A Special thanks to anbody who has read this, If you Have Please Review I really want some feedback,and if you don't I probably won't end up finishing this Piece so please respond, even if it's to say: 'Well that Sucks!'
Legacy of Slade prologue part 4 "Boom!"'Surprised, you should have anticipated this. I taught that, "Expect the Unexpected, and always be ready to remove it."' It taunted in a sarcastic voice, before punching Eyclone in the chest. Eyclone fell out of the cab of the truck, his hands reached out and grabbed the only thing within reach, the door and thus preserved himself from a nasty splat. The door flapped in and out, the forces of physics seemed to be determined to throw Eyclone off, and the almost blinding light from the police helicopter wasn't helpful either. The Slade bot driving the truck, opened a panel on the dashboard, and pressed several keys and a digital voice said "Steel City CBD. Confirm destination?' The Android was reaching for the touch screen, realising what the intentions of the robot criminals, Eyclone swung the door hard at the cab. As the door closed the distance, Eyclone realised his grip, his inertia carrying him into the cab and closing the door behind and ramming him into robot, just after it had pressed the "Yes" button onscreen. The robot started laughing and it waved its hand to the rear of the cab behind the seats. Sitting on the ground was a device with an LED countdown; it was a long cylinder and looked very much like a bomb in protective casing. Given his current situation and previous experience of such devices, he knew it would be a highly explosive bomb, with multiple triggers, automated channel jumping for remote detonators, standard time countdown, hardened casing with pockets of metal pellets for extra shrapnel and quite likely backup radio receivers and blasting caps to ensure that if the primary components fail, the bomb still detonates.
The android swung hard at Eyclone's face, Eyclone countered the blow and landed one of his own on the faceplate cracking it across the single eye. Despite being a robot the Slade duplicate still reached for its eye, as if to prevent it from falling out, Eyclone took advantage of this and swung again, even harder. The blow smacked into the chest forming another crack, the blow almost pushed the doppelganger out of the cab, Eyclone followed up with right hook and the robot fell from the truck. The metal segments that comprised its exoskeleton scraped on the roadway, sparks flying everywhere, fortunately this robot did not have a bomb built in which meant it didn't explode when a police cruiser struck its head.
Eyclone breathed a sigh of relief, 'Eyclone two, evil robot Slades zero' gloated Eyclone. 'Now to the bomb.' He said. Behind the truck a red, white and black streak sped up along side and jumped into the cab. It was Maus and Minos of Titans East, Spanish-speaking twins with the power to move REALLY fast, as long as they were touching. Maus opened his right hand, the hand that wasn't holding Minos' wrist, inside there seemed to be a small girl dressed like a bee. The bee girl was Bumble Bee leader of Titans East. She drew her pair of stingers and started blasting at Eyclone, while Eyclone tried to disengage or at least change the target destination of the Auto-driver. 'Pull the truck over and we won't hurt a you as much.' Ordered the super heroine. 'Umm you might not want to do that…' said Eyclone. 'If you pull over now, I promise the cops will protect you from Slade.' Bumble Bee said. 'All you gotta' do is pull over and tell us what he's up to.' It clicked in Eyclone's mind, she thinks I'm working for that scumbag; she probably thinks he's alive. 'First things first, titan. I don't work for Slade, in fact I was the one who sent you that tip about the Hive, second I guess you found the android in the rubble?' Eyclone said through gritted teeth s he attempted to avoid a police roadblock, with both Maus and Minos poking him and pulling at his coat. Bumble Bee nodded, 'That was one of many I've been hunting them for weeks now, This truck was being driven to the city centre with that bomb set to go off, and the 40 tonnes of Liquid oxy' in the back goes up as well. Furthermore, I think this bomb is wired to the truck, so that if the truck stops it'll detonate, so it looks like you guys are stuck here.' He said, swerving widely into the oncoming lane to avoid another roadblock. 'Would you mind releasing me and, if your so speedy, could you acquire a bomb disposal kit from the cops? I seem to have forgotten mine.' Eyclone asked the Spanish speaking speedsters. They shrugged and looked at Bumble Bee, she nodded and they grabbed hands and took off out of the truck, a red and black blur marking their departure. 'So do you know how to disarm this bomb?' Bumble Bee enquired. 'Probably, I've had extensive training in many fields, electronics amongst them.' He answered. 'You take the wheel.' He said, switching places with the super-hero, so that he could focus on disarming the bomb. Bumble Bee took the wheel and drew her communicator, she opened up a channel to the police, identifying herself and asking for them to clear a route to the airport. Eyclone got down on both knees so he could examine the bomb properly. A Voooom noise was discernable, as if out of no where Maus and Minos appeared holding a toolbox. 'You couldn't find any actually disarmament gear could you?' Eyclone asked, taking the toolbox out of their hands. 'At least this has wire cutters, screwdrivers and what appears to be an old tuna sandwich.' Looking closer at he commented 'A tuna sandwich that appears have some form of evolving life in it.' Raising it over his head, he hurled it out of the cab onto the highway.
Rarkon waved his spear in the air. 'Today my brothers! We the grey and round mould people of the crust shall cast off the shackles of our green thin fungus oppressors! We shall attack their strongholds in the upper butter layer and we shall be victorious!' he yelled at the assembled crowd. They respond with a resonating cheer. This is what being a leader is all about, this he felt with all four cells of his body, being adored by the people and leading such brave multi-cellular organisms in a just cause. On his left was one of the great chasms that lead down to the lower depths of the tuna, and if you believed the old tales, the bottom piece of bread. Moving around the sides of the chasm he could see hundreds of fungus soldiers advancing. Raising his spear, Rarkon pointed at the hated enemy, no words were needed his fellow bacterium charged the hated foe. The were only steps from contact on the front lines when the universe for Rarkon and all the others went "SQUISH!"
Steel City Police Officers Joseph Smith and Raymond Woods were charged with providing escort to a truck loaded with explosives. 'You know what this is probably some goddamn hoax.' Said Smith, Raymond nodded, suddenly something small, square and pale flew at their car, dropped out of sight and then a squish noise came from the front right tyre. "What was that?" asked Smith. 'Shut up keep driving! Now if the black man was driving we would've avoided what ever the hell that thing was.' Woods replied.
The bomb had most of it's casing off, inside a huge labyrinth of wires filled up ever inch. In the centre Eyclone could make out some form of plastic explosive. He didn't recognise the colour nor the consistency, which told him that it was probably a completely synthetic composition, that had been invented recently and was probably a newer version of Semtex, even more undetectable and far more powerful. In and around the near omnipotent gel were several charge emitters, if so much as a tiny electrical spark made contact with gel, BOOM would be the only result.
'Nearly at the airport, Aqualad and Speedy are helping the fire-fighters set up.' Bumble Bee yelled over the noise of the engine, ever since he'd let her drive he'd noticed a sudden jump in the speeds, as previously the twins didn't need to tie themselves down in the truck cab. Roaring off the highway and onto a diversion ramp, blocking off all the side roads were police cruisers with the officers waving them on. When the thundering, unstoppable mass that was the truck, hit the tarmac, Bumble Bee sighed with relief, not just for the safety of the wide spaces, but also that all the planes had either taken off or moved to the other side of the airport. 'What do I do now?' She yelled back to Eyclone. 'Just keep driving in circles, but not too fast, this thing rolls or, crashes it won't matter if the bombs disarmed, I'm surprised that the Liquid oxygen in the back didn't go off when we hit the off ramp!' he told her.
The bomb was pretty complex, even for Eyclone who'd made these kind of weapons. Reaching around with the magnifying glass, he spotted the bomb's only weak point, a single power source. Now given Eyclone's previous experience with these kind of weapons, he knew that no self-respecting bomb technician would not make a smart bomb with a single power supply, but so far he hadn't found anything. 'The good news is that I think I can cut the power source. The bad news is that only an idiot would make a bomb with one power source!' He yelled to the titan behind the wheel. 'Cut it!' was Bumble Bee's reply. 'First I need some things done, you two fast guys. Get out of the truck and don't stop until your well clear of the blast zone.' Maus and Minos did as he asked. 'Before I do this, I wanna know. What's your name?' he asked Bumble Bee. 'Bumble Bee. Why you asking? Hey what's your name?' she asked him back. 'Eyclone's the name and I'd rather know the name of someone who's about to die alongside me if I screw up. Any way do you trust me Bumble Bee?' he replied 'In this kind of situation, Yes.' Was her answer. Eyclone got up off his knees and stood behind her seat. 'Sorry Bumble Bee.' He said in a sad voice, Bumble Bee only had enough time for her expression to change to surprise, before Eyclone's fist laid her out cold. Eyclone put the tool box on the accelerator pedal. The truck immeadiately pushed forward with renewed speed, along a runway, quickly shortening the distance to the end of the runway where a small section of raised lights marked it out in the night. Eyclone lifted Bumble Bee out of her seat and carried her one handed to where the bomb squat in the cab. 'If I'm wrong she is gonna be pissed.' He said, before reaching down with the wire cutters, positioning them on the power cable, and with a final grunt of effort squeezed.
The LED clock on the front went black. Eyclone sighed. The bomb was dead. Suddenly a beeping noise emanated from the explosive gel, a little mechanical arm extended put of the putty with a small digital clock, Eyclone knew where the backup power source was now. But that wasn't the part that made his blood run cold. The counter was measuring milliseconds, it displayed "5000" which meant he had five seconds to get out. 'Ahh crap.' He said. Wrapping his arms around Bumble Bee, he changed himself and Bumble Bee into a single cloud, which exited the cab at the moment the count down displayed "0007". The Bumble Bee/Eyclone cloud was ten feet from the truck when:
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!
Aqualad was busy helping the fire crews; his power to control water was making sure the firemen's hoses didn't miss the blaze. Maus and Minos were checking the perimeter for Bumble Bee and the mysterious boy. The twins sped back to him, 'Seen anything?' he enquired, they both shook their heads. Suddenly a cloud of smoke drifted over to him. Speedy felt he was hallucinating, when a voice from the smoke said 'She's not dead.' A figure suddenly appeared, wearing a grey coat, patched up trousers and a blank expression, he placed the limp Bumble Bee on the ground. And then simply started walking for the fence line. 'Hey you! I w ant some answers! Who are you?' Speedy yelled as he drew his bow, notching an arrow designed to stun the target and wrap them in coils. He aimed at the lonely figure walking away. He fired, confident that the boy wouldn't know what hit him. Eyclone heard the arrow be notched and the bow being drawn, he even heard the swish of the string being released and physics taking over, which is why Speedy almost fainted when Eyclone back flipped into the air before the arrow could hit him and bind him. Slowly turning in mid air Eyclone reached out with his left hand and focused. He hadn't used this power in ages, it was strong, it was capable of blasting his targets with powerful bolts, draining energy from the surroundings, and equally capable of projecting that energy at an unfortunate target. The only reason he hated to even think about were the memories linked to it. Memories of his hated father, his loving and deceased mother, his now disposed of brothers and sisters, and the only sibling who'd shown kindness. He was pretty sure Saskia was still alive somewhere and understood his reasons for almost killing her. The alternative had been to kill her outright, the only sibling who'd not gained immense satisfaction from pummelling him everyday of his childhood. He would have vengeance. Almost flooded with the memories he focused the energy within him and unleashed a single bolt of white lightning, temporarily suspending himself and the arrow in mid-air for a split second. The arrow exploded and thanks to the quick jaunt down his memory lane, Eyclone landed poorly.
Speedy didn't know what to say. Someone who didn't even see him fire had not only dodged his arrow, He'd been able to blast it with some form of energy or lightning bolt. Thing boy landed roughly turned to face Speedy, winked and then disappeared in a puff of smoke. Bumble Bee woke up with a yell 'Whhhaaat? Ohh, what just happened. The truck blew up didn't it guys?' she said while looking at the wreck in the middle of the runway, there no fires outside, but the city's fire-fighters were holding back in case of unexploded barrels of Liquid oxygen. Speedy, Minos and Maus all nodded. 'So where did Eyclone go?' she asked as she pulled herself to her feet. 'Just disappeared, I tried to stop him but he just turned into smoke.' Said Speedy, leaning on his bow.
Back in Steel City, a dark cloud sped along and stopped on the roof of an apartment building. It wasn't in the up side of town, and technically the building was supposed to have no occupants. Eyclone opened the door on the roof and descended the stairs until he reached a poorly lit corridor, walking along to the corner of the building, Eyclone filtered through his many pockets for keys, upon finding them he tried them in the lock. None worked, so with a shrug Eyclone's right foot connected with the door several times, at high speed. Inside was a drab apartment, by looking at it you could tell that whoever lived here didn't own much our needed much. Walking over to the fridge Eyclone looked inside to find only a bottle of coke, some wrapped up sandwiches he'd made himself and a drink bottle filled with clean water. Eyclone grabbed the coke and sauntered over to the bathroom, opening the mirror cabinet, Eyclone removed his tooth brush, his tooth paste and a half full bottle of mouth wash, he wanted to rest, but he'd already planned out tonight and so far it might not be completely working, but he was still on schedule, He had a plane ride in three hours. Opening a bottle of aspirin, he took two tablets for the aching headache, he'd had since either one of the Slade-bots blows. He wasn't sure which. Screwing the cap on, he downed the two pills and then necked the coke. After taking the pills and checking the shelves for anything else of his, he closed the door and looked at his reflection, it had been almost eleven months since the he'd first encountered the decoys, He knew what that meant, it meant that Slade was dead and that the androids were working on project Lazarus II. Then he'd just been a kid, living by his own rules, he'd stolen to survive, but not like most people in his position, no with his talents, mugging and pick pocketing was practically self-insulting. Then it had attacked him, he found out that the androids were active and purposefulness had returned. A brain wave had come to him, why keep committing crimes, that's what he'd wanted, why not fight crime and fight him. And so the hunt that had brought him to this very moment in time, this very place in space. He was tired, it was hard taking down an evil conspiracy of super androids, and no so close to the end he felt so very tired.
Then the caffeine hit him
. He could feel his mind sliding into focus, countering the effects of the drugs and the pain. He was able to think, to plan his moves, those of his enemies, neutrals and the world itself, for months ahead. Strategies and counter-strategies were easily designed and analysed inside his mind and once again he felt physically able. Mentally he was unsure, the use of his energy powers had shaken him, the last time had been against the first Slade-bot and that had almost resulted in the deaths of bystanders and that was unacceptable. He would prepare for his next trial, Jump City, home turf of the Teen Titans. There was a likely chance they'd imprison him for the stuff he'd done as either Slade's apprentice or by himself. He would need them if he was to stop the robots, but his training advised caution. Robin the leader of the Teen Titans would probably be his superior in martial arts, Cyborg was to advanced tech for him to be able to hack or neutralise. Raven knew more about the arcane arts that he wielded than he did. Starfire he knew nothing about, but from news footage she appeared to have great strength, flight and her own energy bolts. And finally Beastboy, his shape-shifting means that the green butterfly on his shoulder could become a massive dinosaur. Caution was defiantly called for.
He slung the stuff from the bathroom into a backpack that looked well travelled, took al kinds of things from around the apartment, spare shirts, a pair of trousers that were twin to the owns he wore and a few sheets, a pillow and a camping mattress last but not least a high powered laptop that had many features that don't get added in when you pay an extra one hundred dollars. Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he took one last look at the now abandoned apartment, before turning into a cloud and disappearing out an opened window, into the night sky and heading towards the airport, where the flights had just resumed, if a little late.
To answer the most obvious question. Yes he will meet the Teen Titans in the next chapter and probably have the snot beaten out of him by Robin...