Born a Queen (Lilith's Shadow Book 1)

by Benjamin Medrano

  Born a Queen

  Benjamin Medrano

  Born a Queen by Benjamin Medrano

  © 2017 Benjamin Medrano. All rights reserved.

  Contact the author at BenjaminPMedrano@gmail.com

  Visit the author’s website at benjaminmedrano.com

  Sign up for the author’s mailing list at http://eepurl.com/cGPT-b

  Cover Art by Brendon and Brian Fraim

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Created with Vellum

  Jessica, thank you for keeping me in check on this story. It improved it a lot.

  Contents

  Foreword

  World Origins

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Epilogue

  Author’s Note

  Foreword

  This is the beginning of a new series for me, and it’s a shock in some ways. Though perhaps calling Lilith’s Shadow a new series isn’t exactly right, either. Born a Queen was written and finished in its original incarnation over a year before I even started writing Ancient Ruins, which was what really kickstarted my writing career. The core of the book remains the same, but the book required incredibly extensive edits before it was acceptable for publishing.

  Don’t even ask about the original. It was… not something I’m proud of.

  While many elements changed, some have stayed the same. If you happen to have read my other books, you may very well notice some similar elements from the Ancient Dreams trilogy, which shouldn’t be surprising, I suppose.

  Unlike Ancient Dreams or any of my other projects, Lilith’s Shadow doesn’t have a set ending. There is at least one more book in the story being told, possibly two, but it’s far more… open-ended than my other stories. Perhaps that’s a good thing, perhaps not. Regardless, here we go.

  In case you don’t know what I write, Born a Queen is a story about a lesbian character in search of her place in a world full of superheroes, and it isn’t quite as bright and colorful as many such worlds, though it’s also not as dark and gritty as has become common. I hope you enjoy it.

  World Origins

  It’s a commonly held belief that the emergence of superpowers was the fault of the SS in 1943. Many scholars are skeptical of these claims, but even they admit that it was the actions of the SS that led to superpowers coming into the open. Whatever the case, that year the SS made the mistake of sacrificing the life of a young woman in Poenari Castle, believing it would call demons to their aid, thus turning the tide of the war in their favor.

  Instead their actions woke Vlad Dracul. Contrary to popular legends, Vlad was not a vampire but instead a dragon, and the actions of the Nazi scientists enraged him. He raised the young woman from the dead and destroyed the interlopers, declaring Transylvania his domain. The offending army could do little against him, and when anti-aircraft batteries, tanks, and bombs proved ineffective, Germany ceded the battle. Yet even though Dracula’s appearance rocked the world, his was merely the first of many powerful individuals.

  Months later, the first man the world called Pyroclasm took the field on the side of Germany, incinerating those who opposed him. Only through great sacrifices was he defeated, including that of a handful of people who showed superhuman abilities before their deaths.

  Over the following decades, every nation had men and women with superpowers emerge, though they were few and far between. Some of these were heroes, while others became villains. Those that inherited the name of Pyroclasm attempted to keep the last remnants of the SS alive, and have persisted even into modern days. However, the rarity of these powers came to an end on January 1st of the year 2000.

  As the year of 1999 came to a close, Stonehenge exploded with power that no one had ever imagined, rocking the countryside and the world itself as the stars shifted and warped until the very heavens were rent asunder. Power flooded the world, and with the dawn came the first changes in a slow ripple across the planet. Atlantis rose from beneath the ocean’s surface and mermaids swam once more, while the top of Mount Olympus disappeared into the clouds. A handful of people took on new and fantastic forms, and ancient gateways to realms of myth and legend opened once more. To humanity’s shock, they learned that for millennia Earth had been sealed away in a pocket universe where magic and superpowers were all but impossible to use, but that night, the seal had been broken.

  Thirty years has passed since then, and the number of superhumans has skyrocketed. Seemingly every form of superpower imaginable has manifested somewhere, and not all of them for the good. One of the most notable incidents in the United States was in 2003, when Congress was discussing regulation of superpowers and two villains attacked. General Mayhem and Major Disaster, both leaders of Destruction Corps, destroyed half the city and killed a large portion of the ruling parties of the country. Only the arrival of Destiny and Frostfire, two of the most powerful heroes in the world, saved the remainder of the city. Even so, Destiny was slain in the conflict. Fortunately, the heroine appears to be immortal, having emerged once more in 2025.

  The second major incident was in 2008, when a man now dubbed Megadeath attacked Salt Lake City. His sole power was to detonate on a near-nuclear scale a single time, which he used to wipe out the leadership of his former religion during one of their major conferences. The vast majority of the city was destroyed, and in the aftermath it was rebuilt as Paragon City. One of the few cities built from the ground up with the aid of superhuman inventors and scientists, Paragon City is the hub of superhero activity in the western United States.

  Things have changed immensely since the Advent, as the emergence of Earth into the wider universe is called. Few aliens have come calling so far, but humanity has proven to be just as prone to discord as ever, and while there have been many advancements in technology, many villains have arisen as well. It’s a new world, with limitless horizons and immense dangers.

  This is the world of Stars & Shadows.

  Prologue

  Monday, January 7th, 2030

  Shadowmind Arctic Lair Delta-Seven, Arctic Ocean

  The shriek of twisting metal echoed through the facility savagely, prompting yet another siren to wail its warning throughout the structure. Amber winced at the harsh sound, glancing up at the intercom with a glare, hitting a key harder than she should have. As the siren cut off in a mournful, dying wail, the villain muttered under her breath angrily. “Damn it, I know! Crimson Bull my ass, he should be named ‘Bull in the China Shop!’ I just wish the idiot was stupid enough to show up without Warden. That would make this easier. Instead… well, shit.”

  The core of her undersea base was the chamber she was in, a hexagonal room about fifty feet acros
s, with only a single, heavily reinforced hatch for an entrance. Opposite the hatch was a gaping alcove where an elaborate array of equipment dangled uselessly from where it’d been rapidly detached from the growth capsule she’d been monitoring. Amber wished that she’d thought to have a spare capsule on hand to put into its place, to fix the obvious absence. Unfortunately it was far too late for that, and Amber looked around the room again for something that she might be able to use against the heroes.

  To Amber’s right was a large set of workbenches and her favorite workstation, complete with six high-resolution holographic projectors that were currently dark. A tiny part of the villain glowered at the old coffee mug sitting next to the keyboard, annoyed that she hadn’t dealt with it before this. Far more frustrating was that this was the single most devastating invasion of her career, and both she and her base were in shambles.

  Four and a half suits of power armor were scattered across the benches to her left, most of the armor plating shattered and broken, and the inner workings scattered among her tools were largely broken and dismantled. If she’d had even another day, Amber might’ve been able to cobble together a single proper suit from the remnants of the others. As it was, none of the components were in any shape to be assembled into anything useful at this point. What she’d give for even one of the power generators being functional at the moment!

  The center of the room was dominated by the teleportation platform. There was a pylon both above and below the platform, which could be accessed by a gentle ramp, and remnants of electricity arced across the surface of the pylons from their recent use. Amber was working at the control panel next to the ramp, and she sat back in frustration as she realized the only option she had was to commit suicide, and that was a step too far, even now.

  A soft tone sounded and the computer began speaking in a silky, sexy voice that made Amber cringe under the circumstances. “Power reserves at 10%, teleportation matrix is offline. Primary, secondary, and tertiary power plants disconnected. Capacitor banks One, Two, Four, Five, and Six have sustained critical damage. Hull integrity failing, critical damage sustained by structural supports. Immediate evacuation is recommended, Mistress.”

  Amber glared up at the ceiling in disgust, annoyed with the AI. She’d once thought the lovely voice would make her happier, but at the moment all it did was make a bad situation worse.

  “If I could escape, I would’ve already done so, Circe. The problem is that they took out the escape pods and submersibles first,” Amber murmured, finally sitting back in her wheelchair and running her fingers through her hair, her mind racing through ideas. Despite her many close escapes, a daring, brilliant way out of this one was failing to occur to her, and her lips pressed together tightly as nothing came to mind. Finally she realized the truth, though, and she sighed, pressing a button and speaking clearly. “Circe, Protocol Delta. Confirmation code seven-four-nine-alpha-nine.”

  “Protocol Delta confirmed, initiating data wipe. Good luck, Mistress,” the computer replied in a soft voice, shutting down with an oddly final tone. Smiling sadly, Amber patted the console and shook her head.

  There were so many plans she’d had brewing, but obviously they weren’t going to happen now. The heroes were going to see to that. But the least she could do was make things more difficult for them. Turning her powers on herself, Amber began removing as much of the information they might want from her mind as possible while she waited for the ‘heroes’ to get to her room.

  The echo of twisting, tearing metal came with depressing regularity, approaching slowly as the heroes progressed through her undersea base. Amber couldn’t understand what the so-called hero was thinking, smashing through the bulkheads the way he was. They were at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, and while her base had been built to handle the immense pressure with a large safety margin, it didn’t help when a super-powered imbecile was ripping through vital structural supports. The ominous creaking sounds warned her of the eventual collapse of the structure, removing the need for Circe’s earlier warning. Disheartened, Amber imagined that the lair wasn’t going to last more than another hour or two.

  “I suppose this is actually the end of the line for me, unless someone breaks me out of jail. Well, at least I can go out with some dignity. No, with some pride. I’m too sharp-tongued for dignity,” Amber murmured with a smirk, shaking her head in amusement. She hoped that the capsule had arrived safely at its destination, but with the base breached, all communications with her other lairs had been cut off, removing the usual confirmation signals. A moment later, she sighed. “It’s just as well I don’t want to die. The self-destruct system might be satisfying, but given the typical luck heroes seem to have, it’d be pointless anyway.”

  With a shriek, a hatch in the next room was kicked clean off its hinges, clanging harshly against the opposite wall. The heavy, echoing footsteps that followed were ominous in their own right, and Amber sighed again, calmly pulling out a pair of noise-canceling headphones and slipping them over her ears. An instant later, the steel hatch she was watching dented inward in the shape of a man’s fist. A follow-up punch tore straight through the metal, revealing the crimson glove of the attacker, which withdrew enough that the hero could get both hands into the gap. It took a moment for Crimson Bull to get a solid grip, and he slowly ripped the hatch into two separate pieces. Watching it happen, Amber silently thanked the designer of her headphones for their excellent work.

  Amber removed her headphones calmly as she looked at the imposing man now standing in the entrance. Crimson Bull wore a form-fitting crimson suit with yellow trim, his full helmet bearing elaborate bull’s horns while a yellow cape flared dramatically behind him. The hero was built like a Greek god, and many women would have swooned at the mere sight of him, though Amber certainly wasn’t one of those. He paused where he was standing, obviously startled despite the yellow lenses that concealed his eyes. There really wasn’t any question of what he was looking at.

  The villain knew that she wasn’t much to look at, but that wasn’t why he was staring. She was pretty enough, in a modest sort of way, with piercing blue eyes, golden blonde hair to the middle of her back, and a painfully thin figure. What made people stare when they thought she wasn’t looking was the motorized wheelchair she was in. Only a well-designed brace allowed her to sit up straight, and that had to be a shock for the hero in the doorway.

  “Let me guess, Mister Bullshit, you decided you needed an update so you left your brain back at headquarters? Or perhaps you decided you actually needed a mind, and have one on layaway that you’ve been trying to purchase? I can’t think of any other reason for you to ignore the emergency override panels that would’ve opened the doors. Instead you ripped through bulkheads and hatches the entire way here.” Amber’s tone was fit to strip the paint from the walls as she lectured the hero. “Of course, all of that was after you destroyed enough structural supports to guarantee the place would implode. Good job, hero, let’s hear the applause! Oh wait… there isn’t going to be any.”

  “What the hell? Who’re you supposed to be, some kind of body double?” Crimson Bull rumbled in a deep voice, stepping into the room and booting a piece of the hatch aside. “She can walk, which makes it kind of stupid to try posing as Shadowmind. Sure, you’ve got her attitude down, but that’s about it.”

  “Dear gods, I thought you were dumb enough before this. Thanks for showing that I was overly generous in my estimate,” Amber retorted, shaking her head in disbelief. She could hardly believe the idiot had caught her. She hoped that he’d simply been the closest person when someone had managed to pinpoint her base, because the only other way he’d have found it would be via blind luck.

  Almost as if trying to prove her point, Crimson Bull frowned in irritation and put a fist in his palm, cracking his knuckles threateningly as he spoke. “Shut it. I’m in a bad mood already, so tell me where your boss is.”

  “Calm down, Crimson. She’s probably not Shadowmind, but it’ll be easy
enough to find out.” Warden’s soft, serene voice echoed through the room, and a moment later she floated into the room two feet off the ground, handily avoiding the shrapnel the other hero had littered all over the floor. The heroine continued, looking at Amber carefully. “It’s also possible that she was injured in one of her attacks and put into a wheelchair for a time.”

  Warden had a beautiful, curvaceous figure, one that Amber would have been quite happy to possess herself, and wore a white bodysuit that covered everything but her face, with only a tracery of golden lines across the surface to add contrast. A golden, wing-like mask covered Warden’s face, though her mouth and blue eyes were exposed. The woman had been one of the many heroes that Amber had gotten a sample of—a sample that had been much more difficult to manage than the vast majority of heroes, though she’d eventually succeeded.

  “Who are you?” Warden’s question almost surprised Amber, and as the villain laughed sharply, the heroine frowned and spoke more firmly, this time with power in her words. “Again, who are you?”

  The heroine’s magic was trying to compel Amber to speak the truth, but the villain shrugged it off with a laugh, flicking her hand and launching a violet mental bolt right back at the heroine. The barb painfully bounced off Warden’s shields, but Amber ignored the discomfort as she grinned. “I thought it was obvious. I’m the person you’ve been after this entire time, Shadowmind herself. Pardon me for the cold reception, but I’m afraid you caught me at a bad time. I’ve had a bad month, and wasn’t ready for your little visit. If you’d given me a few days that would’ve changed, but there’s no use crying over spilt milk.”