Insidious Insects (18 ) : In the first week of July, the area around the tree is just buzzing. The call of the cicadas is loud and droning, and it’s constant. You start to hear it all over town, too. All sorts of insects seem attracted to the strange pods, and it’s not uncommon to find nearly any species curiously investigating. If you listen closely, you notice something else strange–it’s not just the bugs that you see making the familiar call of the cicada. It seems like it’s coming from inside the pods, too. Any pod that wasn’t leaking sap suddenly begins to snap open, and giant cicadas, crawl out. Their full wingspan can reach up to a foot and they’re hungry–and angry. It seems like the pods that were leaking sap were slowly rotting, but the ones that didn’t leak were being eaten from the inside out–and now that the cicadas have run out of food, they’re out for anything they can find. Though there are several notable differences between these insects and the common cicadas, their low, chirping wail makes them easy to find–as well as the fact that they spit acid. These bugs are incredibly hostile and will attack indiscriminately, powered or unpowered, human or alien, day or night. They have a protective shell that makes them easy to crush but they’re hardly the most menacing foe you’ve faced–but if they reproduce, you could be in some real trouble. Better to crush them now before they become Destiny City’s next invasive species…
Note: These creatures are a violent alien species that are aggressive and eager to destroy. They will attack everyone and everything within sight. The insects can fly, spit acid, and will try to burrow into the ground to hide. They are very fast and difficult to see. This RP can be used as a battle requirement for a character, separate from your ‘one youma battle’ per stage if there are two powered characters involved; you cannot write a solo and count this as a battle, and your character must be powered and interacting with another player’s powered character for it to count. This can only be used as a battle requirement once per character, but there is no limitation for how many times a player can use this prompt.


Unintelligible


Inhaling an acrid lungful of smoke, America basked in just how ******** awful it felt. Malby had cancelled their plans for the evening, for the third night in a row and America understood that it was his job to spend stupid hours in his car waiting to catch people cheating and the like. She understood. But he'd promised to take her with him to tonight's stakeout. But at some point something must've spooked him in the last couple days. Gave her some bullshit story about the nights in this city being dangerous.

Well ********>, if he didn't want her to go out into the dangerous city at night, he shouldn't leave her alone at home. He shouldn't have disappointed her. Shouldn't make her mad. Really shouldn't send her to the stupid nun school come fall, either. After all, if he's gonna treat her like some kinda delinquent, then she's just gonna live up to the that much as she can.

Not ten minutes after getting the text, America was slipping out of the apartment, wearing her best boots, slipping Malby's Camels into the pocket of her jean jacket. The baseball bat might've caught some adult attention if not for the mitt hanging off her backpack and flag print across her tank. Baseball, ponytails, and patriotism. Yee-haw, this girl is wholesome as ******** was an aggressively cheerful bounce in her step as she made her way to the worst part of their bad neighborhood. Where the abandoned building stared out at the street with their void-like windows. Every once in awhile you'd see something pass through one. Cats or squatters or whatever else. Definitely not a very nice place during the day, absolutely dangerous at night. The perfect place to vent the mounting, frustrated rage that had been collecting inside America since the last time she'd wrecked some helpless building, back before the move.

Of course, maybe this time it wouldn't be just a building take a beating. It'd been a long time since she had a good fight. Not since Prudie died, and the other kids just got too sad and awkward and scared of America to try crossing her line.

Tapping a playful tattoo against the concrete, the girl exhaled a cloud of smoke and wondered what kind of bugs the city was hosting to make such a racket at night, without even a pond in sight. Must be a big sexy mating time for the buggy wildlife. But as the buzzing increased, her steps began to slow.

It was the matter naturally good reflexes and a lifetime of being Enemy #1 in dodgeball that had her dodging the first massive speeding blur that came out her, the buzzing reaching a deafening crescendo. Spitting out the cigarette, America planted her feet and raised the bat with wide eyes and a growing, manic grin.

"Y'all gotta a ******** drone out here? Gonna lose some real money with me, gotta say," she commented trying to make out the thing in the darkness.

Things in the darkness, she mentally corrected, as several huge bodies rose in the distance. She was still thinking it was probably some a*****e's fleet of drones right up until the next one flew at her, fast as hell, and the bat connected with a vicious accuracy, exploding into a chunky spray of bug guts.

"Jesus wept," America hissed and then the rest were coming at her. Their speed was probably some sort of strength, their big edge against the rest of the world. But against the best batter the Dunstan Triggers had ever kicked off the team? It just made their end extra quick and exceedingly messy.

When nothing else showed up right away, America spun her bat her a few times, calling out into the night, "That all you got? Think you can take on Florida Girl with those fatass buzzy bodies?"

The buzzing increased again, and she was began bouncing on her toes to the rhythm of her pounding pulse, limbs arrogantly loose and eager. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, come at me."

Later, when she stepped into the empty apartment, exhausted and filthy with bug guts and street grime, clothes torn here and eaten away there, it was with a bone deep satisfaction. Anger soothed, hackles smoothed, energy burnt back down to tolerable levels.

"The ******** is wrong with this city?" America laughed to herself, grabbing a garbage bag to dump her ruined clothes in before trudging into the bathroom. "I kinda love it."