Speed Demons

Part 11

Katie

We finally had a decent lead on finding Matt. We inspected the sound of the explosion in the security footage. It was Nano-thermite Titanium-boron. We then arranged a meeting with the only person in that area of the galaxy who was selling it.

"You alright?" Percy asked from behind me in the cockpit of the Green Lion. "The stress is rolling off of you in waves."

"I'm fine," I said, "or maybe not. What if we can't find him? Or what if we do find him, but-"

"Katie!" He interrupted, "your rambling. I have super speed. I know better than anyone that working your brain too fast will get you nowhere."

That was unlike him. He spoke from personal experience, rather than wisdom. But somehow, it was strangely comforting. It was almost like the line Dad used to say, but different.

I took a deep breath, "alright. Where to first?"

"The guy we're looking for is a shopkeeper on the planet byggð." He replied, I could hear the smirk in his voice when he said the name of the planet. "I'll send you coordinates."

By the time we had landed on the city-covered planet, night had fallen in that section. We both had to wear cloaks. The only people outside at this hour were crooks. "Best to blend in, in a place like this." Percy had said. We wandered around until we found the place.  A large store under the guise of a warehouse.

It was mostly deserted until we found an Unilu man with a Mohawk relaxing with his feet up at a desk. "Shop's closed."

"We're looking for directions to a show," Percy said smoothly, pulling off his hood. "I hear it's, explosive."

The man raised his eyebrows but didn't sit up. "So you're the ones looking for the Nano-thermite Titanium-boron." he said, "Very expensive. Difficult to procure, I assure you."

"Keep it." The speedster replied simply.

"You're backin' out of our agreement?" The alien finally sat up, looking enraged. 

"Altering it, in your favour." Percy replied, "We'll still give you the money, in fact, we'll triple it, but you need to tell us who's in this footage, and where to find them." He looked at me, and I pulled up the security footage from Beta Traz.

"Why would I know those people?"

"Because the used nano-thermite titanium-boron." I said, "And you're the only one in this section of the galaxy who's selling it."

"Well," the man said, looking at the footage closely. "I think the Galra would pay much more than you can give me!" He stood up on his desk, katanas in two of his four hands.

He rushed us, but he was on the ground, knocked out in less than 5 seconds. Percy walked over to his computer as I tied the man up. The man woke up surprisingly fast. "Thanks for the intel," I chuckled as we walked away, leaving him tied up. 

On our way out, Percy spotted a pair of thin, zip cords. He bought them and attached them to his belt on either side, hand-sized loops were the quickly-fashioned handles he had settled on for the moment. He gave them an experimental tug, and they came out loosely, zipping right back into place as he let go. "Neat," I said.

Once we were back at the Lion, the demigod loaded the information collected onto the lion's database. "Te-osh." He said, looking at it from his place behind me. "That's the name of the woman who saved him."

"She was last seen on Kraydah's Moon." I plugged the coordinates into the navigator and shot off in that direction. 

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