Beyond The Impossible

Living quarters of the Supreme Scorpion

Max Black a.k.a. Quantum can’t sleep. He’s jumped between planets and ships so often in the last week that his body hasn’t adjusted to the jet lag yet. It’s supposed to be the middle of the night on the ship, but he’s just tossing and turning. Until he hears a voice in his head:

“Hey Max, can you come to my room or something?”

It’s Noriko, communicating through the Neural Transmitter, but her voice doesn’t sound right. He put on the first clothes he finds, tries to remember where her room is, and transforms into radio waves. In much less than the blink of an eye, he’s arrived at his destination.

<Hey everybody! It’s Quantum, the Man of Energy!> Noriko cheers, raising a bottle.

Max needs a moment to absorb the situation. Noriko’s room is the usual mess she turns all of her sleeping places, with technological junk everywhere. Despite her toast, she’s alone.

Strangely, she’s surrounded by bottles, at least half a dozen empty. Even more strangely, she’s not wearing either her leather jacket or her pants.

<Did you need something?> Max asks, looking the other way. Noriko giggles, a sound that Max has heard maybe once.

<Come over here, we are celebrating! Ceeeelebrating> she repeats, drinking straight from the bottle.

Max approaches her, still trying to look away from the nineteen year old in her panties.

<What is this stuff?> Max asks, looking at one of the bottles: it’s written in some other alphabet that looks like ancient Greek, which he can’t read.

<It’s a gift from Dyon… Dynion… Dionissusus. The wine guy. Y’know.>

<And now you’re drunk. That’s just great>– Max frowns.

<-I’m not drunk! I’m veeeeery drunk. To Dyonossusus… to the wine guy!> she toasts.

<You really shouldn’t drink this kind of stuff> Max objects, snatching the bottle away from her hand. Even at a distance, it smells awful.

<I am Null, the Slayer of… Stuff! And I’m very drunk> she proclaims, then laughs for no reason.

<Just how are you drunk? You once told me that alcohol does nothing to you.>

<It’s the flavor. Some kind of alieny thingy stuff. I am soooo trippin’ balls right now.>

<This is wrong on so many levels. How much of this stuff did you take?> Max asks, counting fourteen empty bottles.

<Trippppin’ baaaalls! Eh eh eh!> Noriko laughs again, this time literally rolling on the floor.

Max’s had to deal with drunk friends before, but this is much worse: Noriko looks more on hallucinogens than simply intoxicated.

<Come on, we need to take you to a doctor> Max suggests, trying to get a hold on her.

Noriko immediately stops laughing and takes a more serious attitude, hampered by the fact that she’s still in a T-shirt and panties. She points a finger at him; her eyes turn black and silver.

<That would not be cogent. I am deterministically cognizant enough to infer that the paradigm of my heliocentrism is anisotropically flabbergasted.>

<I’m pretty sure nothing you just said makes any sense…>

<Fool! Am I not a multi-cellular chordate with bilateral symmetry? Do I not posses homogametic chromosomes, as well as binary vision and an epicanthic fold?>

<Let me guess: I’m talking to Void now.>

<Correct, we are currently experiencing a temporary alternate state of consciousness induced by… slipping on spheres? That cannot be ambidextrous, I must disenfranchise on the subject.>

She strikes a pensive pose, while Max sighs: this is going nowhere. He grabs her by the shoulder, telling her in a stern voice:

<Come on, let’s get you some pants and go to the doctor okay?

<I’m not wearing any pants!!!> she screams, her eyes suddenly turning black and her voice becoming demonically deep. Max is taken by surprise by her transformation, and even more when her knee hits his groin. She then punches him in the face, surprisingly hard for a girl her size.

<Hello Abyss> he says, swallowing pain.

<I am so fu##ing drunk right now!!!> she shouts.

<Yeah, I can see that…>

<Don’t laugh at me! I will kill you! I will kill everyone! I am scary!!!>

Normally Max would find Abyss terrifying, but this time she’s different… and so was Void, now that he thinks about it. That’s confirmed when Abyss starts pulling her hair.

<Why don’t you shut up? I want you to shut up! I ORDER you to shut up!>

Abyss runs away, and Max considers the possibility that he’ll have to knock her out to stop her from leaving. But she doesn’t run to the door: she runs against the wall, hitting her head against it.

<Shut up shut up shut up shut up shut up> she repeats, continuously hitting the wall.

Max stops her, taking her by the shoulders and pulling away from the wall: she protests, starting to punch him on the chest. Not hard enough to hurt him, but now she’s crying.

<Why won’t they shut up? I can’t stand it anymore! It hurts!!! Make them go away!!!>

<Calm down, Noriko, there’s nobody here. It’s just me, okay? It’s just me.>

Max’s presence and his attitude seem to be working, or maybe the drug is losing its effect, because Noriko stops fighting and lets herself go. She crawls to the floor, in a fetal position.

Her eyes are silver again, but she looks terrified. She’s crying.

<I can’t stand the voices in my head anymore. I’m a bad person and I’m very, very drunk.>

Max sits next to her. He figures she doesn’t need a lecture now, she needs a friend.

<When did the voices start?>

<I’ve always heard voices. Ever since I got smart. I turned one of them into Abyss once.>

<But she’s gone now. You have her under control.>

<She’s not the only one. She’s just the loudest. Mom said the Nexus would eventually drive me insane… they are never going away. Never. I think I’ve gone drunk crazy and crazy drunk.>

She’s shivering. Max looks around to find her leather jacket and puts her on her like a blanket.

<The drugs are losing their effect. Nothing can stop my brain for long.>

Max can’t help but smile a little: even in the depths of despair, she manages to boast her abilities.

<That’s a good thing, right?>

<The drugs made the voices go away. It felt so good I never wanted it to stop.>

<You’re too smart to believe that’s a solution.>

<I don’t want to be smart anymore. It hurts too much. I want to be stupid like you again.>

<Since you’re not exactly yourself at the moment, I’m gonna let that slide…>

<I was happy once. For stupid thinks like a concert or a date or breaking curfew. Now everything I do is so damn big and important. Everything I do has consequences.>

<Noriko, I know this is the drug talking, but you just saved a freakin’ galaxy. Why are you being so hard on yourself?>

<You don’t know what it’s like. Feeling your sanity slipping away. I can kill gods with my mind but I can’t feel like I’m human anymore.>

<You can’t let your mind get carried away with stuff like that. You need to focus on the good things that you can do with your gift; nothing else really matters.>

<How do you do it, Max? You’re a hero with the power of a god. Why are you still a good person?>

<Well, I guess I’m too stupid to be a bad guy> Max smiles.

To his surprise, Noriko smiles back. She sits down and wipes away her tears, pushing away the leather jacket and lifting her shirt.

<What… what are you doing?> Max asks. He swallows uncomfortably.

<I’m a young woman who’s feeling alone and very, very drunk. I want to feel human again.>

Max grabs her hands, preventing from lifting the shirt any higher. Suddenly it’s hot in that room.

<Noriko. You don’t want to do something you’ll regret in the morning.>

<Just tonight? Please? Nobody will ever know…>

He hesitates. He’s not going to sleep with a girl ten years younger than him while she’s drunk and stoned out of her mind, that’s for sure. But she looks like she’s about to cry again.

<Oh God. I think I’m about to> she manages to say before throwing up.

Max transforms into light and moves out of the way at the last second, which must be the most mundane use of his powers.

 

Compared to how it started, the rest of the night is uneventful. Noriko throws up for about a hour, pretty much uninterrupted. Max has just enough time to empty every single bottle down the toilet before she has to throw up for another hour and a half.

When she’s finished vomiting stuff she’s eaten before founding the Vanguard, she’s beyond exhausted. She collapses in his arms, sitting on the bathroom floor.

Not the most glorious way to celebrate the victory of an interstellar divine war.

Max decides not to call the doctor: the ship now belongs to the Hunters, and he really doesn’t know how to explain what happened. He takes Noriko to her bedroom, finding the situation rather funny: if anyone told him he’d one day spend the night with the most powerful woman in the world in her underwear, he’d picture something completely different.

The day has taken a toll on him as well: when he arrives in his room, he falls asleep as soon as he touches the bed.

 

About two hours later, someone knocks on the door. Max makes the monumental effort to get out of bed and open the door. He finds himself facing Noriko again: she’s fully clothed this time, green leather jacket included. No trace of tears or troubled sleep on her face, the magic of makeup and determination.

<Max.>

<Nori.>

<It never happened. Do you understand? It never happened> she declares.

<What never happened? I’ve been sleeping all night> he replies.

They both smile at each other, then look away. She blushes easily.

<This is really awkward, right?> he says.

<Yeah>– she nods.

<Yeah> he repeats.

<Thank you for… y’know…>

<Don’t even mention it. Just promise me you won’t drink strange alien stuff again.>

<Max…> she rolls her eyes. Judging by how red her skin is turning, she’s beyond embarrassed.

<I know, I know, it never happened. But, seriously, never do that again… you’re a mean drunk.>

Noriko laughs. It’s a genuine, girlish laugh. Max smiles sincerely.

<You should do that more often. You have a nice laughter.>

The awkward silence returns, with Noriko blushing more than it should be possible before taking a step back and pointing at the corridor.

<I should…go now. I have… stuff to do. Big, important science stuff.>

<Right. And I should try to catch some sleep before we get to Earth.>

<Okay. So… see ya?>

<See ya.>

She walks away, trying to compose herself again. She takes just a few steps before Max calls her.

<Hey Nori. Once we’re back on Earth…>

<Yes?> she asks, turning towards him. He’s scratching his head, hesitating.

<Why don’t we… hang out sometimes? Out of costume. When the world isn’t doomed and stuff.>

<Hang out? You mean… like…>

<Like friends. You’re always stuck in the Tower, you should get out sometime.>

She looks conflicted. She can decide the destiny of entire countries and planets, but this is hard.

She smiles and lets out a little laugh. Twice in a single day, it’s definitely a record for her.

<I think that’s a good idea. Sometimes it’s easy to forget, but you’re smarter than you look.>

<Tha… hey! That was a cheap shot!> he protests, joining the friendly banter.