5. Fast Eddi - Cut to The Quick

5: Fast Eddi - Cut to the Quick 

After pacing up and down for two minutes, trying to compose herself for her first ever team-up - with Zac frickin’ Brinkman! - it took Eddi five seconds to get to the tube station. She got a bit lost on the way. Eddi had only ever been in that part of town before at night. Warehouse parties happened frequently around the old gasworks and Eddi had attended them many times. Too many times.

But that was before.

Magnolia Street had been cordoned off and police vehicles were parked everywhere. There were two police officers, both men, standing guard at the barrier in front of the the station. Clearly, they had not been told to expect her. "This area is restricted," said the first cop. 

"You'll need to move along, Miss," said the second.  At its best, Fast Eddi’s previous experiences with the Avalon Police Service had been similarly condescending, when it had not been intimidating, or at worst, downright criminal. The constabulary's less than stellar reputation was well earned.

Eddi counted to ten, then tried again. "I'm expected," she said. "Doctor Brinkman just called me. Can you let him know I’m here, please? Or you can just point me to him." 

"Look, love," said the first cop, with a patronising chuckle; "It's not safe here. No raves tonight. It's a crime scene, yeah? You need to leave the area. Alright?"

A short, owlish, Asian woman, wearing an smart suit and a lanyard, joined the policemen at the barrier. “It’s alright, officer,” said the woman. “Please let her through. She’s with me.” The woman smiled and beckoned Eddi over. Begrudgingly, the police did as they were asked. The woman shook Eddi warmly by the hand and led her towards the tube station. “Hello, I am Doctor Bibi,” she said. “I am a colleague of Doctor Brinkman. He apologises for not meeting you in person, but there was something urgent that required his attention.”

“Oh,” said Eddi. “I mean, it’s nice to meet you, Doctor Bibi. I’m sorry. How can I help?”

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Doctor Bibi stopped at the entrance to the station. “I should warn you,” she said. “There are some people in a very bad way down here.”

“What’s happened?” asked Eddi.

“It’s quicker if I just show you,” said the doctor. “Please prepare yourself.” She led Eddi down onto the platform.

It was horrible.

Eddi tried not to show how nauseous she felt, but Doctor Bibi could see that she was not dealing with the situation very well. The relentless buzzing sound and the stale, chemical-sweat smell that filled the tunnel; the vacant-eyed figures, strapped to the sewing machines - Eddi could not understand how someone could treat other human beings in such a way. Like they were nothing. Something just to be used to make money. She wanted to throw up. 

When Eddi noticed what they were making, it made her feel even worse. She had loads of Nihil clothes at home. She was a brand geek. How could she know, for sure, that some of her wardrobe had not been made here? Even the trainers Eddi was wearing at that moment were her favourite, limited edition, Nihil Cheetah Paw Pros. She shuffled her feet, feeling complicit in the crime.

Taking a deep breath, Eddi attempted to drive these unhelpful thoughts to the back of her mind. She needed to focus. Turn a negative into a positive. Even if her clothes habit had, inadvertently contributed to this situation, she was now in a position to do something to help. 

Doctor Bibi explained that paramedics were still attending to the needs of the victims as best they could, and a group of technicians had set about constructing the sedative delivery system. Eddi pushed her goggles up, on top her head, listening intently to what Doctor Bibi needed her to do.

Once the doctor had finished explaining, Eddi nodded nervously, her head briefly blurring like a hummingbird’s wing. “Yeah,” she said. "I dunno if I can stick needles in all these people though." 

"No needles," said Doctor Bibi. "They already have lines in. You just need to unscrew the line they already have, and replace it with the one we are working on. Do not panic, Eddi. I will talk you through the process. We shall not proceed until you feel entirely ready."

“Let me just check something,” said Eddi, speeding off. Examining all of the zombified workers in a split second. Eddi was both pleased and slightly disappointed that Perry was not among the them. She rejoined Doctor Bibi. “Sorry,” said Eddi. “Show me how to switch over the lines.” Doctor Bibi did so, with a mock up of the equipment not attached to any of the victims. 

Once she was sure Eddi understood the process, Doctor Bibi then left her to practice while she checked on the progress of the delivery system. Eddi went on fastening and unfastening the plastic lines over and over again. She would fix this. Turn a negative into a positive. Everyone was relying on her. She would not mess this up.  

After practicing for what seemed like the thousandth time, Eddi felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Doctor Bibi. "How are we doing, Eddi?" she asked.  

"OK, I think," Eddi replied, but her tone lacked conviction. "Is it going to be much longer?" 

The older woman placed a reassuring hand on Eddi’s shoulder and gave her generous smile. "The technicians are just double checking everything now," Doctor Bibi explained. "Another ten minutes or so and we will be ready whenever you are." 

For a split second, Eddi started to hyperventilate. She caught herself, paused and took a long, deep breath. 

"You'll be fine, Eddi," the doctor reassured her. "You've been over and over it. You've got this. Really. Don't panic. We won't start until you feel completely ready." 

"But, I need to be ready really soon, don't I?" said Eddi. 

Doctor Bibi's smile tightened slightly. "Yes, Eddi," she admitted, "Quite soon." 

Fast Eddi looked Doctor Bibi square in the eye. Behind her owlish spectacles, the physician gazed back with encouragement and concern. Together, they weighed the moment.

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"What happened to Doctor Brinkman?" asked Eddi. 

"He's still down the tunnels somewhere," said the doctor. "They've cordoned the area off. No one will say what was going on down there. I’m sure it’s fine."

For a moment, Eddi wondered if I should call her Mum, but then dismissed the idea. She would call her Mum afterwards; once she had saved everyone's life. 

Eddie slapped a drumroll on her face. This was the gig, she told herself. This was what she had wanted; to turn her negative into a positive. To help people. 

The flood lights flickered. 

The technicians exchanged glances.

"Eddi!" whispered Doctor Bibi. "You need to go now!" 

Eddi was off.

In hyperspeed, everything became simplified. Fast Eddi flowed. Her perceptions focused. Extraneous concerns faded in her wake. She no longer merely performed actions; she was action itself.

A flash of movement. A short, localised, miniature tornado. In just over a second, it was done. 

The lines were in, just as the floodlights blinked off and the tunnel was pitched into darkness. 

Eddi decelerated. "Wt's hppnng!?" she asked, but her words emerged as an indistinct, high-pitched screech. Along the tunnel, torches beams lanced through the dark, waved in panic by police and technicians.

In her head, Eddie began counting down from ten. Once she returned to normal speed, she called out, "Did we do it!?" 

"Hold on, Eddi!" replied Doctor Bibi, her voice wavering. Eddi stepped towards her voice. Agonising seconds passed. Eddi found the doctor, hunched in the dark, her silhouette framed by the LEDs of the sedative machine. Frantically, she checked the readout. 

"Please?" whispered Eddi, her voice cracking.

Doctor Bibi looked up, the green neon from the machine highlighted her nervous smile. "It's working, Eddi," she said. "You did it! Listen!"  

They listened. All they could hear was the sound of policemen, fumbling in the dark. The buzzing of the sewing machines had completely stopped. 

Doctor Bibi found a torch and passed it to Eddi. "Here," she said, "Go and check on the patients." 

Eddi did as she was asked. All the machinists had stopped sewing and were slumped, unconscious at their machines. Eddi checked for pulses, and helped to arrange the people in as comfortable a sleeping position as she could. 

They were all alive. 

They had done it. 

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Eventually, the flood lights clicked back on and Doctor Bibi threw her arms around Eddi and held her tight. Eddi grinned with relief. Paramedics began triage and to carefully load the casualties on to stretchers, before ferrying them up to street level. Eddi and Doctor Bibi grabbed a stretcher between them, and joined in with the evacuation.

It was chaos out on the street. There were not enough ambulances. Eddi offered to hyperspeed people over to the hospital, but Doctor Bibi said that it was too risky. The casualties were far too frail to withstand such a journey.

Eddi noticed that there were still areas of the city with no street lights. “What caused the power cut?” she asked a very stressed-looking female police officer, who was trying to coordinate the stretcher traffic. The PC shook her head, "No one knows yet. It affected the whole borough though.”

Doctor Bibi and Eddi loaded their stretcher into the back of an already crammed ambulance. The paramedic crew secured the patient, slammed the doors shut and sped away, sirens blaring.

Through the blue strobing lights, Eddie noticed something happening, further up the road. There was some sort of disturbance near the barrier. Armed police were crouched with their guns drawn. Other police were screaming at everyone to fall back to the tube station. 

"I'm just going to check what’s going on,” said Eddi, sliding her goggles into place. She was gone before Doctor Bibi could say a word to stop her. 

Fast Eddi gave the scene a hyperspeed once-over. 

The police were pointing their guns at a figure who was hovering twenty feet in the air. 

He had a suit of plastic-looking armour, a mash-up of a skater, a paint-baller and riot-cop. There was a crazy, grinning, graffiti face sprayed on his chest. His own face was covered with a blank gasmask. The suit had a homemade feel, which in a way, made the tiny jetpack more impressive. The jets glowed blue-white and made a sound no louder than hairdryer, but they held him in the air like he had been bolted there. Unmoving.

Eddi sped over to speak to the cop that was shouting orders.

"I don't think he's dangerous," she said, nearly making the policeman jump out his skin.

"Get back, miss!" yelled the cop. 

"No, let me go and speak to him," said Eddi. "You lot hang back a sec, yeah?" 

She was getting a bit cocky now. She was still buzzing from saving all the sweatshop workers’ lives. The way she saw it now was that Brinkman had pretty much deputised her, and being as he was not around, she needed to step up.

Eddi nipped past the police line and stopped directly in front of the flying man.

"Alright?" said Eddi. "Can I help you?" 

"Who are you?" said an electronically distorted voice. This immediately annoyed Fast Eddi.

"Who am I?" she replied. "I'm working here, mate. You're freaking everyone out. Do you want to get shot or something?" 

"I need to speak to Doctor Brinkman," he said, "It's important. Where is he?" 

"He's busy right now," said Eddi. "Why don't you come down and tell me about it? I'm Fast Eddi." 

The flying man seemed to consider for a couple of seconds. Then, he slowly descended and gently settled on the pavement in front of Eddi. He was about an inch shorter than her and smelled of oil and dusty electrical goods. Eddi turned and waved off the police. "It's fine," she yelled. "He's friendly. This is..." Eddi paused, hoping that the gasmasked guy would fill in the blank. Eventually, he did so. 

"Johnny Ballistic," he said. 

Fast Eddi nodded slowly. 

Johnny Ballistic.

She had not recognised him.

She knew him.

Fast Eddi hated Johnny Ballistic.

Chapter 6 in two weeks!

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