Chapter 25: How I Met my Sort of Girlfriend's Mother

"Miss Beatrice Marie Padgett, you know I don't like to be kept waiting, and I certainly don't like to be jerked around."

Charlie blinked awake at the sound of the voice. It was calm and even, and buttery smooth, not too much unlike Beatrice's. Maybe it was a little bit deeper than Beatrice's, with a slightly more tart edge to the words, but still very similar.

But it wasn't Beatrice's voice.

Oh shit! I feel asleep! Fuck me...

Charlie pulled herself the rest of the way up, slightly scared of what she might see. Beside her, she could feel the Beatrice subtly trembling beneath the blankets.

In front of them was Night Thief.

She looked a lot like Beatrice, Charlie thought as she examined her, only her face was all angles and sharp edges while Beatrice's was softer and rounder. Still, they shared the same pale blonde hair and bluish under eye circles. She wore an all black suit, the helmet to which was tucked neatly under her arm.

Charlie glanced over at Beatrice for guidance, but she seemed to be paralyzed with fear, her eyes wide as they fixated on Night Thief.

Suddenly, Charlie was very aware of the fact that she was sitting beneath the irritated gaze of the Night Thief. The one who had massacred a ton of people and not even batted an eye. The one who needed a whole team of heroes to take her down. The one who had forced Beatrice to grow up completely alone in a room with no escape.

Who knew what else she had done? Who knew what else she was willing to do?

A shiver ran down Charlie's spin at the thought.

"We came here to hide from the authorities." Beatrice said, seeming finally to have composed herself enough to answer.

"So you decided to hide out across the street?" Night Thief said with a bitter scoff. "I mean, I know you never were the brightest but—"

"Actually it was my idea!" Charlie said. "I thought if we hid somewhere close to where the signal came from it would confuse them because they'd think we'd go somewhere far away and look there instead."

An especially sour look crossed Night Thief's face, and she jerked her head over to Beatrice.

"Who's this small, bird-like person beside you?" She asked, pointing at Charlie with her thumb.

"Wha— bird-like?!"

Beatrice pinched her under the covers and she cut herself off.

"This is, ah, my, uh—friend, Charlie." Beatrice stuttered out with some awkward hand gestures. "She's been helping me with, uh, everything."

Night Thief's eyes narrowed on Charlie, her nose wrinkled in disgust.

"If you want to associate with the genetically inferior, I guess that's your choice." She said.

Charlie bristled internally, but tried to keep it together on the outside.

"Oh, it's that's heiress you kidnapped, isn't it? The Delaqua one?"

Night Thief looked over at Beatrice once more, eyeing her from top to bottom with a critical gaze.

"Looks like she's been feeding you well, though. You seem to be getting a bit on the chubby side."

Charlie glanced over at Beatrice to see that her face was already red with what was probably a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

"Oh come on now, don't be dramatic. I'm your mother. It's my job to point out your faults so you can get better."

Beatrice hadn't hardly said anything, and she already looked crushed. It made Charlie's stomach churn to see her look so… so empty.

"Did you bring the compound?" Beatrice said quietly, mostly ignoring her jabs.

"Of course I did." Night Thief said. She slid a small vial out of her pocket. It was about five inches long with a thick, clear liquid inside.

Beatrice noticeably perked up at the sight of it, her dark eyes growing wide. Her hand was clenching at her side, like she was trying to hold back from jumping up and taking it.

Night Thief smirked.

"Yes, you see, I brought it so I could do this—" she clenched her hand and shattered the glass. The thick, gel like liquid inside oozed hauntingly down her hand and Beatrice blanched at the sight of it.

Her mother chuckled at the pain evident on her daughter's race.

"You see, I know you don't want anyone else but yourself to have this as it gives you some sort of connection to your poor, dearly departed brother, but I don't want it to exist at all." Night Thief said, wiping her gloved hand across her suit.

At their stunned silence, she continued.

"You see, people can't be able to just go out and purchase their powers, put a bandaid on their inferiority, so to speak. After all, if everyone has powers, then nobody has powers, as they then become just a feature of humanity, like talking or walking upright. We can't have that. To be superior, that is, for the society I envision to work, there has to be a group who is inferior to us. There can be no hope of becoming like us."

Beatrice's shaking was now impossible to miss, along with the tears that streamed down her face.

"I hate you, you stupid bitch!" Beatrice wailed. As she shouted, the windows of a nearby car shattered.

Night Thief's eyes narrowed, and her hand shot out towards Beatrice, her fingers slowly squeezing together.

Beatrice choked and sputtered, her hands rushing up to her neck in a desperate effort to try and pry away the invisible force that constrained it.

"I always did hate when things came to this between us." Night Thief said with an exaggerated pout. "Ever since you were a toddler you were a crier. It's time for you to toughen up some."

Beatrice gasped for air as tears started to stream down her face anew.

Charlie felt sick to her stomach as adrenaline pumped through her veins light speed.

Fuck, I've got to do something!

Her eyes darted around, scanning everything on the floor. Something. She had to find something. Anything.

The utility belt! That's it!

Charlie snatched it up off of the ground and ran at Night Thief. As she approached her, she swung the belt as hard as she could.

The heavy, metal compartment on the side collided with the side of Might Thief's head, sending her hissing and stumbling to the side.

Beatrice immediately collapsed to the ground, coughing and gasping for air. Charlie grabbed the backpack with their supplies while Night Thief was still reeling. She made a mad dash over to Beatrice and pulled her up by the hand.

"Come on, let's get in that elevator." Beatrice choked out.

Charlie nodded and glanced over to the elevator on the other side of the garage.

They stumbled as they ran, and as soon as they were inside, Beatrice shouted and tightened her fist, forcing the elevator doors shut so hard that they crumpled into each other like paper.

She then shouted again, and brought her fist to the ground, and Charlie's stomach lurched as they hurdled down. Just when Charlie was sure that they were about to crash into the bottom of the floor, it screeched to an abrupt stop.

After the metallic scraping stopped echoing, the only sound was their heavy breathing.

Then, loud sobs from Beatrice.

Charlie immediately reached over and gathered her in her arms.

"Beatrice I'm sorry I fell asleep. You have every right to be mad at me and—"

"No." Beatrice shook her head and cried harder. "This whole thing was such a stupid idea. Such a stupid, ridiculous idea. I'm stupid. Stupid."

"B—"

"No. What would have changed if you were awake anyway?" Beatrice said. "She could have ambushed you while I was asleep. I could have gotten you killed!"

Charlie squeezed her tighter and just let her cry into her shoulder for a minute.

"Are you okay?" Charlie asked. "Physically, I mean."

"I—" Beatrice pulled away and ran her fingers across her neck. There was an angry red ring around her neck that looked almost like fingers.

Charlie felt her own eyes begin to tear up. Though she knew Night Thief was a terrible, awful person, she had never seen someone's parent hurt them like that. She could have easily killed her, and didn't even seem to care.

Charlie didn't know what to say to her. She didn't know if there was anything she could say to her.

Beatrice let out a whimper that turned back into full blown sobbing.

"I don't know what to do! I wish TJ was here. He would know what to do." She said through sobs. "This is so typical of me. I would always hide while he took the brunt of it for me. Why, why can't I—"

She buried her face in her hands, shaking it gently as she cried.

Charlie had never seen her like this before, and it made her angry. It made her so angry, that the muscles in her arms trembled, itching to punch something, to let the rage out somehow.

How dare she hurt Beatrice. Charlie seethed, working herself up all the more. I'll make sure this doesn't happen again.

Charlie started angrily pulling her clothes off.

Beatrice wiped her hand across her face and glanced up at her.

"What are you doing?" She sniffled.

Charlie dug her suit out of the backpack and started to pull it on.

"What do you think I'm doing? I'm going to go beat the shit out of your mom!"

"W—Charlie, no!" Beatrice said. "She'll kill you! She could easily snap your neck!"

Charlie ignored her as she dressed herself.

"She might be stronger than me," Charlie said. "But I have a lot of feelings right now, and most of them are negative."

"Charlie—"

Charlie slipped the mask on and turned to face her.

"Actually, its Catchphrase right now."