Ten
Legend stood at the front of the room, pacing back and forth, silently. To much of the room, those assembled had rarely glimpsed the hero so conflicted in appearance… even just scant hours prior to an Endbringer attack. The many and varied ‘Capes’ that waited within the San Diego Hilton’s conference center for the standard pep talk and assignments continuously shared looks of apprehension. Why was Legend so worried? Armsmaster, the co-captain of Brockton Bay’s Protectorate Team seemed ready to say something when the leader of the Triumvirate finally stopped and spoke.
“We have a…” the brown-haired hero sighed. “A problem, I guess you could say.”
“Other than Leviathan, you mean?” Assault called from somewhere within the assembled Parahumans.
Ignoring the soft chuckles and good-natured groans that followed the question, Legend shared a deep look with many of his friends and associates. “The Ten Plagues of Egypt is here.” A silent shock filled the room at the man’s statement. Everyone in attendance knew something about the Parahuman listed as a Class S.
‘The’ Class S.
Just a couple of years ago, The Ten Plagues of Egypt had been the Slaughterhouse Nine’s most recent recruit. Hatchetface, one of their longstanding members, had fallen and Jack Slash was not one to let an empty slot in his team’s roster sit for very long. No one currently had a clue as to where she had come from. Just that in the Spring of 2012, the newest member of the Slaughterhouse Nine made her debut… and what a debut it was.
Over the course of ten days, the newest Parahuman villain had reenacted the infamous Biblical Ten Plagues that Moses had set upon the Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt upon the small city of Florence, Alabama.
It had started with the Tennessee River running like blood for an entire day. The panic that it caused to the city’s populace had caught the attention of several scientists and PRT specialists. It would be days later that they discovered the blood was from rodents; rats and mice. As the evening approached and the river’s coloring slowly returned to normal, everyone relaxed.
They should have remained vigilant.
The second day, Florence awoke to be infested with frogs. The third was lice and gnats. Flies infesting the entire city on the fourth day led to an understanding by a local Church as to what was happening. Calls of the Rapture and the End of Days filled the news cycles. No longer just a local phenomenon, the National and then International reports were sending reporters to cover what was happening.
Day five, those watching reports were shown dead livestock.
The Protectorate from Atlanta, Georgia was called in. They arrived just in time to become covered in boils and sores like the rest of the city. They realized they were in well over their heads when fire fell from the sky on Day Seven. The idea of divine action fell away when the Capes on the scene realized that the fire was thousands of bugs on fire, falling over the city. It took just a few further steps of logic to see that bugs and insects were somehow a part of each ‘plague’ that Florence was suffering. They were looking for a Parahuman that had something to do with insects.
That didn’t stop Day Eight and the local vegetation all dying.
The Protectorate out of Chicage sent members to aid in any way possible. They arrived in near total Darkness at noon. A swarm of millions of insects filled the sky, blocking the sun. By now, the people of Florence had evacuated, as had the surrounding cities of Sheffield and Muscle Shoals. The nation was in a panic. No one knew where the cause was. Worse, however, was the fear of the tenth and final plague as listed in Exodus. It could have been worse, all things considered. Alabama was a part of the so-called ‘Bible Belt’ and, therefore, almost everyone knew the story of Moses. They all knew the threat of the last plague. Not everyone escaped Day Ten. Hundreds of first-born males died that March morning, those that either didn’t believe, or just hadn’t escaped in time.
A female, age undetermined, but the best Thinkers available looked at later footage and claimed her to be a teenager - early twenties at the oldest. She stood in front of the entrance to the University of North Alabama… a bug mask covering her face, with the other eight members of Slaughterhouse Nine behind her, and claimed credit for the past ten days. The assorted conglomeration of local and state police, PRT agents, as well as nine Protectorate members, all under the watchful gaze of the world thanks to the various news agencies in attendance, attempted to apprehend them.
The forces of good were, forgive the pun, slaughtered.
Backup had been on the way. Dragon from Canada’s Guild, as well as all three of the Triumvirate and their hand-selected teams had been just a few scant minutes away. Florence should have waited. Instead, the city was left in ruin. The woman, girl really, had been dubbed The Ten Plagues of Egypt by an uninspired reported that died that day. She had been immediately designated as a Class S threat by virtue of being a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine.
Three months later, the other eight members of the Slaughterhouse Nine were all dead by Ten Plagues’ (the shortened version she was often referred to as) hand and she was classified as the Most Wanted Class S in the world, only listed one step below the Endbringers.
And now she was here… upon the edge of the latest Endbringer attack.
Legend nodded and continued. “Upon arrival here, I was met by Lightning Bug. She was terrified. It seems that during a patrol of the beach to help warn the citizens of the upcoming danger, she spotted Ten Plagues on the beach, staring out over the Pacific.”
“Fuck me.” Someone spoke. It was followed by several similar expletives of a similar nature.
Finally, the question of the moment was asked. “What do we do?”
Legend took a deep breath. “The Truce is in effect.”
“No way!” Miss Militia nearly screamed. Narwhal followed with a cry of “Over my dead body.” Soon, shouts and cries from the assembled heroes began to reach a near crescendo of unintelligible proportions. Legend held up his hands to try to regain some semblance of order, but everyone kept speaking, trying to be heard over the people attempting the same.
“So, the Truce is not in effect?” Lung, the Dragon of Brockton Bay, asked in a moment of pause in the cacophony.
Alexandria, who had been standing somewhat behind where Legend stood, answered. “The Truce must be followed.” At the woman’s declaration, the room and its assorted heroes and villains all began to argue over what to do next.
While everyone tried to talk over the person next to them in order to be heard, Legend motioned to the other members of the Triumvirate and they made their way over to the television monitor. Though he spoke softly, both Alexandria and Eidon (???) followed along.
“I was able to record my conversation.” The screen lit up at Legend’s press of a button and it now showed a Point of View showing from Legend talking to a woman… a girl, really. He began forwarding through the video. “You can watch all of it later. I wanted you to hear this part.”
“…member much. Winslow. Maybe my name. And pain. Always pain.”
At her words, the Legend from the video responded softly. “You can’t remember your life before?”
“Maybe one of my parents was a tailor?” She never stopped looking out towards the ocean. “Just the Bonesaw was to be my sister now and the past wasn’t needed.”
“And that’s why you killed her?”
Ten Plagues shrugged. She momentarily turned to look directly at Legend, allowing those in the room that realized what the ‘big three’ were watching was important, to get maybe the best look at the Class S for the first time. Her face might have once been, not beautiful, but possibly pretty, but that one of her eyes looked to have been replaced with a large bug’s eye. Half of her head was shaved with a crisscrossing of scars that barely concealed mechanical wires throughout her skull.
“I seem to have problems with being told what to do.”
As the recording paused, Lege3nd turned to the other two. “Thoughts?” Neither answered.
“Uhm.” A voice spoke into the silence. “I think I might have an idea.”
Both Legend and Alexandria stopped their silent conversation and turned to where Shadow Stalker, the most recently promoted Ward to Protectorate Member stood next to her teammates from New York. The rest of the room seemed to all pause, as well.
“Excuse me?” Alexandria asked.
The young Cape nodded. She stepped forward and looked pleadingly over to where Miss Militia stood. “Yeah. Winslow is a school. A high school.”
“Okay?”
At Legend’s question, Miss Militia glanced between where the young hero, currently in the spotlight, stood and then over to Armsmaster, who was currently cursing under his breath. “Stalker?”
“Fuck!” Armsmaster was getting louder. Several of his team were attempting to calm the veteran hero down, but he continued. “No. Fuck me and you and everyone else. Fuck no.”
Miss Militia’s eyes went wide. She glanced back at where Shadow Stalker remained standing. “You don’t think…?”
Shadow Stalker nodded before returning her gaze to where Legend and Alexandria stood waiting. “A few years ago… 2011. I wasn’t… that’s to say, well, that…” When Miss Militia put her hand on Shadow Stalker’s shoulder in a show of support, the young Cape took a deep breath. “I was young and stupid and I bullied a girl at school.”
“I’m not following.” Alexandria spoke.
“Yeah. I was really awful to a girl. Taylor.” The room seemed to take a breath, each suddenly understanding that something important was happening. “Taylor Hebert. Me and a few friends, well, we made her life hell. Maybe the even so far as the worst day of her life.” Shadow Stalker licked her lips. “We… no… I. Me. I played a horrible prank on her and Taylor went to the hospital.”
When she wasn’t more forthcoming, Legend nodded. “And then what happened?”
“She vanished. Disappeared.” The young Cape offered with a shrug of her shoulders. “Two days after being admitted to the hospital, in a… well…” She took a deep breath. “It was classified as a runway. Her father thought kidnapping. No one ever found her.”
“She was in a coma.” Miss Militia offered starkly. “You admitted your mistakes. You’ve paid for your crimes.” Turning to where the others watched, she spoke. “Shadow Stalker realized she made a huge mistake and came to us, Armsmaster and me. She admitted what she’d done and wanted us to help find her classmate. We never found a clue.”
“Yeah.” Armsmaster finally stopped his tirade and joined the discussion. “Never found anything. Girl vanished. Poof. Gone.”
“And you think she might be The Ten Plagues of Egypt?”
At Alexandria’s question, the former vigilante shook her head. “Maybe? I don’t know. She was a skinny girl. Tall. Lanky, really. She had long black hair and wore glasses. A geek.”
“That could be her.” Legend shared a glance with Miss Militia and then Armsmaster.
“I’ve found several photographs online.” Dragon’s voice was suddenly coming from a nearby speaker. “I’ve run several facial recognition algorithms, as well as postulated known facts along with a running timeline. Based on what we currently know, there is an eighty-one percent probability that Taylor Anne Hebert and The Ten Plagues of Egypt are the same person.”
Legend looked at where Battery was trying to console Armsmaster The Tinker took a deep breath. “Well, damn it. Now what?”
What indeed?
..oo00OO*OO00oo..