Fluff

Chapter Fifty-Four - Questing for a Bear

The Boss hadn’t told Teddy what was up yet, which was kind of annoying, but also okay. It was the Boss's prerogative to tell her little sisters the things she thought they had to know.

Still, Teddy was real curious, even if she was distracted by munching through her second breakfast wrap.

The Boss, Teddy, and Athena were all sitting in a corner booth of the Im Orton’s nearest the campus. It was a quiet enough spot even if there were lots of people sitting at other tables. Most of them were either talking to each other or staring into their phones anyway.

“So, boss, what’re we up to tonight?” Teddy asked.

The Boss, who was a real slow eater, paused in the act of blowing over a spoonful of soup. “Oh, right,” she said. “We’re, ah.”

She looked around, as if to make sure that no one was snooping.

“It’s alright,” Athena said. “If they snoop, I’ll scare them off.” She puffed out her chest and sat up taller.

Teddy wasn’t sure if she liked it when Athena acted all tough. That was Teddy’s job.

“Right. So, we’re going with Handshake to meet Cement.”

“Handshake? That limp guy? And Cement... that’s the other guy’s boss right?” Teddy asked.

“Can someone fill me in please?” Athena asked. “I think it would be best if all of us are on the same page.”

The Boss nodded. “Handshake’s an information broker. We... did some things for him after he did some dumb stuff. Now we’re going to help him out because we want to track down the... clowns.”

“Clowns?” Teddy asked.

What did clowns have to do with anything?

“I’ll explain that bit later,” the Boss said. “It’s enough to say that we’re going to be meeting Cement to learn what he has to say about the clowns, and then Handshake will tell us more. After that... after that I don’t know. We’ll have to see from there.”

“I’m sure Big Sister will figure it out,” Athena said as she patted Emily’s shoulder.

“The Boss is the Boss,” Teddy agreed. She tossed the last of her wrap down her mouth and chewed it up. “So, we heading out now?”

“We have plenty of time to finish eating,” The Boss said.

Teddy looked at her side of the table, which had plenty of wrappers, but none with any food in them, then she looked back up to the Boss and prepared her best bear-cub eyes.

“If you eat any more we’ll be rolling you all the way to the meet-up,” the Boss said.

"You could piggyback me,” Teddy said.

“I don’t think my back could take that,” Emily said. “Although, I imagine all the running around we’ve been doing lately will be great for my waistline.”

Athena finished up her chicken salad, and then the Boss, swayed by Teddy’s powerful bear-cub gaze, gave Teddy the rest of her soup which Teddy slurped away. It made for good tummy padding atop her wraps.

Soon the three of them were off. Teddy was happy, the walk was fun, even though the Boss didn’t let her piggyback again because Teddy had ‘legs that work just fine.’

She skipped ahead because it was her duty as the Boss’ protector to keep the Boss safe. If a car ran off the road or something, Teddy could cushion the Boss by turning into a big fluffy bear or something.

Still, for all that, it didn’t leave Teddy with that much to do, so she decided to take a peek at all of her available quests.

New ones would appear all the time, and old ones would poof away as the opportunities for them passed. Even old ones that were accepted would leave after a while of not being completed.

The system wasn’t random, it was very serious and calculated and had a bunch of numbers and stuff behind them.

Teddy wasn’t good at numbers.

Bearing The Brunt
Be the Best Guardian!
Reward: 1 Skill Upgrade Point Every Time You Save an Ally. +1 Scoundrel Point Per Save.

Meh. That was a lame quest. The points were fine, but becoming a Scoundrel? Did the system think that Teddy was lame?

She Who Bearies Her Enemies
Put an Opponent Down With Extreme Prejudice.
Reward: 1 Skill Upgrade Point Every Time You Knock Out an Opponent. +1 Villain Point Per Knock-Out.

“Boss, what’s a prejudice?” Teddy asked.

The Boss frowned. “It’s when someone does something that’s very... emotional, I guess. Like passing a law that doesn’t just make something illegal, but it also has a really steep punishment.”

“So like, extreme prejudice would be lots of feelings about something?” Teddy asked.

“I guess so? Where did you hear about it?”

Teddy shrugged. “Flavor text.”

So knocking out an enemy while being real feely about it? Teddy could do that.

Quest Accepted!

Good! Another way for Teddy to get even stronger. Soon she’d be getting some crazy skills too. Like...

Teddy tried to think of something appropriately cool and also bear-like. It was real hard though, because bears were already the coolest.

Maybe some super-roar? Or wings. She’d heard about drop-bears, and they had to drop from somewhere, so there had to be some sort of flying bear out there.

Polar Opposite
There is Stealth in Boldness.
Reward: 1 Skill Upgrade Point per 100,000 People who Believe that You are a Hero .

Teddy hummed and tapped her chin. That seemed to line up real well with what the Boss was doing, what with the whole acting bits. It really wasn’t the sort of quest that Teddy wanted to be doing, but points were like lunches, you took them where you could get them.

Quest Accepted!

Teddy figured they had a few minutes left until they got to the place they were heading to, so she looked at one last quest for the road.

In Pawsetion
Acquire a Suitable Weapon and Use It.
Reward: One Time Reward of 1 Skill upgrade Point.

She shrugged. Why not?

Quest Accepted!

“Teddy?” Emily asked. “We’re almost there, do you want to slow down a bit?”

Teddy stopped until the Boss was by her side, then she started walking at Emily’s side, opposite where Athena was. That way, if the Boss felt like handing out more of those wonderful Healpats, she could reach both sisters with ease.

The Boss pulled out her phone and looked at it for a while, her free hand in Athena’s grasp so that at least one of her little sisters would be leading her.

Teddy didn’t pout because Athena got to lead the Boss. She was pouting for other, unrelated reasons.

“This is it, I think,” the Boss said as she gestured to an alley between a pub and a laundromat. It wasn’t that bad as far as alleys went. Teddy had been in a lot of those lately, and she ranked this one, with its discarded newspaper rotting in the corner and empty pizza-box halfway in, as a seven out of ten.

The Boss moved over to the very back of the alley, then to a metal door under the escape ladder climbing up the side of the laundromat. The door opened with a tug, revealing a small tiled room with a light dangling from the ceiling and a single stool in the middle.

One of the walls had a bricked-over doorway, and some of the tiles were of different colours. Teddy thought it looked like a bathroom, but without the bath or toilets or sinks.

“I guess this is where we change?” The Boss asked.

She didn’t sound so sure.

“Athena, ya wanna blast the place?” Teddy asked.

Athena nodded and glared into the room for a while. “There you go,” she said. “If anyone was peeping, they’re busy clawing out their eyes now instead.”

Teddy’s little sister’s powers weren’t as cool as turning into a bear, but they were pretty neat. “I’ll go first,” the Boss said.

Athena and Teddy looked at each other as the door closed. They nodded.

It was nice working with someone who knew that keeping the Boss safe was the most important thing. For all that Teddy found Athena a bit much sometimes, she was an alright sister.

She leaned her back against the wall and crossed her arms, looking real tough as she waited for the Boss to get ready. Soon, they’d all be out and being the best villains they could be.

***