However
Hex was pretty good at keeping her word when it was beneficial to her, so at
least if she was going to hit something, it would, in theory, be the padding
she knew Snap had put out for just that reason.
“Of
course, Speedster, with your healing factor and durability,” Hex continued nonchalantly,
her smirk growing slightly as she spoke, “I can throw you around a lot more
than I can Luna. She’s a bit fragile compared to us.”
Speedster
couldn’t help the wince that came with that. Hex was right. Luna’s powers were
in her magic, magic that involved her life energy and soul. She had none received
none of the physical benefits that Juliet had during the Fusion. She knew why.
The people she and Luna had Fused with had been from completely different
dimensions, been different species and had different enemies. The only link between
the two had been the World Spheres. Hex was from a different world again. One
with magic and mayhem but not the same sort of magic that Luna and Michael
used. It was part of what made events so problematic. None of them, except Luna
and Shade, had Fused with someone from the same dimension as another of the
Club so none of them could really understand the problems that the others were
going through.
They
could try, they all did, but they couldn’t fully understand the problems
because none of them had the same ones. They all had to adjust to bodies that
had been shifted to fit the roles they now played and powers that sometimes acted
up when they weren’t supposed to because emotions got in the way of common
sense. Even the people who had Fused with humans had changed slightly, be it just
hair and eye colour changes, growing or shrinking a few inches, gaining or losing
muscle weight or worse, like in Hex’s case, suddenly seemed to gain a stone or
so in weight.
If
anything Speedster was just happy that when her body had shifted, she had only
gained green eyes, blue hair and some sort of personal shield that prevented
her clothes and shoes from catching fire from the heat of moving at the speeds
she went at. That, along with her healing factor, increased durability and gaining
the ability to process the world around her at much higher speeds, something
that was necessary unless she planned on crashing into everything. She knew who
her Fusion was and he wasn’t human so it could have been much worse. She could
always dye her hair back to its original colour and she could have had giant
quills of spiky death coming out of her back. Things that she did not consider necessary
since there were no robots to fight in her world.
“It’s
okay, Speeds.” Luna smiled softly at her before slipping her mask into place, “I’ll
protect you.”
“Thanks.”
Juliet replied, an honest smile on her face even as she knew she would have to
fight her instincts to prevent her from stepping between Luna and any incoming
attacks. It was just for the film, they weren’t really fighting Hex and she had
read the script, both of them had to go down during this scene. Back when they
had first read the script, Hex had promised to pull her punches so Juliet knew
that neither of them would get properly hurt. That didn’t mean she liked it.
When
Hex stepped out of the cover provided by the screen, Luna turned to Juliet with
a small, rueful smile. “It took me almost an hour to get my Other Self to step
back and promise not to react when I get blasted for this.” She admitted as
Speedster struggled with the zip on her catsuit.
“I’m
not surprised.” Speedster sighed as she felt Luna’s hands bat at hers and she
tugged her ponytail out of the way so Luna could get to the zip, “She’s rather
protective of you.”
“I
know. It’s weird, considering she’s part of me, but I know.” Luna sounded like
she was grimacing as Speedster felt something tugging upwards at the zip,
before her friend let out a huff and pulled the zip down slightly, “Ah ha, got
the fabric caught in the zip.” Speedster felt the zip go all the way up and
turned to grin at her friend even as she pulled her own mask on.
“Is
it me or does this feel a bit like cheating?” Juliet could not help but ask as
she emerged from the screen to find that Michael had already been at work,
summoning an illusion of the environment that Snap wanted for the scene or a
close approximation, using his powers over the shadows. Where others in Snap’s
class had to build props from scratch and make do with what scenery they could
build or buy, Snap had her friends who could do things like this and were
willing to work for nothing.
She
had confirmed her project with her tutors before her friends had even started
helping her, though the teachers had had no idea that her ‘overly ambitious’ project
was actually viable, and as long as she put her friend’s names in the credits
along with what they had done, there was no problem in them helping her out.
Speedster
kind of wished she had been a fly on the wall when Snap had showed her teachers
the trailer they had created in order to prove the project’s viability. The
reactions apparently, had been
hilarious. There had been accusations of plagerism flying around for a while
until the most sceptical of her tutors had come and sat in on one of the
recording sessions. That had actually been one of the more difficult sessions
as they had had to hide their powers but it had prevented the tutors from
accusing her of taking footage from another flim, even if they had had to
reshoot it on a different day with powers in full swing in order to get the
effects exactly the same as the rest of the footage.
“A
little.” Luna agreed, looking around at the effects her brother had put into
place. She recognised the scenery from a couple of the cards in his Duel
Monsters deck. He had always preferred the creepier, darker zombie and fiend
cards along with torture based spells and traps. All in all it made them rather
fitting to be used as the basis for the summoned surroundings they were in.
It
also made her wary of getting too close to the walls. She knew what each of things
her brother had based the scenery on could do. She didn’t really want to see
their effects up close and personal. Still she had to trust that he knew what
he was doing. He had been providing the scenery for the villain’s lair up until
this point after all. And he was her brother, she had faith in him. If he
thought he could control the cards he had summoned enough for them to act just
as scenery, she had to trust that.
Still
she was a little nervous as she and Speedster stepped into the room, which had
been transformed from a typical university studio to a dark, dank, dungeon. A
chair had been transformed into a throne and the slam of the door to the
corridor beyond seemed much more ominous than it really should.
“Ready?”
Snap asked, picking up the video camera closest to her as Spike and Michael
moved into position behind the other two set up across the room.
“I’m
always ready.” Hex smirked at her as she moved across the room, her imposing
presence seeming to fit perfectly in the room in comparison to the two heroes,
which was kind of the point.
“Luna?
Speeds?” Snap asked, looking the pair over.
“We’re
ready to go whenever you are.” Speedster nodded, before glancing at Luna, “Right?”
“Yup.”
Luna nodded, not really looking forward to this in the slightest.
“Then
let’s get rolling.”
No comments:
Post a Comment