Hatching 1.6

That night Dennis had a nightmare of a dream where they all lived in a totalitarian society and all had to follow the wise guidance of The Great Leader – Comrade Skitter! Its climax was a Skitter declaring that Brockton Bay is now a separate state, that will be called SkitterLand-all the while standing on raised platform, with a flag depicting a black spider in a circle and white background behind her. Chris, the civilian identity of Kid Win, then said "I, personally welcome our new overlord Skitter!" and rose, along with the other civilian identities of Brockton Bay wards, as they all rose and yelled "Zig Hail!" to Skitter, raising their right hands...

Taylor didn't come to school the next day. That made Dennis hear all sorts of alarm bells in his head.

Asking around got him nothing, besides confirming that Taylor had no friends among the fellow students.

So he tried to ask the one girl who showed familiarity with Taylor in a friendly way-whose name he discovered to be Charlotte-the would be leader of the milder Skitter fan club, and boy is that weird-villain fan club-though judging by what I witnessed, she probably really is working for Skitter, real henchwoman, and she got other kids following her. Is it another plan of Skitter-gather impressionable kids and make them henchmen? Does she know I'm a Ward? Did Skitter tell her about me?

Gathering his wits, he approached and asked: "Hi, you're Charlotte, right?"

"Trouble in paradise?" Gary asked him later.

"No, just feeling a bit uneasy."

A bit- understatement of the year, while she didn't seem to know the specifics, Charlotte seemed to be worried about Taylor. Is Skitter too busy doing the next step in her villainous plan? There was escalation in violence due to the Teeth recently…Did it reach the Undersiders? For all the noise around them, they did make patrols outside of their suspected lair locations much easier.

And what's with the other girl-another recruit, or intergang diplomacy? For another girl, that one wearing what might have been Empire 88 colors seemed to stalk Charlotte, and said something to her as soon as he was too far away to overhear them, leaving with an anxious expression, one that was mirrored on Charlotte herself.

"Ah, your girl is missing. Don't worry my friend, I'm sure she is fine and well, I mean, she's one of those that stayed after the Leviathan attack and everything. Don't worry."

"Thanks Garry."

"Now let's forget about this, I heard Chris was called away –something about his parents…so if you got any shared lessons, take the homework for him."

The patrol that day was somewhat more busy than the usual for Clockblocker, as some idiots from outside town happened to get the bright idea of mugging in the territory that used to belong to the ABB, others tried to refill the opening left by the destruction of the Merchants, and all seemed to have yet to meet the local greeting wagon in the form of the 'Local Friendly Overlords' namely the Undersiders. And where could they be? They are usually fast to deal with this nuisance.

Though he did later learn Miss Militia had a violent encounter with the Teeth-her refusal to tell him about that and the problems that came later kept them out of mind, like some interesting news.

The most interesting part was learning that a super villain named Accord and his gang- his Ambassadors were in town for quite some time- and again, the Wards didn't get the memo.

With Defiant having left to resume the hunt for the Slaughterhouse 9, he asked Sare about them-and was told that they were a less violent, but still a dangerous group, that used to rule the criminal underworld in another city before losing their sovereignty, city and most of their members to an opposing gang and fleeing.

It was already late evening, and he was home, when Dennis heard his phone ring.

"Yes?" he hesitantly answered.

"Where are you?" an unknown female voice asked, full of panic.

"Who is this?"

"I'm calling on behalf of our mutual acquaintance, a certain insect enthusiast. She is in trouble and we need your help as well, you-no,don't- no not you, listen Dennis, I've sent for you, be ready to receive our contact and leave with them as soon as they arrive-it is of the utmost importance- and potentially an S class threat-so you better cooperate with us- "

"Just who is this?" Dennis finally interrupted his caller.

"I was under the impression that the contact in the Wards was sharper than this, we can proceed with the introductions once you get here… Oh and open the door now, bye."

Indeed there was a Buzz, though when he yelled to his mom that he will get it, and opened the door, there was no one there.

/

Upon returning to his room he found the Undersider villainess Imp gathering some of his stuff into a bag and was momentarily stunned.

"What you didn't prepare did you, and you Wards are supposed to be smart and capable? We need to hurry, now!"

"What happened? How-What do you mean Wards?"

"You were Skitter's contact to the Wards-and she is in trouble now- if you have any desire to negotiate with the Undersiders, if you have any decency and mercy, and if you really want to help you will cooperate we-"

"What happened?" He raised his voice just slightly, hoping to avoid attracting his mom with their voices.

"Skitter is unconscious, Butcher is dead-and we need your help-to deal with it in case we are about to get Butcher 15Th on our hands-with Skitter's power and scary mind!"

Dennis started moving as soon as he got over the very scary image it conjured, this is S class threat-it may even be worse than the Echidna crisis.

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