What if Turnabout WAS Fair Play?

Chapter 2: A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream

(Having defeated the bad guys and saved the runaway train, our heroes have had a quiet couple of weeks… Our scene unfolds in the stately mansion of Katherine St. Claire, aka Lorelei.)

Kate woke from her dream flushed and gasping. She glanced guiltily at the camera, hoping that she hadn't done anything embarrassing. It was bad enough knowing that Simon, her head of security, would be affected by his empathic link to the Lorelei, but at least they could pretend to ignore that. It was worse when she knew he was going to see her masturbating when he reviewed the tapes in the morning.

She pulled the covers back over her shoulder and stared at the clock. 12:09 am. She'd only been asleep for an hour or so. Who knew if Simon had even been to bed yet. She tried to close her eyes, but images from her dream kept coming back to her.

She frowned and concentrated on her inner self. Sometimes the Lorelei amused herself by playiith ith Kate's emotions when she was off-guard. The more Kate was thrown off-balance the more influence Lorelei could exert. However, the siren had been strangely subdued since their run-in with Shade’s inner demon, an ancient Native American spirit, the Raven. The psychic battle had drained them both.

Kate now found herself more in control of her own body than she had been in a decade. Too bad she couldn't control her dreams so handily.

Sighing, she sat up and swung her feet over the side of the bed. She pushed her long hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. She shoved off the bed with a brisk decision and headed for her bath suite.

Running hot water from the tap she quickly brushed her teeth and washed her face. She caught a glimpse of herself in the small mirror of the vanity and gaped in amazement. Her lavender hair was streaked with brown, and her eyes were a hazel blend of brown and violet. She hadn't seen brown in either place since that last morning on the Happy Gamble.

Don't get too excited, she warned herself. Don't get your hopes up. Hope leads to expectation, and expectation leads to disappointment. Disappointment turns to betrayal, and then the Lorelei’s got your number for sure.

She turned her back on her image and went to her large closet. She walked past the couture suits and silks to the back. There. She smiled. Just what the doctor ordered.

*****

Simon looked up from the paper as the light came on over the door to Ms. St. Claire's soundproofed suite. The security specialist frowned slightly and set the paper aside. He stood, buttoning his collar and straightening his tie. He glanced at the monitor feed and his frown deepened. He hadn't even felt her wake, let alone get up and get dressed.
wal walked to the monitor station and depressed the intercom button. "Is everything all right, Ms. St. Claire?"

Yes, she signed to the camera. I would like to go out.

He hesitated, but couldn't feel the Lorelei's influence through his empathic link to the siren. He moved to the airtight door that led from his quarters to hers and released the lock. He pulled the reinforced door open and stepped back.

"Thank you, Simon," she said. He kept his face carefully expressionless. She was wearing a full set of snug white leathers and was absently slapping the gauntlets in one hand. Her long hair hung in loose waves around her shoulders. He hastily changed his plans for the night.

"Would you like for me to call for your car, Ms. St. Claire?" he asked hopefully.

"No, thank you, Simon," she said with a quirk to her lips. "I think I'll just take the bike."

"Ms. St. Claire," he began.

"Simon," she said, interrupting him with one hand. "I have to do something."

"If you can't sleep I could always get you a warm glass of milk," he offered. She gave him a strange look.

"I was sleeping," she said. "I had a dream." He gave her a blank look. "One of those dreams," she clarified, her face heating.

"Oh," he said. "I see." He frowned again. "But I didn't... I mean, usually..." He cleared his throat, and noticed the changes in her appearance and mannerisms for the first time. "The Lorelei?" he asked.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "She's there, but maybe she's more weakened than I thought. At any rate I'm tired of feeling sorry for myself. I'm going for a ride."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Simon said, envisioning the hundred different ways it could be A Really Bad Idea.

"I'm going," she said flatly, walking past him.

"Very well, I'll get changed and we can..."

"By my self," she interrupted, turning to face him.

"But," he began.

"Look, Simon," she said with no little exasperation. "You have a choice. You can find me a one-night stand, or you can let me go sublimate a bit. Which will it be? Of course," she went on, "these days the motorcycle is probably safer."

Simon stared at her a moment. She was more animated and alive than he'd seen her in years. Who was he to take that from her?

"Be sure to take your pager," he said calmly. He loosened his tie and sat down, picking up his paper.

*****

Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" echoed in her head from the remote speakers in her white full-face helmet. It thrummed through her blood while streetlamps whooshed past in a steady rhythm. Her white custom bike growled throatily and responded to her slightest touch on the throttle. It had been built for two things only - speed and performance. She leaned in and out of traffic, not really sure where she was headed but enjoying getting there.

She turned at a light and found herself cruising down Paragon's club district. Music blared from open doors. Bouncers stood outside other doors where lines stretched down the street. Some people staggered and others held hands as they walked, looking for their next stop.

A group of handsome young men strutted their stuff down the sidewalk, garnering attention from a couple of girls standing in line. They giggled and shot the boys coy looks, who preened in return.

Kate smiled behind her visor. For a moment she'd been tempted to go into one of those dark places. Her looks, money, and power would have assured her a prime table and plenty of young bucks to choose from. There was a certain appeal to the thought, but Kate found herself gunning the throttle and moving on.

A few minutes later she was surprised to find herself downtown. Here traffic was sparse and light, and she found herself instinctively following familiar turns. She pulled over and eased the bike to a stop under a dark tree, looking down the street at the Danger, Inc. headquarters.

A while later, Kate shook herself out of her reverie and sighed deeply. She had her thumb on the start when she heard a deep rumble approaching. She flipped her visor up and twisted her torso to look over her leather-clad shoulder.

An unusually thick and muscular motorcycle turned the corner and accelerated down the street toward her. She recognized the V-10 Dodge Tomahawk as Slick's Morwen from the files Simon had compiled on her teammates. The bike dwarfed her own, and she spared a moment for admiration for the sheer balls of it. 0 to 60 in 2.5 seconds. Top speed theoretically 400 mph. Twin sets of wheels were mounted on independent suspensions, necessary to control the beast of an engine. The pale-blue ice-wielder’s slender body was almost prone, stretched out atop the chassis.

Now if that's not sublimating, I don't know what is, she thought to herself. Grinning beneath her helmet she waited as the other rider noticed her and cruised to a stop beside her. Kate admired Slick's deft touch - she doubted she'd even have been able to keep the monster upright. The price of being petite.

"Couldn't sleep either, huh." It was a statement more than a question.

Slick suppressed a start of surprise to see Kate’s face framed by the helmet and she glanced around quickly, one eyebrow raised when she failed to notice Simon anywhere. Swinging her own visor up, she grinned at her teammate.

“Nope. It happens often enough I know when to stop fighting trying to sleep. I spent too many years living a fairly nocturnal existence and now I’m paying the price,” she said in her lilting voice, shrugging slightly. She glanced around again. It was strange to see Kate and not Simon, when they weren’t on a mission.

“Should I ask where he’s at or just let it be?” she asked, knowing Kate would know who she was talking about. “I was going to head in to check out the VR room, see if I can’t work myself to exhaustion and get some sleep tonight. Care to join me? Kat Kate looked down the deserted street toward Danger, Inc. and felt the night time breeze brush her face beneath her upturned visor.

"The VR room, huh?" she said. She thought of training with Slick. Simon would probably approve. He seemed inclined to think well of the model turned superhero.

"I don't know. I was just kind of enjoying being a regular woman tonight, you know? Take in the night air and ride the open road. Just once be like everybody else. No worries. No terrorists." No Lorelei.

"As for Simon, he's supposed to be at home. Knowing him, however, he's probably monitoring our conversation as we speak." Kate turned and grinned at Slick. "It would really piss him off if we headed out of town and lost him on the back roads. Want to try?"

Slick couldn’t help the bark of laughter that escaped her throat at Kate’s suggestion. Somehow, she’d never imagined her the type to rebel like that.

“You obviously don’t know much about my background if you thought I’d say anything other than ‘yes’ to such a suggestion!” Slick paused for a moment, evaluating what she already knew of the other woman. “Or you do know all about me and was counting on that sort of response. I’ll even promise not to open Morwen up fully so we don’t lose each other. If we’re really lucky, we’ll find some dive at the end of our ride and grab a few beers too.”

Slick flipped her visor back down, a huge grin on her face visible just before the dark plastiglass hid her from view. The two motorcycles revved loudly in the night and with a brief squeal of tires, the women pulled off the road and headed for the edge of town.

The two motorcycles sped through the darkened streets of Paragon City. The deep rumble of the Dodge Tomahawk underscored the higher-pitched whine of the smaller bike. The lights of the highway sped by as they headed for the edge of the City Zone.

Signs of the devastation from the alien Ritki invasion grew more frequent as they rode farther from the city center. Given the reconstruction that had occurred at the city's core it was easy to forget the dilapidation of the outlying areas. Some distance from the highway Hazard zones and Trial zones were walled off by blue force shields, providing some measure of protection from the chaos within.

The highway itself was clear of debris, as were the areas immediately adjacent to the highway. Civilization had begun to get a hold back here. The two women roared past the suburbs. Kate signaled to Slick and they took the off-ramp at the first farm-road they came to.

Out here the signs of fighting were more rare, as it had mostly been concentrated in the big population centers. Here life went on much as it had before the Ritki came.

The road curved and snaked up the coastline for a while. Kate enjoyed the advantage of her nimble ride, counterbalancing the bike through the hairpin turns so that her leather-clad knee almost brushed the pavement. When they got to the straight-aways, though, it was all about the Tomahawk's sheer power as Slick easily caught her up and passed her.

Kate kept an eye on the odometer. She had to be at least 30 miles away from Simon for her implant to get out of range. She hadn't seen him, but knew that he had followed her through the city. She appreciated his devotion to duty, but she planned to take full advantage of the Lorelei's relative absence. Having him near was a constant reminder of the restrictions of her life.

Her attention was caught by the glimmer of light on the ocean. The full moon hung low on the horizon, casting a ribbon of light across the dark water. The beauty of it struck a chord in her, and she felt more at peace than she had in a long time.

They rode along for another couple of miles, the only lights their headlights and the moon overhead. Slick squinted slightly as she caught a glow ahead on the landward side of the road. As they crested a hill, she blinked at the sudden harsh neon lights reaching out several hundred feet, then grinned when they got close enough to make out the sign. Slowly down slightly, she gestured to Kate and the two women pulled over, stopping in front of a long wooden building, various beer signs flashing in the windows.

Pulling her helmet off, she shook out her long, dark-blue hair, glancing towards Kate. “Nothing like a good beer and some decent music after a long ride,” she said, nodding towards the door where a deep beat could be felt, more than heard.

They left their helmets on their handlebars and walked into the bar, pausing for a moment in the doorway at the sudden onslaught of sensory information. The stink of cigarette smoke. The sour smell of spilled beer. The dim lighting found in bars around the world. Wooden paneling covered the walls and a couple of pool tables were stuck off in one corner. A live band was playing on a small, raised stage in one corner, a pretty girl almost inhaling the microphone as they belted out “Mustang Sally”.

The soft le ole of a couple dozen voices talking stopped almost abruptly as the locals took in the sight of the two women, one in all white leather, the other in a pair of very loose, pale blue cotton pants, a tight cropped white tank-top, and black leather jacket. Slick glanced around at the patrons, most obviously hard-working farmers, but several people, usually found in clumps together, were rather good-looking. She eyed several juicy looking men, ignoring the angry stares of the women with them, then turned her attention to the bar.

Slick stifled a grin and all but sashayed to the bar, motioning the bartender over. The owner of the bar apparently wasn't a fool; the bartender was a large, muscular man, with bright blue eyes and dark wavy hair. His looks must bring in the single women easily, which in turn will bring in more men.

“Do ye have Guinness on tap?” she asked, letting her Irish lilt out in full. If she was going to be stared at, the least she could do is make sure they got a good show. At the bartender’s nod, she pulled out a ten and glanced over to see what Kate wanted.

"Di Saronno on the rocks," Kate said at the bartender's questioning glance.

"Di Saronno on the rocks," he answered with a slight smile. He reached behind him to the shelf and pulled out the amaretto, setting it on the wooden bar. A deft twist of his hannt tnt the squared cap spinning. He poured the smooth russet-colored liqueur over the ice in a tumbler.

"Thank you," she said with a smile. If Slick didn't bite first, this could be promising.

She followed Slick to a table set near the wall. The postage-stamp dance floor was empty at the moment. Kate decided they'd have to address that eventually. She slipped into a chair opposite Slick, turning it slightly so that she could see the room. She caught the eye of a middle-aged farmer and returned his admiring glance. He was young enough to have the muscles of a bull but old enough to have some character in his weathered face.

"Good choice of watering holes," she said with approval, turning back to Slick. She noticed the woman looking at her hair with a questioning expression. "It's a long, sad story," she said with a wry grin, "and I figure I only have an hour or less before Simon comes barging in, so I'll keep it short and sweet.

"My powers come from the spirit of an ancient sea creature, a sea-siren called the Lorelei. She's bound to me by this," Kate said, unsnapping the strap at her throat and unzipping the jacket to the tops of her breasts. A pearlescent shell nestled in the skin of her throat.

"We don't get along," she said in gross understatement, "and normally I have to keep tight control. Something about our encounter with Shade's Raven did something, though, and she seems... distant. Almost like she's sulking.

"I don't know and I don't really care. There are so many things that I haven't been able to do because it would give her the opportunity she needs to take control of me. I went for a ride tonight because what I really wanted to do was…” She flushed and cleared her throat. “What I really want to do was lge lge in those things I have denied myself for the past eight years."

She took a sip of her amaretto, closing her eyes at the taste. "This," she said, raising her tumbler, "is one of them. Another is being by myself. No Simon," she clarified. "Of course, he wouldn't see it that way.

"Knowing him, the minute I left the grounds he was on the phone with one of his 'specialists' and started tracking me. I'd imagine we lost him when we left the city, but he's probably in the chopper setting up a search grid even as we speak. I refuse to feel bad about it, though. He's been getting rather controlling himself lately. Pretty soon he'll stalk in here and 'suggest' that I accompany him home.

"In the meantime," she grinned, sitting back and looping her arm over the back of her chair, "I intend to enjoy my drink and flirt with some cute guys. So how about you?"

“Eight years?!?” Slick burst out, dropping forward from her lounging position. She’d been examining the other people in the bar, taking note of the interested or dangerous looks her unusual skin color provoked in different people. “God above, I think I’d lose it!” she said. “We’ll deal with Simon if and when he shows up. Who knows, we may have moved on to somewhere else by the time he figures out we were here,” she said with a broad grin, sipping at her Guinness. “Drink, flirt like mad, dance until we can’t breath, then leave ‘em wanting for more as we hit the road again.

“As for me, well, I find many nights I can’t sleep well. I spent too many years living a mostly nocturnal existence. It’s far easier to rob from the rich when they’re sleeping. You’d be amazed how many people don’t turn on their security systems when they’re in their homes.” She grinned broadly, watching Kate to see her reaction to Slick’s past.

“I still haven’t decided if it’s been a good thing or a bad thing how my life changed. My partner and best friend died and I found out I was a mutant within minutes of each other. That's a day that I relive in nightmares all too often, the nights I am able to sleep.

“We’d been celebrating our twentieth birthdays and lifted some stuff from a jeweler’s shop. Morwen’s rope snapped and she fell three stories, snapping her neck. The shock of it triggered my latent mutancy and my world has never been the same since,” she said with a slightly sarcastic snort. “I suppose if Mor and I had continued on as we’d been doing, eventually we would have been caught by the bobbies. And, although the adrenaline rush is nowhere near as intense, the satisfaction is far greater with what I’m doing now.

Kate shook her head sadly at Slick's story. "I'm sorry about your friend," she said. "I, too, lost a friend when this happened," she waved her hand at the shell at her throat. "I'd like to say that we have to experience sadness in order to recognize joy, but sometimes there is only sadness."

"I knew there was more to you than heroing, though," she said with a smile, lightening the mood. "You were way too comfortable sneaking about on those rooftops! And who am I to judge, anyway? As an archaeologist and anthropologist I was a grave robber, for all intents and purposes. Not to mention that I made my fortune treasure hunting old shipwrecks."

“That guy over there has not taken his eyes off you since we walked into the bar,” Slick changed the subject with a grin, gesturing with her chin towards a tall, muscular young man, looking like he’d be more at home on a college football field than in farming country.

Kate looked around and smiled at the young man with the big muscles that Slick pointed out. "Jesus, he looks like jail-bait for me. More your age, I think. Look at that one over there," she said with a straight face, inclining her head toward a young man.

Dark hair flopped over his forehead in carefully designed chaos. Dark eyes smoldered above perfectly molded cheekbones. He noticed their attention and drank from his beer to draw attention to his perfectly sensual mouth. It was all Kate could do not to laugh.

The band segued a little more evenly into "Wicked Game" by Chris Izaak.

"Oh my god," Kate said with wide eyes. "I love this song. I will dance to it." She scanned the room before settling on the middle-aged farmer. She'd take a man who'd been around the block a few times over a young stud any day. He was already on his feet by the time she got to him.

Kate closed her eyes and let herself enjoy theic aic and sensation of the big male body next to hers. Since making her first fortune she had indulged her taste for fine things. Her closet was full of luxurious clothing, silk underthings, and even furs that she refused to feel guilty about.

None of those things could replace the human touch.

Her dance partner wasn't even touching her bare skin. His hold was respectful but firm on her waist, and she could feel the heat of his hands through the leather. She shivered as one hand drifted upward to her lower back. The only person who ever touched her was Simon, and he was scrupulously impersonal.

What a wicked game to play
To make me feel this way
What a wicked thing to do
To let me dream of you
What a wicked thing to say
You never felt this way
What a wicked thing to do
To make me dream of you...

Kate's eyes flew open and she felt a flush stain her cheeks as an image from her own wicked dream came to her. The brush of her thighs against her partner’s suddenly made her want more. She wanted to pull him closer and wrap her legs around hbrinbringing him right where she needed him most. She frowned slightly, trying to dismiss the dream from her thoughts.

The heat in her blood cooled and she felt the restlessness creep back in. As the song came to a close Kate pulled his face down to her and kissed him chastely on the cheek.

"Thank you," she said huskily. She could see both disappointment and understanding on his face.

"Any time," he said, gallantly pressing a kiss to her hand.

Kate walked back over to their table and sat back down, but she couldn't stop from shifting slightly in her seat.

“I’ll be outside,” she told Slick, suddenly unable to stand the heat of the bar anymore. The ice-wielder raised her blue eyebrows but just nodded and drank her Guinness.

(continued)