"A hero who can change fate, change the world!" -Violet Parr
Violet sat in the room surround by men she had never seen before. They were all soldiers and their taciturn faces told her not to enquire further. If it were not for her rough company, she would think she was back in school. The room was every bit a classroom with desks in rows facing a low dais on which stood a whiteboard. Violet found the sight of these stern men crammed into the student desks the stuff of which comedies are made, she dared not allow herself to laugh. She would remember to tell James when she returned.
An officer walked into the room. The men sitting stood, as one, and went to attention. Violet, slowly stood up as well, looking around completely out of her element. The soldiers sat as did she, awkwardly, a moment later.
"I am Colonel Peters, this morning I will brief you on your objective. Secrecy and lightning speed are imperative!" The Colonel activated a projector and the whiteboard now became a screen of information and images.
He began: "The Republic of Sabonia is under extreme pressure from it's neighbors to the north. These nations have formed what is being called the 'Northern Alliance.' The Northern Alliance has overwhelmed the Sabonian defenses. For weeks, a genocidal pogrom has been conducted against the Sabonian citizenry. Intelligence reports more 1.5 million civilian casualties. Another 6 million have become refugees and have fled to the Sabonian capital." The Colonel pointed to a map projected on the board. The map was filled with unit counters, movement arrows, and lines of different colors. Violet could make no sense of what she saw and only just followed the Colonel's briefing. Being a fifteen year old kid in a room of professionals kept her silent and any questions to herself. Colonel Peters continued:
"Intelligence shows the Northern Alliance is massing its armored forces here." He pointed at a point on the map that meant nothing to Violet. "They plan on moving on the Sabonian capital with overwhelming force. If their behavior in the rest of the country is anything to go by, we can assume the slaughter of all the refugees and the razing of the capital to ashes. It is Northern Alliance's hope that this act of terror will break the Sabonian will to fight further. The democratically elected government of Slabonia has asked our nation for aid...and we are sending you." The Colonel was not looking at the soldiers sitting in the room, he was looking straight at Violet. The rest of the men followed the Colonel's gaze to the awkward teenage girl sitting in the back of the room.
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General Veers office was dark, only the desk lamp allowed Violet to find her way inside. She would be leaving in a matter of hours on her mission and the General had asked to see her first. She sat down in the chair facing his desk. The General was waiting, a warm smile greeting Violet.
"Violet, I am told you attended the briefing with Colonel Peters." She nodded her head. "Its not important that you understood the details. Timetables and logistics are what men like Colonel Peters and myself live for, not exciting but necessary." General Veers leaned back. "What is important is that you understand how vital you are in all of this. These people, half a world away, are being massacred just because of who they are. I'm sure you can understand how it feels to be seen as different." The General let that thought sit with Violet for a moment.
"Time is of the essence, for a conventional response to effectively stop the Northern Alliance, we would need weeks of preparation, the gathering of millions of tons of supplies and the mobilization of at least three divisions, 80,000 men. In that time the Northern Coalition would capture the Sabonian capital, kill millions, and effectively wipe Sabonia off the map. We would read about it in the newspaper the next day, we would feel sad for those people we never have and never will meet, and continue on with our day. Evil will once again win." General Veers again paused to allow Violet to process what he said.
"That's what would happen, Violet. But now we can change that story! Evil will not win this day! Or any any day! General Veers stood as he said this and slammed his fist on his desk. He was looking straight into Violet face. She could tell he wasn't looking at her but instead at something intangible inside Violet that only he could see. She had never seen him so excited or emotional. The General, suddenly conscious of his loss of control, composed himself and sat. He looked over and picked up the picture that sat on his desk, staring at it, loosing himself in thought. Violet had noticed before how the girl in the picture seemed to cast a spell over the general.
"Who is she General?" The concern in Violet's voice snapped him back to the moment. He looked again into Violet's face at something only he could see.
"My daughter, Violet. Five years ago, a decision I made resulted in the death of many good people, including Josephine." He stroked the girl's cheek in the picture. "Being in my position means sending people to their death. Sometimes I have to choose." He looked up at Violet and posed a question: "If you could only save one of them; your mother or father, who would you choose?" Violet said nothing, pondering the horrible question's implications. "You don't need to answer Violet, it's just an illustration. With Josephine, my choice was between doing the right thing or saving her." Violet had no idea what to say. The general once again became lost in his daughters photograph. "I ask myself often if I would make the same choice again or save her."
Violet watched speechless as tears welled up in General Veers eyes. He continued. "I know she would want me to make the right choice again, not to be selfish." At this he locked eyes with Violet. "I'm having to make that choice right now with you." Violet was transfixed, held captive by General Veers' tearful eyes. "I can do the right thing, or I can save you, Violet. I am sending you to Sabonia and people will die...you will kill them, Violet." Violet began to shake her head, her mind echoing with the name: 'Joseph Walters,' the man she killed. General Veers could see Violet shaking her head. "I know, you are not a killer, Violet. Just listen to what I have to say." She stopped and smiled at the general weakly. He continued.
"Destiny has decided that the Sabonian capital will fall, millions will die, and evil will win...I cannot stop destiny, Violet, no more than I can bring my daughter back. But you!" Again, General Veers leaned forward. "You have the power to change destiny! To stop the wheel of fate! You have an unenviable choice to make Violet: to destroy an army, to kill, or allow that army to kill millions more." General Veers stood and walked around the desk to stand in front of Violet. "I see her in you, Violet. She was strong like you. Her strength has allowed me to live with my choices. Be strong, Violet, and make the right choice." His tears were flowing again. Violet stood up and hugged the General. She cried with him.
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Violet was beyond terrified. Hours before, the strike force, consisting of a dozen soldiers and herself, had been dropped 10 miles from the amassing Northern Alliance army. The soldiers' mission was to deliver her, 'The Package,' safely to this army. They were the lance and Violet was the white-hot spear tip that would make the blow. She now found herself alone and surrounded by Northern Alliance soldiers. She was invisible, and had moved as stealthily as possible to the heart of the enemy army. She had seen tanks, hundreds of them, lining the roads and in marshalling yards, their crews busily attending to maintenance. Soldiers as well, camped in their thousands. She had seen weapons, ammunition, all the items necessary to make war. She had reminded herself of what both Colonel Peters and General Veers had said: this army will take the Sabonian capital, this army will kill millions of innocent refugees, this army will erase a country from the world map.
Violet ducked into between two large crates. Hidden from view she became visible. She looked down at herself. Data collected from the test on the bomb range along with an examination of her old super-suit had allowed army scientists to create a new suit. It would protect her more comprehensively than her old one, or so she had been told. Leaving her old suit behind felt like she was leaving part of herself as well. "In a way, I am," she thought as she hid between the crates. "This is the new Violet! Someone, no...a hero," she corrected herself. "A hero who can change fate, change the world!" Violet closed her eyes. She thought of her parents, her family. She thought of James back home. Finally she thought of that smiling picture on the General's desk, the face of a girl who would never grow old. Violet opened her eyes. She was no longer terrified, she was ready.
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The men of the Northern Alliance were preparing for the last big push. Every soldier was looking forward to the end of the war. Dimitri and Victor each had one end of an ammunition crate and were walking it to the storage dump near the camp's center. As they approached, dump exploded, crates and debris flying in all directions. Recovering from the initial shock, both men realized that no explosion had actually occurred, no smoke or flame, as if the supply dump had simply been thrown apart. Its was only a fraction of a second between this realization and a second, much more terrifying revelation.
Violet had grown, almost explosively fast. The force of her expansion had thrown the pile of crates in which she was hiding in all directions. She would take no chances, in an instant she stood towering at a height of 2500ft over the Northern Alliance army. "This is a necessary evil," she had told herself. "If killing a thousand or even ten thousand routes this army and prevents six million deaths..." Violets train of thought was immediately interrupted by gunfire. The time for thinking was over. She got to work.
Pandemonium would best describe the scene unfolding within the army of the Northern Alliance. Out of nowhere a monster, a giant girl, had appeared and began crushing everything and everyone. After the initial shock, officers attempted to rally their men to fight back. Units that did organize and attempted any form of counterattack stood no chance, a single step from the giantess turning entire platoons of men into stains on her boot's sole. Many soldiers felt it was some sort of divine intervention and refused to fight, instead, fleeing for their lives. At first, the giantess spared these souls but as the attack continued, no one would find leniency from her. Men, mentally destroyed by their complete terror, reported that she was laughing...a thunderous sound none who survived would forget. The Northern Alliance high command had only one hope, their engines already turning over and belching black smoke.
Violet was, if anything, fastidious in her methodical destruction of the Northern Alliance. At first, she had focused exclusively on the destruction of materiel and supplies. Only when she saw how organized and determined the soldiers around her feet had become in their attacks did she turn her attention on them. The act that had caused so much anxiety and mental anguish happened so fast it barely registered to the giantess. 20 or 30 men were in a loose formation firing their rifles at her. She swung her foot over then and stepped down. They were gone in that instant. She felt nothing, her size and the thickness of the boot's sole making the soldier's bodies less that insignificant. A boot print, measuring 400ft from toe to heel, would be their grave. After the first two or three squads of soldiers Violet had watched disappear under her boots, all of her reservations were gone. If the soldiers dropped their weapons and ran she at first spared them, but as she continued methodically stamping out the army of the Northern Alliance she spared no one, everyone would fall under her crushing feet.
A lifetime ago and at a different scale, this same scene had played out. Violet had been lounging poolside when she was startled by ants crawling on her feet. Dash had split a soda next to her, attracting thousands of the insects to her chair. She had stood up and and began to march in place, stamping out the pests by their hundreds with each footfall.
From their vantage point eight miles away, the soldiers sent to escort Violet watched the same scene unfold. Humans, this time were the pests and Violet an angry titan wiping them out as if they were nothing. The adage that all soldiers are brothers seemed apt. Soldiers share in the same hardships no matter the side on which they fight. To see thousands snuffed out like that was horrific and many of Violet's escort could not watch.
There was moments where she found herself playing with this insect army. Watching as vehicles drove away from her at top speed only for her colossal foot to crash down, blocking their exit. Turning around, the terrified driver would drive in another direction on to find the giantess's roadblock boot once again in their way. The game always ended the same, the vehicle becoming scrap metal under her boot's sole. She did laugh, at the time she told herself it would strike even more fear in this Lilliputian army but that voice, her voice forced her to admit the truth.
"You're laughing because you're having fun!" Violet did not disagree.
Explosions rippled down Violet's thigh and calf. Turning, she could see dozens of tanks, moving forward and firing their main guns. A hundred more behind were starting their engines. "Perhaps these would provide more of a challenge," she thought. Violet looked down at the miniature vehicles and smiled.
The Northern Alliance armored forces had been the spearhead throughout their offensive. Although antiques by modern standards, these surplus vehicles had been unstoppable for the Sabonian defense forces. The Heavy KV tanks, weighing 45 tons each, had punched holes in the the Sabonian Army's front that the Northern Alliance infantry exploited, causing havoc behind the lines.
As formidable as the armor formation was, Violet saw them only as slow moving beetles with a sting. Bending down, Violet picked up one of the KV tanks between her thumb and forefinger. Its 45 tons unnoticed by the giantess. Bringing the tiny armored vehicle to her face, Violet watched as the top hatch opened and the minuscule crew tried to abandon their vehicle in an attempt to escape. Only when the tank's commander saw the ground 2500 ft below did he realize his error. Violet's attention was now solely focused on the drama unfolding in her fingers, further shell hits, explosions, and small arms fire against her lower legs she ignored for now. Violet rolled the tank between her fingers, the steel chassis groaned as it bent under the force of her fingertips. The tank was now upside down. A crew member fell out. He screamed as he fell, Violet lost sight of him as he passed her knees. Violet wondered how many this particular tank had killed. How many innocents had been crushed under its tracks. Three men remained inside as she began applying pressure. With barely any effort the heavy tank popped between her fingers, fuel and ammunition exploding causing a brief flash in her hand. Violet looked at her fingertips, now smudged with soot and scrap metal. She rubbed them together causing a rain of debris on the army, still attacking her, below. "This had gone on long enough," she thought. She looked down at the tanks and men amassing around her feet. Once again she lifted her boot high above these suicidal insects. Violet got back to the task at hand.
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James had little to do while Violet was on her mission. He had been spending his time with Dr. Korlov, also on 'standby' while Violet was away. As James entered the now empty hangar annex that now acted as Dr. Korlov's makeshift office, the doctor handed him today's newspaper. Dr. Korlov face was severe. "Page two, James...World News."
James opened the paper and found what the doctor wanted him to see.
---"AP reports the complete route of Northern Alliance forces in the ongoing Sabonian conflict.
The last three weeks of conflict had seen the Northern Alliance's attempt to remove the authoritarian Sabonian regime appear to be inevitable. The Northern Alliance, a military expeditionary force made up of units from the surrounding democratically elected governments, had received UN approval to conduct an intervention to remove the Sabonian government and oversee democratic elections. In response, the Sabonian regime began a program of ethnic cleansing to eliminate foreign influence and possible alternatives to their power base. The refugee crisis created also slowed the Northern Alliance as they provided aid and requested UN assistance. The Northern Alliance was poised to take the Sabonian capital. Reports are coming in that the Northern Alliance army is now in total route, remnants fleeing back across the Sabonian frontier. Casualty estimates by the Northern Alliance claim 7,000 dead and a further 12,000 missing.
UN observers are requesting access to determine the validity of claims that chemical/biological weapons were used or possibly another, as yet unknown, weapon of mass destruction.
Direct UN intervention in the conflict had been vetoed by the security council. Accusations of corruption have been made. The Sabonian regime had arranged the sale of mineral rights to a group of international corporate interests shortly before the beginning of the conflict. Accusations that this deal is the reason for the veto have yet to be answered.
Representatives of the Northern Alliance were unavailable for comment but anonymous sources say the Northern Alliance will contact the UN security council to mediate a ceasefire."---
James closed the newspaper looking back at the doctor. "It couldn't be...it wasn't!..."
Dr. Korlov put his hand on James' shoulder. The doctor's eyes told James it was true.