After Asher left the Rust Bucket, his excitement made him forget to close the door behind him.
Sunlight streamed through the open doorway, cutting through the dim interior and falling across the faces of Ben, Gwen, and Max, who were still sleeping peacefully inside.
Ben stirred first, rubbing his eyes groggily. The sound of the morning news broadcast filtered through the RV's speakers.
His eyes snapped open.
"It's time for a hero to save the day!" Ben bolted upright, his face lighting up with determination. "Grandpa, Gwen, I'm heading out!"
"Hold on there, kiddo." Max appeared at the doorway, spatula in hand, looking slightly amused. "You haven't even had breakfast yet. At least wash up first."
While Ben grudgingly complied, Max quickly prepared toast at the small kitchenette.
On the television screen, the news broadcast switched to aerial footage from a helicopter, showing a cash transport vehicle racing down the highway below.
"This is extremely unusual behavior," the reporter's voice crackled through the speakers. "The robbers appear to be discarding gold bars from the rear of the vehicle! Why would they rob a bank only to throw away their loot? Are they staging some kind of elaborate performance for the cameras?"
The helicopter's camera zoomed in on the armored truck. Two figures occupied the cab, while in the back, someone had opened the rear doors and was literally tossing gold bars onto the highway behind them.
"Are these people stupid or something?" Ben laughed, watching the scene unfold. "I bet they won't even make it off the highway. Asher won't need to do anything!"
"I'm not so sure about that, Ben." Gwen walked over to the TV, placing her hand on the screen to get a better look at one of the robbers.
The man in the passenger seat kept popping out of the window, wielding a distinctive red-and-yellow laser rifle. Every few seconds, he'd fire a blast that obliterated the road behind them, creating massive craters that stopped any pursuing vehicles.
The destructive power was staggering.
"Their weapons look... familiar," Ben said slowly, squinting at the screen. "That red and yellow color scheme, doesn't it remind you of Vilgax's drones?"
"Wow, look at the genius making connections," Gwen said sarcastically, though her expression quickly turned serious. "Wait... these guys don't care about the gold, and they're not shooting down the helicopter filming them. What if they wantus to see this on TV?"
SLAM!
Max was already in the driver's seat, hands gripping the steering wheel, his face grave.
"Kids, buckle up. We're going to the scene. I have a bad feeling about this."
Advanced weapons with energy signatures matching Vilgax's technology, robbers deliberately making a spectacle of themselves, and the convenient timing of a live news broadcast...
This had trap written all over it.
"Hold on tight!"
The Rust Bucket's engine roared to life. The old RV shot forward with surprising speed, leaving even sports cars in the dust as it raced toward the highway.
Meanwhile, Asher had already transformed.
Whoooosh!
XLR8 blurred through the city streets, moving so fast he appeared as nothing more than a streak of blue lightning. Buildings and cars became indistinct blurs as he accelerated to supersonic speeds.
The highway entrance appeared ahead. Without slowing down, XLR8 smashed through the barrier meant to stop vehicles, shattering the metal arm like it was made of cardboard.
"What the, ?!" The toll booth attendant barely had time to blink before the blue streak vanished down the highway.
XLR8's clawed feet tore chunks out of the asphalt as he pushed himself even faster. His visor automatically darkened to protect his eyes from the wind resistance.
A small black dot appeared on the horizon ahead.
Within seconds, that dot grew into the outline of a vehicle. The distance between them collapsed at an impossible rate.
There!
"He's coming!" The robber leaning out the window spotted the faint blue blur approaching from behind. His voice was tight with tension, and strangely expectant, as if he'd been waiting for this.
The other robbers immediately sprang into action with practiced efficiency. Two in the back raised their laser rifles and took aim at the rear. The one hanging out the window gripped several red spherical bombs.
The driver seemed to be communicating with someone via radio.
FWOOSH! FWOOSH!
Two red laser beams lanced backward, aimed directly at XLR8's position.
XLR8's body bent at an impossible angle, his flexible Kineceleran physiology allowing him to perform what looked like a mid-sprint limbo move. The lasers passed harmlessly overhead, so close he could feel their heat.
BOOM! BOOM!
The missed shots detonated against the highway behind him, creating twin explosions that sent plumes of smoke into the air. To any observer, it would look like dramatic backdrop for an action movie chase.
"Damn it, he dodged!" one of the back-seat shooters cursed.
"Let me try!" The man in the passenger seat hurled his handful of red bombs in a wide arc.
The spherical explosives traced graceful parabolas through the air, timed to create an inescapable blast radius.
XLR8's visor slid open, revealing his sharp green eyes. Time seemed to slow down as his enhanced perception kicked into overdrive.
The bombs' trajectories became crystal clear, he could see exactly where each one would land, predict the blast radius, calculate the optimal response.
Whip!
XLR8's tail, a long, powerful appendage with five distinctive blue stripes, lashed out with blinding speed. It struck each bomb in sequence, batting them high into the sky where they detonated harmlessly.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Orange fireballs blossomed in the air above the highway.
From the robbers' perspective, the blue blur had somehow swatted away every single bomb in the split second before they could detonate, using what appeared to be a whip-like tail moving faster than their eyes could track.
"Jesus Christ, is he even human?!" the passenger gasped.
"Forget it, he's, " The driver glanced in his rearview mirror, then froze. "Wait. Where did he go?"
The two robbers in the back cargo area exchanged confused looks. The blue blur had completely vanished from view.
"He... he just left?" one of them said uncertainly. "Why would he run away?"
"That doesn't make sense..." The driver stared at his mirrors, searching for any sign of their pursuer.
Then he looked forward.
His blood ran cold.
Dozens of meters ahead, standing calmly in the middle of the highway, was a blue figure.
XLR8 raised one clawed hand and gave them a cheerful wave.
The speedster had somehow overtaken them and gotten ahead of the vehicle.
"WHAT THE, ?!" The driver's eyes went wide with panic. He slammed on the brakes.
SCREEEEEECH!
The armored truck's tires locked up, leaving black skid marks across the asphalt. The vehicle spun wildly, centrifugal force taking over as momentum carried it in an uncontrolled spiral.
Unable to maintain their grip, all four robbers were thrown from the vehicle. They hit the pavement hard, tumbling and rolling before coming to rest more than ten meters away from the now-stationary truck.
Groans of pain filled the air.
XLR8 tilted his head, watching the scene with bemused disappointment.
"Huh. That was anticlimactic. I didn't even need to do anything..."
His attention shifted to the laser rifles scattered across the highway. He picked one up with his clawed hand, examining it closely.
"This weapon design..." His eyes narrowed behind his visor. "The energy signature, the color scheme, the way it fires... This is definitely based on Vilgax's drone technology."
A cold sensation settled in his chest, the instinctive warning of a Kineceleran sensing danger.
His heart began to pound.
Oh no.
This was a setup.
BOOM!
The sound came from above.
XLR8 looked up just in time to see something massive punch through the atmosphere, trailing fire and smoke like a meteor. The shockwave of its descent created a deafening sonic boom that shattered windows in nearby buildings.
Whatever it was, it was falling directly toward his position.
And XLR8 knew, with absolute certainty, exactly who had arrived.
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