Pain of The Lone Spectre

by Adrian P

  “The explanation’s highly technical and complex. I doubt—“

  “Try me.”

  “Really?”

  She nodded.

  “Fine,” the boy sighed. “Konstantin uses his superpower to strengthen the atomic—“

  “Infinitely raising the bonding strength between its atoms?” Charlotte tilted her head.

  “…yeah that.”

  “Awh, what the hell,” she giggled. “It’s not that complex.”

  “How do you—“

  “I’ve told you, haven’t I? I’m a genius in neither natural science nor social science, but I am adequately well-informed in both fields.”

  Konstantin fired his lightning.

  Audi and Charlotte dodged in the same direction, landing on the ground at the same time.

  “How do you suppose we defeat him?” Audi frowned. “There’s no weapon in existence that’s strong enough to tear his armour apart.”

  Charlotte paused. “Is there any way to cut his energy supply?”

  “What energy supply?”

  “The First Law of Thermodynamics implies that you can’t create energy out of nothing. It should still apply to his power; he must be drawing it from somewhere.”

  “I thought about it just seconds ago, but no go,” Audi replied. “Konstantin obtains his electromagnetic force from the surroundings. Every damn electrons in this world. I know not how. You cannot stop that other than by killing him.”

  Konstantin attacked them again, but they dodged in time. The mercenaries fired their guns at different parts of the Steel Giant’s body, but futile, every section of the armour is as strong as the others.

  “We must sever his control mechanism,” Charlotte said. “Let’s accept the fact that he can magically control electromagnetism. But past that point, he still has to follow the laws of physics.”

  “And?” Audi said as they dodged another attack.

  “Even if subconsciously, Konstantin’s ability requires him to continuously calculate voltage differences, air’s electrical resistance, magnetic flux, and many other physical factors,” she replied. “In order to do this, he has to be able to measure these numbers, or at least, approximate them to a certain degree of accuracy.”

  The boy frowned. “So we can win if we deny him the power to…measure these numbers?”

  Charlotte nodded. “The question is how to do that.”

  Audi glared at Konstantin’s Steel Giant as it drew a massive amount of lightning from the surrounding. He needs to know how much electric potential energy is available in the surrounding to draw lightning like that. Simple. I’m sure he senses the Electromagnetic Field around him. Like smelling food through its aroma.

  The boy paused.

  Field…three years ago, the baldy waxed egg also failed to materialise his Space Manipulation superpower when a Gravity Drive was present. Gravity drive bends space itself by emitting a highly powerful gravitational field, which sends all spatial-related physical factors haywire.

  He turned to Charlotte. “Is there a way to cause chaos in the physical system?”

  “Eh?” the girl tilted her head.

  Konstantin fired a massive lightning onto them.

  Charlotte dodged and landed on one knee. “What do you mean?”

  Audi stood up and readied his pistol. “Like you said, Konstantin has to approximate physical factors to a certain degree of accuracy. If we can somehow jumble these numbers to abnormal values, Konstantin’s calculation regime would be thrown upside down.”

  “You want a method to induce abnormalities in Electromagnetic field around us?”

  The boy nodded. “How can we do that—“

  The Steel Giant charged forward and slammed its foot.

  The tremor threw Audi and Charlotte apart to opposite sides of the hangar. Their landings were smooth, but they were separated with Konstantin in the middle.

  “Die already, you Inferior Beings!” Konstantin yelled. “This exercise of resistance is one big act of futility! Nothing you can do will stop the march of history! The Great Liberation! The creation of a better world!” he said. “No bullets. No rockets. No grenades you throw will scrape the surface of my armour!”

  Grenade?

  Audi tapped his utility belt and drew a metal sphere with blue stripes on it. You’ve got to be kidding me. The boy grinned. All this time I’ve been holding to his Achilles’ heel.

  Konstantin turned to Audi and drew a massive charge of lightning. Metals in the surroundings shook and levitated mid-air like bubbles in the ocean depth. Audi stepped back and swung his arm backwards like preparing for a pitch. He threw the sphere towards Konstantin.

  A massive jolt of electricity blasted mid-air.

  The boy’s pistol shook and spitted jolts of electrons. The chassis heated up. He threw it away. It exploded on the floor underneath a blanket of massive sparks.

  Konstantin’s lightning disintegrated. Metal shards detached themselves from The Steel Giant’s legs, destroying its integrity and crumbled underneath the body’s weight. The shoulders went off. The head fell. The torso slammed the ground with massive jolts of electrons spitting in random directions.

  “What have you done?” Konstantin yelled from within. “I can’t read the tensors! What is this? I can’t see! Blyat!”

  The Steel Giant exploded with a burst of lightning.

  A giant metal ball fell to the ground from the Steel Giant’s centre, cracking open and unveiling an unconscious Konstantin. Audi clicked his tongue and strode towards the man.

  If he reads the world’s natural Electromagnetic Field like a text, then all I need to do is blind him with a flash. EMP Grenade. Introducing a burst of anomaly so abruptly to the EM Field, he can’t afford to manipulate it like he did under normal condition.

  The boy stood next to Konstantin and stared him down.

  Bionika superpower is indeed powerful, but the fact that they still need to adhere to the laws of nature is a relief.

  He kneeled and checked Konstantin’s pulse. Alive.

  He really uses his body like an electronic circuit, drawing electromagnetic energy into his body and shooting it out. No wonder. An EMP burst will destroy all electronic—

  Charlotte collapsed.

  “Oh fuck!” Audi’s turned to Charlotte. “I forgot that she’s—“

  The boy jumped over Konstantin’s body and ran to Charlotte. She lied down motionless on the ground; her suit was inactive. No indicator lights were on. A mumbled cry of help echoed from within.

  Audi grabbed a bent piece of metal on his side and jammed it in a gap between her armour pieces. With his entire strength, the boy tore her torso unit apart. He grabbed her out of the suit.

  Charlotte struggled and forced open her helmet. Her breathing was heavy and her entire body sweated. She inhaled air like an asthmatic person, choking and coughing in violence.

  “Charley, I’m sorry! I—“

  “You…called me Charley, I just realised,” she smiled while coughing more. “I thought you’ll keep on with the Ghost Girl…”

  “Don’t speak. Breathe. You’ve exerted yourself too much inside that suit,” the boy pat her back and made her sit straight. “I was so focused on tackling Konstantin, I completely forgot that you are using a mechatronic exoskeleton suit. I’m so sorry, Charley, I am—”

  “I’m fine, sheesh, relax you,” Charlotte giggled, albeit nearly choking. “As long as we win, then all is well.”

  The boy sighed.

  “Did you kill him?”

  “He’s alive,” Audi glanced at Konstantin’s body. “The EMP must’ve redirected all his lightning into his body, so he’ll remain unconscious for a while.”

  “All that lightning that can blow things up, and he’s fine taking it all?”

  “Don’t ask me. The way their superpower works is still a huge mystery.”

  “Right,” she coughed. “What are you going to do now? He can’t answer your questions for a while.”

  “I
’ll drown him in freezing water if I have to,” he replied. “For now, we’ll—“

  Konstantin stood in abrupt.

  “Bandana Boy!” Konstantin screamed as he swayed around, still finding his balance. “I’ll tear you apart, you inferior piece of crap!”

  “Charley, run away as fast as you can!” the boy stood and took a fighting stance. “Now!”

  Charlotte fidgeted. “But I can’t—“

  “Don’t think about me, just go!”

  “That’s not—“

  Konstantin’s eyes turned crimson red. He gathered massive lightning from his surroundings and screamed in pain. But he endured it. With his skin pulsing red in blood and sweat pouring like waterfall, the man absorbed as much electricity as he can.

  “You’ve no idea what I can do, you Inferior Being,” Konstantin winced. “I’d rather flatten this entire city than letting you go for what you’ve done—and I don’t need Celestial Anvil to do that.”

  Shit. Audi shivered. I ran out of EMP grenade, and there’s no way I can attack him with massive electricity enveloping him that way.

  “Together with this wretched world, you will vanish into inexistence. Be consumed by the abyss!” Konstantin aimed one hand towards Audi. “If the world can’t be convinced to give up its tyranny, then I’d rather see it destroyed to bits—!”

  “No you don’t,” a voice came from above.

  A figure landed in front of Konstantin. He wore a hood which covered his entire face under the shade, sporting a standard Brotherhood greatcoat. He held no weapon, despite the holster on his belt, but the man stood at an angle towards Konstantin with both hands tightly clenched into a fist.

  “Fuck off!” Konstantin shouted in Russian. “Don’t interfere in—“

  “Your job is done, Simonovsky,” the figure said. “Stand down.”

  “Don’t mess with me!”

  Konstantin fired a massive lightning at the figure.

  But the lightning dissipated midway.

  And a burst of flame exploded mid-air.

  “You’ve forgotten my Bionika power, haven’t you?” the figure said. “Is that how blind you’ve become under the influence of wrath?”

  Konstantin gritted his teeth.

  The figure dashed forward.

  Suddenly Konstantin’s electricity vanished.

  And the figure grabbed his neck.

  The figure slammed Konstantin to the floor, while the latter struggled.

  “I am a mere Gamma-class, but my Bionika is a perfect counter to your Alpha-class ability,” he tightened his choke. “You’ve been blinded by your status, Brother Simonovsky. A moral corruption many in the Tyrant Empire are guilty of.”

  “You—“

  The figure hook-punched Konstantin.

  Konstantin fell unconscious, and the figure released him. He stood and turned to Audi.

  “My apologies for everything he’s done,” the figure spoke in perfect English. “Konstantin’s action is not, by far, endorsed by The Cypriot Brotherhood’s philosophy.”

  The boy frowned. “What are you?”

  “Ah, an introduction is due I see,” the figure opened his hood, unveiling a man in his thirties with dirty blonde hair and crimson red eyes.

  “I am a scholar of Cypriot Brotherhood’s Ivory Tower, and my name is Valentin Sokolov. You can call me Val.”

  Chapter 5 / Part 4

  Audi frowned at the man. “What the hell is Ivory Tower?”

  “The Cypriot Brotherhood’s institute of wisdom,” Val replied. “Where every philosophical enquiry and scientific advancement is cultivated.”

  The boy frowned. “I thought you Brotherhood are just bunch of rabbles.”

  Val laughed. “It’s unfortunate that you’ve only had Konstantin Simonovsky as a benchmark to judge The Cypriot Brotherhood. But just as I said, he does not represent us. Not in our entirety, at least.”

  “What do you want from me?” Audi asked. “You’re here not only to subdue Konstantin, are you?”

  “He is the main reason why I’m in this planet,” Val glanced at Konstantin. “But the Grand Director of Ivory Tower wanted me to give you this.”

  He threw a plastic case to the boy.

  Audi caught it mid-air.

  The boy stared at the plastic case. Inside was a pill with red and green-striped casing. “This is?”

  “I thought you came to this planet for a medicine?”

  Audi flinched. “You mean, this is—?”

  Val nodded. “The Grand Director made this just for you,” he said. “Witnessing your struggle through life and death, he cannot help but to sympathise with you.”

  Audi glared at Val. “Why?”

  Val listened.

  “Why would people from the Brotherhood sympathise with me?” the boy said. “I killed a lot of your people three years ago in Gleicherde. Some of them heinously.”

  “I’m aware of that,” Val replied. “But anyone would’ve done what you did, given the same situation. The Patriot of War did something horrible, and we’ve given him severe reprimand for his actions.”

  “What?”

  “I told you that The Cypriot Brotherhood is extremely reasonable,” Val said. “Our goal is not the blind annihilation of humanity, but their liberation.”

  “Said every brutal conquerors in history.”

  Val sighed. “I don’t expect you to agree with us. The Grand Director doesn’t. Anyone with wisdom in the Brotherhood won’t,” he said. “But you must recognise the many spectra of interpretations our official philosophy has. We don’t establish rules and strict beliefs for our people to follow, but we merely outlined a guide.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  “Let’s put it this way,” Val kneeled and scratched a straight line on the floor using a rock. “Most ideologies in The Crowned Confederacy expect people to walk within a line they define. A strict guide. Commandments etched into rocks, books, and speeches,” he paused. “Don’t kill. Don’t cheat. Survive.”

  The boy listened.

  “We, on the other hand,” Val grabbed two rocks and drew two parallel lines. “Create boundaries.”

  “Boundaries?”

  Val nodded. “As long as people do not cross the boundary, we are happy to let them wiggle around in chaos. Move left and right. Up and down. Back and forth. Explore different possibilities in our way of life,” he said. “In The Crowned Confederacy, people who don’t walk a straight line defined by an ideology are considered mutants. Strange. A target to be purged.”

  Audi cocked an eyebrow.

  “For example, your people have a system called marriage, right?”

  “What about it?”

  “The Crowned Confederacy specified a strict rule for this marriage: between one man and one woman that are not blood-related.”

  The boy kept listening.

  “We, The Brotherhood, do not have this restriction,” Val continued. “Marriage, or Social Contract as we say, can be struck by two men or two women.”

  “You mean gay marriage?”

  “That’s not all,” Val replied. “We also allow two men and one woman. Two women and one man. Two men and two women. One and four. Brothers and sisters. You name all the combinations.”

  Audi frowned. “So you allow poly-relationships and incest?”

  “We allow anything.”

  “So no boundary.”

  “Not true,” Val smirked. “Our boundary in Social Contract requires universal consensus within its members—no compulsion, and everyone must agree. Secondly, it must not cause anyone’s suffering. Thirdly, they must outline all the terms and conditions of the contract.”

  “What?”

  “For example, if they’re allowed to engage sexually with persons outside the contract.”

  “So you can legalise cheating?”

  “It’s not cheating if everyone agrees to the term.”

  Audi frowned.

  “So instead of outlining the specific terms of Social Contract,
we let our people decide the form and conditions of it,” Val replied. “But of course, they must argue for these conditions, and every member involved in the contract must fully understand the implications of every term and condition. When settlement between persons and state are established, The Society Overseer will enforce the Social Contracts on its own terms, and mediate any disputes arising afterwards.”

  “I see where the iron-fist of the state comes in.”

  “Likewise, this is true in many other aspects of life, especially philosophical interpretations and academia,” Val continued. “The Patriot of War and Konstantin Simonovsky have crossed the boundary outlined by The Cypriot Brotherhood, so we’ve instituted disciplinary measure for both. You have no worry to bear.”

  The boy clicked his tongue. “Is this why you want to conquer The Crowned Confederacy?”

  “Not conquer, but liberate.”

  “Whatever, you prick,” Audi grumbled. “Boundary or whatnot, you have a specific boundaries of values you seek to impose on humanity. But what makes you think this’ll work?”

  Val smirked.

  “Konstantin is trying to change the world, and in this sense, he remains true to Brotherhood’s goal of liberation,” he continued. “But he realised that humans won’t accept his values; even through well-thought moral and ethical argument.”

  “I noticed.”

  “How are you going to change people’s belief, knowing that they can’t be convinced with facts?”

  Val put both hands on his hips and stared up to the sky, through the torn hangar ceiling. “Scholars of the Ivory Tower are working tirelessly while drifting in the darkness of space. The Great Liberation isn’t as simple as defeating The Crowned Confederacy—that we’ve understood for centuries.”

  Audi listened.

  “But we start by asking the right questions, that is the function of philosophy, before trying to find the right answer, which is the function of science,” Val continued. “That is the true meaning of freedom: of understanding the laws of our natural and social universe, so we can make them work towards definite ends. To be able to create our own options, instead of merely choosing from available ones.”

  Val grabbed his hood and covered his face.