See My Worm

“You realize that they’re going to lock you up, right?”

I lifted my gaze from staring at the table and glanced over to where Teddy stood leaning against the wall. Several responses flittered through my head before I decided on continuing with how I’d dealt with him since he’d made himself known to me three weeks ago. Was it just weeks? Damn. I ignored him.

“You get that you’re screwed?”

“Leave off, Theodore.” Kate spoke from somewhere behind me.

“I’ve told you, don’t call me Theodore.” Teddy raised his voice. “Only my Mama calls me that.”

“Leave him be, Kate.” Miles spoke from the chair he was sitting in to my left. “You’re just gonna piss Taylor off if you two start fighting again.”

“We won’t”

“You will.” He sighed. “You two always argue.”

I ignored the banter, especially considering Laura and Victor began chanting “fight, fight, fight” repeatedly. Those two were always itching for anything to alleviate their boredom. I knew that if something did not change soon, they’d pull Molly and Billy into their childish antics.

“Please.” I spoke up. I didn’t yell, but everyone stopped to look my way. I guess there was maybe one benefit to being in charge, though with all of the negatives that came with it, I would most definitely rather have something else to do. “Can we try and keep quiet for a few minutes? I don’t want there to be chaos when they finally send someone in to talk. Okay?”

Miles crossed his arms with a satisfied smirk on his face. I ignored him and looked over to where Topher was staring at the ceiling above me and to the right. “You know they’re watching right now, yeah?” I glanced to where he indicated. Sure enough, there was a camera pointed directly at me… the little red light blinking.

I sighed.

Great.

“Well, a psychiatric hospital is better than The Bird Cage, huh?” Teddy offered.

I returned my gaze to the young man. So unassuming looking in this form. I nodded slowly. “Sure, I guess.” I admitted. “But I doubt that any court is going to consider that with what we did.”

“We?” Molly asked.

I smiled at the young girl. Barely a teen. Even younger than me, currently. “Fair enough. Me. What I did. But they should take into account that it was Lung, you know? He was a villain.”

“Sure.” America offered. “But there wasn’t a Kill Order on him. Murder is murder.”

“And you’re a murderer now, lass.” Bee spoke up with a smile. I hated when he smiled. “Just face facts that you are a part of the group now and let’s get this show on the road.”

“Leave off, man.” Dani spoke up in my defense. “Taylor can make up her own mind.”

“If she has a mind left.” Victor grumbled. “It always ends the same, doesn’t it? She has to face the inevitable eventually.”

“Okay. Everyone just be quiet.”

At my order, everyone stopped talking. Molly and Kamala turned to face away from me, both sulking. Kate, America and Laura offered me pitying looks. The others just crossed their arms over their chests and glared... well, all of them except Bee. Bee just continued smiling.

I really hated that smile.

How was I going to get out of this? It wasn’t like I had gone out looking for trouble, especially not to get into a ‘fight to the death’ match with Lung of all people. Couldn’t a girl just find a nice, quiet and secluded spot to practice using the parahuman powers that she had gotten after being stuck in a locker at school? Shoved into a locker by three bitchy teenage girls that had nothing better to do in their boring lives but to torment me?

Huh?

And so what if being stuck in that locker was maybe the only thing that saved me when a major Cape battle was taking place at said school?

Yeah?

Any further inner reflection was cut off when the door finally opened. I watched as five people entered into the room, each wearing a very disapproving look on their faces. The first three were obviously recognizable. Armsmaster, Miss Militia and Alexandria walked into the room. If it wasn’t for the fact that they were most likely here to condemn me, I would have been fan-girling like nobody’s business.

“Oh, please.” Bee sneered. I pointedly ignored him.

After the three Heroes entered, I glanced at a squat sort of woman, blonde, and looking much like I often pictured Delores Umbridge might have appeared. Behind her walked a tall, thin man that smiled in a way that reminded me of Bee. The woman and man sat. The three Heroes took places in three of the room’s corners, each forcing Laura, Victor and Molly to move from where they had each been standing. The looks they tossed at the Heroes, each would have been dead if their glares could kill. Thankfully, they could not.

“Miss Hebert.” The woman now sitting across from me spoke. “I‘m Director Emily Piggot.”

“Nice to meet you, I guess.” I offered into the silence of her introduction.

I watched as she nodded. “Likewise.” After I nodded, she continued. “Miss Hebert…”

“You can call me Taylor.”

The woman shot me an annoyed look before continuing. “Miss Hebert, I am going to be very frank with you. We have a lot of dead bodies appearing all along Brockton Bay. Bodies that have mostly been identified as Parahumans. Excluding the normals that have mostly been identified as being affiliated with one or more of the gangs that are known to plague our city, there are several Parahumans that were considered extreme cases.”

“What’s an extreme case?” I asked. If she was surprised at my question, Director Piggot did not show it. In fact, she seemed rather pleased that I had posed the question.

“An extreme case is a Parahuman or group of Parahumans that a branch of Law Enforcement has had classified as being a threat. Now, before you jump to one conclusion or another, the use of the word threat can be misleading.”

“I am considered an extreme case.” Alexandria spoke up from her corner of the room.

“Exactly.” The Director smiled, though it did not reach her eyes. “No one here doubts that Alexandria is on the side of right, but due to her powers and abilities, the United States Government classified has as an extreme case. It wasn’t for any deep dark reason other than her being who she is and what she can do.”

“Okay.” I offered, not really sure what else to say, I ignored as best as I could the various scoffs and snorts from those around me. I really wish everyone would quiet down so I could pay attention.

“Miss Hebert, you have been, in one way or another, involved with the deaths of almost all of the extreme cases over the past month.” She took a breath. “I want to understand how you fit into all of this.”

I considered lying. Kate and Billy both were offering some really good excuses that sounded believable, but Alexandria was here. Armsmaster and Miss Militia. These were the heroes that she had always looked up to. Wanted to become.

“I’m a Cape.”

Both the Director and the thin man nodded. Director Piggot smiled. Kinda. “Good, Miss Hebert. I appreciate you not trying to lie about this. We are here to help.” She glanced over to Miss Militia, considering that she was the one standing behind me. “When did you gain your powers?”

“Careful.” Molly offered from where she was standing. “Are you going to trust them with this?”

“It’s a trap.” Victor offered.

“Be careful, Taylor.” Dani spoke up as well. “No one likes us.”

“I assume I got powers on January Eleventh.”

Whooop! Whoop! Red alert! Wrong answer. Oh, so wrong. I should have listened to everyone. The moment I said the date, I could see both Armsmaster and Alexandria stiffen. He even tightened his grip on the cylindrical object he held in his right hand. The single member of the Triumvirate in the room tensed noticeable.

“Miss Militia’s knife just turned into a gun.” Laura offered.

Kamala nodded. “We’re ready.”

All the people around me readied themselves, all of them were alert and offering their powers to me. It was all I could do to refuse the offerings and stay focused on the woman talking to me.

“Were you at Winslow High?”

I nodded. “I was.”

Director Piggot turned to the man next to her. He was busily tapping at the tablet in his hand, his every movement screaming of tension. “Thomas?”

He sighed. “No records of Hebert on location at the time.”

“I was there.”

“I’m not doubting you, Miss Hebert, but you have to understand that a claim of being at Winslow High School on the date in question is…”

“Problematic.” Alexandria offered.

The Director nodded. Yes. Problematic. Exactly.” I felt pinned to my seat form the glare she shot towards me. “Do you understand why?”

I licked at my lips. “I’d say due to The Butcher being there.”

“Yes. That is definitely part of it.” She leaned forward. “Did you know that The Butcher died that day? We’ve kept it out of the general media, but rumors are already circulating. Were you aware?”

I nodded.

Director Piggot copied the movement. “And how do you know that The Butcher died, Miss Hebert?”

“Fuck this cunt.” Bee snarled. “Just tell her and then let’s get this party started.”

“I hate to agree, Taylor, but this is about to get ugly.” Laura offered.

I considered responding, but Armsmaster spoke up. “I am more interested in who you’ve been conversing with since we put you in this room. I’ve been monitoring all frequencies and there is no signal coming in or out of this room.”

“I don’t…”

“Please do not start lying now, Miss Hebert.” The blonde woman nearly snarled. “Just admit it.”

“Fine.” I thought my voice sounded defeated, but everyone in the room acted as if I had just threatened to blow up an elementary school full of kids. “You already know, so fine. On the day that The Butcher died at Winslow, I was trapped inside of the locker next to where he fell.”

“Inside…?”

At Miss Militia’s exclamation, I turned and looked at her. “Yeah. I was trapped right there next to all of the action. I could hear all of the gunshots, the screams and everything else. I was stuck inside a small metal box while Hell was happening outside.” I took a deep breath. “And then there was something else. I had a waking dream about a monster telling me it was going to be okay.”

“What?”

Armsmaster motioned for the Director to not ask anything further.

“I just wanted friends, you know? I was all alone and no one cared about me and then suddenly, I knew that I would never be alone again.”

“Ugh!” Teddy rolled his eyes over beside Bee. “I hate this girlie shit. Let’s get to fighting.”

“What happened, Taylor?” Alexandria asked.

Choosing to avoid the gazes of the people on the other side of the table, I reached my left hand out and felt Dani grab mine. Her power filled me and I offered a slight shrug. “I guess I’m the new Butcher.” The power of the once hero that had been the fifth Butcher allowed the creation of illusions. I smiled as the fourteen previous Capes to bear my now name all appeared for all to see.

Bee seemed the happiest at their now terrified looks. “Hi. Wanna play?”

“William Butcher. The first Butcher.” Alexandria whispered.

“That I am, love.” He waved his hand towards where the hero stood.

“Hey, Hannah.” Miles spoke from his seat next to me. “Good to see you up and about. Almost the last of the original Wards, huh?”

“Aracna-Boy?” He smiled and nodded to the American Flag masked Cape. “It’s me. Well, kinda.”

“What are you doing?” Director Piggot was now standing by the door.

I shrugged as I gestured to the now full room. My side greatly outnumbered all of them. In the room, but possibly in the entire building. Maybe even in Brockton Bay itself. “Yeah, Dani…”

“Psyche.” She interrupted.

“Sorry.” I offered the illusion of the former villain. “Psyche here can create illusions of the voices inside my head. Neat, huh? As a very special bonus, we all agree that when I Triggered that my desire of friends made me a Master. I can create Projections. So far, just fourteen of them, but Psyche can overlap the image of each of them. It allows them to live again, sorta.”

“Jeez-us.” Armsmaster spoke, his weapon tightly gripped in his hand.

Nodding, I continued. “Better, yet, I seem to be able to allow each of them full use of their individual powers.”

“That would mean…”

I smiled at Alexandria. “That you are all currently in a room with all fifteen Butchers? Yeah.” From the side, I could see Teddy slowly transforming into the giant brute that his power caused him to become when he was ready to fight. Kamala was slowly shifting into a better fight form. Katie had a bow now and was readying an arrow. “So, what exactly did you want to talk to me about?

“Yes, please.” Topher flashed his fangs in a dangerous smile. “Let’s begin.”