There was a celebratory mood as we huddled up on the sofas with our loot piled on the table. It couldn't be mistaken for anything as we ooohed and ahhhhed over pirate gold and rare and exotic jewelry. Even Bitch got into the mood as she placed gold crowns on the heads of her dogs.

"You know, the coin seems heavier than I expected," Alec's voice held bemusement in it as he ran a gold doubloon up and down his fingers,

I smiled at him. "It's heavy with awesome is what. Pirate gold!"

"Are you sure... we can't keep some of the jewelry?" Madison's question got a shake of head from the rest of us. It was really obvious why.

"Come on, we're all getting ten grand," Brian smiled at Madison. "Ten grand each for a successful mission. We just need to drop off our shiny loot with the boss, and we're good."

"Ten thousand dollars," Madison's voice was small and low as she thought about just what could be done with that money.

Tattletale smirked now. "Yeap, I bargained him up to it."

I had to nod slowly at Madison. It was a princely amount of money and I could see how such an amount would be stunning. Neither of us were wealthy like Emma. That kind of money was staggeringly huge, particularly for two school girls. And it was for each of us. "Well, we did earn it. And man, going to be honest here, I was surprised by New Wave being there and stepping up to try and stop us."

"Hey, things happen and it's not your fault for the bad intel, they weren't in costume," Brian replied with a nod.

"Hey, I will admit that I wasn't expecting Brandish to still be a looker at that age." Alec just smirked. "I thought her looks were mainly due to a good costume with inserts."

"Hoh, I didn't know you were into older women, Alec." Lisa's eyebrow was raised devilishly now. "I guess my virtue is safe from you."

"No, now you're just joking about," He replied with a smile and a waggle of his eyebrows. "I am a known womanizer, and now that I have fabulous wealth coming my way, the men of Brockton Bay are going to be locking the nubile ladies away from me."

"You know, despite having all this gold here, it feels like we're missing something," I frowned. "It doesn't quite feel like everything we did, all the planning, all the sneaking about paid off for a single moment of success."

"Ice cream," Bitch's words were surprising as she spoke up. "What you want is ice cream."

I looked at Lisa, she at me, before we looked at Madison. "Rachel's got a point there. I could do with ice cream."

"I'm down with ice cream, it's been ages since I've had any," Alec frowned. "But are there any places that sells ice cream at this time?"

We all exchanged looks before our gazes ended on Tattletale. "Seriously, guys? Come on, you can't expect me to know everything like where the nearest Ben & Jerry's is."

The looks we directed at her soon had her caving into our wishes as she sighed and pulled out her laptop to search for the nearest ice cream parlor that was still open at this time.

.


Goblin Queen | Heaven can be found in simple things

Worm / Exalted


.

We ended with Brian, Alec, and Rachel guarding the loot. Meanwhile, Lisa was our designated driver while Madison and I didn't quite bounce in our seats.

There was something about ice cream that was associated with fun.

Just the act of getting such was enough to make it exciting. Doubly so when we were doing it as a reward. A quick check on my phone had me typing a response to a Parahumans Online thread after reading out the opening post to Lisa and Madison.

"I'll have to check those videos afterwards," Lisa said with a nod as we pulled into the parking lot of the Hero's restaurant.

A figure dressed in black, with a flaring cape, roared into the parking lot on a sleek black motorbike. Well, it didn't really roar or rumble as a motorbike normally would. Instead, there was a low pitched whine that sounded like it came from a sci fi movie. It was clearly a bike designed with principles and technologies reversed from tinker tech.

That this was a cape wasn't in doubt.

That it was a Ward also wasn't in doubt.

How could I even doubt it, given that I had met her before in Winslow.

It was Shadow Stalker, my favorite stalker.

"We still doing this?" Lisa looked at the two of us with a raised eyebrow. I nodded in response as did Madison. There might have been a Ward going into that restaurant, but ice cream was at stake here.