“Fine, fine.” Snap was surprisingly okay about it when she phoned her up. Having seen Speedster get hurt on national television, she had been going nuts when she hadn’t been able to get ahold of anyone and had driven herself into remaking her costume, just in case she had ruined it. She had apparently also made her a present at the same time so she could come and collect it when she came back to Leicester.
By Sunday afternoon Juliet had been cleared by Angela to leave the house and while Luna had been driven back to uni by Juliet’s uncle, Speedster ran back to Leicester, taking a doctor’s note with her for work. Not that she needed to work a normal job anymore, but she didn’t feel like getting fired from a relatively decent training route.
Considering the frantic Christmas period it was rather nice to return to relative normality. Though Juliet was wary of anyone new who seemed overly interested in her, she managed to settle back into her life rather well. With the busy Christmas period for post long over, work was almost dead in comparison, giving her plenty of time to start building up data for Bookworm’s thesis.
It was two weeks into getting the data for Bookworm when she had a shock. As she turned into the last turn, heading for home, a second runner matched her speed and worse, passed her.
Well there was no way she was having that. She pushed herself harder, overtaking the second runner, who to anyone but her would just appear as a black and red blur, but to Juliet’s vision looked like a tall, reedy male with black and red spiky hair.
The guy smirked at her, overtaking her again and moving in front of her, forcing her to dodge around him or slow down. She chose the former, shooting around him and pushing herself to her current limits, expecting to lose him easily, only for shock to settle in a second time as he boosted past her.
She skidded to a halt, staring in the direction he had gone. Before too long he had doubled back and stopped in front of her, looking pleased with himself. She knew him, she wasn’t sure how. Something about his posture and attitude rubbed her the wrong way. Not to mention his speed. She was the fastest thing on the planet, so where the hell had this guy come from?
“Who are you?” She demanded, glowering at the guy who smirked back at her.
“You’ve forgotten me? Guess Fusing with a girl wrecked more than just your speed.” The guy chuckled at her, causing her temper to start rising. She clamped down on it hard, not letting him get to her when he was so obviously trying to get a rise.
“Where’s Sawyer?” She demanded, well aware the robotics expert was the only one with a World Sphere whose Fusions would know hers.
“The Doctor?” The guy asked, seeming amused still, “Shouldn’t you be dealing with his plans by now? I mean I escaped a week ago and he had your friend long before I got Fused.”
“My friend? He hasn’t...” She trailed off as something in the back of Speedster’s mind started poking at her, her temper flaring again in response to it, “If I knew where he was or what he was up to, I would have stepped in by now.”
“You’re really oblivious.” The guy looked highly amused at that realisation, “He’s Fusing people left right and centre, building up a small army of robots and you’re not even aware he’s up to something. Even though your ‘little brother’s’ in trouble.”
Juliet mentally froze, temporarily disabled by the burst of rage that coursed through her systems and then she was on the guy, knocking him over and glaring down at him, one foot on his chest, “Where?” She demanded.
“That struck a nerve.” The guy looked slightly less amused now as he stared up at the girl who suddenly didn’t seem like the same confused wimp from before and instead looked dangerous.
“Sawyer. Where?” Speedster demanded again, not entirely in full control of her actions.
The guy gave her directions and before he could ask any other questions, she was gone, shooting off the way he had told her to go. She shot up and across the county, arriving at a small compound which seemed to be surrounded by robots.
“Bingo.” Speedster murmured quietly, pulling her phone out of her pocket and dialling the secure number she had been given. “Hey, Rowena?” She asked the moment someone picked up, hoping it was her handler. “I’ve found Sawyer, I’m going in.” That was all the message she had time for as she slammed the phone shut and started making her way across the compound to the sliding doors.
He had to be waiting for her as the doors slid open far too easily and there was only a token resistance on the other side. She was expecting a trap, so it didn’t overly worry her. She was fast enough to get herself out. She just had to explore enough to ensure that the guy wasn’t actually telling the truth.
The building was dilapidated and falling apart. She couldn’t help but wonder if this was the best he could afford or get now he didn’t have all of Dr. Styler’s funding behind him. There was a worrying amount of robosuits around, all of whom seemed to be in ‘robot’ mode, suggesting that there was a control module around somewhere that she would need to trash.
Part of her felt guilty for having more pressing concerns right now then the safety of those in the robosuits, the rest was focused on finding her brother, despite the fact that in this world she didn’t have a brother.
Taking down the small group of robots that made up the ‘army’ in the hallway, she darted into each of the side rooms, but was only able to find a new robosuit machine, explaining where Sawyer’s new robosuit minions had come from. She sabotaged it, messing with some of the wiring before heading back towards the corridor.
As she stepped back into the hallway, she heard Sawyer’s laugh echoing down from the main room. With no other options left to her, she headed that way.
Sawyer was waiting for her in the main hanger. He smirked as he saw her enter, gesturing to someone out of sight before calling down. “So, you finally showed up.”
“It’s not my fault you finally decided to do something smart and hide away.” Speedster shrugged, nowhere near as calm as she was acting as anger bubbled away under the surface, drawn there by the thought of the man before trapping yet more people in metal suits that they couldn’t control. “I didn’t think you had it in you to do something clever.”
“I would suggest that you don’t start off my insulting me, brat.” Sawyer growled, “Not with the leverage I’ve got.” He pressed a button on a remote and a shutter opened to reveal an unconscious girl in a heap on the floor in a cage not unlike the electrified one he had tried to trap Speedster in.
The girl on the ground was younger then her, thirteen, fourteen at most, had long yellowy, orange blonde hair which was white at the tips, her eyes were closed but something instinctively told Speedster they would be a bright blue, and there was obvious bruising on the girl’s arms and face.
Sawyer’s mood turned towards amusement as Speedster froze up, two personalities warring for a moment, before she let out a furious growl, her hands bunched into fists and she wheeled around to glare at him.
“You bas...”
“Ah ah ah, Speedster.” He smirked at her, cutting off her snarl with a shake of his finger, “You should watch your language in front of children.”
“If you don’t let her go, I’m going to turn you into sushi.” Speedster was practically vibrating as she took a step forward.
“You know, I was expecting you weeks ago.” Sawyer continued, ignoring the furious threat, “You were never this slow to react to my plans in the old world.” When Speedster didn’t respond to him, he glanced down and found she was examining the cage, “I really wouldn’t.” He suggested, “The last one didn’t agree with your human physiology very well, remember?”
She didn’t care whether she got hurt or not. Not if she could get the girl in the cage away from Sawyer.
“You know, I’ve been at this for weeks. She wasn’t even the first, I was actually aiming for your rival in speed, tried all sorts to try and force the Fusion, I even spent ages breaking minds. You see I’ve made a discovery. You and your friends were of sound mind when the shift happened, so you just absorbed the personalities and memories that you were given. But if a mind had been broken in advance, then the so called ‘primary personality’ was the one that was subjugated. So I spent a while taking people no one would miss and destroying their minds.” He smirked as shock and disgust crossed her features and the trembling grew stronger, “Your little friend in there doesn’t remember who she was, not really, all she remembers is what the Fusion gave her. She’s more Mobian than human now. Most of my new robosuits are the same, either they Fused with the wrong person or their damaged minds snapped before I could try it, but none of them remember their human lives properly.”
“How many?” Speedster managed, her voice trembling as badly as her body, “How many lives have you ruined?”
“Improved you mean?” He asked, thinking it over, “Making them better by giving them skin of steel and minds like computers? All in exchange for forgetting their past troubles?”
“How many?” Speedster snapped again.
A soft, pained groan distracted her. Speedster’s sharp, emerald gaze darted over to the source of the noise. The girl was waking up, blue eyes flickering open before closing for a few seconds as she let out a second groan, hand going to her head.
“Ah, about time.” Sawyer continued gloating, “It turns out I was wrong, girl.” He said, causing both Speedster and the girl in the cage to react by looking at him, “Turns out your hero did come after all. Shame it took her so long.”
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