NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 5

Juliet spent rest of the day was spent ordering a new driver’s license and cancelling store cards, leaving Luna to head home alone. By the time she was done she was tried, pissed off and ready to kick someone’s butt. She resolved the issue by going for a long run that took her around the coast of the country, before having a nice hot bath, turning off her phone, turning off the majority of the lights and settling down with a good book.

She paid for it the next day when her phone turned back on when her alarm went off to reveal she had sixty missed calls and forty nine messages on her answer machine. Most of them were from the Club, demanding details and wondering if the rumours were true about her World Sphere going walk abouts. There was one, however, from the police station, who had found her purse, devoid of bank cards, her driver’s licence and cash but with her store cards still in place, and an empty jewellery box and were holding them at front desk for her.

She did her rounds in record time, determined to not let the events of the previous day allow her to have a lazy day. She may have been the fastest thing alive, but she wanted to be faster. Since she had no one to race against anymore, she could only ever improve by pushing herself when she went for a run or doing her rounds.

Picking up her stuff was a chore. Without any way to prove the purse was hers, the police officer at the desk had her go away and come back with her passport in order to prove she was who she said she was. It wasn’t that it took her a long time, but just the inconvenience of running around in circles meant that when she joined Luna and Michael at lunch time, she was in the frustrated huff.

“No luck?” Her friend asked as Speedster fielded yet another call from a Club member and promised to fill them in at the weekly meeting tomorrow.

“Yes and no. I’m still out a hundred and fifty quid, my driver’s licence, my bank cards and a World Sphere, but I have my purse back.” Juilet waved the purse, a Nightmare Before Christmas one that Luna had bought for her the previous year, at her. She let out a frustrated huff. “I’m just annoyed it happened at all.”

“As you should be.” Michael scolded, irritation obvious on his features. “It was ridiculously careless of you to leave your handbag lying around where anyone could get at it, especially if you had your Sphere in it.”

“I didn’t.” Speedster protested, then paused and winced, “Or I thought I didn’t. It had to be at the coffee shop, because even when we were trying on clothes our bags were with us in the changing rooms.”

“The brats perhaps.” Luna suggested, thinking about it carefully, “I mean we did have to shoo them out from under the table two or three times, they might have grabbed things then.”

“Or someone took my things while I was distracted by shooing the brats.” The speed freak agreed.

“You shouldn’t have had the Sphere with you.” Michael grouched at her, “Do you have any idea of what...”

“Don’t Mike, just don’t.” Juliet groaned, “I know alright. I know I screwed up and that the others are going to tear me a new one. I also know that this could bring an end to the secrecy we’ve been insisting on for our safety. But there’s nothing I can do about that now. All I can do is deal with the fallout when it happens.”

“Your mess, you’re cleaning it up.” Michael grouched before getting up, chucking his rubbish in the trash and stalking out of the student union’s dining hall.

The pair of girls watched him go, one frustrated, one resigned, before Luna turned to Speedster with a slight smile, “If you need my help...” She offered reassuringly.

“Thanks Luna.” It was a help, knowing that Luna had her back. Juliet was pretty sure that even the other ‘HeroFused,’ ones like herself and Luna who had merged with heroes from other worlds, were going to be furious with her over this. It would be justified too, she couldn’t help but think.

As she searched the city centre high and low, she was kind of hoping that by tomorrow she would be able to say ‘Yes, the World Sphere was stolen but I was able to get it back, see?’ and show it off to the rest of the class. Unfortunately for her, she had no luck on that front. The enchanted Sphere was well and truly lost, despite her constant searching.

She got a real hint of the anger she might be facing from the others when she rejoined the group in order to finish recording the scene from the day before, when Hex blasted her into a wall hard enough that she felt something give in the wall, heard something crack and collapsed at its base, pain coursing through her.

“Cut!” Snap sounded both concerned and impressed at the same time after Hex gave her scripted spiel about the heroes never defeating her and made her dramatic exit, “I’ve got everything I need now.”

“Oh I’m sorry.” Hex smirked down at Speedster, who wasn’t entirely certain which Hex was apologising to her. “Did I miss the padding?” She asked, hints of sarcasm obvious as the illusion fell and revealed that not only had Hex missed the padding, she had dented the wall that she had blasted the hero into. “Maybe next time I’ll be a little more careful of what I’m doing when it’s something important.”

Juliet didn’t respond, not entirely trusting herself to speak when the world was spinning like mad, making her feel nauseous. She got the less than subtle jab though and, as Luna helped her to her feet, she couldn’t help but notice the evil looks she was getting from Spike.

“Sorry.” Luna whispered as she helped her behind the screens so they could get changed, “I swear I only told Mikey. I didn’t expect everyone else to find out this fast.”

“It’s...it’s okay.” Speedster stumbled over her words, leaning against a table to remain upright as Luna undid the zip on her catsuit. “They would have had to found out at some point, I wasn’t going to be able to hide it forever.”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t expecting Hex to hit you so hard because of it.” Luna looked embarrassed, like what had happened was all her fault.

“Hex just wanted an excuse to smack me around.” Speedster reminded her friend with a shrug, “Besides, I think she gets one free hit considering how much trouble we might be in.”

“You can’t let everyone in the club get one hit in.” Luna disagreed, “You could get really hurt if they all hit you as hard as Hex did.”

“I screwed up.” Speedster pointed out, “I really really screwed up. And now the rest of the Club might have to deal with the consequences, I’d be pretty damn pissed in their places too.”

“So what’s your plan?” Luna asked, wincing as Juliet slid her catsuit off of one shoulder and she saw the bruise that was already coming up, “Just let everyone hit you and then deal with the fallout once you’ve recovered from the brusing?”

“I don’t bruise anymore, my durability sees to... ow!” Juilet protested as Luna poked the blue and black spot on her left shoulder blade.

“This says otherwise.” Luna tutted at her. “Still think it’s a god idea?”

“No, but unless you have a magical time machine that can take us back to the exact moment the theft occurred and we can stop it from happening, I really don’t have a choice but to take the blows.” The speed freak grinned, “Besides it’s kind of ironic, don’t you think?”

“What do you mean?” The comment confused Luna.

“Well I’m the one who was the biggest advocate of keeping our powers a secret and not letting anyone find out about how we got our powers and yet I’m the one who lost my orb.” Juliet pointed out.

“It could be worse.” Luna sighed, starting to pull her own costume off, “At least, if the Sphere can still Fuse people, they won’t know there’s a club of us out here who’re like them, so if they cause trouble they won’t drag us into it.”

“No, but if they get into trouble because of something they haven’t done, they won’t have us around to bail them out either.” Juliet reminded her, a grimace on her features, “And I know all of this, I just... I’m just worried. I’m allowed to be.”

“Well you are the boss.” Luna teased.

“Oh don’t you start too. It’s bad enough Snap thinks that I have some sort of right to tell the others what to do. I’d like to point out that while I might be Fused to a main protagonist, the one I’m Fused to isn’t the one who’s good at planning ahead and thinking things through. No, my Fusion is better at thinking on his feet and letting the wind take him. I’m the wrong sort of person to ask if you want long term planning and ways to herd the pack of cats that belong to this club.”

“I don’t think you are as bad as you say you are.” Luna sighed at her, “I just think you need to stop thinking about what your Fusion provides you with and concentrate on those skills you had before the Spheres. You’re letting it...” Luna trailed off as the lights in the room went off and they heard the door to the outside lock.

“Stay here.” Speedster frowned, edging out from behind the screen and carefully making her way over to the door. It was, much to her disgust, locked, but at least once she was there she could find the light switches. “So, Spike or Snap?” She asked Luna, who came over and tugged on the door handle, frustration obvious.