Part Two, Chapter Ten: HIGHjinks Vol. 2

Lin was already waiting for her in the parking garage behind the apartments. He was fully dressed in his armored suit, his arms crossed impatiently across his chest.

Okay. Just say something that doesn't make you sound high. She told herself as she walked up to him.

"Uh, I'm here!" She announced. "Ready to, uh, do the things!"

Nice! I think I nailed that! She thought, feeling herself begin to smile with pride.

Lin immediately ran his hand tiredly across his face and groaned.

"Oh my god."

"What?" She said defensively.

"You're high." He said pointedly, gesturing at her with an open palm.

"I'm-no I'm not!" She lied. "Fuck. How can he tell?"

"Beatrice. You literally just said that out loud!"

Shit... Wait, did I say that out loud? Linton was still looking angrily at her, his dark brown eyes even more serious than usual. Hm. I guess not. I should probably say something to him, though. Just staring at him like this is kinda weird.

"Lin, I promise I'm fine." She said. "When I lived by myself, I used to do things high all of the time! In Fact, I was even high when I kidnapped Charlie."

He rubbed his temple like he had a headache.

"That, that exact anecdote, was supposed to make me feel more confident about you stopping a robbery with me?"

Beatrice shrugged indifferently.

He sighed.

"B, just go back to your apartment and sleep it off. I've got this one. I'll tell our manager you weren't feeling well."

A memory suddenly came back to her. She pictured Alice yelling in the elevator about the junior hero who broke his leg, and she swallowed. Alice had made that seem like a death sentence for his career.

She didn't want to be forgotten like him, for missing just one appearance. She didn't want to lose her relevance when it seemed like public attention was already such a precarious thing. Most importantly, she didn't want to lose her one shot at being less of a burden to Charlie.

She reached out and grabbed his arm.

"Nope. I'm coming with you." She said, tugging on him.

"B-"

"Lin! If we don't hurry then the criminal is going to get away and we'll both look stupid!" She said.

He tugged his arm away and shook his head, like he knew he was making a stupid decision. Though he still looked pensive, he did unfold his hoverboard and set it on the ground.

"You can always just punch me in the face if I start to act dumb." She offered.

"I'm not doing that." He said flatly, as he stepped onto the board.

Beatrice grinned and climbed on behind him.

"Your loss." She said as she slid her helmet on.

As they flew over New Atlanta, she almost wished that she could feel the air against her skin, which was still pleasantly tingling. She tried her best to keep her balance, but it was hard to tell how well she was doing it, since everything still felt pretty fuzzy around the edges.

Lin hadn't yelled at her yet, so she assumed she was doing, at the very least, adequate.

It wasn't long before they landed at 230 Peachtree Way, which Beatrice quickly pointed out as being one street number away from where they were supposed to be. This was because, according to Lin who was angrily looking at his GPS, there was no 231.

230 Peachtree way was actually the address of The Moseleum, a downtown goth club located on one of the shadier streets. Just by looking at the outside, it didn't seem like it was being robbed.

"Maybe dispatch got the address wrong?" Beatrice, who was unfortunately starting to sober up, suggested.

"I'll call them. Can you act normal enough to go in and see if anything weird is going on in there?" Even as he said it he looked concerned about her ability to pull off such a simple task.

She dismissed him with a wave of her hand.

"Don't worry. I've sobered up a lot. I'm basically just vibing now."

He ignored her and turned away as he dialed into dispatch. She turned away as well and walked over to the line to get into the club.

As she stepped inside the small lobby, a young guy at the door stopped her.

"That's a sick outfit. There's a cover fee though." He said.

"Wha- I'm not here to dance, obviously." She said. "I'm a hero. We got a call that there was a robbery in progress here so I have to make sure everyone's okay before I can leave."

"Oh sweet." He said. "That sounds sick."

She stared blankly at him.

"So... do you know if anything bad is going on inside?" She said slowly and carefully.

The guy blinked after a moment of silence.

"Uh, nah. I just stand out here." He said.

"So can I go inside?"

"Do you have the cover fee?"

"Wha-no!" She said. "I'm wearing spandex! Do I look like I have any pockets to keep money in?"

"You got that neat belt." He said, pointing to the utility belt slung around her waist.

"Yeah, but I obviously don't keep my wallet in it!" She snapped. "Why would I bring my wallet to fight crime?"

"In case you have to get into a club, I guess." He said with a shrug. "Oh! What if you wanted a snack?"

Fuck. Why does this have to be so difficult...

A sudden realization came to her, and she mentally slapped herself.

Oh right. I have superpowers. I can teleport.

"Well, it was nice meeting you." She said, before snapping into the club.

No one seemed to pay much mind to her as she popped in. The interior of the club was very dark. Aside from a few red lamps here and there, there weren't any lights, and the music was so loud that she could hardly hear herself think.

People were out on the floor dancing, and also sitting at the bar, yelling over the music to one another. There were even two people kissing heavily on one of the couches. It didn't really look like a place that was in peril at the moment, and she was certain that if there was a robbery that someone here would be reacting in some way.

"Hey B?" Linton's voice buzzed in through her helmet.

"Yeah, what is it?" She said.

"Come back out here."

"Okay." She said. "There's nothing going on in here anyway."

She snapped back out, startling the guy collecting the cover so bad that he fell over. She glanced indifferently at him before walking out of the second set of doors and back over to Lin.

"What is it?" She asked.

"I called dispatch. They said they didn't send us to 231 Peachtree Way. In fact, they said they didn't send a request out to us at all."

Beatrice frowned.

"So this means I'm not even getting training credit for this?"

"Wh-B." He said. "We need to figure out who sent us here. It could be a trap."

The word trap stuck in her head, and a light bulb went off.

It could be a trap. The goth club! The abandoned warehouse was across the street!

"Lin! I know what it is!" She said.

"What? You know what... what is?"

She pointed across the street, to where the dilapidated behemoth of a building sat, Illuminated slightly by a single streetlight.

"It's the building from my emails!" She said.

He frowned at her and crossed his arms.

"I'm still lost."

"It's a long story." She said. "But basically, I've been getting weird emails for the past couple of months, and they've all been tied to this building."

"Wh-"

She waved her hand dismissively.

"Yeah, I know. It's weird and it doesn't make sense. But shouldn't we investigate while we're here?"

"I dont know." He said. "That sounds like a trap. Maybe we should call for backup first."

"Come on. I think we can handle it, as long as we're just checking things out." She pressed. "If the situation looks too sticky, then we'll back out and call for help."

He deflated a bit, and slid his helmet back on.

"Fine. I guess it couldn't hurt just to check it out-"

"B!" A sudden voice cut him off. To Beatrice it sounded an awful lot like... Charlie?

She turned around to see that it was, in fact, Charlie. She was running down the street, still wearing her pajamas, her dark brown hair disheveled and her cheeks flushed pink from running.

"Charlie?" Beatrice said. "What are you doing here? Where did you come from?"

Charlie paused to catch her breath.

"I started to sober up a little and I realized I let you go to work high! I was worried you might get hurt or something so I ran after you all the way from the apartment."

Beatrice gave her a puzzled look.

"Why didn't you just take a car or something?"

Charlie gave her a sheepish smile.

"I, uh, guess my judgment is still a little bit... impaired, ah ha..." Her eyes perked up once again when she saw the warehouse across the street. "Hey! That's the place!"

"So, does everyone except me know about this place?" Lin asked.

"Don't be a baby." Beatrice said.

Charlie pouted dramatically.

"Were you guys going to investigate it without me?"

"Not on purpose." Beatrice said. "This is just where the pager called us to. But since you're here now, we can all check it out together."

"Beatrice, no." Linton said firmly. "She can't come with us."

"She can take care of herself." Beatrice argued. "With this-"

Beatrice pulled a grappling hook from her belt and passed it over to Charlie, who took it all too eagerly.

"You guys..." Linton groaned.

"Come on, Linton, please?" Charlie said. "I'll be very careful!"

Linton seemed to deflate.

"Okay, fine." He said. "But you have to stay in either mine or B's field of vision at all times. Got it?"

Charlie nodded very seriously.

"And you-" he turned to face Beatrice. "If anything happens, you have to prioritize getting Charlie out safely, okay?"

"Of course." Beatrice said. "I would do anything to keep her safe."

"Plus, its not like I'm going to get kidnaped again." Charlie said. "The odds of that have to be insanely low!"

Linton looked like he was going to have an stress induced aneurysm at any moment, but he nodded anyway.

"Okay. Let's get it over with then."