grasped his arm by the bicep during a parry and threw a knee into his gut. As I brought my leg back down, I grabbed the side of his neck depressing a pressure point for a moment before bodily tossing him to the ground, "Gallant, you're not going to break me, so stop holding back."

"Yeah, I'll get right on that," he said as he pulled himself to his feet. When he stepped into stance I had to puzzle for a moment given it resembled something of a kick boxer's stance. I didn't exactly dwell on it instead striking out at him again. He parried a few swings, but when he threw his own it was almost sloppy in execution. I stepped in around the attack and head butted him. I saw him blink in surprise, and it made me chuckle inwardly.

I continued pressing him as I maneuvered my swarm around; I had told Aegis that I'd induce panic and that's exactly what I went for next. If my guess was right the group that dropped right atop him as I skipped back away from a backhand was just about the same mass as the teen. The sudden additional weight threw him to the mats. I heard him yelp in surprise before scrambling up to his feet.

This time my swarm hid me for a moment as he swung easily allowing me to dodge the attack and dance to his left before deliver a few sharp kicks to the leg. He muttered a curse as he reoriented himself only to find a tendril of bugs on a collision course with his gut. My knee came up, connecting to his mouth. He staggered back only to be engulfed in a tidal wave of bugs from behind that pushed him to the ground, I made a point of having the bugs crawl all over him. Behind my mask I blushed as I got a topographical view of exactly how well defined he was.

He rolled over onto his back and blasted me. Somewhere in my mind, I made a mental note as he hit me that while bug veils could hide me from his emotion sight, or it was too imprecise to use for targeting, his blaster ability wasn't hindered by bugs crawling across his every feature. I staggered back and felt my legs wanting to give out as a spasm of pleasure consumed me. I fought the emotion, squashed it down. It was enough to give him time to regain his feet I could see that his own cheeks were darkened with blush. He knew how that hit had affected me.

I let another emotion surge to the surface replacing my embarrassment of nearly being brought to nirvana by his last maneuver. I separated my swarm into two tendrils one smashed into the back of his knees while the other delivered a fair approximation of an upper cut before I threw a round house kick into his shoulder sending him sprawling back to the mat.

"That wasn't the least bit funny," I told him, my swarm voice in its usual expressionless tone. The swarm formed into a thick shroud before bursting forth flowing up from the ground to consume him in another wave of chitinous bodies. The teen jumped back as he tried to avoid the wave only for me to burst out of the middle. My palms slammed into the muscles on either side of his neck and grasped. He let out a yelp as my thumbs dug into a pressure point while I pulled him forward into a knee to his gut.

I have to give Gallant credit where it's due. Instead of succumbing to the attack, he slammed both his palms against my armored abdomen and fired a burst from each. The force was enough to make me let go of him and stagger; the emotions induced were hard to define before I let the impotent rage I had felt through life overwhelm them. He was just getting back to his feet when I kicked him in the shin and discharged an electrical shock from my boot. He hissed as the leg gave out under him and I brought a tendril of bugs up over him to drive against the exposed portions of his face. I didn't get that far, I saw a bright flash of light. My balance went haywire and I found the world spinning before I hit the mat on my back. Despite the ache I felt, I couldn't bring myself to care enough to get…apathy. Seriously?

"That first one was an accident. I swear," Gallant called out between ragged breaths.

"Sad part is I believe you," I commented from where I lay.

"What happened," Sensei Nakamura asked.

"I hit her with the wrong emotion," Gallant said obscuring the event just enough to not warrant my ire. I squashed the anger I had let spring from my core. Anger and rage were something I knew extremely well as Taylor.

"That looked-"

"Drop it Sensei," Jamie said in a tone that brokered no argument. It was one of the rare moments were Jamie reminded us that she was older than most of us here.

He nodded, "Right. I think I can gather enough from that."

"So Skitter. Were you really going to hit me in the face with those?" the teen asked as he pointed up at the swarm still positioned over him from my last action.

"Can't read intent?"

"No. besides I was too freaked out by how quickly you were overcoming my blasts."

"I've had a lot of practice compartmentalizing my emotions. And yes, I was going to hit you, but not with the amount of force you're likely thinking. I was fully aware of how much damage I was doing."

"Oh. So," he sat up slowly, "Um. Sorry about that first one."

"I bet Glory Girl must love that you can do that."

He snorted in response, "I've never used my power on her or, for that matter, like that," he confided.

I looked over to where Aegis and Felix were sparring and found Aegis being bounced off the wall like some sort of human basketball. It didn't take long for me to figure out how the Wards leader was losing the spar; Felix was just plain too fast. Based on attack rate, she'd deliver two hits for every attack he tried, and even then about two thirds of the time he missed as she bounded out the way. Her fighting style was still heavily based in eagle and tiger claw fighting, but the way she moved screamed of an innate familiarity with her changed body and speed.

Aegis feinted a roundhouse kick and Felix took the bait, leaping over the path the leg would have taken only to take his fist in her hip. She was actually sent cartwheeling in the air from the force of the blow as she sailed into and off of the wall. I pushed Gallant out the way just in time to keep him from finding out what it felt like to have four hundred pounds of cat land on him while it was moving about thirty miles per hour.

Felix caught herself using her claws and was ready to pounce back towards the Ward when Nakamura said, "I think that's enough. Felix, go ahead and change back."

Felix nodded and headed towards the locker rooms. I noted that she hadn't even bothered to stand up; she just spun about and trotted off on all fours like it was the most normal thing in the world. I decided that I'd have to get her to go beast every now and then when we hung out. Gallant called attention to himself, "If we're going to do more sparring, I'm going to need to sit out for a little bit. Skitter beat me good."

"I'd say it was a draw."

"You're not winded, I am."

I shrugged and turned toward Nakamura, "Can I practice with Aegis? I need to get down the timing of using my electroshock attacks."

"Aegis?"

"I'm game," he replied good-naturedly.

"Then I'll train with Jamie," Nakamura said.

Jamie's response was pretty much exactly what I had come to expect from her, "Yes! Acrocombatics Ho!"

Class ended up running long, but by the time it finally did end, I was comfortable with the timing of my electroshocks. I even had enough time for Felix to give me some pointers in Eagle Claw techniques. As we started breaking up to head home, Felix approached me, "Hey did you bring that big bug of yours here?"

"Yeah. How do you know about Atlas? I don't think I ever-"

"Aegis and Gallant were talking about it," She explained cutting me off midsentence.

"Oh," I responded dumbly before jumping to the obvious. "So, I suppose you wanted to see him."

"Actually, I was hoping you could give me a lift to the AU campus and stick around for a bit."

"Sure. I don't know what Atlas's maximum airborne carry capacity is, but I'm pretty sure he can manage the two of us. And you wanted me to stick around for what, a return ride?"

"No, I want to introduce you to my friend, Sa-" She cut herself off midsentence. Before I could raise my brow, she continued, "She's the one I wanted to bring in for a second opinion on the mask."

"The fashion student?" I asked recalling an earlier conversation. I got a nod from Sara in response. I had been harboring suspicion for a while that I might already know who exactly she was speaking of and her slip of the tongue hadn't gone unnoticed.

Atlas turned out to have no problem supporting the two of us; I wasn't really surprised by that fact. From Sara's occasional comments, she was enjoying the view of the Bay from our lofty height. I smiled behind my mask. As we approached the campus, I decided to voice my suspicions, "This fashion student-"

"Yeah."

"-is her name Sabah?" I asked.

I felt Felix's grip on me tighten in response almost a second before she verbally responded. "Uh. How did you know?"

"A hunch. I knew about Parian's fashion skills and was considering trying to make contact with her," I said before my mind caught up with my mouth and I mentally berated myself. I had looked up the PO's profiles of all the members of the Undersiders and immediate associates a long time ago, so I knew that there was actually a rather significant amount of public knowledge about Parian, especially for a rogue. Hell, she had a fan club. That said it, wasn't like there was exactly an easy jump from Parian to Sabah.

"Okay, Taylor, you're creeping me out. You even knew she was a cape?"

"Yeah," I said trying to figure out a way to explain it without mentioning my previous life or sounding crazy, "She's not exactly that hard to find information on. I mean, she works in advertising."

"Still," Sara responded.

"Besides you went to someone for input on your mask design. Going down the list there's not really that many people that I could see you knowing that both know you're Felix and have the requisite skills. It makes sense that you'd go to the highly fashionable Parian as she's both a fellow rogue and has an obvious eye for fashion."

"I guess when you put it that way. She's goinna freak."

Freaking out turned out to be an apt description of what Sabah did when Atlas landed on top of her dorm building. Felix had called her in flight and the three minute notice hadn't really been sufficient warning as Parian was wearing night clothes instead of her usual costume. In fact, the only reason I'd have thought her to be a cape was the mask and curly blond wig that she was wearing. Of course, this took a back seat to her livid ranting, "When you said wear your costume, I didn't think that meant you'd be bringing another cape. And seriously, you direct bug girl to land this thing on the roof of my dorm! Are you trying to out me?"

"No. I just...I guess I didn't think."

"No, you obviously didn't."

"Hey," I called out, injecting myself into the argument, "First, it's Skitter, not bug girl. Second, this is Atlas. He doesn't make any notable noise when flying; its dark out, so the only one you might have to worry about spotting us is someone like Vigilant. So, don't be too hard on Felix. Besides, we're not just here for the mask design."

"Okay. What are you here for?"

"Business," I said, having more fireflies come out of my armor to light up the area, "Take a look at my costume."

"Okay, it's admittedly badass. Professional job?"

"I made it myself."

"No shit?" she replied, there was just enough light that I could make out her eyes through the eye holes of her mask as they widened in surprise. I was pretty sure her opinion of me had just jumped a few points.

"It's made of chiefly spider silk and chitin. Actual spider's silk, not some cheap knock off made in a lab somewhere. In fact, its quality is comparable to that of Darwin's bark spider silk. That's ten times as effective as similar amounts of Kevlar, stronger than steel, and significantly lighter. It's practically wonder material," I explained before pulling a bit away from my side to illustrate my words, "My costume is made of four to seven layers of the material. The only problem is when you go and try to cut it, I found wire cutters and elbow grease is pretty much a requirement."

"And what, you're having spiders spin it for you?" Parian asked. I could tell from her voice and posture that her anger and annoyance at the rather late summons was draining away quickly. She was far more interested in what I was saying.

"Yeah. Special spiders."

"So this business proposition of yours is, let me guess, selling it to me? Because if it is, you must not have noticed we're standing on a dorm building. I'm a college kid, I'm perpetually broke."

I chuckled, "No, I mean, I have no problem selling the material to you, but I want you to join me in a business venture. Right now, I'm going with 'Weaver Clothier' as the name for it but i'm more than open for suggestions. Essentially, we discretely sell costumes and probably other outfits made at least in part of spider silk. We could charge rather ridiculous prices based on what my research came up with and still be undercutting our competition."

"I…l don't see why you'd be interested in taking me on, if that's the case."

"That's simple. My expertise is extremely limited. I can make my costume. Get me working with other materials, or foreign designs and I start having problems," I explained. It wasn't entirely true. While I was Weaver I made something in the neighborhood of three hundred spidersilk bodysuits for various capes. While most were intended to be worn as an undersuit to their normal costume, I had made more than a few that where costumes in their own right. Still, there was no denying that my skill in costume making and design was nowhere near Parian's.

"So, I'd basically be what, a partner or employee?"

"Partner." My response was quick as I hadn't even thought of her role in the proposed business as anything less.

"And how much time are we looking at putting into this? If we start offering up services of the caliber I'm used to working at, it's going to eat up time real fast as people become aware of it."

"We work at our pace; take orders as we have the time. We're not some costume factory; we're commissioned artists building masterpieces."

"I like that. But…"

"But?"

"I don't know."

"I'm not asking for an immediate answer. Take some time to think it over. Let Sara know which way the wind blows," I said as I turned towards Atlas and dug in the bag I had attached to his saddle.

"So it's an open invitation?"

"Pretty much. I've already pitched the idea to New Wave, I'm going to be working on a gift for Panacea for helping me out with something I was stuck on. In the meantime, here," I handed her a wide coil of spider silk, "That's a sample for you to use as you please. I suggest either using it for armor inserts in your costume, a lining in your mask, or for your constructs."

She accepted the coil and seemed surprised at the weight, "How much is this?"

"I don't know, more than a hundred feet of cord. I was originally going to use it for binding criminals and stuff. You can never have enough rope on hand."

She laughed, "I'll think it over. Thanks for this, Skitter."

"No problem."

After that, the three of us talked more generally. Parian seemed surprised when my age came up: I couldn't say that was unexpected. I was hanging out with two college students, after all. I might have been reading into things or something but I got the sense that Sabah and Sara were close or at least had been close in an intimate sense. I mean, they even bickered like a married couple. When we departed it was a little after nine, I actually planned on being home for curfew at ten for once.

As we ascended Sara spoke in my ear, "Hey, thanks for cutting Parian off like that. When she gets going it's kind of hard for me to stop her."

"Why?"

"Well, we're practically like sisters. She tends to dig up all the mean things when on a roll. And we, uh, have enough of a history that the mean things can really cut deep."

"Well, I'm glad I stepped in. If you don't mind me asking, are you two, you know, together?"

Sara chuckled, "Oh you noticed that? We kinda had a thing for a little while. It was mainly just us experimenting. I discovered I really didn't mind one way or the other; she found she really liked girls. We're not together like that anymore if you're wondering, but we parted on friendly terms. Or maybe we just drifted in and out of the 'friends with benefits' relationship. She wants someone more…stable than me. I'm too wishy-washy when it comes to relationships."

I nodded as another topic came to mind. "So, meeting Gallant."

"Hands off, he's all yours?" I could practically hear the smile in her voice.

"He's spoken for, remember? Glory Girl."

"Right."

"I was going to ask if he was the other person at the theater the other night."

"He definitely is," Felix said with such mischievousness in her voice that I imagined her grinning like a Cheshire Cat. "Even if I didn't recognize his voice, his scent's the same."

"You sniffed him?"

"Only once!" She countered quickly and I couldn't help but giggle.

-/ Interlude 8: Alexandria

Director Rebecca Costa-Brown tapped her pen on the massive oak desk set aside for the chief director of the PRT at as she went over the files on her computer screen again. There was a lot of text yes, but between her eidetic memory and having already read everything there was a lot less to take in now. This time she focused on the videos and stills taken of the new bio-manipulator/master that had shown up in Brockton Bay.

The file had come her way from PRT ENE and contained everything the organization had on this relatively new cape. It was a surprisingly large amount of data; over fifteen incident reports in the last month alone, videos obtained from cellphones or collected after they wound up on the internet, a few more from traffic and security cameras, and really that was just scratching the surface of it. There was even documented speculation from the local Wards team which included two reincarnates in its ranks. Said speculation included the possibility of Skitter being another reincarnate and a file on who they thought she may be. The civilian file was actually thicker than the cape one.

Rebecca was more than a little interested in the idea Skitter was a reincarnate. From the information compiled from the various reincarnates, she knew that Gold reality's Skitter was a major figure in more than her fair share of conflicts in a two and a half year span of time. As a villain she had become the leader of the Undersiders and somehow taken over the vast majority of Brockton Bay. Even after she joined the Wards and was rebranded as Weaver, she continued to win victory after victory against foes far above her weight class. Case in point, shortly before she became a Ward she killed Gold's Alexandria. None of the reincarnates remembered how exactly the girl managed the feat, but Rebecca did have an idea.

Blue reality's version of Skitter was a hero from the onset and became one of the most effective intelligence gathering assets of that reality. It said something of the cape that of the three known versions of her, the 'cuddliest' was essentially Big Brother.

Rebecca agreed with the speculation that Skitter was a reincarnate; if for no other reason than she demonstrated additional capabilities than her alternate reality counterparts. Where they were limited to controlling existing insects and arachnids, this new version could also shape the biology of anything under her purview. That, of course, was what had her and many of the PRT's board of directors worried as they focused on the obvious similarities to Nilbog.

Nilbog, at least, didn't have an apparent Endbringer counterpart. Skitter, on the other hand, seemed to mirror Khepri to an uncomfortable degree. While she was not a multi-limbed insectile humanoid like the Endbringer, her costume evoked a similar image and was reportedly made of chitin. Khepri was most well known for utilizing an army of chitin covered humanoids that could assume the power and capabilities of opposing capes, while Skitter used massive swarms of insects and was capable of morphing their biology to suit her needs. Further, bug themed capes were rare even before Khepri raised her antenna-crowned head and for good reason; few capes had powers associated with bugs in even a roundabout manner. There were, in fact, more tinkers that utilized the theme for stylistic choices than capes whose powers had anything to do with insects.

Of course, Skitter wasn't the only one who had exhibited extreme similarities to an Endbringer. Dallas' Protectorate leader, Dynamo, had a power set so similar to Behemoth's own that the media had picked up on it. He had made light of the connection at a press conference where he said, "As long as Behemoth never yells that he's my father we're good." To make matters worse when these Endbringer capes interacted with their respective Endbringers there was always some sort of oddity at work. Behemoth, for example, would outright ignore everything else on the field in order to test its strength against Dynamo's own Dynakinesis. The one time Dynamo had managed to win the match Behemoth immediately retreated and that battle had the lowest death toll of any of his visits.

If the girl could be handled, she could be useful when Khepri's turn came around again in the fall. Perhaps she could ask Contessa to find a path to rein the girl in. As it stood Rebecca didn't like how much room they were giving the girl to operate or the way they were letting her choose when to join the Wards. Had she been directly in charge of Brockton Bay's teams she would have leveraged everything to force her to join or killed her outright. While it was true that some of the other Endbringer capes were S–class threats and even villainous, none of them created minions, self-sustaining minions at that, and were generally localized. Skitter had the potential to be a greater threat than possibly even the Endbringers were.

Rebecca resumed tapping her pen on the desk she sat at as she scanned the records of Taylor Hebert. She was the person the ENE teams believed to be most likely to be Skitter. She paused and mentally backtracked. Taylor was born on June 19, 1995. That date stood out in her mind. A moment later, when Director Costa-Brown recalled the significance of the date, she dropped her pen.

The 19th of June was the first appearance of Khepri. Alexandria and her team had been one of the first to respond to the appearance. She recalled flying over the city of Baltimore before landing in a park on the city's outskirts. Said park had been devoid of human life as the local law enforcement and PRT officers and other first responders having evacuated the civilians shortly after the first sightings of 'monsters' had come in.

That wasn't to say it was devoid of all life as five chitin-covered horrors milled about the general area around the twelve-foot-tall insectile form of Khepri. She was all limbs with six arms and six dragonfly-like wings sprouting from a fairly slender torso that disappeared into a nearly nonexistent waist before dramatically flaring out into wide hips and disproportionately long legs. Had she not known otherwise, Alexandria might have thought that she was looking at an extremely powerful case fifty three given it's inhuman appearance and that it had been in the process of shaping unidentifiable mass of flesh and chitin into the form of a sixth monster.

Following standard procedure for dealing with an unknown cape, Alexandria had identified herself. A dead silence followed until the Endbringer reacted half a minute later. She turned her head affixing Alexandria with her gaze. Rebecca would later describe that moment as the instant she realized she was dealing with an Endbringer, she'd describe the sense of wrongness that was so commonly associated to the creatures as the linchpin for that revelation as Khepri immediately followed up by doing some thing no other Endbringer had done before or since; she spoke.

"I am Khepri," she announced in a voice that was a cacophony of insect sounds issuing not from the bug-like mouth parts, but her general area. Alexandria recognized, oddly enough, a slight Canadian accent, "I stand to test the aegis of cooperation and the brilliance of strategy, to provide conflict, to promote growth and development of the system. Allow me to educate you and yours on the rules of this and our future encounters."

Circuit, one of her team's tinkers, had confirmed her suspicion by reporting that Khepri matched the readings of most Endbringers. The fact was more troubling than one would expect since there was still supposed to be about two weeks before the next Endbringer attack. Moreover, everything pointed to this being before her was a major Endbringer.

Alexandria didn't let the Endbringer finish speaking. Instead surging forward to deliver a solid punch that staggered the creature. Rebecca remembered hoping that she'd be enough to pummel the creature into submission as her team dealt with the Endbringer's creations. In the future they would learn that those creatures where Khepri's primary tool. As Alexandria dueled with the Endbringer herself the chitin monsters spontaneously reformed taking on the appearance of twisted reflection of her and her team. More importantly they took on the powers and equipment of the capes they copied.

As Khepri proved that her multiple limbs weren't just for show, Alexandria's team came under attack and quickly found themselves over-matched. As powerful as Squirt's water jets could be they couldn't penetrate the white garbed Alexandria copy's invulnerability or even force her on the back foot. Volume's copy was able to neutralize the original's sonics while Circuit and Darkroom's copies picked him apart with tinker tech weapons. Houdini was caught by her own copy and forced back into real space where she was immediately bisected by one of the Squirt copy's water jets.

Alexandria herself quickly found herself beaten and restrained. Forced to watch as her other self shoved her arm through the hydrokinetic's chest, as Volume fell riddled with lasers and other exotic projectiles fired from tinker weapons.

"These are the seeds you sow. Your allies, as powerful as they might be, are incapable of defending against one with your might. Not because they lack the capability, but because they are disorganized. Unable to cooperate efficiently to exploit their other's vulnerabilities or combine their efforts to remove yours from play. They are unable to because of you. You made them dependent on your power and orders." Khepri explained as her clone caught and tore Circuit limb by limb in, the event would replay itself in five years time as Hero was torn to shreds by the Siberian.

"In the future, every time a cape enters my battlefield I will create a copy of them in my own forces. I will command the resulting army to kill and maim, to leave ruin in their wake. I will find the faultlines within my opposition and pry them open until the resulting chasm encapsulate them completely."

"But all hope is not lost," Khepri forced Alexandria to track her last remaining team mate, Darkroom, as the woman was chased by the copies of her fellows. Darkroom seemed to flicker out of existence before the Houdini copy slumped over, a smoldering hole drilled through her forehead. The off-color Volume let out a roar that shook the battlefield before it was abruptly cut off by a lance of energy. Even as the body fell, Alexandria's own copy crashed into the beams point of origin. There was no crush of bone or splatter of blood, instead there was a explosion of smoke that left the false heroine coughing in fits. The copies of Circuit and Darkroom pressed their backs to one another and their bobble-laden weapons scanned for the tinker. "Should my forces be routed, should I receive severe damage, then I will forfeit the field and those who stood against me will be stronger for their experience."

The woman appeared a dozen feet away, falling. Before she hit the ground the Circuit clone sputtered as the woman at her back shoved a blade of coherent light through the copy's back. The backstabber's form flickered, replaced by that of the actual Protectorate cape. The Endbringer threw Alexandria into her compatriot as she spoke, "Revel in this victory. Others approach."

By the time the two heroines had regained their wits, a copy of Myrrdin had formed beside the Endbringer. It performed a quick series of gestures that ended in it clapping its hands together. A mind numbing moment later the found themselves in a different section of the park Myrrdin's voice sounding from nearby, "Alexandria! What happened?"

They'd learn in the future that Khepri wasn't particularly devastating in terms of personnel or collateral damage when her rules were followed. In fact, the only times she actively sought to damage the area she designated as the battlefield was when she was ignored. No, more often than not the real casualty of a battle with her was their morale. She made the powerful capes sit on the sidelines, lest their copies be used to kill or at least gravely injure large swaths of allies. She routinely demonstrated how little they knew of their own powers and strategically removed key members of teams.

Director Costa-Brown deflated with a sigh. She'd give Skitter the benefit of the doubt here. She'd allow Director Piggot oversee the situation with minimal intervention. All in the hopes that if the little girl took the field against Khepri that they'd have a shot at killing the Endbringer. Besides, if Skitter did go off the rails Rebecca could finally be rid of Piggot.

-/ Author Notes:

Betas: SB's passat asotto, RedPockets, and FanFiction-dot-net's Claytorpedo

To be honest the amount of focus and direction I have when writing these chapters is becoming shorter and shorter. I mean sometimes I'm getting a paragraph out before my mind starts wandering. I'm not going to quit quite yet if I can help it, after all I still have a fair amount of prepared material and ideas to get through before that's really a consideration but expect chapters to get shorter and delays between updates longer. At this point I'm posting this as it is mainly because I can't concentrate on editing, refining, and so forth anymore and it's been too long between updates for my liking. This is my first chapter without an outright interlude, but I figure the jumps to Piggot and the Wards makes up for it a great deal.

Most commonly misspelt word in this chapter that I caught 'stretch' I kept replacing the second 't' with an 'a.' Nakamura was a close second as I kept throwing an extra 'r.' Btw, his name is pronounced Nak-a-mura in case you were wondering.

I previously mentioned how I had a hard time getting information on Gallant without going back and reading the few sections he was in in Worm, the phase 'sci-fi Lancelot' is actually Wildbow's. I'd have never been able to use the description with a straight face as I see Lancelot referring to the entire synopsis of the Arthurian character, complete with the betrayal he is known for. It doesn't help that my own name is Lance. It definitely does not.

Gallant's powers are rather interesting in my opinion; I've tweaked them and fleshed them out a little here. In Worm the effects of Gallant's powers are pretty well described, though the one time he actually gets to use it he ends up just making Bitch mad. The other thing that got me is that everyone referred to his attacks as 'blasts of light' which is a bit annoying because at the same time Taylor is rather specific about describing other attacks as lasers, bolts of energy, and so forth. So I had to assume that the blast either didn't have a 'projectile' component or it was something that couldn't really be described as a laser or bolt. I obviously went with it being a globe of energy that he launches making a 'comet' that explodes.

And yes. He totally hit Taylor is a pleasure inducing blast. Power perversion potential? Maybe for a masochist since it still hits like a punch to the gut.

Taylor's slip up with Sara about knowing the Sabah/Parian identity is something that I'll probably bring up again. Considering how much Sara and Taylor share and the amount of time the two spend together, Taylor's peculiar knowledge is going to show up from time to time like this. Parian's introduction was actually supposed to have happened earlier I just never got around to it. On a completely unrelated note, Sara's ring tone for Taylor is the Animated Batman theme song. Yep.

-/ Dev Notes:

Back in Chapter 2 I listed Nakamura as a Brute 2/ Mover 4. He's given a Brute rating instead of a Striker rating because while his ability to project force from his body is effective at extreme short range, the same effect allows him to passively form a rough approximation of a force field. He describes it as "pushing back the world." That's to say that the Steel Claw exerts opposing force on anything that tries to touch him, and only in some of the most extreme case does not manage to provide an equal measure of force.

Similarly his exceptional mover rating is due to him utilizing his telekinesis to 'push' or 'pull' himself to or from other objects. He's demonstrated the ability to fly simply by capturing a rubber ball with his telekinesis as using it as the aforementioned object. Throughout most of his career he would team with a high speed flier for rapid response.

The relatively low ratings is due to his draw back, all of his abilities draw on the same energy reserve, while attacks might not injure him it will burn this reserve. Further if he's say negating bullets shot at him he's moving slower, hitting with less force, and rejuvenating his body slower. The reserve actually has grown larger over his career and hasn't diminished in retirement.