Ravensdagger_Headpats

Chapter Forty-One

Taylor woke up to the sensation of something tickling her under the nose. She turned her head away, but just a minute later the tickling was back.Blearily opening one eye, she found herself staring into a poofy feather duster of orange-red fur, a few black tufts decorating the tip of the thing poking at her face.She blinked a few more times and reassessed where she was. The pillow by her head and the ceiling above were enough to tell her that it was her bedroom, but she didn’t recall owning a feather duster.There was something wrapped around one leg, a heavy weight across her chest and her hand was over something warm.Leaning her head up, she found that Cheshire had a leg over hers and was hugging her thigh close to her face, nose scrunched up against Taylor’s side even as her ears twitched in what had to be a contented dream. Further up, Remedy was stretched out so that one arm crossed Taylor’s chest like a warm, heavy noodle.Pop was on the bed too, though she occupied the farthest corner and was sitting up against the wall, entirely wrapped in a pile of blankets so that only her head was visible, and her sword. Taylor made a note to remind her, again, that there shouldn’t be any weapons in bed.She wiggled her hand, then turned to her right to find that Tattletail was sleeping, feet towards Taylor’s head and both hands pressing Taylor’s down onto her exposed tummy. Every time Taylor moved her hand there would be a corresponding twitch from her tail.She sighed. This was her life now. It didn’t matter how many blankets she put on the floor or how many air mattresses she found, by the time morning rolled around she would be covered in little sisters.Taylor wasn’t going to admit that it was actually kind of... nice. She felt loved, which wasn’t something she had ever needed to put into words. The last time she could remember that warmth was when her mother hugged her close and reminded her that she was the most important thing in the world to her. To feel that again every morning was a little heady.She moved her hand off Tattletail’s tummy and ignored the whine of protest before the girl rolled into a ball, her tail coming up between her legs until she bit into the black tip. Then she wiggled her leg until Cheshire grumbled and turned to grab onto Remedy.The Remedy situation fixed itself as she hugged Cheshire closer instead.Taylor saw Pop open one eye to look as she got out of the bed, but her little ninja just nodded once and went back to her quiet, sleepy vigil. She earned herself a gentle pat on the head as Taylor got up and padded over to the hallway.Judging by the chainsaw snore from her dad’s room, he was still firmly asleep, which only left one person MIA that morning.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.The stairs creaked just a little as she made her way to the first floor. That’s where she found her missing sister.Crochet’s head was bobbing up and down like a metronome while a kettle sat on the stove. “Big Sis?” she mumbled as Taylor moved closer. “I’m making tea and breakfast.”“I can see that,” Taylor said as she turned on the burner under the kettle. “You’ll be waiting for a long time if you don’t actually turn the stove on.” She checked the kettle, but Crochet hadn’t forgotten to put water in.The nearness meant that Crochet had no trouble grabbing Taylor and sticking her face into Taylor’s side. “‘M tired.”Taylor chuckled and patted Crochet behind the head. “Then why are you up, silly? It’s Saturday morning.”“Have to make you breakfast,” Crochet said into her side.Taylor stopped patting her head so that she could give her a quick hug. She leaned a little closer. “Don’t tell your sisters, but you’re the best,” she whispered.It was as if she’d injected pure caffeine into Crochet. Her eyes widened and a smile blossomed across her face as if she had just seen the world’s first sunrise. “I-I” she stuttered. “I’ll put on toast.”Making breakfast was a quick affair. She would have wanted to make eggs, but they were out. And there was no butter, or milk left. No cereals either. Just half a bag of bread that she had bought not two days ago and the bottom of a jar of peanut butter. She found some jam that still looked good tucked in the far corner of the pantry too. It was easy to see, on account of the lack of stuff in said pantry.The pit in her stomach grew a little. It was hard enough when it was just her and her dad. Five more mouths to feed was really pushing their limits.Tattletail was the first to make her way downstairs. She looked around the kitchen, zeroed in on the plate of PBJ sandwiches and stole one with a swipe. “Mmorgging,” she said through a mouthful of bread.“Good morning to you too,” Taylor said.“We need to talk,” Tattletail said as soon as she was done swallowing.“Do we?”The little fox girl nodded. “Yup. I made plans. And then, because I knew you’d say no to those, I made even more plans.”“This I have to hear,” Taylor said as she sat down, a mug of steaming tea on one side and a sandwich in the other.Tattletail nodded and tried to look serious. With only one ear perked while the other was still flopped to the side, it didn’t work. “We need lots of money. But before we can get that money by working for it, we need to tell the PRT to mind their own business. And before we can do that, we need to do something heroic.”“I almost follow. Go on,” Taylor said before taking a sip.“Right! So there’s going to be a bank robbery today, and we’re going to stop it.”

Chapter Forty-Two

“This is such a bad idea,” Taylor said. She reached up to adjust the mask over her face, then stopped and ran a hand over her jacket instead. She was practically floating in it. She never thought that she would go out in public wearing one of her mom’s suits and for good reason. Annette Hebert was a whole lot more... more than Taylor was and it showed in the looseness of her jacket, blouse and pencil skirt.Still, between her mom’s old clothes and the costume Crochet had revealed...She shook her head and looked around. People were clearing out of their way with alacrity, none of them daring to stick around as her troop of little sisters moved around her like the strangest little bodyguards.Cheshire was in the lead, stomping along in her cat onesie, hood pulled back and cat ears on full display as they stuck out of a mess of bushy black hair. She had a domino mask on, one decorated with wiry whiskers that bobbed with every motion she made.Tattletail was to Taylor’s left, tail sticking out of the back of her trench coat and waving around in an open display of happiness. She was almost skipping. Almost. Still, her little shit-eating grin told anyone looking her way that they had better not mess with her. That and her domino mask that screamed ‘cape.’Then there was Remedy who was staying close to Taylor’s right. The sisters had drawn straws to decide who would hold Taylor’s hand as they walked and Remedy was the proud winner. Taylor almost couldn’t see the smile hidden by the big, poofy white scarf wrapped around Remedy’s lower face and shoulders, but it was there.Behind her were two shambling shapes. Miss Cottontail, the murderous cloth rabbit, and Mister Buttons, a fat brown bear made mostly from one of her dad’s old leather jackets and, of course, Crochet herself. When the girl found the time to make a victorian costume, one that bore more than a passing similarity to Parian’s, Taylor didn’t know.What she did know was that Crochet still needed to work on her colour theory. Gothic dresses should not have contained so many neon colors.Last but certainly not least came Pop. The girl appeared before them in a low crouch, always between the group and the nearest tourists or Brocktonites too slow to move. She was wrapped from head to toe in black bandage-like material except for poofy sleeves and thigh wraps, all of that hidden by her purple-ish yukata.And of course, her sword was always out when she appeared. It didn’t seem to matter how many times Taylor told her to stow the weapon away. She was beginning to think that orders only applied to the ‘current’ Pop, and not to any future clones. Or maybe Pop was stealthy enough that Taylor had only ever told a clone and it didn’t carry over to the real Pop.More headaches for later. Right then, her focus had to be on what she was doing, which was mostly walking towards Brockton Bay’s busiest bank, in broad daylight, with what seemed to the layman like at least five other capes.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.As they made it to the front steps, an overweight security guard stepped out, one hand shaking on his taser while his eyes flicked over the group as if counting them over and over again. “Uh, you can’t enter here?” he tried.“Yes we can,” Tattletail said. “We’re customers.”“We have a no mask policy,” the guard said.“He’s lying,” Tattletail told Taylor, loud enough that the guard heard. “They want heroes in their banks as often as possible, so they don’t have any rules like that. Also there are laws that protect the identities of capes that those rules would go against. Now give me pats.”Taylor rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to give you pats just because you’re a smug little rules-lawyer.”“Pats need to be earned,” Crochet said from her place on Mister Buttons. She had been visibly self-satisfied all morning.Tattletail stuck her tongue out at Crochet. Taylor chose to ignore that, even though she could see that they were all on camera. It would be worse if her reprimanding the girls were caught on film.At least, that’s what Tattletail had said; she still suspected that was a lie to avoid punishment.“We’re really just here to help,” Taylor said to the guard. “Really.”“Uh,” he said.“Get out of our way, fatso,” Cheshire growled. “We’s got stuff to do in there and y’er in the way.” As impolite as Cheshire was being (and she was going to get a stern talking to about it later) she did get the guard to move aside.If they had been watched outside, it was nothing compared to the number of people looking at them once they entered the bank. Tellers stared wide-eyed and some of the customers ran out of the bank, abandoning whatever they had come for. Those last were probably the sort to live long, healthy lives, Taylor figured. It must be nice to have proper survival instincts.“Okay, so now what?” she asked.Tattletail reached into one pocket of her trench coat and pulled out a smartphone. “Now I need to make a call.”“Where did you get that?” Taylor asked.“Don’t ask and I’ll tell no lies,” Tattletail said with a smirk.“I’m asking,” Taylor said flatly. “And if you lie I will tan your hide to match the colour of your fluffy little tail.”All the blood drained from Tattletail’s face. “Pop got it for me.”“Baka kitsune, you said you would not speak to Onee-sama,” Pop said.“Your Onee-sama is scarier than you are,” Tattletail defended herself.Pop’s eyes narrowed, but she nodded. “She is more scary, yes. But you are still a baka kitsune.”Taylor idly pondered the course of her life that left her eager for bank robbers to arrive.

Chapter Forty-Three

He didn’t know how Tattletale had managed to convince him that this was a good idea. He chalked it up to her being a cute-ish, if off-limits, girl and him being a giant dumbass.Robbing a bank. Robbing the biggest bank in Brockton Bay while the heroes were supposed to be busy. Sure, it was the kind of thing that would put any villain team on the map, but infamy was a double-edged sword. He wasn’t sure if they were ready for the spotlight, especially not after they had been taken down by a group of schoolgirls that looked younger than his sister.Getting his ass beaten by a preteen put things into perspective.“Bitch, keep an eye out on your dogs, we don’t want them stepping on anyone,” he said. It earned him a flat look from the girl, but she didn’t protest. “Regent, stay back and trip up anyone that acts up. Tattletale... for the love of everything, shut up.”“Thanks boss. Your positive reinforcement is doing wonders for my fragile self-confidence,” Tattletale sniped back.He rolled his eyes. Even with his motorcycle helmet on, he was confident Tattletale would know.They reached the doors that would lead to the main floor of the bank and he took a deep breath. With a start, he moved forwards and crashed into the door shoulder-first, slamming it aside. His smoke poured out of the holes in his leather jacket, turning him into what he knew looked like a monster to normal people.“Okay, everyone on the ground right now! Do what we say and nobody’ll get — ”Brian stopped, boot squeaking on the floor as he took in the lobby.The customers were dropping to the ground, some of them screaming in panic, but a larger portion of them were just staring, quite a few with phones out and pointed his way. That was unexpected, even for Brocktonites.What was worse were the five people standing in a rough formation in the middle of the lobby, all of them facing him. He recognized about half of them. The girl in the oversized business suit had to be the infamous ‘Big Sister’ in her costume, and the one at the back with the two frankly nightmarish plushies towering around her was new. So was the fox-girl smiling at him from where she sat on one of the counters, tail wagging slowly behind her.The only one missing was the tiny ninja.Then she appeared next to Big Sister with a pop and swung a knife as long as his forearm around in a tight loop.“Ah, shit,” he said.“Uh,” Big Sister said when the silence stretched. “Get on the ground right now and nobody’ll get hurt?”Brian looked at his own team. Bitch’s dogs were nearly full-sized already, which was pretty much the only advantage on his side right now compared to the last time he faced off against the army of brats.They, on the other hand, had three more members than when they’d soundly beaten the Undersiders.Shit odds.“So, just to be sure, you’re not also robbing the bank, right?”Big Sister shook her head. “No, we’re here to stop you from robbing the bank. I thought, I thought that was pretty clear.”If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.“Yeah, that’s fair. How about we just leave?” he asked.“What?!” The one in the cat onesie said. “You can’t just leave, I wanna kick yer butts!”“If they surrender we will need to watch over them. Corpses do not try to escape,” the teleporter said, one hand running up along the back of her sword.“Okay, time out, Brat Squad,” Tattletale said, her hands forming a ‘T’ in the air.Having Lisa try to talk them out of trouble was usually a bad idea, but it was an idea, and he was all out of those.“Don’t let Tits talk, Big Sis, she’s rude and stupid,” the fox said.“Tits?” Tattletale repeated. She looked down at her chest, which was about average as far as Brian could tell. “What?”“Isn’t that your name?” Big Sister asked. She pointed to all the members of the Undersiders in turn. “Tits, Goo, Regret and... the B word.”Brian worked his mouth, but he couldn’t find the right words to deny her. Worse, the light caught on a few camera lenses. This was going to be all over PHO by the evening. “No,” he finally said. “We’re the Undersiders-”“Big sis, is Undersider a sex thing?” The fox-girl asked. Her sweet, childish voice was far too loud in the bank’s lobby.“What’s sex?”Everyone, literally every person in the bank, turned towards the back where the doll girl was standing, wide eyes focused on Big Sister. She noticed all the attention coming her way and shyed back a step.“Sex is a thing animals do to make more animals,” the cat girl said with a firm nod. “I saw it on TV.”Bitch nodded in agreement.Big Sister took a long, deep breath and locked eyes with Brian, and even through his mask it felt as if she was spearing him in place with her eyes alone. “I swear if I need to give them the talk because of your little team of villains we’ll be having words.”The threat should not have been that scary, but he still felt himself wanting to back off.He started to raise his hands. “You know what, I think we’re just going to... run!”Brian made it all of five feet into his darkness before something hard and sharp bit into the back of his knee and sent him sprawling.From his new vantage point on the floor, he had an excellent view of the ninja girl appearing in the air above Bitch and drop kicking her into the ground.Bitch’s dogs rushed forwards only to be tackled to the ground by the giant plush toys and then knocked out by the girl in white robes with only a touch.Regent started to move, but the cat girl was faster, she rushed through Brian’s smoke, a blowdart held to the side and her other hand balled into a tight fist. A fist which rammed Regent right between the legs.He went down with a grunt. “That’s for not having candy, jerkhole!”Brian started to stand, but he found Big Sister standing above him. She wasn’t armed or anything, but the threat was still there. A glance to the side showed Tattletale facing off against the fox girl, both of them glaring at each other.He let his head fall back with a heavy clunk.This was all Tattletale’s fault.