Servant of the Queen

Silver Rose walked into the house with her aunt, who deep in thought. It seemed that she took the request to learn about the East seriously.

Silver Platter was standing just inside the first floor dining room. He was wiping his face with a handkerchief. Silver Rose cocked her head to the side. She hadn’t thought it was that hot, especially not inside.

“Oh, young mistress,” Silver Platter said once Silver Rose was in view. “Your mother wanted to speak to you. She’s in the living room on the right.”

Silver Rose nodded and left her aunt to speak more with the butler. She found her way to the aforementioned living room, whose door was closed. She raised her hand and knocked.

“Mother? Are you in there?”

“The door’s unlocked,” came the muffled voice.

Silver Rose turned the handle and stepped inside. The first thing she noticed was that it was unusually dark inside, aside from the numerous heaters that were in a corner of the room, and the fire that was crackling in the fireplace at a rather high intensity. All the windows were shut and curtained.

Ebony Wings was reclining on a couch in front of the fire. There was a decanter of what appeared to be whiskey next to her and she was drinking from a shot glass. From the looks of it, half the decanter was already gone.

“So you’re back from school,” Ebony Wings said without turning around. “Come. I have managed to secure a venue in the city for your friend, so let’s talk about what we will do next.”

“Umm, yes mother…” Silver stepped closer. She wanted to know why all the heaters were out, but she was too afraid to ask.

“Want a drink?” Silver’s mother held up a shot glass with amber liquid in it. “Tastes kind of like popcorn.”

“Umm… no thank you.”

“Good.” Her mother set the glass down. “Your aunt won’t let me let you drink anyway. Come closer.”

Upon approaching the couch, Silver Rose could see that her mother was draped in a fluffy white dressing gown and wearing thick matching slippers.

Silver Rose knew she and her relatives could not feel the heat, but suddenly Silver Platter’s behaviour made sense. It must have been boiling in this room for the humans. The very air felt stale and muggy, but it was still breathable.

“Have you and your friend decided on what you want to put on display yet?” Ebony asked mildly. She examined a glass of whiskey in the firelight, turning it around in her fingers. There was a crest on the glass and decanter, showing off a crescent moon.

Silver Rose gulped. “Um, yes. I think Canvas has put together a compilation of what she wants shown.”

“Good,” Ebony said, drinking her shot. “That means we can move on to the next stage then.”

“And what is that, mother?”

Ebony Wings put down her glass of whiskey and turned her head around. “Why, sending out invitations to all my famous friends, of course. But first I need to know what genre of art this Canvas Splash does before I can advertise her to my other art-loving associates.”

“Oh!” Silver had not thought of that. “I’ll ask her right away.”

“That can wait. Right now, I’ve had your aunt start working on your uniform for the night of the blood moon, which, interestingly enough, occurs on Halloween night.”

“Oh, I have a uniform?” Silver couldn’t think of why she needed one.

“Yes, you do. Your aunt tells me that its design is similar to a certain kind of kimono that she wore while playing general to a certain Eastern emperor. I don’t know what that means, but she hasn’t let me down yet.

“You’ll report to her later this week for fitting,” Ebony continued, taking another draught of whiskey. “I assume you’ll learn more about the plan then.”

The actress examined her glass in the firelight, turning it over and over as if looking for a secret inside it.

Silver shuffled her feet. “Is… is that all, mother?”

“Hmm? Oh, you’re still here. Yes, you’re dismissed. Go call your friend and you can tell me what she said at dinner.”

Silver scurried away and only whipped out her phone when she was back in her room. This was quite the exciting plan. She would finally get to give Canvas the recognition she deserved. She was such a talented artist, but people could never get past her odd nature long enough to notice that. Perhaps through this, Silver could actually change all that. Perhaps.

“Saturday afternoon. Just after lunch hour. The target? Minty Moonshine’s Cafe. Five daring and fearless girls, out on the hunt for truth and justice.”

“Indy? Who are you talking to?” Lemon asked as she stopped at a red light.

Indigo looked up from the various duffle bags that she had brought. “I’m narrating. All good heist movies have a narration.”

“This isn’t a heist movie, Indigo,” Sugarcoat sighed. “It’s not even a heist. We’re just going to see what their security cameras have on Sunny’s date day.”

“We’re sneaking in and stealing information,” Indigo insisted. “That’s a heist in my book!”

“Aren’t heists, you know...illegal?” Sour Sweet looked through one of the bags. “Masks? Really?”

“Hey, I don’t make the heisting rules,” Indigo shrugged. She picked up a mask of a fox with a cap and put it on her face. “It’s just what you gotta do on missions like this.”

“You play too many video games…” Sugarcoat said flatly.

Sunny Flare was very quiet through all this.

“Just as long as we don’t get arrested…” Sour Sweet fished out a mask of an eyeball from the bag.

“You’re really going with her plan?” Sugarcoat looked at a mask skeptically. “You don’t think there might be a better way to go about this?”

“Nope!” Indigo said cheerfully. “Now, did anyone bring a medic bag?”

“Why would we even need one. You’re not planning on getting shot, are you?”

“I was talking about candy. It can get dreadfully sour sitting there and waiting. Would be nice to have a little something to rejuvenate our palates.”

“I’ve always got some.” Lemon Zest shook of tin of mints from the driver’s seat. “I always keep some nibbles in the van in case of being stuck in traffic.”

As the crew got closer to the cafe, Sunny Flare’s eyes grew more and more narrow. There was definitely something off here. She’d had this strange premonition for a while that her friend, Silver Rose, was not what she seemed, but now she was associating her with vampires? Were those really even fangs she had seen? She wasn’t even sure what she saw had been real or not, but she’d known for a while that Silver was a little… odd.

She still remembered how the girl had jumped clear over their heads during one particular run, back when she still had a problem with her. And then there was the time she ripped the cubicle door off its hinges with her own two hands. Silver seemed to be able to do things no normal human could do. Was it a possibility she could be a vampire? They had settled on witches for a while, but now she wasn’t sure.

“We’re here,” Lemon announced, parking the van across the street from the cafe. It was after lunch hour, so there weren’t very many customers eating there. The streets were relatively quiet as well, with only three pedestrians hurrying around from patch of shade to shade, trying to avoid the sweltering sun. Thankfully, the air conditioning inside the van was still going strong.

“Alright, gang,” Indigo said, grinning evilly. “Our goal is to sneak into the cafe, and get into the security camera room for footage of the day of Silver Rose and Sunny Flare’s date. We have to do this in stealth, or there’ll be millions of cops coming down on us like a load of bricks. Any questions?”

“Yeah, one. There aren’t going to be that many cops. We’re not criminals. Stop treating this like a game! If we get caught, that’s it.” Sugarcoat rubbed her forehead. “Do you know what Principal Cinch would do if we get arrested? Our careers are all on the line, so don’t do anything flashy. All we want is the footage.”

“That doesn’t sound like a question to me. But whatever, the same plan stands. We sneak into the security rooms and get the footage of the cafe. Lemon!” Indigo barked. “Did you bring the flash drive?”

“Got ‘er right here,” Lemon held up a small plastic stick with a lid. “All clear.”

“Right.” Indigo stood up and dusted her skirt, taking the flash drive from Lemon and pocketing it. “From here on, it’s codenames only. We don’t want to risk getting caught. So I’ll be… Fearless Leader. Lemon, you’re Salad.”

“Why am I salad and you’re a fearless leader?” The lime haired girl complained. “I want to be Gyro. You know, like a wheel. Since I’m driving.”

“Okay, okay, Gyro, then. Sugarcoat, you’ll be Brain, since you’re the smart one. Sour Sweet
can be… Soap. It sounds similar.”

“I can’t believe we’re doing this…” Sugarcoat groaned.

“...and Sunny can be Snatch.”

“What?!” Sunny exclaimed. “What kind of a code name is that?!”

Indigo shrugged. “Nothing wrong with that. We’re snatching the security footage here. Plus you know, we’re doing this in the first place, because you can’t keep a girl out of your snatch.”

Sunny still looked unhappy about this, but Indigo was already moving on to the next step.

“Okay. We’ll need masks, which we’ll hide under our clothes. Everything else we can keep in the bags until we need it.”

“How are we supposed to hide these under our clothes?” Sunny took out a mask of a pig from the bag. “There’s nowhere to put them.”

“Why do we need masks anyway?” Sour Sweet growled.

“Because that’s what heisters wear when heisting. Masks!” Indigo slipped hers into her shirt where it left an oddly shaped lump. “Can’t knock the traditions, now.”

Sugarcoat frowned. “It doesn’t work. Now you just look like you have a tumor.”

“We’ll also need to case the joint,” Indigo instructed after taking her mask out of her shirt and tucking it in the back of her skirt instead. “See how many guards and cameras there are. Remember, if we’re detected, we’ll have to either run or fight off the cops.”

“We’re not fighting the cops.”

“Yeah well, don’t get caught, then. Hey, are we there yet?”

Lemon sighed. “We’ve been here for like ten minutes already.”

“Excellent,” Indigo said. “Gyro, you and Brain will keep the staff occupied. Snatch, you’re with me. We’re going after the footage.”

“What about me?” Sour Sweet asked.

“Oh yeah, Soap, you’ll be lookout. If you see someone coming, delay them and signal us. Do you know how to do bird calls?”

“What.” Sour Sweet deadpanned.

“You know, something like, hoo-ooh, hoo-ooh.” Indigo cupped her hands over her mouth. “You know? Like a bird.”

“I get that,” Sour Sweet snapped.“What I want to know, is why?”

Indigo clicked her tongue. “Duh, speaking is too obvious. No one will suspect anything if they hear a bird calling.”

“Fine…”

“Good,” Indigo nodded. Then she turned to Sunny. “Grab that duffel bag. We’ll need it.”

“What’s inside?” Sunny hefted the rather heavy bag onto her shoulder.

Indigo Zap smirked and gave Sunny a thumbs up. “It’s a special tool that will help us later.”

“Okay, let’s go. We’re wasting enough time as it is.” Sugarcoat threw the doors open, with Sunny hopping out first and making her way to the cafe with the bag.

“Look at her go.” Indigo was out next. “Do you really think Silver’s a vampire?”

“Only one way to find out.” Sugarcoat adjusted her glasses. “We can say Sunny’s crazy if we don’t see Silver on the tapes.”

“You know what’s nice?” Sour Sweet followed behind them, a smile on her face. “Sunny hasn’t touched herself in a while. In front of us, at least.”

“Oh hey, Sour Sweet’s right!” Indigo exclaimed. “It’s been a while since you’ve had to use the fire extinguisher on her.”

“Maybe it’s all this talk about her girlfriend being a vampire. I don’t see how a bloodsucking demon would turn even Sunny on, no matter how crazy she is.”

“But I thought we thought it was a spell,” Lemon said.

“Well, if they turn out to be vampires, then it’s probably just Sunny being a nymphomaniac,” Sugarcoat answered bluntly.

The five Shadowbolts entered the cafe, escorted to a table by a waiter.

“Right,” Indigo said in a low voice so as not to be overheard. “Gyro, Brain, Soap, you make a scene that’ll bring all the staff out here. Snatch and me will go find their security room and get in.”

“Must you really call me Snatch?” Sunny hissed.

“Codenames, Snatch. So we can protect our identities.”

Sunny grumbled. “Hey, I haven’t even touched myself down there in a week, okay? So can we change my codename?”

“No time for changing the plan so drastically,” Indigo said quietly. “Now, me and Snatch will head off the bathroom. Soap, you signal us when the distraction starts.”

And with that, Indigo yanked Sunny’s arm and pulled her off to the bathrooms, with the duffle bags in tow.

Sour Sweet, Sugarcoat, and Lemon Zest were left at the table, looking at each other in varying states of confusion.

“So…” Lemon slowly drew out the word. “What do we do now?”

“I guess we get things started.” Sugarcoat sighed and flung a glass of water at Sour Sweet’s face.

She spluttered and coughed, then flashed her friend a furious look. “Hey, what gives?!”

Sugarcoat shrugged and glanced at Lemon. “Ready to take one for the team?”

“What?” Lemon asked, just before Sugarcoat picked up a fork and stabbed her in the arm with its sharp little tines. “Ow! Ow! What the-!”

“Why, you little!” Sour Sweet lunged across the table and clamped her hands around Sugarcoat’s throat.

“Gurk!” Sugarcoat made a noise like a mouse being stepped on and tried to wrench Sour Sweet’s hands off. Meanwhile, Lemon Zest yanked the fork from her arm and grabbed Sour Sweet around the middle to pull her off Sugarcoat.

“Chill out, Soap!” Lemon grunted.

Meanwhile…

“Okay, sounds like Brain and Gyro have started the distraction,” Indigo said, cocking her head to the side. “Time to mask on.”

“We really have to wear these?” Sunny pulled out her pig mask from the back of her skirt. She looked around, afraid of someone seeing them with the masks, but it seemed that all eyes were currently on the brawl that was brewing in the dining area. Even some of the attendees had run out from behind the counter to assist.

“Yes, Snatch. Now put it on.”

Indigo slipped on her fox mask, then adjusted the hat on top of it. She then led Sunny out of the side corridor and down into a section labeled ‘employees only’. They passed the entrance to the kitchen, and found themselves at a pair of doors at the end of the hallway. One was labeled ‘fire exit’, and the other was labeled ‘security’.

“This is the one,” Indigo said gleefully. “Now pass me the drill.”

Sunny stared at Indigo from behind her mask. “The what?!” she hissed in disbelief.

“Yeah, there’s a drill in that bag. That’s how we’ll get through the door.”

“But what if-”

Indigo cut her off. “No time for that, Snatch! The drill!”

Sunny didn’t protest more and handed her friend the orange drill that was in the bag. She figured she would just run away if someone hears it. The device was crudely constructed of an ordinary power drill, a clamp, and a kitchen timer, all held together with duct tape.

Indigo mounted the drill onto the door handle and tightened the clamp. Then she reached over to the handle of the drill and turned it on.

A loud, high pitched whine emanated from the drill as the bit began to bore into the door. Wood shavings fell on the floor, making Indigo grin behind her mask. It was just as she had imagined! Now all they needed was some epicly written music to go along with their heist.

Out in the kitchen, an adult’s voice could be heard.

“Hey, what’s that sound?”

“See? We’re going to get caught! Shut it off!” Sunny grabbed her head and took a few steps back. “Indy! Stop it! Someone’s going to come over here!”

“Wait, I think I almost have it!”

“Seriously, stop!” Sunny grabbed her shoulder and yanked her back.

“Hey, I was almost done!” Indigo hissed and stopped the drill. There was a small hole in the door, just under the knob. “See? I’ll have it in no time.”

“Just hide! That drill of yours is too noisy!” Sunny shoved her into a supplies closet near the security room and shut the door as quietly as she could.

“Hey, what’s this thing?” They heard someone outside say. “Is this some kind of renovation thing, this drill?”

“Snatch, we were so close!” Indigo whispered. “I would’ve had that door open if I had a couple more seconds.”

There were muffled screams and the sound of glass breaking. Some of the screaming sounded familiar.

“Wow, Gyro and Brain are really going for that distraction, aren’t they, Snatch?”

“We are going to get in so much trouble for this,” Sunny hissed. “And stop calling me Snatch!”

Indigo peeked through the keyhole of the closet door.

“It looks clear. Come on, let’s finish drilling that door!”

Opening the door a crack, Indigo peered out into the hallway. The drill was still attached to the security room door, which Indigo was thankful for. Still wearing their masks, Sunny and Indigo crept out of the supply closet and over to the security door. Indigo was just about to press the button to restart the drill when Sunny tried the door handle.

The door swung open. It had not even been locked.

Sunny felt like strangling Indigo right then and there, but she restrained herself from doing so. The faster they finished this, the faster they could get out before anyone could suspect a thing.

“Okay, uh…” Indigo stood before a row of monitor screens and scratched her head. “How do we do this?”

“You don’t know?” Sunny really wanted to strangle her right now.

“Urmm… I guess we’ll have to mess with the controls.” Indigo began tapping keys on the keyboard to see if anything would happen.

Outside, there were sounds of squawking, like that of a bird, but then not quite like a real bird.

“Quickly! That’s Soap’s signal!” Indigo said, scrambling around to find the footage. Finally, she found a menu that had the dates on it. “Here! What day did you come here with Silver on?”

“I-I… I don’t remember!”

“Hurry, Snatch!”

“Stop pressuring me! And don’t call me Snatch!”

Sunny walked about the room, trying to remember which day she had been here at the cafe. That’s right. They hadn’t been at school, so it must’ve been the weekend. The next day wasn’t a Monday, so it could only have been Saturday.

“Just last Saturday,” Sunny blurted out quickly. “We were here on Saturday.”

Indigo fiddled with the controls until she reached Saturday. Her eyes were a blur as she went through the footage. The bird sounds came again, louder and more urgently this time.

“You know what, screw this,” Indigo said and slammed the flash drive into the computer. “I’ll just download everything from Saturday and we can sort through it back at the safehouse.”

“Safehouse?” Sunny repeated blankly.

“Should take only about a couple minutes to get it all,” Indigo’s fingers raced across the keyboard. “Snatch, keep them off me until then!”

“What do you want me to do?” Sunny threw her hands up. “Spit on them?”

“I don’t know, be creative!” Indigo barked. “Just a minute or two more…”

“Ugh!” Sunny went to the door and cautiously peeked her head out. There still wasn’t anyone in the hallway, so she edged out and crept along to the exit.

There was some kind of argument going on in the dining area. It sounded like Lemon Zest was having a shouting match with Sour Sweet, and Sour Sweet was winning.

"Let me go, Gyro! I'm going to strangle her!"

"Miss, please calm down!" one of the staff members pleaded.

“Just stop it!” Lemon Zest struggled to keep Sour Sweet pinned.

“She’s going to get it!” She growled and let out that weird squawking sound.

Sunny slapped a hand to her pig mask. It was a false alarm. She’d probably already forgotten she was to be the lookout.

A hand slapped down on Sunny’s shoulder and she jumped with a shrill squeak.

“Hey, what was that?” One of the attendants turned around.

Sunny was pulled back into the hallway and Indigo pressed a hand on her mask’s mouth. “What are you doing? It’s just me! I got the drive, let’s go! Quickly!” Indigo grabbed the drill and the bags and flapped her hand at Sunny to move.

The two girls ran off down the hall, then went out the back, through an emergency door. The sun was immediately in Sunny’s eyes as they ran, finding Lemon’s bright van in no time. Throwing open the side, they both hopped in, with Indigo slamming it shut as soon as Sunny’s legs were through.

“Phew!” She threw off her fox mask and adjusted her hair and goggles. “That was a close one, but we did it! We got the footage!”

Sunny Flare sat on the floor of the van, panting from the sprint and the heat. “What about the others?”

“Sorry, Snatch, but they’re left for dead.”

“What?!” Sunny’s jaw dropped and she could do nothing but stare at Indigo, who was holding up the flash drive to the light and admiring it like it was the world’s biggest diamond. And she wanted to be called Fearless Leader. “Indigo, have you totally lost it?”

“What?” Indigo Zap seemed to snap out of a trance. “Uh, well, I guess we wait here until they come back on their own?”

They sat there in brooding silence for a while, at least Sunny did. Indigo was more interested in feeling proud of herself about how well the heist had gone.

After a long wait, there finally came a knocking on the van door. Sliding it open, Sunny was shocked to see a rather beat up looking trio of her friends waiting outside. A patrol car was parked next to the cafe, with two officers talking to an employee about something.

Sunny opened her mouth to say something, but Sour Sweet beat her to it.

“Not. A Word.”

The girls piled into the van in a surly silence. Lemon got into the driver’s seat and started the engine.

Only once the cafe was several miles behind them did someone speak up.

“Well?”

“Huh?” Lemon glanced back in the rearview mirror.

“Did we get it? The footage.”

Indigo grinned smugly and held up the flash drive. “All in here. I told you the heist would come off without a hitch.”

“I would have preferred not to be stabbed with a fork,” Lemon said from the front. “Sugarcoat.”

“Would you have preferred to be stabbed with a spoon?” Sugarcoat retorted, rubbing a forming handprint on her face where Sour Sweet had slapped her. “It was all Indigo’s idea to have us be the diversion. Blame her.”

“Hey, you were all important pieces of the plan,” Indigo held up her hand. “We all got what we came for, didn’t we?”

Sugarcoat scoffed. “And we almost got arrested for it. The cafe had to call the cops. And before you say anything, no. We weren’t going to fight them.”

Indigo Zap stuck her tongue out at Sugarcoat before continuing to express her excitement.

“It was just like the games! We hid from the guards, and even drilled the door! Snatch here almost blew it, but we made it out okay in the end. We’re set for life!”

“The door wasn’t even locked!” Sunny exclaimed furiously. “We didn’t need that noisy drill! And what do you mean, set for life? We didn’t steal anything valuable at all!”

“We got what we came for~” Indigo said in a sing-song voice. “And it’s all thanks to my meticulous planning and genius.” She paused with her eyes shut, evidently expecting some kind of accolade. She did not receive any.

“We, are never letting you plan something like this again.” Sugarcoat deadpanned. “Never again.”

The girls bickered and squabbled until Lemon finally pulled up outside her house and slammed on the brakes.

“Okay, we can all agree that the plan wasn’t perfect,” the lime haired girl said, sounding unusually peeved. “But it got us what we wanted, and nobody got seriously hurt. So let’s go inside, and look at the freaking footage already.”

And then she stepped out of the van and stalked over to her front door, flinging it open and gesturing for the others to follow.