Beyond The Impossible

Null Tower, New York City

Agent Wu never thought he’d be here and get a chance to meet Noriko Null herself.

But until yesterday he never thought he’d investigate interstellar crimes.

<Miss Null. Thank you for keeping me posted.> he tells the woman, shaking her hand; once he would’ve found silver eyes weird, but the world is now much crazier than it used to be.

<Kari spoke highly of you, and cooperating with the authorities might get Earth’s politicians off my back.> she admits.

<Easier said than done when even the Vanguard’s headquarters aren’t safe anymore.> the agent points out, looking at the dark silhouettes on the wall of the Operations Room.

<So what happened, exactly?> he asks.

<Two would-be assassins, which I assume are Myridian, teleported inside the room in an attempt to assassinate the three major candidates as the first Prime Minister of the Empire. The light emitted by one of them, a former worshipper of Apollo, was the only thing to scare them away… and to let them leave some evidence behind.> she summarizes.

<I should call forensics to ask them to analyze…> Agent Wu starts to say, stopping once he sees Noriko raise an eyebrow. She doesn’t need to say anything to make him continue:

<Right. Of course you have better equipment to deal with this. What did you discover?>

<Those “shadows” are a very thin layer of ashes, believe it or not.>

<Miss Null, this is a case about interstellar assassins that can disappear at will and I’m running an investigation with an alien and a Demon… I’ll believe anything at this point.>

<Welcome to my life, Agent Wu.>

<When you say ashes, what do you mean exactly?>

<Human ashes. Like those from a cremation, at least superficially. The grains are much smaller than the result of a regular cremation, and  as you can see they’re black instead of grey.>

<Is it because these aren’t technically human beings?>

<I’m not sure. Myridians also practice cremation, but the result is the same as a human… we aren’t all that different. I’m reasonably sure the assassins are not dead: there just isn’t enough mass here, and I highly doubt Euphemia’s photon blast would’ve been enough to disintegrate what’s missing. No, I think this is just the strange result of the interaction between their shadow powers and the intense light.>

<I wonder what someone in your position would consider “strange”, miss Null.>

<The assassins wield a power very similar to the Blood, which barely obeys the laws of physics; it makes analyzing everything related to it very frustrating.>

<And this “Blood” would be… what, exactly?>

<Something much weirder than anything you’ve seen so far, Agent Wu. But it does give me a hint where I might find some answers.> Noriko says, stroking her chin pensively.

<I get the feeling it’s not something you’re willing to disclose.>

<Indeed. However you might still be important to the investigation, Agent Wu: while I focus on who could be giving those Myridians new powers, I can give you a hand finding the possible location of their original bodies.>

<How? From my understanding, they might not even be on this planet.>

<It’s a possibility, but let’s examine the evidence.> Noriko says, moving towards the conference table taking up the central position of the Operations Room, and activating the controls of the holographic projector.

It creates a three-dimensional image of Earth, with two bright red spots: one on New York City and one in Antarctica.

<This is the concentration of virtual particles across the planet. It’s what Myridians use to generate their duplicates, so it’s the same thing of a map showing where they are.>

<Wait a second, you can trace Myridians with that much precision!?>

<I wish. I can only pinpoint the spots where there’s a consistent number of duplicates, this doesn’t work with less than five thousand Myridians… not yet, at least.>

<So New York and Midgard City are the only places with more than five thousand duplicates?>

<Exactly. If these assassins are smart, and I’m assuming they are, these are the only hiding spots they’ll definitely avoid.>

<Two cities down, rest of the planet still remaining. That makes my job so much easier.> the agent jokes with clear disappointment.

<You forget two things, Agent Wu. One, Midgard City has the only spaceport on the planet, so the assassins are likely to have arrived there. Even if they had other means to travel, they were after Ganos Lal and I know she landed on Midgard City. I can cross reference all arrivals and all the transports leaving the city… it’s in the middle of Antarctica, it’s not like they could’ve walked all the way to New York.>

<But they can teleport.> Agent Wu objects.

<Even so, if they wanted to stay close to Lal or if they didn’t want to risk an intercontinental teleportation on their first trip to Earth… let’s see…>

Next to the hologram of Earth, there are now several spreadsheets where thousands of lines of data are scrolling rapidly.

<I’m drawing up a list of all the departures from Midgard City and comparing it to all the flights arriving to, and departing from, New York over the past month.>

<That must be several thousands people and who knows how many combinations.>

<I know how many, but the exact number is not important. The security cameras of the spaceport keep a record of all faces: if I compare those to the departures from New York and the cameras of whatever airport they arrived to…>

<How long is that going to take?>

<With my computer system? It’s already over: these are the possible results.> Noriko says with considerable pride, pointing at the final spreadsheet.

<Seventeen people who arrived in the country from Myridia and didn’t stay in New York City: I’d start by investigating those. Not that bad for an algorithm written on the spot, wouldn’t you say Agent Wu?> she asks, not caring about how smug it makes her sound.

<I won’t pretend to understand how you did it, but that definitely narrows it down.>

<Frankly I was hoping for… wait a minute.> Noriko says, pausing as her silver eyes shine. The agent is a little surprised to see that, but not as much as she is by the results.

<Look at the destinations. Twelve for Greece, two for Washington D.C. and one for Los Angeles… then you have two going to Ithaca, New York, on separate flights. Weird coincidence, isn’t it?>

<I’m not sure I follow.> Agent Wu admits.

<Kari will explain it. I can have you teleported to Ithaca in a couple of minutes; I’ll also ask Torn to accompany you, he might have some insight on those shadow powers.>

 

<Don’t you wish to continue the investigation yourself?>

<Let’s just say I’m going to ask the help of a consultant.>

 

Parthenos, 80.000 light-years from Earth

Athena doesn’t get many visitors. There are very few gods that want to interact with her personally, and the vast majority of appointed are handled by her right-hand goddess Nike.

Being the President-for-life of the Athenian Federation she still has to meet mortals, but she’s always the one to call the meeting… with one exception.

<Noriko. What an unexpected surprise.> she greets her former protégé, placing her hand on her shoulder as she escorts the mortal to the seat in front of her desk.

<Your office is bigger than any place I’ve lived in. Do you really need all this space?> Noriko asks, sitting down without losing eye contact with the owl that is casually standing on the desk.

<It has an important psychological impact on mortal minds, as you just demonstrated. To what do I owe the pleasure, Noriko?>

<Someone tried to murder Ganos Lal, on Earth.>

<So I heard. She is a remarkable woman and Myridians have though skin, I’m sure she will recover fairly quickly.>

<Why am I not surprised that you know about this?>

<Someone tried to kill the leader of the Galaxy’s most widespread religion, and immediately after that the major Prime Minister candidates. Things like this hardly escape the Goddess of Wisdom.>

<Any ideas on who might be behind it?>

<The Olympian Empire has no lack of enemies. The list is potentially endless.>

<Including Ulysses?>

<It’s a possibility. Do I have to repeat once more that he is not working for me, Noriko?>

<No, I tend to believe you… at least on that specific thing. But I was hoping you could provide some information on the clues left behind by the assassins.>

<Of course.>

<They were using a form of energy very similar to the Blood, except it’s black. And they left behind some strange black ash that feels like the result of cremation. I have brought a sample for you to analyze.>

<That won’t be necessary.> Athena replies, leaning back against her chair. She normally has a completely neutral expression on her face, but she lets slip that this is worrisome.

<This is disturbing news. There are Ichor users in the Olympian Galaxy.>

<“Ichor”? I know the term as referring to the golden blood of the gods, but…>

<I don’t know how mortals came up with the idea that divine blood is golden, except it’s rare to witness a god bleeding. No, Ichor is much alike the Blood that Demons utilize, but it’s much more dangerous… both to the user and to who faces it in battle.>

<Where does it come from?>

<The Irkalla Galaxy. It’s used by the Oracles of Ereshkigal, the Sumerian Goddess of Death; if she’s getting a foothold in our Galaxy, that is grave news indeed.>

<Why would Ereshkigal want Ganos Lal dead?>

<Most likely it’s just a small part of her plan. Ereshkigal is as devious as she is powerful… and rest assured, Noriko, she is powerful indeed. I do not recommend facing her directly.>

<People keep telling me the same about any god I meet.> Noriko comments, rolling her eyes.

<She recently allied herself with Poseidon. The fact that her worshippers are operating in the Olympian Galaxy after you granted asylum to the Atlantis refugees cannot be a coincidence. In fact, this might be the start of an alliance of some of the Nine Gods against you.>

<I thought the Greek and Sumerian pantheons hated each other.>

<You somehow managed to make Poseidon hate you even more. You have to understand, Noriko, that our pantheons kept the peace between our galaxies thanks to a delicate balance of power. Which you have upset greatly, perhaps beyond the point of no return.>

<I still have an alliance with Hades, and even if he’s not particularly reliable I’m positive Zeus wouldn’t allow an all-out invasion. Plus, no one’s stopping me and Hebe from turning Poseidon into a baby as we did with Hera.>

<Unless if Olympus is destabilized enough to prevent you from working with Hebe, or if you are assassinated. Poseidon is more powerful than Hades, and Ereshkigal is equal in Zeus in raw power… but unlike my father, she’s not lacking in cunning and ruthlessness.>

<You’ve given a disturbing amount of thought on how to break Olympus, Athena.>

<I am the Goddess of War. It is my duty to care about such things.>

<The assassins also namedropped Eris. I think there’s a connection, since she served as an emissary to the Nine Gods… no doubt she conspired with Ereshkigal.>

<You could’ve interrogated Eris about this if you hadn’t killed her. It seems you were overzealous in your actions as the Slayer of Gods.>

<Yeah, I never thought I would ever miss Eris. Any other thoughts on how to find the assassins?>

<Ichor is completely untraceable; it’s one of the things that make it so dangerous; it’s best if I investigate personally. It’s been too long since I’ve visited Earth, this will be interesting.>