Chapter Eight: A Dark Freedom

Part 1

“‘Don’t die’? That was your advice?” The Writer asked, frowning. “For a man with all of you skill and ability, you’re awfully callous.”

“You’ve said that before. But what else was I going to tell them?”

“You could say that it would be alright. That there was nothing to fear.”

“Both lies. I try not to lie whenever possible.”

“The you could have said-”

“Those things that you hear your action heroes say in your films are complete rubbish. Consider: what sort of arrogance is required to assure someone in a life or death situation that everything — entirely everything — would be alright?” The Mage folded his hands, contemplating. “I’ve learned a long time ago that it helps no one.”

“But just a moment ago you said that you hate panic.”

The Mage tilted his head back and forth, “True, but there are other ways to keep people calm.”

“How?”

“Firm, authoritative directions. In times of true fear, people want an answer, a path. This is why when soldiers are trained, they are put in a harsh environment. Similarly, Police offices and firefighters must train for hours a day to learn instincts and skills to get them through situations that the average person would find hopeless.”

“You see, when you have options, you have hope. And when you have orders, you have options,” the Mage shrugged lightly. “This is the nature of panic.”

“And what about screaming, hysterical people?”

“They’re on their own.”

The Writer laughed sadly. “See there? Callous.”

“What am I supposed to do? If I stopped to try to calm every single person that passed during an emergency, I’d get nothing done, would I?” The Mage shrugged lightly, then he glanced at the clock on the wall. “Let’s say we break for lunch?”

The Writer blinked. “What, right this second? At this particular point in which you left off with the words ‘Don’t die’?!”

The Mage raised a brow. “Are you really that concerned about the conclusion of my story knowing that, ultimately, I win?”

“It’s not about the conclusion in this case. Everyone knows – or at least they think they know – what happened at the Event. What is important now is that we understand what and why it happened. There are people, even today, who don’t believe that Tokyo disappeared and don’t acknowledge the fracturing of the tectonic plates.”

“I’m not overly surprised.”

“But you need to understand that we need to understand.”

“I understand that,” the Mage paused and smiled slightly. “The Event will not change between now and the end of lunch. Nor will the details of the same.” He watched the Writer carefully then let out a slow breath. “Fine,” he said slowly, “We can discuss it over the meal. But don’t blame me if it is too gruesome for you to enjoy your food.”

Part 2

I mentioned earlier that there are some races that believe the human ability to sort trillions of bits of information and simply focus on a few, crucial things is rather supernatural. For example, while many have trouble in formal school with geometry and trigonometry, the standard human is capable of, generally, judging distance to a fairly accurate degree.

I say this to explain what I imagine what the others in the room saw as the creature emerged as I fiddled with the pedestal.  It looked a great deal like an upright canine though with huge paws and small, though numerous sharp teeth.  It wasn’t any taller than anyone else in the room but it moved quickly and I could see why the two men, who weren’t spindly by any measurement, had trouble with it.

And, beyond that, the creature didn’t have the decency to obey the laws of physics.

It appeared standing on the ceiling, massive paw the size of a large dinner plate resting on the lamp. It watched the room with large green and brown eyes dotted with three distinct pupils.

“Oh my god!” Grim cried out as he, Lily and the two men huddled in the corner. “What is that thing?”

The pedestal pulsed with bright blue light, but I stopped it. There would be no need to put the people in stasis and, from what I understood, doing so would not help the situation. So I deactivated it’s internal response system with a thought, then turned to regard the creature.

“Hello,” I said, smiling. “I’m Elijah Valentine, mage of this world. And you are?”

The creature regarded me for several long seconds. Then, it blinked and spoke. “You are mage,” it said. From behind it I saw two tails swaying slowly, each tipped with something glinting and slick. “I am not of here.”

“I… gathered that.” I glanced over at the four people still frozen in shock. “Why are you here?”

The creature watched as I looked at the other four occupants of the room. “I fell.”

Fell. For a creature that somehow had no problem ignoring one of the basic powers of this reality, mainly, gravity, the concept of falling had to be more than the exact definition that we know.

“You should return from where you came.”

“Why?”

“You attacked two people. And I do not permit violence.”

“He struck me first,” the creature replied, then blinked very slowly.  When it opened its eyes again, it looked back over at the huddled humans. It then hissed loudly, the sound like the thundering sound of a waterfall slamming into rocks at the base of its fall.

I turned in time to see one of the men, Ian, raise a hand. In it, he gripped a large handgun. I had a lot of time to wonder at why the man would have a gun as he pulled the trigger and watched the bullet cross the room. For example, was he a cop? Perhaps a criminal. Or maybe even one of those American citizens who felt that, since they had the right to carry a weapon, they carried one.

Even as I saw the flash of light from the weapon, I crossed the room to relieve the man of his weapon. But the creature was faster still.

It scurried across the ceiling and launched itself at the huddled group.

The carpeted ground beneath my feet cracked as I accelerated to intercept the creature and I just barely managed to get myself between it and the humans. It screamed in fury, the sound shaking the room with its force as it came up short.

It tilted its head slightly and turned towards the door. There was a knock. “Excuse me? We’re trying to rest in the next room, can you keep it down?”

The creature turned, blindingly fast, and bounded for the door. I did not have time to interface with the pedestal before it barreled through the door, knocking it off its hinges and landed on the wall beyond, as if it had fallen and it was simply landing on its feet. It hissed up at me again, then sped off.

Beneath the broken door, a person groaned.

I rounded on Ian. “You failed to mention the gun.” I took it from him and disassembled it. I took the firing pin from the weapon, then put it back together and tossed it at him. The action took two seconds.

“Lily, call that number and tell the lady on the other end that the situation has just gone critical. Answer any questions she has fully and honestly.” I strode towards the door.

“Where are you going?”

“Thanks to our friend Ian, we have an enraged creature of the void loose in the hotel. And, I imagine, it will soon make its way to the streets.” I left the room, checked on the person beneath the door, who was thankfully only a little bruised and dazed, then took off after the creature.

Heads peeked out into the hallway as I ran. Then, they seemed to freeze as my perspective of time shifted. I reached the end of the hall in time to see the emergency door still ajar. I moved through it, careful not to touch it, then looked down through the spiraling blue railings toward the ground. Nothing. I looked up and saw the creature, jumping from floor to floor as it climbed.

I ran up the stairs. My footsteps crunched into the concrete as I propelled forward.  I had to place a foot against each of the landings’ wall as I reached it to change direction, leaving a massive splintering crack as I moved. I slammed through the door to the roof and looked again for the creature.

It stood, silent, staring back at me, the city of New York spread out behind it.  It turned and ran over the ledge. I rushed over to the edge and watched as it ran along the side of the building as if on solid level ground. With no other recourse, I jumped. As I fell, falling faster than the creature could run, I reached out to try to grab it, but I missed.

Even before the confrontation, Williams had begun the evacuation of the area. The neighboring rooms on the 14^th floor must not have been evacuated for fear of… what? Something I still don’t understand. Still, the ground was clear so when I struck it, from the fall, there was no one there to be injured. Except for me of course.

I cratered in the sidewalk, slamming a full three feet into the manufactured stone. Then, the creature fell upon me and we broke through the sidewalk and street to the subway tracks below. The creature shot away down the tracks, snarling, as I got to my feet.

I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the darkness. Then a loud blaring caused me to turn. A train flashed towards me and then… slowed, the sound of its horn lowering in pitch until it was nothing but a dull thrum. The face of the conductor frozen in a terrified scream, bracing for impact with a human. Somehow the creature had taken me out of my focused state, ripping me free from my altered time shift.

I turned and sped after the creature. Determined not to allow it to do anything destructive. I had no issue with it being here in this reality if it was going to be peaceful. But now it seemed enraged and I had no idea what it was capable of doing.

Part 3

I shifted my weight quickly, sensing the approaching creature, and struck. The impact dispelled the void darkness and it disappeared as if a strong wind had swept through the tunnels, bearing the odd phenomena with it.

There was a strange, terrible sense of slowness, as if I’d been incased in a vat of thick jam. My limbs moved slowly, time itself seemed warped and twisted. Then, like a rubber band snapping, it returned to normal. The creature shot upwards with my fist, slamming through the rock and soil above.

I leapt up through the hole in time to see the creature get to its feet and bear down upon a delivery truck speeding along the road towards it. It loped with feline grace then, with massive paws, swatted the truck aside no more consequential than a ball of yarn.

The truck tumbled in the air, rolling, the headlights swirling. I jumped forward, moving between the truck and the crowded evening sidewalk. I braced and the truck struck my shoulder, neatly splitting in half. The contents of the cargo exploded, sending gallons of grape soda fountaining around me and onto the nearby pedestrians. Soaked, I pulled myself free of the wreckage in time to see the driver crawling out of the driver side of the truck as it lay on its side.

I watched with accelerated sight as the creature sped down the road now loose in the city.

The Writer bit into a sandwich while The Mage watched, eyebrows raised. The Mage cleared his throat. “Out of all the choices you had available to you as my guest here in this five-star restaurant you decided to select a turkey club sandwich?”

The Writer glanced down at the sandwich. “It’s usually what I have for lunch. Why? Did you want me to order the steak and lobster?”

“I don’t mind either way, I just thought that you’d select something different. Something fancier, perhaps.”

The Writer gestured to The Mage’s plate which held a cooling lobster bisque. “That’s not exactly the world’s most expensive soup.”

“I’ve had the world’s most expensive soup. It was overpriced,” The Mage replied easily.

The Writer set the sandwich down, wiped his hands on a napkin, then pulled his tablet closer to him. He tapped several times. “You said earlier, while you were in the room, that you were able to make a connection to the outside world. To warn Williams?” At The Mage’s nod, The Writer continued. “So why wasn’t the hotel surrounded or something? You said that the evacuation was underway.”

“Have you ever tried to get a New Yorker to do anything that inconvenienced them? Now, don’t misconstrue what I say: New Yorkers are, on a whole, a bunch of jerks. Individually, charming people. In a crowd, not so much. So, even as the evacuation was initiated, there was trouble in getting people out of the place. A perimeter was set up around the hotel, but we never encountered it, having gone through the subway tunnels.”

The Writer nodded slowly, making a note. “And why was it so important to capture the creature?”

The Mage, “Because it was causing destruction and mayhem.”

“Only after it was attacked. Shouldn’t you have taken Ian in and had him arrest or something?”

“Ian is a human and American citizen. It’s very likely that the proper authorities could find him if needed. The creature was an unknown, and angry for having been attacked. When it was trapped, it ripped the limbs off of two humans and was only held back by the power of the Mage Tower. That sort of thing must be returned from where it came.”

The Writer glanced up, “Sounds like immigration laws.”

“If the immigration laws applied to extra-dimensional demons, I suppose it does.”

“And you feel that any dangerous creature should be shunted back to where they came?”

“No, every thing deserves a chance to live a happy life. If that life is here in this reality, who am I to stop it?”

“And if the creature wanted to live a happy life here?”

“It would be difficult for it and I probably would not allow it.”

“Why?”

“Because, rather than running away from a danger, it attacks. Instinctively.”

“But doesn’t it have a right-“

“You are applying what you understand to be human rights to extra-dimensional creatures,” The Mage pointed out, eyebrows furrowed.

“Why shouldn’t they? It seems as if these things have feelings and intelligence. Why not treat them as if they do?”

“Because they do not come from the same society that we do. We, in this reality, value life, liberty and freedom for all people, equally – whether or not they actually get it is another matter. In others where the main civilization evolved from some sort of hive species, the lives of, say, a worker class are nothing. Slavery is nothing. In a world where the highest form of life was born from immensely territorial species, the thought of simply killing another being who trespassed on your property would be nothing.” The Mage shook his head. “I didn’t know what that creature considered right or wrong, but I did know that it was powerful, it attacked at provocation and it came from the void.”

The Writer seemed uneasy at the explanation. “But surely it cannot be faulted for doing what it does naturally.”

“Absolutely not,” The Mage replied. “Just like one shouldn’t be surprised if he’s bitten by a dog if he keeps harassing it. But, like a dangerous, insane criminal, the fact that it is its natural state does not allow it the freedom to act upon it here in this world. Why? Because acting on its instincts will undoubtedly result in the death of a human.”

“And your solution to that is-“

“To send it home where it might act on its instincts without consequence.”

“It still seems inordinately harsh.”

“And yet, that is the truth of it.”

“Where did it come from?” Williams asked me as I made my way into the mobile command center she’d set up a block away from the Stonehenge. The cargo area of an entire 18 wheeler covered in monitors, computers and other terminals of whose function I could not fathom. There was also a coffee machine, which seemed a bit out of place. Men and women sat at the terminals with headsets, calling orders through to other armed soldiers on the streets outside.

“The void somewhere,” I answered, pressing buttons on the coffee machine. It was tiny. Much smaller than the sort I was used to. “It can manipulate time, space, and light. And I also imagine it can manipulate gravity and acceleration relative to itself.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because it was walking on the ceiling… how do you work this thing?”

“Do you have a way of tracking it?” Williams asked as she peered over someone’s shoulder to look at a screen showing the trail of the conflict with the creature.

“Yes.”

The cargo area of the truck went silent as all eyes turned on me. The coffee machine hissed loudly as it percolated. “There we go.”

“Valentine, how can we track it?”

“Oh, you can’t, not with all these fancy computers. You’ll need a much fancier tracking system. Which I happen to have installed in the city some time ago.” More silence. I finally looked up. “Coffee anyone?”

Part 4

I had a choice at that very moment. On the one hand I could tell the military-types how to track the creature and go on and do what I needed at the mage tower — namely, begin developing a method of getting all those trapped demons back home. On the other hand, I could go and search for the creature for myself and capture it and possibly send it home.

The issue had two very important things weighing in on it. If I spent the time going after the creature, I would end up losing that time getting the creatures home. More than that, I would loose time trying to develop a counter measure for Rhianna’s upcoming incursion. Because, while I was confident in my laboratory’s abilities to fabricate industry changing technology, I wasn’t entirely certain they’d be able to pull together a weapon on a large scale in such a short time.

So, as always, it came down to time.

I once went to a seminar for high-powered executives. One of the things they tried to hammer home, besides the fact that all of these seminar places seem to have the exact decor. I mean, really, beige wall-covering was old in the 1800s. In any event, one thing that they tried to impart was the idea of delegation. That is, to delegate when a major project had to be done.

So, that’s what I did. I delegated.

Coffee seemed like the most appropriate thing at the time, especially given that I’d just started the machine but it was clear that Williams and the others did not feel the same. Of course, I did have a method of tracking the creature. “Very well, step aside,” I said to the technician closest to me. “And keep an eye on that coffee.”

I accessed my own network. While the physical locations of my workshops had been destroyed, I still had a few nodes around the world. Nodes that I didn’t bother to physically visit. One such node was in New York on the roof of Stonehenge. “Alright,” I said as I pulled up the interface.

“Windows 95?” the tech asked, pulling off her headset to smooth out her hair.

“I’ve got a net over the city,” I explained, ignoring the question. Really, Windows 95 is still a good operating system. It does everything that I need it to do. “And each of the anchor points are quantum-locked. So if I connect to them and read how much dissonance they are picking up -”

“You can triangulate the location of the creature,” the tech finished. I glanced at her, but she had moved over to another console in the cramped space. “Like tracking the signal of a cell phone. Only this is more like… ripples in a pond. Depending on how and when a ripple hits the shore you can pinpoint where it originated.”

I blinked then glanced up at Williams who nodded. It was evident that Williams knew that all of her people were competent and had probably verified them all personally. Which in itself was strange because I assumed at the time she only had a team of a few people in a tiny office in the base of a large building in D.C. But I’ll get to that in a moment.

“Exactly right. So, with that given information, we can pinpoint it to Brooklyn…” I sighed. That posed several problems.  ”Something you need to remember, Michelle,” I said. She glanced at me and, apparently because I seemed serious, she nodded, indicating her full attention. “Do not fire first. This is the same deal as the bats in Old Appalachia. Your first priority is to get that thing home. Failing that, you contain it. If you fire on it, it will kill you.”

“Why not destroy it if it’s simply going to kill us?” Williams asked, shaking her head. “And when it starts attacking pedestrians, what then?”

“Talk to it,” I replied as I poured myself a cup from the coffee maker. “It’s intelligent. In the meantime, I’ve got something that needs to be done.”

“Valentine, that thing moves faster than anything I’ve ever seen. How are we supposed to confront that?”

“Good point,” I replied, then took a sip. “Ug, who drinks this stuff?”

“Good point, yes, so what do we do?”

“Don’t you have protocols for this?” Williams seemed exasperated and, to be honest, I couldn’t blame her. “Pull up a map of that area.”

I glanced over the map the tech displayed on the screens. “Electrical grid.” And that appeared overlaid. “Water. Telephone. Internet.” I allowed my awareness to expand, to reach out into the expanses that I kept reserved for such needs.

“Now, give me a readout on the triangulation algorithm.”

“How much do you know about the Civil War?” the Mage asked, leaning back in his chair.

“As much as any other American educated person. It was to abolish slavery.”

“Just so, but how much do you know about the battles? The deaths? Artillery and the like?”

“Not much… What does this have to do with the creature, and, by extension, The Event?”

The Mage folded his hands together, frowning. “I’m trying to put a complicated concept into perspective for you.”

“So this isn’t one of your tangents.”

“All of my so-called tangents are relevant.”

“And the relevance of the Civil War of the capture of an extra-dimensional homicidal creature set loose on New York?”

The Mage smiled slightly. “This is all anecdotal of course but during a battle, the Union army was pinned down, surrounded on three sides with their back to a mountain. Fortunately, they had the high ground. Unfortunately, that high ground was a rocky mountain. These rocks provided some shelter from cannon fire, but it did not from the sound of that fire.

With cannons and rifles going of second after second, the sound carried and bounced along the rocks. Most of this sound became distorted and unrecognizable. But then there was a resonance. At some point, the sound began to amplify. Wave forms bounced from rock to rock, echoing, combining with other wave forms, growing in decibels, vibrating the air. Shaking the air.

The air, still filled with the sounds of gunfire and cannon fire and dying men turned into a weapon itself. Ears bled from the sound and men died from the hemorrhaging cause by their brains rattling in their skulls.” The Mage tapped his lips, falling silent in thought.

“And…” the Writer pressed, searching for the point. “You were going to kill the creature with amplified sound?”

“No, that’s ridiculous. I was going to stop the creature using the internet.”

Part 5

“You’re going to use the combined electrical fields of the electric grid, the telephone system, the internet junctions and the water system to force that creature to go back to its own dimension?” The technician asked, blinking.

“Can that work?” Williams peered over the tech’s shoulder.

“In… Theory. I suppose it could. But that would take an incredible amount of control of all of the systems and…” He shook his head. “It’s impossible.”

“Just highly unlikely,” I said.

“So unlikely as to be completely impossible.”

“Explain,” Williams asked of her tech.

“Assuming that he could get control of every single aspect of all of these systems, which in itself is a logistical nightmare. He would have to perform trillions of calculations simultaneously, live, as in instantaneously. But before that, he would have to take into account every single electrical field in the effected area of the containment.”

“That’s televisions and house hold appliances?”

The tech paused and I gave him a nod before turning back to my work. “That’s every single thing that has an electrical current in what I assume is a twenty block radius. Cars, phones, wristwatches, televisions, microwaves, heck, human bodies and brains. Rat brains. Everything”

“When you put it that way, it’s quite a daunting task,” I said. “But, to answer your question: yes, it can be done.”

“What are the risks?” Williams asked as she leaned over another tech to get at a console.

“The power grid might be burned out. There will be pressure on the water system, so there might be main breaks. A few stranded passengers in trains.”

“So the inconvenience of a few to save a few more lives,” Williams equated.

“And,” the tech said, raising his voice slightly, looking from me to Williams. “Headaches, possible mental effects. Nausea. And if someone goes unconscious while driving-”

“How likely is that to happen?”

“Very slim,” I replied easily.

“He’s going to be playing with extremely powerful electrical fields which are designed to interfere with other. I would be surprised if people’s heads didn’t start exploding.”

“There will be no exploding heads. A few people might get a headache, perhaps, but it will keep the creature still long enough for it to be sent home.” I smiled brightly. “Trust. This will work. The alternative is that the thing will lay eggs.”

Williams shot me a glare and I raised my hands defensively. “A joke! Sorry, it was a joke. No, I’m fairly sure it’s male and not carrying any fertilized eggs.”

“What does gender have anything to do with a creature like that?” The tech asked.

“You… you’re very negative aren’t you.”

The technician looked at me, appraising. “I’m the person who has the opportunity to say something when my commanding officer wants to push the big red button. If I think that it’s wrong or stupid, I’m going to say it.”

“I thought soldiers were supposed to follow orders.”

“Luckily for all of us,” Williams said, standing. “He’s not military. We’ve got you access to the systems that you requested. This sounds insane, all of this, but… go ahead.”

And a moment later I stood on the roof of the trailer, pulling cords out of the satellite dish there. Shouts rang out from below and several of the techs appeared on the street below, not entirely pleased. I ignored them because at that moment I had wrapped a cord around my arm and stuck the end of it into my mouth. Thusly connected to the needed systems, I got to work.

Part 6

Three things to consider when using the internet to affect an electromagnetic hyper dimensional field to entrap an extra dimensional exo-chronotinic being:

One: ensure that all of your calculations are concise and correct you don’t want to end up ripping a hole in the fabric of space-time.

Two: be certain that the methods you are using to affect the interference field are solid and stable.

Three: make sure that you have a constant supply of witty remarks pertaining to mathematics and science.

That being said, once I got started with the process, things went relatively smoothly. You see, the Mage towers themselves are anchors into different dimensions, corresponding to points in alternate realities in such a way as to connect them using quantum dynamic iberium, the material from which the towers are made.

Similar in concept, I have access to the versions of myself that exist on the planes adjacent to me.

Energies crackled around the city of New York City as I accessed the municipal resources of all of its electromagnetic systems. Power junctions flared to life and not a few of them exploded in a shower of light and sparks. The world around me became a blur as I hammered through the calculations with speed derived from hundreds of millions of minds working on the same problem.

The quantum values of my thoughts travelled across time and space as matter could not, interacting with the thoughts of the other minds simultaneously worrying at the same conundrum. Wondering and thinking and planning at how to manipulate the disparate systems in such. A way as to cause interference with the creature’s abilities.

An entire groups, some infinite millions worked at bringing forth the exact nature of the creature’s chronodynamic abilities.

With that piece in place, the calculations began in earnest. It was much… Like how water flows over a waterfall, reflecting light to create a rainbow. So many points of information, funneled, concentrated, expanded…

Entire sections of New York flickered, power lost. Toilets burst and fire hydrants suddenly sprang leaks. Those watching internet films found that pieces of other information and code was appearing on their screen. I tapped directly into the grids of the city, manipulating its services, warping the electromagnetic fields throughout the park where the creature resided.

A wave of panic spread through the field of connected minds. Realization and fear… For some… One.

“Shot fired, shot fired,” came through on a nearby handheld radio.

Tied into the city’s network and with the theoretical knowledge I had from the other versions of myself led me through the tangled jumble of networks nodes to the street camera. In time to see a man lying on the ground trying to desperately to scoop what was left of his innards back into the massive gash in his torso.

The creature stood over the dying man and roared. The field was stable, interlocking with the very fabric of space-time to nullify the creature’s reality-warping powers. The entire force of the city brought to bear on the demon.

Even so, the thing was fast.

But not fast enough. Another wave of fear, greater than the first.

“This is Strathmore, we’ve got a lock on the tar-” The electromagnetic interference cut off Jenna’s last words.

“Jenna, this is Williams, stand down.” Williams bellowed into the radio as she caught it up in hand. “Acknowledge.”

“Get them out of there…” I warned as calmly as I could manage.

“Target is movin- engaging – civilia- danger- taking the shot.”

“Do not fire,” Williams ordered, her eyes locked on the satellite image of the creature stalking through the park.

“Immediate threat-…advise.”

“Can they not hear me?”

“There’s interference from the fields keeping the creature from manipulating space-time,” the technician reported, typing on her console quickly. “There is no communication going into that area of the city.”

“If I take down the field, we may not be able to capture the creature again,” I explained carefully.

Williams stared at the screen.

“Sir?”

“Take-”

Then there was silence as the creature flew several feet away from what appeared to be a person cowering in the park. It got to its feet immediately and bounded the direction from where the sniper shot had come.

“Valentine…”

Throughout the field, minds raced, but none were a help. I had to move. I ripped my consciousness out of the communion trance and sped out of the trailer.

People froze around me as I ran, my feet pounded into the pavement, slamming it open, pocking it with tiny oblong craters. I forced myself faster. Faster. Glass along the street shattered and cars rocked from the force of my speed. The air around me began to sparkle with friction. Hissing with foxfire.

The, there it was. I saw its silhouette hanging from a nearby ledge. And, even in this time-warped relative perspective, I seemed to move in slow motion. And it slowed, raising a massive paw.

I had enough momentum… No, too much inertia as I came to the wall of the building. I was too fast to try running up the wall, I would simply plow through it. If I jumped, I would more than likely miss the creature as air resistance slowed me into a massive fireball. I had no choice. The world flashed back into real-time as I slammed bodily into the side of the apartment building, shattering every window in the structure. Gunshots sounded from above, then a scream.

I was turning to start climbing up the building when the creature and a form hit the pavement nearby. They both righted themselves quickly and I was shocked to see Aiden, in pajamas no less, trading blows with the demon.

This demon, with which I’d had trouble now retreated before the onslaught of Aiden’s adolescent fists. The two moved with furious speed, Aiden dodging and dashing, the creature swiping and biting. Then Aiden planted his feet and swung. His fist connected and the sound of it shook what was left of the building’s window frames.

The creature fell and did not get back up.

Then, Aiden turned furious, reddened eyes to me. He scrambled back to the building and leapt, reaching the roof in a single bound. I followed a moment later, landing on gravel sprayed with blood.

Henry Strathmore lay on the gravel, eyes closed, opened from his left shoulder to his right hip.

“Help him,” Aiden demanded. “Please.”

I closed my eyes and turned away and I felt through the vestiges of the confluence mind those who did the same. And from those, the demands of Aiden’s voice. And Jenna’s weeping. But, though amplified, it did not compare to the all-consuming, crushing despair of those who did try. Those versions of me, who did try, revealed their wondrous technology… And failed.

I knew that I was not within one of those lucky realities where such effort would be successful. This was the last, despairing thought shared with me as infinite minds queried the same and shared specific parameters of saving Henry’s life.