Complementary.

Summary: Taylor spends more time in the locker, gets worse injuries and has an earlier introduction to the cape world.

Pairing: Skitter/Panacea

Standard Disclaimer: Worm belongs to Wildbow.

Check out his works - Worm (google: wildbow worm) and Pact (his new web serial)

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Preparation 1.0.

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I stared at the small swarm of flies as they swarmed in formation around my room. It was strange, I could control each individual insect without a problem... and not only the ones in front of me. I could feel all insects within a radius of about three blocks. They were all extensions of my will.

The amount of multitasking I was now capable, was mind boggling. Even more so than the fact that I was now a cape.

At least the day I spent in that fucking locker was useful for something.

"Taylor?"

I twitched and glanced at the opening door, while at the same time I threw the flies out of their formation and into hidden places. The nurse smiled motherly at me and a girl in a white hooded robe with a red cross on her chest nodded at me absently while glancing around the room. Damn, does she suspect anything? I should have reacted to the intrusion earlier and the nurse should have knocked before entering. I made the flies land out of sight. People don't pay any attention to insects, so even if they saw them, it should be fine. "Yes," I rasped.

"This is Panacea," the nurse said with a mix of reverence and respect, as if she was introducing me to Legend. "She has agreed to look at you."

I looked at the freckled girl and nodded slowly. Panacea was widely acknowledged as one of the greatest healers in the world. A nurse as nice as her would definitely respect someone like the teenage cape. From what I knew, her healing was freely given. "Thank you," I said and tried to smile; instead, I grimaced in pain.

"You can take a break, Jane," the healer nodded at the nurse. I'll see you at the cafeteria after I'm done with miss Hebert."

"Of course," the nurse gave the healer a small nod and withdrew, leaving me alone with the girl.

She approached my bed, looking over my injuries.

"I guess I must look like a mummy," I joked. While in the locker, I've gotten some nasty bites and stings from all the bugs. Going crazy and trying to break the door caused additional problems: broken and fractured bones, and more scrapes. Every injury, of course, got infected. All of this caused me to be bandaged all over. The worst thing: I couldn't even go to the bathroom because I was immobilized in this bed.

Panacea shrugged and looked at my file. "Looks like surface damage only. It should be easy to fix. Do I have your permission to heal you?"

I blinked in surprise. "Of course. Are there people who don't want you to heal them?"

"It can happen," she shrugged. "Only a couple of times, but it did in the past with me and other healers. The PRT have us ask this every time the patient is able to consent. This way, the people I heal can't sue me."

"Well, you have my consent. Do I have to do anything?"

The healer shook her head. "Only to give me your hand."

I did, and Panacea closed her eyes. "Multiple lacerations coupled with some nasty infections. Multiple insect bites. Throat infection. Broken fingers. Multiple fractures to your hands and legs. And a few other things. Hmm, interesting." She paused and stared at me. "There, all done."

I blinked, suddenly realizing that I was feeling much better. My vision was really strange though.

Panacea took a seat on the edge of the bed, leaned towards me and took off my glasses. "Oh, and I fixed your eyes as well."

I blinked at the suddenly clear vision. "Wow." I glanced around the room and then at my hands. "There's so much more detail." I looked at her face and I could clearly see each individual freckle, whereas before I could see them as blots of colors that blurred into each other and the pale skin around them. Impulsively, I launched myself at her and gave her a hug. "Thank you," I said, trying not to cry.

The young healer closed her arms around me and patted me on the back. "You're welcome, Taylor."

I allowed myself to sink into the comfort of the embrace. When was the last time someone hugged me? Not since mom died. After she died, dad was always so distant, but then, so was I. But Emma - that treacherous bitch would hug me all the time. And then she betrayed and tormented me. I drowned in Panacea's comfort for a few more seconds and then withdrew. "Thank you, Panacea."

"That's all right," she said softly. "And you can call me Amy."

"Okay, Amy."

"Can... can I ask you something?"

"Sure," I said.

"What happened?"

"I..." I shuddered at the horror of the memory. Amy put her hands around my right hand and squeezed gently. "At school, there are three girls. One of them was my best friend until two years ago, then she and the other two decided to make my life a living hell. Until now, it was generally always small stuff. Lots and lots of small stuff, until three days ago. They..." I took a shuddering breath to calm myself. "They filled my locker with all sorts of disgusting stuff, like used female hygiene products. The smell was so bad that I threw up inside it. And then, they pushed me inside and locked it. I could hear them laughing. Not only them, but all the other students. None of them raised a finger," I hissed in anger. "None of them came to help. None of them even told anyone. They could have given an anonymous call, but none did." I stopped and grinded my teeth in rage.

Amy squeezed my hand in encouragement.

"I was left there. I spent the night in that locker, screaming and throwing up, with bugs and insects crawling all over me, biting and stinging. I think I blacked out a few times, but the next morning I was still screaming to be let out. The janitor heard me and got me out. I don't remember much, but I came out screaming and biting."

Panacea smiled encouragingly and patted my hand. "At least it's all over, now."

"Ha," I laughed bitterly. "I wish."

The healer blinked in confusion. "Surely after what happened..."

"Nothing changed," I snarled at her and she flinched. "Sorry, I shouldn't take it out on you."

"It's all right," Amy smiled in encouragement.

"Dad talked with a lawyer. The school said that because I didn't actually see who pushed me in the locker and there were, apparently, no witnesses, there was nothing they could do. That it was a simple prank gone wrong. They would pay for the hospital bills only if we dropped this. It was made clear that if we don't let it go, they - the school and the bullies - will ruin us in court. The bullies are popular, rich and can afford to lawyer up. They'd make me the villain and them, the heroes. There's nothing we could do."

"But can't they transfer you to Arcadia at least?" Amy asked in disbelief. "I guarantee you that Arcadia does not tolerate bullying."

"The waiting list is huge for Arcadia. When I got into Winslow, I had the grades for Arcadia, easily, but now, they're not good enough. With all the shit, stress and sabotage that got dumped on me I couldn't get in. And apparently," I sneered in disgust, "transferring me would be seen as preferential treatment."

"But that's not fair."

I shrugged at her words. What can I do? "Don't worry, I'm used to it by now. I'll find a way to deal with it."

"You could just quit school," Amy said tentatively.

"What?"

"If it is as bad as you say, there's no point in staying," she explained. "I think you're smart enough to learn everything you need by yourself. If there's nothing holding you there, you can just leave, forget about it all."

"That's... actually a good idea," I said thoughtfully. "School isn't that hard for me. It's just that my homework, projects and attendance suffered because of Emma and her gang. If I didn't have to worry all the time about the bullying, I'd be able to actually learn something in classes. There's nothing positive that school brings that I can't do better by myself." Besides, I thought with a flash of rage, if I keep going to school, I might end up killing those bitches. While they'd deserve it, I don't want to get sent to the Birdcage for killing them. They're not worth it.

Panacea seemed relieved at my words. "That's good. There's something else I want to talk about," she said biting her lower lip. "I want you to know beforehand that what we talk here, I'll never tell or imply to anyone else, no matter what. I only want to give you the information you need. There are rules about this - unwritten rules, but everybody follows them. If they don't, everybody turns against them."

I nodded worriedly. Does she know? She's one of the greatest healers in the world. If there's something different about capes, that can distinguish us from normal people, she'd definitely know.

Panacea hunched into herself, as if waiting to be attacked, but she still held my hand. "I know you are a parahuman," her words came rushed and her body froze, waiting to see how I reacted. What did she think I would do? Start something in the middle of the hospital? My eyes wondered from her eyes, which looked at me warily, to where our hands were joined together. I was now pretty sure that if I reacted badly the young healer would instantly put me to sleep. I don't know if she would still keep her promise about keeping quiet if I attacked her, but there was no reason for me to try anything. She was the only person who actually helped since my mother died.

"How?" I asked.

She looked away from me. "I can't heal brains," she said, "but I can examine them. You have a developed Corona Pollentia. All potential parahuman have that. You became a parahuman in that locker, right?"

"Yes," I nodded.

"That's called the Trigger Event. Given what it was, it's not surprising that you can control insects, maybe other life forms as well - simple ones. When I entered your room, there were some flies flying around, but they hid immediately when I entered. You can do it on a higher range as well, not limited to visual range."

"How do you know about the range?" I asked. I understood the other parts. Those were not hard to deduce, given the information she had. So, indirect information probably. "Oh. It's January, there aren't that many flies in hospitals and I couldn't have left the bed to collect them until now." Smart girl, I thought.

Amy nodded. "You should be careful. If a thinker sees that insects behave strangely around you, you might be discovered. In theory, heroes, villains and rogues never try to discover the civilian identities of capes. Being known for it will cause everybody to band against the rule breaker."

"But in practice," I realized, "they might not follow the unwritten rules if they thought they could get away with it."

"Yes. In the same way," the healer continued, "cape fights tend to not be fatal. For example: Uber and Leet will always get sent to a prison they can easily escape from, as long as they continue to not cause too much damage and refrain from killing. Powerful villains like Lung and Kaiser will get sent to the Birdcage if they are caught, but even if it is known that they killed, they haven't gone over a certain line, so they don't have a kill order on them. Generally, only the most dangerous villains have kill orders on them: like the Slaughterhouse 9."

"Is that because of the Endbringers?"

"Yes," Amy nodded. "As long as the villains play ball when the Endbringers come and don't step too much over the line, they are tolerated. Due to the fact that villains outnumber heroes, the PRT and the Protectorate have to play ball with the villains as much as the villains have to play ball with the heroes."

"I'll be more careful."

"You know, there's another way out of your situation," Panacea said. "You could join the Wards. You'd get transferred to Arcadia."

I'd thought about that; but, do I want to get into another situation like Winslow? If they were like Amy, it might be fun. If they were like Emma, Sophia or Madison, I don't think I could take it. Home schooling sounded a lot more preferable, I could be free of them. This way, I'd be able to spend most of my time around my home. That made making a lair for my bugs a lot more feasible. "I'd like to be able to follow my own rules," I told Panacea. "I think I'll skip the Wards for now. I don't think I'm ready for more teenage drama. Maybe in the future, that will change, but for now, I just don't want to deal with all that."

I want first to train my abilities, maybe build a suit using spider silk. See if I can use my abilities produce something to sell to the PRT and Protectorate. If there's something this taught me, is that not having enough money is as bad as not having power. Until now, I had not cared too much about it, but now, I saw that not having enough money was a major disadvantage. If we had enough money, we wouldn't have had to settle with the school for my medical bills. Maybe then the police would have kept investigating and done something, discovered something. Maybe just the threat of possible future discovery would have made Emma back down. But like this, the bullies understood that they were never going to be punished.

"Good," said Panacea. "For now, try to stay away from... your bullies. This early after your Trigger Event, your powers may lack control. If you feel threatened you may hurt them by mistake, even kill them. You'd get sent to the Birdcage. It is better for everyone if you just forget about them."

"All right," I said. "They're not worth it."

Amy nodded and gave me a piece of paper with a number on it. "If you need to talk, give me a call."

I nodded at the girl, "Okay."

The healer patted my hand, stood up and sighed. "Well, It's time to get back to work. Stay safe, Taylor."

"I will. Thank you Amy. For everything."

After the healer left, I looked down at my form on the bed. I wondered when someone was going to come and get me out of these things.

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Author's Note: I haven't been writing for some time, but reading Worm and Worm fanfiction made me want to start again. I've really wanted to write something about what would happen if Skitter and Panacea worked together, so here it is my own Worm fanfic: Complementary.

Last edited: October 11 2014;