Chapter Twenty-Two – Maple’s Dream Come True

Maple had dreamed of doing this. Walking into one of those big stores that sold a bunch of stuff and just… grabbing everything and anything she wanted.

Like, she wanted that, and those, and she definitely wanted that. And here she was, standing in the entrance of a hardware store with no limits to what she could grab.

Only… there were some limits, of course. She was here with all of her sisters (minus a third of Trinity) and that meant that they could only carry so much stuff back to their temporary base. She’d have to be very careful in picking and choosing and…

“Hey, Big sister Boss!” Trinity shouted. “Look! Wheelbarrows! Can we ride one!”

Or, Maple could load up everything she wanted into a few wheelbarrows and carry it all back that way!

“B-big sister?” she asked, hating the way her voice didn’t come out as smooth and confident as she wanted. But big sister Emily didn’t care. She turned towards her and smiled down, eyebrows moving up as though to ask what was wrong. “Um, there’s a lot of stuff here, but what kind of things do we need to make?”

“Right, I suppose that would inform what kind of stuff you’ll want to stea–acquire,” Emily said. She frowned. “I think, for now, our priority is not being found. So anything that helps with stealth would be good. Then we want to scout out the region as well, the Endgame, I mean, and maybe a bit of the space around it.”

“Okay,” Maple said. Stuff that would keep them hidden, something that would help them scout the area, and then… maybe a few extras? They could probably use some traps or something, right? To keep the heroes at bay. “Um, can someone grab one of those wheelbarrows? We, ah, can use it like a shopping cart.”

“Sure,” Emily said.

“First… Teddy, can you reach those chainsaws up on that wall over there?” Maple asked.

She was getting ideas, though she did notice the look that flashed across Emily’s face. It was kind of a worried sort of look. Still, the Boss didn’t protest, and soon Maple was making her way through each

“Hey, there’s a hunting section at the back,” Aurora said. “They sell guns.”

Maple spun around and gave the Boss the most pleading look she could manage, but Emily was already shaking her head. “Nope. Sorry, Maple. But… just no.”

She was a little sad, but not really upset. There were so many other things to grab, and besides the guns back there were all stuff for hunting. She wanted assault rifles and light machine guns to play with. Maybe a rocket launcher. Not some old, wooden-stocked hunting rifle.

She was soon tossing things into her second wheelbarrow, the first being filled by three chainsaws and a weed-eater. She had to start looking for stuff that would help with her tasks, the ones given to her by the Boss, but she wanted to go around the entire floor first and see what was there.

Once they did just that, filling the second wheelbarrow with necessities, like four different types of tape and three sorts of glue, and flashlights, batteries, and glow sticks as well as a few small tins of oil and kerosene, she had a decent idea of where things were and how the hardware store was laid out.

“Okay!” she said, raising her voice to about normal speaking level, which felt a little loud, actually. “Um… for the stealth stuff, I’m going to need a few things. I saw some mylar blankets, and I need HVAC foil tape too. Did you see those little lights that you put in gardens, with the little solar panels? Yeah, I need… like, ten.”

“Rip them out of their boxes,” Emily said. “It’ll allow us to fit more in the wheelbarrows. And put the blankets at the bottom, unfolded. We can close them over the top to fold things in as we travel. Grab some straps too, and more tape.”

Maple’s sister’s ran out to grab things, and soon were back and stuffing them into the wheelbarrows. “Uhm, okay, I need some chicken wire as well. Can… can someone grab the magnet out of one of those microwaves? And I need power cords. Can we take one of those generators?”

She pointed, and the boss followed. “I… don’t think so? They look heavy. If we weren’t so far, then maybe, but it’ll take four of us to carry the smallest one back,” she said.

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“Oh, nevermind, then,” Maple said. Maybe later. “Uh… take all the packers of those felt furniture pads too, and those porch motion detectors! Oh, and a bundle of copper wires from the back.”

The second and third wheelbarrows were starting to fill up.

“Right, um, scouting stuff… we might want to grab things from the hunting section. I saw a fish scanner. That could be a good start.” She’d need to retune it from ‘fish’ to ‘hero’ but that was doable. “Hmm, take some of those night vision things in that glass case, those binoculars, the rifle scope… oh, look, hunting camera!”

Soon, she was tossing in other odds and ends into the fourth wheelbarrow. RF radios and walkie-talkies, TV antennas, smoke alarms, poolside bluetooth speakers and packs of balloons.

From the construction section, she grabbed tools. Not to make stuff out of, but to help her tinker. A few things were added on for fun though, like laser levels and three sacks of potassium nitrate they found in the back.

The Boss said no guns. She didn’t say no bombs. It was very different.

“Is that everything?” Emily asked.

They had four wheelbarrows filled past the brim, the only thing keeping the stuff they’d picked up inside them were the blankets wrapped over and tied down to keep things covered.

“Can… can we do one more wheelbarrow?” Maple asked. She couldn’t meet the Boss’ eye as she asked but… but they’d barely emptied the store at all.

“Ah, I don’t think so? Unless you can lift and push one of these yourself?” Emily asked.

Maple ran over to the nearest and tried, but she was too short and weak. “I can’t,” she admitted.

“Then it might be best if we just stick to these. Teddy, you’re big and strong, you take one. Trinity, grab the second. I’ll take one, and Aurora the last. Athena, I want you on watch duty for anyone. You might be tagging someone if they get too tired too. Maple, in the, uh, rearguard. If something falls out, pick it up.”

There was a chorus of ‘okays!’ and then they were off. Maple was looking forward to returning, but she was looking forward to getting started even more.

It took them a lot longer to make it back. Part of that was being forced to stick to the road instead of cutting straight across, and part of that was the weight of the stuff. The two heavier wheelbarrows were really heavy, and Emily and Aurora both needed to take breaks every so often.

Once, they turned the wheelbarrows around and hid between two buildings while an HRF patrol van rumbled past, all of them hiding in the shadows and watching. No one spotted them, though, and a few minutes later they were back to pushing the wheelbarrows towards their base.

“We might have left a few traces behind,” Emily said. “But I think that it might rain tonight, which wi–“

She was interrupted as they all received a nice little notification from the Endgame.

Robber Points Gained: 3 Good job <3

Total Robber Points: 6

“Oh, hey,” Teddy said. “Three more, huh? Endgame must be happy with us.”

“I guess so,” the Boss said, though she was frowning at the air like it owed her something. “Anyway… I think it might rain soon, which might cover our tracks. Just to be sure, let’s hurry back? I think we might have enough points now to start experimenting with these Robber power things. Tomorrow. Tonight… well, how long do you think it’ll take to make things, Maple?”

“Um… it depends on what,” she said. She was itching to start. “But I can work fast!”

“I believe you. But don’t push yourself too hard, eh?”

Maple nodded quickly, then she started to tug on the straps and tape holding the stuff on the nearest wheelbarrow together.

“Lemme help you with that,” Aurora said, and soon Athena volunteered to help too.

The first step was getting everything into the little garage next to the house they’d taken over. There was a workbench there already. It needed a stool for her to see the top, but that was fine because it came with some tools already!

The next step… the next step was the fun one, the one where she’d start tinkering, and making things, and… and…

“Girls! Come inside, lunch is almost ready,” Emily called out.

Oh, well, the tinkering could wait a bit.

***

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