Chapter Fifty - Riding Owl Night

Athena didn’t think she'd like the motorcycles at first. They were big, and really noisy, and they stank a lot. But the nice biker guys gave her a cool leather jacket, and a less-cool helmet that was a bit too big for her, and then they sat her down behind this big, mean-looking woman who had a huge ‘hog.’

It turned out that, after a couple of minutes of hanging on for dear life, she got used to the roar of a dozen bikes all rumbling down the roads as one big unit, and soon she was laughing and sticking her arms out like wings to catch the wind.

The ride ended up ending way too soon with the gang stopping by close to the dorms. “Here we are, kid,” the big lady whose hog Athena was on said.

Athena jumped off, making sure not to touch any of the hot parts because one of the beard guys told her that she might get burnt if she did. “Thank you,” she said as she took off the helmet.

The lady took the helmet, then ruffled Athena’s hair.

“Will you be okay, little lady?”

Athena nodded. “I’ll be fine. Thanks.”

With a few more good-byes and a lot of thumps to her back, Athena was off and heading back home. She kinda hoped that big sister Emily wasn’t there yet, because if she was then that might mean that Athena would maybe be in a bit of trouble.

Not too much trouble though. Big sister Emily was the best, and she wouldn’t punish her little sisters too hard when all they were doing was trying to be the most villainous villains they could be.

She arrived by the dorms, and waited until someone was approaching the doors before making her move. They young man eyed her as she grabbed onto the door to keep it opened, and seemed about to protest, so she blasted him with her power and slipped past while he looked up and around as if he saw something in the dark.

Athena fiddled with the zipper on her jacket as she rode up to the fifth floor, then it was straight to big sister Emily's room.

It took all of a second upon entering for her to notice that something was wrong.

There was no big sister in sight, not even an annoying Teddy. Instead, there was a strange guy standing with his back to the door.

Athena pulled the door shut behind her while her eyes narrowed.

Big sister would have told her if she was expecting someone, so this guy, this guy was trouble.

“Hey,” Athena said. She pulled the reins off her power and started carefully flooding the room with just a tiny, tiny bit of it.

The man spun around and looked at her. “Oh, uh, hey,” he said. He said very guiltily.

“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” Athena said. This would be a great opportunity to test her new-found confidence. She just had to keep in mind all the cool tricks her biker friends had taught her.

“Uh, yeah, I’m a friend of Emily’s?” he tried.

Athena scoffed. Even Teddy was a better liar. She puffed out her chest, brought a hand up next to her chin, and struck an intimidating pose. “I don’t believe you,” she said.

The man blinked dumbly, clearly taken aback by Athena’s scariness. “Uh, right. Look, I’m sorry I just walked in, but the door wasn’t even locked.”

Athena made a note not to mention that to Emily. “Who are you?” she asked.

“I could ask the same,” he said. “You’re not the bear girl.”

So, he knew Teddy. That was nothing. “I’m big sister Emily’s strongest sister,” Athena said.

Technically, since she was the only sister in the room, she was the strongest in every sense. That didn’t matter though. Athena started to press in with her power.

The changes weren’t obvious, but they were there. He shifted a little, eyed the door behind her, then rubbed at the side of his neck with nervous energy. “So, uh, do you know when Emily will be back?” he asked.

Athena’s eyes narrowed. “How about you tell me who you are?”

“Look, kid, I don’t know you, and frankly, I don’t trust you, okay? I just... I just need to talk to Emily for a bit.”

Athena sighed. “I understand,” she lied. Her power started to push in even more. “Big sis should be back any minute now. Do you want something to drink, maybe something to eat?”

She pressed her power, wrapping it around so he’d doubt any food they left around, then, when he hesitated and took a small step towards the door, she latched her power around that and made the idea that something bad was behind that door feel very, very real.

“Uh,” he said. “I should, um.”

“Sit down,” Athena said. She tried another pose to see if it would help. “Come on, it’s safe in here. But you might not want to go out.”

“What? Why not?”

She shrugged with false nonchalance. “It’s a dangerous place out there? All sorts of scary people.” Athena’s grin was predatory. “So many dangerous things.”

The man started to sweat.

***

“And that’s how I figured everything out,” Athena said. She tried to keep the pride out of her voice, but she’d done such a good job and she knew that Emily would be proud, so it was hard.

The weird man, who’d called himself both Jacob and Alea Iacta, was still on the floor, though he’d moved over so that his back was to the wall and his knees were drawn up to his chest. She stopped using her power on him as soon as big sister Emily told her to, because she was just obedient like that.

“So,” Emily said. “You left the dorm to go help us, then you ran into some biker gang... accidentally joined them, then came back here and did... that to Alea?”

Athena nodded. “Yes. that sounds about right.”

Emily took a deep, deep breath. “Okay,” she said.

“I did good?” Athena asked.

“You... uh, sure.”

Athena beamed. “If you want to question him, he’s all softened up.”

Having Teddy help with the interrogating would have been nice, but the werebear was currently cocooned in a bunch of blankets on the edge of Emily’s bed, and the only help she was providing was with some background noise from all her snoring.

Emily walked over to her chair, spun it around so that she was facing the weird guy, then sat down. “Okay,” she said. Then to make sure, she said it again. “Okay. Al--Jacob. Jacob, can you tell me why you came?”

The man nodded. “I...” his eyes looked around, a bit nervous and crazed. “I met some people. They contacted me, said they know what I was up to. Said they could help. But, but they sounded suspicious.”

“Go on.”

“I used some of my power, did a few coin flips. And... they’re bad, real bad. And they know a lot about me.

“Who are they?” Emily asked. “Do you have a name or anything? How did they contact you, and why did you come here?”

“Here’s safe,” he said. “I looked around, and I found your place. Heard someone talking about you, followed them for a bit. Just got lucky. I’m out though. Ran out of luck when I found the room and got in.”

“The door wasn’t locked?” Emily asked.

Athena tensed a bit, then she nodded. “Must be his powers,” she said.

“Hm.”

“I need... I don’t know. They could be anywhere? They could be listening right now. I need more luck, more to be safe,” he said.

“Who are they?” Emily asked.

“The Cabal. They call themselves the Cabal.”

***