EXCERPT: “Awakened,” by Harper Kingsley

Title: Awakened
Author: Harper Kingsley
Genre: superhero, genhet
Excerpt rating: teen
A/N: Set in the H&V universe.

Summary: She’s a stranger in her own skin and she’s awakened once again. The world will tremble at her feet for she is a goddess given the flesh of a girl that died long ago, but she refused to lay down and let it take her.

AWAKENED
by Harper Kingsley

 

The whole room reeked of moist death.

It took her a moment to realize that she was nude and actually a little cold. Her skin prickled with goose flesh, but it seemed a rather distant thing.

Water dripped down the cinder block walls and there was a musty, not-quite unpleasant odor in the air, like mushrooms growing.

Somehow she thought that maybe she should be afraid, but she really wasn’t.

One minute there had been nothing, then a blinding light, and now she was here, wherever here was. And strangely enough she wasn’t even remotely frightened.

Looking down at herself, she was surprised to see delicately formed golden flesh. There was a thatch of tangled black hair between her legs, but the rest of her was childishly smooth. Except for the quickly drying blood that stained her hands and arms nearly to her elbows.

Taking a tentative step forward, her bare feet rubbed across the strange occult symbols chalked onto the floor, carelessly destroying whatever they formed.

It felt strange to walk, but not completely unfamiliar. It was as though she hadn’t done it for a long time, near to forever, but the memory was returning.

Where am I? she thought, then was minutely surprised by the “sound” of her internal voice. It didn’t sound like anyone she knew, much less herself.

Shrugging off such inconsequential thoughts, she kept walking toward where she saw stairs ahead in the gloom.

She was in a basement somewhere, though how she knew that she didn’t know. There was an odd blankness in her mind where memories should have been.

Shrugging off the strangeness of not knowing where she was, how she’d gotten here, or when she focused on it even when she was… she headed toward the stairs and the vague idea of going Out.

Something stirred in the dimness beyond her circle of light. There was a low growling sound and her heart let off a stuttering beat that had nothing to do with fear as much as an unnamed excitement then…

She was at the bottom of the stairs with no real idea how she’d gotten there. But nothing else moved.

With a sigh, she lifted her foot and began climbing up and up.

Sprawled across the landing at the top of the stairs was the blood-covered figure of a dark haired man. He had no face, just a bloody mask that covered him from forehead to breastbone, the flesh savagely ripped away to show the secrets hidden beneath.

She stood looking at him for a moment, but when he didn’t move she shrugged again.

Leaning forward she dug through the pockets of his jeans. She found some crumpled bills and a pair of car keys.

She glanced at the door, then sighed.

With carefully impersonal hands she stripped the man–the nameless body–of pants and gray tee shirt. She left the shoes as too big for her small feet and the underwear as too gross, but figured bloodstained clothes she swam in were better than nothing. There was the vague thought of being arrested for indecency, though she really couldn’t make herself care other than it would be inconvenient to the mission.

The mission?

She furrowed her brow, but whatever thought she’d had was gone.

Shrugging, she walked to the door. It was a plain wood door with a latch she quickly lifted with a loud “chnnk” sound.

Opening it and stepping out, she found herself on a city street. Turning back, she was minutely surprised to find the door gone and only a plain brick wall left behind.

She thought that maybe she should have been upset, but she didn’t have it in her to even be surprised.

Her bare feet gently slapped the pavement as she wandered down the nighttime street.

She didn’t know what she was looking for, but she assumed she would know it when she found it.

 

Walking down city streets in overlarge clothes and barefoot should have attracted attention… but the streets were strangely barren. It was as though she was the only person in the whole world.

She had the overriding feeling that things were very wrong. It was a vague tingling at the base of her spine.

Her stride became smoother and more assured the more steps she took. It was as though she was slipping deeper into her own skin, fitting into herself better.

There was a thrumming along her nerves and it was stronger toward a southerly direction. So that was the way she went.

Some unnamed something in her chest was stretching and making itself felt, letting her know it was there and ready to face the world.

Gliding smoothly from one lit street lamp to another, she barely felt the cool night air against her skin. She knew it was cold enough she should have been uncomfortable, but she wasn’t. She felt the breeze brush over her, but it had as little affect as the rough ground under her feet. What was would be.

She looked around her, her head moving back and forth as she tried to figure out who she was and where she was going.

But there was nothing.

* * *

Luke’s teeth chattered as the icy water lapped up over his hipbones. He could feel his skin prickling with gooseflesh and would have groaned about the cold except for the Muffler strapped over his mouth. It kept him from being able to make any sound at all.

He could feel the rest of his team tied up against one wall behind him, but the machine strapped to the back of his neck kept him from turning his head and making sure that they were okay.

“Come on, man, why are you doing this? Why would you ever want to kill so many people?” Clara asked, trying to sound tough, but not really being able to hide her fear.

The nameless madman snorted. “Don’t even think about trying to appeal to my sympathies because I don’t have any. I’m going to do what I want, and there’s nothing any of you so-called heroes can do about it. So why don’t you just lay back and enjoy watching the world burn?”

Luke clenched his fists in impotent rage, but manacles were too hard for him to break in his current normal human strength.

The icy water rose higher, lipping its way up passed his belly button. He could feel his testicles trying to shrink their way back up into his body.

He wished he could be over with his teammates, his family, but the guy had known what he was doing with his special trap for him. The freezing water kept him from being able to use his powers and relegated him to mere mortal status. Which totally sucked balls.

The prancing villain in the yellow poncho waved his weather control remote like a baton. “I’m going to disrupt the weather of the whole planet. You ever seen that movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow?’ Well, this is going to be much worse.”

“Dude, when you reenact the Ice Age, you’re going to die too,” Gary pointed out in his ever logical way.

The guy snorted again. “I could really give a damn.”

Luke felt his stomach sing. A suicidal megalomaniac with the capability to destroy the whole world and everyone on it.

The situation was looking just a little bit dire.

And that’s when things got really weird…

The six inch thick steel doors crackled and bent at a hammering of mighty fists. Whoever was on the other side definitely wanted in.

A look of surprise flitted across the madman’s face. “I have all of you so-called superheroes here with me. So who could that be knock-knock-knocking at my door?”

“Why don’t you answer it and find out?” Lily asked from her plastic bubble prison.

“Yes, why don’t I do that, and whoever’s out there can crush me like a bug.” The guy snorted. “No, I’m much smarter than that.”

He crossed over to his gigantic computer console and took a seat before the keyboard. His fingers flashed as he realigned his cameras outside.

“And what’s this? We’ve got a mystery girl out there.” The guy grinned at them. “Someone new is trying to play hero. It’s always so cute when some teen new-egg is ready to show their baby powers for the first time.”

Luke felt a flutter of fear in his stomach. The thought of some kid thinking she had to take on a supervillain because the veteran talent was all tied up was really kind of horrifying.

It was one of the prime ways that teen supers died.

The hammering on the door continued, fists slamming like pistons into the steel. She was determined to get in and nothing was going to stop her.

Finally there was a loud splintering noise and the door burst open with a thunderous crash. The slight figure of a teenage girl stood haloed there.

“Is this where I’m supposed to be?” she asked, her soft voice unsure.

“Well, well, well, a wee little girl,” the madman chortled, then raised his voice, “Come right on in, my dear. The more the merrier, I always say.”

The girl stepped forward, her bare feet making no sound on the cement floor. She was dressed in clothes that had obviously belonged to a much larger man. And…

“Is that blood all over her?” Gary asked.

Looking at her, unable to say anything at all, Luke felt a rush of pity go through him. Something bad had happened to the girl, and now she was here in the lair of a madman where she was going to die like the rest of them.

Her eyes were blank when she stepped under the light. An amazingly beautiful girl with long black hair and golden skin. Blood coated her hands like gloves, a few drops had dried as dark blobs across her cheeks–probably arterial spray.

“And who are you?” the madman asked, trying unsuccessfully to make his voice sound soothing, friendly. He just sounded like an asshole.

The girl blinked slowly. “I don’t know. There was light… then I woke up. Is this where I’m supposed to be? I thought this was where I was supposed to be.”

The man grinned. It was very unpleasant. “Of course this is where you’re supposed to be. Why don’t you come on in here?”

She stepped slowly forward, hesitantly coming forward. “What are you doing here?” Her eyes flicked around the room, came to Luke and paused there a long second before returning to the man.

“We’re just having a little party, everyone invited. And now you’re here too,” he said, raising his hand, palm outward.

Luke wanted to scream at her to run, heard his teammates screaming from where they were tied up, but there was nothing they could do, it was already much too late.

The girl didn’t make a sound, though her mouth dropped open in a small “o” of surprise when she was lifted up and slammed against the far wall with a deafening thud. She struck so hard that cracks spread out on the cinder block walls from the impact.

She fell to the floor limply, her hair covering her face.

“See? That wasn’t hard at all,” the madman laughed. “She thought that she was so tough, breaking down that door, but look at her now.”

Luke felt his shoulders wanting to slump, but the machine he was attached to didn’t allow him even that much motion. Even though he had known it was hopeless, for one little second there he had actually hoped that maybe things would turn out all right.

He had never realized how horrible a feeling it was to know that the world was about to end and there was nothing to do about it. After all his effort, all he could do was watch the world be swallowed by destruction. To know that he had done everything he could, and that it still wasn’t nearly enough.

Helpless tears burned his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. There was no way he was going to give that asshole the satisfaction.

He was sunk so deep in despair that he didn’t know how to respond when a young female voice said, “That was really rather rude of you.”

His eyes went wide when he saw that the girl had climbed back to her feet, not a single mark on her. Though now she didn’t look nearly so blank and empty as she had before.

There was a spark of fire in her dark eyes, her lips pressed into a hard line. “I don’t know why you did that… but I don’t think I like you very much.”

Even though through his momentary surprise, the madman still laughed. “You don’t like me very much? Heh. You’re tougher than you look, but that’s not going to help you here and now.”

“I don’t need any help,” the girl said, her voice suddenly coming out strong. She didn’t look nearly so young and innocent anymore. Even in the bloodstained men’s clothes she wore, she didn’t look like anyone’s victim.

“She’s going to get herself killed,” Clara said.

“Get out of here, girl!” Gary yelled. “Go call the League! He’s going to kill you!”

“You heard them, little girl, I’m going to kill you. Slowly, just the way a pretty girl like you should die.”

Luke wanted to scream at the girl, wanted to save at least one thing today, but there was nothing he could do. The icy water had risen up his stomach and was brushing just below his armpits.

He couldn’t save her. He couldn’t even save himself.

* * *

She couldn’t explain what she was doing here. It was as though some overriding instinct had led her to this place and time. And with her complete lack of memory, there was nowhere she could even imagine being.

When he had raised his hand and flung her against a wall without a single touch, she had been surprised. She hadn’t known that such a thing was even possible until she was rushing through the air in an out-of-control tumble.

She thought that maybe it was supposed to have hurt. There should have been a crack and pop of breaking bone and maybe she should have even been killed.

But there had been none of that.

Striking the wall had felt like being thrown into a pile of foam rubber. There had been the surprise of sudden flight and sudden stopping, but there had been no pain. And picking herself up had been the easiest thing of all.

Maybe she should have wanted to just lay there, to run away from what he might do next, but there had been no hesitation in her. She had stood up, and it had been the rightest thing in the world.

An ember of latent rage had begun to burn in her heart.

He had dared to strike her. He had dared to think that he could ever best her.

Her, that no man could ever hope to stand against. He had thought that with his tiny little power he could bring her low. Which was ridiculous, because there was no one in the world that could hope to defeat her for she was…

Who was she?

For a second it had felt as though there was a name emblazoned on her heart, but then it was gone. But the rage was still there. The power was still there. And there was no way she was going to let a loser like that think he could defeat her so easily.

“I’m going to hurt you now,” she said, in that stranger’s voice that she now recognized as her own. “I’m going to make you suffer a pain the likes of which you have never known. And when I’m done… they’re going to be carrying you out of here in several different buckets.”

“Strong words from such a weak girl,” he sneered.

She felt her lips twisting in something only a fool would call a smile. “If you really think I’m weak… I guess I’ll have to show you otherwise.”

He laughed disbelievingly. “Yeah, right. There’s nothing you can do to…”

She didn’t know what instinct was driving her body, but she got in what felt like the most natural pose in the world for her. Her feet braced about six inches apart and her two fists in front of her.

He saw her and just laughed harder. “You really think you’re going to get close enough for a physical fight? Don’t be ridiculous. I can hold you away with the power of my mind forever if need be.”

“Be that as it may,” she said, feeling determination rise up inside her. “I think I feel the need to put you in your place.”

She didn’t know where this sudden sense of empowerment came from, but it filled her completely. No one was allowed to talk to her as this man had. To mock her, laugh at her, look down upon her… the very concept was anathema. She was as far beyond him as the sky was from the ground, and he should tremble in her very presence for her power was great.

It felt to her as though the ground should tremble beneath her feet when she strode forward, her entire being centered on causing him the most pain imaginable. She could only assume that such an act would bring her great happiness.

She could feel his mental hands scrabbling against her skin, trying to hold her in place, but she shrugged them off with all of the power of a Titan shaking off water droplets.

“I am going to make you scream,” she said, feeling a strange and dark smile twist her lips. It felt very familiar.

His eyes went so wide that the whites were huge and the pupils were nothing but little pinpricks. It made her want to laugh, something she couldn’t explain. It was just so delightful to know that she could affect someone like that. To bring someone such fear… delicious.

He tried to get away from her, tried to duck out of her grasp, but he was about a thousand times too slow. It didn’t even feel as though she was moving fast, but as though the world around her had slowed to nothing more than a crawl.

Her hands latched onto both of his arms, and it was nothing at all for her to grip, twist, and pull.

He may have screamed, but all she heard was the rushing of blood in her ears, the wonderful power singing in her veins. There was a splash of warm against the backs of her hands as the blood from his wrenched off arms sprayed out of him.

Somewhere she heard someone laughing, and it took her a moment to realize that it was her. Just this uncontrollable bark of mirthful laughter bubbling up from deep inside.

/EXCERPT