Chapter Sixty - Easy Peasy

It had been... easy?

Emily couldn't quite bring herself to believe that the plan had worked.

Right now, Rattles was pinned, face-down, onto the ground of the alleyway with Teddy's massive paw resting on the back of his head. He wasn't knocked out--because she had no idea how to do that to someone without risking their lives--but Maple had cuffed his ankles and wrists together with something she'd made that was meant to resist his vibration powers.

He was as incapacitated as she could make him.

It was supposed to be a fantastic moment. And it was.

Local Villain Removed!

Regional Quest: The Board Ain't Big Enough For the Two of Us, Completed!

You are now the Dominant Villain of the Eauclaire region

Reward: +1 Skill Slot

This was... actually, kind of big.

"Oh, that's nice," Athena said.

"Did you just get a Skill Upgrade Point?" Glamazon asked. "Because I did, and I don't know if I really earned it."

"Same here," Alea Iacta said. He tapped Rattle's foot with the side of his sneaker. "Seems like taking this guy out was a big deal, huh? Didn't even have a quest for it."

"Yeah," Emily said. She didn't comment on the difference, or the wording. Her... non-quest prompt painted herself as the last big villain of Eauclaire. She imagined that it wasn't the same for the others.

Nor, apparently, was the reward. Skill Upgrades were nice. A step up, even. But a Skill Slot was a whole other thing. If things went according to pattern, then this would be another sister-creation power. Maybe even her last one? At least for a while?

She wasn't sure if she was ready to use that slot yet.

Rattles started to laugh.

It was so unexpected that Emily jumped, and so did a few of the others. He didn't stop laughing either. It wasn't a full belly laugh, not with Teddy basically shoving him into the ground like that, but it still sounded like Rattles had discovered something which he thought was utterly hilarious.

It was honestly creeping her out. "This explains so much," he said between laughs.

"I think he's finally lost it," Athena said. "We should tape his mouth up, I think."

Emily shook her head. The last thing she needed was for the villain she'd captured to suffocate. "Melaton will be coming soon. Once she's here it'll be over. Can you keep an eye on him, I'm going to give her a call."

With everyone's agreement, she moved over to the end of the alleyway. One of Trinity's bodies followed her, then leaned up against Emily's side so that she could scratch her head while she fished her phone out and made a call.

It took two rings for Melaton to answer. "Boss?" Melaton asked. "You ready for us to move?"

"Um. No? I mean, different plan?" She glanced back to find that her sisters had sat Rattles up. He was on his bum, legs splayed out so that it wouldn't be easy for him to rise, and Teddy was sitting behind him. She imagined that with her proximity, he was feeling her bear breath on his neck.

"Different how?" Melaton asked.

"We, ah, captured Rattles," she said.

"You did?" Melaton asked, sounding genuinely surprised.

"Yeah. We're in the alley by, ah," she leaned forwards and squinted at the nearest road sign to read it. "Just down the street from where you are, in an alley. I'll have Bandit stay out here to wave you down. Could you come over and use your power on Rattles? His power might make it easy for him to break out."

"Right, I'm on my way. Handshake's pretty happy that he's not getting the secrets beaten out of him, by the way. Remember to charge him for all of this."

"Uh, I will," Emily said. It was more or less a lie, she couldn't imagine herself confronting someone like that on purpose for money. But it would probably give her a little leverage later on, which was nice.

Melaton assured Emily that she was on her way, then the call went on for an awkwardly long time before Emily said her goodbyes and hung up.

"Hey," she said as she returned. "Melaton will be here in ten minutes."

"We should call the HRF too," Glamazon said.

"After this guy's fully locked up," Alea Iacta said. "I drained all of his luck, so escaping's gonna be tough, but sometimes skill trumps bad luck... a little."

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"So, you have it all figured out, don't you?" Rattles asked. His shoe scuffed on the ground as he changed his stance a little, but a low growl from Teddy stopped him. He smiled anyway, eyes locking onto Emily through his mask. His grin was stained red by blood, and she couldn't help the shiver that ran down her spine.

"I... I don't know what you mean," Emily said.

"I didn't put it together until just now," he said. He shook his head. "Damn. I was blind, wasn't I? Came here like I was hot stuff, thinking it was some backwater nowhere city I could bend to be what I wanted. Didn't expect any real competition."

"Competition?" Glamazon asked. She sounded dismissive, but was still paying full attention to Rattles as he spoke. There was something about the situation that made it hard not to listen to him. They were in some darkened alley, surrounding the villain that had hurt every one of them, with the possible exception of Alea Iacta.

"Yeah. For villainy. I thought there wouldn't be any. Fabien is a petty thief with some flair. That guy's just a loser with a lower power." He nodded to Alea Iacta.

"Ouch," he said.

"Oh, shut up. You know it's true. You're too much of a coward to stand up to any real villainy." Rattled turned his full attention onto Emily. "And then there's the Boss. Damn, with a name like that, I should have figured right from the start. But I'm not the only one you're playing for a fool, am I?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Emily said.

He grinned. "You do. You got the same quest, didn't you. The other side of its coin. Congratulations, you're the last real supervillain in Eauclaire. The city's all yours. You and your gaggle of brats."

"Boss, what is he talking about?" Glamazon asked. She sounded like she knew, or at least, suspected far more than Emily was comfortable with.

"Nothing," Emily dismissed. "Maple, gag him, please."

"Okay," Maple said. She turned to Trinity. "Give me one of your socks, please."

"But my foot's gonna get cold," Trinity said. "Why don't you use your own?"

"Because I don't want half my feet to be cold, and you have six, so it'll only be one sixth cold instead of half cold," Maple said.

Trinity frowned, then shrugged. "Okay."

Rattles laughed again. "Hey, Boss. How about before you gag me, you let me go, huh?"

"Let you go?" Emily asked.

"Yeah. You free me, and I'll leave the city. I'll swear it. I'll pick up my crap and leave to somewhere less... like this place. And, as a bonus, the HRF won't ever learn about you from me."

Emily stared at Rattles. She was conflicted, to the point that she almost considered accepting the offer.

Silence was worth everything. If anyone learned, she'd be ruined.

Then she noticed Glamazon eyeing her suspiciously, and Alea Iacta very obviously not looking her way.

It was Athena that saved the day. She sniffed haughtily, then leaned forwards so that she was on eye-level with the villain. "You think anyone will believe you? Idiot. Big Sister Boss is the biggest hero that's ever heroed."

"Yeah," Teddy grumbled her agreement. "Boss is a big damned hero."

Rattled chuckled. "Oh, that's great. The kids believe the lie too?"

"I've never believed no lies," Trinity said. "And it's not a lie that you're lame and stupid."

"Bandit," Emily said as she pulled Trinity back. "Maple, can you gag him?"

Maple nodded. She's made... something with some tape and Trinity's sock. It didn't look like anything Emily would want in her own mouth, but she was pretty ambivalent about shoving it in Rattle's.

"You can gag me now, but I'll be telling them everything."

"Lie all you want," Emily said. "That's not my problem."

But it was. She could feel the doubt coming from Glamazon. Or maybe she imagined it.

Whatever the case, she had a growing pit of worry in her stomach while Rattles mumbled into the gag her sisters fit around his mouth. If, when, this all got out, it might spell the end for her career, and for a lot more than that.

The only good thing here was that with Rattles captured, Emily didn't have any real reason to act as a mask anymore.

Or so she hoped.

***