Beyond The Impossible

Everywhere on Earth

Every single minute on the planet, about 110 people die, 250 are giving birth, thousands are having sex, a million are on a plane, tens of millions are driving a car… and in the span of a few seconds, all of them are Abyss.

Suddenly sharing control over 8 billion different bodies is disorienting even for a being like Abyss; she has to concentrate a considerable amount of brain power to preserve her new hosts.

The thought of allowing all these people to die has crossed her warped mind, of course. But she has to be pragmatic: as long as she needs their collective brainpower, she has a personal interest on keeping people alive.

Still with utter contempt for them, she takes great care to put them into a position of relative safety… delivering babies, landing planes, parking cars, finishing surgeries… to be properly exploited later.

 

Null Tower, New York City

Noriko Null watches in horror at Quantum holding the Genius Gun against his head. Now that she has the body of a goddess, her reaction time is fast enough to see his finger twitch on the trigger… and she sprints forward before he can actually open fire.

She pushes the gun away from his head with enough force to break his wrist. She can still see him reacting to the pain like he was in slow motion, but from experience she knows that his mind is still working much faster than hers.

Noriko can’t risk giving Abyss enough time to act the countermeasure she’s certainly developed, so she decides to push him towards the wall. To her it feels barely more than a gentle tap, but he’s slammed against concrete with enough force to knock him out and possibly cause a minor concussion.

<You think I actually need him?> Gilgamesh asks her, jumping at her from behind and trapping her in a titanic grip between his arms.

<I’ve broken free from the pathetic prison of your brain, sister. You’ll never trap me again.> Abyss tells her through the voice of the demigod, putting enough strength into his violent embrace that she can actually feel the pressure.

<I am not your sister.> Noriko answers with sheer hatred in her voice, and the anger flowing in her veins allows her to take flight of her own volition for the first time.

“Gilgamesh” still holds onto her even as she crashes through the roof and flies upwards for over a mile. His biceps may be thicker than her head, but her divine status allows her to free herself with extreme ease. She holds up the bronze-skinned demigod by his wrist, ready to drop him at a moment’s notice.

<Let Gil go, Abyss. We both know he doesn’t have anything that could remotely harm me.>

<Ooh, he’s earned a pet name, hasn’t he? Maybe I’ll try having fun with this body. It’s not like its former occupant is doing anything with it!> he replies, erupting in the same unhinged laughter that’s given Noriko nightmares for years.

<I’m serious, Abyss. Drop him, or I drop you.> Noriko threatens.

<Please, this body could drop from space and wouldn’t feel a thing. But you know what would make things interesting is a little healthy dose of FINAL…> “Gilgamesh” says, raising his voice as sparks of electricity flow around his body.

Noriko recognizes the buildup to one of her signature attacks, deciding to just throw Gilgamesh towards the ground instead of just letting him fall.

 

Central Park

The body hits the lake inside the park with such tremendous speed that it displaces a significant percentage of its water, and the wind blast shakes all the trees around it.

“Gilgamesh” emerges from the lake completely unharmed, spitting some water.

<That may not have done a lot of damage…>

Looking upwards, he can see a very pissed off Noriko Null floating above the lake. She’s crossing her arms, looking at him disapprovingly, and surrounded by an aura of fire.

<…but man, did it feel good.>

<Glad you got that out of your system. Do you want another round with me?> the demigod asks.

<Or maybe you want to try me?> a random old woman asks her.

<Or me?> a man near her repeats.

<How about me?> a woman on the other side of the lake asks.

<Take your pick.> the young child next to her adds.

<There’s plenty of me around.> they all say in unison… and that’s not the creepiest part: every single person in Central Park has just said the same thing.

Tens of thousands of people speaking in unison, with no other sound: everyone has stopped doing anything as soon as Abyss took control.

<You can’t all attack me at once.> Noriko says, closing her fists to surround them in flames as she looks around at the various bodies Abyss is controlling.

She’s actually bluffing: as far as she knows, she could be hit by thousands of Final Abyss at any moment… but Abyss seems to be stalling, deciding to speak through Gilgamesh again.

<I don’t have to. I can channel all my power through a single body: go ahead, take one out, I’ll just attack you from another. I’ll give you a freebie: the only way to get rid of me now is to kill every single person on this planet. And spoiler alert: I’m making more as we speak… you have no idea how freaky humanity is.>

Noriko’s mind is rushing from one scenario to the next. Is she bluffing? If she still had her brain power she could come up with a number of counters, but now she hesitates.

<Or you could just stand still and let me finish you off with a FINAL…>

Noriko is in no rush to experience that attack first hand, flying away from Central Park at nearly the speed of sound.

Abyss is left alone with herself, but she can’t resist muttering:

<P##sy. I can’t believe we’re related.>

 

Times Square

After being thrown out of Null Tower, Torn immediately realized something was wrong.

He’s never given much attention to the background noise of millions of souls: it’s just something he takes for granted when visiting other worlds.

But now something feels… off. He can still feels the presence of souls around him, but it’s different in a way he can’t recognize. An overwhelming presence that permeates the air, oppressing every thought.

He decides to examine this by stepping out of a portal into one of the busiest places on the planet.

He’s been here plenty of times before, but this is the first time when every mortal is just standing around with a blank expression.

All the cars have stopped, and the only indication that this is a civilization are the advertisements on the sides of the buildings that are continuing uninterrupted.

<Well what do you know. One of the six minds on the planet that I don’t control.> a police officer comment, before raising his gun and opening fire.

Torn easily swaps the bullet away with a Blood dagger, and would be ready to retaliate if a crowd of people didn’t immediately surround him.

<My soul belongs to Hell. You can’t control it.> he tells the crowd.

He decides to try something risky: aiming a Blood sword directly at the soul of one of the civilians, attempting to sever the connection to Abyss. But the Blood simply refuses to touch his target.

<Oh please. I once took over all the Blood in Hell when I was a single mind, remember? Now I’m eight billions. You’re outclassed, little demon.> a different civilian tells him, as the crowd gets closer and closer.

Torn tries to retreat into a pentagram, but when he tries to back into the portal he can’t get through.

<Tsk tsk. I don’t remember giving you the permission to leave. At least not until you’re ready to take me with you.> another host tells him, attempting to grab him.

Torn allows himself to fall down a pentagram that just appeared beneath his feet.

 

Null Tower, Operations Center

Noriko Null flies back into the building, finding something she didn’t expect but that doesn’t exactly shock her.

Vesta has reached the room; her duplicates have dragged the unconscious bodies of her father, Dr. Kalama and Nalani with her. And Kari Zel is tending to the wounded Quantum, also unconscious.

<Please give me some good news.> she says.

<I just shot a concentrated dose of magnetic waves straight into Max’s head. If his Nexus works like yours, it should shut it off.> Kari says.

<I took out all the Nullbots from here to the living quarters. Sorry but I had to rough up your family a little… Nalani tried to bite me.> Vesta adds.

<We’re not safe here. We should go literally anywhere else.> Noriko says, allowing herself to have some hope once Torn drops out of a pentagram on the ceiling.

<Torn, you’re a sight for sore eyes. Open a pentagram for another planet; doesn’t matter which one, they’re all better choices right now!> Noriko orders.

<We can’t leave the planet. Abyss put some sort of soul barrier over it.>

<How does that work!?> Kari wonders.

<The Blood thrives in the presence of life. Eight billion souls acting in unison, even under coercion, is more than enough to disrupt Blood use on a planetary scale.> he clarifies.

<Didn’t you just come through a portal?> Vesta points out.

<I am still able to protect my soul from her, at least for now. We should take refuge to strategize before she takes away my ability to create portals.> he urges.

<Good idea. But first: Kari, I hope you can manage turning into tachyons, because I need you to reach the closest inhabited planet as soon as you can.> Noriko says.

<I’m not leaving you guys fighting Abyss alone!> Kari protests.

<We can’t fight her without a strategy first. She clearly has the upper hand right now: I’m sure she’s stalling for time… she wants to do something with all the minds she stole, or she would have killed a lot of people by now.> Noriko argues.

<Any host body she loses would decrease her brain power.> Vesta realizes.

<Kari, you must get in touch with the Olympian government and order placing Earth under quarantine. If Abyss spreads across multiple worlds, she will be unstoppable.>

<She might already be.> is Torn’s gloomy opinion.

<I hate that you might be right. Be safe guys, and save some ass-kicking for me.> Kari says, disappearing into a flash of light.

<Abyss has control over all eyes on the planet. Anyone has any idea of a place where there are no people and no cameras?> Noriko asks.

<I do. There’s a place in Scotland where I used to hide the Palladium… no wait, I took Quantum there once, so Abyss would know about it.> Vesta says.

<It can work as a first stop, hopefully she won’t think of it first. Let’s go.> Noriko says, lifting the unconscious Quantum off the ground like the Vesta duplicates do with her family.

<No. If they wake up, Abyss will find us.> Torn chastises them.

<You’re right about my family… leave them Vesta, if Abyss wanted to harm them they’d be dead already. But Quantum might be the key to figure out a way out of this mess, and I don’t want Abyss to have access to the Nexus again. Hopefully since we shut off the Nexus she’ll have trouble adjusting to it.> Noriko argues.

<Six people.> Torn says, like he just realized something important when he opens the portal.

<Torn, we’re on a tight schedule here. Abyss could be here at any moment.> Noriko tells him.

<She said I was one of the six people on the planet she could not control. You, Kari, Vesta and I are four. Regardless of whether she was counting Quantum or not…> the Demon says.

<…there’s at least another person on Earth that Abyss can’t control.> Noriko finishes the sentence, as the remaining members of the Vanguard leave through the portal.