"Emotion Master," Alec pointed at her. "Feel my wrath!"
Taylor deadpanned as the boy's shoulders shook. "F–Feel my power and despair! For I am the Sc–Scourge Sireahahahaha!"
Alec wheezed as he fell to the floor laughing.
Her bugs picked up Brian chuckling quietly from behind. She turned and glared. He coughed.
"It's not that funny, Alec. Stop it," he berated, but she could see his lips twitching upwards.
"Yeah, yeah, yuck it up." She huffed.
"It's not a bad name," Rachel suddenly said.
Brian and Alec stopped and stared at her.
"What?" She looked confused, as did Taylor.
"You never complimented our names," Alec pointed out accusingly.
"And?" Rachel raised a brow.
Both boys sighed. "Nevermind."
Whilst they were talking, Taylor had secretly sent her bugs into their pockets. She didn't attempt to do this with Rachel, because frankly, the other girl scared the shit out of her sometimes. Alec always seemed to have a sixth sense when she tried to pickpocket him, shielding his wallet from her every attempt. Brian, on the other hand, was a gullible beefcake. She couldn't believe their leader was this clueless when it came to getting his money stolen. He hadn't even noticed his money disappearing since she first time she swiped them from him.
She smiled as she counted her daily earnings.
Bam!
Lisa rushed into the loft, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.
"Whoa, Tits. Calm the fuck down." Alec said as he stood back up.
"Lisa, what happened?" Brian asked.
"We gotta go," she ordered. "Now!"
"What…"
That was when Taylor picked up something in her range. Or rather, the opposite. Her bugs started to die from one direction. It was like a circle of bug-death, rapidly advancing towards her direction. The diameter was around 20 or so feet.
" S I R E N ! ! ! "
From afar, someone roared. It was so loud that every bug within her range could hear it. She recognized that voice.
Rory Christner. Triumph.
All the Undersiders froze.
"Grab everything you can and start packing!" Lisa—no, Tattletale ordered. "Don't bother suiting up; they already know who we are."
Fear spiked Taylor.
No. This isn't happening.
"T–The unwritten rules…" Shakily, Taylor started.
Lisa shook her head, explaining as she started packing everything she could, "We've forfeited them the moment we attacked Triumph's family."
But we didn't know! Taylor wanted to say, but Lisa interrupted her.
"It doesn't matter what the truth is, Tay! What matters is that we're fucked if you don't pull your shit together!" Lisa shouted at her.
That was when Taylor noticed everyone had already started packing. Rachel was the most aloof, since she didn't have much of a civilian identity. Her dogs were already ramping up.
Alec was uncharacteristically serious. He didn't even bother getting his games, running straight into his room.
Brian was halfway to having a panic attack, but he didn't stop regardless.
This prompted Taylor to move as well. She could panic later; right now, they needed to save their own asses.
The three most important items she had right now were her costume, her cellphone, and the—
"The vial!"
It was such a complicated thing that once they'd realized its true capabilities and the implications behind them, they all had decided to put it on hold until they were done with the whole Coil ordeal. Taylor grabbed the suitcase that contained it.
They were all done within a minute.
Bitch's dogs were just barely big enough to start riding on.
Taylor felt the air shift behind her through her bugs. She dodged to the side as a bolt sank itself on the other end of the loft.
"You're in deep shit now, Hebert!" A voice called out in manic glee.
Taylor's stomach lurched. That was Sophia's voice.
She turned around to see Shadow Stalker turn into mist and move back into the wall she came out of.
Shadow Stalker is Sophia.
Her mind raced. Everything came falling into place.
"Sophia…" Taylor muttered, eyes glazed over.
"Shit!" Lisa pulled her onto one of the dogs. "Duck!"
Rory roared.
The front wall of the Undersiders' hideout was torn to pieces.
He had promised himself that he would take the Scourge Siren—Taylor Hebert—down. Rory had demanded that he be the one to bring her in, much to the displeasure of his colleagues.
Damn their opinions; this one's personal.
He would've gone even if they'd barred him from joining. Even if he had to go alone. Even if Siren could take him down with one sting.
As a result, Armsmaster had created a tinkertech device that sent out electromagnetic pulses that instantly incapacitated bugs within its range, if not kill it. He'd worn it as a belt.
It was fifty/fifty whether she were here or in her parent's house, and he just won the coin toss.
The other members of the Protectorate went as duos to the other Undersiders' well known haunts.
"—Miss Militia and Velocity on location. No sign of Hellhound. Just dogs."
"—Armsmaster and Dauntless present at location. No sign of the Heberts."
"—Assault and Battery! Engaging with Oni Lee! He has a hostage!"
"—Pardon? Oni Lee?"
"—Yeah! Wait, is that…! Fuck! We need some back up here! Coil's men are protecting Lee!"
Fuck! He couldn't do anything about that, especially with Siren here. He confirmed the location of the Undersiders before he turned the channel to his team only.
"Aegis! I need eyes!" He told the Ward.
Rory was the only Protectorate member accompanied by two Wards. Aegis and Stalker didn't have the anti-bug tinkertech on them, because Aegis didn't need it and it would interefere with Stalker's shadow state. The other Wards were on stand by in case anything happened, like how it was with Oni Lee.
Aegis flew to the broken wall and was subsequently tackled by the dogs. The Undersiders, riding the dogs, made for their escape route. Grue created his dark cloud to cover them, but Rory blew it away. His roar also knocked Siren and Tattletale off their ride.
"Shit!" Grue cursed.
The rest of the villains turned around to face them.
Shadow Stalker flew down and rematerialized above Scourge Siren to stomp on her, but Siren rolled away last second. Aegis pursued Hellhound in an ironic game of cat and mouse. Rory roared at the dog Grue and Regent were on, which made them dodge to the side. Meanwhile, the last dog had recovered and began chasing Aegis.
"Triumph's belt is tinkertech!" Tattletale exclaimed, figuring it out by who-knew-how. "He's allergic to bees!"
She was promptly kicked in the face by Stalker, not rising back up after.
"Lisa!" Siren screamed.
She sounded so different from that night. So unlike that overbearing monster that hurt his family. Yet, Rory was finding it hard not to enjoy her anguish. She was getting what she deserved.
"You think you're hot shit just 'cause you're a villain now, Hebert?!" Stalker shouted as she went the offensive against Siren, who was dodging her punches with uncanny reaction speeds.
"I'll fucking kill you, Sophia!" The entire street rumbled.
It sounded like they knew each other personally. He would deal with that later. For now, he kept roaring at the mounted Grue and Hellhound to stop them from helping Siren, with Aegis trying to knock them over. The sky darkened as countless insects covered the sun.
Stalker suddenly stumbled, giving Siren the opportunity to punch her. Before she could, however, Stalker turned to her breaker form and rematerialized behind her. Unable to block, she was knocked down to the ground. Stalker returned to her breaker form as the swarm descended upon her.
Rory ran towards the two—the bugs began falling in droves.
Stalker kicked Siren, flipping her to lay on her back. Broken and bruised, Siren faced them with a blank stare. Her glasses, broken beyond repair.
Rory listened to them in-between roars.
"You're weak, Hebert. You will always be prey," Stalker said smugly through bated breath.
Siren muttered slowly, "...You took her away from me. Turned her against me."
Stalker laughed. "Me? No. You lost her because you were too weak. She's become strong—stronger than you'll ever be."
Stalker continued, "Just give up, Hebert. Before I take your team away too."
"There's a slight problem with that," Siren said.
She turned to gaze behind Rory, shouting, "Now!"
Rory turned to roar at whoever was behind him, only to choke as a hand clamped onto his mouth, forcing whatever it was holding inside. He felt like he was eating a fluffly cactus, soft furs mixing with sharp thorns.
Ah, shit. Not again.
"Eat bees, bitch!" Tattletale shouted as she pushed his face away, tugging at his belt with her other hand.
"No!" Aegis shouted.
His body began to quickly react from the bees' venom, closing his throat. Tattletale took the belt and ran. Stalker tried to follow, but Siren swiped at her leg, making her fall over.
"If you want to save him, fly him away." Siren said her ultimatum.
Now that the belt was gone, Stalker was forced to stay on her shadow state in order to avoid the bugs.
"You're all scum!" Aegis declared.
He went down and picked Rory up. "Stalker! Retreat!"
She couldn't talk back because of the bugs. And now, without the belt, she would be forced to retreat anyway.
"Stay with me, Rory!" Aegis said as Rory slowly lost consciousness.
God fucking damn it.
The last thing he heard was the swarm saying,
"I'll make you pay. Every last one of you fucking heroes."