A Need For Speed - part 3
by Torpor

The Bullet shook bits of brick and gravel from his boot and looked around.

"I swear, the next fella that knocks me to the ground is going to end up in the high security ward at the hospital!"

He looked up at the robot that had done the damage. It looked dreaded and familiar to him. "Tarnation! How did Mr. Mechanical get outta jail?"

No time for more questions, though, he thought. Action speaks louder than questions anyway.

With his arms making movement faster than a normal human eye could perceive, he hammered away at the nearest leg of the beast.

A large, booming, mechanical voice came down at him. "Fools! Soon you will see the end of the heroes of Patriot City and the beginning of my reign of terror."

The leg lifted up to step on the Bullet, as it would a simple pest. Bullet sidestepped the foot deftly as a fly avoiding a flyswatter.

"Now, for my next trick!" the Bullet quipped. He ran over to a nearby lamppost. "Sorry, mayor, hope this doesn't come out of your paycheck."

With superhuman strength endowed by Energy X, Dwight Arrow ripped the metal post from its concrete resting place.

He took a mighty swing at the leg. Unfortunately, the lamppost gave way first.

Shards of broken glass and twisted metal splayed out across the street, intermingling with the steadily growing array of other debris.

"Hardly made a dent!" he grumbled.

Another voice shouted at him from above. "Hey, Speedy Gonzales, you need a welding torch to take that hunk o' junk apart. Fortunately, I come with one built in!"

El Diablo hovered just in front of what passed for the robot's head, complete with assorted antennae and dials that seemed to have no purpose whatsoever.

He twisted sideways, with one arm parallel to the ground and the other palm out facing the metallic monster. Jets of flame seared from the fist, hitting the shoulder plating. Metal seared away and the gears and wire underneath became exposed.

"Uh-oh," El Diablo muttered as another attack came in his direction. With the grace of a hummingbird, he dove to the ground and looped back around, taking another shot with his flame jet. The wires began sparking and melting, creating a terrible odor.

Unfortunately, Ricardo realized too late that the entire torso was able to pivot 180 degrees, meaning it needed no windup to swing at him again. This time he was able to make it only a few feet before a huge lead ball caught him in the side.

Jets of flame trailed to the ground as El Diablo crashed into a pile of refuse. A few pieces of paper began to catch on flame and flutter away in the wind as he pulled himself up, moaning.

"As usual, looks like it's up to Liberty Lad to save the day!" came a voice from nearby. A small projectile arced through the air, whistling. The mechanized madman turned its head toward the sound, just in time for the small bomb to strike him squarely in the face, exploding in a burst of colorful energy.

"Take that, you overgrown tuna can!" Liberty Lad shouted.

As the smoke cleared, they could see that the explosion furthered the damage done by El Diablo, and the right arm now dangled precariously from the robot's shoulder.

The robotic voice sounded almost painful as it shouted at the heroes, "You fools! You have no idea what you're dealing with!"

It turned around and headed toward an undamaged building. Fortunately, most of the occupants had already gotten the idea from the noise outside and fled in terror.

The robot stuck its good arm directly through the eighth story windows, grabbing onto one of the metal support beams inside.

"Tarnation!" the Bullet shouted, pointing at the site. "That thing's ‘eating' the building!"

Sure enough the building was rapidly shrinking in size, while the robot's right arm was quickly repairing itself.

Something else was happening, too.

"Is it just me," asked Liberty Lad, "or is that thing getting bigger?"

The robot - now fully repaired and about one story taller - turned its attention back to the heroes. "Go ahead! Throw everything you've got at me! It makes no difference! Hahahaha!"

El Diablo snarled, "That guy's voice is beginning to give me a headache! Let's fire it up together, boys!"

All three of the heroes took their shots at the robot - an energy grenade, burst of flame and fusillade of punches all hit the towering monster at the same time. The robot barely flinched. It picked a piece off of another nearby building and hurled it at Freedom Force, sending them all dodging.

"OK, any other bright ideas?" Liberty Lad asked.

Randy was hiding around the side of a nearby building, quivering in fear as well as due to her unstable metabolism.

Around the corner she could hear the heavy pounding of blows being exchanged back and forth.

What am I doing here? she thought to herself. I'm no super hero. I'm just some girl who got these crazy powers -

Just then, she saw Liberty Lab soaring through the alleyway and impacting a brick wall. He left an imprint of a teen-aged boy in the brick as he slumped to the ground in pain.

"Nick!" Quiver shouted making to his side in a fraction of a second.

"Are you OK?" she asked, trying as best she could to gingerly help him up.

"Unngh - how'd... you... know... my name?" he staggered.

Quiver blushed - not that anyone could have seen it, though the awkward silence after the question was a small clue.

"I...uh, we went to the same high school, and I followed you home one day because I was going to ask you to the senior prom."

Liberty Lad perked up. "Jeez, that bucket of bolts must've hit me harder than I thought. Did you say..? Well, no time for that now. We've got to stop that thing!"

Quiver stepped back. "You mean, you've got to stop this thing, right?"

Nick stood up and looked at her, "No, I mean, we. Look, if there's one thing I've learned through all this craziness is that with great power comes a lot of duty. I mean, I saved Minute Man before I even had super powers. As corny as it sounds, I guess I do believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And no overgrown Christmas toy is going to stand in the way of that."

Quiver replied, "I guess you're right, I have been a little bit selfish. All the time I've been looking at what a curse these powers were."

Just then her face perked up visibly. "But they might just be the thing that saves Freedom Force's bacon from that gear-shifting goon!!"

Liberty Lad stood dumbfounded. "Wow, that sure was a change in attitude!"

She replied, "Well, I've been watching you a lot. I hope that was OK."

Nick laughed. "Yeah, it was fine. So what's your plan?"

The metallic voice of the machine continued to drone on. "Already three of your buildings have fallen, Patriot City! And your heroes have been powerless to stop me!"

Quiver looked up at El Diablo nervously, hanging precariously from his arms.

"Are you sure you can hold me?"

El Diablo swooped around a building as he replied, "No problem, chica! Right now the flame's all coming from the other end. Just don't get too nervous, or you might shake yourself loose."

The pair curved around behind the robot. "I just hope you know what you're doing!" El Diablo said.

"Me too," Quiver muttered under her breath.

"Buena suerte!" El Diablo cried as he dropped Quiver on top of the robotic head.

Well, here goes nothing, Quiver thought to herself as she concentrated on accelerating her molecules. Just at the moment her feet touched the crown of the head, they shifted through the metal, and she landed herself right inside the control area, where a white-haired man in a lab coat sat in a plain metal chair.

"You're through, villain!" Quiver said.

"What? How did you get in here?" the old man said, standing up from the chair defiantly. "No matter. You can do little to a man who controls the very metal around him!"

Suddenly piping and wiring from a nearby wall shot out like a wispy tendril, making its way quickly toward Quiver. Fortunately, she was faster. She spun underneath the tentacle and made her way in front of the villain.

"It's time we had a little chat," she said.

Just then, another tendril struck her from the other side. She somersaulted sideways, then picked herself back up and ran towards him, striking him with blinding speed.

The old man collapsed to the floor. As he did everything around them begin to buckle. Quiver suddenly felt herself plummeting towards the ground as the robot broke apart. Something hard hit her in the head and she blacked out.

"Quiver? Are you OK?" a voice was asking.

Randy looked around and saw the three members of standing around her, along with Mentor. They were in the medical ward of the Freedom Fortress, by the looks of it.

"What happened?" she asked.

Mentor spoke up. "It seems that the villain you faced this day was not, in fact, the same villain we called Mister Mechanical. He was a scientist who recently was released from the state prison. Apparently he served in the same ward as the mechanical madman who built that robot."

El Diablo spoke up. "Eh, I don't understand. That explains how he found the robot, but How was he controlling it?"

Mentor brought up the view screen and showed some technical readouts that might as well have been written in the same alien language that Mentor spoke on his home world, as far as the other heroes were concerned.

"The scientist found a way to track Energy X, and he apparently was able to tap into it directly, in such a way as to give him control over electronics and metal."

Liberty Lad jumped in. "Jeepers! In this modern Atomic Age, that covers just about everything!"

"Indeed. I have given the local law enforcement agencies special equipment to contain his dangerous powers." He looked at Quiver. "And, I discovered that the source of his power came from the same canister that somehow energized your body."

Quiver sat up on the bench, still shaking as always. "So, what does that mean? Can you use him to help figure out a way to fix - I mean, to help me?" She looked over at Nick.

Mentor shook his head indecisively. "Only time will tell. In the mean time, I have already spoken with Minute Man. He agreed, as I did, that your efforts showed that - whatever your concerns - you have great courage. We have agreed to add you to our reserve list of Freedom Force."

Quiver laughed. "Who, me? But aren't you guys mad at all the trouble I caused?"

Liberty Lad shook his head. "You realize how many former foes ended up as teammates? First there was Mic-"

El Diablo and Mentor began coughing to interrupt him.

"Oh, sorry. Well, sorry we didn't get to go to the prom together Qui-"

She corrected him, "Randy."

A look of recognition came over his face. "Oh, Randy! You know, I was going to ask you to the prom!"

She smiled, barely perceptible on her rapidly shifting face. "So why didn't you?"

"I didn't think you'd want to."

She laughed again. "Probably not that I'd admit to my friends."

Dwight turned to exit. "Well, I guess that's my cue. I can't stand this mushy stuff, especially between teenagers."

Quiver made it in front of his path in a split second. "Wait! I wanted to thank you all, for helping me to see how to use my powers. I know I've got a long way towards completely accepting all of this, but I know that you'll be here to help me."

The Bullet grinned from ear to ear. "And, I'll finally get to race against someone who might actually be able to catch up with me - or at least see me while I cross the finish line first."

"Wanna bet?"

The Bullet placed his helmet on his head and crouched into a runner's starting position.

Just then, alarm klaxons sounded.

"An Energy X alarm!" Mentor shouted.

"Ah, rats," Bullet said. "I guess I'll have to beat you another time..."

The End... for now.