Lightspeed: Drug Detectives

Chapter 30 (Act III): Mine Your Own Business

Chapter 30! Give it up for Chapter 30! You can't see me right now because this is all text, but I've actually holding up a cowbell with my left hand and repeatedly striking it with the beater using my right hand.....while using my super speed.

I'm practically hitting it a million times a second.

Anyway, my name is Ariel Axilas, and welcome back to another chapter of my second novel, "Lightspeed: Drug Detectives"! Last time, my best friend Erica Shields and I blasted through the third quadrant, taking out bad guys and squaring off against them like nobody's business.....though I still came out on top in terms of incapacitated baddies.

I forcibly captured one of the miners and interrogated them as to the Manager's whereabouts—with the Manager being the third and final "head" of the Solionite Mines—and he said that the Manager would be at the site in a few minutes. So, after letting that miner go, Erica and I set up a trap for him.

When the Manager comes around, Erica legit smacks him upside the head with her new crowbar so hard that I'm surprised she didn't knock him out indefinitely. He did wake up after I grabbed his head and shook it.....but I used my super speed to do it, so he became afflicted with one hell of a nausea episode. I question him as to the purposes of this place, and—wouldn't you know it—they are indeed affiliated with the Celestial Syndicate and have been delivering the solionite "up top" for use by their "beneficiaries". After a little more pressing, he also tells me that there's a mining elevator that leads back up to the surface further in the back of the mine.....and that the elevator likely leads directly to the Celestial Compound, which is the cartel's base of operations.

I tried to let the Manager go after that, but he ended up smashing his own head against the cave wall multiple times and killing himself.

Oh, well. It's not like this place was going to last much longer, anyways.

Herman then shows up after the interrogation and informs us that he's done planting the explosives, and that he's apparently set a timer of fifteen minutes. But, a couple of immediate explosions later, he confesses that he might have accidentally set it to fifteen seconds instead.

Fucking dumbass.

Anyway, at least he set the stage for quite a thrilling action sequence. This time, Erica, Herman, and I make our daring escape from the Solionite Mines and reach the mining elevator! Ready, steady, GO!

***********************************************************************************************

I, the speedy superheroine Lightspeed, bring my best friend Erica Shields and the Paragon Herman literally right behind me as I blast through the crumbling Solionite Mines in a mad dash to get to the mining elevator before the entire cave network collapses in on itself. Some of the miners are panicked and desperately trying to flee the area as well—I don't blame them—but some others are somehow still focused on trying to kill me and my friends for our intrusion.

You'd think that their main focus now would be on self-preservation, especially since they're about to get fucking buried.....but I guess some people really will just put anything—even their own lives—below their hate, rage, and drive to kill.

I, of course, ignore them, and focus on keeping my teammates safe, since that's what a true leader strives to do.

"Lightspeed!" Herman calls to me from behind, though I can't turn around to look at him because I'm solely focused on what's directly ahead of me. "Right here! Turn right!"

I reach a T-shaped intersection in the cavernous network and take the sharp right, like Herman says. I drastically speed up to pass a huge boulder that's about to drop onto the path; we just barely manage to clear it before it blocks the narrowing passageway entirely. With my hands' grips tightening—knowing that my hold is the only thing preventing Erica and Herman from being left in the literal dust—I summon my strength and jump towards the left wall, running along it to pass a particularly wide gap filled with remarkably sharp stalagmites.