“We have two group members who don’t see any combat.  They spend most or all of their time at Coil’s headquarters.  I understand if that raises a lot of questions, but I –we– would really appreciate it if you guys could leave it at that for now.  I’m thinking we’ll introduce you to the others soon.”

I see… we’ve of course got Noelle, but I’m not sure we’ve heard of this fifth (from our perspective sixth, but let’s stick to Trickster’s numbering) member before. It seems likely that like Noelle, there’s more to it than them spending their time in the background like Tattletale wanted to, in part because they didn’t show up with the rest in 5.1.

“I’m okay with dropping it so long as you’re not withholding anything crucial,” Grue said.  “I’m happy to stay on topic as much as possible anyways.”

Yeah, things went off-topic enough last time.

Trickster tipped his hat.  “Appreciated.  Looked like Hookwolf got hit.  His entire group did.  Shatterbird?”

Judging by the scars, are we?

“Yeah,” Tattletale replied.  “Can confirm that one.”

“Shatterbird, Crawler, Mannequin and…” I trailed off, looking at Regent for help in placing the name.

“Cherish.”

“If the condition of Faultline’s crew was any indication,” Tattletale said, “We can make an educated guess that Burnscar paid them a visit.  Thing is, I can’t even begin to guess who she visited.  Spitfire’s too nice, and none of the others really have the, I dunno, edge?”

Hehe. But don’t you know, Tattletale? Edge is Jack’s domain!

Also I suppose the Spitfire misdirection in Interlude 11c benefited from the fact that we knew approximately jack shit about Spitfire’s personality, so we didn’t know that she was “too nice” yet.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Grue said.  “Thanks.”

Ballistic gestured toward a nearby street and we all started walking in that direction.

Grue started us off.  “Number one, we know that they were here to recruit.  Who were they recruiting?”

Well, you’re walking with two of them.

Though only one’s going to admit it.

“Me,” Regent said.  That drew a few looks of surprise from the Travelers.  He elaborated, “My sister is their newest member, replaced Hatchet Face.  She did it to fuck with me more than out of a genuine desire to have me join.”

I think this situation is less “fuck with me” and more “fuck me over”, but I guess Alec’s not in the best position to tell the difference.

“Armsmaster is another,” I pointed out.  “According to Miss Militia, Mannequin wanted him.”

The Travelers might be among those less surprised by this. They were there when Armmaster’s scheming was exposed.

“The, uh, sixth member of the Travelers is the next recruit, I guess,” Trickster admitted.  “Crawler hit Coil’s place.”

There’s been a bit of back and forth on how Noelle’s been described in relation to the other Travelers, but it seems like member is about right.

“Sixth?” I asked.  “If there’s four of you, then-“

Oh wait, that’s a good point. Who’s the fifth?

“It’s something you can work through,” she said.  “And now that you know to look for it, you should push yourself to use that part of your power so you can see when it’s stronger or weaker.”

Science Skitter!

I nodded, and willed myself to tear down all the mental barriers and safeguards that walled my brain off from the sights and sounds the bugs wanted to send my way.

Let’s take a look! Might be a good idea to start with only a few bugs rather than all of them, though?

It was every bit as grating and annoying as I recalled.  This would take some getting used to.

“Listen,” Trickster said.  “Ballistic’s HQ is close by.  Since my group is going to be waiting for Genesis, and you guys will want to hang around and pick up Imp when she’s done, maybe you want to come by and we can discuss strategy in the meantime?”

Sounds good to me!

“I stopped trying.  But now that I know it’s somehow possible, I dunno.  I can start looking for a way.”

The degree to which it would expand my capabilities, it was tempting.  That kind of expansion of my sensory abilities could be a matter of life and death at some point.

Definitely. And if she can do multiple bugs at once – hell, maybe even the whole swarm when she gets really good at this – she can have eyes and ears all over an area, and really see situations from a lot of perspectives at once.

I could theoretically listen in on most of the people in my territory.  Would I want to, though?  The invasiveness of that kind of creeped me out, and I had a pretty high creepiness tolerance.

Well, I mean, I already used “Big Skitter is Watching You” as the Tebble of Constants title of 11.2. And back then, it was just about her tracking them with the bugs, not actually looking through the bugs’ senses.

“It might be like your range boosts.  Tied to your mental state,” Tattletale said.

Possibly.

“Except my range boosts are probably linked to me feeling trapped, and I somehow doubt I felt that way when I was doped up and waking up in that hospital bed or ambulance or wherever.”

Hmmm. Yeah, I don’t remember that emotion in that scene, but she was absolutely feeling trapped in the situation that led up to it. Besides, how does feeling trapped, specifically, tie in with the first instance of the range boost, in Hive? Again, she wasn’t feeling trapped in the specific situation, but in the situation leading up to it.

Grue sighed, “Okay.”

“So this sensory part of your power, you stopped trying?” Tattletale asked.

The way she phrased that nettled me.  “In the three months between my getting my powers and first going out in costume, I saw zero improvement in that department.  None, zilch.  When I did start going out in costume, I was worried the useless sights and sounds might distract me at some crucial juncture.

Makes sense. Though we’ve seen improvement in other areas, so it’s not far-fetched that she’d eventually have some here too.

Between that and the fact that it was like hitting my head against a metaphorical brick wall…”

Yeah, no wonder.

“You gave up,” Regent said.  He was trying to get on my nerves, I knew it.

Getting on people’s nerves is kind of his thing, isn’t it? :p

Tattletale nodded.

“That’s huge,” I said, “Do you know how much I could use something like that?”

Just as long as it doesn’t fuck her over, it seems incredibly powerful, especially for stuff like monitoring her territory.

“Why can’t you now?” Trickster asked.

“Bugs sense things so differently, my brain can’t translate what they see and hear into something I can process.  It’s all black and white blotches, high-pitched squeals and bass throbs.”  I paused.  “Imp’s perfectly fine, by the way.  At least, I can’t find her, but nobody’s reacting like they found a spy in their midst.”

Nice.

“She’s a bit of a rebel, but she’s not stupid,” Tattletale said, “Trust her to hold her own.”

She can be kinda rash, I think, but Tattletale is right. She’s not stupid.

“I wouldn’t trust myself to hold my own in her shoes,” Grue told her.  “Christ.  Skitter, can you send a few bugs over that way, tell me if she’s in one piece?”

Might as well, if it’s within range.

I nodded, while Trickster slapped his forehead.

“The bugs,” he said, “I could have told Genesis to stick around while you scouted, wait, no.  Why send Imp if you have the bugs?”

Because while she can access the bugs’ audiovisual senses directly, that’s not something she can do without risking sensory overload.

I suppose Trickster thinks that’s what she’s doing when she uses the bugs to scout out places.

“I can’t see or hear through the swarm, really.  Not well enough to listen in.”

“You did once,” Tattletale told me.

That surprised me.  “When?”

Wait, what?

Is she talking about the one time we’ve seen Taylor look through the eyes of the bugs, right before she met the Undersiders for the second time? Or has Taylor been doing this without realizing it?

“After the fight with Bakuda.  You were doped up, hurt, you had a concussion, but you were able to tell us the kind of music someone was listening to, and he was way out of earshot.”

Oh right, that!

I can’t blame Taylor for forgetting anything that happened during that time.

“Seriously?  And you didn’t tell me this?”

Grue shook his head.  “Just speaking for myself, I had a lot on my mind, between you and the others being in rough shape and the ABB setting off bombs across the city.  I completely forgot until just now.  Sorry.”

That’s fair.

“Let’s hope,” Grue agreed.

Trickster said, “We just sent Genesis back in a more discreet form to listen in.”

Ohh, nice! Good idea!

“Imp is staying behind as well,” Tattletale informed him, “So we’ve got redundancy there.”

Oh my cod, well played, Wildbow.

I hope either Taylor or Trickster goes “Who’s Imp?” or something like it.

“Christ,” Grue snapped his head from one side to the next, as if he could spot his sister that way.  With a note of alarm in his voice, he asked, “Imp’s still there?”

Apparently so!

I really love the subtlety of this – Imp wasn’t mentioned at all in the previous chapter, even when going over who were in each boat, suggesting Taylor had forgotten about her again and her power was active. I didn’t catch on, but it was absolutely possible to do so, not because of what was there, but because of what wasn’t there.