Skitter gripped her weapon two-handed again.  The grip was strange.  Something in her left hand?

Hm. I guess she did pull something from her back, but what? Seems too small to be the pepper spray, unless pepper spray bottles are smaller than I’m aware of.

Shadow Stalker realized what it was.  She simultaneously moved back, gripped her cloak with her left hand and shifted to her solid state to raise the fabric as a barrier.  The pepper spray spattered her cloak.

I guess it was the latter!

I suppose it makes sense for pepper spray bottles to be designed to be easily concealed.

When she was sure the spray had dissipated, she threw her cloak back over one shoulder and shifted to her shadow state to escape the bugs that were crawling on her, taking advantage of her solidity.

Nice. Got more of those bottles, Taylor?

She lunged after Skitter, who was running, already turning a corner at the other side of the alley.

Ah, right, getting away is a better plan.

“You really want to fight me?” Shadow Stalker asked her opponent, a note of incredulity in her voice.  She raised her right crossbow.  The one with the lethal ammunition.

I’m… not sure. On one hand, Taylor knows exactly who she’s dealing with. On the other hand, Taylor knows exactly who she’s dealing with.

Skitter didn’t reply.

Whatever else Shadow Stalker might think of the bug girl, how the girl was creepy, a freak, she had to admit Skitter had demonstrated enough viciousness to date that she could almost respect the girl as a fellow predator.  

Oh fuck.

Man, if Taylor heard this…

But… I can kind of see it. She may only be vicious in certain circumstances, but she has been doing her share of manipulation and sometimes violence for her own goals.

Just look at what she did to Clockblocker, for one thing. That was violence intended to further her own goals of manipulating the Undersiders.

I think Taylor’s civilian self falls in the victim camp almost all the time (though she’s been getting out of that role a bit lately), but Skitter leans somewhat towards predator.

An idiot, for wanting to fight her, but kindred, in a fashion.  “Alright, fine.”

Doesn’t mean she’d be happy to hear that Shadow Stalker approves.

The stick passed through her head, once.  She resisted the urge to snap back to her normal form and retaliate.  The girl was powerless here.

As long as you’re staying wispy, I suppose.

Shadow Stalker could afford to hound her, drive her to the brink of desperation, wear her down. 

Oh, you’ve already done that more than you know.

The bug girl switched to a one-handed grip on her baton, flying insects clustering around her to mask her movements as she backed away a step.  She used her free hand to push the wet hair out of her face.  Then she adjusted her costume, reaching to tug her shoulderpad forward a bit, then reached behind her back to do much the same with the armor there.

I suppose as long as Sophia’s wispy, it’s a bit of a stalemate, to some extent, though Sophia does have an advantage in that she can still use her crossbow while wispy, and that she’s somewhat solid.

Might as well use that almost-stalemate to adjust one’s outfit.

But… behind her back happens to be where Taylor keeps her gadgets. What is she about to pull out? Would pepper spray do anything against a wispy Stalker? I mean, she’s solid enough for the air to enter her cells, so I suppose it might.

The bugs passed through Shadow Stalker’s body, slowing her momentum.

That’s something, at least.

She suspected that if there were enough of them, they could even carry her aloft, push her back.  But there weren’t – the swarm wasn’t quite big enough.  

Hm, unfortunate.

As the stream of insects passed through her, reoriented in preparation to flow through her again, she pounced.

The residual bugs threw her off, slowing down her power.  Her body had to push them out of the space it wanted to occupy, delayed the change back to her normal self by a half-second.

Hopefully that’s a useful half-second to Taylor.

Her hand passed through Skitter’s throat, but she caught her balance, drew her rearmost foot up and back in a half-spin.  Her heel collided with Skitter’s mask.

Ouch.

Skitter went down, and Shadow Stalker turned her crossbow on her fallen opponent.  She was about to fire when the combat stick lashed out.

You do know it’s called a baton, right?

I guess we do know from before that Sophia isn’t that good with words.

She lifted the crossbow up just in time –  had she been a second slower, the stick might have broken her weapon.

She’s consistently calling it a (combat) stick – this is the third instance. I don’t think she knows/remembers what it’s called after all.

Acutely aware of the bugs clustering on her, she dropped into her shadow state before they could crawl beneath her mask.

It’s kind of like with Velocity – in one state, she’s limited in what she can do offensively in return for increased mobility, but in the other, she’s vulnerable.

Operating solo means there’s nobody to miss you.

Fuck you.

She entered her shadow state and moved further along the rooftop, only to feel a group of flying insects pass through her body.  A fraction of a second later, Skitter was running, abandoning the bag, disappearing around a corner, not even turning to look Shadow Stalker’s way.

Oh, good, she got detected. Run, Taylor, run!

“You want to run?  I don’t mind a bit of a chase,” Shadow Stalker smiled behind her mask, loading the cartridge into her right-hand crossbow.

…well. At least she’s getting some catharsis?? Might not stay cathartic if/when she fails to catch Skitter, though.

She leaped after the girl, gliding down to street level, rebounding off a wall to turn the corner and give pursuit.

Skitter had turned around, was waiting as she rounded the corner.  The bug girl sent a mass of insects out to attack.

Round two – FIGHT!

You saw my face.  Shadow Stalker thought, Records say you’ve got no team, now.  

Oh.

I guess they’ve been updated since 9.1, then.

Operating alone between the old Boardwalk and the east end of Downtown.

That would be around where Danny’s house is, wouldn’t it? Did she move back in, or just stay in the area?

She leaped to the next rooftop, and the movement carried her a little ahead of her target, helped by the fact that the bug girl was moving a little slower with her burden.  Shadow Stalker paused and reached up beneath her cloak and between her shoulder blades.  She withdrew a cartridge for her crossbow, each bolt loaded in at a slight angle, so the aluminum ‘feathers’ at the tail of each bolt stuck out.

I know you’re out for catharsis and all, but you’d probably be better off following her all the way back to whatever acts as her base these days. Although I suppose if you tranquilize her now, you could just bring her in… if she really doesn’t have a team, then finding the base doesn’t matter as much.

She popped out one bolt to examine it, then turned it around so the barbed, razor sharp arrowhead caught the moonlight.  As Skitter passed beneath her, she turned the bolt’s point so her perspective made it appear to be at the girl’s throat.

…I said “tranquilize”.

Some of the bugs flowed out to pass over the PRT forces and the Chosen.

Wait, what is she doing now? Is she attacking the PRT too, or is this saying that the bugs are going past the battle and to the other side?

The thugs started recoiling and slapping at themselves, but Shadow Stalker couldn’t see much reaction from the PRT forces.

Ah, okay.

They were made of sterner stuff, in a way, and their uniforms covered them thoroughly enough that the bugs wouldn’t do nearly as much damage, if they were even attacking.

Yeah, and that’s a big if there.

Skitter emerged from the center mass of the swarm, carrying a bag of supplies from the truck.  It was green canvas, large, not dissimilar to a gym bag.

Wait, she

is

raiding supplies too? Huh.

I guess the PRT wouldn’t willingly provide those resources to Skitter and/or the Undersiders, and it’s tricky to get them even as civilians…

Pulling the strap over one shoulder, she briskly retreated back into the alley, the bugs trailing after her like the tail of a slow moving comet, or the steady trail of smoke from a candle.

I guess you could consider that one bag of supplies her payment for helping to stop the Chosen from taking everything.

It’s worth noting here that Skitter seemed to be working alone. Does that mean she isn’t working with the Undersiders, or just that they didn’t think she needed backup?

Incidentally, Taylor showing up now makes me believe it’s less likely that we’re getting a Chariot chapter, simply because it makes a lot of sense to pull things back to Taylor at the end of the Arc. Which also is part of why I figured we might get a Chariot chapter in the first place – if he is working for Taylor, that reveal would make for a pretty good transition into finding out what her plan is all about.

A feral smile spread across Shadow Stalker’s face, beneath her mask.

Fuck. Skitter is not only a villain in Sophia’s eyes, she’s a villain whom Sophia has personal beef with (re: identity mishaps) and who, last Sophia heard, was on the same team as Grue.

Shadow Stalker resisted the urge to jump down, watched as the shadow of the bug girl’s swarm moved over the Chosen, almost obscuring them from view.  The bug girl drew her combat stick, whipped it out to full length, and dispatched the Chosen one by one.  

Woo, go Taylor!

So what does Sophia think Skitter’s motivations for going against the Chosen are? That she wants the resources for herself and the Undersiders?

Shadow Stalker couldn’t see the hits, between the darkness and the obscuring mass of the swarm, but she saw the splashes and movements of the Chosen as they fell to the ground, clutching their faces, knees, and hands.

Nice work! 😀