Agnes grumbled. She had to admit that she definitely had the best roommates in the world, but it was still an irritating fact that they had to handle this aspect of her powers. Agnes could remember the first time she told them about her need to “molt” between powers. Felicia thought it was awesome but Carol, queen ice-*itch that she was, ran out of the room pretending she had to throw up. But, for the most part, it had not been all that bad an experience. They saw the wings, they saw the carapace, they even saw the stingers! Carol suggested Agnes should shoot herself over having to wear the carapace, but Felicia managed to drive the blond out of the room after such a remark.

So, yeah, they were pretty understanding (sometimes) about the whole molting thing. So long as Agnes removed the shell and cleaned up after herself, everything would be fine.

Today was one of those days. Agnes had just finished molting, had removed the evidence of her shell, the cheap blankets, and even showered all before her roommates had returned from their classes. But there was something different today. Having just molted into her stinger phase, Agnes glanced down and saw something odd with her arms. There were these strange, straight, faint lines that ran down the length of her forearm from her wrist to her inside of her elbow. Idly she poked at the lines, wondering what they possible could be. They even appeared on her legs, from her knees down!

Agnes arched a brow. In the end she could only hope that it was some side effect from her latest molting and nothing more.

Shaking her head, Agnes tried her best to ignore the strangeness of the situation. She really had to stop being so paranoid. It was not like she was going to suddenly change again like the last time when she got her wings and started molting.

No. That wouldn’t happen this time. It’s just crazy.

She sighed and grabbed her coat. Felicia and she had plans today.

Felicia smiled encouragingly as she sat in the passenger seat of her red Kia Soul, trying to give Agnes a pep talk. Agnes was situated behind the steering wheel and as staring out at the road in front of her. She had managed to ace the written test awhile ago so she had the permit but she could only drive with a licensed driver. Thankfully, Felicia did have her license and she was more than happy to help teach Agnes to drive. Though the young insect queen was miles away from actually owning her own car, she figured that it would not be a terrible crime to at least attempt to learn early.

She took a breath as she clicked her seatbelt into place, adjusted the mirrors, revved the engine a bit just to remember where the gas pedal and the brake pedal were.

“Good, Ags. You’re doing good. Much better than when my older brother learned,” Felicia grinned.

Agnes smirked. “He couldn’t have possibly been a slow a learner as me.”

“Hah. Slow wasn’t a problem with him,” Felicia laughed. “He ran the car through our garage wall!”

The car erupted with laughter. The pair of young women were having a grand laugh at the expense of the other’s sibling, which was a welcome change from the tension that Agnes was having. She was slowly getting the hang of driving but getting behind the wheel still left her extremely tense and just a little stressed. She was getting better though and Felicia did her best to keep the young runaway calmed down. Before long, Agnes had slipped into the flow of traffic and drove along with the rest of the cars on the road.

Away from classes, this is what Agnes had planned for the day. Though the stingers in the palms of her hand provided a bit of an obstacle, it was not as if she couldn’t overcome it. She managed and she drove just fine with them. People with far different issues managed to drive, so why couldn’t she?

Onward they went, ready to continue with their adventure for the day.

Agnes sighed as she sat outside a coffee shop, lounging back in her chair as she sipped from her ice blended coffee drink. She smiled a little dreamily as she looked out at the city around her. She truly was beginning to appreciate New York a lot more in the past two years than she did when she was living with her parents. Being able to go out, live among the people, work, learn, all of it meant so much more to her than she ever could have appreciated when she was living at home.

Turning her gaze back to the table, she smiled across to Felicia who was sitting there, looking off into the distance and sipping from her hot tea. Agnes was glad that she had made a friend like her. Felicia was understanding, caring, strong, and she even taught Agnes to be strong. That was a lesson she could never thank her enough for.

Idly Agnes pulled the straw out of her drink and attempted to lap up some of the whipped cream and chocolate that was scooped up onto the bottom. Unfortunately it proved to be just a tad bit heavy and splotted itself upon her lower lip.

“Aw, shoot,” Agnes said as she attempted to use her tongue to lap up what was attached to her lips, but utterly succeeded in only looking stupid, she grabbed a napkin from the table.

Felicia smirked and giggled as she watched Agnes. “Ags. You got something…” she motioned with her hand all over her face, “…around ALL of here.”

Agnes smirked and stuck her tongue out at Felicia before she wiped away the last remnants of the confection. She tossed the napkin into a nearby trashcan and beamed at her friend. “Am I beautiful again?”

“You were before?” Felicia cackled with laughter.

The two girls broke into another fit of well-meaning giggling as they began to converse about their classes, both prior and upcoming. Agnes relished this peace of mind and allowed herself to feel happy and fun again. Even since her break up with Rebecca the runaway had tried to damnedest to not sink into the same depression she did when Rhythm left her. Felicia was good at helping her keep her head above water.

Inevitably, though, the conversation steered to that exact topic.

“Come on! Not even once?” Felicia asked with surprise.

Agnes shook her head as she continued to sip her drink. She didn’t want to get so quiet about her break-up, but it was just one of those things that happened. She really hated to talk about it, but she knew that Felicia was her friend and deep down she really was just trying to help her out. As much as Agnes didn’t like to think about the pains in her life, one of the most helpful ways of dealing with it, was to just face it.

Agnes agreed. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to go down it kicking and screaming though.

“That’s, Agnes, that’s just not right. How long were you two together?”

“Nine months,” Agnes responded without pause. It made it seem like she was keeping count, but in all honesty, Agnes was just as shocked as Felicia was about the situation. Nine months was a lot to just throw away.

“Together for nine months and…she didn’t even call you? Text you? E-mail you?” Felicia shook her head. “That’s messed up.”

Agnes shrugged. “Whatever. Not like I care anymore.” Casually she started to clean up the mess she left behind from her muffin and began to stuff the crumpled up napkins and straw wrappers into one little clump. As she did this, she looked up to see Felicia giving her…the look. “What?”

“Agnes Nicholas, don’t you lie to me,” Felicia said with a firm nod. “You can’t get out of a nine month relationship and just shrug it off.”

“Well, I did, end of story,” Agnes said with a firm nod.

“Agnes…”

“Felicia, what do you want me to do?” Agnes said as she turned her attentions back to her friend. “I loved her, okay. I did. And then…she just let me go. Over a dream, over a stupid, nonsense dream, for which she didn’t even let me explain or try to work out. No, Felicia. I’ve cried enough, I’ve lost enough sleep, and I’ve felt rejected enough. I can’t…I can’t…” Agnes sighed as she felt momentarily lost for words.

Felicia frowned a little as she watched Agnes. It was obvious that she never meant for their conversation to be steered in such a way but it was too late to take anything back.

Agnes merely looked up, slightly defeated.

“I loved her, okay?” Agnes said with a pained sigh. “I loved her so much. And then kicked me out of her life as if I were trash she couldn’t give a second glance to.” She shook her head. “I can’t think about it anymore. I just can’t. I need to move on.”

Felicia knew of the dream that Agnes spoke of. She herself had been part of that nightmarish world as well. Though she never met Agnes in the world of the apocalypse, she had heard of the Hive Queen that lived out near the wastelands. She heard rumors of the towering spires with the sky blacking out the sun with clouds of insects. In the world of the future, even at the end of civilization, that was a terrible thing to have to witness.

In this apocalypse, Felicia herself worked at some pits let by a giant bug. Living with Agnes, she was getting used to the pests, but there was still something disturbing about working for a giant walking, talking one in the future.

It was because of her particular brand of powers, though, she was allowed to work there. Felicia, depending on which hand she touched a person with, could bestow upon them great luck or terrible luck. It was useful when someone wanted to rig the fighting matches to give an underdog a particular leg up, or a strike a fan favorite down. The bug, Roach, loved this type of anarchy.

But sitting here, talking with this obviously hurt woman, Felicia saw no signs of the monster she had heard rumors of in the confusing dream.

If she could see that, why couldn’t Rebecca? Felicia was quickly growing a distaste for that redhead. But she voiced none of that. Instead she simply patted Agnes on her shoulder with sighed.

“Sorry, Ags. Come on! **** her, alright? You don’t need those negative vibes,” she smiled warmly and helped Agnes clean up. “Besides, you said you’d take me to the bug show today.”

Felicia, though still a little fearful of bugs, wanted to help her friend. Even if it meant facing those disgusting creepy crawlies.

Agnes was a bit downtrodden again. She really didn’t want to think about Rebecca today but it just seemed that she couldn’t get away from it. She knew that Felicia had good intentions, it was good to talk about these types of things. But there was just no way that Agnes wanted to talk about it. She really was trying to move on now. Breaking up with Rebecca, well, after everything they had gone through, it just made the young runaway feel like garbage, to put it in the simplest terms.

But maybe that was her own fault. She did so much, depended so much upon Rebecca that what did she expect was going to happen when it all backfired? Agnes broke things off with a very sweet young woman because of her attraction to Rebecca; she loved her with absolutely everything she had and, in the end, it just meant nothing. None of it, according to Rebecca, none of Agnes love, caring, tenderness, understanding, patience, none of it mattered a single iota to Rebecca when she had a dream tell her the type of monster that Agnes could become.

It was that kind of realization that not only made Agnes upset, but angered her at the same time. Being together, loving someone else, that was supposed to come with a sense of understanding. It meant that even when things got tough, you don’t give up. If you really loved that someone, you should work through it.

Agnes would have worked through things with Rebecca. She knew she would have. But every day that she didn’t get a phone call, a text, or even an email, it was slowly dawning upon her that Rebecca must have never felt the same way.

Maybe in the end she really didn’t love her. How could she if she had never been in a real relationship anymore. It was false from the beginning. It must have been. The alternative, the idea that Rebecca was fickle enough to end things over something so small and so quickly too, just hurt her heart too much to think about.

So, even while sitting at the coffee shop with Felicia, Agnes knew what she had to do. She had to move on. She had to evolve…

With only a few minutes of driving, Agnes was actually beginning to feel a lot better. Though her body was naturally tense in these instances, it was enough to actually make her forget the feelings and struggles she had been thinking through. With every passing car on the road, Agnes was actually feeling those sensation seeping out of her, as if someone was sucking the poison from her very body. It was a welcome relief.

Felicia in the passenger seat, offering advice and tips when she could, actually made the driving experience Agnes’ best! She was driving like a pro, moving between cars, turning at the right speeds, signaling appropriately; the time ticked on and Agnes was feeling that she was practically getting the hang of this. Maybe, with Felicia’s permission, she could even use this car to help her taking the driving test? She hoped so.

It was as they passed another watch repair shop on the corner that reminded Agnes to check the time. She glanced at the dashboard and saw the time glaring in all its digital glory. She found it a bit odd that Felicia wanted to go to the bug museum, but she chalked it up to the young woman wanting to help her through this difficult time by doing something she wanted to do.

Agnes was thankful for that. As a matter of a fact, she was a little curious about it. The last time she was at anything like this, well, she was turned into a ViewTube sensation. But that was so long ago! She had to have a better hold on her powers now, right? Besides, that last time, she had Sveta with her and Sveta had amped up her powers to a wide degree. This time had to be different. She wasn’t scared anymore.

“Oop! We’re going to be late for the bug museum,” Agnes smiled over to Felicia. “You, ugh, still sure that you want to go?”

Felicia nodded eagerly. “Yes of course! Why wouldn’t I?”

Agnes shrugged, not removing her eyes from the road once. “Oh, you know, you’re a little skiddish around bugs.”

Felicia waved her hand dismissively. “If I can share a room with Carol, I think I’ll be fine.”

Agnes laughed heartily but nodded. Carol really could be impossible sometimes. And far worse than any bug Agnes had ever come across! So, it made sense. With a firm nod of approval, Agnes turned on the street and headed for the bug museum.

Agnes was actually able to drive to the museum with little to not incident. Felicia, of course, was a big help in keeping her calm, but it was not something that the young runaway desperately needed. She was beginning to think that maybe she actually was ready for the test. Not that she wanted to get too cocky, but it was good to know that she was not going to utterly fail at this as she had originally thought.

Proving herself wrong could be fun from time to time.

Needless to say, the two girls made it to the museum in one piece. Agnes and Felicia disembarked their vehicle and strolled into the building that had the large banners on either side of the door. Briefly they eyed the giant prints of the magnified insects, glanced at one another, then turned to head into the building.

Agnes could practically feel the apprehension emitting from Felicia’s body, but there was something that was more prevalent. As soon as she walked in, Agnes felt herself shudder. Insects. They were everywhere inside the building. And each of them knew she was in the proximity.

Stepping into the museum was almost like stepping into another world for Agnes. She could feel that tightness in her chest, remembering what happened the last time she got close to this many insects. Havoc broke out the last time, havoc that she didn’t want to see a repeat performance of. But she had little choice right now. She knew she couldn’t shy away from bugs the rest of her life, she needed to make sure that she had a handle on her abilities. Thankfully it was looking as if she did.

With Felicia by her side, Agnes walked, boldly, into the room and let her gaze sweep around the interior. Inside was a bug lover’s dream.

Built into the walls were several aquariums, all of which held a mini bug environment. They contained, leaves, sand, small plants, whatever the home of their held insect was, it was replicated inside those little glass walls. And boy did they have ever insect imaginable! From roaches, to flies, to wasps, ants, beetles, butterflies, and everything else in between. There was so much and so many of them that Agnes was actually having a hard time focusing! It seemed that with every step inside of the establishment, she could hear the chitter and chatter from the other sides of the glass.

Obviously she didn’t know if it was just because of her powers or if she was just being paranoid. Either way it was unnerving.

“Eww,” she heard Felicia say. Agnes smirked, quelling her paranoia, as she stepped over to her friend. Felicia was leaning down looking inside one of the cases at some rather large cockroaches. “Are those, you know, like the time that you…?”

“No,” Agnes said with a firm shake of her head. “Those are Gromphadorhina portentosa,” she blinked as she Felicia looked at her a little blankly. Agnes smiled. “Madagascar Hissing cockroach.”

“Ugh, it hisses at you?”

Agnes just grinned and nudged Felicia. “Only when it’s disturbed. Or attracting a mate. Or, um, fighting another male.”

Hiiiiisssssssss

Felicia backed away and Agnes chuckled. “Stop disturbing it. Come on! I want to see what else is here…”

A pair of beady eyes stared around through a second of thick coke-bottle glasses. They eyed the containers, they glared at the insects within, they judged with the ferocity of a thousand blazing hot suns. He used to loved insects, he really did. They were beautiful to him. But that was before they betrayed him. That was before, almost two years ago, when the turned traitor and put him in the hospital.

And a horrifying time it was. Years of injections, of anti-venoms, of physical therapy, and still the most he could do now was shuffle thanks to the aid of his cane. His body degraded, skin hanging loosely from his bones, face sunken and sickly, it was safe to say that Arthur Slump looked nothing like he did those two years ago. Before the time of the betrayal, before his plan went into action and was thwarted thanks to mutants. Well, ONE in particular.

He still remembered those piercing blue eyes of a girl. And the voice, a voice that was a mixture of millions who all wanted revenge.

Arthur gurgled as he leaned on his cane, breathing heavily and stopping at the nearest tank. Inside of it, he saw several beetles shuffling about, minding their own business and oblivious to the world outside the glass. His eyes narrowed in anger as he meekly waved his hand. He pushed into the insects the command to “fight” and fight they did. Within moments, the insects had tore one another apart and left only heaps of shells around the aquarium.

He smirked in his satisfaction. His body was frail, dying, barely able to survive outside of a hospital, but his powers were stronger than ever. He’d make ever insect suffer for betraying him. Every last one…

Agnes was feeling better the more that she walked around the museum. Stopping at a few exhibits, she eyed the insects within and could see them all skitter, flying, crawling closer to the glass to get a good look at her. Two year ago such behavior would have freaked her out, but it seemed that watching it just made the young runaway smirk and laugh a little lightly. The insects were cute as they all clamored for her attention. There were times when they all really made her feel like an insect queen.

Felicia noted this as she smiled.

“From everything you told me, I didn’t think you’d have so much control,” she commented.

Agnes smirked and nodded. “Yeah. I guess that I am just getting a better control over things these days. Before it was rough. I could barely get upset without them all losing control. Now, though, it seems as if they’re finally all falling into line."

The chattering began to calm in her head and Agnes smiled gratefully at that. The one problem with being the queen of swarms was that o occasion she could hear them, or her primal side, trying to creep in through her ears. But Agnes was steadily learning to look past all that. Maybe it was because she was just getting used to the sound, or maybe she was learning a degree of control in blocking them out. Whatever the case, Agnes was actually feeling good today; good driving experience, excellent control of her powers, she had to smile.

A glance at the palms of her hands and she eyed the stingers. Now, if only she could learn how to retract or hide these barbs a bit better, she knew that she could be golden.

“Hey Ags, check these things out.”

A tilt of her head and Agnes stepped over to another display. She smiled a little as she peered inside the glass and found two, large, multi-legged centipedes. They crawled over the packed dirt and soil of their home, up and over a think branch that still had a green leaf or two. To most they were probably the ugliest and creepiest things ever, but even Agnes was a little drawn to them.

“Wow, Giant Amazon Centipedes,” she muttered as she leaned down a bit to take a closer look at the creatures. She wondered if they were attracted to her too. There weren’t considered insects, were they? They’re bodies were far different from normally classified insects.

But, leaning close, she was surprised to see that both had suddenly taken to her. Both extra large chilopods skittered close to the edge of the glass and peered up at her, wriggling their legs against the glass attempting to get closer.

Felicia smirked, even though she was freaked out by all the legs. “Huh, looks like you made a couple of new friends.”

Agnes had waved off Felicia’s comment with a smirk. Leaning over, she gently placed her fingers along the front of the case, watching as the centipedes squirmed and withered in an attempt to get in contact with her. She had to wonder just how far her abilities stretched. So far she had only known insects to be affected, but a centipede was not technically an insect. And yet, it still was drawn to her, almost as if it were any ordinary roach, fly, or wasp. The thought caused the young woman to think to herself. So deep was her thought on the matter that she didn’t notice the frail form shuffle into the room behind her.

Arthur smirked as he passed a display of leaf cutter ants and watched them set about destroying one another. His powers had only grown since he was hospitalized. His body was failing him, he couldn’t eat his favorite rich foods like burgers, steaks, or bacon without extreme pain, but he comforted himself with the idea that he would make every single insect in the world pay for their injustice.

How dare they. How dare they listen to a scrawny, pale little first above himself!

The thought caused a sneer to come across his face as he turned to inspect the next exhibit. It was in that passing glance of a two young women that he suddenly froze. The voice pronouncing ”WE ARE LEGION!!!”[/b] screamed in his head and suddenly Arthur found himself transported back to that day.

A soundless cry of torment and anger choked itself in his flabby throat. Arthur couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe that the little tramp had found her way back into crossing his path! So infruriating was the knowledge of that that he did everything in his power to keep from smashing his cane across the back of her unsuspecting head.

No…she deserved a worse fate. A fate filled with the indignity that he had had to suffer! But how…

He turned, eyed the cases of spiders, including black window and brown spiders, and grinned wide. Their poison would be good enough…

“Haha, wow, they must really like you,” Felicia said as she peered at the centipedes and were squiggling harder against the glass.

Agnes just nodded. “Weird. I always thought my powers just affected insects.”

“Well, that’s an insect,” Felicia said with a nod. “We are in a bug museum.”

“Actually they aren’t considered insects,” Agnes explained. “They are more related to crabs and lobsters.”

Felicia merely shrugged. “A bug, is a bug, is a BUG.”

Agnes laughed heartily at the comment. Shaking her head she turned as she looked at a display contained an entire ant colony. The dirt inside was pushed up against the glass so that visitors could see the intricate tunnels and pathways that were dug throughout by the workers of the colony. In a hidden pocket, Agnes eyed the large queen that was situated, calmly, laying her eggs a while her community built and dug for her.

She almost had a sense of sympathy for the creature. She knew exactly what it was like to be surrounded by insects that only wanted to protect her and keep her safe. It was nice to feel safe, but also a bit binding.

Straightening up, Agnes turned to see how Felicia was doing when—

SMASH!![/b]

Agnes jumped as she felt her spine suddenly arch in panic. Spinning around, she immediately looked for the source of the disturbance. Everything looked pretty normal: display cases, people running scared, the murderous glare of a man she didn’t know…

Gulp.

“You!” Pronounced a sick looking man as he pulled his cane from several glass cases that he had destroyed. “You little witch!”

The next few moments were a blur. Agnes squeaked as she watched the man admonish her and call her names. She didn’t know why she was being screamed at, though. She didn’t know the person, he didn’t know her (or so she thought), so why was he acting so cruel? Agnes narrowed her eyes as she watched the man, trying to figure what it was about him that was familiar and terrifying. Maybe he was a follower of her parents? She wouldn’t be surprised. Terrified, but not surprised.

What came next was what started cranking the wheels of her memory. Felicia gasped and began to pull Agnes backward. Before them, from the broken cases, came several rather deadly looking spiders, all of them marching in single file and pointed with intent towards her.

“Get her! Kill her!” the man screamed, quickly becoming breathless and leaning against his cane.

Bugs and spiders under his command. They were all following his orders and the spite in his rang such a familiar bell in Agnes’ head that she felt it ring.

“Agnes, come on!” Felicia shouted. “We need to get out of here!”

But Agnes was too busy cranking up her memory and trying to piece together what was going on. The bugs, the spiders, the angry voice, she knew him. From somewhere, from someplace, she knew who this man was…

“AGNES!!!”

She blinked and returned to her thoughts just in time to see a pair of black widows lunge at her…

The scream that fell from her lips was loud and frightful. Agnes was normally much calmer when it came to being around creepy crawlies, but she knew how dangerous black widows can be. And it definitely didn’t help that they were lunging at her with the obvious intent of biting. Agnes dodged to the right, trying to put distance between herself and the spiders. Of course, though, she couldn’t leave Felicia behind to fend for herself. Gripping the young woman’s gloved hand, she pulled her as hard as she could along to the side.

Felicia gasped but complied as she dashed off and around the corner of a doorway. Agnes tried her best to keep her stringer from piercing her friend’s hand but the thought of the possibility was just far too distracting. Almost as soon as she grabbed Felicia’s hand she let go. She hoped that she was following her into the next room.

As soon as she stepped into the next area of the museum, finding people looking about in confusion, Agnes ducked down behind the wall and felt her heart thundering inside of her chest. It was slowly dawning on her exactly who this man was. She remembered the incident clearer, the thing that got her notoriety on the internet, that made her a fearful joke to so many of her fellow students at the mansion. It was a fight was him. Only afterward did she learn his name; Arthur Slump.

“Where are you, you witch!?” he screamed from the opposite room. She could hear more glass breaking and the skittering of more legs on the ground. His control over them must have been so much stronger.

“Agnes,” Felicia gasp as she pressed back against the wall. “Do you know who that guy is?”

The insect queen nodded.

“He…it’s…it’s not right. I…I thought he had died,” she said as she peered down, watching tiny shadows skitter closer to the doorway. “L-Last I heard, he…he was supposed to be dead—“ she jumped when she looked down and noticed that several insects rounded the corner she hid behind. Leading them…a pair of large centipedes.