Finally! I get to feel some release.... jobs done by the way at least it is this week... enjoy a chapter for waiting! This chapter focuses on Swarm as a character as she is new, it is also mostly fluffy...
We like sitting next to Lisa.
We look up from our snack of dead tree bark. There are four of us right now here in a place with trees. Approximately forty blocks away from where main representative is with Lisa and our two others. It is relatively calm among us here in what we assume is a park. From our memories shared with both Nimi and Taylor, we know what a park is supposed to look like. To us it is much more and much less.
The world around us is wisps of color on winds, a fuzzy land of chemical reactions making textures in the air. The life glows with energy while the death stays grey and solid. The grass of the park is fuzzy with carbon, the oxygen is static as it energetically burns through the air, and the metals smells the way glass feels. Lines of electricity hang in the air by giant poles of dead wood that we smell as carbon and fiber. Great angular structures are alive with a halo glow of electricity that travels in lines down the sharp minerals, carbon filled fiber, and metallic glass construction of its body.
I bring a chip of wood to my mouth and rest against the other three with me. It is quiet to our world, we can not hear, and we are blind to light. It is only around our others can we see, can we hear.
We are Swarm. We are new as well. While representative listens to our others and Lisa, we decided to shift our thought outward rather than remain in the awkward PRT van ride. We can feel Lisa's hand in ours, via representative, she is making sure that we aren't left behind. We like the way she feels.
Two hundred seventy-three of us "smile" across the Bay. The others are hunting down food, we need it to continue our metamorphosis. I turn to myselves that are here next to me in the park. We are of one mind about many things, but still we enjoy acting like individuals due to both Nimi and Taylor being our mental blueprint. I open my "mouth" and say something to them, there is no sound for us to hear, but again theatrics is at play for us. We still understand.
" I like Lisa."
" Yes I like her too," the first says noiselessly, " she makes us hungry."
The other two nod, but it is the third that speaks, " but not like an active hunger."
I agree, " no it is more like a meal we have prepared to eat, we anticipate consumption."
The first shakes her head, " not consumption, absorption, we wish for Lisa to live inside us."
"Hosting," the second one speaks, " we should tell her that we are interested like our sisters."
We think about that. Three hundred of us give the mental equivalent of a shrug. That is an acceptable amount of agreement. We focus in on representative.
The van is quiet. In addition to my sisters and Lisa, there are the faceless PRT troopers sitting in the back. There plastic face masks smell of artificial plastics. It reminds us of the hospital, of the cold morgue. We can see them now that we have access to the eyes of my sisters, they make me nervous. We subconsciously check that we are indeed heading to our house.
…
We are...good. Now to the task at hand, we turn representative's head to Lisa. " We would like to tell you something."
Lisa, or Izzy when in a mask, startles at the sudden sound of our voices. The troopers also startle, but we pay them no mind. " Oh, uh that's nice," Lisa briefly looks at sister Taylor before looking back at representative, " what did you want to tell me?"
" We wish to Host you."
We watch through our ghost that is peaking through the bottom of the moving van. Sister Taylor places her head in her hands and blushes grey up to her ears. Sister Nimi is giving representative a thumbs-up. The troopers are hard to read, but are also irrelevant. Lisa looks like she is processing what we said, her powers probably dissecting the sentence. At least she doesn't look scared. " You do realize that I told your other that I'd like time to think about it, right," Lisa says, " and I believe the term your looking for is date."
" Yes, we are aware that our others wish to be with you, we are simply letting you know that we are also interested," representative pauses, " we also must wait, we are not finished with metamorphosis."
The troopers in the van shift, but I ignore them. " Metamorphosis?" Lisa looks at sister Taylor again before looking back to me.
" Much like my sisters, We are not in our final shape," at the confused look on Lisa's face we continue, " Swarm's body made up of swarm is infantile state, finale state will be made of cellular union. This require the gathering of many resources. Final form will be better than current."
" Uh, Swarm should you be talking about this in front of you know who," Taylor looks at the troopers who are now paying attention.
" Metamorphosis is not against the law, child turns to teen turns to adult is not illegal. Final form is not illegal, it shouldn't matter if it isn't illegal."
I watch Lisa frown and glare at the troopers. " Just because something isn't illegal, doesn't mean the PRT will leave you alone."
" Why, we just wish to grow up." I fidget as the two troopers wither under Lisa's gaze, she is very pretty. We squeeze Lisa's hand, our bodies have no face, or any features we just look like a masked Taylor made out of shadows. Still we smile at her. We are delighted when she smiles back.
The PRT dropped us off a block from our house, and I am suddenly reminded of the time I first brought Nimi home to my parents. How are they going to react to us going missing? Will dad like Swarm? Can Lisa stay with us?
All these thought race through my head as we walk the final few feet home. I have school tomorrow... at Winslow...fuck me. How am I supposed to pull that off? Yeah I didn't look exactly human before what with my dead eyes and autopsy scars, but it was still closer than what I am now!
My hair is constantly shifting, forming eye spots and teeth at random, and no matter how much I try to keep it from doing that, I can only hold it in for a couple seconds. That's not even mentioning the fact that when I walk it looks like it is moving underwater rather that in the air. The shark teeth in my mouth will be easy, just don't open your mouth, I was doing that back before I died so that one is easy. Glowing eyes, maybe contacts?
I honestly don't know what to do about the glowing eyes and eye spots. I would change them into something else if it would stick, but that is not even the problem. I don't know how they are glowing...
It is not a chemical, electrical, or whatever phenomenon. I tried shutting them "off", but they just shined through the blocking agents I employed. What I do know is that it isn't ambient light, the glow effect is not producing actual light, people just see it like it is light. Looking through Swarms "eyes" show it as some strange heat distortion, but it still looks the same. The only thing I can think of that could possibly be the cause is ghost stuff, but that doesn't make any sense. I mean sure, ghost stuff is powering my body despite not delivering any energy to the system. So it is
already violating the natural laws of physics, matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed. My ghost essentially said fuck that law and puppets my cells just fine.
Thinking of it like that makes it seem like the glowing eyes and eye spots are obviously ghost related. It is just...my ghost has never effected the world like that before. It has never had evidence, still guess it doesn't, but that distinction between the two is so subtle.
Nimi's glowing ball is much in the same boat, so maybe the red is just her ghost's color and silver is mine? But Swarm doesn't have any glow, she is pretty much anti glow right now. Maybe that will change once she grows up like she said.
Lisa walks up the rotted steps of our front porch, picking up the spare key from under the rock where we hide it. I don't even know where my spare is. It was lost after my body evaporated.
I look around the street. We are fairly exposed and while I would care more about unwanted eyes, I care more about being home. I'm tired and I miss having Lisa somewhere safe, the motel wasn't, it was also dirty.
The street is empty, no suspicious vans, no idle cars, just a quiet Sunday. I should be worried about it being a trap, of the thinker that tried to kidnap Lisa still lurking in the dark, I don't believe the white flag for a second. I should probably also worry about the ABB coming after us, we did just humiliate their leader by partially eating him and dragging him behind us as we chased after Lisa.
Lisa unlocks the door, and helps Swarm through it by holding her hand. Swarm isn't "here' right now, she is technically everywhere in the Bay. If I focus I can see what she is thinking, it is mostly just what I was doing with the swarm before it woke up, eating. It has a preference for dead wood, just like I like bugs and mold, or Nimi with her mushrooms and flowers. At least she will be easy to feed, I think to myself, just buy her a bag of mulch and she is good.
" Mommy, daddy were home," Nimi walks in after the other two. She misses home just as much as me. I stay outside for a little longer, giving my street another cursory glance. Still nothing but it feels like it isn't empty. I head inside.
" Taylor Hebert," dad's face is red with anger. This would have made me nervous back before I died, my father's anger directed at me. Dead me can see it though, dad's hands are shaking and his pupils are pinpricks. My father is terrified...is it because of me, because I look different?
Swarm walks past Lisa who for the most part is next to Nimi. I watch my father's fearful anger turn to confusion as the multi-armed shadow grabs his hand. " Hey dad," I sigh, this is going to be hard to explain, " is mom home?"
" I- no, she had an interview today," dad continues to look at Swarm as she just hold his hand, her other hands inside her "mouth" chewing on her fingers. " I had to convince her to go to it when you and your sister didn't come home last night."
I flinch, mom has been looking for a job in her field for three weeks now, it has been really hard since she couldn't get her old one at the college. " Sorry daddy, we needed to save Lisa from some kidnappers," Nimi walks forward and gives dad a hug. It is always weird to see my tall dad, look small next to Nimi's extreme height. For Nimi it is even weirder, but it does make her giggle internally every time she can see dad's bald spot.
" Yeah, sorry about that Mr. Hebert," Lisa gives a sheepish smile, " it didn't feel safe bringing them home while someone was looking for us so I checked us into a motel for the night." God she's cute.
Dad sighs, " yeah that makes sense, you could have maybe called?"
" Sorry dad, we were kind of tired and forgot," I take a seat on the couch, my "living" hair flows out to rest across the back of the seat. Nimi takes a seat to my right and Lisa sits close to me on my left. Dad takes his own seat in his arm chair, Swarm still standing next to him holding his right hand, chewing her other five. " Oh this is Swarm," I point to my newest other next to him, " she is another other like Nimi."
" Oh okay," dad grips his hand around Swarm's a little tighter, a squeeze to remind him that she is family, " why is she... or rather what happened."
I open my mouth to speak at the same time that Lisa does. Swarm beats both of us, " after sisters Taylor and Nimi were vaporized by Lung's fire, both had their ghost disconnected. With the only other body being the swarm across all of Brockton, both of my sisters ghosts' inhabited the swarm, this made Swarm."
" YOU FOUGHT WHOM!"
I flinch as my father roars and it looks like he would have continued if Swarm didn't grip dads hand tighter. Swarm is up to her knuckles with her chewing, you didn't need to be connected to her to know that she was nervous. " Da, Lisa was kidnapped, Nimi was damaged, and Taylor was distracted. I was born to fight Lung, fix Nimi, ground Taylor, and save Lisa. I don't want you to be angry at them, are you angry at me too?"
" What, nonono," dad grips Swarms other hands, pulling them from her "mouth". I can see Lisa looking down at the ground, I'm turning my head away too. Nimi is just a little upset, a few tears and a rock filled throat. " I'm just worried and scared for all of you, come're."
Swarm is pulled into dad's lap as he hugs what essentially is his new daughter. Both me and Nimi are comforted by the hug, as if it was happening to us too. " So yeah that is the worst of what happened to us last night, but there were some more to it," I explain the rest of the story to dad, with both Lisa and Nimi making embarrassing jokes. Much to dad and my horror.
I am grey faced and my father's is red. " I feel like I should put some rules around dating my daughters..."
" Wouldn't work, each one of us is the same daughter," I stare at the floor trying my hardest not to look at my father, " and we all are interested in the same person."
" True, we just initiated the courting ritual as well," not helping Swarm.
" Its okay Danny, I've told them that I wanted time to think about it, so I promise that I won't steal your daughters too soon," Lisa's grin is genuine, not that foxlike one. Not sure if that's worse for dad or not.
"...Your lucky I like you Miss Wilborn," dad sigh is heavy like a rock over your head, it could drop at anytime. " So let's see if I got this correct. Taylor and Nimi lose their bodies and enter the swarm. Swarm forms a brain and wakes up, beats Lung, steals back Lisa, then the rest of you reform out of some flesh mountain, and go to a motel?"
" Yeah that is about right," Lisa scratches the side of her head, " I think that we also went to a warehouse for a bit in there, but that is about the long and short of it."
" What about what that meanie did to my tendril," Nimi puts her hands on her knees, glaring off into the distance. To be fair I am also now glaring in a direction. I think Swarm is doing her glaring somewhere else in the city, but she is glaring...
meanwhile...
Clockblocker looked around at the dark alley way. All around him he could feel it. Eyes every where looking, glaring, trying to burn through his skull with the leer. " Uh, this is Clock to Vista, I'm going to call the alleyway clean, over."
" Roger that, over."
As soon as his teammate got back to him he booked it.
"That son-of-a...I'll kill'em …" Dad continues to mumble under his breath as he checked over Nimi's now slightly healed wound. Pain can be ignored by us, but it still hurts the same.
" The nerve bundles in Nimi's hair tendrils has increased from what they were before," Lisa winces as she looks closely at the tendril she is stroking, " ow stupid headache... is it supposed to be like that?"
I nod, " after checking through our stuff last night while we slept, we discovered that they are not finished growing, but we lack enough of certain materials."
" Oh, like what," Lisa picks up the arm thick appendage to poke at it. It just ends up wrapping around her hand.
" Metals, Osmium, steel alloy, and some other rare earth elements."
" What about the cells you got from Lung, he's metal." Dad was gently turning over Nimi's appendage, a soft expression on his face.
" Wrong properties, and the stuff isn't good for stuff beyond heat resistance and some armor capabilities."
"I still don't like that any of you fought him," dad kisses Nimi's forehead, her eye closing as she giggles, " but is that why you guys look different."
" Some of it," I explain further, " most of the changes come simply from us growing, which feeding off a regenerating rage dragon is a lot of cells very fast." My father grimaces, but doesn't stop me from continuing. " The other changes come from adaptation and application of his cells for specific jobs. For example, all three of us have different ways of managing heat. For Nimi, her skin has a negative refractive index, it reflects heat through patterns on her skin that's why she is darker in color."
" Okay so what about you and Swarm?" Lisa is fully invested, legs leaned forward, hand on jaw. What does Swarm call it, thinker's pose?
" Swarm has kind of the opposite, she is heat absorbent to the point that she will generate new cells by absorption. Essentially she can eat fire."
" What about you, what was your solution to the fire problem," Nimi likes the science, she knows the answer already, but she likes it said to her out loud.
I look down at my pale white hand against the pure black of the Swarm suit, " I have metal-crystal skin, it acts like a lenses at random that diffuse the light at random angles reducing the intensity, the physical plasma de-excites when it is around my skin."
" Damn, that is a hefty amount of problem solving," Lisa shakes her head, " if superpowers didn't exist I'd say you were breaking several laws of thermodynamics."
" Well I am, just by walking and talking so this doesn't feel like such a foul," I smile at her.
"That is crazy," dad walks back to his armchair, Swarm grabs his hand when he sits back down.
" Yeah, anything else in you that you want to talk about," Lisa grins at me, but I'm ready for it.
" I don't ask you to describe your insides Lisa," I place my hand on hers, " if you want to see mine I'll show you later." I feel my hunger return at the thought of showing her, me.
Lisa blushes as I look at her. " Hey no fair I want to flirt with Lisa too," Nimi's weight pushes me down into Lisa's lap as she tries to reach for Lisa's other hand. My squawk of protest lost as I slam face first into the folds of Lisa's coat.
" God, that was flirting," dad places his head in his hands, " my kids are going to be the death of me..." Swarm's manifold giggles ring out in the room as me and Nimi "argue".
Lisa is at least laughing with one of us....
I hope you enjoyed!
