The dust settled in hangar B1. Templar dusted off his coat. "So they got away with what they wanted. All we managed to do was wreck the support?"
Yes. Without Bob's whirlwind to hold them down, I couldn't hold him.
"Well, it wasn't my fault, Templar needed help."
"Enough!" Templar thought for a second. "If we didn't stop them, we need to figure out where they went. Bob, go find..."
"Got it." Bob disappeared in a blur, and just as soon returned. "Uh wait, find what?"
"This is why God had the rest of us move at this speed. Anyway, find the scientist in charge of this project. We need to know what they stole, and any ideas on who stole it."
Over the next few seconds the blur of Bob moved in and out of the hangar, each time dropping another confused scientist in front of Templar and the rest of the team.
"That's it, Templar. Everybody who said they knew something about what was in the hangar."
One of the lab-coated scientists dared to step forward. "Uhhh... Yes, um, who are you and why are we here? Are you the ones that stole the growth ray?"
Mr. Black rolled his eyes. "Aw, crud, not this Pentagon black-ops super-weapon
again."
"First of all, we're not the ones that stole the ray. We're... heros. I'm Templar. This is Blink, Flashback, Mr. Black, and Bob. And we were hoping you might be able to tell us who did take it. All we know is that there were a lot of robots, all of which looked ape-like."
"Well, um, lets see here." The scientist extended a shaking hand. "I'm Dr. J. Hawkins, head of this project. Seems you've gathered the rest of my research staff here. We had been evactuated when those robots arrived, but I see you've taken care of them."
"Taken care of them? Hell, you want to find them, you'll have a lot of roof to sift through." Blink added as he muted his flames.
"Uh, well, I guess that's good, but the evidence... You've destroyed almost anything that could direct us to whoever took it. But if they were ape-bots... it was probably Dr. Simian. But I can't tell you more without permission..."
Blink's flames flared again, and his voice took on an edge. "Tell us, or we''l use your ashes to soak up the oil leaking out of those junked robots."
"Okay, okay... please... I thought you were heros." Dr. Hawkins paused for breath. "Dr. Simian was the only success of our ape intelligence projects. He's now smarter then 99% of the human race, and he knows it. He looks at us as we look at a normal ape. If he has the growth ray... dear Lord, what he could do."
"And you didn't bother to put more security around this growth ray?" Disdain tinged Bob's voice. "Seems you thinks as slow as you move."
"Well, that's the thing, the growth ray never really worked. It was supposed to provide food, make a single burger feed a family for a year. But it barely worked. We had problems with the quantum quark field and..."
Bob tapped his foot anxiously. "You're boring me. And you wouldn't like me when I'm bored."
"Okay, okay..." Dr. Hawkins had broken into a cold sweat under the collected pressure of the hero's gazes. "Bascially, it didn't work like it should have, so it was only Security clearance 5. Nothing we wanted our rivals to get, but nothing to dangerous. But Dr. Simian is just the kind of genius that could make it work."
Templar's gaze settled onto Dre. Hawkins, and his tone deepend. "So you mean to tell me you've let a horrible weapon into the hands of an abomination unto the Most Holy? You had better hope you can give me a good way to stop him."
"I can, I can... The growth ray uses a lot of power. To add mass to particles on a quantum scale while maintaining identity and avoiding supercollision..."
"Boring... You're making me bored." Bob's voice sped up as he grew tired of the slow life.
"He needs a lot of power to make it work. He'll have to be right at a power plant, or here at the lab. Those are the only places within a 30 mile radius where he can draw enough poewr to use the ray." Dr. Hawkins broke down crying.
Templar took charge. "I'll be down at the old Milling's Plant. Mr. Black and E.T. will cover the new nuclear one up north. Blink and Bob move between the powerplants and here. The minute you spot something, Blink and Bob get us all in the same place and we strike. We have every reason to believe Dr. Simian will use this things soon, before he thinks we're ready for him."
As the team started to walk out of the wreckage of the hangar, Templar pulled Bob aside. "I want to get into Dr. Hawkin's office."
Bob blurred away for a second. "Okay. It was already open, must have been left that way when the campus was evacuated." With another blur of speed, Bob and Templar were standing in Hawkins' office. It wasn't much of an office, more of a closet filled with books and notes with a desk and a computer crammed on top.
"I'm going to leave a note for the dear Doctor on his desk. Bob, look through all his books, find me his notes on the growth ray." Templar touched the wood of the desk with his finger, and the wood rotted away, leaving this message carved into his desk:
Do not be like your forefathers, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.' But they would not listen or pay attention to me, declares the LORD.
Zechariah 1:4
"Found them. Nice full binder of stuff on the ray."
"Think you can copyit all?"
"Done." The blur behind Bob faded, and he held two binders.
"Leave the original, take the copy, and gets us out of here."
IN a blur, Bob and Templar moved out to wait for Dr. Simian.