The socially awkward villain's furry superpower

“Alright,” Aleya Iqta said. He walked to the front of the line, his steps light and bouncy.

Sienna noticed that he seemed to be in a good mood. "This is it," he said, waving exaggeratedly at a wall covered in graffiti.

“That’s a word that makes our eldest sister angry whenever we mention it,” Athena pointed out.

Actually, it was indeed an insult, but the graffiti made it difficult to decipher. "Why are you showing this to us?" Sienna asked.

"Oh, not this graffiti, but this." He reached out and pressed his hand on the wall. There was a small panel there, a metal box with a few wires inside, probably some kind of maintenance panel or something.

Sienna wasn't exactly an expert on urban infrastructure. Aleja Ikta opened the box and twisted a handle inside. "See, it's locked."

"And then?" Sienna asked.

“You’re wasting the boss’s time,” Teddy said.

He rolled his eyes, then pulled a key out of his pocket. "Put this in, and...see, it's open."

She turned the handle completely, and then part of the wall slid inward, revealing a door. Sienna hadn't even noticed the outline of a door until it was pushed open.

"bring it on!"

Sienna hesitated for a moment, then gestured for Trinity to go first.

Her other sisters didn't want to be left behind, so they all squeezed in after her, and then Sienna and Sam followed.

Aleja Iqta stood against the wall to let everyone in, then he took the key out of the box and closed the door.

The neon lights above the corridor illuminated the area. "To be honest, there's not much to see here."

"Where is this place?" Sienna asked. The corridor was quite clean, just a little dusty, but there was no clutter or trash around. There was a fork in the corridor at the end.

“A base!” Aleja Iqta said. “Well, I was on the train and I thought, ‘Why is this train stopped here?’”

It would be more reasonable to park it in front of that small station. If not there, it would be better to park it deeper in the tunnel, so that it would be even harder for others to find.

But it stopped somewhere that was neither too close nor too far from the station, which is quite strange, isn't it?

So I started looking around, and then, bang! I found this hidden door, and this thing.

He squeezed through the crowd, walked to the front, and then jogged to an ordinary metal door.

After opening the door, a staircase appeared, made of cement steps, extending downwards, with a light at each landing.

“Just like this,” he said, “it goes all the way up from the ground, and there’s a road going up too.”

The other one is near the mobile base; once opened, it leads to a small alley next to a ramp.

I found a subway tunnel map and a city map, and then compared all the places with many large municipal facilities that intersect with the tunnels.

But this is the only other place I found.

“This is incredible,” Sam said. “An entire network of secret portals.”

“Well, we’ve only found two so far,” Aleya Iqta said.

Sienna nodded. "She's right. This is incredible. It might make getting to the base much easier. This place is quite close to the campus."

“And it’s not lively here,” Sam said. “Almost no one passes by. Yes, it’s a nice place.”

Aleya Ikta grinned, looking like a child about to pull off a clever prank. Sienna knew that expression all too well.

“There’s something even better,”

They followed him down the other end of the corridor and came to a dead end.

There was another panel there. When you opened it, you found a handle that looked just like the one on the door leading to that small base.

On the other side of the door is an open space with pillars extending to the ceiling, and rooms are distributed on both sides.

“I think this should have been a dormitory,” Aleya Iqta said.

A slight rumbling sound came from below, and the light hanging from the ceiling swayed slightly. "We're right below the highway now."

Everything here is made of cement—the walls, the doors, even the two long tables and benches in the center of the room.

In the center of the room was a wraparound sofa, facing a pillar that looked like it could have been used to mount a television, with the television's power cord dangling out from the wall.

“Where do all these doors on the side lead?” Sienna asked.

“They’re all bedrooms,” Aleja Iqta said, “two of them leading to the bathroom.”

He led everyone around to see the place. In each bedroom, there were two beds placed in holes carved into the cement walls.

There was a small desk crammed next to the door, and a cheap chair tucked under the desk.

“There are five rooms on one side, with two beds in each room, which is enough for twenty people to sleep,” Sam said.

“This could have been built by Cement Man,” Sienna said. “His superpower is manipulating concrete.”

I don't know how much effort it took him to build this, but if he had superpowers..."

“So he built a bunch of these bases all over the city,” Sam said. “Did the documents you got from him mention this?”

Sienna shook her head. "No, it wasn't mentioned at all."

“Hey! There’s a kitchen in the back!” Trinity called out from the other end of the room, the opposite side from where they came in.

Sienna frowned; she hadn't even noticed where Trinity had gone.

Her other sisters were also looking around, but none of them went too far.

The kitchen was long and narrow, with a few refrigerators and some stoves, but it was all empty.

The cupboard was empty except for some paper plates and a box of expired granola bars. Sienna quickly snatched the box of granola bars from Trinity's hands.

"Why did he build such a place?" she asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Sam asked. “If you’re going to take over this city, you’ll need manpower. And once you have manpower, they’ll need a place to sleep.”

“If he intends to operate covertly, then building a bunch of hard-to-detect bases makes sense,” Aleja Iqta said. “This base is right next to the school.”

I bet if anyone tried to rebel against the villains taking over the city, there would be a bunch of students leading the protest.

“Unless he’s a popular villain,” Sam said.

She gave Sienna a meaningful look, but Sienna chose to pretend she didn't understand what that look meant. "So, boss, should we use this place?"

"What will it be used for?" Sienna asked.

"Weren't you looking for a place to live outside the dorms? This place is close to the school, has access to the underground, and has enough space for these kids to live in."

“Hey! We’re not kids!” Teddy said. “I looked up what that word means, and I don’t think it’s appropriate for you to call us that.”

Sam snorted, then ruffled Teddy's hair. "Sorry, little bear."

Teddy pouted at Sam.

“I think,” Sienna said, “the idea isn’t so bad. But this place is definitely not… cozy.”

"There's a bathroom and a bedroom here, a roof for shelter, and electricity. It's a bit damp, but a few electric heaters will remove most of the moisture."

Sam nodded as he looked around the room, saying, "It's almost flea market season. We can pick up some stuff while we're out doing more extortion."

“We won’t do those things again,” Sienna said.

“Hey, boss. Think about your reputation!” Sam said.

“Yeah, boss,” Teddy said, “we just need to go out and teach everyone how to share… you know, share the money in their pockets with ours.”

We learned numbers with Steffie at school, and I bet we can count money now.

“I’m the best at counting money,” Trinity said. Indeed, although Athena was the most talented in academics, Trinity easily mastered the multiplication and division tables.

Sienna shook her head. "We won't rob other people's money."

“Okay.” Sam agreed too easily.

Sienna turned to look at Sam, but swallowed her words and didn't ask.

Sam is definitely plotting something, but maybe it won't be too bad?

At least she hoped it wouldn't be too bad.

“I think this place is alright for living in,” Sienna said. Her sisters cheered and started running around.

Fortunately, it's spacious enough that they can't make too much of a mess. "We can bring some blankets and pillows, and maybe put some things in the refrigerator."

“We were planning to move the train depot closer together anyway,” Sam said.

“Indeed,” Sienna said, “but we still don’t know how to move that base.”

And this could be quite expensive. I don't even know what it takes to run a train, but I'm sure the fuel it uses is different from what your car uses.

“Hmm, that makes sense,” Sam said. “We’ll figure something out, don’t worry, boss.”

The only downside is that Cement Man's network is still intact, so you can't build your own supervillain base underground in the city.

Taking over another villain's base isn't so cool.

Sienna narrowed her eyes. "Yes, I'm sure being cool is a very important factor."

Sam and Aleya Iqta tensed up immediately, and Sienna realized that she had said those words.

“Anyway,” she continued, her face slightly flushed, “Aleia, thank you for showing us this place, it’s quite nice.”

“I’m just lucky,” he said. “Besides being handsome, luck is my biggest advantage, you know that.”