Chapter Sixty - Being Clever

Emily took in the situation as best she could. That was, she took a moment to breath in, heart racing from running around and climbing up the stairs.

Glamazon screamed something incoherent, her arm swinging forwards with a straight punch that launched a cascade of sparks forwards.

They were nice sparks.

Bright. Shiny.

They were pretty and glimmering, like rains sparking off a streetlight.

They glowed all sorts of colours. Beautiful colours, some that Emily was sure she’d never seen before.

She took a step closer, trying to see the sparks better, but they escaped around a pillar, and her line of sight with them broken.

Emily gasped and screwed her eyes shut. Her arms snapped out, and on instinct, caught her sisters by the shoulder.

She had been forming a plan a moment before, then the sparks... that had to be some sort of power. Like turning someone’s brain into a cat’s while wiggling a laser pointer before them. She licked her lips and crouched down a little. “Be careful,” she whispered, eyes still closed. “Those lights are dangerous.”

“But they were pretty,” Teddy whined.

“You idiot. They’re a trap,” Athena said, as if she hadn’t stepped towards the lights too.

“Give me a moment, I need to come up with a plan,” Emily said.

Her goal was to get Alea Iacta out of the room, but as it was, she didn’t think there was another exit but the one they’d taken, and Jacob didn’t look athletic enough to jump out of a window without hurting himself.

That meant either talking Glamazon down, or distracting her enough that Jacob could get away.

Glamazon roared. “You complete ass! Just come out already! I’m tired of running after your stupid ass!”

“She says a lot of bad words,” Teddy said. “You’re only supposed to talk about asses when you’re pooping.”

Emily sighed and opened one eye. Glamazon didn’t seem to have noticed them. She was crossing the room, disappearing and reappearing behind pillars. She saw someone else move for just a moment deeper down the factory. Glamazon didn’t miss it either, firing off a glowing barrage.

Emily shut her eyes. “Okay. Okay,” she said.

There was no way that they’d be able to distract Glamazon long enough to get by, not by just showing up and talking.

Although.

“Athena,” Emily said. “Can you confuse her?”

“No problem, Big Sis,” Athena said. “I just need to know more or less where she is. I can keep one eye closed.”

“Good,” Emily said. Her spur-of-the-moment plan was fairly simple. She’d let Athena distract Glamazon and... and hopefully that would be enough. If Jacob could run away, then maybe Emily could intercept Glamazon and pretend to be... well, herself, coming over to help. She pulled out her phone and prepared to text Jacob.

She paused.

“We should probably get to cover first.”

“That’s real clever,” Teddy agreed.

The three of them moved over to some wooden crates collecting dust to one side. Emily had to squat to keep her head below the edge of the boxes, something her summons didn’t have nearly as much trouble with.

“Okay,” Emily said. “Athena you distract her. Teddy, when I move over to Glamazon to talk to her, turn into a bear, just in case. And, while she’s distracted... Athena, can you grab Alea Iacta’s attention?”

“Sure,” Athena said.

“Good, then lead him to the exit and tell him to just run away. We can call him later or whatever.” Emily shifted a little. She really had to start exercising more if squatting for a minute was so much of a strain. “You girls got that?”

They nodded.

Emily smiled. “Then Athena, start as soon as you’re ready.”

The owl-girl leaned forwards just a bit, her head sticking out of the side of the crates to fix onto Glamazon.

Her power, Emily knew, was about as subtle as they came. There were no lights, no flashes, no noise. One moment Glamazon was using language that wasn’t appropriate around children, the next... she was still swearing, but now she was looking around a lot more, and her voice took on a waver that sounded just shy of fearful.

“Come on out, d-dammit!”

Emily licked her lips and pulled up her phone, one hand up to hide the screen’s light. She sent a text to Alea Iacta:

E.Wright: Get ready to move soon. We’ll cover for you. Run.

Somewhere, way off in the far end of the factory, a phone jingled.

Emily wanted to smack herself.

“There you are!” Glamazon said.

“Uh,” Athena said. “I was trying to be subtle-like, I’m not done yet.”

Emily bit her lip. With one hand against the nearest crate, she lifted herself up just enough to see Glamazon moving deeper into the factory. “Okay, okay,” she said.

She was not the best at doing things with any sort of spontaneity. She glanced over to the stairs leading down. It was still possible to run away, maybe catch Glamazon after she caught Alea Iacta. But by then there might be cops on the way.

“Stay here,” she said.

Emily stood up and quickly moved over so that she was standing on the opposite side of the stairs from her sisters. She saw Teddy backing up from the crates and bending forwards, her hands on the ground and her back arched. Emily gave her a thumbs up then stepped up towards the middle of the room.

The lighting was poor. What little illumination there was coming from between the boards placed over the windows and from the glowing embers left from Glamazon’s power all across the floor. Emily could still make out Glamazon in her bright costume in the dark. She cleared her throat. “Glamazon?”

The woman spun around, twin trails of hissing sparks shooting out towards Emily.

She eeped and ducked down, narrowly avoiding the sparks.

The sparks which fizzed and popped with such cute noises. She found herself turning, a faint smiling coming up onto her lips despite the thumping of her heart.

She wanted to see them spit and sputter.

Emily shook her head and took a quick step away from the sparks, her eyes fixing onto Glamazon with some effort. “Glamazon!” she called. “It’s, uh, the Boss. We met already?”

Glamazon paused, her hands hovering below a pair of new sparks. “The girl with a kid?” she asked.

“Um, yeah, that’s me,” Emily said. “I, uh, heard a disturbance? Yeah, and I came to see what was going on.”

“In costume?’ Glamazon asked.

“I heard it a while ago,” Emily excused herself.

The heroine didn’t look all that convinced. “And you tracked me here?”

“You, uh, left sparks all over?” Emily said. She gestured behind her where she could still see the reflections of the sparks on the pillars and walls around her.

“Oh,” Glamazon said. “Right.... So what are you doing here?”

Emily worked her mouth as she searched for an answer. In reality, she really just wanted to be back in her dorm, studying ahead and maybe watching kittens fighting over string on Outube. “I really don’t know,” she said. “Uh, you looked like maybe you needed help?”

Glamazon huffed, hands on hips. “Trying to steal some of the glory? No, no it’s fine. I’d do the same. Yeah, I could use a bit of help. That jerk keeps hiding.”

“What jerk?” Emily asked.

“Some two-bit wanna be villain,” Glamazon said. “He was seen going around and using his powers on civilians a bit ago. Just want to lock him up is all.”

“How did you know where he was?” Emily asked.

“What do you mean?”

Emily shifted. “I mean... was he in-costume? Did you find his real ID and track him? How did you know he’d be wherever you found him?”

Glamazon shrugged. “I’ve got sources.”

“And how did they know?”

The heroine glared. “Look, do you want to help me or play twenty-questions.”

Emily would have much rather played twenty-questions, but she supposed that wasn’t an actual answer she could give. “Okay, let’s go see if we can find this, uh, guy?”

Glamazon nodded. “Yeah. Male, white, about twenty to twenty-five, more or less. Five foot... eh, four? He looks pretty short.”

Emily thought she heard someone muttering from somewhere in the dark. “Okay, well, uh. I guess we can both go in different directions. If you find him first call me and I’ll come over to help?”

“Can you manage on your own?” Glamazon asked.

“I got all the way here, didn’t I?” Emily asked. She pointed off to one side, guessing that it was the direction where Jacob wasn’t. “How about you start that way, and I’ll go this way. And, um, did you call the police yet?”

“No, not yet. They don’t like false alarms. And they steal some of the spotlight, you know?” Glamazon said.

“Right, of course.” She tried on a smile, then after a moment’s hesitation, set off to pretend to capture Jacob.

Or something.

Making things up as she went was not her strong suit.

***