Chapter Twenty-Nine – Planning Ahead

“Alright, everyone,” Emily said.

It was early. Very early, even. The sun had only just risen and it felt too early for breakfast. With all of the walking they’d done the night before, her little sisters had come back home with sore feet and a few muffled yawns.

It hadn’t been hard to fill their bellies, force them into the shower, then lay down to sleep, before the sun had even fully set.

That meant that they’d all woken up much earlier, but that was fine. It gave her a longer day to work with.

“What are we doin’?” Teddy asked before yawning so big that all of her teeth showed. They were surprisingly pointy. Emily was… not looking forward to having to drag her sisters to a dentist one day.

“This morning, we’re planning,” Emily said. “I think that’s a reasonable thing to spend the morning on. Planning and breakfast.”

“I like that part!” Trinity said.

The racoon-girl’s mood had improved a lot since she’d delivered a load of junk food to them last night. There were still some left, in fact, but Emily had placed them in a bowl on the highest shelf and had told her sisters that it was for later.

“Let’s start with the planning first,” Emily said. “We… need to make some sort of map of the region. I have a sketch in my notebook and we have that paper map, but I think we can do better.”

That turned out to be more complex than she’d initially realized.

They moved the coffee table to the side, then there was a race to find box-y objects to place down. Maple, surprisingly, took charge of things after Trinity and Teddy failed to place things just right. The girl took food containers, cereal boxes, shoe boxes, and just about anything they found laying around the house, and with only few glances at the map Emily had drawn and the paper map they had of the city, laid everything out on the floor in a pretty decent facsimile of Saint Arie.

“Well done,” Emily said, she gave Maple’s head a well-deserved pat, and the beaver-girl looked at her shoes, unable to take the compliment. “Alright, so… that stack of books is the large building that the Heroes were protecting. And that shoe-box, pizza box, and… whatever that case is, are the buildings that we were able to scout out.”

Maple had managed to place things down so that they were even vaguely to-scale.

“It’d be cool if we could stomp over and kick their butts,” Teddy said.

“But we can’t,” Athena replied. She found a seat on the arm of a sofa. “We don’t know which heroes are there. Some of them will probably be pretty strong, and they’ll have reinforcements nearby. Plus, we’re trying to stay all sneaky and subtle. Bears aren’t.”

“We can be,” Teddy said.

Emily raised a hand, stalling any fighting before it had time to really start. “I think that Athena is… mostly right,” she said. Athena’s smug grin made her repeat part of that. “Mostly. We can’t take on heroes. First because they’re probably stronger than us, and there’s more of them. And because if we fight them, they’ll know who we are. Some of our powers are distinct.”

“Ah,” Maple said, then she cut herself off.

“Go on,” Emily said. She patted Maple’s back. “Did you have something to say?”

Maple nodded. “Um. I think this whole, um, Endgame is about being sneaky. Not about big fights.”

“That’s a good point. All of the powers we received are stealth-based,” Emily said. She wasn’t sure if it was that much of a sign, but it felt like one. “So, how do we… do this?”

They all stared at the model city for a moment. It was Aurora that broke the silence. “I think we just need to give it a try,” she said. “We can’t all sneak in, right? But we were able to get close. Being close is pretty good. We can get information, then from there, find a plan?”

“True, I suppose,” Emily replied. She crouched down, eyes glazing over a little as she examined the heap of books that represented her vague objective. “We need to get someone in there. Ideally someone with a camera to film around and give us an idea of whatever there is to see.”

“I can do it!” Trinity said.

Emily paused, then nodded. Trinity was probably their best option. If caught, she had a… way out. And Sisterportation could, as she’d proven recently, pull just one Trinity back to her side instead of all three of her.

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Trinity was also relatively sneaky when she wanted to be.

“Okay, so let’s assume that we want to get Trinity in that building. How do we do it?”

“Throw her,” Teddy suggested.

“I can make stuff to help,” Maple said.

Emily hummed. “If we do get her in… we’re going to need a distraction. I think this might be a two-team effort. The first team will be… more or less here.” She pointed to one of the buildings not too far from the base.”

“Not next to it?” Athena asked.

“No. If I were the heroes, I’d have cameras or something on even the roofs near the base. It only makes sense. We’ll have to be further out, maybe in a blind spot. But that means that getting to the base itself is going to be a long ways away.” Emily gestured between the building she’d picked out and the base itself.

Maple leaned forwards. “I can make something for that,” she said. “I saw a thing, with ziplines. It wouldn’t be too hard to make a thing that can shoot a line, and a way to ride across it.”

“Are you sure?” Emily asked.

Maple nodded quickly. “I have a lot of things to work with. I can do it.”

Emily only considered it for a moment before acquiescing. “Okay, then,” she said. “The next part will be on Trinity, if you want to be the one to sneak in?”

“I do!” Trinity said.

“Good. Then we’ll need a camera or something for you to record the interior, as well as any, ah, stealth tech we can give you so that you’re not found out, and a way for you to signal us.”

“I can make all of that,” Maple said.

“It’s starting to be a lot, no?” Emily asked, but Maple shook her head quickly. She seemed confident.

“What about the second team?” Teddy asked.

“That team will be… you and Aurora,” Emily said. “Just two of you. Do you think you can manage?”

Teddy puffed up in pride, but Aurora’s nod was slower and more deliberate. “I think we can handle that,” Aurora said.

“Good. You’re team distraction. Your goal will be to cause a large distraction to pull the attention of the heroes away from the base and out towards the edge of the area if we need it.”

“I can be distracting,” Teddy said.

Emily didn’t reply to that, but she knew it. “Good. We might not need it, but if we do, it could be helpful. We’ll need something big and loud, and attention-grabbing.”

“Bombs?” Maple asked.

Emily blinked. “We have you making the zip-line, stealth devices, and comms already. Don’t you think that’s too much already? I don’t want to overwork you.”

Maple tilted her head back and stared up at Emily. “But it’s just bombs? I can make those in seconds.”

“O…okay,” Emily said. “Maybe… small ones?’

“We can place them all over,” Teddy said. “Get them close with the first, then blow them up with the rest.”

“Or not. You know what, no bombs,” Emily decided.

There was a certain level of escalation that was a step too far. Giving her sisters unfettered access to explosives was one of these.

“Maybe noise-makers?” Maple asked. “That will take a lot longer to make than bombs though.”

“I feel like it’s still the better option,” Emily said.

“Okay… but bombs are so easy.”

“I know, but I think we should, uh, save that for another time. We don’t want to pull out bombs so early, right?” Emily asked.

Maple shrugged, clearly a little disappointed, but Emily could live with that.

“Alright, we have the bones of a plan here, I think. We should carry this out rather late. Do we have a good idea of when the heroes have their shift change? It might be worth it to spy on the building some more today and tonight.”

“And get more points,” Trinity said. “So I can get more cool skills.”

That wasn’t a bad idea either, Emily admitted. Unlock Simple Door could come in handy for thievery, so could some of the other skills. Trinity had enough points to unlock one more ability, but that was all.

“We’ll spend the night scouting, then. Tomorrow, we’ll see if we can’t put this plan into action.”

***

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