Zero Sum

On towards headquarters

Rock carried the still unconscious John over his shoulders, "but he's heavier than he looks." Rock's legs moved blindingly fast, thanks to his enhanced abilities.

Still traveling through the forests on the outskirts of the city. His regular speed on foot was more than enough to make up for the time lost during the fight. Leaping into the air and soaring like an eagle over the occasional boulder or other obstacle in their path.

If he wanted to of course, Rock could move as fast as a bullet train. But he had to consider John, his normal body probably could not handle such strain.

A highway was coming up, that cut a path through the woods. Rock decided it was better to leap over it, not only to avoid traffic but to avoid being spotted.

Right as they were sailing through the air, right above the highway, John just happened to wake up and yelled out in terror, "what is happening?"

"Hey stop moving around back there," Rock shouted back, "or you will mess up my landing."

"I woke up in the middle of the air," protested John, "how do you expect me to react? Also where is my bike?"

"Yeah about that," began Rock, "I kind of remembered that too, while I was already about halfway to the base. You must have a homing system on that thing right? I would be surprised if it didn't with all that high tech and firepower it was packing."

"Homing system? Yeah it does have a homing signal, but it's on my bike!"

"Well, some might call that a design flaw." Rock replied as he landed and continued carrying John over his back, "hey how much speed do you think your body can take? I could make it there much faster if I went all out."

"My guidance system is damaged too," John said looking at his now shattered watch. No doubt shattered during the fight. "I can't use it to drive my bike back here on its own now."

"Forget about the bike for now," Pietros interjected, "I can take you back there once we are through with this meeting of ours." He met a near vertical cliff, and leaping into the air, began using outcroppings of rock to make his way up towards the top.

John seemed to concur that making it to the meeting was the priority right now, and stopped asking about his abandoned bike. "We're almost there," he said, "what are we going to say if they ask why we were held up?"

"Relax," Rock ramped up his speed after he scaled over the cliff, running even faster than before through the woods ahead. "Now that I don't need to worry about you falling off I can pick up the pace."

John held on tighter now as they made the last leg of the journey to ...