Sam Bianchi has never been second in her life. At least, not since she was a kid. So can anything make her feel better about getting rejected by the team she’s dreamed of being a part of for as long as she can remember?
Blue Devil, Vol. 2
Sam paced back and forth, her mind moving almost as fast as the rest of her. The room was small and had a warmer feel to it than the other rooms in the complex, with half-dressed mannequins and rolls of various fabrics thrown about in bins. Sam felt foreign in it.
At twenty-two years old, Sam had been the fastest human in history for eight years now. But regardless of that, the Olympians had opted not to recruit her right out of Prometheus. “Hot-headed,” they’d called her. “Temperamental.” So, Raves had opted to have Sam picked up by the West Coast Olympians, along with her twin sister, Emily. Anyone else would’ve been thrilled to be a part of the team.
But not Sam. She hadn’t been second-best since she was fourteen years old. Raves had spent eight years whisking her all around the world, showing her off, only to stick her in second place once she received her American Vigilante Association certification. It wasn’t fair. And now all the company wanted from her was for her to see a glorified costumer, because apparently eight years in the suit she’d been in wasn’t good enough for them. Just like everything else wasn’t good enough for them.
Her brooding was interrupted by an overweight man in his thirties. The man took one look at her, pursed his lips, and cocked his head to the side.
“No, that’s not going to do at all,” the man said.
“Excuse me?” she said, bristling.
He gestured to her running suit. “This is the big leagues, honey, not college. That suit is just not gonna cut it.” Sam frowned, looking down at herself.
“I’ve been wearing this same suit for almost ten years.”
“And that’s just the problem, honey. This is the new you we’re trying to design here, not just a cheap rehash of what everyone already knows.” Sam scowled at the man. Today had already been bad enough, thanks to how the meetings with the Raves suits had gone. She and Emily were stuck in Los Angeles, it seemed. And now this man was telling her that her beloved running suit was no good.
“And you’re the ultimate authority on this because…” The man looked surprised for a moment.
“Right, yes. Avi Kamal. I’m your new designer, now that you’re AVA certified and on a team.”
Sam nodded her head slowly. “So, you’re here to redesign my running suit.”
“Actually, I’ve already redesigned it. I’m here to see what I need to change. I don’t think I’ll need any, though. But let’s give it a try.”
Avi strutted over to a closet, pulling out several layers and pieces of costuming and laying it on the table in front of him. Sam flitted over to him, examining the outfit carefully. At least he’d kept her colors, blue and white.
“So, Kamal, tell me what I’m looking at.”
“Two-layer nylon/spandex weave body glove. I noticed when you’re running, you have an unfortunate tendency to burn out, so I added a cooling system to the first layer. That’s those ridges you see there. Second layer houses all your suit’s electronics. The outer white layer is a silica fabric weave; that should be resistant to melting or burning when you’re running at high speeds. I kept the royal blue for the plating, it’s a silica ceramic for heat dissipation. Same stuff they use on spaceships. Helmet’s teardrop-shaped to prevent drag and has noise-canceling headphones built in to minimize further hearing loss from your sonic boom.”
“I… don’t hate it,” Sam admitted. She actually rather liked the new design. A part of her wanted to instantly throw it on and run a round-trip from Los Angeles to New York and back. Possibly stay in New York. But she held back her impulse.
“I’m glad.”
Sam pointed to the white outline of a smirking face with devil horns emblazoned on the left breast plate. “You even kept my little devil smiley.”
“This ain’t my first rodeo, honey,” Avi said with a grin.
“Can I try it out?” Sam asked, trying to hide her excitement.
“Isn’t that what we’re here for?” Avi indicated towards the suit and stepped behind a changing curtain.
In less than half a second, Sam had fully changed into her new suit. She put the helmet on, and instantly the HUD lit up. The HUD had more detail than she was used to—yes, there was the standard speedometer, vitals display, and map that she could drop points onto. But there was also a communications readout. A weather readout. And something else she didn’t recognize.
“What’s this last one, by the vitals?” Sam asked. Avi tapped a button on the side of her helmet.
“If you need to talk to anyone off comms, hit that button to toggle your noise-canceling headphones. That last display is how many calories you’ve burned. I figured it’d come in handy to be able to track how much longer you can go before you starve to death, given how fast your metabolism runs. There’s a dispenser for the calorie injections Raves designed for you right by the plate on your left bicep, so that you can refuel when you need to. Your belt has a pouch that can store up to eight of them.”
“Any features for my hibernation, if I ever need to sleep in the suit?” Avi looked surprised.
“I… didn’t think of that. I’ll make sure that’s in the first software update we run.”
Sam nodded. Sure, the suit had all the bells and whistles she’d come to expect from a professionally made suit. But there was still one thing she wanted to see.
“Can I give it a test drive?” Sam asked.
“Don’t go more than five hundred miles. We still haven’t uploaded all the first gen software into it.”
Sam grinned. “You got it.”
THE END
Hope you guys enjoyed getting to know Sam a bit better!
Until next time.
-Nick
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