Ravensdagger_Headpats

Chapter Ten

Cheshire wasn’t very good at taking punishment. That much was more than obvious to Taylor. The girl was sitting with both hands on her knees, lips sticking way out in a pout that might have lessened her anger if the story Cheshire had weaved wasn’t so... so Cheshire-like.“To recap,” Taylor said with what felt like all the patience in the world. “You went out for a run at half past nine to stretch your legs. Alone. Without telling anyone. Then you saw some Wards, and instead of minding your business you ran after them.”Cheshire made a little grunt.“And then,” Taylor said, her voice growing cold. “Then you got into a fight with some nazis and a bunch of gangsters just because you could.” Her fists clenched and she felt herself on the edge of screaming but held back. Cheshire was making herself as small as she could, hood dipping down to hide her blushing face. “And then you got into a fight with Shadow Stalker and had to run away. You, you absolute... gah!”Standing up fast enough that her chair wobbled back and forth, she stomped over to Cheshire, grabbed the girl by both shoulders, then threw her into her chest before wrapping her up as tight as she could.She might only have known Cheshire for a few days, but she cared for her, dammit. “Don’t you ever, ever do that again,” she said.“I’m sorry,” Cheshire mumbled into Taylor’s neck.“You’d better be,” Taylor said. She squeezed harder, as if to make sure that the girl was safe and sound.“Big sis? Cheshire?” a soft voice said from the door leading into the living room.Taylor pulled away from Cheshire-who made a tiny unhappy sound at losing the contact— and turned to the doorway to find Crochet wrapped up in a big fluffy blanket. She was blinking around with bleary eyes and brought a hand up to cover her mouth when a yawn escaped her. “Did I wake you up?” Taylor asked.“Mmm,” was Crochet’s response. “Cheshire came back? That’s nice. Are you okay, big sis?”“I was just worried,” Taylor said. “Cheshire, you need a shower, then it’s off to bed with you.”The girl looked ready to protest, but one look at the firm expression on Taylor’s face had her giving up. “Okay, Big Sis.” She dropped off the chair and padded off towards the stairs.Crochet watched her go, then walked deeper into the kitchen. She lifted a chair and brought it next to the stove, then found the kettle and got on her tippy toes to fill it with water. “I think, Big Sis, that we’re going to have to talk,” Crochet said.“Oh really?” Taylor asked. She couldn’t help the amusement in her voice as she took the kettle from Crochet and set it on the stove for her. She didn’t need the girl to spill boiling water all over.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.Crochet nodded quite firmly. “Oh yes. Big sis, I think you need to help Cheshire become a good hero.”“A... hero?” Taylor asked. She was getting a faint sense of trepidation.“Yes,” Crochet said as she got out a box of tea bags. “Cheshire wants to go out at night and stop crime, it’s what she dreams of doing. And Big Sis, of course, wants to help people because she’s Big Sis and is the best.”“You think too highly of me,” Taylor said. “I’m not up for the whole hero thing. I wish I was, I really do, but I don’t think it’s something I could do.”Crochet huffed. “Of course you could. You just need to put your mind to it. There’s nothing Big Sis can’t do. Look, I even designed a costume for you.” Reaching into her blankets, Crochet pulled out a tiny plushie of a girl in a superhero costume. She had long black hair and a big cape all around her that covered a suit that looked just a little bit like Alexandria’s, only with a big ‘BS’ on her chest.“Is that me?” Taylor asked. She grabbed the plushie and inspected it closer. It even had her wide mouth-turned up in a smile-and her rather narrow hips and bust, but in the costume the plushie looked heroic and strong. “Why BS?”“For Big Sis, of course,” Crochet said.“Ah,” Taylor replied. “I think, um, something else might be better.”“It’s a work in progress,” Crochet said before taking the plushie back and tucking it under her arm. “But I think that I could make a costume that looks really good, then everyone will think that Big Sis is cool, just like I know she is.”Taylor felt a smile tugging at her lips. She placed a hand on Crochet’s head and patted it before she started to arrange her bed hair a little. The girl sighed. “Thanks Crochet. We’ll have to table the idea for later though, okay?”“Mmm okay,” Crochet said as she leaned into Taylor’s hand.“By the way,” Taylor asked as she stopped the patting. “Were you sleeping with a plushie of me?”Crochet’s face instantly reddened and she turned away. “No,” she said, even as she hugged the plushie tighter.Taylor grinned despite herself. “It’s okay if you do. It’s cute, even.”“A lady does not need a plushie to sleep well. Let alone one of her Big Sis,” Crochet denied.“Of course not,” Taylor said. The water was nearly boiling, so she took it off the stove and found two mugs to pour it in. “Were you serious about the hero thing?” she asked as they retreated to the table.“A little. Cheshire won’t be able to sit back and do nothing. She’s too hyper. And if we get more sisters and maybe brothers, then they might want to be heroes too.”Taylor blew across the top of her mug. “I’ll give it some thought.”

Chapter Eleven

Cheshire grinned as she made blood splatter again the wall, then she swiped again and more blood was on the floor.Her head twisted to the side and she inspected her work for a moment before adding some more blood all over the bad guy’s face and neck. It was perfect!“What are you drawing there, sweetie?” a kindly voice asked.Cheshire looked up to find a store assistant, a portly man whose skin was a shade lighter than hers looking over her shoulder. She looked back down at her Alexandria and Buddies Colouring Book, the page now covered in brightly coloured bad guys and the hero of the book posing in mid-air. Her red crayon paused above the page. “I’m makin’ a drawing for my big sis,” she explained.“That’s awfully kind of you,” the man said. “Which one’s your big sis?” He gestured at the rest of the store and Cheshire looked through the racks of cloth and thimbles and needles and whatnot, trying to find her big sis.Taylor was a little deeper in, her head only just visible over the racks as she reached up towards a bolt of greenish cloth. “That’s ‘er over there,” Cheshire said.“Right, now you keep one eye on your big sis, alright? I’ve got to man the cash, but I don’t mind you working on your little art piece if you’re nice and well behaved, okay?” He patted her head before moving back behind the counter.She grinned at him and nodded. “Yeah, yeah.”Her drawing was coming along real nicely when she heard the old guy at the counter gasp. Looking up, she saw three guys, all asian looking with red and green shirts. A couple of them had bandanas around their necks and were walking as if they had trouble keeping their pants on.They started talking to the nice old guy behind the counter. He looked rather nervous for a bit before reaching under the counter and bringing up an envelope.“This is it, this is it. I didn’t think you would be so early,” the old guy said.One of the guys, the leader of the group, if Cheshire had to guess, pushed up the sleeves of his shirt, revealing a long, intricate dragon tattoo before he took the envelope and pulled it open. He tsked after counting the stuff within. “This ain’t enough.”The old guy was looking a little sweaty. “But that’s the same as last month.”“Yeah, but it’s higher this month. You don’t want those nazis walking all up in here, do you?” the leader said. He smacked the envelope on the desk a couple of times. “C’mon, double it up.”“Double?” the old guy said. “I can’t afford that.”“You’re making me waste my time, there’s a fee for that. Now you’re protesting, so it’s triple.” The other asian guys started laughing at that.“Hey, leave him alone,” Cheshire said as she hopped off her chair and came to stand in the middle of the corridor leading to the exit. She balled her fists and placed them on her hips, a glare fixed on her face the entire time. The old guy had been nice to her.Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!“Oh shit, who’s this?” one of the guys said. He came a little closer and leaned forwards. “This one your daughter, old man?” he asked.“N-no, she’s a client. Leave her out of this,” the old man said. “She’ll go back to colouring, right sweetie, I’ll pay you, just give me a moment.”“Nah, it’s good old man,” the leader said. He was looking at Cheshire in a way that made her feel icky. “We’ll take the girl. Oni Lee said we needed to find more anyway. It’ll be worth more than your spare change.”“You ain’t takin’ me anywhere, you weirdo,” Cheshire said.The guy closest to her snorted and reached out. He grabbed her by the shoulder, thumb digging into her. “Shut up, and come here.”Glaring, Cheshire phased out just long enough for his hand to swipe through empty air, then she cocked her leg back. The boy just stared wide-eyed as she swung forwards and punted him between the legs.“Cape!” the leader screamed. He grabbed his other buddy by the shoulder and shoved him towards Cheshire.The guy pulled a baseball bat from his side where she hadn’t noticed it and swung it at her. She let it pass through her head. “Moron,” she said. Reaching over to the counter, she grabbed a handful of crochet needles and walked over to the guy she’d knocked down already. Taking one needle in her free hand, she phased it and let it drop. It reappeared in the middle of the guy’s knee.He started screaming a lot.“Oh shit, oh shit,” the leader said before he spun around and ran out. His buddy with the bat swung at her again while backing off.Snorting, she tossed all of her needles at him and watched them phase back stuck all over his legs. He fell back with a howl, bat flying off over the counter.“What’s going on?” Big sis said as she ran to the front. She took one look at the two thugs on the ground and then turned a glare onto Cheshire. “What did you do?” she asked.“I ain’t do nothin’ bad,” Cheshire said. “They were givin’ off these nasty stranger danger vibes.”“Dammit Cheshire,” Taylor said. “That’s not a reason to, to,” she paused to take in the needles planted into the thugs legs. “What did you even do to them?” she asked before she started to bend over one of them to help.“They were going to kidnap her,” the old guy behind the counter said. “They’re from the ABB. You need to leave, now.”“Really Cheshire?” Crochet asked. “Couldn’t you have let them take you?”“Hey, fuck you,” she shot back.Taylor gave up on helping when she heard the old man. Her eyes narrowed down at the idiot still squirming before her. “I’m sorry about all this, sir. You might want to call the police,” she started to say.The door jingled as it opened and the leader walked in. For a moment everyone paused, then he raised his hand, gun pointing right at Taylor.“Big sis!”

Chapter Twelve

Crochet didn’t like Cheshire most of the time, but the girl was fast and she cared for Big Sis, almost as much as Crochet did. She bumped into Taylor, sending Big Sis sprawling into a rack of chocolate bars off to the side a moment before the meanie at the door fired.The noise was super loud, and Crochet wanted to curl into a ball and hide, but the meanie was trying to hurt her Big Sis. That was horribly rude of him.Cheshire was too busy to take him out, the nice older gentleman behind the counter was diving for cover, and Big Sis was still dazed by her crash into the rack, so it was up to Crochet to save the day.She swallowed.“S-stop right there,” she said. With a twist of her will, she reached out to everything she could find in the store, suffusing the whole place with her power. They were in a clothing store, everything around her was porous and absorbent, soaking in her telekinetic grasp like a sponge falling into water.Reams of cloth unwound themselves like banners, needles darted across the air like teeny tiny missiles, and the stress balls being sold by the counter exploded.The thug at the door shot at a swarm of needles before they started poking at him, then cloth wrapped itself around his hand and tugged the gun away.He turned to run, but Crochet was faster. His laces undid themselves and with a bit of focus tied themselves together in a big knot.She might have needed Big Sis’ help to tie her shoes, but making a knot was easy.The meanie went down with a thump, face bumping against the closed door hard enough that he stopped moving. Crochet had the gun float over to her on a pillow, then tied the feet and hands of the other meanies with long unicorn covered ribbons. It didn’t match their outfits at all, but you could never go wrong with unicorn ribbons.“Big sis!” she called as soon as she was done.Big sis stumbled out of the rack, blinking hard as if dazed for just a moment before her face turned very serious and kind of scary. She scanned the shop, attention going from one meanie to the next. “You, call the police. Not the PRT, the police,” she ordered the old gentleman. “Do you have a security system? Cameras?” she asked.“Y-yes?” he said.“Where is it?”He pointed to something under the counter. “Good. Destroy it. I can't afford to have our faces outed like this, you understand.” She looked at him, and for a moment Crochet’s Big Sis looked super scary. It was awesome.“Yes, yes, I understand,” he said.Taylor kicked one of the meanies over, then started going through his pockets. “Crochet, can you make blindfolds for these idiots?”This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.“Yes, Big Sis!” Crochet said. She found more ribbons (with puppies on them!) and tied them around the eyes of all three thugs.Big Sis pulled out wallets and a folding knife and a bunch of other things from the bad guy’s pockets, dropping each thing on the counter above her before going back to searching. It was only when she reached the third guy that she started having a hard time. The meanie wouldn’t stop wiggling and trying to kick at her, so with narrowed eyes and a really scary look, Big Sis punched him in the ribs. “Listen to me, asshole,” Big Sis growled. “You almost shot my sister. I don’t have much pity for dirtbags that try to hurt the people that I love, so lay down and stop fighting or I’ll be taking out my anger on your sorry ass.”“Oni Lee is coming and, he’s going to kill you bitch!” the leader of the bad guys screamed.Taylor punched him again, then grimaced and shook her hand. “Oni Lee isn’t here. It’s just me and you. Now stop moving or I’ll make you stop.”Crochet was wide-eyed. She looked to her side where Cheshire was staring with the same expression. Their gazes met for a second and a flash of understanding passed between the sisters.Their Big Sis was the coolest.“I, I’ve called the police,” the store’s proprietor said. He was clutching a cell phone to his chest. “And, and I’ve unplugged the cameras. Is that good enough?”Taylor stood up and nodded. “Thank you. I’m sorry about the mess. I was hoping to buy a few things, but I don’t want to be here when the police arrive. I’m sorry.”“It’s fine,” he said. “I wouldn’t want three young girls to be caught up in this anyway.”Taylor gave him a wry smile. “No more than we are. Crochet, Cheshire, come on.”Crochet nodded really hard, then stepped over one of the bad guys on the way to the door. She gave the gentleman at the counter a curtsey as she passed.“See ya, old guy,” Cheshire said as she picked up a coloring book and tucked it under her arm.They were nearly out of the door when Big Sis stopped and, a gasp escaped her. Crochet had to lean to the side to see what was blocking her path.There was a man in the doorway. Not a tall man, but one that still had a presence to him, as if he was larger than life. He stood perfectly, unnaturally still with the brighter light from the sun at his back masking his features until he slowly tilted his head, and the dark red demon’s mask he wore came into focus.Big Sis pulled Crochet and Cheshire back, pushing both girls in the chest until they were behind her.The demon in the door looked at her, then down at the three thugs on the ground. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a long, wicked knife. “You will come with me,” he said.