Luna was relieved to hear from her, having worried about her from the moment she had left the house. Luna promised to pass on messages to the Club for her before Speedster put the phone down and shot off again. She would have talked to the others herself, but all her numbers had been on her mobile phone and that had been at Luna’s house.
Speedster paused as it struck her that while she had left her mobile behind deliberately, she had left it in the in bin outside Luna’s house in Chew Magna.
“Shit.” She muttered as she darted for another pay phone, needing to tell her friend to get the phone as far away as possible or chuck it in the lake. She swiftly dialled her friend’s mobile phone number and tapped her foot impatiently as the phone continued to ring and ring and ring. “Come on, come on.”
“Hello?” Luna sounded a little frightened, tipping Juliet off to the fact something was wrong.
“Luna?” Juliet asked quietly, unsure of who might be listening in.
“I’m very sorry but I don’t want anything, so please don’t call this number again.” With that Luna put the phone down.
It was obvious what had happened, but it was too fast. She hadn’t taken that long to get out of the country and she hadn’t really had a chance to plan much further than ‘get her stuff, get out of the country, make sure she’s seen doing it.’
The pay phone started ringing. Automatically Juliet picked it up, still flustered and trying to work out what to do. “Hello?”
“Miss Rhodes, don’t put the phone down.”
“If you’ve harmed one hair on her head, I will rip you apart.” Juliet threatened, pushed to close to breaking point and sick of the man stalking her already.
“No need for that, Miss Rhodes.” The agent replied, “We have no intention of harming Miss Roberts, we just wanted to have a word with you. If you come in quietly, I swear we won’t bother her further.”
“You’re an asshole.” Juliet hissed at him.
“I get that a lot.” The man sounded amused. “There will be a group waiting for you on the English side of the channel tunnel.”
“Fine.” Speedster replied, between a rock and a hard place and not particularly happy about not being able to do much about it. “I’ll be there in less than an hour.”
“Good.” With that the phone clicked off and Juliet burst into a bunch of profanities that had the locals staring at her.
One mistake, one simple, stupid mistake and she was cornered. She couldn’t let them harm Luna and if she didn’t go back they could. She had to go. Well, she didn’t have to go, as Shade or Spike would remind her, she always had the option of walking away. She couldn’t bring herself to take it, but the option was there.
She sped back up the coast of France, reaching the channel tunnel and becoming further irritated when she saw that there were suited goons there, all of whom seemed to report something when they saw her and then left her alone.
She got the money changed back at the same station, confusing the teller at the window, and then shot down the tunnel, narrowly avoiding one of the shuttles that constantly went up and down the dark, narrow passage that passed under the ocean.
There was a group of six goons waiting for her on the other side. They led her to a group of rather large black vans with tinted windows. There, in front of one of the back doors of one of them, stood the man who had been the primary focus for her anger so far.
“Where’s Luna?” She demanded as she hung back. Though surrounded, she wasn’t caught yet and she was wary of handing herself in if her friend wasn’t safe.
The man gestured to one of the goons, who moved away from the pack, the rest shifting to cover the gap he left. The suit opened the back doors of the truck to the left of Juliet and Luna was escorted out, her hands cuffed behind her back, blinking as she stepped into the sunlight from the dark back of the vehicle.
“Jules...” Luna paled when she saw her friend, realising that for all her attempts to prevent them knowing it was Juliet on the other end of the phone, they must have managed to get ahold of her friend after she’d been taken away.
“You promised you wouldn’t bother her if I came in.” Speedster’s emerald eyes flickered towards the leader of the band of assholes, anger obvious as she tensed, ready for action.
“That was before we realised she had powers too.” The man replied, a small, amused smile on his features. “Her brother too, but he got away.”
Speedster glanced around, her sight taking in details at much greater a speed than any normal human could. The five around her were armed, as were the two by Luna and the ringleader. She could dodge the bullets, she had already proved that. But Luna’s safety was more important and she couldn’t.
She glanced at her friend, relaxing slightly when she saw Luna’s eyes shift from the amethyst purple they had turned post Fusion, to their ruby red hue. When the Other Luna nodded slightly, Speedster took that as the cue to move, seeming to vanish from the spot as she burst into action, taking down her guards before they could react, knocking down the two with Luna and as the ringleader drew his weapon, she knocked it out of his hand, allowing the Other Luna to call down the Shadows and start a Shadow Game with him.
While Luna and the ringleader were caught up in the darkness, Speedster found that the small group hadn’t come alone. Several more goons piled out of the doors of the vehicles, and at least two radioed for back up.
None of them seemed entirely sure what to do though. With their leader out of action, they were hesitant to attack the girl who had easily taken down seven armed men. Especially when it was obvious she was willing to do the same to them and quite possibly able.
“Look,” Speedster spoke to them all, “I don’t want to fight you all. It doesn’t feel right kicking your butts when you’re just following orders, but I will if you don’t let my friend and I walk away.”
That did it. Those who didn’t really want to fight backed off, while those who felt insulted that she didn’t even consider them a threat launched themselves at her or drew their weapons.
Speedster blurred into action, moving too fast for anyone to aim at properly. She slammed into one of the men, sending him tumbling into two others, before disarming the ones pointing guns aimlessly, sweeping up all of their weapons and hurling them into the open van.
Then she stopped and glowered around for a moment, giving a couple of the morons a chance to try again. Frustrated, she darted back, allowing them to crashing into each other, before using her tornado trick to scoop the pair up and slam them into one of the vans on the opposite side to the one holding the guns. Only once it was obvious that no one else was going to try anything did she slow down to a visible speed.
The wall of Shadows dissolved as she did so, revealing a babbling mess of a Government based stalker and the Other Luna who had gotten hold of the keys and was unshackling herself. She glanced around, amusement obvious when she saw the piles of thugs, and then turned to Speedster. “I believe we can leave now?”
“Yup.” Speedster nodded, finding herself worryingly pleased with the sight of the man who had been hounding her babbling like a lunatic on the floor. “Unless anyone else has any objections?”
When no one stepped forward again, she scooped the Other Luna up and darted off. She shot up the country, finally stopping and letting her friend down when they reached the treehouses.
“You okay?” Speedster worried at her friend, well aware that since Luna didn’t have a Millennium Item, channelling the Shadows always left her exhausted.
“I’ll be fine.” Luna had taken over halfway through the ride up country, wobbling slightly as she staggered over to the rope ladder. “I just need to sleep. I was more worried about you. I mean they kidnapped me to get to you. They didn’t seem to want more than that before Shade started throwing magic around.”
“Sorry.” Juliet apologised, guilt seeping in. “If I hadn’t left my phone behind...”
“I fished the phone out of the bin and chucked it in the lake the moment you left.” Luna shrugged, “They seemed to know my name and that you had come to ours for Christmas. So I doubt it was the phone that drew them to my house.”
Speedster let out a frustrated groan as she moved to help her exhausted friend climb the ladder, just as tired herself but knowing she had to get Luna settled and some food in before she could collapse herself. “My manager wanted to know what I was doing over Christmas. I didn’t even think not to tell him. Why would I? I wasn’t wanted by the Government then.”
“Not your fault.” Luna shrugged, already starting to fall asleep on her feet as she reached the top and Juliet had to herd her into the second treehouse, where a bed was already set up. Juliet made a mental note to get more blankets from the local supermarket as she made sure her friend was comfortable, before promising to be back as fast as possible and shooting off.
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