Amount

Recommend Print

Superstarter, Part 5

Written by HikerAngel :: [Friday, 10 January 2020 13:41] Last updated by :: [Monday, 03 February 2020 17:17]

Superstarter, Part 5

by HikerAngel


Thanks for ElF for all of the editing and ideas for this story!


The earth rumbled with the power that blasted into Hannah and Serena with this round of voting. Something was wrong. The Xinth devices were never meant to become this powerful.

Hannah looked down at her arms, which shook as the golden glow enveloped them once more. Her muscles felt like they were about to explode, unbelievable strength pouring into them. She held her breath, fighting to remain conscious with the onslaught of energy.

As her body drank in the last drops of golden potency, Hannah’s knees wobbled, threatening to buckle completely. She went down to one knee. My God! How were the voters giving her this much raw power?! She balled her slender fingers into a fist, watching as golden power crackled like lightning, dancing across her radiant skin. She opened her fist and spread her fingertips. Power capable of pulverizing mountains dwelled within these delicate, manicured fingers. The idea was absurd, but she knew instinctively that it was true.

She heard a scream from Serena’s platform. A shockwave rolled across the stadium, flattening all of the people in the stands with its incredible concussive blast. What the…?

Hannah’s eyes swung around to Serena, who was floating above her platform, back bowed in ecstasy, head rolled back, lips parted, crying out into the sky. She looked as if she were alerting the heavens to her nascent ascendance. Hannah gasped as she saw Serena’s transformation. Her ebony hair thickened and lengthened as silver energy poured into the girl. Its raven color shone, reflecting the sun like a mirror. The gorgeous mass of dark, silken tresses poured like a waterfall all the way to the small of her back.

Serena’s finished her cry, and her head swayed before lolling to her magnificent chest. Hannah’s jaw dropped. It was stunning! No, it had been stunning before. Now, it was the living embodiment of perfect human beauty. Her eyes, though dazed, were effortlessly sensual, huge and shimmering green. Her scarlet lips were achingly well-formed, their look alone whispering a captivating melody without words or sound. Her face was exquisite, regal, the visage of an empress of worlds.

Serena’s breasts were heartbreakingly glorious, half-revealed in her low cut costume, which was never meant to caress such voluptuousness. Her arms, sculpted masterpieces of slim, feminine muscle shimmered the air around them. A glowing silver mist rolled off them as star-shaking power misted around them during the power transfer.

Hannah gulped as she saw ravines of striation in Serena’s abs visibly deforming the tight, clinging fabric of her uniform. She knew, without even looking at the latest vote, that those staggeringly perfect abs could probably repel her heaviest blow with ease.

Serena’s ass, clad in the tight, shiny fabric, stretched the adhesive material into such an utterly ravishing shape that Hannah felt her mouth water with envy. Her legs were paragons of shapely sinew, endless and awe-inspiring.

The power contained within Serena’s flawless form hummed. It wasn’t visible, not audible, but it was felt by everyone in the stadium. The woman’s divine, ultrafeminine figure stored levels of power that were unbelievable, greater by orders of magnitude than anything ever before seen in this galaxy.

Serena gave a soft moan and tensed all of her muscles at once as the last of the silver, glimmering deluge of energy entered her. The mere aura of power from her taut physique crumpled the platform beneath her. She fell from the sky to its crushed remains, unmoving. The intake of such energy in such a short time had completely overwhelmed her, goddess that she now was.

Hannah attempted to reach into Serena’s mind, but she couldn’t. She didn’t know whether that was because Serena was unconscious or whether the other woman’s power simply dwarfed her own.

Hannah looked down at her own impossibly perfect figure, but she knew even before looking at the vote that she was again the lesser of two goddesses, subservient to the goddess queen on the other platform.

She whirled to the immense video screen behind her and watched as the votes confirmed what she already knew deep down inside.

POWERS

HANNAH

         

POWER

RND 1

RND 2

RND 3

RND 4

TOTAL

Strength

143

923

7776

39045

47887

Invulnerability

143

480

7776

39045

47444

Speed

36

101

4062

11817

16016

Flight

36

29

4062

11817

15944

Laser Eyes

25

11

3202

7841

11079

X-Ray Eyes

25

15

3202

7841

11083

Superbreath

25

20

3202

7841

11088

Telepathy

54

24

2820

8745

11643

Telekinesis

54

18

2820

8745

11637

Total

541

1621

38922

142737

183821

 

SERENA

         

POWER

RND 1

RND 2

RND 3

RND 4

TOTAL

Strength

268

1523

1183

70825

73799

Invulnerability

268

452

1183

70825

72728

Speed

74

937

1008

20970

22989

Flight

74

383

1008

20970

22435

Laser Eyes

51

83

111

11038

11283

X-Ray Eyes

51

82

111

11038

11282

Superbreath

51

89

111

11038

11289

Telepathy

162

481

80

21793

22516

Telekinesis

162

374

80

21793

22409

Total

1161

4404

4875

260290

270730

 

CODENAMES

HANNAH

 

Golden Goddess

133

Ultragirl

31

Glory Girl

5

Goddessy

3

Apex

25

Infinity

32

Divinity

25

Pinnacle

11

Celestia

72

 

SERENA

 

Dark Justice

77

Captain Wonder

10

Shade

59

Serpentine

67

Avengeance

5

Dark Avenger

9

Titania

25

Marvelette

8

Agent S

16

Hannah gaped at the screen. She was six times stronger than after the last round of voting… but little more than half as powerful as Serena now was. HALF!!! That couldn’t be right, could it? She looked over toward Serena with envious eyes. What she wouldn’t give to be that powerful, to be the mightiest woman in the world. It had always been her secret dream – a dream that Serena had again stolen from her.

Hannah looked toward Ultraman, whose eyes were looking at Serena with concern as she lay on the platform. Of course he would be concerned with SERENA, not with her. Dark Justice, indeed. More like Dark Injustice! Jealousy rose, ugly and bitter, within her. Why was Ultraman worried about Serena – the girl who had it all?!? The girl who was nearly twice as strong as Hannah. The girl who Ultraman fawned over. The girl that the people loved. The girl who didn’t have to work for anything, but received EVERYTHING!

Hannah’s jealousy gave way to hatred, the spark of anger igniting a raging inferno inside her. The voters had chosen Serena over her AGAIN!!! She hated them. HATED them. And she HATED SERENA EVEN MORE!!! She roared her anger, rattling the foundation of the stadium. She reached out with her mind and used her telekinetic might to crush the jumbotron in a shower of sparks and shredded metal.

Ultraman, eyes wide, looked frightened of the blond girl – the girl he had pegged as a sure thing to maintain her virtuous goodness – looked like a vengeful goddess in the midst of her rage. The girl was so far beyond his level of power, he doubted he could even prove a nuisance to her should he attempt to challenge her.

Hannah rocketed away to her room within the compound faster than even his eyes could follow.

With Hannah now gone, Ultraman shook his head of one worry for now in favor of another. He returned his attention to Serena. He flew over to her as he heard shocked murmurs from the crowd, Hannah’s actions now sinking in with the audience.

Hannah watched the events in the stadium through the reallyverytoughium wall of the compound, its supposed imperviousness to X-ray vision failing to provide the merest hint of obstruction to the power of her iridescent blue eyes.

Ultraman flew over to Serena’s lifeless form and lifted the girl into his arms, taking her to the infirmary.

Hannah’s fury intensified, a maelstrom of swirling power forming around her. Ultraman took care of Serena, of course… but NOT HER!!! As she finished the thought, she launched a fist into the reallyverytoughium wall, which shredded like wet tissue under the insane violence of her full strength. Her delicate fingers pulled a fist-sized lump of the metal from the wall, and she packed it into a ball as if it were clay. She launched the ball through the indestructible impervium glass window in an attempt to vent her rapidly rising anger. Shards of the clear material shattered outward from the compound at hypersonic speeds as the small ball of metal tore through several buildings on its way into orbit.

Hannah seethed in her shattered room, wondering how next to display her crazed anger. She HATED Serena. The brunette did nothing but act selfishly. She had breezed through the trials without an ounce of effort. She seemed able to effortlessly draw more voters when Hannah had outworked her in the first round of training. Hannah’s only victory had come on the heels of posing for that men’s magazine in an outfit much like the one she was now wearing! What did that mean? She needed to outdo Serena in the sexy department? Again? Good luck with that! She had seen the unbelievable level of beauty her rival had achieved thanks to the INJUSTICE OF A UNIVERSE DEAD SET AGAINST HER!!!

Hannah looked in the mirror. She was flawlessly beautiful herself, perhaps even a match for Serena. She pushed her magnificent tush outward, revealing its heartbreakingly sexy shape under the thin fabric of her tiny skirt, the graceful curves of her coltish legs shifting with the motion. She shoved her chest forward, and the fabric of the costume groaned as it struggled to contain her awesome breasts. She traced the etched lines of her muscled abdomen with her soft fingers.

What would make the voters want to give her Serena’s power… or more? Another photo shoot? No. That was unlikely to persuade them again. This was a popularity contest, and Serena was somehow an effortless popularity magnet. FUCKING EFFORTLESS!!! Everything was effortless for her ebony-haired rival.

No, Hannah needed something else. Something that would show people that she could be the sexy girl that they wanted, outdoing Serena at her own game once more. But what?

The hottest girl on the planet would be able to snare the hottest guy on the planet, right? Maybe that would show people that she deserved their votes? Okay, so who was the hottest guy on the planet?

Hannah considered for a moment before the obvious hit her. Ultraman! She needed to make Ultraman want her. She needed to seduce him, to bend her to her will, her desires! Maybe that would make the voters love her! It made sense. The most sought after girl in Hollywood was always the youngest, sexiest rising star – especially the one that was dating the world’s most eligible bachelor!

Hannah reached out with her mind to find Ultraman within the compound. She felt him… and his concern for Serena as he watched over her in the infirmary.

Fuck!

Serena even had Ultraman wrapped around her little finger… without even needing to be conscious to do it! Hannah felt an inferno of hate for her brunette rival burn into her heart. It was hopeless. Serena, Serena, Serena, SERENA!!!! She was SO SICK OF SERENA!!! That BITCH!!!

Hannah grabbed the remaining pieces of the damaged reallyverytoughium wall with her mind and crumpled them into a boulder that she kicked into the sky with even greater force than that with which she had thrown the metal ball. The boulder took out several satellites on its way to the sun.

She breathed heavily, not from exertion, but from her anger-quickened heart rate. The only chance Hannah had of fulfilling her dream of leading the Fairness team was for Serena to be removed from the competition…

Before Hannah could fully realize the ramifications of that thought, she heard a knock at her door.

“WHAT?” she yelled, rattling the indestructible door.

“It’s me, Hannah!” came Ultraman’s voice.

“What do you want? Aren’t you too busy with Serena to have time for me?” asked Hannah bitterly.

“I just received an alert from the Team, so I got here as fast as I could. We need to go, Hannah, NOW!”

Hannah opened the door, her eyes rising to Ultraman’s face, seeing his look of extreme concern.

“Wouldn’t you rather go with Serena?”

“What is wrong with you, Hannah? Serena’s in the infirmary! She’s still unconscious from the magnitude of her last power-up.”

A surge of jealous hatred rose anew within Hannah. Part of her hoped Serena never woke up again! But regardless, maybe this was an opportunity to show Ultraman what she could do. Maybe if she impressed him, it would make him see her as a real woman. Maybe it would wrest his attention away from Serena. She suppressed her spiteful feelings toward Serena for the moment and tried to focus on Ultraman instead.

“Okay, okay. What’s the mission?”

“A dam just burst and the whole area around it is about to be flooded. Countless people could die! We need to leave NOW!” said Ultraman anxiously.

“Alright, lead the way!”

Ultraman shot into the sky through the gaping hole in what used to be the outer wall of Hannah’s room. The Golden Goddess followed, instantly catching up to him, then slowing to a crawl to match his fastest speed.

Golden Goddess flew alongside Ultraman at a leisurely pace. She thought about asking him whether she should carry him, so that they could get there more quickly, but decided against it. That was the last thing that would make him attracted to her, right? Calling him a slowpoke? Treating him like a slow child?

They arrived at the river downstream from the dam soon enough, regardless. A huge wall of water was raging down path of the river, swallowing trees and homes to either side. Ultraman continued past it from above.

“Come on, Hannah. There’s nothing we can do about this initial surge. That’s too much water to stop! We can still plug the hole in the dam, though, to prevent any more from getting through. We need to get there NOW!”

But Hannah stopped before the massive surge of water, hovering in the face of the intimidating tsunami. She sucked in a lungful of air and blasted it from her lungs, stopping the wall of water in place…then sending it backwards!

The water began to flow upstream toward the dam with increasing speed, the Golden Goddess flying as she forced it back to the dam. Ultraman watched in awe while the unbelievably powerful girl did the impossible.

The mass of water exploded back through the massive hole in the dam from the power of Hannah’s superbreath. Once it was back in the reservoir at the other side of the dam, Hannah used her mind, her telekinetic power holding it in place. Ultraman shook off the shock at Hannah’s ability and was about to go to work repairing the dam, but Hannah was already one step ahead of him.

She picked up the massive chunk of collapsed dam wall from the riverbed and lifted it with her slender arms, her feminine muscles popping into sharp relief as she held the colossal piece of steel and concrete over her head. She flew it back to the dam while continuing to hold the water back with her mind. She placed the damaged chunk of wall into the massive hole, the mass of water immediately behind it.

Unleashing a powerful blast of laser vision, she began to seal the edges of the missing piece of dam in place, welding the metal within the concrete to that which remained in the existing structure. Once the piece had been sealed back in place, she used her X-ray vision to see dozens of miles away, searching until she found what she was looking for – a stockpile of steel girders on a line of semi trucks making their way to a faraway construction site.

No longer needing to hold back the water with her mind, she let go, instead providing additional support for the damaged wall with a single small, feminine hand. She pulled the steel girders off the truck and into the air with the power of her mind, then pulled them toward her from twelve miles away.

Ultraman dodged out of the way as the massive steel girders flew past him to hover before Hannah. She aligned them against the huge wall of the dam, spacing them to properly support the weakened structure.

Hannah activated her laser eyes once more to weld the girders together in a supportive structure that could help ensure the integrity of the dam indefinitely – certainly long enough for the people below to determine a way to make a more aesthetically pleasing, permanent repair.

Hannah lifted her hand from the concrete wall. It groaned as the weight of the water pressed it from the other side without the support of Hannah’s prodigious strength… but it held. The supporting metal structure that Hannah had built in seconds was holding!

As Hannah floated backward in the sky to admire her own work, Ultraman smiled. His gaze drifted over the girl’s unbelievable body, his mind lost in wonder at the immense power it held. Hannah turned toward him, giving him a dazzling smile, forgetting, for the moment her jealousy, her hatred, and simply enjoying her moment of triumph. As she saw the way Ultraman was looking at her, more than impressed, she enjoyed it all the more.

***

Back at the compound, Hannah watched the TV screen in her room, admiring how she looked on the news coverage of her actions at the dam. She hadn’t realized how good her ridiculously sculpted abs looked, fully revealed by her sexy new costume, until she watched herself on the screen! She knew she should only be worried about how her actions came across to the public, but she couldn’t help looking at her appearance as well!

That was, in part, because Ultraman hadn’t said more than two words to her as they had flown back. She didn’t know what to make of that. She had thought that she’d impressed him at the dam, but she didn’t really know how to capitalize on that, to make him attracted to her, to take the next step...

There was a knock at her door. Hannah reached out with her mind to see who it was, but she could sense nothing. Odd.

“It’s me, Hannah, a friend. I’m here to help.”

Hannah’s frustration over Ultraman receded as her curiosity rose. She couldn’t quite place the voice, but it sounded familiar.

With her telepathy not working on the visitor, she used her X-Ray vision to reveal her identity.

It was Angel.

Hannah pressed the entry button telekinetically, and the door whizzed open.

The thin, severe-looking woman wore a skirted business suit, as always. She pressed her glasses up on her nose and adjusted her bun before walking into Hannah’s room. She smelled of Chanel perfume and makeup.

The prim woman glanced at the mangled remains of metal that bordered the giant hole in the compound wall and gave the slightest hint of a smile – which promptly disappeared as she turned back to Hannah.

“Hello, Hannah. Problems with your window?”

Hannah’s head swiveled, her eyes finding the outer wall of her room, or, rather, the lack thereof. She turned her eyes back to the unexpected visitor, looking slightly chastened.

“Um, yeah. I needed a… um… change of scenery,” Hannah said sheepishly.

Angel turned her eyes back to Hannah, watching her carefully.

“I was just checking in to see how you were doing… and to thank you again for your shoot in our magazine. We sold 300 million copies of that edition worldwide. Our normal distribution is about 300,000, so you made a remarkable impact to sales. I was just attempting to see if I could return the favor in any way.”

Hannah’s shoulders slumped and she collapsed into a chair, the tension wrought by her anger leaving her momentarily. She felt oddly relaxed with this woman.

“I’ve been better. No matter what I do, the voters seem set on giving Serena more power! I’m no good at popularity contests! I’m no match for her, anyway. The only time I managed to beat her was when I posed for your magazine!”

“There now, Hannah… or should I call you Golden Goddess?” she paused. When Hannah said nothing, she continued. “We just need to do something to ramp up your popular appeal, that’s all…”

“Yes, I know, I know. I need to be even sexier. But I don’t know how! What should I do?!? I was thinking that if I were able to get Ultraman to go out with me... “ Hannah trailed off, eyes becoming unfocused. “But he seems more attached to Serena than he does to me!”

“Yes, yes. Dating another celebrity is a definite way to increase the reach of your fame. It’s textbook, a great way to build your brand. I was actually going to propose that idea, myself!”

“But how? Ultraman’s not going to go out with me! Not with Serena in the picture! You haven’t seen the way he hovers over her, how he spends time with her. How he runs off in private with her. Serena, Serena, Serena… she’s all he cares about.”

Angel’s eyes sparkled darkly.

“You’re a phenomenally beautiful girl, Hannah. Ultraman will be more than happy to go out with you. You just need to learn to use your looks to their fullest. Your beauty, after all, may be your most powerful attribute of all...”

Angel walked slowly to the chair across from Hannah, lowering herself into it languidly, allowing her last words to linger. She watched Hannah consider them.

“I can help you do that. Though it may not appear so at first glance, I am skilled in the arts of seduction,” Angel said, removing the clip that held her bun in place. “You could call it my superpower.” Her lips formed a Mona Lisa smile.

Angel’s long hair cascaded over her shoulders as she shook it out. She removed her glasses and set them on the table before her.

Hannah watched the woman across from her as she let down her hair and removed her glasses. Angel really was attractive. She hadn’t noticed it before. Her toned legs, her tiny waist, her high cheekbones. It was as if the severe look were a disguise, some sort of secret identity. But only superheroes had secret identities, didn’t they?

Angel unbuttoned the top two buttons of her blouse, revealing a modest, but rather nice, cleavage. She leaned forward.

Hannah’s gaze dropped to check out the other woman’s bust, mentally comparing it to her own. There really wasn’t a comparison. Hannah was beyond spectacular in every aspect of the looks department. Still, Angel was strangely alluring in her own way.

“See, Hannah, these are the things you need to learn in order to entrap someone like Ultraman…”

Angel’s small hand dropped to her bare thigh, a few inches of which were exposed as her pencil skirt drew up her smooth flesh as she sat. The woman rubbed her hand up and down the exposed flesh. Hannah’s eyes watched her movement.

“Touching your body in different ways can draw his attention to your… assets.”

Angel leaned back into her chair, subtly pulling her jacket to each side and pushing her chest out, making the soft curves of her breasts visible, in profile, beneath the sheer white fabric of her blouse.

“Positioning your body can pull in his eye.”

Angel leaned forward, beckoning the ultra-gorgeous girl across from her to do likewise. As both of their faces drew together, Angel angled her head slightly to the side. Hannah’s eyes widened as Angel pressed lips into hers. Was Angel showing her how to kiss to help her with Ultraman? What exactly was going on here?

Angel pressed harder, mouth opening into the kiss. Hannah began to feel a strange, tingling sensation.

Angel’s lips devoured Hannah’s hungrily, her tongue thrusting into the blond goddess’ mouth. Hannah moaned as a strange, pleasurable, floating feeling came over her. What was happening here? Why was Angel’s kiss affecting her so much?

Angel rose out of her chair, lips never leaving Hannah’s. She moved toward the younger girl as a flow of golden energy formed, channeling Hannah’s prodigious power into her.

“Mmmmmphhh!” Hannah exclaimed, unable to pull her luscious lips from Angel’s soft oral caress. Angel placed a hand on each side of Hannah’s ultra-gorgeous face and continued to kiss her, to draw power from her…

***

Serena’s eyes opened in the infirmary. Ultraman, back to her side after he and Hannah had returned from the dam, gave a sigh of relief… At least, he started to, until he lost himself in the depths of Serena’s hypnotic eyes.

“What happened?” said Serena, placing a hand on the bed to push herself up, the edge crumpling under a grip with 35 times more pressure than that which Ultraman himself could exert.

“You, um, kinda got a boost…” said Ultraman, not quite knowing how to tell her, even if he weren’t tongue-tied by her impossibly gorgeous veridian eyes.

“How much?!” asked Serena. She explored Ultraman’s mind for an instant answer to her question. “Oh my God!”

“Yeah.”

“How? Why?” Serena said, then realization dawned. The Xinth devices – Amplifier had done something to them!

Serena flew off the table – literally. She was in the room with the alien devices almost instantly, her speed so phenomenal that it was virtually indistinguishable from teleportation. The devices crackled and popped, destroyed by the unbelievable power that had poured through them from the last vote, power at a level they had never been designed to handle.

Serena was instantly in Amplifier’s cell, forcing her way into the secured area with a telekinetic thought before the guard even knew anyone had gone by.

Serena reached out with her mind to pluck the answers that she wanted from the villain. She met resistance, for some reason, but her power was sufficient to push through it. She watched the thoughts roll through his mind as she probed the answers for her many questions.

Amplifier had interfered with the devices, amplifying the voting effects of the devices to give both her and Hannah power far greater than any other member of the Fairness Team. He had done it as part of a larger plan, working for Angel, for Siphon. Angel was Siphon! Holy shit! And there was something else...

Serena paused momentarily at the revelation about Angel before proceeding with her exploration of his mind. What else was it that Amplifier knew?

Before she could reconnect with his mind though, she felt it snuffed out by another mental power, not as strong as hers, but strong. Very strong.

Amplifier collapsed like a marionette whose strings had been cut, crumpling to the floor, dead.

Shit! What else had Amplifier known? There had to be someone else with mental powers in the compound! Someone with powers strong enough to kill with their mind alone. Someone who hadn’t wanted her to discover the other secret that Amplifier held.

What was the Killer Kings’ plan? How could making Hannah and Serena so massively powerful possibly help them? Serena shook her head. It just didn’t make sense.

Serena used her telepathy to search for Ultraman. He was in the conference room… That’s right! They had a meeting scheduled to report in with the Director. Serena, with her impossible speed, was instantly in the conference room with Ultraman.

“I was wondering when you were going to show up again!” said Ultraman as the screen in the conference room lit up, the Director’s face looming over them.

“Report, Dark Justice,” said the Director, her face stern, showing no emotion.

“I know what happened to the vote, Director,” said Serena.

“Go on…”

“Amplifier manipulated the alien devices into giving us far more power than anyone ever intended. He’s working for Siphon, who is Angel, by the way.”

This actually elicited a surprised reaction from the Director, a rare show of emotion of any kind.

“Angel is Siphon? You’re sure?”

“Yes, Director. Powering us up was apparently part of Siphon’s plan. What I can’t figure out is why!”

“Why don’t you question him further, see what you can learn…?” asked the Director.

“Amplifier is dead, ma’am. Someone was able to kill him when they discovered I was questioning him. Someone with mental powers, I think.”

“Could it be Siphon?” asked Ultraman.

The Director considered. “Possibly. We don’t have much information about Siphon. Knowing that Siphon is a woman, and what she looks like, is more than we’ve ever known. Thank you, Serena.”

Serena tried to suppress a smile at the rare compliment from the Director. Her smile evaporated, however, as a thought dawned on her.

“The only other thing we actually know about Siphon is that her power is the ability to drain powers from other supers. She can draw exactly half of a super’s power, balancing her power perfectly with that of her… donor. We can’t be certain, but we believe that she can only drain physical powers, not mental ones,” said the Director.

“What about Hannah?” Serena asked.

“What about Hannah?” replied the Director.

“She has mental powers. What if she…?”

“...was the killer?” finished the Director.

Ultraman looked stunned, the color draining from his face.

“Hannah?” Ultraman said in disbelief. “But you should have seen her at the dam!”

“It fits. And I was feeling some pretty horrible things from her the last time a vote didn’t go her way…”

“Oh my God.” said Ultraman.

The Director looked thoughtful.

“Serena, you’re more than a match for Hannah now. Thankfully that last vote went unexpectedly well for you. Find her. Question her. We need to know if she is a threat. That is all. Call me when you have her.”

With that, the screen went dark.

Serena looked at Ultraman, who returned the look. Neither looked happy.

***

Serena walked down the hall next to Ultraman and Galaxy Girl toward Hannah’s quarters. Neither was using superspeed to get there. They dreaded the answers they might went they arrived.

As they approached the door, Serena reached out with her mind so see if Hannah was inside.

She was.

But…

She was in trouble!

Siphon? Siphon! It was Siphon! She was doing something to Hannah!

Serena’s brows furrowed and she instantly arrived at Hannah’s reallyverytoughium door. She tore it from the wall and threw it aside. Ultraman, Galaxy Girl, and Serena burst in, now at full speed.

Angel stood there in a business suit, hair down, licking her lips. Golden power, stolen from the Golden Goddess, swirled over her skin. She threw a barely conscious Hannah to the side.

“Well, well… what have we here? Looks like Serena… or shall I say Dark Justice! And Ultra-lapdog and Galaxy Gag-me by her side.”

“Siphon,” Galaxy Girl growled, launching herself at the woman.

Siphon’s fist fired toward the fearless superheroine before she could even react, tearing through her heart in an instant. Galaxy Girl fell to the floor in a lifeless heap, blood pooling on the floor below her.

Ultraman looked at the body of his longtime friend, horrified.

Serena clenched her fists, furious power rippling the air around her as she prepared to unleash her limitless strength on the murderer before her. She prepared herself mentally to kill if need be.

Suddenly, Siphon was behind Ultraman, her hand at his throat, ready to tear it out with ease, armed with half of Hannah’s prodigious power.

“Not so fast, Dark Justice!”

Serena weighed her options. Could she get to the woman in time? No, probably not. Could she use her telekinesis? Maybe, but it was risky. If it didn’t work, Ultraman would be dead.

Serena watched as Hannah rose up behind Siphon, looking dazed. Serena reached out to Hannah with her mind.

“Hannah! Angel is Siphon! She’s about to kill Ultraman! I need your help to…”

Hannah flew behind Serena, grabbing her by the arms. She wasn’t strong enough to hold her more than a millisecond, but Serena’s surprise at the suddenness of Hannah’s betrayal made her slow. Siphon threw Ultraman aside, into the reallyverytoughium wall, where he crashed with a body-shaped dent, dazed.

“Hannah? What…? Why…?” Serena asked her blond team member.

Before Serena could wrap her mind around why Hannah was working with a woman who had just drained her half of her power, Siphon’s lips touched hers.

“Mmmph!” said Serena as Siphon drew silver energy through her mouth and into herself, shoulders tensing with anticipation.

Serena tried to break the kiss, but something about Siphon’s power made her unable to do it. She felt Hannah release her arms, but it didn’t matter. She was unable to resist Siphon as she felt her power flowing into the villainess through her lips.

Hannah, upon releasing Serena, walked over to Ultraman and hauled him up from the ground by the front of his uniform. She cocked her head to the side. Feelings warred within her. She was attracted to him. It was why she had allowed Siphon to kiss her – she wanted to learn how to seduce the man.

But there was also hatred there. She wasn’t sure why, but there was. She hated Ultraman, just as she hated Serena. But while her hatred for Serena seemed to mostly come from her, her hatred for Ultraman seemed to come from outside herself. It was difficult to describe, but it was strong – overwhelmingly so.

The Golden Goddess cocked her fist and, after a momentary hesitation, smashed it into Ultraman’s head with all her strength. Siphon gave her a sidelong glance as she did it, but her lips remained attached to Serena as she continued to siphon silver energy from the girl.

Ultraman’s jaw cracked under the power of Hannah’s blow, clearly dislocated, and his lip burst, splattering blood all over the reallyverytoughium wall. Hannah cringed inside, and she nearly dropped him from the shock of what she had done. Then another wave of hatred washed through her, and her mouth, wide in horror, transformed into a sneer. Hannah drew her arm back a second time and launched her fist into his nose. She felt it crack under the force of her blow. She drew back again and smashed her fist into his face again, feeling his cheekbones crunch under her impossibly hard knuckles. He went limp.

Hannah felt another wave of hatred, and, despite wanting to stop, she didn’t. She fired blow after blow into the superhero until her supersenses could detect no more heartbeat.

Serena couldn’t see what Hannah was doing, but she could sense the girl’s thoughts. Hannah seemed to be brimming with hatred for both her and Ultraman. Why Ultraman? Serena understood Hannah’s jealousy and strong feelings against herself, though that didn’t mean they didn’t concern her. There was at least some basis for why Hannah would feel that way about her. But why Ultraman? Serena had actually thought the young girl was carrying a bit of a torch for the hero. Now, however, she hated him so much that she seemed to want him dead. It made no sense!

Serena – the most powerful person ever to walk the face of the planet – felt helpless. She couldn’t seem to physically do anything to Siphon. Siphon’s powers, augmented by the power she had stolen from Hannah, seemed to paralyze her victims. But maybe, just maybe, she could still actively use the power of her mind for telekinesis!

She poured her thoughts into creating a barrier around Hannah to prevent her from hurting Ultraman. Little did she know, distracted as she was, that the man was already finished.

The barrier, however, had an unexpected effect. Hannah’s hatred for Ultraman suddenly disappeared. She dropped his lifeless form in horror, her hand covering her open mouth. Oh my God! Had she killed him?

Hannah dropped to her knees in disbelief, inadvertently freed from the outside influence on her mind by Serena’s shield. Tears began to well in her eyes.

Suddenly, Hannah remembered what else was happening. She didn’t have time right now to feel sorry for herself. She didn’t even have time to feel sorry for Ultraman, for what she had done to him. She had to help Serena! She had to take down Siphon before she became too powerful!

It was too late.

Siphon released her kiss, and Dark Justice dropped to the floor, aching and hollow from the powerlessness she felt in the aftermath of losing half of her powers to the supervillain.

As Serena struggled to move, Hannah attacked Siphon, flying into her, driving her shoulder into the other woman’s stomach with incredible power, smashing her through several reallyverytoughium walls before Siphon’s feet dug into the indestructible metal and brought them both to a stop.

Her hands came down on Hannah’s back in an ultra-powerful blow that slammed the Golden Goddess into the floor, encasing her front half in the metal.

Siphon reached down and hauled the girl up by her cape with one hand, pulling back the other as she balled its fingers into a fist. Siphon rocketed an uppercut into Hannah’s bare abs. Those sculpted, perfect abs collapsed under the power of Siphon’s knuckles, and Hannah rocked upwards, held in place only by Siphon’s grip on her cape. As Hannah fell back to the floor after the blow, she retched, coughing up blood.

My God! Just how powerful was this woman! Hannah thought, beginning to feel real fear for the first time since she had become a member of The Two.

Before Hannah could finish the thought, Siphon’s hand was twisting her cape and using it to pull the Golden Goddess off her feet once more. Siphon windmilled her arm, taking Hannah along with it before releasing her cape. Hannah smashed completely through the rerallyverytoughium floor and several dozen feet into the earth below, encased in soil, breathless and in more pain than she’d ever felt in her life.

Before Siphon could do anything else, she felt Dark Justice’s fist impact her jaw. Serena had recovered enough to get back to her feet and attempt to help Hannah. The blow turned the supervillain’s head. Maybe it even hurt her a bit. But it wasn’t enough. As Siphon’s head swiveled back around, her fist rocketed into Serena’s face. Serena flew backward from the force of it, destroying more walls within the compound.

When Serena came to a stop, she did nothing for moment, shocked. She had NEVER been hit that hard in her life! She rubbed her bruising jaw as she struggled to her feet unsteadily.

Hannah, meanwhile, had freed herself from the ground, launching upward to land a hard kick to Siphon’s stomach. Siphon smiled wickedly as the blow did nothing to her powered-up body, then returned a kick of her own, blasting Hannah miles into the sky. Hannah couldn’t breathe as she flew upward. She rubbed her hand on her bruised, swollen stomach. It hurt so much, she could barely stand the pain. Blood dribbled from the corner of her lip. She was probably bleeding internally, she thought.

Hannah took a moment to regroup as she floated in the sky. This was not working. Even teaming with Serena, they were no match for Siphon, who had half of both of their powers added to her own. How could she have been so stupid to let that woman near her? She had been vulnerable. She needed to be hard. She needed to be cold. She needed to be match for that woman. She needed to be a match for Serena. She needed to shut herself off from her feelings of guilt over Ultraman.

She needed to be strong.

As she regrouped to go back after Siphon, she saw a mass of figures approaching the Fairness Team compound far below. She used her X-Ray vision to look at them. Each had a costume and…

Good lord! It was the ENTIRE Killer Kings gang! They were attacking the Fairness Team! ALL of them at once!

It made sense, thought Hannah. Siphon had just taken out Galaxy Girl, and… she had killed Ultraman. The opportunity to destroy the Fairness Team was now!

Tears burst forth from Hannah’s eyes this time. As she remembered Ultraman’s lifeless body in her hands, she couldn’t hold back the impact of swirling horror and guilt. She turned her palms toward herself and fired a blast of laser vision into them. It didn’t hurt. She wished that it did. She hated her hands, the hands that had done the deed. She was beginning to hate herself. She was so gullible, so stupid, so concerned with her popularity. She was becoming someone she never thought she would be, someone capable of actual evil. Maybe she already was.

But there would be time for hating herself later. Right now she needed to hate Siphon. If Siphon succeeded, both she and Serena would be dead. Whether she liked her or hated her – and she wasn’t sure which she felt right now – teaming up with Serena was her only hope of defeating Siphon. Tears still rolling down her cheeks, she launched herself back into the fray, speeding toward the compound.

***

Serena flew toward Siphon. As she did, she remembered when she had been overmatched during training. She had used her telepathy to anticipate her opponent’s moves. The problem with Siphon is that she couldn’t seem to read the woman at all. Wait! She hadn’t really tried since her last power-up. Maybe it would work now? Her mind was far more powerful than when she had last seen the woman.

Serena reached out with her mind and found Siphon’s. She felt resistance, but this time she was able to push through it. She felt the woman’s mind, her thoughts. She could do this!

As Serena approached, she saw what Siphon was planning to do. She dodged to the side. Siphon’s fist sailed past her. She fired a punch at the insanely powerful woman as she went by. It rocked the woman’s head back, but didn’t seem to do much more.

Serena landed behind Siphon and fired a kick into her side… that promptly bounced off her invulnerable body. Another fist flew at Serena, and she barely dodged it in time, even with her telepathic assistance.

Serena might last longer this way, she thought, but as long as Siphon’s invulnerability was greater than Serena’s strength, she wasn’t going to be able to do any real damage. And it would only be a matter of time until Serena made a mistake and Siphon rocked her with another massive blow, and pain was still radiating in her jaw from the last one.

What should she do?

At that moment, she felt Hannah knocking on the door of her mind. As she let the girl in, she felt a wash of strong, unstable emotions from her. Hannah was a mess, mentally. Serena didn’t have time to really think about that, though, as she turned her attention back to Siphon’s mind and dodged another ultra-powerful kick by millimeters.

“When you put that shield around me, it blocked the mental influence of whoever made me attack Ultraman. I think Siphon has a mental power that is different, somehow, than ours. She can use it to control – or at least heavily influence – people. I need you to put that shield around me again. I need to be free of her influence. My mental powers aren’t strong enough to completely fight hers!” thought Hannah into Serena’s mind.

“Got it!” said Serena, blocking a blow powerful enough to take away feeling in her arm momentarily even as she knocked the fist to the side. She formed a telekinetic shield around Hannah.

Hannah landed behind Siphon and launched a fist into her kidney. It didn’t have any visible effect. Hannah, at half power, couldn’t seem to hurt the villainess at all. The woman didn’t even seem to notice her blow as she continued to rain attacks on Serena.

Think! thought Hannah. They needed to draw their powers back out of Siphon somehow – but how?

She thought about the alien devices. Maybe they could use them to power up?

“No. They’re destroyed. That immense power that Amplifier manipulated them to create shorted them out,” came Serena’s thoughts into her mind.

Shit! She thought of the voters and the power that they had collectively been able to give to The Two. Without the alien devices, however, the voters couldn’t do anything to help them… or could they?

Hannah tried something with her telepathy that she never had before. She reached out to the Superwomenmania community with her mind. She felt their strength of will. It seemed to bolster her own. Maybe there was a more permanent link to the voters that she had never realized before, some connection that the alien devices had created as they had empowered her and Serena! But how could she use it?

She felt the desire of the voters to make her more powerful. She felt her body tingle with the sensation. She reached out with her own telekinesis and used it bridge the desires of the voters toward Siphon. When she did, she felt just the slightest bit of combined golden and silver energy drain from Siphon back into her, giving her powers a small boost.

It had worked! She was still connected to the voters somehow, even if it could no longer directly give her power! Maybe if the voters really poured their will into it, they could concentrate on drawing the power back out of Siphon and back into Hannah or Serena. They could give her back a share of the powers that they had already gifted The Two.

Serena smiled as she followed Hannah’s thoughts, despite her preoccupation with staying alive as Siphon pressed her attacks. Hannah was brilliant! This might just work...

Hannah and Serena reached out together to the voters with their minds, echoing a silent plea.

“Help us against Siphon! Help us gain our powers back from her…”

Hannah and Serena paused, then they began to feel it, the voters’ will. It was pulling the gold-silver energy from Siphon back into each of them. But they needed more. They needed the willpower of ALL the voters to make this work…


Vote for one to receive a portion of the power than Siphon drained. The percentage of votes for each will determine the relative draw of power into each superwoman.

Add comment

Security code
Refresh

Comments (0)
There are no comments posted here yet