"L A D I E S A N D G E N T L E M E N of North Atlanta High," came the voice of Principal Donovan just as students began to fill into the compound, followed by their parents, "if we could all just settle down now."
It was the early days of Summer in the year 2030, with the hot glowing sun already shining down over the school.
"It's graduation, bitches!" Carmen cried out, dressed in a purple cloak with the graduation hat over her head, obscuring her face from the sun's heat.
"We're just ending a school year. I don't see what all the fuss is about," came Henry, also in his graduation attire.
They were all graduating as their high school years came to an end on that fine day.
"Speak for yourself!" blurted Marcus.
"Hey, Cassie," Lucas spoke, taking off his hat, "where's Nat?"
"She said she would be here. I've been calling her and she's not picking up."
Jasmine then shortly passed by, handing out the class of 2030's year books which marked her last work as the school's editorial president.
"Hey, Lucas," she greeted him and Lucas responded.
The two had ended a path towards a romantic relationship before getting into the final year after Lucas had indirectly confessed his feelings for Natasha.
The funny thing was that despite having gone through one more year of school, Lucas had still been unable to open up to Natasha, even though almost everybody knew he had the hots for her.
*
Unlike the rest of her friends, Natasha was nowhere close to match with their graduation outfits as she was in her jade super suit, her eye mask on and she was not in school either but was hurtling through the streets of Atlanta, moving at super speed as the Viper.
She was in the middle of a call with the police captain just as she streaked through traffic.
Apparently, there were reports of a bank robbery that was confirmed after a man had broke into the bank with what was said to be a Devel 16 supercar.
Witnesses were shocked to see the car suddenly burst through a wall and had a large drill projecting from its bunker which tore away at the wall.
The man then went ahead to gather up all the cash from the counter.
"Alright," he started, his face concealed only by dark sunglasses and was dark skinned, his black leather jacket puffing up from his muscular body. "Open up the fucking safe!"
"I can't!" cried the cashier who was a young woman.
"What the hell do you mean you can't?" the man yelled, his clean shaven head shining from the bank's lights.
"Nobody here has that authoriz-"
"Ah fuck it!" he snapped, withdrawing his gun and rushing to his car just as police car sirens began to wail in the distance.
Once he was in the car, he brought it to life, the engine thundering like a huge generator before the car suddenly charged towards the counter and the cashier had to jump to avoid getting hit.
The super car broke apart the counter table, moving at full speed towards the large iron lock door to the safe, bashing into it.
The generic drill protruding from its bumper began to cut through the door until it was wide enough for the car to fit.
He filled up his car with stashes of notes before getting back inside and reversing his way out of the bank, pulling at the emergency brake and sending the car drifting back forwards, its tires screeching against the asphalt.
The cops had caught up with him but he still had some more tricks up his sleeve.
He pressed on a button on the computerized dashboard and the drill was detached from the bumper, hitting the ground and the perp went ahead to suddenly swerve, his car turning away so that the drill rolled on the road right before colliding into the windshield of one the cop cars, shattering it and the car lost control, crashing into a light pole.
"Dumbass!" came the perp, laughing as he pressed on the gas, his car accelerating fast.
More cop cars were still on his tail, quickly gaining on him.
He then pressed on the brakes, the car's tires screeching as it came to a sudden halt.
One of the cop cars was not so lucky as its bumper rammed into the back of the perp's car, destroying its own bonnet and yet another car crashed into the back of the cop car this time.
Two more cop cars passed by his car, trying to block his path but boy, were they in for a treat!
The perp felt for a button set underneath the wheel, activating a weapon's system and a grenade launcher then appeared from one of the car's headlights.
The cops tried to pull away but it was too late when they were hit from the back by a bomb, exploding their cars which flew up before descending back on the road and the perp pressed on the gas, passing right through them.
"Did you just say a supercar ?" Viper was asking through her comms.
'It took out a bank and a whole police unit!' came Captain Susan's reply from over the comms.
She had called on the speedster to help her and the APD take down this new criminal that had just shown up in town for like a week.
The perp looked at the side mirror and spotted the blue-green lightning streak fast approaching from behind.
"Oh it is on!" he chuckled, pressing on the gas and the car was speeding through traffic so fast that even Viper was surprised.
"Alright, Fast and Furious!" was what the Viper speed as she picked up speed, "let's see what you got!"
The car was moving really fast, clocking at around three hundred and fifty miles an hour with an amazing horsepower of five thousand but that was nowhere near comparison with how fast Viper could run, putting in mind that she had increased her high speed from Mach twelve to Mach fifteen after the events of the previous year, ergo she could move almost twenty times faster than than the speed of sound.
This was just another bright Summer day for her.
She caught up to the super car in a matter of seconds and was running alongside it when she turned to look through the driver's window.
"Pull over!"
"Yeah, I don't think so, honey!" the perp responded.
"Alright, your funeral," Viper said and was moving ahead of the car when a thick liquid suddenly began to spill from under the car, wetting the ground ahead of her.
It was too slippery for her and she ended up losing her footing and hitting the ground with her butt.
"Oil! Really?" Viper snapped, wriggling her arms that had gotten covered by the slimy goo as well as her hindquarters and legs.
She was thinking about getting up and dashing towards the car when she watched wings project out from its sides together with a huge combustor engine from the back and the car was soon bursting through the air before flying away and she could not see it anymore.
'Viper! Do you copy? The car just flew away!' came the voice of the Captain over the comms.
"Yeah. . ." responded a not too pleased Natasha, "I noticed."
She finally got a hold of her phone as she got up from the oily mess when she read through Cassie's texts.
"Oh shit! The graduation!"
With that, she sped off down the road.
*
Natasha was happy to find that the ceremony hadn't started where she met with the others, having gotten out of her ruined suit and into the graduation attire.
"Where the hell were you?" asked Cassie.
"Nowhere important," she replied.
"You mean unimportant like chasing a super car and falling with your butt on the road. . ." came Lucas, flashing the screen of his phone to her.
The others burst out laughing as Natasha grabbed Lucas' phone.
"How did they upload it to YouTube so fast?"
"Wait, there's a supercar?" gasped Henry.
"Hey," Marcus started, changing the subject, "I've got an idea. We should all go somewhere after this!"
"Like a vacation?" asked his twin sister, Carmen.
"Exactly! I was thinking something like Miami!"
The conversation was cut short by the ceremony which was soon underway, with the principal calling out all the graduates.
Natasha had waved at her mother when her name was called out. Jenna was seated next to Carter and Katie, who had accompanied her.
It was all a moment to savor for all, with the ceremony coming to an end with the graduates tossing their hats into the air and that was when the crazy began to happen.
Beyond the hats and up in the sky, everyone watched the clear cloudless sky begin to turn green, casting a dark green shadow on everyone.
"Ugh! Not again!" exclaimed Bianca, recalling the last time the sky's color had changed only this time, she was not checking herself in the mirror while in the girl's bathroom, donned in Chanel.
"Lemme guess. . ." came Marcus, "another angry god's coming for us?"
"This feels. . .different," Natasha responded as she watched green lightning flash across the sky.
Lucas gave her a quick glance of confusion.
"Wait, what is that?" Carmen asked, pointing at something hovering far out in the sky.
"Ah!" gasped Natasha, feeling the side of her head when a sharp pain suddenly shot up like a tiny current of an electrical surge.
"Nat?" Lucas placed a hand over her shoulder, "you OK?"
She nodded in response.
The object that Carmen had seen then began to get closer and closer, until it set foot at the heart of the compound and an aura of green energy was flowing around as it stood there in its hooded cloak.
There were gasps and murmurs coming from the students and parents, all staring at the figure that had just descended from the sky.
Natasha's eyes sparkled with lightning and was about to charge, sensing nothing but trouble coming off of the figure but Lucas grabbed at her hand.
"Don't. . ." he cautioned, warning her of potentially exposing her identity as the Viper to the others.
That little reaction was enough to get the figure's attention who hovered slightly above ground and slowly swayed towards where Nat and her friends were standing.
"Oh great!" whispered Marcus, "there goes Miami!"
"Shut up!" Carmen snapped at him.
The figure drew closer but Natasha composed herself, her fingers still locked between those of Lucas.
"The scent is on you!" came the figure's hollow voice and it was unclear who he was talking to but was staring at Natasha and her friends.
"Natasha, don't!" Lucas cried out when she finally let go and lashed out at the figure, her fingers folded into a fist that arced with sparks of lightning.
Natasha's fist never connected as she ended up hitting nothing just as a wave of bright green light burst out and blinded her along with Lucas, Cassie, Carmen, Marcus and Henry. . .
***
Several light years away, far out in the cosmos, the one responsible for sending the hooded figure to the mortal world. The goddess-Elektris-was seated high upon her throne as she awaited her subject to complete his quest and return what she had asked-what she had been searching for for eons.
She could already feel its power and was certain it was on the mortal world. Her extremely white hands sizzled and sparkled with white traces of lightning crackling and arcing all the way up to her arms.
What she was uncertain about was exactly who was the heir that the prophecy had spoken about.
Who had been powerful enough to take down Prometheus?
Prometheus had been the last subject that the goddess had sent out to procure that which she was in search of and had failed but his failure had actually bore fruit-giving the goddess the exact location of where to look-Earth.
T H E R E W E R E M U F F L E D sounds coming from a living room. It was a large plasma TV where an action film was playing.A large banging sound then followed after gunfire went off from the film playing which was loud enough to awaken the boy who had dozed off on the couch that was six feet away from the TV.Marcus's brown eyes suddenly opened wide, his whole body shaking when he turned to see The Terminator playing on TV.'I'll be back!. . .'He traced the couch for the remote and found it just in time to watch Arnold Schwarzenegger deliver his famous catch phrase. He then switched off the TV.The living room was dark and Marcus turned around to get a view from the large windows where he noticed night time was creeping in.That's odd.There was no green sky outside but dark greying clouds.Marcus
T H E R E E L I N G O F vehicle tires awoke the young dark haired girl who had fallen asleep with her head leaning towards the glass of a window.Her right temple softly thudded against the glass before she pulled back and opened her eyes to see a black Ferrari drift by along the road.Turning away from the window, the girl looked over to her left where an old woman was sleeping, her head tilted back.She was on a bus.Her mind was in the middle of trying to make out whether she had just been dreaming about an event that had happened at school where she and her friends had been celebrating a graduation party.Almost instantly, a new thought quickly took over, which was very characteristic of her thanks to her unique high sense of perception.Where exactly am I going?She did not wait long for the answer when the bus came
W H A T D O E S I T really mean to be smart?He heard those words play in his mind like a tape as he took in a deep breath.It was almost getting to the brink of being meditative when someone bumped into him from behind his shoulder, ruining his self-reflective moment."Watch it, simpleton!" Henry Roderick cussed but the kid responsible rushed off, having not heard him.He watched him run off to join a group of other kids who were dressed in maroon blazers and it was the sight of that that made Henry stop dead in his tracks."What happened to graduation?"He turned around, trying to locate anyone in a dark robe and a graduation hat.No one.No grads to be seen except for people in their normal attire as if it was just another normal school day."Henry, there you
H E R P E N M A D E tiny squeaky noises as it poured ink onto the white paper surface, jotting down the words that materialized in her mind.The pen then abruptly slid, creating a long line of ink across the paper and messing up her work after a bottle of alcohol was set heavily on the table next to her.Frowning, she set the pen down and shook her head in frustration just as a man standing on the other side of the table came to stand in front of her."You alright over there?" the man asked and the girl then noticed for the first time how prominent and yet youthful his features were.He was tall with thick dark hair that matched his eyes and had a trim beard.She watched him pick up a glass and wipe it clean with a cloth and the surface of the glass gleamed under the light bulb set over the shelves stacked with bottles of beer.Cassie Richar
L O U D R Y H T H M I C D R U M M I N G sounds filled the vicinity and the people inside the dark compartment began to act up, feeling the strong psychic vibe fuelling their athletic bodies.The drumming intensified, almost sounding like ancient war themed music, encouraging warriors to battle.Which was actually what it was. They were the Warriors Football Team.The tall and lean quarterback with short dark hair finally opened his eyes that had been closed in the dark compartment as light began to pour inside, illuminating the black and white jerseys of the world's greatest football team.Lucas King put on his helmet and proceeded to march out from the compartment and onto the field with the rest of his teammates.The field was unlike anything he'd ever seen. It was a lush green overrun with white thin stripes and numbers, marking the end zones and the scrimmag
"N A T A S H A, D O N'T !" L U C A S cried out when she finally let go and lashed out at the figure, her fingers folded into a fist that was arced with sparks of lightning. Natasha's fist never connected as she ended up hitting nothing just as a wave of bright green light burst out and blinded her along with Lucas, Cassie, Carmen, Marcus and Henry. . . The bright light intensified, warping her mind into disarray, the last sound she heard being that of Lucas warning her. The light then began to die down until Natasha could finally see. But not what she had been expecting to see. The mysterious cloaked figure that descended from the sky and cast out that wave of green energy had disappeared. Natasha spun around. She was by herself . Her so friends, her mother and everyone else were nowhere in sight. "Lucas!" she called out.
S H E H A D B E E N eyeing the screen of her phone for the past eleven minutes or so, her mind having been lost in thought, probably drifting back to a time when she had been in the middle of recovering from a traumatic past. A time when she had made a friend, a sis— Her thoughts were cut short when her phone began to buzz, vibrating on the glass table. For a moment, her heart had skipped a beat as she had thought that the person she had been thinking of had finally decided to call. But it was not that person. No. It was another contact that showed up just above the contact of that person: Kimberly Grace or as she had called her—Kim. The memory of her was still clear, as if it was yesterday when they'd met at a local town bar in Texas. Diana Roberts had just left Atlanta after getting out of the Darkforce and ended up in Texa
U N D E R A S T I L L green-lit sky, Atlanta was about to be plunged into a world of mayhem when its citizens suddenly saw two blurs of lightning zoom through the city with a hooded figure hovering after them. Diana and Carol had ran a good distance away from the school where parents and children were in total confusion of what had just happened. One moment, the skies had turned green then something had dropped from the heavens and onto the graduation grounds, then in a second, the figure was gone and now the principal was still wondering whether to continue with the ceremony or call it off. The hooded figure was upon the two speedsters. It thrust both of its arms forward and a green blast of energy shot off like a fireball. It hit the asphalt between the two speedsters, sending pieces of stone, tar and dirt flying in the air after the impact resulted in a shockw