A security officer charged into the aisle with a pistol and shouted for everyone to freeze.
Astrid raised one finger.
The spell at its tip expanded into a pink balloon dog that floated past the officer’s face with a rude honk.
“Pop off, piglet,” she said.
The officer fired at the balloon.
It burst in a harmless white puff that left him blinking, covered in powder, and considerably less eager to arrest anyone.
Bubble Gurl had another problem.
She had found a toy rover on a shelf and was converting it into something with treads, a cannon, and an alarming power supply.
“Two minutes till Boom Wagon is go.”
Edgaursine stopped at a FREE SAMPLES tray and ate one in a single bite.
“Crunch.” Nobody asked what it had been.
At a checkout lane, Miriam set a packet of snacks and two blue cans beside a revolver someone had left on the counter.
The total appeared on the register.
She counted out exact change with perfect calm while a crowd stampeded past.
“If we’re leaving with these,” she said, “I’m paying.”
The cat ear girl answered a question nobody had managed to finish.
“Say less.” She kicked through a glowing IT sign above the aisle.
Glass rained down behind her in a neat arc.
Then the Boom Wagon rolled out.
Bubble Gurl stood on its chassis with a tool in one hand, her helmet shining in the work lights.
“Time to shed the science fair look.” She carved through one sleeve of her blue suit, revealing a sleeker combat setup underneath.
Miriam eyed the rover’s improvised cannon.
“Will that hold?”
“For two minutes?
Absolutely.”
“We need longer than two minutes.”
“Then we’d better hurry.
Boom Wagon crew, roll out!”
The team followed the rover into a service corridor as Edgar tore a plastic aisle divider from its stand.
He swung it like a club, bellowing his name over a rhythm of absurd electronic blarps from the alarm system.
A security guard’s speed radar briefly measured something at 130 miles per hour.
The guard looked at the number and said, “Dayum.”
The divider struck a gate marked AUTHORIZED CHAOS ACCESS ONLY.
The gate vanished in a rolling cloud of debris.
Edgar and Edgaursine emerged through the smoke, both grinning.
Astrid, who had told herself she would not encourage them, had to admit, “Okay.
That was actually sick.”
The corridor opened onto a toy department.
A tiny plush hamster sat in a cart beneath a sign advertising LIL SNUGGLE BUDZ.
Astrid reached for it with the particular expression that had preceded several of their greatest mistakes.
“Yo, Astrid,” the cat ear girl warned.
“Don’t you dare.”
“Watch this.”
Magic surged around the plush.
The hamster became a hulking, red-eyed beast in a miniature vest.
It snarled, then roared so hard the cart rolled backward.
“It’s kinda adorable though?” Bubble Gurl said.
The beast charged.
Miriam retrieved a pair of wheeled shoes from the display.
“All right.
Let’s give him some wheels.”
The hamster planted two enormous feet in the shoes.
It rolled across the department, claws out, roaring at a speed no creature that size should have achieved.
Astrid clapped.
“This is the best thing that’s ever happened.”
“Heel in’ is believin’,” Bubble Gurl said, and immediately regretted saying it aloud.