Fluff E-Book

RavensDagger

• Herausgeber: Podium Publishing
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: Fluff
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 554

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

A socially anxious college student discovers she has superpowers—and they need babysitting—in the first book of an original superhero series.   Power Day occurs every year on September 15. Across the world, formerly regular people awaken with superhuman abilities—and labels to go with them. They become the next generation of Heroes . . . and Villains.   September 15 is also Emily Wright's first day on campus. While everyone else is out celebrating the start of their college career, Emily's hiding in her dorm room. She wonders if it's possible to earn a degree while completely avoiding eye contact with anyone.   All she wants is to learn a little and maybe get over her anxiety. Instead, she's granted a superpower and categorized as villainous. So, Emily panics—and inadvertently conjures up a pint-size supervillain sidekick.   Emily has no intention of doing anything—evil or otherwise—with her powers. And if she has to babysit an increasing number of "little sisters" in order to stay under the radar, so be it.   But can Emily gain control of her life, or will she drown in a sea of supervillainy and cuddles?

Leseprobe

Fluff

RavensDagger

To my dear mom,

without whose love and attention,

I would have finished this book in half the time

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission from Podium Publishing.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2022 by Edgar Malboeuf

Cover design by Podium Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-0394-1238-5

Published in 2022 by Podium Publishing, ULC

www.podiumaudio.com

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE Anxiety

CHAPTER ONE Wake Up

CHAPTER TWO Don’t Panic

CHAPTER THREE The Smallest Barbearian

CHAPTER FOUR When in Doubt, Look It Up

CHAPTER FIVE Honey-Glazed Blackmail

CHAPTER SIX Being Blankets

CHAPTER SEVEN Long-Distance Comforts

CHAPTER EIGHT Shady Dealings

CHAPTER NINE Bearable Threats

CHAPTER TEN Born Knowing

CHAPTER ELEVEN A Queen of Sorts

CHAPTER TWELVE Voluntary

CHAPTER THIRTEEN An Interrogation or Two

CHAPTER FOURTEEN An Adorable Misunderstanding

CHAPTER FIFTEEN A Cryptic Request

CHAPTER SIXTEEN Midnight Meeting

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Homie and the Try Hards

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Sisterportation

CHAPTER NINETEEN Teddy’s Adventure in Costume-Finding

CHAPTER TWENTY Backstage Bear

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Costuming Up

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Plastic Bear Masks

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Melaton

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR The Ropes

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Sleepy Time

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Just Along for the Ride

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Bearing the Burden of Being the Best Bear

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT A Perfectly Ordinary Day

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE Harald

CHAPTER THIRTY Gentle Persuasion

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE Ready Teddy

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO Garage

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE Victory

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR The Rules

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE Paranowl Activities

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX A Receipt for Ulcers

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN Bonding

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT Nom Nom de Guerre

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE A Mouthful

CHAPTER FORTY Everyone Poops

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE Knots

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO Buckle Up

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE Crisis of Personowlity

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR Heroic Introductions

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE Hoo You Are Deep Inside

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX Endemic

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN Economic Theory According to Teddy

CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT Unwise

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE No Rest for the Not-So-Wicked

CHAPTER FIFTY Riding Owl Night

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE An Undisclosed Chat

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO Complicated Conversations

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE Healpats

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR Questing for a Bear

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE The Uncomplicated Art of Subtlety (According to Athena)

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX Tense

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN Inattention

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT Call

CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE Catching the Mouse

CHAPTER SIXTY Being Clever

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE Confidence

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO Imposing

CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE Triple Threat

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR Trinity and Toaster-bun Kissing in a Tree

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE Single with End Unseen

CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX Costume Shopping

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN Entirely Fine

CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT Breaking and Entering

CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE Tippy-Toe Thief

CHAPTER SEVENTY Up and Over

CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE Getting Saucy

CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO Reversal

CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE Interrogations

Epilogue

About the Author

PROLOGUE

Anxiety

Emily endured her mother’s hug, then squeezed her eyes shut as her cheeks were pecked. When, finally, she was released, she took a step back and crossed her arms to ward off the September chill.

“So, ah, this is it?” she asked.

Emily looked over at her parents. Her mom, short and kind of frumpy, was wearing the sort of dress that had gone out of fashion sometime in the late sixties. Her dad, tall and wide-shouldered, could have been one of the hockey players on campus if it weren’t for the premature balding of his dirty-blond hair.

“You know our number,” her mom said.

Emily nodded. “It’s never changed.”

Her mom sighed, then pulled her into another hug. “It never will. You call, okay? Day or night. Even if it’s just to talk. Mom will be there for you if you have any problems with your schoolwork or—” She tittered. “Or problems picking the cutest boy.”

Emily could hear her father’s knuckles popping and held back the tiniest smile. Teasing her dad had been something of a hobby when she was young. She knew that he dreamed of giving some boy the shovel talk, but high school came and went without it ever happening.

“I . . .” She swallowed. “I love you.”

Her dad smiled just a little, his stoic face cracking for a moment.

And then Emily had to endure more hugging.

She closed her eyes and prayed to whoever would listen that no one had seen her. Having her dad trade dorky jokes with some of the boys while helping her carry her things had been mortifying enough to keep her hiding in her blankets for a week.

When the hugging was over—and her dad had patted her head as his own little way of showing that he cared—the family pickup revved up and drove off. Emily found herself standing alone.

Alone for the first time since . . . since forever.

She looked around her, taking in the ancient stone buildings of the old campus, some of them next to modern steel and glass buildings. All of them were surrounded by winding cobbled paths that made room for tough old trees. She eyed the shadows, the few people walking around, and the open blue sky; then she shivered.

Emily had heard stories about girls on campuses like this one getting harassed and hurt. She had tried not to hear, had tried not to feed her anxiety, but the little snippets she overheard were preying on her now.

She tugged her long, pleated skirt down a little so that it dipped lower and closer to her ankles, then pulled down the hem of her sweater.

Turning, she faced the direction of her dorm and started moving. Her Mary Janes clicked across the pavement with a nervous pitter-patter that mimicked the hummingbird beat of her heart. She didn’t like being out in the open, not if she could avoid it. She didn’t like being indoors all that much either. Emily found just a few places comforting, none of which were anywhere near here. She tamped down the temptation to pull out her cell and call her mother and put the whole thing off.

It was too late for that. Her parents had sacrificed too much to get her into the school, and her future depended on her at the very least trying to pass all her courses.

Emily walked with a hand over her stomach, as if that could hold all the butterflies in place.

A few blocks and a parking lot later, she was at her dorm. The large brass plaque at the base of the building declared it to be the Quantum Mothman House. An auspicious name for a dorm, Emily thought. It was one of the newer buildings, built with money donated from some of the older local Heroes to promote higher education.

It was a bit pricey, but her father had insisted that she have the best they could afford. The fact that she didn’t need to stay with a roommate reassured both her and her dad.

The front door unlocked with a swipe of her phone over a panel jutting out next to it, and she slid into the lobby only to freeze up the moment she was inside.

The lobby was divided into two sections. On the one side were some public restrooms and a small kitchenette that had a little fridge and some microwaves. On the other was a lounge with a big-screen TV, some couches, and a couple of square tables surrounded by benches. She’d seen people playing cards or looking at their phones while the TV blasted the evening news the first time she visited.

It was louder than she liked, but people had been minding their own business then. Now there were banners strung across the square ceiling tiles, and a few balloons added a bit of a festive air to the otherwise plain room.

Emily had the impression that everyone and their friends were there. Thirty people, all packed into a small room, some of them carrying red cups, others glass bottles. There was a sickly sweet scent to the air, a mixture of store-bought pastries, alcohol, and sweat that made her stomach twist.

“Hey!”

She turned to find a tall Black girl walking her way with a gleaming smile. “You’re in five-oh-one, right?”

Emily’s mind blanked. “Five . . . oh, my room number. Um. Yes?”

The girl’s smile grew. She gestured to a table near the back that had soda bottles and a cooler sitting on it. “Grab something to drink! We’re having a bit of a meet and greet slash Power Day bash.”

“Power Day,” Emily repeated. She shook her head. Of course, it was the fifteenth of September. She knew that. “Right.”

The girl switched her cup from one hand to another and extended her hand. “I’m Sam.”

Emily looked at the hand. She didn’t want to take it, but not taking it would have been rude. The pressure grew in her chest until her hand snapped out and she took Sam’s hand and shook it up and down. “Emily. I’m Emily. I, uh, need to go to my room.”

“Come back down if you want,” Sam said. “I can introduce you to everyone. Some of the boys are kinda cute.” She wiggled her eyebrows, then looked Emily up and down in a way that made her skin crawl. “Some of the girls are cute too,” she added with a wink.

“Right, right. Thank you.” Emily skittered away as if she were being chased by some monster in one of those horror movies she’d made the mistake of watching once.

She reached the elevator at the back and stepped in at the same time as a young man who tapped the IV button on the panel. “Which floor?” he asked.

Emily had to take a couple of deep breaths before she could reply. “F-five.”

He nodded, tapped the V for her floor, and much to her relief, pulled a phone out and began to stare at its screen. She caught a glimpse of some new article about Power Day and how the local police chief was going to be on the lookout for new Villains, but she averted her eyes as soon as the boy looked her way.

“So, you new here?” he asked.

Emily worked her jaw to answer, but nothing came out. By the time she had worked through the complex mathematics of social dynamics to say yes, the door dinged open and the boy left with a huff.

She swallowed again, huddled herself smaller now that no one was looking, and waited until she got to her floor.

The corridor to her room passed in a flash as she all but ran to her door, unlocked it with another swipe of her phone, and slipped into her room.

It wasn’t her room yet, not in the sense that she felt at home inside it, but it would be one day, she hoped.

Emily had convinced her dad to move up a pair of bookshelves and her favorite chair from back home, a big plush thing made of faux leather that was far too large for someone of her size. She could curl up on it, legs bent under her, and still have room to spare.

The bed off in the corner was a twin that had been left open. It was so much bigger than her bed back home that she knew she’d feel lost in it.

She surveyed the desk, the charging laptop in one corner, then looked over at her little bathroom. It was a bit cramped, but she didn’t need much more than the shower and amenities it had. The room, with its view out into an alley behind the Quantum Mothman building, was more than enough for her.

The sigh that escaped her left with all her worries and pulled a weight off her back. She locked the door, then trudged over to the bed and allowed herself to crash into it.

After a minute of recharging her social batteries from empty to near-empty—which was as full as they would go for her—Emily rolled over and pulled her phone out of her pocket. A scan of WriteIt showed that all the popular threads were about Power Day. People were placing bets and waiting for the new Heroic faces to appear.

She skimmed over a few “If It Happens to You” threads and found a web page filled with images of cute animals doing cute things.

If people were her kryptonite, then pictures of kittens, foxes, and dogs were . . . whatever the opposite of kryptonite was.

Her mind, the part not looping through a series of “aww”s at every picture she scrolled down to, was still working through a few things. She was alone now. No mother to call on, no huge stoic dad to fix every big problem. Just Emily.

Her classes would start in the morning. She didn’t know how to describe what she felt about that but decided to settle on terrified.

When the ball of stress in her stomach grew too large, she set down her phone and jumped off the bed. GIFs of kittens being spooked by tinfoil weren’t doing it for her.

With a long-suffering sigh, Emily undressed, realized she didn’t have a hamper to put her clothes in, and settled for refolding them next to her bed; then she slid on some walrus-print pj’s and settled in. She knew that she wouldn’t fall asleep anytime soon, and that was okay. The internet was a never-ending font of cuddly things to look at.

Eventually, despite the early evening sun still bright outside her window, Emily blinked a final time and slid into a restless slumber.

CHAPTER ONE

Wake Up

Emily’s dreams were all hazy nightmares.

She woke with a bit of a jerk, a sense of wrong racing through her that only faded when she heard the distant honk of a car and the sound of a toilet flushing somewhere. The feeling that she wasn’t home was quickly followed by the realization that she was in her new dorm.

That much she had kind of expected. She had never spent that many nights away from home, but on the rare occasion her family went on vacation, she always had that sense of being misplaced on waking up.

Emily looked at her clock, realized that she hadn’t actually set it up yet, then pulled her phone from the crack between the mattress and bedframe. Raising her head, she gave it a tap and read 6:34 on the top of the display.

Her head fell back onto her pillow. She had her first classes at ten. Sleeping a bit more was possible, but she wasn’t tired, just lethargic and more than a little nervous.

With a heavy sigh, Emily climbed out of bed, picked out her toiletries from a still-packed box, then slumped her way toward the bathroom.

She set her pj’s aside first. They were clean enough to be worn one more time, she figured, and she still didn’t know too much about the laundry situation. The shower wasn’t as warm or as strong as back home, but she didn’t mind. Her blond hair took some scrubbing to look nice and neat, then she was out of the shower and wrapping a pair of thick towels around her waist and her hair.

Her last stop was the mirror, where she brushed her teeth.

The brush fell into her sink, dropped when her hands went slack.

Eyes that were still misty locked onto the reflection in the mirror. Not of her own freckly, still-pudgy face, but on the words hovering above her head.

Emily Wright

???, Level 0

She took in a deep breath, then another. “No,” she said.

Her denial didn’t do anything to the words hovering there. A shivering hand wiped the smog off the glass. All it did was make the hovering words shift along with her.

She wondered if it was a projection, some fancy hologram, but the words had to be written backward for her to read them in the right order when reflected.

Emily’s eyes screwed shut. She went over the facts like her counselor had once taught her. It had been an exercise to keep the stress down.

Fact one: There were words above her. The kind of words that appeared above the heads of Heroes and Villains when they wanted them to.

Fact two: It had been Power Day when she went to bed the night before.

Fact three . . .

Emily grabbed the edge of the sink, then noticed her toothbrush. Carefully, she pulled it out of the sink’s hole, wiped it clean, then spat into the sink. A simple gesture, one she’d done a thousand times before. It felt wrong to do something so normal while her life was falling apart.

“No, no, it’s . . .”

She swallowed and ignored the minty freshness of it. Another exercise came to mind. The old three-tens trick. How would this impact her in ten minutes? In ten days? In ten months?

In ten minutes, she’d be . . . screwed. In ten days, likewise, and in ten months, her life would probably be ruined.

Emily felt tears stinging the corners of her eyes. None of the answers were good. The exercise had made it worse.

She wanted to rush to her phone and look up a guide. Some sort of “I woke up with powers, now what?” but she knew that half the responses there would be excited cheers from idiots, and the other half strongly worded suggestions from the government to join up right away . . . or else.

Her mom . . . couldn’t fix this. Her dad wouldn’t know where to begin.

She stumbled into her bedroom and got dressed with manic energy, clothes pulled from every box she could find until she was in a long skirt and a nice blouse with a warm cardigan to go over it. The outfit didn’t expose any skin beyond the nape of her neck, and it was all in somber colors that would blend in.

And then she was dressed for a class she might not be able to attend, not if there were literal words hovering above her head.

Sure, there were some open Masks out there, people with powers who didn’t care if people knew who they were out of costume. She didn’t want people to notice her at the best of times.

Emily went over what she knew, which wasn’t all that much. One thing she did know, though, was the magic word, the one that could give away a Mask with only two syllables.

“Status,” she whispered.

A screen appeared before her.

Her eyes glazed over, and she stumbled back until her rear found its way onto her bed. Only then did she actually read the screen before her.

Name: Emily Wright

Alignment: Undetermined

Alias: None

Level: 0

Powers

None

Points

Power Slots: 1

Skill Upgrades: 0

Skill Slots: 0

“Oh god,” she said.

Fate accepted!

Rolling for alignment.

The screen warped into a simple bar. To the left, the word Alignment; to the right, a mass of words spinning too fast to read, which would determine just how ruined her life would be.

The spinning words wound down, ticking by at a pace that was slow enough for her to make them out. There were a few that were more common. Hero. Martyr. Savior. Vigilante . . . and then the words clicked to a stop.

Congratulations! Your ideal morality is . . . Villain! A life of crime and destruction awaits you!

Emily brought her hands to her face in time to smudge some of the tears welling out of her eyes. “No, no, no,” she said.

It wasn’t the end of the world. Just because the system said one thing didn’t mean that she had to follow what it said. She didn’t need to play its game. Plenty of people received powers and went on with their lives as if nothing had happened.

She shut her eyes as hard as she could, but it did nothing to stop the telltale impression that something was waiting for her.

When she opened them again, another prompt was waiting for her.

You have one Power Slot waiting for unlock. Unlock your first Power now?

She shook her head.

The prompt didn’t go away.

Emily wanted to shove it all aside. To go back to bed and wake up as just another normal girl with perhaps a few minor disorders that could be treated with some therapy and a bit of experience.

She had dreamed of being a Mask, of course, of shrouding herself in an identity that didn’t have any of her problems, but as she’d grown up, she discovered that that wasn’t for her, that she . . .

Power Slot point spent! Unlocking new Power!

“What?” she squeaked. She hadn’t agreed to that!

Congratulations! You are now Level 1. Power unlocked!

Emily stared around her room, expecting at any moment for something awful to happen. She swallowed, then poked at her bed. Nothing. Then she poked her thigh. Also nothing. The world didn’t feel any stranger than it already had. Was it all a stress hallucination? She knew it wasn’t but . . . “Status?”

Name: Emily Wright

Alignment: Villain

Alias: None

Level: 1

Powers

Sister Summoning

Create Sister

Rank 1

Points

Power Slots: 0

Skill Upgrades: 0

Skill Slots: 0

She blinked. That . . . didn’t seem all that bad. She didn’t know what kind of power Sister Summoning was, but it sounded . . . nice? It wasn’t Demon Summoning, or anything that sounded outright evil. Did it let her teleport people?

The one skill on the list, Create Sister, didn’t seem to indicate as much.

And, just on thinking about it, a new screen opened.

Create Sister

Sister Summoning

Rank 1

Allows you to summon a sister, a being with power, who will aid and assist you on your path to Villainy. A sister has her own powers and skills that you may improve. Can be resummoned.

Activation: Voice command

Cooldown: None

Max Summons: One

“Oh,” Emily said.

She considered—actually considered—using her new power. But as soon as the thought crossed her mind, she crushed it. There was no time for that. She had classes in . . . in less than three hours, and she would need to cross half the campus to get there.

Maybe she could find a counselor? Were they obligated to report to the police?

A distant rumble had her looking around. She wondered if it had been an explosion. She was still wondering when her phone buzzed.

To All: Please stay indoors. The HRF is on-site. All current classes are suspended until 9 a.m. All classes after this time are to resume normally.

There went her plans to get to class early to maybe build up the courage to say hello to her professor.

Emily fidgeted on the spot. Another boom rocked the dormitory windows.

New Quest!

Fighting Good

Join the battle against the forces of good.

Reward: +3 Skill Upgrade points per Hero incapacitated or killed. Villain +4 per kill!

Accept? Refuse?

“Refuse!” she squeaked. “I-I can’t fight Heroes. I don’t even know what Create Sister does,” she whined to the box.

And then, as the words escaped her lips and an inward rush of wind filled the room, she realized her mistake.

For better or worse, a sister was coming.

CHAPTER TWO

Don’t Panic

Emily decided, quite sensibly, not to panic.

The breeze shifting around her room settled, and Emily shivered as the air stilled. She sat on the edge of her bed, her hands folded on her lap and her breath coming in deep gulps.

Skill: Create Sister successful!

Emily stared at the woman, no, the girl, standing before her where no one had been a minute ago.

She was on the shorter side, with a squat figure and big chubby cheeks framed by brown hair that was cut off at neck length. Emily would have placed her at thirteen or fourteen, with some growing left to do. She had a simple beige T-shirt with the word Bear on it in big letters over a pair of green cargo shorts.

She looked, at least to Emily, like any other teenage girl. That is, if the girl hadn’t had a pair of rounded ears poking through her hair and a few words floating about her head.

??? Wright

WereBear, Level 1

Emily looked away from the hovering words. The girl yawned. “What do you want me to do, Boss?”

“What?” Emily asked. She didn’t know why she was surprised by the girl talking. She should have expected it, really. “Wh-who are you?”

The girl blinked slowly. “I dunno. You haven’t named me yet.” She reached under her T-shirt and scratched at her tummy. “So, we’re gonna do that?”

“Name you?” Emily asked.

It kind of made sense. She’d never been one for games and such, but she knew that naming pets was normal. But this was a girl, an actual human . . . maybe. People didn’t name other people, not unless they were naming a baby, and that was a comparison that Emily was really, really not ready to make.

The girl nodded. “Yeah. I mean, unless you’ve got something else that needs doing?” She looked around the empty room as if to confirm that there really wasn’t anything to do.

“I . . . how?” Emily asked. She shook her head. That was moving ahead too quickly. She had to figure things out. “Can I . . . unsummon you?”

“Nah,” the girl said.

Emily’s heart sank. “Oh. Okay. Um.”

“You okay, sis?” the girl asked.

“I’m fine,” Emily said faintly. It was her favorite lie, one that came easily to her lips.

“All right, well, whatever.” The girl stepped up and Emily flinched, but she wasn’t attacked or hurt. The girl just climbed up onto the bed, shuffled around, and flopped onto her side in the middle of the bed.

“W-what are you doing?” Emily asked.

“Did you want me to scoot over?” the girl asked. She tapped the free space left on the bed. “There’s room. You’re not fat.”

“N-no, I mean. That’s my bed.”

“Got another bed?”

“No?” Emily said.

The girl shrugged one shoulder, pulled the pillow down lower, and smushed her face into it. “Wake me up when stuff’s happening.”

Emily’s hands danced uncertain gestures through the air. “O-okay?” she tried.

In the end, she did succeed in calming down. The girl on the bed next to her didn’t feel like a threat or like someone dangerous. She was just a normal teenager who had appeared out of thin air and slid onto Emily’s bed.

She was pretty sure there weren’t guides for this kind of situation online, at least, none that wouldn’t get her added to a watch list.

“Okay,” she whispered to herself.

She needed a list. A nice checklist, with things to do and tasks that she could tackle in a reasonable and logical order.

Rushing over to her desk, Emily found a notebook in one of the drawers and placed it on the surface. Then she dug around for a pen that worked and got to making her list. It wasn’t a terribly long one, but she didn’t need a long list, she needed a functional one.

1. Learn about power

2. Turn off sign above head

3. Learn about bear girl. Name her?

4. Find a place to hide bear girl

5. Go to classes on time

6.Call Mom

Emily set her pen down, reread her list, then chewed on her lower lip a bit. It . . . was a list. She could do those things. Turning, she found the bear girl snoring on her bed, low rumbles that faded into the background as soon as Emily didn’t pay attention. She could’ve almost pretended there wasn’t a person in her room if it weren’t for the words floating above her bed.

Step one was first. “Status?”

Name: Emily Wright

Alignment: Villain

Alias: None

Level: 1

Powers

Sister Summoning

Create Sister

Rank 1

Points

Power Slots: 0

Skill Upgrades: 0

Skill Slots: 0

That seemed normal. No, not normal. None of it was normal. But it hadn’t changed from the last time she’d looked. “Um. Sister . . . page?” she tried. “Ah, maybe . . . bear . . . sister page?”

Name: ??? Wright

Alignment: Villain, Little Sister

Alias: None

Level: 1

Powers

WereBear

Rip and Bear

Rank 1

Points

Power Slots: 0

Skill Upgrades: 0

Skill Slots: 0

Emily took in the page. She . . . had no idea what that skill was supposed to do. Still, the fact that the girl had a status page that Emily could see meant something. She really was a product of Emily’s power. Not that that helped all that much, but it was a lead. Emily could Oogle that kind of thing.

She had learned something, so she tentatively crossed that off her list. She had a lot more to learn, but for now, other things were more important. “Um. Miss? Excuse me?” Emily asked. She reached out and shook the girl’s . . . the werebear’s . . . shoulder.

Bleary brown eyes opened and looked up to Emily. “Yeah?” she asked, before a yawn revealed large canines.

“Um. I have some questions.”

The girl sat up with a long-suffering sigh. “Okay.”

Emily licked her lips, then nodded. She could do this. A glance at her list to keep her mind on track helped. “Okay. So. First. Do you know how to hide . . . that?” She pointed above her head.

The bear girl looked up and, presumably, at the name hovering over Emily’s head. “Yeah. Just turn it off. Why?”

“Uh. I-I can’t afford to let people know. They would . . . take me, and make me do things, and maybe they’d want me as a Hero or something, and that’s a lot, and all I want is to go to school and maybe make one friend, or maybe two, and one day meet a nice quiet man and have a job I can do really well on my own, but being a Mask wouldn’t allow me to do any of that and—”

Emily cut herself off midsentence as a pair of arms wrapped around her waist and a head pushed itself against her ribs. “You talk too much.”

Emily didn’t know what to do. The girl was lying all crooked across the bed and was hugging her with surprisingly strong arms that she doubted she could dislodge.

And then the girl let go and flopped back onto the bed. “There. Now you’re better.”

Emily wanted to protest, but hugs were sort of nice. She’d never had any friends, or close friends at least, but her mother was the hugging sort and Emily knew that they helped sometimes. “Thanks?” she said.

“Yeah, sure,” the girl said.

Emily fidgeted. “Um. What about . . . Teddy?”

The girl blinked. “Teddy?”

“For a name? It could be short for, um, Theodora?”

The newly christened Teddy hummed, then nodded. “Yeah, okay.”

Emily reached for the girl, then thought better of it. The words above her head twitched, then changed.

Teddy

WereBear, Level 1

She felt something nice in her stomach, like when she finally arrived at home from school. It soon faded though as she looked at her list again. The words were, presumably, still hovering above her. “Menu?” she tried. “Um . . . disguise? Hide?”

Do you wish to hide your identity?

“Yes!”

A run back to the bathroom had her shoulders slumping as a whole heap of stress oozed off her back. The words above her head were gone. She could go on living a totally normal life. That was, if Teddy cooperated.

Emily would need to find something to do with the girl, but classes were coming up and the roiling discomfort of being late was twisting in her gut already.

“Okay. Okay. Teddy?”

“Hmm?” came the response from the not-yet-snoring girl on the bed.

“I’m going to class. You, ah, behave?”

“Hmm.”

As Emily collected her things and tried hard not to think too hard, she had the impression that she was walking along the edge of a sharp precipice. For a girl who knew that she had problems with sudden changes, all the things happening to her in one day were just too much.

But she couldn’t see a way out of her situation, not one that didn’t pose all sorts of risks.

So, determined to make the most of her day and to pretend that her life wasn’t now a nightmare, Emily picked up her backpack full of books and headed for the door.

The moment her hand touched the handle, a screen popped up before her.

You have . . . 2 pending Quests!

CHAPTER THREE

The Smallest Barbearian

The door clicked shut, and just like that, the Boss was gone.

Teddy settled into the pillow, enjoying its warmth and its smell. Something about it felt nice and warm and safe, like a cave away from a harsh storm.

She pulled her blankets closer, wrapping them over her shoulders and tucking in tight, forming as small a ball as she could make herself. It was a bit chillier in the room than she would have liked.

Teddy didn’t have many memories to rely on, just a few minutes spent with the Boss while the Boss flailed around and acted as if the world were ending. But those memories were nice ones. Especially the few little touches, and the hug she’d given to the older girl.

The Boss was warm.

Teddy liked that.

Her eyes, already heavy, started to droop down while the warm embrace of slumber crawled over her. She slid into the hazy world of deep hibernation, time moving along at a slow crawl only marked by the occasional thump of feet in the corridor or the rumble of passing trucks.

Something banged. A door, she guessed. It was enough to have her open one eye to peek around.

And then, much to her annoyance, something popped up in her vision.

New Quest!

Savage Ravage

Ravage an innocent!

Reward: +1 Skill Upgrade point per person incapacitated. +2 Skill Upgrade points per person killed. Villain +2 per success!

Accept? Refuse?

Teddy shifted in her bed. That sounded like a lot of work, and the Boss hadn’t told her to go out and eat anyone.

Quest refused!

New Quest!

A Muggy Afternoon

Mug a stranger.

Reward: +1 Skill Upgrade point per person successfully robbed. Scoundrel +1 per item!

Accept? Refuse?

Teddy could use something to eat. The Boss hadn’t left anything that Teddy noticed in the room, and she was getting to be a bit peckish.

Quest accepted!

And now her sleep was spoiled.

Sighing, Teddy flung the blankets off and rolled out of bed. She was still in her shorts and T-shirt, because they were comfy enough for sleeping in, but she had taken off her hiking boots before climbing onto the bed.

On the boots went, with only some frowning and pouting and a bit of grumbling as she tried to remember the rhyme for tying shoelaces, a rhyme that she sorta knew even if she didn’t have memories to go with it.

Her boots all knotted up, Teddy went to the door and almost opened it when she remembered the Boss working hard to hide her identity.

A bit of focusing later and the words above Teddy’s head faded away, and she slid out into a big corridor.

Another girl, way older, like the Boss, stood in the hallway. She stared at Teddy and waved.

Teddy wondered if she should mug her, but the girl didn’t have any food on her so she just waved back and walked on past.

She had a choice between taking the elevator or walking down the steps, so she enjoyed the old pop music as she rode on down to the first floor. A few dozen more steps and she was outside.

The sun beamed down atop her head, warming her ears and making her feel all sweaty and lethargic.

Teddy turned around to go back to bed—she could mug people later— but the door was locked. She tugged at it some more to no avail.

Teddy frowned at it.

She could just activate her power and break it down. She knew she could. But that would just make her more tired, and hungry besides.

With a soulful sigh, Teddy turned back around and took in her surroundings. There were a lot of buildings around. She figured that if she wanted to find someone to mug, it would be best to just head out in the direction that looked the richest and wait to find someone alone.

Trudging along, Teddy kept to the sidewalks and let her head rotate around to follow all the posters and advertisements stuck to telephone poles and mounted on the side of passing buses.

A lot of the images were of people in tight costumes, standing tall and proud with their foot on the necks of ugly people. They looked like kings and queens, especially in the images where crowds of people were cheering them on.

The posters on the telephone poles weren’t as colorful, and their art was a lot less interesting. Stuff like “Call 011 at the first sign of VILLAINY!” or ads with addresses to websites where people could give anonymous tips.

Teddy still preferred all those over the ads with food on them. Those made her tummy ache.

She was a long ways from home when she saw a reedy older guy, maybe a year or two older than her Boss, slip into an alleyway with a box under one arm and a suitcase in the other.

Teddy grinned. She’d struck honey!

Walking a bit faster, Teddy rounded the corner into the alleyway and found the man grumbling to himself as he faced a pair of crooked dumpsters. They were blocking his path.

She felt her grin sharpening as she stepped into the shadowy path. “Hey, old guy,” she said.

The man jumped and turned around, revealing a reedy young man and a face covered by a big bushy mustache. “Yes?’

“Give me everything you’ve got,” Teddy said.

The man blinked, and then he was smiling too. “You came for my rally?” he asked. Before she could ask him what he was on about, he knelt down and dropped the box he was holding. It was just a wooden crate with a step built into the side. Then he opened his briefcase and rummaged through it before pausing. “Ah, well, uh, this isn’t the most auspicious place for this kind of thing, is it, comrade?”

“What?”

“Ah, and here I was hoping today I would be able to inspire the masses into joining in the glorious revolution against the Heroes and their fat capitalist pig leaders. But one girl is better than none. Sometimes it’s the smallest ear that counts, right?”

Teddy reached out and touched her ears. They weren’t that small. His were smaller than hers, probably. Definitely smaller if she counted the fuzzy fur around them. “I don’t get it,” she said. “I just want food.”

“Don’t we all! But the capitalists in their ivory towers won’t allow it, not without breaking your back first!”

Teddy took a small step back. Someone wanted to break her back? She growled deep in her throat and stepped forward. “I won’t let them. I’m too strong.”

“Oh, I can see the fires of the proletariat burning in you already, comrade. Look, I’m sorry that the rally was canceled because of that nasty business with the Villain, but . . . here, take this. It taught me a lot, but I have other copies.”

He pulled a book out from his suitcase, then stuffed it in his armpit to hold it in place as he closed the case. The man shoved the book into her hand, then rubbed the top of her head.

“Good luck, little comrade!” he said before stepping past.

Teddy blinked down at the little red book in her hands. She was confused. Who were the capitalists, and why did they want to break her back and not give her food? Would . . . the book tell her?

Quest Complete!

A Muggy Afternoon

Reward: +1 Skill Upgrade point per person successfully robbed. Scoundrel +1 per item!

Teddy grinned. A reward! And then her smile faltered as her tummy rumbled.

Sighing, she slipped her new book into one of her shorts pockets and went on to find someone else to mug. Maybe this time they’d have some food. She walked a little slower, still heading toward the richest sections. She was keeping an eye out for capitalists, though, just in case.

She didn’t know what they looked like yet, but she figured she’d know one when she saw it. The man had said they were fat and piglike.

A loud gong sounded. Teddy tensed, expecting trouble, but it turned out that it only meant that a lot of people started leaving a bunch of buildings all at once. They all looked like normal people, though some were pretty fat (but not piglike, so they were probably not capitalists).

Teddy moved over to the side of one building where the entrance jutted out a bit and stood in the partial shadows there. A few of the people moving by looked her way, but they dismissed her as soon as they saw her.

Teddy waited until the crowds thinned out, a lot of them heading to some parking lots or toward a bus stop just down the street, others milling about and chatting animatedly.

What she was looking for was a loner she could mug.

And then a single girl stepped out. Her back hunched, her eyes downcast, her hands fretting over the strap of her bag. The perfect target.

That was, if she wasn’t also blond and wearing the same clothes as her Boss.

Teddy sighed and gave up on the mugging idea. She could just ask Boss for food. She’d pay her for her work, right?

“Heya, Boss,” Teddy said.

Her Boss jumped an impressive height and spun around so fast she almost knocked Teddy out with her swinging bag. “W-what are you doing here?!” she said before slapping her hand over her mouth.

A few people were looking their way now, but Teddy paid them no mind. She was too busy staring as the Boss took her hand and started pulling her along.

Had she done anything wrong?

She had left the house to mug people, but the Boss hadn’t told her not to.

Teddy figured the Boss was just being cautious.

“We, we need to talk. Right now . . . as soon as we get back to the dorms.”

“But, Boss,” Teddy said, “I’m hungry.”

The Boss made a weird noise. “Then . . . then food first.”

Teddy’s grin was enough to set a feral wolf running. The Boss was proving to be great. Teddy couldn’t wait to tell her of all the work she’d done so far.

CHAPTER FOUR

When in Doubt, Look It Up

Emily’s first class, an introduction to Literature 101, had gone . . . well.

She’d only gotten to class with fifteen minutes to spare, but there were still plenty of seats left at the very back of the room. She set her bag down, placed her laptop onto the little desk mounted on one of the armrests of her seat, and hoped that the screen could serve as a sort of barrier between her and the rest of the world.

The professor was talking to a young man she assumed to be a teacher’s assistant. Soon, that young man called out to her and asked for her name. It was all she could do to stutter through “Emily Wright.” He didn’t comment other than noting it down before moving to the door to take people’s names as they entered.

She hoped that that was as much talking as she would need to do in that class.

Opening a word processor to take notes was easy enough, which left her with some free time.

Somehow she ended up on the front page of WriteIt and, instead of gravitating to pictures of nice animals doing nice animal things, she was staring at a thread that had been bumped to the very top.

You’re a Mask, Now What?

Biting her lower lip, she clicked on the link. There was no harm in looking. The thread had thousands of comments already and it wasn’t like her poking at it would be too strange. She wasn’t being suspicious at all. At least, she hoped.

Most of the post was about contacting the government for help and such, but that sounded a little suspicious to her. There was some good advice though.

Your power will make choices for you. You don’t know what you’ll get, and generally, it will be very weak at first. It will also push you toward a certain kind of morality. You might not be a Hero when you first get your power. There are a lot more levels of morality than you might think. Most people don’t start at the extremes, but somewhere near the middle of the scale. By doing good quests, you can improve your station.

The list goes something like:

Savior

Super Hero

Hero

Do-Gooder

Anti-Hero

Gray

Emily bit her lip. The rest of the information wasn’t all that helpful, but it seemed to point her toward something she could actually do.

Good deeds would help her move away from Villain and toward . . . Gray and so on. She could do that. She had never committed a crime in her entire life. Never cheated, never jaywalked—she even felt guilty when she couldn’t donate a dollar to charity when buying things at the grocery store. Doing perfectly natural things in the privacy of her own room even made her feel bad.

Her mother, a lifelong volunteer at every soup kitchen in the community and a big advocate for helping people, had always taught her to look out for others, so Emily figured it would be . . . doable, to not be a Villain. She just had to be a bit proactive about it.

Before she knew it, class was in session and she blissfully let herself forget about her Villainous woes.

Most of the lesson was more about credits, having books, when and how to hand in essays and homework, and other orientation things. The professor did give a nice speech, though, and Emily couldn’t say that she didn’t enjoy it.

There were going to be some modules later in the year where people would be working in small groups, but she figured she could handle that. She had made it through group projects in high school, and now her partners would be adults, which made everything a bit better. She hoped.

And then the bell rang, and class was over.

Emily waited until the big rush was out of the class before packing up her laptop and things into her bag. If this was how every class went, then she thought she might enjoy her time here. Maybe she would even make a friend.

Or maybe she was getting ahead of herself.

The building where Literature 101 was held was an old thing, one of the original stone edifices that had withstood the test of time. It was near the center of the campus along with most of the other stately houses of learning. For all that they were old, they had a sort of timeless elegance to them. Emily could imagine gentlemen with top hats walking down the same hallowed halls as her.

Stepping out into the bright late-afternoon sun was nice. There were a lot of people around, but they were all busy with their own things. Emily kept her head down, didn’t meet anyone’s eyes, and just enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine as she started to make her way back home.

“Heya, Boss.”

Emily startled, then turned around to see the person who had addressed her.

Part of her knew who it was even before she locked onto the short chubby form of Teddy, standing in the middle of the path in her shorts and T-shirt and with poorly tied boots on as if she had every right to be there.

“W-what are you doing here?” Emily said. She slapped a hand over her mouth. Had anyone heard her?

She felt herself sinking as a few looks turned her way. She had to get out of the entryway, or off campus entirely. What if someone noticed Teddy’s ears? They didn’t stick out that much, and they might be confused for some sort of toy, but Emily couldn’t afford the risk.

She grabbed the girl’s hand and started to pull her along while stifling the blush that burned itself onto her cheeks. She felt like a mother pulling her kid along, or maybe a big sister. She hoped people thought it was the latter.

“We-we need to talk. Right now . . . as soon as we get back to the dorms.”

“But, Boss,” Teddy said, “I’m hungry.”

Emily swallowed. Had . . . had she been neglecting a child? Forget the Villain quests she’d been rejecting all morning—that truly made her a bad person. “Then . . . then food first.”

Teddy’s grin had Emily’s stomach twisting up. It reminded her a bit of the rare times her dad would smile at her for doing something he approved of, but with much bigger canines.

She held on to the girl and led her toward the end of the campus. A little Im Orton’s there was run by a school club. She’d stopped there with her mom when they visited the place for the first time.

Everything had been far more expensive than it should have been, but she could splurge a little bit once in a while. And she really needed a coffee.

“S-so, um . . .” Emily began, then ended up not adding much to that. She didn’t know where to start.

One of the things she’d read earlier about powers was that, generally, powers were helpful to their owner, regardless of their alignment. Someone who could control fire wouldn’t be burned by their own flames, and minion creators wouldn’t be harmed by their minions, at least not purposefully.

Was Teddy a minion? She looked . . . normal.

“What is it, Boss?” Teddy asked.

“You shouldn’t call me that,” Emily said.

“Can’t call you Emily,” Teddy said. “What if we’re robbing a bank and someone hears your name?”

Emily felt a little faint. “No, no robbing banks, please. We . . . we don’t do bad things, okay?”

Teddy frowned. “What about getting points and doing quests?”

“Only good quests, quests that don’t hurt people,” Emily said.

“Does mugging hurt people?” Teddy asked.

Emily had a bad feeling. “Yes, Teddy, mugging hurts people a lot.”

“Oh. Shouldn’t have mugged that guy, then.”

Emily stopped. A quick look around revealed a nice little alleyway between two buildings, which she was easily able to tug Teddy into. “W-what did you do?” she asked.

Teddy was smiling, but a bit of confusion marred her eyes. “Got a quest to hurt people, but I was hungry, so I didn’t take it. So I got a quest to mug people. Only got to the one, though. Made one point.” She nodded proudly.

Emily shook.

“You want me to spend my point?”

“No!” Emily said. “No, Teddy, that’s . . . no.”

“Did I do bad?” Teddy asked.

Emily nodded. “Mugging is, it’s bad, Teddy, really bad.”

“Should have just taken the first quest, then,” Teddy muttered.

Emily felt as if someone had just turned off gravity, and maybe dialed down common sense while they were at it. “Oh, Teddy,” she said.

She wanted to be angry, but that wasn’t in her nature. Worse, Teddy looked like she’d been proud, the same look Emily wore when she had “helped” her mother with the laundry and had turned all her dad’s shirts pink.

“It’s . . . okay?” Emily said. “No, wait, it’s not okay, but, but it’s not your fault. I . . . Let’s grab something to eat at the dorm, and then I can explain things, okay?”

“All right, Boss,” Teddy said.

At least her mood seemed easy to lift with the promise of food.

CHAPTER FIVE

Honey-Glazed Blackmail

Emily eyed Teddy, then looked up to the older woman behind the counter. She hated ordering in lines. She never knew what she wanted, and the pressure kept mounting until she was at the very front where she was expected to make a choice before the people behind her got angry.

It was incredibly stressful, and she’d always found herself envious of those who could just casually walk up to a counter and rattle off an order.

Did they know what they wanted that well? Did they not care that a wrong choice could cost more than they wanted or might not taste the best?

She cleared her throat as the woman stared at her, one eyebrow raising as if to ask if she intended to order before the sun went down. “R-right. I’ll have a medium coffee, black, and a chicken . . . two chicken wraps. And, uh, half a dozen doughnuts. She’ll pick.” She pointed to Teddy.

Emily pretended not to feel guilty about putting the girl on the spot.

“Cool,” Teddy said. “Half a dozen is six, right?” Emily nodded. “I’ll take six honey glazed.”

The woman blinked, entered the order in her machine, and let Emily tap her phone to the card reader. “Please stand to the side, your order will be coming soon.”

“Thanks,” Emily said. It was only when she was near the end of the counter that she realized she hadn’t ordered anything for Teddy to drink. “Um. I’m sorry. Did you want something to drink?” she asked.

“Nah.”

That . . . made her life easy.

Five minutes or so later, Emily and Teddy were heading back down toward their home. Emily’s home. Was it also Teddy’s? she wondered. How did people handle summons? Was Teddy a citizen or not?

“S-so, uh,” Emily asked. “Do you remember things from before the summoning?”

“Nope.” Teddy was bouncing along next to her, box of still-warm doughnuts held close to her chest.

That simplified things a little. Teddy wasn’t someone her power had kidnapped. That would have been terrible. Emily would have had to run to the Heroes and explain everything and hope that they didn’t punish her too much for what her power did.

Or was Teddy someone who was kidnapped and then memory-wiped? Or was she some sort of automaton? An alien? A clone?

Emily kept an eye on the girl bouncing next to her. Teddy’s ears were twitching excitedly with every step, and she had a happy little smile on for the whole world to see.

The girl looked nice enough. Emily was willing to give a relationship a try. It certainly felt easier than trying to talk to a normal person. Teddy was beholden to her a little, like . . . like a pet.

Emily shook her head. No, that was wrong. People, even people made with powers, were not pets.

A sister. That’s what the power called itself. Sister Summoning.

It wasn’t superspeed, or flight, or something wonderful like healing, but it was what Emily had. She didn’t know if she wanted the power. Sure, people dreamed of it, dreamed of being Heroes. Even Emily had had a few dreams like that. It was hard to watch Hero-sponsored cartoons as a kid and not want to be the one running from roof to roof in tights.

Maybe not tights.

She tried to focus again. Her mind was increasingly flighty as she tried to juggle all the possibilities going on all at once.

“Hey, Boss?” Teddy asked.

Emily looked down at the girl. “Yes?”

“Are we doing any quests today?”

“No, Teddy, I don’t think we are,” she replied. All her quests had been . . . less than good.

“All right,” Teddy said. “What’re we gonna do then?”

Emily really wished she knew. “I . . . we’ll figure it out?”

Teddy looked up at her, innocent face completely bare of any of the doubt that Emily was feeling. “Okay. So after we eat, can I take a nap?”

She nodded. “Sure.”

They arrived at the dorm and shuffled off into the elevator as quickly as they could. Emily didn’t want people wondering what Teddy was doing, not if she could help it. There were some pretty clear rules about not having people overnight, but she suspected that some of the others weren’t respecting those.

A swipe of her phone, and they were in the safety of her little room.

Teddy rushed over to her desk and placed the box of doughnuts on it. She started to tear the top off when Emily intervened. “No. Not yet. We’ll eat first and save those for dessert.”

Teddy turned big wet eyes toward Emily.

“J-just one?”

The girl’s grin did something to Emily’s heart, something that turned to horror as Teddy picked a squashed doughnut out of the box and rammed it into her mouth. She was chewing with her mouth open, and her hands were covered in honey glaze.

Emily didn’t know what to do, but cold logic kicked in, and she found herself running to the bathroom, picking a cloth towelette from her supplies, and running it under cold water. A moment later she was next to Teddy and scrubbing the girl’s face clean.

“Boss! What’re you doing?” Teddy protested.

“Just keeping you clean?” Emily said. “Can-can you go wash your hands, please?”

Teddy grumbled as she stomped off to wash up. Emily ignored her and set the wraps on the desk, then she pulled her laptop out and set it up. She had a lot of things to look up.

Teddy returned, and soon they were both eating with only the occasional clack of the laptop’s keyboard to break the silence.

Emily had a lot of things to learn. So many that she decided that a second list was in order.

Pulling out her notebook, she found the list she’d made that morning and “tsked” to herself as only half the things on it were complete.

Her new list was a bit different:

1. Find out what happens to people with powers

2. Learn how to get rid of Villain status

3. Find a way to take care of Teddy

4.Call Mom

That was a good list, she figured.

Nodding, she set the notepad to the side and pulled her laptop closer.

“Is that a dog?” Teddy asked as she looked at Emily’s background photo. It was, in fact, a big smiling puppy.

“It is,” she said.

“You should get a bear. They’re better.”

Emily nodded. She didn’t think that bears were cuter, but she also didn’t want to hurt Teddy’s feelings. Her first step was opening her IreWolf browser, and then ignoring the eighteen tabs set to cute animal sites.

She started to Oogle a few things, weeding out the searches that led back to government-owned sites, and then focusing on those from older forums where normal people asked questions.