"I don't know if this is a good idea Emma." Said Sophia looking around the football field of Winslow high illuminated only by the moonlight."I get the plan for the locker, but this? Getting into school this late at night to prepare all this is too much work and risk even with your obsession for Hebert."

"I'm telling you Sophia, this will work. Hundred percent guaranteed, it says so in here." Said Emma holding up an old and battered looking booklet.

"What the hell is that? and where did you get it?"

" Well, remember the other night? When you had a night off from work and we found those ABB while we were patrolling..."

"Eh, guys" came Madison's voice from a hole in the ground next to them. "You remember that I'm still here, right?"

"Shut up Madison" answered both girls at the same time.

"And keep digging, it needs to be deeper." added Emma peering into the hole.

"Yeah, I'm on it, I'm on it" said Madison picking up her shovel "Bully the loner girl, they said. You'll get into a popular clique, they said. It will be fun, they said. Fun my pretty little ass." Came her muttered ramblings. "Stupid psycho vigilante bitches."

"What was that?" Asked Sophia.

"Nothing, nothing, just little old me. Here. Digging." Answered Madison with a strained smile.

Sophia shot her a suspicious glare and took Emma's arm leading her away from the hole. "Right, you were saying"

"Well, after you took down those ABB losers I went to make sure that they stayed down and to take our spoils of war ..."

"You mean you went apeshit crazy on them when they were already down and took all their money"

"Same difference" said Emma waving her hand dismissively. "The thing is that one of them had this old martial arts manual that explains how to train someone in an ancient mystical martial arts technique."

"Wait, since when can you read Chinese or whatever those squiggles are? "Sophia pointed to the booklet cover.

"I can't but it has the translation to English on every odd page." Replied Emma happily opening the booklet to show it to her.

"And you don't find that strange" said Sophia with an incredulous look.

"Nope, it's just lucky"

"And you don't use it yourself, why?"

"Because I'm allergic to cats. That's why I had Madison get all those hungry stray cats instead of doing it myself"

"I thought it was because we always make her do all the menial labor"

"Well, that too. Anyway this time I am sure that it will work and Taylor will come out of this as someone strong, someone worthy of being our friend."

"Wait," came Madison's voice again from the hole "are you telling me that all the things that we have been doing to Taylor were just to test if she could be your friend? I thought that you were doing it because you have low self esteem derived from a traumatic experience and you had a compulsive need to push her down to prove to yourself that you are over your weak old self when the truth is that you should seek professional help."

For a second both Emma and Sophia looked at the hole disbelievingly before saying at the same time "shut up and dig Madison! "

"I'm digging, I'm digging. I'm just saying that I'm glad that you didn't put me through all that before becoming friends"

"We are not friends Madison, you are just our minion."

"Oh ... ok" Replied Madison "as long as you don't mind if I mention you as my references. Right now minion is the only job with any future here in the bay and with almost a year and a half of experience maybe I could apply for a job with Uber and Leet ... Uber is so dreamy tehe."

"Whatever, we don't want to hear your stupid fantasies, just ..." Said Sophia with a twitch in her eye.

"I know, I know" interrupted Madison "Shut up and dig, always shut up and dig."

Sophia took the booklet from Emma and leafed trough it "So, according to this to 'teach' this ancient martial arts technique we must wrap the trainee in dried fish and throw them into a pit full of hungry cats."

"Yes," said Emma brightly "isn't that brilliant? We have the cats, we'll have the pit when Madison finishes and the dried fish that I ordered from the internet should arrive tomorrow. There is nothing that could possibly go wrong."

"Right, of course." Replied Sophia evenly, the twitch in her eye getting even worse. "must not facepalm."

"Anyway even if it somehow blows up in our face and we get caught I'm sure I can spin it to make it seem like the cats are Taylor's, the pit is just a big sandbox she made for the cats and she fell into it when she went to feed them. It'll be like that time that we convinced Blackwell that Taylor assaulted your fist with her face."

Sophia put an arm around Emma's shoulders and began to lead her out of the school "Listen Emma, it's getting late, and we still have the rest of the winter break to decide if we go trough with this or not, after all we still have the locker thing as an alternative. Why don't you sleep on it and we'll see what you think about it tomorrow."

"Ok, but can we beat some punks on the way home? And by we I mean you kick their asses and I kick them when they are down"

"Of course Emma, of course" Sophia let out a resigned sigh as they got out of Winslow.

"Ok, I think this is deep enough. Guys, I need a hand to get out of here. Emma? Sophia? Come on this isn't funny."

"I still can't believe it worked. It's been what? Almost three weeks and I still can't believe it." Said Sophia walking next to Emma on their way to class.

"Told you so" Replied Emma smugly before pouting "a pitty that we couldn't use it on Taylor though, even when we had everything ready. What the hell was Greg doing sneaking into school anyway?"

"From the bag they found in the pit once they removed the cats it looks like he was trying to plant some hidden cameras. Most likely in the girls locker room, the creep."

"But it shouldn't have worked without the dried fish to make the cats attack him."

"Well it seems like he took a part time job in a seafood restaurant to get money for the cameras and he did a double shift before trying to sneak in here."

"Have the Protectorate caught him yet? "

"No, last time they saw him he was being chased by Lung through the docks because Greg somehow ended inside the ABB's main base and used Lung's favorite chair as a scratch post. And even if they upgraded Greg's Striker rate to seven after they saw that those energy claws of his could shred even hardened containment foam they were more worried about Lung because, you know, big rampaging dragon."

"And the locker thing was a bust, instead of making Taylor stronger all we managed is getting her hospitalized. Obviously the martial arts angle is the right one."

"Come on Emma, why don't you admit that maybe Hebert doesn't have what it takes to be strong?"

"No, I have been doing research to find something easy to train her on after she gets back from the hospital. Have you ever heard of the seikyuken? Apparently to train her we just have to attack her at random times to help her develop some kind of danger sense."

"And that's different from what we usually do how?"