NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 14

Luna’s mother had provided her with a stocking to open before breakfast, only a little thing with five presents in but it was nice to feel included even if it meant she got woken up at six. After the stocking presents had been opened, she helped cook the full English breakfast that the family shared before those who wanted to go to Church went to do so while Juliet and Michael stayed behind and played with the board game that had been slipped into Michael’s stocking.

Once everyone was back and the roast turkey had been put into the oven to cook, they all settled in the living room to open the presents under the tree. They were halfway through doing so when Michael’s phone went off.

“Sorry.” Michael apologised as he pulled it out of his pocket, “What the...?” He murmured as he flipped it open, “Spike? It’s Christmas Day, mate. You know I’m busy until... what?” There was silence from Michael for a minute or so, then he scrambled across the room, face white and eyes wide, turning on the TV despite the objections of Luna and his parents.

“Mikey?” Luna asked, worried as he seized the remote and flipped over to the news channel where a harried looking reporter was reporting from the top of a building.

“What you see below me,” She was saying as the camera panned across a horde of robots and robosuited individuals, all of whom were stood between the military and the warehouse Speedster had scoped out a week ago. “Is a standstill that has been reached by the military and the robot army belonging to Sawyer. The military are hesitant to attack the people trapped inside the now fully controlled suits of metal armour, while Sawyer seems content to ensure that no one can enter the complex while his forces raid banks and shops.”

“It’s Christmas Day!” Luna protested, forgetting about her parents for the moment as they watched a cannon unfold from the arm of one of the robosuits and open fire on the armed forces opposite. “There’s a rule!”

“Our rules, not his.” Shade pointed out, irritation obvious and having shoved Michael aside easily to watch this for himself. “It’s a clever plan.” He continued, wishing he had thought of it himself, “Using innocent bystanders as shields for his robots. They can’t open fire without being accused of massacring thousands of disabled people.”

“Michael!” His mother sounded disturbed that her son seemed almost approving of what was going on.

As the military finally seemed to make up their mind, a burst of air sent everything that wasn’t nailed down flying. Luna palled and shot out the living room door, able to hear someone moving upstairs. Shade followed at a more sedate pace, easily able to hear the argument going on upstairs.

“Speeds, you can’t!” Luna was protesting, “Not alone!”

“There’s no one else, Luna.” Speedster snapped back, “None of the others are close enough and no one else can get close enough quickly enough. They’re firing on the cops, it won’t be long until they start firing back, innocent bystanders or not. I won’t let that happen. I can’t. This is my mess, I have to fix it.”

“And you’re changing into your costume from the film why?” Shade asked, poking his head around the door, watching as Speedster struggled with the zip on her catsuit, “You’re not a real superhero.”

“Because,” Speedster explained as Luna, who still looked torn about what was going on, batted her friend’s hands away from the zip and helped her do it up, “If I don’t wear anything that’s mine and at least try and hide my features the military may not trust me, but they shouldn’t be able to use facial recognition software either.” She finished as she slipped her mask down over her face, her eyes watching the pair carefully from the slits. “Now if you don’t mind...”

“Actually, I’m not here to stop you. You were told you had to clear up your messes.” Shade shrugged, “I just wanted to make sure you had this to give him. If he’s playing with the Club’s heroes, he needs to know the villain handbook.”

“You guys have a handbook?” Speedster looked amused despite the situation.

“Speeds, hang on one sec and I’ll come with you.” Luna promised, shooting into her room to get changed.

“Yes we do. Don’t read it, it’s for villain eyes only.” Shade nodded, watching his sister go, amused, “Also you’re not taking her, I need her.”

“No, I know I’m not.” Speedster reassured him, feeling weird in doing so, “I’ll make sure he gets this. You guys watch the TV, I’ll be on shortly.” With that she shot out of the building, waiting only until she had reached the road, at which point Shade heard one of Speedster’s signature sonic booms.

“Was that...?” Luna looked panicked as she slipped out of her room, half changed.

“Gone.” Shade nodded, amused at her reaction, “She had no intention of taking you. You’ll just slow her down.”

“But...” Luna looked hurt.

“Go get out of that mess.” Shade sniggered, “And do it fast. One of us will have to explain things to our parents and would you rather it was me?”

“No!” Luna yelped, shaking her head and darting for her room, “Very much no.” She continued as she shut the door behind her. Shade chuckled and headed downstairs, to where his parents were picking up everything that had been blown everywhere in Juliet’s first burst of speed.

On screen the military were setting up rather big guns and Shade couldn’t help but wonder with an amused detachment, whether Speedster would make it in time. Despite her speed, it was going to come close.

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.”

NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 8

“Considering the lack of robots running around before the World  Sphere went missing?” The Other Luna pointed out, “It’s a logical assumption.”

“Yeah.” Speedster allowed, “Yeah it is.” She looked thoughtful but not too worried, “It’s not as big an issue as you’re making out though. Just because Buttnik’s Fused, doesn’t mean that he’s going to attack people or go after us. It really all depends on which version of Buttnik we got and how much the person he’s Fused with allows the Personality Contamination to take hold of them. I mean your brother’s Fused with your Fusion’s most dangerous adversary and yet bar that brief stint when you first Fused, you two have done little more than get into arguments. There’s been no serious attempts to take over the World, only a few Shadow Games and most of them aimed at other people and no, thankfully, attempts to brainwash other...what?”

“That last one?” Luna, the original one, looked apologetic as she took over, “I caught him at it a couple of months back, now I can’t work out if he’s doing it when I’m not looking or whether he’s stopped.”

“Great, so your brother might be building an army, got it.” Juliet groaned, “Okay, so maybe my point’s not quite as valid but I still have one, we’ve only got to worry about Buttnik if his Fusion lets the Personality Contamination make him into a tyrant. And let’s be fair about this, even if he does, in the current climate how would he possibly afford to do more than make a few robots out of junk?”

“Sell the bots, make a profit, build more.” Luna pointed out, “Or get a grant or a loan from somewhere.” She paused looking a combination of mischievous and actually concerned, “Rob a bank maybe?”

“Heh,” Speedster couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her at that idea, “Okay, at least if he robs a bank we’ll know what he looks like because his face’ll be plastered all over the news.” She paused, “So why did you panic when you couldn’t find me?”

“Because I know what Shade’s like with me and you’re this guy’s number one enemy.” Luna pointed out.

“Yes but he doesn’t know that.” Juliet reminded her, “And hopefully by the time he does, he’ll have gotten himself settled. Perhaps be willing to be a bit more sane about this. I mean as long as he’s not trying to take over the world, I’m quite happy to let him play with his robots. Who knows they might be useful.”

“And if he tries?” Luna asked, worried.

“Then I guess I’ll have to decide what I’m doing.” Speedster sighed, “I mean right now I only really keep myself between the Villain Fusions and their plans because it seems like a good idea to keep our heads down and I don’t want anyone getting hurt, them included.” She started pacing the living room, dropping her backpack as she did so, “If he tries, and I mean really tries, I guess I’ll have to do the same for him too. But it won’t be because I’m who I am, it’ll be because I can’t let him hurt anyone. Him being Fused is my fault, so I should be the one to deal with the fallout.”

“You won’t be alone.” Luna promised.

“Of course not, I have you guys.” Speedster grinned at Luna, even as she thought of ways to keep her friend out of the fighting. Living, breathing minions, Luna was an ace in the hole for. Robots who had no mind to play with and no way of feeling fear or being tricked by illusions... she couldn’t let Luna get involved and she WOULD ask Shade’s help if it came to it.

Even Michael’s evil self would find a way to protect Luna from the bots, if it meant that he could still fulfil any plans he had. She would just have to appeal to his pride and his greed. It wouldn’t be that hard.

“Anyway, this could all be moot.” Speedster pointed out, “Just because there’s robots around, doesn’t mean it’s Buttnik. It could be some random grunt from G.U.N. From their robotics department perhaps, or someone on the robotics and engineering course might have lost a project or two. I’ll worry about it when we have a bit more evidence of trouble. No point worrying till then.”

“I suppose.” Luna allowed, visibly trying to brush away her worries. “I was just worried. You don’t normally vanish off the face of the Earth. What were you doing anyway?”

“Treehouse.” Speedster grinned as Luna’s eyes lit up in realisation, “It’s nearly rebuilt. I’ll have to show you tomorrow or Wednesday.”

“Why not today?” Luna asked, a little confused and excited to see what her friend had been up to.

“Paint’s drying, the place smells to high heaven right now. Trust me, it’s not something you want getting up your nose.” Juliet’s grin made Luna even more curious than she was already, “Besides, you need to catch me up on what’s been going on around here besides the ‘bots. Have the others calmed down at all yet, or should I spend another week or two down there?”

“Considering we break up for the end of term in less than a week, if you vanish again I’m going to hunt you down and sit on you.” Luna grumbled at her. “You’re supposed to be coming to stay at ours over Christmas, remember?”

Juliet paused for a moment and then grew sheepish. She had forgotten about the fact she was supposed to be staying with her friends this Christmas. She hadn’t even really been thinking about the holiday despite the fact that it was less than a fortnight away now. Luna had offered her a place to stay months ago when it had become obvious that her uncle’s new wife had no intention of letting her spend any time hanging around the house for the holidays. She was still going to drop by, her super speed meant that she could be anywhere in the country on Christmas day and still make time to visit, but she had needed somewhere else to stay and Luna had decided that she wasn’t allowed to be on her own on Christmas Day so her house was not a viable option.

Speedster hadn’t really looked forward to being on her own for the holidays, but she honestly had been both surprised and amused by the sheer amount of effort Luna had put into ensuring not only that Juliet could stay with her family over Christmas but that she would have her own space and somewhere to hang out away from the family members that would descend upon the Roberts household over the three day period.

 Michael had seemed to welcome the idea too, which made her feel a little less like she was intruding. Shade had sulked, but then she knew him well enough by now to know that Shade was happiest when everyone around him was miserable. It probably had appealed to him for her to be stuck in her home, alone, during the festive season.

“And the others?” Speedster hesitated to ask, unable to help but wonder if they still wanted to punch her lights out.

“Mostly calmed down.” Luna shrugged, “Most of them have pretty much decided that it’s our problem and they don’t care as long as they don’t have to deal with it.” She smiled slightly, “Mako did say that she would help if trouble came and she could find a big enough stick and Gold is looking forward to a brawl, but then Gold always enjoys a brawl so I’m not sure if that’s an indication of ‘I can help’ or ‘yeay, an excuse to get in a fight.’”

Speedster just chuckled at that. Gold had fused with a rather excitable ‘young’ demon who had a bottomless pit for a stomach. Unless he was eating, and as far as she could tell he was always eating at the moment, he was looking for a good fight to get into. She had gotten into a sparring match with him before and had swiftly worked out that while he didn’t look particularly strong, it was better for her if she didn’t let him land a blow. He was fast and he was strong enough to injure her even with her increased durability.

Mako on the other had was powerful and looked it. She was built like a bodybuilder and was much, much faster than she looked. Mako couldn’t keep up with her, no one could, but the girl was the one who came closest to managing it. Mako wasn’t as good with hand to hand as she was though. The other Fusion had had fencing lessons and preferred to use a weapon rather than fight with fists and feet.

Not that she couldn’t if she wanted to, it was just that the only ones who could spar with her were members of the Club and even then she had to pull her punches with anyone but Gold. If she landed a punch at full strength on Juliet it took her a day or more to heal properly and she was the one club member who could bounce back the fastest from any injury.

“Oh, by the way, Bookworm’s back in town.” Luna grinned at her, changing the subject abruptly and looking rather happy about it.

Speedster blinked at her, confusion obvious for a moment before grinning back, “That’s great. So she’s all better, right?” She asked. She had been worried about Bookworm, who had had to go home after contracting swine flu a month or so ago. To hear that the smartest member of the Club was not only better but back on campus was a relief.

NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 6

“Spike,” Luna grumbled as she let go of the door handle and started knocking on the door, “Snap would have been carrying too much stuff to bother pulling a prank like this.”

“Sorry.” Juliet sighed, slumping down onto one of the tables, trying not to feel like the walls were closing in. She hated being inside for any length of time as it was, yet alone being trapped indoors. Then she spotted the partly open window just above head height, “I didn’t think they’d take it out on you too.”

“Mikey, open the door!” Luna bellowed, shaking the door on its hinges before turning to the dejected looking girl, “I’m the one who dragged you shopping, and I’d rather they were aiming our way than picking on the others again.” Speedster just nodded as she moved round the room and pulled a table under the window. Luna wandered over, curiosity obvious on her features as Speedster climbed up onto it and poked her head out the open window. “Speeds?”

“I could get down from here.” Juliet replied, “Its only one floor up.”

“You might, I’m not so sure I would without breaking something.” Luna sounded thoughtful as she joined her friend in looking out the window, “At least if I jump, there’s a ledge, look.” She indicated the ledge in question, “If I edge around that and climb in that window,” She pointed, “I’m pretty sure that leads onto the main corridor.”

“And if you fall, I’ll catch you.” Juliet agreed, liking this plan better than just sitting around or shouting their heads off until someone came and unlocked the door. At least this way they weren’t waiting on someone who might not come to the rescue till morning. “Toss our bags down?”

“My laptop...” Luna hesitated.

“It’s either that or try and carry it around the ledge.” She reminded the other girl who honestly looked like she was considering it. “Fine, okay, toss my bag down. It’s not got anything breakable in it.”

When Luna nodded, Speedster carefully climbed out of the window and jumped from the ledge to the ground, rolling as she hit the floor and coming out of it standing up. Her bag came next, ruining her triumphant grin by smacking her in the head and causing her to back up a little as Luna clambered out of the window, backpack on her back.

“You alright up there?” Speedster couldn’t help but ask as Luna considered the route for a moment or two.

“Yeah,” Luna nodded, thinking about something for a little longer before turning around, letting herself down using the ledge and dropping the last couple of feet to the ground safely. “Just that seemed easier.” She grinned at her friend.

“Just be glad security didn’t see us pull that stunt.” Speedster chuckled back, “Or they would have pitched a fit.”

“So where’re we now?” Luna asked, looking around at the disposal bins and piles of cardboard and rubbish.

“Behind the Student Union building I think.” Speedster considered, starting to climb the wire fence. “There’s a road on the other side of the fence.”

“Sounds good to me.” Luna nodded, wincing in sympathy as Juliet reached the top, which had barbed wire wrapped around certain parts, and got her hand spiked for her troubles.

Luna didn’t fare much better as she joined her friend on the other side of the fence and by the time she had reached the ground she had torn her tights and cut her hand open. “You do realise Shade is probably going to find this hilarious.” She warned Speedster who just let out a frustraited huff.

“If this wasn’t his idea I’d be surprised.” She admitted, “Trap the two claustrophobic Club members in a room and leave them? Seems right up his alley.”

“Actually it seems kind of tame for him.” Luna huffed, “I mean I love my brother, but he can be incredibly vindictive when he wants to be. He’s not shy about it either.”

“So...since we don’t appear to be flavour of the week at the moment,” Speedster sighed, “How about you come over mine. I have that film you wanted to watch. The Avengers?”

“Sweet!” Luna grinned at her, before pausing, confusion spreading across her features, “Wait, why do you buy DVDs? I thought you couldn’t watch them anymore.”

“I can’t, not without the flickering between frames driving me nuts or giving me a headache.” Speedster shrugged, “But I can still listen to them and I get a good idea of what’s going on from the sounds. Besides, if I have the newest DVDs I have an excuse to invite people round.” She poked her tongue out at Luna who chuckled back.

“Fine, fine.” Luna giggled, “And I can work on my essay at the same time.” She tilted her head at Speedster. “Should we pick up snacks? Or...”

“No, I’ll cook. I’ve got stuff in for lasagne, sweet and sour, tikka or chilli dogs.” Luna grimaced at the last, causing Speedster to grin, “Okay, okay, not chilli dogs.”

“Chilli is fine, chilli dogs yuk.” Luna grouched, “Sweet and sour sounds good, what with?”

“Pasta, rice, stir fry?” Speedster offered, thinking about what she had in the house as they walked, “Would have to pick up some stir fry veg, but I have the noodles and the pork in.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Luna nodded, “We’ll stop by the corner shop on the way to yours and...” By the time she got to ‘and’ Speedster had vanished in a blur of blues and greens. “Twenty, nineteen, eighteen, seventeen,” She started counting down, continuing to walk towards Juliet’s house, partially amused at her friend and her inability to wait for anything, “Six, five, four, three, two...”

Before she could hit one, Speedster had returned carrying a grocery bag, inside of which was a pack of stir fry veg. “Sorry, would have been faster, but the self scan till was so slow.”

“Everything is slow compared to you, Speeds.” Luna waved it off, wondering once again how her friend put up with moving at her pace, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Got bigger things to worry about than a slow till.” Speedster nodded, causing Luna to wince slightly as Juliet’s constantly flickering moods headed back towards frustration and worry. “I’d be happier if I just knew where the damn thing had ended up.”

“Look, I know it’s a problem, I’m not saying it isn’t, but constantly worrying about it isn’t going to help. You can’t do anything about the missing World Sphere until we get a lead and that’s not going to happen until someone does something really stupid.” Luna informed her friend, “So there’s nothing you can do for now.”

“But...”

“I know it’s an unusual concept.” Luna teased, “You waiting for anything, but you don’t have a choice this time I’m afraid.”

“Waiting is a bad plan.” Speedster grouched, “I’d rather do something about it now, before we run the risk of being revealed to the whole world.”

“Speeds, I have a question.” Luna sighed, “When you shoot off and do things like buy your shopping at the sort of speed you do, or do your rounds at top speed, do you really think that no one pays attention?”

“No one’s ever said something.” Speedster frowned, confused about what she was getting at.

“No one would, unless they get really curious.” Luna sighed, “But every time you do something like that, or one of the others uses their powers around normal people we run the risk of discovery.”

“So what? We’re just getting away with it?” Speedster asked, confused. “I mean surely if we’ve been noticed there would have been consequences by now. I mean it’s been almost a year.”

“People ignore the weird if it makes their life easier.” Luna chuckled at her, “As long as we’re not doing anything to impact on their lives negatively they really won’t care what we get up to. Hell the people whose houses are on your route are probably just happy to get their mail before midday.”

“People are weird.” Speedster looked confused at that. She had honestly expected a bigger reaction from the normal people of the city. Knowing that the Club had been ‘outed’ for probably as long as they had had powers and yet not a single member of the public had said anything to them disturbed her slightly. She had expected shouting, riots, lynch mobs. Not ‘oh well, as long as it stays away from us who cares?’

“That hasn’t changed since long before we Fused.” Luna grinned at her, “People have been weird for a lot longer than that. We’re just so weird we actually notice now.”

“Heh. I suppose.” Speedster chuckled slightly, before a wicked smirk crossed her features, “Fine, you know what?” She scooped Luna up bridal style, “Hang on. I want to show you something.”

With that she shot off, careful to keep her speed down enough to not be too fast for Luna to cope, but fast enough that she was one with the wind, dodging around cars, vans and pedestrians as she shot across the country.

“Speeds?” Luna asked, confusion obvious as Juliet slowed down, breaking slowly instead of her usual complete stop and slide, going gently for Luna’s sake.

“Wait right here.” Speeds grinned at her before shooting off.

Luna looked around, confusion coursing through her as she realised that Speedster had brought her to a small clearing in a forest in the middle of nowhere. In the trees above her there was a small wooden building which was joined to another one by a walkway that looked like it was almost rotten through.

A rope ladder, relatively fresh in comparison to the rest of the building work, hung down from the builidng’s balcony. Unable to resist the pull of her curiosity, Luna clambered up the rope ladder to find that the tree houses looked like someone had been working on them recently.

“So this is what she’s been up to when we haven’t been able to find her.” Luna realised as she brushed her hand against the recently replaced railing. 

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.

NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 3

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.”