literature

Challenge Accepted

Deviation Actions

tj-caris's avatar
By
Published:
9K Views

Literature Text

Once again it would seem the perspective is first person of some guy observing Lisa...basically it just lets me cop out of a ton of stuff if I can just say things were too quick to follow. Then I don't have to learn about martial arts and try to imagine what some all-around super human entity would do with them... anyway.

This story is in its way the big one. Things changed from here on out in a big way. It used to be Lisa would come and go and when she was around she was busy shaming everybody. Lisa had so many social circles it was hard to keep up, she had academic, medical, and engineering contacts, in addition to runners and the list goes on. Chick does fucking everything and blazes by the pros before she should even be entirely settled, it's inhuman but I think most of us were getting used to her. You don't doubt her, you don't prank her, and you don't call her a freak and she seemed content to let ya admire her... break an unwritten rule and suffer depending on her mood. It just so happened to be her weightlifting acquaintances to get to view the day her life got thrown upside down, taking the rest of the world with it.
A woman getting into such an elite, high-end gym was generally noteworthy, the few others than Lisa were generally power-lifter thick, so of course everyone noticed when this blonde bombshell struts in like she owns the place. She kept covered in sweats as she kept herself occupied, she ran on the treadmill, punched a bag, and lifted a few weights. She was impressive, and completely gorgeous so of course she was surrounded by guys the whole time. She evaded questions, but she was polite enough. Little did we know we weren't seeing the start of what she could actually do.
Lisa came in, stripped off her outer layers and went about doing her workout without any fanfare. She sat at the weight pull machine that had become so infamous, and reminded everyone just how much she'd improved. One rather interesting day she'd struggled to max out the machine - it's probably worth noting that it really wasn't meant to be maxed out, the final weight was such that it was a goal for someone looking to trump the world record - but in the few years since then she'd improved to the point that she was treating it as a low-weight high-reps work out. As she started to leave that and go on to whatever she was doing next today the mystery blonde girl intercepted her, looking her directly eye-to-eye interestingly. So they weren't both just warrior princess tall (Lisa objects to this description, insisting she's a fifth of an inch taller than Lucy Lawless), they're actually the exact same height...
"Hi, you're Lisa DeLuca right?"
"Yeah, you a fan?"
"Well, I've certainly followed your 'career' very closely. My name's Victoria Cross, I doubt you know me at all."
"Can't say I do. You want something signed? Or maybe, feel something?" Lisa says as she puts her hands behind her head in a faux innocent gesture that just happens to make her biceps pop up pretty impressively.
"I want to know why you do it."
Lisa put a hand to her chin as she thought for a moment, "I'm afraid I don't know what you're asking, it's too vague."
"Shouldn't you try to fit in? What do you achieve when you do things like win the whole Olympics?"
"You think I should pretend I'm normal?" Lisa seemed to contemplate that a while, "I guess it never seemed like much of an option to me? I just always went at things, and everyone around me realized I was the smartest, strongest, fastest kid in the school before long. I was clearly exceptional from the start, so why start holding back? What would that get me?"
"You wouldn't be on anyone's radar, you could just be a skilled person in the public eye. The way you've done things...anyone that's bothered to watch that movie or checked the way Guiness World Records has a 'Lisa' and 'Not Lisa' record for so much stuff knows you're something else."
"Something...else..." Lisa fumes quietly for a little bit and a bunch of the other guys start clearing out around her. She might not blow, but if she does you really don't want to be too close.
"I came here across the Atlantic to meet you Lisa. Not just to chat though, I really want to spar with you."
Lisa clenched her fist and muscles across the length of her arm rippled before she started to walk past Victoria, "Not right now you don't."
"Don't walk out on me, Miss DeLuca."
"Try and stop me!" Lisa started to walk faster with longer strides.
"You are a charlatan and a fraud Miss DeLuca! You think you can be best at everything? You're deluded!"
Oh dear lord...I was taking cover at that point, and a handful of guys just ran out of the gym entirely.
Lisa kept herself in control, but both fists clenched and unclenched a couple times and I'm pretty sure I heard her teeth grinding together.
"You want to take that back..."
Victoria turned her back on Lisa and strode over to the boxing ring. She grabbed the lower rope and pulled herself up onto the mat before turning around and retorting, "Make me."
Lisa turned and ran at the ring, quickly picking up to an unreal speed and jumped high enough to kick off the top ropes, she sailed over Victoria and twisted in the air so she landed on her feet facing Victoria. Victoria smirked and threw off her outer garments and holy hell was the woman the whole package. Long, strong legs, a tight and toned body from head to toe and light, white skin just as flawless as Lisa's. Actually, aside from the thickness of their muscles and their color...these two women looked an awful lot alike... looking each other eye to eye they had equally long legs and stunning curves.
"Whoo!" "Cat fight!" "Cat fight!" There was a bit of a cheer from a lot of the people that hadn't bolted yet. Yeah, thanks guys...I'm sure that has nothing to do with the small number of women that come to our gym...
Victoria bound her curly hair up with a bandana before assuming a defensive posture, "You are far too public Miss DeLuca, and I'm not just talking about police reports that show just how easy you are to bait. Do you think this world is ready for you Lisa? One ant is no threat to a person just as one person is no threat to you, but a million ants can tear a person apart, and there are seven billion people on this world. They tolerate you for now, but trust me Lisa, the human race will turn on you en-mass if you keep on your current course."
"You might actually be a little interesting to debate with, but you said you wanted to spar. I'm going to enjoy shutting you up the primitive way."
Lisa moved in with a right punch that was deflected, followed with a left that was deflected and then Victoria lashed out with a counter punch that snapped Lisa's head to the side and back. I don't think she was hurt, but she was sure as hell confused - an expression I'd never seen on her. A hush fell over the gym as everyone was shocked into silence.
"One for me. Shall we make this out of three Miss DeLuca?"
"Are you...like me?" Lisa sounded so hopeful in that instant, her previous anger had vanished faster than I'd ever seen before for sure.
"Maybe you're just having an off day, will you try again or admit defeat?"
Lisa moved to attack again, moving faster this time. At least five blows from her were shifted aside and Lisa tried to follow one with one of those overly flashy spins she sometimes uses when she gets in a fight. Victoria made her pay for it, ducking under her arm and raining blows on her ribs. Lisa stumbled backwards several steps and clutched at her struck ribs with wide eyes.
"That's two for me. You're losing, Miss DeLuca," Victoria grinned at Lisa oozing smugness.
I'm sure that gave Lisa something of an identity crises, she'd only ever been the one to do that, now on the receiving end she got angry again quickly. She charged Victoria like a bull, Victoria tried to dart to the side but Lisa caught a hold of her. They started to struggle and wrestle against each other. Taunt, well muscled bodies struggled against each other as they tried to shove each other around and gain an advantage. It was soon clear that Lisa was stronger, Victoria had to keep trying to get leverage on her as she'd quickly start to lose any kind of head-on shoving contest. However seeing the strain on Lisa's face and fearsome rippling and bulging of her muscles, this Victoria was making her work much harder for physical control than anyone ever had before. In one relatively long session Lisa managed to push Victoria over to the ropes, but the blonde stranger was able to step up on them and then launch herself into the air over Lisa's head. Except Lisa kept her hold on her and they both spun around in the air. Lisa landed second and she flung herself back like she was trying to throw Victoria, but the blonde woman kept her grip. They flew up higher than they had with Victoria's jump and spun around at least three times in the air before landing on their feet again. One of them went to headbutt the other, the other one saw it coming and countered with the same move, I can't say which was which, it was just a blur of contrasting hair colors to me. There was a loud crack that echoed around the gym and they let go of each other and bounced away. Victoria went further and had to catch herself on the ropes, but Lisa went down to a knee and clutched at her head as well.
"Dude, if we stay here for this we're going to be like the random civilians in an Avengers movie..."
"I'll risk it." "Not me." "Yeah, I'm out of here." "God I wish I had a video camera."
Victoria groaned and muttered something in a foreign language, so I didn't understand her at the time, but Lisa shared their conversation during this ordeal eventually, <"Ugh...You know, I fatally broke a man's skull with a move like that once and I barely felt it...">
<"I guess this is new territory for both of us. Nice German, how's your Japanese?">
Victoria shifted to Japanese to answer, <"I've been praised for its excellence more than once, thank you. Anyway, since I got the worst of that...I'll go ahead and give you the point. 2 to 1 Lisa.">
Lisa shifted to something, I think Cantonese to say <"You knew what you were getting into, and made a point of surprising me. I want an extension on a three point match.">
Victoria responded in yet another language to answer, <"Alright then, does five feel like enough to you?">
Lisa nodded and moved in to fight Victoria again, this time going all out. It seriously turned into a ground-bound Dragonball Z battle as they spun around each other in barely intelligible blurs. The smacks and thwacks of their blows and deflections came at a rate like machine gun fire for nearly a minute before a loud crash rolled over the entire gym with enough force to make all the regular people grab their ears. Lisa shot away from Victoria and caught herself on the ropes, doubled over clutching at her stomach. Victoria stood with her foot upraised, frozen in place at the end of her kick. She stood perfectly still for a moment before stretching out into a splits that went over her head and pivoted in place before she lowered her leg and took a standing position. Crap, I'd seen twirls like that done by athletic women before but pretty much exclusive with use of a pole... What? Don't judge...
<"Good thing I honored your request for an extension, hmm Miss DeLuca? Or you'd have already just experienced your first loss right now."> Yet another new language.
Lisa stood there a while longer to collect herself and plan for her comeback, and stunningly a big area next to her formidable abs was starting to bruise.
The crowd chimed in again, "What are you waiting for Lisa? Just kick her ass!"
Lisa huffed and slammed her hands against the ropes, "I'M TRYING DAMN IT!" She looked surprised and said more quietly to herself, "I am trying...this is hard..."
Victoria, just out of breath enough to make her nicely expansive chest just a little more interesting to look at smiled at Lisa, "It's exciting isn't it? A whole new chapter in our lives."
Lisa shifted to Russian to keep her conversation away from most of the others in the gym, <"Are there others? Do you know?">
Victoria answered her in another new language and I was surprised to see Lisa squint a little and shake her head. I understood enough of her Spanish retort to realize she hadn't understood.
"Oh, do I know more languages than you? Isn't that interesting."
"Hey, these take time and dedication, even for me," Lisa said as she flexed her arms and then a leg to emphasize her point.
<"True enough, but I'm afraid even you have fallen into the trap all bodybuilders seem to fall into. You think just because your muscles are big that they're better. Every opponent you've faced before has been so sluggish I'm afraid you've failed to realize just how much that bulky musculature slows you down.">
Lisa glared at Victoria silently as the blonde woman walked backwards into the ropes. No, not into, she raised one foot to the lower ropes and hopped up where she landed and balanced on the top rope. She started to actually walk around the ring using it like a tightrope with her hands behind her back like she was on a casual stroll.
<"To answer your previous question, Miss DeLuca, I'm quite certain we are the only two of our kind in this world. What do you know of your birth-creation?">
Hopefully at this point it's clear that these women were switching languages each turn they took speaking, whether it was to show off or make sure that no one in attendance could catch much of their conversation or to test each other, I have no idea, but anyway I was in the dark for a long time about most of it, Lisa replied <"Not much. My parents died in a car accident when I was still fairly young. I was told something about a signal from nowhere and that they couldn't get any sort of funding to try to follow its instructions or permission to look for test subjects, so they pulled a bunch of tricks to try it on their own child. I, or rather my all around superior capabilities, were the result.">
<"A bit like my mother then, she couldn't secure official support either, but she wasn't the sort to marry so she went the route of artificial insemination with the most all-around talented donor she could find. The rest is similar to your story, in fact I'm just nine days your senior. You know all my life she told me I was unique, that no one else could have gathered the resources that she did to finish her...experiment... I was one of a kind, able to do any and everything, the future Queen of the Earth. I had to hide it though, she hammered it in that I couldn't let anyone know my full abilities. I was home-schooled and all kinds of physical instructors were made to perform house-calls. Can you imagine what I felt like when I found out about you? What it was like to see you running around flaunting your superiority in the face of everyone?">
<"I imagine you felt a lot of things, though clearly one of them was a desire to punch me in the face.">
Victoria grinned as she dismounted with a flourish, landed on her hands before gracefully returning to her feet in an impossibly smooth motion, "Quite right, I do say that urge isn't entirely out of my system. Shall we continue?"
They went at each other full bore again, blurring overall and sometimes limbs just seemed to vanish. This time it went on for even longer and I'm certain they each sprung off the ropes clear to the other side of the ring in mighty leaps. More of those thundering cracks echoed around the gym and I eventually had the thought that they were from Victoria's kicks. At first I was going to dismiss the idea that she could possibly be breaking the sound barrier and generating sonic booms with her feet because it was ridiculous, but then I remembered this was the woman who was actually beating Lisa. I hugged myself hard trying to fight a piercing chill that had nothing to do with the temperature.
This time when they broke apart and returned to a track-able speed it was Victoria flying through the air with Lisa crouched in a low punch. Victoria hit the ropes high and fast enough that she flipped right over them and out of the ring. She managed to grab the top one briefly and she controlled her remaining flight enough to tumble in a way that she didn't hit anything and ended upright. This time she was clutching her stomach and she went down on her knees gasping and groaning.
"Two to three now. Getting closer," Lisa was smiling as she strut over to the edge of the ring, "Though we didn't discuss bounds at all...maybe you should time out of the match if you can't recover quick enough?"
Lisa was cheerfully rocking back and forth as she held onto the top rope, looking much more like herself. It was a little reassuring.
"Like that ring...ugh...is really... big enough for the likes of us," Victoria forced herself to stand, but couldn't quite force herself all the way upright, tilting to the side she'd been punched in, <"You can't seriously suggest that we bind ourselves to the dimensions of a ring meant for this lot? We're more than a cut above Lisa.">
<"I'm stronger than anyone I've met...I've always been the fastest until I met you, and it is true that I learn things much, much faster than other people. I can't think of a time I felt outmatched or even threatened... but I have some pretty glaring character flaws. I sometimes think I'm a rotten person, I'd probably lose some sort of morality competition...">
<"What? Because you know you're superior or because you like to hurt people?">
Lisa winced a little and I remember wondering what could have caused that doubtful, hurt look on her face.
"Don't try to deny it...I've seen the police reports. You've been in far too many fights for it to be accidental. You look for fights. You can't be challenging yourself, you could kill anyone in here that isn't me with one punch before they had time to react. Sometimes the person's a right bloody wanker that has it coming, but sometimes your excuse is paper thin. You're a bully that likes it when burly men cry and beg you to stop, you like to feel their feeble strength leave them as they exhaust themselves trying to challenge or escape you."
"You don't know me."
<"Don't I Lisa? I know that's how you feel about fighting pitiful men, because it's exactly how I feel. I'm just much more covert and I don't drag it out like you do. We aren't the same and we have completely different parents, but that set of modified DNA instructions made us closer to sisters than anything else."> Victoria was recovered at this point, standing tall and proud and staring up at Lisa defiantly.
<"What is the deal with that anyway? I got my Ph.D. in genetics just to study myself...I had a phase where thought I might be an alien or something..."
<"What? Like you should be wearing a big 'S' on your chest?">
"Come on, you can't tell me you don't identify with Superman or the X-Men or something just a little bit."
Victoria laughed outrageously at Lisa's indignant protest, so much so she turned a little pink and a couple tears rolled out of her eyes before she stopped, "Oh dear me. You're a dork. You over there, with your ridiculous number of degrees and your peerless, amazing muscles...you are a nerd? It's too hilarious for words..."
Lisa jumped into action and Victoria's laughing fit must have left her off her guard. They were quickly back to a grappling competition where long, shapely muscles bulged and strained against each other as the combatants strained and twisted and arced in a dangerous dance. Some opening formed and Victoria lept into the air and wrapped her legs around Lisa. With a powerful motion, throwing herself from being nearly doubled over to bowed backwards she threw the both of them into the air and they both fell on their backs. Victoria grabbed Lisa's forearm and wrapped her thighs around her upper arm and arced backwards, pulling it out into a wrestling hold. Lisa fought admirably, her trapped arm swelled in size and made Victoria's hold slow to take, even looking like it might overcome Victoria's efforts a couple of times. Long seconds went by as Victoria stretched Lisa's arm out to the center of her chest, her legs mashing into Lisa's chest. Lisa tried to arc herself to get some kind of leverage as Victoria tried to arc herself to overextend Lisa's arm. Damn I wasn't sure if I needed a cold shower or some private time.
"God damn it why don't I have a decent camera with me?! Stupid antique phone!" I think the guy threw his old buttoned phone to the floor so hard it broke on impact, but I kind of got where he was coming from.
I thought Lisa was going to have to tap out, probably concede another point to Victoria. It turned out I lost faith in her way too quickly. Lisa managed to get her limbs under her and somehow throw herself into the air, she spun around as though she was going to punch the ground with Victoria's head and she damn near succeeded but for Victoria's insane speed. Victoria launched off of Lisa's arm and rolled away as Lisa's arm punched into the floor. Lisa jumped up and ran at Victoria while she was still rolling into a ready position. Still crouched she fired off one of those supersonic kicks in a low, sweeping move but Lisa had actually jumped over it. Victoria rolled backwards away from an airborne punch from Lisa and Lisa followed her closely. Stomping and kicking, Lisa was bound and determined not to let Victoria regain her feet. Victoria ended up rolling over a bench press platform and jumping up while the bench gave her some breathing room, but she ended up regaining her feet just in time to be clipped in the shoulder by a kick from Lisa. It wasn't a solid hit for Lisa, but it spun Victoria off balance and she caught herself on the next bench over and vaulted over it into the air into a perfect gymnastic twirl and landing.
"Tied score now." "So it is."
<"What did you ever discover about your own DNA, Miss DeLuca?">
<"It was hard to call conclusive, there was enough of my parents to see both their heritage. My mother's half Japanese and half Ojibwe ancestry and my father's mostly Ukrainian but quarter Yoruba ancestry, but there was some that seemed inspired by non-human animals. Literal eagle eyes but combined with more color cones and night-vision strong genes...things with stronger, denser muscles than a human... senses and bone density... The majority of it though seems to be deliberately engineered though.">
<"And so it is. Definitely not alien in origin though.">
<"Well, my parents did tell me that it seemed to come from a patch of space with nothing in it.">
<"Ah, I think I can explain that. It seems they didn't expand their thinking far enough, or they failed to consult the right specialist. See, that patch of

approximately empty space is actually where the Earth is going to be in its journey through the galaxy about a hundred and fifty years from now. The signal and our genetic code comes from the future. Designer babies lead to hybrids and eventually science figures out how to design a genetic string to produce results that eclipse what you find in nature. We're a bit of the future dropped into the present Lisa.">
<"You can't know that for sure.">
<"Hmm, bit of an accent on that one dear. It's a reasonable conclusion though, even though there are glaring holes in it.">
<"The one that sticks out the most to me is the fact that the technology for such extensive modification doesn't exist yet. I know I determined that without my own DNA to clone, I couldn't make modern technology do anything like the manipulation behind my genes. So how could our parents have possibly achieved these results over two decades ago?">
<"I think there was more to it than just the signal, but all recordings of it seem to have erased themselves so there's no way for us to look it over.">
<"Erased themselves?">
<"How else do you explain the fact that there's no record of the signal itself, only mentions of it? My mother is a meticulous record keeper and she has no copy. She doesn't remember why she doesn't, and the woman has an exception memory for a vanilla human, so clearly she's been affected by something external. It seems to me that there was something else, possibly some kind of precision radiation transmission that did the gene work for them? Or nano-machines that did the work and then recycled themselves into us or the environment? There was more to it than a set of instructions to build a superior human, but unfortunately there is no way to determine what that was.">
<"It seems to demand the one word question of why?">
<"How would I know? Perhaps the earth is being overwhelmed by an alien invasion and eventually tries to rewrite history by moving up the pace of our artificial improvement. Perhaps you and I discover immortality, or are simply primed to live that long already and we fulfill a stable time loop to assure our own births? There's far too little information to draw a conclusion from, even for us. The important thing is that you and I are no mere evolution from homo sapiens, we are a designed improvement. I think we are meant to control this world, you should join me and start putting your talents to a real use.">
This time it was Lisa's turn to laugh, <"Are you serious? Take over the world? Why? To what end?">
<"We're clearly meant to dominate, think about how amazing it feels to be in control. The ends of course are to improve the world. The human species needs to be supplanted by the first wave of improvements even if we can't match ourselves right away. Human beings make the same mistakes time and time again, but our new species will make a new path.">
<"Well you certainly have ambition, how about I think on it?">
They went back to their sparring match or fight or whatever and this time Victoria very deliberately gave up ground, making Lisa chase her around the place. Lisa is so fast in a run that with the right length of track she can actually run a circle around a full speed Usain Bolt and win the sprint. Guess how I know that. Yeah, Lisa doesn't care how famous you are when she wants to show off. Victoria was faster. That was crazy enough on its own but then Victoria used her lead to unhook a punching back and threw it into the air. Then she jumped up and used a six foot, hundred pound bag like it was a freaking volleyball by spiking it directly as Lisa. Lisa was impressive herself as she just caught the thing, spun around with it, seemingly adding to its momentum and flinging it right back at Victoria. Victoria vaulted over it, shoving off it in the tiny part of a second it was under her for. The bag landed hard enough to break apart as it sent a rack of weights tumbling over, leaving various weights tumbling and rolling around. That convinced a few more guys it was time to leave. There were maybe eight of us left by then, down from somewhat over twenty. Victoria strode over to a long bar with about a hundred pounds of weight on it, lifted it up with one hand and started twirling it around like it was a bo-staff.
"Well, that could be interesting," Lisa said as she mirrored the move with a bar holding about two hundred and fifty pounds of weight.
The weights on the ends made the barbells too air-resistant and bulky to use quite like a fighting stick, but somehow those two women came incredibly close. Lisa was more aggressive, trying to batter Victoria with her heavier weight, but the newcomer was adept at deflecting the weight. The first few traded blows were kind of awkward, but they were clearly learning as they went, inventing a whole new melee combat style as they challenged each other. It became something of a dance and they clearly weren't much bothered by the weights, much too strong and conditioned to really tire. It ended when Victoria saw an opening, planted her weight into the floor and used it like a pole to assist with one of those supersonic kicks. Lisa actually dropped her barbell and caught the kick with her crossed forearms.
Victoria pulled her leg away before Lisa managed to catch a solid hold on it, "Already adapting to the challenge. Very impressive Lisa."
They went at it again, but Lisa didn't have time to recollect her improvised weapon and had to jump back from her faster opponent to keep from being clobbered. Victoria sacrificed her weapon in a feint and struck the next major blow with a kick into Lisa's upper arm, making it four to three. The two super women faced each other off, finally starting to shine with sweat a bit and breathing heavily.
<"How exactly do you figure on taking over the world even?">
<"Oh the obvious, political influence around the world, shell and front companies secretly under my control or powering my operations. Technological Research and Development sped along by my, and hopefully soon, our direct involvement.">
<"Secretly putting in the code to control future generations of military equipment through contacts in military contract companies?">
<"Oh my, been poking around in DARPA's in development computer codes have you? I would have thought that would have looked like junk code. It's not really control though...">
<"Just making sure that it won't open fire on certain targets, right? Yourself, machines of your design. I'll be honest, I had some idea that's what it might have been but it really didn't click together for me until you started talking about running the world.">
Victoria's smile was a bit thin and looked kind of forced, <"I guess I'm not used to hiding things from anyone comparably observant to myself. I shall have to improve my efforts.">
One blow away from losing, Lisa was really motivated and that nearly Dragonball-ish fighting style went up a notch as they went into a running battle through the gym. The last of us mere mortals were kind of huddled together, too invested in Lisa to leave her alone, too hideously outmatched to be any real help.
"The other guys had the right idea, we're just likely to get hurt or dead trying to watch this."
"I for one am willing to take that risk. I'm going to have alone time material for a while."
"TMI."
I thought I'd try to defend Lisa, "Hey, we've all been around Lisa in a fight, she's never let any of us get hurt. Hell, I saw her get drunk and roofied..."
"Yeah, sure, that was impressive and all, seriously that's a story you need to shut up about though, but Lisa's never been fighting her own General Zod before either. She's only ever fought people she laughably outclasses before."
There was a weird gasp and a gurgling noise from somewhere and we turned around to see one of the guys, a fellow named Zach turning red and grabbing at his neck. I was confused at the way he seemed a few inches taller for a second before I saw he was being suspended in the air by Victoria. I'm pretty sure we all took a step or two back. Sorry man, but we're dog food if we try to fight her...
"That's the second Superman reference today already. Shall we see how well it holds up? How about it Lisa? Do you want to dash in to save the day, or do you even care if I shatter this pitiful creature's spine?"
One of the other guys started to advance on her and I was mentally telling him not to be stupid, but the idiot wasn't telepathic. The crack was relatively small as Victoria's foot kind of just appeared about an inch from his head.
"Do you really want to be a hero? I could have taken your head off just now."
"Do I care?" Lisa said with a shrug and she held a hand up to her chin, "I dunno, it seems a little weak of you to try the hostage thing though. Are you getting afraid I'll win even though you still have the advantage for the moment?"
Victoria lowered Zach to the floor, letting him breath again but she held him fast. His biceps bulged so hard it looked like the veins might pop out as he pulled against Victoria's arm but she didn't seem to notice, all of her attention was on talking to Lisa. No, that was an illusion, she knew where we all were well enough she'd take any of us out if we did something dumb.
"That's not my question. I want to know how much you care about this lot. Does someone so superior have a reason to care about normal humans, or is the love of gods, whether they be religious figures or pop culture figures like Superman an invention of conceit?"
"Well, love might be a strong word, but I'm used to this group of people and being short one would be a noticed absence..."
"Did you notice Larry's absence? Because you haven't said a word about that."
Lisa looked just a little startled, "You didn't..."
"The fool's alive, just sporting a broken arm and told to lay low. I needed some information on your schedule that I couldn't acquire digitally. Anyway, you said love's a strong word, then why did you concede to date this man if you didn't think it was possible?"
"Dude?! You dated Lisa? Why'd you never say anything?" it was annoying, but the guy did have some brains, something of a skilled hobby artist and a chemist in addition to being pretty athletic. I guess he was about as close to an all around talent you'd find around here... so I guess it made sense that if Lisa was going to go out with anyone it'd be him.
"Well she never even let me get to a base, she'd kind of catch my hand and give me this weary sigh. It was more embarrassing than anything else really."
"It was just a sort of experiment, I wanted to see if my affections could go in that direction... I can be fond of people..."
<"No, I imagine there's some you're quite attached to, but I have to wonder. Do you have friends? Do you relate to anyone? Can anyone relate to you? Or is your fondness closer to that which one might have for a pet?">
Well, finally I'd heard the same foreign language twice. I swore Lisa only mentioned speaking fifteen but this has been nuts. I tried to remember to ask her about it later.
<"That's...harsh...">
<"Am I wrong?">
<"You're here for me! None of these guys have anything to do with it! So just drop him and let's finish our bout!">
<"I disagree, I think this could provide some useful insight to you Lisa. Do you see your rightful place as master over your lessers, or are you the sentimental sort?">
"Do you think you can just murder someone and get away with it?" Lisa finally returned to English for everyone's benefit.
"Of course I can. What are the police going to find? A man killed by someone with superhuman strength and you're the only one the world knows of that fits that bill."
"Please, there are a ton of witnesses here."
"All men that know what you're capable of. They could certainly have been intimidated. You could tell them who I am, but let me explain how that's going to go. First, they'll look up Victoria Cross and find out that she in fact doesn't have an alibi, she was home sick a couple of days and didn't see anyone in that time. So far, so good for you. However, they will find that her passport hasn't been used in any airport and her image doesn't show up on any security cameras here in the USA. What will they find easier to believe? That you killed an ex boyfriend, strong phrase I know, but bear with me, or that a British woman crossed the Atlantic without being noticed anywhere on the whole journey and killed a man with her bare hands with a force the world thinks only you can use?"
At that point Zack drove his elbow into Victoria's stomach with all the force he could muster, right into the purple and blue bruise she'd taken from Lisa's outrageously powerul punch. There was a bit of a crunching noise as his elbow bounced off her abs and he cradled it with a rather pathetic croaking noise. Victoria raised an eyebrow as she turned her head to look at her hostage.
"Well, that was stupid of you," she grabbed his face with her other hand and started to twist his head in a manner that wasn't quite slow, but was consistent instead of a quick yank you'd see in a movie.
Oh god, Zach's gonna die. She's gonna break his neck with brute force...
Lisa caught one of her hands and punched her in the face with the other, "Four to four!"
"Well, shame. That was the wrong answer Miss DeLuca," she let go of Zach and let him run over to us and truly looked like she didn't care at all. I figure she must have seen him as just that insignificant, one Lisa moved to save him, he'd just lost all importance to her.
"Don't make anything of it, you dropped your guard and I took my opening. Next blow will determine the winner!"
One of the problems with a woman that can do anything, is that she's also a perfect actress. If Lisa wants to she can sell about anything, though mostly she doesn't care enough to be anything but totally honest. Zach looked pretty hurt to hear Lisa insist she hadn't been saving him, merely exploiting an opening.
"She...might not have meant that." "Might have."
"Isn't this tense? A tie with only one more point to score. Will the underdog that came up from behind manage a win, or will those hopes be dashed?" Victoria looked like she was enjoying herself.
"Only one way to find out."
"True, but...I've been thinking, you've always gone all out. I'm sure you've had to delay a match up or two to catch up so you'd be ahead when the time came, but you've never lost anything. Meanwhile, in my efforts to lay low I've allowed myself to lose so that people wouldn't know what I am. The emotional investment is much greater for you and I'm just not sure I could bring myself to end our meeting on such a sour note so I might just subconsciously throw our match-up. I want us to be allies Lisa, I think we can wait to find out who really wins. Cheerio and all that," Victoria finished with a wave before dashing out the door, Lisa trying to keep up.
It was hopeless but I wanted to know what happened next so I ran after them as hard as I could. I was sure I'd lost them by the time I came out of the building, but they were out by Lisa's car. There was some kind of storm or something, whipping their hair around and I raised up an arm to shield my eyes from the wind.
"It's really a cute car, my sister, but I have my own ride," she reached up and grabbed onto something and it wasn't until she started to rise quickly off the ground that I looked up.
There was some kind of jet hovering over our parking lot...it took a moment to process that and by that time Victoria had risen up into its bay and the doors shut behind her. I was starting to wonder what kind of plane that was, it was angular like a stealth plane but enormous like a passenger plane when suddenly the thing vanished. The wind picked up and I had to brace myself against a car to keep from being blown away. It seemed to take forever but the wind finally started to die down.
"Dispersion maybe? Some thrust is straight down, but some of it is at an angle...but countered by equal thrust at the mirrored angle?"
"What are you muttering about Lisa?"
"Oh, I'm just trying to guess how a craft that large could have hovered over us without flattening everything underneath it... if that's her design, and I'm sure it is, it's a hell of a thing."
"Tell me about it, it cloaked like it was a Star Trek thing!"
"Really cool, right?" she looked honestly excited and happy, "Maybe she's right...maybe I'm letting myself get content with my mastery too soon..." she sounded wistful as she looked up at the sky.
"What do you make of that Lisa? She came here and she knocked you around...I didn't even think that was possible!"
"I think the fact that this Victoria can push me in a fist fight might actually be the least scary thing about her... I think things have taken a turn for the dire, too much for me to worry about a few scrapes and bruises... Oh that reminds me," she pulled out her phone and dialed a number.
I can make out the voice on the other end, seems like she put it on speaker phone for some reason, "Lisa, babe, what can I do for you?"
"Richard, I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to cancel our second photo shoot."
"What? Aw, Lisa, you promised, you know I won't be back this way for a while. Don't tell me you forgot to mention some kind of award or something."
"No, not that...I'm a bit too banged up to look pretty enough for the camera."
"...what? How the hell did that happen?"
"I've been fighting again...sorry."
"Fighting something that left you banged up? What the hell were you fighting? Truckasaurus?"
I laughed at that, but Lisa didn't quite, and the voice on the other side continued, "Anyway it doesn't matter. It just gives Kristen and Sally something to do."
"Sorry, but I really can't, I'm going to be busy. I have to win the rematch more decisively you know. Well, actually we tied..."
"You tied? Seriously, did you meet Wonder Woman or something?"
Lisa laughed at that, "Close enough... I'll talk at ya later."
"So...what now?"
"First of all, I'm going to go home and take a shower. You should probably do the same, and with ice..." Lisa got into her car and left.
Wait. Wait! Someone...has to clean up the gym...

-------------

Lisa didn't show up the next day, but the day after she was ready to talk all day about her new girl crush...
"I found her, she apparently gave us her real name," Lisa showed a screen with a few pictures of Victoria, but she looked a bit different somehow... she was playing down her looks overall for starters, but something just seemed off.
"She looks..."
"More normal right? I think she might actually use make-up to look more average in her day-to-day life. Anyway, it looks like her grades are all really solid, but nothing like mine. I can tie her to a couple businesses, but nothing that could hope to make that jet."
"I don't suppose there's any way to find out if anyone noticed that jet."
"You should know better, seriously."
"Wait, you..."
"I checked the military's records, both the US's and Britain's. Also Canada, Russia, and a few other EU countries. I also checked the civilian and private airfields, basically every kind of radar system that might be close to her likely flight paths. Long story short, no one knew a thing about that plane of hers. Whatever it is, it can get by NATO's best air defenses without incident."
"WHAT? That's crazy, how do you even know she went back to..." I forget she's as smart as she's strong and beautiful sometimes, I'm sorry, I'm shallow. I almost got clocked for it there...
"She's since shown back up on British security cameras. I'd say she went straight home."
"Any point in telling us all this?"
"Maybe not much...it's not like you can help me with this, but I guess I felt like you should know what I... enough of what I know to have a basic understanding. Also, I'm not going to be back here for some time. Try not to miss me too much."
"Where are you going? Tell me it's not after her..."
"Of course I am. She pretty much invited me, right? She wants to talk about us on her home turf."
"Think it might be some sort of trap?"
"We're not quite enemies yet, but I'm not going alone. Oh don't look like that, I don't have a use for any bodybuilders or power lifters where I'm going. No, a couple of people from my robotics company are going to come along to snoop computer files and control mini drones and the like. Victoria knows way more about me than I know about her and I really want to cut that advantage down as much as I can."
"Alright, good luck Lisa. Come back in one....OW-OW-OWWW! SORRY! UNCLE!"
Lisa vs. Victoria...
Silly alternate ending - fav.me/d946y7d
Direct sequel - fav.me/d94hdyb
© 2015 - 2024 tj-caris
Comments10
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
graywolf82002's avatar
The story was great and now that I have a grasp on both their origins I have a a few ideas for two new enemies for Lisa to face...

!. Imagine if Frankenstein (The Monster) was the ruler of a country and had the ability to control electricity plus was also a cyborg to boot and so I introduce you to King Lazar Vultage (The last name you have say in a Russian accent to get it) supreme ruler of Gothavania his connection to Lisa is that she lead to his current state but he's not bitter about it in fact he's thankful for what she did for now he has the power to show the world the "might" of Gothavaina. (She may have created Cyborg Frankenstein Hitler though minus the racial cleansing.)

Backstory: Lazar attend the same college as Lisa majoring in engineering he also happened to live in the same dorm as Lisa with a room right next to her's and much to her chagrin after first meeting her he started hitting on her while at first she found it charming at first it quickly got old, share he could of told he was royalty but chose to keep it a secret from very one as he want to experience a normal college life without being treated any differently though she figure he was a rich kid by the way he acted, now as for the event that lead to his transformation it one night when Lisa finally got fend with his antics, this was around finals so for his final exam he had to create some that showcase his engineering skills which he went and built a revolutionary device that would change the world as well as show Gothavaina wasn't a backwater country so after successfully testing he went out to celebrate along with his engineering buddies, during that time she broke in to his room, mess with his invention, and damaging a crucial part before leaving with plans to meet up with some friends. A while later Lazar returns from a night out and decides to test his device one more before bed in order to make sure it's first test run wasn't a fluke as it finishes powering up that's when it decides to explode taking him and half the building with it though thankful he was the only occupant time, meanwhile Lisa is returning from the party her friends when she hears a loud blast and sees smoke coming from her dormitory and races to the scene though when she arrives she spots men in black suits digging through the ruble, she wonders what could have caused this and to her horror she quickly figures it out, the device in Lazar's room, it was a Anti-Matter Generator and the the mechanism she damaged was part of the Containment Field meant to prevent any Anti-Matter from interacting with Normal Matter she rush over to assist the men and with her help it's not long before they find his they find his smoldering remains or what's left of them, this wasn't what she want she just wanted to get back at Lazar for his constant hounding though as she looks around she sees some of the men weeping and also notices them wearing a small gold pins of an eagle with a hammer in on talon and a chisel in the other on there jackets, being the overly smart girl that she is realized that it was the royal seal of Gothavaina which meant these men are royal guards and that Lazar was a Prince.

Now are story doesn't end here of course no that was only the beginning for after his remains were returned home they were taken into the bowels of his family's castle where a secret laboratory was being prepped for a grand experiment one that aimed to do the impossible; bring Lazar back from the dead for you see his father Alexis didn't take the news his only son's demise well and planned to accomplish this with the help of a journal written by a 14th century French Alchemist (Said book had end up in the families collection by chance.) who had somewhat successfully brought a corpse back to life granted it only lived for some time but with the aid of modern technology and the help of the brightest minds in Gothavaina he hoped to triumph where the Alchemist failed, the remains of Lazar body were loaded into a specially designed metallic exoskeleton that included many cybernetics after which he was lowered into tub of special made solution as discribe in the journal once that was finishes they began the procedure that would resurrect him and stuck the tank with a massive amount of electricity, at first nothing with many believe they failed but soon movement though subtle at first but not long after Lazar burst out of the tank gasping for air "He lives! My son he lives!" for a time he after these events he remained isolated from the public until the day his father died and was forced to take the throne as the 15th King of Gothavaina. Under his rule he turns the country into an industrial, and economic power house with a GDP that rivals the worlds major superpowers giving it the nickname "The Tiny Titan" though it's meteoric rise hasn't come w/o a price with many said superpowers on the fence about this new world power and it's leader for the last time a country rose to such power it lead to a world war and their fear may not be unfounded for Lazar thoughts of empire have been on his mind and with the Alchemist's Journal he has a means to accomplish that but those thoughts can wait, he doesn't want to show his hand to soon in the meantime he has an old friend to see and hopes she's doesn't mind the unexpected reunion.

2.This one a worse case scenario, so I want you to imagine if the signal had ended up the hands of religious Fundamentalist group who were like the Westboro Baptist Church and interpreted it as a message from God and then used it to created their idea of a savior/divine warrior who will when the time comes punish the "wicked" and cleans America of "evil" and then the world also said warrior was raised on right wing media like Fox News and ultra religious program like the 700 Club as well as the messed beliefs of his parents, I give you The Wrath a.k.a. Samson Michaels the hate filled holy crusader who sole purpose is to punish the heathens (Muslims, Jews, Homosexuals/Transgender, Veterans, Democrats, Abortion Clinics, Doctors, The UN, etc) he does this with the aid of a suit of crusader looking armor that enhanced his abilities with also a set of metallic wings on the back that don't give him flight but act as a barrier/ shield when need be and a huge flaming great sword that has many destructive powers both of which are his creation though claims their construction is do to divine knowledge given to him when actual it's his own intelligence unbeknownst to him and a final quirk to him is to him is that he specks in a Shakespearean accent like sort of like Thor just with more biblical words mixed in.