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Walking Down a New Path

Written by Woodclaw :: [Friday, 11 October 2013 12:05] Last updated by :: [Thursday, 31 October 2013 16:30]

(with man thanks to Camille, Geekseven, Njae and Pansardum for the help.

And to Dunnere for the inspiration)

 

Barbara, often known as Ms. Amazon, lazily soared across the sky over the city. While it wasn’t very apparent, she was incredibly frustrated.

Ms. Amazon had been one of the city’s most stalwart defenders from day one, and certainly the most powerful – she even ranked 3rd among the most powerful superhumans around, quite the achievement since the rest of the top ten was filled with villains or various strange inhuman beings. She had battled giant monsters singlehandedly, survived the radioactive zombie attack of last Halloween and thwarted the machinations of Doctor Destiny twice.

Now the city seemed devoided of any action and she was growing more and more impatient for a challenge worthy of her. Looking for a better perspective, she switched to a higher altitude and the city spread out like a map under her. Many newbies thought that super-senses were a rather secondary part of a hero’s package, but Barbara always considered them her biggest asset. Knowing where to go had always given her the edge.

A bunch of emergency sites popped up below her and she fine-tuned her super-senses to get as much information’s as possible.

“Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me?” Barbara muttered, as her eyes got wide with surprise and disappointment, “A bank robbery, two mugging attempts and … 37 cats stuck in trees?”

Landing on top of a nearby skyscraper, Barbara sighed loudly, all she asked for was a chance to have fun and get rid of some stress. Was it too much to ask for a bit of fun tailored for a high level supergirl?

Apparently it was and it wasn’t a good time to discover it. As Barbara, she had grown more and more frustrated about her life over the last months – between tight schedules, bossy colleagues who thought that they could push her around, ever-closing deadlines and people who starred at her all the time – being her white and green clad alter-ego was pretty much the only relief she had. Barbara hated the people who stared most of all, if she had the smooth curves or the fantastic legs of her 5’9” alter ego, she would understand their interest, but knowing the real reason for those stares was a painful torture.

Barbara sighed again: “At this point I might as well go and trash downtown a bit.” She had always played the narrow straight, always controlled, never allowing herself to do anything even remotely evil, opposed to some other ‘capes’, who liked to cut loose every now and then.

Looking across the horizon, her sight was blocked by the Denlar Tower, one of the tallest buildings in town. Everybody knew that the Denlar Corporation was a façade for a smuggling ring of high tech weapons, but there was no hard evidence, just conjectures and coincidences.

A grin came across Barbara’s face and she cracked her knuckles, if she was about to cut loose, she might as well take some payback to those who deserve it. Without any second thinking Ms. Amazon took off and accelerated toward the tower.

Within a handful of seconds Ms. Amazon went from standstill to supersonic – with her green cape and jet black ponytail flapping behind her – a few moments later the air around her started to blaze red hot. She hit the side of the building like a fiery meteor, tearing apart the structure like it was nothing. Emerging from the other side she dived to the fountain in the middle of the front lawn. Her landing caused a massive shockwave that wiped out trees, cars and people in a 2 block radius. Meanwhile the top of the tower started to collapse behind her.

Barbara surveyed her handiwork, she was pretty scared by the result, but also very excited. She knew it was wrong, but it felt so … liberating and relaxing.

As she rose to her feet, pondering her next move, a hail of submachine gun bullets peppered her left side. A security team appeared out of nowhere. Ms. Amazon wasn’t even bothered – ever since gaining top-level invulnerability, nothing but other supers’ attack could hurt her. She moved out of the fountain and kicked a marble bench nearby toward her assailants. Her spectacular legs fired the impromptu missile annihilating the security guys.

Ms. Amazon casually walked across the square, picking up one of the uprooted trees. In spite of being able to defy gravity, nothing made Barbara feel more empowered than the simple pleasure of walking while pulling some super-stunt – it was like showing that she could be normal, but rubbing in people’s faces that she could be even better.

Ms. Amazon balanced the tree in her right and tossed it straight, smashing the window of a luxury store right in front of her. She grabbed a second one as a police car rounded the corner. Without giving the cops time to react, Ms. Amazon tossed the tree in high arc, landing it through the front of the car, which exploded in a spectacular fireball.

A second car followed through the flames and Ms. Amazon let get closer only to deliver a vicious kick against the front bumper. The force produced by her long leg was just too much and the vehicle lifted from the ground and flew over the nearby blocks.

Barbara didn’t need any kind of super-senses to know that the alert level was growing by the second, she expected higher tier units any minute now and she wasn’t disappointed: three armored trucks filled with special forces troopers roared toward her as she was walking across the square.

As the first truck accelerated, trying to run her over, Ms. Amazon tried one of her less used tricks: she rooted herself in place and hardened her invulnerable muscle. As the truck smashed against her, all its considerable momentum bounced straight back – in a blatant disregard for the laws of physics – sending the armored vehicle back into the second incoming unit.

The third vehicle crew pulled back from the wreckage and the strike team leaped out of the back. As the vehicle’s .50 machine gun peppered Ms. Amazon’s lovely profile, the team shouldered their rocket launchers and fired at her, with no other apparent result than making her cape and jet ponytail billow behind her. In a show of disdain, Ms. Amazon puckered her lips and blew a wall of -200°C air, flash freezing the assailants and the nearby environment, next she stomped her boot and the resulting tremor smashed the ice statues to bits.

In the next minutes the defense forces tossed tanks, helicopters, fighter jets and more at Ms. Amazon. Each attack was next to ineffectual and each wave was dispatched with ease and the occasional major damage to the surroundings. In less than a quarter of hour the city centre became a warzone. Barbara was trying hard not to laugh, this was way funnier and more relaxing than she had ever expected.

While she cosidered what to do next, a gigantic shadow blocked out the sun and several hundred kilos of pure destruction landed upon her: the massive beast know as the Leviathan, one of the few being whose physical power exceeded Ms. Amazon’s.

The beast roared his challenge and lifted a titanic fist but, in spite of his strength, he was too slow. Ms. Amazon rushed him and unleashed a flurry of blows pushing her super-speed to the limits. In the small space of a second, she hit him about a hundred of times with absolute impunity. Her small fists pummeled the giant’s chest like a jackhammer, each impact shaking the ground under their feet. As final blow she executed a supersonic backspin, hitting the brute’s jaw with a graceful cartwheel kick – probably her favorite attack.

The entire scene froze in place, while damage of that savage beat-down settled in. Leviathan’s fist never found its intended target as hundred tons of kinetic energy hit him and sent him flying away over the horizon.

As the dust settled, Barbara considered the consequences of her actions. One way or another, the city would never be the same after this, but she was feeling so much better. She had to admit that it was the catharsis she needed and she decided to celebrate with a bit of power shopping. She wanted a new costume to showcase her new course.

She would probably ditch the white and replace it with black, maybe throwing some gold or silver in the mix; and she really wanted a pair of thigh high, stiletto heeled boots – something to showcase her legs even more – instead of her usual low heeled ones; and she was really thinking about showing a bit more skin; and … a voice snapped her out of her train of thoughts: “Barbara. Dinner’s ready, dear.”

Barbara paused the game and answered: “I’m coming in a minute mom.”

She looked at the pause screen with a bit of a grin. The Paragon/Renegade morality meter was a mess, she had shifted from the pure blue of a class “A” hero to the blood red of a major villain. Now, she wanted Ms. Amazon to be one of the good guys, someone who could be nice and blend in. Yet, this scenario was too much fun to simply drop it. She wanted to keep it ready, just in case she needed to blow off some steam again. She scrolled down the menu and clicked the ‘save on a new file’ option before quitting her copy of Capes & Tights.

As the computer powered down, Barbara let out a bit of a grunt pushing her wheelchair away from the desk and rolling out for dinner.

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