Chronicles of the Supers (Book 1): Born From Darkness (The Story of Max) (18 page)

'We have super powers Max. This is what superheros do. We have to
stop the missile ourselves, before it's too late and these people
die.'

'But... how would we even do that. It's flying at us from too far
above.'

'We have to jump up there and meet it.' Milia said. Max thought for a
minute and came to the same conclusion. With her powers, she might
able to reach it.

With a plan in mind, Max ran out of the room and, using her super
strength where necessary, made her way to the roof of the prison
complex.

Once on the roof, Max squinted her eyes against the morning sun and
tried to locate the missile.

'Wrong direction genius. The missile is coming from Arizona, in the
west.' Milia said with a hint of exasperation. Max's cheeks turned
slightly red and she turned around to look westward. This proved much
easier without her having to look almost directly into the sun.

Max spent an entire minute searching the sky. Even with her enhanced
vision, it was taking a long time to find the incoming missile.
Eventually she spotted a swarm of jets circling around a small
pinprick that she could just barely make out.

As she stared at them another pinprick became visible off to the
left. Max focused but she couldn't make out anything more.

'You think that's it?' Milia asked.

'I hope so.' Max said as she stepped back. She tensed up and prepared
to take a running jump.

She took a single swift step forward and fell down to the ground. As
she lay on the ground tears began to stream from her eyes. A moment
later she could be heard sobbing very loudly. Then she passed out.

##########

Max awoke inside her minds landscape, as she'd come to think of it.
She found herself lying face first on the ground next to the table.
She turned over and looked up to see Milia standing over her.

Without a word Milia grabbed Max's hand and helped her stand up.
Milia tried to let go of Max's hand but Max wouldn't let her. She
held on firm and Milia relented with a smile. Together they walked
over to the table and sat down.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Max stammered out suddenly.
Milia gently squeezed Max's hand. "I've been such a terrible
person, especially to you."

"Don't worry about it Max. It's okay." Milia replied.

"No it's not okay. The first time we met I killed you. And then
I got us locked up in prison forever. And now I might get us both
killed. It's all my fault you never had a life of your own."

Milia stood up and moved to the other side of the table and grabbed
Max in a tight hug.

"It's okay Max. You're doing the best you can with life. I
couldn't ask for a better sister or friend." Milia said. "And
we'll both make it through this together. Okay?"

Max sat there and tried her best not to cry for a long time. Finally
she managed to look up from the ground and into Milia's eyes.
Suddenly she grabbed Milia and hugged her back.

"I promise I'll save you no matter what." Max finally said.
With that the world around them faded.

##########

Max stood up from the roof of the prison complex and looked skyward.
She instantly spotted the missile headed for her location because it
was now beginning its descent through the atmosphere. She only had
another few minutes to stop it.

Max steeled herself and stood on the edge of the roof looking up. She
bent down and brushed her hands against the concrete surface. She
tensed her legs and pushed against the surface with as much force as
she could.

The concrete crumbled underneath her feet and the top and side of the
building cratered in instantly. Max made it all of 5 meters into the
air and fell stumbling into the exercise yard. She landed on her back
and jumped to her feet instantly.

She tried jumping again from the yard and managed to soar a few
hundred meters into the air, but she left a 55 meter deep crater
behind her as a result. This time she managed to at least land on her
feet.

'I can't do it Milia!' Max said, her voice barely more than a
strained whisper as she realized she couldn't jump high enough to
reach the missile.

'Yes you can Max. You have to put more power in your jump.' Milia
replied.

'I tried that. I can't manage to get high enough even at full
strength.' Max replied. They both sat silently for a moment.

'Listen Max, think about all the lives that will be lost if you don't
do this. Think about the innocent people who are relying on you, on
us, to save them. Use those emotions. I know you can do it because I
am you. I know you have the strength.'

Max swallowed hard and bent down, brushing her hand against the grass
just outside the exercise yard. She began shaking slightly as she
tensed her muscles as much as she could. The ground around her began
to rumble and loose debris rattled around.

Suddenly, with as much force as she could muster, an adrenaline
fueled Max launched off the ground. She left a crater so deep and
wide in her wake that it swallowed the outer exercise yard of the
prison, which was almost a kilometer away from her now, completely.
Parts of the outer wall threatened to collapse as the crater reached
them before stopping. It went deep into the earth, carving a hole
that could been seen from the jets flying overhead desperately trying
to down the missile headed for the nearby town.

Max shot up in the air like a super powered rocket and hurtled
towards the second missile at over twice the speed of sound. She left
a shockwave that could be heard for miles as she flew up towards the
missile.

It took more than 2 long, scary minutes for Max to reach the missile
high up in the atmosphere. When she did she grabbed onto it near the
back and managed to claw out most of the casing when she grabbed onto
its side.

Hanging on for dear life she clawed her way back to the front and
away from the flames exiting the back.

Once there she had to dig her hands into the metal casing just to
keep herself attached. It didn't help that the missing pieces of the
case caused the missile to begin spiraling madly.

Max focused on the earth, which she could barely see, and tried to
get an idea of where the missile was headed. But it was no use. The
earth was rotating too fast for her to get a clear idea. So she grit
her teeth and grabbed more of the casing.

Max began randomly tearing away at pieces of the casing in a mostly
hopeless attempt to stop the spiraling motion. However she soon
realized that if she bent the casing into an obstruction she could
use it to control the motion of the missile.

It took several attempts to create a fin like structure from the
pieces of the remaining casing but once she had it, Max grabbed onto
it and twisted it around. As she did the missile began to slow its
rotation and Max fine tuned the new fin as much as she could. It took
a long time, longer than Max would have liked, but she eventually
slowed the rotation to a manageable level.

Looking out at the ground once more Max couldn't help but smile for
the first time in almost her entire life. She was no longer over
land, instead finding herself flying across the boundless ocean
waters while straddling the worlds single deadliest weapon. She
looked behind her but couldn't see any land in that direction either.

Letting out a small cheer, Max grabbed the missile and aimed it down
into the ocean. After she was sure it would head down into the ocean
she dug her feet into the casing and let go with her hand. She tensed
up her legs again and prepared to jump in the hopes of landing far
away from the nuclear blast that she was sure would ensue once the
missile struck the water.

Then suddenly her entire world went white hot as the
missile detonated early, setting of a blast that was capable of
levelling an entire city. The last thing she remembered before
passing out was the pinpricks of heat covering her entire body in a
scalding bath of energy.

Chapter 24:

Aftermath

"Sir, we downed the first missile!" came a voice in the
Presidents bunker below the white house.

'What
about the second?" Winters asked without hesitation.

"It's
gone off course sir, cause unknown." came a reply from somewhere
in the room. The President couldn't tell who said it or even where it
came from because the room was overly crowded with personnel
attempting to coordinate with the military outside.

"Plot
its trajectory!" the President said as loud as he could without
yelling, which failed miserably.

"Trajectory
shows it landing about 100 miles off shore in the ocean. If it
doesn't detonate then it will land harmlessly on the bottom of the
ocean."

"Get
me a satellite image of the missile now!" President Winters
yelled back at the room.

"We
have a satellite in position. Imaging now." came the response. A
moment later images of the satellite popped up on the main monitor.

"What's
that on the missile?" Winters asked about the small orange shape
attached to the side of the missile. They could see that the missile
appeared to have been badly damaged.

"We
don't have the necessary quality from this satellite image to
determine what the object is sir."

"Bring
another satellite to bear and get our jets out there. Find out what
that is immediately!"

"Order
relayed. Fighter teams en route. The next satellite image will be
available in 13 seconds. 12 seconds..." the person began
counting down.

"Fighter
jets will arrive at the target in 7 minutes."

"How
long until it drops into the ocean?" Winters asked.

"3
minutes sir!" came the reply.

"Damnit"
the President swore under his breath.

"Sir
the second team is in the air. ETA in 2 minutes."

As
soon as that line was uttered the rooms monitors all went haywire.
After a few minutes the images smoothed out.

"Report!"
the President ordered, scaring the room into a flurry of activity.

"Sir,
satellite imagery shows the missile detonated at 15 miles off the
coast! Electromagnetic pulse recorded at 10 miles inland minimum."

"Approximately
5 passenger planes were potentially affected by the pulse. We're
awaiting word from air traffic control on their status."

"Radiation
fallout interfering with communications in the area. We have a last
report of no ships close enough to be affected by radiation, but we
can't get any contact on the other side of the radiation zone to
confirm."

"Mark
the affected area and the surrounding 21 miles as a no go zone for
all manned vehicles immediately. Send word to the United Nations
assembly for an emergency meeting in 2 days time. And figure out what
the hell that was on the missile." Winters barked out as fast as
he could. There was still more to be done though and he stood up
while thinking over the options. They still had to deal with the
terrorists.

"Evacuate
the crews from around the base and have 5 air strike teams prepped
and ready for launch. Send them up with a full compliment of MOAB
bombs and have them level the base. I'd rather lose it and irradiate
the surrounding area than have civilian casualties." The
President ordered. The MOAB was the largest non-nuclear explosive the
United States had and the base was secluded over 50 miles from any
form of civilization. There were only 2 roads leading to the base, so
there wouldn't be a problem with evacuating citizens from the area.

Levelling
the base was something he didn't want to do, which was why he'd even
made the phone call to the Russian President in the first place.
Russia's special forces teams had much more experience and better
gear for entering fortified bases efficiently and Winters had been
hoping to rely on it to reclaim the base.

The
room set about following the Presidents orders and he quietly slipped
out to head back to his private office. He had another phone call to
make.

##########

"That was a complete and utter failure!" came a sudden and
loud voice over their radio. James and Frank both jumped at the
sudden voice. The man in question hadn't contacted them since he'd
been given full control over the launching of the missiles from the
facility several days ago. The team had no idea what he was up to, so
they'd tasked themselves with fortifying the facility.

Searching the base they found several heavy metal barricades and
placed them at the primary entrance. Even if the men outside cut
through the front door, they'd have another weeks headache to finish
off the barricades. And the team had rigged some explosives on the
other side set so they could remote detonate them at any time.

They hadn't managed to find any secondary entrances, meaning they
were either blind or the designers had been incredibly short sighted.
If it was the latter then it would work in their favour and allow
them time to finish their plans before escaping.

They'd also disabled the elevators and fortified the stairways to
help prevent movement about the facility just in case anyone managed
to sneak their way in after all. All in all the base they'd taken
over had never seen such fortification. It was more impenetrable than
the rumored basement below Fort Knox.

"What happened sir?" Dawn asked over the radio.

"The missile flew off course and detonated over the ocean!"
the voice yelled back at them. Everyone stopped at that and tried to
imagine how that would be possible.

"Just launch another then." Frank said as if it was the
most obvious thing in the world. Everyone else nodded their heads in
agreement but said nothing. The man was going to pay them 8 figures
of money each, so they didn't want to risk losing some of their money
with any backtalk.

"Oh I will. But the targets changed." the voice said.