NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 16

When she came around she had no idea where she was. The plain white walls were unfamiliar, the ceiling just as strange, the room was almost silent besides the radio playing quietly on her bedside table and she would have assumed she was in hospital if it hadn’t been for the lack of a window, the lock on her door and the handcuff chaining her right wrist to the metal bed frame.

“Hello?” She tried calling, pushing herself sitting and looking around. She felt stiff and sore still, suggesting that either it hadn’t been very long since she had passed out or she had hurt herself rather severely. Possibly both.

Still trembling from the electric shock she had received from the fencing and noticing that she was wearing a plain set of blue scrubs, she looked around the room for her stuff. She was grateful to find that the costume was hung up on the back of the door on a coat hanger, the mask with it.

Snap would have killed her if it had been missing or damaged. Not that she was sure if she was going to be seeing her friends for a long time.

She heard the door unlocking and twisted so she could see the door open. A man in a smart, black suit walked in, his hair immaculate, his entire body held so taunt and his body language so neutral that she couldn’t help but wonder if he was a robot.

“Ah, Miss Rhodes. Good to see you awake.” He commented, sitting in the chair by her bed and turning down the music to the point where it was barely audible.

“You know who I am?” Speedster paled, having hoped to keep her identity and by extension the identities of her friends secret.

“Juliet Rhodes,” The man nodded, “Age twenty three. Born in Sherwood, living in Leicester. Recent graduate of a Music Technology BSc at DeMontfort...”

“I’ll take that as a yes..." Juliet groaned, one arm covering her eyes as she slumped back onto the bed. “What are you planning to do to me?”

“We’re not...”

“Don’t. Just don’t.” Juliet cut the man off midsentence, still not looking at him, “You’ve obviously got no intention of letting me leave.” She lifted her right wrist as far as it would go, causing the handcuff it was attached to, to clink against the metal bed, “So you have some sort of plan for me...”

“Miss Rhodes, you’re being kept here for your own well being.” The man explained, sympathy tainting his tone as she lowered her arm, “The greater majority of those who saw your actions on TV are concerned for your wellbeing and wish you well. However, there are a few who think otherwise. And Sawyer did get away. We would be remiss in our duty to the public if we sent you to a normal hospital and he tried to attack you while you were recovering there.”

The man sat forward, the chair creaking slightly and causing Juliet to look at him. “Can I ask why you decided to reveal yourself now? And you decided to fight him?”

“I couldn’t let him use innocent people as a shield. I had to get involved.” Juliet replied, sitting up so she could get the questioning over with as soon as possible, “Besides its Christmas. There’s a rule about being a douchebag at Christmas.” She grumbled under her breath, “He broke it.”

“Ah, yes, that ‘Villain’s Handbook’ you were carrying.” The man looked amused, having heard her, “That didn’t help your case, you know.”

“That’s not...” Juliet shut up but the damage was already done.

“Yours?” The suited agent of some government agency or another smiled slightly as he asked, a sharp, shark like smile that suggested she had just taken his bait. “If it’s not yours, whose is it?”

Juliet just shook her head. Shade may not have been her friend, but Michael and Luna were. She wasn’t going to rat them out.

“Protecting them won’t help you, Miss Rhodes.” The agent pointed out, “And we’ll be looking into your friends and family anyway. It’s better to give us names now then have us rip your life apart looking for clues. Just tell us who owns copies of this Handbook. Because it’s quite obvious from reading this, that not only do they have powers like you, but they’re not as self sacrificing as yourself.”

“No.” Juliet’s reply was short and sweet.

“Let me make this clear before I leave, Miss Rhodes.” The agent said as he stood up, “You’re a guest of a secure government facility. If you ever want to leave here again, you will provide names, powers, locations, the full list. And we’re playing nice at the moment. Don’t make us play dirty.”

“The moment I’m free, I’m leaving.” Juliet stated calmly, her left hand covering her right wrist, anger warring with fear for the safety of the Club, “And I won’t be coming back. I can promise you that.”

“Even if you could break free and escape, where would you go?” The agent asked her, amusement obvious, “We can track you down, no matter where you go.”

“I hear Italy is nice this time of year.” Juliet considered, “Maybe China.”

The agent didn’t reply to that, just chuckled and exited the room, locking the door behind him. The moment he was gone, Juliet started fighting with the cuff around her wrist, trying to slip her hand out of the loop or break the chain between her wrist and the bed.

“Damn it,” She hissed as she found she wasn’t strong enough to break the chain and her hand refused point blank to fit through the wrist cuff and all she successfully managed to do while trying was tighten the metal bang further until it cut into her skin. “Superspeed is crap when you can’t move!” She slammed a hand onto the bed, glowering at the cuff as she did so.

Taking a deep breath, she paused and considered her options. She couldn’t move too far from the bed, getting up and standing on the right side was about the limits of her range. If she were Brawl, Chi, Mako or Gold, the cuffs wouldn’t be an issue, as all of them had gained super strength when they had shifted. But she wasn’t and she was rather glad they weren’t in this mess with her.

For a moment she considered trying the tornado stunt again and swinging the bed around in the wind created until the chain snapped or the cuff came off but she had a funny feeling that her arm would be pulled off long before the chain gave. Even if it wasn’t, she could do herself more harm than good. Especially if the bed, which would probably break horribly, ricocheted off a wall and crashed into her.

“Think, think, think.” Juliet muttered to herself, wishing she could pace the room. She thought better on her feet than she did lying down. “There has to be a way out of here.” She tugged fruitlessly on her chain again before slumping back onto the bed, “At least it’s soft.” She muttered, frustration seeping through her.

She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to play her options over in her mind. Handing over the names of her friends and fellow Club members wasn’t an option. She refused to go that route. So she needed another option. Another route. Something that didn’t involve her betraying her friends or being stuck in this room for the rest of her life.

She would go crazy if she was chained for too long, she just knew it. So that was the first thing she had to change.

An insane thought popped into her head. She couldn’t pull her hand out of the cuff, nor could she pull the cuffs free of the bed. But could she break the railing off of the bed and either slip the cuff off of the broken end or take it with her and worry about the rest of the railing once she had left the building?

She sat up and swivelled herself around, putting her feet against the railing. She took a deep breath, well aware that if this worked she had a very limited time before someone tried to stop her. “Three,” she whispered, “Two, one...” On one, she slammed her feet into the railing, over and over, faster and faster until she could feel the vibration through the bed and the metal around her wrist and the metal started bending.

Then there was a crack as something snapped and the bar along the middle, the one her wrist had been attached to and that had taken the worst beating, snapped. Juliet let out a pained yelp as her leg shot past the broken end of the metal bar, causing a long cut, but she didn’t let it stop her as she slipped the cuff off of the busted bar.

The door slammed open but she was already in motion, zipping to one side of the door and allowing the guys in suits to pass her before she shot down the corridor at as close to top speed as she could manage. Pain was a constant companion as she tried to push herself faster than her injured leg would let her go. She just needed to get out of the building and somewhere safe, then she could deal with the cut. She was just glad she hadn’t impaled herself on the damn bar at the same time.

To top her problems off, she had no real idea of where she was going. She couldn’t exactly stop and ask for directions. Instead she shot down the corridors she hoped led to the outside, finding three dead ends before having to skid under a closing security shutter that was coming down from the ceiling only to find herself face to face with one that had already closed and several armed men with their guns pointing at her.

“Damn it!” Speedster complained at them, forcing herself to her feet and trying to ignore the way the torn blue scrubs were turning purple, “I’ve done nothing wrong!”

“Get down on the ground.” One of the armed men shouted at her.

She wasn’t doing this. She had no patience for this crap. In the space of far too short a period of time, she had been shot at, choked, electrocuted, knocked off of a building, taken prisoner, had her friends and life threatened, and now they wanted her to just give up? It wasn’t happening.

Still they were human. Normal humans. She couldn’t attack them. At any sort of speed she could seriously injure them and she was in no fit state to fight them without that speed giving her an advantage.

Options. She needed options.

She hesitated for just a moment, but that moment was all that was needed as something fired behind her and her leg buckled, sending her tumbling and the tranquiliser dart soaring over her head. As she rolled to her feet, she used the movement to aid her acceleration. Though much slower than usual with her leg giving out again, what speed she had was enough to get her around the armed guards and smack the button to raise the security shutter.

“Bye guys.” She called as she rolled under the shutter and into the grounds. “Oh for...” She mumbled as she beheld the sight of more armed men, several dogs, who were pulling on their leads to get to her and a barbed wire, electrified fence around the complex.

“Miss Rhodes,” Speedster flinched at the sound of the man from earlier, “You really shouldn’t be running around on that leg. Come back to your room and...”

She didn’t give him a chance to finish. Having spotted dumpsters that she could use to get the height to allow her to leap the fence. She shot over, the lack of gunshots confusing her as she bounced off the lid of the dumpster and went soaring over the fence, landing just well enough to prevent her leg going again, and darted away.