“Sense and Super Abilities” is a pastiche of the settings, style, and sort of characters usually associated with Jane Austen and Superlatives, superhuman characters similar to modern comic book heroes. Though it combines two previously existing elements, it is an original story and not a mash-up. Told as a first-person narrative by its main character, Catherine Eldenbrook, “Sense and Super-Abilities” details:

• Catherine’s humble beginnings as a reclusive scientist’s daughter.

• Her personal history, the death of her mother, and her long and loving relationship with Fanny, her robotic nursemaid and governess

• Her transformation into an augmented being, and learning that it is her destiny to become a Superlative.

• Her training under the other Superlatives, and her ultimate test coming from somewhere frighteningly close to home

Readers hear Catherine’s story from Catherine herself. While she may begin as a simple country girl with no idea of going to London to train in the ways of combating ultimate evil, it is a fate that she learns is inescapable. She also learns that power, attaining it as well as using it wisely, can have dire and unexpected consequences. “Sense and Super-Abilities” is the tale of one girl’s coming of age, and how she learns to do what is right, even if it is not what comes easily.

Short Story Press publishes short stories written by everyday writers.

Matthew Kilpatrick

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