“So you’re condemning us to die?”  Any bravado Yan might have had before had been excised and replaced by wide-eyed fear.

“No.  Leave the city as fast as you can, and you can get help somewhere else.

“This way, if you die from this, it’ll be on you for not getting out of my way quickly enough.”

I don’t really care, so long as you’re out of my city.  You’ll have some ugly scars if you don’t hurry.”

My city. Not even our city.

Though it could be in the sense of “my home city”, I kinda doubt that’s the full extent of it.

Skitter gestured to the door, and the three were quick to leave.  “Sierra, the shutter.”

Bye bye!

Sugita was too busy reeling from the knee to the gut to respond or react.

“Attacking my people?  That was dumb.  Attacking a little kid?  Dumber.  Consider my territory to be a very bad place to be from now on.

She’s making it incredibly clear how unwanted they are here now.

I mean, if the spider bites weren’t enough of an indication.

My bugs can see you, they can hear you, and I’ll know if you slow down even a little as you leave, give you a few more bites.”

“RUN.”

The beetle climbed off Yan, using its forelimbs to pick up the gun by driving the points through the trigger-guard.  It moved to Skitter’s side.

Y’know, I never thought I’d be reading about a beetle with a gun, but now that I am, it does not disappoint.

Yan, Sugita and Jay all took that as their leave to climb to their feet and head toward the door.  None of them even looked at Skitter, but they stopped when she pushed the door closed.

Not go-time yet?

Oh! Is she gonna use the gun as a starting signal for them to race out the door?

“There’s no safe haven for you in Brockton Bay.  My allies have control of every district, every territory.  No shelter will host you, and our individual forces will be searching every other place you might want to sleep.  Before you get far enough to find a doctor and get those bites treated, my contacts will have spread the word. 

“Get the fuck out of our city.”

The doctors may have to treat you, but we can have our people sitting in the waiting rooms, or working as assistants to the doctors.  If you show your face, you’ll get attacked.  Maybe it’ll be a direct attack, maybe it won’t.  Trust me when I say you won’t be in any shape to defend yourselves.”

Damn.

She seems to be exaggerating slightly, but Coil could genuinely have his Coildiers in such roles, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility for her. Just outside of the amount of effort she’d want to go to to deal with just these three thugs.

The suggestion is enough. The fear it’ll put in them.

The paranoia that anyone around them might be out to get them. That sounds familiar for some reason.

They were as insecure as the rest of us, Sierra thought.  Not that it excuses their behavior.

It really doesn’t.

“Hand or knee?” Skitter asked.

Ohhh.

Going for karmic retribution.

I like it!

“Fuck you!”  Yan shouted.

Then she convulsed.  She thrashed, dragging her hands against the pointed forelimbs with such violence that she opened ragged cuts in her palms.

Oh wow. What just bit her?

She stopped as quickly as she’d started, her eyes going wide.

She’d been bitten, more than once.

Was it the brown recluses?

Also, did Taylor go for “both” when Yan refused to choose?

“Shaggy-hair, hand or knee?”

Looks like that’s what happened, yeah.

Your turn, Jay.

Jay’s eyes went wide, but he very calmly stated, “Hand.”

Not bad, managing to stay calm after seeing what just happened to Yan. Does he think Skitter is bluffing, that the convulsions were just for show?

His eyes went wide as a spider crawled down the length of his arm to the back of his hand.  He jumped like he’d been electrocuted.

Yeah, looks like he didn’t expect that to actually happen.

Y’know, I kinda hope Taylor takes the time at some point to mention that she did this to Lung’s dick, but even if she doesn’t, I like the parallels. The progression from that revelation horrifying her, to her doing this casually to three people who didn’t get anywhere near Lung’s supposed level of shittiness.

I say “supposed” because the only things we’ve really been shown of it are that his operation dealt in drugs and that he was willing to kill powered kids.

“Anyone that’s still in the city probably has some reason they can’t go.  But things here aren’t good.”

…fair point.

“We can fix that,” Skitter said.  It sounded more like she was talking to herself than to anyone in the room.

I think she is.

It would have been reassuring if she hadn’t been staring down at Yan.

Oh, yikes.

“What are you going to do?” Yan repeated herself.

“Charlotte, would you take the children into another room?”

Second time asked, second time ignored.

And yeeeah, that’s not gonna be a reassuring sentiment for Yan.

Charlotte seemed relieved to have the chance to escape.  Every child that was present flocked to her and she hurried into the bedroom.

Charlotte has always been the more skittish of the two original drones, so I can imagine she doesn’t want to see what’s going to happen either.

That’s on top of wanting to get away from Sugita, of course. I’m sure that’s her main concern.

Yan raised her voice, “You left!  You abandoned us!”

Trying to play on her guilt? I’m not entirely sure that’s going to work right now. Later, sure, but right now she might be too exhausted to acknowledge the guilt below extinction-level.

…then again, she just did.

She lifted her foot, Yan unclenched it, and the beetle stabbed down with another pointed forelimb to pin it to the ground.

Another thing that helps show how out of it Taylor is: She’s casually inflicting pain, barely even acknowledging what she’s doing, while carrying an unrelated conversation.

To be fair, she is good at multitasking.

“What are you doing?” Yan asked, a note of desperation in her voice.

It kinda looks like you’re getting crucified. To the floor. Which kind of disqualifies it from being called crucifixion, but still.

At the very least you’re being restrained.

Skitter didn’t respond.  “Sierra?  Charlotte?”

Charlotte didn’t venture a reply, but Sierra managed one.  “Yeah?”

Were it not for the accompanying buzz of the bugs, Sierra suspected she wouldn’t have heard Skitter speak.  “You’ve been working hard.  Thank you.  I didn’t expect to have anything to come back to.”

Oh man, those are some words that say a lot.

We’re getting a really good look at Taylor’s feelings here despite not being in her head. They’re easier to understand than most times this sort of thing happens because we’re used to the way her mind works, but she’s still being incredibly expressive in her lack of expression, if that makes any sense. She’s so mentally exhausted and that’s before you add her concern over being responsible for the world ending sooner.

Which she’s not. But that rarely means she’s not going to beat herself up over it, and that’s exhausting in its own way.

“It’s okay,” Sierra said.  The words were a bit of a non-sequitur, but Skitter seemed to accept them.

The words, perhaps, but not the sentiment. It feels like Sierra picked up on the implicit “I’m sorry I left you to deal with my mess” and responded in kind, even if she doesn’t quite consciously know why.

“Thought you would have left,” Skitter said.

That’s.

Actually a good point.

They both could’ve left, easily, if they thought Skitter wouldn’t return. In theory, Skitter was supposed to be the only thing keeping them here. But they stayed and made the most of it, tried to take care of people and restore the community.

They too have grown to care about this place and its people.

“You mean they won’t attack anytime soon, or-”

“They’re dealt with.  Burnscar’s dead.  Crawler’s dead.  Mannequin’s probably dead.  Cherish and Shatterbird wish they were dead.

Heh.

Found Siberian’s weak point, and it’ll be international news soon, if it isn’t already.  She, Jack and Bonesaw ran.  Tried to pursue, couldn’t track them.  It’ll be a while before they bounce back.”

Good fucking work.

“You took on the Nine and won?”

Skitter ventured toward Yan, then used one foot to hold the girl’s arm down against the ground.

And she just leaves that question hanging, like it’s no big deal. For now, anyway.

Man, she sounds so exhausted.

The beetle pinned it there, pressing the point of one forelimb into her palm with enough pressure that a bead of blood appeared.  Skitter stepped around the girl so the beetle could do the same.

…what are you doing now?

When Yan clenched her fist, Skitter stepped on her fist, crushing it underfoot.

Is this just about restraining them?

She took her time responding.  When she did speak, all she said was, “I didn’t say we won.”

…right. Victory for Skitter would mean wiping the Nine out completely. At the very least Jack, not letting him escape.

Taylor has a history of blaming herself for the actions of antagonists if she fails to stop them. If she does that here, she’s going to be blaming herself for the end of the world coming in two years rather than 15+ (even if I’m right that she never had the opportunity to change that).

Fuck, that’s a heavy burden.

In my defense, I don’t watch horror very often. Doesn’t mean I don’t know what sort of tropes the villains tend to fall into, though.

“I hope the rest of you are okay?”  Skitter asked.

You arrived right in time. A moment later and they wouldn’t all be entirely okay, physically.

Mentally, I don’t think Charlotte’s in a great state.

“Where were you?” Sierra returned the question with one of her own.

She was doing her best to save literally everyone downtown.

“Dealing with the Nine.  They’re not a concern anymore, at least for now.”

I like how matter-of-factly she says that.

It was surreal, hearing the girl talk about dealing with the Slaughterhouse Nine.  They weren’t in the same category as your average villain.

That wasn’t even the part I was talking about, but yeah, the matter-of-factness of that part is great too. Skitter just earned herself some major badass points with Sierra, I think.

They were like monsters from horror films, the killer who always got up at the end of the film, the monster who never died.

Fuck.

That’s been the theme of the group all along! Of course it has! How the hell did I not catch onto that, only applying the connection to that genre to Crawler?

I’ve had plenty of time!

Literally every one of them fits into some sort of horror trope!

I stopped thinking about this, didn’t I. After my first guess for the group’s theme (historical serial killers) didn’t pan out. The only time I’ve taken time to speculate on a wider theme for the group since that, as far as I remember, was when I pointed to most of them having great potential wasted on evil.