The socially awkward villain's furry superpower

Waiting is really boring.

Fortunately, only a third of her was waiting, so only a third of her was bored, which wasn't too bad. Another third of her was watching TV (the documentary about the landfill had finished airing, and Athena had switched to the news channel; although it wasn't particularly interesting, the picture was bright and there was sound, so it was acceptable), and the last third of her was in the kitchen.

She's helping with the cooking!

"Could you get some butter from the refrigerator?" asked Sienna, the eldest sister.

“Okay!” Trinity replied, then trotted over and flung open the refrigerator door. The things stuck to the door rattled, a sound she loved. Trinity found the butter and ran back. “What are we eating?” she asked.

“Macaroni and cheese,” the other person replied.

They'd already had pasta and cheese twice this week, and this would be the third. Trinity cheered, raising her arms above her head. "Yay! Great! Can we have some hot dog chunks in it?"

Sienna, the older sister, smiled and ruffled Trinity's hair. "Sure, take a bag from the freezer. But I don't think we have many sausages left."

While Trinity was helping her older sister Sienna in the kitchen, her alter ego, waiting in the trash can next to the fast food restaurant, was sorting through the contents of the surrounding garbage bags. She tried not to make too much noise, because if someone saw her rummaging through their trash, even if they actually intended to throw it away, they would still be very angry.

Trinity really couldn't understand why this was happening.

However, her patience finally paid off. She heard a low rumble from the metal of the trash can, and a truck pulled up beside it. Trinity shifted inside the trash can, then slowly and carefully pushed the heavy lid up.

Upon seeing the scene outside, all three of her mouths gasped simultaneously.

"Are you alright?" Sienna asked from the kitchen.

“It’s alright!” Trinity replied.

That garbage truck was absolutely beautiful. It was white with rust-brown stripes on the sides, and even though she was sitting inside a bin full of rotting junk food, she could still smell the garbage truck. It was a strong odor, a mixture of diesel fuel and years of accumulated garbage.

A massive metal fork slowly descended with a hum from the hydraulic system, and Trinity recoiled slightly and cried out softly as it gripped the trash can. She grinned broadly. Athena, in the living room, glanced at her but asked no questions.

Trinity stifled an excited scream. The trash can wobbled and then slowly rose, and she felt her world begin to tilt backward.

The trash can lid popped open, and just as Trinity spread her arms like a bird about to take flight (but she was actually a raccoon), she fell headfirst into the compacted pile of garbage inside the garbage truck.

The trash can was moved, and Trinity found herself half-buried in the garbage.

“That’s great,” she said to herself.

Immediately afterwards, the surrounding walls began to close in on her.

Something... isn't right? She stared at the inside of the garbage truck, as it drew closer and closer. A machine hummed, and as the walls pressed in, Trinity began to feel uneasy.

It feels like being hugged too tightly by a teddy bear, only worse.

Trash fell around her, and she heard the sound of bottles breaking. The trash kept shifting, blocking out the light, plunging her into darkness. As the pressure continued to increase, she groaned, and then…

A completely new Trinity appeared in the living room.

“Oh dear,” she said.

"Are you dead?" Teddy asked.

Trinity sighed. “Yes.” Her new body shuffled to the kitchen, where her other clone was still helping Sienna cook. The laptop was still on the table, so she turned it around, opened a new browser tab, and typed “garbage truck crusher” into the search bar.

She learned that garbage trucks are sometimes equipped with large compressors to cram in more garbage (which can also accidentally crush poor raccoons), and that garbage trucks are cooler than she imagined.

"What are you looking at?" Sienna asked.

“When I grow up, I want to be a garbage truck,” Trinity said resolutely.

“I… I don’t know if I can really become a garbage truck, but maybe you can work for the city? It’s a decent job, and I think the pay is pretty good. Besides… you have three bodies, so maybe you can work three shifts in a row.”

Driving three garbage trucks at the same time? Or she could have one body as the driver, another to move the garbage cans, and the third body stay inside the large garbage container... as long as it's not one with a compressor.

“That’s so cool!” Trinity exclaimed. “I want to be a garbage collector! Unless… can I also be a villain at the same time?”

"I... think it's okay?"

Having received a satisfactory answer, Trinity cheered and ran out of the kitchen, leaving one of her clones to continue helping. This new clone ran past her other sisters, who barely noticed her, which was fine, as she then ran straight out of the bunker.

This time, as soon as she got out of the street, she knew where to go. Garbage trucks stop frequently, so the one that ran her over earlier couldn't have gone far!

Before long, she found the garbage truck that looked like a beluga whale. It was slowly driving along a small street, stopping at every alleyway with a garbage can.

Trinity ran to a trash can that was still full of garbage and began to wait. This time, instead of crawling into the trash can, she hid in the shadows behind it.

She didn't have to wait long, but just as the garbage truck was about to arrive, her older sister Sienna asked her to set the table.

The garbage truck roared over, then its large claws reached for the garbage can.

She jumped up. Not onto the trash can, but onto the claw. The claw rose, and Trinity held on tightly to keep from falling. When it reached its highest point, Trinity leaped onto the roof of the garbage truck, clearing the large hole through which the trash was dumped.

"Where is your other clone?" Sienna, the eldest sister, asked as everyone sat around the dining table.

Trinity pushed three chairs together and sat down. "I'm busy with that part," Trinity said. She was more focused on the gooey, cheesy food in front of her. She even got extra sausage pieces for helping out!

She lay flat on the roof of the garbage truck with her limbs outstretched to protect herself from the strong wind, but because the garbage truck kept stopping and starting, the wind was actually not strong.

Aside from the interesting smells, she soon got a little bored, but that was okay, there was food at home to distract her. After eating, it was time to wash up, and she even helped her older sister Sienna wash the dishes.

“You were really helpful today,” Sienna said, handing Trinity a dried plate to put away.

“Mmm!” Trinity said. “I learned so many great things today, so it was a wonderful day, wasn’t it?”

“I suppose so,” Sienna said. “Would you like to play a board game or something later? I mean, with your sisters. I’ve almost finished my work, and I should take a break.”

“Okay!” Trinity said. She wasn’t very good at board games, but she liked the illustrations in many of them.

Clinging to the roof of the garbage truck, Trinity felt the truck turn a corner and then speed up. Soon, the garbage truck was on the highway, and Trinity clung tightly to the roof, its tail billowing in the wind behind it.

The journey felt long, but eventually the garbage truck left the main road outside Auclair, where the road surface was much bumpier and less smooth than the city streets.

She carefully propped herself up so she could look around.

They passed a huge old warehouse, with several other trucks parked in front, then went through a gate and entered…

A landfill!

It's spectacular here, a vast open space piled high with mountains of garbage.

At home, the dishes had been washed for a while. Trinity, Athena, Teddy, and Maple were in the dining room, where Sienna was setting up a Monopoly game board. "Hey, where's your third clone?" the eldest sister, Sienna, asked.

“He’s in heaven,” Trinity said.

Sienna shook her head. "Never mind, forget I asked."

The garbage truck tipped over to one of the smaller piles of garbage, and then the entire container at the rear of the truck began to rise.

Trinity, suppressing her cheers, slid off the roof of the car and landed on a pile of soft trash.

She succeeded!