Chapter Thirty-Nine – Chill

They’d had a day to relax and chill out, a day she’d spent with a low but constant level of worry in her gut. Still, some of that worry was pressed down by practice.

Stealth practice.

It was a genius idea, actually. She instructed her sisters to move around the interior and exterior of the house while being as quiet as possible.

At first it had occupied them for a whole ten minutes, but the game grew boring and they started making noise again.

So she made it more complex. Invented ‘rules.’

The goal was simple. Each one of her sisters was given a scarf of a different colour, stolen… borrowed, from one of the wardrobes in the house. Then that sister was instructed to find the three matching scarves placed around the house.

Then Emily would ‘patrol’ the house, moving from one room to another. Mostly, that involved reading a bit while leaning against one wall or the other, or doing some small chores like the dishes.

If she saw one of her sisters, or heard them, she’d go out and ‘spot’ them. That meant surrendering all the scarves they’d found so far.

The sister with the most scarves of their colour at the end would win. There were some vague rules about not stealing from each other, but it happened anyway.

It was simple, and elegant. Suddenly, Emily understood some of the ‘be quiet as long as you can’ games her parents had made her play when she was much younger.

The most surprising part, however, was that it kind of worked. Not at keeping her sisters quiet–though it did do that, a little–but at making them stealthier. At first they’d bumble around and bump into things, or whisper at a level that could be heard from a ways away, but after an hour or two, she was starting to have a harder time pinpointing where they were. There were still scuffles, and muttered remarks, and the occasional bump into something, but they were getting quieter.

That was… probably good? If they were going to be sneaking around, then yes, having her sisters learn that talking while sneaking was bad was a fantastic lesson, and having them walk while making less noise, and move so that they weren’t in a person’s line of sight was all very impressive.

She was mostly just worried that they’d start using that new level of sneakiness to cause trouble. Her sisters were a handful already. If they learned how to move without making too much noise, and their pranks were delivered more stealthily, then…

A problem for the future.

That night, she put her sisters to bed with full tummies and then took an hour or so to plan what she would do the next day.

There was one big question that bothered her; should she treat the other Villains as foes?

She was mostly leaning on ‘yes.’ They’d ambushed her and her sisters. It was non-lethal, and could have been worse, but for the most part, they hadn’t hurt anyone too badly. They had been after the Orbject, and that was it.

The way the Endgame was set up, though, she almost felt like it could have been a cops and robbers thing, where all of the ‘robbers’ won as long as they held the Orbject in the end.

The other Villains could have offered to help, and she was almost certain that the Endgame would have shared the reward with all of them.

It seemed like it was going to share the reward for the heroes winning with all of them, from what she could tell.

Instead, the Villains had made an enemy of her.

That twisted her gut. She’d even go as far as to say that it made her a little angry. Not unreasonably so, but enough that she was considering some unkind actions.

But was that wise?

She could turn around and leave. There was nothing stopping her. She could grab her sisters and move away from the area of the Endgame entirely. Just head back to Eauclaire, cross her fingers, and hope that the HRF didn’t have anything they could pin on her, specifically.

She paced the kitchen in the dark, thinking about that for a solid hour, just letting the anxiety build, then dip, then build up again.

Surrendering wasn’t surrendering. It would be a tactical retreat.

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But damn if it made her feel like a… like a loser. In the literal sense. Someone who couldn’t win, even when the possibility was there.

To win, now, would mean finding the Villains, getting the Orbject back, then avoiding the heroes as they scouted around and tried to find them until the timer ran out.

She chewed on a nail until it was a nub. Was it worth it?

The reward would be. Success in an Endgame always gave power. If it worked the way she and her sisters suspected, then all of them would gain a new power. Something new to level up and make stronger.

She’d never been too focused on gaining levels and points and whatnot, especially since she’d kind of maxed out on skills already. A new power, with new sub-skills… that would be useful not just now, but for years.

Heroes with multiple powers were big heroes.

It happened, sometimes, often, that a hero would become famous because they’d started off with a power that was just unfairly strong, or flexible, or whatever. Flying bricks that could punch through walls and shrug off bullets were tough to handle, and everyone wanted to be one.

But the big-big names? The ultimate heroes? They had two, three, or more powers. Not all strong, of course, but they added up. Wasn’t Quantum Mothman someone who had half a dozen completed Endgames under his belt? That, on top of his main power, made him strong-strong.

She wasn’t sure if she cared much for power, but being strong enough that no one would want to mess with her or her family was very tempting.

That’s what she was thinking about as she slid into bed. Of course, the bed was a small battleground at the moment. They’d all started sleeping with their heads one way and tucked in, but an hour in and half of her sisters were spreading out this way and that, and the other half had formed a pile in the middle of the bed. The blankets had been shifted around, split, and tossed aside.

Emily sighed, grabbed some blankets for herself, then laid down on the edge of the bed with a pillow. It was a minute before she felt someone shift over to lay against her back. At least it was warm. They didn’t have much heating in the house, and it grew chilly at night.

The next morning, after working the soreness out of her back from having slept wrong, she came to a decision; they would at least scout the city out. If it wasn’t too dangerous, they’d find the other villains, then put them in their place.

If they didn’t want to serve the Boss, then there was no room for them. It was a better offer than what the villains had given her and her sisters when they attacked from ambush.

She looked over the gear that Maple had made the day before. The ponchos would be very valuable, especially as she planned on having everyone take Minor Shadow Blend as a matter of course. The anti-drone device wasn’t a bad idea either. It would keep the skies clear, at least a little, though she figured that if the HRF lost a drone here and there, they might head out to find the cause.

The other anti-drone device, the attention-grabbers, was more subtle. She was liking the idea of subtlety.

And the Orbject finder? Well, that was just going to be very useful.

Covering a yawn, she padded to the kitchen, some of her sisters trailing behind. It wasn’t fair, the amount of energy they had this early. “Alright, breakfast, then I want everyone dressed up and ready to go.”

“What’re we doing today?” Teddy asked.

“Scouting. And if we find the Villains, then we might be negotiating with them.”

“Negotiating?” Athena asked.

“Yes. Their surrender,” Emily replied. She blinked as her sisters cheered. Had she sounded a bit dark, there? That wasn’t her intention.

Ah, well, it seemed like her sisters had liked that, so it was fine. Good morale was important, she supposed.

Once the worst of breakfast was over and everyone had food in them, Emily gave herself one last moment to breathe. Today would not decide anything. They would not conquer or win or lose. They would just see the city, learn what they could, and come home.

After that, they would know what to do.

***

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