Beyond The Impossible

Kari Zel enters the engine room of the Twin Dragon, where Noriko has been busy since they took over Demeter’s mothership.

The young Asian-American is busy building…something. Kari doesn’t have the slightest clue about what she’s looking at: it’s a mess of wires, bronze transistors and godstones.

And it’s connected to the main engine, the massive glowing sphere that is currently keeping the ship floating above the wasteland that was Null City.

<How’s the rest of the Vanguard doing against Demeter?> Noriko asks, covering her silver eyes with a makeshift welding mask as she keeps working.

<They’re keeping her busy. Do you really think we can defeat her? She’s a freakin’ goddess. I know Vesta is a goddess too, but still…>

<She’s not a goddess. None of them are> Noriko states.

<What do you mean?>

<She has vast power over matter and energy, granted, but her actions don’t supersede physical laws: she just works around them in ways that we haven’t been able to explain yet. Her powers might be supernatural, but her actions are not.>

<I don’t think I follow.>

<Max can transform into any kind of energy at will. Is he a god?>

<He says he’s a superhero, whatever that means; what’s your point?>

<Max was transformed into Quantum after interacting with an alien device called the Heart of the Universe. What if it’s only the first stage of something more radical? What if somebody could control matter and energy with his or her mind? Wouldn’t that make her a goddess?>

<Like the Oracles do with the godstones. You’re saying they’re not magic stones, but some kind of godlike technology? Like the Drylon’s?>

<Godstones transform brain waves into kinetic energy; this ship’s teleporter works by transforming matter into energy. I haven’t had the chance to duplicate this technology, but I’ve learned to cripple it.>

Noriko takes off her welder mask, then flips a switch. Her invention siphons energy from the main engine, slowly giving off the same eerie green glow.

<The Anti-Oracle Devices> Kari recalls. It’s hard to forget something like that.

<Exactly. They cancel out the godstone’s ability to sense brain waves by generating a counter-wave, much like my sound nullifier. I’m attempting to connect every A.O.D. installed on the planet to generate a massive wave that, if properly focused, should be able to overcome Demeter’s mind and nullify her power.>

Noriko wipes the sweat from her forehead, leaning over her masterpiece.

<I call it the God Eraser.>

<Cool. And you think this thing’s gonna kill my goddess?>

<Call me a hypocrite, but I pray it does.>

 

A crater several miles away

Demeter has rarely been this angry in the last million years. Not only her stupid sister and her pets are attacking her, they are hurting her. She hasn’t felt pain for ages, and she doesn’t like it.

Quantum returns to his human form, exhausted. Demeter just took a nuclear explosion in the face, without her telekinetic shield. He just put everything he’s got in a blast that could level an entire city and all he did was piss her off.

<Impressive power. But I am a goddess, you worthless waste of flesh: unlike you, I never tire.>

Her body is still glowing green, barely containing the power inside. Cuts and bruises are quickly healing, and even her dress is stitching itself back together.

Demeter watches as Vesta and Torn land beside their ally, the latter attempting another attach unleashing a storm of red energy swords. They all break like glass on her perfect skin.

<In retrospect, maybe attacking without a plan wasn’t a great idea> Quantum admits.

<There was a plan> Torn answers.

<Oh really? What was it, fight until we’re barely able to stand and die anyway?>

<Distraction.>

All four of them disappear in the rapid flash of the teleporter.

 

Null City

Demeter isn’t used to disorientation. It takes her a few seconds to adjust her godly senses to her current situation: she’s back into mortal-infected territory, where the flesh crops are watching her with religious terror.

These Myridians have never seen her before. They’ve heard about Demeter all their lives, how they should respect her every wish unless they wanted to be slaughtered. The first thing they do is fall on their knees and pray for her forgiveness.

<Now, that’s more like it. Your kind has been trained well; I just might spare a few of you for the next harvest, if you bow down to me.>

<Don’t> Noriko orders, climbing the ruins of Null Palace to be seen by the people.

The Myridians look at her with a mixture of respect for the girl that crushed the former regime and fear of Demeter’s wrath.

<This…thing you call a goddess is nothing more than a transcendental lifeform with the natural ability to control matter and energy at will.>

<She’s also bat##it insane> Quantum adds.

<I recognize you. You’re one of my sister’s pets. You want to appeal to my mercy?>

<I am Noriko Null of Earth. I’m the most intelligent person in the galaxy. And I want you to surrender.>

<Intelligence? HA! How does that measure up against GODHOOD!?> Demeters retorts, lifting her hand to deliver a telekinetic blast.

Noriko answers by pulling her gun and shooting first; the pure kinetic energy hits Demeter with the force of a freight train going five hundred miles an hour, and her body is thrown back by the impact.

<Pretty good, actually> Noriko boasts.

 

Noriko jumps off the rubble, walking towards the pile of dirt where Demeter has landed. The Myridians step aside, not wanting to be mixed up with the 90 pound teenager that just smacked around their goddess.

<This is a Mark II Genius Gun, Demeter. It fires focused kinetic energy with enough force to punch a hole into a five-inch thick steel plate. Which, from what I’ve seen, should hurt you less than a drop of rain. Now…how does this feel?>

When Demeter tries to stand up, a shot to the knee forces her to fall into the dust again. She lets out a scream of pain and rage, but her voice has lost some of the power behind it.

<What are you doing to me?> she asks, watching her own hands. She can’t make the dirt go away, and the blood coming out of her knee is spilling over the wreckage.

<The Mark II is linked directly to the God Eraser on your ship. I’m turning off your “godliness”.>

<You can’t…do this…to me…> Demeter insists, gathering all of her strength just to stand up. In a way, Noriko admires her stubbornness: a human would’ve already lost consciousness for the loss of blood, but despite appearances Demeter is far from human.

<The hell I can’t. You’ve killed millions of people, destroyed an entire civilization, elevated misery into worship of your petty ego. Somebody has to stop you.>

<And you think you’re the one to do it? You will pass judgment on a goddess?>

<I won’t> Noriko answers, throwing the Genius Gun away and opening her arms.

<They will.>

Demeter doesn’t understand, and looks around with a puzzled look on her face…until she looks up.

There’s an immense dark cloud in the sky, gathering the total sum of all the knowledge of Myridia.

 

Static electricity fills the air. All over Myridia, every single mortal brain is downloading everything into the cloud. Demeter feels it, the same way she feels Noriko is somehow acting as relay for the three hundred million brains on the planet through the God Eraser’s power.

She also feels what’s in that cloud. Three hundred years of hatred for her.

Demeter has experienced fear before. Tired, dirty, bleeding, with no one to come to her rescue, she now knows what it means to be terrified.

<You can’t do this to me! My brothers and sisters…they will declare war on you!>

Noriko is now at the center of this planet’s mind. And for a moment she feels the same thing she felt the day that Athena granted her the knowledge of Earth.

The feeling that nothing is impossible. That nothing can stand against her.

<You still don’t get it, you tiny little mind.>

The cloud discharges all of its power with the most powerful lightning strike this world has ever seen. Three hundred years of death and destruction hit Demeter’s mind; the God Eraser forces them to her very core, embedding every single image into her dark soul.

She sees the last memory of every man, woman and child she’s killed. Her immortal mind, once capable of lifting mountains, is melting like snow. Feeling every moment of it.

Noriko is watching her, in front of the raging electrical storm. But in the last moments before Demeter’s mind drifts into oblivion, she can see her not like a eighteen year old human girl.

She sees her negative image, silver eyes replaced with black, with black tendrils that link her brain to a magnificent web spanning thousands of years of knowledge.

<I am Null. And I just declared war on the whole fu##ing galaxy.>

That dark voice echoing every word that’s ever been spoken on Earth is the last thing Demeter will ever hear.

When the electrical storm passes, Noriko is standing on top of the motionless body of Demeter, the wind blowing her horribly green leather jacket.

Thanks to the link to the Myridian collective consciousness that just ended, no one alive today on this planet will ever be able to forget this moment.

That’s when Noriko passes out.

 

Later

Noriko opens her eyes with a splitting headache. Her silver eyes shine when her superhuman mind races to assess the situation, escalating it to a migraine.

She’s in a bed. She tries to sit down, but two duplicates of Kari prevent her to move.

<Don’t even think about it. You need to rest.>

<It’d be easier without all this noise. My head’s already on fire, what’s this music?>

<There’s people dancing in the streets. It’s four days AL, but they’re still celebrating.>

<“AL”?> Noriko repeats, attempting again to sit down. She has to hold the sheets against her breasts; she’s not wearing any clothes.

<This planet’s habit to undress me while I’m unconscious is really annoying.>

<“After Lightning”…that’s what people call the day when you killed Demeter.>

<So my plan worked. I wasn’t sure I could do it…I never channeled another planet’s collective knowledge before. I’d like to examine the body> Noriko adds, jumping out of bed…and immediately falling into the hands of the two duplicates, since her body is still too weak to walk.

<Easy there. You’ve been through a lot> says one Kari.

<Vesta already took her sister’s body. She wouldn’t say where> says the other one.

<Then I need to talk to her. There’s so many things> Noriko adds, but Kari shuts her up by placing a finger on her lips.

<You’ve saved the world, boss; now you need to rest. The next impossible thing can wait tomorrow.>

<Maybe you’re right> Noriko answers, laying on the bed <It’ll be a whole other week before we get back home.>