Chapter Text
Lisa sighed as she got out of the car and heard the sound of barking in the distance. She had only been to Rachel's handmade dog shelter a handful of times, mostly during emergencies, and Rachel preferred it that way. To have her call out of the blue and invite her over was definitely strange.
As she approached the barking got louder and louder, until she finally reached the fence and found about two dozen dogs barking and crowding around the door, sniffing through the spaces between the chain links and hurrying to be either the first to greet her, or scare her away.
"Enough." Rachel called out, her voice hard and clear. The command was obeyed by a majority of the dogs, and the ones who didn't listen were easily herded away by those that did, "You came." Rachel said, looking at her.
Lisa put on her best grin, "Of course I did! It's so rare you invite me over to your private dog park. So, what did you want to talk about?"
Rachel hesitated, which is something that immediately ratcheted up Lisa's tension and curiosity. If there was one thing Bitch was, it was decisive. She reacted quickly, and didn't care much for regrets or overly complicated plans. Which wasn't to say she couldn't be cautious when she needed to, but she never hesitated.
"I need to show you something. Come on."
"It's not something we can talk about at the fence?" Lisa asked hopefully. The last time she had stepped into Rachel's domain unprepared she had needed to buy new shoes. The pair she was wearing now she didn't really care for, but if she didn't have to ruin them she didn't want to.
"No. Now come on."
Lisa frowned, but stepped through the gate, closing the fence back up behind her before any dogs could escape. She kept one eye on the ground as she walked just in case. Actually- ground significantly cleaner. Less dogs? No. Acquired help. Yes, no. No other footprints but Rachel's -she looked towards the dogs themselves- larger number than usual paying attention for commands. At least twice as many able to listen to directions. Dogs significantly cleaner. Healthier. Acquired help. Yes, no. Rachel is the only human working here.
That was a conundrum. Her eyes glided across the shelter, but she could see no other signs of human habitation but Rachel's.
Rachel led her over to the shed, and Lisa found her answer as Rachel swung the doors open, revealing a small horde of tiny furry things. Lisa's first thought was mice, but they were too small, and rather than milling and churning, they seemed to be standing at attention, all eyes directed at Rachel.
"Flea-people, this is Tattletale. Don't worry about her," Rachel said casually to the swarm, before looking back Lisa's way, "...I need your advice for something," Rachel said, squatting down and holding out an arm. Lisa resisted the urge to take a step back as part of the swarm advanced up Rachel's arm, and as Rachel stood back up, Lisa could see them in much greater detail.
"Did you make these?" Lisa asked, trying to hide her outright shock, "Can you enhance the dogs' parasites now along with them?" But even as she asked, she knew she was off the mark and that was even more troubling.
"No, someone else changed them. But they've been helping me out. We have an understanding."
She was telling the truth, which was a relief, especially since she could already tell how potentially dangerous every one of these things were. At least human-level intelligence, greater-than-proportionate strength, unknown numbers- definitely more than just the ones present.
"Miss Rachel has been very kind in letting us stay here." announced one from her shoulder that she hadn't noticed before. She jolted in place, but didn't swat at it.
Able to move silently, jump great distances, good at reading people- noticed her urge to slap,but didn't do anything to stop it. Confidence it could jump away in time?
"That's nice," she said to it, "Now, Rachel, what, exactly, did you want my advice on?" Lisa asked.
"There are a lot more of these guys living in the sewer," Rachel said, "And the one who made them is going to come close to here in two days... I want to know whether I should try to meet her."
"...Well, that's an interesting question. Why is she coming here? To meet with you?"
"I don't know. The bug who told us about her said she was following a trail," Rachel shrugged.
"Well if you don't know what she gets out of it, then what do you want to get out of it?" Lisa asked.
Rachel shrugged again, looking annoyed, "I don't want her to take them back. They've been helping out. Yesterday-"
"-you went on another raid. Without telling us," Lisa finished, "Grue won't like that."
"It wasn't just a raid," Rachel said, and there was something almost wistful in her voice, "I brought ten dogs. We tore that fucking place apart."
"Ten?" Lisa asked, "How many people died?"
"Nobody. All the dogs were under control," she gestured to the fleas again.
"We're riding them like Miss Rachel does," the one on her shoulder provided, "Although it takes four of us per dog, when she can do everything by herself."
And suddenly, they became so, so much more dangerous. Part of her was excited at the thought. Rachel was the keystone of the team in many ways. Their muscle, their transport. With up to ten dogs, or even more, with each of them able to be controlled as accurately as Rachel can on their own? The Undersiders capabilities will have outright multiplied as a team. Rachel was their answer to Lung, Hookwolf, and the Protectorate, whenever stealth or trickery failed. And now they had a much stronger answer.
But on the other hand, part of her thought that they should get rid of them. A Parahuman in the sewers, granting human-level intelligence to insects and using them as minions? That's a very scary set of implications. Spy networks, secret assassins. If four can work together to successfully guide one of Rachel's dogs, then obviously they're able to work together to do almost anything.
She had a feeling that the smart thing to do would be to not get involved.
"We're a pack, now," Rachel said, "With them, I can do so much more than I can by myself."
But then, Rachel already was involved.
"Does she already know where you live?" Lisa asked, "Never mind, you said she sent a messenger? She definitely does. What did the messenger tell you?"
Rachel frowned, thinking, "The bug said that she would come by in two days."
"Why?"
"She's following the Silver Trail." the flea on her shoulder provided, "Following the path the light that transformed us took."
"Can you tell me more about that?" Lisa asked.
"Can't really remember, to be honest. I was just a bug, then. I couldn't think like I can now. I was biting a dog, the light came by, and after a while, I went into a cocoon. When we came out, we were inside Miss Rachel's shed."
"I only have the ones that were attached to three dogs I found by the sewer," Rachel added, "There's probably a lot more down there."
"She's apparently building a group of bugs," the flea on her shoulder continued, "and she sends messengers ahead to prepare for her arrival. Some of those messengers followed the smell of dog food here, to feed their rats."
"Can she control you?" Lisa asked, "Against your wills?"
"We don't know," the flea said, "Probably not? The messenger said she's taking anyone who 'wants to' with her."
"Then do you want to go with her?"
The flea's expressions were hard to read, if there were any there at all, but its almost disturbingly human voice was plenty expressive, when it spoke, it sounded torn, "We're of two minds, honestly."
Rachel looks surprised at that, "What do you mean? Why do you want to leave? How many of you are going to?" she took a few steps closer to Lisa, narrowing her eyes down at the bug, before looking over the swarm.
"None of us want to leave Miss Rachel," the flea assured, "You've been generous, and this place has everything we need and more. But... we're curious. Meeting our cousins this morning came as a shock. We didn't know there were others. But apparently, there's a whole caravan in the tunnels under our feet. Not too long ago, we weren't people. Now, we are. We want to know why. And how."
The two human women shared a look as they processed that.
"...Okay. So you want to meet with her?" Rachel said, "Fine. We can do that. And we'll make her tell us everything."
"Now, hold on a minute," Lisa said, "We're still talking about an unknown Parahuman with a very scary power here. We have two days before she gets here, right?" Lisa smiled, "And we know where she's going to be. Why not do a little more digging before she gets here?"
"You mean go to the sewer?" the flea asked.
"Exactly. We can talk to other bugs who haven't met the Parahuman before, and see what they know. More than that, if we know where we'll be meeting her, we can make other kinds of preparations."
Like whether to bring in the rest of the team on this.
And what she should tell Coil.