Fluff

Chapter Forty-Six - Pushing the Attack

Emily was anxious until the moment Aurora and Trinity returned. "How did it go?" she asked.

Aurora nodded seriously. "It went well. We got three devices into the warehouse. I don't think any of them were noticed?" She said the last while glancing at Maple.

The little beaver-girl blinked, then jumped with an 'oh!' and scrambled to turn on the radio-like device she'd put together. The room filled with feedback, and Maple winced before adjusting some of the knobs down. "Sorry," she said.

"It's fine," Emily replied. She listened and... yes, there was noise coming in from the other end, but it was mostly muffled and hard to make out. There was definitely some sort of device on, something that made a low humming noise and maybe a distant engine?

"I'll keep listening," Maple said.

"I can help," Athena added. Emily just thought that the owlgirl was a little bored, but she wasn't going to refuse her if she wanted to feel useful. "Can we get some headphones or something, Maple?"

"I think so?" Maple tried.

Emily left that to her and instead turned her attention back to Aurora. "Trinity mentioned that you saw someone?"

"Barely," Aurora said. "I don't think they saw us, and we didn't really see them, only their shadow, but there was definitely someone in there."

"Huh," Emily said. "Did you get any details? Man, woman? Was it the woman in black?"

"I don't know, sorry," Aurora said. "They might have been a woman, maybe?"

Emily nodded along. "There wasn't any signage or anything, right? Like... a nice handy 'this is an HRF location' sign?"

"No, nothing like that. Sorry?" Aurora shrugged.

Emily sighed, then she reached a little higher than usual and patted Aurora on the head. "It's okay. I didn't expect it to be that convenient anyway. Alright, so we at least know that there's someone in there. Maple, Athena, have you picked anything up?"

"I think so, Big Sis," Athena said.

Maple had relocated her machine to a corner of the room, far from the windows looking over the street, and they had connected two cheap headphones to it by... well, Emily wasn't sure, but it looked dangerous. Still, when Athena raised her headset towards her, she took it all the same and slid it on.

At first, all she heard was a faintly tinny rumble, but after a while she could make out voices. They were muffled, but it was definitely talking from at least two people, then a third joined in. "Sounds like people, two women, I think, and a man?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought too," Athena said. "But I can't make out what they're saying."

"Sorry," Maple said.

Emily reached over and placed a comforting hand on her head. "Don't apologize. It's fine. Three people... how many were there when we got ambushed?"

"At least three," Athena said.

"Yeah," Teddy said. She'd been a little quiet for the last hour or so, just standing by the window with her arms crossed to glare across the street. "There was that one with the holes, the gadgeteer, and maybe a third one."

"Right, we never did see three, but someone used some sort of fire-based ability. The gadgeteer was a man, and the other was a woman, so if the other woman we're hearing is the fire-user, then that kind of fits, doesn't it? But it could also just be a coincidence."

"How many other people are hiding out in the middle of the city?" Athena asked.

"Right, that's a good point. There can't be that many groups hiding in Saint Arie," Emily said. She chewed on her lip as she looked at the building across the street. "Okay... so, let's say that we decide on invading them. Then what?"

"I like that plan," Trinity said.

"Just 'we'll invade them' isn't a plan," Emily said.

"It's not a good plan," Trinity corrected before smiling a little too smugly.

Teddy snorted. "She's not wrong. I wouldn't mind kicking the door in and giving them a lesson. I think we nearly won that ambush. If they hadn't caught us off-guard then I bet we could have won."

Emily rubbed at the bridge of her nose. The worst part of all this was that she was actually considering it. She was a little frustrated with the situation overall, a bit part of her wanted to act. And she was very much annoyed that they'd lost the orbject after literally having it in hand.

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"Okay," she said, then she raised her hand to calm her sisters down, because they immediately grew far too excited. "No, calm. We're going to do this smartly. With a plan. Last time, they had the upper hand because they ambushed us. This time we're attacking their base. They probably won't expect us, but that doesn't mean it'll be easy."

"They might have traps," Maple muttered.

"If they have their own gadgeteer, then that's likely, yes," Emily said. "And it sounds like there's a generator or something making noise in there, so they might have electricity."

"I can make something to stop that," Maple said.

"Like... stop the generator from working?" Emily asked.

Maple blinked. "I meant electricity."

"Oh... okay, that might be an idea. How long would it take to make something like that? If we take out their lights and then go in ourselves they might be caught flat-footed. We'll have light from flashlights."

"And I can do this," Teddy said. She focused, then summoned a small glowing ball in her hand.

"Right... if we just had a few more points, we could all get that power from the Endgame," Emily said. The light wasn't bright, but it was more than enough to see by in a darkened room. Still, they had a couple of flashlights in their packs, just in case it got dark before they made it back home.

Which begged the question, would they make it back in time?

She moved closer to the window and looked out. It was early in the evening. They had a few hours of sunlight left, but launching a surprise attack would take up some time.

She jumped when there was a clanging from deeper in the house, but it was just Maple moving some things around. Trinity was helping her.

"Okay... so, the plan is pretty simple, I guess. We'll go in from the side door. The same one we saw that woman enter, then we'll send Trinity ahead to scout. Teddy, Aurora, you're going to be our front-line. Maple will take out the power, and when we see anyone, we focus on taking them out hard and fast. We don't want to make too much noise. The last thing we need is to be caught between the HRF and a team of villains because we made too much noise. Any questions?"

A few of her sisters had some. Aurora actually had intelligent questions about how to best handle anyone they captured, and about fallback positions if things went poorly. Athena asked if she had permission to do things to the minds of the people they captured that were also useful, but rather disturbing to contemplate.

Maple returned with a small device she'd made with... just about anything she had grabbed. There was a collection of self-help books and upbeat music and body-positivity stuff all strapped together to an electronic device. She said it would make electrical devices not work as well by turning negative electrons into positive and happy ones.

Emily decided not to question that.

"Sis!" Athena said. She had one hand pressed over a headphone, holding it close to her ear. "Someone's moving closer. I think... yeah, it's a lady. She's saying stuff? Uh, yeah, she's saying bye, I think?"

Emily moved closer to the window then froze as she saw movement on the other side of the street. The side door of the warehouse opened, and out slipped a familiar darned form. The same woman in black that they had followed here.

The woman reached a fire escape deeper into the alley and climbed as if without a glance down. Halfway up, she paused, head tilting, and Emily held her breath. Had they been seen from across the street? After a moment, the woman continued, disappearing up and over the edge of the roof.

Behind her, Athena let out a slow breath. "She's gone," she murmured. "I can't hear her anymore. The others are still inside."

Emily finally exhaled. The tension that had been coiled tight in her chest loosened all at once, replaced by something sharper and more urgent. She turned from the window, already nodding.

"That's our opening," she said. "Alright everyone, get ready. We move before she comes back, if she comes back at all."

She took one last look around at her sisters, at the quiet room and the fading light outside the window.

"Alright," Emily said softly. "Let's not waste this."

***