“What do you want me to do?” I asked.

“Scout.  See if there’s any clues about the opposition’s movements.  If you can’t figure anything out on that front, track Crawler from above.

Keep in mind that the “opposition” currently also includes the Protectorate.

They’ll have some agreed-upon place to meet, and he could lead us to the other four… you haven’t seen Legend?”

He was last seen chasing Siberian, right?

“No.”

“Then I’d bet he’s still chasing Siberian.  Or minimizing the damage she can do, anyways. He can’t hurt her, but she’s at a disadvantage as long as she has to carry that truck and protect the occupant.  Legend will know how to use that.”

Excellent. If we can keep her out of this fray, that would be great.

“Right.”

“So Crawler will maybe lead us to the other three.”

Sounds reasonable.

Though it’s worth noting that we still haven’t sensed Mannequin here in any way. He’s able to avoid Taylor’s bugs, but he’s not one for staying out of sight (then again, neither is Jack). I’m wondering if he’s even here at all.

“On it.”  I hung up.

I’d dealt with it against Lung, I’d dealt with it against Burnscar.  Fire was something of a problem when it came to using my power.

Yeeah. Major type advantage. At least in this case nobody’s actively controlling the fire.

Unless Bonesaw went back for Burnscar’s corpse.

“Places to look, anyways.”

“We can’t get to them if they are there.”

I suppose not. Taylor may be able to descend and find them with her surviving bugs, but they’ll probably be long gone by the time anyone else could get there.

Also, going back in after the first round of bombings is a supremely bad idea. You have no idea how bad it is, but even without the knowledge that Bakuda bombs are coming soon, you should still be wary of the possibility of a second barrage. That’s just a good tactic for the PRT to do: Lull any of the Nine or Undertravelers who found cover into a false sense of security, then strike again.

“And they can’t get away, either.  Jack’s slippery, but he’s pinned down for the time being.  Just one second.”

Is that something your power is telling you about physical obstacles, or just a logical result of Jack being the kind of smart cookie who’d see the second strike coming?

Or both?

I could hear other voices in the background.

A few seconds later, Tattletale was back on the phone, “Genesis is already making a body that can withstand the fire.  Sundancer thinks she can clear away some of the blaze by flash-burning the oxygen from the area and drawing the heat and flame into her sun.  If she can, it might give us some elbow room.”

No, seriously, do not fucking go back in there

Well.

If they’re not gonna listen to me, I guess we know how the Bakuda bombs become relevant now.

“The fire will have undone the silk bindings,” I said.

Fuck, good point. Better make sure he can’t jump hundreds of feet.

“Can you do it again?”

“Not here, not anytime soon.”

Yeah, he’s currently a bit out of range.

“Okay.”

“What are the odds that Bonesaw and Jack survived?”

“Too high.”

Especially Jack, from a narrative perspective.

I stared down at the inferno.  The tallest fires had dwindled, but a carpet of fire covered everything for a five block radius.  Cars that had been mostly intact were charred hulks now, and the explosions had torn chunks out of buildings, or the flames hollowed out the interiors.

Hey, Piggot, I hope you have people ready to stop these fires from spreading too far.

“How would he survive this?”

“How would you survive this?” she asked.  “Or- if you didn’t know precisely what was happening, where would you find the most secure cover?”

In Bonesaw’s case, she might hide inside a body again. Or maybe make a pillow fort, except the pillows are people.

I thought back to the options I had considered.  “The sewer?  Or find a bank vault?  Not sure if the sewers or storm drains wouldn’t collapse, and the bank vault could easily become an oven.”

Though considering the bank vault becoming an oven kind of requires you to have an idea that high temperatures are involved. In any case, there are more drawbacks to that idea, such as breaking into the vault taking time if your name ain’t Crawler or Siberian.

“Leaf L,” I replied.  “We’re all okay?”

“All of us.  Amy’s here.”

Hell yes! That’s one thing I really don’t mind being wrong about.

“Any idea if that did anything to Jack and Bonesaw?  Or Crawler?”

Crawler, probably not.

Jack… maybe it hurt him, but I doubt he’s dead. His death is too plot critical for him to go out like this. If he dies, it’ll be at Undertraveler hands, I think.

Bonesaw – having had her big confrontation with the Undertravelers already – might be dead, in which case the PRT might look forward to a visit from Siberian if they learn of Piggot’s role.

“Crawler’s probably taken worse.  I can picture him crawling into an incinerator and sitting in there for long enough that he can take this.”

Pffft. That’s honestly a funny mental image, and given his current size… Well, the image of him crawling into a space that’s way too small for him and just sitting there for a while isn’t doing anything to dissuade me from the impression that he’s way more of a cat than Siberian.

The plane wasn’t as fast as I’d thought it would be.  It appeared from the clouds and crossed the skyline a distance away, at an altitude not much higher than me.

Wow, she’s going really high up now.

Either that or that’s a low-flying plane. I wonder if they’ve gotten the airport back up and running yet?

It left a muted roar in its wake, and the payload of bombs.

Oh. Right.

For some reason I was picturing a more… catapult-like bombing.

Black specks, smaller than I would have guessed, but more numerous.  Fifty?  A hundred?  I couldn’t tell from my vantage point, and I doubted I could have made an accurate estimate.

So these are the incendiary rounds, right?

The bombs were targeted at the parking lot where Jack and Bonesaw had been.  They detonated across the surrounding neighborhood, a carpet of explosions and flame that ripped through everything.  In a heartbeat, an area that had been drowning in stagnant water was lit up by fires that rose higher than the smallest buildings.

Fire and water together just keeps happening in this part of the story, huh.

Maybe the prevalence in this “book” (Arc 9-?) of fire going on top of the water Leviathan left could be considered foreshadowing that Behemoth is next. I’m fairly sure the Simurgh is next if they are all going to come here, but if it turns out I’m wrong, I’m probably going to count this as foreshadowing.

But I was flying.  It was as close to unassisted flight as anything I could hope to experience.  I felt what he felt, his every movement was as much an extension of my will as moving my hands, blinking or controlling my breathing.

In a very real way, Taylor is one with the swarm. She has been for a while.

It was almost eerie, the quiet.  The buzz of signals and responses from my swarm grew as quiet as it had been since my powers manifested.

Oh yeah, I suppose most bugs don’t fly this high (unprompted, anyway). She has barely had the chance to be away from bugs since that fateful day in the locker.

I had the capsaicin-laced bugs in my armor, a few hundred bugs stored in my utility compartment and shoulderpads, as well as the outside fabric of my costume.  I’d brought the relay bugs up into the air around me for safety, and directed everything else to find cover.  Compared to my dim awareness of the tens of thousands of bugs that I could feel from anywhere in the city, this was almost silence.

At least she’s got some company.

How long had I been relying on my bugs to provide sensory input?  Using my own eyes, I followed my teammates as they raced for cover.

You started doing that in Agitation, and ever since you’ve been using it more and more.

I do like this moment of realization that “oh hey, maybe I should use my other senses for once”.

I felt distracted, as if it was something I wanted to relegate to my bugs while I glanced over my surroundings for potential threats.

She’s been developing some strong habits.

In the time we had remaining, I directed my mount as high as he could manage.  My power gave me a sense of how far I was above the ground.

If they aren’t out of the blast zone, it is interesting that

specifically

our POV character and main protagonist gets the ability to dodge the blast zone entirely by flying.

Well, maybe not entirely. When Bakuda’s stuff comes into play, who knows what will happen. Probably not the Protectorate, Tinker labs or no.

Honestly, I think the “POV character” outweighed the “main protagonist” part. The tension may be less direct this way, but we already had lots of tension last time, and Taylor flying offers an interesting perspective on the blast zone for us readers.

My range formed a loose sphere around me, and as I made my way skyward, my power covered less and less ground, on a literal level.  It wasn’t long before my power didn’t reach the ground beneath me.

So that puts her at least 300 feet above ground. Nice.

A little daunting, being so high when I was so new to flying.

Yeah… at least you’ve got more control than last time, though.

Though that also comes with no one else being there to take that pressure.