Ch 15 Week 13

Glory returned from Thanksgiving break feeling glorious. Her parents had been so proud of her, and he sister wanted to know all about Romeo Avenger. Even her brother, surly for a twelve year old, was interested in the training program he hoped to one day join himself.

But her good mood faltered when she returned to school. Back in Acropolis Lola was moping around, and KP, he was downright catatonic. "Didn't you miss me?" she asked after their Tuesday session, stretching out across the couch in the common room in Memorial Hall and resting her legs across his lap.

"Of course," he answered, but his voice sounded flat.

"Wow. If you're going to get this depressed over missing a long weekend with me, what are you going to do over Christmas break?"

"Suffer terribly I suppose," KP said.

"He was distraught," Torch offered from across the room where he was opening some canned pasta. "Nothing like himself at all." Ever since Glory and KP had taken him under their wings he was talking more, and sometimes he even smiled. Glory was very glad, even if it meant he was teasing them.

"Poor baby," Glory cooed, scrambling up and crawling across the couch to lean against his shoulder. He put his hand on her thigh, and she grinned at him and inched it a little higher up. He had been so good about her boundaries lately, and she really felt they had grown closer as a couple. She was starting to want him to go further, but he was a perfect gentleman.

"Poor baby indeed," Captain Righteous said as he entered the room and Glory scrambled back into a more proper position. She didn’t mind Torch seeing her close to KP, but not Righteous. His very presence made any displays of affection seem dirty. "I don't see how anyone can be a 'poor baby' around here with you crawling all over their laps."

"Piss off, Righteous," KP said, standing up.

"You slipping her the sausage yet, KP?" He walked over to the kitchen and grabbed a banana out of a bowl of fruit on the counter. Glory felt her skin burning as she stared at him. He peeled the banana completely, dropping the skin on the floor. Torch picked it up without a word and tossed it into the garbage. "You wish it were this big, don't you?" he said, waving the banana at her before shoving the whole thing in his mouth.

"Impressive gag reflex," Torch couldn’t help but remark. He ducked out of the way when Righteous sent a half-hearted swing in his direction.

"You want some of this?" Righteous said around the mouthful of banana. KP stalked out of the room.

"You're not funny," Glory said to Righteous and left to follow her boyfriend, but he was nowhere in sight.

*****

Torch found Lawrence later that day in their room. Lawrence was laying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. “Are you going to tell her?” Torch asked him, and Lawrence pulled the pillow out from under his head and held it over his face. He wondered if it was possible to smother one’s self.

“You think I’m a terrible person.” When Torch didn’t reply he knew it to be true. “Torch, you don’t understand. She has these legs, and that mouth. Lola is--”

“So she’s sexy. So what?”

“No, it’s not just that. She is just…amazing. But America is amazing too, in a different way. You know?”

“I wouldn’t know, actually. You’re the one boinking her.”

“I didn’t mean to have sex with Lola,” Lawrence said, lying through his teeth. He hardly resisted at all, he knew that. “It’s not going to happen again.” Lola could show up naked at his door and he wouldn’t open it. Probably.

“I don’t approve,” Torch told him. “You’re supposed to be a hero. You’re supposed to be above all that crap.”

“What about Romeo Avenger?” Lawrence said, and knew he had said something terrible as soon as the words were out. There was only a small ‘poof’ sound before the seat of the desk chair had been set aflame. Lawrence scrambled to his feet and grabbed the fire extinguisher, putting out the blaze before the smoke alarms went off. He turned back to Torch expecting him to wrap him in a whirl of apologies, but Torch only continued to glare at him.

“Romeo Avenger,” Torch said, “is not a good hero.”

At first Lawrence was confused at Torch’s vehemence, but he remembered the day before the house fire, and the murderous look he’d been giving Romeo Avenger when he kissed Cloud. “Right,” Lawrence said, not completely agreeing but at least understanding. Poor Torch. Why would a girl like Cloud want anything to do with him with guys like Romeo Avenger around? “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“I know I don’t know this Lola person, but I don’t trust her,” Torch continued, obviously not wanting the conversation to turn in his direction. “And I think the way you’re treating America is horrible.”

“It’s over with Lola,” Lawrence said. “I’m sure of it this time.”

“This time?”

“Oh, shut up.”

******


Lola tried Lawrence’s number for the second time in the last few days, but he didn’t pick up. Successfully seducing him had felt great at first, but she felt kind of…guilty afterwards. And now he wasn’t answering his phone. She wanted to apologize. Instead she set down her phone and started to dig around the kitchen for sugar. She’d polished off half a box of Twinkies and was starting to feel sick when Glory came in.

“Can I have one of those?” she asked immediately.

“Sure.” Lola slid a package across the table at her friend. “You okay?”

“I guess. You?”

“I’m great.”

They were both lying.

******


“He’s been totally weird ever since I came back from break,” Glory complained to Lola the next day. They were downtown, shopping for Christmas, walking up the steep hill that was Main Street with bags in both hands as they made their way to the car. “Like something happened over break that he’s not telling me about.”

“Why don’t you just ask him?” Lola adjusted the bags in her hands. “Why is there a hill? Why did we park so far away?”

“Because you wanted the exercise--though I don’t see how in those shoes.” Lola, as usual, was wearing some outlandish heels for their trip, where Glory was perfectly happy in a pair of dirty running shoes.

“Boys are fragile creatures,” Lola explained. “Easily manipulated. You just need to figure out what he wants--and pretend to give it to him.”

“I know what he wants,” Glory grumbled. “It’s not something you can pretend to give.” She sighed as she caught sight of the car, still over a block away, framed by a long white limousine pulling up behind it at the light. “There’s the car.”

“Finally! Glory, it’s just sex. Its no big deal at all--”

Glory was hardly paying attention. At the red light a woman began to cross the street pushing a stroller. What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion--the white limousine pulling up to block the woman’s path, the door swinging open and the arm reaching out to grab her. Glory dropped her bags. “It’s Dark Lothario!” Lola tried to grab her by the arm but she was gone, sprinting up the street. The woman cried out as her hands were wrenched away from the stroller, which immediately began to roll down-hill towards traffic.

Glory didn’t care that she was breaking the rules, displaying her powers in street clothes. She reached the stroller before it rolled into the next intersection, pulling it away and back onto the sidewalk. She stopped long enough to see Lola running as fast as she could in heels, which, for someone without super powers, was pretty fast, their bags beating against her legs. “Watch the baby,” Glory called.

She turned back at the sound of screeching tires as the limo barreled down the street, running red lights and causing cars to slam on their breaks. “Got the kid,” Lola gasped, reaching them too slowly.

“Great.”

“Glory!”

She broke into a run after the limo. It was moving faster than a large vehicle should. She picked up her pace, too much. She’d run ahead of the car and had to slow down to grab the door handle. Normally she didn’t try to do complex tasks while moving seventy miles an hour--it was harder than she imagined and took two tries. As she wrenched the door open she tripped and fell, hitting the pavement on her hip, pain shooting though her as she scraped along the road. But she was up again in moments, and as an arm scrambled to close the door. She launched herself
at the open space, falling on her stomach across the laps of two men in dark suits.

They were too surprised to react and she only had a short glimpse of Dark Lothario’s shocked face before she grabbed the still-screaming woman. “Lets get out of here,” she said, and pulled her close, knowing they would have to jump for it and having no time to prepare herself.

Hands grabbed at their clothes as they dove out of the car. Glory cried out as she hit on her already injured hip and they rolled, coming to a stop in the middle of a cross-walk.

“Ow,” she moaned, laying there still hugging the woman, who was more than happy to cling to her as well. Glory wanted to pass out, but the cars stopping around them and the people gathering prevented it. Glory sat up, wincing, while Dark Lothario’s would-be victim burst to tears in her arms.

“Hey, hey,” she comforted, her heart roaring in her chest. “It’s okay-- you’re safe now. Are you hurt?” The woman shook her head and buried her face against Glory’s shoulder.

The people were crowding around closer, all talking at once so Glory couldn’t hear a single straight sentence out of any of them over the sound over her rushing heart. Lola burst through the growing mob, and her voice was the only one she could understand. “Are you crazy? Are you okay?” She was pushing the stroller and the woman remembered her baby and pushed herself up on unsteady feet. The crowd had to catch her as she fell, but Lola pushed the baby over to a nearby woman and crouched beside Glory. “You’re bleeding.”

Glory looked down and saw her fall had shredded her jeans the entire length of her right leg, leaving her with one hell of a road rash. Lola helped her to her feet and she tested her injured leg. “It’s not bad,” she insisted. Around her the crowd began to clap and camera phones began to flash.

“You’ve done it now,” Lola said, and she let Glory lean on her as she limped up the hill to the car, now four blocks away instead of one. Had all that happened in just four blocks?

By the time they reached the car there was a news van and a reporter, sticking a microphone in her face. “Miss, what’s your name?”

Glory covered her face and Lola stepped between her and the cameras while she climbed into the car. “It’s nothing,” Lola said. “No comment.”

“Are the two of you students in the League’s training program?” she continued, and Lola slammed Glory’s door and hurried to the other side of the car. Glory ducked her head and closed her eyes as Lola pulled out of the parking spot, moving slowly while people sprang out of their way.

“That was crazy, Glory,” Lola said as she drove, a frown set in her face. “You could have been killed!”

Glory leaned back in the seat. Her head hurt and her hip hurt, the scrapes on her leg stinging. Tears began to sting her eyes as well, but she began to laugh.

“It’s not funny,” Lola said.

“I just thwarted Dark Lothario,” she said, gasping to catch her breath. “Oh my God!”

“Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?” Lola asked. Glory was having a hard time working through her exhilaration, but she knew Lola was right to be mad, somewhere in her mind anyway. “You better hope those cameras didn’t get a good look at your face.”

Glory really did stop laughing at that point. “Oh God. I am so toast.” She could just imagine the looks on Valkyrie and Stone’s faces, and they were dead scary. “They wouldn’t seriously kick me out for saving someone, would they?”

Lola shrugged. Glory was so toast.

*****

A/N:
Hey, look, an action scene. Imagine that. Unfortunately I’m not an adventure type writer. I’m more into interpersonal relationships (hilarious since I’m really bad at those in real life). I tend to fast forward through action scenes in movies. So why am I writing a super hero story? I have no idea. You can blame Joss Whedon and Dr. Horrible. And Dark Lothario, ‘cause when I thought of that name I couldn’t stay no.

In non-story news, just because I'm excited, I found out that I'm going to be graduating this spring. After 10 years, its about time.