Liz the mighty MEGA WOMAN

         Chapter 24: Another power source is revealed



Lance Byrons took a sip of his scotch and placed it back on the table. On the TV screen in his office was a paused picture of Mega Woman lifting up a locomotive with a smile. Lance's brow furled.

         "Jane!" he yelled to his assistant. Jane Patterson came running into the room. "Y...yes Mr. Byrons," she said in her sheepish voice. Jane was not unattractive physically but her meek personality made her socially awkward. She was five foot seven and had dark hair along with piercing blue eyes. She had worked for Lance Byrons for several years having taken the job right out of college. However, Jane was now 29 and still had not advanced. She often thought of asking her boss for a promotion but her meekness always got in her way. Jane's parents had died when she was young and she had been raised by her aunt, a very strict woman who placed the lover her biological children first. Always. That left Jane in the background where she has been hiding all her life.

         "Get my laptop from the other room. THE blue one. Now," Lance barked as Jane speed into the other room. She quickly grabbed the notebook and brought it back in.

         "Here Mr. Byrons," she said as she handed it to him. Lance's thick hand grabbed the notebook and put it on the table. He opened it and typed in his password. He then looked at Jane.

         "Why are you still here?" he asked.

         "I, um, I...I...I am sorry," Jane meekly said as she sheepishly withdrew back into the background here she thought she belonged.

         "Idiot," Lance thought as his laptop came to life. Jane had been with him for several years and for the most part she did a good job. He could have fired her years ago, but he knew he would never find someone so meek, someone he could keep at the same job, with the same pay, without complaint.

         If Jane's life had been hard, Lance Byrons had been born not with silver, but a gold spoon in his mouth. His father had started a successful construction business. Lance had gone to the best schools, dated the hottest women and lived in absolute luxury. At forty-five he was not married and had no kids, but that was fine with him. Standing at six foot four, he was a physical specimen. Lance made sure he took care of his money, his business and his body.

         After his father died, Lance took his inherited fortune and started an IT company. Being able to locate and take advantage of trends, Lance was the first to make smart phones. He now had government contracts and controlled the flow of information throughout the world. Via the ByronTech devices, and unknown to those who used them, Lance could eavesdrop on almost anyone...including those in government.

         It was a message from a high ranking military official that got him interested in what was now on his laptop screen. It was a small bluish-green jewel encased in a black glass-like substance. The military message had called it "the divine." Using his vast resources Lance was able to learn just what it was. It was a power source. A VERY powerful power source. He had learned there were others on the planet. He had learned in the past these jewel's had been worshipped, their power transferred to other people and to objects. The military planned on collecting the power sources, their numbers unknown. The plan was to use them to create super solders or perhaps new energy sources. Lance Byron's plan was to use the power for himself, to turn himself into a living God!

         However, finding the source had only been the first problem. The second problem was activating that power. Lance had tried everything when it dawned on him that it must be activated by a certain phrase, a phrase which was now lost in antiquity. So, if he could not activate the power through words, he would do it through technology. And he was close, very close, to figuring out how to do that. A few more months was the plan. That was until Mega Woman showed her freakish face earlier today.

         "The divine," Lance said aloud as he put the laptop down and walked towards a large painting in his office. He took the painting off the wall, exposing a safe. He began entering the code.

         It was past eight at night and Jane wanted to go home, not that she had anything to go home to. She was packing up her stuff when she heard the familiar bark of her name from Mr. Byrons.

         Jane scurried into the room and gasped. In his hands, Mr. Byrons was holding a blue-green glowing jewel inside some kind of black substance.

         "M....Mr. Byrons?" she asked.

         "Ah, Jane. Yes. It took a small fortune to find, but I finally have it. This is the Divine Jane. You see that muscled monstrosity on the screen?" he asked as he pointed to the frozen image of Mega Woman.

         "Mega Woman?" Jane asked. "She is amazing."

         "Amazing??? A bloated cow with powers she does not deserve! It was supposed to be me to introduce the world to the Divine. For the world to worship me! And now, now she!" He screamed as he grabbed a paper weight off a table and threw it at the TV.

         CRASH.

         Jane jumped. "Now she has introduced the world to the power. I was going to wait to make sure my process was correct. But now, now I cannot. I do not know the words that would activate the power in this jewel, but I have created the technology to drain the power and transfer it to a person," Lance said looking at Jane. "And that person is me."