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 Secrets: Part 4

They had not really finished the scene to Snap’s satisfaction when the time on the room booking ran out and someone knocked on the door. As Speedster went crashing into one of the mats that had been hidden by the scenery, the props that had been summoned vanished from the room. Luna let out a relieved sigh as the trap that had been holding her vanished into the ether. She rubbed her sour wrists, having struggled against the trap, trying to pull herself free, and then moved over to Speedster’s side.

“Heya,” Luna chuckled as she offered the downed speed freak a hand to her feet, “So that was productive.”

“Productive but painful.” Speedster grouched, wincing as Luna pulled her to her feet. “And I’m sure Hex enjoyed that far too much.” She grouched as she glowered over to where Hex, Spike and Michael were talking rapidly and with great big grins on their faces.

“I think I have almost everything I need.” Snap spoke up as the door opened from the outside and another student poked their head in to check if they could use the room yet. “I just need to film the end of that scene and edit it together with the footage I’ve got, how’s tomorrow evening for everyone? About eightish?”

Everyone got changed as quickly as possible, confirming that eight o’clock the following evening was fine with them and the group split up. Luna and Speedster both headed for town, the two girls wanting to get some shopping in before Speedster dragged Luna to her martial arts class. The latter of the two girls wasn’t keen on fighting, but her Other Self had been interested in learning how to defend herself after a pair of goons had tried to jump her and she had had to resort to Challenging the pair to escape unharmed.

Speedster didn’t mind. It would be nice to have one of her friends from the Club go with her. She had started learning a long time before she had gained her powers and she could no longer go full speed against others from her martial arts classes, but the sensei was teaching her new things all the time and it was an interesting experiment to learn all of his teachings at a ‘normal’ pace and then experiment with them at her full speed. It meant she was getting physically stronger and the momentum she could put behind her blows when she was speeding, meant that there was a lot more force behind them than just her muscles.

Not that she could test it against Luna of all people for two reasons. ‘A,’ because Luna was a white belt, untrained except in the very basics and ‘B,’ because without using her powers to set up magic and traps against her, it wouldn’t have been a fair fight.  But still, just having another Club member to hang around with during the breaks and walk to and from the training sessions with.

“So, who have you got left to buy for?” Speedster asked as she followed Luna down the stairs and out the exit, trying to ignore the fact that going at a normal, human, pace was driving her a bit nuts. Everything seemed so painfully slow in comparison to her usual pace. Still Luna wasn’t anywhere near as fast as her, in fact she was rather out of condition even in comparison to some of the other martial arts students, so she was keeping to her friend’s pace.

“Mikey, Snap, Mako and you.” Luna explained, ticking it off on her fingers as she did so, “Mikey’s really easy, there’s a new structure deck out that’s just down his alley. Snap wanted a new camera case and I know where to get a really nice one. Mako’s already shown me something she’s thinking about getting after Christmas that’s well within my budget. It’s just you.” She glanced at her friend, who looked thoughtful, “You still haven’t given any indication of what you want.”

“I...don’t know.” Speedster admitted, wishing she was as up to date with her Christmas shopping as her friend was. “I don’t think I’ve really paid enough attention to... what?” She asked as Luna started giggling at her.

“You’re hopeless.” Luna continued to giggle at her, “You haven’t really given any thought to this at all have you?”

“I thought about everyone else’s presents.” Speedster protested, “I just...” She sighed, “I don’t really stop long enough to watch films unless I’m tired enough to collapse. I can’t play video games any more, the screen flickering drives me nuts. I only read books last thing at night and music’s about the only thing bar clothes I really buy now.”

“Screen flickering?” Luna questioned.

“Yeah, you know, between frames? While it’s rendering?” Speedster complained, “It’s really annoying.”

“I’ve never seen the...” Luna trailed off and looked thoughtful, “So books or music. Got a favourite type?”

“Rock or heavy metal.” Speedster grinned at her, “I pay both on my guitar and all the other music I used to listen too is so slowly paced it drives me a little crazy. And I favour fantasy or action books.”

“Right.” Luna made a mental note, “Of course you’re going to have to shoo while I buy yours but...” Speedster just shrugged, “You can buy mine at the same time. Have you brought the Club joint gift yet?”

“No.” Juliet shook her head, looking sheepish. “I keep meaning to but things keep coming up. It’s not like I really know what to get them anymore. Last year...well you remember last year.” Luna nodded, a small frown creasing her features. Last year she had let someone else by the joint present since her final major project meant she hadn’t had the time to go and explore the shops and find something suitable. The person she had sent in her stead had been the one who had found the two sets of World Spheres and distributed them to the club.

A little bit of laziness on her part had changed everyone’s lives. She didn’t want to make a similar mistake this year too.

“You do realise the odds of anything like that happening again are slim to none, right?” Luna asked, amused despite herself.

“You do realise that with the trouble magnets we have Fused into our group, the odds of something insane happening multiply by so much that something happening is practically a guarantee at this point?” Speedster shot back, “With our luck the person I sent would find the Items or the Emeralds.”

Luna had to admit that Juliet had a point. The problem with the heroes that some of the group had fused with was that if anything weird could happen, there were good odds of it happening to them. Since there was a large concentration of them in the Club it would have been a sucker bet that something would go wrong.

“I was thinking about just getting gift vouchers or something.” Speedster admitted, “For Amazon or the like that way people can get what they want. Either that or something pretty and shiny for people’s Christmas trees.”

“All the Christmas stuff on the shelves around here are pretty tacky.” Luna warned with a grimace, “I’ve had a look myself ‘cause I need to replace some of my baubles. You’d be better off going somewhere with a year round Christmas shop. I know Bath has a good one.”

“And it wouldn’t take me long to get down there.” Juliet considered, “That could work. So it’s just my personal presents to get today. So you, Snap, Mako, Mum, Dad and Cordi.”

“Cordi?” Luna couldn’t help her surprise, “You’re talking to Cordelia again?”

“She may be an immature brat and a pain in my rear, but she is my little sister.” Juliet shrugged, “So yeah, I have to talk to her at Christmas, we’ll both be back at our parents’ house after all.”

Luna nodded in understanding even as she thought about what she needed to get and what planned out the best route to get around town. Considering the city centre was packed with holiday shoppers, they had to shop smart if they expected to get anywhere. As it was, even with Luna’s planning it took them hours to get everything they needed and as they settled in a cafe to have a hot drink and get out of the snow, Speedster was seriously considering just getting the hell out of town. Perhaps running down to Bath to pick up the Club gifts but nothing else.

Luna, however, had other ideas. “We need to go to one last place.” She informed a groaning Speedster was wanted nothing more than for the shopping trip to be over. “And I know neither of us are going to enjoy it, but I don’t think either of us have anything to wear to the Club Christmas party.”

That was an unfortunate truth. The last time Speedster had worn her ‘nice’ dress, it had been to the last Christmas party and she had lost weight over the course of the year. All the clothes that had fitted her this time last year were now two sizes too big.

“Do we have to do this today?” Speedster groaned. The queues were too slow, the shops too packed and town in general too crowded.

“Party’s Sunday.” Luna reminded her, “I have class till seven tomorrow and Snap has us booked in the rest of the week for recording.”  

“Damn it.” Was a tamer version of what Speedster wanted to say, but considering the small children sat at the next table over, she had to tone it down to avoid getting the evil eye from the kids’ mothers. Both of whom were ignoring the antics of their little ‘angels’ and talking about some soap or another that was popular on TV recently.

It took them a while to find the right dresses, ones that looked good but didn’t restrict movement too much or were too short or the like, and it wasn’t until Speedster went into her handbag to get her purse out that she realised that there were things missing. Her purse for one was gone, forcing her to put the dress back on the shelf for the time being as she and Luna backtracked through the changing rooms, around the shop and back to the coffee shop, along with the envelope with the money for the Club Christmas presents in and worse, the jewellery box containing her World Sphere was missing too.

It was the last that had Speedster in the biggest tizzy. Though she knew logically that it had probably been taken from her bag because it looked like it should be jewellery and hence worth a decent chunk of money, she couldn’t help but panic over what could happen. No one had dared hand a World Sphere to anyone outside the Club so no one knew if their power to Fuse people with others from another world still existed.

If her World Sphere still had that power, it was possible that it could Fuse the thief, or whoever else handled it. And then there would be a Fusion out there with no support network, no idea that there was anyone else out there to help them and no way for them to get in contact with the Club if they needed help.

That there would be no way to keep tabs on them either was just the icing on the cake.

It didn’t matter how carefully the pair of them searched, there was no sign of any of the missing items and Speedster had no choice but to go to the bank to block her debit card before going to the police to report the theft.

It grated on her nerves. If she had known who had taken her stuff and when she could have gone and gotten her stuff back herself and she wouldn’t be worrying about the World Sphere’s whereabouts or how she was going to afford the Club presents this year. With her abilities it would have been easy. Instead she was left kicking at the ground and praying that nothing bad happened because of a few moments where she hadn’t been paying attention.