Super Jaded (11/23) (Patreon)

Chapter 11: Serum

It was hard falling asleep that night. I didn’t want to get up from where I was laying. I couldn’t.

Fern was gravely injured, but at least I was with her again. All I wanted to do was snuggle her and whisper into her ear that everything would be okay.

But everything wasn’t okay. I wasn’t sure how much time Fern had left on this earth, if she had any time left at all. My pessimistic super hearing kept anticipating her final breath, just waiting for the last good thing in my life to die, just like everything else.

I felt just like that sick kid from so many years ago. The one who couldn’t even lift her hand out of sheer weakness. She had only wanted the chance to become Hypergirl, a chance to prove to the world that she could be a useful asset, only for the world to turn around and spit directly into her face.

Now, she was back in the exact same position she had started, only without the selfless guidance of her grandpa.

I cradled myself within Fern’s side as tears found their way out of my ducts once more. What would my grandpa have done in a situation like this?

Well, first, he’d tell me “not to cry, little one” before wiping my tears with that handkerchief of his. But even that wasn’t enough. He was a genius who had unlocked the shackles of human evolution, yet selflessly chose to use it on his granddaughter. His granddaughter who was letting him down.

If I had that serum, I would use it on Fern in a heartbeat. But I didn’t have it. No one did. Grandpa had used all of it on me.

I couldn’t be the hero Fern needed me to be. I was useless. No heroism, no grandpa, no guidance and no serum…

...wait a minute.

Once more, my mind shifted to something from my childhood. A detail so small and insignificant to anyone but me. The puzzle pieces in my mind were connecting together again.

Before I had gotten very sick, I didn’t have much of an interest in comic books. It wasn’t until Grandpa had purchased that one Hypergirl magazine that I was hooked. It was her origin story, of sorts, detailing how she got her powers and the very first villain she made. Great stuff. But there was something also quite odd about it, something I had never questioned as a child that would have looked out of place to anyone who wasn’t literally dying of sickness: The page numbers were out of order.

It seemed like an innocuous detail, but I was beginning to realize there may have been more to it. The printing was certainly official, yet I distinctly remember the first four page numbers going 13, 16, 33, 19. It didn’t even start at one. The story was still linear from page to page, so why was there such a glaring misprint?

Perhaps it wasn’t a misprint.

I still wasn’t sure what to make of it, but I had no other options. I made sure to hide Fern’s unconscious body as best I could—gently placing her within a crawlspace in the wall—before I took to the skies at top speed. I didn’t care about how fast I may have been traveling, time was of the essence after all. Despite my tunnel vision, I could hear the redwoods beneath me cracking as the air resistance built an unstoppable shield of fire around me. My resistant clothes gifted to me by top scientists tore to shreds, but human decency had long been relegated to those beneath me.

In mere seconds, I was at the house. The laws of physics underwent a bit of a whiplash as I came to a complete stop, bits of houses and entire cars being torn from their socially accepted places and thrown about. This area may have been well equipped to deal with natural disasters, but I was a force of nature far beyond what anyone could have anticipated.

I descended forcefully, the wake of destruction from my landing blasting the front door of its hinges. It was amazing how convenient things became when I stopped giving a shit about menial things like property damage.

Dashing into the empty house, I knew exactly where to look. Even though this was a place I had not seen since after grandpa’s funeral, now was not the time to be nostalgic. Ripping the dusty bed I had spent six years laying upon in half like any other obstacle in my way.

There it was. Still in the plastic sleeve just as I had left it. I could still faintly see the faded “For Nina” written in marker on the front.

Sliding it out of its protection from time, I flipped through a few pages. Sure enough, I had remembered correctly, the page numbers were out of order. I flipped through every page in the book stopping right at the bottom right corner marked “1”

Then, something stuck out to me that I hadn’t noticed before. Something only a superhuman sightline would even pick up on. Out of all the text on the page, only one letter had been ever-so-slightly bolded. I flipped to another random page and found that it had a few unconnected letters that followed the same pattern.

Using my enhanced perception, I flipped through the entirety of the book in ascending numerical order and took a mental note of every bold letter. To an outsider, it looked as though I was just flipping pages like a child would. The extended issue was 100 pages in length, yet I breezed through them and found what I needed in seconds. After I read the last numbered page, my brain then began to decipher all of the letters into coherent words.

My eyes widened. When put together, the letters formed a detailed process for creating a super-serum.

Grandpa had hidden the only copy of his secret formula in my comic book.

Shaking the shock out of my expression, I knew what I had to do now. Keeping a mental note of all the ingredients I needed, I flew straight out of the roof above me. Now it was time to put my speed to the test.

Finding the needle and alcohol swabs proved to be the easiest part, almost amusing to me. It was quite ironic to see me become the very petty thieves I had stopped so often in my heyday. “People pulling guns on the cashier just so they could get some medicine for their families in an unjust world” was what Fern called it. I guess I finally understood what she meant.

Except there was no superhero to stop me—an unstoppable, nude woman who flew in through the wall, took what she needed, and flew out another wall.

Some of the later ingredients were rather hard to come by. Hell, I had to swoop down and steal someone’s phone just to Google what the fuck a “DihydroBerbine” was. But this treasure hunt was still no match for my superior speed, power, and brain processing. In just ten minutes, I had everything I’d need to recreate the serum. Now, all I had to do was actually make it.

It seemed to require some sort of strange device that I didn’t have, but I did have an idea of where to find it.

Flying back to the government agency I had rammed through like a bull, it was understandable that they weren’t too jazzed to see me, irregardless of the damage I had caused to the country. They didn’t even bother to rain fire upon my bare skin, they knew it would just be a waste of Federal resources. Unfortunately for me, they didn’t flee in terror either.

Ugh, all these agents in suits were like a swarm of gnats, ones I simply didn’t have the time to swat away.

I descended into the ceiling hole they hadn’t yet patched up before making my way to the lab. Bingo. They had a M700 Microfluidizer.

Calling upon my memories once more, I began following the recipe to a T. I was able to replicate the process at a much faster speed, even bringing a certain ingredient to a boil with just the right amount of heat vision. I must’ve looked so silly, as I could forgo the typical safety procedures of the lab. Hazardous chemicals were nothing to me, unable to burn or pierce my naked skin.

The tension rose as I added the completed mix of ingredients into the device. After forgoing the necessary waiting periods for other processes, I was unsure of how to speed this one up. All I could do was sit in a little anxious ball like an eager child in front of an old computer’s boot-up as the agonizingly slow distribution process took its sweet-ass time to complete.

Then, through focusing my super-hearing on different frequencies out of boredom, my ears picked up a familiar sound of someone’s heartbeat. Then a few more. I turned my head to the source of the beating, only to see no one immediately. The lab door was open, yet there was no one in my line of sight.

My x-ray vision painted a different picture. There must’ve been fifty guys hiding behind each wall to the left and right of it. They were waiting for me, probably to steal or destroy the serum I was making. I nearly chuckled at the thought of them assuming I’d use the door to leave once I was finished.

Deciding to quell a bit of stress and boredom, I casually said “I’ll give you guys five seconds.”

I turned my x-ray vision back on and watched as the once-stoic skeletons began to stumble over themselves in panic. Five seconds was only enough time for about half of the men to escape the pre-designated area I had arbitrarily chosen.

One clean swipe of my laser vision from one side of the room to another and their lives were taken. I hoped that would set an example for anyone who wanted to try sneaking up on me again, especially if it were an attempt to get between me and Fern.

The serum process completed without any further issues, the machine chirping cheerfully to inform me so. I held the sole vial of super serum in my grasp, cradling it like a newborn. It was a hell of a lot more than a single dose, easily enough for three people, but I didn’t have time to parse the details. Flying backwards so that my body could shield the glass bottle, I rushed back to the abandoned house.

My shaky hands were all the more dangerous in tandem with my super strength as I carefully filled a syringe with the vibrant red liquid. Thankfully, Fern was still breathing, but her inhales seemed to be staggering. She didn’t have much time left.

I rubbed the skin on her left arm with an alcohol wipe before injecting her with the serum. I waited for her to awaken, but no such event happened.

Oh no.

Had I fucked it up or something? Was it too late?

Panicking, I went over to Fern’s other arm and repeated the process, injecting another serum into her beautiful body. Still nothing.

Tears began to pour down my tense face as I hyperventilated. Nothing was happening.

“Fern please! Wake up! I need you to wake up!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, frightening all the birds in the trees nearby.

Out of a last-ditch desperation, I pinched her skin and injected the final serum directly into her side like an insulin shot, something she had needed before. I didn’t think it was going to work, but I had nothing left. No more serums, no more options and pretty soon, I feared, no more Fern.

I kneeled over her prone body, placing both of my hands to her face. Her cheeks still felt cold. I sighed and closed my eyes. And then, rising like a shepherd's tone, her skin suddenly felt boiling hot.

I opened my eyes in surprise.

And so did she.