The Deviant Underground (Time Bandit) (25 page)

Kathryn sighed. “Yeah, okay.”

“Okay?”

Kathryn shot her a glance. “I said okay, girl. Damn.”

“Okay.” Susan smiled.

***

That night, Susan dressed Kathryn in a black leather vest, black jeans, and her now favorite pair of boots.

“You look so bad-ass with your 6ft tall self,” Susan said playfully as she looked down at the heels on Kathryn's shoes. “God, I'd need twice the height of those shoes to be almost as tall as you are.”

“Yeah, well,” Kathryn put her diamond earrings in her ears, “I'll take some of your boobs in exchange for a little height.”

“You got a deal!” Susan laughed. She was wearing black jeans as well and a low-cut white tank top that drew attention to her cleavage.

Kathryn reached for her GPS and turned it on. She scrolled through the previous entries and found the address for the Basement. She glanced at the directions and strapped it on her wrist. She had become more comfortable with LA over the past week and almost had the directions memorized. She even knew where the best places were to touch down for her seven mile breaks. At night, the alleys and secluded streets would offer even more protection for their sudden materialization.

“Ready?” Kathryn extended her hand.

“Absolutely.”

It took Kathryn four stops before arriving at the Basement's front door. As Susan and Kathryn entered the long, dimly-lit hallway, Kathryn thought about Charge and how he had led her by the hand through the club. She missed him terribly.

“Hey, Nero.”

Nero flashed his broken smile. “Hello, ladies! Wait,” he looked around, “aren't you missing someone tonight?”

“Charge is out of town,” said Susan.

“Bummer.” A lascivious spark flashed in his eyes as he looked both of them up and down. “He don't know what he's missing tonight.”

“We'll be sure to tell him,” Kathryn said coldly.

Nero nodded slightly, the spark extinguished by Kathryn's frosty reply. He was back to all business. “Go on in, ladies, and have a good time.”

Susan and Kathryn breezed by him and entered the crowded club. With Kathryn in the lead, the two of them pushed their way through drunken party-goers around to the dj booth and up to the hidden door. Kathryn knocked four times. The door swung open, and they stepped inside the hallway.

“Oh, snap! The ladies are back!”

“Hey, Herc.” Susan gave him a quick hug. Herc was dressed as he was before, in clothes three sizes too big. The sight of him almost made Kathryn laugh. She thought back to what Charge had said about Herc being able to kick his ass. It seemed so unbelievable. Then again, she had just teleported to the club from 30 miles away, so anything was possible.

“What's up, Herc.” Kathryn greeted him.

“Do I get a hug, too?” He grinned his gold-plated smile.

“Sure.” Kathryn leaned down to hug him. His shoulders felt narrow and frail.

“Where's my man?”

“Away on business.”

“Aw, that's too bad.” Herc hitched at his pants. He was in desperate need of a belt. “The place is jumping tonight.”

“Cool,” Susan said excitedly. All Kathryn could think about was getting a drink.

“Go on back, ladies. Go on back.” Herc stepped aside to let them pass.

“Thanks, Herc,” Kathryn said as they headed down the hall.

Herc was right; the backroom was packed. Looking around, Kathryn saw some of the same people she recognized from her previous visit but many more that she didn't. She and Susan had to push their way into the room.

“Come on,” Susan shouted over the boisterous conversations in an attempt to be heard. “Let's go to the bar in the back.” Kathryn nodded, and the two of them slowly made their way through the crowd, stopping every few feet to say hi or to wave at people. The weaving through the wall of people was a slow progression, and by the time they made it to the bar, Kathryn had decided that she was going to begin her evening with tequila. Two shots.

“What are you drinking?” Susan's eyes scanned all of the options behind the bar.

“Tequila.”

“Ooo, good idea.” Susan caught the eye of one of the waitresses. “Tequila!” Kathryn held up four fingers. The woman clad in white hot pants nodded and poured their shots. Susan looked at Kathryn. “Damn, you are serious!”

“Damn right, I am. I'm not messing around.” Kathryn raised her shot glass in a toast. Susan clinked it, and they both downed their drinks. “Come on. Number two.”

“Okay, okay.” Susan spit out her lime and picked up the other shot. They clinked glasses again and drank the second one as quickly as the first.

Kathryn bit into the lime wedge, enjoying its sour tartness. She looked around them. Standing at the bar were dozens of people all laughing and shouting. Waitresses scurried from person to person trying to keep up with all of the orders. On the surface, everything seemed normal, but upon closer inspection, Kathryn caught glimpses of extraordinary abilities. A glass flying through the air, an unexplainable flash of light, a strange blast of cold air, a hazy dark cloud of smoke—there was a flurry of amazing phenomena swirling around her.
What had Charge said? A place where we can just be ourselves?
Kathryn sighed
. He was right, and I wish that I could tell him that right now.

Kathryn lit a cigarette. She was beginning to feel the effects of the two rapidly consumed shots. It felt like a warm blanket was being placed around her. She wanted more and signaled to the waitress to bring three.

***

Kathryn stopped counting tequila shots after number nine. She also lost track of all of the people she met. At one point, Susan took her hand and led her around the room, stopping every few feet and introducing her to everyone she knew. The names all blurred together, but Kathryn could remember their abilities. There was the tall, bald guy who could manipulate the water vapor in the air. She vaguely remembered him producing what looked like a small rain cloud over his friend's head. His buddy had squawked when the droplets fell down on him, getting water on his head, shoulders, and into his glass. There was the blonde woman who could communicate with animals (
Didn't Susan say she was a vet?
) There was the black woman with the short, natural hair who could speak, read, and understand fluently dozens of languages who worked at the UN or the White House or some governmental agency that Kathryn had trouble remembering. There were quite a few telepaths and a couple of people who had the gift of telekinesis. A thin East Indian man had the ability to tell what is wrong with a machine just by touching it. Kathryn could remember him joking that his parents bragged to all of their friends that he was a genius because he had fixed their broken television when he was five. “If they knew I'm a deviant, they wouldn't be bragging then,” he had said. Kathryn had loved it all, and everyone had seemed impressed with her abilities as well.

“I gotta go to the bathroom,” Kathryn said.

“I'll go with you.” They slowly made their way through the crowd to the bathroom at the far side of the room.

“How do you feel?” Susan asked as she closed the door in the stall next to Kathryn.

Kathryn laughed. “Fucked up. And glad I'm not driving.”

Susan's voice echoed over the chorus of flushing toilets. “Same here.”

“Yeah, I'm almost drunk enough to forget that Charge is gone. Just a few more drinks should do the trick.” She flushed the toilet, opened the stall door, and almost ran into Bea. “Oh, shit!” Kathryn laughed. “Sorry.”

Bea was wearing her hot pants waitress uniform. Her ample breasts heaved up and down as she breathed deeply, glared at Kathryn, and said nothing. Finally, she growled, “Watch where you're going, bitch.”

Kathryn blinked in surprise, the alcohol numbing her reaction time. She needed further clarification. “What did you say to me?”

Bea put her hands on her hips. “You heard me. Watch where you're going, bitch.”

“Who are you calling a bitch, bitch?” Susan jumped into the conversation, Kathryn suddenly aware that she was standing next to them.

“I'm not talking to you,” Bea addressed Susan sharply before steadying her gaze back on Kathryn.

Kathryn took a moment to process what was happening before snapping. “What the fuck is your problem?”

“You.” Bea raised a finger and wagged it in Kathryn's face. “I don't know who you think you are, but let me tell you something about Charge. He—”

“Back the fuck up.” Kathryn took a menacing step forward. “And get your fucking finger out of my face.” Despite the fact that Bea was wearing four-inch heels, Kathryn still towered over her. The height difference, however, seemed to make no difference to Bea.

Susan interjected, “How dare you try to—”

“Susan,” Kathryn interrupted without taking her eyes off of Bea, “it's okay. I got this.” Bea's perfectly shaped eyebrows were pinched together in a scowl over her flashing green eyes. Kathryn had the urge to punch her in one of them. Susan said nothing, and Kathryn noticed that the bathroom had become strangely empty.

“I don't know what he told you,” Bea's angry voice now echoed off the walls, “but Charge was my boyfriend first, and I don't know who you are or where you came from, but he's
mine
.”

Kathryn let Bea's words linger in the empty room for a moment while she attempted to process them. When what Bea was saying finally hit her, she burst out laughing. “Do you think I give a fuck what you and Charge did before he met me?” She dismissed Bea with a wave of her hand. “I asked him if you had been together, and he said no, so clearly you didn't mean shit to him. Besides, if you had anything to offer him besides a pair of tits, he would still be with your ass, but obviously, you don't because he's my man now.” Kathryn paused and looked Bea up and down. She couldn't imagine what Charge saw in her. “Come on, Susan, let's go.”

As Kathryn turned and headed toward the exit, something pushed her hard from behind, sending her flying forward a few feet and into the bathroom door. Even though the room was spinning as a result of too much tequila, Kathryn managed to stay on her feet. Unsure of what happened, she slowly turned around. Bea was still standing in the same spot, a slight smirk at the corners of her overly painted, red mouth. Confused for a moment, Kathryn remembered seeing beer bottles floating in front of them.

A telekinetic. Bea's a telekinetic. And she pushed me. She fucking pushed me.
Kathryn's eyes narrowed. “Is that the best you've got?” she hissed.

Bea's green eyes flashed. She threw her arms forward and grunted. Kathryn was hit with a force that lifted her off her feet and pitched her backward toward the wall again. The alcohol slowed down her reaction time, but she still managed to teleport back into a standing position before she hit the wall. She saw the surprise on Bea's face. And she thought she saw something else, too. She thought she saw fear.

Kathryn chuckled and said slowly, “You really shouldn’t have done that.” She then teleported to a few inches in front of Bea and punched her squarely in the face. Bea let out a sound somewhere between a cry and a scream and fell backward, hitting her head on the wall. Before she could hit the floor, Kathryn grabbed her by the shoulder and teleported her a few feet away. The sensation of teleportation was too disorienting to Bea, and she crumbled into a groaning heap at Kathryn's feet. She went to grab Bea again and felt someone pulling at her arm.

“That's enough!” Kathryn blinked quickly trying to clear her head and looked over to see Susan attempting to pull her away. “You have fucked her up enough.” Something in Susan's blue eyes caught her attention, and the rage fizzled and died away.

Kathryn coldly looked down at Bea. She was curled up in the fetal position, moaning. Her eye was beginning to swell shut. A sense of satisfaction and calm washed over Kathryn. “Okay.” She nodded and walked out the door. Just outside the bathroom, several women huddled together. It was clear they knew what was going on inside, and they were waiting to see who would emerge victorious. Kathryn saw looks of disbelief, confusion, and affirmation scattered amongst the crowd. No one said anything to her. A few women rushed in to help Bea. Kathryn ignored everyone and headed to the bar.

Several minutes later, after two more shots, Susan finally broke the silence. “I thought you were going to kill her.” She giggled, now clearly intoxicated.

Kathryn felt very drunk as well, the adrenaline from the experience coursing through her veins. She lit another cigarette, adding nicotine to the mix. “I know. I seriously thought about it.” She inhaled deeply. “Good thing you stopped me.”

“Damn.” Susan shook her head. “The look on your face. I’ve never seen you so mad.”

Kathryn shrugged. “Well, she pissed me off.” The room now was spinning so much that she practically had to hold onto the bar. She laughed. “Damn, Susan. I'm so drunk I don't know if I can get back.”

“You can do it.” She grabbed Kathryn's wrist and pressed a few buttons. “Here's the way home. I'll help you.”

Kathryn snorted, took one last drag of her cigarette, and crushed it out. “You’re as wasted as I am. How's that gonna help?”

“I don't know!” Susan squealed, before collapsing in a fit of giggles. “But maybe two drunk people are as good as one sober person.”