Chapter 11: Chapter 11 Local Danger Part 1
Somewhere beneath the pentagon lay layers upon layers of floors. Some of the country's greatest minds walked through the halls while men in advanced armor patrolled making sure nothing was out of place.
It was in this facility red alarms suddenly began ringing out alerting the staff that something had happened. The people within immediately reacted and began heading in various directions.
In the main room of this facility stood a balding gentleman with white long hair on the sides. Surrounding him were various computers and instruments that were showing feed in a certain forest.
Looking at the main screen Cecil began speaking "Alright people, what is it this time, Donald you're up"
Hearing his name called he stepped forward with a clipboard and lifted his glasses before detailing the current crisis.
"Sir earlier in the day our instruments received signs of seismic activity in Kentucky. This isn't too unusual but things began escalating when cracks started appearing with lava."
Hearing the detailed report Cecil took a thoughtful pose before asking another question "Have you found the source?"
"Yes, sir I believe we have. Originally we thought that it may have been natural but further investigations proved otherwise." Donald walked up to the screen and switched images showing a research group.
"These are well-known archaeologists Steve Hedwin and his team of researchers. They are mostly known for discovering the hidden city of the Incas but since then they haven't made any other large discoveries. At least until recently when they heard rumors of a secret passage hidden by the Cherokee Indians. They assumed that it might have had more information about their history or even gold so they went in."
Cecil began getting a bad feeling the longer the report went on. He's been in this business long enough to realize that sometimes it's better to let old civilizations die and to just leave them alone. Lest they bring back certain demons from times long past.
Switching screens again showed Steve hedwin except this time he was missing a limb and was missing his team.
"When our people arrived he was the only one left… According to Mr Hedwin, they found strange symbols down there that didn't match any known civilization. It was during this that he realized they might have discovered something beyond them and planned on leaving to get more professionals but something got set off.
Whatever it was it caused the entire chamber to glow as everything began collapsing. On the way out Mr Hedwin said he was the only one able to escape at the cost of his arm but he mentioned one more thing. That he had seen a large eye before his escape." Donald said while showing some of the strange symbols that they found.
Cecil just sighed at seeing it. Yeah, he knew a seal when he saw one and it looked particularly powerful. "Have our analysts decrypted what it was meant to lock up"
"Sort of sir they've been working on it with the help of AI and have only decrypted one section so far"
"King Serpent"
That name was definitely ominous. Whatever it was he had a feeling it might be too much for the GDA to handle alone. Looked like it was time to call on his friends once more.
Pulling out his phone Cecil began his calls when the lights in the room began flaring red.
"What's going on now?" Cecil asked as he ran to see what all the other staff were looking at but he froze as soon as he saw it.
Ripping out of the earth was a large snake. Larger than any he'd seen before. Easily it seemed like it would put some skyscrapers to shame. All around it was molten lava making the whole scene appear apocalyptic.
With his brows furrowed he quickly dialed the guardians.
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Brandon sat with his legs crossed, staring intently at a small rock in front of him. It had been two weeks since he had received his costume and had his encounter with War Woman. Since then, his days had been consumed with practice. His ship had proven to be the perfect training ground, equipped with everything he needed, including a function to change gravity.
Yet, amidst all this practice, Brandon realized he had been limiting himself by focusing solely on the powers associated with Superman. He had neglected the unique abilities Brightburn showed in his film.
In the movie, Brightburn had demonstrated telekinesis and a form of technopathy or electrical disruption. If the original Brandon Breyer could do it, then so could he. They were, after all, technically the same person.
This realization had led Brandon to his current moment. Sitting outside near the fields, staring intently at a rock. His eyes narrowed in concentration as he tried to tap into the latent abilities he knew must be there. He had been trying for hours, willing the rock to move, to respond to his thoughts.
"Come on," he muttered under his breath. "I know you can do this." But it remained still.
"Tch, there has to be a trick to this" He muttered in a tired tone. It felt like he'd been at this for so long and made absolutely no progress. Brandon tried picturing the rock floating or even connecting his mind to it but it all felt off like he was going about it the wrong way.
Step step step
Hearing someone walking Brandon looked back and saw his mom looking at him with some curiosity and curious she was. Tori had seen Brandon sitting here for the past couple of days and really wanted to know why. At first, Kyle stopped her saying to let the boy practice but she eventually lost patience and ended up here.
"What are you doing Brandon?"
"Practicing my powers"
"By staring at a rock?"
That comment made Brandon cough for a moment as he felt slightly embarrassed.
"Kind of, you see I feel like I can move this rock but I don't know how" Brandon couldn't say that he knew about the other Brandon doing this so he made this excuse.
"Well, how do you fly?" She asked. In her mind, those two things were basically the same. Except instead of moving a rock he was moving himself.
Brandon wasn't sure why she asked that but explained anyway "When I fly I sort of manipulate this field that's around me. It's kind of like an extra limb…" The more he spoke the more he realized what he was doing wrong.
This whole time he was treating the situation like a psychic using his mind to maneuver things but he wasn't psychic. He was a Kryptonian and used his abilities differently. He generated his own field that allowed him to fly but technically it should also do more than that if he controls it enough. Such as telekinesis and electromagnetic interference.
"Haha, I think I got it Mom thanks! Here let me show you something cool"
Tori stood there kind of confused as to how she helped Brandon but was happy nonetheless. If her son was happy then so was she.
Closing his eyes Brandon tried doing something he had never attempted. Whenever he flew he subconsciously controlled this field so it was his first time doing it consciously.
Reaching out he felt this field around him like an extra layer of skin and like skin it was hard to move but Brandon was persistent. With focus, he slowly moved his field away from himself and had it touch the rock. He wasn't sure if he was doing it right but this was by far the most progress he'd made so he kept going.
Lifting his eyelids, Brandon stared at the now floating rock in front of him. It wasn't steady and shook whenever he lost a little bit of control but that didn't matter because he succeeded!
"Ahhh Brandon you made the rock float!" His mom shouted beside him causing Brandon to lose focus as the rock slipped out of his control.
Thud!
Brandon and Tori just looked at each other after this and just chuckled. Not long after she went back inside with her curiosity quenched.
"Man, this is a really useful ability. If I can get better control then I might be able to use it on heavier objects and possibly even opponents." He may be near invulnerable with his Kryptonian physiology but Brandon wasn't one to just take hits because he could. If he could develop ways to fight that caused the least amount of damage then he would and besides this ability felt pretty versatile. Imagine an attack coming while fighting multiple opponents with this you can slow them down or even stop it completely.
Getting up from the ground he was about to start searching for larger rocks to practice with when he suddenly looked past the forest. His reaction was strong and fast as he focused into the distance.
RAAAAAAAAHHHHAAA!
"What the hell is that" The noise came from far but Brandon recognized that whatever made it was by no means small and just because it was far now didn't mean it would stay that way.
'If it's as big as I think it is then the news people must have something on it' Moving quickly he reached his house and changed the channel.
"Hey, I was watching that" Kyle complained but his complaint slowly left as he watched the screen.
On the TV was a mature woman who usually smiled as she gave the forecast but this time the smile was gone as she shared an emergency message. "This just in we have reports of a large unidentified snake so far it has only caused damage to the forests but at the speed it's going we believe it may reach these following towns within the hour"
After which some towns began to get listed but on the top of that list was one they were all too familiar with.
BrightBurn