Empusa 1.6
I spent the rest of the day finishing my costume. The PRT has called me again, but I only found out after the fact. I don’t keep the battery and sim card in the phone when I go about my day, usually. One, nobody’s supposed to know I own a phone. Two, I have nobody to talk to on the phone. Three, they have the world’s like.. fifth best Tinker in our city. I’m glad I started making it starting with the front and the back, hands and feet. Arms, upper part of legs and my sides are made of a more sheer cloth, I used my less silken webbed spiders and even a bit of a substitute in the form of bandage mesh. But the first iteration of my costume is done. Now I just have to wait for two weeks before my better spiders hatch. Meanwhile, I set my spiders to make a mesh body-glove for later use and exit my house, the costume hidden under daily clothes. My destination? Sophia’s home. It’s in the docks residential district, a ways away from the Empire territory. There, on the rooftop of the building across the street from the Hess apartment, I decide to make my stakeout spot. I don’t even need to be present there myself. Just close enough to bunch spiders up and let them peep on Sophia from the ventilation grates and the chandeliers. I’m still close enough to be able to respond to threats in case Sophia gets attacked. Now, I want to make it abundantly clear. I am not here to save Sophia. I would do it for anyone, because my real target is Emma. In fact, I would rather Emma catches Sophia and leads me to her… benefactor.
I get myself a bag of chips, stop a mugging three blocks over and take the mugger’s money, and just sit back on a folding chair and relax. Though I must say, watching Sophia pace nervously in her room wasn't something I thought I'd ever be doing in my life. She's dressed in her outerwear but the flies I put on her feel a harder material underneath. I let out a low whistle. Them Protectorate costume makers are fed good if they're making this kind of quality stuff. I guess that was one of their major selling points when they started the whole Wards program. Safe growing environment for the young parahumans. And that's probably why my reports were falling on deaf ears. Of course Alan isn't important enough to make an entire fucking bioterrorism charge disappear. But the PRT is. The Protectorate is.
Sophia has a tic when she's agitated or wants to punch someone or something, I noticed. I knew of it a while ago, eighteen months of bullying gives you a lot of time to notice that kind of stuff. Her right hand twitches like she's used to holding something with a trigger. I always thought she's some kind of thug out of school, pressing people with a handgun. But no, it's a crossbow she's used to holding. And now that there is a crossbow in her hands, I understand her other tic. Using her left hand to scratch at her right knuckle, signalling impatience. She tugs at her crossbow string while pressing the trigger, so that the bolt doesn't actually shoot.
She's wasting her time though. She's going to wear herself out by being so wound up only from expecting an attack. Being on high adrenaline all the time isn't so good. Cause Emma could take her time. She's got an entire night to complete the hunt. Sophia though hasn't slept during the day, expecting Emma to attack then. It's kind of cathartic watching one of my three tormentors have a taste of what I went through for two years. And as an expert victim, I say Sophia is doing a shit job at surviving this night. She has shown that she's on guard, that she's expecting an attack. That makes your bully unpredictable. Will they double down? Will they do something unexpected? Will they wait for you to drop your guard and come down on you with extra viciousness?
In my own agitation, I didn't notice how I made my spiders bite me hard on my arm. I make them stop and caress the bite marks. Ever since I got bitten by the Columbia U spiders, it has been much easier to tolerate their venom. I even thought of ordering some extra venomous spiders from Australia and South America. I open my illegally gotten phone and pull up the Menagerie on the navigation app. They have contact info there so I called it up.
“Hello, you contacted Logans’ Menagerie, Garfield speaking, how can I help you?”
“Hi Gar!” I call out cheerfully.
“Hi!”
“I bought a bunch of spiders from your shop a couple days ago.”
“Oh… the spider cape.” He says, voice deflating.
“Not a cape. So, I was looking up some exotic spiders recently~”
“Oh god.”
“Soooo, can you place orders for a… bunch of spiders, the list of which I'll send to this number?”
“Okay, well I hope you're still as rich as you claimed to be.”
“Don’t worry about it. See you around then. Call me when you're done gathering my list~”
I end the call and open my thermos to take a long sip of piping hot tea. Ahhhh. Yeah. This is- wait. Wait. Caffeine is deadly to spiders. I'm technically part spider now. Did I sign my own death? Did I just… poison myself?! Maybe I should look into what substances are dangerous for spiders.
It was in the middle of that train of thought when I noticed a commotion in the Hess residence. Sophia was arguing with her mother, and soon stormed out of the house, grabbing a duffel bag on her way. Instead of going down to the ground floor, she phased through the locked rooftop access door and started putting on her costume. She was already wearing her bodysuit under her everyday clothes, and only had to throw on the protective vest, the trauma gear and cloak on top. Strapping the bolt quiver on her thigh, she stashed the empty duffel bag into an air vent and jumped off into the distance.
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Sophia needed this run. She felt like the walls of her room were closing in on her the longer she waited for Emma to strike. And just thinking that Emma would attack her in her home made Sophia’s gut wrench. Emma knew where she lived. Of course she did. Sophia brought her home often. She'd come for sleepovers, and Sophia would stoically choose to sleep on the folding mattress. Because she was cool and rugged and she didn't need simple luxuries of life to sleep well. Not because she was afraid to share the bed with Emma. Especially in the past year when she finally started noticing how she looked at girls, how her eyes drifted up and away in the locker room, or how her gaze lingered on Emma. Or on… many things. How Emma showed her a ‘freaky’ video of girls kissing and how she later spent an embarrassingly long time ‘researching’ it. To better prank Hebert, of course. No other reason.
Her train of thought is interrupted when her built-in electric current sensor lights up her vision. She jumps backwards, shifting out of her shadow form. Just a second ago, there was nothing on her visor. And now there was a line of wire stretched across the rooftop, at a perfect height to clothesline or garotte her.
“Hi Sophia.” Emma’s voice calls out to her. “It's been a minute, hasn't it?” And Sophia can see her now. She's even more different than before. Her legs are longer, her back straighter, she's taller overall. Her skin - deathly pale, and her hair - darker than night. “How do you like my decor?” Her hand brushed against the wire, spasming momentarily as sparks flew from the point of contact. And when she withdrew her gangly fingers from it, the sparks remained dancing on her claws. “I had a bit of a makeover. Did my nails.” She stretches her fingers to show them off. “You like them?”
But Sophia didn't answer. She was frozen from the sight in front of her. Emma was unrecognizable. If not for her voice, Sophia would have mistaken her for a total stranger. And paired with her misshapen face, slightly too wide mouth and too big eyes, she looked uncanny. Her new sharp teeth were peeking out as her full lips deflated into thin lines, keeping her mouth constantly just slightly ajar.
“What's the matter, Soph? Don't you like them this way? Ugly?” Emma lunged with her last word, closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye. Sophia jumped back again, turning to shadow and bending to the side to avoid Emma’s electrified swipes. Emma followed in hot pursuit, jumping across the street to follow Sophia onto a new rooftop. Every time Sophia dodged, Emma would herd her, like cattle, towards a trap Sophia was sure she had set up beforehand.
“You don't do that kind of disservice to me, Sophie. You don't fucking betray me like that!” Emma screams, sending a satellite dish flying at her. Sophia jumps away but right as she turns back to normal, a hand swipes at her face, knocking her mask away.
“You don't take my toys without permission!” Sophia dodges another swipe, unable to get even one word in. Every time she turns human again, Emma is waiting, ready to plunge her claws into Sophia’s throat. So she alternates solidity between her feet, only fully shifting back when she needs to take a breath. Until that breath is knocked out of her by a heavy kick to the stomach.
“You don't flirt with Taylor!” Emma clutches her throat and slams her into the metal wall of a transformer. “She's my toy! “ She slams again and Sophia tries to phase out. A burst of agony dances through her back as a power line touches her shadow form and Emma’s hand lights up in sparkles. “She's my prey!” She slams Sophia once more into the wall, making a portion of it crumple and bend.
At that moment, Sophia’s gaze falls on a figure shrouded in shadows. A tall, lanky figure watching her from afar. Judging her. And her heart rate spikes. She has a chance! All she needs to do is fight back! If she shows that she's a fighter, she'll be saved! Her hands clutch around Emma’s right when Ema rears it back and slams Sophia into the wall once more, finally knocking out enough of it to press her back straight into the power line. Her vision goes dark at the edges, the center pulsing with white light. She can't fight back. It's too late. She could have used her crossbows, her knife, the damn baton at least! But she chose to run. Emma is saying something, but all Sophia can hear is a high pitched whine of electricity in her ears.
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I should have waited. Maybe Emma would stop. Maybe she's done and would drag Sophia’s barely breathing body back to her benefactor. But when sparks flew and the entire building’s lights went out, I couldn't wait anymore. That amount of electricity would fry someone alive, let alone Sophia who was extra vulnerable to it.
I said I'd rather let Emma do her thing, but the reality of the situation proved otherwise. I just couldn't stand it! My hand hit the gray painted metal door of the transformer as Emma dodged away from me. I yanked the door back, pushing Sophia away from her execution seat.
“Oh hi, Taylor.” Emma giggled, waving at me. “You're just in time for my grand debut.” She curtsied with an imaginary skirt and lunged at me from that curtsy. Her claws swiped at me from both sides right as I moved away from the snap of her jaw. Tagging her with fruit flies was a great idea as she proved once again to be a fair bit faster than my eyes could track her. That is, my human eyes. She moved too fast for me to follow her with my field of vision, constantly trying to flank me or reach my blindspot. But my spiders could see her clear as day.
When she rounded me to plunge her claws into my back, I withdrew one of my impromptu shurikens from my pocket. I've salvaged several e-core transformer coils, separating and sharpening the thin metal strips, then lacing them with poison. I launched one at Emma, making sure to give it a strong swing. It seemed to catch her off guard, as it bit into her larynx. Before she could move away from me, I turned around and used the rotational momentum to slam my palm, in which I held another iron slip, to slam the shuriken in her larynx deeper, also crushing her throat in the process.
Emma jumped backwards, clutching her neck and coughing. She looked between me and Sophia reluctantly, a flash of regret crossing her eyes, and she ran. I ran after her, not matching her speed, but slightly lagging behind, giving her the confidence to push forward. But she stopped midway and turned around, the shuriken tightly held in her hand.
“You can follow me like you're planning on doing. And let Sophia bleed to death. Or you could go help her.” She says annoyed.
“How would she bleed to death? Keep your lies straight at least.” I say skeptically. She smiles and unfurls her fingers, revealing an empty hand.
“Oh sure, don't trust me on that. It's just a bluff, right? When did I even manage to throw that junk at Sophie?” She chuckles, her throat completely healed. She knows my answer. I turn around and rush back to Sophia as Emma disappears from my range. When I get back on the rooftop, I see Sophia lying on the ground, hand clenching her side, another - her head. I flip her around, eliciting a hiss of pain. But she's fine. She's concussed, but not bleeding. Sophia looks up at me shakily, eyes unfocused. Tears are running down her cheeks as she whines in pain, hands struggling to clutch her head and side, only held back by me in order to inspect her wounds. I call the PRT again.