"That kid could save the world!"
"Over. My. Dead. Body"

The Last of Worm

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!" I shouted as we ran towards the door out of the school.

"Please stop saying that!" Madison whimpered, her hands over her head as she followed on my heels. Emma was practically being dragged by Shadow Stalker; my ex-best friend was not remotely suited to running. Bully for her. An Endbringer attack was the perfect time to practice one's cardio.

"Skitter! Where is she?" Shadow Stalker demanded.

"Right over us!" I yelled back. "Come on, the front doors are this way!"

"I know where the fucking doors to the school are!"

"How the fuck do you know that? Don't you go to Arcadia?"

"Less talking bitch, more running!"

Another boom rang out as Legend hit the Simurgh with something. It retaliated, tossing another piece of debris towards him. "Down!" I screamed, throwing my arms out to stop the others as her shot went wide and crashed through the roof in front of us.

"Why did she throw you both here? Why didn't we get any warning? Why is this happening?!" Emma sobbed. She clung onto Shadow Stalker's arm like a drowning girl. I almost felt bad for her - at least before the screaming in my head picked up again.

"I didn't get thrown here Red," Stalker snapped. "I lost my damn footing on the fucking piece of rock."

"That we were both on and that the Simurgh threw," I said. "The bitch threw us here. Get over it. I don't know or care why these two shits were here, but it doesn't matter. If the Simurgh wanted us in the school we need to get out."

"No shit." Stalker paused then nodded. "Gym. There's a side entrance in the gym."

"Let's just use one of the windows? Why can't we use one of the windows?" Madison asked, tears streaming down her face.

I shook my head. "Most of the windows are blocked by debris. So are the emergency exits. The gym exit is closer."

Stalker scowled. "She's herding us. Can you contact the other fighters? My armband is dead."

"So's mine. Stay or go? I can track her from here, but…"

"Yeah, I don't like this either. I say we make a run for it. I'm not dying like a trapped rat."

I nodded and took off again towards the gym, Stalker on my heels. Madison and Emma following behind us. Thankfully, we managed to make it to the side entrance without further problems. I held up my hand as we clustered at the exit.

"What the hell are you stopping for, Skitter? We need to get back into the fight. Red and Hairclips can get to the closest shelter on their own from here. We can't babysit them back when the fucking Endbringer is right outside!"

I shook my head. "Shelter will never let them in. But that's not why I'm stopping. She's outside dueling with Eidolon, a piece of Tinkertech is in the air behind her. It's pointed at the door."

"Oh god…" Emma moaned.

"We'll go once someone knocks it out of the way. Eidolon is charging something up. Get ready. On my signal…NOW!"

The four of us lunged, smashing the doors open and surging into the parking lot. As soon as we cleared the threshold, Eidolon's blast smashed into the circular halo at the back of the Simurgh's device. I froze in horror as her face split into a grin, the thing lit up blue and green, and it flipped around, the barrel end pointing directly at me.

She casually dodged another laser from Legend and swatted Alexandria out of the air with a negligent backhand. Then the backhand turned into a small wave directed at us, and her smile widened further. The gun discharged, a circular hole tearing out from the end and surging towards us. Madison moaned, Emma sobbed, Stalker snarled.

I could only stare at the grass overgrowing the buildings on the other side as the portal engulfed us.

"Are you seriously going to just sit there staring into the sky for forever?" Emma asked, sighing. She had gotten some of her haughtiness back. Such fun. "It's been three hours. They're not going to open whatever fucking door sent us here so let's go."

"Go where?" Madison asked. She was sitting next to me, her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. At least she had stopped crying. "Where are we supposed to go Emma? Where?! Everything is dead!"

"Technically everything is alive," Stalker muttered. "Just not the people. Fuck this. Skitter, get your ass up. We need to find a place to bunk down. It's going to be dark soon."

I didn't move. I couldn't move. I could only keep staring at the street in front of us. The empty street in front of us. The empty street where there had been a portal that swallowed the world.

"Skitter, let's fucking go. I'm not happy about working with a villain, but if we're the only four people alive in this city then I'll take what I can get. What do your bugs tell you? Obviously we haven't disturbed anyone yet, but I don't trust that to last. What do you see?"

"Nothing," I whispered.

Stalker grunted. "Perfect. The flying bitch sent us to an empty world. I never actually wished I was a tinker before, but god right now I'd give my fucking arm to have Kid Win trapped here with us."

"They're gone," I whispered.

Emma snorted. I didn't have to look at her to know she was rolling her eyes. "Yes, we've established that. Now can we go?"

"No…I mean…they're gone. The bugs."

Madison glanced at me. "Even the bugs have died? Oh god. Oh god, oh god, what if it's a virus? What if we're already infected?!"

I held out my hand, a bumblebee perched atop it. "I can't feel it…It's all gone!" I said. My voice may have raised a few octaves by the last word, but I really couldn't bring myself to care. I could only stare helplessly at the empty street and the stubbornly independent bee.

Stalker froze as she stared at my hand. Her eyes slowly raised to look at me. "All of them?"

I just nodded. I hadn't been forced to deal completely with my own emotions for months and not being able to offload a portion of the despair and futility into my swarm was close to bringing me to tears.

Stalker shut her eyes, and a moment later they opened so wide I had a brief instant where I thought they would pop out of her skull. She stumbled backwards, raising her hands in front of her face and just staring at them. Then she started cursing and raging. It was actually impressive some of the words that she knew. Dad would've loved it. She could probably teach him a few new ones actually.

Oh god, we were so very, very screwed.

We had managed to get into the local version of Winslow. It was easy with parts of it rotted away into nothing. It had been harder finding the drama room and finding enough cloth that wasn't rotten so that we could form makeshift sleeping pads.

I had just sat down on mine when I groaned and looked to Stalker. She had stretched out on her bed of old clothes as well. We stared at each other and both cursed at the same time.

"What? What's wrong?" Emma asked, looking between us.

"They can't sleep with their masks on," Madison said. She grimaced. "I um…I know that Emma and I aren't exactly part of the cape scene, but I promise I'll be quiet about who you are if you, er, you know…"

Stalker shook her head. "I'm not demasking to a fucking villain."

I scowled. "I think we have bigger concerns over hero and villain right now, Stalker. Besides, it's honestly not you I'm leery of unmasking to."

Madison frowned. "Wait? Me? Why? I mean, yeah I write risque fanfiction but…"

"We can wait until the Protectorate gets us back."

"No, we can't." I sighed. "If they were going to get us back they would have done it by now. No one knows how the Simurgh does what she does. We have to find our own tinker on this side or figure out some other way back. We can't stay masked the entire fucking time. As much as I wish we could, we just can't. We're going to be here for weeks at minimum, but more likely months or years if everywhere is as dead as this place."

"Motherfucking sonofabitch," Stalker spat. She looked up and glared at me. "You're supposed to be unhinged, not fucking reasonable."

"Funny, I remember hearing the same thing about a certain ex-vigilante."

She just glared.

Emma shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. "Um, if we're all going to be stuck together for…weeks, can we at least try to get along? Please? I don't…I don't want to be alone…"

"Man up Emma," Stalker said, her eyes never leaving me. "On three?"

"Whatever makes you feel better, Princess," I responded, rolling my eyes and reaching up to grab the attachments for my helmet.

"One. Two. Three."

Dead silence filled the room as we all just stared at each other.

Then someone started to laugh.

By the time I realized it was me, I had nearly passed out from lack of air.

It was official, even the Simurgh personally hated me.