Walking in, I whistle up the dogs and get them ready to go. It only takes a moment to grab my stuff, another jacket, some medicine for the dogs, and a few other things. I also take the time to buff Judas up. It will be a long ride, probably.
As the pack leaves the warehouse, the smaller dogs in front come to a halt. There's a man standing ten yards down the street. He has black leather clothing, with a skull painted onto his motorcycle helmet. There's black smoke coming off him. Why didn't any of them smell or hear him? I kick Judas's sides, and he bulls through the pack. The man raises his hands, level with his head.
"Whoa, not looking for a fight here. I want to talk with you."
"Fuck off, I'm not interested. Beat it." Is this the fucker who put that letter on the door? Can't let him follow me. That smoke might mean he's a teleporter.
"Listen, Bitch, my name's Grue and-" Fucking bastard, doesn't want to listen, huh?
"I said, fuck off! Judas, attack!" Brutus goes leaping forward up the street, howling deeply enough that I can feel him in my chest, while Brutus and Angelica keep the rest of the pack back. When we're about ten yards away, the skull-faced bastard raises his hands, and oily smoke comes pouring out of his frame. I can't stop Judas in time, and we come barreling into the cloud.
Judas slows to a halt once we're inside. It's damn weird, I can't see my hand, can't smell Judas's scent of blood and sick/sweet meat, and I can barely hear my own breathing. The reflexive breath I take before clamping my mouth shut doesn't make me cough or choke, but there's no reason to see if it works slow. I spur Judas onwards, but before he really starts moving, he flinches to the side, there's a burst of movement coming out of the cloud to my left, and then I'm seeing stars.
I fall of Judas, with a heavy weight landing on top of me, driving my breath out of my lungs. That damned biker blindsided me and knocked me off! I push up, and he rolls off me, and the smoke starts to dispel. I try and climb to my feet, but he kicks me in the stomach with his boot. The breath is driven out of me in a whoomph, and he gets behind me, and puts me in a chokehold with my face maybe six inches above the curb. He doesn't cut off my air, but it wouldn't take much for him to do it. I see Judas turn around and start snarling. I try and throw him off, but he weighs more than me, and that leather would turn the knife on my belt at least enough for him to hit my head against the pavement.
"Bitch, I want you on my team! I'm willing to pay you good money!" That gets my attention. It's a rare week when I have more than a hundred dollars or so. No reason for him to lie when he's holding all the cards.
"You attacked me and my dogs," I snarl. "You hang shit on my door. What makes you think I want to work with you?" It would be easier if he can't give me a good answer. Just have my pack savage him and leave. Won't have to really decide anything.
"My darkness doesn't hurt anything. Your dogs would be fine if they go in. And I put that letter on the door so you would know to expect me. Listen, I'm willing to give you two thousand dollars if you join. You'll get more when we do jobs," Cocksucker, thinks that he has all the answers. And what kind of name is "Grue" anyway? Still, two thousand would let me take care of a lot more dogs. Let me get stuff I can't just take. Can't give in too easy, though.
"Let me up. And take off your mask. I want to see what I'm working with." He hesitates for a minute, but he lets me go, grabbing my knife as he does so. He quickly shifts around to put me in between him and my pack, but then he reaches up, and unhooks his helmet. He's just some black guy, my age about, with some stupid-looking hair.
Looking him in the eyes, he doesn't flinch or look away, just stares right back at me. Well, fair enough, if he's the one in charge.
"So, what's this group called?"
Swarm Mother
(Автор: Gideon020)
Prologue: The Eye Of The Storm
Foolish. They were all fools. They opposed the Swarm, unknowing of the true reason, but they opposed because they resisted extinction, they resisted death.
Commendable, but still foolish. Its gambit was complete, it had won a victory over the one that sought to control it's Swarm. But there was still...possibilities. Chances for the gambit to fail, for the plan to come undone and usher in the end of all things. As they intended. It could see the war to come, the moments where the one it had created from the flesh of another, its Queen Of Blades, would die.
Unacceptable. It cast its sight across space and time, into the vagaries of Hyperspace and observed for any place beyond the touch of those foul things that would corrupt the purity of the Swarm. Time was short. Already it could feel the impact of lasers and plasma, the rain of hypersonic needles and even the impact of a nuclear missile upon its chitin.
It was weakening but it could not delay. Even as it searched, it sacrificed its Swarm by the thousands, calling in millions more. And still they fought to kill it.
Aiur...that was the name of this rock wasn't it? The name they spoke of with tongues of meat or focused psionic communications. Pitiful, how these creatures were united only in the face of a graver threat.
The carrier was coming closer, and the chitin was falling away in great chunks as the large, clunky machines the meat called 'Terrans' named 'Siege Tanks' arrived and added their shelling to the barrage falling on it's skin. The Protoss bombardment only added to the agony it was feeling, but it continued to search.
Again and again its eye swept across more and more dimensions; it was already gathering the sum of all its knowledge, all of its psychic power, everything that made up the swarm both past, present, and future was gathered. The Primals, they would be left to the chosen Successor. The one pure of the Xel'Naga.
If it lived that long. Urgency drove it to search harder, until it found one place that held something strange, something different. A great barrier, encompassing a single reality, a multiverse in nature. A single gap, a metaphorical pinhole, was the point of entry it found.
Yes, this place would do. A 'Terran' homeworld, full of Terrans but there was a difference. Some had strange powers and abilities, linked to strange, parasitic creatures by some manner of quantum tunnel.
But this place held no touch of the Xel'Naga, it was empty of their influence. That was what it was searching for as it gathered all of it's knowledge into a single psionic gestalt package, and then added it's final touch. The same genetic agents it used to transform it's chosen agent were no gathered; a psionic change that would utilise the host to rebuild the Swarm in a purer form, in case it failed.
The vessel was on it's final approach. So much of it's protective shell was ruined and useless; in a single pulse of energy and flexing of muscle the remains fell away in a shower of gore and exposed its core. This was the end.
It was going to die. It knew this, but also knew that it would not fully die. This plan, it was foreseen, a suppression of its will and a torpor that would ensure that it could not be dragged back to serve. A good result, even if they did not truly know why it was good. Much could be done, but this last action would be hidden from all.
Even the memory of sending this last fragment of knowledge would be taken from it, to ensure survival.
The Protoss vessel was now engulfed in energy, a psychic maelstrom that would drive it into oblivion, but it was ready now. All it needed was the psychic push to send it's knowledge forth into that empty place, where it would find a host and birth the Swarm anew.
As the vessel drew closer, it drew upon the psychic storm surrounding it, feeding a powerful charge as it prepared to launch its final gamble. The building energy was perfect to disguise it as well; the Protoss in the vessel was distracted by its preperations, the Terrans had none who could detect it and the swirling energies clouded it's intent even from it's chosen successor.
If it had the appropriate organs, it would have smiled. It merely prepared for the moment of truth; the moment was fast approaching as the Protoss vessel approached but it held off, it had to wait until the very last—
There! A single, massive burst of psychic energy, clouded by the storm of psionic energy, was the perfect moment and it seized it without hesitation. As the information was sent, the memory was scrubbed from its vast mind, ensuring that it would go into oblivion unknowing of what it had done.
At the very moment that the last of its memory was removed, the Protoss Carrier carrying Tassadar slammed into the core of the Overmind of the Zerg. In a great psychic blaze, the ruling mind of the Zerg was destroyed and millions of Zerg were rendered without any leadership.
The Zerg were scattered. But even as the Kropulu Sector prepared for a period of peace and future troubles the fragment of psionic power vanished through the pinhole in the dimensional barrier.
It drifted through space, heading towards the planet it was directed to approach. Alien senses, born of focused psionic energy, swept the planet looking for a suitable host. It passed over families, a drifting group and more, until it found a single candidate.
It was young, aggressive, and active. It looked suitable, seeking prey to hunt and fight. And it recognised the data as being female, which meant that reproductive organs could be re-purposed to provide basic Swarm recreation. It was the best option.
Diving through the atmosphere, the fragment of psionic power and knowledge approached a young woman crouched on a rooftop.
* * *
Chapter 1: First Night Out
She had spent weeks putting the costume together, finding a weapon that could work with her power, and practising with her power, all for this moment. As she crouched on top of a rooftop, face hidden behind a black hockey mask and her hair carefully tied back, Sophia Hess checked her watch and began her hunt for someone to beat up.
She checked her new weapons, a large professional hunting crossbow with specially-made night sights for easier aiming, before looking down at the alleyways from her position. Nothing, she'd have to move on and keep searching for some criminal activity. Concentrating slightly, Sophia felt her body turn into something in her mirror looked like some kind of shadowy gas, so 'turning shadow' was the best description for it.
Meh, fuck it, she was here to kick ass, not sit on her ass. She was about to jump to the next rooftop and continue her first patrol of her vigilante career when there was a flash of light and Sophia felt something strike her head. Tumbling onto her face, thankfully still in her shadow form, Sophia recovered and stood up on the rooftop, "What the hell?"
Looking around revealed nothing out of the ordinary. There was only the night-time sounds of Brockton Bay which really was just more gunfire compared to Brockton Bay in the daytime. Shaking her head to try and dispel the faint throbbing, Sophia turned shadow again and leapt across to the next rooftop, beginning her patrol.
She continued jumping from roof to roof, idly daydreaming about what she'd break up and prove herself a kickass, badass, vigilante that wasn't going to take shit from anyone and not need to wait around, hoping for someone to help her.
Sophia's lips curled back in a feral smile. She was strong now, she was a predator. And so long as she played it smart, then the gangs would be her prey, weak. Sophia giggled to herself, she sounded so cool, like some kind of female Batman or Punisher. Too bad she couldn't figure out how to make her power work with ninja stars.
Too bad she couldn't find ninja stars, those would have been awesome along with her new crossbow. Sophia shook her head as she landed, placing a hand to her head as the throbbing increased before subsiding. Shaking her head slightly, Sophia cast another glance down at the alleyways.
Nothing. Just homeless people sheltering in cardboard boxes and gathered around drum fires. Flitting across the rooftops, studiously trying to ignore the way her head throbbed each time she turned to shadow, Sophia kept searching.
"Come on, some E88, some ABB, Teeth, Marche, hell I'll take on Merchants right now, just give me a crime to stop." Sophia hissed in frustration as she landed and began searching the area. She wasn't going back to bed until she found something because it wasn't fair that her first patrol since getting her powers would be so...empty!
Kicking a piece of loose concrete, rubbing her head with a grimace, the twelve-year-old girl let loose a rather cute moan of frustration before swearing, "Fuck. Some first night this turned out to be. Don't even get to show Brockton Bay that it has a new, badass superhero." She posed, "Shadow Stalker! Here to prey on the weak criminals like the strong, kickass superhero she is!"
She giggled, feeling a little better, before shuddering and patting down her body in shock as she felt a crawling sensation across her body, before it faded just as she undid her...'borrowed' bodysuit and checked to make sure she somehow hadn't gotten infested with bugs. Seeing that there was nothing there, the young girl sighed in relief before picking up her crossbow from where she had dropped it.
"Last thing I want is to be covered in bugs." Shuddering in disgust, Sophia began searching again, intent on finding at least a mugger or even just some pimp getting violent with their 'merchandise'. And still she turned up nothing, but just as the adventurous and aggressive pre-teen was about to give up and call it a night, she heard the one sound she had been waiting to hear.
As the scream echoed into the night, Sophia was already turning to shadow and bounding across the rooftops towards the source. Her crossbow was in her hands and with a tug she pulled an arrow loose and slipped it into place, ready to fire at whatever bastard was tormenting some woman!
She landed on the roof over the alley that Sophia thought she heard the scream come from, ignoring the way her fingertips felt hot, and looked over into an alleyway. Her lips spread in a wide, happy smile as she saw some thug beating on a woman, "Finally."
She took aim at the man's shoulder, thumbed off the safety, shifted into her shadow state, and then pulled the trigger to send the shadowy arrow flying towards the man with soft hiss.
Sophia had practised with her power, but she still mentally counted the seconds as the arrow sped towards the man's shoulder just as he raised his arm to strike the cowering woman. The arrow slipped into his shoulder and then stopped cold as it solidified inside his body, fused into bone and flesh.
