Kitty Wittgenstein and the Sinister Society of Southpaws (4.7)

4.7 The Value Of Experience

(note: to go to the beginning of the story, go here, to see all Chapter Four posts, go here and to see all Sinister Society of Southpaws posts, go here)


It wasn’t just the lights either. The television monitors were blank as well. The power was down.

It could have been a coincidence. But, come on. Was that at all likely?

Of course not. Something was up.

I heard screams outside from the studio audience, with a whooshing sound underneath. Then a very loud crash.

I opened the door and took a peek through.

Nothing.

“Come on,” I said. “I think we should get moving.”

We jogged quietly down the hall. The crashing and screaming outside got louder.

“I believe if we just ignore it,” said Orlando. “It will go away.”

I smiled. Opened another door. Peeked through.

A man in a battle-suit turned and looked at me.

I slammed the door shut.

“Let’s go,” I said. We turned and ran back down the hall. Time for the back door.

The battle suit dude burst through the door. Based on previous experience, he was going to close the gap awfully quickly.

“You don’t have a leg of a massage table on you by any chance?” I said.

Orlando didn’t answer. Instead, he slid to a halt. I looked up and saw why. Another battle suit guy was in front of us.

Fantastic.

“The door,” I said, accelerating.

There was a door halfway between us and him. Slightly closer than halfway, actually. We probably wouldn’t make it. But it was worth a try.

The battle suit guy in front of us ran went to close the gap. He fiddled awkwardly with some kind of switch as he did so.

Obviously these guys didn’t have as much training with the suits as their earlier counterparts. Heck, he didn’t even have the sense to turn himself invisible.

And he wasn’t moving as fast as I’d expected. We might just make it to the door ahead of him.
He suddenly accelerated.

Looked like he’d finally flicked the switch successfully.

He reached the door ahead of us.

And then flew straight past us, accelerating as he did so.

He stuck out a hand, trying to grab us as he went past. But Orlando and I flattened ourselves against the wall to avoid him.

I looked back. The battlesuit dude behind us was fiddling with a switch, too. Presumably the same accelerator switch, because upon seeing his buddy fly out of control, he stopped fiddling.

The accelerating one continued to accelerate, straight through the open door and out of sight.
A loud crash a few moments later indicated a probable sudden deceleration.

Definitely dealing with inexperienced battle suit users here.

We might just get away with this. The original battle suit dude didn’t seem overly keen on accelerating, which meant we might be able to outrun him.

Only one way to find out.

We ran the few remaining metres to the door and opened it.

I rounded the corner and ran straight into something.

Or, to be more precise, someone.

An invisible someone.

(to be continued)