20 『LudicrousSpeed』

The woke up like every morning on Winn's couch, yawning, stretching. She moved like a feline, her back arching as she supported herself with her palms and the toes of her feet. Bringing herself to sit up on the couch, she narrowed her eyes forward. Something didn't seem right, not at all.

Her eyes narrowed on the television. It was on, and it was like deja vu. The same cartoon she had woken up to 'yesterday' was on right now. It was Tom and Jerry, not something she was expecting as she had originally checked what would have been on in the next morning, which was supposed to be today.

"What is going on...?" While she was definitely interested, her tone was mono'ed out with a single note. She was clearly annoyed, but the reason why was blurry. Her eyes darted over towards her bag, yet she didn't understand why she felt a strange need to defend it.

『Temporal Anomaly Detected, reacquiring previous perception. . . Perception Acquired.』

Letting out a sigh, she walked over to her back and knelt down, opening the flap of the satchel and unzipping its mouth so she could get inside. She'd proceed to take out a navy blue binder and place it on the ground, then she took out a notebook.

Opening it, she turned to the front page which was blank. Her eye twitched, a grin of half-hearted amusement appeared on her lips. She had filled the first three pages with information written in Kryptonian, yet it was all gone, as if she had never written it.

She took in a shaky breath and stood up as she picked up the binder while tossing the notebook aside. It was almost time to leave for class, but she didn't seem all that worried.

Walking over to the coffee table, she laid the binder out and took the class syllabus, noted the Professor's cellphone number at the top under his name listed beside his email. That's when she would make a stride over to the loft's landline and take it off the charger.

Typing in the number which she had quickly taken into her mind, she put the phone to her ear and listened to the sound of dialing. After a few moments, she heard it ring.

"You have reached Professor Lockwood from National City University, who is calling please?" Ben asked, the sound of his car could be heard. It was clear that he was driving to the University.

"Hey Ben-Ben," Hekate said with a playful tone, though it was clearly covering up her irritation towards whatever had done this rewinding of reality. "I'm going to your class today, right?"

After a brief pause, Ben nodded slightly, "Yeah... It's your first day, why are you asking this?"

"Huh... There's been a temporal anomaly," Hekate uttered with a frown across her lips, shaking her head at the notion that this was going to be another repeat. "Assign me a seat in the front today."

"Temporal? As in Time? What are you talking about?" Lockwood practically dismissed what she said about assigning her seat to the front. People generally sat where they wanted, but he had no problem with it. He was a history teacher, and times of the past was generally what he studied.

"A very detailed set of memories for today are circulating in my head as if they happened yesterday. Is there a Paige Moriarty in your class? Mint colored hair, Japanese-English descent, about eighteen years old?"

After a brief pause as she had gotten a detailed description of a student which hadn't even stepped foot on the campus as of yet, he pursed his lips. "Yes, yes I do." He was driving with one hand. "Why do you ask?"

"Is there a Robotics Program at the University, or going to be?" She asked which made Lockwood unresponsive for a few moments. She didn't mind the brief silence, he was probably concentrating on driving.

Lockwood returned to the phone, "The Dean said something about a pending Robotics Program, I don't quite remember the name of the Professor they're taking on though."

Nodding at this information, "Thanks Ben-Ben," Hekate had stated with a more teasing tone now to ease away the seriousness of her inquisition.

"Just call me Lockwood or Professor," He sighed over the phone and hung up as he made his way into the parking lot of the University and parked in the faculty zone.

'Purchase Stealth and Battledress Suits,' She spoke within her own mind to the guardian as she could hear Winn waking up from his slumber. She put the phone back on the charger and made her way over to the spot she had put her clothes in the corner of the living room.

『Your purchase is complete, after buying all of the available suits, new selections have been added to your virtual shop. Thank you for shopping through Guardian-1.』

Sliding her leggings, shorts and black dress shirt, she followed up with the ocean green tie and glasses. She then walked over to where her pack was situated and put the binder and notebook back inside. Once she had it all closed up and ready to go, she put it in her inventory.

Winn came walking out of his room and paused seeing her standing there by the door. "Eh...? You okay Hekate?" He asked seeing the lack of expression on her face, he could tell she wasn't happy.

"I'm fine. I'm just confused on a certain matter, but it's nothing." She said as she looked at him, smiling softly in his general direction. She wasn't looking at him, and he quickly noticed this.

"You sure?" Winn asked with a brow raised, his sleepy eyes slowly waking up to the morning sun.

Hekate growled lowly hearing him trying to assess her status. "Yes, I'm fine, stop nagging."

"I'm not nagging!" Winn scoffed and tried not to laugh out loud at her antics. "You need some coffee?"

"I don't like coffee, it's too bitter." Hekate retorted his offer with an excuse, before crossing her arms slightly. "I thought you would have known by now since we've been living under the same roof for over a week now. I'm a tea person!"

"Fine, you're a little Brit, I get it." Winn punned, replacing the word Brat with the word Brit, to match the fact that she preferred tea over coffee. Though he did like the English Breakfast tea.

Hekate simply stared at him for a few moments when he referred to her as a Brit before turning away and opening the door. As she took a few steps out, her appearance was overcome by her stealth suit. Almost immediately as she was turning her head to give him another glance, she vanished from sight.

Soon after the door slammed shut, as she had closed it with a single finger.

Launching herself into the skies above once she left the building, she flew at high speed towards the University. Within a minute or so she arrived, landing on the top of the school store which had a flat roof.

Walking along the curb-like edge of the roof, she glared down towards the students who were walking back and forth. The professors whom were hurrying to class, some of them were late.

She was about thirty minutes Early, since she chose not to come with Winn, and instead came by herself. Hekate's eyes narrowed on the girl with mint hair and wearing a school girl uniform. Reaching down, she picked up a pebble and then threw it in her direction.

In that moment, the girl dodged, a short trail of lightning following after. No one seemed to notice as there weren't that many people around right now. It was too early.

She just stared at the girl with Mint hair who was now looking around the area, not knowing where the pebble came from. "That... I don't remember that happening before..." Paige muttered to herself, though Hekate could hear her clear as day.

Hekate crossed her arms as she heard this, so this person was the one who did it. She didn't even need an open confession. She had rewinded time in order to do this all over again?

She centered her sights on Paige who appeared cautious and still looking around. Using her X-ray vision, she scanned the girl with her sight. For the most part she appeared to be human, but as she reached the head, her eyes narrowed on the girl's brain.

There was exotic matter within the brain's pituitary gland, a specific part of it, which allowed them to have extraordinary powers. This was something that brought humans on par with aliens. "If I destroy that part of the brain... I'd make her powerless..." Hekate said aloud to herself as she knelt down, watching. "It'd only make sense since that's the only abnormality in her human physiology."

『The skill to attack specific parts of a target without harming other parts is acquired at level 5 Kryptonian Physiology. It is unlikely she would survive if you were able to successfully lobotomize the meta-human.』

Turning her head to the side, she had known of this meta-gene. There had been Kryptonians on the planet of Krypton who had magnificent powers without being around a golden sun. These powers were due to having the meta-gene and being exposed to exotic matter such as dark matter.

In addition to that, she could gain the same gene through the shop, by gaining a Meta-Physiology.

By now, Paige could deduce her location from the trajectory of the pebble. She was speeding towards her location now, due haste. "Who the hell throws a pebble at a random person?" She'd exclaim as she came up the side of the building and onto the roof. She rapidly snapped her head side to side, but she saw nothing.

She thought she hit a dead end until she saw a flicker of heat vision, two different colors of heated energy. Paige narrowed her eyes on that location, the flickering went on and on. "What in the..."

Suddenly a ball of swirling two toned heated energy blasted its way from the invisible foe and rocketed towards her with extreme prejudice.

"Oh Shrap..." Paige cursed and looked around, but couldn't tell which direction she should go in. If she got off the building, there was a good chance that this would cause a disturbance. Stepping to the side, the ball of energy seemed to follow her at increasing speeds. "It's homing in on me!? Who the frak is this!?"

Hekate watched as the speedster jumped off the back of the building and headed over towards the small nearby field. Some of the pedestrians walking around noticed the ball of energy going straight towards Paige who had already changed into her evergreen and yellow-orange colored Flash-esque attire.

The lightning which followed her was yellow and green, it was quite an interesting combination of colors. Could it had been created artificially or was it natural?

Just before the ball of heat clashed with the Speedster, they ducked down and ran forward. Allowing the heat ball to hit the ground, causing a small explosion which sent chunks of dirt and burnt grass in all directions.

"What's the big idea!?" The Speedster shouted for the very person responsible to respond, yet after a few seconds there was nothing. "Superman doesn't even use that feat yet!"

Hekate just stood there on the edge of the school store with a frown written on her face hearing this. Hopping down from the store, dust and dew would rise from the grass where she landed.

The Speedster immediately locked on the location, and was getting ready to get into a running position. Their first idea was to run around and generate enough energy to throw at their foe.

That was until they became visible, Hekate was walking towards the Speedster. All of the super suits were combined into one. It was different from the original Cadmus suit. There was more armor, it was like looking at something from Star Wars, the Mandalorian Armor, with a Quarian Helmet and hood.

Paige stood there dumbfounded, it was the girl she talked to before time had rewound itself. "How in the world...? Is that you Liades?!"

The visor of her armor opened, revealing her two toned eyes and stoic expression. "I should be asking you the same question, leprechaun!" Hekate pointed at the girl who fouled up their bonding experience earlier, or was it later in this case?

"Hey! I'm taller than you!" The Speedster argued about the name of leprechaun.

"And I'm proud of it!" Hekate growled back, kicking a stone in her general direction. The stone missed the speedster by a long shot, crashing into a nearby manmade pond with a large splash.