I do not own Superman, or any other D.C. character mentioned. The rest, I made up for my own story. This is a fanfic, and not for profit, so just enjoy.
SUPER
By LJ58
Part 9:
Circe watched Clark fly off, and had to admit he was a sight to behold.
"So, have you…..?"
"Keep your mind on the task before us, witch," Diana snapped as she prepared her jet. "Remember, we are counting on you to defend this island if someone comes here thinking to exploit our absence."
"While I would ordinarily leave you to your sad crusade, Wonder Woman," Circe smiled. "You will find that I am, as ever, a champion of what is in my own best interests. As curious as it seems, that currently means championing you, and your cause."
"Right," Diana nodded, eyeing her as she put the now restored bolt-shaped spear into the cockpit of her jet. "Just remember, I'm trusting you with those children. That means I'm also going to hold you responsible for them."
"I'm quivering in my…..sandals," Circe smiled as Diana settled into the jet, and sealed the cockpit. "Just keep an eye on things. And don't transform anyone," she spat as the turbines began to whine as she ignited the engine.
"Nag, nag, nag," she muttered, then smiled, and eyed Diana thoughtfully. "Perhaps another time," she told herself with a wistful sigh. Then walked away as the jet climbed into the sky, and sped off toward its destination.
S
Ellie stared as Anna Graves juggled flames with her bare hands, and Circe applauded as all fourteen of her new 'charges' stood watching the older woman working with her new power.
"Can….anyone do that," the sixteen year old asked in awe as Anna launched a ball of flame, then struck out at it with another burst of burning energy that shattered the first into fluttering tongues of energy that soon sputtered and faded out over their heads.
"I'm tempted to say that if she can, anyone can," Circe smiled sardonically as she eyed the woman who glared at her. "But you do need a natural affinity for magic."
She had little doubt the former agent, and current ambassador to this sad reflection of the true Themyscira had been well briefed before Diana had departed on her current mission to raise the gods. Which, naturally, meant the little mortal was going to be suspicious and watchful, which took a lot of fun out of her current situation.
Still, she was impressed with the potent energies the woman instinctively juggled as she learned to adapt to her new reality.
"Why don't you tell her the cost," Anna glowered, then looked at the girl after glancing around the half circle of spectators. "You girls know anything about the meta-gene from Clark's world?"
"It's what makes you get powers," fourteen year old Robinski declared, the chubby girl as excited as any of them at seeing a 'normal' person with real superpowers.
"Close. Apparently, I have one. It only took having a bomb going off in my face to jumpstart it. I barely survived it."
"Bummer," twenty year old Rina Waters exclaimed. "I don't want to be blown up."
"It wasn't much fun," Anna agreed.
"How would you like a real lesson, my dear," Circe asked her.
Anna glanced at her, and her eyes narrowed in suspicion.
Circe only smiled, deciding that Diana had definitely forewarned the woman.
"Listen, I know Diana likely told you we have…..history."
"To say the least," Anna shot back.
"Granted. But as I told her, mortal, I am charged with aiding her, and the hero in this quest. That, and they are my best chance of getting home again myself."
"So…. Without them, you're stuck, too?"
"Unless the gods make it here, and offer a way back. For which, I readily admit, I am not….holding my breath, as you people like to say."
"Fair enough. Listen, you are doing surprisingly well at handling your new abilities, but I can give you a few simple lessons that will make it even easier for you. I am, after all, someone of an adept at handling magics," she reminded her.
"So I've heard. And read. Even here we have stories of Circe, and her island of sailors she turned into….."
"A lark. Frankly, that's ancient history," Circe smiled, waving a hand in dismissal.
"You can actually turn people into animals," Paula asked incredulously. "For real?"
"Like a demonstration," she cooed at the eighteen year old.
"No," Anna snapped, stepping between them.
Paula looked vaguely disappointed.
"Fine. Fine. The offer is genuine, though. I can give you a few tips, and it should make it even easier for you to manipulate your power without wasting so much energy."
"All right. I'll be the first to admit I'm in over my head here," Anna sighed, and nodded her way. "What do you suggest?"
"Just a few tips. First, when you channel, breathe deep, calm yourself. Don't let your emotions go so…..freely. I know that some magic is emotive in nature, but that doesn't mean you have to loose your temper. That only prompts waste, and carelessness. Careless magic is wild magic. The kind that can hurt you. Oh, and other people."
Anna nodded.
"Second. Try this. Stand up a little straighter. Now, hold out your hands, palms up, like so," she demonstrated.
Anna complied, then looked back at her as the girls watched, surrounding them.
"Now, magic, my little firebug, is limited only by your imagination. I suspect you instinctively latched onto the first source of energy around you, and so branded your own imagination with the flames you now manifest. Magic itself, however, is unlimited. Think of your power. Feel it. Draw it up, and let it pool right in your palms. Calmly, now," she added, and watched as Anna started to flush, and tremble. "Remember, your passions may be fuel, but they can be channeled and controlled just as your energies you now embody."
A moment later the flames burst outward from her palms, but then settled down, turning blue as they did until small fluttering spheres of blue energy now burned in both palms.
"Now, you have the heart of magic," Circe told her, her own hands lit with incandescent orbs that pulsed and hovered just over her own palms. "Ready for the next lesson?"
Anna stared, amazed at the fiery flames she had been exuding had been so distilled as she stared at the roughly spheroid cerulean flame she now held out in both hands.
"Watch carefully," she told her, "And remember, all you need is imagination," she grinned, and pressed both hands together, forming a single sphere that she then flung out from her. "Focus, and imagination."
Paula gasped, and dropped to all fours as a large, sleek panther as golden as the blonde's silvery-white mane now stood before them.
Anna's spheres sputtered and died as she turned to gape with the rest, several girls shrinking back as the panther snarled, then padded over to Circe's side, and let the witch scratch her head.
"Change….her….back," Anna hissed.
"You do it," Circe told her.
"What! I'm no….!"
"Yes. You are. Sorceress. Your power might be….unrefined. Still, you have it in you to do far more than throw a few fireballs, or flit about like a bird. Much more. Remember? Imagination is your only limit. So," Circe smiled, and gestured to the panther now sitting at her side. "Change her back. Just remember. Calm, channel, focus, and imagine. Whatever you imagine, that you can do. Trust me on this."
Anna stared at the golden panther, and frowned as the other girls looked on in shock, and some envy.
"What if I…..hurt her?"
"Don't worry. What kind of teacher would I be if I let my protégé damage her toys?"
"She is not a toy….!"
"A figure of speech. Honestly, you mortals are all so touchy about trivial matters. Now, calm yourself. Focus. And show me your power, little sorceress," Circe smiled at her.
Anna scowled, clenched her fists, then looked at the panther that had been one of the girls she had sent here. A girl who was as much her responsibility as Clark and Diana's.
"I'm just glad Laura isn't here to see this," she grimaced, knowing the old woman still favored the house Clark first built for her and the Lis when they first settled on the island.
"She's waiting," Circe smiled, glancing down at Paula.
Anna grimaced. Drew a deep breath, and closed her eyes as she held out her hands again. This time, the flames took less time to fade to blue, and were more spherical than before. Yet, still, it was much like a small tongue of flame. She eyed the panther that sat watching her with a very un-feral gaze, and drew another deep breath.
Focus, she chided herself, and imagined the girl rather than the animal standing there.
Slamming her palms together, the blue balls flared, turning iridescent just before she flung out her hands and aimed it at the waiting beast.
For a moment there was only a shimmering haze around the transformed girl, and then she began to stretch up, and grow taller, and then a nearly five-ten bipedal panther stood beside Circe on hybrid paws as she looked at Anna with a curious gaze as she held up her forearms which now had human hands once more.
She was, however, still quite feline.
"Not bad for a first effort, my dear," Circe grinned.
"But she isn't…..!"
"Calm down. You actually did far better than I expected," Circe assured her. She virtually just waved a single hand, and Paula was back to normal, right down to her sweats, and grinning ear-to-ear.
"That was so cool," the girl exclaimed as the others all but mobbed her, asking how she felt. If she knew what had happened, and what she had been thinking.
"All right. You know as much as I can teach you now," Circe assured Anna as she smiled at the girls who were sharing their excitement. "Now, it's all a matter of practice. If you don't want to use living toys for now, try other things. Rocks. Trees. That sort of thing. But, my dear, I think you already show a great deal of promise. Trust me. I know."
Anna said nothing to that as she stared at her hands, and wriggled her fingers.
Ordinary hands. Ordinary fingers. And yet…..
"Feeling it yet," Circe asked knowingly. "Well, I'll leave you to it. After all, I'm not a babysitter," she chortled, and walked away, vanishing into thin air before she made four steps.
"Me next," a girl asked Anna.
"No, me!"
"I want to try!"
Anna groaned.
S
Thomas eyed the machine as Jacob stepped back, watching as Adam continued to type on the keyboard attached to the new AI 'borrowed' via a few clandestine contacts who had just gotten in from Germany.
"Well," the impatient Billings demanded as he watched the small monitor scroll data so fast that it seemed that all that showed was vague wriggly lines rolling down the screen in an endless parade.
"I'm running a system's check now, sir," Adam told him, typing furiously as he put his own plan into affect in a bid for survival. "But the final analysis will require a test. A live test, if we want to be certain the device is working at optimum levels."
"What kind of test?"
"What he means, general," Jacob stepped forward now, holding his own carefully prepped notes. "Is that we use a…..known energy source, tap it, and then infuse the borrowed energy into a new host. A test of the process, as well as the machine."
"How?"
"How? We just told you," Adam replied.
"I mean, how do you expect to test it? Viably, that is," he asked suspiciously.
Which they had predicted as his most likely response.
"Well, we know that certain types of crystals create a natural resonance that, in essence, stores energy. It's why so many New Agers parade around with quartz crystals, and the like. It's why silicon was chosen as the conductor of choice for microchips, and….."
"Just cut to the chase, damn it," the impatient man spat at him.
"What we want to do," Jacob told him. "Is place a sizeable piece of energized crystal into the device. If everything works as we hope, and predict, the device will drain the crystal of its energies, and then we should be able to transplant it into a new host. Our….volunteer."
"Say it works," Thomas asked condescendingly. "What would the results be if the host is….energized?"
"Well, that's it. Augmented energy. Probably they'll feel…..refreshed, more alert. More focused. It would be like a caffeine boost on steroids," Adam smiled. "Body and brain should be heightened to whatever level the available energy allows."
Thomas eyed several of his men.
"You," Thomas surprised them by pointing at Abby.
"Me," the rather mousy, if intelligent woman gasped.
"You're the volunteer. Get ready to fire it up, gentlemen," Thomas Billings smiled slyly. "And it had better work as advertised. For the young lady's sake, if not your own."
Abby stared at them, and swallowed hard.
She knew the plan, of course. She knew that theoretically, she should be safe. All she had to do was go along with the hoax. Whoever had been chosen, they had agreed it would be one of them knowing the ex-officer's paranoia, all they had to do was go along with the light show, ala Tesla, and then feign a new, and restored vigor.
The general gets duped, and they bought more time.
Time in which the real heart of the program Adam had written, and was now installing sent out a cyber-beacon they hoped would alert someone. Anyone. Perhaps even those heroes out there that were supposed to be in the business of saving people. At least, that was the hope. Either way, this wireless beacon broadcast by the faux beryllium sphere was their only hope. Otherwise, Billings was going to bury them all.
"We should use a silicon crystal. The larger the better," Jacob told the madman playing with their lives. "We will have to….."
"I read your notes last night," Thomas smirked smugly, and nodded at his nearest man again. "Your crystal is waiting in the supply shed even now. You just have to plug it in."
"Well…. That will save time," Jacob nodded. "Shall we," he asked Adam who stepped back only then, nodding.
"Ready as we'll ever be. I'm cycling the emitters now. Once the specimen is in place, we can start the main show."
"Do it," Thomas spat at them.
Abby couldn't help backing away from the machine as the humming began to grow in volume, and the tips of the emitters started to spark and glow.
"Don't be trying to leave now," the cold-eyed general told her. "You'd be missing your chance to help advance the cause of science, and American supremacy."
She said nothing to that as the man put a hand over his holstered weapon, and left her with no choice. No choice at all.
S
Clark flew high into the air near the north pole, then looked down at the planet below.
Heightened senses tracked everyone and everything he focused on, and still there were countless lives he couldn't follow. Couldn't save. A part of him selfishly hoped that heroes did rise on this world. They could fill in a vacuum that would allow he and Diana to leave without worrying about the lives that might otherwise be lost if Ares, or those like him, rose to threaten this planet again.
Still, it was not his world. Not his home.
He knew Diana was taking the greater chance here. She was visibly carrying the device Circe had given her to the tradition site of Mount Olympus to 'raise' the gods on this planet. In this realm. Ares was bound to notice her carrying out certain ancient rituals. Certain dangerous rites, considering what they meant.
If the portal could be opened long enough, and large enough to allow a passage to Olympus itself on this planet, then Ares' campaign would be drastically altered.
He had already reasoned that one of the three tests the Chinese conducted must have been what allowed that bloodthirsty god to appear here in the first place. Perhaps, as Diana thought, the other gods then moved to arrange things to bring them here to help forestall the war god's efforts, but he liked to think that free will was more than just an expression. He did not like to think that their lives were the playthings of gods, or other arcane deities.
Still, for this to work, Diana had to draw the ancient Olympian to her.
While she did, he had another task.
Opening his belt's hidden compartment, he pulled out the tiny bolt that Circe had stored there. Hidden by her magic, she had reduced and stored the true Spear there while manufacturing a convincing replica with an aura of magic to dupe anyone watching, or paying attention.
"Size means nothing," the witch had told him as she had handed him the true Spear. "This is but a sliver of one of the first and true Thunderbolt, and yet it holds all the power and potential of the original. All you need do is shatter it again, and the passage will open, and the gods will appear."
"How," he had asked.
"How did you best the Ancient Titans," she had smirked.
Clark glanced around, his senses detecting nothing at all over the region of the globe he had selected for what could be a very dangerous maneuver.
"Location means nothing," Circe had told him, and Diana agreed. "Space has as little meaning as Time to the immortal gods. Just shatter the Spear, and the gate they demand will open."
Location means nothing, she had said. Diana was just being obvious to draw the war god. After all, Ares seemed to consistently underestimate mortal heroes. It was his one failing, and one he made time and again. From ancient times, to today.
Clark hoped that remained true as he held out the small bolt not two inches in length, and locked his gaze on it.
Throwing it up into the air before him, he watched it hover for a moment, then trained his heat vision on it at full strength.
For a long, heart-wrenching moment nothing seemed to happen. Until an explosion that very nearly deafened him rumbled across the sky just before it seemed the very Hand of God slapped him from the skies as the storm of storms was unleashed over the Pole as he was flung into the Arctic Sea by forces even he could not resist.
S
"Gentlemen. Do not disappoint me," Thomas Billings told them as he watched the 'test,' and ignored the growing storm clouds to the north.
"Uh, shouldn't we be getting under cover," Abby asked as she shrank back as the emitters sparked brightly, and sparks danced around the platform like Tesla's maddest experiment gone awry. The long, arching bolts of electricity skidded over and around the thirty pound raw crystal Billings had arranged, and were it not for the potentially deadly consequences of the deceptive game they played, Abby might have been a bit more enthralls.
She had not, however, expected to be the one to actually be chosen as a test subject.
Thomas glanced toward the darkening skies. "Bah! A bit of bad weather means nothing. If anything, if might add more energy to the device when it empowers you. A rather nice acid test, as it were," he scoffed.
The scientists looked grimly at once another, but said nothing as the machine was powered down, and Adam said, "It's ready for the next phase."
"Just stand in the very center on the insulated plating," Jacob murmured to her as one of the guards gestured curtly with a brusque nod when Abby didn't immediately move. "You should be save enough. Don't worry, the weather is still pretty far…"
"We both know how far lightning can travel," she hissed. "And I'll still be standing on the biggest piece of conductive metal in the area," she added.
"Would you rather be shot," Adam asked quietly.
She grimaced, knowing Billings would shoot her. Would not even hesitate to do so.
She stepped up on the platform, and made her way to the center of the device.
"Just stay perfectly still," Adam advised her as two soldiers carried off the chunk of crystal before she replaced it.
"Just get it over with," she rasped, praying she survived, and that they got their message out.
"Starting the recycling program," Adam announced. "Don't move, Abigail."
She stood pale and trembling, fists clenched at her sides as the sky began to rumble ominously.
"Do it," Thomas almost shouted gleefully, eager to see what came of the experiment. "Do it now!"
Adam pressed the single button, and the emitters charged with life again. Even as the lightshow began, a bolt of lightning struck the very heart of the machine, blinding them as the woman at the heart of the blast of natural energy that approached over fifty-four thousand degrees Fahrenheit. They couldn't even hear the woman scream as the blinding bolt flung them back, the thunderclap deafening them as the machine exploded into deadly shrapnel that took a heavy toll on those too close to the blast.
Adam died almost instantly, along with half the guards watching. Another half were badly injured as the shrapnel flew indiscriminately through the spectators. Most of the surviving scientists had the sense to fling themselves down, seeking cover when they anticipated the danger in that single, brief flash before chaos reigned.
Jacob rolled over onto his back, a hand rising to touch the throbbing gash at his left temple. The only injury he had suffered as he instinctually flung himself down and away even as the bolt of lightning had struck.
The first thing he saw was Adam's charred, mangled body laying near him. He had taken the brunt of the shrapnel, and had liked saved Jacob's life.
"My…..God," he rasped, staring up at the smoldering ruin of the sphere.
"No," someone swore bitterly to one side.
He turned to see Thomas on his knees, his left arm dangling, and blood flowing from several wounds, but the man was otherwise unharmed.
"No, no, no," he spat. "That was supposed to be my…!"
"Billll-llllingzzzzzz," the low, venomous hiss sounded as the smoke and haze cleared, and a nearly six foot humanoid made of living lightning stood in the middle of the ruined platform.
"My…God," Jacob rasped again, staring at the glowing outline that looked like the outline of a human body, but showed no features beyond the crackling hiss of raw energy contained in that silhouette's space. "Abby?"
"It worked. It worked," Thomas cackled just a bit madly. "I should have been there! I should have had….."
Lightning flashed as a hand rose, and a glowing finger pointed.
Thomas screamed as the miniature bolt of lightning leapt out and slammed into the man's stocky body, making him jerk and writhe like an insane marionette.
"Abby, no! Not like this," Jacob jumped up, rushing to intercept her, but faltering as he felt the sheer heat of her energetic form repulse him.
Her hand lowered as her 'face' turned toward him, and she gave a crackling titter that sounded not unlike she had stepped over the abyss of madness herself.
"Jaaaaaaaa-kuuup," he sizzling hiss of a voice giggled. "Don't you zzzzzeeeee? He izzzz a mad dog that muzzzzzt be put down!"
"But not like this," he tried again, glancing over to see Thomas on his side, moaning in genuine pain as his uniform literally smoldered. "If you do this, you're no better than him. Let the law….."
The laughter interrupted him as the very air shook with the force of the dark mirth.
It was not Abby.
Turning, Jacob's eyes rounded hugely as he saw the impossible figure standing before him, and for the first time in his long life, he felt raw fear as the very fabric of reality seemed in danger of collapsing within the usually orderly confines of his rational mind.
"Who…..are you," he asked.
"Who? Don't you mean what, mortal?"
The veritable giant chortled, and looked down at Abby. "Better than I hoped. When I inspired my dupe to create new, and more powerful soldiers, I never expected him to harness the very power of the gods to do it."
Jacob stared up and up and up at the nine foot behemoth in seemingly antique armor, and felt very certain he had just gone mad.
"As to my identity. Is it not obvious even to you? I am Ares, god of war. But you, do you survive, may call me master!"
To Be Continued…