Chronicles of the Supers (Book 1): Born From Darkness (The Story of Max) (6 page)

Looking
at her hand as if she was willing this to not just be a dream, Max
resolved that she would have to test her newfound abilities more.
Just as she was thinking of another way to test herself she heard the
doctor at the door.

She
quickly sat down on the edge of the bed and pretended to steady
herself with her arms. After a moment of him talking to the guard,
the doctor finally entered. He had a clipboard in his hand and a
scowl on his face. He silently went about a quick checkup of Max's
side where she'd been stabbed, but the wound was already fully
healed. There was a minor mark where the wound had been but it would
heal in a few days.

Afte
the checkup the doctor thrust the clipboard into Max's sternum and
left. Max glared at the mans back but he either didn't notice or
didn't care. Max looked down at the paperwork and after a cursory
glance she realized it was discharge paperwork. She was finally being
let out of this surprisingly unsterile hellhole. And she was glad for
that.

##########

Max returned to school the same day. Classes had yet to be restarted
so she just went to her dorm hall, which was the first to be refitted
with the new security measures. This was due only to the fact that it
was the girls dorm and it was the one attacked by the man Max thought
she had left behind forever.

She entered her room very slowly. Though she had been moved to a
different room and her old one was pretty much closed until they
could clean the blood stains, she still felt hesitant to enter. She
was afraid that she would find her father in her room waiting on her.
After a few tense minutes she finally had the door opened fully.
Finding nothing out of place, Max hesitantly entered the room and
searched it thoroughly for over half an hour before she was fully
satisfied that it was empty.

Max then slowly sat down at her desk. Her stuff was being kept as
evidence, so she didn't have much of anything. Including school
uniforms. The clothes she had on, while relatively professional
looking, had been given to her courtesy of the police after the
incident due to the fact that they'd kept her other ones and would be
holding them indefinitely.

The rooms had, thankfully, been supplied with computers. While the
computers looked amazing, they were horrible for doing any actual
work. They were expensive to buy, costing nearly 2 thousand dollars a
piece, but they were made with cheap components that made them nearly
inoperable for anything other than social media and the occasional
video viewing.

Still, it was all Max had to use. Her laptop had been collected as
evidence and probably wouldn't ever be released. So she reluctantly
booted the computer up and waited for the computer for several
minutes. After it finally booted up, Max opened the internet browser
and began researching her new abilities.

##########

It was now mid afternoon and Max had finished her research. At least
as much as she could given the schools limited internet access. Many
websites had been denied by the school, but she still found plenty of
avenues of research. While most of what she had found had been mostly
useless conspiracy theories about the existence of superhumans, she
had found some useful information about how to test herself to see
what abilities she had. Super strength was obviously one of them, and
she suspected she also had super speed.

While she had never been much into comic books or hero stuff when she
was younger, many people had. In this generation it seemed there were
many hundreds of thousands of people who wanted super powers to be
real. Even to the point that many went into the fields of science,
technology, and engineering just to realize their dreams of being a
superhero. All in all many people had posted theories and formulae
online to help Max in her studies.

To that end her first task was to find a place to test out her new
abilities. She needed somewhere secluded, where no one ever bothered
to go or check out for any reason. Several places came to mind
because her fellow students had mentioned secluded "makeout
spots". Though she quicly dismissed them. If those students
really did go by regularly for their 'activities', then the places
weren't secluded enough.

She needed somewhere no one ever went for any reason, so she searched
out a list of abandoned locations near her area. One was an abandoned
factory from the second world war. Having been built for the sole
purpose of producing machines of war, when the war ended it was
abandoned and never re-purposed.

Max decided that the factory would likely be the best place and
quickly stalked away from the school and headed in the general
direction of the factory. It had been positioned about 5 miles from
the city because it was meant to be operated all day and night. Max
knew she needed to hurry and decided that testing her speed would be
a worthwhile way to make the journey. And the road to the factory was
lined with heavy trees, meaning she could stay out of sight along her
journey.

##########

Max sprinted alongside the road, just inside the thick treeline. She
was moving as fast as she could through the underbrush. She kept
glancing along the road but so far had seen no cars pass. After she
was nearly to the turn off to the factory one finally came up and
paralled her path. The car quickly passed her by but before it was
gone she was able to judge her speed. She guessed herself to be
moving at around 20 miles per hour. While it wasn't the fastest speed
on record, she was moving faster than she should have been able to
with her malnourished body. Also she had run a full 5 miles without
having to stop or slow down. Even though she felt extemely tired she
wasn't really very fatigued in the sense of not being able to
physically continue running. It was more like her mind was tired from
the journey but her body wanted to continue. After another 30 seconds
of running she reached the location of the factory.

##########

Max had been exploring the inside of the factory carefully for the
last 2 hours. She had checked every place she could, not that there
were many. The machinery had been moved out after the factory was
shut down and the components had probably been recycled for new
machinery. There were plenty of walls and corners though and several
rooms with no windows. It was the perfect secret lair for Max.

But it would have to wait for now. Max needed to get new clothes for
school and resume her jobs and schoolwork. The school had let her
keep her job and the grocery store had bought her cover story. Though
she would lose 2 whole days worth of money. Plus, with her new
expenses, she had a lot of ground to cover and little time to do it.

Max sighed as she realized she'd probably have to find another job on
top of the 3 she already had just to pay for school now. But maybe
there would be some miracle that would let her luck her way into
enough cash to pay for her school. Though she knew it wouldn't
happen, one could always dream right?

##########

It was now the weekend and Max was going to her job as a secretary.
She had convinced the school that she wanted to work two 8 hour
shifts instead of two 4 hour shifts. Her reasoning had been that the
extra time would prepare her for work in the real world and the
school had bought it with little persuasion. Even for the kids who
would inherit their families businesses, the need to work 8 or more
hours a day often arose. They'd granted her request gladly and she
was now making a considerable amount of money. She was now making a
little more than 250 dollars for a single weekends worth of work.

Combined with her other 2 jobs meager income, it looked like Max
would actually have enough money to pay off her loans, even with her
new expenses considered, by the time the school year ended. She just
wished she could have gotten 2 more hours out of the school. But that
would have made them suspicious of her true motives. After all, the
kids at the school preferred to not do any work. They had been
spoiled by having staff to attend to their every need for them and
didn't understand the need to work more than was required of them by
law, which was merely 8 hours a day.

She scoffed at mere thought of anyone thinking like that. If they had
been through what she had been through just to get enough money to go
to school, they'd quickly change their attitude and get right to work
at a steady 10 hour a day job.

She finally arrived at the administration building. It was by far the
grandest building on the overly large campus. Her office was on the
third of the buildings 5 floors. But the building didn't have an
elevator, so she had to walk up the stairs to get to her office.

Thankfully the office was adjacent to the office of the student
government president rather than in the same room, so Max wouldn't
have to deal with the man except when he needed her, which made her
eternally glad. She hated the asshole with a passion because of his
attitude towards women and would likely have ended up beating him
half to death if she had to stay in the same room as him.

She entered the room and found, to her horror, the president sitting
on her desk. He was reading a book of some kind but quickly closed it
when Max entered. She closed the door behind her and smiled as
politely as she could as the man just stared at her with a frown.

"There you are. I'm glad you're here. I need some coffee. And I
need these papers copied 2215 times." the man said as he held up
a small stack of papers.

"What is it?" Max asked.

"It's the new safety instruction manual for the students. Don't
worry, even a woman could understand the writing." he said as he
handed Max the papers. Max barely managed to conceal her scowl as he
walked past her and out of the office.

"Have my coffee ready when I get back."

##########

"Amazing, you made the coffee perfectly. I was afraid the
instructions would be too complicated." Max's boss said after he
took a sip. "Thanks babe."

He began to walk towards his office as Max scowled at his back. But
as he opened the door he stopped and turned around.

"By the way, you can go home after your first 4 hours today."
He said.

"Why?" Max asked.

"You don't need the extra time. It'll overwork you."

"I'll be fine, I promise." Max said with as polite a smile
as she could manage.

"Nah, you won't. Women can't handle real work. Go on home after
your 4 hours are up." the man said with a frown.

"Will I still get paid for 8 hours?" Max asked.

"No. If you don't do the work you don't get the pay."

"Then I'll stay the 8 hours as dictated by my employer, the
school." Max said with a poker face.

"No you won't. You're my secretary, you'll do what I say."
the man replied with a slight scowl.

"With all due respect, that's not up to you."

"It is now. I know it's hard for you to understand, but I'm in
charge here. And my word is the law."

"And yet you aren't the one who hired me. You asked the school
for a secretary to ease your workload but agreed to let them hire one
for you. You have no say in my hiring or my firing. And you also have
no say in my hours."

"I know it must be hard to understand logic, being a woman, but
I'm telling you I'm the one in charge here." the man as he
rubbed his forehead in frustration. "If you won't take the hours
I give you then you're fired."

"I don't think so." Max said with a glare. "I think
it's you who has trouble with logic. I was hired by someone who is
not you and merely assigned to you. Those people dictate the terms
and conditions of my work. If you don't like it you can always resign
and the school can elect someone who does."

"I will not be resigning. But with that outburst of attitude
you're officially fired. I will not tolerate subordinance. Especially
not from a weak willed woman. You're a secretary, a position held by
those who are subservient to the real men of the world. You have to
obey our every whim. Now get out of my sight before I have you
dragged out of here."

"I think I'll be staying. Though if you feel like threatening me
I can go ahead and report this little conversation to the school
board. They'd be really interested in knowing you're threatening
other students wouldn't they? Especially after that other incident."
Max stood while talking, completely forgetting the 'rich and educated
young lady' routine she'd been putting on since the day she started
at the school. The man before her had pushed her buttons with his
anti-female rants too many times and she wasn't going to let him
think he had control any longer.

"I dare you to try. I'll have your ass over a fire so fast
you'll be reeling from the thought."

"I'd like to see you try."

"Are you daring me? My father is a member of the school board.
I'll just have to talk to him about our conversation. We'll just see
what he says about your little outburst."

"Oh wow. You're such a wimp you have to go to your father. Did
he teach you to be a crybaby or does that come naturally?" Max
asked with mock surprise. "Listen, it's you who's out of line.
It's not your decision in the end. And my being a woman has nothing
to do with it. You're just a sexist little papa's boy who's in over
his head and thinks that he should own the world simply because his
father is a rich piece of golden shit."

"Now you listen here bitch, my father is a respected member of
this community. He raised me when my mother abandoned me. He's the
one who taught me to be what I am. And I'll tolerate no disrespect of
him. If you continue I'll come over there and teach you a lesson the
hard way." the man threatened.

"Go ahead and try. How do you think the school board will react
when a big bad man like you beats up a helpless little girl like me?"
Max asked. "After the man who broke into my dorm room last week
they'll be overly eager to put your ass in a jail cell just to prove
they tolerate no gender based violence."