Chapter Text
By and large, superpowers were cool. Mine… I guess from an outside perspective they were pretty badass but came with some pretty hefty drawbacks, I thought as I sat in my Hive, staring at the mirror I had a zergling surreptitiously retrieve for me.
Perhaps I should go back to the beginning and explain exactly how I had gotten my powers. My life had been on a pretty notable downward trend for the last year or so, ever since my former best friend, Emma Barnes, had returned from summer camp and become the most unholy bitch in my existence. She had made the first six months of my freshman year a living hell, culminating in a ‘prank’ that on another Earth would have left me traumatized for life. On this Earth? It had given me powers, connecting me to the nightmarishly alien Zerg.
For as long and desperately as I had wanted powers, I now wished with equal fervor that I had never triggered at all. I had not realized what had happened at first, simply thinking my mind had broken as I recovered in the hospital, that the constant hissing voice at the back of my mind urging me to consume assimilate evolve was the most fucked-up fracturing of a person’s psyche anyone had ever experienced. Sadly, the truth was something far more horrifying.
It took three months before I spawned my first larvae. I woke up about three in the morning convulsing, unable to breathe as something long and fleshy and wriggling slithered up my chest and throat from somewhere in my gut, landing on the floor beside my bed as it slid out of my grossly distended mouth.
I stared at the writhing larva (the name snapping into place as I thought it,) in a sort of muted horror. Faaaaaaantastic. I went through the trauma of having a trigger event and came out the other side with the ability to vomit armored maggots. If I had not been convinced that the universe was an uncaring, sadistic bitch before now, the writhing, spittle-streaked worm lying on the floor beside my bed confirmed it for me.
The thump of the larva landing on the floor had roused my dad and he tapped a pair of tentative knocks on my door. I hurriedly shoved the thing under my bed, ignoring the flicker of something that hit me when I touched it and padded to open the door before he came in.
“Everything alright in there?” Dad asked, peering past me into my room.
“Yeah, sorry for waking you. I was dreaming and rolled out of bed.”
“You okay?”
I nodded. “I’m fine. Whacked my elbow on the nightstand but it’s just a bruise. Go back to bed.”
Dad gave me a careful once-over before accepting my explanation and heading back to his room. I heaved a sigh of relief as I closed the door and leaned against it. Getting down onto my hands and knees, I peered under my bed where I had shoved the larva. It had gone completely still when I shoved under my bed but it started wriggling its way towards me once I lowered my head enough to see it.
It was about three feet long, comprised of an equal number of segments and pairs of legs. There were two glossy, black insect eyes on one end just above a mouth surrounded by a pair of wickedly sharp looking mandibles. I reached out for it, the inky depths of its eyes drawing me in. I laid my hand flat against its exoskeleton and infinite genetic possibilities laid themselves out before me. I pulled my hand back, staring at it and then back to the larva. I knew what I had to do.
~~~~~
The larva fit comfortably in my backpack once I had emptied it of all my school supplies, though carting it across a third of the city had not been enjoyable. I hadn’t dared take the bus for fear of being questioned why I was not in school or the possibility of my larva being discovered. Finding an appropriately large ship in the Graveyard didn’t take long, trusting that the new set of Zerg instincts that I had taken to calling the Queen would let me know when I found something appropriate. Though it did take a few minutes for my larva to chew a large enough hole in the rusted hull of the ship for me to enter.
I wandered through the derelict vessel before I set my larva down on the floor of what I thought was the main hold and gave it a mental command.
The establishment of my first colony took most of the day which was fine with me as it gave me a chance to examine the Zerg knowledge that had been downloaded when I had touched the now twice- repurposed larva. I would have to be exceedingly careful with how I managed my Swarm; there was little restraint built into my xenomorphs. If given the chance, my Swarm would consume every living thing on the planet. Not to mention I doubted the PRT or Protectorate would react favorably to what they would probably see as another Nilbog.
The sun was setting by the time I was satisfied with my colony. I was keeping it small for the time being, limiting myself to a single hatchery, a spawning pool, half a dozen drones and a dozen zerglings. That was pretty much all the forms I could comfortably manage at the moment anyways. The creep, the sludgy, purple, cancerous growth that nourished and sustained the Swarm had expanded to cover every inch of the inside of the ship, including my legs where I sat down against the hull. It left a bit of a residue behind when I stood up, the stuff quickly repairing the hole my movement had created.
Satisfied with my hideout for the time being, I gathered my zerglings and left for my first patrol. I decided to target the Azn Bad Boys, being the criminal group I had the most personal experience with.
I didn't have a costume other than the balaclava I had dug out of the box of cold weather clothes in the basement but I didn’t think it would be much of an issue as I didn't plan on getting that close to any fighting. The whole locker thing had left me with a slight sense of claustrophobia so I had spent the last couple months running and it was paying off now. While I was nowhere near as fast as my ‘lings could be across level (or even less than level) ground, I was keeping them on the rooftops and high on walls to keep them out of sight until I was ready to make my move.
Control of my Swarm didn't seem to have a range so I sent each ‘ling out in a different direction, searching for the highest concentration of ABB ‘bangers, the idea being that Lung, the leader of the ABB would be there.
It took me about fifteen minutes for one of my ‘lings to find him, another five to close to about a block and gather the rest. He was standing out in front of a Chinese restaurant, clad in a pair of jeans and an ornate, silver dragon mask, his heavily tattooed torso bared for all to see.
“I don’t give a fuck if they are children,” Lung snarled at an underling. “They die tonight, understand? You shoot, no hesitation. One goes down, shoot him again. We’re not going to give any of them a chance to be clever or lucky.”
If there had been any doubt in my mind about what the right thing to do was, Lung’s words erased them completely. Lung was one of two parahumans in the ABB, Oni Lee being the other but there was no evidence of his superpowered lieutenant being present, so I attacked.
The ABB’s morale broke pretty much instantly. Having a dozen slobbering, quadruped nightmarish alien monsters the size of large dogs fall on them was not something Lung had prepared his henchmen for and when their bullets spanged off their armor, they dropped their arms and fled. Lung’s smile nearly took in his ears however.
I was going to have to be very careful with how I fought Lung here. He was a brute-shaker, slowly becoming more dragon-like the longer he fought, gaining, strength, speed and durability as he transformed. Not to mention he gained pyrokinesis at some point and if he reached that state the fight would pretty much be over. There was a fine line between where my ‘lings would tear Lung apart limb from limb and where Lung would slaughter my swarm. This was gonna be tough.
Lung started to transform the moment my murder of zerglings fell into view, so I had to act swiftly and really hoped a hero showed up that could incapacitate him more completely. I’d only dropped half the murder at first, and two had been crippled by lucky shots. Lung was pretty strong naturally, so he was able to easily backhand the pair of ‘lings that initiated. Their armor held though, so they simply bounced off the brick and rejoined the fight.
Then his pyrokinesis kicked in. The two wounded ‘lings were killed almost instantly, their bodies bursting as a wave of fire washed over them. Shit. I had to shut him down now, before he got beyond my ability to handle. Dropping the rest of my zerglings, I had them all aim directly for him, hoping to knock him down and out. Another pair died as he sensed the attack and exhaled a small column of fire, but he ran out of breath and the remaining four overwhelmed him by virtue of superior biomass.
His head cracked against the pavement sharply, stunning him but not knocking him out. I didn’t let up, immediately ordering my remaining zerglings to skewer his limbs, pinning him to the ground. Fortunately, the blade-limbs of my ‘lings were designed to pierce much harder substances than steel, so they parted scale, flesh and asphalt with equal ease.
Finally, I positioned a ‘ling right over his head and had it headbutt him repeatedly until his body went slack.
Our fight hadn’t gone unnoticed, sirens dopplering into earshot less than a minute later. Which was good because I didn't want to test my luck. The more pissed off Lung got, the stronger his powers got, and that much pain was bound to jumpstart his abilities. Zerglings were mutated from a creature that had evolved on a desert planet so while they could tolerate heat, fire was another issue and I could easily see him being able to self-immolate if he woke up.
Three Parahuman Response Team containment trucks screeched to a halt in front of the restaurant where I had Lung pinned, their arrival timing up with that of Armsmaster and Miss Militia on a motorcycle and Dauntless crashing to Earth a moment after that.
My zerglings’ blood was still up from the fight, their predator instincts urging them to abandon their fallen adversary and attack the newcomers. I had my zerglings gather their dead packmates and retreat the moment the the trucks oriented on the supine Lung, as I had absolutely zero desire to have any of my Swarm captured by the authorities this early in the game. Once again, I kept my ‘lings out of direct sight of anyone on the ground as I strolled back into the direction of my colony.
Unfortunately, this was not to be the end of my night as I sensed more than anything as the three Protectorate members converge on me about twenty minutes later. I had no idea how they had figured out the zerglings were mine, but I hurriedly pulled my mask on anyways. I had my ‘lings leap down from the roofs and arrange themselves in a semicircle behind me as Armsmaster slewed his bike to a halt in front of me, Dauntless drop Miss Militia beside him and land behind me.
I tensed, resisting the fight-or-flight instincts that came with my Zerg self.
“Good work on apprehending a very dangerous supervillain,” Miss Militia said, stepping forward and holding her hands up. It made little difference, I knew from my extensive research she could create a weapon in either hand as quickly as it took her to think it. “I’m Miss Militia; how’re you doing tonight?”
“Fine,” I answered tersely after a second.
“That’s good to hear. Do you have a name?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but my words got tangled as both Taylor and the Queen tried to answer. “No,” I answered once I suppressed the Queen once more.
“Don’t worry, it’s not unusual for new capes to take a while to figure one out. In the meantime, is there something we could call you? Just temporarily?”
“Queen,” I replied after a few seconds. It wasn’t original, it didn't possess the gravitas both the Queen and I wanted for my costumed identity and it was almost certainly taken, but it would do for now.
“Very well, Queen. As you may already know, these are my teammates, Armsmaster and Dauntless.”
“I know who you all are.” According to the Parahumans Online wiki, they were both Tinkers, Armsmaster’s abilities centered around his Halberd, while Dauntless made one piece of his lightning-charged equipment a little bit stronger each day. “Are you here to arrest me?”
“Not yet,” Armsmaster replied from where he leaned against his ‘cycle, arms crossed over his chest, Halberd clutched in one hand.
Miss Militia shot a glare over her shoulder before turning back to me. “I truly hope it won’t come down to that. Right now, I just want to talk.”
“So talk,” I said shortly, the Queen not calmed at all by Miss Militia’s words.
“While we appreciate the help you gave us tonight, Queen, I hope you understand that we cannot just let you go without having some questions answered.” I didn’t say anything, so Miss Militia took that as a cue to continue. “I assume you are aware of the Master power classification?” I nodded wordlessly again. “You seem to fall squarely into that category. As you might imagine, the Protectorate likes to keep an eye on local Masters, but you complicate things further. Would I be wrong in assuming that you created those creatures behind you?”
And this was it. I had to be very, very careful of what I said. “I did,” I replied after a moment.
“Can you make more of them?”
I frowned, as if I was considering it for the first time. “I don't think so, they just sorta appeared when I triggered.”
“Half-truth,” Armsmaster growled from behind Miss Militia. Crap. It seemed he had some sort of lie detector built into his armor.
“I understand the desire to keep details about your power to yourself but we need to make sure that you don't hurt anybody accidentally with it,” Dauntless said, stepping forward. “And should you choose to join the Wards, which I think I speak for everyone here when I say I hope you do, you will have to tell us anyways.”
I nodded after a moment; she had a point. “I guess I get it. I promise the only people I would hurt with my power are the villains of the city.” I ignored how the Queen kept returning to urging me take their strength and add it to my Swarm.
“I appreciate you saying that. In the meantime, would you like to come with us on a tour of the Wards headquarters?”
“Right now? In the middle of the night?”
“No time like the present,” MM said. “We could call a van to collect your…”
“Zerglings,” I answered, seeing no harm in the heroine knowing what they were called.
“Zerglings,” she repeated.
“No need. They’re mindless unless I’m actively controlling them and I can send them somewhere far away from where anyone is living.”
“You are positive that they won’t hurt anyone?”
“I am the Queen. They won't hurt anyone I don't tell them too.” The Queen got the better of me for a moment, my words coming out in a snapping tone, offended anyone would second-guess her.
Miss Militia turned to look over her shoulder, Armsmaster nodding after a moment, swinging a leg over his bike and roaring away. Dauntless took off a moment later.
“I hope you understand I am extending you a measure of trust here,” she said as all but one of my ‘lings tore off towards Captain’s Hill. I hoped to keep the Protectorate as far away fro my main colony for as long as possible. It wouldn't add much to the the murder’s trip either.
“Thank you for not assuming I was a villain. I know my zerglings don't exactly have a heroic appearance.”
“To be honest, we didn’t want to engage you without knowing what you were capable of if at all possible.” Miss Militia gestured back the way the three heroes had come. I followed, trying to hide my trepidation. I wanted to be a heroine and I couldn’t very well do that if I did not trust the people I would be working with. Besides, Miss Militia seemed nice.
Miss Militia led me into the back of one of the vans with some waiting PRT officers. They gave me and my ‘ling very careful looks but nobody did anything with Miss Militia sitting next to me. I rested my hand on the head of my zergling and stroked its carapace. I think I was as startled as anyone else in the van when it started making a growling noise before I realized it was purring. I quieted it with a mental order so as not to freak out the PRT guys any more than I already had.
I got more than a few stares as Miss Militia escorted me out of the van and into the PRT building where the Wards were headquartered.
“So most of the Wards will have gone home by now but I think Clockblocker should be on console duty tonight.” The elevator stopped at the top of the building and Miss Militia waited for a red light to turn green before exiting. Sure enough a boy in a white costume and faceless mask was waiting for us.
“Clockblocker, meet a potential Ward. We’re calling her Queen for now.”
“Nice to meet you,” Clockblocker said, voice friendly enough as he stuck out a hand to shake. He faltered though when my ‘ling hopped forward between me and him, snarling as the Queen reacted to the sudden movement. I glared at it and it turned around and cowered.
“So a master, I take it?” I nodded. “Well, your thing there looks pretty nasty. I really hope you join us. We can always use some more muscle on the team.”
“When we found her she had another eleven with her.”
“She didn’t have anything to do with Lung getting brought in?”
“Her zerglings had him pinned to the asphalt when we got to the scene,” Miss Militia confirmed.
Clockblocker squatted down and peered at my ‘ling’s scythe arms, which still had some dried blood on them. I was surprised he wasn't more nervous around it. “Want me to give her the tour?”
Miss Militia nodded and Clockblocker gestured for me to follow him. The Wards headquarters was fairly expansive, consisting of the hub where the elevator had opened to, several medium-sized bedrooms, a gym and tinker’s lab.
“So what do you think?” Miss Militia asked when Clockblocker brought her back to the hub.
“It’s… nice,” I told her. And it was. I could even see myself making a colony here. I was going to have to keep a close lid on my true abilities and but a hatchery and spawning pit, maybe an evolution chamber. I would need a floor to myself but that wouldn't be much of an issue; worst case scenario I would have to reveal my drones and excavate a lair for a secondary colony underground and we were a partially subterranean species.
“And have you made a decision?”
I nodded. I didn’t have a choice, not truly if I wanted to be a heroine. I had no delusion about going independent. The Protectorate didn't look kindly on independent heroes and I really didn't want to be hunted when the scope of my abilities came to light.
I gave Miss Militia the number to the house and followed Dennis to the rec area. It was about two thirty by the time Dad stepped out of the elevator and rushed to envelop me in a hug. I made a conscious effort to suppress my zerglings instinct to to tear and consume the fleshy human who thought to touch the Queen.
“Taylor, are you alright? Miss Militia said you were fine but…”
“Yeah Dad, I’m fine. I wasn’t ever in any real danger.” He took several more seconds to assure himself that I wasn’t hiding any injuries before turning to face the heroine that had called him.
“And she’s not in any trouble?”
Miss Militia shook her head, clearly smiling behind her scarf. “No. In fact, she just about singlehandedly captured one of the more notorious villains in the the city.
“Which one?”
“Lung.”
Dad’s eyes widened almost comically. “Isn’t he the one…”
“Who turns into a dragon, yes that’s him.”
“So what happens tonight?”
“Nothing. You take your daughter home. But Director Piggot and I would like to meet with you and Taylor tomorrow morning. Say, nine o’clock?”
I nodded when my dad looked at me. Miss Militia gave Dad a special pass and instructions to find a covert entrance to the building we could use tomorrow. The trip home was quiet, both of us exhausted and neither wanting to mess anything up by saying the wrong thing.
I had a hard time falling asleep, the Queen restlessly desiring the purple, slimy viscousness of the creep and humid, pulsing heartsbreath of the hive.