Chapter 18: Night Thief

"I have some bad news." Was the first thing Linton said when they got back into his car.

It wasn't exactly what Charlie wanted to hear at the moment. Lately, her entire life had been nothing but bad news. Couldn't age catch a break for once?

"Okay, What is it?" Charlie said as she fidgeted in the passenger's seat.

"I just got word back from my contact that a dangerous prisoner has escaped from 'The Hole'." He said it very carefully, like he was considering that maybe he shouldn't tell her as he spoke.

"...okay." Charlie said, wondering where he was going with this information and why he thought it was something he needed to tell her.

"I didn't want to tell you until after you saw Beatrice, because I didn't want you to tell her about it."

Charlie shook her head.

"I don't understand. Why would it matter if I told her someone got out?"

Did he think that she would use this information to try and convince Beatrice that she could get out too?

"Because it was her mother." He said.

Charlie's heart spend up, and she sat more upright in her seat. Her mother?

"Wait, her mom is a villain too? Who is it?" She asked.

"Night Thief." He said quietly.

Charlie blinked out of the window. Night Thief. Of course she knew who that was. Everyone did.

Night Thief was only one of the most notorious villains of the 20th century. Back when Charlie was just a little kid she had been responsible for the Green City Massacre one state over. It was one of the worst terrorists attacks in recent memory, as fifty three civilians had been killed.

She'd spent almost ten years on the run before she was finally apprehended in a group team effort by The Copper Knight, Burning Lily, and Crimson Vision. They had televised the entire trial, and Charlie even got a day off of high school to celebrate her capture.

"Oh." Charlie finally said back to him. Her mouth felt very dry.

"I didn't want her to know. I'm already worried about her mental state and I know she won't take it well." He said.

"So that means Beatrice was right?" Charlie asked. "Night Thief is going to break into Delacqua Tech and steal the compound?"

"Well, I believe she certainly will try, but there's no reason to think she'll be able to get past the security measures your father has in place." He said.

"But what if she does?" Charlie pressed.

"Don't worry. The city will probably have me on call until she's apprehended. You don't have anything to worry about."

"If you're sure." Charlie said, though she was the one who didn't feel sure.

"I am." He said. "And you can always call me if anything suspicious happens."

"Thanks." She said. After a brief pause she cleared her throat. "Can I tell you something?"

"Uh, sure." He said. "Go right ahead."

"You probably get this all of the time, but I really wanted to thank you." She started. "I've always looked up to you ever since you stopped Bill Gadget at Citi Bank. You saved my life."

He immediately became flustered.

"There's—That's—" He coughed a couple of times. "There's really no need to thank me, Charlie. It's quite literally my job after all."

"But you didn't have risk your life. You don't ever have to. But you do anyway. It's the job you chose." Charlie said.

"Well, uh, thank you then." He said. "I'm just sorry I couldn't save your mom as well."

"It's okay." Charlie said. "I know you can't save everybody."

"True, but that is the end goal isn't?" He said. "To save as many people as possible?"

Beatrice came to her thoughts again and Charlie turned to look out of the window.

"I guess so."

Charlie quickly learned that, with the escape of Night Thief, her father was condemning her to stay in her apartment once again. It was starting to really grate on her nerves. She'd spent the past few months doing nothing but listening to other people tell her not leave a certain place. It was getting old. Didn't anyone trust her at all?

She sat alone in her apartment, wondering why Beatrice hadn't told her that her mother was Night Thief.

She considered that Beatrice was probably very embarrassed and ashamed about it. After all, her mother was a terrorist, a mass murderer, and a known supremacist of people born with powers. It was part of the reasons for her attacks.

Night Thief claimed to be an anarchist, but really all she wanted was for those born with powers to be in positions of power. She claimed they were genetically superior, and more evolved than everyone else.

Beatrice probably didn't anyone to think she might be just as awful, though she clearly had some sort of idea that she was genetically tainted because of her mother.

Charlie sighed and shook her head. She stood up and headed to the kitchen to get a snack.

Suddenly, there was a harsh whisper.

"Hey Charlie."

Charlie yelped, and tripped over her own feet, falling to the ground.

"Hey, careful with the screaming! This thing is right in my ear!" The voice said.

"Beatrice? What the hell!" Charlie said as she pulled herself back up. "How are you talking to me? Is this another power of yours? Are you beaming your thoughts directly into my brain?"

Charlie looked around the room like she expected to see Beatrice somewhere nearby. Of course it was only her alone in her apartment, looking around like an idiot.

"No." She could almost see Beatrice rolling her dark eyes as she said this. "When you came to see me I put a communicator behind your ear."

Charlie reached up and felt behind her right ear. Her fingers ran over a flat metal disk roughly the size of a dime. Suddenly, she realized there was a very quiet buzzing in that ear.

"Holy crap! How did you pull that off?" Charlie said.

"I had it hidden in my mouth." She said. "I pressed against your ear when you hugged me."

"Wow. You're crazy stealthy!" Charlie said. "Is this so we can coordinate your escape?"

"No. It's nothing like that." Beatrice said. "I just wanted to be able to talk to you."

This puzzled Charlie, as she would have thought Beatrice would have been begging to do something to her her out.

"Wouldn't it be better to talk somewhere that isn't a high security prison?" Charlie offered. "Like at my apartment?"

Or my bed room.

Ugh. Stop it Charlie.

"There's no point." Beatrice said. "This place is too heavily guarded. We couldn't do anything Charlie."

Charlie bit back the urge to argue with her. She considered what Linton had said about her mental state being fragile at the moment, and decided not to force the issue.

And, though she really did want to tell her, she decided not to mention her mother either.

"I just feel really bad about it, B..." Charlie said. "It's my fault you're in there in the first place."

"Your fault?" Beatrice let out an incredulous laugh. "Charlie, I kidnapped you."

"I guess." Charlie said, dragging her foot across the marble floor.

"Sorry about that, by the way." Beatrice said.

"Water under the bridge." Charlie said. "I actually had a pretty good time."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Charlie said. "Ten outta ten. Would get kidnapped by a hot girl again."

Beatrice giggled quietly and Charlie smiled to herself.

"You know, it's not so bad in here either." Beatrice said.

"I somehow don't believe that." Charlie said.

"Well, Okay, being in here sucks. But I am really starting to like this collar they put on me. I don't have to think about keeping my powers under control at all. It's nice. I feel like a normal person."

Charlie walked into her bedroom, and laid down in her bed.

"Do you really have to think about controlling them all of the time?" Charlie asked.

"I mean, not constantly, but I have to keep it in the back of my mind." Beatrice said. "If you get too emotional without thinking about controlling it, you can easily lose control and do something you don't mean to."

Charlie pulled the comforter up around her.

"I didn't know it was like that." She said. "How did you learn to control it?"

"My brother TJ taught me." She said. "It's mostly learning to keep your emotions and your reactions to them in check. Like if you get angry, you can't just throw a fit and lose your cool. It also helps to have' channels'"

"Channels?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah, it's just some kind of motion you mentally link to each power so you can more easily trigger it." Beatrice said. "That's why I snap when I teleport."

"Oh." Charlie said. "I thought you were just trying to be dramatic."

There was a brief silence and what sounded like the hurried rustling of covers.

"Uhh." Beatrice groaned. "I've got to go. The guards are coming to do the night time inspection."

"I don't want to get you into anymore trouble." Charlie said.

"It's fine. I'll talk to you sometime tomorrow. Bye." Beatrice said quietly and all in one breath.

"Bye—" Charlie said, although the static in her ear had already cut out.

She sighed and looked out of the window across from her bed. The moon was high in the sky, but there were no stars. The light from the city were too bright.

Charlie ordered the room to black out the windows and rolled over onto her back. Things weren't good right now, but they seemed under control. It was enough for Charlie to convince herself everything would be okay until the morning, and she drifted off.

However, she was wrong.

Two hours later, she awoke to panicked shouting.

A/N: just letting you guys who have been reading since the beginning know I changed Linwood's name to Linton due to conflicts with another thing I'm working on. Sorry if there was any confusion!!!