1: Graduation

"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.