January 23rd, 2011 - Sunday
Afternoon
Taylor's work phone rang, still set to its factory default tune. After checking the screen and finding it read "Webweaver", she picked it up.
"Hello, Eris. I hope you've recovered?"
"Yes. The wound is completely gone." Actually, it had completely healed up by yesterday afternoon, but Webweaver didn't need to know that. Yet.
"Glad to hear it. Have you changed your look? Safe apartments are a finite resource, after all." Her tone was mildly amused.
"...Yes, I did." Dyeing her hair a light shade of brown had made her feel as if she'd wronged her mother's memory, somehow, but she couldn't deny getting recognized was getting old. The chosen color was probably healthier for her hair than bleaching it blonde, at least. And healthier for my sanity than dyeing it red.
"Good. Time for you to see our headquarters and officially meet the team, then. Dynamic will pick you up in two hours."
"Alright, then. Is that all?"
"Yes. See you there." Webweaver hung up the phone, and Taylor went about preparing for her first meeting with her partners in crime.
~o~o~o~
January 23rd, 2011 - Sunday
Late Afternoon
Taylor got into Dynamic... Martin's car. He greeted her in the same rehearsed way as last time, and they drove off. Neither attempted small talk. After a half-hour ride, Martin pulled over behind a seemingly-abandoned warehouse in the Docks. Taylor could've done without the reminder of the Bay's decline that made those so plentiful. He led her to a back door. It seemed old at first glance, but a closer look made the new hinges and lock obvious.
"Your copy of the key", Martin stated, passing the item in question to Taylor. She unlocked the door and entered first. The floor of the warehouse was covered in crates about seven feet high, four-by-four at the base. Their sides had plentiful air holes. Looking around, Taylor saw a tall, tan woman with short blonde hair observing them through one of the second floor office windows. She waved. Taylor and Martin went to the office in question, and found a teenage guy with vaguely Asian features and a pale, dark-haired woman, this one thankfully slightly shorter than Taylor's height (would've been weird to be the shortest one on the team...) lounging around on a couch that was placed against one of the walls. The blonde woman, who Taylor presumed to be Webweaver, grinned.
"Ah, there you guys are! Took you long enough to show up, Cameron's coming straight from a different city and she still got here first."
Taylor's thoughts screeched to a halt. This was Webweaver unmasked? The woman whose whole demeanor screamed "I want you to know I'm trying to wrap you around my finger?" Her shock was apparently visible, since the other woman chuckled.
"Oh, don't look at me like that, the whole high-class posh thing is all about image. I'm Jennifer Hastings, a pleasure to meet you. You've already met Martin - even I don't know his last name - and over there we have Lim Wright - Jigsaw when on the job - and Cameron 'Vortex' Stark." The two waved when their names were mentioned, Lim lazily, Cameron more enthusiastically.
"Now that we're all introduced - or damn well should be, I told everyone to read the dossier we had on you, Taylor - let's get to the meat of the meeting. First off - powers. We need to know what each of us can do before we start making any plans. I'll go first - you've probably pegged my power as an insect Master. That's technically true, but misses out on important details. The range's about a block, but ongoing instructions remain for... well, actually, I haven't had a bug live long enough to forget them yet. 'Dropping like flies' isn't just a colourful phrase. Haven't found a limit to how many reprogrammed bugs I can have either, but controlling a lot of bugs directly gets difficult, especially if they're different kinds, spread out or have to follow different orders. Oh, and the best part." She held out her hand, and one of her weird black widow-like spiders crawled out of her sleeve and perched atop of her open palm. It stared at everyone with its numerous eyes. "Any bugs under my control breed? I can change the genetics of their offspring. Bigger, faster, tougher silk, different poisons, basically anything that happens in a natural insect and some things that don't are fair game. These Gold Widows? My first project, been improving them for over a year. They're bigger than their cousins, stronger than their size implies, silk's better even than Darwin's Bark spiders, and their venom's replaced by ketamine. And these beauties are completely docile - they won't attack humans unless actively being crushed or I tell them to, and won't eat each other if left unattended... actually, the less-lethal bite and docility are probably the only reason the Chicago PRT aren't calling for my head, considering an older strain got loosed into the wild after an accident and I'm not sure I caught them all." Taylor wasn't sure what was the creepiest part of what she just experienced - the spider still staring at her, the woman's motor-mouthed enthusiasm, or the possibility that there might be a colony of these things somewhere in Chicago. Maybe if the world's lucky, Myrddin's issues with burning buildings will solve that problem...
Webweaver finally stopped for breath, before pointing to Martin. He nodded.
"Dynamic. Kinetic energy Tinker. Somewhat more narrow a focus than most Tinkers, unfortunately, but that just means quality over quantity for my tech." A man of few words, it seemed. Though almost anyone would appear to be such after Jennifer.
Lim decided to show off instead of talking. He grabbed his left wrist with his right hand, and with a gentle tug, his left hand was detached and held in his right. He tossed his hand at Jennifer, where it latched on to her shoulder, wrist pointing behind her back as she yelped. An instant later, Jigsaw was standing behind her, both hands on her shoulders. He let go a second later, and bowed sarcastically. Great, my teammates include a woman who keeps spiders up her sleeves, and a guy who can creep her out.
"Can split off several parts at once, teleporting retains momentum of target bit and carries objects that don't have any point more than about three inches from my skin, plus I have very good balance and don't miss my throws if the target's in range and nothing interferes. That's about it."
Cameron's turn was next.
"Unless you want your whole office wrecked, not demonstrating my power indoors. I create a field that pulls things to its center - closer to the edge, stronger the pull, the entire object seems to receive a uniform pull, so creating the zone inside someone won't pull their feet back into their ass, just make it hard to take more than a step away from the center. Oh, and I can move the field around without dismissing it." Martin seemed to be very interested in that... right, Tinker, probably getting ideas.
That left me.
"I can make people angry, sense anger around me, and it makes me stronger, faster, tougher, and lets me heal. About half a block range to sense, line of sight to cause. Haven't experimented much with the Master bit."
"Frontline, crowd control and recon at once? You got a hell of a draw there, Taylor." Jennifer seemed very happy to have me on her side now that she knew what I can do.
"Not really. The people at Winslow..."
"Were an accident. We all know how... how it is when you get your power." Webweaver's grin faltered for a few seconds, before she collected herself and continued. "Besides, you crippled the Merchants already. When we finish them off, how many people will be safe from the Merchants? You can't change the past, but you can settle your debts."
"Finish them off?" I eyed her warily. That does not sound like 'we don't plan to kill anyone'...
"Oh, stop with those looks, seriously. Listen, I've got a plan, I think you guys will love it..."
~o~o~o~
January 23rd, 2011 - Sunday
Early Evening
Jennifer asked Taylor to stay a bit after the others left. At Taylor's questioning look, she pulled out a few sheets of paper from a drawer and laid them on the table. They looked like...
"Sketches for costumes?" Taylor asked, examining the first one.
"Yep. Changing your look then making it public the first time you have to fight isn't really a good plan now, is it? This one probably won't be permanent - you're still young enough that you might grow out of it, and once we're more established I might just reach out to Parian for the costumes, but you do need to have something for your cape career. Plus, a costume is a message - even if someone recognizes you out in public, they might not cause too much of a fuss since you're obviously not doing anything yet. Generally, going after capes in their civilian identities is heavily frowned upon - a gentlemen's agreement, if you will - but make no mistake, if people think they can get away with it, they might just do it anyway, so be careful with it." Taylor listened with one ear, looking through the sketches. She eventually settled on a two-piece hooded bodysuit with heavy gloves and boots, torso padded with thicker cloth, face concealed by scarf and mask.
"This one, I think. Though I'm guessing it won't be that grey when it's done?"
"Depends on you, really. I can make it basically any color if I get the right dye that won't kill my spiders when fed to them, but I think the silk's natural grey might be the best. Red's taken by Jigsaw, Dynamic's blue, Vortex has green covered, and you already saw me in all gold. Black or darker grey makes you look too much like Night and Fog, pure white's a bitch for keeping clean... hm, violet maybe?"
Taylor considered that for a bit.
"Think I'll go with violet, then."
"Alright, then. Now, follow me, we need to take measurements." Hints of a grin were showing on her face again.
Taylor followed Jennifer into one of the adjacent rooms, where a few mannequins stood. Jennifer pushed a female one to the center of the room, and ordered Taylor to stand next to it.
"Wait, how are you taking the measurements? I don't see any rulers..."
Jennifer chuckled.
"Arms out to the sides, please. And don't flinch."
Before Taylor could ask why, a handful of smaller spiders dropped from the ceiling and caught themselves on her arms. She almost jumped out of her skin. Then she felt tiny legs on said skin.
"Are you crazy?" she asked Jennifer, trying not to upset the spiders.
"Come on, I need to match the mannequin to your body type somehow. Doesn't get more precise than that." She was clearly enjoying this.
Taylor noticed that the mannequin was also covered in the same kind of spider. Jennifer walked up to it and pressed a button on the mannequin's back. Then she pulled at its arm to extend it. Repeating it with both arms, both legs, and spine, the mannequin now had the exact same height and proportions as Taylor. Jennifer then set to regulating the width of its arms and legs, individual fingers, and waist, Taylor feeling the spiders swarming to the matching points on her body. She tried not to pout when Jennifer pushed the mannequin's chest back down, but a chuckle informed her that she had failed.
"You know, if that's a problem, I can pad it..." Yep. She's definitely having too much fun here.
"No thanks!" Taylor squeaked out, scandalized but unwilling to be too loud, because spiders.
By the time they were done, Taylor had a promise of a costume far tougher than modern body armor ("I could have made something that tough for myself, but what I have already is liable to outlive me") and a fresh case of arachnophobia. Jennifer then took Taylor to her apartment, where she tried to distract herself from the experience with ice cream she'd found in the freezer.