Do you wanna rob a bank? (Prodigy Recruitment)

Gliding down the street on a wooden board with four wheels was how Blake planned on spending his day and so far it was off to a bad start. First Blake hit a light post and after that he hit a frank stand on the corner. He wasn't use to using his legs still and skateboarding was definitely not something he would understand overnight.

"Damn you suck dude" said Tyrell as he skated circles around Blake using his rollerblades. "Yea yea" chuckled Blake who had several scars on him from falling and hitting several things. He was going to heal but he was trying to stop himself from doing it right now so Tyrell wouldn't figure out that Blake had the ability to heal at accelerated rates. "What now?" said Tyrell before a slew of cop cars came flying by them on the street. Not literally flying but the speed they moved at you would think so.

Both Tyrell and Blake looked at eachother before running after the police cars to follow them to whatever crime they were going to. Blake took this chance to slow down since he saw Tyrell going ahead of him on the roller blades. It was here he cut through an alley using his superspeed. He tossed his skateboard to the side and opened his bookbag where he looked at his suit with the lightning bolt on the middle. He used his speed as a means of getting into the suit at a faster rate than normal before coming out of the alley and zooming past everyone who thought it was a strong wind including Tyrell. According to the radio in the ear of Blake it was a bank robbery going on and it was five armed men.

This was going on in the Metropolitan First National Bank down on 54th & South. Blake happened to know this place as he took off beating the police cars to the scene by a good five minutes. The call on the radio said it was 5 armed men inside and Blake chuckled because this was gonna be too easy. He ran through the front door of the bank which caused the men to look at the door before firing into the air out of fear and surprise. Only one of them had hostages which was surprising to Blake "Okay... So only one of you thought about grabbing a hostage? bank robbers really are as dumb as TV" joked Blake before the hostage holding robber pointed his gun at Blake firing off four shots which were all dodged it was one aimed at the left side of the rib cage two at his head around his temple and one on his right leg.

Their timing and adjusting of hand motion allowed Blake to dodge faster than he would have preffered. "Wow you're a bad shot" joked Blake as he was now behind the hostage holder. Blake grabbed him and sped off reappearing outside with the bankrobber outsidee tied up in his clothes leaving nothing but his mask and boxers on and his shirt and pants acting as rope. Going back in Blake would find the other four and proceed to take them all out the same way one by one before he himself dashed out pointing his hands at the front door as if he were opening it for the first time. "Ladies and gents... The bank is open" joked Blake as the police were confused and the crowd of people at the scene cheered as the five men were all bound and gagged.

"He knows there's a bomb under the bank right?" Abby sat with her torso entangled to a pillar with a series of gunk and grime.

"What's he doing?" Danny's legs stuck out from under a console connecting to the bank vault.

"Leading people in a cheer and telling them to come in the bank." A small drip of the grime plopped down on her purple Prodigy body suit with a black skirt.

"Go tell them there's a bomb under the bank and a supervillain on the loose." None of the goop made its way onto Danny, keeping her Turquoise suit from any harm from a lingering dry cleaning bill.

"I would, but I'm not even on the loose. You said there was no time when you came in here and started trying to disarm a bomb, even though you said you had no idea what you were doing, so what exactly are you doing?"

"I channeled the spirit of-"

"Oh yeah that's right. You channeled some dead guy who disarms bombs, or builds bombs, or is the bomb."

"I could always leave you with the bomb." Part of Danny wanted to pop out to see the look on Abby's face, but she had her hands full with something more explosive. While the thoughts of one of the greatest bomb builders surged through her mind, the new wiring and framework of this bomb left Danny with a little too much guess work for her liking. "Is there a loudspeaker out there?"

"I don't know. Let me do a quick check in the one hundred and eighty degree arc I can look at things in, oh no, there-" It only took twenty degrees of surveying to find the intercom on the desk in front of her. "Oh wait. Yeah, there is."

"Well, get on the intercom and tell people-"

"Hey Danny, you might want to come out."

Before Danny could ignore Abby and her complaints, a metallic arm clamped around Danny's ankle. "Three. Little. Prodigies." A breathing apparatus around his face drowned out his voice in between inhalation and exhalation.

"Who's the third? Did Ryan show up?" A turquoise beam began to emerge from Danny bracelet.

"This guy looks like he's 16 or so." Abby began to try for out and out desertion by moving her chair towards the stairs leading up.

"Yeah, so soon to be three Prodigies, possibly." The beam fired out from Danny's hand towards the hulking patchwork man of machine and tubes. "Not that we'll need three."

Her beam turned in a sharp angle heading towards the ceiling. A shimmering light cascaded around him with a sphere that slowly faded from visible spectrum. While the hulking creep remained in tact, the gleaming beam of turquoise light broke through the floor, shooting in the middle of the crowd Blake drew to himself.

People were cheering in favor of Blake and he seemed to like it. He was a shy guy and this suit that Masters gave him sure did the job of keeping his identity secret. Blake didn't want to leave the scene yet until he spoke to the cops and cleared the air with them just in case they didn't feel comfortable with the teenage speedster stealing their thunder in a way more fascinating manner than they would prefer.

"Thanks kid, but next time leave this to the adults" said one of the cops as they approached the bank robbers and began to haul them off to the patty wagon. At this time a blue beam shot through the ground right in front of Blake which caused him to jump back lifting his lead leg and right arm to shield himself. He looked at the crowd of people and the cops who all looked at Blake as they began to take formation and prepare a counter attack.

As for the people in the crowd they began to scatter running back behind the barricade. "I swear that wasn't me" said Blake before he dashed back in the bank. Finding the maintenance route Blake would look to locate the source of the beam. Once he got down there he saw what was a really ugly robot and two women. One with goop all over her. "Uhhh I hate to tell you this buddy butttttttttttt you should give up" said Blake. He was feeling confident today. Considering it was the first time he really used his powers in almost a year.

An unhealthy amount of sludge began to pour out of the gun like appendage on the hulking behemoth. Danny really could not tell anyone what a healthy amount of sludge would look like, but any of it needed to stay away from her. A turquoise construct popped up to begin giving Danny a leg up on the tin man. Her kick banged against the chestplate, but instead of falling to the ground, the breathing man merely wrapped a claw around Danny's waist. "No. Help."

While Danny tried to pry herself out the tightening grip, a voice told the man of certain doom. "More. Little. Prodigies."

"There's a bomb under the console. You need to get it out of the building now." Danny shot a construct forward, managing to get inside the force field, but failing to pierce the armor. That did not stop Danny from trying to dig the construct in herself though. "I can handle this guy. Just get the bomb out of here."

"I would also like to leave here, but do not want to be in the same place as the bomb." Abby wanted to get herself and her minor invisibility power out of this basement before everything went to Hell.

The off hand of the hulky behemoth would aim its cannon towards Blake with the aggression of firing a concoction of sludge.

Blake was a smart kid. He was probably gonna go to college and be an engineer major, hell maybe even advanced physics ya know? Because he liked that stuff. He didn't ask for powers nor did he really want them but boy were they cool. Unless he was in situations like this, where a robot with a goop gun and a hot chick are normal fixtures in his daily routine of living. "What" said Blake as his eyes popped. The woman said something about a bomb under the console which was to Blake's right. He turned his head slightly and just sighed.

As for the goop armed robot? Blake was going to engage him before the downed woman said she could handle him. For some reason Blake thought she was lying but he didn't want to stick around and find out. He didn't really know the girl but she thought Blake could help the situation and that is what he was going to do. In a matter of seconds Blake was under and up from the console with bomb in hand. He would acknowledge the situation "Be back in a flash" said Blake who was trying to come up with something catchy.

It was at this point the goop armed robot took aim at Blake releasing some of that goop which he dodged with each simply moving behind the console. As the goop hit the wall far back he peaked his head out "Hey! That's not nice" Dashing out the room Blake would dash right back in "I'll come back for you guys" talking to the women before dashing back out. A blur is all the people saw as he zoomed out of the bank with the bomb firmly in his grasp. It said it had about 9 seconds left. Running as fast as he could Blake was heading towards the pier and as he approached it he felt something release into his suit as if he got a needle just now. His body began to slow down and relax. This caused panic from Blake as he started to spin with his arms out before throwing the bomb in the air above the river. The bomb would explode over the river as Blake fell to one knee. "Maybe I went too fast"

Seeing Blake get the bomb out of the room gave Danny some hope they could complete the mission. Now, she just needed to pry herself from his vice grip. The cannon pressed to her face made her reconsider. "Slow down. Little Prodigy." The behemoth walked over towards where Abby stayed pinned. "He is. Fast." A trickle of sludge dropped down to the floor. "Will be back soon. Unless bomb kills him."

"We can just hope the bomb doesn't kill him then. Or anyone." The turquoise staff would disintegrate from her hands. The amount of time it would take to pry the armor off would outlast the amount it took for him to cover Danny in that horrible smelling sludge. Suffocation never seemed pleasant, but having it happen along with a terrible smell would be the absolute worst. "He'll be back soon and then we'll-"

"Have other plans." From the glare of the glass on his lens, Danny could spot the first sign of humanity within the monstrous creature.

"And we do not want to get in the way of those plans." Abby stayed as put as the moment the creature first blasted her out of invisibility. "We would be happy to just say 'no one got blown up, so we'll just'-"

"Quiet." The cannon moved from in front of Danny's face towards Abby. "Sludge on suit. Fine. Sludge on skin. Not so much."

"What is it you want exactly?" Danny put her arms down to try and grab a hold of the joint in his metallic claw.

"Suffer. Suffer down below. Bomb would spill. Sludge through building. Not only bomb." Something of a laugh began to leak through the apparatus making up his mouth before fading into a cough. Just when Danny started to try and act on the lapse, the cannon pointed her hands into the air. "Boy will come back. Fight me. And then. The other bombs. Will explode. He is fast. But doesn't know. You two. Won't. Say anything."

When Blake would return the floor of the room would be filled with sludge, but with the absence of Danny or Abby. The creature known as Choker littered the room with one of Danny's boots and Abby's jacket, giving the impression he melted the two girls. His laugh would become as contagious as the symptoms running through the bombs he hid within the city. "Welcome. Back. Little. Prodigy." His cannon prepared to fire on Blake as soon as he came into view.

He began to breathe really shallow as people gathered around him. His body seemed limp and he couldn't really do anything. A voice released in his mask told him he moved too fast and he had to stop since he was reaching speeds her never touched. "Thanks Masters..." said Blake as he tried to crawl up off the ground. He would use the blockade from the rivers border to pull himself to his feet as he regained his form. "What the hell is in this thing" joked Blake who started to feel slightly better.

Shaking his head Blake would ignore and push away from the crowd of people whom slowly tried to help the young lad up "I gotta go..." is all he kept repeating as he dashed away hitting a wall. His legs were like spaghetti under his frame. He would try again and this time he was his old self dashing forward looking like a silver and red blur through the streets as he continued back towards the back where he once was. Upon arriving inside the bank Blake began to gather himself once more.

Dashing once more downstairs Blake found his way into the room again and even with the goop over the floor he was able to go around the room fast enough to see if Abby or Danny were there before taking his post adjacent to the controller once more. Dodging the attack from the goop cannon Blake would appear sitting on top of the controller "Where did you put them tin man" said Blake who didn't look like he was in a playing mood right now.

"They're dead." His breathing regulator would continue to pump in a filtered air as his suit began to release a gas. " You can. Join them." His cannon would no longer discharge a large shot but would instead release a toxic spray. The clawed hand would push out a fuel injected line into a sparking mechanism, casuing the spray he began to pour around the room to erupt. Each eruption from the spray only caught more and more of the gas, causing gas bubbles within the room to burst into flame at a haphazard rate.

The forcefield would generate enough force to defend him from any oncoming projectiles attacks while his three mechanical legs kept him perfectly balanced and able to change direction quickly. "Burn. Or turn." The toxic fumes continued to seep through the room, slowly making their way upstairs to eat away at the foundation of the bank lobby. While foundation weakened, the gas would start to make its presence known to anyone still within the confines of the bank. Only the first part of the mad gasers master plan, but he would take his plan to the grave if need be. "Or. Fail. All."

This robot guy was really annoying. His automated responses didn't really make this crappy situation better. He said the two women who were in this room not to long ago were now dead which caused Blake to raise an eyebrow as he sat on top of the console. He didn't really believe the robot but they usually didn't have emotions so who knew if he was lying or not. The suit of the robot began to release gas which caused Blake to back up at a blinding speed back to the entrance of the room. He released a hook from his arm which stabbed into a machine and caused some weird effects which Blake wanted nothing to do with.

By the time Blake made it upstairs the bank floors began to give away which caused him to try something he wasn't sure would work. Zipping towards the wall Blake managed to gain enough polarity to sustain motion on the wall as he banged against every fire extinguisher throwing it through the hole created earlier. After that he used his speed to generate enough heat on the ceiling with friction to start the sprinkler system to rain down on the molting ground. He then dashed back outside hoping his plan would work.

The first attack landed towards Blake only hit the wall. Not to worry, The Choker had his gas attacks to deal with the would be hero. The gas seeped around the room with more fire bursting from the gas bubbles. One fire extinguisher landed in the room. The Choker laughed. Another landed. His laugh intensified. The more they landed, the more he knew the time for the bombs he placed around the city would be closer to going off. His laugh turned to a cough. His vision began to blur, with drops of rain breaking against his visor. "Like. Drops. In the. Rain. Time. To. Die." The gas from the creature stopped. The lights of his visor gave out.

The creature itself gave no signs of life, nor did it appear to be any kind of living organism anyone had ever seen before. Flesh existed within the chasis. But, it did not match any creature cataloged by science. Pieces of different creatures were patched together with a few human arms attached to the major flesh bag in the middle.

Before his death, the Choker hid Danny and Abby in the vault of the bank. Their hands were tied behind their heads, tethered to a bar and run down to their ankles. A rag made them both take a vow of silence while they watched four television monitors of street footage showing people walking the busy streets of New York City.

Blake noticed something... The hole he was near outside wasn't releasing gas anymore which caused him to squint his eyes as he leaned in. He noticed the robot guy creature just standing there mobile. "Excuse me" Blake would say to everyone as he dashed away and grabbed several bank bags and tied them together.. "This should hold" said Blake as he now ran towards the basement where he saw the robot. Instantly dashing to him Blake would push him up against the wall "Where are they!" Blake would screaming putting some base in his voice. "This is how they do it in the movies right?" said Blake in his head.

There was no response from the robot and that drove Blake crazy. The bank bags he brought were now about to come in handy. He would press up off the robot before he used his speed to tie the man up rapping around his body several times before tying the final knot. He then proceeded to run around the bank looking for the two women and he couldn't find them. He came to a halt in the camera room where he started breaking down as he slammed his hands against the control system which caused it to turn on revealing two women in the vault room.

"Bingo.." said Blake as he dashed down to the vault area which happened to be cracked instead of fully locked. That robot bastard was intent on hiding these two but he didn't know why. Pulling the door all the way open Blake noticed the two women tied up and immediately got them down from their holding. Removing the rags from their mouths Blake noticed the monitors they were watching "What is going on..." said Blake

The time kept ticking away. Danny did not know exactly how long she had been down in the vault, but when the Choker left to distract Blake, he told the duo the bombs would go off in thirty minutes. Time seemed to slow down a little, but Danny went ahead and assumed half the time was now behind them. A great amount of ruckus went on just beyond the door, but it finally died down. Abby and Danny looked at each other, hoping the Choker finally bit it. They felt relieved when Blake said something. Then they felt anxious when his voice moved away. Where is he going? Danny tried to mutter it out, but got nothing.

A full two minutes went by until Blake finally broke into the vault. "Mppff!" Danny and Abby both tried to make Blake go even faster than he regularly used. The rag came out of Danny's mouth, letting her spill out the truth. "There are bombs under each of those spots.!" Her hands fell down to her waist after Blake loosened her up. " Those things are going to unleash that stupid goop and-"

"Mpff!" Abby continued to protest her predicament until Danny reached over to pull the rag out of her mouth.

"And then each of those spots will get transmuted into whatever it is Choker is or was, or whatever." Danny looked at the monitors and started to think about what plan they hoped to enact. "If you put four bombs in the same place at once, it will probably cause too much of an explosion to be safe to the populace. You gotta get me where I can disarm two and you can run two of them out to sea. Sound good or do you have a better idea? Oh shit, yeah. We only have like thirteen minutes before they blow! Should have said that sooner."

As Blake untied the duo of women the one doing all the talking earlier began to scream out that bombs were placed under each spot the TV was showing. This caused Blake to grab his forehead with his right hand while Danny continued to talk about the situation. Saying something about it releasing some of that goop from earlier to the mass populace before she was distracted by Abby and her increased displeasure of being tied up. Blake would chuckle as he made his way to release her.

"Continue" said Blake to Danny.  She said each spot on those monitors would turn people into what that robot was. "Wait it's gonna turn them into ro- Nevermind" said Blake as Danny's face showed nothing but stress. It was at this point Blake stood up and started to look at those monitors while Danny was talking. "Wait I know these places.. I can find these bombs easy" said Blake who turned back to Danny "No. It's too risky to have any of you guys go there directly I'll take them all. If I use all the speed I have I can get them to different locations" said Blake before dashing off to the first location which happened to be about 9 blocks from the Hudson River.

Dashing over there Blake remembered what was here. It was one of his favorite spots as a child with his father.. It was Emman's Candy and Cookies an old sweets store that was around since the 1900's. 11 minutes is all Blake had left as he searched for the bomb and noticed it was behind the banner of the storefront. Quickly grabbing it up Blake found his way to the Hudson River where he once again chucked a bomb in the ocean. "If speed increases the muscle relaxer system will kick in" said the automated AI this suit seemed to have when it wanted. The second bomb wasn't too far from here; Located at the Roosevelt Island Bridge. Blake dashed his way there along while slowing down. "Dammit if I speed up this suit will shut me down"

With a fire in his eyes Blake began to zip through the cars on the bridge as he cut through little sections finding a door that was open. Inside was the bomb. Grabbing it Blake got back on the main bridge before chucking it over into the East River. "Crap.. 6 minutes left" said Blake who knew he needed to go faster to save everyone. The third location was in a park near Flushing River which caused for much alarm. Since that was the furthest location. Blake took a deep breathe before dashing off navigating through traffic to finally reach his location. Once there Blake searched the entire park finding nothing which alarmed him.. He noticed something odd though, a babybag sitting on the sidelines unattended. Blake would open it revealing the third bomb. Quickly he would take it and throw it in the Flushing River.

"One to go" said Blake as he saw he was down to two minutes. The last location was three blocks from the bank he was at... He didn't tell Danny or Abby because he didn't want them to panic. Getting back to the area Blake knew where the bomb was at in this scrapyard. Searching for it he found it under a scrap machine which was about to crush it. Quickly using his top speed seeing he was down to seconds Blake grabbed the bomb and moved so fast he began to become transparent. He wasn't specifically close enough anywhere he could dump the bomb off at so he ran up through the bank using his speed to run off the building throwing the bomb to the sky where you could hear it go off as the still transparent Blake fell down to the ground where the muscle relaxers kicked in around what was left of his suit which wasn't much. Falling to the floor of the vault Blake was damn near passed out. The electricity around Blake just slowly jolting around his body.

"Wait! You won't-" Danny stretched out to try and grab Blake.

"So he's going to die?" Abby appreciated no longer being tied up, but did not think too much of the warning given to Blake.

"Maybe. But if those bombs go off near each other, it will be bad."

"He got the first." Abby kept her eyes on the monitor.

"How much time?" Danny turned back to see a blur go across the monitor screen.

"Do we have a timer?" A silence sat between the two.

"I guess we forgot it." A few minutes later, another blur shot across the screen, but no signs of explosions took place. "He's carrying those with him."

"No." Abby's English inflected the judgment of the word. "That would be stupid. Who would carry four bombs with them?"

"This guy." Sure enough, a loud, booming sound rang out through the city. Within the vault the two girls did not need to turn on the news feed to know what happened, but they did turn it on to see just how bad the damage was.

Damage numbers are still coming in, but the damage to the bank is still coming in. Most of the buildings within the area have had their windows destroyed and a few are experiencing minor fires. The bank is being evacuated as fires are beginning to spread through the top floor.

"Should we-" Before Abby could finish, Blake passed out just at their feet. "You know, get out of here before this place goes to-" A splat of green goop shot out and pinned Abby to the ground. "Oh for-"

"Crap!" Danny ducked down as a shot of goop just missed her.

The lifeless form of Choker came back to life. Shots fired out towards Danny, but each one broke against a turquoise barrier. Two blades formed around Danny's hands. If she got close enough, those forcefields would not stop anything she did. His metallic legs did enough to keep Danny from getting a good angle on him, but he worked himself into a corner. A corner he never saw before made of turquoise energy. Two blades shot out from behind him inside of his active range for a forcefield, pinning his cannon down. With a wide open shot at the machination, Danny leaped over one of her barriers and dove straight into his fray.

The metallic claw dove to grip Danny in mid air. The clank of the hard metal hitting the ground sounded out just as Danny's left blade swung up towards the Choker's chest. With her first blade in, Danny brought the right blade home. Both blades would expand in size as gas began to seep out of the creature. She could see life in his eyes, but knew they would leave soon. This creature only existed for as long as he needed to. Once done, he would leave for another body.

But, it wouldn't be this body. Not in this bank. Not with both of Danny's blades piercing into his torso. The machine finally shut down. A deep black overtook its eyes.

Sirens sounded from outside."The buildings on fire!" Danny ran over to cut Abby loose before the duo grabbed Blake to carry him from the vault. Two girls carried the load by draping his arms across their shoulders and giving him the drunk friend carry. Smoke funneled down from the top floor, expatiated by the structural damage done by Blake in his first fight with Choker. "Carry him out!"

"He's heavy!" Abby could barely lift up her own weight as Danny slipped out.

"Do you want to put this bank back together?" Not waiting for a statement of 'no', Danny ran to seal up the holes in the structure to keep the building from imploding upon itself. A turquoise pillar stood in the middle of the chamber, while several sprouting appendages braced the second floor. Danny could feel herself getting weaker as the weight of the building became more compromised.

Abby managed to carry out Blake and set him on the ground before emergency responders got to him. "Danny get out here!"

"I can't hold it much longer!" Danny began to back up, but each step took more out of her. Her breath increased with more smoke drowning out any oxygen. If she pulled a barrier to cover her face, she would lose the structure entirely. Vision died down to where Danny could no longer see where she needed to place a new barrier to hold the building together.

Things looked bleak.

Blake would see a bright light in front of his face as he turned he saw Travis Masters. The man who operated on Blake for his back surgery. This man was an important part of Blake's life because of what he intended to do for the young man who wanted nothing more than the ability to walk like everyone else. He was telling Blake to put his mask back on so he would be asleep for the surgery. He didn't remember this but for some reason it felt so real. The room filled with smoke as Blake awoke and he was outside with Abby. "Where is she?" said Blake who realized Danny wasn't with them.

Dashing back towards in the bank Blake realized he didn't save the day as intended. He saw nothing but smoke in the bank as he zoomed around looking for Danny but what he didn't realize was the smoke was clearing as he breezed by. It was then he saw Danny who was struggling to keep the bank from falling in on her. Blake took one deep breath as he knew if he messed this up they were both death. With what little of his suit that was still intact Blake dashed towards Danny grabbing her while stopping his step and pushing his feet back towards the direction he came escaping the caving area getting out the bank. Once outside Blake fell to the ground catching his breath.