Villains Club Training Camp (5)

Sprint

Raven

After the initial Experiment to help Alinta, I took a shortcut back to their boat in demon form. Flying over the cities, streets, countryside and eventually docks, I drifted as my alternate self, a shadow the size of a house in the shape of a Raven.

All the world is dark, even when good people exist to structure it, and I see this darkness the best when traveling. To fly like this, with time no longer a tether my power could let me easily reach the other side of the world, but for me it still passes.

From the blood red sky of the space between dimensions I could still see the human world. Frozen, like a gemstone inside a glacier. From here, while it might take me hours to travel from Bad Penny's lair to the Docks at Central City where Alinta's family were docked, to the normal people it would seem less than a second.

"Your brooding again aren't you!?" I suppressed a groan as Jesse floated up beside me and dropped back out of my spirit form, he had pulled me into a hug. The boy was one of my half-siblings and too cheerful for his own nature. "I don't know how you can brood after helping your friend like that! I know she has to go back to Australia but we got to spend so much time with her!"

"If I wanted I could probably go with. But they're not exactly leading a quiet life!" I sighed, groaned dramatically then pushed the boy off to break the hug.

"You always seem to know just how to handle things don't you!" I looked back, hearing the tense edge to his voice, seeing the green glow in his eyes.

Grabbing his hand and tried my best to smile, "You have plenty you're good at too. You're a better fighter than me for one!" Having lost my spirit form we now hovered over Central city and could see Alinta and Will streaking through the streets and alleyways. The boy tripped and stumbled a lot, bouncing off things, running up walls and alongside buildings. Things tended to break in the wake of his reckless style, but not so often it would cause trouble.

Alinta Glided, she wasn't trying to be fancy, focusing just on what was essentially a long-distance sprint and, moving together I pulled Jesse back into the space between dimensions, with a little more time we'd made it to the Reefer Ship at the Dock.

Alinta's parents were in the process of packing up. One woman, tall, thin and blond, the man dark skinned with bushy black hair. They moved quickly using forklifts to load squawking, growling or mewing boxes into their ship. Alinta and her family were smugglers, as well as providing some of the best magical ingredients in the business they did a roaring trade in exotic animals.

We alighted at the Docks a little way from them, looking over the handful of aunties, uncles and other relatives of Alinta's that assisted in this trade, and recognizing some of the creatures present before they went into their perfect climate-controlled rooms. Around them would be packed chilled goods, and the ship would outwardly present as legit.

"Oh, You two!" it was Alinta's father who approached us first, recognizing me from our pictures and conversations on Discard.

"We did it!" Jesse crowed, leaping up and down like a kangaroo, "That formula Alinta used, it did exactly what she thought it was. We had to get the attention of the speed force first by poking it with magic, but it recognized her and She's on her way!"

At a look to me for confirmation I simply nodded. "The spell to link her new legs to the spirit of her old one worked too. Her prosthetics are well, prosthetics and will need to be removed, cleaned and maintained like any other." I pulled a vial of powder from under my cloak, handing it over to the man who thanked me with a nod. "This is made from ground whale-bone, mineral salts and the like. She should use a little on the socket when putting her prosthetics on. It will remind them that they belong on her and prevent rejection."

The mother was less professional than her husband, hugging first myself and then the bouncing Jesse. "But where is she!"

"Here!" we turned, Will and Alinta had appeared from behind a sea container but Alinta was leaning on the much younger boy.

"Is something wrong?" both myself and her mother burst out, I floated over.

"No, no. Just winded, that was a long run and I was flagging for the last ten kays." Alinta brushed us off, letting go of Will and but still breathing heavily. Golden sparks flared as she ran back and forth to prove the power was still there. "It feels like this takes more out of me then it does the heroes. I'm actually tired out just from running between cities!"

"You might get better at that with practice - oooh oooh ooh!" Will left his new friend and went up to the old man, pulling out a piece of paper. "i know you're heading out soon, but my father wanted to talk with all of you. He wants to buy the method for making speed-force users - we're planning on making a fleet of speeding delivery guys!" Will explained, handing over some papers and a business card.

Alinta moved to look and, with a smile I decided I was done with this scene.

"Hey Ozzie. Make sure you find me on Discard once you're somewhere with stable internet. I want constant updates!"

I got nods and thumbs up, then another hug!

"AAAAR!" I pushed her off, "What's with everyone hugging me today!"

"I'm Australian, we hug!" Alinta retorted, and with smiles I stalked off, Jesse in tow.

He was looking at his phone as we left. "Hey, looks like Bad Penny has more work for us if you're up to it! We're wanted in a meeting for some job out at a Prison."

I looked at the message we'd been sent. It simply had a location, said "Come in Costume, they want to show us around first so we can be all official later!"

"Wait, is the prison commissioning us to do something?"

"Seams like it!"

Dropping back into the red space between worlds, we started the day-long trip back. From their perspective we would have only been gone minutes.