Chapter Forty - Time to Go

Emily gathered up her little sisters, feeling a bit like a farmer chasing after chickens as she did so. Trinity was all over the place, poking at things and asking the heroes and police officers all sorts of questions. Athena was talking to an investigator, telling the attentive man a very inaccurate summary of what had happened, and Teddy...

“Ursa Minor, it’s time to go,” Emily said as she approached Teddy.

Teddy was standing off to the side of all the commotion. Not that she was alone. In fact, it was far worse than that. She had a crowd of people before her, maybe two dozen in all, with only a flimsy line of police tape between her and the crowd.

“Aww, but Boss, I was just telling my comrades here about the glories of communal work,” Teddy said. She turned back to the crowd, a big proud smile on full display. “Like I was sayin’ for the world to be a better place, you need to get rid of anyone too busy owning stuff to realise that things can be better. Everyone should own a bit of everything so that no one owns anything. Like the Boss here, she’s really good about sharing. The other day we got pizza.”

“Uh,” Emily said as the crowd’s attention fell onto her. It was only through force of will that she didn’t fold in on herself. Mostly they were older people, with a few who had their phones out. She had the impression, from all the smiles and poorly hidden laughter, that they thought Teddy’s spiel was more cute than anything else. “We’re heading back, I didn’t want to leave you behind.”

“Are we going home, or are we going to our secret base?” Teddy asked.

“Ursa Minor, you’re not supposed to talk about the secret base!” Athena said. “It’s a secret.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess,” Teddy said. There were some titters in the crowd.

Emily couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

They crossed the street, passing through a crowd of people that were quick to ask for signatures and pictures. Trinity helped by taking all the papers people were handing them to sign and stuffing them into her dollar-sign bags without looking twice.

Once they were in the alley they’d used to spy across the street, they found Sam waiting for them. “Heading out, Boss?” she asked.

“Yes,” Emily said. “Before anyone back there changes their mind.”

“Where to?” Sam asked as they started down the alley. A few curious onlookers followed to the start, but none of them stepped in.

“I... I don’t know. Somewhere quiet?”

“The train, then,” Sam said. She raised her phone and wiggled it around. “Got a text from our fabulous friend. He finally got around to replying. Makes a girl feel awful when a boy takes that long to reply, you know?”

“What did he say?” Emily asked.

“That he’d meet us underground,” Sam replied. “And he said thanks for the level up.”

Emily winced, then checked on her quests.

Quest Complete!

The Queen with the Silken Sword, Continued

Become an outstanding member of your community!

Reward: +1 Skill Upgrade point per 10 people who recognize you as “good.” Scoundrel +1 per 10 people who recognize you as “good”!

She could live with that. Her pool of skill upgrade points was growing. She’d have to pour them into something soon. Menagerie Family was a good skill, but so was Healpats and Sisterportation. Maybe an even split between all of them?

Quest Complete!

Queen Takes Bishop

Defeat, through subterfuge, manipulation, or force, a rival group of powered individuals!

Reward: +1 Skill Slot for defeating, capturing, or killing a powered adversary. + Villainy for properly securing your territory.

She stared at the total number of Skill Slots she had freed up now. Two.

Two new skills. That meant that if the pattern held, she was going to get a new sister with the very next skill. And then one more utility skill after that. “Did you girls get any level ups?” Emily asked.

“No level ups, Boss,” Teddy said. “This wasn’t an Endgame. But I got a heap of skill upgrade stuff, and I got a Skill Slot!”

“Yeah, me too,” Athena said.

“Me three,” Trinity added with a giggle.

Sam grinned. “Can you girls let me write down your progress and such while you upgrade your skills? For science, of course.”

“Yeah, sure,” Teddy agreed easily. Emily wasn’t so sure it was a good idea, but other than the risk of that information falling into the wrong hands, she couldn’t think of a reason why it would be a bad idea.

“Let’s just get to the base, and let’s also make sure we’re not followed all the way there,” Emily said.

They wandered around the city for a bit until they came upon that maintenance shed a couple of blocks over. There was a padlock over the door, but a grinning Sam pulled out a key and undid the lock.

“I popped over and added this,” she said. “I’ll piss off the municipal people, but in the meantime, we have access and no one else does. I also got some flashlights at the dollar store, so that we can finally see down there.”

Sam had tucked a small plastic bag into the back of the maintenance room, one filled with flashlights and glow sticks that the girls immediately jumped on. In a matter of minutes her sisters looked like walking Christmas trees, they were so covered in lights.

“I was expecting that bag to last a few trips,” Sam said as she wiggled the empty sack. “But okay. There goes twenty bucks I guess.”

“I’ll reimburse you,” Emily said, a bit embarrassed. She had her phone for light, but as they climbed down into the metro tunnels she realized she might not need it. Her sisters were splashing so much light around it would be hard not to see.

They followed along the tracks in the middle of the tunnel, her sisters spreading out a little as they played tag in the dark, but calling after them to get back whenever they went too far.

It took a few minutes to reach the train. Emily suspected she was getting used to spending time in the tunnels because the dark passageways didn’t make her nearly as nervous now as they had a week ago. They were still scary, but having the laughter of her sisters echo back to her from the dark, and all the light splashing around, made it a little less fearsome.

They climbed into the rearmost train car and found two people waiting for them. Alea Iacta, in jeans and a t-shirt, with nothing but a hastily thrown on domino mask to pretend to preserve his identity, and Fabien the Fabulous, who seemed fresh and clean and not at all as if he’d just stepped off a battlefield.

“Ah, hello,” Emily said.

“Hey Boss,” Alea Iacta said. “Fabby here was telling me about your big fight. You guys come out of that okay?”

“Yeah!” Teddy said. “It was great. I was like, rawr, and the capitalist scumbag heroes were like ‘oh no, it’s a bear, don’t eat me! I won’t be able to work overtime if you eat me!’ It was fun.”

The other sisters nodded along at that, then they added their own versions of what happened, none of which were remotely accurate.

“You, ah, came out of it okay?” Emily asked Fabien.

The man nodded. “Indeed. I received all of your messages as well... after the engagement. I must admit that in the moment I feared that you had betrayed me. I’m glad to see that wasn’t the case. Thank you.”

He extended a hand, and Emily reached for it almost on reflex, thinking they would shake. Then he brought her hand up to his mouth and gently pecked her knuckles.

Emily’s brain fritzed out for a moment.

“Thank you, truly,” he said before smiling a dazzling smile that had her knees weakening. “Today was... not what I had foreseen, but perhaps it was better than I had hoped for. I was given the opportunity to truly act like the rogue I wish to be. Though I realise that I still need to become stronger.”

“It’s okay,” Athena said. “I’m sure one day you’ll be nearly as strong as one of the Boss’ underlings.”

Fabien chuckled. “Yes, I’m sure. I’m equally impressed by how you’re playing the heroes against each other.”

Athena’s chest puffed out. “That was all me,” she said.

“I think... maybe we should have this conversation at the table,” Emily said. She felt like she needed to sit down.

Her sisters gasped, then surged into the train car and to whichever seat they could reach first. Fabien, Alea Iacta, and even Sam found seats for themselves too.

Which left a few empty seats, including the one at the head of the table.

Emily swallowed and walked over, then after flicking some non-existent dust off her pants, she sat.

“Alright,” Trinity said. “Now what’s the next bit of the plan, Big-Sister Boss?”

***