Ch 7: Week 5

Kent Hall was a labyrinth, as far as Lawrence was concerned. He’d found the bathroom, but wasn’t sure if he could find his way out again. Classes were letting out and the halls were becoming choked with people. He saw her hair first, and then those legs, clad in grey tights and knee-high boots. She turned her head and he caught sight of those eyes, and the girl he had tried so hard to forget was standing in front of him--no--walking away. He hurried after her. “Hey! Wait!” A shiver rushed through his body when he touched her shoulder.

She spun around to face him. “Yes?”

“Um…” What had happened to his voice? “I think we had coffee once.”

He saw recognition in her face. “Lawrence Lawrence,” she said, and he breathed a sigh of relief. It hadn’t been a dream.

“That’s right.”

“You shouldn’t remember me.”

“Shouldn’t I?”

“I told you--” She hit her forehead with her palm. “Forget this conversation,” she muttered to herself. “Not forget me.”

“I could never forget you,” he said, confused, but hardly caring. “Do you want to go get coffee again?” he asked.

“Of course not,” she said. “Excuse me--I have to go.”

“Wait a minute. What’s your name?” He tried to follow her but there were too many people. She left him standing in the middle of the hall, jostled by other students, as he watched her hurry away. He looked up and made note of the room she had come out of, and what time it was. Now that he knew she was real, he wasn’t going to let her just disappear again.

It wasn’t until later, sitting in class, that he remembered he had a girlfriend.

******

Glory wore her new costume to their next meeting. It was a training session, so the boys were all dressed in normal work-out clothes (they had all bypassed the tights except for Torch, since Mim had a tasteful black outfit made up of fabric that repelled fire), but Cloud and Blue were both wearing their outfits. “Mine’s not ready,” Chameleon said, looking at them longingly. “Since Mim had to make it up from nothing.”

Even though red was not her color Glory felt good to be in costume, and nearly danced over to KP. “Tell me I’m beautiful,” she demanded.

“You know you are,” he said, not looking up from where he was stretching on the floor. His eyes were somewhere on the floor in front of him.

She sat down at his side. “You didn’t even look at me.”

He gave her a guilty glance. “Sorry. My mind is pretty full at the moment.”

“Full of what?” she asked. Instead of answering he leaned over and kissed her, in front of everybody. Behind her Chameleon whistled, and Glory blushed as she pulled away. “What was that?”

“Nothing,” he said, embarrassed himself.

Glory glanced around. The entire class was watching them. “I’m not much for public displays of affection,” she said.

“Sure you are,” Chameleon called across the room.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’ll try to remember.”

At that point Romeo came into the room, calling them to attention. “Whatever is wrong,” Glory said, “we’ll talk about it after class.”

After their session they all gathered in the lounge, but Glory pulled KP into the now empty girls’ locker room. “Are we okay?” she asked him. “You seemed distant earlier.”

“Yeah, we’re fine,” he said. “School’s just been rough lately.”

“You don’t even have a major,” she said. “I’m sure you’re getting all A’s in everything. What is it really?”

Instead of answering her he kissed her, pulling her close until she was pressed up against him. His mouth was urgent against hers, and he pushed her backward until she was pinned between his body and the set of lockers, one of the handles digging painfully into her lower back. “Stop it,” she said, pushing him away. “What are you doing?”

“Kissing you?”

“It doesn’t feel like it,” she said. They had only been going out a few weeks, and between school and their League meetings they didn’t spend that much time together outside of Memorial Hall. Their kisses and handholding had been chaste and innocent. She didn’t feel they were at the level of unabashed passion against walls.

“I’m sorry,” he said. His mask had gone askew while he was kissing her and she could see one of his eyebrows. Somehow this made him shockingly exposed to her. “I haven’t been myself today.” He frowned. “I don’t know who ‘myself’ is.”

Glory replied, her voice firm and commanding. “I’ll forgive you, this time. But don’t screw up again.”

“I promise.”

“Okay. Let’s go back to the others…they already think terrible things about us after your display in the gym earlier.”

“I’m sorry,” he said again, and followed her meekly out the door.

******

When America forgave him in that warning tone, she reminded him of his mystery woman, and he felt guilty all over again. He knew now that he had to be careful about over-compensating. America was an innocent after all. Lawrence laughed at himself as he walked back to his dorm. An innocent. As though he had any more experience than she did. He didn’t tell her that she was his first girlfriend, his first kiss. She didn’t need to know how pitiful he was in real life. As The Kinetic Professor he could be anything he wanted, even an experienced lover. Except America wasn’t ready for that, and he wasn’t either.

In his room he took a cold shower and threw himself naked on the bed, again glad that he didn’t have a roommate. He thought about America, and his dark-haired goddess. They were both beautiful, and he wasn’t sure he could chose one over the other. It doesn’t matter, he told himself. She doesn’t want anything to do with you. Except she remembered his name when he couldn’t remember hers. What did that mean?

It was a long time before Lawrence finally fell asleep.

******


“Stupid, stupid,” Lola was still lecturing herself hours after her encounter with Lawrence Lawrence. Had she made any other mistakes during her search for proper minions? She walked up the stairs to her lair in her new costume, running over everyone she had talked to that week in her mind. No, no. Lawrence was the only was she had been careless with.

“No harm done,” she said to herself, but didn’t believe it. He had abnormal memories now, and they were of her. Why did I mess up? she thought. He was a puppy, a pet. He barely looked old enough to be in college. But she had found that attractive when she first met him, and it still held true that afternoon. Maybe she wanted a pet.

She opened the door to her lair to be greeted by Hannah and Kioshi. The former immediately began to exclaim over her new costume, while the latter’s eyes couldn’t help but travel over her figure. Pets? Who needs pets when I have minions?
Now that she had a costume Lola was ready to go out and cause some damage, and Hannah and Kioshi were prepared and eager to storm Wyler Industries.

Lola was perfectly satisfied with walking in the front doors and simply brainwashing everyone she came in contact with, but the Lawrence Lawrence fiasco reminded her that not all minds could be swayed, so she didn’t argue when Hannah and Kioshi suggested a more stealthy approach.

They entered Wyler Industries through a loading dock in the back of the building and moved through the maintenance department. “His office is on the top floor of course,” Hannah said, glancing at the floor plan she had tracked down. “There should be a service elevator down this--” she paused while she turned the paper around, “--that hallway.”

Lola couldn’t help rolling her eyes. “I hired you because you’re supposed to be the best.”

“Biology major,” Hannah protested. “Not cartographer.” But they found the elevator with no problems. As they rode up Hannah looked at Lola with bright, wide eyes. “This is the most fun I’ve had in months,” she said. “Thank you.”

Lola smiled. “We haven’t gotten to the fun part yet.” She couldn’t help but be pleased. If Hannah was enjoying herself that meant Lola had chosen well.

They encountered no one in the halls, but Wyler had a secretary, a skinny, plastic-perfect blond that Lola immediately disliked. “What the hell are you?” she demanded reaching for the phone, no doubt to call security. Something flashed through the air and knocked the receiver out of her hand. She cried out as a shining throwing star clanked to the floor when it hit the wall behind her.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” Hannah said to Kioshi, impressed.

“I’ve been practicing for six years--I never expected to actually need to use one.” The look on his face and the sound of his voice suggested that he was just as impressed with himself as Hannah.

Lola approached the woman, who was still rubbing her injured hand. “You can’t just walk in here like a bunch of goth rejects,” she started, but Lola cut her off.

“Reject?” she hissed. “I am the Mind Mistress, and you will obey me.”

The woman looked into her eyes. “I will obey you.” Lola was using her powers for her very first crime. She felt light and almost giddy.

“You are going to go take a break,” Lola told her. “At Doughnut Land, across the street. You will have no recollection of this meeting. Your only memory will be eating cream sticks. They are your new favorite food. You want them three times a day.”

“I think I want a cream stick,” the secretary said, standing up and reaching for her jacket and purse from a coat rack behind her desk.

“Good girl,” Lola said and watched her go.

“Cream sticks?” Kioshi questioned once she was gone.

“She called us goth rejects,” Lola said, bristling. “And I think she could stand to gain thirty pounds.”

Hannah, who was no twig herself, grinned. “I love you boss.”

But there were more important matters than playing with secretaries. There was a double door leading into Wyler’s office, and Lola threw them open, marching in with Hannah and Kioshi side by side behind her.

Wyler was a paunchy, balding man in his fifties. He stood in his shirt sleeves with a putter in his hands, practicing golf on a strip of Astroturf. “What the hell is this?” he demanded as Hannah stepped forward and took the golf club from his hands. As he was too surprised to react, she met no resistance.

“Have a seat,” Lola said, still speaking normally. She wanted to play with him a little bit before getting down to business.

“Ordering me around my own office--what the hell do you want?”

“Sit!” This was a command, and Wyler complied, though she doubted he knew why he did it.

He sat down in a chair in front of his desk. “What the hell is wrong with you costumed freaks? Can never leave well enough alone…I have an understanding with you people.” Lola didn’t doubt it. The only difference between Wyler and the criminals on the street was the lack of a mask and an expensive car (Lola had every plan to eliminate that difference). “Dark Lothario is going to hear about this, mark my words.”

“You know Dark Lothario?” Lola demanded, forgetting herself for a moment.

“He throws the best parties,” Wyler shot back.

Behind her Kioshi cleared his throat. Right. Business. “Do you know what your crimes are?” she asked Wyler, hoping that by standing over him she looked scary and intimidating. He laughed.

“Do you think the law can touch me? I’m the most powerful man in the city.”

“Maybe the law can’t touch you,” Lola said. “But I’m not the law. I am order where there is chaos. I make people become whatever I want them to be. I am the Mind Mistress.”

“Nice catchphrase,” he answered sarcastically. “What exactly are you supposed to be?”

“Relax,” she said. “I just want to fix you.”

She thought over the research Hannah and Kioshi had brought her. “You have decided to take a vow of poverty. You will sell all of your assets. You will take a six million dollar pay cut, and use that money to repair the damage you and your company have done. You will give money to social and environmental causes. Anyone working for your company making under fifty thousand a year will get a raise. You will fire the corrupt managers at your plants and replace them with fair, decent people. All new hires will be women and minorities. You will give Maxine Gross a raise, as much as anyone else on the board.” Lola looked up at Kioshi and Hannah. “Am I forgetting anything?”

“The car,” Kioshi offered.

“Right.” She grinned at Wyler. “And you will give me your Lotus. As a gift.”

Wyler reached into his pocket and handed her a set of keys. “Here,” he offered. His voice sounded far away, and Lola wondered briefly if it was too much, too many orders. Oh well.

“Thank you,” she said.

Lola felt giddy as they left, making their way to the parking deck beneath the building. The Lotus was parked in its own special spot right beside the door, a full space open on either side of it. “Who’s up for a spin?” she asked, holding up the keys.

Hannah let out a small whoop and climbed in eagerly when Lola unlocked the door. It was a tight squeeze as Kioshi and Hannah were both tall, but no one seemed to care when they were flying down the highway a short time later with the top down, moving so fast Lola’s mask was in danger of flying off.

“Well?” she asked Kioshi, slowing down enough for her voice to be heard. He had been quiet since leaving Wyler Industries.

His face broke into a smile. “You are amazing.”

Behind them Hannah laughed. “Yeah,” Lola said. “I know.”

*****

A/N: This is really more two chapters in one, which is one of the problems is this week-a-chapter format.

I love Lola's reaction to Lawrence in this chapter, and Kioshi and Hannah. I love those two.