XLR8, a Kineceleran by species, possessed powers that were exactly what its name implied: speed.
It did everything fast, and as it grew older and gained more experience, its speed would increase exponentially.
In the original series, ten-year-old Ben’s XLR8 could reach speeds over three hundred miles per hour, while Ben 10,000 in his thirties could circle the globe in seconds.
Yuri was physically sixteen and had zero actual combat experience, so his XLR8 was nowhere near Ben 10,000’s level.
Still, he was noticeably faster than ten-year-old Ben.
*Whoosh!*
Yuri shot toward the direction The Trickster had flown off, leaving behind a blue streak barely visible to the naked eye.
Axel Walker was thrilled.
This was probably the happiest day of his life.
After all, not just anyone got the chance to steal from the Keystone City Police Department’s evidence room.
Let alone stealing the gear of the supervillain The Trickster.
Well, the original Trickster, that is.
Now Axel was the one using the gear, making him the new Trickster.
Axel had to admit that the previous Trickster was a pretty clever guy.
He loved these oddball gadgets, which allowed Axel to play the police station guards like fools with ease.
“How did the old Trickster come up with these Air-Walkers?
This is awesome!”
Axel ran through the air, looking down and all around in high spirits.
Walking on air was a completely novel experience for him.
Two or three police cars tailed him from below, trying to keep up with the young second-generation Trickster.
But he was moving through the sky, completely unrestricted by terrain, while the cruisers were stuck on the ground, dodging traffic and unable to drive against the flow.
Axel ditched the police in under two minutes, landing on a rooftop with a loud, triumphant laugh.
“I did it!
I got a supervillain’s suit and gear!
Now I’m a supervillain too!”
He walked over to the edge of the roof, looking down at the bustling city below, his eyes shining with confidence in his future.
“With this, Blacksmith should let me join the crew…” Axel muttered to himself, a smirk playing on his lips.
“You look pretty pleased with yourself.
Honestly, I hate to ruin your mood, but you had to go and mess with me.”
A low, raspy, inhuman voice suddenly echoed behind Axel.
Axel spun around instantly, his right hand darting into his bag to pull out a toy squirt gun.
By the time he faced behind him, he had already gripped the gun tight, his index finger resting on the trigger, squeezing it slightly.
Yet there was nothing behind him.
“What the hell?”
Axel blinked, wondering if he was hearing things.
“Behind you,” Yuri, in his XLR8 form, offered casually from behind him.
The moment Axel had turned around earlier, Yuri had “leisurely” stepped around behind his back.
To Yuri, all of Axel’s movements were unfolding at a snail’s pace.
The rookie Trickster instantly felt like he was being made a fool of, and he didn’t like it one bit.
Yuri didn’t care about his feelings.
He was here for one thing only.
“You’re The Trickster, right?
I don’t care about anything else you’re doing, but you broke my ride back there.
Be smart and hand over the compensation.
I don’t want to waste time.”
Yuri was trying to be reasonable, but Axel had no intention of listening.
The Trickster whipped around again, raising his toy gun and firing blindly.
A yellow laser shot from the barrel.
Once again, there was nothing in front of him.
Expecting this, Axel sneered as his other hand darted behind his back, throwing out a large handful of itching powder.
If anyone was behind him, they’d be caught within a ten-meter radius.
“The Flash?
No, Blacksmith said The Flash left Central City.
That makes you Kid Flash, then?
You think playing these tricks is gonna scare me?”
Axel clearly hadn’t listened to a word Yuri said, or he wouldn’t have misidentified him.
He turned around triumphantly, fully expecting to see a superhero scratching at himself frantically.
Instead, a strong gust of wind hit him square in the face.
Axel widened his eyes, trying to see, but caught only a fleeting blur of black.
*Smack!*
The next second, a hard blow struck Axel right in the face, sending him tumbling backward.
A fraction of a second before he hit the roof, a sharp whipping sensation slammed into his back, making him wince in agony.
The blow bounced him back up, shifting his trajectory so that he was falling face-first instead.
A moment before his face could smack the gravel, the familiar whip-like blow struck again—this time across his chest.
His falling body bounced back up into the air as dizziness washed over his head.
Back and forth, over and over, Axel’s body bounced repeatedly without ever touching the ground.
Through it all, he never got a clear look at who was toying with him.
“Shit!
Stop!
Stop!
What the hell is wrong with you?!”
*Thud!*
Axel screamed, fighting through the burning pain across his chest and back and the urge to vomit.
At his cry, Yuri stopped instantly, letting Axel fall and crash onto the rooftop.
“Now that you’ve learned your lesson, I hope you won’t be stupid,” Yuri said.
Axel gave a weak, exhausted nod.
Was this what fighting a superhero was like?
It wasn’t quite what he had imagined.
“What…
what do you want?”
“Hand over your wallet!”
Axel froze.
Was that a line a hero was supposed to say?
He struggled to lift his head, and then he saw a scene he wouldn’t be forgetting anytime soon.
A creature resembling a humanoid dinosaur stood quietly beside him, looking down at him.
A black visor covering its long, narrow face retracted automatically with a smooth *shick*, revealing a blue face with pupil-less green eyes, a slit for a mouth, no nose, and an expressionless gaze.
Behind the dinosaur-man, a long, powerful tail swayed gently back and forth, seemingly ready to deliver a fatal strike at any second—clearly the culprit that had been whipping Axel around.
Axel hated studying and had never paid attention in a single class, but his meager biological knowledge was enough to realize one simple fact:
This thing in front of him definitely wasn’t native to Earth!
The itching powder had zero effect on it.
Naturally—no matter how genius the old Trickster was, he couldn’t have formulated a powder that worked on an alien biology.
“W-What are you?
Why are you attacking me?” Axel swallowed hard and asked.
He knew Earth had no shortage of aliens—Kryptonians flying around, green-skinned Martians…
So an alien showing up in Central City shouldn’t have been that surprising.
What Axel couldn’t understand was why this alien had picked *him*.
He was just a rookie villain who had barely started out and hadn’t even done anything yet.
Was it really fair that his first opponent was an alien-level powerhouse?
“Why am I attacking you?
Did you not hear a word I said earlier?
You fucking smashed my ride, so pay up now!”
Hearing Axel’s question made Yuri flare up all over again.
He had worked so hard hauling cargo, made zero money, gotten a broken windshield—and then on the way home, his roof got smashed in!
He didn’t care if Axel had done it on purpose or if he even knew about it.
All he knew was that every debt had its debtor.
You caused him financial damage, so you were going to pay!