Chapter Forty-Eight - Unwise

Emily was very much uncertain. She didn’t know how wise it was to run over toward a problem, as opposed to away from it.

For one, while she was surrounded by an entire group of heroes, these were heroes with no real training.

Glamazon seemed to be the only one with an idea of what she was doing, probably from having gone on patrols with Silver Fox. The others? Hindsight seemed blatantly focused on his own wallet, Slaymaker seemed a bit brutish, and Cheatah seemed rather skittish at best.

Teddy was the only one that Emily found herself trusting, which was probably why she held on so tight to Teddy’s hand as they ran after the others.

She could have refused, could have turned around, and if asked later, she would admit that turning around would have been the brightest thing to do right then. But the peer pressure, the sudden urgency, and the shot of adrenaline to her spine all precluded thinking too hard about what she was doing.

They came around a corner and the group slowed down.

The street seemed perfectly ordinary at first glance. Cars parked along the side, a few people moving about, shops lining one side, a rocky outcrop on the other side of the street with a wide sidewalk cut into it.

It was definitely a nicer, if older, part of Eauclaire.

In the middle of the road was a very plain Onda Ivic the size of a small house. Its wheels straddled both sides of the road, wider than two people side by side, and the top of the car was nearly three meters up.

“What the?” Glamazon said.

“Size manipulation,” Cheatah said with certainty. She and Slaymaker were the only ones not obviously panting.

Hindsight pointed to one of the stores just a bit ahead of the oversized car. “Jewelry store.”

Emily looked at the shop, a small place, tucked in between two other stores, both high-end clothing shops. At first she couldn’t see anything wrong with it, then she noticed the small rack of bars carefully set aside next to a glass pane on the sidewalk leaning against the building.

There was no window before the shop itself.

“Crap,” Glamazon said. “I need to call this in!” She started to fumble with her phone.

“Let’s move in,” Hindsight said.

“They could have hostages!” Glamazon hissed after him.

“One guy, and he doesn’t,” Hindsight said.

“How do you know?” Glamazon asked.

Hindsight paused and looked at the taller woman, even with his face entirely covered by bandages and his goggles, Emily could tell that he was looking incredulous. “Because I can see the future?”

“Oh... right. I’m still calling this in.” She turned to the side, pressing her phone to her ear.

The others, Emily included, didn’t seem to know what to do.

“Okay,” Hindsight said. “We should split this up. I’m not a heavy hitter. I think... The Boss, you’re like me, right. You can teleport people?”

“Y-yes,” Emily said. “Just T-Ursa Minor.”

“Then we send in Ursa and Cheatah, they’re both fast and can hit hard. Slaymaker, you take the middle.” Hindsight flicked his hand to the side and a baton cracked out from his sleeves and deployed to its full length. “Let’s go!”

There was no time to argue, or contest, or do anything.

Teddy laughed a very disturbed and excited laugh and charged ahead, arms out by her sides in a T and her little legs pumping as she took off across the street. Cheatah just sighed and shot off after Teddy. The woman was fast. Not impossibly fast like some speedsters, but she moved like someone that could have been in the olympics, overtaking Teddy in a second and making it across to the shop before anyone else.

Just as Cheatah was getting close, a bunch of spinning bits of glass flew out of the shop, then popped into six-foot long shards that the speedster only narrowly dodged before they shattered.

A ladder sprung out of the front of the building, someone hanging onto its end before the whole thing shrunk down.

The villain, if they were an actual villain, rolled as they hit the road, then bounced to their feet.

Emily had all of a second to take in their costume.

It wasn’t all that impressive.

They had ripped jeans, a construction worker’s belt, and a pair of what looked like sturdy steel toed boots. Their face was entirely covered by a motorcycle helmet, and they had a jacket that might have looked cool, in a sort of punk-way, if they didn’t have a big off-white cushion wrapped over their torso by a few chains.

He was a rather short man, which made the costume look a bit silly and, frankly, cheap.

Small Package

Mischief Maker, Level One

Small Package froze up in the middle of the street as he took in all the people standing around, all the people in costumes.

“I’m an apex predator!” Teddy roared as she bolted at him.

The man ran forwards, took something out of his pocket, and flicked it forwards where it turned into a full-sized electric scooter.

With a hop that looked practiced, Small Package landed in the scooter’s seat and twisted the throttle to full.

Emily watched Teddy turn into a bear, but her sister’s first swipe missed the man entirely.

Cheatah started to run up after him, but the scooter was surprisingly fast.

And then, out of nowhere, Slaymaker exploded forwards, a burst of flame roaring out of the back of his costume even as his fist’s armour expanded and clanked until it was twice as big.

Emily saw Small Package’s eyes grow wide as he tried to jump off his scooter.

Slaymaker’s fist rammed into the spot where the front wheel of the scooter met its body with a crunch of breaking plastic.

Small Package went flying with a scream.

The cushion strapped to his chest burst, turning into a full-size mattress, yellow stains and all.

The Mischief Maker bounced off the cushion he’d been carrying around his neck, then rolled onto the street.

He was no more than ten feet from Emily.

“Sisterportation: Teddy!” Emily screamed.

Small Package rolled to his feet and was starting to run again when Teddy, in all of her grizzly glory, appeared before him.

“Soviet Smash!” Teddy roared as she climbed to her hindlegs and punched Small Package in the face.

Small Package flipped, rear over teakettle, and smacked into the ground helmet first with a crack that sounded distressingly painful.

Action Reward!

For teaming up on a fellow villain and taking him down, you have earned:

+ 1 Skill Slot!

His legs thumped into the ground a moment later, and Emily was genuinely worried he was dead for a moment before the man groaned and tried to turn over.

“Don’t touch him,” Hindsight warned. “I didn’t see if his power works on people. I don’t think so, but better safe than sorry.”

Emily nodded and approached Teddy to pat her side. It was always a little strange to just casually pet a bear that outweighed her so much, but it was still just Teddy under there.

“Did I do good?” Teddy asked.

Emily was quick to nod. “Very.”

Small Package groaned again, and reached up to grab onto his helmet. Glamazon rushed over. “Don’t!” she said.

The thief paused, and groaned something else.

“The cops are on their way. Unless you want your identity leaked all over, I’d keep that helmet on. We’ll have you in an ambulance soon enough,” Glamazon said. “There are a lot of us, and only one of you. Don’t try anything.”

Hindsight hummed something. He looked happy though, bouncing on his toes and all. “That was a nice bonus to another otherwise dull afternoon.”

Slaymaker and Cheatah walked over. “I felt rather useless there,” Cheatah said.

“You got him to run, sloppily at that. You did your part,” Slaymaker said. He was rubbing at his first, the armour having returned to its normal size. “Did you get anything from it?”

“Yeah,” Cheatah said. “Don’t feel like I deserve it though.”

“Take it. Early rewards are important.” Slaymaker looked over the street. The huge car blocking it off was shrinking, and the people that had been hiding before were coming out to gawk, though they were still staying away. “We made a mess,” he said.

“Nah,” Hindsight said. “No injuries, except for this idiot, and no major property damage except for some glass and such. It’s what insurance is for. Plus it’s a jewelry store. They’re practically asking for it.”

Glamazon shook her head. “Well done guys. We might have to give statements, so let’s just call this patrol done and stick around here for a bit? I’ll ask that the big wigs send over some drinks or something.”

“Could go for a cold one,” Slaymaker agreed.

“Drinks that can be drunk in public, when a kid’s part of the group,” Glamazon gestured to Teddy.

“Can I have vodka?” Teddy asked.

Emily held back a little laugh at the expression on Glamazon’s face. Maybe... maybe being a hero wouldn’t be that bad.

And then Small Package spoke. He was crying, of all things, chest twitching and convulsing. “They said it would be good. They said I would be safe.”

“Who said that?” Slaymaker asked.

“Maybe we shouldn’t,” Hindsight began. What they shouldn’t was never clarified though.

“The Cabal. They said I’d do well,” Small Package said.

Emily had a sinking feeling in her gut.

***