Freak week part 6- Dramatic slow-mo

Freak Week chapter 6: Dramatic slow-mo

Dear Robot Diary,

It's been a weird week, let me tell you, and it's almost over. I am writing this as my possible final entry, in case something goes wrong today. We are going to save Banana. The door keeping me and Crush trapped in the computer lab clicked open on its own this morning, and the halls are quiet. Too quiet. I'm worried about what will happen to Banana if we don't get to her in time. And I'm worried about what will happen to me if we do. It's...very.....stressful...

Sorry, today's moving a bit slow. Every once and in a while, time will slow down to slow-motion. You can't move at a regular speed, it's like trying to swim through syrup. And it's not just your movements that slow, it's your thoughts too. Your brain is put on half-speed, it can't generate thoughts at more than a crawl. But it's happening to everyone, so hopefully LoudMouth is having as much trouble thinking of a plan as.....I ..........am.

Me and Crush sat and tried to think of what to do, but we couldn't come up with any strategy for Banana's rescue because we didn't know how LoudMouth was keeping her. So we just left, hoping we could just wing it once we got there.

I don't know what's going to happen to us, but this has sure been a week to remember.

This is Lace Heavensmall, over and out.

Lace and Crush walk through the halls with purpose, hit with periodic bursts of slow motion, adding a dramatic flair to their mission. Crush stops them before they turn a corner.

"Lace, I want to tell you something." He grabs her hand and holds tightly. "I know that this is probably a bad time but I don't know when I'll get another chance. I just want to tell you that I really like you, and I hope that when this is all over we'll have time to hang out because you're really beautiful-" He is interrupted by Lace pulling him to her. Thier lips have just touched when it happens.

The door of a forgotten broom closet bursts open, and a wave of slow-motion washes over the earth. Lace and Crush startle, pulling apart to see a figure, still hidden by shadows, throw something. Lace's brain, working agonizingly slow, recognizes it as a dart as it hits her leg. Crush reaches for her, but she falls gracefully, gently hitting the ground as the dart takes effect. As everything goes black, she can hear Crush's voice yelling her name, but it seems far away.

Lace wakes up. She is in a dimly lit classroom, the only light peeking through the drawn curtains. Her arms and legs are bound with jump ropes, probably from the gym. Looking around, she sees Crush, also bound, with a dart in his arm. He is still asleep. She hears a scuffling noise, and turns around to see-

"Banana!" Lace tries to scoot towards her. "Are you okay?" Banana is tied to a chair and looking around anxiously.

"I'm fine, but you won't be if you don't get out of here, LoudMouth is coming to..." Her eyes focus on something behind Lace.

"What? LoudMouth is coming to what? And who is it? Banana?" A hand touches her shoulder.

"I'll be happy to answer all your questions, but we have work to do." Lace looks up into the cold, unforgiving face of Marmie.

"Marmie, help me get these ropes off, LoudMouth will be here soon!"

"Lace, Lace, don't you get it? I am LoudMouth."

"What? That doesn't make any sense."

"Doesn't it? Lace, you can't tell me you haven't noticed I was hiding something. All our time together, you never thought I looked a little old for high school? A little mature? Man, I thought I looked good for my age, but seriously? I'll tell you how I got here, but then we must get started. We have to finish you before Freak Week ends.

"As your mad scientist brother already told you, I had some sinister plans to use satellites to shift the environmental patterns. Unfortunately, the coward didn't wasn't committed enough to see it through. He and his little apprentice backed out when they saw my true intentions."

"Lace, it wasn't my fault!" Crush yelled from the other side of the room. "I didn't know she wanted to hurt the earth, I'm sorry!"

"Quiet, we'll get to you. Moving on, your brother was the key component to the technology. When we created the machine that would contact the satellites, it needed two DNA samples to activate: mine and his. Romantic, wasn't it? We were a team, ready to push the limits of science. But then he vowed never to give me his DNA, and I thought all was lost. Until I remembered him telling me about his sister.

"Now, your DNA is very similar to his, but not exactly to same. So, we'll have to give the machine a large sample to get it to recognize the genome. We could use your hair, but that's no fun. Do you know what else contains your DNA, Lace?"

"Blood?" Lace gave Marmie a death stare.

"Yes, blood. I wish it didn't have to be this way, but my urge for destruction far outways any friendship we had. Sorry, but not really."

Lace heard something. It sounded far off in the distance, but getting closer.

"WE'RE IN HERE." She screamed, hoping whoever it was could hear her. Luckily, she didn't need to yell, as Harry burst through the locked door with the force of a Buffalo.

"Marmie, are you okay, where's LoudMouth?" He looked only at her, practically ignoring the three captives around him.

"Hey, loverboy, what about us?" Banana shuffled impatiently.

"I've got it." Mr. Kevin started sawing at her ropes with a small knife.

"You can't do that Mr. Kevin. Don't you know I'M LoudMouth?"

"What? No!" Mr. Kevin looked like he was about to faint, and Harry started backing away from Marmie.

"Yes. Now put down that knife and stand against the wall if you want to live to see tomorrow." This would have been a terrifying statement, but at that moment Jim hurtled into the room wielding a fire extinguisher and hit her over the head in another epic moment of slow-motion. Lace was previously unaware of how drastically the human face could bend when hit.

"Sorry Marmie, I had to do it." He helped take the ropes off the three, then used them to tie up an unconscious Marmie. Also we should leave immediately."

Lace smelled smoke. "What did you do, Jim?"

"Um, I found myself in a chemistry classroom, and I couldn't help myself. I also learned that this school has a serious problem with labeling volatile compounds. Basically the school's on fire."

"Great, where do we go?" Harry picked up Marmie. "I can't leave her in here."

"There's only one place to go. Outside." Banana delivered this ominous statement over the sound of cracking wood and roaring flames.

They all hurried out the fire escape and when they were a good distance away, turned around to see the smoke rising in clouds from the school.

"Now what?" Lace wondered aloud.