Ravensdagger_Headpats

Chapter Sixteen

A week ago, Taylor wouldn’t have given single parents any more respect than she afforded to anyone else. Sure they had to deal with kids on their own, but that wasn’t a big deal. She even planned on maybe being a mom one day.She was reconsidering her position on the matter.In fact, Taylor decided that if she died a virgin matron, stuck knitting on her own in the dark corner of an old folks’ home with no children to visit her, then that would be a perfectly acceptable way to go.“Cheshire, I swear to all the gods, all of them, that if you don’t put that chocolate bar back right now I will... find some creative way to make your life miserable.”Cheshire oh so slowly put the bar back on the rack and pulled her hand back. Next to her, Crochet was wearing an absolutely flat look, accentuated by the pile of cloth she held in one hand and the plush rabbit hanging around her neck.At least Pop was quiet.She blinked and started looking around, getting onto the tips of her toes to try and spot her Asian little sister. The Dollar and Less store was pretty empty. Probably normal for a Sunday afternoon, so she should have been able to find her.“Are you looking for something, Onee-sama?” came a smooth voice from right behind her.Taylor spun around and placed a hand over her beating heart. “Holy— Pop, you scared me. How did you get behind me without me noticing?”“I am a ninja.”“Right,” Taylor said. “Right, ninja stuff.” Shaking her head, she made sure the other two were not committing any major felonies, then moved towards the checkout. The pitying look she got from the boy behind the till had her holding back tears.“Babysitting?” the guy behind the cash register asked.“Yeah,” Taylor said. Her hand shot out and caught Cheshire’s wrist inches away from a display of bubblegum. “Do you know if hanging a kid by their ankles is a crime or not?” she asked.The guy smiled, and despite his acne and the fact that he was maybe two or three years older than her and working in a store that made their employees wear green vests, it made him look cute. “I don’t think that’ll fly. But I know a few tricks I use on my cousins when they come over to visit,” he said.“Oh, do tell,” she said while leaning onto the counter. Her feet were killing her.“Distractions. The bigger and louder, the better. Video games work, but my cousins are all little dudes. Maybe a movie? Or just keep threatening to hang them upside-down.” He smiled some more. “Though I prefer to just give them vague threats, usually with something dangerous looking around.”“That’s some sound parenting advice,” Taylor said. She felt her own smile growing to match his.“Big Sis, are you flirting with that weirdo?” Crochet asked with the same tone she would use if Taylor had picked up dog droppings with her bare hands.Taylor felt the blood rushing to her face and she noticed the guy she had been talking to pull back and look at the display of his cash register, suddenly the picture of professionalism. “N-no, I wasn’t flirting,” Taylor denied.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.“Uh huh,” Crochet said.“But it sounds like you're flirting with getting a time-out,” Taylor muttered under her breath.“That’ll be thirty-two sixty,” the guy said. He still wasn’t meeting Taylor’s eyes. She slid the money across the counter, the back of her mind counting what was left of her cash. It wasn’t much.She grabbed the two nearest small hands and tugged them along after her as she left, bags wrapped around her wrists. “Okay, now where?” she asked as soon as they were outside. The sun was hidden behind a thin layer of greyish clouds and the air was a little bit chilly, as if still fighting with the last vestige of winter.The streets were mostly clear, only a few groups walking here and there. No one that Taylor gave more than a moment’s attention to.“Ice cream?” Cheshire asked.“Can’t afford that,” Taylor was quick to point out. “And dad bought a box yesterday.”Pop shook her head. “There is no more ice cream, Onee-sama. It has disappeared.”“Disappeared how?” she asked.Pop looked away from her, finding the asphalt very interesting all of a sudden. “Bandits?” she tried.“Yeah, I’ll bet,” Taylor muttered. “Alright, come on,” she told her flock of little sisters before starting down the road. They were only a block away from the Boardwalk, in a part of the city that generally safe. It was the kind of place that the Wards patrolled and where a police car could be seen every few minutes. “Did you get everything you needed, Crochet?”“Yes, Big Sis,” the girl said. She beamed up at Taylor. “I might have to use some old clothes to make you a proper costume though.”“And for your sisters?” she asked. “If you guys insist on going out, you all need to protect your identities.”“Do we get cape names? I want a cape name,” Cheshire said. “Can I be the Ravisher?”“Do you even know what that means?” Taylor asked.“It means I’m fu— uh, frickin’ awesome?” Cheshire asked.Taylor shook her head. “We’ll find something for you.”“I am a little girl,” Pop asserted with an odd level of conviction for that sort of statement. “I will be Lollipop.”“We’ll find something for you too,” Taylor said.Taylor let them keep talking, as long as they were arguing over names, they weren’t causing trouble. She could veto the more horrific ideas later. Arriving at the next intersection, Taylor did a quick headcount. One, two, three, four little sisters.She continued, aiming away from the Boardwalk and towards the nearest bus station. She was halfway there when something felt wrong and she looked around. There was less traffic on the street they were on, only a van idling nearby and a few sedans trying to parallel park in the spots between other cars. That wasn’t it. She counted her sisters again. One, two, three, four little sisters.She paused at the last one, taking in the short brown haired girl standing next to Crochet. “Who are you?” she asked.“Ah, hi,” the girl said with a rather timid smile. “I’m Dinah.”

Chapter Seventeen

Taylor bent forwards, hands on knees, so that she could look Dinah in the eye. “I’m sorry, did you lose your parents?” she asked. In all likelihood Dinah had attached herself to her group of sisters because they were close to her age and probably safe. It was better than having a preteen wandering around on her own.Dinah shook her head. “I know where my parents are,” she replied. “No, being with them isn’t safe.”Taylor felt herself tensing for a moment. Her mind immediately went to some dark places before she plastered a smile on. Unfortunately, Cheshire spoke first. “Ya need me ta kick y’er parents in the cooch?”Sighing, Taylor placed a hand on Cheshire’s head and began smoothing the girl’s hair back. For some reason that Taylor couldn’t fathom, patting the girl’s head was a great way to shut her up. “That’s enough, Cheshire.”Dinah smiled rather shyly but shook her head. “No, my parents are great. They’re the best. It’s the bad men I need to hide from. The numbers say that being near you means I’ll be safe.”“The numbers?” Crochet asked. She tilted her head to one side to better examine the new girl in the group. “What numbers?”Dinah gestured to the side of her head. “The numbers I hear. Not hear-hear, but sorta see in my head when people ask questions. They work when I ask questions too. But if I ask too many they get loud and complicated and start to hurt a lot. So I can only ask to see so many numbers.” Dinah took a long breath. “Anyway, they said that you would keep me safe from the bad men.”Taylor, with a sinking heart, realised that the girl was quite possibly insane, and that she was likely the most qualified individual in the immediate vicinity when it came to dealing with insane little girls.“Right,” Taylor said. “Well, how about we go see your parents and see where we can go from there?”Dinah looked away, her eyes going a bit glassy for a moment before she nodded with the kind of serious face that only a preteen could wear. “Okay.”“Good, now where’s your mommy?” Reaching out, Taylor was about to pat the girl on the head when two hands and a bright pink ribbon simultaneously wrapped themselves around her arm, all tugging her hand away from Dinah’s head. “What?”Cheshire had a hand around Taylor’s wrist, Pop was holding her upper arm, and the ribbon was tugging her elbow away. “No,” Cheshire said gravely. “Headpats are for little sisters.” Her other two sisters nodded in silent agreement.Dinah giggled and Taylor decided to give up. It wasn’t worth it. “My mom’s over there by that boutique,” Dinah said as she pointed off to her right.“Okay, come on.” Taylor herded her flock of little sisters with a few pats and some waving. Dinah fell in with the others. Taylor wondered if her power included some sort of Master ability over little sisters, but one look at Cheshire with her finger jammed up her nose killed that line of thought.This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.They were nearly at the Boardwalk when Taylor heard a car slowing to a stop next to them. She turned in time to see a panel van rumbling up alongside her group of girls. The door at its side was torn open and three men jumped out.A scream caught in her throat as the first man with a balaclava shoved her back, sending her stumbling onto her rear on the sidewalk. There was screaming, from her sisters but also from Dinah and then the voice of one man joined in it.When she looked up again she found that two Pops were standing on both sides of one man, both of them sheathing their knives with a flick and click while the man looked down at the stumps where his arms had been. “You will not touch Onee-sama with your filthy gaijin hands.”The disarmed man was tugged back into the van by one of his companions while the other pulled out a gun and aimed it at the girls. They all froze for a few long seconds while a fourth jumped out and reached for Dinah.Cheshire growled and pulled a kitchen knife from somewhere.The man fired and Taylor flinched back; the noise was so loud it felt like she’d been slapped in the ears.Cheshire rematerialized before him and stabbed the knife into the gun. “Bitch!” she screamed before punching him in the crotch. It didn’t seem to do much, but the man’s retaliatory backhand didn’t do anything either as it passed through Cheshire.Dinah screamed and kicked as she was grabbed, but cut off when a few ribbons wrapped themselves around the thug’s throat and started digging into his skin. He pulled back, hands scrambling for purchase against pink unicorn covered cloth.“Pull back!” someone yelled from the passenger seat of the car. The men were quick to move back into the van; the door slammed shut and with a squeal of rubber on asphalt, the van rushed away and through a red light at the end of the road.Taylor was panting even though her part of the action was little more than a stumble and fall. “Is everyone okay?” she asked.“I’m fine,” Dinah said, surprisingly calm all things considered.“Yeah,” Cheshire added. She was looking at the knife still jammed through a handgun in her hand. The two were fused together and even her prying wasn’t helping them apart.One of the Pops faded to ash while the other pulled her knife out and began to clean it with a piece of cloth.“B-Big Sis?”Taylor felt the world freeze.Crochet had been at the back of the group, a little way away from all the rest. In the path of the gunshot.Teary eyes rose up to look at Taylor while bloody hands were pressed against her tummy.“Oh no,” Dinah said.

Chapter Eighteen

Victoria’s first thought upon seeing the girl was ‘oh boy, here we go again.’ To be fair, it wasn’t exactly uncommon for her to run into fans that were perhaps a little overenthusiastic.Then she noticed that the girl who was wearing jeans and a frumpy hoodie was also covered in specks of blood, had mud down the back of her pants and her eyes were just this side of crazy. Unless this was a seriously out-there fashion statement, something was clearly wrong.She stepped up between her sister and the new crazy, an easy smile stretching across her features even as she tried to look disarming. They were in a busy clothing store, not the best place for a possibly violent confrontation. At least the Boardwalk had guards around. No doubt they’d be around in a minute or two.The girl was panting, chest heaving until she locked onto Amy. “Panacea,” she said.“Hey,” Victoria said as she stepped to the side to better cut the girl’s line of sight to her sister. “What am I, a side of beef?” she asked.“What?” the girl said. She looked at Victoria as if seeing her for the first time, then dismissed her just as easily. Insulting much. “I’m sorry, I need Panacea.”“I’m sure you do,” Victoria said. “But my sister’s not working right now. If you need help, you should go to Brockton General. It’s only a few blocks away.”“I, no,” the girl said. She shook her head. “My sister, she was shot. She’s just, just two streets down, please.”Victoria paused. There was real panic there. She’d seen her share of people freaking out and this looked as genuine as anything else. “Vicky,” Amy said from behind her.“Yeah, I know,” Victoria said. She wasn’t the one in charge here, but Amy usually deferred to her. If this wasn’t some sort of false alarm... “What happened?”“We don’t have time for-” the girl winced, paused for a second, then started. “We were walking. We found this girl, she was lost. A van stopped, tried to grab the girl. A guy shot at us. It hit my sister. She’s hurt. Please, Crochet needs help. We can’t go to the hospital.”“Crochet?” Victoria asked. Was that supposed to be a name?“That’s my sister’s name.”“Ah,” Victoria said. So the girl was insane. That made things so much easier to deal with. “How about we go outside, and you can sit down on one of those nice, comfy seats and we can chat for a bit,” Victoria said.The girl looked confused for a moment, then clarity shot across her features. “You don’t believe me.”“Hey now, I didn’t say that,” Victoria dismissed. She felt Amy moving to her side, and to be fair, this girl probably didn’t pose a serious threat to Amy with Victoria present. She seemed like she might be on something. Usually junkies weren’t allowed on the Boardwalk, but this one might have gotten past.“No, I need Panacea, please,” the girl said. She reached out towards Amy, but Victoria was faster. She had her by the wrist before she could so much as touch her sister. “Huh?” the girl said, her attention fixed on where Victoria was holding her. “You’re not a parahuman?”Victoria raised one well manicured eyebrow and shared a look with her sister. “Maybe,” Amy began, “I should check to see if she’s okay.” She reached out and gingerly touched the girl’s hand, then blinked dumbly.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.“Thank you!” the girl said as she pulled back. Victoria let her go, surprised by the change in direction and the sudden hope blooming across the girl’s face. She moved right out of the store at a sprint, almost tripping over her own feet.“She was a cape,” Amy said in her type 2 unimpressed voice, the one for things that were surprising and yet disappointingly failed to make her give a damn.Victoria felt a shiver run down her back. A few things clicked. “Ah, shit,” she said. “Amy stay here. Watch my bags.” She had time to see Amy’s eyes roll before she was out of the shop and taking to the air.She didn’t have to climb far to see her target. The girl was obviously a little out of shape if she had only gotten that far in nearly a minute. Swooping down, Victoria executed a perfect backflip and landed on the point of her toes. Thank you, Mouse Protector’s Mouse Protecting Show. There were only so many cool landings out there. The cartoon was inspiration itself. “Hey there,” she said. Her smile was maybe a little predatory now. “Remember me?”The girl shook her head. “I don’t have time-” she said before trying to step around Victoria.“Make time,” Victoria said.The girl looked around, noticing all the people paying attention, then the hands-on-hips pose Victoria was holding an inch above the ground. She ran.Victoria blinked at the spot the girl had been in. She had expected her to crumble, to give up, to bow before Vicky’s Vickiness. Instead she had darted into an alley between two buildings and was panting even as the tap-tap of her sneakers echoed out behind her.Shaking her head, Victoria flew after her, over her, and then before her, blocking her path again. This time, there wouldn’t be any escaping. “Okay, enough,” Victoria said. “You’ve got some explaining to do.”The girl looked around, and for a moment, Victoria thought she might try running back out to the street. For all the good that would do her. Instead, her hands balled into fists. “Please. I need to get to my sister. I can explain things once I get there.”“I think you can explain things right now,” Victoria said.The girl looked ready to deck Victoria in the nose, but instead she took a deep breath and calmed down. “I’m a power copier,” she said. “I touched your sister, I can make a clone to heal mine.”“Pull the other one.”The girl grit her teeth, frowned, then with a pop and a flash of yellowish light, they were no longer alone in the alleyway.It had been a while since Victoria had last seen a picture of her sister at age eleven or so, but she would recognize that scowling face anywhere. “Big Sis?” the girl said.“What.” Victoria stepped closer to the girl, taking in the long white robes at a glance, but focusing on the freckle-covered face, the tiny nose and puffy cheeks that she had grown up with.“Do you believe me now?” the girl asked as she pulled the small Amy closer. “We need to go, now!”They were halfway down the alley when Victoria came back to herself with a start. “Hey, wait!”