FaerieKnight79
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Personally, I'm eager to see Lung's reaction when a fuck off huge Asian Killer Hornet approaches while he's after the Undersiders and orders him to surrender.
Vespa
- Thread starter mp3.1415player
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- worm
Wonder if she can make her hornetgirl form look similar to Honey B. Lovely from ff14.
https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/mediawiki/images/a/a0/Honey_B._Lovely.jpg
https://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/mediawiki/images/a/a0/Honey_B._Lovely.jpg
FaerieKnight79
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- The Internet
Possibly stronger then titanium, but we may never know for sure.
- Location
- Deep in the Badlands of Equestria
Well, if Zion pulled the usual trick of damaging Administration during deployment to limit its effectiveness, in this instance I'd say the fracture took a slightly different path. With everything she's done, I'd suspect that Taylor was already unconsciously in mimic mode with her power when she got a visit from Panacea offscreen. Sort of makes me wonder if Administration still has the Shard cataloging function partially active and Taylor's pushing in the right spot to force it to work. The longer she uses the feature, the better QA gets at being able to work around the damage in that region. And now Taylor's come in physical contact with two new Hosts.
It'll be interesting to see if she gets any new background itches from this to try and experiment with.
Come to think of it, Vespa would know about any snooping well in advance of first contact at this point, so the only question is just how badly she decides to troll the encounter. And if Coil's got some of his men playing overwatch, that'll change how she handles things even further.
It'll be interesting to see if she gets any new background itches from this to try and experiment with.
Considering Lung's already boarded the Nope Train when it comes to a segment of the Docks due to spotting Vespa heading there, I'd say it'll at the least change where that encounter happens. Come to think of it, Tattle's own Power ought to let her sus out that there's a swath of the Docks that Lung's told his men to avoid. Whether she's wide enough to take the warning or decides to go poke at it like the Elephant's Child she is?...
Come to think of it, Vespa would know about any snooping well in advance of first contact at this point, so the only question is just how badly she decides to troll the encounter. And if Coil's got some of his men playing overwatch, that'll change how she handles things even further.
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Ace Dreamer
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- Between The Unknown & The Known
Hawaiian caterpillars are first known amphibious insects - is that the sort of thing Taylor would want to know about? Yes, fresh water, not salt, but...
Being able to freely move tween underwater and dry land, if you're living in Brockton Bay, might be useful?
Throw in tardigrades, as well, for 'vacuum insects'?
Being able to freely move tween underwater and dry land, if you're living in Brockton Bay, might be useful?
Throw in tardigrades, as well, for 'vacuum insects'?
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Ok so finished the re-read (moar please) and had a thought. While TayTay's Master ability seems to only work on insects/arthropods/crustacians/etc what about her Changer form? Would she be able to absorb and use larger animals? People? Other Paras? Be a neat and possibly horribly broken ability even beyond what WASP!Taylor has shown us so far…
Ace Dreamer
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I'd say... probably not. But.
Vespa might be able to merge with other humans, and maybe include other insects in that mix. Even if not, merging with a human, then de-merging might have a useful healing/repair effect on them, as they're restored to their proper shape...
Except, they'd be a tiny bit nude. That wouldn't be a problem, would it?
(Privacy precautions could be taken, except in emergency situations?)
Ooo Taylor Varga reference!
Poor long suffering Danny...
Seems to be a pretty common set of emotions where you are concerned Taylor...
Wise man. Getting the fuck out of dodge sounds like a wonderful idea.
I like to imagine that Taytay did the whole forcibly bonding to only a single insect thing, QA panicked and contacted Shaper for potential un-fucking of the situation, a bored Shaper was all "no, no, let her cook...", and the two of them have been giddily swapping [DATA!!] since.
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- Location
- Iowa
Honestly I'm more worried about the oxidizer aspects. Like that sounds like it might be more aggressive than FOOF or ClF3. Also, how is she being selective about whether it's a venom or a corrosive or an oxidizer? She should have set the rat on fire and dissolved ot like piranha solution.
More aggressive? The concrete only corroded, it didn't ignite!
Ace Dreamer
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There are... more drastic possibilities...
Note the bright flash she could produce. Followed by a leap into the air, some spinning around, and a full-on Transformation Sequence?
Or, Taylor could pretend to be a mad scientist?
Was gonna say; those things have a tendency to spontaneously combust just sitting in a jar minding their own business, never mind on contact with anything flammable like asbestos or water. I mean, FOOF has been known to go off pop at liquid nitrogen temperatures. If Taylor's body somehow contains that, she absolutely has powers bullshit protecting her, internally at least.
Well as far as that goes her body is entirely bullshit. It would not be hard for me to believe the "venom" isn't even really present in there, but if it was it would be doing exactly what it's told and nothing else!
Ace Dreamer
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Would it make more sense if there's two fluids, which only mix on leaving her body? I know that's not how hornets work, but the stuff has pretty nasty chemistry...
- Location
- The general area. Possibly behind you.
Different venoms. She's been trying variants of mix and match, and the Rodenticide of Unusual Toxicity was wolf-drider venom
The Alien Blood Emulation Fluid is superhornet venom. Completely different thing!
- Location
- I'll never tell...
He may be too busy preparing to nope out to another city to bother chasing after the Undersiders by that point.
On the other hand... seeing Lung and any ABB gang member that came from Japan just nope out after Vespa!Taylor comes buzzing up would be absolutely hilarious.
And give her a bit of notoriety: you have one of the most powerful parahumans on the planet refusing to go up against an opponent, which means he knows something that tells him he can't win. I imagine everyone would be extremely wary of fighting her after that.Then someone looks up Asian Giant Hornets, does the math on scaling it up, and everyone now knows why Lung didn't want to fight her.
Wouldn't stop some from trying to 'prove themselves better than Lung'.
And that's just the version that is unmodified other than being scaled up.
All I can think of is… aren't Stargate Wraith battleships and the wraith themselves just large bugs? She just needs to make some ship bugs. I like the idea of fighter plane bugs, too. Lol.
Ace Dreamer
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- Between The Unknown & The Known
Hmm. Taylor could become several capes. Ms. Jekyll, who has a bandolier of formulae, allowing her to take different (humanoid) forms, Drider Girl (with wings, webs, poison/paralysis sting), and Vespa (who is just Taylor-Vespa). Some insects do mimickry - scale that up (into full-on shape-shfting), and merge mimic-insect with Vespa, be in two places at once!
(This leaves out the "Oops. Starfish regen means there's two of me" idea.)
EDIT:
Yes, speculation can be fun. But. Powers inflation has destroyed so many characters, via the stories they live in dying, over the years. OTOH, Superman started unable to fly, needed to brace himself against bullets, and did things like holding-on to the bottom of vehicles to follow villains. So...
(This leaves out the "Oops. Starfish regen means there's two of me" idea.)
EDIT:
Yes, speculation can be fun. But. Powers inflation has destroyed so many characters, via the stories they live in dying, over the years. OTOH, Superman started unable to fly, needed to brace himself against bullets, and did things like holding-on to the bottom of vehicles to follow villains. So...
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There can only be ONE!!!!!
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- Location
- That place over there.
I love how in each story you find a new way for Winslow to find out after fucking around. Having the medical community sue them is a unique one though
They way her power Ramos up the longer she's in a form reminds me of Eidelon, except hers is cumulative it doesn't reset on switch.
FOOF venom is a really scary set of words.
They way her power Ramos up the longer she's in a form reminds me of Eidelon, except hers is cumulative it doesn't reset on switch.
FOOF venom is a really scary set of words.
6. Vespa 6... We have questions...
New
- Location
- The general area. Possibly behind you.
"What in god's name happened last night?"
The shout made the room echo and several people wince at the volume.
"We have a Ward that nearly died, thirty seven corpses split between gang members and random civilians, all of the latter minorities, and a comatose Parahuman villain with sufficiently serious brain and nerve damage that Panacea is doubtful he'll even make it until next week and is almost certain he's not waking up even if he survives," the voice went on at slightly lower volume but with great anger. "On top of that our Ward was apparently rescued by a four foot long sapient hornet! One that talks! And took out Hookwolf! Then airlifted Vista to hospital!"
Emily Piggot coughed after she finished shouting, her throat tight from both stress and anger.
More calmly she said, "I want answers, people," as she looked around at the gathered multitude in the auditorium, which was the only place in the building large enough and secure enough for this meeting. It had brought in the entire Protectorate contingent, all the Wards other than Vista who was still in hospital, the senior PRT staff, her deputy, and the pair of lawyers from head office who'd been here for two weeks helping with the fallout from the massively irritating legal tempest caused by Winslow high school apparently being run like a mafia organization. Except without the competence or charm.
This had caused no end of internal trouble for her command, because of one of their Wards attending the damned place, and another one having literally Triggered due to his experience there. And now it turned out that at least some of the staff of Winslow were colluding with people in the city administration, Brockton General, her own office, and who knew where else. She didn't blame the Mayor for being ready to strangle those involved, really. Emily shared that anger, and was more than happy that so many people wanted a piece of Winslow, but it was also causing her far more trouble than she had time to deal with on top of the normal workload.
The director of the PRT ENE was certain that Shadow Stalker was implicated up to her eyeballs in the whole insane mess, but since a lot of important information had oh-so-conveniently gone missing, she couldn't yet prove it. Not to the satisfaction of the Chief Director's office, anyway, who seemed far more convinced than she was that Sophia Hess was of value. The girl was not someone she trusted at all, for reasons ranging from her well-honed instincts to the stories she'd heard from the other Wards and co-workers of Sophia's. It was fair to say that very few people liked her, or believed that she had turned over a new leaf after being brought in following her vigilante career going to places no one was happy about.
Unfortunately she was very good at covering her tracks, and putting on a convincing facade of following orders. But Emily still didn't trust her in the slightest. Neither, from what she'd picked up, did Vista, who seemed to in fact loathe the older girl. Which might explain at least partially why the little idiot had decided to pull the damn fool trick of going on a solo patrol, especially to an area as hazardous as the one that had nearly claimed her life.
She was not happy with Vista, at least half of this unhappiness being disappointment in the judgment she'd shown. When she next had words with the girl, she was going to make that abundantly clear in no uncertain terms, because she was damned if she was going to lose a pre-teen Ward under her watch. Annoyingly she wasn't sure quite when she'd be able to shout at the girl though, due to a stubborn Parahuman Healer.
Panacea had flatly denied her demand that Vista be released, claiming that the girl, while healed physically, required rest and food, as well as a chance to get over her trauma mentally. The staff of the hospital had backed her to the hilt and her own medical staff had taken one look at the healer's expression and hastily decided they had no valid standing to interfere. She was fairly sure Panacea terrified them. Possibly from the thought of that level of sarcasm being weaponized in their direction…
Vista had given a statement to Miss Militia that morning, so they at least had her side of the story, which only opened up a whole series of questions and answered very few. They'd also acquired copies of the security camera footage from the hospital ER, the external cameras too, and had two somewhat blurry and very short phone videos of the giant frigging hornet that was the center of this whole meeting. As well as one pin-sharp photo that was currently on the projection screen behind her. Only two people in the ER had retained enough presence of mind to use their phones, which considering that it was commonplace to find nicely framed and shot videos of full blown cape fights going on mere hundreds of feet away while people watched with interest, proved just how startling the whole thing had been.
Bystanders in Brockton Bay were so jaded she wondered at times whether they'd even notice things that in other cities would cause mass panic.
A hornet big enough to drive a car was apparently the exception to that rule.
She half-turned and pointed at the screen. "What is that?" she demanded. "Where did it come from, where did it go, why did it save Vista, how did it save Vista, what did it do to Hookwolf, and are there any more of them? I feel that last part is critically important information."
Everyone looked at the screen, then her. She could see in their eyes that no one really had any good answers, and considering how quite a few people were deliberately trying not to stare too hard, she got a distinct feeling that a certain amount of entomophobia was being displayed.
Clockblocker was one of those who was doing his utmost not to look any more than he absolutely had to. He apparently wasn't keen on insects.
To be honest, she sympathized. The thing on the screen was enough to make anyone's skin crawl.
Not that she was prepared to ever tell him that of course.
The only person in the entire room that wasn't radiating at least a sense of mild horror at the image was one Professor David Brooks, an entomologist borrowed from Brockton Bay University and hastily NDA'd to the hilt. He was sitting forward in his chair with his hands clasped in front of him staring at the photo with a sort of beatific expression that was honestly a touch worrying.
In the end, lacking any clear place to start and seeing no one was all that prepared to be the first one to stick their neck out in the face of her possible wrath, she pointed at him. "You. Professor Brooks. Tell me about this hornet monster."
He blinked a couple of times then trained his gaze on her, while everyone else looked at him. "It's fantastic, Director," he stated with a smile. "I wouldn't have believed it if you didn't have this photo. What a remarkable shot."
"We're not here to admire the damn thing, we're here to learn what it is," she snapped.
"Ah." He nodded. "In that case, that is clearly a mature queen Vespa mandarinia, commonly known to the public as the Giant Asian Hornet. Endemic to the far east, although in recent years the species has been accidentally exported to both Europe and North America. I haven't heard of any reports of them being found this far north and east, admittedly, but they can certainly survive our climate." As she stared at his enthusiastic tone, he studied the photo again, which showed the vast insect next to Panacea, who was kneeling over Vista's body doing something. The creature appeared to be watching closely.
"It's a somewhat larger than normal specimen though," he added with a small dry chuckle.
"I fervently hope that Asia isn't full of insects that large," she said acidly. "It's obviously not a normal… what you just said."
"Oh, no, certainly not," he agreed readily. "While Vespa mandarinia is the largest hornet species known to science, they're usually much smaller than that." He didn't seem to find this odd, she noted with an internal sigh. Academics. They were weird at the best of times.
"How large are they normally?" she pressed, everyone else remaining silent and just listening while looking between them.
"Perhaps two, two and a half inches for a particularly large specimen, in length," he responded. "A wingspan of approximately three inches is typical."
"That's still a fucking huge hornet," one of the PRT people sitting behind him muttered, making her glare at him and the professor nod cheerfully.
"Oh, yes indeed. Very big. This specimen is somewhat larger as we can all see though, which is fascinating. It shouldn't be possible, in fact, insect physiology doesn't scale to anything close to this size and remain viable. Not since the Cretaceous at least." He chuckled a little. "I can only assume some Parahuman power is responsible. The ability to fly at that size, and even carry a payload as large as a young girl, would certainly require something other than normal physics to be at work. It implies very high strength and stamina, proportionately scaled commensurate with the remarkable size of the specimen. The sapient nature is also quite unusual. Fascinating indeed."
Pinching her the bridge of her nose and wondering if the man had the vaguest idea of why his 'fascinating' specimen was so horrifying to most reasonably sane people, she took a couple of breaths, then asked patiently, "How dangerous would you expect a hornet this large to be, Professor?"
"Absolutely lethal, beyond doubt," he replied immediately with what in her opinion was almost offensively happy earnestness. "A normally sized specimen is definitely a nasty problem if you upset it. The venom, while not quite as potent as that from some species, is still very effective indeed. It contains both a powerful neurotoxin and a cytotoxic peptide which causes major tissue damage. The biochemistry is quite enthralling. Interestingly the peptide, mastoparan, has been studied for its utility as a significantly effective antibiotic although the toxicity is…" He trailed off as she cleared her throat.
"But perhaps that aspect is not currently relevant," he added with a smile. "My point is that a normal hornet of this species is capable of injecting enough venom to cause potentially serious health effects to humans. One sting is unlikely to be lethal absent other contributing factors, such as low body weight, illness, or anaphylaxis, but the insect is more than capable of stinging multiple times and could conceivably cause death in an otherwise healthy adult. A swarm of them can easily kill, and this in fact occurs in their native environment on a low but regular basis. People who live in the vicinity of Vespa mandarinia nests go to some effort to avoid gaining their attention."
He smiled a little wryly at this. "For obvious reasons," he added. Indicating the image, he went on, "Now, what we have here is a Vespa mandarinia scaled up by a factor of, oh, roughly twenty four times I'd judge based on the size of Panacea there. Volumetrically that suggests a venom capacity of potentially…" He paused for a moment, working something out in his head. "…on the order of approximately fourteen thousand times that of the normally sized insect."
Emily felt ill. Several of the audience went very pale.
"Assuming the venom is the same as that of the usual hornet, that's far more than enough in one sting to be immediately fatal," he assured her with a smile. "Not to mention the stinger would be proportionately enlarged, leading to the conclusion it would present an obvious threat purely from the mechanical trauma it would inflict. Even a normally sized asian hornet is easily capable of stinging through thick cloth and a plastic protective suit." He waved at the screen. "This specimen wouldn't even notice anything short of half an inch of plastic, I'd think."
"So it could stab you to death even if it didn't inject you with a pint of instant kill poison?" the same PRT lieutenant queried. Professor Brooks looked over his shoulder and nodded, still smiling a little.
"Essentially," he agreed, not sounding nearly as worried as Emily felt he should all things considered.
"Oh, wonderful," the other man mumbled.
"Of course, taking into account the obvious fact that our friend here clearly isn't an example of an ordinary Vespa mandarinia writ large," the professor resumed, turning back to look at Emily, "since as I said she can't be working on standard insect principles, there's no guarantee that her venom isn't something unique too. It could be substantially more toxic even ignoring the sheer quantity available. I would dearly love to acquire a sample for tests."
Holding in a sigh at his obvious enthusiasm, heedless of just how utterly terrifying the information he'd given was, Emily replied with deliberate calmness, "If we manage that I will bear you in mind."
"Thank you, Director," he responded with a pleased look. Peering at the photo again, he went on thoughtfully after a moment while she tried suppress the urge to scowl more than she was already, "The fact that this individual is fully sapient is truly remarkable. Insect neurology is fairly divergent from that of a human, and I wouldn't have thought it plausible to have any arthropod with near or possibly higher than human intelligence. Although, that said, jumping spiders in particular do seem in the latest research to be far more capable of problem-solving than was once believed, so…" He shrugged a little. "I suppose there are precedents in a sense, and if you scaled the brain at the same ratio as the rest of the body… Intelligence is still something we don't truly understand the mechanism of, after all. I do wonder how she sees the world, bearing in mind the differences in visual acuity and speed, neural processing rates, and other factors."
"What do you mean?" Emily found herself forced to ask when he fell silent.
"Oh, well, you see insects have a much faster… ah… mental processing speed, I suppose, than mammals do," he replied, leaning forward with a look of pleasure at being able to expound on his expert subject. "This is obviously partly due to the much shorter lengths of the nerves, but there is some research indicating that the neural velocity is higher even taking that into account. That's why you have so much trouble swatting a fly, for example. From their point of view your hand is moving in slow motion. It could well be that our friend here can react, see, and think far faster than a human could. Again, it's a subject I would be enormously interested in exploring. And as she's sapient we could actually compare notes!" His eyes lit up at the thought. "I must write that down. Where did I put…" He patted himself, then produced a pen and a scrap of paper he jotted some words on while the entire rest of the room stared at him. "We could learn so much," he mumbled, glancing at the screen again, then turning the paper over and writing on the other side as well.
She was unable to hold in the sigh this time. He paid it no attention at all.
Clearing her throat again, quite loudly, she waited until he looked up. "Yes, Director?" he queried politely.
"So if I'm understanding you correctly, Professor, what we have here is a near-human sized, fully sapient, articulate, super strong hornet that has a stinger that could penetrate a flak jacket, enough venom to drown a cat, possibly has super venom that's even worse than a normal hornet's, and on top of that has Mover, Thinker, and Blaster abilities?" Emily was rubbing her brow, wishing she'd brought more ibuprofen.
"Hmm… I suppose that's a valid way to put it if I recall the PRT classifications correctly," he nodded after thinking her comment over for a second, still with that annoyingly cheerful expression. "It's a truly stunning phenomenon."
"And the single most horrifying thing I've ever even dreamed of," Dauntless mumbled, just loud enough to hear when the professor stopped talking and the room was dead silent as everyone thought about what he'd told them while wishing he hadn't. Emily couldn't bring herself to disagree with the man even enough to glare at him.
"Oh, god," she muttered to herself. "This damned city…"
"One thing that might cheer you up, Director," he said after looking around at the others, appearing slightly bemused at the expressions. "Apparently she is friendly. And helpful. She did after all save the young lady from a grisly fate and go to some effort to take her to where she could be helped. I feel that is, regardless of species, the actions of someone who means well."
Slightly incredulously she stared at him, then slowly turned her head to inspect the life-sized, and wasn't that a worrying thought, enormous super-hornet on the screen. Returning her gaze to him, she finally replied, "That is not quite as helpful as you may believe, Professor, but there is some validity to it, yes."
He beamed at her, making her clench one hand into a fist under the table before relaxing. Academics, she reminded herself. You can't thump them for not being on the same page as everyone else, because they simply didn't understand what the problem was in most cases.
And he had at least given useful information. Information that wouldn't help her sleep any better, but still useful.
Watching as he rummaged in his pockets for some more paper then began making notes again, she shook her head slightly and moved on for the moment. Just as she was about to ask another question, she stopped. Then ran some of his commentary from a few minutes ago back through her head.
"Professor?" she asked calmly.
He looked up. "Yes?"
She pointed over her shoulder. "You said that is a queen hornet, correct?"
The man nodded, smiling.
"If I recall my biology, the queens are the ones that lay eggs, I believe?"
"Quite correct."
"Can that thing breed?" she persisted.
He thought, looking at the screen, then back to her. "I have no reason to believe otherwise, although she might be sterile, admittedly."
"So, in theory, there could be an entire hive of those things somewhere in the city?" Emily felt faint.
Professor Brooks shook his head. "Probably not yet, as normally the eggs would be laid near the end of April, and as this is the first reported sighting, one would suspect that she's only recently arrived here from wherever she originates. If there was an extant nest I'd expect more sightings. She is after all somewhat memorable."
Which was understating the problem so much it needed a completely different word, Emily thought…
She could see from the expressions that she wasn't alone in this feeling.
"How large is an Asian Hornet nest?" she asked, not really wanting to hear what was going to be an unwelcome answer, she just knew it, but having to. "Typically, I mean." It was taking massive effort to keep her voice level.
"Well, in the case of a normal Vespa mandarinia nest, one would expect to find by the time it was fully matured, which is around mid August incidentally, up to perhaps a hundred or so workers at any one time. A small number of males and queens will also be produced, obviously, mating flights occurring in October, then fertilized queens dispersing to overwinter in suitable locations until spring and the cycle repeats. The original queen dies at the same time. Nests are built underground, rather than in high locations as in the case of something like a paper wasp, so tend to be quite hard to find." He smiled, then slowly looked concerned. "Oh dear. That might present a slight problem."
"Yes, Professor Brooks, it might indeed present a slight problem," she growled, massaging her forehead, which was throbbing. "Just a tiny one. I'm sure that being overrun with man-sized poisonous insects isn't too worrying, but people may still find it awkward even in Brockton Bay." She was fairly sure almost everyone in the room had stopped breathing for a few seconds when he'd answered.
"Venomous, not poisonous, Director," Armsmaster put in, making her fix him with a dark look. "Poisonous implies that ingesting the insect would cause a toxic reaction, which is currently not known, whereas we have ample evidence that it possesses a highly potent venom, so the correct nomenclature should be…"
He stopped when she held up a hand. "Thank you, Armsmaster," she grated. "Not the point I was making, though."
Professor Brooks, who'd nodded agreement as the Tinker spoke, appearing pleased, looked at the screen then back to her. "On the bright side, Director Piggot," he said encouragingly, "There are sufficient differences between this novel species and a true Vespa mandarinia that it's equally plausible that the breeding cycle is entirely at variance from what is understood. She may be sterile, she might only produce one or two eggs at a time, or there may even be something more extraordinary involved. As we have very limited information so far, we can't be certain what the truth is." He smiled a little. "Unusually we might be able to simply ask. Which is certainly not something I'm used to in my field."
Wishing she could get drunk these days, Emily restrained her first response. And her second.
And her third.
After gritting her teeth for some seconds, she finally asked him directly and the room at large, "Where did it come from?" She looked around at more than a couple of dozen faces, almost all of which showed worry. "Is it a Case 53? A Biotinker did it? A Changer with a hideously scary form? Something from a parallel world? At least one of those options is terrifying and I'm not happy about any of them to be honest, although the Case 53 is the least upsetting in a sense."
The professor shrugged, spreading his hands. "I'm afraid those questions are out of my area of expertise, Director, so I have no answers for you. I don't know enough about Parahuman abilities to do more than guess, although I can't see any plausible way she's not the result of such. Even a parallel world would have to follow the physical laws ours does, in all probability, and an insect that large isn't technically possible in that case. Technical impossibilities that nevertheless exist appear to fall more into your organization's remit." He smiled at her, looking like he was finding all this quite entertaining in some bizarre fashion.
Deciding that if she ignored him he might stop smiling, and even if he didn't she wouldn't have to look at him, she cast her gaze around the others present. "Do we have any useful information on that subject?"
"As to its origin we can only currently speculate," Armsmaster commented after no one else seemed to come up with anything. "It being the result of a Biotinker is plausible, but in my view less likely. The exhibited abilities, as Professor Brooks stated, strongly imply Parahuman powers are being utilized. While there have been cases of Biotinkered constructs having unusual abilities themselves, nothing on record has shown results that match what the evidence we so far have suggests. I can't rule it out but I'd put it as the less likely scenario for now."
Emily couldn't help feeling a certain amount of relief even as she didn't entirely agree with his conclusions. She and Biotinkers had an unpleasant history.
"An import from a parallel world seems to be even less likely," he added. "Again, it's not impossible based on our current understanding of the multi-world theory, but we can be certain that the only other world we've got direct evidence for the existence of doesn't contain an insect this large, if only for the reasons the professor laid out." He shook his head. "Physics doesn't allow for it, and as I understand the science, neither does biology, which therefore implies the… super-hornet… is not a naturally occurring creature. Leaving Changer or Case 53 as the more reasonable explanations."
"Maybe it was one of those alien lizards that one guy on PHO is always claiming are behind anything particularly weird," Assault put in, because he was like that. The blasted man couldn't even have the decency to be sufficiently concerned about the current problem long enough to suppress his urge to add what he fondly thought was humor to the proceedings, Emily thought as she scowled at him, making him smirk.
"I find that highly unlikely," Armsmaster replied with a grimace. "The individual in question is… suspect at best."
As the other man opened his mouth, undoubtedly to produce further inanities, Emily said, "Thank you, Assault. We don't need any more of your helpful suggestions." He grinned and shrugged, making her growl under her breath, but at least he'd managed to make the overall air of the meeting become slightly less dark. Which was the only reason she tolerated him at all.
"Fine. We'll put Case 53, followed by Changer, at the top of the list then," she allowed after thinking over what he'd said. No one seemed to object and several people made notes. "Although if any evidence at all turns up for the Biotinker theory I want to hear about it immediately."
She got a number of nods.
"Leaving aside the issue of its genesis," Armsmaster went on having typed on a tablet for a few seconds, "the more recent location of the insect would appear, from Vista's testimony, to likely be somewhere in the area between Geraint street, where she encountered it, and the far side of the docks area of the city. It's a large area, some eighteen square miles, much of it derelict and quite a lot completely uninhabited. There are many buildings in states of repair ranging from damaged to rubble. I would imagine that this gives a huge number of places an insect that big could hide without difficulty."
"And it would be nearly impossible to find it, especially if it's underground," Lieutenant Jeffries, the one who'd made the earlier comments, remarked uneasily. "I know that whole area is honeycombed with tunnels, sewers, old basements, at least four super-villain bases we've never located, and god knows what else. And it was the largest smuggling port on the east coast for nearly two hundred years too, which probably means there's even more hidden under it than we think there is. Leaving aside all the wrecked warehouses and factories. It would take years to search it all even if we wanted to."
He wasn't wrong, she thought with resignation. The docks zone was a part of the city they had little real control over or insight into, for many reasons, some historical and some political, as well as for cost reasons. Their budget didn't stretch to nearly the number of troops she'd need to even begin to be able to patrol that area, and that wasn't taking into account just how much pushback they'd get from the locals.
It would be a nightmare, honestly. Which is why it had never happened.
"Do you in fact need to find her?" Professor Brooks queried, looking interested in the conversation and honestly intrigued by the current subject. "As far as I can see, she's done nothing wrong as such. And I'd have thought saving your Ward would suggest she's at worst non-hostile. At least to the forces of law and order." He smiled as she gave him a look, but quite a lot of the other people present seemed to agree. She wasn't sure if it was because they actually agreed with his comment, or whether they thought it was a good excuse not to risk running into something that terrifying in a dark alley…
Emily considered his words. Her gut reaction was to say that yes, they very definitely needed to locate and investigate the giant killer hornet. It made her twitchy to think something like that was out there, especially when she recalled the earlier conversation, which had made her skin crawl. On the other hand, he had a valid point. Vista, for whatever reason she'd had for going out alone, had very nearly ended up dead as a result of that murderous Nazi bastard, and it was pure luck that something had pulled her ass out of a fight she was losing badly. The creature, whatever it really was and wherever it came from, had intervened, made sure from the sound of it that Hookwolf was removed from the vicinity of Vista, given him unambiguous warning of imminent lethal response, and only then acted to shut the situation down permanently.
Subsequent to which it had taken Vista directly to the best medical care in the city, undoubtedly saving her life.
So.
On the one hand, giant killer hornet with an absolutely horrifying threat level. On the other, proven friendly, or at least neutral, outlook combined with far more restraint than many Parahumans, or people in general, had in such circumstances.
And no one could say with a straight face that Hookwolf hadn't had it coming. Just for what he'd been involved in last night any bystander would have been fully justified in shooting the fucker dead if they could have managed it, and she'd have shaken their hand. Legally and ethically the hornet was in the clear, as far as that went. It was probably even due a reward, as insane as the concept was, since the Nazi bastard had had a kill order on him. Long overdue in her opinion, it was finally authorized after he personally murdered ten PRT troopers and three civilians the last time he escaped, during transportation to the Birdcage just before Christmas. And he'd definitely been trying to kill Vista, which stood the distinct likelihood of kicking off a gang war with the Empire as they'd have had no choice but to go in hard in response, upsetting the delicately balanced power struggle this damned city ran on.
She briefly wondered if she could point the fucking hornet at Kaiser and see what happened…
There was no indication as to why the hornet had helped Vista. It might have been because it didn't like Nazis, it might have wanted to save a life, it might have been purely a territorial thing. Taking her to Brockton General implied the latter possibility was less likely, but who knew how a vast hornet thought?
The main reason she found herself hesitating to tell the Professor he had a valid point was the uneasy worry that perhaps, despite what Armsmaster had said, the insect was the result of a Biotinker. The nightmarish potential of something like that didn't bear thinking about. Neither did the idea that Professor Brooks had raised with his talk about nesting queens…
Shivering despite herself, Emily attempted to reject the images that came into her mind. Not entirely successfully she had to admit.
Eventually she sighed heavily. "While I don't like it, Professor, you're not wrong. I want to do a complete threat assessment on…" She waved her hand at the screen. "That. But for now, we'll tentatively put it down as non-hostile. I want everyone to gather any new information that comes to light and add it to the file so we can get a better idea of exactly what's going on, because it's still deeply concerning, and the public are going to have a lot of questions shortly, but… considering just how hard it would be to even find it if it doesn't want to be found, I suppose we don't honestly have any other recourse at the moment."
She turned to Miss Militia. "I also want to have a long talk with Vista as soon as possible." Her voice was deceptively mild, but the other woman looked somewhat worried under her scarf. "We need to have a discussion about unsanctioned patrols…"
"Panacea said she'd let us know when Vista was fit to leave the hospital," the hero replied.
"Good. See that I'm informed as soon as that happens." Emily looked back at the screen with a frisson of what she'd deny was fear. "Right. Brute, Blaster, Mover, Thinker, and possibly Changer." Turning back to the others, she continued, "Ideas for threat ratings, countermeasures, and anything else anyone can think of. I want to get this done before we get surprised again."
Kid Win tentatively raised his hand, causing her to glance at him. "Yes?"
"Um… I read on PHO that there was a woman who claimed she got mugged by a couple of Empire guys and was saved by a giant talking wasp," he said quietly. "About two or three weeks ago. No one believed her, and she got upset and stopped talking about it." He looked at the photo on the screen. "But…"
She nodded. "Where did this happen?"
"Apparently somewhere close to the main library, I think." He looked uncertain. "Pretty sure it was there."
"So miles away from where Vista's encounter was," Velocity put in. "Which might mean it's been flying around all over the city for weeks."
"But no one has reported seeing it that I'm aware of, and Vista said it was quite audible some distance away," her deputy Mike Renick commented with a frown. "Either it's sneakier than we realized, has only been in that location once, or it might have a Stranger ability too. Which is… not comforting to consider."
"An invisible giant killer hornet is worse than a visible one," Clockblocker agreed, sounding extremely worried. "Like, a lot worse."
Finding she couldn't disagree, because the thought made her wince, Emily held up her hand. "Before we descend into wild speculation, let's try not to assign every possible power to this, please? We all know what's happened in the past when people got carried away."
"I don't," Professor Brooks remarked with an intrigued expression, making her sigh yet again.
It was going to be a long, long meeting, she knew.
And it turned out she was right. Which was cold comfort, really.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Tapping on the door, Amy pushed it open and stepped inside with a nod to the PRT trooper sitting in a chair next to it who glanced at her for a moment then went back to looking around. "How do you feel," she asked, looking at the young blonde girl sitting up in bed and staring out the window. Missy wasn't wearing her costume, hence the PRT guard, but Amy was well aware of her identity in any case. She actually liked Vista, both in and out of costume. The younger girl was smart, generally sensible, easy to talk to, and very professional in her costumed identity. Which made her getting involved in what nearly killed her last night somewhat baffling, Amy thought as she sat in the chair next to the bed.
She'd decided to visit Missy both to check on her, and to have a break from running around fixing people. While she felt it was something she had to do, it was tiring and in many ways horrible, since people were by and large idiots and often rude with it. You'd have thought, she irritably mused, that being polite to the person making sure you lived might be a fairly straightforward concept, but apparently a lot of people hadn't ever worked that out.
Missy at least thanked her when she was patched up after one of the regrettably common injuries Wards in Brockton Bay seemed to end up with. In theory they weren't supposed to be involved in violent encounters, but theory and practice often didn't see eye to eye around here. And Missy was rather more prone to jumping in than perhaps she should have been sometimes.
Although last night was exceptional by anyone's standards, she thought, watching the other girl keep staring out the window with an odd expression before she finally turned her eyes to meet Amy's.
"Fine," Missy replied.
Amy studied her. "Yeah, right," she finally snorted. "Try again."
"You do good work," Missy smiled. The smile was brittle and unconvincing.
"I know I do, but I still don't believe you." Amy shrugged. "Sure, I fixed the physical problems. That's not what I'm worried about."
She and Missy stared at each other for a few seconds.
"Fine!" the blonde girl finally shouted. "I fucked up, OK? I wanted to prove I could handle more than the crap they let us do, and I couldn't! I nearly died! And a fucking huge wasp saved my life!" She laughed a little hysterically. "A huge wasp was better at fighting than I was! Can you believe that? What the fuck is that about?"
Putting her hand on Missy's as the girl wound up for a major rant, something she recognized from her own sister a couple of times, Amy didn't bother to say anything, she just tweaked the blonde's neurotransmitters a tiny amount, reducing stress hormones a little at the same time while monitoring the result. Missy's eyelids fluttered and she abruptly closed her mouth, looking like she was about to fall asleep. Adjusting a few more things, Amy watched the result. Blinking, Missy shook her head, then stared at her.
Amy shrugged. "You were having an anxiety attack," she explained. "Trust me, I've seen it before. No point letting it spiral when I can shut it down."
The other girl burst into tears, causing Amy to sigh. "Oh, Jesus," she grumbled, leaning over and putting her arms around the twelve year old. "I am so not the right person for this sort of thing."
"I nearly died, Amy," Missy sobbed into her shoulder.
"But you didn't," Amy replied quietly. "You're fine, and you're staying here until you can handle what happened. Don't worry about Hookwolf. I guarantee he will never bother you again, or anyone else."
"Good," Missy whispered, still crying. It was uncharacteristic of what Amy knew of the girl, but she'd realized quite a while ago that Vista was suppressing a lot of things. Not surprisingly, because that was pretty much par for the course with Parahumans in general. But when someone could see the innermost workings of the body at a touch, not much got past them.
Amy knew far more about a lot of people than they ever realized, she was all too aware of that.
Missy sniffed a few times, taking the kleenex Amy handed her wordlessly with a murmur of thanks, blew her nose, lay back, and started talking.
Glancing at her watch for a moment, Amy shrugged and listened. Other people could keep for now. She didn't have so many friends that she could leave one at a time like this.
As she listened to Missy unload months of frustration, the back of her mind was wondering where that hornet had come from, where it had gone, and why she had the urge to track it down and ask a lot of questions.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Cool," Taylor grinned as she peered down into clear cold water at a dozen crabs of various species that were looking back up at her. "Come on, guys, let's do some more experimentation. We're going to learn all sorts of interesting tricks, you and me."
She marched them out of the water and into a small bucket she'd filled with water, before picking it up in her forelegs and taking off. Shortly she was investigating how to improve compound eyes and getting some really nice results.
Deciding that she should probably figure out how to set up a marine tank at home, so she could keep some of the more promising specimens closer to hand, she made notes and tried various combinations, mixing and remixing features of arthropods in ways that nature would run screaming from.
Every now and then she had a new idea, sparked by the results she got from various tests. Sometimes these were quite unexpected, causing her to stop and think hard, then smile.
One was sufficiently wild that she spent nearly ten minutes going over the possibilities, before making a list of books she needed to get and read. If she could pull it off…
'Oh, yes. This could be a lot of fun,' she thought as she tried to remember things from one of her computer textbooks. 'I bet it'll work…'
Smiling to herself, she put the notebook and pen down, then moved her current jumping drider body to retrieve a different crab, before getting back to work with a cheerful feeling that life was going well.
As far as she could tell her power was feeling exactly the same, and watching very closely to see what happened next…
The shout made the room echo and several people wince at the volume.
"We have a Ward that nearly died, thirty seven corpses split between gang members and random civilians, all of the latter minorities, and a comatose Parahuman villain with sufficiently serious brain and nerve damage that Panacea is doubtful he'll even make it until next week and is almost certain he's not waking up even if he survives," the voice went on at slightly lower volume but with great anger. "On top of that our Ward was apparently rescued by a four foot long sapient hornet! One that talks! And took out Hookwolf! Then airlifted Vista to hospital!"
Emily Piggot coughed after she finished shouting, her throat tight from both stress and anger.
More calmly she said, "I want answers, people," as she looked around at the gathered multitude in the auditorium, which was the only place in the building large enough and secure enough for this meeting. It had brought in the entire Protectorate contingent, all the Wards other than Vista who was still in hospital, the senior PRT staff, her deputy, and the pair of lawyers from head office who'd been here for two weeks helping with the fallout from the massively irritating legal tempest caused by Winslow high school apparently being run like a mafia organization. Except without the competence or charm.
This had caused no end of internal trouble for her command, because of one of their Wards attending the damned place, and another one having literally Triggered due to his experience there. And now it turned out that at least some of the staff of Winslow were colluding with people in the city administration, Brockton General, her own office, and who knew where else. She didn't blame the Mayor for being ready to strangle those involved, really. Emily shared that anger, and was more than happy that so many people wanted a piece of Winslow, but it was also causing her far more trouble than she had time to deal with on top of the normal workload.
The director of the PRT ENE was certain that Shadow Stalker was implicated up to her eyeballs in the whole insane mess, but since a lot of important information had oh-so-conveniently gone missing, she couldn't yet prove it. Not to the satisfaction of the Chief Director's office, anyway, who seemed far more convinced than she was that Sophia Hess was of value. The girl was not someone she trusted at all, for reasons ranging from her well-honed instincts to the stories she'd heard from the other Wards and co-workers of Sophia's. It was fair to say that very few people liked her, or believed that she had turned over a new leaf after being brought in following her vigilante career going to places no one was happy about.
Unfortunately she was very good at covering her tracks, and putting on a convincing facade of following orders. But Emily still didn't trust her in the slightest. Neither, from what she'd picked up, did Vista, who seemed to in fact loathe the older girl. Which might explain at least partially why the little idiot had decided to pull the damn fool trick of going on a solo patrol, especially to an area as hazardous as the one that had nearly claimed her life.
She was not happy with Vista, at least half of this unhappiness being disappointment in the judgment she'd shown. When she next had words with the girl, she was going to make that abundantly clear in no uncertain terms, because she was damned if she was going to lose a pre-teen Ward under her watch. Annoyingly she wasn't sure quite when she'd be able to shout at the girl though, due to a stubborn Parahuman Healer.
Panacea had flatly denied her demand that Vista be released, claiming that the girl, while healed physically, required rest and food, as well as a chance to get over her trauma mentally. The staff of the hospital had backed her to the hilt and her own medical staff had taken one look at the healer's expression and hastily decided they had no valid standing to interfere. She was fairly sure Panacea terrified them. Possibly from the thought of that level of sarcasm being weaponized in their direction…
Vista had given a statement to Miss Militia that morning, so they at least had her side of the story, which only opened up a whole series of questions and answered very few. They'd also acquired copies of the security camera footage from the hospital ER, the external cameras too, and had two somewhat blurry and very short phone videos of the giant frigging hornet that was the center of this whole meeting. As well as one pin-sharp photo that was currently on the projection screen behind her. Only two people in the ER had retained enough presence of mind to use their phones, which considering that it was commonplace to find nicely framed and shot videos of full blown cape fights going on mere hundreds of feet away while people watched with interest, proved just how startling the whole thing had been.
Bystanders in Brockton Bay were so jaded she wondered at times whether they'd even notice things that in other cities would cause mass panic.
A hornet big enough to drive a car was apparently the exception to that rule.
She half-turned and pointed at the screen. "What is that?" she demanded. "Where did it come from, where did it go, why did it save Vista, how did it save Vista, what did it do to Hookwolf, and are there any more of them? I feel that last part is critically important information."
Everyone looked at the screen, then her. She could see in their eyes that no one really had any good answers, and considering how quite a few people were deliberately trying not to stare too hard, she got a distinct feeling that a certain amount of entomophobia was being displayed.
Clockblocker was one of those who was doing his utmost not to look any more than he absolutely had to. He apparently wasn't keen on insects.
To be honest, she sympathized. The thing on the screen was enough to make anyone's skin crawl.
Not that she was prepared to ever tell him that of course.
The only person in the entire room that wasn't radiating at least a sense of mild horror at the image was one Professor David Brooks, an entomologist borrowed from Brockton Bay University and hastily NDA'd to the hilt. He was sitting forward in his chair with his hands clasped in front of him staring at the photo with a sort of beatific expression that was honestly a touch worrying.
In the end, lacking any clear place to start and seeing no one was all that prepared to be the first one to stick their neck out in the face of her possible wrath, she pointed at him. "You. Professor Brooks. Tell me about this hornet monster."
He blinked a couple of times then trained his gaze on her, while everyone else looked at him. "It's fantastic, Director," he stated with a smile. "I wouldn't have believed it if you didn't have this photo. What a remarkable shot."
"We're not here to admire the damn thing, we're here to learn what it is," she snapped.
"Ah." He nodded. "In that case, that is clearly a mature queen Vespa mandarinia, commonly known to the public as the Giant Asian Hornet. Endemic to the far east, although in recent years the species has been accidentally exported to both Europe and North America. I haven't heard of any reports of them being found this far north and east, admittedly, but they can certainly survive our climate." As she stared at his enthusiastic tone, he studied the photo again, which showed the vast insect next to Panacea, who was kneeling over Vista's body doing something. The creature appeared to be watching closely.
"It's a somewhat larger than normal specimen though," he added with a small dry chuckle.
"I fervently hope that Asia isn't full of insects that large," she said acidly. "It's obviously not a normal… what you just said."
"Oh, no, certainly not," he agreed readily. "While Vespa mandarinia is the largest hornet species known to science, they're usually much smaller than that." He didn't seem to find this odd, she noted with an internal sigh. Academics. They were weird at the best of times.
"How large are they normally?" she pressed, everyone else remaining silent and just listening while looking between them.
"Perhaps two, two and a half inches for a particularly large specimen, in length," he responded. "A wingspan of approximately three inches is typical."
"That's still a fucking huge hornet," one of the PRT people sitting behind him muttered, making her glare at him and the professor nod cheerfully.
"Oh, yes indeed. Very big. This specimen is somewhat larger as we can all see though, which is fascinating. It shouldn't be possible, in fact, insect physiology doesn't scale to anything close to this size and remain viable. Not since the Cretaceous at least." He chuckled a little. "I can only assume some Parahuman power is responsible. The ability to fly at that size, and even carry a payload as large as a young girl, would certainly require something other than normal physics to be at work. It implies very high strength and stamina, proportionately scaled commensurate with the remarkable size of the specimen. The sapient nature is also quite unusual. Fascinating indeed."
Pinching her the bridge of her nose and wondering if the man had the vaguest idea of why his 'fascinating' specimen was so horrifying to most reasonably sane people, she took a couple of breaths, then asked patiently, "How dangerous would you expect a hornet this large to be, Professor?"
"Absolutely lethal, beyond doubt," he replied immediately with what in her opinion was almost offensively happy earnestness. "A normally sized specimen is definitely a nasty problem if you upset it. The venom, while not quite as potent as that from some species, is still very effective indeed. It contains both a powerful neurotoxin and a cytotoxic peptide which causes major tissue damage. The biochemistry is quite enthralling. Interestingly the peptide, mastoparan, has been studied for its utility as a significantly effective antibiotic although the toxicity is…" He trailed off as she cleared her throat.
"But perhaps that aspect is not currently relevant," he added with a smile. "My point is that a normal hornet of this species is capable of injecting enough venom to cause potentially serious health effects to humans. One sting is unlikely to be lethal absent other contributing factors, such as low body weight, illness, or anaphylaxis, but the insect is more than capable of stinging multiple times and could conceivably cause death in an otherwise healthy adult. A swarm of them can easily kill, and this in fact occurs in their native environment on a low but regular basis. People who live in the vicinity of Vespa mandarinia nests go to some effort to avoid gaining their attention."
He smiled a little wryly at this. "For obvious reasons," he added. Indicating the image, he went on, "Now, what we have here is a Vespa mandarinia scaled up by a factor of, oh, roughly twenty four times I'd judge based on the size of Panacea there. Volumetrically that suggests a venom capacity of potentially…" He paused for a moment, working something out in his head. "…on the order of approximately fourteen thousand times that of the normally sized insect."
Emily felt ill. Several of the audience went very pale.
"Assuming the venom is the same as that of the usual hornet, that's far more than enough in one sting to be immediately fatal," he assured her with a smile. "Not to mention the stinger would be proportionately enlarged, leading to the conclusion it would present an obvious threat purely from the mechanical trauma it would inflict. Even a normally sized asian hornet is easily capable of stinging through thick cloth and a plastic protective suit." He waved at the screen. "This specimen wouldn't even notice anything short of half an inch of plastic, I'd think."
"So it could stab you to death even if it didn't inject you with a pint of instant kill poison?" the same PRT lieutenant queried. Professor Brooks looked over his shoulder and nodded, still smiling a little.
"Essentially," he agreed, not sounding nearly as worried as Emily felt he should all things considered.
"Oh, wonderful," the other man mumbled.
"Of course, taking into account the obvious fact that our friend here clearly isn't an example of an ordinary Vespa mandarinia writ large," the professor resumed, turning back to look at Emily, "since as I said she can't be working on standard insect principles, there's no guarantee that her venom isn't something unique too. It could be substantially more toxic even ignoring the sheer quantity available. I would dearly love to acquire a sample for tests."
Holding in a sigh at his obvious enthusiasm, heedless of just how utterly terrifying the information he'd given was, Emily replied with deliberate calmness, "If we manage that I will bear you in mind."
"Thank you, Director," he responded with a pleased look. Peering at the photo again, he went on thoughtfully after a moment while she tried suppress the urge to scowl more than she was already, "The fact that this individual is fully sapient is truly remarkable. Insect neurology is fairly divergent from that of a human, and I wouldn't have thought it plausible to have any arthropod with near or possibly higher than human intelligence. Although, that said, jumping spiders in particular do seem in the latest research to be far more capable of problem-solving than was once believed, so…" He shrugged a little. "I suppose there are precedents in a sense, and if you scaled the brain at the same ratio as the rest of the body… Intelligence is still something we don't truly understand the mechanism of, after all. I do wonder how she sees the world, bearing in mind the differences in visual acuity and speed, neural processing rates, and other factors."
"What do you mean?" Emily found herself forced to ask when he fell silent.
"Oh, well, you see insects have a much faster… ah… mental processing speed, I suppose, than mammals do," he replied, leaning forward with a look of pleasure at being able to expound on his expert subject. "This is obviously partly due to the much shorter lengths of the nerves, but there is some research indicating that the neural velocity is higher even taking that into account. That's why you have so much trouble swatting a fly, for example. From their point of view your hand is moving in slow motion. It could well be that our friend here can react, see, and think far faster than a human could. Again, it's a subject I would be enormously interested in exploring. And as she's sapient we could actually compare notes!" His eyes lit up at the thought. "I must write that down. Where did I put…" He patted himself, then produced a pen and a scrap of paper he jotted some words on while the entire rest of the room stared at him. "We could learn so much," he mumbled, glancing at the screen again, then turning the paper over and writing on the other side as well.
She was unable to hold in the sigh this time. He paid it no attention at all.
Clearing her throat again, quite loudly, she waited until he looked up. "Yes, Director?" he queried politely.
"So if I'm understanding you correctly, Professor, what we have here is a near-human sized, fully sapient, articulate, super strong hornet that has a stinger that could penetrate a flak jacket, enough venom to drown a cat, possibly has super venom that's even worse than a normal hornet's, and on top of that has Mover, Thinker, and Blaster abilities?" Emily was rubbing her brow, wishing she'd brought more ibuprofen.
"Hmm… I suppose that's a valid way to put it if I recall the PRT classifications correctly," he nodded after thinking her comment over for a second, still with that annoyingly cheerful expression. "It's a truly stunning phenomenon."
"And the single most horrifying thing I've ever even dreamed of," Dauntless mumbled, just loud enough to hear when the professor stopped talking and the room was dead silent as everyone thought about what he'd told them while wishing he hadn't. Emily couldn't bring herself to disagree with the man even enough to glare at him.
"Oh, god," she muttered to herself. "This damned city…"
"One thing that might cheer you up, Director," he said after looking around at the others, appearing slightly bemused at the expressions. "Apparently she is friendly. And helpful. She did after all save the young lady from a grisly fate and go to some effort to take her to where she could be helped. I feel that is, regardless of species, the actions of someone who means well."
Slightly incredulously she stared at him, then slowly turned her head to inspect the life-sized, and wasn't that a worrying thought, enormous super-hornet on the screen. Returning her gaze to him, she finally replied, "That is not quite as helpful as you may believe, Professor, but there is some validity to it, yes."
He beamed at her, making her clench one hand into a fist under the table before relaxing. Academics, she reminded herself. You can't thump them for not being on the same page as everyone else, because they simply didn't understand what the problem was in most cases.
And he had at least given useful information. Information that wouldn't help her sleep any better, but still useful.
Watching as he rummaged in his pockets for some more paper then began making notes again, she shook her head slightly and moved on for the moment. Just as she was about to ask another question, she stopped. Then ran some of his commentary from a few minutes ago back through her head.
"Professor?" she asked calmly.
He looked up. "Yes?"
She pointed over her shoulder. "You said that is a queen hornet, correct?"
The man nodded, smiling.
"If I recall my biology, the queens are the ones that lay eggs, I believe?"
"Quite correct."
"Can that thing breed?" she persisted.
He thought, looking at the screen, then back to her. "I have no reason to believe otherwise, although she might be sterile, admittedly."
"So, in theory, there could be an entire hive of those things somewhere in the city?" Emily felt faint.
Professor Brooks shook his head. "Probably not yet, as normally the eggs would be laid near the end of April, and as this is the first reported sighting, one would suspect that she's only recently arrived here from wherever she originates. If there was an extant nest I'd expect more sightings. She is after all somewhat memorable."
Which was understating the problem so much it needed a completely different word, Emily thought…
She could see from the expressions that she wasn't alone in this feeling.
"How large is an Asian Hornet nest?" she asked, not really wanting to hear what was going to be an unwelcome answer, she just knew it, but having to. "Typically, I mean." It was taking massive effort to keep her voice level.
"Well, in the case of a normal Vespa mandarinia nest, one would expect to find by the time it was fully matured, which is around mid August incidentally, up to perhaps a hundred or so workers at any one time. A small number of males and queens will also be produced, obviously, mating flights occurring in October, then fertilized queens dispersing to overwinter in suitable locations until spring and the cycle repeats. The original queen dies at the same time. Nests are built underground, rather than in high locations as in the case of something like a paper wasp, so tend to be quite hard to find." He smiled, then slowly looked concerned. "Oh dear. That might present a slight problem."
"Yes, Professor Brooks, it might indeed present a slight problem," she growled, massaging her forehead, which was throbbing. "Just a tiny one. I'm sure that being overrun with man-sized poisonous insects isn't too worrying, but people may still find it awkward even in Brockton Bay." She was fairly sure almost everyone in the room had stopped breathing for a few seconds when he'd answered.
"Venomous, not poisonous, Director," Armsmaster put in, making her fix him with a dark look. "Poisonous implies that ingesting the insect would cause a toxic reaction, which is currently not known, whereas we have ample evidence that it possesses a highly potent venom, so the correct nomenclature should be…"
He stopped when she held up a hand. "Thank you, Armsmaster," she grated. "Not the point I was making, though."
Professor Brooks, who'd nodded agreement as the Tinker spoke, appearing pleased, looked at the screen then back to her. "On the bright side, Director Piggot," he said encouragingly, "There are sufficient differences between this novel species and a true Vespa mandarinia that it's equally plausible that the breeding cycle is entirely at variance from what is understood. She may be sterile, she might only produce one or two eggs at a time, or there may even be something more extraordinary involved. As we have very limited information so far, we can't be certain what the truth is." He smiled a little. "Unusually we might be able to simply ask. Which is certainly not something I'm used to in my field."
Wishing she could get drunk these days, Emily restrained her first response. And her second.
And her third.
After gritting her teeth for some seconds, she finally asked him directly and the room at large, "Where did it come from?" She looked around at more than a couple of dozen faces, almost all of which showed worry. "Is it a Case 53? A Biotinker did it? A Changer with a hideously scary form? Something from a parallel world? At least one of those options is terrifying and I'm not happy about any of them to be honest, although the Case 53 is the least upsetting in a sense."
The professor shrugged, spreading his hands. "I'm afraid those questions are out of my area of expertise, Director, so I have no answers for you. I don't know enough about Parahuman abilities to do more than guess, although I can't see any plausible way she's not the result of such. Even a parallel world would have to follow the physical laws ours does, in all probability, and an insect that large isn't technically possible in that case. Technical impossibilities that nevertheless exist appear to fall more into your organization's remit." He smiled at her, looking like he was finding all this quite entertaining in some bizarre fashion.
Deciding that if she ignored him he might stop smiling, and even if he didn't she wouldn't have to look at him, she cast her gaze around the others present. "Do we have any useful information on that subject?"
"As to its origin we can only currently speculate," Armsmaster commented after no one else seemed to come up with anything. "It being the result of a Biotinker is plausible, but in my view less likely. The exhibited abilities, as Professor Brooks stated, strongly imply Parahuman powers are being utilized. While there have been cases of Biotinkered constructs having unusual abilities themselves, nothing on record has shown results that match what the evidence we so far have suggests. I can't rule it out but I'd put it as the less likely scenario for now."
Emily couldn't help feeling a certain amount of relief even as she didn't entirely agree with his conclusions. She and Biotinkers had an unpleasant history.
"An import from a parallel world seems to be even less likely," he added. "Again, it's not impossible based on our current understanding of the multi-world theory, but we can be certain that the only other world we've got direct evidence for the existence of doesn't contain an insect this large, if only for the reasons the professor laid out." He shook his head. "Physics doesn't allow for it, and as I understand the science, neither does biology, which therefore implies the… super-hornet… is not a naturally occurring creature. Leaving Changer or Case 53 as the more reasonable explanations."
"Maybe it was one of those alien lizards that one guy on PHO is always claiming are behind anything particularly weird," Assault put in, because he was like that. The blasted man couldn't even have the decency to be sufficiently concerned about the current problem long enough to suppress his urge to add what he fondly thought was humor to the proceedings, Emily thought as she scowled at him, making him smirk.
"I find that highly unlikely," Armsmaster replied with a grimace. "The individual in question is… suspect at best."
As the other man opened his mouth, undoubtedly to produce further inanities, Emily said, "Thank you, Assault. We don't need any more of your helpful suggestions." He grinned and shrugged, making her growl under her breath, but at least he'd managed to make the overall air of the meeting become slightly less dark. Which was the only reason she tolerated him at all.
"Fine. We'll put Case 53, followed by Changer, at the top of the list then," she allowed after thinking over what he'd said. No one seemed to object and several people made notes. "Although if any evidence at all turns up for the Biotinker theory I want to hear about it immediately."
She got a number of nods.
"Leaving aside the issue of its genesis," Armsmaster went on having typed on a tablet for a few seconds, "the more recent location of the insect would appear, from Vista's testimony, to likely be somewhere in the area between Geraint street, where she encountered it, and the far side of the docks area of the city. It's a large area, some eighteen square miles, much of it derelict and quite a lot completely uninhabited. There are many buildings in states of repair ranging from damaged to rubble. I would imagine that this gives a huge number of places an insect that big could hide without difficulty."
"And it would be nearly impossible to find it, especially if it's underground," Lieutenant Jeffries, the one who'd made the earlier comments, remarked uneasily. "I know that whole area is honeycombed with tunnels, sewers, old basements, at least four super-villain bases we've never located, and god knows what else. And it was the largest smuggling port on the east coast for nearly two hundred years too, which probably means there's even more hidden under it than we think there is. Leaving aside all the wrecked warehouses and factories. It would take years to search it all even if we wanted to."
He wasn't wrong, she thought with resignation. The docks zone was a part of the city they had little real control over or insight into, for many reasons, some historical and some political, as well as for cost reasons. Their budget didn't stretch to nearly the number of troops she'd need to even begin to be able to patrol that area, and that wasn't taking into account just how much pushback they'd get from the locals.
It would be a nightmare, honestly. Which is why it had never happened.
"Do you in fact need to find her?" Professor Brooks queried, looking interested in the conversation and honestly intrigued by the current subject. "As far as I can see, she's done nothing wrong as such. And I'd have thought saving your Ward would suggest she's at worst non-hostile. At least to the forces of law and order." He smiled as she gave him a look, but quite a lot of the other people present seemed to agree. She wasn't sure if it was because they actually agreed with his comment, or whether they thought it was a good excuse not to risk running into something that terrifying in a dark alley…
Emily considered his words. Her gut reaction was to say that yes, they very definitely needed to locate and investigate the giant killer hornet. It made her twitchy to think something like that was out there, especially when she recalled the earlier conversation, which had made her skin crawl. On the other hand, he had a valid point. Vista, for whatever reason she'd had for going out alone, had very nearly ended up dead as a result of that murderous Nazi bastard, and it was pure luck that something had pulled her ass out of a fight she was losing badly. The creature, whatever it really was and wherever it came from, had intervened, made sure from the sound of it that Hookwolf was removed from the vicinity of Vista, given him unambiguous warning of imminent lethal response, and only then acted to shut the situation down permanently.
Subsequent to which it had taken Vista directly to the best medical care in the city, undoubtedly saving her life.
So.
On the one hand, giant killer hornet with an absolutely horrifying threat level. On the other, proven friendly, or at least neutral, outlook combined with far more restraint than many Parahumans, or people in general, had in such circumstances.
And no one could say with a straight face that Hookwolf hadn't had it coming. Just for what he'd been involved in last night any bystander would have been fully justified in shooting the fucker dead if they could have managed it, and she'd have shaken their hand. Legally and ethically the hornet was in the clear, as far as that went. It was probably even due a reward, as insane as the concept was, since the Nazi bastard had had a kill order on him. Long overdue in her opinion, it was finally authorized after he personally murdered ten PRT troopers and three civilians the last time he escaped, during transportation to the Birdcage just before Christmas. And he'd definitely been trying to kill Vista, which stood the distinct likelihood of kicking off a gang war with the Empire as they'd have had no choice but to go in hard in response, upsetting the delicately balanced power struggle this damned city ran on.
She briefly wondered if she could point the fucking hornet at Kaiser and see what happened…
There was no indication as to why the hornet had helped Vista. It might have been because it didn't like Nazis, it might have wanted to save a life, it might have been purely a territorial thing. Taking her to Brockton General implied the latter possibility was less likely, but who knew how a vast hornet thought?
The main reason she found herself hesitating to tell the Professor he had a valid point was the uneasy worry that perhaps, despite what Armsmaster had said, the insect was the result of a Biotinker. The nightmarish potential of something like that didn't bear thinking about. Neither did the idea that Professor Brooks had raised with his talk about nesting queens…
Shivering despite herself, Emily attempted to reject the images that came into her mind. Not entirely successfully she had to admit.
Eventually she sighed heavily. "While I don't like it, Professor, you're not wrong. I want to do a complete threat assessment on…" She waved her hand at the screen. "That. But for now, we'll tentatively put it down as non-hostile. I want everyone to gather any new information that comes to light and add it to the file so we can get a better idea of exactly what's going on, because it's still deeply concerning, and the public are going to have a lot of questions shortly, but… considering just how hard it would be to even find it if it doesn't want to be found, I suppose we don't honestly have any other recourse at the moment."
She turned to Miss Militia. "I also want to have a long talk with Vista as soon as possible." Her voice was deceptively mild, but the other woman looked somewhat worried under her scarf. "We need to have a discussion about unsanctioned patrols…"
"Panacea said she'd let us know when Vista was fit to leave the hospital," the hero replied.
"Good. See that I'm informed as soon as that happens." Emily looked back at the screen with a frisson of what she'd deny was fear. "Right. Brute, Blaster, Mover, Thinker, and possibly Changer." Turning back to the others, she continued, "Ideas for threat ratings, countermeasures, and anything else anyone can think of. I want to get this done before we get surprised again."
Kid Win tentatively raised his hand, causing her to glance at him. "Yes?"
"Um… I read on PHO that there was a woman who claimed she got mugged by a couple of Empire guys and was saved by a giant talking wasp," he said quietly. "About two or three weeks ago. No one believed her, and she got upset and stopped talking about it." He looked at the photo on the screen. "But…"
She nodded. "Where did this happen?"
"Apparently somewhere close to the main library, I think." He looked uncertain. "Pretty sure it was there."
"So miles away from where Vista's encounter was," Velocity put in. "Which might mean it's been flying around all over the city for weeks."
"But no one has reported seeing it that I'm aware of, and Vista said it was quite audible some distance away," her deputy Mike Renick commented with a frown. "Either it's sneakier than we realized, has only been in that location once, or it might have a Stranger ability too. Which is… not comforting to consider."
"An invisible giant killer hornet is worse than a visible one," Clockblocker agreed, sounding extremely worried. "Like, a lot worse."
Finding she couldn't disagree, because the thought made her wince, Emily held up her hand. "Before we descend into wild speculation, let's try not to assign every possible power to this, please? We all know what's happened in the past when people got carried away."
"I don't," Professor Brooks remarked with an intrigued expression, making her sigh yet again.
It was going to be a long, long meeting, she knew.
And it turned out she was right. Which was cold comfort, really.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Tapping on the door, Amy pushed it open and stepped inside with a nod to the PRT trooper sitting in a chair next to it who glanced at her for a moment then went back to looking around. "How do you feel," she asked, looking at the young blonde girl sitting up in bed and staring out the window. Missy wasn't wearing her costume, hence the PRT guard, but Amy was well aware of her identity in any case. She actually liked Vista, both in and out of costume. The younger girl was smart, generally sensible, easy to talk to, and very professional in her costumed identity. Which made her getting involved in what nearly killed her last night somewhat baffling, Amy thought as she sat in the chair next to the bed.
She'd decided to visit Missy both to check on her, and to have a break from running around fixing people. While she felt it was something she had to do, it was tiring and in many ways horrible, since people were by and large idiots and often rude with it. You'd have thought, she irritably mused, that being polite to the person making sure you lived might be a fairly straightforward concept, but apparently a lot of people hadn't ever worked that out.
Missy at least thanked her when she was patched up after one of the regrettably common injuries Wards in Brockton Bay seemed to end up with. In theory they weren't supposed to be involved in violent encounters, but theory and practice often didn't see eye to eye around here. And Missy was rather more prone to jumping in than perhaps she should have been sometimes.
Although last night was exceptional by anyone's standards, she thought, watching the other girl keep staring out the window with an odd expression before she finally turned her eyes to meet Amy's.
"Fine," Missy replied.
Amy studied her. "Yeah, right," she finally snorted. "Try again."
"You do good work," Missy smiled. The smile was brittle and unconvincing.
"I know I do, but I still don't believe you." Amy shrugged. "Sure, I fixed the physical problems. That's not what I'm worried about."
She and Missy stared at each other for a few seconds.
"Fine!" the blonde girl finally shouted. "I fucked up, OK? I wanted to prove I could handle more than the crap they let us do, and I couldn't! I nearly died! And a fucking huge wasp saved my life!" She laughed a little hysterically. "A huge wasp was better at fighting than I was! Can you believe that? What the fuck is that about?"
Putting her hand on Missy's as the girl wound up for a major rant, something she recognized from her own sister a couple of times, Amy didn't bother to say anything, she just tweaked the blonde's neurotransmitters a tiny amount, reducing stress hormones a little at the same time while monitoring the result. Missy's eyelids fluttered and she abruptly closed her mouth, looking like she was about to fall asleep. Adjusting a few more things, Amy watched the result. Blinking, Missy shook her head, then stared at her.
Amy shrugged. "You were having an anxiety attack," she explained. "Trust me, I've seen it before. No point letting it spiral when I can shut it down."
The other girl burst into tears, causing Amy to sigh. "Oh, Jesus," she grumbled, leaning over and putting her arms around the twelve year old. "I am so not the right person for this sort of thing."
"I nearly died, Amy," Missy sobbed into her shoulder.
"But you didn't," Amy replied quietly. "You're fine, and you're staying here until you can handle what happened. Don't worry about Hookwolf. I guarantee he will never bother you again, or anyone else."
"Good," Missy whispered, still crying. It was uncharacteristic of what Amy knew of the girl, but she'd realized quite a while ago that Vista was suppressing a lot of things. Not surprisingly, because that was pretty much par for the course with Parahumans in general. But when someone could see the innermost workings of the body at a touch, not much got past them.
Amy knew far more about a lot of people than they ever realized, she was all too aware of that.
Missy sniffed a few times, taking the kleenex Amy handed her wordlessly with a murmur of thanks, blew her nose, lay back, and started talking.
Glancing at her watch for a moment, Amy shrugged and listened. Other people could keep for now. She didn't have so many friends that she could leave one at a time like this.
As she listened to Missy unload months of frustration, the back of her mind was wondering where that hornet had come from, where it had gone, and why she had the urge to track it down and ask a lot of questions.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Cool," Taylor grinned as she peered down into clear cold water at a dozen crabs of various species that were looking back up at her. "Come on, guys, let's do some more experimentation. We're going to learn all sorts of interesting tricks, you and me."
She marched them out of the water and into a small bucket she'd filled with water, before picking it up in her forelegs and taking off. Shortly she was investigating how to improve compound eyes and getting some really nice results.
Deciding that she should probably figure out how to set up a marine tank at home, so she could keep some of the more promising specimens closer to hand, she made notes and tried various combinations, mixing and remixing features of arthropods in ways that nature would run screaming from.
Every now and then she had a new idea, sparked by the results she got from various tests. Sometimes these were quite unexpected, causing her to stop and think hard, then smile.
One was sufficiently wild that she spent nearly ten minutes going over the possibilities, before making a list of books she needed to get and read. If she could pull it off…
'Oh, yes. This could be a lot of fun,' she thought as she tried to remember things from one of her computer textbooks. 'I bet it'll work…'
Smiling to herself, she put the notebook and pen down, then moved her current jumping drider body to retrieve a different crab, before getting back to work with a cheerful feeling that life was going well.
As far as she could tell her power was feeling exactly the same, and watching very closely to see what happened next…
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Accidental first. Thanks for the Words MPPi
Cut her some slack. If she actually manages to clone herself that way, the Hornet Army/Airforce might actually become a thing.
Now it's beginning look like Shaper is definitely in play here, and since QA has no clue that Taylor is double connected, or if she is aware, no clue how, it doesn't understand how the changer abilities are being applied. Lets hope QA & Shaper start talking soon, they're gonna come up with some really interesting ideas on how to share hosts, and make powers even weirder than normal.
Taylor is NOT going to become like Dragon where she can't coexist with another instance of herself.
Cut her some slack. If she actually manages to clone herself that way, the Hornet Army/Airforce might actually become a thing.
Now it's beginning look like Shaper is definitely in play here, and since QA has no clue that Taylor is double connected, or if she is aware, no clue how, it doesn't understand how the changer abilities are being applied. Lets hope QA & Shaper start talking soon, they're gonna come up with some really interesting ideas on how to share hosts, and make powers even weirder than normal.
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