Slam Dunk is not mine.

Prologue.

            It was a fine, sunny afternoon. The bell rang in Shohoku High, signifying the end of school for that day. Excited and relieved students poured out of the school chattering loudly to each other. Slowly, the noise began to die down as the students one by one walked out of the school gate. All except the basketball team members who headed towards the gym for hard training.

            "Train hard today, ne, Sakuragi-kun?" said Haruko before she disappeared with the last stream of students going out the school gates. "I can't watch the practice today."

            "Nyahahahaha! The tensai will do it for Haruko-san!" said Sakuragi laughing loudly. He hummed a tune merrily to himself as he entered the gym. Most of the other team members were already there, doing their stretching exercises. Everyone turned around to stare at him as he burst through the doors. A few of them merely shook their heads sighing and resuming their exercises while others glared at him.

            "Sakuragi!" roared Akagi. "Why are you late again? Fourth time this month!"

            "Nyahaha, Gori! The tensai does not need practice at all!"

            "Bakerou!" shouted Akagi and issued a great punch on the unfortunate boy's head, which resulted a steaming bump rising out of his red hair.

            "Itai!" he yelled back. "What was that for?"

            "For being late, for not respecting your sempai, for calling Akagi Gori, for banging open the gym doors without knocking, for disturbing all of us…the list goes on," said Mitsui grinning.

            "Baka Mitchy! Wait until we get down to practice! The tensai shall show all his wonderful skills and talents!"

            "Do'aho," came another voice from the end of the gym.

            "Kitsune! How dare you make fun of the tensai?"

            "EVERYONE START TRAINING NOW AND STOP FOOLING AROUND!" cried Ayako, the team manageress.

            "Or else?" said Sakuragi snickering.

            "Shut up and listen to Aya-chan, baka," hissed Miyagi angrily.

            "OR ELSE!" said Ayako brandishing a paper fan. Sakuragi immediately dropped off into silence and started practicing. Ayako had made her point just by bringing out that dreaded paper fan of hers.

*          *          *

            An enormous oil tanker lumbered slowly down the dusty road, its journey slowed by the heavy load it towed. The driver knew how many liters of dangerous, flammable liquid he carried and how many lives could be destroyed if anything happened.  One by one, the cars behind it began to catch up, draw level with it and then overtaking it and zooming ahead.

            The tanker began to approach a junction. What happened next was completely beyond the driver's control to avoid. A van swerved out of nowhere right in front of the tanker. The driver jolted forward in his seat in a moment of pure panic. He swerved the great vehicle to avoid a collision…straight into a fence. The monstrous vehicle broke through the fence and began to head straight into a wall. The driver desperately tried to avoid another collision. He slammed on the brakes with all his might, but this was no ordinary little car. Besides, the machine was too near the wall to stop.

            The tanker crashed right into the offending building and the last thing the driver saw was the whitewashed surface of the wall rushing up to meet him as the terrible impact flung him forward from his seat into the windshield. A fire broke out in the engines. Quickly, it began to spread, blackening wires and smoldering anything in its way. It burned its way into the collapsing metal of the tanker. Soon, the burning flames had licked its way through the metal and accessed the extremely flammable liquid.

BOOM!

*          *          *

            The Shohoku basketball team had dropped all their fooling around and had started practicing seriously. They worked their way around each other dribbling basketballs and tossing them into the baskets. Satisfaction was mirrored on each of their faces and deep inside their ambitious eyes. Someday, they would become the best team in Japan, maybe even in the world.

            What happened next was so sudden that none of them even had the time to realize that all their dreams and high hopes would never materialize. From outside, there came and angry scream of brakes and the shriek of twisting metal. Then, something gigantic rammed into the wall of the gym from outside. Before they could react, there was a sudden hissing of flames and the acrid smell of burning metal.

            The boom that followed was deafening. The thunderous, angry roar burst through the gym bringing with it boiling heat and thick black smoke. The great explosion echoed around the gym bursting through the roof and walls, blowing up the floors and the windows and rattling their eardrums. Burning debris was tossed about like basketballs smashing into them and across their faces and bodies but they did not care, because by that time, they were all dead.

Tbc.

Yes, I'm posting it again after it was removed…you guys will just have to wait a little longer for Chapt 5…gomen.