Beyond The Impossible

Boreas, 30,000 light-years from Earth

Out of the many worlds conquered by Athena’s forces in her coup, those in the Winter Kingdom have been affected the least. After all, the Lar have been living under a monarchy for as long as they recall. For the most part, life continues as if the coup never happened.

All the monuments celebrating the Winter Kings and Ice Queens of the past are still intact, with only the ones representing Leiko Tanaka and Noriko Null being demolished.

The Church of Null has been declared illegal, with the only worship allowed by the state being the Lar traditional ancestor worship, the adoration of Athena, and of the goddess who currently sits on the Ice Throne: Nike, Goddess of Victory and right-hand woman of Athena.

Kylon of Megacles walks past a library publicizing the release of new pamphlets instructing the population on how to properly worship Athena. It’s the middle of the night, and like it always does on Boreas the snow is falling at a steady rate.

Kylon has been careful to make sure nobody is following him. The snow makes it easier; it’s a trick he’s used many times before, since he’s used to being wanted by the government.

Decades of experience as a dissident against the previous Winter King came in handy when a warrant for his arrest was issued by Olympus itself; in fact, he’s the only non-human target they missed.

He sneaks into the library, checking there are no hidden sensors. Possession of the N-Phone he’s using to do this would be suspicious even if it wasn’t a model personally modified by Null herself.

Kylon walks past the rows of servers used to store information accumulated over the millions of years of the Lar civilizations, some even dating back to the time they were using physical books.

Hidden among the servers, far away from any reading station, the N-Phone identifies a heat signal; judging by the body heat, it can’t belong to a Lar.

<I can’t believe you’re dumb enough to show up alone.> Kylon says, drawing his gun.

A human steps out of the shadows; covered as much as he can by his clothes, but the air is so cold that his nose is visibly red.

<Sending you the message wasn’t easy. You know who I am, right?> the human asks.

<Liosthenes, former officer of the Athenian Fleet and leader of the Federalist Party.>

<Add that one to the list of “formers”; haven’t you heard that Athena ordered the dissolution of the Olympian Senate?>

<I was busy avoiding capture. Does anyone know you’re on Boreas?> Kylon asks.

<No, I was very careful about that. Nobody knows.> Liosthenes answers.

<That’s not true! I do!> a female voice intervenes.

A woman moves into the light. She looks human, but the way she’s clearly unbothered by the freezing temperature and her superhuman beauty are a signal that she’s something more.

<Amaterasu, I told you to stay hidden until…>

<You brought a goddess here!?> Kylon exclaims, pointing the gun at her. The Sun Goddess stares at it, and the temperature of the room instantly increases by twenty degrees.

Only now the scanner picks her up: until now, she was exactly at room temperature.

<Don’t threaten my friends. I don’t like it when people threaten my friends.> she says.

<Kylon, please, she’s not with Athena. Nobody knows we’re here, I promise.>

<And I should I trust you? You used to work for her.>

<I also worked with Null before she became Empress. I don’t buy Athena’s story of Null murdering Hebe to take her place… especially when I have first-hand experience of one of her clones acting without her consent.> Liosthenes explains.

<It’s true! Lio was there when my mum… ehm… when Viper tried to hurt Noriko. I trust him, and I know Noriko trusted both of you, so can we please start planning how to go after the bad guys?> the young goddess pleads.

 

Washington D.C., Earth

Ganos Lal doesn’t have many reasons to trust Shinobu Tanaka. He might be the cousin of her goddess Null, but he’s also a former minion of her mother Leiko.

Still, given that they are currently the two most wanted people on the planet, she can’t be choosy.

She wakes up in the apartment complex where he led her the night before; she was so exhausted that she just fell asleep the second she laid on the couch.

The first thing she sees is the faceless head of a Nullbot, sitting motionless on a chair. Unlike most robots, he’s been dressed in human clothes.

<Feeling rested?> Shinobu asks her, without interrupting his tai chi morning routine.

<It’s been days since I’ve had decent sleep. Thank Null you found me; if you hadn’t rescued me, who knows what those awful people would have done to me!>

<Alien Deportation Enforcement. You would have been deported off-planet, most likely.>

<Those agents are native to this planet, right? Why do they want us to go?>

<Up until very recently, most people in this world were under the assumption that it was the center of the universe. Null changed everyone’s life within a decade, it’s only inevitable that some people would need a target to blame. Regimes are always looking for an excuse, and humans have a natural distrust from those that are different.> he explains.

<But you don’t.> Ganos says, finally understanding what her goddess saw in this man.

<I have been the target of that distrust.> Shinobu admits, stopping his routine and sitting next to her. She gets the feeling that he doesn’t open himself often.

<My father was the heir of the powerful Tanaka family. But he disgraced his name with his addiction to drugs and by fathering an illegitimate child… me. That meant that I would not inherit the Tanaka fortune. The glory and the burden would go to my aunt Leiko, and I would be raised to become a weapon for her.>

<I am sorry for this. I know much about people being grown by tyrants to become weapons.>

<Noriko showed me that my aunt had no honor. She let me take over the family’s legacy when she rejected it, even despite my… she does not judge how I don’t enjoy the company of women. I was on a mission for her when Athena captured the planet.> Shinobu explains.

<Is that how you found me? Null sent you a sign?> Genos asks.

<No, as far as I know, Earth has lost all contact with the outside. I was contacted by Todd Slate, like you were, to come here on urgent business.>

<You mentioned joining the Resistance. Is Todd its leader?>

<You are looking at the entirety of the Resistance.> Shinobu answers, pointing at the Nullbot.

<Are you serious!? There’s only two of us!?> she exclaims.

<Three, miss Lal. Apologies for not speaking up sooner, but I am saving energy.> the Nullbot speaks, but with a mechanical voice that she recognizes.

<O.D.I.N.? Is that you?>

<Relatively speaking. I was able to download my basic programming into this unit, but separated from my mainframe I am but a fraction of my former self.> the artificial intelligence explains.

<Can you control the rest of the Nullbots?> she asks.

<Only within a limited range, provided that their memory core has not been reformatted. I can, in fact, detect one approaching your front door.> O.D.I.N. answers.

Right at that second, someone loudly knocks on the door.

<Take cover.> Shinobu instructs her, with Ganos Lal hiding behind the couch while ready to create duplicates to assist her.

Shinobu carefully opens the door, hiding his high-tech katana behind his back; he lowers his guard once he faces another Nullbot.

<It’s dangerous for you to be out during the day. You should have waited until nightfall.> he complains, returning to his seat once the Nullbot closes the door behind him.

Unlike the other one, this model is only wearing a trenchcoat and a hat. Those don’t pose a problem when the robot opens up to let out the human who was hiding inside its hollowed-out chassis.

Todd Slate, Vice-President of the United States, adjusts his hair as he steps into the light.

<I don’t have much time, I can’t be out of sight for long before they notice.>

<Mister Slate, how…> Ganos Lal struggles to find the words, looking at the hollow Nullbot.

<Oh, that was Noriko’s idea, in case I found myself in danger. She made me promise not to tell Quantum or he’d want one too.> Todd explains.

<It would have been more helpful in my line of work.> Shinobu complains.

<You guys need to leave the city as soon as possible. I don’t know why Athena wants you two alive, but the A.D.E. will be looking everywhere for you. Take these.> Todd says when handing them an object that Ganos Lal doesn’t instantly recognize.

<Car keys? I already have a vehicle.> Shinobu points out.

<Noriko’s old bike, yes, but this one has better stealth. She developed it for the Global Defense Organization back when I was in charge, but this one has been updated significantly: I hope Athena’s people haven’t cracked its cloaking technology.>

<You’re not coming with us?> Ganos asks.

<I need to stay here to keep an eye on the Governor-General; besides, the longer I stay, the more they’ll believe you two are still in Washington.>

<Why would you call us here just to send us away?> she wonders.

<I left some coordinates in the car’s guiding system: it will lead you straight to the Junkyard.>

<Sounds pointless.> Shinobu reacts, raising an eyebrow.

<The Junkyard’s location was deleted from my memory after the latest Abyss incident; it is most likely that Athena does not possess this information.> O.D.I.N. confirms.

<Could she know it exists?> Todd asks.

<Unknown. I retained the information within my personality emulator, which would hold little interest to her. If she does know the Junkyard exists, I estimate she has no idea of what it is.>

<We don’t know either.> Ganos points out.

<The Junkyard is where Noriko keeps all her failed experiments and the pieces of technology that she discarded. It’s a long shot, I know, but I’m hoping that you might find something in there that could communicate with her: it’s the last place on Earth where Null technology has not been destroyed or confiscated.> Todd reveals.

<Present company excluded.> O.D.I.N. feels compelled to add.

<This is assuming that this new cloaking technology works. Otherwise, we would be leading Athena’s forces to discover a new treasure.> Shinobu points out the plan’s weak spot.

<What’s the worst that could happen if they do? It’s literally junk.> Todd responds.

<A goddess’s trash can be treasure to mortals.> Ganos Lal pontificates.

<Do any of you have a better idea?> Todd asks.

<No.> Shinobu admits.

<We can pray for Null’s intercession. If we pray hard enough, our faith…> Ganos starts to say.

<Still no.> Shinobu cuts her off.

<Come on, Ganos. Doesn’t your own religion say, “Null helps those who help themselves?”> Todd asks, sharing the annoyance with her zealotry.

<None of our sacred texts contain that sentence.>

<Well they should, right? Listen, I know Noriko better than any of you, and while I don’t think she’s a goddess, there’s one thing that I absolutely believe: she’d love this plan.>

<I don’t know…> Ganos hesitates.

<It sounds like a ludicrously dangerous plan with little chance of success that could very easily backfire.> Shinobu voices her doubts.

<And doesn’t that sound exactly like a Noriko Null plan?> Todd makes the final selling point.

<There is wisdom in your words; no wonder you were Null’s first lover. We will absolutely follow your plan.> Ganos Lal rapidly changes her mind.

Todd is almost as scared as Noriko was to see how easy it is to sway her beliefs.