Fucking Sparks ch 2
I… am in serious need of beating the damned clinging rust off my keyboard. The writer's block is giving me fits here. Someone suggested just diving into something new for a change of pace. This was the first thing to come to mind. So here we are. Fuck my writing scheduale. Fuck the last two years. And more than anything else, fuck writers block.
Oh yeah, time skips abound, and thanks go to the amazing Functionality for putting up with my stupidly random muse and edditing this. No, I absolutely got that order right.
{}{}{}{} Taylor
The ferrets, sorry, wasp eaters, were not ready. The vespiary squad? Not ready. Soldiers? Clanks? Constructs? Well… at least some of them had fought against the Other's work before. But that didn't mean they were ready to hunt across the continent for mind controlled agents either…. And maybe I wasn't exactly ready. But I was better equipped for the job than anyone else and even with my age the Baron knew it too.
Though he had decided I needed an escort, "For my protection." And I wasn't really going to argue about it either. A year of fighting lessons from the Jäger's and anyone else I could convince to spare the time for a lesson had made me… better, but not nearly good enough. At least in hand to hand. Sending my bugs after people was pretty effective! Unless the target was a clank. That didn't always work out so well. People are afraid of bugs. Clanks, usually, they aren't.
And no one would teach me to shoot, yet. Or to fight with a weapon. But I did have more spider hounds, so it was ok. For now. They were very fluffy, and had plenty of teeth after all.
"Ready to go leedle bug gurl? The airship iz ready, und ve hef lots uf bugs to hunt, yas?" The big blue jӓgermonster, Dari showed off his fangs with a big smile.
"Not my bugs."
"Ho no. Not again. Ve learned after lasht time. Bug pie iz very goot, yas? Bot Jesh shtill vakes op screemink about spiders after vakink op in silk pie crusht." Dari chuckled, but the human soldiers standing at the door shuddered.
"Good. Come along boys." I waved the spider-hounds into line behind me and shouldered my pack. "Time to go hunting!"
The Baron was counting on me. Even if this was just a test run to a small town for a few days this would be the basis for every future mission. The Other's work was no joke, and if I could make the continent safer from her work… Well, at least my special abilities were being appreciated for once.
{}{}{}{} time skip
"Taylor." Baron Wolfenbach nodded absently from behind his desk without looking up. I couldn't really begrudge him that given the stacks of papers on said desk were all at least a foot and a half high. "You don't normally insist on delivering your reports in person. How bad was it?"
"Sturmhalten's population is almost, if not entirely made up of Revenants." I had to fight to keep my voice calm. The mission to Sturmhalten had been… delicate.
The Sturmvoraus family had an excellent network of spies and informants. While my exact role in the Baron's Military was almost certainly still secret, the fact I regularly traveled with groups of the Barons soldiers wasn't. I was too distinctive to go in by myself under cover and while the Baron could order them to allow me to wander the town, it would almost certainly stress diplomatic ties in ways no one wanted. Instead I wandered through as part of a small unit with the story that our airship had suffered mechanical failure, and we would be out of their hair as soon as we could arrange transport.
It didn't take them long. But it was enough time for me to know the town was infested like nowhere else I'd ever visited.
Instantly the Baron set aside his paperwork to give me his full attention. His various aids all ground to an immediate halt as they stared at me horrified.
"You're certain."
"Yes, sir." We weren't there long enough for me to get a feel for everyone. I suspected some of the smoke nights were clean, they were actually good enough to avoid my insect tracking for short amounts of time, and they kept moving. I wasn't certain about them but I managed to track at least two who weren't revenants, so that was something.
I passed the Baron the full report and settled in to wait as he read.
"... Thank you, Taylor. This is invaluable information. I'll need to address this carefully. Put it out of your mind, if anything this proves the value of your work. Do you think you could handle an accelerated schedule?"
"Yes, Sir!" I wasn't going to back down. Not now. Not after seeing so many infected people in one place. The Baron could figure out how to help them. Finding the victims was my job.
{}{}{}{}
"Vot's vrong bug gurl? Deedn't hyu vant to see some fightink?"
"Yes! But I didn't want to fight an army of clanks!" I shouted to be heard over the gunfire and glanced around the support piler. I had to duck back immediately or get shot. "Clanks don't run screaming when I swarm them!"
The Jäger cackled like a hyena before tossing a grenade into the advancing clanks. They were obviously cheap because they didn't even try to move out of the way.
Rolling out of cover I took the opportunity to start shooting the surviving clanks with my stolen rifle. It was definitely time to revisit the argument of being taught to shoot and getting my own gun. I was missing more than half my shots!
I wasn't even sure why the stupid Spark was attacking us. Really, we were just passing through! But I did know that he was going to regret it.
{}{}{}{}
I'd seen the Baron look exasperated before. Lots of times, actually. But it had never been my fault before, usually it was the Jäger's, or some spark, or one of the kids from the school.
"You put down a minor revolt… by accident."
"It wasn't really an accident… It just wasn't planned. We just fought back."
"And once the attacking force was dealt with you decided to follow them back to the spark who made them, destroy their defences and quite literally drag them here?"
"...Yes? Should we not have? The Jägers seemed to think it was a good idea, and it wasn't like it was hard. The Spark was kind of dumb. And there was enough open space in his clanks for the spiders to gum them up with silk. It didn't even take two days."
"... Just, call for backup next time. And yes, we'll get you firearm training before sending you out again… Never should have let the Jägers train anyone."
{}{}{}{} age fifteen
I'd never worked with the Vespiary squad before. The Baron didn't think I was old enough to go near an active Hive engine in the past. And the Wasp Eaters still couldn't do subtle. Not the way I could. So our work just hadn't overlapped before.
But I'm older now. I know how to shoot now. I can fight with guns, knives, claws and fists. Only the Jägers want to spar with me anymore. Though I usually still lose to them.
And right now there was a hive engine ready to go active, and it was all hands on deck to make sure it didn't kill a town, or more.
Two long knives, slid into sheaths along either thigh. My belt cinched tight, sawed off shotgun in the holster across the small of my back and shells loaded into every loop. The chest holster with the tiny little deathray meant for only the absolute worst clanks tightened to a proper fit, and half hidden under the long coat. The only thing I was missing was a proper hat.
I should have had a dozen hats or more by now, but none of the people I'd fought wore hats that actually fit.
The only down side about today's mission? I still wasn't going to earn a hat. Not fighting bugs.
{}{}{}{}
We finally had an answer to the question the Baron had been asking since I'd first joined up. I could not control the Other's creations. Not perfectly. The queen resisted my efforts entirely. The slaver wasps were easy enough to redirect into a simple circle. It wasn't really controlled, but it did keep them from escaping, or from attacking anyone. As for the warriors?
Bugs, four foot high, with serrated scythe limbs, screamed and shrieked as they threw themselves at one another. Blood and bug guts leaked out of dozens of shredded exoskeletons. And the Jägers pouted.
I couldn't fully control the warriors, but I had just enough influence to flip their instincts. Make them see each other as the threat. I took my time lining up the shot with the little death ray and blew the queen's head off as the warriors ripped one another to shreds. That and tried to ignore the Jägers.
"Thiz iz no fair! Ve come for fight, und dey keel each odder! Bug gurl takes all de fon out uf fightink bugs!"
""Yah, bot de Odder's bugs... Dey're not moch fon to fight anyvay. Alvays vit de vorryink about de humans, und hurryink op. No time to enjoy it, yah?"
"Dot iz true..."
"Besides, bet hyu bug gurl vill let us make bug pies vit dese, yah?"
"Ho! Vell, if ve gets to make bug pies... bet even de generals vill be happy about dot. Bug gurl iz zo shtingy vit her leedle minions."
"Sheme... Bug gurl been fightink for years, und shtill no hat to show for it."
"Maybe ve make her vun, yah? Iz not how it's done, bot she musht hef earned it by now, yah?"
"Hy don't know... Her firsht hat iz BIG deal. How vould hyu feel if someone jusht give hyu you firsht hat?"
"Ah, dot iz goot point, bot how hyu feel if hyu fightink for years und not find anyone vit seme size head?"
I grit my teeth and did my best to ignore the furry shits. Instead I focused on knifing some of the wounded warriors.
"Hy mean she iz not leedle anymore, not zo moch anyvay. Bot she iz not all grown op either, yah? Und mosht pipple vho are fightink are big men. Und all grown op. Bug gurl iz gurl vho shtill has growink to do. How many years vould hyu hef her vait?"
"Ok, zo iz not fair. Vot hyu hef me do? Shtick some gurl her size in hat und hef bug gurl beat her op?"
"No, dot iz shtopid plan. Bug gurl hates bullies. She probably pat odder gurl on head und sic svarm on us. Hy don't vant to vake op vrapped in spider veb hangink from ceilink! Once vas bad enough!"
"Ho? Hyu scared uf bug gurl? Maybe ve pot hyu in hat dot fit her und let her beat hyu op? Hah!"
I wrenched my knife through a warrior's throat and twisted as I bit down on a growl.
"Hyu shtopid?! Everyone knows not to cross bug gurl! She maybe not vinnink mosht spars, yet, bot she gets more dan even once hyu fall asleep. Besides hat dot fit bug gurl vould fall off my head!"
With a twist I dragged my knife all the way through the warrior's neck. I picked up the dripping bug skull and tossed it at the two furry assholes. It bounced off one's skull and landed in the other's claws.
"Go take that skull and clean all the meat off of it, and out of it!" I growled at the pair and pointed with my knife. "Once the damn things clean I'm making a hat out of it. Got a problem with that?!"
The two shared a look, then gave their best big fanged grins.
"Yas Ma'em!"
"Hyu gots it!"
The pair saluted and ran off.
"Idiots."
{}{}{}{}
The Vespiary squad tried to copy my hat design for their uniform. I… probably would have been grumpy about it, but otherwise let it slide. The Jäger's? They were much less willing. They knew just how long I'd gone without being able to win a hat, and though my hat was unusual they thought wearing the skull of an enemy who didn't wear hats was clever and let it slide. But to have an entire group copy me without earning it? They took that as an insult to tradition, and to me, an honorary Jäger.
I never got the full details, but there was apparently a great deal of arguing between the Jägers and the Vespers behind closed doors. The final decision was to allow the squad to have hats with a built in mounting for a warrior's skull. But they weren't allowed to actually wear a skull unless they personally killed a warrior.
Neither group was fully happy with that deal, but I was grateful, and my pride was satisfied so the Jägers left it at that. It also gave the Vespers an internal status symbol to fight for which was all to the good in my mind. Having something to earn, something to prove, that pushed people to be better.
{}{}{}{} Age 19
I strolled through the halls absolutely seething. Around me a small swarm buzzed and hummed with angry energy. Farther down the ship I set warrior wasps to the dull but critical task of slaughtering one another.
I go away for three weeks on a minor scouting mission. Just check in to make sure the Duchess of Boomberg wasn't going to go completely off her nut and start blowing up the countryside, again. But Sparks will be sparks so of course the crazy bitch was planning to turn her peasents into living bombs. All for her glory that she might challenge the might of the Baron's Empire and seize control of Europa for herself. The fucking idiot. So I'd had to kill her. And defuse her doomsday device.
It's always the red wire. Why I'll never know but Sparks just can't help themselves. They just have to play into the stupid cliche's like that.
So, I killed her, took her hat, and freed her subjects. I left the town with a few new craters, and crippling entomophobia… par for the course really. Point was I got the job done with a minimum of fuss. So of course that meant I came back to the castle in shambles and hysteria.
Red fire, what had the Baron been thinking bringing an active hive engine here! He could have bombed it into oblivion in some out of the way valley. He could have locked it up in a steel box, or dropped it into the depths of the ocean for some monstrous construct to snack on. But no. The Baron brought the damned thing here, failed to properly secure it, and now the fucking wasps were loose.
Fucking Sparks. I was going to chew him out over this. Commander and Ruler or not, this was the kind of stupid I expected from the mad lads who ended up gutted by their own creations.
{}{}{}{} The Baron.
Seeing a small swarm of the Other's creations cut into each other was usually a sight that filled any sane man with vindictive glee. And knowing the threat was well and truly contained took a weight off my shoulders, certainly. But oh it was going to cost me this time.
"What are they doing?" The Heterodyne girl asked cautiously, her weapon still pointed at the rapidly diminishing swarm.
"Ah, Taylor's back." Gill glanced my way with no small amount of sympathy.
"Taylor? Who's-"
A door on an upper level slammed open as the woman in question stalked through it onto the scaffolding above. The young construct had certainly grown up over the years. Now standing five foot ten she walked with grace and confidence in spite of her diminished, but lingering, insecurities about her appearance. Her long black hair was kept in a tight bun at the back of her neck, just beneath a new woman's bowler hat, decorated with moving copper gears along the left side, and a modest red and gold feather on the right. She was dressed in sturdy grey trousers, a white button down shirt, and a black leather coat, festooned with loops for shotgun shells, which reached to her just above her knees. Her gun belt cinched securely over the coat bearing her gun and many more loops, all filled with shells as well.
She held one of her knives in one clawed hand and tapped it idly against the other.
"I go away for a few weeks… and this is what I come back to? Baron Wolfenbach, how long has it been since you got a proper nights sleep?" One eyebrow went up, and I had to stomp on the insidious urge to growl. The girl wasn't even out of her teens, she worked for me, and still she managed to act like I was a naughty child in need of a dressing down. Ever since someone had made those damned Lullaby-wasps and told her to make sure I got more than three hours of sleep a night…
"...Gil, he's taking too long to answer. Do I even want to know?"
"Ah, well… At least a week? I think?"
"Well, at least he didn't set a new record this time."
"Um, excuse me, I don't want to be rude," The Heterodyne girl interjected, "but ah, what's going on?"
"That," Taylor took back the conversation, "is an excellent question. Would someone like to tell me why there was a hive engine onboard the castle without me being here to monitor the damned thing?"
"It was contained." I glared up at the girl.
"Not well enough." Which wasn't really fair at all. Nothing would have gone wrong if that oaf Othar hadn't gotten loose and started breaking everything in an attempt to escape… Oh sweet lighting. Othar was loose, and Taylor was back.
"It was properly contained." Gil answered. "But we had a minor issue of a prisoner escape, and that, well…"
"Who on earth would your father keep prisoner that can cause this kind of chaos, no one normal certainly. Has to be a spark, right?"
"Ah, well, you see-"
And that was the moment Othar chose to come swinging across the room on a chain and sweep the young lady Heterodyne off of her feet.
{}{}{}{} Taylor
Othar Tryggvassen.
Othar, fucking, Tryggvassen.
The smooth talking, scheming, utterly mad, spark. The never to be sufficiently damned bastard who strung me along for six weeks trying to use me to further his insane agenda before finally admitting that he lied, and that my chitin and mandibles repulsed him. Here, now, alive.
But not for much longer.
"Baron… I will see to it that the wasps are contained if you would be so good as to have them disposed of."
The big dumb oaf froze as my voice carried across the room.
"If you would be so good as to get eight hours of sleep, I'm sure everything else can be sat on until you are properly rested and able to sort things out. In the meantime… I have someone to deal with."
"I was hoping to study his spark." The Baron tossed out. "I promise it would be excruciatingly painful, and it would leave him the broken shell of a man."
"...Tempting, Baron. But this is personal, and it just wouldn't be as satisfying as seeing to it myself. There will be other sparks you can take apart, I'm sure."
The oaf tried to run. He didn't get far.
