Ravensdagger_Headpats

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“So, how are we gonna do this?” The one with the cat-ears asked.“I could goop them?” the one in the white robes said. She was tapping a finger against her chin and eyeing them as if they were sides of beef left to hang.The one that looked like a ninja just ran her thumb along the length of her knife.Rachel wasn’t sure what to make of the situation. First Lisa and Regent barged in complaining about a cat going wild, then they took one of her doggy carry cases and brought in a hissing, screaming cat that had all of her dogs barking and growling. She wanted it out of her house right away, and expected Brian to kick it out soon enough.Instead the four of them were arguing, screaming over the dog’s barking when a little girl appeared in the middle of the living room and punched Brian out. Then another one moved through the wall and a third walked in from the door while they were still panicking.That’s how the entire team ended up tied on the loft floor, handcuffs in place and tape stretched out between all of them in great big circles.Bitch glared at the girls but kept her mouth shut. It was the best thing to do. The one in the robes was patting Angelica on the head and rubbing Brutus behind the ear, both dogs lapping up the attention like happy little traitors.“Tattletale,” Brian said, low enough that only the ninja girl turned towards them. “If that biotinker melts me, I’m going to fucking haunt you.”“Seconded,” Regent said. “I’m gonna go full Stay Puft Marshmallow Man on you.”Rachel felt Lisa move and Alec groaned as an elbow hit him in the kidneys. “Asshole, you were there with me the entire time,” she said.“I’m haunting you too, Regent,” Brian said.The three girls pulled out of their huddle, the one with the cat ears nodding seriously before she stepped up to them with the same kind of swagger Rachel saw in tomcats all the time, tail flicks and all. “Okay, villains,” she said as she placed her hands on her hips and thrust out her chest. “Time for y’er recoining.”“Reckoning, moron,” the one in robes said.“Fuck off, Remedy! Stop ruining my triplelogue!” the cat-girl said.“What’s a triplelogue?” Alec asked.The girl rolled her eyes. “It’s like a monologue, but there’s three of us. Obviously.”“Oh my god, we’re going to die,” Brian whispered.“Shut up black guy,” the cat-girl said. She glared at Brian. The two of them really didn’t get along, Rachel noticed.“That’s racist,” Alec said.“You’re racist,” she spat back.“For the love of Onee-sama,” the ninja-girl said. “Let me do the talking, baka neko.” She moved closer to them, then crouched to be at their height, a hand on the handle of her knife and her eyes narrowed. “We have decided not to kill you because that would annoy our Onee-sama. Be grateful that Onee-sama does not want the hands of her imouto dirtied with your filthy gaijin blood.”“So you’re not gonna kill us?” Alec asked. He didn’t seem all that bothered by the idea.Ninja girl shook her head.“We still haven’t decided whether or not I should biotinker your brains to make you better people,” Remedy said. She wiggled her fingers in their direction and Lisa pulled way back.“Fuck no,” Lisa said. “Don’t touch me!.”“Lisa, calm down,” Brian ordered.“Shut up Brian, you don’t know what I know. She’s a waking nightmare.”“Hey,” Remedy said, her brows pulling together like an angry pit bull. “I didn’t do anything mean to no one.”“Well,” cat-girl started.“Shut up Cheshire,” Remedy shot back. “If you don’t stop talking shit I’m going to give you cancer.”“What kind?” Alec asked.The girl blinked. “All of them?”“You did not,” a cold, dangerous voice snapped across the room. “Just threaten to give your sister cancer.”Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.All three girls flinched, looking like dogs that had just peed on the mattress. They turned at the same time as all of the Undersiders craned their necks to see who was talking.A tall dark-haired girl stood in the doorway with another little girl by her side. She looked plain, with big glasses and a sweater over jeans. Still, her arms were crossed and her mouth was set in a thin line. Even Rachel could tell that she was pissed off.“I come back home to find that not only have three of my sisters disappeared, they left to run after a cat that was accidentally kidnapped by, and I quote, ‘big doo-doo head supervillains.’ Do you have any idea how much trouble finding this place was? I should be at home doing homework right now. And all three of you left the house without doing your chores.”“Wow, they didn’t do their chores. How awful,” Alec said.“Alec, shut up,” Lisa hissed. She was looking at the scary girl as if she was Lung himself.“At least Crochet didn’t participate in... whatever this is,” she said before placing a hand on the head of the girl next to her and giving it a fond pat. The girl smiled at her sisters, full of smug satisfaction.“She tattled on us!” Cheshire screamed.“She isn’t the one that’s in trouble here.”“Hey, mom jeans, these brats yours?” Alec asked.This time it was Rachel who hit him. She could see the way all the girls bowed to her. The new girl was the alpha of her pack, and her pack was stronger than Rachel’s.“They are,” the girl said with a sigh. “Did you guys really kidnap our cat?” she asked.Rachel heard Lisa clearing her throat. “Look, I can explain everything if you just give me a minute to talk. It’s all one big misunderstanding.”“Yeah, I’m sure,” the girl said. “And the supervillain costumes and guns just left lying around are a misunderstanding too, right?” she asked.Lisa laughed. “Just one big misunderstanding.”The girl moved over to them and leaned forwards until she was right in front of Lisa, eyes level with her and glare in place. Lisa shrank away, and if she was a dog her tail would be between her legs. “I don’t know what you’re playing at, but if I find out that any of you tried to hurt my sisters I will make you regret it, got it?” she said before poking Lisa in the chest.Lisa’s head bobbed up and down. “Yup, got it!”The girl’s face twisted and she stared at Lisa for a long time before standing back up. “Alright girls, let’s go,” she said.“Aww, but sis, we were about to beat them up,” Cheshire said.“Don’t make me repeat myself,” she said as she started towards the door. “Remedy, leave the dogs alone. Pop, I don’t know where you’re hiding, but if you’re not next to me in the next ten seconds we’ll be having words.”And just like that, the entire gang of girls stampeded out of the loft, Rachel’s dogs almost following them until the Remedy girl shooed them back in and closed the door.“Lisa,” Brian began. “Could you kindly explain what the fuck just happened?”

* * *

“And so that’s what happened.”Coil stared across his desk at Lisa.Lisa stared right back.The cat in the doggy carrier next to kept chewing at the locks of its cage.He sighed. “I see. We learned some valuable things, at the very least. You’re dismissed.”“Uh, right,” Lisa said. She looked around, then shuffled off and out of the room while Coil’s gaze followed her back.When the door snapped shut, he leaned his head back into his throne-like seat and growled under his breath. His eyes snapped open when a soft weight pressed up against his hand.Coil stared as the cat Lisa had brought in squirmed under his fingers. It was a far tabby, fur coloured an unnatural black-grey-white pattern. Shrugging to himself, he began to pat it on the head.“I’ll get you next time, Hebert.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Taylor made sure all four of her sisters were sitting down in a more or less straight line on the couch. Even Crochet, who was mostly innocent here. They all looked down at their feet and shifted between pouts and pitiful, watery-eyed puppy-dog looks in a transparent attempt to avoid punishment.The attempt was cute, but there was no way it was going to work on the likes of Taylor Hebert. So, with a deep breath to harden her heart, she stood before her sisters, crossed her arms and set her legs like a sergeant looking at a lot of unimpressive soldiers. “Which one of you wants to explain what just happened?” she asked.The girls looked at each other, and as one, decided that the one who would speak was anyone but themselves.Taylor sighed and brought a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose. It didn’t help that her little problem was making it hard to focus.“Are you okay, Big Sis?” Remedy asked. “I can make it better, if you’re hurting.”“Nothing you can help with, Remedy,” Taylor said. “But thanks. My tummy’s just a little queasy.”“Is it another little sister?” Crochet asked, then her face lit up. “Or are you pregnant?”Taylor reminded herself that taking deep breaths was an excellent way to stay calm. Maybe she could just keep breathing deeply until all of her problems solved themselves. “No Crochet, I’m not pregnant. A whole lot of things would have to go really wrong for that to happen.”“Aww,” Crochet sighed.”I want a little niece to play with.”She was going to have to do something about that, she realized. Not getting pregnant, but Crochet’s obsession with her giving the girl a niece to play with.“So, ya touched Tits,” Cheshire said, derailing all of Taylor’s thoughts.“I did what?”Cheshire nodded. “Ya touched Tits. The blonde one. She’s their ringleader, I figure.”Taylor shut her mouth with a click, blinked a few times, then reset herself with a shake of the head. “Yeah, I touched... is that really her name?”“That’s what Regret said. He’s the skinny one.”Taylor narrowed her eyes, but none of the other sisters were jumping in to say that Cheshire was wrong. “She was hardly big enough to earn the name,” she muttered.“The one with the puppies was called Bitch,” Remedy pointed out.“Yeah,” Cheshire said. “And the black one’s Goo.”“Tits, Regret, Goo and... and a word that I don’t want to hear any of you repeating,” she said. Her head was starting to pound. “I don’t know what kind of depraved weirdoes you stumbled onto, especially with names like those, but I would really appreciate a full explanation.”“Well, we could give ya one,” Cheshire said. “But you seem really out of it.” She moved to the edge of the couch and leaned forwards, ears perked and eyes filled with adoration.Remedy nodded and scooted up too. She pressed her hands together as if in prayer. “You do look a little pale. You should sit down. Maybe we can get some water. And prepare your bed? Pop could get your PJs. We could go to bed early.”Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.Taylor snorted. “Stop pretending to be nice just to get out of me punishing you.”Pop shook her head. “I, unlike these other imouto, am ready to face the consequences of my actions, Onee-sama.”“Sell-out,” Cheshire muttered.“It’s okay, Big Sis, you can have another little sister, and then we can talk.” Crochet said.“Yeah, even the snitch is on our side,” Cheshire cheered.“I’m not a snitch,” Crochet said.“Yeah you are, you told Big Sis everything,” Cheshire shot back.“It’s not snitching if it’s to Big Sis,” was Crochet’s reply.Next to her, Pop nodded solemnly. “The seamstress is correct. Onee-sama deserves only honesty from her imouto.”Taylor sighed again, a hand going to her stomach. Her power was being insistent, a constant rumble like the onset of indigestion. Or maybe that was just dealing with the drama. “Okay, fine,” she said.Four cheers reverberated across the Hebert living room. Cheshire started bouncing on the couch, Pop popped to the far corner of the room to watch from the shadows and Remedy and Crochet hugged while cheering. Even Taylor felt a bit of a smile tugging at her lips. “I didn’t think you guys would want even more sisters,” Taylor said.“Yeah, ‘course we do,” Cheshire said. “‘S long as ya remember that I was the first and the best, we’re all good.” She frowned a little. “But you’ll need to give out more headpats to make up for it, yeah?”Taylor snorted. “Sure,” she said. “You guys ready?” she asked. “I don’t want to scare the new little sister, so be nice.”“I’ll go put the tea on!” Crochet declared before rushing out of the room.“Alright, here goes nothing,” Taylor said as she pushed. She knew it was probably a bad idea, and that she would have to do something to avoid coming into contact with more parahumans in the future, but it was unavoidable. She couldn’t live with her power niggling at her for the rest of her life.Eyes squeezed shut, Taylor focused on the burning in her gut and, for lack of a better word, squished it out.“Sup!” Cheshire said.“Hello, lesser nee-chan,” Pop said from her corner.“Huh, I’ll have to give you a poke to see if those are natural,” Remedy said.Taylor opened her eyes to see the back of a head, a head covered in a squashed brown fedora plopped on a mop of blonde hair done up in a big braid that stopped at the base of her new sister’s back. She blinked as her eyes fixed on the long duster the girl was wearing, or rather the large, bushy tail sticking out of the bottom of her coat.The new girl whipped around, bottle-green eyes searching until they locked onto Taylor’s, then she grinned, the huge fox ears sticking out from under her hat perking up so much that it almost fell off. “Heya there, sis, I’m Tattletail.”