Aria turned her attention to her drones. She felt their panic. Not just through the hivemind, it was bleeding through to her too. Though they were panicking about different things.

  While Aria was distracted with the hero team trying to pierce her carapace, the Black Queen’s soldiers knew what they had to do. They all pulled out flaming weapons, the same as those the heroes had in their hands. With no hesitation, they pressed down the stoppers at the top of the flaming cans and watched aerosolised death rain down upon the swarm.

  Aria felt it.

  The moment that stuff touched her swarm, it burned.

  The drones had inherited some of her regeneration, albeit to a lesser degree. So Aria had to watch as they were burned alive by whatever was in that can and then some of them barely survived long enough to start regenerating the damage. Only to be immediately murdered by one of the Black Queen’s soldiers.

  Aria couldn’t pay attention to the heroes any more. Watching her swarm die like this…

  That was exactly what they were counting on.

  With Aria clearly distracted, the team of 5 heroes pulled out their own can and targeted the most exposed part of her body. The egg sacs.

  With a small hiss, the can was now released on Aria. Too busy focusing on the swarm, she only felt the searing heat seconds after it had happened. The pain hit her all at once. It was like being stung by thousands of bees, all buzzing about the one place on her body they shouldn’t be. She screeched.

  Seeing their opportunity, the heroes dug harder into their carapace. Despite their orders they thought that just maybe… today they would get the honour of killing a calamity. Their bosses knew better though.

  The 5 man hero team immediately vacated Aria’s vicinity and got ready to flee at a moment’s notice. The Black Queen’s people were also only cleaning up stragglers and waiting for the retreat to be sounded. They’d hurt the creature and that was their goal. Unfortunately the order to retreat came a little bit too late.

  Everything had piled up and Aria finally snapped.

  She frothed at the mouth, acidic venom spitting from her fangs in her fury. How dare they! She chittered, she screeched, all pretense she was once human was gone from her. She just wanted a break! She just wanted somewhere to settle down and NEST. Why were they here?! Why had she tolerated their presence?

  No. She would not tolerate them any more.

  They had harmed her drones. They had made her feel PAIN.

  THEY MUST BE ELIMINATED.

  She crouched into her arachnoid legs, balance now coming naturally to her. Then she jumped. Her body lifted off the ground effortlessly, the traits of a jumping spider now coming into play. The heroes on her back wobbled.

  Thanks to the gravity manipulator however they managed to remain attached. This would not remain so for long.

  With a flap of her wings, she soared into the air and in a matter of moments she was at a height where the atmosphere thinned. The heroes started to breathe heavily.

  They couldn’t even think to flee before her tails encompassed them. Aria squeezed. Pure muscle constricted like a titan boa, crushing bones and drawing screams. These petty mortals deserved no mercy from her.

  Some croaked immediately but the more sturdy ones survived. Aria instinctually wrapped them in webbing and injected some of her venom into the cocoons she had made. Something very special would happen to them later but right now she was only eliminating the threat.

  She spread her body, making it as wide as possible and her screech rang throughout the area. It echoed, like the tolling of a bell. The heroes left on the ground gulped. Even the Black Queen’s trained soldiers took a step back, their training all that stopped them from fleeing in fear. The retreat hadn’t been signalled yet.

  At that moment, the chime in their ear told them it was time. Not that it mattered.

  Before they could even think to leave, the needle on Aria’s mouth began spraying a substance all over the area. What little drones remained were bathed in the substance and felt their sluggish regeneration suddenly speed up.

  The swarm was in exalt, even as they felt their Matriarch’s rage. They would join her. The hivemind was filled with ‘FOR THE MATRIARCH’ and ‘SHOW THEM HER RAGE’.

  Those drones who had recovered immediately began getting back to battering at the heroes and soldiers. They would not allow the Matriarch to work as they stayed idle. That would be silly.

  The heroes meanwhile.

  “IT BURNS!” screamed one, as he was melted into a pile of sludge on the ground despite his body being covered in a hardened bone armour. “Get it off me!” Another screamed as they were stuck to the floor like glue, unable to move despite their immense strength.

  Whatever Aria had sprayed on them seemed to have different effects depending on who it hit. As though they were specifically designed to counter their own abilities. She wasn’t done either.

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  Webbing fell from the sky and the few remaining who were able to move became still. They tried to struggle but the webbing was so thick it didn’t matter.

  Then, to the heroes’ eyes, Aria blurred.

  She appeared again on the ground and her tails rushed towards them in a wall of muscle. They tried to move, tried to resist. Yet those who weren’t already dying were stuck firmly in place unable to move.

  The tails slammed them again. They were pulped.

  What was once a team of 60 well trained heroes and hundreds of even better trained soldiers, was reduced to a few tens of heroes with the scattered remnants of what was once an army.

  There were two parties watching this scene. Both paled. Lia began to rush out of her bunker as the 5 man hero team shook.

  “W-what do we do?” Asked the girl who was Aria’s age. This young hero’s real name was Kelly Reth and she stared at the corpses of those who were once her comrades as she asked the question. She bit her lip. Kelly was called the Phoenix and she might’ve been able to save them but it was all too fast. Everything was going well she didn’t think…

  “We’re right scuppered.” Replied the head of their team, the middle aged redneck. His real name was Peter Lisbet. As a hero though, people called him Spoken truth. His ability to make people listen to him and argue back truthfully was part of the reason for this name. Mostly though, it was because he tended to blurt out things people really didn’t want shared or facts they’d rather not know. Like now.

  “Come on, we can still batter that creature. It’s pissed, so it’ll make mistakes. We can capitalise on that.” Spoke the Old Bat or Mallory ‘Midnight’ Mistle. She had a thing for the underdogs of the world and right now that was them.

  “What does it matter what we want?” Black veil or Penelope Lisyran drawled. “It’ll probably kill us if it gets the chance. We should probably get out of here while it’s still focused on everyone else. Unless you wanna die today. Guess that’s fine too.” She was a pessimist of the highest order. Came with being the embodiment of everyone’s burdens, able to take the grief and damage of others onto herself. She was a living morale booster, as contradictory as that seemed.

  “What about the people we lost? The lives it’s taken?!” Vengeance snarled. Yes, his name really was that edgy. Well, his real name was something common, Peter Mauk. Not that anyone ever used it in front of him. “We can’t just write off losing an entire team of heroes like this, the Marquis will have our heads.”

  “You wanna charge at that thing and die? Be my guest. Black Veil is right, we’re getting out of here.” Spoken Truth replied.

  As he turned to leave, another part of the ground opened up. Out from it strolled the woman who caused all their problems. Wearing a black, aristocratic dress adorned with various jewels was a woman who couldn’t have been any further than early 20s. She usually smiled gracefully but not today. Right now, she was staring at the devastation of her troops and there was no emotion visible on her face.

  Out of all the heroes, only phoenix could tell she was about to do something stupid and the girl was too timid to call her out on it.

  Lia sighed and the graceful smile returned. “Ya lot sure do cause me trouble eh?” She commented sarcastically, a tear forming in her eye but never falling.

  “The hell have ya been while everything crashed and burned? We didn’t sign up for this.” Spoken Truth shouted at her, rage visible even through his beard.

  “Ya were signed up to fight a calamity. What did you expect?” Lia asked, as though he were an idiot for even asking. “Obviously everything was going to go wrong. I just hoped it wouldn’t cause any damage, the thing was peaceful enough in London. Guess whatever those creatures are, they mean summin’ to it.”

  “Yeah and now it’s royally narked.” Spoken truth replied sharply. “If ya’d told me I had to fight a calamity for ya smoothin’ everythin’ over, I mighta just told ya to get.”

  “So… W-what do we do now?” Asked Kelly or Phoenix, nervously shuffling on her feet.

  “Your plan dun’ hav’ to change just ‘cause I’m here.” Lia shrugged. “I figure you book it and I try to sort out the mess you leave behind. You’ve more than paid your debt to me.”

  With permission given, the heroes didn’t waste a second. “I’m outta here then. Less of a pleasure to see you this time Lia, hopefully next time we can ‘ave a beer rather than fight a bloody spider. If ya don’t show up, I’ll let the lot in Birmingham know what happened to ya.” Spoken truth replied before giving the signal to Vengeance.

  With a wave of his hand, a flaming bike appeared in front of him. Spikes ran all across its length and a flaming ring hovered above the bike like a halo. Vengeance’s power was simple. Grudges took form in his hands and this was one such grudge. A man who lost his father to a biking accident, now granted him this flaming bike.

  “I’ll crank out a cold one for ya next time ya come visit if you don’t.” Lia replied lazily.

  “Lass, if you’re still around by then, I’ll buy it for you.” Spoken truth replied as he and his team boarded the bike.

  Lia herself looked up at the calamity and it’s minions. Or she guessed drones was the correct term.

  Aria had been entirely idle the entire time they’d been talking. Not out of a sense of politeness. She was starting to calm down. The excitement of the swarm in her mind had reminded her that they weren’t really dead and the instinctual rage she had felt was ebbing away. Now she stared at the field, the remnants of what used to be a team of heroes. She had done this.

  Was she really a monster?

  It felt… right. She was just defending herself. Her swarm had been harmed and she couldn’t allow that. Those drones were like children. No, they were children. To see them slaughtered like that while they were trying to learn… they were learning to fight but still…

  No. She was justifying it to herself. She understood what she had done. That was why she stood there. Letting those heroes go was the best thing she could do. Maybe they’d come back for revenge? Maybe she’d deserve it?

  “Not gonna fight now eh?” Lia said, staring up at the flying spider. It seemed to just be sitting there and staring. She didn’t know what was up with the thing.

  Aria had to look down at her and she wasn’t sure what to do with the Black Queen. She looked only a few years older than Aria herself, early 20s at most. She couldn’t bring herself to kill her, villain or not.

  The woman was defenceless, her minions either dead, crippled or in one of her cocoons. Aria didn’t know what they did but she doubted they’d be the same afterwards.

  It was only then that Lia also noticed the cocoons and raised a brow. “They still alive in there?” She asked and Aria could hear the hope in her voice, no matter how well concealed it was. “Only one way to find out I suppose.” She said and then spread her arms. “You gonna let me join my friends or what?”

  Let her join her friends? Was she asking to be killed… or put into one of those cocoon things? Aria wasn’t even sure what those did yet. She’d done it by accident. To do so purposefully to another human being… she wasn’t sure that was a good idea.

  Then again, it’s not like she had many other options. Letting a villain go free would put the responsibility of her actions on Aria. Unlike the heroes, she was perfectly fine capturing a villain. Though she was more sympathetic than the average person, they had still turned to a life of villainy. They needed to be punished.

  Still... The Black Queen was defenseless and Aria herself wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be making moral decisions at the moment.

  As Lia continued to stand there, the calamity stared. Lia’s stare challenged her. Finally, the calamity almost seemed defeated as it began to wrap her in its webs.

  Lia wouldn’t have bothered to fight no matter what it did. She wasn’t much of a combatant and she didn’t have much left to live for anyway. With all her friends gone or wrapped in these cocoons she’d rather be with them, even if that was in death.

  At least this way she wouldn’t become what those sick corporate types wanted for her.

  Instead, when Lia awoke she had become something else.

  There were a thousand childish voices in her head and all of them were rushing to greet her.