I walk through the streets of Brockton Bay and smile. The sun is shining, surprisingly warm for March. Winters in Brockton Bay aren't that harsh - my insects were comfortable enough even in February, but they definitely feel more energetic in spring. And yes, it just occurred to me that if I want to visit Heartbreaker in Canada, I'll need cold-resistant species. I'll have to buy a refrigerator, or rather a freezer. At this rate, the electricity bills will soon start worrying Danny. It's not noticeable yet - four additional tablets don't consume much energy, but in the future... I'll probably need to worry about my own lair. Or... why create my own when I can use an already existing one? Move in with the Undersiders, for example. Lisa mentioned they have their own hideout. I'll need to check it out... or just rent myself some bungalow, but not too far from home, within range of my power, so I can continue working on the new base while sitting at home and won't leave the basement under my house unattended when I'm at my safe house.
And yes, I should really check on Bakuda and Tattletale. Those two can't stand each other, mix like oil and water - who knows what might happen between them. They shouldn't fight, Bakuda is intimidated and stressed right now, but Tattletale with her sharp tongue could drive anyone to breaking point. But first I need to deal with Shadow Stalker, who clearly decided to take her revenge public... for now through reconnaissance and information gathering.
When I left the house, insects in the attic across the street showed me that Sophia didn't ready her crossbow, didn't try to get me in her sights - she just got close. Her beacon kept blinking, disappearing and reappearing in my power's range as she moved across rooftops, phasing and jumping from roof to roof, materializing to track my path before vanishing again.
And I just walked through the streets of my city and smiled. I didn't want to go outside, but gradually, bit by bit, my good mood was returning. The sun is shining, my beloved "Kunoichi" are safely hidden in my hair, in the backpack behind me are a hundred particularly vicious "Stingers" bred just yesterday - these creatures can bite through thin sheet metal, can open a tin can. Their stingers pierce kevlar and thick clothing up to two centimeters thick, and if necessary they can carry charges of botulinum toxin, tear gas, or capsaicin. And I could feel my strength, the power that filled me from within, demanding release. I wanted to straighten to my full height, show the whole world what I was capable of. Tie a lamppost in a knot, flip over a neighbor's car, tear off Sophia Hess's arm and beat her to death with it, driving that bitch into the asphalt, again and again, rip out her guts and strangle her with them and... wait. Stop. What kind of thoughts are these? Where are they coming from? Butcher?
"Thought you wouldn't notice," a mocking voice surfaces in my head. "If you just nag quietly in the head like this, you start taking the thoughts as your own, huh?"
"Nice try. You lose tablet privileges for two days."
"Hey! I had to try!"
"You tried and now you understand I don't like it. Sabotage gets punishment. Take responsibility like a man."
"I don't like this whole venture at all," Alice interjects - she used to be called Spree, Butcher Fourteen. "Why leave the house? I was watching such a cool movie!"
"You don't understand anything, idiot. Four-eyes promised to buy more tablets. No more queues. Round-the-clock surfing! One hundred forty-seven episodes of my favorite series!" says one of the Butchers. Someone objects that his favorite series is complete trash, but I'm already switching my attention.
I walk through my city and smile. Ahead lies the Ship Graveyard - the journey will take some time.
Interlude
Sophia Hess aka "Shadow Stalker"
With a familiar effort of will, she entered her altered state and glided across the roof, easily pushed off and jumped to the neighboring roof, following Hebert. She knew how to track an enemy, how to strike from the darkness, from behind. She understood that the most suitable tactic for her was exactly that - to stalk and strike from the shadows.
Her power seemed to tell her - "Do it this way, Sophia, you're a kunoichi, a night warrior, a shadow person. The enemy shouldn't see you until crossbow bolt fletching blooms in their back." But deep inside, such cowardly tactics disgusted her. She wanted to fight in the open. Throwing down a challenge, face to face, showing her superiority, fighting and instilling fear in enemies' hearts. She wouldn't admit it to herself, but the latest video on those idiots Leet and Uber's site, where Glory Girl fought the Butcher with fists, had stirred her blood.
Unfortunately, her power wasn't about taking hits that could punch through a ship's hull, or delivering such hits herself. Her power was the backstab. And the strike itself was only the tip of the iceberg. Track, learn, gather information, prepare the attack site, and only then - catch the victim's nape in the crosshairs.
Hebert... she didn't feel hatred toward her. Before - she didn't. No, that's not right. Sophia wanted what was best for her. It would be strange if a cape of her level, "Shadow Stalker," who fights crime, hated a schoolgirl. At any moment of any day, she could grind this Hebert to powder with her thumb without much effort.
Sophia wanted to help these fools - Emma, who admired her so much after that incident when she saved her from those ABB bastards, and Hebert herself, who turned out to be the weakest of the weak. The operation to save Emma and Hebert initially seemed very simple. Emma, despite all her experienced horror, still remained weak inside. Sophia understood one very simple thing that her hand-to-hand combat instructor at the PRT had drilled into her. He said that any person, even a weak one, could kill another person with bare hands. And using weapons, which could be anything from a chair to a plastic fork, even more so. Any girl being robbed or assaulted in an alley could stand up for herself. Try assaulting, say, a medium-sized dog. And a dog is much smaller than a human, all it can do is bite. It can't pick up a weapon, can't stab with a knife, slash with a razor, gouge out eyes with fingers... but assaulting a dog in an alley would be very difficult. Yes, if a girl faces a squad of trained specialists, she has no chance, but an ordinary attack by drunk scumbags in an alley is a completely different matter.
So the most important thing to teach a victim is to stop being a victim. It's like with darkness - if you hide in the darkness yourself, it suddenly becomes cozy. Darkness becomes your ally. Same here. Emma Barnes was just a victim. When those ABB bastards talked to her, she lost her voice, went into stupor. Into prostration. They could have done anything to her, and they were just about to. She didn't even try to run, call for help, let alone fight back. So after breaking a couple of bones on those bastards, Sophia lingered for a few minutes to wash that fool's brain. Unfortunately, it turned out this fool was remarkably observant and easily established her identity. And offered friendship. At first Sophia wanted to tell her to go to hell... but then decided she should teach at least one victim to stop being a victim. Learn to stand up for herself.
The first lesson - learn to be cruel. They say that young SS paratrooper candidates upon entering the academy were given a kitten with orders to care for it. During a year of training in the harshest conditions, this kitten became the only friend and companion for the cadet. Coming back from training in the evening, dead on their feet, the first thing cadets did was make sure their fluffy friend had food and water, and in return it warmed them at night, lying at their feet on the regulation blanket. But during the final exam, one of the tests was an order to cut out their kitten's eyes. While it was alive. They say many didn't pass this test. But those who did... could do anything to anyone.
The second stage would be a test of courage. She would have accepted Taylor into her circle and forced the former friends, then enemies, then friends again to compete. Become stronger and braver, maybe even taken them somewhere into dark alleys at night so they could feel what a real fight was like, taste blood. There was also a third stage, but it was too early to talk or even think about it. For now, both Emma Barnes and Taylor Hebert were spineless and spoiled girls, ordinary schoolgirls. And to become stronger, you need trials. If anyone knew this, Shadow Stalker did.
That's why Sophia gave the green light to bullying Hebert. She was Emma's best friend, and it was undoubtedly very hard for her to decide on such a thing. The first insults were clumsy, inept. Emma suffered through her failures. Then... then she got a taste for it. Learned.
As for Hebert herself, this girl was also a victim. At first Sophia thought she would quickly for them to start bullying Madison instead. She was too dependent on public opinion - needed to understand that others' approval wasn't everything. Sophia smirked, imagining Madison's bewildered face when they turned away from her and accepted Hebert. At that moment the ground would disappear from under her feet, the world would turn upside down. Yesterday's allies would become enemies, and the girl she had tormented would unexpectedly become one of the friends for her former girlfriends. Enter the social circle. And Madison would fly out of there like a cork. And then, after all the denial-bargaining-anger-depression, would come acceptance. And if that fool Madison understood that she didn't have to try to please the popular girls at school and that she needed to have her own opinion, then Sophia would know she had done everything right. Taught the schoolgirls some sense.
And suddenly everything worked out. Hebert finally fought back! And how! Elbow to Emma's nose. From that distance it was impossible to miss. An elbow strike requires preparation - it's not a slap, not a smack, not just grabbing hair and dragging each other around the classroom. This was exactly an attack, a hard attack aimed at guaranteed incapacitation, possibly even maiming. At first Sophia was happy, then a little scared for Emma. But she was fine, didn't die. She should have stayed with Emma, managed the consequences, but Sophia got carried away, rushed after Hebert. She wanted to see this miracle with her own eyes - how an unremarkable ugly duckling turns into a white swan, how a flower bud blooms, and a beaten girl transforms into a strong-spirited fighter. This Hebert is a berserker, she thought then, she's going into a rage, how great! I'll see how she fights... because she's obviously been training!
And the next memory - a flash of pain in her right knee, the ground hitting her face, sand on her teeth. And Hebert walking toward her, weighing a metal pipe in her hand. Sophia gritted her teeth, reliving the humiliating memories. Yes, she had only wanted to unlock the potential in both Emma and Hebert, but now this was personal. Hebert hadn't just unlocked herself - she had challenged her! This couldn't go unpunished. She needed to learn that there are always bigger predators in this world. Sophia wasn't going to completely grind her into the dirt - it was good that the girl finally managed to stand up for herself - but she couldn't allow her to get uppity either. Let her know her place. If not for Panacea, she would have limped for the rest of her days. This Hebert had shown unusual abilities for causing damage to other people. And that was also interesting... that's why Sophia Hess spat on Piggot's house arrest order and put on her old costume.
The city was in chaos. Somewhere in Brockton Bay wandered Butcher Fifteen, a thin girl whose face was covered with insects - creepy. Lung was dead, the Butcher and his capes were dead. No one really cared about Sophia Hess and Shadow Stalker. Perfect. She could learn more about Hebert, where she learned to fight like that, what was wrong with her. Eventually she would track her to a deserted alley and give her such a beating that this Hebert would find herself last Friday.
She wouldn't maim or kill her - after all, Shadow Stalker versus a schoolgirl... not even funny. And... when she did it, she would need to do it in her civilian identity, as Sophia Hess. Today she was just watching her. Just in case, she had regular clothes in her backpack - it would take nothing to change, just throw a jacket over the costume and remove the hood-mask.
So... anything could happen. Sophia smirked to herself. Just think - a cape, a Ward, Shadow Stalker, stalking a schoolgirl. Wanting to fight a schoolgirl. If anyone found out, the shame would be unbearable.
With a familiar effort of will, she returned from her shadow state, came back from the flip side of the world and looked around. Aha, there was Hebert in her unchanging black hoodie, walking... toward the Ship Graveyard.
Sophia chuckled. Well... even better. She would solve everything at once. First - beat up this Hebert, show her the difference in class and that last time she just got lucky. And then... then she would have a pedagogical conversation on the topic of "yes, you've grown, girl, managed to overcome yourself, but don't you dare get uppity with me, know your place. And... now you've tasted power, young padawan, may it be with you."
She licked her lips, feeling herself start to tremble. Pre-battle nerves? This was just Hebert! Body memory - the body remembered the pain from the pipe strike. She just needed to overcome herself. Yes, today's lesson wasn't just for Hebert - she needed to triumph over her too, for herself. So she wouldn't tremble like this before a fight... and with whom?! With Hebert!
Sophia grimly smirked. On the other hand, she thought, I did good. Finally raised a predator. Too bad it didn't work out with Emma.