AN: Longer chapter here. So much happening! This one was a beast to write and I had to overcome some major issues. Let me know how I did with precious revieeeewws.
2.5
I barely made it three steps before they burst from the surrounding side streets. The Wards were totally flat-footed, but to their credit they immediately formed battle lines.
Which was a terrible idea.
"Run!" I screamed. Not that there was anywhere to run. There must have been at least a dozen of the things, cutting off all the roads around the bank. It wasn't hard to keep track of them now I knew they were there, the gaps in my power-sense stood out like the dark areas on a film negative.
They were gaining on me. I pushed my legs harder.
The road stretched and twisted around me disturbingly, the distance to the Wards shortening to nothing while the gap to the pursuers spooled out. Vista's power, spatial warping. It gave us a few extra seconds.
Aegis pinned me with his steady gaze, every bit the team leader expecting a report.
"These things killed Lung," I gasped, and his eyes widened enough to show the whites. He nodded to Browbeat and the two Brutes stepped forward, interposing themselves between their team and the closest enemies.
"Back into the bank," he shouted. "Form a defensive line."
A clawed hand erupted from his neck, blood spattering across us as the first of the enemies reached our line. I felt my lunch lurching, but Aegis just calmly reached up and grabbed the offending limb, trapping it inside his body.
Huh. That's different.
Browbeat danced his unnaturally muscular body past Aegis. The haymaker he threw, backed up by at least 500 pounds of muscle, was frankly terrifying. All the more so with the blast of energy that erupted as he made contact, sounding like thunder. It had to be some kind of point blank telekinesis.
The would-be murderer never even saw it coming, blasted clean across the street and into an oncoming ally. They both went down in a heap.
Aegis pulled the now disembodied limb from his neck with a wet sucking noise.
"Weapons free," he rasped, somehow speaking despite the gaping hole where his voicebox should be, "they aren't holding back."
Wasn't that an understatement?
I glanced around, noting the rest of the Wards in the staged retreat. Those who could were firing into the approaching enemies as they back-pedalled, energy blasts, laser beams and shadowy crossbow bolts flashing through the air. Vista was twisting space, which allowed the ranged attackers to fall back at near running pace despite taking the time to line up their shots.
Aegis and Browbeat covered the retreat, often repeating the same tactic where Aegis used his unnatural resilience to tie down their fast-moving opponents while Browbeat blindsided them with his crushing blows.
Clockblocker was setting up defensive walls, pulling large sheets of see-through plastic from pockets on his suit and freezing them solid as they unfurled. If ParahumansOnline was accurate, those barriers would be completely impenetrable until his power wore off. His placement of them seemed designed to funnel the attackers into a central bottleneck without reducing visibility for the defenders.
In other words, they were impressive. A slick, well-drilled unit.
Their skill only served to highlight the strength of the attackers.
Bodies smoking from energy blasts, clothes and flesh charred by lasers, they rushed on unperturbed. Even the fighters Browbeat smashed were slowly rising to their feet, including the original attacker missing both an arm and most of the left side of its face.
My power gave me a good understanding of the battlefield, bugs on each combatant at key points on their limbs and joints augmented by my ability to perceive the enemies directly. It was clear we couldn't hold them for long.
Our flanks seemed to be the weakest points. Vista was working overtime to keep Gallant and Clockblocker safe on the right, synergising with the later by distorting space so the attackers kept charging full speed into plastic sheets that must have felt like concrete. Gallant's energy blasts barely slowed them down. Without Vista, they would already be overrun.
Shadow Stalker was holding the left flank with Kid Win, but neither the laser beams of his Tinker guns nor the crossbow bolts that sprouted from their attackers seemed to slow them down much. More importantly Kid Win could stay out of reach of the melee attackers on his hoverboard, but Shadow Stalker had no such luck.
I took off at a sprint, matching the onrushing attackers for ground speed, but they were closer to the Wards than I was. The first one to reach them swung a combo of vicious blows at Shadow Stalker, who dissolved into smoke, the fists passing through her harmlessly. She drifted back out of arms reach before rematerialising and loosing a quarrel point blank range through the eye of her attacker, which collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
Another was about to catch her as I finally reached them. I was moving too fast to stop easily so I just tackled it and we both crashed to the ground. It struck me several times on the way down, but this one didn't seem to have claws and my armour was holding. Still hurt like hell, it hit like a truck.
I was vaguely aware of a third one leaping at Shadow Stalker again, who seemed content to act as the distraction while Kid Win peppered it with lasers from above.
I refocused on my own problems as my ribs creaked under a hard blow, I really couldn't afford to let this thing get any more leverage. Exerting my strength I grabbed its wrists and forced it over, pinning it under my body. It wasn't easy as such, but it definitely felt like wrestling with someone several years my junior.
Superstrength was pretty damn cool.
Unable to punch me it did the next most obvious thing. It opened its mouth, which was full of razor sharp fangs and just happened to be right next to my neck. I seriously doubted spidersilk was going to hold up against that.
I did the only thing I could. I arched backwards away from it and directed the bugs I kept in my hair to give it the Armsmaster special. They dropped down across my arms or on dangling lines of silk, swarming into its eyes, nose and mouth.
I tried to ignore the very human expression of fear on its face as I directed the bugs to sting and bite. These weren't the nice bugs.
It thrashed and bucked but I didn't give any ground. Human-looking or not, this thing tried to kill my ... whatever Shadow Stalker was. An ally?
In desperation it opened its mouth again and surged at me. I tightened my aching abdominal muscles and met it halfway, the heavy armoured plate on my forehead shattering nose and teeth. The back of its head hit the ground with a sickening thud and it stopped struggling.
I paused for breath as I stood, more than a little disorientated. A streak of something ran across the lens covering my left eye.
Extending my sense I found very little time had passed, and very little had changed. Vista was still keeping the two boys alive, Aegis and Browbeat were still playing meat shield and pinch-hitter with a veritable horde of enemies, and near me ... well, the last thing over this side looked worse for wear. It couldn't land a blow on Shadow Stalker who danced around it like smoke, quite literally, while Kid Win continued to pour laser beams onto it. Smoke rose from blackened areas of charred flesh.
Evidently at that very moment the thing lost patience with the game of no-sell tag it was playing with Shadow Stalker and crouched to the pavement.
Fuck. I started running forward as it leapt. Clearly whatever mutation this one had involved its legs, because it soared twenty feet into the air and slashed out at Kid Win on his hoverboard, catching him in the leg. He fell heavily to the ground amidst a spray of blood.
I didn't know if it was bad luck on our part or if the thing was just that good, but it landed softly next to him while we were still a dozen yards away. Hands flashed down again and again, tearing through even the reinforced tinker armour like paper.
Something flared up inside me. These were my allies, and they were trying to take them away. I bunched my legs under me and pushed.
I felt the asphalt give marginally under my feet and then the sudden rush of acceleration as I leapt towards the creature, covering the distance in the blink of an eye. My mind was focused on that single thought, that they were trying to steal from me. Just like Sophia. Just like the car accident.
I swung my clawed hand as I blurred past, all that anger and frustration pouring into my limbs. I felt my hand connect and something give underneath, and then I landed. I was hard up against the front wall of the bank, which was covered in something grey and pink and wet.
Huh. When did that happen?
"Holy fucking christ..." I heard Shadow Stalker whisper behind me. I turned to see her staring at me, wide eyed. She seemed to be having trouble standing.
Then Vista screamed. We both spun around to to see her running forward into the battle.
Why ... shit. Gallant was down.
One of the creatures was standing over him, his silver suit staining crimson.
The few bugs I had in the area could still feel him breathing, but the rapidly expanding pool of blood underneath him was not a good sign.
Browbeat leapt forward, dust exploding out from under his feet, that invisible force propelling him even faster than before. He collided with the thing bodily, the both of them going down in a jumble of limbs.
Aegis reached Gallant at the same time as Vista. She dropped to her knees, vainly trying to put pressure on her team-mates wounds. Gallant mumbled something so softly I couldn't hear it.
Aegis picked up Gallant at the same time I remembered Kid Win. He didn't look good, his calf was a mess and he had several big rents in his armour that were pooling with blood. I had done some basic first aid courses, but this was well outside what I could handle.
"Get them in the bank" Clockblocker called out. "Panacea is in there."
Right. Obviously.
"Stand down," Grue yelled at Bitch. Her dogs were growling like thunder, hackles up at the one who had taken their prey. Glory Girl stood casually above the unmoving form of their enemy.
Bitch grimaced, but whistled low. The canines padded over to her side, licking their many gruesome wounds, mostly tearing them open further with misshapen tongues like rasps.
Bitch dropped down next to the unmoving third dog and pulled a knife from her belt. Before anyone could do anything she sawed into the turgid flesh, and with a gush of discoloured water pulled a normal sized dog free. It looked intact and happy, albeit covered in foul goop. It was even wagging its tail.
Panacea glared at Tattletale, who was rolling her shoulders and stretching her neck.
"I let you up, but don't think I won't put you straight back down if I think you are trying to pull something," she promised.
Tattletale just winked at her. "Don't worry Pan-Pan, your secrets are safe with me. My lips are sealed."
Any reply Panacea was about to make was cut short as the Wards burst into the bank.
Tattletale cursed. Loudly.
In other circumstances the calm manner in which the Wards were preparing the building for a defense could have seemed callous, considering Browbeat didn't make it inside.
I had never even spoken to him, but the guy put his own body on the line for his teammate and paid the price. That counted for something.
Gallant and Kid Win had reached the healer extraordinaire in time and were now good as new. Watching her work was incredible, more than any other power I had seen the way the flesh moved and knitted together felt like magic. It was surreal, one second near death, and then straight back into the fray.
It seemed that Aegis was ok by default, but even he got patched up before he moved to organise the team. I watched in amazement as they converted the bank into a fortress. A makeshift barricade was placed in front of the open doorway in the form of a heavy table, lifted in place by Aegis and made indestructible by Clockblocker. The windows received the same treatment, with small gaps left in those that could open to be used as defensive firing positions.
Nothing was getting in, at least not easily.
While their position was being fortified a revitalised Kid Win was, well... materialising weapons. A number of futuristic handguns and rifles formed a small pile, glowing various bright colours. Lasers, he had explained.
His pièce de résistance was still shimmering into existence; a number of parts missing but the gun was at least a dozen feet long and had to be mounted on his hoverboard for stability.
I glanced out the window. They were still out there, trying to find a way in. We had cut their numbers down but it had come at a heavy cost. Deciding to do what I could to help with the defense, I started gathering my swarms.
A hand fell on my shoulder. "Stop, damn it," came a frustrated feminine voice from behind me.
I turned to see the blonde villain in lavender bodysuit and domino mask, her lips pressed together in a thin line. Tattletale.
My confusion must have been obvious because she frowned and crossed her arms across her chest.
"You really don't know?" she asked. "Shit, that is going to make this harder."
She draped her arm around my shoulder and pulled me over to an unoccupied corner. I wasn't happy with a known villain acting so familiarly but I wasn't going to make a scene either. Several of the Wards glanced over, but they didn't seem too concerned.
"What is this about?" I asked, a little more forcefully than I intended. "I have work to do."
"That's just it," she replied. "Your work is doing more harm than good."
I shook her off my shoulders roughly, causing several heroes to take a step towards us. Glory Girl in particular looked like she was itching to start something. I waved them off.
"You better start making sense or this conversation is over," I warned her.
"Yeah, I know. Thing is, I don't really know how to say this."
I shrugged. "Seems like your problem then."
I stalked off towards the Wards and started drawing on my swarms again, ready to check the upper floors for any potential weak points.
"Fuck," I heard her mutter behind me as I felt something hard push against my exposed hair at the back of my head, accompanied by an ominous click. "I didn't want to do it this way," she muttered. "Remember that."
The fact that the heroes and villains had all dropped what they were doing was enough confirmation for me that I now had a gun pointed at the back of my head. I raised my hands in the air, something of a pointless gesture all things considered.
"Everyone stay where they are," Tattletale called out. "I've got some stuff to talk to Bug-girl about, and we don't have time to have a nice chat."
Aegis stepped forward, but stopped as Tattletale wrapped her arm around my neck and ground the barrel of the gun into my skull.
"Think about what you are doing Tattletale," he said calmly. "This may not be an S-class threat, but the treaty is in play. You are crossing a line here."
Tattletale laughed mirthlessly. "See, that's where you are wrong Aegis. This is S-class. Very fucking S-class."
You could have heard a pin drop. The soft sounds of movement carried through the improvised bank door as the things outside quietly tested our barricades.
Aegis drew himself up to imposing full height, all the more threatening with the ragged holes in his costume.
"Explain. Right. Now." he ground out.
I heard and felt Tattletale sigh behind me. "OK," she began, "I know none of you want to listen to me right now, especially Bug-girl here, so I will preface this with two pieces of information. One, the Undersiders have never broken the unwritten laws, so put whatever value on that you want. Secondly ... I am a Thinker. I know things."
"Tattletale..." Grue warned.
She shook her head. "As much as I would have loved to keep my power a secret, they need to know or they wont believe me."
Aegis ground his teeth. "Fine. We heard all that. Now put the gun down and we can talk."
"Nah, I think I should keep the gun for now. Don't want anyone getting ideas about dropping a swarm of wasps on me, and I think I've made Bug-girl mad."
"Skitter," I growled through clenched teeth. "My name is Skitter."
Tattletale seemed to pause behind me. "Huh. Well, ok then Skitter. Just don't do anything to get us all killed."
What? How would I ...
"Come on Skitter," she sighed. I could practically hear her eyes rolling. "You don't really think it is a coincidence that those things have only ever attacked twice and you were there both times, do you?"
But so was ...
"Yeah, the Undersiders were there too, but the attacks only happened when you started moving your bugs around, right? Exactly when you moved your bugs."
But ...
"And that is what happened here too, right? That woman only flipped out after I started seeing bugs around, I bet you had the building covered in them, right?"
But I wouldn't ...
"Sure. I don't think you are doing it intentionally either. That was my first thought, when those things attacked Lung. I thought you were controlling them, maybe subconsciously, maybe not. But today that woman was here in the bank before you even knew it was being robbed. So you couldn't be directing them. I think they just happen to be around, and you flick their switches."
How ...
"You've seen them move right? The coordination, the synchronisation?"
... like a ...
"Like a swarm, exactly. Like a group mind. Like you and your bugs."
Can you just stop ...
"And that's why you can feel them. You can, can't you? Because they're like you. They communicate like you do, but different enough that you mess them up when you have too many bugs around, like a shadow in the way of their link. And I think they fucking hate that."
... answering questions I haven't even asked yet? Holy shit, she was annoying.
Glory Girl snorted. "Good story but I'm calling bullshit. You couldn't possibly know all that, even if you are a Thinker."
I shook my head. Deep down, I knew Tattletale was right.
But that would mean Gallant, Kid Win Lung, all the ABB gangers.
Browbeat ...
They got hurt or killed ... because of me. Because I wanted to be a hero.
I looked up at the others. There was a mix of doubt, fear and shock on the faces I could see. Vista was just staring at Gallant, she wouldn't even look at me. My shoulder slumped.
Tattletale put the gun away. She knew I wasn't going to do anything now.
Aegis stepped forward placing himself between us, although I wasn't sure who he thought he would need to protect. He flashed me a indecipherable look before turning back to the villain.
"Even if we believed all of that, it doesn't help us much now. What do you suggest we do with the information?"
Seemed pretty obvious, when you thought about it. They came here for me, after all.
"Nothing," Tattletale said, fixing me with a steady gaze. "As long as she doesn't use her powers things shouldn't get too much worse."
"Worse?" Kid Win interjected, incredulous. "We have these zombie monster borganisms that took down Lung attacking us, how much worse can it get?"
Regent chuckled. "That's the problem with you Tinkers, too concerned about your guns to have a sense of scale."
"Says the skinny pirate carrying around a golden scepter?" Clockblocker volleyed back.
"I'm not the one with the 15 foot cannon, or the delightful moniker" Regent drawled. "But to get back on topic, these things didn't beat Lung. These are just the babies."
Everyone turned back towards me. I nodded.
"They were the ... minions, I guess. Lung smashed them. The other thing that beat him isn't here."
"What?" Clockblocker shouted. "Those things that we just barely got away from, that killed Browbeat ... you are not fucking telling us that they aren't even the real monsters."
I was about to reply when something big crossed the edge of my awareness. I must have flinched because Tattletale started cursing, violently.
An ear-splitting scream sounded from the street, stark contrast to the near-silence that had reigned outside until now.
Aegis leapt into action, scooping a laser rifle up from the floor. "Get working Wards, while Clockblocker's defenses are still holding," he shouted. "Glory Girl, see if you can get the civilians out of here. We will have to go all out if those things break in."
Glory Girl nodded, moving to talk with Clockblocker about how to ferry out the hostages.
Hesitantly I grabbed onto Aegis' arm to catch his attention. Tattletale paused in her tirade of profanity briefly, before launching into an even more impassioned stream of invective. I was pretty sure she was close to beating her head against the wall.
Good. Fuck her.
Aegis looked somewhat bemused at her antics before he turned his attention back to me. I tried to convince myself his blank expression was simply well-drilled professionalism. I failed.
I really didn't feel comfortable here, with all of them, after what Tattletale had revealed, but I sure as hell wasn't going to make it worse by keeping them in the dark.
"Aegis, that thing that beat Lung ..." I said, waiting for his slow nod, "well, there's three of them."