Meanwhile, in Another Dimension (Worm AU)

The MOON?!
Meanwhile, in Another Dimension

———•••———

"I don't pay you to think!"

"You don't really pay me at all, these days," Taylor calmly replied. Calmly was the best way to respond to anything Baroness von Boom said or did. Elseways lay explosions.

"Exactly! So if I'm not paying you to think, don't! This job will net us enough cash I can pull my next caper AND finally pay you all that back salary."

"You're not paying me to NOT think, either, and this plan has bad idea written all over it. I'm not walking straight into ABB territory and knocking over a casino. That's a terrible idea. Now, if you were paying me to not think, that would be different. I'd say yes Baroness, right away, we'll build that moon base, fire up a hypno ray, and aim it at the Kremlin so they start a war with China, brilliant idea, no flaws at all, and then I'd do it. But you're not, so I'm going to think rather carefully."

The Baroness stared at her for a full minute.

"What? Oh no, I know that look."

"On second thought, maybe I should pay you to think, because that idea was brilliant! I'll just need a solid gold drill..." Baroness von Boom wandered off muttering.

"No, that was a joke, I meant... Whatever. Yes, Baroness, right away, just so long as I get paid this time."

———•••———

Taylor walked into Brockton Bay Central Bank and got in line while she began building a picture of the bank in her head. This was just going to be a quick look around so she could make a more serious effort next week. It was, anyways, until she spotted four people creeping down a corridor with three dogs.

She made a quick decision and ducked into a bathroom, pulling on her silk gloves, mask, and brass goggles, and pulling off her clothes to reveal Recon's bodysuit.

She swiftly directed her bugs to chew through a few critical wires, and strolled out at the same time that the Undersiders burst onto the scene. She leaned against a wall while they gave a speech to their new hostages, and slowly clapped when the blonde finished.

"Very intimidating, I got chills. I'd work on it a bit, though, because the woman at counter three pressed her little red button on about word five. No need to panic, though, the signal didn't go anywhere."

"Recon. The more visible of Baroness von Blimp's lackeys. I take it we have you and Gremlin to thank for the lack of alarms, then? Not Gremlin. Just you? Gremlin doesn't exist, you've just been using your powers to fake being two weaker capes. Oh shit, if Recon and Gremlin are weaker..." The blonde, Tattletale, her goggles were informing her, shook her head as if to clear it. "Why are you here? Wait, you think we're the poachers? Dibs only counts if we can hear you call it. We'll cut you in on the final number if you help us get out of here. There's five of us, including you, and our backer will quintuple our take. So we each get whatever we walk out of here with. Deal? Good, glad we could make a deal. I'm going to go start opening safes."
Still leaning against the wall in a relaxed pose, Taylor shook her head as she listened to Tattletale and Grue as they went upstairs.

"We already had an exit plan. Why are we paying her to lean against the wall and do nothing?"

"Because nothing is a very good thing to pay someone that powerful to do. This way she won't draw attention to us when we all make our escape, and she already helped by disabling the silent alarm, even if we did want the attention, for whatever distraction the boss needs."

Taylor sighed, and spoke through the bugs in a vent they were passing. "You know, the Baroness gets kind of mad when you call her von Blimp. And if you wanted to create a distraction, you should have just said so."

Taylor awoke the swarm she'd densely packed into the sewer, and a cloud of bugs boiled out onto the streets, causing chaos for the drivers and pedestrians outside.

 

An ICE CREAM TRUCK?!
Meanwhile, in Another Dimension

———•••———

Dennis stared incredulously at the wall of bugs making ransom demands.

"Everyone in the bank will be unharmed so long as every hero in the city comes here, correctly performs all steps in three line dances of my choice, synchronized, and allows us to leave unfettered. Additionally, we would like a fully stocked ice cream truck, no, make that TWO fully stocked ice cream trucks, one Mr Frosty and one Good Humor, to use as getaway vehicles, and we'd either like a barge to drive both of them onto so that we can go to Boston or we'd like them to be modified by Squealer so that they can fly. And we want the mayor to go on the air some time in the next three hours to make a public apology for his outfit at his last press conference. That tie just did not go with his jacket and it offends my sensibilities. Nobody will be anything so crass as injured if that last demand is unmet, but if I can't trust Brockton Bay to have a mayor who apologizes for his poor fashion, then I can't trust Brockton Bay to have clothing privileges and my moths will be going to work, let me tell you. It may just be chaos in the streets! But in any case, now that I really have your attention, at least until all the heroes arrive ready to perform The Electric Slide, The Macarena, and The Time Warp, I'd like to tell you about a severely under-appreciated topic, and why everyone is wrong. I'm going to begin my lecture with the humble Oxford Comma."

Dennis looked at Missy. "This is bullshit."

The space-warping heroine nodded seriously. "I know! The Macarena? I'd almost prefer Cotton Eye Joe!"

"No, you don't understand, I... I can't dance."

"What do you mean you can't dance? It's a line dance. Nobody in a line dance can dance. That's why they're line dancing. Just do the same thing the person in front of you is doing. Stand next to Browbeat; his team came in first in the New England Competitive Line Dancing Championship for the last three years."

"But the creepy bug wall said we're gonna have to be synchronized! I'll be two seconds behind everyone else if I just copy the person in front of me!"

"Oh, hm. That is a problem. Tell you what, we've got time until everybody else gets here, so why don't I teach you the moves."

"Belay that," came Armsmaster's voice over everyone's headset. "I am presently inbound with enough dance-tech synchro-visors for all Protectorate, Wards, and New Wave members known to be active in Brockton Bay, with three spares. I am well prepared for a situation such as this, and your visor will feed you the correct dance step with the correct lead time to keep everyone synchronized. If Clockblocker learns his left foot from his right before I get there, I'll have to recalibrate his visor."

Dennis stared slackjawed at Missy. "Did he just... how do you even plan for something like this? And since when is he some kind of choreography expert?"

Missy just shook her head. "He was on the cover of Disco Groove Magazine back when he was still Gadgeteer in the wards. He was constantly butting heads against Flash Mob, the villainous dance Master. It was these very visors we're about to wear that allowed his team to defeat her once and for all. It's in his personnel file. I didn't know he still had enough of them though. He must be working on something big with his prediction software."

"What makes you say that?"

"Oh please, that was the earliest example of any prediction software he produced. He goes back and makes another visor any time he works on the latest edition, to get back in the feel of things, he says. Sometimes I forget you're such a newbie, compared to me. Don't worry, in a couple of years, you'll have as much experience as I do, and you'll learn to just roll with these things."

———•••———

"Won't the Baroness get mad at you for doing this?"

"This is actually escape plan twelve delta. Her idea. She really cares about the Oxford Comma."

 

Lisa bargaining with silent Taylor was awesome.

Also: she employs Taylor, she cares about the Oxford Comma... is the Baroness secretly Annette?

 

Either that or Alt!Bakuda. And I refuse to make a decision on that one until I have to.

 

This is amazing, its everything I wanted, but didn't know it. Also how many alter egos does Taylor have?

 

Or an Alternate!Older!Taylor with Tinker specs

 

Oh, please be Annette. I haven't seen a good villainous Annette yet (hey, I rhymed!).

 

I admit a villainous Annette Hebert would be badass to see.

 

Or, it could be that Skitter is from an alternate dimension and her copy here is Tinker!triggered.

 

"She Really cares about the oxford coma".

That is an attention getting line.