Chapter 7:  The Mall

Tess Atom was meeting me at ten A.M. and I woke up at nine to get ready.  I took a quick shower and ate a couple pieces of fruit that I brought to my room the night before.Getting dressed didn’t take any time at all since my wardrobe still only consisted of sweat clothes.  I grabbed the debit card Raven gave me and pocketed it.  I was passing the remaining time until Tess was supposed to arrive by watching T.V.  As I sat there staring at the T.V. I was thinking about my conversation with Lady Liberty.  She was right, I needed to quit feeling sorry for my self and move forward with my life.  I think part of the problem was that I have been cooped up in the Leagues headquarter for weeks now while they were helping me look for a way to reverse the changes made to me. Hopefully this trip to the mall was just the first of many excursions out of the tower.  I think that will help me put my difficulties behind me.

I was deep in that line of thought when a polite tap on the door startled me out of my musings.  I turned of the T.V., stood up and took a deep breath, resolving to use today to move forward and quit dwelling on my situation.  I quickly made my way to the door and when I opened the door I saw Raven and an attractive brunette dressed in sneakers, jeans and an orange short sleeved shirt standing there.

“Scott, this is Tess Atom, Tess this is Scott Foster.”  Raven said, introducing us.
“It’s nice to meet you Scott!”  Tess said with a warm smile and held her hand out to me.
“Nice to meet you as well Tess!”  I said cheerfully taking her hand in mind with a firm handshake.
“Ready to get out of this stuffy old tower and have some fun?”  She asked.
“As a matter of fact, yes I am.  I’ve been cooped up inside for far too long!”  I said enthusiastically, genuinely ready to go out and enjoy the day.
Tess gave out a small laugh and Raven smiled then her look became more serious and she said, “ Scott, at the risk of ruining your geed mood I have to ask this.  What do you want to be called while out in public?  Calling you Scott might draw unwanted attention.”  Her expression told me she regretting needing to ask that of me but I understood the reasons she did.
“Scarlet.”  I said simply, “I knew I would have to come up with something eventually.  I tried to come up with something that sounded like my old name but I couldn’t think of many women’s names that started with an ’S’.  I said with a small laugh and a smile, hoping to make Raven feel better about the question.
“Scarlet it is then.  Well Tess, I won’t keep the two of you any longer.  You two have fun.”  She said as she left us to our own devices.
Tess lead me to her car and we headed out to Millennium Mall not far from the Leagues’ tower.
“A normal car?  I half expected you to take us to the mall in the Atom Family's sky car.”  I said jokingly to her while we were in route.
She chuckled and said, “Well, we would have avoided all the downtown traffic that’s for sure, but would you have wanted the attention that would have generated?”
“Nope, I would not.  Won’t people recognize you anyway though?”  I asked.
“Less often than you would think.  While it’s true that my identity isn’t exactly a secret I don’t get recognized all that often.”  She replied.
“Oh, why’s that?  I asked.
“When they think of Tess Atom the expect me to be flying though the air battling supervillains.  So, when I’m not doing those things most people don’t usually make the connection .”  She explained.
“Huh, you’re right.  If I hadn’t been introduced to you I wouldn’t have recognized you either.”  I said.

We arrived at the mall in good time.  Tess pulled her car into a parking spot and asked, “Ready to have some fun Scarlet?”
“More than I ever thought possible!” I replied with a laugh.  I’ve never been all that excited to go to the mall to shop but after being at the tower for so long Tess could have taken me to the City Dump and I would have been happy to go.
“No offense Scarlet but clothes shopping is first on our list.  Sweat clothes aren’t all that fashionable.”  She said with a smile.
“I agree, lead on!” I said jovially.
Our first stop was Bromwell’s Department Store.  Bromwell’s was a nation-wide chain of department stores that started here in Millennium City and had a wide selection of clothes and other goods.  Before we left the department store Tess had purchased ten changes of clothes for me and with my measurements being 36B-24-34 and at 5’4” tall most of the clothes were size small with the exception of some tops where the mediums fit better.  She refused to let me pay for any of the clothes which upset me a little bit.  Most of the clothes were pretty plain with a few exceptions where Tess had to sweet talk me into trying on and getting more feminine items like skirts, dresses and high heel shoes.  Oh yeah, purses too...  I have to admit those items challenged my resolve somewhat.  When we dropped the purchases off at her car before moving on to the rest of the mall to make things easier I was wearing a blue pastel button up shirt, acid washed skinny jeans and my sneakers that I came to the mall in.  

The clothes shopping took all morning so we stopped in at the food court and ate a light lunch before exploring the rest of the 150 stores the mall had to offer.  I was having a great time with Tess and with more shopping bags in hand we finally decided to call it a day.  I had bought a couple of console games movies and books that I had missed out on their release while I was stuck in the tower.  We were almost to her car when I heard the wolf whistle.  I glanced around to see who was being whistled at and I saw the men who had let loose the whistle staring at me.  With a sinking realization I realized it was me.  I was the one they whistled at.  I quickly looked away from them in embarrassment and started to feel trapped again.  I saw the worried look on Tess’ face as she saw the emotions I was feeling play across my face.  We put our bags in the car and got in.  I put my head back on the headrest of the seat and let out a long sigh.
Tess leaned over and gave me a hug and asked, “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“I made a promise to my self early this morning that I would quit feeling sorry for myself and move forward with my life as I am now for as long as it takes to reverse the changes done to me.  For the most part I’ve been able to do that today, although some of the clothes you insisted I get tested my resolve somewhat.”  I said that last with smile and continued, “When I realized that wolf whistle was directed at me it almost undid all the progress I felt I had made today.”  I finished.
“Oh, Scott Raven is working with the best scientific minds in the world to find a cure.  Have faith in her.” she comforted.
“I know and I a very grateful for that.  You know, if this had happened before my conversation with Lady Liberty last nigh I would probably be a complete, blubbering mess right now.  Now though the whistle is just merely a reminder of my situation.  It doesn’t define who I am.  I finally realize that I’m the only one that can do that.”  I said straightening my shoulders with new found resolve.
“That’s awesome Scott.  I’m glad you are more at peace about your situation.”  She said with a warm smile.
“Thank you, and no more ‘Scott’.  It’s time I just went with Scarlet from now on.”  I said returning the smile.

Tess stopped and got some Chinese take-out and we went back to the tower.  No one was there to greet us when we returned and the staff said they went out on a call so Tess and I went up to the apartments and watched a movie together while we ate our take-out.  It was near midnight when the movie was over and Tess stood up and stretched saying, “It’s time for me to go.”
“Tess words cannot express how grateful I am to you for hanging out like this with me.  It’s something that you didn’t have to agree to.  Thank you.”  I said.
“Scarlet, it was a pleasure to spend the day with you!  I had a really good time today and you and I are friends now, ok?  I hope to see you often!”  She said and gave me a warm embrace.
I returned the embrace, grateful that she was now my friend.  She gave me her cell phone number  and invited me to call or text anytime.

I was cleaning up the empty take-out containers when I hear a knock on the door.  I opened the door to see Lady liberty and Raven standing there.  They were both showing signs of having been in a battle.  Both of their costumes were torn in places and I saw a bruise forming on Raven’s cheek.
“Oh my gosh!  Are you two ok?”  I asked.
Lady Liberty spoke first with a chuckle, “Yeah, we’re fine Scarlet.  May we come in?”
“Uh, please!”  Her question took me a little by surprise.
They both came in and sat down on the couch and invited me to sit down between them.
Again I was a little dumbfounded, “Uh, is everything ok?” I asked.
“Scarlet, we want to know how your day went with Tess!” Lady Liberty exclaimed with a smile.  Even Raven was smiling.
I laughed at her statement.  They had me worried that something was wrong, I’ve never had both visit me at the same time before, let alone right after a battle.  They insisted that I leave no details out so I related to them how my day with Tess had gone.  I let them know everything, the high points and the low.  When I finished Lady Liberty embraced me and said, “I so glad you had a fun time today!  We’ve been so worried about you!”  I think she was forgetting how strong she was, her embrace was kind of painful and the air rushed out of my lungs and my ribs creaked in protest.
“Uh, Lady Liberty.  She’s having trouble breathing.”  Raven said coming to me rescue.
“OH!  Sorry about that!”  Lady Liberty apologized.
I coughed for a few seconds getting my breath back and replied, “No worries, I didn’t know you guys felt that strongly about me.  I don’t know what to say.”  I said, starting to get emotional over their concern for me.
“Of course we care about you Scarlet.  We want to see you get back on your feet and hopefully get you back to normal.”  Liberty replied.
“You don’t have to stay in your room and on this floor the whole time you are here Scarlet.  We would be glad to have you help out with some the day to day business of the team.”  Raven said.
“Really?  What could I help out with?  I’m not a super hero.”  I said.
“True but even though you haven’t boasted of it your skill with computers is pretty stellar.  We have a LOT of computers that need maintained and we could always use an extra hand with monitor duty.”   Raven countered.
“Ok, that sound cool but I have one condition.”  I said, happy that they were asking me to lend a hand.
“Oh, what would that be?”  Raven asked with one eyebrow up.
“I have some hand-to-hand training in the military but I would like you to teach me martial arts please.”  I said.
She smiled again and said, “Meet me in the gym at 6:30 tomorrow morning and we’ll get started.”
They then said their good bye and said they were looking forward to seeing me in the morning.

I shut the door behind them with a big smile and got undress and took a shower.  For the first time in quite a while I went to bed actually looking forward to what the next day would bring!