“Come on,” Grue urged me.

I stood, leaning against the concrete wall that divided the beach from the street above.

Survive.

“Genesis is going to be there,” I said.  “We need to go find her and help her.”

…right, they had her real body moved to Taylor’s territory.

Considering that’s how they put it, she’s probably not able to move, at least not very easily, with her real body.

“We’re too hurt to do anything,” Grue answered, “Genesis can handle herself.  She can always make a new body with her powers.”

That was my first thought too, until I remembered her real body is in there. Unless of course they haven’t gotten around to moving her in yet. I forget, was there any time in between their arrival in Taylor’s territory and going to Ballistic’s to talk to Amy?

Now that I think about it, I don’t think there was. I guess they haven’t moved Genesis’ real body yet, then?

“And her real body?  She had it sent to my lair.”

I don’t know, I confused myself on that matter.

Grue paused.  “Your lair could be on fire.”

Yes, that’s the problem.

(I guess they did get her sent along already.)

“Exactly.”

He considered for a few moments.  “Alright.  Just let me call Bitch.”

Yeah, let’s figure out where she went and see if she can go fetch Genesis.

“Don’t.”  I stopped him as he got his phone in hand.

Um. Why?

Because she actually considered attacking you?

“What?”

“A call at the wrong time, her ringer going off, it could mean alerting the enemy about her position or distracting her.  Wait.”

Oh yeah, that’s a good point. Fair enough.

What the hell had I been thinking, wanting to become a superhero?

I think I summarized it a few posts back, in the first Skwitter edit: You used to think escapism was fun.

You wanted to escape from the life you had, and if you protected people along the way, that was good too. Then Tattletale happened and you became a villain and things went downhill from there because of factors you couldn’t control.

And all of a sudden, the life you ended up with was worse than the life you started with, but by then you’d thrown away the latter.

…

You know, it isn’t too late to go back. It might be hard to make that choice due to the connections and promises you’d be breaking, things may be awkward with Danny for a while, and the Nine would still be around, but you can go back to an approximation of your old life.

The biggest problem as far as staying safe while doing so would be Cherish, and she seems like she’s intent on betraying the Nine for her own safety.

Using my power, I found difficulty at every turn.  Everywhere I sent my bugs, I encountered fire.  I felt like a blind person tapping their cane around himself to get a sense of the surroundings, encountering only danger, destruction.

That’s… pretty much exactly what she is, except for the cane being metaphorical.

A picture was gradually unfolding, and it was an ugly one.

How bad is it?

We ran, Grue leading the way.  We fell four times.  My legs and back were burned, Grue had his injured leg, and we were running slightly downhill.

I guess that’s better than uphill, at least. Downhill leads to water, and is easier.

He was clutching my shoulders hard enough that it hurt, and leaning heavily on me with every other step, while my legs had none of the strength needed to support him.

These two have no business running right now, but they don’t have much choice.

Bitch hauled on Bastard’s chain, shouting, “Go!”  She climbed halfway onto Sirius’ back, unable to climb up higher with her injured leg.  Grue and I followed as Bastard crashed into  one of the walls of flame, sending burning trash flying and spreading out the flaming water.

Fair enough. I guess going through one of them quickly is going to burn less than staying put.

Bitch rode Sirius through the break, and Grue and I hurried after.

Hot.

How well is your costume holding up, Skitter?

I stumbled as the heat built.  I was supporting Grue as best as I was able with the pain in my ribs protesting even the slightest movements of my arm, let alone trying to support a nearly-grown teenage boy.

Ah, right, they don’t get the luxury of riding a super fast doggo out.

The heat of the flames increased.  I think we could have made it if it was just one or two steps, but it wasn’t.  Five paces failed to carry us out of the flames.

Damn, these are thick.

We were too slow to keep up with Bastard and make use of the way he was scattering the flames for us.

And that day, Bastard split the Red Sea, but unfortunately, Skitter and Grue had too much distant Egyptian ancestry to be allowed through.

They rose from every corner and shadow in the area, approaching Burnscar from every direction.  I directed them towards the exposed skin of her hands, ankles, face and neck.

I don’t think this is going to be anywhere near as effective as it is cool, but damn is it cool.

The second they landed, they bit, stung and clawed at her.  I even felt a few touch her face.  Then I felt her move.  For an instant, I thought she had some kind of enhanced strength or speed that let her throw herself to one side like she did.  Except it wasn’t her.  It was Mannequin that moved, throwing her to one side, so she landed in the midst of a flaming pile of trash.

Y’know, normally getting thrown into a flaming pile of trash would be a bad thing.

Also if this isn’t assisting…

The bugs on her were burnt to a crisp and she promptly disappeared.

“Run!” Grue shouted.

Where? I haven’t heard anything about her walls of flame going down.

Mannequin tapped on Burnscar’s shoulder.  She turned, and he parted his mouth slightly before drawing an ‘x’ over it with one finger.

Hm… is he saying he’s not going to tell on her, or that she shouldn’t let Grue talk, or…

“Mannequin says you’re lying.”

Ah. I guess that works.

Crap.  My bugs weren’t in position to attack yet.

At least if she keeps talking to Grue, there’s still some time.

“You really going to gamble on that?” Grue asked.

“Yeah,” Burnscar said.  The flames around us swelled in size.

Fair enough.

Wait, is Mannequin actually allowed to interfere like that, or does that count as assisting?

I suppose restricting him from giving her a little tip like that is a bit too strict a reading of that rule.

I had no time left for subtlety.  I gave the order for my bugs to attack directly, closing the distance by the fastest and most obvious routes available.

Here we go, let’s see how Bonesaw’s squishy-protection deals with this.