Chapter 4

Chapter 4

There is such a job - to hurt people. Usually, it is carried out by strong guys with broken ears and bullish necks, thugs, big men. Everyone thinks that, such guys are perceived as stupid and strong pieces of meat. You know, like gorillas in suits. However, in reality, stupid people don't live long in this business, they can pretend to be stupid, but the streets of any city, especially those where crime reigns, are not a place for fools. Such guys very clearly measure the amount of violence in their work - in some places you need to break a couple of fingers, in others you need to break your neck, and with others a simple threat is enough. Too much violence will attract unnecessary attention, and these guys have a long time to live here. Moreover, most of their work is not at all about breaking fingers and crushing jaws. In order to break fingers, you first need to find their owner, and this is an operational search activity.

How to find a person in a huge city? How can you be sure that when he entered the bar, he did not leave by the back door? How to track him on the street without getting noticed by him? Usually, such cases require a whole team, the so-called external observation and accompaniment, here he is led by a girl who is supposedly jogging, around the corner there is an old man who is reading a newspaper on a bench, then a couple in a parked car... but there is a better way. 

Bugs. And this is the method I currently use. Before leaving the trio, I planted a bugs and a fruit fly on Madison and Sophia and ordered them to go into suspended animation and spread pheromones. In my experience, insects that leave my field of attention return to their usual activities, unless I give them the command to sleep. Falling into suspended animation is a common thing for any type of insect, so they obediently fall asleep, and when I return, they wake up. Otherwise, I would not breed poisonous ants in the basement of my own house. And now I was walking through the city at night in search of my mark. Sofia must not live that far away, her neighborhood is not the most prosperous, but Madison Clements could easily go to Arcadia, why the hell did she forget in Winslow? 

Why do I need to know where Sofia and Madison live? Because I already know where Emma lives, after all, we are "best friends." I know her father and her mother and have visited her more than once. But I don't know the addresses of the other two members of the trio. Why do I need these addresses? Advantage. If I'm still going to school, I need to eliminate the threat from the trio, and getting some unadulterated joy in bringing justice to the masses isn't a good idea either. Taylor's body is filled to the brim with cortisol and adrenaline, she's literally shaking from these three, so I'm thinking about closing the gestalt. However, it is necessary to do this in such a way that nothing points to me, to Taylor Hebert. And even more so on my abilities. No bites from super-venomous spiders or wasps, if a cape with the ability to control insects does emerge in the future, no one should link it to the accidents in Winslow. Because if this is connected, then the name of a certain Taylor Hebert will be at the forefront of suspects in this case.

Therefore, my plan is simply like a blow with a hammer. Watch each of them on the street when they return from school and remind them well that "Kneecaps are a Privilege," otherwise people have recently begun to forget this. Why do you have to break your leg? Yes, because you can still go to school with a broken arm. Otherwise, I will have two, or even three months of quiet study, but in the case of Sofia Hess, maybe more, since he is an athlete. By the way, if she really is a Phantom Stalker, it will take some work, but I am confident in the end result.

To begin with, she once fell while running at the stadium and tripped. And nothing, she didn't use the ability, although she received an abrasion. That is, she is trained not to react, but to first assess the danger and only as a last resort to consciously activate the ability. Well, it's enough not to give her such an opportunity. If I'm standing around the corner and the fruit fly on her knee is a clear marker of when to strike, she won't have a chance. And with a broken knee, she can go into an altered state as much as she wants.

By the way, it's interesting that she also takes her clothes with her, but what about the insects that will be in her clothes? It would be a pity if they fell off her, it would interfere with tracking.

But Sofia Hess is Sofia Hess, here I will have to concentrate and be attentive and, most likely, run headlong immediately after the blow. I don't foresee any problems with the rest of the trio; they may have to break ankles or foot bones so that they don't have exactly the same handwriting, but that's all. 

Or maybe I should break everyone's knees on purpose, so they'll guess. Start a rumor that my uncle is a retired Marine, a fierce thug... They won't find anyone, but they will be scared. Any suspicions will remain suspicions, and especially no one will connect these school showdowns with the new cape. No, I'm not going to fight with other capes and jump around the city in tight leggings, but still... you need to be careful.

I wonder how exactly I want to be careful if right now I'm wandering around a not very prosperous city with just pepper spray and a penknife in my pocket - my rational part asks me a question and I stop. And in fact...

No, wait, I think, I need to let the trio eat some shit first, otherwise they won't leave Taylor alone.

Besides, it's part of what I owe the original Taylor Hebert to punish her tormentors, just a little bit. They walk on crutches, they will understand that "Kneecaps are a Privilege", they will become a little more modest. In fact, I didn't go to kill them... although killing something would have been even easier and would have solved the problem permanently, once and for all. With fruit fly markers on the prey, tracking them in real time, I don't even need poisonous insects, everything can be done by cutting a pipe to the head - which is what usually happens in this city... and that's what's happening right now.

The insects smelled blood and urine... yes, that's right, someone is beating the crap out of someone two intersections down the road. I stopped. I have no reason to interfere, and I assessed my own strengths quite soberly. Moreover, it was completely unclear who was beating whom. Maybe it's even a thing? Maybe that's what he needs? It's none of my business, I won't interfere. Perhaps out of curiosity... no, not even out of curiosity, but out of scientific interest - I'll hang up fruit flies and mosquitoes; they don't buzz as loudly as flies and won't attract attention. Just in case, I'm moving two hundred wasps here, they're noisy, but I'll take them higher. Just to have them at hand. 

And... I guess I'll wake up my poisonous queen ants of the seventh generation, the same ones that I called "Catherine de Medici Mark Two", it's good that I didn't go far from home. The approach time is ten minutes, they are quite fast. I myself... perhaps I'll hide in the shadows and pull the hood over my head, even if I'm far from the scene of events, but still.

As soon as I placed enough of my insects around, I was able to see, albeit blurry, a 3D picture - a group of armed people, one of them was beaten. In the center stands a shirtless man wearing a small half mask. Something clicked in my memory. This is Lung, a Chinese cape of terrifying power. Or would it be more correct to say that the Cape is of Chinese origin? In any case, his name says exactly that. Lung is famous for the fact that at one time he fought on equal terms with leviathan in Japan, so what about the Chinese? This makes no difference to us, but to them it makes a significant difference. It is unlikely that the Chinese would fight to the death for the islands of Japan, so… 

-... just shoot the kids. Whoever is the target, just shoot. Do you see someone already lying on the ground? Shoot the brat two more times, just to be sure. We don't give them chances to get lucky, we don't allow them to be cunning, okay? - says Lung. I wonder if the beaten man is a member of their own pack, the ABB, the Asian Bad Boys. Beat your own people so that others are afraid? Well, everything is clear here, serious guys have entered the field, it's better for me to squeeze my ass and go home, next time I'll find the houses of Sofia and Madison, it will be too hot in the city tonight. That's it, I'm going home.

I'm thinking. Children? No, it's nonsense, he won't kill children. What about teenagers? Who crossed the border and stepped on his tail? This is what he is still capable of. Where is the line of what is permitted here? But he doesn't have it, he is practically invulnerable, he can do whatever he wants, he and the PRT are not able to oppose anything, unless the Triumvirate flies here. By the way, here's an interesting idea: it will take the Triumvirate two hours and five minutes to sort things with Lung down, of which it's an hour to fly here and an hour to return. So why don't they do anything? They just can't find two hours in their busy schedule? However, why guess - they can't, so where should I go?

Although... it's interesting, but he hasn't grown up yet - he's just a person. And how will his body react to, say, a paralytic neurotoxin - will he lose consciousness or perceive it as an attack and begin to grow? Hm. The most important thing is that even if I launch an attack, he will not know who is attacking him and from where, right?

I shake my head desperately. Wrong! Where are you going?! For what? Children are understandable, I feel sorry for children, of course, no matter who they are, but this Taylor is still a child herself! Don't you feel sorry for her? You mean me? No, for some reason I don't feel sorry for myself. Although this is understandable, when it's scary, then it will be a pity, but for now, from somewhere there's a real urge to step on Lung's tail. Moreover, the poisonous queens, my dear "Medici Mark Two", have arrived and are conveniently settling on the roofs of buildings.

I bite my lips. Why the hell should I get involved in Cape disputes? I have almost three hundred grams of gold in a test tube at home, and even if it is of the worst standard, it is still no less than fifty thousand dollars. Tomorrow I'll take it to the pawnshop, hand over everything, buy a mobile phone and a laptop, in general I'll buy myself a motorcycle or a scooter, one for which you don't need a license. To hell with it all...

Thinking this way, I remove the poisonous Medici queens from the roofs, move them even closer, so that from the moment the command is received until the strike is no more than a few seconds, these poisonous insects can be very fast. I pull the wasps to them, all the ones I could find nearby. Of course, as always in Brockton Bay, there are plenty of flies, cockroaches, crickets, woodlice, centipedes and spiders. There are even a few praying mantises.

All of them will be needed during an attack - to distract attention, crawl into the ears, nostrils and mouth, block the airways, interfere with orientation, cause pain. One single cockroach in the ear will incapacitate the most combative thug, and I have hundreds of thousands of them here.

Wait, what am I doing? Why should I quarrel with Lung? No, wait, a reasonable voice in my head tells me, you're not quarreling with him. He won't know anything about you. You just strike, and if nothing happens, you can calmly go home. And... who said that nothing will work out? At least Lung is counting on his people to cope with the "kids", and I will incapacitate his people in any way possible. Hm.

A car pulled up, three more guys dressed in gang colors got out and joined the crowd. After some time, a group of twenty to twenty-five people headed north.

I sighed. And to hell with him, really, I will always have time to leave, I don't show myself to his eyes. Attack!

It was already so dark that the insects were not visible; I could only sense the swarm with the help of my ability. This meant that I would not be able to understand what was happening if I did not feel everything through the swarm. My brain received gigantic amounts of information when I felt every bite, every piercing sting. I felt thousands of insects surrounding the gang, both on the ground and in the air, I could almost see the figures of people, just feeling the shape of the surface on which, the insects were crawling. I focused on controlling the swarm, providing each of the bandits with a poisonous bite from the Medici queens.

At that very moment I felt the heat! Flame! The insect observers who remained hanging in the air conveyed a picture of Lung raising his hands up and flames flowing out in all directions and upwards!

Damn, I thought, the first attack on Lung was a failure, two Medici queens were not enough for him. Well... as soon as his flame subsided, I attacked him with all the remaining queens and wasps, aiming at especially vulnerable places, in the eyes, ears, groove and armpits, where the skin is thinner and where there is access to the mucous membrane. I felt how the wasps injected their poison and died from its blows, how he screamed, spinning in place and puffing fire, how the medici queens stung him, setting up a carousel, trying not to get hit or hit by fire.

And then Lung exploded into flames in all directions! All insects that were nearby died instantly. Even some of the insect observers who were hanging too low over the battlefield were blinded or lost coordination from this explosion of flames.

Damn it. Well, I thought, getting up and walking around the corner, I did what I could, all the ABB bandits have been put out of action for a long time, and Lung has no time to search for "kids" now. It's time for me to go home. And in general, this whole story only says that I went too far, almost all my combat power was destroyed by Lung in a split second. Once and for all - go home Taylor, hold my beer.

I once again scanned everything around with observers and frowned. Now I hiding behind a trash container. Someone was approaching here and it was the Capes. Simply because they were sitting on some huge living creatures, and only capes can do this. It is unlikely that there are mounted police in Brockton Bay, and these creatures do not look like horses, even if I perceive them through the perception of insects. Insects can be very useful as scouts. They don't even suspect that I'm right here, sitting behind the metal, foul-smelling walls of the container, and I'm able to track their every move and every word.

-Are you sure this is where we should go? – I hear a voice, partly by perception through the swarm, and partly by my own ears.

- Sure. Here in this alley, right here. – a woman's voice is heard. It sounds much closer now. Through the swarm I see several people enter the alley. In front is a girl, behind her are two guys, one bigger and more muscular, the other thin. There's another girl standing behind her, and behind her are three hefty creatures that don't look like anything at all. What it is? And who are they?

- There's no one here, - a voice is heard, the speaker draws out the words, somewhat lazily: - What have we forgotten here? Lung is looking for us, let's go home already. 

- Lung is no longer looking for us. He has no time for us,- says the girl walking ahead: - like all his henchmen. And the reason for this is that he sits behind that garbage container and listens carefully to our conversation. Hey, hey, calm down! – she immediately raised her hands, as soon as wasps, hornets and ordinary flies, all that I found nearby, soared into the air.

- Easy now. You can call off your legions, Ladybug. I'm not threatening you and I'm not going to interfere in your affairs. I know you can easily handle us all if you want... I just want to talk. To express gratitude. Well... girls need to chat sometimes, don't they?