Lord Recluse watched as the ritual chamber was finished, low red lights installed even as the Arachnos technicians closed up the last metal panels and grills.
The tip-tap of armored high heels intruded from the entrance. The scarlet garbed Fortunata bowed her head to him. "My lord."
"Kalinda? You have procured the sacrifice?" he demanded of her.
"It has been done. She is being prepared even as we speak." Kalinda kept her faceless helm bowed. "My lord, Red Widow wonders why you are attempting to return her back from the grave. She has no personal loyalty to you-"
"Yet she is perfectly loyal to Arachnos itself." Lord Recluse turned back to watch as the ritual circle was scribed with power tools into the metal floor. "And Kalinda? If you use Red Widow as an excuse to voice a concern... I will have you flayed alive and posted at a warning in front of the Fortuna barracks."
"As you order, my lord," Kalinda said in a voice that only had a small tremor.
Crackling, red electricity heralded the arrival of the mystic Mu servants of Archanos. Each of the four figures was wrapped in bright red leather bindings as they floated in box formation through the metal doors, their electricity carrying an old dowager that was dressed in a white silk female toga.
"You! What do you think you are doing? My husband is the mayor of Brockton Bay-"
"Yes, yes. Which is why you were chosen. You have been loyal to your husband and the city, even when mistreated and spat upon. The perfect vessel of the resurrection of my most loyal servant," the dictator and leader of Arachnos declared in a loud, booming voice. "You will become a small part of something greater than you can imagine!
"No! You can't do this! The Protectorate will come! They'll save me!" she screamed out.
"Begin," Lord Recluse ordered even as he felt into parade rest, just like he had far back in World War I.
"Hallowed be the name of Hequat! By the power of our blood we call to thee! Our Legacy will arise from the depths of darkness and Mu will rise again!" the bound Mus started chanting as their crackling magical energy grew.
Ida Christner started screaming as she felt her soul being drawn from her body.
The screaming finally died off an hour later. Even the crackle of the Mu Mystic's aura was dampened and muted as the cold of the grave filled the room. Lord Recluse's glowing red eyes narrowed expectantly as the witching hour ended.
The dead woman's shadow started dripping... up. Each oily black drop started splashing on something floating right above the cooling body. Drip by drip the monochrome figure of a woman in Night Widow leather armor appeared, floating serenely.
Pale, dead eyes opened. "My lord. Arachnos yet lives, though it is wounded so very terribly," the echoing voice of Ghost Widow said, her white hair flowing in an ethereal wind only she could feel as she floated over the corpse.
"Yes, it lives and so you are remade to serve it and myself," Lord Recluse said. "Take up your Night Widows and Fortunatas again. Replenish their ranks as I work to make this city mine."
With that, he turned and walked off, headed to other duties.
"I hate the rain," the driver said as he tugged his baseball cap down ever so slightly.
"We heard you the first six times, Rob. So kindly just shut the fuck up," Squad Leader Johnson snapped out. "We are on the clock. The Undersiders should have started their bank robbery five minutes ago."
"All this crap just for one little girl," one of his men complained aloud even as he idly swatted a mite, not even really noticing it.
"Our spotter has reported that the target is moving. She's with three of her friends." Damn it, that was one more than expected.
"Moving into position," the driver called out as he pulled out into traffic and then down the block. He pulled up into a short term loading zone in front of an apartment.
"She's heading down the alley, just as planned," Johnson said. "Ready in five, four, three, two and one!"
The van had nosed down the road just as four girls were walking out of the alley between two store. The doors were starting to slide open as the mercenaries fired their tasers that bounced off a very large woman wearing a black superheroine uniform. The two shots that missed her body stuck in to her cape.
"Hi!" Gigantica said with a huge grin on her face. "Bye!" She reached down and grabbed the bottom edge of the van and lifted, knocking it right over onto its side.
"Laser rifles!" Johnson shouted. That spotter better be calling for backup already.
The back door of the van slammed open and the Coil's mercenaries started to exit, comically hitting their head on the upper door that kept swinging down to hit their helmets. They started to fan out, only to shout out in consternation as a surge of bugs buried them under in a wet wave.
"You kids all get down low," Gitanica ordered even as she waded through the small wave of insects. "One." She open-palm slapped the mercenary on his helmet so hard he was knocked out. "I'd really surrender if I were you."
They fired their lasers right at her, vaporizing the rain water on her.
"Two." Wham!
"Shit," Johnson said. This was a worst case scenario-
"Three."
He bounced off a wall ten feet away, unconscious before he hit the ground. His entire squad lasted a whole twenty seconds longer.
"We winzzzz!" the bugs all said in a quite creepy manner.
Gitanica chuckled at that. She turned to the girls kneeling on the ground. "Sorry about that. Dinah Alcott? You need to come with us for your safety."
"You're that new Ward, Gitanica!" one of the girl's squealed out. "Can I get your autograph?" She looked far too happy even though she was drenched by the rain.
"Um, not while I'm on duty, sorry."
The scritch of rubber was the only warning as a car shot through the air, smashing through the swarm of bugs and into Gigantica's quickly raised arms. The car crumpled around her, nearly hitting the girl that wanted an autograph.
"Hey! Watch it!" Gitanica shouted.
The cape that had just shot the car at her seemed more than a bit surprised.
"Head in the game, Ballistic!" a woman in yellow and red tights and mask shouted at him. She created a small ball of sunfire in her hands. All the bugs around her shriveled and died, some even caught fire. The rain was turned to steam in a sphere around her as the asphalt started bubbling. "Surrender! We have you outnumbered and outgunned!"
"Are you really sure of that?" Gitanica asked before kicking the remains of the car at Sundancer.
Sundancer shrieked a little bit and only the fact she had her power active in front of her saved her life. It was sliced into two melted blobs of metal and glass.
"Fuck," Ballistic said as he tried to get an angle that would allow him to accelerate something even bigger and heavier at the giant.
"Distraction," Skitter's bug voice called out from the swarms. "Monster in the alley." Her real body was sending a text message on her PRT phone.
"Damn it. No one told us about this bug girl and that she can use bugs to find us," Sundancer complained.
"Switch," Gigantica called out, then hopped over the quartet of younger girls that were getting back down low. "Wow, aren't you fugly and a half."
The 'you' was a thing of nightmares that was half horse with clawed feet with a toad's head and a beard of tentacles. With a 'gronk!' it charged forward and tried to grapple with its tentacles.
Its face caved in from a super-powered punch and Gitanica's super-stomp splashed the ectoplasmic creation against a wall.
"Ewwww," the giantess said in mock emotion. She hopped back to where bugs were trying to swarm over Ballistic, but he had figured out a trick to just shoot them off in a spray of bug goo.
Sundancer had run up and grabbed the target by the arm. "Come with me if you don't want your face burned off-"
"There is a 0 % chance you will attack me with your powers," the girl said in an angry, petulant tone.
"Fuck," she thought to herself as her bluff was totally called. Thinker? Precog? "Trickster? What are you waiting for?"
"For Genesis to finish catching up. Her snatcher body just got totalled," a new figure on the rooftop called out. He was wearing a top hat and full zoot suit with tails, mask covering just his face.
"Did someone call for an ass kicking?" another new voice said as a young woman mostly in white with a cape said as she smashed down to the ground right next to Ballistic. It was a very picturesque poise, one fist in the ground. She smoothly stood back up and just gave a big grin to Ballistic. "So, ready to give up?"
"New Wave? But you guys leave this area to the Wards," Ballistic said in complaint as he ran for another car. He bounced off a glowing forcefield in front of him, landing with an oomph on the ground.
"Good one, Shielder!" another female voice. Laserdream then shot out two beams, nearly hitting Sundancer and Ballistic. "And we were invited by two Wards, thank you."
Sundancer was backing up the street, creating another small sun in her cupped hands. "S-Stay back! I don't want to hurt you!"
Glory Girl zoomed towards Sundancer, a huge grin on her face. That lasted all of a second as Trickster switched their place and she plowed into the building behind where Sundancer had been standing.
"About time, you lazy ass. Can we grab the target and leave already?" Sundancer asked, then flinched as the huge form of Gitanica landed in front of her from a tall leap.
"Gotcha!" Gitanica called out as she snatched the front of the much smaller woman's costume with her left arm. Then pain exploded as the artificial sun brushed said arm. Flesh burned and smoldered.
And she started to scream.
Sundancer quickly dissipated her power. "No-no-no! I didn't mean to... hurt you?" The Traveler blinked as she realized the giant was only wounded and had only screamed for a few seconds.
"I-I appreciate the thought," Gitanica said through gritted teeth, then punched the ground with her right fist. That created a ten foot wide crater and the force of the blast knocked the red and yellow clad villainess into the side of the knocked over van.
That was Sundancer's cue to just collapse to the ground to lay there unconscious.
"Mars!" shouted a huge ape with its scaled hide shouted. It leaped at Gitanica, who was reacting slowly due to her pain. Both fists came down hard on Gitanica's head.
"I've got this guy all contained," the young male hero Shielder called out. He had a hemisphere clamped down over the groggy form of Ballistic.
"Shit-shit. This is going to shit," Trickster was saying to himself. He trotted over to a water tower and then switched himself for Ballistic.
Shielder blinked as he looked at the new figure trapped in his bubble. "Huh?"
"Hey, hero! Coming at you!" Ballistic yelled with his hands on the small water tower.
Shielder barely got a shield up before he was hit with tons of water. The water tower crumpled on his energy forcefield and then the water swept him off his feet.
"Shielder!" Laserdream shouted, anger on her pretty face. She raised up her hands and then sent a first blast then a second blast in the direction he dodged.
Ballistic was sent skidding across the tar and gravel roof, groaning in pain.
"Genesis! Cover our retreat!" the drenched Trickster shouted out as he ran towards the young girl that they were there to kidnap through puddles. This rain really sucked.
The tackle from behind came as a total surprise, as he had been keeping an eye out for Glory Girl as she dug herself out of the half collapsed building. His knee screamed out in pain the kneecap was broken.
"Stay away from her," Skitter ordered. She was never so glad that she had figured out super-speed. She hopped thirty feet to land in front of the girls. She had her fists up and tried to look imposing.
Trickster was too busy holding his leg as it screamed in agony. He glanced over to see how Genesis was faring, just in time to see her latest body get smashed to goo. "Fuck this shit."
In a blink, he was gone, leaving a pedestrian from down the road behind in his place.
"Shielder? You okay?" Laserdream asked from where she floated overhead. She was not looking her best, as the rain had matted her hair down.
"I'll live," the lone male New Wave kid said. He flipped his wet blond hair out of his eyes.
"Hey Skitter? Check in with the PRT about how the Wards are doing against the Undersiders," Gitanica called out as she shrunk and held her severely burned arm close.
Skitter nodded as she pulled out her phone.
"Let me go get Panacea, okay?" Glory Girl yelled out. She was incredibly annoyed that she did not get to take down any of the villains.
She returned in just a minute with the robed healer. Panacea ran over to put her hands on the smaller girl. "Third degree burns across a large portion of your arm." The smell of wet, burnt flesh was overpowering at short range. "I'm going to steal a little of your muscle mass from the rest of your body, okay?"
"Do I need to be eating something with a lot of protein while you heal me to fuel it up?" Gitanica asked muzzily.
The healer thought about that for a very long moment. "That would work!" Panacea blurted out. After all, the stomach and intestine processed the food into things the body needs. She could help a lot more people that she had not really been able to in the past. "Sis, can you go get about fifteen Fugly Bob Pounders with cheese?"
"Fifteen?" Glory Girl asked in surprise.
Panacea nodded.
With a sigh, the flyer shot off into the air.
Skitter had been on the radio the entire time. "They caught two of the Undersiders and hurt the other three," Skitter explained. "Bitch, Spitfire and Grue escaped, but Shadow Stalker caught Tattletale and Regent inside the bank."
Laserdream nodded at that as she finished checking on the knocked out mercenaries and capes.
"Um, I've got a message from Armsmaster that he wants to talk to me." He sounded annoyed at that, too. Great, Skitter thought to herself.
Everyone groaned at that. Off in the distance, police car sirens were coming near. Skitter walked over to a young junior high girl. "My name is Skitter. We're going to make sure Coil's men can't kidnap you for ransom." Please play along.
"Dinah? What's she talking about? Your family doesn't have a lot of money," one of her friends asked.
"I'm not sure of the particulars, but I think I heard about some inheritance from a distant relative," Skitter ad-libbed quickly.
"Great-aunt Henrietta?" the young girl asked, quickly catching on.
"I think you had better come with us into protective custody. He probably won't try again, but never too safe to be sorry," the newest Ward explained.
Dinah nodded mutely as she resigned her total anonymity away.
The door opened up to the Wards section of the PRT Headquarters. The scowling face of Director Piggot led in silver and blue armored Armsmaster with the black and maroon-garbed Futurias. All of the Wards looked up warily. Well those that weren't making sure their masks were on.
Piggot's small, beady eyes studied them all closely. "Aegis, would you like to explain to me what exactly happened today?" she asked simply.
"The Wards were called in to help in a parahuman situation at Brockton Bay National Bank. We were able to apprehend two of the Undersiders thanks to some teamwork and the fact that their Thinker was not expecting Shadow Stalker to be there," he said, his spine stiffening up slightly.
"And the altercation that involved Gitanica, Skitter and the second generation New Wave members?" Piggot asked in a deceptively calm voice.
"I actually haven't had time to get the specifics, but according to Skitter she was operating to stop a kidnapping that she had became aware of. I don't know yet why Glory Girl, Laserdream, Shielder and Panacea were there," the rust-red garbed teen admitted. As leader of the Wards, he knew he should have known. But he really didn't know yet as he had not had time after dealing with the wounded.
"Skitter?" Piggot prompted.
"I can actually tell everyone. Miss Militia should be able to confirm this when she wakes up," the bug-themed girl said, trying to not fidget. "When I followed the Undersiders after the rescue of Futurias, I had found their base. I was using my new ability to listen in through bugs and found out some very important things. One of their members could hack into any PRT computer system thanks to her thinker power. And they worked for someone else as a shadowy backer."
"Why didn't you bring this to my attention?" Armsmaster cut in, quite curt and brusk in irritation.
"I talked to Miss Militia first because she doesn't wear high tech armor that might have been compromised. And because Tattletale might overhear it, she told me to not tell anyone else. She said she was going to try and talk to you when you were not in your armor." Skitter shrugged at that, though a few of the teens were grinning at that.
"She would not have been able to hack my systems," he countered.
"Um, she has some sort of super intuition that allows her to figure out stuff like passwords. But Miss Militia had told me to try and keep the Undersiders under surveillance to figure out their employer. Which I did just recently. It's Coil. I guess he had infiltrators in other teams, too. That's why the Merchants have been so mad at him."
Piggot and Armsmaster shared a concerned look at each other.
"That does change things a bit. So you stopped this kidnapping of this girl?" Armsmaster asked. The younger teen was downstairs with Dauntless as she and her family filled out paperwork.
"Coil wanted her really bad. I think she's a very powerful thinker of some sort. I also found out he has men here in the PRT, because he actually told the Undersiders he could delay our Protectorate being recalled from their meeting," she continued. "Because I was worried about Tattletale getting a hint of me knowing, I contacted Glory Girl and Laserdream about having them be ready to back us up if things went back. Which was really lucky, because those guys that did show up could have really messed just the two of us up."
"The Travellers. Nomadic band of capes, with lots of rumors of brutal murders left behind but not much evidence," Armsmaster noted grudgingly. While he was frustrated with being locked out, that was the way Stranger/Master protocols had to work. He would have to make sure to take some time away from his work and socialize.
And a Faraday Cage setting for his armor and equipment.
"Well, with two of the Undersiders and two of the Travellers in jail, we are well into breaking those gangs up. Skitter, Aegis; I want you two to come with me while we look at taking down Coil. If he's trying to manipulate all of the gangs, he's much more dangerous than our intelligence had stated." The leader of the Protectorate turned around and walked off.
"Well, it looks like Bug Girl's kind of useful," Shadow Stalker said snidely. "Keep that up and you might even measure up as a hero."
Skitter almost froze mid step as she struggled to come up with a retort.
"She's twice the hero we are. After all, she hasn't screwed up and been arrested," Gitanica snapped out angrily.
"Shadow Stalker, we will talk about that later. Everyone, clean up and get back to school," Aegis called out. "And thanks, New Wave. Appreciate the assist."
The other four teens nodded at that.
"Now all we have to deal with is the fallout with our parents," Laserdream grumbled.
Glory Girl winced at that. "Yeah, Mom's going to be pissed off."
"We did the right thing," Shielder said firmly. "There is nothing wrong with that."
Panacea seemed startled at the statement, but nodded in agreement with her cousin.
Tattletale was finding she hated handcuffs. She could not even rub her bicep where that bitch's tranquilizer had hit and taken her out. The armored figure in front of her tried to be intimidating, but she knew he was more bark than bite.
"So you are the Undersider's thinker," Triumph said finally.
"One point for stating the obvious," she sniped back. God, this was so stupid and her head hurt. She desperately wanted to use her power to its fullest, but that would cripple her in pain too quick.
"Cute. So what exactly what were you thinking of while trying to rob a bank?" the lion and gladiator themed hero asked.
"More money than you'd expect, but we were really into it for the reputation. Guess that backfired on us," Tattletale admitted in a pained drawl.
"Tell us more about your gang. Kids like you shouldn't be in a super villain gang," an older, matronly woman in PRT standard issue armor asked in a soothing tone.
Because I didn't have a choice, bitch, Tattletale thought viciously.
Out of the blue, there was a knock at the door.
Officer Janet Urlario stood up and opened the door.
"There's been a situation," another PRT officer said as he stepped himself into the room. Another officer in full combat kit was behind him in the hallway
Tattletale blinked. Something was wrong-
The officer pulled his gun that he'd had his hand on casually and popped a tear grenade that he threw right into Triumph's face, knocking out a tooth. He then put four bullets into Tattletale's chest at six feet away.
"Peterson-cough!" the interogating officer called out before his elbow hit her uncovered head.
"No hard feelings, but someone is paying me way more than fifty thousand a year," the operative from Coil said in a sneering voice even as he closed the door behind him. "Let's go."
They started walking down the hall
"Did you two hear gunshots?" an officer called out as he rounded a corner.
"I did. Thought it was this way. Perhaps at the armory?" Peterson asked in faux worry. And the armory just happened to be right next to the motor pool.
Confusion was rampant as communications was being scrambled. Peterson and his partner knocked out the inquisitive guard they had run into, leaving him in front of the armory doors with it cracked open.
Five minutes after murdering their target they were driving out the checkpoint, a casual nod to another of Coil's operatives.
Coil leaned forward as he listened to his headset. The screech of rubber and crunch of metal was good. "Report on the status of the two officers." The fully loaded cement truck should have been enough to crush the heavy police car like a tin can against the concrete wall.
The reply was a bit shaky, but within reason. Both operatives were very dead.
"Disappear. The paperwork will show that your truck was stolen while you were getting a snack at a convenience store. Your bonus will be in your account by the end of the day," Coil state simply, then clicked the button to disconnect the coded communication line. Success. He aborted the timeline where he was driving out of the city just in case.
He then leaned back into his office chair as the thought furiously. He was starting to feel hemmed in by his enemies. Luckily almost no one outside of his PRT moles knew who was on his payroll in the PRT. Just as they did not know most of his mercenaries identities.
The alarm sounding broke through his thoughts. He immediately split his timeline again. On one, he stood up and exited through the emergency (and very well hidden) secret entrance. The other he contacted the security room.
"Report," Coil ordered.
"We have a hostile coming in through the main entrance. She hasn't attacked, but I think she's hostile," one of his mercenaries explained.
"Have someone go up and ask her what she wants." His base's secrecy was one of its greatest strengths.
Coil had the security feeds pulled up on his computer screen, leaning forward. He was frowning under his full face mask as he took in the albino woman wearing black and white latex that hugged her body tightly. It gave a vaguely spider theme with the pattern as the coat tails fluttered in a soft breeze... inside?
"She's uh, demanding that you come out to save us from the pain of trying to stop her," the control room said worriedly.
"Then kill her already!" Coil snapped out angrily.
His mercenaries tried, firing their tinker-tech laser rifles to the best of their ability. Their shots went right through her body as she started floating forward at a fast pace.
Ghostwidow's face was glacial and hard. She sent a dark blast of energy at them, disintegrating one of the soldiers.
Coil stared blankly. "Grenades," he ordered.
His men were more than happy to throw quite a few grenades. The hallway was covered in smoke as the ground vibrated as they went off.
Ghost Widow glided out of the smoke, trailing a few minor tears of leaking ectoplasm. The six nearest soldiers, unable to run faster than her floating movement screamed in agony as their life force was ripped from their body.
"She's a monster!" one of the mercenaries shouted.
"No, fool. I am a ghost. You can not slay what is already dead," Ghost Widow said in her echoing voice. "I exist only for Arachnos and Lord Recluse. For even Death serves us."
The mastermind thinker was studying her, looking for a weakness. He was about to issue another order when his alternate timeline abruptly ended as some sort of pain had attacked his mind as he was getting into his hidden car.
"No! How could they have known?" He reached into the draw of his desk to pull out a tinker made pistol that he had paid over a million dollars for. He tapped a number into his desk phone. "Trickster. You're on."
The female head of the Fortunata of Arachos floated down the hallways, only to stop as she saw two costume people step in front of her. One was a monster, simple and true of a chimerical design of man, horse and tiger. The other was a man in a suit with a tophat.
"I'm afraid that's far enough," Trickster said, desperately wanting to dab the sweat out of his eyes.
"I have no quarrel with thee. I will give you the same deal I gave the other mercenaries. Leave, and I will not hurt you. Stay, and I will kill you," Ghost Widow said while looking down upon them both with her dead white eyes.
"I have someone here to protect," he replied.
"Then take them and leave. You can not protect them from beyond the grave. All I wish is Coil." She studied them in stoic silence.
Trickster stared at her through his domino mask. Abruptly he turned and walked back down the the side corridor. "Genesis, we are leaving."
"But what about Sundancer and Ballistic?" the inhuman monster said in surprise.
"We can't save them if we are dead. Just like she said."
The chimera looked at Ghost Widow unhappily, then nodded. It took off at a loping trot after him.
Ghost Widow flew down the hall again, then abruptly through the door. "Coil."
He did not even reply, thumbing the safety off and then holding the trigger down. The particle beam destroyed the door, the wall behind the door and drilled through four more walls.
All to no effect against the ghost as the beam passed right through her.
It started overheating and he was forced to throw it away.
"Damn you. What are you?" he said in an angry hiss.
"I have already said: I am a ghost, bound to the will of Arachnos. You will come with me. Or die."
Coil reached into the desk drawer again, pulling out a metal tube. "Stay back! This bomb can level this entire building-"
Shadowy black-to-white energy erupted from Ghost Widow's form, freezing him instantly. She floated over and took the bomb away. "Toys. I am sure Undoing would like to figure out how this works." She then touched her high collar. "Control, I have captured Coil. Prepare to teleport me back to base." She reached out and picked his frozen from up with one hand.
Cold eyes studied him. "I wonder how much you will scream while we brainwash you into a loyal soldier of Arachnos."
A hum of energy swallowed them both.
Ghost Widow floated over to the scarlet garbed Kalinda in her armor. "For the research division. Disarm him and being first stage Fortunata induction. Tame his precognition and chain it to the will of Arachnos."
"As you order, my lady," Kalinda replied with a bow.
The huge, broken and hugely muscled form of Wretch stepped out of the shadows. "Wretch no smash?"
"Not today. We need him in one piece."