Then she saw I was looking and she met my eyes.

“Yes?” I asked her.  “You’ve got the ladybugs.  I will get you a box.”

Oh, nice, she’s one of the heads of the families.

“No.  It’s not that.”  She looked at her hand where the ladybugs were.

“Then what is it?

“You said we were your people, that you were protecting us.  Does that mean you’re going against the other groups?”

“Yes.”

I suppose that does mean a gang war, essentially, though one side cares way more about the civilians than the other.

“My kid brother.  I- he needs help.  My parents are sick and they’re in the hospital and I can’t tell them because I told them I’d take care of him, um, and I asked the cops but they’re so busy and there’s no way they can help, and I was going to ask that hero, Battery, but then she disappeared so fast-”  The words spilled out of her mouth, less and less intelligible as she kept talking.

Aw. She seems to have decided she can trust Skitter.

What kind of help does he need? It sounds like she thinks Battery would’ve been able to help, and with that first question… Did he get in trouble with the Merchants? Or worse, the Chosen?

I doubt it’s the Slaughterhouse, considering it sounds like she thinks he’s still alive.

Unlikely thought that crossed my mind: Messenger of Dragon. Very unlikely because it’d be quicker for Dragon to come here herself than get some random person to pass on a message to Skitter.

Slowly, they began to peel away from the group and leave.  I began letting the swarm disperse, but I used the fact that I had the bugs all together to direct a mass towards my lair.  The cream of the crop – the good ones.

Sweet. I guess this could act as protection for the Hive?

As Coil’s men got back in the truck, my swarm-sense told me that one person had stayed behind.  I turned to get a better look at her.

Hm, what’s up? Battery stick around out of costume or something?

She was twenty or so, and her red hair had been set into long dreadlocks that she must have been growing for years.  I wasn’t sure on the effect – white people didn’t grow good dreadlocks.

True. I’m no dreadlock expert, but I seem to recall hearing about that having something to do with genetics and white people having to do something to their hair for dreadlocks to be possible at all, something that doesn’t go well with water (resulting in the stereotype that black people with dreadlocks don’t wash their hair) and doesn’t look as good as black people’s dreadlocks. Something like that.

I do like red hair, though.

She wore rain boots, a calf-length skirt, and had a colorful bandanna around her forehead.  She was pale, and she fidgeted nervously, not making eye contact.  High or afraid?

Whoever she is, she’s got a neat design. More detailed than Big Man’s, too, which makes me think she might be a more important character. The way she’s lingering behind, not part of the crowd scene, adds to that feeling.

As I pointed, the crowd parted slightly to reveal the Merchant who was still crawling away, simultaneously struggling to douse himself in the one or two inches water on the street and to crawl with three limbs – he was favoring the hand I’d stepped on.

His buddies were gone.  They’d left him.

That capsaicin is pretty intense stuff.

“If you do not get a box, stay.  I want the head of each family or group to raise their hands.  This will help me ensure you get something before the day is over.”

Ooh, nice. She does intend to keep track of who didn’t get anything.

It took a minute before the last of the boxes were claimed.  There were some resentful looks as the last of the people left.  I had thirty or so remaining people, and after some brief discussion, seven of them raised their hands.

Nice, that’s not too many more boxes to get.

I concentrated on the swarm, and found a collection of ladybugs.  I piloted a group into each set of raised hands, and watched as people lowered their hands to look.

Hm. Alright? Are these their tickets for later?

“Each of you now has three ladybugs in your hands.  Keep them, and I will use them to find you later today to drop something off for you, with a small gift to each group of you for being patient.”

Right, how did I forget about her ability to track them.

“Listen up!” I shouted.  I used my swarm to give me more volume, and to stand out against the noise of the crowd.  People went silent, and every set of eyes turned towards me.  I stepped up onto the truck, hiding myself briefly in the swarm as I hopped up.

Hey! Listen!

(I know that’s my second Navi joke tonight. Sue me. Besides, it’s only fitting for them to be annoyingly frequent, is it not?)

I addressed them, “Not everyone will get a box today.  That is not an excuse to take what others have already claimed.  As I said, I will not tolerate stealing or theft among you.  

This is a good announcement to make. I think you’ll be a pretty decent queen.

If you try it, I’ll treat you the same as I treated him.”

And we’ve got a touch of intimidation, pulling in the example-making to full effect. Excellent.

“I wouldn’t expect any less,” I answered her.

With that, she disappeared in a blur, the water parting in her wake.

Byyye!

That was a fun interaction.

With her gone, the rest of the crowd swooped down on the remaining supplies.  People maintained a respectful distance, but oddly enough, they weren’t acting as scared of me as they’d been before I attacked the Merchant and before I’d talked to Battery.

Might have to do with the facts that you just protected them from the Big Man, that a Protectorate member seems to accept what you’re doing, and that the same Protectorate member says they’ll step in if Queen Skitter’s reign goes too far.

Had her leaving me alone given me a measure of legitimacy?  More importantly, had it been intended to give me legitimacy as ruler of the area?  She hadn’t needed to step in right then.  Probably.

Hm. I suppose it’s possible.

If that’s the case, it was probably on orders from console, considering she personally didn’t approve.

I had to admit I wasn’t sure if I would’ve gone through with stabbing the guy.

Who knows. Maybe Dinah, but I doubt she can go back and then sideways.

I sighed.  “Don’t know what to tell you.  No agenda.”

She frowned, “When we first set post-Endbringer measures in place, your team was listed as low priority, and we were instructed to ignore you.  Too costly in time and resources.  I suspect someone intended to change that after your little stunt the other night, but the memo hasn’t gone out yet.  You hear me?”

You saying you can pull some strings?

I tilted my head in a small nod.

“So I’m going by the book, and I’m walking away.  But I’ll be keeping an eye on you, on this, and the moment you go too far, we’re coming after you, no holds barred.”

Ahh, so that’s her excuse for letting this go for now. I like this.

Battery surveyed the crowd again.  “What’s your agenda?”

Y’know, I really like this sort of upfront conversation between hero and villain-with-good-intentions.

“Do I have to have one?”

“Yes.  Your kind always has an agenda.”

That’s a bit alignmentist, but not unjustified.

“Maybe I’m unique.”

“No, knowing what you tried to pull with pretending to be a villain?  Or pretending to be a hero that’s pretending to be a villain?

Heh, yeah, figures there’d be a bit of uncertainty around that. She either tricked the Undersiders into thinking she was a villain or she tricked Armsmaster into thinking she was trying to be a hero. Either way, she had a facade and a plan.

You’re more likely to have some scheme at play than anyone else.”

That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but I see what you mean.

As if noting what I was looking at, she glanced at the crowd encircling around us.  “I don’t agree with this.”

That’s a very interesting way of putting it. She seems to be implying that she doesn’t think she has any right or duty to stop it, even if she doesn’t think it’s right, even if it’s being done by a known villain (with a heroic side if Armmaster is to be believed, admittedly) using quite possibly stolen supplies.

“But you’re not going to stop me, and you’re not going to try and arrest me, despite what happened the other night,” I answered her, “Because I’m the lesser of a whole lot of evils that are in the city right now.”

Sure seems that way.

“Mm.  For now.”

Yeah, that’s fair.

“For now.  Until then, I’ve got supplies from an outside agent, I’m not stealing them from the same sources you guys use, and I’m getting them out to these people at my own expense.

Hm, yeah, it’s a good idea to be upfront about this. Essentially going “I’m not stealing this from you” probably helps tip the PRT perception of this further away from “problem”.

I’m policing this area until the police can get back to doing it themselves, and I’m dealing with people who need to be dealt with.  You’re not about to get in my way, are you?”

The big question is to what extent Battery is speaking for the entire Protectorate here. She did talk with console before doing anything, but how much of this is just her?

She spent the accumulated charge of her power and caught the knife out of the air by the handle. “How does this tie into the stunt you helped pull at the HQ?”

That’s a pretty good question, considering what the PRT knows about Skitter and the Undersiders. Namely not that they’ve got Coil.

“The Wards’ building?  The intel we got from there was valuable, and that kind of money buys a lot of things.”

Right, that’s a pretty decent – and mostly true – answer. Dragon will be interested and horrified to know this.

I looked at the remaining pile of supplies.  The majority of the crowd had stopped collecting their boxes to watch the fight with the Merchant and my exchange with Battery.

I wonder what they all think of the way Battery doesn’t seem to be doing anything to stop Skitter, other than stop her from going too far against the Merchant.