Chapter Sixty-Five - Toast and Ice Cream

“Is it clear?” Emily asked.

Maple nodded. Emily couldn’t see her eyes with her mask on, but the way her lips were pursed suggested that the little gadgeteer was taking things very seriously indeed. “It’s down now, I promise.”

Emily nodded, then gestured to Trinity. “Bandit, want to go in first?”

“You got it, Boss,” Trinity said. She gave Emily a sloppy salute, then ran up the final few stairs and into the room beyond.

They were stuck in the staircase just after the prison cells. Earlier, they’d turned a corner and come face-to-face with a large mounted turret that click-clicked ominously as it tried to shoot at them. Since then, Emily had been taking things a bit more slowly.

The consequences of that were behind her. An interrogation cell where they’d found two chairs with the remains of ropes left hanging around them. No Alea Iacta. Trinity and Teddy both confirmed what happened though. He’d been taken by a group of enemy minions and a woman that was probably-definitely a mask of some sort. She had the domino mask and the strange costume for it.

Had she been faster, they would have saved Alea already. Had she been slower, they might not have any idea of where he went.

Emily set aside the self-recriminations. She had the rest of her life to remember all the embarrassing mistakes she made in full, glaring detail. At the moment she had a job to do.

“It’s safe!” Trinity said. There was a back and a clang, and Emily followed Trinity into the room, the rest of her sisters and Glamazon tagging along.

Trinity had tipped the turret over, so it pointed off to the corner. Maple ran over to it, the little device she’d made to turn the turrets off (which she’d cobbled together from two walkie-talkies, some tin foil, a paper towel roll, and some chewing gum) held close to her chest. Reaching down, Maple patted the turret. “I’m sorry,” she muttered.

Emily had the disturbing impression that in the near future they’d be finding all sorts of similar turrets around their base and home.

The room wasn’t all that large. There was a staircase leading up to the right, and a door at the end of the room. “Which way?” she asked.

Maple jumped up and looked at her tracker, then she pointed mutely to the door ahead of them.

“Okay. Ursa Minor, get ready to burst through and go full-bear mode. Bandit, one of you on each flank, one stays behind. Glamazon, explosions above, get them looking the wrong way. Owlwatch, if there’s someone there, hit them with the full fear blast.”

With her instructions handed out, the group moved. Teddy--who was still a little embarrassed about the incident with the doorway earlier--barged through the exit as a normal girl, then immediately turned into a grizzly.

Glamazon was quick to flick a few of her distraction balls through the gap above Teddy where they exploded and filled the area beyond with scintillating lights.

An alleyway?

Emily waited for Trinity to be through before she followed out, Glamazon right on her heels.

They were in an alley, one just wide enough that a car could drive through it without too much difficulty.

At the end of the alley was a van with the address and logo of a plumbing company on its side. It was currently crushed into the side of a familiar hatchback. Sam, in a rather normal outfit and without her minion mask, was shouting at one of the mooks from across the roof of her car.

“What do you mean, why was I there? I’m allowed to park here! You were going like fifty out of this alley, that can’t be legal! Why’re you wearing that stupid hat anyway, huh? Maybe you hit me because you couldn’t see?” Sam was shouting to a mook who was shouting at her to get her car out of the way. “I’m not moving until the police show up! I need a report for my insurance!”

Emily pieced things together in a single moment. The villains had Alea in the van. They’d likely tried to book it out of the alley. Then Sam parked her car at the entrance and the Cabal mooks and mask had rammed right into it.

From the looks of things... well, Emily wasn’t an expert of any sort when it came to cars, but usually when the airbags were popped and the car’s doors were squished in that badly, the whole thing was a write-off.

The van’s side-door opened and five mooks stumbled out of it. Then, from the passenger side, came the Cabal’s mask.

Emily’s sisters fanned out a little until they blocked off the entire alleyway, with Teddy in the centre, Trinity around her, and the rest a little further back.

“Whelp, I’m out of here,” Sam said before she ran off.

Emily looked at the group before her, then she locked eyes with the Cabal mask. If she had to guess, this was Spin-to-Win... maybe. She wasn’t certain of that yet.

“So, you’re the ones causing all of this mess?” Spin-to-Win asked. She stepped up and came to stand next to her mooks. The mooks pulled out simple weapons. Batons and combat knives. No guns, surprisingly. Was Maple’s jammer still functioning? “Barely more than a gaggle of children.”

“Hey!” Athena said. “We’re not a gaggle of anything, ugly.”

Spin-to-Win perked an eyebrow at that. “I’m sorry, child, but you’ll find me rather immune to insults aimed at my physicality.”

Athena huffed. “He’s some sort of shapeshifter. Also, he’s actually a guy. Even if he has like, boobs.”

“That’s so weird,” Teddy, who was currently a bear, grumbled.

“And now that one has become very interesting,” Spin-to-Win said. She.. he? Was eyeing Athena in a way that Emily did not like.

So she stepped up and instantly became the centre of everyone’s attention. Which happened at about the same time as she realised that she didn’t know what it was she intended to say. “G-give us back Alea Iacta,” she decided on.

It was a nice, fairly neutral statement of intent. They were here for their sorta-friend and her sorta-minion. The Cabal had him, so they demanded him back. Nice and simple as far as social interactions went. Even the implied violence if Spin-to-Win didn’t comply wasn’t all that complex as far as subtext went.

“We’ve lost a fair deal today already, don’t push us any more than you have, or you might find your luck turning,” Spin-to-Win said. They snapped their fingers and with a woosh, both hands were covered in flames.

“Cool,” Bandit said. “I want fire-hands.”

“I could make something that does that,” Maple muttered.

Emily would have to absolutely nix that idea later. The last thing she needed was Trinity running around setting dumpsters on fire. Her life was enough of a burning dumpster already.

“We don’t want to fight,” Emily said. “But if it comes to it, we will win.”

The villain was outnumbered quite spectacularly already.

“Oh, we don’t need victory. We just need to escape.”

Then things grew really complicated in a matter of seconds.

A pair of fireballs raced across the darkened alley on a course to hit Emily and Glamazon. Glamazon ducked, but Emily was too slow. That was, until Athena shoved her out of the way and she gasped as the warm ball of roiling flames licked past her side.

She stumbled, then glanced towards the Cabal folk just in time to see one of the mooks underhand something in their direction.

It clinked on the ground, a small metal ball that was immediately recognizable thanks to countless movies and games. A grenade.

“Awesome!” Bandit shouted.

She ran forwards and scooped up the explosive, then with a wild grin on her face, she ran towards the mooks.

“Toast for the toast god! Death brings glory! I have a bomb!” she cackled as she sprinted all-out towards the mooks who panicked and turned tail.

Emily gasped and hugged the nearest of her sisters close. She was bowled over a moment later as Teddy brought her down and covered her in smothering fur.

The grenade went off with a teeth-rattling loud bang.

“Oh, I died,” Trinity muttered.

Emily blinked and took in the scene. She was hugging Maple, Athena and one of Trinity close while Teddy stood protectively over them.

“Aww, it wasn’t a bomb grenade, just one of those flashy ones,” Trinity complained.

“Hey, could use your help here!” Glamazon shouted.

She was flinging her light balls forwards, some of which were expertly intercepting fireballs out of the air and creating those familiar, and very distracting, bursts of light.

The mooks were stunned behind Spin-to-Win who was... flinging fire out blindly?

“Bandit, get him!” Emily snapped.

Trinity ran ahead with a gleeful yell and launched herself forehead-first into the villain’s gut.

There was a bright flash of flame, and Trinity ‘popped’ away.

The villain stood, spun, and with a grunt, started to run away.

“Wait!” Emily called out. “Leave him. It’s not worth it.”

They’d won here. Capturing Spin-to-Win would just lead to them having to answer a lot more questions.

“Good call,” Glamazon said.

“Thanks. Let’s tie these guys up, then free Alea. I think we need a break too.”

“Ice cream?” Teddy growled.

That perked all the others right up.

***