Robert tapped Valor lightly on the head and then took off jumping upward through the same hole the boy came in through. Valor ignored the challenge and scurried over to resuscitate the other agents. Before he could finish reverting all of their injuries the gates dropped and an armored truck drove in. Several more agents stormed out with odd medical kits as well as a rather suave man with hay colored hair wearing completely black business attire.
“Carol!” he hollered with his arms sprawled wide. “What happened baby, did he hurt ya?”
The man ran in and glomped onto Agent Rivers with what looked to be an unwelcome hug. She tried to shake him off for a second but then soon gave in.
“Sir…”
“I’m not responding to that.”
“Ferris,” she spoke changing tones and finally being allowed some breathing room. “Is this really an appropriate way to relate while at work?”
“There she goes again,” the man said turning his head to Valor, “always getting all hissy when I give her special treatment on the job. Don’t you think a guy has a right to get worried when his fiancé gets knocked out by some deranged hooligan?”
“Umm… I guess?”
“Oh sorry, how rude of me.” He reached out to shake the boy’s hand. “My name is Commander Ferris Thompson, but you can call me Ferris.”
“Oh… um… I’m…”
“Don’t worry, I don’t need your name Valor. You’re lucky I was assigned to you. Anyone else would have tried to round you up by now, but I’ve actually become quite a fan of your deeds.”
“Thanks.”
“I want to talk with you more, but I need you to catch that man. Robert Duran was one of our researchers working on possibly recreating the process for making super soldiers like Carol here. I guess he had plans of his own. Could you bring him in to us? Do you think you can catch him?”
“Maybe, I don’t know. Fastest I’ve gone is seven-fifty, not even supersonic. I’ve never had to go faster, so I couldn’t tell you.”
“It’s okay, just go out there and try your best.”
Valor leaped up through the hole in the street and hit the trail after the fastest person he’s ever seen. As he stated before, following Robert would be easy since his powers left a trail of distorted entropy that only Valor could see. Valor wasn’t sure if taking him in was the right thing to do or not. Duran hasn’t done anything lethal. Sure he knocked all those agents, but at three thousand miles per hour, he could have easily thrown his fist through any of their chests and killed them. He had to do something regardless. Even if Robert wasn’t a threat to public safety, he was harassing people and abusing their privacy. If women wanted people to look at their panties, then why would they even bother wearing skirts that you had to flip up? They’d just walk around half-naked.
The trail led all the way to the other side of Fort Worth, which took no time at all to reach even at just Valor’s previous record. Luckily the guy had resorted to his habit of the day and was slowed down significantly by all the ladies dressing appropriately for the Texas weather. Valor failed to get the jump on the man and he took off immediately. Desperate, Valor shot out a plasma blast at the ground many yards in front of him. The blast got there before Robert did and the destruction of the terrain tripped him up. The boy sped over before Robert could get up and held a ball of plasma in his hand pointed directly at the man’s back.
“Wow, superheated plasma. Fascinating! You had to have launched that a few hundred thousand miles per hour to hit that spot first from all the way back there. And with such precision! I have to admire the tactic. I’d be able to divert the heat and radiation off such a shot, but if the mass were to hit me.. I wouldn’t even want to think about it.”
“Praises aside, I really don’t want to have to arrest you.”
“You don’t say?”
“To be honest, I don’t think what you did was worthy of being shot at for, you didn’t even touch anyone. But, still, you can’t continue doing that.”
“So you’d let me go as long as I stop pestering the ladies?”
“As long as you stop harassing just about everyone, why not.”
“Okay, then I got a deal for you. If you can beat me in a race I’ll vanish and never flip a skirt ever again.”
“Yeah, and what if you win?”
“Well, then I’m going to split and go pull pranks on people somewhere else since you clearly can’t keep up anyway.”
“Fine, where to?”
“I’ll let you pick.”
“Okay, from here, back through the tunnel from earlier, and to… do you know where Virginia Weaver Park is?”
“Yeah, my folks live around there.”
“Okay then. I’ll throw this piece of debris up in the air. When it lands we’ll take off and the person sitting in the tire on the swingset wins.”
Valor lobbed the chunk of pavement, possibly a little too high up but it gave them time to ready up. A couple of seconds later it hit the ground and they were off. Valor was keeping up so well he would have been surprised if he wasn’t concentrating so hard on it. They both took to Highway 30 like bullets dodging raindrops. It was packed this time of day with all the business and airport traffic from the surrounding area. DFW is a central hub after all. They took different paths while snaking in and out of traffic, but made sure not to lose sight of the other for too long. Within no time the hit Uptown and ran their way onto Highway 75. When they made it to the tunnel they cleared it with such speed that the shockwave knocked all the agents still cleaning up off their feet.
“Sir, did you see that?”
“Not really, but I have an idea of what it was.”
It wasn’t much longer until they were sprinting down Highway 65 and moving through Duncanville. Moving so fast they couldn’t even tell when they transitioned into Cedar Hill, but they saw the Tidwell crossing coming up and started running against traffic to get up the right ramp. A rig split them up and after it passed Robert lost sight of Valor.
“Eh, guess I was too much for him. Can’t let up now.”
Within the second he made it to the park after cutting through a field behind a local school. Duran went to sit in the tire swing and claim his victory, but once there he stopped dead in his tracks flinging gravel everywhere. For lounging in the swing was Valor eating a bomb-pop.
“Took you long enough,” Valor joked before taking a lick. “You left me enough time to snag a popsicle from the ice cream man over there. Though I had to just leave the money on the counter with a note or else I would have lost.”
“Wow kid, really showed me up. Guess I’ll have to practice with these powers more and beat you next time.”
“Really, you tried your hardest!? Does that mean I was able to break thirty-five hundred?”
“Kid, you really weren’t paying attention to how fast we were going, were you? Try multiplying that number by ten.”
Valor dropped his popsicle out of shock. If what Robert said was true, which he would have every reason to believe a man of science, then they had to have broken Mach 20. If they didn’t leave off on such bad terms he’d love to tell Mack, but his friends will just have to do. Not like his younger brothers could even fathom such a speed yet to tell them.
“Well, I’m a man of my word Valor. No more free peep shows for me.”
“Guess you’ll be leaving then.”
“Yeah, but I won’t go too far,” Robert said while tossing Valor a small object.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a phone so you can get in touch with me. I figure someone ought to help the little boy scout running around here all by himself.”
“There is no way this tiny thing is a phone, it looks like a stopwatch. Where are the keys?”
“It flips open. Only the government is using these, so I swiped me a few on the way out… Among other things. Don’t worry about the service either, they’ve got so many there’ll never know to shut this one-off. Just hit 2 and dial and I’ll answer.”
“Thanks, but why?”
“I don’t know, man. You’re kind of cool for such a scrub. Besides, if I can’t call you, how will I get my rematch?”
“Okay Robert, guess I’ll see you around.”
“Meh, that’s a boring name. From now on, call me Diaphanes.”
Valor stood there giving him a blank look.
“It means transparent; like the wind.”
Speeding back at his newfound speed, Valor reunited with Commander Thompson and Agent Rivers still positioned under the empty bridge.
“...and make sure that replacement molding dries before we leave. I don’t need other bureaus getting on to me. Oh Valor, you’re back. Was he too fast for you after all?”
“Astonishingly, no.”
“Ah, then you left him tied up somewhere?”
“Nope.”
“Okay, you’re going to have to work with me, otherwise I’ll be guessing all day.”
“He let him go, you sarcastic doofus.”
“Hey, no need to be rude Carol. Clearly I realized that when he came back alone. I have to cover my own ass, too.”
“Are you mad at me?”
“Not at all. As I said, I’m a fan. I trust your decisions. This just means more paperwork for me.”
“Good, you love paperwork.”
“Sarcasm isn’t pretty on either of us, missy.”
“I’d like to keep in touch, do you have a phone? No, I guess that’s a dumb question to ask someone of your age.”
“Actually... I do.”
“Good, then take my card and leave me a message so I can get your number later. Would you like us to drop you off at home or at school?”
“Are you kidding me? I’ve been moving around so fast today that if I hurry I could still make it back by lunch. I’m on my own, see ya!”
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