Aftermath
Part Nine: All Together Now
Danny
Armsmaster raised his voice slightly. "You've got your orders. Move in."
He started toward the house, and the swarm surrounding it, at a steady pace. Danny felt momentary irritation –
I'm not under your orders – but then he shook it off and followed, with the two police officers and the three Wards flanking him. PRT soldiers in full-coverage gear were already fanned out around the house, outside the periphery of the swarm, each one carrying a heavy spray-gun, fed by oversized canisters on their backs. In contrast, the only equipment Danny had on him was a headset with throat microphone.
As they neared the swarm, Danny studied it, although he didn't really know what he was looking for. Taylor's face, he supposed, outlined in the buzzing, humming insects. There was nothing like that, but it seemed to him that the buzzing reached a higher pitch as he got closer. Bugs broke away from the main mass, surrounded him. He flinched slightly, then controlled himself.
"Taylor." His voice was loud in his own ears. "Taylor, is that you?"
There was no answer, although they did land on him. There were bugs on his shoulders, his chest, his face – he flinched again as one crawled near to his eye and on to his glasses – his arms and his legs. One alighted on top of his head, near his bald spot. He stopped moving, so as to concentrate on what the bugs were doing.
Armsmaster stopped also, as did the Wards and the policemen. He was vaguely aware of them watching him, or perhaps just staring at the crazy man who talked to bugs. A heavy scarab beetle droned around him; he held out his hand, palm up, and it landed heavily. He could feel its legs scratching at his skin. It turned to look at him; he brought up his hand to his face and peered at it. Tiny facets of light reflected off of its dark beetle eyes.
"Sir," Armsmaster addressed him, "are you all right?"
He nodded. "Yes, I am." He gestured with the hand that held the heavy beetle. "I think she knows we're here. That I'm here. That it's all right to go in."
"If you say so, sir." Armsmaster started forward again; Danny followed. He had Shadow Stalker to his left and Aegis to his right, with Clockblocker at his back. Clockblocker had a police officer on either side of him, each one wearing what amounted to a biohazard suit. They had to be sweltering in those things.
The swarm rose before them like a living wall of buzzing chitin, flashing back and forth in a manner almost certain to send cold shivers down the backbone of any rational human being.
Almost certain, Danny told himself.
Or maybe I'm just no longer rational enough to fear insects, even in a swarm of this size.
Armsmaster was inside the swarm by now, bugs swirling around him, crawling over nearly every inch of his armour. They weren't
attacking him, but they certainly weren't giving him the almost-friendly reception that Danny had gotten.
Taking a deep breath, Danny stepped into the swarm as well, crossed the almost-physical dividing line between clear air and buzzing insects. And the swarm parted before him; the humming and buzzing was almost a physical thing, but he walked in a bubble devoid of flying bugs.
<><>
Sophia
This is all kinds of bullshit.
Shadow Stalker did not want to be here. Hebert shouldn't have died in the locker –
that wimp! – but even if she did, she had no
business leaving behind any sorts of notes implicating Sophia in whatever happened to her. She should have just kept her head down, taken her medicine like the weakling she was, and not made waves.
But she hadn't. She'd kept notes, apparently.
Maybe she was planning to give them to Blackwell, or the cops. Sophia couldn't decide whether Hebert dying was a good thing or not; she was pretty sure that between them and Emma's dad, they'd be able to laugh off anything the snivelling little queef wrote about them. But the idea of Hebert having the
gall to even plan to do something like that … it made her grit her teeth.
Whatever. I'm here now. She stuck close to Hebert's dad, not because she wanted to –
weak chin, weak eyes, weak man – but because she wanted to keep inside the no-fly zone that somehow existed around him. Behind him, Clockblocker and the police officers were similarly staying close.
Wimps. The bugs can't even get to them. On the other side, Aegis was half out of the bubble; the bugs that landed and crawled on him didn't seem to bother him.
I get into the house, I go upstairs to the room, I get those damn notes, and I destroy them. The cops can turn the place upside down after that for all I care. They won't be there.
Earlier, Armsmaster had briefed them on the theory that Taylor Hebert was somehow alive in the swarm. That there was a chance that she was still conscious and aware, in the mass of bugs surrounding her family home. Sophia found that idea to be disturbing in the extreme, and so she did her best to discount it.
Her dad's a Master. Maybe he's doing it. Or maybe it was indeed somehow Hebert, but … well, whoever heard of bugs being
smart? Bugs were
dumb. And these bugs weren't showing any sign of being anything else. Apart from leaving Hebert's dad alone.
Which actually makes it more likely that he's the Master.
She moved with the group, carefully keeping within the bubble of clear air, as they approached the front of the house.
It's now or never.
"I'll go in, scout around," she offered. "Make sure there isn't a giant beehive or something just behind the front door."
Armsmaster nodded. "Take care. In and out, thirty seconds."
She smiled behind her mask.
I can do that.
<><>
Taylor
She hadn't been sure, even with the extra bugs she'd brought in, but that was Dad all right. He approached the Swarm, along with the others, and she sent out emissaries to welcome him. Bugs landed on his head and crawled on to his glasses, to make sure it was him, and others landed on his chest and arms and back in the best she could do for a hug, right at that moment.
She was fairly sure that he had spoken her name, but she couldn't understand what else he was saying. It didn't matter; he was here, and he would read her note. He would know that it really was her, that she was alive. Everything else was secondary.
She would much rather it be just him who came into the house, but she didn't want to attack anyone else.
That could get Dad in trouble. So she held her bugs in abeyance; they didn't attack anyone, but the only one that they actively avoided was her father.
That should show them that he's the important one here.
She was still working on refining her interpretation of bug senses; she supposed that it was because she had a human mind, stored in multiple bug brains, and it was hard enough for her to think straight as it was. The closer the bugs were together, the easier this was for her, and the more human she felt.
I need to pull myself together, hah.
Still and all, she had gotten a fairly good idea of who some of the people with her father actually were.
Armour and halberd equals Armsmaster. Three of the others are wearing costumes, but they aren't adults. That makes them Wards. The other two, I have no idea.
Wow, Dad's getting a full escort in here. That led to a sobering thought.
They think I might still attack him, or the other two, whoever they might be.
Okay, I'll hold off on any aggressive actions unless I'm certain that they're trying to attack me or Dad.
As an afterthought, she pulled all the bugs away from where she had left the note. It was a clear rectangle on the table.
They'll notice it. Please let them notice it.
In the basement, she was congregating more and more bugs, pressing them closer and closer together in a single living mound of chitin.
If I'm normally smart just like this, I wonder what happens if I get all my bugs really close?
The front door had not opened, but the Swarm detected a shadowy figure moving into the house. She couldn't get any sort of impression of it, save that it was dark, and moved her bugs a little bit when it moved through them.
Shadow Stalker, of the Wards, she realised. A nagging memory crossed her mind –
I think I saw her, earlier. Why does she remind me of someone? – but then it was gone, as Shadow Stalker started up the stairs.
Why are you going that way? Don't go that way. Go to the table. That's where the note is.
Bugs began to flow through the shadowy form, in an attempt to guide her to where the note was.
<><>
Dana
There was a row of barriers across the road, up ahead. Momentarily, Dana considered crashing the perimeter –
way to make a dramatic entrance – but decided against it. It would be much easier to convince whoever was in charge of the PRT operation if she
didn't antagonise them from the start.
The blank-visored soldiers on the perimeter were certainly aware of her as she drove toward them; rather than make them nervous, she braked to a halt a decorous distance away from the plastic barrier, then climbed out of the car and hurried toward them. In one hand, she had the briefcase with all her notes; in the other, the case holding her laptop.
"Ma'am, going to need you to stop right there," declared one of the PRT soldiers. He didn't unsling his rifle, but his partner did, even if it wasn't pointed directly at Dana. He did, however, hold his hand out in a definitive 'halt' gesture. "This is a PRT operation. We're dealing with a dangerous parahuman."
"I know," she told them. "That's why I'm here." She swapped both cases to the same hand, and reached into her coat. When she looked up, she was looking into two rifle barrels. She froze.
"Ma'am," the soldier stated much more coldly, "please take your hand out of your coat, slowly."
"It's okay," Dana told him urgently. "Police officer. Dana McAllister, Homicide. I'm just getting my badge."
He jerked the rifle barrel slightly. "Go ahead. Just the badge."
Slowly, Dana withdrew her hand, held up the leather wallet holding the badge. "I need to see your commanding officer, as fast as possible," she told the man. "I have information on the situation here. I'm pretty sure I know who killed the Hebert girl."
"Killed the who what now?" asked the second soldier.
Dana pointed, with the hand holding the wallet, at the tremendous swarm. "I know who caused
that."
<><>
Sophia
Crap.
The bugs were going to be more of a problem than Sophia had envisaged. She could move through the swarm well enough in her shadow form, but they slowed her down, disrupted her. If enough of them flew through her in the right direction, she felt, they could actually move her in that direction. All of which would not have been a problem, except that she wanted to get upstairs in a hurry, and the bugs were actually slowing her down significantly.
Maybe I should have gone in through the roof.
No, then it would have been too obvious.
Crap.
It was too late to change the plan. Once the others got inside, she would be under their eyes, and it would be so much harder to destroy the notes that Hebert had left behind. So she struggled up the stairs, and along the hallway. Bugs buzzed through her body, a few dozen at a time; it was unpleasant and utterly creepy.
Get to Hebert's room. Get those notes.
It had become her mantra.
<><>
Danny
Just as Danny had been about to glance at his watch –
surely it's been more than thirty seconds – Armsmaster raised his hand.
"It's been more than thirty seconds," the armoured hero pronounced.
Told you so. "She's not answering her radio. I'm going in to see what's happened. Everyone else, wait here."
Behind him, Danny heard the young hero called Clockblocker mutter, "Right. Wait here in the middle of this massive swarm of flesh-eating bugs."
Fortunately for the teen, Armsmaster either didn't hear the comment, or he simply chose to ignore it. He turned to mount the steps; Danny stepped forward and called out, "Wait!"
Armsmaster paused to look back at him. "What?"
"The first step." Danny pointed. "It's rotted. And maybe I should go with you. The bugs aren't bothering me at all."
Armsmaster shook his head. "No, sir.
We're here to protect
you. You stay outside until I find out what's happened to Shadow Stalker."
Turning back toward the house, he stepped over the bottom step, and moved up to the front door. Extracting a key from one of the pouches on his belt, he inserted it and turned; the lock clicked. Pushing the door open, he stepped inside.
<><>
Colin
Armsmaster had never seen so many insects congregated in one place at one time. The swarm was even thicker in the house than it had been outside, and it had been daunting then. He was finding himself having to wipe his visor clear every few seconds just so that he could see, and even then, sight was actually hampered by the sheer number of bugs in the air.
However, Shadow Stalker was not lying on the floor beside the door, and nor was there any giant beehive or other insect nest to be seen. Clicking the chin switch, he tried the radio again.
"Shadow Stalker, come in. Shadow Stalker, come in. You have exceeded your time limit."
There was no answer; he flicked the switch again, changing it over to external speakers.
"Shadow Stalker!" he shouted. "Where are you?"
The sound seemed to almost be absorbed by the mass of bugs, but he was sure that wherever the Ward was in the house, she would have heard. But again, there came no reply.
I should never have let her go in alone, he told himself.
This just became a rescue mission.
He chinned his radio on. "PRT command, this is Armsmaster," he reported. "Shadow Stalker is not responding to radio or voice. Taking Aegis into the building for search and rescue. Over."
"
Armsmaster, this is PRT command. Message received and understood. Be careful. Command, out."
"Careful, roger. Armsmaster, out." Flicking the radio to the team channel, he went on. "Armsmaster, here. I'm going in to find Shadow Stalker and bring her out. Aegis, you're with me. Everyone else, stay out here. Is that understood?"
"
Uh, what about me talking to Taylor?" asked Danny, predictably enough.
"We don't know for a fact that it will work," Armsmaster told him patiently. "We
do know that Shadow Stalker has fallen out of communication. I have to assume that something's happened to her, something hostile. Stay out of the house, and remember your emergency protocols. Aegis, with me."
"
Sir."
<><>
Dana
For a few moments, Dana had thought that she was going straight to the man in charge. But when the guard ushered her into the trailer, she was faced with a fresh-faced PRT lieutenant.
"Detective, you're just going to have to wait," he told her. "The Captain's currently busy. We have a problem with the team that's going into the house."
"What sort of a problem?" she asked.
"Sorry, ma'am, but I can't tell you that."
"Well then, what
can you tell me?"
He tried not to look harassed, but couldn't quite pull it off. "That the Captain will be able to see you just as soon as he's dealt with the problem."
"Listen," she tried again, "can you at least tell me if it's about Shadow Stalker?"
That scored; she saw his momentary startled look. However, he recovered quickly. "Ma'am, I'm not cleared to tell you what it's about."
She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to calm herself down before she screamed at the man. "Look, are you cleared to talk about Shadow Stalker's secret identity?"
His eyes were guarded now. "Discussing that sort of thing, even if I knew it, which I don't, would get me into a whole
world of trouble, Detective."
"How about if she's guilty of murder?" That stopped him; she continued quickly. "Because I'm pretty sure that she's guilty of at least negligent homicide, and probably murder as well, and if I'm right, she's going into that house with the father of the girl she killed, in order to retrieve notes implicating her in a months-long bullying campaign against that same girl."
The Lieutenant blinked. "You have evidence?"
Dana nodded. "Yeah, I've got evidence. It's not absolutely rock-solid, but it's pretty damn compelling."
He sighed and pushed aside paperwork to clear off a space on his desk. "Show me."
She was startled. "We haven't got
time!"
"Detective." His tone was firm. "The first thing the Captain is going to ask me when I bring this to him is 'have you seen any proof'? I need to be able to say yes. So make it fast."
Dana took a deep breath, and opened her briefcase.
<><>
Carlos
"
Check the living room," Armsmaster ordered him.
"Then the kitchen. I'll check the basement. We'll both check upstairs."
"No problem, sir," Aegis replied. Squinting his eyes, he moved into the living room, feeling the bugs thwacking against his body like living hail. More were crawling on him, but it didn't really bother him. What was odd, however, was that he didn't feel any bugs crushing underfoot as he walked; looking down, he just barely saw the living carpet of bugs moving aside as he put his foot down.
"Sir," he reported over the radio, "these bugs are under outside control. I'm not stepping on any."
There was a moment of silence, broken only by the thunderous drone of tens of thousands of bug wings, and then the armoured hero replied.
"Well spotted. Nor am I. Keep looking."
He was halfway through the living room, having ascertained that nobody was in the room, when his radio came to life once more.
"Basement. Now."
Armsmaster rarely used that tone, and only ever in the field. Aegis shielded his face and flew across the room, caught the doorframe, and turned in midair to reach the top of the basement stairs. In doing so, he totally failed to notice the piece of paper on the kitchen table. In the basement, the light was on, although it wasn't illuminating much. What it
was, however, illuminating, was … worrying.
Armsmaster was halfway down the steps, and Aegis joined him, shielding his eyes while looking at the mass of bugs on the basement floor. It was vaguely human-shaped; two long bumps for arms, a narrower section for two legs, and a bump that could be a head; it lay on the floor of the basement. Worst of all, though, was the fact that it was moving very slightly.
"Oh god," choked Aegis. "Is there … someone
under that?"
"Infrared says there is," Armsmaster told him shortly. "Come on, we have to save whoever it is."
As they descended to floor level, he heard Armsmaster speaking quietly, but not over the radio, and knew he must be on the command channel. "Armsmaster to PRT command. Person in basement, buried under bugs. Best bet is that it's Shadow Stalker. We're getting her out now. Pull back the others."
<><>
Danny
"
Pull back. Repeat, pull back."
Danny frowned. "What? Why?"
"
No time for questions. Pull back, now."
Already, the police officers were stepping back. Clockblocker put his hand on Danny's arm. "Sir, we really should be getting back, like they say."
"
No," snapped Danny, and Clockblocker froze.
"You can do what you want, but I'm going into the house."
"Okay, you're going into the house," Clockblocker agreed. "We'll be back over here, okay?"
Danny didn't answer; he pushed the door open and entered the house, the bugs still leaving an empty bubble around him.
"
Mr Hebert," he heard through the headset.
"Leave the house at -"
With a growl, he tore the thing off and threw it to the floor.
I'm going to talk to Taylor.
Walking through into his living room, as he had done for years, he looked around. Bugs crawled on every surface, but he barely saw them. He was looking for traces of his daughter.
"Taylor?" he asked. "Are you there?"
And the Swarm spoke to him.
<><>
Taylor
Go downstairs. Look on the kitchen table. But despite the stream of bugs travelling through the shadow-girl's body, she persevered, moving stubbornly along the corrridor.
Oh. Maybe she's been told about the notes I've been taking. That made sense. But something seemed to tell her that it was a bad idea to let the girl take them.
What is it? Why don't I want her to see them? It was something from before she achieved full consciousness, when she was drifting on the wind. Something that she could not remember, not fully.
She observed as the girl reached her bedroom door, still open, and slid inside.
Okay, fine, I'll let her have them. See what she does.
The bugs on the bed drew back, revealing the stack of notes still lying there; Taylor turned her attention to the living room, downstairs, where her father had just walked in.
"
Dad," she spoke to him in the multitudinous buzz/hum/click of the Swarm.
"Dad. It's me. I'm alive."
She saw him turn his head, listening. "Taylor," he replied, and she understood him. "Taylor. Thank God."
And then Taylor saw what was happening in the bedroom.
<><>
Sophia
She stopped for a breather halfway along the corridor; leaning against the wall, she let herself slip back to reality, breathing heavily. Thankful that her mask kept out most of the bugs.
"Shadow Stalker! Where are you?"
Armsmaster's voice, amplified by his helmet's speakers, echoed through the house. Shadow Stalker shook her head and went back to shadow, her skin crawling from the number of bugs that had alighted on her during the breather.
This was
tiring. It was like wading through molasses, or thick mud, or trying to move against a strong wind. The bugs whipped through her almost immaterial shadow-substance, and while they couldn't touch her or hurt her, they could slow her, wear her out.
But I don't lose.
Forcing herself onward, she eased through the open door into the bedroom. Bugs coated every surface, hung like obscene stalactites from the ceiling. And then some of the bugs on the bed moved aside, and she saw the stack of notes. Held together with a bulldog clip.
It couldn't be this easy, could it?
Going solid, she reached down, picked it up. Tried to leaf through it. But the bugs were landing on it, crawling around, preventing her from reading anything all the way through. So all she got was the occasional name, reference to an incident. Dates starting in September of the previous year.
Around the time I joined the Wards. Fuck, she's been doing this for this long?
She weighed the stack of papers.
It's heavy. Thick. Won't burn easy. There'd been half an idea in her head to put it in the trash or simply light it on fire. But this would be found. Some part of it would be found. Unless she removed it altogether from the premises.
Lifting up her cape, she tucked it down the back of her belt, over her butt. Letting her cape fall, she checked over her shoulder.
They'll never notice. I'll just stroll out, destroy it at my leisure.
Under her mask, she smiled. "I
win, Hebert."
That was when the first wasp stung her.
<><>
Taylor
What's she doing? Taylor couldn't figure it out.
She's got the notes. Why isn't she bringing them downstairs?
And then she spoke, and Taylor heard it, through the ears of ten thousand bugs at once. It wasn't so much the words, as the tone, the tilt of the head. The
arrogance.
That's fucking Sophia Hess.
Wasps swarmed to the attack. Sophia was caught unawares by the sudden change, from passive to aggressive. She was stung half a dozen times before she managed to go to shadow form, to lunge for the window. But Taylor had learned; she had trouble moving against massed swarms. So her bugs swirled through Sophia's shadowy body, pushing her back toward the centre of the room.
She can't stay that way forever. I can outwait her.
And then Sophia went back to normal form just for a moment. And she screamed, loud and long. Even as she tried to draw breath again, bugs scrambled past her mask, down her throat. She coughed, choked … then went to shadow form again.
Taylor stayed on her.
Come on. Turn solid. Just once.
<><>
Carlos
The scream came from above; it resounded in their radio earpieces as well as down the stairs. Aegis' head jerked up, as did Armsmaster's.
"Shadow Stalker," they both stated at the same time. Aegis stared at the older hero as the realisation sank in, and then he gestured at the shape more or less at their feet. "If that's Shadow Stalker, then who's
this?"
"I'll find out," snapped Armsmaster. "Go help Shadow Stalker."
"Right," agreed Aegis. He didn't bother using the stairs; once more, he took flight up the staircase, pulling a hard one-eighty to get himself into the front hall. Angling upward, he grabbed the stair rail and swung himself around another one-eighty degree turn. Bugs caromed off of his face as he got to the top of the stairs and swung down the corridor; a couple of stings penetrated; he felt the venom sting, then tingle, then die away as his body adapted.
The noise of the swarm was now a roar; he was fighting against a tempest as he followed the next scream into an open doorway. Every surface was covered inches deep in bugs of all types, and the shadowy form in the middle of the room was literally swamped in them. More stings hit, and penetrated, but he ignored them.
He aimed his spray canister at Shadow Stalker's immaterial form, at the swarm roiling through the space that she occupied, and let fly. Sickly yellowish fog filled the room; he just kept the trigger down. The taste was acrid, and then he adapted to it. Bugs stopped hitting him from the side, and hit him from above, instead, as those that had been on the ceiling, or flying above him, died. Vaguely, he saw a swirl as Shadow Stalker phased out through the wall.
There was one more thing he had to do. "Aegis to all points. Bugs are hostile. Repeat, bugs are hostile."
<><>
Danny
His head jerked up at the scream from above. "What the hell was
that?"
"
Shadow Stalker, Dad. Sophia Hess." She was refining her technique, smoothing her words out. It almost sounded like real speech, now.
"She just tried to steal my notes about the bullies. I stopped her." She sounded grimly satisfied.
"What … what are you doing to her?"
"
Keeping her in place, until the heroes get there. Ah, here comes Aegis. Good. No, not good. No, don't. Shit."
"What? What's happened?"
"
He killed the bugs I was using to hold her in place. She got away, with the notes. I'm chasing her, but they've got insect spray. I can't … fuck. She's getting away."
Danny squared his jaw. "No, she's not."
Turning, he dashed from the house.
<><>
Colin
Bending over the supine form, Armsmaster prepared to sweep away a carpet of living bugs, but he was surprised; all that his gauntlets encountered were empty shells, lifeless husks, that clattered on the concrete floor of the basement. Brushing them aside more readily, he exposed what was below; a dirty-yellow expanse of something smooth, firm, yielding. Vaguely human shaped.
And then it flexed, and he realised what he was seeing.
It's a cocoon.
Christ, those bugs cocooned someone.
In the back of his mind, he heard someone telling Danny Hebert to leave the house, but he ignored it. The person in front of him needed his assistance
right now.
He had no idea how or why the bugs had managed to cocoon someone, but the situation was undeniable. He tried to tear the stuff, but it just stretched a little; it was tough. Really tough. The same went for lifting it; it was glued to the floor, and he couldn't pull it free.
On the other hand, Armsmaster prided himself on his versatility, and he
had brought along his halberd. Pulling the weapon off his back, just as the bugs in the cellar kicked their buzzing to a new level, he heard Aegis' statement over the radio.
"
Aegis to all points. Bugs are hostile. Repeat, bugs are hostile."
"
Not a surprise," he muttered, as he slid the very tip of the halberd into a pinched-up fold of the material, and unzipped it like a sleeping bag.
The teenage girl within sat up and blinked at him.
<><>
Sophia
She didn't have to fake her fear. Being swarmed like that had been intensely unpleasant, and she had sincerely feared for her life for just a few moments, before Aegis had stormed into the room. So as she landed, solid, on the pavement outside the Hebert house, and ran toward the nearest PRT trooper, she screamed at the top of her lungs, "Help me! Oh god, please help!"
Nor was he slow in providing that help, not when what looked like half the bug population of Brockton Bay was following the dark-clad Ward, with murderous intent. He aimed his spray gun, released the clouds of deadly vapour, and bugs died in their tens of thousands. Sophia stopped in the middle of the spray, luxuriating in it; it tasted acrid on the tongue, and smelled worse, but right then, it was the best smell in all the world.
The bugs fell back; Sophia took the opportunity to activate her radio. "Sorry about that. My headset was playing up. The bugs went nuts and chased me. Whatever's in there wants to kill us all."
"
The bugs in the rest of the house are agitated as well," Aegis supplied, on the radio net.
"How are you doing, Shadow Stalker?"
She could afford to be generous. "Great, thanks to you," she replied, stepping past the PRT man with a nod; he nodded back. "You got there just in time." There was a trash bin, just up ahead. If she could slip the notes in there …
"
Stop right there, Shadow Stalker."
She froze, could not take another step.
"
Come back here."
Against her will, she turned. One step. Another. Walking toward Danny Hebert, who had just stepped out of the house. Looking directly toward her. Gesturing her toward him.
She couldn't stop walking, but she could speak. "What the fuck? That bastard's Mastering me! Help!"
Guns were lifted toward Danny; he spoke again.
"No-one interferes."
The guns were lowered again. She took another reluctant step. "Fuck
you," she gritted. Drawing one of her crossbows, she loaded it.
"I've spoken to Taylor," he told her. "She told me what you did."
Her treacherous feet kept moving her toward him. She tried going to shadow, but it didn't do anything; she changed back. In desperation, she reached back behind her; under her cape, beside where the notes resided, she had a small holdout of arrows. The sharp kind.
Just in case.
Fingers made clumsy with haste, she changed out arrows.
"Shadow Stalker!"
It was a woman's voice. Not one she knew. She glanced over, annoyed.
A woman, gun in one hand, badge in the other. "Shadow Stalker! You are under arrest for murder! Drop your weapon!"
She curled her lip. Went to go to shadow form.
"
No."
With that negation, which she
knew was meant for this and this alone, she stayed solid. Kept walking.
"Shadow Stalker, drop your weapon and surrender, or I
will open fire!"
More reluctant steps. A pistol, pointed at her. Danny Hebert, in front of her. And beyond him …
Up until then, she
could have given up. Could have surrendered. The deck was stacked against her, everyone working to her ruin. Shit just happened sometimes. She could plead some sort of temporary insanity deal.
But when she saw Armsmaster leaving the front of the house, and who he was escorting, all that went out the window. Snarling, she brought up her arm, aimed the crossbow. Began to squeeze the trigger.
"Last warning!"
You'll never do it.
A tremendous report, a crashing impact. Sophia found herself lying on her back. Her empty crossbow next to her hand. Hot wetness spreading across her shoulder.
<><>
The woman standing over her, holstering her pistol. Looking down at her with contempt.
"You'll live. And as soon as you're out of danger, I
will be reading you your rights."
<><>
A PRT medic was kneeling alongside her, her costume partly cut away, a bandage on her right shoulder. Armsmaster was looking down at her, his expression probably disapproving. And beside him … she tried to shake her head. Her voice was weak, but she spoke anyway.
"You're dead. You died."
Taylor Hebert, clad from neck to feet in a living curtain of bugs, shook her head. "I got better."
<><>
Epilogue, Part 1
The sound of the policewoman's gun still echoed from the buildings; Shadow Stalker was on her back.
So, too, was Taylor; the renegade Ward's aim had been impeccable. The arrow stuck out, just under her ribcage. Dark blood welled around it. She half-sat up, the bugs that were providing her modesty moving aside so that she could examine it.
"Don't move!" snapped Armsmaster. "We'll get a medic to you!"
And then Danny was there; he fell to his knees beside Taylor. "Oh god," he groaned. "Not
again. Please, not again."
Taylor frowned. "It's no big deal," she told them. Wrapping her hand around the shaft of the arrow, she pulled it from the wound. Blood spurted, and then the bugs closed over it. The bloodflow stopped.
"What the -" began Armsmaster.
Taylor handed the arrow to him. "Evidence of attempted murder, this time," she noted. "Last time was an accident. This time, surely not."
He accepted it, wonderingly, as the bugs drew aside. Several empty husks fell to the ground, as a patch of yellowish cocoon material was revealed. Showing no pain at all, Taylor got to her feet. She looked at the stunned gazes on the faces around her.
" … what?"
<><>
Epilogue, Part 2
" … while you did use your Master ability on PRT personnel, I have been assured that the circumstances were understandably confused," Emily Piggot stated. "However, it is still against the law, so - "
"So how about this," interrupted Taylor, from beside her father. "Dad and I join the Protectorate – well, Dad joins the Protectorate – and I join the Wards, and neither of us speaks to the press about the monumental
fuck-up that was every single minute of Sophia Hess being a Ward, we get a damages payout for all the
shit Sophia put me through, and you don't give Dad any shit about Mastering a few dozen PRT goons."
Piggot turned a glare on to Taylor; the girl wasn't noticeably affected by it. "After all," Taylor went on, "that
is how you agreed with Glenn and Armsmaster that it would go, wasn't it?"
Piggot blinked. Danny looked at his daughter. "Okay, how did you know
that?"
Taylor shrugged and grinned. "Fly on the wall."
The Director scowled. "That's entirely unacceptable. You do not have leave to listen in on private conversations."
Her tone of voice brooked no disagreement; Taylor shrugged again, this time a little uncomfortably. "Well, you
were talking about us, behind our backs, even … "
Danny glanced at Piggot. "She
does have a point."
Piggot's scowl deepened. "There are rules to be adhered to, even with powers of your scope. In fact, there's an argument to be made that the rules should be adhered to
more strongly, in the case of more powerful capes such as yourselves."
Taylor nodded. "Well, to be honest, I'd be the last person to argue against people being held to a certain standard of conduct." She smiled brightly at the Director. "So, how's the case against Shadow Stalker going?"
Piggot nodded. "Middling. She's still refusing to talk, but between the evidence presented, the witnesses who saw her shoot you, and Emma Barnes turning State's evidence … "
Danny's eyebrows hitched upward. "Really?"
"Really." Piggot turned over a sheet of paper. "Now, given Taylor's return to life, you are of course going to have to change identities and move -"
"No," Danny told her firmly. "We're not going anywhere."
"But Taylor - "
"Was in a coma," Taylor stated flatly.
"You were
dead!"
"A really
deep coma," Taylor insisted.
"The medical examiners - "
"Pay them off," Danny told her.
"And this means you can have her charged for attempted manslaughter
and attempted murder on me, as well as the murder of Greg Veder," Taylor pointed out. Her face fell slightly. "Poor Greg."
Danny put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed. "If it wasn't for him … "
She leaned against him. "Yeah. He was a better friend than I knew." It was a melancholy thought.
"So, if you're staying in Brockton Bay," Director Piggot commented, "what cape names are you going to be using?"
Danny tilted his head in thought. "I was thinking … 'Union'."
Taylor snorted. "Showing your Association ties there, Dad."
He grinned, ruffling her hair. "And what were you thinking of, kiddo?"
Taylor rubbed her chin. A few bees and a wasp, appearing as if from nowhere, flew around her head, and then disappeared again. "I think I'll go with 'Swarm'."
<><>
Epilogue, Part 3
Danny closed the front door behind them and stretched. "Home again. God, was that a long day."
"Oh, god yes." Taylor wandered through to the living room. "I think I know what we're getting with our damages payout." She gestured at the ruined TV. "I don't think that's the ideal way to turn it off."
He joined her, and pulled her into a hug. She leaned into it, head against his chest.
"Yeah, well, I was kind of upset at the time," he admitted quietly.
"Oh hey, I've got something for you," she told him. "I made it specially."
He frowned. "What?"
She headed through into the kitchen, and retrieved a sheet of paper. He took it from her, and frowned. "How did you write this?"
She gestured at the wall, where the tomato paste had dried. "One piece at a time."
He stared at the paper; formed from tiny red dots, the words wandered across the page. They weren't perfectly level, or all of the same size, but the message was clear:
DAD
IT'S ME
I'M ALIVE
I'M IN THE SWARM
I LOVE YOU
TAYLOR
Tears filling his eyes, he pulled her into another embrace. "I love you too, kiddo," he told her. "I love you too."
A/N: This is not necessarily the end of the story; Union and Swarm may yet appear in sequels. Just so you know.
