Worm

by John Mccrae Wildbow

  “It won’t be that hard,” I told them. I closed my eyes. “Let’s focus. Rosary. Deconstruction and reconstitution of matter, minor telekinesis with the fragments she creates. Apparently she can take things apart and then reform them so they fall on you.”

  “Not a problem,” Imp said.

  “Eligos manipulates wind, creates blades of telekinetically altered air that grow as they travel and boomerang back to him.”

  “You’d be better at handling him,” Regent said.

  “His wind will probably mess with my bugs. We take him together. One-two punch.”

  “Right.”

  “Halo packs a special ring. Kind of like Sundancer, but the thing doesn’t burn. It’s a hoop with a cutting edge, and it acts as a forcefield generator and spits out lasers.”

  In the distance, Rosary was blocking Eligos’ path by reconstituting two trucks, blocking off one road.

  “I take Halo?” Regent asked.

  “Do. That leaves Valefor. I’ve got him,” I said.

  I paused, bringing my swarm to the battlefield.

  I’d used Atlas to travel to Regent’s territory, and I’d walked a short distance. Throughout, I’d been gathering flying insects and bugs. I’d been forming silk threads and cords.

  Now they rose, flying in formations, just over the tops of the buildings, as they approached Rosary and Eligos. They meshed together into a barrier, nestled close enough to one another to filter out sunlight.

  The area darkened visibly, and the droning of the bugs filled the air.

  Rays of golden light speared into the swarm. They were persistent, unending, five steady beams that concentrated on areas where the bugs were thickest. Halo.

  That left only one unknown. Valefor had to be somewhere nearby. The second he got a glimpse of me, it was over.

  My swarm hit Eligos and Rosary. Eligos created a strong wind that whipped around him, driving the bugs away. Rosary used her power to shred the silk lines. In the face of the biting insects, however, she couldn’t do as much. The petals around her cut into the swarm, but it was minimal damage to a great many attackers.

  She gathered the petals together to create a car without either wheels or a driver’s side door, and though she’d formed it with some bugs trapped inside, she climbed in and had the petals reconstitute into a door, creating a perfect seal.

  Eligos put an end to that when he sent a blade of wind at the back of the car, shearing one corner of the vehicle. My bugs flowed into the open area, covering Rosary from head to toe. Her mask was hard, around her eyes, cheekbones and nose, ending in a sharp point, an etched metal plate, worked into her hood. It didn’t cover her lower face and it surrounded but didn’t cover her eyes.

  “Come, and stay close,” I said, drawing the bugs around us. I walked briskly forward. Rosary had her petals, I had my bugs. If Valefor wanted us, he’d have to be clever. “And Regent?”

  “What?”

  “I’m going to ask you a question later, and I’ll have my arms folded. I want you to lie.”

  “Lie?” Imp asked, aghast. “So dishonest!”

  “We’re honest villains, Skitter,” Regent said, taking a stern tone. “We earn our victories the right way, not through deceit and dishonesty.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  As we approached, I found Halo in my reach. My swarm approached him, and his halo zipped to his side, five feet in diameter and razor-edged. A force field protected the hero.

  He was still rooted in place. One less person to deal with.

  “Regent,” I said, touching his shoulder. My bugs spread out to create a clearing around us, and I pointed.

  He turned to face Eligos, and I parted the bugs. Eligos was wearing only the bodysuit that went under whatever armor he’d been wearing, and a mask that covered his face, leaving only one eye exposed.

  With a wave of his hand, Regent knocked Eligos over, causing one leg to buckle just as the other was involuntarily straightened. Eligos sprawled, and the wind briefly cut out. My swarm descended on him, and I began binding him in silk.

  I had Atlas take to the air, as I worked more silk cords into the surroundings. “Be nice if this works.”

  “What are you doing?” Imp. Her presence caught me off guard.

  “Threads,” I said.

  “He can cut threads,” Imp commented. “It won’t work.”

  “I know he cuts threads,” I said. “Watch.”

  Atlas passed over a space between two buildings, then dropped out of the sky. The string that extended between him and Eligos went taut. I had a series of threads strung between two buildings, and Atlas served as a counterweight, so Eligos could be hauled into the air.

  “No way that holds,” Imp said.

  “Never intended it to,” I told her.

  Mandibles severed the thread, and Eligos fell. Three stories, give or take, and he landed on all fours. He screamed, and wind ripped through the area, scattering both bugs and petals. Eligos flopped over onto one side.

  “Two left. Rosary and Valefor,” I said.

  Rosary had disintegrated what remained of the car and was facing me, the multicolored petals a tight storm around her. I could only make out glimpses of her general silhouette. The rest I could fill in from my research. A young woman in a rose-tinted robe with gold leaves at the edges, and a gold-colored mask. She was silent.

  “We have no quarrel with you,” she said. “We’re only here to deal with the Fallen.”

  “Then kneel,” I said. I banished the bugs, and she almost staggered in relief, after holding firm against their onslaught.

  She straightened her back and squared her shoulders, but didn’t respond.

  “Kneel. This is our territory. If you pay the proper respect, I hand you Eligos and Valefor, and you can leave the city with no problems.”

  “I could drop a car on your head.”

  “And I could take you down as easily as I did Eligos.”

  “Without silk?”

  “Without silk,” I said.

  She nodded slowly, then slowly knelt, dropping to one knee. Her eyes, behind her mask, were glaring at me.

  “What would you have done if I hadn’t?” she asked.

  “Not my style to give away plans to the enemy,” I said.

  “You could be bluffing.”

  “I’m not. I would have disabled you, knocked you out and Regent would have used his power to seize control of you.”

  Her eyes widened a fraction.

  “Regent, you can use your power on unconscious people, right?” I asked.

  Regent shrugged, “Obviously.”

  There was the lie.

  “That simple,” I told Rosary. “He can assume control instantly, once he’s had control over someone once.”

  “That crosses a line.”

  “I’m far less concerned about crossing lines these days,” I told her. “But you only broke one rule. We’d let you go, with the idea that we’d seize control of you if you ever came back. We’ll do that with anyone and every-”

  I stopped. Imp had appeared at a grocery store nearby. She was speaking in a low voice, murmuring.

  “…Skitter said she’d take you on and she can use her bugs to attack you without being seen and she can hear and see this so she knows…”

  “Fuck!” I growled the word.

  “Valefor got her,” Regent drew the obvious conclusion..

  “I told her to stay close,” I said, breaking into a run. Rosary wasn’t even a consideration.

  “She’s not the type to listen!” Regent huffed. Rosary started to follow us, then hesitated, glancing at Eligos.

  “Watch him!” I barked the order, augmenting my voice with the combined drones, chirps and buzzes of all the bugs in the area. The heroine stopped where she was.

  Regent and I were thoroughly shrouded by bugs when we reached the grocery store. There were only a handful of people inside, every one of them rooted in place.

  Stranger-type capes were classified that
way due to their capabilities in stealth and subterfuge. Valefor was more the latter. He wasn’t stealthy, exactly, but his ability to perpetrate subterfuge was devastating.

  One look, and his target was stunned, rendered eminently suggestible. A hypnotic gaze, so to speak.

  He’d played up the telepathy angle before people caught on, and the costume that echoed the Simurgh was a token to that. The fact that he could leave suggestions that only triggered under certain conditions was another part of it. ‘Attack so-and-so next week’. ‘Set fire to your workplace the next time your boss pisses you off’.

  Capes with powers that allowed them to compel others walked a fine line. Even without murder, Valefor was pushing that line.

  “To everyone listening, if that swarm or any of the people inside move away from that spot, or if something happens to me,” a young girl spoke in a man’s voice, stepping out of the sheltering embrace of a middle-aged woman. “Kill yourselves or do your best to kill them, I don’t care which.”

  I’d taken her for a scared kid in the company of her mother. No. She’d… he’d compelled a woman to pretend to be his mother, and my roving insects hadn’t thought twice about it.

  It was Valefor, in a teenage girl’s top and skinny jeans, with long, straight blond hair, and makeup caked onto his face to hide the tattoo.

  “…and forget I gave these orders,” he finished.

  That would be one reason for the stranger classification, right there.

  The orders to kill or commit suicide were a surprise to me, but he was more than capable of covering his tracks.

  “Imp,” Valefor said. “Find and kill your teammates. I want you to kill yourself when you’re done trying. Go, and forget I gave this order.”

  Imp drew her knife with one hand and her taser with the other. She paused a second, and then charged for Regent and I.

  I tensed. I had options, but if any of his hostages read it as a cue to kill themselves- no.

  I could shoot from the midst of the cloud, but then we’d be paralyzed. There was no guarantee that Valefor’s influence would end with his death.

  I’d told myself I’d be heartless, but this wasn’t what I’d meant.

  Imp turned a right angle, moments before plunging into the swarm. She charged for Valefor.

  He reacted, giving an order, “Everyone listening, kill yo-”

  He didn’t get any further. She kicked, directing the attack between Valefor’s legs.

  Valefor hit the ground, and Imp kicked him between the legs once more for good measure.

  “Cancel the orders, fuckwit!” she growled, dropping on top of him. Her knife pressed against Valefor’s throat.

  “How-”

  She backhanded him across the face, striking him in one cheekbone with the knife handle. “Cancel!”

  I could sense the crowd relaxing. People hurried away from the scene. It took more than a minute before they were all gone.

  Imp struck Valefor again.

  “Stop,” I said.

  “Regent got one in, I wanted one too,” she said. She spat at Valefor.

  I tentatively moved bugs, then settled them around his eyes. Valefor struggled, but froze when Imp pressed the knife against his throat.

  Regent got one in?

  Oh.

  “You… voluntarily gave him control over you?” I asked.

  “Little while back,” Imp said. “I wanted to see what it was like. Could come in handy. Did come in handy.”

  It’s Regent, I thought. I’d fought beside him in life and death scenarios and I would never have allowed him to take control of me. Couldn’t fathom it.

  Was there a way I could diplomatically say as much?

  None I could think of, right this minute.

  “I can’t imagine submitting myself to that,” I said.

  “Riskier for you,” she said. “For me, his power over me shorts out when I use my power, and that’s any time he slips up or goes to sleep. Then he forgets who I am, and I’m free to come after him and fuck him up.”

  “Eviscerate me in my sleep,” Regent said, too jovially.

  “Exactly,” Imp said, sounding just as pleased with herself. “And I know him. He’s not about to fuck with me with the amount of work it’d take to keep track of me.”

  “Told you, Dork,” Regent commented. “I’m versatile.”

  I didn’t have a response to that. I glanced at Imp. “Tell me something only Imp would know.”

  “Seriously?” Regent asked.

  “I could tell you that there’s a mole on your back,” Imp said.

  That took me a second to process. When had I ever had my clothes off where she could see?

  Not her. Brian.

  “You were there?“

  “I stopped in. I wanted to see if my brother was okay. Believe me, I wish I hadn’t.”

  She was there. Then.

  “Wait, what’s this?” Regent asked.

  “It’s not important,” I said, my voice tight.

  “I’ll tell you later,” Imp said.

  “Don’t,” I said, in a warning tone.

  There was a pause. I could tell the pair of them were having too much fun at my expense.

  But there was still an enemy to deal with.

  She looked down at Valefor. Her tone was more serious as she said, “I didn’t think this man-slut would be able to see me.”

  “You know his powers,” I said, glad for the change of topic. “Hypnotic stare, Tattletale said he might have other senses or augmented awareness to track his victims.”

  “It’s fine,” Imp said. She adjusted her hold on the knife. “Worked out.”

  “Yeah,” Regent said.

  “I guess you two got a victory,” I said, “A little… what did you call it?”

  “Rep,” Imp said.

  “Rep.”

  Long seconds passed.

  “I could control him,” Regent said.

  “What’s the point?” Imp asked.

  “It’d be an advantage,” I said. “And I suppose it’s up to you two what we do next. It’s your territory, Regent.”

  And I want to see how you operate, when left to your own devices.

  “Pain in the ass,” Regent said.

  “We let him go, he’s going to come after us,” Imp said.

  “Probably,” I agreed.

  “You want us to turn him in,” Regent told me.

  “I’m not saying that,” I answered.

  Regent studied me, “You’re here for a reason, and it’s not just babysitting us, being an overbearing boss and making sure we do the job right. Let’s not waste time. Out with it.”

  I kept my voice low, so Valefor couldn’t hear. “I said you and Imp were the scariest members of our group. You heard what I said to Rosary. How I was going to let her believe that we could take control of her at any second, so long as she’s in the city.”

  “Sure.”

  “Fear. Ruling through fear. How do we get the maximum result for the minimum effort?”

  “I like the sound of this,” Regent said.

  “We make our enemies paranoid,” I told him. “We get them scared enough that they start devoting more effort than is necessary to dealing with us. Feed them misinformation. With your power, we have an easy way to keep any enemy we capture from wanting to enter the city, and so long as we let them go, rather than using them, we’re not drawing enough heat to get a kill order put on our heads.”

  It was the best I could do. This was the crossroads, as far as I was concerned. If he didn’t take to this idea, the Regent I’d envisioned was likely to come to pass. If he did accept the idea… well, it was still likely, but I could have hope.

  “Huh,” Regent said.

  Apparently that was the only answer I was about to get.

  “What do we do with him?” Imp said. She had the knife in Valefor’s mouth. “I’m going to get a cramp, leaning over him like this.”

  “We can hold onto him long enough for Regent to s
eize him,” I said, “Then let him go. Or turn him into custody. But there’s no guarantee he wouldn’t use his power to control someone and turn them into an unwitting assassin.”

  “If he hasn’t already set some up,” Imp said.

  “If he hasn’t,” I agreed.

  I thought briefly of my dad. If Valefor had been feeling malicious…

  I put the idea out of my head.

  “We could trust the PRT to look after him,” Regent said, somber. “They’re professionals, they know how to deal with dangerous villains.”

  He didn’t manage to hold it in for long. He chuckled in near-silence, his shoulders shaking.

  “The other possibility,” I said, “Is stripping him of his powers.”

  I reached behind me, and found a small metal container. I tipped out the contents into my palm, and then held out my hand so Regent could see.

  “Seriously?” Regent asked.

  “Seriously.”

  “If you’re up for it…” Regent trailed off.

  “I’m done with holding back,” I said. “Decisive action. No mercy for those who don’t deserve mercy.”

  “Right,” Regent said.

  I approached Valefor and Imp.

  Valefor heard the footsteps, must have felt the impact as I stepped forward, standing over him. He shook his head violently, oblivious to the knife Imp had placed in his mouth. That, or he’d overheard something I’d said and didn’t care anymore.

  He managed to shake enough bugs off that he could open his eyes. He fixed his gaze on me, and I froze. My thoughts dissolved to warm, wet, white noise.

  The maggots, millipedes and centipedes dropped from my hand. A part of me that was aware without being quite conscious controlled them, carried out my intent. They spilled onto his face, and moved toward his eyes. The stronger bugs helped pave the way for the others, leveraging the eyelids away from the eyes so the maggots could pass beneath.

  “No!” he shouted, around the knife. “Sto-”

  Imp shifted position. She was kneeling on his chest, and she moved the knife, bringing one knee into Valefor’s chin. I could feel the force of the impact through the bugs on his face.

  “Oh god,” Imp said, “Gross. Gross, gross, gross. Did I get any of them on me?”

  My thoughts were clearing. I blinked, and the movement felt painfully slow, as though I were almost asleep.