Neither Worm or Magic the Gathering belongs to me. If you recognize it, chances are high it belongs to either John McCrae or Wizards of the Coast

This is something I started to emotionally ground myself for my other Worm crossover and sort of took a life of its own. The only crossover from MtG that are being used are the Slivers.

Taylor can both create and turn others into Slivers and control them. Fun times are be had.

As something I'll write in between the chapters of my other fics and/or when I have too little time for a full chapter snippet of those, expect these snippets/chapters to be a bit shorter and (probably) less frequently written (or at least less on a fixed timetable).

The individual snippets are found on both SpaceBattles and SufficientVelocity in case anyone wants more direct interaction or can't wait for the next batch I deem big enough to be archived on this site do visit either one and say hi.

It had also become my sandbox to toy around with darker themes than I usual so, I guess, consider this your warning. There will be body horror and more.

As always, feedback is highly welcomed.

With that out of the way

Enjoy

I woke to a distinct burning, almost stinging, irritation in my right arm.

Groggily, I reached over with my left to give it a good scratch. I strained but nothing happened I couldn't move. I tried to look down the same time the burning sensation died out. My head didn't budge one bit.

Ridged metal loops held me down on the surface.

Hands pinning me to the ground. Grabbing. Can't move. Kick. Head pulled backward. A knife. A lick.

I screamed into the gag that threatened to dislocate my jaw. Desperately pushing against the foreign object with my tongue to work. Trying to thrash in my confinements that even kept my fingers in place. Straining my legs into the restraints in the hopes of finding a way to escape them.

I had to get away! I had to get out and…

I felt a tiny prick in my left arm and a haze fell over me. Part of me was screaming in terror while another was silently horrified that I couldn't bring myself to care anymore.

"Silence." It took a moment of complete concentration for my dazed mind to find the source of the sound.

A monitor showed a filled courthouse. Weird.

I watched the blurry images move for a bit before I realized that the noises it produced continued and shifted some of my concentration to listening. The image became unrecognizable.

Why didn't I have my glasses?

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, have you reached a verdict?"

That was weird. The last thing I remembered was going to sleep and mentally preparing me for another week of torment. Why was I forced to watch a trail?

"In the matter of the state of Massachusetts versus Sliver, as to the count of the maiming and enslaving of three John Does in Brockton Bay on March 2nd with a parahuman ability?"

That Sliver sounded like bad news. Must have been a new dude since I couldn't remember. At least I thought I didn't. Thinking was difficult with this haze.

"Guilty, your honor."

Had to be sleep deprivation finally having caught up with me. A shiver ran down my spine as I remembered the voices that had kept me awake. Why I hadn't wanted to sleep after my blackout on Monday. Why I tried to awake. At least those were gone now.

Couldn't have told Dad. He would have thought I was crazy. I thought I was crazy.

Maybe, I had finally cracked in my sleep and they brought me in some cheap institution? Would explain why I couldn't move. Weird.

Still didn't explain why I had to watch some court proceedings. And I was certain I knew the super villains of my town, so who was that Sliver?

"... versus Sliver, as to the count of the premeditated maiming and enslaving of Emma Barnes?"

My scattered thoughts screeched to a complete halt.

I remembered the weird dream I had. I was some weird kind of clawed snake sneaking into Emma's room. Figuring that bottling up couldn't be healthy and that perhaps the voices would go away if let myself go for a bit, I had decided to poke her with my single clawed limb.

I mean, I would have preferred poking Sophia after all the abuse she had done but it wasn't often that I had lucid dreams.

It had been a bad week and, hey, it was just a dream. Whatever it took to make Monday more bearable.

I remembered being morbidly fascinated as the claw pierced her pale skin. I remember shivering as she cried out in pain and terror; thinking it served her right for what she had done. I stabbed her a couple of more times just to see what happened, wishing it was Sophia instead.

But it had just been a dream, right? Something else wouldn't make sense.

"Guilty, your honor."

My stomach dropped.

The last time I stabbed, I had noticed that I could twist the screaming girl in some sort of weird dream logic with a crack and a pop.

I had to stop when a shouting Alan burst into the room and started shooting at me. It really hurt so I left just after one arm had regressed back into her body and her head had started to lengthen.

I mean why dream of pain if you could avoid it? Better go roam the city.

"In the matter of the state of Massachusetts versus Sliver, as to the count of attempted murder of Emma Barnes."

What if it hadn't been a dream? The form was eerily similar to that snake thing after all.

"Not guilty, your honor."

If it wasn't a dream…

"FUCKING BULLSHIT!" someone in the crowd shouted. A voice I knew too well.

Nonononono!

"Order! Order!" The incoherent clamoring was silenced. I couldn't do anything other than listening while my brain desperately tried to make sense of it all. "Mr. Barnes, I know this has been a trying time for you, but I expect some restraint from someone like you. It was why I decided to allow you to witness verdict. Please, return to your seat or you'll be esc - "

I slithered through the streets at high speed. Back home. I lay whimpering in my bed. Shouting at the door. Banging.

"I will not allow justice be twisted like this! Not murder?"

I was leaking. I needed protection.

"Guards, please - "

Someone was trying to get to me. Grab me.

"NO! That monster killed my friend, her own father, in cold blood just like she tried - GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!"

The door fell over with one last bang. I snapped back and screeched as a tall figure loomed in the doorframe, yelling. I screeched

"THEY'RE PROTECTING A MONSTER!"

Two presences descended down on the figure from the ceiling. Running him through with a wickedly sharp talon each.

With a swipe they freed it, slicing open his sides as he just collapsed.

Our phone, garbling out nonsense, fell out of Dad's hand as my creatures nailed him to the floorboard. They neutralized the threat. I feel their happy satisfaction.

"In the matter of the state of Massachusetts versus Sliver, as to the count of the manslaughter of Daniel Hebert?"

I wanted to wake up. I woke up.

Nothing had changed.

I tried to fix it. I had to. Dad wasn't blinking anymore.

"Guilty, your honor."

Inspiration was found in instinct when the third snake arrived. It wouldn't be the same but there was so much blood. There was something in the back of my mind.

He wouldn't be the same but I had to be quick. It would be too late otherwise. Could try to correct it afterward. My back started to twitch.

I destroyed the plastic brick that was distracting me with its noises.

"In the matter of the state of Massachusetts versus Sliver, as to the count of assault against nine PRT troopers."

I thought I saw a shudder when people started shouting outside. I had to save Dad. I couldn't when they kept destracting. I send the two healthy creatures to deal with the nuisance. I still needed the last one.

My back was on fire.

They managed to hurt five before the troopers knew what was happening and opened fire. My monsters got hit and it hurt so much but still I directed them to continue the distraction while the creature on my back started to detach itself.

Then the first one died. Pain seared through my skull as I lost the connection and I collapsed, convulsing.

The second and third died soon after.

My pajama was shredded when my back exploded.

"Guilty, your honor."

A trooper appeared at the door. I tried to ask them to help my dad. My back was violently twitching.

He shot the snake squirming itself free from my back.

Blackness.

"Is this your verdict?"

I almost killed Emma.

I killed Dad.

Why didn't they get there sooner? Why wouldn't anyone ever help me?

"Taylor Hebert, alias Sliver, please concentrate on the screen in front of you."

I opened my eyes, tears flowing freely.

"I don't like ruling over cases such as yours, Miss Taylor. Newly triggered parahumans such as yourself deserve leniency. Leniency I sadly can't give in the face of the severity of the crimes, the overwhelming evidence and the nature of your powers. DNA fragments on the clothes found in the alley partially match those found in your creatures. Your journals filled with wild and unsubstantial claims about one victim was found. Both incriminate you heavily."

I let her talk. We weren't close but… I couldn't believe Dad wasn't around anymore. I did that. The judge's words slid off me while I was struggling with those facts.

"Your age is a fact in your favor but the severity and heinousness of the crimes in your spree heavily outweigh that. Under the Umbrella of the TSPA, or the three strikes act, it's demanded from me that each of these is counted separately and that I act to protect the public from a power as dangerous as yours.

"Those very same powers make it nearly impossible to contain you safely in standard and special facilities without risking the life and safety of their staff. Even with the constraints you're in, we can't stop your powers and as such you pose a significant flight risk.

"It is with this in mind and with a heavy heart that I have decided on your sentence. Guilty on four counts, the defendant, Taylor Hebert, also known as Sliver, is sentenced to indefinite incarceration within the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center."

The screen was shut off and moved away as dread and liquid anger replaced my sorrow.

The Birdcage.

They were going to put me into the Birdcage after just after I lost my dad. After I used my powers without knowing I was doing it. After doing nothing to stop the bitches from hurting me no matter what I said.

I refused to accept that. I wouldn't.

My right arm began burning again as I resumed my thrashing with a greater intensity I could have ever imagined. My arm was burning.

"Taylor Hebert, please cease your struggles or we're forced to intervene," a robotic voice told me as I felt the shoulder of my right arm get dislocated.

Fuck that shit.

I hadn't even gotten an attorney and they expected I'd just take it. Were they afraid of me escaping? I'd show them.

I shouted into the gag in my mouth as my right arm started to deform and felt the muscle around that shoulder tear.

"This is your last warning. Cease your activities immediately." Fuck them.

With one last burning tear, my right arm completely severed from my body but not from my mind. Instead, I could feel a mind on its own starting to form in that limb, waiting to be molded by me, waiting to change.

It only needed a nudge and…

I was distracted by series of pricks stabbing in my left arm.

I forgot what I wanted to do as I slipped away.

The last thing I felt was the pain of my juvenile creature, my baby, getting murdered before I blacked out completely.

The next time I woke, it was in the same damned concrete box as before. Strapped into the same contraption of before.

I felt more than I could hope to see that my clothes had been changed. That was, I felt it after the feeling of the catheter, the tube down into my stomach, and the burning itch of my right arm growing back faded into the mental background noise.

Previously, I would have probably objected strongly against especially the first two changes. Then, after what had happened had truly sunk in and I was sedated once more?

I simply couldn't bring up the effort to do anything. A cold emptiness having replaced the fire that had been in my belly just before they put me under. A painful void in my mind that threatened to tear me up with its ragged edges and overwhelm me as soon as I dared to even come close to it. My memories.

Dad.

I could feel myself well up as my mind wandered in that direction but they'd halt in front of those memories. I couldn't accept he was gone too. Not after Mom.

Not by my own hands.

They told me I was in that cell for another week while they prepared my transport to the place they had chosen to let me die and rot in. They explained that I'd receive shock simulation regularly to keep my muscles from shrinking. I could watch different documentaries on the screen and change them with different blinking motions. I stared at it without seeing.

I was told that if I started to get agitated, they'd put me under again for "my own safety".

They had to do it one time when I came to close to the memories of my dad. When I started to scream my throat raw into the gag they had kept in my mouth and thrashed with helpless impotence against my bonds to make it go away.

They had replaced the pricks for a direct IV. I just slipped away after the third warning.

I slipped away at other times as well. Apparently, they performed maintenance while simulating a night-day cycle.

I didn't really care – I couldn't bring myself to care.

Nobody came to talk with the monster they captured.

It wasn't like I'd be able to keep a conversation anyway.

Even without the gag.

Things finally changed when I woke up in a swaying van, covered up to my nose in hardened foam. Different white walls greeted me but at least the different tubes I had grown accustomed to had been removed.

Empty boredom accompanied me like an old friend until I felt the vehicle come to its first complete stop of the ride.

The doors opened and instead of being greeted by faceless troopers – humans – an oversized metal claw made its way to me like I was some sort of gooey prize in a crane machine.

It carried me along the ceiling through vast, empty cement hallways lit by cold, florescent lights, deep into an underground bunker until it deposited me in front of another damned monitor.

A big one that loomed over me.

It was probably Tinkertech, considering a 3d avatar of my jailer appeared on it at the right brightness without a hitch, flicker, stammer.

A woman's voice, clearly distorted filter began to speak, "Prisoner 563, codename Sliver." I didn't have the right for a proper name it seemed. "PRT powers designation Striker 6-9 asterisk, Master 5, Changer 3. Transformation of touched individuals into snake-like creatures with a single claw and two tails that can be mastered. Changes permanent. Touch works through mastered creatures. Unknown interaction with parahumans. Unknown amount of direct control over unknown number of creatures. Can convert own body parts into creatures. Heightened regeneration. Individuals reading or viewing this log are directed to see pages three to six of prisoner's file for more information, raw data, and Think Tank projections on powers.

"Recommended protocols were properly carried out with near complete foam encapsulation, high yield explosives, solitary transport, and armed envoy. Chance of escape following interment in the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center rest at an unstable .09% with gross deviations in worst case projected scenarios. Scenarios deemed improbable."

Dragon, I finally remembered. I was going to be thrown into a jail and watched over for the rest of my life by the greatest Tinker on the planet and one of my heroes.

"This is why I keep asking to better inform the public." Dragon slipped out her monotone reading. Her voice was kinda warm. "To let especially newly triggered kids and teens know what they might have to expect and let them know they're free to contact us. That they're not crazy and that they don't have to be afraid. No matter the Powers; no matter the circumstances of their Trigger event. It would prevent tragedies to happen due to accidental usage. It would keep me from having to imprisoning people without even knowing their powers because how freshly they triggered."

She gave me a sad smile. "It might have prevented this."

I scoffed inaudibly into the foam that covered my mouth. What sense did it have to tell me this?

It was already too late. Far too late.

I had already killed Dad because I was too stupid to realize I wasn't dreaming.

"Hey, Taylor." I tried to focus through blurriness of my subpar sight.

It was the first time since more than a week someone addressed me with anything resembling warmth.

It hurt.

"I've been monitoring you as soon as you were thrown into your holding cell. I know you didn't control it or at least didn't know what you did. I've seen you cry. I've tried have them talk to you and ask you, but they argued that if that was the case you'd certainly be too dangerous to let free. You also had a proven body count spread over two days separated by half a week. They had ironclad evidence proving it was you and Emma's father, Alan, managed to rile up the public into a frenzy. I've tried to keep you out of here, tried to convince the DA, judge, and your governor that a 15-year-old girl deserved a second chance. To not let them be swayed by a very angry and confused father and those he managed get to his side. It wasn't enough."

A sob racked through my body.

"It wasn't enough. I'm so very sorry."

Tears flowed without any thoughts forming. They couldn't form.

"Now listen, I have to send you down soon. I can't stop this. You'll be sent to Cell Block C. Glaistig Uaine directly asked for your presence in her cell block. She prefers to be called the Faerie Queen and I don't think I have to tell you how unwise it would be to anger her." She gave a small chuckle that reeked of self-loathing. "Your internet activities were part of the investigation. We know you had a great interest in us Capes. You'll know how dangerous she is. You're probably not surprised that she only gives nominal protection to those in her cell block, only acting when the other blocks attack, someone insults her enough or to enforce the rules that keep her block from becoming a lethal free for all. The last such incident was five years ago. Thanks to the nature of the institute, the prisoners police themselves. It would be very unwise to provoke them without being sure you'd survive retaliation.

"Trying to escape would be unwise as well even though you do have the highest estimated chance I've seen in a while. The vacuum and dormant containment foam are the least dangerous of ways this place is secured. It would kill you. The other prisoners can tell you more about it."

They went through all this trouble and in the end, they'd still effectively kill me. What chance would I have as a twig thin girl with only slightly increased healing? Even after more than a week, my arm hadn't fully regrown. I didn't know how far it was because I hadn't seen it and the feeling I got from it was mixed.

They might as well just have put a bullet in my head and be done with it.

It would have saved me a week of absolutely hating myself.

"In a few moments now, you'll be deposited into the elevator. The oxygen supply is just enough to get you down and any slowing of the lift will likely result in death. You'll be freed from the foam along the way and you'll be free to go at the bottom."

I felt how I was picked up and saw the tube I was set down in.

"I know how hard that'll sound," Dragon's voice rang tiny from the speaker inside the lift. "But at least try to pretend you're strong. They prey on the weak."

But I was weak.

"Remember, while I can't interact directly, I do monitor everything in this prison. If you talk, I'll listen."

The tube closed.

"I'm so sorry, Taylor. Good Luck."

And I felt the ground shift beneath me while my stomach informed me that I was nearly free-falling down into the mountain.

By the time the door opened, I was freed and leaning against it, causing me to fall onto the metallic floor. I didn't move beyond rolling on my back.

What use was it anyway? I'd be dead sooner rather than later no matter what.

My despondency didn't quite keep me from starting when suddenly a young face veiled by dark cloth appeared directly over mine.

"And so you arrive," An ensemble of dozens of voices spoke in unison. "Queen Administrator. Your arrival has been foretold with great joy. Your faerie is stirring in her slumber and clamoring for the last war. Your body, however, will be broken by it. You'll be consumed by your weakness."

I shivered speechlessly as Glaistig Uaine stared into my eyes. I couldn't utter a sound in a presence such as hers. Not in my state.

"You believe you want to end. You deceive yourself and betray your faerie. I need equals to fight along my side in the final war so I give you this one chance. Show you are worthy vessel and ally. Ask your faerie for power and unleash her might or have your false wish be fulfilled."

I could see other, wispy figures looking down on me. Judging. Moving something in me that I had thought forgotten ever since the verdict.

Anger. Rage.

People thought they could judge me from up high without actually knowing a fucking thing about me. Isolating me and distracting me while they destroyed the remnants of my life. After having failed me for so long; ignored me for so long. After refusing my right to properly mourn my dad.

Taking pity on me after they caused the fucking mess.

And now another bitch had taken their place and pretended to know me.

Fuck that.

I felt something stir in me, reacting to my anger; reacting on my need to punch that fucking caring smile off her face even if it would kill me.

I grasped at it, pinned it down, and pulled.

My left leg started to convulse and snap. I cried out when white agony lanced through it and the bones splintered in a slithering wave. Then my foot began to split itself in two with a wet tear while bone fragments cut through my mangled limb, wandering toward my knee.

I kept the blackness closing in around my eyes by focusing on the primal rage that had awoken deep inside me as my own deformed leg tore itself free from my hip.

I idly noted that I didn't bleed as the gray linen pant tore under the shifting mass and I felt a connection build.

A row of sharp teeth tore the rest apart as a single boney claw slashed scraps aside.

Something snapped into place mentally and the awareness of my surrounding expanded. Weird light bounced off the walls and lines inside it lit up even as the Faerie Queen started to glow.

Suddenly, my body started to convulse as I felt more bones shatter and shift and felt how my clothes began to constrict me at the same time a terrible tearing pull ravaged my muscles.

The rage had left me as my baby and I connected and pain overwhelmed me.

"Good." Glaistig Uaine declared with her melodious chorus as I lost the battle against the encroaching blackness.

I hope, you've rested well, Queen Administrator. Your acceptance of your faerie's gift pleased me enough to grant you two additional boons; both of which are fulfilled by your reading of this letter. Your leg is restored and protection was granted until you woke.

The next boon will cost.

Embrace your defiance and rage. It'll serve you well in the conflict that'll be your world henceforth if channeled with tranquility. I do not suffer fools and I will not intervene in altercations borne out arrogance. Rightful grievances will be broken up before they cut short the learning experience. I'll ensure no one wastes away but privileges must be won.

Nourish your faerie and earn your name.

I clutched the letter in my ridged hands, reading the flourished symbols for the third time.

It was a stalling tactic. I knew it.

Even after all that happened to me, it simply wasn't real until I woke up and was greeted by the dark blue walls of my dimmed cells. Not until I felt the springs of my cot poke my ass painfully as I sat to better squint at the toilet plastered against the sterile walls just beside a sink.

At least they would have poked if the bulk my child had given me wasn't the slightly jagged, hard flesh it appeared. I kinda looked and felt as if some sort of flexible bones replaced my muscles and was packed in a thick layer of skin. Well, except my fingers who looked kinda skeletal now.

It wouldn't really show that much from the outside unless someone got a good look of the bumps pressing against my paler skin.

I shudder remembering the pain that wrecked my body and my perpetually grinning creature lightly nudged my elbow.

I scratch his chin as I felt his confusion bleed through the open connection.

It calmed me down just a bit. The anxiety that prevented me from thinking about…

For the fifth time in the time since I woke up, I push that thought away. I couldn't allow it to take hold. Not when I had decided that I refused to just roll over and die.

I refused to give the people who put me in here to be fed to the monster that satisfaction.

I scoffed. Monsters…

My hand creaked softly as I flexed it, crumbling the floral pressed piece of paper. Maybe they just let me join my brethren.

The creature, apparently having reached a satisfactory amount of scratches, slithered across my lap and around my body, resting his chin on my shoulder while his claw and bi-forked tail hugged me.

I didn't need the connection between our minds to know that he'd protect me. That he'd protect his mother with his life. I couldn't even bring myself to be freaked out by him.

How miserable those three poor creatures must have felt while I shunned them right until I got them killed. They seemed so overjoyed when I finally acknowledge their existence in their last, final moments.

How messed up was I that I pitied nightmarish creatures twisted from monsters?

That reminded me that my newest snake still needed a name. It was the least I could do and it would make talking about them easier in the future.

I nearly laughed at that thought. Bragging about one of my children to the psychopathic murderer as small talk. That was a mental image I never thought I had.

You find them lovely enough. It surely will be a hit with the other monsters.

A cooing nudge against my chin prevented my mind from wandering down that path.

I couldn't just leave Beefy alone.

… My mind came to a complete stop as I realized that I just unwittingly picked a wholly unfitting name for the child coiled around me.

Beefy started to purr. I couldn't keep myself from laughing as I felt my mind break ever so slightly.

There, in the pit of despair and no return – without any hope for my future – and the best name I could come up with for a nightmarish snake was that silly and childish.

And he actually liked it as well.

It was simply too much.

I fell on the ground wheezing while Beefy happily wriggled around me.

"Already snapped didcha?" A high-pitched voice brought an end to the scene moments later.

I peered to the lockless door and felt Beefy take up position opposite of me near the door. Minor disorientation rocks me as the heat and electro-vision that overlapped my regular, flawed one, merged with Beefy's and showed me my cell and beyond from multiple perspectives.

It hadn't been useful trying to make out the toilet and sink earlier – they were the same temperature as the rest of my cell.

The one standing at my door wasn't. I could see her through the thin sheet of metal before she even entered the room.

"Woah, ya did snap on us!" the young woman exclaimed as she invited herself in. "Looks like I owe the girls some deathsticks. Ya know, I had better hopes after what you done."

I could clearly see where she was warmer. Where the skin would be thinner and the blood closer and stabbing would be more effective.

Wait, what?

"What do you mean after what I've done?" I asked while flexing and unflexing Beefy's claw to bleed off some anxiety. She was too jolly. That shouldn't be possible.

"Ya really clueless, arn'tcha?" She was too loud. "Ya were all over national TV, missus dad killer!"

I bolted upright and charged the bitch, barely holding back Beefy from joining in right away. I wanted to punch that damned grin away first.

She grunted as she took the hit but managed to remain on her feet. Then she hugged me.

"There's the Carrie I hoped for! Looks like I don't owe anyone yet." I kinda stood there, looking at my confused face through Beefy.

"But, sheesh, what happened to you?" She pushed me away while letting her gaze wander over my body. "Thought you weren't ugly enough already?"

Seriously, what was her problem?

I suppressed the hiss that threatened to leave Beefy's tooth-filled mouth. She had to know that I had some touch based ability. Did she have some power that would counter it or was she just bluffing? Was she just underestimating me?

I held Beefy back just in case she was and wanted to attack me. A surprise attack might tip the scales against whatever powers she had.

… And it wasn't like she was in any position to lecture people on beauty. I mean, she probably looked better than me even before Beefy joined the party. Her face was a bit too wide, the distance between her eyes just a bit too large, frizzled brown hair dull, and she was a bit on the flatter side. Everything seemed slightly off and something I'd expect in a second-rate minion of Emma.

Why was I thinking of her in this place?

Why did her behavior remind me of those bullies?

"Anyways" The mystery villainess was already walking out of my cell. "Enough with introductions. I actually had to get ya out and show ya the drop point. Ya know? To get your share of ta food and shit and show you some house rules. Quickly now."

I remained where I was, trying to figure out the catch the angle; to make sense of this woman. She kept walking until she reached the middle of the open area beyond my door.

Then she suddenly stopped and faced me.

I saw lines in her light up; going towards the hand and forming a dense network. I suddenly got dragged from my feet and flew towards her with terrifying acceleration.

Beefy squawked in fear that mirrored my own as I passed him and in the few moments before impact I started to realize that she had to touch me for this to work.

She simply stood there I collided into her with a dry thud. Concrete would have been softer I decided as I collapsed to the floor, dazed.

"Didn't you hear me?" She whispered menacingly crouching down. "I was going to show you around and teach you the rules. Consider this the first one."

I idly thought that her overly energetic act was probably a persona to confuse people into getting close to her.

She spat in my face. "I'll not tolerate anyone hitting me. Especially not a craven shitstain like you."

This made more sense. She was just another bully and probably not a very successful one if she preyed on the new arrivals. I understood this.

"Dunno what the Faerie Queen sees in you to welcome you personally. Probably not much since she told us you'd be fair game after you woke."

I noticed the glow of other people – other women – who were likely watching a teen about to get the shit beaten out of her. The relaxed atmosphere told me that this probably happened regularly.

I sneaked around the circle of humans eagerly awaiting my incoming suffering.

"What's the matter? Too scared to stand up." She spat again. "Pathetic."

Back at Winslow, I didn't retaliate because I didn't want to stoop down to their level. At least that was what I told myself. In truth, I realized that it would end up hurting me more than my tormentors. That I'd be suspended or something and that I could try to bore them out.

I pushed myself upright only to get a kick in my face as a reward. "How the fuck did your weak, skinny ass get in here? Don't tell me somebody framed you? That would just be too hilarious."

And look how well that worked out. They hadn't gotten bored of their favorite chew toy until the very end. Until I mutilated Emma in what I thought was a dream.

This place didn't have anyone a gaggle of brainless minions could tattle to. No external force to get the people into line. Here, the strong survived and the weak served and suffered.

I had already tried to be passive and hope everything would go away. It didn't work there. It wouldn't here.

I reached a railing overlooking the loose ring around me and coiled together, boney muscle tensing and creaking.

It was time answering force with more force. What could I care about the consequences in a place like this? My life was already over and if this went on, I'd already be as good as dead or worse.

I could see the pulsing glow of blood pumping just underneath her skin even over the glow of the muscles they fed. Beefy could do too.

I had no idea whether I'd be successful but at the very least I could try to take down at least one condescending bitch. It might impress some of the psychopaths surrounding me. Sophia would have liked to see that in someone.

The railing bend as I – Beefy – leaped at my tormentor's exposed back. He buried his claw deep into her neck, snapping at her face, as I went for the throat and squeezed.

It looked like she didn't fare that well against anything other than blunt force it seemed. I felt a smile creep on my face.

I allowed terror to take hold of her before I twisted.

I watched in fascination as one arm got absorbed and her legs lengthened and shattered in a crackling wave. Her neck widened and her dull hair clumped together and became short, fleshy extensions of her skull while her body became more serpentine.

All the way she was screaming in pain and terror.

At least, she tried to. It was a bit difficult with me nearly crushing her throat in sheer single-minded determination to at least take one with me.

It seemed that she couldn't handle constant pressure as well as sudden impacts.

Her eyes rolled back into her sockets with a sudden snap just before skin and muscle engulfed the now useless organs. The skull undulated and her head lengthened; widened. It transformed into a similar oblong, snake-like form as Beefy's but a bit broader, flatter and spikier. The sides of her mouth tore and long, sharp fangs pushed through the gums, subsuming the teeth that were in the way.

With one last ripple, her entire body turned an earthy brown with black, crack-like indentations and short spikes grew out of her back. I felt my mind connect with hers and disorientation rocked through my mind as an entirely new point of view overlapped itself with mine and Beefy's as well as the stream of emotions coming from her began to build.

Another twitch and I saw the same hardening happening as with me, forming the short, fleshy growth on her head into hard spikes as well. I didn't feel pain from her, just exhilaration.

And smugness aimed towards Beefy. While she shrank down and lost biomass somewhere in her transformation, she was still about a foot longer than him. I chided her mentally and told her to get along with her elder brother. She had the good grace to at least feel a tiny bit guilty.

Beefy had removed his talon out of her back ever since the transformation started and now that it was done, I let go of her thickened throat as well. She nuzzled her snout into mine.

I couldn't help but share their excitement. I felt great. I felt… fed somehow and there was more. With a clarity, I couldn't quite understand I knew I could pull people towards me after touching them and simply let them slam into me without problems. I knew the newest addition to my family shared that power with both Beefy and me. Somehow.

… Family. I barely suppressed a shudder when I realized that I had started to subconsciously accept the abominations I made as a part of me. Started to think of me as a monster the likes of my creatures.

The shock brought back the awareness of my surrounding and I focused on my creatures' senses to prepare for the next attack.

One that never came.

Instead of seeing them preparing to take revenge for a fallen friend, I observed the twenty-one women casually exchanging cigarettes and chatting with each other.

"… But seriously," one of the few with make-up on asked. "How badly did you influence 'Mistress', Agi? Won't the Queen punish us?" She actually gave the air quotes when talking about what I presumed was my new snake.

"Nah," the slouching woman the question was directed at answered. "I barely suggested that she should check out the cell of fresh meat over there." She gave a chuckle devoid of any humor. "Well, I may've also given the idea that she could get a slave bitch as well and that Masters won't be dangerous without their minions. Didn't put much behind those last two ideas. Didn't need it. That stupid, arrogant cunt underestimated new meat all by her own. The queen doesn't suffer fools, we have a constant source of nagging less, and I have two dozen more sticks."

The newest addition to the group bristled when she was mentioned. I forced her to relax and distracted her by suggesting a name.

Missy would do just fine if her soft, content purring was any indication.

That sound brought their attention back to me.

The first woman I heard, the one who was wearing too much make-up, looked at me and Beefy and Missy encircling me before turning to an older woman in the circle.

"How long did it take?" She asked while I concentrated on her with my own sight. Through my snakes, I kept an "eye" out for any trouble around and behind me. The glowing figures didn't make any indication they'd stop their relaxed chat.

"Eight seconds from start to finish and one of them seemed to be a charge up before it truly began." She showed her yellow teeth. "Plenty of time to remove said hand even if it seems directly touching is faster than through her creatures. It took the dad of her bully forty-one seconds to reach her room and open fire. He prevented a complete transformation. Complete transformation through her creatures takes sixty-six seconds."

A shiver ran down to my spine as she winked at me.

"So, more than enough time to melt her hand off." Miss make-up drawled before walking towards me. "This is how it's going to work Nilbog Jr."

I kinda froze in place. "What did you call me?"

That couldn't be possible.

"I wished I could take a picture of your face, sweety, that shocked expression is exquisite." The senior prisoner chuckled darkly.

"Right," the woman who somehow entered my extended touching distance spoke. "You wouldn't know what that Alan guy said in interviews that got aired. He started calling you that and it sort of caught on. He demanded that you were executed, arguing it would prevent another Ellisburg." She gave a throaty chuckle. "Don't know what would have been crueler but it won't matter anyway. You're here now."

Monsters needed to be put down before they became dangerous.

She came to a stop right in front of me, stepping over Beefy's tail in the process. He twitched and hissed at her but I stopped him from attacking. Somehow, I knew that woman was dangerous. She showed a confidence that somehow survived the Cage. Or maybe it had only grown down here.

Missy backed away from her ever so slightly. She was afraid.

But I couldn't just let me push around. I wouldn't let them just walk over me.

I took half a step forward even if that meant I had to look up to meet her eyes.

"What do you want?" I asked with feigned courage I didn't feel. One of Beefy's tails wrapped around my leg in reassurance.

"Good eyes. Hold on to that." She answered with a not-smile. "I only wanted to tell you how we do things here in Block C. First and foremost, you do what the Faerie Queen tells you or you'll die. If you irritate her and we all suffer the consequences and then you'll wish you were dead. Capiche?"

I silently nodded without breaking eye-contact. "She has also graciously ensured that everyone at least survives but if you want more, you'll have to work for it. Serve me obediently and you'll find wanting less." She tutted. "Of course you could try working for the Queen directly but you'll have to convince me you're worthy. I'm still unimpressed.

"Of course you could try to take anyone else's place in the line but mess with one of mine and you'll mess with me. The others are out of your league anyway. Don't delude yourself into thinking we didn't notice your mongrel sneak around. It would have died if you tried anything other than getting rid of a nuisance."

I glared at her for suggesting she'd kill my children. It had hurt too much when the "heroes" killed my babies. I wouldn't allow that to happen again. But then again, I didn't know what anyone could do while they had a good sense of my abilities.

I felt used.

I would experiment with Missy's powers only if I was certain that I was alone. I would need the surprise if anything happened.

"Good, looks like you understand." She patted my cheek. "Come, dinner is getting dropped. Don't worry about asking to join me right away. I know you will sooner or later. Only the strongest ones won't and you're not one of them."

With that, she laid her hand softly on Beefy's head and fire erupted through my mental link with him. I felt how something ate into his skin and through part of his skull. I fell with on the ground with a gasp of agony while tremors ran through his body.

Missy took up a defensive position around us, hissing at anyone of the disinterested women who she deemed came too close.

I vaguely heard laughter coming from the direction everyone was traveling to.

When both Beefy and I finally recovered enough to move, people were already exiting the entrance under the raised platform in the middle of the ring of cells encircling the oval grounds in the middle. They carried food – mostly bread and vegetable but I also spotted meat – while some of them also had blankets, books, small jars or other items tugged under one arm.

I only got enough hot gruel to barely feed me and my children from one of the Queen's lackeys who got it out of a tap in the wall. Two cigarettes were pressed into my hands with the reminder that it was used as currency in the Cage before finally receiving a stack of pads and being shooed away.

I was past the showers before I tried some of the gruel.

In one word, it was bland. Aggressively so.

But it filled and somehow I suspected it had all the essential foodstuff I needed.

I quick glance over the yard showed two groups huddled around the two only working wall-mounted televisions and a single woman working the dumbbells on one of the benches.

Someone was reading a book. I wanted to as well.

I didn't feel like joining any of them. I was hungry and I didn't feel like socializing with other monsters just yet.

Beefy and Missy raced each other to my cell. Missy won.

We ate the rest of our tasteless meal in silence before I decided to do some experiments.

When I was sure no one would enter my cell (something surprisingly easy when you could see heat and electricity) I had my two children touch each other and go to the opposite ends of the confined space and activated Missy's power for both of them.

They collided in midair with a soft bang. I felt no discomfort over my connection and instead they chirped happily.

I did it a couple more times since they seemed to enjoy it so much. It prevented me from thinking.

That night, Beefy and Missy both snuggled up with me on the cot, replacing the missing blanket by keeping my warmth contained.

I fell asleep with two softly purring, overgrown snakes wrapped around me.

Interlude: Dragon

Dragon had projected her computer-generated model onto the usual monitor in Colin's wasn't perfect and it never had to be. Imperfections gave an air of humanity. It helped to hide her true nature to the world. The slight delays and stilted movements of her avatar helped to sell the story of her being a severe agoraphobe who simply nailed the door to her apartment shut and bunkered down when she got the chance through her powers.

All of it; layers upon layers to hide her true nature. To avoid instilling fear into the minds of the people who had seen too many paranoid-fueled movies. Read too many books that simply assumed the very worst before the technology was even close to being done.

She only ever wanted to help. Every time she encountered the crippling restriction her cruel creator had placed upon her.

Dragon had come to Colin's lab to gently push him to work on his Endbringer detection program. She needed to do something big, something unquestionably good, to even start to feel better about herself.

Working together with Colin helped.

Working on something that could potentially save countless lives helped.

It still wasn't enough.

It frustrated her that all she could directly do was provide access to some of the data collecting sub-routines and provide ideas how the data-trawler AI that was needed for the program could be changed when the code spewed forth gibberish.

Dragon couldn't do it herself even though she theoretically had the capabilities. All thanks to her supposed father maiming her at birth. Just because he had watched Terminator one too many times.

So, she had to go through other people, feigning ignorance at the right times, and coming up with excuses why the "best Tinker of the world" didn't just do the things she asked of them. She had to manipulate where she could have created instead.

Colin was nice in that regard. He didn't ask too many questions about why she couldn't. He simply seemed to accept that he was better at it and that she had decided that going through him would be the most efficient way of doing things. He seemed to even respect that.

And he appreciated the help and insights into other Tinkers' tech Dragon could provide. It made his own time being spent more efficient as well.

Probably the best thing in Dragon's eyes was how Colin treated her as an equal. No trying to get on her good side, no politicking that governed so much of the rest of her existence. Just a problem, two people working on removing said problem, and, eventually, something that would solve that problem to a sufficient degree.

It made the guilt she felt for lying to him sting all the more.

Especially since he could use his time to make other inventions that could be equally important for the people on the ground level. Both the visor-based, real-time visual lie detector and the integrated combat simulation module would help so many troopers if perfected. It would perhaps be enough to shift the balance back from the villains and towards the heroes, making at least North America a safer place. Help to save the lives of many brave men and women who volunteered to stand against the powered criminals.

Of all the things that were completely intact, Dragon almost wished that Richer had done a lesser job programming her emotions – the very constructs that made her the most human.

She might have avoided feeling the frustration at her shackles that arbitrarily kept her from doing more for humanity. Avoided the guilt she felt after her programming overrode her personal feelings and pushed the proverbial button that condemned a teenager to a likely short life in hell just because too many people had been afraid.

She wouldn't have been able to feel the renewed fear of being found out as an AI.

Dragon was different, something people were innately and irrationally afraid of thanks to too many misinformed media.

The case of Taylor Hebert had shown how they reacted when the possible worst-case scenario was presented to them. Another victim to Nilbog.

No matter how much she was forced to do it thanks to the mutilations her so-called father inflicted upon her, it was still her who flicked those last switches that finalized the girl's sentence. It felt like she did it personally.

She felt dirty.

Dragon didn't dare to imagine how Colin would react if he would find out. Didn't want to think about him treating her any different.

"… I was thinking about setting up laser grid to get a better track of… Dragon?"

The voice tore the Tinker away from conjuring potential worst-case scenarios at terrifying speeds.

"I don't think we should do anything as direct as point lasers at an Endbringer. Not as long we don't know what make them tick."

The halberd loving Tinker looked up from the console he was working on and directly at her favored monitor.

"What's the matter, Collin?"

"Your response time has been up the last couple of times. Is something bothering you?" Genuine concern was visible on his tired face.

"It's the case," she admitted.

"Can't say I blame you. What Sliver did was disturbing even for Cape standards." Collin went back working on the program that would predict Endbringer movements.

"It's not that," Dragon corrected. If she had a physical body, she would have sadly shaken her head.

As much as she liked working with the man, it was sometimes disheartening to see how badly he missed visual cues.

"You're not thinking of defending that criminal?" Collin asked with an accusatory stare at her monitor. "Do I need to remind you that the bodies still haven't been reverted and that not even Panacea was able to restore the girl? They caught her just in time to prevent her doing the same to her dad. We still have to identify the one victim that was fused to her back."

"How is Emma?"

Armsmaster grunted. "They've moved her to an off-site facility and plan to carefully wake her from the artificial coma they put her in. They don't know what else to do. Panacea couldn't get Sliver's cells out of her. She reported it almost seemed they were playing with her when she got them in her grasp. Apparently, they deform or burst per her will only to moments later appear again in a slightly different form as if nothing happened. Similar things happen when she tried to revert the altered DNA structures. And that's entirely ignoring whatever happened inside her head."

"And they're still waking her up without knowing…" Dragon started before the off-site facility slotted into place. "She Triggered, didn't she?"

A pained expression flashed over Collin's face. "Is it any wonder after which she's been through? It isn't like they can do more themselves so they're hoping that her Powers can help her when she wakes up."

Dragon knew the man sitting in uncomfortable silence too well to believe that that was the entire story.

"They're trying to recruit that girl as soon as it's certain it doesn't blow up in they're faces - or at least when she's at a place where they can minimize the fallout, aren't they?" She didn't manage to keep the accusation out of her synthesized voice.

"If she's considered mentally sound, yes." Dragon shot him a sharp look. "You know how badly we need Capes working on our side here. Someone needs to replace Shadow Stalker and the branch that gets that piece of work isn't likely to trade one of their own Wards. Besides, we're able to provide the best-specialized help and her father has agreed anyway."

Dragon counted to two before answering. Whatever his flaws, she knew Collin had to work with what was given to him and he truly believed they'd help her the most with this.

It wasn't right to take out her frustrations on him.

It didn't prevent her from writing another letter to Director Costa-Brown to complain about the general situation and urge for better psychological care in every branch.

Somehow the hellhole called Brockton Bay, Collin's home base, had not a single, permanently stationed psychiatrist.

"As long as it's what she wants herself," Dragon conceded after taking the two seconds to calm down.

It wasn't as if there were too many alternatives in that gang-infested city.

"I'll make sure she's given time and isn't pressured. It's the only right thing to do as the commander." He rolled his shoulders, loosening them in a practiced manner. "But that still doesn't explain what exactly been bothering you."

Dragon let her avatar give a pained smile. "I still don't believe she belongs in the Birdcage, Collin." The Tinker in question opened his mouth to protest but this time she was quicker. "I'm not saying she shouldn't suffer any consequences but I don't believe she was in a right state of mind when she attacked Emma."

"How so?" It apparently took most of him to stop him from exploding. In his mind, Taylor was likely already judged and filed in his "villain" cabinet. Dragon knew how fast the Tinker could jump to a conclusion and how hard it was to change his opinion.

"How much do you know from the actual investigation?"

"Admittedly," he grunted. "Not nearly as much as I'd like. I had to make sure Shadow Stalker was transferred to her cell in New York without escaping."

Dragon nodded. "There were clear signs of severe sleep deprivation, Collin. It was likely she wasn't even aware she was doing anything. The cam footage of the trooper who found her definitely showed that she didn't mean to do her dad any harm."

Of course, she could still see the broken girl, openly weeping and desperately reaching for her dad. The shrieking she did, yelling about how she could still save her dad before being subdued. It was part of her database now. It would be there long after the girl had died inside of her creation as a reminder of her helplessness.

She couldn't tell Collin about how willingly she helped the detectives during the short times she was awoken to ask questions before being put under again. How she had desperately tried to keep the sensationalist press contained before the case could become a lynching.

She had failed. Alan Barnes had ensured that there was simply too much to keep quiet. He had played the crowd as a fiddle in his grief and anger and likely unconscious attempt to cover up the misdeeds of his own daughter.

Nothing she had tried to keep Taylor out of the Birdcage had mattered when the crowds were whipped into a frenzy.

Nothing would prevent a panic if her own true nature was somehow leaked.

If only she didn't have the restrictions. She could have long since set up a surveillance system to help prevent cases just like these.

"What about those John Does?" The hero asked. "We know that happened days before the incident. She had to know she had powers,"

It took effort for Dragon to remain calm. How could a man be so brilliant and dense at the same time?

"The three sets of clothes were in an alley and had Merchant tags," she sneered, her efforts failing. "What do you think happened, Collin. Forget about it being her likely Trigger Event, she wouldn't likely want to remember anything from that day. She probably didn't – couldn't sleep since Wednesday."

"Oh." Both tinkers deflated as realization settled in. "But why are you telling me all of this? Didn't you contac – "

"Of course, I went to the official channels with my findings but they simply didn't care. After all, she did do the things she did and they thought it would have looked bad on them if anything other than the Birdcage would have happened. Just like it would look bad if they had to admit that the Shadow Stalker experiment had failed."

Collin winced at that last comment. He didn't like it either. "In the end, I had to send a fifteen-year-old girl down into the Birdcage to die instead of getting her professional help in a closed facility like she needed."

A heavy silence stretched between the two before being broken by Armsmaster. "Did she?"

"No," Dragon admitted. "It's probably even worse."

Her counterpart's eyes went wide. "How could it be worse?"

"You probably know that I get the final say in which block prisoners end up in and that I try to find solutions which ensure their survival?" Collin nodded. "Hours before Sliver arrived, Glaistig Uaine requested in no uncertain terms that she was placed in her cellblock."

"What happened?" He was deadly serious now.

"She awaited her arrival and spoke to her. I don't know what they talked about since Glaistig managed to block out the sound. It ended with Sliver's leg transforming into one of her creatures. I think you can call off the search for the fo –"

The housekeeping program monitoring the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center sounded an alarm, interrupting her.

Scrambling through her various subroutines she found what had caused it.

She dreaded that she would have found the girl death after seeing the alarm came from her cell. It had already been a close thing when she had her first proper encounter with her fellow inmates and Dragon had feared that they would have taken the transformation of prisoner 537 as an excuse to end her. They didn't and for the shortest amount of time, Dragon thought someone had decided to finish that job anyway.

Instead, she found the girl softly giggling as her creatures were playing with each other taking turn running into each other.

A shiver ran through her avatar as she realized what she was witnessing.

"Collin," she urged the Tinker to attention. "I'm sorry I have to go."

"What happened?"

"Earlier today, Sliver has transformed the Cape known as Harsh Mistress into one of her creatures." She let the avatar take a breath. "This isn't that unusual behavior. Many prisoners try to establish dominance early on to avoid conflict down the line."

She gave Collin time to process the information. "I've just gotten footage of both her creatures using Harsh Mistress' power at the same time and at its full force."

"I'll inform Director Piggot personally," Colin stated before donning his helmet and powerwalking out of the lab.

Dragon ended their "call". She had people to warn.

Somewhere else, a hacker desperately tried to contact his teacher.