NaNo2014: Shadow of Friendship: Part 15 & 16

The moment she hit the floor, the ponies surrounding her erupted in panic. Applejack, seeing the danger from their hooves, barged her way through the crowd with her brother’s help to the side of the unconscious unicorn who had protected them all.

“Let me dear.” Rarity, who looked paler than usual, said as she levitated Twilight onto Big Mac’s back as Spike clambered onto Applejack’s. “We really should get her somewhere safe.”

“The library’s close.” Spike spoke up for the first time since Nightmare Moon had appeared, biting his lower lip as he watched his unconscious pseudo-mother. “All our stuff is there.”

“Then tha’ where we’ll go. Can yer carrier ‘er that far?” Applejack asked, turning to her brother who nodded.

“E’yup.” Big Mac, a huge red earth pony stallion with a short orange mane and tail and a single green apple for a cutie mark, was not too concerned about the weight on his back considering how much he hauled around on a daily basis for the farm.

“But how’re we gonna get through the crowd?” Rarity asked, deciding to come with them since it was clear she was no longer needed here and they would need her help to lift the other unicorn back down again.

“Everyone quiet!” The mayor bellowed over the noise of the panicked chatter and stomping hooves, “Please, settle down!” When that did not work she gestured to the only ponies who were not panicking, which, surprisingly to them all included Fluttershy, who had been settling her birds and trying not to think about what had happened too hard. “Take the back entrance and when she wakes up, tell her thank you and I’d like to speak with her.”

“We will.” Applejack tipped her hat to the mayor, “Thanks to yer too.”

The small group of ponies bolted out of the hall and down towards the tree that the library rested in. Halfway there Rainbow Dash rejoined them, looking irritated.

“She got away.” The pale blue pegasus complained as she flew above them, keeping up with the group easily. “She turned into a weird light and vanished into the Everfree Forest.”

“The Everfree Forest?” Rarity yelped. It was not only her features that fear crossed. The Everfree was dangerous. No pony could live there. There were too many dangerous beasts that roamed the dark and creepy forest. If Nightmare Moon had gone there, there was a good chance that they would never be able to find her amongst the twisting branches and boggy paths. That, if they thought about it, was probably what the dark sorceress had been going for when she had challenged Twilight to follow her.

“Never min’ that now.” Applejack said as they reached the library and Spike scrambled to open the door for them. “We can’ do nothing until Princess Twilight wakes up.” Big Mac preceded his sister into the huge hollow tree and Spike swiftly made up a bed of pillows for the unicorn on his back as the others followed him in.

“She didn’t tell us she was a Princess.” Rainbow huffs, “And where’d her wings go?”

“Twilight’s not a Princess.” Spike yawned, having trouble keeping up with everything, having not slept since before dawn the previous day, though he was not sure if it could be counted as another ‘day’ when the sun had yet to rise. “And I’ve never seen her do that before.”

“Her wings were damaged.” Fluttershy spoke, her voice little more than a whisper.

“With ‘er wings as messed up as they were, I don’t think it woulda mattered if she did ‘ave them out normally, Rainbow.” Applejack spoke over the end of Fluttershy’s sentence, having not heard the shy and quiet yellow pegasus.

“Applejack’s right, it might be a choice to hide them, darling.” Rarity spoke up, “I mean if I had wings and they were that badly damaged, I’d probably want to hide them too.”

“No, no!” Spike protested, frustration clear, “You’re not listening to me. Twilight’s a unicorn, not an alicorn! I don’t know how she did that but she’s not normally an Alicorn! She must have learned a spell or something without telling me.” Spike sounded kind of hurt at that, causing the ponies to wince and glance at each other.

“Perhaps she didn’t have time, darling.” Rarity offered as she levitated Twilight down onto the pillow bed. “She was rather busy yesterday.”

“But we share...” Spike paused, considering the golden trinket hanging from the ribbon around Twilight’s neck. Twilight had, as far as he was aware, never studied to become an Alicorn like her teacher and he had helped her with every spell she had learned in the last couple of years. Once he had proved to the unicorn that he could help, she had been more than willing to let him assist wherever possible and with something as complicated as this, he was sure that his friend would have needed his help multiple times.

However he had heard the tales that Treasure Trove had woven about the powers of the ‘Millennium Puzzle,’ the same puzzle that Twilight was wearing as a necklace. There had been horror stories and ghost stories and even the tale of an Alicorn Princess haunting anyone who held it but there was one thing that every story had in common.

The Millennium Puzzle was a powerful, magical artefact that granted its holder one wish and one wish only. The only thing that made any sense to Spike was that it was the Puzzle that had changed his friend, rather than anything that Twilight had done herself.

“Whatever she did, it worked.” Rainbow shrugged, landing for the briefest of moments before taking off again, expressing her nervousness in her inability to stand still for even a few seconds. “So all we got to do is get her to wherever Nightmare Moon is hiding and...”

“I don’t think that’ll work, sugarcube.” Applejack frowned, “They fought to a draw and that, that...”

“Blue creepy?” Pinkie finally piped up, seeming to have lost her tongue for a few minutes but having found it again in fine fashion, “Queen Meany?”

Applejack gave her a look that clearly said ‘seriously?’ and she was not the only one. Then as one they seemed to remember that it was Pinkie Pie talking and ignored it as Applejack turned to Big Mac and asked, “Can you look after the farm for me?” When he gave her a questioning look, the orange filly sighed, “Everyone’s probably headed back there and we could lose the whole crop if the sun doesn’t come back soon, besides you need to look after Applebloom and Granny Smith.”

The huge stallion did not look happy, but he nuzzled his sister and nodded, “You come back safe, okay sis?” He asked, his speech slow and clearly carefully thought out, belying the smarts hidden away in his brain.

“I will. Promise.” The earth pony promised her brother with a smile, “Dun worry ‘bout me. I’m tough as old horseshoes. You’re the one that has to herd the family.”

Big Mac actually flinched at that. He still had no idea how his sister managed like she did when the Apple horde descended onto Sweet Apple Acres, but she had done rather well so far, he just half expected the entire rest of the horde to try and follow his sister in to the Everfree if she went with the Princess to try and defeat Nightmare Moon.

“Spike?” The baby dragon forgot all about the conversation at the soft call. He wheeled around to look at the unicorn who had hatched him. She was blinking around at the gathered group and their surroundings like she could not work out how they had gotten there or why the others were present.

“Twilight!” Spike darted over and hugged the unicorn, who froze for a moment, startled and then rested her head on his shoulder. She could feel him trembling against her, his scales itching slightly as he clung tightly, “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“It’s alright Spike,” Twilight murmured, trying to ignore how the others were staring at them, “It’ll be okay. How did we get back here?”

“You passed out, darling.” Rarity informed her, coming over cautiously, “So Applejack’s brother carried you here.”

“E’yup.” Big Mac agreed, nodding and bowing, reminding the other ponies to bow to.

“Wh...why are you bowing to me? All I did was cast a shield spell.” Twilight asked, confused as the fillies followed the stallion’s lead. “Please, get up.”

“You were an Alicorn.” Spike told her, his voice trembling as badly as the rest of him, “I thought you were gunna collapse and then you changed and...”

“I’m not now though.” Twilight frowned as the others, slightly nervously, stood up. She could not remember changing. The last thing she could remember was thinking that she had failed and that she hoped Celestia would forgive her. It might have been something she had done accidently as she had blacked out but she did not know how.

“Are you alright, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, moving to her side. She looked worried, not about her but for her.

“That. Was. Amazing!” Dash interrupted before Twilight could answer, “You totally sent Nightmare Moon packing! She totally ran away with her tail between her legs.”

That was not how the other ponies remembered it and certainly that had not been the case up until the point Twilight could remember, but they were all alive and Rainbow seemed so convinced of her facts that Twilight could not help but want more clarification.

“What happened? After I changed the first time? My memory’s a little hazy, probably because of all the magic I was using.” She questioned, needing more details if she was to understand what had happened and attempt it again if, or rather, as she was half convinced after her last performance against the possessed Night Goddess, when, she needed to.

“It was simply awful, darling.” Rarity complained with an overdramatic swoon, “That horrid wave of magic was nearly through your shield and you nearly fell, I thought we were all going to...”

Rarity did not need to finish her sentence. Twilight had thought something similar as she had slipped into unconsciousness, unable to maintain the level of magic she had weaved into the shield against the tide that had been pushing against not only her magic but her mind and something deeper, some core part of her that she did not understand.

“Yeah, but you got back up and changed in a burst of gold light.” Rainbow Dash picked up where Rarity had left off. “Then you totally sent Nightmare Moon running. She didn’t know where to turn once your shield just soaked up her attack and she ran away to the Everfree Forest.”

Twilight had heard of the Everfree on the edge of Equestria. The two Princesses had once ruled from a castle in the middle of it called the Castle of the Two Sisters. She had not ever expected to have to enter it however. “Spike, has Princess Celestia sent a letter?”

The baby dragon shook his head, looking worried. “I haven’t had any letters to or from the palace since you sent yours, Twilight.”

That was not good news. She just hoped it was because her brother had yet to find out that something had gone wrong rather than because Nightmare Moon had gone to the palace in Canterlot first. “All right, can you send a letter to my brother for me?” She asked Spike, “Then I need to find out more about the castle in the Everfree, because I bet that’s where she’s going.”

“She did say she was going to the ‘heart’ of her old Kingdom.” Applejack remembered, “Can we help?”

“You...want to help?” Twilight was actually surprised. No one except Spike had ever offered to help her when she was on a research kick before. Not for years anyway once they had realised how much work was going to be involved. Maybe that was why she had offered, because she thought it was going to be easy.

“Why not?” Applejack asked as Pinkie Pie started bouncing around the room, searching for books on the Everfree Forest or the Elements of Harmony. It’ll all help and I’ve never shied away from a bit of hard work.”

“I hate reading.” Rainbow Dash grumbled as she started looking through the books that Pinkie had pulled off of the shelves.

Twilight smiled and let out an amused huff at that. She had heard the grumbling before. She seemed to be the only one who enjoyed trawling through books for hours to look for information. “Spike? You ready?” The baby dragon nodded and lifted quill to parchment. “Okay, dear Shining Armour.” Spike started scribbling it down as the ears of the other ponies perked up to listen to her words, hoping to hear something more about the situation, “I don’t know where Princess Celestia is or what happened, but Nightmare Moon is free. I fought her, apparently to a standstill but I don’t remember it. I’ve completed my Millennium Puzzle and that apparently comes with a title. As ‘Guardian of the Shadows’ I think it’s my job to go into the Everfree Forest after her and try and stop whatever she has planned so that’s what I’m going to do once I have a location. I don’t know what to suggest, I haven’t had time to sit and think of a plan, but then you were always better at that than me.” She sighed, “See you when this is all over. I’ll be at the Castle of the Two Sisters…one way or another. Your loving sister, Twilight Sparkle.” Spike finished it with a flourish, refusing to look at Twilight until it was sealed with her little insignia and sent in a puff of green flame.

“Twilight…” Spike hesitated before darting over and hugging her leg, “Don’t go?” He pleaded, “Please? You don’t know if you can do that again and…”He trailed off, still clinging to her leg.

“I have to Spike.” Twilight sighed, hugging him with her other hoof, “There isn’t anyone else. The Princess is counting on me.”

“You’re not alone, sugar.” Applejack promised, “I’m coming with you.”

“Yeah, me too.” Rainbow Dash nodded, “She messed with Ponyville and that’s not cool.”

“This eternal night will do nothing for my complexion darling.” Rarity added, “I’m in.”

“And the widdle-animals will get all upset if the day doesn’t come back.” Fluttershy piped up. “So count me in too.”

“The Everfree’s all kind of weird and creepy.” Pinkie Pie piped up, “It’s really exciting! Let me come too!”

“I…” Twilight paused. She was going to say no, going to tell them that it was a bad idea and they should not go with her. However there was one thing that was stopping her and that was Unity. She needed the other ponies, they had saved her from getting trampled and even if she was not sure they were her friends yet, they did, at least want to help.

If she was honest with herself she was going to need all the help she could get. She did not know how she had survived her last fight, she did not know if she would again without a little assistance. “Thank you.” She settled on finally, smiling at the others.

“You’re welcome sugar cube.” Applejack smiled back as Spike let go, feeling a little reassured as long as he knew that Twilight was not going to go alone.

“Hey, hey,” Pinkie skidded a book over to Twilight, an old text called, ‘The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide’ with a great big, bright, grin, “Will this help?”

“Yes!” Twilight practically pounced on it, flicking through the pages rapidly, searching through for something, anything that would make their search for the Elements easier or give them a more direct route to the castle. She did not like to admit it but as the others dove into whatever books they could find that might have useful information, she felt more like going back to sleep than going out into the Everfree.

That was not really an option though. Not with Nightmare Moon out there and waiting for her. If she did not go to the possessed alicorn, then she would come here, to her and the citizens of Ponyville could get hurt. She could not let that happen. She did not know why or how the alicorn, who was thousands of years old, recognised her but apparently she did and she hated her. There was no way, after that little display in the town hall that Nightmare Moon would let her just walk away and let her brother and his guards handle this.

NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 24

They made a brief stopover at a supermarket that sold clothes just to let Tails pick up something that wasn’t dirty, weeks old and ruined. Then it was back to Speedster’s house, where Speedster cleaned herself up and left Tails to do the same. When the younger girl came back downstairs, her long hair in damp pigtails, Speedster informed the pair of them that as long as they didn’t wreck the joint they should feel at home, leant Tails her old laptop to play around on and look stuff up and proceeded to crash out on the sofa.

“I wouldn’t worry,” The girl who Speedster had insisted was called Tails, or Miles if Luna wanted to tease her, commented as she glanced at the young woman who was sprawled on the sofa, out like a light, and then went back to fiddling with the internet on the laptop, taking to it like an pro, “Sonic always used to crash after he transformed. Speedster’s probably the same.”

“Transformed?” Luna asked, settling on the nearest chair to the girl, who had sprawled on the floor, realising that this was the perfect opportunity to actually learn about one of the Worlds their Fusions had come from.

“Yeah.” Tails nodded, looking confused for a moment as she looked at something on screen then surfed away from the page she was on, “I don’t think Wikipedia’s a reliable way to gather information. It doesn’t seem to have any firm sources and I swear this page changed when I refreshed it.” She commented aloud, causing Luna to smile slightly.

“Our lecturers don’t think so either.” Luna chuckled, “It can be edited by anyone, you see, even if they’re wrong, so you can’t trust it.” She looked curious, “How did you find Wikipedia?”

Tails frowned slightly, “We had computers and search engines in our world, it’s not hard to translate it to here.”

“You do?” Luna looked surprised for a moment, then looked sheepish, “Sorry, Speeds told me you didn’t remember anything from before, so I thought...”

“Nothing from here.” Tails corrected, “At least nothing but the basics. But I remember our world,” She gestured to herself and Speedster, “Perfectly.”

“This is Speedster’s world.” Luna pointed out, “She was born and raised here.”

“I...” Tails trailed off, not wanting to get drawn into a discussion about it, “You wanted to know about Sonic’s Super form?” She asked Luna, glancing up again for a moment.

“Speedster’s,” Luna corrected her, “But yes.”

“Same difference.” Tails shrugged, before something occurred to her and she smiled for the first time, “Is there a screwdriver around?”

“Why?” Luna asked, confused.

“Because I can probably make this run faster if I clean this out and check the connections.” She gestured to the laptop.

“You don’t even know how it works.” Luna pointed out, even as she hunted for the tiny screwdrivers Juliet kept in the drawers, deciding to let Speedster deal with the problem when she woke up.

“I’m good with tech.” Tails replied, already shutting down the system when Luna came back with the items, “I have been since I was a kit. It’s almost instinctual now. Thank you.” She took the screwdriver kit and started dismantling the laptop, “How much do you know about Sonic?”

“That’s the name of Juliet’s Fusion. He’s a blue, supersonic hedgehog.” Luna listed off, “And he comes from Mobius.”

“That’s it?” Tails asked, looking a little hurt, “Nothing else? No friends or anything?”

“She was worried about a little brother when she first Fused, before the memories were absorbed properly,” Luna nodded, “That’s you?”

“That’s me.” Tails confirmed, “My big brother, I guess I should say my big sister now, was super fast before I even met him but I found out why during a huge fight with Doctor... With the guy you guys call Sawyer. Both my big sister and the Doctor were caught up in an explosion of Chaos energy during a lab experiment on the Chaos Emeralds... do you even know what those are?” She asked, glancing at the sofa when Speedster groaned quietly and pulled a cushion over her head and smiling softly.

“Speedster explained about them once, saying she was glad they didn’t exist here.” Luna nodded, keeping her voice down, “They’re seven gems with insanely dangerous magical powers, like end the world dangerous, and they should never be allowed to fall into the hands of bad guys.” Luna paused and face palmed, “They were experimenting on those?”

“The Doc was, my big sister was helping.” Tails nodded, “The Doc absorbed the negative Chaos, Son...Speedster the positive. It’s why she can...could change into her Super form. I’m not quite sure why she still has one here though.” Tails looked more confused at that then she did as she opened up the laptop and started fiddling around.

“When we Fused,” Luna started explaining, “Our bodies changed to better suit the Fusions we were gaining. The Chaos energy probably carried over.”

“That works.” Tails allowed.

“So that’s what the gold glow and the spines were about?” Luna asked, “The positive Chaos energy expressing itself?”

“Yes and no.” Tails pulled a face that Luna just knew meant she wasn’t going to like what she heard.

“What?” Luna asked warily.

“So...Speedster and I’m going to keep doing that until I get used to this,” Tails complained, “Only ever changes like that when she’s got all the Chaos Emeralds or completely loses it. If she changes because of the Emeralds it’s not normally too bad, she can normally keep tabs on what she’s doing. But if she changes because she’s lost it...” Tails trailed off, but the wince informed Luna that the results weren’t good.

“How bad?” She couldn’t help but ask.

“She’s never killed anyone.” Tails defended her sister, “Come close a couple of times, but never actually killed anyone. Lots of property damage though, and she can be careless about people who are in the way when she’s in Super form.” The girl sighed, “I wish I had my tools.” She complained as she examined the circuit board, “My suggestion? If she’s glowing like that and you’re in the way? Get away as soon as possible. There’s only one person who’s safe from her when she’s like that and that’s me.”

“Speedster and I have been friends for years, she wouldn’t...”

“I wouldn’t suggest trying that theory out.” Tails interrupted, despite Luna’s certainty, “She might not mean to, and she’s always sorry after, she sulks and kicks herself for weeks, but she can’t control it. That form’s like a weapon, it’s got to be fired at something or someone once loaded. The best way to deal is to get out of the way and stay there. Trust me on that.”

“What causes it to wear off?” Luna asked, “She’d reverted to her normal form when I reached her on the roof, is there a way to force that change?”

Tails paused, tapping the screwdriver she was using against her chin as she thought, “Not sure. I know she can only maintain it for a limited time before she exhausts herself and has to revert. I know I can talk her down sometimes too. I’ve never really thought about it. She doesn’t do it often and most people just get the hell out of the way now.”

“I’ll have to let the others know.” Luna murmured thoughtfully, “Not all of us Fused with heroes. The Villain Fused need to be warned not to aggro Speeds.”

“Probably smart.” Tails agreed, mostly hoping that they wouldn’t have to deal with anyone else’s insane plans.

“Don’t tell them I turn into a psycho loony.” Speedster grumbled from beneath her cushion, making both Luna and Tails jump, having thought she was asleep, “I’ll manage fine as long as you two stay out of harm’s way.”

“Speeds?” Luna asked.

“Despite everything Sawyer did, I managed to keep my temper right up until you got hurt,” Speedster peeked out at Tails from beneath her cushion, not quite emerging yet, “So I figure I can probably keep on top of this thing as long as you two are okay.”

“But I’m not...”

“Tails is my sibling.” Speedster’s gaze turned to Luna, “You’re my best friend. I’m going to care if you two get hurt and if you dare say I shouldn’t, I’m going to come over there and, and...” She trailed off, “Something I’ll think of when my brain doesn’t feel like mush. Overcooked mush.”

Tails looked like she wanted to say something, a confused, hurt and slightly angry look on her features, but she let it slide, well aware Speedster wasn’t entirely coherent right now. Especially when Speedster rolled off of the sofa, pushed herself to her feet, staggered slightly and then headed for the stairs. “Now, if you two are going to talk, I’m heading to bed for a nap. Please don’t kill each other.” With that she vanished upstairs.

“Oops.” Luna looked sheepish as she watched Speedster go.

“Yeah. Oops.” Tails murmured, trying to feel like she hadn’t been kicked. She had to remember that this wasn’t her Sonic. Sawyer had gloated as much. The Sonic she knew was Fused with Speedster and Speedster didn’t know her. Not properly. There was enough of Sonic in there to create a reaction when she was hurt or standing up to Super, but there didn’t seem to be enough of one to remind the other girl that in their world, they had been best friends.

Instead Luna, who as far as Tails could see, had no way of keeping up or making herself useful, had taken her spot at Speedster’s side. Of course there was a good chance she was underestimating the other girl. Luna had been brought into the lab by those government guys to help. She obviously had some gifts, Tails just couldn’t see what they were.

Luna, for her part, was feeling just as off about the girl she had been left with in the living room. Speedster had been her first friend in years and she knew it was crazy to be worried, but she just didn’t want anything to happen to her friend.

It didn’t help that in the entire year since the Fusion, Speedster had never changed like she had today. Not until ‘Tails’ had come into her life. Luna didn’t know whether it was something Tails had done, or whether Sawyer had used Tails to push Speedster past breaking point, but the girl was dangerous for her friend.

As, if Speedster was right, was she. The thought wasn’t reassuring, that if she got injured, it might cause the same reaction. However the form was brought on, it was going to be a danger to anyone in the Club who wasn’t her. She was sure Tails was wrong and that it wasn’t just the new girl who would be able to make Speedster stop mid rampage, but she didn’t want to line up the Club members to find out which ones could and which couldn’t. Especially if Tails was right and it was only those who were really important to Speedster who could get between the Super form and its target without getting hurt.  

NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 11

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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