Super Jaded (22/23)

Chapter 22: Plan

I may have been thinking rather highly of myself at the moment, but I felt almost Christ-like in appearance.

There I was, descending to earth from the heavens of space, a half-conscious Nina splayed out in my arms, her thoughts long devolving from coherence. The sun’s rays, capable of extreme radiation when outside the earth’s atmosphere, only bathed my tanned skin in luscious golden beams. Like the stained glass paintings of old, an almost angelic halo was formed around my head as the midday light accentuated my burly beauty. Even my silhouette would likely bring a man to stare directly at the sun.

Once we entered the upper atmosphere, Nina found her consciousness fully returning to her brain. Her eyes met mine for a brief moment, and I looked away in lovey-dovey embarrassment. Out of the corner of my eye I could still see her smile of self satisfaction, as if it pierced my very consciousness like the brutal radiation of the stars only wished it could do.

I still wasn’t sure if I forgave her for all the senseless death and destruction she had caused, but I couldn’t deny that she was still super sexy.

Even though I knew what we had to do, part of me just wanted to hold my girlfriend tight in my arms high in the sky. Her luscious tresses caressed my shoulder, sending goosebumps down my entire body as the feeling of her fluffy hair matched the softness of a cloud. Well, not exactly a cloud. The two of us were sitting inside a cumulonimbus and it just felt kinda…wet.

Despite the cloud coverage, we could see the stretches of cities below, still recovering from the most recent supergirl battle.

“So, what’s the plan? Are we just gonna storm into the president’s office and give him our demands?”

“Not exactly,” I responded, scanning the streets for a certain object I couldn’t seem to find.

“And why not, Fern?” Nina asked, raising a sculpted eyebrow.

“Because it’s gone.” I said with hushed breath.

“What’s gone?”

“That device. The one that can drain our powers. I left the last one in a very specific place and now it’s gone.”

“You think the government has it?”

“Yeah, most likely. And if we wait too long, they’ll probably make more.”

“What I think we need to do is formulate a plan,” Nina suggested. “That device could be around any corner just waiting to blast me.”

“Blast us,” I corrected. “After what you told me about your grandfather and parents a few minutes ago, I wouldn’t be surprised if they plan on backstabbing your girlfriend too.”

Nina looked at me as if I had just blasphemed God in a church—which I should clarify would make her very excited. “Did you just say you were my… are we…?”

It had come so naturally to me, that phrase. Maybe because I had been using it for so many years prior.

“I-I’m not sure, Nina. I still think I need some time to process everything.”

All the hope vanished from her eyes, her upper lip thinned. I felt her body shift as she sulked within my beefy arms.

“Well… at this point you might as well go on without me. I’m nowhere near as strong as you, not as morally confident as you and, not to mention, I’ve got a broken arm. I’m basically dead weight to you.”

“Nina, c’mon, don’t say that. Just because I’m not surefire about us getting back together doesn’t mean I don’t trust you!”

Her lip quivered in silence. She didn’t have a good comeback, but I could tell she still wasn’t entirely convinced.

“Listen, Nina, I’m going to make this work. In fact, I think my brain juuust hatched the perfect plan.”

“What is it?”

“How well can you act like a complete psycho?”

~

I watched as cop cars, government vehicles and everything else in-between pulled up around me. Still no sign of the power-draining machine, but I had a feeling it wouldn’t be long until it reared its ugly, penis-shaped head.

After all, I was standing on the white house lawn with the most dangerous woman alive held tightly within my massive bicep.

Nina squirmed and thrashed, legitimately trying her hardest to escape my grasp to really sell the scene. All I could hope was that the government officials had forgotten that she had both laser vision and frost breath as long-range tools.

“Stand back, all of you!” I shouted, reciting the first part of my prepared speech. “I’ve got her contained, but she’s still very dangerous. Someone bring over the device to remove her powers!”

“Why did you choose to do it in front of the White Hou—”

“HURRY!”

That shut them up. Immediately, they began to make phone calls to all relevant departments. Nina continued to thrash and scream wildly, really hamming up her performance for all to see.

Pretty soon, the final device would be in my sightline and a second later it wouldn’t. But unfortunately, an incoming radio signal would cease any further attempts to bring it over.

Instead, all of the personnel parted like the Red Sea as an unfamiliar man walked into view, yet one Nina seemed to recognize with a confused eyebrow. He was an ancient specimen, probably in his late seventies with not a brown hair to his name. Wearing a business suit with a small American flag pin on the side closest to his heart.

I wasn’t sure why, but I really didn’t trust this guy. Well, I didn’t trust any Fed to begin with, but this guy was particularly suspicious.

“Welcome back to the land of the free, Ms. Etana. Did you enjoy your absence?”

“Who the fuck are you?” Nina shouted. She sounded genuine in tone. “You’re that guy who showed up on the big TV when Fern was captured!”

“Ah, quite astute, I’m impressed. That super-powered brain of yours does not disappoint! Just imagine how useful it could be if it wasn’t wasted on such a childish mind.”

“Hey, asshole. I wouldn’t recommend taunting the most dangerous woman alive,” I shot back at the aging man. “Now hurry up and bring the power-draining device over.”

“Ah, Ms. Chang, my sincerest apologies! You deserve commemoration for your accomplishments as well!” The man spoke, dodging the demands with jargon straight out of a politician’s mouth.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nina shouted, she, too, seeing right through his nothing response. Did he suspect we were conspiring together?

I looked around, trying to see if the device was hiding somewhere out of sight, ready to blast the both of us.

“Do not worry, Ms. Chang. I assure you the device is nowhere in this area,” he spoke, ignoring Nina and somehow reading my mind. “I have no intention of dispelling Nina’s powers at all. In fact, I wish to harness them as you have.”

I bet you do, you old fuck.

“Oh yeah? Like I’d let you get away with that. You can take Nina’s powers away, but I’m not going to let some aging G-Man become her replacement. That sounds even worse, if you ask me.”

I kept trying to turn the conversation back to the device, but the man clearly wanted nothing to do with it.

“Ms. Chang, in case you were unaware, that formula coursing through your and Nina’s veins is my patent. I am the legal distributor of it.”

“You murdered my grandpa!” Nina snarled, understandably angry. I really wanted to just release her and have her go bloody wild, but I still feared that they had the draining device somewhere hidden as a plan B. This was quickly turning out of my favor.

“He was a selfish man, wishing to share it with his family instead of the world.”

That line was enough to get me to snap as well. “He? A selfish man? Says the war profiteer who has a piece of paper saying he owns the damn thing. What a pathetic joke. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just snap Nina’s neck right now and make sure you never see a single drop of that goddamn serum?”

That widened a lot of eyes, including Nina’s. But the aging businessman just shook his head with a chapped smile.

“I had a feeling you’d say something like that. The youth of today have no respect for the laws of this great country.”

“The youth? Really? What’s next, are you gonna tell me I eat too much avocado toast or something? Answer me this, who do you think is going to win, a 24-year-old, seven-foot-tall goddess in her prime; or an aging, balding, half-deaf withered corpse?

“That’s the beauty of getting older Ms. Chang. You hear less, which makes the world more peaceful to me.”

It made no sense as a comeback, but I was so enraged that I hadn’t stopped to consider the implications of what he had said.

Suddenly, my ears were blasted by a deafening white noise. I dropped Nina to the floor, who also seemed to be affected by the all-encompassing sound. I gripped my ears in pain, but nothing could block out the pain.

I couldn’t move. It was as if a hyper-specific frequency was being played that only ears as advanced as mine and Nina’s could hear.

My bloodshot eyes found all the strength they could, looking up to see if anyone else had been affected.

All I saw was the shit-eating grin of the businessman and a group of guards unveiling the power-draining device.