Beyond The Impossible

Max Black is walking the stairs to his apartment, carrying bags of comic books and take-out food.

He could’ve beamed himself from the Tower to his living room in the blink of an eye, but likes to keep some resemblance of a normal life. Being Quantum all the time would drive him nuts.

As he struggles to find his keys, someone opens the door from the inside.

<You’re late> Kari greets him with a kiss on the cheek.

<There was a flood in Argentina. What are you doing here? I thought you were staying at the Tower.>

<I am. What kind of food is this?> she asks, trying to steal some.

<Thai. Don’t tell me: you’re one of Kari’s duplicates, right? I don’t understand how you can tell yourselves apart.>

<And I don’t understand how you can get anything done with just one body> another Kari asks, after appearing out of nowhere next to the earlier one. Before Max can comment on it, the new duplicate takes one of the bags and starts looking into it.

<Be careful with that, it’s my dinner. I told you before, you need to tell me when you want to eat here…I don’t have enough food for all of your duplicates.>

<Sorry, I was getting bored at the Tower. There’s nothing to do there!>

<Kari, this is a whole new planet for you. You can’t possibly have already seen it all.>

<Oh, that’s not what I mean. I have about a thousand duplicates busy learning your martial arts, studying six languages, visiting seventy countries, watching your TV, your movies, reading your books, your magazines, hearing your…>

<Yeah, I get the picture. Are your duplicates also, uhm, seeing someone?>

<You mean if I sleep with someone else besides you?>

<I wouldn’t exactly put it that way…>

<Of course I am. If you had ten thousand bodies at your disposal, wouldn’t you use them?>

<I suppose. It’s just really, really weird.>

<That son of a βιτcη!!!> another Kari shouts from across the room.

<Speaking of weird…> Max mumbles, watching one of Kari’s duplicates shout at the TV.

 

The screen is showing a man in his early fifties talking to a dozen microphones. Just a few days ago Max was barely aware of Senator Keen’s existence, but he can’t watch TV for five minutes without seeing him.

<Just look at how many industries Null Technologies has made obsolete! Does Null understand that she’s undermining America’s leadership in the global market? Does she care? Well, I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t! Everything she’s done has always been for her own good, for her own pockets! Does she care about the middle class? Does she care about the struggles of the common people?>

<She saved everyone on the planet!!!> Kari complains.

<From something she created by accident> Max reminds her.

<Don’t tell me you agree with that idiot!>

<He does have a point. Noriko’s been throwing her weigh around lately.>

<Ninety pounds?> Kari asks, confused by the idiom.

<She does whatever the heck she wants and doesn’t answer to anyone. With the kind of power we have…the money, the technology, super-powers…people are scared.>

<Why? We’re the good guys!>

<The President has been too soft on her. The American people should be calling the shots, not a self-proclaimed genius! Not the great-granddaughter of a Nazi scientist!> Senator Keen shouts.

<Apparently he thinks otherwise.>

 

Washington D.C.

Just yesterday, Todd Slate was only a staff assistant at the Department of Justice. For the past several hours he’s been talking with Noriko Null about her activities in her past months, and now he feels like he’s been introduced to some of the best kept secrets in the world.

She’s not what he expected; there’s something off about her. It’s not just the silver eyes, which he finds difficult not to stare at, but the way she carries herself. She doesn’t talk like a teenager; she doesn’t even sit like one. It’s just Todd’s couch, but by the way she’s crossed her legs and rests her hands on her lap, she looks like she’s posing for the kind of portrait that would be hanging on the White House. In other words, she exudes confidence and arrogance even when doing nothing.

<Let me get this straight: you teleported a piece of the Moon on New York City and then disintegrated it with an alien device?> he asks.

<Not exactly. I used the Heart of the Universe to accidentally teleport it, but the Moon fragment was shattered by Vesta and Quantum. With brute force and lasers, respectively.>

<And where is this Heart now?>

<I don’t know. The United States government has it.>

<Just call it “the government”. Prefacing it with “the United States” makes you sound foreign.>

<I don’t care how I sound.>

<You testify before Congress in two days. You should.>

<I don’t fear them> she replies almost instinctively, with her eyes flashing bright for a second.

<What’s with the eye thing?>

<It is not your concern.>

<With all due respect, yes it is. If you want me to handle your public relations, I need to be aware of anything about you that needs to be explained to the public. I can’t believe I have to say it, but the fact that your eyes sometimes turn into flashlights does need some explaining.>

<Sigh. My irises are made of a silver-palladium compound that reflects the electrical current passing through the superconductive tissue of my frontal lobe.>

<…>

<You have no idea of what I just said, do you?> she asks.

<Why do you really need me?> he asks back.

Noriko doesn’t show it, but Todd knows he’s hit something when she takes a full second to answer.

<Overseeing my public image has become increasingly time-consuming. Someone has to manage it.>

<I don’t buy it.>

<Are you trying to second guess me?>

<Yes. You have enough money to hire dozens of high-profile lawyers to do this and an absurdly high IQ. You’re too smart to need the help of a guy like me.>

<Maybe being too smart is the issue> she replies, getting off the couch and walking solemnly towards the window. She weighs her words before she can continue; she stares in the distance, her mind a million miles away.

<When I was younger…ten or twelve years old… I tried babysitting. My father and I didn’t have a lot of money, and it was a quick and easy way to make some cash. I tried once or twice before giving up: it was the most mind-numbingly boring thing I’d have ever done. I had nothing in common with them. Even though I’d been a child myself, I was beyond them in ways they couldn’t understand. And I could no longer put myself in the mental state necessary to share their point of view.>

<That’s the most elaborate way I’ve ever heard someone say “I don’t like kids that much”.>

<Imagine being so smart that everyone else is just a baby compared to you, mister Slate. Imagine having to work triple shifts to keep them alive. You can either devote a considerable amount of your waking hours taking care of the babies, or you can hire someone to do it for you so that you may focus on your job.>

<Wait. You’re hiring me to babysit the entire planet!?>

<Essentially, yes. You are smart enough to understand me, but not too smart to be understood by them. You have a strong moral code, an open mind, and you actually like people.>

<And you don’t?>

<It’s…complicated. It’s hard for me to be objective.>

<Why do I get the feeling that everything about you is complicated?>

<Because I am Null.>

<I’m beginning to understand what that means.>

 

The Vulcan Forge, 2300 light-years away

Hephaestus sits on his golden throne, his bright red eyes shining through the metal mask that completely covers his face. His robotic queen Galatea is at his side, as always.

<<Tell Hephaestus more about the specimen you wish to preserve>> he says with his mechanically modified voice.

Elytra is before him, trapped in a semi-transparent forcefield; she doesn’t know how it works, but even with her Ghost Maker she can’t phase through it. All she can do is protest:

<The specimen has a name. Elytra Elater, captain of the Relentless and leader of the Hunters.>

<<Hephaestus did not give you permission to speak>> he says, gesturing towards the forcefield.

An extremely painful electrical shock hits Elytra: this is the first time she can recall being hurt while being intangible. Despite this, she keeps talking through the pain.

<Torture…won’t…make me…talk…>

<<You misunderstand, child: Hephaestus is no petty tyrant. Once I separate you from the Drylon artifact bonded to your body, you will die painlessly>>

<What do you need the Ghost Maker for? You have the technology to make it ineffective.>

<The specimen did mention some kind of a bargain, my lord – Galatea reminds him.>

<<It would be unbecoming for a god of my stature to entertain a deal with a single mortal>>

<What about an entire species then? My people, the Lampyrians, have a lifespan of just two years. As the god of technology, I’m willing to bet my life that you can help us increase that time.>

<<I have little interest in the inferior machinery you call biology, but nothing is beyond the grasp of Hephaestus’ genius>>

<It would be a new challenge for you, my lord> Galatea keeps pushing.

<As you must know, your ancient enemy Demeter was recently killed by a mortal called Noriko Null. A goddess, a sister of Zeus himself, killed by mortal hands.>

<<Intriguing. Did this mortal use a Drylon weapon for the murder?>>

<No. A weapon designed by Noriko Null herself, on planet Earth.>

Hephaestus inhales sharply, making a sound similar to an engine revving up. Elytra wonders what exactly is under that armor. But while she doesn’t know what Hephaestus really is, something is clear: she just touched a nerve.

<You never figured out how to actually kill a god, didn’t you? Otherwise you would’ve killed your rivals thousands of years ago. Entire planets destroyed in your quest to rule the Olympian Galaxy, and a teenage girl from a backwater planet made it all obsolete.>

<<Nonsense. Such petty accomplishments fail to impress Hephaestus>>

<Really? I think Null simply outsmarted you.>

Hephaestus clenches his fists, and the ground begins to shake. The walls of the Forge, built to withstand the heat and pressure of the surface of a neutron star, are already cracking.

<<Galatea>> he calls, with barely contained rage.

<Yes, my lord?>

<<Launch the Talos. Order them to start searching the galaxy for planet Earth>>

<As you wish, my lord. How many Talos should be assigned to this task?>

<<All of them>>

<Wait! What about our deal?> Elytra protests.

<<Hephaestus doesn’t bargain with mortals. But fear not, child, your kind will be rewarded for your devotion>> he says, snapping his fingers.

Two Talos approach them, carrying trays full of surgical equipment.