Super Jaded (17/23)

Chapter 17: Congress

Despite being the tallest person in the room and virtually untouchable, butterflies pelted my stomach.

It was borderline surreal. I hadn’t seen many humans other than Nina since my reawakening, which I now knew was partially intentional on her part. But being seven feet tall created quite the interesting scene as I drew the attention of all the smaller men’s eyes to me. It was like being a dutchman on a Chinese train.

“Ms. Chang, your testimony?”

Oh yeah, I was also appearing before congress to give a statement.

I had been given a brief rundown on what to do and given only a few hours to present a written testimony. Thankfully, once I quelled my anxieties, delivering a written statement of ten pages was quite easy given my enhanced brainspeed, slamming out a page a minute.

I was surprised by just how coherent my thoughts had become when I reread what I had written. I never was much of a linguist, but it was like I had a thesaurus, dictionary and a library all inside my head. Every book I had ever read I could vividly recall if I briefly thought about it.

Before me was a semicircle booth that sat twelve Congress members, each one bearing their own unique distrustful glare. Democrats on the left, republicans on the right, both sides full of people I either despised or couldn’t care less for.

I expected the subcommittee attendance to be quiet, but the audio resembled more a high school lunchroom. Photographers triangled around me, getting the best angles while trying their best to not include their opponents in the shots.

They were expecting me to talk, but I wasn’t able to focus. I wasn’t like Nina, I didn’t have the years of experience she had with being a superhuman and everything about me was increased three fold. While the noisy staff was probably bearable for everyone else, I struggled to hone my super hearing into something I could actually focus with.

A growing anger brewed within me, quickly manifesting as me turning around and screaming “SHUT UUUUP!”

The whole room went silent. How could it have not? Any louder and I think their ears would have started to bleed.

I sighed contently and nodded, returning my attention to the members of congress before me.

“Alright, if there are no more objections, then I’ll begin my trial.”

The judgemental stares of the congressmen had been replaced with frightened ones, but they still nodded in confirmation all the same.

I looked down at the paper and began to recite a simpler version of the written testimony I was given. I didn’t actually have to look down at the paper, my brain had already memorized the entire shortened version provided by one of the court stenographers as well as created a superior conciseness to it, but it was a force of habit at this point.

“When I awoke with superpowers 25 days ago, Nina Etana sold me on a very different reality. I believed her, of course, because she had been my girlfriend of six years up to that point. She told me that she injected the last remaining serum in order to save my life and this I still believe. Nina may be a bitter, jaded woman whose actions have resulted in several hundred preventable deaths. But I, the person who defeated her, would not exist without her kindness and love.

“So that is why, even though I will no longer be seeing Nina, I could not bring myself to kill her when presented with the opportunity. For all I know, she could have died when I left her in that crater in Norway, but that is not my destiny to find out. I have moved on. I will become the new protector of this world, one stronger and more capable than Nina was. That is all.”

The Congressmen discussed amongst each other. It was still a scenario almost too surreal for me to fully comprehend. Here I was, on trial in front of the powers of the United States. Sure, I really didn’t want to be here. My mind shifted to how easy it would be to ignore the bureaucratic processes, to go slightly off-script and watch as they panicked like frightened little mice.

I was supposed to stand at my designated podium, as I did, but what if I just… didn’t? Would the secret service throw me out? I didn’t think so. I was only playing by the rules because I wanted to and I wasn’t sure how much longer I desired to. Frankly, Congress was lucky to have me.

I could have fucked off long ago, but I didn’t. I wanted to make the world a better place and that’s what I was going to do.

“Congressman Letter, you have something?”

“Yes, I want to as Ms. Chang why we can trust her after her fellow super-soldier went berserk with power. How are we so sure the serum wasn’t an influence? What if her having, and I quote, ‘three times the amount’ will only make things worse? It took Ms. Etana six years to lose her mind, perhaps it will only take Ms. Chang two?”

“That’s absurd. Nina only went mad because…” I paused. What I wanted to say would cause an uproar, but it was true. I couldn’t deny it any longer.

“Nina only went mad because of you people.”

Sure enough, the entire hearing produced a rippling wave of gasps. But I wasn’t finished.

“Nonsense! This w—”

“She did as you told!” I interrupted with a louder voice. “She played your little games without questions, even when I told her not to. Whenever a plane was rescued by her, she never asked why it fell, just when to prepare for the next one.

“You were lucky to have her. And you’re lucky to have a second chance with me. Do you want my advice on how to handle superheroes?

“Shut the fuck up and listen.”

The whole seminar devolved pretty quickly after that. Who would have known that people struggling to maintain power didn’t like it when their power was exposed for what it was: nothing. Their iron fist was only as good as the people who forged it.

But I didn’t need people to believe in me for power. I had power. Real power. And I was going to use it to make this world a better place whether the previous people at the top liked it or not.

The media could hate me for it. They’d been falling out of favor even before Nina showed up on the scene, either way.

They may have been able to make a sucker out of Nina, but I had no such convictions. Nina was a strong spirit, but she wasn’t very politically active. Hell, she would always ask me who to vote for in every election because she knew I actually cared about “that kind of stuff.” Which I did, to be fair.

Nina had too rough of a childhood to really feel the world turning around her. I didn’t blame her for that. But now it was time for a new liberation movement.

I wasn’t just going to work with the government to make it a better place, I was going to rebuild it from the ground up. All in due time.

I decided to follow the little malignant voice in my head that told me to ignore the bureaucracy of this place and leave. I didn’t even fly out, I simply walked out on my own two feet at a common pace. No one dared to try and stop me. After all, I towered over any guard. The muscles on my arms were beefier than even the most tryhard army boy.

I was young.

I was beautiful.

I was intelligent.

I was muscular.

I was powerful.

I was unstoppable.

They shouted at me, but I actually managed to tune them out. With that confession off my chest, I felt a level of determination I had not quite felt before.

It had been three weeks since I had left Nina. Even though I wanted to stay in Norway, I still wasn’t ready to confront that can of worms yet. But that was fine. I could always build a new life for myself in some other country or just stick with what I had known in America.

I still hadn’t seen my mother since the serum, though I was sure she had seen me in some capacity. Despite how eager I was to challenge one of the most powerful nations in the world, I still didn’t feel confident enough to visit my mother. Would she even recognize me?

Even though I didn’t feel like a different person at heart, the feeling of unstoppability created a scenario where I could shed my anxious layers that came with the human fragility I once had.

I was afraid of what they had to say because I was empathetic to their human struggles. That was back when I had to eat, when I had to sleep, when I had to commute to work via unreliable and underfunded methods of transportation.

I was still sympathetic, but now I could finally act upon the desires I had always knew were correct.

Then I checked my phone briefly and saw the top headline.

Fern Testifying before Congress Proves Disastrous, Government announces Nina Etana will be Hunted Down and Killed.