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Where had it all gone so wrong? Taylor couldn't really answer that question. There were just so many possible answers. If she had to pick one, maybe when her mom had died, because everything had gone downhill after that. Her dad had checked out, so she'd had to learn to take care of herself, in a way her childhood died right then and there. It certainly qualified as going wrong.
Taylor looked at her blood stained fingers with a curious frown, her fingers weren't even shaking, she was supposed to be upset, she knew that. That's a normal reaction. She almost giggled, normal, that's not something that Taylor Hebert could even pretend to qualify as now - if she could have for a long while now, even.
It wasn't normal, to just… Allow everything. Not fight back. Not giving up either. Just allowing it, over and over. Allowing her best friend cum sister, to turn into a nightmare that stalked her everywhere she went, pointing out her flaws, prodding her apart with smug viciousness. It wasn't normal to not rely on her father for help, the authorities, the adults around her, then again it wasn't normal for those authorities to actively assist the monsters either. So who could say what normality was.
She'd been a different person then, she thought morosely, as she hugged her knees, sitting next to her, watching her. Or does she count as a her anymore? Taylor doesn't know what she's supposed to feel, if she's supposed to feel anything or if that is normal?
Sophia, Madison, and… Emma… Taylor had barely survived them, months and months and on and on, neverending, small minor annoyances evolving into a never-ending miasma of dread and self hatred she could never climb out of.
How could she be so weak? Had been a thought she'd gone over many times, until it had changed, until she'd just naturally accepted it, what she was, what they said. She instead just hunkered down, took notes, but didn't do anything anymore, gave up. If not quite on life - then on everything else. Went day by day, accepting her nightmare, dying a little more for everything that happened, but unable to finally stand up, fight back.
What was the point? They wouldn't stop, they'd shown they'd escalate, especially Sophia. And no matter what, she wouldn't get Emma back… Emma who knew just how to hurt. How to twist the knife.
The flute had been… Taylor almost laughed as she sat there, now, it seemed minor, considering things. But back then it had been almost enough to have her finally give up, to just lash out. But she'd ended up continuing on, heartbroken, but steadfast in her belief that fighting back did nothing good.
Maybe it would have all gone better if she'd done it back then. Lashed out, fought back. She'd probably have been expelled, because the trio would have laid all the blame at her feet and had everyone testify on their behalf, but would that have been so bad? Her dad would have been disappointed but… Taylor already knew all about disappointment - it was survivable.
She did actually let out a giggle at that thought. Survivable. Hah. "Maybe you'd appreciate that little joke, Emma?" She sniffled out through giggles, talking to the other girl. Not that it mattered much.
Taylor was a survivor, she must be. She survived the locker after all - although she didn't think all of her had, not really. She shuddered, automatically moving along, refusing to think of that time, the horror, the awakening of her powers at the point when her life was at what she thought was the absolute bottom.
Unfortunately moving past it didn't brighten up her viewpoint. Tears continued falling, it was only days in there before she'd gotten out of the hospital. Alone.
Because her life was a cosmic joke. Her apathetic, barely there, father, had finally shown some care for her existence, rushing to the hospital in a panic when the school called him. (First time the school ever took any action on her behalf, it ironically enough, screwed her, go figure)
He rushed straight down a street where a cape fight was in progress. With predictable results.
Taylor had been discharged early from the hospital so she could attend the funeral. Having to fight hard to not laugh the entire time, standing there, next to her. Who might as well have killed him, by trying to kill Taylor. But in fact, she knew. She'd killed him herself, if she'd stood up for herself, if she'd fought back, if she'd told him and made him listen. The locker wouldn't have happened. He wouldn't have rushed into a cape fight trying to get to her.
She'd killed him. With her inaction. Timidity, weakness. Her. She'd done this. Because she hadn't been strong. Because the trio had been right. She hadn't been strong enough. Clung to morality and what was right. Refusing to fall down to their level. It had cost her everything.
She'd now killed her mom by calling her when she'd been driving, and killed her dad, why she'd never killed herself and saved everyone the problems she wondered, it would have been a simpler solution.
If she'd broken, or just listened, or ran away. Any of them. This wouldn't have happened. She'd been a coward. Just taking it all because inaction was safer than any action with an unknown result.
And then came the kicker of it all, the final straw that broke everything. A soft hand had compassionately laid on her shoulder as she stared down at the closed casket being lowered into the ground, the whispered words that damned her even further.
Zoe Barnes telling her that the will gave the Barnes's custody of her. Because she'd stupidly never told her dad that Emma was the creator of her ever living nightmare. That having Jack Slash as her new stepparent would be preferable - her own fault again.
She'd turned, stiff and pale and filled with dread. Seen the absolutely brimming cruel delight that had lit up behind the polite veneer of sadness in her former best friend's eyes at the idea of having Taylor available 24/7.
They'd be sharing a room. Zoe wanted Taylor to have companionship right now, so she wouldn't be alone. Emma had volunteered her room in a syrupy sweet voice, so many promises hidden beneath that only Taylor heard.
Maybe if she hadn't had everything already hit her so close together - she would have been able to hold it in. To just swallow it down again. Like she had before. To just accept that her lot in life was to suffer.
But right then, the only thing she'd thought when she'd seen Emma's smile was one thing.
I'll kill you! A wave of hatred expanding from her like she'd never let loose before.
Her limit had finally been reached, the locker, her dad dead because of her, the prospect of torture night and day forever, she'd finally not been able to take it anymore and lashed out.
Taylor looked around her, before she slowly used a nearby gravestone to lever herself up, knees weak, eyes peering around at the empty graveyard. She needed to get out of here before someone came looking.
For a villain…
Like her.
She was damned now, and she wasn't even sure she felt bad about it. At least the priest had already been long gone by the time her power had activated without her realizing it. It was so new, only days old, and she hadn't even experimented with it, so numb with her dad's death, she hadn't even realized at first she'd used it.
But her power had shown itself quickly, responding to her subconscious and in the moment conscious wish to do harm.
The only victims were the Barnes's at least. A mass of insects, ants, wasps, flies, everything nearby, had, at her thought, swarmed over them, stinging, crawling into their orifices, slicing and biting. By the time Taylor's shock wore off they were already dying.
Taylor had gotten to see something she'd fantasized about some dark lonely nights, even if briefly and never with a real wish to see it. Emma's horrified face, eyes pleading up at Taylor, as she died for her crimes.
Died because of Taylor's weakness, because again something bad had happened because of Taylor. Because she hadn been strong enough.
Revenge only tasted like ashes, or maybe that was the numbness speaking, she still hadn't felt fully human since her dad died.
There was no going back. She should feel bad for Zoe and Alan, she supposed. And Anne, she'd left her an orphan wherever she was that she hadn't made it today. But in her mind she could only think, they'd seen Emma everyday, and never seen the monster, and would have allowed her full access to Taylor.
She just… Wasn't sad they were gone. Just sad for the people they'd used to be back when Emma hadn't been the creature roaming her mind, delighting in every small cruelty inflicted.
She supposed that made her a supervillain in thought as well as deed. Because she knew people should be horrified at murdering someone. Taylor definitely didn't want to kill innocent people. And she wouldn't. She was pretty sure. This had been an accident, more like involuntary manslaughter than anything. But Alan and Zoe were already dead, and she just didn't… Care.
She'd changed in the last few days, from locker to graveyard. Taylor had died twice in a week - metaphorically, she didn't even know who she was now.
And Emma… Taylor once again bent over the corpse, the eyes forever dimmed of light now, the normally cruel turn of her lips instead set in a rictus of horror. She brushed some blood away, or she tried, only succeeding in smearing it across her cheek. "I'm sorry, Emma. For the person you were, and for letting you turn me into this. It's my fault, I should have stood up to you, punched you. Something." She sighed, and stood up, feeling all the insects around her, her weird power, controlling bugs of all things, it was easy to sink into the feeling, her heart felt less heavy, the sadness sank away.
She set them onto eating the bodies, only wincing slightly as she began to walk away. She didn't know how much they could destroy, but somehow she knew that they'd continue to follow her order until it's end, even if she left. She couldn't go back to a normal life now either way. Either the authorities found the bodies or bones or whatever - and would look for her as a murderer. Or they'd find nothing, the bugs having taken care of it - in which case it would be a missing persons case, and they'd still look for her. And if found, they'd wonder why only she could be found.
She'd always wanted to be a Hero. For a long time it was for the same reason any little girl wanted to. For the fame and the idealistic views of heroics. Then, Emma had been transformed, had come after her with Sophia and Madison, and it had been an escape. The thought of becoming a Hero being an escape from her normal life - which was completely down the drain.
Now… She'd murdered people. And although Emma had been a horrible person. She hadn't deserved to be slaughtered by a swarm of insects. Taylor didn't know if it was her dad's death or her power that made her emotions so dull right now, but as she left the graveyard behind, she was thankful.
She didn't know if she could handle being a homeless supervillain murderer if she could feel things like a normal person.
Taylor Hebert was dead, she went into the dirt with her dad, half of her left behind in a toxic locker to begin with.
Whatever she was now, kept walking.
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Taylor didn't know how villains found a lair, but she couldn't exactly afford to be picky, not with the situation she was in. She already knew that without her dad, the dockworkers association would begin falling apart as the gangs moved in, he'd been the one tirelessly working, helping each and every member, keeping the gangs out by being the ever stubborn and unbribable head of hiring - he had aggressively vetted each potential member and kept track of current members to make sure they didn't stay in the union if they sold out.
He'd put down a lot of work for the union… Taylor tried not to think about how it felt that she'd barely gotten ten percent of an effort from her dad compared to his real child - the union and his efforts for the ferry and the dock revitalization.
God, was it a wonder how she was so fucked up? She'd killed her former best friend and her family over her dad's grave - and she didn't even feel anything. Unless tired counted as a feeling. Resentment filled her as she walked closer towards the docks, her dad's real home.
Brockton Bay was a shit hole by any standard, there wasn't much honest work to go around, she knew that from hearing her dad rant for years now. And without Danny Hebert to fight tooth and nail for the common dock worker. They'd all be gone soon enough, or part of a gang. Maybe that's why he'd fought so hard, because he knew no one else could, or would.
Maybe that's why her feet took her there on autopilot. As she walked, her mind was on the insects that she connected to as she walked through the city. Escaping into the swarm was preferable to being Taylor, so she played with it, ordering bugs to do silly things out of her sight, so she wouldn't be caught if someone figured something out. She'd quickly realized at that point that she could actually sense things through her insect army. Even if it wasn't quite like sight, or hearing. Not human senses anyway. It took some getting used to, but she had time.
Nothing but time now.
Bug control didn't seem like something that would make her last long before some other villain took her out, or a hero took her in if she actually tried to fight, so hunkering down somewhere and researching her power seemed a better bet.
Lung would eat her alive. What could bugs do to that? Armsmaster could probably build some super cool tinkertech bug zapper and take her down in five minutes.
As she kept walking, people paid no notice to yet another dirty teen in a hoodie in Brockton Bay, she thought about her power.
Bug control. She'd seen it could be dangerous. The Barnes's could attest to that. She grimaced slightly at that thought, because straight out murder was how a villain got caught quick. The authorities went after those kinds of villains hard. Unless they were the Slaughterhouse Nine variety.
She had an uncomfortable feeling that the likes of Jack Slash would actually love a cape able to send a biblical plague ahead of them when they terrorized towns across America. Further proof that she'd need to figure herself out and be careful and not run around in spandex and draw attention to herself.
She didn't know much about insects, something which she would need to change. But if she could control them, couldn't she breed them, perhaps? Evolve them? Something that could knock people out? Wasps with knockout stings? Ants that inject a paralysis effect with a bite? It was worth investigating. Because Taylor didn't want to be a murderhobo. And if she was going to be a villain instead of a Hero, ( like she had a choice) she'd at least be as cool a villain as someone with bug control could be.
She had a pretty good grasp of the area around the dockworkers association - and therefore knew of a couple warehouses that were empty, and pretty covered with debris and junk. The kind where no one had bothered cleaning it out, or moving in. A place as good as any for Taylor to bunk down in for now, while she figured things out. The dockworkers were technically within ABB territory, but Lung never really pushed against the surrounding area, it was just warehouses and blue collar workers - apparently not worth anything to him.
Or they weren't Asian enough or something.
Someone would budge in once the dockworkers started to fracture, Taylor bet on the Empire being the ones to do it however. A majority of the dockworkers association were of white working class guys and gals, perfect recruitment material for the Nazi bastards now that her dad wasn't there to stop them by keeping the dockworkers united, and the workers would eventually be desperate enough to look for any work soon enough.
Taylor had been around enough, listening, while her dad had been on the phone at home, fighting with city hall, with big business and with the higher ups in the union. She knew they'd be fucked now without him and his rule lawyering and incorruptible leadership.
She pondered for a moment if she could make a gang out of them all, she was a villain after all, but immediately discarded it. She controlled bugs. She wasn't the type that could become a gang leader like Kaiser and Lung. Far from it. She was probably a support player if anything. The thought was depressing, even becoming someone with superpowers she had to get a Taylor power - not enough to do anything worthwhile with.
She'd have to let go of all those people her dad had protected with his ability to pull jobs out of thin air to keep them barely afloat. She couldn't help them. She couldn't help herself.
She hadn't been able to help herself for awhile now. She felt her depression more keenly the longer she thought about it, what exactly did she think she'd be able to do? Hide away forever in the docks?
She sighed deeply as she walked up to the warehouse in question that she'd chosen. A veritable horde of garbage and junk metal covering the yard, up against the walls of the warehouse. Even the big double doors were blocked by several stacked up junk cars. Taylor knew the way in though, had found it playing around as a kid when her Dad had been taking her to work and she'd snuck off to play hide and seek.
She wasn't as small anymore, but she found that her thin gangly frame fit just as well as a small child through the small crawl space between the rubble and junk. The inside of the warehouse was less junky, filled with darkness and large shapes that she knew was a bunch of empty crates all stacked together.
She felt her way through the darkness, feeling the insane amount of bugs around her in this area, in fact, she'd been surprised in general walking here, how many bugs were around at all times. Feeling slightly icky about it, but wanting something under her head, she formed a pillow of sorts by a cloud of cockroaches ordering them to stay in that position as she laid down, exhaustion beating out the cold and uncomfortable sleeping area and sending her into sleep almost immediately.
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The first few days were easier than Taylor had expected, but perhaps that was down to how detached she felt about everything. She just couldn't feel anything anymore, she wasn't sure what she'd done, or if it was part of her power, but she just couldn't feel anything very strongly.
She hadn't left the warehouse at all over the last few days, completely focusing on her power. She had no power or running water of course, just a completely dark and dreary warehouse full of empty containers and assorted junk. Thankfully, bugs really did follow her every thought and command. So she'd been able to send them out, part of her mind along for the ride, using their senses.
Her power apparently let her multitask to an insane degree as she continued to experiment with spiders, ants and wasps in her lair, while her marching army explored outside, looking for food and water for her. As she knew her way around several blocks around the area she was in - she easily found the dockworkers association building.
If she still had anyone at all or cared about anything other than her power, maybe she'd feel bad about stealing from her dad's workplace. But as it was, she had eagerly prodded her millions of minions onward, bringing back water bottles and bags of chips as well as a jar of peanut butter for her. Not ideal for nutrition, but Taylor had cockroaches as a pillow, so beggars couldn't be choosers. At least she'd figured out how to make bugs eat dirt and sweat off her body, so she didn't have to waste her drinking water on washing herself - even if it felt disgusting to have creepy crawlies crawl all over her in the process.
Taylor had been a normalish girl at some point. Spiders and creepy crawlies were probably one of her least favorite things, but life was suffering. She got over it.
At least after a few days of gathering up more and more spiders and having them create more the natural way - she had spider silk galore. Much more comfortable to lay on than cockroaches. She'd eventually made a hammock out of the material, her flock of spiders helping her attach it between two metal poles at the back of the warehouse. Fireflies gave her at least a modicum of light to work in even if she had to gather a whole bunch together to make it worth anything.
She'd found that she had a couple blocks of a radius where she could feel and direct any bugs, after a certain point she'd just lose control if she made them move past the boundaries. She wished she had more, but felt she couldn't complain too much, a couple blocks had an insanely large amount of minions for her to use after all.
The bugs would just do whatever if she didn't take control, unless she'd given them an order, than even if she stopped paying attention or let them leave the area, they still continued on with her orders until she gave a different order.
It meant she could technically send bugs outside her limit of a couple blocks - but she wouldn't be able to sense them or change their order again. They'd be outside her control, still following whatever order. Food for thought, but dangerous. If she sent a swarm outside of her sense range, perhaps someone could catch on what she was, or figure it out somehow, because a swarm was much more likely to be caught doing something without her along for the ride to send orders. Didn't matter much for single bugs, who noticed if a fly behaved oddly?
What she really wanted to do for her own abilities - was break into the Brockton Bay zoo to get ahold of some of the more dangerous kinds of insects and arthropods. She wanted to feel safe again. Even if she didn't want to be the kind of villain who killed randomly, as a bug controller what could she do without dangerous bugs?
Brown recluse spiders, scorpions, bulldog ants and fire ants, she wanted them all. But she'd held back. Because she didn't dare leave her warehouse yet, she didn't have enough of a way to defend herself. What if a hero was looking for her? And she didn't have a costume either. Also, she was reluctant to add absolutely lethal arthropods to her swarm - other than the black widows and murder hornets she already had. What if she lost control by accident?
For her own safety she already had the black widows setting up shop high up in the rafters of the southeastern corner of the warehouse, far away from her, ordered to reproduce and not kill each other and continue to spin silk for her eventual costume. With black widow spider silk about as good as kevlar, she figured it was worth a shot to use her own product.
Likewise her group of murder hornets were also given their own little corner, reproducing slowly and well away from Taylor. Her more non lethal bugs worked 24/7 on bringing food to her most important swarm members. Which in many cases involved walking themselves into the webs of her black widows for dinner, which Taylor couldn't help but find funny in a creepy kind of way.
Taylor had figured out pretty quickly what her biggest weakness would be. She had nothing but time after all, sitting in the darkness, just a couple fireflies giving her some light to see by. If she lost her swarm, she had nothing. And picking up more bugs as she moved through the city was something, but it wouldn't be nearly as good, as she couldn't guarantee the composition.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
A swarm of cockroaches and flies would do a lot less to protect her than if she could field everything she had. She was a multitasker with her swarm. It was her best advantage, being able to fight with dozens of different plans through millions of different minions at the same time. Attacking and defending from multiple points at the same time.
Something she had practiced over the last few days, if only in gathering her bugs together into a shield in front of her and practicing big swipes of a mass of bugs to push things away from her. She mostly used cockroaches and beetles for it since she knew they had a carapace at least.
It wouldn't do anything against a cape but might work against people with guns.
Fighting for her wouldn't be nearly as effective without a good balance in her swarm. Ideally she needed to set up places across town that held her bugs. Create an area for them to breed and eat and grow and perform tasks for her, independently, just following her last orders until she got into range and could call them into battle. Either that or find a way to control them over a larger area…
That was a pipe dream really. Taylor fantasized about taking the city by storm, cleaning up the gangs. She had time and nothing but time after all.
In the end she was just dreaming, just like the zoo which she couldn't break into, not really. She'd failed at everything so far, she couldn't take that step, really go full villain. Even if she was one by her actions, however accidental. She couldn't just… Be evil.
She continued to play with her power, in the dark warehouse, wrought with indecision.
Her bug minions multiplied more and more by the hour, following their orders loyally as Taylor worked on understanding her power for want of anything else to do.
Another night fell.
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Sophia was angry, no, she was beyond that. She was filled with hate as she worked her way through the docks, slipping into shadow form to get through the walls of the derelict warehouses, checking one more off her mental to do list.
They'd finally succeeded in breaking that wimp, at least, she'd been pretty sure they had. Emma had been on such a beautiful high the few days after the locker, knowing they did that, they showed that loser her proper place finally. Sophia had felt smug in the knowledge that she'd picked correctly, that Emma was a real predator. The way she'd absolutely crushed her former friend proved it, casting off the shackles of weakness that the little puke had held over her friend proved it. The way the whole school had come to realize it as well proved it.
Sophia and Emma, they were the predators, the whole school knew it, even the teachers backed off from them, Sophia felt like she could have shot one with a cross bolt and probably walked away from it. The power had felt liberating - what with the pussies at the PRT shackling her in her nightlife. The bastards were too afraid to do what was right, taking down the scum in Brockton Bay.
They couldn't do it like Shadow Stalker could, Emma understood it, she'd backed Sophia to the tilt. Been her sounding board, her backup.
And then she'd gotten the call from Emma, the wimps dad had croaked it because of trying to get to the loser's hospital bed after the locker. Just like how Emma had told her she'd killed her mom by calling her when she was driving - she'd killed her dad too, it was too funny for words. Emma had been so happy, Sophia hadn't been able to stop laughing the entire phone call. The government was putting the fucking weak-willed trash girl with Emma! They'd talked about plans half the night, Emma promising to fill Sophia in after the funeral.
Then… Nothing.
Emma hadn't answered her phone. Her texts. Sophia had sent fucking emails, knocked at her door, she even went at night and fucking shadow stalked into her bedroom. Fucking nothing.
Until she finally ran into Anne at the house one evening. Emma's older sister. And found out that they were all missing, and had never returned after the funeral. Then she knew.
Emma was dead.
That fucking loser must have triggered, standing over the grave of the loser dad she'd killed, the guilt finally sending her over the edge.
She knew Emma's dad was a lawyer and everything, they wouldn't just fuck off like that, and with Taylor fucking Hebert too? Nah, Sophia knew. Fucking trigger event, with Emma standing right there. The proper predator, but powerless, something Sophia had figured would change eventually and they'd kick ass together. And now that would never happen.
The wimp must have orgasmed with fucking delight with her luck at gaining powers with Emma right there. And Sophia was going to shove a crossbow bolt up her cunt when she found her, pay her back for daring to cheat and go after a real predator, a rabbit destroying a wolf through pure dumb shit fucked luck.
That's why she was trawling through every shit warehouse around the dockworkers association, no way the loser would go off the reservation, she'd go somewhere she felt comfortable. And through Emma, Sophia knew everything about the piece of shit.
Shadowing through another wall, she couldn't help the hungry grin that flashed onto her face under the mask. She heard a voice somewhere in the warehouse, quiet and mumbling to itself, but a voice that could only be one thing.
She readied her crossbow in anticipation. She always enjoyed this. But this time… This time she was going to take her time.
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Taylor had started talking to her grouping of fireflies, lacking any better conversationalist partners at the time. Sitting by her hammock, trying to work through what she should do, what kind of villain she could be, without being too much of one. Or maybe the heroes didn't even know? Maybe she could at least be independent?
She suddenly lost her breath as something flew into her out of nowhere, knocking her back, pushing her back against the rusted wall of the warehouse. She cried out in pain as the jagged edges cut into her back. A cry that turned into a shriek as something lanced through her hand, blinding pain shooting up her arm as she stared down at a crossbow bolt through her hand, pinning it to the wall behind her, the still vibrating bolt barely visible in the low lighting provided.
"Yeah, that's nothing yet." A malevolent voice hissed from within the darkness. Slow measured steps sounding out as whoever it was came closer.
Taylor cried out in pain and fear as another bolt flew and another flash of searing pain hit her. Her other hand was also nailed to the wall, her heart beating wildly as she struggled to draw a breath, shock and panic taking her thoughts away, she didn't even think to use her swarm as she stood there, nailed down and crying. "W-why!?" She cried out, "W-who are y-you?"
The figure stepped forward into the light provided by the fireflies, instantly recognisable in her cloaked visage, her black bodysuit with the black painted metal mask revealing her identity. A crossbow raised and pointed straight at Taylor.
"Shadow Stalker!? Why are you doing this, you're a hero!?" Taylor cried out in disbelief. She didn't even really notice as the pain lessened, automatically shuffling it off into her swarm as she focused on the impossibility in front of her.
Shadow Stalker was a ward. A hero. They didn't stake random girls to warehouse walls. Taylor's brain just didn't compute the situation. Even if she knew she was a villain already, this wasn't the response a new villain got.
"Heh." Shadow Stalker scoffed, walking right up to Taylor, pushing the crossbow right up against her jugular, the hero's athletic body pushed right up against Taylor's. "Some people just deserve it, don't you agree?" She growled out, her head raised back aggressively in an oddly familiar way.
Taylor ignored the pain from the hero's body pushing hers, which exacerbated her wounds. Her whole body shaking on its own in a state of shock, and fear. "Wh-What?" She managed to mumble, feeling the sharp tip of the bolt right against her carotid artery. That voice… She recognized it. From her nightmares. But it couldn't be. It wasn't possible!
Still holding her crossbow against Taylor, Shadow Stalker used her other hand to undo the bindings to her mask, letting it drop with a clatter to the filthy warehouse floor. Taylor's heart dropped into her feet at the same time as her brain froze in fear and hatred. Mostly hatred.
Sophia Hess smirked at Taylor, eyes brimming with disgust. "I asked you a question, you piece of shit! You deserve this, right?"
Taylor ignored the threat to her life, snarling at the fake, in front of her, "That's a ward you're impersonating! Are you crazy Sophia? Well crazier?" She knew it was weak even as she spat it out. She'd been shot, expertly, by crossbow bolts. She'd been tracked down, Sophia had come into the warehouse somehow. But she just couldn't, she couldn't just accept it! Because if… if…
"You're really just a dumb queef aren't you?" Sophia chuckled darkly, "This is the real world you stupid bitch, how do you think we got away with putting you in your place, huh?" Sophia leaned closer, so they were nose to nose, her malicious gaze boring into Taylor's, "It's because it was all approved!" She hissed, chuckling cruelly at Taylor's shocked look. "The PRT, the wards, all of it, it's just another form of a gang." Sophia explained, seemingly drawing pleasure in the horror growing in Taylor's soul, no doubt visible through her eyes. "We blow off our steam on little inconsequential losers like you, just as the gangs do on whatever loser they happen to see, it's all the same, the strong prey on the weak, and you, no matter what fucking power you cheated into, are WEAK!" Sophia yelled the last part into her face, spittle flying all over Taylor.
Taylor shook, her hands spasming around the bolts, the waves of bugs making up their surroundings vibrating along with her, "No, no, no! You're wrong!" She shouted back desperately, "Heroes aren't like that! They aren't!"
Sophia's knee came up, stopping Taylor's protests as she screamed in pain, the strike having made her arms jerk as she tried to bend over, cutting her palms up worse, blood splattering around her. Sophia laughed, seemingly having the time of her life, "Well, we are, most of us. Usually not this bad though, you're a special case, I don't usually torture people… Much." She said angrily, grabbing Taylor by her hair and slamming her head back, making her back slice itself on the jagged edges further again.
"But you… You deserve it!" Sophia growled, pulling her hand back, making a fist. Before she slammed it forward, Taylor felt her nose break, heard the crunch, tasted the blood on her lips, even through the ringing of her head as it bounced back against the metal wall behind her. Sophia grabbed her by the neck, Taylor could feel her breath against her lips, the two of them almost close enough to kiss, "You killed Emma, you're dying tonight…" Sophia said quietly, her brown eyes intent as she met Taylor's eyes, "You just don't get it, and you'll die not getting it. Hero, Villain, it doesn't matter that much, it's all about if you have the power to do something, and you… Do-AHHH!"
Sophia disappeared into shadow form jumping back into the darkness, Taylor could no longer see her, not with her eyes. But to the senses of her millions of minions she was still visible, out of her breaker form, rubbing her neck where several wasps had struck, when Taylor had realized she might die if she didn't make a move.
With her eyes closed, she still 'felt' it when Shadow Stalker raised her crossbow bolt to fire. With a thought, a variable swarm of bugs swept up in front of her stacking up behind each other forming a shield that the bolt didn't manage to penetrate as it was let loose. But she'd miscalculated, focused on that first bolt, instead of the person firing it. A second bolt from a second crossbow passed by her focused shield and slammed through Taylor's left shoulder, making her cry out and jerk in position, worsening her wounds again.
At the same time a swarm of murder hornets swarmed Shadow Stalker, who tried to escape into her breaker state, but not before suffering several more stings, the ward stumbling out of the breaker state further away in the warehouse. Taylor didn't hesitate, even as she was still pinned to the wall and with her head pounding she ordered her bugs to pin her down. They covered her face, the cape struggling until she lost consciousness. Finally Taylor called them off, the bugs allowing her mouth and nose free again to let her breathe. She organized spiders to bind her with her kevlar strength silk. She needed to have a clear head when she figured out what to do.
She didn't know why she'd been unable to go back into her shadow state, but she'd take what she could.
Because right now she just wanted to murder her. Really really badly. And she didn't want to make a decision she might regret out of pain and fear.
Getting herself loose was a painful endeavor that worsened her wounds. More spider silk was brought to bind her wounds. But she knew she couldn't treat this herself. With a last 'look' at the tied up 'hero' she made her way out of the warehouse, stumbling down the street away from the docks.
She was barely conscious, allowing her bug senses to lead her as she stumbled on, the blood loss and the hit to her head not doing her any favors. It was in the middle of the night, the hospital was too far away.
She started feeling panic. She couldn't die like this, any other day, fine, she deserved as much, but not from Sophia!
Sophia who'd had the backing of the PRT… No she couldn't think of that right now!
In her senses she found a lone person having a cigarette by a parking garage, she stumbled towards them, but fell on her knees halfway there.
"H-help!" She weakly managed to get out, opening her real eyes, her vision blurry as she looked towards the person able to call her an ambulance.
"Holy shit what happened to you?" She heard like it was said through water, she blinked blearily, watching as someone in a white robe with a red cross approached her, still smoking a cigarette.
No… Panacea? She panicked, she'd needed help, but just a regular hospital, regular doctors, not a hero. She tried to get up again, to get away. Her bugs were sent to watch from the distance, by the roofs of the buildings around them to not make her out herself immediately.
Panacea was kneeling over her a minute later, pushing her down as she kept trying to get up, "Lay down, I'm trying to heal you." She snapped, sounding annoyed.
Taylor had lost a lot of blood, she was losing consciousness, she couldn't be found out here like this, not by a hero. Not after everything she heard from Sophia, not after how they'd fucked her.
She sent a thought into her swarm, bring me back home, don't let anyone stop me! She'd take her chances on healing on her own.
Her swarm, mostly having been at the periphery at the end of the block and the rooftops, began rushing their way as Taylor tried to get up again, weakly pushing Panacea away from her.
"You're not going anywhere until I've healed you!" Panacea growled, huffing in exertion as she half laid over Taylor's body to prevent her from getting up again, one hand holding hers, "I'm healing you now, okay, calm down!"
Make her… Taylor's thoughts grew fuzzy as she began losing consciousness, Make her save me… Home…
Everything went dark.
----------------------------------------
"Hey! Wake the fuck up!"
"Hey…. Please!?"
"Bug girl…. PLEASE!"
"Ugh, what? Stop yelling, I'm up." Taylor groaned, rubbing her eyes, what kind of rude person yells to wake someone up. Person… Taylor was suddenly wide awake as she scrambled forward calling as many fireflies as she had nearby to her position as she looked around for the person that shouldn't be here in her lair.
"Let me out of this!" A girl shrieked as Taylor stumbled out into the warehouse proper from the empty container she'd apparently been in.
Slowly the events before she'd lost consciousness came to her, and she watched through her senses with dismay, sending her fireflies forward to confirm with regular eyeballs Mk.1 what was in front of her.
Panacea was hanging from the ceiling, wrapped head to toe in a cocoon of spider silk leaving only her face and hands clear. And she was none too pleased with her position from what Taylor could see.
"Uh, why are you here?" Taylor asked, wincing right away for asking such a stupid question. Give her a break, she just woke up from nearly bleeding to death or something.
Panacea glared at her, barely visible in the poor lighting, "Because apparently my thanks for healing your scrawny ass is to be kidnapped and wrapped up like the world's biggest spider's dinner!" The way she shuddered through those words indicated that might have been a real worry for the girl, which made Taylor feel bad.
Taylor blinked, feeling confused, "But I was unconscious!" She protested weakly, "You're a hero, couldn't you just… Leave…"
Panacea looked done with life, as she slowly spun around, "I tried that, but then your fucking biblical swarm kept dropping killer bees and black widows on me and I took the hint and stopped fighting back!" She growled out in displeasure. "Which led to me being tied up and cocooned for dinner!"
"My swarm… Brought you here?" Taylor asked, feeling completely out of her element. Murder attempts she was fine with, mostly, or at least as used to them as a girl of fifteen could be with two already under her belt. Talking to a girl around her age was much harder - she didn't have much practice in that.
"Ohmygod! Just let me go!" Panacea shouted angrily, "I healed you already, not that your murder swarm would have let me do anything else at that point, I fucking carried you here under threat of death, I even healed Shadow Stalker…" Panacea glared at Taylor as her spinning brought her around facing the right way in that moment, "Which, what the fuck? You are going to be destroyed if you don't let us go right now, a ward and me?" She glared smugly, Taylor wondered how that worked, as Panacea continued, "Especially me! Now hurry it up!"
"Uh, just give me a minute, this is a bit much for me right now." Taylor muttered as she dragged a hand down her face, not even believing what kind of situation she'd found herself in.
"I need to pee." Panacea deadpanned, as she continued to spin, now facing away again, the girl letting out an aggravated sigh as Taylor didn't answer.
She'd been a villain for less then a week and killed a family in sorta revenge if you squinted, kidnapped and almost murdered a ward, and kidnapped the greatest healer in the world. "This is ridiculous even for me." She said quietly to herself, her bug senses showing no one in the area as she had a look around, half expecting Alexandria to be hovering outside.
As she stretched her senses, she came on a bunch of bugs that were odd. When she connected to them, her entire connection wobbled for lack of a better word. The bugs were all hanging around Panacea.
Taylor suddenly understood exactly why Panacea had swarms of murder bees dropped on her. She could change her bugs, somehow. She wasn't a straight up healer, she could alter biology. "What did you do with my bugs?" She asked, feeling a slight bit of relief, she'd been in a corner, but now. Now she had the beginnings of a plan. If she was right.
".... I don't know what you're talking about." Panacea said with a stubborn confrontational look on her face.
"Wow I'm a bad liar, but that's bad even to me, so really, what did you do to them?" Taylor said, stepping closer, peering up at the cocooned healer. With her bug senses she could feel Shadow Stalker similarly bound further away, although still apparently out of it.
"I'm a healer. Let me go before this gets worse for you." Panacea grunted out, but her eyes were slightly panicky, Taylor recognized it, it's how her eyes used to look in the mirror before every school day.
"I think… You're able to alter biology, you tried to escape by changing my bugs somehow, and that's when my swarm started attacking you." Taylor said boldly, disconnecting completely from the weird bugs, because the closer she got, the more messed up her connection was feeling.
Since she'd have been back at the warehouse where her bugs already had standing orders to protect the place - Panacea healing Shadow Stalked probably counted as danger, and she was taken down, then she tried to change her bugs and got herself strung up as her threat level rose. In a way it made Taylor feel better about her power because it showed the versatility she could have with orders already placed for her swarm. Although she'd have to be careful that they didn't do anything too weird behind her back in an attempt to carry her orders out in odd ways.
Like kidnapping people…
"You think you're fucking smart don't you." Panacea grouched, glaring down at Taylor, "So what, you're still not going to survive the shit storm of New Wave and the Protectorate stomping your ass."
"Probably not." Taylor agreed, fully agreeing that as a new villain she wasn't nearly well protected, powerful or connected enough to survive that kind of attention. She tilted her head curiously, letting a short smug smile appear on her face, "But you'd like it even less being called Nilbog junior or Bonesaw lite." She threatened.
She immediately felt bad about it, the way the girl in front of her paled while looking like she was going to get sick reminded Taylor way too much of herself. Taylor quickly waved her hands in front of herself hurrying to clarify, "All I'm saying is there's a way where you and I walk away from this and neither one of us gets hurt."
Panacea pursed her lips, not looking impressed, but also not going on another tirade. Taylor took that as a good sign, "Come on, all I was doing was bleeding out in the street, I didn't even want to kidnap you, do we really need to fight?"
"What about Shadow Stalker?" Panacea asked after a minute of silence, "You almost killed her, if I had been ten minutes later back here she'd have died."
Taylor grimaced, "If you hadn't noticed, she'd done a pretty good job at killing me, I only defended myself, put her out of the fight." Taylor hated that she sounded defensive, Sophia deserved to be eaten by a swarm if anyone did.
"I did notice, but it doesn't justify you killing her, you were able to stop me without doing it." Panacea said disapprovingly.
"You stopped at the threat of potential harm, Shadow Stalker wouldn't have. She was here to kill me." Taylor snapped, not wanting to be lectured about the person that almost murdered her.
"She wouldn't have, she's a ward." Panacea said with absolute surety.
Taylor couldn't help but laugh, almost sinking to the floor as she laughed and laughed, tears springing from her eyes. If in the end there was more sniffling than laughing, Panacea at least had the decency not to point it out, although she looked very put out to be captured by the emotional and pathetic villain of the week. Or so Taylor interpreted her completely done look.
"Shadow Stalker terrorized me for a year and a half at school, bullying me, ostracizing me, driving me towards suicide." Taylor screamed suddenly, done herself, shocking Panacea with the outburst, Taylor pacing in front of her cocoon suddenly bursting with nervous energy, arms across her own torso as her voice broke, as she continued describing it, "She and her cohorts grabbed together all the hygiene containers from the girls washrooms, emptied them in my locker, then locked me in there!" She raged, hardly noticing the widening of Panacea's eyes or the disgusted angry look she gained for a moment. "She triggered me!" Taylor shouted up at Panacea, "And last night she tracked me down to kill me!"
Panacea took her time to answer, carefully speaking up once Taylor calmed down slightly, "You could report her." She suggested with a hesitant look in her eyes.
Taylor snorted, "That's worked great so far." She said sarcastically, throwing her arms out, indicating the situation they were in.
Reports against Sophia Hess or the trio didn't do shit in school and she must have had some sort of PRT liaison back then, so why would now that Taylor was a villain, change anything.
"I can't let you kill her either." Panacea said, pausing for a moment, sighing, "I don't think you're lying, which makes what she did unforgivable and disgusting, but she doesn't deserve to be executed." Panacea didn't even manage to look convinced in her own words and she must have known it because she pouted silently instead of continuing on.
Taylor groaned, "I don't want to kill her, not really, but I don't know how else to have her not kill me, she's got the perfect power to assassinate someone!" She pointed her finger angrily at Panacea before she could say anything, "And don't say report her to the PRT! I'm not trusting my life to the people that let her get away with it this entire time."
"...I'm not getting out of the cocoon am I?" Panacea said tiredly.
"Not until I know what I'm doing." Taylor said quietly, "Sorry." She added sheepishly.
Panacea sighed, "This won't end well when they find you." She said, but didn't try and argue the point.
Taylor was well aware of how much shit she'd be in if the heroes found her bug filled lair with two heroes spun up like they were about to be bug food.
Fucking Sophia, even outside of Winslow she just had to fuck Taylor's life up..
----------------------------------------
Two days later.
"I can't believe you." Amy said, shaking her head disapprovingly, although it was somewhat ruined by the small smirk on her face as she sat with Taylor and shared a jar of peanut butter.
The cursing and yelling echoing across the warehouse from where Shadow Stalker was being force fed a variety of bugs was the background noise they were listening to. Taylor wasn't wasting peanut butter on that bitch, that was for damn sure.
"It's protein, perfectly good for you." Taylor said blithely, licking her spoon clean before offering it to Amy for her turn at the food. Bugs would keep Sophia fed, Taylor didn't see an issue. And if she made them wriggle a bit extra on the way down… Well, life's a bitch, Sophia could suck it up.
The warehouse was fairly well lit by now, Amy had spent less than three hours in the cocoon before she'd grown bored enough to offer some assistance just to be let out. Taylor had been hesitant at first, and stayed well out of reach, ready for any kind of betrayal. But it had quickly become apparent that Panacea - or Amy as she'd told her to call her, was actually enjoying herself making her fireflies grow larger and with more varied abilities vis a vis lighting.
She now had bugs capable of becoming floodlights, the fireflies themselves the size of her hand. Of course Amy refused to create anything dangerous, but it still thrilled Taylor with the possibilities. And it greatly enhanced her mood to not be stuck in the constant darkness she'd been previously.
"She doesn't make it sound like it's that good." Amy deadpanned, for some reason a bit red cheeked when accepting Taylor's spoon, which she hesitantly used to scoop a glob of peanut butter into her mouth.
"You fucking whore! Let me out of here!" Shadow Stalker shrieked between feedings, she'd been calling Amy names every waking moment for the past two days. Apparently incensed that Amy wasn't doing anything to fight.
Which was pretty stupid because she was a healer, not a fighter. And if Amy started messing with Taylor or her bugs the swarm would descend on her immediately. But from what Taylor had heard all too often from Sophia now, her stupid predator and prey philosophy demanded action.
"You catch more flies with honey." Amy called out, sharing a smirk with Taylor at the roar of incandescent rage that answered her.
Amy had tried to talk to Shadow Stalker for all of ten minutes at the beginning before realizing that if anything Taylor had undersold how unstable she was. She'd ranted about her philosophy and how Amy should just kill Taylor right then and there because she wasn't worthy of life. Taylor had practically seen all support drain out of Amy as the ten minutes ticked by, until the healer had stomped away and refused to entertain the ward any longer.
"People are freaking out, you know." Amy said, the spoon still in her mouth as she looked at her phone, surfing PHO together with Taylor. "They found my car outside the parking garage."
Taylor had been worried the girl would use it to text or call for help, but she'd seemed remarkably relaxed ever since leaving the cocoon and hadn't even tried to send a message. It weirded Taylor out, it was like the girl was reluctant to go back or something. Might explain why she was out driving in the middle of the night. She was allowed to drive to the hospital but apparently Amy in a fit of rebellion had taken to driving around aimlessly.
Luckily for Taylor that night. Or unlucky depending on how this situation would end up resolving itself. Taylor kind of trusted Amy would keep her mouth mostly shut if she just let the girl go at this point.
The problem was Shadow Stalker.
Taylor couldn't let Sophia go. Neither could she kill her or Amy would turn her in. She definitely wouldn't harm Amy so she was kind of stuck on what to do.
"Your parents must be worried sick." Taylor mumbled, brow furrowed, feeling bad about the situation.
Amy made a wishy washy hand motion, "Carol is probably more worried about the bad reputation hit to New Wave for managing to 'lose' me." She said sarcastically, looking forlorn. "Mark probably hasn't noticed if no one's told him."
Notably to Taylor, Amy didn't call them mom and dad, which freaked her out even more. They were a hero team. They were supposed to be good people. Amy was good people, so how…
"Aren't your parents worried? Did you run away from home to become a villain?" Amy asked, trying to change the subject, looking uncomfortable speaking of her parents.
Taylor sighed bitterly, "I killed my mom, called her while she was driving, she crashed the car." She said succinctly, continuing on before she lost the nerve, a hitch to her voice, "And… I killed my dad too… The locker… He rushed to the hospital… Died on the way…"
"Jesus…" Amy said quietly, putting the peanut butter jar down, sticking the spoon in it, before she reached over and pulled Taylor into a hug. "You know that's not your fault, it really isn't!" She insisted, holding Taylor tightly.
Taylor giggled, sounding somewhat unhinged. "Is it bad I can't remember the last time?" She said despondently.
"The last what?" Amy asked almost gently, for her. She'd been fairly brusque in her mannerisms the last two days.
Taylor sniffed a little, "The last time I had a hug. I can't remember it." She said, trying to remember when she'd had an honest to god hug last and coming up blank. It must have been from before Emma turned evil. Maybe even as far back as her mom dying.
Amy's grip tightened as she hugged her even harder, the frizzy haired girl sighing against Taylor's cheek, "You didn't deserve this, you definitely didn't cause any of it, Taylor. You know you don't have to be a villain, you'd make a pretty good hero."
Taylor chuckled, a bitter undertone to it, waving a hand towards the corner where you could still hear Shadow Stalker's cursing. "No I can't. She'll never let me."
Amy paused, hesitating, before something firm seemed to settle in her visage. "What if I could make her not say anything?" She said, licking her lips briefly, the girl herself looking unsure about what she's offering.
"No." Taylor said strongly, pushing the girl away an arm's length so she could glare at her properly. "That's what a villain would do, I'm not making you become a bad guy over me and my pathetic problems."
Amy gave her an intense look, biting her lip, she seemed almost eager. "You're not pathetic, and it would solve everything, you'd be able to just let me go, you'd be able to be a hero." She argued.
Taylor shook her head stubbornly, "I already accidentally killed people, I can't be a hero, so don't do this for me, it's not worth it." She hated revealing how she was already damned, but she couldn't let Panacea be damned with her.
Amy paused, a conflicted expression on her face, "It was an accident, right?" She asked, and upon seeing Taylor's begrudging nod she soldiered on, "I'm sure with my support we could work something out, the PRT allowed Stalker in the wards, we'll be able to figure something out." She sounded confident, but Taylor was pretty sure she had no actual idea how those kinds of things worked.
Taylor was glad they were talking quietly enough Sophia couldn't hear, she didn't want to imagine how much shit Panacea would be in if it got out she was offering to do… Whatever it was she was offering. "No." She said firmly, glaring at her sort of friend/captive. "I won't let you dirty your hands." She said with finality.
Amy scoffed, "You can't stop me." She said smugly, before gaining a look of intense concentration. And Taylor felt it when something changed, Amy had been holding onto one of her bugs and it was changing.
"What did you do?" Taylor asked with trepidation as she felt the new bug take flight, Taylor immediately taking control of it, her mind assaulted with new capabilities.
Amy looked perfectly smug as she sat back, crossing her arms under her chest, "Well, if you wouldn't let me near Shadow Stalker to keep my hands virgin clean." She said, somewhat mockingly, "I changed one of your bugs so it could do the job for me, and then technically I am not doing it, you, the villain is, my hands are clean." She looked so unbearably smug and righteous too. It annoyed Taylor. Were all the hero's idiots?
Taylor appreciated an upgraded bug, she did. But this was just beyond the pale. Did Amy think at all? "Are you insane?" She hissed at the girl, "You can't go around creating mind control on a whim!" It wasn't quite as easy as that, but she could tell from the bug that it had pheromones that would allow Taylor to pretty much addict Sophia to her if she were to take a guess.
Which was very not okay. What the fuck Amy? And Taylor was the villain in this warehouse, supposedly?
Even as she'd said it, Taylor reluctantly sent the bug to get busy with the ladies, Amy had either forgotten in the rush, or never intended to make the bug sterile. And as much as Taylor detested the idea of influencing or controlling a sentient mind - because she considered her own inviolate, it's why she couldn't stand the idea of drugs because they altered your mind - she would still try to spread the bug strain to a couple more, for a rainy day.
Could save her life one day.
Amy shrugged, looking slightly uncomfortable now, but still, her eyes were shiny and her whole demeanor was upbeat, like a weight was off her shoulders. "I feel good about this." She insisted.
"This is a bad idea…" Taylor said, but it was also the only one they had for how to solve this conundrum.
She couldn't just let Sophia walk out.
She couldn't let Amy walk out if she killed Sophia.
This bug and it's new pheromone based system would theoretically solve all their problems.
Creating a whole new set of issues.
"What's the worst that could happen?" Amy questioned brightly. Pushing Taylor to use her creation. She was way too into seeing what her stuff could do, it's like she'd never used it before.
How am I the villain? Taylor thought in frustration, looking from Amy to Sophia and feeling overwhelmed.
This won't end well.
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