Empusa 1.7
Miss Militia arrived faster this time, probably because they have been on the lookout for cape fights and we’ve been sighted being loud and scrappy. I always wondered if her bike actually was a restored relic of war or if it was just a replica. She never gave a clear answer to that in her interviews. I’ve brought Sophia down after giving her first aid and making sure to splint all her fractures with spider silk and boards I’ve found scattered on the rooftop.
“You’ve sighted the villain once again, Recluse.” She states, once she’s within hearing distance of me.
“I figured she’d be out hunting again.” I say calmly. She may suspect me all she wants, be it collusion or some other conspiracy. Maybe that villain is just my projection, even? She doesn’t know, so she’ll assume the worst. I can’t do anything about that anyway.
“How did you know she’d target Shadow Stalker, then?” She asked sceptically.
“I didn’t.” I shrugged. “I was tracking the villain, not the hero.” And that’s even partially true.
“So you can track her?”
“Not anymore. My previous method depended on her not being alert to my presence. But I’ve given away that trump card to save your Ward.” I watched as Sophia was loaded into a medical van.
“The Protectorate sincerely thanks you for that. Have you not considered joining the Wards still?” She tries again.
“I have. Have you succeeded in protecting your Wards yet?” I jab back.
“... You have seen her face.” Miss Militia says, choosing to change the topic.
“I have.” There is no need to deny that. “She was unmasked when I reached her, and I had needed to see her face to make sure she didn’t fall asleep while waiting for the medics.”
“Concussion?”
“Multiple non-penetrating traumatic brain injuries, yes. You better call in Panacea. She can’t do brains but at least she’d heal up her fractured skull.” A part of her head was… sickly soft to the touch. I make a hundred spiders in the distance frantically clean themselves, suppressing my own full body shudder.
“We will. That still leaves you with the identity of one of our Wards. And the fact you have seen her out of costume is also suspicious.”
“What do you want me to do then?” I stretch my arms out. “If this is your attempt to strong arm me into joining a government organisation, I would rather go full villain.” I looked her in the eyes, then at her weapon, then back at her, daring to shift her power from the combat knife strapped on her hip to anything else. Anything. I have already tagged all her joints with brown recluses ready to pump their venom into her if she twitches wrong. And if I lose consciousness, I’m pretty sure they’ll keep pumping her with venom until they run out. No need to tell her that, though.
“We would need you to at least sign a non-disclosure agreement, if you still intend to be a legitimate hero.” Miss Militia said after a tense minute of silence. You’d think she came to that conclusion herself, but I saw her combat knife flicker right before her hidden earpiece blared something out.
I cock my head to the side. Do I want to be a hero? I was actually planning for more of a mercenary lifestyle… heroing doesn’t pay, after all. Look at New Wave, a live subject lesson. And Protectorate itself is out of the question because I’m never joining an organisation that lets Sophia do what she did. Granted, it was mostly Emma who even started the whole eighteen months of torment thing, but now I’m a hundred percent sure it was Sophia’s involvement that made the teachers and Blackwell turn a blind eye to their activities. If it was just Emma, she wouldn’t have suddenly started hating me. But I wasn’t there for her when it really mattered. And Sophia was. On second thought, maybe… maybe I should try being a hero. If Sophia somehow could, so could I. Maybe I’d change some other kid’s life for the better instead of whatever the fuck Sophia did.
“Yeah.” I say after a minute of deliberation. “Yeah, I’d love to sign that.”
So a twenty minute ride to the PRT HQ later, I sat on a bench of a third floor central hall, filling out a form. Behind me I felt a certain someone pacing, trying to walk up to me nonchalantly and failing. He’d have succeeded at least marginally if I wasn’t casing the entire place. Too bad I couldn’t read using spiders, especially in the dark. Otherwise I’d have copied all their secret documents in some cool web cipher or something, to read later.
“Oh, hey there!” Clockblocker said, pulling out a post-it note and leaning on it like on a wall. For my powers, I think I’ll only mention super strength and heightened senses. Best to keep my best tricks hidden. “Didn’t see you around before. Are you thinking of joining up?”
“No.” Now I gotta choose between rogue and hero. There is also the hidden choice of “Vigilante” but those are also extralegal and my admission could and probably would be used against me later in the court of law.
“That’s… still cool. Cool.” The Striker tried again. “So what are your powers?”
“I’m sure you can get full access to my documents once I’m out.” Hero it is. I sigh deeply. Goodbye riches and bitches.
“Not a fan of small talk, I take?” He asks, slowly losing confidence.
“Not when your superiors ordered you to do it.” I retort, putting my signature down. Now that I’ve finished filling out the registration papers, I busy myself with reading through the fat stack of papers that is NDA. Honestly, I never understood why capes need those. If someone needs to sign an NDA, and actually signs them, they’re probably a hero. If that hero then breaks the NDA… well why not go all the way through? Just fucking… you broke one law, break all of them! You’re already in too deep with criminals to turn back to your peaceful life!
Clockblocker seems to have lost the motivation to strike up a conversation with me and walk of shamed back to his fellow teenage capes.
Papers all signed, I head back home. It was getting late, and I suspect that dad’s done with his work around now as well. So I find a secluded rooftop and change into my running clothes. That’s usually my excuse I tell dad when I go out, that I’m just suddenly in the mood for a run. On my way, I sneak around the Dallon sisters because I don’t need an excitable blonde and a grumpy healer somehow recognizing me from literally yesterday. When reaching our street, I check in on Peter. He’s not home today, so is his uncle. I’ll need to check up on Auntie May after I let dad know I’m home.
I skip the rotten step on the porch, but notice that it has been stepped on recently. The usual bend is a bit deeper, with a clear mark of the tip of someone’s shoe on it. That puts me instantly on guard. Dad knows about the step, I know about the step. If that person was invited by one of us, they would know about the step.
I send the bugs in first to scout, to see what's going on. They feel two people in the living room. One is my dad, the other is… Panacea? Something is not right here. I listen in to their discussion using my spiders, and it’s Dad telling her embarrassing stories from my childhood. Okay, that’s enough. I enter the house and put my hand in my back pocket, where I hid the E-coil strips.
“Oh, hey kiddo. Guess who we have as our guest today?” Dad asks me, after standing up to check who I am.
“Hello, Taylor.” Panacea greets me, smiling wide. Okay, maybe I took too long to run home and Panacea was done healing Sophia, and came here with Glory Girl’s help.
“Hi? To what do we owe the honor?” Panacea doesn’t do home visits. Not usually.
“Oh, I just wanted to check on you. I was… so busy healing poor kids with cancer that I didn’t have time for you when you were at the hospital.” She twiddles her hair, still smiling. But I can see Dad sitting precariously within her reach.
“So what, you ran out of kids with cancer?” I ask doubtfully.
“Taylor, don’t be rude.” Admonishes dad.
“No worries, mister Hebert.” Panacea pats his shoulder. “And to answer your question, oh, you know. I’ve dealt with them. I’m just so… miraculous.” Oookay. Like that didn’t sound good at all.
“Takeout is on the way if you wanted to stick around.” Dad offered, looking at Panacea.
“Thank you. But I really just came to see if Taylor got detoxified properly. I kept getting told about her relapsing into poison every day.” She says. Hm. Okay. Maybe she is not an evil doppelganger after all. “So, what do you think if we go up to your room? For a bit of privacy.” She tilts her head and smiles, waiting for my response.
“Oh, by all means.” Dad stands up and passes by me. “I’ll be in the backyard if you need me, okay, kiddo?” I nod at him and lead Panacea up to my room.
“So… you do home calls now?” I say, going up the creaking stairs. My spiders underground start spinning webs out of anxiety.
“I liked what you did in the basement.” She says instead of answering my question and sends shivers down my spine. “Very… orthodox.” She knows.
“... I don't know what you're talking about.” I say, immediately commanding my spiders to tear the lids of their jars out and flee. We enter my room, but I keep my distance from her.
“I think we both know what I'm talking about.” Panacea says, voice suggestive. “Isn't that right, Recluse?”
I lunge at her, my course of actions determined. This is not the real Panacea. Either she's a Blasto clone, a doppelganger or a Stranger cape who can change their appearance. Nobody would miss this one then. But the moment my hand touches her, my vision goes dark.
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Echidna rubs her neck, sure that it is going to bruise. When she lets go, the bruise is no more, and on her face rests a mask of interlocking flesh and bone. Her gaze falls on the unconscious Taylor on the ground.
“You nasty little insect. Had to use my ugly face because of you.” She kicks the girl in the head once, twice, then stops. Her hand covers her mask ask her shaking calms down. “Deep breaths. I still need you to be functional for the next part.”
Echidna lets her robe flow over her victim’s body and do its magic. Where there was one Taylor, now laid two of them. The naked imperfect copy of the first nuisance in her life sits up shakily and looks up at Echidna worshipfully.
“H-hi.” It says, voice filled with uncertainty. “What would you like me to do?”
“... You're not going to call me mommy?” Echidna asks, surprised. Was it just her first subject who was such a freak? Granted, that one wasn't a clone to begin with.
“Would you like me to?” The clone asks, blushing.
“No! No. Uhh, I am Echidna, but for you…” She considers her options. Her chin resting on her hand, she says, “call me… Mistress.” Yes, she liked that much more than mommy or sis.
“Yes, Mistress.” The clone starts going down on her hands and knees but Echidna quickly stops her by grabbing her shoulders.
“Jesus fuck, don't do that! I'm your boss, not- ugh. Okay, no calling me Mistress. That's a bit too- call me boss!” That was a totally innocent name! Like Miss! She was going for Mistress of the Dark, not- not this! Why is every subject she made such a weirdo?!
“Okay, boss.” The clone stands up and gives her a salute.
“Right. Get dressed in her clothes and get her dressed in something else.” She commands the clone after collecting herself. She turns away and starts pacing around the room while the clone busies herself by following her command.
“All done.” The clone says, buttoning up the unconscious Taylor in a generic white shirt.
“Very well.” Echidna nods sagely, exuding the air of someone that knows what they're doing. “Now you stay here until midnight, do whatever Taylor does and- hm. Go to the abandoned Fortress Construction building to the South of the Docks. And if you don't find me there, just… be villainous, be gay, do crime.”
“Will do, boss!” Clone Taylor gives her another salute and stands at attention.
“... No. Don't do the whole soldier thing.” Echidna finally says. She sighs in exasperation as her first follower enters the room through the window. She now looked like she did before all the changes Echidna gave her, and was dressed accordingly.
“Hi sis-” she began and was immediately cut off by clone Taylor.
“She prefers boss!” She says sternly.
Emma gasps. “How dare you, you bitch! Sis told me to call her that!”
“No, call me boss now.” Echidna agreed with clone Taylor, much to Emma’s disappointment. “Grab the body and follow me stealthily.” She commanded and turned to leave the Hebert residence.