Word Play 13 (Patreon)

Word Play

Chapter 13

-VB-

In a completely different place from where I’d created my children, I found myself wondering what I was to do.

I felt … listless. 

A part of it definitely had to do with the loss I was feeling. Just how many of my kids died? How many survived in the … amalgamation I made to salvage them? 

A different part of it was the thanks I felt. Because they did it. Whatever had been happening to me before was ultimately stopped. I was … I was insane. There was no other way to put it. Calling me insane would be apt. I could apply everything I did up to waking up in the lake of my children’s blood, and nothing I did would pass the reality testing. Reality testing was a psychotherapeutic test to see if, well, the patient working with the therapist was of sound mind. Not logical or emotional mind but sound mind, aka if they were sane. 

And I wasn’t.

Delusions, complete dismissal of my action’s consequences, creating and unleashing literal eldritch monsters, and having not a single iota of thought other than … 

The list goes on but those were the biggest problems.

And honestly, I saw what I did and cringed. 

The Box Spiders alone would have been enough to see the entire city destroyed as containment procedure if people really knew what they could do.

In fact, I didn’t know everything they could do.

But I knew one thing. Okay, more than one. I knew two things.

One, the Box Spiders would see me as their creator and not attack me. It wasn’t “obey,” “follow,” “love,” or “appreciate” me. It was not attack me. That was the extent that the Box Spiders would show me. 

Two, they could reproduce asexually.

…

…

Fuck.

My power chose that moment to ping me, and a new word settled into my power. Shadow.

I mentally stared at that word… and knew what to do.

I quickly got to work.

Before anything else, I needed to solve my problems first, and that meant containing the Box Spiders before they expanded beyond my own abilities. 

Even if that meant I had to eradicate them.

-VB-

“If it’s not one thing, then it’s another!” Assault screamed as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him.

Because nobody wanted to be stuck in underground storm drains fighting giant spiders! 

“SCREEEEEEE!!!!!” 

The screech made him churn his legs faster, and he panted almost to the point of hyperventilation as he carried Battery out of this nightmare situation. 

Battery, for her part, lit up with her blue electricity, and fired off a bolt of lightning from a tinkertech gun that Armsmaster had Kid Win make for her in light of the new horrors that seemed to be crawling out of the shadows.

 Assault took this as a chance to look back just once, and felt his heart stuttering when he saw a the bolt of lightning miss and instead of travel down the length of the storm drain. As the lightning bolt zapped away, it lit up the tunnel as it passed by. 

And … And …

The entire tunnel from top to bottom and left to right was covered by spiders carrying around boxes like they were hermit crabs. A few had skulls instead of boxes. 

“RUN!” Battery shrieked.

“I AM RUNNING!” 

Yeah, there was no way that the missing maintenance workers were alive. 

And then he saw the light of the maintenance ladder they came down on. 

“Battery, climb!” he hissed as he jumped, spun, and flung her. Battery, despite the terror she must be feeling, flipped in the air in the narrow tunnel, and then landed on the ground on her two feet. And took off running. Her costume lit up with electricity and she ran a bit faster than he did. She reached the ladder first and then shot up.

“Hurry!” he heard her shout. 

“I AM!” 

And then he reached the ladder.

‘Fuck the drain!’ he thought as he redirected all of the kinetic power he had so far into his legs and jumped. He took off, clearing the maintenance shaft in a split second. “Close it!” 

Battery threw the manhole cover on top of the storm drain opening, and clamped down on it. He landed right next to her, redirecting all of the kinetic force into his reservoir, and then got down on top of her.

There was a crash as those spiders crashed into the heavy manhole cover. Their bodies shook and then trembled as the spiders tried to push through… but then it quieted down.

Assault rolled off of her and then let out an explosive sigh of relief and groan.

He’d never run as fast as he did in those tunnels, and he wasn’t going back in there. 

“Fucking spiders…” Battery groaned.

He just grunted in agreement as he reached up to his earpiece. “Console. This… This is … Assault,” he called in breathlessly, his chest heaving up and down with each breath. “The storm drain was … infested with … giant spiders. I repeat. Giant spiders … in storm drain.” He let his hand and arm drop after that. 

“... Can you repeat that, Assault?” Clockblocker’s terrified voice came through. 

Quickly, it was followed by the supervising PRT agent there at the console with the Ward. “Assault, this is Lieutenant Samhiel. Can you repeat that, over?”

With a grunt, he raised his hands back up. “Giant spiders … in the goddamn storm drains…!” he hissed before dropping his arm again. 

“Battery, can you confirm, over?”

Assault heard Battery grumbling. “... Confirm. Last seen numbers … over three hundred.”

“Jesus H Christ. Clockblocker, please man the console by yourself. I’ll focus on delivering the news to the director.”

A minute passed by, and Assault eventually pushed his trembling legs up and helped Battery up as well. 

“This is going to suck,” he muttered as he carried her away. 

Murderous stone statues and now giant spiders? Brockton Bay may as well be condemned.