“Got it, mom. I know I have to earn it,” I changed the subject, “Do you ever feel tired anymore? I feel like I drank two pots of coffee and I’m walking through static electricity.”
She nodded, “Usually around one or two in the morning, and I’m up by five or six feeling like I slept for weeks. You get used to it. I also tried your bubble trick, but I couldn’t get it to work. Maybe my powers are a weird subset of yours, but mine doesn’t let me do that, no more than yours lets you turn invisible.”
I sighed in mock sorrow.
She grinned, “Invisibility is a supervillain power anyway.”
I giggled, “You love it.”
She winked.
“Oh, I almost forgot the main reason I came to see you. You’re off the last three days of school. They decided to shut it down since finals were already over anyway and there are structural issues with the auditorium being gutted. So, no more school.”
I couldn’t help smiling widely at that, which got her to roll her eyes.
“Can I hit the mall tomorrow, with Janna… flying?”
She laughed, “Fine, just… be careful. They can’t see you on radar so stay away from the airport outside the city. You might also want to play at least to figure out how far you can project your shields. My power can hit anything I can see up to a half mile away. Fifteen years ago, it was a third of a mile.”
I nodded, “I have a few ideas.”
She asked, “Do tell.”
I said, “The reactive part should work with the environment and other things, not just supervillains attacking me.”
I started to glow as I put a shield around the lights in my ceiling fan, and the room grew dim except for that soft golden nimbus as my shield absorbed that light. Then I shined the soft white light from my hands like a flashlight, using that light instead of my natural gold light. I turned it all off.
I shrugged, “It might help in certain situations. I can’t shield inside something, when I tried to pick up and throw some electricity from the house it didn’t work. Nor the power cell in my phone, but anything that radiates energy outside of itself should work.”
She nodded, “Keep thinking and trying, I found new little tricks for quite a long while in the beginning. Also, if you can absorb light with your projective shields, you may be able to turn something else invisible.”
I hadn’t even considered that, just like I could mute external sounds, but that didn’t seem nearly as cool as being invisible myself. There’d also be a golden glowing thread leading to the invisible thing, which would probably defeat the purpose.
The redirected and enhanced energy also was limited to me, anything my shields absorbed was sent from me specifically. That meant I couldn’t transmit physical force over a distance using a projected shield. Still, I was quite happy at how diverse my power seemed to be.
“Wanna race?” I challenged.
She smirked, “Go to bed.”
I ignored that and asked, “Chicken?”
She said, “Last I checked I could go just over Mach three. Work with Prisma, I need to put your brother and sister to bed. I am guessing you’ll be quite a bit faster since you can redirect over ten tons more energy than I can. Wind resistance is the major limiter in speed for us, I think. Put on a tighter shirt before you go out.”
I chuckled, never expecting to hear those last words come out of my mother’s mouth. She really hadn’t approved of tight scandalous clothing when I’d started to fill out. It was only lately that I started to agree with her, sometimes less was more. Of course, going that fast the wind would be strong, and if a part of my shirt left my shield there was a good chance it’d be ripped off. No shirt would be a lot worse than a tight one.
The jeans I had on were tight enough, and I went into my closet and picked out one of my older shirts before I’d gone from B’s to C’s last month. It still wasn’t actually that bad, but it conformed well enough to my upper body. I used my watch to connect to Prisma, and I told her what my mother and I had discussed.
Prisma replied, “One moment,” and a few seconds a flash of light filled my room, but I didn’t see anything different right away. I knew what a teleport looked like though.
Prisma continued in her chipper voice, “On your vanity, the small white case. I’ve been wanting to try these out for a while. I’ll feel more comfortable if you have a HUD, but by law you can’t wear a mask like your mother does until you not only pass the course but are on a hero team.”
I nodded absently, already quite aware of that.
The small white case was a contacts case, and when I screwed off the lid I could see contacts floating in saline.
“Contacts?”
Prisma said, “My boss has made a few more advancements, they have microscopic nanites in them with light emitting capabilities, as well as very short-range communications suite, enough to use your watch to route the signal I send. They’re powered by the ambient heat of your eyes, as well as the light, so they’ll take a few minutes to come online when you put them in.”
Oh, wow. That almost made me want to join mom’s team, instead of striking out on my own. Although the city’s super team would have an A.I. and mad scientist support as well. It took me a minute to figure out how to put them in. My eyes kept wanting to close and I’d never worn a contact before. I wasn’t worried about the nanites, if any got in my body my new enhanced immune system would kill them quickly.
I headed downstairs and into the backyard, and by the time I got there the system had come online. It was a little odd at first, having the HUD in my vision showing fifty feet above sea level on my altimeter, air speed, ground speed, as well as a positioning map in my peripheral vision. That kind of thing would take time to get used to, but I had no trouble seeing the world around me.
Prisma interrupted my thoughts, “I’m going to put up a flight path including altitude. Do your best to stick to it, since it’ll avoid all traffic in the skies by a wide margin.”
I focused on rising up, and my golden glow started up as I rose into the air. I went straight up to two thousand feet, and I took a minute to look down at Excelsior City, and the skyline. It was a remarkable moment in my life, my heart pounded at how high I was, and the view was breathtaking.
The beginning of the flight was a little tentative, as I got used to watching the HUD, the real world around me, and matching the course all at the same time. Then I pushed it, as hard as I could, and at my desire and focus a second bubble appeared around me to deaden the sonic boom of my passage.
My acceleration topped out and my velocity changes slowed significantly around Mach three point four, but I got it up to three point five. My golden glow was bright, which told me my shield was working overtime, so I wasn’t thrown around or jostled at that speed. Taking on as my mother said, the energy of cutting through the wind.
That gave me an idea, and I slowly focused on adjusting my shield. It was basically tight around me, and a human being wasn’t exactly the most aerodynamic object in the world. The first try was a complete disaster, and it sent me into a spin. It took me a minute to recover, and then to climb back to two thousand feet.
Prisma’s sweet voice sounded concerned, “Are you alright?”
“Fine, let me try that at a slower speed first,” I said, my cheeks bright with embarrassment.
The second, third, and fourth try actually slowed me down. Eventually though, after fiddling with it enough, the shield was far more aerodynamic and far less bright meaning the air resistance it was meeting was mostly being lightly deflected at a sharp angle instead of met straight on. It was conical in shape out to a pointed end maybe ten feet ahead of me, and slowly thickened as it approached my body in a slow expansion.
That’s when I poured on the speed again. I almost immediately blew right past Mach three point four and kept going. I was smirking like a brat and felt smug, as I topped out at Mach six point three. Of course, three point four was more than fast enough while in the city, it’d get me a
nywhere inside of it in a second or two at forty miles a minute. Point being, I’d probably only bother with it if I had some reason to visit another state. Or, you know, if I raced my mother.
Okay, maybe I was just a smidge competitive.
“This is great,” and I explained to Prisma what I did.
I flew around a little longer, just for fun, but didn’t argue with Prisma about where I could go. Better to not be noticed by planes or patrolling superheroes. All supers that could fly did it if they were heroes or not, but I didn’t want to take the chance of annoying someone and getting rejected over some stunt. Still, I imagined I was hard to miss, even from miles away, the way I glowed golden and streaked across the sky.
I also did what my mother suggested, and according to Prisma’s estimates I could shield anything I saw within three thousand feet. A little less than three fifths of a mile. Of course, I had to see it to shield it, so I still couldn’t shield someone on the other side of a wall just five feet away. But I’d take it.
Chapter Four
The vote which I hadn’t given a single thought to since the supervillains destroyed a good part of my high school, had passed. What I hadn’t known, what no one had known, was it put certain things into play. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was about to be in the middle of those things, and it would change my life forever. In hindsight, it was naïve to think it would be that simple. An orderly and violent free turnover as homo-sapiens aged out and homo-potens took over ownership of our world. Well, save fifteen years ago when SAB was killing seven out of ten supers out of hand.
Sure, there were outliers, some old humans who hated supers, as well as the opposite. Some old humans were joyous supporters of the potential of what the human race had become. In the middle of that were most people, who just went on with their lives and didn’t overly care about it one way or another. Not if it didn’t impact their lives.
That day would change my life far more than just gaining my powers as a super did. But I’m getting ahead of my story.
It was a beautiful mid-May late morning in Excelsior city when I flew over to my best friend’s house. I had my contacts in and was complying with the course that Prisma gave me, but I also kept my eyes out for the unexpected despite that. My shields could do a lot of damage, if I ran into someone or something I’d likely destroy it.
Janna lived uptown in a nice condo complex, and she was practically vibrating in excitement when I landed next to her.
She said, “No school, same course, life is good.”
“Same course?” I asked, as I felt hope bubble up in me.
Janna nodded, “My mother works there in admin. There’re still three slots left for this coming training period, and I can’t imagine your application will be rejected.”
I nodded, a little disappointed it wasn’t a sure thing yet, but it was good news.
“Ready? I’m starving.”
She replied, “Me too, I’m always hungry.”
That was true enough. All superpowers burned through calories in addition to that exotic energy that our mitochondria absorbed and used. Speedsters even more than the rest of us, and my friend was extremely fast.
I wrapped her up in a shield and held onto her as we took off into the sky. The mall was in midtown, and it didn’t take us all that long to get there. I wasn’t going as fast as I could, and we arrived about three minutes later. Mostly because I wasn’t wearing a skintight shirt and didn’t want it to be torn off. I wasn’t exactly body shy. I enjoyed the looks as much as they made me self-conscious, but I wasn’t used to all the looks I’d been garnering lately from older men either, with my newer and curvier one-month old curves. At the same time, I couldn’t wait to get in a super suit, for the responsibility and to help others, but for other less laudable reasons as well.
Note to mom. Don’t worry, still a virgin. Back to the story.
There were a lot of other people in the sky, as well as small flying CCTV probes. Those latter ones never really had to land, unless a part wore out. Ever since the advent of dimensional reactors there was no more charging needed for those kinds of things. From cell phones, to laptops, to large aircraft, they just always had full power.
Janna said, “I could’ve walked faster.”
I laughed, “Probably. I could’ve flown faster but it’s more fun to enjoy the view.”
That was true too, but mostly it was so I wouldn’t accidentally flash the entire city of Excelsior.
Jenna snickered, “I imagine it’s more fun when you’re in control.”
“I didn’t drop you, did I?”
She giggled, “No, I’d have beaten you here if you did.”
I rolled my eyes with a smile and we headed inside. We spent a little time window shopping for clothes and just chatting as we slowly made our way to the food court. I picked up a personal pizza and meatball sub at Sbarro while she got two burgers and fries at another one of the stands, and we met back at our seats.
I won’t bore you with the details, but we discussed the clothes we’d seen, and what stores we wanted to go back to and buy from. Personally, I had my eye on two cute casual shirts and a pair of boots. That was about all I could afford until next month. My family had money, but I was on a tight budget to teach me responsibility, or something. We also talked about the course coming up, and about being glad to finally be done with high school. We were graduates three days early thanks to some supervillains. To think we could actually be stuck in a classroom twiddling our thumbs, instead of shopping, lent a little extra excitement to the day. It felt like I was getting away with something, though honestly, I’d have been much happier if the incident hadn’t happened.
That no one had died had been pure luck. Well, save two of the bad guys.
The thing about luck, was that it was something that ran out eventually.
Janna was waxing poetic about her super suit, “I’m thinking skintight red base, with white accents. Short shorts and a half shirt, not full body.”
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about showing all that skin, but believe it or not I was the shy one, relatively between the two of us I mean. I thought I was bold anyway, but Janna was fearless in the realms of being social. Technically my shield was far more powerful as far as both physical and energy-based attacks than any super suit technology, so I didn’t need to wear a full neck to toe suit like my mother did to attenuate energy attacks. I’d give it some thought, I wanted to look good, but not trashy.
“I was thinking white, with gold accents to match my glow, maybe a little darker like my hair?”
Gold went good with dark blues and reds too, but I didn’t want to wear a dark colored suit. Perhaps I was overcompensating for my mother’s shiny black one.
That’s when the screaming started, and my heart skipped, jumped, and took off like a jackrabbit as I looked in that direction. It was a horribly shocking moment. The two men central to the issue were dressed in black tactical clothes and holding what looked like a very fat gun. I saw them fire it again and a columnized blue beam of energy leapt across the room and vaporized the chests of two young woman who could’ve very easily been us.
It was the first time I’d ever seen someone killed. I mean outside of television. It felt wrong, on a level I don’t think I could fully explain. To watch the light go out of someone’s eyes, the lack of their presence as their body fell to the ground. It was alien, and it made no sense. Why? Why would anyone do that?
I hope and pray I’ll never understand.
These men weren’t supervillains holding hostages. They were just killers on a killing spree as far as I could tell, and the dark chuckle that fell from one of their lips galvanized me and my shield exploded into being. Lines of gold moved at the speed of light, and they surrounded everyone I could see and sense with my powers.
Just in time for them to pull the trigger again. The energy my shields absorbed was familiar somehow, but slightly different, and it tickled uncomfortably. The best way I could explain it was it wa
s like drinking slightly sour milk, it felt like the energy that flowed through me and powered my powers, but it wasn’t that. Which could only mean one thing.
There was a treaty between nations not to use the new dimensional reactor power source in weapons research or development. I don’t mean in powering weapons, that was fine, but using that dimensional energy directly as a weapon was incredibly illegal and banned all over the world.
Supers were dangerous enough already, so we didn’t need weapons like that. Especially when they could be harnessed in a way that made nukes look like a warm breeze. Treaty or not, these two men had energy weapons of some kind, using exotic energies. My shield worked, but I knew about ninety five percent of supers would just die if they were shot with the thing.
“Janna,” I urged.
I could take them myself, but I’d decided not to use sonic weapons if I could help it, to avoid association with my mother. I could already do it if I had to. The sonic weapons during testing had walked me through it, by being attacked with various frequencies that my power remembered and could duplicate by changing ambient sounds, as he outlined what they’d each do to me if not for my shield. From mild nausea, disorientation, knocking them out, or killing them.
At the same time, if I fired back what they just fired at me I’d disintegrate them, and I didn’t want to do that either. Not that they weren’t a continuing threat, or that they didn’t deserve it, but they needed to be questioned.
I also wasn’t ready for that, ready to kill, but I didn’t have to. Not with Janna here, and her being protected by my shield like the bystanders.
Janna disappeared in a gold blur because of my shield, and a split second later both men were laid out on the ground and Janna was holding both weapons and standing right next to me again. Janna only had toughness and speed, but toughness came with heavier muscle and bone mass, which meant super strength or not she could hit a lot harder than most seventeen-year-old girls. Or full-grown men in professional boxing, for that matter.
Lady Aegis: Origins of Supers: Book Two Page 4
