Taylor had been six when her Key manifested, which had been both a joyous occasion and a sad one. Not that she properly understood the sad part, only truly comprehending that the Key was passed down to the youngest child. Inheriting it thus signified that Taylor was to be her mother's only child.
The Key itself was far too large normally, but it had been reasonably easy to learn to manifest it in a normal key size. In that form it looked like a perfectly normal house key, though it would fit in any lock. Assuming she needed to insert it at all, because to lock and unlock things she simply had to tap it on a lock. Its ability to appear in her hand whenever she needed it also meant that she never had to worry about losing keys.
Emma had never seen the 'always has a key to open a lock' trick as anything special, though also hadn't ever seen the full-sized Key. Why you'd want a key large enough to pretend to be a sword was a bit of a mystery. The Key wasn't a parahuman ability either way, having a long history in the family. One that included quite a few thieves, honestly.
This did make Taylor want to call bullshit on the trio after Emma had turned traitor though, because her locker lock was a padlock where the keyway was rusted shut and things still vanished from her locker.
It also made it even weirder that someone had managed to fill her locker with an insane mess, and being stuffed in it was a problem. The small Key wasn't able to open locks without touching them, and with her in there the locker wasn't large enough to manifest the full-size Key...
Getting out of the hospital might've been easier without talking to the invisible spider-made-of-spiders that apparently represented her powers. It didn't exactly speak in words, but was still able to explain some things and answer questions. All 'naturally obtained' powers, which felt like a horrible description but was the best that came across, came with the ability to interact with such an avatar...but most parahumans suppressed it within hours because of the implications of seeing the normally-invisible avatars at all.
Thanks to the discussions with her power's avatar she was able to figure out both what it wanted from her and a number of ways to use her powers more effectively. Even better, if she 'pushed' her power into the avatar then it could go from 'not really there' to 'physical manifestation'. This shut down her powers for the duration, but she could pull them back any time she wanted. A small price to pay for access to the support capabilities of the manifested avatar, which had been able to help construct a much more impressive costume than she'd have been able to manage alone.
Her powers seemed almost smug that they could help her prepare her costume, and she could see how many couldn't manage that. At first just by helping with keeping things going while she slept, but after she'd 'shocked' it by pushing for her Key to manifest through her swarm to unlock a door for her the avatar had absorbed a bunch of spiders and started generating higher-quality silk at faster rates. That also saw her range increase significantly, as though she'd somehow unlocked things in her powers.
Thanks to that change, they'd quickly put together a protective underlayer made out of very strong silk and holding armor inserts formed like insect exoskeletons by the avatar. Over that, they'd added a short dress that ended up with a bit more of a 'schoolgirl' vibe than she'd expected, having a subtle spiderweb pattern in the 'skirt' portion of the dress that she was particularly proud of managing with the dyes. Even having a base dark blue coloring on the dress was enough to remove some of the 'edgy' from the overall appearance. At least when there was proper lighting, anyway.
...and that help was needed, because there was no good way to make what she felt was a properly-protective mask with the resources at their disposal that didn't look like a villain mask. Doubly so when the protective goggles needed room to get some extra prescription lenses glued in.
Managing that spiderweb pattern had led to her deciding that she would go with a cape name of Arachne, though some of the thought process was based on the appearance of her power's avatar.
To her surprise, Taylor found herself ready to go out at the end of March, with the avatar of her power warning her that there was only so much 'prep' before she'd be pushed to be reckless. Not that going out was going to be enough on its own. No, she needed to be in conflict with other parahumans to 'settle' her powers...though she suspected even that was going to be different for her thanks to her Key's effects on her powers.
Regardless, she decided to head out on the last Saturday of the month, after her father had gone to sleep. She was able to acknowledge that she probably should tell him that she had powers, but didn't want to go anywhere near being forced into the Wards. Even if her powers outright told her that they would likely work better as part of a team. Forced drama from joining a group of teenagers she didn't have any interaction with was not on her todo list.
Making her way across town that night, she found it a little weird not having her power's avatar around. This was apparently one of the restrictions of the avatars: when you were in or seeking conflict with other parahumans the avatars couldn't manifest for various reasons. That this had only been described an hour ago was annoying, doubly so when she was now concerned because the avatar had been unable to manifest at school.
That was a matter for Monday at the earliest, and might require some testing, but for now she was trying to focus on other things. Like making her way into what online sources indicated was 'contested territory' near the docks. The Merchants seemed to want it to get shipments in over the water, or at least that was everyone's best guess, but the Azn Bad Boys seemed to disagree with that. Her hope was to run into Skidmark or Squealer as they seemed the most likely to be able to be handled with bugs. Mush and the ABB's roster were...iffier prospects.
She wasn't entirely surprised when the first parahuman her swarm spotted was Lung, easily identified due to his preferred mask, talking to two others. One of those two had somehow figured out that she was in the area, convincing Lung and the other to prepare for a confrontation. Taylor would've preferred to not get into a fight with them, but the third of the group turned into a cloud of ash. Oni Lee, and he moved through the area quickly enough that she had little time to react before he was looking down at her from a rooftop.
Pulling the swarm she'd gathered into the alley with her had seemed to be enough to stop the other cape from just appearing next to her. Possibly there wasn't enough room around her for his teleportation trick? Whatever the case, after a few seconds of staring at her he turned into ash and she was able to tell that he'd headed back to the other two. Not feeling that she had a chance against them, she'd decided to double-back the way she'd come, only for someone to appear behind her just before an explosion damaged the building behind her. That was enough to force her to move forward to avoid the now-collapsing wall hitting her, and unfortunately had her heading straight for where Lung was now moving to intercept.
Yes, she had a storage compartment cleverly hidden along her back with a few things in it, the folds designed into her dress hiding that there were slits there for her to reach in to access the compartment. Nothing in there was likely enough to let her even consider taking on Lung, even if the one who had originally figured out she was nearby was departing the area. That still left the leader of the gang and the serial suicide bomber, neither of which she was in a postion to avoid. Doubly so when it became obvious that Oni Lee was arranging for the other routes she could possibly take to be problematic as well.
The path of destruction forcing her forward brought her onto the same street that Lung was already on, and he stopped in a manner that seemed to indicate surprise upon seeing her enter a spot of light from a miraculously-functioning street light.
"Are you Asian?" the man finally asked.
"...no," Taylor admitted, hoping that he'd just decide that since she hadn't attacked him that she wasn't important enough to worry about.
He nodded as Oni Lee appeared next to him again, before gesturing at her. "Kill her before she can join others."
Fuck.
Luckily, her swarm was apparently still enough to keep the man from getting close to her in an instant, but that didn't stop him from rushing at her. She wasn't confident in her ability to drive him off with what was available of her swarm, and he was very obviously reaching for a grenade. From what she'd read about him, he'd likely pull the pin and drop it as he vanished. That would leave her to deal with the explosion, and while her costume was cut-resistant she didn't think it was explosion-resistant.
In her panic, she almost missed that she'd summoned her Key. The biggest sign that she'd done so was successfully, if haphazardly, stabbing Oni Lee with it...and she heard what sounded like a lock thunking closed when she did so for some reason. Whatever that had been, it didn't seem to have harmed the man, but he'd let go of the still-pinned grenade and stumbled back anyway. Deciding to take advantage of that, she brought the Key around and struck him in the head, knocking him to the side and apparently unconscious.
As far as she knew, managing that was a bad sign for the person's health, but he had been attempting to kill her so she didn't have much sympathy for him.
Lung, having seen this, growled and charged her. She was reasonably certain that he was growing larger, and not just because he was getting closer, and she tried to move out of the way of his charge. He just shifted direction to continue going straight at her, and when he reached her she managed to get her Key between her and him. He struck it, and to both of their surprise his fist was stopped by the impact. His other hand tried to grab the end of the Key as she was pulling it back towards herself and came away bloody, cut on both sides of the 'blade'.
She hadn't considered that it might do more than look like a sword, but it hadn't cut Oni Lee. Which she should really consider when not in a fight for her life, even as her swarm attempted to attack Lung. There weren't enough biting or stinging options immediately available though, and he was still physically growing. The cut on his hand had already healed as well, and from the rumors it wouldn't be long before flames came into play.
With no better ideas, she stabbed him with the Key. The same 'thunking closed' sound occurred...and Lung kind of imploded back to his original size, the change honestly kind of jarring. He stumbled back at that, and she took the initiative by swinging to strike his head like she had with Oni Lee. This time she missed, Lung managing a dodge the first time, but she thought she was getting the hang of the full-sized Key as she spun around and put more speed into the next pass. That caught the villain in the head and sent him flying off to the side, spinning in the air a little before he landed.
She breathed hard as she considered what had just happened, certain that the effects on the two villains would last for no more than a day and possibly only an hour if they were awake to fight it. Her Key vanished when she let go of it a moment later, and with it some of the certainty of the timing vanished. That made it seem like it was information from the Key, somehow.
Eventually she realized that she wasn't sure how much damage Oni Lee had done to the area, and that some attempt should be made to call the PRT, but she didn't exactly have a cell phone. She checked the two downed villains, not finding any obvious phones on either of them, and then considered what to do.
It had to be ten, maybe fifteen, minutes later when she was snapped out of 'not sure what to do' by the sound of an approaching motorcycle. Or, once she was properly paying attention, two approaching motorcycles, one of which was unusually quiet. She got just enough of a look at them through her swarm to identify Armsmaster and Miss Militia. This led to her wondering what she'd tell them, at least regarding why she was still here doing nothing, at least until one of the buildings the two passed started to collapse further. Seemingly because of the two moving close enough.
Eventually the two came onto the street from the direction Lung had approached from, only to come to a halt upon seeing her and the two downed villains. Miss Militia looked over at Armsmaster, who waved her on, and then turned back to Taylor. "Would you be willing to explain what happened here?"
Taylor nodded, pushing some of her nervousness into her swarm. "I was passing through and hoping to run into the Merchants when someone Lung was talking to realized I was nearby and alerted him. He sent Oni Lee to find me, and to drive me towards him with grenades preventing me from going any other direction, while the one who figured out I was in the area headed off. When I informed him that I wasn't Asian he told Oni Lee to kill me, and when I survived that he came after me himself. Honestly, I think I got incredibly lucky when I managed to knock them both out. Once they were both down I realized that I don't have a phone to call anything in and hadn't actually figured out which way out is safe enough to leave through, though now I'm assuming that the street you came down is clear enough for me to leave through."
The woman nodded. "It should be, yes." She gestured at the bugs still swarming the area. "Are the insects around us under your control?"
"Yes."
Armsmaster climbed off of his motorcycle and carefully moved over to check the downed villains. Miss Militia turned to watch, without taking Taylor out of her peripheral vision. Eventually the man nodded. "What biometrics we have on file for the two match, though there are surprisingly few visible injuries on them. I see some bites on Oni Lee, but nothing on Lung."
"He'd started to grow before I managed to knock him out, so things were healing almost immediately."
The man nodded, giving her a look that she hoped was appraising but impossible to identify properly through the helmet, before he started to secure the two. Miss Militia nodded and turned back to her instead. "Do you have a name yet, and have you joined any teams?"
"I decided to go by Arachne, and this is my first time out."
"Impressive."
"Pure luck, trust me on that."
"You appear to be young enough to join the Wards, and doing so would give you added protection from others wishing to force you to join them."
"I'd...rather not join the Wards right now."
She nodded, and pulled a holder out of one of her pockets. From that she extracted two cards. "If you change your mind then please get in touch with the PRT. The top card here has a contact number that will get you to a person immediately as well as my number. The bottom card is some basics on obtaining a phone that is less than trivially connected to your civilian identity so that you at least have an option of calling for assistance."
Taylor accepted the cards, glancing at them to see that they appeared to be exactly what had been said, and slipped them into her storage compartment. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Ominous creaking from one of the still-standing buildings had both of them looking over warily. "As much as I'd like to talk to you some more, I think it would be safest if you depart. We're going to have to secure those two and ensure that the entire area is roped off with warning tape until we can figure out which buildings are safe and which need to be demolished now."
"Even before the repeated use of grenades I was thinking that the area was in need of being torn down."
"Which is just going to make figuring things out more annoying, but I do see your point. Head two blocks to the main road, then head in whichever direction you prefer for your destination from there to get around the mess here."
"Thank you again."
Getting home happened without any additional issue, and she panicked a little before getting to sleep. The morning news described some of what had happened to the area the confrontation had happened in, including that a new spider-themed insect-controlling parahuman had taken down Lung and Oni Lee solo and then 'waited for the Protectorate to pick the two up before departing peacefully'.
Which was a nice way of saying things, in all honesty.
Going out for the first time and taking down Lung, on her own, was definitely an event to make a name for herself though. The news didn't have a picture of her, just the name she'd given and a basic description provided by the Protectorate, and she was being treated as an independent hero. But she wasn't sure that she would be able to go out again until she figured out a few things.
Her power's avatar was, not unexpectedly, entirely on board with the plan. It seemed to like learning, and it really wanted to know more about her Key now that she'd used it against Lung and Oni Lee to such success.
Missy read over the information sheet provided on Arachne and wondered what the girl's powers looked like. Almost certainly not like a hypercube with klein bottle limbs like her own manifested as, and none of the other Wards were willing to admit that their powers had avatars at all. Then again, her powers claimed that most people were silly and subconsciously suppressed them for some reason.
Still, anyone who could beat Lung was automatically interesting, and a spider-themed schoolgirl that could control insects sounded a lot more fun than Shadow Stalker was. How controlling insects let her take down Lung and Oni Lee at the same time was another question entirely, of course, and it could be that there was something else involved that just wasn't obvious.
An unofficial patrol or two through that general area might be useful...in a week or two. It was the only place she was likely to run into the new girl in town, after all.
Duncan groaned as he poked his head into Terrance's workshop, mentally swearing that his powers didn't consider 'get over hangovers faster' to be something they could make him exceptionally good at. Terrance was worse, and his stuff was already prone enough to exploding without tinkering while hung over. "What are you doing?"
Terrance looked up from the workbench. "Rebuilding a few things that Prototech apologized for sabotaging."
"...who the hell is Prototech?" The tinker waved at the workbench, where it seemed that a small mech was helping to work on things. "What?"
"So, er, yeah. My power has an avatar, and while drinking last night I kind of stopped suppressing it? And then we got into a bit of a yelling fight over conflicting desires and stupid ideas that eventually moved into 'it would be awesome if...' type stuff. Prototech agreed to be less...stingy, perhaps, but we're going to have to target the gangs a bit more often with our shows."
"...what?"
