Chương 26: Chapter 25

"Tori, we have a problem." After tactfully running away from her mom before Melissa could pry any secrets out of her, Tiff hunted down her accomplice in all of this. While Rick was supportive and Amy was energetic, neither of them were in as deep or tied so deeply as Tori.

"What is it this time?" Tori asked. She wasn't being mean or condescending. If anything, she sounded resigned. She was lying on her bed taking a nap, almost as if she had been waiting for the next thing to come up.

"I think the 24-Heaven is under attack." Victoria opened her eyes and slowly sat up.

"Yeah, I'm gonna need a little more information." Tiff tapped her foot impatiently as she swung a System screen around for her sister to read. Victoria quickly scanned it and frowned.

"One of your controlled areas is being contested," she muttered.

"What exactly does that mean?"

"I think it's fallout because of the Gang War," Tiff started to say, but Victoria cut her off.

"Gang war?" She sat up straight.

"What's this about a gang war?" Tiff glanced behind her to make sure the door was closed and moved closer.

"Did I tell you about that?" Tiff muttered.

"It's hard to keep track of all the notifications I keep getting."

"Wait," Victoria held up a hand.

"Just how often is the System sending you messages?"

"Constantly?" Tiff tilted her head.

"Somewhere between two to three dozen a day. Is that not how it is for you?"

"Two…?" Victoria's eyes widened.

"Tiff, no. That's not normal. Most people might get two messages in a week, not two dozen in a single day. You shouldn't get that many unless you're actively taking part in something…which, I guess with your territory, you are," Victoria finished with a sigh.

"Let's put a pin in that for now. Now, what's this about a gang war? We would have heard something about a gang war. Those are bloody and violent. Depending on how bad things get, there can be riots, and the city would have gone into curfew. At the very least there would have been something on the news."

"Maybe there was," Tiff shrugged.

"But I don't think it was near us. Where's Montebello?"

"Eh, I think it's northwest of us," Victoria said.

"If it's that far away, what does that have to do with the 24-Heaven?" Tiff frowned. This would be so much easier if she could just show Victoria the old notice, but she had already dismissed it. However, since she was thinking about it so intently, the System obliged her. The notification appeared again, so she swiveled it around and pushed it to her sister. Victoria caught the screen and quickly scanned it over. It was a quick read, but it left her frowning all the same.

"What the hell," she muttered.

"I don't know what half of this means, but holy shit. I think a lot of people died."

"A whole gang got wiped out, if I read it right," Tiff agreed.

"And see those lines about Influence and control?"

"Yeah, I get it," Victoria frowned.

"But what do you want to do about it? This doesn't affect us, Tiff. Level with me. What are you actually concerned about here? Small crime happens every day. You can't put a stop to all of it." Tiff took a long, hard look at her sister before eventually closing her eyes and sighing.

"I'm worried, Tori," Tiff admitted.

"I'm scared because I don't know what's happening. It's not that I need to be in control, but…I know my Class well enough to know that I don't know my Class at all. What if something happens, and because the System thinks I'm connected to it, we get, I don't know, punished?"

"Tiff," Victoria said soothingly.

"Be reasonable. There's no way something happening several blocks away could possibly do anything to you."

"Tori," Tiff said seriously.

"Last night, I was punched by a boy at school. Before he could shatter my face, you got summoned out of the bathroom. I have no idea what is and is not possible." Victoria's face fell as she considered the implications. Eventually she balled her hand into a fist, punched her mattress, and swore.

"Tiff, I still think this isn't something you need to worry about."

"But, Tori," Tiff insisted.

"What if this is our fault? What if this is a direct response from what we did the other day? We beat up those guys and stole their protection money. What if this is retaliation? What if that poor clerk is in danger because of us? And, you know, if we took the money, does that mean we're the protection now? Don't we need to go protect?"

"I don't know where you keep getting this 'we' business," Victoria sighed, standing up.

"But fine. If it makes you feel better, we can drive down there and take a look around. But! We're only looking around and we're staying in the car. Understood?"

"This had better not be a convoluted ploy to get ice cream," Victoria sighed as they pulled into the parking lot. Besides the lack of stoners loitering by the entrance, nothing was different about the 24-Heaven. Tiff looked affronted.

"This is not…!" She paused, "... entirely about ice cream!" Victoria gave her the old raised eyebrow and Tiff bristled.

"Before you said anything, ice cream hadn't even entered my head. But now that it has, it's all I can think about and I'd be lying if I said I didn't want some!"

"Heh," Victoria cackled.

"Careful, Tiff, your Quirk is showing." Tiff shoved Victoria playfully as she turned off the car. But Victoria didn't get out just yet, and she turned to face Tiff seriously.

"So how do you want to play this?" She asked.

"There's no cops, no capes, no obvious bad guys that need a beating."

"The System wouldn't lie to me, would it?" Tiff asked. Victoria shook her head.

"Doubtful. It just doesn't tell you everything you need to know."

"We should have looked it up on the TAS," Tiff griped.

"Maybe we could have seen what was going on."

"Hey, we'll learn for next time," Victoria tried to soothe her.

"Not that, you know, we want there to be a next time. But since we're here, I'll take a look around."

"Okay, let's-""Whoah whoah whoah," Victoria barked as Tiff unbuckled herself and started opening the door.

"Where do you think you're going? I said I'll look around. I'm not letting you go into a potentially dangerous situation. You wait right here." Tiff blew some hair out of her face and slumped back into the seat. She watched Victoria get out, straighten, and march confidently towards the store. Victoria approached the automatic doors; they slid open… and she went inside. Moments passed. Seconds, really, though they felt like minutes. Tiff supposed this was bound to happen, but she hated waiting.

Still, Victoria told her to stay, so she'd stay. It wasn't like Tiff was itching to get into a fight or anything… but her System had her feeling antsy. A few more moments. No sounds of anything out of the ordinary. No fighting, no arguing… no sirens blaring, guns blazing, or caps being busted, into fools or otherwise. Perhaps Tiff was letting her imagination run a little too wild. Maybe she overreacted to that System alert. After all, it never actually explained what a "Contested Area" actually meant.

She closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. There was a whump on the hood and Tiff screamed. Her heart nearly flew right out of her throat and she actually jumped a little in her seat. Through the windshield, she could see Victoria grinning sheepishly. Her sister was holding a Grande Gulp in one hand and a Slim Jim in the other. She kicked the passenger door and mouthed Open up, it's broken. Tiff rolled her eyes and did so.

"Your car isn't soundproof, you know," she said as she got out. She reached up, stole Victoria's cup, and took a deep drink.

"Okay, that's fair," Victoria laughed, taking back her goods.

"Tiff, nothing's wrong with the 24-Heaven. The NBA JAM arcade isn't even out of order. I'm starting to think this was an elaborate ploy you somehow convinced the System to be a part of just to con me out of candy money."

"It was not," Tiff pouted.

"But now that we're here…."

"Yeah, yeah," Victoria rolled her eyes.

"Something small only, like one of those bags of chips that only has 8 chips in it.

'Grab Bag' my ass."

Tiff followed her sister back inside and felt relief wash over her as soon as she stepped into the air conditioning. Not only was the place not burning down, she no longer felt like she was melting, either. Victoria stuck close to Tiff as she browsed the shelves, and just like Victoria said, there didn't appear to be any immediate funny business. Tiff checked her System, but it didn't give her any new alerts or updates. She spent several moments browsing the snack aisle, indecisive, all while Victoria heckled her.

"Dare you to get the Combos," Victoria hissed, pointing to the overpriced snack. Tiff shuddered.

"No way," she shook her head vehemently.

"Combos are gross. They don't taste like pretzels or pizza."

"Come on," Victoria cackled.

"You used to love them!"

"I also used to be 7," Tiff rolled her eyes.

"You used to like them too. Who do you think I took after?"

"I'm flattered."

"You shouldn't be." Tiff eventually settled for a can of Pringles on clearance, which was likely both old and stale. At least it only cost 99 cents. Thinking nothing of it, Tiff grabbed the can and made her way to the register. That's when things got weird. She placed the can on the counter and the clerk reached to scan it, but he froze halfway there. Tiff followed his arm up to his eyes and noticed they were staring at her in shock.

"It's you," he whispered.

"Why are you back so soon?" Tiff tilted her head.

"What are you talking about? I come here all the time." Victoria squeezed her way next to Tiff, frowning.

"What's up, bub? I was just here and you didn't say anything. You trying to start something?" This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. The man looked up at Victoria, but he seemed to only have eyes for Tiff.

"We already paid this month. What more do you want?" To buy these crappy chips…? Tiff almost said, but she refrained. Then a thought occurred to her.

"Wait, paid us?" She muttered to herself. This could be a good opportunity! If the shop wasn't actually in any danger, maybe she could get that sweet customer feedback.

"Ah," Tiff nodded. Now that she looked at him, this was the same cashier that was working when…Victoria got paid. That's how they were spinning this, yes? Not that she beat up some thugs and stole a bunch of money. Now she just had to get into character.

"I trust your experience was satisfactory? Our full-service protection plan comes with many guarantees…." Victoria slapped her hand over her face and groaned, while the man behind the counter looked bewildered. Tiff… wasn't doing a great job of this, was she? The problem was, she didn't know what protection racketeers actually did. Tiff was just about to subtly get Victoria's opinion on a loyalty rewards program when another customer came in. Victoria groaned and Tiff stiffened.

She knew that sound and didn't even need to look. Why was her luck so bad? Or was it just this shop? Why was it getting robbed twice in one week?

"So," a smooth voice said.

"The fabled 'Dark Queen' makes her appearance." Well, that went zero to sixty very fast. Tiff's head whipped in the direction of the man, an average-looking guy flanked by two huge bodyguards.

[Quest: King of the Hill] There's only room for one monarch at the top. Defend your throne. Reward: +250 Infamy The previous alert was still there, but instead of being "Actively Contested," now it was paused. Tiff supposed this was the real danger, and maybe she'd received the initial warning a touch early. Tiff had a hunch she knew what the consequences of failing this quest might be, and judging from how Victoria tensed up next to her, Tiff guessed she was seeing something similar.

"What?" The man scoffed as his eyes fell on her.

"This is the 'Dark Queen'? My boys got their shit kicked in by a teenager? Hoh, when I get through here, we're going to have some words about slacking off and keeping up to standards."

"Very bold of you to think things will fare better," Tiff said. The room seemed to freeze, and everybody stared at her in shock. Even Victoria next to her looked down in surprise. If Tiff had to guess, this was the same thing that had happened back when Amy dragged them to Haxus. She'd said a single sentence, barely muttered it, and the room treated it like she was a herald of death. Now, however, Tiff couldn't even dwell on the bizarreness of the situation.

Like when she confronted Ryan last night, it seemed like large, imposing men who relied heavily on their size and stature to intimidate people bothered her. However, she wasn't intimidated. And she wasn't even annoyed. Now, Tiff was furious. Before her stood a man who was clearly rotten to the core. Unlike her parents (both of them Sidekicks), and Victoria (who'd been Neutral on the Greyscale until just recently), Tiff could feel this man's Affinity. Maybe it was a Villain thing? Did it take bad to know bad?

Tiff stared through the grinning veneer into the heart of a man she knew without a shadow of a doubt was rotten to the core. The man scoffed.

"Listen to this cocky little shit!" He laughed, nudging one of the huge men next to him.

"Talkin' all high and mighty. Well, excuse me, Princess!" The men let out guffaws of their own, but Tiff was unmoved.

"Queen," she said. The laughter died instantly. She flicked a speck of dust off her shoulder.

"You will address me by my title. I am no princess. I am the Dark Queen." At her words, everyone shivered. It felt like the AC went into overdrive, dropping the room into arctic territory. The man was no longer smiling.

"I was thinking of taking it easy on you," he snarled.

"Since you're just a kid and all. But it seems you need to learn some manners. Listen here, you little shit. You come here. Into my town! And. You. Steal. From me." Tiff felt a little wave of pressure radiate from the man, but it broke against her like ripples in a lake against a dam.

"I suppose that depends greatly on your point of view," Tiff shrugged.

"I stole nothing. Your- what did you call them? -your, ah, ' boys.' Your boys inconvenienced me greatly. They attacked, unprovoked, and so got what they deserved. As for the money? Tribute, perhaps. A just reward."

"Is this a game to you, small fry?" The man glared, but Tiff covered her mouth with the back of her palm and laughed.

"If it is, then it's a game you're losing to children. Perhaps you should retire. This life isn't suited for you. Leave." The man seemed taken aback by her intensity, but he quickly recovered.

"You think you can muscle me out of my own turf?" He sneered.

"Do you know who I am? I'm Don Lorenzo! Boss of the 5th street gang!"

"Don?" Tiff tilted her head.

"Is that some sort of rank? Are you Italian?"

"You think you're funny?" he hissed.

"It's my name! My name's Don! Donald! Like the duck!"

"Yes, I see," Tiff said in a bored voice.

"And like the cartoon, you're quite the character. But you are mistaken, Mr. Lorenzo. This is not your territory. It was. Now, it is mine. Once again, I shall permit you to leave. Begone." The man seethed with rage, his face turned red as he adjusted the collar around his neck.

"You think I'm scared of a little girl? You think because the System granted you a title, you're hot shit? Well, you'll be singing a different tune after I get through with you! Vinny, Tony, grab her!" Tiff was unfazed. She flicked her eyes toward Victoria. Besides her mom, Victoria was the strongest person Tiff knew, and Victoria knew how to fight. Tiff scoffed as she stood her ground, and the two goons seemed surprised that she didn't even flinch.

They continued to flex menacingly, but didn't know if they were really supposed to apprehend a small girl.

"With names like Vinny and Tony, are you sure you aren't Italian?" Tiff taunted.

"Are you trying to reenact The Sopranos? Well, no matter. Do you think mere thugs are worthy adversaries for my Champion?" As if for the first time, the three men seemed to notice the hulking form of Victoria looming protectively beside Tiff. The bodyguards eyed her warily but made the grave mistake of dismissing her. They took a step forward and Tiff sighed.

"Tori," Tiff muttered under her breath. She might not be afraid of the guards, but that didn't mean she wasn't cautious. Victoria caught the tension in Tiff's voice and nodded.

"You got it, boss." She took a broad stance, raised her left fist in the air, and shouted.

"Transfoooooorm!!!" Tiff cringed. Maybe they should have rehearsed this beforehand… but why would anyone ever plan on getting attacked? The building feeling of annoyance still coursed through her. She let herself get riled up by what was essentially a professional-grade bully. Tiff could easily admit that teens, as she very much was, didn't like being told where to go and what to do. They especially didn't like being looked down on or belittled. Somebody needed to teach this guy some manners.

She was already cursing herself internally; she knew she probably shouldn't have said half the things she did. It was just… so… stupid! This was supposed to be a grown-ass man, and here he was, terrorizing the local convenience store! Not that she was doing much better, as the clerk behind the register was staring at her fearfully instead of focusing on the two hulks about to rearrange Victoria's face.

But Victoria was shrouded in a flash of light in the same time it took Tiff to sigh over losing the opportunity to purchase her Pringles. Meaning, half a second after shouting out, she was replaced by the warrior in black. Honestly, Tiff thought she should be congratulated. She came up with Victoria's title on the spur of the moment, and it had potential. Champion. Dark Knight? Dark Champion? Champion of Shadow? Might need a little tweaking, but if she had to be a queen, she needed a court.

The boss fell back while the two thugs rushed forward. Vinny, the guy on the left, had a gold tooth and a buzz cut, while Tony wore a tracksuit and several silver chains. Probably not the best thing to wear into a fight with a brawler, Tiff thought, as the first thing Victoria did was grab hold of them and yank them down. They broke almost instantly, but it destabilized Tony and sent him stumbling. Victoria grabbed him by the back of the head as he bent forward and smashed his head into her knee.

He cried out, but unlike the two guys from before, he didn't crumple like a wet tissue. Blood spurted from his nose, and he rose like an angry grizzly bear. His arms were wide and his hands reached forward to grapple Victoria, but she saw it coming. Unfortunately, Vinny was also there, and he, too, was a much better fighter. He latched onto Victoria from behind, letting Tony adjust his lumbering lunge into several solid punches to Victoria's gut. Tiff felt her own gut writhe as she heard the impact.

However, Tiff was fully confident that her sister was superior. The only question was how they were going to get out of this mess Tiff had placed them in with as few scrapes as possible. Hopefully, if these two goons were anything like the last, they'd go down after a punch and the sisters could scurry away.

"Eat it, bitch," Tony sneered, landing a few more blows. Victoria quickly adjusted, using Skills of her own to break the grapple. She stomped on Vinny's foot, making him cry out, and smashed the back of her head into his face. He cried out and Victoria broke free. The fight quickly devolved into a brawl. While Tiff assumed a 2v1 scenario like this was usually extremely detrimental to the 1, Victoria held her own. In fact, Tiff almost would have thought she was taking it easy on them…

except that wasn't something Victoria would ever do. Especially if the safety of one of her family members was in question. The front of the shop was getting utterly annihilated, but Victoria dodged every attempt at restraining her as she started landing quick blows of her own. These men were clearly Might Metas, because they took her hits and kept trucking. Both parties rapidly ramped the aggression as the punches flew faster, the kicks more ruthless.

They even started making whooshing sounds as air got displaced, and Tiff swore several cans of soup got knocked over by an aftershock. But… everybody's gangsta until Vinny pulled out a fist.

"Tony," he breathed out a ragged breath.

"Look out." Tiff watched him hunch over, take a wide, low stance, and raise his right arm. His fist was clenched, and he gripped his wrist tightly with his other hand, like he was aiming a pistol. His face grew red, he started to shout, and the air around his right hand started to distort. Tony's eyes bulged and he immediately forgot about Victoria, diving to the side. A second later, a noise like a cannon exploded in the shop, and a ripple of energy shot out from his hand.

Victoria, who had been focused solely on Tony, looked up in surprise. The bullet of energy caught her straight in the chest, lifted her off her feet… and forcefully drove her backward through the wall. The glass on several cooler doors shattered and several soda machines ruptured. The room was filled with carnage, and Tiff was still processing what had just happened, unable to tell whether any of the liquid hovering in the air belonged to her sister. It did not." RRRRAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!!!"

Victoria let out some unholy sound like a demon from hell and came flying back into the shop. If she was wearing kid gloves before, they were off now. Before Vinny could catch his breath after his attack, Victoria blasted into him. She tackled him to the ground, clamped her hand over his face… and slammed it into the tile floor. Over. And. Over. Until Vinny stopped moving. Tony stood stock still, utterly shocked. He probably didn't think anything could survive Vinny's strike, and Tiff agreed.

It had taken out an entire chunk of wall. She was surprised at Victoria's rage-filled outburst, but considering the fact that Vinny just tried to kill her, Tiff no longer had the luxury to care. They needed to get out of this, now. And she trusted her sister to see them through. Victoria wasted no time, rising to a crouch and sweeping Tony's leg. As he lost balance and fell, Victoria slipped behind him, grabbed him around the waist, planted her feet, and heaved backward.

She bent completely over, slamming Tony headfirst into the floor with a squelchy crunch. Tony didn't get up. All this time, Don had slowly lost all color in his face. Gone was the arrogant mob boss seeking to make an example of some interlopers. Tiff could see the fear in his eyes. He took a step backward toward the door, but Victoria was next to him in a flash.

"I give!" He shouted as her hand gripped his shoulder like a vice.

"I give!"

"Fine," Victoria growled, and Tiff was glad her sister wasn't lost to rage. She didn't know how Victoria did it, honestly. But that was why she was the best big sister ever.

Victoria dragged Don into the back room while the clerk up front was content to hide behind the counter. He'd called the cops and they were on their way, but Tiff had one more thing to do first. Instill the fear of God and all that was holy into this miserable excuse for a human. And the best thing for that? A little bit of shrink wrap and an old wooden chair. Victoria had the man securely bound so he could thrash about, but his arms and legs weren't going anywhere.

He tried to make one or two vague threats, but they died instantly when Victoria turned her visor's gaze on him. Eventually, he started begging to be let go, making promises that he'd forget this ever happened, he'd never do it again, and so on. Tiff was uninterested. Then he made what might have been an ultimatum.

"What are you gonna do, kill me?" He asked frantically.

"You let me go now, I'll leave. You strike me down…I…I've got family. They'll find out. They'll know." Tiff gave the man a disgusted look. He had just ordered his goons to do…she didn't want to think what. She didn't know the fate of the two men who attacked Victoria, but honestly, she didn't care. So she said the first thing that came to her mind.

"Don't kill him," Tiff pronounced like a judge from on high.

"Break his legs."

The room grew still, as if it had forgotten to breathe. The man's eyes widened and Victoria was surely staring at Tiff grimly.

"You got it, boss," Victoria's deep voice resonated through the storeroom. She turned to the side, picked up what looked like an extra part for one of the shelving units, and tested it in her hand. It had the same heft to it as a metal pipe. She walked up to Don, tapped the rod against her palm twice menacingly, and loomed over him. His eyes bulged wide; he stared at her manically even as he tried to put up a brave front.

"What, are you ser- agggghhhhh!!" The moment he opened his mouth, Victoria brought her arm down with the force of a professional athlete swinging a bat. The metal struck the man straight in the thick of the thigh; there was a sickening crack, and he cried out in pain. He started rocking back and forth in agony, tears streaming down his face. Tori shifted her stance, but Tiff had seen enough.

"Victoria, that will do," she said. In truth, she wanted to vomit. She hated that she made her sister go through with it…but those men had tried to kill them. If it was up to Tiff, she wouldn't have been able to do it herself. She couldn't let this man threaten her family any more than he already had. She swallowed some spit to try and clear her throat; she had a job to finish.

"Mr. Lorenzo," Tiff said softly as she approached. She made sure she remained out of a struggling reach, and she leaned in.

"As I said. This town is no longer yours. It's mine. And not just the town, the entire city. You don't think you're dealing with a common Villain, do you?" Tiff straightened out, turned her back, and walked several paces away. She glanced over her shoulder in a careless, disdainful way, and snapped her fingers. Despite never practicing it before, her System screen materialized with a puff of black smoke and crimson petals from a phantom rose. There, in blood red writing, was proof of her authority.

[Theophania VanDyne] Dark Queen Supervillain The man's eyes went wide and he stopped struggling. The tears continued streaming down his cheeks, but the fight had left him.

"Holy God above," he muttered in awe.

"A real Supervillain in the flesh. Mother Mary, all the saints…."

"Save me your platitudes," Tiff waved her hand.

"I am not unmerciful. I shall allow you to live. But before the ambulance arrives to remove what remains of your friends out there, you will tell me everything you know."