NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 25

Thinking about the safety of the Club led Luna to dart into the kitchen, starting the kettle boiling before phoning up her brother. “Hey Mikey...yeah, I’m okay why do you ask?”

She frowned slightly as her brother complained about the blackouts starting up again, meaning that Shade was up to something and didn’t want him knowing about it, and he’d try and work out what it was, but would she please be careful.

“Great.” She grumbled, her Other Self’s words spilling from her lips, “As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, he’s pulling this now?”

“I know, I know.” Her brother replied, “Wait, what other stuff? I thought the World Sphere wasn’t a problem anymore, cause you got sorted out?”

“Oh you have no idea...” Luna groaned, pouring herself a cup of tea, “Do you got an hour or three?” She asked him.

“Not right now.” Michael replied, “But if you phone me again in about and hour and a half I will do.”

“Okay.” Luna nodded, though he couldn’t see her, “For now, just watch out for Speeds, okay? She unlocked a new power today and it’s not very stable.”

“What? She gunna explode?” Luna winced at the excitement in Shade’s tone as he shoved her brother aside.

“No, but she might make you explode, so don’t aggro her, okay?” Luna asked, “I like my brother in one piece.”

“Please, there’s nothing she can do that I can’t handle.” Shade snorted, ill amused at her lack of confidence in him.

“Unless you can turn gold, grow spines and gain an aura that can melt metal, I’m going to class her new Super form as scarier than you. Sorry Shade.” Luna retorted.

“She can do what!?”

“I’ll explain later.” Luna promised, “Just don’t annoy Speeds in the meantime. Now I’ve got to go, I have the entire rest of the Club to warn.” With that she put the phone down.

It took her half an hour to ring round everyone and ensure they would be at the Club meeting that evening, by which point her tea was lukewarm and Tails had reassembled the laptop she had been working on and was happily surfing the net at a speed that Luna hadn’t seen the laptop reach even when it had been brand new.

“Told you I could get it working better.” Tails chuckled at her surprise, “Tech likes me.”

“I’ve got class to go to, are you going to be alright if I leave you on your own?” Luna asked, finishing up her tea.

“Yeah, yeah.” Tails waved it off, considering the giant CRT TV Beastie of Doom, “I’ll find something to do, don’t worry.”

Luna couldn’t help but do just that as she headed to class. She continued to do so for the greater majority of the day and only really relaxed when Speedster and Tails showed up for the Club meeting that evening. Ten minutes late, as per the norm for Speedster, but they got there.

“Hey Lune.” Speedster slumped into a seat next to her, Tails settling on her other side, “Wanna take a wager?”

“What on?” Luna couldn’t help but ask.

“How many people will want to know who the sprog is.” Speedster gestured to Tails who looked confused.

“What’s a sprog?” She asked Luna.

“No dice.” Luna shook her head, “You’re going to have to introduce Tails anyway if you’re going to have her hanging with us. And a sprog,” She turned to Tails, “Is a kid. A young one normally, but Speeds gives out joking insults like they’re candy. You’ll get used to it.”

“Something’s don’t change then no matter which dimension or body I’m in.” Tails sighed, amused despite herself.

Bar Brawl, who wanted to challenge the golden form of Speedster, stating that the idea of a golden fighter set of memories from his Fusion, it was generally agreed that causing a Super form type reaction was a bad idea. Tails was welcomed by most of the group, those few who were worried or wary generally keeping quiet about it and the whole meeting’s plan fell completely to pieces when Rowena walked through the door, armed guards in tow and proceeded to attempt to hire as many of them as she could for her ‘consultant group.’

Once that little fiasco was over Speedster fled the meeting, not wanting to get drawn into further conversations about the government and what being a ‘specialist consultant for the justice department’ was like, leaving Luna to walk Tails back to Speedster’s place.

“I was hoping she’d stop taking off so often once things had settled down again.” Luna sighed as she opened the front door with the set of spare keys she had had cut a week ago.

“Sonic never really settled down anywhere for any length of time.” Tails responded, more used to her friend taking off at high speed than Luna. “Sometimes I was lucky if I saw him once a fortnight. I know the others saw him less than that.” Tails saw Luna wince and despite her envy she did try to reassure her, “Look, Speedster seems a bit more grounded than Sonic was, so I don’t think she’ll vanish the same way. Just... be prepared for it if it happens. You can’t tie the wind down.”

“I suppose.” Luna couldn’t help but agree, “How did you prepare for it?”

“I kept myself busy.” Tails shrugged, going back to ‘her’ laptop and turning it on, “Always had something to build or improve or some blueprint to change. I had several patents I could play with. Or if I needed to get out the workshop I had the Tornado.” She paused, a grimace settling on her features, “How old do you have to be to get a pilot’s licence here?”

“I have no idea.” Luna admitted, “Why?”

“Because I’ve been flying planes since I was four.” Tails informed her, “And I’ve been flying under my own steam for longer than that.”

“Somehow I doubt you’re old enough here.” Luna informed her, looking apologetic.

“Great.” Tails didn’t look happy about that as she slumped back onto the sofa and snatched up the cushion that Speedster had hidden under earlier in the day.

“Hey, just because you’re not old enough to fly here, doesn’t mean you can’t build things. I’m sure if you ask Speedster she’ll get some stuff in for you to play with.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ve got a decent amount in a bank account thanks to the government lady too.” Tails informed her, “They took DNA samples so they could work out who this body actually belonged too, but for now the accounts under Miley Prower. Miley! It’s worse than Miles!” Luna couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face. “Oh sure, laugh it up.” Tails grouched.

“My name’s actually Mira.” Luna informed her, “But everyone’s called me Luna for so long I answer to it faster than my real name. Trust me, the teasing I used to get wasn’t much fun.”

“Mira?” Tails paused to think for a moment, then got it, “Mirror, right."

“Mirror, mirror on the wall...” Luna grouched.

“People suck.” Tails informed her, relaxing into the sofa a bit.

“Only some of them.” Luna shrugged, slumping down next to the younger girl, “Speedster’s great, Mako and Snap are fun too.”

“Sonic was awesome.” Tails agreed, somewhat sadly, “I’m not sure what to make of Speedster.”

“Give her time, she’ll grow on you.” Luna promised. “My brother would say she’s like a fungus that way.”

Luna grinned slightly as Tails let out a bark of laughter at that, the first one she had heard since Speedster had rescued her. “So, you any good at video games?” Luna asked, “Because Speedster has a huge collection here that she can’t play anymore...”

“She has problems with the flickering too?” Tails asked, even as she moved to have a look at the consoles and games.

“That’s a thing in your world?” Luna looked surprised.

“No, that’s a supersonic hedgehog thing.” Tails tried to explain, “Both Sonic and Shadow suffer from it. I do Sonic’s computer stuff and Rouge does Shadow’s. Otherwise they both end up with...” Tails trailed off, “Oh boy...”

“What?” Luna asked, wondering if she should be worried.

“Shadow. He got Fused but he escaped.” Tails worried, “He’s out there, running around without any sort of base or rest stop and he and Sonic never got along. If they run into each other...”

“There’s going to be a fight isn’t there?” Luna grimaced.

“Probably...”

There wasn’t a fight going on, but only because Speedster was damn well determined that she wasn’t going to participate in one, taking the obnoxious guy’s attempts to tackle her as obstacle training. Pushing herself to her upper limits to avoid him smashing her into the ground, she was hard pressed to keep up this sort of speed and dodge his attacks.

“Hey...asshole...” Speedster gasped out as she rolled under an attempt to knock her block off and kept going, the red and black blur not far behind, “What the hell... have I done to you?”

Frustratingly the guy didn’t reply, just took another chance to attack her. Speedster slid to a stop, causing him to pass right in front of her, then shot off to the left, diving into the undergrowth. He gave chase, she could hear him following her but it wasn’t until she came to a dead halt in front of a lake that she finally decided she might be in trouble.

Not that she could resist ducking at the last moment when he tried to leap at her, causing him to go splashing into the icy cold water.

“Now you’ve had a chance to cool down,” Speedster commented, “Can I ask what that was about without you trying to punch my lights out?”