A Darklight Burning Brightly

A Whateley Academy Fan Fic

by

Solus Nova

Part 5

I had alot to think about, in a short time I had been kidnapped, become a mutant, died at least three times, changed sex, my mother had been killed and I relived it in her head or my head, been told I was a prisoner on a submarine, the only person who seems to have any redeeming qualities is one of my kidnappers, oh and apparently I smell.

Any way you look at it I had alot to process before I could do anything to change my situation, which in turn led to my first really deep thought. How many people have their existential moments in a bathroom? My second deep thought was along the lines of does wondering if you're having an existential moment count as an existential moment? Which led to my third realization that I was chickening out about what I needed to do next, which lead me to doing the most difficult thing I've done to date. Looking in the mirror.

The bathroom I was in was ridiculously small, with just me in there it was overcrowded, I'd have move side-wise to get by the toilet to reach the stand up shower, it was just little bit larger than a closet however it did have a mirror over the sink.

The image in the mirror was a total stranger, definitely a girl as if that hadn't been made obvious earlier, she, I, was smoking hot. The first thing I noticed were my eyes, they had changed colour to a deep purple, in fact they seemed to glow faintly like a UV light. My hair had become a long wavy dark red, except for the very ends where my old curly orange looking hair came back, ok one plus to this I thought, no one will be calling me Carrot-top again. A laugh at my own joke tried to escape but I held it in, I had the feeling that if I relaxed my control over my emotions, I'd never get them under control again. Concentrate I told myself do not fall apart now, ok back to checking myself out, my face was completely new, cute nose, high cheek bones, full lips, small chin made my face look stunning, like film star good. Nothing of the male me remained. Dammit. Something about my new face bothered me a bit, well bothered me more than a bit, but my new look bugged me, my reflection was somehow familiar but I just couldn't place it.

Continuing my survey of this brave new world I looked down, yup there they were, just hanging around waiting for me to notice them, I slid out of the hospital gown to get a good look, the first of many good looks but somehow having my own private porn channel was less fun than I thought, it might of had something to do being the star and crew of said porn channel but I had a lack of enthusiasm for getting to second base, to say nothing of the idea of being the groundskeeper for the whole friggin stadium. Ok shower time, and not happy sudsy shower time with a sound track and closeup shots it really was a get clean and get to know the new me. Depressingly I was soft in the right places, curvy were I was supposed to be, if I had been born a girl.

I still found myself looking at my reflection after towelling off, trying to put my finger on the feeling that the face in the mirror was familiar to me. I mean I couldn't see any of the old me except for the old orange hair at the end of my new hair growth...

Wait a minute.

I looked, really looked and started doing some mental math when it hit me, my new face was a blend of my Mom's features and my sister's, that was what I was seeing. Hell now that I'd made the jump it was so obvious. I remembered that Norika had said Biowar had used Mom's DNA to cure my burnout. She was a mutant, that meant I had a chance of being a mutant even before all this crap had happened, but he'd 'fixed' me with Mom's...

Mom could absorb energy, she was super strong, I could absorb energy and crush a steel railing. She could make things out of thin air that she called dark matter, so, could I do the same? I held my hands in front of me and looked at the space between them, and concentrated. Nothing happened. Dammit why didn't I pay more attention to Mom when she talked about using her powers. I know why because teenagers as a rule find anything their parents do completely boring.

So I tried again, no luck, I kept thinking it should work but maybe I don't know how it works. How would Mom do it I wondered? Well she wouldn't over think it she'd just do it. So just do it...
A globe of utter black matter appeared in my hand, I jumped and lost focus and it just vanished, but I tried again, this time trying to feel my way to the result instead of thinking about it and wondering if it would work. With a few minutes of work I could feel what I was doing, how a strange kind of mental twist and poof the dark matter just appeared. I then tried to make something other than a globe, it was difficult but I could do it. Unlike Mom I couldn't seem to make any complicated shapes, or anything with moving parts, but simple shapes I could pull off. From there I worked on changing the shapes after I created them, harder but possible. I don't know how long I was doing this but as I came out of my haze somehow I had left the bathroom and found myself sitting cross legged on my bed. I looked at what I had just 'made', a mace with a spiked ball on the end. I swung it around a bit, it felt weightless in my hand but I could easily imagine the damage I could do with this, and who I'd like to beat with this...

Pro tip, maniacal laughter is good for the soul.

I got about an hour total of trying things that Mom could do to see if I could do the same, I also got head trauma by proving that flying indoors with a steel ceiling is a bad idea. As I was laying on the bed feeling amazed at how fast I seemed to be recovering from my experiment at flying, when I heard an odd sound, a 'thwap-tap' kinda thing coming from the door. |It took a few seconds to figure out that someone, likely a certain someone with no bones in her tentacles was knocking, I was on the verge of saying come in when a few things intruded. The big thing was I was a girl, and naked except for a towel that was not up to the task of keeping me covered, a few seconds of panic and then grabbing a sheet from my hospital bed to preserve decency if not modesty and then I felt ready. “Come in!”

Norika entered at my response carrying an overstuffed bag with her, upon seeing me she gave a weak grin and held up the bag, “I thought you could use some clothes and other, stuff you know. Uh you...” She trailed off looking at something, “What happened to your head? Are you ok? Let me see!”

I flinched badly as she reached out towards me from inside the doorway her tentacle/fingers stretching towards my head, she froze at my reaction to her. Reacting to the hurt look on her face I motioned for her to continue.

“Corey I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you. It's just...” Norika broke off her exam of my head to hug herself in her tentacles as she looked more and more miserable, “I'll leave, ok?”

Being turned into a girl didn't make me suddenly immune to my 'damsel in distress' reflex I noticed as my mouth continued acting on that reflex. “Wait, um, sorry I didn't, no you didn't scare me that bad, shit, what I mean is it's ok, you just surprised me.” I wound down my babbling before I really said something stupid. Great I thought, a hot girl can still make me sound like an idiot, and I'm a hot girl now, so when I'm talking to myself does that mean I need to sound like a brain dead idiot?

“You sure?” She still wouldn't meet my eyes but maybe, just maybe, she looked a little less tense.

“Sure, no, but come in any way.” She stepped in closer at that, “I'll even let you look at my head and I'll try not to freak out ok?” This time knowing what was coming I tried not twitch too badly as she poked and prodded.

“Ok nothing to serious, but I wouldn't try jumping on the bed any more unless you like concussions,” Norika said as she finished. “And I brought you some clothes and things, we don't have alot selection but it'll be better than nothing.”

****

Norika was right, not alot of selection, and it was better than nothing, nothing being naked, or a too small towel or a bedsheet. My introduction to the mysteries of woman's clothing left me wanting to run and hide, were to start? Well with a multicoloured metallic stretchy thing called a sports top, not a bra, not a sports bra, not a top, but a sports top, I guess the difference is important somehow, don't ask me I'm still learning. Matching pants that were not pants, but more of that same stuff the SPORTS TOP was made from, which on me looked painted on, a thin coat of paint at that. To try to recover some dignity, as if, I had a choice of two T-shirts that stopped just before reaching my belly button, the first had a picture of Lady Astarte with 'Girl Power' on it in a basic black, the other was a pink off the shoulder one that had 'Wet & Wild' plastered on it in white with a heart over the 'i' of course, or as I liked to think of it a cruel choice. No way in hell would I be caught dead wearing anything to do with Lady Astarte, so 'Wet & Wild' won. Some beaded beach sandals won the footwear contest due to the fact that they were flat and not flip-flops, no way was I going to try anything with a heel, and I hate, no loathe, the sound of flip-flops. Which were my other two choices.

As I headed for the door with all the enthusiasm I could muster, Norika stopped me informing me that my hair was a mess and needed to be 'dealt with'. I thought 'dealt with' would involve a pair of trimmers, nope. She had brought a selection of hair care items that I was then assaulted with, my old orange ends were removed quickly and my new deep red hair evened off, then combed out. I thought if we ever got out of this mess I'm sure Norika could make a fortune as a hair stylist. Her left 'hand' was holding two combs, and two brushes and a pair of scissors, her right 'hand' the individual tentacles had increased in number at the same time thinned down, little needle like claws had formed at the tips and worked out the tangles without any pulling or tugging. All of this work resulted in a what I was told was a simple french braid, simple yeah right, nothing about being turned into a girl had been simple.

It was at this time that I realized something, Norika somehow in my mind had moved from the 'enemy' category into the 'friend' category with no stops in between, this startled me to say the least. Growing up with a supervillain as a parent had left it's mark on me and my sister, we got very good at keeping secrets, lying, and being very careful on who we trusted. Moving around every few years just added to the level of healthy paranoia, I could count on one hand the number of good friends I had over the years, and even those I wouldn't call trusted. Everyone that I met once I was old enough to understand what the stakes were had to be considered someone that could betray me and my family with a simple phone call. Yet this total stranger who was working for the SOB that killed my Mom had somehow gotten past my lifetime of caution with a few hours of being nice to me.

This was not good, option one is Stockholm Syndrome, where the victim starts to identify with his or her captors. Option two, female bonding...ack, nope, no how, no way, I’ll take Stockholm Syndrome for 200 dollars.

After a few panicked seconds of thought I came to the realization that it might be both, since Val had died two years ago I'd been alone, no one my age that I could trust. Now being kidnapped and turned into version 2.0 of Darklight, having my sex changed and being tossed into a life and death situation it made sense that I would cling to the person that showed the littlest bit of kindness. I really hoped I wasn't making friends with Norika because somehow I was going to escape this place, it would be hard, but escaping with someone else would be harder. I really didn't want to make a friend, a real friend and then leave them behind, but that is something being the son of a supervillain teaches you, extra baggage slows you down and people are alot of extra baggage. So that means that I shouldn't think of her as a friend, but rather a decoy, something to be used to make my escape easier.

“So Corey you want to look around first, or get something to eat,” I was going to say look around when my stomach woke up at the mention of food with a loud snarl. I could feel my face heat up at the sudden mirth on her face. “Ok I guess we are going to eat first.” My stomach agreed with a second growl.

As we walked towards food I got my first taste of being a sexy girl in public, every guy we met along the way stared, none of them were anyway subtle about it. Worse where the times we had pass crewmen in those narrow hallways, there wasn't enough room for two people so we had to turn sideways and squeeze past, which of course led to all kinds of 'accidental' gropes. I would have turned and ran or freaked out and attacked someone if Norika wasn't with me, she also got a fair share of gropes as well and a shot me look after the first couple that somehow managed convey 'Men are pigs' with 'I'm so sorry for this' on some communication wavelength I never noticed before.

We finally made it to the ship's kitchen, along the way Norika told me a little about the sub, it had been a Devil Ray class Syndicate Transport/Assault sub before Biowar hijacked it over two years ago, of the original crew of 165 only 112 remained. The other crew members had chosen death before dishonour, or had fallen prey to Biowar's experiments.

The kitchen was empty, a collection of tables bolted to the floor with bench seating, however the smell of food(!) stopped my curiosity. Grabbing a plate I loaded it up buffet style, I was one my third refill when I noticed that taste was less than good, bland, dry, greasy and overcooked were better terms. Still it did quiet my stomach.

“Yeah the food sucks, but at least there is enough of it.” Norika spoke quietly while slowly eating some sandwiches. “It got bad after the last cook was 'volunteered' to help out with an experiment that the Boss wanted to try out.” She looked around making sure we where alone, “Sorry about the grope fest in the hallway, but you better get used to it. Counting you, there are seven women on the sub, so we are outnumbered better than ten to one, and most of these guys haven't, umm, been with a woman for months.” Another look around, “So be careful, try to go in pairs anywhere, do not let yourself get trapped alone with most of these guys. If you have to fight back do it but do not hurt anyone badly.”

“Screw that if anyone tries anything with me I'll kill the fucker.” To say I was panicked at the thought was a bit of an understatement.

“Corey you can't do that,” She looked at me directly, deadly serious, “This sub has a crew problem, we can't afford to kill someone, or even seriously hurt them. Hurt the wrong guy and all of a sudden he can't do his job, like the cook, except it could be someone in the reactor room or the water plant, that's not around now, then we die of thirst or the reactor blows up.”

“It can't be that bad?”

“It can, do you know anything about ships?” At the shake of my head she got a grim look, “I grew up on Maui, I've been around boats all my life, they always need to be fixed up or something breaks worse. A big ship like this, well...it needs alot of work. Since Biowar stole the ship the crew haven't been able to get the parts needed to keep it running in perfect condition. So of alot jury-rigging goes on.”

This was so not good I thought, I've been shanghaied on board the USS Duct Tape. With that I looked around, I mean really looked. The kitchen looked ok, a bit worn maybe a bit grimy but not like it was going to catch fire or explode. Still she was the expert.

“Ok Norika, if things are that bad why isn't everyone planning to stop Biowar and end this cruise before the wheels fall off?”

“Remember Tina? She randomly scans everyone onboard and if she finds someone thinking about an escape or killing the Boss, she rats them out, and then the Boss has a new lab rat. Or the other crew members find out and stop the escape because they don't think it'll work.” Norika looked at something that I couldn't see. “Like I said it's easier to just go along, certainly less painful.”

*****

I was lying in my bed later staring at the ceiling with Norika's words about 'going along' running in my head. It would be the safer option, trading risk for safety in the near future, however acting now meant taking a big chance, I didn't know anything useful really, like which way to land if I did get to the surface. On the plus side escaping now meant no psychic bitch playing mind games with me or reading my mind at the right time and serving me up to Biowar. Even if I did escape the implant would kill me unless I got it out, but removing it should be possible, the downside leaving Norika behind, I might be able to escape, but escaping with her in tow very unlikely. Still if I could convince her to try to escape I could use her as a distraction for my escape.

As a salve to my conscience I told myself after I got away I could do something to help her, like tell the Syndicate about the sub. Right, and just maybe the Syndicate would rescue everyone onboard instead of turning this sub into a square mile of plasma. Fuck it, I told myself, save yourself if you can, you're not some hero that gets everyone else killed. With that I went to sleep.

Morning came and with it a new discovery about my powers, it seems I have a force field, how did I discover that you ask? A cold shower, I staggered into the bathroom that morning still waking up and gave myself an ice cold shower by accident. Either the water on this sub is colder than I'm used to or I've become more sensitive to temperature, anyways there I was soaking wet and screaming 'COLD' when it happened, I remember trying to get away from the spray, when that failed I tried to block the spray with my hands and all of sudden the water hit something before it hit me, at the same time the light dimmed like I was wearing sunglasses. I don't really know how to explain what I was seeing, it reminded me of a heat shimmer but made out of shadow. When I checked myself out in the mirror my reflection seemed darker like a TV image with the brightness turned down.

That was so cool, and something that my Mom didn't have as far as I knew, she could do a force field but I'd never saw her do this, or look like this. That made me wonder, if I have her powers why aren't they the same as hers? Still that was something useful, very useful in fact. I experimented with my latest trick and found out the hard way that I could pull energy out of things and into my force field, however pulling the heat out of hot water in a shower is a BAD idea, I ended up creating T-Shirt made of ice, REALLY cold ice, and I was wearing it! At the rate I'm going I might have all kinds of really cool and useful powers but I'll kill myself figuring them out. Anyways after an extra long HOT shower I found myself staring at my lack of choice in clothes and cursing my fate, I had the choice of that skin tight multicoloured outfit from yesterday, or three dresses. Dammed if you do dammed if you don't, story of my life.

Still that third dress looked pretty good, it was a sundress, they all were, but it had a pattern of a nebula, lots of blacks, blues, purples and shades of pink, I just thought it looked real nice, something about the mix of colours appealed to me on top of the space theme. I picked it up and looked at it again, closer this time. It was the same as all the others, but for some reason this dress appealed to me. Which of course led to my badly damaged male ego tossing a fit of epic proportions. Nope no dress for me I'll wear what I wore yesterday, it might be embarrassingly tight and bright but at least it was pants I'd be wearing. That was a gesture to my previous maleness. What was going on in my head, I worried, would I suddenly find myself obsessing over shopping and going to the can in groups next?

That made up my mind, I was going to escape somehow I couldn't stay here. Which lead me to my next choice if I escaped I had to worry about the virus implant, so if I escape I have to get somewhere that can help me. Which means I need to know where we are roughly so I can then know where to go, and that would be any place with an internet connection with that I could access my bank account and Mom's, reach out to her friends for help that kinda thing. Karedonia would be perfect for my plans, plus I'd like to see Biowar try any shit with Gizmatic. hell I'd pay real money to see that, on second thought no I don't want Biowar to get beat by Gizmatic, I want to beat him, and by beat him, I mean beat him until he's chunky salsa.

So how the hell do I get off a submarine? Somehow I don't think it's as easy as opening a door and holding my breath as I swim up. Best thing would be for the sub to be on the surface then I can just fly away. So how to get the sub on the surface? Poking a hole in the side was one idea, but that means water coming in as I want to go out, not a good idea, what if I make a hole that's too big, I'd find out what drowning feels like. How do you...Damn I love late night TV. Ever see an old movie called 'Hunt for Red October'? There's a point in the movie were the main character asks almost the same question and that's my answer, I almost dance for joy but settle for pumping my fist, I'm on a nuclear sub! That's how I'm going to get off, head for the reactor and mess with it, or even threaten to mess with it and they'll surface. Then once we are on the surface I'm so outta here. Nothing can stop me now I exulted as I exited my room/jail cell for the last time.

I got lost, twice. Don’t laugh. It's not funny, let's see how you navigate around a sub with no map and only a vague feeling of where to go.

Anyways third time was the charm, straight ahead behind the door that I was standing in front of was the reactor, I could 'feel' it. I reached out for the door and turned the wheel thing to open it and stepped inside. I didn't know what to expect of a reactor room, lots of blinking lights, a glowy thing in the middle of the room that sort of thing I guess. What I got was something that looked like a huge hot water heater having tentacle sex with a smaller water heater, seriously there were so many pipes, cables and things my eyes sorta glazed over trying to follow them. Tucked to the sides of the room were control consoles I guessed, I mean they had to be something right? It was only then that I noticed the crew, eight guys had all turned towards me.

Since I've been turned into a girl I've sorta gotten used to the looks, being checked out that kind of thing, but that moment in the sub was the first time that it was really driven home. They didn't see me, they saw their fantasy standing there, it was worse for me because I knew as a former guy what I'd be thinking if I saw a girl that looked like me. All of a sudden I wasn't me, a person with some really big problems, I was thing to be possessed by these guys. That's why I froze, nothing to do with fear, not that I wasn't scared of the idea of fighting 8 guys, but that moment drove home to me how much things had changed, how much I'd lost. Somehow the powers that I gained as well didn't seem to be such a fair trade.

Okay maybe a little to do with fear. Just a little.

The leader of this group spoke up, “Hey baby, looking for something?” He delivered that line with a leer that repulsed me. The expression on his face was mirrored by the rest.

What would my Mom do in this situation? Well judging by her stories, flirt outrageously with all of them and then when they were off guard beat them senseless, all without a flicker of concern. Well I've already failed the concern bit, so how about the violence?

“Just leave and I won't hurt you.” I replied, wishing that my voice was a little more, well masculine, and didn't sound like a nervous cheerleader in a slasher film.

The leader of this bunch just laughed and started to walk towards me sneering, “Or what girle? You'll scream? That's okay I like screamers.” He was big I noticed much bigger than me, his blonde hair was in a messy ponytail with a thin beard, his outfit of a loose jumpsuit added to the biker vibe, with the sleeves ripped off showing a collection of tattoos on his arms.

Taking a deep breath I created a slightly bigger version of the mace I had practised creating yesterday. That stopped them from advancing any more, but much to my surprise they all started laughing and pointing at me. The leader and his men all stepped back to various places and grabbed various big metal tools then started advancing again.

“You have to be some kinda dumb crazy bitch to pick a fight with a bunch of stokers.” The leader advanced much more carefully swinging what looked like a four foot socket wrench. “If you put away that little toy, we'll just hurt you a little before we get to the fun stuff.” He said with a grin as he slowly shuffled closer. His gang moved around all the crazy piping with an easy grace, everyone I noticed now had some kind of weapon, mostly big and heavy tools, who the hell makes wrenches as big as the person carrying them!

Well fortune favours the bold and all that, so I stepped up to the leader and swung. I stared in shock as he blocked with his huge socket wrench and my mace slid down the bar and away, as I froze in surprise he swung the handle up cracking me in the face. It hurt a lot, and I staggered back with my eyes watering from the pain. He whipped the tool around blindingly fast cracking my arm, I dropped my mace as my arm went numb to my elbow, as I did that the mace just vanished. That was when one of the leader's buddies that somehow snuck up on me and then hit me in the back of the knees, which lead to me going ass backwards to land hard on this metal grating that was the floor in this room.

This was seriously fucked up. In the space of a few seconds I'd been beaten up by a bunch of thugs with big tools, dammit I'm the one with the powers and I'm on the ground in pain? What the hell? I try getting up only to have a rather large boot heel come slamming down into my gut driving all the air out of my lungs. “Stay down girly, or we'll get nasty.” Said someone in the back of the pack. How the hell did this happen?

Easy, I thought, I was damn overconfident, too many stories of mutants walking all over the law and military just kinda makes you discount the average Joe. I then remembered my bodyguards and how deadly competent they could be, so why didn't I think about that before I ended up here? This would have never happened to my Mom. Ok, take two I think and try not to screw it up this time. First things first, the various hurts inflicted on me, I can sorta feel a draw from one of the big hot water tank things in the room, so I guess that's the reactor. With that I concentrate on it and do that 'reach out and pull thing' I did in the shower this morning, might as well try to jump start my healing if I can...

WHOA!

I've tried to describe what it felt like several times, I can't really do it justice, it was not just one thing it was everything. A sort of runners high I guess is the closest I can compare it to, but with added special sauce. It was like the power in that reactor was the beautiful scene, song, taste with a perfect massage all in one. All my hurts just faded away so fast I almost passed out from the lack of pain and the rush of pleasure.

“Oh wow...” I moaned, “...that is so good.” I was so blissed out that I never saw the odd looks I was getting from the gang of guys that had just beaten me, ok time for take two, revenge of the teenage mutant this time with a much higher special effects budget.

I have a force field, so use it dummy, I told myself. When activated my force field everything around me dimmed slightly as before that was the same, what was different was how it felt with the energy I was pulling from the reactor. Before the energy that I absorbed seemed to go right into me and was used up, this time I could feel it stopping at my force field and staying there waiting for me to use it, like my force field was some kind of battery that was filling up, and I hadn't reached my limit yet. I could feel that energy wrapped around me, hugging me in a warm embrace, just begging to be used. There was still more energy in the reactor that I hadn't grabbed yet, so I raised my arms towards it, and pulled with my power. Wisps of what looked like black and purple smoke reached out from the reactor, then wrapped around my hands, even more power from the reactor came with it. With more power I drained the euphoria I was feeling increased.

I was still lying on the metal grating that was the floor in here, I didn't want to be there any more so I lifted off of the floor floating into a 'standing' position still facing my new best friend, the reactor. It was so nice the more power I pulled out, the more the reactor produced and the more I could pull out like an endless feedback loop. I was giggling from the feelings of the power when I noticed one of the guys was hitting me with that big wrench again, but his blows were being blocked by my force field. Still I owed him for that cheap shot earlier, with that thought I did something to him, with a gesture he accelerated away from me hitting several pipes before crashing into the wall of the room with a meaty thud accompanied by the sounds of breaking bones. The others in the reactor room at this backed off all of a sudden no longer looking confident. I didn't know how I did that but I 'knew' what I did, my attacker fallen away from me with a force greater than the force holding him down, I had twisted gravity.

I laughed at that like a maniac, that was something new, something that Mom had never done and I did it. Me. I held out my hands and tried to recreate the feeling I had felt when I 'shoved' my attacker away. It was easy, I could almost see the changes in the gravity as I twisted it so 'down' was the back of the room. The remaining collection of thugs fell away with panicked shouts, the shouts turned to screams of pain as they and any loose object slammed into what was now the floor to them with bone breaking force. I found that even more funny, and I kept laughing as I returned my attention to the reactor. As I did various lights in the room turned red and an alarm started to blare almost right over my head, a super shrill and rapid 'Dee-oh' sound that if I wasn't hovering in mid air would have made me jump through the roof. At the same time I felt a surge come from the reactor that just seemed to build and build until it stopped and I could feel the power in the reactor die off.

A few moments later the floor started to tip downwards, I guess my plan had worked they were surfacing! In your face Biowar I'm getting out of here! I'm not trapped in this sub anymore!

Now the harsh reality of my hasty plan reared up and bit me on the ass, where was the door off of this thing? As I was having this thought the floor kinda heaved and returned to level, I hoped that meant we where on the surface or I'd be finding out if I could breathe water. With that I turned and flew down the hallway I had just come from looking for something that might be a way off. I found it the way I found most things as of late by almost ramming my head into a hatch on the ceiling in a little alcove. Yeah, freedom at last I thought, as I opened the hatch expecting to see daylight. Instead I was in a little room with all kinds of Scuba looking gear, shit I thought, please don't let this be a storage locker. Looking around I could see no way out of this room until I looked up. A big hatch on the ceiling! Yes! I'm outta here I thought. Opening that hatch led to a small tube with yet another hatch and from there I was free!

At that point I should have just flown away at high speed laughing, but instead I just looked at that big huge blue sky with a few puffy white clouds, the far horizon where the water and sky met, it was so damn beautiful and air just smelled better. I looked around this time taking in other sights and sounds, seeing a collection of heads appearing at this streamlined tower thing towards the front of the sub.

The sub itself was in the shape of a flattened tear drop, which is what gave the class it's name of Devil Ray. Inside the teardrop shape one would find 5 pressure hulls laid side by side, the two outer hulls were stuffed with weapons and sensors, the two inner hulls had the engines, living quarters in one, and Biowar's lab in the other inner hull, and two hanger bays. The main hull had the reactor, critical machinery, the bridge and command gear, another hanger bay, and more weapons. Why am I telling you all of this, well remember I mentioned weapons?

Someone on the tower was looking at me yelling something which I couldn't make out, then a PA speaker cut on in mid threat, “...go below or we will kill you!” I didn't know who this guy was, maybe the Captain but I gave the most elegant reply I could think of, the finger, both of them, while screaming “FUCK YOU!” Again I should have just shut up and flown away, it seems telling the Captain of a ship to 'fuck off' is a bad idea. One of those heads on the sub's tower yelled something, and all of the people up there ducked.

CLANG!

Two hatches on the sides of the sub popped open and from each came up an odd turret. The turret had a big machine gun looking thing, beside that gun was a box with six(!) missiles, on top of the turret was a big back capsule with various lenses. Both turrets swung amazingly fast and pointed in my direction.

“This is your last chance, surrender!” The voice thundered from the tower in front of me.

I still had my force field up which saved my life because the asshole who ran this sub had a hair trigger, with almost no delay after that demand the gun to my left opened up, shells slammed into my shield that I had still had up. My shield held but I nearly didn't, the shells exploded off of my shield and scared me so badly I nearly lost my focus and dropped my force field. The gun fell silent after a second or two, which I was certain had been hours from my point of view. Alarmingly I could feel that the energy I had stolen from the reactor fading away, I worried that that meant I wouldn't be able to hold off a second shot from the guns, I wracked my brain trying to think how I was going to deal with this. Maybe I could...YES! A stream of dark energy poured from my hands towards the turret pointed at me, missing the turret by 10 feet. Correcting my aim I kept firing back, my second shot hit, a muted flash came from the turret as bits of the metal that made up the device flew back from the point that I hit it.

The reason why the flash from my strike was muted was a much bigger flash as something blew up a moment later, which turned the turret into scrap metal flying free at high speed. The blast from that staggered me back, almost making me slip and fall on the slick hull as a few fragments pinged off of my shields. I stood there slack jawed in amazement at the damage I did before turning around and destroying the other turret with another blast from my hands, no large bang this time, but it looked wrecked when I stopped shooting. Giving the finger again to the tower, I took flight, finally I was getting out of here.

I was maybe 200 feet in the air and climbing when I saw a series small hatches pop open all over the top of the sub, a much larger hatch was slowly opening forward of the bridge tower. As I wondered what the hell this meant two puffs of smoke came from the smaller hatches which became dots surrounded by flame rising towards me. The damn sub had missiles. With that thought I poured on the speed trying to out race them. I discovered something new, I can't fly faster than supersonic missiles, by the time I picked a direction and started to accelerate the missiles had reached me.

The missiles didn't hit me they just came close and exploded filling the air with clouds of metal fragments, no problem, the shock waves from the explosions were the problem they tossed me like a ragdoll, spinning me every which way. By the time I recovered my senses I was almost in the ocean, I did something like when I twisted gravity in the reactor room but only to myself, which flung me upwards at extreme speed. So fast that my vision started to black out before I recovered, by now I was a fair distance away from the sub and falling back towards the water. Pulling out of my dive I skimmed the surface of the ocean this time zig-zagging as I fled, stay low I thought, they'll have a harder time hitting you. With that I half rolled so I could look behind me at the sub.

“You have to be kidding me!” I screamed as I saw two more missiles launch from the sub, forward of the sub's tower the larger hatch had stopped opening, I couldn't make out what was happening there but I was fairly sure it wasn't good. I kept zig-zagging to avoid the missiles but they where just too fast for me. This time the shockwaves spun me around and into the water, I did a skipping stone impersonation and came to my senses only when I started choking on a mouthful of seawater. I hurt all over like I had pulled, well everything, as I tried to gather my wits as I bobbed in the ocean I saw what was behind the big hatch on the front of the sub.

Taking off with a howl was a Syndicate gunship, it looked like a fat attack helicopter in a bluish grey paint but with short wings on top that ended in bulky jet engine pods in place of a rotor. Despite it's brute ugly design it had a kind of character, the kind of character you expect from a slasher horror film but still. I just floated there admiring the gunship as it headed towards me...Ugh! I just finished that thought when my brain finished it's reboot, and I realized how much trouble I was in.

I gathered my wits and pulled up the strongest force field I could concentrating on nothing else as the gunship accelerated towards me, weapon pods opened up on the sides with various guns and missiles now showing. The guns started firing churning the water in a double line towards me, then the shells slammed into me, my shield held but I could feel the strain, the shells when they hit me had exploded, driving me below the water. I surfaced spitting and choking, trying to clear my eyes to see where the gunship was and if it was making another attack on me. What was that gunship shooting? I'd taken shots from the sub's guns with no problem other than nearly being scared to death, literally. It was like I was running on...oh shit!!

Now that I was thinking, and thinking clearly, I realized something very important all that energy I had drained from the reactor was gone, I'd used it all, now all I had was my own power. No big boost. I was just superhuman rather than super-superhuman, dammit. I need to get out of here I thought especially now that it's a fair fight. Mom always said never fight in a fair fight unless you cheat. I took flight looking for the gunship, I saw it maybe a mile off turning around for an another attack on me, a quick look behind me showed the sub just floating there, at least it wasn't shooting at me. No just the gunship was shooting at me. Yeah lucky me.

The gunship finished it's turn, slowing down as it did, almost hovering. Two missiles fired from the gunship, accelerating towards me, not as fast as the missile that the sub had fired, but still quick. I didn't want to get hit, even with my shield up, so I tried something Mom did I tried to create a wall of 'dark matter' between me and the missiles, Mom had been able to create her constructs at a distance, time to find out if I could. It took more effort but I was able to do it, the missiles crashed into a wall of blackness in front of me that was about the size of a billboard, and I could feel the impact on my construct. It was like a pressure on my mind that spiked to a solid headache then faded. I had done it, i had stopped the attack, however I had also blocked my sight of the gunship, so the next missile that was fired on an angle towards me came as a complete surprise as is appeared on my left avoiding my wall of darkness, it surprised me even more when it turned in mid-flight and raced towards me.

I had time to think 'SHIT' and try to reach out and absorb the energy of the explosion that I knew was coming. The missile exploded twice, a small explosion, then a much larger fireball followed. I felt the energy from the explosion start to drain into my shield as the fireball started to fade, then the shock wave hit. It was like getting hit by a pillow, swung by an angry giant, I remember spinning through the air and hitting the water. I had absorbed just enough energy to keep from being killed but the blast knocked the air and the brains out of me for a few seconds. So I practised drowning for the next few moments, fighting my way to the surface and trying to get a breath that wasn't salt water kept me occupied on the immediate present.

When I was able to look around my heart sank, the last blast had tossed me most of the way back to the sub, various people on the deck of the sub and in that control tower were pointing at me and shouting. Dammit I was doing it again wasn't I, thinking with my powers not my brain, what the hell would Mom do in this situation? She'd act, not float in the water waiting to be killed. I took a quick mental inventory check, my force field seemed ok, but I was again running without any extra power, I'd used up what I had absorbed from the explosion staying alive. So I just have the basics, no extra 'ompf', I looked for and spotted the gunship lining up parallel to the sub for another run at me.

Can't get away I thought, too slow to escape from the gunship much less the sub’s missiles, if I get away from the gunship the sub will missile me to death. The two of them had me pinned between each other. Seeing the gunship starting it's attack run I created a dome over me to take the hits I was sure was coming. Again I could feel the hits, not as strong as the missiles, and more rapid so I guessed it was firing it's guns at me when it stopped shooting I stopped holding the dome in place and it faded away, I then took flight on the tail of the gunship. The gunship had slowed beginning a tight turn no doubt planning on another attack on me, before it completed the turn I was on it's tail firing blast after blast into the tail of the craft. Considering how easy it was to wreck the turrets on the sub, I was disappointed when my blasts just seemed to scar the skin of the craft wrecking parts of the surface but doing no serious damage.

Realizing that I was on the gunship's tail the pilot reacted, I saw the engine pods tilt and twist as the craft almost pivoted in mid-air and then started moving backwards while the nose tipped up, and the guns now pointing at me. The shells from the cannons missed me, firing too low to hit, I pulled up going over the gunship so close I could see the pilot and gunner in the cockpit, the gunner staring up at me as I just missed colliding with the top of the gunship. I kept firing blast after blast at the gunship, none of my shots seemed to hit anything vital, just blasting chunks of the skin off. This was not going to work, the gunship had some type of armoured hull and it could take hit after hit from me. So far I'd been lucky with what had been thrown my way, but my luck wouldn't hold as long as the armour of the gunship. I chewed myself out in my head while trying to think of someway to win, Mom would never get into this situation, she'd just smash the gunship, cripple the sub and fly off to enjoy a night on the town without breaking a sweat. Me? I'm so far over my head I'm halfway to China.

While I was thinking that, the gunship did another tight pivot by angling it's engine pods, the gunner snapped a few quick bursts that came close but didn't hit, the gunship continued it's pivot and started backing up giving me a clear shot at the undamaged side I hadn't been able to hit before. This was bad, the crew of the gunship was starting to fight better the longer we fought. I needed to do something clever to win this fight, and I wasn't feeling too clever. I turned and shot for the sub figuring that I'd best likely to be shot at if the sub was in the line of fire, my desperate move paid off as the gunship and I kept manoeuvring but it couldn't fire at me without risking the sub. At this rate the fight would be won on who ran out of gas first, me or the gunship.

At this I had one of those light bulb moments. Gas, fuel, air. If I could...

I shot towards the gunship twisting and turning to avoid any shots hoping that the pilot would try to hold steady to give his gunner a better shot at the hard target, and he did. I might not need the gunship to hold still but it might help, as I climbed I turned towards one of the engine pods. By now I was close enough I could see where I had hit the wing and pod previously doing no damage. This time would be different. I reached out and created a globe of dark matter covering the air intake of the engine pod, the engine made what I can only describe as a huge farting sound and flame spewed from the exhaust as the fuel starved for air in the engine ignited as it hit the hot metal of the engine's nozzle. The engine could take that abuse, but loosing the thrust all of a sudden on one side caught the pilot by surprise, the gunship flipped in mid air, out of control and cartwheeled crashing into the ocean below us.

I stared in shock amazed that my crazy idea had worked, and at how fast the gunship had crashed, the craft's wing had broken off but the main body was slowly bobbing in the waves. I spun to face the sub, the people on the deck were all staring at me with looks of shock. That's when I saw Norika, she had just appeared on the top of the tower and jumped over the heads of the men in the control tower of the sub. She was running towards me with a hopeful look on her face, with the look of someone who suddenly has hope. To her I was her hero, here to rescue her from the hell that was Biowar and his bondage obsessed mind raping girlfriend, what she couldn't see was from another hatch some of the sub's crew had started setting up some kind of weapon on the deck.

I just hovered there, I could be the superhero, rush in and fight my way to Norika and maybe save her. Or I could run saving myself. It was no choice, I wasn't going to be a superhero, all superheroes do is get people killed. I flipped over and dove for the surface of the ocean racing away from the sub as fast as I could go, so fast that my eyes filled with tears from the speed. It was the speed, just the speed that made my eyes water I told myself as I ran away from a friend.