The socially awkward villain's furry superpower

“We should probably go home,” Sienna said, noting that it would be quite a long walk back to Sam’s car.

"What?" Teddy asked.

Sienna looked across the table at her eldest sister and replied, "What? What?"

“We can’t go back now,” Teddy said, slamming his hand on the table to emphasize his point. “We’re already sitting around this villain’s table in the villain’s lair. We can’t leave without having a plan.”

“Yes, we need to plan something,” Trinity chimed in from her crowded seat.

Sienna turned to look at Athena and Sam, hoping at least one of them would be reasonable. Unfortunately, they both nodded in agreement.

“You have to plan this,” Sam said. “It’s basically a necessary step. And you look so cool and intimidating sitting in that position. Imagine how awesome it would be if you wore a villain costume.”

Sienna forced herself not to blush, crossed her arms, and glared angrily at the table.

“Yeah, like that. But you’ll also need a cat, the kind you put on the armrest,” Sam added.

“I can be that cat,” Trinity said. “Those are just old-fashioned raccoons.”

“I don’t need a cat.” Sienna pretended not to notice her sisters’ relieved sighs, because to be honest, she didn’t know what to do with them. “And what exactly are we planning?”

“How about you take over this city?” Sam suggested.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"I have no intention of taking over this city."

“But what if you were planning to,” Sam began, then quickly raised his hands in surrender. “No, no, this is just hypothetical. If you, just hypothetically, were planning to take over the city, what would you do? Come on, there’s no harm in answering a hypothetical question.”

Sienna shook her head, but she didn't think it would do any harm. "I don't think it'll be that easy. We'll have to deal with the Hero Response Force, other heroes, police, politicians, school administration, the city government, and that mysterious organization."

We have no idea what they're up to, but I bet it's nothing good.

“We’ll beat them all to a pulp, make them line up and wait for me to take care of them,” Teddy said.

“Uh, no. Some of them… many of them are definitely much stronger than us. And the others can’t be defeated by fighting alone. I think you should at least get the city government on your side, even if it’s just a little bit more favorable.”

If you're powerful enough, but not so evil that they'd go to great lengths to stop you, then the Hero Response Team and the heroes might be deterred and dare not act rashly.

Sam rested his elbows on the table and asked, "So, how do you plan to deal with these situations?"

Sienna knew what this woman was up to. However… after walking for so long, Sienna's feet were a little sore, but sitting for a few more minutes wouldn't hurt. "I think we need to solve this problem from, uh, another angle. We need to do it like politicians do."

“Wow!” Athena exclaimed, “That’s so evil!”

Sienna frowned and said, "What I'm trying to say is that if you want to take over this city, you have to make the people of this city want you to take over."

You need to be popular and charismatic enough for people to be willing to see you take action. This is quite the opposite of the common impression of villains.

“I can be very charismatic,” Teddy said. “Very charismatic. Just you wait and see, it won’t be long before I have the people on my side, fighting alongside me. The common folk will know that I am a bear warrior who thinks of the people.”

“That’s right,” Sienna said. “In this hypothetical situation, I think the most important thing is to make people feel that you are more capable and more friendly than the average hero.”

Then, I think we need to start translating this into something like real political power.

Perhaps by emphasizing the police's achievements and downplaying the heroic contributions of the response team, they could win over the police to their side, maybe...

Sienna narrowed her eyes, lost in thought. How exactly should she take over a city?

She had heard of many villains who had tried to do this before, but none of them had ever succeeded. She imagined that those who succeeded must have achieved their goals quietly and subtly.

“I think you need to have a considerable degree of control over the city’s economy. Perhaps the city’s main sources of income should be under your control, or at least most of them should be in your hands. You need to start acquiring businesses and real estate.”

If things go smoothly, legally speaking, you could own a large portion of this city. At that point, I think you could rule it because the city needs you to keep it running.

"Do we need you to keep it running?" Sam asked.

“I will make sure I have enough chain stores and small businesses so that if they want to kick me out, it means the city will lose a lot of jobs and the local economy will collapse.” Sienna cleared her throat and added, “I mean, hypothetically.”

"Wow!" Teddy exclaimed, "Boss is so smart! But where do we even begin?"

“I think we’ve already started,” Athena said.

“We just need to keep doing what the boss says,” Trinity said.

“Wait, that’s not how it is,” Sienna said, waving her arms from side to side in denial. “I didn’t lead anyone down the path of villainy. You’ve misunderstood me.”

Sam grinned and said, "No, I don't think anyone misunderstands. So, I think my next step is to try to become an important figure in the community. Do some volunteer work, help old ladies cross the street, fight criminals and stuff like that."

“No!” Sienna said. But then she realized what she meant and quickly added, “Wait, I meant yes.”

"Yay!" Teddy cheered. "Doing good deeds under the guise of villainy is really awesome."

“I… okay,” Sienna said helplessly. She didn’t know what to say, feeling that whatever she said would be misinterpreted. She suddenly stood up. “Let’s go home.”

Teddy slammed his hand on the table twice and loudly announced, "Meeting adjourned!"

The other girls quickly stood up from their seats, and Sienna noticed that the dust from the seats had gotten on them. She patted her trousers, then looked around the train carriage and asked, "What are we going to do here?"

"If we leave it alone, it's just a dump. But if we use our brains... maybe we can find a way to move it closer to the school and use it as a mobile base?"

"Is this a good idea?" Sienna asked.

Sam shrugged and said, "You'll need a place to live eventually. You can't keep crammed into the dorm. I don't know how so many girls manage to squeeze into that tiny room. I feel like my room is too small even when I'm living alone. What will you do when you have more sisters?"

Sienna shuddered at the thought. There would be so many knees and elbows poking her while she slept. "You're right. But I'm not sure if this is the best place."

“Well, let’s tidy this up a bit then,” Sam said.

“If it’s the villain’s lair that I’m cleaning, then I wouldn’t mind cleaning it up,” Athena said. “It would be pretty cool to do that.”

"There's no such thing as cool cleaning," Teddy muttered. "Just wipe the dust off the bed, it's not that fancy."

"That's too dirty," Athena said discontentedly. "Why am I the only one who likes to be clean?"

“Alright, alright,” Sienna said. “We can come back and clean this place another time. I think it’s better to go home now.”

“And we also need to eat,” Trinity said.

“Hmm…yes, we need to find something to eat too.” Sienna agreed. She was a little hungry herself, and thinking about it, feeding all her sisters would cost a lot of money, but perhaps her new protection fee business could ease the financial burden.

She closed her eyes. It was already difficult enough to persuade her sisters not to become villains, but now they had to immediately accept ways to make money, like collecting protection money. This was too difficult.

The group left the train via the same route they had come in. Strangely enough, those dark, unlit tunnels didn't seem so scary the second time they walked through them.

After all, they already knew what was hidden deep inside, and the situation wasn't so bad after all.

Climbing back to the platform was much more difficult than coming in.

Sam was much more agile than Sienna. She leaped, grabbed the edge of the platform, pulled herself up, and then stepped onto the platform.

Sienna first picked up Trinity and helped her onto the platform, then helped another sister up. The two sisters then helped her pull the third sister up, getting the front of Sienna's clothes dirty.

As a result, Sienna herself got stuck below until Teddy turned into a bear, grabbed her belt from behind, and pulled her up.

Once everyone was on the platform, we walked through the station and exited through a side door. We were once again bathed in sunlight, the light so bright it was blinding, but it was also a relief.

"Okay. Let's go get something to eat first, and then go home."

But just then, her phone started buzzing, followed by a loud ringing.

Sienna picked up her phone and saw it was her mother calling. Then she looked and saw there were twenty-nine unread messages. "Oh no!"