“Yeah, of course,” I told her.  I began calling a swarm to me.  I’d already exhausted the surrounding area of most, and the ones I hadn’t already called forth were buried in the deepest recesses and most awkward areas, where it was so inefficient and time-consuming to bring them to me that I’d left them where they were.

Well, at least it’s something.

It took some time to bring them to the area.

“How was the battle going?”  Grue asked.

Are we in for more chat while the bugs arrive? I’d be down for that.

“The heroes seemed to be managing, but I don’t know how things are going to turn out,” I said.  I looked at Shatterbird, who floated above us.  “We could use her help.”

A little risky, since the heroes might not immediately recall that Shatterbird is under Undersider control, or be sure that she still is, or will stay so. But if they can get past that hurdle, she could do a lot of good.

Though Regent has to stay close to her to maintain control, doesn’t he. So he’d have to go near the battle himself, which means he’d be at risk of getting Crawlered. And if he got taken out, Shatterbird might break free and fuck everything up.

“Don’t trust myself to control her if she’s too far away,” Regent spoke.

I made a face.  “Right.  But she could carry you?”

To get there, perhaps, but it’s probably a bad idea to stay that way during combat.

“She almost dropped me once before.  It’s pretty hard to hold on to someone, especially without the leverage you have when you’re on the ground.”

True enough. Taylor should understand, she’s been on the held side of that arrangement before.

The first bugs were arriving in front of Amy.  She began dissolving them into their constituent parts and pressing them into Glory Girl’s abdomen.  When she raised her hand, they were gone.

Nice.

She held her hand out for more to gather while keeping one hand on Glory Girl.

Minutes passed before Amy stood and wiped her bloody hands on her pants.  “Done as much as I can.”

Thank you.

I’m guessing she didn’t fix the brain thing, though, which Lisa might press her on further.

I shrugged.

I turned to Amy.  “Do you want me to bring bugs?  Maggots eat only dead flesh, which might be helpful if-”

If the dead flesh can’t be interacted with?

“No.  I can handle that.”

Alright. But you could probably use the bugs to fill the gaps.

“Or I could get some of the more useless bugs, like the ones you used to make Atlas, for raw material.”

Yes, exactly!

Amy turned to give me an incredulous look.

Alright, guess she doesn’t want to make her sister part bug. Fine.

“You said you didn’t have enough tissue to patch everything together.  If you wanted to put together a placeholder…”  I trailed off.

“Nice,” Regent said.  “She could be a human-spider hybrid.  Add some insult to injury with the mindrape thing.”

Pfft. Regent is on point today.

Taylor: “Don’t be silly. Spiders are too useful.”

I could see Amy tense.

“That’s not what I’m saying,” I told him.  “Amy was saying the enzymes were dissolving proteins and other stuff.  The bugs would be a source of protein, vitamins, carbs…”

Okay, that is actually a good point though.

“I’m a little surprised you know that,” Grue commented.  He didn’t take his eyes off of Amy and Glory Girl.

Taylor’s whole thing is bugs, she’s fond of knowing what she’s dealing with, and she had three months of prep time before she started going out in costume. I’m sure she’s done way more research on bugs than she’ll ever need. And that’s on top of what she can just straight up sense of their biology.

“It’s as much a priority as anything else.  I said it before, if you don’t do it now-”

So they’ve been talking about it off-screen, though the others didn’t understand what exactly it was (though Regent might’ve pieced it together) they were talking about?

“Shut up,” Amy snapped.  “I need to focus.”

We watched her work.  The dissolving began to slow, then fix.  The wounds weren’t closing, but the necrotized edges of the ruined flesh was turning from black to crimson.

Crimson is usually a color that’s not good to be seeing on a body, but it’s better than black.

“You going to go back?”  Tattletale asked me.

I wouldn’t advise it, but Taylor’s more heroic than I am.

I shook my head and glanced over to where the clouds was glowing orange with the reflected flames.  “Nothing I could do.  Too much fire, it cancels out my power, and it’s dangerous for Atlas.”

Yeah, fair.

Also I’m sure Lisa’s going to take note of the fact that Taylor’s named Atlas now.

“Atlas.  I like that.”

It’s a pretty good name!

“Can you fix her?”  Tattletale asked.

“So much to do,” Amy mumbled, “Have to counter the acid with some kind of physiological byproduct, have to stop the enzymes from liquefying her entire body, and repair the damage.  Trying to make some kind of firebreak to stop the spread of the venom, withdraw the proteins the venom is using to propagate itself.

This seems like a really difficult job, yeah.

There isn’t enough tissue in her body for everything I need to do to fix her.”

And that’s where the bugs come in.

“Fixing her body and healing all the damage can come later,” Tattletale said, as if she were reassuring Amy.  “For now, keep her alive and fix what you did to her head.”

Right. Which requires messing with her brain again, though in a much more controlled fashion.

“I have enough to manage without worrying about that.”  There was a note of desperation in Amy’s voice.

I’m going to give Amy the benefit of the doubt here, that she’s telling the truth about wanting to focus on the rest first and not just making an excuse because she kinda doesn’t want to remove Victoria’s romantic love for her.

Also the benefit of the “everything we’ve seen of Amy interacting with Victoria since the fuckup indicates she wants to fix it”.

“I’m sorry,” Amy said.  “So, so sorry.  Oh god, this is bad.”

None of the rest of us spoke.

It’s the medic’s time to take charge. Gotta listen to the doctor’s orders.

“I can’t- can’t figure out what this venom is.  I can’t touch it to see if it’s organic, um, I can only see what it’s doing.  At least part of it is enzymes.  It’s denaturing proteins in her cells and using the byproducts to build more enzymes, and it’s breaking down lipids as a side effect, shit.

Huh. So the venom makes more of its functioning part from the parts of Victoria’s body.

Oh god, and there’s more to it.  The fluid the enzymes are swimming in is some kind of acid.”

Yeeah, this is pretty bad.

So, Amy can’t recreate Victoria’s flesh, and she can’t interact directly with the acid. If they get rid of the acid and enzymes, maybe she could use bugs to provide the new material she needs, like she did when she made Atlas by fusing them?

“It was an accident,” Amy said.

Yes, it was.

Maybe hearing out Amy’s side of this could help Victoria change her mind. I wouldn’t count on it, but she kinda needs to if she’s to survive.

“How do you do that by accident?”  Imp asked.

“Enough,” Tattletale cut in.  “Victoria, listen, I’m going to pour some sterile water over you, and hopefully it’ll flush some of the acid away, okay?  I don’t know what else we can do for you.  I know you can’t see, so don’t be surprised when it happens.”

Where did you get sterile water?

Are you lying to her?

Victoria turned her head slightly, but she didn’t respond.

“Okay,” Tattletale said.  She didn’t have water in her hand.  Instead, she grabbed Amy and shoved her in Glory Girl’s direction.  Amy looked at her, scandalized and horrified, but Tattletale only mouthed the word ‘go’.

Yep. I kinda had this option in the back of my head too: That Amy’s power feels like, or can impart the feeling of, having flowing water poured over you.

I suppose I could go back to Extermination to see how Taylor felt when the power was used on her, but I think I’d rather just watch this play out for now.

Amy knelt by her sister and touched her hand.  Glory Girl’s back arched as if she’d been electrocuted, and then she went limp.  Paralyzed, unable to resist.

Ahh. Good call.

I guess the water lie was just to buy time to do this. No need to have it actually feel like water if Amy’s going to paralyze her.