If you want more to read, consider joining my Patreon! Or check out my other original works:

  Stray Cat Strut (A cyberpunk system apocalypse!) - OngoingFluff (A superheroic LitRPG about cute girls doing cute things!) - OngoingLove Crafted (Interactive story about an eldritch abomination tentacle-ing things!) - Completed!Dreamer's Ten-Tea-Cle Café (An insane Crossover about cute people and tentacles) - HiatusCinnamon Bun (A wholesome LitRPG!) - OngoingThe Agartha Loop (A Magical-Girl drama!) - Volume Two Complete!Lever Action (A fantasy western with mecha!) - Volume One Complete!Heart of Dorkness (A wholesome progression fantasy) - Completed!Dead Tired (A comedy about a Lich in a Wuxia world doing Science!) - OngoingSporemageddon (A fantasy story about a mushroom lover exploding the industrial revolution!) - OngoingPast the Redline (A girl goes too fast, then she does it again) - Completed!Magical Girl Crystal Genocide (Magical Girls accidentally the pnet, and then try to fix it) - Completed!Magical Girl Rending Nightmare (A sequel to Crystal Genocide! Cute girls in a soviet dystopia having a picnic on the roadside) - Volume Two Completed!Noblebright (A shipcore AI works to avenge humanity) - Completed!The Complicated Love Life of Ivil Antagonist (The Empress of Mars finds love) - Completed!Pokebun (Broccoli Bunch in the world of Pokemon) - HiatusQueen Violence (An Assassin Reborn as a Kitten) - Completed!No Strings Attached (An Elden Ring/Bloodborne inspired progression fantasy) - OngoingSave Scumming (A time-looping system apocalypse) - Ongoing

  Chapter Twenty-Six - Good Things"So, what now?" Athena asked. She was one of the first down the dder leading to the roof, and was still feeling a warm glow of satisfaction that she'd found it. She would have been happy if anyone but Teddy found it, but finding it herself let her smile at Teddy in just that way that annoyed the bear to no end.

  "Now?" Emily asked. "I guess we do some pnning. Uh, we can probably start heading back to our base, though."

  "We're not going to do any more scouting today?" Aurora asked.

  Emily shook her head. "No. At least, I don't think that would be wise? Is there a reason to rush?"

  Athena shook her own head. "Nope. I mean, the game might end if someone solves it before us, so we shouldn't just sit around and do nothing, but I don't think we need to rush exactly. Only an idiot would run into trouble without thinking, right Teddy?"

  Teddy was still just halfway down the dder, but she turned to gre at Athena anyway.

  "Don't pick on your sister so much," the Boss said. "But yeah. We'll be pnning how to do things from here on out. I think scouting the area might be a good idea. If it's where the, uh, goal of the Endgame is, then the HRF will be guarding it. I don't know if we can actually even try to steal whatever it is."

  "We can do it, I'm sure," Teddy said.

  Athena wanted to find some way to make fun of her some more, but Maple was coming down the dder and her arms and legs were shaking, so she walked over and climbed up behind the tinkerer and helped her down the bottom half of the dder.

  "I'm sure," Emily said. "For now... let's see if we can't find a room that's got good lighting, I want to mark down what I saw on a map before I forget it."

  It took a moment, but they gathered in one of the rooms on the top floor where Emily unfolded the town map she had on one of the desks, then she made a bunch of small notations on it. Athena helped. She had good eyes, and had picked out some things, and knew how to judge distances well. She adjusted her gsses, then helped Emily guesstimate distances.

  "Okay," Emily said after standing up straighter. "If they're here... then we might be able to go past them, deeper into the city, and get another look from a different vantage point? I should have brought a camera or something."

  "I can make something," Maple suggested.

  "No, it's fine. Thank you though. But... hmm, you remember those ponchos you made for Trinity?"

  Maple nodded quickly. "We brought them with us, I think."

  Athena took a moment to remember what they were talking about, but it came back to her. Maple had made a set of three ponchos that she gifted to Trinity a while back. She'd gotten a pair of binocurs that let her read someone's thoughts a bit better... she was pretty sure they were next to her bed, back home.

  Oops?

  "Maple's stuff is the best," Athena said. Maple's smile helped quash some of the guilt she was feeling in the moment.

  "It is," Emily said with a warm smile. "I was wondering if you could make other stealth, ah, items?"

  Maple considered it for just a moment before nodding. "Sure. It wouldn't take long, I don't think. Did you want stuff that can move?"

  "That'd be ideal, yeah," Email said. "We don't know what kind of, ah, visual aids the HRF are using. They might have thermals around their base, or something like that. Ideally, something like those ponchos would be good, I think. But we'll use the best stealth trick of all as well."

  "Oh, what's that?" Trinity asked.

  "Being far away," Emily replied. She smiled at Trinity's gobsmacked look. "It's true! People look around themselves, but who looks super far away for someone? Besides, if we're far enough away, then even if they do see us, we'll look small and be able to get away quickly."

  "Smart!" Trinity said.

  "Thanks. Anyway, ETA on that kind of gear, Maple?"

  "I... don't know?"

  Emily humed, then shrugged. "We're not even at your workshop, so that's fair. Speaking of which, should we start heading back? And yes, we can check for vending machines before we leave."

  "Yay!" Trinity cheered before leading the charge out of the room. Teddy went with her, probably hoping for some easy food, and then the rest of them followed.

  They found two vending machines in the cafeteria, and it only took a moment or two for Aurora to pop them open and for them to get at the goodies within.

  Unfortunately, the snacks were all 'healthy' things, like chips in extra-noisy packets and cans of juice that only contained a lot of sugar instead of a ton. And it was all lukewarm.

  Still, Athena grabbed a snack of her own, then ate while standing there. Emily sat down at one of the long benches and removed one shoe and shook a bit of dust out of it, then after a few minutes she had them all grab a bottle of water for the road, told Trinity to leave anything too noisy behind, then they got going.

  It didn't take all that long before they were out of the school and sneaking along the road. One Trinity ran ahead, while the other lingered behind a little, her new Minor Shadow Blend skill at full power to... make her just a smidge harder to tell apart from the rest of what Athena was seeing.

  It really wasn't that strong of a skill. She supposed it might give Trinity a slight edge in hide and seek, but only a small one. She already won all the time because they had to find her three times to win.

  "Hey, Trinity, can you use your new power with the you that's not in the Endgame?" Athena asked.

  Trinity looked up, blinked, then shrugged. "Yeah."

  "Huh. Neat! Maybe the powers work when we step out, then," Athena said.

  "That's interesting," Emily replied. "Do you think we'll be able to, ah, keep these?"

  "Not when the Endgame finishes," Teddy said before Athena could reply. The ck of a brain-mouth filter really gave the dumb bear an unfair advantage sometimes. "Not unless these powers are, like, a uh... what'd you call it?"

  "An appetizer," Athena said. "For whatever power the Endgame gives to its winners. It could be. I wouldn't be too surprised if the power we get once we won is kind of like these, or has all of these as options."

  "That's... weak," Emily said. "Isn't it?"

  "Yeah, but as actual powers, they'd be able to grow and level up," Athena pointed out. "And get sub-skills, and stuff."

  "That might make it better. Seems like it's a powerset that would lock us into being good at petty burgry more than anything else though."

  "Yeah, that does suck," Athena said. They needed more of a super-vilin powerset, like making superweapons and taking over the world type of stuff, not petty crimes.

  Who even wanted to do crimes when they were petty? That was me. She wanted to do real crime, not baby crimes.

  It took a solid half hour of walking, with one bit where they hid as a HRF van rolled past one road over, but they eventually made it close to the gas station, then ran across towards the woods and the pce where their base was.

  Emily had them stop by the rocks she'd been pcing down. They set one right on the edge of the Endgame, a step and a bit past the st one. "It moved more in the st bit than it did overnight," Emily said. "This is... inconsistent."

  "Why would it be consistent?" Athena asked.

  "Because... that would be easier for me to measure, I guess," Emily replied. "I guess it doesn't need to be, I just wanted it to. Nevermind."

  "Okay," Athena said.

  They made it back, but not before Emily had them all test their new powers. None of theirs worked. Only Trinity was able to use hers, and only when at least one of her was in the Endgame.

  "Oh, so it's just a weird power interaction thing," Athena said. "Neat."

  "Neat? I... I feel like this is the kind of thing that would give a scientist a headache," Emily said.

  "Well, good thing we ain't that," Teddy said.

  "Good thing," Emily muttered.

  Once they were back, Maple ran off to the workshop, and Athena followed. She was pretty sure that she couldn't help Maple directly, but as the smartest of her sisters, she was sure that she could at least give Maple a hand. And if Maple was quick, then maybe they could convince Emily to go out tonight and do some of that scouting she mentioned in the dead of night.

  Owls were nocturnal, after all!

  ***

  A note from RavensDaggerHey!

  So, early in the year, I decided to write a TTRPG for Stray Cat Strut in 60 days, and it took 63, so I kinda failed.

  Anyway, this is the Kickstarter link for its pre-order: https:///projects/ravensdagger/hope-punk-a-stray-cat-strut-tabletop-rolepying-game

  The goal is to have the Zeroth addition be free (or pay what you want) on Itch.io and DriveThruRPG. Modules--basically banced add-on content with more Catalogues and backgrounds and some pyable content--will be sold on there for a small price on the side.

  I... like free? I love that the majority of my work is free. If I could, I'd make more of it free. I don't make a ton of money, not compared to a lot of the authors in my friend circles, but I make enough to afford rent and food, and that's enough for me. I'd much rather make a little less and try to make you have a bit more fun.

  Anyway, the kickstarter is mostly to recoup the cost of the artwork that went into the Zeroth edition of Hope//Punk. There's... a lot. Some of it is super good too! I made a heap of artists friends with this project!

  The Kickstart will be going live on the 15th of September. Next Monday. I hope you check it out!