by Samit Basu
Aman opens his eyes. “Norio’s not in any of the bases I’ve managed to track,” he says. “He’s off the grid.”
“Rowena?” asks Uzma.
“Tia has her, back at my old island. We have a few Tias coming here soon, by the way.”
“Sundar?”
“No. Which means we’re stuck with nothing. Norio has been back in Tokyo for hours. He’s probably got Kalki in that mind control device of his right now.”
“Well, the world hasn’t ended,” says Uzma. “It’s almost midnight in Tokyo, thirteen hours ahead. And humans seem to be doing fine. That’s a good sign.”
“Wu said the world was ending today,” says Aman. “She didn’t say what time. Or time zone. Is she awake yet?”
“No,” says Vir. “Aman, a few minutes ago. Viral’s broadcast. New second-hand megastore. It said ‘End of the World Discounts’. Could that be what Wu sensed? Everyone in the world thought it for a second.”
“Well, until we separate the all-powerful child god from the anti-super billionaire nut we really can’t bet on that,” says Aman. “I have a hundred Tias going door-to-door in Tokyo. Every Japanese super-squad is out looking for Norio. I have face recognition running on every street-cam. Tokyo’s the most well-mapped place on earth. Nothing so far.”
“No teleporters among the new lot?” asks Vir.
“There is one,” says Aman. “But there’s no way of telling her where to go.”
“Tokyo,” says Uzma.
“But where in Tokyo?”
“Wherever it is, we’ll be closer, won’t we?”
Aman shrugs. “That does make sense. I’ve asked the magicians if they can track him, but it’s pretty obvious what they said.”
“Just relax and drink your coffee,” says Jai, and sits. “The solution’s been right in front of you all along.”
Everyone stares at him in silence as he takes a sip of cappuccino and wipes foam from his mouth.
“I’m surprised none of you ever saw it,” says Jai. “I knew it all along: you just wanted me for my body.”
“Jai, if you know how to find Norio, please tell us,” says Aman, as evenly as he can.
“I have a question first,” says Vir. “You say this Norio is going to get Kalki to remove everyone’s superpowers. Now I love my powers – but look at the world. Are we sure we should stop Norio?”
“Yes,” says Aman.
“That’s good. Now, my question. If Norio does get Kalki to remove everyone’s powers as you say he will, how is that the end of humanity? Doesn’t that put humanity back on top?”
“Well, if we lose our powers we’ll get killed in a few minutes. So I for one really don’t want to put ordinary humans back on top,” says Uzma.
“Yes, Vir,” says Aman. “But the real danger is that Kalki’s insane. Tia said he takes requests, and then does whatever he wants.”
“But you said Norio has a mind control machine,” says Uzma.
“Is it stronger than Kalki?” asks Aman. “What if it just makes him mad? I’d rather not find out on a day when the world’s supposed to end.”
Uzma blinks, and shakes her head. “Sure. Do any of the rest of you have a problem with the words that come out of your mouths sometimes?”
“Yes,” says Aman. “So, Jai. What’s the answer?”
“He is,” says Jai, pointing at an empty seat. The others look at it.
“All right,” says Aman after a while. “He’s lost his mind. Back to work, people.”
That Guy appears in the seat.
Jai smiles.
“I wasn’t sure that would work,” he says.
“I didn’t mean to intrude,” says That Guy. “I’ll be—”
“Relax” says Jai. He walks around the table, sits next to That Guy, and holds his hand. That Guy is trembling visibly.
“Do you know you’re going to be the greatest hero of us all?” asks Jai.
“No,” says That Guy. “I’m sorry, I’ll—”
Jai squeezes his hand fondly and That Guy’s face turns blue, then white. Jai looks around the table.
“All these years and everyone was too busy to notice,” he says. “I suppose I was the only one who was still able to think clearly. That Guy teleports to wherever the most significant events in the world are. He even gets to know how dangerous they’ll be before he goes, and gets to choose. Whatever Norio’s doing with Kalki, it must be more important than anything else in the world, right? That Guy’s going to be there. And so will I.”
“That actually… why are you holding his hand?” asks Aman.
“Because we don’t know when Norio’s going to start, and it wouldn’t really help if he went to stop Norio by himself, would it?” asks Jai.
“True,” says Aman. He solemnly walks to That Guy and takes his other hand.
Uzma holds her face in her hands. “You’ve all gone completely mad,” she says. “We’ve solved a dozen massive problems. He was never there.”
“I was,” says That Guy. “If it’s important enough, I always land up for at least a bit.”
“You weren’t there in Prague,” says Uzma.
“I was,” says That Guy.
“In Tokyo last time.”
“I was,” he says. “Sometimes I’m not in the same room. I always leave immediately when it’s dangerous. Sometimes I manage to go somewhere else, if it’s important, like a movie premiere or a press conference. There’s always a lot happening.”
Alarm screens pop up. Two hoverjets approach Liberty Island.
“Here we go again. Battle stations,” says Uzma.
“The others will take care of it,” says Jai. “We’re spending the rest of today holding on to our friend. It’s the only way to reach Norio and Kalki. And we’ll only get one chance.”
“Why did you never tell us you could do this?” screams Uzma.
“You never wanted to talk to me!” That Guy starts to cry.
Vir watches the hoverjets as they launch missiles at the tower. A man in blue appears in the sky in front of them, and waves his arms. After a second, the missiles explode in mid-air.
“Someone will take care of it,” says Jai. “You must learn how to delegate better.”
“I don’t like this plan,” says Vir. “We don’t understand how That Guy’s powers really work.”
“We have at least a thousand supers in the building,” says Jai. “Get over here now.”
“I am not spending the whole day touching That Guy,” says Uzma. “If he gets a warning, he can tell us, and—”
That Guy, Jai and Aman disappear.
* * *
Aman recognises the room at once. He’s been here before. Large hall, closed windows. Empty chairs.
On a chair by a window sits Kalki. His many arms are tied, each arm to the other on the same side. On his head is a tinfoil helment, stuck on awkwardly with tape. Two wires connect the chips on top of the helmet to Sundar’s computer on its bulky trolley. Aman is too far away from the monitor to see what’s on it. Kalki’s eyes are open and glowing.
Norio stands in front of the trolley, typing on the ancient keyboard.
Aman, Jai and That Guy stand in silence for a second.
Norio shows no sign of having realised they’re in the room.
“Ahem,” says Jai.
Norio turns and smiles.
“Of course you’re here,” he says. “I was wondering when you’d show up.”
“Step away from Kalki,” says Aman.
Norio looks from Aman to Jai.
“Is that Aman in the armour? Aman and Jai teaming up? Classic!” He laughs, his voice is strained and ragged. His eyes are bloodshot, his clothes stained, he’s twitching: he clearly hasn’t slept or bathed in a while.
That Guy disappears.
“I knew you’d find a way to get here,” says Norio. “You wouldn’t want to miss this.”
“Surrender,” says Jai.
“Kalki’s been having fun in Tokyo,” says Norio. “He hasn’t seen much, of cour
se, but he loves wasabi. Not with anything else, though. Just lots and lots of wasabi. We went to see his Uncle Sundar today. That was fun, wasn’t it?”
Aman raises his arm. He takes aim at the computer.
“Just wait a minute,” says Norio. “It hasn’t even started. He’s not in any pain, he’s having fun. You know, I think he wanted to be here? He’s a good kid.”
“Let him go,” says Aman.
“In a bit. You know, I really hoped Sundar would have made something new for me. Some armour like yours, or something to beat Jai with. But Sundar doesn’t do requests, does he? If you went and told him you were going to fight a giant bear, would he give you a giant bear-fighting device? No. He’d show you something he’d made to make burgers healthy.”
Jai starts walking towards Norio. Norio whips out a gun.
“Really?” says Jai.
“But I hunted around in a heap of junk in his lab,” says Norio, “and I found something nice.”
Aman looks closely at the gun, and quickly recognises it. He’d seen it last in a video eleven years ago. He’d been racing up a Versova street in an auto, had seen their enemies advancing on Sundar, had seen Sher preparing to jump, and then a flash of white light. He remembers what Sundar’s ray-gun does…
“Dive!” he screams. Norio fires.
A flash of light, and Jai disappears.
Aman stares at the empty space where Jai had been a moment ago, too shocked by the sheer absence of Jai to process the danger he is in.
Norio turns towards Aman – and goes flying backwards as the armour launches a pulse-blast at the ray-gun. The gun flies further, bounces on the floor and comes to rest, a twisted mass of metal, plastic and wire.
Norio’s right hand and arm are broken, twisted, but he leaps to his feet, his face contorted with rage. He races towards the computer, but Aman fires another blast, and Norio goes flying across the hall, rolling on the floor.
Aman walks up to the computer as Norio struggles to find his feet.
“You’re done,” says Aman. “Stay down.”
Norio shakes his left hand. Holograms spring up around it.
Aman hears a loud whine above him. The ceiling shakes as, on the floor above, the Goryo ghost-mecha springs to life.
“No,” says Aman.
The whine stops.
“Remote control,” says Aman. “Bad idea.”
Norio staggers, moaning in pain, and stands up. He smiles.
“I’m glad you’re here,” he says.
“Stay away from the computer,” says Aman.
“All right, all right,” says Norio. “Supers beat humans. I get it.”
“I am human,” says Aman. “I was never your enemy.”
“Then step out of that armour and fight me like a human.” Norio can barely stand, but he manages to raise his arms, and take a slow step towards Aman.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” says Aman.
Aman’s eyes are still swimming from the ray-gun and pulse-blast in the closed room. The monochrome letters on the old computer screen are solid blobs, slowly shaping themselves into letters.
“I couldn’t do it,” says Norio. “All this time, all this planning, and I was too slow.”
Aman looks at the single line on the computer screen as the letters finally sharpen into place. He looks again, unable to believe it. He looks at Norio, at the screen again, at Kalki.
“Why?” he asks.
“I told you I was on the right side,” says Norio. “I told you I was trying to save the world.”
Aman looks at the screen again.
GIVE EVERYONE SUPERPOWERS, it says.
On the monochrome monitor the long cursor blinks beside the single line, mocking Aman. He blinks.
“You thought I was trying to take your powers away,” says Norio. “I just wanted to make everything fair. To change the world. To give everyone a chance.”
“Then why didn’t you hit ‘Enter’?” asks Aman.
“Because I was a fool. And I wanted to defeat you before my moment of victory,” says Norio. “I wanted to look you and Jai in the eyes as I took my revenge.”
“Revenge? Me?”
“I blame you for Azusa’s death, Aman. I could have saved her.” He takes another step towards Aman.
“Why didn’t you just tell me what you planned to do?” asks Aman. “Why didn’t you just tell everyone?”
“It’s obvious. Because you would have tried to stop me. As you have. My mistake was in not trusting my team, my humans, before it was too late. They’d given up on me. But they learned what I was trying to do, and they came back for me. Azusa did too, you know? She was a super. But she was different. She knew what was right.”
Aman looks at the screen again, and at Kalki behind it. The boy-god twitches.
“But you can do it for me, Aman,” says Norio. “You don’t want the world to turn into a comic book. You want everyone to do the best they can. You think supers can help the world get better. The machine works once. After you kill me, and take Kalki back, you’ll never get this chance again. Press the button.”
“No,” says Aman. “The world’s in enough trouble as it is.”
“You may be right,” says Norio. “Everyone you trust will tell you you’re right. I’m a criminal. I’m a murderer. What do I know? Press the button. Change the world.”
Aman finds the backspace key. He presses it.
“You know it’s the right thing to do,” says Norio. “But you’re too scared to do it. You’ve grown old. You’re like every other person with power in the end, aren’t you? Holding on to what you have. Your advantage. When you started out, you wanted to change the world, but you don’t really, do you? You’d be ordinary again.”
Aman presses “Backspace” again.
“You’re a superhero now,” says Norio. “You’ve protected the world from the villain. You’ve held on to your turf. You’ve won. I hoped you’d be different, you know. I’d really wanted to just come to you and tell you what I wanted for the world. But I knew I couldn’t get anything out of you without using the machine. Because whatever you say, I know what you’re all like. Supers and humans are enemies. They can’t help it. The powerful and powerless always are.”
He lunges at Aman.
But the armour is faster. It blocks Norio’s swing and pushes him away. He lands on the floor and groans.
“I didn’t want to be a super unless everyone else could be one too,” says Norio. “I guess that’s the difference between us.”
He tries to get up, and fails.
“Stay down,” says Aman. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“But you do,” says Norio. “And I won’t.”
He moans in pain, and staggers to his feet.
“You know nothing about me,” says Aman. “All I’ve ever wanted is to use my powers to make the world better. To help the weak and the needy. To stop supers from controlling the world.”
“Then press the button.”
“It’s wrong. This mind control machine is wrong. I know how it feels.”
Norio manages a laugh.
“Look at your powers,” he says. “Look at Uzma’s. Your powers are terrible. Everything you do with them is wrong. You’re lying to me, Aman. Or maybe you don’t see it yourself. But you’re going to end up like Jai. You’re going to run the world exactly as you see fit. Stop anyone in your way. Do whatever you feel like. And the only thing that can stop you is that boy in front of you. And he won’t listen to you unless you make him. So ask yourself this: do you want to move forward, to the future, or just hold on to what you have? Press the button.”
Norio’s reached the computer now. He moves Aman’s hand away, almost gently. He types the letters in again.
He steps back.
“What gives you the right to take this big a decision?” asks Aman. “I tried to fix the world by myself once. It didn’t work. I ruined people’s lives. People died. I just stopped your Utopic board from trying to kill four billion
people. I’ll probably have to spend the rest of my life fighting people like them.”
“Well, if you want people to talk you out of it, just give anyone you trust a call. Get Uzma to make you stop. Tell yourself people don’t deserve to have superpowers thrust upon them, and walk away. There isn’t a perfect way to do it,” says Norio. “Look at me. Look at the mess I made. But it’s the right thing to do. Are you going to do it?”
“Yes,” says Aman.
He takes a deep breath, and looks at the computer.
GIVE EVERYONE SUPERPOWERS, it says.
He hits Enter.
Kalki screams, and world turns white.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The car pulls up in a quiet Versova lane, and Uzma steps out. She looks around, remembering the first time she came to this house, trying to remember who she’d been then. The house is freshly painted. Tias have been living there from the very beginning. There’s a watchman at the gate, but he’s asleep in his chair, and doesn’t wake up as Uzma walks to the front door and rings the bell.
Tia opens the door and greets Uzma with a huge hug. Uzma steps in, takes in the living room, the kitchen. Every part of the room is crowded with old ghosts: Sher, Jai, Bob, little Anima, Sundar. She’s been all around the world since she first entered this house, but there’s no place she remembers more clearly.
“He’s in the loo,” says Tia. “Woke up a few minutes ago.”
“Right,” says Uzma. “But he’s fine, yes?”
“You’ll have to check,” says Tia, grinning.
Uzma looks at her sheepishly.
“How are things?” asks Tia.
Uzma collapses on a sofa, pulls off her shoes and wiggles her toes in delight as cold air from the mammoth air conditioner hits them.
“Messy,” she says. “I was actually looking forward to flying halfway across the world just to avoid taking decisions. But we’re holding the tower against all comers. Vir’s in charge. Some ex-Utopic fool declared independence this morning. Liberty Island is a new country now.”
“That sounds… not very smart,” says Tia.
“Yes. Somebody else declared war on all humans. Some more escaped supers have built an emerald city, or a city that looks like some other gem, in Eritrea. I guess that’s what happens when you set hundreds of repressed superhumans free.”
