Destined: 2 Be Continued

44. Preparation Episode Forty-Four

Jeremiah had an idea. 

He ran over to the eating room, as it was morning at this time. August was there, along with everyone else. "August, can you take Loraine up to August Speed?" he asked his Spanish teammate and friend. August pondered the question for a moment, his brow furrowing in thought. Then he nodded, seeming confident. "Yeah. Yeah, I can do that. I think I have a few canisters of both Tamara's and Dylan's powers. I'll go see. One moment." August got up and went to his room as Jeremiah grabbed a cinnamon roll and sat down next to Heather.

Jeremiah was only halfway through his wordless eating of a cinnamon roll when August burst in. "I did it! August Speed is set to activate in ten seconds." August sat down, and ten seconds later, the world behind the windows started to go by faster. 

"What's going on?" Alex asked. Since he had been born two years later, he hadn't been old enough to witness the creation of August Speed. 

"Basically, we're going twice as fast," August explained basically.  Alex nodded, then went back to eating. Meanwhile, Jeremiah thought about the dream he had had. Vilor had bragged and boasted the whole time, and he had not only done that, but he had also gloated. Luckily for Jeremiah, he now had an idea of what "mind games" meant: they were when Vilor attacked the mind with his psychic powers, making illusions, hypnosis, fun and cheery stuff like that. 

Jeremiah meant to prepare himself against such things.

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Belle stared deeply at her katanas. She wasn't sure if now was the time to switch up her weapons for variety, or if the better decision was to do what she actually knew what to do. It was a hard decision, but Belle would eventually come to it.

She stared out the window. The world was going by so quickly, just as it had when they were on the way to her pylon, going to fight Carnifex. That was two years ago, and still it was such an imprint in his mind. Now Carnifex had turned into Vindex, from the Executor to the Guardian. Belle didn't talk to Vindex that much, but she knew that he could help out in a pinch. He was getting pretty good at world-walking, after all. What a weird name for going beyond light speed; Belle was sure she could think of a better one.

But back to her weapon choice. Stick with katanas, try a halberd. Stick with katanas, try a broadsword...

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August hit the machine again. "WORK, YOU..." August began, ending with a slough of Spanish insults. He had been trying to replicate his pride and joy, La Armadura, after it had been used to defeat the atrocity, Muskrel, but he was failing every time. It had been so easy when he had originally built it; why was it so difficult now? In fact, he was much better at building machinery now than he was then. What was wrong with him?

Perhaps it would be a good idea to let Jeremiah turn him into an automaton. After all, Vilor couldn't absorb him this time, and he definitely was glad he didn't have to experience that again. Maybe he should shift his focus to rebuilding his gadgets. Yeah, yeah, that would be a better idea.

He took a piece of Machinist's Bronze and a sheet of Conductium. He picked up his hammer and saw and went to work. First, he would work on armor for his robot form. Then, he would do rockets, then guns, add some laser blades, and last of all, some jets. They'd need to be powerful if August wanted to actually fly. They would be good for speeding up his running, too...

Of course, he would also need another Absurdly Violent Explosion as a backup plan.

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Heather twirled her favorite vine around, a little deep in thought. She had chosen to forget what she had said at the end of her conversation with Jeremiah the other day; it wasn't important, and she didn't want her mind to be occupied. 

She thrust her hand at one of her many, many plants that she grew endlessly to occupy herself whenever she wasn't reading. "Perdere!" she shouted, and the plant burst into pieces. Heather felt compelled to punctuate that with an evil laugh, but she didn't want the plant to eternally die, so she didn't want to waste any time healing it. "Novis," she uttered, countering her destructive spell. The plant turned back to how it was before she blasted it into pieces.

Heather stared at her own hands. She hadn't summoned the Aureus beasts in a long time; perhaps she should, give them some time to stretch their golden legs. Especially Leo and Tigris. Ursa had been called to help as Ursa Magnus, but the others had just been sitting there for two years.

Heather called them forth, and soon three beasts of the forest-slash-jungle were sitting in front of her. 

"I'll give you guys some time to stretch, I may need ya," Heather told them.

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"Alex, you're going to have to go faster than that," Penny demanded.

"I'm trying, but you're just too good at that crossbow!" Alex cried truthfully. He had been going as fast as he could, but Penny's darts kit like trucks, and she was as fast as lightning with her aim-and-fire skills. There was no way anyone would be able to stand a chance against her; at least, not any Destined. 

"Okay, I guess I believe you," Penny resigned. She set her crossbow down, then got an idea. "Hey! Why don't I see how well I can do against your storm cloud form? JEREMIAH, COME IN HERE!" 

Jeremiah walked in, dressed in an outrageous clown outfit. Alex knew, knowing anything at all, that he really, really shouldn't ask. "What do you need?" 

"Power up Alex, sir," Penny asked, trying not to die laughing. 

"Okay." Jeremiah walked up to Alex and put an oversized hand on Alex's shoulder, which soon turned into storming wind. Penny began shooting her darts at the new target as soon as Jeremiah saw her plan and dashed away as fast as he could in giant shoes. 

"That was strange," Alex thought aloud.

"Shh. Focus on being shot," Penny demanded. Alex was concerned about whether or not they had equality in this relationship.