Chapter Nine: Hypothetical Situation

I tensed as I stepped up to the podium. Whatever I'd been about to say left my mind entirely as battle plans began to form.

Who could kill my bugs, even ones a few inches underground, en masse? The symptoms were simple. Weakening, spasming pain, then death, all in the course of a few moments. It was different for each species though. Some, like mites and fleas, lasted a scant moment, while others like cockroaches lasted ten whole seconds before death took them. I'd had only a moment to see what might've been the cause. I couldn't draw many theories from the image of a few screaming people, then darkness.

I turned my mind to the present. I had to do something. Had to warn them.

My silence was beginning to turn awkward but I didn't care. I caught Vigilant's gaze, though he didn't appear to return mine. He was tense, his fingers gripping at Hero's knee tightly. Theresa was fiddling with something in her pocket, and the bug I'd stashed on Vigilant's sleeve could just make out the girl removing a small cube of metal and what appeared to be a thin face mask from her purse.

No. It was the goggles.

They knew. They were getting ready just like I was. Why weren't they warning the people though! I couldn't! I was a normal with an identity to protect, but Devin could!

Fuck, if this had happened just yesterday, I would've been nothing more than an average girl. I wouldn't have even been aware of the killings just beyond the building's walls. Now I was. I was trapped, and I knew it.

My range was stretching by the minute. More bugs entered my field, save for the chunk of 'blankness' to the south. I shuffled any remaining bugs near that killing radius quickly underground, deep enough to be safe from whatever was killing them.

There was something to be noticed in the way they had died. Not instantly. Not all at once either. The spasm had wracked them in order. From further away from the buildings towards it.

A parahuman with a bubble range like me, stepping towards the building? No, the walls seemed to be keeping whatever had killed the bugs outside from entering this room. No one had noticed anything amiss. The grand walls were solid and nearly soundproof. They seemed to block the killing power as well.

Gas then. Poison. But that, too seemed unlikely. Many bugs were practically invulnerable to poisons. Cockroaches could survive nuclear fallout. What the hell could kill them?

I'd have to see the source, and hope that my ability to read powers registered it as hostile, so I could understand it.

Fuck, I'd been standing up here staring at the microphone for far too long. No one peeped, and their eyes lingered on me.

Fuck, just say something! What was I here for again?

"Think…" I said slowly. "...of someone you love."

My audience seemed captivated, not yet by my words but by my reputation. I elated at that, before realizing that it wasn't exactly a good thing. Not a few phones were trained on me, recording. Again.

"Got someone?" I asked rhetorically. "Good. Now, think of the worst things about that person."

How can I save them? What to do? How to warn them?

Ten meters. Fifteen. Seventeen. Gather my bugs? A bug clone? Could work but wouldn't save the people in the other buildings. No. I couldn't worry about that. Had to assume the cape was coming here. A bug clone would be only barely viable too. It was October. There weren't nearly enough flying bugs about. A wispy clone at best.

"Are they lazy? Maybe they cheat at games? Maybe the cheat on their girlfriends? Boyfriends? Remember. Someone you love. A brother, a father. Maybe a friend."

Me? I thought of Tattletale, and her complete and utter lack of sense when it came to prodding and poking at people. Lack of tact. I thought of Bitch and her all around bitchiness. A couple of the wards pinged at my conscience, Theo most of all, but I couldn't say I ever felt that close to even him. Instead I thought of new friends; Chloe and finding out she'd eavesdropped on me and my dad. Sophia had a penchant for stealing other people's leftovers from the fridge. Silly little things.

I began to stroll away from the podium. The further I could get in each direction the more bugs I could gather. I sent a small contingent of cockroaches and a few other bugs that had survived the longest to the top of the roof to peer down and try to get better eyes on the situation.

Vigilant and Hero were hardly focused on me at all. What the hell was that cube in Theresa's hand?

I don't have to warn them. Just get them the hell out.

"I want you to think of all the bad things about that person." I told my audience. They looked confused and bewildered at the direction I was taking them. "Their worst habits to the little things that just tick you off. Things that you know they shouldn't do."

The bugs on the roof died, having seen nothing save for a few students lying on the ground, twitching, barely moving.

I couldn't fucking expose myself. Not like this. Not now, not when I'd promised I'd tell my Dad first. I had to at least do that, cape attacking or not. I'd promised… Dammit I'd promised and I really wanted to keep this one.

The radius of dying bugs was surrounding the building. I could feel them dying as whatever the source was moved closer and closer to us. Clinically, I had bugs with the best vision watch those closer to the death zone. Watched as a short burst of wind touched them before they began dying. Wind…?

Poison and wind. But what the hell kind of poison universally kills bugs and people? Cyanide? Arsenic? Something more sinister, knowing capes.

"Over time you learn to ignore the little evils in the ones you love. And they in turn, begin to ignore yours. There's a sense camaraderie in it all," I said. Outwardly, I was calm as can be, but inside I was beginning to panic. How could I save these people? Hell, how could I save myself?

"My point is as simple as it is cliche. We're all flawed. Mr. Comerford, and the teachers before you grew angry because their friend had died. It seems to me that they struck out in the only venue they could." I said sadly.

"Yeah. Their rapist friend," said a voice that sounded suspiciously familiar to the one that had interrupted President Wright before.

Inwardly I grinned. Target. I almost felt a tad sorry for him. My bugs identified the speaker directly even though I hadn't been looking at him, and I very nearly turned to eviscerate him. I caught Hero's eyes though.

I'll make him trigger too. I can't single people out. Not at all.

My pride singed and screamed to put the asshole down, but I quashed it. Instead I ignored him.

"There was a reason for the seminar last month, but it wasn't to educate us. It wasn't to make us aware of new capes and dangers we might face. It was about revenge. One of the most human things. A cape killed their friend, and a cape should pay right?" Still rhetorical questions. Thankfully the talkative idiot in the back didn't have anything to say.

Think Taylor think! How to get everyone to leave but not through the main entrance?

Suddenly, my bugs noticed about a dozen tiny objects begin to spill out of Therea's purse. Floating drones. They hovered between the people's feet, spreading out in a way similar to my own bugs on a small scale.

I moved my flyers towards the entrance as discreetly as possible, as I watched the drones moving towards the fire alarm. I'd already had bugs set to trip it but was holding back on that option due to the fact that the main doors would lead the people straight into the killing zone.

"I don't condone what they did. Capes deserve better than to all be lobbed into one category. They're people just like anyone else. But back to the people you love. What would you do to avenge a loved one? For that closure? Regardless of Mr. Coals actions during life, of his evils that I hope these men and women before me didn't know about. They were trying to do something, just like Vigilant at the bank. They were trying."

My audience wasn't held in awe, though they could've been. If I'd pulled that boy out from the audience I could've drawn them in, but Jack Slash wasn't who I needed today. No. Today I needed Dragon. Legend. Cavalier. The speech didn't really matter and was hard to focus on as I felt the killing zone begin to surround the building, seeping in through open windows. Wind. I kept thinking it had something to do with the wind.

They'd said I was a Thinker. Superhuman multitasking. Giving the speech with my body while I desperately sought a solution from my bugs. I didn't have more than a few moments before the decision was forcibly taken from me. I felt more than saw the drones approach the fire alarm.

Fuck! The idiots, the alarm would send the people straight into the line of fire! God dammit!

My cockroaches pounced off the wall, ten or fifteen, blanketing the drone's visibility. It flailed wildly for a moment before plunging off course and smacking into the ground loud enough to draw the eyes of half the room.

Another drone approached and my supply of bugs on that wall was perilously low.

You're a hero now, Theresa! Think!

Our tiny war was suddenly interrupted by a horrible bang. Unmistakably, gunfire, followed by an ear-piercing feminine scream that managed to cut through the deep doors.

Thank god.

Before me, I watched Mr. Comerford jump, terrified instantly as the crack of what sounded like a shotgun jerked them to their feet.

Adrenaline surged through me, and I felt relieved. The gunshot would be more than enough to convince them to leave through the back. Now I didn't have to make bug clones to scare them into leaving, or use the fire alarm.

"Get out through the back!" I screamed into the microphone, my voice tearing through them all before panic could set in. "Go around that way!"

I pointed roughly towards the back hallway, drawing all eyes, and the teachers moved to comply.

"She's right. Everyone leave as quickly as possible!" Professor Wright's words echoed my own, but with a stately presence that commanded as much as my anger did. I shot her a nod.

"Call the police!"
"Fuck, who's shooting a gun?"
"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shi.."

"Hurry!" I screamed. "Fuck, don't just stand there you idiots! Move before he takes the whole building hostage! Follow me!"

Too shocked to do anything else the crowd seemed to respond lurching forward but then shuffling towards a stop, people scrambling to get out of the rows of seats. A few even scrambled over the pews.

"What's going on?!"

Cacophony, but not so uncivilized that anyone was going to get trampled. I hoped.

Honestly, this actually felt refreshing. It was nice to have such a black and white conflict. Some monster killing things outside. Killing people. That made this real easy.

Down the fucker.

I felt only the briefest pang of regret for my promise to my Dad now as I prepped my bugs. Some small part of me wanted to hide my abilities but I didn't think I'd be able to. I'd need everything I could use to beat this one. A gun on top of it? Fuck, I didn't even have a knife.

"T-Taylor, what's going on?" A blonde girl asked, grabbing my shoulder. She looked my age, and I recognized from class. She was the brave girl who'd asked if my story at the seminar had been true.

"I don't know," I lied. "Someone's attacking."

The crowd pushed into my back as I slid around the small hallway at the back of the room, returning to the hearing room while the crowd squeezed around me.

"Oh god this can't be happening…" I heard a man whisper to himself as the crowd pushed him, filtering them all slowly out the backdoor.

"It's happening. If you're smart, and keep your head on straight you'll be fine," I told him with a little more confidence than I felt. "The gunshot was out there, and he hasn't come in here yet so–!"

My words were cut short as the door handle to the main room suddenly burst in a spray of wood chips and another massive bang. Sophia! Chloe! They were still near the back of the room!

"Hurry! Get out! Hurry!" I screamed shuffling them along in front of me and clearing out of the way, back into the room. The pace of the people picked up as I prodded them, sometimes even physically pushing them to move faster.

The doors banged open and I finally saw who was causing all this shit. A tall man wearing a brown trench coat that whipped wildly in a wind that hadn't been present before.

I grinned as his power bore itself before me. Spilling out all its secrets like a human Pandora's Box.

Wind. Wind to carry a draining toxin created from his skin to touch anyone he wants at will. Constant application needed to continuously drain. Continuous flow of wind that he can direct and guide to people. Surrounding him, a near permanent vortex of wind, like a tornado. Deflects most projectiles. Tinker weaponry could penetrate it. Calm interior.

Well. That explained why no one had blasted his head off with a sniper. Sure could use Kid Win right about now. How the hell was I going to do anything to this guy?

Striker 7, with the toxin in his skin alone. Fuck what could control wind? A shaker? Blaster? I didn't even know how to classify him. All I knew was that my bugs probably couldn't even get near him. The direct way at least. No wonder this guy went solo. By normal human means he was invincible.

Alexandria would thrash him. Armsmaster might not even bother.

I on the other hand was going to have some problems with him.

"Ah. Taylor. Right? Hmm!" He seemed to giggle to himself, hefting the shotgun to lay the barrel casually over his shoulder. "So. Blight Arrives. Wasn't that how my part in this little play started?"

...And he had to be batshit insane to boot.

I wasn't decaying yet so I had to assume he was here for something. I could see bodies lying on the ground through the door outside. Lots of them.

"Why the hell are you here?" I demanded.

Vigilant and Hero both seemed frozen solid at the sight of him. Hero's goggles hung limply in her hands. This was the guy openly responsible for the deaths of over three hundred people. One of the top destructive capes in this sheltered little world.

They were terrified.

I was irritated.

"Fame and fortune?" He offered with a lifted palm. "Meet new people? Truthfully I was bored. I wanted to meet the girl who pushed me from occasional headline to utterly infamous. You know, ever since that video of yours I've face no less than seven assassination attempts."

"Huh," I sniffed. "Just seven? Clearly you need to work on your villainy. Need to ride my coattails? You barely even know how to use that power of yours. Meanwhile, I didn't even have to use mine to become famous. Come on. I'll hire you, and maybe we'll make a respectable villain out of you in… a few years."

He grinned, wide and full. "So you are a cape! Oh the media would die to hear this conversation! Tell me, what can you do? Talk me into killing myself? With that chilling speech of yours, I could believe it." He mocked.

My bugs were swarming beneath his feet. Termites were tearing the wooden floor to shreds. My spiders would swarm him if I could get him to stand there for just a little longer. Only two Black Widows though I had enough Brown Recluses to make him beg.

"That would be telling," I said casually.

"T-Taylor…?" Chloe whispered from just outside the back of the hall, horrified by my words. Hero and Vigilant looked just as surprised.

God what are you still doing here Chloe!

Tears slid down her cheeks. "Tay…"

My eyes widened as I watched the girl run towards me.

"Who's this annoyance?" Blight asked just as Chloe clasped her arms around me.

"I can't leave you… I couldn't just leave you…" She bawled.

God Chloe I love you but you are a complete idiot.

"Hmmph," was the only warning I received.

A burst of wind blasted me back into the dais where the Board of directors had sat. My back slammed into the high wooden desk robbing me of air. I gasped, pain overwhelming my senses.

Motherfucker! Why does this hurt so much!?

The reason hit me like a truck. Clinic healed me. The nerve damage from Bakuda's bomb was gone. I could feel the cold more acutely. Feel the sunlight more warmly...

And feel agony beyond reason.

"N-No! Stop it!" Chloe screamed.

I grit my teeth and realized I'd slumped to the floor, trying to make myself stand.

"I was having fun. No interruptions!" He screamed and leveled the shotgun at the black-haired girl.

My eyes widened in horror. Tunnel vision overtook me and the pain seemed to bleed into nothing in the blink of an eye. A shotgun was aimed at my best friend.

My bugs stormed in from the ceiling sliding in through all corridors of the room to swarm him, but they were batted away seemingly without thought. I wasn't even sure if he'd seen them, because they weren't being poisoned. Simultaneously, I was on my feet dashing for Chloe. I could see his hands on the trigger with my bugs just as I managed to push the girl away.

The burst of gunfire blasted my eardrums, but there was no pain. I watched myself through the eyes of my bugs as a blue forcefield surrounded me just in time to shatter into pieces before it fell from me like shedding a glassy shell. The pieces faded into mist and then nothing before they could reach the ground.

What the hell?

"A barrier? Hmm," Blight said before cocking the shotgun, the casings clattering to the marble floor with two ominous chimes. His wind batted away my bugs before they could even come near him. Fuck, I needed to get them through the floor! His clothing wasn't being torn to shreds so there must be a safe inner zone, barely affected by his wind.

Not nearly enough termites. Fucking school paid its damn exterminators well, and it was going to get me killed.

Vigilant, Hero, do something!

"Pity."

He pulled the trigger again and no barrier saved me this time.

I screamed as my left arm was wrenched backwards and I was flung, spinning to the floor once more. My heartbeat pounded in my forehead. Numbly I heard the gasps of my companions. Chloe from her place on the floor where I'd pushed her. Vigilant, his eyes narrowing, only now getting truly angry about all this. Hero frozen solid.

I held back a second scream as my body rolled without regard for my flailing limbs. I landed hard on my shoulder where the pain was coming and let out another grunt before rolling, blessedly to a stop.

Was I in shock? It… should hurt more than this…? The pain, the feeling of the bullets blasting through my arm should hurt more shouldn't it?

I wanted to move but my body wouldn't comply. Had my mind shut down? Fuck… my bugs. A new… a new power? My pain now bleeding into my bugs just as I had done with my emotions? The pain was distant, but I couldn't move. I realized suddenly that I was gasping for breath.

I could do nothing but watch and hope. The sound of heavy footsteps echoed on the marble floor. Vigilant had finally engaged him. I tilted my head so I could watch with my eyes as he closed in.

His fist flew with a heavy haymaker that I already knew was doomed to fail. Wind burst around Blight and Devin's arm flailed wide, as if pushed back by an invisible force. Blight capitalized on the distraction, plunging the butt of his rifle into Vigilant's stomach.

A loud clink rang as the rifle impacted hard on some sort of metal armor beneath Vigilant's sweater. I watched Blight's eyes widen as the mover grinned. The dark haired boy backhanded Blight hard and sent him sprawling to the floor, trench coat flapping as he sprawled.

Stupid idiot. That was your chance! You were inside his field! You needed to fucking stay there!

Hero stood stock still. Terrified, unable to run or fight.

"T-Taylor. Oh god, Taylor, no..." Chloe. I didn't have time to worry about her right now.

Blight seemed to glide to his feet rather than stand, buffeted by a frenzy of wind. His lower lip was bleeding. His nose, crooked. He snarled at Vigilant, a dark shadow cast over his eyes.

"Clever." Was all Blight said, before holding his hand forward in a classic blaster gesture. My ability to sense hostile powers allowed me to see him manipulate the wind moments before Vigilant dropped to the floor screaming. His hair and clothes whipped furiously as wind seemed to swirl around him similar to how it normally did around Blight. Even I was disgusted as Vigilant's face literally began to morph and age before my eyes. Skin drooped and wrinkles began to form as he put on ten years over the course of a minute. His screams echoed in the tall room.

"Devin!" Hero screamed.

Oh you're here after all? What happened to all that conviction you had before dammit!? Some hero!

Those were the tamer comments that fluttered through my mind as I watched the girl finally snap out of her shocked stupor. It seemed for a moment that all she was going to do was scream in rage and stare at the bloody lipped villain.

And then there were drones.

They fucking poured out of her purse as if she'd somehow hidden an entire army in there. They spread wide, and menacing, each the size of a pebble, in a technique I was quite familiar with. The swarm. Terror. Fanning out to appear even more numerous than they were.

Blight stopped his attack on Vigilant for a moment, taken aback by the army of floating pebbles before him.

Did they have some sort of beam weapon maybe? Fuck she might be able to stop him after a—

My eye twitched as the drones began to ram themselves at him by the dozen. They bounced off his wind-shield as if they really were pebbles thrown at a steel wall. One by one they clattered broken to the floor or smashing against the pews. Some even shattered into pieces like a snowball.

I tried to push myself to my feet, slowly regaining motion from whatever it was that was draining my pain. Adrenaline surged through me but for some reason my left hand didn't catch the ground and I fell hard, smashing my face into the ground and landing on the arm. I let out a short scream as agony rushed through me.

Fuck, it still hurts.

Some part of me deep inside was screaming. I was in pain. I wasn't in pain. I didn't know what was happening. A new power or just an overload of sensation so strong that it literally immobilized me?

I finally glanced down at my arm to assess the damage that must've been worse than I'd thought. To my shock, I found there was nothing there below my shoulder, save for twisted bone, burnt skin, and blood leaking out onto the floor. Trickling out.

The blue barrier was squeezing itself tightly around my arm, a makeshift tourniquet.

"Whoever you are… thanks." I whispered.

I still had my bugs, and, finally, they breached the floor. Unfortunately, the bastard was no longer standing there. I set my termites to carving more holes further up and down the floor even as I watched Vigilant's aging form tossed by the wind into a row of wooden pews crushing them under his metal armor.

"S-Stop it! Stop hurting him!" Hero –No. Theresa– screamed.

Worst. Hero. Ever.

She'd have to earn the name Hero. She was still holding that damn cube. Whatever it was, I sure hoped she could use it.

Two more holes in the floor and spiders were ready at all of them. I just needed to get him to stand near them, close enough that the wind wouldn't blow them away.

On the ceiling, my cockroaches, my pincer bugs, had been chewing away at the heavy fan's mount around the handle. They couldn't chew through the metal but they could weaken the ceiling enough so that the fan could fall.

And fall it did, slamming down onto the surprised man. Just before it would've crushed him, the cords that powered the fan caught on the ceiling, and the damn thing swung, hanging just above Blight's wind-barrier, useless.

But it had done its job. Blight had stepped back, just over one of my holes. I shoved spiders through the tiny crevice as fast as I could move them sliding them up his heavy boots and into his pant legs.

"No…" He said slowly. Disappointed. Almost bored. "Something is missing. I wanted fun but this… its too easy. Too dull."

He directed his wind back to the doors near the back of the room and blasted them open with a sharp gust, which let in the blaring sound of police sirens from outside.

To my shock, and then annoyance, his feet left the ground, hovering on tiny explosions of wind which burst beneath him giving him a limited sort of flight.

He can fly too?

Six spiders, all Brown Recluses made it onto his socks before he left the ground. None of the Widows had been close enough.

Fuck.

"The story was missing something after all. But I like my part in your little play Taylor," he told me as I struggled to get back to my feet. "You have a nice little team here. Now, are you going to leave and save what remains of it? Or will you try to save them?" He asked, alluding to the open doors.

His body drifted almost in slow motion to line up parallel with the ground before he rocketed out of the room, leaving us to lick our respective wounds.

"Taylor, Taylor, oh god… Oh god…" Chloe was scrunched up into a ball hugging her knees with her eyes closed. She was bawling like a baby, and I felt another stab of annoyance. She hadn't been flung against a wall after all. She hadn't lost another fucking arm!

She came back for me. Completely normal with no powers to her name and she fucking came back for me. I will NOT be annoyed with her.

Hero had been thrown across the room by a burst of wind at some point when I hadn't been looking but she was already making her way over to Vigilant.

Devin fared better weirdly. Blight's power seemed to require constant application or the people who had been affected by it reverted back quickly. Age was melting off him. On the downside, it appeared to be painful. To his credit, he wasn't screaming, but the twitching, spasming body beneath the crushed wood of a pew didn't inspire much confidence.

The lull of silence in the room was only momentary before the sound of screams and gunfire began to echo from outside. To my horror, a loud grinding sound, followed by a deep crunch drifted across my ears. My bugs saw it all. Wind strong enough to shove cars into the men who'd been using them for protection.

I began to space my spiders on the north side of the building evenly around the quad, hiding them in large ant tunnels where they could spring up should he step over them. The bastard was hovering at the moment though. He could control wind with as much proficiency as I could control my bugs. I wondered if he had to physically control the vortex and the explosions of wind that kept him aloft or if he just did it naturally?

Unimportant. Focus. How do I kill this bastard?

First things first.

"Chloe… Chloe I need you to focus. Someone, some cape, is holding the blood in my arm right now but whoever he is, he shouldn't have to do that."

"Wh-what…?" She cried, peaking out from her knees. "Is… is he gone?"

"For the moment but he'll be back soon eno–!" I cut off abruptly. She was frightened. No need to scare her further. I needed her.

"Chloe, I need you right now. I can't do it. Please, concentrate for me." I reasoned with her. "Tie a string around my arm. Cloth, something to cut off the bloodflow. No. No, don't cry again. Stay with me… its okay."

I was coaching my own healing, but Chloe seemed to be on board. Her eyes lingered perilously long on my bloody stub, but luckily it wasn't dripping profusely. I thought another silent thank you to whoever it was providing the barrier. That first bullet probably would've finished me without it.

Lucky. Careless. I've grown soft in the past year.

That thought nagged at me but I didn't let it hinder me. I had a villain to kill.

"I was so… so scared. Taylor. You're… you're…"

"Bleeding." I interrupted. "String! Hurry! He's hurting people outside right now and no one is going to stop him if I don't!"

I wasn't sure if the barrier power could only surround one thing at once but that did seem to be its limit. The ring squeezing my arm so tightly, pulsed occasionally like a muscle that was straining hard to keep flexed.

She finally moved. With a teary nod she stood and began opening desks where President Wright and the other professors not on trial had sat. The first three offered nothing but luckily the next fourth, near the end, revealed a legitimate first aid kit.

When she got over her terror Chloe really did work fast. I was surprised that she didn't even flinch at the blood in my arm. Her confidence grew as she worked and I only winced a little as the string took the place of the blue barrier, squeezing my arm even higher up on my shoulder.

"You're really going to be a great doctor someday," I told her, looking over her work partially amazed. The blue barrier finally faded away, and then blinked into life around my body. Wonderful. I had my armor. Now I needed a weapon.

"Sh-shut up!" She screamed, a little bit crazily. It was the first thing she'd said since she'd rushed off for the string.

My bugs were slipping onto Blight but I was afraid to let them bite him. Only three had remained clinging to his socks, poised to bite, and he was very close to the edge of my range. That and his skin would cause them to decay and die very quickly. I'd need to strike him all at once. Every time he landed I made my bugs scramble, even going so far as to use the few fliers I'd managed to stash underground to try and carry the spiders to him but I failed far too often and he rarely touched ground.

"Y-you're going back out there! You're going to try to fight him again!? After all this, you're just going to throw your life away? H-He's going to kill–!"

I touched a finger to her lips, shushing her, and gave her a slightly pained smile. I was getting better at smiling. Especially for friends like her. I couldn't keep a tiny grimace out of my expression but I hoped she'd forgive me.

"He's a wimp. I'll be fine," I assured her.

Her lower lip trembled, and I realized she was about to cry again.

I wasn't really sure what to do here. I didn't remember the last time I'd gone into battle and left someone normal behind. Everyone I'd cared about had always been right there with me. Except my dad, I guess? But he hadn't really ever seen me off like this. Why did she seem to care so damn much? We'd met a month ago, after all.

"God dammit Taylor, I said no scaring everyone! You're not even worried. He blew off your arm and you're not even slightly afraid!" She screamed at me as if that were some sort of accusation. She was right a little. Even though he probably could kill me, I couldn't bring myself to be afraid of him.

After the Golden Morning, after being so afraid the world would hate me forever, death wasn't really all that spooky.

Another crunch, this time the wind had blasted one of the car doors into the face of a hiding cop, and the window had shattered. People were still running trying to find a safe distance.

Katie? Mr. Comerford!? What the hell were they still doing there!?

At least they were well behind the row of cars along with a large group of people backed up against the wall of one of the dormitories. They were huddled down as if afraid to move in any direction, along with several other people.

"Not really my choice. The seminar wasn't either if its any conciliation. I had no choice except to speak up and hope. After Clinic… I can do a little more."

"The bugs… was that the power you'd…" She trailed off, unsure what to say. "Taylor I… don't know what to say."

"Don't have to say anything. You've been a good friend Chloe. Probably one of the best I'll ever have. Wish me luck, kay?"

The pain was draining away, back into the manageable web that I remember holding before. Back before Clinic had healed me. Evolution? My nerves felt fried again. I could activate the numbness of Bakuda's bomb at will, or at least copy the effect now by distributing the pain through my swarm just as I had with my emotions. Convenient.

"Y-You're just going to leave!?" Chloe screamed before I could get too far into my planning.

I wanted to do just that, but I owed this girl. In some way or another. I felt more indebted to Chloe than I did to Theresa. I put a soft hand on the dark haired girl's shoulder.

"You're not bad at first aid. First, go check on Devin over there, okay? You might be able to help patch up some of his wounds. Then, you need to go out that back door and help anyone outside who's still alive."

She seemed stunned. Now that her task on my arm was completed she'd zonked out, going back into her own little shock. My words brought her out of it and I watched the clarity return to her eyes.

"I can do that. Yeah. I… Yeah. T-Taylor."

I gave her a smile and patted the shoulder tenderly. She stood and nodded down to me before running over towards Vigilant and a still sobbing Hero.

She stopped only a few paces away.

"Taylor?" She said, softly. "Fuck him up."

I smirked in a way I thought Jack Slash might've been proud of.

Round Two Bastard.

I stood and began to walk out the door Blight had blown open, but stopped, noticing a cane had been left in one of the pews. I laughed, recognizing it as Professor Butler's. That was fitting. I casually scooped it up, and now I had a weapon. Having my right hand was much better than only having my left. I could actually use the cane too.

I spared a glance for my bloody left hand, lying mangled on the floor behind the podium and felt a little sick to my stomach. Not even a fucking day…

My range was nearing a block. I'd discovered a little trick too. The interiors of the cars could hold my bugs and protect them from the wind. I lined the vehicles with them, waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

Two spiders remained on his socks. One of them had accidentally pressed one of its legs through the thin fabric and come in contact with Blight's leg. It decayed till it died, not even having managed a single bite. Blight was still unaware of them though. That was something at least.

"Wait!" Came a harsh scream. I was surprised to see Theresa following up behind me, jogging to catch up before I stepped outside.

"You're going back out there!?" She breathed, panting. I was almost shocked she'd left Devin behind.

I fixed her with a hard eye. "Yeah. Someone's got to stop him."

"I-I… I'm coming with you," she tittered. It was almost a god-damn question.

"No." I told her. "You're not. You're way too green for this. You'll only get yourself killed, or worse, get in my way. If throwing little drones at him was the best thing you could come up with then you're not any use yet."

She cringed, and I felt a little guilty. Hours ago this girl was the source of all my guilt. Now she'd become a hindrance and not one I could concern myself with. If I lived I'd have time to feel guilty.

"O-Okay," She murmured, stepping backwards and leaning clumsily against the wall. "I guess I'm… not a Hero at all, am I?" She asked. I hoped the question was rhetorical because I sure as hell didn't have any kind words to soothe her. Her first outing as a cape and she'd blown it big, crying like a baby.

Vigilant was down. He was looking almost like his regular self again but he was unconscious. The pain must've been too much.

I turned away and stepped into the sunlight but the other girl caught my arm. "T-Take this." She said, handing me the cube she'd been holding.

I looked at her, questioning.

"Its… its a bunker. Throw it at the people. It'll open a barrier field that should block Blight's wind. If he gets into the field though, it won't do anything. I… I can control it from here so I should be able to keep him out but."

I blinked. Hard. A… a bunker? A forcefield bunker? In a cube!? That was…

"Good job." I told her. It was all I could think of to say.

I ran out of the building into the afternoon sunlight, my skin and clothes glimmering blue with the barrier of my helper, whoever the cape watching me was...

...And I saw carnage.

Trees stripped entirely of their leaves withered down to rows of decayed husks. The grass, once green and vibrant, was now stained a horrible yellow. Rubble lined the street nearby and cars shifted from their original positions to the back of the road. Blight floated in the middle of it all, happily gesturing. And with each move of his hand people fell screaming.

He was laughing as he watched people wither and age, their forms slumping down until they became skeletal.

Similar bodies littered the road behind the vehicles, most dressed in cop uniforms.

A few gunshots still rang out from those who had been lucky enough not to fall under Blight's gaze already, but the dead outnumbered the living.

My steps were swift. He depended heavily on his vortex of wind to keep him safe but I was pretty sure my barrier could get me through that. All I had to do was get rid of the shotgun.

My bugs began to form arrows. I'd gather them all where Katie was, and that's where I'd deploy Theresa's bunker.

I approached fast and he didn't notice, laughing away like a lunatic. He literally was insane. The classic definition of a psychopath, killing for the pure joy of it.

This is so lame. I feel like I'm in a B rated horror film.

"Come on! Keep shooting! Keep shooting! You couldn't hit the broad side of a ba–!"

He cut off abruptly as the long end of my cane smashed into the side of his face. He landed but kept his footing, barely, and I instantly sent spiders nearby rushing up antholes I'd prepared underground and into his pantlegs to join the two that remained.

Not stopping, I used the momentum left over from my first swing to bring it around further and wrap the cane hard across his fingers. He screamed in pain, dropping the shotgun and holding his hands close to his chest.

"W-What the hell?" He managed to his before I swung again, my cane crushing the other side of his face. He still didn't go down, but it didn't matter anymore as spiders swarmed up his boots. Seventeen. Eighteen. One was a widow.

More than enough.

He blasted backwards into the air, hovering away from me. Hmm. He didn't seem to be able to fly very high. Was that fear keeping him grounded, or was his power not strong enough?

"Y-You… got through my…"

"You're the worst villain I've ever seen," I told him, placing myself between him and the shotgun he'd dropped.

He snarled like a beast. His face seemed like it was covered in warpaint with the two similar welts across both cheeks. He threw his hand back towards the civilians, obviously planning to use them as collateral.

"We'll see about–!"

I was a step ahead of him, having already dropped the cane. I stared straight at him as I threw the cube I'd pulled from my pocket while speaking.

He flinched, expecting it to be aimed at him. I'd done that to make sure he didn't use his wind to blast my throw off course. Luckily, my throw sailed over him unimpeded to land haphazardly near the cop cars and the dormitory on the other side of the street where Katie was.

The cube burst, concentric rings sliding out of it like a giant metal cage. Thin cylinders formed, metal exploding out of no where, even as neon green barriers began to erupt down and up to meet them. The barriers exploded outwards to form a three story glowing building, held together by a metal skeleton of what looked like pipes. People who'd been aging, caught inside the barrier, instantly began to revert, still twitching in pain.

If I'd been a little newer, I might've been surprised. Tinkers. Such bullshit. She made that in a month?

Inwardly, I reevaluated Theresa just a little. Shabby on the offense. On the defense…?

"Sh-She fucking hit him! That girl fucking managed to hit him!" I heard a person scream.

I turned my mind back to the fight.

Blight turned his attention to me for a brief second with another feral snarl, before blasting away from me towards the girl who'd been stupid enough to point out a flaw in Blight's attack. A girl no where near the protective barrier.

Hell he'd come here because of a fucking video. I supposed he was vain.

Now or never.

My bugs bit down as one. They began to spasm but that was no bar to their poison as I injected Blight with as much venom as I could. I had them rip and gnash until I was sure each and every one of them had punctured the arteries in his legs.

He dropped with a yelp losing his concentration. His power abandoned him and he plummeted head first into the ground, his face skidding painfully along the grass.

My spiders continued to bite him as they died but they didn't matter so much anymore. He was on the ground now. More spiders crawled up his pants into his sleeves, under his neck. Biting him and dying in droves as he writhed like a worm.

"Wh-What are you!?" He screamed. Turning to look at me. "F-Fuck!"

His face was ragged, covered in dried grass and dirt. His teeth seemed misaligned.

I approached him slowly. Finally, I watched his glare recede to a more primal emotion. Fear.

People all around were heading into the barrier but every one of them could see me walking towards this monster of a man. Fortunately, I didn't think anyone had realized what I'd done with the bugs.

People on the sidewalks and grass began to recover, reverting back.

A sharp gust of wind suddenly blasted into me, harsh and unyielding and I had to strain to continue my walk forward. The barrier didn't shatter this time though. Whoever my mystery aide was, he or she had been ready.

Blight scrambled backwards away from me, standing, tripping, falling back on his ass, through a mass of ants worms and anything else that I'd been able to hide beneath the ground.

Pitiful.

"How long did you really think you'd be able to keep this up?" I asked softly. Still walking forward, holding my cane. "How long until you met someone who had a power that could get around your wind, huh? Where I'm from, we deal with people like you harshly. Idiots who go around killing get away with it maybe twice. Then they're crushed. Just like you're about to be."

He shuddered. "What was I supposed to do!?"

I paused. Then continued walking.

He scooted back a few more steps and the wind tried to buffet me again. No matter.

"Fuck! What would you do!? If your power made you poison to everyone you touch! If your power killed everyone you cared about! Fuck I just wanted to feel something again!" He screamed.

Pure panic had seized him. I had neutralized his every power with barely a thought. He was terrified.

He should be.

I didn't even stop walking as I cracked the cane over his head once more feeling his skull dent. The cane cracked leaving wooden splinters at the end.

"What would I do?" I asked rhetorically as I placed my foot on his chest and slammed his back into the ground. "Not this."

I stabbed him in the eye, and felt the cane sink into the soft earth on the other side of his skull.

He screamed. And then he was silent.

The wind died. The sunset felt strangely cold.

Like a switch, the pain of my burning arm, my aching back, everything I'd bled into my bugs, returned tenfold. Pain that nearly dwarfed my memory of even Bakuda's bomb blinded me. It was all I could do not to wail. Instead, I sunk to my knees and prayed the medics would get here soon, barely managing to hang on to consiousness as I made sure to fall away from the poisonous parahuman.

Oh god I hate this new power.

The blue barrier caught me when my arms gave out and laid me on the ground as gently as it could.

END CHAPTER