Flight: The Man Of Steel (Interracial Short Story)

Flight: 1

Harper Vaden glared at the alien across from her. She mentally thanked Emil Hamilton for persuading General Swanwick to allow her a complaint meeting with the alien at his branch. Her life was beginning to finally flourish once more when she put her sweat and blood into building her own science lab for the Marine Biologists of Metropolis, only to have it ripped away by the indestructible foreigner. However, she couldn't entirely place the blame on him. She wouldn't have even had to start her own laboratory had it not been for the now drying effects of her criminal father's mark upon Gotham and Metropolis's most wanted man list.

Gordon Vaden was his name. A highly intelligent Marine Biologist who grew up in the little town of Cedar Key, Florida, and had a prosperous life ahead including a beautiful darker skinned wife and an adorable, mischievous caramel skinned daughter. Who would of ever known an African American man with a genius intellect unmatched by anyone in the states would be considered as a most trusted and respected official in Metropolis by the growing and wealthiest company on earth? Yet....that is what led to Gordon's downfall and painted him as a highly dangerous man.

The paranoia did not start until Harper was sixteen. She noticed her father spending more time in S.T.A.R labs and in the basement of his own home. Every time the phone would ring, her father would tell her to hide. It wasn't until she received the letter that Gordon was then permanently blocked from entering S.T.A.R labs from the companies CEO that it got worse. Her mother was beginning to succumb to a level 3 heart disease with the events going on. Harper's father would then start to murmur and talk to himself about how to save her, and that 'they' were trying to kill him.

When she turned nineteen, Harper watched as her mother lost the battle to her disease. As if that was not traumatic enough, in a matter of seconds Gordon's insanity increased by his outbursts at the doctor's failure and wanting them to call the police, the doctors tried to sedate him, but instead Gordon pulled out a flask from his pocket, through it on the floor as the powdered substance spread and quickly pulled out a small remote. Once that button was pressed, the four doctors dissolved instantly, and a receptionist was injured. Her father ran from the hospital, yet Harper's exposure to the substance left her with a mild, yet extreme case of asthma.

As if being black wasn't enough, during her college years, she was ostracized from her classmates, her applications for entering S.T.A.R Laboratory programs were ignored, and the government held her under a radar for any repeats of her father's ongoing crime of dissolving innocent people. The technology he used was expanding and yet even though it was her father's doing, the people still blamed her, except for Emil Hamilton. It was Emil himself who hid her father, due to their great respect for each other, whilst Gordon lied dying with a gunshot wound to his chest that was supposedly done by a Gotham goon. Both scientists knew that he would die, and to Harper he could not die quick enough. Emil left them alone to say their last goodbyes. From her father's pockets, he pulled out a small enclosed flask that was made into a necklace. Inside it held a blue powder. Harper refused to take it at first, but his words is what made her listen.

"K-keep, this hidden. D-don't let LexCorp take it" He said tearfully. "I-I'm sorry for everything." Harper took the flask necklace from his hand, and watched her father die. She was angry at him. She did not understand why he never told anyone he was in trouble. She wanted to ask Emil, but right there and then she understood she could trust no one with this secret. She kept it from Emil and anyone who even had ties to LexCorp.

Even when questioned by Lex Luthor one year later, she only denied any harrowing effects or words her father might have had. Yet, anyone who had ever worked under Lex Luthor knew he was no fool, nor was Harper. After leaving his office, it was apparent that he would be watching her. She distracted herself by creating her own lab and form of employment in the west side of Metropolis close to the lake border and for two years she succeeded, with employing two of the brightest minds close to hers including all of them having something in common, making them misfits. John Decker was a gay man and Kelly Chien was an Asian stripper, which was heavily looked down upon by her colleagues, but both intellectuals had a high IQ that would make any scientist from S.T.A.R Labs envious. Their lab was their safe haven. That is until the aliens invaded, and the caped crusader destroyed their small sections of the building.