Skitter had known the fence was electrified, judging by the route she’d taken through the fire escape.  The area here didn’t have any power, so the question was whether it something this area’s inhabitants had set up to protect themselves… or was it a trap Skitter had put in place well in advance?  No.  More likely the girl had studied this area before carrying out any crimes.

That would be typical of her, yeah.

Still, it troubled her that the girl had thought to use the fence like she had.  She really didn’t like the idea that the villain had not only seen her face, but that she might have figured out one of her weaknesses.

Or, if she hadn’t, and just needed to get past there for some other reason, that she just did.

Two, if she counted the pepper spray.  Being permeable was a problem when she absorbed gases, vapors and aerosols directly into her body.

Ah, yeah, that’s a problem. Presumably makes her particularly susceptible to toxic gasses and such too.

It wouldn’t affect her if she was in her shadow state, and it would eventually filter out, but if she were forced to change back, she’d suffer as badly as anyone, if not worse.

I see. I suppose ending up with pepper spray inside every part of your body would be rather… uncomfortable.

The fence was electrified.

Shadow Stalker snarled at what had almost been a grave mistake, entered her shadow state and leaped up and over the fence, being careful not to touch it.

Yeah, I suppose that could’ve gotten nasty. I wonder if Taylor was planning for it?

One of the reasons she couldn’t move through walls at will, beyond the huge break in her forward momentum and the excruciating pain that came with stalling in the midst of a wall, was wiring.  She remained just as vulnerable, maybe even more vulnerable, to electrocution.

Interesting.

The people in the PRT labs couldn’t tell her if she could be killed by electrocution – traditional organs were barely present in her shadow state – but it was one of those things that couldn’t be properly tested without risking killing the subject.

“Yes, miss Stalker, it appears you can be killed by electrocution. …miss Stalker?”

End result?  She had to be careful where she went, had received tinker-made lenses to help her spot such threats.

Ah, so they’re specifically for detecting electricity, not other things. Fair enough.

If Taylor’s paying attention (which she almost always is), she might’ve noticed Sophia’s hesitation and decision to jump the fence rather than walk through it. If she’s figured out Sophia’s weakness now, that might help her find a way out of this situation.

Apparently deciding the fire escape wasn’t a great option,

They have failed her again.

Skitter climbed over the railing and leaped a half-story down to the pavement, putting a chain link fence and some accumulated trash bags between herself and Shadow Stalker.

Skitter: “None may enter my fortress of garbage!”

Moron.  I can walk through that fence.  She loaded her crossbow, aimed, and fired through the fence at the girl.

Ah, right. Good point.

A flash and spray of sparks erupted as the shot made contact with the fence.  Skitter stumbled as the bolt hit her, but Shadow Stalker couldn’t see if it had done any damage.

Electric fence… Can you still walk through that?

No, what concerned her was the flash.  She ignored the fact that Skitter was disappearing, entered her solid state and touched the side of her mask.

Lenses snapped into place, showing a blurry image of the alley in shades of dark green and black.  The chain link fence, however, was lit up in a very light gray.

Tinkertech scanners, I suppose.

Similarly glowing, a wire was stapled to the brick of the building next to the fence, leading to a large, pale blob inside the building.  A generator.

Yep. This thing’s electric. If you want to go through it, you might have to disable that wire.

Probably faster to just leap over it.

Good runner, but I’m faster.

Shadow Stalker didn’t need to slosh through the water, but she knew she would be faster than the other girl even if she did.

She wasn’t on the track and field team for nothing.

It wasn’t just her shadow state eliminating wind resistance, or the lightness of her body.  She was a trained runner.

Yep.

She bounded from one wall of the alley to the one opposite, staying above the water, pursuing her target.

Skitter was going up the steps of a fire escape.  Shadow Stalker aimed and fired a bolt – the girl ducked, and the shot clipped a railing instead.

Skitter and fire escapes have a poor relation from before, but it looks like she’s giving them a second chance.

Good reflexes.  Shadow Stalker brushed away at the bugs massing around her.  Or do your bugs help you watch what I’m doing?  Disturbing little freak.

Little bit of both, I think.

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!