When Max Black opens his eyes, his first instinct is to take a breath. Not only he discovers he can’t, thanks to the tube stuck inside his throat, but he’s also restrained by chains.
He transforms his body into light, but he finds it very disorienting: it’s hard to keep this form underwater. In fact, only now he realizes he’s completely submerged in water.
He looks around, trying to figure out where he is. The room is unfamiliar to him, but he does recognize that both Kari and Torn have also been captured: they are chained up like he was, but they are still unconscious.
If this was a normal situation he’d have rescued them already, but considering the tube attached to their mouths he wouldn’t know how to stop them from drowning.
<He’s awake!> he hears a woman shout. Sounds are already hard to hear when he’s made of light… he tried asking Null how he can possibly hear anything when all of his particles are replaced by photons, but he couldn’t understand a single word of her explanation… but underwater, it’s worse.
Adding to his confusion, the woman who shouted is human only from the waist up: the rest of her body, even though it’s covered by a skintight uniform, is clearly the tail of a fish.
He watches her press a button on the nearest wall, which activates an alarm of sorts, and then draw a speargun that she points at him.
Quantum raises his hands not because he’s afraid of being hurt, but because in his current state he doesn’t have a way to talk to her.
Still, the woman seems to be willing to spear him at any moment. She only lowers her weapon only at the suggestion of another half-human half-fish, a man that swims into the room.
<It’s okay, Myrrinha. He’s not a threat.>
Quantum looks at his friends and then at this man, hoping to convey a question like “what about them”. He’s somewhat relieved when the merman seems to understand.
<They’ll be fine, provided you don’t do anything stupid. You must be Quantum, right? Let’s talk.>
The merman’s black eyes turn completely blue for a second, and he casually waves his hand towards the human.
The water surrounding Quantum changes into air, but the rest of the room remains flooded. The merman swims a little closer; he swims out of the layer that separates the water from the air.
Without any water to support him, he would fall to the ground if a long chair didn’t appear literally out of thin air to let him rest his fish tail.
<You can change back into flesh now, Quantum. If you don’t, I’ll do it for you.>
Quantum notices that when the merman breathes, the air changes into water immediately before going into his nose.
<Transmutation powers, uh? Kind of neat. Must be how you flooded the Ragnarok’s bridge.> Quantum realizes, humoring his kidnapper by changing back into human.
<You were supposed to sleep much longer, Quantum. I didn’t change as much of your blood into sedatives as I did with the Demon and the Myridian… but considering how quickly it reverted back to its original stage, I imagine it wouldn’t have worked either.>
<Look, can we cut to the chase? I’m not really a big fan of bantering with villains, mister… uhm…>
<Call me Kestral. Though I wouldn’t call myself a villain.>
<Well you’re keeping my friends hostage and you stole our ship, soooo…>
<Your mission is to travel to the Aegian Galaxy to get in contact with the leader of the Atlantis Uprising, isn’t it? We don’t want you to figure out the location of our base, so we’re here to escort you there.> Kestral explains.
<Dude, you could’ve asked. This isn’t the best way to get on our good side!>
<The goal of the Atlantis Uprising is to overthrow divine rule and your leader is the Empress of Olympus. You can understand why we’re not taking any chances.>
<Neither am I. Release my friends and maybe we’ll go along with this thing.>
<No. You’re too dangerous to be left conscious.> Kestral objects.
<You said it, not me.> Quantum replies, transforming his body into electricity to give the merman enough of a shock to knock him out… or at least that was the intention: the electrons don’t travel more than a few inches before he’s forced back into human form.
<What the… did you just change me back!?>
<You’re not the only one here with the powers of a Drylon device. I prefer to work with matter, but I’m not above dealing with energy.> Kestral answers, his eyes turning blue and shining both as a boast and as a threat.
Not that he really needs it: Quantum’s body has been transmuted into solid stone.
<The only downside is that I often find myself monologuing.> Kestral admits, transmuting the air back into water.
His lieutenant swims closer, keeping her distance from Quantum: she really doesn’t trust those outsiders, and she’s not as confident as her boss.
<Sir, we would reach the base much faster if we could leave the enemy ship behind. Can’t you send it into the galactic void?>
<First of all we don’t know if they are enemies, Myrrinha, not yet. Second, the Ragnarok would be a tremendous asset for the cause. I’ve never sensed matter like its hull… it’s as durable as the core of a neutron star, but incredibly light. If I learn its atomic structure, I might be able to reproduce it.>
<Yes, sir. Should I return to the ship to study its database?>
<Can’t we download it on our ship?>
<Their technology is vastly superior to ours, our systems are not fully compatible. I would have more success handling this personally.>
<Very well, Myrrinha, proceed. But be careful… unless the rumors about the Vanguard are grossly overstated, we haven’t seen all of their tricks yet.>
N01-Ragnarok
Trinity proceeds slowly inside the passageway that leads to the bridge; it wasn’t intended as a regular access point, but as a way to repair some of the secondary systems.
It would be easier if she was still the size of a child, but when the three daughters of Kari Zel fuse into a single entity she grows to adult proportions.
<We’re not really having fun in this adventure.> she complains out loud.
“Don’t talk! We don’t know if they have sensors, you might be spotted!” she hears the reply from Nalani Null inside her head.
<You’re talking too!>
“Through your Neural Transmitter. You just have to think and I’ll hear.”
<We think we’re at the access panel.> Trinity says, still talking out loud.
“I wish I knew how to turn on the visual feed. Do you see any water around it? Is it leaking?”
<No, it’s not wet. Do we push or pull it?>
“I don’t know. Does it say anything?>
<It’s a door.>
“I mean is there anything written on it?”
<No. We’re just going to push it.>
“Wait, if the bridge is flooded, the pressure…” Nalani tries to explain, but the feed is broken down when Trinity forcefully opens the access panel: all the water inside the bridge is no longer contained, and gallons of water rush in her face.
Were she human, this could be very dangerous. But she has the physique of three Myridians, and she’s able to power through it to get inside the bridge.
<We’re in! We’re in!> she explains excitedly, but her happiness disappears quickly once she lays her eyes on the situation.
With most of the water gone, there are two mermen and a mermaid writhing in pain: they’re drowning, unable to breathe the air.
<Nalani, we’re killing the space mermaids!> Trinity shouts.
“What are you talking about!?”
<Maybe L.O.K.I. can help! How do we turn control back to him!?>
Fortunately for the hijackers, they are immediately teleported into an aquatic environment. But at the same time, a mermaid wearing a breathing mask on her face is teleported directly on the captain’s chair.
<I guess Kestral was right. Who are you?> Myrrinha asks.
<We’re Trinity, but we’re thinking of changing our name. Who are you?>
“I think she’s the one who took over the ship. Take her out, I can guide you to give control back to L.O.K.I.” Nalani instructs her.
<No, she’s not. Nobody is in control here except me.> Myrrinha replies, and both girl hear her through the Neural Transmitter as well.
“Wait, what are you doing on this channel? This is a secure line!”
<No machine is secure around me.> Myrrinha boast, and her eyes shine unnaturally.
A hologram of the ship’s artificial intelligence, represented as two intertwined snakes, appears before her.
<All doors on the ship are now locked as per your instructions, mistress.> L.O.K.I. says.
<Good. You will not take initiative again without asking for my permission.>
<Of course, mistress.>
<Wait, why are you taking orders from her?> Trinity asks.
<My apologies, but my programming has been altered. It appears mistress Myrrinha is in possession of a Drylon device that grants her mental access to computer devices.>
“Trinity, don’t just stand there, just punch her or something!!!” Nalani yells mentally.
<We can’t punch a mermaid! Look at how cute she is!>
<I can’t believe these are the people who took over Olympus.> Myrrinha sighs.
Hell, 163,000 light-years from Earth
Considering how much time she spends as Mortal Co-Empress of Olympus these days, sometimes Noriko Null forgets she’s also the head of state of Hell.
It’s not a position she’s proud of, and she’s more than happy to delegate day-to-day decisions to the current Lady Of All Demons… Agony, who also happens to be Torn’s wife.
The two women are now descending the staircase that leads to a library well beneath the surface, which is ideal for Noriko because she’s spared its harsh temperature… it’s about a hundred degrees inside, which is almost chilly for Demons.
<How are your worlds coping with Gaea’s curse?> Agony asks.
<They’re managing. Mostly by complaining, blaming me and wishing to go back to divine rule, sometimes not in this order.>
<They would rather be enslaved than go hungry?>
<That’s humans for you. Although it’s worse than just being hungry… once all plant life dies, a planet can survive for only so long.>
<If there is anything Demons can do for you, as an ally we would gladly intervene.>
<Thanks Agony, but I can’t send you to fight Gaea and you guys know nothing about plants. I figure my best plan of action is to find out why she wants to destroy the Keys of Heaven, but in order to do that I need to find out what this Heaven actually is.>
<Then you are in the right place. Welcome to the Infernal Library.> Agony says, opening a large door that leads to a truly immense room.
It’s lit by chandeliers made of glowing red daggers of Blood energy, and it houses endless rows of scaffolding. It holds everything from books to scrolls to stone tablets.
<This place makes the Library of Congress look like a newsstand!>
<Demon civilization is almost a billion years old, Null. Most of our records are stored here.>
<Do you have a digital catalogue or something?>
<Sorry, no. Our most recent copies were indexed… but those records were lost in the Anubis attack. If you want information on Heaven, you will have to look for it manually.>
<This may take a while.> Noriko sighs.
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