Now:
The warehouse was still in great disarray. The place was functionally partitioned due to a number of boxes and crates forming somewhat of a wall. The front portion was basically the living quarters with a number of cots along one wall and a small table made from an old wire spool. The old full sized white van also sat there.
The back section though, was ever so slowly being turned into a training facility. It was massive and mostly empty at the moment. Save for a trio of unique people.
Alex was knocked several feet back and landed roughly on his backside. “Give up?” asked his opponent, an athletic blonde in gray sweats, sporting a smirk.
Alex, in an old T-shirt and faded black sweats, jumped to his feet. “One thing you’ll learn about me, Bala, is I never give up.”
Alex launched yet another flurry of blows against Bala. She blocked and parried them all, then spun quickly around his punches and struck a sharp elbow into Alex’s back. The young man stumbled forward and turned about to face her again.
This time she went on the offensive. A quick but deceptive knee, which he countered, then a follow up left hook. Stepping back, he countered that one as well. Suddenly, she dropped down and went low, swiping his legs out from under him with a kick. He fell, again, on his backside.
Grumbling, Alex regained his feet then went back at her with a shout. He swung at her again, faster than any normal human could. Left, then right, then left, then right, but it was all to no avail. Bala grinned as she used constant circular motions with her hands to block the attacks. Alex slipped a rising right kick into the mix which Bala blocked with her shin. “Come on,” she said, “you’re a tournament champion, right?”
He narrowed his eyes and increased his attacks. A right hook, a straight left, a fast left knee then a fast right. Bala was pressed from the renewed assault. She countered with an elbow; Alex blocked with his forearm and slipped his other arm around hers in a lock. A quick twist and a sweep of his foot and finally it was Bala’s turn to go flying onto her backside.
As he smiled and relaxed his grip, she took advantage. Slipping from his arm lock, she rolled herself quickly backwards using her flailing feet to force him to step back. Regaining her feet, she spun quickly and shot a hard right side kick right into Alex’s midsection. The air was blaster from his lungs and he went flying several feet back to the ground.
She grinned, and then offered him a hand up. “I don’t get it,” he began as he rose to his feet once more. “If I am who you think I am… I should be able to handle her easily.”
Doctor Jasper approached the pair from the side. “You are holding back, Alex, either consciously or otherwise. But you are holding yourself back.”
Bala offered, “Don’t you feel it? Inside
here?” she asked, laying a hand gently against his chest. “The… power. The energy, you should feel it in there.”
He got thoughtful for a moment then replied, “I feel something, Bala, I just don’t know what. I mean, I feel like I should be able to do
something else, but I just… can’t.”
Now it was Dr. Jasper’s turn to look thoughtful. “I do have another idea… give me a few minutes.” He rushed down to the underground section of the dingy warehouse, muttering to himself.
To Alex’s unanswered question, she replied, “You get used to it.” They shared a brief smile.
They made their way over to the small table and used the towels there to wipe the sweat from their brows. Alex was again lost in thought. Bala took note of his pensive expression. “Look, don’t worry about it so much, okay? I mean, I’ve been trained in the use of my abilities from the day I was born, you weren’t. Besides, he’s not entirely certain what to expect from you. Sure, he designed you, but he’s not sure exactly how your abilities will manifest. All I was expected to do was be stronger, faster, blah blah… but then I started shocking people. They didn’t expect that. Once they figured out why, well, then they could get really creative.”
Alex looked at her quizzically. “Creative, huh? You mean trying to create some kinda real life Superman. What if, what if I’m not who you think I am? I mean… sure I’m smart and athletic, didn’t get sick much… but my parents never told me I was adopted. What if y’all are just… wrong about me?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I do know Maxwell Jasper, though, and he is rarely wrong.”
Alex sighed. “I mean, here I am… giving up an education at MIT of all places… because some chick and a crazy doctor that live in a warehouse tell me I’m like Superman or something. Maybe I’m crazy. And I still don’t know what he really wants from me.”
Bala smiled and it slowly faded as her eyes showed her inner conflict. “Maybe we’re all crazy. What he wants, Alex, is for us to learn what we can do and then to use those abilities to help others. The idea is there are others like us out there and we won’t find them all, so perhaps if we use ourselves as a beacon, then maybe the others will come to us and not get picked up by our foes.
“See, Alex, what you need to get is that Doctor Jasper feels so very guilty about his part in all this. He was a man of pure science, never questioning what the science was used for. Until Marsh forced him to. He hates what my life has had to be, always running, always guessing, always looking over my shoulder. He knew the day he rescued us that was the life I would lead. He wanted desperately for you others to have a shot at a somewhat normal life. Sadly, ‘they’ seem to be unwilling to allow you that.”
Bala sighed deeply, “Look, I can’t say I entirely agree with him. I have followed him my entire life… but what he intends for us, well, I just don’t know if we should be so public. Hiding sounds like a better option to me.”
Alex blinked, “So, he does want us to be real life super heroes, huh?”
Just then, Jasper came back up the stairs. “I’m ready for you, Alex.”
Alex and Bala shared a glance, and then Alex followed the Doctor down the stairs. Jasper had Alex remove his shirt and go and sit in a small, reinforced room. The walls and ceiling of the small room were covered in lights of various sorts. “I apologize for the crudeness of the setup, but this is the best I could do on short notice,” said the Doctor through the microphone from outside the room.
“What are you trying to do?” Alex asked as the lights came up, their warmth flowing over his skin.
“Your body,” the Doctor began, “possesses photosynthetic cellular capabilities. You should be able to absorb the energy from things around you… such as light… and convert it internally into, well, other things.”
Alex mouthed, “other things.” Bala was right; Jasper really wasn’t entirely certain what he was supposed to be able to do. He did notice, however, that the light was… exhilarating. Thinking back, he realized he was always happier and more energetic whenever he was in bright environments. He figured that made sense in a way, then.
There was an acute tingling sensation in his body. He felt energized, powerful even. His eyes burned and somewhat itched. “Doc…” he began, “something is happening!”
Doctor Jasper watched through the monitor. Alex’s eyes turned bright white, the pupil and iris completely obscured. Then they changed to a complete black. The light around him grew brighter, and then the bulbs died out. Suddenly a bright burst of blindingly brilliant light emanated from Alex’s eyes. Doctor Jasper cheered.
“Wow.” Alex breathed.
“How do you feel?” Jasper asked through the speaker once more.
“Still kinda… charged.”
“Excellent… do you think you can make that happen again?”
In response, Alex narrowed his eyes and concentrated. After several moments his eyes changed color again and another brilliant flash came forth. Alex smiled.
“Excellent my boy, excellent! Now, let us try to focus that light. See if you can’t turn it into something more,” said Jasper, nearly clapping in excitement.
So they did. Alex continued to try and focus, but time after time all that occurred was another blast of light, though often in different colors. Hours passed and still just blinding light. “Take a break, Alex. We will try again tomorrow,” the Doctor ordered.
Alex exited the small room and picked up his shirt. “I’m sorry, Doc… I mean… I don’t know how any of this works.”
Jasper rested a hand on his shoulder. “I know son, I know. I designed you and I still don’t know how you work exactly. You’ve made a lot of progress today, though. You should be proud of yourself.”
He sighed and looked away for a moment. He looked back to the Doctor and said, “About that whole you designed me thing? Am I even human?”
Jasper sighed and pulled out a pair of chairs. He offered one to Alex then took the other himself. “Alex, humanity is more than an accident of birth. Yes, you and all the others were genetically engineered, but your original genetic ‘stock’, as it were, came from a real man and a real woman.”
Alex shook his head. “So then, how? I mean what did you people do?”
Jasper leaned back and looked away. “We played God… we took women that were desperate and took the life they were creating. Then, still in your early formative stages, nearly every fiber of nearly every gene was stripped down and re-sequenced. The little mess of amino acids was then placed in birthing chambers and a few months later…”
Alex shook his head in disgust. “Birthing chambers? You’re trying to convince me I am human and you use words like birthing chambers?”
“Alex, please, calm yourself. My point is regardless of how you started or what you started as, you can choose who you are and will be.”
“Except you are choosing for me, huh?” he asked.
Jasper bit his lip for a moment and then said, “No, my son, not at all. I simply want you to see your potential and then allow you to make your own choices.”
Alex sighed deeply then rose. “I’m going for a walk.”
He took a quick shower in the facility then made his way up the stairs. “Where are you going?” Bala asked.
“I need to go and talk to my folks,” he replied solemnly. Bala nodded to him as he went out the door.
X
