Chapter Two – Not Getting Involved

“Trinity, stop pulling the trash out of the bag,” Emily said.

Across the room from her, Trinity looked down into the brown plastic bag she was holding, then back up. “But… it’ll be thrown away.”

“Yes, that’s the entire point of putting it in the trash,” Emily said. “What even are you pulling out of there?”

Trinity raised her hand. She held an empty milk carton. One that had been squished almost flat by idle hands.

“Why would we ever need that?” Emily asked.

“It’s… cute?” Trinity asked. “Like art?”

Emily sighed. “In the trash, Trinity. If we kept every piece of detritus we found that you thought was cute, we’d have trash up to our knees in here.”

“That would be so cool! Like a ball pit, but with sharp stuff!”

“No,” Emily said with a shake of her head. “We’re not doing that.”

Getting their house clean had proven to be an ordeal. Fortunately, it was exactly as much of an ordeal as she expected it to be, so on that side of things it wasn’t so bad. It might have been easier to just do all of the work herself, but many hands made for light work… even if those hands were small and trouble-prone.

She stood up, then stretched her lower back out a bit. Cleaning involved a lot of bending over. Maybe she could use this as an excuse for not hitting the gym today… and tomorrow… and maybe yesterday? Yeah, that would make sense.

“Big sister,” Maple said as she walked over. “There’s someone at the door.”

Emily blinked, then looked across the living room towards the entrance door. It was a big steel slab of a door, the sort more often seen in a maintenance corridor than at the front of any proper home. “Who?” she asked.

“Head Minion Sam,” Maple said.

Emily relaxed. For a moment she worried that someone outside of their little group had found the place. Their home was well-disguised, but there had been a fair bit of traffic coming in and out lately. She was afraid that it wouldn’t be impossible for someone to track them down and figure out where they were hiding.

Sam wasn’t someone she had to worry about. Not that it prevented her from worrying. The taller, more sociable… louder girl, was exactly what Emily wasn’t, and yet she’d somehow wormed her way into becoming something of a friend.

“Oh! Spring cleaning? You know, it’s not spring yet, right?” Sam asked as she stepped in.

“Something like that,” Emily said. “Shoes off. I just had Teddy vacuum the carpet.”

“Alright,” Sam said as she removed her running shoes. “It certainly smells nicer. I bet you wish we could crack open a window or something, huh?”

Emily shrugged. It was what it was. She wasn’t going to complain, but yes, a window onto the outside would have been nice. “I’m glad to hear that it smells nicer. I was worried the wet sister smell would stink the place up forever.”

“Hey!” Athena said. “We’re not dogs.”

“Yeah! We’re all sorts of other animals, but we ain’t dogs,” Teddy agreed.

“I bet bears stink worse,” Athena replied, going back on her own stance just to poke at Teddy. That, of course, set the two off on a fight.

Emily sighed, but they weren’t making a mess of things for the moment, and they’d been working hard so far. If they needed to blow some steam, then so be it. “So, why the sudden visit? Anything interesting happening?”

Sam blinked at her as if Emily had grown a second head. “Haven’t you seen the news?” she asked.

Emily winced. “You mean with the thing in Saint Arie?”

“Yeah, of course I mean the thing in Saint Aire,” Sam said. She shuffled over and moved some stuff on the couch so that she could sit. “I’m surprised you’re not glued to the screen right now. Half the city probably is. It’s the first Endgame in Anada in… forever. Last one was when I was too young to remember, I think.”

“I’m trying not to think about it,” Emily said. “We’re not getting involved.”

“We aren’t?” Maple asked. She seemed a little conflicted. It was an expression that Emily recognized. The want to participate in something clashing with the relief of knowing that you wouldn’t actually have to and so wouldn’t suffer any amount of stress from it.

“We aren’t,” Emily replied. “Endgames are dangerous.”

“And profitable,” Sam said. “They’re kind of a big deal, no?”

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“I know,” Emily replied. “I asked the girls about it. They know more about power-related stuff than… just about anyone, I think. Maybe except the higher ranked people at the HRF or something.”

There was a dangerous light in Sam’s eyes for a moment. “Oh? And did you question them about it?” she asked. “You know, I bet some people would pay top-dollar for reliable information on an Endgame that isn’t sanitized by the HRF.”

“I didn’t because there’s no point, since we’re not participating,” Emily said. That was the final word. At least, until Sam grinned knowingly.

“Hey, Athena, I’ll give you candy to answer some questions,” Sam said in a sing-song voice.

“What kind of candy?” Athena asked. She was in the middle of pushing Teddy’s face away via the expedient method of holding her by the hair while Teddy smushed her into the floor.

Sam pulled out a crisp five dollar bill. “The best kind! The sort you pick out yourself.”

Emily shook her head. “Fine,” she said. “Girls! Break time! Just for a few minutes though, we’ll finish cleaning right after.”

They were mostly done, but there was maybe another hour’s worth of work to take care of. They’d been at it for a few hours already, and she figured that her sister’s attention spans were stretching thin in any case.

Emily flopped down onto the sofa opposite Sam after moving some cleaning stuff aside.

“You’re going to listen in?” Sam asked.

“I’m… maybe a little curious too,” Emily admitted.

Athena came over while adjusting her clothes from the rumpled state they were in and stood in front of Sam. “Cash up front,” she said.

Teddy climbed onto the sofa next to Emily and laid her head down on her lap, and then as if that was a signal to the others, they came in and joined too. Soon she had Maple on her other lap and Trinity… kind of all over.

Aurora watched from the corner of the room, a smile on her face. She shook her head when Emily gestured at her as if asking if she wanted to join the cuddle pile.

“Here you go, love,” Sam said as she gave Athena the fiver. “Now, spill.”

Athena took a moment to check if the bill was real, then folded it and tucked it into a small wallet that was filled with a disconcerting amount of cash. “Right, Endgames, huh?”

“That’s what I wanna know,” Sam said. “Wait, I need to take notes on this.” She ran to the door and returned with a notebook and pen, then sat back down. “Okay, hit me.”

Athena nodded seriously. “Endgames are meant to test powered individuals and offer them different means of growing even stronger. Past a certain level, your powers stop growing. It’s kind of a hard wall. The only way to make it past that wall is to either do something crazy cool, or complete an Endgame.”

“Crazy cool?” Sam asked as she looked up from her notes.

“Like, take over the world, or save it. I guess maybe just a country might do it,” Athena said with a shrug. “Anyway, when you join in on an Endgame, your quests are all suspended or cancelled, usually with no downsides, and it’s all replaced with the Endgame quest.”

“What’s that?” Sam asked.

“I dunno,” Athena replied with a shrug.

“You don’t?”

“Well, it depends on the Endgame, doesn’t it? Each one is themed after a different sorta game, so the quest for it will depend on that. What’s lame about Endgames is that sometimes the game won’t take into account if you’re a hero–” Athena paused for her sisters to boo. “Or a proper villain.” this time, the others cheered.

“Uh-huh,” Sam said. “So, that covers a lot of what everyone knows, and a bit that isn’t common knowledge. You haven’t earned your five bucks yet.”

Athena’s cheeks puffed out. “Fine! So, if you complete the Endgame you don’t just get to push past your level cap, you also get a cool power. The problem is that everyone that completes the Endgame gets the same power, so that can be sort of lame.”

“The power is weak?” Sam asked.

“Huh? No, it’s just a normal power,” Athena said. “Like what we all have, I guess. Anyway, since a lot of people get the same one, it’s lame because then it isn’t cool and unique, and it’s a power based on the game, not on like, you.”

“That’s some interesting implications,” Sam said. “You sure you don’t want to participate?” she asked.

“Positive,” Emily said.

There was no way she was getting involved in all of that.

***

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