The wheels start turning and it's immediately clear that comparing their driving to Victoria is like night and day. They follow the speed limit, they use their turn signals, and they don't try to use children as practice objects. This peace is something I can't let go of.
Now that I have the chance to think about it, living in Seattle, I didn't take long car rides like this often. The last one I ever took was a trip with Catherine to Lake Chelan.
The talks on our way down the highway, her humming to the radio, her cute face when she fell asleep. The memory... it's drowning me all at once. While Jessie and Victoria aren't paying attention, I swipe away incoming tears, exhaling deeply to keep them at bay. It's not the same without her.
I mourn the memory of that trip in silence for a moment, burdened by the idea I'll never get to have it again. And the more I think the worse my mind gets. Because it dawns on me that this calm, safe environment won't be the same for our ride back. Because, Victoria on the wheel will probably hold her foot on the gas pedal, ignoring the speed limit. Weaving through lanes and eventually off the side of the road into a ditch somewhere. I'll die curled in the backseat along with Jessie while Victoria will somehow survive because Karma seems to not affect her.
It's the worst-case scenario, but not an unlikely one. So, I need to enjoy this while I can.
We ride for a little longer, the low hum of the road the only sound filling the car. Victoria's head bounces off the passenger seat headrest as her wide mouth sucks in flies. Then, a sign saying "Welcome to New Jersey" raises alarm bells in my brain.
"Where are we going?"
"It's a surprise."
"I don't know how I feel about surprises." Call it a learned response.
"You'll like this one!"
They're intent on keeping me in the dark here. What could be so important as to drive three hours from DC? There are gyms in Washington. They could probably fit a gym in the Headquarters if they wanted to!
We drive a few more minutes within the foreign state until Jessie pulls into a packed parking lot the size of a football field. We struggle to find a parking spot for a bit, Victoria almost gets out to fight an elderly man who nearly hits us. But finally, we pull into an open spot, and they put us in park.
Outside the window, a complex with a large glass ceiling and people flocking inside. Signs for department stores hang high above every entrance and send equal parts nostalgia and confusion seeping into my skin.
"We went this far to go to the mall?"
"Everything isn't as simple as it appears Ren. This mall is a forge that will make the strongest heroes to ever live! And you will have the honor of reshaping your body with me into a weapon stronger than any other!"
Their excitement over how strenuous this is supposed to be makes my cheeks run cold, and I shut the car door behind me while Jessie weaves through cars on the fastest route inside the mall.
Another door slams behind me. "You didn't want to wake me up?" Droopy-eyed Victoria asks me while carrying a black and purple handbag I hadn't seen her come with.
"I was afraid of what'd you do if I did." I look back to Jessie, who's jumping up and down for our attention and I turn back. "Do you know what's inside here?" She yawns, shrugs, and doubles her pace to the door. "Great talk..."
We open a glass door at the front of the mall, and my stomach is sagging over what could be inside. But if this place is supposed to be special in some way, I'm not seeing it.
The place is divided into different smaller stores. There are a handful of kiosks, a trendy clothing shop Catherine used to talk about, and an Auntie Anne's. It just looks like an average mall. The only abnormal thing about it is the number of people inside.
From the crowd of cars parked in the lot, I'd expected some kind of special event to be going on inside. Something that would attract swarms of people making a lot of easily traceable noise.
But there doesn't seem to be that many people inside. I'd say it's even quieter than the malls I've been to back home.
"Is there some kind of gym in here?" I ask.
"Not here. We need to go down a level." They said, pointing to a silver elevator to our left.
The elevator shifts a little too much under our weight when we all fit in, and I have to grab the wall to stay on my feet. "Uh..." Before I can suggest taking the stairs, Jessie clicks the B2 button, and we start our descent downward.
Thankfully when we get moving, the iron shell doesn't make any more suspicious noises. Only a persistent metal chatter resonates through the chamber.
"Sooooo, you're paying for lunch right Whitey?" Victoria asks, breaking the partial silence.
"I don't know if my wallet can take such a villainous blow, but we'll definitely need to eat later! Proper nutrition and hydration will be vital after today's workout!"
"I'm still low on cash after my wallet was stolen. Can we pick somewhere cheap?"
"All the more reason Whitey should pay for our lunch! They're our senior, it's their responsibility to take care of us."
"I'm not going to make them buy me food Victoria." That definite proclamation kills the topic, probably, and we sit in silence for a bit until the cage around us rumbles to a stop.
The elevator doors creak open. Usually, mall basements have parking lots, at least the ones in Seattle did. And this is far from a parking lot.
A long, dingy hallway lit by small fairy lights along the corners. At the end of the hall is a blond-haired man with arms as big as Ghislain and a large lump growing out of his face. A group of men clamor to get past him into a bright red room as he shuts the door behind them.
Jessie and Victoria walk forward to greet the large man, while I follow at a safe distance away.
"Good evening!"
"Do you have any knives, guns, or anything else that could be used as a weapon on you?" He drones in a monotone voice.
"Right to the point huh! Here you go!" From their mystery cape pocket, they hold their revolver by its barrel, offering it to the guard.
"Other than that, I'm completely unarmed. And in a way, I'm disarmed too eh!" They wiggle their cast while the security guard sighs at the attempt at a joke and pats them down.
The guard skims over Jessie's body with his hands, scowls, and moves aside for them to pass.
"Take it" Victoria does the same with her command card, making me feel a little safer standing next to her. "If you count my killing looks, then I'm always carrying a lethal weapon though."
The guard groans, and proceeds to pat her down the same way he did Jessie. "Watch the hands. I can give you two more of those bumps if you're not careful," she warns. After one last feel around her ankles, he moves and lets Victoria inside as well.
Alright, I'm up. "Sorry, I don't have a joke for you like they did."
"Thanks, I appreciate it." He ushers me in without any trouble, probably as thanks for not battering his ears with another awful joke.
Behind the guard is a small area just big enough to hold the single file line Jessie and Victoria are waiting for me in. Warm orange lighting flutters down onto a shaggy red carpet.
"Why did you give up your Antique?" I whisper.
"He's just holding it while we're inside. We won't need it anyway. Today's simple, no shooting, no killing. Just good ol' training!"
Training. Just training. Alright, I can do that. I've never heard of a gym with a guard or one underground. But whatever it is, it's better than a mission.
We wait in the slow-moving horde while others tap their feet or look to the front impatiently. I would be too if I wasn't used to seeing the lines at Headquarters. While those waits last hours to get through, this one only lasts about fifteen minutes until we arrive at the front.
To greet us after our wait is a woman in a red blazer sitting behind a ticket booth. She looks like an usher out of a movie theater. The inside looks like a tornado put everything behind the glass screen in a spin cycle. Papers scattered along the walls, bottles of suspicious liquid, the woman's hair standing to the sky.
"Name?" she says in a demanding tone.
"The White Phantom!" Jessie quickly responds.
I don't know why they need my name, but I'll follow their lead. "Ren Lu."
"Victoria Ryder." She says while climbing up the small counter attached to the booth.
The woman opens a book from under the desk, scanning down the pages with her finger until she finds what she is looking for. Then, she dives back under her booth and retrieves two large pieces of paper.
"Here are your numbers." She says, holding two small leaflets to me and Jessie. "Put those on your body when it's your turn or you won't be allowed to enter."
"Numbers?"
"We needed to preregister before we came here so they could be ready for us. But don't worry, I handled it for us."
"This seems like a lot of extra steps just to go to a gym."
"Who said anything about a gym?"
Jessie pushes the door open to what I expected to be an exclusive high-profile gym. Polished and perfect performance equipment, with well-toned athletes giving their all. This... isn't that.