Beyond The Impossible

Atlantis, Aegian Galaxy

Poseidon’s trident touches the floor of his throne room. The water that fills the place retracts, forming an air bubble around Noriko Null and Ulysses.

Then the air molecules are transmuted into a golden cage that surrounds the two mortals; if the throne room were any smaller it would feel like a prison, but it’s massive enough to qualify as an arena.

<Is this really necessary?> Noriko asks, using one of her Genius Guns to tap against the cage to make sure it’s solid.

<I will allow no outside interference to ruin the spectacle of your fight. And you won’t be tempted to save your allies from the wrath of my children.> Poseidon says.

<They’ve kicked their butts before, they hardly need my help. Once I kill Ulysses, will you tell them to stop and leave Roxiana into my custody again?>

<The Angel of Death is guilty of many crimes in my galaxy. She must pay for them.>

<She already died once, I thought that’d be enough!>

<Did she ever tell you how she died?> Ulysses asks. He activates something attached to his belt, and a high-tech lance is summoned into his hands. Noriko recognizes this as the same technology she uses to draw her guns; a technology she never authorized to be given to anyone.

<I killed her. Athena’s orders. How else do you think she got hold of the Nexus?>

<And Hermes told me he stole it from Athena, giving it to the Mortal Liberation Front that worked for you… but you know what? I don’t care. I don’t trust a single word any of you two say.>

<He is the god of liars.> Ulysse admits.

<You deal in lies, Ulysses, but I deal in facts. And here’s a fact: you’ve cheated death for the last time. Once I kill you, you will stay dead.> Null warns him, firing her guns.

The kinetic energy unleashed bounces off an invisible field, and Ulysses just stands there.

<I have countermeasures for all of your tricks, Null. You may be the smartest girl in the universe, but there’s a reason why I’m a legend in two galaxies.> he boasts, electrifying the lance and charging at her.

Normally she would trust her forcefield to protect her, but based on a hunch she moves out of the way at the last second. Good thing she did, because the lance completely ignores her forcefield: with a swift motion, Ulysses uses the weapon to knock the gun out of her hand.

Noriko’s first instinct is to use the gun’s remote recall to have it fly back to her hand, but it doesn’t work. She instead activates the secondary mode of the other Genius Gun, which in half of a second transforms itself into the hilt of a laser sword.

Her plan was to use the sword to cut the lance in half, but it seems protected against that. Ulysses catches her by surprise, plunging the spear forward. It cuts through her leather jacket, fortunately missing her body. The electrical current released by the jacket was intended to knock out any mortal opponent, but once again it does nothing against Ulysses.

<Nice toys.> she has to admit, transforming the sword back into a gun and firing it, aiming for Ulysses’ head. The same shield that blocked the blast of kinetic energy also tanks the plasma bullet, despite the limited range.

<You’re out of options.> he tells her, using the lance to rip the jacket; even a glance tells her that he specifically disabled the controls of all of its defensive technologies.

<You have no idea of how many firing modes I have on this thing.> Noriko tells him.

<Thirty-seven. Thirty-eight if you brought the Black Hole Bullets you used against Hera, and we both know you can’t use those at such a close range without killing yourself.>

<Nobody likes a know-it-all. Also, it’s actually thirty-nine right now.> she says, letting go of the gun: if flies towards Ulysses, magnetizing the lance and taking it out of his hands.

Both weapons fly towards the cage, and they stick against its golden bars.

<Why did you think I touched the cage with the gun before we started? I was testing its magnetic properties. Now we’re both disarmed.> she says, taking off her damaged leather jacket to get more freedom of movement.

<Unusual move. Without your weapons, you lose all potential advantages.> Ulysses analyses.

<Don’t worry. I kept my best weapon.> Null replies, her silver eyes shining as she taps a finger on her temple.

 

On the other side of the Throne Room

While Noriko Null’s fight with Ulysses has Poseidon’s attention, she’s not the only human engaged in a duel. But even the God of the Sea would have trouble following this one.

Quantum and Proteus are chasing each other in a dizzying sequence of transformations. It’s a frustrating fight for Quantum: when he changes into electricity to electrocute him, Proteus turns into a plank of wood. When he attacks him as a laser, the god becomes a mirror.

<Dude, are you even trying to fight me?> Quantum asks as radio waves, realizing the god has only reacted to his attacks and he’s not tried any real attack.

<I liKE haVing FUn. paRTicLe shAPEshifTIng, whAt a nEat TRick!> the god gleefully admits, then taking inspiration from Quantum he changes into gamma rays.

<That’s enough radiation to rival an H-bomb! Are you nuts!?> Quantum protests, changing into a powerful magnetic field to redirect the radiation towards space.

<tHat iS the FUn of iT!> Proteus replies, descending as a lightning bolt. But he stops, changing back into a frail old man when he sees that Quantum is back to his human form and raising his hands.

<WHAt are YOu doINg? We ARE noT plaYing aNYmore?>

<I bet you can’t turn into everything that I can turn into.>

<A CHallenGe? I am THe beSt shapeSHifter IN the uniVErse! TrY mE!>

<Let’s see if you can change into this.> Quantum teases him, changing his body into anti-matter.

Proteus copies him with ease, but there’s a fundamental difference. As soon as Quantum’s anti-matter touches the water and disintegrates it, he immediately changes both himself and the gamma rays the destruction created into harmless neutrinos.

Proteus, instead, goes through with it: Quantum knows first-hand the disorientation of becoming an anti-matter explosion, and he correctly predicted Proteus wouldn’t be ready for it.

Like he did with his own explosion, Quantum’s magnetic field form fully contains the radiation unleashed. And the tidal wave generated by both crashes into the dome of lead created by Kestral’s Drylon device by transmuting the water around them.

<You know he can regenerate from anything, right? This won’t kill him.> Kestral reminds him.

<Sure, it wouldn’t kill me either. But it took me several tries before I learned to reform myself in less than a week after an anti-matter explosion… let’s hope he’s not a fast learner!>

<None of them are.> Torn comments, coming out of a pentagram portal.

<Where were you?> Quantum asks him.

<Despoina tried to kill me. Then I went to check on Kari to see if she needed help.>

<And…?>

<She didn’t.> Torn replies, with an answer that applies to both Despoina and Kari Zel.

 

Inner Ring

The last Kari Zel duplicate is re-absorbed into the main body, and she takes a deep breath from the respirator that allowed her to fight underwater. She’s surrounded by tens of thousands of unconscious Sirens: it was a tough fight, but none of them managed to lay a finger on her.

<I think I needed that ego boost. Maybe fighting gods isn’t my forte, but this is the army that I’ve enjoyed defeating single-handedly the most.> she tells herself.

<You! Mortal slave girl! Untangle me this instant!>

Despite the size of the hallway that links the Inner Ring to the Throne Room, Despoina’s voice is so loud that Kari could hear her just fine.

She finds the goddess impaled on a wall by multiple Blood swords: even when she tries to get away by changing her body into a green liquid, she still can’t slither past those blades.

<This is ridiculous! Why can’t I move!?>

<I’d guess the Blood is piercing through your soul, not your body, so shapeshifting won’t do you any good. I wouldn’t ask Torn to confirm, though, unless you want a headache on top of that.>

<You must free me! You’re from my mother’s planet, aren’t you? Then as the daughter of Demeter, I am your master and you have to bow down to me!>

<Ulysses didn’t explain to you how the Vanguard works, didn’t he? It takes us a while to get any traction, I’ll give you that, but when we’re rolling? Gods bow down to us, sweetie.>

 

At the center of the Aegian Galaxy

The supermassive black hole at the center of Poseidon’s galaxy is a rare sight for anyone, even for gods. Rhodos has never seen it before, and she has to employ all her strength to avoid being caught in its gargantuan gravitational field.

Skorpios, on the other hand, floats a few feet away from her just fine: her power over spacetime is far greater than any astronomical phenomenon.

Rhodoes knows little about this mortal, other than she used to obey Ulysses and that it was a terrible mistake to attack her alone.

<Take us out of here! I order you to take be back to my father!>

<No.> Skorpios just replies, having absolutely no patience for the hysterics of gods, and she fades into a warp in space.

 

Atlantis Star Ocean

Vesta never learned how to swim; considering her ability to fly, it was never a necessary skill on any planet she visited.

But Atlantis is unlike any planet: it’s surrounded on all three dimensions by an ocean the size of a solar system. Moving through this water is much different than flying in space, and she’s having trouble achieving enough speed to outswim the eldest of Poseidon.

<Fleeing will not save you from retribution!> Triton yells at her; he doesn’t even have to use radio waves to communicate, since Vesta is still close enough to be reached by sound.

He slows her down even further by changing the density of the water in front of her; it’s like creating a wall in her path, and she crashes into it.

<I’m not fleeing. This looks like it’s far enough.> Vesta says, catching her breath and accidentally swallowing water. She’s been among mortals for so long that sometimes she forgets she doesn’t need to breathe.

<Far enough for what?> Triton asks, pointing his bident of Neutral Matter at her.

<To fight you.> Vesta answers; her body is then engulfed in flames, which burn despite being underwater. The heat she generates is enough to evaporate millions of gallons of water around her; luckily for the inhabitants of Atlantis, her instinctive knowledge of thermodynamics means she really did pick the right distance to avoid causing any real damage to mortals.

<I didn’t have anything against you until I visited this galaxy, Triton. I’ve seen how your father treats his subjects; the way you limit their development is simply disgusting.>

<I don’t need lessons for a minor goddess without a realm! I am the Firstborn of Poseidon, and you are in my domain!> Triton protests, conjuring a stream of pressurized water that he shoots towards Vesta with enough kinetic energy to reduce a mountain to ashes.

Much to his surprise, it’s reduced to individual atoms when it reaches Vesta’s fire.

<I never claimed to be a major goddess. But you’re wrong: I do have a realm, Triton. You are, in fact, in my domain now.> Vesta explains.

The water surrounding them is heated into vapor, then it turns into something more by the time she has heated it by several thousand degrees. And she keeps increasing the temperature.

<This is why limiting mortals is wrong, Triton. On Earth, I learned that water is just one state of matter. Heat it enough, and you can turn into a gas of hydrogen and oxygen surrounded by free electrons… plasma. The fire of the stars. The more water you throw my way, the more fuel I have.>

The temperature around Triton is now hotter than the surface of a star, and Vesta shows no signs of slowing down. This is too much for his pride: he’s heard tales of how weak his sister was for hundreds of thousands of years.

<It doesn’t matter! Water can extinguish any fire, and my control of my element is much superior to yours!> he shouts, in denial about his situation as he doubles and redoubles the amount of water he sends her way.

<You don’t get it. You control water, but I. AM. FIRE.>

For a brief moment, the cosmic anomaly that is the Atlantis sector has a star that illuminates its waters. But once it dims, Vesta is floating in a sea of water vapor holding in her hands the body of the merman god… covered in third degree burns.