“We can’t endure this.  We won’t last.”

Are you talking about the entire nomination game?

“We got unlucky and took the brunt of it.  We’ll get a breather.”

“Will we?  These guys are experts in preying on weakness!  They’re going to target us and come after us until we can’t defend ourselves, they’ll kill us, then they’ll go after Panacea, or Armsmaster, or Hookwolf, or Noelle, and they’ll do the same thing!”

The nomination game kind of works as a countermeasure to this. Since they’re doing it turn by turn, they have to split their attention between the candidates, and can’t all gang up on one group at the same time (though that’s close to what happened here thanks to Burnscar getting tagged in).

However, they’re probably still going to go as close to this tactic as the rules will allow.

“Taylor.”

I pushed myself to a standing position.  “They’re going to do the same thing they’re doing to us, and they’re not just going to win.  They’re going to ruin everything while they do it!”

They’ve made good progress on that already.

So this feeling Taylor had… hopelessness, and perhaps the desire to leave the city entirely?

“Stop!”

I hobbled past him, and he grabbed my wrist.  Between anger and the fact that my sleeve was wet with the water of the shower, I managed to rip my hand from his grip.  “Don’t.  Don’t do that.”

Grue just wants her to calm down and look rationally at it, but this isn’t rational Taylor at the forefront. This is the Taylor who sees this situation as the nearly unwinnable bullshit it is and is reacting to it emotionally.

I’m not so sure she’s wrong to do so, but right now they need to focus on making it through the current situation.

Nearly half a year ago, I’d gotten my powers when I was trapped in a locker, wanting to be anywhere but where I was then.  I’d reached out, my mind extending out for something, anything to distract me and draw my focus away.

…hey, look, isn’t that basically how I originally interpreted it? Although I think I focused more on the search for someone to communicate with.

So what’s this mini-recap leading into? I could see this going two main ways: a) Taylor really doesn’t want to be here, in this situation, and gets a power boost, or b) speculation on Burnscar’s power and trigger event.

There’s a good chance Burnscar’s trigger event involved her getting stuck in a burning building and wanting to be somewhere else. So the Dandelions made her capable of going somewhere else, via the fire.

I wasn’t trapped in a locker, but I felt very close to how I had then.  Except it wasn’t the feeling that I was trapped.  My power’s range hadn’t increased.

I guess I was half right?

It felt like that in a different way.

In that she’s looking for something to distract her?

Or perhaps that there’s somewhere specific she would rather be?

“We can’t do this,” I said.

“Hmm?”  Grue had torn open his pants leg and was suturing one of the cuts.

Hmm indeed.

The kids began to get sorted and follow Charlotte’s instructions as she herded them out of the room, staying by the door to ensure nobody was left behind.  There were no complaints and there was nothing like chatter or crying from the kids.

That’s…

I don’t know which adjective to use to describe that, but it doesn’t feel right.

It’s like the kids have fully accepted and internalized that this is happening to them and they need to do what the big girl says to stay alive.

How many of them had watched their parents die for them?  They were so stoic, or shocked.

Poor kids.

Grue looked at me, “What are you thinking?”

“They take cover, we stay.  I’m going to try to use my swarm to get a sense of where Genesis is and how the fight’s going.

Seems reasonable.

The second things go south or this area gets too dangerous, we get her out of here.”

“You’ll need this,” Charlotte said.

Hm? Something Genesis gave her?

I hadn’t noticed it with all the people in the room.  At the foot of the bunk, in the corner of the room, there was a folded up wheelchair.

Oh, alright!

Might not be easy wheeling her out in a hurry, but if they’re careful I think they can do it.

Can’t ever be easy.

Hehe, of course not!

I didn’t want to think about it.

Completely understandable.

“Charlotte, did you come in through the front door or the other entrance?”  I asked.

There’s another entrance?

…I suppose that would be the entrance via the storm drain. This place was probably built with an actual regular door somewhere.

“Front door.  I was thinking about taking these kids and running for it, but I didn’t know if you’d want-”

I think there’s a good chance she’d want that, at least now that the place is on fire.

“Secrecy is not that important right now.  Take them down to the storm drain and stay there.  It’s more or less fireproof, it’s not going to collapse on their heads, and it’s a better hiding spot than this.”

Oh yeah, good call.

It seemed like getting orders invigorated her.  “Okay.  Come on, guys.  Get ready, shoes on, this way.”

Relatable. Now that she knows what the boss wants her to do, she can do it without worrying that she’s messing up.

Genesis slept on one of the bunks I’d set aside for my employees.  Her face was contorted in an expression of concern.  Average looks, if a little round-faced, she had long eyelashes, and her auburn hair was a mop.

That last part makes me imagine a daughter of Bitch and Regent.

She had to sleep to use her power.  Could we afford to disturb her?  If we tried to move her and she woke up, would it mean taking her out of the middle of a fight where she could do something to Burnscar or Mannequin?

This limitation could be quite interesting if combined with someone who had trouble sleeping.

Anyway, this seems to link Genesis’ power to the dreams. In her sleep, she can be whoever, whatever, she wants to be. In her dream, she’s the star. It’s she who makes that catch.

All the more metanarrative reason for her to be disabled in some way outside the use of her power. And conversely, that may be why she has this power in the first place.

“Where are the rest of my people?” I asked.

“Sierra divided us into teams and sent each of us in a different direction, telling us to get people to evacuate.  I almost ran right into Mannequin.  I hid and saw him attack.”

Sounds like Sierra knew what she was doing.

I felt out with my power, sticking exclusively to the building interiors, to avoid inadvertently barbecuing my bugs and frittering away my resources.  I used the bugs in the area to try to get a headcount.  The geography and the spread of people in this area was becoming familiar to me.

She’s been constantly sensing it for weeks, after all. It’s like she’s been sitting there, staring at a map.

Very few were still alive and in this area.  Too many had died.  How many bodies were there?  Thirty?  Forty?

And all because of the Nine who aren’t even that many. Only a few of them, for that matter.

“Don’t be mad,” she said, in a small voice.

I really can’t see Skitter being mad about this.

“Mad?”

She spoke quietly, as if the kids wouldn’t hear, “I didn’t know where else to take them.  Sierra said we had to hide, that Mannequin was coming.

Ah, right, that order was a thing that was recent enough to still be in effect.

I saw him killing people without even moving.  He went after families, but he was focused on the parents, not the kids.  He killed them and let the kids run-”

Interesting. A bit of a soft spot for the little ones?

“Stop.”  My voice was harder than I meant it to be.  “I don’t want to hear it.”

I get that. Skitter is already feeling shitty enough about not being able to save everyone.

This is my failure.

Case in point.

“I didn’t know where else to take them.”

“You did good,” I said.  I sounded like Burnscar did.  No emotion behind the words.

Burnscar and Skitter may be more alike than either of them would like to admit.

“Someone else should have come here.  A girl or a woman, probably with an escort.”

Huh, yeah, I suppose they wouldn’t know Genesis’ true age.

Charlotte didn’t answer, but moved aside.

Genesis.

Oh, hi there.

I wonder if she’s conscious.

He nodded, and we ran.

Grue was letting his darkness dissipate, for the most part, as we were under cover and out of the way.  We made our way to the storm drain, using the wall for support.

The storm drain that goes into the lair?

We headed through the secured doors and into my cellar, then up the stairs to the main floor.

Yeah. How are things looking here?

> Skitter: Examine room.

My lair wasn’t burning down, but I could see the faint flicker of flame on nearby buildings through the slits on the shutters.  A quick investigation with my power showed that it wasn’t anything serious.  I set bugs in place as an early warning system.

Good call. Even if it’s nothing serious now, it doesn’t mean it won’t get worse.

We headed straight for the bedrooms.  I wasn’t expecting to see what I did.

…

Hmmm.

Burnscar showing up there would be quite the twist.

More likely, though, it’s something to do with Genesis’ real body.

There must have been fifteen of them.  Kids, none of them older than ten, some as young as four.

Oh damn, nice. Is this Sierra’s work, perhaps?

Or maybe Genesis’ power is glitching.

There were three to a bunk, sitting up or lying down.  Charlotte was with them, the eldest.

Ah, Charlotte, not Sierra. Same basic idea, just not the right individual.

“Come on,” Grue urged me.

I stood, leaning against the concrete wall that divided the beach from the street above.

Survive.

“Genesis is going to be there,” I said.  “We need to go find her and help her.”

…right, they had her real body moved to Taylor’s territory.

Considering that’s how they put it, she’s probably not able to move, at least not very easily, with her real body.

“We’re too hurt to do anything,” Grue answered, “Genesis can handle herself.  She can always make a new body with her powers.”

That was my first thought too, until I remembered her real body is in there. Unless of course they haven’t gotten around to moving her in yet. I forget, was there any time in between their arrival in Taylor’s territory and going to Ballistic’s to talk to Amy?

Now that I think about it, I don’t think there was. I guess they haven’t moved Genesis’ real body yet, then?

“And her real body?  She had it sent to my lair.”

I don’t know, I confused myself on that matter.

Grue paused.  “Your lair could be on fire.”

Yes, that’s the problem.

(I guess they did get her sent along already.)

“Exactly.”

He considered for a few moments.  “Alright.  Just let me call Bitch.”

Yeah, let’s figure out where she went and see if she can go fetch Genesis.

“Don’t.”  I stopped him as he got his phone in hand.

Um. Why?

Because she actually considered attacking you?

“What?”

“A call at the wrong time, her ringer going off, it could mean alerting the enemy about her position or distracting her.  Wait.”

Oh yeah, that’s a good point. Fair enough.

What the hell had I been thinking, wanting to become a superhero?

I think I summarized it a few posts back, in the first Skwitter edit: You used to think escapism was fun.

You wanted to escape from the life you had, and if you protected people along the way, that was good too. Then Tattletale happened and you became a villain and things went downhill from there because of factors you couldn’t control.

And all of a sudden, the life you ended up with was worse than the life you started with, but by then you’d thrown away the latter.

…

You know, it isn’t too late to go back. It might be hard to make that choice due to the connections and promises you’d be breaking, things may be awkward with Danny for a while, and the Nine would still be around, but you can go back to an approximation of your old life.

The biggest problem as far as staying safe while doing so would be Cherish, and she seems like she’s intent on betraying the Nine for her own safety.