A Hero Born...

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A fan fiction story revolving around the world of "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures." No infringement of ownership is meant. It is just for fun.

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9:30 P.M. October 5th, 1998.

Lucille Newtrich looked across the complex of buildings that was Langley Air Force Base. She stood in front of the nondescript office complex that she was walking into. A sudden snowstorm had blown in and dumped about three inches of snow. But it felt only a little 'brisk' to her. Is this what it felt like to be 'Superman' all the time? Untouchable and untouched. She shook her head to clear the disconcerting thoughts.

Her sister just looked around quite pleased, even if she were bundled up in several layers for the biting cold.

General George Winston III, the general in charge of her, waved at her to enter. He and his two security guards followed a moment later. "So, Mrs. Newtrich? Do you feel that we have solved the laser transfer device to your specification?"

Lucille opened her mouth but snapped it shut. He was talking to the other Newtrich here.

Nell Newtrich gushed happily on the device. "It should match Lucille's original design quite easily. Once we've tested it a bit, I'm sure that we can modify it a bit. She's quite the genius at theoretical laser physics."

"Good. This goes a long way for you two to pay back your debt to society." General Winston took the required time to pass security with the two felons. Soon a very heavily armored elevator led them to the chamber deep within the ground.

"I'm sure you remember Sergeant Miles? He is the test candidate for the full test we are doing today."

Lucille nodded. A bright fellow, if a little surly. From Georgia, if she remembered correctly. She tried not to frown at Nell's blabbering about the specifics of the Red Kryptonite Laser System (now dubbed the RKLS) that was pointed at the center of the room. Several technicians were at the control console built behind the laser.

She noted that Nell and General Winston wandered over to the technicians.

"Mrs. Newtrich?" a voice asked.

"Please, just call me Lucille. Are we ready?" The blonde turned towards the laser. That laser might even be able to singe her, she ruminated to herself. Not that it needed to be that powerful to do that transferral, she reminded herself. She had been thinking about that a lot since her capture.

"If you will just put you hands on his shoulders, we can begin."

General Winston nodded encouragingly. He had the natural born aura of a great leader. "We'll succeed this time for sure!"

"Okay, sergeant. Time to earn our paychecks." Lucille put her hands on his wide shoulders.

As the laser started to whine, he just replied in a carefully controlled whisper, "I'm sure the general thinks you're a good little whore too."

The criminal scientist blanched at that and then her face turned red in anger. "Why you-"

The laser suddenly fired, before she could let go. She felt all of her strength suddenly wane. It worked! It really worked! Finally, it worked!

"Party time," Miles whispered with a mean and very evil smile. He turned towards General Winston and then suddenly ran at the two MPs guarding the door to the armored elevator. Before anyone could blink, he smashed both of them to broken pulp. The general just started to shout as Miles ran behind him, picked up one technician, and threw him at the other two remaining technicians. Nell shrieked as she dove beneath the control console.

"Sergeant Miles, what the hell do you think you are doing?" General Winston shouted.

"I'm killing all of you and then stealing this device. In ten years, I'll rule the world. Or maybe I'll just buy it," Michael Miles almost shouted in glee. "I'll be a king with the power of Superman!"

"Classic inferiority complex." Lucille sniffed disdainfully.

Miles stomped right over to her. "What was that, bitch?" He grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up. "I could wring your neck, you know. Just like a chicken back home on the farm. Except more fun."

Nell gasped even as she looked down at the controls. Her sister was about to be killed. But what to do? There wasn't enough energy in the capacitors to fire it again. At least not like they just had done. Very quietly, she adjusted several controls. Maybe a really short pulse could knock the power back into Lucille again.

The laser fired again, even as Miles started to turn around. It was only a quick pulse that flared yellow, but it seemed to have some effect on him.

General Winston wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He pulled his concealed nine-millimeter berretta from his shoulder holster and fired six shots into the traitor.

Miles stared at his chest mutely in shock. Then he started to laugh. "Whatever that hag back there just did, it didn't work." With a blindingly fast throw, he hurtled Lucille into the laser, smashing it and most likely killing her. Sparks and electricity jumped across the device.

He grinned as he turned back to General Winston. "You can call me Adversary, now. As a matter of fact, it is going to be the last thing you ever say," the sergeant said as he walked over towards the defiant general.

"I'd rather die, than do anything a traitorous scum like you orders." General Winston spat in Miles face.

"I'll never understand you humans!" Lucille stood while easily lifting the broken laser cannon. "You're disregard for intelligent life is truly repugnant. But my people aren't much better. But at least I thought Americans were better than that."

Mike Miles just looked at her stupidly. "What the hell are you talking about, Lucille?"

Winston slowly started to carefully reach for a small container in the ammo clip of his holster.

"Lucille is only the name I go by for human convenience. You can call me by my true name, Cil-An." Her very bearing seemed inhuman. "You should know that I came to Earth from the Kryptonian Colonies to escape their stifling dictatorship." The red kryptonite from the cannon backlit her features.

Miles stepped away. "Shit. I smashed the cannon and she still has her powers." He disappeared in a blur out a door on the other side of the room.

"General George Winston III, are you all right? I feared for your safety." 'Cil-An' as she walked up. "You should call for medical assistance. Only I am capable of dealing with this super-human monster that our agreement has unleashed."

"You are not going anywhere. We have an agreement that you are in the custody of the US Airforce-"

"I won't let him get away with this. He's killed three people here. Krypton's ashes cry out for vengeance!" She smiled at him. "But I will stand by your government, even as we agreed. You still have my oath of loyalty." She disappeared in a flash, out the same door that Miles had used.

General Winston muttered some very unpleasant curses. The President was going to have his head on a platter for this. He quickly ran to the elevator and started calling for help for him and for the wounded.

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Adversary floated in front of an armored bunker that was almost invisible from off the base.

Two MPs looked at the floating man in surprise. "That don't look like Superman, Billy."

Billy just licked his lips. "He might be one of them Invaders-"

He was cut off as Miles shoved his arm right through his chest. Adversary just turned and grinned at the first soldier. This was so much better than terrorizing people at bars or whores in back alleys. "You're next, kid."

His smile disappeared as another figure appeared out of super-speed. "You won't hurt another soldier, Adversary. So swears Cil-An."

The 'Kryptonian' had taken a moment to find more combat appropriate apparel. He just snickered at how odd she looked in combat fatigues and boots.

"You really are insane, aren't you? But I've got more important things to do than deal with a two bit crook." Miles blurred into the air, but he was quickly followed by the woman. She seemed just a little slower.

Behind them, Allen Scott just shook his head. "That's one heck of a GI Jane. Damn, Billy. You weren't supposed to die on me. We were going to see the world." He shook himself out of his shock. He pulled out his radio and talked to the command center. "This is Tango-Delta-Bravo-Romeo-Sierra-Two-Niner. I have a Condition Albatross. Repeat I have a Condition Albatross. Two super-humans are breaking into Nuclear Bunker Foxtrot-Delta-Four. Again, this is Tango-Delta-Bravo-Romeo-Sierra-Two-Niner. I have a Condition Albatross. Two super-humans are breaking into Nuclear Bunker Foxtrot-Delta-Four."

The armored metal door caved in as he smashed right through it. But it slowed him down enough for Cil-An to catch up. The two collided as they started to trade super-powered punches, blasting each other right through reinforced concrete walls.

"Why can't I get the stupid heat-vision thing going?" Adversary shouted even as threw a large chunk of concrete at the crazed criminal.

"You mean, like this?" Cil-An replied, blasting him with said heat vision, right through the impromptu projectile and striking the super-human.

The super-enhanced man groaned in pain. It was burning him! He just had to get away, flee! He'd come back later and beat her. She was no warrior. He just had to figure it all out.

He had been so close to the nuclear munitions though.

Adversary disappeared in a blur of super-speed-flight. Cil-An followed immediately, high into the atmosphere. Panic started to fill the cruel military man.

She was notably faster now! He barely had time to blink before he was smashed to the ground, totaling a parked Dodge SUV parked on a street.

"Adversary, you will not escape justice! The souls of those you have killed will not stand for it!" Cil-An floated above him, imposing and inhuman. "Surrender and I will see you incarcerated. Continue, and I will not promise you anything."

Adversary grimaced in pain. Let's distract her with some innocent bystanders. If it would have worked on Superman, it would definitely work on this female wannabe-Superman. "Think fast!" he snapped as he kicked the pavement into dangerous fragments heading right towards a startled couple that had just happened to be on the street.

Cil-An seemingly teleported in front of the couple, her hands blurring as she slapped aside the danger. "Coward! Endangering innocents like that!" she yelled in rage. She was after him in a flash.

In only just a few minutes of their furious fight, it became very evident that something was terribly wrong with Adversary. His blows became slower and weaker, even as his flight power failed him. After just five more minutes, Cil-An could quite easily hold him by his forearms.

"Why? I had the power in my grasp? Why did it fail me?" he raged. His face was swollen from the pounding he had taken. He was almost sure that he had a broken leg.

"One of the scientists managed to restore my power to me. Something within the laser calibration must have empowered you temporarily. It must have been unstable. But that is enough of that. You shall be returned to the General for your incarceration. And most likely, your future execution."

The red kryptonite poisoned superhuman flew back to Langley AFB and found General Winston still assisting with doctors while talking on the phone. He looked up in surprise.

"I have returned with the criminal, General Winston. He is still quite dangerous-"

The sound of a gunshot silenced her with surprise, even as a wave of weakness made her stagger. "Miles, you are a traitor and a threat to national security. Lucille, you had better back off from him until the kryptonite has killed him." General Winston lowered his pistol.

Cil-An could only stare in surprise at the bloody wound in Miles chest. "He could not escape. His powers were fading. Is this how all humans react? With violence and bloodshed? And my name is Cil-An! Not Lucille."

A strangely odd look of detachment covered Winston's face. "Unfortunately, hard choices require hard answers. I am just following orders, to use whatever forces I have to end the threat of 'Adversary.'" He lifted the phone in his other hand. "Mr. President, I believe the threat has ended. Do you have any further orders?"

One of the doctors helped the quasi-kryptonian to stagger away from the twitching body of Miles. "Are you all right?"

"I should be at a sufficient distance to survive the small exposure of kryptonite. I should recover fully in just a few minutes." Cil-An looked at Miles with anguish. She had not meant his death.

"Who are you, if you don't mind me asking?" the doctor asked.

"Hmm. I can not give you a full answer, but you may call me..." Cil-An wracked her mind for a quick name, something like Superman or Ultra Woman. Wait! Some reporter had given Superman his 'action name'. "You may call me, GI Jane! I am here to help your United States of America."

General Winston winced at that. It was very obvious that Lucille was suffering from some form of delusions at this point. "GI Jane, I need you to come with me. There are some matters that need to be discussed."

"Of course."

Cil-An followed the general to an office in the next building over.

General Winston pulled a bottle out of his cabinet and took a swig of potent bourbon. "We can't have you endangering your 'secret' identity."

"I have given that some thought. I will use a colorful name like Superman. I have chosen 'GI Jane' as one of your soldiers called me. Do you think I must wear a mask, like Ultra Woman?" Cil-An's face carried an inhuman countenance, instead of surly bitterness. There was an innocence there that was frightening in its strength.

"I'm not sure that we are ready to go public with you-"

"I must be allowed to help. I can not stand in the shadows anymore." The first expression of emotion cracked her features. Caring, plain and simple, was shown.

"Er, Cil-An, I know you want to help." General Winston desperately wanted another drink. How was he supposed to deal with an insane woman who thought she was superman's cousin or something.

Cil-An turned and looked up into the air. "I have to leave! People's lives are at stake!"

God help him. "I will see you later. I'm sure the president would love to meet with you."

GI Jane disappeared in a blur of motion. In just seconds, she reached the damaged air-plane and stopped its uncontrolled fall. With consummate grace, she landed it on the public airfield it had taken off of.

The pilot just blinked and whispered into his microphone. "My god, what is she?"

She saluted and replied loud enough that he could here. "I am GI Jane. And I am here to help all humans."

-

Arthur Hansen

Langley Air Force Base , U.S. military installation, Hampton city, SE Va., 4 mi/6.4 km N of downtown Hampton; on Back R. estuary, arm of Chesapeake Bay. Covers 3,195 acres/1,293 ha. Named for aviation pioneer Samuel P. Langley. Oldest continuously active air force base in U.S.; hq. of Tactical Air Command; air-defense missile units. NASA Langley Research Center. Est.1916.