Chronicles of the Supers (Book 1): Born From Darkness (The Story of Max) (11 page)

The
bed slammed into Dark Max from below, sending her flying up into the
ceiling. Light Max was there waiting on her, with a mirror. The
mirror broke as it impacted Dark Max's head and cut her head very
badly. She pushed aside the pain though and lept up, headbutting
Light Max. Light Max's jaw cracked painfully at the connection and
she staggered backwards.

Dark
Max grabbed the floating bed frame and used it to bludgeon Light Max
repeatedly. After the fifth hit Light Max backed away from her dark
counterpart and grabbed a piece of the mirror frame as a weapon. She
hurled the piece at Dark Max, causing her to stop her assault. During
the moment of confusion, Dark Max lost sight of Light Max. A big
mistake.

Light
Max flew in behind Dark Max in a spray of debris as she broke through
the wall. She used the debris like a pair of brass knuckles and
knocked a quarter inch chunk of flesh out of her dark counterparts
side. Dark Max shrieked so loudly that the sound wave blew out Light
Max's eardrums, causing her ears to bleed.

For a
moment both women backed away from each other and took stock of their
injuries. Dark Max was bleeding out and would likely die if she
didn't stem the flow. Light Max was bleeding from her ears and unable
to hear, severely diminishing her ability to fight.

Each
girl took a moment to try and fix their injuries. Dark Max ripped her
shirt off her body and tied it as tightly as she could around her
waist. Her injury flared up and she screeched again. But she
continued to the makeshift bandage so that she could continue
fighting. After the blood had welled up and stained the shirt it
started drying, preventing further blood loss.

Light
Max was the worse off of the two. She couldn't stop the bleeding in
her ears, and she was now deaf. She would be at a severe disadvantage
with one of her senses missing, even temporarily. She would need to
push her remaining senses into overdrive if she stood a chance of
winning.

Dark
Max finally regained her composure a moment before Light Max. But she
needed time for the bandage to work so she could continue to fight
without further blood loss. So she opted for a new distraction
strategy.

"So
are you ready to give up yet?" Dark Max asked. Light Max
couldn't hear her, but she could read her lips well enough.

"Sorry,
but I'm afraid you've already lost. That wound just drained you."
Light Max half yelled while pointing at her mirror images side. Both
of them took a moment to catch their breaths as the exertion of
talking was causing them to use up their remaining adrenaline surges.
Pretty soon both of them would be out of action.

Light
Max prepared to open her mouth to speak some more but Dark Max cut
her off.

"Save
it princess bitch. I know you want to tell me to surrender. Well if
you want me too you're gonna have to come over here and make me. But
you're gonna die if you do. So you'd better make up your mind."

"Ha.
That's the richest thing I've ever heard. You've literally got a part
of your body missing."

"Yeah
but I'm still more than you ever were. I have a reason to fight.
Unlike you, the one who just wants everyone to suffer to appease your
sense of pacifism."

"I
was wrong. That was even richer. But what's funny is your attempt to
rile me. I won't fall for your tactics. They're the same tactics I've
seen before. The same tactics used against us by our father. I
shouldn't be surprised since you're his daughter after all."

"Now
looks who's a rich bitch. I'm not him. I'm the justice he, and others
like him, deserve."

"If
that was true then why do you hate me too?"

"Because
you don't care!"

"I
do care." Light Max said with a glint of tears in her eyes. "I
care about saving you. You're one part of me, but you don't deserve
to be his puppet forever. No one does."

"I
told you I'm NOT HIM!"

With
that Dark Max shot forward like a bullet, impacting Light Max. They
both flew through the hole in the wall repeatedly. They entered and
exited through the room over a dozen times. Finally Light Max put a
stop to their flight by grabbing the wall as the flew past. The wall
broke underneath her grip but they stopped in the middle of the room
on the next fly-by anyway.

Light
Max brought up a knee into Dark Max's side, causing it to explode in
pain. Dark Max screamed for the third time since the fight had begun.
She backed away from Light Max and grabbed her side in agony.

Light
Max stopped and stared at her other half while tears began to flow
from her eyes.

"I'm
sorry. I don't want to hurt you. But I can't let you hurt anyone
else." Light Max said.

With
that she moved in for the kill, aiming to break Dark Max's neck with
a single blow. However at the last second Dark Max moved. She moved
with such fury and speed that Light Max missed her fist completely
until it had hit her.

Dark
Max's fist tore through her other half's body, entering in the chest
where the heart was and exiting out the back where her spine should
have been. On the other end a spray of blood and tissue flew across
the room, leaving dents in the walls from the impact. Light Max fell
limp on Dark Max's arm.

Dark
Max grabbed her other half and, completely uncharacteristic of her,
hugged her other half. She cried a bit.

"I'm
sorry I had to be so brutal. But I have to save the world. I have to
protect the others out there like me who are being hurt and killed by
men just like him. If I didn't, I think we might have been friends."

As Dark Max cried the world faded around her. After
everything else was gone the body of Light Max started fading into
nothingness.

Chapter 14:

Unexpected
Occurence

Max groggily opened her eyes and blinked them clear. It took a few
blinks before she could see properly, and her eyes stung quite a lot.
She tried to reach up to rub them but her entire body hurt too much
to move. She debated laying there for a while but it was extremely
uncomfortable. As she tried to stand up she found the ground she was
on to be odd. It felt like a flight of stairs.

Max's
eyes widened in horror as she realized where she was. She was still
at the plantation house where she had attempted to kill that rapist
she was after. She looked around but she douldn't see anything. She
had to fight her grogginess to understand what was happening, but she
soon realized she was facing the stairs, lying on her stomach. That
would explain why she couldn't see anything.

Slowly
Max used her arms to push herself up. However she lost balance and
slipped, falling down the stairs. Thankfully she was laying only a
few steps up, but it still hurt like hell. She groaned a bit and
opened her eyes again. At least she could see the ceiling, meaning
she was laying on her back this time.

"You
might wanna be careful there young lady." Came a voice. Max
froze as she recognized the voice. It belonged to her original
target, Ken Warren. She turned her head, which was about all the
movement she could manage.

"Listen,
I'm sorry bout shooting ya." He said, with a tinge of sadness in
his voice. Max just glared at him, but her glare didn't have the
force she needed to do anything. Plus, with it still dark, she
doubted he could even see it.

"You
lost a lotta blood, but I managed to bandage up the wound and stop
it."

Max
froze as the blood in her veins changed into ice instantly. She
looked over at her left shoulder, her neck protesting the whole way,
and noticed a bloody makeshift bandage. She looked down and saw that
her outfit was completely in tact, minus the visor-like sunglasses,
which had fallen off of her at some point in the fight.

"Don't
worry, I didn't do nothing to ya." Ken said, his voice sounding
distinctly tired now.

"Why?"
Max asked weakly.

"Why'd
I help ya?"

Max
said nothing, so Ken took this as his cue to continue.

"Ya
know, despite what ya heard about me, I'm not all that bad. Wanna
hear the truth? Assuming you wanna believe me, I mean."

"I
doubt I will, but give it a try." Max said. She blinked. Did she
really just say that? She couldn't tell if those were her words or
someone elses because they sounded so foreign to her usual thoughts.

"Well,
ya see, it's true, in a way, that I raped that girl. But I didn't do
it cause I wanted to." Ken began. He paused for a moment and Max
noticed a single tear streaming from his eye when she looked over at
him.

"Ya
see, father was a hell of a bad man. Course so was Mother, but all
she cared about was drugs. Father was the really bad one. He enjoyed
those sick crimes he committed."

"Who
was he?" Max asked, now genuinely curious.

"You
wouldn't know him. He was never caught. Now see I don't wanna upset a
lady, but I can't finish the story without saying why he was never
caught. Do you wanna continue the story."

"I've
heard worse I'm sure."

"Well,
then it's on you now. Ya see, when he was done raping those poor
young girls, he'd burn their genitals."

Max
instantly puked. Only given her position, most of it ended up on her
body and face. She'd heard of those crimes. Everyone had. But to date
there was no evidence connecting any person to the crime. It was
pretty obvious to everyone that the man was destroying whatever
evidence remained behind. It was as gruesome a crime as anything Max
could imagine.

"Now
ya see why I didn't wanna tell ya, don't ya?"

Max
didn't respond.

"Well
see, since our family was so torn between the 2 sides, father made a
choice. He would require all of us to try his way and mothers way.
We'd then decide what our own paths would be.

Well,
after older brother tried doin drugs and raping, he decided on growin
drugs instead. Then I was up next, and I decided to follow brother on
growin. Father got mad and intentionally left the evidence in tact so
he could land me in prison. He wanted a son like him, but none of us
was.

When
the third one went into growin too, father got so mad he attempted to
kill us. But older brother protected us and shot him in the head.
Ironically enough, mother died a cancer on the same day. After that
we was alone.

But it
seemed father had outsmarted us. The next day brother was arrested
for his growin operation. They found him in a hotel doing a deal
after an anonymous tip that came in the day fore father was killed.
Now true to his word brother protected us by not givin up the
location of the farm. I'm sure you noticed on ya way in it's
relatively hidden right?"

Max
nodded slightly. She knew the location because police had suspected
it was the Warrens home. But the land was under a false name, so they
didn't have enough evidence to actually obtain a search warrant. So
they had to get some. Only that had proved fruitless. Over a year of
stakeouts and searching and not one iota of evidence had been
recovered. The oldest brother that Ken was referring to had not left
the farm since his escape from the police, meaning they couldn't
catch him going to and from the property either.

"And
ever since then we been livin here, hiding from the cops and using
middle men to sell the product.

Now,
I'm truly sorry for what I did to that girl. But I didn't have a
choice. Father held me at gunpoint and forced me too."

At
that Ken's eyes watered even more. He made a slight whimpering noise
but quickly silenced himself. After a moment he reached a hand up and
wiped his eyes clear.

"Guess
it don't matter now. I'm bleeding out from this knife hole in the
back of my shoulder. I suppose I won't live much longer at this
rate."

Max
gulped a bit. She'd been the one who'd placed that wound there.

'Wait,
why do I care. This man raped someone. So what if he was forced? He
should have balked and taken the god damned bullet. He's nothing but
scum. He deserves to die.' Max thought to herself.

But as
soon as she thought it, a small part of her knew it was wrong. She
didn't know what part that was. She felt like she did, but she
couldn't place that part of herself. It wasn't the other part of her
she'd just fought either. She knew that much for certain. But
something about the mans story had struck a chord in her.

Her
own father had been just as evil as Ken's. And here he was bandaging
her wounds and talking to her like she was human. Something had
changed while she was out cold and, though she didn't understand what
was happening, a part of Max felt that this was the true Ken Warren.
The one who was finally free of his family and their evil.

"Listen,
you should get outta here. I can tell you've seen enough of these
types of horrors. Leave me here to die alongside 'em where I belong."

Max
laid on the ground for a good fifteen minutes. Eventually she managed
the strength to stand up. After taking a moment to get her bearings,
Max moved towards Ken Warren with only one thought in mind. Death.

She
got close and bent over to grab him. As she did she saw the fear in
his eyes. After a moment it was replaced with acceptance though. She
felt sorry for him for a moment. Then she forced the thought out of
her head. But after she did it still resurfaced. No matter what she
tried she couldn't rid herself of it.

She
looked down at the man she had grabbed. Then she forced herself to
act. As she stood up with him in her grip, she passed out.

##########

Max awoke on her feet inside her old home once again. She instantly
started looking around. She knew this place, but she couldn't place
where she knew it from.