Skitter's Surrender

Skitter's Surrender Conflict: Date: July 14th, 2011<ref name="I22">Interlude 22.x</ref> Location: PRT ENE Headquarters Outcome: Combatants PRT Director Tagg Wards Protectorate Chief Director Rebecca Costa-Brown Skitter Damage Sustained/Casualties Alexandria Director Tagg

Previous: Destruction of the Teeth

Concurrent:

Next: The Wards vs. The Adepts

Skitter's Surrender marks the occasion when Skitter surrendered to the PRT.

Prelude

Dinah Alcott gave Skitter a note telling her to "cut ties". Prompted by this, Taylor formulated a plan while talking to her mother's grave.<ref name=":1">Imago 21.7</ref><ref>Imago 21.2</ref>

Taylor didn't tell any of the Undersiders what she was planning except for Tattletale, who she asked to keep it a secret. She told Tattletale to act against the PRT at sunset unless she received a signal.<ref name=":0">Interlude 21.y</ref>

She visited each of the Undersiders to make sure that they could manage their territories and privately say goodbye.<ref>"She paid me a visit," Grue said.  "I didn't realize it until I got the call from Tattletale.  She was saying goodbye.  Not out loud, but… checking I was okay, making sure I'd be able to manage… after she was gone."

Bentley was still growing.  His flesh split at the shoulder, and he brought one back leg up, kicking at the air as if he had an itch he wanted to reach but couldn't.

The pitbull and wolf puppy were growing too.  The pitbull looked a lot less comfortable with the process than the other animals, more alarmed.  Bitch tugged the chain absently to keep him in line.

"She visited us too," Regent said.  "Imp and me."

"Me too," Tattletale spoke from her perch on the stairs, quiet.

Not me, Parian thought.  Unless I count that meeting with Miss Militia and Lily.

That served the same purposes, didn't it?  Getting things settled?  Making sure things would be okay in the future.  Ensuring the heroes could help out with my territory? - - Excerpt from Interlude 21.y</ref> She visited Tattletale, and briefly discussed the plan.<ref name=":1">Imago 21.7</ref>

Events

Taylor travelled to the PRT ENE Headquarters and surrendered.<ref name=":1" /> They gave her a bunch of contradictory orders whilst manhandling her, then brought in Clockblocker to freeze her.<ref name="22.1a">I remained where I was, hands folded on the back of my head, kneeling, while the PRT officers bellowed at me, almost incoherent, impossible to obey as they gave me contradictory orders. Down on the ground, stand up, throw any weapons to the side, do not touch anything.

---

Miss Militia broke the stalemate, such as it was. I could see her put one hand on Clockblocker’s shoulder, giving him a gentle push.

---

The other guards were alternately herding the civilians out of the area or forming a wall to keep them from watching.

“Hey!” Clockblocker said. “That’s enough. I got this.”- Excerpt from Cell 22.1</ref>

Cauldron were immediately concerned.<ref>“It seems we may have just lost Brockton Bay.”

The Number Man’s eyebrows rose, though his expression remained placid, his gaze fixed on the computer.

“Skitter turned herself in.”

With that, he did look up, meeting her gaze. He saw the truth in her statement and closed his eyes. Mourning one more lost possibility.

They’d lost Coil, had lost Hero, and the Triumvirate had dissolved. They were in the process of losing the Protectorate. Everything they’d put together, falling apart over time.

“Is it settled?” He asked.

“No,” the Doctor said. “But she turned herself in, and as far as I’m aware, there is no mischief at work.” - Excerpt from Interlude 21.x</ref>

When Skitter awoke from Clockblocker's effect, she was cuffed with heavy duty restraints intended for low-level brutes.<ref name=":6">Cell 22.5</ref> Director Tagg, the Protectorate and the Wards were all present. She was taken to a secure cell by Clockblocker and Triumph. A female PRT officer had her strip and searched her. She listened in on the heroes' discussions regarding her goals and how to contain her using her power.<ref name=":2">Cell 22.1</ref> Her capture was widely reported on both TV and radio across the country,<ref name=":0" /> with the PRT press release designed to emphasize how dangerous her allies were.<ref name=":2" />

Flechette contacted Parian to tell her and ask what was going on, but Parian had no idea. The Undersiders met up to discuss what had happened. Bitch refused to consider the possibility that she had left, dismissing it as another of Taylor's plans. The Undersiders and Parian met with Accord, who was offended by Skitter's seeming departure.<ref name=":0" />

Flechette was asked to leave Skitter's range to make a phone call,<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /> which she used as an excuse to meet up with Parian. She waited for half an hour for her to get back to her house, getting herself into trouble with Miss Militia. She asked to defect and become Parian's lieutenant.<ref name=":0" />

Kid Win began working with Sere to complete anti-Skitter defences. The heroes brought in Dinah Alcott, but she refused to cooperate and got in an argument with Tagg, telling him there was a 22.813% chance he was going to die slowly and painfully. They noticed the bugs in the air reacting to Skitter's anger and realised that she could hear them arguing.<ref name=":2" />

After some time, Kid Win completed his drones and began sending them throughout the building to try and destroy Skitter's bugs.<ref name=":2" /> Flechette emailed Miss Militia to reveal she had defected.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">Cell 22.3</ref>

Tagg and Miss Militia interrogated Skitter, and she revealed the deadline she had set up with the Undersiders.<ref name=":2" /> They allowed her to call her lawyer Quinn Calle. While Skitter waited silently for him to arrive, Tagg described his time fighting Simurgh victims in Lausanne, argued that the Birdcage was worse than execution, and pointed out that other villains had been inspired to attempt to take over other cities by her actions. Calle arrived, and he and Taylor talked privately, discussing her crimes and outlining the demands she hoped to make the PRT meet in exchange for her surrender.<ref name=":4">Cell 22.2 </ref>

After almost two hours of work, Taylor and Calle presented her demands: in exchange for her surrender, the Undersiders would be quietly allowed to operate unhindered, and Tagg would retire and be replaced by Miss Militia. She would become a PRT operative hunting the Slaughterhouse Nine. But Miss Militia revealed that the Nine had destroyed Toybox and vanished into a pocket dimension.<ref name=":4" /> While Skitter revised her terms, Tagg decided to bring in Taylor's dad, and sent out teams of heroes across the city. Taylor had Tattletale make a bid for the land around the portal in downtown Brockton Bay.<ref name=":3" />

Taylor, her father, and Tagg argued. Tattletale arranged for all the land in a wide area around the portal, which she had been secretly buying up, to be given over to Sierra Kiley as a proxy for the Undersiders.<ref name=":3" />

Alexandria arrived, dressed in a suit.<ref name=":3" /> She declared that she would capture or kill the Undersiders, one by one, until Taylor surrendered.<ref name=":5">Cell 22.4</ref>

While Alexandria was out, Taylor attempted to call Tattletale and warn her using the phone in Tagg's office and her bugs. She would type out messages on the keyboard using her bugs, since she didn't have enough to hear or speak.<ref name=":5" /> Tattletale realized that Taylor was being fed bad info, but was unable to communicate this to her.<ref name=":7">Cell 22.6 </ref>

During this time, Taylor was sneaking more bugs into the room with each person who entered.<ref>With each entry that had been made into the interrogation room, barring the one where she'd used the drone in Imp's cell, I'd brought more bugs inside.  Spiders, hornets, black widows, brown recluses and more. - Cell 22.4</ref>

When Alexandria returned, she realised Skitter had warned the Undersiders. She also deduced that the villains had likely hired mercenaries to help them. Skitter realised that Alexandria was cold reading her. A person arrived on a stretcher wearing Regent's costume. After a brief conversation, she went out again and returned with a girl in Imp's costume. Alexandria was dripping wet, claiming that the Undersiders had used a hose and Ligeia's power to try and drown her. She offered to release the captured villains if Skitter agreed to confess and abandon her terms. Then she went out again, and this time a body bag returned with her.<ref name=":5" /> The "Undersiders" taken in were in fact body doubles, in a ruse shaped to make Skitter either surrender or attack Alexandria and justify taking her out.<ref name=":7" /> Alexandria planned to evacuate the area before she snapped, avoiding the bugs herself using Cauldron's resources. Taylor would be sentenced to the Birdcage and then recruited by Cauldron on the way there.<ref name=":8">Wildbow on IRC</ref>

When Alexandria returned, Skitter attacked her using her bugs, aiming for her mouth and sealing her airway with bugs and spider silk.<ref name=":5" /> Alexandria underestimated Taylor's emotions because she was offloading her cues to her bugs, preventing Alexandria from anticipating the attack was coming.<ref name=":8" /> Tagg drew a gun, but Taylor deflected it with a line of silk. She attacked Tagg with her bugs, but had them ignore Miss Militia and her father. Alexandria flew from the basement straight up through the roof and out of Taylor's range. Tagg ran toward Taylor, choking on his own tongue; Taylor's father tried to shield her but Tagg kicked him out of the way and slammed her against the table until PRT agents came in and tranquillised her.<ref name=":5" />

Tagg and Alexandria both died while Taylor was unconscious.<ref name=":6" />

Aftermath

Taylor woke in her cell, to find that her bugs had been weaving silk cord and searching the building while she was unconscious. Most of them had been destroyed by Kid Win's drones without her to tell them to avoid them; there were only a few hundred bugs in the entire building. The entire area had been evacuated out to the limits of her range (five blocks). Tagg's body was in the morgue.<ref name=":6" />

Skitter began trying to escape using Tagg's phone and keys, but before they reached her, Dragon and Defiant arrived on the roof. She watched and copied the code Defiant used to enter the building in order to escape her cell. Dragon and Defiant caught up with her as she tried to steal some special grenade loadouts to use against them, and took her to the roof. She attacked them with spider silk, but it was largely ineffective. Miss Militia spoke to them through Dragon's suit, reminding them of the deadline, and Skitter realised that Alexandria had only pretended to hunt and kill Undersiders.<ref name=":6" />

Taylor and the heroes agreed that she would call off the Undersiders, and they would agree to leave the Undersiders alone and appoint Miss Militia the interim leader of the PRT. Tattletale told her that rumours of Alexandria's death were already leaking out. Taylor called in her lawyer and made a more permanent deal with the heroes.<ref name=":7" />

Taylor participated in a press conference that announced Alexandria had been twisted by the Simurgh and Taylor had helped the heroes defeat her. Taylor was voluntarily being taken into custody, and once she had served her sentence she would join the heroes as Weaver.<ref name=":7" /><ref name="I22" />

References

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