NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 12

“I’d love say say ‘sod it it’s Christmas,’” Speedster grumbled, “But we should at least check out the labs they’re being made in.”

“In that case, let’s go.” Mako pounded her right palm with her fist.

“When we know where, we’ll go.” Speedster nodded.

“In the mean time,” Luna sighed, “All we can do is practise and keep our skills sharp.”

“Which sucks.” Speedster complained, starting to pace again, “I hate waiting for anything.”

“Go for a run or something.” Luna shook her head in amusement, “If you take your phone, I’ll call you the moment we know anything.”

“Deal.” With that Speedster shot off, bored already by the meeting and unable to just stand still and wait. Instead she shot over to Bookworm’s flat, where the doctorate student was in fact delightedly pouring over every piece of information she could on the new ‘robosuits.’

It didn’t take her long to get the information she needed from the physiology enthusiast and she hesitated for just a moment, before shooting off to the lab in question. She hadn’t said how long she would wait when she had told Luna that she would and she didn’t plan on storming the building. She just wanted to go and have a look at it. As well as ensure she knew where it was and that the person she was looking for actually worked there.

When she actually planned on invading the labs, she would alert Luna and Mako to her plans, but for just scouting it was better she headed off alone.

The lab was a surprisingly ordinary looking building considering what was being built inside. Built on the outskirts of town, the plain, two storey concrete warehouse looking building didn’t look like the menacing headquarters of some evil villain, just a plain old storage place.

The only real outward signs that the building wasn’t just a storage facility were the official looking cars and military looking guards patrolling the parameter.

Zooming around the perimeter, which was surrounded by wire fencing with barbed wire around the top, she got a feel for the place’s defences. They didn’t look like much, a few guard dogs on chains led around by the guards, a few unconcealed weapons, plenty of security cameras and a few shed like buildings that she just knew probably housed a robot or two.

She wasn’t surprised. They weren’t expecting trouble. Not from anyone who could pass by the defences in the blink of an eye. Speedster would have thought that he would have insisted on stronger measures. She supposed that if he wasn’t in charge yet, he wouldn’t get much say in what security measures had been put in place and even if he was he wouldn’t expect his arch-nemesis to have been Fused with someone from this world too.

Still, she was wary as she slipped over the fence and examined the cameras at a much closer range, darting between their coverage at high speed and working out where she could take out the wiring if she needed to. Part of her wondered how she knew what to look for, the rest, the part that had firmly accepted the Fusion and melded with the memories and the skills that she had gained, just accepted it as something that had been necessary in their old world.

When the guards came around the corner, Speedster took that as a sign to bolt, zipping across the grounds and hopping the fence, landing on the other side easily before shooting off. She had no intention of alerting them to the fact she was watching if she could help it. The element of surprise had always been a key factor in the success of their plans and giving away her presence now would ruin it.

She shot further away from the fence, up onto the roof of a nearby building and enjoyed the sunshine until the scientists left the building for the day. There were quite a few in the building, most of whom looked pretty normal and were chatting with each other, though she couldn’t hear about what from her vantage point.

The last few to leave the building were a group of three. One military looking, armed man in a smart suit with medals pinned to it and symbols on his shoulder. One robosuited individual, whose metal plating was red, gold and black and whose body language looked completely relaxed despite the suit that they were wearing. And finally the individual she had been looking for.

He was unmistakeable. A huge, rotund, almost egg shaped man with a ridiculous moustache and a set of sunglasses that covered his eyes.

“Robotnik.” Speedster hissed, anger rising despite the fact that the man before her had done nothing to her or to her world.

The egomaniac had no idea she was watching as he walked across the carpark, talking to the two men though he took furtive glances around. He didn’t look too pleased to be pulled away from his work. Speedster on the other hand was all too pleased for any delay to his plans. Not that she knew what he was up to, but there was very little he had gotten up to in the original world that could be considered ‘good’ so she didn’t doubt that he was up to something here too.

The Robotnik fusion and the robosuited man entered one vehicle while the military man entered another. Once both cars had pulled out of the heavily guarded gates she followed the one with the Doctor and the robosuited man, wanting to know where he was going and what he was up to.

Frustration had seeped in by the time the car had stopped, as she had stuck to the roofs and tried to keep to its speed rather than risk losing it in the traffic. As she watched the pair exit the car, she paced the nearby rooftop, keeping a close eye on them as the Doctor pulled some keys out of his back pocket and let them into a house.

“That’s enough.” Juliet told herself with a huff as the car pulled away and she waited to see if anything else would happen, glancing at her watch as she did so, “It’s been an hour. Time to...”

She trailed off as the door opened again and the robotic man exited the building again, watching as he shut the door behind him and headed down the road. She followed, smiling as he popped into a shop and slipped down into an alleyway before emerging onto the street and entering the shop behind him.

As she picked out a bunch of snacks, having not eaten for a while, she listened to the conversation between the cashier and the robotic man.

“So you went through with it then?” The cashier asked a little nervously, “That thing we saw on the T.V.”

“It was worth it.” The man replied, his voice modulated slightly so it sounded less human and more robotic, “I’m finally out of that wheelchair. And it’s all thanks to Paul.”

“You two worked together on this.” The cashier reminded him with a slight smile, “Don’t put yourself down, Doc.”

“I might have been working with him on this project, but he had a break through a couple of weeks back that not only made it viable in our lifetime, but meant it could be put into effect immediately.” The Doctor replied, “It’s just a shame it’s my name that has to be used. He might have been my assistant, but he had no doctorate, so they insist it has to be my name that’s used to promote it.”

“It’s a shame, but I wouldn’t complain if I were you.” The cashier chuckled, taking the payment for his items, “Just share the profits with him.”

“Maybe one day we’ll be able to afford not to charge for the process.” Dr. Styler replied, sounding wistful, “Have a good shift, Kayley.”

“Have a good evening yourself, Doc.” Kayley waved him off before turning to Speedster who had been next in line, “Hiya, can I help?”

Once she had paid for her goods, Speedster got the hell out of there as fast as possible, so much on her mind that she wasn’t sure where to start on working through it all.

She let her feet take her where they willed as she tried to think everything through. It was Robotnik. She knew he was bad. She knew it like she knew the Earth was round and chocolate was tasty.

But ‘Paul’ had built the robosuits to help his friend and co-worker. He really had been trying to help for a change instead of creating them for evil.

She was the one in the wrong. Not him.

It was that realisation that caused her to come to a sudden stop as she lost her footing and went tumbling, crashing into a wall and coming to a sliding stop on the other side of the rubble left behind. 

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.”

NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 7

The first of the two treehouses, the one that the rope ladder had been attached to, had a sturdy catch but no lock on the door and Luna hesitantly let herself into the building to find that a table and chairs along with a small, unequipped food preparation area.

She explored for a while longer, discovering that the treehouse also had a second room with bookcases and a desk. The shelves were empty, but the renovations were quite obviously still ongoing, suggesting that perhaps they would be filled later.

A rather loud boom let Luna know that Speedster had returned and she poked her head out the door to find her friend looking around for her while holding a bag of something that looked kind of like food cartons.

“Speeds, up here.” She waved. Speedster grinned when she spotted her and clambered up carefully, making sure not to drop the floor. “So, want to explain?” Luna asked, gesturing around.

“Sure,” Juliet nodded, handing Luna a carton, which she opened to find a sweet and sour chow mein, and a pair of chopsticks. “These treehouses used to be mine as a kid. My uncle helped me build them when my parents were away. They were military you see, so they were never around.” Speedster explained, “So I lived with my uncle. He has a house not that far from here.”

“And you just decided to start renovating now?” Luna asked, still not entirely sure what the point of her being brought her was.

“Yes and no.” Speedster shrugged, “My uncle phoned me the other day to say that his misses was pregnant. You know the one.”

Luna grimaced slightly. She did. She had met Juliet’s uncle and his new wife at Christmas. She hadn’t much liked the new wife then and she knew Speedster got on with her about as well as cats and dogs. That was why she had stuck around the city when she had graduated. She’d had nowhere else to go.

“It got me nostalgic.” Speedster continued, pausing momentarily to attack her mushroom chicken and rice, “So I zoomed down here the morning after I had that big fight with Spike, you remember?”

“The one where he tried to set you on fire because you wouldn’t let him go and do the same to the guy who had t-boned his car?” Luna asked.

“That’s the one.” Juliet nodded, smiling slightly at the memory of Spike’s frustration. He had wanted to set her on fire, but he hadn’t been able to catch her to do so. “When I saw it was falling apart I decided to rebuild it. It’s taking me a while. I’m not too good with D.I.Y. It normally stands for ‘Destroy It Yourself’ in my house.”

Luna started giggling at that, causing Speedster to grin. The pair finished their food in companionable silence and as Luna got on with her coursework on her laptop, Speedster did a little work on the house across the rickety bridge.

“Shouldn’t you fix the bridge before you fix the house?” Luna questioned as one of the planks from it fell when Speedster shot across it with supplies to fix the roof of the second building.

“Maybe?” Speedster guessed, glancing at the bridge, “I probably shouldn’t speed across it like that either.”

“Going a little slower probably wouldn’t be a bad idea.” Luna agreed, able to envisage Speedster going to dart across, only for the whole thing to go tumbling to the ground.

They worked on their projects until Luna’s battery started running out on her laptop, then Juliet ran them home, making a comment about needing to get a power generator or something out there so she could use power tools and Luna could hang around more often.

“Does your Uncle know you’re rebuilding it?” Luna asked as Juliet dropped her on her doorstep.

“Yeah, he caught me at it a couple of weeks back.” Speedster nodded, wincing slightly as she remembered nearly careening into him at full pelt and going crashing into a tree instead.

That tree was at a wonky angle now.

“And he doesn’t mind?” Luna looked curious as she hesitated to re-enter her household when she just knew her brother would be inside, waiting to tease her.

“Nope,” Speedster shook her head, “Said that it didn’t matter what his wife said, I was always welcome on his land and in his home and I was welcome to do whatever I wanted with my treehouses.” She grinned slightly, “I did ask if that meant I could turn them into a fully functional house, plumbing and electrics included.”

“Oh?” Luna asked curiously.

“He said that if I ever managed that, he wanted to know how so he could sell the secret.” Juliet chucked. “Now you need to work, so I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye.”

“Speeds...” Before Luna could say anything else, Speedster had shot off, embarrassed.

She didn’t even know what she had been thinking when she had decided that she was going to run her friend down to her childhood hideaway. She had just decided that she didn’t want to go home to the house, she wanted to work on the treehouse.

There had been a Chinese takeaway place in the next village over that she knew she could get Luna’s meal from and while she hadn’t been able to provide anywhere to charge Luna’s laptop, she had at least been able to provide some peace and quiet, bar the noise of her fixing the buildings.

She supposed it was because she trusted Luna to keep her secrets. Though her friend had told others about the missing Sphere, Luna didn’t tend to gossip about things that didn’t directly affect the Club. Going down there had helped her calm down too.

She felt better able to face up to the Club at tomorrow’s meeting after spending time working on her secret hideaway. She felt a lot more optimistic about her chances of convincing the Club not to freak out and to let her deal with the fallout when it came.

It was that optimism that nearly caused her to miss the swing Brawl took at her as she stepped through the door. It was only her speed that saved her from becoming a smear on the wall. “Brawl!” She glowered at the dark skinned, bald headed, muscle bound brick outhouse of a guy. “The hell!? We have a rule!”

“She’s right mate,” Chi agreed, glowering briefly at Speedster before ushering Brawl away, “We’re not supposed to fight at Club meetings. Wait until the meeting’s over.”

“You know,” Speedster opened up the meeting by speaking, “If you all are here just to punch my lights out, I’m leaving now. Just saying.”

Despite a vote being called on whether they should get to punch her lights out (a close result with the motion failing sixteen to fourteen), the meeting ran pretty smoothly. It was generally agreed that Speedster was a moron and that any fallout from it was purely Luna and Speedster’s problems since they had caused the problem in the first place.

After the meeting, however, Speedster had to escape rapidly as the ones who wanted to get into a fight with her over this tried to jump her on their way out. Instead of heading for her home, she instead sped for the treehouse.

She spent a few days there instead of hanging around the city, recognising that she wasn’t welcome in her usual haunts while the Club was still furious at her and wanting to get some real work done on the treehouses before any more snow fell. She kept up with her job, but other than that, she spend almost two full weeks down there, heading back into town on the fourteenth day to find Luna waiting for her at her door.

“Speeds, hey. You been at the treehouses?” Luna fussed at her, brushing off the dirt and tutting at the paint on her jacket.

“Yeah, you could have rang you know.” Speedster pointed out as she headed inside, letting Luna go first as she headed in. “My phone still works out there.”

“It’s been flat for days.” Luna pointed out, causing her friend to look sheepish as she checked the device in question only to find Luna was quite correct.

“Oh.” Juliet looked sheepish. “Anything happened?” She asked as she plugged the phone in, looking over at Luna who was shuffling back and forth, looking uneasy. “Luna?”

“Sorry, sorry.” Luna apologised, seeming to lean into something Speedster couldn’t see. “I just...There’s been signs of your World Sphere and we couldn’t get a hold of you and I feared...” When Luna trailed off, Juliet frowned.

“What?” She asked, “Luna, what’s happened in the last couple of weeks? What signs?” Speedster’s eyes widened as Luna’s eyes actually changed colour, shifting from a soft amethyst to a sharp ruby red. She had never seen Luna’s eyes do that before, even when she had the Other Her in control and it worried her, “Lune?” She asked, worried.

“During the last week or so, there have been robots running around the campus.” The Other Luna informed her. “Not particularly smart ones and they don’t have much of a bite to them, but they tend to follow anyone around who’s a little different. No one knows where they’re coming from or who made them, only that they look like they’re made out of junk and seem to have some sort of A.I.”

“Robots?” Juliet was confused. “How is that a sign of my World Sphere?”

“Speedster,” Luna’s tone took on that of one speaking to a particularly slow child, “How far away from junk robots with learning A.I. do you think we are?”

“I know that people have already made learning A.I.s.” Speedster shrugged, “So not very?”

“Okay, but what does your Fusion fight regularly?” Luna tried coming at it from a different angle.

“Other hedgehogs.” Speedster’s offhand comment made the Other Luna glower at her, “I get it, I do.” She put her hands up defensively. “You think Buttnik’s Fused to someone.”