by Palladian
Date of first publication for serial: January 17, 2014
Date of first publication for collected book: December 5, 2015
Amazing cover art created by the talented Snowzapped: http://snowzapped.deviantart.com/
Editing services provided by the awesome Cory Tripp: http://gwoman.livejournal.com/ or [email protected]
ISBN: 978-1-6822284-0-1
Dedications
First of all, I dedicate this awesome husband. Thank you for understanding me when no one else could or would, and thank you for standing by me and encouraging me to continue with this work, even when I was tired or uninspired or just disgusted with life in general.
A big thanks also to my awesome readers. I appreciate you sticking with me through this story, giving me feedback and interesting discussion, and letting me know when something didn’t seem quite right.
And then, for those of you close to my heart, those coming from or stuck in an abusive situation. Do whatever you can, whatever you need to in order to survive and escape. There is help for you out there, and I hope you find it. Also, please know that life can get better; it doesn’t always have to be the neglect or torture you’ve known. You are my superheroes, and I salute you all.
Contents
Chapter 21: Darkness
Chapter 22: Aftermath
Chapter 23: Flight
Chapter 24: Arrival
Chapter 25: Preparations
Chapter 26: Reconnaissance
Chapter 27: Reunion
Chapter 28: Novel
Chapter 29: Vision
Chapter 30: Musical
Chapter 31: Breakout
Chapter 32: Best Laid Plans
Chapter 33: Departure
Chapter 34: Arrival
Chapter 35: New Beginnings
Chapter 36: Plans
Chapter 37: Battle Royale
Super: Story to Date
Note: It’s highly recommended to read Book 1 of this series (Super: Origins) before you read this one. For a full list of the places the e-book can be bought, check the first paragraph of the post here: http://superwebnovel.livejournal.com/9645.html The story can also be read online, if you prefer; see this link and read all of the chapters listed under Book 1: http://superwebnovel.livejournal.com/314.html
Lex McKilliam, while job hunting, is recruited to work for the secretive M Agency headquartered in Washington, DC. She quickly realizes that her co-workers all seem to have capabilities far beyond the norm, but she works hard to improve her own martial arts skills in response. Casey, who’s far larger and stronger than the average person, befriends Lex, and they train and spar together. Lex also works on a computer-capabilities assessment for the agency with Riss, who appears to be able to mentally communicate with and command computers. Also, Lex manages to strike up a friendship with Serena, who can disappear and simply appear just about anywhere else she likes to, all around the world.
Finding it odd that most of their time is spent on call, waiting to be deployed, and that significant amounts of medical testing seems to be involved, Lex nonetheless applies herself when she and her team are finally assigned to emergency calls. On one of these calls, the team becomes friendly with a couple of people from the Alpha Team: Kate (who can partially shapeshift to use the powers of animals she’s observed) and Victor (an inventor and master repairman).
As time goes on, Lex begins to feel ill much of the time, which doesn’t seem right to her. While getting involved in the chase when Kate and Victor violate their strict contracts by running away, she gets hints from Kate (whom she finds but releases) that all is not right with the people running the M Agency. Finally, she hears that the lot of them have been the subject of unauthorized human experimentation with highly dangerous protocols and vows to escape along with Riss and Casey. After they’ve faked their own deaths on an emergency call and made their way to where they can get transport across the country, however, Lex becomes so ill that she needs Casey to carry her off, unable to respond as she falls unconscious…
Chapter 21: Darkness
After the light disappeared, it took a long time for anything to resolve. The darkness seemed complete; Lex couldn’t see her own hand in front of her face, or any of the rest of her body. After what felt like an age, she realized she stood on something and looked down to see her own bare feet on a wooden floor like the one in the martial arts studio. Nothing could be seen in the near or far distance, which vanished away into the dark, but she could see her own limbs again and she had a floor to stand on.
Lex smiled to herself, feeling good about that last part at least. She tried to figure out her location and what she was supposed to be doing, but as she did, her head felt as if she’d been pierced through with a spike under her chin that came out through the top of her brain, and she fell to her knees, clutching her hair until the pain subsided again. Deciding to abandon that line of thought as she began to feel normal once more, Lex instead planned to continue to work on the form that Mr. Chen had challenged her to create, rather than stand around with nothing to do.
She felt it had been coming along well, but she hadn’t completed it yet. Lex knew she would probably have been further along or have completed it by then if she hadn’t been trying to engineer an escape at the same time, but maybe now she would have time to finish. She began by running through what had been completed, and Lex felt her body relax as she slid into the now-familiar movements. As she raised her right arm in a block, however, Lex felt her shoulder stiffen, throwing off the normal arc, as an all-too-familiar voice broke into her workout.
“What the hell is that weak form that you’re doing? It looks like some ballet shit.”
As usual, her father’s voice seemed to ruin everything it touched, but for some reason, Lex didn’t panic like she used to. In this place, somehow nothing seemed strange or odd. She felt as if anything might happen as she turned her face up to look her father in the eye.
“Actually,” she said calmly, “this is a form I created.”
“You created,” he said mockingly, while standing up straight and broadening his shoulders, a familiar move meant to intimidate, she knew. “What the hell for?”
“To defeat you,” Lex replied, launching into the first move of her form.
He was caught off-guard by her swift attack and by the fact that one of her fists thrown at his chest turned into a pointed striking attack on the right shoulder at the last moment, hitting a pressure point and numbing the muscles of that arm. Her father roared then and came at her just as Lex had suspected, and she used her sticking hands and feet technique to control and redirect a number of quick blows, redirecting the hard punches and kicks he tried to hit her with.
“You’re going to lose, Alex, you piece of shit,” he yelled, continuing to come at her with a series of strikes meant to be withering. “You’re weak. God knows I tried to train it out of you, but you’re weak! You always have been.”
Lex ignored his words, continuing to work her form, and to her dismay found that most of the hard blows she directed against her father didn’t have much effect. The sticking hands and feet seemed to work best, and most pressure-point hits and joint locks also seemed effective. Remember this, Lex told herself as she pressed her attack.
She held her own, taking a few blows but giving more, until she ran up against the end of her form. As Lex hesitated for a split second, her father turned and jammed a large fist into her left kidney. Doubling over from the pain, he knocked her legs out from under her. Lex struggled to get back to her feet from under a hail of blows, finally falling back to her knees as the pain in her head started to return.
“T
hat was almost too easy,” she heard her father saying then, through his laughter.
After that, Lex couldn’t be too sure of what happened for a while, but eventually found herself staring down at her bare feet on the wooden floor again. She checked herself for the expected bruises and found none. Upon stretching and trying her muscles, Lex found everything in good working order, but she felt more tired than she had been before her fight with her father. Shaking off her thoughts, Lex began to stretch out in preparation for more practice when she heard a voice.
“Hey, Lex,” Casey’s said.
Looking everywhere, Lex only saw darkness. “Casey?” she asked the nothingness. “Where are you?”
“I’m right here,” a voice returned faintly, and then Lex saw her friend. Casey seemed mostly an outline, ghostly at first, but in a moment she solidified. Hugging her friend, Lex noticed Casey was smiling but still looking worried as their eyes met. Lex sighed as she stepped back.
“My idiotic father was here. I did fine at first, with the new form you helped me put together, but he beat me at the end.”
Casey nodded. “You know, I should have said this before, but I figured it wasn’t any of my business. I think you may have put too many power moves into that form. The things that Mr. Chen taught you will probably be way more effective against your dad. He sounds like he’s the same sort of bully as George. Use the same tactics against him—go for his weak spots. Don’t attack him where he’s strong.”
Lex thought for a moment, then nodded in reply. “Can you help me rework what I have so far?”
“Yeah. I’ll try to come at you like George, so maybe it’ll help you think like it’s your dad.”
The two of them started running through the form and Casey tried to fill in for Lex’s dad as best she could, alternately charging at Lex and offering suggestions for areas where she thought the form should be changed.
“Remember,” Casey said as she moved into Lex’s mock throat blow, “he’ll be even easier to beat than George. Your dad is just an ordinary guy, so he’ll have any sensitive area that most people have: eyes, ears, throat, joints, and so on. It’ll be a piece of cake for you.”
“Yeah,” said Lex, unconvinced, sighing and smiling, but not feeling it.
Casey stopped then and looked directly into Lex’s eyes. “Don’t try to downplay what you did. That guy nearly beat me to death and you defeated him. And because you won, it gave me courage to do what I did. Your dad is just another bully. I bet there’s about as much behind him as there was behind George.”
“I’m sure you’re right,” Lex replied, straightening up and looking at Casey with a new confidence. “Let’s keep going.”
They continued to work on the form and had reworked everything Lex had completed when Lex felt her strength start to seep away. She stopped and sat down for a moment but couldn’t keep sitting upright.
“I’m sorry, Casey,” she murmured as the darkness closed in again.
“Just get some more rest, Lex. You’ll feel better later.”
After that it seemed to be dark for a long time again, and Lex didn’t know whether she slept or floated in it. Eventually enough light gathered so that Lex could look down and see her own feet standing on the wooden floor again, however. She yawned and stretched, then went through her new form once quickly to make sure she remembered all of the changes she and Casey had worked on. Smiling when she reached the end of the sequence, Lex jolted forwards a moment later from a blow to the back of her head.
Lex spun quickly to find her father behind her, smiling at her evilly. “Ready to get your ass handed to you again?”
“Are you?” asked Lex, her eyes narrowing.
The very air seemed to vibrate with the stillness for a moment, and then the two of them came together in a blur of movement and the sound of Lex’s father shouting obscenities and insults. Casey had been right; the form she and Lex had developed together worked like a charm against the big man. Lex felt her heart sing with pride as she continually directed the bulk of her father’s blows away from her and then delivered stinging jabs to his pressure points, locked up his joints, blurred his eyes by hitting near them, and a number of other nasty techniques. However, as they fought, Lex felt her energy being sapped away. It didn’t seem to be so much from the few blows her father landed on her, but from his constant, screaming insults.
“You piece of shit, Alex! Did you really think you could get me with such weak shit? Come on now, little pussy girl, just give up and cry already! You’ll never beat me, Alex!”
Lex found herself drawing back as the form abruptly ended, unsure what to do next. She and her father eyed each other from a few feet away warily, Lex panting and her father standing awkwardly due to some of the pressure-point strikes Lex had managed to land on him. When he suddenly faded away into nothing, Lex almost sobbed with relief, but instead just collapsed to the floor as the darkness rushed in everywhere around her.
Although she had no way to tell for sure, Lex started to get worried as time seemed to drag on. The darkness seemed interminable now, and finally she tried hard to see again, to get oriented, and gradually saw her feet on the wooden floor once more, seeming to materialize under her from the blackness. The light was even dimmer than it had been, and Lex felt weary in a way she never had before in her life. She started to get scared but instead sat for a few moments, getting her breathing steady, until she felt she was ready to stand again and tried to think. How should the form end? From what Lex had worked up so far, she had been able to keep most of her father’s attacks at bay as well as attack his weak points. But, she found she had no idea of where to go next.
“I wish Mr. Chen was here,” she murmured to herself as she began running through her form as it was so far, hoping it would give her inspiration about how to end it.
As she turned naturally during part of the form, Lex stopped suddenly, surprised to see Mr. Chen standing there. He nodded to her.
“Please continue, Lex. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
Lex felt a smile bursting onto her face and nodded at him, picking up near to where she left off. She worked the form through what she’d put together so far, then stopped, looking at her teacher.
“That’s all I have so far. I don’t know how to end it, yet.”
He looked at her and nodded. “Well, I think what you have so far is a good combination of elements. May I make a few suggestions while I think about what might be needed for a strong finish?”
Lex nodded, and the two of them went through a few of the sections together, Mr. Chen making a number of small suggestions that Lex felt made the form flow much better. Afterwards, they were both silent for a moment, and then Mr. Chen spoke.
“My first thought is that when a man goes through life trying never to bend to the forces around him, eventually he will be driven to kneel before them. The wiser man flows with the forces in his life, figuring out how to gently push himself where he wants to go.”
Looking at him speculatively for a moment, Lex’s mind started working. Forced to kneel… Suddenly, however, a wave of exhaustion overtook her. She staggered as she looked back at Mr. Chen.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “I’m so tired.”
“Why don’t you rest for a while, Lex,” Mr. Chen said, his eyes infinitely sad. “You’ll probably feel better when you wake up.”
“Mr. Chen, what’s wrong with me?” Lex asked, her voice sounding slurred even to her own ears.
Mr. Chen just looked at her then, assisting her in reaching the floor safely before shrugging one shoulder and shaking his head gently.
The idea that her teacher didn’t even know chilled Lex. “I’ll get back up in a little while. You’ll see. I’ll beat him this time. I won’t let you down,” she said after a moment, hoping her voice sounded surer than she felt.
“You have done nothing but make me proud from the first day I started to teach you, Lex,” he replied quietly as he faded from view when the light dimmed.
&n
bsp; Lex could feel herself smiling even as oblivion overtook her.
Sometime later, she came to the realization that she was just floating. So peaceful, Lex thought, feeling almost insubstantial, as if she could dissolve in the constant blackness surrounding her.
No, a feeling of certainty came to the fore. I won’t let go yet.
The struggle seemed to go on forever once again, and Lex felt exhausted by the time she could see her bare feet on the wooden boards. She fell to her knees and rested a while, comforted by listening to her own breathing, hearing it even out and become steadier.
“OK,” she said to no one as she stood. “Time to end it.”
Lex ran through the form as far as she’d completed it and then went through a quick set of steps. She used sticking hands to control her opponent’s punches, and then came down with a sharp stomp on the side of his knee. It all ended up with her standing over her opponent, controlling his arms with a joint lock while he knelt on the ground.
She smiled to herself, satisfied with what she’d put together, and started from the middle again to practice the end part. As she turned while ending it, Lex looked up to see her father beginning to materialize from the darkness surrounding her. She just stood ready then, all her muscles relaxed as she waited for him to finish appearing, watching him as he solidified and smirked at her.
“I’m here to give you another lesson, Alex! Aren’t you glad?”
“Don’t fucking call me that,” Lex snarled, a sudden anger flaring as she waited for him to make the first move.
She anticipated his charge at her and met him, avoiding the bulk of his blows and landing her own strikes to pressure points and other vulnerable areas. This seemed to infuriate him, and her father started shouting and screaming obscenities and insults at her.
“Hey,” Lex finally said, the quiet yet commanding tone of her voice enough to make her father stop in his tracks. “Stop having a fit and fight. I didn’t think you were still two years old.”
The look that her father gave her then almost made Lex smirk. She knew that if he could have reached out and killed her at that moment, he would have done it. He came at her with a wordless yell and she found herself easily evading what he had to throw at her. Lex moved surely, her breath coming easily and rhythmically.