Prologue:
Vicky woke with a gasp of air that sounded and felt like she was trying to suck in the world's oxygen all in one gulp.
Her limbs moved sporadically, fumbling and reaching, like someone who didn't know how to swim, waking up in the middle of the ocean and drowning.
She tried to reach her feet, but stumbled and fell, tried again and stumbled and fell again.
She could taste salt water in her throat, though she hadn't been swimming in forever, her limbs felt like jelly in spite of her brute rating; she tasted cotton in her mouth, her stomach roiled and heaved and it was all she could do to lurch onto her side like a beached whale before she emptied what little had been in of her lunch all over the dirt she was resting on.
When she opened her eyes, the world was opaque, and blurred, like she was staring at it through dirty, warped glass and she wondered for a moment what the hell was wrong with her eyes.
Heaving and groaning- she blinked, beginning to clear her sight, realizing with a slowly mounting sense of dread… she didn't recognize where she was.
More than that, she wasn't anywhere near… anything she'd ever seen before.
After all, Trees as tall as skyscrapers tend to stand out as potential tourist spots.
And these were trees.
Through the gloom of the night she could see the bark, smell the scent of wood and leaves and grass and dirt.
Victoria stared, her head leaning back and back and back, until she realized she couldn't see the sky above beneath the boughs of the massive branches.
Trees shouldn't grow this tall.
Correction. Trees *didn't* grow this tall. Anywhere.
Oh god- she thought in dismay.
I've been shrunk!
At that thought the faux Alexandria Package began to try and think back- she was in her costume so she'd been in a fight… Uber and Leet maybe?
Did that idiot make something that both blew up and teleported her to the ass end of nowhere and shrank her to someone that saw trees taller than any building she'd ever seen?
She was gonna punch him. Really freaking hard too!
God please let this be temporary!
If not… well… Amy could fix her… Right?
Yeah. Totally. Amy could probably fix her if she was just a lump of meat or something as long as she was alive.
When she finally stopped gawping up at the trees, and had enough presence of mind to keep looking around, she discovered quite a few other oddities.
Oddities being the half shattered ruins of the city around her…
Crumbling buildings, shattered glass, various foodstuffs and bits and pieces you'd find in any number of homes. Cereal boxes, broken appliances, utilities, crushed cars…
What the hell? Did Leet shrink half of Brockton Bay?
The forest around her was littered with the refuse, the concrete jungle, or what was left of it- seeming distinctly out of place in this world of flora around her.
"Okay Vicky… Okay." She swallowed. "Don't panic. You're a Brute. And even though you're tiny you can probably punch out anything nasty that comes at you. So… first things first, gotta get higher and find out where there are people that can help."
So, with resolution firmly in mind she stood up on legs that felt far too wobbly, dusted herself off and made ready to fly.
Then, as she reached her full height, she froze for a second time.
There, half hidden by the gloom and the tall shrubs she was laying on- the Bug girl. From the bank.
Vicky's face twisted in rage, anger now coloring her features.
The Undersiders. Did they have something to do with this?
Can always ask her… from a few dozen stories up.
People, she found, tended to lie very little at that altitude.
So, with that decision made in her mind, Vicky started marching closer to the Undersiders' 'Bug Girl,' ready to grab hold and yoink her up to the higher branches. When she woke up and Vicky threatened to leave her there she'd talk.
Perhaps it was the gloom of the dark forest around them. Perhaps it was the color of her costume, making it hard to see details. But whatever the reason, Vicky never noticed that the bug girl was, in fact, moving.
Her movements weren't obvious, not like Vicky's had been when she woke up. Even if it hadn't been dark, one would be hard pressed to notice them at a glance or from a distance.
She trembled. Fingers twitching, eyes rolling behind her mask.
Vicky didn't notice a thing.
Then her hand reached out.
Barely a hair's breath from touching the bug girl, the villain's own hand snapped out, lightning fast fingers gripping Victoria's wrist with a white knuckled grip.
Then she howled.
That's the only word Vicky had to describe it.
If horror had a voice… that was it.
Vicky's blood went cold when she jerked her hand back. It was in an unthinking reflex, not wanting to get anywhere near the source of that noise, and before she knew it she was hovering in the air, as horrified of the girl as the girl seemingly was of Vicky.
Then the forest came alive.
A canopy of bright huge fireflies, each about the size of a basketball, lit up, turning the gloom of night into a beautiful field of starlight.
Then she heard other things.
Something big heading her way.
Vicky suddenly remembered what 'bug girl's power' was.
Bug control… gee.
And she's been shrunk enough for fireflies to be the size of basketballs…
How much bigger are a million roaches or bees going to be?
Beginning to feel the edges of panic creeping up on her. Vicky had a moment to decide what the hell to do.
Standard practice when dealing with a Master was punch the shit outta the master.
But frankly, after listening to the pain in that voice… whatever had hurt her Vicky didn't want to add to it.
So, doing the only thing she could, Vicky released her aura. All of it.
And not to make the bug girl scared.
The girl's scream didn't abate for a moment and Vicky wondered if something was wrong with her aura at all before the comparatively smaller girl lunged for her.
Reflexively Vicky put up her arms, ready to defend herself when she realized the girl wasn't attacking her, but clutching onto her for dear life; like the last piece of driftwood cast into the sea she could reach.
She was mumbling something, repeating it over and over again in Vicky's ear as her hands pawed with desperate strength at the blonde's back.
"TaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTaylorTay-."
The Dallon girl's eyes went wide.
Her name?
No. No Couldn't be. Had to be someone else's name.
Maybe whoever did this to her? To both of them?
"Hey…." She hesitated, hands stiff at her sides before she slowly brought them up to bug girl's shoulders. "Hey… it's ok. It's… Who's Taylor?"
The girl shuddered, her whole body trembling as her legs suddenly gave out and Victoria was more holding her up than simply holding her.
"Don't let me forget…" She begged. "My name is Taylor."
Vicky's eyes went wide.
"I'm not her…" was her broken whisper as she pulled away, staring up at Vicky, the Dallon girl floating above her.
Something moved in the underbrush.
Vicky felt the blood drain from her face.
… This wasn't a bug she recognized… if it even was a bug.
It was enormous… the size of a double decker bus or something at least. Its head was long, with sickle like mandibles that looked like they could flay the flesh off the bone.
Where the fuck did Leet send them? Australia?
Other critters started to emerge, but nothing like the… whatever the fuck this was.
They were still bugs, fuck-huege spiders the size of small cars. But… Jesus Christ was is that thing?
… at least the fireflies were pretty? Though they were making it easy to see these things in all their gruesome details…
The Bug girl, Taylor- looked at her.
"My name is Taylor-" She repeated- "-Not… I'm not the monster… I'm not-" She sobbed.
"I'm not Khepri!"
(X)(X)(X)
The image of 'Tourist' wasn't one they could shake. Not really.
From their clothes to their bearing to their naked surprise at what they were seeing; they screamed 'newcomers'.
So given the… type of individuals surrounding them, she's not wholly surprised their first few dealings were little more than swindlers finding easy marks.
It took her less time to learn how to 'read' the various new faces she was seeing.
Once she did, it took significantly less time to receive some 'honesty' from those around her.
Specifically after she broke some bones.
Information started coming even faster once the tough guys realized that their 'blasters' didn't exactly do much of anything beyond burn patches of her clothes.
She broke more bones. And took some spare clothes.
From there, it took very little indeed to discover a canteen of water did not cost one hundred credits. No matter how 'valuable' water on a desert planet actually was.
Stepping out of the dusty cantina, Rebecca Costa Brown, now going in a rather more permanent fashion as 'Alexandria' for the foreseeable future she made her way across the dry arid streets of what the locals called 'Anchorhead
Stepping up to the Spaceport she held her procured gallon out.
"What are we looking at?"
Perhaps it was insensitive to say it- but Hannah looked like a local. Looked like she belonged in these sand beaten streets.
The woman who was once her Ward shook her head."No one with transportation has heard of Earth," she lamented.
"And Transportation is a bit more expensive than water, I'm guessing," a third voice called, its owner reaching forward to take the water with a grateful sigh.
He peeled off his cloth mask. The cloak tossed over his distinctive Clock themed costume did a decent enough job hiding his attire-
But they needed resources.
Food. Water. Clothing. Lodgings.
They needed money.
Alexandria offered a nod.
"Alright." She said, turning sharply.
"What are you going to do?"
It wasn't Hannah who asked. It was the boy; Dennis.
She turned, watching him, and she was surprised to find… a wariness in his eyes. A certain fear. Like someone watching an animal they knew would bite inching closer to them.
Odd. Most Wards eyed her with complete trust. Even devotion.
"This place," she began before offering a shrug, putting the expression out of her mind, "has bounty hunting as an option. Criminals are criminals."
Hannah offered a nod. She wasn't happy. But she recognized their situation and what they'd need to pull themselves out of this hole.
At least until Contessa or Doctor Mother found them.
The boy gave a sigh of relief.
She didn't pay it much thought.
She stepped back into the heat of the twin suns of Tatooine.