Arch Frenemies

Part 53: Phobia

"So we cannot teleport there?"
The shifter asked later, as they got into much deeper plans about the heist.

"No. The surrounding force field prevents any form of unnatural teleportation. All the villains who have ever tried it; have ended up inside out." Galaxy chuckled.
"Then how do you get there?"
The shapeshifter inquired.
"Personal Transport Pod."
She said to him.

15 minutes and a costume change later they were all into her Peace League pod that she had summoned using the remote on her belt. The plane took off; on auto-pilot, headed for England.
Informal insisted they all wear black.
While Informal and Toxic wore just black clothing and gloves, Galaxy Girl was handed a tight black cat suit. She didn't see the logic behind it, but Toxic urged her to just go along with it, rather than punch Informal through the wall of the craft.

Toxic climbed in first, then held out his hand to help Galaxy inside without breaking anything, and so that despite their close quarters, his radiation won't accidentally hurt Informal. The super thief then climbed in and Galaxy found herself squished between the 2 men. Her claustrophobia began to set in as soon as Toxic closes the door. With the chameleon effect powered on; the skin of the pod projected invisibility. They slowly lifted off from the ground, the engines gathering power. Her palms started to sweat and her heartbeat went higher, as she glanced frantically at the exit.

Being in the pod by herself was hard enough, but tightly squeezed like that took her fear to a whole new level.  Galaxy tried hard to hide it but she still ended up rocking back and forth, nervously biting her lip. In that moment she desired nothing more than to punch through the roof and break free of the tiny suffocating space.

"What is wrong with her?"
Informal shot Toxic a concerned glance. Toxic noticed her current, badly hidden state of panic, and quickly threw his arm around her shoulder. She was not sure if it's to console her, or to strip her powers so she doesn't rip the transport pod apart.

"I'm... I'm..." She stutters.
"She's Claustrophobic."
Toxic finished for her; rubbing her arm with his other hand.
"Not... Enough... Room..." Galaxy said slowly, mid-panic.
The Pod now hovered slowly towards the exit of the hanger.
"Claustrophobic?" Informal asked, slightly cocking his head.

"Perhaps I can help."
He said, rising slightly from his seat.
He painstakingly began to turn around in the cramped space, until he was sort of sitting against the dash. It was rather awkward as for a few seconds, as she had a Supervillain's rear end deathly close to her face. That definitely wasn't helping with her mood.

They watched on as Informal began to shrink, body growing smaller and smaller until he reached about the size of a Barbie doll.
"Better, Cherrie?" He asked in an extremely squeaky, high pitched little voice. Toxic chuckled deeply at the sight, and Galaxy let out a small sigh of relief as the feel of the walls closing in on her subsided a bit, but significantly enough. Her head still felt like a carbonated soda bottle, but it was as if someone had unscrewed the lid just a little. Galaxy quickly scooted over and took up his space. Toxic still continued to run his hand up and down her arm in a relaxing manner.

The other Villain raised an eyebrow at their extremely familiar behavior towards each other, but he chose not to say a word.  The Pod was now outside and it had quit moving forward.
Since it was not taking off from its usual point of origin, Galaxy Girl had to push in the coordinates by hand. Her hands still shook as she forced herself to set the course. She wanted out of that thing as fast as possible.
The Pod must remain intact. You can't bust out of it.
She coaxed herself in her head.

"You might want to hang on to something."
She warned the mini man as she gripped the lever.
"This thing takes off pretty fast."
"Wait!" Toxic jumped a little in his seat. "Put the blinds up before you take off!" He said frantically.
"What blinds?" Galaxy said, as she hit the autopilot take off key.

"Our pods have no blinds." Was all she managed to get out before the pod shot up.  In a split second, a terrified looking Toxic was clinging frantically to her side; his face buried against her shoulder, petrified in his acrophobia as they rose higher and higher from the face of the earth.
Having someone cling to you when you suffer from claustrophobia doesn't exactly help the situation.

Informal spent the entirety of the short trip just laughing a high pitched, cartoon-like laugh as Galaxy and Toxic just huddled together consumed by their respective phobias.

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A/N: Second part as promised.
A little sad that my last Crimson Ice chapter didn't get as many reads as I'd hoped it would.
Wattpad really has changed since they made it more of a corporation instead of just a fun free app for readers and amature authors. Does anyone else feel like we are losing traffic to the free stories since the paid ones went up?
Any ideas to why?
Have a blessed day y'all.
-QueenOfGeeks
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