Ravensdagger_Headpats

Chapter Thirty-Two

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Taylor said.Remedy resisted the urge to roll her eyes just as much as she suppressed the temptation to look away and sulk. It wasn’t as if her big sister didn’t appreciate her; she was just a tiny bit afraid.And that was okay. Remedy was afraid of plenty of things too. But most of all, she was afraid of disappointing Taylor. That’s why she had to do what she was about to do. “It won’t be anything extreme,” she said. “In fact, no one will be able to tell at all.” She placed a Tupperware container on Taylor’s bed.Taylor raised an eyebrow. “So, no cat ears?” she asked in a tone that said it wasn’t a question.Remedy thought about what her big sister would look like in cat ears and dismissed it. Taylor wasn’t the cat ear sort. She was more of a... mother hen sort. And chickens didn’t have cute ears.Also, if she gave Taylor the ability to lay eggs it would cause all sorts of trouble. Pop wouldn’t care, but Crochet would insist that Taylor sit on them until they hatch so that she could cuddle the tiny big-sis chicks, and Cheshire would try to eat them.No, best to stick to the plan.Remedy knew that of all the little sisters she was the least deserving of headpats, that she wasn’t as good or as beloved as the others. She was going to have to work hard to change that, and the first step was winning Taylor’s love and loyalty.“Sit, sit,” she instructed as she patted the edge of Taylor’s bed.Taylor gave her a smile and sat down, then watched as Remedy climbed onto the bed and scrambled to be behind her. “Okay,” Remedy said. “Now lay down.” She pulled Taylor back and helped her lay down across the undone sheets.“Do I really need to be laying down?” Taylor asked as she looked up at Remedy.Remedy nodded seriously. “Oh yeah. I’m going to make you better, and that means your reflexes and sense of balance. I don’t want you tripping and knocking your head on a table or something. That would undo all my hard work.”Taylor snorted. “You’re not going to mess with my brain, right?” she asked.Remedy had to think fast. There were ways of doing what she wanted without touching the brain, it just made things so much less fun. “Of course not. What do you take me for, an idiot?”Taylor raised her arms. “I would never say that,” she said.She felt a smile tugging at her lips. “But you’d think it?” she asked as she looked down at Taylor.Taylor grinned back. “Well, I might think that when Cheshire acts like herself sometimes,” she admitted. “But don’t go telling her that.”Remedy was totally going to rub it in Cheshire’s face later. “I would never,” she said. “Now, close your eyes, big sis, and let doctor Remedy fix you right up!”Taylor closed her eyes, the corners of her lips still quirked in a small smile. Remedy sat cross legged next to her and placed a hand on her forearm.Her power spread out through Taylor’s body, riding the nerves, the streams of blood and bones until Remedy could see, in her mind’s eye, the entirety of Taylor’s body down to the most minute of details. There were a lot of things to fix.Small things, some of them inconsequential and that would go unnoticed by anyone else. Little abrasions just under the surface of the skin that would, in twenty or thirty years, turn into slight wrinkles. There were places where the muscles were a little weak, where the circulation of blood was just a tiny bit off. Nerves that were connected properly, but not optimally.Then the bigger problems, a few spots in the lungs that weren’t quite up to snuff, some scarring in the stomach probably caused by Taylor’s less than ideal diet, the paunchy belly wrapped around Taylor’s midsection, love handles and all. Her musculature was under developed and she had a bit of a malformation in the eyes.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.With a swipe of her power, Remedy fixed it all.Taylor gasped and almost stood up, but Remedy pushed her back down. “I’m not done yet,” she said. “All I did was fix all the little bits that weren’t working right.”She had only just started. Now was the fun part.Reaching over, she pulled the plastic container she had brought with her over and popped the lid open. Inside were all sorts of goodies. A few rotten bananas, some onions, a big chunk of cheese and other leftovers she had found at the back of the fridge. Maybe a pound or two’s worth.Scrunching up her nose at the squeamish feeling, she dipped her fingers into the mix, then wrapped a hand around Taylor’s forearm again. This was tricky. Her power didn’t like working with things that weren’t alive, but technically bacteria and fruit were alive. Sorta.The bones were the first to be improved. A few realignments of their structure on the microscopic level, some thickening and improving and hardening in key places. Correcting the dumpster fire that was the human spine. She had heard about this stuff called carbon fiber that was supposed to be really neat. She didn’t have any of that, but she did have cheese, and cheese was made of milk, which had carbon in it. The TV told her so.Then she went to the muscles. It wasn’t hard to bulk those out just a little bit then improve their reaction time and strength. She had heard that muscles were either meant to move fast or lift a lot, but that was silly, they could totally do both if one was willing to tinker with them just a bit.Blood vessels, the heart, lungs, stomach and liver and kidneys. All cleaned out and improved. She couldn’t make Taylor pee fire yet; that would require a bit of experimentation. However, she was more than willing to lay out the groundwork.A few more tweaks to all of Taylor’s senses, then the next step; making Taylor prettier so that Taylor would love her more. First fixing her hair, then her skin, then improving her bust until she was all out of biomass.“I’m done!” she announced.Taylor opened her eyes and blinked a few times.Giggling, Remedy reached over and took her glasses off. “Taa-daa!” She grabbed Taylor’s hand and helped her to her feet before jumping off the bed to drag her to the mirror over her vanity. “What do you think?” She preened, head held high so that Taylor would know where to apply the many headpats she had earned.Taylor stared at her reflection. A reflection that was a near perfect clone of one Victoria Dallon. “What.” She moved a little, as if to make sure it was really her. “What?”“I made you pretty!”Taylor ran her hands over her new and improved body, then touched her cheeks. She looked longing, then sad for a moment. “Remedy, this is very nice, but, um, it’s not me,” she said.Remedy had to resist the urge to pout. She had worked hard for a whole three minutes to make Taylor this pretty. “Fine, I’ll change you back,” she said.She felt a warm hand on her head and her pout faded even as she looked up. Taylor was smiling at her with Glory Girl’s face. It was... wrong. “I’m sorry, but I still want to be me, even if I’m not as pretty as Glory Girl or any other girl. Um, not that I would mind being a bit prettier. Just a little. Like, not enough for it to be noticeable at school, but still... nevermind.”Remedy sighed. “My work is never done, is it? Come on, lie down again and I’ll fix you right up,” she said. So apparently Project Glory-fication was off the table. That was alright. Taylor said she wasn’t opposed to being prettier, so Remedy would just have to be sneaky. Maybe a few little changes at a time so that her other sisters wouldn’t twig onto what she was doing.Yes, Remedy already had a plan laid out in her head. It might take a while, but she would prove that she was a good little sister and thus a good person too.

Chapter Thirty-Three

“This one!” Cheshire demanded as she pointed at the storefront. It was a big, tall building with lots of glass on the front, the view within only slightly marred by vertical bars that ran from the floor to the ceiling.She looked up and glared at the big sign hanging above the door, silently moving her lips as she sounded out the words in the name. Jason's Sports Emporium. She didn’t know what that last word meant, but there was a big hockey mask behind it, and she could see all sorts of cool camping equipment and bikes and gear behind the windows.“Are you sure?” Big Sis asked. She had her hands in her hoodie pockets and was looking up at the store too. She had probably never been in there, Cheshire figured. Her Big Sis was all sorts of things, but sporty wasn’t one of them.Tail wiggling under her skirt, Cheshire nodded.She didn’t like the skirt. It was airy, and wavy, and it wasn’t as warm as proper pants, but Big Sis had said it was either that or she could go pantless. And then when Cheshire said she’d rather go pantless, Big Sis had put her foot down and said she had to wear the stupid skirt because she wasn’t going to cut holes in any more pants and her onesie wasn’t good enough to be worn outside.Big Sis even forced her into one of those potato sack hoodies to cover her cool predator ears. Which was silly. How were people supposed to know that she was an alpha predator and that they had to hide if she didn’t show off her cool new bits? “Yeah, I’m sure,” she said. “This is where I wanna shop.”“You know, it’s not actually shopping if you don’t have the money to buy anything,” Big Sis said. She still reached down, grabbed Cheshire’s hand and started towards the shop.Cheshire allowed it, like a kitty allowing itself to be petted because pets were a sort of way of telling someone that you liked them. Big Sis holding her hand was like that, it meant that Big Sis liked her. Which was obvious. She was way too cool not to be liked.The bell by the door jingled as they entered and a boy behind the counter looked up at them before he returned to stacking boxes behind a glass cabinet. Cheshire ignored him except to take note that he was a boy and that she might have to fight him if he tried any of that flirting stuff Crochet was always on about.The store was way bigger than she had thought, with a wall covered in small boat-things in the back and an area filled with tents in one corner. There were racks of guns chained in place and counters where they were selling bullets and things.“Awesome,” Cheshire said. She felt her fang poking at her lower lip and only smiled harder. “C’mon!” she said before dragging Big Sis along towards the back. “Let’s look at the guns.”“Um,” Big Sis said. Cheshire glanced up to see that she looked the same way she did when Pop suggested killing someone again. “I can’t stop you from looking at them, but I would really, really rather you not have a gun. For a multitude of reasons.”“Y’er no fun,” Cheshire said, but her heart wasn’t in it. Guns weren’t a real predator’s weapon. They were too noisy and stank and they were just unfair. So she steered Big Sis towards the knives section instead.There were all sorts of them, but the type of knife didn’t matter as much as how pointy and cool it looked. Her Big Sis leaned in to squint at the little price tags next to the prettier ones and winced. “Pricey.”“Well, yeah,” Cheshire said. “But you can stab all sorts of folks with those. They’re like claws, but less cool.”Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.“Let’s try to keep the stabbing of people at a minimum,” Big Sis said. “It’ll land us all in hot water and I’d rather not spend the rest — or any part — of my life in prison.”“Bah, you’re no fun, Big Sis. I bet you want to work some boring job, like, one of those tax people. That ain’t what I’m gonna do in the future.”Big Sis looked at her. “And what do you plan on doing?”“I’m gonna be a big predator, an alpha cat, like a cougar.”Big Sis stared, then her lips twitched, and then she started laughing.“The fuck you laughing at?” she demanded, hands on her hips and glare fixed up at her stupid Big Sis.Her Big Sis laughed even harder but shook her head the whole time. “No, no, it’s okay. You can be a cougar if you...” she stopped and giggled some more.“The fuck?” Cheshire said. “Stop being so stupid and explain why that was funny.”“No, no, I’ll... I’ll explain it later,” Big Sis said.Cheshire glared even harder. That was the same lie she had told them about explaining where babies came from and what puberty was.“Come on, we should go,” Big Sis said. She wiped the corners of her eyes, then patted Cheshire on the head between her ears. “But thanks for making me laugh.”Cheshire perked up. “Does that mean you’ll buy me a knife?” she asked.“God no,” Big Sis said right away.Huffing, Cheshire tried to slip her hands into her pockets, but she was wearing that sissy skirt, so she just crossed her arms instead and stomped off.She made it three steps before something caught her eye.It was gorgeous.Nearly as tall as she was, with sleek curves that reminded her of the whippy tail of a tiger. There was a sharp bit sticking out of the top, reflecting the lights from the ceiling with a glint of chrome. The handle was made of that cool checkered black and white stuff that race cars were made out of.“I want it,” she said.Taylor stepped up next to her and looked into the glass display case protecting the piece of art. “That’s an impressive looking crossbow,” she admitted. “But there’s no way in hell that we’re getting it.”“What? Why not?” she asked. “It ain’t a gun.” And it was pretty and she wanted it, she didn’t say.“Yeah, no. It’s bigger than you are,” she said. “And that price tag has about two numbers too many for me to be able of even thinking of affording it.”Cheshire pouted. “Yeah, but I could use it to pin bad guys and then take their shi— their money to pay it off, right?”“You’re set on being a hero now?” Big Sis asked. Then her lips twitched. “I thought you wanted to be a cougar.”“I can be both,” she said.Big Sis snorted. “Sure, why not.” She looked around, then pointed off to the side. “How about you start with something like that, and work your way up?”Cheshire turned to stare. There was a rack with little boxes on it, each one transparent on one side to show off the metal and rubber tubes within. She squinted at the label and sounded out the two syllable word. “Blowgun? Like, to spit darts at people?”Big Sis nodded. “Exactly. Isn’t that all... stealthy and predator like, and also under twenty dollars?”“I dunno, is blowing stuff cougar-like?” she asked, then glared extra hard when Big Sis started laughing again. “Fine! I’ll take it, we’ll see if y’er still laughin’ when I’m blowin’ bad guys left and right.”