Chapter Fifty-Five - Paying the Price

Emily continued to smile at Glamazon, at least until a few things became clearer.

First, the girl was dishevelled. It wasn’t fair to say that Jezebelle was one of those women too concerned about fashion for her own good... but Emily would be lying if she hadn’t fit the girl into that neat little box already.

Second, her sisters had dirty faces. All of them. That mostly included bright neon-coloured stains around their lips and on their hands, and now that she was paying attention, Teddy and Trinity were making crunching sounds as they walked and their pockets were very full.

“One moment,” Emily said with a finger raised towards Glamazon. She turned towards Athena, who Emily trusted to know what would happen if she lied. The owl-girl blanched, then glanced at her sisters before refocusing on Emily.

“It was Glamazon,” she said before Emily could ask anything. The girl pointed to the young heroine’s back, entirely willing and able to toss her under the bus.

“What?” Glamazon asked. “What was me?”

“Why do the kids have... what I hope are some sort of food-related stains all over their faces?”

Glamazon straightened. “That’s not my fault! She--” With that she turned and pointed to Sam --”Left me with the kids and they ran to the corner store, then I had to run after them and they kept opening things and eating them right there. Without even paying! The cashier thought it was cute for like, a minute, then this one started going through their trash, that one started to ask about buying lottery tickets, and that one just laid down in the middle of the beer fridge!”

Emily blinked. “Did she drink anything?” she asked.

“Like, two sodas,” Teddy said.

Emily stared at the bear girl who shuffled on the spot.

“Okay, six.”

Emily took a deep breath and was about to ask a few pertinent questions, but it seemed that Glamazon wasn’t done. In fact, her rant had only just begun. “By the time I got her up, the other three had made a mess of the place. They raided the freezer and were trying one of every kind of popsicle. Each! The cashier screamed at me, then their manager showed up and they screamed at me some more, then I had to pay for everything. Do you have any idea how overpriced convenience-store junk food is?”

“But it’s so tasty,” Trinity said.

“No it’s not! It’s terrible for your health, and your teeth!” Glamazon said.

“Well” Emily began. She thought about it for a moment, then nodded and continued. “We appreciate your donation to our cause. I’m sure the girls have all said thank you, right?”

The girls froze up for a second, then they smiled at Glamazon with teeth painted in different candy shades. There was a chorus of ‘thank yous’ that all sounded both very sweet, and utterly perfunctory.

“Seriously?” Glamazon asked. She crossed her arms, looking entirely unamused. “I’m out sixty bucks from all that.”

“Sixty bucks?!” Emily exclaimed. That was... well, actually she wasn’t too surprised. Her brats could rack up a huge bill in no time. “Wow. I’m sorry.”

“So... you’re not going to pay me back?” Glamazon asked.

Emily winced.

Glamazon closed her eyes and sighed. “Wow. You know what, fine. It’s only like, my entire week’s food budget.”

“Oh, look, we got some snacks for Map-- er, the other girl too!” Trinity said. She opened her bag revealing a couple of candy bars and bags of chips stuffed in the bottom.

“Oh my god, they--we didn’t pay for those,” Glamazon said. She sounded more exasperated than anything else. Emily waved her down before she could lose her cool any more than she had.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I’ll, uh, take care of it.” And by that she meant do nothing. The place was probably one of Sam’s targets for her protection racket anyway. Which, now that she thought about it, was kind of messed up and the fact that she was thinking that way wasn’t exactly painting things in the most heroic light. “So, I imagine you wanted to talk about something? Or did you just want to have the single-mom experience for an afternoon?”

Glamazon snorted. “No, no I think I’ve gotten my fill. Like, wow, I might need to call my mom after this and like, apologise. Although I don’t think I was as bad as, uh, anyway, yeah, I wanted to chat.”

Emily nodded along, then gestured down the road. “Let’s walk at the same time? I don’t like sitting still.” And there were people staring. At least if they moved it would make the job of any eavesdropper that much harder. And maybe it would keep Glamazon off balance while giving Emily more time to think between replies.

“Yeah, sure,” Glamazon said. They started walking at a sedate pace and Emily didn’t fail to notice that her sisters were basically surrounding the hero on all sides, with Teddy between herself and the costumed woman. If something went wrong, Teddy would probably go bear right away. “So, I wanted to talk.”

“Yes,” Emily said.

She let the awkwardness roll over and past her. She was born in the awkward, moulded by it. Glamazon was clearly not. The woman squirmed and looked a little pinched.

“Right, well I just want to know what’s going on.”

Emily scowled at nothing, then turned towards Glamazon. “With regards to what?” she asked.

“With regards to... well, you. Look, I was under the impression you weren’t playing the game, but then every time I turn around you’re there. I’m not saying you’re not allowed or whatever, but I feel like we’re working at cross-purposes even though we should be on the same side.”

Glamazon, Emily realized, really didn’t know that Emily wasn’t a hero at all. That was probably for the best. “I know,” Emily said. “And, I guess I’m sorry. I’ve just been doing what I think is best. For me and my sis- my team.”

“That includes making a spectacle of taking out other heroes?” Glamazon asked. “You know, Black Shield was released without anything happening. Wrap Up too. Though he ended up spending the night at the headquarters. None of your accusations panned out.”

“That’s strange,” Emily said. “No one did or said anything to me about it.”

“I... actually, yeah, that is strange.”

Emily nodded. “Probably because they know the accusation is not entirely baseless. Glamazon, I think we don’t see the world the same way. You trust the people in charge a lot more than I do, the institutions that regulate heroes and punish villains.”

“Yeah, of course I trust them, they’re the good guys,” Glamazon said.

“Wow,” Athena said. “Talk about simple.”

“All glitter, no brains,” Teddy said.

Glamazon puffed up, but she took control of herself. Emily imagined it would take more than a few insults to get her to insult her sisters back, which was actually a pretty good indicator of Glamazon’s personality.

“I’m sorry about them,” Emily said. She eyed her sisters. “They’re going to apologise. Right?”

Teddy and Athena delivered a pair of unfelt apologies with all of the charm and poise of a receptionist calling out someone’s number at the licence bureau near the end of a twelve-hour shift.

“You’re forgiven,” Glamazon replied, her voice entirely flat.

“Setting all that aside,” Emily said. “Look, Glamazon, I don’t think we need to work against each other at all. We just had different goals and happened to clash. Or, I guess that’s what happened. What are your goals?”

“I want to become a good hero,” Glamazon said. “And I suppose I’d like a bit of recognition too. Not unearned recognition though. What about you? It’s only fair that you tell me if I told you, right?”

“Alright,” Emily said. “Well, my goal... I guess it’s to make the city safe. Make a place for my family in it where no one will bother us.”

“And that involves getting heroes arrested?” Glamazon asked.

“It might involve rooting out corruption,” Emily said. She didn’t add that she wanted to root that corruption out to install her own weird brand in its place. “Removing any villains from this city.” Villains that weren’t her or her sisters. “And helping the city prosper.” So that the businesses in the city didn’t feel so bad paying her protection money.

Glamazon eyed Emily from the corner of her vision, then she stopped walking and faced Emily head-on. “You really believe in that whole conspiracy stuff, don’t you?”

“Weren’t you approached by them?” Emily asked.

Glamazon worked her jaw. “Maybe. I don’t actually know. It was all... vague, I guess. But it didn’t sound like bad business at the time.”

“Sometimes, villainy can be very subtle. You might be looking right at it and not know,” Emily said.

Sam snorted in the background, but Glamazon didn’t seem to notice.

“Right, okay. In that case, do you want to work together? I’ve got some plans, and I guess we could use an army of brats. Think of it as paying me back for the popsicles.”

***