NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 27

“What?” Speedster asked, having not been aware for any of that.

“They took blood and dna samples from all of us, you included.” Luna informed Speedster, “We’ve been taking bets as to what they’re using them for. Currently top theory is super soldier army.”

“You guys are such nerds.” Speedster chuckled, easily able to see the group arguing over such things. “So if we’re all here, why aren’t we out already? There’s no way they should be able to take us if we work as a team.”

“We were waiting for you to come around.” Snap replied, “One less person to worry about and one more butt kicker available. Except you’ve been out longer than the rest of us, like hours and hours longer.”

Speedster sighed and struggled to her feet, wavering for a moment before stumbling over to the door. “Yeah, I got hit by three darts.” She informed them, managing to look up and down the narrow, whitewashed corridor full of identical doors and see a couple of faces. “Also someone’s going to need to break my chains.”

“And this is why super strength is better than super speed.” Mako informed her, her door practically exploding out of its hinges as Mako hit is so hard it went flying across the corridor. “Guys?”

One door changed shape and opened of its own accord, another opened in a burst of purple light, yet another was knocked off one of its hinges and swung forlornly in the corridor.

In moments the other doors had been busted down, restraints broken and Speedster was scouting the base as best she could.

“The doors to this corridor are locked. I did find an office though that probably should have had someone in considering it was linked to security cameras monitoring our cells, but we got lucky and they were just coming back from a bathroom break.” Speedster informed them. “They’re currently in a supply closet.”

“Locked doors aren’t much of an issue.” Mako flexed her muscles, confidence radiating off of her as Luna started flicking through a bunch of cards she had pulled out of a hidden pouch she kept close to her chest, her eyes already shifted from purple to red.

“No, but we don’t know what’s on the other side.” Sparks pointed out. The tall, broad shouldered male with hair in various shades of purple, looked around, a thoughtful expression on his features, “We shouldn’t just break the doors down.”

“I have a question.” Shorty piped up, the Alchemist had a manic expression on his features, a slightly evil smirk that had the others worrying. “Why don’t we just go through the walls? I mean they’re expecting us to go through the doors. I can make holes, Luna’s creatures can make holes, hell I bet Speeds could bust through a thin enough wall if she was going fast enough.”

“Or I’d go splat.” Speedster pointed out, “But I get your drift. Going through the doors when we can go through the walls is a bad idea. And if we get lucky and hit an outside wall, we can just leave.”

“Exactly.” Shorty grinned at her.

“Alright then, this is going to seem daft but pair up.  Each pair is to watch each other’s back. Buddy system, got it?” Speedster asked, looking around. When everyone nodded she found herself with both Luna and Tails waiting to pair with her.

“Okay, no, I can’t pair with both of you.” Speedster shook her head, not wanting the pair to get into a row about it, “So you can pair up with each other, that way I can keep an eye on both of you.” She smirked at the startled and slightly irritated look the two girls shot at each other. “In fact,” She looked around, “Can everyone make sure that they have at least one offensively powered member in their pair?”

Several already prepared pairs split up, changing so that everyone had someone who could back them up.

“Speedster?” Sparks asked, stepping up, “I’ve got magic, but no really offensive spells, so if you’re not taking Luna or Tails...”

“Sure.” Speedster nodded, irritated slightly by having to have someone with her, but knowing it was both right and fair. Even if the person she was partnered with couldn’t keep up. She and Sparks took point, Mako and her partner bringing up the rear.

Speedster scouted ahead, Sparks watching her back as she moved up the corridor ahead of the main pack. While it was Speedster who found the release switch for the electrically locked doors, it was Sparks who saw the movement from one of the side rooms.

“Speedster!” He yelped, purple glow surrounding the man who leapt at them, stopping the attacker in their tracks by floating them in midair.

The speed freak wheeled around, glowering at the startled man. “What do we have here?” She asked, looking him over.

“Ha, hahaha, hahahahahaha.” The captured man started laughing, “You’re all screwed. So screwed.” He managed as the horde caught up, “They’ll pump this area with sleeping drugs in a minute and...” There was a hissing noise, “Hahaha, there it goes.”

“Shit.” Speedster yelped, darting for the electronic switch, only to get a nasty electric shock when she slammed her hand down on it. Mako went the more direct route, smashing down the door, only to find another door beyond it, and another door beyond that in an airlock system.

“Screw it.” Shorty snarled, clapping his hands together before pressing them against the wall, transmuting a doorway that led out into a corridor, only for them to dart into what they thought would be clean air to find more of the same tainted smelling air waiting for them.

“We’re underground!” The guy Sparks had captured cackled, “You won’t get out. Not unless you find the stairs before you all pass out.”

“What’re we in, some kind of bloody dungeon?” Mako grouched, even as Shorty swiftly worked out angles and transmuted his way through walls, trying to find a passage to the surface, and Speedster left Sparks behind to dart around the underground level to find the doors upwards.

The air grew thicker the longer they took, a couple of them trying to get answers from the manically laughing guy. The smaller members of the party collapsed before the bigger, the ones exerting themselves following quickly. Speedster had just found the door marked ‘exit’ when she finally succumbed to the poison in the air.

When she came round, she was back in her cell.

“Damn it.” She hissed, noting the fact her door had been fixed and this time her ankle shackles were attached to the floor. “Everyone okay?” She called.

Not everyone answered to start with, but slowly over the course of the next hour or so everyone role called in.

“So that didn’t work.” Mako sounded surprisingly cheerful considering what had just happened.

“No, no it didn’t.” Sparks spoke up, “So what’s the plan now?”

“We would suggest,” A voice spoke up from speakers embedded in the ceilings of the cells, “That you don’t try anything else funny. You see we have people watching you carefully and should you try to break out enmass again, we’ll just knock you out again.”

“Who are you?” Mako demanded, fuming.

“That’s not important.” The voice replied, “We have a game for you all. A simple game. And if just one of you win, you can all go home free.”

“And if we lose?” The Other Luna was in control now, unsurprising considering they were being challenged to a game.

“You can keep trying, one after another, after another, in the order we choose.” The voice informed them, “But each time you lose, we get to run an experiment on you.”

“I’ll play.” The Other Luna spoke up, “I’ll go first.”

“No.” The voice disagreed, “You won’t.” Speedster heard one of the doors slid open, “Mako will.” There was a pause then, “Oh, and if you try to break your friends out, the game is over, for everyone and the deal is off.”

“I get it, I get it.” Mako grouched, “Guys, I’ll be back for you.”

“Good luck.” The Other Luna spoke up, sounding like she was pacing her cell.

“Thanks.” Mako started down the corridor and vanished out of audio range.

Speedster couldn’t help the half grin, half grimace that appeared on her features when someone started singing the words to ‘Still Alive’ from a popular game. The whole situation felt very ‘Aperture Science’ she had to admit.

“I spy,” She spoke up, lying back against the floor when she had finally had enough of tugging on chains that wouldn’t move, “With my little eye something beginning with S.”

“Seriously Speedster?” Chi complained.

“Why not? It’s not like we have anything else to do for now.” Snap commented, “Is it speaker?”

“Yup.” Speedster nodded, despite the fact the only person who could see her was the people watching the cells through the security cameras. “Your turn.”

“Okay, I spy with my little eye, something beginning with...” Snap trailed off as there was a loud crash and a bunch of men stalked past, carrying something. There was the sound of something hitting the floor hard and a door sliding shut and then the voice spoke up.

“Next.” It called, another door sliding open, “Gold.”

“You know,” He said as one of the men entered his cell and unshackled him, “I’m really beginning to regret giving them our Club names.”

By the time it was Speedster’s turn, she was beginning to seriously wonder if they were ever actually going to let her have a go. The moment she was loose, she shot off, speeding up the corridors until she found the ‘exit’ sign again, breaking through the doors.

She shot up to the next floor, only to find another maze of locked doors and corridors.

“We’re bloody rats in maze!” Speedster hissed, narrowly avoiding a trap, one that had blood on, suggesting one of the others had run afoul of it. Her reaction times saving her where others would have failed, only for her to run afoul, just shy of the second set of ‘exit’ doors, of a horrible sticky substance that caught her feet the moment they impacted with it, gluing her feet to the floor. A substance her mind insisted was MegaMuck.

“Ewww.” She complained, the MegaMuck making a horrible sucking noise as she managed to pull one foot free, only to fall on her rear and end up glued down completely.

She did, however, get the delight of watching three men in hazmat suits attempt to traverse the MegaMuck coated floor and end up just as bogged down as she was. 

NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 15

Speedster had come to the same realisation as she shot down the motorway, glad for the almost empty roads as she sped across the country at top speed, leaving a trail of scorched asphalt in her wake.

She heard the first sounds of gunfire as she shot down the nearest alleyway to the standoff, the constant hum of a machine gun being drowned out by the sounds of the sound of an artillery cannon. She didn’t stop as she emerged onto the street, instead building enough speed that she managed to create a twister of snow between the two groups that made both sides stop firing.

With nothing to fuel it, it stopped when she did, sending snow flying everywhere as she stopped in front of the man who looked like he was in charge of the military forces. “Hi.”

“Who the hell are you?” He demanded, anger obvious, “And get the hell out of our way.”

“They call me Speedster.” She replied, “And I think I can save them.” She gestured to the army of robosuits before her.

“You want to save the robots?” The man’s eyes gave away movement behind her and she shot up a lamp post, smirking slightly at the look on the face of the guy who had tried to grab her.

“No,” She corrected as if talking to small child, “I want to save the people inside them. Unless you want to be known as the Major who ordered the Christmas Massacre?”

“They opened fire first.” The Major pointed out.

“They had no choice.” Speedster retorted, “And you sound like you’re three. ‘He started it!’ Honestly.” She rolled her eyes, “Grow up and think.”

“Like we should listen to you, you think you’re a superhero.” The Major spat. “Go home. We don’t have time to humour your dressup games.”

“Give me half an hour.” Speedster tried to bargain, “Half an hour to get in, break the control console and ruin Sawyer’s plans. If I succeed, you won’t have to kill anyone. If I fail, you won’t have lost any men trying to get in.”

“You expect me to order my men to do nothing but sit on their thumbs and accept being under fire for half an hour?” The major looked disgusted.

“No.” Speedster admitted, “But if you actually look, you can see the difference between the robosuits and the normal robots, hell, on my way in I can tag a few in the front so you know which ones are fine to destroy without killing anyone inside. Just let me try and save them.”

“I can’t order my men to just get shot at for half an hour.” The major pointed out. “We have to fight back.”

“Fine. Whatever. I’m going in anyway.” Speedster snapped at him, “Just remember if the robosuits suddenly stop firing at you, stop firing at them. They’re not responsible for their actions and I’m damn well going to make sure Sawyer can’t control them anymore.”

With that she shot into the crowd of robots, doing as she had said she would and tagging the robots without people inside by using them to bounce amongst the crowd and into the warehouse complex.

She landed in front of the doors to the warehouse, mentally wincing as the sounds of gunfire restarted, only to shift to the side as the doors opened and a group of robots stomped out, led by a robosuit. She slipped in behind them before the doors could slam shut.

The corridor was dark, all the lights unlit except for the blinking red lights of security cameras and it took her eyes a moment to adjust, giving the robots in the corridor a chance to whine to life and open fire. Speedster moved on instinct, narrowly avoiding becoming swiss cheese as her Fusion’s reaction times saved her life.

She smashed her way through the robots, leaving a trail of metal and wreckage behind her. She would have worked her way through the rooms systematically but that same instinct that had saved her life drew her onwards, into the central hub of the building which was surprisingly empty considering the horde outside.

She glanced around, taking in the machines used to equip people with the robosuits, the teaching area for retraining people in how to walk once they had been treated and two small groups of robots and noting the lack of robosuits, suggesting that they were all outside, protecting the warehouse by being human shields and walking, unwilling, weapons.

“Who are you?” She jumped slightly and wheeled around to face the speaker, who was on the gantry above her. She glowered up at the huge, fat, egg shaped man with the ridiculous moustache as he continued, “And how the hell did you manage to wreck my robots without any weapons?”

“How do you think?” Speedster smirked at him before glancing around again, looking for a control panel and figuring it was probably in the office behind him, “Who do you think had the World Sphere before you? You’re not the only one who can got a power up you know.”

“World Sphere?” Sawyer asked, “Is that what it’s called?”

“Look,” Speedster interrupted, “We could do this all day. I could explain things, you could then ask more questions and we’d be back and forth till the cows come home, but I don’t got time for that. So how about we skip the chatting and you tell me how to switch off your control thingy and I prevent a massacre? Because seriously, your human shields aren’t going to be there much longer if you don’t turn off that damn machine.”

“Well I can tell who you’re not Fused with.” Sawyer smirked, “You don’t banter anywhere near enough to be Fused with a certain pest.”

“I figure I’m the upgrade.” She snorted, “Version 2.0, now with more kicking your ass and less pointless posturing.”

That made him chuckle, not that she got to see it as something nearly blindsided her and she only just avoided the metal arm swinging at her out of nowhere. She skidded across the floor, finding breaking difficult on the smooth surface, and got drawn into a brawl with the nearest group of robots, leaving a pile of wreckage strewn across the floor.

Then the robosuit that had attacked her from the shadows was on her again, forcing her to dodge repeatedly as she refused point blank to injure the poor person inside.

“Bloody hell, Doc.” She complained as she narrowly avoided a third and fourth swing, “This thing’s almost as fast as me.” She ran circles around it, recognising it as she did so as the robosuit containing Dr. J. Styler, and shot up the stairs behind it, bringing herself face to face with the wanna be tyrant. “Not. Now, control panel. Where is it?”

Sawyer took a swing at her himself, one which she dodged so easily that it was almost a joke.

“Okay,” She shrugged, “Don’t tell me. I bet it’s in here.” She darted around the fat man and into the office he had been stood in front of, wincing at the computer screens in front of her as she stopped to look around.

With no clue of how the computer she was working on actually functioned, she couldn’t help but wish she had brought Luna or Mako with her as she tried to work out how to shut down the control signal. She tried everything obvious she could think of and was just moving to try the much less subtle variant of stopping the computer when she was seized by the back of the catsuit and chucked across the room.

She slammed into the wall hard and before she could recover, she was pinned against it by a metal coated hand to her throat. She struggled against the robosuited Doctor’s grip, gasping in what little breath she could take past the metal digits, as Sawyer entered the room, looking pleased with himself.

“You honestly think that I’d have placed my control signal hub somewhere this obvious?” He asked the struggling girl, who could barely hear him over the roaring in her ears. “You disappoint me.”

“Screw. You.” She gasped out, trying a moment longer to pull the hand away from her throat before her eyes rolled back in her head, closed and she went limp in his grasp.

The moment she did so, the robosuit released its grip and she collapsed forward for a moment, before opening her eyes and ducking underneath the bot’s attempts to grab her, practically dancing out of his range. “Nice...try...” She smirked at him as she caught her breath.

“There’s still some faults.” Sawyer admitted, eyeing up the robosuit as he did so. “But nothing that won’t be worked out with time.”

“I don’t...plan on giving you any.” Speedster informed him before practically vanishing on the spot and attacking him, sending him tumbling into his computer system. The electronics started sparking dangerously as he pulled himself out of the smoking console.

“You little...” He trailed off as she smacked him back into it.

“Where’s the control hub?” She demanded, glowering at him, narrowly dodging the robosuit as she did so.

“Why would I tell you?” Sawyer asked, looking pleased with himself for some odd reason as he glanced at the damaged computer screen and reached for a switch.

“Because I’m going to keep kicking your butt if you don’t?” She asked, “And why are you so happy?”

“It’s on the roof, if you have to know.” He answered her, still smirking, “Not that it matters.”

“Why?” She asked warily.

“Because goodbye, that’s why.” He replied as he flipped the switch.

“Wha...ack!” Speedster yelped as the floor vanished underneath her and she tumbled to the floor below. She landed safely but the trapdoor closed behind her, leaving her stuck in a fenced off area of the ground floor that was made up of floor to ceiling metal fencing. Expecting to be able to crash through it easily, she went from zero to sixty in point two seconds, only to get a powerful electric shock that sent her crashing to the ground the moment the fencing fell.

Trembling with the side effects of the jolt, she pulled herself to her feet and looked up at the control room just in time to see something escaping through a newly opened hole in the roof.

“S...Shit.” She stammered, shooting up the stairs and bouncing off of the railing and the wall to get through the hole in time to find that the robosuit containing Dr. Styler was trying to move the control signal hub. “D...Don’t even think about i...it.” She managed, glowering at the pair.

“You? Again?”  Sawyer grumbled, examining her like she was a puzzle. “You’re human, that should have kept you long enough...”

“N...none of us are completely human anymore, S...Sawyer.” Speedster pointed out, pushing her tired and aching body into a strike on the robosuit, causing it to lose its grip on the control hub which went flying off of the roof and crashed to the floor, breaking into multiple pieces and causing the signal to cut off. “H...HA...argh!”

 Speedster’s triumphant crow as the robosuits stopped firing and starting panicking or freaking out or just standing still and the robots collapsed, was cut off as Sawyer drove his floating vehicle into her and she went crashing off of the roof herself, hitting the asphalt car park floor hard.

The last thing she saw before she blacked out was Sawyer getting away in his hovercar, despite Doctor Styler’s best attempts to stop him.

Sneak Peak: Relic Song Chapter 4

Seto was understandably wary when he stepped out of his helicopter and onto the grounds of Duellist Kingdom. The last time he had been here had not been a pleasant experience and when his little brother had informed him that this was a trap, he hadn’t been surprised. The who had been a shock, but not the trap itself.

Having already phoned his teacher in Shadow Magic, he already knew the Millennium Rod was useless if the enemy activated their own spells. However he felt better knowing that his Millennium item was at his side, if only because it meant he knew where it was and that it wouldn’t be turned against him.

Mokuba followed him without a word as he entered the castle. The younger Kaiba brother wasn’t convinced that coming was a good idea. Even with the powers of a Millennium item on their side and the Pokémon he had borrowed from Cassandra, he wasn’t sure. Still the company was under threat and there was nothing he could or would say or do to prevent his brother walking into this.

‘Pegasus’ was waiting for them in the entrance way, smiling cheerfully with that vindictive hint that only a gamer would pick up on, just as he had when he’d sealed both of their souls away. “Ah, Kaiba-bo...”

“You can drop the act.” Seto glowered at the man before them, “I know you’re not Pegasus. You’re not annoying enough for a start.”

“Really?” The fake Pegasus sounded disappointed, “But I tried so hard to get it just right. Oh well...” With that he took a step back and Mokuba let out a startled yelp as the floor vanished beneath him.

“Mokuba!” Kaiba lunged for his little brother, trying to grab his arm as he fell but missed. The younger Kaiba brother slid down the pipe, cussing hidden passageways as he shot out of the end of the pipe and tumbled onto the floor.