ANGEL FALLS
Emily watched the final flurry of punches and the eventual declaration of a knockout on her television screen. The victor was a gaunt, pale woman. Some kind of super-strong undead creature, like a vampire she supposed. Her opponent still writhed on the ground holding her head. A huge, muscled woman with green skin that looked like she should have snapped the thin woman like a twig. But when it comes to super powers, not everything is as it appears. Like ever.
Emily flicked off the screen with her electro-magnetic powers. The sun had gone down while she watched the last several matches of the Superheroine Battle Arena. Instinctively she raised the light level in her apartment. When she did, the large glass windows suddenly stopped showing the cityscape and reflected the inside of her apartment back at her. She caught her reflection in the mirrored surface and paused. She slipped her sweater over her head and stood in front of the window looking at the superhuman physique straining against her jogging top.
She traced her fingers across the definition of her shoulder and triceps, followed the outline of her abdominal muscles. Tried a few muscle poses then stopped in embarrassment. This was her new body. She still wasn’t used to it.
Up until a month ago Emily had the strength of a normal human woman – well not human. She was Atlantean. An electromagnetic manipulator. A superheroine. And after absorbing a mix of bio-electric energy from several other superheroines, a super-strong powerhouse.
“Say hello to Ms. Blitzen 2.0.” she said to no one in particular. The last month had been a flurry of activity. It happens when you’re a superheroine. Now that things were quiet, she had some alone time to ponder the changes she had gone through. she was getting used to the change in her appearance. She was adapting to her increased strength and was breaking fewer drinking glasses. But she felt she needed some training in how to use her strength more effectively. Sure she had her electromagnetic powers, but super battles always seem to be decided by a giant slugfest in the end.
Emily could lift a car, but she still… well, Sarah called it when she said that she punched like a spaz. Sarah grew up punching and wrestling her brothers. When she became SilverStar and gained her own super strength, she could get into a scrap and not look like a… spaz.
For Ms. Blitzen to be an effective member of the Dynamic Five, she needed to get a handle on her super-strength. Learn exactly how much strength she could exert, how to get physical in a fight… how not to punch like a spaz. Emily reached out her hand and her cell phone floated towards her, already dialing Sarah Greywolf. She flicked it over to speaker and let it hover near her head. She had already accidentally crushed two phones and didn’t want to lose another.
“Hey, Emily” came Sarah’s voice over the tiny speaker. “What’s up?”
“I want to ask you something, Sarah. And before you say anything, I want you to think about it, because I think it will be good for the team.”
“Hokay.” Sarah answered. “This sounds serious.”
“Well, no. Just something that’s been weighing on my mind lately. Ever since I got my super strength, I’ve really needed to… that is, I don’t think that I can effectively-”
“You want me to teach you to fight!!” exclaimed Sarah.
“Well, yes and no…” Emily had considered having Sarah teach her but SilverStar was the youngest and the newest member of the team. And there was a big difference between growing up a tomboy and being an expert fighter. “I think we both should get some training. Serious training from other people that have super strength. I think we should take a trip from Angel Falls and enter the Superheroine Battle League.”
There was roughly a half second pause followed by, “Hokay! Let’s do it!”
“Well that was quick. Didn’t I tell you to think about it?”
“Emily this will be so awesome! Ms. Blitzen and SilverStar! We can be tag team partners! Should we wear our regular superheroine costumes or should we get special costumes just for the ring? I’m going to start packing!”
Emily let Sarah rave for a while longer before saying good bye and hanging up. She wondered if Blue Tide would be as excited to let two of her team members go off to fight in a super-powered arena.