Sorry it has been a while since the last update. Please enjoy and leave a review of what you think.
"This is the BBC. Government sources have indicated that the strange lights seen in the sky over London, last night, were nothing more than aircraft flying off course. No alarm is needed and everything has been confirmed to be alright, a government spokesperson confirmed. For now, we had over to the Radio Theatre for our lates concert in our Mozart series."
The voice of the announcer cut off and frenetic orchestral music began to play. A hand reached over and turned off the radio, a loud click indicating the power being cut off. A newspaper sitting next to the device showed that the date was the 24th April, 1953.
The owner of the hand sat back and glanced over at a table sat in the middle of the room. Sitting atop it, was a shiny black stone, almost like glass in appearance. The light which hit this stone seemed to be absorbed, leaving a deep black hue in the material of the rock. It was shiny and matte, at the same time.
"Was that from those lights?" A female voice asked from the other side of the room.
"Yes it was. I managed to pull it out of the wreckage before the government agents got there," the other individual replied.
"Will they know it is missing?" The female over and being down to look more closely at the stone.
"No. It was loose in the craft. I doubt anyone would know it even exists. It just called out to me, like it could read my mind."
"Are you saying it is magical in some way?"
"I don't know, but whatever it is, it is not from this world."
Richard Grange stood in his workshop looking down at the black stone. He had been given it by his late father, who had been very vague and mysterious about it. What Richard had noticed since it had been in his possession, was the stone seemed to affect any nearby technology. It was as though the rock was trying to communicate with him.
It took many tests and days of work, but Richard was able to get the rock to be understood. This was the foundation for C.A.T. Using schematics provided by the AI, he was able to build the suit and helmet and formulate the serum which would eventually give William his powers.
In all the time it took Richard to get the system to work, he had neglected his other jobs. Working in secret to get this mysterious stone to yield its secrets had taken its toll on the working relationship with his work partner, James "Jumbo" Johnson. This had led to many disagreements and fights between the pair on how best to move forward with their plans and experiments. When Richard had been given funding from the army to develop his tech further, Jumbo was left out and seething. He would have his revenge and undermine his former partner. They would all rue the day they had left him out.
It was a strange thing to be hung up over, but dear reader, wars and battles have been fought over less. Jumbo had been locked out of all the files, whose encryption had been dialled up to a level he'd never seen before. Richard had also moved his lab away to his own property and secured it all. Drastic action would have to be taken and so it was. Richard was dead, but the prize was still out there ready to be captured. More factors would need to come to play.
It had been a few days since the funeral and William was back at school, going about his days as normally as possible. He had not gone out as Billy since the very vivid dream he had had. William didn't want to admit it, but he was scared from that. It had been so clear in his head and had taken a while to shift.
Right now, he was sat in his French lesson, looking over the task which had been set by the teacher. The words floated around on the page, trying to make sense, but not really fitting together. There was a sudden noise coming from the door of the classroom, which made William and many others look up.
Mr Brady, the head of year, walked into the classroom, swinging the door open a little too quickly, causing it to bang on the wall.
"Oops," he said quickly. "Je suis désolé Madame Gerade. I was a little too keen there to come in. I just wanted to bring along a new student starting today. Mr Grove, here, is joining us from today."
Mr Brady indicated to a new figure who moved into the classroom from the corridor. He was tall, well built, blonde hair and deep blue eyes. His handsome face was smiling at the class. William felt his stomach do a flip. There were a few people who had caught his attention before, but none like this one. Knowing his luck, he would be straight and have a girlfriend, leaving William once again without the possibility of having a boyfriend.
"Welcome to class," Madame Gerade said in her thick accent, moving over to greet the new student. "What is your first name?"
"Je m'appelle TJ," he replied, shaking Madame Gerade's hand.
"Ah excellent. Vous avez un bon accent. Parlez-vous beaucoup français?"
"Un peu. My dad likes me to be prepared."
"Super. Please take a seat next to William there," Madame Gerade pointed to the empty chair next to him. In all of this, William had forgotten he had the only empty chair next to him, where other people didn't want to sit next to him.
Mr Brady nodded his thanks and left the room, as TJ headed over to the desk and plonked his bag down on the floor and sat down.
"Hey, good to meet you," he said to William. "TJ," he held out his hand expectantly.
William took a moment to respond, nerves filling him. "William," he eventually replied, taking the handshake. Boy, TJ had a firm grip and was so handsome.
"So, what's it like at this school? Are there different cliques and stereotypical jocks and popular girls?"
William wasn't sure how to answer. "Yeah, sort of. Just stay away from Knuckles Johnson. He and his crew don't really care who you are, they'll try and intimidate you, though they are steering clear of me at the moment. I might have broken his jaw recently."
"No way!" TJ breathed. "You must be the cool one then. I don't think I'll get on your wrong side," he laughed.
William couldn't believe it. He was bonding with this new student, something which was not usual. "You better not," he joked back.
"You sound cool William. Is it okay if I hang out with you today?"
"Sure thing," William replied.
They got back to the lesson and when the bell rang, walked out into the corridor and moved off to their next lesson, PE.
Again that time of the week William hated. The only thing worse than having PE each week, was having two lessons of PE each week. TJ was in the same group as him, they discovered, while moving off and looking over his timetable.
"So is he really called Knuckles?" TJ was finding out more detail about the incident.
"No, his really name is Barry, but he hates it. Don't wind him up please. Mrs Reilly doesn't want me going anywhere near him and his parents haven't forgiven me either."
"Don't worry, I wont antagonise him. I'll have your back. Your girlfriend must have been made at you."
"Um, I don't have a girlfriend," William said.
"Ah, sorry. Stuck my foot in it. I tend to do that a lot. It's okay, I don't have a girlfriend either. Nor do I want one. I'm gay anyway."
William stopped in his tracks. TJ looked back. "You okay?"
"Um, yeah, sorry. I'm gay too. That's why I don't have a girlfriend."
"Oooh, cool. You got a boyfriend then?"
William had never really been this candid in discussing his love life, especially with someone so new.
"No, totally single."
"Well that's not right. You are too handsome and cute to not have a boyfriend and way too cool. We'll have to fix that."
"That'll have to wait. Here are the changing rooms."
The pair headed inside and found the usual spot where William got changed. Ryan was there waiting for them.
"Hey," Ryan greeted the pair. "Who's this?"
"I'm TJ, just started today. How are you doing?"
"Good thanks, I'm Ryan."
The trio got ready for PE. Today's lesson was indoor, so shorts, and polo shirt and trainers were in order. Their indoor lessons were dodgeball this half term, a game which William wished he could just disappear from.
An hour later, and a few new bruises too, the class were changed back into their uniform and heading to lunch. Over their food, the boys got to know each other more and arranged to meet up on the Saturday to have some social time together. William still couldn't believe how well he had got on with TJ. It was good to have another friend and have another thing to take his mind off of everything.
School ended and the evening drew in. William finally felt it was time to go back out and stretch his legs as Billy. Suiting up, he dropped out of the window and prowled off through the village, heading back to the town.
He jumped up onto the rooftops of the town and leapt from building to building, watching out for anything out of the ordinary. It seemed to be a quite night. Well… that was speaking too soon.
A loud explosion erupted from a few streets away, a large orange flash filling the sky and plumes of smoke billowing into the air. Billy jumped into action and sprinted towards the commotion. Using the rope belt, he hooked onto the side of another building and used it to swing down to the pavement. Assessing the situation before him, he brought the rope back down and flung it around his waist.
People were exiting the building, cars stopping and the sirens of fire alarms rang through the street. Screams and cries got louder.
"Someone help. My children are still in there!"
Billy whipped round to see a mother pointing up to the window of her flat where two young children were stood, crying their eyes out and looking down at there street below. Ten claws sprang out of his fingers and with a leap and a bound, Billy jumped up onto the wall and began to climb up, the claws hooking into the brickwork. He made light work of getting up to the window.
"Hey boys, I'm here to help," Billy said, as he came face to face with them. "Don't be scared, I'm going to need to you to be really brave for me."
Billy got out his rope again and proceeded to loop it around a spike embedded in the wall. He took out a couple of metal loops from his belt and attached them to the line.
"Right, you are going to need to hold on tight and don't look down. Can you do this for me?" He asked the two of them.
They nodded. With speed, but also being really careful, he lifted up each boy in turn and clicked them to the loops. One by one, he let them down the rope and they went sliding down to the pavement and straight into the open arms of their mother.
Billy proceeded to grab his rope and then jumped into the building, going to see if anyone else was left. The heat was intense and the smoke was getting thicker and heavier.
"You need to get out of here William," C.A.T's voice said. "The levels of carbon monoxide are too high. I'm not detecting any more life signs in the building."
"Okay, I'll head out."
Billy turned to go back they way he came, but before he could start back, the floor collapsed in front of him and flames began to climb their way through.
"Ah," he said.
"You need to go!" C.A.T urged.
"Yes thank you, I get that."
Billy readied himself to jump over the gap, but for some reason, his feet wouldn't move. Visions burst through his mind back to the day of his parents death. The bang, the explosion. Was he really ready to be doing this?
"Watch out hero!" Came a cry.
Billy was suddenly winded as a body slammed into him and carried him over the gap and back out into the fresh air. Two strong arms were wrapped around his waist. They came to land in an alleyway just away from the scene, hidden from the view of the public.
The arms let go and Billy whipped around to look at who had rescued him.
"Hey, it's good to meet you. The name's Teddy. Teddy the Tiger."