Chronicles of the Supers (Book 1): Born From Darkness (The Story of Max) (16 page)

"Well,
there's this person. She's like my sister, and relies on me to
protect her and give her a good life. But I can't do that from in
here." Max said. She knew she couldn't say much more than that
without having to reveal her powers, so she decided that a vague
truth was the best. To her credit, Em seemed to take the explanation
at face value.

"So
this person, can she not live on her own?" Em asked.

"No.
She's not physically capable."

"Oh.
I understand that." Em replied. She turned towards her breakfast
and pushed it away, suddenly not feeling very hungry.

"What's
wrong?" Max asked her. Suddenly, Max wished she'd never opened
her mouth.

"I
used to have a younger brother. But he's gone now. All because I
couldn't help him."

Both
women sat there for a long time, thinking about what they should say
next. Finally, Em spoke up after deciding that she should trust Max
as much as Max had trusted her.

"When
I was 17, me and my younger bro were living out on the streets after
our parents were murdered by a group of drunk cops. They tried to
claim that our parents sedan matched the last known vehicle of a guy
who'd killed 72 cops across the country. The only problem was, the
last vehicle he'd been seen driving was a tractor.

Well
the cops were fired, but not jailed for the brutal murder despite the
fact that the videos showed the whole story in black and white.

Anyway,
one day I was caught up returning home by this gang on the streets.
They tried to rape me, but I sterilized them the old fashioned way.

When I
got back to our home, a small abandoned shack in the middle of the
woods, I found that he wasn't there. I searched for her for 2 days
before I found his body."

Em
began to tear up at that part. Max tried to stop her from continuing
the story since it was obviously so painful for her, but Em grabbed
her lips with one hand and kept them closed.

"It
turns out he was starving, so he went to a local pizza joint. He
tried to sneak off with a pizza and the owner shot him dead for it.
Bastard didn't even go to trial for it because the police didn't care
about a small 12 year old boy who didn't have a family or a home.

After
that I waited for a week, watching the guy who'd killed my little
bro. Then one day when he was alone I knocked him out. Then I tied to
him his car and set it to go over into the lake behind his shop,
where he was found drowned to death a week later by a fisherman.

The
cops took the video and saw me doing it, so I ended up here with a
life sentence and no chance of parole."

Max
grabbed Em and hugged her tightly. She fully understood everything Em
had said. Especially the revenge part. She'd killed her father and a
number of other people like him just because of what that man had
done to her mother.

"Wanna
know the actual hilarious part of it? The police actually used the
death of my little bro as a reason I should be put away for life.
They claimed I was dangerous if I was willing to drown a man to death
for revenge."

Em
laughed without any traces of humour at that part. After that her
tears stopped flowing and she managed to recompose her smile.

"Hey
new girl, come over here for a minute." someone yelled from
across the room. Max turned to look at the person who was presumably
calling to her. Before she could get a good look at the person, Em
spoke up.

"Whatever
she's offering you, don't take it."

Max
spotted the person just as Em finished speaking. The person in
question was an incredibly tall and thin woman with jet black skin
and hair. She had her hair framing her face almost perfectly and
wore, of all things, a blue jumpsuit instead of the usual orange. She
was sitting on the table and surrounded by a group of 5 girls of
varying descriptions.

"Why
not?" Max asked as she stared at the person in question.

"That's
Jay. She owns most of the prison. Even the guards are in her pocket
due to blackmail."

"Why
does that matter?" Max asked as she turned her head to face Em
again.

"She
tried to get me to kill a guard who she couldn't get on her side.
When I refused she tried to have me stabbed. Me and the 5 people who
tried to stab me ended up in the hospital for 12 weeks with over a
dozen broken bones each and a few hundred stab wounds between us. 2
guards, including the one she wanted dead, ended up trying to stop
the scuffle and we killed them because of it."

'That
sounds fun.' Max thought sarcastically to herself.

"Go
on over there and find out what she wants, just to be polite. But
make sure you refuse it." Em said.

Max
sat there for a minute more as the entire prison slowly became
interested in her. She even saw the guards staring at her intently.

Finally
Max stood up to go over and talk to Jay. But when she got halfway
there, a massive, ear shattering explosion blew open the door between
the guard control room and the floor. Jay and her posse were knocked
to the ground and at least one of them died from the close proximity
to the explosion.

Most
of the others were disoriented from the explosion, leaving Max the
only person in the prison still standing. She squinted her eyes and
used her enhanced vision to see beyond the debris in an attempt to
find the person responsible.

She
didn't have to wait long as a hailstorm of bullets started flying
through the hole. As soon as Max saw them her adrenaline kicked in
and the entire world slowed down. She could see the bullets in slow
motion, as if she able to move as fast or faster than they could.

As the
first bullet closed half the gap between it and her, Max moved. She
ran forward towards the bullets, noting that at least 2 of them would
hit the women who were lying on the ground. She grabbed those bullets
out of the air and hurled them back through the door with as much
force as she could muster. A moment after she did the bullets stopped
with the sound of a loud metal on metal pinging.

Max
stood over the other women, placing herself between the attackers and
the prisoners. After a few minutes of standing there, a shadow
appeared on the other side of the door. Soon more shadows joined that
one and they made their way through the darkened control room. When
they stepped on the other side of the ruined door, Max immediately
noticed 2 very disturbing things about them.

The first was that they were carrying very powerful
looking rifles. The second was that they were all guards in the
prison.

Part 5:
Hero

Chapter 21:

Guard Takeover

Max cautiously watched the group of heavily armed guards approaching
her. She needed time to think of a plan. While she had many super
powers, including regeneration, she knew painfully well that she
wasn't invulnerable. That much had been proven before when she'd been
shot in the shoulder through a wall and nearly died from the
experience. The rifles the guards were carrying could very well kill
her just as easily as they would a normal human.

The
guards stopped inches from her face and stood there, completely
motionless, staring at Max. Both sides had an uncomfortably long
staredown. But Max was using the time to her advantage. She strained
her senses, putting everything into overdrive to scope out the area
as much and as fast as possible.

'There's
4 more behind us!' Milia half shouted in Max's head. Max had to use
her all of her willpower to stop herself from making any noticeable
movements lest she scare the guards into attacking again. There were
still people in the room who couldn't fight back. And Max intended to
save them all.

'What
the fucking hell?!' Max shouted back. 'You nearly got us all killed!'

'Sorry!
I was just trying to help! I swear!' Milia shouted back, in shock and
pain at having been yelled at.

'I'm
sorry. I just would have liked a quieter warning.' Max replied,
sounding genuinely sorry at having hurt Milia again.

'It's
okay. You're right, I'm sorry for scaring you.' Milia replied.

'Now
what were you saying?' Max asked. So far the guards had just stood
there staring at Max. And they seemed plenty content to do so.

'The
guards in front are just a distraction.' Milia said. As she did Max
felt her senses extend back into the room of their own accord.

'Are
you doing that?' Max asked.

'Yeah.
I can retain control over our senses even when I'm not in control of
the body.' Milia replied.

'Right.
We'll talk about invasions of privacy lately.' Max said, intent on
getting everyone to safety before bothering with anything trivial.

'Technically
it's my body too, so you can't even call it an invasion of privacy.
Just a reclamation of stolen goods.' Milia replied.

'Reclama...
I'm gonna kick you.' Max replied.

'Have
fun. I'm sure those guards would love the sight of a girl kicking
herself in her own ass. Who knows, you might be a big hit on those
porn sites.' Milia replied.

'I'll
put you on a porn site you...' Max stopped as she realized what she
just said.

'Haha!
Got you there!' Milia laughed back. Max pushed aside the thought and
focused on the task. She'd have a long, very one-side talk with Milia
about appropriate punishments for that little embarrassment after
this was all over and done with.

'Okay
we'll talk about that later. Now seriously we're wasting time. What's
going on?' Max asked, still sounding slightly upset at Milia.

'It
doesn't matter yet anyway.' Milia said. 'They're getting into place
all over and preparing to shoot the whole group dead.'

'You
know, that's something I'd like to know BEFORE we get into an
argument about porn.' Max said. Though it was spoken mentally, Milia
could swear she heard the sound of Max grinding her teeth together to
keep herself from yelling.

'Well
I have a plan though. And would require them to be in place and
prepared to take us out.' Milia said.

'What
plan?' Max asked. She was really surprised that Milia had a plan. But
she had already agreed to trust Milia, so maybe at least hearing the
plan would be worthwhile.

'When
they're in place and ready to fire, we use our super speed to snatch
their weapons from them. Then just beat them up.'

'That
is a terrible plan.'

'No
it's not. If they're still moving we can't know how they'll react
when we move. If they're in position they will likely attempt to
stand their ground. That will make it easier for us to stop them.'

'That's...'
Max paused. It was actually a rather brilliant plan.

'Yes I
know. I'm the smart one after all.' Milia replied. Max could almost
hear the grin.

'I
just hope it works.' Max thought back at Milia.

Max
finally returned her attention to the outside world and waited. She
pretended to be staring at the guards in front of her while she
really was focusing her other senses on the guards outside her field
of vision.

She
counted 4 more guards in varying positions behind her. That made 10
once she included the 6 in front of her that were attempting to
distract her from the others behind her. Not that is was much of a
distraction, but as far as they were concerned the 'standoff' was
working.

'They're
in position. Ready?' Milia finally said after an entire, incredibly
intense minute.

'I
hope so.' Was all Max said before she sprang into action. She grabbed
the guns of the 2 nearest guards and wrapped them around each other.
She proceeded to do the same with the remaining 4 guns and then threw
them into a pile off to the side. They were now completely useless
and Max was feeling better. It seemed Milia had indeed come up with
an excellent strategy.

Max
turned around to face the 4 remaining guards. It was at that moment
that Milia's plan fell to pieces.

As
soon as they turned around they realized their error. The guns of the
4 guards behind Max were pointed at the still disoriented prisoners,
not Max.

Her
adrenaline kicked into overdrive and the entire world slowed to less
than a crawl. She could see the tiny explosions of the bullets
leaving the barrels of the assault rifles. It appeared to her that
those explosions and bullets they propelled were moving slower than a
drunken snail, but she wasn't sure if she could reach them all in
time. All of the rifles were fully automatic and firing hundreds of
rounds per minute into the crowd.

Max
instantly made up her mind about how to take care of the situation
and used the momentum of her turn to kick off the ground and dash
forward. She left a small crater from where her foot kicked off the
ground and flew forward towards the nearest guard.

Max
grabbed the gun while it was still being fired and twisted the barrel
around. The barrel compressed inward from the center of the twist and
quickly shrunk, preventing any more bullets from being fired. She
continued down the group, doing the same to each of the barrels. When
she was finished, she quickly disposed of the bullets in midair by
grabbing them or redirecting their flight paths away from anyone who
might get hurt.

After
that Max moved back to through the guards and, one by one, she
punched them in the gut. With her superhuman strength and speed she
had to hold back, essentially giving what felt to her like a tap. But
in reality the force of the blow ended up cracking the ribs of most
of the ones she punched.

After
that she finally stopped, standing over the pile of mostly
unconscious group of people lying on the ground, and the worlds time
seemed to return to normal. However, as soon as it did, a loud and
deep explosion sounded throughout the room. The force of the blow
knocked some of the already tumbling guards back into the nearest
walls, knocking them out cold.