Speed Kills

[Veiled Malice]

Robert looked over the railing of the catwalk. He still appeared to be somewhat nervous, until his eyes fell on the inert form of Johnny Rotten. "Holy crap! You actually beat him?" He blushed slightly, then shook his head. "Wait, I didn't mean for it to come out that way. I mean, that's great. I just didn't expect it."

The sound of metal on metal drew both of their attention to the hatch into the factory section. It swung open, and a slightly battered and bruised Raven stepped through, weapons at the ready. She took in the scene instantly, and although she remained wary of Robert, the dark crusader walked confidently out onto the catwalk. "I see you disabled him," she said evenly. Velocity couldn't tell if she was relieved or annoyed. "Good work." The woman stopped in front of Robert and sized him up. "And who are you?"

"Me?" Robert said unsteadily. "I'm nobody! Yep, nobody. Nothing to see here..."

The Raven quirked an eyebrow at Robert's odd behavior, then turned her attention back to Velocity. "All right, what's going on here? What are all these pods?"

[Thevshi]

Velocity smiled as Raven told her she did a good job in beating Johnny Speed.

The yellow clad speedster then looked around at the stasis pods as she replied. “Stasis pods. Apparently Speed here was involved with some sort of plan to replace important individuals with duplicates.â€Â

[Veiled Malice]

"Indeed?" Raven said noncommittally. For a moment, she considered the scale of the factory, and Velocity could almost see her mental gears churning, calculating exactly how many individuals might be imprisoned within these walls. Her gaze fell upon Robert again, who seemed to shrink under her sight. "And I suppose you are a part of this?"

"It's not like it was my idea!" the boy protested. "You've fought them before! You know what they're like! You follow or you die! It's just that simple!" His voice went from demurring to pleading. "Listen, just let me go, alright? You don't need me. You've found them out, so shut this down. I'll disappear! You'll never see me again!"

"It's not quite that simple," Raven countered. "But I'll take it into account that you were likely forced into this. Velocity, are you ready to go? The League will be here soon, and we need to lock this place up until they arrive."

[Thevshi]

Velocity felt a bit sorry for the duplicate Robert, he likely was pretty much an innocent in all of this. But if he was the Robert from the dimension that the evil Johnny duplicate was from, could it cause problems to have him here in this dimension with the normal Robert here as well.

When Raven asked if she was ready to go, the speedster smiled and nodded, finishing up tying up the unconscious Johnny Speed. “Sure thing, ready to go.â€Â

With that, she was off and checking for all the possible exits to the place, trying to make sure no one was leaving the place till the rest of the League arrived.

[Veiled Malice]

The cleanup commenced almost as soon as the trio had reached the outer warehouse. Most of the Freedom League had shown up, prompted by the appearance of one of their deadliest enemies. Also in attendance were several independent heroes from the various boroughs of FC, likely called in to lend a hand should the rest of the Tyranny Syndicate put in an appearance. Conspicuously absent were law enforcement authorities from inside Freedom - for obvious reasons. No one knew just how far the Syndicate had penetrated into the strata of the city's management, and thus, no one outside of proven allies could be trusted.

This meant that the cleanup and re-installation of the rightful persons into their lives took a bit longer than it might have otherwise, but for all the quantity of personnel, the League and co. more than made up in quality. Before long, the area had factory had been emptied and Raven took Velocity aside to speak to the girl. "All right, we're almost done here. From the goons we've questioned already, it seems Speed was the manager of this little operation. It's been going on for some time now, people getting grabbed up and replaced like this. It only got into the kids recently. Apparently, Speed thought the progress 'wasn't going fast enough' and handed down orders to grab kids up after doping them with some spiked Zoom derivative. His people, dressed up as paramedics, then make the switch before they reach the hospital. Something went wrong with this latest batch, though."

She considered Velocity carefully. "I think that something was you. For whatever reason, Speed seemed to be afraid of you." Her shoulders shrugged incrementally, indicating... approval, perhaps? "It seems his fear was justified. For the record, however, Speed was nowhere near sharp enough to pull a job this big. He's barely qualified to dress himself from what I've seen, which means someone else was the mastermind here. All this was a big departure from the Syndicate's usual fare - far too subtle. It's more like something my own analogue from their universe might think of."

A hint of something crossed Raven's lips, and Velocity was amazed to see it might have actually been a smile. "Don't worry - Pseudo has already confirmed I am who I say I am. Can't be too careful." The smile vanished as quickly as it came on, and instantly, Raven was all business again. "For right now, we're focusing on getting everyone back where they need to be. Fortunately for us, the people in stasis pods had the memories of their capture erased, and Pseudo is helping to fill in the blanks they missed out on in the time they were away. If we're lucky, no one outside of us will know this ever happened. We don't need people panicking, wondering if their neighbors or family have been replaced by evil clones or something."

"All the replacements are being scooped up as we speak and delivered to a detention facility. The problem is what to do with them. We can't let them go, obviously, and we can't exactly send them back either. Detaining them indefinitely isn't an option either. But that's not your problem." She turned to a very nervous looking Robert Luciano beside her. "He... is your problem. Robert here has been very forthcoming about Tyranny's plans, what little he knows of them, and we're satisfied he had no part in them. No willing part, anyway. Sending him back is even more of an impossibility for the others, however. It seems the Mr. Luciano of this dimension is a... less than ideal human being, and being his mirror opposite, Robert here doesn't belong." For his part, the boy simply clung to a backpack in his arms and looked even more miserable than before.

"We're setting him up in Freedom City - in a different area of the city of course - and we want you to look in on him every so often. Consider it a probation of sorts." She handed Velocity a slip of paper, on which was written an address - 1609 Caniff Rd, apt. 139. "It's his new place. It's in Riverside, so it's not too far away from the city center. Should make it easy to keep track of him." She stepped in closer to Velocity and drew the speedster aside, and spoke in low tones, "This is your official invitation to the League, Velocity. You impressed me out there today, and that's something I don't say a lot. Part of the League is responsibility for others, which is why I'm assigning Robert to you. Any questions?"

[Thevshi]

Velocity helped out as she was needed once the rest of the League and some other heroes started arriving. When Raven came back over to talk with her, the teen speedster nodded and listened closely to the more experienced heroine.

When Raven talked about Speed being somewhat afraid of her, Velocity could not help but smile slightly, a smile that widened when Raven smiled herself at the comment that she could be the alternate version of herself. When the other woman turned to discussing Robert, and what was going to be done with him, the speedster continued to listen, trying to give Robert something of a reassuring smile. She did not say anything when Raven talked about the real Robert Luciano, though Velocity actually did know about him, as they had been at the same high school for years.

Velocity was a bit surprised though when Raven said that she would be keeping an eye on Robert in the new place the League was setting up for him to live in Riverside. When Raven pulled her off a bit to the side and gave her an official invitation to join the Freedom League, the teenage speedster felt a wave of excitement flow through her. She had always know she was a pretty good at the hero thing, but to be asked to be part of the Freedom League was a bit more than she expected, at least for a few more years.

Smiling widely, she looked at Raven and nodded. “Thank you, for the invitation and the compliment. I will be sure to do what I can to help Robert get acclimated here. I won’t let you or the rest of the League down.â€Â

[Veiled Malice]

"I wouldn't have extended the invitation if I thought you would," Raven replied, leaving it to Velocity to figure out if that was a compliment or a well-concealed insult. "See to it he gets home without incident. I have work to attend to, but I expect to see you at the next meeting. Daedalus will be in touch soon." So saying, Raven turned on her heel and walked back to the assembly site, which was still bustling with activity as new replacements were brought in, placed under arrest, and their kidnapped counterparts shipped back into their old lives.

Robert stepped up near Velocity and rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "So... this is awkward..." He seemed to be at a loss for anything else to say, and opted to stare at his own feet rather than look directly at her.

[Thevshi]

Velocity just smiled, not letting Raven’s curt attitude get her down. She waved as the dark haired heroine departed, then turned to face Robert. When he shifted uncomfortably and talked about feeling awkward, she gave him a questioning look. “Awkward? Why’s that? We stopped the bad guys, and you don’t have to go back to where they might try to hurt you?â€Â

“Come on, lets get you a cab to get you to your new home.†She then said, pulling out the cellphone she used as Velocity as they started towards the exit.

[Veiled Malice]

The cab showed up in short order, though they did have to walk a little farther than anticipated to get out of the staging area for the human swap meet. Robert said little during that time, but Velocity could feel his eyes traveling to her face every so often, before he quickly looked away again.

The boy stepped up to the taxi, then glanced back at Velocity, a look of indecision on his face. "Hey, I... I just wanted to say thanks. This is a lot more than I expected, more than I would have gotten back where I'm from." A brilliant smile graced his features, making him look a little bit more personable. "So... thank you. Thank you for everything."

[Thevshi]

“Your welcome.†Velocity replied back with a smile of her own. “I think you’ll find more than a few things different here. But this is not good bye for the moment yet, I’m going to make sure you get back to your new place.â€Â

After giving the cab driver the address, she will follow along the cab as it heads towards Robert’s new place.

[Veiled Malice]

Robert appeared surprised that Velocity was planning on escorting him all the way to his new home, but he didn't make a fuss. After a short cab trip in which Velocity got some odd looks from other motorists, they arrived at their destination. "1609 Caniff Rd... apartment... 139! There it is," Robert said, mostly to himself, as he read off the address.

The place was nice, Velocity noted. A first-floor walk up barely ten minute's walk from the city center. Most people would kill to get a place in Riverside, let alone be put up there for the indefinite future. Of course, Robert was more or less a prisoner, albeit a very nice prison. The apartment itself had already been furnished, although without personal touches, it felt strangely empty and cold. Robert, however, didn't seem disappointed by that. It was all he could do to keep his jaw off the floor as he gazed about his new digs. "Wooow..." he said in awe. "This is huge! Lookit the living room! It's the size of my old house! And that TV!" He disappeared around a corner for a second before Velocity heard, "Oh my god! It's got a loft! This place is so cool!"

[Thevshi]

Velocity followed Robert into his new “homeâ€Â, looking around as she did. Hopefully he would be able to get the place feeling a bit more like home in short order. Though she was glad that he seemed happy with the place, as he marveled at the size of the living room. She decided it was probably best not to mention how large the Robert Luciano of this dimension’s house was though.

She smiled again as she heard him mention the loft, and followed him around the corner, moving at normal speed as she did. “Well, it looks like you are set for now.†She said. “I’ll leave you to settle in some. Here, this is my number if you need my help with anything, or just need someone to talk to.†She said, handing him a business card.

[Veiled Malice]

"Whoa, you've got business cards?" Robert said with almost as much amazement as he'd reserved for his new place. "Wow, heroes have everything here."

He set his backpack down by the couch, and gave Velocity a lopsided smile. "Well... thanks again. For everything. And... if you ever want to come over and... I dunno, watch TV or something, feel free." He glanced at the remote for his system and frowned. "Of course, I still might be trying to figure it out by next year..."

"Oh, by the way, I'm going by David now. David Martin. Can't have two Robert Lucianos that look alike walking around. At least that's the name Raven prepared for me." Robert extended one hand. "Hi, my name's David."

[Thevshi]

Velocity smiled at Robert’s reaction to her business card. “Well, we are given a distinct legal status as heroes. Most don’t bother with things like business cards, but I felt it was an easy way for me to give contact information to the authorities and the like.â€Â

Her smile broadened when he mentioned coming over to watch TV or something. “I should be able to find some time to do that.†She then took his hand as he told her his new identity. “Very nice to meet you David.â€Â