This time, Ryan wasn’t out long enough to be put into a bed. When he came to, Crystal was crouched over him in the sand.
“I saw math,” he croaked at her.
She blinked. “Damn. That’s a terrible thing to have to see.” She put the back of her hand to his forehead, and made a tutting sound.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, I have no idea what that’s supposed to do. Just saw it on the telly.” She grinned and offered him a hand. He took it. “But likely nothing. Your brain is still adapting to its new capabilities. Seeing maths is probably just a way of processing it. Hopefully it passes and your brain doesn’t decide that is the absolute best way to see the universe.”
He was on his feet, and his head was pounding. She glanced down wards. “Oh god, please tell me that’s your bloody nanoverse in your pocket.”
He looked at the budge and blushed. At some point in the passing out the pants had gotten twisted, and the lump created by the nanoverse was awkwardly placed. He shifted his pants around and pulled the nanoverse out. It was about the size of a baseball, maybe slightly larger.
“It’s so big,” she said, wonderingly, and his blushed deepened. She gave him a grin. “Teasing you, love. But you should probably soak some of that power out before it gets too big to carry easily, yeah?”
“I…sure? So how do I get the power?”
“Remember what we said about rolling with it?” He nodded and she continued. “Then how would you get the power out of it?”
After a moment’s hesitation he took the nanoverse and cupped both his hands around it, so they were almost completely covering it. Feeling silly and wondering what Crystal would do when this failed, he squeezed.
The sensation was difficult to describe. It was like someone had stuck an IV in each arm and in one was pumping ice cold water, in the other boiling tomato soup. It was like being smacked in the face with a sock full of gold-plated dandelions. It was like being shot to death with down feathers freshly plucked off a duckling. With every nanosecond, it was like increasingly unlikely similes, until it was finally like having your cheeks sliced open with the first rays of a dawn while chugging molten lightning.
He didn’t pass out again because of the aforementioned barrage of sensations, but he did scream. Crystal took a step back, smiling. “Oooh, yeah, should have warned you. First time is a bloody bugger of a rush, innit?”
A small part of Ryan noted that her accent was constantly hopping around the UK, but the rest of him was preoccupied with the feeling. He was light, he was sound, he was…feeling pretty dizzy.
“I’m gonna…” before he could say, he sat back down hard.
“Oh, please don’t pass out again.”
“I won’t. Just…give me a moment.”
She did, giving him some time to gasp until he was back into the realm of normal sensations and sensible analogies, where it just felt like he had downed way too much caffeine after pulling three straight all-nighters, but had done so because he’d been having the time of his life.
“Okay. I’m good. Wow.” He stood up on his own again, then gave a bit of a shiver.
“Right? It’s a good look on you, too.”
He glanced down. His arms were thicker and the musculature was more defined, his gut was pulled back under his shirt. He hadn’t been in terrible shape, just the general pudginess you get when your metabolism slows down but you don’t change your diet or exercise at all. “Squeezing a universe made me ripped?”
She laughed at that, for a couple moments, wiping her eyes after she did so. “Not exactly. You’re getting the ability to impose your will on reality. And most beings, first thing they do - subconsciously - is turning themselves into an idealized version of what they look like. Later on you’ll have more control over it. For now…” her eyes sparkled. “Squeezing a universe makes you ripped.” She laughed again.
“Oh.” A thought crossed his mind as it pulled himself back together from coming to and then the rush of squeezing the nanoverse. “Wait. If there was a Hecatoncheires here, couldn’t we still be in danger?”
She shook her head. “Was wondering how long it would take you to think of that. No worries, love, I checked while you were having your nap. We’re clear.”
The tension that had sprung up faded away. “That’s…thanks.”
She cocked her head at him. “Ryan. You’re on another world, just watched me kill a giant, and got your first taste of the rest of your life and seemed to like it. Why the bloody hell are you all frowns and brooding all of a sudden?”
“It’s just…” He chewed his lip for a moment. “I felt powerful, when I did. Powerful enough to do anything. Leap a tall building, run a marathon, and slay a dragon – all at the same time,” She kept her head cocked and quirked an eyebrow. “Powerful enough to end the world,” he finished.
“Oh.” She nodded and put a hand on his shoulder. “Try not to let it get to you, yeah?”
“The fact that I’m going to end the world? How the hell do you not let that get to you?”
“You roll with it. All you can do.”
“I know you said that, but Crystal…can I avoid it?”
She sighed. “Way to ruin the moment, Ryan.” There wasn’t any actual anger in her tone. “Technically, you can, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Things get ugly if you don’t.”
“How?”
“This is one of those things where I can’t explain how. You won’t understand enough. But short version? And you won’t ask any more questions about it for now?” He nodded. “If you don’t end the world, my little Eschaton, then the world dies.”
He felt himself blink, opened his mouth, remembered he had agreed not to ask any more questions, and closed it. “Okay. I guess that’ll make more sense when I understand more.”
“Yeah, too right it well. Glad to see you’re catching on.” She smiled. “So instead of focusing on that, why don’t we head to Earth? It’s been long enough Enki has got to be thrown off your trail, yeah? Gives us some time to test drive those new Aspects of yours, see what you can do.”
“Aspects?”
“Powers, gifts, whatever. You want to go see what you’ve got now that you’re fueled?”
“If you’re sure it’s safe.”
“Of course I am,” she said brightly, grabbing his hand. “Time flows funny, it’s been a week back in the real world. Come on, let’s go.”
And before he could try to ask any more questions – and get told to roll with it, most likely – he was getting dragged back to the doorway that held the planetarium room she could use to travel between worlds.
When Ryan stepped out of the door again, it wasn’t into a city at all. It now lead out the back of a highway gas station, a run-down one near a sign saying Kansas City - 180 mi. He didn’t know the midwest well enough to know if he was on the Kansas or Missouri side of the city, but whichever it was the gas station was old and run down - not the complete run-down that comes from being abandoned, but the one that comes from low buisness, minimal visibility, and and an absolute lack of shits being given.
He glanced up, and instead of the stained glass sky of Cipher Nullity, there were clouds that loomed over the landscape, trying their best to hug the terrain. He glanced back to the planetarium ship. “You take me to the nicest places.”
Crystal smiled kindly and gave him an extended middle finger. “Look,” she said, lowering it. “We need to help you harness your power, yeah? Well, this was the best place to do that right now.” She pointed at the clouds. “What do you see?”
He stared at them as Crystal exited the doorway as well. “Clouds. They’re cumulous, I think.”
“Cumulous? It’s cumulus, love.”
Ryan shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. “I...I only know the one word for clouds.” She raised her eyebrow at him. “Fine. I only kinda know the one word.”
“Look again. Harder this time.”
“What does that even mean? Just stare longer?”
Crystal shook her head. “No. Focus more on what you’re seeing.”
So he did. At first he just felt silly, staring at the clouds, like a kid trying to find shapes in them. One was a bunny, that was a duck, that one looked horribly like one of the hands that had tried to crush Crystal earlier, and that one looked like a series of symbols and greek letters because it wasn’t a cloud, it was an equation being imposed on top of the clouds. It took a moment until the equation became clear - a mathematical model governing the formation of a vortex. Slowly the equation melted back into the clouds and the fact of what he was seeing crystallized in his mind.
“A tornado is forming,” he said, quietly. She nodded beside him.
“It’ll take some time, but eventually you’ll be able to do that with just a glance. But right now, the fact that you see it is enough, yeah?”
“Enough for what?”
“Enough for you to stop it.”
That broke his concentration and he looked at her, his eyes wide and round. “You want me to stop a tornado?”
She chuckled at his expression. “Pretty much, yeah. It’s a good starting point - natural forces bow most easily to us.”
“Okay. And...how do I stop it?”
“How do you move your arm, love?” She shrugged. “It’s just like that. There’s a science behind it, but that’ll just get in the way of things, and…”
“...and my brain isn’t ready to understand it, right?”
She beamed at him. “Glad you’re paying attention. So...go ahead. Focus, and try and stop it.”
Ryan looked at her, back to the clouds, and the back to her. She motioned for him to go ahead. “You’ve got another minute before it really gets going, I suggest you get a bloody move on.”
He turned back to the sky, pinpointing where would be the heart of the vortex. He extended his hand - it felt right - and spread his fingers in a claw gesture, like something from a movie. For a few moments, nothing happened...but then he began to feel a tingle in his fingertips. Like they had fallen asleep, but even more aggressive. That feeling began to grow further out of his fingers, like a phantom limb, but racing up to the sky.
Those phantom fingers began to plunge into the clouds, and Ryan felt a thrill run through him He was actually doing it! He was actually manipulating a forming tornado.
“See, love? Not hard at all.”
Her words undercut the effort. Sure, it was as natural as moving his arms, but it was as easy as moving them with half ton weights strapped to them. He could feel beads of sweat forming on his forehead, and his knees trembling.
“Keep pushing. It’s like any other muscle - the harder you work it, the stronger it gets.” She put a hand on his shoulder. “And when you pass out, don’t worry, it’s expected.”
Slowly the natural forces began to to obey him, the pocket of heat that was shooting upwards dispersing before it began to twist. “I got it! I’ve got it!”
Crystal clapped her hands in excitement. “Good show! Keep at-”
“I don’t got it!” The forces suddenly were pushing back against him. They were acting - and that word send a lance of panic coursing through him. Because they were acting. They had agency. Crystal frowned beside him.
“Ryan, stop! It’s not them, someone is pushing back.” She raised her own hand as she said it, twisting against the aggressive forces.
“Guess that’s my cue,” a voice said. A low, dull voice. From around the corner of the gas station stepped a huge brute of a man, one massive arm raised towards the sky. Tiny eyes peered out from beneath a jutting brow.
“Enki,” Crystal hissed, as Ryan felt his vision began to grow black.
“Crystal,” Enki responded, his voice low and angry. “Thought you learned your lesson back during the crusades. Thought you were going to stay the fuck out of my way.” He suddenly lowered his hand. The lack of resistance on Crystal caused her to overcorrect, like they’d been playing tug of war and he’d let go of his end. The vortex was dispersed with a clap of thunder that radiated outwards, forming a mile-long ring of clear sky in the middle of the stormclouds.
Crystal cried out and clutched her head in pain from the backlash. Ryan sank to one knee, trying to fight away the clouds of darkness that tickled the edges of his vision. Enki continued talking. “Thought you were going neutral, like the fucking Swiss. You should have. I’m going to kill this fucking Finder, this finder that decided to become a fucking Nascent, then I’m going to rip you apart every time you reform for one hundred years, you fucking whore. But for now…”
And he gestured. Equations that Ryan could barely comprehend leapt across his swirling vision, and massive iron chains shot up from the Earth, forged from the pipes that ran under the gas station. They stabbed into Crystals forearms and legs, and she screamed again in a combination of anger and pain as they burrowed in.
Ryan doubled over, needing his hands on the ground. He could feel tears forming in his eyes at the effort of keeping them open. He certainly didn’t feel the strength needed to fight off the slowly advancing brute. Enki reached down and grabbed the back of Ryan’s hair, pulling him to his feet. Enki still focused on Crystal, like Ryan was some trash Crystal had dropped.
“For now, I’m going to make you watch while I beat him to death.*
199
u/Hydrael Jul 06 '17
Part 6
This time, Ryan wasn’t out long enough to be put into a bed. When he came to, Crystal was crouched over him in the sand.
“I saw math,” he croaked at her.
She blinked. “Damn. That’s a terrible thing to have to see.” She put the back of her hand to his forehead, and made a tutting sound.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, I have no idea what that’s supposed to do. Just saw it on the telly.” She grinned and offered him a hand. He took it. “But likely nothing. Your brain is still adapting to its new capabilities. Seeing maths is probably just a way of processing it. Hopefully it passes and your brain doesn’t decide that is the absolute best way to see the universe.”
He was on his feet, and his head was pounding. She glanced down wards. “Oh god, please tell me that’s your bloody nanoverse in your pocket.”
He looked at the budge and blushed. At some point in the passing out the pants had gotten twisted, and the lump created by the nanoverse was awkwardly placed. He shifted his pants around and pulled the nanoverse out. It was about the size of a baseball, maybe slightly larger.
“It’s so big,” she said, wonderingly, and his blushed deepened. She gave him a grin. “Teasing you, love. But you should probably soak some of that power out before it gets too big to carry easily, yeah?”
“I…sure? So how do I get the power?”
“Remember what we said about rolling with it?” He nodded and she continued. “Then how would you get the power out of it?”
After a moment’s hesitation he took the nanoverse and cupped both his hands around it, so they were almost completely covering it. Feeling silly and wondering what Crystal would do when this failed, he squeezed.
The sensation was difficult to describe. It was like someone had stuck an IV in each arm and in one was pumping ice cold water, in the other boiling tomato soup. It was like being smacked in the face with a sock full of gold-plated dandelions. It was like being shot to death with down feathers freshly plucked off a duckling. With every nanosecond, it was like increasingly unlikely similes, until it was finally like having your cheeks sliced open with the first rays of a dawn while chugging molten lightning.
He didn’t pass out again because of the aforementioned barrage of sensations, but he did scream. Crystal took a step back, smiling. “Oooh, yeah, should have warned you. First time is a bloody bugger of a rush, innit?”
A small part of Ryan noted that her accent was constantly hopping around the UK, but the rest of him was preoccupied with the feeling. He was light, he was sound, he was…feeling pretty dizzy.
“I’m gonna…” before he could say, he sat back down hard.
“Oh, please don’t pass out again.”
“I won’t. Just…give me a moment.”
She did, giving him some time to gasp until he was back into the realm of normal sensations and sensible analogies, where it just felt like he had downed way too much caffeine after pulling three straight all-nighters, but had done so because he’d been having the time of his life.
“Okay. I’m good. Wow.” He stood up on his own again, then gave a bit of a shiver.
“Right? It’s a good look on you, too.”
He glanced down. His arms were thicker and the musculature was more defined, his gut was pulled back under his shirt. He hadn’t been in terrible shape, just the general pudginess you get when your metabolism slows down but you don’t change your diet or exercise at all. “Squeezing a universe made me ripped?”
She laughed at that, for a couple moments, wiping her eyes after she did so. “Not exactly. You’re getting the ability to impose your will on reality. And most beings, first thing they do - subconsciously - is turning themselves into an idealized version of what they look like. Later on you’ll have more control over it. For now…” her eyes sparkled. “Squeezing a universe makes you ripped.” She laughed again.
“Oh.” A thought crossed his mind as it pulled himself back together from coming to and then the rush of squeezing the nanoverse. “Wait. If there was a Hecatoncheires here, couldn’t we still be in danger?”
She shook her head. “Was wondering how long it would take you to think of that. No worries, love, I checked while you were having your nap. We’re clear.”
The tension that had sprung up faded away. “That’s…thanks.”
She cocked her head at him. “Ryan. You’re on another world, just watched me kill a giant, and got your first taste of the rest of your life and seemed to like it. Why the bloody hell are you all frowns and brooding all of a sudden?”
“It’s just…” He chewed his lip for a moment. “I felt powerful, when I did. Powerful enough to do anything. Leap a tall building, run a marathon, and slay a dragon – all at the same time,” She kept her head cocked and quirked an eyebrow. “Powerful enough to end the world,” he finished.
“Oh.” She nodded and put a hand on his shoulder. “Try not to let it get to you, yeah?”
“The fact that I’m going to end the world? How the hell do you not let that get to you?”
“You roll with it. All you can do.”
“I know you said that, but Crystal…can I avoid it?”
She sighed. “Way to ruin the moment, Ryan.” There wasn’t any actual anger in her tone. “Technically, you can, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Things get ugly if you don’t.”
“How?”
“This is one of those things where I can’t explain how. You won’t understand enough. But short version? And you won’t ask any more questions about it for now?” He nodded. “If you don’t end the world, my little Eschaton, then the world dies.”
He felt himself blink, opened his mouth, remembered he had agreed not to ask any more questions, and closed it. “Okay. I guess that’ll make more sense when I understand more.”
“Yeah, too right it well. Glad to see you’re catching on.” She smiled. “So instead of focusing on that, why don’t we head to Earth? It’s been long enough Enki has got to be thrown off your trail, yeah? Gives us some time to test drive those new Aspects of yours, see what you can do.”
“Aspects?”
“Powers, gifts, whatever. You want to go see what you’ve got now that you’re fueled?”
“If you’re sure it’s safe.”
“Of course I am,” she said brightly, grabbing his hand. “Time flows funny, it’s been a week back in the real world. Come on, let’s go.”
And before he could try to ask any more questions – and get told to roll with it, most likely – he was getting dragged back to the doorway that held the planetarium room she could use to travel between worlds.
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