Emma: Chapter 3 by Drew Emma was mortified as the police opened fire. They had at their disposal a very impressive array of weaponry, and were trained well in how to use them. Most bullets found the intended target quite accurately, peppering Emma with lead. But she steeled her body and stood firm and erect. She did not let them see how they had hurt her. She had only been trying to help, but it looked as though they didn't want her help. The police continued to fire. But as the bullets streamed into Emma, all that seemed to happen was the bullets bounced straight back. Several officers who had not taken cover as they should have done fell as bullets fired by their fellows bounced off Emma's invulnerable skin to imbed themselves into their own, far weaker flesh. After the initial shock of it all, Emma grew angry. She fumed as the silly cops proceeded to shoot at her. This was a turning point for the new superhero, as an internal conflict arose that would never really cease. "I wanted to help you bastards," she told them. "But now I vow to never help you corrupt pigs." For a moment she thought about punishing them, but she was still human and her heart wasn't in it. She was angry and a little confused, but she didn't want to kill anymore people today. She left an astounded and somewhat shaken group of police far below as she took to the sky and headed for the city centre to get new clothes. She had often heard from her friends about the unbelievable variety of fashion available in Sydney. And they were right. Emma spotted several hundred stores as she made her way along the many streets in search of a sports store. She found just the one right on George Street. There was a store by the same name at her home town, but the sheer size of this one impressed and attracted her to look around. "They'll have something that will be perfect." The attendants were mostly busy, but everyone of them noticed Emma as she walked in. Sure, this was the city and anything goes. But Emma was wearing only rags. Tattered remains of what had been very little to begin with. The interior of the shop fell silent, the fittest of customers were awed by the perfect development of her body, which was clearly and shamelessly displayed. Emma no longer possessed that inner constraint about showing her flesh. Having bullets bounce off her like ping-pong balls had forever altered her self-image. She was the first human in history to truly know no fear. She walked up to a male sales assistant, who had been showing a very interested fat lady a new exercise machine. "Hi there." She greeted him, not bothering to read his mind. The drool and the vacant, yet fixated eyes told her everything he was thinking. "Welcome to Sportgirl's George Street Superstore," he droned mechanically. He'd said those words so many times it was just as automatic as the reaction his helplessly male body was undergoing in her awsome presence. "I'm after something sporty. I hope this is the right place." The salesman regained all the composure he could muster, achieving his goal admirably enough though his words were a little drawn out. "You've come to the right place alright. We have a wide variety. Can I show you?" "But..." the fat chick interupted. "I was here first. What is this?" "Sorry," Emma told her. "You obviously need more help than me," she added with a sly smile. "How dare you!" "I'll just have a look myself," she told the assistant with a smile Emma wandered over to the clothes section and was taken aback at the choice she faced. The salesman, whom she had expected to continue serving the fat girl follwed her like a lost puppy, while the fat chick fumed and stormed out. "I think this one would look good on you." he picked up a full-length dress and offered it for her to try on. She completely ignored him as she selected a sporty set of underwear. But then she changed her mind. The gymnastics gear caught her eye. Some of the outfits available were very tame and proper. But there was one that really took her attention. A red outfit that left her mid-drift bare and would show off the full shapely length of her legs. Ripping of the price, a mind-boggling sum, she took her selections into the change rooms and got dressed. "Thank-you." she said as she walked past the saleman, who had gathered the price-tags and was waiting behind the counter. "These will be great." He was so stunned by her appearance that he almost didn't realise what she was doing as she passed him smiling radiantly. "Hey! You've got to pay for that stuff!" Emma was almost at the door when the security guard grabbed her. She took several more steps before noticing the amatuer female body-builder she was dragging along. "You look a lot stronger than you are," Emma observed cooly as she pried herself free. The woman, who was proud to be stronger than any of her male friends outside the gym, was stunned at the power this well-developed teenager possessed. Emma's calm grip was crushing the security guards bones. "I, on the other hand, am a lot stronger by far than what I look." The large lady sailed through the air to crash, unhurt, into a display of soft toys that all wore Sportsgirl clothes. She might not have been physically hurt, but the lady would never full recover from the dent in her pride. Emma made it outside, and was then swamped by two others. "Look, I don't have any money," she was explaining as they attempted quite pointlessly to drag her back into the store. "So I can't pay you." "Then return the goods, miss," the gaurd ordered, grunting with the wasted effort he was putting in at physically pushing her around. "Or we'll call the police." "Who do you think ruined my last outfit?" Emma was getting quite annoyed. She stood there and crossed her arms, tapping her foot unaware of a crack growing in the pavement. "I'll give you fools the count of three to let me go, or your coming with me." They looked at each other, both big men were a little confused by the situation, which now had quite an audience gathered around it. But they persisted in tugging and pushing at immovable Emma, whose steely legs might just as well have been welded to the ground. They were astounded that couldn't even sway her on her feet. "One..." she counted, "Two.." They still scuffled with her. "Three." Emma launched, her arms still crossed as the security guards dangled from her , each holding an elbow for dear life as they looked down at the receding ground. "Good view from up here, isn't it?" she said conversationally. The men were terrified, unable to comprehend what was going on. One man passed out, and let go as his muscles relaxed into unconcsiousness. But Emma's lightning fast hand caught hold of him. He felt very light to her She dropped the men off on the roof of Centrepoint Tower. "You guys are lucky I'm not a bitch," she told them. But she still tied them up, even though she didn't have any reason to do so. Taking the barrier rail, she tore the thick steel from the concrete wall and wrapped it around the two men. "Bye now!" she said cheerfully, waving to them as her dainty little feet lifted slowly from the tower roof. "What's going on here? Do expect me to buy into any of this bullshit?" The Mayor was not impressed by the information his officials and liasons from the police department were giving him. "You guys have come up with some interesting stuff before to cover your bloody disagreements. But the city will bot be fooled by such far-fetched crap! No matter how much your getting bribed." "We're telling you the truth, sir. You haven't seen this broad. She was a real...I don't know. But man, I can't get rid of this image of her." "This will never do, gentlemen. I'm not letting a story like that go to the press." "Fuck the press, Mr. Mayor, with all due respect. We have a major crisis on our hands. This woman, girl, whatever...she might be a real threat to peace in this city. We have to find out who she is and stop her. She just took on a full swat team plus twelve of our own guys. Four of them are in hospital and there was no indication that fifty-seven cartridges of varying calibre had any effect on her whatsoever." It was beginning to sink in. Mayor Watts started to realise that if such a super-human being existed, then everything that the city of Sydney stood for was in danger. Extreme danger. "Clean it up for the reporters. I don't want a panic if she really is here. Tell the press there was a group of them. Make something up, your usually good at that. Now the army for the time being is out of the question. Have you got a plan of attack on this?" "She must have some sort of weakness. But until we know who she is, we can't move. Where do we look? Who do talk to? There's nothing." "This might have something to with that asteroid that impacted down south, I say we should check into that possibility. Maybe it wasn't a chunk of rock, maybe it was a..." "Don't fucking say it!" the mayor silenced him. "Look into it, but I don't wanna hear the word 'spaceship' in my office..understood?" Emma was in a state of confusion. She decided to just do some flying and not think about her first foray into superheroism. She poured on the power and amazed herself at how fast she could go. She stretched out and zoomed along, passing far over her house where her parents sat worried only a few moments after leaving Martin. She closed her eyes and zoomed along, just letting the air rush over her and enjoying the sensation. Her new red outfit held up well. When she opened her eyes, she was over the ocean. As far as she could see in every direction was water. She slowed dramatically, her speed dropping to a little under mach-one, and wondered where she was. She'd been flying north, so maybe she was over the great barrier reef. She turned east, thinking to find land fastest in that direction. When she did spot coastline coming up, there was something wrong. "Doesn't look like Queensland,' she thought as she cleared the beach and the tall trees. There was nothing under her but thick jungle, so she went up into the sky to see further afield. her sharp eyes found a road to the south, which she followed until she reached what appeared to be a village. "Someone must know where I am." She flew down to ask a villager. She landed outside the village and walked in, not wanting to scare anyone. The buildings were all costructed from materials in the jungle around them, and Emma marveled at the simplistic yet ingenious structures. She didn't see a single person anywhere, but she could hear with her enhanced ears that they were gathered somewhere nearby. She reached out with her mind and found them to be working in the fields. they were thinking about harvesting and their minds were consumed with their efforts. But she hadn't seen any fields when she had been flying, only jungle. Emma kicked off into the air, graceful now that she'd had some practise, and flew straight up several hundred metres. Studying the jungle carefully she was a little surprised to see that the villagers had hidden the plants quite well, considering the vast amount she could now see. This was very suspicious, so Emma decided to investigate further. Zooming down to land near a pen of these plants she was surprised that she knew exactly what they were. Tony, her first victim back at Snake's den, had been a good gardener. He had lived in the blue mountains for a time, cultivating just this type of illegal substance. Marjuana. High-grade Cannibis Indica. "Well, Who knows where I am. Maybe this is legal here." She took to the air again to find a work crew, landing just out of sight from them and appoaching on foot. It would have been better to find a man on his own, but they were all in groups of twenty or so. "Hello." They turned from the cannibis that they were harvesting and each work-hardened man stared with open mouths as the chemical reactions within their bodies exploded into action. "I wonder if you could tell me where I am?" she asked politely. They looked at each other, then back at her. Only one, it seemed, knew english. "Who are you, most beautiful lady?" he asked in a dreamy voice. "I'm lost. Where is this place?" "Lost?" The man's eyes glistened, his dreamy voice gone, and he turned to his friends and spoke a few short words. They moved swiftly and as a whole, surrounding her while the man who had spoken moved up to take first serving of this unexpected treat. There had been no women near these men in nearly six months, and they were all very exited to see one now. They didn't care to know how she had gotten so far into the jungles, but they did know one thing. If she was lost out here, then her death and disapearance would not be considered suspicious. Any tourists in this particular area were extremely lucky to escape. Emma was only frightened by the surprise element. The men were unable to hurt her, and she knew it. Their battering hands and group force was not near enough to overcome her super-human abilities. As she flattened them one by one with a series of blows that seperated several heads from bodies, the men realised their mistake was fatal. But too late. "I hate rapists." she told herself. In less time than it took her to dress she had leveled them all. Most were dead, but she had been careful not to hurt the one eho knew english too much. She took him out with a gentle push that sent him well clear of the action. He had flown through the air to land awkwardly in a tree. He untangled himself and looked at the whirlwind of flying body-parts that had been his work-crew. Then the action ceased, and as the dust settled he could see Emma, standing proudly over the group with a look of contempt. The watchers soul chilled as her pretty eyes and soft, beautiful face turned his way. "That was a lot easier than I thought it would be," she told him. In a flash her face was just inches from his own, and the helpless man gazed down at the thirty feet of empty air under her naked feet. "Now, maybe you can help me." "What you want?" "I just wanna know how to get back to Australia. Which way to Australia?" "Australia? That is south!" Emma was almost sure he was right, and told him so. "But I have ways, you see, of finding out just how much truth your telling me." she reached out with her mind to crush his, and squeeze it like a wet sponge. The information which dripped out was of little value, but she did find out that she was in Vietnam. The most interesting thing he had let slip was that his boss was a General in the national army, and was on his way right now to collect his harvest from the village. He had a private army of seventy soldiers, and two tanks. Not to mention an arsenal of weapons that he had collected over the years. Emma smiled and tapped her chin lightly as she considered what to do. She had stumbled on yet another drug- related industry. With a laugh she decided that this General would be great practice for her super-powers. Not to mention hours of entertainment. But she didn't have the patience to wait for him. Fortunately, the man whose knowledge she now possessed had known the jungle well. The General would be approaching along a road to the north, and was likely that he had a few truckloads of soldiers and all sorts of military equipment tp guard his shipment. Leaving the party of would-be rapists, and deciding out of the grace of heart to let the other crews live, Emma zoomed along the road toward the evil General and his men. General Tun was a very greedy man. But he didn't make it where was just being greedy. He was capable of atrocious acts, and had left his heart far behind him. The man could be diplomatic, but out here in the jungle dimplomacy was for the birds. Guns did all his talking on the plantations. If a worker displeased him in any way, it meant death. An unkind bulley to the brain, never delivered by Tun himself, but by one of his off-siders. One of his elite. Last year a rival had tried to steal his shipment. He had killed the man, and his entire village suffered his wrath to this day. Tun loved to make examples of people. Today, he was surrounded by seventy men that he had commanded since their training. His most loyal and trusted men, armed to the teeth. Tun had supplied his government the money to purchase armed vehicles, including two tanks less than a decade old. It was overkill, and he knew it. Tactically, a tank in the jungle was fairly useless. So Tun had only brought one of them along this trip. Things were running smoothly so far. The unit moved along the well maintained trail easily. It was as famialar as their own back yards should be to them. Tun was thier undoubtable hero and honoured leader. His operations in the south had tripled their pay, enabling them to be less loyal to the people they were potecting, and more devoted to the causes of General Siwu Tun. Emma spotted the steadily paced collomn as soon as they came over the horizon, and she dropped low to the treetops. She felt a little twinge of fear, but it was overcome by the exitement. Tun had more men than she had expected, but her plan didn't change. She landed on the road and waited for the point guard to round a bend. They came, the men halting in their tracks as their eyes found Emma. She stood boldly in the middle of the trail with her hands on her hips in the classic pose. She surprised herself as she spoke to them in fluent Vietnamese, picked up from the rapist. "I represent the people of Earth opposed to drugs." They dropped to assault positions, weapons rasied as behind them the armoured cars rolled around and a group ran forward, obviously to apprehend and secure this unexpected threat. But the meagre training they had been given was far from adequate. "Please surrender, you haven't a hope." She spoke softly, but transmitted her words to their minds. The men felt a little uneasy. Even the rear guard had heard her, and they hadn't seen her yet. The General was only this moment being informed of a prisoner, and was on his way to investigate. The men running at her had surrounded her with their guns aimed at her head. More than half of them somehow ended up lowered to her breasts as the men became distracted. "Get down!" one ordered, gesturing at her to get on her knees. "Get lost!" she retorted, shooting out a leg with so much power he just exploded, body parts flying in every direction. The reaction was a little predictable, but Emma only made a show of dusting her shoulder as the five men opened fire. Three of them fell as their own bullets returned, richocheting from Emma's indestructable flesh. She was pleased they didn't ruin her clothes. The remaining two died as the others who had witnessed this tried their luck. The bullets killed fourteen men in all before General Tun ordered the cease fire. Emma was hiding a smile, one corner of her mouth betraying her amusement. "Enough! YOU!" He gestured wildly at a group of men armed with rocket launchers, then the short General made haste to the safety of his tank, giving orders to his two armoured cars as he passed them, and sending his troops into the jungle to the suround this unidentified intruder. He would now direct his attack from the tank, which he had ordered customised to his own specifications, pre-delivery. Emma regarded these rocket launchers and wondered if they would tickle. The men rushed forward. "I can forgive you for the bullets. But if you..." They did. Four rockets, all aimed quite acurately, bore her down. Not wanting to take the chance on it, Emma leapt up with out bothering to engage her flying abililty, and landed behind the row of bazokas even as they reloaded. Eyes went wide, and every man who witnessed that went into a panic. But the fate of the four men who launched the rockets was sealed. Emma dispatched the first before he knew she was there. She moved with blinding speed, taking two more and smashing their skulls together, her powerful hands coming together through the remnants of brains and splintered bone. But as she turned to the fourth, she got a rude shock. He had somehow managed to get another rocket launcher, already loaded, and as soon as he swung it in her direction he fired, letting out a howling battle cry of victory. Time went very slow, but for some reason Emma couldn't move. Her mouth opened in shock, disbelief, and her arms dangled at her sided as she watched the miniature missle cover the three metres that seperated them. She did brace herself a little, and it turned out she needn't have bothered. Time continued to drag on in slow-motion, Emma watching now in fascination as the steel jacket impacted her square on her exposed abdominals, and collapsed against the exponentially harder wall of muscle until the explosive was triggered. And it was a good bomb too, a powerful explosion that sent the offending soldier flying in three directions. All the target felt was a soft tao to the stomach. It was the first time Emma had been at the heart of an explosion, and she found it a very interesting spectacle. Everything within thirty yards was violently thrown away, but Emma, who had absorbed fully half of the explosion, felt only a strong breeze. A very unsual wind that gusted only once and then subsided. When another man showed himself baring a rocket launcher Emma was actually delighted that she could experience that strange sensation again so soon. He nearly missed her,but Emma stepped to the side and accepted the missle on her upper-leg. She giggled that she had been afraid of the rockets before. But she stopped laughing as a thousand bullets hit her, all at once, as the vietnamese returned to their original tactic. The armoured cars approached, each blasting away at her with large calibre machine guns. Emma grinned at these new toys and ran on over, reachin out repeatedly to slam the foolish soldiers into trees, or into each other, as she went. Bullets continued to blast her relentlessly as she stepped directly into the path of the large machine guns on the first armoured car. The shells were rebounding at a phenominal rate. She looked through the drivers peep hole to make eye contact. The man dropped the contents of bowels and got a massive erection in one instant. "Can I have a go?" she asked, pointing at the gun. Without waiting for his aproval Emma took the contraption from the heavy mounting, tearing the titanium welds like melted cheese. She hefted the weapon, and found that she could hold the terribly light gun much like a pistol, a feat that the designers never intended to be performed. With delight she tore the other off, and gave the car a good kick with her best leg. the entire front section buckled inward, and the vehicle went into the sky like a footy off the boot. Though no footballer could ever hope to kick a football as far Emma sent that thirty-tonne steel armoured car. She opened fire, taking to the sky and pretending she was an apache assault helicopter. With only forty bullets dangling from each gun, her perfect aim and lightening reflexes spelt doom to the entire troop. She made every single bullet count, enforcing a control over the weapons not thought possible. She completely abosorbed the fast kickback, and had she aimed each gun accurately at a new target before the spent shell spat out. Every bullet was made to count, and soon only the second armoured car and the tank remained, her super-eyes having no trouble spotting the men hiding in the jungle.