“What?”  Grue tilted his head as he looked over his shoulder at me.

“I was going to say she’s not always right, but I’ve still got that black hole in my memory of her, so I’m not sure where that’s coming from.”

Grue rubbed his chin.  “Something to keep in mind, but I still think we should check this person out.”

As a reader, I say go with Grue’s plan! I wanna know who it was!

“I agree,” Tattletale said, a slight smile on her face.  She tugged on my hand.  “Come on!”

We had to stick together.  I reluctantly followed, knowing that separating from the group could mean losing them altogether.

Sorry, Taylor, two against one.

We stopped a few hundred feet away from the woman.  The silk strands had formed a cord around her arms and legs, and the work of the spiders had tightened the binding as she allowed it to slack.  She hadn’t made it back to her feet after falling to the ground.

You okay there?

Grue drew a knife.

“Hey,” I said.  I grabbed his arm.  “What are you doing?”

“She’s obviously a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine,” Tattletale said.

Is that sarcasm?

“Fill me in?  Because I must have missed something.  Doesn’t seem that clear to me.”

“Think about it.  Why is she wearing a mask like that, if not to filter out the miasma?  She knew about it in advance.”

What sort of mask? Also keep in mind that regular gas masks don’t work on this.

“Maybe,” I said.  I could make out something like a gas mask or filter, now that Tattletale had pointed it out.  “Maybe there’s another explanation.  It could have something to do with her power?”

Is this Spitfire?

“It doesn’t,” Tattletale said.

Careful. We very recently had two reminders that you can be wrong when you get tunnel vision-y.

Are you absolutely sure?

Thinking about killing someone was one thing.  I’d always assumed I might have to do it out of necessity to save a teammate… I’d even come close to doing it when attacking the Nine, not long ago.  Couldn’t recall who it had been, but I’d gone all out, used potentially lethal stings and bites.

It was all of them, actually. Well, all currently living ones.

That had been at a distance.  Now we were looking at killing someone face to face.

Not quite the same thing, is it.

The mask, there was another reason for it.  The-

Tattletale interrupted my thoughts.  “If you guys aren’t going to do it, I can.  She was following us, she was prepared for the miasma, and I’m positive she’s a bad guy.  My power, you know.”

I don’t think the Nine were prepared to unleash this, though.

And “she’s a bad guy” can mean a lot, ranging from

“does criminal jobs for money” to “wants to destroy every planet in the galaxy because she’s goth” and beyond.

“We can’t be certain,” I said.

“With my power, I’m five hundred percent sure.  Trust me,” she said, grinning.

Between last chapter and this one we’ve been given enough reminders that Lisa’s power isn’t foolproof that each time Lisa brings up her power as her reason for being 100% sure makes me three times more certain she’s wrong.

Taylor, you’re gonna have to step in and keep Lisa from murdering Spitfire.

She started toward the heroine.

Oh jeez, now Taylor’s going the other way, sure enough that the victim’s a heroine to call her that in narration.

To be fair, that might be the case. The heroes have been wearing gas masks today, so it could just as easily be one of them as it could be Spitfire. More easily, even.

“No,” I said.

“Skitter’s right,” Grue said.  “She could be playing possum.  Best to avoid being reckless.  Keep our distance and finish her.”

…that was not Skitter’s point but yeah, fair.

Fortunately, the only one with a good ranged attack is Taylor, unless Brian borrows something.

“That’s not what I meant.  Let’s just leave,” I said.  “I’ll make that phone call to, um-”

“Coil,” Tattletale supplied.

I nodded.  “We’ll get the information we need, get ourselves cured, or track down the Nine.”

Probably not gonna be that easy, but it’s a good chain of objectives.

Of course, Lisa’s pretty sure they’ve already caught one of them.

“Cherish could lie,” Grue said.

It took me a second to place Cherish’s name.  Names were slipping from my mind too easily.  “Maybe.  We’ll use our own judgement to corroborate her facts.”

Lisa’s power might not be flawless, but at least it’s good at lie detection.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

She nodded.

“I’m going to bind her now.  If it doesn’t work, or if she has a way of breaking free, we should run, with the decoys for cover.”

Alright, so it’s a her.

That might be a good thing.

Tattletale just smiled.

The bugs swarmed our pursuer.  I’d minimized the number of bugs on them, just to be safe, with the drawback that I wasn’t getting a full picture of who they were.  The bugs couldn’t get to her flesh to sting or bite her, but they were telling me she was female in general shape.

Victoria?

I had them deploy the silk they had prepared.  I focused my efforts on her arms and legs.  It took only a couple of seconds to get the threads in place.

Nice work.

She tripped as the silk went taut mid-stride.  Raising one hand to try to catch herself, she found silk threads hampering those movements as well.  To avoid landing face first, she twisted herself in mid-air so she hit the ground with her shoulder instead.

There is the issue that if it’s Victoria, she should be able to fly, probably.

“Got her,” I said.  “Let’s keep going.  We can lose her.”

“We should investigate,” Grue said.  “Make sure she isn’t a threat, and deal with her if she is.”

Hell, maybe she can even help.

“With this miasma affecting us, there’s no way to be sure of exactly of just who we’re dealing with,” I pointed out.

“We have Tattletale.  She can tell us if this person’s a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine.”

Probably, yeah.

“Tattletale’s not-”

I stopped.  Where had that come from?

Informational muscle memory! Things you’re used to saying, that come out of their own accord under certain circumstances!

If they can find more of those, they might be useful.

“We may need to stand together as a team sooner than later,” I said. “We’re being followed.”

“By who?” Tattletale asked.  She paused, then laughed.  “Silly question, I guess.”

Heh, yeah.

Though a minor description might let you identify them with your power.

“Tie them up?”  she suggested.

“Right.”

Good plan. Restrains them while not harming them, just like Vista did to Taylor.

My bugs gathered in out of the way spots, and the spiders began drawing out lines of silk in preparation.  I didn’t want to inform this person that I was on to their tail.

Depending who it is, they might have noticed anyway.

Then, just in case they decided to drop the tail and attack us, I began to gather bugs together into decoys.  Human-shaped lumps and clusters of bugs gathered in alleys and at the edges of rooftops.  Still more gathered in the street, standing in alcoves and in other hiding spots.  I invested less bugs in the ones that were further away from our pursuer, trusting that the shadows the miasma cast would help round them out.

Seems fair enough, yeah.

There were no decoys our pursuer would see from where they stood, but there were now enough to give them pause.

Grue drifted away from our group to approach one of the decoys.  He extended one hand and traced his fingers through the massed bugs.  “You’re versatile.”

Very much so! But let’s not forget, she got this particular technique from you!

I felt a little uncomfortable at the compliment.  “We should keep moving.”

“You’re not tying them up?”

I shook my head.  A miscommunication on that front.

They’re getting… tied up in figuring out which decoy is real?

Hadn’t I recently been thinking about chemistry and intuitively understanding how your teammates operated?  The miasma might be throwing us off in that department.

Oh yeah, that’s a good point.

“Sorry.  Need to prep for it first, I’ll make my move in a minute.  For now, we should act normal.”

“Fine.”  He dropped his hand to his side and rejoined us.  We kept walking.  I had to admire them, the way they were confident enough to avoid looking over their shoulders.

Hmm.

That does sound like Armsmaster, among others. Or Jack, having not much cause oh wait she’s talking about the Undersiders

I had my bugs to track our pursuer with, and I was still feeling nervous having them behind me.

“Is paranoia a side effect of this mist?”

Seems like it, but it also makes sense as a natural consequence of its effects and the aesthetic it’s cast the town into.

Tattletale nodded.  “Could be.  As the symptoms progress, you could have fits of anger, paranoia, hallucinations…”

Knowing you might be hallucinating isn’t great for relieving paranoia either.

I swallowed.

“Or it could progress in another direction.  A broader agnosia, with the inability to recognize anything, not just people.”

Yikes.

That deep, primal prey-animal part of my psyche kept telling me something was wrong, that I was in danger.

Something definitely is wrong, and if anyone other than these two (and their little dog too) shows up, you’re probably in danger. So while this is miasma-induced paranoia talking, it’s not entirely wrong.

I tried to tell myself that it was just my fear working itself up, my brain playing tricks on me.  There was nothing out there.

There’s stuff out there.

The weight of the gun in my hand was both a reassurance and a burden.  It would be so easy to do something I would regret for the rest of my life.

Yeeah, try not to shoot anyone you’re not 100% certain is one of the Nine.

I mean, self-defense is a thing, but you’ve got the bugs too. Go for those first if you can.

“Hate this,” I muttered.

“Me too,” Grue answered.  He put his hand on my shoulder to offer some reassurance.  “But we manage, we cope because we’re a team.  We belong together.”

*sound of sails being hoisted in the distance*

My awareness snagged on someone who was walking a distance behind us, measuring their pace with ours.

Hello.

Ooh, I just thought of something: I wonder if Armsmaster is going to show up during this. I had kind of figured I’d have to put him in my predictions for next Arc, but maybe this is how he comes into play.

Except most of the interesting stuff about him coming back into play has to do with his history with Taylor, and if neither can recognize each other right now… honestly, we’re probably better off waiting for next Arc when it comes to that reunion.

So who is this coming up behind them? Rachel? Amy, cutting the middleman? Jack or Siberian?

Incidentally, the best way to identify the Nine right now is probably to see if they act like they know who people are. I can’t imagine they’ve subjected themselves to the mist.

“Your short-term recollection is still good, at least.  That would be why you can retain the information Grue and I have shared over the past few minutes.  That big beetle of yours, you named it?”

She can probably remember the event of finding out Taylor named Atlas, but not the name, without using her power.

(cue clip of Steven Universe saying “You have to remember! This all happened today!”, except I couldn’t find one)

I glanced at Atlas, who was crawling a short distance away.  “Atlas.”

Tattletale nodded.  “That would be the short-term memory, again. Your power probably gives you enough contact with it that you don’t lose track of who and what it is.”

“Right.”

Makes sense. For many intents and purposes, Atlas is a part of Taylor. It’d be like forgetting what she named her left hand.

“So long as that keeps working, we don’t need to worry about you and Grue forgetting who we are in the middle of a conversation.  But for us, we might lose track of each other if we split up, so let’s stay close, okay?”

That’s actually a really interesting point.

The miasma is still there, so even if it were a “one exposure = one wipe and then you can start learning again” type deal, they’d be getting continually wiped. This explains why that’s seemingly not happening here.

“Okay.”

She reached out and took my hand.

“Can you use the bugs to scout our surroundings?  This will go more smoothly if we don’t need to worry about running into people.”

So much more smoothly.

It made sense.  I sent my bugs out to cover the surrounding area.

The red mist was everywhere.  Color was strained out, leaving everything a monochrome red.  I could still make out the surroundings, but just enough light was filtered out that the area had settled into an oppressive gloom, with many existing shadows made nearly opaque as a result.

I suppose the more mist is generated and spreads upwards, the darker it’ll get, too.

The drifting movements of the mist and the subtle shifts in color and shadow made me feel like things were prowling in every corner and in the edges of my field of vision.

Because this situation wasn’t paranoia-inducing enough.

Okay, but seriously, this is super fitting and I love it. The monochromocity works well as a metaphor, too, for the way this mist is making it so everyone looks like the same thing – a stranger who might be an enemy. The gloom ties in with how this is a dark hour for the city, with limited hope, and the red is a really intense and sometimes unnerving color, while also making the water look like blood and thereby tying in with Bonesaw and the Nine.

Everything about this aesthetic is fantastic for this situation.

“Your powers are working alright?” Tattletale asked. 

Skitter: “Yeah.”

Grue: “The darkness doesn’t trust me.”

Tattletale: “It doesn’t– what?”

I nodded.

“Bug powers, was it?  Don’t want to get it wrong.  Control them, see through their eyes-”

Seeing through their eyes is something she can do, but rarely does because of mental overload.

“No.  I can’t see through their eyes or hear what they do.  It’s mainly touch.”

You can but you won’t.

So Lisa’s power naturally tells her you can.

“Just wanted to check.”  She paused.  “If I asked you what my power was?”

Taylor didn’t seem sure last chapter, but that was before she was sure this was actually Lisa.

I shook my head.

“Okay.  And if I said I was born in Mexico, could you tell me where I was born?”

Oh, huh. To American parents, or is she natively Mexican?

“Didn’t you just say?”

Heh. I think she means the city. Unless she’s testing short term access to knowledge gained after the miasma took hold.

“Yeah.  Repeat it back to me?”

“You were born in Mexico?”

Oh, alright, it was the latter.

Good to know it’s not immediately re-erasing that kind of thing.