Chapter 20: Retrobution

Romaine's POV

It was now Friday. The crew and I practiced even more for the majority of the day. And during that time, we went the without any mention-able conflicts.

Kyle's been silent, only speaking when necessary; I guess he's still a bit mad about yesterday. I don't really blame him though.

"Well since we're done practicing, what now?" Dondre asked

"I'm not really sure." I responded

The crime alert went off.

"That." Cas pointed out

This is great, just what we needed was a crime to stop together. Kyle and I will be good in no time.

Cassandra brought up live camera footage of the event. It was just a normal bank robbery.

"Bank Robbery at the First National Bank, Sam Sharpe Square." Cas announced

"Well since he's a normal guy, I can handle it on my own." I stated

"Romaine," Kyle started, "Don't be so quick to assume; if he was a normal bank robber, he would've been stopped by now. He has the bag of money and he's casually walking out. Does that look like a normal robbery to you?"

"Well.. fair enough." I agreed

"It's best if you go with them, Kyle" Cassandra suggested

"You're right" He agreed, "But I don't want anyone to carry me."

"How else are you going to get there?" I questioned

"...fine"

"Good, let's go."

Dondre and I changed, then the three of us piled into the elevator. We waited ages for that dumb thing to bring us up to the next level. As soon as the doors opened enough for me to go throughout them, I grabbed Kyle and ran all the way to the Square.

Dondre arrived shortly after, and Kyle started throwing up when his body was caught up to speed. The Robber ignored our appearance, and continued slowly walking away.

"I've got this guys. No problem." I stated

I sprinted toward him, with a speed punch ready.

"Romaine no!" Kyle shouted, "We don't yet know what his powers are!"

I heard what Kyle said, but if we have a chance to catch him off-guard, then we should take it.

I delivered my speed punch to his side. He stopped walking, then turned his head to me. It was as if my attack did no damage. We made eye contact, before I felt someone punch me in my own side.

I fell to the ground, feeling as if I was going to regurgitate.

"I told you.." Kyle commented

"Ha, and they say I run into things without thinking." Dondre chuckled

I swiftly stood up and laid a barrage of punches on him.

Once again, no reaction. After a bit of delay, I felt the full blunt of my own attack.

"Romaine stop attacking blindly." Kyle advised, "There's obviously something else at work here."

"Can you leave me alone?" the guy asked

The police arrived right after that, they jumped out of their vehicles and armed their guns.

"Don't take another step!" one of them commanded

The man returned his gaze forward, then went back to walking.

One of the officers fired his gun at him. I watched as the bullet blazed past me, I figured that since all of my physical attacks would backfire, then a projectile would have more of an effect on him.

The bullet made impact with his head; and by that, I mean it touched him, then fell to the ground. Leaving him completely unharmed.

Those of us watching were shocked and confused, until I heard a cry from behind me. The officer that had shot the bullet was lying on the ground, with a bullet hole in his skull.

"I warned you." said the robber

He once again went back to walking away.

The cops obviously weren't catching on, because another one of them shot a bullet to his shoulder, and the outcome was the same.

"No no no! We gotta get them to stop firing!" I panicked

The officers continued to shoot and feel like flies.

"I gotta stop those bullets." I said, "Cas, how fast does a bullet go exactly?"

-"The average bullet can travel to speeds up to 2900 kilometres per hour. That's twice the speed of sound!"- She informed

"2900?! I can't even go half that fast! What would happen if I try to catch a bullet without going that fast?"

-"If somehow you manage to even catch it, it would still be traveling at such a fast rate that it would slip out of your fingers."

"I'll do it." Dondre said

"What? No! You're not fast enough for that!" I pointed out

"Well someone's gotta try."

Two of the officers fired their guns, we now had three bullets heading the robber's way.

I accelerated my body as much as possible, so that I'd be able to see Dondre's attempt. He's much faster than I would've anticipated; I barely saw the whole thing.

Dondre ran in front of all the bullets and delicately caught them between his index fingers and thumbs. Something came out as a bit weird to me though; for a split second, Dondre's usually bright yellow lightning, appeared slightly darker. It was more than likely that it's just my eyes playing tricks on me because of how fast he was going.

When Dondre came to a stop, and we all adjusted to what had just happened, he dropped the bullets onto the ground.

"Great Job Dondre!" Kyle cheered

"Yeah.." I went

"You guys! Stop, shooting! Can't you see that he's not being affected by this!" he shouted

"Well what now?" Kyle questioned

"Don't look at me," Dondre said, "You guys are the ones that come up with the plans.

"How are we possibly supposed to hurt him in any way if we feel the effects?" I posed

"We could possibly knock him out with a vacuum?" Dondre suggested

"We don't know whether or not we'd be suffocated instead."

Kyle groaned and walked up to him.

"Guys, close your eyes." he said

He stood and stared the robber in the face. Kyle peeled the glove off of his right hand and grabbed the robber's face.

"Kyle what are you-- ooooooh. I get it now." I said

It was a good plan. The robber fell unconscious onto the ground, along with some other spectators.

"You guys can take him to the cops." He said

I ran for a pair of handcuffs and retrained him.

"You know.." Kyle started, "There was no need for violence in the first place; you could've just taken the bag of money back from him. And if he wanted to fight back, you're superfast for crying out loud, you could've just cuffed him from the beginning."

Spoken like a true non-speedster. He'll never understand.

Kyle released his ability's effect on the robber and he woke up. After that we made our way back to the lab at a normal pace. There was no need to rush, and I don't think either of us were up for it anyway.

"Hey guys!" Dondre yelled, "I got a name for that guy; Retrobution."

"What?.." I questioned

"Oh come on, know your pop-culture references!" he said

Well now that 'Retrobution' is taken care of, for the rest of the day we can focus on tomorrow.