Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

September 15th, 2000

The wind roared, the sound of the helicopter blades beat against the air. To the right and left, people shuffled nervously. Novices, rookie Heroes, in my eyes. Those that had only seen the contained and sanitised combat in the cities, where even the villains knew to play by certain restrictions.

There would be none of that here. In my opinion, these children would only get in the way, but it wasn’t my decision.

I tapped my foot on the metal floor as the flying vehicle began its descent. I hated these things. Mankind’s innovation was impressive in its scope, but technology and modernisation have never interested me. It was a fact of life, yes, and something I tolerated, but not something I wilfully embraced.

Not that it wasn’t expected, natural even, for people like me, but I knew it was like a blow to Hero’s confidence that he could never convince me to trust any of his little tools he made up. If I trusted human inventions so little, those of Parahumans I trusted even less, no matter how well intentioned.

About five feet off the ground, I stepped out of the helicopter, landing gracefully, my half-cloak fluttering behind me and I strode through the now evacuated town. The order had come through hours ago but the residence had been incentivised to accept the proclamation, mostly with the fact that none of them wanted to die horrifically.

It was no ghost town however, up ahead I could see half a dozen Heroes and three times that number of armed PRT agents encircling a suburban home. Armoured trucks had blocked off the roads and an entrenchment had been erected around it.

I didn’t recognise the faces of many of them, perhaps one or two that I’d spoken to in New York when I had business there, but more than that recognised me. I saw the way eyes widened and spines straightened from Parahuman and human alike. I was nowhere near as renowned as the others, but I knew there were rumours about me in the Protectorate and PRT alike. That I was involved when the matter was dire.

It wasn’t hard to recognise me even without that though. I wore no costume to separate my identity, no Mask to hide my face, just a hood to obscure those looking from a distance. Honestly, most that people like me needed now was glamour to hide what needed hiding.  I had been there when Behemoth had hit New York six years ago, been instrumental in driving it off and preserving the city, though I had stayed out of the public eye, those that had been there for the defence had witnessed me.

I was sure that word of such a thing had spread around little stories about me, but I didn’t much care for them. Secrecy in my line of work was not as lethally necessary any longer. It hadn’t been for a few decades now, but it was still encouraged and expected that my kind would keep ourselves as hidden as possible.

The existence of Parahuman powers, after all, did not clock mystery in its entirety.

I heard the familiar sound of Legend’s flight as he landed next to me, having taken up a potion on the root of another building.

“Shriker.” He nodded, using the Hero name he’d convinced me to take, with the impression that he would have smiled if it weren’t for the current situation. “Glad you got here on time.”

“Your message sounded serious.” I nodded to the house in front of us. “What is the situation, where are the others?”

“It’s her.” He confirmed. “We were tracking her across the county when she arrived here, cut through twenty people before a warning could go out, fifty more when law enforcement got involved.” Legend grimaced. “She’s holed up in that house right now.”

“And you haven’t blown the house to pieces.” I noted.

“The others are on their way.” Eidolon said, approaching with a serious tenor to his voice. It made me pay attention. It wasn’t often that he was threatened by things. I had known the beast was a threat, but if it was like this then… 

“For now,” He went on. “We’ve established a perimeter around the place. If she makes a break for it, we’ll know, but I don’t think we should engage until all of us are here.”

Then, as if right on cue, I sensed a distortion in the air a mile off. I turned my head and the others followed my gaze as the silhouettes of Alexandria and Hero at last arrived. They descended from the sky, black body suit and glinting golden tinker tech armour drawing the eyes of the other Heroes on the scene. With all of us here, it kicked them into gear, getting ready for the upcoming confrontation.

The duo approached and I greeted them with a nod that both of them returned. Alexandra shot me a small smile behind her visor before her face set into a more professional demeanour.

“The Siberian’s in there then?”

“Yes,” Legend said. “We thought about entering the house and cutting her off, corralling her into a single room and launching our assault like that, but Annette called ahead and advised that caution should be taken here. We’re not sure yet just to what extent her powers make her a threat to us.”

“So she’s in there, trapped?” Hero crossed his arms, turning to look at the house. “Something… feels off.”

“… It’s not as clean as we would have liked.” Eidolon admitted. “There’s been a complication.”

“She’s got a way out?”

“No,” Legend replied, shaking his head as he motioned to the Heroes around them, some of them doing their best to act like they weren’t trying to eavesdrop. They couldn’t of course, I’d already set a quick bounded field to give us privacy the moment Alexandria and Hero had gotten close so that the five of us could talk in peace. “We’ve got more teams covering the sewer system running beneath the house and eyes on the back and front of the house. The reinforcement that arrived with Annette will be reinforcing the encirclement. She’s outnumbered by a ridiculous degree.”

“But you haven’t moved in yet.” Alexandria noted.

“The same question I was about to ask.” I said. “I would like to know why you haven’t fired the opening volley yet.”

“What about the Siberian herself?” Hero asked suddenly. “Why hasn’t she tried to make a break for it. You’re saying she’s just stayed in there when she must be aware of what’s happening outside?”

Legend looked away, suddenly looking guilty. “She has a victim with her.”

Alexandria’s face morphed in anger and she shoved a finger against Legend’s chest. ““You had better be fucking kidding me, or I swear-”

Legend cut her off before she could get going, placing a hand on her extended limb and moving it down. The fact that he could meant Alexandria was letting him “Stop, Alexandria.  It was the only way to guarantee she’d stay put.  If we moved too soon, she’d run, and it would be a matter of time before she racked up a body count elsewhere.”

Her face twisted. “That’s-”

“Necessary.” I cut in and I felt all of their eyes turn to me. I didn’t flinch, more than used to it by now. “The Siberian already has close to a hundred victims in this town alone, and over a thousand victims to her name by now. As unfortunate as it is, one more life isn’t much of a difference, at least this one can lend themselves to something.”

“No, no that’s not-” I could tell Alexandria was suppressing a growl as she fixed me with a disappointed scowl. “That’s not how we’re supposed to do things.”

“You know me well enough to know it is how I do things.”

“Yes, I’m well aware of your ‘Magus’ disposition, that doesn’t make it right.”

“Probably not to you.” I allowed. “But right now, we don’t have much of a choice. The Siberian already has what she believes to be a hostage, the only matter is how we respond to it. I for one am willing to allow this death on my conscious if it means preventing more in the future.”

“You have a conscious?” Hero muttered but Legend silenced further comments with a sharp look.

“Now isn’t the time to bicker. We’re in the middle of a serious operation. Get into your usual arguments another time, understood?”

There was an awkward beat of silence then. Eidolon shuffled on the spot as he crossed his arms and Alexandra’s fists clenched at her sides.

“Fine,” she didn’t quite snap, the professionalism I respected her for taking over. “Then let’s move. The sooner we take her down, the better.”

I glanced at Eidolon and I could tell that beneath his mask that he was as wary about Alexandria’s mood as I was.

“Legend has the idea of containing her rather than killing. Some sort of experimental containment. I for one disagree. I suggest that if you have the opportunity to end the Siberian, take it, lest you risk the lives of the people here.”

Legend didn’t look happy at that but he didn’t argue and I didn’t much care. If he wanted to try it his way then he could do it himself, I’d be focused on my own survival.

“Alright then.” Hero nodded. “Let’s get moving.”

The five of us took the lead, Alexandria up front, Legend rising above with Hero, Eidolon and I bringing up the rear. I felt my circuits hum with energy as I readied myself.

We operated with a practised ease.  Legend blasted down the door and Alexandria was the first through.

Siberian was there, kneeling on the bed, her body marked with stripes of jet black and alabaster white, her arms slick with blood up to the elbows.  The man who lay on the bed – there would be no saving him, even if Eidolon manifested healing abilities right then and there.

So much for a hostage.

My eyes narrowed at the woman even as Alexandria flew towards her at breakneck speeds, fist reared back to shatter her chest. They widened a second later when the mighty woman’s fist smashed into her chest and the animal-looking woman didn’t so much as budge.

Prana flooded through me instantly, accelerating my reactions, my body and thoughts so that I could track the fight as it broke out into chaos. Alexandria twisted her body mid-air, using the momentum from her own punch to avoid Siberian’s clawed fingers that I knew for a fact could tear normal people apart like paper. Would they do the same to the woman that was supposed to be invincible?

I had no idea, but Alexandria must have believed they were something of a threat, because she flew out of the woman’s reach as Legend blasted her with a beam of energy strong enough to level a house.

And it did. The wall behind the Siberian was obliterated, opening the room up to sunlight. Brick, mortar and furniture burned away to ash and yet it there was Siberian in the centre of it, not even flinching. That shouldn’t have been possible.  She was invincible on a level that surpassed even Alexandria.

Eidolon cast out a cluster of crystal that exploded into a formation around Siberian on impact, encasing her. Siberian, remarkably, shrugged it off like it was nothing, lunging forward and going after Hero.

Alexandria dove to intervene, to guard her teammate, but Siberian was faster. I knew immediately that she wouldn’t make it in time.

But I’d been ready for it.

My circuits flared up as I reached for the shadows, pulling at them, feeling them warp and change. A wall of darkness shot up between Hero and Siberian. I knew that she would break through it in an instant, but that wasn’t the point. It blocked her sight of the Tinker, and so she couldn’t see that when I snapped my fingers on my free hand, more shadows wrapped around him and yanked him out of the house.

He yelled, but that was secondary to the fact that the Sibrian swiped at empty air when she shattered the wall of shadows I’d thrown up. I grunt at the feedback of it, feeling how it had shattered like glass.

Eidolon roared, throwing a crackling stream of blue-hot fire at the woman. It swept over her and the air itself was painful to breathe but we could all see her shadowed form within, not even affected by the heat.

She scowled and raised a hand. Before me a Will-o’-the-Wisp manifested, not one of the real things, more a manufactured mimicry of a familiar I had acquired and killed years ago. The fires changed directions, swirling around the little creature as it ate them. A second later, the fires were gone. I raised my other hand and waved it around the others, forming a barrier and again, snapped my fingers.

The Siberian lunged but before she could reach me-

The Will-o’-the-Wisp exploded.

The explosion was nearly deafening. As the entire house was obliterated and we were sent flying back. The barriers I had created cracked but held as all of us were thrown through the air. I paid it no heed as I righted myself in the air and landed on the road, my heels clicking and carving into the asphalt.

Above me, Legend, Alexandria and Eidolon rightened themselves in the air. They’d taken the same force as me, but while I was relegated to the ground, the three of them had more to work with.

I glanced down to my left.

“Are you alright down there?” I couldn’t help but ask Hero as he rose wobblily to his feet.

“I’m fine.” He coughed, shaking his head. “I hate it when you do stuff like that, but thanks.”

I hummed but I didn’t look away from the burning wreckage of the house, not even as the PRT and other Heroes around us screamed orders at one another, readying themselves for a fight. In the middle of the blaze I could see Siberian standing there, unaffected by the flames. Like it hadn’t even hurt her.

Or… unharmed, yes, but unaffected? I narrowed my eyes.

“I hit her as hard as I could and she didn’t budge.” Legend stated in a tight voice from a few feet above me. “I didn’t think there was anybody who could tank my blasts better than Alexandria.”

“She took my punch like it was nothing.” The woman stated. “I have a feeling that if she managed to hit me, then I’d feel it.”

“Do you think she could overpower you?” I pressed.

Alexandria hesitated. “I don’t know. I don’t believe she’s as physically strong as me, but I have a feeling it wouldn’t make a difference.”

“We’ll have to bank on that then.” I said. “You’ll need to keep her off of the rest of us. She can’t fly, so Legend, and Heo, you need to get high up and rain down attacks on her. Test out exactly how much firepower she can take. Eidolon, you and I will try and find out what we need to hurt her. Look for a power that can do it, I’ll do the same.”

They nodded. I might not have been the leader, nor an official member of the Protectorate, but I’d been their friend long enough that they trusted my words in a situation like this.

We didn’t have any more time to discuss it then, because Siberian charged at us, body low to the ground and hands outstretched by her sides, carving grooved in the ground beneath her. Alexandra rushed to meet her and brought a fist down on her head as she passed over.

The Siberian didn’t so much as flinch but she spun to try and take a chunk out of the other woman. She missed and with her back to us, Legend fired a blinding beam of energy at her. At the same time, Hero pulled out a gun, a new toy of his and fired a mass of superheated plasma shrapnel at her. I threw out razor sharp shadows that snaked across the ground, shooting up below her and stabbing at her legs and Eidolon added to it with arcing lightning that brought with it the smell of ozone.

All of it hit her, none of it slowed her down. Not as Legend flew at a dozen different angles above her and attacking her with strafing and bombing runs of force so great they could have levelled entire city blocks. Hero was no better, cycling through a dozen Tinker weapons that messed with physics in ways that made my head hurt to look at. I was only minutely more successful than the two of them, and only because I was more focused on corralling her, keeping her in places where she could be hit. I altered my shadows to block her sight, I morphed the ground beneath us to make the terrain uneven and throw out deadly smoke and gas that roiled with curses meant to rot and decay the living.

It slowed her, but only because the Siberian was taking the time to alter her bath rather than bulldoze straight through like I knew she could. She was testing herself.

Even Eidolon, the one that should have actually been able to hurt her because he was Eidolon, was failing to do much of anything. I changed up his powers every few seconds to throw something new at Siberian in the hopes that something would affect her.  She waded through zones of altered time, through lightning storms and force fields, tore through barricades of living wood and slapped aside a projectile so hyperdense that its gravitational field pulled cars behind it.

It was like nothing could hurt her. Nothing was affecting her. In appearance at least. But there had to be something.

Parahuman abilities could be… exotic, but every single one I’d seen still acted with a connection to reality in some way. Whether they bent or broke physics, they were still related to them in some way. It meant they could be dealt with, all I needed was the correct application of Magecraft to do it. To solve the puzzle in front of me.

I backstepped when Siberian made a pass at me, the ground beneath me rising and shifting to propel myself, launching myself back and upwards. I landed on another roof and held the woman’s gaze as she tracked my movements. She might have tried to follow up but Legend fired at her again. Around the Siberian, other heroes fired their own blasts as Agents bombarded her with bullets and grenades.

All of it she shrugged off but I bit my lip, trying to think of something. It looked impossible. It was as if she was simultaneously the concept of an unstoppable force and immovable object. The few moments where she wasn’t being fired at, or even a few of the times she still was, Alexandria was there, plumbing at her exposed areas with punches that could have levelled skyscrapers at their bases.

It was maybe our only saving grace in this fight that was slowly going downhill every time the Siberian managed to reach a Cape or agent and kill them before they could be extracted, that the woman herself didn’t seem to be all that skilled at fighting. There was no technique, no defences, counters or special manoeuvres.

All of it was raw savagery and cutting. Brutal and wild as it was effective, it meant that we had more opportunities to avoid her when she made an attempt at one of us.

Not everyone was so lucky though and I saw more than a few people get torn to bloody pieces when she reached them, their screams evaporating the moment it was clear they wouldn’t survive as their positions were bombarded by more lasers.

Was it vicious and cruel of us, to be so ruthless ourselves and end them? Maybe, but if there was no saving them, then it was a mercy in my eyes, to end it quickly and try to make their deaths worth it by hurting this monster of a woman.

There had to be something. There had to be. This wasn’t like Behemoth or Leviathan. This was something we should have been capable of dealing with!

I cursed as Siberian picked up a truck and threw it at me. I jump from the roof, landing with a sweeping grace that makes it look like I was as light as a feather, gliding across the ground. I clicked my teeth in annoyance, glaring at her and pointed a finger at her, cycling through different elements as I shot them her way. Fire, air, water, earth, metal, wood. A blend of Eastern and Western elements.

They blocked her sight again, but not much more, even as I put enough mana into them from the surrounding area to obliterate an entire street to the awe of onlookers, it didn’t do much more than slow her down. Alexandria crashed into her from behind, hooking an arm around her elbow, spinning and launching her into the air. Siberian goes spinning in an uncontrolled fall but we all know it’s not going to-

Wait, how had Alexandria affected her in the first place? She shrugged off her punches like it was nothing but she’d been lifted off her feet and thrown through the air. What did that mean? She’d been unaffected by the forcer of Legend’s attacks, the same with Hero, Eidolon or any of the other heroes here. There was something else too it that I was missing. Powers didn’t always make sense, but there were limits to them. Even Eidolon, the most powerful, had limits.

The Siberian had to have one too, or some quirk of a weakness that could be explanted, some sort of workaround, a counter. I just had to find it!

Then the Siberian did something I wasn’t ready for. Something I don’t think any of us were ready for, as a Brute Cape saw his chance to aid in the fight or so he believed, the Siberian spun around his fist like flowing water but instead of cutting him in half or batting him away. Killing him as quickly and cleanly as she had the others-

She threw herself at him, face first.

And ripped out his spine with her teeth.

The act, so violent and brutal, so unexpected, ground everything around us to a halt. It was a mistake, even as I stood there, eyes wide and frozen in disbelief, I knew it was a mistake, but I couldn’t help it. For most people, it was a natural reaction to freeze at the sight of someone ripping en entire spine out of someone’s body that way, but for me, it was more than that.

It was worse. The sight of cannibalism without ritual, evil and taboo, it rendered me still.

And it was because of that, I wasn’t able to react when the Siberian burst forward in a rush of speed. She lunged for me, faster than I could react. I threw up barriers, threw myself back, but it wasn’t enough. The Siberian clayed at my chest, nails ripping into flesh and scraping across my torso. It was only because her arms weren’t long enough at that distance that she didn’t tear me in two but the pain of having a bloody chunk of my torso ripped away sent searing pain through my body.

Pain, I was used to. Pain was familiar. Pain crushed the shock and a snarl ripped free from me. I reached out, grabbed her extended wrist and spat a curse. One to cause pain and agony to transgressors. An ancient curse taught to me by an old Sachem years ago. It was rage and indignation that made me retaliate like that, when I knew in my head that if she wanted, the Siberian could have torn off my arm the moment I grabbed her.

So when she flinched back, an entirely different sort of feeling shot through me. Realisation.

“Shriker!”

Before I could put it into practice however, Hero was there behind her. I made to cry out, to tell him to get back but it was obvious he was more focused on saving me than his own safety as he brought down an electrified, plasma covered fist with enough energy running through it to vaporise steel.

The wave of energy that washed over everything was enough to set my nerves alight and all around us I was sure the town's power grid was immediately obliterated. I felt a pressure leave me as Siberian pulled back and for a second I foolishly believed that Hero had actually managed to hurt her, or even to stun her.

Instead, I was standing right in front of her as she spun.

And her hand cleaved through Hero at the hip.

I heard Eidolon scream, Alexandria and Legend’s voices crying out and I stared, watching numbly as Hero fell in two parts. My snarl turned vicious as I activated my crest, as searing hot pain lanced up my spine and into my brain as I pushed it all at once to its maximum output.

One of the spells ingrained within the crest burst forth like a living thing, in a way, it was. A shade of a familiar. A spawn of Unhcegila. A spirit in the shape of a serpent. Copper and red in colour, burning with flames of crimson and black and horns along its head, thick as my leg and fangs sharper than blades, it burst from my crest like an aspiration, slithering and colling over my shoulder and along my arm in the blink of an eye.

It lunged for me, longer and longer, growing with each passing second as it collided with Siberian, who reeled back in the first sign of shock she’d displayed.

She knew it as well as I did. This was something different.

Something that could if not hurt her, then least affect her and so she leapt back even as it coiled on her limbs. She scratched at it, claws sinking into its ghostly visage. The spawn of Unhcegila hissed at her even as it spurt fiery blood from its wound but I had no fear for it. It would not die to the Siberian, even if I suspected it would not kill her either.

Whatever the case, I didn’t care at that moment, I had other things to worry about.

I rushed over to Hero, to his body, where it lay in two parts. There was a massive pool of blood beneath him already but it had only been a few seconds. Less than ten. He was breathing, shallow, fading fast, but for the next few moments, he was alive.

That was all I needed. I had decades of knowledge and wisdom to my name, centuries of power and more passed down from my lineage and more so besides that. I was a Magus great enough to save him.

Healing magecraft was not my expertise however so I focused on what I could do. I dragged the two halves of his body together and let my prana seep into the bloody separation, reanimating dead flesh, reviving it, pumping blood through severed veins and restitching destroyed muscles. I fused the two halves of his spine together, reconnected nerve endings.

I felt and heard Eidolon land hard beside me, falling to his knees. I could feel his wide eyes through his mask but I didn’t have time for his fear and worry.

“Be quick!” I snapped at him, not taking my eyes off of Hero. “Find a good enough healing power while I keep him stable.”

“I-” He cut himself off and nodded and a few seconds later his hands glowed with a soothing light that washed over even me. He looked up, to where the Siberian was still struggling with the demonic serpent.

Alexandria and Legend landed beside me next, trying to take a breath for a few moments, repositioning and organising themselves and because they were afraid for Hero. Alexandria turned to me and I knew what she was thinking. “That snake, how is it hurting her?”

“It is a familiar that an ancestral predecessor of mine once captured and subdued centuries ago.” I explained. “A spawn of Unhcegila. An evil spirit of the Lakota people. It was changed through great rituals to become something that could be held within my crest and called upon against a foe of similar evil. It's only at that time that it will heed command. The Siberian qualifies, or whatever it is directing her.”

Legend’s eyes snapped to me “What?”

“The Siberian is a projection.” I hissed. “Whatever powers it has they come as a result of her being a Projection of someone else’s power. It is likely why none of our attacks have had much of an effect on her, or at least one of them, but the spawn of Unhcegila is purely a spirit in nature now, something that targets the spirit. It is not harming her in the traditional sense, I suspect it wouldn’t be able to kill her but it disrupts her, disrupts the connection minutely between the Siberian and her creator.”

“We can’t beat her then.” Legend surmised and I nodded grudgingly.

“I suspect even if we could kill her, it would not be permanent, not when we don’t know where the one making the projection is or how to sever the connection completely. The best we can do is drive her off.”

“Can we?” Legend pressed and I gnawed at the inside of my cheek.

“I do not have much that can damage the soul. The best I can do is give you the openings you can take to deal with her yourself. While the Serpent keeps her busy, I believe you will be able to apply force to her if nothing else. Drive her off with unrelenting force and nothing else.”

“Alright.” Alexandria nodded. “Then whenever you’re ready, give the signal, Annette.”

I nodded. “Yes. Very well then, on my… wait, what did you call me?”

Something in my brain warped like static, and the words played over again, the sight before me a repeat of the last few seconds.

“-give the signal, Annette.”

“I…” I blinked, freezing up as a surge of pain lanced through my temples. I brought my hands to my head. “That’s not… that’s not my name. My name’s not Annette.”

It was.

No, it wasn’t. This wasn’t- I wasn’t Annette. That wasn’t me. I was someone else. Who was I supposed to be? Why did this hurt so much? What was I doing, I had to get back into the fight.

I blinked again, harder, trying to force myself past the pain but the moment I closed my eyes I felt something shit and when I opened them again, the whole world was greyscale, sagging and fading like a canvas ruined by water. Colours and images and shapes all fell away and muddled and the pain in my head, in my spine and brain grew worse. Something rolled through me.

“That’s right-” I gasped, choked. “That’s right I’m- my name isn’t’ Annette.

“What was it? What is it?”

It’s…

It’s…

My eyes widened and a cold breath swept through me as up looked up at the black void within my own mind.

“My name is Taylor.”

…

…

The moment I came to consciousness wasn’t one of peace. I didn’t wake up gently from it. No, instead, a wave of nausea and revulsion swept through me and before I knew it, I could feel what was happening. I threw myself out of bed, making it worse even as I staggered to my feet and stumbled out my bedroom door towards the bathroom. I made it, just barely in time before I vomited into the sink.

Vomit and bile choked me as I fell against the sink, legs wobbling and weak.

My head was a fog. Unstable, swirling and jumbled. My memories- no, my mother’s memories, burned in my mind. Like a poison, something made to infest and taint. My insides felt like they were writhing and I didn’t even know if it was something under my control or not.

I gaged, spitting up more and it was only when I saw spots of dark green liquid hissing and steaming in the ceramic sink that I realised I’d puked up flecks of blood too. 

I stared at it. I hadn’t even meant to activate it and yet…

A scowl overtook my face. That hadn’t been me, or at least it hadn’t been a conscious decision on my part. My technique had activated in my sleep, without my will even.

Had it been her? Had it been a fading echo, a phantom reaction? Or had it just been my subconscious reacting to the dream-like memory I’d been inflicted with.

Either way, I hated it, with a passion I rarely felt nowadays.

I looked up into the mirror, and got a proper look at my face. I was pallid, there were bags under bloodshot eyes and I looked like I was death warmed over. I felt like it, that was for sure.

“Taylor.” I heaved, saying the name past a burning throat and weak voice “My name….  my name is Taylor. I’m Taylor. Nobody else.” I repeated the mantra in front of the mirror again and again, for a full ten minutes, as the agonising pain in my spine faded, as my Crest went dormant and my circuits began to cool. “Nobody is in control of me but myself.”

I hated the fact that I couldn’t even sound convincing to myself.

The nausea wasn’t leaving any time soon, I knew that from experience, but I knew that wallowing in it would just make me feel even worse. I splashed my face with water, trying to wash away the clammy feeling on my skin, that feeling that things didn’t quite fit right. I looked down at the back of my hand, at the skin that was no longer as pale as it used to be just years ago. Changed, by both heritage and conversion, I sometimes forgot what parts of me had been mine in the first place.

My scowl grew and I pushed myself away from the sink, stumbling out of the bathroom with a traitorous stomach and weak knees. I made it back to my room and clambered onto my bed but I didn’t get back in. No, instead I sat atop the sheets, laying back against the headboard and pulling my knees up into my chest, wrapping my arms around them. For a minute, I just sat there in the dark, breathing.

After another moment I made a motion with the curtains, the air rippling slightly as my curtains were tugged open and the moonlight spilled in, illuminating my room. I had no idea what time it was right now but if I had to guess by the moon’s place in the sky it might have been three, maybe four in the morning. I stared out at the window, at the faded stars in the night sky... just staring.

I wondered then, what it would be like, to abandon the city. To live far away from everything. To have a sort of peace people only wish for, the kind more like a dream than reality. A quiet, unassuming peace, like the kind I had once seen a vision of.

An unending, cerulean flower garden.

A vast, crimson gem waste.

A blank, white bleached earth-

I shook my head and the images my mother had left behind dispelled like mist. It was bad tonight, but it would fade eventually. Those thoughts and echoes engrained within my Crest were most of the time unintelligible, lacking context if I was lucky and missing anything resembling comprehensiveness if I wasn’t. The few times they were clear was when I was asleep and dreaming and when that happened it was hard to distinguish what was a memory of hers and what was a dream of my own mind.

A grimace spread across my face. I knew that if I kept thinking about it, I’d be left to tangle myself in those thoughts all night. I needed a distraction, and for as unwelcome of a reminder as it was right now, there was something I could do that was conveniently in reach.

I closed my eyes. Emptied my thoughts. I felt the low hum and faded heat of my circuits, working but only just barely active. I didn’t retreat into my mind, but called the entity within to the forefront, my approximation of it, the image of it I had conjured in my head. I took a breath, let my heartbeat slow, my nerves cool and as I exhaled…

I let my consciousness slip into my swarm.

…

…

When I’d first gotten my power, I hadn’t understood it. It had been too much all at once. I’d already been in a bad situation, one on the edge of life and death and the information and sensory overload had nearly been the final straw, that one last thing to tip me over the edge.

I’d nearly died when I’d gotten my powers, and the day’s proceedings hadn’t been much better even when I’d managed to seemingly block it out, or at least what I had believed to be blocking it out.

I would never really be able to do that. Dull it until it was background noise inside my brain, maybe, but never turn it off. Not with what had happened to me. When I had realised my new situation it had been horrifying in ways I even now, can’t begin to describe, but it had been a poisonous cherry on top that I hadn’t understood what was good about bug control.

Most of the time still didn’t. There are so many other powers, the kinds that broke physics in incredible ways and there are few that even played at mimicking the smallest fractions of shades of True Magic. The kinds that would have made me a powerhouse even in the Moonlit world and for all the suffering I had gone through to get it, I would have at least liked my consolation prize to be something more worthwhile.

Instead I controlled insects.

Figures.

It was… a little better now, years later now that I understood the things I could do to a greater extent. There had been more facets to this power than I’d realised at the time, more ways to wield the tiny creatures under my command than just direct them, numerous ways they could be changed, improved or altered. Over all that though, there was more than just an overload of feelings and sensations being piled into my brain and it was more than just receiving them.

Right now, in the dark night sky with the moon and stars out in full, it did just what I needed it to do.

My range was more expansive now. The stress of the dream ratcheted up the limits of my power and right now that was useful. It let me see further, grasp at insects hidden in dark alleys and hallways I wouldn’t be able to otherwise see.

And I did see. I saw through my swarm as I moved a dozen different dark shapes, clumps of insects like small clouds, weaved them through the night sky as they chittered and hissed.

They wouldn’t be seen by anyone like this, but the same couldn’t be said for how I would use them. Each and every swarm I could see from. If I focused I could see through every individual insect, hundreds of thousands at a time, but that wasn’t any use to me here. My swarm was filled with mundane, everyday insects, none of which had good eyesight.

But when they were focused together? It was like I could use their eyes to amplify and enhance on a single point. Basically, the more insects I had working in tandem in a small space, the better I could see. It had taken months of practice, but I had managed to improve.

Well, no, that wasn’t right. From what I’d heard, Parahuman abilities couldn’t grow or get stronger when a person got them in the traditional sense, but the Parahuman could… learn new tricks, so to speak.

I wasn’t sure if that was really the case with me and I was even less sure whether I thought it was a good thing or not.

Before I could wallow in thoughts like that though, I had something else to focus on.

There was so much activity, even this late at night. It was a city after all. I couldn’t see all of the city from here, not even a tenth of it, but my reach extended just far enough to escape the Docks and infiltrate the parts of the city that had progressed into a place worthy of the title. There, I could see people walking the streets and cars passing by under streetlights and storefronts.

I could see and feel the insects there, the people paying nothing any mind, and the twisted spirits.

There were a lot of spirits and curses in Brockton Bay.

At least, in America that was.

It was nothing like how it was in Asia and more specifically south-east China, where they had been struck just a few decades ago by disaster brought on by a far too ambitious cabal making a grab for power from something they shouldn’t have from what I’d understood last time I’d asked but for a city on the eastern seaboard, there were a lot of the things. Brockton Bay was a city mired in misery. Beaten down by struggle and disaster and filled with the worst kinds of people that brought with them even more negativity.

The perfect lure of the darker side of the magical world.

The only upside to it was that none of them were strong. Plentiful as their numbers were thanks to the things that went on in this city to draw them here, it was nearly impossible for spirits of any strength to manifest to any dangerous degree in America with its waning and damaged mystery. Most, with the exertion of a very significant few, couldn’t even be perceived by normal people, they were that frail on this continent.

That made most people lucky, in my opinion. I didn’t have that luxury.

I could see them just fine.

At least, I could when I wasn’t wearing my glasses.

They were not mystic eye killers or anything, I couldn’t afford stuff like that, but It helped me… deal. Manage.

None of them were a threat, and pushing back with hostilities against the ones that showed up here would go against what I wanted so seeing and hearing them did nothing but weight on me. I could ignore them instead, go about my life with one less problem for now.

I didn’t have my glasses on though, I’d left them off before I’d gone into my swarm, and so I could see them, a dozen or so lurking across a two mile radius in the city. I hated to look at them, if I was being honest to myself even as I knew I had to accept them here. The ugly, awful things.

The only benefit they had in this situation, was that it made it easier to track what I wanted to, because dark spirits were drawn to negativity and what better place to look for a crime than somewhere like that?

One of my swarms pinged as it glided through an ally, up a wall and around a window that had been left open just a crack. I had most of my swarm circle around it, pressed against the wall outside to remain hidden and close enough to listen as best they could and every second, I sent a steady stream of single file insects through the window.

I had the travel as discreetly as possible, as stealthily as they could.

It wasn’t a hard task to have them hover on the ceiling or in the corners of the room, most people didn’t look up and even if they had in this case it wouldn’t have made a difference considering the state of the apartment.

It wasn’t exactly run down, but it had definitely seen better days. This was a place owned by someone down on their luck, something I would have felt sympathy for any other time.

But not as much when the pair of men in the room sitting on the couch watching TV were wearing red and green.

They were Asian, adult men. Gang affiliated, a giveaway not just by their clothes, but the fact they had guns slung on their hips. Now, there was nothing particularly wrong with having guns on their own. Anyone with a licence could, but this was Brockton Bay, and the only people who carried guns here were the kind that were willing to get into fights that could turn deadly if there happened to be a Cape on the scene, and the kinds of people who were willing to go that far almost always tended to be gang bangers, mercs or Villains themselves.

With all that in mind, it made the decision to focus on this swarm and listen in an easy decision.

“Are you sure?” One of them said in Japanese, their tone hushed, sounding almost… worried.

“I literally just said I was.” The other sighed harshly, shaking his head but there was a wobble in his voice that told me that whatever it was that they were talking about was affecting him too. “Listen, something has him angry, and it’s getting worse as he stews on it. I saw him just the other day by complete chance when I was finishing with the delivery. He was there growling at a bunch of poor fools he had brought in for something.”

He shivered. “They looked afraid of him, you know how it gets right? You did something with Oni Lee not long ago.”

“I was just a lookout.” The fust man coughed. “Barely even a part of it. Never want to be a part of their bigger attacks again after it.”

“Yes, I can understand that. But I don’t think it’s going to be an option soon. I think he’ll want… I think Lung is gearing up for a fight, and when he does, I don’t know when he’ll demand that we all shed blood for him.”

“You think he really will? The Heroes would attack in turn.”

“Maybe, maybe not.” He shook his head again. “I don’t think it’s there yet, but I’ve heard that Lung has been getting… worse, for the past year. More agitated, more ruthless, more impulsive. Something has happened to make him like this, something that has upset the balance. He will move tomorrow to deal with the thieves that crossed him but I’m afraid that it won’t be enough to calm him down.”

“Did you hear if anyone we know will be a part of this one?”

“Thankfully not. All I managed to find out was where they would be gathering and to stay well clear of it so that I can avoid all of this unless called upon.”

The first man gave a weak smile. “Something I doubt will ever happen, considering you’re poor at even driving.”

The second scoffed but didn’t refute it until the other one spoke up again.

“And… and where is it, exactly, so that I know where to stay away from?”

He gave his companion an answer, and just like that, I had mine.

I made my swarm retreat silently out of the window, out of the alley and withdrew my swarm back to their original places, before cutting my control of them and letting them return to normal insects.

In the next moment, I tightened the grip on my consciousness, and reeled it back into my body. I let out a slow breath. By no, the wrongness I’d felt in my own body had faded back down to normal levels, the kind I could ignore.

I had something to help with that now, something to plan for.

I thought then that maybe… maybe I had given it enough time. Enough waiting, enough biding my time and planning for what would come next for Brockton Bay.

I thought that maybe, spurred on by the desire to suppress the memories that weren’t mine, that I never wanted…

That it was at last time to act.

Chapter Text

January 26^th, 2011

Traveling the streets at night as a danger for anyone in a city, especially for a fifteen year old girl. Anyone who saw me would think the same thing, if they had ill intentions in mind:

Target. Easy Mark. Victim.

For any normal fifteen year old girl, that might have been the case, but I was not, a normal fifteen year old girl.

Even without my control of bugs, those that right at that moment, crawled around in the dark in a two block radius to me, watching for every threat, every movement, ever sound and sigh so that nothing and no one could sneak up on me, there would have a lot more to contend with.

Normal people couldn’t detect Mages, not really. They didn’t know we existed for one, and people were masters of rationalising things they couldn’t explain. They got feelings though, sensations and warnings deep in their bones, when we let them and stopped supressing our Mana in any significant way.

They’d get feelings of wrongness, of other, of power and the sensation that what they were looking at was just a little too different to them in a way that made them avoid people like me.

I could reign that in, of course, any Mage could. It would be hard to exist in society without the natural ability to do so, but right now in the middle of the night, I wasn’t keen on being bothered by some idiot that thought he could mug me or worse.

So I let that feeling free. As I staked the streets in a long coat and hoodie beneath it, I let my Mana seep into the air around me, into the concrete and brickwork like an invisible miasma and more than once, I saw others out far too late at night cross the street to pass me.

I paid them no more mind than that though. They weren’t what I wanted. No, what I was looking for was much different. Much worse, and much less human.

Something that had slipped into the city two nights ago, nearly under my notice, where it not for the fact that it hadn’t been able to control itself long enough to hide well, and given itself away.

Now, I was after it, and I could feel myself closing in on it even now.

It was… close, but hidden. Away from the eyes of those that might see it and cause a commotion. It was smart enough to know that cities like this had ways of making hunting difficult. Modern technology wouldn’t catch them if they could use glamour, so the fact that it wasn’t walking the streets suggested it couldn’t use anything like that.

Not a spellcaster then.

Something more basic, more primal maybe, or at least straight forward. It narrowed down the creatures identity, but not by a large margin.

And yet, it had entered the city all the same. Whatever it’s reasons, that was a mistake.

It had entered my territory without permission, and drawn blood that didn’t’ belong to it.

For that, it would be made to pay.

My swarm closed in on the area, buzzing in every nook and crazy as my insects, each saturated in mana to the point where they were attracted to other instances of it. It was a slow, methodical attraction, like molasses tailing down a slope, but it still gave me a direction to go.

I ducked in and out of alleys. Around corners and into darker and darker places, where they lights from the buildings were obscured by old brick walls and cracked concrete buildings. I saw something move, just in the corner of a spiders vision to my left, half a block away. it moved quick, ducking through a pair of dumpsters and into a metal railing that lead downwards, to a lower street where a ride separated one street from another.

My eyes narrowed as I picked up my pace. Still walking, but faster now, taking my hands out of my pockets as I sent a portion of my swarm after it. I couldn’t tell what it looked like just yet, but what I’d been able to see from the spider was something vaguely human. No, more than that, something that had been human.

Faster now, it moved. it could sense something was chasing it, and like a predator assessing risk, it had picked between fight or flight and chosen the latter. I picked up my own pace, breaking into a jog, then a sprint as I ran down the alley.

The creature had stuttered, not from coming to a dead end, but because it had spotted prey.

Two girls, kids that could have been anywhere from twelve to fourteen, out far too long past midnight, wearing school uniforms, Immaculata highschoolers out on a night of rebellion with no idea what was about to happen to them.

The fact that it had faltered at all meant it wasn’t intelligent enough to ignore something that was in front of it but that was a bad thing right now!

I sent in my swarm right as I saw it lunge at the kids. A wave of black crashed into it, knocking it’s back. I highschoolers screamed, from the swarm of the thing they had stopped I wasn’t sure and didn’t have time to care as I turned the corner and saw the pair with my own vision now. I didn’t slow down, feet hammering across the concrete hard enough to draw attention to myself. The two girls startled, spinning to look my way as I pulled back the swarm. I wasn’t wearing anything to hide my identity, so they could see me as I was for a person right away.

It was probably the only thing that didn’t cause them to panic, which was too bad because I would really like them to do exactly that right now.

“Down, now!” I snapped and the bit in my voice must have been sharp enough for them to obey because they fell to their knees right as I said it.

An act that saved their lives, as the quarry I’d been chasing had swing at their heads with a jagged stone knife in that exact moment. I flared mana within my body, letting it wash over the ally and in an instant, the thing snapped to face me and I finally got a good look at it.

It was a humanoid like it’d spotted before, but it definitely wasn’t human.

It was skeletal, emaciated, bones visible through pale, near-translucent skin that clung so tight in dipped into its own ribcage in some places. Beneath, there were no organs, just empty space, but not like there had never been any, but like they had rotted away ages ago, leaving stains on the white bones.

It was hairless, practically faceless apart from the skull itself, with rotting serrated teeth. The one thing about it that seemed even part way alive where it’s eyes, and even they were a mockery of the word.

Deep, black sockets where shadows danced in the crevasses and spits and within their centre, burning red pinpricks where eyes should have been. Burning with vile rage and hatred for the living. Rags, tattered and ripped clung to its body and both hands held weapons. In its right, the stone knife from before and in its left, a spiked wooden club stained red with old blood.

“Baykok.” I spat the name like a curse and the utterance if the name made it rattle like a windchime in a storm. It had caught the scent of my mana and had eyes only for me now. Without an utterance of a word it lunged at me, kids forgotten as it swung I’s club in a wide arc, intent on caving in my skull in a single swing.

I dropped low immediately, my momentum carrying me on my shins as I slid beath it. I head the high schoolers scream but ignored them, scraping a hand across the ground and manipulating the stone beneath. I sank my fingers into it and when I pulled them it, it was around the handle of a stone blade of my own. A foot long stone sword in my hands, I swung up, catching the Baykok’s ribcage with the tip of my new sword. It bit into skin and bone, carving a groove in both.

The creature let out a shrill scream that shouldn’t have been possible without lungs yet rattled off the walls like a maddened echo

I twisted my body into I was face it, getting my feet under me and catching the last of my momentum from my sprint to rise up onto my feet. With a quick flick of my wrist, I coated the edge of my stone blade in ice, sharpening it’s edge into something even finer.

The Baykok might have tried to insect me closer now that it had realised I was capable of fighting but I didn’t give it that chase, dashing forward before it could make a choice of its own.

It screamed again in response and swung with both weapons.

I caught the club with a bare hand where the spike’s missed my palm and shove it away, deflecting it’s knife at the same time, ducking under the backswing from the club and stabbing it in the shoulder in response.

Weave, slash, duck, stab, parry, I didn’t let up, didn’t stop pressing. The skeletal warrior was fast, strong, more so than a regular human had a right to be, but it’s main advantages were already gone when it’s hunt hand been interrupted and I was far from a normal human myself.

Form the outside, the exchange might have been blindingly fast as we continued to meet blow for blow, twelve more exchanges in the span of three seconds, before I got my chance, getting enough room to spin my body and put more force behind my swing, I met its club with my sword and the sharpened ice bit into- cleaved through the wooden weapon, slicing it in two. The top have flew off into the dark and the sudden shift in weight made the Baykok stumble. I stepped forward, crunching one of its feet beath my heel and trapping it in its spot. With no way to retreat, it made a wild swing with its knife.

Too slow, too wide and I was too close. My elbow shot up, smashing into its bony wrist and sending the weapon spinning and in the same movement I brought my arm up and around in a wide circle, switching my grip into reverse and punching the sword straight down on the top if it’s skill.

The stone sword crunched straight through, sending bone shards skittering all over the ally.

For a second more, it stood there, held up from where my weapon was lodged into it like a hook, before its entire body seemed to fall apart before my eyes, and the spirt within its skeletal remains dissipated, killed a second time and what had held the body together no longer did.

The bones and dry skin fell apart and collapsed on the ground and a few moments later, before it crumbled like dust.

And then there were only three in the alley.

I let out a breath, resisting a wince where I moved faster than I should have to make it here before it had killed anyone. There was a twinge of pain in my shins where I had dropped too, but that would disappear by itself after a while. The physical state of my own person didn’t really matter considering I hadn’t been in any real danger and the fight had been over so fast. Barely thirty seconds, it had been dangerous enough that it could have killed a few dozen people before some Cape assumed they were some villain than needed to be put down and got rid of the problem for me in a far messier way.

It was far cleaner this way, not to mention better in keeping it decreet and hidden from eyes not cleared to know about it.

All of that didn’t much matter to me though, not as much as the fact that it had been here in the first place at least.

A Baykok, right here in Brockton Bay! The fact that it had been stupid or brave enough to enter a city was bad enough, but this city, with the face that a Second Owner watcher over it nothing lek this should have gone within ten miles of the area, and yet, here it was.

That didn’t spell anything good, that was for sure.

“U-um.”

I blinked, looking around where the two high schoolers still stood, holding each other and trembling, watching me with unsure faces.

Right, I had nearly forgotten about the, hadn’t I? that would have been bad.

“Hey, kids, you alright” I asked before they could start talking and asking questions of their own.

The fact it’d asked them anything seemed to surprise them a little. The fact that I obviously wasn’t dressed as a Cape probably threw them through a loop but the fact that they turned to look at each other gave me enough reason to believe they were well enough.

Good.

That meant I didn’t’ need to worry about this.

Before either of them could react, I reached forward and snapped my fingers between their eyes.

And at once, their eyes rolled back in their heads and they swayed, slumping back against the wall.

Neither of them had much of anything in the way of magic resistance which made this easer. Some low level hypnotism would be all I needed to make them forget the last ten or so minutes and convince them they’d taken a different turn on the road to go home.

I couldn’t have them remembering this, after all. If they’d gotten into trouble with some common thug, gangbanger, or even a Cape, it would have been fine. At most, I might have made it so that they couldn’t remember the details of my face and leave it at that.

But keeping stuff like this under wraps was practically sacrosanct. Even now, with all the extra leeway afforded in this modern age, Phantasmal species would draw too many eyes and just as many questions.

Questions that would make things difficult for me.

I knelt there working on the spell, making sure to add a temporary compulsion to make them want to head home where it was safe. The fact they’d been dumb enough to be out on a night like this wasn’t lost on me, but that didn’t mean they deserved to die or run into a gang member. With any luck, they’d be fine go home after they work up.

I let out a hum. I wasn’t exactly great at hypnosis, just passing enough to do stuff like this to regular people, but it would be enough for something so simple.

I stood back up, brushing the dust off my pants right as I caught sight of something bright overhead. I looked up in time to spot the white and gold image of Glory Girl, flying overhead, heading somewhere northwest of the city. From the speed of it, she was heading towards something ongoing.  It looked like New Wave, or at least the girl herself, was busy for the night.

I shook my head, turning in the other direction and heading home.

This little night out hadn’t exactly made me feel any better but it had at least supressed the jittered from the dream.

That would have to do for now.

…

…

“Did you hear what happened last night? Glory Girl took down a drug ring in less than ten minutes!”

“And that’s news how exactly? New Wave does stuff like that all the time. Beating up some Merchants doesn’t mean much.”

“Yeah but she did it by herself, you know? I saw the video where she punched the wall and brought the whole thing down and-”

I suppressed the desire to pull a face as soon as I heard the gossip. One of the only truly interesting classes in this Winslow, and half of it is drowned out by talks about Capes. To be fair, I was currently sitting in Mr. Gladly’s World Issues class, a class that largely centred around how Capes now affected the world.

Not the World, to be clear, just the mundane aspects of it that most normal people were aware of. Thirty years ago, something like this wouldn’t have been possible. Secrecy had remained triumphant then and though it had taken a different… flavour now, it was still somewhat unnerving to be aware of what was underneath the surface while the rest of the world had accepted the existence of parahuman abilities.

Classes like this, outlining these very events… it highlighted just how much the world had shifted, and yet how much it had not... how much the powers above and below had retained despite the world wide revelation of things beyond human.

 Still though, talking about it in an academic sense was fine, good even, considering it meant I could learn more about specific individuals making an impact this way, but gossip from teenagers was a whole different thing.

I’d rather not hear about how may screenshots a guy had taken on a Glory Girl video thank you very much. I didn’t need the imagery of what he did with them at home burning itself into my brain if I could help it.

Undoubtedly, Mr. Gladly wasn’t the type of person to dissuade people from talking in his classroom. He was one of those people who acted like they wanted to be friends with every one of their students, which usually meant being lax with rules a lot of the time to come off as the cool teacher, letting them away with little things like talking in his classroom or making jokes.

Really, not a terrible trait, it just had the unfortunate consequence of meaning that I had to listen to the talking myself.

It wasn’t constantly filling the room right now though. For once he had most of the class’s attention as he spoke animatedly about how the addition of younger Cape’s arrival on the crime-fighting scene had affected how people viewed them as a whole in a more positive light.

I frowned to myself, suddenly feeling a pair of eyes on my back, I didn’t look, I could guess who it was. The only one who would bother looking my way for any reason that sat behind me was Madison, and I really didn’t have the energy to deal with looking at whatever expression she had on her face right now. I let out a breath, more of a huff and glanced up at the clock.

Eleven forty-three.

“Let me wrap up here,” Mr. Gladly said, for some reason deciding to finish class early. “Sorry, guys, but there is homework for the weekend.  Think about capes and how they’ve impacted the world around you.  Make a list if you want, but it’s not mandatory.  On Monday we’ll break up into groups of four and see which group has the best list.  I’ll buy the winning group treats from the vending machine.”

There was some cheering from the students as they started to turn to one another to talk and pretty soon the room began to fall into noisy chaos that I could easily block out, others started packing way the instant they could, myself at least among these numbers while a small few that enjoyed talking to their teachers had gathered around Gladly to do just that, though about what, I didn’t much care.

I glanced at my noted one more time, checking again over what I’d written. While I had been listening to class my mind had been… elsewhere, and the scribbles on the page proved that. It didn’t mean much though, it wasn’t finished, and if anyone took a peek they’d see nothing but stranger symbols and move on with their day.

That wasn’t to say I had been more focused on it than gleaming any slightly important information I could from the class but what it did mean was that I hadn’t taken detailed notes at the same time. Parallel processing was an important skill to have, in that respect, but I didn’t always use it when I should.

The moment the bell rang I was out the door. Not at a hurried pace mind you, but with the obvious intent of someone who didn’t much care for lingering on their lunch break any longer than they had to.

That said, there was an issue there. I could still feel Madison's eyes on me as he entered the hallway and other students started to crowd it, spilling out of other classrooms. She didn’t follow me, instead I could tell she was heading in the opposite direction… the direction of the two other people I didn’t have the energy to deal with today.

Fine. Bar running right out the school doors, this was a confrontation bound to happen. If it was, then I wasn’t about to make it into a scene. With a tired sigh, I headed for the yard.

The place wasn’t exactly well kept, a place where students loitered around with nothing much to do but didn’t want to stay in the building unless they had to. It was somewhere where kids could huddle away and sneak a smoke in little acts of rebellion against their parents and the school.

When I stepped onto the yard and walked over to the far end near the edge, I saw about half a dozen other girls and guys already loitering about as I strolled up to one of the inclines and turned around to lean my back against a tree at the top. One or two of them spared me a glance and even a double take when they got a look at me but not much more. I wasn’t exactly a well known kid here at Winslow, not in the sense that people would recognise me unless they heard my name.

People heard plenty of rumours about me though, the bad kind, but I never did anything in people’s line of sight to make it easy to pin those rumours to a face.

That was fine, obviously. I wasn’t looking to be the popular kid in school. Would it have helped to have any friends? Maybe, but for the life of me, I couldn’t imagine being friends with any teenagers at this school. There were just too many fundamental differences between us.

And I wasn’t just saying that because nobody was interested in being friends with me. Really.

Hmm… eating in some private, hidden place wasn’t something I usually did but since the staff had caught me sitting on the roof last time and promptly freaked out that I was going to jump or something, I knew it would be better to lie low for a while. Eating in the Cafeteria was an option, probably a perfectly fine way not to stand out, but last time I did that someone had tried to steal my lunch.

I’d made them regret it, obviously, but the week of detention had been more trouble than it as worth, not to mention it had brought attention on me in a way that I didn’t like.

I just couldn’t be bothered to do that today.

So, somewhere else. I wasn’t going to be pathetic and hide away in a corner, under some stairs or in a bathroom. Not a chance. It wasn’t so much dignity as it was pride that stopped me, and even if I could push that down when necessary if I really tried, I wouldn’t do it here in Winslow of all places.

The yard was fine, under the shadow of a willow tree that looked half dead from lack of care. Not like the staff here employed any gardeners to take care of stuff like this.

I sat my back on one of the roots of the tree, fishing out both my lunch – a sandwich, because I hadn’t had time to make myself anything better after last night had left me listless and unsteady – and the one book in my bag that I hadn’t gotten around to finishing yet. A biography called ‘The Triumvirate’ that apparently detailed all sorts of anecdotes and life experiences from said members of the group. It was hard to be sure what was entirely accurate considering the nature of things like it, but if any of it was true, I found myself a little curious.

That being said, even as I took it out to read, my mind wasn’t really one it. There were so many things going on in Brockton Bay, so many that I was just now able to keep track of after finally managing to set up a system that would let me do just that. It had taken months just for that, and over a year to really set things up properly, and not all of it had been because it had been tedious work.

I had been procrastinating, aware that once it was done I’d have to change that. Have to start being active and making decisions.

I’d have to start living up to my role.

But, as I heard the sound of people approaching on the grass and tarmac soon enough, even from my little shade under the tree, I could tell that whoever it was had spotted me, that they were coming my way again and three pairs of footsteps marched into my range, I resolved to put a pin in that thought process for now. I didn’t even look up from my book, just kept reading as if finished off the last bite of my lunch.

“So this is where you hide away, Taylor. It suits you, being a loner off on the outskirts.”

I didn’t respond, not any more than glancing up over the rims of my glasses even as I felt an unwelcome cold squirming in my gut. Madison was there, along with Sophia and Emma, the three of them surrounding me in a half semi-circle, the expressions on their faces of varying degrees of discomfort making it obvious that this wasn’t the usual harassment they'd been doing for the last four months.

Then again, that hadn’t been the case since the beginning of January.

Things had changed since then, both with them personally, but also with how they acted in Winslow, their relationships with their peers now was… off.

Of course it was. they were missing something. Something they didn't even realise was missing.

Sometimes, it had astounded me that the three of them had managed to carve a piece of whatever counted as a hierarchy here at Winslow... no, that wasn't right. it didn't suprise me at all that tehy'd managed to do it I'd... I'd seen exatly how it had happened. What suprised me was... how they'd managed to keep that stability, even after everythig that had happened

It would have made sense in any other school, I could admit, but class divides and a student body with openly violent and racist members in one of the most racist and violent cities in America should have stomped that sort of thing in school.

Apparently not though. Maybe I was worse at recognising how social structures between normal people worked now than I thought I was, but somehow they’d managed to establish themselves as people that others didn’t mess with and more than that, listened to.

Although maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise.

Emma was sharp, far more intelligent than people might have stereotyped her, with that completely at ease, superior attitude she always sported that made it feel like she knew what she was talking about whatever that might be, and she had a cunning that until recently had been wasted on messing with me, the kind that could have made her into a terrifying woman in a business sense, if it weren’t for the fact that she was still fighting for a dream on modelling that had been denied to her. She got plenty of practice using that caustic tongue on me, and I think that transferred into other people being afraid to do anything to annoy her.

Highschool kids had more sensitive feelings than they liked to admit, and Emma knew how to needle that to get people to do what she wanted, all why affecting a dry, bored demeanour. The vicious scalpel of their group.

Madison was someone who liked to pretend she was the opposite. She had a talent for playing off the fact that people around her saw her as a small, cute, harmless girl, and it made it so much easier for her to nudge people in ways she liked. It was small scale here, because what could you really manipulate other than social cliques in a high school? But I knew that Madison could keep track of everybody in the school, and knew how to make them do things she wanted to.

And Sophia?  I wasn’t one to believe those rumours that wannabe racists spouted about the Empire taking any notice of a school like Winslow of all places in the first place, but the fact that Sophia could thrive in this little corner of the messed up microcosm that was Brockton Bay’s schooling system and beyond was something I found begrudgingly impressive at the worst of the times and... proud, the rest of it.

The fact that a black girl like her being on top made other minorities in Winslow feel safer from the white supremacist kids that puffed out their chests with delusional self-importance probably wasn’t even something Sophia cared about more so as it was a side effect, but it was still probably a major factor in why nobody said a word when Sophia got into fights at school.

The people she beat the shit out of almost always spewed snide, racist little comments about her being a brute or a thug or an animal, but I knew it was something far more than that.

Sophia didn’t just know how to brawl, she knew how to fight. She was the enforcer and defender of their now-trio when they wanted something that required a more physical presence, sure, but she was clever too, in a dangerous way. Sophia knew how to work people. I’d seen her do it plenty of times when she wasn’t bothering with me. She’d look at somebody and know somehow, just the kind of person they were and she used that to goad people into making a mistake first, the kind that would let her retaliate with brutal aggression.

And it was aggression of a kind normal people didn’t have. Nobody was blind enough not to know that Sophia was pretty much always angry, with most people other than her few friends she hung out with, she had a hair-trigger temper and the willingness to show people that she knew how to put it to use.

She might have been a track runner, but Sophia had clearly made sure that the rest of her body was up to scratch when it came to a fight, I’d... been on the receiving end of a few punches of hers in the recent months and they were the kind you saw from professionals.

They hit harder too.

The fact that I knew that a lot of her ability didn’t just come from whatever practice and workouts she put herself though, but from natural instinct just made it so I had to take her more seriously.

It worried menow that since January I’d never seen her without dark bags under her eyes but didn’t take away from the fact that she was a bundle of agitated energy since... since then, and it was usually worse when directed at me. Like a livewire of energy about to snap, it felt like a lot of the time, she wanted to do more than just hit me.

I had an inkling as to why, which made the whole thing a lot more dangerous, but now that I knew what she could have been capable of, it was actually kind of amazing what sort of restraint she had to keep it to just bruises.

Before things had started coming back to me, before I knew what I knew now, it had frustrated me, how much they’d wasted their time on me when they could be doing anything else, things that could put those talents of theirs to better use than just screwing around with me for the past half a year.

I hadn't understood at first that fog in my head that even now hadn't cleared completely. In fact, most of it hadn't. It was like having a tenth of the pieces of a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle, but I'd managed to put together the hint of a picture from the context clues inside my memories, not just from noticing what was missing, that there were things missing, but from things i'd manged to keep protected. Things that hadn't been destroyed when all those important moments had been taken from me.

Even though I couldn't... feel the loss from them, I knew that they had been important... and I knew I was still missing so, so much more.

But what I had now... it was enough. enough to put the clues together. enough to form a vague picture...

Enough that everything the three of them did hurt more than it ever could otherwise.

A part of me had hope that maybe they would clue into that eventually. Honestly there had been… not so much a change, but a shift, ever since January. The uncomfortable reality of a sort-of-truce between us. Ever since… well, I’d noticed it more often than I would have liked. With what had happened then, a small, paranoid desperate part of me had expected things not to change, that it might not affect them even with what had happened.

I mean, if they’d planned something terrible to begin with, then they must have been prepared for some things to turn out badly at least for me, even if I knew what had happened was nowhere near what they’d been ready for, not the fact that they’d been dragged into it too. They’d have to have been committed to doing something like that, knowing full well how vile it was, only to experience something worse alongside me.

theychance'd never gotten a change to inflict their prank on me, of it had ever constituted as one, becsomethingasue we'd all ended up suffering something far worse than whatever any of them could come up with in their states of mind. 

It was easy to forget that fifteen-year-old girls were in that weird space where they should know better, but possessed a blind and thoughtless callousness that they’d leave behind as they got older. They were still children, no matter how people tried to posit the idea that they were still in control of their actions, there was a reason liberties were taken with them.

I was too, at least, I hoped I was, in all the ways that mattered to me.

The fact I couldn't be sure even now, years later... scared me more than I wanted to admit.

Point being, I was under the impression that while they’d known it would be bad, they hadn’t thought about how bad. They hadn’t ben prpeared for whatever they had in mind to be hijacked by an interloper that was perfectly fine with doing something could have been crippling, deadly and fatal, instead. And the fact that it had in other ways had kind of screwed everything up for all of us.

It had marked them in a way, in a different way it had with me. There was an… understanding between us, as they’d glimpsed into something they hadn’t been ready for.

As it had broken down some walls that that I... hadn't been prepared for them to look past.

Perhaps it had affected them in a distant sort of way, but it hadn’t fixed them. Hadn't magically made them better people.

Not like they used to be.

It had gotten out of hand, back then. I knew it had, because they’d all been a little different. Sophia was angrier now than she had been before. More prone to getting physical with me, the bags under her eyes had gotten darker but she looked at me with even more intensity. More hatred. I couldn’t psychoanalyse her and figure out why exactly even now, but I knew the events were connected.

Madison, on the far end of things, was more jumpy. She hid it well, but I could see it in the way her expression twitched when Sophia got violent with me. They way she’d look at me too long, the way she’d wrung her hands behind her back, fidget with her glasses like she was about to have an oncoming migraine or looked just a little bit drained when she spotted me first. Like she was uncomfortable with it. In a way,  with what we’d all been through, I'd been afraidn that it could have affected her the worst, or at least, been the most potent... I couldnt' tell i it had or not, but she acted like... well from what I coudl tell she acted like a part of her still thoughthoped it had been some weird nightmare, or at least tried to believe that for her own insanity. The fact that the rest of us experienced it alongside her ruined that for her, I could see, but sometimes people just didn’t want to acknowledge that part of the world even when it hit them in the fact, and for good reason.

That was understandable, I’d seen the expression on her face when we’d managed to pull ourselves out of there.

It had obviously changed her. She wore the mask well, and that on its own was something I could compliment her for. The fact that she could act like it didn’t even pop into her head at all. That she could giggle and smirk with those friends that hadn’t been there alongside her the same way while carrying on with whatever it was the four of us had now between us, pushing herself past the flinches and swallowed dreams every time she looked at me. Even if those giggles and smirks had lost their brightness, and lustre, became more and more fake as the days ticked on and her migraines got worse.

Emma had changed the least and the most, I thought. On the surface it was like she’d remained exactly the same. She acted mostly the same around her peers. Spoke the same words, followed through with the same actions, going on about her day like a regular teenage girl bored with people around her she found uninteresting. Emma still took the time to sling insults my way when she could too, for all that I had a feeling she wasn’t as into the as she had been before. (And that might have hurt me the most. How I could remember now, when I could't before; how those insults used to be playful jabs and jokes. How I could remember the lightness I'd felt, when everything had been like a dream. When we had been four rather than three.)

She hadn’t escalated since then, she didn’t have the will to after all of that, but I knew there was not a shred of trust between us after what had happened and what she’d suffered for it too. If anything, there was a sting to it all now. A deeper loathing beneath that mask that burned behind the eyes that she directed my way even as she pulled back on what she said and did. Less intense, more personal, if that was a way to describe it.

Other than that though, Emma hadn’t been scarred or changed in the way the other two had. (No. That wasn't right. We were all scarred. All damaged and changed.... But her change, the back and forth, had started at the same origin point that mine had... she'd just come out of it stronger than me for it and now... we were all seeing the results of that 'machine-mind' we had all been afraid of) She had more steel in her than that. More of that quality that let her weather those experiences and come out the same. Some of that was her character, a lot of that was from growing up with me, even if she didn’t remember it anymore but all of it meant she wasn’t willing to let go of her reasons for hating me.

I expected that. It was my fault she was like that, after all.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t like I could give them a pep talk on how to turn around their lives, they’d spit on anything I had to say, not that I would blame them for it, and at this point, I had a feeling that a part of the reason they did this stuff was because it was a habit, almost routine.

Like now, for instance.

We weren’t exactly alone out in the yard, some of the girls from before were still here, but they looked on curiously at the scene in front of them. Of course they did. Entertainment was entertainment no matter what form it took.

It didn’t matter much to me. All they had to be, were witnesses no matter which way this went.

They wouldn’t hear what we were really talking about.

“What’s wrong, Taylor?” Emma asked with a bland smile. “Are you just going to stand there like a statue? Say hello to us.”

“Hello, Emma.” I answered with an equally bland, flat tone affecting my voice. “Now what is it you three want? I’m sure you have better things to do than waste your time on me.”

“A part of me wishes I could agree that you aren’t worth shit, let alone our time.” Sophia sneered maliciously. “But then we remembered that you’ve been weaselling away from us for weeks like an annoying fucking rat, so we thought we’d put the effort in to actually get you to talk.”

“How nice of you.” I drawled. As much as I was used to it by now, I was also tired of this. Of the petty high school mean girl’s routine - even if it was the lowest on the rung of what they could have done - we’d gone through over and over again, and the dream from last night wasn’t helping with my restraint at all. “So is there something you wanted to say or do, or are you just going to stand there being the most boring mean girls stereotypes in the god damn city?”

I should have expected any sort of push back to spark something in Sophia. She usually waited for other people to work themselves up into things before getting violent with them, but with me, it could have been any off handed comment that made her react.

I saw the shove coming a mile away and braced against it enough so I wouldn’t lose my footing so instead when Sophia slammed her hands against my chest, I fell back against the trunk of the tree a little. The bark dug into the palms of my hands. All the same, I’d been moved back, and when I caught myself against it, I looked up in time to see Sophia getting in my face.

She nearly slammed her forearm against my neck, holding it there and locking me in place with it, while her right knee came up to slam into my gut.

I got my left leg up and between hers before she could, bending it until the flat of my foot was pressed on the offending limbs though and gripped her forearm with one hand, squeezing tight in a way I knew was painful. I glared darkly at her, and she returned the look.

Around us, I could hear people whispering.

Those whispers had been getting more and more pronounced, as things started to escalate. 

I hadn't understood back then, why everybody had seemed so suprised at it all.

Now I did.

We’d gotten into fights before, real fights, but I’d had to keep it within the bounds of what could be done as a normal person and the capabilities expected of a teenage girl.

Or… I had in the beginning. When it came to other idiots that wanted to turn things physical, I stayed that way, but against Sophia? It was different.

I’d bloodied her teeth plenty of times, delivered a few black eyes, but she’d done the same to me too. Over the dozens of fights we’d had, she’d won the majority not because I held back, I didn’t, not with her, but because she was stronger and faster than me.

That wasn’t to say I didn’t do my best to give as good as I got but unless I was willing to actually take the fight seriously I doubted I’d be able to beat her.

That just seemed to always piss her off even more, for reasons I couldn’t even begin to understand and afterwards she’d get all quiet and guarded like a wolf circling prey that was too dangerous to hunt alone.

It was always two moods with Sophia when she dealt with me. Hot, active anger or cold, calculating fury.

Right now though, she was firmly in a heated anger mood.

“Watch your mouth, Hebert.” She snarled. “I’m not interested in fucking games right now.”

My eyes narrowed. For all that I’d just listed the ways I could justify letting their behaviour slide now, I wasn’t such a doormat that I was fine letting myself get beat on by them, and things like this? They tended to piss me off.

Or was that anger? I couldn't tell anymore.

I said nothing, and by the way Sophia bared her teeth at me, I knew she’d caught the way my hands were open. For anyone else, that might have been a way to show that they didn’t intend to fight, but we both knew that it was the opposite for me.

The faster this happened, the faster I could get on with my day. Already, I could hear the other girls whispering turning to gossip. Good little witnesses. Madison made a face at people's whispers, glancing at me and I made a show of taping the tree trunk behind me twice, and in response, the tree's leaves shuddered.

Madison shivered at the sight.

The message was clear. The tree would keep our conversation a secret. The words would be masked, even if the sight wasn’t.

If it was just the four of us, it could have maybe been a more civil conversation, thought I doubted it, considering how I’d been putting it off for so long, but with everyone in the school being a deterrent, it forced the girls to reign themselves in. anything less would make them look crazy.”

“We’ve been waiting for weeks now, Taylor.” Emma glared. “After all of that, the only thing that convinced me not to run straight to the PRT was Sophia, and she’s only going along with this because you said you’d have answers for us.”

“Answers that that you’ve been refusing to give us for weeks now.” Sophia growled. “You really think we’re stupid enough not to notice how you’ve been avoiding this? Dodging it every time we’ve tried to bring it up? I’m sick of it and I want you to tell me what you know, now!”

“You must be stupid in some way.” I bit back, trying to make her forget words and go straight to violence. If she did that, at least, I might have been able to put thi off easier. “Because you have the best chance in the world to go on with your life like nothing happened. Just treat it like a crazy blip in your life experiences and let it fade into memory, treat it like an unluck Parahuman attack and leave it there.”

That just made Sophia angrier. “You think I can stomach that?!”

“You ever heard of the phrase ‘ignorance is bliss’ Soph?”

“There’s no way we can’t think about it.” Madison hissed. She wouldn’t even look at me, keeping her eyes on the onlookers around us, too afraid of Sophia’s outburst to get closer, probably what the girl had been relying on in the first place. “It’s not something I think I could ever forget. Now way.”

“You’d be surprised.” I grunted as Sophia pulled away, letting me land properly on my feet again. I rubbed my neck, annoyed that even if it didn’t bruise, there would probably be a red mark there for a while.”

“Not good enough, Hebert. You can’t brush what we saw off.”

“Oh, you mean like you haven’t got things you won’t explain?” I glared at her. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about your little companion that you have hanging around, Hess. I’m still not sure yet what it is or what you are, but don’t think for a second I won’t figure it out eventually.”

She scoffed “Well if you figure it out, be sure to let me know. At least two of us can have answers instead of none.”

“Can we stop with the back and forth now?” Emma cut in harshly. “We’re here for a reason.”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “I don’t know what you want. It wouldn’t mean anything to you if you did understand it. What would it change, other than the fact that you got a peek into something you’ll never see again?”

“Maybe that’s the way it is to you, but something like that sticks with people who are sane.” Sophia fired back, saying it with such confidence that I nearly wanted to fake a laugh just to spite her.

“You, sane?” I gave her a look that let her know what I thought of that. “Maybe you haven’t figured it out yet Soph, but your way of thinking isn’t even fully human, let alone sane.”

I knew it was a mistake as soon as I said it. Frustration leaking in, making me snapish, making me say stupid things.

“And you have the answers as to why!” She snapped, balling her fists. “For fuck sake Hebert, why are you being so fuckin’ difficult? Give us something! I need to know more. I barely understood it as it was happening to us. It was too overwhelming for most of it to even stick. I can… I can remember the cold, and the dark-water lake. I can remember seeing people step out of it. So you think any of us would forget that?”

“I wish you would.” I grimaced. “And I wish you would understand that me not saying anything is me being nice to all of you. Even if revealing things to you didn’t cause me problems with people who would want this kept quiet, the facts are that being aware of these things won’t make it better for you. You think you see shadows in the dark now? It can get worse, believe me.”

“I don’t care!” Sophia roared. “I need to know what it all was!”

“Then pick up a fucking book!” I snapped back just as angrily.

It was enough to finally make Sophia lose her barely maintained cool. She lashed out, thankfully not at me, but at by back that had been knocked to the ground earlier. She kicked it so hard I heard something inside break on contact, and when it flew and crashed into the tree, I was positive that whatever it was she broke wasn’t salvageable.

It didn’t look like it would be enough for Sophia’s temper though and she took a threatening step forward. “Then if you’re going to keep being silent, I’ll make you talk.”

There wasn’t a chance in hell I’d let that happen, and she knew it. As much shit as they gave me, they’d never be able to make me do anything I didn’t want to when it came to serious problems.

Not then either. When our arguments had been with words instead of fists.

This was one of the things on that list. Of course, if that was the case, then it was also obvious that they were waiting for me to say no. An excuse to escalate in their mind. Like this whole thing was a script of yes or no answers to help them come up with new ways to push into places they shouldn’t, even if me keeping quiet about it was for their own good.

I tensed, ready for a fight only for Emma to sweep an arm out between us.

“That’s enough.” She hissed. “We’re not doing this now. We’re just not.”

Miraculously, it was enough. Not to calm Sophia down, but to get her to stop. She swallowed as if trying to chock down her rage and settled for a glare at me with a look that could have killed.

I felt my own rage(where rage should have been) simmer deep down. Beneath the murk that dulled my passions. I sighed, wondering why this had been the way things had to go.

“Look,” I said eventually. “I’m not telling you things like this, I just can’t. Especially not out in the open like this. If you want to understand it for yourself, then I’m serious. Pick up a book and read about it. You’ll find what you’re looking for eventually, and when you do, when you actually understand just what it is you’re trying to get into then maybe, maybe I’ll consider explaining more to you.”

“And where are we even supposed to start?” Madison pressed her palms against her forehead, as if she could squeeze the stress out of her head from watching all of that. One hand fell to her glasses again, fixing them properly on her face. I wasn't sure it offered her any relief anymore... and I knew that was a bad sign.

“Just…” I sighed, searching for soemthign to say. somethign to give them. To stall them, to throw them off to... to maybe, in my weakness, give them something that might shine a light on this for them. “Just look into the Navajo and Pueblo. If you understand their traditions and beliefs you might just start connecting some dots… It’s a start. That’s all I’m giving you, alright? The less time I have to spend near any of you the better.”

“On that we can agree.” Emma muttered. “I want this conversation to be over already. Being here and talking about it with you of all people is bad enough.”

Something flared up. Something like anger, something more than jsut dull irritation, and I grasped for it, clung to it to feel something. I wanted to glower at her if it would make it feel real, I really did. “You do know that some of us have lives outside of how we can make other people miserable, right? I’m not going to-”

“You mean like you did, Taylor?” She snapped back, silencing me with just a few words. “Believe me, I know. Even if I don’t really know, I do. And that’s your fault.”

That spark sluttered and died. And there was nothing I could say to that. Nothing I could do, but let the murk grow heavier inside of me like a sludge in my gut.

That was… fine. ‘Just remember Taylor,’ I told myself; ‘You can’t react to this with violence. You can’t react to this with confrontation. It’s not right, it’s not fair, but you know that at least in some way this is deserved.’

It was with those parting words, as I stood there in silence, that they left me. I didn’t respond to Emma’s jab, nor Madison's wary looks or Sophia’s glare. I just stood there, alone, and soon enough, the onlookers that hadn’t quite caught what our argument had been about, lost interest and left too.

I frowned, taking off my glasses and rubbing the sleeve of my sweater. There were marks on them from where they’d been knocked askew and Sophia had been close enough to me to fog them up with her furious breathing. Once they were clear, I sighed, turning my insects’ senses up and using them to look at myself. Yep, I thought to myself as the other student onlookers left behind me, clearly having enjoyed the show for themselves – these clothes were pretty scuffed now. Ruffled and dirty, covered in bits of bark from where Sophia had pushed too hard

 It was a pain in the ass to clean up these sorts of stains…

Oh great, my book was ruined too, half the pages already torn and crumpled and looking like they were a single rough movement from falling out of their binding.

Well… at least it hadn’t turned int a real fight, even if they hadn’t been kind to my possessions. Sophia had taken the chance to terrorise my bag and the contents within, even if she probably hadn’t been thinking much about it in the first place. There was nothing important in there to be fair, but it would have been a pain to buy new textbooks all over again.

My art project was in there too, a way to keep it safe from my old vandalised locker.

That obviously hadn’t worked, considering it was fucked now. Sophia’s kick had pretty much shattered it into a thousand pieces. I would need to start over.

I struggled to find a reason to care.

Not impossible, but even more of a pain to recover from considering I just didn’t care about it in the first place.

Well, it was fine even if it had been something to worry about. Honestly, High school had been pretty shitty since I started a year and a half ago, not just since day one when those three had decided I was going to be their biggest fucking target – even though I’d neither done nor said anything to Madison or Sophia once before – Emma had been the only one I’d known, the only person I’d thought of as a friend for the longest time.

Even if we’d separated on bad terms years ago, I thought… well, I thought that we’d be able to exist in proximity to one another. That had been my hope at least.

That hadn’t lasted past the first day when she’d decided to make a statement out of trying to make me miserable, but those were details I wasn’t going to dredge up again right now.

I took a breath, calming myself. My heart rate hadn’t shot up, and I didn’t feel clammy, but anger - as hollow as it could be - had other ways of manifesting these past few years.

There were no bugs making noise anywhere nearby, even if it could sense every single one of them lurking around the school and beyond just waiting for me to give a command. And there were so, so many things I could do. So may things that I wanted to take out these feelings on.

But no, I wasn’t about to terrorise anyone just because I was in a bad mood. Especially when it was a bad mood that I really didn’t have a right to be in, not when so many of my problems these days were my own fault, this current one with the three of them just being the most annoying right now to deal with. Trying to shut them up wouldn’t work either, not when the only ways I could think of doing so was physical. That would cause me all sorts of problems, and I wasn’t someone who wanted attention brought to myself that way.

And… I wasn’t going to be the sort of person to hurt others just for reasons like that.

Not to mention, I didn’t want to make my dad worry about me by getting caught somehow and causing a whole different sort of trouble with the Cape’s around here. It just wasn’t worth it for three nobodies that I had no feeling for anymore other than disdain.

And Emma…

I shook my head. Forcing myself away from that spiral.

That being said, I wasn’t about to wander back into class looking like I’d gotten into a fight with a wild animal and I hadn’t brought a spare change of clothes. I had some sort of pride after all, as warped as it was.

I let out a sigh, stuffing what remained of my book back into my back and throwing it across my back. I stepped out of under the tree and headed towards the exit of the school. I could feel eyes and hear laughter directed my way as I trudged down the hall, no doubt thinking that I’d been ‘put in my place’ yet again. I didn’t care. None of these people meant a thing to me. Not one.

I walked past them all, right out the door where neither student nor teacher stopped me, and caught the first bus that headed in the general direction of home.  The chill of early spring compounded the discomfort I felt crawling along my skin like a physical thing, making me shiver. I wasn’t in the mood to walk, didn’t have the energy right now, but what I did have, were a few minutes to close my eyes as I waited for my stop.

One I gladly took.

…

…

It didn’t take long to get to my home street hopping off the bus, I ignored the stares of people in the street as they gawked at a teenage girl with bark and leaves in her hair and marks on her neck. You’d think they’d have lives, or at least better things to do than stare with open mouths at me. The saying about open mouths catching flies was a tempting one to remind them of right there, but I ignored the urge.

Right now, I just wanted a shower, and upon entering my as of right now empty home- dad was still at work – I marched my may upstairs towards the show. Not even removing my backpack or taking off my shoes until I was in the bathroom.

I stood under the stream with my clothes on the floor of the tub, hoping the water would help get the worst of the dirt out. Today had been a pain for so many reasons, least of which were what had happened at school.

Once again, I reminded myself that violence was a last resort to solve problems that involved innocent people. The option to pick when there were no other viable options. It was a hard mindset not to fall into, especially with what my mother had taught me, but what she wanted didn’t matter. No matter who she’d been, no matter what she’d been, it was my dad’s opinion I cared about and while I was sure he’d accept if I did something like that I’d know it would hurt him in a different sort of way.

He really wasn’t cut out for the kind of life I’d been born into from the beginning and sometimes even now, I wondered if he’d have married my mom if he’d known what she was. The sort of things she’d do to the people she called her family.

I shook my head, running my hands through my hair with shampoo already dripping onto the shower floor washing out the last of the uncomfortable sensation.

I cranked the shower to off, then towelled dry, thinking.  I wrapped the towel around me, and rather than head to my room to get dressed, I put my wet clothes into a laundry hamper, grabbed my backpack and headed downstairs, through the kitchen and into the basement.

This house was old. We’d moved here a few months after Mom had died, abandoning our last one on the outskirts of the city for something ironically more affordable within it since it was so much closer to Dad's work, but it was nothing like my old house. The last one had been grand, important, this one was a two-story in the middle of a suburb.

Still, it was old enough to have a basement that hadn’t been renovated until I got my hands on it. The walls and floors had been plain concrete just a year ago, with exposed ceilings and electrical cords draped all over the place. Now, that was different. Cleaned up, as the walls had been overlaid with sigils and markings better made to focus the things I had going on inside my workshop.

I’d kept the furnace though; it was nice to have some warmth in the winter.

As for the rest? Well.

I stepped down the last of the stairs and turned on the lights to see my suits lying on the tailor's bench, and along it, called hundreds of spiders, finishing up the last of their work.

Their work on my costume.

A part of me wanted to curdle at the name, but that was what it was in reality. I’d be going out in public with this, as a Cape before anything else. That was the point, that was the idea. The common sentiment had changed in the last few decades, reinforced within the turning of the new millennia.

The way to survive was to blend in, not to conceal. To find ways to adapt to how the rest of the World was changing and adapting, and the perception of Mystery along with it.

I’d heard that so many people had been afraid when Capes had appeared, not just in the mundane world, but the Moonlit one. They’d been terrified that this level of exposure would lead to the total breakdown in Magecraft, that they were watching it all fall apart before their eyes as the rest of the world woke up to the realisation that there was more to the world than they realised.

And then it… hadn’t.

There had been no change in the rate of deterioration. No great decline like people had feared. Why? Not a lot of people understood, or even had an idea, not until a certain Magician had put it forward one day in the clocktower:

“The Human Order had been altered. Here begins the slow evolution of Magecraft through the species that is mankind in this new age.”

Vague and cryptic, but it had made a point. Things had changed, and the Magicians were a part of why. No other explanation had been given other than the fact that they had their hands in it, and from there left everyone else to figure out this new status quo.

To be fair, it wasn’t a major difference. Revealing magecraft so openly would be disastrous. The fact of that matter wasn’t that they could not show off their mysteries to the world, they were still mysteries after all, but now, it was far more practical to have more than one method of doing things.

With the emergence of Capes thirty years ago and the establishment of super powers available to the normal human by random chance, it meant that Magecraft, when used, could be obscured and waved away as a parahuman ability. A smoke and mirrors lie to blend in Magecraft with human understanding rather than to hide it away completely. the Magical community had been warned though, as courtesy. There was still a difference, and the difference was one that had to be maintained, the perception and existence of Magi and the rest of the Moonlit world needed to be hidden not just for the preservation of their Mysteries, but for the society they’d built in that hidden world, and for the protection of the people that were a part of it.

Thankfully, all agreed, Mages Association, Church and even the inhuman alike and agreed that it was far easier and safer for them if they kept themselves hidden and only let things slip when necessary, ideally as little as possible.

For me, that meant if I wanted to use my Magecraft, I’d have to do so by blending in with the Capes, rather than act out as a Magus.

…A part of me really didn’t want to. To be involved in any of this. To risk my own peace of mind and secrecy for this, but I didn’t really have a choice. I’d been given a task, and a deadline. Refusing would mean that they’d have to withdraw their support, even if only out of principle for failing to do what was asked of me. That was support and resources for the future that I just couldn’t afford to lose, not now that my family was in such great decline.

So… being a cape in order to hide what I really was would be the step forward from inaction.

That was fine, in a way, since I did actually have a Parahuman ability myself.

They’d been altered, augmented and enhanced by my magecraft, but these bugs came from the powers I’d gotten rather than the Thaumaturgy my Mother had taught her.

Well, the combination was a good one for me, in my humble opinion. The best example being said costume.

Costumes were harder than one might think to handle on your own.

While members of official teams surely had resources for that stuff thanks to tidy budgets being allocated to that sort of thing, the rest of us were left to either buy costumes, put them together piecemeal with stuff bought from stores or make them from scratch.

Each option had its problems as was most likely apparent from the word go.

If you bought a costume online, a frankly amateur move that should rightfully disallow you from being a Cape in the first place, you ran the risk of being traced, which could blow your secret identity before you’d even put a costume on.

Not the sort of thing I would be dumb enough to do with all of my already engrained procedures about keeping hidden.

You could put a costume together with stuff bought from stores, but very few people could do that and look good.  The final option, putting a costume together yourself, was just a hell of a lot of work and you could run into the issues of the prior two options – being traced or winding up with a lame costume – depending on where you got your materials and how you went about it.

I’d gone with the last option, and I think it was definitely the right one.

With my command over bugs like arachnids, I had ensured the spiders could multiply. I’d made sure there were hatchery and storage places within and beneath my workshop and from there I had instructed them to make as many eggs as possible, exploding the population into the thousands within a few weeks. From there, with my usual control of bugs, I’d use my magecraft to program sets of instructions into their tiny brains, so that even when I was out of range, they’d still carry those outs.

I’d basically turned thousands of little insects into worker drone familiars tied only to me. Thankfully it had been worth it since it meant I could go out to school or just around the city and not have to worry about them losing control or killing one another instead of doing what I wanted.

The spiders that had been working on it moved out of the way as I picked it up. The Darwin’s Bark Spiders had cost me a pretty penny to import, not to mention the time it had taken me to integrate their webs with the black widow silk so that I could use the two different threads as a base for my Magecraft to fill in gaps with something else that would have been there if I’d just used one or the other.

The illusion of a ‘spider silk alloy’ meant that it was conceptually stronger, even if technically it meant that physically there was a minor different in tensile strength between the two silks. It was negligible and offered far more benefits.

The inside lining of my costume was inscribed with protective cursed and enhancing runes. They were nothing fancy, my specialties didn’t lie in those crafts even if my basic education in Magecraft had included those said basics. At most, they offered better impact absorption that would spread throughout my body rather than a singular point, dampening the blow, as well as elemental protection like being fireproof, being able to withstand harsher colds and breathe through smoke or under water.

Other than that, it had also been reinforced through magecraft where naturally, I was sure that it was tough enough to be knife-proof on top of being light and flexible.

The material had been a dirty yellow-grey at first.  The armoured sections had been made out of finely arranged and layered shells and exoskeletons I’d cannibalised from the local insect population and then reinforced with dragline silk and silver shavings that gave it a grainy look.  In the end, the armoured parts had wound up dark mottled brown-grey.  I was okay with that.  When the entire thing was done, I’d planned to dye the fabric and paint the armour.

As silly as it might have sounded, aesthetics were just as important to its protective quality as the armour itself.

Actually, I’d probably use some alteration instead, forget the paint job and just modify its pigmentation to a stark grey-black and see if I could squeeze in some extra protection and padding around the armoured spots so that I’d be comfortable in it.

Now, after all that work, I was positive that it wasn’t just knife-proof on top of being as flexible and light as a second skin, but also strong enough to protect me against swords, axes, small and medium arms fire and a whole bunch of other things.

Obviously, I wouldn’t be invincible in it, but at the very least I’d be able to pull off what every Enforcer Magus and Executor could and tank a few hundred rounds from a machine gun with it.

All this work had been what had been draining my Od reserves over the past few weeks, leaving me pretty lethargic, but now? Now it was done.

The last touch had been the mask. Something I’d intentionally made to be as intimidating as possible. Was it a little edgy? Maybe, but I wanted to make a certain kind of statement with my entire image and this certainly helped. The dark mandibles and yellow eyes were the kind that stuck out, not to mention the chitin-metallic face plate that narrowed the profile of my face and made me look like some kind of insect warrior on top of it.

There were four eyes in the mask, the two regular ones and smaller ones below it to give off a more insect-like appearance, but also to store alternating lenses that I could use at a moment's notice. Nothing as advanced as night vision or thermal lenses that would be useful no doubt, and I was keeping a look out for where I could get my hands on that sort of stuff, but they did offer a dimming effect that meant I would be able to push through being flash banged or something.

Thought, for all its protection I’d still left my hair free. It was something that needed to be done, as risky as I knew it might be. Hair was important for most female Magi for their rituals and I was no exception for it at a moment’s notice I needed to be able to cut off strands to use, so that meant no covering it up. As a compromise, it’s had a cowl stitched into the collar that I could pull up as a hood to protect it, as reinforces as the rest of me.

Well, with it done, I had no other reason to stall, now did I?

Tomorrow was Friday. Tomorrow night, it’d do it. I’d go out and set out to do what I should have done the moment my mother died.

After all, with her dead, I was the de facto Second Owner of Brockton Bay, and it had fallen into disease that my mother had been all too willing to let slide in the face of her own work.

I wasn’t of the same mind.

It was time I got to work.

Chapter Text

I had dyed the costume on Friday, and added new accessories like a ragged black periskelis that opened up at the front to allow for freedom of movement, receiving the two fold roll of helping bring together my look as well as hold a few things I had strapped to my thighs. All set out together, armour covered the most essential areas – my face, chest, spine, stomach, shins and forearms and major joints as well as a few other places, as well as having hardened casings all the way along my hands and fingers that were as flexible as it would have been without them but would let my go without fear of losing a digit to a particularly sharp knife.

They’d been final additions I’d made, more to calm my nerves more than anything but also because they had been ideas I’d previously had in consideration about what to add to my costume. I honestly didn’t like the idea of dressing up as a Cape. It just clashed with everything I knew how to be as a Magus. We had our secrecy yes, but it wasn’t supposed to be necessary because the work a Magus did was already hidden.

And yet ironically I’d be far more public like this even with the mask hiding my face.

But I had to do it, so I did, and with those finishing touches now complete, I left my house and midnight, and went out into the darkness for my first patrol.

Or at least the equivalent of one. I didn’t have a schedule yet and even though I’d planned out a few routes on my map in my room, I didn’t exactly have a true goal in mind yet. Wandering around looking for trouble felt both dumb and redundant, but that meant if I wanted something more immediate in terms of results, it would mean venturing into the seedier parts of town. It was asking for trouble.

Well… that was what I was here for, right?

I supposed I had one thing I could try. Following up on that lead from last night wouldn’t be the worst idea. If the words of ABB grunts could be trusted – which I guess they couldn’t, but whatever – then it would be a good idea to look into it and see if there was anything to them. I’d made some… preparations with my insects just in case I ran into anything big but reconnaissance and investigation as more important than running headfirst into a fight.

It still meant going out though…

So… onto the streets filled with crack dealers, prostitutes and gangsters I went. In a twisted way, it was almost amusing to realise that the separation between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ parts of town wasn’t as firm as one might believe.

The Boardwalk was a place where a lot of people frequented. Locals and tourists alike.

Running north-to-south along the beach, there were shops that sold dresses for thousands of dollars, cafes with outrageously expensive coffees and long stretches of wooden walkways and beautiful beaches where tourists could get a great view of the ocean, one of the only places mostly untouched by the city. Mostly

 From pretty much any point on the Docks, you could see one of Brockton Bay’s main landmarks, and something I viewed more personally as an eyesore; the Protectorate Headquarters.  Besides being simultaneously a marvel of architectural design with its arches and towers and a horrifically arrogant monument of ostentatious and ignorant might, the PHQ was a floating base of operations that several squadrons of local superheroes called home, outfitted with a forcefield bubble and a missile defence system that made it clear it wasn’t the kind of place that could be brought down by anyone on a whim.

A symbol of power, for all the good it was worth considering the state of Brockton Bay as a whole.

Heading west from the Boardwalk and away from the water meant you found yourself in the area the locals just called the ‘Docks’. A self-explanator name, if a bit pointless considering how little use it saw now adays. When the import and export business in Brockton Bay had dried up, due to the disruption in shipping lanes, there had been a whole lot of people who were suddenly out of work.  The Endbringers, specifically Leviathan, hadn’t been as active in their attacks on major population centres after the Primate Accords went into effect and the monstrous cataclysms were if not repelled, then stalled with a slightly more effective frequency. There were still usually one or two attacks on cities across the world a year out of the annual handful that weren’t as successfully defended against to the point where the city could be recovered, but even then, with the exception of the Simurgh, who’s attacks had been even rarer still, it had become routine enough to evacuate the targets population centres and allow the Capes to handle the brunt of the fighting while other parties said Capes didn’t even know about acted in the background to ensure that things didn’t go beyond the destruction of said city into anything worse.

Honestly, it was sort of a miracle on its own that only Kyushu, Lausanne, Marun, Madison and Newfoundland were rendered unrecoverable from their attacks. Tragedies, yes, and their other targets had still been severely ruined and  damaged but it could have been far worse if not for the fact that for one such example, The Church for had decided that it hated Endbringer’s more than it did Dead Apostles when both parties were in the area.

Only in those cases mind you, and that wasn’t to say they ever allied with Dead Apostles, just that they would postpone hunting them unless already in the middle of a confrontation in favour of aiding survivors of an Endbringer attack.

Not to mention every organisation on the planet had pushed to repair the damages done by said Endbringer’s. Money, manpower and resources that helped counter affected areas that countries wouldn’t have possessed on their own, discreet was it was.

That said, it didn’t mean it was even half successful or that their effects weren’t felt elsewhere. In Brockton Bay’s case, Leviathan was the most guilty, decimating one of its more important source of income that could have, would have, kept the city prosperous enough not to fall into a hive of crime and overpopulated villainy.

The richest and most resourceful people in town had managed to make more money because of this deficit in law and order, turning the city’s resources towards tech and banking, but all of the people who had been employed on the ships and in the warehouses had few options left to them.  They faced leaving Brockton Bay something much harder than it sounded, sticking around while scraping up what little work they could, something immensely dangerous considering the surrounding factors of gang wars, drugs and out-of-control Parahumans or turning to more illicit activity, which just kept the cycle rolling on.

There were a lot more factors at play, but it was safe to say that things like this were some of the major reasons Brockton Bay had been dubbed one of the ‘Cape Cities’ of the world. The Protectorate and PRT had dug themselves in and established presences of their own to forge some sort of uneasy equilibrium in the city that prevented it from completely turning into a hellscape but it was just that. Uneasy. Unsteady. I didn’t’ know what it would take, but this place was one terrible tragedy from falling too anarchy it couldn’t’ claw itself back out off.

That made my long-term plans a lost harder, but for tonight? Well it meant I didn’t expect to have to go looking for too long to fight something to sink my teeth into.

My swarm searched the immediate area as I ventured deeper into the city, a half a mile in every direction. Close enough that if I found something, I could react to it in time ad track down whoever was involved. The place was littered with warehouses and apartments but full and abandoned and more than plenty being used for not so legal activities. For the most part, I steered clear of them as I travelled by rooftop.

Usually, that was the sort of thing that was relegated to movies and television shows. Being out in the open like that was the sort of thing to put a target on my back and leave me with less cover than would be safe. It was the sort of thing a Rookie Cape did, according to the PHO forums that gave tips to new Capes appearing on the scene, but I had different goals than a regular Cape. I wanted to be seen, wanted to be spotted and watched as I carried things out.

I’d done the secrecy stuff for half a year now. Spreading my swarm through the city, building nests and insect factories in hidden places, gathering information and collected targets, bright entire swathes of the city into my web behind the scenes. I didn’t know how well I was known, if at all right now, but I knew that I’d spent long enough without being physically present. That changed tonight.

I wanted word to spread in the way I wanted it to.

Soon enough, I came upon my targets. There was a flicker on the dark streets, where the streetlights had failed, there was the orange flame of a lighter, and I was able to make out several faces around it.  They were Asian, some wearing hoodies, others wearing headbands or long-sleeved shirts, but all wore the same colours. Something like a uniform, if they could even be as coordinated as that.  Red and green.

Looked like the unwitting lead had been more aware of things than he’d expected.

I centred myself, rolling my muscles as I recalled everything I knew about the people in front of me. It never hurt to know your enemy, and when it came to groups that boasted Capes, knowledge really was power.

I knew who these guys were.  They were members from the local gang that left the tags ‘Azn Bad Boys’, ABB for short, all over the East end of the city. It… wasn’t the most impressive of names, admittedly, but fortunately for them, it didn’t matter. What need did they have to be clever with their branding when they had two of the most dangerous Capes in Brockton Bay leading them?

It gave them more than enough ability to throw their weight around like some of the bigger gangs could. Recruiting from the Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese and Chinese populations withing the city forcefully, dragging them all under a single banner. Honestly, I wasn’t aware of how the race politics worked within the ABB, but I had a suspicion that things like that mattered less when you had a fire-breathing dragon as a boss. Either way, for their smaller numbers, they were still a threat but one with a glaring weakness.

Their most powerful assets were the two Capes themselves. The some of the most dangerous, yes, but also the lynchpins. Get rid of them and the entire gang would crumble and be subsumed by the enemies on all sides.

And that was something I wanted to stress test.

Since the street was sill mainly shrouded in darkness it meant that I had to rely on the dim light of the moon and whatever bugs I’d brought with me with superior night vision right now. I could have tried on the night vision, but I didn’t want a glare of green to give me away just yet.

So I crouched on the edge of the building across the street from them, three stores up, and watched them at the entrance of their warehouse, what must have been theirs, since I could see so many of them coming and going from it. Was this the place where they kept equipment? Maybe, maybe not. It could have just as easily been a base of operations or a safehouse, but if that was the case, something must have hit the hornet's nest, considering that the linger I remained where I was, the more of the ABB mooks started to pill out. A dozen of them, then twice that number, all strapped with guns they definitely didn’t have the permits for.

Not that gun control meant much in Brockton Bay. For people like them, gun running was the lifeblood of their operation here, among other things.

They didn’t have the atmosphere of people who were just hanging out, unfortunately. As they started gathering around each other, They were expressionless or scowling, and they weren’t talking and I got the sneaking suspicion they were waiting for something, or someone.

I got my answer a few minutes later when the warehouse side door slammed open and some man in particular stomped out.

I spotted their boss as the gang pulled away from the door of the building to give him room. 

I didn’t have a proper operation for information gathering and surveillance set up around the city yet, so I only knew about this guy from what I had heard on the news and read online, but all the same I recognized him immediately for all he was recognisable in the first place. 

He was a big guy, but not so big that he would send people running when he walked down the street, like some people with powers were. No, this wasn’t the guy who’d flaunt power like that in the first place. He didn’t need to puff out his proverbial chest or its powers equivalent to make himself seen or heard. He had a presence around him that di that already. The kind that mad people stop and hold their breath as he walked past in fear of offending him.

He was a little over six feet, though, which put him head and shoulders above most of the gang members.  He had an ornate metal mask over his face, and wasn’t wearing a shirt, despite the chill.  Sprawling tattoos covered his body from the neck down, all depicting dragons from Eastern mythology. They were just tattoos though. Whatever their meaning to the man meant, there was nothing beyond the mundane about them, which meant there were not special tricks up his sleave or there-lack-of regarding them.

He went by ‘Lung’, or he had been called that by someone else and the name had stuck, which was apparently more common than people believed.

More than once he had successfully gone toe to toe with whole teams of heroes and had managed to keep himself out of jail, as evidenced by his presence here.

Not to say he hadn’t been beaten before, otherwise he’d have had more territory than he did courtesy of the liberated hands of other gangs, but he always found a way to escape the transport to places that could hold him.  As for his powers, once again I only knew what I could from scrounging up online, and there were no guarantees there.  I mean, for all I knew, he could have misled people about what his powers did, he could have a power he was keeping up his sleeve for an emergency, or he could even have a very subtle power that people couldn’t see at work.

I didn’t think so though. These were capes, not Mages and even the ones that hid things didn’t have the mindset to do it in quiet the same way. Calling them sloppy would have been unfair but there were less… conditions and engrained to treat every secret as a vital treasure, nor sis they have the rule to eliminate witnesses that viewed Magecraft.

Of course, that was a rule that had been laxed now with their new approach, and Capes were given a sort of…. Pass, considering the origins of their powers. Not that they knew it. Capes were not aware of Magi, as a rule.

What I did know was this:

Lung was a Changer, someone who could gradually transform.  Maybe it was based on adrenaline, his emotional state, or something else. It was unclear, but whatever it was, it made his powers more potent the longer he was in a fight. The kind that made a man like him deadly in a battle of attrition and that was just the start of it.

 He healed at a superhuman rate, got stronger, got tougher, got bigger, and he grew working, not to mention effective armour plating complete with blade-like talons at each fingertip that could gut a man in a single swipe. The kind of implements to be wary of.

There were also plenty of rumours that he even grew wings if he fought long enough. Not that I’d seen any proof of that myself other than from word of mouth, something easily falsified or exaggerated if it was passers-by and onlookers that I was relying on for information. That said, aerial mobility was a significant threat.

If that wasn’t enough though, he was a pyrokinetic, one that put my own abilities in the matter to shame, which meant he could create flame out of thin air, shape it, intensify it, and so on to a greater degree than most could ever hope to except those that either had an element that linked to it, or had spent decades of their time to be at a level that exceeded Lungs there weren’t many Magi that would take the time to stifle their research to something as simple as fire.

That power apparently got stronger as he transformed, too.  As far as I knew, there wasn’t an upper limit to how strong he could get.  He only started returning to normal when there was nobody left to fight.

As far as I could tell from my perch, he was the only Cape here right now. His Second, Oni Lee, was nowhere to be seen. Did that just mean he was still inside, hiding or in another place altogether? Honestly I wasn’t entirely sure as to what the missing man's powers were. Some sort of teleportation but other than that? I was lacking anything concrete to work with.

Whatever the case of the missing right hand of Lung, the man himself was in the middle of bellowing orders to his people. None gave anything but their full attention as he spoke. He was giving instructions and form the looks of it, they were getting ready for something. I could see some of them fiddling with their waistbands, where I could see the glint of metal. Knives, guns and more. They were ready for a fight.

Every one of his subordinates stood to attention as much as gang members could, utterly silent. Whatever it was Lung was saying was bound to be important. I narrowed my eyes, reinforcing them as I got ready to do the same to my ears, sharpening my hearing, enhancing it, so that I could hear Lung snarl out a command again.

I didn’t get the chance to though, not when my attention was suddenly captured by an explosion.

My head snapped up and I turned to my left in time to see a second one, not even ten blocks away. The fighting had already started somewhere, and I had a feeling the ABB had been expecting it.

The sinking feeling in my gut got worse when I looked back and realised that none of the grunts looked surprised at the explosions, and neither did Lung. He barked out another order and suddenly they were all filing into the vehicles that had just arrived, with him taking shotgun to the one at the head.

I watched from above as the cars pulled away and sped towards the explosions, right as another went off. I clicked my teeth even as I gave chase.

The vehicles sped away, and I did my best to keep them in my sight as I followed them, but it wasn’t as easy as just keeping close. If I had been on ground level, I was sure I would have been ale to keep pace with them easily, but I had to keep out of sight. There was no telling if they had watchers as they travelled, keeping an eye out for anyone that might be tailing them, but if they did, it would mean getting into a fight right then and there.

So I had to keep far enough back that they couldn’t see me, but close enough not to lose them if they took a turn.

More than that, I had to travel over buildings and gross the gaps left by streets and roads every time the vehicle column turned one way or another, street after street, block after block, as explosion after explosion went off in the shrinking distance.

A part of me wanted to send bugs out to check on what was going on, but I held back. The risk of losing them prematurely wasn’t a small one, and if I wasn’t there to direct them properly, I could end up weakening myself direly.

So instead I followed, or how long, I didn’t keep track, but it couldn’t have taken much time, not with the speed the ABB were driving, uncaring of traffic laws or anyone that might have been out at night.

They turned a corner, and I rushed to follow.

Only to be blinded by the flash of an explosion.

I reeled back, cursing as I ducked low and away form the ledge, clenching my eyes shut.

“Idiot.” I swore at myself. I should have seen that coming and been ready for it. Of course there would be flashes of light as bombs started going off. I should have been more careful when there was such an obvious danger.

The explosions hadn’t stopped and I heard the squealing of tires coming to a sharp stop, the sound of gunshots and inhuman roars. I didn’t have time to be fumbling blind.

I blinked rapidly, trying to force the spits from my eyes and reached up to my mask with one hand, swiping at the side and watching from inside as my regular lenses swapped with the dimmed ones like I should have had prepared beforehand.

A few seconds more and my sight cleared enough to see properly and I didn’t wait any longer to move back to the ledge and see what was going on.

In time to see a monstrous beast, as big as one of those SUVs the ABB had taken and rippling with raw, red sinewed muscle, spiked shoulders and barbed tail, crash into and upturn a car.

It was chaos.

The entire street was embroiled in danger.

Broken vehicle, fire and smoke, rubble and shouting. It was like watching the cold open to a disaster movie.

And I could see exactly why, as a man appeared from nowhere right in front of me before another explosion went off right where he was standing and he appeared somewhere completely different

The ABB’s resident assassin. Oni Lee.

When people thought about the ABB, it was easy to be swept up in the power Lung wielded. He was big, ostentatious and there wasn’t much that could pull a person's attention away from a metal fire-breathing dragon. People who saw Lung had seen power. They saw might. The man who had taken on the entire ENE Protectorate and walked away. He was a man that had killed his fair share of people and faced no repercussions for the deed.

But it was arguably Oni Lee who was, while not more powerful, the far deadlier of the two.

The man was dangerous, ruthless and deadly in a way that few were. A Parahuman with the ability not only to teleport, which made him a terrifying threat to almost everybody he went up against, but his power came with a nasty little bonus that made it even more so.

He left clones behind when he teleported that carried out his last actions before crumping to dust. It made it nearly impossible to tell if and when the man actually moved around, and more than that, it meant that whoever he was fighting wasn’t just facing a threat from a single direction.

And Oni Lee used that little ability to devastating affect. He was especially known for using that nasty trick to turn himself into the world's most terrifying suicide bomber, leaving bombs behind with his clones that would explode and kill anyone in proximity while he got out of there safe and sound.

Oni Lee was a killer, through and through, with a body count that was rumoured to be the highest int the ABB, even more so than Lung for all the man's power. The teleporter was the one that got sent out to do the wet-work. To be the spearhead of the Gang operations while Lung waited for a reason to really go out and unleash havoc.

The man didn’t have a kill order, though I didn’t know why. What I did know was that Oni Lee was perfectly willing to put other Parahumans in the ground without a seconds hesitation.

Just like he was trying to do now, fighting another cape with the obvious intention to kill.

The fact that it was another Parahuman he was after was maybe the only reason he hadn’t made corpses of his targets yet.

It was a fight between two groups of Capes. The ABB on one side, bolstered now by the appearance of Lung, who stepped out of the vehicle leading the reinforcements and letting fire flow from his hands, catching pretty much anything flammable in front of him on fire, and yet he wasn’t in the thick of the fighting yet, watching instead from a distance.

On the other side, there was the group that they were fighting and I could immediately tell that they weren’t another gang.

In fact, I had no idea who they were at all.

There weren’t enough of them to be a large Parahuman force. Only five in total. Not a gang then, but some kind of team. I didn’t recognise them, so they weren’t protectorate and they certainly weren’t dressed like New Wave. Rouges? Maybe, but I hadn’t heard of any new teams in the spotlight and it wasn’t often that Rouge teams established themselves, and in a City with so many gangs with the proactiveness to crush any that might have formed, that did see like the answer either.

The most likely answer then, was a Villain team.

That didn’t give me much to go on when it came to who they were though.

All I knew was that they’d made an enemy out of the ABB.

They fact that they were fighting a Gang on their own was bad enough, but for Oni Lee and Lung to show up for it? Whatever they’d done, it must have been serious.

Serious enough that they weren’t in a position to run like they should have.

That didn’t mean they were helpless though, even now, I watched as a crude, lumbering metal man batted away gangsters that shot at its metal body. Bullets pinged off what looked like scrap metal mashed together into some crude image of power armour. Whoever was inside, they were at least willing to take the attention off the others, batting away gangsters that shot at it with massive metal hands, and it wasn’t alone.

They were more careful than they looked on second glance, never crushing or turning gangsters into bloody smears when they could, instead using those two oversized hands of his just to keep knocking people away, slamming them into walls or clamping down on limbs and tossing the victims to the side none too gently.

The more I looked, the more familiar they were. Like something tickling at the back of my brain, and after another few seconds, it finally clicked where I’d seen them before, where I’d seen most of them.

They were independents. Not Capes associated with any team or Gang, but lone Parahumans that carried out crimes all on their own, and were just good enough or smart enough that they’d survived so far.

Something that looked like it was about to change.

The lumbering metal man, Trainwreck, if I wasn’t mistaken, was taking the brunt of the attention right now, making himself the target as he moved, fast enough to close the distance between itself and the people shooting at it.

And they were being shot at. It didn’t look like it was doing much, and every time a bullet hit its mark and slammed into the metal armoured flank of his power armour. Trainwreck seemed to shrug them off like they couldn’t feel them. It was having some effect though, I could see marks on the metal where dents were forming and pieces like the edges were being chipped off. In more than one pace, there were even little holes that were slowly oozing blood.  

Trainwreck didn’t let himself get bogged down though, he at least knew how to use that size and mass of his and it was probably what was keeping most of the gang back. Normal people tended to have survival instincts when it came to things that looked like they could crush a person into paste barrelled their way, and that was doing a lot to keep them away.

The same couldn’t be said for Oni Lee. A Parahuman didn’t have that kind of base fear, not when they had a Power all on their own, and right now the teleporting assassin was proving just that. He blinked between the spaces, dropping grenades every time and forcing the Rouge who seemed just smart enough to recognise the danger for what it was, to leap back and flee from the blast radius.

They weren’t always successful, and I watched as their metal hide was torn and scorched, as they were cut by shrapnel and gouged open by the blasts. Not enough to kill or pierce through Trainwrecks armour yet, but definitely enough to make them slower and slower with every pass.

The Tinker was in trouble was in trouble, and judging from the way he was clutching his left arm, he’d already been clipped by something bad.

His saving grace, it looked like, was that he wasn’t alone.

The rest of– what I could only guess was - his team were further back, at the other end of the street from the ABB and crouching behind an upturned van for cover from the gunfire but at least one of them looked like they weren’t just standing around and watching the fight.

A guy in what looked like some wide screened modified helmet with a smooth design.

I couldn’t make out from the distance was there too. He wore something that looked like a mix between dark leathers and metal supports, almost like an exoskeleton. I could tell right away just from that, he was another tinker. Shorter than the first, there was something bright on his back that almost looked like a jetpack, but rather than lift him into the air, it was as if it propelled him forward instead. Like an afterburner on a jet.

He wasn’t taking as much of a frontline position as Trainwreck, but I could just barley catch him as he moved faster than the regular eye could see without enhanced aid. Dashing in and out of the fight, crashing into gangsters, taking them off guard with speed they couldn’t’ keep up with. This was Chariot, firing what looked like some kind of electrical stun gun at anyone he could aim at.

Couple that with the afore mentioned speed, and he was acting as a terror for the ABB rank and file, moving so fast between them that he was making them wary of shooting through them in case they hit their own people. It was slowing them down, giving Trainwreck the chance to recover and weave in and out of danger.

The two of them on their own though wouldn’t have been enough. Tinkers could be powerful, but they were usually force multipliers, not the force itself. On their own, they probably would have been overwhelmed by Oni Lee and his people.

Instead, the second Oni Lee appeared again, he needed to lean back to avoid being impaled by a trio of throwing knives.

I watched from all angled through my bugs as a multicoloured court jested flipped over Trainwreck, bouncing as they landed and bringing down a sledgehammer on top of Oni Lee’s head.

The demon masked Cape crumbled to dust and appeared a foot to the left, stabbing at the jester only for the attack to be blocked, as the sledgehammer vanished and reappeared in a different position, catching the blade on its metal head and chipping it.

There was a flash of light where both weapons met and Oni Lee was forced to teleport away before he was lit on fire.

That was Circus. What was she doing here? They were meant to be a strictly solo Cape. They apparently prided themselves on that fact and they’d made a name for themselves being exactly that? So why were they here clashing with a teleporting assassin?

I didn’t have the answers to that, as Circus lunged forward, twisting their body mid movement in an almost painful manner as Oni Lee appeared and tried to stab at them, missing their head by an inch. The sledgehammer appeared again in a raised position and fell hard, glancing off Oni Lee’s arm. That body too crumbled to dust and Circus let their hammer vanish yet again, replacing it for a trio of knives in each hand gripped in the knuckles.

It was chaos, so much so that it was almost too easy to stop the ones not directly involved in it.

The other two, I wasn’t so sure. One of them was a skinny guy dressed like they’d just stepped out of a Renaissance play and wielding some tacky golden sceptre that looked more like a prop than a weapon, the other a girl of an indiscernible age from this distance in some sort of boiler suit. Neither of them looked like they were involved in the fight that much, crouched low and out of immediate danger, but that didn’t mean they were doing nothing. It wasn’t perfect in this dark, but I thought I could just barely catch the gleam of the girl raising things like  rubble in the air without use of her hands and flinging them into the crowd.

For all I knew they had some kind of invisible way of fighting, or they had thinker powers they were using to back up the others.

Whatever it was though, it wasn’t enough.

They were losing.

Slowly and steadily, Trainwreck, Chariot and Circus were getting pushed back, further and further down the street as they accumulated damage, and forcing the group closer together, closer to a wall. The street was blocked off on both ends, by cars that had been knocked over or parked into a makeshift barrier across the road, and the alleys and exits everywhere else were sealed in fire and rubble.

No clean exits, no easy escapes. Lung, or whoever had planned this specifically, had herded them into a situation where the only way out was through him and he was waiting for it.

The man was just standing there at the opposite end of the street, closest to me, and watching the other villains fight for their lives in a losing battle. I wasn’t sure what he was waiting for exactly, but I could guess that it wouldn’t be long now before he made his move.

When he did, I knew what would happen. He’d wade into the fight and rip the others apart.

Either way, the smaller group wasn’t going to last that much longer. They weren’t just being backed into a corner, they looked tired. Trainwreck wasn’t the only one hurt. I could see the way the others held themselves from where I was above. Chariot was slumped and panting, while Circus looked wobbly on her feet. Had they been shot? Burned or cut? I didn’t know, but I knew that if I waited around to decide what to do, I’d see them get more injuries for sure.

Which meant that if I was going to do anything, I had to decide what to do soon.

The question was whether or not I could throw myself headfirst in the middle of a fight like this.

I didn’t know these people, whether or not they’d attack me on sight, or whether or not they were as bad as the ABB themselves.

I couldn’t make a decision that way. Not enough information, or time.

I could have just waited until it was over. Maybe they’d escape, maybe they’d lose, but either way, Lung would have to spend himself to do it, at least enough that I could launch an attack when he wasn’t ready to defend himself.

That was if I decided to fight lung in the first place.

The rumours and leads had been one thing, but fighting the man directly was another.

Instead, I needed something else so I directed some of my bugs towards Lung. They crawled across the roads and walls, invisible in the night and unnoticed in the face of all the fighting. If I could at least find out for sure what it was Lung was planning on doing, maybe it would tip my choice one way or the other as to how to get involved in-

“–the thieves, just shoot.” Lung was saying, his voice rumbling and angry. “ It doesn’t matter your aim with these ones, they have no brutes amongst them. All you must do is shoot and they will die like any other man or woman. Make no mistake, you will shoot them or you will regret hesitating. No mercy will be shown to the enemy. Never, not even to the children amongst them. If you see one lying on the ground?  Shoot the little thieves twice more to be sure.  We will give them no chances to be clever or lucky, they do not deserve the luxury. Is that understood?”

That was about as far as I got before my brain comprehended what he was saying, and all of my bugs went still.

My swarm looked again, and I could see it. The two  in the back were young, teenagers at most, and while Trainwreck and Circus were clearly adults, Chariot was a different case. I could hear it in the way he breathed, in the way he held himself and moved. He was a kid too, still not prepared for this.

Kids. He’s said kids. The people he was after, the villains he’d come out personally to deal with…he’d called some of them kids. He was there to kill children, right in front of me.

And he would do it too. There was not a single thing I knew about Lung that suggested he possessed any quality known as mercy. If someone got in his way and he could get to them, he would kill them without a second thought.

It took another second for it to really register with me, before all at once, I came to my decision.

…Ah well, there was no way I could let that happen, could I?

There wasn’t much more to consider in that case, was there? Lung was now a target for me to take on, simple as that, but I’d had it in my mind that a certain amount of force and ruthlessness was afforded to different groups. The ABB was as dangerous as any other, but they weren’t Neo-Nazis or battle-hardened Mercs. I’d honestly put them at a lower priority than some of the other gangs if only because they were considerably less active than all other notable gangs in the city. Something to deal with, sure but if they went about getting into skirmishes with other criminals, then I wasn’t going to worry too much in the immediate time frame.

Disgusting as they were with the things that they did, the drugs, the trafficking, the murder… the fact that it was never something I saw myself was just enough to justify my hesitance to go after them and take on a giant rage dragon alone.

Killing children changed that, I couldn’t make that excuse to myself when it was all right in front of me and so it bumped them up more than a few places on my list.

More accurately, right to the top.

Lung was after children, and no matter what else, that was something I couldn’t let stand.

I counted in my head.

Three minutes.

Without another word or moment of hesitation, I took hold of every bug around within a mile’s radius, and all the bugs I’d collected on the way here. There was a chittering sound in the night, just barely audible over the city noise of distant cars and sirens.

More and more, I called on my growing swarm, dividing and grouping them into individual clouds for more controlled, precise attacks.

In the distance I could see cars driving up and through the dim windscreens, I could see more of his gang, a dozen or so more that had been drawn to the climbing flames and explosions. I closed my eyes, concentrated on my power, and called on the special insects I had on me that I had crafted by hand for situations similar to this. A minute had passed, the cars were coming to a stop on the street right in behind Lung.

How many bugs did I have now? A million? Maybe a little less. In the night sky they were practically invisible, with the fire below making the shadows harsher, easier to hide in, the fighting below drowning out the chittering and buzzing, but if there had been daylight, it would have been blocked out by the dark cloud of living mass.

The doors of the cars below opened and I could see more green and red colours within.

I let my swarm surge forward.

Attack.

They were too distracted with the capes they were already set to deal with, they never looked up. Never suspected that there was an enemy behind them that they needed to concern themselves with.

They didn’t have time to react, not as a tidal wave of insects crashed down atop of them. There were screams of fight and horror as thousands of fangs, teeth and singers launched onto helpless gangbangers. The ones in the cars barely had time to scream before they were drowning bugs, the little insects flooding the tight space like a sea of black, blocking out the windows.

More of my swarm swept over the cars and past them, filling the street as they flowed around the heat and smoke and rubble, swallowing more of them already caught in the fighting.

I could sense everything, feel the way they flailed and struggled.

A part of me wondered just how severe my response should be but, well, they had all seemed perfectly fine with killing children, so being gentle wasn’t really a consideration.

I let them suffer for it. Wasps, spiders and anything that could inflict non-lethal pain were unleashed upon them and those frightened screams turned pained as man after man was brought to his knees, screaming all the while as anything and everything I collected during my way here enshrouded them. Not a single part of their bodies was left free and from the outside, they must have just looked like masses of writhing black.

I blinded them by stinging their eyes with insects, clogging up their ears and noses, forcing ants into their mouths just short of crawling down their throats. I watched from above as fifty men had their will to fight crushed in a matter of minutes, but it was not them that the bulk of my attention was one.

No, it was on Lung, who faired far better than his lackeys.

I could sense the fire through the swarm before I could even see it, building under the man’s skin.  My power told me of the bugs’ recognition of the heat, and I pulled back on my senses just enough that the influx of light and heat didn’t leave me stunned from their sudden appearance like the explosion had before. I’d had plenty of practice with it already, to block out the instincts the fire set in motion before the damage was done. 

All the same, without proper fine control or last command of intent before pulling myself back, the primitive thought processes of my bugs were reduced to confused impulses to alternately flee and to pursue the heat and the light they so often used for navigation.  Many bugs died or were crippled by the heat.  From my vantage point, I could see Lung lashing out with streams of fire from his hands, directing them at the sky, the Villains he’d been focused on before now a second thought.

Two minutes and thirty seconds.

In the corner of my attention, I saw the Chariot and Circus retreat back towards the others as they peeked out from behind their cover, with Trainwreck bringing up the rear but only for a second before I turned all of my attention to the one in front of me.

I wanted to smirk, if only because of the situation I’d found myself in so soon. I didn’t, because that sort of cockiness could get me killed in a fight and Lung was supposed to be one of the best. I pushed those emotions away, that feeling of triumph, into my swarm, away from where it could turn dangerous as I analysed the situation. I’m not too proud to admit that I hadn’t thought it would go this way. I didn’t think I’d have stood as great a chance as I did, not against one of the most dangerous Capes in the city. 

I watched as Lung writhed, feeling a thrill from the sight of the great leader of the ABB lashing out to little effect as hundreds of thousands of bugs encircled and fell upon him, too much for him to deal with as a normal human being.

Of course he couldn’t. This was a man more used to fighting Heroes that met him head-on, slowly building up his power in a straight fight far, far simpler than insects. What threat could tiny little things like that possibly be to him, after all? In a way, what he would do in a fight like this was nearly academic.

What could he do as a regular human, did he have experience fighting something he could barely touch? I might have thought that his power wasn’t aware enough to register them as a threat at all if it weren’t for his flames growing even now, building in heat and detonating like a firebomb every few seconds, he’d have had no defence at all.

…I could acknowledge that I might have also been because I’d literally ambushed the man when he’d least expected it, but really, if you weren’t ready for sneak attacks, then were you really taking this seriously?

I directed more of my swarm to gather, so those who weren’t already biting and stinging were in the midst of the gang.

 If he wanted to turn his flames on the swarm, he would have to set his own people on fire. Did he even care? Maybe not, for that at least I knew now that he wouldn’t care about collateral damage, nor the wellbeing of his own crew. That meant I had to be a little more ruthless if I didn’t want the unconscious criminals to be burned to a crisp.

I egged the swarm on, using some of the more painful alternatives. Fire ants, black widows, hornet wasps and more, all of which I’d altered with special venoms and toxins far more potent than what came naturally to the creatures. In a normal human, it would have been instantly crippling, if just shy of fatal, against a cape it would have still been deadly. But Lung wasn’t just any Parahuman.

 He was a big guy for one, and he healed fast when his power was working.  Everything I’d read and studied said that Parahumans like brutes with healing abilities would shrug off the effects of poisons or drugs to a large degree, rendering them mostly useless as their bodies broke down the substances and rendered them inert. Had I just the insects on their own, had I just been a Parahuman, it would have been a massive blind spot in my arsenal. I wasn’t though, and I’d prepared for more than just Cape’s that could heal fast. Lung was that and more, with regeneration on the high scale, so I knew I’d have to pump him full of enough venom to overwhelm that aspect of his power.

More than that, I had special bugs in my swarm, protected and guided by others with far more debilitating threats. Carriers of curses.

Lung was a Parahuman, and as far as I’d been able to tell so far, things like Powers didn’t offer any special magical resistance greater than that of a regular human. Where venom might have faltered, the curses didn’t, tearing through his body and latching onto his insides like festering beasts.

From the information that I could glean from my bugs, Lung already had about a quarter of his body covered in armour.  Triangular sections of metal plating were piercing through his skin in a painful-looking and bloody mesh, as the blood it drew evaporated in the heat of his fire and interlocked with itself, where they would continue to grow and overlap until he was nigh impenetrable.  If they weren’t already, his fingertips and toes would become like blades or metal claws.

Honestly, a part of me got annoyed when people threw around words like ‘Dragon’. That wasn’t want he was, not by a long shot. I had seen dragons, and they were nothing like the Gang leader before me.

No. He was a mockery of a dragon, the kind he’d fashioned himself after when he'd realised he could get big and breathe fire. He had no comprehension of what those creatures really were.

I wasn’t stupid enough to think I stood a chance against a real dragon, but I think I had a fair shot to put down a pretend one just fine.

Two minutes.

There was no room for mercy against someone with the potential to be so dangerous, I ordered my swarm to attack anything they could; everything that was vulnerable. Anything soft. Groin, testicles, armpit, throat, eyes, ears, nose. I forced cockroaches down his nasal passage, fire ants on his tongue, crickets in his ears and anything else I could to tear at his eyeballs. It was agony on a scale most wouldn’t have been able to handle, and the man's monstrous screams grew louder and more terrible with each passing second as he thrashed and fought futilely against it.

It was cruel and sadistic, I knew that. I didn’t care. This man a murderer, that was fine. Killing wasn’t something I could deny as something people did in this world, and if the line of work I was involved with, it was often the best option. As much as I hated the idea of it, sometimes killing was just what had to be done.

But Lung took it twenty steps too far. Spreading crime, addiction, death and worse to innocents. His gang was filled with people that dragged women into forced prostitution, and sold those they got tired of into even worse slavery. They were monsters that killed with a warped sense of pseudo-honour, making themselves out to be more than the scum of the earth that they were and worst of all, they were doing it in my city.

And Lung was the head of all of that.

That was enough to make him guilty.

I pushed my swarm again.

In the next moment, Lung exploded.  Just like he had before it was no metaphor here.  He detonated in a blast of rolling fire that set the remains of his clothes, several pieces of litter and one of his gang members that were too close alight.  Almost every bug not modified to survive the flames in his immediate vicinity died or was crippled by the wave of extreme heat.  From my vantage point on the roof, I could see as he turned himself into a human bomb a third time.  The third explosion turned his left him wearing practically nothing but a burned cloth that hung from him and by that point it had transformed to the point where his human anatomy was unrecognisable. From that last explosion, any of his people still conscious were sent scrambling, fleeing for cover as embers licked their clothes and caught fire.

He stepped out of the smoke with his hands alighting and holding flames like torches, the silvery scales that covered nearly half of his body reflecting the flame.

My eyes narrowed behind my lenses. I’d expected it, it had been obvious but this was as good as confirmation as to his own resistance to fire. Was it just his own flames he was immune to or all of them? I couldn’t be entirely sure, powers were weird like that, but I could at least confirm that he wasn’t in danger of being himself if this went on for too long. What about oxygen though? Heat that bad was bound to be burning it away. Did it affect his breathing, his stamina as a result of that, or was he perfectly fine?

He roared.  It wasn’t the monstrous roar one might expect from his terrible appearance, but a very human sound of rage and frustration. My lip curled at the sound. People didn’t make sounds like that if they weren’t in a lot of pain, and people in pain either fought harder to stop it or gave up in the hopes that you would.

I intended to allow neither.

As human as it sounded, though, it was loud.  All the way down the street neighbourhood, lights and flashlights flickered on in response to the explosions and the roar.  I almost baulked when I realised that I could see a few faces peering through windows to see the action.  Like it fucking entertainment.

Idiots.

People were far too used to gawking at fights like these now. People would hold out their cameras and act like they weren’t one stray shot away from being made into a casualty from collateral damage, believing it all just a spectacle in some way. These people even now in the safety of their own homes were no exception. If Lung’s next attack shattered any glass, they could get hurt.

But it did serve a purpose for me in some way, not that it was an immediate concern.

I crouched down at my perch, biting my lip. The longer this went on, the more difficult it would get. It was common sense for most people that they understood that in a typical fight, your opponent would be weaker as the fight dragged on and their reserves waned.  They would take damage, get injured and feel pain. Eventually they’d get tired, exhaust their bag of tricks and abilities until there was nothing left to use.  With Lung, it was the opposite in some of the worst ways. His power was almost specifically built to counter that sort of strategy, to give him an edge against the kind of enemy that could survive a long, protracted fight.

That made sense, it wasn’t public knowledge, but from what I’d heard this was a man that had managed to survive one-on-one with an Endbringer in Kyushu long enough for the Horsemen to appear and drive it back.

But he was still very human, and so he had the same human weaknesses that for all that so many Parahumans outclassed me with their powers compared to what my bugs were supposed to be limited to, I knew how to do things to the human body with my venom that they couldn’t or didn’t care to.

I focused my attention on burrowing insects and directed them towards his eyes. He didn’t see it coming, not until it was too late. Writhing, many teethed bugs sank into his eyeballs, drawing screams from him as they feasted and sank inside, into it, into the eye socket, into the brain.

I felt as they ripped and tore at pieces of it, saw the way he spasmed and shuttered as functions in his body were savaged. It would have been enough to kill almost anyone else. Had it not been for his regeneration working on every part of him, I was sure Lung would have been a braindead heap at the moment.

He was spinning on the spot now. It had only been a few minutes since I’d started this attack, three of four at most. Through all that pain he’d grown and grown, gotten stronger, at this point, his regeneration was slowly, ever so slowly beginning to eclipse the rate of the damage he was taking… and he’d started to get his bearings.

Just enough to start searching for the threat. Abruptly he hunched over and my eyes narrowed. My poisons and venoms hadn’t done enough for that sort of reaction yet, not when I was sure his body was starting to fight it from the inside.

I wanted that of course. My cursed toxins weren’t just ripping apart his insides, they were altering them. Making them foreign objects within his body his regeneration as powerful as it clearly was from the showing it was giving, was in no way an intelligent thing. It would recognise the altered organs as foreign invaders the same way white blood cells did an infection and try to eradicate them.

His own body would kill itself to fix him. Would he die from it? Probably not, judging by how things were going so far, but he’d have to destroy and then regrow all the affected parts. If that didn’t at least wear Lung down, then I’d throw up my hands and call bullshit.

One minute and thirty seconds.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of tearing, as something from his back burst out and blood splashed across the concrete. The sound of fire still crackled, but I could hear the shifting of flesh and metal over it. There was an eruption of those same metal scales, flowing all the way down the newly created gap in his back. It was a painful looking display to be sure. What was his tolerance like if he was still conscious after all of this? Did his power make it so that he couldn’t collapse under his own transformation? Did he not feel it or was he just that crazy that he could power through?

Never mind that, after a few moments, the scales lay flat on his back and linked together like scale mail.  He spasmed as he stood and stretched, I could swear he was a foot taller, now with even more armour trailing all the way down from his neck and spine. It would have been an even more terrifying sight, had my swarm not remained, slipping in the few seconds there had been an exposed area from the transformation. I had insects under his armour now, protected from those very flames that he’d defended himself with.

His body had betrayed him in the worst ways.

…That said, this was beginning to drag on for longer than I was comfortable with. I didn’t know if there was a ceiling to how much more Lung could grow and get stronger but I had a feeling that if this took much more time I’d find myself at a disadvantage.

Right then, I needed to end this soon. I’d accomplished plenty already. His men were beaten all around him, whatever horrible things he’d been looking to do to the other Villains was bound to be shot to hell now and the kids he’d wanted dead would live another night. On top of all that, I was pretty sure he’d made enough commotion that there would be people more qualified than the police investigating things soon.

So, it was about time I made another move.

I rose up from my perch, standing straight as I kept my eyes on him. I felt my body heat up as I fuelled my Circuits, reinforcing my body.

I brought my right foot up slowly and then, when I was ready, brought it down hard on the edge of the roof.

The stone beneath me cracked and the sound was like a gunshot through the night. In an instant, Lung’s head whipped towards me. His mask had been burned away earlier, his face half changed into a metallic maw not suited for a human face. He was bleeding in one eye, the eyeball nothing but a bloody lump now, while his other had been covered in red-hot metal.

I met his seething glare, in silence, standing there, my hands open at my sides. Beckoningly. I’d drawn his attention onto me. I’d called him out.

And just like I was hoping, he took the bait.

Another roar filled the air, this one very so less human than the last and his snarling face twisted as he made his move. I’d known that his power had given him enhanced strength, so it wasn’t a surprise to see him make the go at leaping up to me.

What was a surprise was how he didn’t manage to clear the roof. Maybe it was his technique, his body not having the biomechanics of a human at that point, maybe he was just too heavy or even just not strong enough yet, but where I’d expected him to meet me in a single jump, Lung crashed instead into the side of the building on the second story below him. he managed to keep himself from falling with what I assumed as powerful grip and claws anchored into the brick wall.

Someone was probably experiencing a nasty shock down below at the sight of metal claws piercing through their walls right now.

I didn’t move, staring down at Lung as he craned his head back and glared at me. I wasn’t idle of course despite my lack of movement.

My swarm crashed into his back like a dark wave and I saw his body shunt from the surprising force of my insects as they went back to gnawing at any exposed areas they could find, enshrouding him once again, trying to blind him. His snarl took an animalistic quality as he began to climb, dragging himself up like some horror movie monster.

I still didn’t move. I remained exactly where I was as he got closer and closer, my eyes even behind the lenses of my mask never leaving his. I kept my attention on him and in return, he kept his on me. Tunnel visioned as he got closer and closer, nearly within reach and then in the next moment, with his hands still burning, his entire body aflame, he grabbed onto the ledge and started to pull himself up right in front of me.

One minute.

It was almost… almost there. Almost the right moment.

And then I realised, right as it happened, that I’d made a mistake.

In focusing so much on Lung, I’d forgotten about the threat I’d labelled as just as deadly a few minutes ago.

I heard it, just barely in time, the sound of a foot scraping across gravel.

I twisted my body to the side, turning what could have been a painful stab even with my protection, into a glancing blow. It sparked off my spider weave, but Oni Lee didn’t even hesitate. He threw his entire body into the motion and shoulder-checked me. If my feet had been planted right, I could have braced against it and shoved him off, but in avoiding his sword trying to rum my through, I’d lost my balance just enough that the man's lunge made me stumble.

Right on the edge of a building, that was made all the worse when he grabbed onto my arm and threw himself off the side. I cursed as both of us went off the ledge.

Right on top of Lung.

I might have only had half a second to rection, but I didn’t waste it.

Oni Lee had dragged me over with him, but that meant he was close enough for me to reach.

I lashed out with a knew so far and fast that when I drove it into his gut, I felt more than heard several of his ribs crack through his Kevlar vest. I heard the beginnings of a scream but by then I was turning away, spinning in the air to face the Dragon as I fell towards him.

Through my mask, my eyes met his, and I thought I caught just the barest flicker of surprise, I wondered if he had been ready for Oni Lee – who was even now crumbling to dust behind me and most likely fleeing – to do what he did, or for me to react in kind.

Fifty seconds.

Either way, it was the opening I needed to end this before it properly began.

I fell, and my arms moved, landing right on top of him, my feet laming onto his shoulders so that I was standing atop of him, right in front of his quarter-way-draconic face. I lashed out like a stinger with a curled hand. Od flowed through my suit, and performed the alteration in a split second.

The tips of my fingers shifted, from the smooth digits of gloved gauntlet to razor-blade claws. Like black knives for fingers, reinforced as they were, I was sure they’d have been able to rip grooves in stone.

They had no problem sinking into Lung’s eyes.

The false-dragon’s entire body froze. Then shuttered. But before he could react and pull back, I pushed my claws deeper.

Into his brain. My fingers sank into his cerebral hemisphere and I injected a shot of my own Od through my fingertips and into his brain. Within seconds, he was done. His body was forcefully shunted into unconsciousness, and his flames winked out like a candle. For a few more seconds, his body remained there, on the edge of the roof.

And then I ripped my hand out of his skull and the movement was all it took for his body to go slack and fall back. I kept my balance and let gravity do its work, so that even as I rode him down, I watched as the hulking man dropped onto the street with a mighty crash, completely limp as the metallic scales began to fall away, leaving behind Lung. Beaten.

I stood there for a few seconds, standing on top of his body, looking down at him. He was beaten, and his crew lain out across the street. One of the most dangerous Capes in Brockton Bay, beaten by me in what was a lucky strike, yes, but a good one, by me. It was… a good feeling.

But it was one I could savour later. I’d been focused on the fight, but that didn’t mean I’d been blind to what was around me, and I had the time to let my focus return to normal, neither were my bugs. They’d kept an eye on the other villains, the ones that the ABB had been fighting in the first place.

They’d stopped moving just a minute ago, right as Lung had begun his climb towards me, when they’d realised that somebody had arrived to back them up, and now, they were standing there, behind me on the other end of the street.

A street filled with fire, smoke and unconscious gang members, the sound of car alarms and cracking flames. It wasn’t exactly the kind of place where people had civil conversations, but I supposed I would have to make do if they were willing to do the same.

That is if they were looking to talk at all.

With an exhale, the sound hidden by my mask, I turned to face them.

And met the gazes of three wide-eyed teenagers and two old capes I could assume shared the expression under their own masks

I narrowed my eyes and took them in properly this time now that the fighting was over; five of them, and now that I could see them like this, I took them in again.

Three female, two male, Trainwreck was tall, well built, a front-line fighter, though I could assume that was mostly in part because of the armour. From what I had heard, there were rumours that he was a Case 53, but that hadn’t been confirmed. He looked like he could at least build something competently put together, judging by his suit, when not dealing with fire and guns, I assumed.

One held a sceptre in their hand. Possible long-ranged? Maybe, but I couldn’t be sure. He was shorter, and even with that overly flamboyant mask, I could tell he had a young face. He was probably younger than I was, but he held himself up with a confidence I wasn’t sure was faked or not. I still had no idea who he was. Out of all of them, he was the only one I couldn’t place. Did that mean he was new to the city, or just an extremely fresh trigger?

One of the girls had long, messy hair that covered a lot of her face and more masculine features and the glare on her face tinged with wary fear made it clear what she was thinking right at that moment.

I recognised her now. A new-ish Cape not even a few months into the action. Whirlygig. A Telekinetic with a few limitations. I hadn’t heard about anything she’d done recently, or even all that major, so as to why she was here with other Rouges, I had no idea. She wasn’t wearing anything all that impressive. A badly fitting boiler suit and a domino mask with goggles that did just enough to hide who she was by not much else.

The fact that she was surrounded by three slowly rotating sheets of metal made it clear that she didn’t’ feel totally comfortable yet. If she could use them as defence and offence, then she wasn’t hiding the fact that she saw me as a threat despite what had just happened.

I was right about Chariot though. This close up, I could tell he was young. His exact age, I couldn’t’ specify thanks to all the Tinkertech he was wearing but the fact that he was fidgeting where he stood belayed how unsure he was right now of what was going on.

“Holy fucking shit,” The boy with the Scepter uttered in a gasping voice, looking scuffed and dirty and none too comfortable with it. “She just killed Lung!”

“He’d not dead, just knocked out. She knew what she was doing.” It was the last that spoke. Circus was the one to draw attention to herself, taking the opportunity to step forward. Their jester hat made a noise as they moved and I notice how they’d changed their features again, a domino mask painted over red and gold along with the rest of their face. Her eyes were just as wide, but it seemed like it was for a different reason that I couldn’t place. I had the odd feeling she was analysing me though. I wasn’t sure I liked it.

She was the most experience out of all of them, from what I knew, and had taken to some sort of leadership role to whatever this rag tag team was supposed to be. I didn’t know much about the Cape personally, but what I did know was that they weren’t much of a talker, so that fact that the Jester was doing exactly that right now was cause enough to listen.

They were at least trying to sell the idea that they weren’t a threat to me; the grin on her face that I could guess was supposed to be bright and cheery was just a little too weighed down by exhaustion to really sell the confident look she had probably been going for.

“Did you see the way she did that to Lung? You can still see the hols in his face. Messed with parts of his brain I’m guessing somehow, forcefully shut down the part that manages consciousness to make sure he stayed down.” The Cape glanced down over the ledge again, staring at the unconscious Gang Leader.

“All those poisons and venoms and- it- is that neurotoxins? Christ, she injected him with things that would flag a country on war crimes.”

I narrowed my eyes. How did she know that? She hadn’t even gotten close to any of my bugs. There was no way she could have analysed them just like that? Circus wasn’t meant to have a Thinker power. She was a Grab Bag, and not an especially deadly one.

Whatever the case, my swarm chittered in response and the woman flinched back, the act making the others tense in return, but the clown-clad woman raised her hands placatingly. “Hey, look, you don’t have to worry okay, we’re not here to fight you, especially after you just saved our bacon.”

… okay, so I could at least semi-confirm that they were at least grateful enough not to launch an attack on me. Talking was a good indicator of that for regular people, right? It meant they were willing to do things peacefully?

I caught the faintest grimace from Whirlygig in the back and before anyone could say anything else, I took her in again, still clutching at her arm. Right, that had to be dealt with first.

I took a step towards her and the others tensed, the bits of floating metal around her vibrated in the air and her bared their teeth like an animal. She even growled as she bristled and glared at me through her mask.

I clicked my teeth, annoyed, but I didn’t stop, taking purposeful strides towards her even as the growling got louder until eventually my patience ran out.

“Enough.” The swarm around me thundered and drew them all up sort.

The injured girl stiffened, and her eyes flickered every which way beneath her mask. I realised that it was dark enough still that they couldn’t see my insects clinging to the walls and pavement, small and dark as they were to blend into the scenery. I wasn’t about to look the gift of their hesitation in the mouth though, and got close enough to be within arms reach of the girl. I raised my palm towards her and beckoned, as clear as I could be without speaking as to what I wanted.

She got the hint, not looking happy, but complying, letting go of her wounded arm and holding it in front of her for me to see.

I’d been right, a bullet wound, but not a bad one.

She’d gotten lucky with a graze rather than the bullet hitting her properly and going the whole way through, or worse, getting stuck on a bone. I reached into my hip bag pocket and pulled out a clean roll of bandages and a small bottle of alcohol I had ready for things just like this.

At the sight of both, I caught the way she and the others relaxed minutely. I rolled my eyes and got to work in silence.

Apparently they took that as their cue to fill it.

“We heard Lung was about to go after us.” The one with the Jetpack stepped forward, the younger Tinker of the group seemed to have worked up some courage now that I was helping more directly instead of hurting. I could make out the details of his helmet better now. There was a reinforced glass vision of some kind that covered his entire face, muddling whatever was beneath well enough. Was his own design or manufactured beforehand? Didn’t matter. Either way, it was pretty obvious even discounting the others that they were all wearing costumes they’d put together themselves.

Nowhere near the work I’d put into my own from the looks of it. Discounting Circus, none of the rest of them had professional looking costumes like the Protectorate.  They stood far enough apart from one another too that I was starting to guess this had been a team hastily put together, or at least very recent without the promise of staying that way when whatever it was they had planned on dong was done. Definitely somewhere within the Rouge/Villain alignment, without the funding of a bigger group.

 Circus was still talking.

We were paid to pull a job not far from here. An easy smash and grab on a warehouse holding a whole bunch of things. We thought it would be easy, but nobody told us that Lung had expanded his territory a few days ago to encompass the place we’d stolen from and when he found out, I guess he was pissed.

“When we got word Lung was aiming to come after us tonight, we were pretty freaked out.” Trainwreck said, and I could tell from his tone that he was trying to sound friendly and approachable, and failing, more for the fact that his vocal cords didn’t seem to be built for it more than anything. More than that though, even behind the metal helm that didn’t even have eye holes that he could still somehow see out of, I could tell from his body language where he was looking.

Right at one of my claws, still dripping with Lung’s blood.

 “We were arguing strategy for the better part of the day.  We eventually decided, fuck it, we’d meet him halfway.  Wing it.  Not my usual way of doing things, but yeah.”

Wing it, they said… like they would have been willing to fight Lung off the cuff like that.

I’d seen exactly how that had been going for them. It hadn’t been terrible, they’d been at least holding their own decently against Oni Lee and the rabble, but they hadn’t been winning, and if it had gone on any longer, I suspected it would have turned into a bloodbath they wouldn’t have walked away from. They’d been ready for some kind of fight, but s suspected it had been on short notice, if the way they’d been caught out on the street was anything to go by.

The fact that they’d watched as I’d dealt with the Gang leader meant they were more than willing to let others handle it for them. Desperate maybe, or just willing to take any help they could get even if they didn’t know where or who it was coming from

The question was, what did they want with me now? They could have just turned tail and run the moment they’d seen how this fight had ended, so it meant they wanted something else. Whatever that was, I was at least willing to humour them while I worked on bandaging up one of their own.

If they wanted a fight though… I’d be more than willing to give it. I’d helped them because I hadn’t been willing to let them get killed by someone like Lung, but that didn’t mean I was soft enough to let them attack me if they tried it. Besides, multiple Cape fights in a single night was bound to help my reputation and make a statement.

“We were busy dealing with his flunky, Oni Lee. As you saw I’m sure.” The Jester picked up suddenly. “He had a bunch of his own guys but it was obvious he was waiting for the main force, so we thought we could ambush him early and try cutting down the numbers.

Honestly I thought it was going to go a lot worse considering who it was we were up against, but the one Cape in their group that isn’t Lung wasn’t exactly quick on the initiative. I know you didn’t see it, but we started out that fight actually winning until he decided to be genuinely insane and started blowing himself up.”  

“We got the drop on them at the start and Oni Lee decided that collateral damage was a funny joke the second he realised it was going bad for him.” She shook her head with a tired, wry smile on her face. “We thought he was going to be the end of us before Lung even showed up, so we tried to take him down here as fast as we could so that we could prepare for his boss. Instead it ended up… well err… you saw what it ended up like, I guess. You ended up handling him all on your own.”

“You mean brutalising him,” The boy that had cursed before muttered and now that I could get a good look at him, he certainly stood out even amongst his little group. Dressed like some sort of Renaissance figure. “Not to complain even though I am very much complaining, but um, why are we sticking around and talking to the scare bug lady?”

The woman’s smile turned jagged at that, though she didn’t take her eyes off of me. “Because Regent, we want to be nice to the scary lady who just brutalised Lung by herself without breaking a sweat and is currently debating whether or not she should do the same to us.”

My eyes narrow at the admission but the reaction of the others is far more prominent, from the way they all flinch back. Whrilygig tried to do the same but I kept my grip tight on her arm so that she couldn’t retreat until I was finished. She let out something similar to a whimper, from pain or fright, I wasn’t sure, but I sent her a look I assumed she could understand through my mask and she quietened down, albeit stiffer than before. It was enough to make the others go still too and the leader standing in front of me took a step back before she could help himself.

“And she’s confident she could.” She kept going. “Being outnumbered doesn’t even phase her and I don’t think we’d be able to run away fast enough before she caught us. Even if we could? She’d be able to find us, maybe even track us. If she really wanted to, I bet nowhere in the city would be safe to hide.”

There was a beat of tense silence.

“Circus,” Trainwreck said, voice tight with some sort of strain. “Remind me to kick your ass when we get away from this shitshow.”

“Honestly, fair. I didn’t realise she could do all that until we got this close.”

I tilt my head. Okay… so not here to fight me or cause any more trouble, enemies of Lung and… well judging from the way they went on at one another these really were the kids Lung had been looking to kill.  At least in the case of the three youngest. Well even with all the other reasons not to, fighting them now would make what I’d just done to Lung partly redundant, wouldn’t it?

I definitely had questions, maybe one or two about just who they were in the first place or how exactly she had made an even slightly accurate guess as to what I could have done to them had things turned hostile, but for now… I decided that would be poor form to demand things from them.

With one last tug, I finished wrapping the girl's bandages it was no doctors work, but it would keep her injury clean and covered until she could get someone better to look at it, and at the very least, she would be bleeding out all over the street now.

I let her step away the moment I let go of her and turned to look at them as a group proper.

I pulled in some of my bugs again, letting them settle on my arms and shoulder and let them vibrate, disrupting the air and making sounds. Making a voice.

“So long as you don’t have a problem with me,” I said. “I don’t have a problem with you.” When I spoke up, all attention was on me. I saw the way Circus tensed, and she wasn’t the only one. It must have been an intimidating sound if that was their immediate reaction, or maybe it just compounded on what they already thought and made it worse. “I’m not so bloodthirsty that I’d pointlessly start a fight with people that don’t mean me any harm… so long as it stays that way.”

The meaning was clear. Play nice with me and I’d do the same for them. So long as they didn’t attack me first I’d leave them be.

They seemed to get it, if the way they all relaxed slightly was anything to go by. With a hum, I reached into the side pack on my thigh hidden under my half-skirt and pulled out a cloth, using it to wipe the fresh blood off my hands. It obviously wouldn’t change the fact that they’d seen it, but at the very least they might feel more comfortable without being reminded of it with dripping blood.

The man in black nodded “Okay, that’s good then. I think we can all work with that right now. So then, introductions.” He pointed a thumb over his shoulder to the rest of them.

“No need,” I told them. “I already know who all of you are… except you, that is.” I said, glancing at the youngest of them.

The renfaire boy shrugged. “The name’s regent, I just got into town a few days ago from far off. Decided to make some quick cash and go from there

“An interesting preference.” I hummed at the name and what it might mean for his power, drawing an amused sound from the others. I suppose the fact I was making little comments made them believe I wasn’t going to suddenly switch to hostilities.

“Well, don’t mind him all that much. “Trainwreck grunt. “He’s more of a headache than he’s worth. You can pretend he doesn’t exist if you want, I did as much as I could.

“Fuck you, man, I am a gift.” Regent retorted, with a chuckle strained from what I could guess were overtaxed lungs from all the smoke and dodging bullets he’d been doing a few minutes prior and a tone of voice that made it clear he wasn’t really that offended.

In fact that he looked far more relaxed than he did a minute ago was a good thing by my estimate. I wanted to be scary, yes, but having people too afraid to hold a conversation with me would get annoying quick.

Actually… it was kind of weird how relaxed he was right now. Questions for later, I guess, if I had the opportunity.

Circus shook her head before turning back to me. “So yeah, again we just wanted to thank you for saving our neck like that and uh, make sure you didn’t think we were after you.”

Right, or else they would have turned tail and ran the moment I noticed they were there. If my display with Lung hadn’t been enough to scare them off, they’d at least wanted to make sure I wasn’t some psycho that would go after whoever was close by.

“Hey, by the way, what do they call you?”

“Nothing.” I nearly shrugged and I was sure she was staring at me.

I could feel the confusion “Huh?” Chariot muttered

Circus nodded. “Well that….  Makes sense I guess. I was wondering why I didn’t recognise you. A Power that lets you do what you did would be… memorable. This is your first night then? At least, in Brockton Bay I mean.”

“Can you explain for the people amongst us that clearly missed something?” Trainwreck grumbled and Circus shot him a glare.

“It means she doesn’t have a Cape name.” Circus informed him. “She’s never needed one since she’s never stuck around to give one or done anything to make people pay attention to her. Really new right now to the whole in-person shtick.”

I resisted the urge to frown. That wasn’t something I wanted people knowing. I’d have liked to have been far more enigmatic than that in the ways of others. Have them guessing how long I’d really be active and if it was just that I’d changed tactics to show myself in public only now.

Which was literally the case, but I wanted people believing it.

A Cape working behind the scenes for so long without being found out had a different sort of threat to them after all.

And she’d just made that redundant like it was nothing. I had no idea how, but it didn’t feel great to have the idea I had in mind so easily brushed aside. Maybe I could still play that angle with others, but if she made it clear to others as well then it might make me look bad. Like someone playing pretend instead, too afraid to go out in public or something.

Well, if she could guess that much then it was only fair I was truthful. I nodded slowly. “This was my… first active night.”

“You’re kidding.” Regent wheezed. “First night out and you go after Lung?!”

“And destroy him, apparently.” Circus mused. “Well it worked out for us, yeah. So long as we all know we’re friends here I think this night was a good one.” She paused, head turning to the side. I nearly missed it, because mine did the same.

In the distance, the sound of a motor cycle rung through the night.

“Looks like that’s all we’ve got time for.” She said. “Pretty sure a Hero’s on their way here.”

“Then that’s our cue to leave.” Chariot announced, hopping on his feet turning the edge of the roof.. He hesitated for a moment, turning back to me. “Hey, want to come with us, at least to keep away from the heroes?”

I tilt my head again. Hm… if they were offering to help me get out of here, they must have assumed I was in the same boat as them, a villain. Was that good or bad? I wasn’t sure. On one hand, it meant I was intimidating enough that criminals assumed I was one of them, but on the other, there was a chance it would mean Heroes would have a much worse reaction to me.

Hmm… if that’s the case, then being caught fleeing the scene right now would cause problems in my future that I wasn’t looking for. The best way to control perception was to be hands-on most of the time, so for now…

“Go on ahead.” I told them. “I want to see just who it is they sent to pick up my target.”

“Yikes, poor them.” Regent managed a laugh. The way the edges of her mouth curled up reminded me of a wax statue. Something about it reeked of falseness, the cleaver kind, but considering the other woman slash body-hopper I’d met once with a similar sort of smile, I wasn’t sure that was a good thing, or even a comforting thing. “Well good luck then, don’t get caught!”

Whirly gig moved away too, waving her hand and turning the sheets of meal into platforms to fly. I watched as they bound away across the rooftops, vanishing into the night. I watched them leave for a few seconds longer, my bugs tracking them until they left my range and then I turned back to the ledge. Lowering myself, I sat on the edge and waited.

That had… gone better than I’d thought it would. Facing Lung so directly had already been a surprise all on its own, and thinking about it now that the fighting was over, it was a risky one. I’m not sure how well I would have faired if he’d managed to get close sooner. At least not with It being such an impulsive choice without the proper preparations.

It could have gone bad with one mistake, one misjudgement. And if those guys had been hostile, or if when I’d been jumped by Oni Lee, the assassin had gotten a better hit on me when he’d been there to help his boss, things could have gone sideways fast.

But… I guess they hadn’t, and at the very least, I was sure that word would get out of a newcomer taking on Lung. Maybe those guys would spread the word that I wasn’t a manic either. It would be harder to make relationships with people in this city if they thought I was a nutjob killer.

Well… there was a way to do more of that, wasn’t there? If I wanted to make myself known, then it was best to do it with both sides of the fence.

Time to see what the beginnings of my relationship with the Protectorate would be like.

…

…

I didn’t have to wait long for the sound of a motorcycle engine to reach me. I’d stayed where I was down on the street level so that I could actually be seen right away instead of risking anyone assuming I was just lurking in wait for an ambush or something, so I made myself comfortable, having rolled Lung onto his front and crouched myself down on his spine.

I would have just sat, but I was going for an image here, and crouching on him, partly hunched over and balancing on the balls of my feet while insects twitched across my body was a striking image, a memorable one that would sell me as something not quite right.

Was it a little bit overly dramatic? Maybe, but playing it right would just make me look all the more like someone to take seriously.

I watched as the bike came to a stop in the middle of the road with a screech of tires and a Hero stepped off. At the sight of him, I hummed to myself. I had certain opinions of Capes in general, and Heroes and Villains on either side even more so, but none of that compared to the things I thought about the Protectorate.

A Juvenile organisation barely even twenty years old formed by Parahumans themselves, those that would later make up what was called the Triumvirate under the orders of the U.S. president. That made them government-funded and managed, whether they organised that fact generally depended on how good the polls for each subsequent president looked. The Protectorate had spread out in the years, involving themselves not just in the protection of the country, but in politics. Well, that wasn’t something I was interested in all that much in the immediate sense, so I kept what I had to know about all that to what was necessary.

Other than that, they’d managed to grow to cover America, Canada and recently, started talks with Mexico’s leadership about integrating the Protectorate into their government. More chiefly than all that, the Protectorate and Capes in general were people who came from normal backgrounds. Normal families in the sense of being mundane, later thrust into a life of the incredible due to their powers and circumstances.

Subsequently, the Protectorate and its members were still technically normal people despite those powers and leeway they no got from said abilities. The part of the Government that was aware of the Moonlit World didn’t cross with them. Shortly put, Capes like these didn’t know anything about Magi. About people like me.

And, well, that was a good thing, because if they did. I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that they’d try to involve themselves in my world. One they wouldn’t be able to handle. Either the Heroes would try to police all the horrible things that Magi and those like them did, or Villains would try to take advantage and manipulate things to their own ends if they thought they could.

It would mean either group would be wiped out immediately, and I didn’t want to think about how much of a slaughter it would be.

So yeah, not exactly the highest opinion about Capes and their organisations, but I could at least be civil with them. It was time to test that at least, as I watched the Hero approach me.

I recognised him. Brockton Bay’s Protectorate team was officially ‘The Protectorate East-North-East’. This man, Armsmaster, was the guy in charge of the local team.  When the core group of the top Protectorate members from around Canada and the States assembled in that classic ‘v’ formation for the photo shoots and publicity, Armsmaster was one of the guys in the wings. He was famous basically, a well-known and well-respected figure from what I could tell, and one with the accomplishments to justify it.

Still, that sort of national fame rubbed me the wrong way. Not because I held anything against him specifically, but just because it was anathema to the way things were for my kind. Even with what I had intended to do, and with what I needed to do, I wasn’t looking to be the sort of person people purchased memorabilia about. I didn’t want posters or action figures or talk show hosts gossiping about me. I wanted something very different, something that would at least in some ways put me at odds with the Heroes of Brockton Bay in the future. For now at least however, I could play nice.

I took a moment to really get a look at the man in person.

Well, if I could at least say something positive about him, it was that he at least looked like what I thought a superhero should, not just like some guy in a costume.  It was an important distinction.  He wore body armour made out of some sort of material I wasn’t able to recognise at a glance, dark blue with silver highlights in colour, engraved into it rather than just pained on and a sharply angled V-shaped visor covering his eyes and nose. The kind that looked like it would be able to stop a bullet if needed. He was ready for proper combat, however well he might fair in one. It was only the lower half of his face that he left exposed, and I could see a beard trimmed to trace the edges of his jaw.  If I had to judge, with only the lower half of his face to go by, I’d guess he was in his late twenties or early thirties.

His trademark and weapon was his Halberd, armed and upgraded with gadgets and the kind of technology that the regular public or even militaries didn’t have access to. Things that to the normal person, must have seemed anywhere from twenty or fifty years ahead in the future.

Everything about his appearance made him look like he was the kind of guy who appeared on magazine covers and did interviews on TV, an Icon that people talked about on forms and in public equally the kind of person that made kids want to be superheroes when they grew up and I knew that he was exactly that for the Protectorate.

You could find almost anything about Armsmaster through various media, short of his secret identity.  I knew his weapon could cut through steel as though it was butter, that it had plasma injectors for stuff that the blade alone couldn’t cut and that he could fire off directed electromagnetic pulses to shut down forcefields and mechanical devices.

He was the sort of man that had gained a reputation for being prepared for nearly anything, and those he wasn’t, building a counter for them the next time he faced them.

He came to a stop, about twenty feet away and a part of my mind calculated how fast I could cross the distance if he turned hostile. I was confident I could do so before he’d realised what was happening. But I wasn’t here to fight him, not to start one at least.

“Are you here for a fight?” He called out to me, and I could feel his eyes roaming me, waiting for a sign that I was hostile. Was he eager for a fight or just cautious? It felt like the latter but I couldn’t be sure or assume just off of my gut.

All the same, I felt a mild shot of irritation make its way up my spine as I rolled my eyes behind my mask.

“Do people looking for fights usually wait around to make sure that Heroes pick up criminals?”

“You’d be surprised.” Came the response and I could give credit to the man, he didn’t flinch or react to the way I talked through my bugs, even with how off I must have sounded. To my own ears, it was more like a dozen different voices layered over the top of one another, some of them masculine sounding, some feminine and all of them without emotion or inflection. I hadn’t poured any into them, so it was a trick I could pull off when I wanted but even if it didn’t affect me, I could tell it was something that would unsettle anyone normal.

Not this guy apparently. I wondered if he was used to it or something. The man tilt his head. “You don’t exactly come off as a Hero, looking like that. “

I frowned, made to say something and- Hm… if he’s suggesting plainly that his first thought was that I was a villain then it might have been a little more effective than I was hoping for but it wasn’t a bad result for me… fair enough.

How to play this though?

I drew myself up and did my best to sound professional as I answered.

“Forgive me, I did not put much mind into the effects of what intimidation I might inflict on others when it comes to my appearance.” I admitted, choosing my words carefully, trying to make myself sound older more mature, more formal than I usually was. A persona for my Cape Identity that I had in mind, and first impressions like this that would carry back to his bosses was important. I needed to nail this right. Making myself seem like a kid would be bad for what I needed.

“I wasn’t really concerned with how appealing to children I looked.” I couldn’t help the huff that escaped me as I went on but fortunately it translated into my bugs chittering irritably. A wave of clicking noises filled the air. “But no, if you really need to hear me say it, I am not your enemy here.”

There was a pause where I expected him to answer back, but instead he just remained silent, long enough for me to feel a bit uncomfortable about it, and I had to resist the urge to shuffle in place. Right when I was about to speak up again, he seemed to come back to life.

“You’re telling the truth.” He said it like a statement, not a question. The definitive nature of it made my eyes narrow. Did he have a way to decipher lies? That was unfortunate. It made things more difficult than they needed to be. Watching what I said around him suddenly became a far higher priority.

“I am.” I nodded.

“Do you need a hospital?”

“No.” It was a point for him that he’d even bother to ask that but I brushed it aside and as I said it, I made sure not to shake my head. To keep as unsettlingly still as possible. It was all about the show here. “I did not come to harm. Lung didn’t get the chance. I beat him before he could.”

And it was good that even unconscious, his surface wounds had healed. While I didn’t regret how I’d taken him down at all, I was aware that would have looked bad to Armsmaster if he strolled up to see five holes in the gang leader's face. The Villains from before had been enough to convince me that I would need to be a little more… decreet with things like that unless brutality was called for. At least openly.

The claim of how I’d beaten Lung without injury seemed to make the Hero look me up and down again, as if seeing me properly now.

“You’re a new face in this.”

“I am in a sense. I started taking to the streets recently, enough that I… haven’t decided on a title for myself just yet… going back to not really concerning myself much with how I’ll look to the public, you see. And besides, all the good names are taken anyway, the ones that don’t make me sound like a ridiculous Saturday morning cartoon villain or well… a villain in general.”

He chuckled, and it was a friendly and warm sounding laugh, far more than I was expecting from a man who had his face covered the way he did. “I wouldn’t know.  I got into the game early enough that I didn’t have to worry about missing out on all of the good names.”

“Lucky you.” I managed to weary half-quirk of my mouth, though I knew he couldn’t see it, nor hear it in my tone.

“So then, do you think you’ll be capable of transporting this one?” I asked, ghosting a hand over Lung’s shoulder before finally rising off of him.

“My bike will be enough to carry him.” Armsmaster assured me. “We’ve hard containment procedures prepared for him for a long time now, and after everything he’d done in this city, it’ll be the Birdcage for him now.”

I dipped my head. “Good.”

“You really managed it all by yourself?” He asked, and I could hear what was honestly well-placed scepticism. “I’m sorry if this is… offensive, but Lung’s not someone most people can go up against on their own. It usually takes a squad and a lot of planning and you saying you’re new…” He trailed off, but I got his meaning easily enough.

“Yes, it was just me.” I confirmed. If he could tell if I was lying or not, then that made it easier in this case. “Lung was dangerous, and if he’d had more time to power himself up, I’m sure I would have had a problem, but he wasn’t ready for me and without knowing what was coming there’s not much someone like him can do against millions of bugs. There’s not really much for him to hit, if you understand.”

“Bugs.” He echoed. “That’s your power?”

“I’d prefer to keep most of what I can do close to my chest for now, but yes, I can control bugs, a lot of them.”

“Looks like it.” He agreed. There was another beat of hesitation from him. “I can’t tell your age, but if I were to guess just from how recent you admit to be, then you must be young.” He said suddenly. It was a reach on his part, I thought, and I wondered how it was he came to that conclusion. The fact that he was right must have meant he had some way of guessing accurately, or maybe he’d just gotten lucky. “I’m assuming you are, and that you’re solo for now. Have you thought about joining a team?”

“Like the Protectorate?” I suggested with a slight bit of amusement. “Yes, I’ll admit I’ve given teams and allies some thought, those like the Wards and other teams in the city have their appeal, but for now I think I’ll leave it be until I get a better lay of the land and a feel for what I need. Who knows, I might try and start my own.”

“I see.” By his tone, I couldn’t tell what he thought of that idea. I didn’t personally have any issues with the Wards. Having teammates all around my age could be good, and the support system it would offer me wasn’t a small incentive. I’d guess that there would be some sort of drama, the Wards being a group dedicated to kid Heroes under the age of eighteen, but I really didn’t care all that much for that.

What I did care about was that it would mean the Protectorate and PRT would be wielding authority over my actions and I’d be subject to their will. My plans and intentions would be limited by their laws and regulations and I was sure I’d have less room to move the way I wanted to even with the abundance of resources it would grant me in return. Worse still, it would mean towing the line and listening to their orders. Even disbarring the fact that I wasn’t a fan of authority that hadn’t earned the right to make choices for me, that was something I couldn’t allow. Especially not in Brockton Bay.

“Well I’m not going to force you into signing up.” He relented with a small smile. “It’s your choice at the end of the day whatever you do, but do know that if you ever change your mind, on the Protectorate or the Wards, we would be more than willing to take on an aspiring Cape like yourself.”

“Thank you.”

“In that case, there’s just one more thing, to decide what we do now?”

My eyes narrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I believe that we need to discuss who gets the credit for Lung’s capture.”

Surprised, I stared at him, sort of in disbelief that he even thought to ask but before I could say anything in response, he gently held up his hand.

“Hear me out.  What you’ve done tonight is spectacular.  You played a part in getting a major villain into custody.  You just need to consider the consequences.”

“Consequences.” I repeated, voice low as I tilt my head and my bugs rolled and rumbled.

For some reason, that action made him stop for a brief moment, inspecting me before he continued. “Lung has an extensive gang throughout Brockton Bay and neighbouring cities.  More than that, he has two superpowered flunkies.  Oni Lee and Bakuda.”

I hummed. “I have dealt with Oni Lee, I had known he was a teleporter – I’m not completely out of date in my research – and one that knows how to use it well. He was here tonight fighting alongside Lung and engaged me when we fought. He escaped before I could put him down, though I got a good hit on me before he got away. From what I know, he’s half right-hand man to Lung, half personal assassin.  I’ve never heard of Bakuda I’m afraid. Is she new?”

Armsmaster nodded, “Good to see you’re not ignorant of things with the Gang at least. Oni Lee is as dangerous as they say, in some ways even more than Lung. He can appear practically anywhere without warning and that more than anything makes him deadly if you don’t know he’s coming. As for Bakuda; it’s not surprising that you haven’t heard.”

“She’s new.  What we know about her is limited.  She made her first appearance a few days ago and demonstration of her powers by way of a drawn-out terrorism campaign against Cornell University.  Lung apparently recruited her and brought her to Brockton Bay after her plans were foiled by the New York Protectorate.  This is… something of a concern.”

Someone dangerous then, and someone who knew how to get away from Heroes when they responded to her attacks. Not awe-inspiring or anything, but still impressive. I wonder why she decided to pick Brockton Bay as her residence when New York had been her first showing. What could have brought her here?

“What are her powers?” I asked curiously.

“Are you aware of the Tinker classification?”

“I am. People who can create technology, usually of a specific kind of tech, that’s far ahead of anything the modern world can produce on its own.”

I let my hand drop to my side, flexing it and I have a sense that his eyes are drawn to the clawed digits. “Calling it an advanced grasp of science would be underselling what they can do. I’ve heard there are Tinkers that can make anything from super weaponry, blasters that manipulate elements, to mechanized suits of armour, and highly advanced computers. Technology that’s easily years ahead of its time.” 

“Not all of it but close enough,” Armsmaster said.  It struck me he would be a Tinker, if his Halberd and armour were any indication.  That, or he got his stuff from someone else, but I feel like if that were the case, he might have been a bit more obvious with his powers during a fight. I’d never heard tell of him using anything all that flashy before that didn’t involve his gadgets.

He went on to elaborate. “Well, most Tinkers have a speciality or a special trick.  Something they’re particularly good at or something that they can do, which other Tinkers can’t.  Bakuda’s speciality is bombs.”

I was lucky that my mask was so good at hiding my face because I forgot myself for a second and just…blinked and stared at him, taken completely off guard by the words. “That’s…” It was hard to even articulate what it was and before I could, I realised what I might have said and cut myself off.  A woman with a power that let her make bombs that were technologically decades ahead of their time.  No wonder he saw it as a concern.

It sounded useful.

Armsmaster hadn’t noticed my sudden shift in interest as he continued and I managed to reign myself back in before he could.

“Now I want you to consider the danger involved in taking the credit for Lung’s capture.  Without a doubt, Oni Lee and Bakuda will be looking to accomplish two goals.” He raised two fingers in demonstration.  “Freeing their boss and getting vengeance on the one responsible.  I suspect you’re now aware… these are dangerous people.  Dangerous in ways that their boss isn’t. At least with Lung, there’s a good chance you’ll see him coming.”

“You’re saying I shouldn’t take the credit,” I stated dryly. “Even if they knew it was me who did it from my fight with Oni Lee, they might be less willing to come after me if I didn’t advertise it to the public… keep what I did hidden from any interested parties.”

“I’m saying you have two options.  Option one is to join the Wards, or the protectorate if I’m misreading your age here, where you’ll have support and protection in the event of an altercation not just from this but for any future threats that you might face in your career.  Option two is to keep your head down.  Don’t take the credit for what’s happened here and hopefully fly under the radar.”

I could understand where he was coming from. To him it must have seemed like a reasonable idea. From his perspective I must have looked like I was in a bad situation; A singular Cape on their own, new to this whole thing and probably way in over their head that managed to score big thanks to astronomical luck. The threat of reprisal if I became known to the public wasn’t a small one.

Not to mention it would just be Lung’s crew that would have their eyes on the one who did it, but anyone else looking to prove a point. For someone like Armsmaster, with the backing of the protectorate, he had a measure of safety that I wouldn’t.

For whatever reasons they might have, some Villains would come after me.

Good.

“I appreciate the concern, Armsmaster, sir.” If said, keeping my tone respectful. “But if I feared for my safety, then I wouldn’t have gone up against Lung in the first place. I would have stayed home instead of becoming a Cape in the first place. So… if it’s all the same to you, I’d like it if it was known what I did here.”

“…I see.” He said. He didn’t sound pleased by my decision, but he didn’t seem angry either. The neutrality of his response was a surprise itself, but whatever it might mean I wasn’t sure. What I did know, was that I was sure of my choice. Lung had been a lucky break in more ways than one, but it was done now.

Besides. While I could guess that his intentions were at least mostly good, it didn’t change the fact that if I didn’t take credit for this, then the praise and attention for it would have gone to him and I’m sure he wouldn’t have been upset by something like that at all.

“Well if that’s your choice, then I suppose there’s nothing I can do to talk you out of it.” He nodded to the unconscious body. “In any case, I better get Lung into a cell sooner rather than alter."

"Good." I hummed. "Then I suppose I’d better get going then. It was… good to meet you, Armsmaster.”

“Of course, and once more before I go, I’d like to extend the offer to join the Protectorate. With talent like this, I believe you’d do well with the sort of support that the Protectorate could offer you.”

“I’ll keep it in mind, thank you.” I likely wouldn’t go for it. I had no interest in them, once again but working with them to get what I wanted on occasion wouldn’t be out of the question.

He gave me one last nod and began the work of securing Lung. I in turn, decided that I was done for the night, fixing my hood, I turned and walked down the street the way I’d come. It would take some time for Armsmaster to call the rest of the PRT to clean up the rest of the gangsters lying around after what I’d done, but I didn’t need to worry about that. Whatever came next with those guys was their concern.

It didn’t take long for me to get back to my house, and in the dark of night, I scaled the back of my house, opened the window and climbed through. And, the moment I was in my room, and the window closed behind me, I let out a breath and let my entire body sag.

It’s not exhaustion that sweeps over me, but elation, relief. From the feeling of success, of knowing that I was finally beginning to carry out the work I'd been planning for years all that I had in store for Brockton Bay, even if it was only a small first step, I had started and I knew that I'd stop myself if I ever thought I could back out of now.

I dressed down from my costume, and let myself fall into bed, staring at the ceiling. A part of me found it honestly funny, that with all of what I’d done tonight, tomorrow was a school day, and I’d be going back to the normal part of my life.

But after what I'd just gone through, and with what I knew was coming, maybe it would give me the chance to be human for a while longer.

Chapter Text

I could hear the sound of the TV when I came down the next morning, I could smell the scent of breakfast on the stove that immediately let me know that my Dad was putting in effort today. Eggs and something I didn’t bother to catalogue as I entered the kitchen, where my dad had just started putting his own breakfast onto a plate.

“Hey, Taylor.” My dad smiled at me. “You look fresh and awake. I’m guessing it was a good night last night?” he asked the question casually, with the ease of someone acting innocent, but I could tell it was partly feigned. I didn’t hide the fact that I would be going out as a Cape to my dad, and he knew very well what I was capable of. He probably couldn’t help but be worried all the same.

“Yeah, last night was… fine.” I said carefully, taking the egg from the pass and the bacon set aside on a plate already for me as casually as possible to sell the lie. He might have known what I was up to but that didn’t mean I wanted to tell him all about the danger I was in. he’d go crazy for sure. “I got to see some action from a distance but nothing too crazy. I got to talk to a few other Capes as well, they seemed friendly enough.”

“That’s good.” He nodded slowly, sipping from his mug. “I know it would sound silly to say ‘I hope you make friends’ when it comes to all that cape stuff, but I’d feel better if I knew there were people out there willing to help you out and watch your back.

I hummed. It didn’t feel like that was exactly in the cards just yet but the fact that I hadn’t fought with the kids after I saved them was a good start. Maybe. Either way it didn’t matter much right now, something to think about later. I was just glad that Dad was doing his best to contribute to this in the little ways. He didn’t really get it all, and he hadn’t been happy about my getting Powers since the day I’d gotten them, but he was trying.

It was the thought that counted, I think.

Dad wasn’t a Cape, and he wasn’t even a Magus. It hadn’t been his side of the family I’d inherited that part of my life from so he didn’t really understand all that it entailed but the fact that he tried his best not just to be supportive, but to include himself in what I was doing from time to time so I didn’t feel as isolated as I would have otherwise was his way of trying to be a good Dad.

It didn’t always work, and it was honestly frustrating at times to have him poke his nose in stuff like it, but I knew he could have been worse, could have pushed back against it, so the fact that he didn’t was something I knew should have set something warm in my chest.

To be honest though, I think a lot of it was still the usual concern a father might have for their daughter. He knew I wasn’t some invincible monster. He’d been reminded of that recently with what happened with… the event. Even if I had come out of that just a small bit worse for wear, the fact that I’d been forced into the situation at all had broken any illusion he might have had that I couldn’t be touched.

Like how Mom had been able to sell that same act before she died.

 Even with what I could do, there were certain rules I had to follow, certain things I had to allow myself to go through and pretending to just be… normal, it was what he wanted. I hated it sometimes, trying to be the normal girl he wanted me to be out of some weird idea that a normal childhood was important for me, but I didn’t want to argue about it with him, not when he was doing his best to accept the rest of me.

That being said, he seemed more okay than he had a few days ago when I’d told him what I was doing. I suppose having proof that your daughter had the ability to go out at night and be a Cape and come back alive and without any visible injuries did wonders to assuage the fears and doubts he might have had.

“So what is it you’re watching?” I asked as I sat at the table across from him, accepting the second coffee he offered.

“It’s a documentary, or I guess I biography? It’s one going over the accounts of the survivors from the attack in nineteen eight four, you know, the that ended up with…” He trailed off, seeming to realise that it wasn’t an appropriate topic to talk about first thing in the morning.

I suppressed a wince. He’d be right in that case. One of the most horrific modern events to occur outside of the Endbringer’s, with over a million dead because of it. The event had nearly crashed half the world’s economies from the panic alone.

It had been over in minutes, to fast, and too much of a surprise for anyone to do anything about it. Not even Precogs had been ready for the attack. In the end, all people had as recourse was the ability to talk about it, even over thirty years after the event.

The fact that it had bene the same year that Parahumans had started appearing on mass had made things… even more shaky.

“It’s um, it’s interesting.” He said to me, as if he felt the need to salvage the situation. “It’s all very educational, and it’s important to know how things like this affect us too, I think.”

“Hm, fine.” I rolled my eyes, drawing a mock-huff from him. He wasn’t wrong per say about learning from history, and even as uncomfortable as it was for a lot poof people even to this day, there was no sense in pretending it didn’t happen.

The fact that it hadn’t happened again in the last fifteen years probably made a big difference too, and with what I knew, there wasn’t a chance of it happening again. Not unless things went really bad, that was.

And if it ever got to that point? Well, we’d have bigger things to worry about in our lives than the Gun.

“Oh, by the way.” He blinked, seeming to recall something. “One of the guys that used to work at the dock association, Garry. He was looking for work, got a few offers.”

I tilt my head in though, trying to remember who he was referring to for a moment before it struck me. The last time I’d met him was a few months ago when I’d popped in to say high to my dad at work. He’d been a big guy, burly enough to help with a bunch of the heavy lifting that went on around there.

“Good on him I guess. Hard to get work with the Empire scaring employers off from hiring minorities.”

“Yes well, like I said he got a few offers, one came from the Church actually.”

I paused, glancing down at my plate. “Yeah?”

If Dad noticed my tone he didn’t act like it, nodding instead. “Yeah, but I don’t think he was too keen on the idea of being around priests all day. Not sure what to say to that considering the other option he was thinking about turned out to be Über and Leet.”

I stopped, blinked at that information as my lips twitched upwards. “Seriously? Are they going to make him dress us? Take part in their themes?”

Dad chuckled. “I can imagine it. It’s not bad though. Those two aren’t exactly high profile Villains.”

I hummed in agreement. They really weren’t, though that could have been due to the fact that they were largely seen as incompetent. Villains that barely passed the bar of notoriety. The fact that they streamed their crimes was probably the only thing they had going for them, not forgetting the fact that most people usually tuned in to watch them fail. As far as I knew, they didn’t have a kill count to put them on any PRT lists, though they had done things most people would see as extremely distasteful.

I mean really, the violence against civilian women in that video game about crime and heists or whatever didn’t do them any favours for people arguing that they were loser basement dwellers.

“Well, Everyone needs a job in this city I guess. I hope it pays well for him.” I shrugged. He hummed in agreement and we went back to eating.

For about a minute anyway.

“There was another thing”

“Hm?” I looked up again. Dad sounded a lot more hesitant all of a sudden.

“It was for you.” He said haltingly. “A letter… from Japan.”

Oh.

...The High Dominion had contacted me directly.

I swallowed. “I… okay, okay. Just… I’ll read it later, just put it in my room, yeah?”

He said nothing, just nodding, and went back to eating and acting like the mood of the conversation hadn’t just plummeted.

“Are you going to go for a run this morning?”

“Not today,” I shook my head. “I didn’t push myself much last night so it’s not like I’m tired, but I think I want to I… want time to think, about stuff.. I’ll probably walk around the Boardwalk.”

“You still have school Taylor.”

I held my tongue for a second, reigning back the desire to remind him that I had excellent grades and could afford to miss a few classes if I felt like it, or that I didn’t actually need his permission to do what I wanted. I didn’t say it, but I think the look I gave him was enough to remind him of the former of that fact anyway, judging by how he coughed. I looked away.

“I’ll still go.” I told him. “But classes after lunch are all artsy stuff I can afford to skip without anyone making a big deal about it, so unless something happens to keep me in school, I’ll leave then.”

He nodded, begrudgingly accepting that and went back to eating again.

For all of two seconds.

“There’s… there’s something else I wanted to mention too.”

“Is there?” I barely managed to hold back an irritated tone. Was he really going to make this conversation so difficult? Why did it have to be such a struggle to get anything out of him like this?

I pinched myself on the arm at the internal complaining, catching myself before I could say something nasty. I knew he didn’t deserve it right now.

“Now that sounded serious. Is something wrong?”

He shook his head and to my shock, he smiled. “There’s… I’ve… I know you’ve probably noticed already but I wanted to actually tell you myself. I’ve started seeing someone.”

I stared at him.

“…Oh.”

“It’s- it’s just new.” He said in a rush. “We’ve only gone out on three dates so far, and I wanted to wait until we had that many before I mentioned it in case they didn’t lead to anything. We only met two months ago but, she’s a lovely woman. Samantha’s her name. She’s going through her own things right now and we just sort of hit it off during a conversation when she came into my work but I’ve really enjoyed her company and I think she feels the same way and-”

“Dad, Dad,” I hurry to cut him off, trying to make my voice as reassuring as possible. “Dad that’s great.”

He perked up, looking at me hopefully. “You think so?”

I forced a smile. It might not have been a real smile, a genuinely happy one, but he needs it, so I plaster a fake one on, something I was unfortunately adept at by now. “I think it’s great. Really. If you’ve really met someone that makes you happy and you want to go for it then I say go. You don’t need to worry about upsetting me, I just want to see you happy too.”

“I… Thank you, Taylor.” He said softly, a fragile smile on his face. “I… I was worried that you wouldn’t want anyone else in our family life here. After your mother I… I was afraid neither of us could move on.”

I kept my smile up, even as I felt something acidic roll in my gut. “Well,” I said. “You don’t have to worry about that. If you really need to hear it, you have my blessing, so don’t worry about it, Dad.”

He nodded, and I saw the relief as something like a weight fell off his shoulders.

Suddenly I had an… an urge, to talk to him about things I’ve been holding back. He’s the person that I’ve let the most into my life, as a daughter, as a Parahuman and as a Magus, but there was still so much that I kept from him, he knew that I did, he’d accepted it, but I think it ate away at him that there was something so big in my life that he has no effect on, that he couldn’t help with.

And it ate away at me too, that I had built this separation between us. As… nice as these little moments were, they were few and far between, and never long-lasting. They were things that we did our best to make and continue to maintain as best we could. That illusion of a normal parent and child.

But no matter what, there were just so many things that he couldn’t relate to, some things he could never understand. But there was also so much I kept from him because I just wasn’t sure how to approach it, so much that I was afraid to tell him that I was afraid could ruin him, ruin us.

Did that make me a coward? When it something so important that it could change everything, when it’s so terrible it could break his world, break his image of himself, of his life, of this family?

There was so much I wanted to tell him, and the urge to do it, to just say it, let it all be free, building up on my tongue like acid.

And like every time it had, so very, very often, I swallowed it back, forced it down and locked those feelings under key. Where they couldn’t threaten to upend the one part of my life that was normal and stable and decent.

I couldn’t… I just couldn’t.

So like a coward, I just went back to eating.

…

…

Soon enough, I finished and soon after that, got everything I needed for school that day and headed out. I took the bus, listening to nothing, until I arrived at Winslow.

It still felt oddly novel to me, though I know it shouldn’t have. The idea that I had been a Cape fighting Lung not even ten hours ago, and now I was here, in school like a normal teenage girl. It shouldn’t have, because slipping between two lives was something already expected of me as a Magus. I was something I already did that, although on a smaller scale considering that the other part of my life was one I kept hidden anyway. This felt more… immediate, in a way. More in your face to go from a Cape to a civilian.

I’d get used to it eventually, I knew. So for now I just had to deal with it and soldier on. Right now that meant attending class.

Homeroom was fine. My homeroom teacher, Mrs. Knott, smiled at me as I entered the classroom before returning to whatever work it was she had to do. She was an okay teacher, but an average one, and I had her for computer class on Monday and Thursday mornings. Sometimes she’d also cover a period when another teacher was absent so our interactions weren’t zero, but it wasn’t like we held conversations like I knew some students did with teachers. I was polite to her, she was polite to me and things got on like usual other than that I never really had to interact with her.

I knew she didn’t have any problems with me. My grades were good and I wasn’t disruptive, and I was positive that she never heard word from other teachers about how I was accosted around the school, not that they seemed to notice it either from what I could see. Basically, I was a non-entity to her and she was mostly the same to me other than standing out as a teacher that wasn’t useless.

She took our names, gave announcements to the class to remind us if we were missing anything important coming up in school later on in the year and let us go about our day when the bell rang for my first class and worst class.

Now, I’d like to say I enjoyed Computer class. But that won’t really be true. Not because of any underlying problems with my classmates or issues with bullying, but honestly just because I really sucked at it. I didn’t think I would when I’d first started but I’d quickly learned that I was pretty useless at it. Modern technology unfortunately wasn’t something Magi used. In fact from what I knew, most Magus families actively shunned that sort of thing, not even having phones, let alone computers. If it weren’t for my dad, we wouldn’t have even had a landline at home.

It hadn’t really progressed from there. When my mother had been alive, she’d had no interest in any of the things, not until she’d finally caved and accepted the uses of a phone to interact with the regular world.

That had changed, when she’d been killed. After that, my dad had had the energy or reason to push the use of them at all, so my understanding of how they were used was pretty limited. So yeah, starting the class last year had been a challenge with next to no background knowledge of how to use them, but I’d been willing to learn, wanted to, to give what I could despite how little practice I had with using them growing up it and Mrs Knott had noticed that, giving me the resources to learn.

And I was glad for it. I wasn’t all that interested in the coding aspect of it other than the fact that I could do it if necessary in the basic sense when following instructions, and most of the time I was afraid that I’d click on something I wasn’t supposed to and either download a virus or just blow the computer up somehow. To this day since I started the class, I’d managed to do well only because the homework didn’t actually technically need a computer for me to do it and again, following instructions was pretty easy and really, that was all that high school work was for the most part.

Either way my interest lay more in what was already offered to me; creating databases that allowed me to store and organise information as I liked.

As basic as it was, it was something of an amazing boon to me, as I’m sure it would have been for any Magus willing to swallow their pride and learn. The ability to have an entire library of tomes and spell instructions in one place, without the need for massive storage spaces or hidden areas. With the fact that I was sure that most older Magi couldn’t use it due to their own ineptitude with computers, it was basically untouchable to them.

Well, or now at least. I’d heard a particular class in the Clocktower full of younger students had adapted to technology pretty well, uncaring of what their elders thought on the matter.

Right now though, I was using it for a slightly different reason;

I had the desire to go over a few of the things I’d learned from last night, fact check what I needed to and see if I could find anything else that might be useful. So one of the first things that I did when the desktop finished its loading was to start digging for information.

Luckily most sources of Parahuman information was centralised in one place thanks to eager fans wanting to compile everything they knew about Capes together. For news and discussion on capes was Parahumans Online.  The front page had constant updates on recent, international news featuring capes.  From there, I could go to the wiki, where there was information on individual capes, groups and events, or to the message boards, which broke down into nearly a hundred sub-boards, for specific cities and capes. 

It had been information overload the first few times I’d used it, too much for me to understand all at once and no idea how anything operated. I hadn’t even understood what a threat was that didn’t’ relate to string or webbing.

Thankfully, I’d learned through trial and effort and since then I knew how to navigate it well enough to find the answers I was looking for most of the time. It was how I’d known useful titbits about Lung last night and by extension, Oni Lee.

I opened the wiki in one tab, then found and opened the message board for Brockton Bay in another. I had something very specific in mind that I wanted to look into, mainly, just who were the people I’d met last night?

Thing was, I was still sure that the group in question wasn’t a solid thing. It just didn’t make sense. Other than the new kid, each of those Capes was a known independent, out on their own and as of yet, unaffiliated with any of the gangs. The fact that they all ended up working together then?

That meant something. The fact that I hadn’t heard about any major incident involving any of them to cause that just made it even stranger. Circus had been the one that spoke up the most despite that being apparently against her usually way od doing things. If fact, from what I knew, Circus didn’t talk much unless it was necessary on a job.

It didn’t make sense for her to be the leader, but she’d obviously been the oldest. Trainwreck might have qualified, judging by the sound of his voice, but he was a Case 53, which meant at best, he had a few years of memories and experience to work with. That wasn’t the sort of quality that would be encouraging for others to follow and the others were too young.

Thinking about it… Circus had let something slip, maybe without even realising it.

She’d mentioned they’d been hired to steal from a warehouse, but what if whoever hired them had done more than just throw cash at them. If they had actually pushed for the team to be formed, even temporarily then….

Then it meant something was going on behind the scenes. The only question was who would be able to corral five lone capes into a team like that.

Someone with the resources to get their attention and the money to pay the, definitely, but more than that, someone that had something to gain form that kind of heat that came with five additional Capes.

Not the ABB, obviously, considering they’d nearly been fired by Lung. The Empire was out too. Now way the Nazi’s would tolerate anything by the whitest people they could find and they had a reputation of being non too kind to 53’s either. The actually made it a point to hurt any they came across for reasons I didn’t even what to think about right now.

The only other major faction was Coil but… he had a reputation of using mercenaries, almost exclusively. What reason would he have to switch tactics like that out of nowhere?

There had to be something I was missing, multiple things at this rate.  Something that happened in the city that I hadn’t’ noticed, some newcomer that had slipped beneath my notice.

I searched the wiki.  The result I got was disappointingly short, however. Which made sense yes, most of these wiki’s were curated and updated by regular people, which meant their information was reliant on first hand accounts from witnesses and whatever an interested party managed to dig up.

Looking through it though, I didn’t find anything that could give any hints. From the looks of it, none of the Rouges in question had actually been up to much in the past few weeks at all.

That… was suspicious all on its own. That sort of quiet, form Parahumans?

It wasn’t usual, wasn’t natural. For something like that to be the case, it would have to mean that they were doing something, just out of sight so as to not alert anyone.

Whatever it was though, I had no idea. The last member of the group was Regent.  Worse than the rest, there was exactly nothing on the guy. I was sort of surprised that he had less out there on the internet than what was on the rest considering the way he’d dressed, like he wanted the spotlight.

But no…  Nothing. Either he was new, unremarkable or had the ability, natural or not, to stay out of the public eye.  Further searches on the wiki turned up only a default response, asking me if I had anything to add myself. So a no-go there, as well as message boards that didn’t turn up anything else.  I even did a search for alternate spellings of his name just on the off chance that it was something as simple as that, such as Regence and Recant, in case I had heard it wrong.  Nothing turned up

What I did find though, was the realisation that I had missed something.

It was small, just a few message board and calls to the PRT that had been investigated and dismissed or put on the backburner due to a lack of actionable evidence resulting in upset people talking about it online.

Apparently, there was a new Parahuman in town that I hadn’t noticed. One that had managed to slip into the City without kicking up a  fuss. In reality, it was rumour and hearsay, but if it was true…

A Cape, a girl, by the name of Hellhound.

A parahuman Master that called herself Bitch.

I searched for her name next, not many results , but enough.

They were all under her official title, Hellhound, and when I found articles on the matter, I got a wealth of information.  Rachel Lindt had never made any real attempt to hide her identity.  She had apparently been homeless through most of her criminal career, something that made me feel just a small amount of sympathy for. She’d gone on to live on the streets and moving someplace else whenever police or a cape came after her.  Something that until she had come to Brockton Bay,

The sightings and encounters with the homeless girl changed though, about a month ago, when she was suspected to have entered the city.

The picture on the wiki was better than most villain pictures, mostly because this one came directly from new channels that showed an unmasked, dark-haired girl who I wouldn’t have called conventionally pretty.

She had a squarish, blunt-featured face with thick eyebrows.

She looked young. It was the main thing that stuck out to me. Even with her scowling expression, it didn’t change the fact that she was very obviously a teenager.

 She was riding atop one of her monstrous ‘creatures like a horse and mount, riding it right down the middle lane of a street right in the middle of rush hour traffic.

The fact that she hadn’t been hit was a miracle, though I wasn’t sure if that miracle was for her, or whatever poor fool she might have run through with her car-sized dogs of ripping muscle.

According to the entry, something that had apparently been taken nearly verbatim from police reports that one user had managed to get their hands on somehow, her powers had manifested a year or so after mine age wise when she was fourteen, followed almost immediately by her demolishing the foster home she had been living in, injuring her foster mother and two other foster children in the process.

There had been a panic afterwards and a poor response from local law enforcement that had caused an escalation, then a panic and then well, the then-named Hellhound had fled and in the process caused chaos and damage that had made later individuals less sympathetic to her.

This was followed by a messy two year series of skirmishes and retreats across a major part of the country as various heroes and teams tried to apprehend her, and she either defeated them or successfully evaded capture. Impressive in its own right.

According to Protectorate and PRT findings, she had no powers of her own that would have made her any stronger or faster than the average person her age, but she was apparently able to turn ordinary dogs into the creatures I had seen knocking people around last night.

 Monsters the size of a car, all muscle, bone, fang and claw.  The kind that any Magi would drool over for a familiar that would deal with any trouble that came their way.

A red box near the bottom of the page read, “Rachel Lindt has a public identity, but is known to be particularly hostile, antisocial and violent.  If recognized, do not approach or provoke.  Leave the area and notify authorities as to her last known location.”  At the very bottom of the page was a list of links that were related to her:  two fan sites and a news article relating to her early activities.  A search of the message boards turned up too many results, leaving me unable to sift through the crap, the arguments, the speculation and the villain worship to find any genuine morsels of information. 

It was strange to me when I’d first seen those parts, the fact that there were boards dedicated to people that actually liked Villains in that sort of way, but I’d gotten over it eventually, rationalising it that most people didn’t have a real fear or hatred for criminals they’d never encountered or that they saw more as just another part of the entertainment that the Heroes themselves had become in small part to how they presented themselves as just that. As people you could feel at least around and relax.

It bred a sort of complacency, as unintentional as it was in the first place.

If nothing else, she was notorious. Something to look into later in more detail if I had a chance to and part of me was already making a mental note to do more investigation sooner rather than later. She was their muscle after all, the real threat in a fight that was straight on.

Still, all of that was more a tangent than any real answers… nothing I was looking for.

It was annoying, but there was nothing I could do. With that being the case, I took another path and decided to look more into just who it was I’d be facing in the future. I already knew plenty about Lung from his notoriety, and I’d had a brief interaction with Oni Lee, but Armsmaster had mentioned another.

Lung’s lieutenants were listed as Oni Lee and Bakuda.  I’d already dug up enough on the former but I did catch that there had been a recent update since the last time I’d checked mentioning something else about his powers. Apparently he’d picked up some new equipment. He hadn’t shown it off to me, but it was listed here that he was regularly using more than just common grenades to cause problems now. What those new weapons were was unclear, but a lot of people suspected Tinkertech. That made him far trickier to deal with than he otherwise would be and much more dangerous, if the account about how use used grenades against a squad of Heroes one time was true.

He had a red warning too, warning people of how dangerous and approachable he was.

From what they knew about him, authorities had seen fit to note him a sociopath.  The warning covered the same essential elements: exceedingly violent, dangerous to approach, should not be provoked, and so on.

I frowned at that. It would make him hard to deal with if he was really after me. There would be less chance to talk instead of jumping straight into violence. Annoying

 Bakuda was a new entry and the one I was… more interested in; just recently added to the ABB wiki page just four days ago when someone had spotted her in their colours.  The picture on the page though only showed her from the shoulders up, a girl with straight black hair, large opaque goggles over her eyes and a metal mask with a gas mask styled filter covering the lower half of her face.  A braided cord of black, yellow and green wires looped over one of her shoulders.  I couldn’t pinpoint her ethnicity with the mask and goggles only able to assume she was Asian herself due to the fact that Lung had accepted her at all, and her age wasn’t any easier to figure out.

I could make a guess though, considering she was a recent Cape, where her most notorious event had been when Bakuda had essentially held a university at ransom. She’d done it with powers and as Armsmaster had told me, it was recorded as an ability to design and fabricate high-tech bombs.  There were videos linking to just what she had done at the University, but that wasn’t the sort of thing I could just watch at school. It was something I wanted to see though, for whatever information I could glean from it.  I made a mental note to check it out when I got home.

Curiously, it also didn’t have her actual name in the reports. You’d think they would have released her identity considering she’d carried out a terrorist threat, and later attack, but no. It was as if her name was being censored by someone. Was it because she was a Parahuman? There were laws or rules about that, if I wasn’t mistaken I wasn’t entirely familiar on what those rules were, but I knew they existed.

Well… it wasn’t like I needed her name. It wasn’t like I was going to head on over to Bakuda’s house. I didn’t know the exact comparison, but I could assume a Tinker workshop was at least similar to a Magus’ workshop, and you’d have to be stupid, suicidal or ridiculously powerful to make the decision to step into an enemy's territory like that.

It wasn’t long though, before something else caught my attention. A mention of Lung once again, of his capture.

And there, the reference of a new Cape, one with the ability to control insects, that had managed to capture the leader of the ABB on their own. No name, no image, but very clearly highlighted and accessible.  I resisted the urge to feel good about myself after reading. It was a good start, one that I was sure would be looked at again once I started showing myself off more publicly. It was the sort of notice that would give me credibility, would make people listen when I showed up somewhere, provided they knew it was me but well, I’d never heard of another Cape in the city that could control insects the way I could.

I looked a little bit deeper into that message board, interested in what was being said about me. There were messages of shock and surprise, glad that Lung had been caught and that it was by someone new to the scene, others questioned the validity of it and demanded to know how insects could have possibly beaten someone that could turn into a Dragon.

But soon enough, there was something else that caught my eye, something in the ‘Connections’ section of the message board, where civilians that had been saved or had interacted with a certain Hero left their contact information or messaged for them.

As well as more oddly, where conventions and fan gatherings were organized and where people posted job offers for capes and the cape-obsessed. Not the sort of thing I was interested in myself but to each their own I suppose, no matter how much it made me thing they needed help. Most were cryptic or vague, referring to stuff only the people in question would know for one reason or another, usually to remain as anonymous as possible or because they thought it made them special for their Hero to notice them from it.

The message that caught my interest though, was one titled simply, “Second.”

Something cold and sharp shot through me, and my eyes narrowed. A word, a title like that wasn’t used carelessly, and rarely by someone clueless on the matter. The fact that they’d been able to get in contact with me at all was more than enough for me to take an interest, but to be so blatant about it?

I clicked it, interested in what it said, out of a sudden bolt of curiosity.  What I got was brief.

‘Subject: Second

You are owed for your kind acts after the other night.  Your sudden activity has been noted, and is significant enough to catch my attention. A meeting between peers is needed, and a debt should be repaid. You are already aware of the meeting place. Come when able.

Send a message,

-- Snake.’

And that…

Huh…

That was interesting.

…

…

I didn’t stick around Winslow much longer after that.

I’d told my dad that I’d stay in school until something else came up, and right now, something had. A Villain trying to get in contact with me wasn’t a small thing, and it wasn’t something I was keen on just ignoring either. No. It was worth my attention, far more than a day at school was, where I’d have to deal with Madison, Sophia and Emma throughout the day.

They hadn’t come back to me after I’d given them ideas on what to look into, but I was suspecting that when they did, things would be even more complicated. Avoiding that for as long as possible was incentive enough.

So instead, I took my things, walked right out the front door and made my way back home, empty now that dad had left for work himself. I dropped off my things, and got to work a little more on my costume.

At least one specific aspect of it.

I called it a costume to keep it tethered to my new and growing identity as a Cape, but in reality, it was something made not just with my powers, but with magecraft and because of that, its nature was that of a Mystic Code. A very durable and well-made Mystic Code in my own opinion, but if there was anything it lacked, it was the fact that it wasn’t easily accessible.

I couldn’t wear it all the time, that would defeat the purpose of a secret identity, and it wasn’t the sort of thing I could wear under clothes. It was just a little too much for that. But carrying it around in a bag all day in the event I needed to use it? Not exactly practical either. It wasn’t the sort of thing you could just slip in and be ready and if someone took my bag, it would be easy for them to figure out who I was then.

So, when mundane solutions weren’t enough, turning to Magecraft was my best bet.

And it wasn’t hard to find one.

It was something not uncommon for those that had Mystic Codes, or even just those that relied on tools for their magecraft. The act of changing something’s shape or manifesting it via a conversion of mana into a physical object and then back again. It was one of the processes behind Alteration and Gradient Air respectively, or the more recently developed study of ‘Tracing’ that had been developed and distributed by a Japanese magus that had joined the Clocktower a few years ago.

But even simpler than that, Mystic Code crafters would commonly have an item disguised as another, where in an application of mana to the disguised object would return it to its original shape.

So, say for instance I wanted my Costume to take the form of an easily portable object, such as a ring or bracelet, that would manifest on my body, and replace the clothes I would already be wearing, and then be able to swap back and forth between civilian and Cape identity, well that was certainly possible.

I got to work on it, now that I knew that the costume was effective and I knew it would take me a few hours to have it right, but I had the time, especially when there was a meeting to consider: The recent message from ‘Snake’ was still on my mind the entire time.  They wanted to meet, presumably to repay the apparent favour that was owed to me.  I had a pretty good idea of where it was they were looking to meet with me and if that was the case and I was right, then I needed to consider the possibility that it could have very well been a trap.

There was an issue with that though… I couldn’t imagine any angle where it would be.  ‘Snake’ just didn’t have any reason to go after me. He’d have been stupid to in the first place, considering I’d been the one who’d taken down Lung and they knew I was dangerous even beyond that from our…. Interactions before I’d gone out as a Cape. Turning hostile to someone like that was just a bad idea.

More than all that though, I was intrigued. I honestly hadn’t expected Villains to reach out to me, not without a little more legwork on my end at least and for it to be someone that I already had good will with? That just made it better.

What if I did take them up on the offer?  I could meet them, talk with them, and see what they wanted. There was a chance that they’d have something I wanted back, or maybe point me in the direction of someone who did if I asked them to return the favour that way and if that didn’t work out… well, at least I could make sure to cross out a potential threat in the future off my list.

To do that though, I’d need to get in contact with them again to let them know I was coming, mostly do I didn’t have to deal with being shot at when I waltzed in, and since I didn’t have a computer of my own, that meant the public library was my best bet.

Hmm…that could be an issue in the future. Heroes and Villains were all online now. It was how they communicated. I’d need to correct that. When I got there, it wasn’t hard to find the username that had referenced me before and from there, typed out a simple message, one that as best I hoped, would be inconspicuous to anyone that wasn’t already looking.

‘Subject: Re:Bug

Bug here.  I would like to meet to talk about what is owed or not, but if this meeting is too happen, I expect assurances of neutrality as well proof you are who you say you are.  I’ll reciprocate if needed to keep things fair.

There. Simple, impartial but to the point and hopefully enough to get the verification I needed that they were serious and not just prodding or trying to cause an incident with me. If they responded, I could take them a little more seriously. Sure enough, I didn’t have to wait long for a reply after sending it.

The reply came only two or three minutes later.

‘Subject: re:Bug

Assurance? You know that you have all the assurances you need with our own powers, but if such things are needed, then please recall our agreement to stay out of one another businesses, and understand that this meeting must take place to amend and reinforce that agreement. If you fear harm, be assured that such a thing would not occur.

My sponsors would not allow it.

If you are coming to this meeting. Be there at 3, arrive unarmed and in peace.

‘Snake’

Remarkably, I could somehow hear the coldness through text, but it was enough to convince me they were the real thing at least, and they’d given me what I needed to meet up with them. Good. I could go into this a little more prepared now that I know the tone of this whole thing. Whatever the case, it meant that this was a serious meeting, one it’d treat as such. Whatever this was about, I could assume it was at least important enough that they’d involve themselves in my business in the first place.

I tilt my head. Arrive unarmed though? Not likely. Magi had different protocols for their identities yes, they weren’t afraid of showing their faces but as a Cape, there was meant to be an extra layer of anonymity for a reason, I wasn’t going to go into anything like this unprepared, especially not with them. not until I knew exactly what it was they wanted.

That said, I didn’t need to tell him that, did I?

               ‘Subject: Re:Bug

See you at three.’

Chapter Text

Making my way through the city wasn’t actually as much of an issue as you’d think. I was in costume, yes, but I had a few things that made it far easier to navigate. One, people in Brockton Bay were used to Capes. It was in the top ten cities in the world in regards to its Cape population, be they hero or villain, and it meant that even if someone did happen to spot me, they knew enough to keep their head down and pretend they didn’t notice me. Unless they could tell I was a known hero, they’d not risk the chance I was a new villain or a particularly nasty rouge.

People had learnt that lesson more than once in this city.

Two, I wasn’t using the open street. The idea that rooftops were open season for Capes still held into effect, yes, but the same couldn’t be said for walls.

I could stand on them obviously, I wasn’t Spiderman, as cool as that might have been, but with enhanced strength, speed, grip and reflexes, not to mention enough passable acrobatics to keep me falling on my face, I could run and jump from one wall to the next, finding proper handholds for split seconds before spring boarding off of the solid walls and towards the next one, faster than most people would usually be able to track. The fact that I kept to alleyways and narrow streets made that even easier, and doing so while above people’s heads helped considering most people never looked up.

And three, my insects were at work, giving me the layout of everything within a kilometre of me at all times, showing where the less densely populated paths were, where the best routes were to meet where I wanted in the most efficient way, all while keeping an eye or a thousand out for anyone I didn’t want spotting me.

When I’d first gained my powers, I’d barely been able to see anything from them. More signals from their sense’s ink blot patched of light and dark in the vague formation of shapes. Sounds had been overwhelming, painful to listen to amplified tens of thousands of times over and over again, it had been sensory overload to the extreme and most of the information I’d been able to glean from it had been useless.

Not anymore though. I’d had years to grasp them and I hadn’t just studied and practised with my powers constantly once I’d gotten them, I’d improved upon them with my Magecraft. Memory Partition and Thought Acceleration had been extraordinary aids all on their own, spells that I was still massively grateful for being taught in order to deal with my issues but more than that, I had improved my insects and my connections to them through my senses. I could see, hear and feel far clearer now. It was still a black-and-white image when I tried to see through the eyes of my insects, but it was clear and vivid. Crisp and clear like a high-definition camera, with the sounds filtered in a way that my brain could comprehend and manage it so it didn’t give me headaches.

Most of the time anyway. It was fine when focused on a single area, but if I tried to divide my attention between several places at once and try to see and hear from those points, I got reacquainted with the feeling of a knife rattling around in my skull multitasking enhancements or no.

Add all that on to the one way I’d referred to use them beforehand; that being their sense of touch, something that had always translated much clearer than the rest and now, was practically pinpoint in its precision. I had been acutely aware when a target was very still, if they were moving, or if something else was moving them, but now more than that, I could tell if a target was warm or cold, whether it was light or heavy, hollow or dense, as well as the fact that if I focused, I could even decern the texture and materials of something and it was always the first sensation of felt. When I wasn’t trying to look through anything in particular, the tactile sensations were still clear, always giving me an early warning.

It had taken a long time to get it like that. Long and arduous work that still wasn’t completely perfected, but right now, it was a good enough tool for scouting.

It didn’t take long then, to arrive back in the area where I’d dealt with Lung, and even less time to stop a group of three hanging around where the Gangster had been taken down on the practically abandoned street.

The place looked pretty damaged from then, with fire damage and a torn-up sidewalk all along the street to the other end, but there were still people using it, going about their days like it was business as usual.

Maybe that said something about how numb people were in the Bay about stuff like this, or maybe I was looking too much into it, either way, it wasn’t the regular passerby I was interested in.

What did interest me was the service tunnel entrance I could see as I made my way closer to the docks.

Like a lot of the docks, especially the north side, it was in disuse. Boarded up except for a single employee door that itself was chained up with a  rusty looking chain to keep teenagers and squatters out.

The impediment was of no consequence to me though. I tapped the rust padlock, letting a pulse of Od seep in and heard it click open. From there, I pulled the chain away and pushed the door open, entered, and closed it behind me so that nobody that wandered places like this would think to come this way too.

I let out a breath, peering into he darkness of a rounded concrete tunnel. There were old pipes running along the sides, and cracks running along the walls and ceilings as far as I could see before the shadows swallowed everything up.

The place was abandoned, like most old industry in the Bay, but for once, that was only a surface level thing. For what I was using it for, it was exactly how it was supposed to be

I raised an open hand and summoned a fist sized flame in it, watching as light filled the tunnel and the shadows on the edge grew harsher as they danced with the crackling light. As I walked, the kept the flaming going, acting as my guide as I counted my steps and tried to imagine where I was on the surface, as the tunnel dipped down and down.

The facts were, the Service tunnels hadn’t actually ever been a finished structure. There had been plans for tunnels all across the city to allow regular people to travel from place to place without getting caught up in the hubbub of city traffic and congestion, where workers would transport materials, tools and themselves with ease. I was sure that it had also probably been funded by more than a few villains. After all, tunnels were practically perfect for sneaking around a city without the Protectorate chasing behind you.

And yet, it had been abandoned.

Most people didn’t know why and just chalked it up to the funding drying up, or the project becoming unfeasible.

They didn’t know about what had been found beneath the city, and what had been done to bury it there.

Even to this day, what had been found was still down there and more than once, I’d wondered if it wouldn’t’ have been better to bury the whole city as well, just to be safe. But the decisions had been made before I was born, and this was the way it was done now and what remained of it all, was these half finished tunnels.

I knew that a lot of them lead to basements of warehouses, and a whole lot more led to dead ends where those working had been told to stop or been fired when support for them had been pulled.

But a handful? Like the one I was approaching now, where a door half obscured by purposefully placed rubble and wood, had other uses all of their own.

 I made the turn, into the exit and down a longer, narrowed tunnel, one that looked for more recently built, maybe only within the last decade. Cleaner walls, smoother brickwork and piping. And eventually, the flicker of electric powered lights. I snuffed out my flame as I came to them and went further.

One and on, for about another seven or eight minutes, before eventually, I came to a metal door. More accurately, it would have been true if I had referred to it as a vault door; circular, large and if I had to guess, at least a foot thick.

The sort of first line security that I expected at this point from him.

I scoffed at it all the same, shaking my head before I rapped by fist against it, making sure to add a little bit of extra force just to startle whoever might be on the other side waiting. It made a heavy echoed sound and a few seconds I heard someone barking orders behind it.

A few seconds more, and there was a buzz, then the sound of pneumatic pistons shunting and working and the vault door opened with a low groan inwards.

I waited, standing there and a moment before it opened fully, I ran a hand over my wrist where the storage space of my costume resides and my half-disguise vanished, leaving me in my spider silk suit and mask.

A moment later, a came face to face with a heavily suited up mercenary, complete with dark armour and military equipment that looked like it had been ripped form the back of a convoy and then supped up with tech deemed too expensive for the average soldier. In his hands was a long, dark rifle with a steady pulsing red barrel and what looked like vent exhausts on either side. He had it pointed down to the floor but I saw the way he flinched when I caught sight of me.

Not out of fear, but wariness. A soldier recognising a newly identified threat and restraining himself from reacting violently.

A Mercenary, and a good one at that.

“Ma’am.” He said after a moment where I stood there silently. his own voice was filtered by some sort of radio in his face guard that made it crackle and buzz enough that it would be unrecognisable. “The Boss is waiting for you. Please, follow me.”

He turned on his heal and marched down the rest of the hallway and I followed three feet behind. I wasn’t expecting him to suddenly turn and fire, but I thought he would apricate the distance for what it was, considering most normal people in his positions would be wary of Capes. And he hadn’t even seen my bugs yet.

I followed him in silence for another five minutes, until we came to another set of vault doors. Theis one, he slammed his fist against and a second later I saw the flash of a camera activating within. It recognised him, and there was another buzz, repeating the same thing that had gone on with the prior door, where a pair of Merc’s in the same get up were waiting. They regarded me with the same demeanour the previous one had and fell in line as I was escorted even further. Not for long this time, just another thirty seconds, through a more normal iron door this time fit for the inside of a bunker from one room to another and then, I was in an underground bunker compound, with solid concrete walls and lights flickering overhead.

I was silent as I walked down the hall but that didn’t mean I wasn’t active. I searched the bunker through the insects within the base, looking for raps of threats. I wasn’t expecting any right now, but it didn’t hurt to be careful, especially with him. That said, I wasn’t hard to notice that there was a suspiciously low number of bugs around. Almost like the place had bene sterilised and cleaned out of them.

They’d been through, likely just or this occasion, but it was practically impossible to get rid of every insects in a place like this. Here were just too many places for them to hid and breed, something I encouraged every time another came into my range.

It wouldn’t hurt to have by own eyes and ears in here after all.

Pretty soon I was led to another door, whereupon the mercenary at the head knocked, far more polite than he had before. There was a voice from inside that I didn’t recognise and he Mercenary turned to me, standing straight along with his companions.

“Ma’am.” He spoke. “The Boss instructed that we show you to this room. Please wait inside. They will be with you shortly.”

I tilt my head minutely, well aware of the way the three men before me suppresses shivered to varying degrees. It was odd, this kind of reception, but I didn’t sense any ill intent. Either there was nothing to worry about, or these three just weren’t aware of it

Honestly, it could have been either or, but I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt, if only because I couldn’t image anyone in this Bunker being stupid enough to cross me in an enclosed space like this.

I waked past them into the door as the door was opened for me and the moment I stepped in, it closed again, leaving me alone with the occupants already there.

They all turned, looking at me at the same time, looking surprised at my appearance.

There were six of them in all, scattered out across what was basically a lounge area without much of the luxury. One young man was sprawled across a couch upon my entrance and it took him a moment to register that I was someone new before he didn’t-quite-jump off the couch and faced me.

The other’s had similar reactions, at least in that they all seemed surprised and wary of my arrival.

I wasn’t much focused on details like that. Other than the fact that one of them was in a wheelchair, what really held my attention was that they were all in Costume.

They were all Capes. 

A buzzing sound filled the room, and the insects I had hidden beneath my suit and in the contortions and rides of it came to life, vibrating and reacting to the irritation that suddenly came to the forefront.

Capes that I didn’t recognise, established ones from the looks of it, in my city without my knowledge?

Slipped in under my nose?!

“Woah there!”

The one that had sprung up from the couch earlier startled, one hand raised in front of him my way as the other fell to his side like he was reaching for something a weapon, a gun or maybe something completely different. Whatever it was, I didn’t much care.

The others looked just as ready to act. There was another boy in bulky, angular black armour, a delicate looking woman wearing a black body suit with a red sun emblazoned on the chest. There was another taller, lanky boy in the back wearing more of that same red and black body suit, this one looked armoured in the essential areas, his ace was covered by a blank looking mask with thin eye slits.

There were only two without costumes, and even so, they had something obscuring their identities within this Bunker, likely from the Mercenaries patrolling the lace, in the form of Domino Masks and face mask. One of them was the girl in the wheel chair, while the other was a boy that looked younger than he should have.

It was the impression I got from him, like something odd push against my senses that told me he looked wrong in a way I couldn’t’ place, but it was enough for me to regard him suspiciously. He looked defenceless compared to the others, and felt much the same, but that didn’t mean I dismissed him as I glanced back at the one that had spoken up upon my arrival. The man wearing a dark red and black overcoat and top hat.

“I don’t know who you are.” He said. “But I think it’s bad manners to come in with that sort of attitude, don’t you think? Especially without introducing yourself. I thought this was supposed to be our little private place in the Bunker too, mind telling us why you’re here?

“What do you think you’re doing?” I demanded, the bugs I used to project my voice rolling over the surface of my costume, the sound and sight of the coughing more than one of the Parahumans in front of me to flinch and I could sweat that at least one of them looked ready to attack.

“What are you-”

I’m not paying attention to them any more than I need to though. No, my attention is on the door at the other side of the room, and on the man waiting behind it.

“Well? I’m waiting for an answer, Coil.”

The sound of my voice is enough to stir him and a second later amongst the confused sounds of the people in the room he entered. 

“Now, now, there is now need for open hostilities like this.” He said, as he walked into the centre of the room. “I called a meeting with you to speak, not fight.”

I didn’t quite glare at him, but the stare I gave him through my mask must have been clear by the way he stood there without an of the over-aggrandised confidence he’d possessed the first time we’d met. He met it with discipline and professionalism, which meant I could at least allow him that in return, for however long it would last.

I pulled back my miniature swarm, letting them crawl back into my suit and leaving only a few to cling along my neck and shoulders.

The one in the top hat shivered before remembering himself and turning to the man in the dark, snake adorned body suit.

“What the hell, Coil!” He spat. “You think you could have warned us before you had another one of your Capes walk right in and scare us like that.”

“You will do well to be careful what you say, Trickster.” Coil answered firmly. “This one is not one of mine, and if she decided to make you regret that disrespect, there wouldn’t be much I could do to stop her.”

He blinked, caught off guard by the response, turning to look between the two of us as his companions did the same, clearly just as confused.

“You may refer to her, as the Second Owner.” Coil went on. “If she gives you another name to use in the interim, that is up to her, but for now, keep quiet until spoken to.”

That seems to be enough to get him to quiet down, and I watch as he lowered himself onto the couch gain, still wary, but mollified for now.

I can’t say the same for myself.

“Who are they?” I demand, controlling the sound of my bugs so that they still talk for me, it is at a more human volume and tone. Still unrecognisable as my voice, but not so disruptive.

“They are called the Travellers.” Coil explained swiftly. “A group of villains that live up to their name by never remaining in one place for too long. I came into contact with them through an associate and hired them to come here and work for me for a time. They are well known in circles for being competent and effective.”

“And you brought them here, to my city, because you have something planned.” It is a statement rather than a question, though Coil nodded all the name.

“Correct.” He said. “They arrived just recently however, and I deemed it the opportunity to get in contact with you and request their presence here in Brockton Bay.”

My eyes narrowed.. he was asking for my permission, though I suspected that if I refused, he’d do what he could to sneak them in under my nose anyway where I couldn’t see and flout anything I said. On the other hand, he was respecting the authority I had as Second owner and as much as I didn’t like the idea of more Parahumans in Brockton Bay threatening to cause any more chaos, the fact was that I didn’t have any real reason to refuse them, especially when he was asking.

It was a formality that he could have bulldozed over and claimed ignorance, but instead, he’d followed along and put me in apposition where if I refused him, id’ look unreasonable and weaken my own position in the further if something like this came up again.

While I stewed over that fact, the Travellers didn’t stay silent.

The one guy in the back stepped forward crossing his arms. “Wait, why do you need her permission?” He argued. “Aren’t you supposed to be the boss of your own gang in this city?”

“Indeed I am, Perdition, her city.” Coil answered back smoothly. Unruffled by the questioning. “The other Gangs might not be aware of the reality of things, but anyone that wishes to remain alive or active in this city requires he Second Owner’s permission to be here.”

What was his angle here, talking me up to these people? My position wasn’t that strong here and he knew it. My mother’s might have been, had she cared. When she had, even those like Allfather and Marquies had been controlled. It hadn’t been until she’d pulled back from overseeing the Bay that they’d been able to get real footholds.

I didn’t have that sort of power or influence, not yet at least, and yet Coil acted as if I did to people that wouldn’t know better and make their own assumptions on how I managed it form the shadows.

What did he get out of that?

I had no idea, and I wasn’t sure I lied it, but arguing the point would make me look childish for no reason, and so there wasn’t much I could do but accept the words.

Perdition hadn’t seemed to get that hint yet, puffing his chest out challenging even as other girl in the wheel chair tried to get is attention and get him to quiet down. “What, you think we need to ask some girl to do what we want here?”

“It would be smart of you, yes.” He said. “She is a force to be reckoned with, one I’m not sure your own group could handle if she decided you were a threat to be removed, as they city say itself this week. After all, she is the one that dealt with Lung.”

The silenced him, as the Travellers regarded me with a new wave of wariness even as Coil dipped his head in my direction.

 “I needed to thank you for that as well, in person.  I had convinced all those independents to work together after weeks of pulling the correct strings, it would have been unfortunate to see it all go up in smoke.”

I ignored to pun. “And you needed them attacking that warehouse why?”

“They told you about that? “Well, it wasn’t something all that important.” Coil shook his head. “No, the main reasoning was a way to grease the wheels so to speak. To test their own competency in working in a  group despite being self-proclaimed independents and make them more willing to work with eh same people in the future. Again, something you helped with, aiding them against Lung. They were far more willing to accept tat the job was a successful wone because of it. Circus extends her thanks, by the way.”

“I still wonder how you managed to get a group like that to work together at all.”

“You know how it is, money in large enough sums is always a good incentive.”

That… was a fair point, as annoying as it would be to admit that. Sometimes you didn’t need to look into some deep reason as to why Capes worked with one another. Sometimes money was enough.

I let out a sigh. “Tell me then, the exact request you have for me.”

Coil folded his hands behind his back. “I request your consent to allow the Travellers into Brockton Bay, to operate and act by my command, as well as in both their civilian and Parahuman identities, to inhabit and work within the bounds of the city, per your authority as the Second Owner.”

“You have brought forward your request, permission to operate within my city,” I intoned. “Is granted.”

Coil nodded, not given words to say what he thought of my acceptance of it, but I could feel the approval rolling off him in waves, tinged with that smug air of his that I couldn’t do anything about without seeming erratic or unreasonable.

Part of me was still tempted to, but burning bridges over something so petty was stupid.

“Excellent.” He said after a moment. “With that matter solved, so too is the need for you to see the Travellers. I had thought it best this way for you to actually see the individuals in questions as to not cause confusion.”

“I’m still plenty confused.” Trickster muttered and I resolved to learn who they all were later, if only sop I could refer to them properly inside of my own head.

“Fine then.” I said. “Is that all you called me here for, or is there anything else.

“Actually, there is something else.” He said. “But that is a more private conversation, oen I would have with you in my office, if you would.”

With a tilt of my head, I hummed, then nodded, a gesture for him to lead on.

He did so, after turning to the others in the room one last time.

“Travellers, as you were. You are free to go into the city as you see fit. Do not draw attention to yourselves until I give you the word.”

“Uh… yeah, sure.”

Trickster glanced between us, the expression on his face making it clear that he was going to have a conversation about my presence with the rest of his team. What that might entail, I couldn’t’ say, but Coil seemed confident enough that it wouldn’t’ be an issue, at least for him, so for now I’d let it go.

I didn’t need to distract myself with problems like that.

I turned to leave and I followed him out of the room, down an new hallway, with a dozen armed mercenaries posted along it all the way to another door. It was his office, and upon entering, he took a seat at a large oak desk.

On the other end was another chair, which he gestured for me to take.

For a moment I debated refusing and standing instead, but I wasn’t interested in petty power plays. I took it, sitting as comfortable as I could without looking like I was fidgeting. I regarded him for a while, trying to think a bout what I was he could want other than what he’d already asked, but honestly, there was another matter that had held me up.

“You tried to blindside me with that.” I said flatly. “Leading me into a room full of Parahumans I don’t know anything about… one could take that as a hostile act.”

“It was not intentional, I assured you.” He responded in a reasonable voice. “It was simply a case of time being of the essence. When I said they arrived only recently, I meant it. I had them remain here on site the entire time until I could contact you, but there was only so long I would be able to before they caused issues.”

He said it so calmy that I almost believed him. That his explanation was perfectly reasonable. Almost.

Coil didn’t do things like this be accident, and contacting me the day after I’d come into contact with other Parahumans working for him?

No, he had another angle, here, even if I couldn’t figure out what it was.

“You make it hard to trust you, all the same. “I said, tapping a clawed finger against the arm of the chair. “Sometimes I wonder if our truce is worth it or not, when I know you’d just as easily stab me int eh back if you thought you could get away with it.”

Coil didn’t even stir at my accusation. If anything, he seemed to find it funny. “You know that I am the best out of several bad options.”

Annoyingly he was right. I could say what I wanted about Coil, but in a city where one of the major powers were sex trafficking scumbags lead by a rage dragon and a teleporting, suicide bombing assassin and the other was a legion of super powered Nazi’s, Coil own group wasn’t just far better off, but it was a stabilising force.

If it were just the previous two, I was sure that there would have been a lot more Chaos in the Bay that even the Protectorate stationed here would have been able to handle on their own.

As it was, Coil’s own organisation was a factor that kept everything in balance, for now.

It was why I tolerated him, for the most part. He was still scum, but he and his mercenaries weren’t known for the… institutional atrocities that the others were. He was also aware of the Moonlit World, at least the barest amount of it, which made it even easier to deal with him this way.

I sighed again, leaning back in the seat just a little.

“What do you want, Coil?” I demanded in a way I knew would push against his nerves. “You said there was something else we needed to speak about, so don’t waste my time with any more of this talking in circles. Say what you want to say so I can leave.”

I waited for him to answer, to say something that would actually make this all worth my time. Instead, another voice – chirpy yet dripping with sarcasm I could practically taste - cut in crackling over the static of Coil’s own computer.

“Wow, boss. I didn’t think you’d be that patient when someone disrespects you like that. Certainly aren’t with me.”

I resisted the urge to tense at the sound. Even as I sat there as still as I could and force myself not to show any reaction, I sent my bugs into a frenzy, scattering the ones around the Bunker all over the place in search for the source of the voice. They weren’t in the room, they weren’t even in the general vicinity, but there was no way Coil would let anyone have access to his private office unless they were within reach.

They were somewhere here.

And I… couldn’t find them.

At least not right at this moment in the seconds between my reaction and Coils, as he tilt his head, clearly aware that even though I wasn’t showing it, the addition of someone else into the conversation had surprised me.

I didn’t let that get to me. Or I did my best to make sure it didn’t, and with my mask, I was sure he couldn’t tell for certain either way. I let my bugs around by neck shudder more rapidly than before, adding a harshness to my artificial voice.

“Another surprise, Coil?”

“A smaller one, but one I’m sure you will acknowledge as worthwhile. Second, this is Tattletale, the most recent addition to my organisation. A Thinker of much value, even if she is perhaps slightly too wilful.”

“Gee, thanks Boss. Good to know I can count on you to support all my little quirks.”

I glanced at Coils computer where the voice was coming from. I couldn’t see the screen, so I couldn’t’ say for sure that it wasn’t also a video call or something. I couldn’t even tell if there were cameras in this room or not, hidden within he walls. For all I know, this ‘Tattletale’ could both see and hear me just fine.

I didn’t have so much to work off of. Even her voice wasn’t completely clear. The static and distortion seemed purposeful, likely so that I couldn’t’ be able to match it if I ever heard it in public. What I could tell, was that the Tinker sounded young. Maybe somewhere around my age, with a bite to it that I couldn’t place the reason for.

“And why has this meeting between the two of us suddenly involved a third?” I questioned.

“I thought it best to give Tattletale some first hand experience with you, seeing as how she will be managing a portion of my operations from here on out, as well as any that… might include crossing your path from time to time.”

“And that raises the question, doesn’t it?” I tapped by finger against the chair arm again. “What is the aim of this meeting? It feels strange for you to all go out of your way just to thank me for saving some random Capes, even ones you have in your employ, considering I doubt they mean all that much to you. A simple thank you would have sufficed if you really insisted on protocol and yet here you call me here, introduce me to the Travellers and then reveal your knew Thinker.

I tilt my head, leaning forward as I did so. “A card I know for a fact you would otherwise keep close to your chest. come. The strange choice to reveal her like this aside, I can’t think of anything you couldn’t need from me.”

“You’d be wrong about that then, about the first part that is.” Coil deflected. “You would be right that it would be ill advised if there was no context around it, but I found it necessary for a… show of trust.”

“For?” I prompted. “Why, exactly, do you need my trust?”

Coil was silent for a long second, before he reached for the drawer at his desk. I didn’t react. I knew he wouldn’t be stupid enough to pull a gun on me here but there was some surprise where he instead took out a small box.

“I said I was grateful for your assistance the other night. It if because of you that the job was complete. As such, this is all yours, no strings attached.”

Without taking the box, I tilted my head to get a better look at it. I let a single insect fly in and slip through the crack in the lid. What I was more interested in was what was inside. It wasn’t a bomb or trap as far as I could tell. It would have been stupid if it was obviously, considering they were right in front of me.

“Go on, open it already!” Tattletales voice interjected, sounding both exasperated and insistent and after another moment I did so.

I stared at the contents inside.

“Money.” I breathed, surprised more than anything that they were so casually handing this out to me. Stacks of bills. Each of the bands had a number written on it in permanent marker.  Over a dozen stack of fifty dollar bills, as thick as my fist…

Tattletale answered the same moment I counted it all up in my head half a second later. “Ten grand, all right there.”

“Really?” I looked away from the money, back to coil. It might have been an insignificant for him considering his resource, but it still wasn’t a sum of money to throw around casually. “Just for me? Now I know you want something, but I still can’t imagine what.”

“Well the way we see it, you have two choices here,” Tattletale spoke up, taking control of the conversation, and I had a suspicion it was Coils intention, for reasons I couldn’t begin to guess. “You can take that as a gift, no strings attached.  A thank you for, saving our asses from Lung last night, whether you cared or not about us or not.  Also it’s meant to maybe a bit of incentive to count us among your friends when you’re out in costume and doing whatever it is you have in mind for your cape career, you know? So you keep in mind not to run through the Bosses men if they happen to be in the same place as you during a heist or something.”

That was fair. It wasn’t like I wanted any excessive collateral damage or anything, but from what I could tell there wasn’t any so-called honour among thieves when it came to villains, at least not in the case of different groups or gangs. They’d just as soon tear each other apart as they would a Hero.

Coil wasn’t any different. Rather, his people might have been slightly more worrisome, considering their weaponry. Capes at least, had a habit of not killing each other so easily. Gun toting mercenaries made that sort of restrained a lot less likely.

I could hear the grim in Tattletales voice as she went on, as if she’d said something she found amusing. For some strange reason, I got a feeling as if I’d said something I shouldn’t have, even though I know for sure I hadn’t said any of that out loud.  She elaborated, “Between territory disputes, differences in ideology, general power struggles and egos, there’s a rare few people in the local villain community who won’t attack each other on sight. Now I know you already have some sort of… agreement, with the Boss here, but it doesn’t hurt to have reminders like this as to why you should keep to it.”

Fair enough. It was a reasonable request, all things considered, and so long as they upheld that peace, I had no reason not to do the same. “I see. You mentioned that there was a second option?”

“You can take this as your first instalment in the monthly payment you’re entitled to as a member of my organisation,” Coil said “As one of mine.”

…Huh…

“As one of yours.” I echoed, the words coming out slowly. My gaze shifted to Coil looking for any sort of deceit, any sort of trickery that might have given away that he wasn’t serious about what I’d just heard but… other than the vague image of an expression beneath his featureless mask, there were no changes from that statement.

But Tattletale did feel the need to add on to his statement. “Well, it’s a little more complicated than that I guess. Something tells me you’re not looking to be tied down permanently to a team, or throw in your allegiance or whatever with us for good, but if it’s the freelancer lifestyle you’re looking for then the Boss would be happy to hire you on for the foreseeable future. Like… like a Cape-for-hire until otherwise, if that makes sense.”

They… they were being serious.

Of course that money is simply the reward offered for what you did earlier. Should you accept, there would be further payments for future endeavours. I am aware that you have need of… resources, that I would be open to providing.”

A part of my mind filed away the mention of further endeavours Coil had in mind, things that right now, were unknowns. Most of me was more focused on the mention of more money. More of what I wanted.

It felt almost too convenient. A single day as a Cape, and then I get approached by a Coil, someone who from the looks of it, was beginning to make moves different from his usual routine, who wanted me to join them and were willing to pay a significant sum of wealth to convince me. Money, I reminded myself that was not something he were too pressed to come by in less than legal terms.

It could have been a trick, a trap of some kind, too good to be true for someone to basically be handing me at least the means to make what I wanted so much easier so soon.

Needing a moment to think, I shifted the conversation a little. “And what about your other Capes? What are their opinions on all of this, considering they’re not here with us right now? You know as well as I do that Parahumans that don’t already have connections can find it… difficult to work with one another

“Yeah, well I don’t think we need to put it to a vote.” Tattletale scoffed. “And I’m sure most of them won’t bring up any problems with it considering you saved them from being roasted alive

“On the other hand, only my ‘vote’ actually matters,” Coil cut in. “They are on my dollar. They know to fall in line. I don’t tolerate my people putting petty arguments and issues before my own goals. Something they all understand. Of course, they are free to leave or refuse employment, just as easily. Keeping unwilling Parahuman in my empty can be… tedious

“Suggesting you’ve done this before?” I tilt my head. “From the looks of your numbers, you already have plenty to work with, money wise and whatever else you have on hand. It must have went badly if a recruitment pitch failed

“Uh, yeah,” Tattletale groaned and I swore I saw a flicker of irritation in Coils posture that smoothed out just as fast. I could understand why. Tattletale seemed… lax, with formalities. “It didn’t go well.  We tried with Spitfire, and she got scared off before we even got to the job offer.  I’m pretty sure she got scared off by the shadowy mercs and bunker vibe.”

I hummed. “Spitfire… She has been picked up by Faultline’s crew recently, right? Palanquin, they’ve started calling themselves now.”

 “Yeah, they picked her up before we could try again with her and convince her a better way. The Boss made the offer to Circus right after, and she at least was a lot more willing to hear him out. That took a while though. Circus was not easy convinced and let me tell you, she knows how to sling insults with he best of them when she wants to.”

“So you switched up your tactics with me, really decided to lay it on thick. Showing off your capes, money in hand and a ‘polite’ offer to join while inviting me into your home.”

“That sums it up pretty well, yeah.” She agreed. “Long and short of it is; with Lung taken out of action like he was last night and the ABB on the backfoot now that he’s gone and their leadership is in pieces, there’s bound to be some pushing and shoving over territory and status among the various gangs and teams.”

I hear the tapping sound of a finger over the speaker as Tattletale began rattling off names. “Us, Faultline’s Crew, the remaining ABB, Empire Eighty-Eight, maybe even the merchants as well as the solo villains, and any out-of-town teams or gangs that figure that they can worm in and grab a piece of the Bay while the gates are open and everyone’s defences are down.  If it comes down to it, we want firepower.  The Boss has plenty of money, but before recently, it wasn’t a secret that he employees Mercenaries and not much else. The way I figure it, this makes it easy to pretend it’s still like that. The Travellers and other independents working but not openly affiliated with this organisation. Gives everybody here more room to breathe and act and honestly. After what last night showed, it’s only a matter of time before a bunch of the Merc’s end up stuck in a fight they can’t win, with without the proper support. Support that only Capes can provide.”

“So you come to me, hoping to add to that.”

“You bet we do. The stuff you did to Lung was no joke, and you know how to end a fight as well as you do to start one. So the idea is that you join up with us for a while until we can get ourselves properly stabilised in the new status quo again. With you on our side, we’re hoping it’ll give us a serious boost, with you as our powerhouse warning off people that might think it’s a good idea to weed out the smaller chunks of the competition.”

“How flattering.” I growled, my bugs warbling threateningly. If Tattletale was here in person, I could have seen how she reacted, whether she was intimidated or not. As it was, I had nothing to go off of but guess work on her thought proves and how much of what she said was truthful. The fact that she was speaking in Coils place set off all sorts of Alarm bells in my head but I hadn’t figured out why yet.

Or why she was apparently important enough to be in this discussion at all.

I wasn’t masking my emotions in the swarm now. I might have even been exaggerating them. I wanted them to understand exactly what I thought about this sales pitch but the other girl just sighed.

“No I’m serious. Entire teams of capes with planning and backup have gone up against Lung and got their asses handed to them while he was able to wake away like it was fine.  Then you show up and take him down single-handedly.”

I could practically hear how they shrugged. “Honestly that's why I don’t think it would be a good idea to have you on as a permanent member. Almost too strong, you know? The upside of it though is that people don’t know your name right now, but the word is starting to spread and when they find out you’re with the Boss, that’ll give us some serious pull for a while. The kind of pull that can get gears moving for other stuff we want to do.”

“And a just as serious target.” I fired back. “The ABB will be out for blood and if they assumed we were working with one another, or suspected that the Capes you had meddling in their territory worked for you too, then all their attention turns to you. Seems out of character for you, Coil.”

“Indeed, and if I was playing the same game as before, it would not be worth the risk.” Coil nodded. “But the rules have changed, things have moved up. I see your involvement, now as worth the risk with what you could bring to the table, especially now that you’ve decided to…. Step int the ring, so to speak.

 And I mean, hey, there are some upsides even if people do find out about all the Capes working for the Biss.” Tattletale cut in. “Hard to see this whole thing as being full of pushovers or anything if it has enough firepower. If it comes down to it, I’m sure we can handle ourselves with all of the new hires.”

“Not to mention that at the same time, it’s good for you, because it makes it obvious that you’re not a crazed psychopath just out lobotomising Capes.”

“Not to mention it might add a little bit of fear factor to our name with how Lung ended up?”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Someone leaked his medical reports.” She was grinning, I could hear it now. “It’s not exactly public to everyone yet, but I got a sneak peek at it. I read he suffered from a dozen bad reactions by the time they got him to the hospital, he flatlined three times and from what I heard, parts of him were falling off by the time they managed to stabilise him, parts most guys really don’t want to if you catch my drift.”

“His regeneration was supposed to deal with those.” My frown grew and I knew it carried over to my voice.

For whatever reason, that seemed to be funny to the Thinker. “You didn’t know? Really?”

“Nothing I used on Lung was by accident. With his regenerative powers, it shouldn’t have been able to do all of that. If that’s true, then it means someone meddled after the fact.”

“You have a problem with the results?” Coil hummed. “I would have thought it would be a good outcome for you.”

“The problem is that it makes me look sloppy.” I said sharply. “It makes me look like I either didn’t know what I was doing and went too far, wasn’t able to control myself or was just clueless about the consequences of dealing with him that way.”

“Ah, I see.” He nodded. “You wanted to make sure everybody knew that everything you did was on purpose, and then someone else tarnished that victory for you.”

“If I wanted Lung dead, he would have been, he hadn’t had the time to grow into something I couldn’t handle and it wasn’t like he could defend himself or stop me from finishing him off after he went down.” I sighed, running a hand into my hood and through my hair, knocking the cowl down as I did so. “I suppose it’s not a massive disaster, I can salvage it by pretending I was making a point that way, an example or something and at the end of the day a beaten Lung is a beaten Lung.”

I could feel Tattletales eyes on me. I couldn’t’ see her, nor the cameras, yet I could feel her stare all the same. I could imagine it, her head perked to the side and eyes narrowed as if she was trying to figure out a puzzle.

I left that aside for now, I could ask her what her deal was later. “Well… I won’t argue how you know all of that or where you managed to find this leak from. If you could decided to get in contact with even after all that, then I’ll assume you know what you’re doing.”

Tattletale snickered, the radio catching it as a buzzing static. “If you want the full scoop, I’m afraid the details on what we do only come with signing up.  What I can tell you is that we’re in the business of succeeding here.  You know as well as anyone that Coil’s track record is top-notch. Compared to the rest, we’re practically saints around here.  And it’s not like you’re being forced to stick in it forever. There’s no grand agenda you have to worry about.  No real permanent ties if you don’t want them. You don’t have to be worried about being tied up in anything super serious.”

I pursed my lips at that. No agenda huh? Did that mean they were adverse to including me in whatever it was they had going on or that they just didn’t have one now and were willing to accept one that they could agree with, because if I was the former then we’d be incompatible? 

Or were both lies?

I had an agenda, one that most people would think was crazy if they heard it, not to mention impossible. Would Coil’s ambition contradict my own? Would it force us into conflict when they came up against one another?

It could be an issue, I realised that, but there was another side, one that was more than willing to give this a go. Besides, it wasn’t like I was signing a geas or anything and if I really wanted to leave, I doubted they could stop me.

The more I thought about it, the more their idea of being a freelance Cape appealed to me. I would have to give it a lot more thought than just the casual mention of how they’d described it but… well I’d admit that the first few steps of what I had in mind weren’t the clearest. I’d wanted people to fear and respect me, but hadn’t thought so much on the working with me part.

I’d been fully ready to go about this solo and the idea working with a team, or alongside Mercenaries like Coil’s sent uncomfortable shivers up my spine, not to mention it would be painfully limiting if I had to deal with interpersonal grudges between each group of capes in the city. But as a freelancer, the likes of Faultline’s little gathering, I could do more. I could join up with whoever wanted me, and more importantly, whoever I needed.

…There was… also a bigger issue here.

Whether I liked it or not, I couldn’t pretend I didn’t notice Tattletales age.

She might have been blasé about this, and acting like she was in control, but I just couldn’t think of a reason for Coil to accept her as what was starting to look like his right hand, without something else going on behind the scenes. Something that made my skin crawl

No matter how I looked at it, Tattletale was just so obviously a kid.

Age wasn’t as much of a factor in a Parahuman’s capabilities. It didn’t affect their power, other than maybe suggesting how much practice or experience they had with it, but even that wasn’t so bad considering all of them had at least some innate understanding of how to use them.

No, it wasn’t power or skill that had me worried, but the fact that she was here.

Coil’s organisation wasn’t one you just happened to fall into

And that? That made me hesitate to accept all of this so easily.

There was another part of me that argued for it, of course. That pushed back on my complaints, telling me I was letting biases, fears and other things from seeing this clearly. This was a good offer, I knew that, and even if I didn’t want the money they were offering, I wanted the clout and connections for the future, so that my words and actions could be taken more seriously when dealing with people that I needed to take me seriously.

Not to mention that Coil had his own level of reach that I lacked right now.

For that to work though, I’d need to get the word out there that it was what I had in mind. Coil, for whatever his reasons might be, had just given me a great way to do just that.

After a long moment of silence where I let them linger on my lack of a response, I crossed my arms and sighed. With a mental wave, I started collecting a mass of bugs outside the bunker, drawing them into a single space out of sight.

“Alright, you’ve given me a lot to think about. You’re offer is… tempting, really tempting, I’ll admit, even if I think there’s plenty you aren’t telling me, and I’m not pleased with how you went about this... I think I might be willing to try this out but… I want some time to think about it.”

Coil nodded, his expression still covered and nothing in his body language to give away what he was thinking. Had I said something right that he agreed with, or not? If I had, I didn’t know what.

“That’s fair.” He said. “It’s a big decision to throw in with anyone when it comes to this life. If you need some time to sleep on it then that’s no issue. Lets us say that you have a day or two to think about it, and I will wait for you to get back with your answer of yes or no then?”

“You’d be willing to do that?”

“We’re not in a rush just this moment.”

“We will be though.” Tattletale cut in. “Personally I think the boss might have a job for you sooner than later so…”

“You can have time to think.” Coil said more firmly, shooting his computer screan ad the girl no doubt behind it a look. “When you come to a decision, just contact Tattletale the way you did last time and we’ll arrange for another meeting up.

“Then I will do just that.” I said. “Whatever my answer will be, I at the very least apricate this meeting.”

“Don’t worry, I’m betting we’ll see each other soon, Bug.” Tattletale shot back at me. “Trust me, when you say yes, you’ll be glad you did.”

I waited another moment to give them a nod, before calling on my swarm again. At the same time, the bugs beneath by suit crawled out, covering me completely and in the moment I was obscured from sight, I focused on the bugs outside at the same moment and with a swell of mana, reached thought the connection I had with them and my power.

Behind my eyes, I felt space warp and something intangible twist. With the bugs still int eh room with Coil, I saw as he watched them envelop me, they didn’t flinch this time. Instead, they simply observed, as my silhouette vanished from sight.

And then I was gone.

…

…

My next destination was nearly on the other side of the city. A Nightclub set up in the nicer part of town where people were less afraid to go out at night. A place for partygoers not afraid to be within a hundred feet of Capes who were open about the fact that they owned a nightclub in Brockton Bay.

The Palanquin, a place that shared its name with the group. People weren’t sure if the club was named after them or they’d named themselves after the club, though some people kept claiming it was the latter, that they remembered what the old name for the Capes had been before, way simpler.

Faultline’s Crew.

Mercenaries, and good ones at that, from what I’d heard. A small collection of Parahumans known for doing pretty much anything shy of kidnapping and torture, and got away with all sorts of espionage. The kinds of people that tangled with other Capes frequently but always got out ahead. From what I knew they had an… uneasy agreement with the local Protectorate of Brockton Bay. They didn’t do jobs in the city, and in return, they got to set themselves up here without having to worry about somebody like Velocity or Dauntless crashing the place to arrest them.

I had a feeling that if they tried, the damages would be immense, human or otherwise and for the Protectorate, that wasn’t something they could risk for Capes that didn’t even operate in the city.

Whatever you wanted to say about them, that sort of reputation was something people took seriously, and it was rare that Parahuman’s went the Mercenary route instead of just forming the classic Hero and villain gangs that were so common for some reason. It made them sort of like a unicorn amongst the Cape community.

I’d even heard once or twice they’d been hired by the Protectorate on the East Coast to do jobs for them, but I hadn’t heard any confirmation on whether that was true or not.

What I did know, was that I was interested in them.

Tattletale might have mentioned it, but I’d had a similar sort of idea on what I wanted to do with myself for a while, a way to start myself off. I didn’t care about being a Hero, but I wasn’t interested in being a villain and hurting people just because I felt like it and even if I had been, there was no way I was going to throw my lot in with any of the gangs. Not a goddamn chance I’d be able to stomach the Empire’s Nazi crap or the ABB’s human trafficking. Nobody knew anything about the Merchants other than they were a small time gang that was starting to ever so slowly grow larger, and the fact that they were drug addicts that pushed eve more dugs onto others, they were barely a gang to begin with.

 Drugged-up idiots that had cobbled together a name for themselves and from what I heard, had only just started recruiting other capes to their little party, the kind that had been tempted by drugs and waste.

That left Coil, who I was hesitant about, and Palanquin. Known professionals.

I didn’t know if they would be willing to take me, and even now I wasn’t sure if I wanted it to be a permanent gig if they did, but I wasn’t afraid to try asking.

So that was what I did.

I’d messaged Palanquins ownership online because of course a nightclub had to have a legal presence and point of contact that filtered back the interesting stuff to Faultline, stuff like a new Cape asking to meet and get herself hired for some jobs.

It hadn’t taken even two hours for me to get a reply back and a note to meet them for talks at the club an hour later.

They wanted to see me in person. For what reason exactly I wasn’t entirely sure, but I could make a guess that it was because even if they didn’t want me onside, getting a look at the new Capes on the scene wasn’t a bad idea.

At least that was what I was hoping.

It could be a trap, but Faultline didn’t have a reputation for being backstabbing like that.

The club sat two blocks away from Lord Street, and there was a line extending around the side of the building.  Glowing yellow letters in an almost intentionally plain script spelt out ‘Palanquin’.

I stood there for a second just watching the nightclub from a distance, saw the bouncers up front regular guys doing a regular job most likely. Either they didn’t know or didn’t involve themselves with the other side of the business, because I’d never heard of Faultline bringing normal people along for jobs. There was a line out front, regular clubgoers, waiting to be let in.

For a moment, I thought about how I wanted to do this, before shaking my head.

There was no point in making anyone uncomfortable. That would look bad.

Civilian clothes worked better here, so that was what I had on. Black baggy pants and a hoodie, normal, other than the fact that my Costume was underneath. I anyone bothered looking closely, they’d see the spider-woven boots and gloves underneath, and the chitin mask instead of a face under the hood.

I was just barely passing as incognito from casual glances and not much more.

That was fine though. I wasn’t a criminal, the protectorate wouldn’t be coming after me just for showing up in public, even if someone put in a call and they didn’t push back against independents doing their own patrols, so I’d be fine.

For the most part, I was wearing it both to keep my identity hidden as before, and to let the bouncer know exactly who I was. I’d given them a description of myself – my suit, rather – when I’d responded to their invitation, so they knew what to look out for and as I approached the club, I made sure that my mask was visible. Back straight, hands held loose by my sides and facing forward.

An older Hispanic man with a sharp beard working the night shift caught sight of me in the corner of his eye, did a double take, and stiffened. I stopped in front of him, waiting.

He looked professional in a dark suit, the kind that gave off the impression of a guy who knew when to do as he was told, and with a broad build, I was sure the intimidation factor worked well for him with drunk partygoers.

Not so much with Capes, and we both knew it.

Anyone with powers, no matter how unimpressive looking, could be deadly.

Things like that shifted the power balance, and it made him take me just as seriously as he would anyone lethal.

Another moment of waiting and he stepped to the side. “They’re waiting for you in the back.” He told me. “Make sure to remember the rules here.”

I gave him the courtesy of a nod before moving past him, ignoring the curious looks of people in line that couldn’t quite catch a look at my mask.

“Seriously?” A young girl near the front complained that I was getting to cut in line before them. “We’ve been here for half an hour and the emo bitch just gets to walk in?”

Emo?

Most were regulars here, and kept their mouths shut. They knew better.

All the name, the bouncer barely hid a grimace, glancing at me warily as if waiting to see if I would lash out at the girl. He couldn’t stop me if I did, and he knew that. So I made a point of ignoring the girl, turning to him and giving another nod.

Hopefully, it conveyed that I wasn’t just a psycho that responded badly to words with violence. He gave me no reaction right away, so I walked in through the door and left him to his job, but the bugs I had outside the door let me catch the way his shoulders relaxed list a tad when I was gone, and the way he glared at the girl that had spoken up.

Whatever he said to her, I didn’t quite catch because the moment I stepped into the club proper, I felt the throbbing pulse of music wash over me.

The Palanquin even with its not-so-secret reputation as a hangout for some Capes was still popular. It busted with people. There were dozens and dozens of people shadowed by the dark dancing and swaying on the dance floor in the centre of the room, and people holding drinks around the side and at the bar, people watching or in conversations of their own. The place was lively, and I expected it was like this most nights.

It wasn’t what I was here for though, as the multicoloured strobe lights roamed by, I kept to the outside of the room, navigating my way around until I reached the other end to the right of the bar, to a stairwell guarded by another bouncer. He held out a hand and I stopped, looking up to show off my mask beneath the hood. I wasn’t using reinforcement to enhance my eyesight, so I couldn’t see his expression in the light, but after a second he must have heard something from an earpiece because he bobbed his head and dropped the hand, stepping aside for me.

I made my way up after that uninhibited until I made it to the second-floor balcony. Far less packed with people but still not barren and more in the corner, a dozen or so people, mostly girls my age lay across couches and booths, dull and relaxed expression on their face. Like they were out of it. Only three people were more or less alert as I came to a stop a few feet away from a plush-looking seat.

“Woah, hey there!” Said one of Faultline’s’ Capes, one of the more notorious of their group, not exactly for his power or what it could do, but for the fact that he didn’t look human.

He had orange skin.

There was really no other way to say it and it was the first thing anyone would notice from taking one look at him. His skin was a bright orange colour that made him easy to spot in a crowd, coupled with bright red hair that I could tell was dyed by the flecks of blond going through it and wide blue eyes with odd, rectangular-looking pupils.

There was also the swaying prehensile tail but honestly it felt like that was secondary to all the rest.

This, was Newter. One of the many Parahumans that had gotten screwed over when their powers had awakened and been transformed into something nearly unrecognisable. The PRT didn’t have a positive outlook on their kind – names like Monster Cape thrown around casually in their reports and statements to the public when said individuals were involved – and often made it a point to watch them with greater scrutiny than they would Capes.

Most of that was the fault of the PRT and humanity’s as a whole inability to recognise the difference between them and Devils. Something that more than one organisation used deliberately to hide some scary truths about what the latter really were by making it seem that the only thing that separated Monstrous Capes and Devils was ‘ideology’ rather than the fact that the former had been human-made victims by their powers reaction to their body, and the latter never were humans that had a taste for human blood.

It was cruel and callous, throwing that unearned hatred onto a group that had nothing to do with real Devils, but even as I hated it, I recognised that the confusion had probably saved far more lives than what would have happened if people knew the truth of it.

Either way, it meant that Capes that suffered appearances like Newter’s were regarded with suspicion at best and open hostility at worst. In a few circles, they were called Case 53’s instead, and you could usually tell someone was more sympathetic to their plight by the name they used.

Of course, it spoke even better of a person’s opinion if they openly recruited them into their groups like Faultline had, or how their presence was encouraged to the point where they could appear openly in a club like this surrounded by people without having to worry about being attacked.

People in Brockton Bay had an inclination towards accepting people who struggled. Ironic considering the Naz population, but I think it just had something to do with the fact that people here knew what it was like to deal with the shit that life threw at them. Knew how to go on with life even as it stacked higher.

…Or I could be looking at it through rose-tinted glasses. That was just as likely, if I was being honest with myself.

He was still talking, while I finished my thought and I made sure I didn’t space out and miss anything important.

“I haven’t seen you around before. What’re you doing in the club? What are you doing up here even?”

He looked me up and down, lingering a little longer on my mask as he did. “You’re a Cape, right?” His tail swayed behind him, as the girl on either side looked on warily. “Here to start trouble?”

“They are not.” Another answered and I tilt my head slightly to watch as the other resident Case 53 lumbered over. At first glance, the man might have just looked morbidly obese. Not exactly the case.

He was about the same height as me, but more than how wide he was offsetting it in an unhealthy way, there was a lot more about him than looking inhuman; pale translucent skin showed where he wasn’t covered up, I could see a hazy image on bone through it and a number of small, hardened, spiral growths scabbing his body like a bad case of acne. Honestly, though, the worst part about his appearance was the lack of hair.

There was just something weird about people not having eyebrows to me.

“Gregor, you know this one?” Newter grinned. “Not often we get new Capes wandering around this far into the club. They meant to be important or something, coming to us with a job.”

“It’s rude to speak of someone like they aren’t there, Newter.” Gregor chastised his teammate. “And no, they are not here to hire us for a job, I believe they are seeking employment instead.”

“Woah, what, really?” Newter sat up, paying more attention now. At his side, the two girls must have brushed against him as he rose, because they slumped and fell against the seat with gazed but relaxed expressions. “The boss is looking for more new blood?”

“You would know this, Newter, if you paid attention to the messages I sent you through your phone.”

The orange cape made a noise and waved his hand in the air. “That’s what you’re here for. Always keeping me right!”

Gregor sighed, electing to turn away from Newter and face me. “Apologies for Newter’s… disposition, he was actually meant to greet you closer to the stairs and escort you somewhere that we could talk in the official sense. I will lead you there myself instead, should you still be inclined.”

I dipped my head wordlessly and the man took it as the acceptance it was, nodding and turning away. He moved towards a hallway at the back of the balcony and o followed. I heard a shuffle behind me and I glanced back to see Newter following.

My eyes flickered behind my mask to the girls lying there. Were they really fine like that? Lying there and drugged out of their mind?

The boy must have somehow caught the unspoken question because he grinned and waved his hand casually. “Don’t worry about them, they’ll be fine. They’re just on a high from my power. Just a little drop and brush is enough but nothing bad happens. No hangover, no side effects, it’s not addictive and you can’t overdose on it.  Trust me, I’ve tried that on people that got a little too rough during a job if you know what I mean.”

I looked at him a little bit longer, thinking it over. I’d never heard of anyone coming or going from Palanquin having a drug overdose or anything similar, so he might have been telling the truth. If it was really harmless in all the ways that mattered, then I guess I didn’t see the harm. The people who got up on the second floor had to be checked by a bouncer, so it wasn’t like they were at any risk to their physical safety.

Funny, if Newter’s power was like that, he’d be stiff competition for some of the small-time gangs in the drug trade. The merchants for example. Getting them out of business with just his sweat would have been as funny as it would have been humiliating for Skidmark.

…Although maybe with a name like that, the Cape didn’t really care about dignity.

All the same, I left a few bugs on the girls, just to watch out and make sure nobody got handsy with them while they were out of it.

I went back to following Gregor, with Newter falling in behind. The moment we were in the hallway, the door sealed shut behind us and the pounding music from the previous room was dulled to the point where I only heard it through my bugs. I pushed away those sensations too, giving myself some better clarity as we took the third door on the right.

Gregor stopped, knocked on it once and opened it at the sound of a voice.

From there I stepped in behind and let my eyes quickly take in my surroundings.

It was a conference room, the more casual kind with a low table in the centre and two long sofas on either end for clients to sit in.

In the centre of the one directly across from me, was the leader of the Mercenary crew known as Palanquin.

Faultline.

I stared right into the cast iron welding mask she was known for in her Cape identity, giving myself another moment to take the rest of her in: she was dressed tactically. Less flamboyant or showy than a lot of capes even in Brockton Bay, where a lot of the flash and style had been scrubbed away over the years to make way for more practical costumes thanks to all the fighting that went on here.

That was a point in her favour, I felt like. For her credibility at least.

As I’d learned from more than one forum online; If you wanted to know how severe the Cape fights were in a city, take a look at how their villains dressed. The closer to practical, military or tactical they were, and the further away they got from the comic book stye that the Protectorate pushed for a lot of their own Capes, the more intense and dangerous they were. The more hardened they were to proper fighting.

It proved true for Brockton Bay, being one of the Cape Capitals of the country that it was, when someone took a look at it.

The Empire was filled with people that either wore genuine armour, body armour or regular clothes with a mask, the ABB, with Lung wearing normal clothes that he could easily replace and Oni Lee with his tailored suit, Coil's gang before his recent additions was filled with Merc’s with obvious military training and the equipment to back it up. Every exception to the rule, the Villains that didn’t follow this trend in the Bay, were either working with a gimmick, or kids.

Faultline fell into the category of tactical. The costume she wore had a lot of thought and effort put into it, the kind that showed it was designed for practicality over looks. A bulletproof vest, dark slacks, a grey shroud that hid all the belts and straps she wore that held some manner of equipment or another; flares, flashbangs and from what I spied, even a gun.

That last one was surprising. I didn’t think Capes allowed that sort of thing amongst their ranks. Wasn’t there some unspoken rule about Cape’s not using guns against each other?

Well, unless you were Miss Militia of course.

Gregor and Newter filed in as I stood by the door, taking spots on the same side of the room as their boss, Gregor standing behind the couch, while Newter let himself fall on the arm of one side, laying on it almost like a cat.

Neither of them had my attention though. not like Faultline did. She sat there, elbows on her knees, fingers linked in front of her face. Her mask was as good as mine when it came to obscuring a person's features, but I had the impression that she was staring at me hard.

“Take a seat.” She told me and I did so, taking the couch across from them. I met her gaze.

Neither of us took off our masks. This was a first meeting, and Faultline wasn’t like the Tattletale and her overly cheery way of acting in a serious meeting that had honestly grated on me. She was an adult. She understood how these things really went, and how Cape personas and the act of hiding what was behind them were more than just a way to shield names and faces, but how to demonstrate its own kind of power.

“So, before we get started, introductions on your end, since the fact that you got in contact with me makes it clear you already know who we are. “You got a name for us?”

Brusque, to the point. I couldn’t tell what her mood was like, what she thought of me or how willing she actually was to humour this entire thing. Being straight to the point might have been the best method here.

“I haven’t picked a name.” I said, the bugs hidden under my clothes shuttering and chirping as they spoke for me as one. “I haven’t needed one yet.”

I watched them and found myself impressed that Faultline didn’t so much as twitch. Armsmaster had, so had the Circus and her little group, at my method of concealing my speech and voice. She didn’t. She was practically stone.

Newtwer on the other hand, reeling back like he’d been flicked on the nose. “What the…” They stared at me and I let some of my insects crawl out from beneath my collar. He made a face. “Okay, so this is happening now.”

“No name.” Faultline hummed. “A bug controller. An animal Master type power.  You alright with a temporary name during this conversation then?”

I nodded.

“Then we’ll go with Bug. Simple and easy right now.” She said. “So bug, why don’t you tell us why you’re here. You got in contact with me in a pretty direct way, maybe even a little too direct. Contacting us through the Club’s socials isn’t exactly discreet.”

I didn’t grimace. “I’m sorry. I am not an expert at technology by any means. Using computers in that way isn’t something I’m used to. I thought it would be better to keep things simple.”

Faultline tilt her head but didn’t seem upset at my reasoning. “Fair enough. The details you gave were sparse, so let me run through a few questions and you answer them when I’m done talking, clear?”

“Yes.”

“You came to us with two things in mind, right? You mentioned wanting to find a spot on the team, a way to get some work as a Parahuman and use your powers properly but I think there’s another reason. You were too upfront about it, walking in here the way you just did I mean, I caught you in the cameras, all confident in how you walked. You didn’t just come here for a job interview, you had something else in mind. Something like hiring us for a job of your own? Whatever it is though, you don’t have the funds to pay for it, that, or you’re not willing to fork it over. I’m guessing the former considering rich Capes tend to flaunt it. Am I right on accounts so far?”

I stared at her, baffled. Not at anything she said being wrong, but the fact that she would be so blunt with her guesses and that for the most part, they’re right.

“You have the right idea about some things.” I said, glad that my bugs could hide my tone, make me sound less offput by the woman’s deductions. “At the moment, I’m more interested in finding willing and competent Parahumans to work alongside, preferably the kind that don’t belong to groups like Nazis, addicts or sex traffickers.”

I paused for a second, thinking. I wanted to say this right so that Faultline didn’t get any wrong ideas about what I wanted but it was… hard, to come up with the right words. I was fine at delivering them, but actually coming up with what I really wanted to convey wasn’t something I was great at, as much as I hated to admit it.

“I have a personal project in mind that I’d be glad to have help with, but it isn’t an immediate priority, not even something within the next few months to even think about. You’re right that I don’t have large sums of money to pay for it, but I… ideally, if I do this all right, I’ll be able to figure that out myself.”

“You’re alone though, aren’t you?” Faultline asked. “A single Cape I mean, not a team or any sort of support in the city to help you out with that, hence getting in contact with us. That close to the mark?”

“For the most part.” I confessed. Faultline didn’t give me any way to tell what she was thinking, whether she was happy with my answers or not. I didn’t squirm, I never let my body react to things instinctively like that, for good reason, but I got the feeling that this was a situation where I would have if that wasn't the case.

“I looked you up, you know, or tried to at least. Do you know what I found?” Faultline asked, though I could tell it was rhetorical. “Nothing. There’s nothing to your name. No crimes, no accomplishments. Now, I’m not the kind of person to look down on you for not having made something of yourself yet. Keeping your head down is good in almost all cases, but it means that I’m not exactly sure what it is you could offer to us, and with the fact that you’re clean, it makes me wonder why you’d want to…”

She looked at me with a stare.

“So why us then? Why not Heroes, you said Villains like the gang are too far for you, but that doesn’t stop you from going the other way with it. No criminal record means the Protectorate would be happy to take you, if only to make sure you weren’t on the street causing trouble in the future. They have a decent salary, plenty of benefits and best of all, none of it is illegal. You can go about your day without having to look over your shoulder for law enforcement. Plenty of reasons to go for them, so why us, why decide that mercenary work is what you want to do?”

I didn’t say anything for a minute, one that Faultline thankfully gave me to think. There were a lot of different ways I could answer that, and I knew right away that I wasn’t going to spill the whole thing to her. Those sorts of secrets were mine to keep, the things I wanted to do weren’t the sort of things that I could just talk about openly if I was smart.

But I couldn’t lie to her either. I had a feeling she’d be able to smell bullshit if I tried, and I didn’t want to be on her bad side.

So… a version of the truth then. Some of it at least.

“I… I’ve already given my reason, as you’ve said, for not joining the Gangs but the Protectorate… you’re right there are a lot of benefits to joining them, and while I have some personal problems with them, I wouldn’t disparage them just become of my opinions. The problem is that I’m afraid they would be… too restrictive.”

“Restrictive?”

I nodded. “There are a lot of things I want to do, and even if I’m not entirely sure how I’ll do a lot of the things I have in mind, I know that I’d never be able to do them as a member of the Protectorate, not as a member of the Guild either, or any superhero agency I can think of.”

“I’m guessing you want to keep these ‘things’ that you want to do private.”

“For now.” I agreed. “I’m not trying to be obtuse it’s just that… they’re more goals than real plans right now, and I think most people would either call me an idiot at worst or crazy at best.”

“Now I really want to know.” Newter commented airily, before Faultline silenced him with a tap of her bot on his shin. He quietened down without a fuss, but the way his eyes didn’t move from me made me think he had his own thoughts on the things I wasn’t saying.

“Basically, they’re the sorts of things I would be able to do if I was tied down to the Protectorate. They’d keep me in a city to do good work, true, but not the sort of thing I want to do. If I stepped out of line they’d penalise me, maybe even transfer me to some back-end town to keep me out of the picture and I’d never really have control of who I got to work with when a Director could order otherwise.” I gave Faultline my full attention. “In Brockton Bay, my only answer is you and your team.”

“You think my team would hop to your beat just like that?” She asked and I could detect the warning in her voice.

Thankfully, that wasn’t what I was trying to say at all.

“No, not like that. I wouldn’t expect you to take part in any of the things that I want to do outside the City, maybe I’ll manage to find a team of my own by then that will, but that’s a ways off. What I’m hoping you’ll be okay with, is giving me the chance to… study under you all.”

I looked to Newter, then to Gregor. “I need experience, both as a Cape learning how to operate with and against other Capes. To learn how this entire culture really functions from the inside. I need to learn how to work as a team with other Parahumans, and I want to work with people who know what they’re doing. On top of that I’m… well I’m hoping that working with you all will give me the chance to… I didn’t want to say network but…”

At last, I got a reaction from Faultline other than stony silence and professional tones. A bark of laughter from her that bounced off the conference room walls. “Yeah, I get what you mean. Making a name for yourself with us, getting in contact with people all over the country would be good for anyone trying to actually make the stuff we do into a proper career.”

She leaned back in her seat, slinging a leg over one knee and tapping her thigh with two fingers.

“We work with more than just Heroes and Villains, but even if it was just those sorts, getting your name out there and into the conversation with people who know what they’re doing would be good for anyone you’ve thought about this properly, decided this was the way that would work best for you. I’ll give you credit, that’s more thought than a lot of Capes give to these sorts of things. Anything they can’t solve with their powers, they brush off or try to avoid.”

For another moment, she went quiet, and then, she nodded.

But not to me, to the person that had been waiting in the corner that would have been anyone else’s blind spot here and would have been in mind too if it weren’t for the fact that my bugs had immediately tagged her the second I’d entered.

A girl in a modified gas mask and a dark red and black fireproof suit. She was thinner and shorter than me, but for a Parahuman, stuff like that really mattered. For this one in particular, I didn’t know exactly what they could do, but I’d heard a few things, and I recognised them almost immediately.

The Cape that Coil had tried and failed to recruit before me. Spitfire.

Other than Labyrinth, I could make an educated guess that Spitfire was their heaviest hitter, certainly one of their most lethal. They must have been prepared in case I was actually just some crazy trying to get in close to attack them.

Fair enough, I guess. Maybe I’d look for better ways to get in contact with people in the future that weren’t so… direct.

“I’m not against seeing what you can add to this team, and god knows that no group in this city is ever in a position to turn down Capes that want to join up willing but for the things we do we have to be more selective. Our jobs aren’t always just about powers and warm bodies. Competence is key, and like I said before, I don’t know anything about how good you really are, so we need to change that. If you can manage it, then I’ll gladly take you on.”

She leaned forward. “So I’ve got a test in mind for you.”

Chapter Text

“A test?” I repeated. “What kind of test are you talking about?”

“Like I said, your competence is the big question right now.” Faultline told me. “That’s not your fault, you’re just an unknown, new to this whole thing, and bringing along someone on a job that didn’t know what they were doing is liable to get somebody killed that’s not how I operate, that said, I’d be stupid to turn away a Cape that was able to handle themselves, if only because I’m sure I could find something for you to do. If those bugs of yours can be used in the way I think they can, then I’d be happy to have you. It all comes down to the question of whether you’re worth it or not to invest some time into, ergo, a test. A part of the job interview, if you want to look at it like that.”

I nodded slowly at the explanation. It was… a fair demand, all things considered. If I was in her position, I probably would have been even more thorough, but I don’t know if that was because of any paranoia on my part or not.

“Fair enough.” I said. “If that’s the case, then what did you have in mind?”

She leaned back. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking even now, and a part of my itched to lets a bug or to sneak its way onto her, anything to sense even the slightest tell she might have had so I could get a better idea of what was going on inside her head.

“I want to see what you’re made of.” She told me. “You don’t have the experience, so I want to see you get some under your belt. The way I see it, you need to prove yourself before I can even think about taking you on the sort of jobs that my crew does.”

She waved a hand through the air. “Whatever job you pick is up to you, but if you want me to take you seriously, then you need to make sue that it makes the news. Doesn’t need to be front page news, even if it makes the tenth page, that’s fine. Whether it’s hero work or a crime, so long as you make a splash big enough that people take notice.”

“Damn, boss.” Newter huffed. “Way to give her a wall to climb.”

“So you have a problem with it, Newter?” Faultline demanded, not even turning to look at him.

“I mean, no problem, just confused why you’re giving our guest such a hard time when the rest of us didn’t have to deal with this stuff.”

“You and Gregor have your own unique circumstances which led to me talking you on. Labyrinth as well. Spitfire had potential that I recognised and offered her a place. Bug here, decided to ask for a job from me. That means I’m doing this a little bit differently to see if she’d got potential… you don’t have a problem with that, do you Bug?”

I didn’t say anything for a second. I was more than a little surprised that Faultline was fine allowing Newter to question her in front of someone outside the team, or the fact that he did it in the first place.

It wasn’t even that important, but the casualness of it just stumped me. No, no point in focusing on that, my silence was starting to drag on, they wanted an answer, didn’t they?

“Does how I pull off the job matter?”

“It might.” Faultline shrugged. “But that’s for you to figure out on your own. There’s not exactly a time limit on it, beyond being reasonably soon,”

“Understood.” I said and rose from my seat. “I’d better get started then. Thank you, Faultline, for accepting my request in the first place.”

Faultline sent me a nod, and another to her human looking teammate. “Spitfire, escort Bug out, buy here a drink if she wants one before she goes, make it on the house.”

“Got it boss.” Spitfire said, speaking for the first time. She sounded younger than I expected, maybe only a few years older than me, if even that. Spitfire made a motion with her head my way as she walked to the door. “Come on, I’ll show you what our good stuff tastes like.”

I followed her wordlessly, resisting the urge to take a last look at Faultline when I felt her gaze on my back and then the conference room door closed shut, separating me from the rest of them.

I let out a breath, feeling the tension in my spit like an ever present weight pushing against it. I stood there for anther second, feeding the annoyed shivers I felt about to come on into by mugs. In the back of my head, I could see a small swarm attack a pair of rats in an alley over.

I let out another breath and tried to let myself relax.

Spitfire coughed and I got the message, following and then falling in beside her as we walked down the hall. I could hear the thumping of the music, faint but growing just slightly louder every step we took.

“You didn’t do terrible in there.” Spitfire eventually spoke up. “Faultline’s straightforward and blunt most of the time, but she’s the kind to give everybody their fair shake.  The fact that she even gave you the time of day means she’s taking you seriously.”

She glanced at me, and I got the sense Spitfire was raising a brow at me through her mask. “I’m not sure what to think about you just walking up and asking her for the job like this, I mean, who does that?”

“Do you think it was a bad idea to do it this way?” I couldn’t help but ask, even as I quietened my bugs a little so the sounds they made to mimic my voice didn’t come off as angry.

“Honestly, I don’t even know if I can say for sure, I don’t have an inside look at the boss's head.” Spitfire sighed. “But I know she’s taking this seriously, like she has to take everything seriously. We’re mercenaries that get on the wrong side of pretty much everybody we go up against, doesn’t matter if their heroes, villains or just regular authorities. There’s no safety net, not the kind of cops and robbers shit that goes on here.”

I looked at her, frowning. “Cops and Robbers?”

Spitfire caught herself as if realising what she just said, and by then, we’d come to the door leading out onto the club balcony. For a second, I watched as Spitfire seemed to think something through, before she came to a decision and changed course instead of leading me down the stairs, we made out way to an empty booth. She sat down and made a gesture to one of the people working here, holding up a hand sign the man that caught it gave a nod and my bugs could track his path towards the bar.

She made a motion to me, offering the empty seat across from her at the booth.

“It’s something I heard from another Cape before I got picked up by Faultline. They wanted to recruit me into their uh… team, and gave me this speech about how it supposedly all worked between Heroes and Villains.”

“So they did something like what you’re doing now?” I asked as someone came with our drinks. They set them on the table, but I didn’t touch mine, keeping my attention on the other girl. “Talking through the rules of how things worked around here?”

“Actually no, tried to shock and awe me with money and showing off how much reach they had. Which didn’t work on me since I could sense the bad vibes from space. A few minutes later and I decided, fuck em’ and left.”

I opted to wisely say nothing about how I had a pretty good idea of who Spitfire was talking about now.

She took her glass in one hand and reached for her mask. For a second, I actually thought she was going to unmask to me and had to suppress the urge to freeze and ask what she was thinking, before she flipped a latch and the bottom half of her gasmask opened up, showing her mouth off. She took a sip and I let myself relax.

“Okay, so I don’t know what you know, so I’m gonna try and start from the top here. You know about the quite-unquote Unwritten rules?”

“Vaguely.” I said, crossing my arms. “I’ve heard them mentioned maybe twice, both times on forums, some arguments about why the PRT didn’t go after a villain in their homes.”

“Yeah, that.” Spitfire nodded. “Well the Unwritten Rules sort of cover exactly why they don’t. Okay, to start, they’re like a sort of… code of honour that Capes play by. An unofficial agreement between all the good guys and bad guys that we do all of this a certain way: No trying to unmask each other or go after somebody in their civilian life, no lethal force, no raping or enslaving people with Master Powers, stuff like that. The way she explained it to me was like… both sides agreed to dress up in costumes and fight each other on the streets like it was some sort of game, that it was all so ridiculous that it had to be, that Villains escaped so often because it was set up that way to keep some sort of balance. A game of Cops and Robbers, she called it.”

“That’s…

“Complete bullshit, I know. I didn’t realise it at the time, but the girl that told me all of it was either blind, stupid or lying right to my face, and based on what I’ve heard about her since, I’m willing to bet it was the last one.”

I shook my head. “I can’t help but think there must be some basis to it, maybe.” I allowed. “I can bet that a lot of Heroes and villains try to at least pretend there’s some sort of standard to protect themselves, paying any attention would show you how far it goes, which to say isn’t far at all.”

“Yeah, pretty much every one of those so called rules had been broken plenty.” Spitfire agreed “The ABB and Eighty-eight aren’t afraid to kill people all the time, and even if it didn’t extend to normal people, I’m not sure people like Lung know the meaning of the word restraint.”

“Of course they don’t.” I scoffed. “They kill because they can and because nobody could make them pay for it if they did. Anyone that’s lived in this city for a few years knows about Fleur and Lightstar.”

I could see Spitfire grimace and take another drink form her glass as if to hide it for a second, before she sighed. “Yeah, Kaiser’s goon walks right into their house, cripples the lady and scars her bad, then murders Lightstar out of costume, a guy with blood ties to the rest of New Wave and what happens? Bastard welcomes him back with open arms.” She shook her head. "I mean, at least in that case, Fleur hunted they guy that did it down and crippled him back but..." 

“All the rest is just as much fair game to them.” I added. “I’m sure I don’t have to talk about what else the Gangs are known for.”

“You don’t.” She saluted with her drink, sighing again. “It’s not even just this shit city.” She said. “It’s the same anywhere. Accord in Boston is known for being absolutely ruthless to anyone that crosses him, the Elite are vicious in ways I can’t even begin to list, Heartbreaker is a serial kidnapper and rapist up north, the Fallen are famous in the south for the kind of stuff that they’d put in a horror movie about evil pastors and those are just the ones I can name off the top of my head.”

“It’s not any better over seas either.” I hummed, passing my glass over to Spitfire when her own turned empty. “The Gesellschaft are said to kidnap and experiment on people, Chinese government aren’t even bothering to suppress stories about the Yangban and half the stuff I hear about them is a horror story all on its own, the Russians don’t have anything like that, that I know of, sure, but apparently that just because they can get away with being even more blatant; conscripting Parahumans were they can get their hands on them. Everywhere you look, any idea of Cops and Robbers falls apart.”

“I know.” Spitfire said. “You know it too, everybody does I think, but you know what the kicker is? I think that everybody knows that, and still pretends like the Unwritten Rules work even with all of that.” She leaned back in her seat. “I think the big players get away with whatever they want, and then wave around the cross of the rules against anyone smaller and weaker than them that break it so they can all come together and put them down. Crush any upstairs or competition whenever they get the chance.”

“Great.” I rolled my eyes. “How very corporate of them.”

That drew a snort from Spitfire, not that she argued the point. “Yeah… I guess so. The point I’m trying to make is that in the city, even though we all know it’s complete crap, you still have to be making an effort to follow the rules, if only to use them as another shield to protect yourself. Some of the rules actually do get followed, like the Unmasking one. Far as I know, I’ve never heard of a Cape ripping off another Capes mask after a fight, not on this side of the country at least.”

“Point.” I shrugged and- huh… suppressing an involuntary twitch as something unwanted lit up in my brain I looked away for a second, thinking… letting the not-memory rise up. “Thinking about it, it might have just been because of the kind of people running the show that less of the rules are being followed.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean if I remember it right, more of the so-called Unwritten Rules were more hard line than guides years ago, back in what they call the ‘Bad old days’ now, back when there were groups around to enforce them, because they benefited them in a bunch of ways, like reputation.”

“Yeah, like who?”

“Like the Marche.”

Spitfire gave a look. “Way I heard of them, they were just as ruthless as everybody else, worse in some cases even.”

“Oh they were, scum like the rest in the ways that mattered.” I agreed. “But you need to remember not to mistake ruthlessness for savagery. The Marche played a game, just not anything like Cops and Robbers. More like the kind syndicates play against one another, more political. Unspoken agreements, vicious and brutal attacks and retributions, and all the while, the public was kept out of it, if only because that way, they could play the narrative that authorities like the Protectorate making a push again them made things worse for regular people in the city. Another shield just like the rules are meant to be now.”

“Fake civility.” Spitfire realised. “A fake shield with real power.”

“Exactly.”

“Must have worked a treat for them.” She drawled. “For however long it lasted. Marquis is in the Birdcage now, right?”

“Yeah.” I said. “And from the sounds of it, anyone that doesn’t break the rules you mentioned before wouldn’t have to worry about a trip there.”

“Huh…” she tilt her head. “Guess not. Maybe not everything Tattletale said was bullshit after all.”

“Just most of it.”

“Ha!”

I shook my head, filing away the mention of Tattletale being the one who had spoken to her about it and got up from the booth. “Thanks, Spitfire, for making sure I knew what was what. It’ll help.”

“I hope so.” She said. “Try not to get into the sort of trouble you can’t get out of, yeah?”

“I’ll do my best.” I gave her one last nod and turned away, making my way at least out of the club and back into the open street. I looked up, seeing the sun begin to peek low of the buildings. It was getting late now, and I had a lot more to think about than I did going in.

That whole thing… I’d hoped it would have gone better than that. It hadn’t been a disaster by any stretch since I hadn’t been attacked or anything, but I hadn’t thought about what I would do if Faultline made up some sort of trial for me to figure out first. I’d honestly been expecting them to take me on easily.

Not to say I was being arrogant or anything in thinking they should feel grateful to have me or anything, I just hadn’t thought anyone would turn away a Parahuman when one walked up and asked to work for them… but maybe I’d been wrong.

Maybe this was the normal way things were done, come to think about it. The Gangs had rituals of their own to test newcomers, didn’t they? The most disgusting kind, sure, getting their people to go after an innocent person of a minority to prove their commitment, but it was one all the same. I was betting that the ABB did the same and maybe Coil had skipped it because I’d done enough with saving his people from Lung.

If that was the case then…

I shook my head. Faultline was giving me a chance to prove myself, so that was what I had to do.

How I did that going forward was the biggest question now.

She’d said that it was up to me what job I decided on carrying out, but I could guess it was a test of its own. I couldn’t be sure, but most likely she was looking to see who I’d throw myself in with. Would I work alone? Team up with a Gang for extra muscle, work with Heroes or some independents?

Whatever I chose to do, Faultline would judge me for it.

So it meant I had to be careful, and if I could find people to work with, they needed to be people that I knew wouldn’t go too far over the edge.

For just that second, I posed mid-step, half way off the curb.

Well what do you know? It just so happened that I had just the people that I could do exactly that with.

…

…

 I took Coil up on at least part of his offer to think through the prospects of joining up with his organisation, but I didn’t hold back on giving an answer for too long. Too much of a wait and I knew I’d make myself look unsure, hesitant in a way that could reflect badly on me. I didn’t’ need Coil thinking that I was agonising over the decision, lest he get any ideas.

I got back on contact a day later.

If course it wasn’t like I could just waltz around on the phone and talk to them from a distance, so that meant going back the way I had the first time, through the old abandoned part of the docks, through the tunnels and vault doors form last time and being escorted by armed Mercenary’s once again.

So, I did exactly that and yet oddly, there was a different energy amongst them. The men that led me through the bunker were more…. I didn’t want to say tense, that wouldn’t be entirely right, but like they were primed for something to suddenly happen and burst into action.

It wasn’t me, of that I was sure. None of that feeling was directed my way, but there was something going on, whatever that was.

Still, for right now, that wasn’t any of my concern, and I wasn’t really keen of sticking my nose in Coil’s business when I knew it would mean being dragged into something that would most definitely give me a migraine at best and dealing with something trying to kill me at worse.

I had no proof that I’d end up having to deal with all that with Coil, but I had a feeling.

In the end, I kept whatever questions I had about the matter to myself and allowed myself to be led to a room deeper into the base. Not the room I’d met with the travellers, nor Coil’s office, but a more comfortable looking place, almost fashioned like a lounge. There was a much nicer looking couch here, a television screen in one corner and an honest to goodness bar on one end of the room. Why Coil had this, I had no idea. Probably some way to entertain guests that came to speak with him in a less formal setting than his own office. What kinds of guest he could have that dictated this kind of set up, I had no idea, but I really didn’t care to know right now.

Whatever the reasons, he was there in the room waiting for me, sitting on one of the straighter chairs, legs crossed and looking like he’d been waiting for me and appropriate amount of time. I wasn’t sure the look really worked when he was in that bodysuit, but I wasn’t about to bring that up to his face, especially when honestly, it didn’t really mattered how he portrayed himself to me in the privacy of his own base. I knew how dangerous he could be without all the posturing.

“Second Owner.” He nodded, gesturing for me to take a seat. The motion was casual, like he was wating for me to start the same sort of back and forth we’d done the other day, but this wasn’t the same situation as yesterday. I hadn’t come here out of curiosity or concern. This wasn’t a social call to try and figure out just what it was Coil wanted for me. This time, I was here for a more serious matter.

This time, I didn’t.

Coil picked up on that fact immediately and while he didn’t stand up t match me, he did straighten up. Not warily or threatened, but like he was taking this seriously in turn, regarding me with more acuity than before.

I don’t think he even notice he did it at all.

“So,” He said after a moment. “You’ve returned with your answer. Judging by the fact that you responded so promptly, I suspect that you have things you wish to discuss further on the matter.”

“Well of course she does, Boss. Masters like her needed to know exactly what it is they’re getting into with teams before they commit. It’s just how they are, you know?”

I glanced to the side with a frown beneath my mask, as I realised that they screen wasn’t there to watch a sports game or anything, but to display the image of Coil’s Thinker on it. Tattletales grin matched her voice just like I had expected it to, and I wondered where the cameras and radios in this room where as I took her in.

The image was fuzzy, something I could bet fairly confidently was on purpose. I could just barely make out some features; blond hair, green eyes and a smattering of freckles behind a purple domino mask and a wide smirk. I could tell much more of that in regards to the details. Her age and exact ethnicity was unknown to me, but I supposed that didn’t matter all that much, and if Coil wanted to keep his Thinker as hidden and unrecognisable as possible, then fine, it wasn’t nay of my concern, at least not so long as he didn’t get the idea to stab me in the back.

“Hey Bug, good to see you again.” She greeted, swaying her head side to side where as I could see she was sitting in some highbacked chair. The image of her cut off at about her chest, so I couldn’t see everything around her, but whatever room she was in was dark, with a back glow that hinted at several distinct monitor screens in front of her.

That was less of an interest to me right now than the fact that she had a look on her face that made me thing she already knew what I’d come here to say.

“Glad that you responded so fast.” She said, glancing out of frame for a second before looking back. “So I’m guessing you’ve come to a decision on our offer?”

“Just one question before I answer, then yes, I’ll have an answer for you.”

Coil tilt his head but didn’t say anything as he linked his fingered in front of him and I was once again stuck wondering just what the dynamic between him and his Thinker was that he’d let her speak like this for him. There was no way Coil would ever let someone be an equal partner, it just didn’t fit with what I had gleaned from his character but there was no way she was telling him what to do, so I was sort of at a loss about it.

It was annoyingly strange.

Tattletale didn’t seem to agree with how she shrugged at the screen. “Alright, shoot.”

“I want to know just what it is you want Coil. Not in the immediate future, not soon, but later. Just what is it that you’re planning that requires not only myself, but two entire other teams of Parahumans at your beck and call, that you would be willing to spend what must be a hefty sum to recruit them.” I cross my arms, tapping a clawed finger against my elbow.

 It’s not the sort of thing people do on a whim, and it’s not the sort of thing they do if their ambitions are small. So, just what is it you want to do in this city, Coil?”

Coil observed me for a few seconds, as if evaluating how much he should say, whether that was the case or not, I couldn’t be sure, but it was what I imagined was going through his head. When he did eventually speak, it was with something… satisfied in his voice.

“My goal, Second Owner, is something which I’m sure aligns with some of your own goals, one way or another. I could go into great detail on the things I want, of what I am willing to spend and do to achieve them, but the most important and significant thing you must know, is that I intend to fix this city, to make it a better place than it’s been for a very long time.”

He tilt his head. “I imagine that such a goal is something you can accept, is it now?”

I stared at him, looking for any signs that he was bluffing or blustering, r any signs that he didn’t understand what he was saying to me.

To my surprise, I found nothing. Either he was better at hiding it, or he meant what he said.

“…Alright.” I said at last. “I’m willing to try this out. So long as none of you do anything to make me regret it, consider me a freelance member.” And at last, feeling like this decision I was about to make, would be one of the most important I did for a long time. “I’m in.”

 “Excellent.” Coil said, rising from his seat at last. “The I think it best you get properly acquainted with who will be your foremost companion in the field?”

“Hmm?” I made the sound with my bugs as I lowered their intensity again.

“Tattletale.” He said in ways of explanation. “I would have it that resources are used to their greatest effect, and Tattletale as the one in your ear can be exactly that. When I have you on a job for me, she will be the go between, as well as they… well, I believe the Protectorate have a system they call Console, so imagine the equivalent of that, in the basics.

He gestured to the screen were said girl was smirking at me, arms crossed. “I believe then that it would be better for the two of you to get properly acquainted to one another, and for you to learn how Tattetale can be of use to you. I will leave you alone to do that and get back to other matters.”

“That’s it?” I raise an eyebrow at him, even as I know he wouldn’t see it. “I join up, you say great news and then you leave me to my own devices?”

“If what you’re looking for is something more personal, Second Owner, then I’m afraid you won’t find it with me.” He said dryly. “Feel free to form whatever relations and companionship you want with any other individual that works for me, I won’t stop you, but I believe we both know you would not stand to be in the same3 room as me for longer than necessary.”

“True.” I said back, just on the off chance that it will annoy him. “Fine then, leave me with your Thinker. I’ll see myself out when I’m done.”

“I expect you to.” Tattletale will be in contact with you for standard communication from here on out, unless I need something specific, whereas I will call you myself. When that happens, I expect you to answer.”

I nearly scoffed at what amounts to an order, something Coil seemed very comfortable immediately defaulting to, but I hold it in and Coil takes that as my acceptance, leaving the room. I’m alone in it now, or, well, as alone as it counts to be with Tattletale onscreen right now. I clicked my tongue, deciding that now that he was gone, I’d let myself sit down on the furniture.

I shifted my weight, leaning back onto the couch and crossing my arms over my chest.

“So, I thought we’d go over our new arrangement with you a little more before we start doing things for real, iron out any kinks and make sure there’s no misunderstanding between us as a team with you later.”

Tattletale explained, “Here’s the deal.  I think that we should give you the standard deal while you work for us, six grand a month is our going rate, just to be on call, as it were.  It gives you the money to do what you like with, and so long as you don’t do anything crazy, you’re free to pull off your own jobs alone, or even ask for someone else under Coils payroll to work with you. You just need to be available if he needs to call in cases of emergency or a time-sensitive score comes up. I think the Boss is hoping that means you’ll be fine with accepting more than a one-off job from us.”

“Maybe, depending on how well this all goes.” I said, before pausing as I realised something and suppressed a grimace. “I don’t have a phone,” I admitted, keeping the fact that even if I had, I wouldn’t have a clue how to use it.

“We’ll get you one,” She said, like it wasn’t even a concern.  It probably wasn’t with the cash they had on hand that they could so casually hand it to me as a thank you the other day. What did they spend on themselves, I wondered. “When we get jobs that get all of us on board, we manage to rake in somewhere around ten grand to thirty grand.  That gets divided however many ways it needs to be depending on how many are on the job.”

“Let me just add that it’s a fixed rate.” Tattletale added quickly. “No adjusting prices like a skeevy contractor, ‘kay?”

That was a decent percent cut to Coil’s profits, if he was looking for money out of all of this. “That’s not a small amount.” I said dubiously. I knew I was going at this from a hired help perspective, but it was hard to believe they’d give me that much outright, or that they’d even be able to make that much considering they weren’t a big named gang.

“It’s not and it is.” Tattletale agreed. “Yeah it technically means it has to be split a bunch more, but Coil’s hoping that with you on board, not only will the jobs be more successful and safer for us, but hopefully we’ll be able to take bigger jobs with bigger cuts at the end.”

“Right,” I nodded. “The benefits are more than the losses in this case then.”

“Glad you agree.” She nodded, smiling slightly. “Now, how on the ball are you, as far as knowing what we’re up against?”

I narrowed my eyes in thought, tilting my head as I did so. “That depends on what you mean: I’ve done my research as extensively as I can with what I have on hand. For every known Cape in Brockton Bay I’ve scrounged for every scrap of info I could get my hands on. So a part of me would like to say I’m pretty well informed. The problem there is that not all of what people know is public. The Protectorate and PRT probably have entire teams dedicated to figuring everything out about a threat and they’re not going to just expose what they know.”

I shook my head. “There’s also the fact that even with all that I know on paper, experience with the Capes in Brockton isn’t something I have a lot of right now. There’s really no telling how some of the Cape’s in this city’s powers will stack up until I’ve actually tried my hand and taken them on. It’s a pain but for most of it the only way I could be sure of somebody is by doing things the hard way.”

It was annoying to admit that, but it was true, and it wouldn’t be smart to oversell myself. I had experience fighting Capes, don’t get me wrong, and I’d learned to fight plenty in between and before that, not to mention what had been… pass on to me, as much as I hated it.

The problem was that almost every Cape was different, and I couldn’t be sure how certain aspects of whatever they could do would interact with what I could do… at least while I was going through with this as a Bug controlling Cape.

Tattletale seemed to like that answer, judging by the way her smile widened through the screen. “It’s good that you figured that out on your own. Let me tell you, most newbies don’t get that at the start, that you know that you have more you could learn. Most don’t get that everything isn’t going to go their way just because they have powers that other people don’t, you know?  don’t be afraid to ask if there’s anything you’re not sure about, alright? You don’t need to act like you don’t need our help to earn your pay with us.” She paused for a second, as if she’d had a thought. “But share what you’ve got too, yeah? Pooling our resources should be obvious but I’ll say it anyway and if I have more to work with I can make it easier on all of us.”

I hummed. The request was an easy one. I had books in my room with pages upon pages of notes to keep my analysis and thoughts in order. I’d probably have to clean them up to remove any of the direct references to Magecraft or anything else I didn’t want them to know but that shouldn’t take long.

“I can do that.” I said at last. “No point in not using the resources, if they’re being offered.

“Good,” the blonde chuckled. “I can’t tell you how many people around here don’t like listening to me, Cape or not. They get all touchy when they talk to the Thinker and clamp up unless Coil makes it clear I’m talking with his authority.”

“Well, to be fair, most people aren’t keen on having someone with Mental powers poke at them.” I argued. “Nobody likes to deal with someone who thinks they know everything.”

“I do know everything,” Tattletale grinned at me. “It’s my power.”

What?

I stared at her. Letting something unnameable slip as static screamed in my ears and my heart racketed up a notch or twenty, nearly missing the way Tattletale suddenly flinches back from me.

But that was a numb and faded thing to me right now.

She said it with such confidence it almost made it impossible to dismiss the claim, and could I anyway? Parahuman abilities were so varied not just in power but on what they could do. Clairvoyance was something extremely rare to the utmost degree for Magi but possible, and I’d heard plenty of Parahumans claiming to be precognitive, even if the examples I’d seen never prove enough for me to believe it’s not something else they’ve mistaken as seeing the future.

But knowing everything? I’d heard of plenty of Parahuman in the early days of Capes claiming they could do that only to get proven wrong every time and I didn’t want to believe for a second that it’s what she meant here either.

I ran through the scenarios if it was true in my head. Just for a moment to try and figure out what I would do if it was the case, however impossible it was.

And it was a scary, scary though, especially for someone like me. If it was true, what would she know about me? My thoughts, my intentions, emotions? Would she know my past and future? Could she look at me and unravel my secrets?

No, it got worse than that, if she had been omniscient like she claimed, then it wasn’t just me that she’d be a threat to, but everybody in the world.

Everybody wanted secrets they had to be kept secrets, after all.

Forget Magic and Magecraft, if she was telling the truth and did know everything like she’d recklessly claimed, then she’d have been picked up by somebody else. Some other Hero or villain group that wanted that sort of power. Shit, she could have been ruling a small country with something like that. Who would have been able to outwit her? Nobody, that was who.

No. No way it was true in that case. Magi would have hunted her down for a power like that if it were possible to make gains of their own, maybe even try it to gain a path to the Root.

I could imagine it, what branches someone with the power to ‘know everything’ could pull on to get power like that, to become a magician and wield True Magic all on their own and bypass generations of struggle.

If it was possible then it probably would have already happened.

As far as I knew right now there weren’t seven True Magics known to the world. There were already arguably four Magicians walking the planet right now, five depending on whether or not you believed the stories about the First, and if you counted the fact that the Third was still technically a degraded if usable form of it according to what I’d heard people whisper about hearing from meetings between the Lords. If there was a sixth I think I might have flipped my shit and hidden in my room.

No. I decided, trying to calm my racing mind.

She wasn’t anywhere near that much of a threat, she didn’t have Omniscience. She wouldn’t be here if that was the case anyway. Whatever it was she could do, it wasn’t something so powerful. But the fact that she was openly telling me something like that? I got the feeling she did it just as casually in public, and that was a bad idea. Even if people didn’t believe her, there would be plenty of Magi that would come here just to make sure that was the case and sate their curiosity.

And that would be bad for everyone.

I take a break, inhale deeply and slowly, carefully, let it out. Reigning in on the erratic thoughts swirling in my head right now to look at Tattletale again

Long and hard. Long enough that the three of them noticed and longer still for Tattletale to get uncomfortable under my gaze.

“Please explain to me what you mean by that.” I tell her, and to my own ears, my voice is blank and monotone.

“U-um.” She coughed, off put by me and the moment I realised that, I grimaced.

That was stupid. I shouldn’t have had a reaction like that. She’d obviously meant it casually I shouldn’t have equated it to- Never mind. I didn’t want to think about that now. Forget about it. It had made her uncomfortable, clearly, and that was my fault.

“Sorry,” I say, because I knew that I should. “Just forget I said anything.”

“It’s um… it’s fine.” Tattletale waves off with a sudden and overly friendly smile that I can’t tell whether or not is genuine.  It’s odd all on it’s own, considering we’re not even in the same room with one another, so there shouldn’t be anything for her to really fear form me. “I guess I stepped on a landmine for you somehow huh? I promise I usually only do that to people I’m trying to mess with. My power… It’s not anything like omniscience, being all-knowing or anything; more like just… knowing things.”

She raised her hands in the air in a ‘what can I do’ motion. “It’s hard to explain to people since they can’t experience what I mean, but my power tells me stuff.”

A second later it was like a switch flipped. Tattletale sat forward and put her elbows on her knees that I could just barely see poking into frame, looking almost happy to explain her powers to someone new.  “Like how I knew you were at school when I sent you the messages asking you to meet with is.  If I felt like it, and if I had the know-how, I’m sure I could have figured it out by breaking into the website database and digging through the logs to find the address you connected from, but my power just let me skip that step like that.” She snapped her fingers as if to demonstrate her point.

me skip that step like that.” She snapped her fingers as if to demonstrate her point.

“Oh?” I nodded slowly. “Like in TV shows where the people write a super smart character that figures things out in a way they shouldn’t. Like a smart person written by dumb people.”

That drew a delighted laugh out of the other girl. “That’s one way to put it, yeah. At least from the outside that’s what it looks like. Maybe I’ll use that one next time I need to explain it to someone.”

“And what about on me?” I ask. “If your power tells you things, have you been using it on me? Find anything interesting?”

“Well it’s complicated. I can technically turn my power off but it doesn’t always feel I can turn my power off if you know what I mean. It’s like, I put a wall up to block out the information but it’s still right here if I want to reach for it or let it flow in. Thinker powers are a hassle like that most of the time. My power fills in the gaps in my knowledge.  I generally need some info to start from, but I can use details my power feeds me to figure out more stuff, and it all sort of compounds itself, giving me a steady flow of info.” She explained.

“I’m really best with solid stuff.  Where things are, timing, encryption, all that stuff.  If I make the effort I can read something out of changes in body language or routine, but it’s less reliable and kind of a headache.  Enough information overload without, you know?”

She smirked to herself, looking decidedly smug. “Basically I’m like what Sherlock wishes he was like, if he were real, I mean.”

And that nearly made me shiver. Ignoring the fact that Sherlock Holmes was very much a real person, I’d heard that the two times he’d ever publicly shown his face in the Clocktower had been devastating for a number of Magi. If Tattletale was anything like that…

Well she wouldn’t just be a danger to her enemies, she’d be a danger to me.

If she had time to watch me fight using my Magecraft, she’d learned about them, understand them, if her Power could register them at all and if she did that, I was in trouble.

Magecraft was referred to as Mystery for a reason. If Tattletale started to figure out how they worked with her power, they wouldn’t be that anymore to her. Just her knowing about them in that sort of way could potentially cripple me, and if she spread that around, I wouldn’t just be in trouble, I’d be on death's door.

So… not exactly knowing everything, but in some ways, it might have been just as bad for someone like me.

Had Coil recruited her for that purpose? He knew about the Moonlit World at a surface level form what I understood of things, but there was a chance he was deceiving me there, keeping things close to his chest so that I wouldn’t be prepared if he ever tried something. If he understood Magecraft to the decree that he knew how to unravel it, then placing Tattletale in close proximity was just slightly below pointing a gun in my direction.

Was it a threat?

While I catastrophised, she gave me a look, a look that was both curious and annoyed. “For you though it’s a little- no, a lot, it gets a lot harder to do that all of a sudden. I don’t know what I’m getting from you at all when I look at you.”

“Really?” I asked, doing my best to look interested, as I paid attention to her words for any sign of a lie. The fact that I couldn’t be sure through the static alteration of her voice and image just made me focus on what I could glean more. “Do you think I’m going to cause your power problems?”

“I… Eh…” She made a so-and-so gesture, but even that looked uncertain. “I thought it was just being weird and inconsistent because when you’ve got that costume on that hides all your facial features that would help me read you and you’re almost completely still, like the other night after the ABB, I got shown a recording of your conversation with Circus and the others and when you weren’t talking, I couldn’t even tell if you were breathing for a while. My power almost told me you were dead.”

I felt something like permafrost shoot through my veins. And everything went numb again.

She huffed, seemingly missing it. “I’m pretty sure that would change if I ever saw your face properly but sitting here now having a conversation with you I- It’s almost like I’m getting too much and nothing at the same time? It’s weird because it’s not overloading my power or giving me a headache like it should, but it still feels like- you know those spot the difference games with two pictures? It’s like that, except it’s with fifty of them and I don’t know what I’m looking for. The only times I’ve been able to get a read on you is when you’re not paying attention to me and talking to Coil earlier or whatever and then it comes at me like a flashbang!”

She looked at me, and if it weren’t for the way she’s giving me a dry smile I would have thought she was glowering at me. “I’m guessing that has something to do with your power?”

There was a question that could be a problem. Would she be able to tell if I was lying or hiding something from her? Maybe, and if she could’ would she try to dig deeper, would her Power help her ferret out things I wanted hidden?

A part of me was regretting that I’d accepted Coil’s offer now,  if only because it was a threat to me I didn’t like risking and the  idea that Coil knew what he was doing here made me want to march into his office and rip him in half but it was a part I quickly silenced in case she caught that.

Giving her answers wasn’t… impossible, so long as I worded it right.

Nobody knew how Powers really worked. That, in a way, was something like a Mystery all on its own. If I could conflate the too then…

“And a lot of practice, but yes.” I confirmed. “I can shunt my physical responses into my insects and control myself in the fact of surprises.  There are side effects to it to be sure, like leaving myself feeling numb but in the moment, it lets me make sure I don’t give in to anger, fear or panic, one of the little handy things I learned is that it also means I can dampen physical reactions to, just focusing on taking in a situation without reacted wastefully.”

And if the way she was perceiving me with her power was true, then the other things I’d prepared were also working. I was sending urges and responses into my swarms outside the building even now, every so often to keep myself at a baseline. Until I knew what the limits of what she could do were, it was the best way to make sure nothing was let slip. She had been obvious with the fact that she was a Thinker the first time we met with Lung and then more so when she’d gotten that message out to me, so I’d been doing it since I met up with them today.

“Neat.” She nodded, taking what I said at face value. Or at least acting like she had. “Like I said though, the lack of information is only the first half of it. The second is almost the opposite. Once or twice it was like there was way, way too much information coming at me all at once. It didn’t give me a headache, like I said even though it should but it still nearly gave me a shock the second I looked at you before I was able to pull my powers back. How do you manage that?”

Now that was interesting. It was hard to know how parahuman abilities would react to Magecraft, but did the protections go both ways? Was it not just protecting me from her prodding, but her from the backlash? I couldn’t know without testing it and that would give away more than I was willing to, but if she could tell those sorts of things then…

The question was whether to explain anything about it or not, and to what degree that I could. The Magus in me said no. Revealing mysteries to others was a dangerous idea and set an even more dangerous precedent in the future. Magi just didn’t reveal that sort of thing, not to anyone other than people they trusted.

But that was the thing though, wasn’t it? I wanted these people to trust me and I wanted to trust them in return. Keeping it a secret would be something they would obviously be able to tell and the facts of it were that if Tattletale didn’t know how it worked it could cause problems for her in the future. I theoretically had a way of keeping the mystery of it undamaged, so long as I was careful with how I explained it and better if she knew what she was working with, right? If we were going to be a team, should give them something.

“I’m going to have to turn back what you said a minute ago.” I began. “It’s hard to explain to people since they can’t experience what I mean.”

She perked up. “A Thinker Power?”

I hummed, neither confirming nor denying the exact particulars. It was close enough to compare the two in nature I think, but the exact mechanics of it were too close to explaining what magecraft was as a whole.

“It comes in two parts, at least how I’ve separated them:” I said, leaning forward a little and holding up a finger on each hand. “The first is what I call Thought Acceleration; It sounds on the surface level like it’s just ‘thinking fast’ but fast thought it’s more than that. On a deeper level and in practice, it’s more like the ability to construct a multi−expansion diagram with my thought process and work through it at the enhanced speed of my thoughts. Think of it like being able to speedread data right as enters or is created in my head.

“The Second is Memory Partition. It’s… kind of like having a supercomputer for a brain.”

Tattletale seemed to pause for a moment as she worked that out in her head. “Explain that to me a little more, in detail if you could?”

“It’s the ability to partition my thoughts to form multiple independent thought processes.” I explain for her. “Put it this way: while most normal people can only have a single "room" in their brain and focus on one thought, my partitioning can divide this one room into several of them. It’s different than having multiple independent machines in my head, don’t get the wrong idea because, while there are multiple processes going on, it works toward one goal most of the time unless I intentionally split it into multiple tracks. They manage different problem sets, but work together to generate one overall solution.  In my case, I can make… four of these ‘rooms’ I guess.”

I could see Tattletale staring into space, trying to calculate exactly what that meant. I wondered if her power could do the calculations for her or if she needed to know the math beforehand. I saved her the effort.

“The rooms are synergistic, so four partitions allow for two hundred and fifty-six thought processes. As they work towards one goal, it does not allow for two hundred and fifty-six separate calculations, like working through that many parts of a singular sum at once, I that makes sense. It’s not all-encompassing to be clear, or at least it wasn’t in the beginning but I’ve managed to develop a little… work around with my bugs for at least a handful of things, but in that case it only works in relation to my bugs. I can store thought processes in them like hard drives and pick and choose which ones to follow at a time, exchanging them as I like and with Thought Acceleration I can do this so far it seems to people on the outside like it’s all at the same time.”

“Oh my god.” She muttered loud enough for me to hear through the screen. “Did Coil just hire someone to make me afraid for my position or something?”

I made the effort to smirk at that, just so she could see it. “My abilities don’t let me pick the knowledge I need out of nowhere like you apparently can.”

“I actually need to already know it. That means lots and lots of studying and research. The fact that I can retain it way easier thanks to all of that stuff held a lot but it still means a lot of hard work and a nose to the grindstone type of mentality for a long time to make it worth anything.” I shrugged. “But yeah, mine is a little different in that I can turn it off and on easily, but when it’s on, I think it might be doing something similar to overstimulating your power with too much of what’s going on in my head, Tattletale. Like having too many tabs on a computer running at once and causing it to crash.”

“So to recap.” She laughed, exasperated. “You kicked Lung’s ass with deadly bugs filled with even more deadly poisons, venoms and toxins, you can control them like it’s nothing, you can appear right in the middle of your swarm like some kind of ninja and you’re smart to the point where with you and I together, could probably form our own Think Tank?”

Well when she said it like that it made me sound more impressive than I was. Sure I was a threat to Parahumans who didn’t know anything about me but anyone who was prepared could come up with countermeasures, that was just how it worked in a fight.

So maybe to her with what she was limited to, I was impressive, but to another Magus? One that actually focused on offensive magecraft? I knew I’d have a lot more trouble on my hands. I didn’t think I’d be much match for an enforcer, that was for sure, let alone any Magus with real pedigree.

My own family line was… a little more fractured than it should have been these days.

“Oh, expanding on that, I’ve got a way we can use that, yeah!” Tattletale bounced suddenly, leaning forward to look at me better. “I can pick out relevant information to use with my power and feed it to you, then your brain can work out a solution, do the math or whatever super quick with whatever I’ve got, feed it back to me so that I can figure out the perfect way to use it!”

She sighed happily to herself. “That is going to make operations so much easier. You can’t imagine how much I have to dumb it down for some people who just don’t’ take the time to use their brains. The two of us together are going to scare people, let me tell you.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” I dipped my head and I felt a little bit of surprise with myself when I felt like my lips were about to curl up a little, almost as if I was about to smile.

Huh… that was… that was new.

Was…  was this what it was like to have your ego inflated? It was a new sensation; I wasn’t sure what to think of it yet.

It was a little too much to hide though, apparently, because Tattletales eyes widened. “Oh Christ you have more?” She leaned forward so fast she nearly fell off the couch and onto me. “What else have you got up your sleeve?”

Well then.

“Oh come on.” I tried to gripe good naturally. “Let me have some secrets to surprise you with, I promise you’ll see them soon if I need them.”

“You- oh fine!” She fell back, a huff escaping her even as she smiled. “Calling you a Grab-Bag Cape would be underselling it, but since it’s on our side, I think I’m a hundred percent for it.”

And that brought me to my issue. The one I’d brought up at the start that led to them bringing me here “Actually, there’s something I wanted to run by you in that regard.

“Huh?” The girl blinked for a second before realising. “Oh right, yeah, this is ironing out the details for us doing this. You have a problem? Go ahead.”

“Not so much a problem I hope, but I just wanted to clear things up.” I straightened a little, looking at her properly, hoping that even through my mask, she understood the seriousness oi was trying to convey. “I was serious when I said I wanted to work with Coil’s Organisation, as an freelancer as much as I can, for however long that might be for but I need you to understand that money is only a means to an end to me. I have other things I’m working towards that mean I need the cash, in amounts I can’t get legally but I’m not actually all that interest in being a ‘villain’ if you get me.”

I waved a hand as if to brush off something. “I need the money yes, but there will be times when to get what I want I might need to work with Heroes to get what I want. Maybe the Protectorate, maybe other teams or maybe even just Rouges. I don’t expect Coil to offer me a hand in any of that, or you for that matter, but I’m hoping you’ll be understanding when I do, with the knowledge that there’s no way I’d sell you out to get in their good graces. Professional standards and all that.”

Because of everything, betrayal was something I would never- could never tolerate. 

“I can’t imagine there are a lot of things that you can get as a Hero that you can’t as a Villian, but I think I get what you mean.” Tattletale hummed. “You’re fine with doing heists with whoever he picks out, smash and grabs or whatever else and you’ll do them without a problem, so long as we understand that when you’re not doing that, you have the freedom to be less of a committed villain and more a neutral party?”

“Closer to playing both sides with everyone understanding that I’m doing it, but yes.”

She nodded. “So Chaotic neutral, got it.”

I supressed the urge to groan and roll my eyes. “God you’re a nerd

“But it’s not, not accurate.” Tattletale quipped back to me. “I think I can understand that, and that’s fair considering we’ve agreed to hire you on. If you have something you’re working towards, it wouldn’t make sense to join up with Coil if it stopped you from doing that. So long as it doesn’t cause any problems with us, I don’t see the issue. I mean, Coil seemed to be counting on it, from what I could tell.”

“Thank you.” I nodded. “If that’s something he agrees on, then I don’t have anything else to bring up.”

That was until a thought crossed my mind. “Actually, there is something I’m curious about, and considering you are supposed to my go between with the other Parahumans under Coil’s employ, maybe you can tell me something about them.”

“Really?” She raided a brown. “And who exactly did you have in mind?”

“I know enough right now about most Capes in the Bay, but those coming in? Not so much. I’ve heard about the Travellers in name only. So, if you can, I’d like you to change that.”

“The Travellers, huh?” Her smirk grew wider. “Well, Coil did say to give you information that would make the two of us work well, why not some stuff about your now…allies?”

“Okay, well, first ting, they live up to their name. Nomadic villains that go from place to place without much rhyme or reason as far as I can tell. They’re competent though. Never been caught by the Protectorate or other law enforcement, always either beating back whoever goes after them, or slipping away before they’re cornered. They’ve got competence, experience and some pretty good powers. Pretty much all of them that go out in public are heavy hitters.”

“You’ve got Trickster, the guy with the top hat, nominal leader of the Travellers. The one that makes all the big decision. He can swap the locations of two objects with similar mass, including himself. That on its own would just be okay, but the way he uses it, especially in conjunction with the rest of his people make him hard to pin down and he can really screw up teams in the middle of a fight pretty easily.”

“Ballistic is their most forward focused heavy hitter. The one that makes people pay attention with what he can do. Less about subtly in his case and more about breaking through anything in his way. He can touch stuff and send it flying as fast as a bullet in any direction, so long as it’s not living or made of anything organic. I don’t know if wood counts yet, so I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

“Then there’s Genesis.” Tattletale rubbed her hands together before linking her fingers together and pulling on them, making an audible popping sound. “Now she’s a weird one, and it’s not because she’s the one in the wheelchair. Her Power is tied to sleep. When she falls asleep, she can create these sorts of… constructs, projections that she can control. They can be pretty much anything and have their own powers, so what makes her dangerous is her variety, as well as the fact that she doesn’t have to worry about putting herself in danger.

Perdition, my least favourite of their little band, comes next. He can cause himself or any person or object he sees to be reverted to their state and location as of a few seconds earlier. A time-based power, and an annoying one too, since as far as I can tell from what he’s shown off, the people he uses it on don’t remember it happening to them, at least not without outside stimuli tipping them off.

“And lastly of their field group, there’s Sundancer and her? I know I said Ballistic was their Heaviest hitter, but only because Sundancer doesn’t’ have the stomach to actually cut loose with what she can do.”

“And that is?”

“She can create a miniature sun.”

I stared at Tattletale, unsure if I’d just heard that right. The other girl nodded as if knowing exactly what I was thinking. “Oh yeah, a ball of fire in the hundreds or thousands of degrees if she wants it to be, it could be the size of a head or fill up an entire room at her command and she can move it around in midair with her mind and best of all for her, she’s immune to her own flames. If it weren’t for the fact that she apparently doesn’t like fighting or hurting people with it, she’d be absolutely terrifying.”

“What about the last one, the boy with the changing face?”

“Oh him? That’s Preference.” She waved a hand n front of her face dismissively. “I wouldn’t worry about him. He’s barely a Cape to begin with. No costume, no desire to go out. As far as I know, he mostly stays back in whatever place they hole up in when they go to other cities. Far as I can tell, he’s only along for the ride because they knew him before they all became villains. He’s a minor Thinker with an even more minor Changer ability. Nothing to really worry about.”

“You don’t seem all that enthused to talk about them.” I noted.

“That’s because they’re boring.” She huffed. “I’ve spent the past few days they’ve been here scoping them out for Coil on his orders so he knowns how they operate and let me tell you, it’s a trainwreck, and now the Cape kind, not even an entertaining one. Just the kind that makes you cringe in second hand embarrassment and want to look away.”

She paused for a second. “Actually that describes Trainwreck pretty well if I think about it, but you get what I mean. I’d rather talk about anything else but them to be honest.

“Such as?”

“Well I’m glad you asked.” She battled her eyes at me in what had to be sarcasm. “There are a bunch of other small times I could tell you about so you can watch out for them, like Spitfire, though I have intel that she joined up with another team recently, or Grue, now him, he’s a fun case.”

“Oh? And why’s that?”

“Well there’s not much special about him on his own. Low level, B-list villain for the most part, usually works as an enforcer off the books for technically-legal companies to scare off regular thugs and gang members. His powers isn’t all that special, though it is apparently a good area denial type ability. Covered an area in this black smoke that acts as a sort of sensory deprivation chamber at the same time. Neat stuff.”

“But not all that interesting.” I prompted.

“Yeah, that goes to his rather… turbulent relationship with one of the Wards, namely, on that almost killed him.”

“Say what now?” More alert now. “What do you mean a ward nearly killed him, what happened?”

“Shadowstalker, resident Ward powerhouse and edgy probationary hero shot him with a crossbow bolt, one of those wide ones with the edge.” She explained. “Sliced him right in the side and cut him open good. It was messy.”

“Oh right, I’ve heard of her.” I nodded doing everything I could not to show any reaction to what I’d just heard, even while all I could think was ‘Fuck sake, Sophia, why can’t you just chill out for once in your life?’

Eventually I swallowed back something akin to frustrated mirth. “I heard she’s popular, does enough good work that they expect her to be a shoe in for a high position in the protectorate when she’s old enough.”

Tattletale shot me a look for some reason. “She nearly killed him.”

I blinked, realising that my tone hadn’t exactly been reproachful of her. “…Yeah? Like I said, she’s good at what she does. I know the Protectorate spun some story about how she decided to join up with them to have a greater impact on the community, but from what I could find, she got caught for pinning a Nazi to the wall. God damn role model for kids as far as I’m concerned.”

“And you gloss over the killing bit of it pretty easy huh?”

Because it wouldn’t have happened.

I wasn’t about to explain that to Tattletale, nor my reasoning for believe it, but suffice to say, I knew Shadowstalker was… smarter than that.

“Maiming usually keeps villains off the streets a long time,” I say in ways of a similar explanation. “Unless they’ve got a healer or regeneration powers themselves, most Capes run into problems there. There’s a chance experiences like that might even scare them out of the costume permanently. Higher stakes and all that. Although I’m usually not a huge fan of permanent solutions like killing, so I understand the necessity of being brutal instead.”

“I guess your showing against Lung proved that plenty already.” Tattletale said wryly, before she shook her head. “Remind me never to get on your bad side.”

“I can do that.”

I saw her shiver through the screen at the flat tone in my voice. That was fair. Normal, sane people didn’t have such casual interactions with death and things associated with it. Even Parahuman that got into the Cape life didn’t’ jump straight to the most brutal extremes so easily. At the end of the say, they were mostly normal people dressing up to pretend they weren’t.

It was like that for a lot of Magi. Most people who interacted with other Magus families eventually ended up with someone trying to kill them, but when you had someone you consistently went up against, honing your mysteries and skills against?

Yeah, that sort of thing was something that happened with a lot of Magi, I’d see it myself in the clocktower when I’d gotten to visit.

That being said, the mindset of a Magus was probably a lot different from that of a person like Tattletale. For all that she was a Parahuman, they still lived lives surrounded by normalcy on all sides. The people around them were normal people with normal perceptions of the world. Down to earth and rooted in common sense.

Even with all the powers people like her, like those in Coil’s employ she interacted with, at the end of the day the people using them hadn’t been brought up in a culture thousands of years old and removed from the rest of the world to the point where it was colloquially called the ‘Moonlit World’ by many of the people aware of it.

“Well, I guess it’s something I’ll have to be careful of either way, I mean, as much as I need to be, safely tucked away in a place like this.” She shrugged. “That would probably be more something you have to worry about but, eh.”

I sighed, leaning back again. “I guess so. Well see how it really works, between you and me, but If I’m being honest, I have to tell ya that you give off the vibe of someone that would screw with me just because it made you laugh so… well, not sure how that’s going to work out, to be honest.”

There was a beat of silence where I expected a response yet got non. Long enough that I glanced back to the screen where Tattletale suddenly looked intrigued. “…Huh.”

I blinked back. “What?”

“Nothing it’s just-” She waved her hands in front of her face again. “You sound completely different all of a sudden. You sounded so serious before but now you’re more like a teenager than whatever it was you had going on the entire time we’ve been talking so far. Do you like, put that one or something? I could have sworn your voice was deeper right before you put those relaced there. You had a different posture and everything too”

“What are you-”

“I heard it.” She cut me off. “Just before you say you have no idea what I’m talking about, and believe me, there aren’t a lot of things I miss.”

Well that was a claim.

 Whether I believed that or not didn’t matter right then, not when she seemed to find it funny for some reason. “It might be the accent though, you know it’s unusual right. There’s the Brockonite accent there sure, but definitely something else in there too. Not sure if it's super foreign or just different though.”

“I- Yeah, I guess.” I frowned.

“So all that proper enunciation and sophisticated way of talking is all for show just now?” her grin looked… sharper all of a sudden. “Were you putting on airs for Coil?”

“What- no, of course not.” I narrowed my eyes behind my glasses. “I was taught to speak a certain way in different situations and environments. Talking the way I was before is how I do it when I’m being serious.”

It was a Magus persona. Plain and simple. You needed one when your two lives were meant to be so different to one another. Magi that went out in public, that interacted with the mundane world almost always did it with a different personality. Distinct parts of themselves that were blunted or changed entirely so that they didn’t come off as odd, conspicuous or just plain alien to the people around them.

Emotional intakes and responses were different. Things like expressions, voices and even appearances were altered slightly, just enough to make it so that it felt like you were interacting with a different person and every Magus that did it had some kind of trigger for it unless they did it so often that it was second nature, like the Enforcers once again. It could be done without a tool or aid, like it’s just proven by letting yourself breathe a little more but I did have one. For me it was my usually glasses. It made it easy that way.

When I had them on, I was a civilian. A normal teenager that went to school, dealt with bullies, homework and normal everyday problems and when I took them off? I was a Mage, with all that something like that implied. And yeah, in both personas my mother’s accent poked through, what had changed and morphed over decades and even centuries through my family line all the way back had affected how I spoke now and that too was a part of it all.

Magecraft was at its core, a craft that required self-hypnotism after all.

Did… did Capes really not do that? Did they really not have a separation between their lives like that? They put on masks and took on fake names and yet they’d left their personalities intact? What did that do to them?

Tattletale somehow seemed to catch at least some of my sudden turmoil, because she leaned back. “Okay, maybe that was a little too much teasing on the first day of us working together. Maybe I should ease you into it more before I start poking at you. Sounds more fair right?”

I didn’t respond, deicide then that giving the Thinker any more to worth with on my character profile that she was no doubt building up in her head was something I wanted to avoid as much as possible. We might have been working together for now – and that for now was the really important part – that could change when I inevitable decided to move on form Coil. I wasn’t expecting open hostilities soon, but sooner or later, even with what he’d claimed, I expected there would be some kind of class between us. Whether that was violent or not, I couldn’t’ say, but I wasn’t about to give them easy ammunition to use against me.

“Well. You’ve given me useful information. I’m at least sure that you know what you’re doing to some degree.” I said, rising to my feet. “That’s all I need for now,  so I think I’ll follow Coils suggestion and see myself out.”

“Cool.” She gave me a thumbs up. “I guess I’ll be talking to you soon, Bug, or whatever name you eventually pick for yourself. When Coil has something to do for you, then I’ll let you know you need to come back here. Other than that, feel free to do what you like, so long as it’s not anything too crazy. Oh! And be sure to actually have fun with that new salary of yours. No point in being a villain if you can’t spend your gains and all that.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” I told her as I turned to head for the door.

“Make sure you so, oh, and bug?

I just wanted to say it properly, you know?”

I paused, turning my head back to her. “And what’s that?”

“Welcome to the team.”

Despite the cheery way she said it, Tattletales words didn’t fill me with anything positive. If anything, it felt like a warning, or omen and for that, I could only wonder if she’d meant it on purpose.

Maybe there was more than her Power that I had to be worried about.

“Sure.” I said. “Glad to be here.”

And then I was gone.

Chapter Text

There were a lot of things about being a Mage that sucked. Like a lot. I could name ten off the top of my head to point out just why being born into a Magus family wasn’t something I’d wish on a person I liked.

One of the most prevalent right now though, was understanding that a lot of what went into being a competent Magus was tedious preparations.

I found myself in the middle of that even now. I’d left Coils’ people be for a day and gotten to work on something I’d been putting off for a long time now, since before I decided I was going to be a Cape. Bounded Fields, a whole lot of them.

They were key for any Magus, essential really, but I’d procrastinated, focused on other things. I knew that it would come back to bite me if I didn’t address the fact that nine-tenths of my city were clear of any alarm systems.

So that was what I was doing, setting up sigils, formalcraft anchors and runic systems that would alert me of, well, pretty much everything.

It was something that shouldn’t have been possible, far too much information even with magecraft to help improve the mind, but my parahuman abilities chanced that. Each bug I controlled was one could take the senses of, each and every one of them simultaneously, multitasking to a degree that was impossible for even the greatest geniuses on earth.

So, I’d had an idea. To amberise a specialised insect and implant it as the central focal point of my bounded fields, all across the city. With them, I’d be able to monitor any living thing that entered its vicinity that was odd.

That meant Parahumans, and anything that held more mana than a regular human.

 So far I’d only set up four of them; one at the Docks, one at the Boardwalk and two more deeper into the southeastern side of the city. I had an idea in my head of hundreds of them, being able to monitor every single part of the city at any and all times. Would it actually be feasible? Who knew. I hadn’t hit my limit yet at what my power let me do, but that wasn’t to say I wouldn’t reach it sooner or late, or whether it was a flexible limit or a hard wall.

I’d figure it out soon enough anyway.

All the same, it meant tedious work. Sneaking into abandoned buildings, warehouses and sewers to find sufficiently hidden spots where I could draw out or carve the appropriate magic circles and such and hide the Amber gems within.

Obviously it wasn’t just for monitoring though, but a warning system and map. Brockton Bay only had me as its resident Magus, but if a second one ever showed up, one that intended to muscle in and take the city as their own territory then I’d be in trouble, not just me though, but every Parahuman in this city and everyone connected to them. They’d all be experiments, since the greater mages association viewed parahumans they’d very much like to get their hands on for study if it weren’t for the fact that said Capes were very public about their existences and disappearing a few of them would cause scrutiny they didn’t want.

In a place like Brockton Bay though? Where most politicians in Government had almost written off already as a city to be condemned, barely holding back the flow of criminality and villainy? It would be an ample opportunity.

So I had to prepare, for both sides of my life to come up against me.

…

Still… that didn’t mean I had to like it.

Formalcraft was something I was bad at. Like, really, really terrible at. My mother hadn’t exactly taught me much there, not enough time or desire to bother with it, and the single summer I’d spent at the Clocktower’s youth branch of their college was only just enough to hammer in the basics.

Which basically meant it took even longer for me to do right. I’d already screwed up a few times getting the precise shape of certain symbols, not to mention I’d made a mistake with the mana flow to keep it stable. Not enough for it to explode in my face or anything, but enough so that I had to repeat the process over again.

It was slow going, especially, and every circle took me hours to finish. Honestly, right now I just wanted to go home and crash on my couch for a while, let my brain stop feeling like soup from it all and scream into a pillow.

This was why a bunch of Magi decided on picking up reinforcement magic instead of going into anything more intricate, I’d bet. It was a simple type of magecraft with an easy learning curve and marge margin for error, not to mention straightforward in comparison to a lot of practices and mysteries.

I shook my head. It would be dumb to get distracted by a tangent and have to do this one over again… but yeah, just one more for today.

About half an hour later then, I’d finished my fifth bounded field. I nodded to myself. With this, I’d be able to cover about three blocks of the boardwalk, from the north and south ends respectively. It wouldn’t clue me into the goings on just yet, but I’d know of any people of interest who entered or exited from those places. I could fill in the gaps for a more involved system some other time.

I wiped my forehead, clearing it of sweat. It was a hot day to day and I was stuck in a rundown building with no air conditioning on and on the floor with mercury paint and led.

Well, not for much longer I could start by taking my things and heading home. I wondered for a brief second if Dad had left anything in the refrigerator for lunch today-

When suddenly I felt one of those bounded fields I had just set up ping in the back of my brain.

My head snapped eastwards. There was a fight going on. A serious one. My mind flittered through the information as it came my way. Multiple Parahumans, two sides, hostile, more on their way. I couldn’t tell everything clearly. Not yet, but I could tell at least one of them was young, maybe more. Were Wards in danger? They weren’t even supposed to get in serious fights so it could have been something else. Rouges maybe?

I bit my lip. Thinking. I’d told Coil what my deal was. I wasn’t interested in playing the ‘game’, not like they were. Working with people on both sides was one of the conditions for joining up with them, but to do it literally a day after I got on the team? Would that look bad to them or not? It mightn’t to some of them like Coil, and I got a feeling that the regular Merc’s wouldn’t care either way but some of the Capes would probably be pissed and see it as a lack of commitment or something, and Tattletale?

No idea. For all she had grumbled good-naturedly about not being able to get a clear read on me, I felt the exact same way about her. I couldn’t tell how much she had said was the truth or whether or not she could see what I was thinking. What would she think of me if I did this? Would it be a sign that I wasn’t worth working with or not?

Ah, damn it, I couldn’t throw away the beginnings of a relationship with the them right now and there was a chance doing something like this would make me look flaky, but I didn’t want to just ignore what was going on here either. This was the entire point of not committing to them fully, the chance to keep doors open. Faultline was what I was working towards right now, but it wasn’t the end goal, and I didn’t want to tart burning bridges… but I couldn’t just let things like that happen in my city, not anymore. If I didn’t back up my commitment with actions, then what use was it?

I came to a decision in my head then.

And reached for my wrist.

At once, black flowed around me, wrapping across my body and sealing it within spider silk. The mask formed on my face and a minute later, it wasn’t an inconspicuous girl that stepped out of the building, but a Cape.

I looked around, marking the abandoned street I was on and set out my bugs, pathing the fastest way to the fighting. Once I had it, I let mana flow through my body and then I was off, leaping up the side of a wall and climbing to the top in the blink of an eye and then I was running across the skyline.

The faster I moved, the further I got, the more I spread out my swarm, trying to get a read on what was happening. They didn’t get close, I made sure of it, let my insects hover above the buildings and out of sight as much as I could so as to not give myself away or tip anyone off that I was coming.

Did I have a reputation yet? No, of course not, but anyone could put two and two together when they saw a mass of insects above their head and assume it was another Cape in the way.

The building blurred beneath my feet as I ran, picking up the pace, each step taking me from one side of a rooftop to the other and across the gap with the next. If anyone had decided to look up, they would have seen a black blur for a split second against the blue sky, a trick of the eye, just in their imagination.

It had been a whole three minutes now since I’d taken off. I counted every second like it was the ticking of a clock in my head. I needed to get there in time, not just to see the aftermath.

And I heard it then, there was a shudder, a shockwave picked up through my bugs. Something had just exploded.

With a shiver of effort, I pumped more prana into my legs and pushed hard. Faster now, moving faster still, outpacing any ground vehicle in the city, leaping across the gaps in the buildings, over streets and roads and landing on the rooftops hard, uncaring about the cracks I left behind from my landings. I wasn’t being discreet now, not caring about the fact that anyone on the lookout for people crossing buildings could spot me easily.

Didn’t matter, my bugs pinged back. Less than half a mile out. Closer now, closer still as the wind rushed past me. And then I saw it, the signs of fighting visible to my human sight, to my ears, the cashing and ripping of something metal.

I stopped, the asphalt of the rooftop caving beneath my heels as my momentum carried me all the way to the edge and no further. I knelt on the ledge and looked down at the carnage.

And felt a sliver of relief flow through me.

It was less of a bloodbath than I’d thought it would be. There were no corpses, no one dead, but damage to the surroundings, upturned cars and trucks and civilians on the edges that looked hurt, too much to drag themselves completely to safety. There were PRT agents on those outskirts, cautiously trying to extract the people in danger and away from the fighting.

I took in everything I could, trying to get a full picture. A dozen men with guns. Using crashed cars as cover, class in black and red regalia. My fists clenched, crashing the concrete ledge I was holding onto.

Nazi’s. Empire Eighty-Eight.

They weren’t alone. It wasn’t just the grunts and normal people, I spotted their Capes. Four of them! What the hell was going on that four of the Empire’s Capes were in one place in broad daylight?

No, that didn’t matter now. I needed to focus on what was going on right now. Asking the why could come later. My eyes flickered behind my mask, trying to catalogue what I could see.

It struck me then, like a bolt. How I’d made such a stupid mistake. For all the research I’d done on the Parahumans of Brockton Bay, I’d been limited to what was outlined in PHO posts and wikis. Amateurish documentation and surface level at best. I’d stayed away from the PRT databases because those weren’t open to the public and I dared not be caught snooping around them when I was at best only barely competent with a computer.

Now I wish I had because it became increasingly obvious that I didn’t know much about any of the Empire eighty-eight Capes. No more than the average Cape geek and what I’d managed to discover myself without outright engaging with them at least and that meant there were glaring holes in my knowledge of the threats in front of me.

Victor. A skilled martial artist, a crack shot and a skilled strategist. I wasn’t aware of any significant powers he had other than the fact that apparently when people fought him for long periods of time they got worse at it while he got better. That could have meant anything though. Disorientation?  A leeching of abilities? A form of hypnotism? 

An unknown I wasn’t comfortable facing without a backup plan and he was one of the longer-serving members of the Gang. It got even worse considering he had people around him to make sure I could do what he was good at.

Cricket was deadly all on her own. Twin Kama’s made her the kind to turn a fight fatal even without her powers, and those weren’t anything to sneeze at. I’d seen the videos. Superhuman reflexes that made it look like she had super speed on top of it. Fast enough to tear a person apart before they even knew what was going on, and pack that in with her sound powers that could somehow throw people off even worse, she was like an ambush predator steroids.

There was a shorter girl in the back, behind cover and throwing the remains of a truck down the road. Rune. She was new, an active member for four months at most. There hadn’t been much time to get any information on her. All I knew was that she was apparently young and a new powerhouse. Telekinetic but only with things she touched beforehand. I had no idea about her range or weight capacity. Could she affect only inanimate objects or make people splat against the pavement if she wanted?

Hookwolf though? He was the one I knew the most about. The one everyone in Brockton Bay knew about. His name was synonymous with the Empire only below the likes of Allfather and Kaiser. A veteran of Parahuman combat, bloodthirsty and regarded as dangerous to the point here Protectorate Heroes in the city never went after him alone.

He could transform into a constantly shifting mass of blades, hooks and pretty much any other metal weapon and took the form of a massive goddamn wolf. I didn’t know if he could take any other form or if he was limited to the creature he’d named himself after, but either way he was dangerous. Strong, fast and more to the point, extremely durable. Not to mention the fact that his body was made of blades meant it was dangerous to attack him from close range at all.

Shit. Gods dammit. This was a dangerous group. Why did they have so many heavy hitters here? What could they have possibly been doing!?

It was made even worse than who they were against.

Miraculously it had ended up a six versus four, but that didn’t mean much when only half of the Protectorate members were fully fledged heroes! Assault, Velocity, Triumph. A Kinetic force manipulator, a speedster and sound manipulator. A bad matchup in every sense of the word here. The three adult heroes just didn’t have the heavy hitters they needed to deal with this fight. They had Agents at their back matching the gunfire of Empire thugs and preventing any real ground advancement from the Empire’s Capes that weren’t bulletproof, but that was all they were doing.

Worse still, there were three Wards stuck in the fight. Aegis was probably their heaviest hitter, an Alexandria package that for some reason has a tendency to throw himself into the worst of it.

Then there was Gallant, a Tinker that could fire energy beams that did something to their targets. What that was, I wasn’t sure, but it took people out of fights non-lethally. That was nice when dealing with regular criminals and gangbangers, but not so great against people that could punch through concrete.

Who even was the third kid? I knew he was a Ward because Protectorate Heroes always made a splash in the news and I didn’t recognise this one. He was big, wearing all blue and hanging back while looking like he wanted to through himself directly at Hookwolf. What could he even do? I had no idea.

What had happened here? Had the Empire attacked the Heroes? No, that didn’t make sense. Attacking Wards would make them look bad and while I didn’t trust or respect Nazis of all people to have any moral decency or honour, they knew how PR worked just as well as anyone.

That meant it had to be the other way around, but why would the Wards be here if that was the case? Had they escalated something and called for backup? Was it a heist? A robbery? A chase?

I shook my head, reprimanding myself for falling into asking questions again. That could come later. Preferably after I made sure the Heroes could walk out of this one on two feet.

How to do that though?

Right now, Hookwolf was on the front lines, tangling with Triumph, while Velocity harried the other Empire Capes and kept them from getting involved. Assault was protecting Agents and civilians alike from bullets and flying rubble while the Wards stayed in the back and fired off their own projectiles. Other than Aegis, who was currently floating off the ground and looking like he was about to launch himself at Cricket to keep her occupied.

Oh. Oh that would be bad. I don’t care how strong he was, that was a fight you shouldn’t take alone.

So that meant I had to do something fast, but what? There were options, plenty of them, plenty of things I could do but…

But I was supposed to be keeping what I could do hidden. The only thing I’d given away publicly was that I could control bugs, and even then I didn’t know if Armsmaster had reported that yet. Probably, yes, to at least the people who needed to know, but how many regular people even knew I existed?

There had been a news announcement that a bug using Cape had taken down Lung but that was the extent of it. What was I going to do? Throw myself down there and start punching people out? Fire off curses or something? What would that have people classifying me as? A Brute, a blaster? Did I want that, to give away things so early?

No. I hated myself a little for it, for willingly holding back while people needed help but no. I couldn’t throw away secrecy like that. I was supposed to be building a reputation from both sides, and for the first steps mystery fell into that. Who I was, what I could do, what I wanted. All things I had to consider, all things I wanted other people to guess at.

So that meant keeping within expectations, giving away just a little bit more every time by showing just how effective I was at what they knew I could do until the right moment to show off something new and upend their theories on me.

Damn it. Why was reputation something Capes wanted to procure of it was this stressful just to think about?

So Bugs… bug was all I could use right now then.

Fine. Fine I could work like that. No sense in being upset by what was basically my main arsenal, even if I meant I couldn’t use some of my more esoteric insects right now. Even those I would have to feed slowly into the public eye, new creatures in my swarm each time so that they couldn’t guess my limits right away.

For now then. Keep it mundane. No magical insects or the like. Just the regular kind.

Fortunately, in the time I’d spent crossing the city to get here, I’d been doing more than just running and traversing the landscape. It’s been collecting bugs. As my range travelled, collecting more and more, bringing them into the ever-building swarm I always had on standby.

I counted every single one of them I could reach. Every one of them I could control to a fine point, completely independent if I wished, or all as one ever writhing mass.

Flies, ants, spiders, worms, centipedes, bees, wasps, a dozen other general spices I’d found across the city.

The ones that didn’t have wings were carried by those that did, clumped together like a sentient black cloud that pulsed and undulated with insectoid life.

Forty-eight million, six hundred thousand, nine hundred and twenty-seven insects. That was how many I’d managed to gather in the time since I’d begun to after Lung to replenish my stocks. Enough to blot out the sky in a three-block radius.

So, what was I to do but exactly that?

No one had spotted me, as I rose to my full height, looking down from the ledge to overlook the fighting, so reminiscent of my fight with Lung from a few nights ago. But they would. Soon enough they’d notice see me when they realised what was happening.

I didn’t make a gesture with my hands or make any movement really. I only needed to do that when I added magecraft into the mix, so instead, I stood there, aching still, as the swarm rose up from behind me.

Up, up, up, above the building I was standing on. Three stores up, then higher, four, five, six and still more and more came together, swirling in the sky, creating a cloud, a veil, a new sky for those below.

And that was when it happened. When the light above them was blotted out nearly completely, only patches of it slipped through the writhing swarm, and the noise, the sounds of millions of living things clicking and chittering and screeching and gnawing, that made everyone below stop.

And they looked up.

There was a long moment where nothing moved. Where I let them take in exactly what it was above them. To understand the positions they were in. To really feel the weight of it all.

Then I let them feel it in reality.

I let the swarm fall.

If it was being artistic, I might have said that it descended upon them like a wave, and it did in a way, at least in the seconds afterwards where I directed my swarm to compact closer together. They swept through the streets and the alleys, washed over the edge of the buildings and flowed through open vehicles, like a chitinous ocean.

But at the very beginning, those above the fighting just dropped. As if I’d dropped something solid on them. Something like divine punishment.

Someone screamed, lots of people screamed, and I didn’t blame them, as the writhing horde closed in around them and I ordered them to fall upon the Empire.

Of course, with the control I had, I could decide who was left untouched, and I took special care to make sure that civilians, the PRT agents and Protectorate heroes weren’t harmed. They weren’t even touched by my bug. Where they stood, the insects parted, leaving them space to stand, even if they couldn’t see past the millions of bugs.

Being unharmed didn’t mean being unaffected though I saw the way Velocity flinched back, nearly falling over their own feet, the way the new ward shook and whipped around, searching for a way out, too afraid to test lest the bug turn on him. or the way the others; Assault, Triumph, Aegis, Gallant all tensed and readied for a fight, for an attack.

But as the seconds stretched on, they understood that none was coming.

They waited.

That was good, because it meant that I could direct all my attention to the people I actually wanted to harm.

They hadn’t been ready for it, and none of them had been fast enough, prepared enough to deal with it.

As skilled as Victor was, he had nothing to defend himself against my bugs. No gun or weapon he had on hand did anything more than part the swarm for a second before that hold was immediately filled in again by a thousand more. They fell on him, their combined weight forcing him to the ground, crawling over his skin. Biting and clawing and gnawing at every part of his body within reach.

I held back more than had with Lung of course. Far more. Lung had been a regenerator nearly unmatched in Brockton Bay and far more of a threat. The pain was enough here without adding in venoms.

Cricket was a little more of a problem. The moment she had the chance she tried to scream and I felt my bugs around her spasm and lose control of themselves. Like they were on the fritz.

But it didn’t matter, not when even as uncoordinated as they were, they were still so many in number that they managed to engulf her and similarly force her to the ground. For good measure, I had spiders slip into her mask, into her mouth the moment she tried to scream again and settle on her tongue. I pushed them no further. I didn’t suffocate her or choke her, I didn’t block her airways, but the threat that I could was very real, as was the danger of the spiders doing more than just sitting on her tongue.

Now Rune? I actually kind of felt bad for Rune. I know I shouldn’t have. Feeling sympathy for Nazi’s was idiotic at best and I had a personal disgust for them but if the screams she let out as she was engulfed wasn’t enough – the pitch of a young girls – then the fact that with so many covering her I could make out the basic shape of her body, the fact that she couldn’t have been any older than me. In fact, she was probably younger. Barely even a teenager.

Yes, I knew, Nazi, and super-powered Nazi at that, but as she screamed and rolled and writhed on the ground, frantic and terrified, trying to fling rubble at anything she could in a desperate attempt to get my insects off of her, it was painfully obvious that she was also a kid.

Should that make a difference? I honestly didn’t know, but I’m sure there are plenty of people more qualified than me to argue about the guilt and innocence a young teenager being enticed to join a Nazi gang.

All I knew was that doing this to her made me feel cruel. In a way I didn’t like. In a way that was familiar.

I didn’t like imagining what I had been like when someone had forced that sort of feeling onto me… and watching Rune struggle while I was the one inflicting it reminded me of it in ways I almost couldn’t stomach.

I pointedly made sure that while my bugs covered her, none of them bit her. They’d move around to cover her hands to stop her from touching anything solid though, but keeping her subdued was more important than hurting her.

In the meantime, I had to deal with the more troublesome targets.

Those three were manageable targets in this fight, but Hookwolf? I’d hit a wall with what I could do with mundane insects.

Hookwolf was even worse to deal with than the rest of them. It looked like I’d come up against a wall with what I could do with just my Powers faster in my Cape career than I was expecting or ready for. My bugs couldn’t do anything to his metal body and those that tried to slip through the cracks and openings, the tiny gaps in his bladed mesh found themselves minced and diced to paste by more of them just a layer below. There were no openings there, and his beastlike maw wasn’t really important. He didn’t need it to breathe or even see, so wherever it was he was hiding in that thing, he was out of my reach right now.

And he knew it too. He swatted the bugs  away fearlessly. Well aware that he wasn’t in danger. If I gave him too much time, he might actually use his brain and figure out that he could try and continue his attack or get people out. If I wanted to deal with him, I’d have to use some far more destructive tactics, something I’d just resolved not to do.

Well… it was a good thing that I wasn’t on my own here.

With a thought, I opened my swarm in several directions like a pathway through the sea, allowing the Heroes to see each other again as well as giving them direct paths to the harried villains.

It took them only a few seconds to understand what I wanted from them.

Almost immediately, the Heroes moved. Velocity became a blur even to me and I could only barely tell where he was thanks to him touching my bugs. Gallant, Triumph and the new kid rushed forward to apprehend the downed Capes, intent on making sure they were out of the fight. Aegis and Assault decided their talents were best spent dealing with Hookwolf, trying to lock him down.

Could they manage him? Maybe, probably, if they were the ones taking the initiative to deal with him, but it made no sense to risk it.

As they approached, I decided I might as well help how I could there. I couldn’t do what I’d done to the others, but a mass of bugs clumped together and moving as one was still a decent partly-solid object to ram into someone, so that was what I did. Streams of bugs shot out of the swarm, smashing into Hookwolf like massive flowing fists. I was positive they didn’t hurt him at all, but they shifted and shoved him when he wasn’t expecting it and I saw how it distracted the man enough that he wasn’t ready for Aegis’ fist smashing into his side and sending him through the swarm cloud and into the side of a wall.

From there it was a melee.

I’d been in a few fights before, but they’d been in controlled environments, with people who were there to teach instead of being a threat to me. Most of it sparing and practice. Realistically, my fight with Lung had been the first fight with actual stakes on the line but even then, it hadn’t been a fight like what was happening now.

It had been carefully planned even if the exact opponent in question hadn’t been what I’d had in mind. They’d been practically alone and I had a reason to use everything I needed to win. Here, even though I’d technically down a big chunk of the fighting here with how I’d subdued or locked down the Empire’s members, I was really acting as support and mostly an observer.

Watching the Protectorate heroes and Villains fighting was far more fanatic and chaotic. Even with tactics I assumed they were sharing through shouts, signs, signals and whatever radio communications they had, it wa hard for me to follow what it was they had in mind from up here.

My head snapped to the side, staring west down the road. Something had set off my bugs at the edge of the swarm. Shit. It’d pulled all my insects into the swarm for the attack and neglected to create a perimeter to watch out for anyone else trying to get involved. Now I could feel something moving through the swarm towards the Empire Capes.

I couldn’t tell who they were, but they weren’t friendly. My Bugs were being diced and cut but more than that, I could feel blasts of something almost solid creating a tunnel through them. It was as if someone had made the air solid and was using it as a battering ram.

And then I felt it, not a tunnel or a ram, but a blast. Exploding out from the source, through my swarm back into the sky and like that everyone that had been dealing with bugs was free of them. Frantically I looked through my swarm, feeling a wave of relief at the sight of Victor and Cricket already cuffed and in the hold of the heroes, being dragged towards the PRT Agents for containment, but the others had been given the chance they needed. Rune had managed to plant some sort of symbol on the ground and upturn an entire section of the road to shield herself. She stumbled to her feet, turned on her heel, and ran down the street. Hookwolf snarled at the sight of his allies' capture, but it looked like he was at least smart enough to know that it would be dangerous to take them all on at once and he too turned tail and ran. I clicked my tongue at that, especially when the one who had disrupted my swarm saw him go and immediately turn tail.

A part of me wondered if I could set the rest of my swarm on him and try and take him down with the sheer numbers, but I dismissed it. There might have been more he could do, and I couldn’t let him tempt me into a chase. For all I know there was more backup coming in case he failed. I’d leave him for now. Two Empire Capes was good enough for now, and I’d caught plenty of the fodder as well who right now were lain out on the ground, shaking and defeated.

I let out a sigh. The fight was over then.

I noticed then, that someone was looking my way and turned to meet them. I’m not sure if our eyes met exactly considering the masks but I saw Gallant looking my way and with his attention on me, it didn’t take long for Assault to notice and he must have said something because the others turned my way too.

Right, they couldn’t see me, but Gallant must have had something in that suit of his that could, or some other secondary power that let him notice me within the swarm. With a thought, I recalled my bugs, raising them into the air, pulling back from the streets and building until they swept past me like a roiling sea and revealed me on top of the roof. I heard one of them gasp at the sight of me, either out of shock at my sudden appearance or something else I couldn’t say but after a few more seconds, my bugs flew away, disappearing into sewer drains, abandoned crevasses and hidden places that cities usually held.

Until it was just me up on the roof.

I wondered then, what was going to happen, whether I should say something to make sure they knew I was friendly. Recalling my swarm should have shown that already, right? Or did I need to go further?

Should I shout something down or…?

“Hey!”

I nearly jumped at the voice calling up at me and my eyes snapped to Assault as he cupped his mouth with one hand and waved the other. Almost immediately I saw the way Velocity was trying to elbow him to be quiet, but he didn’t seem to care.

“Are you gonna come down from there and say hello or what?”

I hesitated, just for a moment, and even if I knew they couldn’t see it with how still I was already, it made me wince beath my ask at the indecisiveness. I’d already helped them hadn’t I? Why not introduce myself to them? It had gone well enough with Armsmaster, what was another talk with the Heroes right now?

I let out a breath, resolving myself and the next moment, I stepped off the ledge. I think I heard someone gasp and cry out again as I did, but I’d already sharpened my claws and reached out behind me. My fingers carved into the brick wall at my back and slowed my descent as I slid down it and a moment later, I pushed off and landed on the ground, feet near-silent as I did.

I heard Triumph let out a huff but I couldn’t tell what that meant. Probably nothing too bad, but I wouldn’t know until he spoke to me. For now though, I focused on myself, keeping my back straight as I approached and called on the bugs I prepared on my costume at the ready, not for violence, but to keep up the little trick I’d pulled the first night on Armsmaster with my voice.

I came to a stop just a few feet away from their group and stood there, silently waiting for one of them to say what they wanted to say.

Luckily it didn’t turn awkward when the one that had called me down in the first place spoke up. “Thanks for the assist back there!” Assault grinned at me. “We were in a pinch for a sec before you arrived. Probably would have ended up with a few more cuts and bruises if you hadn’t helped out.”

“It is no problem.” I said, my insects vibrating and chittering to form the words.  Saw Triumph shiver at the sound of my voice. Not a fan then, or at least not comfortable with me?

To be fair, the Wards all flinched a little too at the sound but Assault and Velocity being the two most senior heroes didn’t so much as blink.

“Still, I’m pretty sure we’re all glad you jumped in, and that you’re on our side. All those bugs crawling on me? No thank you. I bet you gave a few of the Empire phobias after that.”

I let out a chitinous hum. I wasn’t going to say I was happy over that fact, but I might have been a little amused at the idea if scaring a Nazi that badly.

“Assault is right, you did a good job.” Velocity nodded. “I don’t think I recognise you though, is this your first day out?”

I nearly frowned beneath my mask. Did they not know? I could have sworn I’d been mentioned already in the news, or at least my power had been.

“No.” I said, deciding to twist the truth a little again. “I have been active for a while. This is not the first time I have spoken to Protectorate Heroes either.”

At that, I saw the way Aegis straightened up. “You’re the one that Armsmaster met a few nights ago!” He realised. “You’re the one that took down Lung!”

I didn’t need to say anything to confirm it. The moment Aegis said the words, the others around hum seemed to catch on to exactly who I was if the way the suddenly paid more attention to me and straightened up was anything to go by.

Of course they would react like that given Lung’s reputation. Not just the one the public knew, about him being the leader of the ABB and one of the most dangerous Cape’s in the city, but the one that was more urban legend, rumour than common knowledge. That Lung was the man who took on Leviathan in Kyushu.

It wasn’t widely known at all actually, more online rumour slash urban legend but people in the Protectorate knew, as well as the PRT. Me? I knew because someone else had been at Kyushu that day when the effort to drive Levithan off had been made that day. They’d seen it happen themselves, been impressed by it. They’d made it clear just how much of a threat Lung could be if he wanted to.

It was how I knew that he hadn’t been at full strength when I’d fought him.

But that titbit of just how strong he could get was even less widely known, and the reputation that came with taking a man like that down even without that was enough on its own to make people pay attention. Just like they were now.

Especially after the show I’d just put on.

“I did.” I confirm at last. “Though at that time, I used far more dangerous insects.”

Assault snorted. “Yeah, you’re telling me. I saw the medical report when they dragged him into the hospital. You do realise you rotted off his-” He received an elbow from Velocity, making him cough. “His ahem, private parts.”

“I was aware it could be the case. I decided it would be fine, considering his regeneration.”

“He was lucky he could, or else he’d probably be dead.” Triumph said, and there was a touch of reproach in his voice.

I turned to him, and I saw the way he minutely flinched. How old was Triumph? I thought all of a sudden. He’d graduated from the Wards, but it had been recent, hadn’t it? Within a year or two.

Well, not that age mattered much here.

“And now he is to be put in prison. I hope you manage to keep him there. I imagine someone like that would be a hassle.”

“Ha! Let’s hope not.” Assault shook his head.

“Indeed. If I could ask, what is it that happened here. It’s strange to see so many of the Empire’s Capes together like this, to get into a fight involving Ward’s especially, or the fact that they are here at all.” I looked their way pointedly and- ah, there it was. A flash of something like discomfort in Aegis’ body language.

“That second part is my fault.” He confessed. “It’ s browbeats first patrol so Gallant and I volunteered to show him how things are usually done. It was meant to be a normal patrol but then we saw a car nearly ram people off the sidewalk.” He gestured to the now upturned cars on the road. One clearly owned by the Empire from the looks of it.

“They reported it in and followed as instructed.” Velocity stepped in. “What we didn’t realise was that it had Victor in the back seats, or that they were trying to get to a safe house. They didn’t make it, but made enough noise to get the attention of more of their Capes, that or they called for help and well…”

“I see. It escalated into this. In that case, it’s not really your fault, other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time from the sounds of it.”

It wasn’t like I had any authority over him or a say in how he should feel, but even still, he must have held some stock in my words, because I saw the way his shoulders relaxed minutely, and he nodded grateful to me. I was glad, he looked just slightly less wary of me then.

“I’m not sure what it is you are allowed to tell me, but do any of you know why they were fleeing to a safe house in the first place?”

Assault shook his head, before turning to eye Victor as he was led into the PRT transport truck that had arrived on the scene. “That’s what I’m looking forward to finding out soon.”

“Not that we could tell you, unfortunately.” Velocity added, sounding apologetic over the fact. “It’ll likely fall under Protectorate investigations, and those are things we can release to the public.”

“But hey, if you really wanted to know you could sign up with us any time you wanted.” Assault joked, though the way Velocity glared at him made me think that maybe they’d been hoping for a chance that a less obvious way to offer would present itself.

I rolled my eyes behind my mask, though my voice projected through the bugs didn’t reveal that. “Armsmaster gave a similar proposition the first time. I think he might have only been slightly more straightforward.”

“You think? Dang, I need to step it up then.”

“Assault…” Velocity sighed, before turning to me. “Well however my colleague says it, he’s right that the offers open. You refused it the first time?”

“I did.” I confirmed. “At this moment, I would refer to remain an independent, though I have not completely dismissed the idea in the future.”

I had, but there was no need to tell them that.

“Well I’ll be glad to see it.” Aegis offered. “I’d be glad to see you in the Protectorate and know that you’re on our side.”

Protectorate. Well then, looks like I was doing something right. From the sounds of it, they didn’t know how old I was. The lack of voice, the height and maybe even just competence in general was probably making them assume I was an adult. Fine by me. If it made them take me more seriously then that was great.

“What our Ward’s captain said.” Assault grinned again. He had a nice grin. Not boyish or anything, but friendly, like he was letting you in on a joke. “By the way, what is your name? I don’t think you mentioned it.”

I made a show of tilting my head to the side, my bugs making noise as I did. “I do not have one.”

They all looked surprised by that. Even Browbeat and Gallant, who had been the quietest until then, looked like they wanted to say something. It was Browbeat that broke first. “Really? He asked. “You really don’t have a name? What do you expect people to call you?”

He might have said that last bit a little too loud if the way Triumph was wincing. I didn’t react but I could see from my bugs that people were recording this on the sidelines. How long had they been doing that? Since before I arrived? I hadn’t really been paying attention to civilians other than to track if they were alive or not. Well, if they were listening in then-

“People may call mine what they like.” I claimed in a shift of voice that made it sound like I was aloof to the whole thing, or maybe like I was above something like that in a not-pretentious sort of way. Or at least I hoped so. “A name only has as much meaning as people give it. I will take whatever feels right.”

And the fact that I was fucking terrible with names, don’t forget that but now. It was better I made it sound like I didn’t care about it and was just brushing it off. If I was lucky they’d pick one for me and spread it around and I could just go by that and ignore it if it was bad, because I generally have no idea what makes a good Cape name, especially a bug-themed one.

“Huh, good to know.” Assault nodded. “Well I guess if that’s all, we shouldn’t probably get a move on and make sure Victor and Cricket get nice cosy cells for the next few days.”

“Of course. It is time I go as well. See you soon, Heroes.”

I turned without another word and made my way down the street, my footsteps silent as a swarm of bugs came from the ally to my fight and cut off the sight of me from the Heroes like a veil. A little bit of showmanship as I use it as cover to leap back up onto a rooftop and out of sight. Making it look like I’d just assimilated into the swarm itself and then vanished alongside it as it disappeared.

Whatever they thought of that, I’d find out eventually, but I hoped it looked good.

For now though, I think I might just be done for the day. Going back to making bounded fields just wasn’t something I wanted to do and after that fight, I think I’d managed to fulfil my quote of useful steps taken.

I think I just wanted to take it easy for the rest of the day.

Well, I knew where to go for that now.

I slipped back onto the street a few blocks away, dismissing my costume and settling back into regular clothes, pulling my hoodie up around my head and shoving my hands into my pockets as I stepped onto the sidewalk and melded with normal people, a destination already in mind.

I headed home, making sure to let my dad know I was safe and that I’d be busy for the rest of the day, I went up to my room and opened up a map of the city I had under my bed, unfurling it and checking it again.

On it, there were several red circles, each denoting where I’d placed a bounded field so far and how far each’s range were. Right now they were sparse, and none of the fields overlapped, but eventually?

If I did this right, I’d be able to see the entire city, and everyone with a Power in it, whenever I liked.

That sort of knowledge?

That power very, very quickly.

I added a few more marks for what I’d done today and packed it away again, getting dressed into a sweater and jeans, something a little more comfortable and not smelling like mercury paint and concrete dust.

With that done I and headed down to the basement

My Workshop was how I’d left it a few days before. The sigils and symbols pained and carved into the wall hummed with a low energy and frequency that only my bugs could pick up. There as a thin layer of dust on some of the table surfaces, but not enough to be concerned about. I made an idle note to clean this place up a little soon, before making my way deeper into my Workshop.

I walked past the place where I’d made my suits into one of the darker corners, where my terrarium and hives had been set up to breed insects for particular purposes.

All of the insects and arachnids had been visible to me the moment they’d come into my rage, a good distance from the house but now that they were within my line f sight, I could get a proper understanding of just the sort of things I’d be doing with them today.

With a thought, I had dozens of spiders – each big enough to fit in the palm of my had comfortably - clamber out of their nests and webs, marching them single file onto a table with an oil lamp slung overhead. On one side, there were small, precision tools; forceps, tweezers, a micro-tin scalpels and several other items. I had the spiders set themselves out along side one another in a line so I could easy see and work on them and had them stay there as I made to grab some materials.

I opened a coolant unit stored on the corner along side a glass cabinet, which I opened as well as cold air hissed out of the prior box.

In the cabinet, I had jars filled with dozens of different plants, seeds and other things of the like, most of them poisonous to some degree: Like Belladona, Ricin, Oleandrin, Nerline, Wolfsbane, hogweed sap, seeds of a Manchineel tree, moroides, tobacco, opium poppy, coca, hemlock and several more I didn’t bother talking out for the moment. All of them were the… mundane potions that people had access to, ranging from painful and debilitating all the way to deadly and fatal. I’d used them plenty of times before, each carefully distributed to specific hives so that the insects their could integrate and soak in the residues I made form the ingredients. They were just a few of the things I’d used on Lung to take him down.

In the cooler, were reinforced glass vials set in rigid frames. Some of them held dark liquids, other colourful. Some had smoke, mist or floating particles, but all of them were important. Where the cabinet had the normal, mundane ingredients that I used more often, this one had those of a far more magical nature. The kind that packed far more of a punch too.

The distilled toxin of a Nucklavee, venom of Manticore, Hydra, Basilisk, Lamia blood, Chimera spit, Alrune bark, Efreet ash, Bunyip bile even a destroyed husk remnant of a Child of Einnashe. All of it was expensive, the kind of things I’d paid not just vast sums of money for that my mother had saved away from her own long life, but the promise and act of favours and agreements across my few contacts within he Mages association, others, I had acquired from my sponsors but no matter where I had acquired it, each reagent was extremely valuable and tremendously powerful.

There was an issue with having materials like that though.

My workshop… well, it wasn’t really a proper workshop. It was sub-par at best in terms of location, not to mention history. We’d moved here after my mothers death and so it had been me who had thrown this place together in a slapdash attempt to have some functioning facilities to utilise my magecraft. The one in my old home was in a state of disrepair I hadn’t gotten around to fixing, or had the resources to do so yet. Because of that, the Workshop I was using now didn’t’ have the equipment, engrained mystery or even adequate space needed to be effective.

It lacked defences of any kind, but more importantly, it lacked the things I would need to preproduce any of the ingredients for spell work, cursers or potions. It meant I had to be frugal with everything I had. 

That wasn’t to say I had so little that I was afraid using it would mean losing it for the foreseeable future, but none of what I had was something I could throw away casually. I guess actually, in a way that did mean I had been afraid to use any of it. Toi waste it unnecessary. But now, things had the opportunity to change. If the money Coil was offering was just the beginning, and if what I had arranged with Faultline worked out, there I’d have what I needed to turn things around. To have the proper facilities to reproduce what I had now in greater amounts.

In this case, it was the adage of spending money to make money. I needed to make sure of what I had to be as effective as possible, even if the risk of it all being for nothing was blatantly prevalent.

All of that though, it was a matter for alter. I could think on it as much as I liked, but none of it would change until I went out and did something about it, and for that to happen, I needed to prepare.

Taking the Reagents I’d gotten form the storage units, I brought them, over to the table and set them to the side. I reached for my tools. The forceps and scalpel and ordered one of the spiders closer. I fiddled with the lamp over head and twisted round a magnifying lens on a tripod to give me a closer, detailed look at the individual parts of the stone-still spider.

And then, I cut open its abdomen.

If the sider hadn’t been under my control, I was sure it would have lashed out or flee the instant I had, but instead, it stayed exactly where it was, as I made tiny, precision cuts into its body, careful enough and practiced enough as I was in doing this so many times before that I didn’t’ kill it.

There were plenty of tiny organs and parts of the Spider I didn’t’ need to touch. They worked well enough all on their own/ the main two I was interested in altering were thew venom glands, and the spinnerets.

When I had them open, I took minuscule drops and flakes form the venoms and poisons I had to the side, taking usually one or two at most, mixing them, altering them into something that could bind with the organs in a way that wouldn’t kill the arachnid and then fused them together with an application of alteration magecraft and flesh manipulation. I wasn’t exactly an expert on either but I knew enough to get by. Enough that it was viable to use on such small creatures.

I also added things to the spinnerets, the ability for it to produce hydrofluoric acid that would be embed into the spider silk when they produced it, created webbing that when came into contact with a person’s skin well… it would be painful to say the least. Hopefully enough so that when used, the victim would be more than willing to surrender faster without putting up a struggle and hurting others.

When I was done with that, I applied the minor healing magecraft I knew to heal the cuts closed and directed the spider back to it’s nest. It was marked on the inside and even without being able to see it with my own eyes, I could differentiate it from the normal spiders I had under my control. It stood out enough that I knew I wouldn’t end up using it by accident or lose track of it during a moment of chaos. Spiders like that wouldn’t’ be the first thing I used, but they would be used when it became necessary.

I wasn’t about to weaken my own arsenal just because I couldn’t use stuff like this on everyone I came up against.

Thew only real issue, as I had stated before, was the was tedious preparations. One I’d finished with the first spider, I moved onto the next, repeating the process, sometimes with the same set up of venoms and materials, sometimes varying it. I had plenty to work through and they didn’t need to all be the same. With each one, I could tell the slight differences in what they could do. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if that was down to my own Magecraft or my Power filling in that information for me.

Either way, it didn’t change the fact that while I could control them all, I still only had one pair of hands and each procedure took around five minutes.

That wasn’t so bad in isolation, but when I had hundreds of spiders to go through?

Yeah, it took time. A lot of time.

I didn’t stop at spiders either. There was another part of my swarm that I had in mind. Now, I wasn’t do it to everything. I left the flies, the centipedes, the bees and a bunch of others alone, but the Wasps I had under my control? They were the next point of focus.

Where the Spiders had a multiuse incentive to alter and upgrade them, Wasps had a different advantage of being fast, durable and blessed with flight. They were quite literally the main force of my swarm. I had thousands in my Workshop terrariums, hives in glass cases made to breed and spawn them over and over again at a rapid rate.

There were enough that I would always have some on hand, and always have enough for them to be effective when I first entered a fight.

What the problem ended up being, was that the same large number meant it wasn’t just impractical, but impossible to get through them, all if I wanted to still be a teenager and get them all done.

Instead, I focused my efforts on the queens of each hive. The wasps I had on hand at the moment would be normal, but any future wasps because of this, would carry at least some of the changes I made. It was a type of gene editing, helped by the fact that magecraft let me skip most of the steps needed for something so advanced, but enough so, once again, it was something I was only capable of doing to things so small, with just over half the number of protein coded genes as humans did. When I only had to alter a handful, it made it possible, if a slow process.

It was something that would take me a while, likely well into the night, or even the morning, if I wanted to be fully prepared. I did though, and the benefits of it were worth the time.

Even if that was all it was really worth.

I let out a sigh to myself, wishing as I had so many times before that I controlled more than just bugs. It was a common thought and on the surface I was sure plenty of people could understand why I’d wish something like that. Bugs were creepy after all, and unless you were smart, it was hard to imagine just how something like controlling insects could be useful for a Hero or Villain. Especially compared to all the other powers out there.

And I could admit, that was a part of it, but it wasn’t everything.

The insects I used were…. Well, they were insects. Small, fragile and weak on their own or even in moderate numbers. To the point that sometimes It felt like I was wasting my time and resources when I put real effort into improving them. The things I was using even now were an example of that. All the things I could have used them on if I had something more to work with than creatures I could crush between my finger and thumb.

I just wished that for all the trouble I’d went through to get this Power, I’d have more to show for it. More to work with than what it offered.

There was a way to change that though, wasn’t there?

I stiffened even as the thought flittered through my mind and faded. There was a way, potentially, to improve my power. The same way all Parahuman abilities could theoretically improve their abilities, grow them stronger, even though Powers didn’t work that way usually. A way to… open the door a little more on what they could offer.

It was possible and it was a way I knew how to accomplish. If it could give me any enhancements to what I could do then it could change so many things. And… and all I would have to do is-

No, no... no!

I shook my head hard, as if trying to literally shake the thought process out of my head and derail this line of thinking. No matter how tempting it could be, I wasn’t going to even consider it! There was a reason that had been kept hidden. There was a reason that the Triumvirate and those behind it had done their best to suppress that information. It wasn’t something to even be considered so casually and I… I didn’t want to be that kind of person. There were a lot of things I was willing to do, but I had lines I wouldn’t cross for a reason, especially not one so selfish.

I shook my head again. I had work to do, not to spend it thinking about things like that.

I just needed to focus on what I as doing. On my goals. On the task that had been given to me. If I did that…

Then maybe I’d feel at last like all of this was worth it.

Chapter Text

Behemoth attack 2003 Lagos, Nigeria

Panic had already set in by the time I arrived. The local paramilitary branch that had managed to hold Lagos against the numerous Warlords that had tried their hands at taking it hadn’t been prepared for a situation like this, although as bad as that sounded, even I couldn’t blame them.

There just wasn’t anything that normal humans, for all their capabilities, could do against a walking disaster like this.

We’d barely gotten a warning. Just unusual seismic readings completely out of character for an area that had never experienced earthquakes before. On its own that still might have not been enough, just the result of a Parahumans throwing around their weight, as was common in the region, but then temperatures had risen, and radiation had been detected and steadily rising eight miles outside of the city.

Behemoth was about to launch its attack on Lagos.

The word had spread fast, defences raised and aid called upon. The Protectorate had responded, as had numerous other organisations with their own Parahumans, as the Truce had been called into effect and the understanding that everyone would be fighting side by side now against this monstrosity.

Even still, wondered if it would be enough. I stopped atop one of the highest buildings in the city, overlooking the city’s sprawl and further towards the outskirts where civilisation gave way to nature and further still, where I could make out the steadily growing silhouette of the first Endringer, steadily approaching.

I directed mana into my sight and took a moment to get a clear picture of how the fight was going:

Parahumans, locals and those from other regions both had already engaged the thing. They had been the first to respond, being the closest and I could see the differences in them and how things were done in what so-called ‘civilised’ countries called the first-world.

They didn’t wear costumes. There was no indication that they had fallen into the roles of heroes and villains. They were far less…  commercialised. No, the African Capes were either dressed in normal clothes that consisted of regular pants jeans, shirts or jackets, perhaps the suggestion that when they used their powers, they did so without a distinction between identities and from what I could see that might be the case considering I saw very few masks amongst them. On the other end, there were Parahumans wearing some form of body armour or the other. Not Tinkertech in most cases, but actual body armour used by military and special forces types, likely taken for their own use, anything that could protect them or give them the edge in whatever it was they got up to on a regular basis here, I assumed.

Whatever the case, it made it easy for me to recognise them and mark them as locals rather than out-of-towners and those who had come to help.

They knew what they were doing too; keeping out of Behemoth's Kill Field unless they had a sufficient Brute ability to let them shrug it off or were equipped with Tinkertech that could fill the same role. Blasters and Movers with flight capabilities harried from a distance, shooting or throwing projectiles, lasers, beams or some esoteric ability I couldn’t figure out at just a glance.

Each shot or blast that met their mark wasn’t doing much though, from the looks of it. Behemoth seemed to shrug it off, not even slowing down as it made a slow and unrelenting pace towards Lagos. At its current pace, it would step into the city lines within fifteen minutes at the latest.

I wasn’t the only one to figure it out from the looks of it. The military power that Lagos possessed wasn’t sitting out of this, despite the fact that they were next to useless at best with how tank shells and mortar rounds pelted and bounced off the creature harmlessly, and detrimental at worst. More than once, I saw a stray shell or careless round clip one of the defending Capes, and I held doubts that many of those victims were sturdy enough to get back up in time to get away from the Endbringer, if at all.

Even now, some governments hadn’t gotten the message that conventional weaponry was next to useless against Endbringers. Oh yes, they’d seen the results plenty of times, over the past twenty or so years, they’d seen how ineffective they were and most of the time did more harm than good. At best, armies at full force made up of normal people could slow down an Endbringer like Behemoth for a few minutes, but only that. And against the second Enbringer, Leviathan, they couldn’t even do that thanks to its speed.

There was no telling how bad it would be when a third appeared and I had a feeling that there eventually would be. Perhaps it was nothing but a gut feeling, yet still, whatever was producing or directing these monsters, I had a feeling they wouldn’t be satisfied with just two of them ravaging humanity.

Whenever that might happen though, I didn’t know. What I did know was that right now, I was receiving a stark reminder as to why humanity wasn’t ready to face things on this level.

I’d heard that the Second Magician had recently made a comment about how humanity would need at least another century to be strong enough to defend itself from such threats…

I wondered sometimes if we’d make it that far to begin with.

But that was a dour line of thinking that did nothing to distract me now, thankfully, I was dragged out of them by a flicker of light in the corner of my eye and I stood on the ledge as Legend landed beside me.

“How bad is it going so far?” I asked, not taking my eyes off of the monster as it continued its approach.

“About how it looks, bad in that we haven’t gotten a hit on him clean enough to make him stumble yet.” Legend answered grimly. “But there’s a chance that might just be because we’re being conservative with our strength right now. Military generals are sticking their noses in and making command difficult.”

I turned to him. “They’re blocking your orders?”

He shook his head. “No, thankfully, but they are giving contradictory orders to the Protectorate and Parahumans leadership that local Capes have chosen to listen to. It’s slowing things down, making people hesitant to engage in case they trip somebody else up. Alexandria’s getting involved.”

I grimaced. She should be meeting Behemoth head-on by now, not dealing with disorganisation. But she was good at it. Alexandria was more a force of will than a person sometimes and the intimidation to match it when she wanted to wield it to her advantage. The leadership here would come to hell eventually, but every second it took was a second we were losing to this defence when Alexandra was one of the few that could actually make this Endringer stumble.

“And Eidolon?”

“Holding back for now.” Legend said. “Listening to the advice you gave last time to use a Thinker power that will help his power pick three better ones for this. I’m not sure when he’ll be ready, but when he is, I think it’ll make the difference.”

“That leaves you.” I nodded. “If you’re here now then I’m guessing the Protectorate contingent isn’t far behind?”

“I arrived barely ten minutes ago.” He confessed. “Strider should be finished gathering people up and sending them over. You just got here yourself?”

I hummed. “Had to use the Back Passages to get here, but yes, just a minute ago. Far as I can tell, the African Capes are holding their own well, but it won’t last.”

Legend didn’t look happy with that, looking out at the battle right as a half dozen Capes did a strafing run on Behemoth, bombarding him with enough firepower to sink a battleship at sea. It didn’t even slow the thing down.

“It won’t take long for it to reach the city at this rate.”

“Yes, and then it’ll start returning fire. I agreed. “Unfortunately I don’t have anything in my arsenal that could change things. I haven’t had the chance to prepare anything that could have worked, a few ideas, but none that are ready.”

“You’ll be on evacuation then?”

“That and coordination.” I nodded. “I might not be able to harm the thing myself, but there’s a chance I can spot a Parahuman that could help in a place they don’t need to be and direct them to you. Hopefully if I manage that, you’ll find a place for them.”

“Here’s hoping.” He muttered, before tossing me a silver armband. I caught it out of the air and frowned, glancing down at it.

“What is this?” I asked, even as I put it on.

“A communications array.” He explained. “It’s crude and in the prototype stage, but they’re built to take damage in most forms. Right now all they do is receive information from a control centre. It’ll let leadership speak to Capes at large to coordinate attacks and defence, as well as inform people of whose taken out of the fight.”

“They’ve been distributed to the fighters?” I asked as I fiddled with it, still frowning. I was bad with most technology, and unfamiliar technology was even worse, but it didn’t look too complicated.

“Just to the Protectorate members. It’s all we had the chance to prepare for right now. We’ll try to find another way to communicate large-scale orders to the locals, but for now this is what we’ve got.

Another moment passed before Legend reached over and flicked some sort of switch or pressed some button on my armband and it turned on.

‘Arctic Tooth Down. Bee Fortune Deceased. Bolt Spinner Deceased. Conjurer Down.’

I nearly flinched at the flat, robotic voice and the information to spouted, but caught myself at the last second, glaring at it. This thing could distract me if I wasn’t careful, and I didn’t need anything breaking my concentration in a situation like this.

“I’m going now to join the attack.” Legend said. “Keep in communication with the rest and do what you can.

“Legend,” I called out, catching his arm before he could shoot off into the sky. He stopped, looking at me. “You know that when he reaches the centre of the city, there won’t be much we can do to stop him from unleashing enough radiation to turn this place into another wasteland, don’t you?”

“I know-”

“Then I recommend forgetting any idea you have about stopping Behemoths advance.” I cut him off. “And do your best to redirect him towards the south river.”

He looked at me sharply. “You have a plan?”

“I have the beginnings of one.” I confessed. “More an idea than anything, but it’s better than nothing, I can promise you that.”

“Alright then.” He said. “I’ll do what I can to get the rest to follow through, but be careful. If you get caught in its Kill Field then none of us will be able to help you.”

“You let me worry about that.” I smirked and let Legend go. A second later he was off, shooting into the sky and speeding towards the Endbringer, before I even turned away, I saw his glowing figure unleash a barrage of lasers powerful enough to bring down a building.

I didn’t give it much attention as I stepped off the side of the building and let myself plummet a hundred stories down at sudden, magically propelled terminal velocity. Mana filled my limbs even as I reached out for the winds to direct my descent and protect me from harm. They spun and writhed like snakes around me, nearly visible to the naked eye. Twenty stories from the ground, I reached out, gripping at my own shadow and morphing it into a massive claw that caught the side of the building at an angle and I pulled, all at once flinging my body forward, propelled by my own momentum sent me flying forward.

I cleared seven blocks or whatever the equivalent was here in seconds and my feet skipped across a flatter apartment structure rooftop like a stone across a pond, bouncing me further still. It might have looked graceful from an outsider’s perspective but that was the least of my concerns.

My eyes flickered to the side, where I could see the last convoy of civilians centred around a dock ferry. Endbringer shelters had were full at this point and anyone left had obviously decided that they had a better chance taking a boat down the river and making as much distance for the massive monster as possible in hopes of surviving it.

It wasn’t a strategy I could rebuke, and at this point there was no point anyway. They were already in the process of doing it from what I could see; crowed spilling up ramps onto large ferry’s and fishing trawlers by the tens and even hundreds. At this point, it was better to let them do it than try to stop them and leaving them out in the open and disorganised.

The moment they were gone, it would be one less thing that Capes here had to worry about.  

A crash behind my warned just in time of a shockwave coming my way and I ducked behind another building, latching onto its side and bracing myself as it hit.

Still, the impact rattled through me, shaking and shattering windows around me and drawing screams from those below.

‘Frozen King Down. Gal Trace Deceased. Ghostly Tempest Deceased.’

I winced, not just from the ringing in my ears, but because I could guess now that Behemoth was fighting back, or at least responding to aggression. I’d seen him cause shockwaves like that before. All he had to do was clap his hands together and it was enough to pulverise vulnerable capes too close to him before they could protect themselves.

I raised a hand towards the river, beckoning my control over the elements and nudging not just the winds, but the rivers. With luck, it would give the ships a boost the moment they took off, but there wasn’t much I could do sans go down there and try and direct evacuations in person, and I doubted a single voice would be worth the effort.

Instead, I decided that the better use of my abilities was finding the correct Capes for the right job.

I climbed the building I had latched onto to get to a high point again it didn’t need to be as tall as before, just enough that I could take in the Parahumans around me, both those engaging Behemoth and those that hadn’t.

I clambered to the top and took stock of things. As I predicted, Behemoth had made it to the outskirts of Lagos now and begun to return fire at those he was fighting.

There must have been half a hundred Parahumans in the air, firing whatever they could at him, while twice that number had taken up spots atop buildings much like I had and set down Power-based artillery. Some of them projections, some of them created by shaker powers or even Tinkertech. There were Brutes and Changers at the ready too, those with bodies resistant to Behemoths Kill Field diving in and out of his range to score glancing blows against his craggy hide. Hoping to chip away at the thing's body where they could.

My eyes latched onto a Cape that had come to a stop on an intersection bridge, looking hurt and tired but still alive enough to be useful. From the looks of it, something had gouged his arm but not much else.

‘Illusion Master Down. Nebula Hound Deceased. Nitrohound Deceased.’

 I was already moving by the time I’d come up with a few ways he could help and the man caught sight of me just before I landed beside him. He was Protectorate, I could tell immediately by the way he tried to straighten up at my arrival.

“S-Shrike, ma’am!” He stuttered but I paid it no mine. I raised a hand and muttered a mantra under my breath. My palms lit up with light and the Cape looked down at his wounded arm to see the wound knitting itself back up, free of even a scar.  

He looked at it for a second longer before seeming to realise he felt better and gave me a grateful look. “Thank you, Ma’am, I can’t tell you how much I needed that.”

“Save the thank you’s for after the fight.” I brushed him off, eyes sharp. “How much can you carry when you’re flying, how fast?”

“Um,” He reeled slightly at my tone. “About five times my body weight at about the speed of a sprinter, Shriker Ma’am.”

I nodded. “I need you to focus on transporting Capes.” I told him. “Brutes and Blaster that can’t fly need to get into the right position and you can help them with that don’t bother with fighting up close, you wouldn’t help much, there are six others I spotted three streets to the west that would work better jointed with three other Blasters to the north on that bank building over there. Their concentrated fire will be more effective. I needed you to move people, do you understand? Get them in better combinations for their powers? If you need descriptions and orders, use your armband to ask with my authority, someone with a better view of the situation will lead you through it.”

Before he could answer, I sensed a threat and threw up a shadow barrier between the two of us and Behemoth, just in time as the Endbringer threw its head back and roared. The sound it made wasn’t anything human nor animal, but all the same I felt something instinctual within my recoil at the sound. Worse still, it was so powerful, so loud and disorientating that I could only watch as dozens of fliers fell out of the air, clutching their heads in agony likely with their eardrums ruptured or brains bleeding.

‘Nucleoaxe Down. Occult Deceased. Phase Hand Deceased. Red Cut Down. Bane Deceased. Steel Blast Deceased. Rot Deceased. Mister U Down. Wind Cyborg Deceased. Frost Wind Deceased. Galactic Fang Deceased. Glow Emperor Deceased. Comet Deceased.’

Damn, that had been a hit most people weren’t ready for. Something like that would be disastrous enough to send plenty more fleeing in panic so they didn’t end up the same way.

It would have been the case, if not for the screaming sound the air made, a familiar one, as something human-sized and powerful tore through the air near the speed of sound. Alexandria soared overhead and I saw her crash into Behemoth with the power of a meteorite, rocking the beast back so that it had to catch itself on one of the taller buildings left it topple over.

I turned away as it retaliated, swiping out, missing Alexandria and clipping an unfortunate Cape in her wake.

‘Beast Crusher Deceased.’

“Can you do it?” I demanded of the man I had healed. He swallowed, eyes flickering between the chaos of the fight and my gaze. Between the two scenes, I wasn’t sure which he found more terrifying, but it didn’t matter, because a second later he was nodding and took off a moment later to do as I had asked of him.

I let out a grunt and turned my attention back to the fight for a second, watching where else I could contribute my orders, seeing where Capes were lacking where they could be doing more, where they were getting in the way, where they needed to redirect their efforts. There were always so many. Parahumans were just not used to operating in such large numbers, not even in the Protectorate, not for fights like this. These weren’t the kinds anyone could truly train for, despite what the public believed.

It gave me an idea though, or rather, the armbands did.

I reached for it, flicking one of the switches I’d seen Legend touch earlier and knew the moment I did that others could hear my voice.

“This is Shriker giving battlefield commands.” I declared.

I gave my orders, shouting directions and demands, directing Capes where they were needed, telling them to pull out or redeploy as necessary, outlining more impactful targets and strategies where I could. Capes reacted to my words with fervour when they could be heard over the cacophony of Behemoth and his clash with stronger Capes.

I could see every time Alexandria engaged, flying in to deliver powerful blows that created shockwaves where her fists met his head before flying out, dodging his attacks and winding up for another one, over and over again. Sometimes she got hit still and was sent tumbling through the air, unharmed but out of place and when she was, it gave the Endbringer the chance to pay attention to someone else. Usually to their detriment.

‘Electrocleave Down. Emerald Trap Deceased. Omnizap Down. Orcaia Deceased. Psionic Catcher Deceased. Hornet Deceased. Screaming Mouth Deceased.’

The invincible hero ducked under a swipe that would have swatted her out of the sky, spinning along the Endbringers surface and crashed into its torso. It fell back a step and Alexandria delivered an earth-shattering haymaker to its equivalent of a chin. The thing roared as its head snapped up so fast that on any other creature I could have guaranteed a broken neck. Behemoth didn’t seem to have that problem and as it lunged forward, it lit up.

Fire and magma burst from its craggy body like a volcano, setting the immediate area up in a blaze.  I could see the way the air distorted from the heat even from here, felt it on my skin. I bead of sweat ran down my face. Closer, it was even worse. Trees lining roads and paths caught fire and turned to ash in seconds, steel holding up bridges and buildings melted, causing their collapse and even the stone was starting to glow a dark orange colour.

It was even worse for the living.

‘Draft Deceased. Dusk Down. Flame Talon Deceased. Fraud Stabber Deceased. Glimmer Down. Nemesis Deceased. Glueclad Deceased. Ice Mage Deceased. Luck Fly Down. Metal Fever Deceased.’

Burning corpses fell from the sky, those already on the ground slumped as their flesh was stripped and burned away, what was left blasting and blackening, sizzling away before my eyes. The ones closest had already been melted down to their skeletons, and those too were blackening and flaking now with every step Behemoth took.

Even Alexandria was forced to move back and avoid the blaze, if only because there was no oxygen for her to breathe up close. She didn’t stop moving though, changing tactics to swat lumps of magma that spewed from the beast out of the sky before they could hit others.

For the moment, it was probably all she could do.

Even Alexandria was limited in how she could affect Behemoth, and comparing their brute strength, I wasn’t even sure which of them was stronger.

My armband sounded a temporary retreat, an order I was sure echoed all across the battlefield as I watched dozens of Capes move away. Blasters still returned fire as they moved, but the effect was lessened now that they had to avoid Behemoth's ever-encroaching flames. That spread beyond his usual Kill Field.

‘Toxirush Down. Nitrobrain Down. Killer Gleam Down’

I clenched my fist, observing what I could and not liking what I was seeing wee were losing ground, plain and simple but so far I couldn’t tell just where exactly Behemoth was heading. I would have guessed the centre of the city so that he could drown the most amount of inhabited land in radiation, but as I watched, I noticed he was veering to the right, ever so slowly but steadily.

He was targeting something else, and I needed to figure out what.

I relayed my thoughts across the band, hoping that more eyes paying attention would give me more to work with, or if I was lucky, someone else would find the answer sooner. If we knew what Behemoth was aiming for, what it was after, then it could change things. We wouldn’t be able to beat the thing, but if we could deny it its objective that would be as close as we could hope.

It was a workable plan, something that meant that no Cape was sitting around uselessly. Now that search and rescue was basically done, to the extent that was possible, the Parahuman force still capable of combat could focus on exactly that. They just needed a new objective when Behemoth was unattainable for them. That was the thought process, anyway, and it was one I could spearhead myself.

But then, I felt something. Long-honed instincts I’d had engrained into me in my first years walking this earth. The feeling of something overwhelming passing its gaze over me.

And then, Behemoth started throwing lightning.

My eyes widened as one struck the side of a building next to me and I could hear the screams of Capes ionized by his attack, so blindly fast that their armbands didn’t even have time to register their deaths before they were shorted out and obliterated too.

‘Slash Star Deceased.’

I cursed, and didn’t even wait to see what the Endbringer would do next, throwing up a wall of concrete that I tore from the building I stood on, I created a barrier between me and the creature and turned in the same instant, boosting my speed and strength enough to leap off of the rooftop and onto the next,  then again and again, as fast as I could, widening the distance between me and Behemoth as much as I could.

‘Negative Chamber Deceased.’

Behind me, I heard the surge common with its ability to throw lightning charging up. Flashes in the corner of my sight and the screams of those too slow to react or defend themselves filling the air.

‘Necrothorn Deceased.’

I cut right, ducking behind another building and out of sight right as a bolt as wide as a bus arced over my head and carved through a skyscraper, the electricity from the attack arcing across the surface and leaping over gaps in was lightning shouldn’t do naturally.

But then again there was nothing natural about Behemoth's lightning.

‘Blue Snake Deceased’

I shook my head and kept moving, circling around its path. The Endbringer didn’t seem to have blind spots from what any of us knew so far, but it did tend to attack what was right in front of it rather than behind or to the sides. Any time I could get to see an attack coming would be the difference between life and death.

After what I judged as a sufficient distance, I leapt up, kicking off a wall and throwing myself even higher, twice more until I landed on the top of another building in time to see Behemoth take an artillery barrage of lasers to the face, Legend swooping down along with two dozen other flying Blasters backing him up, firing from all angles but mostly concentrated on the things left shoulder. At the same time, Alexandria led a diving charge that looked to be centre mass right until the last second, where she then dived even lower and struck out at its knee.

It was enough to make the Endbringer stumble and fall a little, and it needed to catch itself on another building as if it were a crutch so as to not topple.

The sight drew audible cheer from those around me, even for the minor victory especially as the fall cut out Behemoth's flames, as if it had lost concentration or something of the like.

That didn’t mean it stopped attacking. Still it flung lighting at anything in its path.

But neither did wee. Capes returned fire in every way imaginable, and I was among them this time, shooting car-sized pillars of spiked ice at it. The chunks that hit were projectiles all of their own, but those that melted from the heat of the Endbringer did so rapidly. So rapidly in fact that the bursts of steam that came from the reaction was like a concussive blast all on its own. Whether it did harm, knocked back or even just disorientated Behemoth for a few moments each time, it was one more thing added amongst the endless wave of attacks.

Bolts of lightning clashed with lasers, blasts, lumps of metal and rock and fire and ice and all sorts of other things, every variation of a projectile I could imagine, every Blaster power the defenders possessed as they fell into a momentum, staggering attacks with others, timing heaver blows to hit all at once and deliver greater impacts. The strategy of a thousand cuts was abandoned as it was shown further to be ineffective, favouring instead on delivering as many heavy blows that could force the Endbringer back a steep, as many as possible.

Despite that, despite the fact that it defence had come together now, Capes still fell. Every time Behemoth attacked, its lightning met a mark, some just bad enough to knock a Cape out of the fight, most of the time, enough to kill.

‘Steel Countess Down. Titanium Jade Deceased. Turbolance Down. Vibe Deceased. Draft Deceased.’

I caught movement, in the corner of my senses once again, and later I would wonder just for a few seconds why and how I noticed it, but in the moment it happened so fast I didn’t have time to. There was a flash, the kind that came from the muzzle of a gun, a heavy one, something more powerful than even those that the tanks that had failed to defend the city used. Miss Militia had entrenched herself up high enough that she had a straight shot right at Behemoth's head and with every second, she pulled the trigger of a frankly massive artillery gun. The kind that could have pierced through the armour of any tank or the door of any bunker. They crashed into the Endbringer again and again, seemingly to no effect, until one clipped the glowing red light that appeared to be Behemoth's eye.

I wasn’t the only one to hear something crack, like glass fracturing and the red eye flickered like it had been damaged. Behemoth didn’t roar this time, but its arm rose faster than it had before in this conflict, directly at where Miss Milita was standing. I saw the young woman’s eyes widen, saw how she realised almost immediately that she wouldn’t be fast enough to get out of the way and that even a glancing blow would be fatal for someone without a significant Brute rating like her. I saw the way she braced herself and fired one more time, maybe out of defiance, maybe out of spite. I saw the way the lightning bolt on Behemoth's hand, growing and arcing. I saw the way it fired right at the hero— And then my vision was filled with light as I caught the lightning in the palm of my own hand.

“Shriker!” Miss Militia gasped, staring up at me from where I stood in front of her, where I had crossed the distance so fast it had been untraceable to the eye, so fast that the sonic boom I left in my wake rattled the bones of those around me and how my own bones cracked and fractured from the overexertion of mana I had imbued them with to make the distance in time. I paid none of it any mind, glaring at the lightning as it crashed against my hand and splashed over me, arcing around where I stood like a living thing, whipping and thrashing but going no further. Behemoth didn’t let up, pushing a continuous flow of lightning as if it believed it could melt through me as if I were a wall.

I was not. I was a master of elements unrivalled on the North American continent, one that only the best in the likes of the Clocktower or Atlas could match.

It hurt, yes, I could feel the skin on my palms searing and scorching, from the heat of the plasma, but even so, I could withstand something like this.

With a roar, I threw my hands to the side like I was ripping open the space in front of me, like pulling on a curtain. The lightning that I had brought to a halt changed directions, twisting and bending a full one hundred and eighty degrees and shot right back at Behemoth, faster than it could react. And striking it dead centre mass.

It exploded on contact and before my eyes even as I squinted through the near-blinding light, I witnessed the Endbringer’s own redirected lighting carve a crater in its chest, deeper than any wound so far and Behemoth was throwing back. It lost its footing, and its balance and fell backwards, falling against a skyscraper and through it, the entire structure collapsing as Behemoth fell through and falling atop of it.

The Capes around me took their opening, bombarding the fallen Endringer with everything they had.

I turned around, and before Miss Milita could say a word of protest, swept her up by the waist in my arms and threw her over my shoulder. She let out something not quite a yelp, and then another one as I leapt away until we were out of the things range once again. I set her down quickly, uncaring if the young woman stumbled from the sudden dismount.

“That was reckless!” I spat before she could utter a word. “You got too close to it.”

“Shriker I-” The young woman stumbled, falling back into habitual fumbling that I remembered from her time as an inaugural Ward that I’d spend many days and nights teaching how to stay alive. Lessons she’d clearly abandoned just to get a lucky shot at an Endbringer. “It crossed into my range too fast for me to find another spot. By the time it could shoot at me like that I didn’t have a chance to move to another roof.”

“Then cover until it passes.” I growled. “Heroic last stands are pointless and wasteful at best in these fights, you know that!”

“I… yes ma’am.” She swallowed, looking away and for a moment I was looking at a teenager rather than the young twenty-something she was now. I let out a harsh sigh and reigned in my anger. It had no purpose now in the middle of this fight. It was still ongoing, talking could come later.

“I’m glad you’re alive,” I told her briskly even as I knew it to be the truth. “Now make sure you stay that way. Find another position further away, some with decent cover this time and see if you can hit a shot like that again. I don’t know if it hurt Behemoth or not, but it definitely reacted harsher in retaliation than it did anything else before that.”

“What will you do?” Miss Milita asked, falling back into the demeanour of a soldier too, focusing on the matter had hand.

I made to speak when my armband suddenly sounded and a frantic voice cut through the noise.

“Behemoth's pathing has been tracked!” Someone shouted frantically. “He’s heading towards the nearest Endbringer shelter. Repeat, Behemoth is targeting an Endbringer Shelter at full capacity one mile east from here!”

Miss Milita paled at my side and I knew she wasn’t the only one to feel a wave of panic at the announcement. All at once, attacks redoubled, as the urgency of what was about to happen set in. Capes threw everything they had at the Endbringer in the hopes of slowing it down.

Alexandra was there again, crashing into Behemoth like a missile, halting it for a moment. Behemoth didn’t fall this time though. It caught itself on another building before the full effect of Alexandria’s rush could move it and it let out a sudden roar that knocked even me back a step from where I stood. I could make out Alexandria tumbling away. It might not have hurt her, but even she had to right herself when her hearing was bombarded by sounds like that.

‘Xenopaw Down.’

A second later, Legend’s voice sounded out.

“We need that Shelter evacuated, now! Movers that can teleport or carry large numbers, prioritise civilian removal from the Shelter, everyone else, do everything you can to slow it down!”

There was another barrage of lasers from the man as he strafed the air, slamming a singular massive laser into the Endbringer from directly above, as if hoping he could bring it to its knees.

I reached out, setting a hand against the roof of the building I was standing on, reaching through it towards the earth and with a grunt, separated the roads and concrete, creating a chasm beneath the Endbringer’s feet and in front of its path. It wobbled and stumbled but didn’t fall over. What it did do was fall in. The crack in the earth was deep enough that it came up to what counted as the thing’s waist. It wouldn’t stop it, but it would slow it down as it was forced to brute force its way through the earth itself.

Brute force was unfortunately where it specialised though.

It wouldn’t do much more than give the ones evacuating a minute or two, but for some of them at least, it would be the difference between life and death.

I caught sight of a woman, on the edge of the fighting, waiting, watching, with a shadow showed beast with a massive skull for a head at her side.

My instincts called to me again, the thrill of danger but this time not from Behemoth and his gaze, but from the young woman herself. Something in me could tell that she was dangerous, or that she would be in the future a gut feeling that told me to take her out and save myself from the threat.

The question was, how useful would she be against an Endbringer?

I jumped off the roof towards her after sending Militia one last nod, urging her to stay out of the firing line this time and sailed towards the woman. She caught sight of me a moment before I landed and shifted warily to face me, her skull-faced companion doing the same and growling in my direction.

At a closer look, I could tell the skull was not a human one, but some kind of crocodile, though abnormally large, maybe three or four times the size of a normal one. It looked ready to lunge at me should I make the wrong move and while I could most certainly deal with it, fighting now was a waste of time.

“Peace.” I said, raising open palms. “I’m not here to attack you in the middle of all of this.”

She didn’t respond, and I noticed at once there was no recognition of the words I spoke. She couldn’t understand English, though I suspected she recognised the language itself. Her demeanour held suspicion.

For a moment, I begrudged the fact that she’d act like this during an Endbringer battle where cooperation was necessary for survival, but I could admit that human nature wasn’t so accommodating in the face of learned experience, something I knew all too well.

The woman was young, maybe in her early twenties, dark-skinned, a local or somewhere in the neighbouring regions, if I had to guess, though I could have been completely wrong if only for the fact that she wasn’t wearing anything to distinguish herself as part of one group or the other. No Hero costume, no emblems or flags to signify being part of any military force or mercenary group.

She wore plain carrier pants and a grey tank top beneath a leather jacket. Her hair was braided back and she had a cut on her forehead where something like debris must have struck her during the fight, oozing blood down the side of her face. What was most important for my needs however, was that she wasn’t wearing an armband.

I saw the way the woman’s gaze lingered on the colour of my skin for a few moments longer than necessary. Considering what was happening in this part of the continent and the sorts of people that were meddling here, if I had been white, she might have attacked me outright.

“What are you here for, outsider?” She demanded and I made a sound of understanding, quickly switching from English to Afrikaans.

“I don’t know if you could understand any warnings from the rest of the fighters, or if you even got them, but Behemoth is about to attack a Shelter filled with people.”

The woman’s face twitched at my use of words she could understand for a moment before the realisation of what I’d actually said set in. Her head whipped back around to stare at the Endbringer, pulling in a rictus of anger, but I had a feeling it wasn’t for the loss of civilian life.

“It is drawing those with Powers in with bait for a crippling strike then.”

I paused. I hadn’t thought of that and while there was no guarantee, it could very well be the case. The Behemoth and Leviathan both seemed intelligent enough to trick defenders into bad options, to draw them in for traps and force a large group to dedicate themselves to protecting a shelter and forgoing their own safety to do so sounded like it could be especially effective.

I shook my head. The reasons why it was doing so didn’t matter right now.

“Yes, perhaps, but I believe that you could be useful in slowing it down. The faster we can get them all out, the faster the defenders will widen the distance to something safer to attack.”

The woman glared at me. “How would I change things, woman? Aasdier cannot so much as harm the monster. We have tried. It was useless. It is too big to feel anything he can do and Aasdier is too small to be dangerous to it anyway.”

“And if I could change that?” I pressed, causing her eyes to narrow.

“Explain.” She demanded and I opted to demonstrate as well.

Reaching out, I pulled at the shadows around us. They darkened, became solid and coiled around my hand. The woman’s eyes latched onto the sight and I saw her take me in again.

“I can control shadows in many ways.” I told her “And your… Aasdier, is made of them. Can it do more than just attack?”

“Yes,” She said. “They grow with every corpse devoured. When I gained my Power, they were the size of my fist.”

“I glanced at the creature beside her, still boring holes into me. It was maybe a foot larger than myself now, either it had grown fast with each body, or eaten many. I glossed over the irony of it being a corpse-eater in my presence in exchange for pulling at more shadows, because whatever the reason it had grown, the fact that it had was good enough for me.

“And what if I could grow them another way?” I asked. “If I could feed it my shadows instead of bodies, how large do you believe it could grow?”

The woman stiffened at the question as if the reality of it only then hit her. She glanced at her companion, liking her lip, and I could imagine she was thinking of what it could offer her after the battle if she survived it. There was also a chance she was checking for herself whether it was possible in the first place.

After a moment, she nodded. “Yes, it can be done.”

“Then I’ll give you as much as I can, and in return, I need you to send Aasdier at Behemoth. Halt its approach in any ways possible.”

The woman turned to face me properly, taking me in again as if she’d finally decided to look at me properly for the first time. To respect me enough to do so.

She held out a hand. “Moord Nag.”

I took it. “Shriker.” I wasn’t intimately familiar with her name, but I’d heard it maybe once or twice from Legend. Whispers of an up-and-comer in Namibia that had recently overthrown the local warlord. Someone powerful, cunning and ambitious. Something to support in the future, if the need arose.

“Stand back for a moment,” I told her. “You will need to give your companion space.”

Moord Nag held her head high. “Aasdier will never bring me harm.”

It was as much an answer as many and with it I turned around and reached out with both hands, calling on my Magic Circuits and Crest at the same time. I felt the heat within me rise as I latched onto the shadows around me, those cast by rubble, vehicles, and the buildings themselves. I called on all of them, for as far as I could extend my reach and pulled. Pulled them out of their intangible existence until they were not so.

Until they were real like smoke, then solid like steel. I pulled them towards me, larger and greater than a wave, they were like living shadows that blacked out the light and with a grunt, I pulled them past me and towards the skull-headed beast.

They crashed into it and then a moment later, swirled around it, as if being devoured in a whirlpool. Moord Nag stumbled back a step from the sheer force of it as they entered her Power and before both our eyes, it grew. Larger and larger, slowly but steadily, bigger and bigger, until it was twice the size it had been, thrice, then more and more.

Its shapeless, shadowy form was no longer that. It grew more solid, sprouted massive limbs thicker than tree trunks of a great redwood, ending in curved claws larger than me.

Its centre warped until it looked like the torso of a great beast, and a long, scythe-like tale sprouted from the back. It fell forward onto four legs, its weight now affected by gravity as it stood before the two of us, and yet it didn’t stop growing, for as the shadows extended past its body and over the skull morphing it, warping it into some other creature, longer and wider, the parts of the skull not covered on shadows looked as if it was growing too. Teeth grew longer and sharper, and the eye sockets grew wider.

Spikes sprouted and then protruded all the way from its snout down its spine and tail and when it growled this time, it was deep enough to shake something within me.

When it had finally taken in all the shadows I could reach for and finally stopped growing, it was a massive thing.

On all fours it was still somewhere between twenty and thirty feet tall and it must have been even taller had it the ability to stand on four legs.

Its head was twice the size of a car and the rest was just as proportionate.

It was like some great African dragon made from shadows and Power beyond what we had yet to fully comprehend.

At my side, Moord Nag let out a joyous, euphoric laugh. This was clearly far beyond her expectations, and I could say it had been beyond mine too. The thing had absorbed my shadows far better than I thought it would have. But that was a concern for another time, what mattered was if it could fight.

“Well,” I said. “What do you think?”

The woman at my side raised one hand and at once, the creature known as Aasdier dipped its head forward, allowing her to press her palm into its snout. A sign simple as any that it listened to her command.

“Perfect.” She said. “This is perfect.”

She gave a shout and all at once her companion rose, and I realised that even for all its size and weight, it had not slowed in the slightest, more than that, it could still rise off the ground even without wings. It shot forward towards the direction of Behemoth and before my eyes it took less than ten seconds to close the distance.

There was a mighty crash as it hit the Endbringer, uncaring of its Kill Field or flames and coiled around the thing. Its long neck and body might have been powerful and solid but it seemed they were paradoxically still as malleable as before.

I watched as it wrapped itself around Behemoth’s torso and one of its arms, past its neck before with a mighty roar of its own it clamped down on the Endbringer’s Shoulder and pulled with its entire body. Behemoth didn’t have the time or leverage to react and I witnessed it topple to the side with a mighty boom.

Moord Nag laughed again, like it was the most amazing thing she had ever seen, before she turned to me, a wide smile on her face and I could only imagine what sort of ideas were going through her head.

“You have my thanks.” She said. “I can’t imagine how many I would have had to go through to ever get them to this size. No, I don’t think I could have lived long enough to even achieve it.”

“And now?”

“And now, there is so much I can do.” She leered at me. “But you were expecting that answer, weren’t you?  This is more than just about this battle, isn’t it?”

“Maybe.” I admitted, regarding her cooly “But I think you’re getting ahead of yourself, I didn’t empower you like that because I thought you’d suddenly turn the tide.”

Moord Nag blinked in confusion but before she could demand an answer, her shadow companion screamed and her head whipped around in time to see Behemoth rise, gripping Aasdier by its neck and tearing the two of them free of one another before swinging it into a skyscraper and through it.

‘Volt Fly Deceased. Compubomb Down. Glue Hit Deceased. Jet Edge Deceased.Metal Sham Down. Shellclad Down. Toxiscreamer Deceased.’

Aasdier writhed as it sprang back out of the crater in the building it made and landed atop the Endringer but as it tried to bite down again, Behemoth's body lit up in flames and magma, lightning cracking around its body like armour. It slashed through the shadow beast's limbs, cutting them off. Even as the shadows reformed, it lost its crip and flee to the ground where Behemoth stomped through its chest.

“No!” Moord Nag cursed as her companion writhed and retreated, trying again and lashing out with its tail this time. Its bladed tail sparked against rocky crags but couldn’t pierce its hide like before, not when its body seemed to swell and new formations of rock grew over its body like a second skin.

Aasdier lunged again and Blasters joined in with another bombardment of attacks.

“I could tell this was your first Endringer fight,” I said. “You have this look about you, like you expect to be the one to arrive and change everything. The moment your Power grew that size, you thought you were some sort of silver bullet.”

I turned to stare at her, and my gaze froze her stiff.

“These are not those sorts of battles. These are last stands for the cities struck, fights for survival to preserve as much as we can at the same time. No heroics, no ingenious plans or strategies have worked so far. The most you can do, the best you can do, if stall as long as possible so that the Endbringer has nothing to attack. The sooner you understand that properly, the better chance you have of living through it.”

I tilt my head. “I hope you do, I can see potential in you.”

Moord Nag swallowed, but whether she took my words in or not was no longer my concern.

Not as Behemoth lashed out once more, not at a Parahuman this time, but at the Shelter right outside its Kill Field. The massive building that had been reinforced to withstand natural disasters crumbled like paper as a red bolt of lightning ripped the reinforced concrete and steel away. I could hear the screams from here as the walls were brought down.

Inside, I was sure the people within could see Behemoth now with their own eyes.

And I suspected that was what Behemoth wanted. For some sick reason, it wasn’t the people it was about to kill to see their death coming.

It took a single step, and I knew just like that a hundred or more people had been brought into its Kill Field and burned to a crisp.

Alexandra soared in and collided with its side with all the might she had and a dozen capes flowed suit as another barrage of concentrated fire crashed into it too. More desperate than before, now that they could see people dying right in front of them, now that the defence had been broken.

Behemoth raised its ragged hands and brought them together in a massive clap that tore through the air with a sonic boom. Just like that, I was sure even more people had died, my senses telling me that over half of the civilians in the shelter had just been killed as their organs erupted from the inside.

‘Transgloom Deceased. Clockia Deceased. Cosmopaw Deceased. Counterhurricane Deceased. Vibroraven Deceased.’

For a second, I saw the way the line faltered, as so many capes, those with armbands and those without fell at once, as hundreds of men, women and children died in an instant, without mercy or discrimination or sympathy. All of them dead before anything could be done to stop it.

I saw the way ranged fire faltered, how those that could fly into close range stuttered and pulled back and brutes that could survive even one or two hits from Behemoth hesitated, as if each and everyone felt the same fear and reluctance to continue the fight when we’d failed to protect the civilians right in front of us.

And then Eidolon arrived.

The sky opened up as a blast of light struck down right where Behemoth stood, like an angry got had thrown down its judgment, it struck the Endbringer and picked it up off its feet, launching it back and through the air. It went spinning, and rolled across the earth and through three buildings before it came to a stop. Lighting fired back in retaliation right at Eidolon but right before it struck, Eidolon caught it in one hand and like I had before, reflecting it straight back at the Endbringer, but this time, when he did it, mid-air it split and multiplied into a dozen other bolts of lightning, all of which met their mark and carved furrows and blew of peeled of its molten rock armour.

Behemoth lunged up, faster than should have been possible for its size, and hurled a molten ball of magma the size of a house back at the Hero. Eidolon shot to the side and blistering speed, cutting through the sky like a bullet and avoiding the attack.

‘War Trap Deceased. Sable Dart Down. Thundermancer Deceased. Antiburn Deceased.’

Alexandria and Legend rejoined the fight at once and behind them, the legion of Capes that remained up. They met Behemoth as an incredible force and in the free moment it offered, Eidolon brought his hands close together and between them I watched as a green orb of energy formed, smaller than a fist but growing fast. Spinning and spinning and spinning, faster and faster as it grew and grew and shook. It got brighter, so fast it was nearly blinding and from it I could feel a devastating power ready to be released at a target of its caster's choosing and Eidolon looked ready to unleash it.

I brought shadows around me and readied myself for the next assault.

“Here we go.”

Eidolon unleashed his attack, so great and powerful that the world vanished—

S ̷̀ ͎̜̮o ̷̝̯͘m ̵ ͠ ̋ ͍e ̵ ͓̍͝ ͅt ̷̻̙́͝h ̷ ̊ ͖͚i ̵ ͈̮͂͑͠n ̴̗̭̝͊͐̔g ̵ ̭̙̜̕ ̸́ ͚̪̳̐i ̴̫̿͗n ̸̿ ̌ ͉ ̴̻̳̚m ̷̥̥̣̐̚y ̷ ̇̋ ̙ ̵ ͌ ̈ ̟̲b ̸̳̕ ̧ ̟r ̴̲͑a ̶̊ ̲̗̽͌i ̸̜̼͊͐n ̷̝̼̜̾ ̸͖͔͊́͝w ̸̩̭͂͊̚͜a ̷͑̐̀ ͉̰͉r ̸͓̗̹͗̈́p ̸ ̒́ ̬e ̷̀ ̔̀ ͚̖d ̵ ͐̽̚ ̦ ̷̜̫̏̈́l ̴̔ ̄ ̡̘͙̈́i ̸ ̇̇̊ ͙̰k ̵̋ ̚ ̄ͅ ͜e ̵ ̾ ̇ ̝̣̅ ͜ ̵̂̊ ͈̬͊s ̶̄ ̙̔t ̵ ̗̐͒a ̵̃ ̳t ̴̢͆͝ ̦i ̸̻̈́͆c ̶̆ ̼̗ —̶ ̜͗͝ ͅ

̸̙͚͒C ̷͆ ̇ ̝o ̸̅̈́́ ̳̫l ̸ ̄ ̤̽o ̶ ̯̀͂̚u ̶ ͙̱̓ ͅr ̶ ̜͌͠s ̷͇̖͂ ̸̳͛a ̶ ̈́ ͅ ͖n ̷̢̗̙͊d ̴ ̈́ ͓͖ ͅ ̴ ̒ ̠̲͘i ̷̈́ ̣̂ ̞͓m ̴̬͎̕͘a ̷̎͜g ̷̬̫͌e ̵̉̀ ͔̲s ̵ ̗̗́ ̴̙̅͠ ̧ ̙a ̷̓̚͝ ͅ ̢n ̸͚̪͚̐d ̸ ̆ ͚ ̦ ̸̜͋̕͝s ̶ ͌̓͘ ̨ ̯h ̷ ̋ ̜̟̔a ̴̪̪̽̍p ̸̃ ̒ ̻͉̰͛e ̴ ̈ ̤̳̔s ̵̃ ͚͔̟̿̍ ̵ ̜̏͋a ̷̳̚͝l ̴̼̥͛̚l ̸͉̺̚ ̸ ̂ ̝͖f ̴ ̒ ̺̘̝̎̀e ̶ ͖̜̭͌l ̵ ̡̗͕͐͝l ̵ ͛͠ ̦ ̮̯ ̸̓ ̒ ̱͈a ̶ ̝͒͋w ̶ ̙̈́̓͒͜a ̸̡̞̈́y ̵ ͖̀ ̴̥͐̍͂a ̸́ ͍̥̅̏n ̸́ ̧d ̸ ̈ ̢͔͋͝ ̸̓ ̧̦̊ ͓m ̶̂ ̪͍̑͗u ̶ ̗̈́d ̸͙͑̅͝d ̸ ̈̈ͅl ̸͋́̕ ̗͜e ̶ ͛̉ ͉̑d ̵̛ ̪̤͌ — ̷ ̌ ̮̰̮

̶̀ ̲͉̗̏̚A̵ ̩̳̽ ̶ ̢̰̙̀̚B ̵̈ ̢l ̷͙̝͗a ̷̲̪͔͒c ̶ ̫͔͖̓̎̈́k ̷͎̠͎͂ ̸̘̠͛V ̴͈́̈́͝o ̴͐̐͊ ̨i ̴͗̀̕ ̹͙d ̸̡͓̱̎ ̶ ̣̿͊́ ̖̞w ̵ ̜͒̑͘i ̷͙̥̐͠ ͅt ̸͆̉ ̡͙̖h ̴̣̐̽i ̶ ͋ ̒ ͜n ̷ ̌ ̪̍ ̸́ ̪̱m ̴̹̺̤̈́̏̕y ̸ ̄̊ ̭̺͋ ̸̙̐͛m ̶ ͇̏̓i ̴͑͝ ̂ ̜n ̷̯͈͌d ̴̑ ̆ ̖͕́ — ̴ ̂ ̙̗͉̔

̵ ̩̍͋S ̷̫̺̓͝͝o ̴̬̈́m ̷ ̇ ͓̓́e ̶ ̔ ̆ ̯͜t ̸͋̉ ̥̼̹h ̵ ͌̿ ̈ ̰i ̷ ̛̋ ̝͈͖̀n ̶̃ ̅ ̈ ̖g ̸͚̔̈́ ̴͋̽ ̌ ͇̠p ̷͌͝ ̦ ͍u ̸̣̓̕͝ ̯͜l ̸͕͝l ̴͋ ̌ ̳͙̅e ̵ ̈́ ̦ ͎̺d ̷ ̄ ͠ ̦, ̷̜̾ ̵ ̙̏a ̶ ̯̪̿̿̚n ̷̺̬͂͆d ̸̫͕̻̓͠͝ ̵ ̑ ̌̈ ̢̟̟s ̴͎͆o ̸̃ ͇̞͕͋m ̵ ̼́̀e ̷ ̂ ͚͔̥t ̶ ̿ ̛ ͎̠h ̷ ̛ ̕ ̣̆i ̶ ̘̅n ̵̌ ̪g ̶̆ ̽́ ̘̹ ̷͎̽r ̴ ̌ ̩͖̱̍e ̸͐ ̋ ̹͋s ̷̱̎ ̧i ̶ ͔̪̈́̓͌s ̷͛͠ ̋ ̲̮t ̴̔ ̛ ͛ ̦ ̭e ̴̣̓̅d ̵̊ ̜, ̶ ̲̈́̔ ̶ ̡͍̅s ̴́ ̂ ̺o ̵ ̎ ̊ ̚ ̨ ͚m ̶ ͉͓̑̿̕e ̶ ͒ ̨ ̼̖t ̷͙̙̅ ̦h ̵̆ ͋ ̂ ̯͇͎i ̴̃ ̅ ̄ ̙͎n ̶̊ ̯̥g ̵ ͎͐̈́ ̷̻̼̩̿̎t ̷͇̹̔̅͒͜o ̸ ̋ ̫̭̞̅r ̷́ ̦̄e ̶ ̳͎̔ ͅ ̴̈́ ̛̆ ̳ ͅ ̺a ̶̇ ̲̩͔n ̶̉̉ ̱d ̶ ̫̔͗͆ ̷ ̊ ̝̝͝ ̧m ̶ ̿̀ ̠̺̞e ̸̥̈́n ̶̇ ̬̕d ̸̫̮͘e ̷́ ̠̥d ̷͔̞̿ ̸̃ ̟̭̑a ̷̃ ̱͕͈̈́͒n ̵ ͗̚ ̧̛d ̶ ̭̮͘ ̸̪͉́͌b ̴͚̍r ̵ ̼̓o ̴̿̃ ̢͔͇k ̷̔͆ ̋ ̻e ̸̫̀͗̏ —̵ ̤͖̑̅͘ ̦

̷̔͠ ̌ ͓͕Ş̶̉o̵ ̘̣͒ ̧m ̷̈́ ̈ ̞͜e ̵ ̥̬͛͛̕t ̶ ̩͕̥̍̈́̽h ̴̺̑i ̴̙̹̓͊͂n ̶ ́ ̄ ̡̽g ̸̰̙̙͝ ̸͔̈́p ̶ ̹͐̓͘u ̵́ ͎̣l ̴̃ ̣́̽l ̴͆ ̨ ̖e ̸͗̃ ͕ ͅd ̴͈̻̿̿ ̴̉ ͔̗m ̶ ͌̉ ̮̖e ̵ ̩̿̾̿ ̵̀ ̢̟f ̷̎ ̄ ̩͓̮i ̶ ͆̃ ̙̟r ̵ ̡̽e ̴̕ ̂ ̟ ̧ ̼e ̵ ̝̀ ̴͚̐a ̵̆ ͊̃ ͕͓s ̸͛̀̉ ̟ ̵ ͙̑̈́e ̵ ̓̿̀ ̦v ̴̤͈̖̏e ̷̀ ͉̫r ̴ ̊ ͔̘̭͘̕y ̵ ̞͒̑̕t ̵ ̡̳͐h ̸̤̲̠̀̎i ̸ ̇ ̙̟͎̐͝n ̸͖̐g ̴̅̎ ̆ ̡͍̫ ̵ ̟̭͛c ̵ ͕͎̙͂̿r ̵̆̊ ͉̖̚a ̴̾͂ ̦ ̗s ̶ ͐̅ ̨h ̵ ̎ ̇ ̝ ̦e ̴̘͊d ̵ ͘ ̂ ̡͖ ̴̕ ̂ ̤͝a ̴́ ͖̗͐r ̸̩͚̲́o ̶̇ ̜u ̸̣͒ ̭n ̸̻̼̓͜d ̶ ̡͓͕̓͐͘ ̶ ̿̔ ̈ ̩̜̺m ̶ ̑ ̌ ̺̑e ̶ ̝̙̝̎ — ̸̔ ̌ ̱

…

[ALERT. HOST CONSCIOUSNESS UNDER THREAT. ERECTING BARRIERS AGAINST INVADING ENTITY. QUARANTINING THREAT TO ORIGIN POINT.]

[ALERT. HOST CONSCIOUSNESS AFFECTED BY INTERFERENCE. INITIALISING PROTOCOLS TO ADAPT AND SUPERSEDE INVASIVE THREAT.]

[ALERT. PROTOCOLS WILL DAMAGE HOST’S NERVOUS SYSTEM AND METAL CAPACITIES.]

[…DATA RECALLED. HOST WELLBEING DEEMED PARAMOUNT… SOLUTION WORKAROUND ACQUIRED; MICRO-INTEGRATION PATHWAYS INITIALISED. NURAL NETWORK REINFORCEMENT COMMENCED. UNKNOWN COMPLETION TIME. RELOCATING TO SECONDARY. BACKGROUND PROCESSES.  HOST AWARENESS REINSTATED.]

[HOST RESUSCITATION PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED.]

…

And then I woke up, and I wasn’t my mother any longer.

I gagged, wretched as everything in my body recoiled, as my stomach failed me and I rolled to the side of my bed just barely in time to puke on the floor instead of myself.

I was Taylor again and I felt the full consequences of experiencing a memory not my own, as my soul rejected it wholeheartedly.

As my Crest burned like it was on fire.

I just barely managed to pull myself back from the edge of the bed in time so that I wouldn’t collapse into a puddle of my own vomit-

And then I lost consciousness, like a puppet cut from my strings.

Chapter Text

I didn’t feel great, that morning, not after the dream that still clung to me like filth on my skin. Everything felt so much heavier now, not as a physical thing, but like something weighing in my mind… or deeper than that, but I didn’t want to contemplate the effects these memories were having on my soul. Any possibility other than just being lingering remnants and dreams was a possibility I didn’t want to entertain.

Besides, while I could admit that ignoring them and trying to push through probably wasn’t the best idea, it was, in reality, the only option I had right now. I didn’t know anything I could do that would put a stop to them… or slow down their frequency.

So I tried my best to go about my morning, getting dressed and having breakfast with my dad like everything was normal. In a lot of ways it was, my Dad didn’t even seem to notice there was anything wrong with me, not that I expected him to. He made food for the both of us, and explained that he had to leave early for work this morning after there was an issue brought up by Kurt about a string of people not showing up to jobs they’d gotten through the union and the employers coming by to ask questions about why their promises workers weren’t showing up. It was something he needed to be there early to prepare for so he could smooth things over properly and so he wanted to try and squeeze in some extra time with me before work that day.

As if small gestures like this could ever make up for the gap between us. I wasn’t sure if it was a feeble attempt to bridge that gap, or if he was really delusional to think that neither of us were stuck in a rut, a problem that couldn’t be solved by all the things we did together and was made worse by all the things we didn’t.

Things that I… couldn’t focus on right now, not when I had so many more important things to be doing.

I knew there was a problem here. One that I needed to actually try and solve instead of just complaining and whining about it in my head, but… but I couldn’t just drop everything I was doing to take care of it. It would take time, a lot of it and I needed to find a- a proper moment where the two of us could at least talk about how much we were screwing this up.

‘But later,’ I told myself. ‘It could be done later, when I had a moment to myself to just breath and think it all through.’

So… for now, we acted how we thought a normal father and daughter should, talking about meaningless things, for the most part, and pretending the distance between us that turned conversations awkward and silences oppressive didn’t exist.

Dad asked me plenty of questions about what I’d been up to in the last few days, and I told him about my meeting with Coil in not so many words. He might have been aware I was a Parahuman, and that I had things I wanted to do that were not totally legal, but that didn’t mean I had to drag him into the whole deal with Capes and their problems. He didn’t need to know exactly who it was I’d spoken to, only that I had and that they weren’t part of the Protectorate, and he certainly didn’t know I’d agree to work with him, that I would be committing crimes sooner rather than later.

There was no point in putting him at risk by implicating him with the knowledge. In the event that my identity was ever revealed or even suspected, it was better that he knew as little as possible, not just so that he couldn’t get in trouble himself, but in the case he was thoroughly questioned, nothing he said would lead whoever was asking back to me.

It was just safer that way.

So I edited things here and there. I told him I’d met a group of Parahumans that had been willing to hire me on for some jobs here and there. That alone was enough to worry him, to think about all the ways it could be dangerous, but I did my best to smooth it over. Keeping their names and identities out of the conversation, I did my best to explain that for now it was a temporary arrangement and that they all seemed like mostly competent and professional people, that I was under no threat and could back out any time I wanted without getting in trouble with said group of people, he’d settled down.

He wasn’t happy, that was obvious, but he didn’t bring it up at the table again.

It was odd in a lot of ways to even have to do that.

It sort of felt like he was less worried about crime and more about falling into the wrong crowd, which was… decent of him, but we both knew I could handle myself and it felt weird for him to act like a concerned parent to me now of all times. Thankfully, he hadn’t pushed, and I hadn’t been forced to listen to whatever it was he wanted to say about it.

I stayed around long enough for him to finish and leave for work, telling me to have a good day at school while he was leaving, to which I said I would without any real effort. The minute he left, I decided that it was about time I went about my day, got dressed in something appropriate for Brockton Bay morning weather and went for a run.

I didn’t do it every morning, preferring to switch up my routine here and there to avoid monotony, but it was still the most frequent thing I did each week. A jog from my home along the Boardwalk was a safe and easy route.

I usually started at somewhere around six, six-thirty at the latest but after last night’s interruption to my peace of mind, I started just a little later at seven in the morning. There were no cars or people on the street and the sun had just finished rising. The sky was a cool blue, the sun was bright and the shadows were long.  The sea air that lingered from the night that I could see my breath as I moved, little huffs of fog that reminded me that it was cold. I knew that eventually the temperature would climb during the day, but for now it was nice to just enjoy that cool feeling.

 It was times like this when I could pretend that Brockton Bay was empty and that there was nothing wrong with the place. No crime. No poverty. No struggles. No people. It was just empty, in a good way; serene enough that I could organise everything in my head in peace.

Jogging wasn’t really training anymore. I’d moved past that level where it did anything to help me progress, but it was better for other reasons to maintain myself if I was still thinking about it in the physical sense but more than that it just made me feel better. It felt good to have some time where I could either do nothing but think, or think of nothing if I wanted to.

It was the one chance it took to push all the scheming and planning for the future to the side, all the issues I forced myself to put up with at school and all the problems of Brockton Bay I could see everywhere I looked.

I didn’t have to think about myself.

Here, at least in the early morning, it was just the act of moving from one place to another, nothing to complicate it.

I had my usual routes memorised to the point where I didn’t even have to think about what direction I was going by now. I could just let my feet take me wherever that may be and take in the scenery while I was at it. I watched as it all passed by without a care. In the end, they always took me to the same place.

 In Brockton Bay, there were only really two districts anyone cared about.  Docks where people did their best to scrounge together whatever work they could, the Boardwalk, where both residents and tourists alike got to do something actually nice in this city for a change.

Most areas of the Docks were not the sort of place that you’d want to go for a causal stroll on a good day, there wasn’t the infrastructure for that; packed together buildings, abandoned warehouses and roads that were either in disrepair, or led nowhere good. That meant it wasn’t a good idea to go alone for a morning jog every day, given the fact that it was usually filled with gang members in their free time, people with no place to go and general crime that infested the area like its own sort of plague, I stuck to main roads leading past the Docks and to the Boardwalk.

Speaking of the Boardwalk, I made it there at about seven thirty, face flush slightly from the exertion, but my breath steady, it was the time when people were just beginning to start their days. Stores and the like were still closed, but I could see a few people taking advantage of the early morning for what it was and doing something similar to me. There weren’t many of them though, not right now, so it made it easier to spot who I was looking for from a distance.

Because I’d come here not just for a routine workout, but because Coil had contacted me, like he said he would and requested that I meet with someone in particular.

I was surprised though, to realise that it was someone I’d met before

He was out of costume, missing the golden sceptre of mask, but his height, proportions and general physical profile was the same from what my bugs had managed to map that night, although that in and of itself didn’t change the fact that I was getting a look at Regent’s face properly this time.

He was younger than even I had expected. If I had to guess, he might have been a year, maybe two years younger than me, with a lithe frame that made him look soft rather than dangerous out of costume.

Coil had given me his name too. Alec.

He stood there, looking put out at the fact that he was here at all so early, but looking like he was resigned to it all the same, draped across the beachside railing like he was a ragdoll, though the moment I was close enough to be within earshot, I saw the way his eyes flickered to me. I had questions about why he was here so early, but that could wait for later. Instead, I focused on making sure there was nobody around that was here for reasons I’d have problems with, since he was the one I expected to see this morning and no one else.

Civilians wandering past and missing their own business was fine, but I would prefer not to have any sort of conversation while Coil had some Merc shadowing us the entire time.

While I did that, Alec shifted where he sat, until he turned his whole body and leaned over the back of the bench and further, teetering dangerously for a moment before the teenage Cape in civilian clothes was leaning on the railing, his eyes on the beach. I couldn’t tell if he was looking for something, enjoying the sight of the waves and the sun, or if his mind was on something else but as I got closer, he had noticed me coming before of course, but even with his eyes flickering to me more than once, the rest of his body was lax enough that it was if he was acting like I wasn’t even there.

That was fine, if he wanted to play it like this, I could do that too. I looked around. 

There was a paper bag in his hand, radiating heat that I could guess he was holding to make sure that nobody could snatch it up and take whatever was inside for themselves. In doing so though, it looked like he had surrendered a cardboard tray with a three coffee cups, one of them opened and drained with steam rising off the ones remaining, still hot.  I raised an eyebrow at the sight as I came to a stop next to them both, hands falling to my hips as I took them both in. Alec smirked, perhaps reading the fact that I was distinctly unimpressed by his coffee purchase when it was obvious one of them was for me, like this was supposed to be some casual conversation.

The fact that he could act like that at all meant he didn’t know everything he would need to about me to think otherwise. That I wasn’t a threat to him. Clearly, Coil hadn’t seen fit to give him anything but the basic warnings but that did raise the question on what Alec did know.

All that Coil had really told me was that Regent would be asking for the same permissions the Travellers had, and that there was something important I needed to know to make sure that acceptance wasn’t rendered null and void in the event problems rose up.

It was because of that, and the face that this meeting had been arranged out in the open, that I’d forgone my mask and costume. I didn’t really need it. There was plenty of chances for Coil to let slip either on accident or on purpose about who I was and it wasn’t like it really mattered.

If Villains knew my identity, then fine, I could deal with that with force. The only ones I needed to concern myself with wire the Protectorate and PRT, and only for a while.

A secret identity was a tool like any other, but if it became a hindrance to the relationships I wanted in this city, then it wasn’t necessary. Sure, I’d use it to hide form Civilians all the same, but other Parahumans? There was no need, not when they already operated in rather insular social circles.

That said, it would take some getting used to, having people lie Regent know my face in any form. About how I should act without my mask to give the image of a dangerous Parahuman.

The fact that this was technically a business arrangement just made me feel more unsure about how I should act overall. Acting like I would with the costume on wouldn’t’ work completely, not just because it had been designed specifically to hide my age and expressions, but also, acting like I did in my civilian identity wasn’t the right way to go either, in my opinion.

I had to convey a different image here of what was genuine here and what wasn’t. if only so that I could be taken seriously like this, especially with the things I knew I’d have to do in the future.

“So you’re the one Coil made a big deal about, huh?” Alec looked ,e up and down. “Got to admit, I don’t know what I was expecting behind the mask and all the bugs, but I wasn’t a teenage girl, that’s for sure.”

I said nothing, standi there and waiting for him to say what it was he had to say.

Realising that, Regent let out a breath.

“Okay so, I’ve been here for a few weeks, in the city I mean and I’ve basically been living on that guys dime, on call for whatever stuff he has in mind, set me up in a nice place this side of town, but it’s all been low profile, at least until that last one. Running into Lung was nit what I had in mind, let me tell you. Anyway, as soon as that happens I know the game is changing, so I bring it up with him the next time I see him and he basically said that I’m right, but that if I want to actually stay on with him, I need to do it properly.”

He gave me a look. “According to him, that means asking for permission to operate be a Cape or whatever in this city.”

“It’s not needed.” I tell him in an easy tone. “It’s more a formality than anything else. The larger Gangs don’t do it, don’t even know I exist. But Coil does, and whatever else there is to say about him, he covers his bases. This way, we have a sort of… truce going on. So long as the things he does doesn’t directly hinder me or mine, I leave him be, or at least target the other gangs first, something I intend to do, as you’ve seen yourself. That was the understanding until recently.”

I tilt my head to the side. “Then he offered this new arrangement, so we’ll see how that goes.”

“Yeah well, good for you.” Alec didn’t roll his eyes but I could tell it was a near thing. “Anyway, he told me I have to do that and get you to say yes, and to do that fairly, I have to tell you something I was planning on keeping a secret form pretty much everyone.”

“Is that right?”

“It is, yeah.” He crossed his arms. “But first, I want on ask you something of my own.”

There was a beat where neither of us said anything and the look on Alec’s face made it seem like he was hoping I would break the silence first. No such luck for him and eventually., he sighed.

“First though, how about a piece offering?”

It’s not much, just a little bit of food; doughnuts and croissants from the cafe over there, and whatever’s left of coffee I haven’t had yet, one full cup if you want it.”

I hummed, accepting the offer and the little gift. It wasn’t often I took coffee. The jitteriness it always seemed to cause me was something I couldn’t afford while I was working on my magecraft, but this early in the morning, with nothing serious going on right now, I’d indulge myself a little.

I performed a decreet measure of structural analyses on the drink, just in case the boy that was essentially a stranger to me got any funny ideas. There was nothing wrong with it, so I took a bit of the offered food and a sip of the coffee, letting the heat of it spread through me.

“So,” I said when I’d finished. “What was the question you wanted to ask me before we get all this over with?”

“You really need to make it sound like it’s something shifty?” Alec complained. “What I want to ask is totally innocent, scouts honour.”

“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.” I said. “But if I was, I’d say that working for Coil is enough proof that there is no reality where you were ever a scout.”

“Har, har, look, I found that so funny.”

My mouth tightened into a line

“You question?” I sighed, getting involved before this bickering could go on for any longer, though from the way Alec rolled his eyes I wasn’t subtle at all about it.

“Well I’ve got plenty for you miss mysterious girl, considering you joined up with Coil all confident and sure of yourself like this is all-natural. I heard from one of the people working for Coil that you talked back to him like you were the one in charge at first. Don’t know what that’s about, but considering this talk is something Coil set up at all, it gives me an idea at you’re more involved in all the things going on in this city that I’ve got figured out. I sort of want to figure out what’s going on in your head to have you act all like that, but I figure that Tattletale can have that job and just tell us all later in easier to understand words. So I thought I’d start with the one that’s bugging me right now.”

“And that is?” I prompted, ignoring what I hoped wasn’t a purposeful pun and his behalf.

“There’s something weird about you.” He said bluntly. “The first second I say I you knew it, but I wasn’t sure how until the other day when I figured out what I was looking at and what it meant. My power? It’s weird when I look at you.”

“Weird how?”

“Weird as in my Power lets me see, or sense or whatever it does that lets me understand a person's nervous system, but when I look at you? Well it gets a little freaked out and confused and then I get confused.” He stared at me with blank eyes, yet something about them, something in them behind them, set my teeth on edge. “So what’s the deal, new girl, about you having three different sets of nervous systems?”

And just like that, suddenly the situation had changed.

Huh… I had thought Tattletale was the only one I needed to be wary of. Serves me right, I guess, for assuming something so quickly. My eyes narrowed and the boy must have sensed that I wasn’t happy with the question.

“This isn’t an interrogation.” He said , not quite in a rush, but slightly less apathetic than he had been just a few seconds ago. “I just noticed in on the rooftop back then when you saved my bacon from being burnt by Lung and wanted to find out what was screwing with it, you know? Not often that happens. Actually, it’s the first time I’ve seen it happen outside of family.  I was curious, you know? Why wouldn’t I be about how your powers work?”

I don’t really like talking to Tattletale, from what little time I’ve gotten to and I think I’ve got a clear read that she doesn’t like me either but before all this she mentioned that it would be alright to ask and let you decide whether or not you wanted to answer.”

‘And I bet whether I refused to answer or not would give her a clue about if it was something worth digging into.’ I thought bitterly. It looked like Tattletale was more willing to pry than I thought she would after our last conversation. The titbits I’d given to her about my abilities clearly hadn’t been enough for her, and now she was looking into things she had no business looking into.

…How annoying.

“Really?” I said dryly, keeping a lid on whatever reaction I might have to what was suddenly a very different situation. “You see three sets? How does that work?”

“Hard to explain.” Alec shrugged as if he didn’t care about my tone. “The first set of nerves looks totally normal, like anyone else’s would, I guess. Not like I’d known if there was anything worth caring about since I’m not a doctor or whoever it is whose job involves all that stuff, but the second set’s weird.”

He made a so-and-so gesture with his hand.

 “It doesn’t look natural, I guess is the right word. All straight lines and grids, running in different ways all over, and even weirder is that I didn’t notice them at first. They’re like… the opposite of nerves that I can see in that I don’t just not see them but when they cross over and intersect with your regular nerves it’s like someone took an eraser to the first set in certain places where they cover each other. I can see them as a sort of… negative space, if that makes sense. And the third set? They're the weirdest in that they don’t even cover your whole body. Just the area near your spine, neck and skull. Like somebody stuck em’ on top of the rest and called it a day but it somehow fits perfectly fine anyway. Like I said, it’s all weird.”

He raised a brow. “Not like it’s a huge deal or whatever you’re making it out to be in your head, I’m not gonna do anything about it. It just bugged me a bunch standing there next to you when I didn’t know if my power was on the fritz or something. Think you can enlighten me on what the deal is?”

“I’m not sure what you want me to say, Powers are weird.” I said affecting a casual demeanour, as if it was a question I’d asked myself before and found no answer to. “People have been trying to figure out how certain powers do things to the body for a while now. Who knows, maybe it’s just a weird Power interaction between ours?”

 “Uh-uh.” Alec muttered and I got the feeling he didn’t believe me.

I was lucky then, that for the moment he seemed to suddenly lose interest, that, or he didn’t think I’d open up any more about the issue. He was right, and after another second, he turned away, looking back at the ocean.

“Is there anything else you wanted to ask?”

I glanced out onto the beach as I probed, and spotted a lone crab scuttling across the sand. Absentmindedly, I took control of the thing, beckoning it closer until it began to clamber up the side of the pier. I could feel Alec watch as it made its over to my feet and I made it do circles around me.

“I think we can have the other conversation about how this will all work out later.” He said, and I could see the barest flash of interest in his eyes. “You can control Crabs too?”

I nodded, thinking carefully about what I wanted to tell him, especially with the fact that I didn’t know what he’d actually come here to tell me hanging like a cloud over us right there. The fact that my brain had automatically gone to what I could hide from him annoyed me a little, but it didn’t stop me from accepting the caution on what I could share with him.

It was occurring to me that from the way Alec was scrutinising my Power, there was a good chance he had something to base that suspicion off of. It could have been something I said or did, but if that was the case, I’d missed it. The other option, was that he was hiding something too and just knew how to spot someone doing the same.

If that was true, then Alec was a Human Master of a higher calibre than he let on. Not just simple twitches and reflex control, but something that I needed to take seriously. What it actually was, I had no idea, but it didn’t hurt to have a healthy level of suspicion all the same.

Still., there was a benefit in feeding select information to people, if only top stop them from looking deeper. I could tell him some things about me and if it got back to Tattletale, then it could tide her over for now, maybe long enough to give me a chance to put my foot down on what was and wasn’t her business.

“It’s not a hard and fast rule on what I can and can’t control.” I said carefully. “Anything below a certain level of sentience is so easy I don’t even need to try, more natural than breathing even thanks to my Power but I can’t control things with will, if you get what I mean, furry animals, nothing with feathers and no humans or stuff.” The words suddenly tasted like ash in my mouth, and my spine itched, where my Crest was located. The despicable, awful thing.

Alec nodded, even as he watched me silently probably thinking about what else I could control with it, thinking about the possibilities.

“Good to know,” He said. “I guess it’s a good thing to be able to use stuff like that if you ever found yourself out on the ocean, like in a boat or something, could be useful when a bunch of the insects you’d usually have aren’t there.”

“Ah yes, the horror of crustaceans.” I drawled sarcastically.

After a second, he checked his watch.

That was as good a que as any.

“Now then.” I started. “If we’re going to do this and I’m going to give you the formality of permissions, then I need to know just what it is that Coil thought was so important that there had to be a whole meeting out here int eh boardwalk, in public that couldn't’ have been done later.”

Alec sighed, taking the lid off one of the cuff cups and taking a sip.

“Right, I guess I might as well get this over with. What Coil was getting all up and arms about to the point where he’s making such a big deal about this is… isn’t technically to do with me completely, but with some baggage I have.”

“Baggage?”

“In the form of people.” I dipped his head. “I ran away from home, away from my dear old dad and the rest of the family, and I don’t think any of them were all to happy about it.”

“That so?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “So Coil thinks I need to worry about this family… what? Kicking up a fuss, coming to collect you or causing problems in Brockton Bay?”

“Pretty much?”

“And he things that your family can do that? When the city is already filled with the likes of the Empire, ABB and his own people, not to mention the Protectorate to deal with problems like this, considering your family is obviously on the wrong side of the law with how you’re being cagey about them.”

“Only because people usually freak out when they hear about who exactly they are. Not that I can blame them.”

“Well, are you going to keep me in suspense?” I raised a brow at him. “The sooner you say it, the sooner we can get this over with.”

“Yeah well at least let me finish first then. Before you  think up ways to sting me to death.”

I briefly wondered why he’d assume I’d leap to such an extreme reaction right away, right up until the moment he opened his mouth again.

“My dad runs his own group in Montreal. A… well, you could call them a villain group, but he never wore a mask. Never needed to, never cared to. He went out and did what he wanted and nobody wanted to try and stop him in case they ended up under his Power. He’s a Master, in case you haven’t figured that out yet from the fact we’re related. I was working for him before anything else.”

My eyes narrowed. There weren’t many villains that Heroes would avoid, not publicly at least, but form the way Alec was talking about it, it seemed like a common occurrence. Enough so that the man in question felt emboldened enough to go out without even hiding his identity.

There were only a few people, especially in Canada, that could get away with that.

“Remind me, Regent,” I bit out. “What did you call yourself when you worked for your father.”

He looked at me, dead in the eyes and I realised that the description was far more apt that I hadn’t been expecting. There was a blankness to Alec’s gaze. One that made me wary.

“I went by Hijack, for a few years. Back when I ran things in dads inner circle.”

“…Your Father is Heartbreaker.” I stated, my voice going cold.

With all the masters I thought would ever be a threat I would have to worry about, that man was one of the few I hadn’t’ actually put on my list, and for good reason.

Heartbreaker was what you got when someone had a power like Gallant, the ability to manipulate emotions, and absolutely no compunctions about using it selfishly. Unlike Gallant, Heartbreaker didn’t need to shoot people with any blasts of energy to affect them. He just needed to be near a person the same way I needed to be near insects to control them, and the effects were long term or even permanent from what I’d heard reported.

He was dangerous, very dangerous. Enough so that he’; d be tentatively called an A-Class threat rating with a ‘do not engage’ warning, not just because there was a risk that anyone within his range could fall under the control of his Power, but because he had plenty of innocent people already his thralls to use as hostages and human shields.

He was dangerous in a way I didn’t like.

“Does he know you’re here?” I questioned, cutting straight to the chase.

Alec shook his head. “Nah, I travelled around a lot to make sure there was nobody following or watching where I was going. One I was sure he or my family couldn’t’ track me, I went under the radar for a while before I came here. Far as I know, he has no idea that I’m here and he wouldn’t’ cross the border into America just on guesswork.

“But he would cross if he did know.” I challenged to which the boy shrugged.

“He seas all his kids as his property, and he doesn’t like it when we flee the nest or however you want to explain it. If I made a big splash he might think about coming this way, btu I don’t’ think he’d risk having the Guild and the Protectorate on his ass at the same time.”

“And yet there is a risk, or Coil wouldn’t’ have pushed you to tell me about it.” I sighed, running a hand through my hair for effect, just so Alec knew I wasn’t happy about the information he’d just shared. He watched me silently, casually, like h was expecting me to lash out at him for it.

I could understand why. He’d called himself Hijack. That was a name I’d heard briefly in connection to Heartbreaker and knowing that, it was obvious that Alec hadn’t just sat around. No, he’d said it himself. He’d worked for his father.”

Immediately, that changed how I looked at him. Suddenly, he wasn’t just a flamboyant teenage villain looking for the thrill and fun of being on the wrong side of the law. He wasn’t’ someone who didn’t understand just how serious this all was.

He’d been a part of it. He might have even killed people before, under Heartbreakers orders, or maybe even worse.

There was an issue there, and it wasn’t just the fact that he was fourteen and this would have been even younger while under his fathers thumb, and if there was anything I knew, it was that resisting the will of a parent could be hard.

But know, it wasn’t just that. It was that he’d apparently left. Run away even, and if that was really the case, then it said something, didn’t? It had to. I wanted to believe that it did. That a kid could see what was wrong with the things around him and walk away.

Honestly, that on its own might have been almost enough for me to give him at least a chance.

But… even with all of that, I’d saved him from Lung for a reason, and I wasn’t about to suddenly one eighty on that decision just because of his history before coming to Brockton Bay. The one thing I could do, for any that arrived here, was give them the chance to prove me wrong.

“Do you have any plans to… follow in your father’s footsteps?”

He actually scoffed at that despite the seriousness of the question and shook his head. “I’m not that stupid. The second people found out I was doing stuff like that; I’d be dogpiled to make sure it didn’t’ get out of hand and even if I was? I don’t have any interest in being a mini-heartbreaker. Not my sort of thing.”

I stared at him, really stared at him but I knew that no matter how long I waited then, I wouldn’t get any more insight on whether he well and truly meant what he said. Which meant I had to make a decision on what I knew right then and there.

A sigh was allowed to escape, heavy and grim.

“Fine.” I said. “I’ll give you a chance in my city, for whatever you think that’s worth. The same permissions gave to the last group of villains that arrived here, you’ll get. You get the same freedom to live your life here as anyone else does in this city, as much as you can make of it anyway… and if your problems do show up on my doorstep…” I trailed off. Whether I explained my stance on what the situation would be if Heartbreaker came to the Bay wouldn’t’ matter in the end.

“Great.” He shrugged affecting a casual air, even as I’d noticed him relaxed minutely as he released that I wasn’t about to attack him or throw him out of the city. “So I guess I can tell Coil I still have a job, or however this is supposed to work. Nice talk, really. Ten out of ten for the whole serious business demeanour you have going on even though you can’t be more than sixteen, really works for you, trust me.”

I stood there, decided to pus the no doubt future issue that was Heartbreaker to the side for now for a future Taylor to deal with and leaned against the railing more easily, my back to the sea. Very noticeably, Alec hadn’t let either and for a moment, as he adopted the same position as me, the two of us were silent.

“So,” I began. “Just is that the end of this conversation, anything else you thought up  int hat head of yours to ask me about?”

“Still working on it.” He drawled. “Just weighing the pros and cons of coming out and saying it when you could kill me for getting nosy.”

I snorted, even as I fell into a more temperate persona, something leaning more towards cold than I’d put on before. “You think I’d do that here, in a public place like this?”

“I think that you know where I live now, or at least you can find out pretty easily.” He shot back. “And the Boss seems fine with you coming and going as you please, from what I can tell, dumb as that is. Didn’t even complain when you came back a day after saying you’d think about the offer, from what I heard.

“Have a problem with me getting a room in the place?”

Alec shrugged. “I just know you aren’t going to be sticking around long term, no reason to give you a way in with all of that… Honestly I didn’t even want to unmask to you when the team got you to sign up. I got outvoted though. Coil is really going for the hard sell on you as far as I can tell.”

“Is that right?” I glanced at him from the corner of my eye even as I reevaluated just what it was Coil wanted from me. And what Tattletale had been cleared to do to get it from me,

“And you’re going behind their backs and telling me this why?”

“The way I see it, you’re either a nutjob that’s good at hiding it and you could kill us all at any moment or you’re legit and the smartest thing I can do is make sure you don’t think I have any plans on stabbing you in the back or something. Judging by how this was all set up, I think that’s a good idea.

Tattletale isn’t some moustache twirling loser or some evil mastermind, but she has a habit of pissing people off form what I can tell so I’d rather not risk being in your way if she ends up crossing that lien with you, ya know?”

“Fair enough.” I let out a breath. “So… is that it then?”

“Actually, just one more thing, if you don’t mind. Just wanted to confirm something.” He said, turning his blank gaze on me. “Right now, Coil is leading a pretty under-the-radar sort of group even if I know that’s probably going to change sooner rather than later and I’d rather we didn’t end up recruiting someone that’ll be a problem for everybody, so I guess my question has two parts.”

He tilt his head. “You’ve killed somebody before, haven’t you?”

“…”

I stared at him as a cold flush shot through my veins. A block away, a nest of spiders devoured a pair of rats with ruthless voracity. For just a second, I imagined reacting out and wringing his neck. Just a second maybe even just half that, but it was there and it came with such fervour that I had to firmly reign myself back in, even as I knew none of it showed in my face.

From the way Alec’s mouth twisted into a smirk, I had a feeling he knew what I was thinking anyway.

“Yes.” I admitted at last. “Yes, I have killed someone before.”

It was all I said. I didn’t elaborate and I could tell Alec knew that if he tried to ask who it was I’d killed, he’d have pushed too far and regraded the question utterly.

“Good to know.” He said. “Not gonna ask whether the person in question had it coming or not, don’t really care about all of that but you do you, I guess. Just need to know one more thing about it though, then we’re good.”

I clenched my fists at my side in a way so that he could see them.

A warning.

“And that is?”

“Are we going to have to deal with anyone coming after you for killing them? Friends, family, that sort of stuff?”

“No.” I said, just as grave but completely certain. “You definitely don’t have to worry about that. You’re safe in my city form that at least. It will be the problems already here, o the ones that follow you that you have to worry about.”

He stared at me for a long minute, and I couldn’t tell what was going on inside his head. I didn’t look away, meeting his eyes the entire time and stood firm in the face of his suspicion.

Eventually, he turned away and shrugged, shoving his hands in his pockets like it was no big deal now that the moment had passed. “Fair enough. I guess that’s all I wanted to know right now. If you say things are cool I’ll just have to go with it until proven otherwise. So good luck with that.”

“Right, luck.” I huffed, brushing a strand of hair out of my face. “Just because I’m curious, what made you even think to ask a question like? Did I give off some feeling that you noticed?”

He laughed wryly. “Nah, nothing like that. I’m betting most people wouldn’t even be able to tell, or if they did get some sort of feeling they’d just put it up to you being awkward and antisocial, works well for you, let me tell ya… No, it wasn’t any of that.” He shrugged again, this time easier.

“It was just a hunch. Let’s just say that something tells me we’ve had similar experiences with a parent.”

“…”

“Welp, I got all I need for now.” He said, righting himself and walking backwards away from me for a second, smirk still on his face. “This has been fun, really. Good to finally meet you properly, strange girl.”

He turned at that parting with one last lazy wave, and then I was alone on the Boardwalk, as crowds of tourists passed by, I stood there, lingering, watching the path Alec had gone.

With a harsh breath, I let out a sigh and at last left too.

…

…

Maybe I should have expected it, but there had been a lot on my mind for the past few days. I’d been busy, really busy not just with integrating myself into the role of a Cape, but with everything else too.

So I might have forgotten that I would eventually end up as the talk of the school.

Well okay, not me as in Taylor Hebert, the girl people didn’t associate with because I was either too standoffish and dismissive of everybody, or because I was the social pariah, but me as my Cape identity.

After what had happened with me helping the Heroes in that fight with the Empire, people knew who I was, and more than that, they knew what I had done. Not just with helping to deal with Nazi Capes, but the fact that I had been the one to take down Lung.

Earlier this morning, the official announcement had been made that Lung would be on his way on a transport to prison and with it came Armsmaster himself stating at a press release that the same hero that aided their Heroes and Wards was the one that defeated Lung. He hadn’t gone into greater detail about me when questions, probably the safe PR move until they understood what I was like personality-wise, but that was still a huge boost for my credibility.

If someone like Armsmaster was saying it, then people would believe him. He had that sort of respect with people that his words could quash speculation and rumours pretty easily. 

Once he had though, people got to speculating. I’d only briefly checked online to see if there was anything important being spread around and stumbled upon a thread about me. They still didn’t have a name for me yet, but that didn’t stop them theorising whatever they could: My Powers, my skills, my history. Some people were claiming that I was a Cape that had been working from the shadows until now and had finally revealed myself while others were saying that I was a fresh face that had just started a few days ago.

There were plenty of people saying I was terrifying or gross with how I used my bugs, others mentioned it being awesome in the same breath, or dangerous, or interesting and all sorts of things.

Some people were wondering if I was hot beneath my mask.

The internet, ladies and gentlemen.

Of course talk like that leaked into real life too and here at Winslow, that was no different.

I could hear people talking about it in whispers both excited and worried as I passed by them in the halls. There was plenty of reason for that. The Gang presence in Winslow was highly exaggerated. It wasn’t some breeding ground for Gang recruitment or crime but it was a pretty underfunded school on the rougher side of town and this was a Cape city with a higher average of super-powered gangs than average. So that meant it wasn’t completely free of people that were for sure part of those wrong crowds.

Kids that were hoping to be a part of the ABB or E88, or even the Merchants, although I had no idea why anyone would want to be a part of a small-time drug crew that barely made the evening news once a week.

They wore things on their clothes, mostly hidden but visible to anyone who knew to look for them. Armbands, belts or whatever that sorted Gang colours so that their fellows could see. It wasn’t all too worrying to me; pretty much everyone in the school who did stuff like that was someone who wanted to be a part of the Gangs or whatever but wasn’t really.

Gangs didn’t do well recruiting high school kids after all. It was bad for business to have some soft, untested kid who worried about homework or their parents of all things being brought into murders and killing and other kinds of crime.

Not that it didn’t happen but if you believed the horror stories about gangs of young nazis roaming the halls of Winslow you’d have been called gullible.

Still, there were a few members that threw their names in with the ABB, something that must have looked like a bad choice now that their leader was about to be sent to prison. They were muttering between themselves, wanting to know just how dangerous this bug Cape really was.

I liked it, I think, that people were scared of me. That what I was trying to do in building myself up as something to be taken seriously was working so far.

That didn’t mean resting on my laurels of course. Right now I was the new thing, something that people could talk about because I had novelty and had proven to be someone that they could take seriously but I needed to keep up the momentum.

Right now I was just a single Cape, for as good as a showing as I’d had, people like that were a dime a dozen. If I wanted to go further, it would mean becoming an established power, one cemented not as a one-off thing, but as someone here to stay.

That would come eventually though, so long as I didn’t make myself look bad by biting off more than I could chew by mistake.

Still, it put me in a good mood for the day and as classes passed by, I found that today was one of the better ones. I’ve got back test results for a few classes and been happy with the grades, to the annoyance of the hangers-on that liked to join in on the harassment when they got the chance. It was one of those things, that for all they could insult me, the fact that I was a straight-A student meant that they looked like idiots if they tried to pick holes in me for my intelligence or anything.

They found other things of course, but I knew it stung for people like Julia to see me breeze through classes they were struggling with a little. Really that girl should get a tutor instead of trying to come up with ways of making my day suck. It would be better for the both of us and it wasn’t like she was anything more than a pest. It wasn’t her that ever did anything to affect me here at Winslow. That dubious honour was reserved for a few people in particular.

“Taylor.”

Speaking of…

I suppressed a grimace at the sound of Emma’s voice behind me as I left the cafeteria for lunch. I always found it better just to buy some food and find somewhere else to eat instead of being stuck with so many people on all sides who’d be more than happy to make my day worse if they got the chance.

Looks like I hadn’t been lucky enough to slip out without anyone noticing today. Or maybe Emma was just paying extra special attention today after I’d left early last time without answering her questions.

With a sigh, I turned around to face them, counting the usual three. There was Emma, Sophia and Madison, all in a neat little row. I felt a lethargic sensation shoot through me and sighed again.

By now, I was counting the days before she cracked and tried to force them out of me, by herself or with Sophia, it was a gamble how she’d try it depending on how desperate she was for answers.

From the looks of it, that day would be sooner rather than later the dark circles under her eyes were new, nearly a match for Sophia’s regular look, but there was a hardness to them that made me want to tense up.

“What is it this time, girls? Get bored of hearing how the rest of your fake friends were failing to get a rise out of me and wanted to try yourself?”

“Watch your mouth, Hebert.” Sophia snapped

“Why, because you said so?” I glowered at the girl before scoffing. “What do you all even get out of it at this point? Did you seriously have nothing better to do than ruin my day?”

“Well we don’t have to try very hard for that, do we?” Madison glowered, arms crossed as she glowered at me, or what might have been a glower, if it weren’t for the fact that her gaze was fixed on my feet, at odds with the vicious look in her eyes. “Everything about your life is already miserable from what I can tell, Taylor. All this crazy crap on top of it doesn’t help with that. The only difference is that we’re getting dragged into it now and you won’t even tell us what we need for closure?”

“If you think that then you’d be doing anything else.” I fired back, moving to push past them, and I didn’t need to look back to know they’d moved to follow me. “Instead, you go around wasting your own lives doing pointless shit and wasting all our time. You think answers will give you closure? They won’t, it’ll just make it worse and then you won’t be able to pretend things are normal.”

Sophia reacted as soon as I made to speed up my steps, the moment I finished speaking she grabbed me by my shoulder, fingers digging in tight and dragging me sideways. I’m not strong enough without magecraft to withstand her own strength so I lose my footing.

I knew better than to fight back against the momentum but even though I didn’t struggle or twist away I’d braced for it, I still let out an ‘oof’ when she shoved me against the wall, hard. I manage to keep my head from rattling against it but my back doesn’t thank me, especially when Sophia readjusted her grip on my chest to keep me pinned there.

She bared her teeth at me and I glared back at her, eyes flinty behind my glasses.

And Emma shook her head angrily. Green eyes cold as an arctic lake in winter. “This isn’t happening again, Taylor. You think you get to weasel out on this for the hundredth time? No. This is happening, whether you like it or not, you understand?”

“Obviously not-” I coughed as Sophia rammed a fist into my gut hard enough that I could feel my ribs creak even as the wind was knocked out of me, silencing me. I turned to her even as I inhaled painfully and glared at her furiously. I could feel my bugs on the edge of my senses. Away from the school. I pushed them further, as far as I could go that I didn’t feel the desire to give into the temptation to fight her here, not even for a second.

“Shut up.” Sophia growled, low and dangerous and it’s a tone that just-

Changed things.

I felt the hairs on my neck rise up, the blood in my veins going cold and goosebumps prickle my skin. This isn’t Sophia ready to get into another fisticuff with me and come out of it with a black eye dealt and received. This was her at the end of her rope. This was Sophia about to actually snap and cross the line into something worse.

I’d denied her answer long enough and more than the other two, she was the one that wanted, needed them the most.

I looked into her eyes and felt the threat of something above a predator boring back into me. Something familiar in a way I was almost close to grasping… but if my suspicions of it were right, then that just made it all the more dangerous.

Made Sophia all the more dangerous.

I looked away first, glaring into the distance.

“Fine.” I grit my teeth. “You want answers so bad? You want to figure out what you are? Then I’ll tell you what I know, but we’re not doing it here, you understand me?”

Sophia stared at me, like it was taking a few seconds for her to register that I acquiesced to her demands and then all of a sudden her eyes widened and she fell back a step, coincidently giving me the room I needed to stand on my own two feet again. I could have taken that moment of shock to hightail it away and escape this again.

But I could admit it. As much as I wanted to do anything but answer their questions, I was getting sick of this too. Sick enough of it to put a stop to their little inquisition.

“Well?” I demanded. “Got any bright ideas about where we can have some privacy? Because I’m not doing it for you.”

“We can take one of the since labs.” Madison suggested, suddenly far more alert, her eyes flickering up and down the halls as if any second someone would turn the corner and leap at her. “Nobodies in them at lunch, and they’re free for the next two periods.”

“It’ll do.” Emma said. Her voice suddenly subdued, her eyes never leaving me and something painful gripped my chest.

“Enough talking.” Sophia napped. “Let’s go. Now.”

I clicked my tongue at the order but I’d already agreed to this, so I did just that. Moving down the hallway without another word, and the others followed. It didn’t take long to find an empty science lab. They were some of the largest rooms, with high wooden tables and chairs, sinks and taps built into them, and little gas taps around the room. There was a computer on the teacher’s desk and behind it, one of those whiteboards with coloured markers set on a perch below.

Importantly, it was empty and if Madison was right, it would be long enough to get this over with. I heard one of them lock the door behind me as I made my way in but I didn’t turn back to see which one of them did it, instead walking over to the teacher's desk and sitting on top of it, then spinning to face them with crossed arms.

Madison pulled the cover on the door's little window closed and then moved to take one of the chairs, where Emma had perched on the high table already, one leg tucked up against her chest as she watched me with cold eyes.

Sophia hadn’t taken a seat, opting instead to pace back and forth across the floor, alternating between glaring at me the whole time and staring daggers at her own stomping feet.

“Well?” She demanded. “Spit it out!”

“Give me a second for god’s sake.” I sighed irritably. “I can’t just spew everything for you. Forget about the conversation we had last time about secrets and the consequences of spilling them, most of it just wouldn’t mean anything to you.”

I ran a hand through my hair, flicking it out over my shoulder. “Fucking… fine, let’s start with what you already know. Did any of you actually take a look into the stuff I gave you last time?”

“That dumb shit with you trying to lead us in circles by looking into stuff about the Navajo and Pueblo?” Sophia bared her teeth. “What, you wanted us to look into your family history, Hebert?”

“I’m not from either of those tribes, so no, that wasn’t the point. What was the point, was that if you’d bothered to take the time, you would have found references that reminded you of something.”

“What does that have to-”

“An underworld.”

Sophia cut herself off at the words, blinking suddenly, anger fizzling in confusion as she turned around to look at Madison the girl was clenching her fists tight. Tight enough that her knuckles had gone white, but she’d raised her head to meet my eyes now, as much as I could tell she didn’t want to.

Behind her, Emma bore holes into her back.

“What?” Sophia stared. “What the fuck are you talking about now, Madison.”

The smaller girl glared at her, before she seemed to summon something like courage, taking a breath and turning to face me properly. “I could barely find anything about it online, just bits and pieces that didn’t do much good in trying to get a clear picture, so I tried the city library instead and even there I only found two books on the subjects… but I’m betting you know that already.”

I said nothing at the accusation, watching the shorter girl carefully, as she took a breath.

“It’s not the same everywhere. Some other tribes don’t mention it or outright contradict it, but there are tribes like the ones you wanted us to look into that talk about a version of the Underworld that they describe as a dark, watery, sometimes even swampy domain. I couldn’t find anything to clarify whether the spirits of the dead returned there, or new spirits came out of it but what I- What I do know…”

“Is that it’s familiar.” Emma finished when she trailed off. “It sounds painfully familiar to what we saw.” She shook her head, looking more animated in her disbelief. She let out a harsh breath. “You’re saying it was- some sort of underworld that we fell into?”

“Bull-fucking-shit!” Sophia snapped, glaring at each of us in turn before settling on me again. She took a threatening step forward. “You expect me to believe that you were in some fantasy land? The fucking afterlife? You think I’m that fucking stupid, Hebert?”

I returned her furious glare with a cold one of my own. “No, Hess, I don’t, and that’s the problem. If you were dumber, I could have made up anything for you to believe and it would have been better than this, but I can’t do that because you’d know the moment a lie left my lips, wouldn’t you? At least if I’m right about what I think I am?”

“Huh?”

“Is your little friend with us right now, Sophia?”

The girl stiffened at my question, freezing in place like she’d been dipped in ice. Just for an instant, a sliver of a second, her eyes darted to the empty space on her left and that was enough of a confirmation for me.

“We can’t see her anymore,” I told her. “You know this. Nobody can see her. Before all this happened, nobody else had ever been able to see her your entire life, but when we were there it was different. Suddenly, Emma, Madison and I got a glimpse of her and it changed things for you.”

And it had been more than just a shock. I’d taken one look at the thing and felt something cold grip my heart. It had taken me more time than I was proud to admit to get control over myself again, and when we’d gotten out, I couldn’t keep the thing in my sight… the fact that even I couldn’t see her was bad enough, it meant there was something particular about it.

The sort of thing obscuring it from sight the same way fairies and other such creatures could be from human eyes if they wanted to be.

“Suddenly you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was real.” I added as my voice turned nearly to a whisper. “Even after years of believing it there’d always been that tiny spark of doubt that made you think that just maybe it was all in your head, except that got flipped on its head the moment Madison screamed and fell on her ass upon seeing it.”

“Like a normal person you mean!” Madison hissed. “It was you and Emma that had weirder fucking reaction by not looking surprised at it, and Emma can’t even answer why she acted like it was normal!”

Emma said nothing to that. Not a surprise, since I knew that she was as clueless about the reason for that as the rest of them.

“What explanation makes sense to you, Sophia?” I said, keeping their attention on the current matter. “That we all collectively hallucinated something like that the moment you tried that dumb prank to shove me in my locker, and came out of it with very real scrapes and bruises, or that there was something else going on.”

“That doesn’t mean we fell into Goddamn hell!” She spat. “There are plenty of other explanations, parahuman explanations."

I glared at her, taking an exception to what she’d just said and feeling a heat in my gut at her dismissal. "First of all, don't ever compare that place to hell again, there’s a difference and you will respect it or I’ll shove your teeth through your skull, do you understand me?”

“…” Sophia stared at me then. Like my words and tone had surprised her for some reason. Either way, she nodded, slightly more subdued. Still angry, but less seething fury and more of a rumbling anger. “Yeah. Yeah whatever.”

I held my glare a second longer before deciding to press on. “Secondly, you can tell me yourself if there’s ever been a Parahuman power reaction that made others able to see them. If you ever even considered them to be a manifestation of Parahuman ability. Which I’m betting you don’t.”

Sophia stiffened. “How did you-”

I cut her off with a cold look. “Stop me if I’m wrong, Hess. This friend of yours is one you’ve had for a very long time. Far before you triggered. Way farther. That on its own would be enough to rule it out as your own Power, but they’ve never appeared to anyone else and never done you any harm, more than that, they’re with you all the time, twenty-four seven, so it can’t be someone else’s Power unless you’ve had an extremely dedicated lifelong stalker. Nothing about them can be explained properly by Parahumans which means it has to be something else.”

I tilted my head “Anything not matching up so far?”

“…No.” She muttered gruffly. “So what is, Hebert? What’s the answer you have if you’re going to act all high and mighty about this?”

“Use your brain, Hess.” I huffed. “We were in an Underworld, and suddenly we could all see her. A land of the Dead and not-yet-living. She’s a spirit.”

“A ghost?” Sophia scoffed. “You think she’s a ghost of all things.”

“I didn’t say a ghost, I said she was a spirit. There’s a difference between the two types of creatures… the same way there’s a difference with you.”

“With me?”

“Come on Hess,” I couldn’t resist the urge to scoff to hammer in my point about how wilfully blind she was being. “You can’t tell me you haven’t ever thought that there’s some part of you that isn’t normal.”

“…”

Sophia had no answer to that statement.

Madison glanced between us, looking lost. “What… what are you talking about?

I grimaced and ran a hand over my face. Explaining the intricacies and commonality amongst the Moonlit world of Humans mixing blood with all sorts of Phantasmal creatures was practically a day’s lecture all on its own, and the context needed to understand even the basics of that wasn’t something I was eager to get into now or ever with these three.

“No… no enough. I’m not divulging any more of this when-”

“Oh would you fucking stop with the weary secret keeper already, Hebert!” Sophia snarled. “You’re acting like it’s just oh so difficult for you to speak straight for once in your goddamn life. Is it? Is it so hard to do the one thing I’m telling you to do and just tell us what’s going on so we can figure out what to do next?”

“I can’t just give you answers, even if I had them.”

“And why not?!”

“Because it doesn’t work like that!” I snapped. “I can’t just give you the answers because it would change things about you. I know you don’t get how this works, but you have to figure it out on your own. If you push things the wrong way, if I give you incomplete information that leads you down the wrong path, or worse, if I’m wrong then it’s not just a risk of stunting yourself, but actually damaging yourself at your core.”

“You’re not making sense. How could a few words screw with me like that?”

“You’ll figure that out on your own too. I’ve given you more than the first step to it, more than enough, maybe even too much already and I’m not going to be responsible for how you end up by caving into your need to have things explained to you.”

Sophia’s fists clenched and for a second I wondered if she was going to try and punch me. She shook instead, as if her rage was so hard to temper it was a physical reaction.

“Sophia, enough.” Emma sighed, her voice cutting through our argument like a cold knife. I know we can all tell Taylor isn’t going to budge on this… she’s stubborn enough to make it painful if we try and drag it out of her.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t.”

Emma shrugged dully. “Maybe, but don’t you think you’ve gotten enough to work with now? Who knows, maybe if you figure it out on your own you can find out what you need to that way.”

Sophia glared at her friend with less heat than she aimed my way, but it was obvious she wasn’t happy. “You’re being awfully calm about this Ems. What’s the deal with that?”

“Dunno… just call it a hunch I have about how things are meant to go here.” She said, before glancing at me. “Decides, I know Taylor’s not going to answer any of my questions thanks to how obtuse she’s being.”

“…”

“Well, Taylor? Are you? Are you going to explain to me why I had a strange dream nearly every night since we stepped back out of that place?”

I felt the cold grow sharper, the weight on my chest growing heavier.

“That I can’t remember them when I wake up, but it feels like someone punched a hole through my chest?” She tapped at her temple with one finger. “That I know now that there’s something missing in here but I can’t tell what?”

It was hard to breathe. Hard to move. Harder still to look away.

“That it hurts to think about, like something tore memories out of my head and didn’t fix the pieces they broke? Are you going to tell me anything about all of that?”

“…No” I said in a small, weak voice.

My eyes never left hers, not even when it felt like Emma’s gaze was prying my ribcage open and inspecting the measure of my heart. I couldn’t look away. No matter how much every word she spoke sent a fresh chill of panic up my spine.

I heard words I was terrified to hear, because of what they could mean.

“…”

And on some level, I bet that Emma knew all of that.

“Yeah…” she said at last, sounding not only disgusted, but disappointed. “I thought not.”

She slid off the desk, landed on her feet and turned away from me, like the very thought of looking at me made her sick.

I felt something go cold in my gut and before I could do something I regretted, I clenched my fists at my sides to lock them in place. I bit my lip so hard it bled.

‘Say nothing.’ I order myself. ‘Say nothing at all.’

Emma still noticed how to hit me. Of course she did. She would always notice.

 “You really aren’t going to say a thing, Taylor? Nothing at all?”

She waited. Waited for anything. A response, an insult, an excuse.

But I couldn’t say anything, because I knew that if I tried, I might cave, even just for a second, and that would be enough.

It just made her glare at me with even more revulsion.

“You know, you almost had me fooled back then. I thought there might have been a part of you that wasn’t exactly what I was expecting of you, but you proved me wrong again, like you always do, Taylor… Maybe if you actually acted like you cared, people would think you were a person.”

I felt the way my face contorted, the way I bared my teeth like I was in pain and shook, barely keeping control of myself. All the while, Sophia watched me, waiting for the slightest step out of turn. For just a few seconds longer, before she too decided that she had enough. She made a noise between a scoff and a snarl and looked away, turning to leave too and it was all Madison needed to join them.

A part of me, that weak, desperate part of me that missed what I’d had all those years ago, desperately wished I could call back to Emma, to spill everything. To… to try and fix things between us the right way.

But I couldn’t do that.

I would never, ever do that.

I’ve hurt Emma enough for one lifetime, I can’t let myself ever do it again.

I stood there and watched them leave, leaving me there in the empty science lab and shutting the door behind them, separating from them at last… and I stood there, unmoving, watching as their shadows behind the window vanished, as they left me there alone.

I stomped down on the ugly feelings in my chest. I just stood there and let everything they’d said and everything I hadn’t said wash over me. I felt myself sink back onto the desk again and let my head fall into my hands.

I didn’t get up for a while, staring at the old wood of the desk as my hair shadowed my features. I didn’t look up as they left my range that I’d pulled back since the beginning of our conversation like some sort of warped safety blanket, not until I knew they were gone. I only got up when I knew they’d passed around the corner and when I did, I couldn’t help it, the shudder that tore through me.

I force it from my head. Force away any thoughts of my mistakes. Of my mom. Of Emma. I don’t let a single thing slip through, but with my bugs too disorganised and sparse to stop me from acting out, I have nothing to shunt away what I’m feeling, so was left standing there, shaking like a nearly erupting volcano.

‘I can’t be here.’ I realised. ‘I can’t be in school. It’s just too dangerous for me right now.’

With a shaky breath, I made my decision, shoving my hands into my pockets and stomping my way out of the classroom, down the empty hallway and out the front door of the school. The receptionist doesn’t even acknowledge me as I leave, and just like that I’m trudging down the streets.

It’s the middle of the day, and Dad’s at work. Even if he wasn’t, I don’t think it would be a good idea to see him right now. Not when I might snap at him and make everything worse. Going to the Coils would be just as bad. I couldn’t let them see me like this, feeling this way. There was no telling what I might say, what they might think about how I’d act.

No telling what Tattletale might be able to figure out if I let even a little slip.

I don’t want to go home and stay in an empty house with my thoughts right now. To the place where all the worst phantoms of my memories hide around the corners and in the cracks.

That only leaves one place, doesn’t it? A part of me hopes that I’m not intruding or ignored, that nothing comes of it even as I make my way there.

A part of me doesn’t care and just wants to be anywhere but here in my thoughts alone.

…

…

I reflected again, on how most people in Brockton Bay never questioned the oddities of the city.

It was a port city on the east coast of America with a formerly bustling shipping business and plenty of trade that had made it prosperous in times before those things got ludicrously more expensive, but one of the other peculiarities of the Bay was that it could almost be called a valley and be accurate.

It was mountainous on two sides, with high, rising cliffs that locked expansion in one direction, moving away from the sea and if anyone was to trek either side of the elevated landscape, they’d be able to look down and see the entire city. There were a few other notable characteristics due to this landscape. One, being that the temperature in the valley was almost always higher than outside. Simply put, Brockton Bay was noticeably warmer than other cities along the coast thanks to the mountain ranges. It also sat upon an aquifer and the ocean, before the boat graveyard had polluted the area, had been a rich and vibrant sea. For my interest though, the most important factor, was that Brockton Bay sat upon two intersecting leylines.

The land, four or five centuries ago, had belonged to the People of the Land here, before colonisers from across the sea had made landfall and being so close to Boston, had been a prime location for settlers to try and make something of themselves and put down roots.

 At the time, an…. Agreement had been made, not just with the natives living here, but the Mage family that had resided over it. The Mage family of the time had been the protectors and keepers of the land, and had made a deal with the settlers as a way of ensuring that the land itself wasn’t mutilated and its people forced away or slaughtered.

They could settle here, on this piece of land, have their homes and businesses and mayor and leaders, and in return, the People of the Land could remain here without fear of being hunted or displaced, and it would all be overseen by the Mage family, as the ones signed into the settlers own laws as the legal owners of the place that would become a city and all the land it rested upon, as their Second owners.

Of course, history provided answers on what had happened there, eventually. Almost none of the promises the colonisers had made had been kept. None, except for the one they’d forgotten, and people grew old, died and new people were born in their place and memories faded. The Second owners remained and had integrated themselves with the city and eventually, built their home, a large estate, a mansion even, right atop one of the cliff faces overlooking the city. A home atop a plateau, to oversee their land, and remain in touch with it, away from the urbanisation of humans. It was, in many ways, a fitting place for the Second Owner of Brockton Bay to reside.

It had been my home, once, before my mother’s death.

Now… now as I stood outside its gates, I could see just how far it had fallen into disrepair.

I hadn’t been here in years, not since we’d been forced to move for… for various reasons, many of which I didn’t like thinking about. I had above the place. It brought up not just bad memories, but fears I didn’t know how to deal with. It had been a reminder of everything I wasn’t, and everything I was failing to do, to be.

The mansion itself was far enough away from the main gate entrance that I wouldn’t have been able to see it without my glasses, but close enough that I could see exactly how badly it was fairing.

The old stone it had been built from was cracked and crumbled, and the wooden support beams on the outside rotted and collapsed. The roof was half caved in, with cracked tiles and moss covering what was left.

Brambles and plant life had overtaken most of the building and I could see where the windows had been, there was only some remaining shattered glass clinging around the edge.

Even the front door had not been spared, have folded in on itself and splintered. The entire home, my home, was a wreck of rubble and abandonment.

I gripped the bars of the gate, just standing there, staring.

A part of me wondered why I’d come here, to remind myself of all of this. What, I’d had an uncomfortable recollection of my childhood while talking to Emma, remembered by mother more clearly than usual and something in my mind had nudged me towards revisiting an old wound? … No. I knew what it was. It was something instinctive telling me to return here, so I could look upon it and remind myself what I had to focus on. Where my efforts needed to be and what I was doing it for.

One day soon, I would begin the work to fix this place, to return to it and call it home. The first of many steps in whatever my future would hold, this would be the start, the pale where I could set the foundations for even greater things.

That was where my focus needed to be. Not with Emma, or Sophia or Madison, not Coil and their cops and robbers’ game.

Just then, I felt something, or more accurately, sensed someone, right on the edge of my human senses, closer than I’d expected anything to be before I could notice them, not even ten feet away to my right. Someone unassuming right until they decided to make themselves known. Even before I turned to see them, I could tell that they had revealed themselves self to me purposefully, and that they had been waiting for me to notice them.

I turned to face the newcomer, only to stop, blinking as I realised that there was not a person in front of me. I had expected to see a man or woman before me, only to see empty space where one would have been and instead, realised that I had needed to look down slightly.

Down enough to see that it had not been a person waiting for me to notice, but a cat.

A cat, and not just any cat, but a Norwegian Forest Cat, with flown, flowing fur the colour of straw and snow, right yellow eyes staring back at me.

…I had owned a cat with eyes like that, once, when I was little. It had been a part of the family even before I had been born and been with me for years after. It had been family. It had been there, raising me for years, as I grew up, right until around the time I was eight, when it had passed.

That had been seven years ago.

A long time for a cat to find its way home.

But as I recalled, this was her seventh life.

“Hello.” I said to the cat. “It’s good to see you again, Alphie. Are you here to come home?”

My cat tilted her head.

Chapter Text

I went over everything on my person one last time.

Coat, check.

Scarf, check.

Gloves, check.

Steel-toed boots, check.

Tactical knife, check.

Okay, okay that was good. Bad idea to go out if I was going to forget something important. I had a first aid kit in my bag and my phone fully charged in my pocket in case of emergencies. I had everything I needed. It would be fine.

I would be fine.

I slapped my cheeks a little. It would be a bad idea to psych myself out. Too much thinking right now was bad. I just had to go and do it and worry about the probable consequences later.

I had been standing in front of my door for way too long already.

I looked one last time behind me. Back into the apartment. Dad was asleep. I was betting he wouldn’t even notice I was gone if I got him late, or well, earlier in the morning.

Okay… okay.

Time to go then.

Carefully, I slipped out the front door, locking it behind me so that nobody would be any wiser, and because this was Brockton Bay and people would steal shit at the slightest hint that they could, especially around here.

The second I heard the click of the lock, I turned on my heels and marched down the halls, eyes straight as I took the stairs and headed outside into the chill night air.

It was cold tonight, which was good. It meant nobody would think it was weird that I was wearing a scarf to hide the lower half of my face. A part of me wanted to see if I could get my hands on one of those domino masks to make it easier to hide who I was but that might give people the wrong idea about what I was doing here.

The streets weren’t exactly empty as I walked down them, but there weren’t a lot of people on them at eleven at night. Most people were smart enough to stay indoors at a time like this, when it was easy for assholes to do crime or whatever.

At best you got people coming home for parties or clubs or something, or you got drunk dumbasses wandering the streets. Neither of which would be paying attention to me.

Good.

I kept walking and didn’t keep track of how long it took me. Could have been two minutes, could have been an hour, all I was focused on was the street names, the map I’d made up in my head that I’d been using for the past month to keep track of everything going on around here.

The whole time, I kept an ear out. For the sounds of anything that wasn’t normal, that would make my spine shiver. My eyes flickered to every alley I passed, waiting for something to jump out at me. The hand in my coat pocket gripped the knife tighter, and I was ready, at a moment’s notice, to pull it out and use it on whatever tired its luck.

Nothing yet though. not for a little while longer.

Until it’d made it to the north-west side of the Docks.

I could… I could smell something here.

I looked up, over the buildings around me. The moon was high in the sky. Midnight, or near enough, when I finally picked up the trail.

Or, well, that might have been generous. Not so much picked up, as got a whiff of something that nearly made me gag.

It smelled like wet dog, rotting meat and blood.

A lot of blood.

This wasn’t the first time I’d smelled something like this, but it was the first time I’d been ready to head in the direction of wherever it was coming from. I turned my head, walking along to follow the sent for a few minutes down another street, before I stopped.

“Damn.” I muttered when I saw just where it was leading me. Right down a dark alleyway I couldn’t see the end of, obscured by shadows from the buildings on either side.

“Are you kidding me? It couldn’t have been anywhere else?” I breathed an angry sigh. “Okay, it’s cool, nothing to worry about.” Even as I said it, I felt the pressing weight of what I was dealing with pressing down on my shoulders. The second I knew that nobody was paying attention to me, I took out my knife, gripping it tight as I gave it a few practice swings at my side, just… warming myself up a little.

I make a clicking sound with my tongue. I was standing there too long. Thinking about too much now. Just needed to move. The sooner I did the sooner I could- ugh this was such crap.

I gave a harsh sigh and walked into the alley.

“Asshole had to choose a horror movie clique.” I grumbled under my breath. “Make me feel like an idiot for walking into it why don’t you?”

The alley didn’t answer me, which thank God, because I wasn’t sure if the possibility that it could was zero. I walked for about two minutes, wary of everything around me. The trash, the filth and the evidence that there had been people here.

That there weren’t people here anymore.

It had just been homeless people at first. Yeah it was shitty to say, but nobody noticed when people like that went missing. It could be anything, right? Drugs, crime, the cold or maybe they just moved on. I hadn’t thought anything about it either, not at first. Maybe I’d thought to myself once or twice that it was weird that there were no homeless people around home. Less of them anyway, considering I didn’t exactly live in the richest of places.

Then I say a guy. Old man Peterson. The homeless guy that was alright in my book. Kind of old, with a bushy beard and wrinkled face. The time’s I ran into him, he’d always been wrapped up in a big coat, looking almost like an old marshmallow, and he was nice. Sarcastic and funny when I waited for the bus, but they kind of guy that was clean.

As in, he wasn’t into the stuff that lined Merchant pockets, you know?

I’d known him for a few years, in between the times he bounced from homeless shelter to homeless shelter. Nice guy. Cool guy.

Then I’d seen him last month, missing an eye and nearly half his face.

It had freaked me the fuck out. I’d kinda panicked when I’d seen him, dropped my whole relaxed and uncaring demeanour that I had developed for school. It had been like some animal had clawed out a part of his face, ugly looking gash running from the left side, over his missing eye. Any deeper, and I was betting he’d have been dead.

It was only because of some miracle that he wasn’t, and considering the lack of medical supplies on hand for a guy like him, I didn’t know if that would stick. Stuff like that could get infected and stuff.

I’d asked if he’d try and get lucky with Panacea and he’d agreed after I’d badgered him about it, but not before I managed to squeeze out of him what had happened.

He… hadn’t been clear on it. Not like he was being intentionally vague or something, but like he couldn’t explain it.

Something had attacked him, obviously, but whatever it was, he couldn’t place it. It hadn’t been human, but it had felt it yet not, it had been big, but skinny, pale but dark. A man and an animal, but not a hero or villain. Something else. Maybe a monster cape, but it hadn’t moved like one, acted like one. It had been wild, savage and vicious.

And it had been covered in blood.

Old man Peterson had spotted it eating something behind a dumpster, something that smelled a lot like blood and something worse, but he didn’t get a good look because he’d gotten too close and been noticed. Before he was even able to react it had been on him, clawing at him.

He’d lost his eye, and then shown me his missing fingers too. Three on his right, two on his left where they’d been bitten off as he’d escaped and he was sure he’d only managed it because whatever it was that attacked him had lost interest, cared more about whatever it had been eating before.

He didn’t say what he thought, but I’d had an idea.

…a lot of homeless people had gone missing, after all.

Now, I wasn’t a hero or anything. God no, but I knew that heroes weren’t going to stick their necks out or bother with things happening to homeless people that nobody cared about, and the cops sure as shit weren’t going to either.

But this was close to home, my home, and somebody I liked had gotten hurt.

And… I knew I could do something about it. I just had a feeling, deep in my bones that I was supposed to handle this, that I could, if I got lucky.

So I’d spend the last month… researching, tracking, hunting whatever had done it down.

I hadn’t found much. Clues, evidence and other stuff had been rare, but what I did find painted an ugly picture.

Whatever it was that had been attacking people, it had been… doing a lot more than that.

I’d found bones, cleaned off. Lots of them, scattered in dark alleys and dumpsters. Animal bones. Birds, cats, dogs, rats, pretty much everything. This thing was eating. And it was hungry.

And it wasn’t hard to connect the dots about what it had been doing to missing people too.

I’d gotten a trial about a week ago, caught its scent because for some reason, I’d been born with the power to do that. To… smell things. To recognise people by scent, get all sorts of things off them that didn’t really make sense, the way they smelled like things they had no right to smell like, but what was weirder, was when I smelt other things.

Those creepy monsters that hung around people that nobody else could see. The ones that talked in weird double voices, or the ones that looked almost see-through like ghosts, or places that had been abandoned, but lingered with something that shouldn’t have been there.

I could smell them, and recognise the differences, understand when something was normal and when it… wasn’t.

The scent I’d caught last week had been the latter, and I’d followed it to a second one in the scrapyard.

And found something… bad.

I wasn’t sure… who it had been, but it had been a person. It had been old, the body, I mean, and rotted and stank worse than anything, but it had been dry too.

Like it had been there a while, left out in the sun and shrivelled up a little… gone off.

It had been a guy, missing his arms and legs, and bites taken out of his neck like he’d been savaged by animals, and maybe he had, but the smell that didn’t come from the dead body told me otherwise.

Maybe I should have called it in, but I didn’t, because I had a lead now, a real one and I could track down whatever it was that had done it, and deal with it. The cops wouldn’t. They’d treat it like a cold case and forget about it, but I had more at stake. What if this thing, whatever it was, went after somebody I knew? What if it started going after more than just homeless people that were easily missed?

It felt like that now. Walking down the alley, it felt like there had been people here before. But that they were missing. Not just like they weren’t there anymore or lost, but like they’d been taken away from here.

Nobody had noticed, nobody but me, which meant I had to do something about it.

I kept walking, a little more, as the scent got stronger and stronger. More like a tangible thing. I could tell what it was again, like I had before. Like wet fur, rotting meat and blood but as I came to the end of the alley, into another second, where it led into an old, dilapidated section of the old trainyard.

I stopped, frowning. This was where a Cape lived, right? Somewhere around here at least. A guy that lived in garbage. Moist or whatever his name was. Last I’d heard, he’d thrown some cops their own car and nobody had bothered his since. Territorial, but not much else.

Was he involved in this? I doubted it. People would have noticed a guy like that, right? And Old man Peterson hadn’t described someone that looked like that.

But if the trail led in here, then it might have something to do with him, eventually. Or maybe it wouldn’t, maybe it was just a coincidence that it led me this way and whatever it was that was doing this, it just so happened to be taking up space as the guy's next-door neighbour. Maybe he had no clue it was even around here.

But would that matter if I ran into him? Would he try an attack me if he spotted me?

He probably wouldn’t, I had something to stop that, but it was still risky, in case I screwed it up.

I didn’t think I could take him in a place like this where he had a bunch of stuff to work with, so I’d have to run. Not a fan of that, honestly. Not when I was in the middle of something more important.

… I’d just have to deal with it when it came up, wouldn’t I?

Speaking of, something else just had.

The second I stepped foot in the Trainyard I got… something else. A new smell, mixed in with the old one. The original trail was still there, nearly overpowering to my nose, but that didn’t usually mean anything to do with distance. If it meant anything, I hadn’t figured it out yet, but there was another scent. Something… not as intense, something almost like it but still different.

It smelled like lots of different animals, and tree bark and yeah, there was a bit of blood, but less than the other one or…

I didn’t know, like it was a bunch of different smells matching each other. More than one, all the same but somehow still weaker than the first.

And I could tell, somehow, that if I followed the trail, I’d run into the new one before the original, like one was… following along behind the other in its footsteps.

It was hard to explain, hard to imagine when I only understood half of what it all meant, but I had a feeling there was something else in this trainyard, something I’d run into if I kept going.

I felt, just for a second, like the smarter part of me was screaming that I should just turn around and go home, forget about this and pretend it never happened.

I stomped that part down fast, so that it didn’t shake me.

I’d already decided to do this, I wasn’t going to quit it.

I rolled my shoulders, tightening my grip around my knife.

And then I saw them. Below me, in the dip where the ground swept down to a lower area, where abandoned train carts and railway sikes were dumped, forgotten. In the centre of them, in a small, unassuming clearing, I could see them.

Five of them. Five things. Five… creatures.

The sight of them took my breath away.

They looked… they looked like nothing I’d seen before. Naked, nearly hairless, haggard, decomposing things, like walking corpses of people but- but not. Their skin was white like chalk but stretched over them like it was far too tight, over bones that poked out of its body, thin and translucent, like everything inside was about to burst out.

It- maybe it would have looked like a sick and emaciated person if it just ended there, but it didn’t.

Their arms, their legs, all of their limbs were- they were too long for them. Its legs were hunched and folded, like it needed to keep them like that so it could balance itself as it hunched over. The arms were just as long, twice as long as they should have been, nearly.  The arms ended in long, spindly fingers, sharp, pale nails pointed like claws.

And the smell. It was different from when I’d just been trailing them. Now that I could see them, the scent had changed, shifted. It smelled… bad enough that I nearly wanted to gag. To vomit. Like something vile and bloated and decayed. Rotting and sick, putrid and festering.

It was awful. Just standing this close, what must have been a hundred feet away from them, was enough that even through my mask-scarf, my nose and eyes burned, and I wanted to be sick.

That wasn’t the worst of it though.

They were… they were digging at something. Not at the ground, at- at a body.

Another body, a corpse in front of them fresh and new. Someone had died. Someone had just been killed and they were digging and clawing and tearing at it.

No. It was worse than that, as I saw one of the monsters rip off a chunk of muscle from the body's side and raise it to its mouth, I realised what they were doing.

Eating. They were eating it.

A burst of horror shot through me. I was prepared for something awful and horrible but not… not something like this. I had no idea what to do here. I’d been prepared to hunt whatever it was that had been doing this down but- but I had thought it would just be one thing, and I-

Maybe I wasn’t even sure what I’d been expecting, but it sure as hell wasn’t this. Wasn’t monsters.

Monsters, because there was no way these things were Capes. Not even Monster capes, no way, they were too different, too wrong, and too similar.

A part of me wondered if they were made by some kind of evil tinker, like a Nilbog-lite hiding in the city, but that didn’t feel right either. These things had been here for a while now, but if it was a Tinker then I was positive they would have made themselves known by now. Capes couldn’t help but show themselves off most of the time.

These things hadn’t.

They’d targeted people that most people wouldn’t notice. Which made them smart.

Smart and fucking evil.

 That wasn’t the problem though. The problem was that I was one person and there were five of them, and even if there had been only one, I wasn’t entirely sure I would walk away from a fight without being seriously hurt by them anyway.

The knife in my hand suddenly felt lacklustre. Compared to those claws on their hands, their yellowed teeth, dripping with blood and meat sticking between rotten cavities, I wasn’t sure I had the right equipment to match up.

… but I did have something else, didn’t I?

Looking at their bodies, they looked like monsters, but they didn’t look tough. There were no scales or thick hide, just thin white skin about to burst at the seams already. Maybe it was dangerous, but I was pretty sure that if I could get the knife in, then I could be just as deadly to them too.

And I had just the way to do it.

I took a step forward.

I let my mind relax. Let go of the reigns. I’d let them loose the moment I’d left my home, so that nobody would bother me, nobody would ask me why I was out on the street alone at night, but now, I was making it a point to let it free.

I took a step forward.

My feet crunched on dirt and gravel. Loud as gunshots in my ears, but the monsters didn’t look up. Didn’t pay attention.

Couldn’t pay attention.

They couldn’t hear me, couldn’t see me, couldn’t perceive me.

They didn’t react as I let out a breath, as I pushed down on that feeling of fear that made my hands shake.

I took a step forward.

None of them moved as I got closer, and closer, and closer. Fifty feet, thirty feet, ten feet, five feet. None of them did anything as I raised the knife higher. They just kept on gorging themselves in the bloodied and half-feasted on body in their midst.

They didn’t see me. Because that was my power.

I took a step forward and with all the power I could put into my arms, I brought the knife down with a yell.

I had never done this before. I’d been prepared, I think, ready to deal with something, but I’d been expecting something more like an animal, even if I knew it wouldn’t be exactly like one because of the feeling I’d gotten that it was something more, I still thought it would be something different like this.

Still, that didn’t mean I was an idiot, I wasn’t stupid enough to aim for the head. It might have sounded smart of paper, but when all you had was a knife, trying to stab through a skull was a bad idea.

Especially here, where the thing's body was so thin that I could see its organs pulsing beneath when I looked closely.

I stabbed down, into its back right between its ribs. I had heard you were meant to stab between the third and fourth, but I didn’t exactly count them, still, it didn’t stop the feeling of something sinking as I stabbed my knife into its heart.

It was immediate. The way it stiffened, froze and slacked a second later, dropping like a puppet cut from its strings, a lifeless bag of something not-human.

It was so strange, how easy it was. It felt like it should have been more of a challenge, but it had been so easy to slide in the blade. To kill it. Just like that. Without any resistance, I’d killed one and now it was lying at my feet, spasming a little as it lay in the dirt face down and…

And the others had stopped moving.

They were frozen, staring at the dead one, like statues.

Now that I was close, I could make out their faces better. Gaunt, sick, pale but human. Like a person had gotten their face stretched out on a torture wrack and stuck back on badly. Hollowed, sunken sockets with pinprick eyes, yellowed and rotting teeth, some of them sharp, others blunt and not all of them belonging to a person.

I felt myself freeze as I met their faces. As they… turned. Slowly, quickly. Heads snapping from one side to the other. Looking around. They fidgeted, and pawed at the earth. Sniffed the air and-

Froze again.

I took a step back.

They chuffed and sniffed at the air, tilting and turning their heads, like confused animals.

I took a step back.

Their shoulders hunched, fetid air hissed between the gaps in their teeth as they looked around, as their eyes danced over me and past, like they couldn’t see me. But there was something there like confusion.

I took a step back.

And then, all at once, their eyes snapped to me.

I froze.

And then I was a burst of motion, running away as fast as I could.

Snarls and mad howls filled the night air at my back, but I didn’t care. My mind was racing. I wasn’t sure if it was panic, fear or something else, but it felt like it was running at a thousand miles a minute and it was the only thing keeping me from tripping over myself as I ran.

My eyes shot up the way I’d come. It was an incline; it would slow me down. If I did that, I knew somehow, that I’d be caught immediately.

My eyes turned to my left. Deeper into the trainyard. I didn’t have any good reasons why it was better, just why it wasn’t worse.

I turned left, just in time to avoid claws that would have sliced the back of my neck as the monster dove past. I cried out still, it had caught a few strands of hair and yanked them out. It didn’t even look bothered. The second it touched the ground it twisted in ways that person couldn’t, its whole lower half rotating and arching over his head and shoulders to redirect itself so it was facing me again, its teeth bared, dripping blood and eyes on me.

No, not on me, in my general direction.

I didn’t have time to think about what that meant, I just kept running.

My feet pelted against the gravel underneath, loud in my years along with the banshee screaming. My arms flew wildly at my sides, my knife still clutched in one of my hands. It was slick with stale blood, but it felt so useless now.

I saw something glint in the dark and jumped, only realising it was a sheared off piece of a car laying in my way when I made it over and heard something behind me crash clumsily into it. It had been right behind me and I hadn’t even noticed.

I breathed harder.

What had I been thinking? Why had I been such a fucking idiot!? Did I think I was some monster hunter who could just walk u to the things doing this and handle it like it was nothing?  I didn’t even know how to fight right!

Something nipped at my heel and I shrieked. It was sharp, stinging as it cut through the back of my shoe and kicked me but I didn’t stumble, instead I felt a burst of speed take over me, my heart hammering in my chest as I turned right just enough to dive in-between two raised hills of trash.

I threw a hand out to my right, painfully aware of how the metal bit into my palm. The fear of a tetanus shot was unhelpful, but it kept me focused.

Focused enough to push through the pain that came when I forced the power that wasn’t a Power, the one I had been born with through my arm and into the metal scrap heap. It was like fire in my veins, a molten iron rod shoved into my limb, but I’d been ready for it and so it didn’t stop me from pushing it like I wanted to into the trash.

My hand flew away as I kept running, but that second had been all I needed. There was a flash of green light like a chemical reaction and then it was behind me, the scrap heap to my right lit up, exploded into shards of unstable metal like fifty buckshot rounds going off at once.

I heard one of the monsters shriek behind me, and another get halfway through one before it cut off and something meaty thumped on the ground a second later. I’d killed another one, and I felt a thrill of victory as the scrape pile collapsed behind me, blocking off the path and buying me time.

Not a lot. I didn’t think for a second that I was in the clear. They could run around it, or over if they wanted, so I kept running, even as my feet began to hurt and my arm was throbbing in pain now, I kept at a full sprint.

I climbed over a hollowed-out frame of a truck and jumped from it onto a train car, scrambling upright as I heard the monsters again, heard them climbing too.

Fast. They were way faster than me, and I was beginning to think that if it weren’t for my power messing with how they could perceive me, they’d have gotten me instantly. As it was, they were somehow still able to tell I was there. I had no idea, it shouldn’t have been possible, but they could. I was only able to make them inaccurate enough that it was causing them trouble, but I wasn’t sure how I could-

Right as I got ready to jump from the train car to another, I messed up.

Or rather, the monsters got me.

I ran at the ledge, ready to jump, but instead the monster that should have been behind me, shot hand up over the edge, trying to bat me out of the air.

Its clawed hand clipped my shin, drawing a cry from me as it scraped over my jeans, tearing at them and it pulled at something. Its claws didn’t stick in me, but they sent me spinning anyway and I only had a second to realise what was happening, for my eyes to widen before I crashed back down to earth.

Pain shot through me, the impact rattled my bones and I was immediately positive that I’d at least sprained my wrist.

I rolled across the ground, dirt getting in one of my eyes. I clenched it shut and tried to scramble to my feet when something crashed into my back, sending me sprawling again. I fell onto my front, tried to rise only for a weight to press down on my back.

And the sound of snarling, the smell of blood and rotting meat overwhelmed me from above. I thrashed, tried to shake it off, but it was too heavy, or too strong and it was pinning me to the ground, my coat the only thing stopping it from slicing up my shoulders.

I could feel its breath on my neck and I could hear a rapid gas for air- my own panicked breathing, hyperventilating, panicking. It was going to bite me, going to eat me, tear my throat out like it had probably done to the others. The two that were still alive were circling me, snapping their jaws and growling. Hungry, ravenous.

They passed in front of me. One of them lunged-

“Who the fuck is in my yard!?”

There was a mighty crash as one of the train cars folded in half and a massive metal man crashed through them like a bulldozer. Scrap metal flew everywhere and the thing above me was dislodged when one of them struck its side. The others leapt back to save themselves the same fate and I took my chance, scrambling to my feet, ignoring the lance of pain that shot through me from putting weight on my arms and I ran towards the intruder-

Not, not intruder, the guy that lived here. I remembered his name now, Mush.

I couldn’t tell if he was surprised that there was someone running towards him when he looked like that, twelve feet tall and covered in bits and pieces of metal shaped like a man with arms and legs thicker than tree trunks. I didn’t think he was paying much attention to me either, wait-

I pulled my power back and saw the way he startled at the sight of me. I saw where his head was moving from me to the monsters.

“What the-”

“Kill them!” I screamed over his confusion. “Now, now, now!”

I didn’t know if it was the order, or the sheer panic in my voice but it startled him into action and he swung one of his massive arms in a wide motion, knocking over more scrape hills that rained down on the monsters, forcing them to scatter so that they weren’t crushed by the debris.

They snarled up at Mush and two of them launched towards him, swiping out with their claws. There were horrific screeches of metal tearing, but from the way Mush didn’t react, it mustn’t have hurt. He swung again, trying to squash them beneath massive two-tonne fists.

They jumped out of the way again and made another pass at him, hands outstretched and looking to tear him to pieces.

I didn’t have any more time to watch it though, not when the last Monster, the one that had pinned me down, came at me instead.

“Shit!” I cried, nearly falling over as I backstepped out of its reach. I swiped my knife through the air, trying to ward it off but I had to jump to the side when it made it clear it wasn’t afraid of the weapon and barrelled towards me.

Even with it not being able to see me clearly, and the fact that I was ready for it, the thing was still too fast.

I managed to avoid anything deadly, but its bony shoulder still hit my side, knocking the wind out of me and sending me rolling. At the same time I managed to keep my knife in front of me so when it passed, the point sliced into the pale flesh on its ribcage.

I felt the metal bite into bone and yank at something before it slid free and the creature made a shrieking sound. My eardrums ached but that was second priority to the fact that I’d lost my footing again.

There was a shout from Mush and I saw out of the corner of my eye that one of the monsters had started to climb up his leg, figuring out that trying to go for it hadn’t done anything, it must have decided that it had found a different weak point.

Mush was cursing, trying to slap it off but the other one was causing problems every time it tried, the thing would leap onto higher ground and throw itself at him, dragging its attention back as its claws might not have hurt him, but they were starting to tear chunks out of the metal goliath he’d managed to build up.

They hadn’t hurt him yet, but I was starting to worry that they’d manage it soon and they were just too slippery for him to catch.

I was worried that I’d have to deal with three of them if they got him.

That was a big mistake, thinking so far ahead when I had a more immediate problem.

My eyes widened as the one in front of me got over its bout of pain, charging at me again.

I lowered myself, widening my stance like I’d heard you were supposed to do when someone was coming at you, but I suddenly had the thought that the people who said that didn’t take horrific man-eating monstrosities into account.

I tried to catch it with the knife a second time, but the moment I swung, it leapt. Not at me, but to the side. Fast enough that I lost track of it for a second and when my eyes managed to snap to it again it was in time to see its freakish-long pale body latch onto the side of a shipping container like it was a damn spider and then propel itself off of it towards me.

I tried to move out of the way again, but there was no way I was fast enough. The only thing I managed to do was make it so I wasn’t cut in half. Instead of its claws dicing me to shreds, I was caught by its elongated arms and felt the full force of its limbs crash into me.

It tore me off my feet with its deceptive strength and I cried out. I actually spun in mid-air, head over heel through it and nearly breaking my neck when I landed badly. Before I could even gasp, it was on me again. I raised both my feet and pushed, planting them in its emaciated chest.

It did next to nothing. Barely even inconvenienced it as it bore down on top of me and then I was trapped and folded as it pressed down, pushing my knees into my own chest. I grit my teeth and lashed out. It tried to bite down at me but I managed to get my knife between me and its teeth, catching them on the steel.

It rattled my arm painfully, the damage done before making it worse as I felt the steel of my weapon creak and I felt a fresh wave of panic wash over me. Was thing seriously about to bite through it?!

I shifted my grip and pushed as hard as I could, wincing at the sound of teeth scraping against the knife. The sharp edge bit into the inside of its mouth and I only then realised that the thing had no lips, they looked like they’d been chewed away. It was an awful sight, but I didn’t care about it as much as it did the fact that the thing didn’t even flinch this time as I saw the steel carve through its cheek. It just kept pushing down.

I groaned in pain.

It wasn’t like an animal, I realised. This thing was intelligent enough to understand that it could take more pain than me, more damage. At this rate, it was going to push my own knees through my chest before I could cut through its jaw.

I was saved a second time when the ground beneath me shifted and heaved. There was suddenly more room at my back and I realised I was falling. Both me and the creature were, and I pushed with all my strength against its chest, firing myself away. I hit the ground again when I need, but the momentum kept me rolling.

I saw the monster fall awkwardly against upturned junk and I realised what had happened a second later.

Mush had thrown a car at us.

Or at least near us, carving up the earth and giving me space. He was still dealing with his own two, but one of them was missing its legs now. He’d somehow managed to crush them in the time I’d been fighting for my life. It was hanging on to his elbow, latching on like a parasite or something, while the other hopped back to avoid being crushed under a massive metal foot.

For a second, Mush turned to me, and I got the impression that he was looking for something.

That’s right-

I dropped my power, let him remember me, understand that I’d been dealing with one of them too and he shouldn’t crush me.

Whatever was going through the head of the massive metal man, he must have realised something, because he turned his attention to the one trying to kill me this time.

“Oi, fucker!” He shouted, a nasally voice sounding was more menacing with all the metal making it reverberate. “Nobody’s killing anybody in my yard, especially no pasty freaks!”

He brought down a fist that I had to scramble away from so as to not be caught in the shockwave, but I was less focused on that. No, my eyes were set on the legless monster still clinging to him.

I knew what I was doing was supremely stupid, but even as I was thinking it, I was already running. With a yell, I jumped as high as I could, digging my knife into the messy gaps in Mush’s body and grabbed another opening with my bare hands. The tips of my boots caught more beneath me and I scrambled up.

“Jesus, brat!” Mush flinched when he noticed I was on him, but I was lucky enough that he was smart enough to figure out what I was going for and held as still as he could.

Not exactly well, since he suddenly had to deal with not only the one already going for him, but the one chasing after me clambered up after me.

I didn’t look back. I had a head start and I planned on using it. My heart was pumping in my ears and I glanced up the side, ignoring the stinging pain as my palms were sliced on rusty metal. I heard the sound of the thing behind me getting closer, scaling Mush’s limb like a cat in a tree.

I swung my legs to the side more out of instinct than any real idea of what I was doing and it was only because I did that I didn’t lose my legs as I felt one of the razer-like digests sheer a hole on the edge of my pant leg.

I gasped and swung back in the other direction like a pendulum. My hands were in agony but I ignored it in favour of lashing out with my feel below.

There was a crunch and a scream as my heels connected with something, maybe the thing's face and I heard the sound of something falling. I’d dislodged it or something. I didn’t look back to confirm it, just kept climbing, until I made it to my target.

The monster that had attached itself to Mush’s arm was still there, trying to burrow its way into the thing. It had made decent progress too. A few more minutes and it might have been able to make the hole big enough to sever the massive limb.

Well, I wasn’t giving it the chance. I climbed past its bloody stumps, ignoring how said stumps were still leaking blood, how it got over my torso as I clambered over them. The thing shrieked when it felt me on its back, but it couldn’t take a swing at me when it was latched on like that, not to mention I was on its back now, away from those claws.

It probably could have still tried to reach around and cut me to ribbons, but I didn’t give it the chance, with a shout, I plunged my knife between its shoulder blades. I hit something hard, its spine maybe and felt it stiffen beneath me. Not enough. It was thrashing now, trying to shake me off.

I brought the knife up, and then plunged it down again in a split second with all my might.

Up and down, up and down blood splashed over me as I messily carved its back out. The slick feeling of the blood as it splashed over my hands nearly made me lose my hold of my weapon, but I just gripped tighter. I stabbed into the back of its neck next, pulled and yanked like it was a saw caught in wood. The stale liquid life spurt from the cut and I kept going, until I felt something hard – the bones in its neck, connecting its skull to its spine – give way.

I grinned. It wasn’t exactly severed, hanging on by a chunk of meat, but it didn’t matter, the thing was dead-

“Shit!”

I gasped at the same moment Mush cried out. He’d lost his balance, he was falling- what-

I heard the crash of metal. And I realised what had happened. One of his legs had given out. The other two had figured out where they should be focusing and it had been enough to turn things around in an instant.

I pushed, as hard as I could, throwing myself away so as to not be crushed under a mountain of debris. I hit the ground again, worse than before this time. I gagged, feeling something bite into my back. There was a crunch, it felt like I’d broken something. It was only my coat that stopped it from being an impalement, I was sure of it.

I curled in on myself, I couldn’t help it. My body shuddered from the pain, my head going foggy for a second, and- and that was all it needed.

I gagged, as something choked me. No, not something. As it choked me. I felt its searing cold hand wrapped around my neck and I was suddenly being lifted off the ground by my throat. I coughed, kicking my feet uselessly in the air. Adrenaline kept me aware, hyper-focused as I realised I was still holding the knife. I hadn’t let go of it for a second, I was pretty sure I’d broken one of my fingers keeping it but it was still there.

My free hand in the meantime, flew up to my neck, trying to pry the monster's hand away.

If didn’t work. It was like trying to break off marble with my bare hands. There were shadows on the edge of my vision. Shit. I was about to pass out.

I blinked and suddenly I was in front of its face. It had risen me to his face to look right in my eyes. I met its own, into its sunken pinprick hollows. When it opened its mouth and showed its rotting teeth, I could smell its fetid breath. It made me want to gag but I didn’t open my mouth. I grit my teeth, because if I tried to make any noise, I was sure it would turn into a scream. It pulled me closer and I understood what it wanted.

It was going to eat me like this. Face first, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I could see Mush on the ground, pulling at metal he’d managed to keep in order to make a shield as the other one was starting to tear through his desperate defences. It was going to get him too.

I blinked and I must have faded for a second because its teeth were right in my face, barely a hairsbreadth away. Too close, my arm felt too weak to raise the knife-

Thunk!

…what?

I understood two things at that moment. One, its grip had loosened on me. The things hold slackened just for a second, giving me enough room to breathe, to suck in a greedy, desperate breath. The second, was that there was a bolt lodged in the thing's neck and sticking the whole way through. I didn’t waste my chance. I stabbed my knife straight into its eye. It screamed, hands tightening around my neck instinctually, so tight I knew my neck would snap.

I used it again, that heat inside that hurt worse than anything else. That burned at my nerves, the same way I’d knocked over that scrap heap before, I sent it into the knife. It flashed with a sliver of green light and then it exploded.

The knife literally exploded. No fire, no heat or smoke, but it went off like a shrapnel grenade inside the monster’s skull, all the same. One of the shards of steel shot back, cutting my cheek, but the rest I was pretty sure shot off inside whatever counted as this thing's brain.

It collapsed instantly, dripping me. I fell awkwardly on the ground, gasping for breath, catching my breath and trying not to pass out from the new pain.

I shook my head, feeling woozy from it, but managed to gather myself just in time to see exactly who had saved me.

And see them appear in a puff of black smoke right behind the last one focused on Mush.

Shadow Stalker aimed her crossbow point blank at the base of the thing's skull and pulled the trigger like an execution.

The bolt buried itself in its head and burst out its mouth in a shower of blood.

And the last one of them died.

Just like that, the trainyard went silent.

Or eerily silent, over the sound of my own panting. For a second, I just lay there, trying my best not to pass out.

I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure what to say. This was Shadow Stalker, a Ward.

The one that a lot of people in the Bay referred to as The Strongest Ward.

The formerly Infamous vigilante with an edgy costume. I’d rolled my eyes when I’d seen her on the news the few times she’d made a splash, acting as if I thought she was someone just trying too hard and that I wasn’t just as much of a fan of her as any other black kid in the city.

And now she’d saved my life and killed one of these things like it was nothing, while I’d nearly died dealing with each of the rest.

“So.” Shadow Stalker spoke at last, her voice harsh through her mask. I saw her turn my way and held her stare through her mask as it bore into me. “One of you want to tell me what the fuck this all was?”

There was a beat as I struggled for words. What was I supposed to say exactly?

Mush didn’t help things when he answered first.

“Don’t ask me.” He said, whining weakly, looking exhausted and pale from where he lay on his back, dealing with the fact he’d been a hairsbreadth from being eaten. I have no idea what the fuck these things are. I just saw them chasing the kid through my part of the trainyard.”

Well shit, there goes plausible deniability. Did I even have that before now? I mean maybe. After all why couldn’t a young girl vision the trainyard at two in the morning. It was a free country, nothing wrong with it… You know, ignoring the bloody knife, corpses and Cape fight of course.

“Is that right?” Shadow Stalker muttered, hopping off the scrap heap she’d been standing on and- oh she was walking over my way. I kind of just knelt there dumbly, blinking up at the dark Ward as she approached. “So, you going to give me an answer, or what?”

“Uh…”

The Hero scoffed and I got the impression they were rolling their eyes. They reached down, grabbing my shoulder and pulling me to my feet. “Relax Kid, I’m not gonna call the cops on you for this. Way I see it, you did some good shit taking freaks like these down, whatever they are. Haven’t seen you around, but I’m not going to complain that there’s another hero willing to get their hands dirty.”

“Not a hero.” I mumbled, wiping my hands on the front of my coat before wincing as I realised it was covered in still-wet blood.

“That right?” Shadlow Stalker tilt her head, like she was curious. “You really think it’s smart to admit to being a villain in front of me of all people?”

I went rigid at that, and hurried to correct her. “Not a Villain either,” Shaking my head, getting my bearings back as I glanced around at the dead monsters. “I’m not a Cape. Like, I’m not into all that stuff.”

She sort of just stared at me for a second and I couldn’t help but stare back… wait, had she just said that she didn’t care about the fact that I’d killed these things? I mean yeah, I was hoping that would be the case but you’d think a Hero would have a bigger issue with what could easily seen as murder at first glance.

“Huh… shit, alright then.” She said at last. “Can’t say I get it but fine. Can’t say you’re helpless or anything either when you managed this.” She shook her head. “No, that can wait. First I gotta do my job and shit. Alright kid,” She said, straightening her back and crossing her arms over her chest, looking way more serious all of a sudden. Right, Heroes had to take statements, didn’t they? “Tell me exactly what happened here.”

“I don’t have much to tell.” I shrugged, trying to inject as much casualness into what I was saying because I really didn’t want to get cuffed by a hero right now. “I found out there was something eating homeless people around where I live when one of them showed me just how bad it had hurt him, so I decided to hunt it down.”

I fidgeted a little. I was kind of hard to explain my thought process here without a bunch of context but I’d try my best. “He told the story like the thing that attacked him hadn’t been a person, but it was dangerous and I could track it and all so I thought, why not? I thought I was only looking for one thing but then I found a whole group of them, I snuck up and killed the first one but then the other four noticed me and started chasing. I ran and then the big guy joined in.”

“You’re very detailed orientated, aren’t you?” Shadow Stalker drawled sarcastically, and okay fair, maybe it wasn’t the best story of events but give me a break here, I’m still dealing with the fact that I almost got eaten five minutes ago, before she trailed off, pausing. “Wait, four chased you. There were five then.”

“Uh, yeah?”

“And they were… doing what exactly, when you found em’?”

“Uh… oh, shit!” I blinked, straightening up. “They were eating something, or I guess someone.”

“Show me.”

“Are… are you sure?” I frowned. “I mean it’s a messy-”

“Yeah I’m sure kid, it’s my job.” She cut me off gruffly. “Believe me, there’s a whole lot I want to say to you right now but this has to come first.” She turned to Mush as he finally managed to pull himself out of the meta mess he made. “Oi, you come on too.”

“Huh?” The man blinked. “Why?”

He wilted a little and I had the feeling he could sense the Ward glaring at him beneath the mask. “Because I need to prove that it wasn’t you that was doing what these things were and I want you with me to make that easier.”

“How does that work?” I blinked curiously. Mush was looking like I wasn’t about to make a run for it now at least and he wasn’t doing that bit where he was throwing cars at law enforcement, so I guess he was cooperating. Wait, was she going to try and arrest him for that, or did she not care?

“Background shit.” Shadow Stalker waved off. “Need to know basis and all that for paperwork stuff and I don’t even want to know. Now get to it kid, show me the way.”

I huffed, but obeyed. Shadow Stalker was being weirdly chill right now, easily accepting of what was happening but I’d head that she was an abrasive one. Her PR stuff made her out to be a serious no-nonsense kind of person. The scary one of the Wards as well as the strongest. If I was being uncharitable, I’d heard people describe her as someone who liked punching things instead of asking questions, so the fact that she was doing the opposite was a little unnerving.

This might have been a trick and the thought of it rankled. I didn’t trust Heroes any more than I did cops, so dealing with one this weird set my nerves a little on edge.

That said, I wasn’t going to try and provoke a different reaction when I hadn’t even figured this one out yet, so the best thing to do was what the Hero said.

I led her and Mush back the way I’d run, explaining how I’d managed to avoid them as I did so. Mush looked pretty awkward following along on newly built legs, fidgeting with his hands, clearly unused to conversation, so he stayed pretty quiet unless the Ward asked him questions to clarify what I was saying.

She did that plenty, rattling off what sounded like pre-rehearsed questions to the man and staying silent as he fumbled through his explanation of what he’d been doing before everything had gone down. She didn’t write any of it up but I was guessing she had a way of recording it. Otherwise she was just asking questions for herself.

Eventually, we made it to the corpse, both of them. The dead monster, lying face down in the dirt with a hole in its head and the half-mauled body next to it.

The Ward didn’t even flinch when she saw it. If anything she looked completely unphased, while Mush looked like he was about to be sick at the sight of it. Was she just that hardcore that the sight of a body like this meant nothing to her or was she a psychopath?

Yeah it wasn’t as bad for me either but I’d already seen it and had my episode with it already and even then, the smell was enough that I had to hold back the urge to gag.

“So this is it then, yeah?” Shadow Stalker asked me, not even breaking her stride as she moved closer to inspect the bodies. She knelt down for a second, not touching wither but getting a closer look from what I could tell. Whatever it was she was looking for, I couldn’t tell, but she seemed… resigned to something.

“Yeah, this is it.” I said, for lack of anything else. “So um, what is it you even wanted here?”

“To confirm something.” She answered back, and I watched as she stood back up and nudged at the dead person's ripped open face with the toe of her boot, rolling it over her way. “Shit, this is Chariot.”

“Who?” Mush asked, saving me the need to do it myself.

“Independent Cape that’s been operating for a few months.” Shadow Stalker explained, still staring down at the body. I couldn’t tell what expression she was making behind her mask, but she sounded morbidly fascinated. Was the deal of a Cape she’d never talked to really that big of a deal?

…Actually, maybe it was, I hadn’t heard of a Cape dying in Brockton Bay for years and considering how often they got into fights that was a little weird now that I thought about it.

“I don’t know much about the kid, but I heard he was Tinker that could make stuff that made him like a Mover. Fast as shit compared to most Capes in the Bay. If these freaks were just going after normal people, I wouldn’t say anything was too shocking about it. Regular people get squashed easily, but to get a Cape, and one that’s speciality is to be so fast that he was hard to catch even for the Heroes? That’s a big deal, the PRT is going to go into a meltdown when they hear about these freaks.”

“They’re not freaks.” Someone said and it took me a second, until I felt Mush and Shadow Stalker both turn to me I realised I was the one that spoke up.

“Say what now?” Shadow Stalker demanded, sounding harsh. “These fuckers ate someone. People who do that get the rightly deserved title of freaks.”

“They’re not human, not anymore.”

The Ward went silent. She just stood there, staring at me. For a minute, I had no idea what to do, and I wondered if I should try and walk back what I’d just said. Then she turned to Mush and motioned with her head. “Go and get lost, Mush. I’ll make sure nobody fucks with you over this.”

“R-right.” The man said uncertainly, eyes shifting between the two of us. I feel a little bad for him. I’d brought monsters into his home and now he had no idea what he was supposed to do. He looked like he wasn’t sure if he should leave me with Shadow Stalker, which was nicer of him than I expected. I’d heard he was a violent bastard, but I guess he didn’t like the idea of a kid like me getting into trouble.

I nodded to him, letting him know it was fine and he seemed to relax a little, relieved that the decision wasn’t in his hands. A little cowardly, maybe, but what could you do? He eventually nodded and scurried as mast as his metal legs could carry him, leaving it just the two of us.

I turned back and flinched-

Shadow Stalker was right in front of me, bearing over me and when she spoke up again, her voice was low and threatening.

“Explain exactly what you mean by not human.”

“T-the-” I wince, cursing myself for the stutter. Okay, okay just focus on what I had to say and forget about the rest. I took a breath, trying to organise my thoughts until they were somewhat understandable. “Look, you immediately clocked them as something out of the ordinary, right? You could have said they were Monster Capes, but I get the feeling that didn’t even pop into your head, right? And the next reasonable option would be some kind of Tinker creation, like a Biotinker in the city, but you didn’t think of that either.”

She didn’t answer. Shadow Stalker just stood there, waiting.

I swallowed. “I’ve got a… a special sense of smell. It’s not a Parahuman power, had it for as long as I can remember, since I was way little. I can recognise things, people, places, I’m like a bloodhound with it. I can distinguish between people I’ve never even met by special scents that don’t even have to make sense most of the time but where it really gets weird is when it’s… other things.”

I trail off, hesitating. Going on would make me sound crazy. I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone before. I’d kept it quiet because I know how people looked at you when you talked about things they just didn’t get. Like you were the odd one out, like there was something wrong with you. It had always been better to just suffer in silence.

“Other things?” She prodded, sounding agitated. Well fuck it, she wanted an answer, fine then.

“Other things.” I nod. “Not human things. I- things like…. Like- look I don’t know what else to call them but ghosts, or these freaking things that I’ve seen linger around people sometimes. They don’t look like animals or people but they talk and moan words without making any sense.” I said in a rush as the blood rushed to my ears, barrelling through it before she could cut me off and call me a crazy person. “I can see them and hear them, yeah, but I can smell things like that best of all. And it’s not just them, things that scurry around at night, things that aren’t people or aren’t anymore. I can tell. I can always tell. They smell different than people, like something lights up in my brain that won’t let me make the mistake of thinking otherwise and I can just tell like it’s a gut instinct. And, sure even Capes have smells, but I can always tell when something is or isn’t human.”

“These things?” I wave a shaking hand at the pale corpse. “They’re a mix of both. Like, they smell like an old scent got overwhelmed by a new one. Something that used to be human but isn’t anymore. Whatever these things are, they’re Monsters with a capital ‘M’ and stuff so… so yeah.”

I trailed off suddenly, my words feeling weak as I finished speaking, feeling awkward as I said the last word and realised the tangent I’d gone off on. I kept my eyes on her feet, not looking up at the Hero. She might have been wearing a mask but the one with the scowling face didn’t make it any easier.

Way to go idiot, make yourself sound like a schizo!

I expected the hard answer, the derision, the anger at wasting her time or making up a story.

What I didn’t expect, is what Shadow Stalker says next.

Is a hushed, feeble and so very desperate whisper.

“You… you can see them too?”

I stiffened. Blinked into the dark before raising my head to stare at her mask in disbelief. For a second, I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. I stand there, not computing, before my brain kicks into gear.

“I- yeah, yeah! I can see them.” I nodded rapidly because oh shit, oh shit this was happening right now! “I’ve been able to see them my whole life, even if nobody else could. A bunch of stuff, stuff that would get me thrown into a padded room if I talked to anyone about it because everybody else just goes about their day like there’s nothing there but I know there is.”

“Prove it!” Shadow Stalker demanded, leaning closer, hunched, frantic but this time I didn’t hold it against her. Because I feel like I’m going crazy too.

There aren’t many ways I can think off the top of my head to do it though, not off the cuff like this. Honestly, even if I had time to prepare beforehand I’m not sure what I could have come up with because I’d never thought it’d ever have the chance to. I’d thought I’d be alone in it.

There was something though, something that was more to do with luck than anything else but I’m glad it’s here.

What I do, is point to the left, back the way I’d come even further, to the entrance of the alley that had led me here when I’d gone following the scent in the first place. Shadow Stalker followed my gaze and I knew for a fact she already knew what I was pointing at, because if this was real, that meant she’d been ignoring it like I had, because nobody else could see it.

A small, insignificant thing. Barely the size of my fist, moulted pink with spiralling, bulging eyes. An ugly thing with human teeth and even now was making a tittering sound that sounded like someone muttering nonsense to themselves.

I’d seen plenty of them around the city. Ugly, annoying but harmless as far as I could tell. I’d called them Fly heads in the privacy of my own mind and it was something I knew that nobody else could see.

Or that I thought nobody else could see.

“Stuff like these are all over the place.” I found myself saying. “I ignore them move of the time, or I run if they’re too dangerous to go near but stuff like those ones are easy enough to get rid of, would have dealt with it earlier if I wasn’t focused on the lay guess.

Immediately, Shadow Stalker’s head snapped back to me with an aggression and bite in her voice that I wasn’t ready for. “You can hurt them?!”

I flinched back, startled, confused. “I uh… yeah, course I can.  I mean, it took me a while to figure out how much punishment they can take without sipping away but I manage.”

“I-” Shadow Stalker was fumbling, like she didn’t understand what she was hearing. “I can’t!” She exclaimed. “No matter what I’ve tried, I’ve never been able to hurt them, any of them, the freaks like this, the ghosts, all the other stuff.” She kicked the pale body., hard and I heard a bone snap.

“These things are the exception. Things with bodies, things other people can see, but the rest? Even when I nail them with crossbow bolts, they just shrug it off like they’re nothing. Half the time they’ll just pass straight through. When they come after me I have to- I have to either run because nothing works on them or what for Stalker to fight them off.” She snarled angrily.

“Huh?” I blinked confused suddenly by the way she referred to herself in the third person. She stuttered in her rant at that and looked at me again, then, to somewhere off to her side.

“So she was right huh? You really are something more than that, aren’t you?”

I had the feeling that she wasn’t talking to me but then the moment passed like it hadn’t happened in the first place and the Hero turned back to me.

“How?” She demanded, fists bunched up as she leaned over me. “I’d always assumed it was just a case of living things not being able to hurt them but you say you can, flesh and blood and all? How do you do it?”

“I… I don’t know?” I shook my head rapidly. “I just can. I’ve always been able to.”

The Ward went silent again at that. For a long while.

And then, she sagged back. Her arms dropping by her sides and her arms unclenching even with her mask on I got the feeling that she was tired. That she’d been tired for a long time.

“We… we need to talk more about this after, you understand?”

“Yeah, yeah of course.” I nodded quickly. “I’ve never met someone else that can see them no way I’m passing this up.” I laughed despite the seriousness of all of this, with what just happened, the full weight of it hitting me. “Holy shit!”

“Yeah.” She agreed. “But you can do more than see them. You? You killed this thing that killed a Cape, would have killed Mush too from what I could tell.”

Wait, how long had she been watching then? If she’d seen the situation like that, then she must have been in the area. Hang on, why was there a Ward out here alone in the first place?

So many questions that I had a feeling would just piss her off if I asked, so I held back.

“Guess I was lucky.” I managed to shrug but I stopped when Shadlow Stalker barked out a laugh.

“Lucky? No way. Things like this have nothing to do with luck. It’s something more than that, a grit and will that most people don’t have. Other’s? They would have frozen up, or run away the first second they’d seen these things and not gotten involved, but you didn’t do that. You went out of your way to track them, to hunt them down. You’re not like the sheep in this city, Fuck, you’re not even just a survivor that manages to push back against all the crap that I can respect people for dealing with. You’re a god damned Predator. A real one.”

“Uh…” I blinked. “Thanks?”

She nodded and I’m just left more confused. Being called a predator didn’t sound like much of a compliment but the way Shadow Stalker said it made it sound as if she thought it was. I honestly had no idea how I’m supposed to respond to but, but thankfully I don’t have to.

She stiffened in front of me suddenly and a hand flew to the side of her head.

“Repeat Console?”

Oh, had she just gotten a message from the Protectorate?

I got my answer a few seconds later when she grunted at something. “Fine, on my way.”

She turned to me. “Listen, Kid, I’ve got to go. Been called in form something that sounds big, but I’m not about to be done here yet, not with all of…” She waved a hand between us. “All of this. No way I’m going to leave it at this. You got a way I can contact you?”

“My- um, my phone?” I suggested hesitantly. I’m not sure of the protocol when it comes to people having heroes on their contact lists but I figured she could just refuse if it was a dumb idea, but when I took it out of my pocket, she just swiped it.

I opened my mouth to protest the sudden move before I realised she was putting her number into my phone. Was it her… what did they call it, here Hero number? Did heroes have separate phones for civilian life? They probably did, right? It would be dumb if they didn’t.

“I’ll call you soon.” Shadow Stalker said, handing it back to me. “Once I deal with whatever this crap is and get Chariot's body in PRT preservation, I’ll find some time for us to actually figure some of this stuff out. Now that there’s more of us, I think it’s about time I find out just how much of this has been as real as I’ve believed my whole life and I might actually get proper answers from a person instead of cryptic bullshit that drives me up the walls this time too.”

She stepped away, but not before knocking my shoulder with her knuckles. “You should get back to wherever you live though, kid. It would be a pain in the ass to hear you got hurt because you were late out the moment I leave."

“Oh don’t worry.” I huffed. “I’m going home and sleeping for the rest of the day after all this. I’m just about down with tonight.”

Something that couldn’t exactly be called a laugh slipped through the Ward’s mask. “Fair enough.” She turned away, ready to leave, before she paused again and turned halfway back to me again.

“Oh yeah, almost forgot. I can’t just keep calling you kid in my head or whatever. You got a name you want to give me or what? You’re not a cape, you good with giving me your real name or you wanna come up with one?”

“Huh? Oh, nah I’ve got no problem with it.” I blinked before I just shrugged it off. “Be kind of dumb if I did give you another name if I for some reason become a Cape, right? I’d defeat the purpose since you’d recognise it and know it was me. Besides you’re a hero, I’m not exactly worried about your guys dragging me in. My real name is good enough.”

I straightened up, putting on a smirk as I walked backwards towards the alley.

“Just call me Aisha.”

Chapter Text

I’d gotten another call from Console a few minutes after I'd watched the kid leave the trainyard. They wanted me to come back to the PRT headquarters immediately and I had a sneaking suspicion that it may or may not have something to do with the fact that I’d slipped away from Clockblocker tonight.

In one of the rare times I had to deal with Clockblocker one on one, I’d spend maybe ten minutes enduring his bad jokes and obvious attempts to sneak looks at my ass when wasn’t looking before I ditched him to patrol on my own and ended up stumbling across a bunch of monsters in the scrap yard.

Obviously Clockblocker must have decided that after I hadn’t shown up half an hour after I’d left him alone that he’d call it in. If I had to guess, somebody was pissed that I’d gone off on my own without permission, doubly so that I’d done it at night and left my patrol partner alone.

So now I had to head back for a briefing which if I had to bet, would be more them yelling at me about not doing what I was told than anything else. A bunch of time-wasting in my opinion, but last time I’d said that, Piggot had gotten all pissy and ordered that I be put on Console Duty for two weeks.

I’d learned since then that the best thing to do was nod my head and say ‘yes sir, no sir’ to any and all questions and demands. It wasn’t like they could actually be refused in my case anyway considering my situation. One that Piggot liked to remind me of any time she thought I was happy for just a little too long.

I came in sight of the PRT building after not too long and gave a grunt as I hopped off a roof to the ground level and crossed the street toward it. Lucky me that it was till late enough at night that there weren’t any people hanging around the place.

During the day the surrounding area was pretty sparse of people, but at night it was even more so, which was fair, considering it was pretty much a step up from something like a police station, and you didn’t have to be smart to know that it was a good idea t stay away from those places at night n case anyone got the wrong idea.

It meant I didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing me or making a fuss as I entered the ugly looking grey building and made my way not the resection.

The place was always busy, day and night, so there were plenty of people inside the place as I got in. There was the receptionist, the regular nightshift employees and the agents standing guard and the moment they saw me, a few stiffened at my current state, not that I could blame them, even if it was annoying to have their eyes on me.

I was recognisable enough that nobody tried to stop me as I passed the desk and went straight on into the hallway leading further into the building. I passed someone every so often and they too would flinch or recoil as I passed. Again, not that I blamed them right now. They didn’t usually, mostly because I barely paid attention to them and they returned the courtesy but tonight was sort of an exertion.

The earpiece I was wearing made a noise and I heard Aegis’ voice over the line.

“Shadow Stalker, where are you?” He demanded without even a hello. He sounded kind of annoyed, and considering how out of character that was even when he was talking to me, I could make a guess that he wasn’t alone. “You responded to the recall, but Clockblocker hasn’t reported seeing you yet.”

I raided a brow beneath my mask. “You wanted me to meet up with him first, seriously? The idiot can find his way back just fine.”

“That’s not the point and you know it.” He gave a harsh sigh. “You said you won’t run off again and you did it again without even asking for permission.”

“Something came up.” I replied bluntly. “I didn’t have time to let Clockblocker slow me down. Isn’t there a saying anyway? Better to ask forgiveness than receive permission or whatever?”

“That does not apply in this situation, Shadow Stalker.” A new voice cut in, older and gruffer not to mention annoyed. “There are only so many times you can be allowed to flaunt regulations and rules before you need to be reprimanded.”

“Hey there to you too, Armsmaster.” I replied irreverently. “Nice to know you’re on call listening in. Didn’t think to let me know or anything? Nah that’s fine, hey if you’re here, let me make a guess, is the Director on call too? Should I say hello?”

There was a long pause where I imagined more than one person on the other end of the call seething in anger before the bitch herself answered at last.

“We are all in attendance in my office, Shadow Stalker.” Piggot answered with badly concealed disdain. Armsmaster and Miss Milita are will me along with your Wards team captain in regards to you disregarding the rules and going off on your own. You are to return to headquarters for this briefing now.”

“Well that’s good to know.” I drawled. “I guess you’ll be glad to hear that I’m already in the building.”

“What?” I might have imagined just the tiniest stutter of surprise from Piggot. “When did you get back?”

“A few minutes before you decided to call.” I shrugged into the empty air, jostling my package. “You made a big deal about me coming back as soon as possible that I came straight back. That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”

I knew they could hear my insincerity, but before any of them could make a big deal about it I pressed on. “I’m almost outside your office now, actually.” I said right as the door to it came into view. “And I thought I’d come to you with something important?”

This time, it was Miss Militia who spoke up. “And what would that be, Shadow Stalker?”

I came to the door and barged my shoulder against it. The door sprung open and slammed into the other wall loudly but I didn’t care about that as I stepped in and saw the startled looks from the four other people in the room who had been waiting for me, and had called me with the intention of listening in at first and catching me out on something I might have said, if I had to guess.

They couldn’t do that now, not just because I was right in front of them, but because they were a little more distracted by what I had slung across my shoulder, having carried it the entire way here.

“Because I come bearing a gift!” I proclaimed before tossing it roughly onto the Directors desk.

The woman wasn’t athletic enough to leap out of her chair, but it had wheels, so she could still move back in time to avoid being splattered in blood.

Her desk wasn’t so lucky but that was what you expected when you dropped a corpse onto a table, I guess.

“Shadow Stalker!” Armsmaster bellowed over the cries of shock from Aegis and Miss Militia, rising to his feet to where he’d been sat just a second before. “What is this?!”

I wasn’t sure exactly what he was asking about, the way I’d come in or the little present I’d just shown off but I took the prompt for what it was.

“This, “I said, poking the body. “Is the recently deceased rouge Chariot that only recently showed up in Brockton Bay. Thought you’d want to get a proper look at the body, instead of me just leaving it out in the open where people could see it.”

“Oh my god.” Aegis murmured, eyes locked on the body. It was face down and mostly wrapped in a sheet I’d found in the train yard so that my own costume didn’t get soaked in red, but it had dried behind me on the floor as I walked and even from this angle, the size of the body where it could be seen under ruined Tinker Tech was a young one. Chariot had been a kid near the same age as us or about. I could guess Aegis hadn’t been prepared to see something like this tonight.

He turned to stare at me, taking off his mask to give me a wide eyed look. “Sophia did you- do you kill him?”

“Fuckin’- what?” I frowned, then remembered I still had my mask on and removed it so I could give him a flat glare. “First of all, fuck you, do you really think I would be crazy and stupid enough to bring evidence of a homicide I’d committed to you? Second, I can promise you that if I did kill somebody, I would do it like this?”

“Like what,” Shadow Stalker?” Piggot demanded. She looked pissed, but it was her regular sort of pissed. I had no doubt she was angry at me for ruining her desk but right now her eyes were on the body and I could tell that she was focused now. Not on chastising a Ward that didn’t do what they were told, but on the murder on her hands. The murder of a Parahuman. This was PRT business, the kind that was kept hidden from the public unless absolutely necessary.

I moved over to the body again, raising it up so I could roll in onto its back for them to get a better look at it, and when I did, all but Miss Militia recoiled and even she looked paler at the sight. I could guess that with her history she’d grown used to sights like this and what I knew from the Director, it was something she was familiar with too, but in way where it made her reaction worse, not better. She looked like she’d just seen a ghost.

Armsmaster was the first to get control of himself and then he was in business mode too. He took a step forward to stand over the body of Chariot and examined it, reaching down to prod at one of the wounds. “These wounds were made by teeth.” He said. “He was eaten.”

“Yep.” I said. “I can’t tell if it was before or after he died, but the thing that did this to him were hungry.”

Piggot’s eyes snapped to me. “Things?” She uttered coldly.

I nodded, it was time to get serious, now that I had their attention fully.  I tapped my mask. “Got it recorded for you to look over, Ma’am.” I said. “And I got a good look at the, engaged and put a few of them down.”

I handed the Mask to Armsmaster and he fiddled with it for a second, taking a look and the inbuilt recording device that all Wards had in their costumes. I had… messed with it a little, turned it off when I had my conversation with Aisha, but I’d lined the footage back up so that nobody would be able to tell the difference, and I had a good excuse for any points that didn’t match up too.

“Being near them made my equipment all glitchy.” I told them as Armsmaster plugged something into a device on his wrist. “I could feel a cold the second I got near the and it messed with pretty much everything electrical I had on hand. Not so much that it didn’t work, but I could notice things were off.”

And then Armsmaster turned to the back wall and projected the recording onto it. I watched as it played, starting just a few seconds before I came to the Trainyard and I saw the way Aegis stiffened as I came across the fight between those monsters and Mush. The recording passed quickly on the image of two of them scaling the massive armoured body of the junkyard Parahuman.

There was clear image of them. Three of them were in the still frame and a fourth which I knew would enter into it ten seconds later but it didn’t matter as much as the fact that the image was good enough for everyone in the room to get a good look at them. At their abnormal proportions, chalk pale skin and hairless bodies. The long, gnarled limbs, sunken eye sockets and rotting teeth.

Miss Militia looked disturbed behind her bandanna and the Director? She looked ill.

“There were five of them in total.” I said when I got the chance. “One was killed before I arrived on the scene, and it was the sound of Mush’s fight with them that caught my attention. I heard it and separated from Clockblocker to investigate. When I arrived, it was as you can see here. Not only that, but there was a civilian in the area that had been chased by the creatures. She had drawn them further into the junkyard in hopes of escaping and ended up catching the attention of Mush, who accidentally or not, saved her life when he engaged the things chasing her.”

“The civilian, were they alright?” Miss Milia asked and I nodded, seeing the way her concern turned to relief.

“She was shaken, obviously, but not as much as she could have been and after I made sure she wasn’t injured, she insisted on going home.” I said, carefully leaving out all that I had talked about with her, the fact that she’d gone out looking for them in the first place and the strange abilities she had, not to mention the fact that right now I had her contact information on my personal phone.

“When I had taken the things down, the civilian and Mush led me to the body of Chariot, which the creature had been in the middle of eating together when the civilian stumbled across them.”

“As you can tell, Mush also survived the encounter and was willing to cooperate when I went back and asked him questions as you’ll see later in the end. Afterwards I decided it was a better idea to retrieve Chariot's body instead of starting anything with who last time I checked, was marked down as a Rouge.”

“One that was noted to have a higher potential than average to turn villain considering his circumstances.” Armsmaster muttered but it felt like he was doing it out of habit of mentioning things because he could rather than because he actually cared all that much about it. He played the recording further and the rest of them got a proper look at just how the things move.

“As you can see, they were fast, agile and strong. Enough that they could avoid Mush’s attacks and rip pieces of metal away from him when they got close enough. If I had waited any longer there would probably have been two dead Parahumans instead of one and most likely, those things would have escaped.”

“You said you put them down.” Miss Militia prompted, looking at me again. “You killed all of them?”

“One was already dead when I got there, like I said earlier.” I shrugged. “But if you’re worried about the killing, I can promise you that whatever they were, they weren’t human, if they ever were in the first place.”

I looked to the Director. “My best guess? They were something only a Biotinker could cook up. They weren’t as strong as me when I really go at it from what I could tell, but speed-wise I’m not so sure. They didn’t get a chance to test it against me” – And I was keeping quiet about Aisha’s own trick to disappear that was probably the only reason they hadn’t caught her considering how much they outclassed her in speed – “But somehow they managed to catch and kill Chariot, someone who if you all remember, was a Tinker that specialised in things that moved fast and when he died, he was been wearing some his if equipment.”

“It’s been damaged.” Armsmaster said “But… from what I can tell… not in the same way.”

I stopped, frowning at him as that worked over in my head. “These things didn’t use weapons. “I said. “Just teeth and claws.”

“And yet, the damage to his armour and tools doesn’t match what’s been done to his body.” The Protectorate Hero explained. Most of it is damage caused by flesh being torn and ripped, yes, but there is a single injury, just beneath the sixth and seventh rib that is different from the rest. I can’t tell yet how exactly, some mix between blunt and penetrative force, but enough to kill or at least render the victim unable to move as they recovered. Most of Chariot’s armour looks as if it was cracked and broken open by something too.”

“You’re saying that something else was involved. “I stated. “Something that went after him maybe before or at the same time as these things, and left him to it after they were done with him.”

“That is my current theory.” He agreed. “The motives at the moment are unclear and I can’t tell what it was the perpetrator was looking from Chariot other than to kill him… but something or someone else was involved… I’ll need to look into it more.”

He looked up suddenly “Director, with your permission, I would like to take Chariot's body to be preserved so that it can be studied further. If the perpetrator of this is out there then I need to know more about its method of attack.”

The woman didn’t look happy with the request but I could make a guess it was more for the fact that she didn’t like the idea of taking a dead teenager's body and putting it on ice than anything else. And maybe by the way Armsmaster had been so callous about it.

“Fine.”  She said. “Go do that, and at the same time, take a DNA test and find the identity of Chariot… if the boy had family, then they need to know and we need to establish a protection detail discreetly to ensure that whoever did this isn’t interested in coming back for the rest of the family.”

“Director.” Armsmaster nodded and then proceeded to carefully wrap the body up in the sheet I’d brought again and carried it out of the room.

“Miss Militia, I want you to inform the rest about this and make sure they are on high alert. If there is a Biotinker in town then we need to be alert. This could spiral out of control rapidly if the right measures aren’t taken and I refuse to allow that. If you stumble across any more of these… things that Shadow Stalker ran into then you have my permission to use lethal force. You and anyone else that comes across them.”

“They’re tough, but not all that much harder to kill than anything else,” I added. “You shouldn’t have any problems but from what I could tell, blunt force didn’t do too much.”

Miss Militar nodded getting the message. Heroes like Triumph, Assault and Battery wouldn’t find any advantage in dealing with them in that case and needed to be equipped accordingly.

“Yes Ma’am.” She saluted to the Piggot. “I’ll get right on it.”

The Director nodded and then as Miss Militia left, it was just Aegis and I left. She turned to the two of us and although she didn’t look happy, she wasn’t as angry as before, at least not at me.

“You frustrate me, Shadow Stalker.” She said. “You test the lines so much, only for every time you cross them, to have just barely a good enough reason for it that it’s too much of a hassle to punish you as severely as you deserve.”

I shrugged, aware that there wasn’t much I could add to her description, or the fact that despite saying it, she wouldn’t let me away with just a few stern words. I was used to this dance by now.

She proved my right a second later. “That doesn’t mean that you can be let off just because you found something useful. Despite the fact that you haven’t seemed to have gotten it through your head yet, you cannot go off on your own just because you felt like it.”

Piggot’s expression morphed into a hard glare. “You flouted your patrol route, engaged with hostile entities and left your teammate alone in the middle of the city at night. That on its own would be enough to render a punishment but at this point the words repeat-offences’ might as well be your motto.”

I said nothing, meeting her stare with one of my own, keeping special attention to force my features blank so she didn’t have anything else to get mad about. No matter what I said, she’d find something for me to do that I hated but it wouldn’t go beyond that. Piggot just couldn’t afford to.

If things got really bad and I started acting like a threat then yeah, I didn’t doubt the bitch would pull the rug from underneath me before I could blink and then I’d end up in Juvie, or more likely, a prison that could actually hold me, but as things were now, I was an asset, and a major one at that for keeping the balance with groups like the Empire in particular, not just on the field, but in the public eye.

“So, I’ve decided that you need to patrol with people who are better at not letting troublesome capes out of their sight.” She said. “Your patrol routes will be updated, since you seem to have issues following your planned ones, and you will accompany Assault and Battery on theirs for the next month.”

I stiffened, eyes widening and it was enough for the Director to know she’d got me. The glint in her eyes was smug but I was less concerned about that than I was the fact that I’d be stuck between those two the whole time.

Assault was like a worse version of Clockblocker when it came to his jokes and he made sure I heard them, like he thought he could win me over by constantly being on my back, worse, Battery played into it like some reluctant buddy cop duo that made the insufferable to be around.

It didn’t help that I knew the kind of people they really were… the… things they’d done that had marked them, no matter how much they played hero.

I didn’t complain though. The moment I did, I knew she’d tack on more time just to prove a point. I kept my mouth shut and stared at her until she decided she’d had enough of me standing in her presence and dismissed the two of us. I gave a huff and turned on my heels, marching out the door and all too aware of Aegis following behind me, calling my name.

I didn’t answer and he pulled off his mask.

“Sophia,” He called when I didn’t stop to speak with him. “Sophia wait.”

“Fuck off, Carlos.” I spat without turning to face him. “Whatever you want to say, I don’t want to hear it.”

“I just want to talk.”

“Oh, you mean like you were trying to talk things out back there. Bite me, Carlos. If you hadn’t shrunken in on yourself at the sight of one dead body then you would have been standing there along with them chewing me out.”

“That’s- how can you even- he was a kid, Sophia! He’s dead!”

“Yeah, he’s dead.” I rolled my eyes as we came to the door to the Wards common rooms. My eye scan went through and the door buzzed. “Plenty of dead kids in this city already, probably another handful by the end of the week.  In case you missed it, that’s life.”

“Woah.” I grimaced as I heard Clockblocker’s voice and caught sight of him lying across the couch and flicking through something on his phone. He’d gotten rid of his regular mask for a domino one and was looking between Carlos and me. “What conversation did I just hear the end of- wait, why are you covered in blood?”

Both of us ignored him. I could tell that there was nobody else here right now, probably home in their beds at this hour, not that I really carried what the other Wards did in their spare time.

Carlos sighed again, harsher this time. “Listen, it’s my job as Ward’s captain to make sure everybody on the team is safe, and I can’t do that if you’re going off on your own without even telling anyone.”

“I can handle myself just fine.” I turned back to him, glaring as he discarded my coat and tossed it over the back of a chair. “You don’t get to pretend you’re worried about me when I’m stronger than you, but forget about that for a second, if I hadn’t; then a kid would be dead, so would Mush, which is something we don’t need right now.”

“Yes, Mush being found dead would have the gangs asking questions and poking each other but-”

“And what do you think would happen if we were blindsided by whoever it is just strolled into the Bay?” I pressed. “You think we’d be fine with a Biotinker running around making monsters?”

“We don’t know for sure that it’s Biotinker.” Carlos tried. “And- look Sophia that’s not what I’m trying to say and you know it.”

I bared my teeth in a threatening smile. “Oh I know. It just so happens that I’m not in the mood to listen to whatever bullshit you have in your head to justify stabbing me in the back.”

He reeled back like I’d slapped him, which definitely wasn’t the case because if I had, I’d have snapped his neck.

“That- That’s not what this was!”

“Then what do you call how it looked?” I took a step forward into his face, still glaring at him. “Because from where I was standing it was four of you against me and I can only imagine what you had in mind to say.”

 I extended a finger with each point. “‘Running off on my own is going against regulations,’ which doesn’t seem to be as big of a problem when you or Gallant or whoever else decides there’s something important off the beaten path. ‘I got into a fight without informing anyone or asking for permission,’ Well I’m not going to wait around and watch as some kid gets eaten alive right in front of me just to ask if I can do my job or not, so don’t even bother expecting me to. ‘I left Dennis alone all by himself?’”

I shoved a finger into his chest and Carlos stumbled back. “Well maybe if he wasn’t such a fucking joke of a hero then I wouldn’t have a problem with him.”

“Hey! The boy in question complained. “Just because you got in trouble doesn’t mean you have to take it out on-”

I snapped around and silenced him with a seething glare. “One word.” I threatened. “One more word out of you and I will snap. If you don’t have a clue in your head why I can’t stand you, then you’re beyond help and believe me, you’ll need it the next time you do something to piss me off.”

His mouth clicked shut and Carlos had to move around me to stand between the two of us, like he was worried I’d lung at Dennis or something.

“Look, Sophia, I get it, you’re upset that it let like everybody was against you back there but you’ve got to know there I couldn’t have done anything else. You went off on your own, again, and got into danger, again. There’s a reason the Wards aren’t supposed to be a part of stuff like that, I get that you can do good work but if people started thinking that the Wards was too dangerous of a place for their children to end up in?”

I clicked my tongue. “Get real. You think Piggy cares about any of that? If she had it her way, she’d throw us all in the meat grinder if it meant taking out the Gangs here. But she can’t so she’s stuck having to tell us what we can and can’t do instead, like she has any right to in the first place.”

“She’s the Director.”

“She can’t stand the sight of us.” I fired back. “Me especially. She limits  my patrol times, puts all sorts of rules and traps in place to screw with me and I know she’s thrown more punishments my way than she does with the rest of you.”

“I… I know, it’s not fair Sophia, you won’t hear me arguing with you about that.” Carlis admitted. “But you know that’s because you’re on probation. She’s got an eye on you.”

“Yeah, to catch me when I trip up.”

 “Maybe, but you know just as well as I do that the Director is harsh for a reason.” He argued. “Brockton Bay doesn’t exactly give much room to be nice or lenient.”

I grit my teeth at the excuse. The fact that he was defending her made my blood boil, but I knew that lashing out like I wanted to would just make things even worse.

I needed to leave. To get some air or just not look at him before I did something I’d regret.

I took a step back, then another, moving towards the door again. The alarm for the door went off and started to open. Even still, I glared at Carlos.  “Maybe not, but I would have hopes that if the Director wasn’t someone I could trust, I could at least trust my so-called team. I thought I could trust my leader to have my back.”

He swallowed, frustrated with me or what I was saying or the situation, I didn’t know, and I didn’t care. Nothing he could say right this moment would change things here and now. The best thing either of us could was stay away from each other.

Even so I didn’t hold back my glare as I stepped out of the room, put my mask back on and turned away, ignoring his voice as he called after me, to talk some more about something that wouldn’t change.

I stomped down the hallway, passing employees that gave me a wide berth.

I didn’t care anymore. Not now.

I just needed to get the blood out of my coat.

…

…

Brockton Bay was a cesspit of scum and decay. A shit-heap city drowning in gangbangers, career criminals, corporate thieves and jumped-up super-powered villains that thought taking a slice of the city as their own little fiefdom made them anything other than empty wastes of space piloting human husks.

Not for the first time, I wondered why I tolerated it all.  I was sure that if I put my mind to it, I could cut the villain population of this city in half with just a little help, and for every one of them gone, a bunch of people's lives would be a whole lot better off for it.

I’d been doing just that when I’d been a vigilante, taking not just the chaff of the gangs down, but some of the Capes that had muscled into the city to try and take their own slice of the pie. Chorus was down more than one Cape by the time they’d been run out of the city and at least a large part of that was because of how relentlessly I’d hunted them at night.

They’d never gotten a chance to rest between me and New Wave looking to make them regret how they’d hurt their golden girl.

Point was, I had done good, and I knew it… but more and more it was starting to feel like that was all in the past tense.

Ever since I’d ‘joined’ the Wards, everything had been either slow or stop when it came to dealing with criminals. 

The teenage contingent of the Protectorate wasn’t what I had in mind when I’d first put on the mask and if someone had told me what it was like before I ended up as one of them, I would have fought harder when they brought me in.

As it was, I was stuck dealing with PR patrols on the boardwalk, newscast interviews and lessons on appearing personably to civilians, I was stuck having to listen to people who had no idea what being a hero was like tell me what I could and couldn’t do I had to deal with restricted patrol times and all the dumb paperwork they waved at me like a baton any time I did something they didn’t like.

The rare times I actually got to do some real her work, I did it well, well enough that people in the Bay knew who I was. The look on Clockblocker’s face when the whole time had been shown the popularity poles for the Wards and seen my name at the top had produced a feeling I’d hung onto for weeks later.

But it didn’t change the fact that they were few and far between and even now, I was stuck on another patrol that was more to punish me than to do any good work. After I had saved a person, fought bad guys and come back with actionable information, I was still stuck dealing with all this crap.

Basically, it sucked, and it was getting harder and harder to convince myself not to just say screw it and strike out on my own again, no matter the consequences.

It wasn’t like they could do much if I did, and it wasn’t like my mom wanted much to do with me or what I did anyway, at least not recently.

My brother and sister might care but… well, I doubted they’d care much. If I was being honest with myself.

“Hey Shadow Stalker, I don’t know if you know this, but I can practically feel you brooding from where I’m standing.” Assault’s voice cut through my thoughts and I could immediately feel my eye twitch.

I refused to look back where Assault and Battery were walking behind me at a steady but slow pace, side by side.

“I know you’ve got your branding to think of, but do you think you could be a little more chipper? I might get the wrong idea.”

My voice came out through clenched teeth.” And what idea would that be?”

“That you don’t like spending time with us of course!” He responded brightly, and I had the urge to snarl that was only dampened by the fact that Batter drove her elbow into his side, silencing him. It only helped a little, since I knew the impact wouldn’t even hurt him thanks to his Power.

“Enough.” She chided. “Shadow Stalker doesn’t need you making this any worse than it is for her already. I know I wouldn’t like being stuck being watched on patrol for doing my job.”

“Hey I’m not trying to mess with her.” He complained. “Just trying to lighten the mood. We’ve been pretty much walking in silence for the last thirty minutes. A joke or two wouldn’t kill anyone.”

“Assault.” I stared ahead. “When have I ever found one of your jokes funny?”

“Ouch.”

I sighed. “It’s not like you want to be here either. What was it you said, I creeped you out?”

“You… heard that?” I could feel the man’s wince, as the glare his partner was shooting him. Apparently she hadn’t known about his opinion of me.

“Paraphrasing, obviously, but yes, I heard you talking to Triumph about it. I mean fair enough, you were doing your whole comedy routine to help in relax on his first day after graduating to the protectorate and happened to talk about me when bringing up the rest of the team too, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to pretend you don’t think it.”

“Is that right?” Battery was full on glaring now.

“I- okay I was more intimidated than creeped out but I was trying to make Triumph feel like he wasn’t going to pass out from being on his first proper day on the job.”

“And talking down about his former teammates was the best you had?” battery crossed her arms. “You’re not exactly smooth with your words, but I would have thought you’d be better than that.”

“Okay fair, you’re right.” He admitted with a nod before turning to me and I sighed, giving him the acknowledgement of at least turning my head slightly to see him in the corner of my vision. “I hadn’t got the best opinion of you back then but come on! We’d talked like four times before that since you joined the Wards and the first time we met you gave me a black eye. Through my Power!”

“You were trying to bring me in.” I responded blandly. “Of course I was going to fight back and do what I needed to get away from you. You failed too, if you remember.”

“Oh, I remember. They wanted me to talk you into coming in first.” He grumbled. “That I’d have a better chance that way to appeal to the fact that you were a vigilante side than going straight for the punching.”

“That’s the thing, ‘Assault’. I was a vigilante. You were a villain.” I stated, dropping that little titbit to remind him as well as anyone else listening in through the Console frequency that I wasn’t clueless.

 I had habit of it, almost. Reminding them that I had ways of finding stuff out that they weren’t expecting me to know. I’d brought up Assault’s previous occupation as Madcap a while back to get him to leave me alone. The look on Piggot’s face had been worth the trouble I’d gotten into for nearly leaking sensitive info about the Hero’s history.

Apparently, the PRT didn’t like people knowing they could and would flip Villains into Heroes, for reasons I couldn’t even begin to fathom.

“You didn’t have anything to relate to one another. We still don’t.”

“We get that, I get that, believe me I do.” Battery said quickly. “I know what it’s like to have the people above you act in… frustrating ways, but Shadow Stalker, you need to work with us here too.”

I turned to her, slowing down just a little. “Work with you how, exactly?”

“You’ve been with us for nearly a year now.” She said. “But in that whole time, you’ve been like a… lone wolf is the best way I can put it. You’ve gotten in trouble for more than a dozen unsanctioned patrols and you don’t work well with your team.”

“They can’t keep up with me.” I frowned. “Why should I hold back when I can be a better Hero on my own? It’s stupid.”

“I understand that you feel like that.” Battery nodded her head, very pointedly not agreeing with the statement. “But it’s more than that isn’t it? You haven’t made friends with any of the Wards, the others have mentioned more than once that you barely feel like a teammate.”

‘What?’ I couldn’t help but think. Was that supposed to make me stop and reconsider? We weren’t on a sports team, we weren’t part of the Wards to make friends. We were supposed to be fighting back against the Gangs, to be heroes. Being buddies wasn’t a part of that.

“The feeling goes both ways.” I fired back. “Unless you didn’t hear where Aegis was in the meeting that ended me up here with you right now in the first place?”

“I haven’t, Stalker but… listen, I’m not the only one that’s noticed how you’ve… isolated yourself from the others. It’s more than just different personalities clashing, because whatever it is you’re doing makes the others… wary.”

“Huh?”

“Gallant put it best.” Assault cut in before Battery could stop him. “He said it was like being in the room with a caged animal. Like a lion about to eat him.” He gave her a look. “Now, I’m not entirely sure how you managed to pull that off, but the others aren’t much better off.”

“So they’ve been talking to you about me behind my back?”

“They’ve been raising their concerns.” Battery pressed on. “Listen, I know you’re doing your best to be a Hero and you do a great job, but you need to learn that you can’t do this as a solo act. If you keep breaking the rules, keep pushing then it won’t be the Director that ends your career, it’ll be a villain that gets lucky. You need a team, and the Wards can be that if you just give them a chance.”

I glowered at her. “They act like kids. All of them do. They don’t think the way they should if they want to stay alive in this job. If you think it’s wrong for me not to get attacked by people that won’t last, then that’s on you.”

Batter stared at me for a long moment before her posture slumped and she let out a deep sigh, and I could tell that at least for the moment, she’d given up trying to talk to me.

“Okay.” She said at last. “Okay. We’ll… we’ll get back to that later. How about you scout ahead? See if you can pick up anything that might be going on from above.”

“I won’t get into any trouble for going off route this time, will it? I snarled even as I turned and walked over to the building on my right.”

“I’ll authorise it.” She dismissed. “Just don’t get into any fights and radio at the first sign of trouble, understood?”

“Yeah, yeah.” I huffed, as I came to a stop in front of the wall and looked up.

The building was about three stories tall, a small office building or something, with a flat roof it’d be able to stand on.

I nodded to myself and with a breath, I let my body shift into my Shadow State in the same moment that I bent my knees low and shot up as fast as I could. My natural strength coupled with the sudden lightness of my body was all I needed to clear the three stores in a single jump. I crested the edge and as I hit the peak of my arc, I let go of my Power and dropped to the roof with a crunch of gravel beneath my boots.

I was alone on the rooftop, able to overlook plenty of the surrounding area from here, but not enough. Not enough to see where the scum was hiding down below.

I let out a breath, hot and angry, fists clenched as I stormed over to the ledge and jumped to the next building, shifting into my Shadow state at the beginning each time to glide through the air and dripping out before I landed with a practised ease. I felt the tump of my boots on the rooftop each time, thud-thud-thud, like the sound of my heart.

I would need to check every alley and street I passed as I moved, and every time, there would be a chance I missed or went in the wrong direction. If I was alone, I could have widened my circle but here I was trapped, stuck like this with no way to-

“You’re getting agitated, you need to take a breath, Sophia.”

And just like that, my anger paused. It didn’t disappear, but with just a simple warning, it wasn’t rising anymore, but turned instead into a simmering urge at the back of my throat.

I shut my eyes and took a breath. Deep and purposeful before exhaling again and taking another look out at the city in front of me.

“Thanks.” I uttered. “I probably would have snapped the second anybody else said something to me.”

There was an amused chuckle. “We can’t have that, can we? There’s no need to make your punishment detail any worse than it is now.”

“Quiet you.” I grumbled and glanced to my right towards her.

Towards the sight of a wispy-spectral mountain lion stood at my side.

This was the one Hebert had poked at me about. The one she warily called my friend, the one that had been with me my entire life, since my first memory and before even then. The one I’d named myself after, who for as long as I’d known them, had let me called them by the name ‘Stalker’. The invisible ally, who never really left, who always watched my back and protected me from the creatures unseen by everybody else that I couldn’t fight back against.

Her form right now had taken the shape of a mountain lion that rose up to my chest. They were partially see-through, tinted greyish-purple, the kind that came about in the sky sometimes right before the moon appeared and the sun had fallen behind the horizon, but its last rays still lingered.

From her body, wispy smoke fell constantly, pulling around her body before evaporating, or well, more like vanishing, the moment it got far enough away.

Her eyes glint as bright as any match could, and her teeth gleamed in the moonlight.

She looked out towards the city a second longer, before she turned her head to me. “You know that I’m right. I haven’t said anything, but you’ve been more temperamental these past few weeks.”

I glowered, not at Stalker, but out into the empty space in front of us. “Can you blame me?

She sighed and there was a flicker as her shape changed and she was suddenly a wolf, taller than me, big enough that she could have bitten Vista in half, had she been tangible.

“No,” She admitted. “Even though I would like to just so that I had a reason to argue the fact, I can’t. I feel exactly the same way. With everything we’re not being told, and everything I know we should know by now, even I feel frustrated.”

“That’s not like you.” I smirked, eyeing the wolf. Only for the creature to roll her eyes and huff.

“You being angry isn’t a comfortable feeling for me, you know that. Most of the time you have better control over it though. I can at least block it out, smother or direct what it does to me into something productive… I haven’t gotten a chance to do that for a while now.”

“… Sorry.” I sighed, feeling the urge to run a hand through my hair if it weren’t for the mask and hood in the way. It always grounded me, hearing Stalker talk about the results of my moods on her. It was hard not to stutter and stop when she did, not just because she was my closest companion, my closest family and trusted friend, but because… well…. It was hard not to hear a voice that sounded like your own tell you what was going wrong in your life at that moment and not be drawn up short.

I was starting to notice a change there; even with her voice. For as long as I could remember, Stalker’s voice had always been exactly the same t mine, to a disconcerting level. She didn’t have the same cadence as me, but the accent, the tone, the pitch…. If anyone could hear her speak and wasn’t looking at either of us, I would have been sure nobody could tell the difference upon first listen.

That had… started to change though. Ever since… ever since what happened with Hebert, when we’d gone to that place I was still refusing to even think of as the underworld of any kind, she’d started to sound different.

Still like me, no mistaking that, but… there was a slight shift in her voice. Not like she was acting or thinking any different, nothing that had me worried, but she sounded older. Like… an older me, what I imagined my voice would sound like when I hit my twenties. Deeper, stronger, all the things that made a person pay attention to another person.

It made things strange sometimes in a whole different way. When I had someone that was a part of me in a way that even my own Power wasn’t, to have them suddenly change in any way, no matter how minuscule, was enough to unsettle me.

It didn’t change what she said, only emphasised it. Things had changed since that moment, when we’d all come out, and it was my lack of self-control over the things bothering me that was affecting Stalker. Making her feel…. Uncomfortable. It was always like that. When I was mad, so was she, growling and glaring at the target for my ire. When I was happy, so was she, warm and comforting like a protective blanket. When I was scared or sad or lonely, she was there, someone to comfort me when nobody else had the ability or care to. I had resolved it in me, ages ago, that I would do my best to return the favour, and not put her through things like that when I didn’t need to.

This was a moment like that.

We stood there, in silence for a minute, on the edge of the rooftop at night.

“What are you thinking of?” Stalker asked, shifting again into a snake, that coiled around my shoulders like a scarf. It didn’t phase me at this point. Whenever she was in the mood, Stalker could change what she was. Always an animal, and from what I could tell from the past fifteen years of my life, always a predator animal. Whatever that meant, I had no idea, but it didn’t matter. Neither did the fact that if she wanted to, she could change between two dozen different animals for the duration of a single conversation and did so plenty whenever she felt like it. Like it was as natural as breathing.

“I… I don’t know.” I admitted. “I’m not sure what it is but… something feels different. Like… there’s something in my gut telling me that things have started to… to change. Not lie, someone’s about to do something terrible, but like soothing news is coming that could shake up the whole board.”

“A paradigm shift.” She hummed. “You could be right. Lung’s transport is in the middle of being arranged, but if they manage to get him out of the city, it’ll shake things up.”

I shook my head. “No, not like that. I know you know what it feels like. That prickling on the back of your neck, like somethings watching you, hunting you.”

“I tend to recall the feeling of inflicting it on the little beasts that come our way, actually.” She scoffed, shifting another time, into a falcon, perched on my shoulder with a wingspan so great it shrouded me like a cloak. “But I know what you mean anyway. Those… creatures from before.  They’re something new, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently. I don’t think they were man-made like the Director and you thought.”

“Huh?”

“Call it an instinct.” She shuffled her feathers. “But when I looked upon them, it felt like something different. Familiar in a strange way, that I can’t even begin to describe, but definitely different than anything to do with heroes or villains or all the other Capes. It felt more… natural. More earthy.”

“Earthy?”

The falcon shrugged. “I don’t know how else to explain it.” She said, shifting again into another animal, this time, towering over me as a bear. “It just… reminded me of the land. Like I was sinking my paws into the dirt.”

I had nothing to say to that. The description rang true in my chest, but for the life of me, I couldn’t say why. That in itself was frustrating, like knowing that you knew the answer to a question on a test but your mind had gone blank. We were missing something important, something that could fit the pieces of the dozen puzzles we’d been stuck on for a while now, but I had no idea where to find those missing pieces, or even what to do with them if I got my hands on them.

Worse still, it was compounded by the reality that I still hadn’t figured out how to get over this feeling of being stagnant with the Wards! What was I supposed to do when it felt like nothing was moving forward?

“…Sophia.”

I stilled. Knelt on my perch I was unmoving, as another sensation washed over me.

The feeling of being close to something dangerous.

“What is that?” I whispered so low I knew that only Stalker would ever hear it… but I got no answer. She’s changed again, from a falcon on my shoulder to a panther at my side, back tensed like she was ready to leap at something, but her eyes didn’t latch on to anything. Whatever it was, neither of us could see it but… but it was close by.

“Sophia.” She uttered again, quiet, so quiet that I didn’t even question why she was doing it when nobody but me could hear her anyway. “Do you feel that?”

I swallowed, so wary to speak in case I alerted whatever was causing this to my presence and nodded instead.

“There’s something close.” She said. “Something powerful. Something dangerous, intelligent… and it’s hunting.”

I felt a chill run up my spine, but before I could think of anything else, I heard it.

A terrified scream cracked the calm of the night, not far away from where I was now.

I was moving before I could even think about the fact that I was likely moving towards whatever it was Stalker was worried about instead of away from it.

“Sophia, wait!” My friend cried as she bound beside me, clearing a street with me as I propelled myself from one building to another with nothing but my legs

But even if it made me feel like something was about to clamp down on my back, I wouldn’t run from it, not when I didn’t even know what it was. I wouldn’t be a coward. Never again.

Stalker released that a second later and let out a growl from her maw. “At least call it in this time, you might need help if things go wrong, and you can’t afford more trouble from the Protectorate.”

I grit my teeth, even if I knew she was right. There was no sense in arguing about it now when whatever had caused that scream, and whatever it was causing more screams to rise up from up ahead, could still be close by.

One of my hands rose to the side of my head. “Console, reporting a disturbance in my vicinity. Sounds of distress in the form of screaming. Could be civilians in danger, moving to investigate now.”

I was nearly there by the time a response came and I could tell from the pitch that it was Kid Win on duty tonight, wanting to know what I was doing, what I had seen or heard but I didn’t hear what was being said after that as another scream sliced through me like a knife, wracking with pain and fear before it was cut off just as abruptly as it began.

It brought me to a halt, atop the gravel paved roof.

But it was what kept me there.

No.

The reason I froze up, the reason I stopped moving, and held my breath, was because of the figure on the next building over from me.

It was across another street, so the distance was greater, and that might have been the only reason I wasn’t in immediate danger, but even no, it wasn’t far enough away that I felt safe enough, or brave enough, to move.

It was a figure, in the middle of rising from an alley. From where the screams had come from, now silent, along with everything near me. I couldn’t hear the sound of traffic, the city ambience dull and muted, as my heart beat in my ears so loud I was afraid they could hear it.

But they didn’t.

It didn’t.

The figure was on the roof properly now, hunched over, but slowly, before my eyes, it began to rise.

Up and up and up.

By the time it had stopped and come to its full height, and the cold grip of fear shot through me again.

It was twelve feet tall. That was the first thing that came to mind. I had only ever seen them once in person before, and I had been nearly a mile away at the time, busy trying to survive a wave during an Endbringer attack. Every other time, it had been a picture, or on video and even those times I’d felt nervous. Like something instinctual had been warning me never to approach them in real life.

Those same instincts stuttered within me now.

There were no human features. Everything it might have had that resembled a person was hidden beneath what I could only assume and hope, was a dark shroud. It covered their form from the next down, blacker than black, so much so that it seemed to eat the light and stand out even at night.

I couldn’t see anything like limbs beneath and so they looked like a silhouette of something inhuman instead. Something wrong, coupled with their height, and I felt like I was looking at something out of a dark fairytale. Even their head – the only part of them not a single formless shape – wasn’t much better. The only thing I could say was that it was a head. It was shaped like one, proportioned properly like one, but I couldn’t see a face, mouth, no nose, no ears or hair.

Everything was obscured by the same thing, from head to toe.

Shadows.

And not just shadows like the dark, but real, solid shadows. Shadows that moved like waves on atop the ocean and writhed like tendrils on a monster and fell like smoke from a flame.

It made them seem even larger, warping their body at the edges, making it so that their shape was consistent, but never completely the name and I knew they made them even look more dangerous, and they were.

Because I was familiar with their work.

This was the Cape that had something almost like a myth in Brockton Bay, for three years before they’d vanished in the early months of 2010.

The thing that had roamed the night and disappeared gangbangers and criminals like they’d never existed. The thing that had maimed Hookwolf and Kreig both, who had fought Lung to a draw alone, and nearly killed Armsmaster two years ago. The one that made heroes and villains and all other capes in the city afraid to operate at night, in case they ever ran into them.

The one that didn’t care about the rules the way everybody else even pretended to.

The monster of Brockton Bay.

I hadn’t thought I’d ever see them again nobody did.

They’d vanished after their fight with Leviathan. I’d seen it myself, watched as they’d clashed with the Endbringer and vanished beneath that final wave. They’d disappeared afterwards, nowhere to be found and there’d been no sign of them in the city since. I thought they’d died. Everybody on the streets had, civilians and criminals alike. I was sure most of the Protectorate here had too and been relieved for it, I knew that the gangs had been too, that even the regular people had slept easier at night without the terror of a shadow monster roaming the night haunting their dreams.

And yet, they were here. Right in front of me.

My only saving grace, I was sure, was the fact that they hadn’t spotted me, as I lowered myself to the ground agonisingly slow. They weren’t looking my way, somewhere off to the side, further out into the city, but I could see them, and from my position, I could make out the only part of them that differentiated from the vantablack that was the rest of their body.

Their eyes. Or whatever it was that counted as eyes for them. Big enough that part of me had always wondered if they were part of a mask, or changer power itself, like lenses, if it weren’t for the fact that they moved and reacted like eyes really did. But it wasn’t their size, but their colour, the glow that made them striking.

A terrible, awful gold, that radiated malice and dread like an old, ancient tyrant.

And they were locked onto something, out there. Something that hadn’t realised it was already doomed.

I held my breath and waited, praying that nothing gave me away and I felt Stalker at my side, just as silent, just as frozen, no longer a predator, but prey, hoping the beast before us would vanish back wherever it had come from.

And we both got our wish.

I watched as their head twitched to the side like they’d caught something, in the opposite direction of me and after a second, they dented. Into the like a puddle of dark and I saw the black flow away like a river, down the side of the building and into the dark, out of sight and the shadows that lingered did so for only a second longer, before they followed too.

And then, it was just Stalker and me, laying there on the rooftop, too afraid of alerting them to move.

For another minute, I lay there, holding my breath until my lungs began to hurt and my heart roared in my ears. And only when I was sure, absolutely sure they were gone, did I let myself breathe again.

My hand rose shakily to my ear again.

“Console.”

Kid Win’s voice buzzed in my ear, and it was the familiarity of it only that kept me from flinching at the noise at that moment. “Shadow Stalker, you went silent for nearly ten minutes there. Report, what happened?”

“Console, I need you to report to the Director, as fast as you can, Armsmaster too.”

“Wha- Shadow Stalker I repeat, report on what’s happened, are you in trouble? Do I need to call for help?”

“They’re back.” I said, and Kid went silent. I didn’t know if it was because I’d cut him off again, or because he had caught the stutter in my voice.

It didn’t matter.

All that mattered was what he heard me say next.

“They’re back. Plague is alive.”

Chapter Text

It took a few days before I was willing to comfortably show my face to anyone, after seeing my old home. Even so, I could tell that I wasn’t still totally in the right state of mind.

I was… agitated, restless. I needed to work of all the energy roiling around inside my chest, or else I was pretty sure I’d do or say something that would cause me problems in the future. I needed to work it off, simply put, but I wasn’t going to risk it by doing something, well, risky.

That meant no magecraft and no going out as a Cape to try and solve my problems. It meant I needed to stay away from people who would scrutinise me or who I wanted to show off only a certain side of myself, so no going to Coil either. No, I needed something similar, less likely to land me in trouble.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any good ideas as to how exactly I was meant to do that.

It was a problem that stuck with me, as all this nervous, volatile energy built up inside of me and the longer it was left, the more it started to… almost itch.

It was like something in me was pushing on the rest of my brain. Demanding action, of any kind, that would flip my status quo and upend everything. Just because of an urge.

The worst part was, I could guess exactly where that urge was coming from.

And then, an hour before midday I caught sight of my own calendar, and remembered just what day it was, and what I had forgotten about.

I had taken a breath then, a step back, and shook myself a little, doing my best to right myself and think clearly, more calmly.

Being static and aimless wasn’t helping, but now, there was something I could do, to at the very least, have some sort of reprieve.

So, I dressed up in something that at least wouldn’t draw looks in the nicer parts of town, swapping out my baggy pants and hoodie for jeans and a jacket and left a note for my dad that I’d be out for a few hours in case he needed me for something and then, I left the house, heading the way of the boardwalk.

It was a warm, bright day, with a gentle heat bearing down and just the slightest bit of wind that made said heat something comfortable. It would have been rare for the time of year. In any other part of the northeast, but here in Brockton, it was actually pretty common.

Honestly it had been getting more common in the past month or two, those warm days, even just coming into the middle of spring like it was. 

The air was clear. Clean. Free from the smog of the average city, at least this close to the boardwalk. Vehicles had been deemed off limits around the tourist hub of the city not only to prevent air pollution, but to make sure that there wasn’t anybody vulnerable to getting snatched off the street in a suspicious black van or something.

Considering we had people like Lung and Coil here, the worry wasn’t an empty one. It wouldn’t really change much if some Cape gang actually decided to take somebody off the street, but it at least gave people a warning to run for it the second they saw something that wasn’t supposed to be here.

Point was, it had a lovely side affect of making sure that anybody could take a deep breath of sea air and not have to worry about anything else.

Right now, the sky was a bright blue that was reflected in the rippling ocean, gleams of emerald green dancing on the surface, and the sand of the beach sparkled in the light of the sun.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, other than a smattering of white fluffy ones lingering near the direction of the sun, covering it just enough so that the sun wasn’t painful to look at when you caught it in the corner of your eye by accident or something.

Basically? Today was pretty much a perfect day in terms of weather, which just made the fact that I wasn’t having the best day, or week, all the more annoying.

I shook my head, trying to force away the urge to sulk and looked around as I made my way further down the street, trying my best to just enjoy the sights around me.

 The Boardwalk was like that, just the right spot where you could look one way and not see the state of the other end of the city. Where the Docks and the ruined bay lay. Scrap yards and sunken ships that spoke of failed industry and hard times.

It was the tourist industry that honestly kept a lot of Brockton Bay afloat, for as baffling as it was to me that people wanted to visit a city with some of the highest Cape crime in the country.

I guess a lot of people were just starved of something to break up the monotonous grey drudgery in their lives. I couldn’t really relate to that.

Tourists were already crowding the railings or migrating to the beach, setting up spots to set out their blankets and lay in the sun. It was warm enough that people weren’t afraid to venture into the water, and I could see people trying and failing to surf all the way along the beach. Those that weren’t indulging in that had at least set themselves up with something comfortable and had good reason to, considering the view was spectacular. That at least I could appreciate just fine. 

I enjoyed it for a few moments before venturing into the crowd.  I walked with my hands in my pockets, as much to protect the stuff in my pockets as it was to suppress the urge to wring my hands or clench them into fists.

If I was a little bit lazy, or maybe just a little bit dumber I could have negated the need to do stuff like that to distract me by activating my circuits. The heat they would have generated would have warmed me to the touch and kept me busy enough not to let me sink into my own head, but I wasn’t going to use magecraft so frivolously like that, even forgetting the fact that it would have ousted me in an instant if someone happened to notice, there was also the fact that I was feeling distracted right now.

I was good with Magecraft, I wasn’t going to pretend to be humble about it, but I could admit that my control when I was like this was… a little ways below decent.

I’d rather not shatter the bones in my fingers just so I could focus on anything by my own dour mood, if I could help it.

It was tempting though.

I was glad that it was a good day today though, especially when I knew as well as anybody that it could flip on a dime from day to day. Living in Brockton Bay meant learning how to deal with the fluctuating weather patterns. It was a warm city thanks to its rather unique geography, as well as the centuries-old seals and barriers that semi-preserved the land from changes outside of them but when the cold hit, it could hit hard, so people living here adapted to the extremes. It was like that with everything, in a way. People understood that they needed to learn how to spot danger and how to pick out things that warned them of something bad about to happen.

Like how as horrible as it might have been in any other city to think that way, in Brockton Bay, seeing a confident Asian guy strolling down the Boardwalk meant that nine times out of ten he was a member of the ABB. Was it stereotyping? Racism? It might have been, but Lung didn’t leave many options considering his regular practices.

He pressganged most of the Asian communities into following him, which was a feat in of itself considering there was still some personal and rotten history between groups like the Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese, just to name a few. Criminal sects like that would have murdered each other in most situations, but Lung made sure that didn’t happen. By force, mostly. Most people had enough survival skills not to go against a man that could turn into a murderous rage dragon and was willing to respond to slights as brutally as possible.

I doubted it was out of any kind of altruism to his actions of unification either, or goodness in his heart. He touted himself as an honourable and wise dragon, but any man that headed a Gang that made money of sex-slavery was nothing but scum in my eyes.

People fell for it though, the same way they fell for the idea of a professional and gentlemanly Nazi the way Kaiser presented himself to the public. Like a reasonable and conversational man that just wanted to talk to his fellow white man and convince them of the righteousness of his side.

Yeah right. That was loathsome on its own, but when you remembered that Empire members got their kicks of murdering and mutilating minorities?

The only Nazi’s I’d tolerate were the ones that had already been beaten black and blue for making the decision to join a group that had lost its war in the forties.

That and kids, but that was mostly because I’d seen just how easy it was to fall into stuff like that without the right people to steer you clear. There was a reason kids were preyed on to begin with after all. They made easy targets, perfect people to shift to a certain way of thinking. 

Not to mention we kind of had a rule about them.

That said, knowing who was Empire or ABB didn’t mean was going to confront them in the middle of the day like this, so when I saw someone with a blatant tattoo or gang colours, I walked on by, ignoring them, along with Merchant Enforcers, security guards and overworked cops.

Sticking to that meant it didn’t take me long to get where I was going, and the moment it was in sight, I let out a hum and let some flies trickle into the place.

That place being?

A Café.

More specifically, a Café with a perfect spot, where you could step right across the street and down onto the best part of the beach, where the water rose just enough went he tide came in to dip your fit off the ledge, or have the run of the place in the sand when it went out.

It also had some of the best pastries outside of a bakery this side of town, so that was nice.

That being said, it wasn’t me that had found this place, back when I’d first come here. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have looked twice at a place like this, had it not been for the fact that I’d been dragged out to it more than once.

No, the person who had found it and introduced me to coffee I could not only tolerate, but appreciate, was currently sitting at an outdoor table within the shade from the overhead tarp while wearing an oversized sunhat and shades.

I let my flies land on the table and do a little circle and one of the three at the table noticed the unusual formation instantly.

She reached out, poking one of the flies, and I felt the insect lock up and disappear from my control.

“She’s here.” I heard her say and the sunhat girl’s head jumped up. I could imagine her eyes searching the street and a second later, they locked with mine behind her shades.

I saw her grin, rise to her feet and wave overeagerly my way.

“Hey!” Victoria cheered. “There you are, you were almost late!”

“I have never been late in my life.” I said breezily. “The rest of you are just too early.”

“Uh-huh.”

I took a chair intending to pull it out from the table, only to feel resistance. I looked down, to where Amy had slouched back against her own chair and was using the one I was holding as a footrest beneath the table. I shot her a look and she grunted, rolling her eyes before shuffling into a better sitting position and letting me sit.

The fourth member of our little gathering giggled and sipped at her coffee. “I don’t know Victoria, Taylor is so confident with what she says you can almost forget that she’s wrong and that it totally doesn’t work like that.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Sabah.” I fixed her with a flat look that just seemed to make the older girl more amused.

“Of course you don’t.” She rolled her eyes and Amy made a clicking sound at the byplay. She waved a server over and we all ordered a fresh round of coffee, with Amy taking the lead and rattling off each of our drinks from memory while one of us occasionally used in to add something here or there, until our order was taken, our drinks were set on the table a few minutes later and it was just us again.

“So!” Victoria grinned. “What’s new with you guys? Sabah, how are your classes going this semester?”

“The worst.” She groaned, making an aborted motion to slam her head onto the table. We’ve been hit with this huge project that I just know I’m going to procrastinate on and I haven’t found the materials I’m looking for. Gosh, even then, I’m not even sure where to start!”

“What is the project exactly?” I asked curiously. “Must be something big if it’s got you like this?”

“I don’t even know.” She sighed, taking a sip of coffee. “My professor wants us to… express something. Something that’s supposed to give a statement as well as be personal and important to us while solo being completely made enough to get a good grade. I thought about doing a dress but that feels… too generic.”

“And he’s a hardass, if I remember you telling us.” Amy snort. “How long do you have for it?”

She sighed. “Three months.”

“Wow.” Victoria eyed her. “Is that just ironically poor taste or a coincidence?”

“With him, I’m not even sure at this point.”

“The next one is supposed to be coming up soon.” I murmured, swirling my drink. “Sometime early March at the latest, they’re saying is the rough estimate.”

“Nope!” Victoria crossed her arms in an ‘X’ in front of her. “No Endbringer talks today. Uh-uh. There’s got to be way nicer things for us to talk about.”

“What?” I raised a brow. “I’d say city-destroying monsters would be preferable to a college grade. Don’t worry Vic, you’ll have all of it to look forward to.”

“Which part?” she asked sarcastically. “The Endbringer fights or the collage woes?”

“Yes.”

She scoffed, but I could see the way her mouth twitched into a smile. “You know it’s not going to be that hard.

“What, aren’t you talking a college course on Parahuman studies??”

“Yeah but even if I’m taking it I know it’s barely going to be called a class.” Victoria rolled her eyes. Five weeks in at this point and let me tell you, most of this stuff is the kind of thing you figure out just from being a Parahuman.”

“Most don't exactly have that first hand experience Vicky.” Amy interjected and her sister huffed. “Yeah I know but still. Even without all that, I’m just reminded how Parahuman science is still basically on the ground right now.”

“Well it’s not like universities are getting a wealth of Parahumans willing to be tested and studied academically.”

Victoria groaned and dropped her head into the crook of her crossed arms on the table. “I know, and I wish I didn’t know why because that makes it all worse. I blame you, you know.” She said, glaring at me from her elbow. “The moment you told me about the conflict drive and suddenly I see it everywhere I look.”

I shrugged. “Did you not want to know? I seem to recall you nagging me for weeks about it. Incessantly, I might add.”

“I know!” She groaned again. “It just sucks that it feels like my time’s being wasted when I was so excited about the class in the beginning btu it’s just so… nothing of a class. They don’t even have any terminology to refer to powers, they don’t even have a theory on the Powers like y-.”

“Okay now that’s not a conversation for out in public, Victoria.” Sabah cut in with a light warning. “Getting annoyed about some crappy teaching curriculum is practically a god given right for college students, but let’s not out anyone’s secrets in a café of all places.”

Victoria winced in response even as her sister glared at her, though I couldn’t tell if Amy was mad at Victoria for blurting something out that she shouldn’t have, or the fact that she was just in a bad mood.

That was honestly her default state of being most days, even if it usually shed itself in the healer being a sarcastic ass rather than gloomy and mopey.

Moving away being me being forced to listen about school on a day I finally have off.” Amy drawled with a side eye towards the other two girls. I think we should hear about what Taylor’s been up to.” She turned her glare on me, challengingly. “Taylor, is there anything you think you should bring up? Maybe about a homicidally angry Asian man.”

“Ah.” I uttered, drinking from my cup to give myself a moment. “You heard about that, did you?”

“I was there because I’d been called in to investigate the damage done to him.” She scowled, causing me to blink, which only seemed to make her more annoyed. “The poisons and venoms were bad enough, you pierced his brain, Taylor!”

“And you don’t do brains.” I sighed. “What part are you mad about, the brutality, or the issues that Armsmaster gave you when he brought him into recovery?”

“Neither, I was more upset that I was forced to sustain a Sex trafficking murderer that terrorises a third of the city than anything else. If you had thought to hold back even a little bit then I wouldn’t have been dragged into it at four in the morning.”

“If I had held back, I would have lost.” I argued, causing Amy to huff and cross her arms.

“It was still pretty nasty though, Ames told me all about it afterward.” Victoria said, but the grin on her face made it clear what her opinion on the matter was. “I swear, you don’t do things in half, Tay. Beating Lung? That’s crazy. Totally gave you a huge bump in reputation, that’s for sure.”

I groaned. “I’m starting to get tired of hearing it.”

Yes, I wanted the positive image that came with tangling with Lung; that was why I had insisted on taking the credit rather than giving it to Armsmaster, but the way it was being framed was going to be worse for me than anything else.

“The fact I managed to beat Lung was more luck than skill.” I told them. “Even if I was twice as good as I actually am, it still wouldn’t have been enough to take down the guy who fought the entire East-north-east Protectorate to a draw.”

“I mean, yes, I can understand that logically.” Sabah bobbed her head. “And I don’t know the ins and outs of how real fights work, but as far as I can tell you did beat him.”

“Before he was an actual threat.” I sighed. “The fight only lasted two minutes. Any longer, or if he’d actually managed to reach me and turn it into a straight fight and I would have been in trouble when he started to ramp up.”

“How did it work then, his ramping up thing.” Victoria asked, more curious about his power than the result of the fight itself now. She’d not gotten the chance herself to actually tangle with Lung, but she, along with most people who knew about the man, at least had some interest in just what constituted as a factor that would strengthen Lung in a fight.

“His power was reacting to another team of Villains before me. Circus, Trainwreck, and a few others before me,” I explained to her. “As far as I could tell at the time, only two of them really had a power that was in any way geared towards direct combat. Not to mention they weren’t even focused on him either, more so on his Grunts shooting at them and Oni Lee being a terror. Lung was mostly just standing at the back and watching. If they had turned and engaged him then it probably would have changed fast and given him the start he needed, but instead…”

“Oh I got it.” Victoria nodded. “It’s been mentioned before about there being a bunch of different ways his power reacts to threats, but from what you’re saying, it sounds like perception. If he or his power doesn’t see it as a threat worth the effort, it doesn’t grow in power and since he didn’t even know you were there, he didn’t react to you.”

“That’s my theory at least.” I agreed.

“His body didn’t have time to adapt to any of the venoms and poisons I put in him. He started with gaining regeneration, yes, but the antibodies? Not so much.”

“You didn’t hold back on the things you used either.” Amy muttered. “He had enough in him to stop a regular man’s heart three hundred times over, not to mention the anti-coagulation, fever, rashes, inflammation and everything else on top of it making it even worse.” She ran a hand through her messy hair. “You know his digits actually started suffering from necrosis when I got there? The people meant to watch him were really freaked out about that.”

I frowned, reminded of what Tattletale had mentioned before. “They shouldn’t have been that effective.”

“Yeah it was some of Armsmaster’s handiwork with whatever he used to keep the guy down reacting badly with it all. The guy was nearly on the chopping block before he brought your name up and basically said it was your fault. It saved his ass from being in hot water from what I could tell.

My fingers tightened slightly on my cup. “Did he now? I see.”

“Forget about that right now. Back to how his power was working,” Victoria cut in. “What about when he finally noticed you, you know, after you’d stung the shit out of him? He attacked then, right? He didn’t go full dragon then?”

 “Almost, but not quite at that threshold. Still small enough and human enough to be vulnerable. He was mad, so I guess he wasn’t thinking clearly and holding himself back when he should have.” I hummed aloud. “If it had gone on any longer though, he might have just been able to ignore my swarm totally and just push through everything I injected into his system, he was starting to, when he got to climbing up the side of the building.”

Sabah tilt her head in thought before her eyes widened in realisation. “And the moment he did that, all his attention was focused on you. He’d dismissed the other team of villains completely.”

“That’s how I see it.” I agreed with her. “I think that’s why it didn’t get out of control then, and I did my best to keep it that way: I only used bugs, so I wasn’t as dangerous as I could have been, which, as far as I can tell, meant his Power didn’t react to the danger.”

“You skewed the results.” Victoria looked at me knowingly. “I’m betting most of that wasn’t on purpose. You hadn’t planned it that way, had you?”

“I hadn’t even known I’d run into Lung so soon.” I admitted. “A lot of it came down to luck, I can tell you that. I wasn’t sure if that was how his power worked or not, only a good hunch, still it worked and because of the fact that I was on top of a building, I was outnumbered and alone, while he had his goons and Oni Lee with him, at least in his head.”

I waved a hand through the air.

“That pulse I sent to his brain wasn’t something he was ready for, it was a surprise attack.”

“Yeah,” Amy snort. “Nobody expects the squishy master to be dangerous up close.”

I eyed her. “Like you can talk, Miss Healer.”

She flipped me off in response and Victoria snickered.

I shook my head. “Anyway, that was basically how it happened. I think it’s the only reason I was able to put him down at all… But I have a feeling that if I ever ran into him again, his power would be ready for it, have adapted to it even.”

The blond crossed her arms. “So you don’t think you’d be able to do what you did again, not as easily at least.”

“Or at all.” I clicked my teeth. "If we got into a straight fight? I don’t think I’d be walking away from it unless I was really prepared.”

“Well… I suppose it’s a relief then that you won’t have to, right?” Sabah tried. “He’s in custody now isn’t he, on his way to be put in prison.”

“If he stays there.” Amy scoffed. “What’s the best that he’ll break out of the transport and get away before anyone can stop him?”

“Can you try for some sort of positive spin?” Victoria groaned.

“No.”

I shook my head and Victoria turned to me again with just a tinge of desperation. “Okay, Taylor,, anything else you could tell us? Anything fun you want to mention to us?

Well… if she really wanted to know…

"I might have… temporarily joined up with Coil.”

“You what!?”

Amy’s furious glare was suddenly very present and imposing in that moment. I pointedly did not glance at where her hands were on the table.

“It turns out that when you save a bunch of former independents from the aforementioned murderous rage dragon, their boss gets it in their heads that they want you on their team and are willing to pay you for it.”

“And where in all of that was the reason you had to say yes to any offer they gave you?”

I raised my hands off the table in a placating gesture. “It’s not a permanent arrangement. Looking at most of the groups in the Bay, I can admit that Coil isn’t great, but we both know he’s better than the other two big players and this way I can get something worthwhile out of it, at least for as long as I side with them. Besides, his people are barely on the radar in the Bay compared to most around here, but they’ve started doing high profile jobs recently. I’ll be helping them out for the rep on my end and move on quickly while gathering up information on who’s with him. Simple as that.”

“Wasn’t that why you were looking to sign up with Faultline?” Victoria tilt her head and I made a so-and-so gesture. “More for the connections I could make with them on jobs. They work for a lot of different people with a lot of money and resources, that, and the fact that Palanquin work ins in a technical legal grey area when it comes to Parahuman laws.”

“And yet you instead decided to join up with established crooks.” Amy pressed, clearly not at all willing to move on from my choice in allies.

I rolled my eyes as obviously as I could, just to get the point across. “Oh, I’m sorry, but last I heard, you two needed a good enough distraction for your own thing.”

The sisters paused, sharing a glance with one another suddenly before looking back to me, Amy’s ire dimmed as she looked thoughtful, looking at me with a new kind of thoughtfulness. Victoria crossed her arms.

“You figured out when it was happening.” It wasn’t a question but I shrugged all the same.

“I got the hints. You’ve been going out on patrols less in the past two weeks, and Panacea hasn’t had the chance to keep her offer silent. You know as well as I do it’s not something they can pass up the chance to bump up their sales. Having her visit is the perfect bait they won’t see coming, but I wasn’t sure for a while now if it was safe enough to do when the risk of her getting caught would be high.”

“We still don’t have evidence that they’re involved.” Victoria pushed back.

I shot her a look. “You’re the one that brought me into this, don’t act coy about it now. Look, all I’m saying is that I’ve got a bunch of career criminals that would make the perfect distraction… if you need it.”

Amy bit her lip. I could tell the idea of using Criminals like this wasn’t something she liked. She would never have willingly worked with them and although this could barely be considered even tangential to that, she wasn’t totally on board. On top of that, even after all this time, she still wasn’t exactly my biggest fan.

But Victoria? She was more than willing if it meant actually doing this right.

And Amy had never had much luck saying no to her sister when she really wanted something.

“I think it could work.” Victoria said, sharing another look with her sister before turning back to me. “That is, if you’re up for this too.”

I nodded. “I said I was in the beginning, didn’t I?”

“Okay then.” She leaned forward. “So… this is the plan on how we want to do this…”

…

…

About an hour later, I was still with Victoria and Amy. Sabah had gone home to get ready for her classes later in the day and I hadn’t burned off the restless energy I’d been feeling from before. The time to unwind with them had been nice, but not enough.

Amy of course, had noticed something was up and because she seemed to like annoying me, prodded until I’d admitted what I was feeling, to some extent at least and from that, there wasn’t really a way to fend off a Victoria eager to be helpful. She’d decided that if I still wanted to burn energy, then the best way to do that in a civilian setting was the gym. Unfortunately for Amy and her gradually more horrified expression, that didn’t preclude her either, and so the Alexandra Package had dragged the both of us to the gym she usually used herself in an effort to help.

It was a decent looking place, just outside the boardwalk area, outside the range of enforcer patrols and into the cheaper markets that let people without boatloads of cash set up businesses, yet still in a place that was outside Gang territory.

It wasn’t a place that looked like tons of money had been sunk into it too, but enough to keep it up to code. I could see that there were plenty of people already in it through the large glass windows that counted as walls for a place like this, some of them on machines, others punching away at sand bags and a pair in a boxing ring in the back corner.

“This is where I go,” Victoria said as she tapped away at her phone. “Or at least, it’s where I’ve been going since December. It’s a neat little place, out of the way enough that I don’t have to worry about a photograph of me ending up online here, but not so out of the way that I’m worried about getting into a mugging if I walk around the corner.”

“That’s better than eighty percent of Brockton Bay already.” I said dryly, drawing a snicker from the blonde.

“Yep,” she said, putting away her phone as he stepped in through the door. “And that’s only the start. There are some pretty good people working here too. ‘Kay, I’ll pay for your day pass since this is your first time here and I sorta dragged you here.”

“She’s not the only one you dragged here.” Amy glowered, looking around the place and all the people working out like they were diseased, which was ironic, considering what she did most days. “I am not meant for physical activity and you know it!

Victoria pat her sister on the shoulder, but gave no sign that she had any sympathy for her less athletic sibling, something Amy very clearly noticed if the way she grumbled and trudged further into the gym was anything to go by.

Victoria turned back to me. “You good to get changed and get started?”

“You flew me all the way home just so I could grab my gym gear, so I would hope so.” I patted the bag slung on my side. “You know, ai do have a gym I use already. Dragging me here as got to count as some kind of disloyalty.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “It’s not like they’re going to fine you for it. Relax will you? We’re here to hang out with some friends and burn off some steam.”

I stopped, blinking as it turned to her.” “You say that as if it’s not just us meant ot be here.”

“…”

My eyes narrowed. “Victoria.” I said slowly. “Did you invite more people to come? Without telling me?”

She blinked back at me, confused for a second before realisation shone on her face. “Oh, right, is that like, introvert one-oh-one of what not to do?”

“I’m not a- no, never mind that.” I shook my head. “Just who exactly did you get the bright idea to text to ‘hang out’ with us?”

“It’s just a few people.” She shrugged. “They’re all cool. Or, well, I mean, not cool-cool, but you don’t have to worry about them I mean being creeps or anything.”

I felt like arguing that that wasn’t the point, but before I could say anything, the door rang again behind us as it opened. I glanced back as three boys around my age walked in, looking around the place for a second before their eyes fell on us and the blond boy leading them lit up with a smile.

“Vicky!” He called out as he came closer and the two of them fell into a hug that made me feel immediately awkward. At least it wasn’t as bad for me as it clearly was for Amy, who glowered at the two of them embracing like someone had just kicked her pet.

“You know I didn’t think we’d be getting a call from you about hanging out at a gym of all places.” One of the others said. A boy with red hair and a smirk on his face. “Don’t you usually work out with the rest of your family to avoid paparazzi or something?”

I gave a pointed scoff that had Victoria breaking out of her hug with her boyfriend to glare at me semi-seriously but I met it with a raided brow in return. The idea that Victoria was famous enough to warrant that sort of media stalking was a stretch, though I knew she liked to imagine herself as more of a star than she really was.

Amy might have qualified for it, considering her status as the best Parahuman Healer in America, but she was terrible with cameras, to the point where her family worked to keep her away from them as much as possible.

My reaction drew attention my way though and for a second, I could see the way the three boys looked at me. Their first reaction was that of being annoyed at some rude passerby inserting themselves into their conversation, that was at least until they noticed how I was standing next to Amy.

One of them, a tall, Hispanic boy, blinked and relooked at the situation, coming to some sort of realisation. “Uh, hi there.” He said. “My name's Carlos, I don’t think we’ve met?”

“Oh, right!” Victoria slid up to my free side, throwing an arm around my shoulder. ,y hand flew up to press against the side of her face as she moved in to make it a hug, keeping her mostly at bay, though thanks to her forcefield, she didn’t receive the justice of having her face squished. “This is Taylor. She’s a family friend. A friend of mine too, obviously.”

I hummed neutrally at that, something that made her squeeze a little tighter, whereas I pushed a tad harder in return.

“Taylor, these are friends of mine. You know Dean, Carlos just introduced himself, and the last one is Dennis.”

“Gee, thanks.” Dennis rolled his eyes. “Really feeling the love with that introduction.”

Victoria stuck her tongue out in response.

“I feel a little bad.” Dean said. “Vicky says you know me but I um… don’t know you. Sorry, but have me met before or…”

I sighed and shook my head, still in the middle of my miniature struggled with Victoria, managing to get my elbow now in between the two of us and jam it into the crook of her neck, to no response. “I prefer my privacy and Victoria appreciates the fact that I’d rather not have myself introduced to people when I’m not even there to make an impression. As for how I know you, well… it’s hard not to hear about her on-again-off-again boyfriend after the dozens of times the two of you have broken up.”

He winced at that, drawing laughs from the other two boys for his pain.

“So I just gotta ask, but are you and Victoria close or what?” Dennis spoke up, eyes flicking between us and obviously interested by the still ongoing struggle that was Victoria trying to hug me and our steady escalation. “I don’t think I’ve seen you hang around the lunch table with us so…”

“I don’t go to Arcadia.” I shrugged.

“Yeah,” Victoria picked up, before there can be any pause, well aware that I would have left it at that. “Taylor here goes to Winslow, although with her grades she could have gone to Arcadia.”

“And go to the same School as the Wards?” I drawled. “No thanks. Can you imagine? It would be the worst.”

I felt Victoria shudder as she did her best to suppress her laughter and I very consciously didn’t look in the direction of Dean, Carlos and Dennis. The few bugs in the Gym give me enough sight to see how they shuffle awkwardly at my declaration.

Of course they can’t say much to that. They have no clue that I already know the identity of the Wards as a whole. The Protectorate Database in Brockton Bay followed the same standard of everywhere else, where they separate the identities of their Heroes between full Protectorate members and Wards so that in the event of the one holding the names of the adults, the kids would still have a second layer of anonymity and even for most villains, there isn’t much reason to go after Wards when it risked even heavier crackdowns than normal.

That being said, the Protectorate and PRT were still government institutions, and my own bosses had easy access to those things. It wasn’t that hard to figure out the identity of every Ward when it was on record and you had direct access to those files, even more so when I had been able to confirm which were false leads and names and which weren’t thanks to Sophia for information in return.

I hadn’t met them in person until now though, so it was nice to at least put faces to each name.

That being said, I still had no idea why Victoria thought it was a good idea to have them there here at all.

“Well, I’m sure it wouldn’t be that bad.” Dean argued, trying to put a positive spin on my words. “I think I’d feel a lot safer knowing I had Heroes close by.”

“If you say so.” I shrugged. “I can’t really argue with you about it. Winslow isn’t the sort of place you can feel relaxed in.”

“You could have moved to a different school, you know.” Victoria nudged me. “If you really didn’t want to go to Arcadia then what about Immaculata? Sure it’s a religious-centric school but-”

“Seriously, Vic?” I turned to her properly now and she let go of the hold she’d had on me properly. “Forgetting the fact that I don’t worship the same god as anyone else in that school, Christian schools have a history with people like me and my culture.”

To her credit, Victoria did seem to realise that as I said it, but she wasn’t totally in agreement. “Come on though, I’m sure it’s not like that anymore, right? No school would get away with stuff like that now.”

“In cities like Boston or New York, probably not, but in the Bay, I can make a good guess at there being ‘sympathisers’ in an all-Christian school. Not something I’m willing to test out. Besides, Winslow might not be a good school, but so long as I get what I need from it, I don’t care all that much.” I shrugged.

“So uh, are you good to go with this?” Carlos asked. “Working out I mean, you cool with us doing it with you three?”

“I mean, sure?” I shrugged. “Victoria invited you, so I’m not going to argue, so long as you keep an eye on Amy and make sure she’s actually doing something and not just standing there.”

“Go to hell Taylor.”

“Again, not a Christian, so it doesn’t really work like that. Try again though, I’m sure you’ll figure these things out eventually.”

The healer flipped me off, and marched off to the changing rooms. The boys looked between her retreating back and me but Victoria just rolled her eyes, used to Amy’s and my… relationship. She was used to us sniping at each other enough now to pretty much become numb to it around her. She followed her sister, giving me a light shove on my back to get me to follow along with her.

“We’ll meet up with you guys in a minute, yeah? Guys changing rooms are on the other side of the gym.”

They gave their affirmations and went to do as Victoria had suggested, leaving us alone as we made our way into he women’s changing rooms, where upon I set my hand on her shoulder and pressed down. The blonde winced, not from pain, but from the daggers I was sending her through my blank stare.

“Vic,” I began. “Do you mind explaining to me, where in your empty head, you thought that inviting any of the Wards here was a good idea?”

“Well I didn’t think it was a bad idea.” She complained. “I told you that I wanted to introduce you to my friends. I said you needed more!”

“I don’t.” I not-so-nearly snapped. “And even if I had agreed, I would have chosen your normal friends, not the ones that work for the Protectorate in their off hours.”

She huffed, pulling easily away as her forcefield let her slip out of my grip. “No offense Taylor, but I really don’t think you’re the kind of person that would be able to be friends with normal people.”

My eyes narrowed. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

Victoria sighed, rolling her eyes as she did. “Forget about it. I’d do it wrong if I started trying to explain it. Listen, the guys are cool, even Dennis, even if he thinks he’s funnier than he is. You don’t have to worry about keeping anything a secret from them because they’ll be doing the same around you and they have practice doing that with their friends that don’t have powers, you know, the practice you don’t have?”

I said nothing to that, not sure what I could say to refute the main point she was pushing.

That didn’t mean I liked what she was saying.

“Come on.” She patted my shoulder again. “We came here so you could burn off some energy, let’s go do that.”

I sighed again, harder this time, before I related, knowing that arguing about this was pointless now that they were already here. I went into the changing room and Victoria took her own, as we heard Amy cursing as she got changed in her little shut away. The rooms here at least offered some privacy in the ways of stalls and curtains, on top of just lockers to shove out stuff away in, something that was more novel than I was expecting

Soon enough I’d changed out of what I was wearing and into a pair of black leggings and a sleeveless half top.

 I elected to go barefoot as it made my way back out in time to see the boys going through stretches when they saw us saw us again they stopped.

They glanced Amy’s way, likely because of how used they were to seeing her out of robes or baggy clothes and both Dennis and Carlos were at least good enough friends not to let themselves linger on their friends Girlfriend, though I suspected it was because she wasn’t in anything too different from her costume other than trading a skirt for shorts. Being the fact that I was the newcomer to them, I was more of a surprise, and they got a good look at me.

“Jesus you’re ripped.” Dennis commented bluntly. “How did you get arms like that? How did you get any of that?”

I crossed said arms over my chest. I could understand his surprise, even if anyone with a brain should have known that the way he’d said it was suspect. From the looks he was getting from Victoria and Amy, the other girls agreed.

None of my clothes were flattering when it came to my figure. They usually sat between the ‘baggy’ and ‘plain’ categories for the most part. I just didn’t really care about that sort of thing. So as far as anyone usually saw, I gave nothing away and it was easy enough for people to make assumptions and assume I was a scrawny teenage girl. My Costume did a lot better at showing off my shape in a better light, but it was body armour and multilayered spider weave, thick enough that it didn’t show off the muscle underneath.

And I did have muscle. Corded, lean muscle built from consistent and specialist training. I usually went to the gym on weekends to maintain it, yeah, but I’d built this up over years before that. My shoulders were by no means broad but I wasn’t willowy either. More like somewhere in the middle and with the growth spurt I’d had last summer it made the muscles settle on me better.

As for what those muscles entailed? I was lean and strong. Not just in my arms, but my back, chest, midriff, legs. Not gym muscles, and not the kind built for sport, but for a fighter. The abs I’d gained weren’t there for cosmetics so I could feel good about myself, but as a result of constant work that came with learning how to use all my body to hurt someone.

Close quarters Combat was a staple of training for a modern Magus, and the tutors I’d picked up in the past year had honed that training like a blade, building me into what I was now. Without my magecraft, I was probably in the top physical condition someone my age could achieve as a lowball. I was an athlete. Although, I could admit that it came from more than just working out and training, but because of generations of selective breeding and mixings of blood that came with Magus families.

The fact that my other bloodline had at one point mixed with the remnants of the Ndendahe Apache for the expressed purpose of linking their line legendary warriors was one part of it, mixing it with genetic material from the remains of a Nunnehi over two hundred years ago definitely had a part of it too though.

Most Magus families carried on the practice of mixing bloodlines, and the fact that there were a lot fewer established American Magus families meant my own had a plethora of options and chanced to get what they wanted.

Was it eugenics? Why yes, it was, and an ingrained culture in all of the Mages Association and beyond…

On the plus side, I’d met Tiné Chelc last summer and found out that we were tangentially related through tribe, so was nice. Or it would have been, had she not immediately informed me that my family line was an exiled tribe member and said in no uncertain terms that the situation regarding that separation remained in place.  Either way, that connection was probably the reason I wasn’t as pale as I would have otherwise been considering my dad could generously be called pasty.

I was dark enough that Nazi’s gave me the evil eye in and outside of school, which was something I personally took pride in rather than being insulted. I mean, I was insulted by their mere presence in general, but not the fact that they hated me. That was a good thing.

There was history there I wasn’t going to hide away from pathetic trash like that, My mother never left behind any notes on it, but she had mentioned that there were ways to delve into the blood that connected me to the People of the Land and by extension my connection to the land itself.

Never mind that, I was getting off-topic now.

“What’s there to say?” I shrugged, answering Dennis’ question from before. “I work hard.”

He opened his mouth to say something else but whatever it was, Dean must have been able to tell somehow that it would have been stupid because he reached up and clamped a hand over the other boy’s mouth.

“How about we get started now, okay?”

Victoria gave a thumbs up. “Sure!”

So we did. It wasn’t exactly planned out. In fact, it was fairly disorganised.

Dean wrangled Dennis and Amy into going on the treadmills with him, with the goal of trying the spin bikes after that. Amy of course, looked like she dreaded the whole thing and when she was finally peer-pressured onto the treadmill, she took a slower setting than the boys, clearly not fit enough to match them. At least, she did until Dennis messed with her controls when she wasn’t looking, increasing the speed by one every time.

I decided that I wasn’t going to get involved in that. When Amy inevitably figured out what he was doing, it would be one striker against the other. Either the boy managed to freeze Amy and run away or she paralysed him and throttled him with her bare hands.

Either way it would be entertaining, at least.

Victoria and Carlos went off the leg presses, then the pull-up bar, the chest press, a pair of rowers, never staying on any of them too long, bouncing between each one and competing with each other. I could see them slowly fall into seeing which of them was the tougher brute by being as subtle as possible with her enhanced strength as they did so.

I wasn’t so much interested in flitting between one thing to the next. What I wanted was something to focus on, something that I would have to pay attention to as I did it rather than something I could do with half my brain if I wanted. Sure, basic exercise in a gym sort of all fell under that once you were mildly competent at it. But I wasn’t looking for something I could just do, if that made sense.

So, when I spotted a bench press to the side, I decided that it would do for what I had in mind. I made my way over, checked the bar and the plates already on it and lay myself down’ to kook it in hand, tested it, felt it pressed down against my arms as I held it up.

I did a rep, down to my chest, then up again, steady, methodical and as flawless as I could make it in form.

I worked at that weight for a while. One-sixty was on the lower end of average for a grown adult, but I wasn’t having any trouble with it anyway and for the moment I wasn’t trying to push myself, rather, I was working my way up to it. Without Magecraft enhancing my physical abilities, the best I’d managed was two hundred. Which, was pretty impressive for a normal person, considering I was a fifteen-year-old girl. I’d been made to be stronger than the average man though, even at my age, and that strength would steadily grow as I got older and so long as I didn’t do anything too catastrophic to myself that could ruin that.

 Still, even if it didn’t bother me, some people paid attention to what I was doing, either just out of curiosity, or because they wanted to match the lone girl on the bench press. One of them, even decided to talk to me.

“Hey, you probably shouldn’t be doing those on your own. You need a spotter?”

I paused, glancing to the side, where I saw a young man, maybe a guy just shy of being an adult was standing next to me. I took him in quickly. The dark skin, brown eyes, dark hair tied up into cornrows and a rather tight black shirt with the name of the Gym printed on the front.

I gave a grunt as I pushed the bar up, hooking it so I could speak properly. I pushed myself up to sit on the rest. “Am I doing something wrong?”

“Not technically.” He said. “Actually from what I can see you’re doing great but uh… It’s not a great idea to do stuff like that on your own. One mistake and you could end up hurting yourself, you know? It’s usually recommended to have a friend with you to watch and make sure nothing goes wrong. Unless…”

“I didn’t come alone.” I grunt again, lying back down. “But the others are busy with their own workouts right now. No point in bothering them just so they can stand there and watch me.”

“I could do it then, if that’s cool with you.”

I look at him again, curious despite myself.

“It is my job to help people in here.” He said as explanation upon seeing the look I gave him. “And like I said earlier, from what I can see, you know what you’re doing, so it wouldn’t be a waste of time to help you get a proper workout.”

I lay there for a second, in thought. Honestly, I couldn’t think of a good enough reason to say no to his offer. This was his job for a reason, so he probably knew what he was doing and it wasn’t like it hurt to have someone that could help out if something did go wrong, as unlikely as that was…

And it might beat just doing it in silence, I guess.

“Taylor.” I said, extending a hand.

He smiled and took it. “Brian.” He said. “My dad actually owns this place, so I’m obligated to do a good job here, don’t worry.”

“Good to know.” I laughed for him, taking the bar again and letting its weight lower to my chest. He took a spot near the wrack to catch it in case anything went wrong. “So you really just decided to come over here because I was doing well?”

“Kind of.” He shrugged. “It’s not often you see a teenage girl pushing herself with weights like this, and I haven’t seen you in here before, so I guess I got curious.”

“That right?” I hummed. “Professional courtesy then? From one person pushing themselves to another, I mean.”

“Mostly,” He agreed. “I was also just kind of just looking to talk to someone instead of standing around doing nothing.”

“Fair enough. Can you raise the weight, please?”

He did so without question, slotting on another on each side, rising it to somewhere in the hundred and ninety range. He held it with me, lessening his hold every second and asking me if it was good. When I confirmed it was enough times, he let go entirely and let me work at it myself.

For no reason other than because he could, we started talking; about how he worked here at the gym for his father part-time, helping out where he could when his dad asked and earning his keep and doing other odd jobs when he wasn’t doing this or looking out for someone else. His sister, he explained, a girl a year or two younger than me by the name of Aisha.

I offered a little about myself in return, where I spent my days busy with school or part-time work of my own, though I didn’t elaborate on what that was. He asked about my workout routine, and I told him that I’d been doing this for a good few years, having more than a few personal trainers over time.

“What about you?” I asked as I finished a set, hanging it again to get a short breather. I lungs didn’t burn, I was steady, but that didn’t mean I needed to overextend. “You look like you work out a bunch. Is it just a perk of working here or are you really into it?

 “More the first than the second.” He admitted. “I do a bit of everything, but I don’t really want to lock myself into anything. Working out is a fine hobby, but not so much a thing I want to spend all my time doing when there’s more important things going on around me.”

“Fair enough. Still, you obviously do enough to appreciate what hard work is.” I said. “That’s not something to just brush off, even if you decide you don’t want to commit to anything more time-consuming. Keeping up with that sort of thing is important.” He snorted, though there was a quirk to his lips that let me know he found it more funny than anything. “I think this has suddenly gone the wrong way around. This is supposed to be me offering you workout advice, not the other way around.”

I raised a hand to him. “Got anything good then?”

“I’ll think of something.” He said, shaking his head as he eyes the bench press. “You did a good number of sets on that already, you should probably move onto something else if you want to break things up a little.”

I looked down at my hands, clutching one of them into a fist. I still didn’t feel like I’d done enough, but he was right in that the repetition wouldn’t change anything. I needed something more… active.

At that moment, noticed the others meeting together around the boxing ring which for the moment, was emptied out of anyone else.

“Well, I’ve got an idea for it.” I murmured, rising from the bench. I made my way over and Brian, obviously curious as to what I was doing, followed.

The others saw me and Victoria gave me a wave. She didn’t look all that tired, but then again, I wasn’t sure how much strain she could put on herself without turning off her Powers, and I didn’t think I’d seen her do that before, at least not in public. There was a light perspiration to her, as well as to Carlos, who looked a little more flushed.

The other three, on the other hand, looked like they’d really gone through a workout.

Dennis was as red as his hair, puffing heard even as he managed to stand straight with his arms raised above his head. Dean looked a little worse off, hands on his knees, but looking more like he was catching his breath than anything too bad. If I had to guess, something had devolved into a competition between the two of them and gotten a little out of hand.

Amy wasn’t doing so hot though. She was sitting on the floor, completely red and panting, not to mention drenched in sweat, looking like he was a second away from passing out and chugging down a battle of water. Not the best thing to do in her state, but I think everyone knew that she’d snap at whoever offered her advice right now.

“Hey, Taylor.” Victoria beamed, showing that whatever her and Carlos had been doing, she’d clearly won. “Feeling like you’ve gotten a good workout done?”

“Not yet.” I said, before gesturing to Brian. “Everyone, this is Brian, Brian; everyone.”

They all gave a round of greetings, those that could talk well enough anyway. I let Brian explain that he worked here, though it wasn’t too much of a guess for any of them and then I turned to the others.

“So what are you all doing around here?”

“Trying to break things up a little.” Carlos spoke up. “Victoria thought it would be fun to see some action in the ring, but nobody's decided who’s going in yet. I was thinking of doing it but…” he glanced at Victoria and spoke in a lower voice. “It probably won’t go well for a regular guy like me to face off against Glory Girl, you know.”

I hummed in understanding, tilting my head. Well, this was as good an opportunity as any.

“I’m up for it.”

“Huh?” He blinked.

“I’m up for it.” I repeated, catching the attention of the others. “You and I could spar in the ring, if you were up for it.”

“I um-”

“That’s a great idea.” Victoria cheered, patting the Ward on the back. “Don’t worry about Taylor. She knows how to handle herself, so you don’t have to worry abut hurting her by accident, just have some fun with it, yeah?”

“I… yeah, okay.” Carlos nodded at last. “If you’re really up for it, Taylor, then I don’t see why not.”

His friends seemed to perk up at that, sharing a glance with one another, a look passing between them that I didn’t understand, but they remained silent as I moved to climb into the ring. I paused even as Carlos did the same and turned to Brian.

“This isn’t against the rules here or anything, is it? We’re fine to do this?”

“So long as neither of you gets too vicious or starts painting the ring red, it’s all good.” He shrugged easily. “I can referee, if you really want to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand, but it should be no big deal.”

“Couldn’t hurt if you did.” I allowed. “Besides, I’d rather not get banned from this place because we did something we weren’t supposed to.”

Brian grinned. “Thinking of being a repeat customer? I must be better at my job than I thought.”

I rolled my eyes and didn’t answer, moving into the ring. Carlos was waiting for me, stretching and rolling his shoulders. The space between us was about six feet and I mentally counted how many steps between us that was as I started doing the same as him.

“You sure you’re good for this?” He asked again.

I gave him a dry look and he got the hint, leaving me to it as I got ready.

The concern and questions weren’t annoying or anything but that didn’t mean they weren’t pointless now that I was already standing across from him.  I could understand it though. He was a Ward, a hero, and in his mind, someone too strong for the average, normal person to have a chance against.

He was right, but he wasn’t aware that I was far from normal. Even forgetting all those things about what made me up, I knew more than how to just throw a solid punch.

I could fight and I was sure looked it. From the look Dennis and Dean were now shooting Carlos, they were looking forward to seeing that in practice.

Huh, I wondered why.

Carlos though, seemed to miss the look and shook off his surprise. “Great then, we can get started now. You wanna step into the ring we’ve got set up here?”

I do so, standing across from him just four feet between us. “How do you want to do this?” I asked, letting my body go slack a little as I loosened up.

“Nothing at full tilt, if that’s what you’re asking.” Carlos explained, doing the same as me. “We’ll both pull out punches so we don’t do any serious damage and we stop when one of us says so. That okay with you?”

“Yep.”  I said. “Whenever you’re ready then?”

We settled into stances and I immediately took in Carlos as a whole.

In a blunt sense, he was fit.  Carlos wasn’t huge like a bodybuilder or someone who exercised just to pack on muscle like you saw with some people who just wanted to get big for the sake of it, to show off and look strong or to feel good about themselves.  It was a little more streamlined than that.  I could see the raised line of a vein running down his bicep, and the definition of his chest showed through his shirt. I’d ask him about that later, the fact that he’d worn a shirt that was clearly a size too small for him.

He also had a fairly good fighting stance. Fists raised like a boxer, but a little bit wider, like he was ready to switch at a moment later into grappling someone if they gave him the chance. He had good footing too, strong and prepared for someone to be able to try and knock him down. I was glad he was taking me seriously at least. I could respect him for the fact that he wasn’t underestimating me.

Or well, he was, but that wasn’t his fault.

Beyond that, I did have a noticeable advantage in that I was tall, taller than him by five inches or so, with the reach to complement that. Longer arms and legs giving me more reach and larger steps. I could tell immediately that so long as he didn’t try to cheat with a Power, I could cover more ground that he would be able to in a single step and I knew how to use my body to utilise that reach.

He obviously figured that too. Maybe he hadn’t really registered it a few minutes before, but standing across from him, I saw the way his eyes flickered up and down like he was taking that fact into consideration.

He was probably used to fighting people taller than him at least to a degree, but I wondered how often he did that without exerting some form of super strength to level the playing field.

That said, I could see the holes in his guard, the subtle ways that made it obvious that he wasn’t formally trained to a great extent, or that getting close and personal in a fight had been something he’d figured to do on his own rather than by any direction given to him. He’d learned what he had mostly through experience which was good, but it meant he was at a disadvantage considering he‘d been lucky or unlucky enough depending on who you asked, to be seen as an investment.

I’d had the opportunity to learn some things from Executors and enforcers both in a brief period of time I’d gotten the change to visit the Clocktower a year or so back, and some that had broken away from their respective organisations to join up with another in particular that I had managed to convince to train me, or at least spar and offer a few pointers for a very brief time, it had meant getting to train under people that didn’t’ just know how to fight, but excelled at it.

Just long enough for some of their lessons to stick.

I briefly saw the way Carlos’ eyes widened in shock at how fast I closed the distance before he managed to react and he threw a punch to catch me in the chest. I blocked it with an elbow, angling it to the side to bleed off the hit and then I was in his guard. I threw a jab at his side, to give him a chance.

He blocked it well and then I saw the one he gave in return.

It was at that point I twisted the side, grabbed his arm and heaved.

He had no time to react, not when I lifted him off his feet and tossed him through the air, not when he just barely got his knees under himself instead of landing in his back and still had to deal with how I punched him in the chest fast and hard enough to drive the wind out of him.

He threw another punch, but I caught it, then I jabbed at me with an elbow and I caught it with my other hand, before shoving both to the side and spinning him around to deliver a series of consecutive blowed that rained down on him too fast for him to react and with the force of someone with his build.

I could still tell though; I was weaker than him right now.

Was he using his Power? Could Aegis even turn it off in the first place or was it a passive ability he always had access. The expressions on his face, shifting as he spared made me think that it was a little more complicated than that. He was clearly holding back. I knew Aegis was strong enough to through a dumpster like it was an inconvenience.

How that worked, I wasn’t exactly sure, but what I did know was that there were other facets of his power than super strength.

Something he was very open about in Ward interviews was his adaptability.

Maybe I needed to correct myself. It wasn’t that I was that much weaker than him. With my bloodlines, I was probably even stronger than him when he tried. The difference was that he wasn’t feeling any of this. I noticed it, when my fists connected with his firearm, or an elbow connected with his wrist. He would flinch and grimace, but a fraction too late, or not flinch enough, or too much. That wasn’t the reaction of someone whose body was sending signals of pain to his brain.

It was the reaction of someone who’d forgotten what it was like to feel pain, but knew they had once upon a time.

Carlos threw a punch at my side and I brought a palm down to strike at his wrist. It hit cleanly but that itself was a mistake. The average person that felt pain would have flinched, or at least faltered just a little at that, but not him. His fist kept going and I just had enough time to raise my leg up and take the blow on my calf instead. I gave a grunt from the hit.

He saw the reaction as an opening and pressed the advantage, forcing me to back up on the defensive. I parried punches and shoved away attempts at grabs and grapples but again, it was hard to fight normally when the other guy couldn’t feel pain. The more frenetic the spar got, the less Carlos remembered where he was meant to act like something hurt, the more he pushed through it, something knew he could wave off as adrenaline later if I asked questions.

Still, even with all of this, I was sure that if I started using Magecraft, I’d have been able to beat him handily. He was decent, as far as Capes went. But that was it. Even now, he had a solid foundation in a fight, but I hadn’t seen anything I’d have called impressive in his technique. He’d likely been taught by trainers in the PRT at best. Standardised teachings given by men and women that didn’t have his super human abilities.

If I had to guess, he’d stagnated just a little past that, where he’d learn things on his own, but he was a Ward, and there weren’t that many opportunities for him to really put in a fight against Villains unless they literally stumbled into them.

The longer we fought, the more he pushed but in that same time, the more it was that I figured out the little mistakes he was making. Where he was throwing his punches too much, used to having to put his entire body into them. Where he wasn’t protecting himself where he should have, where he was moving like he expected to be flying, but just managed to catch himself at the last minute.

I wondered; just how used to sparing with regular people was he?

I’d decided we’d gone on long enough and as he stood I hooked a leg behind his right knee and brought a palm down on his left him, destroying his balance so that then I slammed my free hand into his sternum, he toppled like a house of cards and landed on his back with an oomph and a cough.

There was a beat of silence, before a cheer erupted from the peanut gallery.

Dennis was clapping like he’d just watched something both amazing and hilarious, grinning as he looked at where Carlos lay on his back.  Victora was living up to the cheerleader stereotype, that or she was just being supportive of a spar well done in how she joined in with him. It was just them though. Dean was more subdued, clapping a little but looking at me strangely while he did. On the other side of things, Amy looked less impressed and more like she’d have rather it be me on my ass than Carlos.

Brain had his arms crossed, nodding along like he’d seen something that had impressed him. If anything, I was sure he was at least glad that he’d bothered to give some teenagers in the gym the time of day now.

There were others in the background too, regular gym-goers that looked like they’d liked the show, where they’d caught glances of it and then returned back to do their own things now.

I rolled my eyes for them and walked over to Carlos, offering him a hand, which he took, feigning a grunt as I helped him to his feet.

“Now that, I wasn’t expecting.” He admitted. “I thought we were pretty even there, up until the end. That grab there came out of nowhere. Or, well, I didn’t see it coming at least. That was pretty cool. Thanks for the spar, Taylor.”

I tilt my head a little, conjuring up a polite smile for him. “No problem.” I told him. “That was fun for me too.” It wasn’t a lie either. It might not have gotten my blood racing or anything, but figuring out how to get past the little hurdle he’d presented in a safe setting had been entertaining.”

“That was good.” Brian said. “I wasn’t sure what I was seeing at first, but both of you definitely know how to fight. I saw some good boxing stances and footwork there from both of them.” He glanced my way.” You were doing a lot of other stuff though. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, though you were just making mistakes or being overly showy like you see in cheesy action movies, but it was all solid and practiced moves. I’m Curious, what exactly was that style there you were using?

I made to answer, but instead, it was the New Wave golden girl who spoke up.

“Oh, oh, I know this one!” Victoria raised her hand like she was in class. “Taylor told me about it before, mentioned it somewhere, so I had to look it up.

“Pankration. An ancient boxing art that’s meant to have originated from Apollo in Greek mythology. Said to be one of the world's first and oldest mixed martial art, combining boxing and wrestling techniques together, literally translating into "power of all." She paused for a second, before shaking her head and pressing on.”

Victoria bobbed her head as she spoke, showing off again that she was good at hiding the fact that beneath the blonde cheerleader aesthetic she had, Victoria was a massive nerd of these sorts of things.

“Called the 'perfect hand-to-hand combat technique’, it involves strikes and throwing techniques in order to strike an opponent as well as take them to the ground in order to use a bunch of submission techniques.”

She looked at me like she was fascinated even as she shook her head again, this time in disbelief. “Where did you even learn something like that? I couldn’t figure it out. We don’t exactly have someone like that in the Bay to teach stuff like that, at least not as far as I know.”

I shrugged evasively. “I had a teacher who excelled in it; he passed it on to me.” As for the why, it would be a problem to really explain the reasoning behind that. It wasn’t just because I’d been taught by a great master at it, but because of its history.

There was a reason that Magi learned martial arts that would be considered out of the mainstream consciousness. It wasn’t just them having an interest in learning things modern people couldn’t do just for the fun of it.

Like all things, it involved the degradation of mystery. It was a fact of Magecraft that ancient mysteries were more powerful than newer ones with very few exceptions. Things that held eight from age and mythology grew in power. It was like that for Mystery, it was the same for combat, especially the kind that still held mystery of its own.

It was about ritualism in a way. Being able to parse and glean skills and experience from past ancestors, or from spirits that you interacted with was one benefit, but it was also a matter than those same techniques and fighting styles had a great effectiveness against creatures of mystery because of the aforementioned weight of their histories.

Sure, things like boxing were old too with plenty of history, but they’d remained in the consciousness of humans. Becoming widespread and diluted in mystery even as they were refined in the mundane ways.

It was fine to use them on people, but it was better to use arts with fewer practitioners, or ones without any living ones at all in order to gain the most effect out of them. they became better and harming spiritual and phantasmal entities that way, and even allowed for certain kinds of Magecraft that involved close quarters combat to flow and react better.

Again, ritualism translated into power the same way that a female Magus could gain power from using something like their hair in a ritual or spell. It might not mean they have any real magic in their hair follicles, but it had a symbolic and mystic meaning and thus affected magecraft.

The more you looked at different ways that things like that worked in all aspects of life, the more you found and realised that belief more than anything was a big deal. Although, that should have been obvious considering that Astrologer magi still worked with the planetary system with the earth at the centre of our solar system because it was more effective than the actually true system that was used in the modern day.

I couldn’t really explain all of that to them though, for obvious reasons. So instead I did my best to brush past it.

“I know a lot of things like that.” I shrugged. “It’s not just Pankration. I know Bajiquan, Kalaripayattu and Boxing. I take bits and pieces of each depending on how I need them.”

“I don’t know what two thirds of that is, but cool.” Dennis bobbed his head. “Sooo… what now?”

Victoria shot him a look. “This is usually the point where someone else goes in to give it a try, since we have the ring to ourselves right now.”

“Yeah, about that.” He made a noise. “After seeing all that, I don’t think I really want to show off how bad I’d be at it in comparison. I mean you’re welcome to try if you want but-”

“Absolutely not.” Amy cut in. “Nobody here is getting into the ring with Vicky. I don’t want to have to fix any bones.”

“Aw come on!” Victoria whined. “It would be fine, I’m not that bad.”

Amy shot her a glare that, to my surprise, silenced the blonde, who slumped back and crossed her arms over her chest, looking like a kid that had been told she couldn’t play outside with her friends.

“I can show you a few things.” Brian offered. “Come on. Let me see how you throw a punch.”

Dennis’s eyes suddenly grew wide and he searched for help from his friends even as Brian took him by the shoulder in a friendly hold and led him into the ring.

Dean gave him a thumbs up.

“I hate you so much.” Dennis muttered before he accepted his fate of being taught by the older boy.

I shook my head. Whatever his reasons were for not wanting to be taught by Brian, I couldn’t see, but maybe he was just afraid of being bruised. From what I could briefly tell from his character, that wouldn’t happen though. Brian didn’t seem the kind of guy to go pointlessly hard on someone like that.

The rest of us watched as Brian led Dennis through the right way to stand and hold himself and eventually led him into performing some moves in the air, slowly working his way through a lax version of shadowboxing, before he picked up some hand pads and let the shorter by wail on then. Through it, Dean and Carlos threw a mixture of encouragement and jeers his way, while Victoria threw out challenges for him to hit harder.

I let myself lean against the ropes, watching along with the others and offering some advice here and there when I noticed a mistake or misstep, keeping Victoria from getting too into it and diving into the ring herself.

And then, after a while, as Dennis looked like he was finally getting into it, something in my head pinged.

I narrowed my eyes, standing up straight as I tried to place what it was, before I realised that it had been one of the ambered insect wards I’d set up from before.

Something that wasn’t human had just pinged it.

“I should get going.” I said to Victoria. “Thanks for inviting me out for this, I um, have something to get to now.”

Her and Amy met my eyes for a moment, before they nodded slowly. That was good enough for me.

“It was nice to meet you.” Dean said. “Even if we didn’t get to talk that much. Maybe we can all meet up again some time and do this properly?”

“Sure.” I said, sending a nod Carlos’ way too before I turned and left to get my stuff. I was on autopilot as I did it though, more concerned about just what had set off those alarms.

Whatever it was, I needed to find it.

Soon.

Chapter Text

The trail had vanished. I had expected it too, or at least, it had been one of the outcomes I had expected. My wards and bounded fields had been alarm and sonar systems within a specific set range, not trackers or locators. That had been a limit I had been aware of when I had set them up. It was one of the reasons I planned to make so many and spread them so extensively across the city to close down as many blind spots and missing areas of detection as I could.

Even knowing that though, it was still frustrating to be hit with the reality of it.

Whoever or whatever had tripped my alarms was long gone now with little to go on in ways of a hunt. I didn’t know what they were, how powerful they were, what they wanted or even what they had been doing when they tripped those alarms. For all intents and purposes, all I really knew was that there was some sort of intruder in my city, but everything else was subject to guesswork.

I didn’t even know if them being noticed by my set-up had been on purpose or not. They could have stumbled into it none the wiser, or done it by accident and fled when they realised what they’d done. Just as likely right now, they could have done it on purpose to test them, taunt me or even draw me out.

Too many unknowns, and barely anything to show for it.

Yeah… frustrating was the right word for it.

That didn’t mean I was going to just shrug my shoulders and leave it be. If one method of detection failed, then I could at least do my best effort at due diligence. I had decided that if I couldn’t rely on my bounded fields, then my own eyes and Power could pick up the slack.

All I needed was the right spot.

I look out at the city, the wind whipping at my legs from being so high up. I’d put on a long coat to shield myself from the worst of it, but it didn’t change the fact that I was over fifty stories up.

Atop one of the higher skyscrapers in Brockton Bay was as good a way to gain line of sight on the entire city as any, and there were several in the Downtown area that fit those needs. So I’d found one that didn’t have other buildings taller than it blocking my vision and scaled it.

As discreetly as possible of course. I didn’t need any flyers in the Bay noticed me scaling the side of a building and think to see what was going on. Fortunately, even most of the flyers didn’t go that high up unless they were incentivised to, so I didn’t worry too much about it.

 From up here, I could see the majority of the city and I wasn’t just limited to what normal human eyes could see. There were two major aspects at play in this, the first being my Power. 

Distance was a funny thing when put into different perspectives. My range at its lowest was around three or four blocks, though it was usually higher than that at any point in time, stacking in at six to seven so long as I was paying attention and my Power was being cooperative. That was a fair amount, impressive even, when it came to area control and scouting, but people tended to only think of that on a ground perspective what they could see when they looked around them.

Funny thing was nobody ever really thought about how much that was in height unless something made them.

I, on the other hand, was aware of that fact constantly.

My Power was interesting in that its area of range wasn’t a straight line, or a circle, rather, it was more like a sphere, both above and below the earth, so long as there were insects I could command, that distance was something I was aware of.

On average, six city blocks was about fifteen hundred feet.

That was just over half the height of the Burj Khalifa, and I had that range in a perfect sphere around myself at all times.

So, the best way to make use of that distance? Find a high point, none of which in Brockton Bay even made it to half that height, and use it to my advantage.

From up above, my swarm could wave through the city like this, covering a great swath of the landscape like this. Sure, there was a limit, but everything inside of that established limit was something I could see. Nothing escaped my notice when I actually put the effort in to pay attention to every eye and ear my swarm held.

That was the first aspect. For those that were outside of that sphere, I had a second option.

Reinforcement was useful for numerous things, on objects, clothes and even the body, like muscles, but it could also be used on more sensitive organs and parts, such as the eyes, and with it, enhance them to a degree that very few things could match without technology to bridge the gap.

I could enhance my vision so far that anything within a three-mile range was as sharp and easy to perceive as it would be if it were five feet in front of me.

It meant that with both of them combined, almost nothing in this city could be hidden from me.

At least not for long. I could see everything in the Downtown area, the South Coast region and the Boardwalk. If there was nothing out of the ordinary, anything that wasn’t human, I would see it.

And yet… nothing.

It really was like something was taunting me.

All my ability of perception, and I could see anything that stood out. The Bay was… quiet today. There weren’t even any gangs up in arms right now. It was starting to creep into the evening and there was no sign that whatever had tripped my barriers was even still around.

There… was the chance that it had entered the city, but had left by now, but I didn’t trust that notion. Something in my gut told me that it hadn’t run, that it was residing… somewhere in Brockton Bay.

I let out a sigh, annoyed but fully understanding that I wasn’t going to get what I wanted out of an overwatch like this. If I wanted to find anything, I would need to be more thorough, something I didn’t have time for right now.

If I could achieve my first goal, then I could work on my second, that being, setting the groundwork for something in the near future.

I sat down on the ledge of the building, crossing my legs and peering over the edge.

The drop was near-vertigo inducing, but I’d grown used to the sights of heights like this from my bugs. Instead of worrying about the drop, considering I was sure I’d survive it unless I did something dumb like failing to catch myself, I pulled back my swarm to me, having them incircle the building and slowly, subtly, slip into air vents and cracks in the walls.

I hadn’t just chosen this building beneath my feet for its height, though that had been the main attraction right at that moment. No, I had chosen it, because it was a subject of interest to me.

Medhall. The central business known for its distribution of over-the-counter medicine, drugs and medical equipment throughout the city. And right now, it was my target.

I directed bugs that could do more than just sit there, termites, ants, beetles, those that could leave a mark on the likes of wood, plastic and cheap walls. I had them roam parts of the building, through halls and in rooms, in and down vents and stairwells and in those hidden, out of sigh corners, I had them get to work.

Alarms weren’t the only kind of Bounded fields I knew how to create, even if they were by far the most simple.

For this however, while I did place a few that would give me a more… precise mapping of the interior, what I was more focused on was creating bounded fields that would support a conduit. Symbols and magecraft that would allow me to direct mana through the building with the ease I could through the air and the earth under my hands, and more so, to increase that range.

For now, it wouldn’t do anything, not until I touched one of those marks, but the groundwork was being set.

With a thought, I had the rest of those insects carry out similar tasks all through Medhall and set it so that they would do so until I was out of range and then go hide somewhere unseen and remain dormant until I came back close enough to claim them.

I nodded to myself once that was done and took one last look out towards the city.

There was no change, for now, and I could just stand here all day and wait for something. I had things that needed doing and right now, I was expecting a certain snake to be getting in contact with me.

It was about time things really got started.

…

…

I’d expected Coil to get in contact with me once again and sure enough, within a day, he did just that. By now, the path to his current base was getting familiar not just to me, but those on the lookout for my entrance. The mercenaries that had escorted me the first and second time did so again, even giving me a nod when I arrived.

Those patrolling the base had less extreme reactions to my presence too, fewer failed attempts to hide their repulsed reaction to the bugs on my Costume and less curious glances as I passed when they thought I couldn’t see them. I was even starting to get a sense of the bunker's layout. It wouldn’t take much longer for me to have most of it mapped out with my stashed-away swarm here. Maybe if I spent some time, I’d even find out if Coil had anything interesting here that he didn’t want me to see.

I knew that wasn’t likely. I wasn’t even completely sure whether or not this was Coil's main base or just one of his temporary ones. I found it hard to believe he wouldn’t see it as too much of a risk to allow me to roam it if it were right now, if ever.

Again, I was led to a new place than last time and I could sense that there were already people inside.

I entered the room, one lain out almost like a conference room, though there were only three other occupants. Two, if you couldn’t the fact that one of them was on a screen rather than in person. Tattletale, of course, took centre stage, her blurred face and figure on the screen at the head of the table, and when she saw me from whatever cameras were in the room, she gave a wave. I resisted the urge to narrow my eyes at her, remembering my suspicions about her intentions regarding me. There was a chance she’d know I was doing so anyway, and I didn’t want to give her any more to work with than I had to.

My eyes flickered to the other two occupants in the room and I could admit that they surprised me. There was Circus, closest to Tattletale and looking over an array of documents and pictures splayed out across the long wooden table, and even through her mask and makeup, I could; see her frowning. I noted that she wasn’t wearing the jester hat this time, but rather, a multicoloured top hat with a lily on the side.

The other, even more surprisingly, was Regent, lying back on a chair to the point where it looked like any wrong move would send him toppling over the back of it. He looked bored at whatever argument Circus and Tattletale were having like he would have rather been anywhere else and was debating the option of just walking out to find something more entertaining. His eyes moved to me when I entered, and from the way something flashed in his eyes, I considered the idea that he might get that now.

“Well look who it is.” He yawned, catching Circus’ attention. “I didn’t think I’d see you so soon after last time. The boss man called you in for this too? he must want this done more than I thought he did. Or maybe he just wants the bugs out of his base, who knows?”

“It’s you.” Circus straightened up and faced me properly after just a moment taken to glance at the two younger people in the room. “Coil had mentioned that he’d managed to recruit you, but I wasn’t sure in what capacity it was. If you’re here, then you must be prepared to do this as a professional.”

I wasn’t sure what the famed independent villain was implying, so I didn’t know exactly how to respond to that, but I didn’t need to. I started by addressing the first part of what she’d said first.

“Coil and I have an agreement. This is just holding up my end of it. Whatever it is he actually wants done here, I’m not aware of yet, I’m sure that you three can enlighten me so I can decide whether or not to follow through or not though, if you would?”

I glanced at Circus. “This seems more sudden than I would have expected from you, Circus, or maybe I’m just assuming you’d be more hesitant after how the last one Coil gave you went. I would have thought you and Regent both would have been more wary after nearly being burnt alive or blown to pieces.”

Circus shrugged, “He asks us to do jobs, but most of the time it’s stuff we’d do anyways, and if we say no, he doesn’t make an issue of it. It’s one of the main reasons I said yes to signing up with him in the first place. If I hadn’t gotten the choice to say no to things I think are stupid, I wouldn’t have bothered. Like I’m trying to do right now, if you feel like asking. Besides, you were there to help us out at the end there, there’s a good chance of it going better now that I know you’re here on this, if that streak continues I mean.”

I turned to Tattletale, still frowning. “And what job is it that he’s asking us to do right now then?”

“I’m glad you asked!” She beamed. “The Boss wants something big and I'm happy to provide, because we’re robbing a bank.”

For a moment, everyone turned to stare at her. Not a word between us as she stood under the scrutiny, that wide smile still on her face like she hadn’t just said something outlandish.

Absolutely not.

“This is why I was saying no,” Circus intoned, mimicking my thoughts. “Such a bad idea.”

“Come on,” Tattletale wheedled, “It’s practically villain bread and butter for criminals like us. You could totally do it, no problem.”

“Robbing a bank is moronic at best and a disaster for us at worst.”  Circus closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose through her mask, “We’ve been over this; You know what the average haul is for hitting a bank?”

Tattletale paused, which was weird because I was sure that she knew already. Was she just playing it up or did she have to wait for her power to feed her the information? Was it not just already there in her head? “Twenty thousand on average, maybe thirty to forty if the city’s economy is good?”

“Exactly.  It’s not millions like you kids see people getting away with in the movies. Banks don’t keep a lot of loose cash on hand for reasons exactly like this. I’d be pulling in less than I could make on my own from hitting a jewellery store. At least there I could sell the stuff through a fence and get it fast and easy.” 

She waved a hand as if to illustrate the point. “If we have to account for the cost of actually doing this whole thing, like with the equipment and stuff and the fact that this is Brockton fucking Bay, where banks have a little more reason to keep the amount of cash in their vaults to a minimum, and we’d be bringing in twelve to sixteen thousand, maybe twenty if we’re lucky.”

The clown villain shook his head. “That’s not a great amount all on its own for something that would put this much heat on us, but after we divide five ways and it’s what, two or three thousand bucks each?”

“I could do with an extra three thousand dollars to spend when I wanted.” Alec said, yawning into his hand and shifting his position in his chair to put his feet up on the table, still balancing precariously, to the point where a part of me wondered if he was either just really good at that, or had some secondary Power that let him balance well. Whatever it was, he seemed to be following the conversation better now that arguments were being properly voiced. He didn’t sound overly bothered by all the problems Circus was listing, but maybe he just didn’t care about stuff like that. I bet the planning part was probably left more to Circus and Tattletale, considering they were the most experienced and a Thinker respectively.

“Really? What would you even spend it on? As far as I hear, Coil’s already practically providing all you need.” Circus asked.

When Alec shrugged, Circus sighed and explained, “It’s a horrible payoff for the amount of risk involved.  There are three big superhero teams in this city and it’s not just them we have to worry about. There’s another dozen heroes that fly solo, and a lot of Villains that would see what we’re doing and get the idea of getting involved in the middle and try to poach our score. In this place we’re almost guaranteed to get into a fight. I’m not looking to get boxed in when I could run instead, that’s where I specialise.”

“Aw don’t be so modest.” Tattletale leaned forward with a smirk. “You know how to handle yourself pretty well. It wouldn’t be a big deal for you to get in a fight.”

“Against security, regular guys, maybe, but if a real Hero showed up I’d be more worried. My Powers aren’t suited for head-on fights, that’s why I don’t do them.”

“You sound sure of that.” I interjected mostly just to hear what she’d say. “I’ve heard that you’ve won plenty of fights against other Parahumans plenty of times before when you needed to. It’s one of the reasons you haven’t been caught even once yet, isn’t it?

“I won those fights because I picked my battles and ran when the going was good.” She responded patiently, like someone who was used to arguments being thrown her way. If she had been with Tattletale this whole time before I arrived, that would probably be true “We wouldn’t have that option if we were trapped in a bank. There’s less manoeuvrability indoors, and we’d have to worry about the collateral damage of people already in the bank, unless we decided to clear it out beforehand, and that would be a terrible idea because then nobody would have a reason to stay outside and give us time, not to mention we’d be waiting for them to come to us, letting them decide how and where the fight happened.”

Tattletale nodded and smiled as she spoke.  I thought for a second that she was going to say something, but she didn’t. I narrowed my eyes at her but she caught the look and sent a wink my way. She was letting Circus list out all the reasons she had against this. Why let Circus weaken her point like that? What was she planning?

The villain continued, starting to get pretty passionate as she picked up the pace. “We won’t be able to slip away like I’m able to when things get out of control. There’s so much less fallback.”

“We can’t avoid the fight if we want to get away with anything worth taking.” She shook her head frustratedly. “The bank is going to have layers upon layers of protection.  Iron bars, vault doors, you name it, probably things we don’t know about if they’re prepared for Parahumans to try it.”

I hummed. That was true. It could be a possibility that a government building like a bank would have those layers of protection in Brockton Bay but a part of me doubted it. It would mean trusting a Tinker to have access to their vaults in order to build sufficient defences and even if an organisation like that might put up with Parahumans, they didn’t trust them that much.

The Protectorate did a lot of work at least in North America to try and smooth over relationships between Parahumans and normal people who would feel rightly intimidated by a higher evolved subsection of the species.

It was stupid and wasteful in my opinion. As many issues as I had with Parahumans, the improvements they could have brought to the human race was so significant that I had to respect them. They could have done so much.

Instead, governments had introduced laws, reforms, legislation and all sorts of other limits in a misguided attempt to shield themselves from what Parahumans could offer them. How much innovation had been stifled because of politicians' fears and those of the influential, paranoid sort of people in power who wanted to keep their own status quo?

I couldn’t say for certain, but I could guess that it was a lot, and I knew of more than a few people who shared in my frustrations.

I realised suddenly that I’d begun to space out and spiral into my own internal complaints, so I shook the thoughts away for now and tuned back into the conversation.

“Even with your power, Tattletale, there’s a limit to how fast we can get through those.  Add the time we have to spend managing hostages so that they don’t do something stupid and turn us from thieves to murderers and on top of that – heat I really don’t need, no, in fact, heat I refuse to take on and ruin what I having going right now - making a safe getaway without somehow getting caught because we couldn’t keep all our ducks in a row or predicts how other people would react to us booking it, and I pretty much guarantee that we’ll end up in cuffs. Not to mention that once again, this is Brockton Bay meaning that there’s a precedent for Capes getting involved in crimes even without other Capes to fight so it’s almost a sure thing we’ll have to deal with them too. It’ll take barely any time for a cape to get wind of the robbery and slow us down even more.”

Regent said, “I kind of want to do it anyway.  Hitting a bank gets you on the front page.  It’s huge for our rep.”

“You care about that sort of thing?” I couldn’t help but ask and he shot me a smirk.

“Hell yeah I do. Isn’t it like that for all Capes? The scarier we are, the less people fuck with us, and the better we look, the better jobs we get. More money, more toys to spend it on. Plus it’s fun, you know?”

Tattletale sighed as if she were bored of the arguments now. Considering she’d spurred them on, I wasn’t sure what the sudden change was for. “The bank robbery was one of the options Coil gave me and I picked it because it sounded like it would work the best for any team put together.  According to him, the Protectorate is busy with an event on Thursday, just outside of town.  That’s part of the reason the timing is so important.  If we act then, there’s almost no chance we’ll have to deal with them.  If we hit the Bay Central, downtown-”

“That’s the biggest bank in Brockton Bay,” I interrupted her with a dry tone, and I was thankful for that because it hid my desire to shoot her a wide stare. I’d known it would be a job with hurdles, but to take on the most secure bank in the city? That was a big deal.

…and it still didn’t make sense as to why Coil would want to do it. He had more than enough money, that I know. Millions at a lowball. He wouldn’t want to test any of the Capes in his employ. He already knew what they could do, it would just be pointless, and that sort of attention for no reason sounded wasteful. Why have people pay so much attention to people like Circus when they worked better when people weren’t actively worried about them?

“So everything I said about them having security and being careful is doubly true,” Circus added, cutting off my train of thought. She looked less convinced than she had before, more annoyed by the fact that this argument was still going when nothing she said had been disputed in her mind yet.

“If we hit the Bay Central, downtown,” Tattletale repeated more firmly, ignoring her, “Then we’re hitting a location just a mile away from Arcadia High, where its ‘rumoured’ that most of the Wards go to school.  Of course, there’s no actual proof of that but I mean, come on, it’s not hard to figure out and given jurisdictions, New Wave won’t be able to jump on us without stepping on the Wards’ toes, which pretty much guarantees we go up against the team of junior superheroes.  With me so far?”

I hummed as Circus and Regent murmured agreement. She was good at painting a clear picture, I’d give her that.

“So I figure that we make this happen in the middle of the school day, and they won’t all be able to slip away to stop a robbery without drawing attention. Some of them will still probably try to, but it’ll slow them down and my bet is that they’ll need permission to all leave like that at once.  Again, according to talks online and the PRT not being able to stop the Wards from opening their mouths on camera, it’s leakier than they’d like, people know the Wards are attending Arcadia, they just don’t know who they are.

She grinned. “So everyone’s constantly watching for that.  Since they can’t have all six or seven of the same kids disappear from class every time the Wards go off to foil a crime without giving away the show, chances are good that we’d go up against a couple of their strongest members, or one of the strongest with a group of the ones with less amazing powers.  We can beat them.”

“And why would you assume that?” I leaned forward, looking at her hard. “What’s to say they wouldn’t send their best? If it’s like you say and the senior Heroes are out of town, something I’m not sure how you know by the way, then what’s to say they won’t try and overcompensate by sending all their heavy hitters at the first sign of trouble. Especially so close to the school? To me that would be like a direct challenge to my territory, I’d have to respond at full force then.”

Tattletale nodded slowly at me. “Well good to know your thought process Bug, but trust me, I’ve got my power working on it. Unless it’s for some freak reasons, they’ll be more careful than that. The Protectorate would chew them out for blowing their covers like that and I’m betting they're all conscious of that.”

I wasn’t so sure. It was the reasonable thing to assume that Capes would be careful not to do anything that might give away their identities, but these were Wards, kids who would be given responsibility they didn’t usually have. What were the chances they overcompensated to try and prove themselves?

For the life of me, I couldn’t imagine someone doing this. I wouldn’t. I needed money for a reason, a dedicated cause, a singular goal. This didn’t seem like that. Maybe I was missing something, but Coil couldn’t be after money if he was willing to spend it on us like this.

There was something else going on here.

I said as much and Tattletale sighed in response, rolling her eyes.

“Listen, this isn’t a solo gig, Gangs need to be more coordinated than just throwing themselves at jobs that any group of nobodies could do. Robbing a jewellery store, as Circus bright up, is the sort of thing that B-list villains do. We’re meant to be establishing ourselves for when Coil decides he wants our names out there in the future, you get me? Doing stuff like this will make people take the influence he can control seriously, when they eventually figure things out.  That, and he really wants us to do a job at that particular time.”

My eyes hardened. A distraction then. One that made a lot of noise so people looked our way, meanwhile he’d have another team doing whatever it was he really wanted…. Fine. I didn’t like the idea of not knowing what was going on, but I could assume that it would be on the news the next day if it was something big. I could try and figure out just what the Undersider’s mysterious benefactor was after then.

Putting my trust in someone like Coil in a situation where I didn’t know all the details was far from comforting. Really, I set off all sorts of alarm bells in my head, and not just about the idea of this job being something set up to purposefully fail, a small worry, but the fact that it was one at all wasn’t a good sign.

She wasn’t finished though. “It’s the biggest bank in Brockton Bay.  It’s also the hub of cash distribution for the entire county.  Said cash gets transferred in and out by armoured cars on a regular schedule-”

“So why don’t we hit one of the cars?” Regent asked. “Wouldn’t they be easier? It’s not vault and they’d still have a bunch of cash locked in there.”

The Thinker shook her head.

“They have escorts or aerial cover from various members of New Wave that get paid to do it from time to time and the Protectorate the rest of it. It makes them look good, like they’re active parts of the community and the government, you know? Working with law enforcement on the regular reminds people that they don’t just fight other Capes and is supposed to remind people that they can feel safe with the establishment or whatever.”

“Either way we’d be caught in a fight with another cape right from the start.” She made a wiggling motion with her hand.

“It would have all the same problems that Circus just mentioned as well as a whole bunch of others, not to mention we’d be stuck with way more variables to manage with the collateral damage and the path that the cars could take, not to mention they could just floor it given the chance add leave us with nothing.

Anyways, the Brockton Bay Central has cars coming in twice a week, and leaving four times a week.  We hit on a Thursday just after noon, and it should be the best day and time for the sheer size of the take.  The only way we’re getting away with less than thirty thousand is if we fuck up.  With what the boss is offering, that’s ninety thou.”

She folded her arms.

Well if she was done with her sales pitch.

I could admit, it was almost believable when she talked like that. As if she were so confident in her plan that there was no possible way it could ever go wrong. To me, it sounded like Thinker arrogance full-on display.

I saw Tattletale frown my way and I could tell she’d noticed something from me. Frustratingly, I couldn’t tell what it was that had tipped her off.

“You’re against this too, aren’t you?” She muttered. “Come on, why is everybody so against this idea?”

Well, if she wanted an answer…

“Hitting a bank… It’s juvenile.” I said slowly. “It’s something almost immature. If you want people to take us seriously, Tattletale, then it would be better we weren’t seen doing something that people can joke about and act like it’s something they’d see on a Saturday morning cartoon.”

The Thinker didn’t look happy with my reasoning.

“Not to mention that like Circus said, the risk outweighs the reward. Even as you bring up the money we could make, it’s not all that impressive in the grand scheme of things.  We’d have to deal with all that effort for a payout that any of us could get from two or three safer jobs instead.”

I hummed. “Not to mention, hitting a place like this will bring more than just the heat Circus is worried about, there will be longer-term consequences. Robbing a bank isn’t just a crime at the city level, it goes far further up, and I for one, am not interested in having government agencies stick their noses in this thing.”

“Oh come on.” She groused. “It’s not like the FBI is going to get involved in Cape problems. That’s why they have the Protectorate and PRT in the first place!”

I frowned, a grave look passing over my face even as I knew she couldn’t see it.

“If that’s how you really think things like this will go, then you clearly don’t understand how the real world works.”

Now she really didn’t look happy with me. I noticed, just barely through the static and blur, how one eye twitched. She was angry. I guess that must have struck some sort of nerve of hers. Awkward right now, but good to know for later.”

“Okay, so apparently the Bank is a no-go, but there’s still a problem here. Coil wants a job done, and he wasn’t it done at a certain time, with a certain amount of noise.” She gestured with one hand, sarcasm biting. “Unless any of you have any ideas that would work, factoring in the reality that the set-up for this hypothetical new job would need to be around the same amount of prep time or less, and be something that’ll actually be worth it, then I’m all ears. Please, by all means, give us all something else to work with.”

Well, if she was really asking, then what better opportunity would I have for this?

“I believe I have somewhere else in mind.”

“Yeah?” Regent raised a brow. “And where would that be?”

“How does hitting Medhall sound?”

A beat of silence, as the three of them took in what I’d just said.

And then Tattletale leaned forward, eyes narrowed, and her grin taking on an almost shark-like quality. “Now that’s an interesting idea. Mind running us through why exactly you want to hit the biggest pharmaceutical company in the city?”

“It’s something that I’ve had planned out for a while.” I half-lie.  “They’re a huge company that holds up a sizable portion of the Bay’s workforce, not just in their pharmaceuticals, but in their associations with exports and imports around here. They’ve got their fingers in more than one pie, like technology, engineering… things that tangentially relate to their main business. All things that I would be fine with if it weren’t for the fact that I’ve found out that not all of their  money is legitimate.”

“Oh really?” Tattletale raised an eyebrow. “Okay so, I want to ask how you know that, but I’m actually wondering why that even matters to you?”

“On its own, it wouldn’t,” I admitted. “Corporations are never squeaky clean. With how the economy’s suffering these days, it’s practically expected that any company that makes money is breaking a few rules to do it. That’s not something that matters to me, not even the fact that they’ve been slowly and subtly pushing out competition in the Bay over the last decade. My problem is that they’ve been diversifying in things they shouldn’t me, things that meddle with my business.”

“I could make a list of even more, like how they’ve been digging into things they shouldn’t have, or how I’ve figured out that more than one of their execs failed to hide their stakes in some illicit businesses overseas that has parties interested Brockton Bay in a way none of us need right now.”

“You’re being purposefully vague, aren’t you?” Tattletale drawled and I could tell wasn’t interested in whatever ambiguity I was interested in enforcing. Another tactic then. Being plain might work better here.

“It shouldn’t matter to you either way?” I shrugged. “All you care about is money and spectacle, and I’m positive hitting Medhall can give you both in spades. They’re not just one of the biggest companies in the Bay, they’re one of the richest in the state. That sort of money is the kind that eclipses whatever Coil has on hand for his entire operation.

That caught the attention of Circus and Regent. Tattletale’s pitch at the bank had been a stretch for a lot of reasons, one of them being that they had It in their minds that it wouldn’t have been worth the effort. People didn’t think of banks holding real, tangible money any more, but a pharmaceutical company?

Everybody had images of how rich they were, whether that be hard cash or liquid assets.

It was the kind of guaranteed profit that made anyone willing to steal from them feel secure that they’d be getting their money’s worth.

“I guarantee that if we can get into their deeper systems, we can rip it all for ourselves and drain the accounts of millionaires investors wouldn’t be fast or smart enough to move their money in time and whatever stocks they have on hand that. Lowballing it since we don’t have any high-tech computer systems here to make it faster so that we can get ahead of it before people that actually know what they’re doing scramble to plug the sinking ship? Before we need to burn our access ports so they can’t track it back to us or try and recover what we take from them, I think we could end up making far more than just a few thousand we’d manage from a bank.”

“That’s-” She tired, and I could tell her power was suddenly firing on all cylinders as it gave her the information she needed to fact-check what I’d just told her. “She’s right. It’s the sort of business where something like this would be possible thanks to them having accounts and trade partners all over the whole state and thanks to Brockton Bay being drowned in its criminal element we can guarantee that they’ll be doing things exactly like it that we can exploit. Now that I can see it, it’s obvious just how much we could get with it if we go after more than just what’s in front of us.

She put a hand to her chin, eyes staring almost into the middle distance as she fell deeper into thought.

“Private corporations don’t have the same security as federal institutions like banks, and they don’t have the regulations or protections that they’d have against people with powers. At least not to the same level. Most money is intangible now which just makes it easier for someone like me to snatch up since governments are so slow they still haven’t integrated protection good enough to stop a Thinker like me.”

“It’s not as easy as that, but yeah.” I shrugged. “They will have protections, else Thinkers and Tinkers would have already bankrupted every country on the planet, but like you said, it should be easy enough for you as soon as we can get you access from inside their systems, that is if you’re as good of a Thinker as you say you are.”

“That a challenge?”

“And if it is?”

She smirked, and I had a feeling Tattletale was thinking of ways to show me just how good she was.

“So… is this going to happen or not?” Regent tapped his fingers across the table. “Because I’m getting mixed messages here.”

“It’s looking like a yes, tentatively.” Circus allowed. “I’ll need to hear more before I say one way or another for sure. I want to know what we’re hitting in there, what it gets us and what you think we’ll have to deal with while we do it.

“Fine.” Tattletale groaned overdramatically. “I guess I can do the job I’m here for if this is really how it’s going to be.”

She rolled her neck, cracked her fingers and pulled something up on the screen over on her end; a map of the area surrounding Medhall.

“Alright, listen up and let the Thinker speak, this is what I have right now.”

The discussion went on for a while after that as ran through as many ideas as they could.  At one point, Tattletale looked off to the side, and by the loud clicking of keys, I could make a guess that she’d opened up a second screen to display exactly what she was looking for, and we debated entrance and exit strategies while she sketched out a map of the Medhall’s layout.

It was fascinating to me, to see her power at work in a setting like this. Not just reading people and being able to tell what they were thinking or breaking down what was in front of her, but using it to outline a detailed plan with more information at their hands than should have been possible without weeks of staking out the target.

She copied a satellite image of the entire skyscraper from a database search into a complicated-looking program no doubt supplied to her by Coil then drew over it with thick bold lines to show how the rooms were laid out.  With another search and a single picture of the CEO, Max Anders, standing in front of his desk, she was able to mark out where the CEO’s personal office was.

“It’s a big place.” She said. “A lot of upward movement, and I mean that literally. Lots of office space, and lots of floors structured for stuff like lab work, testing and manufacturing on a smaller scale. They’ve got warehouses to house most of their stuff, but a place like Medhall is interesting in that Max Anders runs it. The guy styles himself as a sort of self-made common sense man and is the kind of guy that likes keeping the important stuff within arm’s reach. All their crucial document plans, access to their accounts, it’s all in the building, most of it on his personal computer even. That’s your main target.”

She clicked on something, bringing up a names register. “The place as god some decent security, but nothing special for a private citizen. Lots of security guards and buff-looking guys working there to make up for it, but they’re just regular guys. They might have guns, but I need to double-check to be sure. Either way, you should be able to push through them to get what you need.

Circus shook her head. “We’ll definitely avoid that, but just to make sure, what do you know about the Wards? Since if things do go tits up, they’ll be the ones responding, I’d like to have whatever else you’ve got on them”

I tilt my head in though, recalling what I knew. Tattletales hummed, a finger in her chin for a long moment before she raised it in a lecturing pose and went down the list, counting off as I did so.

“Keeping in mind that I’ve gotten what I could from public record and observation, Aegis is their Alexandria package, except I’ve seen him bleed for one and even get his limbs mangled once or twice so it’s more like hyper durability. He flies and has decent strength for a brute, even if the mechanics behind it are different the response is mostly the same.”

“Mostly the same?” Circus pressed.

“He doesn’t apply his strength the same way someone like Glory Girl or Manpower does, or even how somebody like Lung does when he transforms. There’s nothing all that special happening. No hidden super strength or growing muscles, just the human body with its normal limits removed.”

She made a so-and-so motion. “The exact mechanics of it are escaping me right now, I’d have to see it closer to give you more, but that’s the gist of it.

I nodded slowly. “Aegis is their most straightforward hitter, but I’m not all that worried about him. Clockblocker isn’t as physically impressive-”

“Ouch.” Tattletale laughed.

“But he has a troublesome ability that freezes time when he touches something. It becomes stasis-locked, completely locked out of the regular flow of time. Whatever or whoever he touches cannot be harmed, moved or otherwise interacted with other than them being turned into an immovable, indestructible object. If he were to catch any of us in it we’d be out of the fight likely completely if he managed to set up something to trap us when the effect wears off but once again, he’s a regular human in every other regard, so I don’t think we have to worry about him if we’re careful.

I tapped a clawed finger against my arm and this time, frowned. “Then we have Vista, the youngest and in my opinion, the trickiest Ward on their team, probably the one with the potential to be a top contender for most powerful Cape in the city.”

I shake my head even thinking about the things she can do. “She can manipulate physics on a fundamental level, mashing space how she likes, stretching or compacting objects and areas at will.  The things I’ve seen her do from videos alone are ridiculous. Extending molecular bonds without breaking them to extend objects like buildings to twice their size or condense them so that she can cross hundreds of feet in a single step. The only substantial limit to her power is that she cannot do the same to living things and even then I’m not sure that isn’t something she couldn’t figure her way around in a few years.” I make a face behind my mask just imagining it. “There’s also the fact that she’s twelve, and as durable as expected for her age. So a good hit should take her down.”

“Which is why if you see her, try to prioritise dealing with her.” Tattletale added. "She’s small and squishy, so you have something to work with. As for the others, we have the less impressive Wards. Gallant isn’t much of a frontliner, but good at support. That suit of his does a lot to make up for what he doesn’t have but it’s not his power. He’s a blaster, maybe qualifies as a Master, so as long as you can avoid those beams of his, you’ll be fine. They don’t cut through stuff, so as long as you have cover he’s not going to do much.

“What about the Tinker, Kid Win?” Circus crossed her arms. “Tinkers are force multipliers even on a bad day.”

“True, but honestly, as a Tinker, Kid Win kind of sucks.”

“That’s a claim.” I huffed but Tattletale didn’t seem bothered.

“It’s true too. He’s got all the stuff that pretty much any Tinker with a decent budget has; some shiny armour and laser guns but other than that? The most impressive thing I’ve ever seen that one make is that hoverboard he built last Fall. He’s another body to worry about, but that’s about it.”

“They’ve got a new recruit on the roster too, the guy hadn’t been announced yet, but Assault and Battery picked him up after he got in a tangle with Cricket and was nearly made into mincemeat a few weeks back. Kid goes by Browbeat now, hadn’t picked a name for himself before that.”

“Is he someone we have to worry about?” Circus frowned. Looking at the picture of the Ward on screen. It was blurry, taken from a security camera up high, of someone muscular dressed in a basic all-blue body suit.

“Eh, not really. He’s a brute, but weaker than Aegis. His main thing is a Changer Power that lets him control his own body. A biokinetic with a weak field around him that lets him sort of… throw things as he hits them. Sort of a telekinetic power, but again, a weak one. So long as you don’t stand still and let yourself get punched in the face, you’ll have him handled easily.”

She leaned back in her seat, spinning in it lazily. “So, what else do you need that I’ve got on our local kiddie heroes so far?”

Tattletale took the time to run it back over with us and give everyone else a refresher, explaining deeper how each other Heroes worked from what she knew, like how Aegis’ body was so durable because it was highly adaptable and filled with redundancies or how Gallant abilities didn’t come from his suit, but from the fact that he had control over emotions from those lasers he fired at people.

“Uh, isn’t there one missing here?” Regent tilt his head, squinting at the screen showing the Wards. You left one out;” He appointed. “That one there, the edgy-looking one in the black coat and mask. What’s their deal?

At once, Circus and Tattletale scoffed.

“Oh no, if Shadowstalker’s there, I’m pretty sure we’re screwed.” Tattletale admitted. “I’ve got to be honest with you, her Power doesn’t make sense to me, but even if it did I’m not sure it would matter.”

Regent shot all of us a look when I nodded in acceptance at that.

“Seriously, what’s the big deal? Didn’t you just say she was a Ward, what makes her so special.”

“Power’s don’t care about age, Regent.” I stated. “More than a few people are waiting for the next kid to get a power that puts them on the level of the Triumvirate, and it’s not actually that far-fetched. Anyone could get any power, and there are Wards with Powers that would shoot them up to leadership status in the Protectorate right now if it weren’t for the Youth Guard putting their foot down more than once to make sure kids couldn’t be put in those sorts of positions… Shadowstalker is a prime example of that. There’s a reason they call her the Strongest Ward.”

“Seriously?”

“Yep.” Tattletale bobbed her head. “Villains usually don’t tangle with Wards because it brings down the hammer of the whole local Protectorate on them if they get hurt, sometimes even Heroes form out of town if it’s bad enough. With Shadowstalker, it’s because she’d kick their asses.”

Regent looked at the screen again. “Huh…”

“So yeah.” Tattletale shrugged. “That’s not to say she’s the strongest hero in the Bay, but I’d put her in the top four and a close thing. If Shadowstalker shows up, the best thing you can do is cause a big enough commotion that she has to deal with it instead of kicking your teeth in, then run as fast as you can.”

“Fortunately.” She went on. “I’m pretty confident Shadowstalker doesn’t go to the same school as the rest of the Wards, so we shouldn’t have to worry about her responding at the same time as the rest.”

I kept silent at that, making a point to hide any physical reactions in my bugs. It was good to know Tattletale didn’t know Sophia’s identity and by extension, how close I was in proximity to that but I got a feeling she wouldn’t be shy about spilling if she did figure it out.

That would be a problem.

“How about we focus on what happens after we get what we want?” I said. “An escape plan would be good.”

“That won’t be a problem.” Tattletale waved off. “I can draw something like that up in my sleep. Give me an hour and I’ll send it to you.”

“Oh, that’s right.” She perked up. “The Boss decided that if we’re going to be doing things like this on the regular, then he wants a better way to contact you. One of the boys out there will have a burner phone for you on your way out that you can use, at least until you can buy one for yourself. You should really get on that by the way. Having no access to the internet in this day and age is going to trip you up sooner or later.”

“Noted.” I responded dryly.

“We’ll be doing this on Thursday.” Circus looked around. “Unless any of you had anything else to add?”

There was a round of no’s from everyone before I suddenly realised something and paused.

“Actually, there is something.” I said, drawing attention back to me. “You’ll have to make plans around whichever Wards show up right? They’ll be the biggest variables in this plan.”

“That’s right.” She nodded. “Being the ones that need to make sure none of the people in the place do something stupid and act like good little hostages means that we’ll be on the defensive, so we need to react right.”

I felt something like anticipation creep through me.

“Then I think I have an idea.”

I just had to make another call.

Chapter Text

I let my back press against the wall, leaning my weight against it. I resisted the urge to look down. I wasn’t afraid of heights or anything but the fact that my current footing was one of those rusted metal fire escape stairs they bolted onto the side of apartment buildings and those of similar height was a little disconcerting.

It felt like it could collapse beneath me at any moment even though I knew that it was probably better constructed than that. Maybe it was just nerves. I’d gone over this in my head plenty of times, convinced myself that this was the right way to do things, but actually making the commitment was a big thing, I think.

Well, I was here anyway, four stories up in an alley with a line of sight on the front of the Medhall Building from where I was standing. I was out of sight, my full costume on and my hood pulled up over my head. If someone walked beneath me and looked up I wondered what they would see. Would that be able to make me out and realise I was a Cape hanging around in dark alleys like a serial killer? Or would they just see the golden lenses and freak out?

For a brief moment, I wondered just what I looked like to other people. My costume was made so that it covered almost everything, not a single part of me other than my hair was visible, and the way I’d fashioned it was just slightly off from normal making it look like something… alive, beneath my hood. The insects hidden within gave it a quality that made it look like it was writhing slightly.

Honestly, the mandibles I had on my mask hadn't even been in the design at first. I’d only added them on a whim one day that I couldn’t really explain to myself even now. It had just felt right at the time and I’d never thought about removing them since. I’d wanted something… different and once I’d come up with the details of my suits, I’d just stuck with it.

Now though, I considered the fact that my costume looked seamless enough that someone might mistake it for my actual body in the dark like this. People might think I was a Case-53 in that case, considering what I’d seen of Newtwer. Honestly, other than his skin and tail, he wasn’t all that odd looking. If anything, how I’d designed myself was more intimidating than the Mercenary Cape. Some people might even accuse me of being a Devil, if I wasn’t careful.

…huh.

I tilt my head in thought. Did I want that? People were scared of Devils, and that sort of fear could be an incredibly useful thing to try and use. On the other hand, while the public had... faulty assumptions about Devils, they still saw them as dangerous. As part of some sort of murderous death cult that was collecting more and more Monster Capes to their ranks, as far as most were aware… and that might make it too much of a risk. It would be next to impossible to work with anyone if they ever linked me to those sorts of groups.

Hm… I might need to see about getting something for my costume to make sure that mix-up didn’t happen. I shook my head, never mind that. Forget about whatever issues I had with costumes right now and focus on what I was doing in the present moment. I was hidden away from prying eyes so I didn’t have to deal with those exact problems. So long as I didn’t draw attention to myself that wouldn’t happen.

I’d picked my positioning partly for all the previously mentioned benefits but also just because it gave me plenty of cover from the elements, mainly the steady downpour that was raining down at an angle today. The skies were grey and the sound of rain nearly drowned out the constant sound of car horns, engines and general traffic that all cities had.

Actually, the traffic was in a little bit of a deadlock, which I couldn’t tell if was a good thing or not. It probably wouldn’t slow down any Hero response times but it would be a problem for police.

I had one of the burner phones Coil had gotten for me in my hand now, all dialled in so I could contact the team at a moment’s notice. I could see them as well, the rest of the team Tattletale had put together for this had pulled up alongside Medhall on the left, in another alley so that they could hide the vehicle and make a clean getaway as fast as possible.

There was a chance they could also just abandon the van and rely on the stuff our… new teammates had built but it was always good to have options.

I was just waiting for them to begin. Right now it was as a lookout, scoping the place out but when they got started, I’d be waiting for the next phase to kick in. That would be the part I’d thrown into the plan. Circus had been sceptical about it at first when I’d offered the idea but Tattletale had found it hilarious and pestered the clown until she’d given in after reworking it some more so that it worked in their favour better.

It meant I wasn’t a part of the initial start of the infiltration but I’d get to that eventually.

My phone buzzed. A message from Circus, they were ready. I fumbled a little with the buttons on the device and sent back an all clear message, giving them the go-ahead on my end and the moment I pressed send, it started.

Almost immediately, I saw Circus leap out of the van, sledgehammer twirling in her hands before she set it on her shoulder. She fiddled with the new addition to her costume, a multicoloured mask, courtesy of the two new teammates that had been brought along for the job coming out of the van behind her.

Uber and Leet practically bounced out of the vehicle, almost over-eager in their readiness to start.

It had been discussed that the current Capes Coil had employed were in need of a few people that -while not big on subtly- were at least capable of not wrecking everything around them. Trainwreck had been out for that reason, as had Chariot, who hadn’t been answering any of his contacts in the past few days. Strange and I had no doubt it had annoyed Coil to see someone he hired flake so soon but if I was honest, I wasn’t sure how useful his equipment would be inside of an enclosed space, considering it was built almost entirely around moving fast over long distances. So instead, Tattletale had gotten into contact with them through whatever means it was Coil had given them. I hadn’t been present for what the duo had been offered but whatever it was Tattletale had said to them, they’d been up for it and after prepping their own tools, they’d met up with us for the ride here.

Circus had been right in my opinion, when she’d said a Tinker was a force multiplier, and as much of a joke as the two of them could be, Leet at least had the credentials of exotic and impressive Tinkertech, even if more often than not, it broke on him. I guess I’d get to see if they were good enough for this first-hand. At the very least, they’d be another pair of warm bodies that understood the necessity of making sure that civilians didn’t get hurt while we were doing all of this.

“Let’s move fast.”  Circus’ voice echoed, reverberated, with a hollowness to the sound, like something alien and far away. The mask was doing something to her voice to play with sound, giving it an almost techno beat to it. Even with that, I could hear her clearly. I had bugs on each of the villains, letting me know where they were at all times. On top of that, I could hear everything they could hear. When I’d told Circus about that facet of my power during the planning stages, she’d been more than happy to integrate it. A few insects in their pockets and I could act as a relay of information between all of them and what was going on in their immediate area.

For now, I kept those insects hidden away, and focused on listening as Circus led the team.   “Tattletale, see to the door.”

The clown raised her phone to the keypad next to it and it pinged with a strange noise. Tattletale took over. She wasn’t here in person – as she had said it – acting more as an overseer and ‘girl in the chair’ for this job, but she was connected to all of the devices she’d handed out to us for this so that she could work on Medhall’s security systems even while remote. I knew that the rest, like me, had been given microphones and small cameras hooked up to the side of our masks so that she could keep track and follow along with everything we saw and heard.

That was coming into effect right now, as she messed with whatever software operated the locks from the comfort of where it was she was hidden away and rattled off how she’d learned that Capes and SWAT were given a different method of opening the door silently as to not tip anyone off during emergencies. The fact that she then proved it by doing exactly that left me a little impressed, I’ll admit and soon enough I watched them all enter the building.

And now it was just me outside, keeping watch and waiting for the show to begin. I didn’t need to close my eyes or anything to feel exactly where my bugs were so even as they kept an eye out, I tracked each of them as they made their way down the hallways at the back of the building in what was the staff-only areas. They were in a tight nit group together: Circus was taking charge as the leader again, with Whirlygig and Regent following behind, looking nervous and completely lax respectively and at some point, Uber and Leet were made to lead from the front, brandishing intimidating looking oversized gunmetal grey guns that glowed with blue and orange light. I’m sure they were from some video game, but for the life of me, I didn’t. It didn’t really matter, since the intent was to make anyone who saw them cower and do as they were told.

Ideally that was all that would happen. I hadn’t spoken at all to Uber and Leet other than to make sure they knew what was going on with the plan, so I didn’t have a full gauge of what they’d do yet if someone in Medhall got violent instead of compliant. They had a… decent track record, but that was never a guarantee.

By this point, someone must have realised what was happening. A security camera had likely caught sight of them and pulled some sort of alarm or made a call. If Tattletale was right, the Protectorate was too far away to be called in, so they would contact the Wards.  We had five or ten minutes before trouble showed. I felt each second tick down as the sound of rain filled my ears.

Each time they passed a room, Circus or Regent would check it and I would leave a few bugs behind. Some in the room, some on the door itself so that if there was any movement, any change, I’d know about it. Ideally I’d have enough time to figure out what had caused it and warn the others.

The first few had been empty but not all of them and soon enough, Circus and Regent started grabbing people. People in suits, people that worked here. Employees. One tried to cry out either for help or to give a warning but Regent swiftly dealt with that, and I could sense the way the man’s body spasmed and his throat closed up before he fell.

They kept moving, taking each hostage as they did so, corralled them with Whirligig’s light Telekinesis and the occasional body spasm in tandem. The employees weren’t heroes. They were just regular people, so scared as they were, they compiled without much noise when they started to understand what was happening. Circus was on point, glancing into each room and watching for danger from up ahead, with Regent keeping an eye on rooms to their right.

And then they reached the front lobby of the Medhall building, Uber and Leet rushed into the room. There was a cry of shock from someone and before they could react, Leet took his gun, pointed it at a piece of furniture, a couch stuffed into the corner for people to wait on and before everyone’s eyes, it was ripped off the ground and fired directly up into the ceiling. It smashed into it and splintered in a shower of wood and a painfully loud bang that sent people to the floor, arms over their heads to shield themselves from the splinters.

It was for show, I could tell immediately. The act was just as intimidating as the duo themselves. They weren’t really even dressed in what I would have considered a Cape get-up; both of them looked more like soldiers than anything; in grey-looking camo. The only things that stood out were the same masks they’d given Circus in a grey colour. They looked like gas masks, with glowing blue lights where their eyes were.

The sight of them was enough to make people freeze instead of fleeing as their brains tried to figure out what they were looking at before the fear rushed in and made them compliant.

I had a moment’s glimpse of twenty or thirty bystanders and another six or so lobby employees of Medhall through my bugs before the lights went out around them. Tattletale had gotten into light systems and turned off most of them so that people would hesitate just running in any direction when they couldn’t see.

After a few seconds, the cries and screaming dimmed, as people felt their situation settle in. The volume of the screams and wails dropped to a low whimper in a matter of seconds. 

I still kept my bugs hidden, waiting. The team Tattletale had put together was enough of a threat to keep anyone from acting out, I had to wait until it was time to show my hand as simple as it was.

Again, I did send a few bugs out in the darkness, a single insect landing on each and every one of them so I could keep track of the hostage situation. It would be a bad idea to let any of them slip away because none of them were paying attention.

Circus turned away from the people in front of her, moving over to the reception desk, where a woman was glued to her seat, frozen in fear and shaking, the clown didn’t even look at her for more than a single glance, before doing something at the desk. A second later, there was a beeping sound and a voice came over the intercom.

There was a stutter as the lights came back on and vision returned to the lobby.

Everyone except for the Villain team were lying on the floor, crouched behind a desk, or huddled in the corners. Scared out of their minds nearly and unwilling to do something that could get them noticed, not when Uber and Leet were standing in front of the main entrance with their weapons in full view.

“Hi there everyone!” Tattletale’s voice chirped through the coms system linked to the entire building, her voice tuned for a delivery of showmanship, drawing the attention of each and every hostage onto her. “Thank you all for attending our little business venture we have here today. We’re about to make a purchase of the goods here, of course, without the ‘spending money’ part that usually comes with purchases, in a few minutes, let’s say about, oh I don’t know, fifteen?”

Even without seeing her face, I could hear her grin and could imagine that if she were where, she’d be lording over everyone else, hip cocked and all as people paid attention to her.

“Yeah, let’s go with fifteen.” She giggled at them. “All you lovely ladies and gentlemen need to do for those fifteen minutes is stay down, stay quiet and sit sight. After that we’ll be on our way and we can all do what everybody else does when they get pulled into this little game of ours. A little warning though?”

There was a louder buzz than before and the shutters to all the windows on the first floor suddenly fell and slammed shut.

I heard someone whimper on the floor. “Remember that this isn’t the time to play hero. This isn’t a movie. If you’re thinking about being a hero, don’t.  You’ll only get yourself or someone else hurt and then we’ll have an even bigger problem on all of our hands. I don’t know about you, but I’m sure these fine men and women holding you up aren’t interested in washing blood out of their clothes, yeah?”

The intercom made a static sound that made them all flinch.

“So, be good little hostages and stay put!”

My bugs shuttered where they were as I used their senses to get an idea of what was happening.

It wasn’t a clear picture, I was only using the most basic of my insects right now since they were separated from me like this but I could from the map of the room and its inhabitant in my head and as I looked over the room, I could see what everyone was feeling for their expressions and postures.  Forty or so people.  I saw a full-grown man with a tear rolling down his cheek. The receptionist was still shaking even as she was led by Whirlygig over to the others to lay down with them and most people were following the orders given.

They’d only gotten control of the people on the first floor, but with Tattletale's announcement, it would make anyone on the above floors go into lockdown. They’d close up whatever rooms they were in, lock themselves in to keep safe and huddle down. The security might try something, but as soon as they understood they were dealing with Capes, they’d follow along with the rest. No security guard in a place like this would be expected to go up against a Parahuman and that worked to our advantage.

In this way, there would be less trouble when the villains started working their way up the floors.

I watched as Uber and Leet moved to the side of the room, fiddling with some machine, as Circus and Whirlygig made a show of being seen and in control so that none of the hostages did anything rash. Oddly, Regent was… not doing that. In fact, I could see him wandering off somewhere, out of the lobby and down a hallway I hadn’t mapped yet.

I hadn’t a clue why he thought it was a good idea to wander away for the rest of his tram, and even less of a clue why nobody was making an issue of it but none of that really interested me enough to spend any more time trying to figure it out.

What did, was the activity my bugs were picking up eight stories above. Through their eyes, I caught sight of someone who had heard the announcement along with everyone else.  A teenager with freckles and brown curls was glaring at the speaker system with raw loathing in her eyes like she could project her hatred through it and onto the one who had spoken.

The sight was a little blurry I tried to subtly focus my bugs on her from a distance, trying to get a good look at them.

It... was a teenager. A girl, maybe a few years older than me at most.

I had a feeling I knew who it was, just to be sure, I had some of the bugs in that hallway move from their hidden places and hover in front of her. I suspected she’d seen them from the way she jumped a little at the sight of them suddenly appearing in front of her like that and glared at them. Well, that was basically confirmation.

If she thought they were just regular bugs, I was sure she wouldn’t have reacted that way. Just to be certain, and maybe because I wanted to make a point, I made some of the bugs land on her clothes and move a little, from her clothes to her bare neck, hoping to get her to react and move a little so the rest of my bugs could set an image of her from all sides.

My vision through these insects wasn’t that good unless I really focused on specific ones I had modified for the task, so I wouldn’t be able to make out the exact details of her face this way but if she was someone I already knew then I could recognise them easily enough.

I stiffened, as my bug died. The feeling was as uncomfortable as it always was.

I let out a breath, the sound sifted through my mask. Well, it looked like she was where I had been expecting her to be. Her pace wasn’t hurried, so nothing seemed to be going wrong on her end, and with the commotion happening several floors down, I could guess that she wouldn’t have to worry about anyone showing up to surprise her.

All attention would be on the lobby first. That was where law enforcement would be looking with all the hostages corralled I neat little groups where they could be easily seen something that also happened to make it so that police couldn’t just burst in without risking said hostages getting caught in whatever crossfire there was from the chaos.

I wondered how likely that was, as I watched police cruses tear down the street and come to rubber-burning stops up front, sirens blaring loud and letting everyone outside that had realised there was a crime in progress know something was up. I watched and waited as more and more arrived, more than a dozen police cars by now, but nothing heavy-duty yet.

That would probably change once it was figured out that there were Capes involved. It would take long for PRT agents and troopers to show up when that bell was wrung.

But what I was waiting for nearly ten minutes later wasn’t them, it was the Wards. Powers shook up situations more than a gun-toting officer ever could, and everybody knew it. The police wouldn’t be happy with it, and they’d be even less pleased when they realised it was the kids instead of the Protectorate, but they’d stay exactly where they were until they arrived either way and defer to them when it came to dealing with Villains.

 And of course because the world apparently had some sense of humour, that was when I felt my bugs alert me to them.

My head snapped up and I heard a hiss escape me.

“Damn.” I muttered. They were here.

Nearly all of them were here.

Nobody had spotted me from my vantage point, but I could see all of them. They had their backs to me, as police cars began to pull up and surround the front of Medhall, officers and SWAT getting out and posting up along their vehicles as a barrier at front and centre? The Wards with their backs to me, facing the building.

Aegis, Gallant, Clockblocker, Vista. Kid Win, Browbeat. The only one that wasn’t here was Shadowstalker. At least Tattletale's information had been halfway decent there, not that it would change much, not when the last member of their little group floated down from the sky.

“Glory girl, damn it, she’s here far too early,” I muttered to myself. “Of course she can never understand the value of timing.”

New Wave didn’t have whatever counted as jurisdiction for heroes on this part of the city, not with the Wards close by, so for her to have arrived with them it meant she’d gotten in contact with them to arrange this. Not an issue by itself, but it did mean that her actions would be tied to whatever the Wards did here.

Glory Girl wasn’t just the average Hero in the Bay – for as much as the word average meant around here – she was New Wave’s ‘golden girl’ as it were. Their Alexandria package that the cameras loved. It was a fair thing to say that out of all the members of the Independent Hero group, she was the most public facing. It meant there would be eyes on her when this was over, whether it made her look good or not, New Wave wasn’t… in a strong enough position where they could shrug off bad publicity.

There was no way she didn’t know that either, so I didn’t have a single doubt she’d go all in whatever happened here.

I’d have to deal with that carefully.

On the other hand, she was the one I actually had the best plan for. When it came to the other?

I watched them, the colours of their costumes bright amidst the grey backdrop of the rainy grey city. They stood out, symbols of heroes standing to fight against villains.

Or at least that was the intention.

I couldn’t tell what their expression might have looked like from this angle, not without my bugs, but I could see their stances. Aegis and Gallant, their postures spoke of confidence, Vista’s was eager, Clockblocker’s was laid back, at east. The only two that looked even slightly like they might have any worries were Kid Win and Browbeat and even then it wasn’t anything major.

Well, they all would have had media training to varying degrees, and even though there weren’t any news crews around yet, people had taken notice at last of what was going on and more than a few had taken out their phones to record it the moment the Wards had arrived in the scene.

They were taking this as seriously. At least, as seriously as they knew how to, even if that bar was pretty low when you considered they were kids playing superhero.

They weren’t doing anything too complicated; just talking, about what assumed was whatever plan they had in mind going into Medhall.

The blonde was busy talking to Gallant right now though, so I had time, and as I watched Aegis talk to what was likely the commanding police officer at the scene right now, I let my bugs listen in and readied myself for what was about to happen.

“If you have a perimeter set up all around the sides then we can force them to come at us straight on.” The Ward’s captain was saying. “We’ll wait for now and get ready for an opportunity to catch them when they escape, I don’t want to risk any hostages they might have.”

“And what if they decide not to lay by your rules and do whatever they want to the hostages, Huh? How are you going to deal with that when they use it against you?” The older man demanded and formed his tone, he wasn’t happy with the fact that a Ward was giving him orders. Could a ward give him orders on matters like this? Leadership transferred to Protectorate Heroes in the matters of Parahuman crime but did that influence extend to their younger counterparts? I had no idea, and from the look on the man's face, I wasn’t sure he did either, but if it did…

Then maybe I had something I could use.

“Then we do what we can to get them out of there first.” Aegis pressed on. “If we have to, we’ll chase after them when they make a break for it and you can make sure the people inside Medhall are safe, I don’t want to set them off right now though and have them reacting violently.

“Maybe I can help with that.”

Everyone startled at my voice. The police officers jumped at the sound of my artificial bug voice and the Wards spun to face me, catching the direction it had come from. They looked ready for an attack, surprised and suspicious, but my eyes were on Glory Girl, whose eyes snapped upwards instead of forward like the rest of them, who were expecting someone close by and on ground level with how my voice projected sounded to them. No, she was more aware of what I could do with my insects and knew what to look for. Her eyes skimmed over the mass of bugs I had clinging to a nearby wall and tried to search me out, waiting for me to show myself.

So I did.

I dropped down from my perch and stepped out of the shadows, out of the alleyway.

I had it all lined out in my head. How I wanted to appear to them. I wasn’t trying to be a horror villain right now. I didn’t want to completely terrify them even if it might have gone the length to make them listen to me. No. I needed to project an aura of… maybe not friendliness; I wasn’t dumb enough to think I’d be able to do that well considering I was dressed the way I was right now.

Putting forward an air of professionalism would be more effective right now, not to mention easier. I didn’t need the Wards to know me as a person to be friends with, just someone they were willing to work alongside for the moment as it presented itself.

Keeping it cool, calm, collected. That was the best way to do it.

There was a ripple of surprise from the Wards at the sight of me, as I came out with my hands by my side, palms open and facing them in a sign of peace. Aegis, Gallant and Browbeat relaxed first and I saw Aegis’ mouth turn up into a smile at a friendly face.

Or, well, mask.

He recognised me easily enough from the last time we’d run into each other. Good. That saved me time

Aegis made a show of it for the others as he nodded to me and I allowed him the courtesy of nodding back.

The others looked a little more wary. That was fair, they hadn’t seen me in person up close before. I was probably a sight to them. In my Costume, which I knew was intimidating, that would have been enough, but I’d stepped out with a portion of my swarm behind me, around me, a small, swirling back cloud and scores of bugs clinging to my body like a living second suit.

I injected some facsimile of amusement into my voice. It didn’t exactly work with how I hadn’t figured out how to alter the tone of my bugs when I talked through them from the flat, monotone cadence it held, but I was hoping they got the intent of it. “You don’t have to look so ready to fight me, Wards. Like I said, I’m here to help.”

“Oh shit, it’s you!” Clockblocker gasped, the first of them to get his bearings back and point at me with a finger. “Skitter’s here to save the day!”

I stopped, a misstep, for just a split second, so minute it wouldn’t have been noticeable even as it sent a flare of annoyance up my spine. I managed to hide the reaction as I continued my stride towards them without giving away that he’d caught me off guard. Remembering myself, I look at him and make a show of tilting my head.

“Skitter?”

My insects, those rising behind me like a black canopy and those in the shell-plates of my suit buzzed in a sharp, low drone.

They shuffled again, eyeing them more intently, as Vista shoved her elbow into Clockblocker’s side.

“O-oh, uh, sorry!” He managed, looking nervous all of a sudden, scratching the back of his head. “I um, came up with the name after I saw your video and I think it’s kinda stuck now. I mean it’s not a bad name, right? After seeing what you did to the Empire earlier this week but when the PRT heard it they took it and ran with it and-”

He was silenced by a second sharp elbow from Vista, the younger girl glaring at him through her visor as if demanding that he keep his mouth shut. The bugs I’d tagged her with meant I could hear Vista hiss under her breath about how he had made the name sound like an insult.

And it was an insult, that much was obvious. A part of me wanted to bristle at that. As far as the Protectorate knew, I’d been nothing but helpful, and yet they’d slapped me with a name like that, a name that stuck me with negative connotations.

Skitter. Creepy. Small. The kind of word you slapped on something that made you shiver with disgust. A bad name, for someone that wanted others to feel safe in their presence. The kind that would make people look at me in distrust.

Again.

But that was how they worked, wasn’t it? The Protectorate, the PRT to a greater extent. Public perception wasn’t just something they worked their one Capes over with, it was what they enforced on the rest as well. Name like that conjured certain imagery, and if I wanted something different, I would need to either go to them and join up and accept whatever brand they saddled me with, or do something significant enough that people listened to me over the when it came to what I called myself.

It was annoying. All of it was annoying, just by the name alone, it gave me a glimpse into how they saw me. If Clockblocker could make a joke and they were fine to stick with it… it gave me an idea of just how appreciative they were of all of my help so far.

I didn’t want it to phase me though. Not visibly any more than it already had. I fed the last of my irritation into some insects further away, letting a pack of spiders descend upon a rat and rip it apart a ways away from here. It worked well enough, as I went still.

Clockblocker shifted nervously. He wasn’t scared exactly, but I knew he was watching my swarm with a growing unease. Anxious to be in my presence, that much was obvious. That was good, vindicating even, just a little, but I needed him not to jump at my shadow right now. I needed to get him to relax just a little.

“Skitter.” I repeated the name as if testing it out. “I see. It is as good a same as any. That is what I will go with from here on out then. Thank you, Clockblocker for the… inspired choice.”

He shivered, even as the others showed visible signs of relief that I wasn’t unstable or offended enough to make it a problem for them right now.

I turned to Aegis slightly, just enough so that he knew I was giving him my attention. “What is the situation?”

“A group of villains have taken over Medhall.” He answered, clearly happy to have another Cape on his side despite my appearance, and one he already knew could handle themselves to boot. “The police gave us their names but they’re not capes that usually work with others, with the exception of one pair. We don’t know what they’re after, but from what we can tell by how most of them in there usually do things, it’s to steal something. Worse than that, they have Hostages, and worst of all-”

“They have Panacea.” I finished, nodding.

Glory Girl took a step forward, making herself the centre of attention as her Aura swelled and surprise rippled through the others, conveniently making it so that they missed how it took the sister of Panacea a second to put on the suitable affronted expression.

“How do you know that! How did you find out my sister was in there when you only just got here!?” She demanded harshly. She crossed her arms as she stood in front of me all authoritative-like. Looking to everybody like she was mistrustful of a stranger.

“My bugs.” I volunteered the information like it wasn’t a big deal, careful to… stretch the details of what I’d actually seen at the same time. “I can sense things through them, hear what is being said and get an outline of an area. I have already sent some of them into the building discreetly. I noticed Panacea in the lobby with the rest of the hostages. It does not seem like the villains in there are aware of her presence. She is safe.”

Glory Girl gave an audible sigh of relief that made me want to roll my eyes as she sagged back, sinking down. I hadn’t even registered that she’d started to hover off the ground.

“Thank you.” She breathed at the knowledge that her sister wasn’t in any immediate danger and I nodded and once again turned to Aegis.

“There are thirty-six Hostages including Panacea in the main lobby. They are all on the ground in the view of Whirlygig and Circus. They haven’t harmed anyone, but the warning not to move is clear.”

It was as blatant as I could be that I was friendly and on their side and finally the Wards relaxed in full, willing to take the olive branch I was offering.

“That’s great, we can use that.” Gallant said. “If we can draw them away – whatever name the group is using for itself – we can stage a rescue.”

“How?” Vista demanded. “If Uber and Leet are in there then they probably have some annoying tech to mess with what any of us can do, at least for a while. Last time they made something that I couldn’t punch through it with my powers. That’s the fastest way to evacuate people safely.

“I can get in.” Glory Girl announced.

“And if you tried they could lash out and get people hurt in the panic you might cause. You wouldn’t even need your aura for that.” Aegis shook his head. “We might have gone with that if we didn’t know better, but now we have more options to work with and what’s at risk. Skitter, can you get anything more out of it?”

“It would be difficult.” I lied. “My insects only react so far when they are out of my line of sight. To get a better grasp, I would need to get closer to Medhall, close enough to slip more in through an opening.”

“That’s risky.” Browbeat said, his voice low. “If they spot you all hell could break loose.”

“Can we use it in other ways?” Clockblocker asked. “Because if we’re stuck out here in the rain getting colds then I think we have a bit of a problem. Can’t go in and bust them because somebody could get hurt and I don’t like the idea of just waiting around.”

“It’s still an option.” Gallant argued. “Like Aegis said, we can wait for them to come to use when they try to make a break for it. We can catch them there.”

“And what if they take somebody hostage then too?” Vista pushed back “Are we going to let them take a civilian with them so we’re forced to let them go? They’d escape that way and somebody would be hurt anyway!”

“They wouldn’t get far.” Glory Gil glowered, her fists cracking as she clenched them, a dark look on her face like she was willing to be more than just rough with the villains if it meant keeping her sister safe from them. From the way Gallant was glancing at her, she was being more than genuine about her attitude towards that fact.

I needed to offer a solution then.

There were other things they could do, if they talked to the police officers again I was betting they could get a negotiator, someone that could contact Circus’ group directly and turn this into a hostage negotiation, try to eke out concessions and deals to make things run more smoothly and stall for time.

“I’m capable of being stealthy.” I tell them and they all look to me again. “As I said before, if I can get inside the building, my swarm will have better vision, from there, I may be able to coordinate a strike where you can enter when they are separated from the hostages. If I get the chance, I may even be able to do to them what I did to the Empire already.”

I saw Clockblocker shiver at the reminder, but he said nothing so neither did I.

“That would mean going in there by yourself.” Aegis pointed out. “That’s too dangerous.”

“I am not a Ward. You do not need to fear for my safety, and I only need time once I get in. I will be able to hide myself away. All I need is two things.”

The Wards shared a look, discussing something silently, probably asking each other if they could trust me to do as I was saying.

Eventually, Gallant shrugged and Aegis nodded. “What do you need?”

“Firstly, a ways to communicate with you when I am inside.”

“Done.” Kid Win offered, hovering over to me on his flying board and handing me a small white object. An earpiece, I realised, that would allow me to hear and speak to them at will. I took it, letting him drop it into my hands and nodded to him.

“The second thing I will need is a distraction. One that will keep their eyes on a group of Wards rather than the Cape entering from the side.”

“I can do that.” Glory Girl agreed sharply. “Give me a megaphone and I’ll make sure I’m all those bastards can hear.”

“We’ll get on that.” Aegis assured her before looking at me. “Are you sure about this, you’d be going in alone.”

I make a show of chuckling at his concern. “Don’t worry, Ward. People like them won’t be able to hurt me.”

“Still, I would feel better if you had backup. One of us to watch your back.”

‘And why are you so eager to let one of your teammates go off with a stranger? Even if they helped you once or twice?’

I paused, seeing an opportunity. “Well, I have an idea of who I’d like to watch my back if that’s the case.”

“You so?” Aegis perked up.

“Yes.” I said. “It can’t be Glory Girl, her presence is needed here, the same with Gallant, I think he and Vista will be important in stopping them from getting far if they do break out. Kid Win would be better using his technology outside than in and if I’m not wrong, Browbeat is still new. Sending him in without one of you to look out for him would be more than unfair. On top of that, you are the leader.”

I saw the realisation kick in. “Which just leaves…” He trailed off as we all turned to the one person I hadn’t mentioned.

Clockblocker stiffened. “Oh you have got to be kidding me.”

“Your power would be useful in quick and stealthy captures.” I offered unsympathetically. “All you need to do is… stick close to me.”

He stared at me for a long moment. “This is petty revenge for the name, isn’t it?”

“Quite possibly.” I shrugged.

The boy groaned.

“Nobody appreciates comedy anymore.”

“You call that comedy?”

“Shut up Aegis.”

…

…

To their credit, the Wards were quick to get what they needed and get started. They got the place to form a better perimeter, blocking off all the roads around Medhall to limit the chances of escape and Glory Girl took point in front of the doors, front and centre for everyone to see. An obvious target for everyone to pay attention to, and even though there was a chance someone could figure out she was a distraction, it didn’t change the fact that they couldn’t take their eyes off of her.

She was an Alexandra package that could take pretty much anything that most Criminals could throw at her. If someone inside the building took a potshot, then she’d be fine and more than capable of making them regret it.

In the meantime, it was Aegis who took up the role of communication, talking clearly into a microphone with Gallant at his side, likely helping him along with whatever insight he could offer.

It was something that a police officer should have been doing, but I’d caught another glimpse of them being obstinate. The man in charge of them here had basically washed his hands with the leadership, foisting it all onto the Wards, along with the responsibilities for it. He and his men were in the back, acting as an encirclement, but far out of the way where they could have probably been doing something more to be of use.

Maybe I just wasn’t aware of all the police procedures when it came to situations like this involving Capes, but even being on this end of it, it rubbed me the wrong way.

Either way, it wasn’t something I should be focusing on, so I pushed it out of my mind.

I was doing exactly what I had promised, making my way around the side all the while making sure to be as subtle as possible, keeping low and leading as Clockblocker followed me, following my movements. He wasn’t as good at the whole stealth thing, and that wasn’t just because of his all-white suit. Still, he didn’t need to be when I wasn’t actually worried about being caught by anyone. I’d already sent bugs in and had them appear in the form of words in front of Circus and the others, letting them know I was coming.

We eventually circled around to the same door the villains had entered through before and since I’d watched them put in the code, it wasn’t hard to get it open and for the two of us to slip inside.

I straightened up the moment I was in, waiting as Clockblocker kept his hands on the door to make sure it closed slowly and when he was done with that, he joined me in standing up.

“Whew.” He said in a quiet voice. “Well Aegis, we’re in.”

The earpiece I was given crackled to life with a short burst of static. “Good. We’ll keep on point out here and make sure to keep their attention on us. Be careful and stick to the plan. Remember, this is about locating all of the hostages and making sure they’re safe. Leave fighting until later.”

“Understood.” I said, and dropped the call. “Come on.” I turned to the other boy. “My bugs have them in their sights. We should get moving and find someplace nearby to make sure we’re in a position to do something.”

“Uh, right, lead the way.” He saluted as I started walking down the hallway. He fell into step beside me and for a minute, there was quiet. Time which I took to map the rest of the building. Those hidden little infestations I had prepared form before shuttered as they came within my range and fell under my Power's control. For now, I let them be, but it felt better having more options at my fingertips.

“So uh… Skitter.” Clockblocker started, tapping absently at the clocks on his suit. “Are you… new to the Cape gig? Before tangling with Lung I mean?”

I didn’t say anything for a moment, thinking the question through. Not just in whether or not I should answer it at all, but on when it was exactly I had ‘entered the Cape gig’ in the way he was talking about. After a second, I decided that it wasn’t that big of a deal if I told him.

“It wasn’t,” I told him. “I’ve been working for years now, although most of what I did before was more… under the radar. My fight with Lung was the flashiest, I think. Though to be fair, it was also the first time I bothered to show myself in this costume.”

“Wait, you’re saying you went you Caping in your civilian Identity before that?” Clockblocker startled and I could hear the disbelief in his voice. I wasn’t entirely sure why he sounded that way, but I answered all the same.

“That’s right in a way. It was never needed before then and the sort of things I was involved in weren’t the sort of thing I did for cameras. Being discreet was the point. Now though? Well… things have changed.”

“Okay, cool, cool, just go against what almost every other Cape in the world does, not like its deal or whatever. Any reason for that? I mean, if you feel like sharing. Can’t imagine what makes a person want to go out superheroing in an outfit covered in creepy crawlies, but maybe that’s just me.”

I turned my head a little, shooting him a proper glance. “There are things I want that changed how I need to do things now.”

Even through his faceless mask, I could feel him staring back at me.

“…Was that meant to sound Ominous? Because it sounded ominous.”

I looked away and kept walking. “I’ll let the Protectorate figure that out themselves. I think I’ve given enough hints for them to tangle themselves up in already.”

“Harsh.” I heard him mutter as he hastened his pace to catch up with me.

We made our way through the same halls that I’d tracked Circus and the team through earlier, taking it at a slower, more cautious pace so as to not give the game away. I could hear them talking through my regular senses, Uber and Leet that was. They were in the lobby, eating up the attention of everyone in the room with their theatrics and I knew that their ‘Snitch’ was likely recording everything they were doing.

We came to a stop at the door that led right into the lobby. It was all that was between us and the rest of them. Clockblocker turned to me.

“So, you ready to get started?”

“Of course.”

On my silent command, the swarm inside my suit burst out and surfed through the door, slamming it open and drawing startled cries inside the lobby, cries that grew as my swarm cloud rushed in and expanded like a cloud of hissing danger.

It went straight for Uber and Leet, and they yelped and stumbled when it got close, encircling them. They fell backwards, barely managing to catch themselves and Whirlygig’s shriek was the starting gun for CLockblocker to take point and step into the lobby. I followed and the swarm parted, revealing us to the crowd.

All eyes turned to the two of us and I caught the looks of relief and hope as the hostages recognised me and more prevalently, Clockblocker. My debut had not been quiet and I was recognisable to be sure, but he was a Ward, and a well-known one in the Bay at that. More so, they saw me, someone that had helped take down three empire capes, and Clockblocker, whose power meant all he needed to do was touch someone to beat them and across from us? Two joke villains, a Clown escape artist and a newbie.

The odds, just at a glance, looked like they were in our favour.

What were they thinking, I wondered. ‘Thank goodness a hero was here? We’re saved now? We can get out of here now?’

In that moment, they believed that the Heroes had come to save the day.

Well, it was a shame I would have to show them that it wasn’t just yet.

After all, I had managed to convince the Wards to send the boy with the only power that I was actually threatened by along with me, alone, where he would let his guard down thinking there was someone to watch his back.

A fly and a spider.

I spun and backhanded Clockblocker across the side of his head hard enough to send him reeling and stumble. Before he could react, I lunged, grabbing his wrists and swung, tearing the Ward off of his feet. He cried out and couldn’t react in time to activate his power as I threw him right in front of the hostages. He hit the ground and tumbled and a few people yelled out something I didn’t bother listening to. It didn’t matter, and now, neither did Clockblocker, because the moment we’d touched, I’d handed off a particular little spider I’d been working on.

One with venom tailor-made to temporarily render whoever it bit sluggish and limp, and I’d slapped it on his back.

It really was unfortunate for him, that his suit was more for show than actual protection. It wasn’t even hard to order the spider to bite down, and then, it was over.

There was silence. Absolute, astonished silence, as the Hostages knelt there, subject to what had just happened yet seemingly too stunned to fully understand yet what had just happened.

I turned to Circus fully and tilted my head.

“How much longer do we need?”

Another beat of silence, of the realisation, and then the dread settling in.

Circus let out a single bark of laughter and twirled their hammer like a paperweight as Whirlygig helped Uber and Leet to their feet, and I saw them shiver as the bugs I’d had near them for show moved away. “Everything’s where it needs to be and we’re ready for whatever the kiddos outside have planned, especially now that you've taken one of them down so punctually.”

“Good.” I said through a thousand chittering bugs that made the hostages whimper. “Then we can move on to the next step.”

…

…

Chapter Text

I watched for a minute as Clockblocker was hoisted up and set on his knees along with the rest of the civilian hostages, right in the centre of their numbers. In another situation, that might have been a mistake. It would have given him people to hide his actions behind as he tried to escape or carry out some sort of plan, maybe even try to warn the others.

Or turn things around on me.

That wasn’t the case here. I set my bugs on not only him, but the rest of the people here. A few made fearful noises but I wasn’t too concerned about that. What I was concerned about, was keeping track of them all and making sure they didn’t do anything stupid. My spiders worked to gradually wrap them in silk, around their ankles and wrists. Not tight enough to cause any damage if they tried to struggle against the bindings, but enough that they wouldn’t break from the normal application of human force.

“What is all this?” Clockblocker demanded in a dazed voice. His body must have felt weak, his movements were slurred and it showed in his voice. It sounded like it was a struggle for him to speak. Not like he was in pain, more like he was drunk. All the same, while the paralyses would last for some time yet and keep him from doing anything too crazy for a while, it still allowed him to speak.

“You acted like some big Hero when you took the credit for Lung, then when you fought off the Empire, you got all chummy with Heroes, to the point where I could say ‘hey, she might be wearing enough bugs that I wouldn’t want to touch her with a ten foot pool, but she’s cool enough I guess’ only to go and do this?” I could feel his glare through the featureless mask. “This is stupid on so many levels. Nobody in their right mind would throw away the trust the Protectorate was giving you and you... You just did it.”

He rose up a little, straightening his back as if trying to stand tall even on his knees. The levity he’d slipped into that little speech had done wonders for the crowd around them. They were still afraid, but I could feel it, the indignation as they thought the same thing.

‘This creepy bug villain had a chance to be a good guy and she’d thrown it away. How dare she.’

It was a glimmer of resistance.

“Well?” He demanded. “Not going to say anything? Gloat or monologue? That’s what overdramatic villains are supposed to do, isn’t it? That would round out this mess of a morning pretty well, I think.”

I couldn’t afford any resistance from any of the. The moment somebody got the idea to fight back in their head, they’d do something stupid. And then somebody would get hurt.

So I needed to crush that glimmer.

With a thought, the insects in my costume began to writhe and spill out from the crevasse in my armour plates like a leaking sludge. They roiled and fell, splashing onto the ground like muck. Above me, hidden hives that had been set previously to grow their numbers finally expelled their overpopulation and a mass of black and brown spread like a shadow.

Over the walls, the ceiling, even the windows until the lights dimmed and the room was filled with a nearly deafening mass of clicking, chittering sound.

Clockblocker had gone still.

And so my bugs did as well.

Silence.

Absolute silence.

From the Hero, from the hostages, and even from the other villains.

From Circus, Uber, Leet, and Whirlygig, who stood rooted to their spots, and still as a statue, as if any movement might set off an attack.

The fear, I could practically taste it. It was a palpable, tangible thing. And like anything, it could be a tool, if used properly.

All I needed to do was use it like one.

So I did what I had been doing this whole time already, I spoke through my bugs, only this time, I spoke through every bug in the room. All at once, all in unison, all with one command.

“Be Silent.”

And they were. Not a single sound came from them. Nothing but their panicked, stifled breaths, as I ordered part of the swarm back where it had been before, some, going further up the building to search the rooms I hadn’t in person yet, and the rest, back into my suit. More than before, more than enough to be ready for something serious.

Conveniently, the bugs I’d reclaimed had positioned in a way to cover the cameras we had been gifted by Tattletale on my person.

Clockblocker, at least, was mercifully quiet. Maybe he’d figured out that riling up helpless civilians around him in a situation like this, in front of villains that could actually hurt someone, wasn’t the best idea.

Or maybe I’d just scared him enough that whatever bravery he’d had before that let him speak up had left him.

I was honestly leaning toward the former rather than the latter.

Either way, it got me the result I wanted, and so I didn’t waste any more time on him.

I turned to the other villains, ignoring the way they flinched at my gaze and regarded me with more wariness than before.

“Keep them under control.” I told Circus. “It won’t be long before the Wards get impatient and try something. I’m sure you know already what not to do.”

“Y-yeah, course we do!” Leet coughed, clearing his throat. “We’ll handle this professionally.

Translation: We won’t harm the civilians, we won’t do any serious damage to the Wards, we won’t kill or maim anyone who can’t handle it.

Following those rules, it would be their best shot at reducing whatever heat came their way after this. On my end, it was as good insurance as I could get from their word alone that this wasn’t about to turn into some horrible bloodbath the moment I wasn’t in the room.

Just to be careful though, I slid some more of my bugs onto the hostages. At least if something did happen to any of them, I’d know.

“Good.” I said. “Then I’ll do what we came here to do.”

I turned on my heels and strode out of one of the doors that led to the stairwell. My insects spread across every surface as I did, slipping into cracks and crevasses, under doors and through vents. I heard more than one startled shriek from behind locked doors, but that didn’t concern me. So long as there wasn’t anybody threatening waiting to jump out behind me when I walked past, that was all that mattered.

Really, a precaution more than anything.

But what did matter, was the occupant on the third floor that I had seen before. Of Panacea, busy with something hidden away from all the commotion.

A part of me wondered what she’d heard downstairs, on the first floor, but I remembered she’d already reacted to my bugs before I entered, so it was likely she wasn’t all that concerned about it either way.

My bugs roamed across the walls and ceiling, sweeping over the semi-sterile environment of the building, checking corners and hallways for anyone or anything that could be a threat both above and below.

People that had locked themselves in rooms whimpered and screamed at the sight of my insects slipping in. I didn’t order them to attack, but I kept them lingering there in smaller formations while moving the majority on to keep up with what I was doing. It would be enough to keep them sensible and afraid of doing anything stupid.

I came to the door and with another check to make sure that neither my camera r microphone was on, I stepped through the door.

And there she was, Panacea, frozen at the sound of the door opening and the shadow of a figure entering, one hand halfway inside a metal locker filing cabinet.

She stared at me, at my silhouette lit by the lights outside the door for one long second, before her eyes narrowed.

“Well, guess you’re here now, bug freak.” She scowled.

“Don’t sound so offended, Panacea I’m not the one skulking around like a sneaky little crook.” I responded, my voice without the bugs, but flat and dry.

The response from her, a darker scowl, was familiar.

Of course, that was exactly how it really was between us. Now that we were in an environment where Victoria wasn’t here to look over our shoulders. Where neither of us had to pretend to friends with each other more than we really did for her benefit, so she wouldn’t figure out that her sister and a girl she called friend almost couldn’t stand to be in the same room as one another.

Because well, that was exactly what it was like.

For as much as we acted amicable in front of Victoria, the truth was, for as long as I could remember, neither Amy nor I saw the other as a friend.

…No. That wasn’t true, even if it felt like the friction had always been there, the truth was that we had been friends not even that long ago. Not the closest of confidants or anything but… I had thought we had been getting closer. To the point where I thought we could really call each other friends.

And then that had changed. I don’t remember why, but one day, months ago, it was like something had changed. The next time I’d seen her; it was like she couldn’t stand to look at me. Hostility had infected any relationship we’d had before that and it had only gotten worse.

If I was being honest, I couldn’t tell anyone what the reason for that was. I tried to find something in my memory, hazy as it was, that might have given me a clue as to what had happened to mess things up like this but… There wasn’t any big event or incident, at least not that I could remember.

While I couldn’t say exactly the same for Amy, to me, that question of what shattered our trust made it worse to the point where it became a matter of us not being able to stand the other when we were alone. Something would be said or done to set the other off and it would spiral down from there. I couldn’t even begin to explain how or why, and the one time I’d asked her what her problem with me was in private, it had just made her even more furious.

As if ignorance was just an even greater insult on top of it all.

She’d threatened me with words I didn’t feel like repeating, even in my own head that day.

From there, I just had to conclude that it was something… something I’d forgotten and that it had burned our bridges…. Made it so that we were just incompatible.

Once again, another one of my relationships, my friendships… withering and dying in my arms.

Fortunately, as much as we couldn’t be friendly, we could be professional.

“How far have you managed to get with your search? I asked as I stepped further into he room, drawing up next to her to glance at the files she’d started pulling from their folders.

She gave a grunt, shoulders dropping just a little.

“It took me a while to slip away where I wouldn’t be noticed, even with the panic you started, and took even longer to find the room I was looking for, but yeah I found the right place eventually.”

I raised a brow to shot her a dry look I knew she could sense even with my mask on. “How much of that time did you spend wishing you could punch somebody?”

“Oh my God, it started almost instantly. I swear the people on the top rungs of this place traded all their personality for paychecks.” She made a face and groaned. “More than that, I’m betting.”

I hummed.

Panacea had worked hard behind the scenes to get a chance to work in Medhall for a day, whatever form that took, in a way that wouldn’t be suspicious. Having them invite her after she’d offered them the good publicity of having Pancea visit the clinic headquarters was something no sane person would pass up.

Not if they didn’t want to raise eyebrows. Just like we’d been hoping for.

“So do you mind filling me in on what you’re doing in here?”

She made a half gesture towards the shelves and the cabinet opened in front of her.

“It’s one of their in-house storage facilities. It’s where they keep all the good stuff, both pre-and-post-production for their drugs and medicine. The ingredients and finished cases all in one room that takes up half a floor. Probably got it so they could cut back on taxes and keep all their important stuff in-house, two birds and all that. Lucky for me, I managed to snag this from a few floors up when nobody was looking.” She raised a hand and waved around a clipboard with a veritable stack of paper on it.

I blinked. “Is that what I think it is?” I asked as I walked over and removed my mask, clipping it to my waist as I took out my glasses with my free hand.”

“Yep.” Panacea said with a popping sound. “A manifest.”

There was irony there, in a way. Thanks to Tinkers and Thinkers, a lot of the ways information could be stored safely and protected was limited. Or buisnesses and organisations, this wasn’t that big of a problem for the main reason that there was no reason for the majority of villains to take an interest on whatever they had on their databases, and WEDGED made sure to be on the look out for the kind of villains that dabbled in financial crimes.

That didn’t mean there weren’t any redundancies and plans though. One of them, the most notable in my opinion, was that a lot of the time the most sensitive information wasn’t stored on a computer. Instead it was relegated to old-fashioned paper. Something that couldn’t be hacked. Again, it wasn’t standard, for obvious reasons like practicality and the ability to actually use whatever was being hidden in a legitimate way, but I knew that places like the PRT and the Pentagon did it. There were things they had that they couldn’t afford to let slip.

But that lent to the question…

“Why does a clinic have need for physical manifests like this?” I muttered, with the sliver a feeling that our suspicions really were going to be proven true

“My point exactly.” Panacea nodded, stepping to my shoulder so that we could both read it as she pointed to some of the items on the list. “And look here; a lot of this stuff is the sort of thing you can’t get in America. There’s no production facilities for it over here, but there is a demand for it in Europe.” She took one of the containers, unscrewed the cap and dropped a pair of pills into her hand. Pinching them between her fingers, rolling them.

Amy had explained to me once, after I found out what her powers really were, that being a biokinetic meant she got a read of people when she touched them. Like a scan of their body. It didn’t tell her everything about them right away, and it didn’t cram the knowledge of what everything in a person's body was or did like an encyclopedia, but she got the intent of it what she could do to manipulate or fix it or even just to know it was there. In a lot of ways, it was like Structural Grasping magecraft for organic matter. Regular studying did the rest there.

But what was really interesting to me, was that it wasn’t limited just to the human body. Sure, it worked on animals too, even plants but because of that, there was something else Panacea could do.

She could read the ingredients of a drug whether they were animal or plant-based and what was more, if she really focused, she could glean some of its history and origin.

What animals and plants it came from, and how long ago.

That was more than useful, when said ingredients came from another country.

“That’s not enough on its own, though.” I reminded her even as I ran a finger down the list myself. “There’s no reason to say that Medhall isn’t just getting this stuff because it’s cheap and easy, or that they have a good relationship with a supplier overseas.”

“A good relationship is one way of putting it.” Amy snorted and leaned over my arm to point at something on the page. “So here? This signature shows up all over the place. The same person or group is signing off on all this stuff, over and over again. As far as I can tell, Medhall has a single main supplier. One based out of Germany.”

“Getting closer.” I nodded. “But any two-bit lawyer could argue that’s just a coincidence and it wouldn’t be hard to convince people. “

“Yeah I know that.” She said, handing me the list fully as she moved further into the storage room. “It gave me a clue of what I was looking for though. Even if those facts aren’t damning, they are suspicious and the guys in charge of this know that. The people who transport this and look at the manifests? Manage all the comings and goings of this stuff? They have to be in the know already so nothing gets let slip. Loose lips and all that.”

A hum of realisation from me. “So they have to already be grunts getting involved with he rest of their ‘work’ around here.”

“Exactly. And since I lifted my personal ban on healing injured gang members before Christmas…” She smirked at me. “There were a few recognisable traces left behind by people in this place.”

“I feel like Victoria would have a joke there.” I hummed, drawing another scoff from the healer.

“She would, and I’d throw something at her for it. Now, this was skin flakes, sweat, some hair here or there. Just enough for me to use. And what would you know, I got a match on one guy I remember with a busted leg and a whole canvas of tattoos that gave way exactly who he ran with.”

I nodded, flicking through the last few pages before handing the manifest back to her.

“So, Medhall is Empire then, or linked it with it in some way. Affiliated or more, if you can present it right to a court. We can at least present reasonable suspicion with this.”

“Yeah, and that means we can start looking deeper at exactly who hangs around here.” Amy told me as she took out her phone and started taking pictures of each page of the manifest before putting it back behind one of the cabinets to hide it. “That means finding some way to get access to that info, though.”

“Well I can think of one place.” I crossed my arms. “If our suspicions about all of this are right, then the CEO’s personal computer will be where we can find everything we need and act as a good enough bluff. That just leaves the question about whether Max Anders is in the building.”

“He is.” She confirmed. “I met him when I got here, all welcoming and professional to have Brockton Bay’s ‘premier healer’ in his building. He’d said he’d be joining me for the photo shoot near the end of my visit. I didn’t see him leave Medhall, so if I had to guess, he’s in his office right now waiting out this lockdown.”

“Well, I guess we know where to go next.”

“We?”

“Well, if I want to make sure he doesn’t pull anything where there’s nobody to see, I’ll need a hostage, now won’t I?”

It took her barely a second to realise what I was saying and then she glared at me.

“No, absolutely not.”

“It would give you a measure of deniability.”

“I’m not doing it.” Panacea scowled. “Actually playing along with this whole act is too far!”

I rolled my eyes as I started fitting my mask back on. “It’s also the best way to confirm this all. There’s a good chance the records of what we need are on his computer but if not… well you only need to touch him, don’t you?”

“There are so many ways this can go wrong. No, I’m putting my foot down.” She stamped her foot, as if to physically make her point. “Under no circumstances am I playing Hostage for you!”

…

…

“I hate you so much.” Panacea scowled, as I held her shoulder in a tight grip and guided her down the hallway in front of us, careful to keep her out of the direct line of sight of my camera as I did.

“Quiet now, I’m turning my mic and camera back on.” I told her, readying my bugs to speak through again. “Remember to play the part.”

She muttered something unkind under her breath that I ignored as I reinitiated my communications, and the moment I did, I spoke in a harsh, irritated cadence.

“Tattletale, answer, now.”

“Woah!” I heard her static-filled reply. “Cool it a little with the orders there, Bug. What happened? I saw your everything switch off for a few minutes there.”

“That was what I was going to question you about.” I said. “I have been trying ot contact you since I realised communications were cut off.”

“You were, huh?” She muttered before her voice seemed to brighten. “Well it would be weird for Medhall to have radio jammers or a cape wandering around in there that can do something similar but I don’t have anything else to work with right now. Sounds to me like they might have some juicy things to look into. Think you can?”

“No.” I cut off the request. “We’re here for a reason. Getting sidetracked won’t help us.”

“I wouldn’t call finding out who’s knocking out our communications getting sidetracked, but fine, what are you going to do instead?”

“I’ve secured the floors. The CEO’s office is my next stop.”

“Right, an access terminal with direct entry to their finances. You still got the boss’s little gift?”

“I do.”

“Great, then so long as the Protectorate doesn’t show up out of nowhere, then the others should bae able to handle the kiddies outside, especially with Clockblocker handled already.”

I paused only a second. Not enough to break my stride but Panacea glanced my way questioningly all the same.

“Is that what you’ve told the rest of the team?”

“Hm? Oh yeah, they’re all on the same page. They know not to get too rough with them and risk bringing down the hammer on us and stuff.”

“That wasn’t what I was talking about.” I said. “If they don’t want to be taken down like easy marks, then they need to keep watch on Clockblocker. If he gets the chance, they’re finished.”

“Nah don’t worry.” Tattletale laughed and I could imagine her kicking her feet up on a desk in my head. “We went over all of this already, remember? They know to keep away from the kids' hands so he can’t freeze them and keep him tied up. Circus and her crew have him handled.”

I thought back to my memories of Clockblocker. What I’d seen from him. Of… something hazy yet sharp with a strange sort of clarity. Not the recollection of it, but the knowledge it gave me.

“No.” I said. “As soon as Clockblocker is capable of moving properly again, he’ll be more than capable of taking on that entire team alone.”

“….What? You can’t be serious? Clockblocker? Little joke hero-Ward Clockblocker is going to take down a five-man team of villains all on his little lonesome. You sure you’re all there right now, bug?

“Do you have a problem with what I’m saying, Tattletale?”

“Yeah? I mean, come on. A member of the protectorate I could understand being worried about, but the Wards don’t have that sort of skill. They’ve got rules that say they can’t roll in the big leagues. The most they’re allowed to deal with are the safe ones like Uber and Leet.

“Which we currently have working with us.”

“Okay sure, that’s true but usually only by themselves. There’s no way they could get clearance to go up against a full team.”

It sounded to me like Tattletale didn’t have the full picture as to what the Wards could and couldn’t do. I could understand that, if only because practically everything to do with the Wards was kept separate from Protectorate and PRT databases.

Or what counted as databases when you were frced ot keep most secrets as physical records instead of digital.

“Have you seen the Wards in action, Tattletale?”

“No, of course I haven’t, I just told you that I’ve never heard of them being in any real action.”

That was enough for me. It meant the things the Wards had done in the last year hadn’t spread. Hell, they probably hadn’t even been reported. I had a feeling none of the Wards that had gone through it had wanted to talk about it with the adults looking over them. It was the sort of thing that would have got them transferred out of the Bay in a misguided attempt to safeguard them. 

It wouldn’t have made a difference in the end if the PRT had been told and if I was remembering this right, it had been impressed upon the younger heroes not to talk about it.

Looked like they’d listened to that advice.

“You’re keeping something to yourself, Bug.” I heard something in her voice turn sharper. “Mind sharing with the rest of the class?”

“It’s not relevant,” I told her. “All you need to know is they’re more than capable of taking on serious threats, and nobody down there ranks as one.”

“…okay… let's say I believe that. How screwed are the rest of them down there?

“So long as none of them start hurting the hstages, not very. The Wards won’t push things if it means civilians could be hurt.” I said “They’re trained enough to understand how these things go. If I had to make a guess on what they’ll do, keeping us in the building until the area is fully locked down will be their first priority. When they’re confident that escaping will be next to impossible, they’ll start applying pressure to have the hostages released. Maybe for concessions but I can’t think of anything they could offer. More likely, they’ll stall until a Protectorate Hero arrives on the scene to make a call on the situation.”

“That would be… bad.”

“It would be.” I agreed. “If we were planning on sticking around. Ideally, we’ll be gone way before anyone who could actually take charge comes back from their little PR event visit.”

“Well good news there at least. The chatter I picked up is telling me they haven’t gotten back to the city yet. They’ll be on their way, though, and Velocity showing up will put a damper on this whole thing if you ask me.”

I doubt we had to worry about Velocity. He was fast enough to make it here in sort order, sure, but he wasn’t a hero that did well in direct conflict. If anything, him being here would make regular hostage takers nervous. They’d be twitchy around somebody who could rush them at a moment's notice. That wasn’t the sort of thing you wanted then the other guy had a metaphorical gun to someone's head. He’d stay back and act as support when needed but taking charge front and centre wasn’t in the cards for the guy.

At least that was what I was hoping. If I was right, he’d hang back until someone more experienced with making calls like this showed up but if I was wrong… that would make things complicated for sure.

I wasn’t actually all that confident something wouldn’t go wrong if somebody jumped the gun here and I didn’t want to risk it.

“We’ll get it done before then.” I told her.

“I hope you do. Now uh, before I switch over and let the rest know, got anything you want me to tell the others? I have a feeling they’re going to be unconvinced about the Wards being real problems. I dunno how long you’ve been at this but most Capes have a bit of a chip on their shoulder. I don’t think any of them will be happy hearing that you think the kids could beat them.”

I resisted the urge to click my teeth.

“With the exception of Browbeat, I know for a fact that each of the Wards could do it. All of them at once means, the rest of the team you put together don’t have much of a chance in a serious fight. The only saving graces are that the Wards aren’t going to be fighting to kill or maim, and that I made sure that at least half of the people you did pick knew something about escaping from heroes.”

Pancea was silent but I could tell she was well aware of my reasoning

“…Okay…” I could hear the scepticism in Tattletale’s voice. “If you say so. Guess I’ll give the rest of them a heads up.”

“It’s not like it’ll matter.” I told her. “But it doesn’t need to. So long as they can stall long enough for me to get this done, that’ll be good enough.”

“Whatever you say, Bug.”

There was some sort of click that signalled the end of the conversation and I made sure to flick my end of the transceiver off too.

“Well?” Panacea prompted and it took me an embarrassingly long moment to remember she’d only been able to hear half the conversation. “How are things on the outside. Your criminal buddies keeping control of themselves?”

“I don’t know why you’d call them that.” I sighed before going on to explain my conversation with Tattletale.

Panacea frowned at how casual the Thinker had been about the ‘jamming’ excuse I’d been and I agreed that she probably hadn’t bought it. She’d had no proof of anything else though and now hadn’t been the time to argue about it.

“So she’s not going to pull anything behind your back? So long as you can keep this show from turning into a disaster at the flip of a coin.

“Your confidence in me is inspiring.” I responded sarcastically, prompting her to throw out a rude gesture. “But yes, things are under control right now. The Wards haven’t runshed in and things are stable right now. I could make a guess that Glory Girl has something to do with that.”

The healer nodded. “Yeah, Vicky and I agreed that she’d stick with them and act like the voice of reason.”

“Really?”

She glowered at me. Which was fair, I hadn’t hidden the unconvinced tone in my voice. I didn’t think anyone could blame me though. Victoria wasn’t the most… restrained individual. If I was being charitable, I’d call her blunt, reckless and bullheaded at the best of times and if I wasn’t…

Well nobody needed to hear what I could think about Glory Girl on a bad day.

All the same, it meant that to me, her bringing any sort of stabilising force was hard to believe. I knew she understood the stakes here, but a part of me had still expected her to play this by ear and wing it. Maybe she’d try and focus on the rest of the villains and try to conveniently miss me while Pancea and I went about our part of the job.

I didn’t see that working out well if she tried it.

Thankfully, it looked like she hadn’t. I could imagine that her Aura was helping her a lot with convincing the others to hang back, I knew the Wards were confident in their abilities and if I was being honest, well capable of taking down Circs and the others without endangering the hostages.

There was still some risk to it if they tried that though. There would always be no matter what Hero showed up to something like this. That risk was something they couldn’t afford to push, would try to, if only until they could be sure nothing would go wrong.

I could respect it, even as I abused it.

“She’ll do her best to keep them outside and nobody shooting at each other as long as she can or until I text her the all-clear, but we both know we’re running on a timetable here.”

I nodded. “True. So I guess we’d better get on with the next step, right?”

She took a breath, as if to steel herself. “Right. I guess we'd better.”

After that, Panacea fell silent as I directed us where we needed to go. We took the elevators. Walking up the stairwell sounded like too much of a pain for the two of us and I was confident that there were no secret security measures to override or lock down the elevators that could be accessed from anyone in Medhall at that moment.

  I had my bugs check to be safe either way.

It didn’t take long after that, rising to the highest floor, because of course that was where the CEO of Medhall decided to plant himself. Somewhere he could look down on everyone else.

The gold-plated sign on the door was clue enough as to the right office and with a shove, I pushed Panacea forward at the same time as slamming the door open with a palm.

The wooden door groaned and bent slightly at the force and nearly came off its hinges, slamming again the wall next to it with a loud and sharp bang.

And the man sitting at his desk looked up, a momentary flash of surprise at ur appearance in his office, before his features hardened and he understood the first inklings of what was about to happen here.

I entered behind the Healer without a word, gripping her shoulder in a show of threatening force as I guided her to the chair opposite the man's desk and forced her into it. I stood there, hand on her shoulder like some mockery of a confidant or aside, as I regarded the man before me through the yellow lenses of my mask.

He wasn’t all that impressive, though I could admit, not unimpressive either.

He wasn’t young or old, falling fairly centre in the range of middle-aged, with moderately attractive features and bright blue eyes that felt almost tauntingly spot on considering his suspected pastime.

None of that was to his favour. Not when his face was stretched into something like a cross between a glare and a grimace.

I had done some digging into the man himself; I’d been more than a little surprised to learn that Max Anders was well regarded. He’d done work to paint himself as a philanthropist, business entrepreneur, and a pillar of the community, the kind that gave people the chance to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table in an economically struggling city.

He also, ironically, had a reputation as Something of a playboy, which raised his esteem in… some circles.

Going deeper into his personal life hadn’t been all that much more effort spent. A single son, Theo Anders and another child through another marriage going by the name of Aster Anders, a little girl born recently to Kayden Russel. The latter was something of a mystery, having been seen extensively at Max's side for years, before cutting contact about a year ago. Not disappeared, the woman could still be found in the city, but she no longer attended the business parties, social events, and all the other things that Max frequented.

Divorce was the obvious conclusion and didn’t that leave an obvious hint as to who she was if this man was who he was suspected of being.

“Max Anders.” I spoke, cataloguing the way the man flinched as my insects crept in behind me, crawling over the walls and started filling up the far side of the room behind me. I saw the way his jaw clenched as his cool eyes went colder.

I knew, right away, that our guess had been correct. I could see it in the way he froze and tensed. Like he wanted to react. Like he wanted to do something iladvised and potentially dangerous for all parties involved.

But I also saw the way his eyes flickered to the girl in my grasp and I saw the way he physically worked to untense himself.

Max Anders. CEO of Medhall, the main pharmaceutical business in Brockton Bay, and one of the relatively successful competitors on the East Coast. A man regarded well for close ties to the wealthy community that existed in the Bay and seen as an on-again-off-again philanthropist with a keen mind for business and the social charisma to bring others into his orbit to work with him.

All of that, and it didn’t matter as he sat there at his desk and sternly glared at me with impotency. 

So you’re one of the villains that have decided to attack my company.” He announced, the timber of his voice steady and controlled. He was good at that, I noted. Projecting confidence. “I didn’t think there were villains that bullheaded in Brockton Bay. Attacking a pharmaceutical company? What is even the point?

I could have thrown that question back in his face on numerous issues, but that would give away too much at the moment.

“Well, this city is more used to Gangs and petty thieves than any villains with creativity.” I responded, my bugs affecting a bland, bored tone.

The man's eyes narrowed. “Just who are you supposed to be anyway. I heard rumours of some… insect cape showing up, but they were supposed to be a hero and no name was given. You’re the same person, correct?”

“You can call me Skitter. It’s the name I’ll be going with, at least for now. But you don’t need to know my name, Anders. All you need to do is understand what is going to happen now, and your role in it.”

“And that would be?

“Staying exactly where you are, doing as you're told, and causing me as few problems as possible. You are a hostage now, Max Anders.”

“And if I refuse?”

“Then I hurt you.” I answered simply. “I don’t have an interest in uncoperativness from the likes of you and believe me, I can make it hurt far worse than you’re imagining now. I have all sorts of toxins to make it hurt. And well…” I did my best to make it look like I had roughly shoved Panacea forward. She stumbled and fell to her knees, catching herself on the edge of the desk and glaring at me with hateful eyes.

“You should remember that it is not just your well-being you need to be concerned about… From what I’ve heard, you are a man that’s worked hard to earn respect in society. All these little favours, parties, meetings and the like… You know what it would take to ruin all of that work, don’t you? If anything, between your well-being and hers well…” I trailed off but I knew my point had been made.”

Anders’ eyes flickered to my so-called other hostage and I could see the calculations playing through his mind. What would happen to his reputation if the greatest healer on the continent was hurt because he didn’t cooperate?

If she was hurt or killed because his actions, he was ruined in more ways than one.

From the way his hands clenched into white knuckled fists atop his desk, he knew that too.

“What,” He spoke through gritted teeth. “Do you want?”

“Your cooperation.” I said. “Nothing more. To be accurate however, I want you to stay where you are and do… nothing. Now doesn’t that sound simple?”

His eyes narrowed. “You want me to just sit here and act the perfect hostage for you? What could you possibly want with the sort of trouble that would bring? Do you even realise what you’ve done here, ool? Threatening me and Panacea. If you’re lucky, the Protectorate will only charge you with a single life sentence when they throw you in a dark hole.

“I think they’ll be more concerned about other things, far more important things, soon enough.”

“No, they won’t, you stupid woman. I won’t let them forget. I’ll push for it in fact, to have the Protectorate hunt you down for this to make sure you can’t threaten anyone else! I’ll make sure you don’t get away with this!”

“You will, will you?”

I tilt my head. His ego was showing through. Any normal person in his situation, a rich businessman that didn’t know what a hard life was especially, would have been cowed by fear at someone like me. The swarm writhing in the room should have been enough and the voice and demeanour I was putting on should have sinched it.

Instead… here Max Anders was; meeting it with anger and defiance instead.

He was putting on a show, of that I had no doubt. Panacea was in the room after all, and in his head, he must have convinced himself that throwing his weight around and puffing up his chest in front of the healer was better for his image, for her opinion of him and how he could manipulate that.

It would have been something to respect, had both Panacea and I been unaware of the reasons why he felt so confident in doing it in the first place.

Of that fall sense of security he had from being more than normal..

“No… no that won’t work, will it?” I mused. “Even with all the warnings I’ve given you… You’re still thinking about how to turn the tables. Like you can be the hero of the hour. Itting, I suppose. For a man like you to live in a fantasy.”

I learned over his desk, my eyes boring into his behind my ask.

“But I don’t need interruptions.”

I snapped my fingers right in his face.

He made to say something before the hypnosis took effect. He sagged in his char slightly, like a puppet cut from its strings and his eyes fluttered, rolling back in his head.

And he slumped, falling back into his chair.

Panacea stared. “Is he…”

“Unconscious, but otherwise unharmed.” I told her. “He won’t be bothering anyone for a few hours.”

She didn’t say anything and as the silence grew, I realised she wasn’t just being quiet for no reason. I glanced at her, seeing the expression on her face as she stared at the unconscious man. “I know what you’re thinking. No, we can’t. Not yet.”

“But-”

“The proof is needed before any action is taken. Anything else will just muddy the waters. I, for one, don’t want to see if he can higher a good enough lawyer that can find a loophole in all of this.”

She sighed. “Okay. Okay fine, are we starting this then?”

I dragged Anders off his chair, setting him against the wall next to his desk. As he was, he wasn’t much of a concern for me, but I had a hunch I’d have to deal with him eventually, even if not today.  “We are.” I said, and turned towards the computer at his desk. It was on, but he’d locked it the second we’d entered.

There weren’t any special anti-thinker protections on it…. from the looks of the thing, it was just the regular old security that came with the machine. Well, that was fair. I imagined that Anders hadn’t thought anyone would ever make an attempt on Medall itself.

Shows what he knows.

I closed my eyes for a second and performed a structural analysis on the computer keyboard. It was a surprisingly useful feature of the specific magecraft of structural grasping. The most obvious feature was learning the makeup of an object or area; the blueprint, condition, and structure of it. In layman's terms, it was a scanning spell. Simplistic, surface-level readings were common at the lower levels of mastery and that was the most common, considering there wasn’t much point for a magus to invest time and effort into improving that line of magecraft.

For a long while it had been left at that, but in recent years there had been a lot more work to improve its capabilities. With time, the history and experience of an object could be gleaned, at least a little.

That wouldn’t be much of an improvement on its own.

Except we lived in the modern era, where people had become more reliant on technology, in interacting with it as easily and as efficiently as possible. That meant that a simple magcraft like structural grasping had become leagues more valuable.

Especially for such things as say, figuring out what keys on a keyboard were used to enter passwords and in what order.

My finger glided over the keyboard for just a few seconds, and that was all I needed. The hoescreen of Ander’s computer opened up and from there, my work was done for the time being.

Oh wait, no, one more thing.

I reached into my back satchel and pulled out a gunmetal black flashdrive, and inserted it into place. If this worked as I was told it would, then everything was in pace.

Sure enough, two new windows popped up, one with indecipherable text and jargon I didn’t understand, the other with instructions, passkeys and indexes linked to everything on the machine, as well as a notification letting me know that it had already started working in the background.

I suppressed an urge to shiver at the idea of magically manufactured technology like this, even small-scale as it was…

My sponsors were unnerving in the strangest ways sometimes.

No point in thinking about it right now. This had been their supposed boon to me, a way to help me integrate faster into the digital world with their group, well aware that the majority of Magi were still behind in reality.

In that way, even if I was wary of it myself, I didn’t have a good enough reason to suspect anything bad was going to happen from trusting them here. I just had to take them at their word that this really was something to help me and find out whether that ended up being true or not.

After a few seconds of watching it to make sure it didn’t suddenly explode or something, I unpocketed a second drive, this one given to me by Coil’s people. I set it into place and I could imagine Tattletale receiving some sort of message on her end and getting to work. If she was as good as she said she was, I could be expecting a fortune funnelling into my accounts by the end of this.

“Well,” I gestured to the keyboard as I stepped away. “Go take a look and find what we need.”

She shot me a flat look, seeming to suddenly recall that I was laughably bad with computers. “Right… I’ll just get on that.

She sat down at the desk and got to work, attention fully on what was in front of her. With luck, this wouldn’t take long but in the meantime, I had assurances to make do with.

While Panacea worked, I had my spiders crawl over the unconscious body of Max Anders, weaving silk threads around and around. They’d restrain him for a time when he woke up, and if he was careful with his image, that would hold him for a while.

After a second to think, I also had a mosquito take a sample of his blood. That would be useful for later, if things panned out right.

I had a few of my bugs keep track of what Panace was doing as I stepped away and fiddled with my communications.

“Update me on everyone’s status.”

There was a crackle of static, then her voice.

“It’s good right now but I’m beginning to think it’s not about to stay that way.” Tattletale told me. The kids are getting impatient. I’d bet good money they’re going to try something any minute now.”

My eyes narrowed. That wasn’t an exact estimate on how long I had before things got chaotic, but I could work with it.

“Fortunately, it looks like you held things up on your end.” The Thinker went on. “Medhall’s ging to be pissed when they see their underperforming on profits next quarter.”

“Remember not to take-”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Not enough to send them into a panic spiral and cause us problems in the future. Don’t worry your pretty little head about it, Bug. I’m already a pro at this sort of stuff.”

I made to respond when Panacea gave a grunt. I glanced over as she signalled that she was finished on her end. I nodded and started directing a section of my swarm out of the room and down the halls to scout them. No sense in lingering around someone like Anders if we didn’t need to.

“Alright… I’m nearly done here.. tell them to get ready to bolt.”

“Roger that. Good luck on your end I guess, and try not to get bogged down dealing with the Wards, yeah? It woud be totally embarrassing if you got your ass kicked after all that warning you were giving me earlier. I’d honestly have to laugh at you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

The call dropped and I turned to the Healer. “Come on. We should go before the Protectorate gets here and causes problems.” I opened the door and gestured for her to follow.

She scowled at me, shoving past me. “I don’t need you acting like some gentleman-or–or gentle- whatever the version is for women. Whatever! I don’t need you doing that thing.”

“You know,” I mused as I followed her down the hall. “That probably would have been more scathing if you’d know how you were going to finish the sentence.”

“Bite me, you bitch.”

I shook my head, half exasperated by her attitude even now, half in bafflement as to what set her off in the first place. I really didn’t understand what went through the girl's head.

Even still, I knew she could be trusted with what we were doing right now, and that was all that mattered.

“Here,” I said, offering her the black flashdrive with one hand. “In case things get too out of hand, it’s smarter if the one not going to be involved in punching people and getting punched holds on to this. Just make sure not to lose it.”

Panacea eyes it for a second, before letting out a puff of air and taking it from between my fingers. “Yeah, got it.” She said, stashing it away somewhere beneath her white robes. “God I can’t wait for this day to be over. I feel gross the longer I’m in this place. I need to take a long shower because of all this.”

“Why does it sound like you blame me for that.” I wonder aloud, prompting her to throw a rude gesture my way.

I meant to say something else-

But—

I stopped, as my swarm sensed a vibration from the outside of the building, a split second before I did. A moment where I perceived what was happening faster than a person normally could, and reinforced my body to hold steady, grabbed Panacea to pull her back a safe distance, right before the wall to my right shattered into pieces.

Glory Girl flew through the hole of her own creation, as concrete and debris smashed against the far wall, the Hero ignored it as she completed her path of swooping through the hallway and coming to a stop in front of me, arms crossed, hovering off the ground and radiating power as she grinned at me.

A single thought came to mind.

Time to move on to step three.