Chương 6: Deals Made, Trust Broken

Lyn came to, aching all over and with a throat that was on fire with dryness. Coughing turned out to be the wrong thing to do, though in her defense she didn't do it on purpose. The pain it ignited flared not just through her throat but down her entire spine like each vertebrae was bruised. Oh, she should never have- As she was pushing herself off the floor, she saw her hands. She saw her nails, human nails! For the first time in years she had nails again!

And fingers with soft tips that wouldn't shred whatever she touched too hard! And skin! Oh gods, it felt so goo- Ow! OW! That was pain again. Okay, things weren't as glorious as she'd hoped a magical solution to all her problems to be, but still she had normal skin again! Okay it was actually still a blue shade, a pale grey blue now, but it wasn't chitinous anymore. She looked down her body and saw them. Two glorious and normal legs! Right next to her- Oh, she was naked.

Looks like the new second body didn't share her original outfit. Lyn wasn't sure if that was better or worse, since at least this meant she probably wouldn't be destroying a pair of pants every time she swapped back to her spider body.... Oh gods she didn't own any pants anymore. Also, she was still naked in a weird magic house owned by someone who threatened to kill her right before she passed out. Lyn looked around in a panic, noticing a small chair near the mirror with something draped over the arm of it.

Something that looked like clothing. She pushed herself upwards with effort, everything hurting all over in the process. It took her several tries and a lot of frustrated tears to stand up but she managed it. The five steps to the chair were the hardest she'd made in her life, each one awkward and painful, but she managed it. Clutching the chair's back, she grabbed at the mysterious object and saw it was a simple ankle length black dress, along with a set of underwear in the seat itself.

Looking at the mirror, she saw a note taped to it. Thought you'd need this when you woke up – S She smiled at the consideration that Scarlet apparently had and the movement caused her to notice her reflection. It wasn't exactly an unfamiliar face staring back, somewhat between the face she remembered from old photos and Terrorantula, but it was so different than what she was used to seeing in the mirror for so long. All the jagged edges of her body and face were smoother.

She had actual curves again, not just smooth-ish but still blocky shapes. Her white hair extended slightly longer than the cut she'd settled on for years, reaching slightly past her shoulders, and, more importantly, no longer framed a forehead full of tiny eyes. Her overall eyesight felt less detailed, but honestly she covered those up in her costume most of the time due to how she tended to get a headache after prolonged movement with all of them exposed.

Not to mention their lack of eyelids made dust and hair a nightmare. Her remaining two eyes were no longer solid orbs of pitch black, but rather had ruby red irises swimming in the inky blackness of her sclera. She had a piercing gaze that gave off a slightly unnerving impression even after her attempts to soften it, but still ended up being such a massive improvement in her opinion. Her lips were tinged slightly violet against the rest of blue face and parted to reveal slightly pointed teeth.

Not that bad, honestly. She could still work with this. She tried a couple of expressions in the mirror with her somewhat new face. It still felt like her, both the girl she remembered being before the accident as well as the fierce Terrorantula who definitely didn't perform speeches in front of mirrors like this at home. Turning her gaze down, Lyn immediately frowned.

Beyond what you'd expect to see from a naked human body with grey blue skin (which Lyn wasn't dissatisfied with the overall shape she'd ended up with. She was hoping for a bit more muscle definition after fighting heroes for about a decade but she was sure the gym could help with that) there was this set of odd bars around her chest.

Not censor bars, though she definitely was planning on getting dressed as soon as she finished up here, but an odd almost bone-like cage wrapped around her torso like a necrotic themed villain who was really obsessed with roll cages had bolted something onto her upper chest. Unfortunately, acknowledging the existence of these odd bars made the gripping sensation they apparently were producing all over her torso suddenly become real, coming with a fresh new set of "aggravated bruises" sensation.

Lyn almost doubled over but managed to keep upright by pushing against the chair. She took a deep breath, struggling against the cage constraining her body, and tried to relax. A tickling feeling ran along her spine and down her… those felt familiar, but wrong in their placement. Tentatively, she moved what felt like a familiar muscle and the bars loosened and unfurled. As they unwrapped from her, her heart sunk as she realized what they were.

Four spider-like legs attached to her back, noticeably growing in length to match her height as they shuffled behind her to rest like a set of wings. Anger rose in her veins. She was supposed to be normal in this form! All this pain she was in, all of this effort and she was still a spider freak! Her body tensed, pain running through her which only fueled the rage. With a cry she snapped out, the four legs lashing downwards like whips.

The floorboards exploded and Lyn was catapulted to the ceiling with enough force to dent it and stick there for a moment before she felt gravity pulling her down. Panicking, she tried to stop her fall and felt those legs respond to a vague muscle memory honed by her many years of controlling eight of these things, catching her halfway down from the ceiling. Adrenaline-spiked, she took a moment before she realized what had happened.

Embarrassed, she lowered herself to the floor, carefully avoiding putting her bare feet on the splinters. Lyn quickly scooped up the clothing and began to dress herself, the motions still difficult, but thankfully the dress had a slightly opened back that didn't pull on the extra limbs she had as she struggled to pull it up. It was still something of a tangle to slip them through the back, even as she moved them with more dexterity than she felt she should have.

The fabric seemed to tighten once she'd gotten it where she'd liked it, much as many modern bits of fashion did with their self adjusting threads. A look at the mirror confirmed that the dress seemed to sit alright on her new body, not snug enough to hug her new curves but she didn't look like she'd thrown a set of curtains on. Still, the legs hovered behind her, shifting around in a somewhat confused way as she struggled to figure out how to let them rest. Nothing felt right.

"Let's see if I can't fold these back up," she muttered, focusing on trying to get them back into the shape she woke up in. Again, they responded to her intentions easier than she'd expected, and to her amazement seemed to shrink as they folded up around her. There was an odd sensation as they retracted, if they even were retracting, as they didn't feel like they were sliding into themselves. It was… more like there was less of them?

After they'd shrunk down, rather than the cage she'd woken up with, the end result seemed to be a small brace that barely curled along her lower ribs and over her shoulders. She realized as she examined the mirror that they were barely noticeable from the front, seeming like a small accessory she was wearing against the exposed part of her upper and mid back. If she got something with holes in it rather than a dress like this, she could probably pass it off as just part of the outfit. Odd buckles perhaps?

Alright, retractable spider legs. And ones that can pulverize solid wood and launch me through the air. I can work wit-"Oh gods," she cried as realization struck her.

"They're like Ned's." He'd been adding legs to his costumes for almost five years now, attached to a reinforced spine. They used some odd alloy and expanding polymers that were discovered by Dr. Irridium which let them expand the way they do without losing strength. Hers were definitely organic given that she could feel through them, but they looked almost the same, minus the metallic sheen. He could never know. Oh gods, he could never find out.

Several years back, she'd learned that she could spin web not just from her thorax but from her claws, which only sort of resembled Ned's webshots, and the jokes that idiot had made for weeks after she'd debuted it in battle had been mortifying. Worse, Leckter had repeated them to a couple of Ned's other rogues and they'd all asked if she was trying to be ArachTula and if she was planning on changing her outfit to match his.

Shortly after, she and Leckter had discovered that her webbing, unlike Ned's, was resistant to electricity and the zappy little shit had also almost learned if her venom worked on him, until a passing hero had ended up saving the supervillain. That had led to her first hiatus from the Evil Eight, though everyone collectively agreed to lie to the superheroes about it and say it was a fight over divvying up the loot.

1 She discovered when she looked up that she still blushed by turning to a darker color of her blue skin rather than getting rosy cheeked with the new body. Guess that means my blood still might not be red. Shaking off the mortifying idea that her nemesis would have a field day with the part of her magic solution that she specifically didn't plan for, she decided it was time to leave this place.

With agonizing slowness caused by dull agony prickling along every inch of her body, she managed to survive the stairs down, mentally cursing the Scarlet Sorcerer for putting this ritual on the second floor. The corpse wouldn't need to walk afterwards, clearly she should've gotten the dinner table. As she made it to the final few steps, she heard chanting in the next room that faded away.

"The house would like me to inform you that it did not enjoy that and would prefer if it didn't occur again," the shifting voice told her from the dining room. Coming around the corner, she saw the mysterious figure holding up a red cloud in one hand, twisting it around as they examined it closely. Trails of vapor seeped through their fingers and ran back down to the body, seeming to be pulled there by some unseen force.

The wizard held a jar up to capture some of it, before shrugging and dumping the rest of it back onto Maniacal's corpse. Placing the jar aside, they turned to face Lyn.

"I see you found the dress," their voice was high pitched and giddy, but somehow there didn't seem to be the same energy behind the words as the tone implied. A suspicious thought crossed Lyn's mind at noticing that, wondering if the voices being cycled through belonged to others. Her mind wanted to say a million things, ask a dozen questions, thank them for everything, complain of the pain, or even ask to leave, but the only thing that came out was "Why do I have these?"

Scarlet tilted their head slightly for a moment, "I put out a broad call for this work. The one that answered was a spider being drawn here for reasons I did not care to ask. It seemed familiar with you and wanted to help as much as it wanted ownership of my soul. It would seem it wanted to leave you with an extra gift." Lyn thought back to Ned's story of how he met the Queen of All Spiders on a midnight walk, and quickly brushed it aside. Nope, we're not doing that.

It could just as easily be related to her idol, Plotspinner, who she'd teamed up with years ago when the villainess had visited Victory City to steal a future predicting device. Okay, team up was a little generous, since they'd basically only exchanged maybe three words when the super villainess recruited the whole of the Evil Eight to run distraction missions. But she might've remembered her!

"I can have a portal ready in a moment to get you back to where my directions began, but I hope you understand that you'll have to make it home the rest of the way on your own. Do you need anything else?" Lyn was about to say no, planning on calling Celeste for a ride before realizing that she didn't have her communicator. That was built into her gloves, which were with her other body. Same with her normal phone which was in a pouch on said other body.

"Um, how do I change back?" she asked. The Scarlet Sorcerer chuckled with a deep voice like the sounds of rocks dropped in a river, "There should be a feeling 'outside' of you. If you mentally pull on it, the transformation should happen. Be warned that the process itself will be unpleasant at first. Would you like to try it here?" Lyn bit her lip (which felt better than that gesture had been in years. Yay, soft lips again!), she wasn't sure she wanted to shift in here with how cramped it was, and wasn't exactly comfortable with spending more time passed out again if it came to it.

"I'll try that later," she eventually decided.

"Hmm, well if you need any help, have your associate contact me the same way," they waved and Lyn heard something behind her. A glance back showed a hole in the wall of the cabin which exited into an alleyway. She turned back to see the sorcerer already returning to the body, letting out a frustrated hum as they picked up another jar and began opening it.

"Good luck with that. And… thank you," Lyn told them as she headed towards the portal.

"You're welcome, and please remember our deal should we next cross paths. I have a feeling I will need your services sooner rather than later," came their reply. The moment she was through, the portal immediately popped closed, leaving her in the alleyway with only a buzzing sensation in her head and aches all around. Okay, time to navigate the city back home, she resolved, deciding to try braving it in this new humanoid form. She managed about twelve feet, almost to the sidewalk, before she had to double over.

Oh man, maybe she should've asked to stay for the night. Sure, there was a corpse downstairs that the heroes had dropped off and would be back anytime for, and the Scarlet Sorcerer was kind of creepy and threatened to end her life if she crossed them but damn if it didn't sound appealing to just crash on a guest bed right now.

"Everything alright, ma'am?" The cadence of the voice told her everything about the person who had wandered over to her. Yay, a hero...

"I just had a procedure done and I'm a little out of it," she informed the costumed charity lover.

"I just need to sit down for a few minutes."

"If that's what you need, but let's get you out of this dirty alley, first," they said, the disgustingly performative smile they were no doubt wearing audible in their voice. It was so grossly happy. The self satisfied tone of someone without a care in the world, enjoying feeling like the big strong hero in the moment. Ugh, at least in a fight with one of them, you could get a few punches in to shut them up. Well except for Ned who just kept dodging and quipping.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. Wait. No. NO! She recognized the voice! NOOOOOOO! In horror, she glanced up and saw HIM. Godsdamn, stupidly happy animated eyes on the annoying fucking mask as the preening, cocky, wiseass, infuriating, idiotic do-gooder with the absolute worst timing leaned over her, extending his hand.

"Let's find you somewhere safe to rest," ArachNed laughed.

Azure Avenger gingerly landed in the opening, helping Secret Keeper down from his arms. It hadn't been a full day yet but something had pulled on him to come here again. Like last time, he was here without his team. Radiant Ruby, Green Guardian, and Sable Sneak all were helping out with clean up and helping out the civilians nearby to the warehouses from yesterday. Meanwhile Star Opal and Amethyst Archer needed the time off and he was more than happy to give it to them.

So it was just him and the team's old friend, not that he wanted the rest of them involved with this. Truthfully, he had hardly wanted to bring Secret Keeper into this, but they'd all insisted.

Despite the amalgamated monk technically belonging to the Library, and not sharing one of the Spectrum Gems that the rest of the New Aurora Champions all had, 2 they'd practically become part of the team with how much they hung around the hideout ever since Azure and the rest of his team had helped rescue them and stop a plot involving several stolen magical books unleashing an age of darkness in the middle of downtown Victory City.

"Is this the place?" the monk's four voices asked him. He caught one or two of them wavering. Azure nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Ahead of the two of them, in the middle of this pit between buildings, sat a squat stone tower with faded yellow banners streaming off the side, no markings on them. Cautiously, the two approached the door, neither surprised when it slowly creaked open.

The barren hallway welcomed them, the only feature outside the aged stone walls being a tattered yellow rug leading further into the dimly lit structure. A red glow around the corner at its end let them know this foreboding place wasn't abandoned. Azure steeled himself and led the way, mentally reaching out to the blue gemstone at his waist, ready to pull on its power at a moment's notice. The fact that his Spectrum Gem was primed, not idling in the rainbow color he normally left it, showed how nervous he was.

Despite having been here before and contracting its master for the job, as well as a lifetime dealing with villains of every sort within their own lairs, this place spooked him. He was not above admitting it. But he needed to be the one to see this through. Still, he'd spent so long as hero having his team to back him up that even with Secret Keeper here, he felt a little exposed, like anyone could sneak up behind him at any moment as he made his way inside.

As the two rounded the corner, they were greeted to the sight of the sole occupant of this cursed place. The figure was wrapped in a fine saffron cloak over top an ancient black vest and matching pants with gold embroidery. A violet shirt was stuffed underneath the vest, its ruffles exploding out from the vest. Yellow bandages ran across their arms, carefully and deliberately wrapped until they ended in black gloves which matched their black leather boots.

These gloved hands danced around a table full of all sorts of esoteric looking ritual components surrounding the body of the super villain known as Dr. Maniacal. The figure turned to them, a tarnished golden crown with a faded violet shawl flowing beneath it completely obscuring their head, and an elderly woman's voice that drained the air of any remaining warmth called out to Azure and Secret Keeper, "Good, good, you've all arrived."

Azure noticed Secret Keeper shiver at the attention from the being in front of them. He himself didn't love being forced to turn to them, but with what he knew and who he needed to impress, he was out of options when the Library turned up empty handed.

There was a good chance that if he sent the body over to the Library itself for further study by the rest of its scholars, or the Sanctum of the Arcane for the mages there to piece apart the mystery, or just over to Revolutionary Labs in Orion that within a week or two he'd have all the answers and more that he'd need. But the wait was too long. He couldn't let this trail run cold.

"I am still in the middle of my examination, though I expect I have the most important piece of information here," a rasping voice told them, as the figure held up an earthen jar.

"I regret to say that most of my methods have only reinforced the Secret Keeper's results, and the nature of the spell cast eludes my understanding at the moment, but we're working on that." Azure's eyes glided off the yellow individual and to the shadows at the back of the room behind them. He believed he saw faint movement, obscured by curling mists, flickered in the darkness.

When he'd made this deal, with the permission of the Secret Keeper, they'd said their methods would involve asking questions as much as examining, and warned against asking after who would be answering those questions. Azure could see the jaw working on the monk next to him, their natural thirst for knowledge warring with the understanding that the warning was made for a good reason.

"Still," a younger voice lilted, happily and dreamily through their words, "this should be good enough to collect on the bargain. Rest assured that if I discover anything else, you will be informed immediately."

The way this figure shifted between voices reminded Azure of Secret Keeper, but while the monk felt like a harmonious blend of learned individuals speaking as one, sometimes a single voice coming to the front on its own, this being's voices were disjointed and felt like they slid off them the moment they left their mouth. Like discarding something from themselves in a way that a lizard might detach its tail, or a shark sheds its teeth.

"What is it?" Azure straightened and began to move forward to accept the jar. The figure pulled back, their gloved hand resting protectively over the container, "It is the concentrated and undiluted essence of the magic used. It's not enough to tell who they are on its own, but if you cross reference it, you should be able to find who you're looking for." Secret Keeper nodded, "We have the facilities here to analyze such essence. Is there a reason you are withholding it?"

"I believe," they ran a finger along the simple markings along its side, "that I said this was enough to collect on our deal. I would like to start with my request of you, monk of many years and faces." The promise, a favor from each of them in exchange for information that could lead them to Dr. Maniacal's killer or anything more on the spell cast that ended his life.

Secret Keeper had approached Azure about this yesterday, telling him that there was an unaffiliated mage they knew about who might have the knowledge to help before the trail ran cold. The Scarlet Sorcerer. When Secret Keeper had first mentioned them, Azure had wondered if they might be joining his team, much as the monk had practically done when helping out Azure and the rest the first time.

Sure, there were a lot of color themed heroes out there that he wasn't really in a rush to headhunt, and based on how he'd initially formed the team, there was an informal expectation that you needed a Spectrum Gem to join up, but Azure hadn't ever made that an actual rule. And he'd thought if Secret Keeper was recommending them, then this mysterious mage might be the type to fit in with the rest of them. All notions of that evaporated instantly upon first meeting them.

Azure had worked with plenty of spellcasters since forming the New Aurora Champions, and even hung around a few of them before doing so, and none of them were quite like this one, even those that dealt with the darker arts and pacts. They turned out to be wrapped in mystery that eluded even the Multiversal Library Of True Knowledge And Enlightenment For The Betterment Of All.

All the Secret Keeper knew was where to find them, and even they hadn't expected the sorcerer to be dressed in a completely different color like this when Azure and them had first come by early this morning before the sun had even risen. The Scarlet Sorcerer had promised that the favors they would ask for would be reasonable, but Azure was preparing for a fight regardless.

He felt the power from the alien gem at his belt, readying himself to form something either to defend himself and the monk or to attack the spellcaster if negotiations fully broke down. He needed this to work out. Secret Keeper for their part, simple nodded, and announced in unison, "If your request truly is reasonable, then we shall be amenable to granting it." Azure couldn't see their face, but could feel the smile from beneath the veil, "It is simple enough. I request that you forget about me."

He saw the agent of the Library tense up immediately, "W-we are afraid that such a request is not possible for us. Per our mission, we record all knowledge and retain it within our form for all time." The figure shook their head and turned back to the corpse, arranging more of the components on the table, "Unfortunate." Azure got ready.

"We could alter the authorization required for all knowledge pertaining to you such that it is only accessible by others of the Library with sufficient service in our ranks," 3 Secret Keeper offered, their voices out of sync as they hurriedly tried to salvage this deal. They knew Azure needed this. Appropriately enough, they knew his secrets and kept them well.

"No, you can and will remove all knowledge of me from your person. I will accept that others in the Library might know of me for now, but this is what shall happen," they flicked a hand dismissively without turning to face the two.

"And to ensure it, I will call upon my second favor." Azure growled, "I'm not going to attack-""You will ask, sincerely, the Secret Keeper to remove the memories stored within them pertaining to me, calling upon any and all favors they owe to you for this," the Scarlet Sorcerer interrupted him as a spell leapt from their hand onto the arranged ritual on the table, a violet aura crackling between the various arranged objects.

Azure didn't know a lot about ritual sorcerery, but could tell a threat to destroy the evidence when he saw one. He bit his lip and turned to the Secret Keeper. Their face was obscured, but their eyes were still visible and full of a deep sadness. He felt a sting of betrayal, his own that he was going to inflict on them. This hurt more because they both knew that while the hero would never dare to strike his friend or attempt to beat them into submission, he would ask this. And arguably it would be worse.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. A single, tiny voice responded, "Please, make sure this is worth it." Azure pressed his eyes together, holding back his tears as he knew what came next would force his friends to betray their purpose, "Please, for the sake of all of us, and-" He choked for a moment.

"And to clear the debt you said you owed my team for saving the six Tomes of Tal'Agra, I'm asking you to do what the Sorcerer asked." The monk said nothing. They simply closed their eyes and brought one of the tomes chained to themselves in front of them. It burst open as their hand extended towards it, snapping to a specific page. Azure's eyes caught some symbols he recognized. He couldn't read it, but he knew what those symbols meant from the years of seeing them.

His own name was in this passage, and not as the Azure Avenger. It was proof that this deal, this meeting, this betrayal, was something Secret Keeper truly associated with him. They'd made this introduction to this Sorcerer for his sake. With a sigh, they wiped a finger across a line in the book, smoke rising off their fingertip and the page. In an instant, the short passage of some long forgotten language was burned out, erased from existence.

"Our business is concluded," came a youthful, satisfied voice that Azure swore he could almost recognize. As the jar floated near towards him, they suddenly spoke up, "As thanks for that difficult task, let me shorten your search. You need not go to the Library or seek answers from the scrolls of the Sanctum. Your own shared databases should hold the answer you seek."

Azure was examining the Secret Keeper, who was swaying on their feet, one hand clutching at their head and almost dismissed the words before they sunk in.

"How-?" he started to ask before finding himself, along with the monk and a floating jar, at what appeared to be the center of Middletown Park. 4 The first meeting this morning ended equally as abruptly, though thankfully it wasn't the dockside they'd found themselves in this time. He gently steadied his friends as they swayed back and forth and grabbed the jar. Gravity seemed to reassert itself on the container as he pulled it close and he quickly scooped it against his chest before it fell.

"What was that?" came all of Secret Keeper's voices at once.

"Where were we? Who was that?" Azure thought for a moment. He couldn't lie to them, nor did he think it was safe to help break the agreement that they'd made.

"You can't know, you made a deal to erase that knowledge in exchange for us getting this," he showed them the jar.

"It's the magical essence of the spell that killed Maniacal."

"We… remember this…" they touched the book they'd edited moments previously, wincing.

"We also remember… you asked us to forget, didn't you?" Their eyes pierced him. It wasn't accusatory, but it hurt all the same, especially with how much hurt was inside it.

"... Yes," Azure admitted, feeling small.

"We… did this out of trust, we think. We… don't… We should be alone for a bit now," they turned and floated away, their heart-wrenching voices trailing behind them. Azure wanted to follow, wanted to explain again why he needed this so much, but he knew he shouldn't. He looked down at the earthen jar in his arms, its weight heavier than expected.

"Fine, let's see who this killer is," he pulled on his frustration as he plotted his next moves, not wanting to feel the shame creep in instead.

"Then I need to make some calls."