NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 16

When she came around she had no idea where she was. The plain white walls were unfamiliar, the ceiling just as strange, the room was almost silent besides the radio playing quietly on her bedside table and she would have assumed she was in hospital if it hadn’t been for the lack of a window, the lock on her door and the handcuff chaining her right wrist to the metal bed frame.

“Hello?” She tried calling, pushing herself sitting and looking around. She felt stiff and sore still, suggesting that either it hadn’t been very long since she had passed out or she had hurt herself rather severely. Possibly both.

Still trembling from the electric shock she had received from the fencing and noticing that she was wearing a plain set of blue scrubs, she looked around the room for her stuff. She was grateful to find that the costume was hung up on the back of the door on a coat hanger, the mask with it.

Snap would have killed her if it had been missing or damaged. Not that she was sure if she was going to be seeing her friends for a long time.

She heard the door unlocking and twisted so she could see the door open. A man in a smart, black suit walked in, his hair immaculate, his entire body held so taunt and his body language so neutral that she couldn’t help but wonder if he was a robot.

“Ah, Miss Rhodes. Good to see you awake.” He commented, sitting in the chair by her bed and turning down the music to the point where it was barely audible.

“You know who I am?” Speedster paled, having hoped to keep her identity and by extension the identities of her friends secret.

“Juliet Rhodes,” The man nodded, “Age twenty three. Born in Sherwood, living in Leicester. Recent graduate of a Music Technology BSc at DeMontfort...”

“I’ll take that as a yes..." Juliet groaned, one arm covering her eyes as she slumped back onto the bed. “What are you planning to do to me?”

“We’re not...”

“Don’t. Just don’t.” Juliet cut the man off midsentence, still not looking at him, “You’ve obviously got no intention of letting me leave.” She lifted her right wrist as far as it would go, causing the handcuff it was attached to, to clink against the metal bed, “So you have some sort of plan for me...”

“Miss Rhodes, you’re being kept here for your own well being.” The man explained, sympathy tainting his tone as she lowered her arm, “The greater majority of those who saw your actions on TV are concerned for your wellbeing and wish you well. However, there are a few who think otherwise. And Sawyer did get away. We would be remiss in our duty to the public if we sent you to a normal hospital and he tried to attack you while you were recovering there.”

The man sat forward, the chair creaking slightly and causing Juliet to look at him. “Can I ask why you decided to reveal yourself now? And you decided to fight him?”

“I couldn’t let him use innocent people as a shield. I had to get involved.” Juliet replied, sitting up so she could get the questioning over with as soon as possible, “Besides its Christmas. There’s a rule about being a douchebag at Christmas.” She grumbled under her breath, “He broke it.”

“Ah, yes, that ‘Villain’s Handbook’ you were carrying.” The man looked amused, having heard her, “That didn’t help your case, you know.”

“That’s not...” Juliet shut up but the damage was already done.

“Yours?” The suited agent of some government agency or another smiled slightly as he asked, a sharp, shark like smile that suggested she had just taken his bait. “If it’s not yours, whose is it?”

Juliet just shook her head. Shade may not have been her friend, but Michael and Luna were. She wasn’t going to rat them out.

“Protecting them won’t help you, Miss Rhodes.” The agent pointed out, “And we’ll be looking into your friends and family anyway. It’s better to give us names now then have us rip your life apart looking for clues. Just tell us who owns copies of this Handbook. Because it’s quite obvious from reading this, that not only do they have powers like you, but they’re not as self sacrificing as yourself.”

“No.” Juliet’s reply was short and sweet.

“Let me make this clear before I leave, Miss Rhodes.” The agent said as he stood up, “You’re a guest of a secure government facility. If you ever want to leave here again, you will provide names, powers, locations, the full list. And we’re playing nice at the moment. Don’t make us play dirty.”

“The moment I’m free, I’m leaving.” Juliet stated calmly, her left hand covering her right wrist, anger warring with fear for the safety of the Club, “And I won’t be coming back. I can promise you that.”

“Even if you could break free and escape, where would you go?” The agent asked her, amusement obvious, “We can track you down, no matter where you go.”

“I hear Italy is nice this time of year.” Juliet considered, “Maybe China.”

The agent didn’t reply to that, just chuckled and exited the room, locking the door behind him. The moment he was gone, Juliet started fighting with the cuff around her wrist, trying to slip her hand out of the loop or break the chain between her wrist and the bed.

“Damn it,” She hissed as she found she wasn’t strong enough to break the chain and her hand refused point blank to fit through the wrist cuff and all she successfully managed to do while trying was tighten the metal bang further until it cut into her skin. “Superspeed is crap when you can’t move!” She slammed a hand onto the bed, glowering at the cuff as she did so.

Taking a deep breath, she paused and considered her options. She couldn’t move too far from the bed, getting up and standing on the right side was about the limits of her range. If she were Brawl, Chi, Mako or Gold, the cuffs wouldn’t be an issue, as all of them had gained super strength when they had shifted. But she wasn’t and she was rather glad they weren’t in this mess with her.

For a moment she considered trying the tornado stunt again and swinging the bed around in the wind created until the chain snapped or the cuff came off but she had a funny feeling that her arm would be pulled off long before the chain gave. Even if it wasn’t, she could do herself more harm than good. Especially if the bed, which would probably break horribly, ricocheted off a wall and crashed into her.

“Think, think, think.” Juliet muttered to herself, wishing she could pace the room. She thought better on her feet than she did lying down. “There has to be a way out of here.” She tugged fruitlessly on her chain again before slumping back onto the bed, “At least it’s soft.” She muttered, frustration seeping through her.

She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to play her options over in her mind. Handing over the names of her friends and fellow Club members wasn’t an option. She refused to go that route. So she needed another option. Another route. Something that didn’t involve her betraying her friends or being stuck in this room for the rest of her life.

She would go crazy if she was chained for too long, she just knew it. So that was the first thing she had to change.

An insane thought popped into her head. She couldn’t pull her hand out of the cuff, nor could she pull the cuffs free of the bed. But could she break the railing off of the bed and either slip the cuff off of the broken end or take it with her and worry about the rest of the railing once she had left the building?

She sat up and swivelled herself around, putting her feet against the railing. She took a deep breath, well aware that if this worked she had a very limited time before someone tried to stop her. “Three,” she whispered, “Two, one...” On one, she slammed her feet into the railing, over and over, faster and faster until she could feel the vibration through the bed and the metal around her wrist and the metal started bending.

Then there was a crack as something snapped and the bar along the middle, the one her wrist had been attached to and that had taken the worst beating, snapped. Juliet let out a pained yelp as her leg shot past the broken end of the metal bar, causing a long cut, but she didn’t let it stop her as she slipped the cuff off of the busted bar.

The door slammed open but she was already in motion, zipping to one side of the door and allowing the guys in suits to pass her before she shot down the corridor at as close to top speed as she could manage. Pain was a constant companion as she tried to push herself faster than her injured leg would let her go. She just needed to get out of the building and somewhere safe, then she could deal with the cut. She was just glad she hadn’t impaled herself on the damn bar at the same time.

To top her problems off, she had no real idea of where she was going. She couldn’t exactly stop and ask for directions. Instead she shot down the corridors she hoped led to the outside, finding three dead ends before having to skid under a closing security shutter that was coming down from the ceiling only to find herself face to face with one that had already closed and several armed men with their guns pointing at her.

“Damn it!” Speedster complained at them, forcing herself to her feet and trying to ignore the way the torn blue scrubs were turning purple, “I’ve done nothing wrong!”

“Get down on the ground.” One of the armed men shouted at her.

She wasn’t doing this. She had no patience for this crap. In the space of far too short a period of time, she had been shot at, choked, electrocuted, knocked off of a building, taken prisoner, had her friends and life threatened, and now they wanted her to just give up? It wasn’t happening.

Still they were human. Normal humans. She couldn’t attack them. At any sort of speed she could seriously injure them and she was in no fit state to fight them without that speed giving her an advantage.

Options. She needed options.

She hesitated for just a moment, but that moment was all that was needed as something fired behind her and her leg buckled, sending her tumbling and the tranquiliser dart soaring over her head. As she rolled to her feet, she used the movement to aid her acceleration. Though much slower than usual with her leg giving out again, what speed she had was enough to get her around the armed guards and smack the button to raise the security shutter.

“Bye guys.” She called as she rolled under the shutter and into the grounds. “Oh for...” She mumbled as she beheld the sight of more armed men, several dogs, who were pulling on their leads to get to her and a barbed wire, electrified fence around the complex.

“Miss Rhodes,” Speedster flinched at the sound of the man from earlier, “You really shouldn’t be running around on that leg. Come back to your room and...”

She didn’t give him a chance to finish. Having spotted dumpsters that she could use to get the height to allow her to leap the fence. She shot over, the lack of gunshots confusing her as she bounced off the lid of the dumpster and went soaring over the fence, landing just well enough to prevent her leg going again, and darted away.

Shaman King Mix? Part 2

“But I thought Shamans were people who interacted with the world of spirits.” Solomon froze at the door to his Grandson’s hospital room, “So why did he call me one?”

Shaman. Now that was a title he hadn’t heard in years. He supposed it was one that, in a way, it was one that applied to him, since he could, in fact see and interact with ghosts, a fact he had discovered when he’d been rescued by the spirit of a King who had looked rather like Yugi.

“Well, you do have Yami.” Tea’s voice replied, “I suppose that might be why…”

Solomon had researched what it could mean, discovered what it meant and had kept it to himself, having never wanted the responsibility that had come with it and he hadn’t been sorry when the same gift had failed to show up in his daughter.

But it appeared it had, as Solomon had feared when Yugi had started talking to himself and his grandfather had seen the spirits that haunted Yugi and his friends, skipped a generation and was fully awake in his Grandson.

Finding out now was a nightmare. With the Shaman King Tournament coming up, Shaman from around the world would be heading to the Japan and even if Yugi wasn’t involved as a combatant, his guardian ghost, this ‘Yami’, was apparently powerful enough to attract attention.

He had no idea how to train his Grandson to defend himself. He would just have to hope that no one else came after Yugi for his spirit.

“Maybe.” Yugi sighed, “I think that’s the first time anyone’s come after me with a sword though.” And on that note Solomon pushed open the door and the conversation stopped. “Hey Grandpa.” Yugi smiled nervously from his hospital bed, well aware that Yami had darted into the Puzzle the instant the door handle had turned.

“I’m relieved you’re alright.” Solomon said, shutting the door behind him. “But from what I heard, it sounds like I have some explaining to do. You should bring your guardian ghost out so we can talk.”

“I…I don’t know what you mean.” Yugi stammered as Tea gave Solomon a startled look.

“Don’t lie to me, Yugi.” Solomon scolded his grandson, “I overheard the tail end of your conversation, I know that the person who attacked you called you a Shaman. Now, bring out your guardian ghost.”

Yugi looked nervous but he nodded and his eyes went blank for a moment or two, then the ghost who lived within the Millennium Puzzle appeared and bowed to Solomon.

“Grandpa, this is Yami.” Yugi said nervously, “He’s been my protector since I completed the Millennium Puzzle.”

Yami bowed to Solomon. The old gamer hid a smile at the spirit’s posture. The ghost, who looked incredibly like his Grandson, was nervous, not that anyone but a gamer of the highest calibre, or someone who could read micro expressions, would be able to tell. The spirit turned to Yugi and the pair of them, Shaman and guardian ghost, looked at each other for a moment or two, then Yugi looked at his Grandfather.  

“Yami says…”

“Let him speak for himself, Yugi.” Solomon held up a hand to silence his Grandson, earning himself a startled look from both lookalikes.

“It is an honour to meet you.” Yami said, unsure whether his voice would be heard by the master gamer.

“The same, though I believe I have met you before.” Solomon’s reply made Yugi jump, Yami look confused and Tea to give him a startled look. “In fact I believe I’m the one who led you to Yugi.”

“You… led Yami to me?” Yugi looked confused. “I mean, I know you gave me the Puzzle, but I thought Yami was dormant before I completed it…” Yugi paused and gave his Grandfather a strange look. “How can you even see or hear him?”

“This isn’t my first run in with spirits, Yugi.” Solomon told him, “The man who attacked you was a Shaman, just as I am.”

“You, Grandpa?” Yugi looked shocked.

“That’s not quite true.” Solomon considered, “I have the abilities but none of the training. I didn’t find out until my early forties that I had them, probably brought on by one too many near death experiences, and nowadays I’m too old to teach any new tricks.” He sighed, “It would be better to say that I have the potential.” He looked at Yugi, “You however, appear to have mastered integration without any training at all.”

“What is integration?” Yami asked. “Our attacker mentioned it, but we don’t know what it is.”

“Integration… it’s the joining of a Shaman and a ghost within the Shaman’s body. Like when you take control of Yugi’s body.” Solomon explained. He paused and considered the spirit carefully, “You’re Egyptian. Yami is a Japanese word, so what is your real name?”

“Yami.” Tea spoke up, confused by the turn of events, but, since this wasn’t the weirdest thing that had happened to them, she wasn’t too worried. She just wished she could see Yami and hear him as Yugi’s grandfather could, “His name, at least nowadays, is Yami.”

“Nowadays?”

“Yami doesn’t remember anything of his previous life.” Yugi gave his dark a small, slightly sad smile, “Everything before I completed the Puzzle is a complete blur. It’s part of the reason he’s still here, I think.”

“No name, no afterlife.” Solomon nodded, understanding. “So you have no memories of your tomb? Or of your time on the throne?”

Yami shook his head. “No. I don’t. I wish I did but…”

“It must be something to do with the Puzzle’s completion then.” Solomon thought carefully, “Because I once met you in your tomb, before I took the Puzzle box.”

“You did?” Yami looked astonished, “I… I have no memory of that.”

“I did. In fact that was the first time you saved my life.” Solomon nodded, “You helped me after I’d been shot by one of my guides and asked me to look after your Puzzle, which I did until some monster,” And he gave his Grandson a look that caused Yugi to smile slightly, “Found it and tried to put it together, then I passed it on to him.”

“And I’m glad you did.” Yami received a grin from his hikari that he returned in the form of a small smile, “Life with Yugi is rarely boring.”

“It’s only going to get more dangerous from here on in.” Solomon warned. “With the Shaman King Tournament coming up, more Shamans are going to come looking for powerful spirits and you were, according to legends, one of the most powerful Pharaohs of Egypt.”

“Then just being around will put Yugi in…” Yami turned to his hikari, whose hands went protectively to the Puzzle.

“No, Yami. I won’t shatter the Puzzle. I won’t lose you to protect myself.” Yugi’s determination was something that made his Grandfather proud, even as it frustrated the Pharaoh who wanted nothing more than the safety of his partner even above the return of his memories, and amused Tea.

“If you’re serious about keeping Yami, then you’re going to need training.” Solomon told the determined sixteen year old who hadn’t long come out of hospital after being trapped in that fire, “As you are, you couldn’t hope to defeat a Shaman who has trained for the tournament.”

“As to that…” Yugi started, then bit his lower lip and shut up.

“What?” Solomon demanded.

“I think Yugi’s referring to the Shadow Games.” Tea said carefully. “They kind of give him and Yami an edge over anyone bigger and stronger than them.”

“Shadow Games?” Solomon asked, staring at his Grandson, “You’ve…” Well that explained why, for the last two years, ghosts had been avoiding their house. The Shadows were dangerous, especially to unprotected souls, and he didn’t doubt that most ghosts wouldn’t want to risk it.

“It’s a… talent of mine.” Yami smirked slightly, “I don’t play them very often, but when I do it’s always for a good reason.”

“It was how we got away from the Shaman that attacked us today.” Yugi added in Yami’s defence, “He’d have had my head otherwise.”

It would have worried Solomon that Yugi spoke so calmly of someone trying to kill him, if it hadn’t been for the way that Yugi’s hands had balled into fists and the slight shudder that had coursed through his Grandson when he’d spoken of the attack, all subconscious of course, Yugi was trying not to show he was afraid in front of Tea and his Grandfather.

“Not all Shaman will agree to play your games, Yami.” Solomon warned, “You won’t be able to rely on that forever.”

Silence fell for a few moments, then Yugi spoke up. “If I want to protect Yami. I need to be stronger.” Tea and Solomon almost missed Yugi’s quiet murmur, “I’m not strong enough to protect us from Marik, and I’m not strong enough to protect us from this new threat either.”

“Who is Marik?” Solomon asked, concerned by Yugi’s shift in mood and the scowl that blossomed on Yami’s face when Yugi mentioned the name ‘Marik’.

“The fire? In the warehouse? The one that I nearly…” Yugi took a deep breath. “His name is Marik. He’s another Millennium Item wielder, like me but without the guardian.” He gave Yami a small smile, but the Pharaoh didn’t return it, remembering far too easily how ineffective he’d been in that fight, “He holds the Millennium Rod. It lets him control people’s minds. His possessed slave caused the fire that nearly…” Yugi shuddered and Yami’s hand went on his shoulder.

‘I’m sorry, Yugi. I’ve brought so much trouble down on you.’

The hikari leant into the touch and let out a small, sad sigh. “It’s not your fault. You don’t seek those who want us dead. They seek us.”

“If I’d known how much trouble the Puzzle would cause, I would never have given it to you.” Solomon admitted, “But it’s yours now, and as long as you,” He looked at Yami, who stared back, “Promise to guard him until his death, I will not take it away.”

“I would never abandon Yugi.” Yami promised.

“Good.” Solomon nodded, “Now, this training you want?” He turned back to his Grandson, who looked up at him, “I might know someone who might be able to help. At least with your Shaman training.”

“You do? But I thought you didn’t have any training.”

“I don’t. And I don’t know if the contact number I have for her is still valid.” Solomon warned, “And even if it is, she might not have anyone available to send, not with the Shaman tournament coming up.”

“What is the Shaman tournament?” Tea asked, “You’ve mentioned it before.”

“And the Shaman that attacked said that was why he wanted Yami.” Yugi chipped in.

“I’m not sure of the exact details.” Solomon answered, “But every five hundred years a tournament is held to find the most powerful Shaman, the Shaman King. The winner of the tournament supposedly gains the ‘Great Spirit’ as his guardian ghost, and with it the power to do whatever they want.”

“Whatever they...” The implications weren’t lost on Yugi and Tea, the latter of whom had had enough of power crazed lunatics chasing her friend around. “But isn’t that dangerous?” Tea asked.

“Incredibly. The difference between victory and defeat is often a Shaman’s life, but the tournament has to be held, for every five hundred years a pair of comets pass the Earth, heralding the coming of a great catastrophe. It’s the duty of the Shaman King to stop it from happening and guide the world into a new age.”

“No.” Tea caught the look on Yugi’s face and glowered at her friend, “Even if you had the training, which you don’t, you have enough on your plate with all the Millennium Item wielders who keep coming after you, without inviting a whole new load of trouble.”

“Tea’s right, Yugi.” Solomon nodded, “Even with training you couldn’t hope to beat some of the Shaman entering the tournament. Not when they’ve trained their entire lives for this and you’ll have a month at best before it kicks off properly. You probably won’t even get tested for entry.”

“Tested?” Yugi asked curiously.

Solomon let out a heavy sigh, “I don’t know the full details, but my friend might. I’ll give her a call. But Yugi,” He gave his Grandson a sharp look, “Promise me you won’t go looking for other Shaman to fight.”

“I never go looking for fights.” Yugi protested, “They always start it.”

“Make sure it stays that way.” His grandfather replied, “Now if you’ll excuse me I have a phone call to make.”

With that Yugi’s grandpa left the room, leaving a rather confused pair of teens and a confounded spirit to work out what the hell had just happened.