Though she was unsure where she actually was, once she hit the motorway it didn’t take her long to find a city that was far enough away from the complex that she could pause and treat her injury. She wasn’t sure where to go to get it sorted though.
She had no money, no phone, no cash and no way of getting any. Going into a hospital was her most likely option, but she didn’t have a severe bleed, so she could be in the waiting room hours, by which time, they could have caught up with her, and she couldn’t be sure anywhere else would be able to treat it properly.
In the end she stumbled into a pharmacy, giving a false name and scenario as they cleaned the wound, bandaged it tightly to keep pressure on the wound and sent for an ambulance.
She was long gone before the ambulance arrived.
She was long gone before the ambulance arrived.
Trying to work out where to go was a nightmare. Her house wasn’t safe. Her uncle’s place was just as dangerous. Work was out. There was no way she could go to any of her friends. She was alone, had no food, no real clothing bar the torn scrubs, no way of getting more and was in deep trouble.
Skipping countries wasn’t really an option when she couldn’t afford anything over there and had no I.D. and while her replacement debit card had come through the post, that had been at Luna’s house when she had shot off and if she used it now, the government would be able to track her.
Her best bet was to grab her card from Luna’s, shoot up the country, take all her money out in somewhere in the north of Scotland and then shoot back down the country and possibly out of it all together and just use cash.
“Sorry Luna.” She mumbled as she made up her mind that that was the plan, darting down to Chew Magna where Luna’s parents’ house was, only to find the Other Luna and Shade in the middle of a blazing row that seemed to somehow involve her of all things.
“Get out of my way Shade.” The Other Luna was snarling, Shadows swirling around her, drawn by her anger. “I’m going to get my friend back and you can’t stop me.”
“I think, dear sister, I can.” Shade snapped back, his own Shadows roiling around him, “You are not going to walk into some government facility just to get that waste of space back. She’s threatened all of our safety! I’m not letting you risk yourself. Not when I still need your power.”
“You want it so badly?” The Other Luna growled, “Come and...”
“Stop!” Speedster shot between the pair, easily able to see where this was going and not wanting the pair to get into a Shadow Game.
“Juliet!” The Other Luna lost control of the body to the original, the Shadows vanishing in a heartbeat as she darted over and hugged the tired and injured speed freak.
“I’m not staying, Lune.” Speedster admitting, pushing her friend away, looking sheepish as she did so, “I just came for my debit card and a change of clothes.”
“I should Game you on the spot.” Shade snarled at Juliet, causing her to push Luna behind her to protect her, despite the fact that Luna was currently stronger than she was.
“Probably.” She admitted, “But I’m doing everything I can to prevent them coming for you guys too.”
“You’re hurt.” Luna fussed at her, dragging her away from her brother, who seemed to be peeved to say the least at the fact he was suddenly being completely ignored by his sister.
“I’m fine,” Speedster tried to reassure her, “I just need my card and my clothes and I’ll go.”
“You’re not fine, this isn’t fine!” Luna shook her head, gesturing to her leg, “Or this.” Luna’s fingers brushed Juliet’s throat and she let out a startled and pained yelp as she put pressure on bruising she didn’t even know existed. “Sorry.” Luna looked contrite as Juliet gently brought a hand to her sore throat, wondering just how bad she looked.
“It’s okay.” She murmured, “You’re worried. I get it. But I can’t stay here. They’re going to be looking for my friends as it is. Really if I had a say we’d all be getting the hell out of here, everyone in the Club, but it’s not possible. So I’m going to lure them away. It’s safest for everyone.”
“You’re just running to protect yourself.” Shade accused.
“I’m not you, Shade.” Speedster snapped at him, “I don’t leave friends and family in trouble.” She paused, eyes widening for a moment before she glared at him, “And how did you know I was being held by the government?”
Luna blinked for a moment, startled, before turning to her brother. “All we saw on TV was her being taken away in an ambulance.” Luna stared at him, “They put a call out for information at the same time, cause she had no I.D. on her and had only identified herself as Speedster...”
“It wasn’t me.” Shade defended himself, “Spike told Michael he had phoned up, hoping to get some information on how she was. When they started asking too many questions, he put the mobile phone down and chucked it in the river but the damage was already done.” He smirked slightly, “If it had been me, I would have told them she was a serious threat to national security and watched the fallout.”
“You’re an idiot.” Speedster snorted, “But I concede your point. For once. Spike just made a mistake. It happens. Now, can I get changed and get my card please?”
“Come on.” Luna dragged her friend inside to the spare room, “You’re lucky that mum and dad are out. They weren’t happy that you wrecked the living room until I explained that was you on TV. Then they kind of got it. They don’t want you in the house, but they got it.” Luna helped her pack up the remaining unopened Christmas presents as well as the opened ones and the clothes Juliet had brought with her, before slipping out of the door in order to let her get changed.
It didn’t take her long to get dressed properly and finish filling her backpack with the things that were scattered around. “Luna?” She asked as she finished and glanced around.
“Yeah Speeds?” Luna asked as she poked her head in the door.
“I’m sorry about this. About all of this.” Speedster gestured around to the world in general, “I didn’t expect...” She trailed off.
“I know.” Luna reassured her. “If we need to get in contact with you...?”
“Its better you don’t, to be honest.” Speedster told her, “If they think you’re in contact with me, they might make you call me in or something. I’ll phone once I’ve skipped countries, payphones are only traceable while you’re using them after all.”
“This isn’t right.” Luna complained, hugging her best friend tightly, “You haven’t done anything wrong.”
“No. I haven’t.” Speedster agreed, “But I still have to go. Or everyone will get hurt. And I won’t let that happen.”
“Alright.” Luna nodded, hugging her for just a few seconds longer, before letting go. “But what if Sawyer comes back?”
“I don’t know.” Juliet admitted. “I really don’t. I feel like I should stay and fight but it’s obvious I can’t. Maybe I’ll make a day trip to the country.” She teased slightly, trying to lift Luna’s mood slightly. “I hear robot smashing’s a pretty relaxing pastime.”
“Only for the one doing the smashing.” Luna’s glower wasn’t particularly scary and only served to make her look adorable, “For everyone else its heart attack inducing.”
“Lune...” Speedster couldn’t help herself and ended up ruffling her friend’s hair. “It’ll be okay. You’ll be okay. Hell, you can get them to forget about you. Your Other Self has the Shadows, remember?”
“I don’t care about me, I just want them to leave you alone.” Luna complained at her.
“I’m toast.” Speedster shrugged, “You’re not, not yet. Now, I’d better get going before I bring them down here. I’m sure they’ve probably got some way of seeking out my trail.” With that she shot off, heading up country to start with and going into a bank to withdraw as much money as she could possibly take out there before withdrawing even more at the cash machine.
With a decent chunk of cash behind her, she darted back down the country and headed for the Channel Tunnel, figuring it for her best bet to get across the water unnoticed.
It would have been a great plan if she had headed there first, but her joke about Italy and China being nice this time of year had caused the guys in suits to set up a presence everywhere within it.
It worked in her favour, as she shot past them, allowing herself to be seen by no less than seven guards before shooting down the tunnel at high speed and emerging into France.
She transferred about two hundred pounds into Euros at the chunnel’s exchange point, deliberately picking that one to allow the guards on this side to see she intended to stay for a while. Then she was gone again, darting down to Bordeaux before she phoned up anyone.
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