“Sorry to interrupt your business meeting,” Sierra said, looking from me to Grue.

“It’s fine.  What’s going on here?”  I controlled the tone of my voice.  They didn’t seem too fazed by this encounter with two supervillains.  Were they veterans of Lung’s rule?  Or Bakuda’s?

Maybe both?

A Japanese guy with a mop of hair covering his eyes and a bad slouch looked from Sierra to me and spoke in a very American accent, “You still looking for muscle?”

Ohh!

Hey, look! They found a new leader for the Arduous Bug Bites!

Two groups arrived within a minute of one another, each at different points of my territory.  Thirty-two people in all, with eight in the first group and twenty-four in the other.

Hrm. That’s big enough that it seems clearly planned. Maybe the Merchants will be the ones taking initiative here?

Also, the distribution reminds me a lot of the Atrocious Basejumping Benefactors back in Gestation.

Both groups reacted, jumping and backing away as my swarm swept over them.

To be expected, really.

I could feel the vibration in the air as one in the second group laughed.  The others joined him.

Guessing the first laughing one is the leader of the group. Possibly Skidmark himself?

I’d held off on attacking, just using the bugs to get a headcount and a sense of who was there.  There were men and women, young and old.  Each of them had weapons of some sort, and fifteen in total had guns.

Yeah, that really tears any doubt that they’re here for a fight to pieces.

Or maybe he’s deaf.  Let’s go with that.

Heh. That’d probably help, yeah.

The fat old man didn’t budge an inch as Kid Win approached, forcing the boy to squeeze by.  He made his way up, ignored a gang of fit twenty-something Asian guys who were standing guard in the hallway on the second floor.

I wonder how many of these people were part of the Acclimated Bastard Banterers, and how many of those were voluntarily so. This place is shady as fuck, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the people here had a gang background.

On the third floor, he headed past people who were sleeping on blankets in the hallway, found apartment 306.

The door opened a second after he knocked.  A tired looking Hispanic woman greeted him, “You’re the superhero, I take it?”

I’d imagine Kid’s here in costume, so yeah, there’s a pretty good chance of that, ma’am.

“Yes.  Kid Win,” he extended his hand.  She shook it firmly.

“Ashley Medina.  My son’s back through here.”

Lily, Sabah, Ashley… Wildbow’s on a roll with his names.

The uneasy solution had been to avoid saying anything about the local villains, beyond the fact that they had participated, but problems had stemmed from that, too.

Naturally. You either rile up those who don’t like the villains, or you rile up those who do (a.k.a. the villains themselves).

This kind of reminds me of the situation at the start of Tangle, with Taylor being annoyed that the Protectorate glossed over the villains’ involvement in taking down the Aching Beam Blasters.

(This time it’s an ABB gag. We don’t have any terrorists named Aching Beam Blasters over here.)

Subordinates or teammates of the fallen villains had made a scene over these omissions, sometimes during the funerals, and villain participation in Endbringer situations started to decline.

Which is definitely not something anyone wants, unless their goal is the destruction of the city.

More issues came up, rooted in the reality that people who went out in costume were more theatrical or dramatic as a rule.  Too many vying to take the spotlight, hero and villain alike, even some of the fallen, with measures or requests placed in advance.

Oh my cod she’s right they’re totally a bunch of drama royals

It didn’t happen every time, but enough events became sideshows and media circuses that the whole purpose of the events was defeated.  The media was banned from recording the event, but the capes who’d sought to stand out only tried harder.  Fights had erupted.

Naturally.

No, those things weren’t useful.  Larger scale?  There was an old roof supported by two pillars, attached on one side to a building, a carport, perhaps.

I suppose that could be used to give some height without having to break anything on the way down, but that’s probably not enough against the sort of waves Levvy sends.

The roof was mostly intact, corrugated steel with a smallish hole in one lower corner, which meant the area beneath it was largely dry, but for a small puddle.  It was also exposed on three sides, which meant I couldn’t stay there.  My bugs could.  It was a place they could keep dry until I needed them.

Oh right, she has bugs.

I’d been acutely aware of my bugs since the battle started, and for the second time I could remember, I found my power was responding far more effectively as I called for them.

Hm. Last time this happened was on the way to the Agnostic Bed Bugs’ hideout in Hive.

Is it something about this area?

I don’t think it has to do with the adrenaline, seeing as that didn’t seem to have kicked in yet in Hive.

My reach extended further, my bugs were fractionally more responsive.  The last time this had been the case, it had been when I teamed up with Bitch, Sundancer and Newter and wound up fighting Oni Lee and Lung.  I couldn’t explain it, but I wasn’t going to complain.  I needed every small advantage I could get.

I’m sure we’ll find out what’s up with this eventually. For now, though…