Supervillain Girlfriend!

Chapter 11: Plan C

The door was pounded open, and a flood of men dressed in black body armor poured in. In the throes of her panic, Charlie thought they looked a little bit like a colony of black beetles pouring out of a log. Her stunned wonder was cut quickly short when a series of pops rang through the air.

Charlie's eyes widened, as the bullets bounced and ricocheted off of Beatrice, who barely flinched.

"Charlie, get behind me!" Beatrice shouted.

Charlie went to move, but pain exploded in her shoulder, and the force of something hitting her sent her stumbling to the ground.

"Dammit!" Beatrice cursed. She waved her open hand and a translucent bubble immediately formed around them. The curved wall shimmered and shook with marbled texture as the bullets bounced off of it.

"Watch where you're shooting, you lot of dumbasses!" Beatrice snapped at the men. She turned back to face Charlie. "They're Just rubber bullets. You're okay."

Charlie pulled herself up, not feeling at all okay as her shoulder throbbed painfully. It felt like she'd been hit by a truck.

"They can still kill you!" Charlie said. "Especially if they hit you in the face!"

"I know." Beatrice said. "We need to get out of here. We'll have to leave through that window. I need you to break it."

Charlie glanced worriedly over to it. It was the thick, unbreakable kind of glass they used in business buildings with high up floors. It wasn't something you could just smash open with a chair.

"I'll never be able to break it." Charlie said. "It's too strong!"

"Not by hitting it." Beatrice said. "Look in my bag. There should be a small device inside that looks like a spider."

Charlie fell to her knees and immediately started to dig through the bag. She pushed aside different gadgets until she found a silver device shaped like a spider, just about the length of her palm. It had a large button the back, gleaming green up at her.

"I've got it!" She declared.

"Good-" Beatrice, cut herself off as the men started to run at the forcefield. They looked like bugs hitting a windshield as they flopped against the translucent circle, but Charlie didn't miss the way Beatrice's arms were beginning to tremble. "Stick it on the window. Press the green button, then immediately back away and cover your ears while you count to ten."

Charlie went over the window, and attached the spider to it. To her surprise, it stuck straight to it like a suction cup. She pressed the button and ran back over to Beatrice's side with her ears covered and started to count.

1...2...3...

She watched as Beatrice's arms continued to tremble, her hold on the barrier becoming more unsteady.

4...5...6...

Charlie looked back at the window, her ears still covered, but it didn't look like that tiny spider was doing much.

7...8...9...

The barrier started to flicker in and out, like the lights during a thunderstorm. Panic filled Charlie. She felt like she was on the edge of a cliff, looking down at a tumultuous ocean begging to drag her under.

10.

There was a sound, Charlie thought. It seemed like a sound. She couldn't really hear much more than a high pitched ring, but it made her head pound terribly like it should seem much louder.

Slowly, little lines began forming in the surface of the glass like delicate lacework. Then, by the time Charlie had blinked, the glass was no more. Charlie shielded her eyes as glittering particles fell around her.

"Hurry! On the hoverboard!" Beatrice shouted. Charlie grabbed her bag and scrambled after her. The foot holders barely clamped her ankles down by the time Beatrice had shakily taken off.

Just as they were leaving the widow, one last stray bullet bounced off of Charlie's back. The force of it nearly sent them plummeting down to the pavement, but Beatrice managed to pull them pack up at the last second.

"Man, those guys really don't care if they kill you in the process of catching me." Beatrice said.

Charlie didn't say anything. She could only clutch Beatrice with her cold, sweaty hands as her teeth chattered uncontrollably. Beatrice lifted up her hand, and rubbed Charlie's hand soothingly.

"You okay?" Beatrice asked.

"Yeah." Charlie gasped. "I just need a minute so I don't pass out."

She leaned against Beatrice's back, trying to breathe slowly in and out. She tried to pretend that the air blowing against her face was the breeze from her family's yacht, out in the Caribbean waters in the summer when she was eleven.

She pictured her mother letting her have a sip of her strawberry margarita when her dad wasn't watching. It had been a good summer.

After a while she felt calm again, her breath becoming even and steady. The wind felt more like a cool breeze and less like a ferocious blast.

"I really don't have a plan," Beatrice said. "But I've got to figure something out. We can't just fly around forever. We need to have somewhere to go."

"This might sound crazy." Charlie spoke up, her voice raspy and tired. "But I actually have a plan."

Charlie told Beatrice her plan, having to shout it to her over the roaring of the wind around them because Beatrice was too worried about the authorities to land the hoverboard.

Since she was wearing her helmet, Charlie couldn't tell what her reaction was. Whether she was confident in Charlie's decision making skills or not, she quietly agreed to the plan.

Eventually, they landed in an ally and once again disguised themselves, though differently this time. They checked into a different hotel, one city over and stayed for an hour so. Then, they left out of the window.

They flew around the city for a while until they found two teenagers and offered them their room keys as well as a crisp new one hundred dollar bill. They happily obliged and Charlie and Beatrice left once again.

They traveled three hours in the opposite direction and changed disguises again. Charlie found the closest shady supermarket and purchased a burner phone, and as much food as the rest of her money could buy.

After Charlie had everything packed into her backpack, they started on their journey again.

The backpack was heavy, and it hurt Charlie's shoulder, which was still throbbing with pain and surely bruised.

"Where do I go now?" Beatrice asked.

"Do you have a GPS?" Charlie asked.

"Yes. It's built into my helmet." Beatrice responded.

"I'll give you the address." Charlie said.

Beatrice plugged the address into her GPS and stayed very quiet.

"What is this place we're headed to anyway?" She asked after a while.

Charlie took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

"It's somewhere no one in my family would think I would agree to go."