Human Superior

by C. S. Won

  She looked at the makeshift club. “You’re joking, right?”

  “You won’t hurt me. I promise.”

  She inspected her new weapon. “There’s no way I’m doing this.”

  “I have to know if my theory holds water. It’s critical that I know what I’m fully capable of.”

  “But . . .”

  “Please,” he implored her.

  She shook her head, then gave a long, drawn out sigh. “Only because you asked so nicely. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She widened her stance and brought the weapon over her shoulders, holding it like a bat. She looked at him, waiting for his confirmation, so he gave her a nod, signaling the go-ahead. She nodded back, closing her eyes, and Jae saw her tighten her grip, fingers taut and white, and with a grunt she swung the beam straight against his bare, exposed chest, the weapon becoming a blur. Jae tightened his body, gritted his teeth, and sucked in his breath, bracing for impact. He wanted to close his eyes too, but he resisted the urge. He had to witness what came next.

  A sharp slap whipped across his chest, and a loud crack rang out. One severed end of the beam twirled through the air, completing several rotations before landing in a loud clatter a few yards away. A storm of wood chips rained against him, forcing Jae to look away so he wouldn’t get any splinters in his eyes or mouth. A slight pain throbbed, right across his chest, but it was dull and tolerable. Jae peered over at Andrea, a look of disbelief on her face as she held the other jagged half of the beam. He looked down at his torso and saw a long red mark glowing right above his nipples. He poked at the welt. The pain, at best, was only a mild discomfort.

  “So?” Andrea asked tentatively. “Did it hurt? Is anything broken?”

  “Just the beam itself.” Jae spread his arms apart. “I mean, my chest is a little sensitive, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.” He looked at her. “I’m okay.”

  “Don’t lie. That looked and sounded like it hurt.”

  “It only looked bad.”

  She gave him a doubtful look.

  “I’m serious! My chest isn’t smoldering in pain.”

  Andrea dropped the beam. “So does this mean that you can’t get hurt or something?”

  “I doubt it. I’m sure there’s a ceiling to what I can tolerate, but we definitely haven’t reached it yet.” A mischievous smile appeared on Jae’s face, and he gave her a look that implied, in so many different ways, what he wanted.

  Andrea put her hands up, gesturing at him to stop. “No way. Don’t even think about asking me to do that. The answer is going to be no.”

  Jae clasped his hands together in a pleading manner. “You’re the only person here with enough firepower to leave a dent. Just do this one thing for me, please. I’ll owe you big time.”

  “That’s something you don’t hear too often. Hey, can you beat me up? I’d really appreciate it if you do.”

  “Think of it as a good cause. For science and all that.”

  “Are you even listening to yourself? It’s like you think you can catch a bullet with your bare teeth.” She looked at her hands. “My powers . . . it’s not something you want to mess around with, trust me.”

  “I’ll stop before I let things get too far, and I promise that after today, I will never ask you to do anything like this again. Scout’s honor.”

  Andrea continued staring at her hands. “Jae . . .”

  “Please, just this once.”

  Andrea sighed. “God, why can’t I say no?” A look of resignation formed on her face. “Let the record show that I was totally against this.”

  “Just start small, and slowly work your way up.”

  “Just start small, he says. Easier said than done . . .” Electricity sizzled in the palm of her hands, humming blue and burning bright, like a star shrunk down to size. Extraordinary could not even begin to describe her. She was like a myth made real, an idol walking amongst them. If her brother wasn’t so insane, then they could have made for a very interesting—and frightening—combination. The brother and sister duo that could control fire and electricity.

  Jae took a few steps away from her, giving her more room to operate. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

  Andrea exhaled through her nose. “This is such a bad idea.” The buzzing of electricity crackled in the air. She moved her left arm out in front of her and aimed her hand at Jae like she was pointing a gun. The sight of such a terrifying display of power prompted discomfort and an inkling of regret. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. But he couldn’t back down now. He had to learn to trust in himself. His body had demonstrated what it was capable of, and it was time to show a little faith. He couldn’t continue to have second thoughts every time a threat presented itself. He had to learn to manage his fear and trust that his body would do the rest.

  A burst of light exploded, and Jae pulled his arms up to shield his eyes. A shrill, vibrating hum filled the air, and a sharp impact punched him on his chest, nearly lifting him off his feet. For a quick moment, the world went white, the pain spreading across his entire body, burning away at him, and surging like venom, before diffusing back to screaming clarity. He lurched forward, eyes wide and fists clenched, gnashing his teeth together in an effort to withstand the pain, neck strained so tight he thought his head was going to pop open.

  “Give it a little more!” he shouted to her.

  “Are you kidding me?” she shouted back.

  “Trust me! Just do it!”

  The torrent of electricity grew in both size and intensity. The world screamed at him, and Jae thought this was it. It felt as though a pack of wild bulls was trampling him, battering and bruising him into a mass of twisted flesh. Sparks flew off of his body, an iridescent spray turning the red dirt around him into a glowing indigo. He thought he smelled smoke, but black plumes of vapor were nowhere to be seen.

  “I’m going to stop!” Andrea shouted.

  Jae looked at her, and with all the strength he could muster, shook his head. “No! Do more! Make it stronger!”

  “Are you out of your damn mind?”

  “I can take it, just keep going! I’ll let you know when to stop!”

  “Damn it, Jae, I—”

  “Andrea, please!”

  She brought her other hand up, introducing a second avenue of power, and the resultant surge of her new attack blasted him off his feet, sending him flying through the air, legs and arms flailing, until he landed with a loud thud a few yards away, rolling backwards on the ground for a few cycles before he could finally stop.

  To Andrea’s credit, and to Jae’s surprise, she was not letting up, just as he directed. She gave him everything that he wanted, perhaps more. The agony he felt was an agony so unfeasible he knew no man could ever survive it, neo-human or otherwise. The world took on a scrambled form, everything in misaligned disorder, and he took a fistful of warm dirt to steady himself, trying to fend off the tide of unconsciousness that rose within him.

  He looked at Andrea, and even through the chaos of his vision he could see how fearsome she appeared. The power of her attack had induced a small windstorm of sorts, blowing her hair back in a mad flail, whipping her clothes about frantically. Small branches of electricity even surged from her eyes, her pupils hidden behind a light that was as bright as the sun. She looked like a god wielding lightning, as if she was Zeus reincarnate.

  How much wattage is she producing? Is this the true extent of her powers, or is she capable of more?

  Jae raised his hand, an effort that made his arm shake, and signaled for Andrea to stop. The electricity fizzled away, evaporating into a bed of dancing sparks, and the wind simmered down to a soft whisper. He fell forward on his hands and fought to catch his breath, hacking out his anguish in furious spasms. Andrea fell in next to him and apologized for what she had done, even though she didn’t need to. He sat up, slowly, wiping the saliva from his lips, and leaned back with his legs stretched out, waiting for the pain to subside.

  “Thank you,” Jae to
ld her. He noticed for the first time the smoke rising off of him. Not the thick, torrid smoke one might see in a fire, but more steam-like in appearance, like water being boiled. His pants also bore several war marks, shredded and torn beyond any recognition.

  “I can’t believe you’re still conscious after that,” Andrea said.

  “I think the only reason I was only able to withstand it is because I was prepared for it. I saw it coming. It might have been a different story if you caught me offguard.”

  “I was afraid you were going to ask for even more.”

  Jae smiled. “I thought about it.”

  Andrea glowered at him. “Don’t you dare.”

  Footsteps approached. Jae and Andrea turned to see Tobin walking towards them, seemingly coming from nowhere. He stopped a few paces from them and knelt. He nodded at the two as way of greeting. “That sure was something.”

  “How long were you watching?” Jae asked.

  “Long enough to think you weren’t going to make it. You’re strong, Mr. Yeon, very strong, and you are too, Ms. Erste. It gives me hope that we’ll have no issues rescuing Han,” Tobin said.

  Jae wiped the sweat off his brow. “If we ever get the chance to.”

  “We will, because I’ve found where they have taken him.”

  Jae looked up at him. “You did? Where is he?”

  “Let me show you.”

  Chapter Four

  Windowless and flat, lacking character and distinction, and bleached in the brightest of whites—so bright that it almost hurt to stare—the compound was a largely unremarkable structure. It lacked any signage to indicate what the building even was, or its purpose on this stretch of empty nowhere. It sat on a sloping brown hill, surrounded by a high concrete fence fringed with a vast web of barbwire, with an imposing metal gate that served as the only means of entry into the premises. A pebbled pathway spiraled down from that gate, leading down to a long, winding stretch of road that has so far been unused by any vehicles since Jae had been out here.

  Jae put his binoculars down. “Where in Virginia are we again?”

  “Outskirts of Bowling Green,” Tobin said.

  “I still don’t understand how there’s a black-site prison right here on American soil.”

  “There’s another one in Chicago, and likely a few more I don’t even know about.”

  “Is that not illegal?”

  “Of course it is, but the government and its corporate cohorts operate under a different set of rules. Legal and illegal are malleable terms for them.”

  Jae looked through his binoculars again and counted the number of guards milling about. He tallied ten, each one dressed in black combat boots, pants, hat, and vest, and equipped with all manner of weaponry: an assault rifle slung over their shoulders, a knife at their hip, and a handgun holstered at the opposite end of their knife. Two were camped in watch towers that were on opposite ends of the property, while the others were all on strict patrol paths on the ground, the formation of their circuit ensuring that whatever blind spots they were exposed to would be minimal and short-lived. Their backs were open for only a couple of seconds at best. There were also cameras posted on every corner, and several more placed on the roof to catch any tampering or break-in efforts.

  A tightly run ship, and Jae imagined there would be dozens, if not hundreds, of additional guards waiting inside.

  “And Marlowe is here too?” Jae asked.

  “Together with your brother, presumably because they were roughly taken at the same time,” Tobin said.

  “Caught a lucky break there.”

  “But Marlowe won’t be here for long. My source says they’re planning to transport him to a different facility soon. When exactly that will be, he did not know, but soon was his answer.”

  Jae sat up to a crouch. “Then let’s get to it.”

  Tobin tugged at the sleeve of Jae’s shirt. “Get down before they see you!”

  Jae went back down to his belly. “What’s wrong? What are we waiting for?”

  “We need a plan first. We cannot simply barge right in. It goes without saying, but infiltrating a high-level prison facility like this, then extracting two detainees is not exactly the easiest of tasks, even with our powers. If we fail, then that might be it. They’ll simply bury your brother into a deeper hole, and we may never get this chance again. We need to be methodical.”

  “Can’t you teleport me to where they are?”

  “My source did not know where in the facility they’re keeping Han and Marlowe. All he told me was where they were keeping them. We’ll have to navigate through the facility and find them ourselves.”

  “He didn’t provide a map or anything?”

  “We will be blind.”

  Wonderful. Jae looked through his binoculars again. “We can’t go through the front entrance, obviously. Is there a side or back entrance? A sewage passageway, maybe?”

  “When I checked previously, I was able to find a side entrance, but it requires a keycard for entry,” Tobin said.

  “Would the guards have them?”

  “I would imagine so.”

  Jae zoomed in on one of the guards, and spotted a laminated card hanging off one of their belts, but he wasn’t sure if that was it.

  “Let me see those,” Tobin said, holding his hand out.

  Jae handed him the binoculars. “Let’s say we rescue Han and he broadcasts to the world the truth of what Morgan and others like him did. What if it doesn’t actually stop anything? What if no one cares? What if hostilities continue even after that?”

  “Before I joined up with your brother, I had my doubts too. I thought to myself, what if nothing changes? People are stubborn. Most, if not all, have already made their minds up about us. No amount of dialogue or conversation will change their perspective. They have their biases, and biases can be unshakeable.” Tobin set the binoculars down. “You also have to keep in mind that a counter-campaign will likely be launched once Han goes public. It doesn’t matter how illuminating his truth is, our opponents will simply deny and obfuscate, and cling to the lie. You’ll have an easier time moving a mountain than trying to educate the public.”

  “Sounds like politics.” Jae sighed.

  “Just like politics.”

  “Then why join my brother in his efforts?”

  “Because I came to the realization that even if the people don’t want to hear the truth, they still have to hear it. Perspective is formed from truth. It’s one of the few things in this world that can liberate us.”

  “But what if people don’t care?”

  “The vast majority probably won’t. As long as whatever happens out there doesn’t affect them personally, then they’re not going to devote a single iota of thought to the subject. They have bills to pay, loved ones to attend to, TV shows to watch, and celebrities to fawn over. They don’t want to look at the world outside their window and realize how scary a place it really is. As long as they’re unbothered, they’ll let the world burn. Out of sight, out of mind.”

  “That’s pretty depressing.”

  “When news broke that domestic intelligence agencies were spying on US citizens, where was the uproar? Where were the mass protests and demonstrations? Where was the accountability? People cared for about a week or two, but after that, they dropped it and simply moved on. No one was arrested, there was no overhaul to the system, no regulations or laws were put into place, and there is still no transparency whatsoever. Our silence enables them, and to this day, the intelligence community continues to do what they’ve always done without fear of reprisal.”

  Jae frowned. “Hopefully, this’ll be different, then. With a war brewing on their doorsteps, people will have no choice but to care. Those who wish to bury their heads in the sand won't be able to.”

  “I pray you are correct.” Tobin peered through his binoculars again.

  Jae looked at the compound, far and blurry without magnification. He remembered how excited his brother was when he lan
ded his job with the government, and how he boasted about his job changing the world, that it was going to usher in a whole new era for mankind. Jae never understood what he meant back then. It all sounded like nonsense. Change the world? New era for mankind? Who cared? What about their mother? That's all that should have mattered back then. Han’s focus should have been on her, not on this job.

  But now, in this new, changed, radical world that they lived in, a new era for mankind was indeed being ushered in, and Jae wondered if Han knew exactly what he was getting himself into. Did they tell Han about this Evolution Trigger during the recruitment process? Did they tell him what they intended to do with it?

  “This is not good,” Tobin said.

  “What’s wrong?” Jae asked.

  Tobin handed Jae the binoculars. “Look just past the gate.”

  Through the lens, Jae saw Pax and Rena stepping out of a vehicle and walking over to the front entrance. They stopped to talk with a suited agent who had come out to greet them, before disappearing inside the compound.

  “What the hell are they doing here?” Jae asked.

  “Protecting precious cargo.” Tobin cursed underneath his breath. “This complicates things.”

  “I thought you teleported them away?”

  “Only to different countries, not the moon like with Dmitri. I should have taken all three of them there.”

  “How’d they find their way back already?”

  “They weren't going to be separated for long. Everyone in Morgan's PMC has a tracking nano-chip implanted in their body. They insert it right here.” Tobin pointed to a spot in the middle of his left forearm. A small incision scar marked the location. “It helps them keep track of their assets in the field.”

  “Then that healer—”

  “They won’t find him, not on the moon.”

  Jae cupped his chin, trying to think of a solution. “We can still avoid them. We don’t have to fight them.”

  “How?”

  “We’ll need to obtain a layout of the compound. With it, we might have a better idea where they’re keeping my brother and Marlowe, and possibly even chart a path, one that will hopefully avoid any direct interaction with Morgan’s lapdogs.”