There was a war going on."
Luther started feeding information to Hawk Knight while he stared coldly. Unaware if Hawk Knight was interested in this info or not, he continued, for he knew what was at stake.
"A gang war to be precise. The Flathead gang, my gang run by a good buddy of mine, Falcone Flathead, finally took control of the city from the Mafia after a power struggle. As you could guess, our victory didn't last long."
Hawk Knight stared coldly.
"This new gang, the Green Dragon clan, rolled up and they meant business. While we were using guns and bombs, they were using laser swords and sci-fi ninja shit! How the hell were we supposed to compete with that?"
Hawk Knight still stared coldly.
"S.. so that's when this guy pulled up. Uh... what was his name again? Ah yes, Mr. E."
Hawk Knight flinched just enough for Luther to notice.
He was interested.
"Okay, uh... so this guy, super creepy dude, reeked of bad news. He told us he had a way for us to take down those Green Dragon a-holes. Something he called Mutoxin."
Hawk Knight turned his attention to the used syringe on the ground below them.
"As you saw before, this weird juice could temporarily give you animal-based Muman powers. The time and power you got all depended on you, the guy getting injected."
"I've heard enough. Now answer a few questions for me, will ya?" Hawk Knight finally spoke.
"Uh.. sure, man..." Luther responded nervously.
"How do I find Mr. E?"
"W.. well, I have no idea... He was kind of a mystery to us. Not even my boss knows!"
"Hmmmm, this complicated things."
Nervous that this might end badly for him, Luther added some more info.
"W.. well, maybe you could find him."
"How?"
"Okay, uh... look, so he was charging a shit tonne for the Mutoxin, so he gave us two options. We sold it to our competition, like the Green Dragons, which was out of the question."
"Or?" Hawk Knight said, ignoring the Green Dragons since his only concern was Mr. E and Mr. E alone.
"Or we helped him build some kind of weapon."
"Weapon?"
"I.. I wasn't in on the specifics, but I knew it was something super damn powerful. And he needed only one thing to finish it."
"And that was?"
"Uh.. um.. he needed some tech called the Black Reactor. We received some tip that Miltron Labs was importing it today from abroad. Some country called Yugoslavia. Not really sure. You know our country's relationship with the outside world is pretty bad."
"I see... so your gang is trying to acquire said tech. Then what are you doing here?"
"Well, my gang was also trying to secure a peace treaty with the Lost Light. Word was spreading that they were getting pretty powerful. Well, their leaders, I think, as that idiot who ran kinda contradicted that. My job was to sell some of our Mutoxin to them so we could get a closer connection."
"Well, I had a job for you." Hawk Knight said, smiling under the helmet.
"J.. job?"
"I need you to join that mission to get that tech and keep me informed."
"B.. but I..."
"Buddy, you don't matter here. Your family does. Unless you thought otherwise?"
"No! I'll do it. I'll keep you informed. Just don't hurt them."
Hawk Knight let Luther go and disappeared into the night. Luther began to turn tail and run.
"Good work, Luther." Luther heard even though Hawk Knight was nowhere in sight.
"I'll be keeping an eye on you."
Now he belonged to Hawk Knight. Great.
Meanwhile, in the corner of a nearby building, a shadowy figure watched the scene unfold and informed his boss.
"This could complicate things."
And three days later it did....
"Good work, Luther." Hawk Knight said over the communicator in the Hawk as he flew over a Miltron Labs warehouse.
One which just got robbed.
"The cops are on our asses here! Hawk Knight, if you're gonna do something, do it!" Luther thought as the van he was in was getting shot at.
He managed to convince Flathead to let him join in the raid on the warehouse for Mr. E's tech, the Black Reactor. It was easy since he and Flathead were pretty close friends.
He didn't want this job because he wanted to get back to his family. But Hawk Knight insisted he do it.
Or else he might not have a family to walk back to.
Although the raid was successful, they triggered an alarm and were now on the run from the cops.
And Hawk Knight was soaring above them.
He and his partner, Johnny Snek, were getting shot at by the cops and no reinforcements were on their way. The cops, however, were multiplying by the second.
"Stop in the name of the law! We have you surrounded! Let's not make this any harder than it needs to be!" The police chief said over the megaphone as she was in a police car chasing them.
Snek laughed like a madman the whole time while Luther drove.
This was insane.
Since the road was clear, everything was looking good, but if they got in any traffic or met a roadblock, they were done for. They both knew this, but it was Snek who decided to take action.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" Luther screamed at Snek who had just pulled out a syringe containing Mutoxin from his pocket.
"Taking care of the cops. Just keep your eyes on the road, old-timer!" He replied harshly as he moved to the back of the van where the large Black Reactor, emitting a strange, shiny black matter, was located.
Opening the back doors to the van, he took the shot, laughing maniacally.
As the toxin flowed through his body, his veins began to glow green.
"Ooh! Itsssss timessss like thissss I love having copssss around! Plenty of fodder to play with!!!"
Meanwhile, back on the Hawk, Austin was getting ready to interfere. His aim wasn't to stop the robbery but to steal the Black Reactor and use it to lure in Mr. E.
That was his only goal. This was a simple operation.
Until it wasn't.
"Ah! It seems my nose itches."
"Stacya! Keep your voice down! He might hear us!"
"Uh.. guys. I think he already did."
Those voices belonged to Stacya, Jake, and Zack, respectively. Somehow they had snuck into the Hawk.
Austin was furious.
"What the hell are you doing in here?! I told you not to get involved with me!"
"Well, we aren't." Stacya said innocently.
"Sorry, but we're using the Hawk as our ride to stop the robbery. Think of it as a taxi." Zack said with nervous laughter.
But Austin wasn't laughing.
"Buddy, if you got a problem with us helping you, no worries! We're helping the police!" Jake told Austin.
Suddenly, he used some stored up K.E. to zoom past Austin and pressed some random buttons on the Hawk's control desk.
The Hawk rose and fell repeatedly, sending the four flying around the ship.
Until the hangar opened.
"Okay, guys! Let's fall!" Jake shouted.
"Wait, what..!?" But before Zack could react to Jake's command, Stacya grabbed him and headed through the hangar out of the Hawk and began to fall into the city.
"How the hell did you even get in here?!" Austin asked as he tried to grab Jake, but since he focused the remaining K.E. he had on agility, Jake was too quick to catch.
Not to mention the Hawk's uncontrolled flying wasn't making things easier for him.
"Let's just say while you weren't looking, a little shark got in here and pressed a few buttons before you took off." Jake teased.
"Shark?.. Ah! Stacya!" Austin said, angry that the Hawk Knight himself got outsmarted by a bunch of youngsters.
But it was too late to think about it now. Jake then finished up his K.E. by zooming past Austin again and leaping from the hangar. He was now falling into the city.
"Stacya! Throw me!" Zack told her as he shrunk down to make himself lighter.
Once she threw him, he made himself normal sized and expanded his hand to grab a nearby building. He then used it to swing from building to building in an attempt to catch up to the van being chased by the police.
Stacya, on the other hand, started diving into the concrete like a professional swimmer.
Onlookers were stunned that she could perform like this while she fell to her doom.
But then...
SPLASH*
She hit the concrete with a splash and began swimming elegantly across the road like it was water.
Stacya was a special type of Muman who had the ability to change the state of matter of any object she touched. This allowed her to swim on land like it was water. An Atlantean and muman hybrid. The only one of her kind.
When she saved Austin, he thought she was jumping from building to building, but in reality, she was diving into each building and swimming through them like pools of water.
She also snuck into Austin's Hawk by swimming through the walls and peeping her hand through its console to open the hangar without him noticing.
Now she was swimming fast enough to catch up to the van.
Jake, on the other hand, didn't need theatrics. All he needed was to fall.
He landed on top of the nearest building and thanks to the K.E. he got from falling, he had the super strength needed to survive the fall.
He then switched to super speed and although he was slower than last time, he still caught up with his friends.
"I've never seen someone run so fast since the old Blur," Stacya told Jake, admiring his speed and remembering Miss Kara, one of the very few capable of impressing her as much as Captain Rocket did.
Sadly, they both were no more.
"And I've never seen anyone swim on land since.. well, ok, this was my first time." Jake said jokingly which made her blush. He was so much like Kara.
"I can't believe this, guys! Me on an official mission stopping a robbery!" Zack said enthusiastically.
"Yes. Captain Rocket would be proud." Stacya replied, remembering her master, the one who helped her master her new abilities.
"Okay, New Danger Squad..." Zack said, full of joy as he kept on swinging, "It's time for danger!"
"The title could use some work though," Jake said, cringing as they caught up to the van.
Meanwhile, Austin watched in anger as the protégés of the man he was trying to avenge were complicating things.
And on top of the tallest building in Empire City, Miltron Labs, a shadowy figure was observing the scene with his super sight.
It was time to complicate them even further.
To be continued