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Sudden Burst of Speed
Chapter 03
Cory D. Rose -
BlindmanX -
(c) 2005
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Gotham City, home to every psychopath, criminal, and gangster in a hundred mile radius. Of course the Batman is the most famous name to come out of Gotham City even though he isn't a criminal, just a vigilante. He rarely let anyone see him in the light and even then it was usually at the end of some alley cloaked in shadows.
In one part of the city, Star Lab stood proud in early morning darkness, a small dark shadow swung from a nearby building and landed on the roof of the five story building without making a sound. Years of practice made Batman the master of this particular skill. He knelt in the shadows on the roof, his glowing white eyes watching everything around him for any sign of trouble.
He preyed on criminals by making them fear him and what he represented, controlling the crime rate with his fists on a nightly basis. Gliding silently across the roof he pulled a little tool from his belt as he neared the roof access door. This wasn't the first time he ever came to this particular building, he was here at least once every couple of months, so within seconds he was inside.
Star Labs was a large outfit with labs in cities across the continent, but they had an unhealthy habit. They employed scientists that used Star Labs to create monstrous things. Most of these seemed to happen in Metropolis, but weird things always seemed to pop up when Star Labs was involved. He didn't trust them to keep their noses clean, not after he found one of their employees setting mutated animals loose on the city.
Just to see what would happen. Twelve dead, four of them homeless, three of the cops, the rest were children who wanted to pet the animals. After that mess he swore they would never get away with it again even if he had to police the scientists himself.
His movements couldn't really be tracked as he glided silently through the upper halls of the building. As usual security was light and unobservant. He used the ceiling to follow a guard that was walking down the hallway. An armed guard and it was quite obvious that the man had no clue what he was doing. Batman watched as the guard stopped at every door and made sure it was locked. This one was open and he didn't appear to surprised as he entered the room.
Batman dropped to the floor behind the man and stepped inside before jumping back to the ceiling. The guard went through the motions as he turned on the lights and made check of the room, then left without turning around after he turned out the lights.
He dropped silently from the ceiling the instant the door was shut. His cape flaring out around him to slow his fall. His white eyes shining in the darkness as he moved across the room like a shadow until he was standing in front of the computer he needed. After several visits he'd found this room was the least guarded and the easiest to gain access too. He'd have to let Star Labs know about it some time.
Security guards tended to be quite predictable so Batman knew he had twenty five minutes to himself before any of the guards returned to check on the room again. They were to predictable at times. So he was familiar with the way they worked and knew the computer would have the information he required. On his first visit several months before he took the liberty to upload a couple of watch dog programs.
The same program that alerted him to a possible crime in the making, in one of the labs a few floors down. Reaching into his belt he pulled a small disk, opened the disc reader, and loaded it into the computer. Within seconds the this second program swept through the system retrieving the information he wanted. Reaching into his belt he pulled a small wire out and plugged it into the speaker.
Several seconds later he tapped a couple buttons and a small screen in front of his left eye flared to life. A digital recording of a crime was soon playing in front of his eye. He watched in silence looking at every detail he could see, cataloging every fact, clue, and possible slip the thief may have made. It helped that he knew what he was looking for, so it was easy enough to spot.
Just days before a thief had broken into the lab and stole some rare chemicals for one of the mob bosses. He never made it out of the building. The cops had him in custody even as he was exiting the building. Batman hadn't even showed up to help them because the thief was that incompetent.
He tapped a button and paused the tape and starred at the scene a little closer and wondered if he would have to take this back to the bat cave for a more thorough scan. Then he spotted it, Batman watched the tape as carefully as he could, and knew that if this wasn't a digital recording he would never have spotted it.
There, just in the background, a blur stood just behind the original thief as the man gathered up the chemicals. Batman could tell, now at least, that the thief was a distraction and made a note to ask Gordon about the man. He had a feeling that the thief wouldn't be where everyone thought he was.
The blur effect could almost be mistaken for a distortion in the recording, but this was a digital recording and that kind of thing couldn't happen. Batman didn't like what he was seeing at all and that blur reminded him way to much of another hero from the Justice League. It also reminded him of a group of people that could cause havoc throughout the world if they set their minds to it. They were to dangerous not to watch.
'So... more than one person at the scene.' He thought to himself and tried to clean up the image, but there was only so much he could do on the inferior equipment. His eyes narrowed slightly as he considered the implications of the find. There was only one place he could find the answers he needed as well, Keystone City, home of The Flash.
The only problem was The current Flash wasn't a criminal scientist like Barry Allen was during his time, so things like this were rarely discovered until well after the fact. He wondered if he should even bring this to Wally's attention or just investigate it himself? Batman knew that Wally could do the job and had the experience. Batman found himself cut from this thought as the door knob turned and a guard he'd never seen before walked into the room.
"These new ground sweeps are killing me Frank."
"Going to the can tires you out, Joe." Frank muttered with a laugh as he ran a flashlight over the room to do a surprise check of the room.
"Humph!"
Frank, the typical overweight guard, entered the empty room behind the first guard "It can't be helped after the break in and the new funding Wayne Tech threw into this place. We got to expect stuff like this." Frank said as they exited the room and continued their seach, never seeing the shadow leaving the room above their heads.
"It does break up the bordom a little, but we are doing way to much walking."
"Oh shut up and do your job, moron."
Batman watched them from the ceiling. He wasn't surprised to see them checking the room earlier than expected, but they hadn't even bothered to turn on the lights this time. Extremely sloppy. He touched reached for his utility belt and tapped a button as he made his way out of the room and headed for the roof.
Above the building, the Batwing came to a stop and hovered over the edge of the roof as Batman jumped to the plane, walked along the wing, and got into the pilots seat as the access hatch closed silently. He spent a few seconds to check over the controls to make sure everything was in working order. He loaded his disk into the computer and transferred all the data he'd just taken to the bat computer.
As he was about the leave for home since this was his final stop of the night, his finger gripping the acceleration controls, when the Police emergency channel squawked. "Man down, Man down... We're under fire by an unknown hostile. I say again, we are under attack by an unknown hostile... Man down!"
His eyes narrowed as he brought up a map of Gotham and pin pointed where the police were. The batwing lifted into the sky and shot across the city. His trip to Keystone would have to wait until he took care of the problem.
He reached out and tapped a button. "Jon."
"Batman." The Martian Manhunter answered from his watch of the JLA satellite.
"Connect me to Flash."
"One second…you're connected."
"Flash, this is Batman."
Wally came to a stop at the edge of a beach covered with half naked women and pulled out his JLA card as it beeped. "What's up, Bats?"
"There is something going on in Keystone."
"And?"
"I'll be arriving sometime tomorrow."
Breaking into relatively slow run, for him, Wally shot across the water with a small tower of water rising up behind him. "What kind of problem was it?"
"Gotham Star Labs was broken into a few days ago, the police have been looking into a number of chemical thefts, and the security tapes at Star Labs managed to get some pictures of a super fast blur. Not enough to get a good look, but enough to point in your direction."
"Thanks I'll…" Flash started, but Batman had already cut the signal. "Typical."
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"I need to check something out at the Military base Ranma." Jay said as the little police radio he carried around told him of the attack.
"What's going on?" He asked.
"Someone is attacking the Military Base and several of the soldiers at the gate are down."
"They can't handle it themselves?" Ranma asked and sounded a little surprised. "They are the military after all."
"Naw, the base is spread pretty thin right now because of all the reconstruction going on." Jay explained. "Kobra's device caused a lot of damage and it will be years before we recover completely."
"I thought we took care of all that yesterday?"
"Just the simple things that we could do with our speed, the rest of it has to be taken care of the normal way."
"Oh." Ranma said and shrugged.
They quickly paid their bill at the café and headed outside. Jay looked at Ranma just as he was about to leave. "Do you want to go back to the house and wait for me to get back? You haven't really had to deal with anything like this yet."
"I'll come along with you. I need to see how these things work and it is part of my training." Ranma said.
"Alright then, follow me and don't get left behind." Jay said as he shot off down the street. He was running even faster than Ranma was used to.
They quickly reached speeds that were impossible for the human eye to see. Ever since he had finished all that reading just a few hours ago he had developed a new level of respect for just how fast he could move now, but these old men were constantly surprising him.
With just a little effort he could outrun the fastest car on the road and leave it in the dust, but these old men just made him look like an armature. As a novice Ranma figured he had quite a bit to learn about his speed, but he just got a thrill out of dodging around all the things that were in his way. He had to be super careful with his new abilities or someone would get hurt.
Just a little side step to either side and he could dodge his way around all the people and cars that were in his way. It was one of the most basic moves and it came to him almost instinctively as he followed Jay through the streets. Ranma was a bit galled to see that Jay was quickly starting to outrun him even as they raced across the bridge and entered Keystone City again.
He only started to slow down as they neared the Military Base. Jay pointed ahead of him as they approached. "Look at that."
Ranma glanced ahead of them and saw a small column of black smoke rising into the air. "Is that the base?"
"Yes, so we need be careful. Something is on fire over there and whatever set it off could still be there."
"Alright."
"Save the people first. Get them out of the way before we even try to stop whoever did that. Lives are more important than any criminal that might be around."
Ranma nodded. He understood that protecting the innocents came before anything else, it was the Code. He wanted to mention something about a code, but he couldn't recall what the code was in the first place. So he shrugged it off.
They curved around several blocks before they turned one last corner and Ranma realized that they had just started to run down the road that led to the main entrance to the base. The first thing they saw as they came to a stop was that the main gate was still closed.
Next to the gate however were four men with their rifles raised to shoot at something in the air. What caught Ranma's attention was that none of them had moved an inch when they arrived. They hadn't even lowered their guns.
"What in the world happened to them?" He asked.
"I'm not sure. It looks like someone wanted to get into the base without causing any harm. They appear to be stuck like this. I'm pretty sure I know what did this and it will wear off in a few hours."
"Are they even alive?" Ranma muttered. The frozen soldiers were giving him the creeps. They were like life like statues with loaded weapons.
"Yeah, they are still breathing." Jay said after making quick diagnosis. "We need to get inside and see if we find whoever did this. If you see any colored gas floating around along the ground, avoid it or you'll end up like se poor guys."
"Are they safe like this?"
"For now, but we need to hurry if we want to save them." Jay said as he looked at the gate. "I have to get inside. Find another way in if you can."
Ranma watched in a bit of shock as Jay ran 'through' the gate in a burst of electricity. He walked over, rested his hand against it, and found that it was completely solid. "How in the world did he do that?"
He glanced up at the top of the gate, crouched, and jumped over the gate without really trying. His foot touched down on the other side and he looked around for Jay, but he was nowhere in sight. What he did see were several people frozen in place along the sidewalks and even in the middle of the road. Several of them, like the other guys, had weapons drawn and were pointing them at the sky. He glanced around again and saw some movement near the middle of the base.
His aura flared around him like a wave of electricity and he started to run towards the disturbance. Even at his current speed he could see that the red and blue blur was removing several people from a burning truck and placing them against the wall of a nearby building. Ranma counted over a twenty men who were about to be engulfed in the flames form the truck and he raced in to lend a hand.
Within less than a second the two of them managed to save all the men from the fire. Jay stopped in front of the burning truck and started to concentrate as he held his hand out. Then he suddenly pulled his hand back and Ranma could literally see the air being pulled away from the fire around the truck. Jay then thrust his hand forward, sent a wave of air at the truck, and blew the fire out like a candle.
"Cool!" Ranma said a he came to a stop next to Jay.
"Heh, I've still got a trick or two left." Jay said. "Now we need to find the person that did this."
"Over there I think." Ranma said as he pointed at a building down the street.
There was something sitting on the ground right outside and old storage building of some kind. The large front door was wide open and they could see a flashlight flickering around inside the building. Before they could even run over and check things out a form came out of the pulling something so heavy that it was being dragged on the ground. Then the person stumbled and dropped whatever the thing was on their foot.
"Well from the sound of the voice that's a girl." Ranma said.
"Indeed. Let's go and see what she wants from that building." Jay said as he shot forward.
Shrugging, Ranma followed him at a slightly slower pace. They came to a stop several yards from the girl as she finished attaching the heavy object to the side of her bike. Ranma was close enough to see that she had managed to take several other things as well.
"Stop right there girl." Jay said as he walked forward and into the light created by the girl's flashlight.
She stopped and looked up at him suddenly. "Ah &#!"
"Who might you be?" Jay asked mildly. "And watch your language, you're to young to be cussing like that."
"Call me Kid Rocket and I'm just here borrow some parts." She said as she stood up and ran hand through her spiky green hair.
"Kid Rocket?" Ranma muttered and rolled his eyes. What was it with these people and lame superhero names?
"The police are already on their way girl, just put those things down and we talk about this peacefully." Jay said.
The girl snorted. "Yeah right, I know how you people work. FLARE!"
Something on the front of the bike suddenly exploded into a miniature sun and something told Ranma to dive to the side. When he came back to his feet the miniature sun was lifting into the sky and he could hear the girl laughing as she rocketed out of the area and vanished into the sky. He rubbed his eyes as he came to his feet and his sight slowly came back.
"You alright Ranma?" Jay asked as he knelt down on the ground and picked up a small box the girl had dropped.
"Yeah, but that light got me." Ranma muttered. He was still seeing spots in front of his eyes.
"Me too and I should have known better. Ah well, win some and lose some."
"We'll get her next time." Ranma said. "What did you find?"
"A clue, but I'm not sure if it's a good one or not." Jay explained as he handed the box to Ranma. "What do you think of this?"
Ranma took the box and looked it over. "What am I supposed to be seeing?"
"It's from Wayne Tech Enterprises in Gothom City." Jay explained. "I'm a bit surprised to see it here in this old building. Wayne Tech tends to deal in very advanced technology."
"So it's out of place among all this old stuff?" Ranma asked and pointed at the storage building with his thumb.
"Exactly."
"Do you think talking to the Military could help us find that girl?"
Jay shook his head. "I doubt that, but I think we may be able to find out what those parts can be used for. I'll need to call in a favor to find out though."
"Cool." Ranma said as he handed the box back. They waited for the military police to show up before they left the area and headed home. It took another three hours for the frozen soldiers to unfreeze and they couldn't remember anything except some kind of gas bomb. They were all taken into the military hospital to be looked over.
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The old man frowned as he walked back to the house with a handful of mail in his hands. Even though he was using the house as a kind of staging point to set his plans in motion, he still had to pay bills on the stupid thing. Grumbling a little he quickly sorted the bills, junk mail, and checks he'd received. To him it was a necessary evil, but one he would like to do without. He had better uses for his hard earned money.
He looked up as he sensed something and watched as his grand daughter's flying bike came in for a landing from the window. He was glad the thing had a small cloaking device on it so that people couldn't spot it from the ground. Unless you knew what to look for anyway.
Kid Rocket leaned back and fired the thrusters as she brought the bike around, sending a wave of dust and leaves away from the bike. It leveled out into a hover as the garage door opened and she quickly landed inside. He grunted as the door shut behind her. The girl had skills, but she was still to young for this kind of thing. Luckily she wouldn't be doing it for very much longer, she just didn't know it yet.
She liked to show off at the most inappropriate times. He made his way back to the house just in case someone was following her. "Charle!"
"I'm back, Grandpa!" She yelled from the garage.
He quickly made his way over to the door to the garage and stepped out. "You did remember to use the Cloak on the way back here didn't you?"
"Yes Grandpa. I ran into a couple of the speedsters while grabbing the items from the military base. I had to make sure they didn't follow me."
He stared at her for a few seconds. "Who did you run into, girl?"
Charlie dismounted from the bike and quickly removed her helmet, coat, and most of her equipment. Her spiky green hair was slightly slicked back from sweat. "That old speedster you don't like and the new boy."
"Garrick?"
"Yeah, him."
"Any others? Or just those two?"
"Just them. They caught me right as I was coming right out of the building, but I used the Flare light on the bike. Managed to get away before they could capture me and I don't think they expected me to resist them."
"And the equipment?"
"Right where you said it was." She said as she pulled it out of a storage box on the side of the bike and handed it to him. "Here you go."
He took the box and quickly opened it to several small items. "Excellent work Charlie."
She grinned. "No problem, it was way easy."
"With this we should be able to get your hover bike up to full speed now."
"Oh I hope so! I can't wait to use it again. This thing is amazing!"
The old man laughed. "Well you go get cleaned up. I'm going to start making the alterations on these parts. You should be ready for the next theft here pretty soon. Maybe even tonight or tomorrow."
Charlie nodded as she dashed out of the garage and headed for her room. She didn't see the glare the old man sent at her as she ran off. Instead she only had one thing on her on her mind, a shower and a change of clothes.
He waited till he heard the shower running before he walked over to the counter and dumped the contents of the box out on the counter. The military, as with most large forces, tended to make the same mistakes. They were always looking for the next update or new weapon and forgetting about the items that were replaced. They were all fools.
He held up a small clear bottle with a grey powder in it and grinned. "Telaxia compound. I thought I'd never have to see this cursed substance again."
Setting that to the side, he picked up the box with the computer chips in it and reached for his tool box. He would need a couple of hours to get the Telaxia ready for use and the sooner that was done the sooner Charlie could be sent back out for her final mission.
That meant he had to get her hover bike updated and ready for another flight. For the next several hours he worked, slowly, and methodically with the kind of patience that only an old man could achieve. As soon as he was finished he was ready to insert three computer cards into the bike. He glanced at the bottle of Telaxia again to make sure it was there before he started on the bike.
He quickly inserted the cards into the computer core below the seat with no problems. The computer automatically started to upload all the new information from the cards, quickly updating it's systems and activating several others that weren't ready. Several gauges across the dash lit up as they came to life.
Moving back over to the counter he looked at the little bottle again. It was the one thing that his plans hinged on, and if he wanted to complete it in a timely fashion, it needed to be refined a little. Even the military wouldn't keep refined Telaxia compound sitting around unless they wanted to blow up the building where it was stored. The substance, created by an old, and long dead, superhero back in the twenties was one of those wonder substances.
It could be used as a fuel, a weapon, almost anything when it was combined with something else. Telaxia was an Enhancer. It was also highly addictive if ingested by anyone. The old superhero had fallen because of his addiction to the stuff. Getting gunned down in a fire fight with some gangsters. There were only about five people in the world that even remembered the stuff even existed. Even the military, who had records on it, had relegated it to an unsecured building and forgotten it's danger.
There wasn't much in the bottle either, but he could easily create more once he analyzed the substance. He already knew quite about it anyway, this was just the final steps and then Jay Garrick would die.
After that he would be able to create his formula once more and emulate the Flash again. This time it wouldn't be temporary either. He just needed time to perfect it and find a balance within his original chemical compound and that wouldn't take any time at all since most of the research was already completed. Once he did that he would be able to move onto the next step of his plan.
The hover bike's computer beeped to let him know that it was done upgrading the new hardware. With this second theft all of Charlie's equipment was complete, but she didn't know that. She thought it would be complete when the next crime was pulled off, but by then his plans would be into the final stage. The hover bike was a work of art, but wasn't really of use to him. It was a toy to keep Charlie out of the way while he worked, nothing more.
Glancing at the clock, he realized he'd spent most of the afternoon in the garage tinkering around. He quickly started some simple experiments on the Telaxia compound and let the computer do its work. It would only be a few more hours now and everything would be ready.
Nodding to himself he headed inside and saw that Charlie was making dinner for them. Over the years the girl had learned to be quite a cook. Now if only she would get rid of the stupid hair style and act like a regular girl.
"Hi Grandpa!"
"Charlie, I've finished adding the new parts to your bike."
She ran over and hugged him. "Thank you!"
Patting her on the back he looked around. "So what did you make for dinner?"
"Something simple. Some spaghetti, vegetables, and a bit of wine."
"Sound great." He said as he stepped over to the table.
"If the bike is done, do you want me to get that last item tomorrow?"
"No, I still have some other equipment upgrades to perform tonight on the other items you brought back. I also need to analyze that powder you brought back. It's quite dangerous if not handled properly, but with the right mixture I can enhance the speed and power of your bike by sixty five percent."
Charlie nodded. "That's great! We can boost the laser with that kind of power and stay in the air."
"Exactly. I thought you might like that."
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"Ranma!" Joan yelled up the stairs. "Dinner will be ready here in a few minutes."
"Alright." Ranma called.
For the last few hours, ever since the near fight, a number of visions had assaulted Ranma. At first it hadn't really bothered him, but then it started to really distract him. When they first started him, Jay, and even Max Mercury were running across Keystone City after visiting one of the police stations.
At the time Jay had looked worried, but Ranma wasn't sure if he should ask if something was wrong. He kept looking at a piece of paper with a bunch of chemicals listed. Ranma knew he didn't recognize any of them, even from all his reading earlier in the day.
As if that didn't give him a perpetual migraine. The first vision hit him right as he was about to head out on another run with Max. They took off like they normally did and this time Ranma didn't even have to concentrate like he usually did. No aura or electricity or anything, though the acceleration was quite a bit slower it allowed him time to build up his speed at a much more controlled pace.
Instead Ranma made it about two blocks when his head started to hurt and his vision blurred out and he stumbled to a halt as he watched a large man, his teacher Genma, was beating the living hell out of him and screaming about something. Throwing him around like a rag doll, booting him into the air, and punching him over and over without a hint of mercy.
The vision seemed to last for hours, but by the time he fell to his knees, only a few seconds had gone by. Even Max was just running back to him looking worried. Several of the people that saw Ranma stumble to a stop seemed to know who he was and they quickly helped Max carry him over to bench.
Ranma didn't like to be coddled like that, but one thing he did realize was that nearly all his martial arts knowledge was coming back to him and the reasons why Genma treated him like a punching bag. He could remember thousands of moves, how they worked, when, and how to use them effectively. He realized that his skills were also a little rusty after not using some of the moves for over a month.
All his running around was keeping him in fantastic shape, but there were other muscles he wasn't using while running that needed to be re-strengthened or he wouldn't ever be able to do certain moves right. He was a martial artist with nearly eight years of training under his belt. That man seemed to have taught him to do the impossible, but Ranma could tell that he had several important memories that were still missing.
So after that he'd been slowly running through his martial arts training kata all afternoon. He quickly realized that the style he used at the martial arts school was nothing compared to what he knew now. Combining that with his speed and he was able to push through several days worth of training in a matter of hours. The only thing he didn't do was the aerial moves. His body was at its limit after everything that had happened lately.
He was still feeling the pain from that girl's beating a few hours before. For a second he wanted to grab 'little Ranma' and whimper in remembered pain as well, as if that would do him any good. She could kick like a mule. With a sigh he headed down stairs and walked over to the table. Jay was giving him that funny look again.
"What's up?" Ranma asked as he sat down.
"Hmm?" Jay asked.
"That funny look you keep giving me." Ranma explained.
Joan laughed as she wandered into the room. "You keep surprising him, dear."
"How?"
"You don't act like Impulse."
Now Ranma looked confused. "Huh?"
"Well you see, I've noticed that whenever someone gets access to the speed force they seem to use it for everything. Running to work, to school, chores, even running downstairs to dinner. Bart does it all the time."
Ranma nodded. "I would have, but after everything that has happened today I'm just wore out."
"Now that I can understand, you did do the library, that puzzle, then spent the after noon practicing at the school, then the base, and that girl you ran into didn't help matters either. You've had a busy day."
Wincing, Ranma nodded.
Jay just laughed. "Well eat up, then we can relax for a couple of hours before it's time for bed. There are a number of things we have to do tomorrow."
"Like what?"
For the next few seconds Jay didn't say anything. "Well, tomorrow I'm expecting a guest in town. He hasn't said that he's actually going to show up, but I know the guy well enough to know he'll be around. We just have to find him."
"Who is it?"
"A member of the JLA." Jay explained.
"The what?"
Jay laughed again. "I keep forgetting you don't know all about this stuff. JLA stands for Justice League of America, a group of Super Hero's that band together to fight battles that threaten the entire planet."
Ranma gave him a blank look. "This happens so often that it required that an entire group of people with powers be formed?"
"Indeed, there are actually more than one group. Though each of them fights different kinds of battles. For example there is the Justice Society of America, the group I belong to, and we fight similar types of danger. It doesn't help that most of the groups have one or two super villains that they fight regularly."
"Weird."
"Jay, don't forget to look up that chemical list you brought home." Joan said as they started to eat dinner.
He nodded. "Nearly forgot about that. I still can't recall what that list was for."
oooooooooo
The moon lit up the countryside as a blur of motion shot across the landscape, a long line of lightning charged air stretching out behind a running figure. This man's features are impossible to make out as he runs, the colors of his red and blue costume coloring his lightning as he runs. An evil grin crosses his face as he speeds up and runs through small town in the middle of Colorado.
His purpose is unknown, but it quickly becomes obvious as he runs at and phases right through a small car driving down the road. Seconds after the man passes through he has passed through two buildings, three more cars, and a small wooded park and vanished into the distance.
Behind him everything he passed through starts to violently explode as his passing supercharged everything he touched, causing it to detonate. He doesn't have to hear the explosions to know they went off, nor the emergency crews responding to the scenes. He's already several miles away.
No, he can feel it in the speed force as he runs, his feet barely touching the ground. Two eyes, barely visible in his shadow covered face light up with an unholy glee as he finds a freeway and decides to see how many cars he can take out before someone responds.
His speed picks up as he runs down the road, around curves, and into the mountains. Ten late night drivers meet their fates as their vehicles detonate, causing giant craters in the middle of the roads and echoes through the mountains.
Twenty eight dead, across a five hundred miles of land, in less than five seconds. The man comes to a stop at a mountain lookout, high in the mountains and gazes out over the snow covered hills in the distance. He sneers as a pair of medical helicopters race by several minutes later, heading for a pile of flaming debris a couple miles away. Then in a burst of lightning he vanishes, setting off a sonic boom that echoes across the land.
oooooooooo
The next morning Ranma was up early and spent several minutes meditating before he rolled out of bed and got dressed. He was a bit surprised to find that Joan had lain a set of clothes out for him to wear. The clothes sat on top of the one dresser in the room. A pair of jeans and a tight fitting black t-shirt.
He also put his cloth bracers back on. He just liked the look of that dragon as it wrapped around his forearm. It was just cool. Once dressed, he spent several seconds running through some complicated stretches to loosen up some muscles that he hadn't used in weeks.
After several hours sleep Ranma could tell that a few more of his memories were back. He could remember some kid in with a large spatula trying to fight him for food. Ranma still wasn't sure what it meant, but felt as if they weren't enemies. As he entered the back yard he reached out and drew some of the speed force into his body, forming an aura of electricity and started his martial arts practice.
Unlike the night before he was able to let loose and with in a blink of the eye he was bouncing all over the yard, throwing punches, and doing kicks. At first his movements were a little off balance, but he quickly corrected his mistakes as he ran through everything he could remember.
After more than an hour of this he finally came to a stop, sweat dripping off his body, and gasping for air. His clothing was steaming a little, but that quickly vanished as the light breeze cooled him down. He let go of the Speed and just stood there feeling the difference.
This was only the third day since he started training how to use his speed and already he felt like he could nearly anything. He already had several ideas running through his head on adapting his moves and the speed force for combat. He wasn't fast enough to actually break the sound barrier yet, but he could tell he was close.
He looked up as Jay stepped outside and looked him over. "It's time for breakfast, and then we have to head over and talk to a friend of mine."
"Sure, I just finished anyway."
"What was all that you were doing there? I know some martial arts myself and I've never seen some of those moves."
"Just some stuff I'm remembering. I was also trying to adapt the moves to this rate of speed so that I have full control. It will take me several months before I can do that though, especially if I get even faster than I am now."
"Oh you will, you are at about a quarter of your full speed right now."
Ranma shook his head. "I can't believe I have that far to go yet."
"It's only the third day kid. You should be there by the end of the month at least."
He sighed as they headed in side and ate a quick breakfast. After that Jay led them across the city on an early morning patrol. Ranma had to push to even keep Jay in sight today. He barely managed to keep up with the old man as they ran. He only caught up with him when he came to a stop outside a tall skyscraper.
"Here we are." Jay said, not even winded.
"Who are we meeting?"
"The daughter of an old friend of mine."
"Oh?"
"Jessy Quick, daughter of Johnny Quick. She runs QuickStart Enterprises and is one of us as well."
Ranma smirked a little. "I take it the name represents what she does?"
"Yep."
"Now follow me, if you can run fast you can get into see her without an appointment." He shot into the building, using the nearest open door.
Ranma was right on his tale before he even had time to think about it and within half a second were racing up the stair wells, dodging several people along the way. They came out on a small outdoor overlook. They came to a stop as Jay noticed a blonde, blue eyed girl sitting at one of the outdoor tables. Ranma figured she was in her mid twenties at least, though she was still good looking from what he could see.
She stood up and hugged Jay as he walked over. "Jay!"
"Jesse, this is Ranma Saotome."
Turning her head, she looked him over. "So this is the one that showed up the other day? They seem to be popping up all over the place these days."
Jay laughed and nodded. "It's not that bad and Impulse is still learning so he doesn't quite count, you know how he tends to dash into things without a single thought. Ranma is quickly catching up and should be up to speed, so to speak, in a few weeks. I was going to have the two of them meet later on today."
"That might be a good idea." Jesse said as she sat back down and drank some coffee out of a nearby mug. "So why you stopping by?"
"I need to examine some of Johnny's early note books."
"Why? Those aren't all that useful."
"We consulted on a case about forty years ago and I wanted to see if he wrote something down that I might have missed. What I want is right on the tip of my tongue but I just can't seem to remember what it was. I'm almost positive that Johnny wrote what want in one of his note books."
Jesse nodded. "Sure, you can give it a shot, but take a look at this before you go read them." She handed over the rolled up morning paper.
"Which page?"
"The front."
Jay spread the paper out, blinked, and started to scan through the three page article on a group of explosive deaths in Colorado the night before. "This is bad, but what does it have to do with us?"
"There's a graph on the second page, check out the times for all the explosions and connect the dots." Jesse explained.
Glancing over Jay's shoulder, Ranma could see a small map of Colorado with a number of locations marked. "They make up a giant letter 'E'"
"Indeed." Jesse conceded.
"These deaths and explosions all happened at nearly the exact same time?"
"Yes, I was going to check it out, but since you're here I was thinking it might be connected to something you are working on."
"Did you ask Wally."
Jesse snorted. "As if I can ever find him. He practically ignores everyone as he races around the globe day in and out. I haven't actually talked to him in a couple of weeks now, other than when he was telling us what to do during the clean up."
"He's been moody."
"I noticed." Jay said. "I may have to change my plans a little because of this. Someone needs to look into it."
Jesse nodded. "Another reason I'm handing this to you is that I've got some business to take care of in a little while and I won't be able to even help till this after noon. Maybe you can get Max to look into it as well."
Reaching into her pocket Jesse pulled out a key ring and handed it over. "In the basement of my house, the office filing cabinets. Third one from the left has all his books."
Jay lit up with electricity and flickered before Ranma could do anything. Then Jay handed the key back. "Thank you."
Now Ranma was gaping at Jay. "You couldn't have possibly…"
"Told you kid, you have a long way to go." Jay said and laughed. "Now come on, let's go check those note books."
The blonde waved goodbye as they ran out of the building a few seconds later.
oooooooooo
Batman sat in front of his computer down inside the Bat Cave gazing up at the large overhead screen, his eyes narrowed. He tapped a couple of buttons and cycled through several pieces of electronic paperwork trying to find a common thread among all the data. Lists of thefts from over thirty different places all across the country. He knew what was stolen, and when, but wasn't sure about the why.
So innocent looking that no one would even think to connect them, but Batman knew better. Two innocent thefts from a chemical storage lot in New York, chemicals that weren't even made anymore. A missing case of an out of use drug from a small company that operates near the Rocky Mountains. He taps another button and confirms that at one point the drug was used by the military in a number of tests in forties.
The crimes are listed, page after page, from all across the country. He's sure that even more would show up if he had better access the computers in Europe and Japan. By themselves the chemicals and drugs have a very limited use, but when combined with the right substance, become something very dangerous. Another button sends the computer into its search mode, correlating the information into a whole.
Minutes later Batman glares at the screen as the computer confirms what he was thinking. "A lightning bolt…"
"Alfred! Prep the Batwing! I'm headed for Keystone City to investigate a series of thefts."
"Very well sir. Shall I pack your pajamas?"
Five minutes later the Batwing hovers almost invisibly over Wayne Manner, hidden in the shadows of the night sky. It rises into the air as it's engines kick in and vanishes into the distance almost instantly. Its muted engines are only heard by the cows of a farm as it races by, slowly picking up speed.
oooooooooo
"How did you do that back there!" Ranma asked.
"Do what?" Jay asked as they ran through Keystone and headed for the residential section.
"Move so fast!" Ranma said. "I know you said I had a ways to go, but I couldn't even keep up with you for most of it."
"You have to work your way up to that speed. Look how much speed you accomplished at the library, how much you learned. It just needs to be applied Ranma, focused correctly. I've been doing this job for over sixty years kid, so I know a thing or two."
"That was just amazing!"
"Well it might surprise you, but if you are anything like Wally right now, I think you should be able to match him easily and he has been known to circle the world several times in less than a second."
Ranma gapped at the old man and couldn't even imagine running that fast. "You have to be kidding."
"I'm not. I can circle the world at least three times a second, but I'd need a couple hours of rest afterward."
They raced across the bridge as Ranma tried to understand that kind of speed. Ranma had to admit that he was having a hard time comprehending anything that fast. A few seconds later they stood in front of a small three story house hidden among some tall trees. They were inside before anyone could even see them. They headed into the basement and located the filing cabinets.
"There, that should be the one." Jay said as he opened the right cabinet and pulled out a stack of small leather bound books. He grabbed the earliest ones, flipped through them and handed them to Ranma. "Read these as I finish them, there is some good information in these that will help you."
Frowning, Ranma took the book and started to read.
Jay stopped on the seventh one and looked over at Ranma. "Whatever you do, never say the formula that Jesse uses while you are already running. It could very well kill you or send you back into the speed force. Wally used it once while he was already running and he said his speed skyrocketed."
Paling a little Ranma nodded as they quickly finished the note books. Going back into the speed force was no longer something he really wanted at the moment. He had a feeling he could go back any time he really wanted.
They detailed the life of a very stubborn man and all the adventures he went on during his life. The last book detailed his final adventure, written by Jesse, soon after Johnny Quick entered the speed force. "I don't see anything in these that might be of interest to you."
Jay shook his head. "I would have sworn that what I wanted was in one of these books. It's from one of our earliest cases."
"Maybe we skipped over it by accident?" Ranma asked.
"I don't know. I was looking for a chemical list that was used by one of our enemies."
Ranma skimmed through the books again, this time in less than a second as Jay watched. "I don't see anything like a list. Are you sure it's in one of these books?"
"Positive." Jay said, then shrugged. "Guess I'll have to dig around a little more."
"Well where to now then?" Ranma asked as they put the books away and left the house. "It's not even noon yet."
"Well, how about we do some long distance running?"
"How far?"
"About six hundred miles or so, I think it's time you met Impulse officially."
"You mean that kid that caused all those problems when we were cleaning up the city? The one that got bored?"
Jay grinned. "Yep, Impulse is a bit of a character, but he seems to have a good handle on the job. Max is keeping an eye on him, trying to teach him patience. But he's only been at it for a few days now so they aren't even settled in at their new house yet."
"What an impossible job."
"Indeed, but well worth the time and Max needs Impulse just as much as Impulse needs Max." Jay said and shot off down the road without another word.
Ranma stood there for a second before he shot after the old man. The guy was running so fast that Ranma couldn't even catch up with him. Jay was over a mile ahead of him and that distance was growing with every step Ranma took. Growling, Ranma bared down, focused his aura, and slowly started to increase speed as he weaved his way through the center of Keystone traffic.
Over the next several minutes they proceeded to race around both cities at speeds that pushed Ranma beyond his limits. Jay explained that no matter why they were out running, they should always take a couple of seconds to do a patrol of the city for any kind of trouble. It helped to keep the city's crime rates down at a minimum and the criminals on their toes.
Eventually Jay took a sharp right hand turn and shot down a road that led out of the city. Ranma kept up as best he could but Jay quickly started to out run him once more. Before he knew it Jay was on the horizon, only his lightning aura could be seen trailing behind him.
What really surprised Ranma, although it really shouldn't have, was when Jay left the road and went cross country. Running across corn fields, though open country, and around hills until they found themselves entering Alabama.
Ranma watched the signs as they ran and realized that they were running near I-195 and just entering Jasper County, heading for Manchester. As they neared the city Jay started to slow down and Ranma was finally able to catch up with him. They glided into town and automatically started to check it out, doing a patrol of the streets so that they knew the territory.
"Why are we here again?"
"To have you meet Impulse."
"Right, and why does he live in the middle of nowhere?"
Jay grinned a little. "Because it's boring here."
"Right." Ranma muttered, he wasn't sure if boring is what Impulse might need if the kid was as hyperactive as Jay said he was.
Eventually Jay came to a stop in front of a two story house and looked around to make sure he was at the right place. Seconds later Ranma was finally able to come to a stop beside Jay and nearly collapsed gasping for air.
"Gotta do better than that kid, we've only been running for a couple of minutes. Nothing to fast."
Ranma glared at him.
Ignoring him, Jay walked over to the house and knocked on the door. It opened almost instantly and a teenager with messy brown hair stuck his head out. "What?"
And then he was gone before Jay could answer. Ranma looked in the window and realized that the kid was running all over the house leaving hundreds of after images. Several of them were watching TV trying to watch more than one show at once, one was doing homework, one was sitting in the corner pouting, while yet more were doing household chores.
Jay looked amused. "I see."
"Jay I should kick your ass for talking me into this." Max Mercury said as he stepped out of the kitchen and handed them both a glass of water.
"Looks like you're doing a pretty good job Max."
"That kid…"
"Where?" Bart asked as he looked at them from behind Max before the after image just vanished.
"Bart!" Max yelled and reached out to grab the air in front of him. The white haired speedster held the collar of Bart's shirt as the boy glared at him.
"This is boring."
"Good. Now, Bart, I'd like you to meet Ranma Saotome. He's the newest speedster to come about."
"Hi!" Ten Bart's said at once from different locations around the room. "You're the guy that decked Wally a couple days ago! That was so cool!"
Ranma wondered if Max even had any control over the kid at all. "How you doing?"
"I'm bored!" Bart yelled.
"Well you're still taking the day off. I told you, no speeding!" Max yelled. "Just live a normal day, at normal speed."
"Humph!" Bart muttered and folded his arms, looking rebellious.
"No need to rush through everything Bart." Jay said. "It can be relaxing to just let things happen at normal speed."
The by glared some more. "Flick a light switch and tell me that again. It takes forever for the stupid light to come on! A whole minute at least!"
"A light comes on instantly." Ranma said in confusion.
"One would think so." Max said and dropped Bart, who ran over to the TV and started up a video game.
"He speeds through everything?"
Max nodded. "Even his perceptions are sped up with the speed force and I can't seem to get him to slow down."
"Why would anyone live like that?" Ranma asked as he flipped a light on and off a couple of times.
"It's all he knows." Jay said. "He was born immersed in the speed force and it was making him grow at an accelerated rate. About one year per week I think, and his parents had to place him in a virtual reality setting to keep him educated and occupied. He was recently stabilized, but he still thinks real life is like that VR chamber of his. We'll break that habit of his one of these days."
"I'm standing right here you know." Bart complained as his after image faded from beside Jay, it looked annoyed, and bored. Then he appeared in front of Ranma.
"Wha?"
Pointing a finger at Ranma, Bart yelled. "I CHALLENG YOU TO MORTAL KOMBAT!"
Ranma blinked. "Huh?"
"BART!" Max yelled.
"What is Mortal Combat?" Ranma asked.
"Kombat, with a 'K' and it's a fighting game." Bart said and executed several badly copied martial arts moves. Ranma almost laughed at him.
"You want to fight me?"
"To Mortal Kombat! It's the coolest game ever!"
"This week." Max muttered to himself and sipped some of his coffee.
"It's a game?"
"Yeah! There's all these cool characters…" Bart explained, going into detail on all the different people in the game.
"Right, it's about fighting, I can kick your ass." Ranma said confidently. Then Bart dragged him over to the TV and handed him a control.
"Let's play."
Ranma wondered what the evil glint in the kid's eye was for.
ooooooooooo
With a steady hand the old man carefully added six drops of distilled Telaxia and watched the liquid in the beaker start to froth up. He quickly placed a stopper to make sure it all stayed in the beaker. It had to sit for a couple of hours to let it settle, but after that his plan could be set in motion.
Now all he had to do was find a way to get the his grand daughter to drink the stuff. Every time he forced her to sit there and accept his weekly shot she would pull away from him more and more. She needed to be controlled and soon, this streak of independence was irritating him more than he wanted to admit.
It was that same independence that got her father killed. He briefly considered using some mind altering drugs and quickly discarded the idea. She only had to pull one more job for him and then she could be cut loose. No matter how hard he tried she was just two head strong for her own good.
Turning, he grabbed a small silver canister and several of the microchips off the counter and moved over to the hover bike once more. He removed the seat and pulled out a canister similar to the one in his hand and switched them. He could hear the bike's systems warming up as the new fuel mixture cycled through the its injector system.
The fuel was one of the things that made running the hover bike so expensive, but again, it only needed to function one more time and then it wouldn't be needed anymore. He quickly replaced the seat, opened up a small panel on the side and started inserting micro chips.
After about an hour he finished the updates to the hover bike and programmed the onboard computer to scan the software for signs of instability. Nodding to himself he walked back over to the counter and glanced at the beaker. The liquid inside was nearly complete. He swirled it around and watched as it sparkled under the lights.
He could see the faint signs of a purple color starting to form. Once it turned a deep purple it would be ready for use. Then Jay Garrick was going to pay for ruining his life once and for all.
"Grandpa, lunch is ready!" Charlie yelled from inside the house.
"I'll be right there." He said.
The hover bike's computer would need another ten minutes to finish its scan, and the beaker needed at least another hour. Plenty of time for lunch and to make some final decisions. He realized that this would most likely be the last time he ever got a chance to pay Garrick back and he planned to put everything he had into it, even if it killed him.
As he headed for the door into the house he spotted the small box sitting on the shelf marked 'personal'. If he ever died Charlie knew she was to open the box for instruction on what to do. Shrugging, he forcibly thrust the matter out of his mind and headed into the house and smiled at his grand daughter.
All his plans were finally beginning to form into a scheme that even Garrick wouldn't be able to stop. He almost laughed to himself, since Garrick was so fast he was used to dealing with evil faster than most people could blink. Therefore the only way to make him pay was to be slow and sneaky and forty years of planning and slow, nearly unnoticeable steps was working perfectly.
Just one or more days and the bastard would be dead. "Garrick's death will be slow and painful."
"What was that grandpa?"
"Nothing, just thinking out loud." He said as he sat down at the table. "What's for lunch."
"Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches."
"Sounds great, I have something here you might like to taste as well." He said as he poured her a bit of the Telaxia compound into a glass.
oooooooooo
"AGHAAAA!" Ranma yelled and threw the controller down on the floor.
"I win again!" Bart yelled as Ranma grumbled to himself. "You suck at this game!"
Now Ranma was glaring at the little punk. "Why you…"
"Wanna play again?"
"I've lost the last twenty games." Ranma snapped. "Even I know when I need to learn a little more about this game before I can even have a chance against you."
"So you want to play again." Bart said and handed the, now smashed, controller back to Ranma.
"No, maybe some other time though."
Bart slumped. "Now I'm bored again and it's only been a few hours."
Jay wandered into the room. "Ranma, if your done we might as well head back to Keystone, I want to do another patrol and see if we can find Barry."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, I need to talk to him and…" Jay trailed off suddenly as a long forgotten memory suddenly surfaced.
"Mr. Garrick?" Ranma asked. "Jay?"
"Ranma stay here, I'll be back tomorrow to pick you up." Jay's after image said just before it faded away.
"What!" Ranma yelled.
Bart looked curious. "What was that all about?"
"I don't know, but I don't intend to just sit here and wait for him to come back. If he's in trouble I might be able to help."
"Jay can handle this on his own." Max said before they could even think of leaving. "He'll be back soon, just sit here and wait until he gets back."
"You have got to be kidding me." Ranma said as he glared at the old man.
"I kid you not, now sit down and wait. Play some more games or something." Max said as he changed into his blue and white costume.
"But he might be heading into danger."
Max shrugged. "Jay wouldn't have told you to stay unless he thought it would be dangerous for anyone to follow him. I don't know why exactly, but I know when not to interfere."
Ranma didn't know what to do. On one hand a part of him was more than willing to just sit there and wait. Another part of him wanted to chase after the old man and see what was going on. Neither one of them seemed like the right thing to do and Max had a point too, Jay knew what he was doing.
"Well I'm going to find. He didn't tell me to stay." Impulse said as he raced out the door.
"Bart! Come back here!" Max yelled, but the boy was long gone.
Ranma smirked a little.
Max was about to rush off after the boy, but then he glanced over at Ranma. "This isn't good."
"Yeah, but I'm not about to sit around while some old guy runs off into danger without help." Ranma said. "I'm with Impulse there, let's go and see what's going on. You need to chase after him anyway and leaving me here isn't exactly the best idea."
Blurring, Max donned his uniform and adjusted his mask. "I don't like this idea boy."
"To bad." Ranma snapped, though he was unsure why. Something about being called 'boy' just irked him for some reason. "Let's go."
They ran out the door and headed for Keystone City. For the first time Ranma found himself running with someone else other than Jay. At first it seemed the same, but then he took a closer look as they exited the city and continued to slowly accelerate and noticed that Max Mercury's electricity flowed around him differently.
Ranma watched for couple of seconds and adjusted the flow of energy around his body. Even though it was just a slight change he could feel the difference right away and accidentally shot ahead of Max as the raced. It didn't take him long to catch up though and less than a minute later they raced through a field and hit the outskirts Keystone.
They could instantly tell that something extremely wrong was taking place as they noticed a dozen clouds of smoke rising in the sky. Ranma didn't think as he glanced at Max, motioned at the closest fire, and changed direction. The old man nodded as they split up.
Going around everything seemed to be a waste of energy in this situation and Ranma planted his foot and launched into the air. He yelled out as he flew over the house he was aiming at, past the next four, and landed awkwardly on the roof of fifth house. Resilient as always, Ranma quickly corrected for the larger than normal jump and raced across the rooftops.
He kept the fire in sight at all times and quickly determined that some kind of explosion had taken place as he neared the house and spotted the flaming car. He came to a stop and looked around, but the police hadn't shown up yet. Spotting a hose connected to the house he started to spray the car down.
Being inexperienced with his powers, Ranma was had there was a feeling there was something he might be able to do to put the fire out quickly, but he had no clue what. So he started to spay the car down and quickly got the fire under control and spotted something that shocked him completely.
On the ground next to the smoldering car the remains of the car's driver were spread out on the ground where they had fallen. He gaped at the skull looking up at him from beside the tire and nearly lost his lunch. Gritting his teeth, he ran over the house, turned the hose off, and raced for the next fire.
The second one was even worse, five shredded and burning bodies littered the sidewalk outside a laundry store.
Quite by accident he raced by and sucked all the oxygen from the fires, putting them out almost instantly. Several nearby pedestrians looked as shocked as he did.
"Did any of you see what happened?"
"No, they were just standing there when they just exploded. Then a few minutes later you showed up." One of them said.
Ranma nodded. "Call the police and tell them what happened. I have to get to the next scene and see if I can help."
They nodded as he ran down the street, heading for the next column of smoke in the distance. As he approached he spotted Max and Impulse racing around a large fire, creating a miniature tornado of air and snuffing the fire in an instant. He came to a stop next to them.
"Any bodies here?"
"No." Max said. "But we've been finding them all over the city. Someone is using the speed force to kill."
"I found Jay." Impulse spoke up. "He said that an old enemy of his is doing this, but didn't want to say which one."
"Any ideas?" Ranma asked.
"Way to man possibilities." Max said before Impulse could rattle off several hundred names. "There are a dozen or so super fast villains around, but this kind of destruction doesn't fit any of them."
"Professor Zoom." Impulse said and nodded knowingly. "He would do this."
"…and he's dead." Max snapped.
"They never stay dead."
Max sighed.
In the distance the sound of an explosion thundered over the city. Max and Impulse shot towards it without a second thought, but as Ranma turned to follow he spotted something familiar. Racing through the air about three blocks away was a very familiar hover bike. The same one he'd seen at the military base.
For a second he thought about getting Max and telling him, but by the time he got back she would be gone. Energy flared around him as he raced down the street and watched as the hover bike raced along. Once more he jumped to the roof of a house, being a lot more careful, and followed after the girl. She was part of this mess, he was sure of it.
For a second he thought about getting Max and telling him, but by the time he got back she would be gone. Energy flared around him as he raced down the street and watched the hover bike raced along. He changed directions and moved to intercept the bike as quickly as he could, but not to fast either, he had to do this right. There were lives at stake.
Once more he jumped to the roof of a house, being a lot more careful than last time, and followed the girl. After watching the way Jay took care of these things for a couple of days and reading those journals Ranma was pretty sure he could stop the girl. Everything he'd read and seen told him that he just needed to be careful and he could do it.
Racing through the city at all hours of the day as super speed was like running through a world of frozen images. This gave him time to think about what he was going to do as he ran along, something that felt like hours to him, even though it was barely half a second. Watching the girl he judged her direction and guessed that she might be heading for Star Labs.
He picked up speed and arrived at the gate around the massive complex. The security gate that controlled traffic access was wide open, a victim of the multiple explosions around the city. The guard inside the small shack next to the building was dead as well.
He heard another explosion in the distance and saw a pillar of fire rise into the sky over by the bridge that separated Keystone and Central City. Ranma ground his teeth and ducked behind the guard shack just as the hove cycle raced by over head. He could hear the girl laughing and cheering someone on as another explosion happened in the distance.
The girl was already at the building. He saw her pull a weapon out and blast a hole in the side of the building about three floors up. The explosion took out most of the windows in the building and some kind of gas started to billow out of all the holes. Several people staggered outside and collapsed to the ground even as the girl maneuvered the hove bike through the hole and landed.
Ranma ran for the building and considered some of the things he'd read in those journals by Johnny Quick. What he recalled the most about them was a list of techniques that were unique to speedsters, things Jay had only hinted at so far. Ranma narrowed his eyes as he approached the building without slowing down and raced up the side as easily as running on flat ground.
In a burst of electricity he came to a stop next to the hover bike and glanced around. The girl wasn't anywhere to be seen. He scanned the room for several seconds. "Where is she?"
There was a crash out in the hall and Ranma yanked the door open and looked out to see about a dozen people in lab coats passed out on the floor. The girl was had just knocked over a cart and looked up as he entered the hall. She gaped at him for a second and Ranma got another look at her and could tell that something was different than before. "You."
"Give yourself up and this will go a lot easier on you." Ranma said.
She laughed, a slightly deranged sounds. "You can't stop me. Not now."
"Just…"
"Grandpa has made me a god." She hissed. Kid Rocket pulled a handgun out of its holster at her side, pointed it at him and fired several shots.
Twisting and rolling out of the way of the weapon, Ranma flared and ran at her. Her smirk really should have told him to back off, but he ignored it as he closed in on her. He was sure once he got in close enough she would be easy to take down.
Suddenly electricity flared around her, making her eyes light up with purple energy. "Got you!"
Ranma ran into her fist at high speed and yelled out as he was suddenly thrown the length of the hall. He slammed into the wall with a grunt. Then he was back on his feet, but he could feel some blood running down the side of his face from where he'd hit the wall. "You can move fast too. You couldn't do that before."
"I'm the new and improved Kid Rocket!" She yelled as she twirled both her guns and started sending shots down the hall again.
Cursing Ranma dodged them at high speed, but it was even harder now that she was firing them almost faster than he could dodge. He was just glad that she couldn't fire the guns at super speed. The bullets could only be fired at a certain speed. When he was about halfway down the hall the wall next to him exploded and the hover cycle moved into the hallway on it's own.
"Give up now or I'll stop holding back on you!" Ranma yelled. He couldn't let her get away.
"You don't stand a chance against me! I'm faster than you are, stronger, and better than you will ever be!" The girl yelled as a couple of blurs were tossed at him.
A couple of Grenades.
He'd never seen them used before, but it only took him a second to recognize them. Shots fired at him were easy to dodge, but these would cause a lot of damage to the people lying unconscious in the hallway. With a twist of his foot Ranma felt his energy change again as he started grabbing people and racing them out of the building.
Kid Rocket laughed as she jumped on the hover bike, spun it around, and shot back out the hole she made to enter the building. By the time Ranma got everyone out of the hallway she was just exiting the hole. Ranma was a bit surprised that she wasn't long gone, but realized that even though she could move fast, that hover bike couldn't.
At his current speed he was moving so fast that he could see the Grenades slowly exploding. The first was sending a wave of explosive force through the hall, but not doing much damage. The other one seemed to be a gas grenade of some kind as it too went off.
A plan formed in Ranma's mind and he was in motion before he even had time to think about consequences or personal danger, he needed to stop Kid Rocker. She was about twenty feet from the building even as Ranma reached the hole in the outer wall and jumped. He rose into the air, his martial arts training taking over instantly.
"I got you!" He yelled.
"You insane #&!" Kid Rocket yelled as she turned to see him hanging off the back of the hover cycle. She pulled her gun out again, pointed it at his head, and pulled the trigger.
"Die!"
"AGHAAA!" Ranma yelled as he threw himself off the back of the bike to dodge the shot.
oooooooooo
To be Concluded…
Notes: I can not complain enough about how hard it is to upload a chapter to the site 'that won't even let us write its name into a document' these days. What an unholy pain in the ass this site is turning out to be, even my own is more user friendly. Sheesh! Scene Breaks exist for a reason and yet, apparently, we aren't allowed to use them anymore. WTF is the use?
oO
The chapter itself was a chore to write out, but overall its a good chapter. Ranma's powers are adapting a little every time he goes into a dangerous situation. He hung around with Jay for a while and picked up the basics, then he learned some more just by observing Max Mercury and Impulse in action, and now he's learning on the fly and even from old journals written by Johnny Quick. Quite an accomplishment for four days worth of training.
Lerning at Super Speed.
If you haven't figured out who the villian is by the rather blatent use of his talents in this chapter, shame on you. You need to read more JSA. I stated that when I started this story that I wasn't aware of a recent use of the chracter and then it was pointed out that he was indeed being used. Go figure. I adapted this slightly AU story to cover those actions. I'll reveal his identity in the next chapter if you still can't figure it out.
CRose