Panacea was waiting in an alley when we arrived, arms folded.  Her brown hair was tucked underneath an army green mosh cap, the brim pulled low.

Well, at least approaching her won’t be too hard, if she’s willing to just stand and wait. She doesn’t seem happy about her company, but she does seem to accept that they’re arriving without trying to run away or anything like that.

She looked exhausted, worn out.  She had that same devastated look in her eyes that I had seen in her cousin and aunt on the day of the Endbringer attack.

Makes sense. She’s practically lost her family, like they had that day. Even if in her case, it was a choice, she’s not going to be happy about it.

“I see you’ve got the two other horsemen of the apocalypse with you.  Where’s number four?”

Heh. Still got a bit of dry wit, good to hear.

I shook my head.  “Horsemen of the apocalypse?”

“Nevermind.”

Is Taylor not familiar with them, or did she just not expect to be likened to one?

Hm…

• Pestilence = Skitter
• War = Bitch
• Famine = ???
• Death = Grue

She scowled.  “Whatever.”

I took that for assent and turned Lucy around.  With a shout, I got her moving.  I kept the phone in one hand while I rode, waiting for Lisa’s response.

Yeah, as far as assent goes, that’s probably the best you’ll get.

Also, Taylor! Don’t use your phone while riding! It’s unsafe! Do something safer, like fighting some of the country’s deadliest superpowered psychopaths.

It didn’t matter.  She found me before I found her.  Or, to be more specific, she found my bugs before I found her.

Oh, hey. So did she deliberately step into a bug swarm to alert Taylor or something?

There were enough flies in the city that most people didn’t give a second thought to one landing on them, especially if it landed on their clothing.  I habitually used my bugs to check people nearby for weapons or masks, and when I checked the people in a building three blocks away, one of the bugs brushed against Panacea.

Oh – Panacea, not Lisa!

Well, then. If she pulls a similar trick as at the bank, I guess Taylor’s in for a headache.

She must have been able to tell it wasn’t an ordinary bug.  As she’d done at the bank robbery, she used her power to scramble them and force whatever mechanism my power activated in their systems into a feedback loop.

Feedback loops can be pretty nasty.

Before it could incapacitate me and my power, I swept up the bugs with larger dragonflies and flying beetles and promptly murdered them, feeding them to other bugs in the area and pulling them apart.

Brutal, but I suppose it had to be done, to stop the feedback loops.

Grue looked my way.  Should I capitulate and tell her that we could send Genesis, to give her what she wanted, or would it be better to get her to agree, and risk angering her?

The team should not play to the whims of Bitch for fear of her outbursts. They should consider the points she’s making – which are actually not that bad this time, though self-centered – fairly, absolutely, but just giving her the right of way because she’ll get angry otherwise is a bad habit to get into.

As odd as it might be, I gravitated toward the latter option.  Bitch responded better to firmness.

That too.

“She’s supposedly in Ballistic’s territory, which is close.  Five minutes there, up to five minutes to talk, five minutes to get back,” I said.

Oh yeah, that’s not too bad.

“Fifteen minutes out of our way,” Grue said.  “And anything we find out about the Nine or their candidates can potentially help you, Rachel.”

Nice one, Grue – turning it into a benefit for her specifically, to suit the self-centered nature of her own arguments.

“Okay.  Text me the address.  I’ll ask the others and we’ll call Genesis in if necessary.”

“Cool.”

I like this development a lot. Skitter and Panacea have one of my favorite dynamics, and now Skitter is about to try to connect with Panacea on a whole different level.

Maybe it will give her some insight into how she can deal with Bitch, too, pulling these threads together.

I hung up.  Grue and Bitch had already returned to me.

“What is it?” Grue asked me.

“Panacea’s in a shelter, and she shouldn’t be.  Tattletale finds it strange, and I agree with her.  She wants us to check Panacea out.”

Nice summary.

“Why?” Bitch asked.  “None of our business.”

It might be more of their business than she thinks. But I can absolutely see where Bitch is coming from here – from her perspective, they’re about to do the same thing to Panacea as they just did to her, namely be nosy about her behavior.

The parallels are fairly strong, and it’s going to be interesting to see whether Panacea acts like Bitch when someone she hates comes asking if she’s okay, or if she’ll open up easily due to a vulnerable state of mind.

“It could mean answers.  We’re looking for a sixth candidate, and we can’t protect candidates like you if we don’t know who they are.  Maybe Panacea is the sixth, maybe someone she knows, like Glory Girl.

Bullseye.

If nothing else, I can raise the subject of whatever plague Bonesaw has that’s supposed to scare the candidates and the local heroes into playing along.”

Eesh.

“It also means I have to wait before I check on my dogs and the rest of my territory.”

I was going to say she didn’t necessarily have to come along, but splitting up is probably a bad idea right now. Especially considering she’d want the others’ main mode of transportation back.

“Maybe.  I don’t really think so.  Wouldn’t somebody else work better?  You guys aren’t far from that spot.”

“Who would you send?  Sundancer and Ballistic are threatening by their very nature.  I’m not up to it, and she hates me more than she hates you.  I wouldn’t trust Bitch, Regent or Trickster to handle it, I think you’d agree with me there.”

“Genesis?”

Genesis, maybe – I don’t know her well enough to tell either way, but she seems nice enough.

Grue shouldn’t be too bad either, though he might not have the subtlety required to deal with Panacea’s emotional state, which I suspect will be a lot less… okay than before Interlude 11h. Plus, he’s not that great at communication, especially with girls, and his outfit is spooky.

Huh. Skitter might genuinely be the best option.

Lisa sighed.  “We could send Genesis.  Is she with you?”

“She’s resting.  Or at least, she’s recuperating from using her power.  If something comes up, she told us to call her, and she’ll have one of her creations with us in a minute.”

Ahh, I see.

“Your call.  The Travelers seem decent, but they’re hiding something, and I really do think you’d be a better person to talk to her.”

Hiding something they sure are. It’s not like the Undersiders don’t have secrets too, but Lisa knows better what secrets Taylor has than what secrets Genesis and co. have.

I used clouds of bugs to get the attention of my teammates, then waved for them to come my way when they stopped and looked my way.

Imagine if school teachers did this to call students in from recess.

“I’m not the best person to talk to Panacea.  She kind of hates me.  Remember the thing at the hospital?  The bank robbery?”

Yeah, and she hates Tattletale even more. But it’s true, almost anyone else on the team would be a better pick (just not Bitch).

This is a more entertaining pick, though.

I wonder if Skitter’s heroic intent being revealed to the witnesses at the hospital changed Panacea’s opinions about her at all? I’m not sure if she actually saw/heard that, though.

“But you have talked to her before.  She was there to hear Armsmaster talking about you being a wannabe hero, betraying us.

Heh, well that answers that! 😛

If nothing else, maybe the idea of getting answers about that will get her listening so you can move on to a real conversation.”

It might work. I get the feeling she’ll have other things on her mind, though.

“I’m not entirely sure I follow.”

“All of New Wave live southwest of the Towers, the nice part of downtown.  Neither of their houses were hit by the worst of the waves, and none of the Chosen or Merchants are stupid enough to attack them, and they wouldn’t succeed if they were.  You following me, now?”

Tattletale: “They weren’t forcibly evicted by Leviathan or the villains, so why…”

Power, maybe: “Nominee.”

“Sort of.  You’re wondering why she’s there.  She could just be there giving medical help to the injured.”

I wouldn’t be too surprised if she’s doing that too, although I could see her not wanting to use her power for some time after what happened with Glory Girl.

“My scouts say she’s keeping to herself, trying to avoid attracting attention.”

And if she’s a) avoiding being asked to use her power and/or b) avoiding the Nine, this would make sense. Especially since her identity is public and anyone might recognize her out of costume.

“Curious.”

“Exactly.  Want to go pay a visit?”

Hell yes.

So, who was the caller? I’m guessing Coil or Tattletale. Maybe Genesis.

Or perhaps Sierra or Charlotte.

It started vibrating again.

“Yes?” I answered.

“You guys busy?” Lisa asked.

Hiya!

Kind of, how so? Slaughterhouse sighting to take care of?

“Just patrolling our territories to make sure that the Chosen aren’t up to anything,” I said.  A droplet of water fell on the lens of my mask.  I looked up at the overcast sky.  Rain?

Rain rarely means anything good in this story.

“Listen, you know that I’ve got some people working for me, passing on info, right?”

Yes?

“Sure.  Bryce is one of them, right?”

“Right.  Well, I’ve got all of them keeping an eye out for capes and known faces.”

How about unknown faces?

That’d probably be a bit impractical. :p

“Known faces?  Like the members of Empire Eighty-Eight who were outed?”

“Like them.  Or Jack, or Bonesaw.  But that’s not what this is about.  Senegal just dropped by Coil’s base, and he’s passing on information from one of my scouts.  They saw Panacea at one of the shelters in Ballistic’s territory.”

Ooh! I like where this seems to be going.

Lucy and Sirius wanted to follow, so it thankfully didn’t take much effort to get them moving.  Bitch wasn’t riding as fast as she could, so it was clear enough that she wasn’t trying to escape.  She wanted space, and she was angry.

That’s fair. I don’t get angry easily, but when I do, my first instinct is usually to get away from it and cool down.

It’s certainly somewhat healthier than some of Bitch’s previous anger responses, at least.

I glanced over my shoulder at Grue.  How the hell were we supposed to handle this situation?

Maybe you should’ve given that a little more thought before you started it.

Unless by “this situation” you mean the broader “Bitch is bottling up something, keeps quiet and gets mad if you ask her what’s up”.

My phone vibrated at my back, and in my effort to avoid falling off Lucy, I wasn’t able to get at it.  I fought to make her obey me and stop by pulling on the chains and wrenching her right, then left.

I was a little confused until I remembered the satellite phones.

Don’t talk and ride hellhounds!

…

I was joking, but that really does seem like something Taylor would be concerned about, what with her mom. Though I doubt the accident that took Annette Rose Hebert’s life involved her riding a hellhound.

She finally halted, and I took the opportunity to grab my phone.  I’d missed my window.

Better that than running your hellhound into a tree or oncoming traffic.

“But?” I added.

“What?”

“You’re not thinking about joining them, but…?” I let the question hang for a second.  “Something is eating you up.”

Yeah, I think Taylor’s right here. It’s probably something to do with Siberian and the dog vs wolf thing, though.

“Did you not hear what I said about my thoughts being my business?”

“Bitch,” Grue warned.

“What?”  She clenched her fist, and I think the dogs could see something in her body language, because they tensed too.  She said, “Fuck it.  Pisses me off when you get on my case.  Leave me alone.”

“that’s my case, don’t get on it”

She kicked Bentley lightly in the sides, and the dog began walking.  She kicked him again, and he started running. 

Two chapters, two Undersiders running off ahead of their peers (after a confrontation with Grue and Skitter).