So are they going to steer towards Amy so as to pick her up on the doggos?

“I have a bit of her power.  Don’t trust myself to use it,” he grunted.  “Missing something in the interpretation and analysis part of it.”

Fair enough. This one’s super easy to fuck someone up with by accident.

“Clear the darkness around her so she can find a spot to hide.”

Seems reasonable.

He grunted a response, and the darkness folded around us a second time.

I was focusing on four things at once: staying seated behind Grue, guiding Amy, tracking Siberian’s location and trying to find Siberian’s real body.  I could sense her as she made her way up the side of a building.

Man, it’s really good your power seems to improve your multitasking skills.

Which is not just convenient for Taylor’s tactics, it’s also quite thematically appropriate. Taylor’s mind reflects a swarm, where parts of the swarm can break off and act independently.

Grue’s darkness was heavier, now.  It sat lower on the streets.  From her vantage point, Siberian couldn’t see us, couldn’t see Amy, but she could see the tops of taller buildings.

At least leaping up to them wouldn’t help all that much.

What was she looking at?

Ooh, do we have a clue to where her creator / real body is?

Through my swarm-sense, I could feel her dropping back down to ground level.  I expected a splash or shattered pavement, but there was nothing.

…soft kitty landing?

She was snapping her invulnerability out to affect the surface she was landing on.

See, I thought of that, but I was confused as to why Taylor wouldn’t expect it.

Would she figure it out?

She moved her hand again, and I adjusted the placement of the bugs.  From the way she picked up speed, I could tell she was taking my directions.  The bugs would serve her as a compass.

Sweet.

She wasn’t running as fast as she might, otherwise, but she seemed willing to trust that I wouldn’t direct her straight into a wall.

Right now, trusting Skitter is pretty much all she can do.

That left the problem of Siberian and whether she would come after us when she lost Amy’s trail.

Ah yes. That might be a slight issue.

“Let’s go,” I spoke.  “Let’s check the twelve o’clock position from Siberian to see if we can’t find her creator further on.  Loop around.”

Seems like as good a direction to go as any.

Grue and Tattletale kicked the dogs into action.

I judged that Amy and Siberian were far enough apart, now.  I used my bugs to direct her to a door that was ajar, leading her into a small shopping mall.

now why would you make her hide inside a jar, that’s obviously gonna be way too small

I tapped hard on Grue’s shoulder, and the darkness immediately around us began to fade.  I asked, “You can tell where Amy is?”

Oh! I just realized how they’ll be able to fix Amy’s hand. It’s pretty obvious in retrospect, but I needed this reminder of Grue being able to use his new power on her to realize it: He can borrow a fraction of her power and use it on her.

Unless the power just doesn’t let anyone use it on her rather than not letting them use it on whoever is casting it, but that seems unlikely.

She was experienced in this sort of thing, and would be an experienced tracker.  The water that layered the street was something of a blessing, I suspected.  Even as it slowed Amy down, it meant there weren’t tracks of mud or anything for Siberian to follow.

For once it’s helpful!

At worst, there would be clouds of muck stirred up by Amy’s footfalls, and there was little enough sunlight that I wasn’t sure how much of it Siberian would be able to see.

I mean, if the tiger aesthetic is actually something their powerset is going for rather than something they made up to explain the stripes, low-light vision is not far-fetched.

I waited, tense, as Amy ran.  I felt the darkness roll over the bugs I’d gathered on and around her, and crossed my fingers that Siberian didn’t have any tricks up her sleeve.

Of course, even low-light vision won’t help against Grue’s darkness.

Needed a way to communicate with her.  Shifting a small group of bugs onto Amy’s right hand, I felt her shake them off.

Oh yeah, given Amy’s acute life-senses, spelling things out on her skin might work.

I tried again, and she left them there.  I moved them gradually, until they were gathered on the tips of her ring and pinky fingers.  She moved her hand to the right, and I shifted the bugs to her middle and index fingers.

So you’re making them act like a sort of compass towards where you need Amy to go? Neat.

In other news, we’re back in business!

“My power’s not detecting him either,” Grue replied, “But my coverage is bad.  Give me a second and I’ll let you know the second my darkness connects with him.”

Ohh, I see, that’s why he did that.

Also, the slowing of the darkness’ generation is rearing its head as a weakness. Though apparently it spreads faster, doesn’t it, so that’s something.

Siberian had noticed the darkness, and I could see her contemplating coming after us, striking at the source of the darkness.

Uh oh.

I guess that’s part of why he was reluctant to use it.

Instead, she turned and began making her way toward Amy.  The darkness continued to flow, low to the ground, tendrils rising to bind together and fill in gaps, and my view of Siberian was soon blocked.

Well, at least you’ve got bugs, but somehow I feel like they’d have a hard time hanging on to her.

There was another explosion as Trickster deployed another grenade, but it wouldn’t serve as anything but a split-second distraction.

A bit higher up than the darkness, I’d imagine.

“Please.”

“Right.”  His darkness began to flow from his hands.  I climbed up onto Sirius’s back, and Grue was a step behind, taking a seat in front of me.

“Any luck?” Tattletale asked.  She’d seated herself on Bentley, her hands on the chain around his neck, and both Trickster and Sundancer were behind her.

So where are they riding off to now? Direct confrontation is the last thing they want.

I suppose they might have to move around a bit to find Siberian’s real body, depending on Siberian’s range.

My bugs were still searching for the real Siberian.  Or her creator, depending on how one wanted to look at it.  I was reaching the edges of my range and I hadn’t found anyone suitable.  I did find two adult men that were together.  Could she have made a friend in her real identity?

Entirely possible, I suppose.

Also, while I’m willing to go along with the flesh and meat being their real body, I’m not willing to assume their real body has their “real identity”.

Just to be safe, I set my bugs on the pair of them.  I didn’t use anything deadly, but I had bugs biting and stinging without flexing their abdomens to inject the accompanying venom.  Siberian didn’t react to my assault of the men.

Well, sucks for the two of them, then.

I put each of them down as a ‘maybe’, planting bugs in the folds of their clothes to mark them.

“Can’t find her maker,” I said.

Keep in mind that by using this terminology, you’re signing away any right to use one-liners about “meeting your maker” to Monochrome Siberian while killing them.

“Really need a distraction,” I said.

“Are you still looking for the real Siberian?”  Tattletale asked.

“Of course I am!”  I snapped.  I might have gone on to point out how we were also here to save her.

And finding the real body is probably the best way to do that, but you gotta keep Amy alive long enough to find it.

To save Amy Dallon.  I kept my mouth shut: pointless to waste my breath or dedicate any focus to arguing when I could be trying to deal with Siberian.

This is a two-front battle, and Taylor is largely fighting both sides alone, with a slight bit of aid from the rest of the team.

Trickster was looking through his binoculars, holding one grenade.  I saw him pull the pin a second before the grenade in his hand was replaced by a fragment of building.

Ohh. That way he can cause rubble to fall down and mess things up for Siberian.

Briefly.

An explosion erupted a matter of feet from Siberian.  The smoke cleared quickly enough, and I saw her turning her head, looking for the unseen attacker.  I ducked my head low to get more cover from the ruined wall we all lurked behind.

And distract her, right.

“Grue?” I asked.

He hesitated.

Oh damn, do you intend to make this a monochrome-on-monochrome fight?

I mean, yes, Siberian is way stronger that Grue’s monochrome, but that’d still be awesome. Might even get past Monochrome Siberian’s invulnerability like Siberian did with Alexandria. And if it doesn’t, Siberian might not be able to get past Grue’s monochrome’s probably somewhat weaker invulnerability.