ACL: 50. Bug on Patrol

Chapter 50: Bug on Patrol

Taylor Hebert
Tuesday, February 15, 2011

“Hello? Theresa? How are you?” Menagerie’s voice came through the phone. 

“H-Hi,” I said, wincing at the audible crack in my voice. Why was I nervous? He was the nicest person I knew, a real hero.

No, that was exactly why. He was… He was the first person to show me kindness in a long time. Not empty platitudes and feel-good pats on the back, but real help. Hell, he noticed me when not even dad did.

We hadn’t exactly met under the best circumstances. I thought he was a funny bug and accidentally tried to master him. Instead of getting mad, he introduced himself and reached out a hand. And when he saw me duct taped to a pole, he got me out and offered to help.

He even introduced me to a good lawyer, albeit indirectly. Mrs. Dallon’s colleague agreed to take my case pro bono, which dad said meant charity. That pricked my pride but… but that was about all I could expect.

I probably wasn’t even an afterthought to him, not because he didn’t care, but because he was so much bigger. For once, Brockton Bay was free of major gangs. What he did for me was a drop in the bucket compared to what he did for the city. 

“What’s up?” he asked. “Is something wrong?”

I looked at my costume. It was finished… sort of. Originally, I’d wanted to make a full-body suit out of silk, with chitin plates from my bugs as body armor over the important bits.

But the more I worked on it, the more impractical the idea seemed. Chitin shells didn’t want to meld into a singular piece. The seams of my crotch and armpit were hard to sew into a singular whole that didn’t make me look like a stick bug.

Most of all, it was too slow. Menagerie had triggered at about the same time as me, but he was already a hero. It wasn’t a competition, but I just couldn’t bring myself to sit at home for months at a time while he made a real difference in the world.

So, I compromised. I had my widows weave a big cloak. No tight corners, no awkward seams, just a long, stretch of white. That was much more doable on short notice. And, since I didn’t want to look like an edgy, Shadow Stalker knockoff, I didn’t even have to dye it gray like I’d originally planned. The off-white was good enough.

I realized I’d remained silent too long. “Nothing’s wrong. I just… My costume is ready.”

“Oh, nice! Congratulations!” he chirped. “Did you want to meet me?”

“Umm, yes, actually. Would that be okay? I just… I need some advice.”

“Sure, I’ve got time. How about the university campus?”

“Can we meet somewhere less conspicuous? I don’t think I’m ready for crowds yet.”

“That’s a good point. How about this? You know that big, gnarled tree at the park on Fourteenth Street?”

“The one that looks like a camel?”

“That’s the one. Look for an apple at the foot of that tree. That’ll be me.”

“An apple…?” I didn’t know why I was surprised. Menagerie could turn into so many other things so I supposed a plain ol’ apple was easy. “Okay, I can do that. Is twenty minutes okay?”

“No problem, Theresa. By the way, did you come up with a cape name? I still have you as ‘Theresa’ on my phone.”

“Oh, umm… Can I be Weaver?”

“I don’t see why not. I’ll see you soon, Weaver.”

I hung up the call and dressed in a hurry. My costume was simple, a protective vest and heavy duty cargo pants taken from an army surplus store with my hooded cloak and mask over it. I looked more like a mercenary than a superhero, but I was hoping that the tan and off-white colors made me seem a little less like a tacti-cool mall cop. The collapsible baton didn’t exactly help the image.

I dodged what few pedestrians there were around the neighborhood with the help of my bugs. Winslow made me an expert at that if nothing else. I’d also long since disabled what few functioning cameras the block had. Mrs. Dallon would probably chew me out if she ever found out, but not all of us could be an outed hero.

My steps felt light as I approached the park. Weaver wasn’t exactly a glamorous name, but hearing Menagerie say it made it feel official, more real.

He was waiting for me, as promised. The park was mostly a wilted mess, more dirt than grass. The red-yellow apple beneath the tree really stood out. I could see a few birds eyeing it, though something kept them away.

As I approached, the apple unfurled. I never thought I’d think of an apple as capable of such, but it did. And out popped a… worm… thing…

“Menagerie?” I asked hesitantly. This creature, whatever it was, wasn’t subject to my power, which was very much a good thing.

“Yo, Weaver. Nice to see you again,” he said. His voice had a slightly higher pitch. A bit squeaky, too. It was cute. He made it so hard to remember just how powerful he really was sometimes. “You look good, like a wraith. Were you going for the ghostly special forces aesthetic?”

“No, I just… I just grabbed what worked.”

“That’s good, too. At the end of the day, I think you should keep a functional outfit over what might look pretty. Did you weave the cloak yourself?”

“I did. It’s silk, so it’s very durable.”

“Layered, too. That’s really neat. So, what did you want to talk about?”

“I was thinking we could go on a patrol together.”

“That works.”

“I-I know you probably have better things to do–”

“Weaver, are you forgetting what I do daily?” he asked as he hovered by my shoulder. The apple slices were flapping… like wings… I stopped trying to make sense of it. “I give children dino rides and grow gardens of produce. As far as I’m concerned, there is nothing better I could be doing than hanging out with a friend.”

A friend. When was the last time I thought of anyone that way?

I’d only talked to him two or three times now. That I counted as a friend was… No, it was Menagerie. I could believe it. He seemed like the type of person who could make friends with a rabid pitbull.

“Thank you,” I muttered quietly.

“Why would you thank a friend for hanging out with you? You’re a strange person, Weaver.”

“Yeah, I guess I am… Umm… Where to?”

He looked at me as if I’d grown a second head. “Me? Why are you asking me? You’re the one with super bug powers. Let’s walk and take a scan, hmm?”

“R-Right.”

X

Blake Isley

Brockton Bay, NH, USA
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Type: Dragon

Admittedly, this little joint patrol wasn’t just about reconnecting with Taylor. The “island” I built out in the docks had caught media attention. People were wondering. Half the internet thought I wrote cape-fics about my own changer forms. The other half thought I was crazy, or that I was taking the whole cult leader joke too far. 

Naturally, I was doing my level best to avoid the news. I supposed I could have swooped down for an interview. Dragon types were certainly great at commanding attention. Then again, I’d found in my long years of experience that silence was often funnier than long-winded speeches.

I turned my attention back to Taylor, Weaver now.

She was a very skittish person. I saw how her emotions spiked when I called her a friend. It made me mad; no one should be so shellshocked at the mere idea that someone might enjoy their company. I was determined to drag her out of her shell. 

So, I took a step back. Nature abhorred a vacuum. As Titania taught me, so did relationships. If you shut up and stepped off the soapbox, someone else would inevitably take center stage. And today, the stage was hers.

It was slow going at first. Taylor clearly was not a girl used to trusting others, not even me. She reminded me of a wounded growlithe I once rescued from a poacher. She was all snapping jaws and cautious embers, but also so desperate to be proven wrong.

She also had an unexpectedly well-developed sense for potential hotzones. Nothing like a veteran ranger of course. She wasn’t clearing corners and running sweeps for ghost types, but her skittish paranoia reminded me of some of the more experienced men and women I’d worked with.

She used her bugs in carefully coordinated flights that covered all our blindspots. I could sense them; they were like nuggets of emotion that paralleled her own, perfect little clones of the central hive that was Taylor. Even as her eyes swept the street we were on, her swarm fanned out into separate alleyways in strict, methodical patterns.

“How have you been, Weaver?” I asked, probing gently. I shifted back and walked alongside her. “At home, I mean.”

“It’s… It’s moving forward,” she said slowly. “Parker, Mitchell, & Dallon took my case. I think Mr. Barnes doesn’t know what to do right now.”

“That’s good. Keeping Emma’s dad paralyzed was one of the main reasons for asking, right?”

“Right. They’re being stonewalled during discovery though.”

“Sorry, what’s discovery? I’m not really big on court procedures.”

“It’s the part before trial when lawyers share information and try to figure out what happened. It’s… slow. I don’t understand everything that’s happening either, but our lawyer said some of the information is taking a long time to filter through.”

“That’s strange. Do you think someone’s fucking with your case?” I asked quietly. “I doubt the school district has that kind of pull and we kneecapped Barnes.”

“You’re right. I don’t think anyone’s sabotaging the case or anything. It’s just really frustrating to wait,” she vented. “Dad says trials could take years though and he’s been part of stuff like this before.”

“Right, he’s a union man.”

“He is.” She was about to say something but interrupted herself. She broke into a swift jog. “I think I see something. A mugging, three people.”

“Firearms?”

“N-No, nothing visible. One knife, two bats.”

“Good. Why don’t you take care of it?”

“Me?”

“Yes. Take them down nonlethally. Don’t worry, I’ll be here as a safety net.”

“I got it.”

We made good time. It wasn’t until we were across the block that I could sense the emotions of the mugging. Taylor’s bugs were easy, like tethers attached to the girl next to me, but random people were much harder to pick out from the hustle and bustle of the city.

I purposely lagged two steps behind. My mind toggled through dozens of possible options, but settled on being myself. For once, being a dragon was not the right answer, not if I wanted Taylor to get some experience.

Besides, dragons weren’t exactly renowned healers. If someone got hurt, I wanted to have a Heal Pulse ready and no dragon type learned the move naturally save the eon twins. The best a regular, non-Legendary dragon got was Life Dew, which could be taught with great difficulty to the goomy line.

Taylor sprinted into the alley. Her collapsible baton opened with a satisfying pop. I really hoped she knew how to use that thing because it wasn’t much against a metal bat.

She did not announce herself. Nor did she shout or demand they stand down. It was honestly a little alarming how direct she was.

She swirled her cloak around herself as she smacked the knife out of one mugger’s hand. At the same time, the bugs descended. They came from every angle, little spots of resolve that paralleled her own.

The men panicked, giving the mugging victim enough room to run out of the alley. He was a young man, about my age, wearing an Immaculata uniform. I wondered if the prep school’s uniform made these men think he had cash to burn.

Before he could scream, I pulled him aside and shushed him. “She’s a new hero, relax.”

“H-Hero? You’re Menagerie,” he gasped.

“So I am. Are you hurt?”

“N-No.”

“Then do you have anywhere to be?”

“Not really…”

“Good, please call the police then.”

“O-Okay.”

“Also, stick around to give a statement to the cops. It isn’t absolutely necessary, but I’d appreciate it.”

We turned back to the alley. The swarm had grown thick now, enough to seriously hamper vision. Through aura, I could vaguely tell where Taylor was, but each of her bugs shared her emotional fingerprint. The effect left Taylor looking a bit like a haze of static to my senses.

Everything was going well. The men were in a full panic now. Taylor wove between them, smacking their hands or elbows in an effort to get them to drop their weapons. Then, a lucky backswing caught her under her arm, roughly around the floating rib.

I determined that I’d seen enough. She had the right mindset, but she clearly hadn’t ever taken a self-defense class. I stepped into the alley and caught one of the men by the elbow. With a sharp twist, I slammed him into one wall and took the bat from his hand. 

“Weaver, please call off your swarm,” I said calmly. Had I not had the experience of fighting off more than one beedrill hive, I would have found this situation deeply uncomfortable.

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly.

“Fuck, it’s Menagerie,” one of the muggers groaned. No lie, it felt quite nice, watching the fight completely leave them.

“I am. And this lovely lady doing the arresting is Weaver, the city’s newest hero. Say hello, gentlemen.”

“Fuck, since when the hell do you care about muggings?”

“Since I took care of the ABB. Now, Weaver, did you get hurt?”

She shook her head as the last of her swarm vanished into the cracks. “No, just a bit of bruising.”

That made me roll my eyes. I insistently poked her side, right above the floating rib. Predictably, she winced and shuffled away. “And they say it’s only men who act tough. Don’t think I didn’t see that bat clip you. And don’t turn down free healing when it’s offered.”

“I… Thank you…”

It didn’t take long for the cops to arrive. It could just have been my imagination, but I felt their response time had been improving lately. Maybe that was only to be expected with the biggest troublemakers taken off the field.

They were wary around the new hero, but my presence helped set them at ease. And when they learned that she had extensive scouting abilities, they became much friendlier.

As we continued our next patrol, I quizzed her on what she’d done. “So, Weaver, how do you think you did back there?”

“I did okay…?” she began hesitantly. “I mean, I caught the bad guys and no one got hurt, right?”

“No one except you. You can’t help anyone if you get injured, remember that. Keeping yourself safe is also important.”

“Should I have gone for the two people with the bats? I thought the knife was more dangerous.”

“I guess that depends on how much you trust your costume to protect you. Blunt impacts might be more dangerous to you than blades given what you’re wearing. Not all blades, but a little box cutter like that?”

“That’s true… I also think I could have waited a little bit. If I did, I wonder if I could have positioned my swarm better before going in.”

“You’re right, that’s another thing I wanted to point out. You used your bugs as a smokescreen, but that just made them panic. And in a narrow alleyway like that, odds were pretty good that they’d hit you eventually by just flailing.”

“Say, Menagerie? Can we stop and get more bugs? Not just more bugs, specific bugs. The kind that have a bit more mass, like beetles. And next time, I think I’d like to weave a stock of silk ropes to loop around people.”

“Good idea. A single strand isn’t much, but your swarm can move that silk without being noticed. You could tie up criminals, wrap knives so they can’t cut, or gunk up the hammer of a gun.”

“I don’t have any silk right now though. Everything went into my costume.”

“I’m sure there are other bugs that create slime, right? Or maybe we should get bees. Do you carry those injector-things?”

“Epi-pens?” she chuckled. “No, I should get some. They’re not too expensive and having them will let me use beestings.”

“Good, and fireflies.”

“Fireflies?”

“Or any other noticeable bug. You can arrange them in patterns to write messages from a distance, or just use them to lead people out of your swarm,” I pointed out.

“I get it. I’ll do that. Maybe I’ll start breeding butterflies, too.”

The second crime we encountered was a robbery. Nothing big, nothing important, just two guys holding up a gas station for petty change. It was the perfect opportunity for Taylor to put some of those ideas to test.

And, she delivered. Seeing that no one was in immediate danger, she set the stage perfectly. She began to quietly narrate her tactical decisions for my benefit.

First, she gathered nearby spider webs and had the flies carry the sticky strands in tight clumps in their arms. Then, she flew them into the robbers’ guns. Lacking enough silk at the moment, she was more than willing to make up the difference in bodies. The robbers noticed nothing and continued to shout expletives at the frightened cashier.

Once she disabled the guns, she shut off most of the lights. The gas station descended into darkness and the robbers looked around for the light switch frantically. At the same time, a swarm coalesced into the rough shape of a person, drawing their attention.

That was her cue to storm inside. One of the guns did manage to fire, but at her bug clone rather than the girl. She targeted that one first, bringing down her baton with all the force she could muster onto his wrist. He howled with pain, which only led to him gagging when a fly flew into his mouth.

The second robber dropped the gun and turned to run. He almost dashed past her, but she managed to kick his leg out from under him, sending him sprawling into a shelf of potato chips. I stepped in at that point to help her secure the two men. Simple zip ties were enough here.

The whole operation, if it could be called that, took four minutes. Most of it was spent gathering spider webs from around the building and in its ceiling. It was honestly a little scary how quickly she learned. I suspected that had she been born in my world, she would have ended up a cross between Aaron of the Sinnoh Elite Four and Drayden of Opelucid City, a bug type master with the intensity and drive of a dragon. 

We helped the cashier straighten up the place and waited for the police again. When they let us go, it was already getting late so we grabbed some hot dogs from a food truck and found a quiet bench to sit at.

“You did well today,” I told her sincerely.

“Really?”

“Really. I barely did anything. You learn really fast, you know. The difference between your first and second cases was like night and day.”

“That’s not it. I just remembered some of the things I learned with Gallant and Vista,” she said shyly. She was not a girl used to compliments.

“The Wards? You’ve met them?”

“Yes, when you were taking out the Empire. I headed out to help and ended up working with them for a bit. They were the ones who suggested Weaver.”

“Ah, no wonder. You have a bit more experience than I expected. It’s still very impressive. Do you think you’ll patrol on your own now?”

“Can I?”

“Why are you asking me for permission?” I asked. “Are you not a hero? Didn’t we introduce you to the cops? I’m pretty sure PHO’s got several pictures of us together so no one’s going to think you’re a new villain.”

“But I have a scary power. It was okay today because you were nearby, but…”

“Then keep a line open with the police. Act as overwatch and report on crimes while only intervening where there is no choice. That way, you can build up a close relationship with the cops. Trust is built slowly, Weaver.”

“I… You’re right. But… But will I make a difference?” she whispered quietly.

“Hmm?”

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s obviously not nothing.”

“Well… It’s just… You already took out the Empire and ABB. Does a city with no gangs need superheroes?”

I wanted to roll my eyes. Finally, we were at the heart of the matter. She’d had a persistent miasma of melancholy around her and now I understood. “Really? Are the Empire and ABB the only criminals? Did we imagine the men we arrested today?”

“No, but–”

“But nothing. You made a difference today, Weaver. So long as you are improving this city and protecting people, you will continue to make a difference.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“Besides, I don’t always fight, either. In fact, my favorite way to use my power is to goof off and make people happy. There is a general misunderstanding that great power must only be wielded with great discipline and solemness, but that’s wrong. Live. Laugh.”

“Not love?”

“Heh, that has nothing to do with power. My point is, do as you please. Do what makes you happy. Don’t worry about being the ‘greatest hero,’ or whatever. Things like that will only stress you out.”

“Really?”

“Really. Besides, who decides who the greatest is anyway? Amy’s saved more lives than I have but no one’s calling her that. Shouldn’t they?”

“I guess they should… A hero is someone who saves lives.”

“RIght? Don’t stress. In fact, I’ve got a great idea. I’m going to give you Crystal’s number.”

“Crystal… as in Crystal Pelh–Laserdream?” she squeaked.

“Yup. She might be the most easygoing hero I know. Talk to her, okay? She’s super-friendly, I promise.”

“O-Okay.”

Author’s Note

Alternate title: In which Taylor is finally noticed by Menagerie-senpai.

Dragon is the only type that does not have a bug hybrid. Flygon-mains cope.

Animal Fact: Some of the biggest creatures on earth eat the smallest. I am of course talking about baleen whales.

This is because of the optimal foraging theory, which states that animals will gravitate towards the most efficient means of energy acquisition. Though individual krill can never feed a blue whale, trillions of them can, and are easier to acquire than other prey.

This also explains why baleen whales are much, much bigger than other apex predators. More body means more strength, but also requires more energy. Other apex predators like orcas and lions have to strike a balance between “strong enough to take down prey” and “small enough to not starve,” which limits their maximum size.

Baleen whales are different. Bigger bodies mean they can cover more area to acquire more food. And because they’re not actively chasing or fighting prey, they also don’t require as much energy per pound they put on. Coupled with the ocean helping to support their weight and they simply lack the evolutionary pressure to downsize to a more reasonable bulk.