"What do you say? Wanna make a deal with a complete stranger that could change your entire life forever without knowing whether that change will be good or bad?" Matt Winters asked while holding out his hand. Max didn't say anything, but took the offered hand as a show that she would accept the offer.
While Max didn't know what the future held, for the first time in her life she felt hope. And she would do anything she could to keep that hope burning, for herself and for Milia.
Chapter 26:
Epilogue
Max stared from off to the side of the podium that the president was speaking from. He was giving an emergency address to the people regarding events that had taken place only a few weeks prior. He would have done it sooner but other matters demanded his attention. And many of those matters surprised Max and Milia.
First of all they found out that the entire state of Arizona and most of Nevada and New Mexico had to be evacuated. And that evacuation would be permanent. The base where the missiles that were fired at Max had come from had detonated, leaving almost a thousand missiles worth of nuclear waste to blanket the area.
Congress had authorized subsidies for housing for the millions of displaced citizens and radiation research in an attempt to clean up the area and make it habitable again, but the best projections for such work were generations down the line at best. Until then all of those people had been displaced permanently and would be unable to return home ever again. Max thought about helping in that regard but was unsure of what she could do. Her powers had not only not been tested, but she had developed new ones after her ride on the missile, meaning she was once again unsure of her strengths.
That would be okay though. The president admitted to the existence of a superhuman and present Max. Nobody had believed him at first but Max floated up above the podium in a show of power to convince them.
That hadn't originally been the plan, but then some hacker kid living in his mothers basement had found a backdoor into the White House computer system and revealed files regarding superhuman research. The President felt that admitting the truth would be a better way to end the conspiracy theories. Plus he relished a little in the fact that he was the first person to befriend the said superhuman. That would gain him a lot of credit and notoriety around the world.
The President stated that he would be overseeing research into Max's abilities personally because he'd been a physics researcher before changing into politics. He had opted not to run for re-election next year after meeting the girl and would instead move back into his original field, which suited Max just fine. He seemed nice enough, even to the point of subtly threatening anyone who tried to harm Max live on national television. His exact words had been "and anyone who tries to use unethical research means on miss Einhardt will find out what my secret service detail is there for."
Max had visibly shivered at that declaration. Sometimes even an ordinary human could be quite scary, with the right motivation.
After a brief question and answer period the President bid everyone a good night and left to head to the White House. Max went with him to help him file some paperwork to have a government safe house turned into her new home, at least temporarily. She'd refused to live on some military base even though they might be safer. She hated how stuffy they felt when she'd visited one the day before.
##########
"What is your report?" a voice from the darkness asked in a hiss. In front of the voice, barely visible in the light, was an alien humanoid figure. He was very small and thin, almost like a child. He skin appeared to be bleached white and he had no hair to speak of. His hands contained 7 bony fingers each and his skull was very elongated.
"We are unsure as to the results of the experiment." the alien began. "Originally the experiment was going according to plan. However, at one point, the subject of the experiment was caught in a blast of atomic radiation. The exposure seemingly destroyed the Proodos device and we are unsure as to what happened to the subjects body during that time.
After the event we were able to locate the subject and discreetly install a new device and the results are... unbelievable to say the least. We've never seen anything like this. It will take a decade to study and understand the new developments in the forced evolutionary cycle.
We are unsure as to what the end result will be but we suspect it may hold answers to the universe that we had not even known to ask the questions for. For that purpose I request we study more subjects immediately. We can modify the devices to exude smaller amounts of the same radiation patterns exhibited by the explosive device that affected the first subject." the alien stated in a single breath.
"Is this procedure dangerous to the native population of this planet?" the voice from the darkness asked.
"No. The device will repair any negative effects from the radiation meaning that we will only see positive advancements in the genome. However we believe the randomness of the radiation can not be accounted for in only a small number of subjects. We must have many in order to study the results properly."
"How many?"
"At least 10 thousand. Maybe as many as 20 thousand."
##########
"So what you're telling me is, you don't believe she could be a hero?" a man wearing a white button down shirt and dirty brown glasses asked. Across from him was a young woman with curly black hair and a clean white face. She was wearing a denim jacket with a white tshirt underneath and a pair of blue jeans that were faded from extended use. But the most striking feature was her eyes. They were a shining deep purple, like a neon sign submerged in the ocean.
"If you do the research, you find out that miss 'Max' is a villain through and through. She killed 9 people for fucks sake."
"The reports say 7 people Alexis." the man replied.
"The reports don't count her father, who she obviously killed in cold blood, and the SGA president of her former school." Alexis replied.
"But her father tried to rape her."
"A good excuse on her part to fool people. But that's not true. She killed him for fun."
"How can you be sure?"
"It's in her history. Look at all the people she brutally murdered. Several guys had crushed heads god damnit!"
"Look, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I can't print your story. You're not even a writer for this paper, just an editor. If it were a more believable piece I'd consider it, but right now that girl is Americas newest fascination. Everyone wants to believe in her and her abilities after the incident that uprooted over 10 million people in and around Arizona. She's their hope for a brighter future, free from the disasters of nuclear war. They've now seen firsthand what a nuclear missile can do and know that are tens of thousands of them out there ready to be fired at any moment. I can't print this right now because those people would fight back tooth and nail and we'd be out of our jobs.
If the time ever comes where she's in the spotlight for something bad though I could easily do it. Everyone wants confirmation on what they believe already, not someone telling them the opposite. As an editor for the New York Times you should know this better than anyone. I'm sorry but right now it's just not possible."
"That's okay Jim. I understand. Just do me a favour and keep the piece. If it ever comes to a point where it can be printed I ask that you consider it, as a personal favour to me."
"I will. I promise. Now get out of here. You're not even on duty. Go home and rest."
Alexis didn't say another word as she stood up and left the office. When she arrived at the bus stop just down the street from the entrance to the building, she stopped and waited for the bus. While waiting she pulled out a single picture from purse.
The picture was of a handsome man, her father, who was smiling and laughing with her on her 3rd birthday. Those pictures would be Alexis' only reminder of the man her father was. He was gone now, having been killed while in prison after being convicted of the rape of her mother, which he'd been found innocent of after his death.
Maxi
milian Einhardt had been the killer. And Alexis swore she would see the favour returned to Max, even if that meant her death. When she put the picture away she noticed a dim light glinting out of the corner of her eye. Bending over, she picked up a small golden chain bracelet. The bracelet was relatively non-descript and cheap looking.
Alexis wondered for a brief moment who could have dropped it, but since it didn't appear to be worth much so she decided to keep it. As soon as she put it on she felt a small pinprick sensation on her wrist. She didn't bother examining it because she just assumed she'd pinched herself putting it on.
As soon as the bracelet was on, the Proodos device began to work altering her DNA, just like a similar device had done to Max all those months ago when she'd found her silver bracelet lying on the ground at school. The next superhuman was on her way, and not even she knew it yet.
About the Author:
Jeremy Williams graduated from Mississipii State University with a Bachelors degree in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Mathematics. He currently resides nearby and occasionally attends university functions while searching for a steady part time job.
His main hobbies are writing, video games, and reading. He enjoys a good story regardless of the genre.
You can follow his twitter feed here:
@JWilliamsAuthor
Chronicles of the Supers (Book 1): Born From Darkness (The Story of Max) Page 15