Part 3
"I control bugs," she revealed, not looking all that impressed with her ability.
"Huh," I replied thinking on that. Bugs? "Bugs are cool."
So she could control bugs? That was informative.
She frowned at me, giving a sort of half-hearted glare then slumped.
"No seriously," I said to her. "I mean... I'm only going on comic books here, but from what I get even the minimum for bug control can be pretty handy," I stated. She's said 'bugs' not 'a bug' after all, and even that could be leveraged if used correctly. "What kind of bugs can you control? How much can you control them?" If she could go 'Doctor Bees' on someone that would be all kinds of-
"General invertebrates?" she said interrupting my thoughts. "I can't control everything, but if its got an exoskeleton I can generally control it."
My eyebrows shot up, and a grin crossed my lips, "That's pretty good! There are a lot of bugs with some good tricks that could be useful. So how many?"
"Well... it's not really a set number, but more a radius of control," she explained. "I can manipulate every bug within... about half a block?"
I frowned a bit in concentration, "That's a bit more limiting. I mean, better range than anything I got by a ton, but... Okay how many can you influence at once?" If she was limited to one at a time its only practical use would be assassination, and maybe item retrieval and delivery. Though even a bigger bug would have problems carrying-
She frowned, "Well... like I said, I can control every bug in half a block."
My thoughts promptly derailed as I tried to process just what she said, "Wait, seriously?" I questioned, "All of them?"
She nodded.
"All at once?" I asked again just to be sure.
"Yes," she responded, apparently not seeing the big deal of it.
"Holy shit," I responded, stunned. So she was Aquaman powerful. Well Aquaman lite, but still all the bugs!? "If you- Why the heck did you act all jelly about my discount doom blasts then?"
Maybe she was limited in how she could direct them? If she had problems getting them to back off then that could cause her a lot of problems. Dropping every bug in half a block on someone could get pretty damned lethal. I had a potential power I hadn't bothered to try and develop for a similar reasons.
"Well you can use your power directly at least," she argued. "If someone gets close up to me, I'm pretty much helpless."
"Yeah and if I'm up against someone who can attack at even half your range I'm pretty much screwed as well," I countered. "Seriously, all the bugs?" I questioned. "That's an insane amount of power..." which might very well be her problem.
"They're just bugs," she said.
"Just bugs..." I snorted. "Do you realise how many people die a year to killer bees? Or army ants? The only difference between 'only bugs' and 'community devouring swarm' is pretty much behavior, and you can change that."
"Didn't do me a lot of good last night," she grumbled.
"Well whoever you fought last night must have been a complete monster," I snorted.
Then paused, "You fought someone last night?"
She blushed, looking down.