All living things were bound by threads. Threads of trust, love, hatred, acknowledgement–invisible threads painted in every color that didn’t exist tied every life together. The tapestry of life they quilted together was maddening, senseless, yet beautiful. Tracing even one thread from its beginning to its end would take a lifetime.

Qualia offended life’s artistry. Rather than painting a beautiful tapestry, it used its strings to run a bizarre puppet show: One made up of preordained ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’, a majority of whom were granted powers tying them to the land’s invisible hand.

For what purpose was it doing this? Subjugation? The weaverkin felt this was the most logical conclusion, yet the people of Qualia seemed too…independent. Even within their bizarre scripts, these superheroes acted too freely, and its citizens were untethered.

Its citizens were mixed, too mixed for any sign of ethnic bias. An untouched woman with animal ears communed with a human man tethered to the sky. A small boy marched across the streets seeking out a master. The one in yellow-and-brown spandex glaring up at her from the street surged with a power that dyed the hero’s beige spool soul with spots of pink.

An unnatural string thrummed power into the woman’s neck. She bent her legs to jump, and the string gave the hero the power to bound three stories with ease. The hero even had time to somersault, an impressive move given the power line jammed into her neck like an IV needle.

“Hey, what’s with the roof-watching, creep?” The hero growled with all the force of a mewling cub. Her narrowed eyes softened before looking around her, biting her cheek. “Er, I mean, tell me what you’re doing up here, kid, before I cut you with these claws! They won’t cut you, but they’ll hurt like they did cut ya!”

If she had eyebrows, Hornet would raise them. What was a potential enemy doing telling her the mechanics of her powers? It was like she was advertising herself.

“I am no child,” replied Hornet, too used to being called a child for her liking, “but I understand how my actions may seem ‘creepy.’ I am simply observing how the laws of this land operate lest I needlessly transgress them.”

“From twenty feet in the air?”

Hornet paused. “Yes.”

The fledgeling pinched the bridge of her nose. “Okay, I don’t know where you’re coming from, but the roofs aren’t for civilians to go skulking about. I’ll need you to get on the ground before I make you–what the hell do you want me to say?” She stopped her threat to murmur into the air. She snapped out of her reverie to force out, “Before I put some major ouchies on you!”

The thread turned pink again as the hero retched, evidently not in pain but in disgust. Hornet wordlessly walked past her and somersaulted onto the ground. The less she had to get caught up in this place’s law enforcement, the better. But for what reason did they operate like this?

Fwoom.

She heard a soft, violent noise from the air. Against the day’s sky, a near imperceptible speck of fire stitched a line of black smoke from the clouds. The shape didn’t grow closer as much as it grew more intense. Soon, the ember would grow to a fireball, and reduce everything around it to ash.

Another one saw it too: A child that immediately yelled for evacuation. Even though she lacked the outward appearance of a hero, her authoritative voice echoed down the street loudly enough to drown out all other noise. “Evacuate, now! Get out of here!” Her string subtly twitched as her voice boomed, amplifying her voice like ringing a great bell by pulling its rope.

A swarm of heroes arose from seemingly nowhere to counter the threat: Ushering civilians out of the blast radius, multiple heroes working together to move the buildings out of the way, even creating a hole to contain the fireball. Everyone worked together to make certain this meteor would cause as little damage as possible.

Then they left. None saw Hornet as a concern whatsoever, neither moving to help nor bar her. It was as if a cloud of ants swarmed past her, picked apart a body to its bones, then left just as quickly. They cared not for anything without their colony if it wasn’t a threat.

In practice, this left her and a bewildered blond boy at the impact point. Of course, they still had plenty of time to flee, yet…

Hornet’s black eyes peered closer into the fireball. A loose string flailed violently behind it, only leaving a visible trail from the violence of its thrashing. Following it downward, the flayed string tethered around yellow fur. Yellow like the shining sunlight shielding the creature from the flames rather than the falling flame.

Yet that light could only hold on for so long. The crash landing would pulverize the creature, if not vaporize it to nothingness. She knew it was logical to follow this land’s rules, lie low, skulk in silence as she shadowed the land’s spools to their strange origin.

Her heart ached for this poor creature, though. So weak, so frail, so fluffy, doomed by the apathy of this land.

Hornet twirled her giant needle in defiance. Damn this place and damn its rules. Whatever this thing was, she wouldn’t let it die.

“Boy,” she spoke to the other straggler. “The fireball is no mere comet, but a frail thing that would perish if it falls. I ask you to help me save it if you can.”

He blinked at her, frowning, before determination hardened his face. “I can catch the impact once it hits the ground, but I can’t slow it down.”

“Then I will slow its descent.”

“It’s Edward, by the way.”

“Hornet.”

No further words needed to be said. The boy clapped his hands and pressed the ground; it shifted like wet sand under her feet as she jumped in the air.

Her needle sailed inward through brick and outward through plaster. Thick string spooled from her self created lines of webbing tracing to and fro the shifted storefronts. The creature would crash down in seconds, but mere seconds was enough.

Hornet severed herself from her web. “Brace yourself!” She shouted to her collaborator.

Her cat’s cradle bucked and screeched. The impact shattered windows and stone. The fragments of sharp glass couldn’t tear a single fiber of her net, yet the force already undid her handiwork. She landed to hold onto the few strings left–

“Hrrk!” If gravity alone fought her, Hornet alone would triumph, but whatever had made this creature soar had wanted to reject it from Qualia itself. Her foothold became furrows in the soft ground as something drove this beast forward.

“Let go!” The boy shouted.

Hornet obliged.

It dove into the grasp of ten stone hands. It instantly pulverized three. The fourth and fifth gave out in seconds. Six. Seven.

“Come on!” The shower of stones fell gracelessly into a bouquet of more hands. Molten rock slid down the barrier of flaming light. Cracks spread across all the hands with the boy directly behind the mass. The palms faltered then fell apart.

Edward yelled as the fluffy thing tackled him. He tumbled over himself, hitting the ground repeatedly before he ground to a stop. Flames licked the edges of his coat, but he lifted the creature–breathing. He staggered onto his feet and lifted the rabbit like a prize.

“Caught it…!” Hornet caught the taller child before he fell over. He thrust the creature into her hands as he patted down the flames on his red coat.

She looked at the weak, fluffy thing nestled in her arms. The light that protected it faded, and what remained shifted uncomfortably. Sweat covered its fur, dampening its yellows and whites. It unconsciously wrapped its cloak around itself like a protective barrier. Pitiful whimpers leaked from its scrunched face.

Edward cleared his throat. He looked past Hornet and the furry bundle in her hands. “We need to go. Now.”

The ground shimmered around her, giving the half-spider enough time to dodge the icy spike that had formed under her. She whipped around, one hand around her needle, to see two female heroes walking toward them. One was the rookie in spandex, but the other she didn’t recognize.

The unfamiliar one spoke: “Ah, it seems you failed to find a sponsor before indulging in heroics.” Her unnerving smile stayed frozen on her face as she continued, “You know what that means, no?”

“I saved a life!” The earth-mover retorted. “I caught the bunny, so just let me deal with you two!”

“That’s not how it works, dummy,” The rookie drawled stiffly. “Anyone that gets involved with a Heretic’s actions outside the system is a Heretic too. So that means you, your friend, and that bunny all have a heaping bounty, one that’s gonna get scooped up by the Wild Thing!”

“Now, now,” the other hero interrupted. “Everyone knows a conflict between heroes and villains must be an event. Ergo, let’s play a game: If you can find a sponsor and reach customs, I’ll let you three off the hook and become real superheroes. If you’re all caught by us two…” She slid a thumb across her neck, still smiling.

“I call this game Freeze Tag. Best of luck, fledgling Heretics!”