Becoming Super

by Plowden, Richard A.

  Chapter 10

  Eli was definitely a faster runner than Taia but he would not leave her. “Faster Taia,” he said.

  She was not tired. Her years of training at the academy had prepared her for such situations and her cardio was amazing. But some of these Supes had superhuman speed and were quickly gaining.

  “Just go Eli!” she said.

  “No,” he said before stopping.

  She stopped too.

  “No!” he exclaimed. “Keep running!”

  “I’m not leaving you, you stupid boy! What are you doing?!”

  Eli heaved an angry sigh. “You insolent child.”

  “I’m not a—“Taia’s indignant rant was interrupted by Eli letting out a yell.

  He pushed his hands forward and an invisible force shoved the Supes that were coming after them backward. The more strong and resilient of the Supes were able to resist the push somewhat but Eli was still able to put distance between the Supes and his friends.

  Astonishment came across Taia’s face. She had never seen Eli do that particular feat before. “How did you do that?” she asked.

  “I can control the Gravitational force around me,” Eli said. “That means I can push and pull things towards me too.”

  He then grabbed Taia’s hand and began running from the Supes. They were only a few feet behind Blake. However, a steel wall had sprung from the ground right where the road leading up to the palace began, surely some sort of defense mechanism and was beginning to completely surround the campus of the hall.

  Blake kept running forward, not slowing down at all, when he threw his hand forward and another Vortex appeared in front of him.

  “Cover your mouths!” he yelled. Taia did not need to be told twice as she closed her eyes and put her hand over her mouth running head first into the vortex.

  As the vortex spat her out on the other side, she once again fell on her hands and knees gasping for breath, when she was suddenly picked up and thrown over someone’s shoulder headed into the night towards the streets of the city, where people were running into their homes and stores as per the rules of the city lockdown.

  As comforted as she felt in Eli’s arms, her pride outweighed her feelings of affection.

  “How dare you?” She began. “Stop grabbing me! Put me down!” trying to resist and squirm out of Eli’s grasp. She was particularly embarrassed considering she was wearing a dress.

  “No,” Eli said. “You are way too slow and keeping you safe is priority.”

  Warmth filled Taia’s heart but she ignored it. “Well isn’t holding me going to slow you down, stupid?”

  Eli ignored the insult. “I lifted the personal gravity around you so that your excessive weight would not affect me.”

  “Excessive weight?!” Taia exclaimed. “Did you just call me fat?!” She started to hit his back to no avail.

  Eli felt that he would never understand Taia Morris. Here they were, running for their lives. And she was concerned about her appearance.

  All around the city Supes were running into buildings per the city protocol so that they would not be arrested by the Core. In the street sirens blared and the trio of young adults ran through the streets frantically. The civilians of Carthage looked at the trio strangely as they ran through the cities in their tuxes and gown.

  The Supes behind them had torn through the steel wall and were catching up to them. Eli’s attack had done little to push them back. Isla Gates had now slithered her way to the very forefront of the group.

  “I’m just going to make all of us light and float us out here,” Eli said.

  “No,” Blake said breathing heavily. He was not in the best shape cardio wise as far as running was concerned. This was probably because he was used to teleporting everywhere. “They’ll just shoot us out of the sky.”

  “Damn. You’re right. I’ll hold them off,” Eli replied before skidding to a stop. He sat Taia down. “You two, run.”

  Blake had stopped and now had his hands on his knees and was panting heavily. “Big words coming from the dude who doesn’t want to be a hero.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Taia said drawing her pistol from the holster on her leg.

  Blake heaved a heavy sigh and smiled. “Well I guess we are going to fight.” The Supes were only meters away from the group now when Blake’s mother jumped at the group. Blake pushed his hands out and a large vortex appeared that Blake’s mother jumped into. Several other Supes ran into the vortex before they started stopping themselves.

  Taia was confused on where Blake could be sending the Supes before she heard several screams and crashes behind her. She turned around and saw the Supes that had gone through the portal falling from the sky to the ground. Blake had teleported them several feet into the air, his mother included.

  Isla was already beginning to heal from her injuries due to the fact that the accelerated regeneration part of her Lizard form kicked in but she was incapacitated for the moment. The Supes were already working their way around the vortex before it began to close. Eli pulled Taia behind him protectively.

  No. Taia was tired of being saved. She was a soldier. She could fight too.

  Taia pointed her pistol around Eli and fired it at one of the Supes running towards them head. He fell as the beam hit him square in the face.

  “I’m not some helpless little girl,” she said fiercely.

  Eli looked at her and nodded without a word before drawing both of his weapons.

  They both began firing their respective weapons into the crowd. Blake was still putting portals in multiple Supes way as they ran toward the group and teleporting them into the sky in an attempt to put more of a dent in the Supes ranks.

  “You can fight,” Eli said in between shots, quite impressed with Taia’s skills.

  “I’m a soldier,” Taia responded, flipping over a Supe before firing a shot in his back. “You just never gave me the chance to show you that.”

  Eli reloaded his pistols as much as he could but soon he was out of bullets. He dropped his weapons and began pushing several Supes back with his gravitational manipulation.

  Thankfully not all of the Supes from the ball had followed them so they were thinning out the ranks. One Supe stuck out his hand and sent fire directly at Taia. She froze on the spot out of fear.

  A vortex appeared in front of her while another one appeared next to a group of Supes that were soon set ablaze.

  Taia looked at Blake in shock. “Thanks.”

  “Don’t thank me yet,” he said smiling.

  Blake continued to intercept various dangerous energy beams, lightning, and other projectiles that came toward the group.

  Eventually the ranks of the Supes began to wane. Until suddenly all of the Supes stopped attacking. They began smiling and backing up before running into various buildings. Taia did not understand until she turned around.

  Walking towards them, through the empty evacuated streets were 5 members of the Core. They were all wearing the same uniforms as the men that Eli had decimated a few days ago but one in the middle was wearing the light purple Core shirt that showed him to be the Commanding officer.

  Taia could only imagine how pissed these guys were. Not only had a human crashed the party of the richest guys in town, but that same human was also basically responsible for the death of their fellow Core Officers. The elite members of the Supe regime were going into buildings for shelter from the destruction of the Core.

  Taia let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. If these guys got a hold of her, she was going to wish she was dead.

  Eli must have had similar thoughts because he let out a loud yell before quickly pushing gravity towards the Core members with all his might.

  Several of the members began to fly back except for one of the females of the group whose arms and legs suddenly turned in to sharp metal rods before she plunged them into the ground to resist the gravity blast

  Once the blast had subsided, she began to quickly run towa
rds the group bringing up one of her deadly metal arms to swipe at Taia.

  Taia instinctively dodged before her close combat training kicked in and she came back at the woman with a hard kick.

  Taken by surprise the woman was caught in the chest with the kick. This did nothing to deter her as she leapt at Taia again pulling a metal arm back ready to plunge it into Taia’s heart. Eli quickly tried to intercept the woman but he was too late.

  The woman flew back as Taia quickly fired a pistol shot into the woman’s chest.

  “Abby!!!!”

  One of the Supes was furious in the distance. They had all now recovered from Eli’s blast. “How dare you shoot Abby you skank!” This Supe was the Commanding officer. He was large and muscular, much more so than the average human. Taia assumed his ability must be super strength. She was only partially right.

  The large muscular man began expanding becoming large enough in size until he was the size of a small building.

  “How fascinating,” Blake began. “He can expand his size to become this giant man.”

  The Giant man began running towards the group.

  “It must be such an expensive ability though,” Blake continued. “You have to buy all of your clothes specially made with a special polymer so that you don’t rip it when you grow—Oh dear”

  Blake was interrupted as the Giant man raised his car sized fist and was bringing it down to crush the group.

  Eli and Taia jumped out of the way as Blake teleported to a safe location. Debris flew everywhere when the Giant Man brought his fist down into the ground.

  As Eli and Taia were laying on the ground Blake ran over and grabbed the two of them. He teleported them to an alley a few blocks down from the Core.

  “No!” the Giant man Bellowed. “Randall!” One of the other Core members ran over to the Giant man. He was a slim, weasel faced man.

  “Yes sir?” Randall asked timidly.

  “You go this way and find these criminals and kill them!” the Giant Man said pointing to his left and unbeknownst to him, towards the group. “Cooper and Alice, you go that way!”

  Taia could not see them, but she imagined Cooper and Alice were the other members of the group. She saw the Weasel face man slowly began to shift until he was something that she could only describe as a Were-Weasel. “Now that,” Taia said. “Is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen.”

  Blake was surprised. “Really?” he asked looking at her. “Well I guess when you’re used to your mother ripping off her skin and changing into a giant lizard you get used to that kind of stuff. Now toes? Human toes? That freaks me out.”

  “Guys!” Eli whispered frantically. “Get it together.”

  “Well,” Blake said. “One of us could end all of this right now,” he said pointedly at Eli.

  Eli opened his mouth to speak but Taia beat him to it. “Hey!” she said indignantly. “Eli’s been trying his best. He’s done all he can! He’s probably too tired to put gravity on all of them for long enough for us to get away!”

  Blake looked at Taia sadly and shook his head. “You really have no idea what he’s capable of, do you?”

  “Have you found them?” a booming voice bellowed. It was the Giant Man.

  “I’ve caught one of their scents. I think it’s the woman.” It was Randall’s voice. It sounded even more like a weasel now than before and quite close to them. “But wouldn’t this be easier for you?” he continued. “You have a higher vantage point being all the way up there.”

  “All of you look like nothing more than ants to me from up here,” The Giant Man said.

  “Listen,” Eli whispered. “I’m not doing that. It’s too dangerous,” he said at Blake.

  Blake rolled his eyes. “Then what are we supposed to do?”

  Eli looked around calculatingly. “There,” he said, he was pointing at one of the hover busses that he and Taia had ridden early yesterday, what seemed like an eternity ago. It had been abandoned in all of the commotion.

  Realization dawned on Blake’s face and he smirked. “You’re going to have to drive it. Cause I’m going to have to be looking at where we’re going if we’re thinking the same thing.”

  “I can handle it,” Eli said.

  “And you’re going to have to let me know when.”

  “I said I can handle it. We’ve done this before.”

  Blake chuckled. “Not like this we haven’t,” he then grabbed both Eli and Taia by the arm before looking at the bus and teleporting them inside.

  As Taia breathed heavily from the effects of the vortex, she voiced her confusion. “What the heck is going on? What are you two planning on doing? Driving this bus into his foot?” she asked sarcastically.

  Eli ignored her and sat down into the driver’s seat. He pressed a button on the dashboard of the bus and the engine started. Taia could feel the bus lift slightly off of the ground as the hover plates on the bottom of the bus were activated.

  “You can drive?” Taia asked, genuinely shocked. She could not believe that this cave dwelling man could actually drive.

  Eli glared at her before rolling his eyes. “Yes I can drive.”

  “So you’ll answer that question but not the others?” Taia snapped back.

  Eli shifted the gear into reverse and pulled out of the spot that the bus was parked in.

  Randall turned his head towards the bus and narrowed his eyes. He began sniffing in the air. His eyes then got wide in surprise. “They’re over here sir! In the bus!”

  “Well we have a bright one over here, don’t we,” Blake said sarcastically.

  The bus surged forward towards Randall and the Giant Man as Eli floored the accelerator. Randall was forced to dive out of the way as the bus sped directly at him.

  “What in the…” Taia began.

  The Giant Man let out of loud chuckle that boomed across the town. “You idiots,” he said.

  He then lifted his foot in the air.

  “Eli…” Taia continued.

  “Blake are you ready?” Eli asked.

  “Yea, just let me know when,” Blake responded.

  The bus kept going forward. It was quickly approaching the Giant Man and Eli was only speeding up. If they crashed into him they would die. And Taia did not understand what the point of crashing into a giant boot would be.

  “Eli,” Taia said again, this time louder.

  Eli kept looking forward, eyes set dead ahead, hands tightly gripping the steering wheel.

  “Did you think you could escape?” The Giant Man asked. “I am going to crush you!”

  “This guy is very presumptuous,” Eli said calmly, looking at Blake.

  “You know how these guys always underestimate us,” Blake said smiling, still looking in the sky.

  “Do you think it’s our age?” Eli responded.

  “Might be,” Blake said. “I know if I was older my mother would definitely take me more seriously.”

  “You have to get over those mommy issues man,” Eli said.

  “Yea I seriously think I may need therapy.”

  The bus was only a few feet away from the Giant Man now.

  “Die!!” he bellowed before bringing his foot down to stomp the bus.

  “ELI!!” Taia screamed

  “Blake now!” Eli yelled

  “Indoor voices,” Blake said smiling. He then extended his arms in front of him and the bus drove straight into a newly created vortex.

  The next thing Taia saw after the bus drove into the vortex was a giant….ear?

  Suddenly, Eli was hopping out of his seat and he grabbed Taia. Taia could feel herself be lifted off the ground as Eli wrapped his arms around her tightly and flew towards the back of the bus. She saw Blake wave towards her before teleporting himself through a vortex out of the bus.

  The bus was soaring through the sky hundreds of feet in the air at a rapid pace headed straight for the Giant Man’s head. As Eli flew to the back of the bus, he extended his arm and sent a gravity blast to the bus’s t
ail end. This blew the back of the bus out and created an opening for Eli to fly out of into the sky.

  Taia watched as the Giant Man turned his head towards the bus just in time for the bus to sore straight into his face and explode. At the pace that it was going, combined with the force that the vortex had ejected the bus out at, the bus hitting the head of the Giant Man was similar to a bullet hitting a normal sized person in the head.

  As the Giant Man toppled over, Taia could not believe what had just happened.

  “Really?” She asked angrily at Eli looking up at him.

  Eli was holding her bridal style floating in the air hundreds of feet above the ground. He looked down at her. “What?” he asked confused.

  “You and Blake couldn’t just warn me of the plan?!” she exclaimed. “You two had to talk in your little weirdo bro code without WARNING me? I thought we were going to die!”

  Eli shook his head. “You are so dramatic.”

  “And I told you to stop grabbing me,” Taia snapped.

  “So I should’ve let you die?” Eli asked exasperatedly.

  He had to suddenly turn in midair swiftly as a streak of lightning sailed towards them. Eli glared in the direction that the lightning came from and swore. Taia looked in that direction.

  It was the other male Core member. He must be Cooper. On the ground his hands were glowing and crackling with lightning.

  “This is why we shouldn’t be in the air,” Eli said looking at Cooper. “Being by myself I could probably be okay. But when I’m with someone up here, they’re too much of a liability if an enemy has certain powers. Like lightning. Lightning is bad.”

  “Well I’m sorry I’m a liability,” Taia said sarcastically.

  “That’s all you heard from all of that?” Eli asked frantically. “Not that we’re vulnerable up here because that guy can shoot us down with lightning?”

  Eli then had to drop down in the air to dodge another lightning bolt that was shot at them. Eli had to keep dodging and moving as Cooper kept sending lightning bolts at the pair.

  Taia pulled out her pistol. “I need to get closer,” she told Eli in between Eli saving them from being electrocuted.

  He nodded. He began flying rapidly towards Cooper. He was able to swerve and spin between the lightning bolts that Cooper was sending. When he was a few feet from Cooper he extended his arm. Gravity around Cooper was increased and Cooper fell to the ground. Taia flipped out of Eli’s arms and simultaneously fired a shot into Cooper.