“The Boss is the boss,” Teddy agreed. She tossed the last of her wrap down her mouth and chewed it up. “So we heading out now?”

“We have plenty of time to finish eating,” the Boss said.

Teddy looked at her side of the table, which had plenty of wrappers, but none with any food in them, then she looked back up to the Boss and prepared her best bear-cub eyes.

“If you eat any more, we’ll be rolling you all the way to the meetup,” the Boss said.

“You could piggyback me,” Teddy said.

“I don’t think my back could take that,” Emily said. “Although I imagine all the running around we’ve been doing lately will be great for my waistline.”

Athena finished up her chicken salad, and then the Boss, swayed by Teddy’s powerful bear-cub gaze, gave Teddy the rest of her soup, which Teddy slurped away. It made for good tummy padding atop her wraps.

Soon the three of them were off. Teddy was happy, the walk was fun, even though the Boss didn’t let her piggyback again because Teddy had “legs that work just fine.”

She skipped ahead because it was her duty as the Boss’s protector to keep the Boss safe. If a car ran off the road or something, Teddy could cushion the Boss by turning into a big fluffy bear.

Still, for all that, it didn’t leave Teddy with much to do, so she decided to take a peek at all her available quests.

New ones would appear all the time, and old ones would poof away as the opportunities for them passed. Even old ones that were accepted would leave after a while of not being completed.

The system wasn’t random. It was very serious and calculated and had a bunch of numbers and stuff behind it.

Teddy wasn’t good at numbers.

New Quest!

Bearing the Brunt

Be the best guardian!

Reward: +1 Skill Upgrade point every time you save an ally. Scoundrel +1 per save!

Accept? Refuse?

Meh. That was a lame quest. The points were fine, but becoming a Scoundrel? Did the system think Teddy was lame?

New Quest!

She Who Bearies Her Enemies

Put an opponent down with extreme prejudice.

Reward: +1 Skill Upgrade point every time you knock out an opponent. Villain +1 per knock-out!

Accept? Refuse?

“Boss, what’s a ‘prejudice’?” Teddy asked.

The Boss frowned. “It’s when someone does something that’s very . . . emotional, I guess. Like passing a law that doesn’t just make something illegal, but also has a really steep punishment.”

“So, like, extreme prejudice would be lots of feelings about something?” Teddy asked.

“I guess so. Where did you hear about it?”

Teddy shrugged. “Flavor text.”

So knocking out an enemy while being real feely about it? Teddy could do that.

Quest accepted!

Good! Another way for Teddy to get even stronger. Soon she’d be getting some crazy skills too. Like . . .