Chapter Twenty-Five – Enrichment

“Now what, Boss?” Teddy asked. She was getting a bit bored.

The last documentary she watched about bears said that bears in captivity needed lots of ‘enrichment.’ she wasn’t so sure about that. The ‘rich’ part of the word sounded awfully capitalist-coded to her, but the bears in the doc looked like they were having fun despite being locked up. Bouncing around with like, tires and big balls and jumping into pools and stuff.

Right now, she felt like she was in captivity, being stuck in a school.

Worse, she was in captivity with all of her sisters, and they seemed totally okay with being here. But the place was so boring. Beige walls, bricks painted over, stupid posters for kids on the walls talking about… science and stuff. The books in the corner looked colourful, but she wasn’t a reader, she was a doer.

The Boss looked up, locking eyes with her for a moment before glancing back down at her notebook, the same one that she was writing things in about the powers they’d just unlocked. “Sorry, Teddy, I was distracted,” the Boss said. “I’m trying to figure out what our next step is.”

“Easy, play the Endgame, then win it,” Teddy said with a firm nod.

Her other sisters nodded along as well, because it was just common sense.

“Yeah, sure, but we don’t exactly have an idea of how to do that, do we?” the Boss asked. She ran a hand through her hair, then gestured vaguely outside. “I think, from context, that we’re supposed to steal something, but the Endgame doesn’t seem like it wants to tell us what that is.”

“Shouldn’t it be obvious?” Athena asked. “It’ll be the thing that the heroes are protecting the most.”

“I suppose. But how do we find it?”

Trinity raised four hands, she was sitting at the front and back of the class. “I know!”

“You do?” Emily asked.

“Yup! It’s gonna be something cool! But I think that a big part of the game is that we don’t know. It’s like when we play No. We don’t know what cards the other players have unless we cheat, and that’s like, half the game.”

“Huh,” the Boss said. She leaned back a little, tapping the end of her pen on her notebook. “So part of what we need to do is information gathering. Saint Arie is kind of a large space to explore as a whole, but I think… there has to be an easier way to find the target, whatever it is.”

“If the heroes are protecting it, then it should be pretty obvious,” Athena said.

“Yeah,” Teddy said. “Just follow the stink of self-righteousness.”

“What’s that smell like?” Maple asked.

“Heroes, obviously,” Teddy said.

“Oh, okay,” Maple said.

Teddy nodded, then pointed upwards. “We could go up. The school’s pretty tall, right?”

The Boss considered it, then shrugged. “Okay. Might as well. But be sure not to stand out too much.” She closed her notebook with a snap then stood up from the teacher’s chair she’d taken over. “Let’s see if there’s even roof access around here.”

Teddy grinned and was the first out of the room, followed by the rest of her sisters and the Boss. There were big, wide staircases at the ends of the corridors, and Teddy raced Athena to be the first one to the top floor, only for Aurora, with her stupid long moose legs, to beat them both by taking the stairs two steps at a time.

“Cheater!” Teddy huffed when she got to the top.

Aurora grinned down at her. “I’m a Villain too, you know,” she said.

The Boss made it up the stairs with Maple next to her and Trinity both ahead and behind, she wasn’t winded, which impressed Teddy a bit. A few weeks ago, the Boss would have been huffing and puffing by the time she was up here.

“Alright, roof access, if they even have that kind of thing in a school,” the Boss said.

“If you need any doors unlocked, let me know!” Aurora added before they all took off.

The Boss hadn’t said that there was a prize for finding the way to get to the roof first, but it was kind of implied, so Teddy darted away and started to open doors. Mostly into offices and sometimes into little classrooms. There was a computer class, an art room, and some small rooms with desks and papers and boring bureaucrat stuff laid out around.

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“Found it!” someone screamed from across the halls.

Teddy stomped over, pouting a bit, especially as she recognized the voice as Athena’s. The owly idiot was standing next to a door that looked like a closet’s door, arms crossed and smug grin firmly in place.

The door was opened, and while there weren’t stairs inside, there was a trapdoor on the ceiling.

“Ten bucks that’s how you get to the roof,” Athena said.

“Do you even have ten bucks?” Teddy asked.

Athena’s grin somehow only got more smugger. “I will once you pay me for being right,” she said.

The Boss walked over and patted Athena on the head, which was almost as good as getting ten bucks, really. Teddy kept her mouth shut, but she was stewing on a long rant about Athena’s desire for money and how that was a path to the bad side.

“Well, that’ll be tricky to reach,” the Boss said.

“I think I can do it,” Aurora replied. “If I get a boost up?”

Teddy grinned, then turned into a bear. Sure, she was gonna be a stepstool, but at least she was a bear about it. She grumbled, then stepped up and lowered herself. “Get on!”

“That works,” Aurora said. She placed a foot onto Teddy’s shoulder, then hopped up onto her back.

“Careful,” the Boss said. “Don’t fall. We’re far from any ambulance… and we’re not insured.”

“I got it,” Aurora said even as her stupid pointy knees dug into Teddy’s back a bunch. Teddy stepped up to the inside of the closet space and she rose up as high as she could on all fours. Aurora stood up, shaking a bit until she touched a wall. She reached up, then pushed the ceiling a bit up. “It’s locked!” she said.

“Then… unlock it?” the Boss asked.

“I know! Just pointing out that the power’s coming in handy,” Aurora said. Something happened above Teddy that she couldn’t see, and a small rain of dust came down around her head. She growled. That was going to get in her fur!

The closet became a bit brighter as Aurora pushed something aside, then there was a clunk-clunk as she lowered a ladder.

Teddy backed up, leaving Aurora hanging in the air from her power-antlers while she handled the ladder and let it all the way down. “Good job, you two,” the Boss said before patting Teddy on the head.

Teddy transformed back into her weaker girl form. It might have been less strong, but her head was smaller, so there was actually more hand-to-head contact that way, for better, more optimal patting.

Aurora was the first up, then the Boss and then Teddy, who hip-bumped Athena aside so that she could climb up the ladder first.

She found the Boss and Aurora crouching on the roof. “Stay low,” the Boss said over the slight whistle of the wind. The school wasn’t the tallest building around, but it was taller than most in the area. They were above the average tree, at least. “We don’t want to be spotted.”

“Got it, Boss,” Teddy said.

She stayed close as the rest climbed up. Maple was the last, taking each rung on the ladder carefully with a bit of a wobble, but she was being brave like a bear and came up to join them eventually.

“Okay, let’s see what we can see,” the Boss said. “We’re looking for signs that the heroes are around. Maybe a base of operations, or something they’re guarding. If you can’t see anything, that’s okay too. Try not to stand out if you can.”

Teddy nodded. This time she was gonna be the one to spot stuff.

She moved to the edge of the roof, always keeping low. There was a lip around the edge that was about hip-high that she looked over. As she did, a little voice whispered in the back of her head. It was a long drop… she should push someone down. But no, the only people up here were her sisters, and the only one that’d survive the drop was probably Trinity and maybe Aurora.

She squinted. There was something going on at the far end of town. Almost too far to see, but… “Hey, Boss!”

Emily came over, then stopped next to Teddy and shaded her eyes with a hand. “Good eye, Teddy,” she said. “Looks like something’s going on over there, huh?”

“Yup!” Teddy said. She should have made a bet with Athena that she’d be the one to find the heroes first, darn it.

***

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