Becoming Super

by Plowden, Richard A.

  Eli repeated the Commander’s action from before and stopped himself in the air. He then used his gravity to pull the Commander towards him.

  With the gravity pulling him towards Eli, there was nothing the Commander could do. He was pulled up towards Eli at a rapid pace before Eli punched him in the face.

  The Commander fell flying to the ground and tried to use the wind to break his own fall. He fell to the ground with a hard thud but stood up to his feet gingerly with a groan.

  Eli then used his gravity to force the Commander to his knees. Eli then landed on the ground in front of the Commander.

  Just when it looked like Eli had won, a loud thunderous boom was heard. Eli looked up at the sky and a bolt of lightning came down towards him and stuck him directly in the chest.

  Eli crumpled to the ground.

  The Commander walked over to Eli and stood above him.

  With his guard down having beaten Eli, the Commander was suddenly shot in the head with a plasma blast from an energy rifle and his body fell over lifeless.

  “Eli!!” Taia screamed, running over to him. She fell to the ground, tears in her eyes but refusing to let them fall. She was a soldier.

  Eli’s shirt was in tatters. And he had a huge, terrible burn across his chest where the lightning had struck him.

  Taia began giving Eli mouth to mouth and pumping his chest. “Come on you stupid boy, wake up.” She repeated the motion but Eli was barely breathing and he was unconscious.

  “Come on Eli,” Taia said desperately. “You aren’t even supposed to be a hero.”

  Chaos was erupting all around the pair. The Resistance was now losing this fight badly. With Eli having put so much time into fighting the Commander and now out of commission, the Resistance was now being overpowered.

  Core officers had now breached certain sections of the Resistance’s line and the Gate was being destroyed by fire, super strength, all different kinds of powers that Core officers possessed.

  The only Supes left to fight with the Resistance on Eli’s team were Fielding and Melissa. And the Resistance was now retreating toward the Gate, but they were now trapped between the Gate, which they knew had to remain shut to protect the Sector, and a Transcended army.

  A Core officer came over to attack Taia but he was knocked away by a punch from Melissa in her metallic form.

  “Is he alive?” Melissa asked.

  “Yes,” Taia responded. “He’s alive. He has to be.”

  Eli then began groaning and opened his eyes. “Ugh, this sucks.”

  “I bet it does,” Taia said tearfully. “You just got struck by lightning, stupid.”

  “No, that’s not what I meant,” Eli said with a small smile. He then sat up with a groan. “I’ve been trying to muster up the courage to kiss you for weeks. And then it’s you that kisses me.”

  Even amidst all the carnage and destruction going on around them, Eli Proof could still surprise Taia. “I didn’t kiss you! I was saving your life!”

  Eli chuckled. “Whatever you say Morris.” He then tried to stand but he fell to one knee succumbing to the effects of the lightning strike.

  He still wanted to fight. He was trying to.

  Taia looked around. The outer wall of the West Gate had basically been destroyed. But the Resistance was holding as best as they could and none of the Core officers had entered through the Gate.

  Eli was still on one knee breathing deeply. Taia knew that he wanted to get up and fight. But in this condition, him fighting wouldn’t make a difference. It simply wasn’t enough.

  “Eli,” Taia said softly.

  “Just give me a second Taia,” Eli said looking down.

  “Eli even if I don’t give you a second it won’t matter. Not unless you’re ready to power up, do what you need to do and actually be a hero.”

  Eli didn’t respond.

  "Eli,” Taia said again. Eli kept looking down however, still kneeling.

  "Eli,” she repeated grabbing Eli's face. She made Eli look her in her eyes. "I need you Eli."

  "I can't,” Eli said shaking his head.

  "No,” Taia said fiercely. "You can,” she then began laughing nervously. "If anybody can you can."

  "You don't understand Taia," Eli said. "If I use that part of my abilities to the extent you’re thinking of, everyone will die. Including you"

  "No,” Taia repeated, this time with more vigor than ever. "I don't believe that."

  "I killed my p--"

  "You were a child,” Taia said softly. "A scared child that was trying to save his parents."

  An explosion landed dangerously close to the pair.

  "But you're not a child anymore,” Taia continued vigorously. "You're a man. You're a man who showed me that it's a person’s actions that make them a good person, not what they are born as. You're a man who showed me the true good in humanity. You're a man who has the power to stop all of this. You're a superman Eli."

  Eli let out a small chuckle due to Taia’s corniness.

  "And you aren't a superman because you're supposedly some powerful Supe because to me you’re nothing but Eli Proof,” Taia said. "You're a superman because you helped me realize,” It was now Taia's turn to look down. She surveyed the ground. "That maybe I can be super too,” she whispered, as a tear dropped and hit the dirt. She kept looking at the ground.

  "And Eli, my father is a lunatic,” Taia said passionately. "He's been giving up people's children because he thought they were born evil, thinking he was saving the sector. Now I know--"

  As Eli Proof grabbed Taia Morris's face and kissed her, Taia could for the first time believe that Eli really was the sun incarnate. His kiss felt like seeing a hopeful ray of sunshine in the gloomiest of days. Like the warmth of the sun on the coldest winter night. Like everything would be alright in a hellish world. Taia felt her entire body heat up at the contact and she wrapped her arms around Eli’s neck to deepen the kiss.

  Taia didn’t care that the world was going to hell around her. The only thing that mattered right now was the boy in her arms. She felt like her body was tingling all over from Eli’s lips on hers. She felt like she was about to burst. Her heart was beating in her chest at a mile a minute and she couldn’t think about anything but Eli Proof. And he pulled away all too soon.

  Eli bowed his head and closed his eyes. He was muttering something under his breath.

  “Eli,” Taia said softly. “What are you doing?”

  He spoke to her without looking up, eyes still shut. “I’m praying.”

  His head then snapped up and he opened his eyes wide.

  Eli Proof's eyes were glowing brightly, nothing visible except the fierce yellow color of the sun. He stood up gingerly, the effects of the lightning strike still taking a toll on his body; wisps of smoke coming out of his eyes.

  Taia watched Eli rise into the air. He surveyed the battlefield before flying over as fast as he could to where the Resistance looked weakest.

  Eli sent several heat blasts towards the Core army that resulted in several of its officers being scorched and destroyed.

  The Core army did not know what hit them. Eli was using both his gravity and heat abilities to decimate the Transcendeds.

  He would use his gravity to hold Supes down and then scorch as many of them as he could flying through the air to help out on the battlefield as much as he could.

  But Eli was injured and this meant that he was vulnerable. Even with his newfound control over harnessing the sun’s heat, he still couldn’t win this battle by himself. He was definitely buying the Resistance some time, but it still didn’t look like they were going to win.

  Fielding and Melissa were doing everything that they could to help, but they were getting tired as well.

  “Fielding we need something big!” Eli said flying over to the older man and landing next to him and Melissa, out of breath and clearly in pain, eyes still glowing brightly and smoking. He had earned a new cut on his side while fighting the Regime.


  “I’ve got just the thing,” Fielding said.

  He then put his palms first on the ground. Within seconds, an entire forest began erupting out of the ground, around a decent portion of what was left of the Core army.

  Eli then stuck out one of his fists and shot fire towards the forests setting it on fire and burning many of the Supes within it.

  This attack, along with Eli’s barrage, had made a serious dent in the Supe army. It looked like the Resistance might actually have a chance of surviving this battle.

  Suddenly a large figure began running toward Eli, Melissa, and Fielding. Jesse and Taia ran over to join them, shooting the large figure as they did. It had no effect on it.

  The figure was a woman in a large translucent blue avatar made up of some kind of energy. The avatar was almost 12 feet tall and was clearly immune to the attacks of the two cadets’ energy rifles.

  The woman was wearing a purple Core uniform shirt.

  “I thought you said only Commanding officers wore purple shirts,” Taia said, still shooting at the rapidly advancing blue avatar but to no effect. “I killed the Commanding officer.”

  “You killed the Commanding officers of one of the legions human,” Melissa said. “I told you they sent two of them.”

  Melissa then launched herself at the Commander. The Commander swiped her arm inside of the translucent avatar. The avatar mirrored her actions and Melissa was hit avatar’s swiping arm and was sent flying back.

  Eli yelled and then sent a gravity push at the Commander that pushed her avatar stumbling back. He immediately followed up with a heat blast.

  But the heat blast had seemingly no effect on the Commander’s avatar. The fact that her avatar could survive the heat of the sun showed her powerful she was.

  Fielding sent a large branch flying from the ground at the Commander. The Commander broke the branch before it even got to her. She then threw a kick at Fielding which he tried to block by erupting a large plant from the ground to take the brunt of the hit.

  However, the kick broke through and sent Fielding stumbling away.

  Eli forced as much gravity as he could onto the Commander to hold her down but he was exhausted and injured. The Commander easily broke out of his hold and began running towards him.

  Eli sent several heat blasts at the Commander but they again had no effect on her.

  She threw a punch at Eli that forced him to jump out of the way to dodge. Jesse and Taia ran towards the Commander but she swiped them away like flies.

  Eli threw another heat blast at the Commander but it again had no effect. She picked up Eli by his head before slamming him into the ground.

  Eli’s eyes were no longer glowing with power. He was too wounded and fatigued from using his abilities and could barely fight. He was nowhere close to his full power. The Commander was going to kill him.

  Taia began running towards Eli. But the Commander brought back her fist and launched a punch at Eli’s still form on the ground. Taia wasn’t going to make it.

  Right before the punch hit Eli in the head, a small vortex appeared directly in above him that the Commander’s avatar’s fist went into. The Commander looked at the vortex confusingly before a larger vortex appeared right next to Eli’s still form on the ground.

  Blake and Connor stepped out of the vortex with Blake having a large smile on his face.

  He looked down at Eli. “You miss me?” Blake asked.

  Blake then opened up a very strong and large vortex next to the Commander that she was immediately was sucked into.

  Blake helped Eli to his feet. “You look horrible man,” he said to his friend.

  “Back at you,” Eli replied.

  “Please,” Blake said. “You’ve never seen someone look this good.”

  The Resistance was holding off the army as best as they could. “Come on boy.” Connor said to Blake before running over to his soldiers. He had Blake open up another Vortex and began sending his soldiers through the vortex as quickly as he could.

  Eli and his team provided cover for the Resistance soldiers going through the vortex.

  “You can control it!” Blake said excitedly to Eli, looking at his friends glowing eyes. “I knew you could do it.”

  Eli smirked slightly. “Yea, I’m getting the hang of it.” But Eli was not at full strength. Luckily the dimmed numbers of the Supe army was helping him and his team hold off the Core until the Resistance could get through.

  But then, the numbers weren’t so reduced.

  A sea of black could be seen marching toward the gate.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jesse said.

  “They’re sending another legion,” Melissa said. “We must leave.”

  And she was right. More than half of the Resistance’s military forces were either dead or already through the Vortex and even if they weren’t, they couldn’t handle 2000 more Supes.

  But the Resistance could only get through the Vortex for so long.

  “I’ll hold them off,” Eli said. “Until everyone can get through. You guys go.”

  “You can’t think I’m going to leave you?” Taia asked incredulously.

  Eli opened his mouth to speak but Blake naturally beat him to it. “I’m not leaving until you’re through the vortex, Eli. None of us are.”

  Fielding, Melissa, and Jesse nodded.

  “You guys are such heroes,” Eli said, closing his eyes for a moment, before opening them, now glowing. “We only need to hold them off for a few minutes. Let’s go.”

  It was an incredible thing; this team of Transcendeds and humans working together against a common enemy.

  Eli sent several heat blasts at the army in the distance and they all hit their mark. Fielding impaled several of the Core officers with his branches and Blake sent several away with random vortexes that sucked them in. Jesse and Taia were picking them off with shots from their energy rifle into their ranks.

  Most of the Resistance was now through the largest vortex on the field sending them to the other Sector, but Core officers were now slipping past Eli’s team’s attacks.

  But they still refused to let any Supes through the vortex that went to the other Sector, doing whatever they could to stop them.

  Taia even had to chase one Supe down and shoot him in the back of the head to stop him from going through the vortex.

  Soon, it was a close combat battle with Eli’s team badly outnumbered and most of the Resistance already gotten to safety.

  “Hey!” Connor yelled, when it was just him and a few of his soldiers left to travel through the vortex. “Let’s go people!”

  Eli and his team began backing toward the vortex but there were too many Core officers. Blake was closest to it, concentrating on keeping it open while Jesse and Melissa were closest to him. Fielding, Taia, and Eli were closest to the Core officers.

  “Get back,” Eli said to his friends.

  He then gathered as much strength as he could and began firing gravity and heat blasts into the army, forcing them back.

  “Go, go, go!” he yelled to his friends, eyes back to normal. They all then turned around and began running towards the Vortex.

  “Come on!” Blake yelled. But Eli, Fielding and Taia were still too far away. Connor and his soldiers went through the vortex, soon followed by Jesse and Melissa. The rest of the team were still several feet away with Supes hot on their heels.

  One Supe in particular was dangerously close to Eli. He had sharp scythes coming out of his arms. He reached back one of his arms to impale Eli and Eli had no idea it was coming.

  Suddenly a Vortex appeared behind Eli and Blake stepped out of it, and was immediately impaled in the stomach.

  Eli stopped running and turned around. He looked at the scythe on the other side of Blake. “No,” he muttered in shock. “No!!!!!”

  Eli’s eyes then started glowing brightly and he sent a heat blast at the Supe that had impaled Blake, scorching him and several others behind him.

  Eli dropped to
his knees with Blake in his arms, holding him, trying to stop the bleeding. The sun just beginning to rise in the distance. “No,” Eli said, tears falling freely. It was the first time Taia had ever seen him cry. “No. Blake why would you do that?! Why wouldn’t you just go through the damn vortex?”

  “I said,” Blake murmured, weak from all of the blood that was leaving his body. “I’m not leaving here with—without you.”

  “God, Blake,” Eli said, pressuring the wound on his friend’s body.

  “Plus,” Blake added. “The world needs you a lot more than it needs me. You’re the one who can change everything.”

  “No Blake, that’s you. You put this team together. You knew that we could change the world.”

  Blake laughed weakly. “You can change the world Eli. I just put this team together to help you.”

  “Blake, shh,” Eli said. “Come on, I’m going to get you out of here.” He then began picking Blake up but Blake cried out in pain. He couldn’t be moved due to his injuries.

  Taia was firing as many shots from her energy rifle as she could at the rapidly advancing Core army.

  “Eli you have to go,” Blake said with a small smile, grimacing slightly.

  “No,” Eli said. “I’m not leaving—“

  Suddenly a Transcended with super strength knocked Eli back several feet and sent him sliding towards the Vortex.

  Eli got up quickly and hit the Supe with a heat blast. But the Core army was now extremely close to Blake. Eli tried to send more heat blast at the officers near his best friend but he was too weak. He tried running towards Blake but he was grabbed by Fielding and stopped.

  “Eli, come on,” Fielding said sadly.

  “What?” Eli asked, trying to wrestle free. “No! I’m not leaving him!”

  But Fielding was physically stronger than Eli. And Eli was too weak to use his powers.

  The rest of the Core army was quickly approaching and were about to overcome Blake.

  “Eli, please,” Taia said, crying too[RP1], grabbing Eli’s face with both hands. “We have to go. We can’t fight anymore.”

  “You have to go Eli!” Blake cried in the distance. “It’s okay!”

  “No!” Eli yelled. “I let your father die, I’m not going to let you die too!”