Chapter 90: Kick into Overdrive Part 1

Donte's POV

The past month's been rough on all of us. Dondre hasn't been seen since his kidnapping by Overdrive, Future Romaine is dead, and on top of all that our Romaine's been missing since the night Black Zero killed his mother. This is all so messed up.

We were all shocked that night when Melany came back telling us about what happened. For a long while she was shocked and in such a panic that we spent minutes trying to calm her down enough so she could talk properly. As her story went on it was one big shock after the other. We all went there to search for Romaine after but ended up with no leads on where he could be.

We all worked tirelessly for an entire week trying to track down Romaine, Dondre or even Black Zero's locations. But eventually had to come to the conclusion that Future Romaine died while trying to hold off Zero and Romaine was then kidnapped by him; likely killed, knowing Black Zero.

It's been hard trying to go on, but even though the others believe in the obvious conclusion, I still believe that Romaine's alive somewhere out there, waiting for his time to return.

Even so, the Prince has been putting us through even more rigorous training than before. And he's also been training Melany how to use her speed; according to him we're the city's remaining hope of defense, so we have to get as strong as possible.

And even though we're all still grieving, we've done our best to return to our normal lives; as normal as it gets anyway.

~~~~~~~

"If I gotta do another 1000 laps in there, I think I'm gonna die." said Melany, barely able to breathe after we circled the speed tunnel 10,000 times as part of our training.

"You'll get used to it." Shante insisted

"You've all improved tremendously over the past few weeks." noted the Prince, "Though Donte, I can tell you've been distracted a lot more recently; is it Romaine again?"

I slowly nodded my head, not realizing how obvious it was that I was distracted earlier.

"Listen lad." He said in a gentle voice, touching my shoulder, "I know it's hard, but you have to stay focused on the bigger picture."

"I got it. I'm fine." I whispered

Before we could go on, the room flashed with red lights as the crime alert went off.

We all ran to the control room on the floor above finding Cas already tending to the monitors.

"You guys won't believe this." She told us

When the footage came up on the screens, it turns out she was right, we watched as Overdrive had Dondre tied up on top of a building in the Square.

-"Velocity!"- He called out, -"Surrender yourself to Black Zero, or I'll kill your friend."-

"This guy's insane!" I shouted, "He's not really planning on killing him is he?"

"I think that more importantly, we should be looking at the fact that he's calling for Romaine," Cas commented, "meaning that Zero doesn't have him in his possession."

"And Dondre's still alive too, meaning they're both ok." Shante added

"Well we still don't know about Romaine's whereabouts, but there's now a much more likely possibility that he's alive." said the Prince

"Well if we waste anymore time here then Dondre might not be alive for much longer." Mel rushed

"Yeah she's right." said Cas, "But the last time you guys faced Overdrive you got beat badly and we lost Dondre. I'm not completely sure that this time around will be much of a difference."

"Trust in my training Cassandra Dear," the Prince told her, "if anything they should give him a run for his money this time around."

"I'm not sure it's what Romaine would want..." she thought to herself, "but it's not like we have much of a choice. Alright then, go save Dondre; but do not engage in combat unless necessary."

"Splendid. Little lad and little lassie, go retrieve your comrade."

As Shante and I walked over to the elevator, Melany looked at us confused.

"Only them?" She questioned the Prince, "What about me too? I'm ready."

"You're not yet ready for out in the field love, you still have more training to do."

"But I've been training for a month straight just like the other two, I can control my powers and do everything you taught me, please."

"Lass I said no. Just trust me when I say that you're not yet ready. If you were to try using your abilities to their full extent, you'd end up being a danger to not just yourself but also those around you."

"Well I don't care what you say. I'm going whether you like it or not, my friend's in danger and I'm not gonna leave him hanging."

Before Melany could take a step into the elevator, she was immediately stopped by the Prince's next words.

"Feel free to disobey my commands if you wish, just know that if you go out there now, I'll no longer be teaching you anything."

Melany stood in her spot for a while thinking about it, and she was clearly stressed.

"Please, Donte, Shante." She said to us, "Save him."

"Don't worry Mel. We will." Shante replied

"Yeah what she said." I agreed, giving her a smile

Well, I don't know if it was just me, but I felt a lot of pressure knowing that my friend's life was counting on us right now, and that everyone else was relying on us to save him.

~~~~~~~

By this point I had a general idea of how to navigate to the Square from the lab, so I ran while Shante followed my lead; though I'll admit a took one or two wrong turns.

When Shante and I got sight of Overdrive, we started switching positions while running towards him, weaving the lightning left behind into a knot.

"Pitiful." He said, "I guess the coward sent his lackeys instead."

As we started running up the building, he put Dondre to kneel on the edge of the roof, then kicked him over.

"Donte!" Shante shouted

"I know!" I shouted back, running to catch Dondre before he hit the ground

Though the sudden change in direction reduced my speed, I easily started going even faster than before. I ran past Dondre then jumped off the side of the building, catching him in my arms and landing somewhat safely onto the ground.

"Dondre buddy," I spoke to him, "are you ok?"

He was barely conscious but didn't seem to have the energy to speak; must've been Overdrive's weird power again. Not to mention all the tears on his suit; they must've given him a real beating.

But before I could further check his condition, my attention was drawn to the building behind me by Shante's screams. I turned around to see her falling towards the ground, which I'm guessing was Overdrive's doing.

"Shante! Constrain!" I shouted, putting out my hand towards her and enabling my magnetic aura

As she continued to fall through the air, she followed my instructions and enabled her magnetic aura as well. Once she was within my range, her body was pulled towards me, avoiding her collision with the ground. When I got a hold of her with my hand, we disabled our auras.

"Thanks." she whispered

"The heck were you thinking crazy?" I said, "You could've died trying to take him head on. The only way we can win is working together."

"I know but I just figured that~"

"Forget it. Just don't let it happen again, k. I can't lose my sister too."

"Ok, sorry."

I gently place Dondre onto the ground then got up to stand beside Shante.

The two of us stared down Overdrive until both sides started racing towards each other at the same time.