Painting the Town Red... In a Metaphorical Sense
Will lay sprawled across his bed looking into the night sky through the roof window he had just recently installed in his penthouse. Wearing just his black boxer shorts he let out a sigh of contempt, truly though he would never admit it openly, he always enjoyed looking at the stars, the thought of a never ending vacuum in which there was untold beauty waiting to be discovered. He sighed again going over his decision to move to Jump City and whether or not it was a decent move. After much thought he decided that on the whole it was a great decision, for starters the penthouse was a bargain and pretty much offered one of the best views of the city the only thing that really ruined it was the giant 'T' in the distance. Further the city had a lot of opportunities for him; yes there were villains and such in Jump and not to mention the vanguards of the city itself, the Teen Titans who of course were out and about, fighting crime and what not. Though the Titans themselves, who sent shivers down the spines of most criminals and junkies who went around causing trouble, they had yet to have an effect on himself and his future plans plus he saw no reason to start a quarrel with them so soon, though only time would tell because sooner or later they were going to choose paths.
He shook the thought from his mind deciding to deal with that later and instead focused and traced the trajectory of a shooting star as it whizzed past the night sky before disappearing as if it had never been there to start with. He checked his watch and let out a yawn, reading 11:00pm. He chuckled slightly at the fact that he was never tried round this time which was odd all things considered. The sound of his iPhone vibrating on the bed side cabinet broke him out of his thoughts, he sighed agitatedly, whoever was calling him better have a decent reason to ruin his moment of peace. He groggily grabbed the phone and eyed the caller ID, Seth , his best friend since as long as he could remember. He waited till the last possible minute to answer the phone, he liked to build up suspense and the works and it usually annoyed Seth to no end which was always a win.
"About time you picked up!"Seth literally shouted down the phone making Will wince and move the phone away from his ear. "I have been trying to call you for the past hour or so!" He didn't let up on his angry lecture to Will.
"This better be important Set, you just ruined my moment of peace." He said in a deadly whisper which had most people cowering away... except Seth who usually took the opportunity to annoy him, why he tried to use that voice on Seth he did not know perhaps old habits die hard.
"Awww you sound so cute when you use that voice." Seth cooed, "But on a serious note, I have a job for us if you're interested." He said his voice suddenly all professional.
Will raised an eyebrow, his curiosity was piqued, Seth usually never had a job of which he crafted and made himself it was usually down to Will to do all the 'boring shit' though on the contrary Will loved all the planning and execution and loved it even more when it worked. "Oh, really now? Well you have my attention, so do me the favour and sate my curiosity!" He rebooked.
The sound of clasped hands could be heard through the phone, "Right, as you know Willy,"-Will frowned at the nickname-"we have recently moved to Jump City after things went well, really shit, I mean really, really shit, in fact we probably defined a whole new definition of the word shit"-
"Would you get to the point Seth?" Will interrupted; his irritation of Seth's rambling finally snapping.
"Jeez aren't you such a Debbie downer. Right we need to start making a name for ourselves yes, we are villains after all so I suggest we rob the Bank of Perez or if we're really daring we could rob some high tech equipment for Star Labs; what do say, you up for it, yeah?" Seth said.
Will rolled his eyes to the left, then to the right and then to the left again, going over the ideas in his head. "That's rather ambitious don't you think? I mean we only just got here!" Will said more out of caution than fear.
"Well would it not be best to 'paint the town red' as they say sooner rather than later?" Seth retorted.
"No it would not on the grand scheme of things Seth... This is why you let me do the planning... but yes I believe we should do something soon though not on the scale your suggesting, to go in guns blazing would be idiotic, instead we play to the shadows and wait for opportunity." Will said wisely which earned a depressed sort of sigh from Seth.
"Okay I'm listening, so what are you suggesting we do instead?" Seth asked rather eager to hear his suggestion.
"Exactly as I have said, we simply play to the shadows for now and take our time because sooner or later this city is going to be run by us." There was silence for a couple of seconds as Will conjured a plan out of nowhere-"Right, first off we need a base of operations, not somewhere too obvious and not somewhere where a typical villain would use such as a scary cave or rundown apartment. That is what we need to do first really... don't worry about finding members for are 'gang' they are littered throughout the downtown and aren't hard to find." He breathed and smiled, boy did he love planning things like this.
There was a minute of silence as Seth slowly took in the plan, "Okay so what the hell are we going to use as our base of operations then? You've really narrowed it down.. How about we have two? One could serve as our main base and the second could be the forward operations base." Seth said. Will grinned liking the idea.
"Sounds like a plan to me, alright before we came here I did some research being an information broker and a dam good one at that I found a decent enough place for are main base of operations, an abandoned oil rig of the coast of Jump. The second base we can search for tomorrow." Will said.
"Not to piss on your fire Will, but doesn't an abandoned oil rig sound a tad omnibus for a villains lair?" Seth said a hint of confusion in his voice.
"Yes it does but then again I have planned ahead and set up a 'shell' company who have purchased the downed oil rig, we'll fix it up to make it seem legit as well; also I made this shell company rather hard to doubt if you get my drift, call it a few favours from some old friends. Lastly there is quite a large amount of oil located near the oil rig so we'll have a decent amount of income to kick start our operations and some external protection depending on who we sell to, personally I'm thinking either Stiefel or Future Tech... They have a lot of money and power... probably too much power but something to think about." Will said finally getting up and proceeding slowly to the kitchen, his destination the fridge, laying the phone done on the table and putting it on speaker.
"Seems like a plan, how about we get started tonight?" Seth said, failing to hold back his excitement. Will raised an eyebrow whilst pouring a glass of coke and fetching an apple with his free hand.
"What did you have in mind?" Will said out of curiosity taking a rather large swig from his coke.
"I've been poking around a bit since we got here; you tapped into some communication lines and what not and overheard that Star Labs are transporting a new piece of tech that is meant to help one of the Titans, some updated sonic cannon design." He said taking a long drag from his cigarette.
"Oh and when is this taking place?" Will stopped what he was doing and turned the phone of speaker and made a beeline to his 'work' room.
"Lady Lucks on our side as usual, the drop will be made around 6:00am today, that's the drop of time anyway, the actual transport is still waiting at Steel city harbour, we can make it there if we're quick and be gone before they even realise." Seth said, the sound of his heavy footsteps could be heard through the phone, Will presumed that he too was going to get ready. Will eyed his uniform up and down twice, silently debating the idea Seth suggested. After several more minutes and taking into account the possible consequences and such he came to an answer, nodding his head for out of habit.
"Sounds a good to me, alright here's how it going down." Will said as a matter of fact, typing a few things into the computer, a holographic map of Steel city appeared, the main route's had been highlighted, opening a connection to Seth's laptop he began.
"Okay we're going to have to be quick about this... let's see..." Will scratched his chin as he analysed the routes in and out of the city. Eyebrows rising at one route in particular, train tracks. "Alright Seth the transport is moving by train so I say we wait here, the half way point between Jump and Steel city"-Will highlighted the ideal spot, literally right in the middle of the two cites and close enough to the train tracks not be spotted-"We'll use the bikes to get us on and off the train, Jarvis will keep the bikes moving." Will said folding his arms having finished his brief and slightly rushed plan. Seth nodded and smirked.
"And here I thought you wanted to play 'by the shadows'." Seth said in a poor impersonation of Will.
"It will be darkish around the time we make to hit so technically we're still playing by the shadows as so to speak." Will retorted knowing he had won that round, Seth's next words confirmed this.
"Race you there." Seth said in a cocky tone adding a grin for good measure before abruptly cutting transmission.
Will grinned before putting on his combat gear/outfit which he had to say did suit him and also made him look rather intimidating. His body suit consisted of ultra thin material which offered a lot of protection and freedom to move easily should he need to on, top of that he wore an over-tunic with a hood which had his face in complete darkness except for the blue slits for eyes, he wore a visor over his eyes which gave off a blue tinted light which acted as the slits for vision. He grinned; attaching his utility belt which contained god knows how many gadgets. Picking up the last piece of his outfit, a right-eared headset he entered his personal elevator and went to the garage.
"Jarvis take me to the garage double time and lock up the house please." Will said into the headset; Jarvis was his own personal AI which pretty much helped him create new gadgets and find information and not to mention look after the house while he was away.
"Already done, I assume you want the Suzuki Hayabusa ready for your arrival?" Jarvis asked in computerised voice. Will smirked, damn this AI knows me too well.
"Eh, since when were you able to read minds?" Will asked jokingly to which Jarvis replied with a smart arse commit.
"It was the logical choice; the Suzuki is the only bike you have. I believe that's 10-7 on the score card." Jarvis pretty much boasted over the headset. Will face palmed.
"Yeah yeah, keep talking! I'm going to beat you one of these days."-Will was interrupted by said person, "That is statically unlikely to happen... I am a computer after all, you are merely human. I have also been briefed on what to do with the bikes when you hop onto the train. We have arrived at your destination." Jarvis said as the doors opened to reveal his pitch black coloured Suzuki Hayabusa.
Will smirked and jumped onto the bike, igniting the engine and slowly driving out of the parking area; he used the interface panel and selected a fitting song, he liked to drive fast, I mean who doesn't? Hmmm... I reckon a bit of Skrillex – Bangarang. Sorted.
Revving up the engine he floored it speeding round the corner and straight onto the main road, pulling a wheelie for style points. After a few minutes he checked his speed, 175mph, he could go faster and he would have had it not been for a bastard red light. He turned his attention to the car that just pulled up in the opposite lane, causing him to do a double take, it wasn't just any car but the T-car itself. Yeah Lady Luck really has it in for me huh? He quickly pressed a button on his outfit which would make it look as though he was wearing normal clothes rather than his combat gear, a rather handy perk to have with this suit he had thought.
The light reached amber and he thought it would be fun if he revved the engine rather loudly, the T-car window rolled down to reveal slightly curious Cyborg.
"Hey man nice wheels! That's the Suzuki Hayabusa right?" Cyborg said his curiosity piqued; he had read about the bike but never seen one.
"Likewise... I'll let you look at the taillights." He grinned and floored it before Cyborg retort, literally leaving a flabbergasted looking Cyborg in his trail. Cyborg turned to Beastboy who was the only other occupant of the car with an incredulous look on his face.
"Aren't we going to chase him?" Beastboy said not really sure what to say or do for that matter.
"I have a feeling we'll be seeing him again soon, now where's this waffle store you were talking about?" Cyborg said.
Beastboy's stomach growled loudly telling him that they'd seen the bike man again and that waffles where more important as his stomach was on the verge of digesting itself. "Right, it's just around this corner."
It was now close to three in the morning when Seth finally pulled up alongside Will's Suzuki with an incredulous look on his face.
"How in the earth did you get here before me?" He said slightly exasperated.
"You know it's not always about speed, sometimes it's about the driver... And I'm a pretty amazing driver." Will said as if it was an everyday occurrence adding a cocky smirk as well to further prove his point.
Seth shook his head, getting off his bike to stretch his legs and take in the scenery. Seth attire was fairly similar to Will's except for the fact that he wore blue amps at on his arms; this allowed him to utilize his power of electricity to the fullest and not pointedly waste stamina, he also wore a black mask which showcased two blood red slits for his eyes just to make him look intimidating, and steel capped combat boots as he liked to get "up close and personal" during fights.
"So when is this train leaving Steel port?" Seth asked as he tightened the lace on his combat boots.
"It left about an hour ago and will be passing by use in about 30 seconds if my calculations are correct." Will said, a slight hint of excite breeched his usually emotionless voice. Seth nodded, getting back onto his bike and revving up the engine. Will followed suit and nodded to Seth about to voice the last instructions for the mission.
"Remember Seth the merchandise is in the middle cart, you start at the end I'll hit the front, meet you in the middle." Will said.
"It's a date." Seth replied coolly getting a scoff from Will.
The train flew by and much to Wills delight it was an express train, no stopping till it reaches its destination, revving up the engine he followed the train increasing his speed which was now close to 200mph; with the mods he made it could go a hell of a lot faster but that was unnecessary. Now that he was at the front of this unusually large train he pulled the bike so that he was now directly in front of the train. Smirking he pulled out his two pistols, loaded with pulse energy rounds which rendered the target unconscious and waking up with a hell of a headache. Pressing the auto-pilot (Jarvis) button on his bike he took in two deep breaths, he then back flipped off the bike seat and landed neatly on the front platform where 12 guards were waiting for him.
Raising his guns he unleashed four shots taking down four of them instantly, and then he leaped into the middle of the group of guards landing a powerful flying kick into the closet one holstering his guns as he pivoted on his left foot and proceeded to spin his right into another guard trying to attack his side. Pulling a compartment from his utility belt the front area quickly became encased in smoke, he jumped to the nearest guard landing left and right hook combination before sending him to the floor with a haymaker, he instinctively jumped back dodging a swing of an electric stick before swiftly moving a step forward and disarming the guard and giving him a taste of his own medicine by giving him a swift uppercut with the stick he just obtained. The smoke was starting to clear to reveal four rather angry looking guards who now decided it was time to use the 'big' guns and went straight for the stun guns instead of using their fists. Grinning sadistically he performed a forward roll punching the guy in front of him in the gut and with inhuman speed turned him into a meat shield and used his stun gun against his buddies. He dropped the now unconscious guard to the ground and headed for the first carriage ignoring the driver's cabin. Literally booting down the carriage down he frowned and once again he sighed, the first carriage was full of defence robots, courtesy of Star Labs of course, and another set of bots though these ones were totally different, they were black in design with steel capped boots and a rather noticeable orange helmet baring an 'S' symbol, first off they were trying to destroy the Star Lab bot and second of all they were now advancing on him, Stuff you Lady Luck! Things were about to get messy.
Seth on the other hand was having better luck, he was now in the 3rd carriage from the back and had yet to encounter any guards what so ever, he grinned flexing his muscles as he entered the 4th carriage, "It appears Lady Luck is in my bed tonight" he laughed and continued onwards to the 5th carriage, doing some simple maths he had around 2 left to go before reaching the middle. The 5th carriage was rather odd in design he thought, it literally consisted of an empty space, perfect place for an ambush really, in fact it was perfect. Reaching the centre his training kicked in as he dove to the floor a split second before the windows around him imploded and sent shards of death zooming around the open space, one piece narrowly missing his exposed jugular.
A detachment of troops followed suit and instantly had the carriage covered. Seth jumped up, already in his fighting stance and choosing a target. The troops he faced were not familiar to him, they wore a suit of black and orange design with a mask that bore an 'S' on it. They gave Seth little time to think as they rushed him while a few of them went straight onto the next carriage. Seth concluded that they too were after merchandise, he grinned as he booted the closet one next to him and sent him flying back out of the window whilst frying the two more with his electric bolts. With his free hand he activated his headset to update Will on the situation.
"Will, we got a problem." He said narrowly dodging a downwards chop from one of the bots.
"Yeah tell me about it, we need to double time it to the middle or they're going to take the weapon and I'm not leaving here empty handed." Will said, a bit of anger seeping into his voice.
Seth nodded and clasped his hands together, everything went slow motion as Seth built up his energy and just as the 'S' bots were about to get the jump on him, he pushed out with both hands releasing a giant blast of pure electrical energy which destroyed everything within the carriage. He dusted of his hands and grinned before picking up the pace to get to the middle carriage.
Will manage to make it to the middle carriage with little resistance, it seems those 'S' bots really cleared out the house so to speak. He causally opened the carriage door and walked in, his hand close enough to his pistol should he need. Seth choose a rather bold entrance and hit the door with a rather large blast of energy sending it flying through the room, in fact it narrowly missed Will who had to duck to avoid it. He slowly got up and dusted his shoulder before glaring at Seth who gave the 'I'm innocent' look.
"Heh... sorry I get excited sometimes." Seth said in a guilty voice whilst scratching the back of his neck, Will shook his head and walked towards the box that should contain the merchandise. Seth followed suit.
"So this is what we came for? Huh." Will said as he quickly began typing away at the box's interface panel.
"Yeah there should be a prototype laser based weapon in their along with schematics to make some more. I reckon it could come in handy and all for are plans." Seth said.
Will nodded before breaking the interfaces last defence node, and with a mechanical hiss the box opened to reveal a prototype weapon and the schematics. He picked them up and carefully placed them in his back-pack turning to Seth.
"Will you do realise that there are a rather large amount of S bots in here don't you?" Seth said as he jumped into his fighting stance, Will followed suit.
"How the hell did they get the sneak on us?" Will asked with surprise, though he quickly realized that there was a leader to the robots, he stepped forward his hands clasped behind his back.
"I believe you're taking something that belongs to me." He said as a matter of fact. Will nodded to Seth, silently telling him: 'let me deal with this chum, while you prepare an attack for when I say', Seth nodded back.
Will kept his hand in a non-hostile way, secretly sizing up his opponent who looked fairly similar to his buddies except he had mask that was split with one side being orange and the other being black, on the orange side was an eye hole, rationalising that he probably only had one eye, hence the style of the mask.
"I believe we have not been properly acquainted? My name is Maverick and this here is Colossus, and you are?" Will said, hell he was not leaving until he knew who this bozo was and he was not giving him his real name either.
"Slade but alas give me what is mine and I may consider letting you leave with your life's." He said, removing his hand from his back.
"Well if that's how you want to dance then, who am I to let you down." Will said, taking his fighting stance and reaching for his pistols.
Slade reached for his staff and Will could tell he was smirking underneath his helmet, "I was hoping you'd say that." With that he jumped towards Will.
Will grinned as he pulled his pistols up, "Seth Now!" He shouted as he unleashed two bullets into Slades form only to have him deflect them with his staff. At the same time Seth unleashed a burst of energy with dealt with most of the Slade bots but for everyone one that was destroyed two more took its place.
Will narrowly dodged Slade's downward chop, side stepping to the left and jumping back to avoid his follow up attack. Will blocked Slade's next attack with both his guns, planting two swift kicks to the man's gut which seemed to have little if any effect on him. Pushing back off the block Slade caught him across the cheek which sent him sprawling to the floor, however Will's training allowed him to get over the pain for now and spring back up almost instantly and rush him. Slade folded up his staff and placed back on his utility belt and engaged Will in hand to hand combat. Will started with a right, left, left and right uppercut combination all of which were effortlessly blocked by Slade, who returned with a brutal uppercut, which Will dodged by millimetres, then followed with a 360 degree quick which Will caught and with his feet he swiped at Slade's free foot sending to the ground only to have Slade reach back both hands to brace his fall and plant a solid kick with his non caught foot into Wills face which sent him back but didn't leave him on his arse which surprised Slade to say the least. Will did not give Slade any more time to think as he launched back with a flying kick which hit Slade square in the chest and sent him back a few feet. Will didn't let up following up his attack with a series of punches to the face and gut before ending with a haymaker which smashed the mask of Slades face to reveal nothing but a robotic head. At around this time Seth had dealt with the remaining Slade bots and tiredly walked over to Will he was breathing rather heavily.
"Are you alright Will?" He asked as he placed a caring hand on Will's back. Will shook of the hand and nodded.
"I'm fine, just did not expect him to be so tough for a robot anyway... Hmph I've had enough of this train for a lifetime, let's get out of here." He said a little exasperated. As they began moving a sudden mechanical sound caught their attention, the Slade bot, with half its head smashed in had gotten up; clutching what looked like a bomb detonator.
"Most impressive, we'll be seeing each other again soon enough... but for now here is a parting gift." The robot voiced before hitting the detonator. An explosion erupted from the back of the train; shaking the rest of the train and dislodging it form the tracks, one thought entered his head, the unconscious guards at the front of the train, they may be villains but they weren't murders. They needed to act quickly.
