Chronicles of the Supers (Book 1): Born From Darkness (The Story of Max) (20 page)

Max thought for a long time silently. After she decided that telling
Matt the story would be the best way for her to get what she wanted
she discussed it with Milia. Milia agreed for the most part but said
that they should keep parts of the story hidden, like the fact that
Milia even existed. Max agreed and she looked Matt in the eye.

"Well, it's a long story. I hope you have time."

"All the time in the world. I'm a sucker for a good story."

Max smiled politely and began her tale.

##########

"And then I woke up here." Max finished her story.

"My that's an interesting tale." Matt said. "I love it
really. It's so full of emotion, my favourite kind of story."

"You wouldn't be saying that if you had lived through it."

"You have a point. But regardless I don't think you should tell
anyone else about it."

"And why not?"

Suddenly the door opened and in stepped, of all people, President
Winters.

"Because, miss Einhardt, I don't think the world is ready for an
actual real life superhuman." the President said. "And yes
I was actually outside listening to the story the whole time."

Max frowned at the man, but made a serious attempt at not showing any
anger. She hated being tricked but she needed to maintain her
composure if she was going to have a way out of this situation that
didn't end with her being a fugitive. Milia deserved a happy life and
Max would go to any lengths to ensure she got one.

"But I'm curious about one thing. Why would you tell all of this
to us? Why bother trusting us?" President Winters asked. Max
paused for a long time and stared at the man. He was certainly
perceptive, a skill which she didn't doubt had earned him the
presidency.

"I'm doing it because..." Max paused, uncertain of if she
could continue. "I want a better life. So far my entire life up
to this point has been hell quite frankly. I want out. I just want
something simple and peaceful for once."

Max felt a few tears flow down her face as she spoke. She tried to
stem them but she couldn't. Every time she tried they just flowed
faster, so she gave up completely and let herself cry. She cried for
a long time before finally running out of tears. After that she took
another 10 minutes to compose herself.

"I think we can make a deal." President Winters said. Max
jumped slightly as the man spoke. She'd completely forgotten that he
was even standing in the room. And she was floating again, she
realized a moment later. This time it took less concentration to set
herself down, but it hurt more because she missed the bed and hit the
floor.

"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 3
^rd
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.

Maximilian 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