The socially awkward villain's furry superpower

Sienna crept into the house quietly, or rather, "quietly." The floorboards creaked loudly, sounding jarring to her; she felt as if every step she took was a heavy stomp.

However, the noise wasn't actually that loud; she felt she hadn't made much of a commotion.

Her sisters should really learn how to walk lightly.

Teddy strode heavily to the side of the corridor where the heroine had just passed, each step accompanied by a thud, making Sienna frown. But she couldn't shout at Teddy to tell him to be quiet.

At that moment, the heroine screamed, and the noise Sienna and Teddy made was instantly drowned out by the commotion of the two chasing each other in the narrow corridor. "Don't run! Come back here!" the heroine shouted.

A grinning Trinity burst out of the corridor, running almost on all fours, her striped tail swishing wildly in the air. The heroine followed closely behind, outstretched as if to grab the girl.

Teddy roared, her cries transforming from a child's call into a deep, trembling roar that shook the walls. She lunged forward with one of her enormous claws out, and Sienna was secretly relieved that she hadn't actually used it to attack.

A black barrier suddenly appeared in the air, thin and wide, like a flat glass surface, but completely black, as if light could not enter or pass through that area at all.

The heroine staggered a few steps to the side, losing her balance as she tried to dodge Teddy's attack.

Now she had her back to Sienna.

Sienna quickly looked around, and with just a quick glance, she saw a frying pan hanging above the kitchen island, positioned beyond the sisters' reach but within Sienna's reach.

Immediately following was a piercing, painful scream.

The scream sent a chill down Sienna's spine. She turned around quickly and saw a Trinity lying on the ground with a hole in her leg.

The female hero remained frozen in place.

Sienna grabbed the frying pan and, without thinking, swung it over.

The edge of the frying pan slammed into the heroine's head, the metal hitting the hard plastic with a loud clang. Sienna's arm went numb from the impact, and the pan slipped from her hand.

The frying pan crashed to the ground, and moments later, the heroine collapsed to the ground as well.

The shield that had been hovering in front of her vanished instantly. Teddy swallowed the second roar that was about to come out of his mouth, looked down, then looked up at Sienna, and then at Trinity.

“Trinity! Are you alright?” she asked.

"Ouch!" the three Trinity exclaimed in unison.

The unharmed Trinity ran towards Sienna, who stood there, momentarily at a loss. The girl picked up the frying pan and ran back to her fallen self.

"Wait—" Sienna called out. But it was too late.

Trinity smacked her injured head with the force of someone hammering a nail into the ground.

The injured Trinity vanished instantly.

A new Trinity popped up in the same spot. "Oh, that's much better!"

“Uh,” Sienna responded.

"Wow!" The third Trinity peeked out from behind the sofa. "Well done, big sister!" they all exclaimed in unison.

“We have to tie her up,” Athena said as she walked over, completely unmoved by Trinity’s ability to split into three. She grunted and slammed the door shut. “Hurry up, before she wakes up!”

Sienna snapped out of her daze. Athena was right, of course—this heroine couldn't remain unconscious forever. Unless she was dead… Sienna paused, looked down, and saw that the person on the ground was breathing slowly. That meant she wasn't dead.

“I have duct tape!” one Trinity said, holding up a roll of duct tape with both hands. Another Trinity took the tape, tossed it to Athena, who caught it in mid-air and tore off a long strip.

“Teddy, grab her hand,” Athena said.

“Okay, leave it to me,” Teddy said. “We should tie her hands and feet together behind her back.”

"Why?" Athena asked. "I mean, okay, but you have to turn her over first."

Teddy knelt down, grunted, and flipped the heroine over, making her lie face down on the ground. "Because that's how you tie up pigs, and all capitalists are pigs."

“Wow, that’s a harsh statement,” Athena said. “Let’s tie her hands first.”

Sienna blinked, snapping back to reality. Her sisters had acted before she could even speak; this was probably not a good thing. "Trinity..." she paused, taking a deep breath to refocus, then pointed to one of the Trinity's and said, "You untie your hands first. Then have the other you come in and follow me. Um, afterwards, stand guard at the front and back of the house, just in case anyone comes."

“Okay, sister!” Trinity said. One of the girls, with her feet still tied together, skipped and hopped toward the kitchen, while the other ran to the front door and peeked out from behind the curtains.

“Athena, can you sense that you are using your superpowers to influence others?” Sienna asked.

"Yes."

“Then use your power on her. Tell me when she’s about to wake up, and let her remain unconscious. Teddy—transform into a bear. Don’t hurt her, but pin her to the ground.” Sienna took a moment to steady her heartbeat as Trinity entered from outside. “Alright, come with me,” she said.

“Okay?” Trinity replied.

Sienna walked through the mess and into the corridor the heroine had just run out of, Trinity close behind her. "Tell me if anything changes," Sienna said.

“Understood!” Trinity replied. She looked quite pleased with herself. “I’ve untied my hands, I mean the other me.”

“Very good. Keep an eye on things inside and outside the house. I don’t want any more accidents.” Sienna said, walking into a bedroom. There was a broken picture frame on the floor, shards of glass scattered everywhere, and a rather expensive-looking oil painting lying flat on the floor. Its original location was obvious—there was a slightly discolored rectangular mark on the wall, with a large safe in the center.

Sienna considered covering the safe. She could find a picture frame elsewhere in the house, spend ten minutes tidying up the area… but she abandoned the idea. The heroine had likely already seen the safe, and finding it wouldn't be difficult.

She walked to the safe, looked at the keypad, and then took her phone out of her pocket. She glanced at it casually and saw three text messages from her mother. Then she swiped the screen and opened a notepad app, which contained a string of numbers she had jotted down during her chat with Simon.

She tapped the keyboard with her knuckles to input numbers, just in case her fingerprints were ever extracted.

The safe clicked open, and she reached for the handle, then stopped. "Trinity, if you die, you'll be reborn right here, right?"

“Yes!” Trinity said, “reborn right next to myself.”

"Okay, can you open this safe in... about thirty seconds?"

The girl shrugged. "Of course."

Sienna stepped out of the room, suppressing her guilt; she needed to consider the practicalities. She walked into the corridor and saw a bear sitting beside the fallen heroine, one paw gently resting on her chest.

"She's about to wake up," Athena said.

“Very good,” Sienna replied.

“The safe is open,” Trinity, who was closest to the safe, said.

Sienna looked around to make sure everything was...basically normal, then returned to her bedroom. The safe contained several thick folders crammed with loose documents, nothing else. She carefully pulled them all out and opened the top one. The text inside was dense, the font small, the vocabulary dry and formal, just like what she'd read in the most boring textbooks. But it was immediately clear that this document was about heroes and villains. She closed the folder and looked around for something to put it in.

“Trinity,” she finally spoke, “could you find me a bag?” Trinity pointed to a large bag with a dollar sign on it hanging from her belt. “This will do,” Sienna replied.

Trinity opened the bag, and Sienna stuffed everything inside. "Oh," Trinity said, "the heroine is awake, and she seems pretty angry."

“Oh,” Sienna said, “well, I think I’ll have to go talk to her. Just… don’t call her a hero. Let’s just pretend she’s a villain. Could you tell Athena and Teddy this quietly? Don’t let the heroine hear, okay?”

"Uh? I think I can do it, okay. But aren't we the villains?"

Sienna nodded. "That's right, but we're going to pretend to be heroes now, so we have to make her the villain, because heroes don't fight with other heroes."

“That makes sense,” Trinity nodded.

“Thanks, I think so,” Sienna replied. She pointed to the bag. “Don’t let her see this.” Sienna turned back and quietly closed the safe, trying not to make too much noise.

“I understand,” Trinity said.

Sienna hesitated for a moment, then encouraged herself. She jumped a few times on the spot, straightened her coat and pants, and patted off imaginary dust from her body.

We can't dawdle any longer.

She walked back into the hallway and immediately heard struggling sounds coming from the other end of the house. "Do you know who I am?"

“I don’t know,” Sienna said, her voice harsher and more stern than usual. “And I’d love to know who you are, who you work for… the villain.”