The Butcher's Bill 2.1

The teleporting had necessitated a wardrobe change as well. Up until a few days ago, I had been making changes to my costume to allow for plenty of loose folds that could be used to anchor hidden bugs. Unfortunately, dangling fabric tends to catch on fire when you ignite the atmosphere around you. (So did dangling hair; only the fact that I'd had it tucked under the cowl of my mask had saved my last physical reminder of my mother.) Luckily for me, Parian was literally superhumanly talented with a needle and thread. I saw myself teleport into existence through the eyes of my surviving bugs; a slim figure in skin-tight armor, arms and legs tightly corded with muscles that had appeared almost overnight, courtesy of Mongrel's regeneration and self-alteration powers. I had rejected the idea of adopting Butcher's haphazard design scheme, but I wanted to keep as much of her useful equipment as possible, which meant that as far as my new costume had a 'theme' now, it was weapons and weapon-related accessories. I had a fireproof holster on the back for the bow and a fireproof scabbard on the hip for the sword; rounding out the weapon collection was a pistol on the other hip, several knives in shoulder harnesses and in boots, and a multitude of pouches for silk line and other tools. Since weight was no longer an issue, I had added armor plates in strategic locations. When you added in the insectlike mask and copious amounts of black and grey paints, the overall effect was somewhere between SWAT member and soldier ant - androgynous, efficient, and lethal.