The apex predator

The stim

Octane laughed as the stim surged through his veins. He felt energy flood through him to his limbs. (Well the one's he had left.)

He cranked his robotic legs into high gear and sprang forward. The R-99 in his hand rattled and jumped but Octane's well muscled hands held the shaking gun in place as he mowed down enemies.

"That's the last of em amigos!" He exclaimed. 

"Another squad is attacking friends!" Pathfinder, his squadmate exclaimed.

"No Bueno!" Octane shouted.

several years earlier.

Octavio Silva laughed to himself as he crept out of bed. His parents would never know. He smiled at the camera he was using to film himself and put a finger over his lips. His growing internet fame had substantially increased his ego and he had adopted the name octane, one of his loyal fans had started calling him that and it had stuck. He was live streaming to several thousand people. He climbed out of his families vacation home in estate on Olympus. And hurled a rock at the window of his next-door neighbor. Ajay.

"She leaned out her window."

"What're ya doin Silva?" She asked. "Some of us have to sleep ya know."

"My parents are making something!" Octavio whispered. "A new pharmaceutical."

Though she was usually a responsible teenager. Ajay was quite interested in pharmaceuticals as she had been training to become a doctor. 

She clambered out her window and stumbled to the ground.

She waved at the camera and smiled to Octavio's fans.

"Wassuuuuup." She joked, Imitating him. "Silva, u know your gonna have to end the stream for this."

"Yes I'm aware." He sighed. "Sorry guys, but I gotta go. Cant show you this stuff its top secret. So....... ADIOS."

He ended the stream and he and Ajay crept through the estates toward the large center house where Octavio's parents worked when on vacation. They hid the camera and slowly climbed up the side of the house. They sat behind a row of plants and watched. Octavio's parents owned a large pharmaceutical company. They were the biggest drug supplier in the outlands. They weren't illegal drugs, but medical ones. Although Octavio suspected his parents also soled more "Potent" Drugs on the side.

They watched as his mother and father messed with chemicals and finally pulled a vial of green serum out of a shaker. (A machine that rapidly shook the serum to mix it.) His father slowly opened a cage and reached in to a mouse inside. He rammed the needle into the back of the mouse's neck and watched the slightly glowing liquid empty into the mouse's veins. The mouse's eyes jerked open and it let out a rapid squeaking. Octavio's father gently placed the mouse on a little hover wheel that tracked speed. And the mouses legs began moving at an incredible speed as the wheel span round. The mouse managed to clock an incredibly 18 miles an hour before passing out. 

"Oh ho hoooooo." Octavio chuckled under his breath.

"We need to dilute it more." Octavio's father said its meant to create an adrenaline boost, not a super fast runner. Right those results down though. A speed drug might be useful at a later time."

They left the room, Octavio's father going to fetch a dilutive and his mother to fetch her notebook. Octavio sprang to his feet intending to snatch a vial of the stuff. But Ajay held him back.

"Think Silva." She cautioned. "You did the drug thing a while back and it didn't go down to well."

"Ill cut you a deal." Octane whispered hurriedly.  "You let me have this now and ill get you some of the diluted stuff when they Finnish with it. You can test it in that doctor drone thingy of yours."

"Its a D.O.C."

"Yeah whatever."

Ajay begrudgingly agreed and Octavio dashed forward, he grabbed the serum and dove back out of the house. He and Ajay made a mad dash back to their respective homes and dove into their beds. Octane had had a button surgically installed a while back that let him instantly go to sleep. So that he could pretend to faint and mess with people. Or hide his nighttime journeys.

He hid the stimulant. Typed in the code and slumped into his bed.

The next morning.

Octane jumped back and forth with excitement. They were at one of the longest roads on Olympus. (The flying city upon which his families vacation homes were located.)

Ajay stood by with medical supplies and Octavio's camera.

He grinned at it and explained the situation to his fans.

"So I got this stimulant stuff. I'm just callin it stim." He talked rapid fire. "And it makes you go fast, like, SUPER fast. And you all know I like going fast!" He laughed, thinking back to the time he skydived of Olympus only to find that beneath the city there was nothing but water and he had to be rescued by a boat his parents hired. "Anyway imma be racing a trident!" He gestured to the automatic hovercar on the other side of the road. "Its auto set to drive a route and I think I can run faster then it can drive with this stim stuff! "Ajay will be riding in this other trident. She will film me and be ready to provide medical attention if I need it. HERE WE GOOOOOOO."

He slammed the stim into his chest and yelled in excitement  "OOOOOOO what a RUSH!"

The tridents took of and octane hightailed it after them. His legs moved in a blur as he slowly grew even with the trident, "HAHAAAAAAAAAAA." He yelled over the rushing wind. Then he saw that the trident was ready to boost, "Not this time amigo!" He exclaimed. Right when the trident activated its power engines he dove onto the back and hung on for dear life. He could feel the engines burning his body but it didn't hurt, probably because of the artificial, and natural adrenaline coursing through him. His boots clanked on the metal trident as he clambered on top. And he felt the air leave him when he dove across the Finnish line just before the trident. He lay on the ground breathing heavy. "Incredible!" He cried. And passed out.

He awoke in his bed. If he didn't feel the burns before he certainly felt them now. He moaned in agony and Ajay came into his room.

"Awake Silva?" She asked.

"Ce." He replied with some difficulty.

"Ya lucky you had the good sense ta bring me. If I hadn't given you burn gel you'd be a much worse state."

"Octane clambered out of bed and watched the burn wounds slowly healing with interest."

"Jeez your getting good. I can see my burns healing."

"I got good news and bad new Silva."

"Good news first." Octavio coughed.

"You quintupled in viewers," Octane began to celebrate but Ajay cut him of. "Your parents saw and this is the maddest I've ever seen em."

"The door slammed open and Octavio's parents stormed in."

"You steal our drug, you pretend to be asleep god knows how. AND THEN YOU NEARLY KILL YOURSELF." Stop with this octane nonsense. You are a Silva and you will behave like one."

Octavio's mother bent down and hugged him. 

"We care about you Octavio, but you need to stop these stunts." She said. She kept talking but Octavio wasn't listening, he was slowly pulling her wallet from her back pocket.

"The instant she left he pulled it out. He took her card out and found several units but then he found something else. A slip of paper, from a notebook. He unfolded it and a grin stretched across his face. It was the recipe for the stim. 

"Jeez Silva." Ajay sighed. "You never stop do you."

"Of course not amiga! Always moving, that's me!"

And he slipped the pap