The Vespidian
Arc 13: Battle of Bronson City
Chapter 15
Interlude: Wriggling
Light Fly grits her teeth, the blinding light scalding Vesper’s eyes, the bone of her face melting from the heat. The giant, monstrous wasp flopped into the water like a whale that breached the surface. Behind them, the water had misted, a low-hanging toxic fog of chlorine gas. The saltwater bubbled as it began to glow blue, heating beyond the boiling point. The shock surged through the waters a pulse of blue light that fried the cyborg sharks. Above the fires swept and swirled forming twisters. The fire tornadoes drew in the caustic fumes from the electrified acid and vented them out of the room. Hydronic rode the wave from Vesper's impact, surfing them away from that hellscape.
Surely that would at least be a setback for the wasp and give them some breathing room. Light Fly peered over the side, her reflection in the water. Her hair had been cut into a clean blond bob-cut mirroring Neon Nurse. Even the clothes that she wore were the same as that twisted cyborg. She shivered at the thought. The image in the water shifted, distorted ever so slightly as white appeared. A looming shadow surrounded that white. The three black with red iris eyes gazing back at her. It was the Vespidian. She had already regenerated the damage dealt.
Her insides reeled, and part of her screamed not to harm her Queen. She must serve. She must obey. She bit her lip to the point that it bled, suppressing that alien desire that had taken root in her. She raised her metal hands to fire off another beam when the face sank back out of view. The cold sweat-inducing realization crawled down her back like a spider weaving its web, the wasp was playing with her food. Her mouth opened then closed, unable to speak. She clenched her teeth at the hopelessness of it. Even now she was terrified. Not of the wasp, no, of Xava. Neon Nurse was the true evil amongst that pair. She could feel the tingle, the electric pulse in the back of her mind, those eyes that never blink looking down upon her with the cold calculations of a machine. Nothing more than a statistic.
Xava’s thoughts when they invaded, were unsettling, and inhuman. The cold, mechanical precision that accompanied them was horrifying and efficient. It gave her pause for a moment, even now the ever so small lump on the back of her neck, under this nurse uniform- she shivered in revulsion. Her thoughts straightened out again, the device attached to her that wrested dominion from her. So long as that thing was embedded in her then any semblance of control that she had, fragile, false… that diabolical psycho nurse could and would take over whenever she wanted.
Light Fly, lamented. Even now, despite her friends and colleagues having risked their lives to come and save her, she felt helpless. She didn’t know how or why, but she knew, oh Light Fly knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt that all of this was going according to whatever evil scheme that sinister cyborg had designed. Was that thing even a cyborg? With how cold and unsettling the thoughts and emotions, if they could be called that, were. It made her question. She didn’t feel human, perhaps, Xava was actually a machine, playing at being human. That made a lot of sense, a lot more than it should. That explained the obsession with feeling, senses, touch, smell, and taste.
A cold shiver went down her spine. Those eyes, staring through her eyes, ears listening to all that she heard. At this point, Light Fly wasn’t sure if her thoughts themselves were even safe from Xava. It was always watching, always listening.
While Light Fly had every reason to despise both of them, there was an odd warmth when it came to Vesper. The stark opposite of Xava’s cold unfeeling demeanor. Maybe the polar opposites made each side stick out all the more. It was perplexing, to say the least. By all accounts, the wasp should be number two on her most hated list, yet she wasn’t. It had defiled her, abused her, eaten her fucking arms off, and yet… an errant and discomforting thought wriggled its way through the hate, it had loved her. Cared for her. Even, protected her from Xava be it inadvertently.
Memories surfaced of the things she had been forced to do. The things she had felt. Her belly was warm, a slight tingling, a fluttering like feathers kneading her insides. It still remembered, the stretching the filling… the eggs. Her body heavy, distorted, stuffed, and misshapen. She reeled at the thought, leaning over the side of Hydronic’s form, throwing up.
She felt lightheaded wiping her mouth. Idly she mused which was worse, being a brood mother or a meat puppet. Then again they had forced her to be both at the same time. Of the two being a flesh suit was definitely worse. No semblance of control, every action performed against her will, like strings manipulating a marionette. At least with the wasp, she didn’t have to fear about losing control of her body forever. Well… at least, not directly in that way.
She thought of Vesper, bizarrely finding herself fond of their encounters. Sure she was rough and demanding, but she was soft… an odd thought for a giant exoskeleton-clad monster. Light Fly brushed that thought away. It was one of those crazed thoughts that had begun appearing as of late. Thinking on it, those had started to appear after Vesper had… bred her the first time. Her thoughts meandered attempting to rationalize the proper term for it.
Corruption. Close, that word was in a general sense correct. Being exposed to Vesper had altered things, her body heating at just the thought of the wasp. Vaguely it reminded her of her stupid youth and drug abuse. The wasp was very alien in her anatomy, there is no telling what sort of effect her secretions- images of that swollen egglayer, the taste, the texture polluting her thoughts.
She shook her head clearing those thoughts. A twisted idea lingered in the back of her mind, she might be addicted to that thing. Come to think of it, when was the last time she had gotten to taste it, to drink it? Was it yesterday, or the day before? It was hard to tell down here. Those thoughts had settled it, a deep sense of shame and disgust filled her. She nestled in, arms hugging her knees as he rocked back and forth traumatized.
Even now she felt, attached. Between Vesper or Neon Nurse, well that was an easy answer. It would be Vesper every day. At first, the giant wasp was scary, but it had a very loving side. She recalled the time spent laying in her lap after being used. Pet and stroked, treated like some sort of cat or some other small animal. It was freakishly calming, soothing, to just lay there not a thought in the world, that large hand that could crush her, gently brushing her, treating her like she was made of glass and would shatter at the merest touch.
She shook her head and buried it in her lap, her face red with either embarrassment or need, she didn’t know and was distrought that it even crossed her mind.
“You ok, Light Fly?” asked Armadillo. His robust and sturdy form loomed over her.
Light Fly was exceedingly happy to see him, to not feel so isolated as she had while lost in her thoughts. Why the hell was she thinking like that? She needed to help everyone escape. They needed to get the hell out of here and warn everyone of what that thing was capable of.
Light Fly opened her mouth, to speak, to inform them of what she had learned here, the inhuman horror that was the Vespidian. But no words came out. She sputtered, choking for a moment, her mouth opening and closing stupidly like a fish out of water. She scowled, her mouth shutting. Xava’s doing.
The evil bitch had done something to her. Every time she tried to talk, to warn everyone her body would freeze up. Considering that she could speak just fine when not talking about Vesper then, it brought up the suspicions that, Xava really was reading her mind or something similar.
As though... no, likely reading her mind. Light Fly felt that all too familiar and horror-inducing sensation of losing control of her body. She spoke but they were not her words.
“Last time I went through this room, there was an elevator at the far end. We should be, safe, well safer if we can reach it. The Vespidian will not be able to fit inside so it will need another route to continue attacking us.”
Light Fly reeled internally, the words were not wrong, that had been the case just the day before. Still, it didn’t make sense that Xava would be actively aiding them, directing them on how to escape. What the hell was her angle? Perhaps she had not given up on that insane deal she had offered earlier. Despite all that she had offered, giving up the Citadel was unacceptable, surely she knew that. Hubris would never give up his base of operations.
Even if they wanted to, giving up the Citadel would disrupt just about all Hero League operations worldwide since it was a hub that most things filtered through. Not to mention the security risks. If it fell into Xava’s hands then there was no telling what terrible things she could commit. A thought of danger graver by the moment appeared, that crazy bitch might be able to hack into the Hammer Satellites or even the Nuclear arsenals across the globe. That was certainly a doomsday scenario.
“That is a good point, but something tells me things are not going to go so smoothly.” Medavac replied looking ahead of them, where they were speeding towards.
Land, or rather solid ground was not that far away now the edge of the tank revealed a little more than usual due to the lowering water level. Something stirred in the turbulent waters ahead of them. A dead cyborg shark floated, bobbing to the surface. Just about everyone let out a sigh of relief, until the black and blue fingers, moved ever so slightly, gripping the shark. That deep dark shadow shifted as the Vespidian rose out of the water, between them and where they needed to get to. She had, cut them. From her wide intimidating stance, it was clear that she intended to not let anyone get beyond her.
“Light Fly, I am hurt you would try to wound me, after all the… attention I gave you.” Said Vesper, her voice dark and playful, just the sound of it made Light Fly’s body convulse, wriggling like a worm.
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She made herself as small as possible retreating to the back, out of sight. Thoughts of what depraved things the wasp might do to her flooded her brain. Lewd images of what had already transpired. Whatever Vesper had planned to do with her, it was not in her best interest to stick around and find out. Despite this, there were conflicting emotions, the spectrum bungee jumping between abject terror and a twisted desire to surrender again. It was enough to make her scream, overpowering Xava’s control temporarily.
“Stop her. We have to stop her! Otherwise she will fill others with eggs like she did me!” Light Fly cried out, her hands raised already firing a beam at Vesper.
The wasp chuckled, blocking the beam with her upper right hand, the laser glancing off the hardened carapace with splintered refractions. Her wings flapped, sending a violent wave that nearly capsized Hydronic.
Her twisted, alien visage smiled coldly, “You say that, yet you were the one begging for more. Pleading, crying, your body writhing in elation. If I had known you would be this ungrateful of the gift of my brood then, I wouldn’t have talked Xava out of disposing of you or using you for the more dangerous experiments.”
Light Fly looked to the others, Armadillo seemed aghast. Medavac, seemed as though he had been expecting to hear that she had been bred. Hydronic, well it would be hard to tell what an amorphous blob was thinking.
“I don’t know where they keep the eggs but we have to find them and destroy them.” Said Light Fly.
Vesper’s demeanor darkened the moment she heard that. A look of pure unbridled hatred, anger, and blood lust that distorted that already dreadful face. Light Fly regretted her words instantly. Why did she say something so stupid so loudly? Likely it was from being so desperate to speak her mind without interference that she didn’t think it through.
“Vesper we are not going to destroy your eggs. That is fucked up. And I know fucked up, I have done that shit, far too many times. It is why I left Chimera, retired from the military. Vesper you have to believe me.” Shouted Medavac attempting to disarm the Wasp that was about to go nuclear on them.
Her head twisted inhumanly jerking, to the side, a movement that would have ripped a human’s head off. Her breathing was heavy, enough so that her chest carapace was moving up and down cracking down the middle as it broke. Her eyes were wide open, yet there was only black to be seen. That abyss of anger, a bubbling rage that was starting to foam out as tears.
“YOU will not touch my babies!” The crazed wasp bellowed her hands slamming down into the water.
It erupted away from her forming a large wave that crested, rolling towards them. Medavac hurled a cryo grenade that sunk into the middle section, after a moment it detonated causing ice to spread rapidly, arresting the encroaching water, and dragging it down to a standstill. The rest of the wave went past them on either side.
The thudding, trudging of her heavy steps rose just beyond the ice. It impacted lurching forward, towards them. It jerked, rising out of the water as Vesper hefted it over her head, her carapace arms bristling with muscles that undulated below the armored plating making them form odd waves of insect flesh.
The lights flickered above causing her to flinch, she paused mid-throw, her claws digging deep into the ice as she released the small iceberg. It crashed just to their side. She shifted her head back and forth, the antenna darting, chasing something. She had been hearing it before they had, there was an alarm blaring. For the first time, all of them saw a look of fear cross her monstrous visage.
Vesper’s wings spread flapping violently as she bolted off ignoring them. She slammed through a wall and began ascending, scuttling on all of her limbs. The metal of the wall dented out as she forced her way through it, the impacts leaving a trail of frenzied destruction.
They had been confused, and stunned by the abrupt change in behavior. Then they heard the message that accompanied that loud, obnoxious warning siren. “WARNING! WARNING! COOLANT SYSTEMS OFF LINE. CORE MELT DOWN IMMINENT! ALL PERSONAL EVACUATE.”
That was certainly not something they had done. And by how surprised Vesper had been, to the point that it had snapped her out of a blood frenzy, that was clearly not a part of Xava’s schemes. Or at the very least she had not informed Vesper of it. Whichever was the case that didn’t change their current predicament. Now getting out of here was all that mattered.
Unimpeded, Hydronic surged forward, propelling out of the salty tank. It slit across the floor colliding with the wall. Beside them the elevator opened, someone had called it.
Light Fly felt that shock to her system as her lips moved on their own. “I believe I overheard Neon Nurse bragging about some kind of experimental reactor for the facility. We need to get out of here before it blows up. This elevator should get us to the access station, which has another elevator out of the installation.”
She didn’t know if that was true or not. The crazy nurse had never mentioned anything like that, not that she could recall. Light Fly questioned if she should dispute this. Then thoughts that she was valuable to Xava and as such surely the nurse wouldn’t deliberately get her killed. She did enjoy using her body so surely that meant that she did not desire Light Fly’s death. This though was only a hopeful guess. But what choice did they have? Her own lips had said it and everyone else was already trusting it. It wasn’t as though she could refute it without a lot of effort and likely time they did not have.
She could only trust that she was valuable enough for Xava to ensure her safe escape, rather than this being a trap that would ensure their deaths.
“Armadillo, can you hear me?” asked a voice through the elevator as it rose.
Everyone turned to the screen that flickered. The brimmed hat, tilted up revealed the older grizzled detective, in an unassuming trench coat.
“Lock Out! Oh that is a relief. I wasn’t sure how things were going on your side.” Replied Armadillo.
“Yeah I was watching everything on the security feeds. Encore is just about finished with escorting everyone from the prison out of the base.”
“Where are you?”
“In the security department, I got access to most of the facility. I set off that alarm to clear out the Kraken agents.”
“Wait so it is fake?” asked Light Fly.
He shook his head, “No it is melting down, but for some reason there was no alarm. If I had not noticed it then our goose would have been cooked. If this shit is right, then we have less than three minutes before the core is breached and detonates the installation.”
“How big is the explosion going to be?” asked Medavac.
Lock Out shrugged in exasperation, “You got me, it has a weird name.”
“What is it called?”
“Quantum Flux Relay, then it has quotations next to it, Uber Death Bomb of Doom. I don’t know who the fuck named this thing, but they are a weirdo cringe lord. I can feel the angsts just dripping from it.”
Medavac sighed, “It is Dr. Tesla. Oh god. That means this thing has pocket dimension tech.”
Armadillo asked, “Is that bad? I am unfamiliar with Dr. Tesla.”
Medavac replied crossing his arms, “Worst case scenario, that thing is going open up a miniature black hole for about two seconds and obliterate half the city. At this range it might even hit the Citadel.”
Lock Out’s face went stiff. “Best case scenario?”
“It is a ruse and nothing happens.”
“Best case and it is not a ruse?”
“Well depending on the size of it, I have seen a few of these things pop before, if it is small enough it would only take out a city block. But considering it is the reactor powering this whole facility I would assume that it is strong enough to take out the whole lair and then some.”
“That sounds bad,” Muttered Light Fly, “How much longer do we have?”
“According to estimates, about two minutes left.” Lockout replied, tilting his hat slightly, “I am gonna have to start running if I want out of here. All the doors should be unlocked courtesy of me, so best of luck and I will see you guys top side.”
With that, the image cut out leaving them in the dull buzz of the elevator. The music wasn’t even working, overridden by the distant sounds of that alarm blaring. They looked at the elevator buttons as they lit up. They were ascending rather rapidly, already arriving at the fifth subfloor. At this rate, they would arrive at the junction in about thirty seconds. Which left a little bit less than a minute to either get to the roof and board the drop ship and take off or to hit the ground floor and run as far as possible.
The elevator bing-bonged as it settled to a stop. The doors slid open revealing a lobby full of Kraken Super Soldiers. They turned, the masks glinting as they raised their weapons. Armadillo took the lead blocking the the storm of bullets that pelted the elevator. The heavy thuds of the munitions cried out, between calls for reloads and suppressing fire as the Kraken agents retreated to cover. Medavac and Light Fly retaliated using Armadillo to block the onslaught.
Over the gunshots, there was another sound, a rumbling. The concrete vibrated, shaking as something massive smashed nearby. To their side, a wide vehicle bay door leading down into the depths of the installation shattered as a tank turret flung through the fight. The brief moment of surprise buckled as the Kraken agents redirected all of their fire into that entranceway. The Evening Star shoulder tackled into the lobby, using the rest of the dismantled tank as a shield. The flaming hulk of metal hurled through their ranks crushing the back line. The mech charging forward. It didn’t flinch or even slow down as it kept moving.
Retro Robo’s mech stampeded on all eight limbs, two of which were mere stumps, as it rushed through the mass of soldiers. The orderly and disciplined super soldiers instantly fell into abject chaos and anarchy each of them attempting to escape into the elevators. The hands slammed down crushing and throwing the screaming bodies as it swept through like a blender. Bits, pieces, broken gear, blood, and gore splattered in every direction as the damaged machine crashed through the next wall, and then the next, barreling ahead.
The utter shock and horror of the scene before them left Medavac and the others stunned for a moment, Light Fly turning green and about to throw up until they realized... they were being left behind. Retro Robo, didn’t even acknowledge them and didn’t slow down her machine as it made for the vehicle bay that they had originally come down in. They rushed to keep up tripping over the squashed and mangled bodies that had moments before been an impassible roadblock.
The Evening Star loomed over them, a fresh coat of blood caked over every inch of it, dying the once-white paint a deep crimson and black from the burns. The stench of burned flesh steaming off of it. A light movement rose from the domed head, a little windshield wiper squeaking as it slid back and forth cleaning a section in the middle. One of the lower arms clacked the elevator controls and the lift rose. Sparks sputtered from the damaged limbs as they jitter.
“Jesus, I know it is free fire but that was brutal shit Retro.” Said Medavac.
The distorted voice of the Evening Star replied, “It is kill or be killed, I only did what was necessary. Speaking of we have about a minute before the base explodes as such time cannot be wasted on mercy for the lost.”
As the elevator rose Armadillo crossed his arms, “How did you get away from the Vespidian?”
“I didn’t really, it damaged my machine, having thought that I was subdued she left me to be dealt with by Neon Nurse and went to pursue you. I destroyed the nurse, I think killing her set off a dead man switch to blow up the lair.”
Light Fly shuddered, Neon Nurse was not dead. She knew it. There wasn’t a shadow of a doubt, the tingle of the control device shocking her, making her compliant. Her mouth sealed shut unable to refute Retro Robo’s assessment. Clearly, the nurse was attempting to fake her death, to what end? That remained to be seen. Yet another thing that Light Fly would have to wrestle with.
A long, cord-like cable emerged from the Evening Star’s wrist, it connected to the panel. Electricity pulsing between it and the controls. The elevator adjusted, shifting abruptly as it altered course. The movement jarred the occupants. It ascended faster, the number blipping shortly as it rapidly arrived at its destination. The doors opened, revealing the roof and not the parking garage.
The clear night skies were a relief, the gentle shimmer of Medavac’s cloaked shuttle gleaming in the fires of the surrounding city. Above the blue glow of the Spore radiating as its tentacles flexed in slow undulating motions.