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 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 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.”