Teddy tried to think of something appropriately cool and bearlike. It was real hard, though, because bears were already the coolest.

Maybe some superroar? Or wings. She’d heard about drop-bears, and they had to drop from somewhere, so there had to be some sort of flying bear out there.

New Quest!

Polar Opposite

There is stealth in boldness.

Reward: +1 Skill Upgrade point per 100,000 people who believe you are a Hero.

Accept? Refuse?

Teddy hummed and tapped her chin. That seemed to line up real well with what the Boss was doing, what with the whole acting bits. It really wasn’t the sort of quest Teddy wanted to be doing, but points were like lunches: you took them where you could get them.

Quest accepted!

Teddy figured they had a few minutes left until they got to the place they were heading to, so she looked at one last quest for the road.

New Quest!

In Pawsetion

Acquire a suitable weapon and use it.

Reward: +1 Skill Upgrade point!

Accept? Refuse?

She shrugged. Why not?

Quest accepted!

“Teddy?” Emily asked. “We’re almost there. Do you want to slow down a bit?”

Teddy stopped until the Boss was by her side, then she walked next to Emily, opposite where Athena was. That way, if the Boss felt like handing out more of those wonderful Healpats, she could reach both sisters with ease.

The Boss pulled out her phone and looked at it for a while, her free hand in Athena’s grasp so at least one of her little sisters would be leading her.

Teddy didn’t pout because Athena got to lead the Boss. She was pouting for other, unrelated reasons.

“This is it, I think,” the Boss said as she gestured to an alley between a pub and a laundromat. It wasn’t that bad as far as alleys went. Teddy had been in a lot of those lately, and she ranked this one, with its discarded newspaper rotting in the corner and empty pizza box halfway in, as a seven out of ten.

The Boss moved over to the very back of the alley, then to a metal door under the escape ladder fixed to the wall of the laundromat. The door opened with a tug, revealing a small tiled room with a light dangling from the ceiling and a single stool in the middle.

One of the walls had a bricked-over doorway, and some of the tiles were of different colors. Teddy thought it looked like a bathroom, but without the bath or toilets or sinks.

“I guess this is where we change?” the Boss asked.

She didn’t sound so sure.

“Athena, ya wanna blast the place?” Teddy asked.

Athena nodded and glared into the room for a while. “There you go,” she said. “If anyone was peeping, they’re busy clawing out their eyes now instead.”