The socially awkward villain's furry superpower

The tunnel seemed endless, swallowing all their light. Even with Sienna's temporarily enhanced senses, she could only see the ever-changing shadows ahead, with no end in sight.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Sienna said, looking ahead.

“Hey, we’re already down here,” Sam said. “And we won’t get lost. There are no forks in the road, just a straight path, you know.”

The passage was relatively clear, with some wrapping paper along the edges and everything covered in a layer of dust, but generally speaking, there wasn't much to see in the tunnel as they walked along.

In fact, Sienna knew in her heart that they hadn't gone very far.

Although everyone acted quite bravely, her sisters walked almost as fast as they were dragging their feet, and she could tell how nervous they were, while she herself was twice as nervous as them.

She was always worried that a municipal inspector would suddenly appear and give them a severe scolding, or worse, that a policeman would come and cause trouble.

“There’s something ahead,” Athena said.

“Yeah, I already said that,” Teddy replied. Although she pretended to be brave, she was so close that she bumped into Sienna with every step she took.

Sienna let her hand fall down, and Teddy immediately grabbed it tightly, as if seeking comfort.

As it turned out, Athena was right. The massive outline of a train carriage appeared before them.

“This train looks pretty strange,” Sam said, holding up his phone with one hand to illuminate it.

The rear of this carriage was not quite what Sienna had envisioned for a subway car. It was slightly lower, as if made of riveted steel plates, with a door in the middle and steps extending downwards, almost to ground level.

There was a small, round window, no larger than her forearm, and curtains were drawn inside.

"Trinity, could you go and check both sides of the carriage?" Sienna whispered.

"Understood," Trinity replied, and ran to both sides of the carriage. She returned shortly after to report, "There are only three carriages in total, and the first one is quite strange."

Sienna frowned and moved to the right so she could see for herself. Trinity was right; the entire train was only three carriages long, and the first carriage was clearly some kind of locomotive.

"Perhaps this is a maintenance train?"

The staff working at the station also need transportation to move around within the station, so she thought it was quite reasonable for them to have such a small train.

“Maybe,” Sam said, grabbing a railing at the back of the car and using it to climb up to the back door. She pried it open with a clang. “It’s unlocked,” she said.

Sienna and her sisters lined up behind Sam, partly out of curiosity and partly to seek shelter in the relatively cramped carriage.

She had initially assumed the carriage would be a mobile workstation or something similar, either empty or packed with cargo. However… “This is a living space,” Sienna remarked after peering into the carriage from over Sam’s shoulder.

Athena reached out and pressed a switch on the wall, and the lights on the ceiling of the carriage turned on, causing everyone to tense up immediately.

The carriage is long and narrow with an aisle in the middle. The entire carriage is divided in two: one end is a room with bunk beds, and the other end is more spacious, with a television, a small kitchen with a camping stove and microwave, and even a small desk for working.

“Ha,” Sam said, “It’s like a bigger campervan.”

“What’s a motorhome?” Trinity asked.

"A campervan, yeah, it's a recreational vehicle. People drive them around traveling and camping, just like a bus that you can live in. This one looks similar to that, but bigger. The decor is a bit like the 70s, but at least it looks pretty clean."

Sienna nodded in agreement. The carriage was clearly not new, but she guessed it was well-maintained; there was no obvious rust, not much dust, and no clutter or carelessly discarded items.

Teddy released Sienna's hand, walked into the kitchen area, and opened some cabinets. "Hey, there's canned food here."

Sienna followed her and took a can of food from the shelf; it was still far from its expiration date. "This couldn't have been stored before the subway closed."

“Maybe the municipal authorities are still maintaining this place?” Sam asked.

That was possible, but Sienna still felt something was off. She thought that areas frequently used by the workers would be more cluttered and dilapidated. "Let's go check out the next carriage," she said.

The carriages were connected by a set of doors with grilles and aisles. The next door was also unlocked, and opening it led to a completely different room.

The room had a black floor, white walls, a partitioned area on one side, a large table in the middle, and high-backed chairs around it. At the far end of the room, one chair was a full twenty centimeters higher than the others.

“Oh,” Teddy said after looking around, “this is an old lair.”

“Hmm…” Sienna responded.

“Yeah,” Sam said as he followed them in. “This is totally a villain’s lair.”

At the far end of the room was a partition that blocked the door to the next carriage. Apart from a few compartments near the entrance, there wasn't much else in the room.

Athena found another light switch, then another switch, and when she pressed it, a projector and screen descended from the ceiling along one of the walls.

There were still some hardware devices left in the cubicle, such as network routers, and they all looked quite expensive.

Of course, there was also a whiteboard on one wall with a subway map drawn on it, full of tiny annotations.

“I guess this is Simont’s base,” Sienna said after taking in all of this.

Sam peeked out from behind the partition wall at the far end of the room. "It's a mobile base. There's a big engine and control system in the next carriage. I think it's a diesel engine."

"So this whole thing can move?" Teddy asked.

“Movement means being able to move,” Athena said. “If you were smart, you would know that.”

“Athena, apologize,” Sienna said.

Athena pouted and crossed her arms. "I'm sorry, Teddy," she muttered softly.

“I don’t even know how that counts as an insult to me,” Teddy said.

Sienna could tell that Athena was clearly holding back from saying anything insulting to Teddy. Fortunately, she remained silent.

Sienna slowly walked through the room, running her hand across the tabletop as she examined the simple yet elegant decor. There was more dust now, but it wasn't very noticeable. She walked to the throne-like chair, then hesitated.

“Oh, the boss is going to get in,” Trinity said.

Suddenly, a commotion erupted as the girls scrambled around the table to find seats. Teddy sat on the right, Athena on the left, and Trinity squeezed all three of her bodies next to Teddy.

Her sisters were all watching her. Sienna carefully pulled the large chair back, then walked to the chair, sat down, and moved the chair forward again.

She looked at her sisters, who were all beaming with joy.

For some reason, it feels pretty right.

"Having fun?" Sam asked.

Sienna gasped and jumped up from her seat, completely jolted awake from her daydream.

“Hey, your men should be sitting on this boring end of the table,” Teddy said.

“Yes,” Athena chimed in. “Or you could stand at a distance, cross your arms, and look scary. But don’t bother her when she’s sitting on her villainous throne.”

“This isn’t the villain’s throne,” Sienna said.

Teddy reached out and patted her hand. "If you want, it can be the supervillain's throne."

"I, uh, really don't want to."

Sam pulled out a chair from the far end of the table, leaned back, and rested his boots on the surface. "So, what are we going to do with this place?"

“What can we do with it?” Sienna asked.

“We should take over it,” Teddy said.

The other sisters nodded in unison. "Teddy's right," Athena said. "Besides, look at the map on the whiteboard; some routes lead this place closer to the school. If that Simon has any connections, there's definitely a secret entrance nearby."

“Oh, right, secret tunnels underground in the city, that’s pretty cool,” Sam said.

“We don’t actually need any of this,” Sienna said.

“We could keep the last carriage and turn it into a fun place to relax,” Teddy said.

“We can use these tunnels to pop out from all over the place and smuggle some stuff off the street before those nasty good-natured garbage trucks take it all away,” Trinity said.

Sienna rubbed her forehead. She felt like she had inexplicably taken on a whole bunch of troublesome things.

“Let’s wait and see,” she said. “We need to figure out first whether this thing can even be started.”

“I can go take a look,” Sam said. “How hard can it be to start a train? It can’t turn or anything.”

“Okay,” Sienna said, her mind racing. “I think I should talk to my mom about it.”