“Only three?”  Bonesaw pouted.

“Only three.”

“Then, um.  Skitter…”

That one was obvious. Bonesaw is too intrigued by Skitter’s ability to use the bugs while her gemma is disabled to leave her behind.

I felt hands seize my feet and pull me away from my teammates.  Burnscar.  She held me under one arm, my head and arms dangling.  Beads of blood dripped down to the floor.

Huh, she’s pretty strong. Bonesaw’s work, perhaps?

“Um, um.  Tattletale.  I want to see what her brain looks like, too.”

Ah, yeah, that’s fair.

“Tattletale it is.”

“And Trickster!  Because Ball-of-fire girl killed Hack Job.  I want another.”

Oh! RIP Hack Job.

Also, she might be a bit disappointed to find that Trickster’s teleporting doesn’t quite work as well for the purposes of being a meat shield as Hack Job’s did, but it is really good for sowing chaos on the battlefield.

It kind of requires intelligence to use effectively, though.

Hack Job?

Oh right, Taylor doesn’t know about that whole thing yet. She’s just been thinking he was Hatchet Face. Which is half true.

“Trickster it is.  Finish off the rest.”

“Can I leave Brian there?  I have to show my art to people to get known.”

…

Honey, you’re already known for your art. You’re a famous, uh, artist! Sure, doesn’t hurt to have some more exposure, but do you think you’ll get that from a piece hanging in some random former health club’s freezer room?

“Brian, is it?  Hm.  I think that’s a very good idea.”

…why?

I can hear that you have ulterior motives for going along with this. I just don’t know what.

“Yes.  The enemy’s recouping from the first few hits, and they’re stalling Siberian and Crawler.

So wait, are you talking about Genesis or the actual Crawler?

I suppose it’d be the latter.

Only a matter of time before they engage in one good flank and blindside one of us three.  We leave now, and all they remember is how hard we hit them and how little they could do.”

I guess so, though they might also remember driving you into retreat. That’s also a form of victory.

“But I have research!”

“Bring three.  We won’t be able to bring them all along, and you know they get messy if you leave them like that for too long.”

Well, shit, Taylor’s most certainly going to be among those three.

Bonesaw would probably want to bring Grue, due to her ongoing research on where his power comes from, but it might take a while to pack him up, so that might not be an option.

Imp is probably of interest due to the backwards effect of actively focusing on her power, but Bonesaw might not have realized that yet.

She might bring Parian in order to bond over needles and threads.

No.  Any vestige of hope I’d had disappeared.

Not Regent.

I’m going with Jack, then. He’s the kind of guy who would say this, and when I first read the line it was in his voice in my head.

Jack leaned over the counter.  Burnscar stood beside him, looking troubled.

Heya!

And Burnscar too, howdy!

“Jack!  Yes!  I’m having lots of fun!  These people are so interesting,”  Bonesaw smiled.

I love her so much.

“You hurt yourself,” Jack frowned.  “Your mouth.”

I like how he can tell it’s she who hurt herself, not Parian (visibly up and moving) or Skitter (the place is filled with bugs) who hurt her.

“The doll-girl ambushed me.  But I’m okay.  I can fix myself after I’m done here.”

Yeah, no big deal.

“You’ll have to finish fast.  We’re going.”

“No!”

…huh. Saved by the Jack?

I guess the reason they’ve decided to go is the ongoing assault on their location.

Parian reached the sink, cranked on the tap.  There was no water.  She threw herself to one side, feeling along the counter for something, anything to wash out her eyes.

Oh right, of course. Leviathan kinda fucked that whole option up.

“You’re lucky I’m so nice,” Bonesaw said.  She lifted up the tattered bottom of her dress to dab at her lip and tongue.  I could make out test tubes, equipment and pouches, all belted to her thighs and stomach.  “If I was a less forgiving person, I’d make you regret that.”

“Luckily I have a bunch of less forgiving friends who can do it for me!”

Parian sagged to her knees, hands still on the counter, heaving for breath.

She might already be regretting it.

“But instead, I’ll leave you alone to think about what you’ve done,” Bonesaw said.  She plucked some of the needles out of her skin.  “I’ll finish with these guys, and later, I can show you what I can do with a needle and thread.  It’ll be fun.  Common interests!”

Pfft! She’s kind of right, though.

“Making friends, Bonesaw?”

Oh cod, who’s this. Jack? Regent?

Bonesaw spat into Parian’s face.  Her own flesh burned as whatever chemical she had been holding in her mouth spilled down her lip.

I guess she’s reinforced the flesh in her mouth too, in order to be able to hold it.

Parian, for her part, dropped the scalpel, tore her mask off and staggered blindly in the general direction of the sink, her hands over her eyes.

Ah, yeah, I would imagine a chemical that burns flesh would be especially bad to get in the eyes.

No.

Of course, putting her back to Bonesaw was probably a bad idea.

What I wouldn’t give for the chance to change this, to act, to offer even one word of assistance.

I wonder if any capes with time powers had trigger events that caused them to think something like this.

Hm. One… word of assistance? It might be too complicated for her right now, but it could be possible to write something with the bugs, or reproduce speech like she did with the Protectorate.

Bonesaw turned her head and spat again, some residual chemical directed at the threads. When that didn’t achieve the desired result, she repeated the process.  The threads snapped and she dropped to the ground.

Here she comes.

“Burned mah tongue,” Bonesaw said, to nobody in particular.  Or to me?

Pfft, I guess she’s not going for stealth after all.

She stuck it out to demonstrate.  It was scalded, blistered and covered with dead white flesh in much the same way her lip was.  She spat again.

Eesh.

So where did she hide whatever custom gland secretes this chemical, exactly?

Broken tooth?  No.  When I’d kicked Cherish earlier, hadn’t she said that Bonesaw had reinforced her teeth?

…fuck, that’s a good point. Is Bonesaw intentionally enraging Parian further?

Surely the psycho would have done the same for herself.

She was lying.

And there was nothing I could do to alert Parian.

Are you sure? Maybe your subconscious can find a way, using the bugs.

Parian picked up one of the scalpels Bonesaw had placed near me.  Her hand was trembling even after she had it in a white-knuckled grip.  “I don’t want to do this.  I never wanted to fight.  But I can’t let you walk away.  That’s the most important thing.

Imp, internally: “Yeah, no, that won’t work.”

I guess this is why Bonesaw’s lying. She’s hiding her protections to catch Parian off-guard with them.

I’m willing to compromise what I believe in, compromise myself, to do that.”

Willing to kill?

Bonesaw rolled her eyes.

Wall!  Barrier!

What do you mean to accomplish? Get in Parian’s way so she doesn’t foolishly run into Bonesaw’s close melee range?

My bugs left Bonesaw’s presence to form a barrier between her and Parian, but they were too few.  Too many had died against Bonesaw’s bug killing smoke.  Parian ignored them.

I wonder what Parian thinks of the bugs. Is she aware of Skitter at all, besides as an unknown victim of Bonesaw lying around here?

In one motion, Parian stepped close and stabbed the scalpel into Bonesaw’s throat.  Then she did it again, and again, stabbing over and over, hysterical.

Well, this probably ain’t ending well.

It wasn’t enough blood.  I knew it, and Parian had to know it.

Yeeah, this isn’t working.

Parian flung one hand in Bonesaw’s direction.  I didn’t see what happened next, but the bugs that were still drifting in Bonesaw’s direction to attack her were telling me that there were threads stretching between the two of them.

Ooh, nice!

A bug settled on the point of a needle where it had impaled the side of Bonesaw’s neck.  Twenty or thirty needles with attached threads extending between them and Parian’s sleeve.

Get the point yet, Bonesaw?

Bonesaw crunched something in her mouth, “You’re playing so rough.  Ow.  I think you broke one of my teeth, with your dinosaur.”

Clearly she doesn’t. 😛

Parian ignored her.  A twist of her hands, and Bonesaw was lifted into the air, spread-eagled.  Bonesaw’s skin stretched where the needles pulled at it.  Parian advanced towards the villain.

Hey, Bonesaw? You fucked up.

*boops readers’ noses*

Let’s get back to it!