Beyond The Impossible

Nowhere

In a dark room with no doors and no windows, a buzzer inside a woman’s brain wakes her up.

The circuitry beneath the skin of her face emits a low glow; then the space around one of the walls is warped to let the sunlight in, illuminating the room.

She stands up, stretches her muscles, and then the room is rotated 90 degrees so that she can start her daily pushups against the wall as if it was the floor.

She’s fully naked, with several scars all over her body, even her bald head. Only her back has no scars; it’s covered by the large tattoo of a red scorpion.

<Skorpios. Are you awake?> she hears a man’s voice ask in her mind.

<As if you needed to ask. Go ahead, boss.> she responds. Gravity returns to normal; the bed disappears, as she warps the space around it to exchange its place with a bathtub.

<Vector is not responding. We need to increase security.> Ulysses tells her as she steps into the tub; she looks at the ceiling, where a portal shows a clean blue sky.

She changes the destination to a couple of planets within a few seconds, before she finds one where the rain can provide her morning shower.

<Do you think we have a spy among us?>

<Nobody can spy on me.>

<Then there’s nothing else I can do, since I already closed all portals leading to this dimension two days ago. Unless you want me to kill her.>

<You know that’s off the table. Meet me as soon as you can: we need to come up with a plan to deal with Null, once she decides to make her move.>

<No offense, boss, but aren’t you the guy who constantly says he’s already planned for anything?>

<She’s the Slayer of Gods and a Nexus user. We must expect the unexpected.>

 

Many floors below her

In a poorly lit corridor, a fire pentagram appears on the wall. Its position is not entirely stable, moving many times per second across several feet. Then the fire generates several sparks of electricity, and only once the position is finally stabilized two people step out of the portal.

One of them is Torn, who keeps holding Noriko Null’s hand even when she places the other one over her mouth in an attempt to stop herself from throwing up.

<Is this the place?> he asks. She just nods, clearly ill from the whole experience. The rest of the Vanguard follows through the portal, with the pentagram disappearing once Quantum, Kari and Vesta have joined them.

<What a dump.> Quantum comments, looking around; Vesta is providing the only source of light, generating a couple of balls of fire that float around the team.

<Not the worst dungeon I’ve seen. This one doesn’t even have rats.> the goddess comments.

<Everything alright?> Kari asks Noriko, creating a duplicate specifically to check her.

<I’ll be fine. Using the Soul Relay to direct Torn’s portals was… rougher than I anticipated. It’ll take some time to get used to it.>

<So, uhm, if you can use your thingamajig to travel to other dimensions, why couldn’t we just appear right next to Ulysses and knock him out?> Quantum asks.

<Didn’t you hear a word I said about my portal technology!?> Noriko objects.

<I kind of checked out once you started talking about non-clean space…>

<Non-Euclidean space, and it’s really simple.> she corrects him.

<It really isn’t. I don’t think Euclid would’ve followed your explanation.> Vesta comments.

<Look, I really don’t have time to go through this again, but I only had just about enough data from the ship I stole to extrapolate a rough idea on how to teleport into this dimension; if it wasn’t for Torn, we could’ve materialized inside the wall!>

<We nearly did. Pentagrams are more art than science.> the Demon notes.

<So this is the place where you were kept prisoner?> Kari asks Noriko.

<Looks like it. I only had a brief glimpse from the outside, and it’s huge. There was a whole armada nearby, even some dreadnaughts. We need a scan of the place.> Null says, taking her N-Phone from her jacket’s inside pocket. It projects a hologram of the surrounding area, but it’s extremely rough.

<Sensors are jammed. Because of course they are. Torn, you can use the Blood to sense life right? Any luck with that?>

<I can’t sense anything. Something is obfuscating the Blood.>

<Must be Ulysses and his damn Soul Control. I have to give him credit, the man thinks of everything. Or nearly everything… Quantum, can you do a tachyon sweep of the place?>

<You know I hate turning into those. Can’t I turn into neutrinos instead?>

<I’m pretty sure he knows how to block them with anti-neutrinos.>

<But you guess he can’t do that with tachyons? Why?>

<Because I don’t know how to block tachyons. Ulysses has managed to outmaneuver me, yes, but he can’t outsmart me.> Noriko boasts, her silver eyes shining.

<Okay, but there’s a problem. When I’m made of tachyons, I move so fast that I basically can’t see anything… I can’t think that fast.>

<But I can. Wanna try some Soul Link?> she proposes, grabbing his hand.

 

In orbit above Argos, 100 light-years from Earth

N01-Ragnarok, infirmary

Tyche enters the room, lowering the flaming halo floating above her head to prevent it from touching anything. One of Kari’s duplicates is there, still guarding Vector: even with his implants deactivated and with his Drylon device removed, he’s still too dangerous to be kept unsupervised.

<The daughter of Hermes. I didn’t expect to see you with the lackeys of the Slayer of Gods.> he tells her.

<Don’t make me gag you. Do you know this creep?> Kari asks Tyche.

<No, the only member of the Zenith that I ever met was Ulysses. He’s very big on the whole “need-to-know-basis” thing.>

<That’s not true.> Vector interrupts.

<Unlike my father I can tell the truth. I really never met any other Zenith.>

<I didn’t say you were lying. Just that you don’t know every member of the Zenith… even I don’t.>

<Yeah, but you’re the guy Ulysses left behind to get captured, so I really doubt you’re the big shot that you think you are.> Kari mocks him.

<Don’t listen to her. You’re making a big mistake allying yourself with the Vanguard, Tyche.>

<What, I’m supposed to ally myself with the Zenith? I’m going to tell you the same thing I told Ulysses decades ago, Vector: I’m not going to join a team whose entire purpose is to eventually wipe out the existence of my kind.>

<How is that different from the Vanguard?> he asks.

<They only kill evil gods. They even have a goddess as a member!>

<By the way, why did Ulysses try to recruit you in the first place? Seems like he hates gods even more than I do.> Kari asks.

<He wanted to exploit my ability to see into the future. Kind of like everyone in my life, really.>

<You know, it’d be reeeally helpful if you used that power to help the Vanguard.>

<It’s not that simple; I don’t have full control over my prophecies. I’ve only been able to get these kind of visions for, like, three or four thousand years.>

<When Ulysses first met you, did you see what would’ve happened if you joined?> Vector asks.

<I did. My father would’ve been overthrown. but then Ulysses would’ve executed me by tossing me into a black hole. I chose to wait for a better ally.>

<Don’t you wish to know what will happen if you refuse to help him again?>

<Actually… yes I do.> Tyche admits. She composes herself, taking a deep breath; her flaming halo burns noticeably brighter. She looks like she’s gone into a trance, staring into the distance.

At first her expression is serene and detached. But then something changes: her brow furrows, she takes a step back and covers her mouth in shock.

<By Kronos…> she says under her breath.

<What’s wrong? What did you see in the future?> Kari asks her, coming closer to comfort her. She then barely dodges Tyche’s punch; she’s putting all her divine strength into it, so even if she missed she creates a gust of wind so powerful that Kari is thrown off balance.

<Great, just what I needed. 10K RISE!> she exclaims, suddenly multiplying her strength and speed by a factor of ten thousand; since Tyche is merely a Class-4 goddess, it’s enough to even the odds.

Unlike Kari, Tyche has basically no fighting experience, so it’s relatively easy to put her in a chokehold. It’s not a tactic that Kari likes, but she can’t take chances with a goddess. Not to mention that its effect is somewhat negated when the target doesn’t need to breathe and can’t die.

<Just calm down! What’s wrong with you!?>

<Get off me! We have to help Ulysses! He’s the only one who can stop Ares from taking over the galaxy!> Tyche replies; she’s moving so much that Kari is having trouble to keep her down. Normally she would solve this by creating a few duplicates to help, but she would have to share the power of the 10K Rise between duplicates.

<We don’t need Ulysses to start a civil war to do it! Noriko can take care of Ares on her own!>

<She won’t.> Tyche replies; her flaming halo moves on its own, wrapping itself around Kari’s head. It’s enough of a distraction to let Tyche break free, grab Kari by the throat and punch her with all her strength. It would be enough to crush diamonds; luckily for Kari this is just a duplicate, so it disappears instead of dying.

Tyche catches her breath, massages her punching hand for a couple of seconds, and then removes Vector’s restrains to free him.

<Get your Drylon weapon. I’m bringing you back to Ulysses.> she declares.

<I suppose this means that you saw something interesting in the future.> Vector comments.

Tyche doesn’t answer immediately; she seems distraught by what she saw.

<Ares is destined to kill Null.> the Goddess of Destiny eventually reveals.

 

Nowhere

The Zenith’s base of operations doesn’t have a name, much less a clearly recognizable structure. There isn’t a single place that could be considered a command post: Ulysses can give orders to his troops from anywhere. Even his current location, the high tech security prison that is currently holding a very special involuntary guest.

<My husband will have your head for this.> Helen of Troy threatens him from behind a forcefield. Her face is covered by a mask; her wrists and ankles are chained with handcuffs of Neutral Matter.

<Apollo doesn’t worry me. He’ll be too busy fighting Ares once I deliver you to him.> he notes.

He’s not alone: in addition to half a dozen armed guards, his assistants Leral and Skorpios are here.

<I still say we should’ve done it immediately after we captured her.> Skorpios says.

<Ares would’ve been distracted by the lack of war in the Mortal Republic; he would’ve attacked them, and Apollo would’ve followed him. Trust me, you don’t want two Class-2 gods to fight each other in mortal territory.> Ulysses explains. As he moves away from the prison, he faces a Genius Gun emerging from a pentagram on the nearest wall. Before he can do anything, other pentagrams appear. Each guard is now facing a Kari duplicate, Quantum is a mass of photons ready to blind Leral in an instant, and both Torn and Vesta are ready to both decapitate and incinerate Skorpios at a moment’s notice.

 <Checkmate.> Noriko says with half a smile. Ulysses barely reacts.

<Hardly: we knew you were coming. We received a distress signal from Vector 15 minutes ago.>

<Well, relatively speaking.> Leral corrects him.

<What are you talking about!?> Noriko asks.

<Leral decelerated time within this pocket dimension. As we speak, the Mortal Republic has been in a civil war for the past six months.> Ulysses reveals.