NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 26

“You’ve changed. You’re not as strong or fast as you were.” The guy commented, trying to look tough though it was hard to take him seriously with a frog on his head, “And the Doc’s building something that could...”

“If you mean that metal rip-off, I’ve already trashed it.” Speedster smirked at him, “When I rescued my little brother. Thanks for the details by the way. Shame you couldn’t be bothered to actually help.”

“I had better things to do then get myself caught again.” The guy retorted, “Or watch you get yourself killed. You’re not Sonic.”

“No, I’m not.” Speedster happily admitted, “I’m not him, I will never be him. I might have some mad, Sonic like moments, but I’m not him.” She looked at him for a moment, then offered her hand, “You want a hand up?”

He considered the hand for a moment, before grabbing her wrist and pulling her into the water.

Speedster let out a startled yelp just moments before she hit the surface, the part of her mind that wasn’t her own panicking when the water closed over her head, only for the rational, human mind to kick that part in the nuts and get her to surface calmly. At least as calmly as it could while plotting homicide.

The guy looked rather pleased with himself for the three seconds it took for Speedster to launch herself at him, the brawl he had been trying to instigate while they had been on the roads, now shifting to the water.

She was actually winning until he use Chaos Control to freeze her in place, circling her for a moment, before sending her crashing into the trees back on shore.

“C...cheat.” She spat out, glaring at him as he moved towards her.

“What? You think we’re all gunna play by some handbook?” The guy demanded, circling her again, “Yeah, the Doc knows about that.”

“You’re not a villain.” Speedster pointed out, her memories playing up again as she tried to keep her front to him, refusing to let him get a sneak attack in, “You’re not a hero either, but you’re not a villain, so what’s your part in all this?”

“My part?” The guy asked, looking thoughtful for a moment before smirking slightly, “I suppose it’s making sure this world we’ve been dragged to and Fused into doesn’t crumble around our ears.”

“What do you...?” Speedster let out a sharp gasp as the guy shoved a crystal into her hand, a sphere shaped one with images flickering around the inside ball, and it dragged her into its stored images.

Speedster struggled to stay afloat amongst the tide of memories that attempted to wash her away. Getting bits and pieces of the big picture but not the full details. When she finally managed to pull her metaphorical head free, the guy was gone, but he had left her a small brown bag and a note.

“The bag’s for the crystal, don’t lose it Faker. Shadow.”

“Great.” Speedster complained, still trying to piece together exactly what she had seen, regaining her footing and glowering around at her surroundings, trying to see if she could work out where the pest had gone.

When she couldn’t see him or any hints of his tracks, she let out a frustrated grumble and headed for home, still puzzling over the images she had seen in the crystal. Some things had been obvious, World Spheres and robots, herself fighting. Others less obvious, some giant monster coming through a portal, a giant mechanical clocklike spider with time seeming to go backwards around it, an entire world being coated in Shadows...

She couldn’t know if they were real or not, if the images were past of future. It wasn’t helpful and all Shadow’s actions had done was give her the mother of all headaches.

“Stupid bloody faker with his stupid bloody orb of headache inducing plus seven.” She grouched as she shoved the crystal in the bag and then in a pocket, scowling as something pulled up the gravel, headlights on full beam, blinding her. “Ow!” She yelped, covering her eyes momentarily as she tried to get her sight back.

By the time she had someone had exited the vehicle and so had at least three others. Blind to what was going on but not deaf, she was still blinking sunspots away when the first of the men tried to grab her, causing her to duck under his attempts and dart away, only to crash into a second man.

She floored him, using tricks her sensei had taught her in order to escape, and was just about to leave, leaving the third one standing, when the fourth fired something and she felt something hit her in the back of the leg.

Dizziness and drowsiness instantly washed over her as she pulled the dart out, but rather than lie down and accept what was happening, she fought back, managing to knock out the two men and escape the backup. Darting home as fast as possible in order to both get somewhere safe and ensure the safety of her friends before she passed out.

She reached the house only to find her door was hanging off the hinges.

“Luna!” She darted in, adrenaline keeping her awake, fear coursing through her, “Tails!”

“Speeds?” Luna’s voice was wavering from the back room, “Is that you?”

“I...I’m here.” Speedster shot into the back room, trying to ignore the way her house had been trashed in her concern from her friends. She stepped into the backroom to find Luna looking absolutely exhausted, shielding Tails despite the fact the goons who had gone after them were unconscious. “Are you alright?”

“I...no...” Luna admitted, exhausted beyond reason after challenging all twelve men. “My Other Self’s out...” She admitted, wavering on her feet. “We took them all...Tails is awesome by the way. Her booby traps? Totally cool.”

“Good. I’m glad you feel that way.” Speedster was pleased, even as her world spun and her legs started giving out. “Glad you’re okay...” She fell forward.

“Speeds!”

“Sonic!”

Both of her friends darted forward, moving to catch her and neither quite getting there. Speedster glanced up, trying to work out how she had ended up on the ground. “I...hi?” She asked.

“Speeds, what happened?” Luna worried at her as Tails started examining her for injury.

“Puncture wound.” Tails stated, noting the rip in Speedster’s trouser’s and checking the injury, “Speeds?” Tails asked, “Did you get tagged?”

“Yeah. Goons in cars.” Speedster nodded, “I don’t... we need to move...”

“I’m phoning Rowena.” Luna mumbled, pulling out her phone only to pause when she heard footsteps storming the building, “I haven’t called her yet.”

“Round two.” Speedster forced herself to her feet, “Go. Now. I’ll hold them.”

“No, I won’t...” Speedster’s glare cut Luna off. Once Luna was settled, Speedster looked to Tails.

“I’m trusting you to get her out, little sis.” Speedster saw Tails’ back straighten and her reply was a short, sharp nod, “I can hold them while you escape out the back. Now go.”

“Be careful.” Tails nodded, before helping Luna out the back way. Speedster had only just lost the sound of Luna’s disagreement with the plan when the first men came around the corner.

She managed to take down three before they tagged her again, twice, and had just managed to take down another two before they pinned her long enough for the sedatives to kick in. Despite her best efforts she spiralled away into darkness, chased by the words, ‘About bloody time, she’s got enough drugs in her to knock out an elephant. Now where’s that second group? They have to have grabbed the other two by now.’

When she came around again, it was to the sound of low whispering and frantic plans. It wasn’t just Luna and Tails talking either. There were other voices, other Club members present. She let out a groan as she tried to move, only to find out she was hampered by a combination of her own body, which was still recovering from the sedative they had pumped her full of, and the metal around her wrists and ankles.

“Speedster!” She let out another groan as the call echoed around her sore head but her head turned in the direction of the call, even if she couldn’t see them through the wall between cells. “Aw man, they got you too?”

“R...role call.” She managed, though her tongue felt heavy in her mouth and she felt like she hadn’t had a drink in far too long.

She sat up and experimentally tugged on the chain connecting her wrists, scowling as she found that she had no real give in the bindings. Something started bothering her the moment the list of her captured friends started. Every one of them in the cells were hero or neutral Fused, not a single Villain had been caught.

In fact as they all listed off their names, she noticed that it wasn’t the all of the hero or neutral Fused, in fact there was a disturbing pattern and she wasn’t the only one who saw it.

“Is there anyone here,” The Other Luna asked, her tone frustrated, “Who didn’t sign up to Rowena’s consultant thing?”

No one answered except for Tails.

“Knew it was too good to be true.” Gold sounded like he was grimacing from a couple of cells down. It was hard to tell when the only way to see out into the corridor was through a tiny, barred window in the rather thick looking door that was above her current head height and she didn’t trust her feet. “I mean seriously? Being paid to be a Superhero?”

“It might be a leak.” Chi spoke up, “Someone in her department leaked our details to the bad guys who grabbed Luna and Speeds, and they acted on it.”

“Whichever it is, I’n totally going to bust some heads when we get out of here.” Mako growled, “I don’t appreciate being used as a lab rat.”

NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 11

The last caused Speedster to shudder. Luna could appreciate why. She had been claustrophobic before her Fusion and while having a second personality’s strength to draw on had helped, she still struggled with small, enclosed spaces. Speedster’s claustrophobia had kicked in post Fusion and while it wasn’t serious enough to have her avoiding small rooms and locked doors, it was bad enough that she spent the greater majority of her time outdoors if she could help it. The idea of being locked in a small, padded room for months at a time was terrifying to the super fast, super stubborn young woman.

“Exactly.” Luna nodded her agreement, “So you’ll wait?”

“I’ll wait, for now.” Juliet agreed, “But I’m reserving ‘I told you so’ rights if I don’t get to talk to him before he starts trying to take over the world.”

“Deal.” Luna agreed as they turned the corner, “Now how are you going to apologise to Snap?”

“I dunno.” Speedster admitted. “I didn’t think it would matter when I dropped off the map. She did say she had so much footage to edit that she would still be doing it in January.”

“She missed a scene.” Luna explained, “And we tried it with just me and Chi but she said something was missing and it didn’t play out right. Didn’t help the script was written with you in it too and we had to improvise.”

“Well we’ll get this sorted, then I’ll speak to Mako and Bookworm and I’ll get the robot issue sorted too.” Juliet still sounded a little irritated but Luna was just pleased that she seemed to have calmed down. Speedster was normally quite a level headed person, she had a few ego issues, normally controlled by a quick ‘ego check,’ but none of them had seen her as mad as she had been when she had seen the news.

That hadn’t just been Speedster talking then, though. Luna was fully aware of that fact. She just wondered what her friend would be like if she ever let go of her temper properly and flew into a real rage.

They were the first to arrive besides Snap. The film student and director jumped on them the moment they arrived, launching a scathing tirade at Speedster for just disappearing on them. Juliet took it in her stride. Considering how mad the Club had been at her, she had not expected it to matter if she vanished for a few days. Though admittedly she hadn’t originally planned on heading off for a couple of weeks.

She appeased Snap, and the others of the Club who were mad at her for vanishing, a little by providing the gifts she had bought out of the paypacket that had come in just the day before. They weren’t as fancy as the ones she had originally planned to get, but Luna’s suggestion about shooting down to Bath had been fruitful and she had managed to pick up thirty or so pretty Christmas baubles for less than a hundred pounds.

“Bribery?” Michael asked, having been one of the last to arrive for the recording session, though there were plenty of others yet to get their gifts from Juliet. The rest would be given out at the last club meeting of the year.

“No, Christmas presents.” Juliet scolded him. “Just like every year.” She sighed, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you guys, but these aren’t ‘please forgive me’ gifts. I didn’t think you’d be too worried.”

“You’re an idiot.” Spike commented as he helped set up the last camera, his present, a golden star which she had drawn a smiley face on, reminiscent of the Power Stars in Mario. “Just because we’re cross at you, doesn’t mean we aren’t going to worry when you drop off of the face of the planet. What if it had been something serious?”

“Yeah,” Chi, the young man who was the last member of the ‘hero’ party in the film and who had pulled Brawl away from her at the Club meeting, chimed in, “I mean you can’t hog all the good fights.”

“Awww, was someone jealous?” Speedster teased, quite willing and happy to change the tone of the meeting to something a little lighter hearted and playful. “Tell you what, the next time I shoot off to save the world, I’ll invite you along. If you can keep up that...”

“Ego check.” Three voices chorused, causing Juliet to start laughing as Luna, Snap and Spike all blinked at each other in bemusement before they started chuckling too.

“I’m never going to get to boast again, am I?” Juliet jokingly complained to Chi when she calmed down.

“Not as long as we’re here.” Chi shook his head, smiling as he did so.

“Damn.” Juliet pretended to sulk as she snatched up a copy of the script, “Am I changing for this scene or not?”

“Not,” Snap shook her head as Juliet swiftly read through the lines, committing them to memory as she read them through a fourth and fifth time, “This is a meeting of the heroes during their day to day lives. What you’re... okay, why are you covered in paint?”

“Because I’ve been doing D.I.Y. and didn’t have time to change out of these clothes before Luna dragged me out of my front door.” Speedster responded, “Do you need me to change?”

Snap considered her for a moment, before shaking her head, “You know what? No, no, I can use this. D.I.Y. got it.” She made a note on the pad of paper she had taken to carrying with her everywhere. She paused, “What have you been building? Because you haven’t been at home. We checked. Lots.”

“Personal project.” Speedster shrugged, not really wanting to talk about it. “Back home.”

Luna watched her for a moment, a questioning look crossing her features as she caught Juliet’s eyes. When the speed freak shook her head slightly, Luna decided that if the others asked her, which they tended to do if Speedster was keeping to herself, she wouldn’t say a word about the treehouse. If Speedster wanted it kept a secret, she wouldn’t say a word.

“Fine, fine, don’t share.” Snap grouched, “But at least put photos up. Otherwise none of us will believe you can build anything. After all, we remember what happened to that shed you tried to help put up.” When Speedster went bright red in embarrassment, Snap considered herself victorious and chuckled as she went to double check the cameras. Not that she didn’t trust Spike to know what he was doing but it was her project and she was going to keep on top of everything.

Speedster glanced down at her clothes, brushing off the worst of the dirt as she noticed just how grubby her clothes were. Embarrassment settled in a little as she did so. She didn’t tend to think about what she was wearing very often, there wasn’t much point when it ended up windswept and rumpled after not too long. Snap’s tone had been one of ‘you’re wearing that?’ though and it had made her a little self conscious.

“Note to self,” Juliet murmured as they took their places and she read through the script one last time before they started, “Either start living in running clothes or get changed before I go anywhere Snap from now on.”

Luna, who had already memorised her script while she waited for Speedster to actually return home from her travels, chuckled quietly at that. “I’m not sure it would help.” She pointed out, “She would still comment on it if it looked like that.”

“True...oh, here we go.” The conversation stopped as Snap counted down from ten, counting them into the recording.

Speedster’s unfamiliarity with her lines caused a little bit of difficulty, but after only a little addlibbing they got the scene recorded and it was a much happier Snap that shot off with the data disks from the cameras, leaving Luna, Speedster, Spike, Mako and Michael to talk about what had been in the news.

“So, robosuits,” Mako commented as they settled on the railings outside the building, watching the snow falling on the campus, “What do we think?”

“I’m not happy about it.” Speedster admitted, “But Luna says I need to stop and step back and actually think before I go and rush to see the Doc in charge of the project.”

“Might be a plan.” Mako nodded, “Though when you do go, if you want backup...”

“Thanks.” Juliet grinned at her, relieved to have a little bit of backup even if she didn’t think she would need to call anyone in to help her.

“Well you can leave me out.” Spike snorted, “You caused the mess and I’ll step in if something happens here but this is my turf, I ain’t going looking for trouble outside of it unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“Is that a ‘I’ll help if trouble comes here’?” Mako asked, amused at the stubborn and lazy shell skinned young man.

“Yeah, yeah.” He waved it off, not particularly happy about the whole situation but refusing to let his territory get invaded by some idiot looking for trouble. There were enough of those as there was, without another joining the club.

“What about you?” Luna looked at her brother.

“I’m staying well out of it.” Michael snorted at her, “Knowing Shade he would take the opportunity presented by a distraction to cause the biggest possible mess imaginable.”

“Yeah, that sounds like him.” Luna sighed, just glad that she had managed to work out a way to work with the Other Self that the Fusion had given her. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have another personality in her head that she couldn’t work with and had to watch out for at every opportunity.

It was why she gave her brother so much leeway when his Other Self was on a rampage and why she insisted that her Other Self tried to help Shade change, rather than remove that part of her brother entirely.

“So what? We doing this between now and Christmas? Or are we saying hahaha, sod this for a game of marbles, it’s too cold and too close to Christmas?”

NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 10

“I’ll print it out.” Zara sounded apologetic as her printer whirred to life, “How do you manage with your phone?”

“I barely ever use it, that’s how.” Speedster grumbled as she scooped up the sheets and considered them carefully, “Huh, you seriously think I can hit these sorts of times?”

“You’re the one who said that you wanted to keep improving.” Zara pointed out, “I’m just trying to help.”

“Hey I never said I wouldn’t try this out.” Juliet grinned at her, “I was just surprised. You were the one who never thought I’d reach mach speeds after all.”

“I’m still mostly convinced you won’t break the sound barrier.” Bookworm admitted, “But then I was also convinced you would never be as fast as you are now and I was wrong so...”

Juliet smirked, “Just because I don’t have another Speedster to race against, doesn’t mean I’m not going to try my damnedest to reach my full potential.”

“Another Speedster, isn’t that a terrifying thought?” Zara deadpanned, causing Juliet to grin.

“Awww, what’s the matter, Bookworm?” Speedster chuckled at her, “Too much awesome for you to handle?”

“Ego check.” Zara responded automatically, watching, amused as Juliet paused, sighed and then laughed, hanging her head sheepishly.

“Sorry.” Juliet chuckled.

“I’d quite like another runner like you to compare results against.” Zara waved it off, “Just not two of you. I’m not sure I could fit your egos in the room. I’d have to host our meetings on campus.”

“It’s not that bad.” Speedster protested.

“Juliet, I hate to tell you this, but I’m surprised that your ego fits through a door, yet alone in my room.” Zara sniggered at her causing her to let out a huff but just let the insult slide. “Now, take those tests and I’ll give you a call when I need you for my project.”

“Sure.” Speedster nodded, still examining the sheets. She knew the course that was on the paperwork, it was one of the first that they had worked out between them, back when she had been more willing to stare at a computer and take the headache that came with it. Nowadays she just pretended to be computer illiterate. It confused people at work, who couldn’t understand how someone from her generation could possibly not know how to use a computer, but it worked ninety-seven percent of the time.

“I know it’s a slightly longer course than the one you’ve been training on recently,” Zara frowned slightly, “But if I’m going to  start regulating the results for my thesis I need to start using a more regulated course and the one you’re running at the moment has too many obstacles for you to get through.”

“It was good practise at dodging at high speed, but I see your point.” Speedster allowed, “I don’t mind anyway, I know you normally go over a route thoroughly before you suggest it to me.”

“As well as I can considering that I’m normally stuck using Google maps.” Bookworm frowned slightly, “If it deviates too much, tell me and I’ll rework it.” Speedster nodded, “Now shoo.”

“I’m going, I’m going.” Speedster chuckled, letting herself out of the building and heading back towards her place. She made one brief detour to pick up dinner things since she wasn’t sure what she had in the house. She got back to find Luna on her sofa watching the film she had promised she could watch weeks ago and after offering her some grub she opened the fridge door, only to shut it again swiftly with a grimace at the smell that emanated from it.

“Hey Luna?” She asked as she started preparing the food she had bought and made a mental note to clean out the fridge after dinner, “I’m instating a new rule. If I forget, remind me?”

“If you tell me what it is, I will.” Luna chuckled, leaning back on the arm of the sofa in order to see into the kitchen.

“If I’m going to be away for more than two days, I have to leave you the keys so you can raid my fridge.” Speedster replied, prepping veg and meat for fajitas as she did so.

“Does it have its own ecosystem?” Luna asked, giggling as she turned back towards her film, still half paying attention to her friend’s antics in the kitchen.

“Ecosystem, economy and parliament.” Juliet’s reply caused a bark of laughter to emanate from the living room. The film was just ending by the time the food was cooked and as Juliet passed Luna a plate of food and slumped back onto the second sofa, her own food stacked high on her plate, Luna flicked over to the news.

“In groundbreaking news, scientists have recently discovered there might be a way for those crippled by age or disabilities to regain full use of their limbs.” The newscaster was saying as Luna alternated between munching and trying to pick the next dvd, “The robosuit system, invented by Dr. J. Styler, allows those whose skeletal systems have degraded to walk, run and take part in activities that they haven’t been able to do in years.”

“Luna.” Speedster’s tone was flat as she called her friend. Startled, Luna turned to look at Juliet, who was, for the first time since her Fusion completely still, staring at the screen with a look that was equal parts disgust and anger, “Tell me you’re not seeing what I’m seeing.”

Luna turned towards the screen and let out a startled gasp at the sight she beheld. “There’s no way...”

“Looks like there is.” Speedster let out a low growl, ignoring the headache beginning to form behind her eyes as she beheld the ‘robosuit’ which was little more than a full body metal suit, attached to a human form and controlled by computers via directions from the person inside. “I think I’ve found Buttnik.”

“What was his name again?” Luna asked, scrabbling to remember as the news report ended.

“Dr. J. Styler.” Speedster answered easily, getting to her feet. “And I think I had better pay him a visit.”

“Speeds, you can’t just walk into his office and demand to speak to him, not after an announcement like this.” Luna pointed out, “You’re going to need to contact his office and try and arrange a date, say it’s for part of your journalism course or something.”

“But I’m not on a...”

“I know you’re not,” Luna interrupted, “But you might be able to blag it. Hell, talk to Zara, she’s doing a physiology doctorate. This is totally related to her studies. She might be able to get you in.”

“Zara’s already chosen her thesis subject but it’s worth a shot.” Speedster allowed, thinking as she paced up and down the living room. “I need to speak to him, make sure he knows he’s not getting away with it again...”

“Oh...oh!” Luna’s eyes widened as she beheld her friend, “Juliet! Stop.” Furious emerald green eyes flashed in her direction as Juliet stopped mid step to wheel around and stare at her.

“Yes?” Speedster demanded.

“Jules, you’re not thinking like you right now.” Luna pointed out carefully, watching the girl whose body language was all wrong. She recognised the posture and posing now as the same as when Juliet had first Fused, back before the personality contamination from her Fusion had settled down properly. It probably didn’t help that when they had Fused, they had gotten a small dose of the memories of the person they were Fused with and this would have triggered those memories. However she had to pull her friend back. “Stop for a moment and think about this carefully. You’re not the hero of a world right now, you’re a postwoman who might be about to interfere in something that doesn’t concern you.”

“But...”

“I know what those looked like.” Luna held up her hands, her tone placating, “But what if this Doctor isn’t evil? What if he’s actually trying to use the memories and knowledge he gained to help people? Do you really want to put a stop to that.”

“No, but...” Speedster huffed, “You don’t get it, Luna.”

“Then explain it to me, because dashing off to confront someone you don’t know, in some unknown location seems like a pretty bad plan to me. You should at least get some intel first, maybe ask Bookworm or one of the others for...” Luna trailed off as her phone rang, “help, one sec.”

Speedster resumed pacing as Luna answered the phone, which was ringing to the tune of some Egyptian piece of music. “Luna speaking. Hi Mako, yeah I saw, so did Speeds.” When Juliet waved at her, Luna grinned slightly, “She says hi. Sure, sure. Okay. Wait now? But... Speeds isn’t going to want to...okay, we’ll be there shortly. Bye.”

“Now what?” Speedster asked as Luna put the phone down.

“Snap needs footage, tonight, for her project hand in on Friday. Apparently she needed it a week and a half ago, but someone,” Luna gave her a sharp look, “Wasn’t around and wasn’t contactable. Anyway Mako says she’ll talk with us about what was on the news while we’re there, so maybe we can come up with a saner plan than yours.”

“My plan is fine.” Juliet grouched.

“No, no it wasn’t. Give us a chance to come up with a better one. If we haven’t thought of one by the end of recording, you can go be crazy.”

“I don’t think it’s crazy to want to nip this in the bud now.” Speedster grouched as she grabbed a few things and shoved them in her backpack, before following Luna out the door.

“No, it’s completely reasonable.” Luna allowed as she guided her friend to where Mako had said for them to meet, “But you have to have a plan. You actually need to know where he is, where he works and have an appointment. If you go storming in, talking about something someone did in another world, you’ll get kicked out. And possibly thrown in the loony bin.”