Part Two, Chapter Twenty One: The Power of Love and Friendship

Beatrice couldn’t think of what to do except to keep desperately trying to will her powers to return, despite the irrationality of it. Her mother watched with a satisfied smile, her arms crossed casually. She looked at her how one might look at a dog with a muzzle. Beatrice whipped back to face her in a frenzy, both furious and terrified, her breathing already beginning to edge towards hyperventilation.

“Calm down, Beatrice.” her mother said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “It’s only temporary. I would never take away my own daughter’s powers permanently.”

“Why did you do this to me?” Beatrice asked.

“I just needed to see what you had in your heart, and I got my answer to that.” She said, “You want to be stronger. You know you have the capacity to be better than the rest of them. Take over New Atlanta with me.”

“How did you gather all of that? I don’t want to help you do shit.” She said, “If anything, you should have interpreted that as me wanting to be stronger so I could beat your ass.”

“See, this is why I took your powers away. You need a while to calm down and then we can discuss this again.”

“Bullshit. I’m not discussing anything with you.”

“That’s fine. I’ll give you a little while to think about it.” She said, “Then we can try and have this talk again.”

“Whatever.”

“You should really spend this time thinking about what really is the best thing for you and Charlie.” her mother said. “The people you’ve been associating yourself with… they don’t have your best interest in mind. They’re just using you.”

Beatrice didn’t say anything, and in response her mother clapped her on the shoulder, and in just one second she found herself back in the room with Charlie. Her mother quickly teleported out without another word.

Charlie hopped up from the ground and ran over to her.

“Beatrice! Are you okay? Did she hurt you?” She asked.

“Only my ego.” Beatrice said, "She took my powers away.”

“Did she inject you with that weird stuff too?” Charlie asked.

“Yeah. Wait, she injected you with it too?”

“Yeah, I mean I wasn’t going to try and fight her.” Charlie said. “I’m not that stupid. I told her I didn’t even know for sure whether I was a mutant or not, but she said she couldn’t take any chances.”

Beatrice looked over Charlie and frowned.

“Do you feel any different?”

Charlie shrugged.

“I don’t think so. Does that mean anything?”

Beatrice looked away and sat down on the ground.

“I really don’t know.” she said. "It feels a lot different for me."

Charlie opened her mouth to respond, and there was another puff of smoke. Her mother appeared again, TJ beside her. She let go of the grip she had on his arm and he jerked away from her, seemingly with a mixture of fear and disgust. Without a word, she was gone again.

TJ seemed to take a moment to try and regain his composure before turning around to give her a smile and a wave.

"Hey B." He said.

Beatrice groaned and pressed the back of her head against the office wall.

"So she got you too?" She asked.

"I'm sorry." TJ said. "I thought I could just come get you but when I saw her I— I just kind of froze."

Beatrice frowned as a pang of guilt shot through her.

She didn't have too long to dwell on it, however, before Charlie popped up cheerfully by her side.

"Hi, I'm Charlie, Beatrice's girlfriend." Charlie said. She held out the puppy which happily wagged its tail. "This is Butter. He's new."

"Hi. It's nice to finally meet you." TJ said. "I'm sorry my mother kidnapped you. This isn't really how I wanted us to meet each other."

"It's okay. It's not my first time."

"Being kidnapped?" TJ said.

"Yeah, haha." Charlie said. "Beatrice kidnapped me last year. That's how we met."

"Beatrice." TJ said disapprovingly.

Beatrice furrowed her brow and crossed her arms.

"I figured you would have heard about that by now."

"Well yeah, obviously." He said, "I just figured it was some kind of misunderstanding or a publicity stunt or something."

"No." Beatrice said. "I drugged her and kidnapped her, and then I locked her in the childhood bedroom that mom used to lock me in. It was a whole thing."

"Beatrice!" He said, "I didn't raise you like that!"

"I mean, everything worked out fine." Charlie spoke up again. "Everyone knows it's okay if someone kidnaps you as long as they end up being attractive to you and you fall in love."

Beatrice groaned again and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I'm glad you guys are taking this so seriously."

"You know humor is my coping mechanism!" Charlie said.

"Well, can you think of any jokes that could get us out of this situation?"

Charlie paused for several seconds to tap the side of her head like she was thinking.

"No."

Beatrice sighed.

"Olay, okay, let me think…"

She turned to her brother and looked at him expectantly.

"Did she do anything to you to block your powers?" She asked.

"No, but she didn't really need to." He said. He paused to run his hands distantly through his hair. "My powers have been really weak for years now, ever since…"

He trailed off, and Beatrice winced again.

"Well, we still have some things going for us." She said, "She hasn't hurt anyone yet, and Lin is definitely going to come after you so—"

Her mother appeared one more time, this time with Lin in her grasp, her hand tightly gripping the back of his head by his hair. His helmet was gone, and his face was bloodied. Beatrice winced at the sight of him.

"Here," She said, dropping Lin to the ground. "I guess you can have your little boyfriend too, even if he is genetically inferior. I wonder what the odds are of both of my children ending up gay. Maybe I should play the lottery. "

TJ stumbled over his feet to get to him, and helped him up to his feet.

"Actually, I'm bisexual." TJ said flatly. "Not that you've ever asked."

Their mother shrugged.

"Same difference."

Again, she left in a puff of smoke.

Lin reached up and wiped some of the blood from his face.

"I haven't had my ass kicked like that in years."

TJ winced and looked over him, grabbing him by the jaw and studying his face with a worried frown.

"I think your nose might be broken." He said.

"I— It's fine." Lin said, turning his face away. He might have been blushing, but Beatrice couldn't tell with all of the dried blood.

"I told you not to come here." TJ said. "I knew she would hurt you."

"I wasn't going to let you get hurt again because I wasn't there for you." He said. "I've already fucked up enough in that department."

"Lin—"

Beatrice groaned even louder, and collapsed onto her back on the floor.

"There's no way she got all four of us. There's no fucking way. What are we gonna do?"

"Let's just wait it out." Charlie suggested. "Since I'm a mutant, I'll just wait for whatever it is she did to us to wear off, then convince her to let us go!"

TJ and Lin exchanged glances.

"Your girlfriend is a mutant?" TJ asked.

"This is news to me too." Lin said. "What kind of power do you have?"

"Charlie is getting ahead of herself. We don't know for sure that she's a mutant." Beatrice said.

Charlie ignored her.

"I think it's like that one book, but if it actually helped you win friends and influence people."

"But you've never been tested before?" Lin asked.

"No, it's uh, kind of a long story—"

"But Charlie said the injection didn't make her feel any different though." Beatrice said. "Anytime I've had mine blocked, I could definitely feel it."

"Have you ever experienced anything that made you sure you had this power?" Lin asked.

"Besides the fact that Beatrice agreed to date me despite not being interested in my money?" Charlie asked.

Lin shrugged.

"Well, when Night Thief brought me here she was being very affectionate towards me. Like touching my face and calling me sweetheart and stuff." Charlie said. Her face quickly started to turn red and Beatrice narrowed her eyes.

"Charlie!" She said, "Stop it!"

Charlie's face got even more red.

"What?"

"Stop being gross! That's my mom! And she's like fifty something, not to mention evil!" Beatrice said.

"She was the one who was coming onto me!" Charlie said. "I didn't say I liked it!"

"Good! Because this isn't some kind of weird porno where you get stuck in a washing machine."

"Why am I the one stuck in the washing machine?" Charlie said.

"Because you have the energy of someone who would be stuck in a washing machine." Beatrice said matter of factly. "Also, I don't believe for one second that you've ever used a washing machine before in your life."

Charlie's face was red again, this time with a different kind of embarrassment.

"I've seen people use them in movies! It can't be that hard!"

"How do you get stuck inside a washing machine anyway?" TJ asked suddenly. "And is it a top loader or a front loader?"

"...There are different kinds of washing machines?" Charlie asked. "What's the difference?

"Oh my god." Bratrice groaned. "One you load from the top and the other you load from the bottom. It's self explanatory!"

"What are you loading in it?"

"Clothes! Geez Charlie, what else would you be putting in a washing machine?"

"Some shoes can go in the wash." TJ spoke up. "Oh, and your couch cushion covers if they get dirty."

"Oh my god." Beatrice said.

"And I think you might be able to get stuck in a top loader if you were short and fell in." TJ said.

"Well I'm two and three quarters of an inch taller than average height so I don't think that could happen to me." Charlie said.

Beatrice placed her face in her hands as she let them continue their washing machine banter. Lin was focused on the windows, and trying to find some kind of way to get out of them.

Beatrice looked around at the chaos in the room, and it made a sudden realization hit her.

Oh my god. This is exactly what she was planning. She knew if I found out about what happened to TJ, it would make me even angier and more distrustful of everyone around me. She knew if I became disillusioned with my job, I wouldn't mind defecting.

She knew that if she took Charlie, I would come to rescue her without a second thought, and that TJ would come after me, and Lin would come after him.

She knew I wouldn't agree to do anything unless my friends wouldn't get hurt. That's why she wanted all of them here.

But why would she put all of this effort into getting me on her side? Can't she just execute her evil plans by herself?

Another realization hit her suddenly, and it made her stomach turn.

Because she's my mom. It's because she's my mom, and in some kind of fucked up, toxic way, she cares about me and wants me on her side.

"Can everybody come over here and hug me?" Beatrice spoke up over their chatter.

Silence quickly took over the other three.  She stood facing them expectantly, with her arms open. Charlie, of course, was the first, quickly wrapping her in a tight hug. Then came TJ, and finally Lin.

"I just want you guys to know that I love you." She said.

Charlie gave her a worried glance.

"Wait, B, what are you—"

"Okay, mom." She said, "I know you're listening in on us. Come back in here and get me. I'm going to help you destroy New Atlanta or whatever."

Author's note: ONLY TWO MORE CHAPTERS LEFT!! HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!!!