Chronicles of the Supers (Book 1): Born From Darkness (The Story of Max) (14 page)

"Very
well. Then let's get the stuff we need and we'll re-convene here in 2
weeks to finish our plans. James, you'll have however much money you
need to buy that equipment, so when you have a list let me know."

"Aye.
It won't be too expensive. That old tech can't even qualify as an
antique because of its tendency to break down every other use. But
that also makes it harder to find. If nothing exists I'll have to
start making things from scratch. I have a guy who has plans for the
hardware so that won't be a problem, but it will cost time."

"Very
well. Get on it and get me info through our private network. I'll
expect to have some timeline from you on acquiring the hardware by
Friday."

"On
it."

With
that all the people got up to leave and the man in the wheelchair
wheeled himself slowly over to the sink to grab a glass of water.

##########

"What have the geeks got for us?" asked officer Dan as a
lab tech approached him.

"We've managed to identify all 5 DNA specimens left at the scene
of the Warrens Plantation." the tech responded as he opened his
tablet computer.

"Three of them belong to the Warrens, no surprise there. The
fourth belonged to Daniel Penale, the rapist who's wanted for
murdering his youngest daughter during a rape gone wrong. The entire
state is after this guy but for the last 9 months he's eluded the
police with exceptional ease. Dental records confirmed the identity.

The fifth is one we were never expecting. It belongs to a young girl
named Emily Dawson."

"Why's that name sound familiar?"

"Because her father, Ronnie Dawson, was found dead at WestWell
Academy after attempting to rape a student on campus. Emily has been
missing for a few years now and her father claimed to have been on
the search for her. After his death their home was searched and the
blood of both Emily and her mother was found underneath the wallpaper
and a gun containing dried blood covering parts of it was found
underneath a pillow.

It was determined that he'd killed both of them after having been
raping and beating them for years."

"So this Emily is dead?"

"We thought so. But not anymore. First of all we found a
computer with recording equipment on it. It was set to record all the
doors to the plantation home. We extracted footage for the last 6
months from the hard drive and caught this footage."

The lab tech brought up the footage on his tablet and played it
through. It was surprisingly high quality video and it showed a young
girl dressed in a black outfit leaving the front door only a minute
before police arrived.

"We've been able to determine the person leaving is most likely
female. And that's not all."

"What is it?" Dan asked, sensing the uneasiness of the lab
tech.

"We think that Emily is the girl who Ronnie Dawson tried to rape
at WestWell."

"But I thought her name was Max?"

"It was. But we pulled up pictures of Emily and Maximiliana and
ran them through facial recognition."

The tech took the tablet back and entered a few commands before
handing it back to Dan. There on the screen was a picture of Emily,
taken when she was 13 for a school event, and a picture of Max, taken
after the incident where she'd nearly been killed on campus. The
match percentage between the 2 was 83%.

Not that it was needed. It was obvious they were the same person.
Right down to the cold, dead eyes they both displayed.

"Alright. Thanks for this. Print this out and we'll go get a
warrant."

"Roger sir."

Chapter 18:

Questions

Max sat in a corner of her dorm room staring at the wall. It had been
over 3 months since the incident at the Warrens Plantation and she
hadn't been out of her dorm room except for classes and work since
then. She hadn't been looking for any more targets or even making
plans. All she did off campus was her usual jobs, but even then she
was subdued. The demeanor and speed she'd displayed since gaining her
powers had dissipated and she was acting like a normal person while
on the job again.

The
only time she ever felt any better than she did now was when she was
sleeping. Milia had said that when she was inside the landscape of
her mind they both shared their feelings. But with every passing day
Max had a harder and harder time sleeping. It was like a barrier of
emotion that wanted to keep her in the waking realm where she would
feel the full effect of her misery. At times she wished that emotions
were actually real so she could just kill them. At other times she
knew that one way to stop feeling these emotions was to end her life.

But
she couldn't do that. Even if she didn't want to live, Milia did.
Milia didn't deserve to be another victim of Max's despair. So day
after day Max trudged onwards, if only for Milia. On the weekends Max
would allow Milia to roam around while she wasn't at work. And Max
could sense inside their mind that Milia was right about her feeling
depression when she was in control of their body.

But
Milia seemed to be trying her best to overcome those feelings. She
forced herself to go outside and spend time in the sun. Or the rain
if it was a rainy day. But Max seemed to be the opposite of Milia.
Max would just wallow around her room and occasionally cry.

As Max
was just starting to cry she heard a knock at the door. She took a
minute to compose herself and wipe the tears off of her face. She put
on a fake smile just as another knock sounded against the door, this
one sounding much angrier than the last. Max ignored it and took a
few moments to finish cleaning herself up before answering the door.

As
soon as she opened it she knew something was wrong. There in front of
her were 2 police officers and the school headmaster. They entered
without asking any questions and one police officer tried to lead Max
out of the room. Max dug her heels into the ground and turned to look
at them.

"What's
going on here?" She asked, clearly not in the mood to have her
privacy invaded.

"We
have a warrant to search the premises. And we require that you leave
while we perform the search." said the officer.

"If
that's so then let me see it." Max challenged.

"Young
lady, you are 17 years old. We do not have to show you the warrant.
I've seen it for myself and will be assisting the authorities in the
search. Now leave as you're told to or we will force you to leave."
the headmaster stated.

Max
huffed at that but decided to leave the room. She didn't feel like
dealing with assholes. Not when all she wanted to do was cry herself
to sleep.

She
left and pointedly slammed the door shut behind her. She went to the
door to her dorm room wing and sat in the dorm lobby area. No one was
around so she decided she could take a nap on one of the couches
there.

After
she reached the couch she laid down to rest and closed her eyes. But
she never did get to sleep. In an instant the officers came busting
through the door with their weapons drawn. They started yelling at
Max. A moment later 3 more officers entered from the main hall door
with their weapons drawn as well.

Max
thought about either attacking or running but she realized she was in
a bind. She wasn't bulletproof after all. So she followed their
orders as they roughly slammed her into the ground and cuffed her
hands behind her back. Then the grabbed her by her hair to pick her
up to her feet before shoving her through the door as fast as they
could.

##########

Max sat in the interrogation room with her hands cuffed to the table.
She'd been in there for at least a day now with no one coming to talk
to her. While she could break out if she wanted, she would prefer to
not try. After all they would think she was guilty if she did. Though
she couldn't for the life of her figure out why they'd even arrested
her in the first place. As she was trying to think of any reason for
them to arrest her, the door opened.

In walked the last man Max thought she'd ever see again. Special
Agent Collins of the FBI. Max glared at the man. The last time he'd
visited her she'd ended up with a headache from his persistent
attitude. She doubted this would be any better.

"Miss Dawson?" Collins asked. If glares could kill, Max's
glare would have destroyed the entire city. Or created a black hole,
Collins couldn't figure out which as he stumbled backwards from the
glare. The pure, unbridled rage that was streaming from them like
energy from a solar flare caused the entire room to go cold and even
the people watching the interrogation on the other side of the
one-way mirror felt like they were going to collapse from heart
attacks. Half of them looked away and one even chucked his stomach
contents into a nearby trash can.

"My. Name." Max began, with more venom in her voice than
even she thought she could muster at that moment. "Is. Max."

'Hey Hey back off him. You never legally had our name changed.' Milia
said inside Max's head. Max spat back something incoherent at her and
Milia responded by slapping herself, which had the effect of sending
an unpleasant electrical tingle across Max's cheek. After that Max
settled down a bit, but still glared at the man in the room with her.

Eventually Agent Collins managed to steel himself against the glare
and sat down. As he did he placed a folder on the desk between him
and Max.

"Very well,
Max
."
Collins said, placing special emphasis on her name, as if he didn't
believe her. He opened the folder and grabbed a few pictures from the
file.

"We found these in your room." He said showing a picture to
Max. Max froze as she looked at it. It was her uniform. The one she
wore back when she had begun her killing spree.

"And we have this." Collins continued with another picture.
This one showed Max in a jail cell, standing in front of one of the
inmates. Max instantly recalled the incident and thought back to it.
As she did her depression hit her in the face like a flying sack of
bricks. She distantly wondered who the man was and a part of her felt
a need to get to know the man better. To humanize him, so his death
would have even more of an impact on her.

"Now we obviously know this is you. As you can see we have the
proof. And we've been able to put together the incident at the
Warrens plantation thanks to your computer. We know it was you that
killed all of these people."

Max tried to sink into her chair but the solid metal frame held
steady against her.

"Would you care to confirm our version of events?" Collins
asked. Max didn't answer because she was too busy contemplating her
recent past. She had tuned the world out.

"Very well, Ms. Dawson. That is all. The trial begins in 2
weeks." Collins said as he stood up and gathered the images. He
left the room and shortly after 2 cops came and escorted a
practically comatose Max off to the temporary holding cells in
preparation for the trial.

##########

Max sat on the prison bus with her head hung low. She wasn't really
paying attention to much of anything. The trial had been a complete
front. From the moment she stepped in the courtroom the entire place
was against her. She could tell by the way they looked at her that
they thought of her as an abomination. At first Max thought it was
because of her powers.

But then as the trial went on she found out that they didn't actually
know about her powers. The version of events that they'd shown
simulations of were slightly different. They ended in the same result
of her killing a number of people, but the how she did it wasn't
correct. They assumed she had tortured them to death via various
means, including bludgeoning.

The jury hadn't even taken long enough to close the door to the
deliberation room before deciding on a verdict. Max was guilty of 5
counts of first degree murder. It seemed they'd gotten her computer
and found the information about her targets from there as well and
had upped the charge from second to first degree just before the
trial.

Now she was being shipped off to a life sentence in prison. While she
had a chance at parole, she didn't care to try for it. She knew that
she deserved prison. And she was going to get what she deserved.

But Milia didn't deserve prison. She hadn't done anything wrong. Max
felt even guiltier that Milia was also being punished for Max's
problems, but she couldn't do anything about it. Milia had been
subdued to since the sentence was handed down and hadn't said a word
since. Max faintly heard her crying in the back of her head while
they boarded the prison bus, but she had been quiet since they left
the court house.

##########

"Evening. You the new girl we heard about on the news?"

The voice temporarily knocked Max out of her stupor. She looked up to
the door of her cell to see a tall blonde woman standing there. Her
most striking feature was her shining turquoise eyes, which seemed to
bore into Max's soul. She looked away from the woman mostly to escape
her gaze.

The woman walked into the cell and sat down next to Max.

"What's wrong sweetie?" she asked. Max didn't reply and
they both sat in silence for a long time.

"So it's that?" the woman asked. Max looked up at her and
she smiled warmly.

"Don't worry sweety. Most of us here understand. We won't ask if
you don't want to talk." she said as she hugged Max. "My
names Em, by the way."

Max embraced Em's hug with one of her own and a single
tear flowed down her cheek.

Chapter 19:

Hostile Intent

Frank, James, Shi and his brother, and former Captain Dawn and her
sister were sitting inside a van outside the complex they planned to
take over. The man in the wheelchair was sitting in another van on
the other side of the complex with a set of surveillance equipment
and a headset. He would be overseeing the operation as they stormed
the building and aiding them where necessary.