Rot: A worm Fanfiction

I have no sense of self-control, here is a chapter....

---

The black tidal wave of shadow arms, crawled into the abandoned warehouse. We purred around our tiny blond package. The reluctant loss of our flesh battery in the form of Lung was necessary. Usually we would have turned them into the police, but for now we just left him in a ditch somewhere.

I disgorge us, separating our gestalt mind into it's members. We also deposit Lisa, but we keep a hand in hers.

" Okay Taylor," Lisa looks down at Swarm's hand, " talk, what the fuck was that?"

Nimi has Lisa's other hand, I try not to be jealous, but its not fair. My two others get to hold Lisa's hand, why am I left in the cold? I wrap my shadow hair around myself, " well we made a new body."
Lisa looks from Nimi's hand to the dark shadow hand holding her other hand and then back to Nimi's. Nimi, like myself, is different now too. Her head tendrils have become long tentacles, she no longer is a dark forest green now she is a shiny iridescence of blacks and greens. Her
indestructible eye is now her only eye, with the five pilot eyes on her crown gone. Grey bone gauntlets have replaced the old ones, they are tougher and got a bit more power behind her punches with them. More or less she was still the same, boobs and all.

Swarm however, " technically speaking it isn't a new body it is just a whole lot of tiny bodies thinking together." Lisa fixes me with an unimpressed stare, that gradually drifts down...I look to where she is staring...shit am I naked! My ghost looks at my body, yep totally naked...in front of my crush. I slap my chest and other areas so fast I think I gave myself welts. My hair wraps around my body like a blanket fully covering me.

Nimi gives me a thumbs up while Lisa starts to lose it. Lisa is laughing, but I can see her red face from here, " Okay so the swarm became sentient, is this going to happen every few weeks or..."

" Or what?"

" Or am I going to have to get used to new yous every few weeks."

I blush grey, as the black liquid in my body rises to my ears. Lisa's grin is shiteating. " Actually if we wanted to," Nimi starts her eye giving me a playful look, " Swarm could form about five hundred separate human sized bodies and you could get to greet each and every one of them."

" Oooh, Taylor if I start dating you do you want to have an-."

" LISA!" I practically fly across the room and slap my hand over her mouth. The giggling of my two others ringing out inside the empty warehouse, deep to my left and multitude to my right.

---

I laid back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Lisa had taken me, Nimi, and Swarm to a motel just near the outskirts of town. Her reasoning is that who ever tried to kidnap her tonight and at the beach a few weeks ago, knows who we are. It isn't a bad assumption to be honest, how they knew that Nimi and I were weak to fire was concerning. We didn't know we were weak to fire!

I sit up at the sound of the shower turning off. We aren't now, weak to fire I mean. When I was standing there digesting Lung's cells I got vaporized, so did Nimi. Our ghosts with nowhere left to go transferred to the only "us" around, my swarm. I became we, and we knew Lung's cells. So as a fire proof tidal wave of black swarm, Nimi, Swarm, and I slammed into the dragon cape with the full force of the entire swarm, you know the thing I covered the city with. We then used Lung's regenerative capabilities to turn him into a kind of flesh battery. Eating just enough to not kill the cape and to power our growth three fold.

I turn to look at the other bed. Nimi sat on the end and was looking through channels for something to watch. Swarm, or at least a piece of Swarm, the rest had dispersed over all of Brockton was sitting at the top of the bed relaxing after eating all the bed bugs in the room and walls. Currently Swarm's form is that of a multiarmed Taylor, solid black like space. Her construction was mostly just swarm spiders gluing their arms together, but several of the individual members are in charge of thinking instead of just locomotion. It was a neat design.

Swarm isn't like Nimi or me, she's different. I can feel both my ghost and Nimi's as her starting point, but I couldn't tell you how she came to be a new us. What I do know is that the swarm of before is now even more useful. Swarm doesn't have the problem of focus that I do when I use the swarm to look around. Swarm "sees" it all, everything at once all of Brockton Bay. Sure it is still just electro sensory and chemical sensory, but I'm sure that the three of me can come up with some solutions to those problems.

Lisa walks out of the bathroom, a towel the only thing she has on besides some underwear. I can feel my eyes look anywhere, but at her. I've had enough of embarrassing myself today. The image of me picking up Lisa from the back of the truck, almost a bridal carry. In front of two bad guys. I place my head into my hands and groan. " You were naked then too," I turn to Nimi with a scowl at her little insight into what I was thinking.

" I thought that I would be the one to wear the pants in the family," Lisa's smirk can be seen out of the corner of my eyes, " I guess I'm still the one to wear pants, or any clothes for that matter."

" Lisa." My others fail to support me in my time of embarrassment.

" Hey don't look at me or Swarm, your the one with genitals."

"Nimi!"

" Hey I don't mind that you prefer to be nude Taylor," Lisa pokes, " nudism is in style I hear."

"Lisaaaa..."

" Yeah, clothes are weird anyways right Swarm," Nimi speaks joyfully to her which Swarm shrugs and goes back to idle.

" Well fine, the showers free come on Nimi I'll help you with your gills," I fire back. Nimi bursts with red spores, and stomps after me into the bathroom.

" You too don't have too much fun in there," at Lisa's word it was time for both of us to be embarrassed. The bathing was much more awkward then usual.

---

 

Explanation of what an anti-thinker looks like to a simulation precog of Coil caliber, also I am currently laughing like a manic in the background...

---

I have not been having a good last few weeks. My home office was cold tonight as I shrug off the last of the thinker headache that has put me down of the last three hours. The only sound being the rhythmic tapping of my fingers across the wood desk I sit at. The computer monitor in front of me off, to help distract me from...today. Fuck today...

Losing my pet to some unknown wasn't the worst of it either. It was that the new capes were complete counters to my power. I think about the first time I came across the new capes. It was honestly kind of annoying and terrifying when I was told in both of the timelines that my pet had evaded capture with the help of not one, but two unknown capes. I had watched through cameras of both scenes, in one I sent mercenaries to approach Sarah Livsey with blackmail; in the other I went with a simple kidnapping and coercion plan. In the first, my soon to be pet refused the offer so I dropped the timeline, this was my mistake. The second timeline looked good until it didn't.

" Okay units one and three follow through with chasing the target," I watched the screen as the multiple open windows showed me the videos from my men's cameras, " unit two head around to the back alley." I smirk, in the last timeline Livsey gave my men the slip when I sent in all of them at once. I split the timeline. I watched through six cameras in both timelines waiting to make a decision. The mercenaries in the first and second timeline chased the girl into a back alley way for a good distance. Then I heard a loud crash of something metallic in stereo, " Units one and three what was that?" " Moving to assess sir." The cameras of both timelines showed the four views of the same alley way. The target was at a full stop and talking to the thin air, I strain to hear.

".. are not w- them," my men move closer.

" Will you help me?"

A pause of silence.

" Your new," The cameras show the target removing some form of scarf from her person and handing it to the air, it vanishes! I feel my eyes widen.

" It's to hide your identity."

In the first timeline I tell them to immediately open fire into the alleyway, in the second I do nothing just simply watch to see what will happen. The second timeline has my men simply shrouded in a black fog like substance that poured from the empty air. In the first timeline... in the first timeline they disappeared, and then it just ended, completely. I was almost convinced that I had just witnessed a loss of my own control, but no this was something different. With the first timeline... gone, I focused on the remaining one. With me no longer using my power I finally saw it. As they came into view on the third camera, I could now see the empty cape. It was tall, vaguely female, wearing a scarf over their face covering their eyes. It was not a very intimidating look, especially with just a pair of jeans and a black hoodie. " Not even wearing shoes or socks," I whisper under my breath, " could be homeless, might be cheaper to pay off."

I then proceeded to watch as the unassuming cape preformed impressive speed and flexibility, including a minor brute power by how fast they got up from clearly broken legs. Is it some form of anti-thinker? I split the timeline just to confirm what I suspect and watch as the cape and the target disappear.

Now though after tonight I wonder if it is worth it to try and get my pet thinker. Sarah had obviously made some very powerful friends, friends strong enough to take down a fully enraged Lung. " I still don't know how I failed this," I spoke to my empty office in my house. In another timeline
I'm sleeping, in this one I'm staring at the blank screen of my computer. Just six hours ago I had no timelines, in preparation for the second attempt at getting his pet.

I had spent the last few weeks working out just what were this new capes' weaknesses. I tried lots of things: long range sniper fire, a drive by shooting of their house, explosives, and finally simple arson. All of these methods had some failure to it, and none of them ended well, let alone with the targets destroyed and my pet collected.

The human cape's name was Taylor Hebert, it was kind of obvious when she was the only cape that appeared in the PRT nonpublic registry at the right time. A quick jog to their house with my power active proved it outright. Knowing the girl's family was a tactic I tried, but those plans also fell through. Every time I tried to get the brats parents under control, either my pet sniffed me out or Taylor's mother, who is also a cape back from the dead, kills the messenger.

I repress a shudder at those timelines. Annette Hebert may not have the same effect on my power as her daughter, but that woman is brutal. The images of kitchen knives, razor wire, and Exacto knives rises unbidden to my mind. The mangled corpses, partial eaten, of my men returning from the three days he spent in timeline trying to get that woman. First just trying to blackmail, after that devolving into attempts to pacify the monster I could have awoken. The silver mask...a ball of sharp implements in the vague shape of a person. I lived through Ellisburg, I've seen monsters, I know what they look like. She was worse. Despite my long career this simple woman had lessons in cruelty I wasn't prepared for. Ultimately after dropping all timelines with Annette Hebert, thus keeping the world safe for a little while longer, I focused all my attention on
eradicating her spawn.

That did not go well today...

The synergy of these three is unbelievable. Makes me wish I tried hiring them instead of capturing my pet. I lean back as I remember what happened today.

"Unit 1 do you read me?" I stare at the single screen in front of me. It is so odd not being in multiple timelines, but I can't use my powers until after Taylor and Nimi are taken out by Lung.

" Yes I read you boss."

" The three are moving to the store, be prepared to catch the target as it leaves the back of the store."

" Roger that boss."

It had taken a lot of planning to do this, almost four simulated painful weeks. Each time running the risk of spontaneous timeline fracture, as I slowly and meticulously pathed out the three's daily activities. It was mostly boring as I watched the evidence of the problem cape get bullied at school, the green one guard my pet, and my pet using her power with some unseen one. All through third parties, god it was exhausting. Still it bore fruit, a solid cape patrol with a map and times. It was tested of course, Skidmark and Mush are really easy to trick into being in the wrong place at the right time. Lung was a little harder, but it was more of finding the right little birdy to whisper something into his ear.

Their was movement on his screen as the cameras around the block show the approaching trio. In another camera hidden on a ABB members coat, shows the on going silent film of a robbery/extortion. Across the street a camera watches a car carrying Lung. All coming together...

Except it hadn't, as soon as it started, as soon as I moved in and my pet was extracted. I split the timeline trying to come up with as many delaying tactics as I could, the multiple vans were all set, I just needed to tell unit 1 where to turn. Then it appeared and all of my timelines crashed at the same time.

It was everywhere, in every alleyway, in every shadow across the streets. All of it invisible as my men screamed for orders, I gave them and everything crashed as my mind became white pain...

The resulting feed back meant a headache, and missing my perfectly laid out path. The van didn't turn, it just breezed past the decoys. I look up at the ceiling, Accords well laid plans up in smoke. It seemed impossible to me, but even with the general plan working up until this point. I still failed this crucial step. Sure there were other thinkers I could steal, but none of them were intuitive thinker like Sarah Livsey. It was a important distinction, I would take a precog over it, but still no other kind of thinker would do. To be fair to Accord though, the plan isn't totally dead just dead in the water. Its not like the fellow thinker could predict this kind of chaos...The plan can proceed, it is just that the fastest way to carry it out has an impossible roadblock in front of the next step.

I know where they are, a shitty motel off the highway just at the outskirts of town. Some body-cams and a little bit of timeline fishing. But...can I really catch them? I had sent some men into the motel, they were bound and gaged by fucking shadows before they even reached the lobby. So fine, send them in with lasers rifles. It worked for maybe thirty minutes, but then a nude Taylor Hebert decides that lasers bounce off her fucking flesh. Seriously what am I supposed to do with that? It is not like I have any capes in my employ, that was meant to be his pet's job!

I lean forward and place my head in my hands. I could get the PRT involved, but I don't know, can't know how that will turn out. I could try to apologize...I groan from inside my hands. It might help in the short run, but it still won't get me my thinker. Lisa, it won't get me her Lisa...

I have a headache, my timeline where I'm sleeping is going on in the background. A good decision, I snort and then pick my timeline.

I dreamed about monsters seen through a cage, but the blonde one was playing with them. I was the one behind the bars.

I woke up in a cold sweat after that...couldn't sleep the rest of the night.

---

Poor Coil....I hope his head pops like a piece of popcorn.

 

Character development of Swarm and finally we got a name for our group of zombies and friend...

---

We woke up late into our Sunday at the motel to find that the flagpole across the street was sporting a white flag. Lisa then told us that we should head home.

Together Taylor, Lisa, Swarm and I sat and wait for the bus. A mid day sun staring down on the pavement trying its hardest to heat up the winter air. A sharp wind blows through the kiosk and Lisa pulls her coat tighter. Overall it is a pretty shit start to our day.

Lisa was the only one of us four that had real clothes, and those consisted of the coat of her costume and the clothes that she wore underneath them. She lost her hat in the fire Lung caused, still had the black bio-silk mask though. Taylor's situation is a little more complicated. Swarm had broken off a piece of her flesh, and Taylor was using it as a replacement costume. The tight spiral mask only covering her eyes now, and her ankle length hair now free. Both the suit and miasma of hair, are covered in glowing eye spots. Think 2D eyeball, but at the level of a human eye. The fact that they look like her real eyes is not random.

Speaking of eyes, I have a few new changes to my own body which Taylor and I looked through in the shower and while we slept. Lung's metallic cells are practically suffused through out our designs. The bones of my body are now a composite mix of natural carbon fiber and metallic-crystal cells, giving my bones a heavier weight sure, but also making them four times stronger than they were before. The bone exoskeleton on my hands and feet, is composed of metal abalone like the armor pieces of my bio-suit but better! The hydrogen bonds of my armored hands is designed with strategic weaknesses, so that when ever I punch something it causes a cascade of chemical breaks. In simple words, my punches now exploded with a double clap. The armoring of my hands is designed to direct the blast outward so I won't have to worry about my hands being blown up.

It was so cool! My new eye is cool too. Before I had trouble with depth perception so I needed pilot eyes so I could see how far things were. Now though, my monocular vision is extremely advanced. The amount of connected nerves from my brain to my eye stalk has been tripled to account for the twelve corneas in my one eye. I can see depth, I can also see with perfect non-ghost vision at a hundred eighty degrees. This is good, ghost vision is good at seeing everything around you, but it has trouble with things like faces or even letters. Plus ghosts cannot recognize strangers for some reason.

The bus stop is empty except for us, despite it being the middle of the day, but I am glad for it. I look at my two others and Lisa. Lisa and Taylor are slumped with Lisa head being held up her hands, and Taylor's foot tapping as she stares up at the roof of our shelter. Spawn, Spawn is fine, she stayed up all night and doesn't need to fall asleep to join me and Taylor for our night time ghost activities. I don't know what to think of my new other. She is a mixture of both mine and Taylor's personalities, so we do kind of get along with her. It is just that she is usually distracted. To her the single body sitting here with us on the bench is just that, a single unit in its entire body. So far she hasn't really said anything out loud, the only reactions to things she does have are the occasional huff when agreeing, purring, and giggling. Swarm looks up at me, having noticed my
staring. I smile a big grin down at my new sister, her short hair and six arms look cute! I know that mommy and daddy will like her...

I hope they're not too worried about us. " What are we going to tell mom and dad," Taylor sighs as she swings forward, her voice is tired.

" Well we shouldn't tell them that we fought Lung and Oni Lee," Lisa rests her back against the wood bench, " hey what happened to Oni Lee anyways, it didn't come up last night."

The flinch from Taylor is more like a spasm, " he died in the fire."

Lisa is looking at the back of Taylor's head, right in an eye spot. " You ate the body didn't you."

"...yeah." I watch Lisa place a hand on Taylor's back, " does that make me a bad person?"

" No, Frankie you did it to protect me and Nimi."

" Yeah, don't feel bad, Lung is the one that killed him, you just used his body. He didn't need it anymore," I smile at her, Swarm and I send her comforting thoughts. I send the feeling of seeing Lisa safe, Swarm sends a collection of dead trees she was currently chewing on across town. It got a smile out of her.

" Thanks Neems, thanks Swarm."

" No problem," I say and the shadow Taylor shrugs.

" We should probably tell them that we were out running my kidnapper," Lisa gets into her thinker pose, legs tucked to her chest hand over mouth. " It would be mostly the truth."

" Okay, I just hope that now that they have surrendered, dad won't kick you out," All three of us, Taylor, Swarm, and myself, bristle at the idea of Lisa not staying at the house.

" He won't, likes me too much," Lisa's foxlike grin is infectious.

We sit back after coming up with our alibi for mommy and daddy. It is a comfortable silence.

" So...we just took on Lung and won..." I look at Lisa, Taylor is looking too, " what are we going to call ourselves."

" What do you mean?" Yeah what is Lisa getting at?

" Well I mean a name for our group," Lisa explains her hand rolling in the air in front of her, " I'm kind of partial to the Undersiders, and seeing how we have basically zero public presence it kind of fits."

" A group name is stupid." All three of us turn at the first words out of Swarm's mouth. Swarm's ghost idly swirled beneath her feet as Swarm's body continued to look up at the aluminum roofing covering the bus stop. Swarm continues, " We are many, legion, we do not need a name it
makes us easier to identify opening us to danger, nameless we are scary, nameless we are safe."

Swarm's voice is kind of echo-y, like there are many speaking rather than just the one in front of us. " It doesn't matter if we pick a name or not Swarm, the public will eventually do it for us," Lisa, like all of us are staring at the stoic girl.

" Don't like it, puts L-Izzy in danger." I could agree with that. Lisa is the only one of us that can actually die. We almost lost her yesterday, I can feel my left hand make a fist, we are not going to let that happen again.

" Still we don't want a name from the public, it is sloppy, unprofessional, and I'm certain we would hate it." Lisa gave Swarm a smile, it made the shadows purr.

" Well it has to be something that we can all agree with," Taylor leans back in her seat, " maybe a theme?"

" Gravetenders," Lisa grins, " or how about Horror Harem."

I laugh as Taylor slams her face into her hands, Swarm purrs louder.

"Okay so not that one, what about the Apocalypsers?"

" No, sends the wrong message," Taylor wipes her face to keep her grey blush down, " what about selling it like a detective agency, Frankie, Izzy, Swarm, and Nimi?"

" Too long, but I like the detective angle," Lisa looks down the street for the bus, it's been a while since we've even seen a car. Still it is the outskirts of town, on a Sunday. People are probably just other places. " What combines zombies, detectives, and...tentacles?"

Good question Lisa, my hair tentacles in question sway to catch scents and sounds far away. So far nothing is around and I certainly don't sense a bus coming.

" Eldritch..." Swarm's arms hang from behind the bench, but her words are loud enough to hear.

" What like Lovecraft," Taylor perks up at the mention of books, " I'm not sure if he is a good pick for PR."

" Yeah, but it is a good suggestion to use a horror author's works, maybe just a different author," Lisa goes back to her thinker pose.

Different author, detective, horror, science fiction. What about the father of the genre? " Poe, The Bells."

"Oooh good one Neems, that could really work," I blush myself at Lisa's praise, pink and red spores fluttering into the air. " So how bout The Bells, it is vague and it works for our themes."
We all agreed that it was a good name, even Swarm who didn't want a name liked it. " Okay then were now called-"

" Freeze criminals!" We all looked over to see a tiny girl in green and white.

Is that Vista...She's so, " CUTE!"

---

Okay I think that I might not post again today...if I do please feel free to call me an idiot....

 

Not even an hour...wow good job me, just can't stop huh...

---

The resulting squeal of joy from the largest villain was not what I expected when I tried to apprehend the four villains.

" OH MY GOD, SHE IS SO CUTE!" The voice is deep and sounded like someone passed a squeak toy through an industrial shredder, underwater.

" Hey I'm not cute, I'm a hero!" I can feel my blood rise on my neck. The big one stands up, and I finally see just how big they are. The single eye stares down at me even though I'm thirty feet away! Before I can blink the giant is half way to me. " w-wait, st-stay back!"

I hurriedly use my powers throwing out my hand to keep the titan back. the space between us stretches to a mile, and I start to breath again. That was kind of scary, I look up to see the group. Is she running, towards me?

My mind fails to process as the giant monster starts speed walking the mile. She just reached the the halfway mark... I expand the distance further. This is bad where is Clockblocker?

" Clockblocker, do you read over," I keep my eyes on the still advancing giant. The other villains are trying to talk to their monster cape, but I'm too far to hear it.

" This is Clockblocker, I'm currently catching up to you from when you ran off, over."

" Look Clock this is serious I need you over here quick, I'm on-" A shadow fall over me as I look up. The single eye looks down on me, a hungry gaze glitters in the red iris. There was only a few feet between me and the female monster. Quick, I need to expand the distance before-

Strong arms wrap around me and pull me up into a huge hug. I can't use my powers, their is too much biology around me! I struggle and wiggle trying to escape, " let me go, you are interfering with an inves- oof."

The warm squishy darkness fills my vision and I can feel my powers snap back the reality around me.

---

"Neems put the ward down," I can feel it, today is a day where I'm going introduce my face to my hands a lot. I stand and walk over to my other, Swarm deciding that being next to Lisa is a better idea. " She clearly was trying to arrest us."

The normally deep voice of my other is sounding decidedly more high pitched then usual. " But Tay- Frankie, she is adorable," Nimi whines, " can't we keep her?"

" Hey I thought I was the cute one," Lisa interjects unhelpfully. Seriously, are we just going to gloss over the fact that a ward just tried to arrest us?

" Your hot Izzy, there is a difference," Nimi pouts, which to be fair is cute. The satisficed smirk on Lisa's face that I could see from one of my eye spots on the back of my hair, is also cute. They are both useless.

" Nimi she is a ward, and a human, we can't just kidnap her," I sternly state hands on my hip, " besides we are too young to be adopting children."

A muffled hey from the ward, mirrors Nimi's perfectly. " And more to the point, I think she is having trouble breathing Neems," that casual declaration from Lisa has both of us looking down at the ward in her arms.

Her ears are red, borderline purple. " Oh no I'm so sorry," Nimi loosens her hug just enough for a red faced Vista to take a gasp of air, " are you okay?"

" Put me down, now," Vista sounds and looks pissed. Nimi slowly and carefully sets the much smaller girl down. Now crouching down to Vista's height, Nimi looks at the small cape looking like a kid staring at a puppy. Honestly, looking at Vista, I could see it...

" Thank you, now what are you all doing here."

" Waiting for the bus, we want to get home." Vista's face is very confused at my other's words.

" So wait, you guys are just are really just waiting here for the bus," Vista looks like the hamster wheel of a particularly tired hamster.

" Yeah, what did you think four capes waiting at a bus stop were doing," I can see Lisa's raised eyebrow out the corner of my many eyes. The eyes thing would be confusing if it didn't already feel natural to see from every angle.

" We got a call about some suspicious capes hanging around a bus stop."

" Well surprise we don't have a car, so we get to take public transport like every one else." Vista looks mostly done with this conversation, and Lisa is not even close to getting done with her fun. Nimi stands back up to her full height.

" It's okay, we are used to people finding us scary," Nimi smiles a full shark-tooth smile, " no harm no fou-"

" Nimi look out!" Nimi turns at Lisa's out burst and then freezes. She then screams louder than I've ever heard her.

---

I am running on far too little sleep for this.

I had spent all night on the early warning Endbringer detection with Dragon. Before that I had just finished a fifteen hour shift, with a thirty minute nap in between. I was at the extreme edge of operating efficiency. My productivity is through the roof as it stands though...

I stare at the six capes spread out through the street. On my left is wards Vista and Clockblocker along with a new cape, Frankie I think it was. I checked my Hud and yes the mask is consistent with the cape named Frankie. Frankie is currently beating Clockblocker senseless while Vista watches, not helping her teammate. To my right is Izzy, Nimi, and some unknown cape with six arms. A new member perhaps. Izzy is holding Nimi's head while Nimi clutched a rather long tendril to their chest. The unknown cape is rubbing Nimi's shoulders. I check with my Hud to confirm that I have gotten the names right, I did...

" DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE DONE," Frankie yells in Clockblockers face as I start forward, " NIMI'S SENSORY ORGANS ARE FULL OF NERVES! WHAT YOU DID WAS LIKE ME RIPPING OUT PEICES OF YOUR NOSE EARS AND EYES!"
Well that sounds serious, what has Clockblocker done this time. I scan the area looking for evidence of some slight that could be... is that a floating hand print?

Hovering motionless in the air is a black and green hand print. Purple fluid is leaking from the back of it. I look between the hand print and the crying case 53. My Hud confirms that the hand print is the same color as Nimi's skin. The unknown cape is wrapping a black fabric around the held tendril. This will definitely effect relations between the new unregistered group and the PRT. " I'm. sorry. I. just. tried. to. freeze. her. I. didn't. know. that. it. would. take. off. skin." I listen to the staggered sentence that the idiot is trying to say while being shaken like a ragdoll.

I finally step close enough for Frankie to notice me, the cape's head whips to me and several eyes open across her hair to stare as well. Okay remember what Dragon said, when you come across a situation with an angry person be calm and offer assistance. " Cape Frankie," I watch as my calm voice (robotic and awkward) makes the angry cape drop Clockblocker, " does Nimi require medical attention?"

Frankie blinks, and so too do fifty other eyes from inside the halo of hair. The cape unhunches from her ready stance and mouth move from bared shark teeth to just a simple line. Success, I will alert Dragon to the good development later, now what was I supposed to do next?

" No, we have good regeneration, we just need to wait for the stolen flesh to unfreeze," the pissed female looks back at the time based cape whimpering at her feet.

" Does Clockblocker require medical attention?"

" You mean besides psychiatric," I watch the cape in question flinch under the much taller girl's gaze. A joke, a good joke, irrelevant but still I'll note it and tell Dragon about it if the next words out of the hostile cape are appropriate. " He'll live."

I nod, acceptable, " May I please get an explanation as to what happened here?" These tips are really working so I think I might ask for more of Dragon later...after I sleep.

Both Frankie and Vista explain the situation to me at my request. It certainly fills in the blanks. " Do you know how long Clockblocker's powers will last this time?"

As soon as I finish the sentence, a wet splat sounds from where the skin was floating. " Nope," Frankie says then walks over to the skin on the street. At the raising of her hand a shadow darts out from the sewer grate, startling both wards. The ball of conensed shadows lifts the skin off the ground and then rushes over to the crying cape. A shaker power? Is the shadow cape just an extension of Frankie's powers?

" Do you require assistance getting home," the four are apparently trying to get public transit, they obviously don't know that this bus line is retired. This could be a good chance to gain some good relations in face of the bad ones.

" No, I prefer to pretend that the PRT doesn't know where we live, will be fine with the bus." I store that away for later.

The cape Nimi is no longer crying so whatever happened over there seems to repair the problem. As for my assumption that they didn't know that this bus route is discontinued, correct again. " This bus line has been terminated for over three months now."
I watch the girl stop at that, clearly thinking about what I've said. She then turns to the group consoling the repaired cape, " Izzy is this bus stop closed?"

Izzy looks up at the bus stop roof before looking back down at the seat. " Sorry Frankie, my powers are tired after yesterday, I'm surprised I even got up this morning."

The black haired cape sighs, " Its fine Izzy, we're all tired."

" Incorrect," the shadow speaks turning its head, " Swarm is not tired, just sleepy."

The resulting argument between the members of the as of yet unnamed group, is ignored as Vista the youngest ward approaches me. " Yes, Vista?"

" Sir do you know these capes?"

" Yes, they are new, started on Monday, or at least started publicly on Monday." I'm pretty sure that a certain fight between a certain blond cape and at least one of the members took place a few weeks ago. Glory Girl lost that fight, and had to go to the emergency room. Still not enough
evidence was able to be collected, and Glory Girl refuses to talk to me about it. Maybe I could ask Gallant to talk to her, they are in a relationship after all.

" What is with the villainous outfits," Clockblocker, having been forgotten by Frankie, limps over to Vista and I. I think about his question, villainous? I look to the group of capes that are now bickering to each other about something. Their costumes, mostly blacks and dark colors, flashes of bright reds. Then I look to our own costumes, mostly whites with light grey being the second most common color. I guess they do look villainous, but it probably plays more to their stealth tactics rather than fashion statements.

" Squishy Brute powers," My response is met with some subtle nods and a stare from Vista. " Last week they defeated both Mush and Skidmark on their first night out."

" Oh that was them, I thought the report said that there were three capes not four," Vista looks back to the other capes. My facial analyzer detects that her emotion is most likely impressed and jealousy. I can understand that, they did something impressive and it was greater than some of my own first accomplishments.

" The report listed the correct amount of capes in their group, they may have gotten a new member," I walk up to the arguing group. Vista and Clockblocker following behind me.

" We just told you that it isn't the same," the shadow cape's voice is echo-y like it is coming from multiple angles.

" How the fuck is it not the same, if I wanted to stay awake all night I would be fine, what the fuck does sleepy mean," Frankie looks frustrated, her ears are grey as well as her cheeks.

" It means we watched it all while we slept, we are rested tired thus sleepy." Makes sense to me...

" Excuse me," I wait patiently for them to notice us, " are you sure that you don't require a vehicle?"

---

There are some clowning, but it is stress clowning. Don't worry the world will come back and yell at them for making so much noise...

 

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!

 

I am running out of bulk chapters, but I really don't have time for writing new ones. I miss creating... and my full time job is occupying most of my thoughts forming a block for now. I'll finish this fiction though I'm nothing if not extremely stubborn about doing what I love... Here is a new chapter, enjoy!

---

We changed out of our costumes, or well me and Lisa did. It felt good to be back in my familiar hoodie, the soft fabric feels good to my new crystal skin. Thankfully everything still fits, I didn't grow taller or something ridiculous like that. The sneakers are a bit uncomfortable for some reason so I just left them off for now. For my hair I held it together in a loose low ponytail. The column of teeth and eyes it formed when I did was hidden by shoving it down my shirt and covering it all with my hoodie. It still poked out at the bottom though... and when all the way down to my ankles...it really isn't hidden is it? Oh well, it is a problem for later.

" Okay dad, I need to take Nimi to the beach for the metals and such," I can find most of the stuff I need if I shift through the sand at the bottom of the bay with Swarm's help.

" Oh no, if your going to take your sister to the beach, she is not going without clothes," dad calls from the kitchen, " it is one thing to come home without her costume, but she shouldn't have to go out without something."

" Awww, but daddy, Swarm is outside without clothes," Nimi pouts while pointing at the shadow us sitting on the couch.

" Your sister is also a legion of five hundred shadows," dad smirks at Nimi's crestfallen face, " even if I worked twenty-four seven I could never full cloth all of her."

" Incorrect." We three turn to Swarm, who is idlily just sitting on the couch.

" What do you mean, I'm pretty sure that I don't have enough shirts to go around," I try to picture that. The image of an army of Swarms wearing collared shirts and ties rises to the front of my conscious.
Swarm giggles in stereo, " no no, just the amount of us present has increased since last count."

" How many of you are there now?" Lisa walks halfway down the stairs, a pair of pajama pants on and a t-shirt, she looks cute. At her question and my observation, Swarm turns her head to look at her. From directly behind her...cool.

" If I use the measure of each Taylor sized unit the count comes out to seven-hundred thirty-three." I watch dad who was standing in the dinning nook, sit down hard at the kitchen table.

" That is quiet the growth speed," I have to agree with Lisa on that one, " where are you getting the cells?"

" I am using designer superproducers and "painting" them across several abandoned warehouse roofs," I know that Swarm has no face and thus can't smile, but I know that she has a smug one right now. The fact that Nimi is salivating at the amount of food that is produced by that, is a good measure for you. I'm salivating too.

" S-still, your not going out until Nimi has something to put on," dad is slowly shaking his head, as though to try to deny something. I think about that, what could we use as makeshift clothes? We can't make a new costume there isn't enough materials in the basement anymore. I could make a slime suit like what I had before, but Nimi doesn't like skin tight stuff.

" Yeah, I know we went to Parian, god that was yesterday," Lisa rubs at her eyes, the exhaustion in her voice speaks of the full brunt of the last two days, " but I was wondering why we didn't just make Nimi clothes?"

" With the bio-armor being made, there weren't enough materials for a lot of other projects," I sigh as I think about that. I was so excited about going out and being a hero I stressed what was over extended and lost sight of important things. Important people, like dad, like Lisa... " plus while complex genetically, the armor was simple structurally. Clothing is much harder, especially coloring and pigmentations." I could really only pull off black, red, and white.

" Well what do we have left of that?" Lisa walks across the living room to the basement door. What is she getting at?

" An extra pair of bone boots, as well as a couple sheets of bio-fabric." Not enough for pants and a shirt, and Nimi needs to somewhat hide her identity. So a hood is kind of necessary. I watch as Lisa comes back up the stairs carrying the rolls of living fabric and sporting the bone boots on her own feet. She was struggling with them so Nimi came over and retrieved a few of the sheets. It is a fairly heavy material. " What do you plan on doing with them?"

Lisa stepped out of the bone boots with a loud pop. " Those things are really gross," she says pointing at the upright boots, " and that meat sock is very disturbing."

I look down at the flexing tube coming out the top of the boots and then back to her face. " How so?"

The face palm Lisa does looks like it hurt. " Forget it," She rubs her face, " I was thinking that you were over thinking it. We don't need pants or a dress, and we don't need a shirt either."

" I don't think dad will accept just underwear, Lisa."

I here dad groan in pain in the kitchen. I ignore it as Lisa continues, " no I was thinking something like a rain poncho, you know with a hood and such."

" Oh..."

" Oh?"

" I didn't think of something like that..."

" I knew that, so help me with building around her?"

" Yeah, I-, yeah."

The poncho takes twenty minutes, was dark red and had a deep enough hood to hide Nimi's eye. We even had enough to make a one piece undergarment...How did I not think of that?...

Dad tells us that it is good enough for me to take Nimi out, Swarm and Lisa stay behind. Swarm to sit with dad, and Lisa to take a nap...

---

The boat graveyard was quiet and very out of the way from prying eyes. Dad suggested it saying that if we need something specific, there is probably a lot of good steel in the ships. Both Nimi and I have already searched and stripped what we need from the ships. My new hair coming very handy for the salvaging. I am now combing through the sands with it, Nimi is doing something similar with some of Swarm's bodies.

We have already found the correct elements that we are looking for, we just need a good chunk of the stuff. Then we can go about giving Nimi the materials and letting her body finish its transformation. Nimi and I, plus Swarm, don't entirely know what Nimi's body is trying to do, but we do know that it has to happen for her to be considered done with this phase of her un-life…

Mostly it is quiet, just the three of us, peaceful, away from last night's violence. I'm not as hungry as I have been, Lisa still makes me feel empty, but it is a pleasant emptiness not a starving state. I think that Nimi is also enjoying the silence, because she is keeping her thoughts to herself.

" Hey...Taylor."

I look up from the sand I was eating and sorting, " Yeah, what is it."

Nimi is staring out into the ocean, helping swarm navigate the ocean. It sort of just look like the giant other is staring off into the distance.

" What do you think of Swarm...and Lisa."

I stop shifting the sand, my other, both of them, are keeping me out of their thoughts. I wonder what prompted this? " It is not nice to talk about someone like they're not here Neems." It is what we hate most about the trio at school.

Nimi nods, " I know, but Swarm wants us to talk about it as if she isn't here, it helps her with trust if we speak like that." So that is why the radio silence.

" I guess I can understand that, if I had new friends I would want them to be real and not tricks," I start before going back to shifting sand, " but we are her and she is us, we love her I don't think that something like that can change between us."

Nimi nods smiling, " yeah she is pretty like us too, I think that she is so cute!"

I can't help but agree with that. While she is featureless, Swarm has certain traits that Nimi would find cute, and that makes her distinct from either of us. For one, Swarm is shorter than me when I was alive maybe by a few inches, it isn't just her hair. She is also smaller than me, her limbs are thin and so is the rest of her. It would look concerning on a human, but considering it is Swarm it looks rather adorable. Like you just want to pick one of her up and hold them in a hug. A bit like Lisa if I'm honest, the picking up not the emaciated look. " What about her combined form though, I like it..."

Neems eyes sparkle at the mention of the mountain of shadows that is Swarm in one place, " super comfy, Lisa looked like she enjoyed being held in her too."

" Yeah, it was nice and warm, and Lisa did take being held by a hundred or so hands very well," I feel a thought sour the mental image, " do we... or rather do you think that Lisa is better off with just her?"

Nimi is silent as we both stop searching for minerals. " She can protect her better than we could," I can feel tears in Nimi's eyes through our connection, it is just too big of an emotion to keep inside. " But Lisa also wouldn't have something like that, neither would Swarm..."

" Correct," I watch as an instance of Swarm walks out of the shadow of a beached ship, " the hunger we feel for Lisa is the same hunger you both feel, she cannot have one without the others. It would be impossible."

" Yeah, but humans aren't used to the idea of dating three people at once," it may make sense to me as I'm no longer human, but these instincts are alien to humans. I mean it is not even polygamy, at the end of the day Swarm, Nimi, and I are the same person. Different personalities and identities, one organism.

" Technically seven hundred forty-five," Neems interjection of humor makes us giggle, " also that was a little slower than before."

" I am making concessions for environmental impact, I also delivered two tons of material to the house lab, or basement."

" Two tons!" That is a lot of material, where did she put it all... oh, well I hope we don't have any foundation problems with it under our house like that.

" Yes, we are on track for metamorphosis in maybe a month...yes a month," Swarm's hands are fidgeting, " we need someplace for that, and it needs to be safe while we go dormant."

" Oh yeah of course, do you want Lisa to be present with us?" I think she was interested in it back in the van.

" Yes, we wish to...show off, it will be pretty."

" Sure we have no problems helping you look for the place to do it and were definitely going to protect you while your guard is down."

" Yeah, were sisters after all," Nimi smiles big and toothy, what a dork... she's cute too.

---

After gathering all of the materials we needed, we head home. It was dark again, but we make it back uncontested. At home mom chewed us out, checked out Swarm, and then claimed her hug out of them. It was nice...

Mom apparently had a interview with the people over at Arcadia, retiring English teacher. That just makes me realize that I have school tomorrow... That is going to not go well. Mom knows it, dad knows it, all of me knows it, we decided that I shouldn't go in tomorrow, so sick day tomorrow...

Good, I don't think I like school anyways. I'll just use the free time to make new stuff with the two tons of bio-material siting under the house.

I can't wait for Monday! Is that as surreal for you as it is for me?

---

 

Director Piggot is my favorite person to write for... this is just not the most fun chapter...

---

" So who do we have to thank for this."

The image of Lung rested at the top of the report in front of me, or at least what was left of him. From the report I know that his legs were gone, arms too. Even if you can't tell from the covers on his torso, his rib cage is completely exposed. About the only thing in and on his body that is undamaged is his heart, liver, and brain, everything else was missing something. The picture itself shows Lung lying on a hospital bed, a intubation tube down what remains of his throat, the familiar shape of a dialysis machine hooked to the outside of his neck. The other less familiar machines just add to the strangeness of the image. I almost feel sorry for him, but I get over that quickly.

" We don't know," Hannah, Miss Militia, is disturbed. I've known her for many years, and I know just how tough she is. I know her past too, this shouldn't be that disturbing to her. Maybe I don't know her as well as I thought.

" Well what do we know," if a new cape in town can do this we've got bigger problems than just some new punk. When word gets out that Lung is in the hospital it will cause the rest of the gangs to start fighting in earnest. " This report is mostly medical, I'd like how, but I will take when and where."

Hannah nods, " For the where and when we have Barter's street just on the outskirt of the city at roughly three thirty last night, but it is likely that the fight occurred around the fire downtown."

I nod, that makes sense. Lung is not a push over and no matter the power there is going to be fight if anyone is going to be fighting him. " So running theory is that Lung picked a fight with whatever tore apart Saint Martin's drive?" My assumption was met with a nod, I meet it with a frown.

Last night, reports of a large monster, made of hands of all things, was chasing a van down Saint Martin's. Naturally when they were coming in we sent people over to investigate, we found an empty van with the entire back end of it ripped open like a soup can. The road itself was pockmarked with tiny holes in the asphalt. No monster, no DNA evidence, and the cameras from street lights were damaged or missing. So naturally we tacked on some rating in a preemptive attempt to get out front of the situation should the public begin to worry. Brute 5, Changer 5, they were unconfirmed but it will do for a cover until they do find something out.

" So what do we know about that incident?"

" Also not much," Hannah pulls out a second file for me, this one paper rather than the report on screen, " we know that something, presumably Lung, was dragged behind it, and that the holes are from fingers."

" How do we know it was Lung?"

" We found metal scales imbedded in the road," Hannah look at her feet, " the size tells us that Lung was at full strength when he was dragged."

I nod, keeping the shock to myself, " and the fingers, do we have finger printing?" I doubt it but it never hurts to look...

" No, we found prints but they aren't in the system."

" Be sure they make it into them," no sense in letting someone like this run around unmonitored, " so what did it actually do to our poor dragon?" I'm not going to apologize to a sex-trafficking, gangbanging, warlor-

" It ate him."

I look up from the report at the absolute tonelessness of Hannah's voice. She was staring at the floor still, I couldn't see her mouth but I could just see her eyes. A glassy look was there, a look she found common among some of the veterans she knew that got her into the military. The kind she sometimes see herself when she looks in the mirror...I rub the spike of pain away in my leg. " So we have something that can chew through metal, has enough of a brain to not kill a powerful cape, and is roughly the size of a building, is that about correct?"

The cape nods, a short pause of silence then, " Yes ma'am." And now I do feel guilty, I rub my sore thigh, what a pain.

Despite my very reasonable hatred of all capes, their show boat life style and mental quirks are draining, I like Hannah. Maybe not as her persona Miss Militia, but Hannah Washington is probably my only friend here in Brockton Bay. Right now it looks like my friend was just reminded of something, something horrible and bloody. " Hannah?"

" Yes, ma'am," Hannah's eyes are more than they were as she stands at attention.

" I want you to take the rest of the day off," I interrupt her protest, " that is an order Miss Militia."

" Ma'am...thank you." I wave off her thanks and get back to the report. I skim through it as I think about how much of a problem this is going to be. Better bump this up to Watchdog. Speaking of, the report in my inbox has been "sitting at the bottom" of my files since it arrived yesterday night. The name Hebert is all the attachment read.

The file has been low priority when I sent it in over two weeks ago, with only nominal observations done on the cape family, as well as the unregistered group of capes working and living there too. I decide that having a mostly cleared work schedule would be nice what with the Lung business and the resulting gang war in a month. I sigh and click open the folder...

…

" Get me Armsmaster, now." The intercom barely squeaks its reply. " I don't care if he is asleep...this is important..."

---

 

So recently got some more free time so I thought I would just leave this here for everyone. Mechanical explanation of hosting, and Nimi getting something she wants....

---

It was comfortable in my bed. The low volume of the Hebert household, its distance from any major traffic way, is much nicer than the constant barrage of noise from the motel yesterday. The neighboring rooms in that place were far too active. I open my eyes as I remember yesterday, the world out past my eyes was the same guest room I've been living in for the last three weeks now, but the time is not what is on my mind...

" I was almost kidnapped..." My voice fills the void of deafness, almost echoing past me. I look around the bright afternoon light of the room around me, and then to the clock, its Monday.

[ you have been asleep for eighteen hours...]

Noted, but ultimately not surprising. They had me in the van, that is kind of a crucial step in the world of kidnapping. If the situation were normal, at that point I would be regulated to squirreling away evidence so that the authorities would find me...or my body. I should have bit my tongue or cut my palms on something, made sure that I was tracing my DNA all over the get away vehicle. Yeah like that would work, I snort, the kidnappers were hired by a thinker. I shouldn't have made it away from them...

I feel a tightness squeeze around my chest. It would be like before, with mom and dad, but so much worse. " I don't want to go back."

" We would never let you go." The polyphonic voices whisper from behind my ear as a warm tightness across my chest clarifies in my mind.

[ something is in the bed with you...]

I throw the sheets far from me with a kick, as I try to leap myself from the bed. A hand grabs my shoulder and pulls me back, it is joined by five others, and then twenty more as I start to struggle. I look down and pale, my body is covered in shadow hands! Oh, shit, what the fu-...wait. My breakneck pulse slows as I remember my latest admirer. Oh, yeah, " hey Swarmy?"

" Yes?" I look back over my shoulder to the rest of the bed. I then look up as that is not the best view of the situation.

From my bed up to the ceiling is darkness. Arms are waving through the surface that folds and flexes through itself. It is a solid wall of limbs, not limbs attached to each other in discernable ways either. It is like they are all separate, or connected at some distant spiraling point...

[ pattern of growth is fractal in higher dimensions than are currently present. Point of origin is ERROR VARRNOTINSTANTIATED, point of origin cannot be found, zero mathematical parameters present...]

I wince at the error log from my power, it is a new kind of error, like it couldn't properly find some variable or it didn't exist in the first place. I feel Swarm's hands across my body as she pulls me deeper into her. I think to struggle, but Swarm is my friend, she wouldn't hurt me. Besides, I've been in her before, it was nice last time. Like a hug, but from everywhere.

Hands and limbs fill my vision as they layer on to me, wrapping me up like some burrito made of hugs. " So, uh not that this isn't nice Swarmy, but what are you doing in my bed?"

I watch as her "face" forms, actually several heads are forming filling in the blank spots of the hug. A head nuzzles into my stomach, one is pressed into my back, another presses itself against the palm of my hand, and still two more are pressing into either side of my shoulders. The entire thing purrs like a huge cat. " Taylor's bed is too small with all three of us."

" I see, so you came and decided to sleep with me," I fix what I hope is an unimpressed stare at the talking head, past one that is nuzzling into my cheek, " exactly how many of you are even present?"

The hands all pause, it is very weird to see all the movement from before just freeze like that. "...fifteen," more heads, making the count exactly fifteen, appear and go in for affection.

" I thought I told you that I wanted time to think things over?"

" We are treating you just like we would a fellow pack member or child." Pack member? Child? " We wanted to comfort you...you were having nightmares when we came in to check on you."

" Oh, okay, thanks," she comforted me?

" Would have called in both of my sisters, but bed is too small," the speaking head looks away, " and we didn't want to move you while you slept either."

Yeah, I can see that too. The image of me wedged in between the three rises in my mind. Taylor's long cool body and arms pressed up against my back, one of Swarm nests at my stomach her arms reaching around me to press her soft face into me, my own face against Nimi's lower chest, all around the three of us the rest of Swarm wraps around us like a blanket. Taylor's mouth is pressed into my neck, she opens it to reveal the zigzag of shark-like teeth and bites into my-

I grimace, not going to think about that, but it does make me curious in a morbid way. I stare out into the landscape of moving limbs. Swarm doesn't have a mouth; how would she go about hosting? Actually, I don't know too much about hosting beyond it being a blood exchange and the motivations behind it being hunger. I'm still not sure if I want to know, but it isn't impossible to believe that I would end up dating Taylor, Nimi and Swarm. They are...sweet...loyal. Funny, caring, good at taking care of me, will risk their lives for me. I mean, Taylor and Nimi both created life just to protect me. I know it is a trope to say I would die for you, but how many people would make a new self and live for you. Shit, these three are kind of wonderful: they like me in spite of me being different from them, they are willing to talk about needs and wants, hell they can even take a soft no. I guess I should at least ask about the stuff that makes me nervous.

" Swarmy?"

" Yes?" The talking face is now pressing into the top of my head.

" Can you- or rather, how would hosting work for you?" A ripple goes through the body surrounding me, but other than that she doesn't show much of her excitement. I stop her before she can start, " I would like to know things like mechanics, and what would actually happen."

She pauses, cocking her head against mine as she thinks. " Hosting involves two parts, the first is ghost union, our ghost joins with yours and an exchange of information, usually feelings, takes place."

I'm a bit doubtful about Taylor's whole ghost state thing, but I keep quiet as she continues. A soft kneading on my back as a single hand rubs against me, god Swarm would give the best massages...

" The second part is different for each of us, but it is the physical exchange of information," I feel hands pulling my hair gently, combing fingers through the locks, " for Taylor it is the joining of circulatory systems, her heart become your heart and your blood and body become one..."

Wait, " it isn't a bite?"

" It is a kind of bite, but it is her cells that enter you and vice versa. That is the one common thing from each of our methods."

" Okay, what about you and Neems?"

" Nimi would pierce your skin to deposit some of her with you," she giggles the sound haunting and pretty, like wind-chimes, " you would have to feed her your blood from either your wrist or shoulder."

I never thought of that, that I would have some participating part in it. I always pictured it as something happening to me rather than a participation act. The thought of feeding Nimi from my wrist rises with the image of Nimi resting her head on my lap, like feeding a baby. Oh, that is too cute, I giggle at the image, " okay so what about you?"

" I am not ready...yet," the hands around me stop for a second, " I guess that after our metamorphosis is completed, we will have a method, but we do not know what the end result is. If I had to guess though we would probably just become a part of your body."

" What like replace an organ?" I am not sure what to think about with that, in love with my liver?

" Or become a new one in your body, but we don't know what would be exchanged for it though."

" What could I do," honestly, I kind of like the idea of participating rather than just sitting back, it helps it seem less scary.

" Hmmm, we suppose that you could breathe us in, but it doesn't really matter," I can't see her "face" and even if I could tell, but she does sound like she is smiling, " you could always just hold my hand, participation is just connection you can be with us how you please."

That...sounds nice...I don't get it, why am I even considering it, my internal voice of reason sounds lackluster, this is fetishized cannibalism plain and simple. They are also giving me something back to replace it. Okay then it is just picquerism, we don't even like the idea of sex- The act isn't sexual, the feelings are not pleasure based they are undead hunger based, they do it to feel closer the pleasure is secondary even lost to them. My inner voice is quiet, I continue. They saved me from a hostile threat that tried they're hardest to kill them. They have kept me close to them and are just as desperate for companionship as I am for people around me. I want to know more. I've only known them for three weeks, but I know that I want to know more, see more. I nod, the warm space I'm in is comforting, despite the very real danger I could be in I want to know more about my friends. I wonder what the other two are doing. " Hey Swarm?"

" Yes?"

I smile, she is going to need a nickname, swarm is just not a cute enough word. " What have the other two been up to...besides eavesdropping."

---

Apparently, Taylor was feeling guilty about Nimi's lack of clothing. So, when I walked down into the basement, Taylor greys all the way up her ears and Nimi practically swimming in her own cloud of red spores, the walls and ceilings had great sheets of materials hanging from them. They were mostly reds and blacks with just a few dried blood browns mixed in for color. I walk up to a few dark satins and run my hand down them, silky is not what I expected. " So, you've been busy?"

Swarm giggles at the two as they somehow become more pigmented at my words. " Uh, yeah we just don't know what else to make," Taylor eventually looks over at me, I give her a smile.

" So, besides the fabrics themselves, what have you three constructed?"

Nimi is the first to break out of her embarrassment, " A pair of pants, a button up shirt, and cloak!" She brings them over to me too look at them. They are huge, but that was expected. The pants were black and sort of feel like cotton, they look like dress pants. I guess they match the dress shirt. The design is ripped from one of Annette's shirts that I've seen her wearing, except this one is blood red and silken. The buttons are made of bones with a polished enamel surface, tooth enamel. The cloak is the most interesting of them though. The outside surface is rough with a fur, but the inside is soft with hair. The entire thing was grey.

It all looks good, but... I look up at Nimi, she is pulling the blanket around her shoulder tight. Her eye is positioned in a way that is not looking directly at me, at the clothes. She does not like human clothes..." Nimi this is the same kind of stuff that Parian is making for us, you can make whatever you want here." Nimi is not human, and I do not mean that as a negative. " Those clothes are for hiding you in public, what do you want to wear at home?" I know that Nimi would feel restricted if her gills were covered, and there are just certain places around her legs that would be uncomfortable covered.

" Nimi why didn't you tell me that they weren't good," Taylor has her hands on her hips as she looks up at the taller girl, " we totally have the stuff for making new designs now."

" I just wanted you to feel less guilty about the clothes," Nimi looks away from the two of us. Nimi is usually the one to give out praise, the pink intermingling with the red shows just how unused to the opposite she is. Need to change that.

" Swarm likes the cloak, the other two are restrictive."

" Wait you knew that they were a problem, and you didn't tell me," Taylor looks at Swarm exacerbated.

" We were distracted watching Lisa sleep, what is your excuse."

I ignore the heat on my cheeks and turn to Nimi, " Neems I know you like making sure that everyone is happy, but let's make you happy, okay?"

Nimi nods her eye glowing deep red, the air full of pink around her. She looks hungry, I smile at her. I am rewarded with one back.

The next few hours were spent talking, designing, and arranging fabrics, as we worked out just what Nimi would like in clothing. As that turns out Nimi likes things to be piece-meal. Her favorite texture is largely dependent on where and what, but overall, she hates skintight and thinks baggy is ugly. She has some outlier areas of course, and while her tendrils, which are now shiny, are still finishing themselves they are too sensitive for some of the wraps she likes. At the end we had one outfit. It was a strange and complex one too. She looked good in it though.

The outfit was split into five parts: chest, arms, waist and hips, legs, and hair, but the last one was left off for now. Nimi in her bio-armor was like a mixture of religious robes and armor. This was just straight up undead priestess garb.

The chest was made of the silky material in strips. The back was open and like her armor was a blouse of wrappings fused together with a papal style cloth acting as both a collar and giving her a plunging V-neck. The papal itself draped over her bust, and her cleavage was hidden, at her request, by a rainbow abalone plate. The papal was also decorated in bits of bone.

The waist and hips were a loose skirt, it was long but started at her waist and was made up of many thin sheets that ended in bone plated tips. It also was unconnected to the chest garment, so the entire look had some of her ribs showing in between the gap. The legs were made of downward facing loops with it being tighter around the inner legs and looser around the outer legs. They were fused, but it gave the impression that they weren't. The arms were simple wraps that went from her natural armored forearms up to just past her bicep. They were stretchy and came off like arm warmers. The hair stuff was mostly beaded strips of silk, but again too sensitive right now.

We step back to look at Nimi's new look. " Damn Nimi, that looks good on you," I whistle as Nimi floods the room with pink.

" Yeah, I have to agree with Lisa on this one, this works really good," Taylor walks around her other even as Nimi spins.

" Like, good colors, brings out eye," Swarm is touching the skirt portion, " soft too."

Nimi is pumping out pink spores, her eye is hunger as she looks at all of us, " I'm hungry." We each yelp as she picks up all three of us into a very tight hug. The world fills with pinks and bright yellows as our giant laughs...

---

I felt like Lisa would in fact like to conduct some research on her friends, so third explanation of hosting....I don't think there will be anymore after this...but I can't be sure...