The Squad arrived at the bunker a bit before sundown, Greg feeling a bit of nostalgia at the familiar clunk of the door opening. "You coming in, or staying out?" Greg raised an eyebrow at the spider girl as he held open the door for everyone to enter.
The spider girl studied the entrance to the bunker carefully, wondering if this was their final goal, trapping her so they could do with her as they wished. She was scared, but… if she chickened out now, she'd never know if they were lying or not. "I-I will come." She finally answered, gulping nervously. She had to know.
Greg waited by the door, watching her. "Well?" He asked in exasperation, gesturing for her to go in. The spider girl took one last deep breath, before stepping into the bunker like she was stepping into hell. Greg swore he saw her praying. He just rolled his eyes with a sigh, before going in after her and shutting the door. "If you look though there, you can see outside to see if it's dark or not. You can leave whenever." He explained, before heading over to Tessa. "She gives me such a headache." He groaned, wrapping his arms around her and resting his head against hers.
"Now you know how I feel about Meredith." Tessa replied with a grin, leaning back against him. "Or you. You do realize this is the third feral you've brought home in a week, right? And why are they always women!"
"Guys don't stick around." Greg shrugged. "Women find me terrifying, but interesting. Men just find me terrifying."
"Interesting, huh? Is that what they call it?" Tessa asked sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
"I thought it was a better way to put it than saying they think they can sell sex for protection, but if you're going to insist on being crass…" Greg retorted with a grin.
"All I'm insisting is you let me sleep tonight." Tessa grumbled.
Greg chuckled. "Don't worry, I won't try anything tonight. You get your rest."
"I didn't say you shouldn't try anything." Tessa murmured back with a flush.
Greg rolled his eyes. "As much as I would love to take you up on that offer, I don't think either of us can stop once we get started." He sighed.
Tessa's flush deepened. "Maybe if we set a timer or something?"
"We would ignore the shit out of it." Greg replied firmly.
"I know." Tessa groaned. She glanced over at the door, where the spider girl was standing, watching the Squad settle in nervously. "We should probably talk to her."
Greg looked over before turning back to Tessa raising an eyebrow. "You think she can help us stop? Would we let her watch?"
Tessa scowled at him, slapping him in the arm. "That's not what I meant! Just- think about how confused she has to be! Look, you haven't been around, so you don't know how jarring it is to suddenly realize that the other side isn't some mindless evil out to kill you. It's like your entire world gets turned upside down! You can't just dump something like that on someone and not help them process it. It'd be like if someone came up to you and proved that the world was a simulation, then immediately disappeared with absolutely no follow up explanation."
Greg paused. "You know, that sounds like an awesome prank… do you think I could pull that off using my ability? But who to target…"
"Greg, focus!" Tessa snapped her fingers at him, before gesturing to the spider girl. "Look at her. She needs help! Come on." She pulled his arm, dragging him over to the door. "Hey… would you like to talk? I can imagine you have a lot of questions about all this."
The spider girl watched her warily for a moment, before hesitantly nodding. "I do not understand… Your kind has always hunted mine! Why would you suddenly stop now?"
"Because I'm awesome." Greg replied, before Tessa elbowed him in the ribs. "What?!? It's true!"
Tessa shot him a glare before turning back to the spider girl. "What he means, is that until he began to interact with you guys, we didn't actually know you were… intelligent. You probably don't remember this, but two years ago, the world… changed. Before, everyone was like us, unformed as you say, then… out of nowhere, a large portion of the population either went insane, lost their intelligence and turned animalistic, or both. Then, they all began to mutate, turning into… Well, you. You all turned into monsters, attacking us on sight, so… whenever we saw you, we attacked, to keep ourselves safe. We didn't even notice when you regained your intelligence. To us… you were just dangerous animals we had to put down to keep ourselves safe."
The spider girl's eyes widened. "You- you saw us as animals?!?"
"You were animals." Greg interjected. "I'm sure you've seen the others who haven't gained intelligence yet. The way they act, purely on instinct. That was you. I know you're intelligent now, but how long has it been since you became aware? A few months? Maybe a year? All of you were like that at first. How could anyone know you would change?"
The spider girl hesitated. "So… you attack us, because before we were aware, we attacked you? But… Why do you even venture into our territories? You have your own territories. Why come into ours?"
"We need resources. Electronics, food, metal, things that you have no use for." Tessa explained. "We can't get them in the safe zone, so we have to come out here for them."
"Well, we don't have to, but it does greatly improve our quality of life." Greg interjected. Tessa shot him a look. "What? We could totally just sit in the safe zone and let ourselves mutate. It wouldn't be great, but it's an option."
Tessa sighed. "Okay, yes, we don't need to leave the safe zone, but no one would accept that. People don't want to live in a world where they simply exist without striving for anything."
Greg paused. "They don't?"
"I dare you to stay in an empty room for a single hour, doing nothing." Tessa growled back.
"Ah, yeah, okay, I get it." Greg nodded.
The spider girl looked between the two of them, frowning. "So that's it? All this strife and violence, all because you think we are still animals, mad ones who will attack you on sight?!? It's- it's just a misunderstanding!?!"
"Yup. Frustrating as shit, isn't it?" Greg nodded. "Plus, there's still the assholes who attack people even though they are intelligent, which just makes things even more complicated, because if we just stop attacking ferals- er, you guys, then the assholes are still going to attack us, which means some of our people will die, and unfortunately for you, we're not good enough to choose your well-being over our own. I can't imagine you would do any different."
The spider girl shook her head. "No. No we would not." The three stood in silence for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts. Well, Tessa and the spider girl were. Greg had like six other selves running around out there, and had already thought this topic to death, so he was just standing there, a little bored. "So… what do we do? How do we fix this?" The spider girl asked after a moment.
"That's a good question… I don't know." Greg shrugged.
"We can't- won't stop scavenging, so we will be moving through your territory." Tessa sighed. "If there was some way we could be sure you weren't going to hurt us, maybe we could work something out, but… I don't see how. Anything that could be done by you could be done by someone pretending to be nice, to leave us vulnerable."
"Heh, maybe I could have a mini-me follow everyone around." Greg joked. "Just give a thumbs up if they're good, thumbs down if not. Of course, if they're an asshole, I'll probably just kill them… what?" Greg asked as he noticed both women looking at him, wide eyed.
"Could you really do that? Make enough of you to follow everyone around?" Tessa asked in a serious tone.
"Yeah? I think? I mean, my only real limit is the amount of smoke I have, and I get more of that every time I dissolve something, so as long as there's more stuff to dissolve, I can make more." Greg replied with a shrug.
"Then wouldn't that be the perfect solution?" Tessa continued. "You could personally vouch for everyone! As long as you're there, people know it's safe!"
Greg frowned. "You really want me to follow everyone?" He asked incredulously.
"Well, not everyone. Just the people you know we can trust. At least, the ferals. They can identify the unformed just fine." Tessa replied.
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"Unformed can be assholes too, Tessa. Remember Mark and his group?" Greg pointed out, raising an eyebrow.
Tessa frowned. "Right… Well, you'd still only need to follow them when they're outside the safe zone."
Greg sighed. "I guess… that's still a lot of me's running around. With nothing to do but watch people… I'm not sure, but I think that might be how some sort of apocalypse starts. Either way, it won't end well."
"Could you find a way to mark people without it needing to be you?" The spider girl asked. "I am not comfortable being constantly observed either."
"Right, people have a right to privacy." Greg pointed out as he considered her question. "I could maybe attach some smoke to people's foreheads or something? Though… that still doesn't solve the observation problem. I can see through my smoke." Greg muttered, frowning. "The problem is, anything I could make, someone else could copy. We're right back to square one. The only alternative is me observing everyone, which just sounds annoying no matter how we do it."
"You can't let people die just because you find the alternative annoying!" Tessa scolded him.
"It's not- look, just imagine what Meredith would do if she knew I could see everything she did! And she's not the only one out there like that! Imagine multiple women parading themselves in front of me, doing everything they can to turn me on, at all times! I mean, I won't do anything to them, but you and I would never leave the bedroom! Hell, you may get multiple me's coming at you at that point." Greg replied in exasperation.
Tessa's eyes widened, before her entire face flushed at the thought. "I-I can see how that might be an issue… but we're talking about saving lives here!"
Greg sighed. "I know, but… look, it isn't just that. I- I miss you. The more I'm aware of, the more selves I have running around, the less of my time is actually spent with you. Even now, whenever you go to sleep, it feels like days pass before you're back. I can handle it so far, but… what about when it starts to feel like weeks? Or months? Or years?!? I just- it'd be like we were in a long distance relationship, except there's no possible way it could get better. I can't live a life where I can only ever spend a insignificant fraction of my time with you. Not if I actually want to be with you."
"Greg, I-I had no idea." Tessa reached out to grab his hand, squeezing it as she looked at him with an expression full of concern and worry.
Greg shrugged. "I didn't tell you, and I only began to notice it recently anyway. The days just started to feel longer. I can handle it at the moment, but I don't want it to get worse."
Tessa nodded. "I understand." Right now, a week away from Greg felt like it would be an eternity. The idea that he was experiencing that every night… she couldn't express how much she just wanted to be with him and never let him go. Maybe- maybe if she could find a way to adjust how much sleep she needed…
The spider girl looked between the two of them, before letting out a short cough. "I appreciate your struggle, but this does not help us keep both our peoples safe."
Greg sighed again. "No it does not… you know, if the ferals could live in the safe zone, or make a safe zone for themselves, this wouldn't be an issue." Greg pointed out.
"Greg, we've been over this. There's no way my father is going to let the ferals organize like that." Tessa sighed. "He still thinks they're all out to get us, and they'd just form an army to attack the safe zone."
"Well, we can't keep the ferals from developing just because your dad is paranoid either." Greg retorted. "They're people. They deserve to be able to live their lives."
"But the moment my father notices anything, he's going to attack!" Tessa countered. "It'll start a war!"
"So we just need to keep him from noticing until we're too big to attack!" Greg replied. "Think about how many ferals there are out there. If we can gather enough of them, Fredrick won't risk pissing them off just for paranoia."
"And how are we supposed to do that?!? Where are we going to hide them? How are we going to find them? Who is going to organize them? It just doesn't work! We don't have the resources!" Tessa retorted, rubbing her temple in frustration. "You know I want to help as much as you do, but we can't go off half-cocked on this, or we're just going to get more people hurt!"
"I- I may be able to help." The spider girl spoke up.
Greg turned to raise an eyebrow at her. "Look, you've been really helpful with finding assholes, don't get me wrong, but this is a bit more complicated than that. You wouldn't just need to study a few problematic people. You'd need to organize hundreds, thousands of people, all without attracting the attention of anyone! Do you really think you can do that?"
The spider girl shook her head. "No, but… I know some people who could. There's- there's this group I am in contact with… they watch over the people, doing what they can to keep them safe. Relocating weaker ones to safer areas, warning people when the unformed come through… they can't do much, but they have an extensive network. They have attempted to gather the people together several times, but every time the unformed would attack. If- if you could work with them, maybe- maybe we could actually succeed."
Greg blinked a few times. "Really? Is that how you found all those assholes for me?" The spider girl nodded. "Huh… do you work with a wolf dude too?"
"Wolf dude? I- I'm not sure… What does he look like?" The spider girl asked.
"Like… well like a wolf and a human put together, like a werewolf. Furry, long snout, claws and fangs…" Greg explained.
"I don't know what a wolf is, and everything else describes literally half the people I know." The spider girl stated blandly.
Greg blinked. "That's a good point… you guys really need to start having names or something."
The spider girl frowned at him. "My name is Bianca."
Greg froze. "You have a name?"
"Why would I not have a name?" Bianca replied, crossing her arms. "Do you think the unformed are the only ones capable of recognizing the need for unique identifiers?"
"Well, no, but I've never actually met a feral with a name before… admittedly, I haven't really been asking." Greg frowned. "Most of my interactions with ferals are fairly one sided."
Tessa gave him a look. "I'm becoming more concerned about your nightly activities."
"Hey, I make sure everyone I kill deserves it." Greg raised his hands defensively. "I just don't particularly care about what I call them in the meantime."
"I feel like if you're going to kill someone, you should at least do them the decency of seeing if they have a name or not." Tessa rolled her eyes.
"Only those in our organization have a name." Bianca commented. "So we may identify each other."
"Interesting… Did you name yourself or were you given a name?" Greg asked as he thought of something.
"I was named by the one who recruited me." Bianca replied.
Greg tsked. "Damn. I was hoping maybe it might have something to do with past memories reasserting themselves. If people were remembering who they were, it might make all this easier."
"Or much, much harder." Tessa frowned. "Could you imagine if suddenly the safe zones and the ferals were competing for resources? War wouldn't just be likely, it'd be inevitable."
"Huh, fair." Greg nodded along, before pausing. "Actually, that's an interesting point… there are other safe zones. If we could convince any of them to work with us, it would be so much easier to hide the ferals!"
Tessa snorted. "Good luck with that. The God's Blessed Holy Land is even worse than my father, preaching that ferals are the chosen of Satan, sinners cursed by their own iniquity. As for the Young Blood Paradise… they don't have much more organization than the ferals. They're all about 'freedom' because the idea that things need to be organized and people need to be told what needs to be done is 'evil' so they don't have any rules or power structure. Of course, that just means a few overpowered supers run the entire place, and if you don't work for one of them, you're screwed, because they're the only ones organized enough to actually go get food. Young Blood Paradise just proves that in any situation, someone is going to have the power, and if you leave it up to chance, it'll probably be an asshole."
"There are other safe zones, aren't there?" Greg asked with a frown. He remembered her saying something about smaller ones besides the big three.
"Yes, but none of them are powerful enough to help us." Tessa sighed. "Plus, they're generally even worse than the Young Blood's. At least there you have a choice of who your abuser is, so there's some competition. They have to be at least somewhat decent to attract subordinates. In the smaller safe zones, you're stuck with whoever you get. They can do whatever they want, and you have no other choice. Even good men in that position tend to take advantage, and once you start, it's hard to stop."
Greg paused, before letting out a sigh. "Yeah, I could see that. I probably wouldn't handle that much power very well either."
Tessa and Bianca shared a strange look, before they both turned to Greg. "Greg, you're literally the only person who I think actually could handle it." Tessa pointed out. "You blatantly refuse to do things you think are wrong. The closest I've seen you to actually doing anything bad was with Meredith, and that was because it would only hurt you. The moment it was something that would hurt me, you stopped having issues."
"I have seen you go out of your way to help people, for no reason." Bianca added. "Every time you find someone you believe to be redeemable… It is like you have endless patience. You explain over and over, until they get it, when reasonably, you could just destroy them as you do the others, and be done."
Greg frowned, shifting awkwardly. "I guess… still it isn't exactly something I'd like to test." He then turned to Bianca, changing the subject. "So, how do we set up this meeting?" He asked. "I'm not sure how much we can help, but we can talk and see if we can figure anything out."
Bianca nodded. "We cannot know until we try. I will send them a message tonight, and once they have decided, I will break your glass and inform you."
"Sounds like a plan." Greg agreed, before suddenly pausing. "Wait… I thought you said you lost the glass." He commented, narrowing his eyes at her.
"That- that was a lie… there had been reports of a being similar to the mighty cloud shifter traveling with a group of unformed, and I had been tasked with investigating… That is why I was out during the day. I left the glass in my lair, so you would not know when I approached." Bianca muttered, sounding embarrassed. "You- you have been a person of interest for quite some time now. The leaders have decreed that anything related to you be investigated as quickly and thoroughly as possible."
"Huh… Well, that makes sense I guess." Greg muttered. "Still, it took you this long to figure out I was unformed? You aren't very good at your job."
"You try tracking a barely discernible cloud of black smoke, in the dark, moving at great speed through the air." Bianca huffed.