I stare at the familiar hologram. Beneath the inscrutable lenses of my mask, my brow furrows at the sight of the first supervillain I’d fought. There had been a great deal of fuss earlier about this whole simulation, and while I didn’t understand why they - The Guardians - couldn’t have accommodated, I did not object. Slowly, I turn my head up and to the right - towards a particular patch of artificial sky.

[i]I’m in a room. There are people, people who are magnitudes taller than myself, staring down below. I move my six limbs rapidly, out from underneath the seats, towards the ventilation shaft.[/i]

I frown, and purge errant thoughts from my mind. At this moment, Hana Salem is hanging out with her friends. Not in the SATCOM, training to fight supervillains with bugs. Swarm is not Hana. Swarm does not know Andrea Faust. So Swarm would act accordingly.  Which meant facing off against Dragoon one more time. Hopefully for the last time. 

I look back to static Dragoon, and briefly wonder what the objective of this scenario was. Dragoon was defeated, locked away in a cell of the Guardians’ supermax prison. Was it to test the versatility of our tactics? Was it to prepare us for the possibility of a revenge scenario? I tilt my head to the side and smile a little at the next thought. Was it wounded pride? After all, a group of children managed to do what the pro capes couldn't for a decade. 

At great cost, though.

I hear the one in the black mask speak my name, so I turn my head to heed his words. Then, in response, I give him an affirmative thumbs up. There aren’t enough bugs to speak for me, and my voice… Well, muffled or not, I sound too similar for my own comfort. And, admittedly, I’m too lazy to speak loudly enough past the muffling.  Following the de-facto leader’s orders, my body moves mechanically towards the back line, past the two heavy hitters, and into the shadow of a building. 

I feel them above and below. They - the bugs - are like little phantom appendages, squirming, seeing, feeling, tasting, scenting beyond my own perception. The SATCOM really is an expansive structure, capable of simulating not only a rough city block, but several layers of city-underground. That's where most of the artificial insects had gathered, though there were still those in the buildings and the streets. Expanding my senses throughout them all is less like flicking a switch, and more like turning on a leaky faucet. Water's always dripping; there's just more now. 

A group of assorted insects make a checkmark in front of Network. Swarm was in place.

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Unleash Your Powers: [url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/rolls/1228]11[/url]