Caffeine Rush (Avengers Fanfic)

Chapter 9: Record Setting

I waited until the next Avengers mission that involved everyone that I dealt with on a regular basis to make my move—the six founders, Sam, Wanda, and Loki. Bucky threw a knife at Steve when he went to ask if he was coming and Vision was, well, I didn't really know what he was doing, but he wasn't coming with. Something about creatures attacking London, I didn't pay much attention to that bit, I was busy making coffee—or tea for my favorite Green Team—to wake them up when the call came at two in the morning.

Tony was up, because he just always seemed to be, and so was I, because my brain was wired to go through my circadian cycle at whatever speed I wanted it to, but no one else had been and I could tell they were feeling it as they suited up. So I jumped into action as Coffee Lady, Divine Ambassador to the Caffeine Gods, and magicked up some extra strength caffeine drinks so the enhanced ones could actually feel it.

Even after I got some caffeine in them, Tony was the only one that was chipper. "We're off to save the other side of the world, we'll be back in time for breakfast so make sure there's lots of it." Tony instructed before being herded onto the Quinjet by an only semi-awake archer, good thing FRIDAY was the one piloting.

I did the math in my head, the Quinjet was a specialized aerial vehicle that could fly just a bit faster than Mach 2, so it would still take them about two hours to get there. I could get to London from here in half an hour if I went Mach 7, I just needed to make sure I slowed down enough before I hit England so that my speed wouldn't decimate tower bridge. I had learned my lesson from the first and last time I instantly decelerated from such speeds. I shuddered at thinking about tripping at that speed, it would feel like getting hit with nearly a billion pounds of force, not an exaggeration. First rule of being a speedster, never run with lace-up shoes. Tripping might not kill me, but it would certainly make me wish it had, that road burn was vicious.

I could wait an hour and a half and arrive there at the same time that they did. I let the thought sink in, weighed it, and decided I didn't like it. Then a thought occurred to me, what would London look like after two hours with those creatures running loose? That gave me pause. I liked the London of this universe, they were the connoisseurs of tea and biscuits, the Beatles, the Harry Potter series, Ben Barnes, Tom Ellis, and a bunch of other things that I daren't mention if London was destroyed. I supposed I could do without that royal family drama, or Harry Styles. Something about that guy's hair . . . eh, he wasn't even in the UK right now and the monarchy would still exist without their capital city.

Sighing, I knew what I had to do. At the very least, I could contain the threat until the Avengers got there. Activating my suit, I kept my speed under Mach 1 until I was over the water to keep the vibrations to a minimum, sonic booms were generally not good for public property. As I got over the water, I sped up to Mach 20, knowing the ocean could absorb the vibrations better, but I still had to be careful about displacing too much water, didn't want to cause a tsunami or anything. I tasked the pseudo-intelligence in my suit to radar ahead for ships, changing directions at this speed and over water was inadvisable, for myself and the potential of creating a disaster. Luckily it was a straight shot and I managed to get in sight of the island within 15 minutes. I slowed to the minimum speed that would keep me above water as I ran up the coast and quickly asked my suit for directions to the fight.

I skidded to a stop from a reasonable enough speed that the asphalt remained mostly in tact and observed the section of the city that had the most of these creatures. "What a mess," I remarked, folding my arms across my chest as I decided the best way to go about this. Looking at the measures the locals had taken, they had tried to put up a perimeter and appeared to be evacuating people. I supposed that I could help with that, but evacuating people with my speed was kind of a nuisance. Acceleration speed alone was hard to handle for a trained person, let alone near sudden stops at crash speed. The absolute limit that a normal human could withstand at crash speeds was around 170 miles per hour and I ran a hell of a lot faster than that, if I participated in evacuating then I would be severely limited in my capabilities. It wasn't impossible for me to slow down, if necessary, I could, but that meant leaving the rest of the battlefield unattended and letting those creatures run wild. What a mess indeed.

Seeing someone who appeared to be in charge, I darted over and tapped his shoulder to grab his attention. The guy turned around like he was going to yell at me, saw my suit, seemed to recognize my status as an enhanced, and thought better of it. "Who are you and what can I do to help?"

Oh good, he was choosing to be helpful instead of resisting, unlike the NYPD captain in Steve's story had during the New York Invasion. "I'm Rush, and I'm taking over, Captain's orders," while that might have been a lie, it was for a good cause so I think he'll let it slide, "I need your people to focus on evacuating people while I make a perimeter. I'll keep those things off you as best I can until the team gets here." I could see the question in his eyes, why didn't I run in there and evacuate them myself? I was clearly fast enough, but that was just the problem, I was too fast. "I can't run people who aren't enhanced and still keep these things contained," I simplified for the guy, he didn't need to know that the speeds I ran at for battle could liquify organs and crush bones for a normal person, even enhanced non-speedsters had a rough time with it.

"Alright, I'll send out the orders." He confirmed. I smiled brightly, sending a two fingered salute to him just before I ran off. I only had to stall for time, just keep the creatures from getting out, keep them from attacking the police while they tried to evacuate people, for another hour and forty minutes, just until the Avengers got here. I blitzed with excitement, this was sure to be one hell of a run, maybe even one for the record.

That hour and a half seemed both eternal and all too fast, that's what happens when a speedster is given a task to do during a specific time limit and has to endure it while time is perceived in fractions of its original duration. I may have only been running for an hour and a half but it felt as if it was four times that. I really need to upgrade Tony's tech, it was so slow!

Finally, my suit's pseudo-intelligence picked up the Quinjet on radar. I called to that police guy I took over from, "hold the fort, Lennox, the team's almost here!"