Suzie

         It's dark... but bright, I believe it's night. I'm in a house... my house? ...It's hot... burning. I'm surrounded by flames. I can hear them screaming, crying... a man, a woman... a baby. I think I'm crying too... but I never cry. I feel sad... sadness is for the weak. I feel scared... fear is for the weak. I see people, behind the flames... they reach in... the flames part, no burns... they pick me up. They're so big... wait, no... I'm small? They walk, and speak... but I can't understand. I'm looking over his shoulder... I see the house, my house... it burns... SUZIE!

         I wake up, damned roommate, she's so loud. My name is Susan Ares Matthews. I'm a High Class B Pyrokinetic of the I.U.S.B.S.'S, and likely due for a promotion. That dream, for years I've dreamed it, a plague to my mind for so long, but recently the dreaded thing has run through my mind more and more. Everyone says it's just a vision of the future, but not mine, couldn't be, and i don't know who else it could be of. Anyway, time to start my day. I get up, get dressed, look in the mirror and sigh, bad hair day. I trudge to the bathroom and fix myself up a bit, 22 and still can't handle my hair, wish mom had taught me that instead of how to kill someone by heating their insides until the pressure made them burst. Then again, that does do nice against those pesky rats and pervs right?

"SUZIE! Get your lazy ass down here or I'll eat all your breakfast!"

God she's a bitch. "SHELL! IF YOU EAT MY BREAKFAST ILL RIP IT OUT OF YOUR STOMACH MYSELF!" I rush down stairs to eat. My roommate is Michelle Zeus Armstrong, her parents were ridiculous, Ares was a much cooler god to be named after but i wished for something cooler, i like Ra, or maybe something original like Marie, so few of those. We're only living together by instruction, we graduated in similar standing and were on good terms with each-other so we seemed like an effective team for whatever we'd get. Besides elemental electricity and elemental fire make a good explosion so pairs of our elements aren't that uncommon, and both being high Class-B's also makes us great candidates for a team. You never really understand why you're trained, better put, RAISED to fight, why you're expected to be able to kill, mercilessly. I mean really, our whole universe is under one dominion why would we need to fight? All I know is that 1% never make it to high school and people never keep in touch, I wonder how my parents met then? Paired? Who cares, today I get my first mission, sounds fun... much more fun than these fucking crap shot pancakes... "Shell..."

"Yeah Suzie?"

I chuck the plate at her. "Please learn to cook you useless shitbag." She swats it down.

"As soon as you learn to throw you worthless bitch."

This is how people say "I love you" in the Inter-Universal Super Being Societies... cause no one knows the word...



         We headed out after breakfast, we lived on a human only planet but in a sector not segregated by ability. We headed up the street, the worlds always so quiet... when no ones chatting, writing music to be played, no news, very quiet. The teleport station was in a city a few miles a way, so we flew there, much quicker than walking. I'd never left the planet before, I've used teleports before but only before I could fly. When we arrived, we were asked where we were headed and why, then sent to a teleporter. We were headed for the center of the universe, or atleast in political terms. More specifically we were heading to the Bureau of Operations, where everyone went to get missions. Let me explain it to you this way, people in our society get 3 choices, to take missions, to take politics, or to run a business. Since it sounded the most fun, I chose to take missions. Sadly, if I become a class A, I get dragged into politics... I'd rather impale my self slowly on a metal spike... huh, that doesn't actually sound all that bad. Huh? Unlike my first time through a teleporter, I don't feel like I wanna puke... but what the hell is going on here... I think i see only a few humans here if any. We step out of the teleporter bewildered, I was taking it in until...

"OH MY FUCKING GOD! SUZIE WE'RE SURROUNDED BY ALIENS!"

UGH Shell you dumb bitch, I slowly try and move away from her and stare at her with the crowd just to avoid the embarrassment of being associated with her, but I bump into someone. Behind me are 2 men, taller than us by a bit, but blue skinned, large somewhat pointy ears, not elven but still. They reminded me of the blue man group I read about once, weirdos. They were wearing brown monk like robes and had no hair what-so-ever. The one I bumped into was slightly taller, obviously the leader of the duo. I turn and with Shell back up a bit as he speaks... the next few seconds were rapid

"I knew humans were ignorant but I had no idea that super-humans were super ignorant" he chuckles. Shell moves to attack

"Well guessin' from your skin tone you must be a super smurf, wow that must be one super tiny dick you got." I retorted, his friend is pissed, goes to attack... then its all slow-mo

"insolent little girl..." I snapped and tackled that bastard, his friend had raised metal spikes from the ground where I was and Shell had fired lightning at the big guy, it seems I accidentally saved him. For the next minute or 2 I don't know what Shell was up to but I was flipped off to my feet, he flipped to his feet and somehow deflected the fireballs I threw his way with ease. He did a spin raising his arms and 4 blocks shot from the ground turning to metal cuffs pinning me to the wall. I started to pry myself free as he ran at me, dragging all the earth he could off the ground and around his arm hardening it into a spear like weapon around his arm with serrated edges up the side. He went to stab it into me but I got my right foot free and contorted my body, I regret wearing a skirt that day... I fired a large energy wave from my foot but he blocked with his arm. It knocked him back but still eroded his weapon away. I broke the rest of myself loose and launched at him nearly punching him in the face but he grabbed my arm and swung me over his head into the ground. He went to pound my face in but I caught his fist and flipped over on top of him with it then back flipped sending him to the ground, he tried to reverse it but I cartwheeled and was about to let go mid-swing with him when we were slammed to the wall. You see, I was a class C telepath, he was a class B telepath, but the guy who came to arrest us was class A. While against the wall I could see Shell had some fun, she was panting and cut and bruised a little, but she had also gotten a few hits and thunder bolts in on her opponent. The dead give away that she loved it though, was that she was smiling a bright sadistic smile. We were dropped form the wall, cuffed, chained, and collared. Collared? Sounds strange right? Well for us it's not. The brain comes with inhibitors installed to prevent the use of genetic super powers, and once unlocked these abilities, not being crappy magic, can only be suppressed by the reintroduction of said inhibitors. The collars are only effective to a certain degree, though, because they only inhibit such abilities below the point on the spinal chord where they contact since that's where the inhibitors are located otherwise your abilities would need outside help to be restored, which is a bitch. Anyway, we were marched from the teleport station, on foot by the way in case you don't get that, all the way to the fucking Bureau... 5 miles away...why is it so fucking far!? BECAUSE EVERY FUCKING BUILDING ON THIS PLANET IS HUGE! God I hate this planet.



          When we walk in, I notice one thing above all others. I noticed three massive pictures on one wall labeled "The Three Most Dangerous Being In Existence" It was quite strange, number 1 was a man whose name I recognized in a heart beat, DAN. Every textbook, every guide, every reference. He wrote everything from The Extended Uses Of Chemistry Via Genetic Superpowers, to The Hitchhikers Guide To Existence. I was shocked to find out he was Prime target for us. He didn't even look menacing, he looked like a bland, average, kinda cute, 18 year old guy. His dirty blonde hair was parted to the left and you could see only that he was wearing a shirt with a white collar and a sweatshirt, not much else visible except his piercing hazel eyes and the hilt of his katana, it just looked like a wooden stick alternating 2 stains of wood. What really catches your eye, though, is his facial expression, for a supposed danger to existence, he looked rather calm and mild, even childish. At first, the other 2 looked like blank spots with no pictures. It took me a moment to realize, those were their pictures. They were shadow beings, in a way, apparently made up of an ooze like material, similar to the venom symbiote from spider-man. Their names weren't that well thought out, rather simple. Number 3 was named Dark-spider, some reason he apparently uses the alias Drake, Drake Shires Pride to be exact. Number 2 was named an even more pathetic name at first, but eventually named himself a still quite corny name, Lucifer Luciferious. Apparently, Dan accidentally created both of them early in his life, although almost everything in each of their lives is secret, they seem to be the only ones to truly grasp their own existences, they're immortals. Dan is classified as The Class X in more ways than any other being known to exist, 4 times, Energy Manipulation, Telekinesis, Telepathy, and Pyrokinesis. Class X by the way, means they're the most powerful and skilled in that field. The other 2 have never been cataloged for abilities, they don't even have an established species! All that I know of those 2 are that Drake was originally the leader of Lucifer and others, I'll call him Luke from here on out for simplicity. After a while of pointless fights against Dan, and at first some allies, Drake and Luke were the only 2 left of their kind. Luke, being of both Light and Dark unlike Drake who was pure Dark, eventually took Dan's advice and left his weaker former leader in the dust. The 2 have never since been recorded in the same universe at the same time. Drake, with his insatiable desire to defeat and absorb Dan, roamed from universe to universe searching for him, that's all I know. Luke also went his own way from universe to universe, but his desire was more disturbing, he's the biggest recorded rapist in existence, worse than the whole planet that is inhabited by a race of tentacle raping sentient squids. I'll never know why people flock there for spring break. Last I heard of Luke was that he entered a universe and left it in ruin. He found that no planet was well defended from someone of his caliber, the super-being population density was surprisingly low for one with super beings. He swept from planet to planet and every one with sentient species with humanoid females, he changed his genetic make up to match their species, killed every male above an age equivalent to 18 for humans, and raped every female between the HAE's, for human age equivalent, of 18 and 40, who he found attractive. The worst part is that he also forced all males below the HAE of 18 to brutally rape another female of their species who was also under the HAE of 18, using telepathy to control their minds. He apparently made many brothers rape sisters, friends rape friends, he destroyed so many relationships just for amusement. It took over a decade for civilizations to restart. Drake has not been heard of except when mentioned with Dan. But before I could really dwell on their photos, I was nudged, and kept walking to the office we were being escorted to.



         "Okay! Listen up you hotheads!"

God this guy was a prick, apparently the guy dragging us along is our new boss. I never cared for first impressions anyway.

"You're missions are not going to be simple 2 person team missions. I intended to make you four a team before I met you all, but I'm starting to reconsider."

Wait! He's NOT going to make me work with the blue-ball man group?

"I think I'd be better off just killing you all now and finding someone else."

Shit. We all look at the others with dirty looks.

"But, at the advice of my superiors, I have to make you work together."

Yep, this is going to SUCK.

"Sir! I must protest, these little girls would just get in my way!"

That one blue guy who Shell fought got a nice knuckle sandwich for that, from the boss!

"YOU FOUR ARE GOING TO GET ALONG! Now leave, I'll give you a mission when you can work together."

With that, we were sent off to a special training facility, better put, a jail. It wasn't as bad as a normal jail, drop the soap all you want you still won't get anything unless you convince someone to join you. We were forced to stay down there until we got along, our abilities were enabled but this place was rigged to knock out any of us who acted up. Except for the whole containment thing, it really was a training facility designed for cases like us. We stayed away from each other for a whole week without seeing the other 2. Me and Shell went about our lives as normal. Eventually, the jerk who fought me came up to me while I was training.

"If it will help, I am willing to cooperate, but I won't save you every time you're in trouble."

He still thought he was so much better than me. "Listen! I'm almost a Class A Pyrokinetic, top of my class!" I shouted at him, I couldn't stand how he thought of us.

"Hm... maybe I did underestimate you... anyway. Since we are to work together, we should share our names, I am Schral Et Harech."

"Susan Ares Matthews, call me Suzie." We shook hands, then walked away, we weren't going to get along that easily.



         I had the dream again last night, every time it feels more real. It's been a week since we started talking, His partner is apparently named Nareb Het Charek, apparently, their species pronounces ch as sh or k, aliens. We've started training together, Schral is Geokinetic, Nareb is a sub-division of Geokinetic where he can only control metal. Nareb is good though, when ever we need a weapon, Schral can turn rock into metal then Nareb can take any metal what-so-ever and form it into a blade. I can also form blades using pyrokinesis but it's not as natural. Me and Schral have become good at combining our abilities to use superheated forms of rock as lava and even gaseous stone along with other applications of our abilities. Shell, on the other hand, has preferred to use Nareb's abilities to act like a tazer, Nareb forms a spike, Shell shocks it, and Nareb sticks it to the target, ZAP! Oh god! I just remembered Shell's old catch phrase "Prepare to get Shell Shocked!" I can't believe she'd ever say that.

"Hey Suzie! Remember this?"

I turned to look at her, she was about to shock me, the way she did when we first met... WAIT!

"Prepare to get SHELL SHOCKED!"

I don't know what was more embarrassing, being friends with someone saying that, or getting knocked unconscious by a low voltage shock like that. We were told later that day that our progress was impressive and we were to move out to our mission tomorrow. We asked if we were getting a debriefing... he laughed and walked away. We were confused because there was no known mission that didn't require a debriefing.



         Today, we would get our mission. I got up, blasted a camera, went into the bathroom, blasted a camera, took a shower, dried myself off, got dressed, and trudged my way sleepily into our eating area. I wish those perverts would stop fixing those damned cameras, not many people sleep naked like me, I guess, but after a while they should get the point, and putting it in the bathroom is a step too far. This morning, Nareb and Schral ate with us, Shell made breakfast again. I sat down and took one bite. "Hey, Shell."

"Yeah Suzie?" Shell smiled at me, the dimwit never picks up on patterns.

Once again, I threw the plate at her. "You still can't cook for shit." Then something weird happened. Nareb caught the plate AND ATE MY FOOD!

"Personally, I love your cooking, Michelle." Me and Schral looked at each other, without telepathy it was clear we both thought this was strange.

"Aw, thanks Nareb." Shell just winked at him, and me and Schral exchange another look of shock. I've always known Shell to be a little insane, and a big flirt, but this whole situation, throughout my life, vexed me. I never found out if either one was honest in their words or actions, I never chose to use telepathy for that. I doubt anyone in existence would enjoy Shell's cooking, or that Shell would ever be interested in a weird blue guy like Nareb. Soon after the awkward silence that followed, where the only sound was Nareb and Shell happily devouring the food like starved monsters, we all left the facility, as a group, for the Bureau. We flew across the planet in a matter of minutes and landed gingerly at the entrance. We were escorted by a nerdy looking woman this time, obviously a secretary, and her boss probably enjoys her most because she's a Neko, I hate perverts. When we arrived at the debriefing room for our mission, it went quick. We were told four words, and we were all more shocked than we were earlier this morning.

"Your target is Dan" Since we were all speechless, the debriefer continued. "You all seem to be exceptional in your capabilities, and he has a soft spot for women. To prevent him from merely turning you as he has been notorious for with other women given this assignment, we included Nareb and Schral to help you stay on task. We chose them for their abilities as well as the fact that he is a ridiculous man and also is a big fan of the Blue Man group. As ludicrous as this all sounds, knowing Dan, it will be extremely effective." The debriefer tossed us a data chip. "That will program the teleporters to send you to a point in time and space in which he has been spotted, good luck, you'll need it." And with that he left, Nareb was in a cold sweat, and Shell had apparently pissed herself like a little girl, only me and Schral managed to keep calm, not that we weren't shocked.



         We flew to the teleport station, the whole way thinking it was a joke. We only accepted the truth when we arrived, plugged the chip into the teleporter, and were given options of recorded places in time and space. To try and distract myself now, I decided to think about the teleporters. They were quite the impressive piece of technology. No one ever explained how, but they were able to expand a hole in the fabric of time and space at 2 points in all of reality. No one ever seems to maintain them and the programmers don't even know how they work, just how the program works. The designer, it turns out, is apparently Dan himself, I don't understand why we want to kill the man who makes everything in our society but I don't care. He also designed the power sources to everything in this universe, Power Cores. Power Cores somehow manage to give off infinite amounts of energy converted into an infinite supply of a certain range of voltages of electricity. Once again, I can't even fathom how they work. Schral decided to take charge.

"Maybe we should go here, the volcanic area of this island he was spotted at seems ideal for our abilities." We all just muttered in general agreement or tried to make it sound that way. He picked the location and a portal opened up, frozen in time until we passed through. He took the chip out as we passed through and put it in his badge. Everyone has a badge, I forgot to mention that I guess. From birth, it seems, we are assigned badges, listing our rankings, powers, and species. Somehow, the badges have a universal clock in them that allows you to open a portal always to where you came from, except ahead by the amount of time since you left. The badges seem more like ID cards stuffed in a special wallet with special pouches and a picture of you. Some how, the badges are adaptive, the rank and picture adjust with changes in your rank and age. As soon as we entered, the portal closed and we were faced with a young man in a dark grey camo sweatshirt like jacket, unzipped, dirty blonde hair parted to his left, slight freckles, pale complexion, clean shaven, his height and build were nothing extraordinary. Under the jacket he wore a plain white undershirt, he wore basic blue jeans, a pair of white and grey sneakers, and he wore black fingerless gloves with an empty rectangular patch at the middle of the back of the hand, what appeared to be a wooden stick of alternating stain, lighter to darker brown, was tied to his back by a thin string, he wore a rather bland khaki satchel across his chest, around his waist was a light brown belt with 2 knife sheaths and 2 gun holsters, he had striking hazel eyes staring blankly at me, specifically me I realized. He smiled slightly under the hamburger he was eating as he sat upon a rock and addressed me with his mouth full.

"Do I know you? Considering your looks, and the one you're giving me, I probably jumped universe after our first night."

At the end of his sentence he had finished chewing and stuffed the whole thing in his mouth. I was some how managed to be pissed, disgusted, honored, and embarrassed all at the same time.



         "We're from the I.U.S.B.S.'s! Have you seen a man named Dan." Schral spoke up like an idiot, everyone here recognized him. Dan sat there for a moment, laughing silently. Schral tried to muster more courage at the embarrassment of this all and whipped out his badge. "I am Scrhal Et Harech! I am a Class B Geokineti-"

"Class B Geokinetic Azurian. Class C in Telepathy, Telekinesis, and B in Energy Manipulation. H.A.E. of 22. Like most of you're species, you stick to the Azurian Life style of pacifism, only fighting when necessary. You also dress with their habitual monk like garb. Unlike the Crimsian and Verdanites, who are more militaristic and less strict, respectively. It amuses me that the Verdanites consider themselves less strict since they party a lot and yet have no tolerance for anyone else, especially if they're not green. And You are Nareb Het Charek, Shell Zeus Armstrong, and Suzie Ares Matthews. I know all about you guys, every little thing," His eyes darted from Schral, to me, to Nareb, to Shell. "what you lie about, what you can't answer, what you like, what you hide. Don't you realize who I really am? Come on! I'm Class X of Class X's, Pyrokinesis, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Energy Manipulation. I'm DCC people, pay attention."

We should have headed his advice, because he immediately disappeared, first he was behind us, tapped Nareb on the shoulder as well as Shell, they both swung as they turned and knocked each other to the ground. A second later, he was on the side of the volcano about a mile away.



         He was fast, but so were we, in moments we were caught up with him. Nareb and Schral had Serrated Arm Gauntlets, like they used on me, on each of their arms. Schral's were diamond while Nareb's were an adamantium-vibranium alloy. They were charging and swinging at Dan as he berated them, Nareb was easily goaded but Schral took a little more effort.

"Come on blue balls! Bet yer bellies aren't blue if ya catch my drift! I've seen better fighting from smurfs! Are your momma's balls as blue as yours? Come the fuck on you worthless pussies! Ahahahahahahahahahaha! That the best you got you dipshit, blue-waffle-sucking, tight ass, limp dick retards!?"

I was amazed by both his vocabulary and his speed. They were striking at him with insane speed and accuracy, much faster than I would expect myself to go, yet he dodged with ease. I suddenly noticed his eyes dart towards me and Shell, we were a bit slower than the guys. I turned to Shell just as she launched a lightning bolt at him, I feared he would redirect it, or use Elemental Fire to cause a massive explosion. It struck him dead in the chest, he smiled and fell face first, we gathered around.

"What a chump! The most dangerous being in existence my ass!" Nareb spat on him, it never reached.

Dan immediately spun up unphased, maneuvered around the spit, grabbed Nareb by the lips, and threw his face to the ground. He stared me in the face with a smile, time felt unbearably slow. I started to brace myself, but all he did was pat me on the head as Nareb contacted the ground. Schral started to keel over, I noticed he had Dan's foot leaving his crotch. I saw Shell prepare to throw another bolt, and did something pretty stupid and risky. Some reason, when elemental fire and elemental lightning, formed from coalesced energy not the normal kind, mix, it causes a massive explosion, quite dangerous. It is theorized that, since they are both manifestations of energy itself, they destabilize each other, causing the energy to rapidly burst forth from the collision as an explosion, but no one is ballsy enough to try experimentation, except maybe Dan I guess. Within the couple seconds that this all occurred, I lit Dan on fire. He started to laugh as the lightning struck him, he didn't stop. Everyone was on the ground, except Dan, and lava started to bubble up from where we shattered the volcano.

"Nice move, inventive, daring, just plain excellent." He started walking up the volcano as we all struggled to our feet.

Nareb rushed ahead and smashed the ground sending a pillar of rock into Dan, hurtling him into the volcano. Me and Schral were pissed.

"Nareb you idiot! Pyrokinetics can swim in lava!" Before Schral could berate me, meaning still berating Nareb, I jumped in.

The reason why Dan going in doesn't seem bad for him, but me doing so is, is that he was better. In a fight here, I'd have to focus real hard just to know what's happening. I have to telekinetically keep molten rock out of my body while focusing on energy signatures to follow Dan. No sight, no sound, no smell, no touch, no taste. I swam and swam managing to keep track of him slightly, when all of a sudden, I landed on grass. I got up and looked, we were on the opposite side of the volcano.

"I teleported you with me, only seemed fair, good to see you again."

"Again!? I've never met you before!"

"Calm down, I guess I'm ahead, put your hands down, I just wanna talk real quick."

"Fuck off!" I started to move at him, but he looked me in the eyes and I was frozen.

"Just shush up and let me talk. I know about your dream, I know what it means, and I know you have a good heart."

Ha me have a heart he's delusional.

"No I am not, because we meet again and on friendlier terms."

He's full of shit, mind reading bastard.

"I prefer asshole, anyway, I gotta go, Seeya 'round. Oh and tell Shell not on the first date."

"What?" He was gone, just gone. I was confused, at a loss for words.

"Suzie! You ok!?" Shell jumped on me hugging me, scared, why?!

"I'm fine you over dramatic slut! He said something about not on the first date, not that I know what that means." I whispered the last part.

"Good to see you're alright, when your energy temporarily disappeared, we thought we lost you."

"What? Got a crush on me now Schral?" I laughed.

"We're a team, that's all." He was being defensive, hmph, I looked at Nareb.

"Nice going, why not just hand him a bomb next time."

"Hey! You're the one who nearly blew us all to bits!"

"I had to try something!"

Schral and Shell pulled us apart. We went home, reported to the Bureau, were told to train harder for the next time, and went to an outer planet for a month of training.



         After a month of duking it out with each other, we found it wasn't helping, so we took it to the extreme. Each of us went to a specific planet that would make it very difficult to survive by being devoid of the source of our element. They were uninhabited, me and Shell have energy elements, so we decided to go to mostly liquid worlds, and cold ones at that. Schral and Nareb also had to go to mostly liquid planets as well. Pretty much we had to spread out across the universe to 4 water worlds and try and survive for 2 months, why did we think that'd help much? Not a clue. After 2 grueling months of swimming, eating fish which were kind of bland, almost drowning several times because of fucking serpents, and sleeping on giant turtle shells, I finally got to go home. When we first saw each other, we all thought the same thing: "Do I look that bad as well?" After we all showered, we went back to the first planet, which by the way had copious amounts of sun light, static electricity, rock, and metal ore; the perfect place for us. We spent the next 9 months beating the ever living shit out of each other. Day in day out, we were slugging away, toughening each other up and getting better and better. While weren't fighting, we were healing and eating, Shell's cooking could use some training too, and wishing we were Saiyans so that this would go faster. The worst part was that during that whole year, every night, that same fucking dream reoccurred. Every fucking time I closed my fucking eyes all I could picture was that dream, that house. All I could feel was weakness, it pissed me off. By the end of that year, we had all gotten much stronger, in fact we were almost all just below Class A status, pretty close.