Kyle's POV
(Earlier)
This is all insane.. At the speed at which she just punched him, I'd be surprised if he was still alive. It doesn't really take a science genius to think of what'd happen to someone if they were to get punched at speeds comparable to the speed of sound.
"He surely won't be walking that one off." commented the Prince, as we all viewed to live footage of what was happening
"That's not good-" Cas mumbled, "I wasn't able to warn him in time. And now he's severely injured if not dead because of me."
"Don't worry Cas." I assured her, "Romaine's more resilient than he may seem."
"Yeah well his 'resilience' doesn't seem to be holding up so well; his comm's been shattered and his vitals are now all over the charts."
"It looks like the other lad is having a bit of trouble with those lassies down there." the Prince pointed out
"If I know Dondre, he's probably flirting with them right now." I mumbled
After a few seconds of watching Dondre just stand there, he finally sped off after Romaine and the offending speedster.
"Hm." Cas hummed
"What appears to be the problem, lass?" questioned the Prince
"There don't appear to be any CCTV cameras in the area, and the satellite would take a few minutes to adjust its projection and broadcast; which may be more time than we have."
"Comm Dondre." I suggested
"Already on it." she responded
Looking over at the Prince, by his body expression he was probably wondering how he got caught up in all of this.
"Dondre," called Cas, "Tell us what's happening."
-"I'm going in the direction the Romaine flew."- He responded, -"Well I'm here now... but Shante seems to have completely lost it."-
"How's Romaine? We can't seem to find any CCTV cameras in the area."
-"Not looking so good.."-
"How bad is it?"
-"Well.. Imagine a dog got ran over by a train, then had a building dropped on it, but minus the fur and the horrible smell."-
"Bloody hell.." the Prince commented
"Not only was that a very unsettling description, but it doesn't exactly help either."
-"Well all his bones look like they've been broken seven different ways."-
"Well that's definitely worse than what I had in mind." I mentioned
-"Psycho alert."- Dondre randomly said
Why does getting through to Dondre have to be so difficult?
I walked up to the monitors and turned on the mic.
"Dondre," I called, "What's happening?"
-"Shante's losing mind, that's what. She's screaming weird stuff like 'No, I don't wanna kill him.'"-
While I don't know much about Shante's situation, my knowledge of previous encounters with her and recent experiences led me to form a hunch: we know that she's being manipulated by Zero to do his bidding, but maybe there's also something happening on the mental level. If, that's the case, then that should be within the bounds of my new abilities to intervein.
"This is perfect." I thought out loud
-"How is a girl going clinically insane after just beating the possible life out of your bestfriend 'perfect'?"-
"It'd be a waste of time to explain it to you," I told him, "but I've got a plan. See if you can get her attention and lead her over to me."
-"You want me, to have the absolute psychopath, that just shattered, all your friend's bones, to chase me. Yeah, looks like this insanity thing must be contagious, because you're talking crazy right now."-
"Ugh, come on Dondre." I stressed, "Just trust me and do it."
-"Fine. But if I die because if this, I'm gonna make sure that I come back to haunt you."-
"Just hurry; there might not be enough time."
Being a somewhat exceptional speedster, I knew that he would've made it here in no time, so I immediately made my way over to the elevator.
"So will we have the benefit of hearing your brilliant plan or nay?" questioned the Prince
"No time." I rushed, "I'll fill you both in after."
"Hopefully my hunch is right." I thought to myself
"Boys..." I heard Cas mumble to herself, "So strange."
When brought to the ground floor by the elevator, I made my way to the door at a considerable pace.
Now standing at the doorway outside, neither Dondre nor Shante were to be seen.
How do I keep arriving to places before speedsters that can literally run faster than the speed of sound? Guess my sense of urgency was unnecessary.
Finally when the two came into view, I indicated for Dondre to turn off too my right once he was close enough. Trusting that Dondre would follow as instructed, I closed my eyes, and calmed my mind. Abruptly opening my my eyes, I stopped the racing speedster dead in her tracks; almost appearing as if she was now paralyzed, though she was twitching erratically. Thankfully Dondre complied with my commands.
Walking up to her, I was sure to maintain eye contact. With every beckoning step, I saw flashes of images in her eyes. Images of her being tortured by Black Zero, time locked up in his lair, and even witnessing her own mother get brutally slaughtered by Zero. I now felt some sort of, mental connection with her, almost similar to the one I had with Alisa.
I know she didn't choose this path for herself, she was forced into it. And she deserves to get a chance at redemption, just like I did. Raising my hand, I built up the resolve to extend the same forgiveness of her actions that was shown to me.
Looking deeper into her eyes, I could see her trying to mentally fight off some sort of, evil presence, in order control her own actions.
"You're a strong girl," I said to her softly, "and I know you can fight it. You don't have to be Zero's slave anymore."
Tears welled up in her eyes as she started to breakdown. The twitching had slowly ceased as well.
"Come join us." I offered, "This is your chance at redemption."
She stuttered there, clearly hesitating.
Looking further into into her eyes, I could see why: there were images of Zero threatening to kill Romaine and her brother if she ever defied him.
"Don't worry." I reassured, "Black Zero can't hurt you, or anyone you love anymore."
She finally took my hand, agreeing to take my offer, and before I knew it, she was having a full breakdown while wrapped in my arms.
I hadn't even realized that my hands were doing their light thing until I opened my eyes last second. Before I even had time to react or do anything I was already separated from my body, and my consciousness was transported to a dark grey-ish plane
"You gotta be kidding me." I thought out loud, "More of this stuff?"
"Uhh.." I heard a soft and innocent voice from behind me, "Where are we?"
Reactively turning around, it looks like Shante had gotten dragged with me into this mental shenanigans.
"Don't worry." I reassured her, "We're in a manifestation of your mind."
"Or I hope that's what it is this time." I thought to myself, "Though it's awfully empty for someone's mind.."
The house in Alisa's mind may or may not have just been a unique case, but either way.. if this is all somehow connected to Shante's mind, then that 'thing' should be around here somewhere. Though all I'm seeing is emptiness for miles.. we should keep our guards up.
Looking back at her, Shante seemed quite worried.
"It's alright Shante." I calmly stated, "I won't let anything bad happen to you."
She timidly nodded her head.
"My name's Kyle. I'm a friend of Romaine's."
"Well, uhh, nice to meet you Kyle."
"I wonder why this happened when it did. How and why do my powers act on their own like this?"
"Uhh- Kyle?" Shante quivered
"Huh?" I reverted my attention to her
"What's that?" She panicked, pointing to something behind me
Turning around and staring at the figure, all my body could react with was saying "Perfect." sarcastically.
I was now staring at what looked like another version of Shante, but in her red speedster suit. The doppelganger was vibrating on the spot, more rapid than I've ever seen before, and was fully coated in electricity that seemed to keep gaining voltage.
"Kyle," Shante called, "What is that."
To be honest, I had essentially no idea what was happening at that point; a lot of these things didn't make much sense. And looking at Shante again, I'd just realized that she was wearing normal clothes, as opposed to her doppelganger that was in her suit.
"This is it.." I thought out loud, "This is the embodiment of her corruption."
The figure began twitching erratically and looked at Shante directly in the eyes.
"You have to face her Shante." I stated, as everything started to piece themselves together
"Huh? But how? Why?" She questioned
"Because not only is that 'thing' an embodiment of the corruption inside your mind, but it also functions as your worst fear. I could possibly do it myself, but.. unless you stand up to your worst fear yourself, it's bound to come back."
"I don't get what you're talking about."
"This 'thing', is what's been controlling you and forcing you to do all these bad things. You've surrendered your will to it and now it has almost full control over your mind and body. If you want to be free, you have to beat it."
"But how can I even do that? I don't have my powers."
Damn.. the corruption may have also been the source of her speed.
No, that doesn't matter. Powers or no powers, you can do anything you set your mind to.
Turning to Shante, I held her by the shoulders and looked her directly into the eyes.
"Shante," I said softly but firmly, "It doesn't matter how strong or fast your opponent is; once you put your mind to it, and find the courage deep inside you, you can beat them."
After seeing her eyes glisten as she stood there stunned, I knew it was over; the battle had already been won.
Shante's POV
Mr Kyle really seemed to believe that I could do it, even though he doesn't even know me. No one's ever believed in me like that before. Maybe I really can beat my fear without my powers.
'find the courage deep inside'... hm..
"Right." I agreed to my thought
My eyes sparkled when I saw Mr Kyle's smile.
I moved him over and stepped forward to face my fear. Standing face-to-face with her, I could feel a rush of energy flow all over my body. Then it was like there was lightning in my eyes, almost the same as when I first got my powers before.
"I'm going to beat you." I said seriously
The two of us ran of in the same direction, running side-by-side.
I was surprised when I realized that I was able to use my powers again, and that I was even fast enough to stay beside her. She tried to hit and shove me multiple times, but I never fell over. We spent some time hitting each other as we ran, not doing much damage to each other
At one point we both turned in opposite directions; I went left and she went right. After a short while, we started running towards each other, and I knew this was it; the final blow to end it all.
She looked like she was charging up her energy, so I tried to do the same; but then images started flashing through my mind.. about when me and my mother and brother were taken by Black Zero, the many times he tortured us, the night he killed my mother, the day he gave me my speed, the time I accidentally knocked out my brother, the time earlier when the feeling took over, and I nearly killed Romaine, and finally the time Mr Kyle told me I could beat my fear.
I'd normally feel bad about all of this, but this time, I made up my mind to make everything different; and for that, I'd have to defeat my worst fear.
I couldn't see my face, but I know I had 'serious' painted all over it. I focused my mind and all my energy into my right hand, and ran even faster.
"This, is for MY FAMILY!" I shouted, throwing my fist forward
When both of our punches slammed into each other, it was like everything stopped moving for a short while.
A giant force of wind blew from between our fists, and blew in all directions. Then suddenly the force of the wind pushed her backwards and she instantly disintegrated.
I stood there for a second, trying to control my heavy breathing, not believing that I was actually able to just do that.
When I looked over at Mr Kyle in the distance, he was too far to tell whether he was happy or not. I sped all the way back over to him, and stopped right in front of him.
"Hey Mr Kyle!" I cheered, "Did you see that? I did it! I stood up to my worst fear!"
"I knew you could do it." He said, smiling.
"I can't wait to tell Donte about it! I can finally join all of you and help save people!"
"Well of course, you'll need a name, and I just so happen to have the perfect one."
"Oh yeah? What is it?"
"Radical."
"Radical, why that name?"
"I have my reasons."
"Well I love it!"
I hugged him so tight that I probably nearly killed him.
I was filled with so many different emotions that I didn't even know how to feel.
"Nice lightning color by the way." he said, "It's definitely unique."
"Huh?" I questioned
Oh yeah, I didn't even pay any attention to that before since I was so focused on running.
I ran around in a circle for a bit then stopped and looked at my left over lightning trail.
"Ewwww" I went
"What's wrong?" Mr Kyle asked
The color of my lightning was pink with purple glittery stuff as well.
"I hate pink." I complained
"Tough luck." he said, "I'm sure you'll get used to it."
"Nope. That's it. I'm never using my speed again."