Oct 5, 1997
Sive sat in the old oak chair just outside the principal's office, listening as the parent of the entitled brat she had slugged screamed in the next room that Sive needed to be expelled. She sniffled once, sucking back some blood and agitating her black eye. Staring blankly into space, Sive assumed the parent had decided to ignore the beating Sive received.
“Sive! Sive what have ya done lass?”
The thick, Irish accent of Sive’s mother Dev, cut through the ringing phones and quiet chatter of the school office like a knife through butter. Sive and her mother looked almost identical, their long, thick red hair, sharp features, and piercing blue eyes only separated by the difference in over twenty years of age.
“It’s nothing mom, everything’s fine,” Sive responded, swatting away Dev’s hand as it tried to inspect her black eye. Sive’s Irish accent was long gone, replaced by an America one.
Dev looked visibly hurt, so Sive relented and let her mother examine her face. Sive winced slightly, her mother’s gentle fingers irritating the bruise.
“Who did this to ya?” Dev asked.
Sive motioned her head to the room behind her, and Dev could see through the translucent glass the two forms on one side of the desk and the large principal on the other side. It wasn’t hard for Dev to discern who the two people were.
“Mike Hemerson,” Dev sighed. “What did he do this time?”
Sive swallowed, tasting blood on the way down.
“He tried touching Aili. I wasn’t going to have it,” Sive responded.
Dev looked hard at her daughter. And then cracked up into a chuckle. Sive looked at her mother in confusion, and Dev sat down beside her as she tried to contain herself.
“Well, if this is when ya get expelled, then we’ll find ya a school with fewer boys who think they can walk all over a strong you Irish woman like yourself,” Dev said. The rate at which she spoke was too fast for most to follow, but Sive was well versed in her mom’s dialect.
“You’re not mad?” Sive asked incredulously.
“How could I be mad at ya for standing up for your own family?” Dev replied, looking over her shoulder at Sive.
Her smile was small. It was honest but diminished, like a strength that had faded after lifting too much. Sive looked at her mother in wonder, disbelief evident on her face.
“If there is one thing about you I never want to change, Sive, it’s that you’re not afraid to fight for what you believe in. Sometimes a tad too physical, but you’re never afraid to put yourself in the way,” Dev said.
Sive started smiling, and blushing she looked straight ahead.
“As long as you’re fighting for the right thing Sive, don’t stop fighting.”
Mar 15, 2013
Multiple military tours, a genetic enhancing operation, and superhero makeover leading the foremost superhero team, and a lifetime, later, Sive was the superhero Justice. Ten years after making her superhero debut, Justice was the most prominent hero in the world, making headlines for her heroics and valor in conflicts defending all kinds of people.
Spinning her bow staff in her hands, she pushed a button on its hilt and shrunk it to a smaller size, and clipped it behind her back underneath her blue cape. Justice let out a breath of air, had stopped breathing in the battle. All around her feet were the bodies of thugs in full black tactical armor who she had knocked out just moments ago. The few who had fallen on their back had the giant red ‘K’ emblazoned their chests visible, the K that stood for Karzon.
Karzon. The villain that had turned Sive into a superhero in the first place. When Karzon had tried to take advantage of an escalating situation in the middle east, it had been Sive’s unit that had been in the area. Sive had stood up to Karzon at risk of her own life to defend others, and a video of the situation went viral. That put her in the crosshairs of the Guardians, the international anti-supervillain division, who was in the process of trying to find the next big superhero. After taking them up on their offer to receive a genetic upgrade, Justice started leading their superhero team and had found herself in battle after battle against Karzon.
Things had come to a head, however, as Justice was storming a tower Karzon and his top goon, Poison, were holding captive. Karzon was holding Guardians facilities hostage with bombs that had a payload which could level cities. The other heroes on her team were fighting through Karzon’s forces trying to disarm the bombs while she took the fight right to the top.
It was just another day for Justice. The world’s greatest superhero.
“This is Justice, room clear,” Justice said, putting a finger to her earpiece.
A hard voice came in through the line, buzzing in and out as interference wormed its way into the line.
“You know...taking out….never made it….easy,” the gravelly voice tried to say.
“Stone? Stone? Can you hear me?” Justice asked.
The only thing she could hear was incoherent until the buzzing faded entirely. The line was dead, and Justice lowered her hand. Karzon likely had found a way to block her communications. She was on her own. Justice took a look around, trying to figure out her next move.
The dark room she was in was lit up by the neon of the city around her. Surrounded entirely by windows, the bright neon signs of Shanghai lit the room up with yellow, red and blue neon hues. The ground was littered with the thugs who had been sent to try and slow her down. The stairwell she had come up in was blocked off and impassable, which had forced her into this encounter. Looking around after the battle, Justice tried to find a means of advancing further up the tower.
That was when Justice felt a draft. Following the airflow, she found one of the windows was open. There was nothing directly outside the window, but as she stuck her head outside and felt the intense winds that came with being over 30 stories up in the sky she noticed above her there was a ladder.
Extending her whole upper torso out the window she grabbed the base of the ladder and swung herself outside the building. She then proceeded to climb, ten rungs of the ladder in a single leap, her blue cape billowing around her in the intense winds. Not deterred, not slowed by any obstacle, nothing would stop Justice from bringing down Karzon and Poison.
Climbing an additional ten stories to the top of the tower, Justice paused for a moment and tried to listen and see if anyone was on the roof waiting for her. Not hearing any movement, she threw herself up in the air with a massive heave of her arm. She flipped and rotated in the air, grabbing her bow staff out from under back in the process. Activating it to full length as she landed, she held it horizontally behind her back.
Only to find no one was on the roof. Her eyes darted back and forth, scanning for danger. None appeared. Sheathing her bowstaff, she quickly began to search the roof for a way down. A large antenna protruded from the top of the roof, and at the base of the staircase leading up to it, Justice found the doorway she was looking for.
Carefully opening the door to try and assess danger, Justice continued to find none. Her eyebrow propped up in confusion. Karzon was almost methodical in the obstacles he’d put in her way during these dances, and it was almost disconcerting that she was finding none. If the room of goons was his last stand, then Karzon was becoming sloppy, Justice figured.
Entering into a poorly lit stairwell, Justice quickly advanced downward. Reaching the door that would have led to the top floor, Justice carefully opened it, only to recoil and throw her body to the wall adjacent to it. Gunfire erupted and shredded the large, heavy door. Watching as the door was almost blown off its hinges, she knew it was no normal gun that had done that. It would have taken heavy rounds and a high caliber gun to rip apart a door of that size.
The sound was deafening and thundering, but Justice just waited and counted. It was the same kind of gun that was on a jet. It must have been repurposed into an automatic turret. While Sive wasn’t the best student, the operation that enhanced her helped her process events faster. Knowing how many rounds one clip of that model there were, Justice started counting the moment the bullets had left the chamber.
As soon as it was done, she spun around the corner. With an uncanny precision, Justice threw her bowstaff. It extended mid-air, sailing through the hallway. Just as the clip reloaded, the bowstaff found itself in the barrel of the automatic turret. Justice then spun back to cover.
Most objects would have just shattered under the pressure of a gun that powerful. But Justice’s bow staff was made of powerful material. As the gun tried to fire again, it backfired from the bow staff lodged in its barrel and exploded. Justice winced as shrapnel flew through the hallway. Her bow staff came flying back at her, ripped into two chunks by the explosion. She could always have another one made, she knew, sacrificing it there just meant she wouldn’t have it for her confrontation with Karzon.
Taking a moment, Justice than stepped back into the dimly lit hallway. The destroyed gun rested with its head careened over the side of sandbags that were propped against it. Rushing through the hallway she vaulted over the wreckage and then burst through the door on the other side. Slamming her shoulder into it, she jumped into a roll to avoid any incoming fire and then landed into a combat stance, her knees bent and her arms out and ready to fight.
Her eyes immediately widened in shock.
The rooms were basically empty. Save for the bodies of Karzon’s goons all over the floor. It was a large room, with giant windows overlooking the city. Silhouetted against the glow of the city and sitting in a throne he constructed of the bodies of Karzon’s goons, was Poison. And Karzon was lying on the ground in front of him, Poison’s boot firmly pressed against his head.
“Probably not what you expected, eh princess?” Poison asked, his voice hollow. A black mask covered his face with a red X painted over it, two holes for his revealed his blood red irises. Tubes stuck out from his shoulder blades and rounded back into his waste in which a strange yellow liquid flowed through. He rippled with power, two large daggers strapped to either side of his waist. “What...what have you done?” Justice asked, eyeing the room carefully, but never taking her focus off of Poison. Poison stepped down harder on Karzon’s head, making his red helmet buckle and crack as Karzon grunted in pain. It was a far cry from the regal stature normally held himself in, normally he’d present himself levitating in the air, his long flowing red cape accentuating his medieval-style gold and red armor. Whatever Poison had done to the villain turned him a king of evil into a sniveling old man. “I’ve extracted Justice. Hehe. Justice. It’s funny because it's your name,” Poison said, his laugh lacking any meaning. “You’re deranged,” Justice quickly stated. “I’m awoken!” Poison shouted at her. His voice echoed around the room. Stepping down more firmly on Karzon he walked towards Justice. “All these years, all these long years, Karzon told me The Guardians had used me like trash. A precursor experiment that resulted in you. I had been faithful to them, worked for them, believed in them, and they had discarded me like bad goods. Well, that last part is true,” Poison said, starting to monologue. “When the experiment failed, they did try to get rid of me. And in comes Karzon, with a grand sweeping tale of how he saved me and of how corrupt the Guardians truly are. And while he’s right in some regards, he left a crucial factor.” “You’re not usually this chatty,” Justice said ignoring everything Poison had just said. “He did this to me!” Poison screamed as he threw a dagger at Karzon. It embedded in his chest, making him cough blood. Justice took a quick look over Poison’s shoulder and knew that Karzon wouldn’t die right away, so she quickly focused back on him. “He tampered with the experiment and turned me into this freak! It’s always been his fault,” Poison continued to scream. “So I don’t suppose this means you’ll turn him over and come in quietly?” Justice asked. “Never! This has only taught me one thing, one thing sweet Justice. It's that people in power, any power, can never be trusted. Because they use people like you and me, use us and discard us like the pawns we are!” Poison continued to shout. “Your voice must be getting hoarse,” Justice continued to quip, a slight smile on her face. “Stop mocking me!” Poison finally snapped, and he charged at her. He unsheathed his remaining dagger and swiped at her. Justice ducked down low and then planting a hand on the ground she lifted her body up and kicked at him. Her foot connected with his wrist, making him drop the dagger but then he reached out and grabbed it with his free hand and stabbed at her. Using her hand as a launch point she backflipped away and dodged the stab. Poison reeled backward and prepared to strike it again, but Justice landed in a crouched position and then sprung forward low at Poison. She jabbed in at his stomach with one fist and then followed up with her other hand as she jabbed him in the throat. With Poison stunned for a moment, she grabbed the hand that had his dagger in it and thrust it into his side. The dagger stabbed into his leg making Poison shout in protest, and Justice then jumped in the air and drop kicked Poison in the chin, knocking him back over. Landing from her jump, Justice pushed some of her hair out of her face. Poison seemed down for the count for the moment, so Justice moved past him towards Karzon. He seemed pale and frail compared to his usual self, but he wasn’t dead yet. Even though Justice knew the world would be better without Karzon in it, it wasn’t Justice way to not save someone. As she pushed Karzon onto his back and removed the dagger, she began applying pressure to the wound. Karzon made no resistance, no move to stop her. As she began unstrapping his armor to properly bandage the wound, she looked at Karzon’s face and for the first time, she saw the fear in his eyes. For a person with amazing telepathic abilities, super strength and speed, fear as not an emotion Karzon visibly admitted. “What did he do to you?” Justice whispered as she bandaged Karzon’s wounds. Then there was a feeling like a pinprick in her back. She spun around instinctively, even though her armor would have shielded her from whatever hit her. But as she became face to face with Poison, who stood there with an odd cone-shaped device pointed at her, she felt an unbearable and agonizing pain. In spite herself she let out a scream. She was hit by rolling waves of pain, nausea, heat, cold, and then awful combinations and all of them at once. Justice fell to her knees and struggled to stay upright. She had never felt so crippled in her life. Her armor felt heavy, her limbs weak. “Yeah. It’s painful, isn’t it?” Poison asked as he approached her. “Once I found out Karzon made me, I realized he also would have made a means to destroy me. So I dug it out.” Waving the strange device in front of Justice’s face, Poison showed it off in more detail. In the middle of the large steel cone was a small spike that protruded out. There seemed to be a large clip extending back from the cone, in which there was a green liquid that swirled around in a glass vial. The trigger was just around the base of the clip, and Poison’s hand was clasped firmly around it. “It’s a genetic destabilizer. Dangerous to normal people sure, but super debilitating to people who have had their genetics altered. Makes us pretty much human!” Poison punctuated his sentence with a kick in Justice’s side. She crashed and rolled on to her back. Justice strained and groaned, trying to find the energy to fight back. But it just wasn’t there. “I had to up the dose for it to be as effective on Karzon, but oh man was he funny as powerless as a person. All whimpers and crying. Adorable really,” Poison said. He walked over to Justice and stood over for a few moments. He let go of the trigger and the pain subsided, but Justice could feel different. The genetic enhancement she received was gone. “And then when you’re powerless, you’ll know how I felt. You’ll know how it feels to be used and spent like trash,” Poison growled at her. “Or maybe not, because you’ll be dead!” Poison shouted. He raised his foot and lowered it sharply, trying to stomp Justice’s face. Justice grimaced, preparing for the worst. But then her mother’s words echoed in her mind. “Sive, don’t stop fighting.” Unsure of where the strength was coming from, Justice’s arms snapped up and caught the boot mid-stomp. She held Poison back, preventing him from merging her face with the floor. Her strength was not what it was before, she felt physically weaker than when she had first received the enhancement. But she held Poison back. Poison grunted and strained, trying harder and harder to plant his foot. Justice felt her strength giving way, felt her body giving up. “As long as you’re fighting for the right thing Sive, don’t stop fighting.” Her eyes snapped into focus. In the blink of an eye, she reached up with her right hand. She couldn’t hold Poison at bay with one hand for long, so she needed to act fast. With her right hand, she pulled out the dagger in Poison’s calf she had planted there earlier and pulled it out. Bringing it down, she tabbed it through the bottom of Poison’s foot. Poison roared in pain and stepped off Justice. He dropped the genetic destabilizer. Justice pulled the knife out. Her strategic mind was working as fast as it could, and Justice quickly somersault forward. Midsomesault she grabbed the genetic destabilizer. She stood up and spun. Leading with her right side, she slashed at one of the tubes on Poison’s back. They sprayed the yellow liquid wildly, splashing Justice across the face. As she finished her spin she jammed the destabilizer into the tube, the spike in the middle of the cone just fitting in. Then Justice pulled the trigger. Mar 16, 2013 Medical hadn’t cleared her to be on her feet yet, but she watched through the glass as the team of surgeons pulled the tubes out of Poison’s back. Soon he would be regular Joe McCrane again, if not in mind. Justice already felt back to her normal self, except the genetic enhancement. Wearing just a white t-shirt and sweatpants, it had felt better than usual to take off the armor. She never realized how heavy it actually was. “How you feeling?” a gruff voice asked. She turned to see Commander Stone, the barrel-chested, stone-jawed man with the blonder crew cut haircut walk towards her with two cups of coffee. “Good, but I’m not supposed to be drinking anything but water,” Justice replied as she took the coffee from Stone. “Meh, there’s water in coffee. Not what they meant but whatever,” Stone grumbled. She chuckled and took a sip as Stone turned to watch the operation. “Two of the most dangerous criminals in the world caught, and depowered,” Stone commented. “Not bad for a days work. Too bad the serum isn’t replicable. We’ll have our engineers trying to reverse the formula so we can make more for lunatics like these, but Karzon’s notes are indecipherable. And that last vial was inconspicuously destroyed.” Justice didn’t miss the suspicion in Stone’s voice, but she shrugged her shoulders. After depowering Poison, she had destroyed the vial herself. “Probably for the best. We’re in a tedious middle ground as it is, it’s probably best to not to start an arms race to depower superhumans,” Justice remarked. “Fair enough,” Stone agreed, and left it at that. The two watched Poison for another few silent moments. “Will you undergo the operation again? Become genetically enhanced?” Stone asked. “We still need Justice.” Justice looked into her coffee. Poison’s words rang in her head. She hated to admit she listened to him, but his words hadn’t fallen on deaf ears. “Not right away, maybe not ever,” Justice replied. “I think people need to see Justice can still be Justice without the superpowers. That there are people without powers looking over them too.” “Do you think you can still do it? Be Justice and fight all these goons without the superpowers?” Stone asked. Justice smiled and looked at Stone with the inspiring smile she had inadvertently mastered. “As long as I’m fighting for the right thing, I’ll never stop fighting.”