By: Jami JoAnne Russell

"What is it?" Robert shouted. Just barely holding back the wrestler-type guy who was still

standing.

"A bomb - thermo-nuclear I think." Michelle replied, her brown eyes wide - "There's no time to

disarm it...."

What else was there to do? That bomb went off and all of Los Angeles would go with it. So I

did the only thing I could think of. I grabbed it and I headed up. I could hear Juan, the youngest

member of our team, shouting "Martha! NO!" but it was too late now. I had to go up. Get it as

far above the earth as possible before it exploded. I knew the team would survive without me.

And who knows? Maybe I could survive this.

Let me tell you what happened to bring me to this place. My name is Martha Erin Adams. I'm a

23 year old, bisexual, native-born Californian. I'm about 5' 3" and over 200 pounds. Yes, I am fat.

Or at least I was. Life in California for fat women sucks. Here if you're a woman and you're fat

you're considered ugly. Doesn't matter if you have a cute face or a nice personality. Being fat is

all people need to see to automatically hate you. Being so close to Hollywood makes us all very

superficial.

It also made me very suicidal. Having failed at all my attempts to lose weight, including using a

prescription drug that left me mentally unstable due to chemical imbalances in my brain, I had

determined that my life was worthless. Course, it probably didn't help that my homophobic

parents had just disowned me because of my bisexuality. One thing piles up on top of the other. I

had to quit school because they kicked me out of the house and wouldn't allow me access to my

college fund. I took a job as a janitor and a tiny apartment that was one step above a rat hole. One

day I couldn't take it anymore and sliced open my wrists.

My neighbor found me and called 911. Only instead of the hospital I was taken - well, I honestly

still don't know where it was. Basically, I, along with several other people who had no

connections in the real world anymore, were abducted by our own government. Robert was

homeless. Juan had run away from an abusive mother who tried to kill him. Michelle had lost her

family due to a hurricane. And so on for each of us. When I woke up I was very angry to find I

was not only alive, but now completely unable to take my own life by normal means.

"It's called biokinetic control," Dr. Crawford said. He was a strange little man. I mean little. He

was no taller then 3 feet with greying red hair that stuck up all over his head. All his clothing was

white because he was completely color-blind. "You can make your body do just about anything

you want. You're invulnerable, super-strong, can fly -"

"Wait a second - Fly? Doc, I'm afraid of heights!"

"Never the less, you can fly, Martha. Now hush." With that the doctor took out a gun and shot

me square in the chest.

I laughed. "Hey! That tickles!" Looking down I saw the hole in my shirt, and a flattened bullet

pressed into my skin. "Wow - I'm a woman of steel...."

"You can also optimize your body in other ways," the doctor said, continuing down his list on

his clipboard, "such as your new shape. If you check you'll see you've already dropped three pant

sizes. Though you can't add to your height. May I say, Martha, you're turning into a real babe."

You know, it stinks being the experiment of your own government. They tend to treat you like

a lab rat. Putting you thru all sorts of tests and "training." Ordering you about. They wanted to

figure out why each of us gained different powers when the formula - which I wish I could tell

you more about, but they never told us much about it - was used on us. Take Juan - he could

climb walls like a lizard. Robert had the quickness and hearing of a cat. Michelle's brain worked

at an accelerated rate. There was also Stone - who was like his name. Hard as a rock. About as

smart too but he was a sweet guy. Had a heart of gold.

Then all the little assignments. "Go re-route this river under the cover of darkness so this village

isn't washed away in the flood." Or "Take out this drug ring." Little stuff that took us all of five,

maybe ten minutes. Stopped three wars. Five gang shootings. Twenty-five drive-bys. Probably

about 50 various kidnapings. It was like we were robots. Above humans but created by scientists

so they thought we were their slaves.

I admit it. I was in love with Stone. Losing him was the worse day of my life. See, we were

suppose to put an end once and for all to the Bosnia-Serbia crisis. Just as we thought we were

finally bringing about peace - missiles started falling about us. Stone rapidly dug out a hole and

shoved us all inside. We begged him to come in too, but instead he stayed out.

Even Stone can't handle a missile blast straight to the chest.

They tried to replace him, bringing in a man on whom the formula acted strangely. He had been

a con artist before they brought him in and I guess the formula brought out the reptile in him.

Because he came out of the process not only with all the abilities of a snake, but looking like one

too, except for the arms. His legs had fused together and he had a hood like a giant king cobra. I

named him Naga after some mythical beast I heard about once that was half-human, half-snake. I

probably had the wrong name, but it stuck.

Naga was the biggest mistake our government ever made. All he thought about was himself and

over the next few months he secretly worked against us. No one but me suspected him,

unfortunately. What can I say? I was the only one not fooled by Naga's hypnotic reptile eyes.

It finally led to where this story started. Naga ran off and started his own mob-type "family."

Promising them that once he took over the government he'd get the formula and give them all

super powers as well. On his way out he had stolen a bunch of stuff, including the bomb now

tucked firmly to my chest. Of course we had no choice but to track him down and take him out. It

wasn't easy like the other ones though. The promise of power had fueled his men and women,

making them into ruthless fighting machines. And I'm the only one of the team who's bullet

proof.

Still, we fought on. It was actually quite amusing watching them try to keep track of Zip as she

ran around them. Also Sprite with his quick gymnastics. Finally, a half hour and many fallen foes

later we faced Naga.

"What do you think I am? Some sort of comic-book bad guy?" Naga said as we demanded his

surrender. "You think I would let you get this far without my having a back-up plan?"

That's when he sicced his body-guards on us. Five ex-professional wrestlers - and I don't mean

those costumed ones that wrestle to scripts. I'm talking big-time, real, and HUGE wrestlers. And

guess who was the first one they attacked? You guessed it. Your's truly. Well, wouldn't you take

out the strongest member of the group first? Hey, even I can't handle five 300 pound men at

once. Thankfully my teammates jumped in to help. Blast it though, Naga got away.

It was when we got it down to one wrestler fighting Robert that Michelle screamed. Then

announced the presence of the bomb. So here am I, going up and up. To where the air is too thin

for even me to breath. I keep thinking of my body, trying my darnest to make it bomb-proof. I

knew it wouldn't work. Still, if there was the slightest chance....

The counter ran down. I never believed in God until now, thinking no perfect being would've

allowed me to be born. I know now I was wrong because God had a plan. He - or She - wanted

me to be born for this very moment. When I flew to the zenith and held this bomb in a place

where it couldn't do half as much harm as it would on the ground. Even the fallout wouldn't be

that bad. Especially since it had so far to fall. Maybe most of it will burn up on the way to earth.

I hope they make a better choice in their replacement for me then they did for Stone's

replacement. That they learned from their mistakes. At least I finally thought of a "super-hero"

name for myself - Zenith. I'll see you Stone. In 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2.........

~~The End~~