Bolts And Feathers

Chapter One: The Black Bullet Incident

Toby soared above the hot, moonlit city, scanning an apartment building with his x-ray visor. He swooped down and landed on the roof of the building, his dark stealth suit helping him blend into the night.

"All right, all clear," he whispered.

"Are you sure?" asked a high-pitched, girlish voice over his com link. "I thought Black Bullet would have traps."

"My scanners show no traps," replied Toby shortly, adjusting a dial on the side of his helmet. "Get up here."

"If you say so...."

It was four years later. Alexis, now twenty-two years old, was finishing up her last year at college, having decided to major in genetics. She was due to be home in a few days. Toby was nineteen, and was taking a gap year between highschool and college so he could look after his parents.

A lot had happened in four years. Alexis was studying hard, so she hadn't been home much, even during the summer. Toby hadn't seen her in at least a year. Everyone had been caught off guard when Mr. Brown had suffered from an unexpected heart attack the summer before. He had survived, but his health had been negatively effected, so Toby took a gap year so he could help look after his parents until Alexis got home.

Mr. and Mrs. Brown still loved their children with all of their hearts. They tried to call Alexis, who seemed to be having a great time at college, almost every day.

Unlike his sister, Toby was having a terrible year. He had been looking forward to going to college; it would have been a refreshing change from his present life. Now, he was stuck at home, taking care of his parents. He also somehow ended up leading PM City's team of superheroes. He had become a solo hero the year before, but with Archer taking care of his own family, and all other eligible heroes dealing with various things elsewhere, the role of leader had fallen to Toby.

So here he was, leading a bunch of superheroes who were way too young to be doing this on a mission. His team consisted of himself and three others: Howl, a seventeen-year-old, fun-loving girl who had the ability to control, communicate with, and harness the abilities of any existing animal, Chirp, Howl's small, energetic sidekick with the same powers as her partner, and Brassy Buttons, a polite, well-dressed eleven-year-old who had bowtie boomerangs and exploding eyeglasses. Buttons (as everyone called him) was a bit strange, and Toby had no idea how he even made it on the team.

At the moment, Toby and his team were pursuing a master criminal and hacker, Black Bullet. Bullet had somehow hacked into the team's computers and had stolen information about the heroes. He knew their strengths, their weaknesses, where they lived, everything. He knew their secret identities. No one, not even the members of the team had seen all of those files. The only person that had read all of the files was Boss, the man who was behind the existence of the team. Boss (none of the heroes knew the man's real name) assigned the team to their missions and financed their world-saving endeavors. He was the one who had caught Black Bullet stealing the precious information about his heroes. He knew, just as Toby knew, that if Black Bullet revealed that information to the world, the team would have to be disbanded and the heroes and their families would have to go into hiding. They would be targets for all the villains the heroes had ever fought. And if the villains knew the heroes' weaknesses, who would stop those evil people from killing everyone they loved?

Toby glanced around the top of the building as he waited for his teammates. He agreed with his companions; the lack of traps, Black Bullet's usual defense against heroes, was very suspicious. Suddenly, the hero heard a scratching sound, like a rodent running around in an attic. He whirled around, forming a bright ball of energy in his hand. A small, whiskered head peaked over the edge of the roof, and a rat clambered onto the flat surface. It was followed by a thin, agile form who had evidentially climbed up the wall after it. Toby extinguished his ball of energy and nodded to the newcomer.