Story Title: The Second Triggers

Crossover: AU Worm/ Multiple

Summary: Second triggers are the pipe dreams of the cape world. What if Taylor triggered again when she was captured by Bonesaw? In the presence of Jack Slash, Bonesaw, Burnscar, Parian, Tattletale, Imp, Trickster, Sundancer and Ballistic while Grue was also undergoing his Second Trigger.

Disclaimer: I do not own Worm or any of the crossover fandoms used in this works. This is a work of fanfiction.

Author's Note: This story is deviating from canon in regard to Taylor's second trigger.

Chapter One: Triggered

Taylor felt hope died in her as Jack Slash appeared next to Bonesaw who was smirking at where Parian was scrambling at the sink, the acid burning into her eyes. Burnscar walked up to Taylor's vision and any hope for the group to escape the Slaughterhouse Nine vanished.

Trickster, Ballistic, Sundancer, Tattletale and Imp were strung up and unconscious. As for Brian, Taylor's heartached at seeing the damage Bonesaw had inflicted on him, his body cut open.

"We have to go, the enemy's recouping from the first few hits." Jack said to Bonesaw. "Bring three if you have to for your research, we wouldn't be able to bring them all along."

"Only three… then erm Skitter…" Bonesaw said as Burnscar walked forward and seized Taylor's feet, pulling her from her teammates.

"I want to see what Tattletale's brain looks like, and Trickster can fill-in for Hack Job." Burnscar said brightly. "We will leave Brian to show people my art."

"Alright then." Jack said smiling at Bonesaw. "Let's finish the rest off."

Bonesaw grinned, starting up the small circular saw. "We will go from first to last…"

Taylor watched helplessly as Bonesaw moved towards Imp. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Jack taking up a small knife, ready to throw towards Parian. Aisha, Parian and the Travellers were all going to die. In the meanwhile Brian, Tattletale, Trickster and her going to suffer fates worse then that, and there was nothing she could do.

She strained against her power, trying to fight desperately against whatever Bonesaw had done to her. But like before her power remain muted and there were too few bugs left for her to send a wide area call for help.

Taylor felt her breathing hasten as she realised the hopelessness of the situation. There was no good way out for any of them. Burnscar grabbed Lisa and stacked her against Taylor, holding both their waist with one arm while moving towards Trickster. Taylor's face banged against the back of Lisa's head but there was little she could do to control the motion.

Tears leaked from the corner of her eyes as she heard Bonesaw chortling from the side. "Aw look at his heart beating so fast! He doesn't want to see his sister dying."

Brian must have been awake even after everything Bonesaw had done to him, and he had to watch helplessly as Bonesaw kill Aisha and make off with the rest of them. Taylor felt something within her died then. The pit of despair and darkness of all the past few months of struggles. From fighting Lung, joining the Undersiders, Bakuda's psycho break, Leviathan attacking Brockton Bay and trying to help others surviving the shattering of the bay while the Slaughterhouse Nine arrived… It had all been for nothing, her power was just too weak to help them survive now. If only there was some way to save everyone, to stop this from happening and ESCAPE…

In the distance, Taylor could hear Bonesaw saying something in excitement. "Yes! He is doing it! He is…"

An immense pressure build-up in Taylor's head, her heart pounded and then it all stopped. The pain was gone… she felt like a spirit without a body, only perception of the vision occurring in front of her.

The scene was familiar to Taylor, she felt as though she had seen it before.

Two beings spiralled through an airless void, past suns, stars and moons. They rode the ebbs and flows of gravity, ate ambient radiation and light and drew on other things Taylor couldn't perceive. For a moment, Taylor saw a flicker of motion next to the beings, a silhouette that looks like the back view of Brian.

INFORMATION.

UNDERSTAND.

AGREEMENT.

ENERGY.

ENTROPY.

AGREEMENT.

Then the moment was past as the beings slipped portions of themselves in and out of reality to reshape themselves. Concepts alien and strange flooded Taylor's head, giving her limited understanding of what she was seeing. She saw the beings push further into the reality to ride the pull of one planet, while shifting into another to ride that slingshot momentum. That part she did understand, a whisper in her mind telling her that it was a more advanced way of how Trickster and Burnscar achieve their teleportation.

INFORMATION.

UNDERSTAND.

AGREEMENT.

MOVEMENT.

TRANSLOCATION.

DIMENSION.

AGREEMENT.

Taylor blinked away a sharp pain spiking her head even as her spirit floated closer to the beings, pulled in by the vision. As she flew over the two beings, the crystalline bodies of the creatures came into sharper details. Some of the crystal shards sparkling with inner lights as the two being accelerated, slicing past dimensions and space. A sheath of energies protecting their bodies in the harsh BETWEEN of realities.

INFORMATION.

UNDERSTAND.

AGREEMENT.

TEAR.

SHELL.

ACCELERATION.

ANATOMY.

AGREEMENT.

More concepts new and strange thundered in Taylor's head, causing her to wince. Ten thousand thousands of each of the two entities existed simultaneously, complemented each other, drew each other forward and then it happened. A scene of which Taylor knew for sure she never saw before. One of the beings LOOKED and ten thousands pictures appeared at once. Taylor saw its final destination. Earth.

She saw the entity search through many iterations of end until it stopped at one, and then billions of visions of individuals flooded the entity. Taylor froze as she saw one of the pictures, that was of a younger version of her father smiling down at her mother.

The entity was looking at her world.

Then it spoke DESTINATION. A word that spread dread through Taylor's being. Some unconscious part of her recognised what that meant, of the hidden threat.

Its partner replied. AGREEMENT.

More signals passed between the two, few that seemed familiar and understandable to Taylor. Then the two entities broke apart, the one who had seen the pictures spiralling out of control…

The many minute minds of insects broke through to Taylor, her powers suddenly restored. The images of what she had seen still sharp in her mind. She was now slumped on the ground next to Tattletale, Burnscar had apparently dropped her, her face pressed against the long masses of Lisa's hair.

Taylor tried to roll away from Lisa. She could feel her body fighting the drugs Bonesaw gave her, and she could feel some connections with her swarm again.

From the visions of the insects in the immediate vicinity, Jack, Bonesaw and Burnscar seemed to be stunned as they stared into space. Close to Bonesaw, where Brian was, a cloud of darkness was slowly forming.

Then Bonesaw snapped to attention, chortling with joy as she rushed to the freezer where she kept more bodies. "Two! There were two of them! I am positive I have recorded the data. I need the hard drives!"

"Bonesaw, we need to move now!" Jack said with urgency as he raised a knife towards Brian. There was a disturbed look on the murderer's face that Taylor had never seen before. "Burnscar kill everyone, starting with Skitter."

Taylor pulled desperately on her connections with her swarm which was growing stronger by the second as her body somehow began to slowly fight off Bonesaw's drugs. Attack! She screamed at the swarm even as she tried to push Tattletale's body away using her bonded hands. There was no way she could run with her legs tied, but if she could buy time for the others until her swarm arrives, maybe she could still save her friends.

She pushed desperately at all her insect connections, her heart pounding desperately and was shocked when some of the connections changed, a number of bugs began radiating with what felt like heat in her mind as flame-like aura surrounded them as they attacked Jack, Bonesaw and Burnscar.

"What! Oww." Burnscar said as backed away from the burning bugs. "Skitter is giving her insects powers now! Burnscar stop her!"

Powers? The thought flashed across Taylor's mind. She had no idea what had happened to her powers but whatever it was, she could use it against Slaughterhouse Nine. She tried to replicate the what she had done, reaching more deeply into her connections, pushing all her will into making them MOVE faster… and then suddenly something SHIFTED.

It felt as though the ground dropped out from under her and her hands desperately grabbed onto Lisa's costumes even as she fell. She lost all connections to the insects that were not on her or Lisa, and then suddenly a new massive network of insect connections slammed into her head, dazing her.

Her body hit what felt like soft grass even as Lisa's body fell on top of her, causing her to grunt at the impact. What surprised her was the energy she felt flooding her body, she had never felt so… strong and healthy before.

Bright light shined on her face and Taylor's eyes widened in shock as she saw clear blue skies with tall trees reaching into the sky. Her body felt rejuvenated, the pain on her head where Bonesaw had cut into her had disappeared. Taylor pushed herself off the ground and watched in shock as the bonds tying her hands and feet just broke effortlessly at her stretching.

Holding Tattletale's body close to her, Taylor looked up in a daze trying to understand what happened, before her eyes widened at what she saw in front of her.

A swarm of what looked to be giant hornets were forming in front of her, and that was when she realised the connections in her mind felt different. There were still numerous connections to what felt like normal insects within her mind. From their visions, she seemed to be in a forest of some kind containing impossible creatures that she had never seen before. But of higher concerns were the mental connections she felt from the swarm of giant hornets silently hovering in front of her, observing her. They felt… more sophisticated, the connections feeling weaker than those she had over normal insects and those connections were hovering at the edge of her awareness.

HUMANS. One of the hornets sent through the weak connection. A sense of hostility mixed with confusion.

Taylor turned her head, her power letting her identify the hornet in question. Through the connection, Taylor got a surprisingly clear vision of herself and Lisa. Both of them looked a sorry state with blood stained costumes, although Taylor was surprised that her body looked fully healed, without the wounds that Bonesaw had inflicted on her.

Maybe it was intuition from her power, but something told her that the giant hornets would not like her imposing her will upon them. Not to mention Taylor had a feeling she might have difficulty controlling them if it was at all possible.

She had no idea what had happened to bring her and Lisa to this place with what seemed to be a swarm of thinker made creatures running free in a forest, but she had a sinking suspicions it had to do with her powers and the new changes she felt in it. She had heard of Second Triggers, Lisa had mentioned them once, but they were very rare and most of the known second triggers underwent alterations with their powers.

PEACE. Taylor tried to clumsily broadcast out to the hornets, eyeing the giant stingers on them nervously. With the new state of her body, she felt like she might have the strength to pick up Lisa and make a run for it, but that was only her intuition talking. She had no desire to test if that was true with Lisa and her life on the line.

If her power or a new aspect of it, was what teleported Lisa and her here, now was not the best time to experiment. Diplomacy seemed like the best resort. All the same, Taylor readied herself in case she needed to fight. She had somehow granted normal insects powers that seemed to mimic an aspect of Burnscar's fire ability. If she could replicate that again, she might have a weapon to use. Though it was unfortunate that her fumbling with her new abilities caused her to end up here.

SPEECH. An older feminine voice sounded through the connection. Taylor followed the connection to a giant hornet that was larger than the rest. There was a hint of surprise and consideration in the word the hornet had sent to her.

LEAVE. Taylor tried again, trying to impart the understanding to the hornets that she wanted no conflict but to leave.

STRANGER. The hornet replied, flying closer to Taylor, seemingly looking at her for a long moment. Then as if deciding on something, the giant hornet commanded. LEAVE. An impression of Taylor and Lisa moving out of the clearing they were in flashed across Taylor's mind.

As Taylor gasped at the strong command, trying to get used to intelligent bugs communicating with her in her head, the hornet swarm dispersed, flying up into a large tree nearby. The large hornet who had commune with Taylor gave her one last look before leaving, tailing the back of its swarm.

With the immediate danger gone, Taylor gave a sign of relief. She quickly lean Tattletale against her shoulder before breaking the bonds on Lisa's hands and legs.

While this was going on, Taylor was gathering a cloud of normal insects to land on Lisa and her. Fisting Tattletale's costume with her free hand, Taylor tried to reach out to that strange sensation in her power she had felt before she was brought here with Lisa. If what she suspected was true, that her power somehow brought Lisa and her here, she needed to return to where Brian and the others were quickly.

Taylor reached out to the insect connections within her range and PUSHED, she needed them to MOVE.

The strange sensation of something SHIFTING happened again and Taylor latched on to Lisa desperately as both of them began to fall. She lost all her insect connections except for those on her and Lisa. This time as a new network of insect minds suddenly entered her mind, she was prepared. What she was not prepared for was her landing.

Her butt squished on something soft and a foul smell assaulted her nose. A cloud of small flies new to her connections rose up around her as she disturbed their hunting ground. Beside her Lisa gave a groan as the Thinker finally showed some signs of life. Taylor tried to make sense of her surrounding as the bugs from the previous clearing that were on Lisa and her, quickly spread out even as she reached out to new bugs within her zone of control.

It took her a few seconds before she realised that she was on a farm of some sort and she was in a stable pen sitting on what had to be dung of some kind. Quickly getting up in disgust, with Lisa leaning drunkenly against her, Taylor nearly dropped her friend in surprise when a large yellow bird of some kind leaned its head over the stall letting out a melodious sound of "Kweh. Kweh?"

- Bio -

Name: Taylor Anne Hebert (Skitter)

Power:

Bug Control

Bug Affinity Boost

Bug Empowerment

Bug Teleportation (Dimensional)

Known Classification: Master, Thinker

New Classification: Master, Thinker, Trump, Mover, Breaker, Brute