Chapter Forty-One - Perfect Plots

Emily considered.

“I...” she paused.

Could she tell the people sitting in front of her that she had no idea what the next step of her plan was? Her sisters would take it well. They might have been little brats, but they had never been anything but supportive. A bit villainous, and their goals for the future and her own didn’t line up, but they were still unequivocally on her side.

It was the others she wasn’t so sure of. Sam wanted to see chaos and turmoil, her story about writing a thesis aside, the girl was way too gleeful about being a minion. Alea Iacta was in it to keep himself safe. The cabal scared him--for good reason--and Emily provided protection from that.

At least, he thought she did. In reality her protection probably wasn’t worth much.

Fabien the Fabulous was a little easier to work with, surprisingly. He was doing his own thing, after his own goals. She just happened to help him twice. That didn’t mean he owed her anything, or that he would be in any way loyal to her.

If she was in his shoes, she’d betray herself in a blink.

Emily leaned forwards, elbows on the edge of the table as she folded her hands before her chin. She needed a bit of a distraction. “Sam,” she said. Sam perked up and sat straighter. “Where are we on that whole protection racket thing?”

“Oh? You want us to push that some more? I’ve been making a few... ah... enquiries, but I haven’t been pressing anything. I’m just a minion, I don’t have the gravitas to get people to spill out their valuables.”

Emily felt a pressure at the front of her head. Definitely a stress-headache. “I... don’t know if we have the option not to press that, at least a little. Maybe we can be selective? Um, only ask businesses that can afford it? Or those that wouldn’t mind?”

“Wouldn’t mind being extorted for cash?” Alea Iacta asked.

Emily felt her cheeks warming. She glared, pushing the blush back as best she could. “Not extortion. Maybe... do we have anything we can offer?”

“Usually a protection racket offers protection,” Sam said. “We could get handsome back there to rob some places if they say no to us.” She flicked a thumb to Fabien who shifted in his seat.

“Or we could have him come to the place we’re protecting, then put on a big show for the proletariat,” Teddy said. “Show them how we’d protect them when the capitalist overlords inevitably turn against them.”

Emily nodded slowly. “That could work, maybe. Do you think we could do advertising? With the, ah, sisters?”

Sam grinned. “Oh, I see where you’re going. Have the kiddos do some advertising, then bam Fabien shows up and they beat him away. Then we charge out the as-- out the rear for ‘advertising.’” She made little air quotes. “I bet most sensible business folk will catch on quick. Plus it could be literally good for business, which means more floating cash we can grab.”

“I am... not entirety unamenable to the plan,” Fabien said. “It sounds vaguely like some of the ideas I had drawn up before. Not entirely the same, but similar.”

Emily nodded. “We’ll talk about it more. Sam, can I leave you in charge of finding places that we could work this idea on?”

Sam gave her a thumbs up. “I’m on it, Boss. Give me like, two, three days.”

That was way, way faster than Emily expected, but she worked to keep her surprise tucked away. Maybe that was just what it was like when someone was as extroverted as Sam. If Emily had to phone a shop to set up something like they were talking about, it would take an afternoon to build up the courage to pick up the phone.

“Okay. That’s one thing down. Long-term income is good. What else?”

“The Cabal,” Alea Iacta said.

She winced. “I don’t know how to handle them,” she said.

“Beat ‘em up,” Teddy suggested.

“Make them go insane,” Athena added.

“Steal their underthings,” Trinity suggested.

Emily shook her head. “I think we need to be a bit more subtle.”

“I can be subtle,” Trinity said.

“I... yes, I’m sure you can be,” Emily said. “I think we’re going to have to give the Cabal the, ah, initiative here. Maybe they’ll just leave the city. We put Black Shield in a bad spot today. If we can keep doing that kind of thing, maybe they’ll leave us alone.”

“Beat them at the PR game,” Sam said. “Yeah, I can see that annoying them.”

Emily nodded. It was, she thought, a terrible idea, more meant to placate Alea Iacta because she had no idea of what to really do.

“How many of them are there, anyway?” Teddy asked. “We can take them on, I bet.”

“I don’t know, exactly,” Emily said. “I have some notes on a few members that moved to Eauclaire recently. I’ll have to look at them again. I think there are at least three all-out Cabal members in the city. Some of the other heroes might be working for them, or with them.”

“What does this Cabal do?” Fabien asked.

“Oh, they’re a super cool secret organisation that empower villains,” Sam said. “They give them gear, and costumes, and help them set up heists and stuff. Then they hit them with their own heroes and take them out.”

“You know a lot about them,” Fabien said.

Sam nodded. “Just got to look into the right forums. The Boss knowing a bunch of actual facts about them helped narrow things down. Remove the lies and false leads, you know?”

“I see,” he said.

“I think their entire gimmick is merchandising.”

“What?” Emily asked.

Sam made a vague gesture in the air before her. “They make some heroes more popular. Those heroes owe them. They sign on to some program or some legal thing. The Cabal then sell their image out to make the big bucks. Advertising deals, their heroic logo on panties, cereal boxes, toys, the whole schtick.”

Emily didn’t know what to say about that, so she just moved right on. “Okay. So we’ll keep an eye out for opportunities to foil the Cabal if we can find any. It might not be easy though. We need better information. I think I know someone for that, but he’s annoying to deal with.”

“Oh, an informant,” Sam said. “Nice!”

“Something like that,” Emily said.

She didn’t want to visit Handshake. The man was skeevy. But he was also afraid of Teddy, and now Emily had even more sisters by her side.

“Okay, what else?” Emily asked. She was pretty proud of the discussion so far.

“Skill Upgrades,” Teddy said. “We all got some, yeah? I bet mine will make me even tougher.”

“Make your skull thicker, maybe,” Athena said.

“Yeah, and the rest of me too,” Teddy enthused.

Emily knew she had two Skill Slots to work with. She didn’t dare use them now. “I think we should save using those for when we’re back home. Just in case,” she said.

Her sisters agreed easily enough.

“In that case... I think that’s it for today’s meeting. Unless anyone has anything to add?” She glanced around the table, feeling a bit like a CEO in a movie. No one spoke up, so she continued. “Good, meeting, uh, adjourned.”

Everyone got up, and Emily found herself the odd one out as the others, sisters included, started to mingle and talk. Athena chatted with Alea Iacta, Trinity went to bother Fabien, and Teddy preached to a smiling Sam about the glorious things she’d read in her little red book.

That was fine. Being alone suited her just fine. She took the time to decompress a little and to work out what she’d say to her mom later. She’d have to at least send a text, hopefully before her mom saw her on the evening news.

After half an hour, Emily stood up, set her phone away, and started to gather up her sisters. “We need to head home, before it gets dark,” she explained.

They had a decently long walk ahead of them. Maybe getting the train to work and parking it next to the campus wouldn’t be a bad idea. It would save her some time, at least.

By the time they got back to the dorms, the day was over, the sun was on its way to setting, and Emily was weary to the bone.

“So, now we can get our skills up?” Teddy asked.

Emily chewed on her lip. “Fine,” she said. “But one at a time. And then it’ll be my turn. We... we might end up with another sister.”

Her sisters were a lot more enthusiastic about the idea than she was. She just hoped that whomever was summoned, they wouldn’t add to the chaos.

Her hopes weren’t very high there, not based on past experience.

***