Allison wandered through the crowd, being bumped into and pushed aside and every so often stepped on, and smiled. It was, it turned out, quite useful to be identified mainly by ‘the one with a face covered in tattoos;’ it meant that if she got rid of the tattoos, she became instantly unrecognizable. It had been quite a while since she’d been just another random person, and while she’d learned to tune out odd looks and double takes, she wasn’t quite so used to stalkers and… well, positive attention. If stalkers could be called positive… not all of them went to the extent of stalkers, though, and Allison was totally unprepared for fangirls. Or fanboys, for that matter; why had she agreed to something that would give fourteen year old boys crushes on her, again?

It was an advantage to be able to make herself totally anonymous, though; one she’d known about, but rarely used. It felt extremely weird not to have her face and hands, at minimum, covered with tattoos; she was fairly sure she was imagining it, but it felt like she could feel the missing ink. Instead, though, she had a solid bar of ink running down her spine, which she was less conscious of but still (imagining she was) able to feel.

The crowd was as oblivious to that as they were to her, though, and Allison wandered along the crowded street, her speed probably doubled by the people who bumped into her on their way past. Why they were hurrying so much in the middle of one of the deliberately-quaint old touristy shopping areas Allison wasn’t sure of, but she also wasn’t particularly bothered. As long as they ignored her….

She was a runt of a thing, short and scrawny and right now no longer tatted up. It took some time to finally tell it was she but once he applied her mutation to the face it didn’t take much time to identify her. Bacchus was very familiar to hiding in plain sight given who he was and having a sidekick who was also a self-acclaimed genius might have helped pinpoint her.

Bacchus frowned slightly into a mug of whiskey and coffee as he took another sip. “Why do they want her?” Bacchus asked allowed as he shifted in his small step stool. The chair wasn’t comfortable at all but seeing as a normal chair would have made in nearly impossible for him to sit erect in the van he was okay making the sacrifice.

“Best not ask questions, less we have another incident like the one in Australia. Barely got everyone out al-“ the giant cut off the talking primate in the front seat with a loud grunt, “Not talking about that place anymore, I’m no longer welcome back hom…” Bacchus paused, “There, so lets stop talking about it. Trying to turn over a new leaf and all that getting sober is the first step the next step is to get some money for your company so I can stop doing all this. Even though I like the stakeouts, makes me feel very spyish” the giant said with a slight smirk the few televisions before him showing the surrounding areas, no police just civilians ones that no doubt scatter when he unleashed his friends.

Shifting again Bacchus looked at the few insect cages containing his already naturally large critters. Under the influence of his mutation they would reach a large enough size and cause a distraction long enough for the giant to nab the girl if all went to plan. “I feel like we need a back up plan.” The driver said sitting in his booster seat with a large hat covering half his face as he looked forward. Ulysses was short and it was in Bacchus’s opinion pretty funny to see a chimp drive a van.

“Don’t go bananas over this…” Bacchus said with a smirk, “All you got to do is drive, I nab the girl. Isn’t the first snatch and grab we’ve done before the only difference it’s a person we are nabbing.” Even without the tattoos covering her face her red hair was a dead giveaway as to who she was. “I’m just saying big guy, if she runs you really going to chase her down?” Bacchus laughed slightly and took a swig of his coffee as the van moved forward in the slow traffic, “If I have too. These Russians are paying good money for her; all we got to do is hold onto her till they pick her up. How hard can it be?” Bacchus asked hoping he didn’t jinx himself.

After a few minutes Bacchus prepaid his pack, which, contained some rope, a sack and a small rubber mallet. Bacchus then reached into two of the insect tanks he had and removed two tarantulas. Closing his fists Bacchus smirked and then looked to the driver, “stay on the radio, I’ll call you with my location when I have her… Best you leave the area quickly… About to get hairy.” Bacchus said as he felt the fuzzy critters in his hands.

The van stopped at a red light and Bacchus exited through the back of the van and stood up stretching his back. Walking towards the sidewalk Bacchus locked eyes on his target and then activated his mutation in his right hand where one of the tarantulas were. The little beasty started to grow along with Bacchus’s hand. A few seconds passed and a few people saw his hand rapidly expanding. Before anyone could scream his hand shrunk and a three-foot tarantula was already scurrying around on the sidewalk causing people to back up and give it lots of room. A few screamed and others ran in other directions as the spider scurried around.

Allison was used to tuning out crowd noise, so by the time the screams started to filter through as not the right sound, she was more effectively informed by the people all but knocking her down as they ran past.

Allison stumbled, caught herself before she fell, and dodged to the side, pressing herself against a half-height wall that separated the sidewalk from a restaurant’s outdoor seating and leaning back to get as much of herself out of the way as she could. Seconds later, the frantic people were past, and Allison’s ankle was informing her that it had been hurt--twisted, stepped on, or kicked, she wasn’t entirely sure. She pushed herself up to sit on the wall and tested the ankle. Not broken, but it wasn’t going to be fun to walk on for a few days, either.

Hmph. Stupid people.

Though, now that she thought of it….

Allison looked up, and finally noticed the spider that was, in fact, taller than the wall she was sitting on.

Well then. She could sort of forgive the people for running, now.

Of course, that didn’t mean Allison would run. She did turn so that the injured leg was on the other side of the wall and the uninjured one folded on top of it--hopefully the spider couldn’t jump, or wasn’t hungry--and pulled her phone out.

Megan didn’t answer, so Allison began her message with an audible sigh. “Megan, there’s a giant spider here.” Some rambling about the spider and location later, and she reached the awkward goodbye point. “So. Um, yeah. There’s a giant spider, I thought you’d want it. Call me when you can, I’ll see if I can keep track of it, bye.” The phone was slid back into Allison’s pocket, and she settled down to watch the spider. It didn’t seem too malicious, and watching would give her ankle time to stop yelling at her, too.

While everyone was running Bacchus’s skin hardened just incase the spider scurrying around decided to try and take a bite out of him, wouldn’t be the first time and seeing as Bacchus had to focus on the red head who was now behind a short wall in hopes the spider wouldn’t bother her. She tested her leg and from what he could tell she was injured or at least in some discomfort meaning she wouldn’t be able to run fast or far. ‘Just got a bit easier…’ Bacchus thought to himself as he moved forward a few inches before readying the other spider.

Bacchus hefted his other hand with the other spider in it and forced it to grow a bit before tossing it towards the red head only when she was focused away from him. The last thing he wanted was her to start running away from him and he was told to keep her alive so if she were bitten he’d have to extract the toxin.

The spider landed on its feet and climbed up the wall of the restaurant only to turn its attention towards the giant’s target. Neither one of the spiders were overly aggressive in fact Bacchus was confident they both would scurry away until they shrunk or were taken out. The plan was supposed to cause chaos and confusion nothing more nothing less but there were always things that got in the way of Bacchus’s plans so he decided to close the distance between him and the girl to move things along.

”Whoa red! Move!” Bacchus said pointing towards the spider on the wall behind her. ”You got a death wish or something!?!” Bacchus asked loudly as he hopped over the fence and rushed towards her to make it look like he was playing the hero.

Allison had barely gotten her phone back in her pocket when someone shouted at Red. And ugh, she hated that name. So she looked up with a glare already beginning to form, and discovered another spider. Not as large as the first, but still huge. And, also? Approximately a foot and a half from Allison’s face.

The injured ankle was forgotten and its complaints not so much crushed as never heard as Allison stood up and very slowly backed away toward the other end of the wall, checking it for more spiders before sitting back down. Fortunately neither spider seemed to be actively going after her, but Allison still turned until she could see both of them. Hopefully no more would appear; an army of giant spiders was more than she was really willing to deal with, Megan or not.

Also? “The hell are these coming from?” Allison’s tone was as bewildered as it was annoyed, but her mind had an equal mix of thinking. Mutations creating giant spiders; pretty logical conclusion. Megan created little spiders, so spiders were already an established mutation, no reason they couldn’t be giant too. Maybe Megan would be able to do that eventually, though her small spiders were much sneakier. But mutations came from humans, and the only people around were her and the guy who’d called her Red. So either ink had somehow turned into giant spiders, or…. Allison looked up at the guy with narrowed eyes. “Where are they coming from?” And, much more importantly, why?

With a few lumbering steps Bacchus closed the distance between his target and himself she was backed up against the wall and was asking where the giant spiders were coming from. If it was any other city in the world he would have figured a girl would be screaming at giant spiders but given it was New York City and the girl was tagged as a Mob nabbing Bacchus figured she’d have seen something like this before. ”Ain’t got a clue Red!” Bacchus said as he reached out towards the nearest spider who saw him coming and turned on his hand as he touched one of it’s legs.

”Little Bastard!” Bacchus said as it latched onto his arm, which was already protected due to his mutation. His arm didn’t grown in size but he felt the weight shift more as it became denser. Ulysses wouldn’t let him live it down if one of his own beasties decided to knock out the giant while under the effects of his mutation.

‘Be a cold day in hell’ thought Bacchus as he yelled to the girl while still trying to act the hero, ”This right here!” Bacchus yelled waving his arm towards the wall where the other spider was hoping to throw one into the other, ”This is where you run to safety right?” Bacchus asked managing to throw one spider into the other forcing it down lower to where Red was sitting (on accident).

”Stop asking questions and move!” Bacchus said forcing his hands towards both spiders. While his hands were still their large and normal size he forced the density to increase to his fifteen-foot size making it difficult if not impossible for them to bite him and puncture his skin if they managed to make contact with him. However, at the last second Bacchus put his hand in between the girl and the spiders at the last second hoping that both the girl and the spiders would move in one direction or another.

Well that wasn’t remotely helpful. Not that Allison expected the guy to admit if he was creating them, of course, but he hadn’t really acted guilty at all either, so Allison couldn’t either dismiss or confirm her suspicion.

“Hey, don’t hurt them!” Allison wasn’t sure whether her protest was audible or not, but she continued anyway. “What if they’re, like, siblings, and they transformed into spiders, or something? Or someone else transformed them?” She kind of doubted it, but actually, that might make more sense than them being created. That wouldn’t be a fun mutation to have at all, randomly turning into a giant spider. Pretty hard to make friends that way. Allison’s ankle was hurting again, so she wasn’t really willing to move, but she turned as much as she could while still sitting on the spider-free end of the wall. “Do you see random piles of loose clothes anywhere?”

Allison folded her arms and scowled at the guy. She was not going to be the obedient damsel again. And he’d probably want her to adore him for saving her, too. “My ankle’s twisted, I can’t. And stop provoking them! They weren’t even doing anything, don’t make them mad.” Which didn't keep them from being creepy, see the spider that appeared a foot from her face, but still.

Bacchus stopped short before he squished them with his hand. He blinked once and then looked to red, ”Wait… What?” he asked confused by her comment. Siblings… the spiders? Bacchus looked back to them and frowned slightly as one of them scurried to the floor and moved away from them climbing over the small fence that once protected red. ”Shit if I know, but your right they could be people trying to eat you.” Bacchus said rolling his eyes, they were in fact his spiders and they were siblings just regular spiders though.

Pulling his hand back from in between the girl and the spiders Bacchus looked to the girl, ”No I don’t see any clothes lying around.” Bacchus said pretending to look as his enhanced hearing picked up on sirens in the distance. ”Shit.” mutter Bacchus as his window of opportunity continued to close. Trying to think quickly which many would say was not his strong suit Bacchus walked over towards the girl and offered her a hand.

”Your way it is then, human or mutant or spider. Imagine if it be best if we get you away from the beasty yeah?” Bacchus asked not really waiting for her response but rather crouched down and put one of his hands behind her waist before trying to stand again. If he wanted to lift her with one hand he would have but instead he used two and was sure to make sure the ankle of hers didn’t wobble around a lot.

”Set you down somewhere… safer…” Bacchus said as he walked away from the giant spider which still hadn’t move three big steps and Bacchus was facing an alley way instead of going down it however he just stopped short and turned his head as two squad cars came into view. ”Double shit” Bacchus cursed again under his breath hoping they didn’t see him. ”About time we keep moving.” Bacchus said walking down the alley way picking up his pace.

“They aren’t trying to eat me! They were just walking around. Or standing.” Of course, most spiders hunted by standing around, but that was only after they’d built webs anyway. So probably they’d only bite after they had a web (which, wow, these two would be spectacular for a haunted house), or if they felt threatened. So Allison was… well, not pleased, since she was already annoyed that the guy attacked the spiders in the first place, but at least somewhat satisfied when he stopped before harming them.

“What?” Allison wasn’t that concerned when the guy swore, but it tended to be the kind of thing to ask about. Especially when there were giant spiders around. She didn’t get an answer though, or at least not one she recognized.

Annoyance returned almost immediately; she reached for his hand--she’d honestly have preferred to stay where she was, but seeing as he seemed determined to worry, she’d put up with it. He picked her up instead, though. “Hey!” Allison was not particularly bothered if that happened to be yelled in his ear. “Let go! I can--” Okay, well, she couldn’t walk well. Or, not easily. Her ankle wasn’t broken, just painful; if she needed to move she could. She’d grabbed onto his shoulders automatically; she let go of one in order to hit it. Not quite as hard as she could, but hopefully enough to make the point. “Put me down.”

Okay. Well, that was worrying. Running from the police… well, Allison would prefer to avoid the police, too, personally, most of the time. But she didn’t swear as soon as they showed up in the area. And not while carrying away someone who didn’t want to be carried. This was beginning to get a bit past annoying guy deaf too stubborn to hear anyone else’s opinions. Allison took a breath while ink emerged from her skin, floating up in front of them while she yelled and tried to straighten and twist away. If it worked, she’d end up on the ground, but she could deal with that. “Let go!”

She was trying to struggle free and was telling him to let go. ‘Yeah, right…’ thought Bacchus who was much more interested in the pile of money he would be getting once he turned her over to the Russians who had a price on her head for whatever reason. ”Ah, the ruskies said you could do something like that…” Bacchus said focusing on the floating ink in front of them like the small obstruction of color it was. ”Colorful.” Bacchus said staring at the blob that ejected from his targets skin.

”Too bad it won’t help you much Sheila, see I have work that can’t be done if your trying to clog up the works with that bit of business there.” Bacchus said pointing at the blob with his free hand, ”Now say good by to the blob now.” he paused and felt his leg muscles growing within moments, ”Good bye blob.” Forcing himself back Bacchus knew she had a range at which she could control twenty feet should be more than enough.

Twenty feet would have been nice but when has anything ever panned out for Bacchus when he was using his mutation to get out of a problem. Twenty feet back zoomed passed followed by another twenty and then a car. If it wasn’t for his thick skin Bacchus probably wouldn’t have survived the crash seeing as his back was now imbedded into a parked mini-van. ”Shit.” Bacchus said releasing his grip on the girl who would have felt nothing more than her stomach dropping and whiplash. ”Be a good girl and sit tight while I catch my breath.” Bacchus wheezed as he dropped her.

Now growing in size the minivan door that was encasing the giant was becoming smaller and smaller till he was able to break free standing at ten feet now Bacchus brushed the glass off of his shoulders and then said, ”Much better.” looking to the girl Bacchus smiled, ”Can we do this the easy way now Shiela?”

Allison was not entirely sure what a Ruskie was, except that it was probably not the type of dog it sounded like. She was pretty sure she wasn’t going to like whatever they were when she found out, though. Especially when they apparently knew what she could do. “Then they might have added that I can do something like kill you with it, too.” Allison tried twisting a final time before giving up, holding the ink in place so it wouldn’t waver as she moved. Not that she actually wanted to kill him, yet anyway, but most people would be scared by the threat. More so than by the threat of blinding, anyway.

“Blob?” Allison’s ink was not a blob. It might be in the shape of a blob at times, but blob was a much less serious name than it--ow.

Where exactly did the world just go?

Allison groaned, one hand rising to wrap around the back of her neck as she hit the ground. Not too hard, thankfully, but heavily; her head was still spinning from the movement, shock, and noise, and coordination wasn’t exactly going to go well with that.

Stubbornness was a bit easier, though, and Allison struggled back to her feet, ignoring whatever the guy did so long as he didn’t touch her. Good girl, ha. Once standing she paused for a second to get as much balance as she could, and find a clear path, then started sprinting.

And remembered her ankle. Ow. It wasn’t broken, it worked, but ow. Allison stopped several steps down the street, leaning against another car and wincing, holding the ankle off the ground. She might be physically capable of running, but the mental ability to force herself into that pain was a bit more elusive.

Besides, there were other, less painful escape options. Allison didn’t wait to look at the guy to take a breath and scream as loudly as she could. “Get away from me!”

If the police weren’t curious enough after the noise from the guy crushing a car with his body, that certainly ought to get their attention.

A few shards of glass and a few scraps of metal clung to his shoulder. The giant looked to Allison and sighed as she attempted to run. She must have really done a number on her ankle because before she could build up any speed she stopped quickly. Brushing the glass and scraps off his shoulder Bacchus tilted his neck to the side and a loud crack could be heard. ”Dirt off my shoulder,” he said to himself letting out a small audible ‘heh’. Taking a step forward the girl did something he didn’t want to happen.

<<<< “Get away from me!”

”@@@@” was all Bacchus had to say about that almost instantly he felt a white hot burn in his side. He didn’t need to know who shot at him the bang told him where it came from. Turning his head slightly Bacchus spotted a pair of officers with their guns drawn and pointed at him. “Don’t move!” one of them yelled before the other said, “Back up!” and reached for his radio and made the call.

”Yeah… you’ll probably need it… you see what I did to the minivan?” Bacchus asked nodding his head back while still trying to keep an eye on his target. ”Sides, how man of you lot I run through already?” Bacchus asked, ”I’m trying to conduct some business here so kindly, ####. Off.” Bacchus took another step towards Allison and was yelled at again, “Told you don’t move!” another shot fired and it hit Bacchus’s chest dead center and he looked at the hole in his shirt. ”Fine you want to play?”

Reaching into his supplies and the burlap sack that was meant for Allison if she wasn’t behaving, and Bacchus counted calling out to the police as doing just that he pulled out a small rubber mallet with a wooden handle. ”Here I thought you were going to be an easy grab.” Bacchus said looking towards Allison as the hammer started to expand in his already massive hand.

Seconds passed and it qualified as a comical prop seen in the cartoons (where he got the idea) but it was anything but funny. ”Stay put now love, be back for you in a second. The piggys want a word.” Bacchus said as he jumped into the air towards them careful not to land on anything.

By the time he landed both officers unloaded another five shots and showed no signs of letting their fingers off the triggers. Bacchus slowly walked towards them as fear started to become more and more apparent on their faces the closer he got. Leaning back slightly Bacchus took a look into the police cruiser and nodded his head happily lifting his large mallet into the air. With a quick swing Bacchus let the hammer drop right into the front of the car leaving a huge dent and making the car flip over in the process. Bacchus smirked and looked to the officers and nodded, ”Might need to check your head lights.”

One of the officers looked at the hammer and fell to the ground dropping his gun and wetting himself in the process, ”Ah, see my reputation proceeds me. Your lucky day though ya B@##!@#, ya see I have obligations I need to tend to before they get away.” Bacchus hefted the large mallet over his shoulder and looked back to the other officer who was frozen stiff while the other was on the ground in a puddle now, ”Oh, just so you know I decided to make this city my home for a bit longer…” Turning and walking away to where Allison last was Bacchus smirked, ”Be seeing ya gents.”

With another jump Bacchus landed to where the minivan was on its side clearing his throat he looked to see where Allison was. About four minutes passed since he left her and with her injured ankle she wasn’t getting far. Sniffing the air Bacchus looked around upset she didn’t stay put.

A bit late, but the police did arrive. Finally. Allison turned so she could keep an eye on the guy and began edging cautiously away. Which let her move faster, it seemed; if she ran, her ankle tried to collapse under her, but if she was careful it’d… well, still hurt, but be manageable and not collapse.

Wow, that was a giant hammer. Allison felt kind of bad for the police… but there wasn’t anything she could do and, well, it was their job. So as soon as the guy looked away from her, she turned and started walking in the opposite direction as quickly as she could.

Four minutes of quick walking, it turned out, could get you farther than Allison would have expected. Such as to an around a corner, if not a whole lot farther.

A corner, to another deserted street. Damn. Allison glared at the empty road as she tried to hurry down it, and folded her arms over her chest, focusing on that to ignore her ankle.

”I’m going to pretend you didn’t call me stupid fur ball” Bacchus said into the phone as he shrunk down the hammer and placed it back in the sack where it belonged. ”Well the cops showed, had to entertain them right? Can’t just let them stroll up and take me in.” Bacchus said arguing with Ulysses on the phone. He was still driving around waiting for the call, which should have been minutes ago. Time management was just one of the chimps specialties along with keeping Bacchus focused on a job. Taking a whiff of the air once again Bacchus grunted into the phone, ”No, I got her scent though I’m not a bloody hound I should be able to find her before I lose it.” Bacchus nodded his head once and hung up the phone and rounded the corner a little faster than usual.

Still in his ten-foot state Bacchus was taller wider and heck of a lot stronger but not much faster. Speed it seemed didn’t come with size, sure he could close distances faster but it always took him a bit more effort to kick out the speed. Sometimes it didn’t even seem worth it, running was for sissies and little girls anyway. Running never did him any good anyways.

Once he turned the corner the giant spotted the girl arms folded and walking funny as quickly as her leg would allow. Bacchus took a step forward jumped and landed in front of her by about twenty feet. Turning and facing her Bacchus smiled, ”Love, can you stop running from me now?” Bacchus shrugged his shoulders and cracked his neck, ”I’m on a tight time crunch and you’re starting to irritate me.” Bacchus said as he started to walk towards her, ”Pretty sure you saw me make short work of the Cop car and it wouldn’t take much for me to do something similar to you, however it was requested I take you without hurting you.” Bacchus said as he continued to close the distance.

Allison squeaked and jumped as the guy apparently fell out of the air in front of her. Unfortunately that didn’t do him the damage the phrase would normally imply; instead, Allison’s ankle twinged again at the jump, and she wavered on it. “Um.” The twinge didn’t prevent Allison from backing up, but it did limit her to doing so slowly. “No?” Despite the tone, it wasn’t really a question; there was no way Allison was going to stop trying to get away from the guy. She matched her expression to the tone anyway; false innocence and trust that didn’t at all match the way she edged backwards.

“Does kidnapping count as hurting me? Because, really, I think I object to it.” Edge, edge, and why the hell hadn’t Allison stayed with Aura again? Oh right, because she was sick of being helplessly dependent. Damn her useless mutation. “Very similar to how I object to being hurt, really. You know, like mental sick is still sick too. Kidnapping is mental hurt, I think, so really--” Allison squeaked again as she tripped.

It wasn’t a major trip, really; just a spot where one piece of sidewalk had gotten pushed up a bit, and her heel caught on the edge. But that left her weight on an injured ankle that couldn’t adjust, so down she went anyway, onto her back. “Ow.” Not a bad ow, the breath got knocked halfway out of her and her elbows were probably skinned, but that was about it. Apart from now being on the ground, not able to get up quickly, and in front of a kidnapper. But apart from that little detail, not a bad fall at all.