Piggot

-02:16:56

A yawn stretched out her mouth partially as it was nearing night. Despite the exhaustion and fatigue of her current work, she adjusted herself in her own chair to continue on. With a small sigh of indifference, she mused to herself that she was already used to nights like these.

Nights when the paperwork was nearly filling up half her desk and when reports were numerous by the dozen. The current situation may not be as disastrous or exciting in any shape or form to warrant a full response of a red alert, but they were numerous enough that multiple orders had to be issued…

…And multiple plans needed to either be shelved or rectified to make sure the peace was insured.

There were not a lot of Parahuman incidents that day, from simple sightings to some violence, non-lethal of course, on all three parahuman gangs were a commonplace thing in this cursed excuse of a city. Sure, the situation could have been better but with the amount of allowed funding and personnel that she requested being insufficient, it would stand that the only thing she could reliably achieve on the status of the city was "to make do".

It left a pretty bad taste in her mouth, but as much as she wanted to scream and whine to the high heavens, she could offer no such solace to the reality of their presence in the region. Nor do the many affected lives and families harmed by the scum of the city.

She wished she could do more, she really did, but as she told her staff time and time again, they had to face facts and do what they could feasibly do to achieve an ironic sense of equilibrium.

Even if it was unfortunate, lower casualties were better than having a body count exceeding hundreds, or dare she say thousands.

Many would be angered justifiably if any of those opinions of hers would come out to the public, but she was already used to it. There was no point in arguing what good and bad was being done under her leadership, it was far too complicated and complex to simply place those ideas in a black-and-white perspective. The truth of the matter is, despite all of the capes and speeches that their PR team would spread and advertise to the populace, the real nitty gritty on the field was just too far removed from whatever fantasy most people would like to subscribe to.

"..." She took another deep sigh as she ruminated on those thoughts. She also set her own pen down beside her desk while closing her eyes for a moment and opening them again to try and relax back against her chair.

There was a meeting later again that she needed to be mentally prepared for once Armsmaster came back from his patrol. The Chief Director had news that needed to be discussed with the rest of the staff on board. Something about fluctuations in data coming from all sources, both digital and thinker-based since yesterday.

It was mostly cautionary if anything, and according to Dragon it was not too serious given similar events that happened in the past.

Still, it was going to be a lengthy meeting even without those new directives and she hoped the coffee this time from their cafeteria was brewed correctly.

She once again grabbed her pen to continue reading and eventually signed the papers on her desk when she noticed a fly land on her finger. Without a second thought, she whisked the insect away as it flew around her face and arms as if trying to legitimately annoy her.

Piggot grumbled as she flicked and fanned the insect away so she can concentrate on her work, but it persisted until it once again landed on her finger. The woman stared at the small creature with a frown as it also seemed to stare back almost as if it had the mental faculties of a small child.

"You're a stubborn son of a bitch." she said with a low tone as she flicked her finger again, no longer bothering to pay any sort of attention again towards the insect.

Returning to her previous disposition Piggot continued to read the contents of the report filed on her desk amidst the silence so she could get everything done before the meeting.

"Oberon."

She blinked, almost frozen in place when she heard a tiny voice against the silence. She looked around her room for its source, knowing that despite her room being nearly soundproof, it was also far enough from any other staff room that would invoke any such noise to enter her premises from the outside.

A second passed, and barely any sound followed it as she shook her head, thinking that it may have been just her mind playing tricks on her until she noticed the fly once again hover and land in the middle of the paper she was reading.

It looked right back at her as if watching her as Piggot eyed it with confusion on her face.

"Oberon."

Then a tiny, child-like voice broke the silence.

Piggot froze. Her eyes were now in full focus like a hawk against the tiny creature as she stared at it with doubt and fear on her face.

The fly was also staring intently at her as she felt her back straighten and her arm coming to her drawer where her own gun was stored in.

"He returns. Oberon."

The loud sound of her chair creaking violently backward was heard as she stood up and backed away a few inches in fear. The bug still sitting on her desk with its soulless eyes staring right back at her as if it knew what she was feeling at that very moment…

"Oberon. Faerie King. Oberon. He arrives."

The tone of the voice was like a child happy because they were given a gift, but it sounded too artificial to her own ears. Too unnatural.

Suddenly memories of a time back in her past re-emerged…

And now, Piggot felt the chill in her back race up against her spine as she noticed that other insects were crawling on her desk.

Wordlessly, she took another step back as those insects were also staring intently at her.

Everything suddenly grew heavy in her chest as her heartbeat started to escalate and she felt a trickle of sweat slide down the edge of her face as she slowly looked around her room.

They were… they were everywhere.

Ants…

Beetles…

Spiders…

Centipedes…

All types of vermin were crawling out of her picture frames, her drawers, her valuables, and things.

In a moderate, almost torturous pace they emerged from any crevice within her room, slowly but surely as if they were awakened by something else. Something sinister.

The worst part?

They were all speaking.

They were all… singing.

"Oberon. He lives! Oberon. He shines! ~"

"Oberon. He returns! Oberon. He is reborn! ~"

"Faerie King! Oh, our Majesty is here! ~"

"He seeks help! Oberon. He has decided! ~"

"He Calls! Oberon. He CALLS! ~"

"Oberon. CALLS! Oberon. CALLS! ~"

Piggot did not even notice that her mouth was partially agape as panic and fear of all the trauma induced on her by a certain figure in the past came into full force. She felt her hands shake as the voices grew louder and louder…

She pulled her radio from her pocket as more of the vermin emerged from every crevice of her office. Piggot shouted into her radio asking for assistance, for help, or any orders to call out to anyone who was listening, but all she got was static…

Static that to her horror was replaced by voices.

"~To Oberon. We must leave! Leave! ~"

Ants and termites started crawling out of the radio and into her hand as Piggot for the first time in years, screamed in terror. She dropped the device down on the floor as it broke apart on impact, the static sputtering into warped voices before the entire device became an exit for more vermin to come out of it.

Piggot balked in horror as she saw the madness that was building up and immediately grabbed her own personal phone from her pocket…

Until the lights in her room started to flicker. She looked up, seeing insects flying, buzzing, and trying to swarm the source of light in the room as the atmosphere in the room grew thicker.

Piggot dialed a number, anyone that would answer would do as she wanted her own hand to stop shaking. Much to her fear, there was only a dial tone an automated message telling her that there was no signal.

"FUCK!" she screamed angrily as more and more insects came out. She stepped on them in frustration and anger but their voices grew louder in the process. She then grabbed her chair and violently threw it towards the window… the glass shattering from the blow but it gave the opposite reaction to what she initially thought.

Because a loud buzz of insects came from outside the window now flooding the room as Piggot screamed in agony. There was little to no visibility left as she tried to scramble towards her gun when insects started to crawl against her skin and face.

She did not even notice her phone drop on the floor as the voice of Dragon, panicked as well and spoke out trying to call out to Piggot.

"Director! We have a situation, are you the-

Piggot continued to angrily scream in fury and fear as she kicked, screamed, and tried her best to ward the vermin off of her as she desperately tried to get to her weapon.

The voices were loud, noisy…

But one very ominous statement made her all the more scared, especially given the complete implications of every word the insects had said until that very moment.

"~Oberon. The Darkness must be achieved. Oberon. His will be reality. ~"

Piggot fell on her feet as she tried reaching out, her vision betraying her as the insects covered her face as she tried desperately to keep them all at bay…

But it was futile, the voices kept on singing, screaming, in a never-ending cacophony of their deluge. Her arm reached out against the sea of bodies crawling around her as she tried to stand up.

Her eyes were closing bit by bit, she was almost tempted to let the darkness take her as she could hear the faint traces of Dragon's voice screaming at her from her phone to respond until another loud prominent noise broke the chaos within her room.

BWOOSHHHHHHH!

"Director! Gasmask, wear it now!" she heard the voice of Miss Militia against the voices as her outstretched hand felt the object in question land on her palm just enough before it fell to the floor.

She sat up with renewed vigor and shook away all insects near her face as she immediately wore the gas mask. Her eyes cleared somewhat as she saw Miss Militia, holding a grenade launcher firing another smoke round inside her room. The gas now dispersing the insects bit by bit as the heroine walked quickly to her position.

"Director are you alright?" the heroine asked as Piggot nodded at the woman.

She then grabbed onto her as the heroine supported her to stand upright.

"We need to get topside! All communication and devices of the Rig are indisposed! Everything and everywhere is crawling with insects, we need to evacuate the building and get to open air!" the heroine screamed as they left the room where Piggot saw the hallways, filled with smoke and insects alongside multiple people, her personnel either panicking or screaming in fear.

She looked at Miss Militia and nodded at her once more. "D-Do what you need to do." She said as the heroine barked orders towards anyone who was listening as they walked together under the deluge of the sea of vermin around them.

The noise of the torrent of insects overwhelmed everything around them, including vision as she and Miss Militia waded in it in order to escape. The damn bugs were still singing in that broken hymn…

And it only served to raise the tensions of the situation to a new level of fear as their monotone voices turned feverish and maniacal.

"~Come to Oberon! Oberon. His will be done! ~"

Piggot could no longer remember what occurred in the next few minutes as the deluded hymns and sounds constantly attacked her senses. She was only released from her trance when she heard a door being kicked open and the heavy sounds and atmosphere of the Rig was now relieved somewhat.

She opened her eyes to clarity as she took off her gas mask. There were still some insects around but the open air of the outside, to what she could recognize as the landing pad had allowed more room to breathe in. Miss Militia had also taken her mask off as Piggot slowly stood up, seeing the various heroes under her command and some personnel that were standing there with her.

The open door that led to the inside of the rig was still flooded with vermin as well as their other comrades that were struggling to escape.

Piggot could still hear their voices as she saw Vista who was hugging her own arms in mortal fear as Dauntless walked towards her carrying his own phone.

Yet, before she could even put her attention towards the hero, she heard the voice of Assault being loud and clear near her as he pointed towards the sky that led to Brockton Bay.

"Oh my God." Somebody muttered near her as Piggot felt her soul evaporate towards the ominous fear and implications of what they were seeing.

The familiar pale orange and yellow skyline of the setting sun was no longer visible. There were barely any clouds seen as a perpetual black smudge of vermin flew like a primordial biblical plague against that canvas of the unremarkable city that was Brockton Bay.

It was just… too insane to simply fathom as they balked at what kind of entity, they were facing that could do such a thing.

And with communications down, as well as electronics becoming haywire… it was already dawning in everybody's heads that this was not simply an attack leveraged against the protectors of the city, but an awakening of something truly sinister that reminded them of the well-known three.

Piggot felt herself swallow as she felt Dauntless place his phone on her hand.

With a slight shiver, she raised the phone to her ear and heard the panicked tones of Dragon who was doing her best to get communications back up.

She almost wanted to say something to herself to possibly wake herself from this nightmare, but she knew it was real and with the wails and hymns of the vermin that flew above and around them, Piggot could only wonder if anything they did right now would still matter at all to what was coming.

And she was afraid that things may be far too late.

"…"

"Director?" she heard Dragon say.

"C-Call everyone. W-We need to save who we can before everything is l-lost."

?

-1:53:37

It was pointless looking at the corpse. It felt satisfying sure to hear his death throes, his cries while he begged for his life to be spared, but the resulting end just felt hollow. The human died far too quickly for him to simply cherish what information he needed to acquire from his head and the ensuing smell of piss that came off from his now slowly chilling corpse just did not leave a particularly good taste in my mouth.

Oh sure, I was very much satisfied to finally kill a human wrought by Proper Human History, the future of the world that a certain few individuals fought tooth and nail to preserve. Yet seeing this man right now, I could not help but feel as if this world and with how much perseverance and dedication that a certain person took to fight for it was as worthless as this.

This was frankly no different than any other faerie that he remembers encountering.

It was sad. Everything about this world was sad.

Depressing.

And almost far too removed from the cheerfulness, innovation, and hope that those heroes valiantly proclaimed to each and every world they visited and subsequently vanquished.

I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all, the irony possessed knowing that what those foolish people thought of their world was far too idealized than they initially realized. Or perhaps, it was a fantasy brought about to convince themselves that it was the right path to take?

There was no such thing as perfection. A great many inhabitants of what those people fought in the various other worlds they touched and visited were also left at a dead end, an impasse that would never be resolved. Yet that certain individual and their cohorts championed this disappointment as something better and much more nuanced than the many worlds they have left for dead?

This… sad state of civilization that looks unremarkable and ordinarily pathetic than even the most uncivilized of Faerie kind?

If anything, from the many memories and information I could gather from the humans who died by my hands, this entire world was already a dead end about to collapse on its own without my help…

And as fate would have it be, I managed to manifest here of all places!

I felt myself smile into a maniacal grin as I laughed softly into the air. Maybe this was the happy ending I desired and craved. Maybe fate was now kind enough to introduce me back to this world so I can finish the job.

Maybe nothing was special at all with everything that my memory told me about that individual who vanquished me. Maybe he was as spotless as a liar as I am…

Clinging to it dearly because they knew there was no other choice.

"Well done." I muse to myself. Well done indeed.

I shall indulge in this second wind, and as I look towards the sky atop the vermin that I sit on. It was disgusting being robed in silk created by these lesser lifeforms, but it did alleviate some of the lonely chills in the air as they all sing their praises of my name.

My strength was still gathering, but time was on my side, there was no point delaying the inevitable and there was nothing stopping me entirely from re-opening the void and introducing the end to this world.

It was beautiful of course, that wildly different sky when compared to Britain's, but it was beauty tarnished by living things. Living things whose lives are now about to reach their end.

Perhaps I can find solace in the fact that I was able to end this false dream.

This lie.

Maybe this was the author of Fate saying that it was pointless to keep the story chugging along toward indifference.

I sigh, it was about to be dark soon again once it begins, and I should savor what little emotion was left in this world before the storybook closes into oblivion.

Yet, before I could turn my head to possibly fly around the city something catches my eye within the sea of vermin that were my slaves.

A human. Specifically, a woman levitating in the air ominously with her cape flowing behind her. She had a helmet worn over her head that did not cover the rest of her face entirely. A scowl was revealed within those features as she had both hands crossed upon her chest like somebody judging her of wrongdoing.

The scowl in itself reminded her of a certain Queen. That dull, emotionless frown spoke of pure and utter indifference and hate over everything she saw and barely tolerated anything that seemed to disgust and anger their own senses.

Similarities aside, I now remember that these were the peculiar-looking individuals in the many memories and posters that I encountered so far. The heroes of this world. They were human of course strapped with great feats of strength and power that reminded me of the summons that the Chaldean used.

Perhaps they were the protectors or those of power that govern this sad lie of a world, and now their stalwart knights wish to vanquish me in order to protect thei-

Oh…

Oh, dear.

"Taylor Hebert."

This woman.

"We need to talk."

This woman was no hero.

-1:52:16

AN: I don't have to point out that Mothman is a hypocrite, right? But of course, knowing him he would probably laugh and make fun of Worm's world and history had he any inkling of what it was…

And seeing Alexandria with his Fae eyes surely would have just made everything worse! Yay.

I hope you enjoyed it because I had fun writing this, and do watch out for the next one (need to finish the new chapter to my other fic soon though, but it won't take long).