Chapter Text
1.01
Earth 6199 - October 7th, 2016
I stood in front of the cafe where I was meeting my contact; cold city air filling my lungs. Without any effort, I saw through the eyes of the insects under my control, he was inside. I smiled to myself, and affixed my mask to my face. This location was one of my favorites, a small cafe supposedly owned by a mercenary of some kind. It would've been considered a neutral ground back in my old home--my old dimension. The mercenary who owned this place had powers, and worked on their own. So back home they would’ve been classified as a rogue; just like me now I suppose. The cafe was situated at the corner of the street, one way windows pointed out towards it, arranged in a way where from the outside, they almost looked like eyes. A small sign dangled atop it, a dull red thanks to the light fog. ‘Wade’s Wares’ it said.
The bells atop the door jingled as I walked inside. The worker at the counter, Bob, stared for a moment and then nodded at me with a singular stiff movement. I gave him one in return even if he was inching towards the kitchen in the back. I walked towards my contact, not even bothering to look at the other patrons. I had already cataloged them thanks to my bugs. The inside of the Cafe was mostly black and red, styled like a 50s diner. It was impeccably clean and the smell of fries and hot dogs wafted through the air. My contact was sitting in the back, lounged across a booth. He wore a large brown trench coat covering purple armor. Floppy brown hair sat atop his head and he had a smirk on his face. He stopped shuffling his cards and met my eyes when I sat down. Meeting a contact was a hell of a way to spend a Friday night. I wonder if Lisa would be proud or disappointed in me? Dragon would probably be disappointed in me.
“Skitter, mon ami, I’m glad you could join me,” He said, his accent a balm to my anti-social soul. It’d been far too long since I’d talked to someone competent outside of my family, and it had been even longer since I put on any kind of cape outfit.
“It’s good to see you too, Remy,” I said with a nod. His smile widened. In front of me was the rogue --both in the classification and in job-- known as Remy Lebeau, aka Gambit. Although I preferred to say Remy, his identity was an open secret, unlike mine in this dimension.
“Before we get down to business,” Remy said, “I have a little gift for you,”
“Oh?”
Remy reached into his coat, and pulled out a beautiful hardcover book. He slid it across the table, and I caught it with my finger. The book was a memoir of one of the Howling Commandos. Soldiers from world war 2 that served with Superheroes Captain America, and Wolverine, or as he was known in this book, Logan; a mutual friend of Gambit and I. I thumbed open the book to see that Wolverine had signed it. “To Taylor,” It said, “Good luck kid,” I couldn’t help it, I laughed. Gambit’s smile got wider.
“You would not believe the stink eye he gave me when I asked him to sign it,” Gambit said. I could imagine Wolverine staring at Gambit, signing the book without breaking eye contact. Normally memoirs weren’t my thing, but this would be taking a permanent spot on my shelf.
“Back to business, I got a tip for something that sounds up your alley,” Gambit said, “A small trinket from Oscorp,” Remy grabbed a card from his deck and slid it across the table. With more force than I intended, I slammed my finger on it. I picked up the card. Instead of any card suit or face displayed on it, was a photo of a sleek red and gold pistol. It reeked of tinker bullshit.
I straightened my back. “What does it do?”
“Repulsor pistol, stolen from Tony Stark, modified by Normal Osborn. It can be more than twice as strong as the repulsors Iron man uses.” Gambit said, his smile growing wider. I stilled. I doubted Gambit would go for something like this, even if he was the type to steal and use hero tech. No, this wasn’t for him; but Gambit was responsible, He wouldn’t go and grant this to someone who would use it to kill iron-man. At least without trying to double cross them. The last time Gambit double crossed someone, I wasn’t in the know. I couldn’t get the smell of swamp water out of my suit for a week.
“Who’s the client?”
“This ain’t a double cross, if that's what you’re askin’” Gambit said. He leaned back and began to shuffle his cards. “This is for… a friend of the guild,”
I perked up. While I was technically a member of the thieves guild, I hadn’t ever been assigned to help steal something for a contact. I figured Remy was more just humoring me, but if he wanted me along for this, it might mean that he actually trusts me. That’s good. I’m a professional and now he knows it. But, there's a nagging feeling in my head and maybe it’s just a bad habit I picked up from Lisa, but I wanted to know more.
“Who exactly is this friend?” I asked. Gambit’s wide smile became sharper and a faint hint of pride was on his face.
“An information broker,” He said, “She’s supplied us with a lot of very, very accurate information. And is willing to not only pay for this, but to continue to supply us some exclusive information.” He said with a shrug. It was a fake movement, probably trying to downplay something. Perhaps she couldn’t pay a lot? If that was the case then this couldn’t just be a simple insider.
“A mutant? A thinker of some kind?” I asked,
“Now you’re getting it mon ami bug!” He said, raising his arms up like he was showing off a big fish on a dating app.
“What’s the conventional prize?”
“Your share will be about $15,000” Gambit said and I nodded.
“I’m in,” I said. An anticipatory smile beneath my mask. I couldn't wait to get on the field again. “Shall we get to work?”
“Now hold up a moment," He replied, holding out his arms to placate me, “Gambit can tell there’s somethin’ on your mind.” I resisted the urge to scowl. It was hard to remember I was in the body of a sixteen year old kid. Of course he’d be worried. But he should know better. He has some idea of what I’d been through, after all.
“I’m fine, there’s-”
“Don’t give me that,” Gambit said, cutting me off. “I’m not askin’ you to recap your last few months. You just look like there' s something that's been hauntin’ you,” He said. I paused, my bugs stilled. If I wasn’t me, I'm sure my eyebrows would’ve scrunched up.
“What do you mean?” I asked, but he just raised an eyebrow. I sighed. He wasn’t going to let this go, so I might as well acquiesce. “I just- I miss…” I trailed off. Unsure what to say. I knew I could trust Gambit, even if it was clear he was taking some kind of weird combined role of a mentor and parole officer. I suppose it was better than getting stuck with Logan, or Piotr. On the other hand, I’ve known him for three of the four years I’ve been conscious on this earth. He’s trustworthy and understands my situation. Should I be honest? Tell him that I’ve been thinking about a friendship that in hindsight was a clearly codependent lesbian situationship?
“I’m thinking about my uncle, from this life,” I ended up saying. He gave me a sympathetic nod. “I remember when he passed,” Gambit said. “I’m sorry you weren’t there,”
“It’s fine,” I said a little too quickly, which caused my bugs to dip, “Sorry. I’ve been trying not to deflect like that. Doctor’s orders,”
Gambit nodded again. He placed his hand on mine for a split second, before he abruptly stood up.
“We should head to Oscorp,” he said.
~~~
Oscorp towered above the buildings surrounding it; the only skyscraper in the surrounding block reaching towards the sky like the tower of babble. Billboards displaying ads lit up with flashing lights evoked images of a cyberpunk dystopia. Whenever I looked at it, I half expected the rain to start and lightning to crackle in the distance.
I was currently equipped in my standard Skitter gear, based off of what I had worn when I first started out as a villain. It was built for stealth, perfect for Guild or X-force missions. Because of that, It wasn’t equipped with my usual chitin armor plates. Almost the entire outfit was black. While not better than dark blue for stealth, the intimidation factor was worth it. The only non black part of the outfit were the dark yellow lenses for my eyes. Being a bug controller, it was important to keep the theme up, so for that purpose my mask had stylized mandibles on it which also functioned to keep my face even more protected. As with all my outfits, my long black curly hair was exposed. Even after all these years, I still loved my hair. The Outfit itself was made of Darwin’s bark spider silk. Strongest silk in the world. Strong enough to block bullets. Even my mask was made of the stuff. It was lightweight as well, which made movement easy. I crouched down, focused on seeing through my bugs.
“The back entrance has one guard,” I noted, Gambit nodded in response. “From there… Well, there are secret staircases in the walls. No cameras. We can use those to get to the 12th floor.”“How many doors do we need to go down from our exit?” Gambit asked.
“Seven,” I responded, “Guards are patrolling, they’re paramilitary goons. Standard semi-auto rifles and tasers. 10 guards on the floor total.”
“Any scientists in the room?”
“One. “ I confirmed. “Target is locked in a safe,”
“Let’s go then,” Gambit said. He slipped through the alley and I followed. Using my bugs, I covered one of the cameras. It didn’t cover the whole thing, but enough where we wouldn’t be seen. The guard out front was doing rounds.
He didn’t notice us, and that let us slip through the back entrance with no fanfare. I removed my bug from the back camera.
It was after hours, meaning the lobby lights were turned off. Good for us thieves. We moved to the removable panels. Normally, they would open when the proper ID card was placed against the walls. However I had bugs on the other side, who could press the exit buttons on the other side. The two of us entered the staircase and closed the door. If we were smart, no one would know we were here.
Nothing kills adrenaline more than twelve flights of stairs. By the time we got to the twelve floor, both of us were tired of walking. I used the opportunity to cut the power. The lights flickered and through the bugs I could tell the guards went on alert. I had my bugs chew through a wire that kept the data from the security cameras. No more power meant no one could record, and the bugs would be a good cover just in case the power turned back on.
“This is where the fun begins,” I mumbled mostly to myself, but Gambit still chuckled. I elbowed the false panel and it flew right off. I raised an arm. While I control the insects with my mind, I couldn’t deny that while working with x-men, being dramatic was fun. The wasps gathered around me and flew towards the nearby guards. They’d hover nearby, and take them out if needed. Gambit and I ran down the hallway. I used this time to turn on my voice modulator, good for intimidation if it came down to it.
I had my wasps take down a patrol of guards who were about to turn into our hallway.
“Four guards down,” I said aloud and Gambit nodded. We came to a stop in front of the lab and tried the door.
Locked.
“Time for Gambit to play his cards,” Gambit reached out to the handle and touched it. Purple energy surged into the metal and quickly overtook it. Within seconds, the lock was blown clean off. I kicked the door in.
“Please don’t hurt me!” The scientist inside said after a moment of looking surprised. He was wearing a simple labcoat and had a terrible bowlcut. That observation caused me to still for a brief moment. I would’ve liked to hear what Lisa had to say about it.
“Relax mon ami,” Gambit said to the scientist, raising his hands in the air. “We’re just here to pick up a little something,” Gambit smirked and walked towards the safe.
“Nonono I can’t let you have that, Mr Osborn would-”
I drew my knife, which caused the man to stop talking. I didn’t want to harm him, but if push came to shove, I would use it.
One of the benefits to my power was that I had an almost unsurpassed ability to multitask. Which is why I didn’t flinch at all when one of my bugs noticed someone sneaking through a nearby window.
“You see!” Gambit said with faux approval, “It’s so much easier when you’re quiet. And you'll want to keep quiet, my friend here-” He said and gestured towards me with the dramatic flair of a theater kid. “Is rather hard to control,”
I ignored the pointed jab and held the knife steady. My bugs caught more movement and through them, I heard the thud of someone landing on the ground. I turned around and saw the new intruder.
A red and blue suit, black webbing intricately sewn into it. Big bug-like eyes stared back at me. He was standing still, flatfooted. He didn’t expect me to notice him.
“Well, it’s a good thing pest control has arrived,” Spider-Man said, confidence leaking through his tone.
My bugs stopped and everything froze. Last time I froze this bad, Lisa made lighthearted fun of me for weeks. But Lisa wasn’t here and circumstances were different. I was panicking. Because despite what everyone said about me, I wasn’t a sociopath, nor did I revel in violence. And I really didn’t want to hurt my adopted brother.