Before Slade was the evil mad man he is today, he was the leader of a superhero team called The Protectors, young heroes that protected Jump City years before the Titians. This is the story of how he was once the most loved hero in Jump City and how he became the most feared villain. I made up a past with Slade for my story Hive Academy and decided to expand on it. Um, please review and tell me if I should continue.
It was early, too early for my liking, but the others were already up and making breakfast. As the leader I had responsibilities and I couldn't sleep in all day, no matter how badly I wanted to. I groaned as I rolled over and sat up. My bare feet hit the cold floor and a small shudder ran up my spine.
Mornings are the worst part of a day. I was a night owl, I loved the night. I loved how it was peaceful, how the lights from the city would sparkle and light up the night sky. Mornings were hard; it was hard to get up out of your warm bed. Mornings were bad and Monday mornings were even worse.
When I walked into the main room I saw Igneous making French toast and bacon for the team. I smiled at the sight of her flipping over the bread while humming along to a song she heard on the radio. Her strawberry blonde hair hung a little past her shoulders in tight curls. She was still in her pajamas; a brown tank-top and gray shorts. She hated Mondays as well.
"Slade," she said with a smile that lite up her face. "Good morning."
"Morning," I greeted her back taking a seat at the table.
"One or two?" she asked with her eyes glued to the food. She was always so focused when she cooked. She absolutely hated when she burnt people's food. It was one of her few pet peeves.
"Two." I answered her. I looked around the room and realized that the rest of the team wasn't in here. It was nine so I knew they were awake and the TV played cartoons. Ingneous never watched TV while she cooked, it just distracted her. So they had to have been here earlier.
As if Igneous read my mind started to name off exactly where all the Protectors were. "Clover is putting make-up on. Violet is in the shower. I think Scorpio is working out and Kal is; well I'm not sure what Kal is doing. He was watching Scooby Doo."
I nodded, so she knew I was listening, but she didn't even notice. I thumbed through the newspaper that was sitting in the middle of the table. We, the Protectors, were on the front cover; the heading "The Protectors Once Again Stop Waterlala from Terrorizing the City." I sighed and turned the page not wanting to feel arrogant and overconfident. Those feeling lead to defeat and defeat was not an option.
"Here you go, enjoy," Igneous said as she slide a plate towards me. She sat down across from me and waited till I wasn't paying attention to her. Once she was certain my attention was divided she quickly snatched the newspaper out of my hand. "I had this first," she said flashing a smile.
"I was born first," I jokingly told her with a smug smile.
"Oh no," she pretended to get defensive "Two months doesn't count as older."
Before I could respond Clover came strutting in. "Oh, I want one," she said and sat down next to me. She reached over and took my plate and fork. As she took a bite I laughed. This was an occurrence that happened almost every morning.
"I'll make more." Igneous got up walked back to start up the stove again.
"Oh yes do, these are amazing," Clover commended with a mouthful.
"Make mine with turkey bacon, please." I heard Violet say as she came in, her hair was still wet from her shower. Her was beautiful; it was extremely long and as thick as rope. It was dark as midnight and made her sea green eyes really pop.
"You and that health kick." Clover said as she took another bite of my French toast. "When is this phase going to end?"
Violet walked into the kitchen with Igneous and hopped up onto the counter. "It's not a phase," she said flinging her hair to the side. "It's a life style. I'm going to keep it forever."
Clover rolled her eyes, "You can't seriously tell me that you feel better eating turkey bacon instead of real bacon?"
"Yes, it does," Violet said smugly. "Not as much grease."
"Bacon is bacon, whether it came from a turkey or a pig, its bacon, so it is going to be greasy." Clover told her off.
Before they could really get arguing I asked again, "Where is Kal?"
"I don't know," Clover answered.
"Oh, I sent him to the store for ice cream," Violet stated matter-of-factly.
For a few moments Clover, Igneous, and I just stared at her in disbelief. She was just arguing over whether turnkey bacon was healthier than real bacon and now she just said that she sent Kal to the store to get ice cream. Girls made no sense, what so ever.
Clover was the first to recover, "Ice cream?" She said with raised eyebrows.
Realization flashed through Violet's face as she understood why everyone was staring at her so weirdly. "Fat free ice cream," she laughed, "Even I need sugar every now and again."
"Then why would you get fat free?" Scorpio said has he walked into the room. "Igneous, I would like real bacon please."
"Yes," Clover cried with joy, "One for team real bacon and zero for turkey bacon."
"Whatever," mumbled Violet, "You guys can all die of heart disease."
I laughed at her dramatics and said, "I will have turkey bacon with you."
Her eyes light up and Igneous said, "I will also have turkey bacon with you."
Violet jumped off the counter and did a little dance while singing, "Yeah, I got two on my side and you only have one. You only have one and I have two. I'm the winner, you're the loser."
"But there is still Kal," Scorpio said while taking a plate of French toast from Igneous.
"There are six of us," I said putting in my two cents, "So if Kal were to join you on your real bacon side, then it would be a tie. No winner, no loser."
"But that would be boring," Igneous said.
"But there wouldn't be a schism within us," Violet said and I really agreed with her. Without sides, there would be no reason to fight.
Clover rolled her eyes, "Come on guys, do you really think that we would quit the team over bacon?"
"Weirder things have happened," Scorpio said taking a seat across from Clover.
Violet giggled, "I can see the newspaper headlines now." I laughed as Violet made a small rainbow with her hands and said in a newscaster voice, "The Protectors split over bacon."
Clover continued in the same voice, "Turkey bacon or real bacon what side do you choose?"
We all snickered for a while laughing at our own stupidity. Most morning were like this; Igneous would make breakfast and the rest of would sit around and talk about stupid things. The reason our team works so well is because we are close as friends. And the reason why we were so close is because we sit around and talk about things like this.
When Kal finally walked in, he was greeted with a chorus of "Pick a side, real bacon or turkey bacon." And "If you know what's best you will pick turkey." Then "Real bacon is so much better."
Kal gave me a funny look and I made sure nobody was looking when I mouthed, "Pick real bacon."
Kal took the hint and said, "Real bacon."
Violet groaned as she took the ice cream roughly from his hands. "You suck," she said as he took a spoon out of the drawer and started eating the ice cream.
"No," Igneous scolded as she took the spoon and ice cream. "You need to eat breakfast before ice cream." Igneous took a plate a flopped two pieces of French toast along with bacon and slid it over to Violet, "Here"
Igneous gave the ice cream to Kal to put into the freezer. As he was placing it into the freezer he asked, "So what's up with this whole real bacon and turkey bacon thing?"
Before Clover could get into the thing; a red flashing light lite up the room and a blaring screech of the siren made up all jump up immediately. The alarm only meant one thing; trouble. A list of our villain ran through my head as I was trying to think of which one it could be.
"We're starting early today," Scorpio said.
"It's going to be a long day," Kal put in his two cents.
"Then we better get going," Igneous said.
"Let's do this," I said and we to our car. It was a new high tech car, way ahead of its time. It was a gift from the city, just something to make our lives easier.
Our secret lair was underground in the middle of the city. It was secluded and nobody knew where it was. WE were very secretive; we figured it was safer that way. There was no doubt that we were loved by the city, but there were a few people that despised us. And those are the people that we didn't want to know where we live.
When we got to Jump City's First Bank we jumped out of the car as quickly was we could and got into fighting stance. DR. Banadna was robbing the bank. It was strange to see him; he had been in jail for the last couple of months. I had to admit, I missed fighting him.
My team and I were in our fighting positions. Igneous was created and born out of fire; she had the ability to actually set herself on fire. She stood there with her arms on fire. She was extremely intimidating. I wouldn't want to be on the other side fighting her.
Clover had the ability to fly and disappear. She was hovering a few feet off the ground with her arms crossed. She was really handy to have around. Her long red hair made her stick out easily, but while she was invisible she finally had the upper hand.
Violet was interesting; she had the ability to freeze things. How she got those powers, I have no idea. She was our newest member, we found her in the middle of a thunder storm one night. She never talked about her life before and we never pushed her into telling. It didn't matter if she didn't have a family, she has a family now.
Scorpio was strong, really strong. He had super strength for lack of a better term. His strength was vital to our success. There wasn't an ounce of fat on him, it was all muscle. And that made him look big, real big.
Kal really had a cool gift. He was a telekinesis. He could lift things up with his hands and mind. With one twist of his wrist an object of his choice could be lifted up to a maximum of 20 feet in the air. The thing that impressed me the most was his control over his powers.
I had no powers. I will admit that it bummed me out sometimes, but I always got over it. I was well trained in martial arts. I was taught martial arts a few months after I could walk. Martial arts were hard and took lots of self-control. With all my experience in self-control, I made a perfect candidate for leader.
"You can't tell me you want to go back to prison already," Clover asked him in a sweet voice.
Dr. Banadna laughed, "I will not be going back to jail, my dear, because I will not losing."
"We'll see about that." Kal said, dying to get some action.
I figured we had been waiting around enough, crouched down and yelled, "Go."
Clover flew straight up, getting good height, it was always a good advantage to be able to see everything. Scorpio ran at full speed toward Dr. Banadna, I followed him and so did Violet. Kal lifted Igneous up and she shot Dr. Banadna with fire balls. As Dr, Banadna backed up, trying to get away from the balls of fire, Violet froze the ground behind. Before Dr. Banadna could fall over, Scorpio caught him and pushed him up against the brick wall of the bank.
"It's over." I said walking up them. Cops had surrounded the area. Their guns here loaded and pointed at us. Two police officers started to walk towards us with handcuffs.
Dr. Banadna let out a low, evil laughed, "You kids are way over your heads." And then he was gone. Just like that, he was there and then he was gone. No smoke, no fading, just there on second and gone the next. The six of us just stared that the empty space that was once filled by Dr. Bananda.
"Well, that's new," Clover said, shock thick on her voice.
"Has he always been able to do that?" Igneous asked, looking at each of us.
I was trying to rationalize what I had just saw when I heard Kal shout, "All the money is gone to."
"What do we do now?" Violet asked in a soft voice.
I looked at her, "We go find him."