Miracle City is about to go to Hell! During his arrival Raptor took the City by Storm, but if Evolution has taught us anything: there will always be a bigger and more dangerous predator around the corner.
It was roughly ten o'clock at night as the Miracle City Research and Development Centre's alarms went off. Guards rushed through the building to the storage unit where the more dangerous devices were kept.
"Freeze!" yelled one of the security guards as he aimed a futuristic gun at the silhouetted figure.
The thief looked up and smiled "I would surrender, but then again you wouldn't want to risk damaging this!" He held up a small device. It was spherical and had two small metal poles sticking out of the sides. The mere sight of it made the guards quiver a little. "That's right, the Ionic Fusion Capacitor. Shoot me, and the best case scenario would be that you lose the company several decades of research and several million in production." He tossed it from hand to hand, making the guards cower more and more with each toss. "Worst case scenario? The whole city gets wiped off the map and anything in a five hundred mile radius will slowly die of a rare form of radiation poisoning!" As he finished his sentence he held the device in both hands and smiled maliciously.
"Ok, just put the thing down and take it easy…" said one of the guards, gesturing to put the Ionic Fusion Capacitor down.
"But then again…" the mysterious thief began, as he admired the potentially devastating device in one hand. "Those choices imply I lost!" he took out a laser and blasted a hole in the ceiling. The guards took cover as the thief flew up to the hole where the light from the moon shone on his face. The guards who got a good look recognised who it was. "Send my regards to the nerds who made this little beauty. Tell them I will make great use of it!" Raptor gloated as he flew off into the night laughing manically.
The next day at the Rivera household Manny Rivera, Puma Loco and Frida Suarez were watching the report of another theft.
"…as this was the fifteenth time a high security laboratory was broken into within the past week. Only a few items were not accounted for, and in some cases, only one item was missi-" the broadcast was interrupted as Puma Loco shot a rocket at the television.
"This has been going on for four days tops, and this gets the media's attention more than me?!" Puma Loco yelled in frustration.
"There's something wrong with this picture" Manny said as he tried to process the information.
"What do you mean?" Frida asked while eating a churro.
"There were a thousand things in those vaults and he only takes one or two. And does he even need them? He has enough power in his pinkie to level the city!"
"Maybe he's making a super weapon." Frida asked
"That's not a bad guess." Puma Loco said while pondering "But for what outcome?" Those thoughts slowly sank into Manny and Frida's heads. If Raptor was making a super weapon, what would he do with it?
Meanwhile, at the headquarters of the Flock of Fury, the Black Cuervo was contacting her brother to see what he was up to. After his arrival, Raptor made a base of operations somewhere on the outskirts of town. She only got an audio response.
"Raptor, what are you doing?" Cuervo asked with a slight hint of fear in her voice, while trying to sound confident.
"Call it a project, I was bored and I thought I could make something with all my free time." Raptor said while concentrating on his work.
"Did you steal any of our plans?" Cuervo asked suspiciously.
"Fear not, baby sister. Most of those plans involve stealing anything of great wealth or destroying the Rivera family in a pointless vendetta. No, what I'm working on is of great importance and benefit."
"Great!" Cuervo said with enthusiasm. "So when are you going to let your family in on this little masterpiece?"
"You will find out when it's too late to do anything about it. This operation is a solo act. I suggest you tell Mom and Grandmami to stay out of my way, and I guarantee the three of you will live through the experience!" that sentence made the Cuervo tremble in her seat. "If that is all, I bid you adieu." He then hung up, leaving the Cuervo pondering with dark thoughts in her head.
"This is not good." she said to herself. "This is going to end really badly."
During lunch on Monday at Leone Middle School, Zoe was poking at her food (no one knew what it was) pondering what Raptor told her last time he spoke to her, when Manny came up to her.
"Hey there Zoe, mind if I ask you something?" Manny asked sitting beside her.
"Sure." she said before noticing something was amiss. "Hey, where's Suarez?"
"Over there, she still doesn't trust you." said Manny pointing over to another table. Frida was staring at Zoe, slowly eating her lunch with an angry look on her face. "So, tell me: where's your brother? I haven't seen him for a couple of days now."
Zoe didn't know what to say. Her brother was working on something big, but even if she knew what it was, she couldn't say without revealing her family's secret. She had to improvise.
"Well…" she started, then was interrupted by a familiar voice.
"My dad found some stuff that still belonged to me and I had to go get them." Zoe was stunned at his appearance.
"Dude, you've been gone for a while, wouldn't Principal Tonino have you suspended for that?"
"I doubt that will be a problem." José said, as he thought of their principal in his office having a microchip implanted into the back of his skull.
"Have you heard the news? Raptor seems to be planning something big!" Manny told José.
"Well, 'Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.'" José quoted. "And who in this town has more power than Raptor? With all his power I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually took over the world." he stated as he walked away. He then smiled at Frida and she started to giggle again. "I wonder if she will be useful some day. She seems easy enough to control." José said to himself in his Raptor voice.
Later at night, El Tigre was on a rooftop overlooking a secret research facility disguised as a Museum of Drying Paint.
"Are you sure about this Grandpapi?" El Tigre asked via walkie-talkie.
"Manny, trust me. I broke into here before. There may be two floors about how some paints can dry faster than others, but underneath there is an underground lab full of high-tech gizmos. This is the only place to get a Chameleon Processor." Puma Loco explained.
"What the heck is a Chameleon Processor?"
"A microchip that is used for technology that cannot work because of how advanced the components are. If Raptor is making a super weapon, he'll come here eventually."
"'Eventually' he says, I haven't got all night! And if I miss curfew again dad will ground me for li-" El Tigre muttered. Then he was interrupted by an explosion that sent smoke out of all entrances, exits and windows. El Tigre sprang into action. He entered the building and noticed that there was a hole in the floor. As he followed the path of destruction he thought to himself about how obvious this was. He went down dozens of floors until he got to the bottom. He followed what sounded like a blowtorch cutting through something, when he found him; he had cut through three doors roughly five inches thick as was almost halfway to opening the third door.
"Stop right there, Raptor." El Tigre commanded.
Raptor stopped and turned around. "El Tigre. About time you showed up, these things get boring without some formidable opponent dumb enough to try and stop me. I bet you're wondering what I want with a Chameleon Processor. Along with all that other stuff I stole, I'm guessing."
El Tigre glared at his rival. "Sure let's go with that."
Raptor sensed some unease within the would-be hero/villain. "Call it a project."
El Tigre pounced at him, but Raptor teleported away. "You have to catch me to find out more!" he called from behind El Tigre, and flew up and out of the building with El Tigre in hot pursuit. The two raced through the city. El Tigre was nearly fed up with the chase when all of a sudden a purple energy beam shot Raptor out of the sky. Raptor landed on his feet on a rooftop, followed by El Tigre. As they looked up they saw that the Black Cuervo was the one who had shot Raptor.
"Well, well, well, once again my baby sister sides against me. Considering that I can sense that Django is nowhere near here, you two are at an even greater disadvantage then the last time we fought."
"Last time I didn't have access to your technology, bro." Cuervo stated with some fear in her voice.
To this remark, the expression Raptor's face went from devilish glee to furious beyond belief. "You stole my weapons?" Raptor yelled, aiming a laser at the Black Cuervo.
El Tigre pulled her out of the way and flung her up into the air. She then preformed The Spinning Armadillo Kick. Raptor fired his laser again, but as the Cuervo's boot reached the laser. This resulted in an explosion that knocked El Tigre back. He almost fell to the ground but he managed to grab the ledge. He pulled himself up and heard a painful yell. Cuervo had hurt her leg pretty badly. It was broken.
"Do you need help?" El Tigre asked
"I'll be fine. Where is Raptor?" The Cuervo asked in return. The two teenagers looked around and soon after heard what sounded like a machine shorting out. El Tigre helped Cuervo over to where the noise was coming from, and found Raptor lying on the ground. His arm was blown off and he was twitching in synch with the sounds. As they looked at him, the Black Cuervo noticed that something was wrong with his face. A little bit was hanging off as if it was synthetic. She grabbed onto the piece and tugged at it. A whole chunk came odd to reveal it wasn't Raptor, it was an android! It looked like Raptor's face but the mouth looked like it was covered with a black mouth piece A few seconds later, a hologram came out of the Robot-Raptor's eyes showing a 3D image of Raptor.
"I see you met my Doppelganger Android. With unlimited time and resources you can do anything. You'd be surprised how quick you can make an army of these things."
"So your plan is to take over the world with a robotic armada?" El Tigre asked.
"Are you kidding?" Raptor asked. "That would imply my plan was near completion. The closest these guys come to a super weapon is their sheer numbers and how much they resemble me. No, my plans are much bigger than that. And they can continue now that I have the Chameleon Processor!" Raptor held the small device up and El Tigre had a shocked look on his face. "That's right: I played you all this time, I had my Doppelgangers steal this stuff from all over the planet!" The two teenagers were quaking in their boots. "As for you, sister, I warned you about crossing me! Now no one is safe from me, you just sealed our family's fate!" Raptor was about to burst into maniacal laughter. "By the way, last friendly heads-up: this robot is about to self-destruct." The transmission was terminated as Raptor laughed evilly, which was followed by the sound of beeping that got faster and faster. In reaction to this, Cuervo used her jetpack to carry her and El Tigre to safety, they just made it out of the explosion's range and landed on a nearby building. Both of them looked at the remains of the building they just had been on as Raptor's words sank into their minds.
"The closest these guys come to a super weapon is their sheer numbers and how much they resemble me. No, my plans are much bigger than that."
El Tigre pulled out his walkie-talkie and contacted his grandfather. "Grandpapi, I failed. And it seems that Raptor is an even greater threat than we imagined." El Tigre said over the walkie-talkie as he thought of the carnage that was about to follow.
End of Part 1
