The socially awkward villain's furry superpower

Sienna was all too familiar with anxiety.

She felt like she had been under pressure all her life. Perhaps there were times when she was much younger and didn't have any anxieties, but those times were a long time ago.

She mentally rehearses each meeting a thousand times. Each date fills her with anxiety until her stomach aches. Anything involving conversation or meeting people… well, she needs no introduction. These things are stressful in themselves, layered upon other pressures.

For some reason, the anxiety she felt at that moment was completely...empty.

This is something new.

Of course, she had homework to do and knew there would be tasks and assignments that required group work. She also had a teaching assistant she didn't get along with, and her schedule was packed with appointments, which worried her.

But now, these all seem like distant and insignificant pressures, whereas before, everything seemed like a colossal obstacle to face and overcome.

Sienna secretly suspected it was all a matter of tolerance. Since becoming a villain, she had experienced so much anxiety that things that used to give her stomach ulcers were now minor incidents. She was like a thrill-seeker who, after trying skydiving without a parachute, found that ordinary roller coasters could no longer excite her.

Of course, she hasn't parachuted and never will. She loves life, thank you. And, of course, this would set a bad example for her sisters.

The day after Ruttles' arrest, Sienna stayed home. She messaged the school saying she was sick and would miss the day's classes.

She stayed up until almost dawn, which completely disrupted her sleep schedule. Not to mention, after that ordeal, getting her sisters to bed was a nightmare.

She was exhausted, even after sleeping until almost noon.

At this moment, she was wearing walrus-patterned pajamas, lying on the sofa with her feet propped up on the coffee table—a position she had countless times warned her sisters against. Trinity was curled up to her left, Teddy to her right, and Mabel was humming a tune while fiddling with something on the table. Athena… Sienna looked around and found Athena at the other end of the sofa, her head resting on Trinity's lap, watching television.

It felt so good. They were covered with blankets; the room was almost unbearably warm, but not quite. The warmth emanating from everyone made the room cozy, yet not uncomfortably hot.

The television was tuned to the news channel. It was a local channel, mainly reporting on provincial news, as well as news from Eau Claire and its surrounding suburbs, and major international news that couldn't be ignored. At that moment, the main story was a scandal: Apocalypse had exposed the true identity of a villain in the south—the owner of a sizable local company.

This won't really affect Sienna and her friends, but it's quite interesting to see what some of the villains are up to.

Although she...reluctantly began to accept the fact that she might be considered a kind of villain, she felt she was far from being at the top. What she did wasn't even international news.

But it's enough to make it onto the local news.

“Oh, it’s us again,” Athena said, sitting up.

The news footage switched to video from the night of Rattles' arrest. It was all filmed by bystanders with their phones, and the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles made the video quality even worse. In the footage, Rattles was being carried into a van, with paramedics examining her. Then, the footage looped showing Sienna, the Amazon warriors, and her sisters standing nearby, clearly not obstructing anyone.

The news anchor, a rather handsome middle-aged man, smiled at the camera and said, "This morning, there is good news for the citizens of O'Clair: the villain Ruttles has finally been caught. This villain launched a series of attacks throughout the city, causing millions of dollars in property damage and stealing thousands of dollars from local banks and businesses."

The scene then switches to some higher-quality video footage, showing Lutters robbing a bank and overturning an armored truck.

"This villain had confronted HRF-related heroes multiple times before finally being captured last night. This operation was a collaboration between the O'Claire Rascals and local heroine Amazon Warriors."

"Shh! Shh!" Teddy shouted at the screen as the screen was divided into several parts to show their images.

The Amazon warriors occupy one-third of the screen. The other two-thirds are divided into small squares containing photos of Sienna and her sisters, with their hero titles written below.

“I’ve been on camera three times!” Trinity said. “Wait… there are two photos of me that are the same one!” She pointed to two of the photos, both of which were clearly of Trinity.

"Can you tell which one is yourself?" Athena asked.

“Well, they’re all me, but obviously each one looks a little different,” Trinity said.

Sienna looked at her, then at the other "her." She couldn't tell the difference. And she wasn't sure how long Trinity's clone would last... (Update).

"This joint operation successfully apprehended the villain in the early hours of the morning," the news anchor continued, unaware that they were chatting. "HRF issued a statement thanking local heroes, relevant personnel, and independent individuals for their efforts in maintaining the safety of the streets of Eau Claire and resisting villainous forces."

The camera panned to the side, where the female host said with a bright smile, "I think this makes us one of the safest cities on the East Coast."

“I think so too. O’Clair has never been a stronghold of villains, but the weeks following ‘Day of Energy’ have been tough. It feels good to see the last of these scoundrels brought to justice,” the male anchor said.

“Hehe, they don’t know anything,” Teddy said.

Sienna patted Teddy's head, making him even more smug. Sienna wasn't sure if she was encouraging him, but at that moment, she was drawn to the way Teddy's ears twitched every time her hand approached. "I think that means we've pretty much won?"

"We won?" Athena asked. "I mean, I guess so. We defeated that fool, so the city is ours now. All we have to do is drive the heroes out and start expanding."

"Expansion?" Sienna asked.

“Our sinister influence,” Trinity said definitively.

“I can start building something bigger,” Mabel said.

“We can influence even more people. Get them to adopt the right way of thinking. That is, our way. Obviously,” Teddy said. “But we can also prepare so that next time a competitor comes here, it will be much more difficult for them.”

Sienna had intended to dampen her sisters' enthusiasm, but their last question piqued her curiosity. "What do you mean?"

Teddy looked up and grinned at her. His expression was strangely wicked. "Because now we have home-field advantage."

“We will have it,” Athena said. “We don’t have it yet. But no one can stop us from getting it.” She shifted her head, but didn’t move it off Trinity’s lap. “We just need to do what heroes do, like make a name for ourselves. And become stronger.”

“I got some points from that fight,” Trinity said.

“Me too,” Mabel added.

This wasn't surprising, but Sienna was somewhat hoping not to use those points yet. Not because they were useless, but because she was already finding it difficult to control her sisters, and things would only get worse if they became stronger. "I got some too," Sienna said.

Teddy sat up too fast, and Sienna's hand slipped off her head. "Did you get the skill bar?" she asked.

"You got it?" Sienna replied.

"Wait, does this mean we'll have a new little sister?" Trinity's three clones gasped simultaneously.

Sienna sighed. "I'm not sure if I'm ready for another sister," she said. And it was the truth. She was only just beginning to get used to her existing sisters. Another one might be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

But... that's yet another younger sister.

Sienna looked at her sisters now, meeting their curious and happy gazes, and the last lingering anxiety dissipated. Would having another sister really be so bad?

“Hmm, maybe,” she said.

"Yay! We have even more little sisters to command now!" Teddy said.

"Oh, shut up. You can't even manage yourself," Athena said irritably.

Sienna let her sisters' bickering drift past her ears, barely listening to their pointless insults. Finally, she cleared her throat, silencing them. "If we're going to do this, we need to be prepared. Maybe we should prepare first? That way we can properly welcome our new sister."

This sounds like the right thing to do.