Chapter Eighteen   - Sisterportation

Emily had expected that getting home after heading out that afternoon might... just not happen. She’d been worried about ambushes and potentially running into heroes waiting to grab her and Teddy. Worse would have been running into villains. The common media portrayal of what villains were, of what they did, was... not pleasant.

She and Teddy were, of course, the exception.

A flick of her phone next to her dorm-room door unlocked it, and Teddy squeezed past her and into the room.

Emily followed, pausing for just a moment to take in the room proper. There were still some unpacked boxes stacked off to one side. They would have taken up a lot of room if she had any proper furniture other than her bed, her desk, her favourite chair, and a blow-up mattress sticking halfway out from under the bed.

Teddy was quick to slither out of her hoodie and crash onto the mattress the moment it was tugged out.

“Going to sleep already?” Emily asked.

It didn’t take a genius to see that Teddy, even in her human form, had some bear in her. Including a love for sleeping long hours.

“Nah,” Teddy said as she rooted around under Emily’s bed and pulled out some bear-paw-covered PJs and a little red book. “Gonna read a bit then I’m going to sleep.”

“Oh, okay,” Emily said.

She... didn’t have any homework to do or anything of the sort. She could have gone to sleep herself, but a glance at her phone showed that it was still only six. Far too early. And while she was mentally exhausted and her social batteries were utterly depleted, she was physically still full of energy.

Pacing didn’t feel right though, so she walked over to her bed, picked up a small blanket she’d bought at the thrift store, then curled up on her chair with the cover over her entire body, like a warm little depressed cocoon.

“What are we going to do?” Emily asked. She had two numbers on her phone now. Handshake’s and that Melanie woman’s. The former told her to call if she needed more information on... anything, really. The latter told her to give her a head’s up if she planned on doing anything about Homie.

“I don’t know,” Teddy said as she rolled onto her back with her book held above her. “We could beat that Homie guy up and take the drive things back.”

“... Do you think we could actually do that?” Emily asked.

She truly doubted they’d be able to pull it off.

“Can’t think of anything else,” Teddy said. “What will happen if they, uh, open the drive things?”

“Then our lives are ruined,” Emily said. Cement was supposed to be dangerous with blackmail and such. He could use what little information Handshake had gathered on her to make her work for him. Or maybe do worse things. Emily couldn’t imagine what kind of things,but she was certain they were horrid.

“Yeah, in that case I say we fight them.”

Emily buried herself deeper into her chair. Could she?

“I think...” she began at last. “That we could maybe, um, try to take the drive back instead? Without having to, uh, fight?”

“Okay,” Teddy said.

“You’re okay with that idea?” Emily asked.

Teddy nodded and turned a page in her book. “Yeah, of course, Boss, it’s your idea, yeah?”

Emily nodded slowly. It was that. “We’ll need to be a bit stronger, I think,” she said.

Teddy perked up. “Are we going to spend some points?” she asked. “I don’t have any traits to spend my points on though.”

“Ah,” Emily said. “You don’t?”

“Nope. Just my base skill. I’ve got two upgrade points but nothing to use them on,” Teddy said. “Can’t wait to do something so incredible that I get a new trait for my bear power. I bet it will be something incredible. Like a nose able to smell capitalism or something.”

“Uh,” Emily added. “That sounds... nice.” She cleared her throat. “Status.”

Name: Emily Wright

Alignment: Villain

Alias: The Boss

Level: One

Powers

Sister Summoning

Create Sister

Rank 1

Points

Power Slots: 0

Skill Upgrades: 3

Skill Slots: 1