NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 9

“Yup, apparently she would have been back last week but her parents wouldn’t stop fussing at her.” Luna was just as pleased. She had been amongst the group who had helped Bookworm’s parents help her grab all of her uni work she needed and get to the car. It hadn’t been a pleasant experience and she had been worried for ages.

“So what does she think about the current situation?” Juliet couldn’t help but ask.

“What do you think?” Luna sniggered, “She’s just looking forward to getting to work out what changes have been made during this new person’s Fusion.”

Speedster wasn’t surprised by that. Bookworm had slowly but steadily compiled a full list of their powers and abilities over the course of the last year via constant and persistent testing. ‘Any experiment worth doing was worth doing at least three times’ was a quote that had haunted most of the club members over their testing periods.

She couldn’t complain too much though. It had been Bookworm who had realised that yes, it was possible for her to get faster if she tried and had given her a training regimen to try. She was looking forward presenting the results to the scarily smart young woman at the first opportunity she had.

“She did insist that you went and visited as soon as possible though.” Luna added. “She was most put out to find out you weren’t hanging around the city at the moment.”

“It seemed safer.” Speedster shrugged, “Especially after there was nearly a brawl at the meeting.” Luna just sighed, unable to argue with her on that front. “She back in her halls or where?”

“Classes are over for the day, so she should be in her halls or in the lab, not sure which.”

“I’ll check in a minute.” Juliet decided, unpacking her tools from her backpack and grabbing a quick snack. “You coming with?” She asked Luna, who shook her head.

“Nah, I think I’ll crash here for a little bit.” She replied, “Mickey’s not home at the moment and I’m letting Shade get his ‘evil’ plan out of his system.”

“Should I be worried?” Juliet frowned.

“Considering someone saw him buying out every roll of cheap tin foil from the local shops, I think the only thing I have to be worried about is if he bought super glue to go with it.” Luna chuckled, “I swear that boy is just seeing how many small things he can get away with before my Other Self snaps and tries to sit on him.”

“Fair enough.” Speedster grinned back, “Alright, catch you later. If you’re still here when I’m done with Bookworm, we’ll order in?”

“Pizza?” The reply was plaintive causing Speedster to chuckle. Luna was almost as much of a gannet as she was, though neither of them could keep up with Goku. Though everyone’s appetites had increased after the Fusions, suggesting that they required more calories in order to fuel their new abilities, certain members of the Club had bigger appetites than others.

“Lots of pizza.” Juliet agreed, remembering that Luna alone could take down a twelve inch beast of a pizza without much effort and she could scoff down one and sides in record time. She started mentally making a list of what she wanted on her pizza as she left the house, closing the door properly before zooming off down the road and towards town and the halls where Bookworm normally lived during term time.

She was halfway there when she came across the first of the robots that Luna had told her about. Coming to a complete stop in front of it, almost skidding along the icy, slippery pavement into it and missing by inches, she examined the robot. Instinctual wariness, part of the personality contamination from her Fusion, kicked in as she stayed out of its reach, but circled it, trying to get a feel for the droid and what it could do.

There was no obvious weaponry on the robot. In fact as she scanned the droid, she felt relief bubbling up inside her. Luna’s worrying had gotten her a little bit nervous, but the tin can in front of her didn’t look like much of a threat. In fact she was pretty sure she could take down a small army of these with her eyes closed and her hands tied behind her back.

She paused when that thought crossed her mind and mentally kicked herself. ‘Ego check.’ She reminded herself as she darted around the robot and shot down the road towards her friend’s place.

Bookworm had obviously been warned that she was on her way as she was waiting for her outside the gates. She let the speeding blur in and watched as her friend skidded along the floor and stopped just short of sliding into the fence on the other side of the quad.

“You’re letting your breaking slip.” She commented as Speedster moved over to her side.

“No. Snow.” Juliet pointed to the white substance all over the floor, “Breaking is an absolute nightmare with the ground like this.”

“Get used to it.” Bookworm snorted, ushering Juliet inside and up to her flat which seemed rather empty considering the time of day. “So,” The smartest member of the Club said as she shut the door behind them, “I got an email from some of the others.” She watched Speedster flinch, “Is it true you’ve lost your World Sphere?”

“Yeah.” Juliet admitted with a wince, “It got knicked.”

“Well that sucks.” Bookworm shrugged, “Do you have your speed results for the last month?”

“No?” Juliet blinked, confused, having expected to get more of an earful from the Doctor to be. “I wasn’t sure if you would want it right now. I can get it from my digital dropbox if you want it?”

“Please and thank you.” Bookworm nodded, causing Juliet to flip open her phone and access her dropbox, attaching the file and sending it across to Bookworm’s email account. Bookworm practically pounced on the email, dragging her friend into her room so she could look at it on her big screen. “I can see where the snow hit.” She pointed at the results where Speedster had slowed down considerably for a week.

“I got used to it pretty quickly.” Juliet shrugged, unconcerned about the weeklong slow down when she considered the results for the following couple of weeks, “It’s just breaking that’s still a problem.”

“I can see that.” Bookworm allowed, before pausing and turning to look at her, “This wasn’t what I wanted you to come over for.” She admitted, sheepishness seeping onto her features. “I was hoping you could help me out with something.”

“Oh?” Speedster asked, curious, “What kind of help?”

“I...uhh.” Bookworm trailed off, “I have to start work on my thesis after Christmas and I was hoping I could get a hand.”

“Yes, but considering I graduated from a music degree and you’re taking a doctorate in physiological science, I’m not sure how I can...” Speedster trailed off, “You’re serious? You want to study me for your thesis?”

“The whole Club actually.” Bookworm admitted. “What the Shifts did to change us from normal people into what we are now.”

“You can’t honestly think that’s a good idea.” Speedster frowned, not entirely sure Bookworm had thought it through. “Thesis’s get published. Anyone could read it and find out about us!”

“Snap’s openly using the Club for her project.” Bookworm pointed out defiantly, “And she’s not planning on hiding her film. Last I heard she’s got plans on publishing it online and possibly seeing whether you guys would be willing to make more.”

“She hasn’t told us about that.” Juliet’s scowl deepened.

“No, she hasn’t told you.” Bookworm huffed, “Or Luna either since she can’t keep a secret for love nor money.”

“Great,” Juliet groaned, “Just great.” She sat back on Bookworm’s bed and considered her friend carefully, “So you seriously want to use us as our thesis project? Present us as a scientific fact?”

“Can you think of anyone else who ever had a thesis like it? This would be a completely new, ground breaking research. And I already have results both from before and after the transformation in your case because I have your marathon training times available.”

Juliet blinked at her, “You’re going to use the times that mapmyrun posted to my facebook wall as the baseline for ‘before?’”

“Yeap, and the speed results you’ve been giving me since you started my training program for ‘after.’” Bookworm nodded.

“I suppose it could work.” Speedster allowed, “What about the others, they don’t have results you can use for ‘before’ and ‘after’?”

“Spike’s pretty easy to work with, his ‘shell’ is obviously not normal. Shorty’s pretty normal but his alchemy isn’t, I can test the bounds of that. Without trying human transmutation of course.” Zara listed off, “Hex has photos of before she changed, I might even manage to help her shift some of that weight that suddenly appeared and I have ideas for the others too.”

“If you can do it without endangering the Club, I’ll play along.” Speedster nodded, “But you have to keep your results safe and secure and give us warning before you hand it in.”

“Deal.” Zara looked relieved, as if she had expected to get into more of an argument with her. “So, want the training plan for next month?” She asked, turning back to her computer.

“I thought I had one for next month?” Speedster looked curious as she glanced at the screen, only to wince and turn away from the backlit console.

“Sorry, still no luck with the contacts?” Bookworm frowned.

“It’s not the light.” Juliet explained, “So the contacts take the glare off, but they don’t help with the flickering. Nothing can.”