Chapter Twenty-Seven - Bearing the Burden of Being the Best Bear

Teddy barged out into the parking lot before the pizza place, took three steps, then paused to look around. Where, she wondered, was the oily jerk who’d tried to hurt the boss.

A noise from off to one side had her turning towards the path between the pizza place and the fence around the house next to it.

Teddy ran over in time to see the jerk flopping over the top of the fence and into the yard beyond just as Melaton ran around the back. “Where?” the heroine asked.

“Fence!” Teddy replied.

The fence was way, way too tall for Teddy to try and climb over it, and turning into a bear to go through it would take a bunch of time.

She pouted a bit when Melaton vaulted over the edge and landed on the other side with a shout of, “Stop, damn you!”

Taking to the streets, Teddy ran as fast as she could past the first house, then another, and finally a third where she saw the jerk running around someone’s pool. Melaton was one yard back still.

That was her chance!

She darted towards the boy roaring as hard as her small human throat could manage.

The jerk stared at her, wide-eyed, then whipped his arm around in a big half-circle.

Teddy only just had time to dive into a roll as a big splashing crescent of oil flowed past her head. “You jerk!” she called after him as her roll turned into a tumble and she ended up flopped on the ground as he continued to run.

Melaton landed in the same yard as them, so at least she’d won the heroine some time, but Teddy wanted to do a lot more than that!

Growling, she started charging after the two even as she turned into a big fearsome bear. She made sure that her mask stayed on top of her bear form because the Boss said that that was important. The elastic stretched a bunch, but it held.

The nice voice of that Ritish man who did all the documentaries rang in her head. “The North American Grizzly bear can run at a top speed of fifty-five kilometers per hour. Compare that to the average human running speed of twenty-four kilometers per hour, and the fearsomeness of a bear in full charge becomes even more impressive!”

“Holy crap! What the shit!” Melaton screamed as Teddy shot past her and through a wooden gate.

She was disorientated for just a moment as the barrier crumbled out of her way, but one sniff was enough to find the oil-jerk. He took one look at her over his shoulder, said some very rude things, then bolted even faster.

“No! You’re mine!” Teddy roared. Her bear-form roar was a lot more scary than her normal girl roar because the man’s scent changed from someone who smelled like oil and pizza to someone who smelled like oil, pizza, and poop.

He jumped over one more fence, this one the sort with chain-links between metal posts. Judging by the way he hissed when he grabbed the top, he’d cut himself on the little metal twisty bits at the top.

Good! Teddy wanted him as hurt as he’d hurt the boss. But more.

Chain links weren’t meant to deal with a metric ton of awesome bear energy, and the entire fence bent over as Teddy crashed into it and shoved it down to the ground.

Oil-boy was still saying bad words while fishing for something in his pocket. And then he pulled out a lighter, spun around, and flicked it on.

Teddy roared as a gout of burning liquid burst out of the boy’s hand and spatted over her coat. It wasn’t normal fire that would just beat against her thick fur, but wet fire that sank in and burned through.

It hurt a bunch!

“Take that you--” the boy began.

And then Teddy stood up on her hind legs and punched down with a big balled-up paw.

Bear beat oil.

Action Reward!

For defeating an opponent in a running battle, you have earned:

+ 1 Skill Slot!

Teddy slumped back down and started licking her fur over the spots that had been burned the worse. Most of it was on her shoulder and a bit down her left forepaw. The fire stopped, but it still felt tender and her fur was all matted and burned. It didn’t smell nice at all.

“Well done,” Melaton said as she ran over. She was panting a bit, but seemed to be in good enough shape that it wasn’t too bad. The heroine bent over the fallen oil guy and placed a hand over his head. “Watch out for me for a bit,” she asked.

“Yeah,” Teddy said.

The lights in the houses around them were all on, and at a glance, she could make out some people staring out of their windows, some of them with phones pressed to their ears.

That wasn’t good.

The sound of someone coming up behind them had Teddy turning, but it was only the Boss. “Teddy!” Emily said.

“Boss,” Teddy replied. “I got burned.”

“Oh, oh no.” The Boss ignored her own lack of breath and moved closer to Teddy to look over her wounds. She didn’t touch them, but she did hover her hands over it as if she didn’t know what to do. “Will it stay if you turn back?”

In answer, Teddy returned to her boring normal body, one hand up to make sure her mask was fixed over her face properly.

The Boss winced as she looked at the ugly skin over Teddy’s shoulder and down the part of her arm not covered by her dress. “We’ll need to put some water on that,” she said. “Maybe some bandages.”

“Yeah, okay,” Teddy said.

“Is there anything I can do to make it better?” the Boss asked.

Teddy nodded. “Pizza.”

“Pizza?”

“With lots of meat,” Teddy confirmed.

“When you two are done discussing your meal plans for the evening,” Melaton said. “We might have a few things to go over.”

The heroine stood up from over the oil guy’s knocked-out form and glanced around.

“Crap. We’re going to have the cops here soon.” She gestured to the Boss and to Teddy. “You two should head out. We don’t need to bog you down with all the paperwork and the questions they’ll ask. You didn’t actually commit a crime or anything, but they’d bring you in on principle and then you’d need to fend off recruiters for the next week.”

“I, that would be bad,” the Boss said.

“It would,” Melaton agreed. “Head out for a bit. I’ll call you tomorrow, share what I got on our target.”

“Oh, okay,” the Boss said. “Um. Tonight was... well, it was educational?”

“Uh-huh,” Melaton said. “It was that. You girls be careful, alright?”

The Boss nodded, grabbed Teddy’s unburnt hand, and pulled her along.

“Are we getting pizza now?” Teddy asked.

It took a while for the Boss to reply. “You know what, Teddy? I think we are.”

“Awesome.” Double rewards!

“But we’ll need to get changed first, and, um, maybe we can grab it to go and eat it at the dorm?”

That way they could go to sleep right after eating. The Boss was real clever. “Yeah, I like that idea,” Teddy said.

“Good, good, and, um, Teddy?”

“Yeah Boss?”

“Thanks. You did really well tonight.”

Teddy grinned big and proud. Triple rewards! It was the best night ever.