Despite its name, Hell is a relatively peaceful place. Not a nice place where to live, for sure: the temperature is unbearably hot, the environment alternates desert with lakes of lava, and the sky is always on fire. But there are no wars in Hell, despite the fact that every single one of its 295 million Demons can create weapons using their minds and the Blood, the red energy that permeates the planet. Today is an exception: millions of Demons are under the control of Abyss, and the combined efforts of the Vanguard aren’t doing much to stop them.
But then something attracts their attention. The ground is shaking, opening craters that bleed blue light. Hell’s sky is cracking with thunder and lightning amid its eternal fire. Blue lightning.
Noriko Null is in the middle of this, on her knees: her body is engulfed by blue sparks.
<What is she doing!?> Kari Zel asks, punching a Demon in the face while one of her duplicates kicks his knee. Quantum, Torn and his wife Agony are backing her up, but the swarm of mind-controlled Demons is overwhelming: even with Kari using her Myridian power to summon thousand of duplicates at once, they are still vastly outnumbered.
<This is useless. We must defeat Abyss if we want a chance to win this> Torn says.
<I’ll handle her. You guys keep Hell at bay> Quantum responds, transforming into a lightning bolt and disappearing from the crowd.
When he’s in energy form, he can’t see… not the way humans see. Everything is filtered through his current form: it looks like Noriko is channeling enough electricity through her brain to light a house. Hoping she knows what she’s doing, in a split second he changes his course towards Abyss.
She’s back to human size, a black skeleton encased inside a red and glowing armor.
The armor completely repels Quantum’s energy, no matter how much he amps it up: Abyss is now composed of the same stuff that makes up the Blood, which seems impervious to anything.
<What do you think you’re doing? Playing the hero?> she mocks him.
<Yeah. I’m kind of good at it> he answers, pointing his fists at her: he’s ready to shoot her with a powerful laser attack, but she stops him by grabbing his wrists and holding tight.
<I’ve seen into your mind. You know what happens to idiots who play the hero.>
Something sharp hits Quantum’s soul. Suddenly he’s eight years old Max again, watching his brother die while trying to stop a criminal, crying over a comic book stained by blood.
<Sure I do. They inspire.>
Whatever Abyss was trying to do suddenly backfires: her mind is hit by a violent stream of images.
Noriko showing Max that he could be more than a fanboy without future. His sister Kayla becoming the heroine Blue Star by following his example. Vesta using her power to save lives for the first time in centuries. Kari helping Myridian women escape from a breeding camp. Torn arguing with the Lord Of All Demons to convince him to spare the lives of humans.
<What is this? What are you doing!?> Abyss protests, trying to free herself.
<I’m afraid your psychic bulls##t won’t work on me. It bites, doesn’t it?>
<You think that’ll stop me!? I’m Abyss! I’m humanity’s nightmare! I’m not afraid of…>
Hell is suddenly shaken by thunder. A strong wind carrying sparks of electricity suddenly blows towards Noriko, circling her as if she were the center of a tornado. The blue cracks in the terrain glow even brighter, forming chasms and forcing rocks to rise from the ground.
<Now what?> Kari complains; there’s only so much she can take in a single day.
<She can’t… she can’t be doing what I think she’s doing> Agony says, dumbfounded.
<She is> Torn answers, his expression unreadable as always… much to Kari’s frustration.
<Why? What is Noriko doing?> she asks.
<She’s drawing power from Hell itself> Torn explains.
Noriko looks at her hands, which are illuminated by the light coming from her suddenly blue eyes.
<About freakin’ time. Alright, let’s do this… GENIUS GUNS!!!>
Blue sparks crackles in the air; she reaches for it, and two guns entirely made of energy appear.
Her eyes are no longer visible: they’re spewing blue flames, which flow to the side of her head.
She immediately fires at the Demons using her new weapons. They look like the Genius Gun, and they fire at a ridiculous rate: the Demons are resilient, but they’re mowed down by the dozen.
<Nori, wait! They’re mind-controlled!> Kari warns her, jumping at her from behind.
From experience, she should be able to put her in a chokehold without any problem. However Noriko reacts faster than ever: she tosses the gun in the air, punches Kari in the face, just in time to get the gun falling back in her hand and then using it to hit Kari in the back of her head.
<Out of my way!!! GENIUS CANNON!!!>
One of the guns changes: it becomes so big that, if it were made of matter, it would be be far too heavy for Noriko to handle. But it’s light as a feather and more devastating than a bazooka.
Noriko smiles maniacally as she’s blowing Demons to pieces with her right hand and shooting others with her left, seemingly energized by the blood raining on her.
<Ah ah ah ah!!! Taste genius, motherfu##ers!!!>
Quantum doesn’t know what to do. His energy senses are completely baffled by whatever Noriko is doing, and while his first instinct would be to join her in battle… there’s something deeply disturbing in her utter glee. Having Abyss grabbing his arm and covering behind him really helps making things as confused as possible.
<Don’t let her get to me!!! Please!!!>
<I thought you weren’t afraid of anything> he teases her.
<You don’t understand: that’s not Null, that’s Fury!!! You have to help me!!!>
<Sorry, I’d rather take my chances with Super-Saiyan Noriko over there – Quantum answers, trying to break free from her. It was just battle banter, but he was right: Abyss really is afraid this time.>
<She’s not just another personality, isn’t it?>
<None of us can access the full potential of the Nexus: human bodies aren’t built to handle that much power. But Fury… look at her, she’s using Hell as fuel!!!>
<Hey Abyss!!! You want my soul!? Well here it is!!!>
There’s nothing standing between Fury and Abyss now: she’s lost control of the Demons and of herself. Fury drops her weapons: she’s building something far more massive. A wave of blue energy emanates from her position, and the electric fire from her eyes intensifies tenfold.
Something complex takes form before her, a large cylindrical shape with radically different holes on each side. The one facing Abyss is as big as a house, showing the energy pulsating inside it, while the other one is barely large enough for Fury to put her arm inside… and pull the trigger.
<GENIUS WARHEAD!!!>
Quantum pushes Abyss away and turns into light, escaping at the very last second… and wondering if Fury expected him to do that, or if she just doesn’t care about casualties.
It’s the last of his problems, though, because keeping his thoughts together isn’t so simple once Fury unleashes her attack on Abyss.
The energy pushes the air so hard it becomes superheated plasma, hotter than the core of Hell itself. The ground is vaporized before contact: Abyss and her Blood armor are completely disintegrated within the first millisecond. The power needed to do this is a tiny fraction of what’s been unleashed.
The energy stream cuts right through the planet, burrowing though millions of tons of rocks; losing support, Hell’s outer walls… which have stood against the harsh elements for thousands of years… crumble under their own weight.
The energy then proceeds until it hits the immense cloud of fire that covers Hell. It’s not real fire, obviously, but another form of the Blood. The blast ionizes the entire cloud system, ionizing the Blood and seemingly cutting a hole in the sky. But even this isn’t everything, because it proves to be too much for the clouds to handle… and they evaporate into strange and exotic particles.
The Genius Warhead disappears: first it turns red, then its energy is reabsorbed into the Blood and flows back into Hell’s atmosphere. Fury takes a step back, struggling to keep her balance: without Hell’s power, the fire from her eyes has already been downgraded to a strong glow.
<Whoops. I think I just broke Hell> – she jokes, as her eyes return to silver.
She faints: Quantum materializes back into human form to catch her before she hits the ground. She’s warm to the touch, but this time it’s not surprising. Suddenly, Hell is cold.
He looks up: the sky is no longer on fire. In fact, the particles are creating something extremely similar to the Northern Lights. But there’s something very different…
<Holy s##t. We’re a long way from home, aren’t we?>
There are no stars in the sky, or at least not like on Earth. The Milky Way Galaxy can be seen in all its glory, occupying half the sky, because Hell is orbiting it from a considerable distance.
The day after
Noriko slowly opens her eyes, already feeling the migraine. The first thing she sees is a twelve year old girl with red skin and pigtails, staring at her.
<Hi. Do all humans growl when they sleep?> the girl asks her.
Only now Noriko realizes she’s laying on a concrete bed, covered only by leather covers. She sits down, her head still pounding; they took off her jacket and her boots, but thankfully nothing else.
<It’s called snoring. What happened?>
<I wanted to take off the rest of your clothes but Dad said you wouldn’t like it.>
<Glad to hear Torn’s finally learned something on Earth. You must be his youngest daughter.>
<Can you take off your clothes now? I’ve never seen a human naked before.>
<Maybe it’s better if you ask your… no, I’ve met your mother, let’s not go there. Is your father here?>
<He said to call him. DAAAD!!! THE HUMAN’S AWAKE!!!> Lesion yells; Noriko covers her ears, since this isn’t particularly good for her headache. Torn arrives in less than a minute.
<Lesion, go look at the sky.>
<Can I see the human naked first?> Lesion asks innocently.
<I can’t see why n…> Torn starts to answer, only to notice Noriko’s disapproving look.
<Lesion, go look at the sky> he repeats.
<Okay!> Lesion answers energetically, wasting no time running out of the room.
Torn just stands there, looking at Noriko. Awkward silences are a staple of their relationship.
<Nice kid. How old is she?>
<Forty-eight. Null… I must ask your forgiveness to betraying you and taking you to Hell.>
<You were trying to protect your daughter. Besides, I think I sort of broke Hell, so that makes us even… I think. To be honest, your planet’s very confusing.>
<So is yours.>
<Fair enough. Torn, I don’t remember everything that’s happened… not exactly… but when you were inside my mind, inside my soul as you call it… I saw something.>
<My past. The mortal lives I’ve taken as a servant of Hell.>
<And something else. When we met on Myridia, you were there on a mission from Hell.>
<Yes. I was sent to Myridia to kill all its inhabitants.>
<But… why!?>
<Galactic balance. Hell’s pushed gods to declare war on each other for thousands of years; my attack would’ve been blamed on Hephaestus, to provoke Demeter into a full assault on the Vulcan Forge that would’ve decimated both their forces.>
<I deduced that, but what I want to know is: why did you refuse? You knew you’d be sentenced to death. It wasn’t just your friendship with Old Man Vor, wasn’t it?>
<It was you, Null. The way you gave hope to Myridia. And to me, a chance of redemption.>
Torn stares at Noriko intensely, then he kneels before her.
<My home and my family are in Hell, but my soul belongs to the Vanguard now. You’ve been my ally, my friend and my sister, and now I accept you as my master: I will follow you to the ends of the universe and beyond the impossible, Noriko Null, Slayer of Gods.>
<And now you’ve made it awkward. You’re a very strange man, Torn… please, never change.>
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