Becoming Super

by Plowden, Richard A.

  Taia lifted her head and whispered fiercely at Pitts. “What is it?”

  “I see one of them” Pitts said slowly.

  “Scoot over,” she replied. Pitts glared at her before moving over so that Taia could fit. She crawled up to lay beside Pitts and looked at the point that his eyes had been fixated on.

  Taia blinked twice to switch back to normal vision. Her breathing stopped. It was the opening of a vent. Looking between the metal spaces of the opening, there was a floating figure. The man was wearing the standard uniform of a Core officer.

  He was wearing black camo pants with matching black boots. He was wearing a skin-tight, long-sleeved, black shirt as well. On the left breast of the black shirt was a purple C. It was the symbol for the Core.

  The Core was the policing and military force of the Supe Regime. It was filled with Supes that were trained to be weapons for the Regime to use against anybody that might be enemies of it. This made the Core natural enemies of the Resistance.

  This is why Connor wanted them to take out this plant. The General’s spy told the Resistance that it was a Core operating plant where they made the majority of their weapons for the entire division.

  So of course it made sense to come here and destroy it.

  Taia looked closely at the man floating in the air. In their years at the Academy, all cadets learned about the Core. The Core was supposedly filled with Supes that have abilities that would best benefit the Regime. What this truly meant was that they had abilities best suited for killing. So Taia did not understand how flight was an ability that would benefit the Core according to their usual standards. And Supes only had one base power, nothing more. For example, a Supe could not both read minds and shoot fire from their eyes, only one.

  And what confused Taia even more, was that while black shirts, black pants, and black boots were part of a Core’s official uniform, the black ski mask that this particular person was wearing was not.

  Taia let out a small yelp of surprise and covered her mouth as a voice spoke into the com. Pitts looked at her in anger. This voice was not as confident as Staff Sergeant Davenport’s had been. “One--one down.” a voice said shakily.

  Taia slowly looked up at the Core officer floating in the air to see if he had heard her. He had not moved. He just kept floating there aimlessly.

  “Screw this,” Pitts said. He then raised his rifle and pointed it in between the spaces in the vent.

  “Wait,” Taia whispered quickly.

  Pitts looked at her. “Wait for what Morris?” he said angrily.

  “Well,” Taia began. “It doesn’t make sense. Why is he just floating there? And why is he wearing that mask? And why would a Core officer’s ability be only flight? Shouldn’t he be more danger-“

  “Shut up,” Pitts said furiously. “Just shut up. You talk entirely too much. Look, he might be telekinetic, which explains why the freak can fly. I don’t know why he’s just floating there and I don’t know why he’s wearing that mask. And I don’t care. All I know is I need to kill whatever that thing is. Got it?”

  Taia nodded. Pitts then turned and cocked his rifle again. Pitts looked through the sight on his rifle and Taia knew what he was waiting on. She had to count him down.

  She started breathing slowly. She could do this. She had to. She was a soldier. “3,” she said. Pitts pulled back the safety on his rifle. Taia looked at the man floating in the air. “2,” she continued. Pitts gripped the rifle tighter and smiled. Taia looked in the eyes of the Core officer, the only part of his face visible peeking through the holes in the mask. His eyes were wide. Was that fear? “1,” Taia said.

  Pitts pulled the trigger. The energy beam struck the Supe in the blink of an eye. He seemed to stay in the air for longer than he should have before dropping to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

  His corpse lay still on the ground of the warehouse. Jacob Pitts was frozen; he wasn’t moving. He was gripping his rifle tightly, still looking through his sight.

  “Pitts,” Taia said. He didn’t react. “Pitts,” she repeated with more ferocity. No reaction.

  “Jake,” Taia said softly, grabbing Pitts’ arm. He dropped his rifle and fell slumped against the vent.

  “I’ve never killed before,” Pitts whispered. This was the most vulnerable that Taia had ever seen him. The arrogant snarl was gone from his face. He wasn’t speaking down to her. He was sweating and looked like he was going to vomit.

  “It’s okay,” Taia said. “Like you said. He was a Supe. He deserved it. You should let the team know though.”

  Pitts shook his head. “I can’t,” he whispered. “You call it in.”

  Taia was surprised. This was all Pitts had ever wanted. Killing Supes was all he ever talked about. “But this is your kill. If I call it in everyone is going to think I—“

  “Call it in!” Pitts yelled. His voice echoed against the vents. His face was sweaty and green.

  Taia was surprised by this reaction. She pressed the com on her ear. “One down,” she said.

  They were supposed to keep going, to keep searching the plant taking out more Supes until all were dead. But 3 were already down. It was only 3 to go. And Pitts looked like he was about to lose his lunch and in these confined air vents, that wouldn’t be good for either of them.

  “How about we stay here for a minute?” Taia asked softly.

  Pitts looked at her with gratitude. Taia couldn’t blame him. She had never killed before either. Taking a life could not be easy; even if it was the life of a murderous psychopath. That’s what made humans different than Supes though. What inherently separated the two. Humans had a heart and a conscious and could feel guilt. Supes were incapable of that.

  The pair may have sat in the vent for nearly an hour before the rest of the Supes had been taken out. Taia couldn’t believe it. The mission had been a success. And with no casualties.

  “I’m sending you all the GPS to my location in the plant.” It was Davenport over the com. He sounded very pleased. The mission had been a success and he had even gotten to kill two of the Supes himself. “Let’s get out of here.”

  The watch on Taia’s wrist beeped. The watch had a lot of functions and one of them was to serve as a GPS. It only worked within a certain area though and did not have any locations already programmed into it. It was only connected to the other watches on the mission, not Sector 6. It couldn’t be connected to Sector 6 as it was just too much of a risk to put the entire Resistance in danger in case someone was caught and they could use the GPS to find the Sector.

  Taia looked at the watch which showed her location and the Staff Sergeants. “Come on,” she said to Pitts. This time she led the way as they crawled through the vents of the weapons plant to Davenport’s location.

  After several moments, they finally arrived at another vent. In the position that she was in, laying down, Taia did not have much room to reach into her backpack and grab her laser pen. She lifted her rifle slightly and shot an energy blast forward to force the vent off of its hinges. She crawled out of the air tunnel that she had been in for hours.

  As Pitts followed her out, she looked around the room. Several of her fellow cadets had already arrived in the room with Davenport. While Davenport had a satisfied smirk on his face, many of the cadets looked traumatized while the rest looked scared. Though the mission had been a success, Taia had been right. They were not ready for it. They weren’t soldiers yet.

  The room they were in looked to be the main entry point of the plant. It was a very large room that was mostly empty and had several doors attached to it. On one of the walls, in the center of it, were two large double doors. Taia assumed that this must be the main entry point.

  Soon enough the rest of the cadets had filled the room and all 15 Sector 6 members were present.

  “Good work cadets.” Davenport said. “You did good work here. Now,” Davenport continued, crouching and reaching into his own backpack, his rifle on the ground. “We’re going to blow—“


  “Yes. Good work.” a gravelly voice interrupted.

  Davenport stopped. He stood up and turned around slowly and looked towards the voice that had interrupted him.

  Walking out of one of the many doors in the room toward the group was a large bulky man with slick backed hair wearing a Core uniform but with no mask. He was also wearing a purple shirt with a black ‘C’ on the left side instead of a black shirt.

  Davenport quickly pulled his pistol out of the holster on his hip and shot towards the man without saying a word.

  Before their very eyes, quicker than Davenport had pulled his pistol, an energy force field surrounded the bulky man and protected him.

  Suddenly another force field surrounded the Staff Sergeant and the group of cadets.

  Taia picked up her rifle and tried shooting at the force field to destroy it, but it merely absorbed the blasts. She was confused, she did not understand what was going on.

  Several more men in Core uniforms, ones with black shirts, began appearing behind the first Core officer. One in particular had his arms pointed forward towards the group, probably the one causing the force field prison that was containing Taia and her comrades.

  “Hello.” It was the man that had walked in first and spoken before. “I am Officer Carter. And I am the Commanding officer of the Core team heading this endeavor.” He then gestured to the 4 men behind him.

  Chapter 3

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Davenport asked angrily.

  Carter continued walking toward the group. “Calm down Staff Sergeant,” Carter said. “I’ll explain soon enough,” he then stopped right in front of Davenport, the force field being the only thing between the pair.

  “How do you know my name?” Davenport asked, pistol cocked at Carter’s face though it was harmless to Carter due to the force field.

  Carter let out a gravelly, cocky laugh. “How do I know your name?” he asked smiling. “That should be the last of your questions. You should be asking more pertinent things like ‘How did you guys know we were coming?’, ‘How were we dumb enough to think we could take on the Regime?’, ‘Why would the Regime need a weapons factory?’ You idiots! We are Transcended! We are Weapons! This was all a trap!’

  Transcended. This is what Supes liked to call themselves instead of Supes. They considered Supes to be insulting and demeaning. They felt that they were more than that.

  The belief of the Regime was that Transcendeds were the evolution of humanity, that they had transcended humanity and had become something greater. The Regime felt that the virus causing the Outbreak which affected only a small portion of the human population 200 years ago and gave them super powers was the next step in evolution. It was the entire premise that the Regime was built on, the survival of the fittest; that only the strong survive.

  This was why for the past 200 years the Regime had ruled over humans and enslaved them. Humans still outnumbered Transcendeds nearly 8 to 1, even after the Great War, but the Regime was too strong.

  “No,” Taia said. “That can’t be true. We killed some of you. If this were a trap, why would you let us kill your men?”

  Carter and the Supes behind him laughed.

  “Oh you silly little girl,” Carter said. “You think that those were Transcendeds that you killed? Do you think that you all are capable of killing Transcendeds?”

  But Taia was confused. “But we killed—“

  “Humans,” Carter finished, smiling sadistically. “You killed humans. Didn’t you think it was weird that all of their faces were covered, wearing masks? We aren’t super villains! Why would we need masks?!”

  Taia shook her head. But it was Pitts who spoke now. “No,” Pitts said. “No, no, no,” he continued, walking to stand next to Davenport and look Carter in his face. “He was flying. The guy I shot was flying!”

  Carter laughed. “Oh you mean like this?” he asked.

  One of the Supes behind him then lifted his arm in the air. Pitts began to rise in the air slowly until he almost hit the top of the force field.

  Pitts had been right. The Supe had been telekinetic, but the Supe was not the person floating in the air like they thought it was. The Supe controlling the force field made a hole in it so that Pitts could rise even higher.

  “Oh look, I’m flying. I’m Transcended,” Carter mocked. Pitts was yelling hysterically. “As if you could ever be Transcended.”

  “Put him down!” Taia yelled.

  “You want him down girly?” Carter asked. Pitts was now nearly 90 feet in the air. “Fine. Put him down,” Carter finished, looking back towards his squadron.

  The Supe controlling Pitts smiled. All of a sudden Pitts fell from high in the air and landed with a sickening crunch.

  Taia gasped as tears rushed to her eyes and she put her hands to her mouth.

  “Pathetic. That we could trick you all that easily,” Carter said, smiling. Davenport was looking at Pitts’ lifeless form murderously, shaking with anger. “We wanted you guys to come here so that we could kill you. But we figured making you kill a few humans would be fun too. Had you guys kill them, while we destroyed your truck outside. Crushed their windpipes and none of them could scream or say a thing. That guy on fire? That wasn’t a Supe either. We were just burning some human trash alive! Guess you shouldn’t feel bad about that one. You put him out of his misery,” Carter and the other Supes laughed.

  Taia couldn’t believe anybody could be this sadistic. They truly had no care for human life. She looked back at her fellow cadets and those that had pulled the trigger were now realizing that they had killed innocent humans and not Supes.

  Davenport couldn’t believe this. He was furious. He ran towards the force field. “You Supe son of a ---“

  “What did you call me?!” Carter exclaimed. He suddenly began transforming. His skin was hardening and expanding, turning a deep brown color. He was suddenly an 8 foot terrifying rock like creature. His eyes were pitch black and his voice was now even more gravelly than before. “You do not use that word!” The force field had been lowered.

  Carter grabbed Davenport by the throat and lifted him in the air without any effort.

  “Kill them all,” Carter said. He then looked directly at Taia. “Except that girl,” he pointed at Taia with his other arm. “We have orders that there are other plans for her,” he was smiling at Taia sadistically.

  Taia raised her rifle and shot it at Carter. The energy blast had no effect on him in this rock like state. All of the rifles were suddenly ripped from the hands of each person in her group and thrown against a far wall. It was the telekinetic using his abilities. The next thing that Taia experienced was nothing short of absolute carnage.

  In a matter of seconds, her fellow cadets had been either dropped from hundreds of feet in the air, incinerated by one of the Supes, or had been killed by the last Supe, whose ability seemed to be controlling a lethal gas.

  All too soon, Davenport and Taia were the only humans alive in the fake weapons plant. Tears were flowing fresh now. People that she had known for years, some friends, now lay dead in front of her. She even felt bad for Pitts. He may have been a jerk but he didn’t deserve to die.

  “What about their Sergeant?” one of the Supes asked, motioning to the man in Carter’s giant rock hand. “Will you kill him?” Taia thought it was the one who could control the poison gas but Taia’s mind was somewhere else. Carter was gripping Davenport’s throat and he could barely breathe.

  “No,” Carter began. “I’m taking him back to base. We’re going to torture him for more information about their little Resistance,” he spat nastily. “Like humans could ever resist our will.”

  “T-Taia,” Taia snapped out of her stupor. It was Davenport trying to speak to her.

  Cater laughed again arrogantly. “What?” he asked, lifting Davenport higher into the air. “You have something to say to her?”

  But Davenport ignored him. “Don’t,” Davenport began, barely able to breathe, let alone
speak. “Don’t let them take you alive. For-For the Sector.” Davenport then went into the bag he was still holding, and pulled something out. It was one of the charges that they were going to use to blow up the plant.

  Davenport looked Carter in the eye and smiled. “Die, you Supe son of a--” Suddenly the charge that Davenport was holding exploded. Taia was knocked back and could not see momentarily due to the explosion. When the smoked cleared though, whatever temporary relief she had felt was completely extinguished.

  The Force Field Supe had protected the majority of his team from the blast. And though Carter’s giant rock form was now sitting, other than that, he was perfectly okay.

  Carter grunted as he got up. “What an imbecile,” he said. “Blowing himself up for no reason.”

  He then turned and looked at Taia. “Well I guess we’re going to have to torture you before we give you away,” he said smiling.

  Remembering Davenport’s words, Taia instinctively pulled her pistol from her holster and pointed it at her head.

  “Anybody move and I’ll blow myself away,” Taia said looking at all of the Supes.

  All of them froze. Taia’s training had kicked in and she had analyzed all of the Supes’ abilities. Both the telekinetic and the Supe that could produce fire seemed to need their hands to use their abilities. The telekinetic Supe needed his arms to move things and the pyrotechnic Supe produced his fire solely from his hands. The force field Supe also extended his arms to make his force fields but his force fields wouldn’t stop her from shooting herself. The only Supe that seemed to be able to use his abilities against her without moving their hands, or moving period in Carter’s case, was the poison gas Supe and his power would kill her anyway, which they clearly didn’t want.

  Carter laughed bitterly. “You aren’t like him,” He said, referring to Davenport. “You aren’t a real soldier. You’re just a little girl in over your head. You aren’t willing to kill yourself for your home. Are you?” He then began walking toward Taia.