Strange Cosmology

by Alex Raizman

  Great ribbons of flame poured out of Munoz’s hands. She was wielding them like whips, striking at any movement, causing trees to burst into flame and scorching lawns. As Ryan watched, she lashed her flames at a parked car, and it detonated like a bomb. A single flaming wheel bounced and rolled down the street. As it passed his hiding spot, Ryan made a small twist to put it out before it spread the damage.

  This is such a waste of power, Ryan thought as Munoz lashed out again. There was a reason his twists were almost always small and immediate. Reality didn’t like flames to act like whips. Munoz had to continually manipulate the laws of physics to make it work, burning power all the while. Even Enki hadn’t been that careless with his power, and he’d had so much more available.

  Watching the impressive, and wasteful, display, Ryan smiled.

  The plan was working.

  ***

  “We have to assume they follow the same basic rules we do,” Athena had said during their strategy session. “Otherwise we’re going to drive ourselves crazy trying to come up with every possible scenario.”

  “And if they don’t?” Anansi asked.

  Horus scowled. “Then we’ll have no hope but to improvise, but Athena has a point. None of the intel we have suggests that we’re dealing with something entirely new. Ryan’s seen them twist, just like we do. They’re mortals who gained access to divine power through science, which is new, but the actual power is the same. The rules shouldn’t change that much.”

  Anansi considered Horus’s words and then nodded.

  “We do have to consider one thing,” Ryan said.

  Horus raised his eyebrows and motioned impatiently for Ryan to continue.

  “They’re actual soldiers. Modern soldiers, I mean. Trained to work together. I mean, the five of us have never fought as a group before. I’ve fought with Athena a couple of times and Anansi once. How much have the rest of you fought together before all this?”

  “We worked together once,” Athena said, indicating Horus. “Back during the Bronze Age collapse.”

  “So...three thousand years ago? Longer?” Ryan asked.

  “Longer,” Athena said with a sigh.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong,” Dianmu added, “but I believe that Horus is the only one with any familiarity with modern weaponry and tactics? The only one who’s paid attention to how mortals have changed their strategies over the centuries?”

  Horus nodded, his face showing precisely what he thought of their deficiencies in that arena. “Unfortunately, we don’t have time to correct that oversight. The central point is the same: we fight as individuals, they fight as a group. That is a true advantage they have over us. In return, we have to play to our strengths. We have thousands of years of practice in using divine powers- except for the Nascent, of course - and a better knowledge of how they work. Including their limitations.”

  “You mean the Hungers,” Ryan said.

  “If you insist on belaboring the obvious, yes, I mean the Hungers. The biggest limitation we have. Anansi, did these ‘super-soldiers’ start falling victim to their Hungers during your fight against them?”

  Anansi considered. “They started to breathe heavily, but it might have been normal mortal exhaustion.”

  “Either way, Horus has a point,” Ryan said, “even if he had to make it in the most dickish way possible. If they have Hungers, they’ll be limited by them. If they don’t have Hungers, they’ll have the limits of a mortal body.”

  Dianmu leaned forward. “What exactly are you thinking, Horus?”

  “We bait them,” he said. “We hold our strength in reserve while making them think that we are using as much as they are. Minimal power, maximum flash. Get them to burn hard and burn fast.”

  “They’ll run out far before we do,” Athena said. “And then they’ll either succumb to Hunger or exhaustion.”

  “So we don’t fight them like soldiers. We fight them like gods.” Anansi said.

  “Stay defensive, stay evasive, stick to flashy low-effort twists and physical weapons, surround them, and then when they get so tired they’re making mistakes, go in for the kill,” Horus said. “Play it right, and we’ll have them right where we want them.”

  ***

  Ryan didn’t allow himself to gloat for very long. The soldiers were starting to make mistakes, but they were still extremely dangerous. Even now, missing a dodge or a block could be disastrous. They had to be careful, but if they played it right...

  This is our chance.

  Athena broke cover first, charging straight towards Munoz and shouting a war cry. Munoz turned the flames toward Athena, but the goddess twisted, kicked off the ground, and tossed herself away from the attack.

  They can be beaten. Ryan told himself.

  “Now!” he shouted and charged in.

  A wild-eyed Munoz tracked Athena, who barely raised her shield in time to avoid incineration.

  Anansi and a dozen illusion ran headlong down the street. In unison, they drew daggers and tossed them in a barrage aimed straight for Evans. Evans threw his hands up, and the asphalt followed his motion, curving like a tidal wave to intercept the attack. It was an awe-inspiring display of force...and another stupid waste of power.

  Ryan joined the fray, reaching into his nanoverse and drawing a spear. A minor twist made it glow as he hurled it towards Palmer. As Ryan had hoped, Palmer overreacted, clenching his fist and turning the spear to dust mid-flight. Ryan could only imagine how much power it had cost to the bonds between the component molecules.

  Hands splayed, Dianmu leapt off a roof and dove towards the cluster of super-soldiers. Ball lightning formed at the edges of her fingers, and she sent them streaking out in volleys. Lightning leapt between the orbs, creating a web of electricity. Hector smacked the ground, and a shaft of iron erupted from the street, creating an improvised lightning rod.

  Conductivity was no match for Dianmu’s will, and the ball lightning streaked past the grounding tool. Hector’s eyes widened just before one of the spheres slammed into his chest. His muscles spasmed and his head arched back before he collapsed to the ground.

  Not only had the lightning rod been a waste of power, but it had been the wrong call. We’re doing it! Ryan thought.

  Athena was still standing against Munoz’s flames when Horus reappeared, with an automatic shotgun in each hand and four more hovering behind his back, held in place with simple, low-power twists.

  “Die!” Horus shouted gleefully, and all six shotguns erupted.

  Hector, who had just regained his feet, whirled to face the new attack and threw up a wall of plasma so hot that it turned the pellets into gas. Hector shoved the plasma wall toward Horus, reverted falcon form and darted away. Hector’s concentration visibly wavered, and the wall disappeared as he lost his grip on the equations.

  Taking advantage of the distraction, Athena charged at Munoz.

  Evans intercepted her, blocking her strike with a blade of pure, solidified light. It sheared through Athena’s ordinary sword like it was made of paper. Evans pressed the attack, but his weapon flickered out of existence before Athena needed to dodge. She surged forward, hitting him with her red-hot shield and driving the broken end of her sword into Evans’s leg. He howled in pain.

  “Evans!” Munoz shouted and threw a ball of force at Athena, hitting her.

  Despite the pain, Evans seemed to have grasped the situation. “Fall back!” he shouted. “They’re trying to surround us!”

  The four super-soldiers used power-fueled leaps to escape the ring the others had been drawing around them, but when they landed they were all panting, and Hector slipped on the grass and almost fell.

  Ryan and his allies were battered and bloodied, but they were still alert and ready to fight. The super-soldiers had taken only a few injuries...but they were lagging. Palmer’s hands were actually shaking as he helped Hector to his feet.

  Athena didn’t give them a chance to recover. Evans created another light blade, but this time At
hena had reinforced her sword. The two blades met mid-air, and Athena and Evans strained against each other.

  “Die, you bitch!” he screamed.

  In response, she headbutted him and was rewarded with the sickening crunch of his nose shattering. Evans howled in anger and reeled backward, the energy sword disappearing again as his focus broke.

  Keep using that blade, buddy, Ryan thought. Making weapons out of nothing is costly as hell.

  Then Munoz, Ross, and Palmer turned to open fire on Athena. At this range, they couldn’t miss.

  Ryan, Dianmu, and Horus all reacted at once. Air, ice, and rock surrounded Athena, and the soldiers’ attacks didn’t touch her.

  Taking advantage of illusion and distraction, Anansi had moved right up to the super-soldiers. Now he lunged towards Munoz and shoved a dagger through her bicep. She howled and spun, but he was already gone, and her torrent of ice blades struck empty air.

  Evans twisted, doing a quick version of the massive gravity push they’d used before. He didn’t sustain it this time, but it still scattered Ryan and his allies.

  “We have to pull out!” he shouted.

  “Not yet! I’ve got the primary target!” Hector tossed his gun aside, stretching his hand towards Ryan. Ryan saw a single glowing light at Hector’s fingertips and recognized it as a smaller version of Tyr’s sunlight beam.

  Ryan twisted and prayed. If this didn’t work, it might be all over for him.

  The high-energy beam lanced from Hector’s fingertips. It hit the air prism Ryan had created and was redirected to the side, running through a second prism, which sent it towards Palmer.

  The beam struck Palmer’s left hand, blowing off three of his fingers. The big man howled, clutching at the injury.

  “Damnit, I said disengage!” Evans shouted.

  “I’ll cover you!” Munoz shouted. She held out her hands…

  And nothing happened. She stared at her fingertips in stupefied surprise.

  Her Hungers had peaked, and she was no stronger than a mortal.

  The plan had worked, and they had the super-soldiers on the ropes.

  Except that Hector still had something to give, and he created a hail of flying debris that forced Ryan and the others to take cover. Evans, Palmer, and Munoz were already halfway down the street by the time Hector ceased the assault and turned to follow.

  Ryan felt his blood run cold. They’d barely come out of this one alive, and the same trick wouldn’t work twice. But on a deeper, more primal level, a vicious thought ran through him. You tried to kill my sister, and I spared you. I let this happen. You are never hurting anyone ever again.

  Howling in fury, Ryan bolted after the retreating soldier. He twisted, stopping Hector in his tracks. Ryan’s own Hungers were screaming at him, but he pushed through.

  “No,” he said, grabbing Hector’s arm.

  Hector looked at him with wild eyes. “Wha-”

  Ryan pivoted, swinging Hector in an arc over his shoulder. He slammed the soldier’s head into the asphalt with a sickening crunch, and Hector fell limp.

  Ryan jerked as a spray of bullets hit him in the back. He could feel the pain, but it was a distant, alien thing, like it was happening to someone else. He heard Athena scream his name, and that was also far away.

  Then his knees buckled, and the world went dark.

  ***

  Potentia stared at Crystal’s floating corpse and allowed herself a moment to relax. “So much time…” she murmured.

  The other two nodded in perfect understanding.

  Potentia remembered what could be, charitably, called her “birth”. At the moment this iteration of Crystal’s nanoverse had undergone its Big Bang, she had opened her eyes for the first time. As the universe had cooled, allowing matter to form, Potentia had floated in the void, adrift and contemplative. At first, she had only been sure of three things: she existed, Crystal existed, and her existence was dependent on Crystal’s.

  Over time, she had come to understand more, her mind processing millions of years of someone else’s knowledge and experience. Then she had found her sisters, and they had realized that they were held prisoner by Crystal’s very existence.

  It had been simple to decide that they needed what she had.

  Litura interrupted her reflection. “Potentia...are you certain she’s gone?”

  “She isn’t,” Inedia said, speaking before Potentia could. “Not fully, not yet. We have to finish, or she’ll reform back in the Core.”

  Litura’s forehead furrowed, and Potentia put a hand on her shoulder. Litura had always been prone to worrying over stupid things, ever since she’d started to wonder if their work - what Crystal thought of as corruption - would draw Crystal before they were ready for her.

  “Be at ease, sister,” Potentia said. “It takes them days to reform in the Core, remember? Days there are millennia upon millennia here. We’ll have finished things before it gets that far.”

  “We’re wasting time,” Inedia snapped. “Even with all that time...we have to get to her staging area. We’ll have the doorway then. We’ll finally be able to leave.”

  Potentia sighed. “Can we not just enjoy the victory for a few hours first?”

  “We did this so we could get to the Core,” Inedia said, crossing her arms. “I’ll enjoy our victory then.”

  Litura held up her hands. “Both of you stop it. We’re not going to fight each other.”

  So it had always been: Inedia impatient and eager, Potentia slow and methodical, and Litura trying to balance the two. They were the first beings in the history of creation that had needed to share omnipotence. At least, as far as Crystal knew, and since they knew everything she did, it was essentially gospel.

  “Five minutes,” Potentia said to Inedia. “I just want to savor this for five minutes.”

  “That’s agreeable.” Inedia looked at the body. “I’d be lying if I tried to claim didn’t enjoy seeing her like this.” She spat at Crystal’s corpse.

  Potentia nodded in agreement. They’d been close to omnipotent, but two things had been beyond them. They couldn’t just unmake Crystal...and they couldn’t leave. Not while Crystal was alive. She was their jailor, and Potentia had only hated her more when she’d realized Crystal wasn’t even aware she was keeping them locked away. She certainly would have never released them, even if she could.

  It had been Inedia who’d figured it out: if Crystal died in her nanoverse, there would be an imbalance in the Core. They could escape before she resurrected there, and in doing so, they’d have full control of her nanoverse’s power.

  All of its power, including the remnants of the destroyed dual nanoverse. More power than any goddess had ever wielded in the Core. And there were so many more nanoverses. Athena. Dianmu. Anansi. Horus. And...Ryan. Ryan’s nanoverse, that has a twist powerful enough to end the world. The possibilities made Potentia feel giddy.

  “I think we’re ready,” Litura said after the five minutes had passed. “Anything else we need to do before our departure?”

  “Oh, there’s one little thing you might want to deal with.”

  The three whirled. Standing behind them, her head decidedly intact, Crystal waved. “Hullo, loves. Nice bit of theatrics there, yeah? I even had me convinced, and I knew I was messing with you lot.” She strode towards them, grinning, walking across empty space like it was a solid surface.