SPEED 2 - Off Home Planet

6

The Decree of Charity
We never thought of this. We'd suddenly become miners. How in the universe is this charity? These scums had no better way of treating interstellar captives. Imagine they handed us tools to hammer at some rocky boulder secluded in a special room.
This rock was giving us a hard time, it felt like piercing water with a needle. Easy yet unyielding. I and Kabir took turns hammering this elliptical egg-like stone. Mr No Nose has said it was called Octacundral. Hell, eggs do break easily!
  Long beads of sweat rained down our brains. We continued hammering. We hid our abilities though our suits say otherwise. Well, it could be cosplays. Chances. I could just haze my hand through this rock and separate its matter. Kabir could summon the Tang Call and liquidify the rock. He had learnt AquaTaichi a few thousand years ago in the ancient Chinese Empire. We'd come a long way with humans.
   The plan was going on quite well. We were never to get to Zabick, Zabick was to get to us and they did. Quaygraine had been out searching for possible escape routes. Escape? No!
Quaygraine was this superhero to superheroes. She had saved my body a couple times. She was my special gift from Costros.

  "Remember Kabal?" Kabir asked.
"Of?"
  "From 2000s Mortal Kombat  console."
  "Yeah, I remember. Why ask?"
  "These Zabs look like him." Kabir said pointing to the guards outside the enclosed room. He sees through metal. I giggled.
  "She's near, I think it's time." I whispered.
  "Take it easy on me." Kabir pleaded as I let out a grin and an affirming nod. This was the moment. I raised the hammer up, hit the Octacundral and let the hammer slide and hit Kabir's leg. He faked a loud cry. He fell to the floor, still agonizing in PAIN. How well he acted it. I had to do an extra job by not laughing. As planned, the Zabs came in to help.
In one swoop, Quaygraine tied herself up a guard and sent him crashing into the wall. Eight armed guards out of nowhere encircled us, each wielding taser spears.
My superspeed comes to play, right? I contemplated the idea. Since Quaygraine had figured a way out, I could beat the crap out of these Zabs before they knew it.
  "Oh no! Don't do this." Kabir pleaded. "Leave at least one to me."
"Okay, I will."
The suit  jeered up evenly on my body. Green flanks, ready. Last came the energy circle on my chest. Red and blue bolts;zoom! Seven guards dropped  to the ground. The remaining guard stood in shock. I couldn't see his face but I just knew he was shocked. Having no time to waste, one fatal punch from Kabir ended his shock. We came to a lit hallway. Quaygraine mounted itself on Kabir's shoulders and lifted him above the ground, it set sail. Kabir was liking the moment. We reached the end of the hallway, we pulled open a huge steel door. And behold, Zabick!
It was quite a scene for a planet with such notorious thieves. Purple lights shone from within the dark cumulus of clouds. The building we just left had a rectangular facade, I'm sure it was a shipping container. We've been underground! WTF! Looking far North you'd see nothing.
   ****
   I had gone around the planet many times already. Found nothing but sand dunes and craters. We've spent so much time here and we don't have any lead on where my guys are. I was getting angry bit by bit. Out of the container came Mr No Nose, finally, someone to vent my anger on. I sprung into action, everything becomes super slow, blue and red tingled over my suit, I closed in on my target;his chest. Buyaga! He fell to the floor several foot back clutching to his chest. Kabir and Quaygraine arrived after a short while.
   "You should have let me do that to him instead." Kabir said standing over No Nose. He finally stood up, staggering about his position. I couldn't stand this anymore, my team are in a place I have no idea about. No leads. No ideas. No backup if anything happens. All because of this one guy. I clenched my fist, Quaygraine rested on my shoulders. I ascended above No Nose ready to finish him off. Out of fear, he said:
  "I know where your team is. We have them."
  " We? What? With you?" I lunged downward and held his suit. Kabir interceded.
" Calm down, lemme ask him something. Take a rest, okay?" He said then squatted before No Nose." Alright, Mr No Nose, what's your name?"
  " S... Sc... Scooter."
I grunted. What a stupid name, I thought.
  "Mr Scooter, where are they?" Kabir asked.
  "Uhmm, they..... Uhmm, are underground." Mr Scooter said taking heavy gulps of air.
  "Underground, where?" "We were just underground. They are not inside that cuboid, I'm sure."
"Yes, they are deep under the underground." Scooter said hurriedly.
"Like an underground underground?" I asked, he nodded affirmative. " Alright, let's go then."
"Before that..." Kabir stopped." Why were we not kept under the underground?"
Scooter stopped in his tracks, frozen, as if he's just had a neural shock. With his back to us, after some long streams of secs, he broke the ice, he lost it.
  "These people are afraid of you both, they were surprised how easy they could nab you two, just like that. "He paused, looked at us. "Keeping you here was a precautionary measure."
  "Precautionary measure, you say." Kabir mocked.
  "You're the one leading us head on into an army, it'd be best we have a 'precautionary measure' too." I shot back.
  "Army. Those dumb jackasses they picked up from all around dirt places in our galaxy and handed them pointy sticks." Scooter abased the Zabick army. "Just hit them on their laps, they'd fall like dominoes. I design their suits, their weapons and even their war tactics. Yet, I'm not made their general. This wasn't what I signed up for."
   "Why are you telling us all these?" I enquired. He kept mite for a long while as we continued marching towards the container. We finally got to the container, Scooter swung the door open and said:
  "I'm a scientist from Earth, I was tricked into signing up for a program that'd improve space travel and create a foundation for time travel but they turned me into this. Useless barbarians."
I shared a glance with Kabir. That was a dangerous topic. Time travel. We are taking this man home.
  "Here's the deal. You help us take down this place, we take you home." Kabir offered.
  "Of course, yes. Anything else?" I and Kabir once again shared a glance and we asked:
  "How big is this place?" "What place?"
  "The section my guys were kept." I said.
  "As big as the twenty White Houses."
  "Hmmm, easy peasy." Kabir visualized a plan at that instant.
  "Thank you for helping us at the Octacundral shed." I appreciated him for summoning all the guards present at that time to get flattened, they were so stupid none of them made contact with the underground base the army were.
Scooter was surprised how we knew. He nodded and said:
  "It's my freedom I want."
  "Now they've messed with the wrong guys, tell them we're coming. " Kabir demanded. "I just can't wait to get my ass out of this stupid planet 'zombie' or whatever."
  "Zabick. That's what it's called." I cornered an eye at Kabir giggling. He never really had time for space stuff. Action. Action. Action. Action. That's what he seeks.
   "Whatever!" He shot. "We have some asses to kick." I nodded likewise.