Predatory
22
Crystal didn't set down immediately when she arrived at the address Miles had sent to her phone. She spent a few minutes scoping out the neighborhood and the house itself. As with most heroes, she was naturally nosy—she just called it doing her due diligence to make sure her mom wasn't somewhere sketchy. Thankfully, it seemed she didn't really have anything to worry about. The place wasn't too far from their own home and from the air, everything looked nice, clean, well-kept. Of course, that just meant that if there were problems they were good at hiding, but she knew that if she went down that rabbit hole there was no getting back out.
Her curiosity satisfied, she dropped down in front of the house and rang the doorbell. A moment later, the blonde form of Gwen stuck her head out and looked around, before waving her inside. As soon as the door closed, Gwen's form rippled, revealing Missy. "We're in the kitchen," the girl said, leading the older blonde through the house.
Crystal found her aunt sitting at the kitchen table, along with the rest of the group. Everyone there had a glass of water, along with cards. "Wait. 'Adult game night' is just poker?"
"Don't sound so disappointed," Miles rolled his eyes.
Sarah snorted softly. "What did you think we were doing?"
"Well, I mean, it kinda sounded like…" Crystal trailed off as Amy sent her an amused look. "You know what, never mind. Can you deal me in?"
Crystal took the seat offered between Sarah and Amy as Missy took the cards up and began to shuffle. Ciara counted out chips and floated them across the table to Crystal. Studying the green-eyed blonde, Crystal hummed. "You look kind of familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?"
Ciara smiled. "I'm sorry, I don't think so."
Frowning, Crystal shook her head and dismissed the feeling as Missy flicked a card to her. Counting her chips, she looked around the table and saw everyone else had a much smaller pile than she was expecting. "Do we have enough chips?"
Amy chuckled beside her and leaned over, whispering in Crystal's ear. "Shh. Stop worrying and have fun. You'll like this. Trust me!"
Shooting her cousin a suspicious look, Crystal shrugged as the game began much like any other game of cards. With two cards in everyone's hand, Missy flicked five cards into the center of the table. "The game is Texas Hold 'Em. We're playing it straight. None of your bullshit special rules, Miles."
"It was one time—"
"No," Missy shook her head. "I'm not cleaning up puke again because Crystal can't hold her liquor."
"Poor Vicky," Amy sighed.
"Poor Vicky? Poor Madison. She's the one who caught the blast," Missy shuddered.
Sarah eyed her cards and raised an eyebrow. "Just what have you been doing with my niece?"
"Only fun things~" Amy giggled.
"This I have to hear," Crystal demanded as the first card was flipped.
"Well, you see, what had happened was…" Miles began.
And so the game went. Crystal slowly relaxed as they talked, never noticing that four of the players were working together. Not that she could, given that they were all communicating telepathically towards a specific goal. Slowly, people began to lose chips while one person in particular began to accumulate them—Ciara's hoard growing before her as everyone else's piles shrank.
Missy was the first to bust on the seventh round. "Shit," she grumbled as cards were taken up and Sarah began shuffling. She reached down and pulled off her shirt, folding it up and laying it on the table under the pile for the current pot. The corners of Sarah's lips twitched into a smirk that she quickly wiped away as she realized just what sort of con it was the group were playing on her daughter. She said nothing as she dealt out a fresh hand.
Crystal, on the other hand… "Wait," she frowned, looking at Missy sitting in her bra, jeans, and socks. She opened her mouth and Amy elbowed her.
"Shut up," Amy hissed, and Crystal shot her a glare. "Look who's almost out of chips," Amy pointed out.
It took her a moment, but as she watched, Miles flicked the last of his chips into the pot to cover his blind. "Oh. Oh," Crystal whispered, before a naughty little smirk crept over her lips and she nodded, deciding to play along.
After the fourth card was turned over (Crystal didn't know the term nor did she care to learn), Ciara leered at Miles as it came his turn to bet. "Oh my. Dear, it seems you're out of chips. Perhaps you would like to follow Missy's example and wager something else?"
Miles rolled his eyes, but he pulled off his button-down shirt, folded it, and added it to the pile. "Take it all off!" Amy catcalled, earning some laughter from the other girls.
"I do appreciate a show," Sarah murmured, eyeing the man across from her up and down with not-so-hidden lust.
Mm, beefcake, Crystal thought to herself as the game continued, occasionally sneaking glances at Miles.
This time, Sarah won the pot. Raking it into her pile, she discarded Miles' and Missy's shirts to the floor. Crystal frowned beside her. "What are you—"
"You can't bet using someone else's clothes," Sarah explained, earning nods all around. "It defeats the purpose. So once someone wins them, they're out of play. You get a nice little souvenir, but that's it."
"Oh," Crystal hummed, before nodding. "Makes sense. Otherwise we'd just be passing clothes back and forth all night."
Crystal kept up the positive attitude as Miles and Missy lost a sock each to the pot for their buy-ins, Amy lost her shirt, and Miles caused Sarah and Crystal to bust at the end of the round—earning back a couple of chips, but not enough to avoid putting more clothes up to bet next round. The blonde college girl pouted as she grabbed the bottom of her blouse and worked it off. "This game is rigged," she complained.
Beside her, Sarah shook her head. Standing up, the MILF made a little show of pulling her own shirt off, pulling her much larger bra-clad breasts up with the bottom of it, only for them to fall back down as the shirt slipped over them. Tossing her shirt on the table, Sarah sat back down and sent her daughter a smug look as Crystal saw her mom had the gazes of everyone else at the table focused on her. "You could try having fun with it," Sarah taunted, reminding Crystal of the last time they'd argued.
Crystal snorted softly. "Okay then."
"Wow. She is incredibly easy to lead around by the nose," Miles pointed out.
Amy sent a mental nod. 'Yeah. Crystal always has been. If you know which buttons to push, she's easier to manipulate than Vicky.'
Eventually, everyone at the table—including Ciara, who had put away all of her chips and started playing with her own clothes—was left nude. On the next hand, Crystal asked, "Okay, so now what?"
Missy sent the girl a look. "You have no imagination." Getting up, she made her way to one of the drawers in the kitchen and pulled out a notebook and several pens—feeling and seeing eyes on her and shaking her ass a little just to emphasize it. Sitting back down, she tore out a piece of paper, folded it up, and tore it into strips. Then, she started writing.
Crystal leaned over Amy to read, one hand covering her nipples. Each strip had Missy's name on it, along with a single word. "'Fondle?' 'Oral?' 'Fingering?' Really? That's where we're going with this?"
"Well, if you're not up for it, you could go back to your dorm," Sarah shrugged, doing amazing things for her breasts and basking in the attention.
"Give me one of those," Crystal growled, and began frantically writing as Missy passed her pen and paper. Everyone else at the table was already working on their own sheets as Crystal finished hers. "So, do we have an established system of value for these?"
"I would think it obvious," Ciara chimed in, raising one fine blonde eyebrow. "Obviously, anything involving manual stimulation would be the least valuable. Followed by oral stimulation. Followed by intercourse."
"Followed by kinks," Missy continued. "For instance," she held up a strip of paper with the word 'shibari' on it. On Crystal's questioning look, she explained, "Rope play, basically. So it's also a barometer for just how kinky your fellow players are."
Frowning, Crystal asked, "So why do I have to write anal if Miles doesn't write in pegging?"
"Because I'm a guy, and I'm straight," Miles explained.
"So? That doesn't mean your booty is any more special than ours."
The man rolled his eyes. "Actually, it does. Because I say it does. Just as money only has the value we assign to it, so do sex acts. And since you're the one holding the mint, so to speak, you get to valuate your own currency. And my ass is not for sale."
"That doesn't seem fair," Crystal grumbled.
Sarah rolled her eyes. Just to make a point, she picked up her own slip of paper labeled 'anal,' waved it so Crystal could see it, and threw it into the pot as her buy-in. "If you want to sit at the adults' table, stop looking for something to complain about. Otherwise, you're free to leave."
Crystal made a displeased sound, but threw in a slip labeled 'fondling.' Everyone else at the table threw in their own slips, save for Amy. Who had taken out a third sheet and was still writing. "Uh, what're you doing, cousin?"
"Miles said we can valuate our own currency," Amy pointed out, still scratching away.
"Yes…" Crystal lead.
"I have a lot of currency," the healer giggled.
Missy leaned over and read over Amy's slips before whistling. "Those aren't Zimbabwe dollars."
Miles sighed. "Amy, quit trying to crash the economy."
Sarah stared, once more forced to reevaluate her niece and Carol's parenting style if this was how Amy decided to 'act out' once she got out from under her sister's thumb. "This I have to see."
"What? It'll be fun! I'm not just writing them out for myself, you know. Have a look." With that, she passed a completed sheet to Sarah.
Sarah's eyebrows crept towards her hairline as she read. In the middle, she found two slips in particular labeled, 'Sarah + Crystal: oyakodon.' Shaking her head, she folded the sheet and began distributing tags to who they were labeled for. Finally, with Amy finished and everything distributed, they began playing.
"How are these favors supposed to be collected? Should we use them now, or wait?" Ciara asked as Miles began to deal.
"Winner's choice," the man said with a grin. "I know if I get a blowjob, I'm cashing it in here and now."
Crystal looked incredulous. "Wait. In front of everyone?"
"Duh," Missy rolled her eyes. "What happened to the girl who bragged about jerking off two guys while blowing a third at a party? Were you bullshitting us?"
"What? No!" Crystal denied.
"Enh," Amy wagged a hand in a so-so gesture. "I think it's about fifty-fifty. I've had to fix more than one STD—"
"AMES!" Crystal yelled, glaring at her cousin. "I thought that was confidential!"
Amy sent her cousin a deadpan stare. "That ship sailed when you started bragging," she pointed out.
Unseen by Crystal, Ciara focused on the cards and the two still yet to be flipped over changed. The hand finished out with Crystal the winner, raking in two slips from everyone. "So, what'd you get?"
"Uh," Crystal muttered, reading them over. "Can we trade these?"
"All in favor?" Miles asked, raising his hand, joined immediately by Crystal. "Opposed?" Missy and Sarah raised their own hands. "Reasoning for opposition?"
"It's part of the fun," Sarah supplied.
Missy nodded. "For everyone else. It makes it one part punishment game roulette. Someone could wind up with something they're not entirely comfortable with but would have to do. As the saying goes, play stupid games, win stupid prizes."
"I'd argue for one trade per round. Could be fun," Amy shrugged. "But let me see what you've got." Looking over Crystal's haul, she perked up immediately and grinned, before diving under the table.
Crystal yelped as Amy's hands found her knees. "Ames, what are you doing?!"
"Cashing in," Amy giggled, spreading Crystal's legs and yanking her cousin forward in her chair, before diving into Crystal's muff.
Whatever complaints Crystal had died on her lips as Amy began lapping at her cunt like she was born to do it. A ragged moan left the girl's throat as Amy worked her over. "H-how lo-ong do we—ah!"
"Until you come or the next hand is over, choice goes to the person doing the deed. Amy's sitting this one out," Missy answered. One of Amy's hands came up from under the table in a thumb's up before going back to holding Crystal's legs apart.
Cards were dealt out and Crystal could barely hold her cards as Amy sucked and licked at her slit, her tongue dancing over Crystal's clit. Crystal bit her lip, shuddering as she came halfway through the hand, and Amy kept right on licking. God, I've never had oral this good. Why'd it have to be Amy though? I know she's adopted, but we're still cousins— Crystal's thoughts were interrupted violently with another orgasm.
While Crystal was distracted, Sarah smirked, watching her daughter come again as they played. "Maybe that'll mellow her out a bit," she murmured, just loud enough for the others to hear.
By the time the hand finished, with Miles the winner, Crystal had come three times. She leaned bonelessly in her seat as Amy climbed back into her own chair, licking her lips clean with a self-satisfied little smile on her lips. Looking over his haul, Miles hummed. "Ciara. Come here," he said, scooting his chair back from the table and patting his lap.
"I-in front of everyone?" she asked, and Miles nodded. The girl blushed, but stood and obeyed. Grabbing her hips, he pulled the blonde up into his lap and impaled her on his cock, before scooting them back up to the table. "So full," Ciara murmured, beginning to wriggle her hips back and forth. Shakily, she took up her cards as she was dealt them. Looking over her shoulder, she met Miles' eyes. "It's n-not fair that, mm, that you can see my cards."
"It's fine," Miles assured her, reaching around and stroking her clit with one hand while taking a moment to peek at his own cards. "Keep riding."
Crystal watched, wide-eyed, as the small blonde rode Miles' cock almost directly across from her, the girl's modest tits swaying as she did so. The next hand went by quickly, with Ciara collapsing onto the table at the end with a mewl as she came. To Crystal's left, Amy cheered. "My win! I choose… Aunt Sarah." The older soon-to-be-former Pelham raised an eyebrow. "Turn your chair around for me," Amy said, getting out of her chair and moving around to her aunt. Crystal's eyes went wide as Sarah sat down on her chair backwards. Amy knelt behind her and dove in, her lips and tongue latching onto Crystal's mother's ass.
"How is that 'winning?'" Crystal asked, incredulous.
"The slips," Sarah panted, "don't specify. Mmf! She got my 'oral' slip, hah, so how she uses it is, nn, up to her."
Amy nodded vigorously behind Sarah as she reached around and began playing with Sarah's clit. Frowning, Crystal looked over her slips, raising an eyebrow as she came across one with a word she didn't recognize, along with her and her mother's name on it. Shrugging mentally, she tossed it into the pot and dealt the next hand. Contrary to expectations, Ciara did not get off of Miles as she dealt out a new hand, but no one seemed to be saying anything about it so the college girl let it go as the small woman began riding again.
Sarah's playing suffered as Amy worked her magic, drawing out a moan that sounded suspiciously like what Crystal had heard over the phone as the hand progressed. Crystal raked in her winnings at the end of it, with Amy popping back up off her aunt and making her way back to her seat. Looking over her haul, Crystal asked, "What does 'eldritch abomination' mean?"
"Whose slip is it?" Miles asked, but he was pretty sure he knew.
"Missy's," Crystal said, holding up the slip.
Missy raised an eyebrow. "I didn't write that."
All eyes turned to Amy, who grinned. Miles sighed, shaking his head. "If you claim that one now, it's game over."
Crystal hummed and folded the sheet, putting it away with the stack she didn't want to use immediately. "What about 'tentacles?'"
Across from her, Miles grinned and Crystal jumped in her seat, yelping as something crept up her leg. Looking down, she spotted a red-and-black tentacle creeping up around her left leg. "Just relax," Missy instructed as she began to deal. "You'll enjoy it."
Crystal nodded as the tentacle crept further up, stopping at the juncture of her legs. There, it blossomed open into lots of little tendrils that attacked her—diving into her pussy, surrounding her clit, licking over her lips. Crystal squealed as another tentacle sprouted off the first and attacked her ass the same way the first had. The squeal turned into a moan as her body jerked while Miles worked her over. She shakily picked up her cards, but was too distracted to play as she selected a slip at random and threw it onto the pile.
Instead of making her come, however, Miles just worked her over—teasing her almost to orgasm only to ease back just a hair away from Crystal's reward. And he did this all through the next turn, until it ended and Miles raked in his winnings. "Hey, would you look at that," the man grinned, holding up the slip Crystal had thrown into the pile. It was labeled 'oyakodon.'
"F-food play?" Crystal asked as Miles' tentacles had yet to stop teasing her.
Amy leered from beside her. Standing up, she moved over to Crystal's mom and directed the eldest blonde up onto the table. Missy had likewise stood and pulled Crystal's chair out, before the smaller girl picked Crystal up bodily and laid her out flat on top of her mom, mother and daughter face to face as Crystal panted while the tentacles worked her over. "Wh-wha—?" Crystal tried, only to be silenced as her mother kissed her. On the lips. With tongue.
Crystal's eyes went wide and she would have protested, but the tentacles chose that moment to kick her the rest of the way off the edge and into orgasm. Crystal wailed into her mother's mouth, body shaking as Sarah wrapped her arms around her daughter's waist.
Miles had moved around the table and stood between the pair's legs. Since Crystal was occupied with his tentacles, he lined himself up with Sarah and thrust into her. The MILF moaned into her daughter's mouth as he began pumping away at her.
"Keep playing or…?" Missy asked, watching with interest.
Amy rolled her eyes. Grabbing Missy by the hips, she pulled the smaller girl into her lap and took a seat with a good view on Miles fucking the mother/daughter combo of her aunt and cousin. Ciara decided she had better things to do and, instead of watching, got down on her knees in front of Amy and Missy and began eating the pair out, switching back and forth between them every now and then.
Crystal, meanwhile, was currently having her mind blown. Her body had become more sensitive—everything felt so much more intense. Tentacles were beginning to thrust in and out of her pussy while small tendrils played with her ass. More tentacles were creeping up her body, wrapping around and between her and her mother—over their hips and legs, across their bellies, around their breasts, teasing their nipples, and before she realized it one had wrapped around her and her mother's heads making sure they couldn't break from the mother/daughter lip lock.
Not that Sarah minded, or Crystal had enough mind left functioning at the moment to care. As far as Sarah was concerned, she had pretty much checked her taboos at the door for the night. Being fucked under her daughter, with the expectation that her daughter then be fucked on top of her, was just one more in a growing line of new (and exciting) things she was experiencing that tested, and expanded, her boundaries.
Sarah's thoughts were scattered as tendrils found her clit and began playing with it, swiftly driving her wild. She came fast and hard, her pussy squeezing desperately around Miles' cock as she moaned into her daughter's mouth. Miles slowed his pace inside her until her orgasm subsided, then pulled out entirely, only to be replaced by a tentacle sliding deep into Sarah's cunt and picking up where his cock left off—the same tentacle that had been keeping Crystal entertained just before Sarah came, actually.
Miles slid into the daughter, using her mother's juices for lube as he slammed home. Crystal's eyes fluttered as Miles' cock bottomed out, a low groan coming from her and her mother's joined lips as he started to saw into her. Her mouth tingled and her mother's tongue in her mouth suddenly felt like a tongue exploring her pussy. Crystal didn't know how to handle the new sensation and she quickly came, trying and failing to pull away from Sarah as the elder blonde smirked against her lips and took ruthless advantage to tease her daughter's newly super-sensitive mouth.
Reaching up behind Crystal's head, Miles grabbed a handful of her hair and sped up, his thrusts coming harder and faster as Sarah and Crystal both whined, moaned, and groaned as his cock and tentacles attacked their most sensitive parts. The tentacle holding Crystal and Sarah's mouths together snapped as he jerked back on Crystal's head, causing the younger blonde's back to arch and drawing her up and slightly away from her mother—enough to set her bound up titties to swaying as he pounded into her. Sarah reached up and grabbed Crystal's breasts, pulling and pinching her daughter's nipples as she was fucked into another orgasm.
Looking over her daughter's shoulder and seeing Miles looked like he was getting close, Sarah considered the pair for a moment before a naughty smirk crossed her lips. "Come for me. Fill my daughter's pussy up, Miles. I want to see her face when you knock her up."
It took a moment but the words eventually penetrated Crystal's mind and blue eyes blinked as she realized that yes, Miles was fucking her bareback. "N-no, don't—" the word drew out into a squeal as the thought of being filled up not just in front of but on top of her own mother pushed her over the edge and she came again, her pussy clenching around Miles cock and setting the man off as he did just that, and her body did what nature intended and tried to milk him for all it was worth.
"Nooo," Crystal whined as she shuddered, a little bit of drool leaking from her mouth as her hips shook.
"Yeees," Sarah sighed from below, her eyes lidding as a small orgasm ran through her body at the sight.
In the chair beside the man and mother/daughter pair, Amy and Missy panted as they watched, Ciara having teased them the entire time but never actually brought either of them off. Standing up, the deaged blonde offered each of them a hand. "Let us adjourn to the bedroom again."
"Yep," Missy nodded, hurrying towards the bedroom. She slapped Miles on the ass as she passed. "I'm next."
"Aww! I wanted to go next," Amy pouted. She made to follow, only to pause and turn to the fridge. "Ciara, would you help?"
"Hm?" the blonde hummed, then nodded as Amy passed her a couple of bottles of water.
"I don't want to have to leave the bedroom again," the former healer explained as they made their way upstairs.
Crystal panted, collapsing atop her mother. "I think," she paused to swallow. "I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew."
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Help us up?" she asked Miles, who nodded. Pulling out of Crystal with a squelch that caused his sperm to start leaking from the college girl's gaping pussy, he helped first Crystal then Sarah to their feet.
"I'm going to have to get Amy to fix this," Crystal murmured, reaching down and scooping up some of the semen leaking from her snatch as she walked behind her mother. Bringing it up to her lips, she tentatively licked at it before a pleased hum left her lips and she happily slurped the rest up. "How the fuck does this taste so good?"
"Power bullshit," Miles said by way of explanation.
Casting a look over her shoulder, Sarah considered her daughter with an amused look. "I should tell Amy to make sure you conceive."
"Don't you dare," Crystal hissed. "I am not ready for that yet."
"I don't think we need any more kids running around any time soon," Miles shook his head as they hit the top of the stairs.
Sarah blinked. "'More?'"
She almost laughed at the constipated look on Miles' face. "Don't ask."
Still need to do something about Riley, he mused as they entered the bedroom to find Missy already on the bed and her ass raised into the air, Amy beneath her as she sucked on the brunette's tits while Ciara rode Amy's face.
"Thank you for joining us, dear," Ciara said happily, reaching down and running a hand through Missy's hair. "We got impatient."
"You got impatient in five minutes?" Miles raised an eyebrow. Missy wagged her ass invitingly and the man shook his head. "Fine, fine. Crystal, Sarah, why don't you two take a break and recover for a few minutes while I handle these three?"
"Gladly," Crystal groaned, flopping face first on the bed nearby, before rolling over so she could watch.
Instead of joining her daughter on the bed, Sarah waited for Miles to sheath himself in Missy at the side of the bed before molding herself to his back, her hands wrapping around his chest as she began pressing kisses to his neck and face. "Thanks for this," she whispered, her lips brushing his ear as she did.
"Any time."
Sarah grinned. "I think I'll take you up on that."
The morning of Monday, March 14th, 2011.
Two weeks, three days before Noh Face takes over PHO and the reveal of the raid on the Birdcage. The morning after the culling of New York's villain population.
Some time in the twilight hours before dawn…
Gary West was a nineteen year veteran of the City of Brockton Bay Public Works Department, in the last months of his last year before his retirement. The thought of that sweet retirement check from the city was the only thing that kept him getting up at three in the morning for so many years before his promotion meant he got to work normal daylight hours, since his wife left him and his daughter wanted nothing to do with him thanks to her mother filling her head with nonsense.
In the last almost twenty years, Gary had floated through various jobs and positions within the city. From getting his start as part of the trash pickup crew, to cutting right of ways and parks from the back of a tractor pulling a bush hog or a mower, to cleaning up downed power lines, flushing out stopped up sewers, or working on city vehicles as part of the maintenance crew. He had done a bit of everything in his advance up to head of the Public Works department and a fat $130k a year, where the only person above him in the city hierarchy was the mayor himself. Not bad for a guy who dropped out of highschool at sixteen.
In his time working for the city, he had seen a bit of everything.
When the Empire first came into the city and clashed with Marquis, Gary was there sweeping up shell casings and spent brass with a push broom.
When the Slaughterhouse Nine rolled into town, Gary was there with a hose cleaning up the mess once the police and coroner were done.
When Glory Girl knocked a man through a city building and the PRT turned a blind eye, it was one of Gary's crews who got to repair the damage and collect a little bit of overtime.
When that scary bitch showed up, it was Gary's IT department they called for access to the city cameras to figure out where she came from and where she went before and after her 'attack' on the PRT office—not that it helped a damn bit.
And when one of his guys on the trash pickup crew found 'something weird' in the middle of downtown, guess who it was that they called at four thirty in the morning to come out and have a look and to speak with a PRT representative, a city engineer, the fire marshal, and the chief of police to decide what—if anything—they should do about it.
Gary slowed down as he approached the blocked off street. He parked nearby and got out, making his way through the cordon with a flash of his city ID—not that it was really needed when most of the officers knew him on sight. He spotted the problem almost immediately, as well as his cohorts in various departments. Up above them, strung up across the street around the fourteenth floor up to the tops of four buildings, was what looked to his eyes like a giant spider web—but that was underselling it. Webs spanned between the four buildings—some looking thick as power lines, others so wispy thin that they were only visible thanks to the dusting of frost on them. And in the center of it all was a large orb, made entirely of web. It looked like a giant spider had made a nest up there.
Given the white and black, pink eyed spiders ranging in size from barely visible to the naked eye all the way up to one the size of a very large dog crawling around on the webs (in this temperature!), the 'nest' option was very likely.
"Morning, Gar," the fire marshal called as Gary approached, sipping from an insulated cup of coffee that steamed in the late winter air.
"Ed," Gary nodded. "Bill," a handshake with the city engineer, "Ty," and a handshake with the chief of police. "Mr. Wallace," he did not offer to shake the PRT representative's hand, nor did the man speaking quietly into a phone even acknowledge him. "How are you now?"
After the usual pleasantries, Gary asked, "So, what do you need me for?"
"The usual," Tyrone Fields answered with a mirthless chuckle. "Cleanup, aisle two."
"Of course. What else?"
"Need you to get someone to start putting in calls. If we do a controlled burn on this thing like the PRT is suggesting, it could fall into the lines on one or both sides of the street. You'll need to have your guys on standby to get power back up and get whoever owns the cable and phone plant to send someone out to clean that up."
Turning to the fire marshal, Gary asked, "Ed? You gave the okay for this harebrained scheme?"
"Fuck no," the man grunted into his coffee. "We don't have ladders that'll reach that high. Kind of wish Vista were still around. But you know what they say—"
"Wish in one hand," Bill grinned.
"Shit in the other," Ty continued.
"And see which one fills up the fastest," Ed finished.
Gary shook his head. "Shit. It's always shit."
"We've got people going building to building with joint fire, police, and PRT teams to sweep the buildings and make sure they're empty. All they've found so far is a couple of janitors and overnight security guards. Doesn't look like any of the spiders have gotten inside the buildings—they seem to be avoiding any of the entrances, actually," Ed supplied.
"Damn strange," the city engineer spoke up. "Which probably means 'cape.' I told Mr. Wallace there that those buildings were in no immediate danger of structural damage, let alone collapse. The weight, what little there likely is, is all evenly distributed. We might actually do more damage trying to get it down than just letting it come down on its own. But he insists—"
"I happen to agree with you," the man in question interrupted, having just finished his phone conversation. "Unfortunately, orders from Director Piggot are to do a controlled burn—against advisement. However," he stressed the word, "they are sending a Protectorate team to investigate potential parahuman activity first. Due to shift rotations and other duties however, whoever they sent won't be here until after 0800."
"Well. Shit," Ed sighed. Reaching up to the radio mic attached to his shirt, he keyed up. "Alright, listen up. They're going to burn it. You've got until 0830 to get those buildings clear. I want a full head count of everyone who went in by 0845. Go ahead and bring in two extra pumps—"
Gary tuned Ed out as he asked Mr. Wallace, "If it's a cape, what are the odds they're friendly?"
Mr. Wallace looked up at the nest, taking in the spiders roaming around. "Slim."
"How did I draw the short straw for this?" Crystal asked to no one in particular as she flew towards the city center in the early hours of the morning.
She knew the answer, of course. Her brother refused to answer the phone before ten A.M.. Her dad… well, he was not making public appearances at the moment. Vicky had school first thing and this wasn't an emergency. Uncle Mark wasn't really suited to the job, in terms of powers—nor was Amy, even if she could've been convinced to roll out of bed. Carol was taking a temporary hiatus from hero work to work on her imploded marriage. And her mother… Her mother absolutely refused to leave the mess of bodies in the absolutely massive bed that the group of six had collapsed into when they were finally spent. Not that Crystal blamed her.
Still not fair. Someone else could've answered this call. 'Gwen' could have gone out. I wanted more sleep, damnit. Her whole body still felt deliciously sore and tingly after the previous night, and since she didn't wear her costume with her when she showed up at Miles' and Missy's place, she was wearing a copy that Ciara had produced, somehow, out of Crystal's normal clothes using her powers.
Her phone rang, drawing Crystal out of her own thoughts. Pulling it out, she slipped in her ear piece and answered. "This is Crystal—"
"Laserdream, good morning. This is Dragon. I'll be coordinating between you, the Protectorate, and other assets on-site."
"Good morning, Dragon. So, what's the sitch?" Crystal asked, putting away personal things for now and focusing on the job.
"You should be coming up on it soon. There's some kind of big nest spanning a street in downtown. Our PRT agent on site has tentatively identified it as a spider nest, but not of any known breed."
Laserdream shuddered. "Ugh. Can I just go in blasting?"
Dragon laughed quietly. "Afraid not, Laserdream. If there's a cape involved, we want to avoid starting something if they're not hostile."
"Why can't the Protectorate handle this one?" the girl complained.
"Well, just between you and me?" Dragon asked, and Laserdream make a quiet noise of agreement. "Armsmaster is on shift, but he's ill-suited to actually get up there and look at it. Not to mention if it's a new cape, he can be kind of intimidating. They're waiting for Dauntless to arrive on scene, but his phone is going to voicemail."
Laserdream winced. "Someone's going to get an ass chewing." She squinted as something came in sight. "I think I see it." Drawing closer, she said, "You're right. Looks like a big spider nest. Oh, that is nasty. Are we sure we can't just, you know, burn it? Nothing good can come out of that."
"Negative, Laserdream. Approach with caution. I'm letting the others know you're inbound."
"Roger that," the girl sighed, slowing her flight to little better than a fast walk as she got within a block of the nest. Wisps of cobwebs filled the air between larger strands of web and lots of small white and black spiders stopped whatever they were doing as she approached to turn an eerie amount of focus on her. The biggest spider moved closer, but stopped on the other side of the nest in the center from her. "Not aggressive so far. The ones in my path are actually pulling back in a hurry. I think they may be under someone's control."
There was a pause. "Laserdream, did you say 'under someone's control?'"
"Yeah," the girl confirmed as she drew nearer the nest. "Huh. That's… weird. This looks like of like sheets or… curtains along the side," she murmured, studying the structure closer.
"Do you remember that fight a week or so ago, with Lung and Hookwolf?"
"Where that creepy bitch showed up and ganked them both? Yeah. Everyone in my college raised a glass to her for offing those two and Oni Lee. I had so many free drinks that night Amy had to heal me or I'd be on the transplant list for a new liver and kidneys. Why?" Crystal asked, reaching out a hand and touching the curtain—and it was a curtain, as she now saw the line it was strung up on. And not too far away was actually… "That looks like a robe or something. Like someone hung it out to dry. My God, I think someone's living here."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Dragon confirmed. "There was a cape involved in the battle. Skitter. Known associate of Widow. Last seen that night being moved up onto a roof by Widow herself. It's unclear what happened after, but there were no reported deaths. Skitter was a Master capable of controlling bugs. I think that may be her."
"Got a description?" Laserdream asked, slowly pulling the curtain aside and peering in as she frowned. If it's a friend of Missy's, she didn't seem worried. At all. So what's going on here?
"Female, Caucasian, black hair, unknown age but suspected older teen or early-twenties. Tall and thin build." Dragon hesitated, before adding, "There was one missing person's report fitting that description. I can't say too much without violating the rules, but she fits the bill for a parahuman and she ran away from home the day after."
Crystal froze as she caught sight of the inside of the nest. A girl lay curled on her side against the opposite wall of the nest, snoring softly. Pale white skin. Big breasts hidden by some sort of homemade silk chest binding. White hair tied in a long braid. Everything from the waist down buried under a white silk sheet.
"Uh, no Dragon. Don't think this is her, but I could be mistaken. Hang on, I'll send you a picture."
Crystal took her phone from her ear and started to open the camera app. She never noticed the snoring stop. Nor did she notice her intended photographee open her eyes and shift her body up to turn a somewhat annoyed look her way. She did, however, notice when something white, hard, and pointed gently—oh so gently—tapped her wrist as she held the camera up, pushing it back down. "Please don't."
Crystal looked up, finding the girl awake and staring at her—red eyes, the irises each circled by four more smaller irises, boring into her own blue. She realized that it wasn't the girl's hand touching her arm. Looking down, she followed the pointed white thing up, through the 'window' of the nest, and under the blanket. It looked like nothing so much as a giant spider leg. But that was impossible. It would have to be the size of a horse to be that large, her mind told her.
Crystal's thumb followed through on the last instructions it had received from her brain and pressed the button. The camera flashed and the albino? girl winced, flinching back in a way that somehow sent the entire web rocking and unseated the sheet from around her waist, exposing… Exposing a giant spider, attached to the giant spider leg, and joined at the waist to the white haired girl.
A resigned look crossed the girl's face, but Crystal was a bit too deep in building horror to notice. "Please don't—"
"EEEE!"
"Scream," the girl sighed deeply as Laserdream retreated. And then, a barrage of laser fire punched through the nest as Laserdream panicked and started blasting. A stream of webbing slipped out the window and snagged the robe hanging off a line outside, jerking it back inside as the nest threatened to collapse. A few more blasts later, it did.
From below—at minimum safe distance—PRT, firefighters, and police watched as Laserdream started screaming, flew away from the nest, and immediately started blasting whatever was inside. Then, the bottom of the nest split open and hell spilled out. Or at least an arachnophobe's personal hell.
A downpour of tiny and small sized spiders rained from the nest—some deploying webs to catch themselves on the larger strands still attached to the building, others creating a humming drone as they flew to safety, either latching onto the buildings or finding their way down to street level. But that wasn't the worst of it. No, that honor belonged to the monstrously large spider that fell out of the web next—being ridden by a girl hastily pulling on a white robe and tying it off as it fell.
Before it hit the ground, elytra on the spider's thorax opened up, revealing a set of wings that thrummed furiously, slowing the enormous arachnid's fall enough that it landed lightly on its feet in the middle of the street. The tall, curvy, white-haired albino girl riding atop the spider crossed her arms over her chest and glared up at Laserdream, who had temporarily halted her barrage to pant and stare down at the target of her horror. "Please stop. I don't want to fight."
It was about that time that people on the ground began to notice one crucial detail. The girl riding the spider? Wasn't riding the spider. It was part of her, replacing everything from mid-thigh down, if the glimpses under her robe/dress were anything to go by.
Somewhere in the gathered crowd, Gary West looked down to his size eleven steel toed boots and back to the spider-girl. "Gonna need a bigger boot."
"Laserdream! Disengage! I repeat—" Dragon tried, but at some point in Crystal's mad scramble away from the spider-girl, the earpiece had come out and Dragon was yelling into the void.
"I'm a hero—" the albino spider-girl tried, only to be cut off by a double-handed pink laser blasting down at her from on high. The spider beneath the girl skipped nimbly to the side—too nimbly for something that large—and the blast punched a hole straight through the street and into the sewer.
Entirely by chance, the beam continued on until it hit plant buried beneath the street—specifically, a buried gas main.
That section of the street erupted into an explosion that covered half a block underground and pandemonium ensued as the ground rocked and part of the street collapsed in the wake of the explosion. Lights in buildings nearby went out. Great gouts of fire erupted beneath the spider-girl, bathing her in flames. Admittedly, more than one person who saw the event had the thought of 'killing it with fire.' Unfortunately for them, all that caught was the girl's dress. Yelping in panic, she pulled it off and began smacking it against the ground to put out the fire, the spider beneath her flailing frantically. "Shit, shit, shit!"
The albino girl stopped flailing as she held up the remains of her burned and ruined robe. Frowning, she sent a glare up at Laserdream. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to make this? It was the first thing I ever made with my silk that wasn't just a web. And you burned it to a crisp."
Laserdream sheepishly rubbed at the back of her head, wincing as she realized that the other girl hadn't so much as attempted to defend herself or said a bad word her way yet, and maybe she might have overreacted on an instinctual level to the sight of a giant fucking spider. Way to go, Crystal! You were always getting onto Vicky about her bad habits, and here you go blasting first and asking questions never. And now the street is exploded and on fire. Good job!
Lowering herself to the ground near the other girl, Crystal tried very hard to focus on her face and ignore everything below the neck. "Uh, sorry? I sort of panicked?" she tried.
Taking in a steadying breath, the spider-girl nodded. "No, I suppose it's understandable," she gestured down at herself. Her spider head tilted to the side, looking at the fire, and she asked, "Can we maybe do something about this fire before it spreads?"
"Yeah, I'll just get—"
Crystal barely had time to process what happened next. From somewhere above them, a blue and silver blur dropped down, swinging a large weapon. The spider raised one of its two bladed forearms to intercept the blow and shield the human half. The halberd strike shifted just so and instead of meeting the bladed scythe it hit the joint just above it and sent the scythe spinning through the air, where it buried itself halfway deep into the street.
Armsmaster rolled forward into a lunge as the spider-girl leapt backwards, losing the second bladed scythe forelimb at the joint.
"Hey! Stop that! I don't know if I can grow those back!" Spider-girl yelled, before transitioning into an "Eep! Someone help!" as Armsmaster took another of her oversized limbs—her front left, non-scythe leg.
And inside the head of the spider-girl in question…
'Shit, shit, shit this is not going how I planned!'
"It's… about what I expected."
'Miles! I don't need an 'I told you so.' Either help or shut up!'
"Alright, alright. Grab the limbs he knocked off. Fucking nano-thorn bullshit. Why the hell did he break that out here?"
Webbing shot out from the giant spider's rear end, veering in midair and breaking into three strands that snatched up her severed parts and pulled them back towards her. The leg arrived first, slapping into her human hands, where it quickly shrank down and changed shape, becoming a long, straight pole that started a bit wide on the top and grew narrower towards the end. The two scythes were caught next, merging into a single crescent blade that merged into the head of the staff, turning it into a scythe.
Taylor didn't register it, but for Miles time slowed to a crawl as his shard brain started sorting through the multitude of powers at his disposal for assignment. Finding what he was looking for, he grinned, and assigned three new powers to Taylor for Queen Administrator to handle and outlining how they should behave.
Scythe handle spun in suddenly skilled hands, catching the head of the halberd on its length… where absolutely nothing happened. His exposed mouth pulled into a slight frown as Armsmaster assessed the newest twist to the situation, before leaping backwards. He rushed in with a jab at the spider head below the girl body, only to have the scythe blade intercept his halberd, the serrated blade biting into his own Tinker weapon and separating the ridiculously dangerous head from the shaft. The head shut off even as it and the shaft in his hands began to rapidly crumble to dust, rotting away before his eyes. He dropped the shaft and reached behind his back, grabbing something that quickly unfolded into a new halberd.
Still, it was enough to force him back and to reassess the enemy before him again.
"Please stop, I don't want to fight!" the spider-girl called at the brief lull in the battle.
The man paused, considering, before demanding, "Throw down your weapon and surrender."
The albino girl blinked, blowing a loose strand of hair out of her eyes as she sent him a confused look. "Why would I surrender? I haven't done anything wrong! You attacked me first. Well," she pointed to Crystal, "she did. I was sleeping!"
Armsmaster's head turned slightly to the side. "Is this true?"
"Ah haha, yeah," Laserdream drew the word out. "I kinda panicked. I mean," she gestured towards the other girl. "Giant fucking spider."
The albino girl sighed. "I get it, but could you please stop?"
Laserdream frowned, reaching up to her ear. "Where did my earpiece go?" Movement at her feet drew her eyes to a fist sized spider approaching, with her earpiece grasped between its two scythe-like forelimbs. "Uh, thanks?"
"No problem," the other girl shrugged.
"Laserdream?"
"Yeah, I'm here Dragon," the girl confirmed.
"Please put me on speaker," Dragon requested, and a moment later Laserdream dug her phone out of one of the very few pockets on her (skin tight) suit and did just that. "This is Dragon. Can everyone hear me."
"Affirmative, Dragon," Armsmaster confirmed. "My comms system seems to have suffered a malfunction and I am unable to establish a connection."
"I thought that's what it was," the other Tinker sighed. "The fire department is bringing in trucks to deal with the gas leak, if you could move away from the site."
Armsmaster immediately moved up the street and away from the fire, while Laserdream looked over at the damage she caused and winced. "Mom is going to kill me," she muttered, before pushing herself off the ground and starting to hover down the street at a walking pace. Behind them, the clicking of very large legs sounded as the spider-girl followed.
"This way," Armsmaster called, leading them down a side street at the end of the block and then into an alleyway, where his bike was parked.
The spider-girl stopped at the mouth of the alleyway, crossing her arms over her bound breasts as she asked, "Am I in trouble?"
"I don't believe so," Dragon's voice came over the phone. "We do have some questions, however. Firstly, you wouldn't happen to be Skitter, would you?"
"What? She's clearly—" Laserdream started, only to be cut off by a nod.
"I was," the albino confirmed. Chuckling mirthlessly, she said, "I don't think I'll be keeping the name."
Folding away his halberd, Armsmaster asked, "Could you explain what happened in the time between your confrontation with Lung and now?"
"And what should we call you?" Crystal asked, moving to float cross-legged across from the other girl.
"I was kind of leaning towards Arachne. I mean, it's kind of on the nose, but…"
"Arachne it is," Dragon agreed. "What happened that lead to… this?"
Arachne sighed, one of her regrown scythe forelimbs tapping on the ground absently. "I woke up in the forest, on the outskirts of town, in a web like the one you found me in this morning. My costume was gone from the waist down and one of the arms was missing. The edges were melted and I remembered being blasted by Lung, so I assumed that was why. I kind of panicked when I realized my entire bottom half was a spider and I could see myself from my own eyes, and how much had changed. I went back home long enough to send a few spiders in to write my dad a message in the middle of the night, then I just… stayed in the woods for a while, getting used to everything."
"Why didn't you go to the PRT, the police, or call someone?"
Sending the man in the suit of power armor an amused look, Arachne looked down at her lower half, before looking back to him. Laserdream put words to her thoughts. "We attacked first. Do you think the cops and your normal PRT agents wouldn't? And come on! You can't just tell a girl to go to her friends like that," she gestured at Arachne, "without warning them first! No offense."
"Some taken," Arachne muttered.
"How did you get to the forest?" Dragon asked. "Do you know who put you there?"
Arachne shrugged. "I think I did it myself. Spider-me has her own brain. Normally, I don't really notice the difference, but from what I've seen with my other spiders, we're all me. My powers have a range, just like they did when I was still just Skitter, and inside that range there's just one of me in several bodies. Once a body leaves that range, she's a separate version of me until she comes back in range and everything meshes and I remember what the other me did."
"You can produce duplicates of yourself? That's what those other spiders were?" Armsmaster asked. When Arachne nodded, he reached up and ran a hand over his beard. "The director isn't going to like this," he muttered. Louder, he asked, "Could you tell us what your new powers are, after this second trigger event?"
"Broken trigger?" Crystal suggested. "I mean, I've heard of second triggers and usually they don't end up in someone turning into a Case-53."
"It's exceedingly rare, but it does happen," Dragon supplied from the phone. "It doesn't tend to fit the mold of other Case-53s. Namely, there is little to no memory loss, beyond what you would expect from a traumatic event. But in any case, anything you would be willing to tell us would be appreciated, Arachne."
"Well," Arachne hesitated, "I have noticed a few… changes. Before, I could just control bugs. My range was maybe a block? My range is a lot bigger now. I'm really fast and strong. I can make webs and control them. I can, uh, make copies of myself or new bugs," she mumbled the last part.
Armsmaster coughed, his suit shifting slightly as he jerked. "Please repeat that last."
Sighing, Arachne said, "I can make new bugs. Like, from the ground up. It's kind of a limited Tinker power, I guess?"
"Oh shit," Crystal backed away. "Really?"
"What?" Arachne asked, confused.
"How much control would you have over these creations?" Armsmaster asked instead.
"Complete control, remember?"
"And if they were to leave your range? Would they be copies of you, or…?" the Tinker pressed.
"Oh, uh, those wouldn't be copies. Probably about as smart as the average dog or cat? I think I can sort of program them to do things, not do them, act certain ways. There are a bunch of 'settings,' too. Some as simple as on/off switches. Like reproduction. I can set it to 'off' and they would be born sterile."
"'Born?'" Crystal and Dragon both echoed.
Arachne blushed, her human head looking one way while her spider head looked the other, refusing to meet their gazes. "I didn't say that!"
"You totally did," Crystal countered. "So, Nilbog-lite pops out her monsters herself?"
"Don't call her that," Dragon chastised. "It's insensitive and she hasn't done anything to deserve it."
Crystal winced. "We're all thinking it. When the rest of the Protectorate hears it, they'll think it too. But yeah, okay. Fair enough. Sorry."
"I'm interested in seeing this creation process. How long does it take, what's involved, what are its limits. Do you think you could show us?" Dragon asked.
Closing her eyes, all of them, Arachne whimpered. "Do I have to? It's kind of really embarrassing."
Armsmaster hummed. "I believe it would help alleviate some fears if you could confirm that it doesn't work similarly to Nilbog's power. If you somehow generate your creations yourself instead of… converting other sources of biological matter, that would go a long way towards convincing the Protectorate you aren't an immediate danger."
"And how embarrassing could it really be?" Crystal asked, raising an eyebrow as she smiled.
Arachne fixed the floating hero with a stare. "Okay. I'll do it." She pointed to Armsmaster with a spider leg. "He can't watch."
"Why—" Armsmaster began, only to be cut off.
"You. Can't. Watch."
"Armsmaster, could you give us some privacy please?" Dragon asked. The man huffed quietly, but walked further into the alley and turned a corner, breaking line of sight. "Do you mind if we turn this into a video call so I can see for myself?"
With a sigh, the part-arachnid nodded. "Fine. Just… keep it to yourself?"
"I promise to be discrete," Dragon agreed.
Laserdream held up the phone and Dragon's face appeared on her screen. "That good?"
Dragon's eyes rolled. "Could you please turn the phone sideways? And so Arachne can see the screen?"
Laserdream chuckled. "Sorry. I always forget."
The floating hero turned her phone properly and Dragon asked, "Okay, ready whenever you are, Arachne."
Sighing, the girl shut her eyes again. After a few seconds, her blush expanded all the way down to her neck and she panted. She shuddered, tensing as her spider-body's thorax curled slightly towards the ground. "Ah, ah, ahn~"
A soft-shelled egg dropped onto the ground beneath her—about the size of a softball, in a mottled green and orange. Within seconds, something the same coloration as the egg broke free of it. It looked like some horrible combination of a mantis, spider, and a wasp. It immediately ate the remains of the egg, visibly growing in size as it moved away from Arachne, towards Crystal. It stopped growing at roughly the size of a particularly large dog—about three feet tall and four long. It had eight legs, the front two of which were similar to Arachne's scythe limbs, but thinner. On the back were a pair of wings shielded by a elytra. The mouth was set between a massive set of vertical mandibles.
"Did she just come?" Crystal asked quietly.
"I believe so," Dragon confirmed, just as quietly.
"No wonder," the blonde sighed. "We done?"
The video call terminated and Dragon announced, "We're done. Armsmaster, you can come back now."
The man walked back up from the back alley, eyeing the new bug warily. "That was fast."
"I can make more than one at a time, especially if they're smaller," Arachne explained, before gesturing at the new addition, which began to very obviously dance around the alley between them.
Crystal sent the albino girl a mischievous look before saying, "Pretty sure Nilbog doesn't make his monsters like that."
Arachne blushed, but Armsmaster either didn't catch the implication or ignored it. "What other powers are you comfortable disclosing? What about that scythe?" he asked, pointing to where Arachne had created a sling for the scythe that now hung at her side.
"Uh, that's new. I kind of did it on instinct, really," she shrugged. "I think it's mostly indestructible and if I want it to, whatever I hit with it will rot. As for the other stuff I know about, well…" Her body was covered in flames, lighting up the alley they were in with a white glow as they danced over her body and warming the air around them. "I'm immune to fire and can make it. Also, I think I can, uh, get bigger? Like, a lot bigger. But there are conditions. I have to be really mad and fighting against something worth using it on. That second one is kind of arbitrary. My power didn't really consider that back there as worth it."
Armsmaster tilted his head towards the phone. "Dragon, does that sound familiar?"
"Like Lung's power," she confirmed his suspicion. Humming quietly, she asked, "Do you think she absorbed his power somehow when he died? Or his powers transferred?"
Crystal blinked, before sending the spider-girl a mildly terrified look. "Nilbog-lite plus Fairy Queen-lite? Oh, fuck me."
"Or… No, I don't…" Dragon trailed off. After a moment, she asked, "Arachne, have you had any contact with the villain Noh Face before?"
Arachne shook her head. "Nope. Never seen her, except on the internet."
"Okay. We may be jumping to conclusions here. Arachne, can you teleport, or create metal?" Dragon asked.
The albino girl nodded. "I can sort of teleport? I can switch places with any of my copies. I don't think I can make metal, though."
Dragon hummed. "So, two out of of three, maybe. Lung and Oni Lee were both engaged with Skitter before she was taken out of the fight. Arachne, the other copies you replace don't dissolve into ash or otherwise cease to be, do they?"
"Nope. They're still there. We just trade places."
"A variant of their powers then. Similar, but not quite the same," Armsmaster suggested. "Lung's strength, pyrokinesis, regeneration, and ability to grow and transform into something else. A spider, in this case. You could argue that she's in a halfway state right now, then," he mused aloud. "And a teleportation power similar to Oni Lee, involving clones, but non-destructive and the clones are permanent."
"Well, glad she's on our side," Crystal chuckled, before turning a suddenly serious look on Arachne. "You are on our side, right? Please tell me you're on our side. I don't want to fight that."
Bringing one of her human hands up, Arachne palmed her face. "Yes I'm on your side! I was trying to tell you that the entire time! I'm a hero!"
Ignoring that, Armsmaster said, "There is the matter of the altercation earlier…"
"You can't blame me for that. You attacked first."
"You created a disturbance of the peace by building a nest above a major thoroughfare and endangered civilian lives—" Armsmaster argued.
"No! The only ones who disturbed the peace were you. The webs would dissolve when I was done with them, unless I wanted them to be permanent. I'm not the one who shot first."
The man shook his head. "You were trespassing on private property."
"No I wasn't," Arachne countered. "The city owns the streets and the sidewalks. They don't own the vertical space between them. I know because I checked when I was still human."
That brought Armsmaster up short, before he said, "Defacing a privately owned building—"
"About as much defacing as chalk on a sidewalk," Arachne countered. "It's bio-degradable normally and I can use my powers to dissolve it. You're reaching."
"Resisting arrest."
"Armsmaster, that's enough," Dragon cut him off. "She hasn't broken any laws except the last one, and that was due to a misunderstanding. Arachne has been through a traumatic experience. We can… bend the rules here, for a fellow hero. Arachne, why don't you get in touch with your friend? I'm sure she's worried about you."
"I, uh, nn," the spider-girl made a few quiet noises of displeasure as she looked sheepish, her scythe limps tapping together nervously as her human hands fidgeted with each other. "She's going to tell me I'm an idiot, isn't she?"
"Knowing Gwen? Probably," Crystal muttered, an amused smile pulling at her lips. "Do you have your phone or do you want me to call her?"
Sighing, Arachne nodded. "Could you? Mine got burned beyond recognition in the fight."
"Sure," Crystal agreed. "So, we can go now, right?"
"One moment," Armsmaster held up a hand before looking up to Arachne. "Please try to keep the number of clones to a minimum and use the minion creation power sparingly for now. The PRT will be reviewing the details of it and will be placing limitations upon its use at a later date."
"No."
Armsmaster was brought up short by the immediate, flat answer. "'No?'"
Arachne shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest as her spider body straightened up, lifting her another couple of feet into the air. "No. You aren't going to tell me how to use my powers, just because they're scary. So long as they're not hurting anyone, and they aren't, I'll use them when and how I see fit and the Protectorate doesn't get a say in it."
The man in power armor straightened up a bit himself, leaning forward into the much taller girl's space. "The PRT is the legal body responsible for the law as regards parahumans and parahuman matters. We have the authority to do exactly that."
"Guys," Crystal slipped between them. "Hey. We don't need to have this discussion right now, right? Let the lawyers figure it out?"
"There is legal precedent for both arguments," Dragon supplied. "But until the PRT makes a decision, it's up to Arachne's discretion how to use her powers."
Armsmaster backed down. "Very well."
Crystal and Arachne watched as the man turned away and walked for his bike without so much as another word. "What bug crawled up his ass?" Crystal wondered quietly. Then, she winced and looked up at Arachne. "Oh, poor word choice."
The spider-girl shuddered, making a disgusted face. "Now I can't unsee that."
Giggling from the phone, Dragon said, "Okay girls, I'll let you get to it. Arachne, when you have access to a phone or internet again, feel free to contact me. Do you have something to write with?"
"No, but my memory is good," the girl shook her head.
Dragon rattled off her phone number before disconnecting, leaving Crystal alone with the other girl. "So…"
"So."
Crystal sighed. "Sorry about attacking you."
Arachne shook her head. "It's… well, no. It's not fine, but it's understandable."
Digging through her contacts, Crystal found one labeled 'Gwen' and selected it. Three rings later, the phone picked up and Crystal put the phone on speaker. A voice slurred with sleep answered, "Crystal? What is it? It's early."
"Hi, Gwen."
There was a rustling of covers. "Tay—?"
"Yeah, it's me," Arachne sighed.
"Where are you?! I'll be there in half an hour."
"It's… complicated. We'll come to you. Just… don't shoot first? I look a little different."
There was a pause, silence over the phone for several seconds before Gwen asked, "How different?"
"Less different than Miles?"
"Well, if that's your measuring stick," Gwen muttered. "Right. I'll be waiting."
The phone hung up and Crystal tucked it away. "So, how are we getting there?"
"I thought I'd walk," Arachne chuckled.
"In that?" the other girl asked, gesturing to the wraps around the spider-girl's breasts and crotch. The albino shot her a flat stare and Crystal held up both hands. "At least let me make it up to you! I can get you something new to wear."
"No need," Arachne shook her head. From overhead, the large spider Crystal had seen guarding the web lowered itself down on a strand of web. Held in its forelimbs was a new robe, which Arachne accepted and slipped into while Crystal watched. "Figuring out how to coordinate spiders to make clothes was hard, but once I figured out the trick to it…" she shrugged and smiled. "Let's go."
"Just… down the street?"
Arachne nodded. "Just down the street. But if you're still offering to pay me back for the shirt, you could buy me breakfast."
Crystal floated along beside her as Arachne's legs clicked along the street as the pair moved from the alley onto the main street, some distance from where the commotion had broken out. "What do you even eat? You were out there for a few days…"
"I caught a few deer. Fresh venison is great," Arachne answered enthusiastically, before her expression dropped, "when you know how to clean it, and don't burn it. I can eat normal foods. I just need a lot."
Cars slowed down as they walked along on the sidewalk. People crossed the street to avoid the spider-girl taking up the entire walkway. A few children, women, and even a couple of men screamed and ran away while the more intelligent of them spotted Laserdream with her and waved it off as 'typical cape stuff.' Then, there were those without basic self-preservation, who saw a 'new' cape and got in close with phones and cameras and started taking pictures.
A commotion up the street drew Laserdream's attention momentarily, but Arachne waved her off. "Just a purse snatcher. Already got him."
Crystal raised an eyebrow. "You're kinda scary, you know that?"
"More or less scary than—"
"Don't say her name!" Crystal hissed. Looking around and not spotting any glowing red eyes, she sighed. "Slightly less scary than that scary bitch." She paused, then grinned. "I wonder if she's scared of spiders…"
"Probably not," Arachne shook her head.
"But giant spiders."
Hannah resisted the urge to sigh into her mask as she observed her boss report to their superior.
"…Laserdream fired upon Arachne. Displaying an uncanny level of speed and perception, Arachne evaded the beam, which subsequently entered the street and detonated a gas main, cutting utilities to the block. It was at this point that I moved into position to intervene. I removed three of Arachne's spider limbs before she recovered, fused them into a scythe, and displayed an unnatural level of skill with the weapon in deflecting my next attack and then destroying my weapon."
Her blood pressure can't be good, Hannah mused as the director's face slowly grew more red as Armsmaster continued to recount the details of his and Laserdream's encounter with the girl that had been Skitter. The thought of a teenager being hurt enough to go through not just another trigger event, but one that left her body warped left Hannah both saddened and angered for the girl's sake.
"…Arachne proceeded to detail what she knew of her new powers. Increased strength, durability, agility, regeneration, pyrokinesis, producing permanent clones, switching places with her clones—"
The director sat up straighter, holding up a hand. "Hold on. You're telling me she can create copies of herself now? Is this like Spree, or…?"
Armsmaster cleared his throat quietly. "No, director. These clones all share her consciousness. While within the range of her powers, they act more like additional bodies that her power can control. Once outside of that range, they can act independently as thought they were Arachne herself."
Director Piggot's breathing went a little ragged as her complexion paled somewhat. "Well, it could be worse," she eventually grunted out. Something about Armsmaster's continued silence set her off and she blinked slowly. "It's worse, isn't it?"
"Arachne reported that she also has a bio-tinker ability. In addition to producing clones, she can engineer insect-based life forms. She demonstrated this ability for Dragon and Laserdream and Dragon has confirmed that it is nothing like Nilbog's flesh warping—"
Whatever else Armsmaster was saying was lost to the director as she paled further, looking incredibly sickly. She shuddered and Hannah considered calling for a medic. All of a sudden, the woman's pallor changed again as her eyes twitched, going from pale, to pink, to dark red. "I want her brought in. I want her brought in right now goddamnit! Stick her in a cell, lock it down, bury it in concrete, and burn anything that comes out of it."
"Director?" Hannah asked quietly.
Emily's head snapped to Hannah and the hero flinched. There was a madness to the director's eyes that hadn't been there before. Spittle frothed at the corners of her mouth. Her breath came in great, heaving gulps. It was clear the woman was either on the verge of an apoplexy or a panic attack. Perhaps both. Drawing in a breath, the director's voice came out as a broken screech, "I GAVE YOU AN ORDER!"
Armsmaster and Ms. Militia traded a look between themselves. "Director," Armsmaster began, "you lack the authority or legal grounds to issue that order."
The director jerked an arm at her door. "Out! Get out, both of you!"
The two heroes hesitated, but in the end, they left. Picking up the phone, Emily began putting in calls as her panicked mind frantically tried to find a legal justification to stick the second coming of Nilbog in a hole and then bury the hole.
And elsewhere…
Missy laughed, and laughed, and laughed, leaning on one of the huge webs beneath their home to keep from falling over.
"Just according to keikaku," Miles grinned.
Taylor sighed from where she sat atop her giant spider. "You guys are going to give that poor woman a stroke."
Ciara raised an eyebrow. "I believe that honor goes to you."
"It couldn't happen to a nicer person," Amy countered.
"Just wait," Missy's laughter trailed off into giggles as she shot a look at Ciara. "It's going to get better. 'Nilbog-junior' on the side of the 'good guys.' Noh Face, Marquis, String Theory, Black Kaze, and the Fairy Queen setting themselves up as the reigning 'villain' group. I give it an hour before she starts demanding they launch nukes."
"Well… she did want to bury me in a cement box," Taylor hemmed, considering for a moment before shrugging. "Not my problem." Turning her attention on the others, she asked, "Why were Laserdream and Photon Mom—I mean Lady Photon—here?"
Missy and Amy shared a leer. Miles grinned. Observing the three, Ciara shook her head. "We enjoyed a night of intercourse together. I must admit, watching the mother/daughter incestuous pairing was quite arousing…"
Taylor blinked. "What. No, really. What the fuck?" Looking around at the nods she was getting, Taylor narrowed her eyes. "Details."