NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 29

Luna looked exhausted as the Shadows faded enough to let them see through them but it was easy to see she had been victorious, as a woman who in any other situation would have been composed and as unreadable as stone was on the floor rolling around, giggling like a lunatic.

Since it was quite probable that that was, in fact, what she now was, Speedster chose to ignore the woman as she stepped into the room, moving to her friend’s side and putting a hand on her shoulder. “Luna?”

Luna pulled away, wheeled around and glowered at her, her eyes flashing gold for a moment before Speedster was sent flying through the glass wall by a burst of Shadows.

“Oh shit!” Luna yelped, realising who she had blasted as Tails helped Speedster sit up, “Speeds! I’m so sorry.”

“No, no,” Speedster got up with only a slight wince, “I made you jump, it’s fine. Happens to all of us. Ready to leave this mad house?” 

“Almost.” Luna nodded, “That was the top dog...”

“Top bitch you mean.” Speedster grumbled, earning herself a pair of amused sigh from her friends.

“As I was saying,” Luna continued, “That was the top dog, but we need to fry their systems. They have Bookworm’s data and Snap’s footage, all of it. She was gloating at me about it.” Ruby red eyes glanced over her opponent before turning back to her friends, “Her right hand man could use it to activate the second cell if we don’t go and catch him and get rid of that data.”

“Get me to a computer and I can erase everything they have.” Tails nodded, confident in her abilities despite having never seen their systems before she had been brought her.

“Alright.” Speedster decided, “Tails, can you get in from the computers in that security room?”

“Should be able to.” Tails nodded, finding it a little weird for Sonic to be thinking ahead, instead of running with whatever came to mind and then having to remind herself that Speedster wasn’t Sonic, “What’re you thinking?”

“Do you know where her second is?” Speedster asked Luna, gesturing to the crazed figure on the floor.

“She said top floor.” Luna nodded, “In the main office, though what he’s doing there...”

“Self destruct sequence activated.” A woman’s voice called through the PA system that had, since the start of the escape, been bellowing about a ‘code Red,’ “Emergency evacuation advised. Building will self destruct in ten minutes.”

“Plenty of time.” Speedster grinned at the other two, who were looking nervous, “Tails, how much weight can you carry?”

“Why?” Tails wondered aloud.

“Can you carry a person?” Speedster insisted.

“No.” Tails shook her head, wondering what Speedster was thinking.

“Alright,” The supersonic speed freak seemed to decide something, “Let’s go.”

“Speeds?” Luna asked.

“You can’t keep up with us, so I’ll carry you.” Speedster grinned at her, “We’ll stop by the computer room and then we’ll get the hell out of here.”

“Self destruct sequence activated. Emergency evacuation advised. Building will self destruct in nine minutes.”

“Right.” Luna nodded, mentally preparing herself for high speed travel. “What about the second in command?” She asked as Speedster scooped her up and then shot back the way she had come, Tails close behind. They made a brief stop at the room where their stuff was, grabbing as much as they could carry before speeding down the hallways again.

The electronic voice called out that they had but four minutes remaining by the time Tails could confirm she had erased everything from every system connected to the building’s network. Speedster snatched up Tails and hit the fastest speed she knew her friends could handle.

They were just shy of three minutes until they were clear when they reached the rest of their friends, who had been waiting for them outside the building, having already handled the mooks.

“What took you so... Speedster!” Mako yelped as the speed freak dropped off Luna and Tails, everything they were carrying and her own load, before darting back into the building.

“Self destruct sequence activated. Emergency evacuation advised. Building will self destruct in two minutes.”

Speedster knew her friends were going to kill her when she got out of here, but she had to check. Had to make sure everyone was out. There hadn’t been anyone else in the cells in the basement, they had checked that on the security cameras. In the rest of the building, however, there had been plenty of goons, most of whom seemed to have evacuated, or be almost there.

Once she had gotten everyone out, there was one last thing she needed to do. As the woman announced one minute remaining she sped up to the top floor, where a helicopter pad had quite recently seen use. She could still see the flying vehicle in the distance as the first explosion happened inside the building and the floor beneath her shook. With a second boom, the floor gave way and it was only her reaction time that stopped her from tumbling and going squish beneath falling rubble.

She paused for a moment, considering the distance to the ground far below, where her friends were running away as fast as they could. It was too far for her to jump, at least without something for her to bounce between. Something she was provided with when, with a third boom, part of the wall exploded out, shards of it going everywhere.

She grinned, adrenaline pulsing through her as she leapt from the roof, her own speed making her faster than the falling debris. She bounced between parts in a flash of blue and white, a sonic boom following her initial movement.

She passed the group, slowing only to tell Mako where she was going and then shot off after the helicopter, easily catching it and following, unable to just leap up and catch it.

Instead she followed it to an airfield, sneaking around to where it landed and catching the pilot and his passenger by surprise.

“You were supposed to blow up!” The passenger complained at her.

“Sorry, you’re not the first to try that and I have a funny feeling you won’t be the last.” Speedster shrugged, “But I don’t think you’ll be trying it again.”

“Why not?” The passenger asked as the pilot pointed a gun at Speedster, “You’re not gunna be around to stop me.” With that the pilot fired.

Speedster dodged, taking down the pilot before tackling the passenger and knocking him to the ground. “Oh I think we’ve already stopped your plans,” She informed him, “All your computers are wiped, your building’s blown sky high, your men are gunna be arrested soon... I think we win.”

“You really think that Consultancy Program is what it seems?” He asked, thinking about getting up and changing his mind. “That ‘Rowena’ is telling you the truth? Her Program is just another way of doing what we were doing!”

“Oh, and what’s that?” Speedster asked, making a mental note to ask Luna what the woman had said. Having missed the main monologue she was missing a lot of information.

“Testing your powers! Making you find out exactly what you can do!” The man gesticulated. “Seeing if they were transferable!”

“What?” She deadpanned, stepping forward and watching him scuttle back.

“They aren’t, by the way, not by anything we tried.” The man sulked.

“Good.” She felt more relieved about that than she should. “You want to know why you and Rowena are different?” She asked. “You take, she asks.”

“For how long?” He cackled at her, “She works for your stupid government. How long do you think they’ll let you get away without being tested, registered, hidden away forever? You should start running now. Because there are more where I come from. More who will want to capture you, experiment on you, dissect you and figure out how you tick.”

“As long as I’m around, I won’t let anyone harm my friends.” Speedster informed him, “And they’re no pushovers either.”

“There are ways. There are always ways.” He snarked back, his eyes flickering to someone behind Speedster. She moved, narrowly avoiding the crowbar that had nearly come down on her head and sweeping out the legs of her attacker.

The second in command shot to his feet and leapt at her, taking advantage of the distraction to attempt to tackle her. It didn’t work, as she darted around him, causing him to go crashing to the floor.

“Nice try.” She smirked down at him. “But you’re light-years away from ever catching me.” Something cold, hard and cylindrical pressed against the back of her neck, causing her to let out a slow, even breath. Even her reaction time couldn’t stop a bullet from hitting her at point blank range.

“So you think.” The man smirked at her, getting to his feet again, calm restored now he was back in control. “You see you made a mistake coming alone.” He said, moving towards the nearby hanger, the gun at her neck forcing Speedster to follow. “This entire airfield belongs to our, well probably my group by now, considering your friend erased the mind of one of the senior partners and was Gaming the other one when I left.”

“Did you know someone would follow?” Speedster asked, considering her options and getting thoroughly sick of being someone else’s prisoner, “Or was it a lucky guess?”

“Oh a little of both.” The man informed her, “We guessed someone would follow if we had to made a hasty escape, but we couldn’t be sure who it would be, or if it would be one of you ‘consultants.’” He made the term sound derogatory. “That it is, makes this sweeter.”

“Oh?” She kept him talking as they entered the hanger, several routes occurring to her if she could get the gun away from her.