Super Jaded 2 - Prologue

That's right! The sequel to Super Jaded is also in the works! commissioned by TRM, it's also co-written by Engineered Sorcery and AuGoose! Expect this as another frequently updated work over the course of 2023!

Without further ado, here's the Prologue for Super Jaded 2 - Hope Springs Eternal.

"Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! Polaris Air 331 Heavy declaring an emergency! We've lost two engines and are rapidly descending over Black Hills National For-"

Jeannine Novak dropped the phone to the cockpit and let it hang, her attention turning toward the airliner full of passengers currently under her care. The aircraft itself was the pilots' responsibility, but the last thing they needed was the near-three-hundred passengers panicking at the same time.

A mere few months ago, she thought frustratedly, this would have been a mere novelty for everyone. Sure it would've been a terrifying ordeal, but Nina Eternal would have saved them all. The first plane she'd ever saved was in a condition surprisingly similar to this one, with a flared-out engine and a crowd of terrified people, but now... Now things were different.

As the aircraft pitched downward faster and faster, the screams of panic around her became louder and more frantic. A few people who hadn't belted themselves in were pitched forward, slamming into the seat in front of them and tumbling beyond until they were stopped by the solid, angular bulkheads which separated coach and first class. The abandoned beverage cart rolled forward and took one of her fellow flight attendants with it, slamming him against the cockpit door with a sickening crunching noise she could hear despite the chaos without the roar of the engines to drown all else out.

From her jump-seat in the very front compartment, Jeannine reached for the phone once more and jammed the button for the PA. Her amplified voice carried throughout the entire aircraft, cutting through the din like a cool, professional scalpel, "Atten-tion everyone" in all her effort to maintain her tone of voice, she couldn't focus and her actual words betrayed her own fear, "I know things seem bad but our pilots are some of the best! They're- They're doing everything they can to land us safe-" Then the red cut her off.

All sound was suddenly replaced with the deafening roar of expanding plasma as a vision of the supergirl-initiated apocalypse near-blinded her. An all-consuming blast of crimson erased the rear of the plane instantaneously. Aluminum fuselage, copper wire, cloth, plastic, and a pair of unaware flight attendants were all equally worthless against the judgment of the beams, which began an agonizingly slow creep forward to destroy row by row of seat and passenger alike. Some of those who weren't completely paralyzed by fear desperately unbuckled and let themselves fall forward, a feeble attempt to evade the fate that all knew was coming, but all Jeannine could do was watch.

By the time the back quarter of the plane was erased entirely by thermal death, the temperature in the rest of the plane was unbearable from merely ambient heat. Flames flowed forward ahead of the beam's front, adding screams of agony to the mix of other sounds even as the smoke they created was obliterated as indifferently as anything else. It was almost an afterthought when the wing and central tanks exploded and catapulted the remaining fuselage forward, sparing the shrapnel of the wings from the oblivion the main body faced.

Sweat and tears stung the flight attendant's eyes as she fumbled with her pocket to retrieve her phone, her thumbprint unlocking it and her hand reaching up to disable airplane mode. All she could think about was her daughter, Iris deserved to at least get a goodbye...

She held her trembling finger to the speed-dial entry labeled "My flower" until the cheerful chime of her phone app indicated it had begun the process. By now the beam was nearly through with economy and business class, the first class passengers were long ago barbecued, all that was left were her and the pilots. She wondered for a moment if this was what it had felt like to be in one of the buildings that was burned on that fateful day when Nina first went berserk and fried that news station as well as that megachurch.

A sound froze Jeannine’s blood solid despite the boiling heat and crackling flames around her.

Three rising tones, followed by a cheerful synthetic female voice sounded out clear as day amongst the agony, "We're sorry, your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please hang up and try again"

Then all was white and her body, phone, and final message were obliterated by the beam. The rest of the plane swiftly followed, and then there was silence. All that remained of Polaris 331 was charred metallic confetti that fell around the two women who had brought about its end, lovingly cuddling each other without a care in the world.