Quickdraw
By Au Goose
A work of comic-inspired fiction. Safe for all ages. One of the funnest ways there is to burn calories. Don’t lose your head.
Please take a moment to watch this video in its entirety. It is both visual guide and musical inspiration for what follows.
They squared off, bodies covered with traditional black kendo armor. Faces hidden by the shadowy metal grills of their helmets. Each held a shinai crafted not from bamboo but a vastly more durable hyper-plastic imprinted with the STARlabs logo. They bowed, the shorter fighter’s form just a hair more perfect. The taller fighter corrected their movement almost instantly.
Then they launched at each other, not with cautious circling but with the instant ferocity of partners who knew precisely where they stood in terms of strength and speed and skill. Blows were launched and deflected in a cascade of blurred arcs. Even to the fighters the clash of practice swords sounded like machine gun fire and an orange glow began to illuminate the abandoned building they had appropriated as a dojo.
The taller fighter scored the first telling hit. The shorter acknowledge it with a curt nod before running up a wall and launching downward like a hawk falling on their prey -- an impossible angle for merely human swordsmen. They met in mid-air with a resounding crack, before leaping off of each other’s bodies to recoil to the far corners of the broken ceiling.
It was – officially – game on.
They swept across the walls leaving after images carved from orange light. They fought from the rising vantage point of bare steel pillars as if they were broad roadways. They exchanged blows of classic precision while dancing through the archways separating the broad open rooms. No advantage was overlooked and no quarter offered. Gravity seemed almost an afterthought to their exchanges. The points rose until they were at 4 each...
Sudden Death. Total elapsed time for the three-hundred-plus swings?
7 seconds.
They collided in what was even to their magnificently accelerated senses a blur of reflex rather than conscious thought. Fighting at the borders of no-mind. Trails and sparks of raw Speed Force filled the room. They shot apart, before rebounding off of the walls to meet again in mid-air like they had done at first... There was a single decisive crack and both of them landed lightly and
stilled, their speed-smeared three dimensional shadows catching up to them at last. Then they bowed to each other in normal speed with elegant formality.
The taller combatant stripped off his mask, revealing a pleasantly blonde young man: the features of Barry Allen, the Fastest Man Alive. “Wow. You are incredible, Kuikkushirubā.”
The shorter fighter removed her mask also, unleashing long black hair belonging to a classically beautiful Japanese woman, clearly years older than her sparring partner. “And you are a fast study, Barry-san. Improvisational and adaptable. I doubt I’ll beat you next time if you continue with the drills I showed you”.
“If you say so Uona-sensei.” He only called her teacher when they were geared up like this. Usually they were much less formal. Nobody who ate like the two of them did could be completely serious in each other's company for long.
“I do. Enjoy the compliment.”
“You sure you won’t change your mind?” This too was part of their ritual.
“I am. I have no interest in parading these powers in public. We walk separate paths. I would have been offended at your intrusion into my life if we didn’t share such an obvious... connection...” He’d found her as much as she found him... they both could feel the other tapping into the Speed Force from opposite sides of the world. She was slightly slower, but she had years of experience on him, both as a speedster and a warrior. They’d become good friends even if her reluctance to help others was something of a disappointment to him.
“I will respect your wishes. But if you ever need me...”
“...You’ll come running. Same to you Barry-san. For you, I will ‘come running’.”
They nodded amiably.
And in a flash, the building was empty.
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