The socially awkward villain's furry superpower

Maple Leaf knew it was her fault, even though Sienna said it wasn't.

That morning, Athena cornered her and said the same thing: "It's not Maple Leaf's fault that the Rattlesnake escaped."

But Maple Leaf doesn't think so.

She was listless and sluggish all day, only managing to muster the energy to listen to Mr. Henderson's lectures, and played with Steffie for a while in the afternoon. The rest of the time, Maple Leaf was lost in her own thoughts.

Generally speaking, this is fine. She didn't tell her sisters, but she felt that her superpower was the best among them.

Everything she sees sparks new ideas, making her want to try new things and conduct new experiments.

Every cartoon gives her countless inspirations, and whenever something goes wrong, her superpowers whisper in her mind, offering thousands of solutions.

But at this moment, the maple leaves, like beavers slapping mud, tried their best to suppress the faint sounds emanating from the superpowers.

It can shut up for a while. It was her superpower that gave her the idea to make a shock-absorbing machine, but the rattlesnake got away.

Maple Leaf witnessed all of this from afar. She didn't mind not being directly involved in the fierce battle.

The fight was a bit scary, and she wasn't as strong as Teddy, nor as nearly immortal as Trinity. Watching and thinking from the sidelines felt much better.

She saw Teddy fight the rattlesnake, then the older sister strode up to the bad guy and made him submit. That scene was so cool!

Until Rattlesnake damaged Maple Leaf's machine and injured the boss. It was all because Maple Leaf hadn't thought things through enough and the things they made weren't good enough.

She should have made the shock absorbers better so that the rattlesnake couldn't use that move.

She should also make the machine more robust so that it won't fall apart and become useless with a single tap.

After finishing her class, Maple Leaf went straight to her room. She pushed the small projects on her bed aside, then collapsed onto the bed, burying her face in the pillow.

This is a nice pillow.

She attached an ice pack to the back of her pillow, installed a small fan, a small container to catch any spilled water, and added some tubing and a battery. Now her pillow is always cool and comfortable.

Maple Leaf picked up the pillow and threw it to the other end of the room. The pillow hit the wall with about the same force as a feather floating in a breeze.

Maple Leaf turned around and stared at the ceiling. She wanted to get angry, but couldn't. Instead, a quiet sadness washed over her.

If she told her older sister Sienna about it, she would get a hug, a pat on the head, and perhaps some comforting words, which would make her feel a little better, because all three things have that effect, but it wouldn't solve the problem. Her older sister was so good to her, yet she messed things up, and this guilt would only make the whole situation worse.

She knew this would happen because she already had this feeling.

Athena is a great person to confide in, but Athena will only say that it's not her fault.

This didn't help much, and Athena wasn't as good at gently patting heads as her older sister. Her hugging skills were alright, but Maple wasn't in the mood for one right now.

Maple Leaf puffed out her cheeks, muttered to herself, and then rolled off the bed.

She has to do something.

She didn't know exactly what to do, but she knew she had to do something.

She stomped her feet softly (not wanting to disturb anyone) as she left the room and looked around. Only her sisters were there now.

Ms. Henderson brought them back, and now they are waiting for their older sister to come back from school, but that will be a few more hours.

Maple Leaf looked around, but whatever she was going to do, she felt she shouldn't do it here.

So she sighed and dragged her feet to the front of the bunker.

However, she didn't go out. She wasn't as adventurous as Athena or Trinity, and she didn't like going too far from home. Besides, it would be against the rules.

Instead, she opened the door to the stairwell, which led to the train tunnel beneath their house.

As far as she knew, that place was still considered part of her "home," so going down there wouldn't be against the rules.

Maple Leaf picked up the flashlight from a small hook. It was a flashlight she had recently made, a flashlight whose brightness had increased ten thousand times because she had attached another bulb to the end.

The first light bulb was 100 lumens, and the second one was also 100 lumens. She calculated it with a calculator, and 100 multiplied by 100 equals 100. It was indeed very bright.

Moreover, it will never run out of power because it connects one end of the battery back to the battery itself, allowing the power to circulate.

Maple Leaf didn't know why they didn't usually do this, but Teddy said it was because there was a secret group of capitalists who made a lot of money selling small batteries.

The stairwell was brighter than when it was facing the sun. She went down the stairs and entered the tunnel.

For a time, she thought train tunnels were a bit eerie, which she now finds rather silly.

My older sister is here all the time, so there's nothing to be afraid of. Besides, she's a beaver.

Beavers practically live in tunnels. However, the fact that the tunnels stretch all the way to the end and then turn pitch black still gives it a slightly creepy feel.

The tunnel is so bright now that she has to shield her eyes slightly.

The light illuminated many spider webs and startled several small animals like mice, who hurriedly ran away to find a place to hide. Apart from that, the tunnel was empty except for their train.

The train was still a brand-new, large lump of iron, covered in rust. Maple Leaf had many plans for it.

One day, she will transform it into a mecha, or a jet fighter, or a jet fighter mecha.

Then, when the eldest sister needs her most, she will (emerge from a super cool exit, like a giant elevator that lifts up the whole mountain and then comes out from inside) piloting her giant jet fighter mech...

Maple Leaf frowned. She remembered that she had already told her superpowers to be silent.

Or was it just her imagination? Sometimes, she had a hard time distinguishing between imagination and reality.

There were four bicycles parked next to the train, leaning against it. They weren't very dusty, so they probably hadn't been in the tunnel for long.

Maple Leaf walked over and looked at the bicycles. She didn't recognize any of them, but she recognized some sounds coming from the main carriage of the train.

They were the lackeys.

Maple Leaf almost turned around and went back to her room, but... she hesitated. These lackeys weren't bad.

They worked for their boss, and so did she. Strictly speaking, she considered herself their superior, but they were all big, grown men with loud voices who loved to chat, and... and she almost convinced herself to go home.

But Maple Leaf still walked to the train carriage door, turned off the flashlight, and plunged himself into darkness.

After a while, her eyes adjusted and she could see the faint glow of the dinosaur sticker on the doorknob.

Maple really loves the dinosaur stickers.

She opened the door, stepped into the carriage, and then hung the flashlight on another hook.

Chatting and occasional laughter filled the carriage, then someone said, "This isn't fair!" This sparked another round of laughter.

"Who told you to play Alien (the game)!"

Maple leaves peeked out, peering into the main carriage, their eyes adjusting to the soft light inside.

The henchmen stood around the table, which was then moved to the middle of the carriage.

On the table were some small houses and miniature ruins made of plastic, as well as many small plastic statues, some painted and some still gray and unpainted.

The big guy, Ethan—she thought that was his name—was grinning as he tossed a handful of dice onto a small tray. "Ouch, that hurts!"

“No!” Liam said, “No, you’ve been rolling sixes the whole time… oh.”

He froze when he saw Maple Leaf. Maple Leaf had tried to hide slightly, but half of her head was still sticking out of the cover.

It might be too late to sneak out now.

"Hey guys, listen up, there's a kid here. Is it Chloe?"

"what?"

“Uh, say something to her,” Liam said.

"Why me?" Chloe asked.

“Because…you’re better at dealing with kids?” Liam tried to say.

"This is sexism."

"What? How is this sexism?"

Maple Leaf slowly stepped into the light. "Uh, hi," she said. The arguing stopped, and then one of them, she thought was Lucas, came over and grinned.

“Hey. Are your sisters here too?” he asked. “We’re just… well, the game store said they won’t let us play there unless we buy something, but that would cost us money too quickly.”

“It’s because you’re stingy,” Ethan muttered under his breath.

"So you came here?" Maple Leaf asked.

“Yeah,” Lucas said. “What are you doing here?”

Maple Leaf shrugged. "I just...want some peace and quiet? Can I watch from here?"