NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 5

Juliet spent rest of the day was spent ordering a new driver’s license and cancelling store cards, leaving Luna to head home alone. By the time she was done she was tried, pissed off and ready to kick someone’s butt. She resolved the issue by going for a long run that took her around the coast of the country, before having a nice hot bath, turning off her phone, turning off the majority of the lights and settling down with a good book.

She paid for it the next day when her phone turned back on when her alarm went off to reveal she had sixty missed calls and forty nine messages on her answer machine. Most of them were from the Club, demanding details and wondering if the rumours were true about her World Sphere going walk abouts. There was one, however, from the police station, who had found her purse, devoid of bank cards, her driver’s licence and cash but with her store cards still in place, and an empty jewellery box and were holding them at front desk for her.

She did her rounds in record time, determined to not let the events of the previous day allow her to have a lazy day. She may have been the fastest thing alive, but she wanted to be faster. Since she had no one to race against anymore, she could only ever improve by pushing herself when she went for a run or doing her rounds.

Picking up her stuff was a chore. Without any way to prove the purse was hers, the police officer at the desk had her go away and come back with her passport in order to prove she was who she said she was. It wasn’t that it took her a long time, but just the inconvenience of running around in circles meant that when she joined Luna and Michael at lunch time, she was in the frustrated huff.

“No luck?” Her friend asked as Speedster fielded yet another call from a Club member and promised to fill them in at the weekly meeting tomorrow.

“Yes and no. I’m still out a hundred and fifty quid, my driver’s licence, my bank cards and a World Sphere, but I have my purse back.” Juilet waved the purse, a Nightmare Before Christmas one that Luna had bought for her the previous year, at her. She let out a frustrated huff. “I’m just annoyed it happened at all.”

“As you should be.” Michael scolded, irritation obvious on his features. “It was ridiculously careless of you to leave your handbag lying around where anyone could get at it, especially if you had your Sphere in it.”

“I didn’t.” Speedster protested, then paused and winced, “Or I thought I didn’t. It had to be at the coffee shop, because even when we were trying on clothes our bags were with us in the changing rooms.”

“The brats perhaps.” Luna suggested, thinking about it carefully, “I mean we did have to shoo them out from under the table two or three times, they might have grabbed things then.”

“Or someone took my things while I was distracted by shooing the brats.” The speed freak agreed.

“You shouldn’t have had the Sphere with you.” Michael grouched at her, “Do you have any idea of what...”

“Don’t Mike, just don’t.” Juliet groaned, “I know alright. I know I screwed up and that the others are going to tear me a new one. I also know that this could bring an end to the secrecy we’ve been insisting on for our safety. But there’s nothing I can do about that now. All I can do is deal with the fallout when it happens.”

“Your mess, you’re cleaning it up.” Michael grouched before getting up, chucking his rubbish in the trash and stalking out of the student union’s dining hall.

The pair of girls watched him go, one frustrated, one resigned, before Luna turned to Speedster with a slight smile, “If you need my help...” She offered reassuringly.

“Thanks Luna.” It was a help, knowing that Luna had her back. Juliet was pretty sure that even the other ‘HeroFused,’ ones like herself and Luna who had merged with heroes from other worlds, were going to be furious with her over this. It would be justified too, she couldn’t help but think.

As she searched the city centre high and low, she was kind of hoping that by tomorrow she would be able to say ‘Yes, the World Sphere was stolen but I was able to get it back, see?’ and show it off to the rest of the class. Unfortunately for her, she had no luck on that front. The enchanted Sphere was well and truly lost, despite her constant searching.

She got a real hint of the anger she might be facing from the others when she rejoined the group in order to finish recording the scene from the day before, when Hex blasted her into a wall hard enough that she felt something give in the wall, heard something crack and collapsed at its base, pain coursing through her.

“Cut!” Snap sounded both concerned and impressed at the same time after Hex gave her scripted spiel about the heroes never defeating her and made her dramatic exit, “I’ve got everything I need now.”

“Oh I’m sorry.” Hex smirked down at Speedster, who wasn’t entirely certain which Hex was apologising to her. “Did I miss the padding?” She asked, hints of sarcasm obvious as the illusion fell and revealed that not only had Hex missed the padding, she had dented the wall that she had blasted the hero into. “Maybe next time I’ll be a little more careful of what I’m doing when it’s something important.”

Juliet didn’t respond, not entirely trusting herself to speak when the world was spinning like mad, making her feel nauseous. She got the less than subtle jab though and, as Luna helped her to her feet, she couldn’t help but notice the evil looks she was getting from Spike.

“Sorry.” Luna whispered as she helped her behind the screens so they could get changed, “I swear I only told Mikey. I didn’t expect everyone else to find out this fast.”

“It’s...it’s okay.” Speedster stumbled over her words, leaning against a table to remain upright as Luna undid the zip on her catsuit. “They would have had to found out at some point, I wasn’t going to be able to hide it forever.”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t expecting Hex to hit you so hard because of it.” Luna looked embarrassed, like what had happened was all her fault.

“Hex just wanted an excuse to smack me around.” Speedster reminded her friend with a shrug, “Besides, I think she gets one free hit considering how much trouble we might be in.”

“You can’t let everyone in the club get one hit in.” Luna disagreed, “You could get really hurt if they all hit you as hard as Hex did.”

“I screwed up.” Speedster pointed out, “I really really screwed up. And now the rest of the Club might have to deal with the consequences, I’d be pretty damn pissed in their places too.”

“So what’s your plan?” Luna asked, wincing as Juliet slid her catsuit off of one shoulder and she saw the bruise that was already coming up, “Just let everyone hit you and then deal with the fallout once you’ve recovered from the brusing?”

“I don’t bruise anymore, my durability sees to... ow!” Juilet protested as Luna poked the blue and black spot on her left shoulder blade.

“This says otherwise.” Luna tutted at her. “Still think it’s a god idea?”

“No, but unless you have a magical time machine that can take us back to the exact moment the theft occurred and we can stop it from happening, I really don’t have a choice but to take the blows.” The speed freak grinned, “Besides it’s kind of ironic, don’t you think?”

“What do you mean?” The comment confused Luna.

“Well I’m the one who was the biggest advocate of keeping our powers a secret and not letting anyone find out about how we got our powers and yet I’m the one who lost my orb.” Juliet pointed out.

“It could be worse.” Luna sighed, starting to pull her own costume off, “At least, if the Sphere can still Fuse people, they won’t know there’s a club of us out here who’re like them, so if they cause trouble they won’t drag us into it.”

“No, but if they get into trouble because of something they haven’t done, they won’t have us around to bail them out either.” Juliet reminded her, a grimace on her features, “And I know all of this, I just... I’m just worried. I’m allowed to be.”

“Well you are the boss.” Luna teased.

“Oh don’t you start too. It’s bad enough Snap thinks that I have some sort of right to tell the others what to do. I’d like to point out that while I might be Fused to a main protagonist, the one I’m Fused to isn’t the one who’s good at planning ahead and thinking things through. No, my Fusion is better at thinking on his feet and letting the wind take him. I’m the wrong sort of person to ask if you want long term planning and ways to herd the pack of cats that belong to this club.”

“I don’t think you are as bad as you say you are.” Luna sighed at her, “I just think you need to stop thinking about what your Fusion provides you with and concentrate on those skills you had before the Spheres. You’re letting it...” Luna trailed off as the lights in the room went off and they heard the door to the outside lock.

“Stay here.” Speedster frowned, edging out from behind the screen and carefully making her way over to the door. It was, much to her disgust, locked, but at least once she was there she could find the light switches. “So, Spike or Snap?” She asked Luna, who came over and tugged on the door handle, frustration obvious.

NaNo2013: Speedster's Secret: Part 3

However Hex was pretty good at keeping her word when it was beneficial to her, so at least if she was going to hit something, it would, in theory, be the padding she knew Snap had put out for just that reason.

“Of course, Speedster, with your healing factor and durability,” Hex continued nonchalantly, her smirk growing slightly as she spoke, “I can throw you around a lot more than I can Luna. She’s a bit fragile compared to us.”

Speedster couldn’t help the wince that came with that. Hex was right. Luna’s powers were in her magic, magic that involved her life energy and soul. She had none received none of the physical benefits that Juliet had during the Fusion. She knew why. The people she and Luna had Fused with had been from completely different dimensions, been different species and had different enemies. The only link between the two had been the World Spheres. Hex was from a different world again. One with magic and mayhem but not the same sort of magic that Luna and Michael used. It was part of what made events so problematic. None of them, except Luna and Shade, had Fused with someone from the same dimension as another of the Club so none of them could really understand the problems that the others were going through.

They could try, they all did, but they couldn’t fully understand the problems because none of them had the same ones. They all had to adjust to bodies that had been shifted to fit the roles they now played and powers that sometimes acted up when they weren’t supposed to because emotions got in the way of common sense. Even the people who had Fused with humans had changed slightly, be it just hair and eye colour changes, growing or shrinking a few inches, gaining or losing muscle weight or worse, like in Hex’s case, suddenly seemed to gain a stone or so in weight.

If anything Speedster was just happy that when her body had shifted, she had only gained green eyes, blue hair and some sort of personal shield that prevented her clothes and shoes from catching fire from the heat of moving at the speeds she went at. That, along with her healing factor, increased durability and gaining the ability to process the world around her at much higher speeds, something that was necessary unless she planned on crashing into everything. She knew who her Fusion was and he wasn’t human so it could have been much worse. She could always dye her hair back to its original colour and she could have had giant quills of spiky death coming out of her back. Things that she did not consider necessary since there were no robots to fight in her world.

“It’s okay, Speeds.” Luna smiled softly at her before slipping her mask into place, “I’ll protect you.”

“Thanks.” Juliet replied, an honest smile on her face even as she knew she would have to fight her instincts to prevent her from stepping between Luna and any incoming attacks. It was just for the film, they weren’t really fighting Hex and she had read the script, both of them had to go down during this scene. Back when they had first read the script, Hex had promised to pull her punches so Juliet knew that neither of them would get properly hurt. That didn’t mean she liked it.

When Hex stepped out of the cover provided by the screen, Luna turned to Juliet with a small, rueful smile. “It took me almost an hour to get my Other Self to step back and promise not to react when I get blasted for this.” She admitted as Speedster struggled with the zip on her catsuit.

“I’m not surprised.” Speedster sighed as she felt Luna’s hands bat at hers and she tugged her ponytail out of the way so Luna could get to the zip, “She’s rather protective of you.”

“I know. It’s weird, considering she’s part of me, but I know.” Luna sounded like she was grimacing as Speedster felt something tugging upwards at the zip, before her friend let out a huff and pulled the zip down slightly, “Ah ha, got the fabric caught in the zip.” Speedster felt the zip go all the way up and turned to grin at her friend even as she pulled her own mask on.

“Is it me or does this feel a bit like cheating?” Juliet could not help but ask as she emerged from the screen to find that Michael had already been at work, summoning an illusion of the environment that Snap wanted for the scene or a close approximation, using his powers over the shadows. Where others in Snap’s class had to build props from scratch and make do with what scenery they could build or buy, Snap had her friends who could do things like this and were willing to work for nothing.

She had confirmed her project with her tutors before her friends had even started helping her, though the teachers had had no idea that her ‘overly ambitious’ project was actually viable, and as long as she put her friend’s names in the credits along with what they had done, there was no problem in them helping her out.

Speedster kind of wished she had been a fly on the wall when Snap had showed her teachers the trailer they had created in order to prove the project’s viability. The reactions apparently, had  been hilarious. There had been accusations of plagerism flying around for a while until the most sceptical of her tutors had come and sat in on one of the recording sessions. That had actually been one of the more difficult sessions as they had had to hide their powers but it had prevented the tutors from accusing her of taking footage from another flim, even if they had had to reshoot it on a different day with powers in full swing in order to get the effects exactly the same as the rest of the footage.

“A little.” Luna agreed, looking around at the effects her brother had put into place. She recognised the scenery from a couple of the cards in his Duel Monsters deck. He had always preferred the creepier, darker zombie and fiend cards along with torture based spells and traps. All in all it made them rather fitting to be used as the basis for the summoned surroundings they were in.

It also made her wary of getting too close to the walls. She knew what each of things her brother had based the scenery on could do. She didn’t really want to see their effects up close and personal. Still she had to trust that he knew what he was doing. He had been providing the scenery for the villain’s lair up until this point after all. And he was her brother, she had faith in him. If he thought he could control the cards he had summoned enough for them to act just as scenery, she had to trust that.

Still she was a little nervous as she and Speedster stepped into the room, which had been transformed from a typical university studio to a dark, dank, dungeon. A chair had been transformed into a throne and the slam of the door to the corridor beyond seemed much more ominous than it really should.

“Ready?” Snap asked, picking up the video camera closest to her as Spike and Michael moved into position behind the other two set up across the room.

“I’m always ready.” Hex smirked at her as she moved across the room, her imposing presence seeming to fit perfectly in the room in comparison to the two heroes, which was kind of the point.

“Luna? Speeds?” Snap asked, looking the pair over.

“We’re ready to go whenever you are.” Speedster nodded, before glancing at Luna, “Right?”

“Yup.” Luna nodded, not really looking forward to this in the slightest.

“Then let’s get rolling.” 

NaNo 2013: Speedster's Secrets: Part 2

“Oh...” Juliet paused, realising she had been had. She did not get to say anything else about it though as they were joined by another member of the Club. The huge, broad shouldered Nate, stepped through the door and glanced around, a scowl settling on his face for a moment when he saw that it was only Juliet and Nicola around.

“Hi Spike.” Nicola waved, earning herself a smile from the young man. She was fully aware his problem was not with her, but with Speedster, who had kicked his butt a few times over the last year despite his ability to breathe fire and the hard, almost iron strong shell that had formed along his back.

“Hi Snap,” His return wave was friendly, though the glower he gave Juliet as he turned to her was much less so, “Speedster.” He nodded unhappily.

“Spike.” Juiliet nodded back, unsurprised. She knew she was less than popular amongst those in their group who had Fused with villains from the worlds linked to their Spheres. It was the price she paid for being one of the voices of reason that had spoken against revealing their powers to the world officially and stepping in to prevent anyone who tried to use their powers against someone who wasn’t super powered. As she packed her World Sphere away, Nate moved over to the equipment to double check it before they started filming. Since it was Nicola’s project but Nate’s equipment, she chose not to object when he fiddled with one or two things, though she did start arguing with him over the placement of one of the cameras when he started moving the one in the back corner to get at the screen.

Speedster wisely backed away from the conversation that was slowly turning into a row and moved over to the costume box, picking out the items from the pile that belonged to her costume. Since this was a super hero project, Snap, who had been good at sewing even before she had Fused with a costume designer from another dimension who created new costumes for her friend on an almost daily basis, had created a costume for each of the heroes and the villains.

Juliet’s costume was mostly blues and whites, with hints of silver as highlighting. Unlike some of the others there was no cape and not only because it would slow her down.  While some of the others who were taking part in the project thought capes looked awesome, she had decided they were a hazard years ago. They could get caught in too much and they could be grabbed by the bad guy and either ripped off or used as a choking hazard.

While she did not have to wear the superhero get up when she was not acting as a superhero onscreen, she did kind of like the way it had been tailored to her exact measurements and her colour preferences. The costume had no stupid little skirt like some anime heroine costumes did and instead consisted of a pair of an almost skin tight, short sleeved lycra catsuit that was just loose enough she could hide a sports bra underneath it and a pair of deep treaded tough boots with the same sort of support as her running trainers, making them one of her favourite pairs of shoes. If they hadn’t been for the costume only she would have asked Snap if she could wear them everywhere.

She had no hood or full face mask, instead her catsuit came with a domino mask that was in blue with silver markings that made her eyes stand out. As masks went it wasn’t particularly effective at hiding her true identity but it was only meant to be symbolic for the movie anyway. She wasn’t too worried about someone working out who she was and what her powers were from student project that would never be seen past Snap, the Club and her tutors anyway.

As Snap and Spike continued to argue about camera placement and equipment, Juliet was joined by one of the twins. Mira looked tired as she slumped down at Juliet’s side and her flinch as her brother walked through the door was enough to let Speedster know that there had been another ‘debate.’ The twins had Fused with two people from the same universe, but unfortunately for them Mira had Fused with the hero while her brother had Fused with one of the villains and both had developed the split personality disorders that went with those people along with the powers.

“You okay, Luna?” Speedster worried at her friend. She felt particularly protective of Luna, since she had been the girl’s first friend at the university and had seen people try and take advantage of the girl who was surprisingly innocent considering her age and life experience.

“Yes, no. I don’t know.” Mira admitted as she glanced over at her brother. “We finally came to an agreement with him.”

The emphasis she put on ‘him’ told Juliet exactly who she was talking about. Unlike Luna, her brother didn’t consider his ‘other self’ part of him. Instead he tried to ignore his psychotic personality and contain the mayhem it caused. The way Luna did it, she could work with her other personality, even hold conversations and figure things out together, much the way the hero she had Fused with did. The way Michael did it meant that when the psychotic personality escaped the saner one’s chains, something bad normally happened.

And somehow Luna had managed to come to an agreement with it.

“How?” Speedster asked, shocked. She had only narrowly escaped having to deal with the lunatic and that had only been because Luna had thrown herself in the way first.

“Well when I first realised it was Shade I was dealing with, not Michael, I stepped back to let my other self deal with it since she’s better with our magic than I am.” Luna explained, reminding Juliet that Michael refused to use his Club name where the psycho variant of him used it rather than his real name. “But he didn’t want to fight.”

“Is he sick?”

“I did wonder that. I mean Mikey gets the worst colds around this time of year and if he doesn’t catch the flu at some point it’ll be a miracle.” Luna shrugged, “But no. It turns out he’s figured that we’re not a threat to his taking over the world and as his sister I should be working with him, not against him.”

“But you are, and you shouldn’t.” Speedster frowned, confused.

“Oh I know we are...I am.” Mira grimaced slightly as she realised she was talking about herself as two people again. Technically with her split personalities she was right, but that didn’t mean she liked admitting it out loud even around Juliet who knew the truth. “No one else in the Club can use the magic we can, it was part of our Fusion even though we should need the focuses in order to wield them.”

“So did you tell him you weren’t helping him take over the world?” Juliet asked, still confused by this turn of events.

“I did.” Luna nodded, amused by something, “He said that I’ll change my mind and that it’s apparently far too much effort to try and take my powers when I’m so genre savvy, so he’ll try a different route.”

“And that should worry me more than it does.” Speedster scowled, glancing over at Michael who had gone straight over to Spike and pulled him away from the row, the pair now discussing something that she wasn’t sure if she should be worried about or not.

“Oh and apparently he’s not too worried about you either, since he’s the only Villain Fusion in the entire club who doesn’t have to worry about catching you first.” Mira warned her. Juliet scowled as she realised that was true. The type of magic that Mira and Michael could wield meant that once the magic was in motion it wouldn’t matter how fast she was, she would have to stop and play their game because there would be no other escape.

“If you didn’t get into a fight with him, why are you so tired?” Speedster couldn’t help but ask.

“All nighter on coursework.” Mira chuckled, “I haven’t actually slept since yesterday.”

“Are you going to be alright to...you know?” She gestured to the crate of costumes and then around at the cameras and the props set up.

“I should be.” Mira shrugged as she pulled her own costume out of the box. Unlike Speedster’s costume, Luna’s had the itty bitty skirt, but an imperial purple one over tiny black lycra shorts, along with a tight imperial purple tank top, all of which had gold markings made from golden thread. Luna had a cape, one that was black on the outside and purple on the inside, and her black boots were knee high and had slight heels. Her domino mask was black with gold markings around the edge. It made her look more like a villain than a hero, but considering Luna’s insane hair colours, it suited her. “I have access to coffee and sugar. I’ll be set until I crash tonight and hey, I don’t have to worry about Shade stabbing me in the back anymore.”

“Which is always a good thing.” Speedster agreed, standing up and heading for the screens set up at the back of the room. There were two groups of screens there, both with pieces of paper attached to them. One had a blue ‘M’ on while the other had a pink ‘F.’ The two girls headed behind the latter of the two and got into their superhero costumes. By the time they were done the others who were to be involved in today’s recording had arrived and they had been joined behind the screen by villainess of the short film.

“G’afternoon Hex.” Speedster nodded to her, earning herself a grunt and the evil eye back. The other girl, who had Fused with a powerful but particularly smart witch, wasn’t one for conversation at the best of times and considering the books Juliet could see poking out of her bag, she assumed that there was a lot of coursework Hex was skipping out of doing in order to be here.

“We are taking this outside aren’t we?” Luna asked nervously as she poked her head around the screens and considered the size of the room, “I mean we’ve never tried using our powers in such a confined space before and...”

“If you bothered to remember the script, that’s kind of the point.” Hex reminded her, a small smirk on her face, “I, the bad guy, am going to get to kick your butts because you’re too inexperienced with your powers, Speedster can’t move at full speed in such close quarters when you lot are around and Chi isn’t here.” She paused and poked her own head around the screen, thinking for a moment before saying, “If it helps, I’ll try and make sure you hit the padding.”

“You are looking forward to this way too much.” Speedster grouched, knowing that she was about to get her butt kicked and not looking forward to having to let it happen. She wasn’t at as much of a disadvantage indoors as the others seemed to think so she could defend herself if she was allowed but it wasn’t in the script so she was going to have to let Hex send her flying. It wasn’t going to be pleasant but it was the price they paid for using their powers to make up for special effects.

NaNo2013: Speedster's Secrets: Part 1

“Right then,” Juliet commented to herself as she looked up and down the last road of her delivery route, “It took twenty minutes yesterday, I bet I can do it in nineteen today.”

As she reset her stopwatch, she tried to ignore the fact that it was probably a bad idea to be even trying to break her record today with all of the ice and snow that had started to become a regular feature on her route the closer she got to Christmas. It wouldn’t have been quite so bad if there had not been a fresh snow fall overnight, hiding the most treacherous patches of ice underneath a layer of freshly fallen, still quite powdery snow.

But then she relished a challenge. She would not be pushing herself to improve if she did not. Not with the skills she had acquired.

“Right.” She spoke to herself as she pulled the last pile of letters out of her bag and moved to press the button, “Three, two, one...”

She pressed the button and suddenly there was not a postwoman any more, but a blur of red and black that shot up the road, a figure appearing briefly at each door in order to post the letters through before vanishing back into the blur.

The blur was just reaching the final door when she slipped on one of the hidden patches of ice, went tumbling and crashed into one of the parked cars, sending the last few letters everywhere.

“Ow.” Juliet complained as she picked herself up, wincing slightly as she rotated the shoulder that had hit the car first and started picking the mail up. It was not the first time she had hit something at that speed, when she had first been adjusting to the powers the World Sphere had granted her, she had not been very good at breaking at all. She had improved in the last year but the rapid healing that she had gained had been incredibly useful this time last year.

She posted the last mail and then hit the button on the stopwatch, glowering at the clock for its time of fourteen minutes and seven seconds. She knew she had only dropped those two minutes because of the crash, but it still ticked her off.

At least, she thought as she dropped off her equipment home and got changed, she was done for the day. Super speed was cheating, but it meant that she finished her rounds much earlier than any other postman or woman and when she was done with her route, she was done for the day. This meant that today, as on most days, she had the entire afternoon all to herself.

Or she would have if she had not been called by one of her friends from the Club last night to double check that she was okay for filming today. She did not mind too much. Nicola, aka Snap, was in her final year and Juliet remembered what hers had been like. She was quite happy to do almost anything to make the stress of that year easier on her friend.

And since Snap was a film student, with a project to do that involved creating a short film, if this meant going in and acting for a while, she was good with that. Especially considering the genre involved played to the strengths of the Club.

She darted across town, weaving through the traffic and darting onto the university grounds. She had to slow down as she hit the padestrianized zone in order to walk at what should be a normal pace but was slow enough to Juliet’s mind that she was practically at a snail’s pace. It did not take long, however, for her to reach the building she needed and find the studios where her friend was waiting.

As she walked through the door she found that Nicola had her back to the door and had not even noticed her enter, causing her to grin as she said, “I hate ice.”

The offhand comment from nowhere made Nicola jump and wheel around. When she saw who had spoken she let out a heavy sigh and glowered at the speaker. “Juliet, seriously, a little warning when you arrive. Please?”

Juliet just continued to grin as she shucked her work boots, a pair of boots with heavy treads for her favoured trainers. Emerald green eyes dancing in their amusement, as she took a moment to let her chocolate brown hair down and brush it tidy before putting it back up.

“How was work?” Nicola grumbled as she turned back to her cameras, the small, black haired, brown eyed girl trying not to get ticked off at her friend.

“Eh, busier then yesterday, not as busy as tomorrow.” Juliet shrugged, moving over to see if she could help, “With Christmas coming up fast the post is just in heaps when I get there in the mornings. Deliveries are a breeze though.”

“With your skills, yeah.” Nicola couldn’t help but be amused at that as she finished setting up, “You’re early.”

“I’m always early.” Juliet boasted, “It’s hard not to be.”

“Speedster, your ego is showing again.” Nicola poked her in the chest, a wry smile on her face as Juliet paused for a moment before looking sheepish. “Honestly, I thought you had that under control.”

“I’m allowed to boast occasionally. You should hear some of the others after a couple of rounds.” Speedster responded, settling at her side for just long enough to pick out the props belonging to her before pacing the room, unable to stay still for more than a few moments at a time without something big to focus on.

“You lot have been drinking?! In public?” Nicola’s yelp caused Juliet to pause and chuckle.

“No, no. Don’t worry.” Juliet waved her concern off. “If we’re going to get so drunk we’re boasting, it’s done in the halls, well away from anyone else. After all, I’m the only graduate in our group.”

“And as such you’re supposed to be the responsible one.” Her friend grouched at her, “You know, trimming the excesses and stopping bad ideas like that?”

“Hey, in my defence I’m not anyone’s boss.” Speedster complained, “And if you remember, Snap, I never agreed to referee our little group. I’m not a teacher or their parents, so I don’t actually have the right to tell anyone what to do.”

“But you’re...” Snap trailed off at the sharp look Juliet was giving her. Nicola knew what was wrong. Speedster didn’t want to sit on anyone, because she remembered all too well what had happened when everything had first changed for the club and one of them had tried to suppress the changes and hadn’t been able to take the fact they were no longer ‘normal.’ Just trying to behave to another’s rules of normality had sent one member of their club crazy and another had ended it all after getting chased by police. “Oh...right.” Snap breathed, looking apologetic, “I’m sorry, Speeds.”

“It’s fine.” Emerald eyes shifted away from Nicola, towards the window where she could see snow beginning to fall, “I just wish...”

“You didn’t know they would do that, you couldn’t have.” Snap reminded her. Thinking of last December, almost a year to the day now, when everything had changed so drastically for about thirty or so lives. “Besides, it wasn’t you who found the first set.”

Juliet’s response was to pull something out of her bag, a smallish box, probably about five inches long by five wide and just as tall. She opened it and pulled out a small sphere that from Nicola’s perspective seemed to emit a bright glow. She knew what it was though.

“You brought your World Sphere?” Snap asked, moving over to get a proper look at it and see what images it was providing today.

“I don’t leave it anywhere unattended.” Speedster replied with a soft tone and slight scowl. “It’s not safe, not after...” She trailed off as the images inside the glass ball shifted from roaming green hills to a city not unlike venice, which had a great, decorated torch which they knew was lit only once a year, during an important festival.

“No, and with your house full of builders at the moment, I suppose it’s probably better than it doing to them what it did to you.” Snap agreed, reminded as the images passed some houses, that Speedster didn’t really have much peace and quiet. Between club gatherings and problems arising and work and builders, the oldest of their number often found herself with no way to unwind without going for a run. And nowadays that was getting harder and harder with the roads steadily being covered over in ice and snow.

The closer it was getting to Christmas the more enclosed they were all feeling though. For some of them it wasn’t too bad. The club members like Snap, who had not ‘Fused’ to super powered individuals, didn’t mind the cold weather curtailing expeditions outside to parks and long runs through the woods. For those like Speedster whose Fusions had resulted in gifts of power, the fact that they couldn’t let off steam once every so often was becoming a nightmare and it was even worse for the girl in front of her.

Speedster had been a runner before she had Fused with the fastest being amongst all the individuals from the world. A being who, in his own world, was never still for more than a few moments or when he was sleeping. She wanted to be able to run and it was often only her job which allowed her to blaze round town at full speed.

“Have you tried wellies?” Snap couldn’t help but offer, wondering if they would help against the cold, wet, frozen ground and allow her friend to speed along without worrying about breaking a leg or worse.

“Wellies?” Speedster blinked at her for a moment, conFusion obvious at the sudden subject change, “For what?”

“For running in the snow,” Snap chuckled, amused by the other girl’s conFusion. “Unless you want to crash again.”

“How did you know I crashed?” Juliet yelped, wondering if Snap had precognition and had not told them yet.

“I didn’t.” Nicola smirked at her, “I just guessed. You’re the one who confirmed it.”

Podium of Seasons: Original Work: Meeting Jack

Aella: age 12 years and 3 month.

Jack wasn’t sure why he was drawn to the sobbing little girl, but when he passed her hiding place at the bottom of the playground, he felt like he had to try to cheer her up somehow. Not that it would be an easy task when she couldn’t see him but he felt like he should try at least.

He knelt down at her level, growling as he saw the cuts, bruises and spectacular black eye she sported. “Easy now.” Jack tried, though it was useless to try to talk to someone who couldn’t hear him, placing his hand against her painful looking cheek and becoming slightly frustrated when she pulled away from his cold skin, but did not react to anything else.

The girl, who looked maybe ten or eleven, with long chestnut brown hair and wide brown eyes, though one was closed since her eyelid was swollen, continued to sob, both frustrating Jack and upsetting him. He had never been good with crying children and a couple of hundred years with little interaction with anyone but other spirits, all of whom were older than him, had not helped there.

Instead of trying again to talk to the girl, he stood, snowflakes swirling around him as he did so, disturbed by his movement, confusing the child, who looked around, hiccupping her words as she asked, “He...Hello?”

Jack let out a sigh as she looked straight through him, trying to calm herself as she did so, obviously embarrassed to be caught crying.

“I know you’re there.” The girl continued, watching the spot the snow had moved away from carefully, as if trying to see what couldn’t be seen, “Come out! Please?” She hesitated for a moment, then whispered, “I believe in you. Please come out.”

Jack stopped and stared at her. She couldn’t see him, so obviously she didn’t really believe in him, but her words were enough to strike a cord with him. He couldn’t help himself, wanting to at least get her smiling again, taking the time to draw out the shape of a cat in the snow and put his hands over it, lifting them slowly and bringing an ice-form of a cat out with it.

The ice-form feline rubbed against the little girl, leaving trails of ice behind in its wake, letting out a noise that sounded like a purr as she petted it, giggling as she did so. Jack grinned as the cat bounded around the girl and then leapt up and exploded into snow. The little girl let out a gasp of delight and clapped her hands, looking around and pausing as her eyes settled on him. “You’re...”

“Hi.” Jack waved, then paused and stared at the girl. “You can see me?”

She nodded, watching him carefully, “Are you... Jack Frost?”

“It’s been forever since someone your age has seen me...” Jack stared at her even as he nodded, shock coursing through him. He was taken aback as the girl tackled him, hugging the snow spirit tightly. It took him a moment to register that he should be hugging her back and follow through.

“I knew you were real.” The girl sobbed, “I knew it!”

“Hey, hey.” Jack pulled her away slightly, confused by her reaction, “What’s the matter?”

“No one believes that you and Santa are real anymore and they’re horrible about it.” The girl explained softly, her hand going to her cheek. Suddenly Jack got an idea of why she was hurt. He’d seen children get into fights over whether Santa was real or not before.

“Well we are.” Jack promised her. He looked her over, allowing some amusement to show through as he asked curiously, “What’s your name?” He refrained from asking her how old she was, too many years of interacting with female spirits had taught him much better than to ever ask that of a girl no matter how young they looked.

 “I’m Aella,” She informed him as the school bell went off, trying to calm herself down before she went, looking like she felt vindicated now and more able to face whatever trouble she would be in for fighting, “And I’ve got to go back to class.”

“I’ll wait for you at the gates, okay?” Jack asked, trying to reassure her and becoming relieved himself when she nodded, obviously willing to continue talking to him. “And you probably shouldn’t mention me around the boring kids. Only really cool kids get to see me after all. They’ll get jealous.”

“Okay.” Aella smiled at him brightly at the thought of being classified as a ‘cool kid,’ though Jack could see that doing so hurt, “Bye Mr. Frost.”

“Jack. Call me Jack.”

Podium of Seasons: Original Fiction: Book 2: Unfinished Ideas

With Spring turning to Summer in the Northern hemisphere and Autumn still clinging stubbornly to the Southern half of the world, there wasn’t much for Jack to do. It didn’t help that it was still too warm for him to work even though Winter was fast approaching down south and even if he had not been chased away the sprites of Spring, up North the temperature was starting to reach the far too uncomfortable levels as April Showers, the Spirit of Spring, prepared to Handover to Summer Thyme Blues, the Spirit of Summer.

This left Jack with a few choices of places to go and people to see. Anywhere high enough for it to have permafrost was a choice, but one Jack wasn’t fond of. They either tended to be too crowded since every Winter spirit who hated the heat as much as he did headed for the coldest places possible at this point of the year, or they were completely empty leaving Jack with no one to talk to or play with, meaning that he got bored.

The other two choices were the North or South poles. The South had penguins but would probably be heaving due to the Winter spirit migration as he joking called it while the North appealed much more due to the presence of a certain large man in a red coat. Nicholas Nowell or, as he was more commonly known amongst the mortals, Santa Claus, was always in the middle of something. It could be anything from making toys for the good little mortal children around the world to building and testing out some improvements on the sleigh.

Between the ever present ability to have some fun, the consistently low temperature and the fact that Nowell was one of the very few spirits who didn’t think Jack was too young to get a say in anything, Jack was seriously considering dodging the sprites and spirits of Spring and Summer and hanging out at the Pole for a while, if only to avoid frosting over something he shouldn’t out of boredom.

Avoiding the land routes was probably the easiest option, Jack considered as he gathered what little he owned, literally just himself and a lightly frosted backpack which contained a few things his human friend, Aella, also known as Twi to her more normal friends, had given him and thought about the best way to go.

He did not fancy running into the Summer sprites who would already be subtly starting their work with only a couple of weeks until Handover. Most of them had a basis in fire or heat of some description and Jack was not fond of the idea of being turned into a puddle, not that he was certain he could melt, but he had been threatened with it enough times that he wasn’t entirely ready to take that risk. If he took the ocean routes he could avoid them easily. Even if they were out there, which he doubted since most ocean loving Spring and Summer spirits tended to hang around the many beaches of the world, he had a way with the winds that no one else seemed to be able to match. It wouldn’t be hard for him to avoid them at best or escape from them at worst.

Making up his mind, the snow sprite left his cold but very boring mountainside hideyhole and managed to get the attention of the winds swirling around. Though he was fully aware the winds were the domain of the Star Podium, those who ruled over that was in the skies above, not once in his ninety-three years had he run into a single member, nor had he been told not to play with the wilful breezes that encircled the planet. He didn’t demand anything of them, if the winds were unwilling to carry him, he was generally willing to wait to either they were or another one came along that was, and in return they were willing to help him pull pranks, do his duties and carry him from place to place.

Luckily for him there was a breeze willing to get him to the coast at least and from there he could easily get a strong sea breeze to help him the rest of the way to the North Pole. He was halfway to the coast when he felt like a rug had been pulled out from under him and he tumbled in mid air, falling a couple of feet until he righted himself. He glanced around, trying to recognise what the feeling was and whether he had passed another spirit, maybe one of the darker aspects of nature and that had been what had caused it.

It took him a moment, then it sank in. It was a feeling of foreboding and disaster hitting that had caused his brief fall towards the world below him along with a distinct feeling of being drawn towards the north, north east in fact, towards the home of his mortal friend. Jack let out a soft hiss as the pieces came together in his head. Nowell had helped him make a bracelet for Twi that would allow her to let him know, no matter where he was or what season she was in, if she was in trouble and needed his help.

Twi was calling.

Jack knew his friend. She wouldn’t use the bracelet for anything petty. She was fully aware that he wasn’t supposed to be in England or indeed most of the Northern hemisphere once the eastern or Spring part of the Crystal Compass had taken over from Winter, so for her to be calling him now, two weeks from the Spring to Summer switch it had to be pretty urgent. If Twi needed him badly enough to activate the magic he’d given her, he was not going to let her down.

He managed to convince the wind that was carrying him to change direction, dropping him much closer to the English coast. Luckily for him Twi’s home was in a small coastal village, so the sea breeze that took him across the channel was able to drop him on her roof where, as predicted, the skylight was open.

Jack took advantage of the fact to drop into the attic and into the room that she had converted into a bedroom for him in order to give him somewhere to stay when he was allowed in the UK. There was no sign of the human girl there, but it was blissfully cool compared to the outside, probably because of the fans that he could hear humming away merrily. Silently thankful to his friend for thinking to turn on her air conditioning before he got there, he slipped through the trapdoor and into the house proper.

“Twilight?” Jack called, worried, as he carefully and cautiously moved through the house. He could hear movement downstairs which boded well, but he couldn’t be certain of who it was or whether they were an ally.

The movement stilled for a moment, suggesting that whoever was moving, could in fact hear him, meaning that it had to be another immortal or his friend, since there weren’t many others who believed in him enough to see or hear him. Then Twi’s voice floated up the stairs. “In the living room, Jack.”

Twi sounded tired and sore, causing Jack to frown as he darted down the stairs and into the front room which was less of a living room and more of a library with all the bookcases and their contents that filled the walls.

The moment he stepped through the door, Twi latched onto him. Hugging him tightly and whispering, “Thank God you’re here.”

It took a moment for Jack to respond, then he recovered from the shock of Twi’s actions and gave his friend a quick hug before pulling her away slightly in order to get a proper look at her. What he saw caused a rare flare of boiling hot rage to flash through him as he took in the blue/black bruising on her cheek that looked fresh and painful, along with the cuts and scrapes that marred her arms and the same cheek as the bruise.

“What happened?” Jack demanded, tone icy as he put a cold hand against Twi’s bruised cheek, feeling her press against the soothing coolness even as warm brown eyes flickered away from icy silver ones, shame obvious. “Twi?”

“The local children have been vanishing.” Twi replied quietly, almost sounding ashamed, “I found out who’s been taking them.”

“Who?” Jack demanded, missing the way goosebumps were rising on Twi’s skin as his anger continued to bubble away.

"Jack...” Twi hesitated for a moment, then, “We’ve got a bogeyman in town. Calls himself Bloody Bones.”

“Bloody Bones?” Jack stared at her for a moment, “You’re certain?”

“He’s the one who gave me this.” Twi indicated her cheek, “I tried to stop him taking the child who went vanishing out of the local library and...well, you can guess how that ended.”

Jack could and if anything he was glad that it wasn’t worse. Not that the disappearance of a child was a good thing, but he was less than a hundred years old and still he had heard the horror stories of the former King of Fear who had been knocked off of his throne and his place on the Shadow Compass just over nine hundred years ago. If Twi had gotten into a fight with Bloody Bones over the child the bogeyman had been trying to kidnap, it could have ended much, much worse for his friend. 

“You’re alright?” Jack tried to check her over more thoroughly, “Nothing serious?”

“I’m fine.” Twi promised, teeth chattering slightly as she noticed the way the temperature was dropping rapidly. Mentally grimacing since it hurt to grimace for real, she tried to reassure the snow sprite before her, “Just my cheek and my pride. Honest.” The temperature continued to drop though as Jack started pacing the living room. “I thought the Podium were supposed to get involved if a spirit harms a mortal.”

“They are.” Jack allowed, still pacing, “The nearest member should have gotten a boost to their powers that would allow him, her, them, whoever, to kick his ass.” Jack glanced out the window, “But it’s nearly Handover. I doubt there’s anyone in the local vicinity. Probably why he’s operating here. No one around to mess with him or whatever he’s up to.”