Arch Frenemies

Part 70: The Plot Thickens

She took on a power stance, wiping the side of her mouth with her sleeve.
Toxic crawled under the piano and flipped onto his back, his face glowing from the electric blue light that illuminated from the belly of the priceless black and white piano. 

"Why did you try to kill me?" She asked them, a final act of confrontation to the supervillains that had taken her down not so long ago. 
Toxic reached into his belt for a small green tube, twisting the bottom and the point of a Phillips screwdriver sprung forth. Taking a deep breath, he began to unscrew the hidden panel. Heart pounding at the excitement of it all, the villain realized death by explosives directly to the face wasn't such a far off possibility. For once, he wasn't the one in control of the doomsday machine. The slightest miscalculation and boom!

So, this is how the hero feels, he thought.
"I've never done anything to you, I don't even know you. Why did you it? Were you trying to get back at my dad for something? Why? What provoked this?"
Toxic could hear the pent up rage and confusion she was hiding behind that eye of the tiger facade, as she slowly lured the speedsters’ one step at a time towards the trap. Still, she wanted answers.

"What could you have to gain from killing a hero who doesn't even patrol on the same continent?!"
Her voice cracked ever so slightly at that last sentence as she received another high speed punch to the gut. "Answer me!"

The female speeder whooshed to a stop, and a micro second later, the male did as well.
"Very well infidel."
Toxic was impressed.
Her evil smile was quite good.
"Seeing as it will be your last request, let us grant it brother."

One screw done, three to go.
Toxic kept his eyes on the bottom of the piano, but his ears were primed to the battle.

"Do not take things so personally little hero." Quickstep tells her, crossing his incredibly toned arms.
"Your demise was just one small move in an elaborate game of chess. Get down off that high horse little one, you are just a pawn, not the opponent."
He shook his head.
Two screws down.
"Then why...." The hero started but was abruptly cut off by Cha-cha.
"Why. Why. Why. You Americans are always so impolite." She chides.
Three screws down.
"This isn't about you, or even that overdramatic air head you call a father." Continued the raven haired villainess.
"It was to get to the boy." 

The screwdriver dropped from Toxic hands at that statement, and he fumbled for it frantically, catching it just a breath away, before it could clatter onto the floor and bring some attention his way.  His eyebrows knit in anger as he turned his head to look at the people on the dance floor.
"Toxic?" His name quietly escapes his nemesis lips. The famously calm and collected villain was suddenly filled with a white hot rage. These beings had savagely beaten his hero practically to death just to get to him? Who does that?! He didn't even know them, never blackmailed or harmed them in any way, shape or form. Why would they do that?!

"Why would you..." She began to ask, moving so that they couldn't suck the oxygen from around her like they did the first encounter.
"Again with the why's..."
Cha-Cha cuts over in disapproval.  "Don't get your spandex in a twist." Though that comment was sarcastic, her voice was humorless and dry.
"The boy, like yourself was just another chess piece." Quickstep filled in, neither of them slowing down as they spoke, causing the sounds of their voices to seem like they were coming from all around her. 

Toxic had carefully removed the last screw, and was now cautiously examining the weapon of mass destruction, but his whereabouts completely unbeknownst to Galaxy Girl, she dared not look for him; and  even if she wanted to, the lights shining on dance floor were so blinding that almost everything was off limits. 

"Though he was more of a bishop than a rook." Quickstep stopped just long enough to point at Galaxy Girl, insinuating that she was that low ranking chess piece.
"It's the king we are after, the rest of you are just pieces." 

"King?"
As Galaxy Girl not only sucked at chess, much to Toxic’s disapproval, but also never cared much for it either, the symbolism was going right over her head. That was okay though, because right at that very microsecond, she had gained the advantage she was waiting for, because this time, for the first time in her superhero life, she wasn't just fighting, she was watching, observing, waiting for a chink in the metaphorical armor of her opponents.

The radioactive villain nearly did a double take when he saw the components of the bomb, immediately recognizing the craftsmanship, it was like looking back at a childhood memory, flashbacks of sitting on the syndicate floor, learning to disarm explosives and trying desperately not to put pieces into his teething baby mouth to stop that insufferable pain running through his head.
The design was so complex, so ingenious, only one person in the world made bombs like this.
But why on earth would up and coming villains... trying to establish an evil identity, use something made by someone else. They clearly appeared to have the mental capacity to make their own devices, as several components and alterations gave away that somebody else had tampered with and altered it, so the question was: why would Quickstep and Cha-cha be using a Mastermind bomb? 
They hadn't even bothered to take the little brain shaped logo off.

"Don't you get it by now American?" Cha-cha asked the hero.
"This isn't just another villainous plot, this is THE revenge."

Oh, so this is revenge? She thought to herself. But instead of asking another question, Galaxy Girl's crimson red lips curved into a delicious smile. Like something straight out of a cartoon, Galaxy Girl stuck her foot out right into the path of the blitzing villainess. A gasp of shock escaped Cha-cha as the soviet hardened woman stumbled towards the polished floor, but she never made it there. In an astonishing flash Galaxy girl caught her, twisting her arm painfully behind her back.

"Alright, enough with the metonymy." Galaxy Girl said, gripping the villainess as delicately as she could; despite her rage.
"Stop now fiend, and give me some real answers, no more of that cold war Era, vague spy crap. I wish I could say I won't use excessive force..."
She closed her hand just a fraction tighter, with a force that was enough to cause even the most torture-hardened spy to wince.
"But I can’t promise, so don't test me." Quickstep cursed under his breath in Russian, but instead of skidding to an immediate stop, a flash of black and yellow blurs sideways, before the hero could even blink, Quickstep had returned, but now he stood with a hostage.

Galaxy Girl gasped. The evil speedster had Toxic's father in his grasp, one arm maliciously wrapped around his neck.

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A/N: Boom. Look at this fast update.
I wonder how Toxic and Galaxy Girl are going to get out of this one. Any ideas?
Hope you guys enjoyed.
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-QueenOfGeeks