Not the one - part 8
By Dru



The Mayor was the kind of man who never entered a situation without knowing
all the facts. The first reports had been scoffed at, but the damage down
Woomera Drive could not be so easily dismissed. Then a report of a gruesome
death at a real estate agent and now his aide was telling him it was connected
to the murder of two police officers at Grace's fashion store. He feared a
terrorist organization the likes never seen in this country were at work, but
this report by his best man proposed something much more frightening.

"You can't expect me to believe all this was done by a lone woman." Puffing a
cigarette, he glanced over the report once more. "This is bullshit, Tony."

"We have a video I think you should see."

Putting the security tape from the United Leagues headquarters, Tony pushed
play and flicked the big-screen television on. The five-foot screen was filled
by a black and white image of a hallway.

"This is a copy the police have made in slow motion."

The hall remained peaceful.

"Tony, this better be..."

The Mayor's eyes were drawn back to the screen as the wall of the hallway
exploded and chunks of sandstone flew in all directions. As the dust settled,
a figure entered through the hole. Hovering just above the floor, the robber
floated leisurely down the hallway and around the corner. The scene changed to
inside an elevator. Tony and the Mayor exchanged glances. When their attention
returned to the screen they watched in extreme slow motion as a projectile
smashed through the roof, and went through the floor. This footage repeated
itself even slower, and the Mayor's mouth dropped open as he realised the
projectile was the same person who had floated down the hallway.

"What is this?"

"There's more Mister Mayor. We know where she is."

The street outside Susan's beachfront dream home was crowded with police cars
before the sun was up. Over thirty officers were present, and they had been
told that the men who bombed George Street were in this house. While Susan
slept they surrounded her home and covered all the exits.

A hand picked group of eight men entered through the front door, their weapons
at the ready. Four men proceeded upstairs while the others silently checked
the ground floor. The house was empty of everything, including the furniture,
and the process of checking each room was fast. None of them expected to find
what they saw in upstairs bedroom.

Waving his arm underneath her, the first man in looked back to his buddy in
confusion.

"Maybe we better call the drug-squad."

"Shut up, Harvey. Get her down."

Harvey grabbed an arm, and pulled the floating woman to the floor.

"Hello! Miss?"

Susan's eyes opened to the sight of a gun barrel. Coming out of her deep sleep
in an instant, she regarded the uniform of the man holding it.

"You're under arrest, lady."

"Really?"

"That's right."

The cop stepped back.

"Stand up."

With a smile, Susan floated to her feet and stretched her supercharged body.
"What am I under arrest for?"

"That money for a start," one of them told her. He was trying to put the image
of her floating to her feet out of his mind, was but was having difficulty.

"That's my money. I won the lottery."

"Oh?"

"Twice." Susan showed them the two rings. "You have no idea what one of these
can do for me."

"You better come with us."

He took her arm, but she was immovable. One of his friends came to his aide
but Susan was rooted to the spot.

"How did you find me?" she asked, ignoring their efforts to move her.

"We're just the gofers. Now come on."

Susan shook her head. "I'm going to have you for breakfast, little man."
Moving her hand to his chest, she took a handful of his vest and lifted him
up. His men started hitting her, but only broke their hands with the effort.
The wounded men didn't feel their pain long before they were obliterated one
at a time by Susan's awkward left jab. Not wanting blood all through her new
house, she moved downstairs and outside.

"Put him down!"

She'd never seen so many police cars in one place, and it made her proud to
know that a hundred times as many wouldn't scare her now.

"Who? This guy?" Susan threw the officer she was carrying at the man with the
megaphone, killing both of them and wounding two others. Now that there were
no police in the target zone, the other officers opened fire.

Susan put her hands on her hips and watched the hail of bullets ricochet away
from her subtly buff body. Only when she realised that her house was getting
damaged did Susan respond. With a wave her hand the incoming bullets stopped
in mid-air and fell to the ground. The cops kept shooting, so Susan closed her
eyes and levitated the guns roughly from their hands. Looking up at the
floating guns with amusement, she clicked her fingers and destroyed them.

"How about some hand to hand?" she suggested, flying over the barricade of
cars to land among the coppers. For the next minute she performed a series of
hits kicks and punches that caved in heads and demolished chests. Some of them
ran, others got in their cars; all of them were desperate now to escape.
Leaving the ground the super-powerful woman started flying about decapitating
those on foot before pursuing the vehicles. Flying up behind the first one she
accelerated through the rear window and pushed the occupants head through the
dashboard on her way through the windshield.

Going up she picked out the last three, all of them going in different
direction. Choosing one at random she swept down between trees and came up
beside it. Waving at them through the glass, she went low and grasped the sill
in a distorting grip. Going much faster than the car was built to go she took
them into the side of a building. A second later she blasted through the other
side of the brick house and arced up to select the second sedan.

They were weaving though the backstreets in an attempt to buy time. Spotting
the other car not too far away Susan got an idea. Reaching out her hands at
the cars far below, she took them under her control. The drivers tried
frantically to steer but the front tyres no longer influenced the cars
direction in the slightest. Bringing them together with enough force to reduce
both vehicles to small pieces, Susan returned home. A hundred feet over the
disaster area on the street in front of the house she looked down in dismay.
Using hand gestures to help herself focus, Susan gathered all the crumpled
bodies and sent them flying out over the ocean to land beyond the continental
shelf. Landing next a cop car, Susan decided to have some exercise. Putting a
hand on the roof, she pushed down and broke all the windows. Getting a hand
under it, she lifted it up and held it at arms length. Taking a hand away she
balanced it there a moment before turning toward the ocean and hurling the car
far out to sea.

Darting up into the sky so she could see the impact, Susan was amazed how far
she could throw. Landing between another two squad cars she lifted them both
up, and smashed them together over head so hard they became one. Throwing this
one harder, she flew along and chased it down into the ocean.

"I can't believe how strong I am!" she told herself, making her way back to
throw more cars. It felt wonderful to cut loose with her strength; the steel
that crumpled under her grasp was a glorious reminder to Susan of her new
status. This exercise was a great way to start the day, and she decided that
she should do it every morning.

Once the cars were all gone she took off from her lawn and went toward the
sky. Checking the memory she had taken from Tyrin of the message he had
received, Susan climbed until the sky went pale and stars revealed themselves.
Feeling no lack of breath and remembering her extended journey under the
water, Susan confidently proceeded into the outer reaches of the atmosphere
and hovered in orbit for a moment. Looking around she was awed by the beauty
of Earth below her, and stunned by the depths of the Milky Way before her.
Improving her eyes to a level Tyrin had never experienced, Susan took in the
depths of the universe. There seemed to be no end of it. A million supernovas
went off and thousands of other celestial events took place before her.
Looking for the star system described in Council's message, her incredibly
enhanced eyes soon found it.

"There you are. I wonder if you know I'm coming?"

Tony looked at the Mayor in dismay.

"If we call them in, we're saying you can't handle this."

"Tony...That is exactly what's happening. We can't handle this! This is not
natural. Now call the fucking army!"

Unaware of the plans forming against her in Sydney, Susan was halfway to Mars.
The extreme environment of space felt comfortable to her body. Her clothes
didn't handle it well though, and she was naked again just moments after
leaving the Earth's atmosphere. Sick of forever needing new clothes, Susan
made finding an outfit tough enough to last her first priority when she got
back.

Even though she was travelling at tremendous speed, the vast distances between
her and objects around made her feel as if she was going at a snails pace.
Mars wasn't far away now, but it grew at a very boring rate. Drawing on the
power of both rings she accelerated and burst past Mars at more than the speed
of light. Her eyes took away the blurring as Susan continued to accelerate and
pulled out of the solar system to look back as the planets rotating around the
sun shrank into tiny dots.

"Wow. This is amazing."

Allowing herself to become distracted, Susan started forming a picture of the
Milky-Way in her head. A telescope as powerful as her eyes would need a lens
the size of Jupiter. Remembering her goal, Susan sought out the solar system
where she would find the men who wanted her dead. Getting her bearings from
the stars around her, Susan found the Council of the Twelve. Aiming that way
she poured on the juice and travelled the millions of light years in less than
a minute.

The system where the council resided had seven planets rotating a beautiful
yellow sun. Slowing down and flying close by each planet in turn, Susan found
five of them were almost completely covered in cities. Populating the cities
were people just the same those on Earth, a fact which Susan found
enlightening. Probing one of the humanoids with her mind she found that the
creatures thought in a language similar to Chinese. The alien man dropped to
his knees as Susan brought her mental might to bear on his brain, her mind
sifting every cell in his head for knowledge. He was just a low-level member
of society, but he was well spoken and Susan was grateful for that. Armed with
an understanding of the language, she turned her attention to a woman and got
in-depth information about the culture. All she really wanted to know was
where to find the council. The next alien whose mind she overwhelmed divulged
the needed information, and Susan darted to the other side of the system and
entered the atmosphere of the fourth world with a stream of burning air behind
her. The friction of her incredible velocity felt wonderful on her skin, and
she maintained the extreme speed all the way to the tower where the council
sat discussing their plans for her.