After quietly pocketing her latest find, Miss Calculated surveys the wreckage rollup one final time before taking a few steps away.

"Hmm, I know you joked about burying her corpse under this mess, but I feel like that would just be excessive at this point? Also, short of re-arranging it all, I believe we've combed over it all well enough to find everything of value, short of gutting the copper to sell for scrap. I imagine that is a bit… Beneath the gentlemen in attendance, though." Deciding she's more interested in continuing on to lunch, Miss Calculated speaks up to redirect the group's attention.

Lucas turns to face her with a large smile, relieved that he didn't need to be the one to call for the end of the impromptu looting session.

"Ah, uh, yeah. Besides, we're already pretty late for lunch as it is, yeah?" Right after Lucas finishes asking this, Jonathan's stomach answers before anyone else has a chance to.

This, of course, results in three people laughing and one gaining a red face. If you need to be told who is doing what in this instance, then I don't think you've been paying attention to this novel so far.

Once he's managed to get his laughter under control, Lucas notices how quiet Willy has been, deciding to look down at him. He's greeted by the sight of Willy's entire head inside of the otherwise empty bag of beef jerky, licking the last lingering crumbs of flavor stuck to the bottom.

'!! Where'd he get that!? No fair!'

[...It was in one of the cars.]

"Aw man, did you eat all of them?" Lucas asks this in a slightly pitiful and oddly hopeful-sounding voice. In typical Lucas fashion, he's not really mentally accounting for where the uneaten jerky would potentially be located, were there any left.

Willy proudly lifts his head straight up in the air, his single bark lifting the bag up off of his snoot slightly, its sides billowing out from the force of it.

At least this time around, Jonathan gets to laugh at Lucas's expense.

Once she's sorted out her own additional round of laughter, Miss Masher walks over to stand next to her sister. After looking around the area, she appears thoughtful for a moment.

"You know, shouldn't Chi have been here by now? You think she missed us, and is already waiting for us at the restaurant? Maybe we should call her..?" Finally voicing out her thoughts, Miss Masher ends up looking at Miss Calculated with a questioning expression.

Miss Calculated's left eyebrow starts to raise with incredulity, but she composes herself and smoothes it out fairly quickly.

"Well, yes, she certainly had more than enough time to meet up with us by now… Ahem, sure, I'll call her." When she starts to pull out her phone, there's a stifled giggle off to Lucas's left side.

After a moment of thought leading to a belated understanding, he realizes it wasn't Jonathan.

'Wait, she's already here?'

[...She has been for a while.]

'Seriously? How long?'

[She made it over to check on Jonathan just a bit before you, but I assume when she noticed you showing up she decided not to make her presence known.]

'The fuck? Why'd she stay hidden this whole time then?'

[My guess would be to avoid having to help move car parts around.]

'...I can't even be mad.'

Once Miss Calculated taps on her phone a few times and brings it up to her ear, a familiar melody starts ringing out from about two feet to Lucas's left, promptly accompanied by louder giggling.

Jonathan is startled from the sudden sound, snapping his attention to the side in the most alert action he's made since waking up from his recent piggyback nap.

'Oh, he didn't notice either, I don't feel bad.'

[...He was unconscious and we were just commenting on how sluggish he was while waking up. I'm going to speculate that 011 didn't bother mentioning her presence to him, as it's aware that she's non-hostile.]

Miss Masher has started chuckling as well, but Miss Calculated has, somehow, remained completely deadpan.

There's a quiet beep as the melody stops playing, and Miss Chievous has clearly answered the phone, presumably also bringing it up to her ear. Not that Lucas has any way of knowing beyond pure speculation based on the sounds.

"What's up Calc?" Committed to the bit, Miss Chievous is still remaining invisible while going through the motions of the routine.

Miss Calculated has begun walking down the sidewalk once again, continuing to lead the way to their destination. This is, in no small part, to hide her facial expressions. She may be experienced at playing the straight man to Miss Chievous's antics, but it's certainly not easy, even with practice.

"Oh, you know, just making sure everything is okay on your end. You've certainly taken quite a long time to show up. Mash was worried that the reason we didn't see you was because you missed us, despite how eye-catching our rather noticeable actions were. She didn't want you to spend a long time wondering where we are before we made our appearance at the restaurant, in case you were ahead of us. Wouldn't want to make you worry up until we popped up into your sight." As the density of visibility references increases, Miss Calculated has trouble keeping a level voice. Falling into her own choked laughter, she can't keep the joke running any longer and ends the call, stuffing the phone back into a pants pocket.

Yes, pants pocket. Women's clothing with useful-sized pockets, how revolutionary.

Ever since the phone call was in full swing, Miss Masher has been openly laughing, and Miss Chievous hasn't been far behind in terms of volume.

Lucas was fairly actively chuckling as well, but was consciously suppressing it a bit to try to actually hear Miss Calculated's jokes, appreciating their dry humor. He nearly snorted after every single one thanks to trying to bite back his laughter, though.

Jonathan, however, has been fixedly staring in Miss Chievous's general direction, trying his best to glare at the empty space of the sidewalk beside them.

As there's not much point in maintaining her powers any further at this point, Miss Chievous suddenly comes into view, more or less right where Jonathan is staring knives.

She has tucked her own phone away as well, into a decently sized black messenger bag she's now carrying slung diagonally across her chest.

"How long have you been there!?" Jonathan doesn't even bother waiting for their laughter to trail off before scolding her in an accusatory tone, full of the imposing malice of a drowsy 14-year-old in the middle of getting a piggyback ride.

Needless to say, it's not highly effective.

Stifling her laughter enough to compose an answer, Miss Chievous has such a huge impish grin that it is nearly enough to serve as a response on its own.

"Oh, you know, just before you happily called out 'dad'!" As she says the exact word Jonathan didn't want to hear from her, Miss Chievous starts cackling while he curls up to bury his face behind the base of Lucas's neck, achieving a new high score in embarrassment.

Turns out, you can't trigger a rollback from embarrassment alone, because he definitely crossed the threshold required, had it been possible.

While he makes a high-pitched whine, the other three people quite openly laugh at his expense.

Willy tries to give Lucas a scolding pair of barks for laughing as well, but even he seems to have a laughing tone while he does it.

'Oh man, she's never gonna let him live it down, will she?'

[I doubt it. Here's hoping that's the only word she focused on, and not the fact he used the word 'task' as well.]

'...Shit.'

Lucas has managed to get his laughing under control, but it's largely due to the sobering thought that Miss Chievous now knows a potentially hazardous keyword.

'Should we… Be worried?'

427 pauses for a moment while putting serious thought into it.

[Were, no, WHEN she tells Miss Calculated, she could perhaps come to some conclusions with enough information. However, I cannot think of any connections to system-fearing villains that they have, so the danger is potentially limited? The sisters are collectively cautious enough that even if they have their own suspicions, I don't think they'd use that information recklessly. Perhaps… You really are, in fact, best off befriending them. Since you're already past the point of them noticing your suspicious behavior, you should instead focus on motivating them to be your allies instead of potential opposition?]

'...I feel like that was already gonna have to happen anyway, with the way Miss Masher seems to be looking forward to the gym she decided I'm going to have?'

[Fair enough. Now it's just one more reason. Even if Miss Calculated doesn't already have enough reasons to be wary of you, it's just a matter of time, regardless. I can't help but think that it's essentially unavoidable for you.]

'...Did you really have to put it that way?'

427 would absolutely be smiling right now if he could, given the way he's laughing.

-----

Lucas total kills: 7

Lucas total deaths: 11

Lucas total assists: 1

Lucas current GDV: 12.17 (-.01 net change)

Lucas's fame level: 4.25* (Beyond just local, viral meme tier. Local levels are fairly high.)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 2.75* (More than just passing suspicion for some paranoid individuals)

Jonathan total kills: 6

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 3.78

Jonathan's fame level: 2.75* (Mostly just local)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 2.75* (a few paranoid individuals are suspicious)

Willy's fame level: 1.25* (Anonymous meme fame, local fame as 'Xenoclast's dog')

Supervillain social circle size: 11

-----

Little character theater:

Jonathan, displaying a vibrant range of reds: Nooo!!!

Willy is trotting by Lucas's right side, matching pace with him, and is quietly panting out his own laughter.

Lucas is silently sulking, but at least it isn't externally exposed.

427's laughter isn't fading in the least, relieving perhaps a bit too much of his worried stress at Lucas's expense.

Author, hammering a piece of sheetrock over the poor suffering fourth wall that received multiple blows this chapter: Nothing to see here.

Mr. Quacks, balanced on top of the author's head while supervising their work: Quack!