Worm

by John Mccrae Wildbow

  I almost missed it in the gloom, but when I did spot it, it was almost impossible to ignore. On every patch of skin I could see in the Chosen’s group, scars and scratches had just barely healed over. There were still faint indents and lines of pale skin that marked where the deep lacerations had been. The little scars made patterns across their skin, some spraying out from a single point, others running parallel to one another, going in the same direction like a snapshot of rainfall imprinted on their skin. With that many scratches and scars, they must have been hit hard.

  Faultline’s group was gathered to one side. Faultline, Newter, and the new member Shamrock wore more concealing costumes than their usual. Faultline’s face was covered in a tinted visor, and her arms and legs were covered in opaque gloves and leggings. Labyrinth and Spitfire were fully decked out in their usual concealing robe and fire-retardant suits, respectively. Only Gregor showed skin. The barnacle-like growths of spiral shells that covered his skin had multiplied on one side of his body, until there was more shell than skin. The skin around it was crimson enough that it stood out in the gloom. It looked tender.

  I saw a flash of light above us, and spotted Purity in the air high above the rooftop, using her power to create a flare of light, extinguish it, then create it again. There was an answering series of flashes from across the water. It was a different set of signals than the ones she’d set up with us. It made sense for the light signals to be different from group to group, so Purity could keep track of who was coming and where from. The main reason we’d agreed on this meeting place were the seclusion it offered, and the fact that it was just hard enough to access that the Nine wouldn’t be able to approach without us knowing. Hopefully.

  All at once, an incoming boat made its presence known. As though a switch was flipped, there was the sound of something that sounded like the combined noise of radio static coming from a bank of speakers, an eighteen wheeler with the muffler off and an onrushing train. It wasn’t just noise – the vehicle flickered with flashes of electricity and lights that people could probably see from anywhere downtown.

  Seeing it approach, I had no doubt it was a tinker contraption. It was the size of a small yacht, but it looked outfitted for war, with what looked like tesla coils crossed with old school tv antennae fueling its forward momentum and sending arcs of electricity dancing over the waves in its wake, as though it was riding on a current of lightning. Various guns had been placed haphazardly around the upper deck, each manned by a Merchant. Skidmark stood at the highest deck with Squealer, the driver.

  Squealer had apparently never grasped the concept of elegance in design. From what I’d read and heard, she went for size, augmentations and additions when she built her vehicles. She was kind of the polar opposite of Armsmaster in that regard.

  The hull of their boat scraped against the edge of the building, nearly running over the boat that Grue and Bitch had come in on. All of the lights shut off, and the Merchants descended onto the roof. Skidmark, Squealer, Mush, Scrub, Trainwreck, the telekinetic whirlwind lady with the long hair and one other.

  Another reason for this meeting place had been subtlety, keeping out of sight and off the radar. The Merchants apparently hadn’t gotten the message.

  “Hey!” Hookwolf growled, “What part of keep a low profile don’t you fucking understand?”

  Skidmark smirked, raising his chin to give it an arrogant tilt, “We did. My Squealer built a box that cancels out light and noise at a certain distance. Nice and in your face up close, almost invisible and silent when far away. Isn’t that right, baby?”

  Squealer just smiled. It probably wasn’t as sexy or cute as she thought it was. Aisha, when left to her own devices, was a pretty girl who dressed trashy. Squealer, I felt, was more of a trashy woman who dressed trashy.

  “Hey, Faultline,” Skidmark’s smirk dropped off his face as he realized who else was present. “What the motherfuck were you doing, fucking with my party!?”

  “You had something we needed.” Faultline’s response was as measured and calm as Skidmark’s question wasn’t.

  “Who hired you, bitch? Tell me and my Merchants won’t come after you in revenge. All you’ll have to do is return that shit you stole or pay me back for it. Maybe you can spit-polish my knob for a little goodwill.”

  “Not going to happen.”

  “Then forget sucking my cock. Pay me back and tell me who hired you and we’ll call it even.”

  She shook her head. It was more the kind of head shake that accompanied an eye roll.

  Skidmark went on, “You’re mercenaries. Don’t tell me you don’t have the cash. I’ll only ask for five mil. One for each vial you took.”

  Fautline didn’t answer him. Instead she looked at Hookwolf and asked him, “Did we really need to invite him? Does he contribute anything to this discussion?”

  “He has nine powers on his team,” Hookwolf responded. “Ideology isn’t important.”

  “He doesn’t have an ideology. He’s just an idiot.”

  “Enough of that,” Hookwolf snarled, his voice hard with a sudden anger. “We don’t fight amongst ourselves. Not on neutral ground. Both of you shut the fuck up.”

  Faultline shook her head and leaned over to whisper something to Shamrock. The Merchants settled themselves on the side of the roof opposite our group. Skidmark gave Grue the evil eye. Was he still resentful over what had happened at the last meeting? Being denied a seat at the table?

  Another series of flashes served to alert us, indirectly, of incoming arrivals. The Travelers appeared soon after. Trickster, Sundancer, Ballistic each stood on the back of some kind of turtle serpent. I couldn’t make out Genesis’s form in the gloom. What little light was available came from the moon and Purity’s radiance from where she floated above us. I could have used my bugs to get a feel for the shape Genesis had taken, but my habit was generally to place my bugs on clothing where they wouldn’t be noticed, and Genesis was effectively naked. I didn’t know anything about them, but they were our allies. I didn’t want to irritate her and upset anything between our two groups.

  Coil was the last of us to arrive, maybe because he’d wanted to be fashionably late. The two soldiers who’d driven his boat stayed behind. Purity set down by where the boats had landed, followed by Fog and Crusader, who I hadn’t seen in the dark. Night stepped out of the lake, between our parked boats and onto the roof, water streaming from her cloak. Had she been the just-in-case measure if an incoming boat hadn’t known the signal? She would be invisible in the pitch black gloom beneath the water’s surface, which would mean she wasn’t in her human form.

  The way the Travelers and Coil had positioned themselves, we’d formed a haphazard ring. From the top of the roof, going clockwise, the arranged groups were Hookwolf’s Chosen, Faultline’s crew, us, the Pure, Coil, the Travelers and the Merchants.

  “It seems everyone is here,” Coil spoke, taking in the collected villains. Forty-ish of us in all.

  “Not quite everyone,” Hookwolf replied. ”Victor, Othala.”

  Othala touched Victor, and Victor raised one hand. A fireball appeared in it, then disappeared as he clenched his hand. He repeated the process two more times.

  “Who are you signalling?” Purity’s asked. Her hand flared with light, ready to fire.

  “It would be a grave and stupid mistake if you invited the Nine,” Coil told Hookwolf.

  “We’re not stupid,” Hookwolf said. Three answering flashes appeared over the water. I heard the faint noise of a boat motor. Everyone present on the roof readied for a fight, turning towards either Hookwolf or the incoming boat. I used my power to call on local crabs, and to draw out the bugs I’d stored in the boat, keeping them close to me.

  There were three more flashes, close, and Victor responded again. In moments, the boat arrived. It wasn’t the Nine. It was the good guys.

  Miss Militia was first out of the boat, and Battery activated her power to haul the boat up onto ‘land’ in a flash before step
ping up to Miss Militia’s side. Triumph, Weld and Clockblocker rounded out their group. Our circle made room, though half the people present seemed to be tensed and ready to use their powers with the slightest excuse.

  “It seems we have a problem,” Miss Militia spoke, as her group took her place between the Pure and us Undersiders.

  “We do,” Hookwolf said. ”Two problems, actually.”

  “Two?” Purity asked.

  Hookwolf pointed at the Travelers, then pointed at Grue and the rest of our group. ”They’re being cocky, think they’re being clever. Figure we should get all this out in the open, at least so you’re aware. You too, Coil, Miss Militia.”

  “Perhaps you’d better explain,” Coil responded.

  Hookwolf pointed at each of us in turn, “Grue has been making attacks against my people in the upper downtown area. Howling has been heard in the Trainyard. Bitch. Regent was sighted in the college neighborhoods. Skitter made a move to take over the Boardwalk and claim it for herself. Tattletale is either abstaining, or more likely, putting herself in the middle of the Docks and keeping her head down.”

  “So?” Tattletale asked.

  Hookwolf ignored her. ”Downtown we’ve got Ballistic attacking my people in the upper downtown neighborhoods, north of this lake here. Sundancer was spotted in the shopping district, Genesis at the downtown coast, near the south ferry station. Trickster has been driving looters out of the heart of downtown, the towers. You seeing the pattern? All of them alone. Most of them making moves to take a piece of the city for themselves.”

  “We already knew they were talking territory,” Miss Militia responded, “This isn’t a priority. The Nine-”

  “They haven’t taken territory,” Hookwolf snapped back, “They’re taking the city. Split it up all nice and proper between them, and now they’re taking advantage of the distraction the Nine are giving them to secure their positions before we fucking catch on.”

  Grue looked at Trickster, and there was some kind of unspoken agreement between them. Knowing Grue, I was certain he was deliberately ignoring Coil. No use volunteering more information than necessary.

  Trickster spoke, “We didn’t know the Nine were around before we put this into motion.”

  There was a flicker of surprise on Purity’s face. ”So Hookwolf is right. You are taking over.”

  “Something like that,” Grue responded.

  What was Hookwolf’s game? Had he brought everyone here under a different pretext so he could ambush us on this front?

  “This isn’t of any concern to us,” Miss Militia spoke, stern. ”The only reason we’re here is to get information on the Slaughterhouse Nine, their motives, and strategies for responding.”

  “That might help you in the next week or two, but a month from now you’ll be regretting it,” Hookwolf told her.

  “Quite frankly, I don’t think we have any other choice,” Miss Militia replied.

  “We do,” Hookwolf said. ”They want us to lose our territories to them while we busy ourselves dealing with the Nine-”

  “That’s not our intent,” Trickster cut him off.

  “Pigshit,” Skidmark muttered. He looked angry. Even Purity had a hard cast to her face, or what I could see of it through the glare of her eyes and hair. These were people who thought highly of themselves. Whether that self-esteem was deserved or not, they didn’t like being played for fools.

  All at once, this meeting had become about us versus them. The Travelers and the Undersiders against everyone else.

  Hookwolf said, “Then agree to a truce. So long as the Nine are here, you’re hands off your territories, no fighting, no business. We can arrange something, maybe you all stay at a nice hotel on the Protectorate’s tab until this is dealt with. That’ll mean we can all focus on the real threat.”

  Stay in a hotel until the Nine were dead, arrested or driven out of town. He couldn’t seriously expect us to do that.

  “I’m inclined to agree,” Coil answered, after a moment’s consideration. ”Perhaps now is an opportune time to share this information: I have sources that inform me that should Jack Slash survive his visit to Brockton Bay, it bodes ill for everyone.”

  “That’s vague,” Faultline spoke.

  “I’ll be more specific. Should Jack Slash not die before he leaves Brockton Bay, it is very likely the world will end in a matter of years,” Coil spoke.

  “Bullshit,” Skidmark answered. The others were showing varying reactions. I doubt many bought it.

  “You contacted us to say something very similar a couple of days ago.” Miss Militia said, “But I have the same questions now that I did then. Do you have sources? Can you verify this? Or provide more information?”

  Behind her, Weld reached into his pocket and withdrew his smartphone.

  “More information? Yes. I have sought further details and pieced together a general picture of things. Jack Slash is the catalyst for this event, not the cause. At some point in the coming years, Jack Slash kills, talks to, meets or influences someone. This causes a chain of events to occur, leading to the deaths of anywhere from thirty-three to ninety-six percent of the world’s population.”

  That gave everyone pause.

  Coil went on, “If Jack Slash is killed, the event is likely to occur at some point in the more distant future instead.”

  “Dinah Alcott,” Weld spoke. All eyes turned to the metal-skinned boy.

  “Beg pardon?” Coil asked.

  “Thursday, April fourteenth of this year, Dinah Alcott was kidnapped from her home and has not been seen since. Dinah had missed several weeks of classes with crippling headaches in the months before her disappearance. Investigation found no clear medical causes. Police interviewed her friends. She had confided to them that she thought she could see the future, but doing so hurt her.”

  “You think Dinah is Coil’s source. That makes a lot of sense.” Miss Militia turned from Weld to Coil, and her voice was heavy with accusation, “Coil?”

  “I did not kidnap her. I offered Dinah training and relief from the drawbacks of her abilities on the contingency that she immediately cut off all contact with her family and friends and provide me a year of service.”

  He lied so smoothly, flawlessly. What really rattled me was hearing him refer to her as Dinah for the first time. Coil added, ”She took a week to decide, then contacted me during one of her attacks.”

  Of course, the heroes weren’t about to take his word for gospel. Miss Militia’s lips pursed into a thin line. ”Could I contact her to verify this?”

  “No. For one thing, I have no reason to let you. Also, the process of gaining control of her power requires that she be kept strictly isolated from outside elements. A simple phone call would set her back weeks.”

  “So Coil has a precog,” Hookwolf growled, “That explains how he always seemed to fucking get the upper hand when he pit his mercenaries against the Empire.”

  Coil clasped his hands in front of him, “I knew you might come to these conclusions if I volunteered this information. You all should already know I am not a stupid man. Would I weaken my position if I did not wholeheartedly believe that what I was saying was correct? Jack Slash must die, or we all die.“

  “And to maximize our chances for this to happen,” Hookwolf added, “The alliance of the Travelers and the Undersiders must concede to our terms. They hold no territory until the Nine are dead.”

  Coil deliberated for a few seconds. ”I think this makes the most sense.”

  Skidmark and Purity nodded as well.

  Coil’s response caught me off guard. He was throwing us to the wolves to maintain his anonymity in things. I felt my heart sink.

  It made sense, on a basic level, and I could see why the other groups were agreeing. I mean, our territory wasn’t worth risking that the world ending. Coil was apparently willing to delay his plans, or pretend to delay his plans while he carried them out in secret. But I would be giving up my territory, condemning Dinah to more days, m
ore weeks of captivity.

  I really didn’t like that idea.

  “Easy decision for you guys to make,” Trickster said, chuckling wryly, “You’re not giving anything up. In fact, if we went with your plan, there’d be nothing stopping you from sneaking a little territory, passing on word to your underlings to prey on our people, consolidating your forces and preparing them for war, all while we’re cooped up in that hotel or wherever.”

  He was right. I could imagine it. Not just weeks, but months lost. We’d just lost the element of surprise thanks to Hookwolf outing us here, and the local villains and heroes were now all too aware of the scale of what we were doing. Add the fact that they would get a breather? A chance to regroup and prepare? To retaliate? Regaining any of the ground we lost while we helped hunt down the Slaughterhouse Nine would be excruciating.

  In those weeks or months it took to retake territory and slog ahead with constant opposition, there could be further delays. It would mean that my plan to efficiently seize the Boardwalk and surrounding Docks would fall apart. I’d have to pull away from my people and my neighborhoods to help the others fight off attacks. I wouldn’t be able to offer exemplary service to earn Coil’s trust and respect in the mess that ensued. The opportunity to free Dinah would slip from my grasp.

  Worst of all, there was no reason for it. We’d claimed more of the city as our territory than they had assumed, and now Hookwolf was building on that, giving them reason to worry we had other sinister motives.

  “No,” I murmured, barely audible to myself. I could see some of the other Undersiders -Grue, Tattletale and Bitch- turn their heads a fraction in my direction.