Teddy still preferred all those over the ads with food on them. Those made her tummy ache.

She was a long ways from home when she saw a reedy older guy, maybe a year or two older than her Boss, slip into an alleyway with a box under one arm and a suitcase in the other.

Teddy grinned. She’d struck honey!

Walking a bit faster, Teddy rounded the corner into the alleyway and found the man grumbling to himself as he faced a pair of crooked dumpsters. They were blocking his path.

She felt her grin sharpening as she stepped into the shadowy path. “Hey, old guy,” she said.

The man jumped and turned around, revealing a reedy young man and a face covered by a big bushy mustache. “Yes?’

“Give me everything you’ve got,” Teddy said.

The man blinked, and then he was smiling too. “You came for my rally?” he asked. Before she could ask him what he was on about, he knelt down and dropped the box he was holding. It was just a wooden crate with a step built into the side. Then he opened his briefcase and rummaged through it before pausing. “Ah, well, uh, this isn’t the most auspicious place for this kind of thing, is it, comrade?”

“What?”

“Ah, and here I was hoping today I would be able to inspire the masses into joining in the glorious revolution against the Heroes and their fat capitalist pig leaders. But one girl is better than none. Sometimes it’s the smallest ear that counts, right?”

Teddy reached out and touched her ears. They weren’t that small. His were smaller than hers, probably. Definitely smaller if she counted the fuzzy fur around them. “I don’t get it,” she said. “I just want food.”

“Don’t we all! But the capitalists in their ivory towers won’t allow it, not without breaking your back first!”

Teddy took a small step back. Someone wanted to break her back? She growled deep in her throat and stepped forward. “I won’t let them. I’m too strong.”

“Oh, I can see the fires of the proletariat burning in you already, comrade. Look, I’m sorry that the rally was canceled because of that nasty business with the Villain, but . . . here, take this. It taught me a lot, but I have other copies.”

He pulled a book out from his suitcase, then stuffed it in his armpit to hold it in place as he closed the case. The man shoved the book into her hand, then rubbed the top of her head.

“Good luck, little comrade!” he said before stepping past.

Teddy blinked down at the little red book in her hands. She was confused. Who were the capitalists, and why did they want to break her back and not give her food? Would . . . the book tell her?

Quest Complete!

A Muggy Afternoon

Reward: +1 Skill Upgrade point per person successfully robbed. Scoundrel +1 per item!