Aren't You A Little Young To Be Making Bombs at Denny's? TAG

[Timothy Smith]

This was a very very early morning patrol for Tim. He soared through the sky, overlooking Downtown. It was a nice, clear night, and honestly he should have been sleeping, but...

Well, tonight had been a rough night. He'd been actually sleeping now, not avoiding it like he had been, but... he had good nights and bad nights. Tonight had been a bad night, so he called in and took a patrol, just to clear his head and so he could think on other things.

"Peaceful night." He took a deep breath. The night air was refreshing, especially way up in the air like he was.

The quiet peace was shattered by a loud explosion. He couldn't see any fire or smoke, so he went and followed the sound.

There was a Denny's parking lot that seemed to be the source. Tim touched down in a cloud of evaporating carbon dioxide and looked around. Shards of a two-liter soda bottle were scattered around, but there were plenty of fresh empty ones sitting near a young boy, along with a cooler that more CO2 was evaporating out of, a few full bottles of diet coke, and several packs of mentos.

Tim looked around at the accoutrement. "Hey kiddo. I'm Tim. Or Surge. Whichever one you prefer, really. You doin' okay? You're keeping back at the appropriate safe distance? This stuff can be dangerous if you're not careful."

He came over towards the kid. "What your name, kid? If you're being safe, I've got an idea for a way we can make it even cooler."


Honos Black

[Honos Black]

Honos cackled at the loud boom that the latest bomb made. His hair was a mess of curls and there was a pair of goggles shoved up into them. He has an ear bud in one ear where it was blasting rock music, a perfect way to keep his mind somewhat settled. Discarded nearby is a small pile of empty energy drinks and another with unopened one. His shirt, like most of his clothes, was a bit singed. He was stressed and this was the perfect thing to get rid of pre-finals jitters.

When Tim touched down, he was halfway working on his next bomb. He looked up at the man, hair a mix of curls and fire at this point, and gave the man the most feral looking grin that a child could give an adult.

"Sir, I'm as safe as possible. If you's gonna stop me, shove it and leave. Finals are bitches." He blurted out. When Tim mentioned making a bigger boom, the grin widened and hair licked his body. "Oh, then go ahead an' show me what ya got, old man." He egged on. "S'not like I's done bigger booms. But come, come. Gimme your best shot and fire away."

[Timothy Smith]

Tim hadn't noticed the fire in his hair at first. But now he had as the child looked at him with the craziest grin he'd ever seen. He liked it.

Tim raised a finger. "Uh, your hair is... combusting. I take it you're cool with that? I mean you're not screaming or anything, so..."

Tim shook his head and chuckled. This all reminded him of when he was younger, before he got his powers. He wasn't the nicest person then, but still. He had plenty of fun with dry ice and coke and mentos to relieve stress.

"I'll be right back. I ain't stopping you at all. If anything, I've almost got a responsibility to give you some adult supervision while you do this stuff."

He ran over to a nearby convenience store and grabbed a bottle of hand sanitizer, then came back. "You seem smart. Dry ice bombs are cool and all, but there's no fire to em. With this, and a little but of, well, this," Tim snapped his fingers and a little lick of flame came off his fingertip, "We can give this thing a little more flair."

He started slathering the sanitizer on the bottle. "What's your name kid? Also do your parents know you're out here? They probably should."

Honos Black

[Honos Black]

He shrugged at the fire being pointed out "it's normal."

Honos watched the man with growing excitement, loving that he can create fire. The excitement grew so much that he did fast steps in place and burst into fire before hopping around, giggling with glee.

"Lemme see! Lemmeseelemmeseelemmesee!" He chanted, going over to Tim and looking at his hand. "I's like you sir! An'-an'-an'my name's Honos! Can-can-can-can we's do big boom now? An'-an'-an' can ya light my-light my hand on fire with the hand goop? Please? My-my-my third grade teacher did that all the time because I was a good student to him" he chirped, fire calming down until it's just part of his hair. His eyes seemed to glow a bright blue, like extremely hot fire would.

[Timothy Smith]

There was a moment of panic when Honos erupted into flames in front of him. Tim had flashbacks to the attack on Aegis, and the guy who had radiation powers and could only barely control them. Tim was ready to bring his powers to bear to help get the little guy extinguished, but then he calmed down a bit and put himself out, and Tim relaxed a bit. It was always cool to see someone with similar powers to his.

“Right on, little dude. Yeah, here you go. Careful, though. I know you probably don’t usually get burned, I don’t either, but I’ve bumped into some weird exceptions lately, so be careful.” He ignited a little flame on his palm for Honos to experiment with.

“That’s not all I can do. I can mess around with light and electricity too, but fire will suit our purposes just fine for right now. Maybe if it’s cool with your parents, later I can show you some neat stuff with those. I can do some pretty cool tricks with prisms and homemade Leyden jars.“

He looked around at the setup he had going. It was safe enough, plenty of distance between the blast area and the cover he had set up, and he was wearing goggles. Tim dug around in a pouch and pulled out a pair of his own as he finished coating the bottle with hand sanitizer.

“Okay Honos. Here’s what we gotta do. We’re going to need to drop the ice in, close the top, and then ignite the hand sanitizer. Goggles on before we do that, and gloves and tongs when working with the dry ice. Then we’ll get some nice flaming chunks going on. I wonder how long it will keep itself lit after all that activity?”

Honos Black

[Honos Black]

Honos vibrated even more when given the little flame, like a child would when given the best gift possible, which for Honos is was the case. He scooped the flame up in his hands and started to play with it, growing and shrinking it, winding it around his fingers, wrist and arms, bouncing it off his elbow and catching it in his hands, manipulating the heat of the flame and making it go through some colors before settling down and focusing on Tim.

He listened to the man, unconciously manipulating the little flame like it's a fidget toy, which is basically is for him. He's excited to see what'll happen and happily complied to the man's wishes.

"Will it fly up? I was gonna do that to the sodas ta see how high they'll go if-if-if uh... if more mentos an' shaking 'fore throwin' the bottle down cap down. Or if it's cold or warm or somethin'" he shrugged, curious. "An' I'm being safe! I's got goggles and tongs and a good distance an' a fire extinguisher an' other stuff if things go-if things go tits up!"

When Tim mentioned that he wondered how long it'll burn for, Honos grinned. "Well... we's can control the flame and the-and the heat ta see if it'll go longer or not" he chirped. "See how long it'll go for if-if uh... If the fire is really hot or really big or really small an' stuff. Ya know?"

[Timothy Smith]

Tim had to chuckle at the excitement of Honos. "We can definitely set one up to go screaming into the sky, but we should probably not light that one on fire. Things get a lot less predictable when something goes flying up into the air, and I'm still technically on the job for Aegis right now. Don't want to have to answer difficult questions."

He finished slathering the bottle and screwed the lid back on the sanitizer bottle. "So. Let's this dry ice bomb going, and then we'll get into the mentos. I'm tempted to see if we can mix the dry ice and the mentos, but I think it would all just escape out the mouth of the bottle."

He stood up and looked at the kid. "Well? Load it up and let's get to cover!"

Honos Black

[Honos Black]

Honos sparked and started to run in place, excited and full of energy. He grabbed Tim's hand and pulled him over to his stash of supplies after waving the flame that Tim gave him away.

"So Timmers. Tim-Tam, Timothy, Uncle Tim. If we's-if we's atta differen' place, can we test the-the-the flying one with fire? Like uhh...like at a 'splosion site? Ya know, sorta how Mythbusters does it? So that-so that if it goes bad an' stuff, it'll be less uh...less colat-colatherdal. No. Col-lat-er-al. Collateral. Collateral, right? That's the word?" Honos asked, automatically going through what his dad has told him to do and wanting to verify the right word with an adult. "Brain ta mouth word bank is banged up. Dad-dad said ta sound it out and ta do what I did. Did I do it right?"

Timothy Smith

[Timothy Smith]

Tim smiled at Honos, loving the kid's energy and enthusiasm. It reminded him of himself, when he was younger, but less of an ass. He was a real ass when he was younger, and his only saving grace was Ivan.

"Yeah, yeah Collateral Damage" is the right term you're looking for." Tim chuckled and ruffled Honos' hair. "Deep breaths and talk slow, kiddo. That should help you keep the word box and brain a little more in sync. Now, give me a second and let me do some math."

Tim started muttering to himself as he looked over the supplies Honos had. The kid had a good point, but he'd also been experimenting here in the parking lot for a while already. Tim looked at the bottle size, the area of the abandoned parking lot they were in, and calculated the blast radius.

"We should be okay here, if you wanted to try it here. I don't think it'll go too far, if my math is right. It would probably be safer to do it in a more deserted place, but I don't know if your dad would like it if you just up and left the place he knew you were at with a stranger. If you're sure he'd be okay with it I know a place, outside of town, an old quarry, that I could take us to pretty quickly."

Honos Black

[Honos Black]

Honos beamed and hugged Tim before quickly bouncing towards the energy drinks. "My dad says that too. An' my uncle! But-but-but it's sometimes hard ta go slow. Brain goes too fast an it's hard ta slow it down. Caffeine do helpthough. Lets me think, ya know?" He asked before he proceeded to open one and watched Tim do math.

"I can ask my-can ask my dad if I can go next time? Best ta have you meet him before taking me to a second location. Ya know, street smarts" He shrugged. "We can uh...try it today if ya wanna. If not, I'll do it near the lake by my house an'an'an' stuff." Honos tossed the empty can towards its brethren. "I can think now! Well...hear my thoughts. Ya know? Like it does that with some people. Does it do that with you?"

Timothy Smith