Read aloud to me alt Taylor

by Kahlil Johnson

Dnd

55. Mutant

So I've been lurking and commenting on a few fics for a while though this will be the first time that I've actually posted a story here. Mainly I tend to post my works over on FanFiction, so if you want to find my HP stuff it's over there. I'm going to try cross-posting this story on Ao3 as well. My username for both of those sites is TemporalKnight.

This will be my first Worm fic as well and I've been tossing around the idea with my beta for a while, so I have some fairly detailed plans on where it's going to go. Fair warning, it will probably not be consistent with lore items revealed in Ward as I haven't gotten around to reading that one yet; though almost everything in Worm itself is fair game!

Summary: When Taylor Hebert triggered she found herself with no support at all. Neither friends, nor family came to her rescue or even offered pleasant words of comfort. When even her own father didn't show up at the hospital...Taylor knew she'd have to make her own way through life. Getting superpowers was fairly easy. Figuring out how to survive and join a team? That was hard. Especially when one is paranoid and not quite willing to trust...anyone. A little paranoia never hurt anyone when heroing. At least, it hadn't until Taylor found a secret she never should have learned...

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Split 01

I shuffled from foot to foot as I rifled through my purse. "Um, you can go ahead," I mumbled to the freckle-faced, brunette behind me.

"You've let five people go ahead already," the girl replied narrowing her eyes at me.

I fidgeted, grimacing as I held up my bag and tried not to meet her eyes. Looking inconspicuous was apparently a lot harder than I had expected. Maybe I should've come in costume. This was stupid. This was so, so stupid. I wasn't ready for this. I was recon, I was supposed to be recon and intel. I needed a team. What the hell was I doing at a bank in civilian clothes in the middle of the day alone trying to stop a robbery! A robbery that I wasn't even sure of the exact time of!

"I know, I know, I'm really sorry. I thought I had the check from my grandmother, but I can't find it! I don't know where else I could have put it, and I just don't want to lose my place in line by dropping out entirely to go to the bathroom and search everywhere!" Oh god that was pathetic. Was I always this bad at lying? I thought I had gotten pretty good at lying over the past few months. It was practically necessary to survive at home these days after all.

The girl sighed and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "Look, let me get my stuff deposited then I'll see if I can help you find your check. You don't want to be stuck here for another twenty minutes. People will start calling the PRT thinking you're a villain or something. A stupid villain."

I felt my face heat up as I nodded back at her. "Th-thanks." This was not what I needed. Not. At. All. While I let the blush creep up over my face in response to her 'stupid' comment, privately I pushed the majority of my emotions into my swarm. They were keeping watch in the rafters and in the corners and in the shadows, and they were mine. I'd found, a while ago, that I could shift a lot of my emotional issues over to them when things got bad. It helped to keep me calm most days and it helped to keep me mostly focused on the rest. Like now, when I needed to figure out how to get this Good Samaritan to back off and let me keep my lookout. Maybe I could have one of the bees sting her and then –

The doors flew inward, smashing against the walls with a crash strong enough to shatter the glass. "Everyone stay down and no one gets hurt!" a gruff shout echoed into the room just before a wave of darkness flowed into the bank atrium right on the heels of the mini explosion. I tackled the brunette to the floor as my swarm marked the four people running inside through the darkness. A few bugs for each, not many, nothing anyone would notice, but enough to keep track.

I'd done my homework. There wasn't much on the Undersiders – their profiles were mostly stubs – but there was enough. Grue liked to use darkness to cover the Undersiders' jobs and that darkness made it near impossible to see, or apparently hear, anything. Impossible for anyone but me since I didn't rely on sight or hearing. I relying on a different sense altogether. "Stay here!" I hissed to the girl. I had no idea if she could hear me, I could barely hear myself in this dead zone. Man, PHO really undersold how creepy Grue could be! If he wasn't risking innocents like this I'd be almost impressed with the guy. Darkness generation doesn't sound fancy on paper, but this was pretty good and very useful. It gave me some ideas on how to use my own swarm if I ever got it large enough one day.

I carefully got to my feet and edged towards the teller's counter. The one with the scepter – Regent – was tying up the bank workers on the other side. From what my swarm was relaying it seemed like the darkness ended near the counter. That made sense. They'd want to be able to see where they were stealing from after all.

A complication. Nothing I couldn't work around. The butch girl – Hellhound – was at the back of the bank along with Grue. It was just me, Regent and the blonde in the catsuit. That had to be Tattletale. Nobody on PHO knew exactly what her power was, just that it wasn't physical, but it was hard hitting. She was dangerous. She was also not carrying a scepter with a taser in it. I didn't want to use my entire swarm, not yet. Not unless I had to. They took too long to build up. I had to try this the sneaky way first. Let Taylor be the hero here, not some new cape.

I couldn't afford to reveal myself like that. Not yet. Not until I had backing and support. Or at least one friend to help. I needed a team before I could come onto the scene. Coming out right now, alone, would be tantamount to suicide. The ABB would never have me since I wasn't Asian, I refused to join the resident Nazis, I'd rather die than let the Merchants take me, the PRT and their Wards could go fuck themselves with a rusty spoon…New Wave wasn't even on the table. They'd make me reveal myself and I couldn't do that under any circumstances. Never. No one could know who I was for real under my mask. No one could know that Taylor Hebert had powers. The day the world found out that Taylor had powers was the day that Taylor died. One way or another.

Though if this went really south, as long as my face and powers weren't put together, I could always try to meet up with Parian and see if I could get a job with her. She made dresses; I could weave her dresses out of spider silk. We'd be awesome together…that was helping people too…right?

Shaking my head, I pulled back some of my emotions from the swarm and refocused. I needed to get back in the moment. That was the danger of shunting too much away, it could lead to my main consciousness focusing on the wrong portion of the problem. I could multitask like no one's business, but I still had a primary task…usually. At least I had gotten to the edge of the darkness effect while woolgathering. Grabbing the pepper spray from my purse I placed one hand on the counter and vaulted over it. Landing on the other side, I held up the can and managed to tag Regent's eyeholes on the first spritz.

"Arrg! What the hell you crazy bitch!" the prince swung his scepter frantically towards me, but the bug I had at the top gave me enough notice of the direction he was going that I was able to fall back out of the way of his arc. It went wide and he smashed it into the side of the counter top. I sprang forward again and tackled him to the ground. "Get the hell off of me!"

I ignored his yell and drove my elbow into his stomach rolling free as he wheezed and tried to weakly swing the scepter towards my face again. Coming up to my feet I grinned momentarily. Maybe this wouldn't be quite so hard after all. Now I just had to take out Tattletale, drop back into the darkness and wait for Grue and Hellhound to pass by and I could knock them out too.

That plan died a fiery death as soon as my mind caught up with my swarmsense. My eyes tracked up and I swallowed hard at the sight of the two larger members glaring at me from the doorway to the back rooms. Grue had his arms crossed and Hellhound was cracking her knuckles with a growl issuing from her throat. "What part of stay down and you won't get hurt did you not understand?" Grue asked, the mask and the darkness giving his voice an odd reverb effect that would have been very disconcerting. If I couldn't do the same trick myself through my swarm at least.

"You rob from the gangs, not the people. What the hell are you doing here?" I hissed. "People are going to get hurt!"

"Like me," Regent whined from the ground a few feet away.

"Shut up, Regent," Tattletale said walking up from the computer she had claimed a few spaces down the line. "Grue, Bitch, deal with the vault, I got this."

"But the runt attacked us," Hellhound spat glaring at me. I met her eyes and bared my teeth right back at her.

"Wards will be here in five minutes. Get the damn vault open." The two larger Undersiders turned and stalked back into the bank. I caught sight of what might have been a Rottweiler in the as well and set some of my swarm onto it before focusing on Tattletale. "So, you wanted to play hero huh? Brave for someone without powers. Or maybe you do have powers and you just are scared to show them off."

I kept my face impassive and tried to offload more of my emotions into the swarm. "You like to talk. PHO agrees on that. You're going to get someone hurt by being here."

"Maybe. It's kinda what villains do." She cocked her head to the side, her blond hair falling in a wave around her shoulder and a grin spread over her face. "But I guess you'd know all about that wouldn't you?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

Tattletale tapped the side of her head. "Here's a little secret for you, girl. I'm psychic. And you, you are the daughter of a villain." I sucked in a breath, some of my control over the swarm slipping and my rage bleeding back into me along with some of the terror I felt whenever I was walking home these days. For an instant I froze, still as one of my mantises.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!" a wild scream echoed in the small atrium as the freckle-faced girl from the line surged forth from the side of the counter, a fire extinguisher in her hand. She swung it wide and nearly managed to deck Tattletale, though the blonde danced backwards before it connected.

I hadn't even noticed her coming. Dammit, I had made this mistake before! I knew I should've marked everyone. My swarm was large enough to do it. Why was I falling back into old habits? That was going to be fixed right the hell now! With barely a thought, flies descended from the ceiling and surged over everyone remaining in the darkness, taking wing again as soon as everyone was appropriately tagged. I shook myself and tried to push away the panic welling up, only managing a portion of it, but it was enough to get me moving again.

Not one to let an opportunity go, I tried to follow up on the opening the brunette had left and darted in bringing my pepper spray up even as I brought a few bugs down to surreptitiously sting Tattletale on the back of the neck. No venom, but that should be enough to jolt her forward into the spray.

Instead, the girl somehow managed to slip right between the two of us and danced right up next to Regent, rubbing at her neck. She grinned at me. "So, bugs huh? I can see why you'd want to keep that under wraps. Not the most PR friendly power."

"Shut up!" I growled more of my emotions slipping back in. Dammit this was not a good time. I knew I had a time limit on how long I could keep the shunt up, but I needed to stay focused! "You're the one robbing a bank in the middle of the day!"

"And so far, you're the only one who's actually hurt anyone here, did you realize that? No. Well maybe you should take a moment to consider that. All we're doing is running off with some insured money, we're not even taking people's jewelry. You're going around macing people, hitting them and setting attack bugs on them. Not very sporting Little Miss Villain. You don't even have the decency to do it in costume."

Her words hit me like a slap in the face. She was right, after a fashion. I was the only person who had hurt people. Was I just like him? But…no. No. That was what Tattletale did. She got in your head. She fucked with you until up was down and down was gold. I should've taken her out first.

"You're one to talk!" the girl next to me shouted. She brandished her fire extinguisher with a scowl. "Your group is no better than the Merchants! Just because you don't look like drugged up psychos doesn't make you any less accountable for the psychological damage you're doing by holding these people hostage!"

Tattletale grabbed her heart. "Oh Panacea, I'm hurt!" My head whipped around and my mouth dropped open as I goggled at the brunette for a moment. I'd tackled Panacea to the floor?! "I mean, really, the Merchants? You could've at least compared me to the E88 or the ABB. Actually, on second thought, I take that back, only the ABB. I'd rather be compared to a druggie than a neo-Nazi. But I digress," she was grinning again. I considered bringing more bugs down, but I didn't want to give her more confirmation that she was right about me. I could still salvage this if I was careful about it.

After all, this was not quite a worst-case scenario, but it was close. "If Panacea is here, you know her sister is coming too!" I shouted. "Get the hell out of here right now!"

Tattletale grinned wider. "Grue's darkness blocks cell reception honey. Glory Girl doesn't even know we're here. But we're not talking about GG, now, we're talking about you and Amy here and how you two are like peas in a pod."

"I'm giving you to the count of five," I growled.

"We both know you won't do much. You're too scared to show me I'm right even though you already have and just didn't realize you screwed up a few moments ago with that big move. How about you Amy? You can stop me pretty easily. You just have to break a few of your rules. Prove to Carol that you are the little monster she thinks of you as. Prove that you are your father's daughter. Daddy's Little Villain. All it would take is to make a single little pathogen, one superbug to either kill me or knock me out. Only, you haven't touched me yet, so you'd have to tailor it to go after the whole of the room and that would just leave you awake or alive now wouldn't it? You could even blame it on one us if you wanted. Or the new girl here. One of us lost control and that was that. Except Carol would know, she's always been watching you, waiting for the proof, waiting to know she was right and you weren't worth taking in, you weren't worth sheltering. All she needs is that one, little, nugget. But you aren't going to give her that here today, because you're just as scared as Miss – " Tattletale broke off mid-rant and a look of horror crossed her features as she stared at me. "No fucking way…Fuck me…"

I glanced to my side to see how Panacea – Amy? – was handling the fire extinguisher and had to suppress a gasp as I saw her shaking like a leaf beside me. Her skin was pale and her fingers were clenched around the extinguisher so tight they had gone white. "Okay, fine. Fuck this. I'm done. Stand down now, Tattletale."

"Look, I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot here," Tattletale said backing up and holding her hands up as if to ward me off. I stalked forward and ignored the loud crashing rend behind me. "Like you said, I don't want to be here. But we all take orders from someone right? I didn't have a choice! Everything I just said was to make sure we had time to get out. We'll leave, okay, we'll leave. We're leaving now. Grue! Bitch! Time to go!"

"Not done here!"

"TIME TO GO! NOW!"

The other two surged out of the back of the bank, the Rottweiler was nowhere to be found but they had replaced the dog with a mutant monster thing half as large as a small car. It broke a large portion of the doorway as it muscled its way out and into the room proper. Grue had already stopped to grab the unconscious Regent and throw him on the back of the dog-thing before looking between me, Panac-Amy, and Tattletale. "Fuck."

"Glory Girl is probably inbound with the Wards. Time! To! Go!" Tattletale urged. She hopped onto the back of the creature as it grew large enough to fit the four Undersiders. Looking briefly to me, the blonde grimaced and nodded her head. Grue renewed the shroud of his darkness in the atrium and before I could do more than throw a few more bugs on each of them, the thieves were bounding away. I tracked them for almost two blocks before they dropped out of my range and I finally relaxed. The darkness had started to bleed away by then too.

Turning to Amy, I found her sitting on the floor, back against the counter and arms curled around the fire extinguisher. "Hey, hey are you okay?"

"No, not even close to it," she hiccupped out in between heaving lungfuls of air. She seemed to rouse a bit as her gaze focused in on me and her eyes widened, the fire extinguisher dropping out of her suddenly limp hold. "Cover your face!"

"What?"

"The darkness is fading away! I felt the bugs come down from the ceiling; everyone must have!" Amy shook her head and grabbed for my hands squeezing them tightly as I just continued to stare at her. "You and I are the only two people who fought back. Everyone knows I'm Panacea. It doesn't take a genius to realize you're the new cape. Cover yourself! Now!"

My own gaze widened and I gasped. Her words slamming into me like a truck as the last of my emotional shunting slipped it's bounds and flew back to me from the swarm. I fell backwards onto my ass and squeezed my eyes shut. All of my fliers surged down to me in an instant covering me head to toe. It had the nice side effect of concealing the tears leaking down my face from the other girl. This wasn't how the day was supposed to go. I was supposed to be able to get in, get out, with nobody the wiser. No one was supposed to know there was a new cape in town. No one was supposed to know that I was even here! And now, not only did Tattletale see me without a mask, Panacea did as well, I might be on security cameras, and god only knows how many of the bank patrons would remember the curly, black haired girl that vanished after holding up the line five times just before the villains held up the place!

I curled up into a ball on the floor, the bugs shifting to new positions maintaining the covering layer as I desperately tried to reach for the shunt again and found only my own thoughts in its place. First priority when I got home: work on improving the emotional control. It wasn't nearly a long enough duration. I needed it indefinitely. I could handle being a robot. I couldn't handle being a teenage girl when on a job. This wasn't going to work out long term. Especially without a group to support me. I really needed to go talk with Parian. I wasn't cut out for this at all. I hadn't even come in costume!

"Hey, hey it's okay, it's going to be okay," a soft voice cut through my raging thoughts and a hand threaded through my swarm to rest on my shoulder. Amy. It had to be Amy. I could barely focus on what she was saying, it was just too much. "Look, I can…I might be able to help you calm down. Do you…do you want me to help you calm down? I'm sorry, I don't even know your name."

"T-Taylor," I mumbled just loud enough to reach her as she leant over me. My eyes were still screwed shut though I could see well enough through my swarmsense. "I can't…It's…I can't…I pushed too much away for too long. I can't focus. I can't breathe. I can't…Help…"

She was quiet for a moment and her hand shifted to touch my neck. "I think you're having a panic attack…I don't like doing this to people, but considering where we are, and that people are starting to stare; I guess you did give me permission. This is going to feel weird. I'm going to mess with your chemical balances for a second to see if I can break the panic attack."

I bit my lip and nodded. My eyes shot open the next instant as she did something to me and the world jumped back into focus around me. The sheer terror of people finding out who I was, it was still there but it wasn't beating me around the head anymore and I could deal with the fallout now if there was fallout. Slowly I sat up, Amy's hand still on my neck. "Thanks. That's a lot better."

"You were mostly calm during the robbery. What happened just now?"

"Um, it's complicated, I'd rather not say here..." I mumbled suddenly very aware that there were still quite a lot of people only twenty feet away from us.

"Oh, right...Sorry, I forget sometimes that not everyone is open to the public like New Wave. I need to keep my hand here for another minute or two. Your adrenal glands and hormones are still going haywire."

"That's okay," I nodded. "Um, about what Tattletale said before...About my father...I know that New Wave is supposed to be really open with things and you basically just confirmed that, but I'm not. I'm really, really, really not. PLEASE, don't say anything. I really need you not to say anything." It was probably a good thing that Amy was still holding a tight lease on my emotions since that probably would've sent me spiraling again until I could offload a bit into the swarm.

Amy got very quiet and I felt her fingers on my neck tense to the point that her nails were digging into my skin. In a voice soft enough I probably wouldn't have picked it up without the extra oomph from my swarm, she murmured, "You're not the only one with villain parent issues."

Before I had a chance to respond, the Glory Girl flew through the shattered remnants of the bank and into the atrium. She paused for a second before her gaze alighted on Amy and me. Rolling her eyes and setting down to the floor, the blonde walked forward towards us. "Man, Ames, you can't even go to the bank without getting into trouble? So who's your new girlfriend? She a new recruit for New Wave? The Wards? The Protectorate? A captured villain?"

I blushed though, thankfully, the bugs covered the evidence. Amy had no such luck. "Vicky, shut up. I'm just helping her calm down."

"Uh huh. And that's why you were nearly face to face when I flew in huh?" She grinned and hugged her arms around herself making kissing noises. "Come on Ames, admit it! You're seducing the new girl to poach her before the Wards snap her up! I heard ALLL about it outside."

"Vicky! Stop!" Amy's blush had left and in its place was an angry blotch of red spots. The difference was subtle, but considering I tended to have the later dusting my across my own face nearly all of the time for the first month that I had my powers I knew how to spot it.

"It's cool," Glory Girl said, dropping her arms but not losing the grin. "I can't blame you for trying. Not that I would do it. You know I don't bat for that team. I doubt I'd be able to pretend long enough to make it convincing. So how about it new girl? Has my sister convinced you to join up yet? From the rumors outside, you have some promise. I mean, the Undersiders tore out of here like a bat out of hell. Vista is outside still scratching her head at how fast they left. And no money too! Like wow! So you joining up?"

Amy's free hand clenched into a fist and her teeth bared for an instant before her entire demeanor seemed to drop off into a near emotionless catatonia. It was almost like how I got when I was fully submerged in the swarm. Now I understood why I could be so disconcerting at school when I bothered to show up…"I don't even know why I ever started to like you." Amy's voice was so quiet, even with the swarm I had to struggle to make out the words. She shook her head and stared at me. This time, her words were clearly meant to be heard, "T-Bug girl. I'm going to take my hand off now. Are you okay for the moment?"

I searched for my shunt and nearly cried in relief as I could reach for it again. "Yeah. I'm cool. Even if I start freaking out again, I got it handled on my end."

"Okay." She pulled away from me and stood up dusting off her jeans and turning fully to her sister. The clarity of the world faded slightly though I didn't devolve back into a new panic attack and I didn't have to offload anything. I made another mental note on my powers checklist: pushing the shunt until overload, overloaded the returned sensations too. Good to know.

"Glory Girl, please wait outside, I'll be there in a moment."

Glory Girl shrugged and nodded. "Sure, whatever. Nice to meet you new girl. Let me know when you come up with a name. We can go on patrols or something together even if you don't decide to join."

I nodded and waved at her as she flew back out the doors. She didn't have to know that I had very little intention of keeping that date. However…maybe that wasn't the worst idea. I did need backup after all. I was supposed to be the recon. Today had taught me that pretty clearly.

Her sister had barely left the bank before Amy turned to me and shoved a piece of paper into my hand. I stared down at it in confusion and looked back up at the freckle-faced girl in front of me. "My PHO handle and my phone number. We need to talk. About…things. Parents things. And I want to know what the hell is going on with your emotions. That's not normal and it's not healthy. We need to talk."

"Considering how you were breaking down before my freak out, I don't think you're one to lecture me about being emotionally healthy," I said frowning. "But yeah, agreed. I'll contact you later."

"Good. I need to…I'm not actually sure what I need to do. I need to think. Get home safe." She pulled her shoulders up as straight as they could go and turned to march out through the doors.

I waited for a count of ten, then I drew up the swarm and tightened it around myself as I dashed outside. As I slipped away into the crowd, I dispersed the bugs and walked away, just another teenager wandering past yet another crime scene in Brockton Bay.

Last edited: Sep 20, 2019

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Slider214

Sep 20, 2019

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Slider214

Slider214

He/Him

Sep 22, 2019

#14

AN: Thanks again to my beta Grey Raven 09 for his assistance and quick turn around on this chapter.

\/\/\/\/

Split 02

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Topic: A New Thread

In: Boards New Cape in the Bay?

Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)

Posted On Apr 15th 2011:

Okay so I'm guessing that everyone has seen the reports by now, but in case you haven't here are the links to what we know for sure about the new cape on the scene of the latest action in Brockton Bay:

Video of the cape talking with Panacea: Link

Video of a swarm of bugs vaguely person shaped leaving the bank and immediately vanishing into thin air: Link

Blurry photos of the Undersiders all on a single monster thing leaving the scene: Link

Just a quick recap as well for those new to this situation. The cape was either present, triggered, or came to the scene of a robbery almost immediately following the Undersiders arriving on-site. They and Panacea together managed to chase off the team of villains. The cape's name is currently unknown and she didn't stay to speak with the Wards that had arrived either. It's unknown if she's a Hero or a Villain or even an Independent.

(Showing page 1 of 12)

SpecificProtagonist

Replied On Apr 15th 2011:

How certain are we that this new cape IS a girl?

Reave (Verified PRT Agent)

Replied On Apr 15th 2011:

She's a girl. Some of the boys spoke with several of the bank customers and they all confirmed that the cape sounded female and that both Glory Girl and Panacea were referring to her as female.

Char

Replied On Apr 15th 2011:

Good. We need more female heroes in the Bay. Or more heroes in general. I wish we knew her name. Does anyone know her name?

SpecificProtagonist

Replied On Apr 15th 2011:

None of the threads have her name yet and GG was apparently fishing for it too. I'm betting she triggered in the bank. Everyone knows that Panacea isn't a fighter. This girl must've stepped up to try to do something, things went bad and she triggered and managed to fight back. Damn...I know there are...worse ways to trigger, but to become a swarm of bugs? We can't even send her a hug...

Whitecollar (Cape Wife)

Replied On Apr 15th 2011:

Become the swarm? Panacea's power works via touch. The new cape would have to have some physical body in order for Panacea to touch her after the attack.

Also, what was with the Undersiders pulling this job to begin with? They've never done anything in broad daylight before and never this high profile.

Tin_Mother (Moderator)

Replied On Apr 15th 2011:

Please let's stay on topic. Don't speculate on the Undersiders in this thread, there's a thread here already for that discussion.

As to the topic, I would agree that while Panacea's power does require touch to function, it's possible the new cape doesn't have a physical body anymore and the two were just in close proximity. None of the videos are high enough quality to tell for sure either way.

Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)

Replied On Apr 15th 2011:

Man, let's hope she has a body. That would be a horrible powerset. Bugs alone is bad enough. BEING bugs? Sucks to be her!

SpecificProtagonist

Replied On Apr 15th 2011:

Even if she is just bugs, she's awesome! The Undersiders managed to shake off Lung the other week after robbing his casino! She scared them off in less than five minutes!

I need to meet her and shake her, err, beetles?

Vista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)

Replied On Apr 15th 2011:

While I understand the urge to flock to a new cape, (I admit I'd love to meet her myself and try to recruit her. We need more girls in the Wards!), everyone needs to remember that we know almost nothing about the girl yet.

All we know for sure is that she foiled the robbery with Panacea's assistance and that she didn't want to wait around to speak with me or Clockblocker. Not that I can blame her of course. Right Clock?

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 10, 11, 12

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I rubbed at the bridge of my nose as I pulled back from the computer. So much for laying low. That plan was well and truly shot. I was getting a rather large chuckle at how everyone seemed to be convinced that I was just a swarm of bugs now though. I could probably work with that too as long as I was careful. Only really Amy and Tattletale knew for sure that I was more than the bugs. Maybe the other three Undersiders too. They might hold a grudge, but they didn't seem the type. All of my research pointed to them as being fairly small time. They weren't the E88 or the ABB. They just robbed places. If I stayed away from them for a while, I doubted they'd out my secret.

They probably wouldn't anyway even if I pissed them off. It stepped too close to too many lines.

The computer beeped as another message went off in the thread. I refocused and blushed as SpecificProtagonist apparently started getting rather heated with XxVoid_CowboyxX about what could and could not be done without a body and how much fun could be had with a lot of tiny legs. Hurriedly I shut that topic down and shunted some of my embarrassment into the swarm.

People on PHO were insane.

Once my face had returned to normal, I pulled out the note that Amy had given me and unfolded it. It was only 10am on a Friday. She'd probably be in class. I shouldn't do this now. I should've done this last night. Or never. Never was good. Never was awesome.

Pushing more of my fear into the buzzing critters a few blocks down the road, I took a deep breath and flipped up open my phone. My father didn't know I had it. I'd bought it with my own money and gotten one of those prepaid cards for it. Was it perfect? No, but I could text as much as I wanted and I could call the PRT in an emergency if I needed to. And if this turned out to be a bad idea I could ditch the phone easier than I could ditch the laptop. That had been hard to get my hands on.

At least leeching off the wifi next door was simple thanks to my swarmsense helping with the password.

Hi, Amy. You said we should meet. Tell me when and where? -Taylor

I nodded as the message sent. Short and to the point. Perfect. I was flipping the phone closed as it buzzed in my hand. Staring at the screen I gaped for an instant before shaking my head and opening the new message.

Boardwalk okay? Fugly Bobs? Say an hour? Actually no. Scratch that, not Fugly. There's an ice cream shop three stores down. Don't remember the name.

I snorted, one corner of my mouth quirking up as I rolled my eyes.

I know it. I sent back. Shouldn't you be in school?

Shouldn't you?

She had me there. I don't go very often anymore. I'm technically studying for my GED. Technically. It's also not official. Can explain later maybe.

Amy apparently didn't have much problems with my skipping class since she just sent me a shrugging emoji. I didn't even know how to get to that option on my phone. Did my phone even have that option? Whatever. Meet you at the ice cream place in an hour.

Flipping the phone closed, for real this time, I took another breath and reclaimed everything I had sent to the swarm. I was going to have to practice my hold duration, but now was not the time for it. I apparently had to get ready to meet the most well-known healer on the East Coast.

I was going to need to make sure I had as much shunting time saved up as possible. Something told me I was going to need it in an hour.

\/\/\/\/

I could've taken the bus considering I had to get all the way over to the Boardwalk, but it was more productive to walk. I needed to build up the swarm and I couldn't really do that on the bus. My initial range was too small to grab enough of new critters like that. No, it was better to take a nice power walk and collect all of the spiders and flies and roaches that were hiding out in the homes and side streets along the way. Not that I could actually fully clean out the homes, but hey, people would appreciate it if their front rooms were cleared of bugs, right?

I had most of my swarm making their way along behind me at whatever pace they could manage. None were clustered though and it was easy enough to blend them in with the local critters while still moving with a purpose. I'd been expanding my numbers since January, but I still only had a few tens of thousands of individuals. Spread that out over 8-10 blocks and nobody should be the wiser even when I had my whole shooting gallery at my beck and call in a moment's notice.

I made good time getting to the ice cream shop and managed to grab a rather rare prize of a hornets' nest along the way too which was nice. I had so few of those in my swarm and more raw power was always a welcome addition.

"Hey, over here!" I shook off my examination of the newly acquired subjects as Amy's voice cut through the small crowd in the store. Glancing over, I found she'd claimed a booth at the back of the shop. And apparently had two milkshakes in front of her.

Swallowing my initial terror at that presumption, I forced a smile and walked over to sit across from her. "Hi. Sorry, am I late? I walked, but I thought I was going to make it." As I settled into the booth, I brought some of the swarm into the store to keep tabs on everyone. Just because we were in an ice cream shop didn't mean that there couldn't be capes – or normal people – acting stupid here. Case in point, me.

"No, you're good. I just got here a little early. I, kinda needed to get away. Slept at my aunt's last night and Crystal won't leave me alone asking for details," Amy murmured. I frowned at the way her hands were wrapped tightly enough around her glass to go white at the knuckles.

"Everything okay?"

"Not really, but that's not your problem," Amy said.

I tried to remember how things had been before Sophia Hess, before Mom died, back when I'd had friends and people to talk to. How did this script go again? "Aren't we here to talk? You could tell me what's going on and I could, well I probably can't help since I don't know you. But I could at least listen." That wasn't how things went. Dammit had I really been a social pariah for long enough that I couldn't even pretend like I knew what I was doing?

Amy gave me a small smile and pushed the second milkshake across to me. "I appreciate that. More than you know, Taylor. But I don't really feel comfortable discussing all my issues with you if it's all the same. Like you said, we don't know each other."

It was all I could do to avoid sighing in relief. I had enough issues trying to sort out my own emotional problems. I didn't need to work out a second person's hang ups at the moment. "Well if you change your mind, you have my phone number now. Just text instead of calling please. I don't have very many minutes."

Amy nodded and took a drink of her shake. She pressed a button on the side of the booth, smirking as it lit up. "Tinkertech in these things. The store essentially has anti-eavesdropping audio tech for the booths, that's why I said to come here." I whistled appreciatively as I tried to calculate just how bad the expenses involved in that were and raised an eyebrow at the other girl. Amy shrugged. "A lot of their customers are couples, so they play up the 'privacy' angle. It gives them enough business to afford the maintenance on the Tinker stuff when it starts to wear down. Okay, so before we get too far off track, am I wrong in assuming you're not affiliated with anyone yet?"

"You're not wrong," I replied, trying the milkshake myself. Amy had good taste; chocolate and mint with malt, the best type of shake. "I'm currently looking for a team. I think I'd be best with recon. While I have some heavy hitters in the swarm, most of the really nasty stuff would probably kill non-Brutes and the rest would hurt bad enough that I would get labeled as a villain off hand. You don't send bullet ants or fire ants against people and expect to walk away with an Independent Hero tag."

Amy just stared at me for several long moments. "You have bullet ants in your repertoire?"

Fidgeting in my seat I nodded. "They're not native. I had to order them online. I only have a few but I was able to get a queen so breeding more is easy. They don't get to come out to play for a while until the colony is secure. Right now, the worst I can throw at someone around here would be some hornets. And airlifted black widows, but again, that's a quick way to get a villain label." I was babbling now. Dammit.

This wasn't working. I couldn't do this on my own. It had been too long since I truly interacted with people. I needed help. Reaching out to my swarm, I shunted off my anxiety and my fear leaving a far calmer and easier-to-breath Taylor in place of the sweaty, blushing mess that had been there a moment ago.

Sitting up straighter I smiled and shrugged. "I might be a bit more…morally flexible than some people, but I'm not willing to go full villain and drop black widows or brown recluses on someone who doesn't heal. Even if you were right around the corner and willing to help out. That's just mean to everybody."

Amy's eyes narrowed and she ran her gaze up and down me as I sipped at my shake. "You're doing it again aren't you?"

"Doing what?"

"That thing with your emotions. Like whatever you did at the bank that let you fight fairly well until it cut off and you collapsed into a sobbing heap."

I blinked. She'd seen me crying. Only Emma had had that privilege in years. Great. "I can push my emotions into my swarm. It blunts things. Makes it easier to handle the moment, easier to focus, easier to deal with the world. It's…safer."

"That's not healthy. You can't hide from things like that!" Amy hissed.

Anger bled through my calm and I glared back at her. "The only reason you weren't sobbing right next to me was because you focused on fixing me. That's not healthy either. That blonde talked to you for less than 30 seconds and now you're not even staying at your own home? How is your method of 'dealing with things' any healthier than mine? Mine keeps me from murdering half of my school. I'm fine thank you very much."

Amy froze and her eyes went wide. I went back over what I had said a second ago and drew in a sharp breath. "Fuck." I shunted most of my anger to the swarm as well and shut my eyes as I felt the tension in my shoulders loosen. "Sorry. I just…when I triggered I'd been trapped in a locker for hours, nobody helped, not before, not during, not after. Everyone just…went about their day, knowing I was suffering a few feet away. Only reason I was found was because a janitor decided he didn't like the smell. Even then, I'd have died at the hospital in a coma if…well if not for you apparently."

"What?" Amy squeaked.

"January. You healed a coma patient with toxic blood syndrome and wounds in her legs and lower abdomen. She had a fever of 103 that wouldn't go down and her body and organs were shutting down. She'd been there for – "

"A week…I remember that. They should've called me earlier. That girl almost died three times while I tried to heal her…Holy shit, that was you?"

"Yeah."

Amy drained half of her milkshake and clasped her hands around her arms. "The kids at your school, they didn't help?"

"Winslow doesn't stand up to Emma and her clique. Even when I came back, afterwards, the school pretended like I got locked in by accident and my classmates just ignored it. Worse, some of the students made it clear they thought I should've died in there. I found out why the teachers brushed it under the rug thanks to my powers at least and it just made things worse. I don't go to school anymore. I'm too worried I'll go Carrie over them or something."

"Yeah," Amy mumbled. "Yeah I can understand that." Her head snapped up and she narrowed her eyes as she focused on me. "Wait, what do you mean that you found out why the teachers brushed it away? That's bullshit! What happened was wrong and the people who did it should be punished! Whatever the reason, the staff can't get away with pretending like it didn't happen!"

I smirked and sipped at my milkshake letting some of the anger bleed back into me from the swarm. "My father never came to the hospital beyond signing the paperwork saying they could do whatever they needed to save my life, you know?"

"What? What does that have to do with anything?"

"When I woke up with powers and no dad by my bed, I knew our relationship was broken. He's been gone for a long time now. Oh, he's there physically, but I stopped mattering to him a few months after mom died. I thought something like this would bring us together but it just showed me how far apart we were instead."

Amy frowned completely unable to follow my tangent. That was fine. I had a point and if she wanted to buy me a milkshake and lecture me on emotion control then she was going to damn well listen to my rambling. "I knew if I went back to school I was going to have to cover my own back. If my family wasn't even going to be at the hospital to pick me up after I nearly died what help would the school board be? So I learned how to control my swarm enough to know where everyone around me was. If Emma and Sophia and Madison couldn't sneak up on me, then I'd be fine."

"That…makes sense, I guess," Amy said hesitantly.

"Except the bugs I kept on Sophia found out something. She tried to break into my things again. They'd assigned me a new locker – like I was ever going to use one again. Sophia got into it without issue. Because she went through the door."

"She did what? Oh no. No wait, Taylor, are you saying that the person tormenting you was a cape?"

"Yup. Not just any cape." I let more anger bleed back into me and set some of the bugs outside to harass a pickpocket. A blonde who had just walked into the ice cream shop heard the commotion from outside, glanced around the store and apparently decided she didn't want ice cream anymore since she left in a hurry. I ignored her and the pickpocket and focused back in on Amy. "Shadow fucking Stalker. Ward. The psycho who tried to kill me and corrupted my best friend into a monster is none other than a PRT protected Ward."

"That's," Amy choked out. Her fingers tightened on her arms until they were leaving white spots. "They can't, there's oversight. They can't do that. They're the good guys!"

"Nothing is black and white, Amy," I replied. I pulled some of my anxiety back from the swarm to relieve the pressure on the shunt and sighed as my shoulders sagged. "Look, I'm sure that some of the Protectorate and a lot of the Wards are great people. But I can never trust them or join them. They let in people like Sophia Hess. I can't be on the same team as them."

"They're the good guys, they have to be the good guys," Amy mumbled.

I frowned and reached over to shake her shoulder. "Amy? You okay?"

"What? What, I, um, sorry." She jerked as I touched her and took a rattling breath shaking her head. "Sorry, I'm dealing with a lot. That didn't help at all, but it puts things into perspective a bit more. Sorry."

"Stop apologizing. I'm the one who's sending you catatonic now," I replied. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it? I just babbled half my life story after all."

"I…maybe later. After I know what I'm going to do about it. Not right now. I still need to think. Um, we should talk about something else. You said you won't join the Wards right? I understand that. How about New Wave? Is that an option for you? We can support you, keep you safe out there."

I shook my head hard enough to whip my hair across my face and pushed almost everything back to the swarm through my shunt. "No! No, I can't. I can't!"

Amy leaned forward and reached out to hold my hands. Her eyes widened and she gasped. "Jesus, your adrenaline glands are spiking like crazy and your heart is beating a mile a minute! Taylor calm down, it's okay, you don't have to join New Wave, I was just asking. It's okay."

"This is through punting off my emotions," I told her through gritted teeth. "That's why I collapsed in the bank. I realized that my identity might be getting out. I can't let it get out. It can't get back to my father."

"Why? What's – oh right, that was why we met up originally wasn't it: parents. He's a…villain?"

I slowly managed to get myself back under control and nodded in reply. "My schoolmates weren't the only people I started tagging and following with my bugs."

"Your dad?"

"He's…not a good person. Not anymore. He was at one point. I remember when he wanted to fix the city. He and my mom were crusaders. They were going to make everything better and help heal the world. My mom even ran with Lustrum before she went crazy and started trying to kill all men everywhere or something."

"I'm not sure that counts as healing but it would be a crusader," Amy replied trying for a soft chuckle and failing. I did smile at her attempt though so it did hit its mark I guess.

"I've overheard him planning things with his people. He's planning to take over the city now. He's subtle about it though and he's playing the long game. I think he still plans to 'make things better' but I don't even know for sure. He was so messed up after mom died that he could just be trying to destroy everything too in revenge. He's…hurt people. The only reason I even stay at home is because if I didn't he'd know I knew something. I can't let him find out I'm a cape."

"Do you think he'd recruit you?" Amy asked. "Surely he wouldn't hurt his own daughter. Even if he is a villain. Some villains care for their kids…"

I let out a bark of a laugh and laid my head on the table. "He'd care if I had powers. Without them? I wasn't even worth a damn pickup from the hospital after nearly dying. I want to make sure that people are safe and that nobody has to suffer like I did. I can't do that if my father gets ahold of me. He'll either force me into working with him or he'll fight me. I can't…I can't hurt him. He's a villain, but he's still my father."

I felt Amy's hand in my hair as I let go of some of the shunts. My fear and my worry flowed back into me and it was all I could do not to cry as Amy massaged my head. "I know. I understand." We remained like that for god only knows how long before she said again, softly enough that I only heard her through the bug I had on her shoulder, "My father gave me up to Carol and Aunt Sarah. He stopped fighting them to save my life."

"What?" I asked lifting my head and looking at her through a shimmery gaze.

"He ran a gang. New Wave stopped him back when they were called the Brockton Bay Brigade. Aunt Sarah told me that they tried to arrest him and during the fight, I was hiding in a closet, I almost got hurt really bad until he blocked their attack and surrendered to stop the fight. His only request before they took him to the Birdcage was to make sure that I didn't wind up in the system, because then someone else would use me for revenge or as a second generation cape or something."

I hung my head again and hugged myself. "My father becomes a supervillain and forgets about his daughter. Your father becomes a supervillain and only cares about his daughter. Fun times."

"Our world is fucked up."

"You can say that again." I drew strength from my swarm and pulled myself back up to a sitting position. "So why did you leave home?"

"It's complicated. I'd rather not talk about it."

"Fair enough," I said nodding. "I'd offer my home if you need it, but you know. Supervillain home and all."

Amy smiled at that and we both had a small laugh. "Thanks, but I'm okay at Aunt Sarah's for now. Anyway, we really need to find you a team."

"Maybe. I've been considering going to talk with Parian, but she doesn't really do cape stuff. She just works with her shop mostly from what PHO says."

Amy nodded. "Pretty much. She defends her turf if the gangs go there, but that's about it. I mean, there's technically Uber and Leet. The PRT classes them as villains but they're more of just entertaining jerks mostly. They sometimes rob the people they force onto their shows, but most of what they make is through their YouTube broadcasts of their stunts. If you're willing to go a bit edgier that might be an option."

"Yeah," I said grimacing. "I've been trying to avoid that one. While the video game thing could be fun, I don't think I'd clash well with their personality. Plus they freak people out with their antics at first and that would annoy me real fast if they do it in the wrong place."

"We could try and contact Circus. She's unaffiliated."

"That's the jester with hammerspace right? The person that no one is really sure if they are a girl or a guy?" Amy nodded. "It's an option. But I think she's hard to get ahold of and I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with her in general. Clowns are just weird."

"Well, how about Faultline's Crew?"

I sighed. "Yeah, they're pretty much my best bet, but even then I'm hesitant. They accept contracts with the Merchants and the E88. I'm…not willing to do that."

"Then you have a problem, unless you're willing to leave town and go somewhere else."

"I know," I muttered. "Been thinking of forming my own team, but I need more people."

Amy looked at me and frowned. Then she pulled out her phone, tapped away for a minute and her frown deepened. Looking back and forth between the phone and me several times she finally grinned and snapped her fingers. "Stopgap solution while you find new people? Split yourself off!"

"What?" I asked deadpan, blinking at her.

She held up the phone, a link to the thread I had been reading just that morning front and center along with a photo of me with my swarm covering me. Completely covering me, nothing visible but the bugs. "Don't go out as Taylor or whatever you're calling yourself."

"Was going with Queen at the moment," I muttered. "Couldn't think of anything better and it's appropriate since I have control of the swarm."

"Okay, don't go out as Queen. Go out as this. PHO is convinced that you are a Case 53 made of bugs. Sell that. Be two different capes! One that controls bugs, Queen. And one that is bugs, Hive! You, yourself never even need to get close to a target if you go out as Hive, especially if your range is good enough. Then when you find a team, you can start going out as Queen too and have the 'extra member' join up."

My mouth dropped open as I stared between Amy and her phone. My swarm buzzed in the back of my mind. I had enough of my critters now. As long as I was careful…"That…could work."

"Yes, yes it could."

I looked up at her and smiled. Holding out my hand, my grin widened as Amy gripped shook it. "I think this could be the beginning of a wonderful partnership, Amy."

Amy snorted and rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, Taylor. Now finish your milkshake. I need to give you tips on how to deal with the Protectorate when they come to speak with Hive."

Last edited: Sep 22, 2019

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Sep 22, 2019

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Slider214

Slider214

He/Him

Sep 24, 2019

#26

Thanks again to my beta Grey Raven 09 for his assistance! This chapter is a bit shorter but it seemed like the best place to cut things off for the moment.

\/\/\/\/

Split 03

I bit my tongue as Greg prattled on about the bank and the new hero, who happened to be sitting in the seat in front of him. It was all he had talked about all morning. My stalker couldn't take a hint. Ignoring him for three straight periods apparently wasn't enough and I couldn't avoid him for Gladly's class since I sat right in front of him. I'd already exhausted my shunt limit for the morning and I was back to dealing with things the old fashion way. I'd almost prefer to deal with Emma and Sophia at this point. Avoiding them all morning had been simple enough once I'd marked them while approaching the school grounds. Avoiding Greg was proving to be immensely harder by some twisted humor of an evil god.

How did this idiot think we were friends? He never stood up for me while the Trio was hunting me, he spoke to me like once, we did a single assignment together, he never even sent me a Get Well Soon card! "Do you like spiders, Greg? I have a few outside I could introduce you too," I muttered as he continued yammering.

Gladly didn't even care that people were talking in his class. All he cared about was looking 'cool'. And he was still sucking up to Emma to do it too. God, I wanted to hurl. If I didn't need the alibi there was no way I would've been here. The only useful thing that had happened today besides showing my face was learning that Madison had apparently been coming to class even less than me. I was going to have to check on her soon to make sure I hadn't sent bugs to get rid of her by accident. I didn't think I had, but my control hadn't been exactly perfect in the first few days, so it was possible. I took a while to figure out the sub-controller effect and if I had accidently set a cluster on attack and they wandered outside my range…yeah I'd have to check on her. Dammit.

"And then Vista started to comment too! I got into this argument with someone going by SpecificProtagonist afterwards. She's really annoying. Total cape groupie. Pervert too, like you wouldn't believe!"

I clenched my teeth and steadfastly ignored the smirk that Sophia sent back my way. Apparently she'd realized that I had been avoiding her and was taking what little pleasure she could in Greg's antics pissing me off in her stead. It wouldn't keep her for long, but it would likely satisfy her for the class. In the meantime, I needed to hit something to drown Greg out.

I nearly cried in relief when finally a group of gangbangers entered my swarm's range. This day of horror wasn't a total waste! 12 blocks out five Empire Eighty-Eight members were roughing up a young asian couple. I wish I could say I was surprised, but unfortunately it really wasn't anything new. Not around Winslow where the gangs could basically recruit in the open. I tuned Greg out and focused on drawing my swarm towards the alley. This day was going to be productive or so help me I was going to hurt someone in this horrible place just to make the jitters go away.

'Hive' coalesced into being at the mouth of the alley as I gathered hornets, spiders, ants and roaches into a nice person shaped form. It didn't exactly look like me, but that wasn't important. It was probably a good thing that it didn't look like me anyway. I made Hive about 5'-6" and kept the eye sockets sunken-in, hollow voids showing the mass of flies and hornets at the back of 'her' head. Her arms were formed of linked spiders while most of the legs were made of roaches. All in all, I was quite proud of my creation. It could even run and stay mostly intact!

The gangbangers were less impressed. The first one to notice Hive took one look and started screaming his head off. "What the fucking shit is that! Holy fuck! Johnson! Call the boss! Call the boss! Cape, cape!" Then he drew his gun and actually shot me!

Some of the spiders making up Hive's torso were blown away by the pistol, leaving a few holes in the main body. My puppet looked down at the bullet wounds, raised a hand to touch at them and then looked back up at the gangbanger. I had a few bugs in the head move to imitate a mouth and she grimaced while the torso filled back in. "Really?" Hive asked through the swarm. "You know this doesn't hurt me, right? I can just reform with more bugs."

I was getting so good at talking through my bugs!

"Shoot her again! Shoot her you stupid fucks!" It was a different member of the gang that shouted this time, though apparently all of them were stupid enough to listen as each of the five pulled out pistols and started shooting at me. Hive just sighed and motioned for the couple to hurry away behind the idiots' backs. Apparently they were way ahead of me though since they had already gotten up and were running for the other end of the alley.

"What part of, 'I can reform' do you not understand?" Hive asked. Just for shits and giggles she flowed from her spot at the mouth of the alley to reform as just a torso of fliers directly in front of one of the gang members. Her legs caught up a moment later and flowed back up to rejoin the mass. "And what if that had hurt me? Do you really want to be targeted for death for killing a new cape? For all you know I could be on Kaiser's recruitment list."

That actually caused the idiots to stop shooting at me and lower their guns. "Err, are you? I mean, we usually only take whites, but…well you're bugs right? If you were white before you changed…that might be enough."

My real body blinked and I had to suppress a snort of laughter. Thankfully Gladly was too busy trying to play off of something Emma had said to comment on it.

Hive reached up to point at her chest then the gangbanger. "Let me put it to you like this buddy. I am what you are! Fucking vermin."

The guy's eyes narrowed. "What did you call me?"

I heard the whine of a motorcycle off in the distance, drawing closer. Excellent. Time to wrap this up. "You heard me. Vermin. Tell Kaiser to watch his back. Tell the ABB to watch their backs. Tell the Merchants to watch theirs too. I'm coming for you all. Get off of my streets and get out of my city!" Hive broke up and swarmed over the gang members. The hornets stung at exposed skin while the spiders wrapped webs around their ankles tripped the two who tried to run. One idiot kept firing blindly into the air. I took care of that after his second shot once I managed to get a wasp onto his finger and sting him. He dropped the gun real fast after that. Barely 20 seconds after I started my offensive, all five of them were on the ground and well on their way to being cocooned in webbing.

As I finished tying the bad guys up, the motorcycle pulled to a stop at the end of the alley and one of the Protectorate capes casually got off, Miss Militia it looked like. I figured she would probably have been in more of a hurry, if it wasn't clear that the attackers were already laid out on the concrete. Her rather large machine gun was a fairly decent deterrent, that should keep these idiots in line.

"Swarm? Was this your handiwork?" Miss Militia called out. While she wasn't quite adversarial, there was a bit of an edge to her tone.

I pulled the spiders off of the gang members and grouped my bugs back together reforming Hive. "Yup, this was me. Hello, Ma'am. It's a pleasure to meet you in person. I'd shake your hand, but…well, that's a bit hard for me."

She looked between Hive and the moaning E88 guys. Shouldering her weapon, she nodded down to the men. "Will they be alright?"

"Unless one of them has a wasp or bee allergy, they'll be fine. If they do, there's an epipen on top of the garbage bin to your left. I always travel with a few just in case."

Miss Militia's gun turned into a large knife which she sheathed on her belt. "Well in that case, job well done."

"Thanks. Also, I go by Hive. It seemed a bit more appropriate than Swarm. Swarm just sounds…evilly."

She blinked at that and I could almost see the smile behind her bandana. Actually, I probably could see the smile if I snuck a bug into the right angle. "I would've said that Hive sounds more like a villain, but it's your choice of course. So, the rumors were true then? Your body is formed out of the insects? Panacea was rather tight-lipped about it."

"I asked her to keep it quiet, but yes. My trigger was traumatic, to say the least. This is the best I can do for the moment. One day I might be able to get a bit more solid but for now, this works."

"You remember events before your trigger?"

"…Yes? Should I not?"

Miss Militia paused, then just shook her head. "It's nothing, I was just curious."

Damn. I knew there was stuff missing from PHO. I should've grilled Amy for more info. "Ookay. So, do you mind taking these guys in? Again, kinda hard being like this."

"I'll call for a pickup. Would you like to ride with us to the PRT building? Or perhaps the Rig? I can show you around. We can introduce you to some of the other personnel see if perhaps you'd be interested in working with the Protectorate…or maybe the Wards?" she asked lifting an eyebrow.

Wow she was good. "Is it the height? You're right by the way. I would be a Ward. But no thank you. I'm going to skip that."

"Are you certain? This city is not very pleasant for Independents who try to go it alone."

Hive leaned back against the wall of the alley and folded her arms. I had several of the spiders quietly wind thread over the gang members ears so that this would be private. "Let me be perfectly frank Ma'am. I am never going to join. The entire reason I am like this," Hive waved her arms to encompass her form, "is because one of your psycho recruits tried to murder me and almost accomplished it. Now, I'm not going to hold a grudge and I'm not going after her like I could. But I'm not working with her. If I did one of us would likely end up killing the other. Since I don't have a body for her to target anymore, my money is not on her."

Miss Militia's eyes shut and she let out a heavy sigh as her shoulders slumped. "Ah."

That single syllable confirmed everything that I had feared. They knew that Shadow Stalker would be a problem and they still let her out. My vision took on a tinge of orange and I felt the pencil in my real hand break as I squeezed. Hive's swarm buzzed all together, filling the alleyway with her noise before I regained control and damped it back down. "See, that right there, that's why I can't work with you. You know exactly who I'm talking about and you know she's an issue."

"There will be an investigation. She was already on probation. We are not all like her," Miss Militia said softly. She raised her head and met Hive's 'eyes'. "But I understand. It is still not safe in this city to go about things alone. Brockton Bay is…not kind to unaffiliated capes. If you won't work with the Protectorate then I strongly urge you to settle in with a different group. Please, for your own safety."

"I have that covered actually," I said nodding to her. "Thank you for the sentiment, Ma'am. I do appreciate it and it does mean something to hear an apology, even though you aren't the person it should be coming from. I'm actually planning to start my own team. We don't have a name yet, but I found another recent trigger whose power synergizes nicely with mine. We work very well together and can cover each other's bases."

"That's good to hear. What's her name?"

"She's going by Queen. You'll probably see her in a day or so." I heard the bell ring in the background of Gladly's class. That was fine, Hive was basically finished. "I have to go. Thanks for the assistance and thanks again for the concern, Miss Militia. It really was nice to meet you. See you around the Bay!" With a wave, Hive's swarm dispersed and took to the skies around the alley. I kept a bug near Militia as I drew most of the swarm back towards the school.

Just before I got my books to leave the classroom, I heard her grab her phone and call the PRT. "Director? We need to talk about Shadow Stalker. I believe there's been a rather grievous incident."

I recalled the bug on Militia and grabbed my bag, standing. Greg was still blabbing behind me, but in front of me Sophia turned to look at me. Her face was covered in a shit eating grin. I smiled right back at her, mine hungry like a predator. Have fun with your bosses Sophia. Have fun.

\/\/\/\/

I whistled as I started the walk home. All in all, it had been a fairly good day so far. Yes, I came close to dragging the tapeworm out of Emily and using it to strangle Greg, but hey, we all have our weak moments, right? And I didn't end up doing it anyway. Plus, I'd successfully managed to avoid Emma and Sophia the entire day while still getting Sophia in trouble and keeping the heat off of me.

Would the PRT start looking into the locker thing back in January? Maybe. That was pretty far back for them to delve though since they thought that Hive was a new trigger and even if they did, I had played up the whole 'can't be human' thing so effectively while Taylor was sitting in class being a good little student. So I doubted that they'd jump straight to me being the prime suspect. Sure, they could suspect I was the Master that I actually was, but why go for complicated when simple was right there?

Now to just check and make sure I hadn't killed Madison by accident and I'd be golden for the day! Of course, if I had killed Madison by accident then I had probably screwed myself by talking with Militia and setting them onto Sophia. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers. If push came to shove, I could hide out with Amy while she smuggled me out of the city. Probably. She'd do that right?

I frowned and stopped to lean against the nearby wall. I took a breath and examined my last few thoughts again.

Goddammit not again! I'd pushed the shunt too far with Greg this morning and I was still dealing with the backlash. Riding the annoyance high with Miss Militia earlier, and now the happy high with a job well done at the moment. A high that was apparently good enough to cut through my paranoia about my father finding out about me through the PRT's scrutiny. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Sometimes I hate my powers. I really need to figure out the limits on this stupid emotion shunt before I get myself into trouble that I can't pull back out of. Shaking my head, I tried to focus in on the priorities and push through the emotional overload. At least there was very little chance of me messing things up with Madison, even if I was still riding a rollercoaster. What was the worst that could happen?

"I could freak out when I see her and go all Carrie on her," I muttered to myself. "Maybe I should wait…No, I need to know if I should be running for the hills or not. Stupid powers."

It took me an extra half hour to get to Madison's home and by then I had gotten enough of a handle on myself that I was reasonably certain I was mostly back to normal. Or least normal enough that I could function without getting into trouble. I stayed away from her house proper. I stayed away from her street actually. I walked down about four blocks away to give myself enough distance that nobody should be noticing me. Then I sent some of the swarm in to check on the tiny tormentor.

The flies didn't have much trouble getting into her room. Her window wasn't open much, but even the sliver it was cracked open by was enough for the bugs to slip through. I threaded a few smaller spiders through the crack as well since their eyes were a bit easier for me to see through.

Good news was, Madison wasn't dead. Woohoo!

Bad news was, if Madison's friends at school could see her now, she'd probably wish she was. Also woohoo?

Her brown hair was disheveled, and looked like it hadn't been brushed in weeks. She wasn't wearing any makeup; I don't think I'd ever seen her without makeup. She had bags under her eyes and her skin was pale enough that one could probably be forgiven for thinking she was a vampire. There was a blanket draped around her shoulders and she was sitting cross-legged in her chair typing away at her computer in sweats with a pencil tucked behind her ear and a notepad beside the laptop.

"What the hell? Since when did Madison become a pariah?" I muttered nearly missing the curb in my shock over the other girl's state.

My bugs caught her shifting positions as she finished typing and stretched. "So, Hive has issues with the PRT then? Good for her. If they can keep people like Sophia, it's better that she doesn't join up with them. Nobody should have to be anywhere near the psychopath…I should've stayed here to begin with. I should've fought harder. If only I could be strong like Hive…"

I rubbed at my temples and groaned. "Oh you have got to be kidding me. This cannot be happening."

"Madison sweetie! Are you going to come to dinner tonight?" a voice shouted from inside the house.

"Can I eat up here, Mom?" she shouted back.

"You've eaten in your room for the past three days! You will eat with us tonight!"

Madison hunched in on herself and wrung her hands. She was quiet for several long seconds before shouting back. "Fine! Give me five minutes to close down my chats with my friends."

"Five minutes."

"Okay," she twisted back to the laptop and started typing again. "Message All_Seeing_Eye with thanks for the Protectorate passwords, message GstringGirl to confirm the game at 10 tonight, and message Void_Cowboy to shove Hive's official confirmation of being a swarm in his face. Aaaannd link sent. Okay. Done. I'll be down in a moment, Mom!"

I pulled back and my attention trying and failing to contain my annoyance. When the hell did the world go insane? When did Madison become a shut-in computer nerd who was apparently my biggest fan and despised Sophia almost as much as me?

I couldn't deal with this right now. I had other things to worry about. Like how in the hell I was supposed to go out and deal with gangs as both Queen and Hive at the same time.

Yeah…that was going to be a fun day tomorrow…

Before I walked off though I paused, a thought flashing through my mind. Queen and Hive would need a base of operations. And if Madison was a fan, maybe I should put her to work, make her do something for me for once. Smirking, I set my bugs to grabbing for her notepad as she went down to dinner with her family.

Hello, Madison. I hear you enjoy my work. Perhaps you would know of a few locations I could use for a base in the future? I find myself in need of accommodations in the near future. If you wish to send to something my way, here is my handle.

-Watchbug, aka, Hive

\/\/\/\/

"Hello, Taylor," my father said as I closed the front door to our home. A chill went through my spine and I clamped down on my reflexive shiver. I reached for the shunt out of reflex. It was back. Thank god. I shoved my anxiety into the swarm and nodded to Danny.

"Hey, Dad. How was your day?" I moved into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of juice while moving a fly onto his shoulder to keep an eye on him.

"Productive. Yours?"

"School, so same as always. Greg is obsessed with capes again. Nothing new. I'm kinda tired. I'm just going to go up and do some homework then go to bed, okay?"

My father leaned forward from his place at the desk in the living room and set his papers to the side. "Your friend is the one that is fairly knowledgeable about most of the capes in the Bay isn't he?"

I bit back my first reply and had to cut off my second one as well. I should've gone with something about Sophia or Emma. He never cared about the bullying and that would've let me get away easily enough. "Greg is not my friend, Dad. I've told you this. He just sits near me. He's annoying. Nothing more."

"Yes, you did mention that." My father leaned back and ran his fingers over his temple. "I'm sorry, it's been a long day and I have a large headache. Tell me, Taylor, did your friend say anything about the new cape? I heard that she was a bug user."

"Someone on PHO seems to think she's made of bugs actually. That's what Greg was saying. I don't know anything dad. You know I stay away from that stuff. Can I go do my homework now?" Please just let me do my homework. Please. My shunt was running out of time. I'd pushed too hard today. I needed to get out of here.

"Of course, of course. Have a nice night, Taylor."

"Yeah, you too, Dad."

He was already bent back over his paperwork with his phone in hand as I scurried up the stairs.

I shut my door and collapsed onto my bed as I listened with the fly's senses. "Yes, yes, get more info on Hive. See if we can co-opt her. From the reports it doesn't look like she's amenable to the Protectorate so if we can get into her good graces we might be able to step into that gap before it closes…Yes, I heard that there was going to be a second cape. From what I can see, we have a small chance of recruiting them both. But you need to move carefully. Very carefully. In addition, I need you to make sure that we get the operation setup for the transport. They should be moving the Bird in about two weeks. I want everything to go smoothly. The bank was a problem. Redeem yourself or you may become more trouble than you are worth. I don't have to play at having two lives forever and you know far too much to be allowed to roam free if I give up this charade permanently…Remember, your usefulness ends when I say it does. Have a pleasant night."

My father hung up the phone and I pulled the pillow over my head, forcing down the urge to cry. 'We all take orders from someone' indeed. It sounded like Tattletale was just as trapped as I was. At least in my case though, the executioner didn't realize that he had the noose around my neck.

I needed to get out of this house. I couldn't keep doing this…

\/\/\/\/

AN: As many have guessed, there's not much point in staying coy about it; yes, Danny is the local equivalent of Coil. His power is not quite the same as Calvert's, though it is in a very similar vein. And no, he has no idea currently that Taylor is a Cape so he has no concerns about taking his work home with him sometimes.

Last edited: Apr 20, 2020

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Slider214

Sep 24, 2019

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Slider214

Slider214

He/Him

Sep 27, 2019

#42

AN: Thanks again to my beta Grey Raven 09 for his assistance! I think this is the longest chapter yet in this fic. Next segment will probably be an interlude to close out the current arc.

\/\/\/\/

Split 04

I tossed and turned for hours before finally giving up. It seemed sleep was not going to be in the cards for me anytime soon tonight. Not that it was really all that surprising, after the day I'd had. So instead of lying sweaty and scared in my bed, I decided to go be sweaty and scared outside.

I gathered my swarm from around the nearby blocks and started directing it to move towards the warehouse district. This would be so much easier if I could just control the entire group at once instead of only a couple hundred or thousand with the rest just sort of following in their wake. If I was going to be working side by side with Hive, I might be really hamstrung. Well, Queen would be. That might be a good thing though. I could definitely play up the recon nature of my second persona then, make her seem like a weak master, someone that Hive recruited to provide long range recon, while she acted as the heavy hitter. Queen could also, officially, be a healer for the Case 53, someone who could bring in more bugs to patch holes in Hive, in case her swarm started to lose cohesion. That should net me some sympathy points on PHO since there was probably no way to avoid a person being made of bugs being inherently creepy in general.

The dual range dynamic would work well. It would require me to focus on many different aspects at once, but I could concentrate the directly controlled sections of the swarm into different areas of the fight and still maintain control over the largest number of bugs, keeping the swarm as a whole intact. In the meantime, I could continue to direct Hive however I needed at any given moment.

I smiled as I shimmied down the gutter next to my window. This could work. This WOULD work!

Taking direct control of a few roaches I kept close to my house, I directed them to grab my costume from where it was hidden in the woods nearby and bring it to me, while I dropped onto the lawn and hurried to meet up with my bugs. A minute to don my spider silk bodysuit and, boom, I was Queen! Forming up Hive besides me as I stepped under a street lamp and, just in case someone happened to be watching nearby, I high fived my construct and we started jogging.

Time to make good on my threat. Realistically, I only had one possible target, the Merchants were too mobile to easily strike, the E88 had too much in the way of cape firepower to call in. At least the ABB only had three powers on their side. Oni Lee was the biggest immediate threat. Lung I could avoid, and honestly what kind of Tinker would be patrolling in the dead of night? No. Bakuda was likely sleeping or working. Oni Lee's grenades would be the biggest problem, Queen wouldn't be close enough to be spotted and stabbed, but do enough damage to Hive and it'd be a pain to pull together enough bugs to rebuild her.

I made good time to the docks. It only took me twenty minutes and while I was enroute Hive was able to web up one mugger in her spiders and I nabbed a strung-out Merchant who thought it was a good idea to approach not one, but two capes and try to hold us up. I hadn't even had to use any powers for that one. Just dodged to the side as he swung his pipe and decked him with a baton to the back of the head. The rush was awesome.

I scowled under my mask as I arrived in ABB territory proper. If I was getting a rush off of an encounter like the last, maybe that was why my dad became such bastard; it would be easy to become addicted to it. Hive slapped the back of my head and I turned to glare at my construct which just crossed its arms and glared right back.

"Not so many emotions for you, thank you," I muttered, drawing back the anxiety and giddiness I had been feeding into the swarm. My construct immediately grew a bit more docile and nodded back to me. This was going to take some getting used to. Splitting my mind in two while I was sitting in class was one thing. That was easy, I had been doing parlor tricks like that for months. I could probably have twenty different projections going at once with no sweet. It was making sure that Hive looked and acted real while still paying enough attention to my own body so that I looked and acted normal too…that was what was going to be tough. This should be a good trial run as much as anything else.

Keeping Hive jogging beside me, I sent a few fliers out to scout the nearby warehouses. Mini-clusters of five to ten bees were more than enough to check out the giant spaces to see if there was anything nefarious going on. Unfortunately, I kept coming up blank. My eyes narrowed and my lips curled as I pushed the swarm further out, expanding into some of the apartment buildings a few blocks over. Still nothing. I started to growl under my breath before slapping my head and glancing at Hive. A moment later, I pushed my annoyance towards her swarm cluster. As the bugs accepted the emotion, Hive's steps picked up the pace and she started jogging a bit faster than me. Not just jogging, she started to run and turned the corner ahead, angling to a building to the left. I frowned and focused in on the cluster that had been exploring that building.

The cluster was dead.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me!" I spat. "Stupid rookie mistake! Lose the tree in the forest. Step up your game Queen."

Now I was talking myself again, great. And apparently my swarm knew itself better than I did. And it was my power. Yeah, because this didn't have the potential to get weird real fast.

I pulled a majority of the swarm clusters back and regrouped them, feeling for a way into the building. The ABB was good, but not good enough. Both Hive and I smiled at the same time. These gang members weren't thinking three dimensionally at all. All of the lower windows and doors were fumigated, nothing was on the upper windows nor was there anything on the ventilation exhaust at the roof.

Hive flowed into the warehouse through the windows while I set the wasp and spider clusters flying down through the vents. As Hive reformed, I pushed determination and eagerness into her and directed Queen's own flying arsenal to hold off for the moment.

"One chance," Hive stated to the eight ABB members as she did the equivalent of cracking the mantises that passed for her knuckles. "Stand down and I won't hurt you."

One of the asians smirked and grabbed a spray bottle from the floor beside him. "We're not as stupid as the Merchants, little girl. How about a counter offer? You leave like you came in and we don't kill all of those creepy crawlies and make this one of the shortest careers of a new Independent ever?"

Hive smiled, the expression a bit more horrific than it was probably intended to be since her head was mostly hollow and the back was composed of centipedes.

"Nice try. But see, you'd have to be able to pull the trigger for that to work." Hive darted forward and slammed her buggy fist into the first gang member. Getting hit by one bug? Nothing. Getting a haymaker to your stomach from a hundred at once was going to sting. Or, in the unfortunate gang member's case, knock you flat on your ass desperately wheezing for air.

A second ABB member tried to spray Hive with the bug spray, only to find that my spiders had locked the safety on with enough layers of silk that those idiots would need to set fire to the entire can to get it off. "Thanks Queen!" Hive shouted as she punched another gang member. A third tried to tackle her, though her bugs just reformed after he'd passed through. Amusingly enough, with a good two dozen hornets on him and well as dozens of centipedes. The unfortunate goon was taken out quickly once my critters started attacking him.

One guy had the intelligence, or cowardice, to run. Unfortunately for him, Queen still had several groups of fliers in reserve. Having them dive bomb him and string him up was simple enough. The final few thugs fell to Hive as she dispersed into her swarm and the entire cluster set themselves upon the remaining gang members. A few cries of pain later, and it was all over.

\/\/\/\/

The building itself had been a good target. I had freed four girls from their beds before Queen and Hive finished our walkthrough of the location. I pushed my rage into Hive whose swarm started to audibly chitter in anger as she searched for the keys to free the girls. I was like a zombie as I moved between two beds and helped the girls stand and walk to the door. I covered their eyes as we walked past the downed ABB members. I broke my promise to Amy from back in the ice cream shop and I had a few of my precious bullet ants airlifted over from their nest and bite each of the ABB thugs. Their screams were muffled through the silk gags. It wasn't enough. Hive looked back to me and nodded, a determined line across her otherwise nearly featureless face.

"Can everyone hold up here for a moment?" I asked holding up a hand. Hive stopped and the girls looked back to me. "Thanks, let me just scout out ahead and make sure it's safe. I'm sorry I didn't do it on the way down, I got a bit distracted."

"That's okay," the one raven haired girl mumbled. "We can go home soon. As long as Lung doesn't get here first, take as long as you want. They don't report in for another two hours and the…clients don't show up until 3."

Thank god my rage was with Hive. My construct's form fizzed out for a moment as her insects buzzed hard enough to lose their hold on one another. "Keep it together, Hive. We gotta finish up and get these girls home."

I reconnected with the swarm I had left patrolling the area as we started the battle. Most of them were reporting all conditions normal. One group at the edge of my range had detected Oni Lee a moment before I made contact, but he was already leaving their radius heading away from us, so I wasn't worried. The only real concern was that one group of flies was circling a garbage can in the alley outside. And had apparently met up with someone.

Fuck. I apparently needed to work on my multitasking…

"Everyone stay inside. Hive, we have company, though she's alone. I'll go chat and I'll call for backup if needed. Can you protect the girls?"

She held up her hand in an okay sign. "Gotcha covered, Queen. Go show the bitch why it's not nice to watch and refuse to help."

"Yeah, that's your thing. I'm here to talk. Hence why you stay inside, hun." I said blowing a kiss over my shoulder as I walked out the door. I kicked the bug bombs to the side as I did, shielding my critters from the smoke.

I walked to the alleyway and folded my arms, leaning against the wall as I stared at the girl in the purple and black bodysuit sitting on the pile of rocks across from me. "Tattletale."

"Hello again. What name are you going by so that this doesn't get awkward?"

"Queen."

"Queen it is then," she said a small smirk crossing her face for a moment. "That's appropriate. How large is your swarm Queen? If you don't mind me asking that is."

"I do actually. That seems like privileged information," I said back glaring through my mask.

Tattletale shrugged. "Well can't blame a girl for trying." She cocked her head to the side and chuckled. "You know you're incredibly hard to read. I almost didn't realize you were fucking with your emotions until we had almost screwed the pooch at the bank. A bit more and I would've gone too far with you and set you off since your shit was all messed up. That wouldn't have ended well for anyone - me, you, the customers, anyone really. I'm sorry about that by the way. I didn't…no that's not fair. I did mean to push that hard. I like getting a rise out of people. It's fun. I don't like actually hurting them though. Will you tell your friend I'm sorry? I honestly didn't think she would take it as hard as she did. She's known this stuff for ages, otherwise I'd have no clue about it."

I slowly nodded and pulled back some of my optimism from Hive. "I'll pass it along. What are you doing here Tattletale?"

She sighed and leaned back against the rock pile staring at the sky. "We both know the answer to that. The other reason why I ran right the hell away."

My mouth went dry and I shunted everything I could into Hive. Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck! "Son of a bitch!" I spat. Apparently Hive didn't get all of my emotions. I was going to hit my shunt limit soon if I wasn't careful. That wasn't super important at the moment. Finishing this conversation while I could functionally complete it was much higher priority than staying emotionally stable. "I knew you worked for him, but fuck!"

"Yeah, the situation is not exactly ideal." Tattletale waved as she sat up. She hesitated a brief moment and then reached up to pull off her mask. She smiled at me, saluted and then pulled the domino mask back onto her head. "I'm Lisa. Now we're even."

"Not remotely. You can destroy me."

"And you can get me killed by just walking away tonight, Taylor. Your dad is not a nice guy and he expects results. I pissed him off too much while finding his limits. It's what I do, I can't really help myself," she shrugged. "He has a temper in case you haven't noticed. At the moment, I'm very useful. Once I stop showing results that changes and I'll get a bullet in the head. Right now, he doesn't know Queen is you, he just wants the new cape under his thumb."

"He can't honestly think that I'm going to join the Undersiders!" I clenched my fists and the swarm near the dumpster buzzed as they oriented themselves towards Tattletale. "I'm not a hero, but I'm not working for HIM!"

Tattletale held up her hands and shook her head. "No, no, that's not what I'm saying. I don't want to work for him either Queen. I'm just, not quite sure how to get away yet. Give me time, okay? For the moment, just…can you just take this phone? Please?" She held a cell phone out to me and hopped off the bricks to step closer. "It doesn't have a tracker, and I broke the GPS, I don't need either, I know who you are already. It's just for show. To prove to him that you're willing to think about it. That I can still be useful. Please? You don't have to like me. I'm just asking for you to not let your dad kill me just because you two are annoyed with each other. Please don't make me a pawn in this squabble."

The swarm quieted down as I looked from the phone in her hand to her face. I frowned and then my lips quirked up into a half grin. "Isn't that what you want to make me into one day?"

Tattletale blinked and that same cat-got-the-canary grin from earlier spread on her face again as she laughed. "You are good! But you're not a pawn, Queen and I don't want to use you like one; I was hoping for a partnership. I just need to show you that I'm legit! I know you don't trust me yet. How can you, knowing who I work for? I promise, when I have something concrete to bring you, something that can prove which side I'm on, I'll contact you. Until then, we can work together to take down your dad. Sound like a plan?"

"Answer me one thing first." Her eyes narrowed though she nodded. "How did you find out my father was Coil?"

Tattletale just laughed at that. "Would you believe initially by chance? I hang out on the Boardwalk a lot. He's still technically part of the Dockworkers Union and while he doesn't spend much time in that capacity there's a few functions he can't avoid. I walked past once while shopping. It was a hop skip and a jump to figure out who he was once I heard his voice. Backtracking his identity was easy at that point."

I snorted and the swarm fully settled down. I shook her hand and took the phone. "To think, I had to work for weeks to figure out where the hell he disappeared to and you just walk past him. Doesn't seem very fair. Anyway, sounds like a plan. And if you need to get out in a hurry, let me know. I'll see if I can contact a few friends."

"Will do. Thanks for this, Queen. You really have no idea what this means. Great catch tonight by the way." She frowned and turned to the side slightly. "Damn. And good luck with the fallout. I swear this girl has the worst timing ever." Without pausing to explain, she twisted and ran deeper into the alley.

"Hey! What the hell was that supposed to mean?!"

"You're working with villains?" I froze at the sound of that very feminine, very pissed off, voice resonating through the alleyway behind me. Turning, I gazed up at Glory Girl floating about two feet off of the ground and glaring at me with her fists clenched.

"Oh, uh, hi Glory Girl!" Oh shit, she had probably seen me shaking hands with Tattletale - she had excellent vision, even without it that would have been obvious, though I didn't think her package came with improved hearing too. Small mercies. I called for Hive as I tried to think of any way to placate the very annoyed hero in front of me. "I'm not working with her, I'm just not arresting her. There's a big difference there."

"No. There is not." Glory Girl's lip lifted into a snarl. I saw/felt Hive jump out of the main door and start to make her way to me. Backup. Bug backup against someone who was basically Alexandria Jr. if she decided to attack. Great. "Tattletale is a villain."

"And I'm an Independent. I need informants, people on the street willing to tell me where the real bad guys are. Like the people in this building. I can search using my powers, but like Hive and I found out tonight, that's really hard and we have to get lucky. Tattletale is just a thief. These people rape and kidnap others. There's a significant difference."

"A villain is a villain," Glory Girl spat. What? What the hell kind of philosophy was that? "Every villain still on the streets means another innocent that could get hurt."

Hive stepped between me and Glory Girl as the girls from inside crowded around the door to the building. "Hello again Glory Girl," Hive said nodding her head in greeting. "Look far be it from me to intrude here, but you do know that there's gray everywhere right? Hell even the damn Nazis take care of their own and watch out for the people under their protection. That's better than scum like the Merchants or psychos like the Nine. Very few things in this crappy world are black or white, completely hero or totally villain. Maybe just Hero and Gray Boy, the former is dead and actually, come to think of it, so is the latter."

Glory Girl didn't even seem to hear a word that Hive was saying. I had to actually stop for a second to check and make sure that the swarm that made her up had vocalized that little speech. "And now you're corrupting this sweet kid too! That blonde bitch messed my sister up enough that she moved out!" Ah, there was the real problem. Amy. Wait…I was corrupting who now? "And you let her get away!"

Oh shit.

I had no time to react. Glory Girl surged down from her position, arm outstretched ahead of her like some horrible mockery of one of those ancient Superman comics. She burst through Hive like she was tissue paper, squashing over two dozen bugs on her path. Then the flying brick hit me.

And my world was pain.

\/\/\/\/

"What the fuck did you do?!" Hive screamed sending a swarm of hornets and black widows towards Glory Girl as her body reformed. She dropped to one knee and reached out to touch Queen's neck feeling for a pulse. She already knew she'd find it. She had to find it otherwise she wouldn't exist. This was weird. Taylor was mostly out of it. Queen, basically, was unconscious. Taylor was essentially, for all the important purposes, dying. Bugs swarmed over Taylor and between their eyes, ears and other myriad senses, including Taylor's own, Hive was able to get a semi-diagnosis. Collapsed lung, three cracked ribs, one floating dangerously close to the stomach, shit Taylor had parasites didn't she? Hive would never be able to get this much detail without some sort of parasitic infection. Well that could be dealt with later on. Saving Taylor was what needed to be done in the moment.

Hive felt her control over her swarm slipping as Taylor drifted further away. She grimaced and slipped a spidery hand into Taylor's pocket pulling out the old prepaid phone.

A hacking cough behind her alerted her that the fliers she had sent against Glory Girl had been swatted away. She drew more bugs out of her central mass and sent them to their deaths against the cape. Just had to keep her busy a little longer. Fuck. Fuck, fuck! The flies weren't strong enough to press the buttons and the spiders were too big!

A roach slithered down her arm and hovered over the mobile phone. Finally, she managed to get the insect to depress the speed dial. The other end rang once, twice, three times before it finally picked up and a yawn issued through the speaker. "Ta - "

"This is Hive!" she shouted over Amy's sleepy half greeting. "Glory Girl just caved in my partner's chest! We're on," she consulted the mini-cluster at the edge of the street, "Fifth and Grace! Help!"

All traces of sleep had vanished from Amy's voice as she replied, "Keep her alive for three minutes. I'll be right there." The line went dead.

It was all Hive could do to hold her form together as more and more bugs started to drift away into the alley around them.

\/\/\/\/

I heard angry muttering sounds first. A dim part of my brain chimed in that they were voices, but who the voices belonged to escaped me for the moment. It was dark wherever I was. Mostly dark. Except where it was light too. There was actually a lot of light. Huh. I could see out of a lot of eyes apparently. A LOT of eyes. How could I do that again? Oh wait, voices meant people. I wasn't hearing them through me, I was hearing them through the eyes. That didn't sound right. Sound. Sound wrong? See right?

"Oh crap, she gave me too much," something muttered near my ear. "Amy, hang on a sec, she might flail in a moment."

"I got her," a second thing replied. Replied. That was a funny word. I think I knew that voice. Why was my chest warm?

The next moment, the world nearly exploded as my mind flooded back into my body. All of the bugs around me chittered and flew and ran in circles as my control went wild. Hive's body briefly surged into a swarm of hornets and roaches before reforming nearly instantly and gaining almost four inches in height and my mini-clusters recoalesced right after, marching back to their patrols. My back arched and forced my chest up into Amy's hand, my arms slapping down onto the pavement next to me and a hoarse scream tore from my throat.

"Queen, it's okay! You're okay! Panacea is here and she's healing you, calm down!" Hive shouted. She tried to use her spidery hand to push me back down but I dissolved her arm and screamed again. Something was still wrong. How was Hive acting without me telling her what to do? Where was I? What had HAPPENED?!

"Aunt Sarah, help!"

Another set of hands landed on my shoulders and pushed me back to the pavement as I sucked in another breath to scream again. Hive pushed more of herself at me and the scream died in my throat. She lost a bit of cohesion and I had to manually shore her up and draw her arm back together as my aborted scream turned into a raggedy gasp.

Glory Girl had punched me. She had punched me and I had flown 30 feet down the alley. Wait, that wasn't my memory, that Hive's? Wait, fuck! When had Amy gotten here? Did Glory Girl call her? Did…I blinked and twisted my head, Hive smiled and waved…did Hive call her.

What sort of monster creation had I made? Hive was me, a swarm with my mind controlling her…wasn't she?

"I-I'm okay," I rasped. My throat was still sore. Great. Whatever, problem for another day. I looked through my bugs and saw that the other person holding me down was Lady Photon. Okay, that explained how Amy had gotten here before I bled out. "You can let go now. I'm okay."

"Actually, you're not. I'm still healing you." Amy said barely seeming to be paying any attention to the world around her at all. "Did you know you have a thirteenth rib? Cause you do. It also broke off and was about an eighth of an inch away from puncturing your stomach and letting the acid into your internal cavity. Not a fun way to go. I should have the rib fixed in another few seconds. Then you'll be okay. So stop fucking moving and let me finish!"

"…Okay," I replied gulping.

Lady Photon at least did let go of my shoulders and stood up. She tried to smile down reassuringly at me. "It's not as bad as my niece is saying. She tries to scare people who get hurt so that they don't go and do something stupid again. We got here in more than enough time, even if things had gotten…bad."

Hive clenched her fists and did a good job of glaring at the adult hero considering she didn't actually have proper eyes. "Queen didn't do anything stupid," she growled, the sound coming out as a rattle of roach hissing and mantis legs clacking together. Very intimidating. Well done Hive. Wish I'd thought of that…"That was your other niece."

I looked through Hive's eyes and found myself inordinately pleased when Glory Girl held one elbow with her other arm crossed over her chest and cast her eyes dejectedly at the ground, shifting her weight from foot to foot. "Your partner let a villain go…I saw them shaking hands and then Tattletale just walked away. We can't let villains go. It's not right!"

Photon clenched a hand over her chest and visibly drew in a deep breath and let it out before turning to Glory Girl. "Victoria. Do yourself a favor and shut up! I'm half a mind to ban you from patrols for a month and force you into those classes about necessary force and acceptable targets that we've discussed in the past! Don't push me right now. You won't like the consequences."

"That villain fucked up Amy!"

"That villain may have been the catalyst, but your sister's problems with her mother go much deeper than anything that 30 seconds in a bank would bring up, Victoria. I should've stepped in long ago, I didn't and now we are reaping the consequences. I don't know what Carol has told you, but we will discuss this at home."

"No, we will discuss this now," Amy said standing. She extended her hand down to me and pulled me to my feet. "I'm done, you're all healed Queen. Better than before, even, since I had to get rid of a few extra passengers."

"Thanks," I muttered. I tried to smile at her though it felt forced even to me. I checked my shunt. It was still there, but mostly empty. Hive only had the bare minimum to remain functional, My body was mostly operating at normal levels of human emotion. Fantastic. Considering how fucked up my mind had been when I woke up, I didn't dare send anything through that connection right now.

"Amy, Victoria, we should discuss this at home," Photon said glancing between the two.

Amy took a step back from her aunt, putting herself closer to me and Hive. "We…we can't Aunt Sarah. I'm not going home. Not to Carol's house, or to yours."

"What? Amy what are you talking about?"

Amy cringing, collapsing in on herself. I almost reached out to her myself before remembering that officially she knew Hive better. I started to direct my construct towards her but she was already laying a hand on Amy's shoulder and squeezing softly.

Seriously, what the fuck had I created?

"Thank you for letting me stay with you for a bit, Aunt Sarah. But I can't. I just, I just can't. If I stay with you then I have to be part of New Wave still. I wouldn't feel right staying in your home with you, Crystal, Eric, and Neil. I would have to keep healing, keep covering for Vicky. I just…every time Vicky! Thirty-six times! Thirty-six! If it wasn't for me covering your messes you would've killed more people than Stormtiger, Rune, Crusader, and Purity combined! Nazis, Vicky! You have a higher body count than Nazis! Tonight, you almost killed a girl, a new hero, for prioritizing rapists and murderers over a lone teenager who's biggest two jobs have been a casino heist where only the ABB has been damaged and a bank job that got foiled halfway through. By Queen's partner! I can't, I can't cover for you anymore Vicky. You have to learn your limits. You have to learn how to hold back and if I stay you're never going to do that."

Glory Girl staggered back as if she'd been slapped. I suppose in a way, she had been. "You don't mean that, Ames."

"Do you know why I stayed for so long? I've wanted to stop for months. I've wanted to put up more of a fight. Every time you call me with a 'problem' I convince myself it's going to be the last time. That this time will be different. That you'll feel bad instead of just laughing it off. But nothing changes. Except I die inside a little more each time. Because you don't even care what it does to me. What happens if I don't make it in time Vicky? Do we just hide the body? Throw it into the bay and hope it never washes up again? Or do you ask me to liquify it? I'm an accessory either way. And I'd do it too. It'd prove Carol right, but I'd do it. I'd be a goddamn monster, just like my dad, because you asked me to do it. Because you had to be protected."

"I never would've asked that of you Amy," Glory Girl said softly. She started to float closer to my friend. Amy took two steps back, using me and Hive as a wall to protect her from her sister. Lady Photon had her eyes closed and her hands clenched at her sides. She must have seen this coming ever since Amy had shown up at her doorstep, otherwise she would've stopped the yelling before now. Right? That was what parents did, right? I, I think that's what my mom would've done…had it really been so long since I'd had her, had any parent, hell had any competent adult, in my life that I'd forgotten?

"You wouldn't have to ask," Amy sobbed. "Because I LOVE YOU!" You could have dropped a pin and gone deaf at the noise in the silence following that declaration. Amy let it hang until Glory Girl backpedaled in midair and hung besides Lady Photon, her hands limp at her sides and her mouth hanging open as she stared at her sister.

"You…you what?"

"I'm immune to poison, Vicky, not emotions!" Amy spat. "You and your goddamn aura! You never shut it off. I'm always exposed and you take me everywhere. Then you add in that we aren't actually related and of course I'm going to fall for the perfect goddess who can do no wrong! You were the only one in that family that ever even tried to care about me, Vicky. Mark was a good dad when he was on his meds, but he's never on his meds. Carol hates me and she never made a secret of it. I've known since I was eight that she despised me. I figured out why when I was twelve. I didn't even do anything. It's just what I could do because of who I am. You were all I had and your aura ramped that up to a billion! I'd die for you in a heartbeat! AND I HATE THAT! I didn't have a choice, I never had a choice! I just want a choice in who I love!" I didn't have to turn around or even look through my critters to know there were tears streaming down Amy's face. Her hiccupping sobs were more than enough of a giveaway even if the raw pain in her voice wasn't there for everyone to hear.

She had not gone into remotely enough detail when she bought me ice cream. And I thought my home life was messed up. This girl really needed a hug. And lots of commiserating sweets while she had a shoulder to cry on.

"Amy, I, that's," Glory Girl stopped and shook her head hard enough that her curls flopped against her face. "No! No, you can't feel that way, Amy! It's wrong! We'll call Gallant, maybe he can help. I can get control. I didn't know! I can, I can do something. We can get you help. Just come home."

"I can't go back. I can't. I need to be away from you and away from Carol. And if I'm with you, Aunt Sarah, I'm never going to stay out of New Wave business. I need…I need a fresh start. I'm sorry, I just can't."

Lady Photon stared at Amy with glistening eyes. "I wish you had told me all of this sooner, Amy. I could've helped."

"It's not your fault, Aunt Sarah."

"I'm the leader of New Wave and your aunt, it really is," she said with a bitter laugh. "Where will you go?"

Amy turned to Hive, and the swarm girl looked back, "Were you still trying to recruit?"

Hive shifted several insects to approximate a blink of surprise. Well that was cool. "Yeah, I guess. Um, are you asking to join up?"

Amy smiled though it didn't reach her tear-filled eyes. "If you'll have me."

"We have cookies," I chimed in. "You healed me tonight and helped Hive the other day. I figure that deserves an entire plate of cookies along with a t-shirt. One of us can have the swarm make you one. It'll be bulletproof too so…maybe I should've led with that."

Photon looked between me and Hive, finally focusing on the bug girl. "Promise me you'll keep her safe. So help me, I will hunt you down if you get my niece hurt."

"We'll protect her," Hive replied shaking her head. I wasn't sure if I should be insulted or not that everybody was looking to my construct as the leader instead of me. Though considering that I had basically introduced Hive to Miss Militia as the leader of the group, I guess that did make sense. This was so weird.

"Okay. Amy, if you ever change your mind or want to come home, we'll always be there for you. Don't ever forget that."

"I won't, Aunt Sarah. Thank you."

"Victoria, time to go. Fly to my home. We're not done talking. Not by a long shot."

"But," Glory Girl looked between me, Hive, Amy, and Photon. "We can't just leave her! We don't even know anything about them! We can't just - "

"Victoria. Go. To. My. Home. Now!"

I thought that the blonde was going to argue again, but instead she just slumped and nodded. Without even looking at Amy she rocketed into the sky arcing out over the streets.

Photon rubbed at her temples and muttered a curse under her breath. She turned back to us and nodded, casting a final smile towards Amy. "I hope you can find peace, Amy. Please call me when you get settled. All three of you get out of here. I'll take care of the women you found and make sure they get home safe."

As she turned and walked back into the building, Amy turned to look at me, this time ignoring my companion. "So…do you have a place that I can stay at that isn't all…" she grimaced and waved her hands in front of her in what I guess could maybe called a child's version of a witch throwing out a magic spell, "you know."

I couldn't help it, I snorted with laughter. "Wow, Amy, that was impressive. You could just say evil you know. But to answer your question…maybe. Let's make a few calls and head towards one of my…" I paused and frowned as I thought about how best to describe this. Finally settling on the best modifier, I chuckled and Hive's bugs chittered along with me. "Or one of Hive's, I should say, biggest admirers."

"Huh?"

Hive gave a more proper laugh this time and she just slapped Amy on the back. "Trust me, you're going to enjoy this encounter. I know we will!"

Last edited: Apr 20, 2020

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Slider214

Sep 27, 2019

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Slider214

Slider214

He/Him

Oct 3, 2019

#59

Sorry for the delay in responding to anything, I was rather sick for the past few days and it was hard to concentrate on writing. But I'm finally feeling a bit better and my beta and I were able to get this chapter finished off!

\/\/\/\/

Interlude: 1.x

Sarah Pelham

Sarah closed the door to her house and rested her back against it for a moment trying to collect her thoughts and force her stomach back down. It didn't help, it didn't help at all. This entire situation was so far beyond screwed up that there was almost no recovering from it. Hopefully Crystal had done as she'd asked when she and Amy ran from the house originally, so that she didn't have to do this twice – or thrice – in one night.

Swallowing the last of the rising bile, she pushed off from the door and strode into the living room. Good. The entire family was there. Crystal was on the couch with Neil and Eric while Carol, Mark, and Victoria were sitting on the armchairs. She took her place at the center chair and crossed her arms as she sat. "Victoria, give me one good reason why we don't go directly to the PRT and the Protectorate. From what I'm given to understand, you can't seem to control yourself, and tonight certainly warrants it."

"Sarah! Just what are you accusing my daughter of now!" Carol yelled. "It's bad enough we have to be woken up to fly over here at 2 in the fucking morning, now you're saying Vicky has done something wrong? I hope you have proof!"

"This isn't a trial, Carol, and you should be thanking your lucky stars it isn't. If it was, she'd probably be up for attempted manslaughter by use of a parahuman ability." Sarah's declaration was like a bombshell and all potential whispering in the room stopped at that as the family's eyes rotated between Sarah and Victoria.

"It's true," Victoria murmured. "I was just so mad and I didn't think…Everyone has a brute rating of at least 1 these days in this city…I figured she could take one punch…I didn't mean to hurt her that bad…"

Crystal raised her hand and shook her head. "This should wait until Amy gets back."

"Amy is not coming back."

"Wh-what? What do you mean Amy isn't coming back, Mom?"

"Did I fucking stutter? Amy isn't coming back. Are you happy Carol? You've finally driven her away, for good this time. I knew you had issues, but I thought we agreed you would come to me if it GOT THIS BAD!"

Carol scowled and glared at Sarah who just continued to stare right back at her sister. Finally, Carol huffed and turned to the side. "We don't need her. We never should have taken her in."

"SHE'S YOUR DAUGHTER!"

"SHE WAS NEVER MY DAUGHTER! She's the misbegotten spawn of a monster and she was going to become a monster herself! Now that she is free of us, you just watch, she is going to show her true self any day now, and you'll see I was right to hate her," Carol sneered.

Mark and Victoria both stared open mouthed at the woman. Mark for his part wiped a hand down his face and leaned back in his chair. "And people say I need therapy. Carol, either you see someone starting tomorrow or I'm taking Victoria and we're leaving."

"You can't do that. They'll never give you custody with your condition."

Mark just smiled back at her. "Probably not, but I'd love to see how you keep custody when it's made aware how much you despise your other daughter, the miracle working Panacea of all people. I think I have a good chance, hun."

"I think it was my fault anyway," Victoria said wrapping her arms around her knees and pressing back into her chair. "That's what she said wasn't it, Aunt Sarah? That she needed to stay away from me because she, because she…"

Sarah groaned and held her head in her hands. She'd tried to forget about that little tidbit though of course it wouldn't go away. "That's…not entirely your fault, Vicky. Though it is another thing we badly need to talk about. Can you control your aura? Truly control it?"

"Maybe? Yes? I think so? I don't really know. I've never tried to fully suppress it. There wasn't ever a point. Dad needed cheering up, Mom is a bit of bitch so it couldn't hurt, Amy was supposed to be immune, so I always left it on at home. At school, Dean is there to counteract it and when he isn't it's just a few minutes for each person so I didn't really care enough to pull it in. I've been holding it inside since Amy said something and I think I can keep doing it, but I have to concentrate on it. I might get used to it enough to just flip it off and on like a setting, but I just don't know."

Sarah nodded. "Well, that'll do for now I suppose. Though we still haven't answered the other question, Vicky. Give me one reason why we don't take this to the PRT."

"Because they'd send me to the Birdcage," the blonde replied in a quiet, defeated voice.

That brought Sarah up short as bedlam broke out in her living room.

"Vicky what did you do?!"

"Vicky? Girl, seriously? What the hell happened!?"

"Not another word Victoria! Not, another, word."

"Vicky are you all right?"

"Vicky?"

"Sarah? Some explanations would be appreciated."

While her family argued, Sarah just frowned and held her head. Her niece was right. If things had escalated this far, they probably would send her to the Birdcage. If Amy had stepped forward earlier then things would be different, but now, it was too much, too far. If one person started to talk, then all of them would. A whole cascade would follow and any hope of clemency or just a short stay in juvie would go out the window. This was so far past the three strikes prerogative…goddammit. "Everyone, QUIET!"

She waited for the muttering to die down as she stood and turned to Victoria. "You're absolutely certain no one died because you couldn't control yourself?"

Victoria nodded, still refusing to move her eyes from the floor. "I didn't know it was that many people though. I didn't, Aunt Sarah, I swear. I thought it was just a few. I never kept count. I thought, I thought that Amy would say something if I ever was going too far…"

"It certainly sounds like she tried."

"And that I just didn't want to listen, I know," Victoria buried her head in her knees. "She's never going to forgive me is she? And now she probably thinks that I hate her because of how I left and what I said!"

"We can deal with that later," Sarah said. She hadn't meant for it to come out that harshly, but once it was out there was no taking it back. "Carol, what would be the penalty for thirty-six uses of a parahuman power that would necessitate healing by Amy to…"

"Survive," Victoria supplied.

Carol paled. "My firm just defended a girl being sent to the Birdcage for unintentionally using her power to maim her ex-boyfriend. All evidence showed she had no idea she was forcing him to do something, but the courts didn't want to hear it and I didn't feel like trying it because the girl did nothing beneficial with her powers except sing. I gave it to a less experienced lawyer. Granted he didn't do the best on the case, but he didn't have much to work with. She was going to go no matter what. That was one use. Victoria, tell me this is not right?"

"It's right Mom. And that monster you were talking about? Your daughter! She's the one who kept me from getting in trouble for it before now! She's the one who kept me from being brought up for killing a girl, a new hero, tonight! Oh god, I could've killed Hive too! Did you see how little there was left of her before Amy fixed Queen? Oh god, I'm the monster, I'm the fucking monster," The rest of Victoria's statement dissolved away into nothing as she descended into sobs. Crystal rose from her spot on the couch and went to hug her cousin as did Mark.

Sarah fell back into her chair shaking her head. "Alright, that settles it. We can't call the PRT despite however much it warrants it. Goddammit, Vicky. Okay, here's what we're going to do: Ball is in their court. If Queen and Hive want to press charges, we won't deny it, but we won't start things first as I'm not going to be the one to send my niece to the Birdcage. On the other hand, Vicky, you are barred from patrols, from ANY missions unless I personally give you the go-ahead. I'm calling in Yamada, she owes me one. She'll set up appointments for both you and Carol. Mark, if you want in, feel free. I highly recommend it, but I can't force you. In the meantime, it's getting light out and I need to go brief the Director on how Panacea is no longer with New Wave and that we're unsure whether she will be continuing her healing trends. Any questions? Good. Get some sleep, all of you. I need to get ready to talk with Piggot."

The living room again blew up in conversation and argument as Sarah stalked back out of the house and took to the air. It was times like this that she envied Mike. At least he had been able to walk away after Fleur. At least he had found some sort of peace.

\/\/\/\/

Madison

The tiny black-haired girl stretched as she shut down her computer. She squinted at the time and muttered, "Ugh, 3 AM? I really need to get back to a normal sleep cycle."

"Sleep is overrated," a chuckle sounded from behind her. Madison squeaked and spun her chair around grabbing for something to defend herself from the intruder. She managed to grab her coffee cup and chuck it in the general direction of the center of her room while her chair continued to spin only to hear it impact against one of her stuffed animals in the corner. "Wow, that's actually not bad aim, Madison. Nice shot! Too bad I'm not actually inside the room though."

She threw herself off of the chair and peaked over her bed. Her mouth fell open as she saw a small cluster of bugs in the center of her room. They formed into a small hand and waved at her. "Oh my gosh! You're Hive!"

"Yeah, more or less. Can you open the window? This is going to take forever if we talk like this and I have more friends outside."

"Sure, give me a second," Madison said, quickly scrambling over her bed and levering her window wide open from the small crack it been a moment ago. Looking into the alley below, she saw Hive's main body as well as two other girls. All three waved up at her.

"Hey," the tall one in the middle said saluting her, "do you want to come down or do you want us to come up? Depends how good sleepers your family is I guess." The way she talked sounded familiar, but Madison put it out of her mind for the moment. She could worry about that later.

Looking back to her bedroom door, she frowned and shook her head. "I'll come down to you. We can talk in the woods just past my backyard. Give me a moment to get down." She turned around levered herself out of the window reaching below for the foothold of the garage roof just off to the side. "You can do this, Madison, you can do this. Be strong. Be strong like you wanted to be." She felt her foot catch on the garage and slowly put her weight on it. Dropping onto the garage proper she smiled for an instant, before gravity took hold and she was falling backwards off of the garage and into the alley, her arms pinwheeling and a soft scream issuing forth.

She barely had time to even realize she was falling before she was caught by the tall, armored girl, both of them nearly falling to the pavement as the girl sagged under her. "Damn, you really are light," the girl muttered. "All right get up, I'm not carrying you the whole way, Madison."

Madison frowned as she shakily stood and turned to look at the grey clad hero standing near Hive and the...was that Panacea in civilian clothes? Holy cow. What the hell had she wandered into? "Um, do I know you?"

"Yeah actually, you do. But we'll get to that when we're under cover. You said the woods?"

"Y-yes, this way," Madison said waving the trio forward. As she hurried to her little spot in the woods, she wracked her brain trying to find who would fit this mystery hero. No one immediately came to mind. The only one close was one of her online friends, but none of them seemed to fit quite right. Cowboy maybe, but she was nearly certain that was Greg Veder and the day Greg showed up on her door in drag was the day she gave up everything. Trying to help people to make up for her old mistakes was one thing. Trying to help Greg was…entirely different. Besides, he'd called her a pervert!

The four of them settled into her little clearing and Madison looked around. Before anyone could speak though, Hive smiled. "Did you get my message?"

Madison nodded back, a grin forming. "I did! I've been looking up some places you might like to use. I have a list back in my room. Some are old warehouses that aren't being used. Others are places on the docks that haven't seen a tenant in ages though you might want to be careful about those. I had to run a few by one of my contacts and she said that some Merchants might be holed up in some. There's a factory location that my dad used for shipping a few months back before the trade dried up. There's not really a plan to either bring production online or sell it off though so right now, it's just vacant. Something about a tax write off. I think that's probably your best bet. It's set up for electricity from the grid too and as long as the draw isn't too extensive my dad shouldn't notice anything. Even if it is, I can probably route most of the funds notice away from him with a bit of minor hacking. I'm already in his main system thanks to family passcodes anyway. Endbringers have done something right I guess."

The tall girl looked between the other two, both of whom shrugged. "Okay, I think that would probably be acceptable. However, before we move forward, there's something that you need to know, Madison. Considering that you are going to know the location of the base, you should probably know who you are sheltering. It's going to come up eventually and I'd prefer to handle this now so that we know if it's going to be a problem or not."

"Why would it be a problem?" She asked frowning. Just who was this girl and why did she sound so familiar?

"Because," the girl reached up and pulled off her helmet and Madison's world stopped, "I'm Taylor Hebert. Your last victim. Hello, Madison. How does it feel to be responsible for creating your own hero?" Taylor smiled at her. There was nothing that could be mistaken for kindness in that smirk or in those eyes.

Yet, it didn't matter. Because Taylor Hebert was alive! She was ALIVE! Madison hadn't been party to a murder! She hadn't - Before her mind caught up with her body, she was flinging her arms around Taylor and sobbing into the taller brunette's armored chest. "I thought I'd killed you!! They didn't tell me what they were going to do and then when I found out they said you were already out! And then I found out you were in there for hours!!! And then you were in a coma! I thought I killed you because I couldn't stand up to Sophia!!! I'M SORRY!! I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY!!!!"

She felt an awkward pat on her head and heard a mumble to the side that didn't process through the sobs. The only important thing was Taylor and how very much not dead she was! "Okay, I was…not expected that. I admit I was kind of hoping for a breakdown, but this is not quite the direction I was hoping it would go. Err, so, how much of when you bullying me was intentional then and how much was the psycho bitch?"

"At the beginning too much was me joining in with the popular girls to keep them from focusing on the cute nerd who was good with a computer," Madison hiccupped, sniffling as the words flowed out. "I'm tiny, I'm cute, and I'm a nerd, and Sophia is a horrible, horrible jock! All it would have taken was her to see me with my equipment one day and that would have been it for me! I thought that if I got in with Emma she would make Sophia leave me alone. I tried to just take your homework. Everyone knows that the teachers don't care about it anyway. I figured they'd move on in two or three weeks. Jocks always get bored fast. But they didn't! And everything I tried to make Emma shift her focus just narrowed her sight on you! Then I tried to get you to stay home, but you kept coming! I didn't know how to get out! I tried leaving notes for the principal, but the bitch didn't do anything. I tried talking to the principal after they pushed you down the stairs, but she still didn't do anything! After they locked you in the locker I just gave up. I thought they killed you and I thought I was responsible because I hadn't fought harder. I thought I had killed someone because I was too scared to be the victim too! I stopped going to school, I stopped going out, I stopped doing anything that wasn't online. I can find you whatever you want, Taylor! Tell me how to make this right and I'll do it! If you want me to finish things I'll-I'll do that too. God knows, I deserve it." She pulled back and wiped her nose on her arms averting her eyes from the girl that had been a target for so long. She couldn't meet her gaze. She didn't deserve to meet her gaze.

There was quiet for too long to count and Madison was just waiting for the noose to fall around her neck like it always did. She hadn't been strong enough to fight off Emma or Sophia and this was what she deserved.

The silence was eventually broken by the other girl murmuring, "…Taylor…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Taylor huffed. "You're making it very hard to enjoy this, Madison. You're supposed to be evil and horrible and I was planning to use Hive as a form of karmic retribution or something. Like 'haha, look, your little victim has fangs and those fangs are what you admire so much! How do you like that?!' But this is just sad. Sophia beat you down almost as much as she did me and she didn't even realize it. Dammit. Alright fine, you're not forgiven, but we can move forward with a fresh slate. How about that? Is that okay?"

"I'd, I'd like a fresh slate," Madison said soft enough she wasn't sure the others could hear her. That was when the rest of what Taylor had said caught up to her. Her head jerked up and she stared between the bug girl and her high school associate. "Wait, what do mean about Hive?"

Taylor gestured between herself and the cluster of bugs, the bugs doing the same and smiling. "I'm Hive. Hive is me. I think. We were. Until a few hours ago that's what it was at least, now…it's more…divided. Amy, I think…I think something knocked my control loose. Or maybe I pushed too much of myself at the swarm just before your sister knocked me out. I can still feel the bugs, but the ones under Hive's control just…do their own thing if I don't take direct control."

The other girl, Amy, frowned and fidgeted from side to side, "I…I'm not sure…does it matter right now?" she seemed nervous, nervous enough that Madison lifted her head up, eyes narrowing, trying to focus in on the conversation.

"Of course it matters, it's my powers being weird! Normally I control the management bugs and those broadcast my orders to the others. Everything mostly moves in a group, and, so long as I stay away from my upper limit of direct control, I don't get a piercing headache. This, this seems to be working way differently. Hive's bugs are all directly controlled, but don't seem to count towards my limit! Something weird is happening, Amy! Hive was supposed to be simple; it was supposed to keep me out of the line of fire while I got a team together! Now I'm worried I broke my powers! What if it runs off on its own? What if the rest of the swarm can start to do that?!"

Amy hunched over and shook her head. "…Taylor, can-can we please talk about this later? I think I know what happened, but I can't…discuss it right now. Hive is fine, your powers are fine, the rest of your bugs aren't going to do anything you don't tell them to do. "

"Unless, I tell them to do something; I don't plan on doing that though." Three sets of eyes looked at the collection of bugs that was grouped up into, roughly, the shape of a person. Hive held up its hands and its 'mouth' smirked. "Sorry, couldn't resist. Carry on."

"This is weird…" Madison said frowning looking back at Taylor as she rubbed at her head.

"Tell me about it," Taylor said shuddering, "Will you just go away? We don't need you at the moment, I'll pull you together later if that changes."

"Whatever you say; see you next time you need me," Hive said, waving as the swarm dispersed into a small cloud of roaches, bees and spiders an instant later. Taylor's posture slumped over as the swarm vanished into the bushes though she perked up a bit as Amy reached over to massage her neck. Amy however paled at the touch and froze almost immediately.

Taylor noticed that Amy had stopped moving her fingers and turned to look at Amy gesturing with her hand towards the center of the small trio.

"I…I definitely know what it is. I fucked up when I healed you. Can we leave it at that for now? Please? I'll tell you, but not when there's an audience." She turned to glare at Madison. Madison just nodded and finally moved to shift further away from Taylor.

"Oh, right. Sorry. I didn't mean to get in the middle of anything, I just wanted to…you know. This is overwhelming. Um, can I ask a quick question?" Madison frowned, looking again between Taylor and where Hive had been. "While the two Capes thing does sound like a good plan to avoid being hurt, don't you risk losing a lot of bugs all at once that way."

"That was why I decided to go out myself too," Taylor sighed. "Get more bugs while also shoring Hive up in the process. Mostly act as the Healer, maybe long-range attacker with just a few small clusters…It was working pretty well tonight, until Glory Girl punched my chest in." She wrapped her arms around her stomach and grimaced.

"Okay, that makes sense I guess. So um," Madison commented wringing her hands and steadfastly not commenting on the latter half of that statement. "Did you both still need that operations base? I could tell you the address for the factory if you're interested?"

A little color returned to Amy's cheeks and the ghost of a smile spread over her face. "Does it have a bed? If it does, we are definitely interested."

"I think there's a pullout couch there still."

Amy and Taylor just smiled. For the first time in months, Madison felt like she was actually doing something right for once.

\/\/\/\/

Emily Piggot

Some days it just wasn't worth waking up. This was shaping up to be one of those days for Emily Piggot, though to be fair, it had been 'one of those days' almost constantly since Costa-Brown had made her Director of this horrible shithole of a city. She closed the report on her desk and did her best not to scowl. The room full of capes did very little to help that urge.

"Will someone please explain to me just how Shadow Stalker has managed to slip her leash so far? Please? Because for the life of me, all I see when I read this report is that the little bitch should have been executed months ago. I'm not even talking about by us, I mean by the goddamn Empire! She's flaunting this shit as a black girl against a white girl in a school with Empire grunts running around! Has she tried to murder the idiots that they've sent after her too? Well? Where's that report?!"

Armsmaster shifted from side to side in his chair before ultimately leaning forward and holding his hands in front of him. "Ma'am, we believe that she used the backing of the other girl, Emma Barnes, and the fact that Barnes' father is a lawyer to avoid having the Empire come after her."

"He's a divorce lawyer!"

"That is not very widely known."

Emily snarled and threw the paperwork into the center of the table. "Aegis!" The Ward in question flinched and sat up straighter. "Is this in character for her?"

"Yes, Ma'am. She's a loose cannon. Always has been. It's really hard to even make sure that she sticks with her partner for her whole patrol. Sometimes we don't even bother because it was - "

"Stop talking. You are no longer team leader, Gallant is. Actually, no, he should've picked up on this too considering his power. Clockblocker is team lead." Emily had to take several deep breaths in order to get her anger back under control. She should've been aware of this long ago. "I want Shadow Stalker in custody before the hour is out. I want her interrogated, I want all of her personal property searched. Both civilian and cape. This is no longer just a civilian issue. What the little shit did was nothing short of attempted murder and if she has been that way in her civilian life I shudder to think what she was doing as a cape! While on unsupervised patrols!"

"Yes, Ma'am," echoed several voices from all around the table.

"What do we know about the Hebert girl? Has she pressed charges?"

Miss Militia took over from there and shook her head. "She has not. Actually, once Panacea healed her at the hospital - "

"Christ, it required Panacea's intervention?" Emily interrupted. "I missed that part. This just gets worse and worse. Go on."

"As I was saying, once she was healed and left the hospital, it's like she just vanished. She stopped attending school almost entirely. The days she's been back since the incident can be counted on a single hand with fingers left over."

"Home life?"

"Single parent household. Mother died several years back and by all accounts her father basically ignores her and is focused solely on his work."

Emily's scowl was firmly back in place. "If that's not the recipe for a trigger event I don't know what is."

"I agree, and considering how Hive pointed us directly at this, I would tend to say that she is Hive."

Assault leaned forward at that. "Wait, I thought that Hive was a Case 53. Do you think the Hebert girl is the bug girl or is controlling the bugs like a projection and just faking it?"

Miss Militia shrugged. "It could really be either, though I would tend to say the latter. I checked and she was at school while I had my meeting. That was one of those vanishingly few days of attendance. Rather strange coincidence wouldn't you think?"

Assault leaned back and whistled. "That's some impressive range if she's remote controlling the swarm from that far. That's what, 9, 10 blocks?"

"11 actually."

Emily shook her head. "Mark Hebert down as a Master 7, Changer 1, just to be safe. Someone reach out to Panacea to see if the girl was cape when she was healed. That might help to put this to bed. If not, leave her filled in as Hive until told otherwise. Now what's this about a Queen?"

"Hive recruited her last night supposedly," Battery supplied. She hit a button on a remote and a small projection of the swarm girl along with a cape in a grey bodysuit with a vaguely insectoid mask and small wings on the back running along the street towards ABB terrority. "She is bug themed as well. Most of the reports are just rumors at the moment, though we did get something from a girl who claims to have been saved by the duo about an hour ago. This girl said that Queen controlled small clusters of insects and seemed to be more acting as a lookout while Hive handled most of the combat."

Emily narrowed her eyes at the screen and shook her head slowly. "Clever girl. Tactical. She doesn't have a team so she's keeping herself out of danger by leveraging our misunderstanding against us. Keeps her real self out of the fight using her range, while her proxy fights the close-in personnel. Up her Master rating to an 8. If she has that much control to run two things at once she has a lot of potential to be dangerous. Militia are you certain she won't be joining the Wards?"

Miss Militia sighed and hung her head. She pointed at the files that Piggot had tossed into the center of the table. "I get the strong feeling that she knew that Shadow Stalker was a Ward. I feel that she may have accidentally figured it out through her power during one of the days that she was back at school following the incident. She was attending for several days in a row and then, with apparently zero provocation, she just stopped. If Shadow Stalker used her power on the grounds in an attempt to get at Hebert when she thought she was unseen and the girl had eyes on her in an attempt to prevent further attacks…"

"Perfect. If she can see through her goddamned swarm when it's NOT person-shaped, then we need to pin a Thinker rating on her too. Make it a 3," Emily groaned.

Armsmaster jotted a note and nodded. "Going back to the previous comment, if she knew that her tormentor was with the Wards or even just a cape in general, she probably suspected the school was sheltering her."

"Which it was," Emily spat. "I'd have fucking Blackwell's head on a pike if I could. We do not need this type of publicity."

"If she thought that, then she might have thought the entire organization was sheltering her. It's a wonder we don't have a new villain blanketing the entire school in poisonous spiders."

Battery nodded. "All the more reason to try again with this girl. She obviously has a good heart. We have a chance here. Let's show her that the PRT and the Protectorate can do some good. That we can fix our messes."

Emily shook her head slowly. "If I was Hebert, I wouldn't trust us at all. She's isolated and has built an entire second cape persona to hide how alone she is. Approach her with caution. Keep trying to get her to come in. Don't escalate. We don't know the upper bounds of her range and at the moment she's playing nice. Let's not change that."

She set her hands onto the table top and looked at everyone around the table. "Now, are there any other fires I need to address?"

"Canary is in the holding tank at the Rig," Armsmaster said. "She should be moved to the Birdcage in about two weeks. We're currently just waiting to see if there are going to be any others on the transport with her, but without any recent captures, I doubt it. I apologize for missing Lung the other day Ma'am. That would've been a big win for the city."

Emily sighed but waved it off. "It would've been. You can't really expect to subdue that monster when he's already ramped up like that though. I'm honestly just happy that the fight didn't end up killing anyone."

"He did injure two of the Undersiders before they ran off in the confusion," Armsmaster said frowning.

"Yes, but they weren't killed, so mission success. Anything else?"

Assault held up a hand, his phone in his other hand. "Director? Photon Mom is on her way up. I think we need to hear what she has to say."

Emily's scowl returned. She was going to need dialysis after this meeting, she just knew it. "Let her in."

The words were barely out of her mouth before Sarah Pelham, half in her Lady Photon costume, half in civilian clothes walked through the doors and dropped bonelessly into the nearest chair. Everything Emily had been about to say dropped out of her mind seeing the expression on the other woman's face. The doors shut and thankfully, Miss Militia took the lead.

"Sarah? Are you alright? Did…did someone die?"

"Amy's gone. She's not with New Wave anymore." The room went utterly silent at the despairing declaration. "I did everything I could, but it was too little, too late. She was hurting so much, and I didn't even notice until it was too late." Sarah leaned forward and held her head up in her hands. "I can't give details. It's private. I can tell you she's safe for the moment. She's not with villains. She's with two new capes, Hive and…Queen I think. Amy seemed to know one of them at least. I think they had met before. I think they were friends. I can't…she'll call if she needs help. I don't know if she's still going to heal. She has her phone. You'll have to call her directly to check with her if you have people who are hurt. I just, I don't know."

Emily nodded. "Thank you for telling us, Sarah. If you need a bed to sleep for a few hours, it'll be made available to you." Sarah just nodded and let Battery lead her out of the room.

As the doors shut again, Emily looked over the rest of her staff. "Alright, what in the fucking hell happened last night?!"

726

Slider214

Oct 3, 2019

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Slider214

Slider214

He/Him

Oct 5, 2019

#105

This chapter gives a bit of a sideways look at how Danny uses his power and the effects of it. Since the full explanation is a while off yet, for the moment, just suffice it to say that there is a reason that his conversation with Taylor is so easily handled and non-confrontational on both ends.

\/\/\/\/

Deviance 01

"This place is actually rather nice considering Madison's family doesn't really maintain it regularly," I commented as I fell back on the small bed. She had been right, there was a pullout couch, though the mattress was a far cry from comfortable. Amy and I had just barely managed to get the bed out after we found the place before she had nearly collapsed onto it, rolling into a small ball with her face covered by her arms. I was at least able to get most of my costume off and roll it up on the floor with my shoes before I followed after her and laid back as well. The bed wasn't quite big enough for the both of us, but Amy was small and she was already curled up so I just moved enough so that I wasn't quite falling off the bed and it worked well enough. It was a bit awkward, though after the night I'd - we'd - had, this was the least awkward thing that seemed to matter.

"Do you have to go home?" Amy's voice floated up through her hands.

I checked the time on my watch, 6:30am. "Nah. My father is probably already gone by now anyway. And even if he isn't…actually, hang on, we might be…holy cow, we are!" I levered myself up and grinned at her over her shoulder. "We're close enough that I can actually send some of my swarm to check in on my house. Give me a minute and I'll just make sure that…"

"Taylor," Amy whispered, her voice so quiet that if I didn't have a fly on her shoulder I probably wouldn't have heard her. "Can you, can you focus here. I need to tell you something."

I let the bee cluster that I had been sending towards my house drift back into its normal patrol pattern and laid my head back down onto the pillow. "Sure, Amy. What's up?" While I could still multitask, it seemed only polite to follow her wishes. She had saved my life after all.

"When I heal, I don't always focus on…on everything. Not all at once. It gets overwhelming to fix everything. And sometimes I can't. When someone is hurt bad, I prioritize."

"That makes sense."

"I see a person's whole biology with a touch, so I know everything that is wrong. My power catalogues it and flags any and all issues. But it changes constantly. So I…work it down. My power though, it can do more than I can focus on at once. So I've taken to setting it on autopilot for…the small things. Minor cuts and abrasions and contusions, that sort of thing."

"I don't know what that is, Amy," I murmured.

"Scrapes and bruises. Anything simple. Things I don't have to worry about, things that my power can just - fix. I focus on the big thing, the gaping hole or the…broken floating rib about to puncture your stomach, and my power fixes the minor problems on its own."

"Ooookaaaay." My chest started to tighten at that.

"When I got to you, you were really hurt, Taylor. Really hurt. Vicky nearly destroyed your rib cage and bruised your heart in addition to cracking off your rib. I think she thought you were a Brute or that Hive was going to give her more resistance or something. Either way, she hit you hard enough that I was only paying active attention to your chest cavity when healing you. Everything else was on autopilot. You shouldn't have been hurt anywhere else. The leg was minor. Just a few scrapes."

"But it wasn't that simple, was it?" I asked, my mouth going dry.

"Had," Amy stopped and I heard a sniffle from her before she continued, "had your construct started acting somewhat independently before I healed you?"

"A little, but only when I sent too many emotions to it. It was weird, but nothing that I was…worried about. I was still in control. It was just, I don't know…antsy? I don't mean that as a pun. Please don't take that as a pun," I mumbled grimacing.

Amy didn't even groan at my unintentional bug humor. She just curled up tighter on herself. "That makes more sense then. When I healed you, a lot of your mind was still in the swarm. But you shouldn't have been, you should have been in your own head. Except you can split yourself off like that because of how your power works. And my power knew that. It cataloged your construct, the split, as an injury. And I…fixed it. I fixed it while I was busy focusing on your chest because I didn't even realize that there was anything else going on until it was too late to do anything about it. It was just a simple switch. One flick and what was a somewhat muddy division became clear."

I swallowed and thought through my words before I could get up the courage to say anything. "Can you, can you define 'clear'?"

"Hive is running on your subconscious now. It's still using your power, but it's a subset. You should be able to take active control, but when you don't, it's almost like an…like an alter ego? I doubt it'll be able to take control of any new bugs itself, though it may be able to control ones already in your swarm if you don't override it. It may also be able to form itself because technically you want it to form. At least part of you does."

I stayed very quiet at that comment carefully thinking through everything that Amy had said. This should feel like a violation. She had changed something fundamental about me and how my powers worked. I now had a clingy second personality apparently that I wasn't fully in control of with, at minimum, a 12 block radius that could do whatever my subconscious wanted within…god if I got into a bad enough place it would probably go out and try to kill someone…like Emma, or Sophia. Or dad. I shuddered.

And yet…Amy hadn't done this intentionally and she had saved my life. And she'd told me. She'd told me - wait. Fuck! "Amy," I said, pushing myself up and laying a hand on her shoulder. I pulled her just hard enough that she rolled onto her back. Her eyes were wide and there were tears running down the sides of her face. My heart went out to this frizzy haired girl who looked seconds away from bolting out the door of the office. "Amy, can you work on brains?"

"…Yes," the answer was so soft it might as well have been carried by the wind.

"Damn," I muttered. She made to move, but I didn't let her. I shifted my arm and wrapped her into a hug. "It doesn't matter. You fixed me. This…I can deal with this. I can…I can live with it." Amy sobbed into my shoulder, her head crushing against the crook of my neck and her arms wrapping around my waist. "It's okay, Amy. You didn't mean to do anything wrong; you didn't do anything wrong. You saved my life and I can work with this. I mean, it's just my subconscious right? I just need to stay positive and everything will be fine. Unless you can, you know, change it back?"

"NO!" Amy's head shook so hard I thought she was going to give me a burn for a second. "No! I can't work on brains! I can't, I can't, I can't, please don't ask me to, please! It's too easy, it's too simple! Just look at what I did to you without even meaning to, Taylor! I broke your powers! I made your construct into something you have babysit because I wasn't paying attention. I could change someone and never be able to change them back to who they were before! I can't work on brains, I can't. Please don't ask me to, please!"

"Okay, okay, I understand. You don't have to, Amy. I was just asking. It's okay." Fuck. There went the easy option. What was that Earth Aleph saying then? Constant Vigilance. Right. I'd just have to be careful and watch myself and watch Hive. I could do this. Better than giving Amy a mental breakdown. Which…she may already be having, judging by the crying and the babbling. Perfect. I was already freaking out and fighting off the shaking myself! How was I supposed to deal with calming her down too? I needed to call someone for help.

Yeah? And just who was I supposed to call? Madison? Tattletale? Miss Militia? That was basically my contact list. I couldn't help it, I started to laugh as I squeezed Amy back. Apparently, my train of thought was utterly lost on her as her own crying slowed and she pulled her head from my shoulder to look at me. "Taylor? Are-are you okay?"

I just kept laughing and shook my head. "I was trying to think of who I could call for advice, or to get help, or who to just talk about this shit to. My conclusion? I need more friends."

"Huh?"

"You. Madison. Tattletale. Miss Militia. My Father. Your aunt. That's who's in my phone right now, Amy. Lot of good all of them are going to do on the therapy front, huh?"

Amy just blinked up at me and subtly shifted her hand so that it was touching my upper arm. Her eyes widened. "Um, Taylor, maybe you should bleed off some of your emotions to your swarm?"

"Not sure I want to do that with Hive in the background right now, Ames," I said finally getting my giggles under control. I rolled over and laid an arm over my face. "Just give me a minute, I'll be fine. I was perfectly able to deal with my problems before I got my powers. I can still deal with this stuff. It's just been a long night."

"Yeah. It has."

Of course, that was when my phone - my new phone - started to ring. Groaning, I grabbed for it and flipped it open barely even pausing to look at the name on the little window. "Tattletale I - "

"There's no time. If you're in your house, get out! I don't know how he found out, best guess is the PRT, either way it doesn't matter, he knows who you are. Get out!"

My stomach dropped and suddenly my decision to stop my surveillance this morning seemed like the stupidest idea in the entire planet. "I'm not at home."

Tattletale breathed out deeply enough that I could almost hear her fingers unclench from the phone. "Good. That's good. Don't go home. He's about to call. Don't go home. I'll contact you again when I'm able." The line when dead a moment later and I pulled the phone away from my ear to stare numbly at it.

"Fuck."

Amy just looked between me and the phone. "What just happened?"

"My father knows I have powers apparently. And maybe the PRT does too…" Amy's eyes narrowed to slits and her mouth narrowed to a thin line.

The phone rang again almost making me jump. Instead I tried to swallow the bile rising in my throat and carefully opened it while raising a finger to my lips as I looked at Amy.

"Hello, Taylor," my father's voice came through the small speaker. He sounded far more awake than he usually did this early in the morning, even assuming he'd long since finished his coffee.

"Hi, Dad…" I mumbled back.

"How are you this morning?"

"Fine I guess," I managed to get out through the lump in my throat.

"Were you planning to go to school today?" How was he being this mundane? We'd said maybe a dozen sentences to each other in the past three weeks and this was how he led a conversation after finding out I had powers?

"...Err, no, not really."

"I'm not really surprised; you haven't attended much from the messages I've received. If you wish, I can help you get the tools for a GED."

"Um, thanks Dad." Seriously, what in the everloving hell was going on?!

"Of course. There are benefits to being my daughter after all."

I frowned. Ah, there it was. Now we got to it. "A GED is fairly simple, Dad."

"I think we both know I'm not necessarily talking about just the GED, honey." No, no we were not. And didn't he sound smug about it.

"...How did you find out?" There wasn't much point hiding. Besides, that comment was ambiguous enough that he'd have to work for it and he could interpret it any way he wanted to.

"I have eyes and ears in many places child. The PRT knows many things and they are not nearly as taken with your scheme as you had thought. It was rather ingenious though and I commend you on the attempt. I can tell you more about the details when you get home."

"Why would you do that?"

"Well we're not fighting, Taylor. There are many benefits to being a part of my organization. I'm working to improve the city after all. You could be a part of that." I could practically see him shrugging through the phone line.

"You're a supervillain," I said, my voice more surprised than accusatory. This conversation was not going at all like how I had expected or planned.

"That's a label. My plan has been approved by Accord and others. Your mother died because this world is broken. I'm going to fix it, Taylor. Help me."

I shook my head and screwed my eyes shut. It was too much, it was all just too much. "I...I can't deal with this right now."

"I understand. I'll be here when you're ready to come home, Taylor. And please let me know if you wish for me to take any action against the Barnes or if you want to let the PRT mop things up for us."

For the second time that day the line went dead and I was left staring at the phone in my hand.

This time, it was me that curled into a ball and cried while Amy tried to wrap herself around me.

\/\/\/\/

I don't know how long I stayed like that, though it was long enough that sunlight started to fall through the window on the nearby wall and make its path up the bed. Eventually I managed to get myself under control and pulled my body up into a sitting position, Amy not far behind. I wiped my eyes and looked around the factory's office a bit closer. "We're going to need to get a better bed in here if we're going to stay long term now," I said sighing.

"Yeah," Amy agreed. "At least the TV works. Pretty nice setup too, for this type of place."

"Madison isn't loaded like Emma, but she wasn't poor like…actually, if my father is a supervillain what the hell are we doing living in a lower middle class neighborhood near the edge of the gang territory?"

Amy shrugged. The pull-out was small enough that I felt her shoulders move against mine. "Maybe he wanted to stay under the radar?"

"Yeah. And make my life miserable just like everything else in this stupid godforsaken town has conspired to try and do." I had one of my flying clusters bring me a piece of paper that had been balled up in the corner just so that I had something to throw. Surprising even myself, I managed to get it in the wastebasket on the first try. "I need to go for a run to clear my head and if my father is gone I'll see if I can get some of my things from home. Are you going to be okay here for a bit?"

"I think so. If I'm going to be staying here and working with you for now, I want to try and help. I'm not just a healer, Taylor. I can make things too. I'm a full biokinetic. I can make you better bugs. While you're gone, I'll see what I can do to make something a bit sturdier for your swarm. Maybe give you a bit more firepower, make Hive more durable."

I blinked and looked over at her. "You don't have to do that, Amy. You can just hang out. That's perfectly fine. I didn't say I'd look after you because I expected anything in return."

"You're dealing with my shit and I messed you up. I want to help however I can," she said, her mouth set and her shoulders square.

Smiling, I leaned over and bumped her shoulder. "Well, thanks then. But don't stress yourself out too hard. Consider it a side project okay?"

As I got up to stretch and reach for my shoes Amy reached for my sleeve and grabbed my hand. "While you're out, can you grab some snacks? M and Skittles? Also, I…I need clothes."

I looked her over and shook my head. "I don't think you'll fit into any of mine. I'm too tall. But I'll see what I can do. I'll be back in a bit, Amy." I hadn't even made it across the room before Amy's phone rang. With the way she grabbed for the phone and held it away from her, you'd have been forgiven for thinking it was a piranha that was going to bite her hand off. "Amy, you know, you don't have to…"

"I should, whoever they are, they'll just keep trying," Amy muttered. She flicked the screen and held it up. Apparently she'd left it on speaker since the caller was loud enough for me to hear as well. "Hello?"

"Panacea? This is - "

"Don't call me that!" Amy practically snarled into the receiver. I grimaced and moved back to lay a hand on her arm. She took a deep breath and continued in a smaller voice, "I'm not Panacea anymore. If I'm Panacea then I'm acknowledging that I'm working with New Wave and I'm not working with my family right now. Don't call me that."

"Of course, we had heard that. I apologize. What should I call you?"

Amy worked her mouth without anything coming out and looked up at me. I could only shrug in response. It took me weeks to come up with my own name and that was still borderline villainous, there was no way I was going to be able to help her out here. "Just…just Amy for now. I'll - think of something soon. Is this Miss Militia?"

"Yes. Your aunt came to us this morning, Amy. She was worried and wanted to let us know that you had - left. I wanted to call and make certain you were okay."

Amy shut down. If I hadn't been so used to seeing it in the mirror for the past year and a half I might have missed it, but now, seeing it right in front of me was almost scary. Her muscles locked up and her eyes unfocused while her nostrils flared and her fingers clenched. "I'm perfectly fine."

"Forgive me, Amy, but you don't sound fine."

"I said I'm fine."

"You are welcome to come and stay with the Wards in the PRT building for a few days if you would like…"

"Yeah? And subject myself to Shadow Stalker's needling?" Amy scoffed. I tensed at Sophia's hero moniker though Amy didn't seem to notice. "No thanks."

"That issue may not be a problem for all that much longer. Please, we're just worried about you, Amy."

"Worried about me continuing to heal people right?"

"That was not what I said."

Amy's hand clenched into a fist and a scowl crossed her face. "But it's what you're thinking. It's not enough that your leaky organization betrays my friend, now you have to call me not five minutes later and beg me to get back to the fucking hospitals! Is it so much to ask to get just one day off?!"

"Amy - "

"No! Fuck you! I'm not going to the hospital today. I don't know when I'm going back. Call me if any of your precious heroes are dying otherwise leave me alone!" She stabbed at the phone and the line went dead.

I squeezed her arm and resisted the urge to say something as she turned to look at me. There was a small sheen over her eyes though no tears spilled. Instead of pushing, I waited for Amy to say something first.

I didn't have to wait long. "I can't heal right now, I just can't. Do you…am I a monster for needing time to just, I don't know, recharge?"

Shaking my head I pulled her into a hug. "Everyone needs time to recharge, Amy. You're not a monster; you're human. Do you want me to stay here for a while? I can call Madison or something to get us some food and pick up some clothes for you. Hell I could probably call Tattletale too. She'd jump at the chance to prove she could be useful."

"Tattletale?" Amy asked pulling back and staring up at me with her mouth hanging out.

"She's…being screwed over by Coil too and isn't happy about it. I don't trust her, but we've agreed to sort of work sideways with each other until she can prove where her loyalties are. She was the one who called me earlier to warn me not to go home."

"Oh." Amy frowned. "Maybe she does actually mean it when she says she wants to help."

"I think she's mostly in it for herself, but I've overheard enough conversations between her and my dad that I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, so long as she doesn't screw us over. He's changed enough that I'm not taking his threats lightly." Trying to lighten the conversation a bit I smiled and poked her shoulder. "And you haven't answered my question."

"I'll be fine. I want to try working on making you a new bug anyway. Go for your run. I saw a shower here when we came in, so don't worry about going easy. Even if there wasn't, I could give you the same lilac-style bacteria I make for myself when I work out."

The only appropriate response to that was to gape for a few moments. Finally, my brain caught up with my mouth and I was able to articulate a response. "I'm sorry, what?" Not a very verbose response though.

Amy giggled. "I don't like to smell, so a few months back, I altered the bacteria on the surface of my body that produce odors into a different strain. Its byproduct gives off a scent of lilacs instead of the normal gross sweat smell. I saved the memory of the strain and now whenever I workout, I smell like lilacs."

"That is not fair. That is not fair at all. That is downright cheating."

"When you have powers…"

"Cheater," I stated with a mock glare as I got up from the bed and moved back to the door for the second time. Amy stuck out her tongue at me in response to my teasing.

Amazingly, this time, nothing prevented me from leaving. With any luck, I might actually be able to decompress a bit on this run and finally, start to relax.

\/\/\/\/

You'd think by now I would know not to tempt fate. Apparently not so much. I was three-quarters of the way through my run when my patrol clusters felt a disturbance on the edges of my range. A motorcycle appeared to be angling towards my home from the turns on the roadway and it was angling closer and closer as it came. I focused closer on the cycle and the rider and sucked in a breath.

Miss Militia.

Fuck.

Twisting mid-stride, my leisurely jog turned into a mad sprint, as I sent multiple clusters out. One went to my house while several went towards Militia. She was three blocks out from the house when the first cluster of flies reached her. I tried to make an arrow but she had just left a traffic light and they were left behind before she even seemed to notice they had existed. Okay. Plan B. The second cluster of honeybees, I stationed further ahead. These were near a stop sign and were sure to get her attention.

Unfortunately, she missed those as well thanks to an unlucky passing car. Two blocks to go.

The cluster of roaches and spiders were entering my home now. Fuck. My dad was still there. He hadn't been lying about staying at home. Fuck, fuck, fuck!

No more Nice Cape. I positioned the next cluster directly in front of Miss Militia's face as she made her next turn. She'd have to run right into this one and she'd either see the arrow or she'd get a face shield full of bugs and she'd have to pull over anyway.

Oh good. She saw the damn arrow this time. She slowed about a block away from my house and followed my arrow, turning onto a side street. I didn't take a breath of relief since it was all I could do to keep breathing and stay conscious in my mad sprint to get to her before she showed up on my father's doorstep looking for…me? Amy? What the hell was Miss Militia doing coming to my house?!

I had my cluster form a downward arrow in an alley that I was reasonably certain would be secure. She took the hint and parked the bike there, stepping off. I considered getting a mask of insects to cover my face, but considering she was driving right up to my damn house it didn't really seem to matter very much at this point.

Yeah, my secret identity lasted a long time. Those 'unwritten rules' were a wonderful help for me…

I slowed as I finished my run around the corner of the alley and doubled over, hands on my knees, gasping for air and nearly collapsed against the wall. Miss Militia started to move towards me to assist though I managed to wave one hand towards her and lifted my head to glare at her.

Instead of trying to talk through my attempts to breathe, I pulled a few bugs from the swarm to me and keeping up my glare, I used them as my mouthpiece, "What the hell were you thinking!? Coming to my house in broad daylight? Doesn't this break every damn rule there is?"

"I'm sorry, I know this breaks decorum. I was intending to use the excuse of asking about an incident at your school involving a cape if questioned by your family. Honestly going by the records we've been able to find, I didn't really expect there to anyone at home besides yourself," Miss Militia said nodding to me. "I would've called to setup a more appropriate meeting, but I didn't have your phone number. You have mine…but this isn't really something that could wait until you called first."

I tried to keep up the glare though I was forced to admit that she had a point. My dad was barely ever actually home and the only reason he was there now was to bait me into joining him, so…yeah. Shaking my head I huffed and let the swarm disperse, finally able to catch my breath enough to speak on my own. "How do you even know who I am and that I'm a cape?"

"Well, Miss Hebert, you told me."

That brought me to a stop. When the hell had I done that? I'd had basically one interaction with Militia and it was as Hive. All I had done was say that Sophia had…oh. Crap. "Fuck. I said too much when I set you on Sophia didn't I?"

Militia sighed. "Yes, I'm sorry, but you really did. She targeted you quite single-mindedly. Perhaps if she had spread her bullying around more it would have been different, but as it was," she trailed off and shrugged. "You stopped going to school after the incident. An incident that has 'trigger' all over it, Miss Hebert. I'm sorry, but there is almost no way to investigate Sophia Hess and not find you at the core of it."

"Yeah, should've guessed having an alibi wouldn't have helped. Went to school for nothing. Perfect," I sighed, leaning against the alleyway. I tossed a slip of paper towards her with my new phone number on it. I really hoped that Tattletale had gotten a good plan for this phone. "Whatever. Here, this is my number. Don't come to my house. Call me next time you need to talk. Now what is so important that it couldn't wait?"

"First, allow me to clear up a matter?" I waved her on. "Are you indeed the swarm or is it a separate entity from you? Judging by how you were speaking through it a few minutes earlier I would tend to say the former, though I would be remiss not to at least ask."

I frowned and looked at her. "It's…complicated. Let's just say that I control the swarm and leave it at that."

"So you are Hive and Queen then?"

"I am Queen in costume and Hive is part of my powerset yes."

"Your range is impressive."

"Yes."

She stayed quiet for a few seconds though I knew phishing when I heard it and wasn't going to give her anything on that aspect at all. She held up a hand in surrender and moved on. "As to what I was coming to speak about: Lady Photon came to talk with us this morning. She had mentioned that her niece was staying with you as of last night."

So this was about Amy. I shouldn't be surprised considering how that call had ended earlier. "That's correct. She's not at my house though so don't bother going there to check."

"Okay. I tried calling Amy this morning, she was not very keen to speak with me. I just want to make certain that she is okay. Her aunt was very worried about her. We all are."

I narrowed my eyes and shook my head. "Look, Amy is fine. Is she hurting? Yeah, she's a teenager who's going through some major trauma, we both are. But she'll be fine. She's my friend, I'm helping her, and I'm going to find someone who she can talk to if she needs it. You don't need to worry about her freaking out and going off the deep end or anything. She just needs some time to get things together. God it hasn't even been six hours and you people can't even leave her alone for that long?"

Miss Militia held up her hands and shook her head. "That is not what I am saying, please don't put words in my mouth, Miss Hebert. I am simply trying to make sure that she is okay and that she doesn't need anything. Amy cut me off before I could finish that message. You're assuring me of that at the moment so my job is done. Please let her know that she can always call either me in particular or the Protectorate as a whole and we will put her in touch with whoever she wishes."

"I'll pass it along," I huffed. "Is that all?"

"Just two more things and then I'll go." She grimaced but soldiered on. "I don't mean to be insensitive, but I do have to ask: do you know if she intends to keep healing now that she is no longer with New Wave? There are legal ramifications if she does as neither of you are of the age of majority."

I frowned, not having considered that. Not that it really mattered since Amy apparently wasn't going to the hospitals anytime soon. "I honestly don't know. It's not my place to ask her. She has issues with it at the moment, that's all I know. I'm not going to push her. Like I said, she's my friend and I have very few of those. I have no intention of alienating the ones I do have."

"While regrettable, that is understandable," Miss Militia said. "Now for my last issue. You should know, Miss Hebert that steps are being taken to prosecute the personnel involved in the campaign against you, including the staff and faculty of Winslow. They were apparently receiving kickbacks for having a Ward on the grounds and Blackwell didn't want to lose that. She, and the others involved, will be dealt with shortly."

My eyes narrowed. Two days ago that would've been exactly what I wanted. Now…goddammit. "Leave Madison Clements alone."

"I'm sorry?"

"Madison. Leave her alone. Everyone else is fair game, but leave Madison out of whatever reckoning you have going on. She apparently went nearly suicidal when she thought the other two had killed me. If I hadn't told her I was alive the other day, I think she might have gone all the way in a few more weeks. She was as much a victim as I was just in a different way. I'm…working things out with her. Leave her alone."

"I'll make sure to pass that along," Miss Militia said, nodding. "Be that as it may, what I meant to say was that, with the assurance that there are consequences involved for crossing the line, and that we can clean up our messes, would you not consider working with the Wards, Miss Hebert?"

I rubbed my temples and looked down at the ground as my other hand waved towards the direction of my house. "Few problems with that, Ma'am. One, I just don't trust you. Not you in particular. The organization. People like Shadow Stalker get in and are given enough free reign to do whatever they want until people like me almost die! I would've died if not for Amy. Second, and this is the big one, the PRT is full of holes. If I go there, I'm screwed. I can't go home anymore thanks to you people."

"I don't understand."

"Less than a few hours after you figure out who I am, a supervillain in this city learns my name, my Cape identity, where I live, and is calling me up trying to recruit me. I can't go home anymore, Miss Militia. Not that I like going home anyway, but now the option is closed, thanks to you. The PRT outed me to a supervillain. So thanks for that, good thing that Amy and I found a new place to hole up last night, huh?"

At least she had the decency to stagger back at that declaration. The way her power started shifting the form of the weapon in her hands almost every second was an even bigger indicator of how much on the defensive I had her. I didn't have to tell her that the supervillain was my own father. "I-That's-We never-Who?"

"Yeah, probably better if I don't say. It's a fairly cordial invite at the moment and I get the feeling I can still turn it down without him coming after me with a kill squad. So I'm just going to stay in my nice new lair for a while and let things cool down."

"Your father - "

"Either won't notice I'm gone or won't care. There's a reason I've been able to get away with not going to school since January, Ma'am. Now are we done? Because I really need to find some food after sprinting here to keep you from tipping of the fucking supervillain that I'm still around."

"I…Yes, yes, we're done. I'm sorry, I never meant to…"

"What's done is done. This is half my fault anyway for tipping my hand. Just don't go to my house. Call me if need to contact me again. Have a nice day, Miss Militia." Without waiting for a reply, I turned and started jogging back down the way I had come keeping a few bugs on her to make sure that she left and didn't head towards my father.

All in all, that could have gone worse.

Last edited: Oct 5, 2019

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Slider214

Oct 5, 2019

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Threadmarks Deviance 02

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Slider214

Slider214

He/Him

Oct 8, 2019

#132

Arg, working off of a mobile hotspot is making this upload far more difficult than it should be...Hopefully this time it works. And hopefully my internet will be fixed soon too.

\/\/\/\/

Deviance 02

I waited until I was a few blocks away from Miss Militia before stopping in another alley and pulling out my phone again. Shutting my eyes I took a few deep breaths before grimacing and making the call. This was going to bite me in the ass so bad…

"I knew you'd call soon enough Taylor," my father said before the phone had even finished finished ringing. I could hear his smile through the line. Focus, Taylor, focus.

"You said that you have contacts in the PRT. I assume you have a general idea of what happened last night?" I replied.

He was quiet for a brief moment then he made a noise that could generously be considered a mewl of agreement. "If you are referring to how you've managed to get Panacea working under you, yes, I'm aware."

I managed not to snarl though it was a close thing. "She's not working under me, she's my friend. Look, can you make the PRT leave us alone for a few days or not? Just long enough for Amy to cool down for a bit."

He chuckled. "You know I can't guarantee anything, Taylor. However, if you can keep your new teammate under control, I'll make certain that the PRT abides by a live and let live policy for the moment. I'll also email you the emancipation documents that Amelia will need if she wishes to continue healing at hospitals without attachment to a team with adult supervision."

I was quiet for several seconds before reluctantly muttering, "Thanks."

"You realize, of course, I'm going to bring up this favor at some point, right?"

"If it gives us room to breathe for the moment…I can deal with that. This is tiny in the grand scheme of this city anyway." I hated owing him, especially when I had done so well avoiding his notice for this long, but Amy needed time to unwind and I needed time to figure out what the hell I was going to do about my life now. I could live with the consequences of a small deal with the devil.

"This is true." He was silent and I almost hung up, though he spoke up again before I had a chance to pull the phone from my ear. "Let me know if you need anything else. I know it doesn't seem like it, but you are my daughter, Taylor. I do still care for you."

"Funny, I have a hard time believing that, Father. Thanks for the favor." I didn't wait for him to hang up this time - I hung up myself.

Pushing off from the wall, I jogged back towards my new lair. I felt dirty. How many more deals was I going to have to make with Coil just to make ends meet? How many more compromises was I going to be forced into? My dad was right about one thing, this city was broken, and it was a plague on everyone who lived in it. I was going to have to try to fix it.

First step was the gangs.

But before that, I needed to make my new home liveable. I slowed my jog and sighed, grabbing for the phone again. "This workout is so shot," I muttered to myself pulling up Madison's number. As her phone rang, I ran through a list of things that we would need and grimaced. Finally, she picked up and my grimace widened, god I really was going to be asking one of my former bullies for help getting clothes and furniture…what the hell had the world come to?

"Taylor? Why aren't you sleeping? You just left like three hours ago."

"Long night, long morning. I'll sleep later. I can't get back to my house right now so I need clothes. So does Amy. Can you do some clothes shopping for us and bring something by? Some food too? Also I need to know just how much power use you can hide regarding the factory. We're going to be using it a lot more than expected."

Madison was silent for a few moments then I heard a hum like her computer booting up in the background. "Hmm, honestly, I can probably make the factory disappear from the company records easily enough. It'll look like we sold it to a subsidiary, and between the two sets of data nobody will ever realize where the action records are let alone where the electrical bill is going. No one audits the little companies in Brockton Bay, because everyone knows that if you do, you could annoy the gangs by accident. While we don't have any holdings in their territory, the audit people don't know that for sure. Give me til noon and I can make you disappear. If you ever leave though, let me know so that I can give my dad his factory back."

I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it for a moment. Shaking my head I said, "Seriously, what the hell where you doing with those two bitches? If you're that good with a computer you should have your own clique or at least be smart enough to stay away from Sophia."

"Sophia was…not what I expected," Madison sighed. "I thought she was a jock, not a psychopath. I don't know how to deal with psychopaths. Do you need anything else at the moment?"

"Don't suppose you can mail order us some more furniture? Like a real bed?"

She snorted. "Sorry, I need actual money for that. I don't have seed funds for that, Taylor. If you can direct me to some cash though, sure." She paused and continued on very slowly, "Though…if you really need it…I might be able to…direct something your way if I - "

Crap, she was talking about hacking one of stores and sending some of their deliveries to us - to me - wasn't she? God, when she talked about doing anything to make things up to me last night she had really meant it. How was I collecting mentally broken people? Including myself, this was what, three people in six hours? That must be some kind of record. "Don't. I'll figure something out, Madison."

"If you're sure…"

"I'm sure. Just take us off the grid and get us the clothes and food. I'll text you our sizes in a few minutes."

"Okay. Taylor, I…thank you for trusting me with this."

"Madison…" I rubbed at my temples and groaned. "Madison, don't go overboard. Just, don't be creepy about this and we can keep trying to work at the new slate thing."

"Got it. I'll be over later with the clothes and food."

Putting the phone away, I turned the final block and was met with a rather amusing sight in front of me. Amy was on the street jumping after what looked like a large butterfly as it flew away from her down the street. She missed her grab and it winged away as Amy jumped again, and missed again. She grunted as she fell on the street and the butterfly flew off down the road towards the nicer section of town. It was too far outside my range to grab so I just shrugged and walked over to Amy to help her up instead.

As I got close however, she turned her head and saw me, her face going pale and she jumped to her feet hands waving in front of her. "Taylor, you're back! You're back fast! Oh, um, everything's fine. Everything's perfect! Nothing's wrong at all! How was your run?"

Narrowing my eyes, I glanced from Amy towards where the butterfly had disappeared too. I tried to send a few clusters after it, but I hadn't gotten a good enough look at the thing besides 'large butterfly' to really be able to track it through the swarm. It would be like hunting for a needle in a stack of needles. "Eventful. Tell you about it inside. Everything is perfect here huh?"

"Absolutely perfect. Nothing wrong. I've got everything under control."

"Uh huh." I still kept trying to look for the butterfly though none of my critters nearby reported anything. Damn. Sighing, I turned back to Amy. Well, if it had been worth hunting down, she'd have told me. Hopefully.

"Look! I made you a bug!" Amy shouted and ran into the factory. I tried hard not roll my eyes at her declaration. I had gotten that impression fairly clearly Amy. Following along dutifully, I closed the door behind us and trooped up the stairs. As soon as we got near the office I felt the new critter and my steps faltered.

She…really made me a bug. Holy crap. That had to be the single sweetest - and possibly creepiest - thing anyone had ever done for me before. I stepped into the office while still examining the bug through my power. Amy was holding it up in both hands as if it was the Holy Grail and smiling at me.

The thing looked like some sort of souped up Hercules beetle combined with a wasp and given bladed legs. It was like the wet-dream of one of those game designers from Earth Aleph. The bug was big, probably a little smaller than the size of Amy's palm, basically the size of a rat, though the three top blades from the Hercules beetle base gave it a more impressive forward girth. It had wings on its back much like the beetle, only larger. My power was telling me that it's exoskeleton was massively beefed up, as well as being reinforced with a rudimentary endoskeleton as well. In fact…"Amy, can this thing survive being shot?"

Her grin grew wider. "It's too small to survive, but it can take a shot. The bullet will still penetrate, but all the energy will be gone. From small caliber rounds at least. If you cover yourself with these, even without the spider-silk suit, the worst you'd get from being shot at by an assault rifle is just some bruising. Anything larger though would probably still penetrate, and it wouldn't do to get too used to using them as a shield." And with a dramatic flourish she presented it to me. "I call him a bladebug! He can breed really rapidly so you can jump his numbers up too. You'll have to push him to do that though because I manually suppressed the mating urge. He doesn't reproduce unless you force him to. At least…he shouldn't."

"Yeah, we need to work on your naming, but I can see why you call him that," I murmured. The front two legs were mostly just sharpened blades like on his head. The back four legs were more traditional legs though their central mass were sharpened enough to be used as weapons as well. And it had a sharp stinger too. The stinger didn't have venom, though it also didn't separate like with some bees' stingers and it could be used like another knife. "Damn, Amy, this thing is awesome!"

"You really like him? You're not just saying that?" her voice was soft and she was looking at the floor as I shifted my focus from the bug to the girl.

Smiling, I took control of the bladebug and had him fly off to the side as I wrapped her into rib-cracking hug. "I love him! Thank you, Amy."

"You're welcome," she whispered, leaning her head against my shoulder.

The bladebug did a nice little celebratory lap around the two of us as I kept squeezing my friend. I had a new bug for the swarm, an awesome new bug for the swarm.

\/\/\/\/

"Hello Hive/Queen, this is Lisapedia, you're on with New Name Pending. Please note this call may be recorded for blackmail purposes. How can I help you today?" the speaker in my phone chirped snarkily as I held it between me and Amy.

I gaped at the small screen for several seconds before I could bring my to reply with a strangled, "Seriously?"

"It's early, I'm stressed, and I've been running in circles trying to answer a question with bad data. Cut me some slack. What do you want Taylor?"

I looked at Amy and she just shrugged. Shaking my head I decided to let the weirdness of the morning continue unmolested. "A few things actually, if you're still interested in proving that we can work together. You know, considering how my identity is rather blown to hell now."

There was no hesitation as Lisa immediately replied. "I'm interested. And concerning your identity, well I heard the nine o'clock news is running a piece on it, 'shortest lived secret identity'."

"Fuck you, Lisa," I snipped back at her though there wasn't any heat in it. How had I moved from frightened as a puppy about my secret identity to joking about it with a villain in less than a week? "Gah! First off, I'm partnered up with Amy Dallon now. She - "

"Ah. Well that fills in a few blanks. Let me guess. You guys have new digs and need to fill it up with ill gotten gains but don't feel comfortable doing so yourself, so you're asking the villain if she can use her own funds to purchase it 'legitimately' for you?" Lisa's question was more of a statement than I was comfortable with. And she was very close to the mark too. What even was her power?

"Pretty close, yeah," I sighed. "I really would prefer it to be legal if possible, but I'm not going to ask questions. Like you said, you're a villain."

"What do you need?"

"A bed, an armchair, a dresser, a desk, a few lamps, microwave, fridge. Amy anything else?"

"Terrariums too if you can't get those from your home."

I shook me head. "I never kept those at home. They're in abandoned buildings all throughout my radius. We're fine on that front."

"Oh. Well, that's all I can think of at the moment if you had your friend getting the clothes and food."

"Madison isn't my friend. She's…I don't know what she is, a minion perhaps. But yes, she's getting that stuff."

"Wait, Madison?" Lisa interjected. "Madison Clements? SpecificProtagonist? You know THAT Madison? How'd you manage to get your groupie as your minion already? Ick! Also, geez, small world. I'll message her to see if she's bringing you over one of her old rigs too, knowing her she probably already already is, but if not I'll add it to the list. Send me the address and I'll arrange a drop off for later."

I groaned and held my head in my free hand. "I didn't realize that was Madison's screen name. Of course my bully has to be a creepy pervert too."

"Seriously, Taylor you're too easy to tease. It's a coping thing, don't read into it too much. Her online personality is divorced from her offline one. I help her out online occasionally. You said there was more that you had for me?"

Nodding I gave the thumbs up to Amy and she took over. "I'm almost certain I know who my biological father is, but most of my knowledge is from a letter and research with coinciding dates. Plus one conversation that was mostly yelling as I left home after the bank job your team pulled." There was an uncomfortable silence for a few moments at that.

"Taylor did convey my apologies right?"

"She did."

"Right. Well forgive me, but I'm not going to say it again. We were in the middle of a job."

Amy gritted her teeth and squeezed my arm though she let up after a second. "I know, and as long as you don't do it again I'm not going to hold it against you. As I was saying, I THINK I know who my dad is. But I'm not entirely sure and I couldn't bring myself to ask Aunt Sarah before things came to a head last night. I also have no idea who my mother is at all. You're supposed to be good at figuring things out right? We want you to figure out for sure the names of my parents."

Lisa sighed. "Your dad should be fairly easy. Him I can guarantee. I'm almost certain I know who he is already, I just need to get the proof for you. Your mom is harder. I can't make any guarantees. My power doesn't work like that. I need a starting point and if your dad was smart he'll have wiped the records pretty thoroughly."

I pulled the phone back towards me. "Just do what you can. We're not my dad; we don't expect miracles. She just wants closure, Lisa."

"Yeah, that I understand. I'll see what I can find. Taylor, about the bank job…your dad had an ulterior motive. I'm trying to figure out what it was. The bank wasn't the real hit that day. I think we were a distraction. If you're going to try working around him - or, god forbid, making a deal with with him - be careful. He has plans moving a few layers deep at all times. He doesn't always mess with my powers, but when he does it knocks me out cold. The day of the bank was one of them and this morning was another. Be careful."

Ice settled in the pit of my stomach at that. What the hell was I doing trying to play in the big leagues? "Thanks for the warning. We'll be in touch."

Hanging up I turned back to Amy. She just laid a hand on my shoulder and the bladebug soared down to rest on her hand. Forcing a smile I patted her arm.

\/\/\/\/

We decided to stay in the office after that. Both of us had apparently had too much excitement for the day, despite it having just barely started. Instead, I flipped the TV on, closed the bed back up into a couch and introduced Amy to the wonders of daytime television. The soap operas were all ones I had seen and none were interesting, though thankfully there was a movie playing on one of the cable channels that was pretty good. So we sat down to watch Aliens. A bit of screaming later and I had one glaring brunette with a death grip on my arm as I smirked at her.

"How have you never seen this?"

"My family didn't watch horror movies much," she grumbled as a commercial played. "And I'm starting to see why."

"Just think of all the inspiration you could get from this movie," I teased her. "Imagine a xenomorph going up against Lung! Or setting the chestburster against one of the Endbringers? I'd love to see…Actually I take that back. Nevermind. That's a really bad idea. Forget I ever said that. Please don't set a chestburster inside an Endbringer. The Aliens are bad enough when they have humans and dogs as the base. With an Endbringer as a base? Yeah. Just no."

"They kill dogs too in this movie?!" Amy looked absolutely horrified at that thought and I felt bad for the urge to laugh.

"No." She calmed down though I couldn't resist the small grin that spread as I continued. "That's in Alien 3."

"We're not watching that one."

"Whatever you say, Amy."

"Is this one almost over?"

"You still have to see that Alien Queen."

Amy turned to look at me as the movie started up again. I ignored her for almost a solid minute. She finally had to poke me in the side of the head before I raised an eyebrow at her. "There's a mother?"

"It's badass. Seriously. Totally awesome. Probably should've won. If you think the sequels are canon it kinda did. That's even more awesome."

"Taylor. That's scary to an insane degree," Amy stated completely deadpan.

"And now you see why I think spiders and wasps are cool. Watch the movie Amy."

"I hate you," Amy groaned as she settled back down into the couch and twisted to stare glumly at the screen again.

A few more screams later and I was smirking as Amy reluctantly conceded that yes, the Xenomorph Queen was badass, and yes, Ripley had been both smart and lucky in beating it. Overall, I counted it as a win.

The movie was just finishing up as I took note of someone approaching the factory through my patrols. Redirecting the flies a bit closer for a better visual, I smiled as I got a good look at Madison. She had a large backpack on that seemed to be stuffed to the gills as well as several large shopping bags that were bigger than she was. How she had managed to get all the way here from wherever she had started without falling over was a mystery for the ages.

"Madison is here with the clothes and food. Let's go rescue our erstwhile minion before she falls and can't get up."

"Huh?"

"You'll understand when you see her." I stood and led the way down to the main floor opening the door for Madison just as she reached the factory proper. The smile she beamed at me as she walked in was radiant. I was just reaching for her to grab some of the bags when she apparently slipped on the lip of the door and tumbled through. Half the bags flew towards Amy, while the rest were sent skidding into the factory. Madison herself wound up on her knees in front of me with her head fairly close to my feet. Unable to resist, I pushed up my glasses and crossed my arms. "You know, Madison, while I don't require your suplicating worship, if you really feel the need, I suppose I can make an exception once or twice. If it makes you feel better that is."

Madison's face blushed a tomato red and she hurriedly pushed herself back to her feet. "I almost made it the whole it way from the bus without falling. This close, I was this close!"

Rolling my eyes I dusted off her backpack and helped grab some of the bags as the three of us trooped back upstairs. "Seriously, you okay?"

"Fine, just embarrassed. I brought you a computer too. I wasn't sure what type of desktop they had here so I thought you could use one of my older laptops. It's about a year out of date, but it runs fine, unless you want to use it for games or something. If you do, I'd have to get you a different rig."

"Yeah, we're just going to be using it to look things up and maybe play some movies. Thanks for the clothes," I said starting to shift through the things she had brought and move them into piles in different corners.

"And the food!" Amy commented tearing into a bag of candy. "I was starving."

"That's not the best for you Amy…" I muttered.

"I can change it into stuff that is biologically good for me if I really want to before I actually swallow it. I generally don't because it's gross to do that to junk food, but I can if I need to."

Madison looked at the small piles of clothes that I was building and frowned. "Um, Taylor, where are you going to put all this stuff? I know you said not to get you more furniture, but you kind of need it."

"Got it covered. We're expecting another delivery at some point today."

"Oh. I guess that works then." Madison cupped her hands together and sort of swayed back and forth momentarily. She nodded and turned to the door. "Uh, I guess I'll just go then. Let me know if you need anything else."

I stopped my unpacking and looked at her slumped back. Grunting, I had a few bugs line up in front of Madison and form a hand waving her off. Curse me and my bleeding heart. "Madison, wait. Do you want to stay and watch a few movies with us?"

She sucked in a breath and looked at me with wide eyes. "You want me to stay?"

"Well you're my minion now. You have to do minion things. You've already fetched me things. Now you get to help me introduce my friend to pop culture that her family has sadly deprived her of. Sit." She smiled again and rushed to take a seat on the couch next to Amy.

As Madison curled her legs up under her and stole some of Amy's snacks while the next movie started up, I found myself wondering how in the hell this girl had ever managed to ingratiate herself with someone like Sophia Hess. How was she not eaten alive?

Shaking my head at the two as they fought over one of the candy bars, I leaned back on the couch, barely noticing as my head drifted to the side to rest against Amy's shoulder. The music on the TV swelled though I barely even heard it as my eyes drifted closed.

\/\/\/\/

"Taylor! Taylor, wake up! You need to move Taylor, I need to shift the couch and I can't move it while you are sleeping on it."

"Huh? Wha," I slurred, blinking as I dimly registered the hand on my shoulder and the voice in my ear.

"You should just jolt her." Why did that voice sound familiar?

"You be quiet."

"If I'm the one saying it, you know she wants it. Maybe she wants a bit of sass too."

"I said be quiet! You're creepy!"

"You know, you're practically like my creator in some ways, if you squint, so…what does that say about you?"

"Taylor, please wake up. Hive is being weird and creeping me out."

That was apparently what I needed to push my brain into action. My eyes popped open and I saw Amy standing over me with Hive in the corner of the room. My construct waved, the bladebug forming the core of one of its fingers. Its weird smile front and center on its face as it smirked at me. "Yo, wakey wakey. Delivery is here. I can help move the furniture if you want."

I tried for several replies, failing each time. Finally, I turned to Amy and gestured with empty hands towards Hive.

"Madison left about a half-hour ago. She had to get home for dinner. Hive formed a few minutes back, just after Lisa called to say that we should get the delivery soon. I…think you heard and it formed to…help."

"Its…you're bugs! You can't hold weight like that!"

"I can if Amy reinforces a few more of my critters like Mr. Pokey here," Hive said waving her bladebug finger towards us. "Come on, you know you want to experiment a bit more."

Amy looked between me and Hive. She frowned and half stood up as she shifted towards it. "I was thinking about how I could beef up the spiders to make them able to support loads better…you'd be grounded more though."

"Could you increase the silk production too? Gives me more options for takedowns without hurting people if I can wrap them up faster and stronger."

I held up a hand. "I'm sorry, are you conversing with my power?"

"Looks that way," Amy muttered. "I'll need to use the flies as base organic material for the modifications and I'm not touching the roaches. Not right now. They're…gross."

"They're really not, but sure, I'll let Taylor work on you for that. Just the spiders are fine." Hive shifted its composition and all of the non-spiders seemed to flow out of the construct and disperse around the factory leaving just a conglomerate of spiders and the single bladebug plus a small mass of flies lumped in the stomach region. It looked even less like a person now. And looking at it with my power was even stranger than normal since spiders weren't meant to grip like that. Even when they were organized that was just wrong.

Amy apparently disagreed since she moved towards Hive and held out her hand. Despite my concern, I admit, it was fascinating to be able to see the changes happen in real time. The spiders didn't change visibly all that much besides bulk up a bit. Internally though, they gained a rudimentary endoskeleton like the bladebug as well as extra spinnerets and new glands to help with the silk production. They nearly tripled in weight though the extra pseudo-muscle-things that fit onto the new skeleton that Amy gave them more than made up for it. By the time she was done, I wouldn't be surprised if they really could help us move the stuff around the office.

"Amy," I said.

"Yeah," she replied stepping back from Hive with a small nod.

"That's really impressive. But next time you want to work on my swarm, please don't talk to Hive about it without talking to me first. Hive might be my subscious, but I'm the one who should have control of the swarm. Not the construct. Okay? Talking to my power about my power is…it's just wrong. There are limits, Amy."

Amy licked her lips and turned back to me. "Right. I just wanted help. Sorry."

"It's okay. We're still getting to know each other and figure out our limits. This is apparently one of mine. In extremes it's fine. But if there is time, talk to me, not Hive. Cool?"

"Cool," Amy replied nodding vigorously.

"Awesome." I stood and glared over her shoulder. "And you. Stop looking smug. I would've thought of that eventually."

"Technically you did think of that."

"Hardee har har. Move the damn couch, Hive."

"As you command, Mistress," it said bowing with an overly embellished flourish.

Between the three of us, we managed to shift everything to one side, or out of the office entirely, just in time for the new things to arrive. The dresser was the perfect size and the lamps did a fantastic job of lighting up the place. How Lisa had gotten everything just right was a mystery for another day, though not one I particularly cared to put high on the priority list.

I was more inclined to berate her for her apparent continued need to troll me. She had sent a Queen size bed.

Amy and I heated up our dinners in the new microwave, watched one final movie and curled up on the new bed. While it was still a bit smaller than I had hoped, it was, at least, gloriously comfy. Especially compared to my old bed and the pullout couch.

"Taylor?"

"Yeah, Amy?"

"I…About what I had said the other day. About my sister…Do you think I'm horrible for feeling that way about her for so long?"

I rolled over and locked gazes with the brunette brushing a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. "For one thing, Amy, you said yourself, you never really had a choice. I would be a pretty horrible friend if I thought you were a bad person for something you couldn't control."

"When you put it like that it sounds like I'm being stupid for worrying," Amy murmured.

I chuckled. "You are. My dad is running a gang that controls a decent chunk of the city and is apparently aiming to control the rest as well. Compared to that, what's a bit of adopted sibling accidentally forced love?"

Amy frowned and shook her head as best she could while lying down. "You're not responsible for his actions, Taylor."

"I know. But I still feel like I should have seen what he was becoming a long time ago and been able to help stop him before he got so far along this path. Compared to me, you're fine Amy. Besides, you walked away, right?"

"Yeah," she said softly. Then she smiled and said it again, louder and stronger, "Yeah! I did! I walked away. I chose to leave. I chose to leave her! I can keep walking away and I can choose where I go from here. I walk my own path."

"Yes you do. We both do." I shifted closer on the bed and pulled her into a hug which she eagerly returned, squeezing my ribs almost hard enough to bruise. "We got this, everything is going to be fine."

Last edited: Oct 8, 2019

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Slider214

Oct 8, 2019

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Threadmarks Deviance 03

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Slider214

Slider214

He/Him

Oct 14, 2019

#156

Deviance 03

"Queen, this is very much not fine!" Amy's voice shouted at me through the Bluetooth earpiece.

Look at me, my bugs were getting upgraded, my team was getting upgraded, my tech was getting upgraded…Now I just needed to make sure my critters and I survived this hell night.

"I realize things aren't going according to plan, Darwin," I snapped back. "Any extraction plans from you or Watchtower? Preferably before Hive is blown to hell from Oni Lee?"

My construct was doing its best but this was not a good matchup for it at all. I had tried to take direct control when the ABB assassin ambushed us during a patrol yet that seemed to make things worse. The bugs making up my construct were sluggish when I grabbed them and reacted more like my usual clusters than the cohesive conglomerate. So instead I pulled back and ran around the corner, leaving Hive to do its thing.

It was managing to keep Oni Lee harried, to a degree, and the bladebug fingers I had bred for it had left a nice set of bleeding claw marks down one arm when Hive had gotten in a lucky swipe before Oni Lee had teleported out the second time. Unfortunately, Hive just wasn't maneuverable enough or quick enough for this fight. Oni Lee could appear anywhere at anytime. Each time he popped in, he left another grenade.

I had lost nearly a quarter of the swarm to the bastard already! Growling at yet another explosion, I bit the metaphorical bullet and shifted some of my anger and frustration into Hive. Maybe it could do more with the damn things than I could. I was basically impotent in this fight beyond finding Oni Lee for the few seconds before he teleported again.

"Queen, this is Ma-um-Watchtower. Can you pull him towards Fifth and Lawrence? There's an ongoing battle with the Wards and some E88 thugs. I think you should be able to lose him in the confusion."

I grimaced. "Not really sure I want to bait a crazy teleporter with grenades towards the Wards, Watchtower. What are our other options?"

I checked the cluster of wasps I had on the rooftop closest to Hive and my grimace got worse. Most of Amy's improved spiders were dead and we had lost nearly all of the bladebugs. Hive was down to a third of its regular size and Oni Lee was still going strong.

As I watched over Hive he popped onto a rooftop with a cluster of flies further out. These weren't even biting flies so I couldn't do anything with them! Shifting my annoyance to Hive I also sent it some balancing emotions. It left me deadened a smidge, but the last thing we needed was for my partially independent construct to start going on a rampage against an opponent it couldn't touch.

"Queen, I don't know if you can hear me, but I will assume you can," the demon teleporter said, speaking directly to the small swarm of flies. I reeled back against the wall of the alley I was hiding in though I maintained enough sense to have the cluster bob up and down.

"Good. Lung intends this as payback for taking our property. I cannot find you, so your partner will suffer our full wrath. Normally a heavy beating or bloodletting would suffice, however that is difficult with one such as her so extreme measures are being taken. I'm sure you understand the idea of escalation and appropriate measures. Should she expire we consider the matter done. Should she not, we advise you to leave the ABB territory alone. This is the only warning your team will receive." He popped away back to the rooftop with Hive and left another set of grenades that my construct only just barely managed to avoid taking the brunt of as it momentarily dispersed again.

"Fuck this!" I snarled. Apparently I wasn't quite as emotionally dead as I had thought. No matter. "Watchtower, we're moving towards the Wards. Darwin, give them a heads up that they can expect Oni Lee in their midst shortly. I'm done letting this fucker play with us!"

I pushed off from the wall and began to run towards the intersection that my minion had highlighted while sending a mental call to what was left of Hive. It tangled with Oni Lee for one last teleport hop, then used his short break between jumps to surge off the rooftop and down the side wall into the street. The mass of bugs reformed into a smaller human body and took off running about four blocks behind me.

We stayed staggered as Oni Lee kept up trying to harass Hive. Small mercy of small mercies, he seemed to switch to a bat once my construct abandoned the roof. The bastard still took out a ton of roaches before Hive was able to surge away from the attacks, but at least that was better than grenades.

Ugh, my poor swarm. It was going to take me at least a week to rebuild my numbers from the losses in the last hour alone!

I heard the new battle before I saw it. Loud crashes and shouts sounded down the street such that I didn't even need to scout ahead with my bugs to find the source. I still DID to make sure I wasn't going to walk into a firestorm, but even so. They could do with maintaining a bit of quiet in the neighborhood.

Yeah, this coming from someone running from the mad bomber…

Skidding around the corner, I slid to a stop against a car next to Clockblocker and Kid Win. "Hi, did my teammate tell you I was coming?"

Both teenage heroes just stared at me for a moment as Alabaster continued to laugh and Rune threw another piece of asphalt towards the car. "Uh, you're Queen?" Kid Win asked as he looked over the hood of the car and fired a shot from what looked to be a genuine ray gun towards the hovering Rune. He missed by…a lot.

"That's me. Oni Lee is going to be here in about another 30 seconds along with Hive. Sorry. Needed backup; he was kind of tearing Hive apart and I can't touch him. Switch bad guys?"

Clockblocker just stared at me for a second before shaking his head. "You are as insane as Aegis warned us you were. I can deal with Oni Lee if I can tag him before he teleports. How the hell do you intend to take out Rune and Alabaster? You work with bugs!" This time, when Rune threw something at us, the car was rocked by a mailbox which nearly punched all the way through before coming to a stop in the passenger seat. "Damn it, power wore off!" Reaching out to the car, he touched it and frowned. "Win, can't you keep her grounded?"

"She moves too fast and I'm not a good marksman!"

"I am," I said, holding up a hand. Hive was only two blocks away now; needed to finish this up fast. "That's how I can take out Rune. The bug clusters give me a good idea of where things are apparently. Give me your gun and I can knock her out."

The two heroes cast looks between each other as another mailbox hit the car. At least this one bounced off it with a metallic clang and explosion of letters. Clockblocker's power was still going strong. I checked in with Hive and it sent a wave of frustration towards me. Apparently Oni Lee's bat was doing more damage than I had noticed originally. It was losing bugs and I didn't have the numbers to shore it back up. "Running out of time to decide. Oni Lee is going to see us in a moment."

More asphalt rained into the time-locked car and a second piece flew over it to smash into the street just beyond our heads. That was apparently enough for the white-clad hero. He nodded to his companion. "Win, give her your gun. Queen, if you can take down Rune do it. Otherwise, we maneuver the villains into fighting each other and pull out while waiting for Protectorate backup. Assault and Battery are already on their way."

"They won't make it," Watchtower chirped in my ear. "Kaiser is en route. You guys need to leave."

"How in the hell do you know that Kaiser is en route before the heroes do?" I asked grabbed the gun from Win and keeping a watch on Rune's circling protection of rocks through my nearby clusters. Both Wards jerked and stared at me. Clock held a hand to his ear and started yelling into whatever communicator he must have had though I mostly ignored him since that was when Hive rounded the last corner and started sprinting towards the melee. Alabaster also apparently finally decided he had had enough of letting Rune do everything herself when Oni Lee came into view still swinging his bat at my construct and started running down the street towards the rest of us.

"PHO lights up like a Christmas tree when E88 goes on the move," my earpiece chirped. "Also, I'm in the traffic light network."

"How the hell did you get into the traffic system?! Aren't those massively firewalled?"

"Not as much as you'd think. It does help that part of the work my dad's company does is installing the cameras. I'm backdooring through his account for the access. He's…not very good with passwords. With this setup it's pretty easy to follow people if you keep a second screen up showing where each camera on the network is located and then just chart the path on where they show up on the grid. The Empire reinforcement is Kaiser, Fenja, and Menja by the way. You've got maybe five minutes before they arrive."

"That means hurry, Queen! I don't have Glory Girl and Lady Photon to fly me to you if you get your chest caved in again or a metal spike shoved through you." Amy sounded like she was biting her nails the way her voice came through distorted. I wondered briefly if she was considering coming out with me next time to be closer to the action and better able to effect battlefield triage if needed. I'd have to talk her out of it if she was. She couldn't heal herself, the front lines weren't the best place for her.

"Anytime you want to shoot?" Win hissed. He had his eyes trained on Hive as it dispersed its bugs in an attempt to evade the bastard assassin. 500 feet to go. Alabaster on the other hand was even further out. Apparently being immune to death didn't give you a good running speed. I still had time.

"There's a lot of debris around her. She's not fully covered though," I said. Win and Clock were beginning to sweat. The flies I had on each could taste it through their exposed skin. Poor men had no confidence in me. That would change soon enough. "Her blocks rotate and she missed a section in her stone wall. I'm just waiting for it to come back around and…" Grinning, I twisted and raised my arm over the hood.

Rune saw me move and raised her hand. A piece of asphalt the size of a small dog started to soar towards my head. I was faster though. Squeezing the trigger on Kid Win's gun, a blue laser shot from the end and speared right through the opening in the rotating concrete coverage the E88 teenager was sitting in the middle of. She dropped backwards like a stone, all of her miscellaneous levitating things falling along with her. She fell maybe 6 feet and I heard the crack as her shoulder hit the ground. Alabaster froze in his rush to get to us. His head turned back to stare at the girl, then looked at us, then back to Rune. With a snarl, he ran back towards his teammate.

I turned back to the other two just in time to see Clockblocker reach for Oni Lee as the demon bastard popped into being near our car. The thug had abandoned the bat and switched to a knife apparently. And he was going for me.

Hive was still too far out to help and none of my clusters were close. Screaming, I pulled my rage back from Hive and leaped forwards towards the teleporter. I was too close to bring the gun to bear in time with the angles we were at. I trusted my suit, I'd built it myself. It could withstand a knife…I hoped. All I had to do was knock Oni Lee out before he could teleport again and I'd be fine. We'd even be able to capture him then. I could still turn this around. I could still make this night a win.

My bugs didn't have to die for nothing.

I got my hands around his head and my feet around his waist and we started to fall back as I felt the knife press against my ribs. It pushed hard into my costume and I felt a small prick on my stomach, but the fabric held. As we fell onto the street, Oni Lee collapsed into dust and I screamed again. Bastard must have started his teleport before I could jump him!

Hive made it to my side just as Oni Lee reappeared behind me thrusting with the knife, this time towards my back. I tried to twist and grab him, but Hive beat me to it. It jerked its arm forward, the last bladebug surging to the forefront and leaving a scrape down Oni Lee's arm. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough to shift his aim and his knife dug into my neck near a seam in the suit between my hood and the chest portion. Thankfully, the silk was still bunched up so it didn't penetrate far, but the burning pain I felt as it slid through the bundle of silk was more than enough for me to cry out in pain. I felt a warm trickle of blood as he jerked his arm back and I rolled to the side trying to avoid a further attack. Hive lunged again and Kid Win shot at the villain while Clockblocker attempted to leap over me to lock him in status.

None of them made contact since the man dissolved into ash again. This time when he reappeared he was almost half a street away and near another cluster of insects. He nodded to us and held up the bloody knife. Speaking again to the insect cluster, Oni Lee gestured to the knife. "The matter is settled. Leave our territory alone or we will not be so kind next time." He vanished and reappeared on a roof across the street, and moments later the ABB cape was gone entirely.

"Oh I am going to kill that piece of shit the next time I see him," Hive snarled, its few remaining insects chittering in agitation. "I have next to nothing left making me up! Fucking bastard!"

"Rune and Alabaster are gone," Kid Win sighed, standing to look over our beat-up shelter. "Well, at least we're not hurt."

"Speak for yourself," Clockblocker commented. He focused in on me and the hand I had pressed to the back of my neck. "Are you okay?"

"Darwin will fix me up when I get back to my lair. I'm probably going to get yelled at for getting hurt as it as. At least now I know a weakness in my costume I need to fix." I shunted my anger back towards Hive to keep it bled off. The thing was already angry, a little more couldn't hurt.

Kid Win looked at me and frowned. "Is Darwin a new cape?"

"No. Panacea rebranded," I said, grimacing as I started to shake my head and a fresh wave of pain lanced down my back from the neck wound.

Clockblocker nodded and held a hand to his ear again. "Console, where do we stand on Kaiser and the Protectorate? Do we need to evac or can we go to assist? Uh huh. Uh huh. Yeeeaaaah. Look, we're fine. I said…Roger." He dropped his hand and kicked the door of the car then yelped in pain as Kid Win, Hive, and I all snickered.

"We need to get back to base. You sure you don't need medical attention before you get back to Panac-err, sorry, Darwin. That's going to take some getting used to. Why is she rebranding?"

"She's distancing herself from New Wave. Helps them, helps her, helps our team."

"Right. Yeah. I'm not touching that with a ten-foot pole. Thanks for the help with the shooting, Queen. Next time you guys decide to crash our party though, we'd appreciate it if you leave your guests behind." He turned to his partner and Kid Win ran to the side of the street to grab what looked like a high-tech skateboard. It apparently was a skateboard that flew…lucky kid. They both waved to Hive and me and took off down the road.

Hive looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "What's the plan now, oh great arthropod mistress?"

Groaning, I glared at the bug construct. "Don't start. Let's get home. I can't deal with Kaiser as I am now. I need to rebuild the reserves we just lost before I can risk either of us in another fight."

"And your neck hurts."

"And my neck hurts."

Stupid swarm and its stupid logic. As we started the jog home, I idly wondered if Amy could make a teleporting bug. Now wouldn't that surprise Oni Lee the next time he tried to hurt Hive and me?

\/\/\/\/

"Ohmygodhestabbedyou!Hestabbedyoutwice!Areyouokay?!Howareyoustillwalking?!"

Hive had dismissed itself, dissolving into a mass of bugs and reforming elsewhere while we were still a few blocks away from the lair, and I had barely stepped inside when I was practically assaulted by Madison. How she managed to say all of that in a single breath I had no idea. I also didn't know how I was supposed to respond to my former bully attempting to manhandle my hood off and get antiseptic cream onto the knife wound on my neck at the same time…

God this was uncomfortable. I could barely bring myself to trust Amy and that was mostly because she was adorable, vulnerable, and had the same issues with having a supervillain as a father. Madison was almost the exact opposite. This girl was…the way she was reacting to me, I was half convinced my minion would go out and shoot someone if I asked her politely. This was sooo not cool.

"Madison stop! Ow! You're making it worse, stop!" I pushed her back and held a hand over my wound. Looking over the petite girl's shoulder I caught sight of Amy hovering just behind her on the stairs. Shoving past Madison I moved towards my other friend. "Before you tell me off, it's not that bad."

"Really? Because it looks like a man who should have a Kill Order on his head stabbed you in the neck. After you ran right at him and let him stab you in the gut." Amy deadpanned, narrowing her eyes at me.

I grimaced and nodded as she touched my now gloveless, thanks to Madison, hand. "The suit can take a stabbing without any problem. I thought running at him would be smarter than letting him teleport away again and he was right there. You can't really blame me for getting the neck wound. That's not my fault." I sighed in relief as Amy stitched up my injury.

Behind me, Madison ran her fingers across the now smooth skin sending a - not entirely unpleasant - shiver down my spine. "Wow…That's much better than antibacterial cream and stitches."

"Wonders of powers," Amy muttered. "Taylor, we should adjust your costume. The neck is a weakness. If you incorporate the hood into the rest of the suit it'll be much safer."

"Agreed," I said with a sigh as the three of us moved into the office. They sat back down on the couch while I started pulling off the rest of my costume. While I didn't have much more on than short shorts and a sports bra, I couldn't be bothered to care enough. I was too tired. "I should do the same with the gloves even though I was really trying to avoid going for a full bodysuit. It is much safer. However…hmm, maybe if I double layer it instead? That might actually work better. Then I'd just have to add a few more inches to the overlap sections. Extra protection on the joints and it would still be easy to take off fast if I need to. I could even add elastic hooks on the sleeve's wrist parts to let me connect a knuckle duster or something then layer the gloves over that maybe. I had basically nothing to protect myself in that fight besides my fists. Hmm, this might work…"

Amy grunted and shoved a bag of snacks into my hand. "Eat, you need the calories. And stop nerding out over your costume."

"Um, how's Hive doing? It didn't come back with you." Madison asked frowning.

I shrugged. "It was still mouthy as we walked back here though it wasn't as talkative as it has been. I think because it didn't have as many bugs. Or because we got our asses kicked." I leaned back and let me head slam into the back of the sofa. "God I lost so many bugs! It's going to take me forever to build that back up. Even if I just breed them, I still have to go around and collect the new ones into the swarm after they hatch. Ugh, this sucks! Fucking grenades!"

Amy leaned over and laid a hand on my arm. "It's okay, I can help. I'll supercharge some of the mating cycles. We can rebuild your swarm. Maybe I can figure out a way to make something that would be harder for Oni Lee to take out too."

"Can you make me something that teleports?"

Madison perked up and gaped at us. "You can do that?"

Amy stared at Madison and slowly shook her head. "No. No, I cannot. You," she pointed at me and glared, "don't give the girl ideas! She's excitable enough already. You have no idea what I had to deal with while you were running around out there."

"What did I do? Mission Control was fun! All I was asking for was some snacks and for your help in linking some of the monitors. I can't be expected to keep an eye on everything if I don't have a good setup," Madison grumbled. "It's not like I have powers like you two."

I groaned and wiped a hand down my face. "Madison, you don't have to do anything. You can come over when we're not doing cape stuff, you know?"

"Yeah, but I want to help if I can." She shrugged. "It's my fault you're in this mess, so I'm going to do what I can, even if I'm not a Tinker or a Thinker or anything else."

I glanced at Amy for help though my brunette partner in crime prevention gave zero assistance, she just shrugged. Grumbling to myself I pulled off the last bit of my costume and threw it into the corner where I had several manager spiders set to work on grabbing a mini-cluster of their kin to spin webs for raw silk. Once the cluster was set, I directly controlled a few more spiders to take the actual silk and repair the bits that needed fixing on the suit as well as make the modifications to the gloves and hood.

"What was the word on Kaiser by the way?"

Madison flipped her chair around and tapped at the computer. "Looks like he was mostly just moving out to distract the heroes and keep them from reinforcing the Wards. Once Rune and Alabaster got away, he and the valkyries retreated pretty quickly."

"Well that's good at least," I said. "Anything else of note?"

She shook her head. "Nothing that pops out as something we need to worry about immediately. Um, there's some chatter on PHO about some Empire thugs being stung and roughed up by some 'giant wasps and attack beetles' a few blocks from your fight. Probably just you keeping them from joining in with the cape battle, right?"

I frowned and thought back. "I don't remember siccing anything on regular gang members during the fight, but it was a little chaotic and I was very pissed at basically everything going on then, even with most of my emotions shunted to Hive…Maybe? I mean, it makes sense. I always have some patrols going and most are on autopilot set to warn me if it's worth focusing on their reports. I can concentrate on multiple things, but I was using a lot of headspace to be able to shoot Rune so the swarm might have just reacted based on my original orders to contain threats."

Amy frowned. "Your powers are weird. How does your swarm just act without conscious thought like that?"

I shrugged, "I can only directly control so many bugs at once, but the ones I do control can…sort of delegate orders to other nearby bugs, but only ones that have been close enough to me to have been 'tagged'. Once I tag a bug, so long as they are within my range, I can reach out to them whenever I want. So I can either do something pinpoint with a lot of little micromanagement commands for a smallish group, like those spiders weaving my suit back together over there, or delegate out large scale group commands that are simple and interpreted by the bug's own limited brains like with the ones working on the webs in the corner. If I try to control too many directly then I get major headaches, took me ages to figure that out…"

Madison nodded. "Okay, well that's weird, but there's a cape made a living metal so I'm not going to judge. You probably do need a Thinker rating though judging from the headaches. Oh! You can make like, kidnapper bugs!"

Amy and I just stared at her. Finally I rubbed my temples and groaned. "Madison, please explain what you mean, because that sounds horrible phrased like that."

"I am not aiding and abetting kidnapping," Amy commented glaring at Madison.

Her face heated up and she bit her finger, nodding quickly. "Sorry, sorry, yeah that does sound bad. I mean, you could set a group to go out and grab bugs that haven't been tagged. They could bring you more bugs quicker that way, your tagged range is huge but you have to be really close to actually tag new ones, right? So just set a few of your semi-autonomous clusters to get anything not controlled and bring them close enough to get into your swarm."

Frowning I rolled that idea around in my head. Reaching out to a roach cluster about two blocks away, I sent a test order to the little guys to see if they could distinguish between bugs in my swarm and non-tagged bugs. "Huh…well would you look at that. My bugs can figure out which ones are mine and which aren't. That's both cool and mildly creepy." Bringing my eyes back up to Madison I flashed her a smile as I made a few more clusters around the area to gather up the bugs that weren't in my swarm and bring them to me. It would be slow but this was something that could keep going all the time to constantly replenish my numbers even when I didn't have time to go for a run around the block. Cool.

Amy shook her head at the two of us. "Allow me to reiterate what I said before. I am not aiding and abetting kidnapping. Even of insects. What the hell has my life become that I have to add that modifier…"

"Welcome to the Independent scene!" I snarked back throwing my arms wide. "So, back to what we were on before, Madison, anything I need to worry about besides rogue clusters that I apparently need to watch better while fighting?"

"So yeah, nothing else on the radar that I can see. I could hit up All Seeing Eye? She's a bit better niffling out information than me and she could probably shift through some of this raw data faster than me. I don't have to tell her why I'm interested. I generally just ask for help with passwords and stuff, but I've sent her weird data in the past so it's nothing unusual."

Frowning I leaned forward. "All Seeing Eye? That sounds like…Oh. Well, that explains how she knows you." I sighed and leaned back. "Madison, your friend is Tattletale. You're getting help with your hacking from Tattletale."

Madison swiveled her chair and gaped at me. She looked to Amy who just shrugged helplessly. Finally looking back at me again Madison seemed to regain her capacity for speech. "I'm sorry, what?"

"We talked to her a few days back. She was rather surprised that I knew you since she knew you too."

"I'm going to have to go over everything she sent me now…" Madison mumbled turning back to her computer.

"She sounded like she was genuinely just trying to help you out from what little we talked about concerning you. Be careful, but I don't think you need to be paranoid. Just because we're capes doesn't mean we can't have friends outside our costumes," I said shaking my head. "Tattletale isn't a bad person, she's in a bad situation. I've overheard enough conversations between her and my father that I know where she's coming from and what she's involved in. Dad threatens her almost every time he talks to her and considering how she's jumping at the chance to work with us and get away from him, I'm betting she takes those threats very seriously. If she's talking to you and you don't have powers, she's probably using it as an escape."

"Speaking of family and friends," Amy said raising a hand. "Not that my family is secretly murderous and all, but on a lighter note, my cousin was interested in talking to you Taylor…in civilian clothes if possible. She messaged me yesterday asking if we could all sit down to talk. I, well I wasn't sure if you'd be okay with that so I haven't responded to her yet."

I grimaced and looked to Madison. My minion was no help as she steadfastly refused to turn around, just continued typing away at her computer. "Traitor," I muttered. Madison tapped her foot on the floor and typed faster. "Do I have to?"

Amy looked at me and if I didn't know better, I'd have sworn she had a Master power with how she made her eyes look like little beaten puppies. "It would mean a lot. Crystal has always been nice to me…"

"Ugh, fine, okay Amy. I'll go. Might as well tell the Pelhams who I am. Seems like the only people in this city who aren't going to know my identity are the damn Gangs, and who knows how long that'll last. I bet my father would sell them that info if he thought it could benefit his plan for this city or drive me into his clutches."

Amy frowned. "That would break so many of the unwritten rules…He'd mark himself for sure."

"Not if he uses a mercenary or an 'informant', and kills them afterwards so it can't be traced back to him. He's done it before. Didn't you ever wonder why Circus started operating in Boston? She pissed him off when he couldn't buy her services, so he tipped off the Empire as to her name using a 'homeless guy' who 'saw her take off her costume'. I gave up on my dad ever being the same person I remember as a kid after hearing that conversation," I said, scowling and pushing away the hand that Amy tried to lay on my arm. "So yes, he'd do it if I annoy him too much or if he thinks it will get me to run to him out of desperation. I need more bugs to protect myself. I need…"

"More people, you need more than just me and Madison," Amy said softly. I pulled a soda from the fridge and caught my minion nodding though she still didn't actually talk. "I think I can make you a tranq wasp in the meantime. It might help if Oni Lee pops up again. But we need more people for this team, Taylor. I might be able to fight if I weaponize my skills, but that might be even more dangerous in the long run. Once I start being useful to you besides bugs, you have a huge target on your back. I also haven't really used this version of my skills enough to trust myself in a battle yet. Things could escalate fast if I do the wrong modification in the heat of the moment. You need people other than me."

"Yeah. I know." I fell back onto the couch and took a long swallow of my drink, trying to figure out how to say what I needed to as the liquid washed away some of the lingering bad taste from the fight. "I don't…I don't like working with people, Amy. Not anymore. Once upon a time, yeah I'd jump at it. But now, after what Emma did to me, after the school abandoned me, after finding out about my dad, it's really hard to trust people. I don't even have the benefit of divorcing Taylor from Queen anymore for most of the people that I would be willing to approach."

Amy stayed silent for long enough that I was worried I had said too much. Just as I was trying to find a way to laugh off what I had said, she started to talk. "Why do you trust me, Taylor? We've only been friends for about three weeks now and we've been working together a lot less than that."

"Your dad is like mine," I said looking into my drink. "That was enough to get you in the door. After that…how the hell was I supposed to not support you after what happened with your sister and you walking away from your family? You helped me when you didn't need to beforehand and then you needed help yourself. I can get over my issues and trust you, Amy. Just don't abuse it okay?" It helped that she was really pretty too. Not that I was going to say that out loud.

"…Okay."

"What about you, Madison? Any comments or questions, since we are having a friggin' heart to heart anyway?" I asked raising my head and looking to my minion.

Madison paused in her typing. "I'm going too far with you aren't I? I'm freaking you out, but it means you know how to deal with me all the same, right?" she said, steadfastly refusing to turn around and meet my gaze.

Frowning I nodded. "Yeah, actually, that's pretty much it. How did you…?"

"I told you, I'm good with computers, that doesn't mean I'm a total shut-in. At least, I didn't use to be one. Either way, I'm not good with psychos - no one is. I misjudged Sophia, I misjudged Emma. Emma is insane. Sophia is worse, because she's not insane, she's just absolutely terrifying. You're perfectly rational, and in your place I'd be thinking the same thing. I know I'm going too far, but I…you're still letting me in, so I don't really want to stop." She finally paused with her fingers resting over the keyboard and lowered her head. "Is that…is that okay? I hurt you. I want to make it up to you. Right now, you're letting me. You might not if I force myself to act more normal. Is it okay if I stay like this? I…I don't want to be alone again, Taylor and I don't want you and Amy to be alone either."

I let myself sink back into the couch and closed my eyes ignoring a dim ringing from the Amy's side of the couch. "All three of us are way too messed up for this. We need someone less fucked up in this group just so that we don't implode." We needed someone else just to make sure we didn't become the New Slaughterhouse Three at the rate we were going.

"Well, you could always ask Lisa," Amy said holding up her phone. "Apparently she has that info on my parents we asked about. Would this be enough proof that she's willing to work against your dad?"

"She'd have to leave her own team," I commented cracking an eye and looking at Amy's phone. "When did she get your number?"

"I have no idea. I don't really want to ask. So, are we going to call her?"

"Thoughts minion?"

Madison turned her chair and gave me a thumbs up. "I don't know who 'Lisa' is, but if she's willing to help, and is proving her worth with little missions, then I say yes. Besides, what harm can a phone call do?"

I laughed, shaking my head as I pointed to the small army of bugs I had in the corner of the room working on my costume. "Madison, word to the wise, never assume I'm not listening to your phone conversation if you're in my range. While I'm probably not, because dear lord that would be a lot of micromanagement and a boatload of headaches, I could. Phone calls can do a lot of damage when I'm around."

"Oh." Madison blinked, then shrugged. "Well, we should still talk to her."

I smiled at her and nodded. "Yes, yes we should. Amy, after you."

Last edited: Apr 20, 2020

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Slider214

Oct 14, 2019

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Threadmarks Interlude 2.x

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Slider214

Slider214

He/Him

Oct 15, 2019

#167

AN: Thanks again to my beta GreyRaven09 for his assistance! Just a quick (hopefully unnecessary reminder) that the views expressed by the Empire are not mine. Also, I'm not exactly schooled in racial slurs so if I seriously messed it up, please let me know and I'll fix it.

\/\/\/\/\/

Interlude 2.x

Crystal Pelham sat down in the little booth at Fugly Bobs and tried not fidget. Her cousin was supposed to be here in a minute along with the cape - the girl, the friend - who had…taken her in? Rescued her? Stolen her? Provided shelter? Given her a shoulder to cry on?

Pimped her out?

Crystal growled and clenched her hand. No. She wouldn't think that way. Especially not even before meeting the poor girl. Amy had left because their family had failed her. If she wanted to shack up with some random girl she'd just met that was her own business and Crystal would do her damndest to support her for it!

She hoped.

The bell on the door tinkled and and most of the dark thoughts fled as Amy's mousy brown hair bobbed into view. The tall, thin girl behind her seemed to be doing her level best to avoid meeting anyone's eyes while still looking at everyone. Her shoulders noticeably loosened after a moment, setting a soft frown on Crystal's face. What had she seen? Or better question, not seen?

Amy on the other hand, smiled and waved as she pushed through the small crowd and led her friend to the booth, sitting down across from Crystal. "Hi! It's been awhile."

"Yeah, you missed school," Crystal replied reaching over and clasping her cousin's hands. "I was worried."

"I'm fine Crystal. I just needed a bit of time to process everything. I actually called in, told them I needed a leave of absence; they sent me the work I'm missing so I'm still caught up. I'll probably go back in another week or so."

"Oh. Aunt Carol didn't mention that."

Amy's face darkened and she pulled her hands back. "Carol would know if she bothered to check with Arcadia." Amy huffed then waved at the girl sitting beside her. "This is Taylor. Taylor this is my cousin, Crystal."

The dark haired girl lifted a hand and gave her a small smile. "Hello. It's nice to meet you."

Crystal nodded back. "Likewise. So she's been staying with you then?"

The girl hesitated a moment before sighing and replying, "Yeah. She's been staying with me."

"Why is that a difficult admiss-oh." Crystal broke off as the full implications of what she'd asked Amy to do drove into her brain. She felt the blood drain from her face and shut her eyes in defeat. "Dammit. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…I just wanted to make sure she was okay. I didn't even think…none of us have to worry about that…I'm sorry." That was weak even to her ears. God she'd just unmasked a girl who had done nothing but help her cousin, and now she was just trying to pass if off as a mistake?!

"It's fine. Apparently the PRT already knows and the one person in the city I really didn't want to know also knows. So what's one more set of people knowing my name?" She laughed though there wasn't much humour in it. "How's your family doing Crystal? We haven't seen much of New Wave in the news over the past week."

"It's been hard lately. Vicky isn't even in the city anymore. Mom called in favors and she's getting some counseling at Jessica Yamada's home office. Uncle Mark is there too. Mom keeps trying to convince Aunt Carol to go also. With the way she's been ranting at Mom…I'm worried about her. Amy what did you say to her when you left?" Crystal asked looking up and holding her hands out, palms up. "I'm not accusing you of anything, I just, she started down the rabbit hole after you showed up on our door and it's like she can't climb back out now."

Amy scowled and shook her head. "I only told her the truth. That Carol never even tried to care for me and she would've been better off either giving me to someone else or just killing me like she obviously wanted to do from the start."

Crystal and Taylor both gasped at that. Crystal started to say something though Taylor beat her to it. "Amy! You said things were bad, you didn't say they were that bad at home!"

"So maybe I exaggerated a little bit during my rant. We were both angry and yelling and I wanted her to hurt like she hurt me. I'm not sorry for what I said."

Taylor groaned and laid her head on the table though Crystal still heard her mutter, "Really need that extra person right fucking now. I can't deal with all this shit."

"Amy," Crystal said softly reaching over the table to try and grasp her cousin's hand again though she still evaded her. "Maybe you should, you know, talk to someone? This can't all be Aunt Carol."

"And just who am I supposed to talk to Crystal?" Amy asked, glaring at her. "I'm Panacea," she said mockingly, "I don't get to take breaks. I don't get to stop. I don't get just be a teenager. I don't get to do any of that because all I'm supposed to do is heal all fucking day, every day! I'm done. They don't care about me. Maybe one person in a hundred ever actually said 'thank you'. People looked at me like it was my fucking duty! Like how dare I stop for one moment! What's going to happen if Panacea gets her head looked at by a shrink, Crystal? Huh? I'll be lynched in the streets! No thanks. I'm fine where I am."

"You're really not, Amy," Taylor murmured. "No cape stuff tonight. No cape stuff for the next few nights. Lisa's coming over, we'll deal with her stuff and then we'll watch a movie and I'll figure out how to get a therapist for 'Darwin' in a week or two."

Amy glared down at Taylor who still had her head on the table. "You need my consent for that."

Taylor raised her head and turned to poke at Amy's side. "I'm not a doctor, I'm your friend. And you're crashing in my lair, so no, I really don't need your consent. I can't help you with this Amy, I'm not a therapist, and you can't tell me you don't need one. Look, if it makes you feel better, I promise that I'll come with you every time. Hell, we'll grab Madison and drag her along with us too. God knows all three of us need it…"

Amy scowled and crossed her arms over her chest. "Ugh, you aren't going to let this go are you?"

"No," Taylor said shaking her head. "You know that we need to. What happens if you break under the pressure Amy? You're making things now and you were talking about maybe trying to get into actual combat soon. If you go crazy they'll Birdcage you, or worse, and I can't…You're my friend. I don't have many. I can't do this without you."

Amy looked to the side, not meeting Taylor's gaze, Crystal's presence seemingly entirely forgotten. "Fuck, can we just deal with this later?"

"Do you promise that we'll actually deal with it?"

"Fine whatever," Amy mumbled.

"A therapist sounds like a good idea Amy," Crystal tried to interject. Her voice was soft, yet the way both the other girls turned to look at her it seemed more like she had shot off a cannon in the middle of the burger shop. It was all she could do to avoid cringing at their stares.

"Just fucking drop it," Amy sighed shaking her head.

Crystal held up her hands. "Okay, okay…" She looked around awkwardly and tried a different tact. "Is Madison another friend?"

Taylor nodded. "More or less. Look, can we order? I need food. I haven't eaten in like, forever. You can grill me more after we've eaten."

Crystal laughed. "Yeah, sure. I'm hungry too. Come on, my treat."

"You both are evil," Amy grumbled picking up her menu as well.

Maybe things weren't perfect, but at least they weren't as bad as Crystal had feared.

\/\/\/\/

Peter Martin wasn't the smartest man, nor was he the richest man. However he was good at what he did and what he did was fun. He got to beat people up for a living and, every once in a while, Hookwolf would give him a dog to train for the ring. It may not have been the glamorous life of a cape, but he could certainly do worse in a fucked up city like Brockton Bay.

The Empire treated him well, so he gave back everything he could. If he got to mess up a few chinks and niggers and heebs even better. He just had to be a bit careful how far he took things these days. Blood and broken bones were fine. Death was fine as long as the body disappeared. The only people who could leave bodies behind willy nilly were the capes. Sometimes he wished he had powers, though, in general, being a ground level bouncer paid just as well.

Except for nights like tonight. For nights like tonight it was better to just stay at home with his girl and let someone else answer the damn phone. But no, he had to pick up the fucking phone. And now Alabaster was on his ass grilling him about where his people were and Peter had no good answer.

It wasn't his fault that the idiots missed check-in. How hard could it be to collect protection money from a few stupid bars anyway? He'd never had any issues with the job!

It was hard for these fools apparently. At least that was what Peter was guessing as he walked through the alleyway used as a shortcut between the second and third shop on the guys' route. The first and second shop had been fine. They'd been and gone, money collected, no issues. The third was a bust. Gus and Marcus had never shown up. Peter, at least, had gotten the money, but now he had to try and backtrack and find where the little bastards had disappeared to.

He was halfway through the alley when the noise started; a soft buzzing just on the edge of his hearing. The type that a mosquito makes when it's close to your ear, but not actually about to bite you because it's a scared little shit. Swatting around his head, Peter kept walking. "Fucking bugs man. Gus! Get your scrawny ass out here or I swear, I'm going to stick you in the ring against Hook's dogs next time!"

The only response was an increased buzzing. Peter frowned and slowed. "Alley shouldn't be this dark…Gus! Marcus! This shit ain't funny!" The buzzing grew louder. "If you two are dead already and making me walk into a swarm of flies, I'm going to beat your corpses just for the hell of it," Peter muttered. He grabbed for a flashlight and flipped it on as he stepped forward again. The light didn't seem to illuminate much of anything. The alley was still dark and ahead of him and the buzzing just got stronger with no source for the stupid invisible flies in sight.

He was almost to the center of the alley when the light finally caught on something. It was white and shimmered a bit under the flashlight's beam and it covered a little over five feet of the wall from the ground up, though it wasn't very wide. Frowning, Peter stepped closer. Reaching out to touch it, the thing felt sticky and smooth under his rough fingers. "What the hell is this shit?" Suddenly, the white thing moved under his fingers, jerking towards him about an inch before falling back against the wall. Peter danced back to the other edge of the alley breathing hard and keeping the beam trained on the shifting white thing. Part of it pushed forward, then fell back into the wall again as he narrowed his eyes. "That almost looks like a goddamn hand…"

A moan just to his side had Peter lunging to the ground and whipping his piece out. It was only his training with the gun that kept him from shooting the second white thing stuck to the wall only a few inches from where he'd been standing. "What the shit!?" Peter screamed as the top of this one bulged forward. He got the distinct impression of a head from the rounded shape of that bulge.

Without warning, the buzzing increased all around him. The flashlight had fallen off to the side as he hit the ground. Taking a shaky breath, he kept his gun trained on the wall, as his other hand reached for the lost light. The buzzing hit a feverish pitch as his fingers closed on the handle. Angling, it up towards the open air of the alley, Peter felt all of the breath in his lungs escape him in a single, horrified squeak.

What should have been fire escapes and brick walls was instead a seething mass of black and brown bodies. They undulated back and forth over each other in a dense ball centered right over him. He couldn't see what the things were, they moved too fast. They should be bugs. They should be butterflies and moths and wasps and beetles. But…they weren't! There was something wrong with their bodies and the way they moved. They were too fast and too big and bugs didn't move together as a group like that! There were too many legs and too many eyes and too many wings. Too many stingers and that sound! That buzzing, that horrible, infernal buzzing…The moan from the white thing - from the cocoon - came again.

Peter knew what had happened to Gus and Marcus now. And he desperately wished he didn't.

Remembering perhaps the one time he'd ever turned on the Discovery channel, he knew that moths, at least, were attracted to light. Maybe this…maybe this thing would be too. Taking a deep breath, Peter tossed the light down the alley. As the flashlight flew end over end, he saw a portion of the mass split off and surge after it.

That was good enough. Pushing to his feet, Peter ran for the safety of the main street shouting for help all the way. He'd be fine. He only had to make it 150 feet. That was nothing!

He didn't make it five before the swarm descended on him.

\/\/\/\/

Lisa rubbed at her head and popped another migraine pill. Not that it would help much, they never did. She mostly took it for the placebo effect at this point. Thinker headaches were just straight up evil.

"Oi! What's the big idea man? I was winning that round!" Alec yelled as Brian switched inputs on the TV. Their yelling did not help her head. At least it wasn't horrible yet, only mildly annoying. She was fairly used to dealing with mildly annoying at this point. And her uptime had been getting better too. Maybe one day she'd be able to push it far enough in order to allow her to make a real difference.

Yeah, and pigs might fly too.

"The news is important too Alec. Your game can wait for a few minutes. I need to see if anything came up around where Aisha and I are staying."

"Ask our living encyclopedia or get the computer," Alec complained.

"Both of you shut up," Rachel rumbled from her spot near Brutus and Judas. "You're annoying, and pissing off my dogs."

"No you shut up."

She wasn't going to miss this group. Not much at least. Maybe a little. But not much. They had grown on her, but she wasn't an idiot. Alec would turn on her in a heartbeat if there was enough money or amusement in it. Well…maybe not a heartbeat. He wasn't a true sociopath even if he thought he was one. Rachel though, would probably laugh as Coil killed her. Lisa couldn't blame the butch girl too much, she had taken an inordinate amount of pleasure in pushing Rachel's buttons. Brian…at least Brian would feel bad about betraying her. He'd still do it if it was between Lisa and his sister, but he'd feel bad later.

She snorted to herself and packed her computer away into the bag. "Little comfort those bad feelings are when I've got a fucking bullet in the brain. Asshole."

"Hey, Lisa? You hear about these Empire thugs that are missing? Anything we need to worry about?"

Not Protectorate, would be arrested not missing. Not New Wave, same issue. Not - Lisa clamped down on her power and held her place for a moment as she let the spike of pain subside. Damn it. She really needed to lay down for a few hours. This was a horrible time to meet with Taylor and Amelia. Or maybe it was a great time. The less her power intruded on this meeting the better. She really needed this to go well and for that she needed to be genuine and not a bitch. The more she used her ability the harder that was for her to avoid.

"Sorry, Brian, I'm tapped out at the moment. Working on something for the boss and it's taking a lot of my power to deal with the variables."

Brian grunted as he turned back to the TV. "Ouch. Don't overwork yourself. We have that prison-break thing coming up in a few days. You're going to need to be in top form for that, Lisa."

She rolled her eyes and smirked at him. "What do you think I'm working overtime on? Gotta make sure things go right. This isn't a small job and we're going to be on the radar in a big way afterwards. You sure you want this heat?" She could still give him a final out. Alec was a lost cause and Rachel would go to whoever helped with her dogs and damn the consequences. Brian though, he could be a good guy if she maneuvered him right.

"Pays well and I'm making more now than I'd ever make going the hero route. If we're going to be villains we might as well hit harder targets. No one is going to die and supposedly this girl deserves to be free anyway. Hell Madcap made a business out of this. Don't see why we can't too if the boss is going to be paying us so much extra for it," he said shrugging.

Aaaaanddd there went his chance. Oh well, she'd tried. "Right, well, don't say I didn't warn ya! Ta folks!"

Alec perked up and cocked his head at her. "Thought you said your head hurt?"

Suspicious. Knows I'm up to something. Doesn't particularly care what, but wants in if I'm making more on the side. Thinks I might be - Lisa shook her head as she got control of her power and flashed him one of her trademark grins. "I did. Doesn't mean I can't go out for a meeting and a date. A supervillain's work is never done!"

Alec laughed and threw a pillow at her. "You don't date girl, otherwise I'd have already had you. Don't skimp out on us, bring us the details on whatever side project you got going on when you get back, yeah?"

"I could date if I found someone who didn't set my power off every time I tried to kiss them," Lisa replied throwing the pillow back at him. "You would probably have me puking in disgust within five seconds if we did more than hold hands, pervert."

"I prefer hedonist."

"Whatever you say."

"If you'll all going to keep fucking talking, I'm going on a fucking walk," Rachel said getting up and grabbing for the leashes on the wall. "Can't get a moment of peace in this place."

"Lisa, do you need the car keys?" Brian asked.

"Nah, I'm good. See you guys around." She waved to them and followed Rachel out the door of the warehouse. As it shut behind her she leaned against it taking a deep breath and clutching her bag to her chest. Unless she very much missed the mark, this was probably going to be the last time she ever saw this place or the team in such a relaxed way again.

Fuck. Fuck Coil. Fuck him six ways to Sunday and then have an Endbringer fuck the bastard all over again on the seventh day. Bastard. She wasn't supposed to care.

Lonely. Tired of running. Tired of fighting a losing battle. Hoped for real friends who cared. Hoped for - Growling, Lisa bit her finger hard enough to draw blood and pushed her power down. She did not need to psychoanalyze herself, thank you very much. Stupid damn power.

Walking away from the warehouse, she slung her back over her shoulders and set out for the nemesis' daughter's new digs. This was such a weird situation, how the hell had this even happened? How was she crawling to Taylor fucking Hebert like a beaten puppy for help? Help getting away from Danny fucking Hebert?

Lonely. Tired of run - "Shut up, shut up, shut up! I hate you!" Lisa cringed as she realized that she'd yelled that out loud though a quick glance around set her back at ease that at least nobody had seen her. Fucking powers. Was it too much to ask for one damn day of silence? Being the smartest person in the room? Awesome. Never having a moment of peace? Absolute hell.

She pulled out her phone as she crossed the unspoken barrier between the 'rundown' and 'presentable' parts of town. Tapping away for a few seconds she forced a smile as it only rang twice before being picked up. "Howdy, Queenie. How's my favorite girls hanging?"

A groan echoed in her ear for a moment. "Must you do that every time?"

"Not every time. Then you'd figure me out too easily. I'm about two minutes out. We still on or do I turn around and head home?"

Taylor paused for a moment. Almost long enough that Lisa actually started to worry. "Do…do you want to head home?"

Lisa sighed and dropped the facade with a heavy grimace that, thankfully, Taylor couldn't see. "Would I really be coming to you right now if I wanted to head back, Taylor? I'm not asking for me I'm asking for you. I have a pretty good idea of where things are going to go tonight and I'm prepared. Are you?"

"…Code for the door lock is 042042."

The line went dead and Lisa found herself with a genuine smile for the first time in what felt like months. "Nice code girl. Excellent taste."

True to her word, Lisa arrived at the little factory that Taylor's group had claimed and waltzed up the stairs to the office. She smirked how they'd kept the bed she'd sent them. That had been a priceless opportunity there.

Used by two. Doesn't smell yet. One is interested. Other is curious but - Lisa winced and rubbed at her temples. "Ugh. Mind if I sit down, girls? Backpack is heavy and I need snacks. Skipped dinner finishing up some stuff."

"Take any seat you want, Lisa," Taylor said waving her arm to encompass the room. It was bigger than Lisa'd expected. The furniture all fit well enough with room left over for a beanbag chair, and even another bed if they were willing to squeeze in for it. Though she could just have a contractor come in and fix up the break room and make it more presentable too if they wanted even more space. That was probably the better idea. One room for work, another for relaxation. Maybe the supply office could be expanded into a spare bedroom…

"Hello. Um, are you really AllSeeingEye?" the petite girl in the swivel chair asked as she stood and walked over to the armchair that Lisa had claimed.

"Yes, SpecificProtagonist, that's me. Nice to see you in person and not through the computer screen. How's the new rig? Did you convince your dad to let you get the upgrade?" Lisa asked shaking the smaller girl's hand. A small smile was her answering response.

Got scared when she found out your identity. Thought you might have used her. Not scared anymore. Huh. Well that was nice.

"I did. The speed is amazing compared to last year's model. Taylor and Amy don't seem to notice the difference. I don't understand how they can't, it's leagues better." Madison gushed.

"Because we have no idea what you are talking about when you start getting into the details, Madison," Amy commented rolling her eyes from her position next to Taylor.

Close enough to touch shoulders but far enough that Taylor isn't crowded. Calculated. Taylor got spooked earlier. Pulling away but staying close enough to remind her she's near. She's the interested one. Taylor is curious/oblivious/interested/unsure/ - "Ow." Lisa groaned and held her hand to her head. "I really need to sleep soon. Fucking headaches."

"Are you okay?" Taylor asked leaning forward. "We can wait. The couch pulls out into another bed if you don't want to go back to your home, you can crash here for the night."

"No, I want to do this thing. Plus, I actually want my power to be partially dead for this."

Taylor frowned at that and Lisa noticed a collection of spiders in the corner start dancing sideways as the taller girl eyed her. "Why would you want that?"

"My power makes me…difficult to work with sometimes. I'm sure you noticed I can be a bit…abrasive."

"I would go with 'bitchy', but sure, abrasive works," Amy chimed in.

Staking a claim. Worried you have intentions. Worried you have better odds since Taylor seems to have a blind spot regarding you. Blind spot? What? How the fuck would Taylor have a blind spot regarding her? They'd barely interacted at all before…oh. She could hear through bugs and Coil took his work home before he knew that. Taylor was the queen of eavesdropping. She'd been listening in on their conversations for months. Goddamn, this girl probably knew more about Lisa than most of the Undersiders did…Hell Lisa probably would have a shot if she wanted to take it.

"Aww, and here I am with some nice juicy info about your parents. I could just take my laptop and go home you know," Lisa said forcing a smile in spite of the headache. Did she want to put in the effort to try to make a move? Was it worth it? She hadn't been lying when she'd told Alec that relationships were basically impossible unless her power was muted. She could even barely do anything herself anymore and that was just sad.

And very little muted her power anymore. Though, Taylor was hard to read when she shunted off her emotions…

Maybe one day it would be worth the effort. Probably not tonight though. She needed to be able to think better without pounding inside her skull.

"Please don't go. I'm sorry. I had a stressful morning and I'm still pissed off." Well at least Amy knew how to apologize so that was a plus.

Stressful month. Stressful year. Stressful life. Breaking point close, can tip either way. Dangerous. Don't piss off. Dangerous. Yeah, no shit power. A loose cannon Panacea of course was going to be dangerous. Stupid useless power.

Lisa leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. "No worries. I probably deserve the barb. So shall we get to business first, then pleasure?"

"It's like everything you say is a double entendre," Taylor griped.

"You should hear Regent talk. That boy is impossible to keep from cracking jokes in the worst setting." Lisa smiled a little at the memory. That part she would miss, a bit. His humor was horrible, but he was good for a laugh when things got rough. "Anyway, Amy, you were right: your dad is Marquis. No question about it. I have birth certificates, testimony from people near him, inquiries into local schools, you name I probably have it. Honestly it's a bit of a shame he was sent to the Birdcage. Guy may have a been a villain extraordinaire, but he seemed like a kickass dad." She dropped her voice to a mutter, "Certainly ran rings around my shit show of a father."

Amy nodded slowly and leaned to the side so that Taylor was the one supporting most of her weight.

Too much, too obvious. Still in love with someone else, doesn't want to be. Focused on Taylor in an attempt to redirect feelings. Trying to ignore the betrayal inside that each touch is pulling to the forefront. Knows other person doesn't feel the same. Taylor is safe and friendly. Taylor is - Lisa let out a slow breath and clamped down hard on her power. Fuck, this headache was going to suck.

"That matches what my family was saying and the half-memories I sort of have. They're mostly just impressions of someone warm and a kind voice, but it fits. What about my mom?"

Lisa sighed and shook her head. "You're not going to like it. She died soon after you were born from what I could find. It was hard to find a name. She didn't leave one on the hospital paperwork, and what was left behind got cleaned up by Marquis. Only thing I could really find name wise was a last name, Lavere."

"How did…how did she die?" Amy asked so soft Lisa could barely hear her. "Was it a cape battle?"

"Nothing like that. She wasn't powered. Not that I found at least. Cancer. She was a groupie, hooked up with your dad and you were the result. When she found out she was pregnant and dying, she gave you to him, must have figured you'd have a better life."

"Yeah, that worked out well," Amy muttered.

Lisa shook her head and speared the freckled girl with a hard gaze. "Look, your life sucks. I get that. But don't knock on your mom because she made a hard choice. The Brockton Bay Brigade screwed you over when they took out your dad, but your dad also killed a lot of people so they weren't completely wrong. They took you in when they didn't have to. Carol Dallon has her own problems completely unrelated to you. I can figure out what they are if you want to try to eventually work things out with your adopted mother. But don't blame your bio mom for actually trying to do the right thing. My parents used and abused me every chance they had until I left. You had two and a half sets that did their best with what they had. If you really want to blame someone, blame Marquis for not giving up being a villain, but I'd say even that's a stretch. You got a raw deal, it sucks, learn to live with it."

Madison held up a hand. Lisa jerked a bit, she'd almost forgotten the little one was here. Damn she was good at disappearing into the background. "Why do you say two and half? That's kinda weird math."

"Not really," Taylor said. She reached over and squeezed Amy's hand while still looking at Madison. "Amy was mostly raised by Carol and Mark Dallon, but with the way that New Wave works they do so much stuff together that Sarah and Neil Pelham are almost like another set of parents. Right?"

"More or less what I meant yeah." Lisa nodded waving Taylor on. "So yeah, apologies for being blunt and all, but don't insult your parents. Taylor and I have reasons to despise our shit folks. Carol fucked up somewhere and you hate her, I get that. You have good reason. She also has good reason for fucking up so don't you forget that."

"Lisa, back off," Taylor murmured, squeezing Amy's hand. "Remember how you said you could be difficult? This is being difficult."

She sighed and leaned back in the chair. "I know. My head hurts. I'm sorry, that's no excuse."

"So what are you worried about then? Because you wouldn't be pushing this so hard if it wasn't to take your mind off of something else." Goddamn, applause for Madison. Her little perv had come so far.

Lisa forced her eyes back open and pulled out her computer and tapped a few keys calling up the right display. Turning it to the group, she shook her head. "This is Dinah Alcott. She's the reason the Undersiders were left out to dry at the bank. Taylor, your dad wanted us to be a diversion while he had mercs kidnap this girl."

\/\/\/\/

AN: So while this is intended to be a Taylor/Amy fic, I make no promises anymore to the eventual endstate of the shipping. I'm not planning that aspect of the fic anymore for if I plan it beyond my current outline, as I griped to Raven last night, it's going to up Skittles somehow lol. The story will go where it will go and people will end up with whoever fits right for their character at the end.

544

Slider214

Oct 15, 2019

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Threadmarks Turbulence 01

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Slider214

Slider214

He/Him

Oct 17, 2019

#192

AN: Thanks again to Raven for his assistance!

\/\/\/\/

Turbulence 01

I stayed nearly perfectly still as I stared at the laptop screen Lisa held in front of me. Calmly, barely even noticing what I was doing, I pulled my hand out of Amy's and looked closer at the picture of the little girl.

"How old is she?"

"Twelve," Lisa replied. "She's the mayor's niece and some sort of precog. I'm not sure what type, but she's powerful."

"You said the other day that you didn't know what the real motivation for the bank was?" I asked. It was good to have clarity in this sort of situation. I had made sure to bleed everything into the swarm that I possibly could. To avoid a mistake, I needed to be as empty as I could be.

It didn't seem to be helping much. All of my main patrols were wobbling in their routes, several of the soldier clusters were marching towards me while the spiders were beginning to spin webs throughout every alley. Hive had grabbed several of the spare clusters and formed a loose human shape a few blocks away, proceeding to beat the wall of an alley with its enhanced durability spider arms. The brick wasn't holding up very well under the assault. Amy must have improved them even further since our fight with Oni Lee.

Lisa has paled while I asked my question. "I had no idea. I swear. I'm cool with robbing people. I have no issues with that at all. Insurance is awesome and pays for everything these days. I'm not okay with kidnapping kids. You know my situation, Taylor. I might as well be a hostage myself for all that I can run around during the day."

"Wait, what?" Madison asked, frowning and looking at Lisa. "I hadn't heard that part."

"Not important right now Mads," Amy snapped off, focused fully on the conversation.

"You're certain it was my father? And that he still has her?" I asked Lisa.

"I am. I don't know where though. He's not very forthcoming with his main base."

"It doesn't matter. He's at home. It's late, he's sleeping," I said. My hands were folded in my lap and my voice was level. I didn't have many attack creatures near my old house. It hadn't seemed wise at the time without knowing his power. I was still trying to move things into position. The wasps were close enough to attack but I needed more to be certain. Venom overdose was a dicey thing, it had to be devastating. The few bladebugs I'd hatched to replace the losses were still three blocks away, but they were closing quickly. The black widows and brown recluses were almost in position too, however those moved slowly. My head was already hurting from directly grabbing so many bugs at once but this wasn't the time to trust things to clusters. I needed direct control. Hive moved to help; I pushed it back. This was my problem and my family. I was going to fix it myself.

"Taylor…how do you know your dad is sleeping at home?" Lisa asked, her voice soft and slow.

Amy's eyes widened and she looked between me and Lisa. "Her house is within her range," she whispered, a hand over her mouth.

"Oh motherfucker!" Lisa shouted surging to her feet, laptop falling to the ground. I just stayed where I was, with my hands clasped in between my legs. "I didn't know it was that big! Taylor stop! You can't, he'll see you coming and things will go bad. He always knows how conversations go and makes them go his way; he always comes out on top. He's some kind of precog, I'm sure of it! Stop or he's going to hurt you! You can't attack before we know for sure what his limits are or how he operates his power! He's going to retaliate and he's going to win!"

"It's better this way," I responded, shrugging my shoulders. "This is too far. It's better to fix the mess. My family, my mess."

"Taylor stop!" Amy tried shouting this time. She laid her hand on me to do…something. We both knew she couldn't knock me out though. My bugs would keep acting on my last orders even after I was knocked out. "Please stop! You can't do it like this. My mom is a lawyer, this doesn't end well Taylor! Even with the kidnapping, even with him being a supervillain, he doesn't have a Kill Order, they'll lock you up. Stop!"

"It's better this way."

Madison was the only one of the three who even remotely approached calm as she stood and walked over to kneel in front of me, closing her hands around my mine. "Taylor, the PRT will come down on you if you kill him like this. We won't be able to get to your home quickly enough to hide the evidence and even if you get him without his power trumping you like Lisa says it will, he'll make certain to arrange things so that they know it was you who killed him." I didn't particularly care. "And if that happens Amy is left all alone again. And Lisa is either considered complicit or left in the wind. And I'm stuck on a downward spiral getting worse every day." That would all be bad, but I could figure out how to deal with it later. I had to clean up my mess first. My spiders were moving through the house to the bedroom now and the bladebugs were almost at the windows. "What if you can't find Dinah after you kill him?" she finished in a whisper.

That brought me up short. I tilted my head and looked down at Madison as I had the assassin bugs stop for a second. "I know where his base is. I've known for weeks."

"Is it within your range? Can you be absolutely certain, right here and now, that Dinah is there?" The others stayed quiet as Madison talked.

I frowned. Hive dissolved into a swarm of bugs and pushed. I felt a strain on my control and a new lance of fire drove through my skull. I let it happen, Hive was partly me, if it wanted a say in things it deserved it. The next moment, the spiders in the room surged into a semblance of a face along the wall. "She's right. We can't be sure," the spiders said.

"We can find out easily enough. Then we can finish this," I said turning my attention to Hive's head as it pulled more local bugs to itself and formed a torso and legs.

"No you can't. You won't ever be able to bring yourself to kill Danny again unless you do it right now. Even if we find Dinah in an hour, it won't matter. You're never going to be this divorced from things again."

"You can't know that."

"I'm going to make certain of it," Hive shook its head. "You can't function like this - long term or short term. This is wrong. You are wrong. Revenge is fine, but not when you are divorced from yourself. You are human; stay human. I shouldn't be this coherent. I am more than I should be. Take it back, Taylor. Take it back, and let your friends give you another option. Dinah is already gone. That's not going to change even if Danny dies tonight."

"You're my power," I replied, glaring at the construct.

"And I shouldn't be. Take it back, Taylor."

Scowling, I looked down at Madison again. She nodded up at me. Turning to Amy, I could only see fear in her eyes. I twisted to Lisa and she shook her still too-pale head.

My scowl grew deeper. "Fuck you all." I let my control drop to a normal level and set managers to create and pull clusters around my house back to regular patrols, dismantling the swarm. Hive dissolved into its own swarm as I pulled my emotions back to myself. Taking a shuddering breath, I stood, pushing past Madison. "I'm going for a jog. I'll be back in an hour. Nobody leave. I need some quiet."

\/\/\/\/

I wasn't back in an hour. By the time I felt calm enough to return to the lair, it was almost midnight. I deliberately didn't check my bugs as I moved up the stairs. My mind was still racing and I didn't want to know if my friends were actually in the room or not until I was actually looking at them. Not with how I'd left things.

Not until I felt sorry for how I left. Maybe Hive was right. Maybe there was something wrong with me under the surface. Something deeper than just the emotional trauma I thought I'd been dealing with. Amy had said Hive was my subconscious for all intents and purposes, but it hadn't talked like that. It hadn't talked like a part of me. It had talked like my bugs would if they had a 'voice'. Even that didn't sound quite right. Maybe it was the closest I could get right now.

And it hadn't been lying. I'd tried to muster up the same hatred and detachment I needed to kill my own father during the run. I'd gone close enough to the house. Not to do it, just to see if I could. It had been a long run. But Hive had done…something. I couldn't push enough emotions into it. It wouldn't take everything I gave it. I had too much feeling left, too many memories of the way things used to be, too much hope that maybe I was just leaping to conclusions like when I was a kid. I had pushed a single bladebug toward him and…I froze. I couldn't do it. I wanted to. But I couldn't.

Maybe there was something wrong with me. My father was a monster. Why couldn't I fix my own mess?

Pushing the office door open I walked in on my shaking legs and nearly fell against the wall next to my almost fully augmented costume with the still working spiders. Everyone was still there. Madison had moved from her swivel chair to the couch and was sitting next to Lisa, both looking up from a computer towards me. Amy in turn had taken over a section of the bed and changed into sweatpants, cuddling a pillow to her chest and peaking over it at me.

"Taylor, do you want to talk?" Madison asked, uncurling her legs and half rising. Lisa put a hand on her arm and stopped the smaller girl from getting up.

"No," I said closing my eyes and resting my head on the wall. "Why does this hurt so much?"

"Because he's family," Lisa said softly. "Because you want to believe he's better. We always look to our folks to be better than we are. And when they aren't…I'm sorry Taylor. I wasn't thinking about how this would affect you. You needed to know, but I wasn't thinking about the ramifications. I messed up."

"No, you were right, I needed to know. Can we tell the PRT who he is? If I can't kill him, can we at least do that?"

Amy shifted on the bed. "We were talking about that while you were gone. If your dad is a precog I don't think it's a good idea. He might see them coming and do something drastic."

"Or just leave," Madison said. We all turned to look at her and she just shrugged. "What? It's a perfectly viable option. One strong precog plus another strong hostage precog; if the PRT comes after him directly he could just pick up and go to a new town and start over. It's what a smart man would do. You dad seems like a smart guy so far Taylor."

"Fuck." I let my head fall back against the wall with muffled crack. Groaning at the dull pain from the impact I glared into nothingness. "So we do nothing?"

"Not nothing," Lisa said. "We work to find Dinah and see what her situation is, then reassess as appropriate once we have a better handle on his limits. Everyone has weaknesses. In the meantime, part of the reason I brought this thing up is because he's planning another hit. He's got Dinah, now he apparently wants a Master. Her name is Paige though her stage name was Canary."

The singer? I frowned and cracked an eye open again. "Wait, didn't she get put on trial for…Oh hell. There was a special about her on TV the other day. She's the one that guy was claiming got railroaded right? He was the only one who seemed like he had a clue…compared to everyone else on that segment…"

Madison nodded. "I saw that too. You mean the crazy idiot right?"

"That 'idiot' that they lambasted was completely right, yeah. Basically all of her human rights were ignored during her trial. Total kangaroo court and I didn't even have to dig for the details of the thing to figure that part out. She's being sent to the Birdcage and she never even had a chance to talk or write anything in her own defense. I actually did do some deep dives when Coil asked me to look into her and the rabbit hole just gets worse. I'm almost certain that her ex maimed himself intentionally just to fuck her over. There's a lot of ways that 'go fuck yourself' can be taken before jumping to the literal." Lisa sighed. "Couple in parahuman healing and that he's just a general asshole, well it's not a pretty picture."

Amy frowned and set her pillow to the side. "I think Carol's firm represented her. What does this have to do with us? And why is she going to the Birdcage if the guy is still alive?"

Lisa shook her head, shrugging. "She's a Rogue who looks a bit like the Simurgh, shortly after the bitch hits Canberra. Canary got shafted at a bad time. What does this have to do with us? Potentially nothing. Potentially a lot."

"Lisa, please stop dancing around the point. I'm too exhausted to deal with tiptoeing around things right now," I snapped.

She cringed. "I'm not doing it intentionally. I honestly don't want to talk about this. The Undersiders and a new group in town, the Travelers, are going to break her out of the transport when Dragon drives her out of town. It's just Canary and she's always cooperated so there's next to no security. Coil wants her, so he's managed to convince the guys that this is a good idea. If we're smart about things, and a bit lucky, we might be able to head them off. Steal her out from under them. Stop your dad from getting a new, strong, area of effect Master that works on humans."

"And you attack a Birdcage transport!" Madison gasped. "We were just saying how Taylor can't kill her dad because it would bring the PRT down on her. That's nothing compared to what this would do to us!"

Lisa looked to the side and squinted. "Mads, you don't even have powers, why are you here? Oh, wow. Damn, girl. Never mind. Okay moving on, Taylor, Amy, thoughts?"

"I'm with Madison," Amy said shaking her head. "I feel bad for the girl, but this is not a good idea."

"I'll do it." All eyes drew towards me. Lisa seemed to cringe a bit though she slowly nodded. The other two looked set to argue, I just held up my hand. "Coil is setting up for something big. I'm not going to let him do that. I'll call him in the morning after I can think a bit straighter and see if I can throw him off his game as well as maybe misdirect him. Paige doesn't deserve that hell and if she's already going to be broken out, then I'm not going to let her wind up in my father's clutches either."

"The PRT - "

"Has to know it's us and catch us to be a problem. We attack the Undersiders and Travelers immediately after they bust her out," I said. "Amy, you can change her looks once we have her safe. If she wants to stay, we'll let her. If she doesn't we give her a new face, and send her on her way. All we have to say to the PRT when they ask is we were tipped off to the attempted breakout, and Canary got away in the melee."

I could still see the doubt in Amy's eyes but Madison was nodding now as was Lisa. I honestly didn't really care what any of them thought right now. If Danny Hebert wanted Canary, he was not going to get her.

"Now, we have to go over one more thing before this fucking night can end," I said leaning forward and letting my elbows rest on my knees. "Lisa, I may not be able to get Dinah free tonight, but I can get you out. One fucking way or the other, my father is letting you go or damn the consequences."

Lisa cocked her head and let out a slow breath as her mouth made a small 'O' shape for a second. "You really mean that don't you? Why? You barely even know me."

Shaking my head, I pointed at Madison. "She bullied me and wonder of wonders actually feels bad about it to an almost worrying degree." I pointed at Amy, "She got accidentally brainwashed and then ran away from her family." I pointed at myself, "And I apparently have deeper issues than I ever realized, along with a father who I want to hurt as much as possible right now, by tearing down everything he ever built. Yeah, I don't know your malfunction, but it can't be much worse than what we've already got here and you've stuck your neck out for us so far. Plus," I jerked my head towards some of the honeybees in the corner that flew a nice little formation around my head before settling back near their spider friends, "I know a lot more than you'd think. My dad didn't take files home, but he did do a lot of talking on the phone when he thought I was sleeping and his room was soundproofed. To be fair, it was, but it's not like that was going to stop me. I don't know you. But I know your character. Even if I didn't, you came to us when you found out about the girl and you're trying to stop another girl from being kidnapped too. That's good enough for me."

"Even if it puts you right back in the same situation that we just stopped you from carrying out earlier tonight?" she asked.

I nodded. "I have to say enough at some point. If I don't draw the line now, I'm never going to. If I force my father to run, then so be it. I'll just follow him if I have to."

Madison nodded. "You're calmer now. Not scary calm. Just…calm calm. More, I don't know, human?"

"Less emotional bleed off, more mental exhaustion" I said sighing. "The swarm won't let me push as much its way anymore. At least for the moment. So, Lisa do you want to join our little dysfunctional band of terrible terrors?"

She smirked and held up a finger. "Only if we can ourselves the Terrible Terrors."

I groaned, Madison snorted, and Amy threw her pillow at the blonde. "I will literally give you blue skin!"

"I'll bribe you with footrubs!" Lisa shot back throwing the pillow back towards Amy.

Amy tried to scowl, but the smile almost ruined the expression. "I cannot be bought so easily!"

"She likes M , sweeten the pot with candy," Madison interjected moving further away from Lisa to save the computer from the flying items.

Looking at my friends, I was able to finally crack a small smile. It may not have been much, but at least we had made some progress.

And a new friend.

Now we just had to figure out how to screw over my father and save someone destined for the Birdcage. No pressure. No pressure at all.

\/\/\/\/

I opened my eyes as the glare of the sunlight fell across my face and speared into my barely cracked gaze. Groaning, I flopped to the side to escape the deadly light only for a muffled grunt to sound in protest and an arm to shove roughly against my stomach.

Huh?

Oh. Right. Kicking my brain into gear, I blinked my eyes open again, trying to see who I had rolled over onto. Madison. Right. Because she had slept over since it was so late. So had Lisa whose knee was currently buried in Madison's back. And Amy's arm was draped over my stomach. Right. Because none of this was awkward after I had yelled at everyone and proceeded to storm out for nearly two hours on a run around the most dangerous parts of town hoping in vain someone would jump me that I could beat up.

Yeah, I didn't have issues. None at all.

Carefully, lifting Amy's arm off me, I wiggled out from between her and Madison, smirking as she shuffled closer to the petite brunette in her sleep. Amy went from cuddling up to me to cuddling up to Madison with zero issues and stayed firmly in dreamland. Excellent. She needed the human pillow. Madison probably did too, considering how badly I'd freaked her out last night. Ugh, how had I become responsible for the mental health of that girl? And how was I coming to enjoy seeing her smile?

This city messed with my head so much.

Yawning, I stretched and checked in with the patrols as I went about getting my morning routine done. Bathroom issues resolved, the swarm reporting everything clear, I shifted into the breakroom and went for breakfast. At least that was my plan until I nearly ran into Lisa smiling at me just past the door with a plate already in hand.

"Morning, sunshine. Hot pocket? You guys need a grill so we can cook eggs. I'll get on that today. I'll also see about fixing up the other room up here so that we don't all have to cram onto the bed. Tight fit that."

I took the plate and raised my eyebrows at her. "I did tell you the couch pulled out."

"You think I'm sleeping on a pull out? Yeah, no. I have class."

"You're shacked up with a bunch of teenage runaways in a converted office lair above a factory that makes telephone pole cameras," I replied utterly deadpan.

"Madison isn't a runaway. She's just a pervert."

"I recall you saying that she used that as an escape and didn't really believe anything she said when talking like that."

Lisa laughed and held up her hands. "Okay, okay, you caught me! You win this hot pocket as a prize! So, feeling better this morning?"

I paused and looked inward taking stock of myself and my swarm. Surprisingly, I actually did have a bit more perspective now. "Actually…yeah, I do. I still want to tear down everything he's built and dance on the ashes. But I don't feel murderous anymore."

"That's good. I'm supposed to be the amoral one. I'm the villain remember? You gotta keep those standards high, Taylor. Let me take care of the dirty stuff."

Frowning I shook my head. "Not a villain anymore. Independant now."

"Uh huh, I'll let you tell the Protectorate that. Do you want your phone now?"

Squaring my shoulders I held out my hand. "Should we wake the others?"

"You're the boss lady. It's up to you. I can't listen to this call anyway."

"Why?"

She shook her head, grimacing. "Sometimes, when I talk to Coil it's fine. Other times, it's like there's a chainsaw stabbing my skull and following up with molten lava. Usually when that happens I get knocked out. When I don't…well the first time it happened I damn near dented my skull hitting my head against the wall to make it stop. My power doesn't like his. When he's actively using it and I'm nearby or can hear him, things don't work out well for me. My ability is basically super guesswork. I fill in the blanks about things. It's always on, unless I'm actively suppressing it. When Coil is using his power, mine freaks right the fuck out and surges into overdrive. It goes from a measly little 15 miles per hour to 5,000 miles per second. I don't think he knew that at first; we both found out by accident when he damn near killed me the first time. Now he uses it in fits and spurts when I piss him off. Right now talking to you? He's going to use his power. So I'm going to go into the other room, put some headphones on, blare loud music, throw a pillow over my head and pray it's enough to keep out what's coming."

Gingerly I took the phone from her and nodded. "Maybe you shouldn't have stopped me from acting last night."

"Maybe not, but I don't want you to become a murderer, Taylor. Not like that, and not of your own parent. You're a good person. Stay that way."

As she got up to walk back to the bedroom I stopped her with a soft call. "Lisa? Wake up Amy. Just in case you do get hit with backlash, she can knock you out a lot safer and faster than anything you might do to yourself in desperation."

She nodded and closed the door behind her. Taking a deep breath I let it out slow and counted to a hundred to give her a chance to get settled. Then I unlocked the screen and made my call to the devil.

"Good morning, Taylor."

"Let's skip the pleasantries today shall we, Dad?" I said, making an effort to keep the venom out of my voice. I was able to stop my teeth from grinding together though it was a near thing. I felt a hand rest on my shoulder and a quick look through my bugs showed me Madison standing behind me. I reached my free hand up to squeeze her hand back.

"Well if you want to get right to business I suppose that works. I generally prefer to have coffee first, and from what I remember you usually like tea in the morning, but very well. What do you wish to discuss?"

"Dinah Alcott."

"No."

"What?"

"It's not that complicated, Taylor," he said sighing. "You want me to let her go home. One doesn't need to have powers to know where you're going with that lead-in. I can't do that. I am sorry."

"You kidnapped a twelve year old!" Madison's hand squeezed harder as I shouted.

"I did. She'd being treated very well. If it helps, the children at her school were not being very kind to her and I am ensuring her education is continuing uninterrupted. She has all the entertainment she could want as well. It may be a cage, but it's a gilded cage. Depending on how things turn out, she may even end up being my right hand woman if you don't wish to take that mantle. She's integral for making sure the least problems arise and the fewest people get hurt, Taylor."

Fuck him. Fuck him and his logic and his - I drew in a breath and my hand dropped into my lap. Precog. He knew how this conversation was going to go. He knows exactly what to say to get me, if not on his side, then at least to stop fighting against him so hard. He might be completely truthful in what he was saying, because it did sound like the best way forward, but there were so many horrible ways to explain that to me and he chose the best possible one. Powers were bullshit.

I could use this though. If he thought he pacified me on one thing…

"I'm not satisfied with that. But we can come back to that. If I let you have Dinah without fighting you, I want Tattletale."

His pause was audible, as was his eventual sigh. "She's very useful to me."

"She's also operating with a literal gun to her head, so you can't trust her. You lose nothing by letting her go."

"I lose a powerful asset, Taylor. You'd be surprised how much money can motivate a person. Tattletale is difficult to work with and can be frustrating to keep motivated, but she is, at heart, a simple person with simple vices. Why should I give her to you for nothing?"

"It's not for nothing. This is a tit for tat, Dad. You give me Tattletale, no strings attached, and I don't tell the PRT where to find you."

He actually laughed at that one. "That sort of threat only works once you know. Are you sure you want to use it here instead of the girl?"

"You've made it pretty clear that I'm not getting Dinah, no matter what I do, and my friends were fairly explicit about what might happen if I pushed too hard on that matter as well. So yes, I think I'll use that threat here thanks."

This time his chuckle almost seemed…proud. It made my skin crawl. "You're growing up. Learning to negotiate is an excellent skill to have. You realize of course, that should the PRT or Protectorate attempt to capture me, I could just relocate to a new city? With my power base, my own abilities, and Dinah as well…it wouldn't be that hard."

"No, but it would be inconvenient." This was a gamble, but it felt right. He liked this city and he wanted to fix this city. He expected me to lead with that argument. So I had to do something else.

"To a degree, probably. Which is why I would like to avoid it. How about this? An exchange of sorts. I don't want Tattletale off the board entirely. If you can prove that she works well in your team, you can keep her free and clear. There's a Merchant base, I'll send you the address. They just got in a shipment of the newest Tinker drug, Kremclin. Nasty business, tends to kill nearly half the people who take it because the dosage is so precise. And these are Merchants we're talking about so they aren't going to be exact with their drugs. The base should only have regular human guards, no capes; the drug is new so it's not considered a high priority by Skidmark. If your team, along with Tattletale, can destroy the Kremclin and take out the base, I'll consider this negotiation closed. If you can't, we'll figure something else out."

I stayed quiet as I weighed my options. Fuck. He was using his power again. And what's worse was he was right. This was a nearly perfect option. I'd probably be going after that base either way and if I could get something out of it while doing so…Fucking precogs.

"Send me the address."

"They are starting distribution tonight at 9. I would suggest attacking before then. My scouts advised that these guards are usually high sometime between 6 and 8. They like to get their sampling in before starting handing out the product."

"Dad, remember," I said as I reached up to squeeze Madison's hand on my shoulder again. "You come after Tattletale when this is done, I'm not stopping until I find you and end you. She's one of my people now. Same with Amy. Same with Madison. You touch any of them, you don't get to walk away."

"Hmm," he hummed into the phone. "How did you know I knew about Miss Clements?"

"You have spies in the PRT and I told them to leave her alone. I'm not a fool, I'm just a bit more…grounded than you."

"For now maybe," he sighed and suddenly sounded a lot wearier than he had in ages. "The cape life will beat you down soon enough, Taylor. You really should hang up your costume while you can. We all lose our way at some point."

The line went dead and I dropped the phone into my lap. Madison started to slip away, but I clutched her hand harder. Instead of shuffling back to the bedroom, she stepped around the side of the couch and sat down next to me. I leaned over and hugged her, burying my head in her shoulder.

"…Thank you," she murmured.

"You're my people now, Mads," I whispered back