A Wing and a Prayer

Laz fiddled with an unused bomb he prepared. While looking at the large man, he pretended to do nothing while secretly setting a detonate time of thirty seconds. The bomb was one of the smaller ones and was barely noticeable even though he was currently wearing his black uniform. His black uniform was jeans, a tight black long-sleeved shirt with pockets. His mostly empty backpack was still on his back.

The large man indicated with his eyes for his men to search Laz. Finding the bomb they brought it to the large man who was still next to the vault. Calmly watching the soldier take his bomb, Laz watched the big man see what he would make of the device. The man glanced at it for a moment, a little puzzled. Laz pushed a button on his watch without anyone noticing.

Lifting his eyes, the big man continued to hold the bomb while looking at Laz. "It is unexpected to have a noble little guest with us." the big man smiled. "I'm hardly a noble, I'm just running around and seeing the sights," Laz responded with a cool smile. "Laszlo Omari, son of the enigmatic and completely absent Titus and Sidra Omari. Your parents, as is their custom, left you two years ago to continue their wanderings through the cosmos. They are unlikely to return, if you want to see them again, you'll have to find them. They won't care about what happens to you, even if you die they won't care even though they could easily destroy this galaxy with little effort," the big man said.

"My parents are certainly irresponsible," Laz continued to smile. "Why are you killing my men and sneaking into the vault?" The big man said with an evil smile. He knew Laz had no one to rely on and it was up to him whether this little rich boy lived or died. Contrary to his expectations, Laz didn't cower in fear or seem shaken at all. Instead, he responded in as shameless a fashion as he had ever seen. It was like the boy was talking to a friend or someone of no importance.

"Commander Kugal Ricestuaf, I wasn't expecting to meet such an important member of the Zahner Empire's special military group here to welcome me," Laz said completely dismissing Commander Ricestauf's questions.

The Commander's eyes narrowed looking like a predatory animal about to strike. "How does a brat like you know about the Zahner Empire's special military group?" The Commander said in anger and alarm, this boy knew too much. He wasn't just some young lord looking for kicks, he was an enemy agent of some kind.

"I can assure you, things I know would blow your mind," with his comment, Laz dashed back into the crowd of guards. Just as a soldier with a sword was about to kill Laz with a sword strike, the bomb in Commander Ricestauf's hand exploded! The Commander sensed something strange about the device and lifted it to look at it as it exploded near his head.

After dashing back, Laz hit another button on his watch detonating the other bombs he set up. Not to mention the first explosion, but the subsequent explosions around the base completely threw the soldiers into chaos. Laz made his way through the confused and distressed soldiers coming to the vault Commander Ricestauf had just exited. Finding the item he was looking for, Laz grabbed a jade box and put it into his backpack. He smoothly exited the vault and dashed towards an open gate that was large enough to fit a large military wagon through.

As he made his way through the mass chaos, Laz pulled out a few more bombs and planted them on his path toward freedom. The bombs were arrayed in such a way to disrupt any soldiers interested in stopping him. No one understood what the strange objects were and continued to ignore them. They were finally able to rally and reorganize. Finding the boy, the soldiers took out their bow and arrows and began to fire towards Laz. Laz juked and jived out of the way and when he felt he had enough distance, he activated the freshly planted bombs.

The bewildered soldiers blew up, but more soldiers came in and saw the boy running from he bows an arrows, and even though they didn't know much they knew the young boy was an enemy. The new soldiers began shooting at Laz with their bows and arrows. Laz was dodging as best he could while dashing straight for the door.

Two large soldiers came in through the gate Laz was aiming for as he made his escape. The two bog men already had their swords ready to chop the boy in half. Laz smoothly pulled his silent beretta analog and fired twice. His shots were dead on, and the pair of tough-looking soldiers dropped to the ground after being shot between the eyes.

Rushing through the gate, Laz was shocked by what he saw. He believed he was running through a gate leading to a road going down the mountain, instead, it leads to a nearly sheer cliff. The vault opened to the sky. As Laz continued to run, he noticed a frightened avian. The avian was so frightened it knocked its caretaker over the side of the cliff and seeing Laz it jumped over to fly away. Laz quickly looked back and saw the soldiers were catching up to him and pulling back on their bows about to fire. Without much thought, Laz jumped over the side of the cliff to try and catch the avian.

The avian didn't expect Laz to follow it and it was unaware of him at first. It was following the line of the cliff head straight towards the bottom with its wings tucked in. Laz was similarly falling straight down with his head pointed down and his hands at his side. He wanted to increase his speed by reducing air resistance. He needed to catch up to the avian before it opened its wings and flew away. If he couldn't mount the avian, he would have no other option but to crash into the rocks below ending his very young life.

The avian seemed to sense something behind him, it turned its head back and saw Laz coming after it. It was frightened by the plummeting man with the determined look in his eyes. The avian immediately opened its wings to catch the draft and then fly away. Laz felt around in his bag and pulled out a strange gun. Laz attached a strange fitting to its opening. Aiming at the bird, Laz fired his gun.

The gunshot a filament string and the object at the end of the string wrapped around the avian's neck and attached itself to the string. Laz tugged the rope and the avian's eyes bugged out for a moment, Laz reeled himself onto the back of the bird. He took the rope and some cloth from his bag and created a makeshift harness.

Laz looked at his death-defying stunt and wiped away some sweat as he turned back to the avian finally gained control of it. "Nothing but a wing and a prayer," he said to himself. The bird flew up and away from the Dong Fang Group base which was engulfed in flames.