“Thank you.  We- we stayed in a family friend’s basement, and they had another family there as well, on the upper floors, so it was crowded.

The living conditions after Leviathan’s attack manage to be sea-related even in the few, mythical drier places.

Also barrel-related.

But it was better than the shelters, or so we thought.  My dad, my uncle and I worked with one of the cleanup crews.

Uncle’s still alive, for now at least.

I’m halfway expecting him to either die or turn out to be a piece of shit by the end of this story.

Trying to get things normal again.  Until word got out that one of the crews had been attacked, the women assaulted.  Um.

So they told me I couldn’t work with them.

Yikes.

I worked for one of the shelters instead.  Handing out sheets, making beds, keeping track of names and passing on requests for stuff like insulin or other meds that people needed.  Long hours, thankless…”

But very much necessary. You did good.

I nodded.

“Then Leviathan came.  The sirens woke us up early in the morning, we hurried to the shelter, and by the time it was midday, we were standing in front of what used to be our house.

RIP.

Actually, maybe I should save that until I know whether the uncle survived. That “we” could very easily be just Sierra and Bryce.

Flattened, everything we ever owned was gone.”

“I’m sorry.”

I’m guessing Sierra wasn’t exactly expecting to hear that either.

From the look on her face, it seemed like I’d surprised her again.  What kind of image did she have of me?

What kind of image did you have of villains until you became one? This isn’t a new situation to you, you’re just on the other side of it now.

Should I have demanded something in exchange?

¯_(ツ)_/¯

I mean, I suppose this falls under that protection you promised.

“Stay here.  I’ll be right back,” I said.

And then Skitter somersaulted through a window, and came back through the same window ten seconds later, carrying the redhead’s brother.

I turned and walked to the front of the truck, knocked, and the driver popped the door open for me.

I spoke in a low voice, “We’re done here.  Tell Coil I need more supplies.  Seven cases at a minimum, by the end of the day.  And tell him I think you guys did a good job, so if he’s up to giving you any kind of bonus, it would be a good time.”

Nice. 🙂

He gave me a tight nod, then closed the door.  The truck drove off, leaving me with the girl.  I approached her, and I could see the effect I was having on her.

Hopefully it’s a positive one.

She was unwilling to meet my eyes, and her fidgeting stilled as I turned my full attention to her.

But yeah, Skitter is still a villain. If she’s going to do this, she’ll have to get used to people being intimidated by her even as she’s helping them.

■

Huh. I didn’t see this last time – I guess that really was the perfect spot to end the session.

I didn’t even need to think about it.

“I’ll do it,” I told the redheaded girl with the dreadlocks.

Ooh, jumping back a bit, are we?

Unless we’re jumping… sideways, between Coil’s realities, but that would require Coil deliberately making one of the Taylors take a different approach, and I highly doubt he’d know about this as it happened. This is probably just a regular flashback.

She looked surprised.  Odd.  She’d asked me, but she hadn’t expected me to help?

I suppose when you’re desperate, you try everything, even if you don’t think it’ll work.

Or had she expected me to demand something from her in exchange?

Also very possible. I mean, Skitter is a villain, and she did just ask something in exchange for her protection of the area (only that people follow her rules, but still).

Alright, let’s get back to it!

Group one down.

I finished my tea, then made a face.  The teabag had leaked grit, and some had settled into the bottom of my cup.  Bitter.

Eesh.

I put the empty cup down at the base of my chair, and then I turned my attention to the second group.

Alright, so are they up to anything yet?

He was halfway down an alley when I drew the ambient bugs from the vicinity into a loose humanoid shape, not as dense as the others.  Still, seeing it stopped him in his tracks.

“Hi. Yeah, you’re not going anywhere.”

He turned to retreat the way he’d come, only to find another swarm coalescing into a second figure at the other end of the alley.  His head whipped around as he realized he had no escape routes left, and then he screamed, a primal, despairing sound.

Taylor’s doing a really good job here so far. If this keeps up with the other group, I think it’s more likely that the Slaughterhouse will show up as antagonists later in the Arc, as dealing with the Merchants seems easier than one might expect in this part of the story.

I mean, sure, Skidmark and the other parahuman Merchants could be a bit more of a challenge, but still.

The swarm figures moved towards him at a glacial pace, with more bugs joining them every second, to give them more mass and more raw attacking power. 

What did I tell you? Skitter totally had a good sense of theatrics.

His composure cracked before they even reached him, and he charged headlong into the swarm that had been at the far end of the alley.  Bugs tore into him, pinching and stabbing him, and he made it nearly to the edge of my power’s range before his legs buckled.

Damn, not bad.

He landed on top of a pile of the trash that the nearby building’s residents had been stacking in the alleyway, and the swarm started mauling him.

Pleasant.