Chapter Thirty-Three – Victory

Emily stared at the very insensate form of Homie. The man was sprawled out on the floor, arms and legs spread out every which way and his mouth wide open.

In any other scenario it would have looked as if he was asleep. That was, if he wasn’t fully clothed, and on a garage’s floor with some rather distressing claw marks across his front.

“Want me to kill him, Boss?” Teddy asked.

Emily shook her head. “No, no Teddy. We don’t need to do that. We’ve won.”

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For finding and defeating another powered individual through luck, brute strength, and more luck, you have earned:

+ 1 Skill Slot!

“Oh, I got a skill slot,” Teddy said.

Emily nodded. “Good,” she said before turning around and taking in the main section of the garage. It was getting a little smokey, but the fire was mostly contained to one big puddle on the ground and some rags besides. There were other liquids around though, and she didn’t doubt that they might be troublesome.

“Teddy, can you drag him outside?” Emily asked.

“Sure thing, Boss.”

The bear reached down and clamped down on the front of Homie’s shirt before awkwardly dragging him towards the front door.

Emily left them to it and found a fire extinguisher left next to one of the doors. The thing was nearly too heavy for her to lift off the ground, so she ended up rolling it on its rim all the way over to the fire.

She hesitated before spraying it though.

The case Homie had been carrying was still in the lobby, left on the ground when Teddy had knocked him clean off his feet.

She jogged over to it and opened the bag up to reveal a laptop. The drive. The source of her woes.

The temptation to keep it, to try and unearth its secrets herself was there. In the end, she flung it bag and all onto the pile of rags burning the brightest and watched as the plastic case shrivelled and burned.

“Boss?” Teddy asked from the doorway. The bear could barely fit her head in through.

“One sec,” Emily said. She pulled up the nozzle on the fire extinguisher and hosed everything down with whitish foam.

Was that enough to destroy the drive? She kicked the laptop over and eyed it for a moment. It was warped and melted on the edges, and she was certain that it didn’t work anymore, but maybe some of it was still retrievable.

“Teddy, could you come here?”

Two or three rather cathartic minutes later and the laptop was broken up in a few dozen pieces, the drive was not-so-carefully extracted, and Emily vented a bit of frustration by hammering into the still-smoking device with wild abandon.

“So, Boss,” Teddy said. “Are we going to do anything about the cops?”

Emily whipped around and looked outside where a pair of squad cars were just then coming to a stop.

“Where did you put Homie?”

“There’s a bench out front,” Teddy said.

Emily flung the drive into the laptop case, looked at the mess they’d made, then decided that it was mostly Homie’s fault anyway. “Let’s leave out the back,” she said before leading by example.

No one got in their way as they left out the back and Teddy helped her over a wooden fence that blocked off someone’s backyard.

Feeling rather self conscious about the whole thing, Emily pulled Teddy along with her towards the centre of the city and towards the campus.

It was only when she was halfway there and crossing over a little water way that she finally ditched the bag and the drive. The bag went into a public trash can, and the drive splashed quite satisfyingly into the running water under the bridge.

Littering was bad, but….

But that was disposing of evidence, which was probably worse.

“How are you feeling?” Emily asked Teddy.

“I’m alright,” Teddy said. “Got squished a bit, but nothing broke, I don’t think.”

“Oh,” Emily said. “That’s… good. Um. What do you want to eat tonight?”

Teddy blinked up at her. “Anything?”

“You did a lot of hard work today,” Emily admitted. That, and if a nice meal could alleviate some of the guilt she felt for leading Teddy into trouble again, then it was worth any price.

Teddy licked her lips. “Fish. All the documentaries say that bears need to eat lots of salmon to get big and chunky. And I want to be the chunkiest.”

“We can buy some salmon,” Emily said. “Um. My dad used to grill some fish outside. It was really good. But, uh, we can just stop by a nicer place and order some to go?”

“Sure!” Teddy said.

Emily patted the bear girl on the head, right between her fuzzy ears, then inspected her hand when it came back all greasy and covered in motor oil. “But you’re going to shower first,” Emilly said.

“Aww, Boss.”

The return to the spot where Emily had stashed their normal clothes, then the quick stop by one of the nicer restaurants to pick up a rather expensive meal was nearly all done in silence. Teddy did talk a little, but mostly she was going on and on about Cool Bear Facts, which Emily found… surprisingly enjoyable.

“And all the coolest bears have two layers of fur,” Teddy said as they finally, finally reached the dorm. Emily handed Teddy the food boxes as she unlocked it and opened up. “The long fur is to keep warm and make the bear look even bigger, even though bears don’t need to look big because they are big.”

“Uh huh,” Emily said.

“And the short fur, that one keeps the bear nice and dry and clean. Which is why I don’t need to take a shower.”

Emily smiled down at the girl. “Shower first, then food,” she said.

Teddy pouted, but she placed the food on Emily’s desk and ran off to take a no doubt very quick shower.

Emily slumped into her seat and let some of the stress just… seep out of her. It was done. The drive was broken, the bad guy was caught. No doubt the police would have questions, but Emily was well and truly done with the life of a mask. She’d be hanging her costume for good.

Still…

She had one Skill Slot available. A skill slot that could give her something that might be the difference between life and death. Homie had seemed ready to attack her, and when she’d frozen she had thought herself done for until she remembered her Sisterportation skill.

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What if her next skill was something equally life saving?

She hesitated a little, then gave in.

Do you wish to spend a Skill Slot Point on the Power: Sister Summoning?

“…Yes,” Emily said.

New Skill Unlocked!

Double Trouble has been added to your Power’s Skills!

She… had no idea what that meant. Two Teddys? That would be pretty troublesome. Would she need to get numbered shirts? No, that was silly.

“Status Double Trouble.”

“Oh no,” she said. “Status Create Sister?”

Emily sighed. That… had not been what she was hoping for. Not that she knew what she’d get. Really, it had just been a pull of the gatcha and a hope that she’d get something handy.

“You okay, Boss?” Teddy asked as she stepped out of the washroom. She was wearing a pair of towels and an oversized t-shirt that was all damp and wet. “Do you have indigestion?”

“No, Teddy,” Emily said. “I… can summon a second sister now.”

“Cool,” Teddy said. “You should do that after we’re done eating.”

Emily blinked. “Why?”

“Less to share?”

She gave the bear girl a flat look that bounced off without doing any damage. “I’m not going to create a sister later just for you to have more to eat— oh no.”

But of course, it was too late once more.

***

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