Chapter Sixty-Two - Healpats For All!

Emily rushed to Teddy’s side, hands reaching up to her sister’s matter fur before she stopped. “You’re hurt!” she accused.

Somehow, she managed to read the pout in Teddy’s expression. “Just a little bit, Boss, I’m still good to go.”

“You were shot, you can’t just be good to go,” Emily insisted. There was some blood on Teddy’s fur, and she was pretty sure it didn’t belong to any of the masked people Teddy and Trinity had tossed around. “Where are you hurt? How bad is it?”

Teddy grumbled something about how she was fine, but she didn’t protest as Emily checked her over. Emily winced as she plucked a bullet right out of a wound. It was still hot to the touch. It hadn’t gone deep, not once it cut past Teddy’s thick fur, but it must still have hurt.

“Right, give me a moment,” Emily said. “Bandit, I need the first aid kit. Ma... uh.” she paused, aware of the unfriendly ears in the room with this.

“I’m here,” Maple said, saving her the trouble. Maple did have a mask on, but her costume at the moment was composed of her normal clothes and her lab coat.

“Do you have tweezers or something?” Emily asked.

“Hey now, no one said anything about tweezers,” Teddy said.

Emily ignored her. “Tell me where it hurts,” she ordered instead. Teddy grumbled, but did her best to point to the spots where she’d been hit. It was difficult, being that she was still a bear, and those weren’t exactly as flexible when it came to pointing to themselves.

Emily was mostly worried about what would happen if the wounds closed with the bullets still there, or what would happen if Teddy reverted to her girl form without removing the shells. Fortunately, most seemed to not be deep at all.

“I turned on my Iron Skin skill,” Teddy explained.

“That was good thinking,” Emily said, proud that her sister had done the smart thing. She tossed the last bullet out, then reached out towards Teddy’s head before hesitating. “Six points to Healpats,” she said.

She noticed Glamazon’s head twitching up, but the other young woman didn’t say anything as Emily allocated every one of her skill upgrade points into her only healing skill.

Healpats has reached Level Five!
Cooldown reduced to 360 seconds!

Healpats has reached Level Max!
Healpat’s cooldown is now individual among sisters!

Emily stared at the prompt. Level max already? Then again, the cooldown had dropped to a mere three minutes, and the split cooldowns would be worth a ton for her. She didn’t have to hesitate about using the skill anymore.

She rubbed Teddy’s head, and a level of tension she hadn’t noticed until it was gone melted out of the grizzly bear’s shoulders. “There, there,” Emily said. “All better, right? Does it still hurt anywhere?”

“It’s better,” Teddy rumbled. “Could use more pats though, yeah, right there, uh huh, behind the ear, yeah.” Teddy’s back leg thumped the ground hard enough that Emily could feel the vibrations in her soles.

“Um, Boss,” Glamazon said. Emily refocused. “What did you want to do now?”

Emily looked over at their prisoners. Half a dozen people in what had to be some sort of minion uniform, all of them looking kind of pitiful while two Trinities fussed over them. The racoon girl had found zip ties and was going around linking hands and feet together like a drunken shibari expert on a power trip. Her youthful cackling didn’t help.

“Owlwatch, get in their heads, I need to know what’s going on. Ursa Minor, Glamazon, watch the exits.” Emily reached over and patted Maple on the head. “I need to know where the tracker is in relation to where we are, and... do you think you could do anything about that?” She pointed to the ceiling where a small, fist-sized camera was pointing their way.

“I’ll do what I can, Boss,” Maple said. “Um. I’m going to need a ladder though.”

“Right, Ursa Minor, give her a hand up if she needs it. Glamazon, can you keep an eye on the door yourself?”

“I’ll do what I can,” Glamazon said.

Emily left that in her capable hands and turned back around. There was so much to do, and being in the thick of it herself wasn’t helping when it came to making it easier to understand what was going on. She walked over to Athena and started to pat the girl’s head. It wasn’t to comfort Athena, it was to ground herself.

It had been a long time since Emily had had an anxiety attack, but invading what was obviously some sort of villain base with no backup and less of a plan was certainly not helping with her stress levels.

“Ah, yeah, so,” Athena said. She kicked out and thumped one of the guard’s shins. The man hissed and glared up at them, but didn’t say anything. “They’re not talking. They have orders not to. But that doesn't mean they’re not thinking. What do you need to know, boss?”

“Who are they, why did they kidnap my sisters, who’s in charge, how many people they have, how long have they been here,” Emily said. She paused, then nodded. Those were enough questions for now, she presumed.

“Okay then,” Athena said. She squatted down and smiled at the guards. “Time to tell me all of your secrets!”

Emily watched as her sister manipulated the shadows, but she was distracted as she noticed Trinity holding up a gun and pointing it at her other self. “Bandit, no!”

“Aww, but sis, it’s broken, so it’s trash, so it’s ours,” Trinity said.

“No, it’s just jammed, which... put all the guns down in the corner over there,” Emily ordered.

She added ‘gun safety’ to the long, long list of things she’d have to go over with her sisters one day. The list was frankly kind of daunting to even think about, and some of the things on it gave her shivers just to think about.

“Hey, Boss,” Athena said. She was holding onto one of the guard’s chins. “I know a bunch of things.” The men at her feet were shivering and staring out into the corners of the room. Emily kinda felt bad for them, even if they were evil kidnapping minions.

“What do you have for me?” she asked.

“These guys are definitely Cabal,” Athena confirmed. “They’re like, paid by the hour. Is thirty-five an hour good?”

“That’s... actually, that’s not too terrible,” Emily said. She was happy that Sam had been left behind to keep their getaway hatchback warm. Emily certainly couldn’t afford to pay her that well.

“They get dental too,” Athena continued. “Anyway, they don’t know why they kidnapped Bandit and Alea Iacta, but they don’t ask a lot of questions. Also, there’s a guy called Spin-to-Win here? Only sometimes he’s a girl. I dunno how that works.”

Emily cursed, if only mentally. That confirmed that this really was a Cabal operation. The Cabal had apparently sent three of their powered members to Eauclair. Black Shield, Spin-to-Win, and one other whose name she couldn’t remember without looking at her notes.

“We might have to fight them. Do you know where Bandit and Alea are being kept?”

Athena nodded. “Yup! This place is kind of confusing, but I think I can lead you around with my superior owl senses.”

Emily nodded. “Ursa Minor, you take the lead, Bandit, sides, Glamazon and myself will take the rear, you too,” she patted Maple’s head on the way over to the door leading deeper into the base. “We’re heading straight for Alea Iacta and Bandit’s other body. If we can avoid fighting Spin-to-Win, then that’s for the best.”

“Wait, who?” Glamazon asked.

“He’s a mask. I think his power is that he gets new powers whenever he wants, but he can’t pick them,” Emily said. She could barely remember the things she’d read. Then again, she tended to forget half the stuff she studied when she sat down for a test, and this had a similar mood to it.

“Great,” Glamazon said. “Should we be calling the authorities?”

“Camera’s down!” Maple said from her spot atop Teddy’s back. She let herself drop and slid down Teddy’s furry side to land with a clack next to Emily. “I think I broke the entire security system, maybe.”

“Good work,” Emily said. “Right, let’s head out.” But before they charged into trouble, Emily muttered a quick, “Family Menagerie, Teddy,” under her breath and tried not to make the shift in weight too obvious as she directed her sisters.

Better safe than sorry, she figured.

***