“Yes,” Burnscar frowned.  “I did.”

“Then why are you doing it differently than he did?”  Grue pointed at Mannequin.

Oh, is he asking for a deadline?

He was buying us time, using Mannequin’s inability to talk and Burnscar’s less than firm grasp to throw her off her stride.  He didn’t know it, but he’d also provided me with a distraction.

Excellent. Good work, Grue.

My capsaicin-laced bugs made their way down my back and the backs of my legs.  Near the surface of the shallow water, they spread out, sticking to shadows, the cover of burning rubbish and the darkness that swirled around Grue.

I guess she figured she shouldn’t use flying ones. Easier to spot, especially in large numbers.

“Doing it differently?  This isn’t that complicated,” Burnscar said.

“How’s it going to look if you do it wrong?  I imagine Mannequin’s going to get punished for fucking up,” Grue said, “But he at least tried.  If you screw up here, right at the beginning, you really think your team is going to be impressed?  No, they’re going to be embarrassed.

And here I thought it was going to be Taylor doing the tattletaling. Looks like Grue can do that pretty decently too.

And I bet they’ll take it out on the person who embarrassed them.”

Sounds about right.

I should really be speculating about Bitch’s decision, I suppose, but here’s the thing: I don’t fuckin’ know.

Bitch does seem at least somewhat unwilling to betray her team right now, but she has expressed mild interest in joining the Nine before, and she has a history of selfish decisions. Killing the Undersiders would statistically be the better option for her own sake, if you ignore the bonds she doesn’t want to admit to having.

I think Skitter and Grue don’t stand that much of a chance if she does attack, but if she doesn’t, they’re up against Burnscar instead, which isn’t much better, so that doesn’t actually tell me much. At least they’d have the doggos on their side, but still.

Maybe acting could work as a third option – pretending to kill the Undersiders? But that’s not really Bitch’s style, and while Burnscar seems a little ditzy with some things, she still doesn’t strike me as someone who would fall for that.

I haven’t really mentioned it, but it’s painfully clear that it’s all up to Bitch here. Skitter and Grue can’t defend themselves well against the doggos in their current state (at best Skitter can sic her bugs on Bitch, but they won’t do much against the dogs), so if Bitch does give the word, they’re fucked.

Then again, I have been predicting that Bitch would eventually end up fighting the other Undersiders.

Bitch scoffed.

“Sure, it’s shitty as relationships go,” Burnscar continued, “Anyone else would find it depressingly lame.  But they’re the best you’ll get.  The best you can hope for, because you’re fucked up.  Believe me, I know when someone’s fucked up.”

Heh, I suppose she does have personal experience.

“Like I said, you talk too much.”

Yeeah, Bitch isn’t happy about her feelings being laid out like this.

“They’re the best you’ll ever get, and according to Cherish, you’re losing them.  Whatever bond you made with them, it’s fucked up now.  Maybe you did it, maybe them.  Maybe both.  But it’s dying a slow death, dog girl.  Rip off the band-aid and finish off these losers who aren’t going to be your friends in a few weeks anyways.  Do it, and I let you and your dogs walk away.”

Ahh, so that’s how she turns it into a positive from the perspective of getting into the Nine.

But yeah, Cherish is right, she is losing them. The whole thing has been breaking apart for a while.

I expected Bitch to say something along the lines of ‘I’m not afraid of anything’.  She didn’t.

She may be brusque and unwilling to talk about her feelings, but she’s not a liar and she’s not the type to show off.

Her eyes narrowed.

“What the fuck do you have in mind.”

“I’m not going to fucking hurt my dogs.”

That is not an unreasonable guess at what Burnscar is talking about, but I kinda feel like that’s not quite it.

“Not asking you to.  Dogs are easy.  Replaceable.  Sure, you might cry when they bite the dust, you love them.”  The lack of inflection or emotion in Burnscar’s voice made the words sound almost mocking.  “It’s sweet.  But that hole in your heart mends, time heals the wound, you get more dogs and you bounce back.”

That is true enough, I suppose.

“I think you’re underestimating how much she loves her dogs,” I said, “A wound like that never heals.”

Maybe not fully, but she seems nowhere near as broken up now about the dogs that died in Extermination as she was in Parasite and as she was implied to be in 8.8.

Bitch turned her head just enough to give me a hard look.

“Don’t tell her I’m a fucking softie.”

“I’m not saying she doesn’t,” Burnscar shrugged.  “I’m saying the idea of losing them isn’t what scares her the most.  So forget the dogs.  I’m not asking you to hurt them, maim them, murder them or anything like that.”

Good. Now what are you actually asking of her?

“Bug girl,” I corrected.

Taylor, no!

“Don’t really care.  Bitch, the test is an old one, but it’s good.  

Okay, so she doesn’t care (another potential downfall), but still, that was a mistake on Taylor’s part. It might not have helped that much if Taylor didn’t get super creative with it, but I do think they’d be better off if Burnscar didn’t know what Taylor’s deal was until it came buzzing down on her.

We don’t get to do it often enough, because it requires research.  Got to do it with Cherish because she gave us the necessary info.  Wasn’t very bright, but she did.

You’ve got my interest.

(We didn’t get to hear about Burnscar’s test for Cherish in 12.4, did we?)

Now that she’s on the team, she can give us all the info we need.”

Ah, yeah, I suppose that makes sense. Might not last much longer, though.

“You talk too much,” Bitch snarled.  “Get to the point or go the fuck away.”

The latter would, of course, be preferable.

“You’re going to have to face your greatest fear.  Destroy any hold it has on you with violence, blood and death.  I don’t want you to just conquer your fears.

I want you to murder them, before anyone else can use your feelings for them against you.”

Ahh, I see. That really is an oldie but a goodie.

And Cherish really is perfect for digging up information about someone’s deepest fears.

But what’s Bitch’s greatest fear? Being on her own, without her dogs? Something to do with her “families”?

She put a special inflection on the word ‘murder’, making it clear she was being quite literal.

Hmm. Maybe she’s somehow gotten a living representation of the fear that she wants Bitch to quite literally kill. Or perhaps murdering the fear would entail making it so it can’t come true, in whatever way necessary? Sounds like a difficult task for anyone who’s deeply afraid of spiders or something.

I had my pepper spray.  My knife and baton were available too, though I doubted my ability to dish out more hurt than I suffered in an exchange of hits with Burnscar.

Oh yeah, the pepper spray. Been a while since we saw that.

Grue had his darkness, and both of the remaining dogs were in okay shape.  I had my bugs, but neither my costume nor my bugs would do well against the flame.

Once again, Taylor is up against an enemy with type advantage.

“I can still kill tall, dark and eerie and the alien girl,” Burnscar said.

Alien? Hm. It’s not a surprising comparison in itself, since Skitter’s mask does look alien, but it’s interesting nonetheless, as it sounds like Burnscar doesn’t know what Skitter’s thing is. I suppose that fits with how she seems a little ditzy with other things, like the rules. At least while she’s high on her power.

Anything the enemy doesn’t know can be used to your benefit, especially in a story with the theme of “knowledge is power”.

Also, I love that she calls Grue “tall, dark and eerie”. :p