Chapter 22

Tiff and Victoria sat in the Camry in the parking lot for the 24-Heaven, eating their ice cream in silence. It was perhaps the most awkward soft serve Tiff had ever eaten, even more than the time Tiff had eaten a scoop of butter pecan in front of Amy, who was staring at her tearfully because she wasn’t allowed any since she was grounded.

Tiff thought nothing would have ever topped that experience until now. The clerk behind the counter thrust the bag of laundered money on Victoria, because he was just the middle man and didn’t want any part of getting between two Villains fighting for territory. So, in a genius move that would be praised by historians for generations to come, Tiff and Victoria both decided to use said money to buy their ice cream.

It wasn’t until they were outside that they realized what they did.

“Did we just rob that guy?” Tiff asked.

“I’m…not sure,” Victoria frowned. “I…don’t think so?”

“So what do we do with this?”

Tiff held up the bag of cash that was sitting between her legs while she focused on her ice cream. There had to be several thousand dollars inside, bundled in stacks of 20s. Victoria glanced at it out of the corner of her eye and slowly savored some soft serve.

“Keep it?” She suggested. It wasn’t like they were going to throw it away.

“Should we turn it in?” Tiff asked. Victoria chuckled.

“To who?” She shook her head. “Not the cops. Could you imagine? I’m sure they’d be happy to take it off our hands. Or, better yet, they’d probably ask where we got it. I’m not sure that’s a line we want to be following. I don’t know. Maybe we should ask Dad.”

“You’re probably right,” Tiff agreed. “Though…I guess if we do keep it, maybe we won’t have to worry about your job anymore.”

“What’s this we business, munch?” Victoria laughed. “You don’t need to worry about my employment or finances.”

“Except I’m kind of your employer now,” Tiff grumbled. Victoria said nothing but continued to eat her ice cream thoughtfully.

​

All things considered, Tiff and Tori hadn’t been gone very long. The “fight” (if it could even be called that) only lasted a handful of seconds, a minute at most, and the clerk seemed entirely unconcerned about it afterward. So, after driving to the corner store, eating ice cream, and going back home, the girls had only been gone for about 30 minutes.

Tiff was very surprised to see how much work her dad had done on her TAS.

The old server rack had been replaced with a sleek, low-profile unit that was simultaneously smaller and more powerful. Tiff wouldn’t understand the specifics even if Amy or their dad took the time to point everything out, so she was just happy to hear it was “better.”

The most striking improvement, the first thing Tiff noticed when she walked into her dad’s office, was that it was connected to multiple monitors, each displaying something different. One had the home menu with the root options, one showed a list of emails and announcements (though none were open), and three were devoted to different sections of the map.

Rick and Amy were playing a bizarre hybrid of geoguesser and battleship, trying to find and point out various landmarks they had each designated on their own screens. The map still had the same wireframe-esque visuals, but they almost seemed more…defined. Like not only had the TAS been given an upgrade in the monitor department, but the actual visuals, too. Amy was staring at an old KFC that still had a giant bucket of chicken slowly rotating on a pole above its roof. Most of the chains Tiff had seen had gotten rid of theirs long ago, if they ever had one in the first place, and this one had obvious weather streaks and stains. The noise of the girls stepping into the room drew Rick and Amy’s attention, and her dad immediately brightened upon seeing them.

​“Tiff! There you are. I gotta say, this map is incredible. Did you know you can zoom all the way in to see street signs?”

Tiff rolled her eyes. Yes, she did know that. But as she looked closer, some of the finer details seemed missing. There weren’t any cars on the roads, no pedestrians on the sidewalk. As a consequence, there weren’t any speech bubbles telling her people’s conversations, either. Only, as soon as Tiff drew near, the screens flickered and all those missing elements started populating.

“Huh?” Rick muttered, while Amy looked excited.

“See?! There they are!” She pointed at her screen. “I’m not crazy!”

“I never said you were,” Rick mused. “So is it proximity-based? Did they show up because Tiff came back? Maybe something to do with permissions….”

Rick was busy staring at a section road leading toward downtown Los Angeles, but Amy had returned to their house and was focused on Rick’s study.

“Oh,” she said, looking at the small pips-for-people representing their family. “OH!”

As she was talking, the little Amy on-screen mirrored her every move, including a little speech bubble that said “oh” popping up above her head. Rick leaned over and watched his counterpart do the same.

“Interesting….”

Interesting….

Tiff shook her head.

“Are we really doing this right now?”

Are we really doing this right now?

Her sister and dad watched the bubble appear over Tiff’s head on the screen, and then both turned to stare at her with grins on their faces.

“Enough of this,” Tiff sighed, squeezing her way between them to scroll away the camera. Even Victoria was getting in on it, as her large frame was starting to elbow Tiff out as she leaned forward.

“Aww,” her sisters groaned sadly, watching the bubbles disappear as the camera floated out of the house into a bird’s-eye view of the neighborhood. But that only brought up more questions, as something appeared that Tiff hadn’t seen before.

“What’s that?” Amy asked, pointing at a building that was brighter, as if it were highlighted.

“Wait a minute,” Victoria frowned. “That’s 24-Heaven. We were just there.”

“You just went to the corner store?” Amy gasped. “And you didn’t take me?!”

“You were busy,” Victoria grinned. “Tiff, why’s it glowing?”

Tiff moved the cursor to the shop and clicked on it. The shop magnified on the screen, slowly rotating in a circle.

Unlike zooming into a location, the rest of the map had completely vanished. The corner store was floating in a void, with nothing else attached…except Tiff could see all the extra areas, like the bathroom, and places regular customers weren’t allowed in, like the break and storage room. Perhaps more interestingly, or more distressing the longer Tiff looked at it, was a tag in the top corner of the screen that read: area controlled.

Tiff clicked on the icon, but instead of changing the screen, a System window popped up in front of her.

“Wah!” Tiff let out a shocked cry, having not expected that.

“What is it?” Victoria quickly asked.

“I got a window,” Tiff shook her head. “I’m okay.”

“What’s it say?”

“You can’t see it?”

Victoria gave her a flat look and Tiff blushed. She twirled the screen around and showed it to everybody.

​

[This section of your Territory is directly under your control.]

​

“Gee, thanks, System,” Tiff said rather crossly. “I think I could have guessed that myself.”

“Sure, but what does controlling something actually mean?” Victoria asked. Tiff concentrated harder.

​

[Controlled areas grant Influence. Influence affects many things, such as types, quantities, and Affiliation of generated Quests. Aligning Affinities are more likely to receive beneficial quests, and such quests are more likely to succeed, while quests for opposing Affinities will offer greater rewards to shut you down. As your Influence grows, so does your Infamy.]

​

“That sounds horrible,” Tiff complained. “Why would I ever want to spread my Influence then?”

“That might be,” Victoria said cautiously, “But remember what happened the last time you tried ignoring your Class? The last two times, actually?”

Tiff thought back and immediately paled. The first time was when the System gave her a quest to put her core down and she ignored it. The System then gave her an ultimatum. Fortunately, the Quest she received had been somewhat benign. Then there was the matter of not finding out what Victoria’s new Class was capable of, and of discovering it potentially derailed her entire life.

What would happen if Tiff decided to ignore this new Influence?

“Hey, what’s this?” Amy asked. She pointed at the screen, where the 24-Heaven was still revolving. Near the cash register was a floating $ sign. Tiff hadn’t given it any thought; since Amy pointed it out, it did seem slightly out of place. She clicked on it.

Underneath the area controlled section, a new line appeared. Racket established. Payment collected. Next pickup available in 6 days, 23 hours.

Amy and Rick both slowly turned to stare at Tiff and Victoria. Victoria started whistling and turned away, leaving Tiff to hold the bag. Quite literally.

“Ahaha,” Tiff laughed sheepishly, putting the sack of bills onto the desk. “We, uh, went to get ice cream.”

Amy peeked inside the sack and squawked, her eyes bulging wide, while Rick stared harder.

“We also got paid?”

The second she let the corners of the sack flop down and the money peeked out, something amusing happened. Tiff got a quest, and judging from how Victoria and her dad were also staring into space, they also got quests. After several seconds, Tiff snatched up the sack while her dad and sister faced off.

“Tori,” Rick said seriously, though something about his twitching lips gave him away. “You’re under arrest.”

Victoria scoffed.

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“No.”

Rick sighed and heaved his shoulders in a dramatic way.

“Welp. I tried.”

He manifested a screen and flipped it around.

​

[Quest: Stop, Thief!]

​

Apprehend a criminal escaping with ill-gotten goods.

Reward: +25 Fame

Status: Failed

​

“I win!” Victoria cackled, displaying her own screen.

​

[Quest: Shakedown]