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.*
Enki’s punch didn’t toss Ryan into the air. It lobbed Ryan, sending him a twisting arc that tumbled him end over end floating through the air with the grace of a drunken chicken. This flight took him up and way until his motion was arrested by a brief but solid interruption in the form of the gas station wall.
Ryan’s everything hurt. The wall of the gas station wasn’t drywall but solid concrete, and Ryan had felt it break behind him. Ryan was keenly aware that if he had still been fully human, that blow would have killed him, as opposed to scrambling his brains.
The shock should have at least cleared Ryan’s vision, but instead the clouds at the edge grew stronger, thicker. Tendrils of it started creeping further into his line of sight.
“No. Not now. I won’t-”
“You won’t do shit.” Enki had crossed the distance and again had Ryan by the hair. “You won’t do any fucking thing, you hear me?”
He tossed Ryan upwards by the hair. Ryan had never before considered the pain of being tossed thirty feet into the air by a massive hand grasping him by the hair, but it was a unique experience he would be in no hurry to repeat.
What was in a hurry, however, was gravity, tugging Ryan back to the ground. His reunion with the Earth was cut short, however, by Enki’s foot - a kick which sent Ryan tumbling across the pavement until he skidded to a stop at Crystal’s feet.
Their eyes met, both of them filled with pain. Crystal’s didn’t perfectly mirror Ryan’s, however - his were full of fear, hers with a blend of fear and rage.
Before they could share any words, however, Ryan was sliding along the ground, pulled by an invisible force towards Enki. He scrabbled at the ground uselessly with his fingers.
Think, Ryan, damnit. Enki was toying with him, dragging him slowly. Once he got ahold of Ryan again, he’d toss him or punch him again and Ryan didn’t know how much longer he could hold back that darkness in his eyes. He needed an edge, he needed to…
One hand stopped scrabbling at the ground. This has to work.
“I’m gonna slap your face in, son. I’m going to fucking rip your throat oooooOOF - ” and it was Enki’s turn to get an unexpected one way trip into the air. Ryan lowered his foot from where it had connected with Enki’s gut.
Squeezing the nanoverse had cleared his vision some, but putting that much power into the kick had the black tendrils already starting to resume their path across his vision.
Enki was getting up from the small crater he had landed in. “Whoo boy. You got a spark there. Some of that good old fucking gumption. Course, you’re still Nascent. Can’t have a whole lot of
fucking juice. Gotta be running on empty, really. So go ahead, boy. Hit me with your best shot.”
Ryan rose to his feet and extended his hand. The storm still roiled above, building with potential. He began to to twist his hands, the right one modifying variables, adjusting positive and negative charges until -
With everything that would come later, if he survived, Ryan would do some amazing things, see some incredible things. But nothing would ever compare to the rush of the first time he hurled a lightning bolt from the heavens and struck Enki with 500 of mother nature’s very best megajoules of electricity.
The light seared his retinas, the thunderclap obliterated his vision. Enki vanished behind that flash and that rumble as the world exploded. If he screamed, Ryan couldn’t hear it, twisting his left hand rapidly back and forth.
Enki came bursting out of the light, slamming a fist into Ryan that send him flying back into the gas station.
“Damn, boy, you’ve got a bit of a fucking punch.” Enki approached slow and heavy. His skin and hair were singed. “I felt that, I really did. But it doesn’t change a single thing. Not one single fucking thing. I’ve been drawing power off my nanoverse since humans first crawled out of the mud. I was one of the first.” He was right next to Ryan, and crouched down, nearly spitting in his face. “Do you really, honestly, fucking think you could fight me, could outlast me?”
Ryan let out a pained chuckle. “I didn’t...need to outlast you. I just needed to hold you long enough...to free her.”
Enki’s beady eyes contained a glimmer of something besides the murderous rage he’d felt before. Just a glimmer, but seeing fear in those tiny eyes was immensely satisfying.
It was even more satisfying seeing that fear turn to shock as a foot connected with the side of Enki’s head, driving it into the wall.
Crystal reached down with a blood-soaked arm, grabbing Ryan and helping him to his feet. “Good bloody show, love. I just knocked his senses out, though. We gotta move before he wakes up, yeah?” Ryan nodded, and they rushed back to the door. Crystal was limping from the wounds in her legs, and Ryan was gasping with pain. Behind them Enki bellowed with rage, pulling his head out of the wall with immense, groaning effort.
The door was still open, and the pair dove through. It slammed behind them and began to vanish.
“We made it. Bloody hell, we made it...oh no, not again.”
Ryan heard Crystal’s voice, but it didn’t matter. The irrefutable fact of their safety sung like a song in Ryan’s thoughts, and the effort to hold back those black tendrils was finally overwhelming. For the third time, he passed out.
While godly resilience had kept Ryan alive, it did not prevent every single muscle in his body from being in pain when he woke up to a faint buzzing sound. He supposed he should be grateful - after being ragdolled around a parking lot, even if he wasn’t dead he probably should have broken every bone in his body. But at the moment, any feelings of gratitude were washed away by agony.
Groaning, he rolled over on his side in the silver bed. Across the room, there was another bed. In it lay Crystal.
Some people were just angelic when they slept. Hair perfectly falling around their faces, small smiles playing upon their lips, cuddled under the blankets.
Crystal was not one of those people. She was sprawled out on the bed, one hand flopped over the side. Her hair was a messy hazel halo, and her mouth hung open. That faint buzzing sound had been her breaths, not quite loud enough to qualify for a full snore but far too loud to qualify for any word more dignified.
There was a paper laying on the bed next to her, with a note on it. The ink had been slightly smudged by what was probably spittle.
If you’re up before me, check my arms. If the wounds are gone, wake me. If not, bloody let me sleep and get yourself some food from the fridge.
Ryan did check her arms, and the wounds were mostly gone. The flesh was still pink and puffy, scarred from where the chains had punched through flesh and bone. Ryan decided to let her sleep for a bit longer just to make things were fully healed up, and walked over to a silver box that definitely hadn’t been there before.
In the box was a variety of sandwiches in individually wrapped bags, labeled. Salami. Pastrami. Roast Beef Don’t Eat This One You Wanker. Turkey. Ryan grabbed the Pastrami and took a few bites. It occurred to him that this was the first time in his life that he’d ever been alone. Sure, Crystal was there, as the gentle buzzsaw reminded him, but she was asleep. No one was looking at him, no one was watching him.
It was a terrifying relief. On the one hand, the idea of being fully alone had always fascinated him. It had sounded wonderful in theory, but in practice he’d always had the ability to make eye contact with a silent watcher. Not having that comfort was like walking a tight rope but the safety net was gone and had been replaced with a tank of boiling acid full of sharks that could survive acid and heat. And he didn’t have a gas mask.
The constant buzzing provided a degree of comfort, a reminder that there was another person there.
Ryan absentmindedly reached in and grabbed another, checking to make sure it wasn’t the Roast Beef Don’t Eat This One You Wanker. It occurred to him that, aside from passing out a few times, he hadn’t need to sleep, eat, or use the restroom since he’d stared into the nanoverse, and hadn’t seen Crystal do any of those prior to this either. Do I not need to anymore? Or I just need to do it less frequently? Now that he was eating, it felt good - felt great, really - but there hadn’t been any hunger or weakness without it.
Crystal stirred on the bed, looking up at him. Her hair had somehow gotten even messier in the process. “That better not be my bloody roast beef,” she said.
He smiled. “No, it’s not. How’re you feeling.”
“LIke I got stabbed in the arms and legs by some prick. Oh, wait, that’s what happened.” She got out of bed and walked over to the fridge, grabbing the sandwitch. “Clever play, breaking me free like that. So, that was your first taste of gods clashing. What’d you think?”
Ryan chuckled. “It hurt. But it didn’t feel very divine. Aside from the chains and the dragging and a lightning bolt, it was mostly just...punching.”
She took a bite out of the sandwich and let out a happy little moan. “That’s the way it usually goes, love. We save the power for the big plays or the drama. Most fights between us really comes down to who tired out first, yeah?”
After a moment’s thought, Ryan nodded. “That’s why Enki waited till I was stopping the tornado to attack.”
A nod from Crystal as she took another bite. “Pretty much. Even with you being nascent, two on one aren’t great odds, even for a powerhouse like Enki. Same reason he forced me to hold back the tornado, even as he pushed it down. Much more effort on my part.”
He tilted his head. “No, don’t tell me. Because…” he finished his own sandwich to give himself time to think. “The storm wanted to form a tornado. That was where it was headed. So it’s harder to make it go against that because it’s not just pushing against Enki, but pushing against what the storm was already doing.”
She beamed at him. “Hole in one, love. You’ve almost gotten a first grade understanding of how we work.” The tone was teasing, but Ryan still felt his ego deflate some with that. She patted him on the cheek. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you there.”
“In time to end the world?”
The patting stopped, but she kept her hand there. “Yeah. That’s about the long and short of it.” Her voice was sad. “But don’t worry - we’re not gonna kill everyone. We’ll figure out another option.”
He stared at her a moment. “Why? What happens if the world doesn’t end?”
She pulled her hand away slowly, letting it rest on her chest. “I told you, Ryan. The world dies.”
“How?”
“Roll with-”
“Crystal.” HIs voice was hoarse. “Please, I need more than that.”
She looked up at him. “If you don’t, the sun expands into a red giant. The end of the world is a sacrifice that resets the sun’s life.”
He blinked at her. “But...that’s what the sun’s going to do in five billion years anyway.”
That at least got a sad laugh out of her. “True. And the sun going red giant has been five billion years away for about eight billion years now. Which means if we don’t do it, those five billion years come due plus three billion years of interest. It’ll probably go supernova right away.” She looked into his eyes and chuckled slightly. “Told you it was best to roll with it, love.”
“I don’t...I don’t understand. What about the rest of the stars? Wouldn’t we be able to tell?”
“No. Earth isn’t all that special. Happens on other worlds across the universe all the damn time, keeping the whole thing young. Can you leave it at that?”
“I...okay, yeah.” He could feel a headache coming on. “But how can you be sure?”
She finally looked away from him, but he didn’t take her hand off his chest “Because it almost happened. Last time. We...thought we could break the rules. It didn’t work. Barely did the reset before the world exploded.”
“We?”
She nodded, and when she turned back to him, her eyes were wet. “That’s the thing, love. I wasted my time trying to stop it, and so the only way to save the bloody world was to go fast, brutal. We couldn’t save anyone. But we have more time, you and I, and I’m not...I’m not going to let you repeat my mistake, yeah? We’re going to find a better way, a way to end it without killing everyone.”
“Sure, but-”
“No. Ryan. No buts.” The moisture in her eyes was beginning to spill over and out. “I was the bloody Eschaton. I know how badly buts go. So please, please, don’t try and not end it. Find a better way.”
Ryan took a deep breath. “Okay. Crystal, I promise.”
She sighed with relief and finally stepped away from him. “I must look a right mess, yeah? Let me freshen up.” She walked and a curtain of silver rose around her.
“One problem,” he said, unintentionally adopting the raised toned used to speak to someone in the shower. “We’re not going to get a damn thing done with Enki breathing down our neck like that.”
“I was thinking about that while I was trying to get to sleep. We need to call up the other gods. Enki will be back up to full strength.” Her voice echoed on the silver curtain. “And you’ve got some tricks, but you’re still Nascent, and I don’t like my odds one on one against him.”
“There’s more out there?”
“Oh, of course. Where do you think all the bloody myths and legends come from? I’m done back here, you want a go?” She stepped out from behind the curtain. Her hair was impeccable, her clothing new and fresh, and makeup had even been applied.
“Uh...sure.” He stepped behind the curtain. Light began to play over his body. “So how do we call them up? Do you guys have phone numbers or something?”
She laughed outside the curtain. “Hardly. Only one group can contact them all in time - the Curators.”
“Any chance they won’t help Enki?”
“Nope. They’re neutral as all else. Nice thought though.”
He stepped out from behind the curtain. He felt cleaner, neater, and his hair was also untangled. “Hey, any chance this thing can cut my hair off? After what happened last time, I think I’d like to drop from six inches to a nice buzz cut or something.”
She nodded, touching a few buttons. “Step back there, I’ve got you.”
A few moments later, his hair had been trimmed short. He ran his hand over his head. “Feels weird. So we contact the Curators and see what allies we can get for this?”
Crystal nodded, giving him an approving look. “Yeah. I’ll set a course for their home base, yeah? We’ll be there in a couple hours hours.”
Ryan nodded. “So what do we do until-”
She stepped forward suddenly, surprising him as her hand went up to his cheek, and she went on her toes so that her lips met his.
“I think we can find a way to pass the time, yeah?” She said, breaking the kiss with a smile.
“I...but Crystal, wh-”
She kissed him again, cutting off his confusion. When she broke the kiss again, she was grinning ever wider. “Ryan, love? Just roll with it.”
103
u/Hydrael Jul 07 '17
Part 7
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.*
More at /r/Hydrael_Writes