Chapter Sixteen - Traits

Emily was certain that the big, proper hero groups had entire teams dedicated to helping new heroes learn about their own powers. She had seen a hint of that already and had to admit that it was pretty interesting.

Unfortunately, her team of power-testing-assistants were currently arguing over which cartoon to watch on her laptop.

She leaned back into her seat and stared at the description for her new skill. Menagerie Family. The name wasn’t terribly helpful. It was a pun, which was... pretty typical of her skills. Were the skills of other masks also all puns? Could she look that up without raising suspicions?

Something for later.

The skill would let her copy an animal trait of one sibling for an indeterminate amount of time, after which she had to wait another hour to reuse the skill.

That left a lot of questions unanswered. She opened her desk drawer and took out her notepad. It had been a day or two since she’d made a proper list.

What animal traits were copied? Was the cooldown fixed, or was there an individual cooldown for every sister? Did the traits appear as physical changes? Did she need physical contact with a sister to initiate the skill? Were there any negative consequences?

She tapped the back of her pen against her bottom lip before nodding. “Girls, I’m going to be trying out my new power now.”

“Oh yeah, you got a power too,” Teddy said. “What is it?”

Emily almost dismissed Teddy’s question, but she stopped herself before she said anything. Teddy had once shown that she knew a lot more about the system than most, and the other girls weren’t fussing over their new powers, they just accepted them as if they knew what they did right away. “It’s called Menagerie Family,” Emily said. “Do you know anything about it?”

“Nah,” Teddy said. “What’s it do?”

“One sec,” Emily said. She pulled up the skill’s screen, then read its description to her sisters who were all paying attention, mostly, one of Trinity’s bodies was carefully typing something on the laptop while the others were distracted. “Uh, Allows you to temporarily copy an animal trait from one of your siblings. It has a one hour cooldown.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Teddy said. “Gonna be one of those skills that lets you switch things around. Does it say how long you can be a bear for?”

“It doesn’t say a bear, it says an animal trait,” Athena said. “I hope the trait she gets from you isn’t your smarts.”

“It, uh, just says temporary,” Emily said. “And Athena, don’t hurt Teddy’s feelings.”

“Eh, I’m fine,” Teddy said.

Athena nodded. “Yeah, if it doesn’t specify how long it takes to stop, then you can probably keep the skill going on one trait for a long time.”

“So the Boss is gonna be bear-like all the time?” Teddy asked.

“Why would she want to be like a bear?” Athena asked. “Who wants to sleep around all day and be lazy?”

“Anyone sane.”

Emily waved her hands to calm the two down. They’d been increasingly... volatile towards each other lately, and she wasn’t sure if they actually disliked each other, or if it was all some sort of weird sibling bonding thing. “Okay, so what traits would the skill copy?” Emily asked.

“Bet it won’t be the same ones,” Teddy said.

Emily nodded, encouraging her to go on. Teddy usually had good insights on why powers did what they did.

“That’d be too boring,” the bear girl added. She started to pick her nose.

Emily stood up from her chair and walked to the middle of the room. “Alright, let’s try it,” she said.

“Cool!” Teddy said. “What kind of bear will you get traits of? A polar bear? Those are pretty cool. Almost as cool as Grizzlies.”

“She should do mine first, actually,” Athena said. “Bears are big and clumsy and dumb. Owls are graceful and small and awesome. So my traits will make her even better so she’ll be able to get used to the skill faster.”

Teddy glared at Athena who glared right back.

“Hey! You should become a racoon,” Trinity said. “Because it’s not one of the other two.”

“You know what, you’re right Trinity. I think these two need to cool their heads a little. So how about we start with your trait.”

Trinity raised her six arms up. “That worked!” she cheered.

Emily stood tall, took a deep breath, considered whether or not power-testing in her tiny apartment in the middle of the day was a good idea or not, then let the breath she was holding out in a long woosh along with a tiny fraction of her stress.

“Okay. Menagerie Family: Trinity.”

Emily felt something like a burp travelling up her oesophagus, but there was nothing to accompany it, and for just a moment she was hit by a wave of dizziness.

“Uh,” she said.

Menagerie Family

You have obtained the traits of the Racoon!

You may now eat trash without ill effect!

“What’d it do?’ Trinity asked. She hit Emily with the triple racoon-eyes, all big and eager.

“I can now eat trash,” Emily said.

Trinity gasped, hands rushing to cover her mouths. “It worked,” she said. “You’re just like me.”

“Uh-huh,” Emily said.

“We need to test it,” Trinity said. “I’ve got some chocolate I found, here.” She reached into her pockets and pulled out a partially wrapped candy bar. It was a little melted. There were hairs on it.

“No,” Emily said. “Please put that in the trash.”

“That’s where I got it from.”

“I... yes, well, put it back there, please.” Emily walked over to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. There weren’t any changes that she could see, not until she opened her mouth and noticed that her canines were sharper... maybe. She ran her tongue over her teeth, but couldn’t quite tell if they were all that different or not.

“Okay, do mine next!” Teddy said.

Emily walked back to the middle of the room and nodded. “Alright, fine. Do you think I can just go from one to another, or do I need to cancel things in between?”

“Should be able to just reuse the skill,” Teddy said.

“I suppose we’ll need to test both options out. Menagerie Family: Teddy.”

The burping sensation returned, though this time reversed, which was strangely horrific. She was soon distracted by a sensation all over her body, like all of her muscles twitching faintly at once.

Menagerie Family

You have obtained the traits of the Bear!

You are now stronger!

Emily glanced down at herself. No obviously changed again, unless... she raised an arm and looked at it.

She was never that hairy before, was she?

“So, are you cooler now?” Teddy asked.

“Stronger, apparently,” Emily said. “And maybe a tiny bit warmer in winter.” She felt at her teeth and was comforted to notice they weren’t as sharp. So the traits faded. She wouldn’t need to shave every time she used Teddy’s.

“Hey, Boss, lift me up!” Teddy asked. She moved over to Emily and stood with her arms out to the side.

Shrugging, Emily leaned down, placed her hands under Teddy’s armpits, and lifted.

She felt like a vein was going to pop in her forehead, and her muscles all strained, but, bit-by-bit, she managed to lift Teddy up.

She was maybe stronger, but it was likely that it depended on her initial strength, which was... about par for a young adult woman whose main exercise was leaving the couch to grab chips.

“Okay, I’m a little stronger. That might be useful in a pinch.” She didn’t know how to put that strength to good use, but it was there. “Cancel Menagerie Family: Teddy,” she tried.

It took a moment, but that strange feeling came over her again, and suddenly Teddy’s weight felt like it was so much more than it had been a moment before. She set the girl down, then checked her arms again.

She didn’t think of herself as vain, but she might have some issues with looking fuzzier than the most testosterone-heavy man ever.

“Okay, that was good. Uh, Athena’s next, I guess. Maybe I’ll keep yours on overnight, to see the duration? Do you think there could be side-effects?”

“Only because you won’t be using the coolest trait,” Teddy said.

“Okay then. Menagerie Family: Athena.”

This time, the strangeness was all in her eyes and head. Like getting a very enthusiastic but awful scalp massage that reached all the way down to behind her eyes.

She shivered, then blinked.

The room was so much brighter. She turned her head, and the sound of her neck brushing against her shirt almost made her jump.

“Big Sis?” Athena screamed. “Oh, your eyes are prettier!”

Emily winced. It wasn’t a scream, her hearing was just a lot more acute. Her vision too. Not just to the lighting but... well, perhaps years of staring into screens had rendered her less than 20-20 capable.

Menagerie Family

You have obtained the traits of the Owl!

Your perception has been sharpened!

“Huh,” Emily said. “Okay, I can work with that.”

***