Slash crouched atop one of the building overlooking Times Square. From there he could perfectly see the form of Darla walking out on stage and began quieting the crowd

 

Slash watched her every move like a hawk

 

“Thank you all for coming” Darla started “I’ll try to make this fast so that I don’t bore any of you”

 

This got a little laughter from the audience.

 

Quickly Chase got his laptop out and connected it to his backpack, immediately it came to life and displayed the current Satellite readings. Nothing so far.

 

“Of course everyone is aware of the terrible tragedy that has taken place here, and Tech Industries just wants to extend our sincerest condolences for this horrible event.”

 

Chase rolled his eyes as Darla droned on. Still no change in the signal.

 

“This isn’t how the world should be. No one should have to live in fear of walking out their door, or going to have some fun. This has gone too far.”

 

“Ok that’s interesting” Chase thought, though his mind was still focusing on his screen.

 

“That’s why,” Darla continued “Tech Industries is soon going to be working with the government, and your local police force, about providing your local hero’s with better and more effective equipment, to prevent attacks like this.”

 

Chase stopped

 

“Along with that, Tech Industries has started research in a new field of medicine. Soon the common ailments that commonly plague us today, will be a thing of the past. And the world can truly be a better one.

 

Chase still stared at his computer, but his mind was now not focused at all.

 

“So please” she started “Write this down for generations to come. The future is coming, and it’s coming fast.”

 

Slowly Chase started to look up

 

“And we all need to ask ourselves, are we ready?”

 

Chase lifted his head, Darla was staring directly at him.

 

“Are you ready?”

 

His Backpack beeped three times.

 

Before Chase could even think the world erupted into chaos.

 

“AAAAAAGGHHH!!!!”

 

The man hit the ground, and the shots rang through the air

 

There was a millisecond of silence, then the world erupted in noise,

 

But for Slash, the world stopped, like someone had hit the pause button, quickly he surveyed the scene

 

There were ten hostiles, three outside the crowd and two inside the crowd, meaning that the bullets from their guns would reach people faster than the ones on the outside, but he had to move fast, each man had a machine gun, so to Slash there was about a one second interval between each bullet, at his speed the bullets where moving slowly, but they were still moving, and if he didn’t react fast, they would reach their targets.

 

He looked down at his computer, the code was about to start! If he did go to save everyone he could miss yet another opportunity to stop Tech! But he couldn’t let these people die.

 

“Not necessarily! Stop the code, and then you can save whoever is left!”

 

Slash turned around with bullets still slowly making their way through the air to face Shadow, but it wasn’t Shadow

 

The dark thing had returned

 

“I thought I got rid of you” Slash growled

 

“Stop the code from getting out!” it demanded

 

“I can’t!” Slash retorted “these people will die!”

 

“And how many more will die if you save these?”

 

Slash paused and looked around him, there where at least twenty five bullets in the air, and still more where about to exit the guns, eighteen of the bullets would be fatal, and the rest would leave bad wounds. Specifically his attention was drawn to a little girl, she was about five and desperately clutching the hand of her mom, and she was about to die.

 

Slash turned back toward…the creature

 

“I won’t be like Tech and let these people die! I will do both. But I’m saving them first.” He stated strongly

 

It stared at him, annoyed, but then disappeared leaving Slash alone.

 

Instantly he went into action, jumping the ten stories from the roof of the apartment to the street below, he landed right in front of the nearest hostile incapacitating him and catching the bullets and throwing them at the other nearest hostiles, then wasting no time as he jumped over, destroyed the guns, and caught more bullets well before they could hit their targets, but the bullets where getting closer.

 

Two more hostiles down, this time the closest bullet was only a foot or two away

 

With three bullets in hand he skillfully aimed and threw them at another hostile and incapacitated him

 

There! Some bullets where an inch from a women’s head. Immediately he launched himself, using his claws as gripping points and just barely stopped them from rendering her brain dead.

 

Time was ticking he glanced over to where the girl stood terrified, the bullet was almost on her

 

Lightning fast he jumped over the crowd and landed just in front of her, and catching the bullets heading toward her and safely lodging them inside the one responsible for shooting them.

 

Nervously he glanced up at the spot where his computer sat. He still had four more men. Once more jumping up over the crowd he landed behind man number one and swept his feet out from under him, wasting no time as he grabbed the bullets and threw them toward numbers two and three, then went over and snatched the remaining bullets from the air.

 

Finally the last one, Slash was right in front of him, and quickly took him out.

 

No time to celebrate.

 

With powerful legs he jumped up as high as he could toward the building he had just come from using his claws to climb to the top as fast as he could. Turning around he did a quick once over, no more bullets or hostiles. But that was only phase one, now he needed to stop the Code from going out.

 

Nervously he looked at his screen, and his heart skipped a beat, it hadn’t finished running the code!

 

“YES!” he yelled in relief ripping off his mask and letting it hang in the frozen space beside him.

 

Something must have gone wrong! Considering how much he had to slow down to not kill everyone as he ran through the crowd, about one second had passed, which usually meant that the window of opportunity had closed by now. But it hadn’t! He still had a chance, but he had to be fast.

 

He couldn’t just start typing and bypassing firewalls at his current speed, he might as well shoot the key board. No, he would have to slow down, enough.

 

“Alright…” he whispered, closing his eye’s to ready himself “three…two…ONE!”

 

The world returned to “normal” and Chase immediately started typing a counter code as fast as he could. Instantly the screen lit up in protest, fighting Chase, but not hard enough. Chase was getting close!

 

“Come on!” he yelled at the computer as his hands blurred over the keys, he couldn’t stop the code, but he could figure out where it was being broadcast from.

 

                                                                          --------------------------------------

 

“AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Max screamed as he collapsed into the locker holding his head.

 

It was happening again, but this time it was worse than it had ever been! All he could do was scream

 

“HELP MEAAAAGGHH!!!!” He pleaded as fellow classmates ran up, but remained helpless.

 

Max felt something inside of him, this time it definitely wasn’t just a headache, it felt like someone was rearranging his insides. But he had felt this feeling before, never this strong though. Something inside him was changing. And it hurt!

 

“AAGGGHH!!!!” He continued to scream

 

Suddenly the space around him started to feel lighter. Everyone else felt it too. Instantly Max was thrown into the nearby locker, by a seemingly invisible foe.

 

“AAGGHH!!!!!” He yelped as his body crumbled to the floor.

 

“What the heck!?” one of the nearby kids exclaimed

 

Finally one of the teachers ran up, to see Max withering in the worst pain he had ever felt in his life, and panicking she dialed 9-1-1

 

                                                                          --------------------------------------

 

“Dang it!” Chase exclaimed

 

Every time he was about to discover the origin the code fought back and made sure and put another firewall. But Chase was making progress slowly but surely. And just as his little window of opportunity was about to close, Chase got through! And the source of the code, the GPS coordinates, flashed onscreen for just a millisecond. No normal person would have been able to see it without a very special Camera. But Chase saw it, and memorized it.

 

The screen went black, and the world was quiet…

 

“I did it” he stated disbelievingly, after all of this time of Tech making him choose and trying to get inside his head, he had won!

 

“I won”

 

Cautiously he stepped onto the side of the building, overlooking everyone that was scurrying around in a panic. But he had saved them all, and he had found out where Tech was. He was the Hero.

 

“Now it’s time to end this”