Flashback, Part 2

When the lightning smashes through the window to reach Noriko, the Core's anti-duplication field falters. The interference lasts only a moment, but Kari can create duplicates in the blink of an eye.

A new Kari pops into existence right in front of the Core; she grabs the baseball-sized alien device and runs to the window, throwing herself off the building.

As shocking as watching a duplicate throw away its life so carelessly can be, Quantum knows there are more important things to do. With the Core away, he's free to use his powers.

The armed guards are disarmed with a simple blast of concentrated microwaves, which melts their weapons from the inside. A right hook takes care of one of the doctors, because you can't feel like a super-hero if you don't punch somebody in the face every once in a while.

In under a minute, all of Leiko's men have been taken down. The proud owner of Scion Corporation is on the floor, with a hand on her broken nose trying to stop the bleeding.

<-Security will be here in a minute and your alien friend can't stop the Core from coming back. You are not going to…> she threatens, stopping when she notices Noriko's stance.

She's zoned out, staring at her blankly with silver eyes filled with electricity. Staring her own hand soiled with blood, Leiko watches the electrical current still flowing from her own head.

<What are you seeing?> she asks.

Twenty-eight years ago

Leiko wasn't allowed in her mother's room. There were no pictures of her in the house and her father never talked about her; Leiko had to discover who she was by reading her books.

Wakahisa Noriko had been a respected professor of archeology and comparative mythology, so most of what she wrote went right above Leiko's head. She was smart enough to read them despite being only five years old, but even child prodigies have limits.

One night she sneaked into her room. She was laying on her bed, hooked up to a machine that recorded her vital signs; people said she had a stroke shortly after Leiko's birth, but there was nothing wrong with her body. She kept talking.

<The stars are rebelling hide the hearts make room for the dark galaxy build more gods seal the edge of the universe build more gods the stars are rebelling…>

<Mommy?>

<What are you doing here?> something asked, with a scary deep voice.

Leiko screamed: there was a metal ball floating above her mother's head. In the dark, with the moon's light coming through the blinds, it looked downright demonic.

<What are you doing to my mommy!?>

<This primitive storage device cannot sustain a Drylon operating system. I am attempting to correct that flaw, but the biological hardware has sustained heavy damage.>

<What's a Drylon?>

<Would you like to know?>

Eighteen years and six months ago

Leiko found herself naked inside some sort of storage room. There were boxes everywhere; she was in front of a ten feet tall statue of a man in a toga. The head and arms had been cut off.

There was some kind of alarm. The room was filled with armed angry men shouting orders in a foreign language that she couldn't understand, pointing weapons at her.

They ran all kinds of tests on her for several days. She was treated fairly, giving her time to study her captors. She identified all races she knew among them, and a few skin colors she'd never seen before. They spoke softly and never looked each other in the eye.

After they'd exhausted every possible kind of physical test feasible on a human, they started to ask questions. Every person they sent spoke perfect Japanese.

They wanted to know about Earth. Which god did they worship? When was the last time they saw one? What did they know about the nearby stars? What were the other planets in its solar system like? How advanced were their weapons? How many warships did they have?

Leiko answered every question. It was enough to break any teenager, let alone someone who by now knew she was pregnant. Leiko never complained, not even once.

After weeks of captivity, they took her to a poorly lit room where she waited alone for four hours.

Finally her contact arrived. He was freakishly tall, at least eight feet, and his skin was extremely dark. Judging by how other people reacted to his presence, he was in charge of the place.

A woman with long blue hair followed him with, taking notes on a digital device. Leiko could've mistaken her for Native American.

<State your name, planet and god> he said in perfect Japanese, sitting down. Even so, he was taller than Leiko would've been standing up.

<I am Tanaka Leiko of planet Earth, and I have no god.>

<We have no record of a planet with such a name> the Native American with blue hair explained <However judging by the description of its solar system we believe it is a new name for Lethe.>

<The planet forgotten by the gods. What do you know about a man called Ulysses?> the tall man asked.

<That he took the Core to Earth two thousand years ago. My grandfather discovered it in China during the war and claimed it as his own personal property.>

<How do you know about the Core?> the tall man pressed her. Leiko didn't lose her composure.

<I have read the Odyssey. The real one.>

The tall man and the woman with blue hair looked at each other. They seemed very worried.

<Has anyone else read it on Earth?> he asked.

<Only my mother. She discovered the original text; that's how she found out about the Core and met my father. It has shared its secrets with me. And it wants to help you.>

<You know who we are, then> the tall man realized.

<The Mortal Liberation Front> Leiko answered.

Eighteen years ago

Leiko was sitting on a medical bed floating a few inches off the ground. The doctor placed the ultrasound sensor on her belly; she was in her eight month of pregnancy.

The tall man walked into the room, carrying a very heavy metal suitcase. He glanced at the monitor that was showing the heart rates of mother and child.

<Aren't you at least a little nervous? You're making my men look like amateurs> he said.

<We have another month before birth. Enough time to take all precautions.>

<I hope you are right. We had to sacrifice three worlds to get this.>

The tall man opened the suitcase. It contained a small device, no bigger than a fingernail, shaped like the symbol for infinity.

<The Nexus. Are you sure it will activate properly once on your world?> he asked.

<There are more than five billion people on Earth; it should be enough. You don't have another choice: if any god finds out about a Nexus activation they will burn its planet to the ground. >

<Very well. Proceed> the tall man ordered.

On Earth, such a procedure would've been fatal. However Leiko didn't even feel any discomfort when the needle went through her belly and straight into the child's brain, installing the Nexus.

But then Leiko's eyes turned silver, and all the medical monitors went crazy.

There was a bright flash of blue light. When it ceased Leiko had disappeared, leaving her clothes on the medical bed.

Today

Scion Corporation Headquarters, Tokyo

A slap in the face makes Noriko come back to the present. While she gets her bearings, Kari snaps her fingers in front of her.

<Hey, are you there? You're not going into shock again, are you?>

Just then, security rammed through the door. They were pointing their weapons and shouting orders in Japanese. Leiko composed herself, still holding her bloody nose.

<Settle down. Just a minor disagreement; miss Null was just about to leave.>

<The hell I am. You put some kind of alien device inside my head!!!>

<This is private property, miss Null, and you are no longer welcome here.>

<Your shareholders probably disagree. Have you watched the news, lately?>

Null Tower, New York City

Vesta knocks on the window, stroking her right arm to warm it up. She can still feel the cold from Triton…even space didn't feel so cold.

Kari's original body, still wearing her pajama, opens the window to let her in.

<Vesta, what took you so long?> she asks yawning, while creating a duplicate to hug the goddess.

<Someone stole the Twin Dragon.>

<Really? That's too bad. Are you hungry?>

Kari calmly walks towards the living room, followed by Vesta who is floating a few inches off the ground.

<Aren't you worried about your duplicates?>

<Nah, I can take care of myself.>

<Hey girls, we're on the news!> another Kari shouts.

In the living room, six different copies of Kari gather in front of the television. Torn is also there, almost invisible among the collective excitement of the duplicates.

The TV is showing four people walking out of a building, escorted by the police: Noriko, Bob and two Kari. Then it shows amateur footage of a lightning bolt striking the Scion Corporation skyscraper, then images of a hole in the sidewalk with the same size of a baseball.

<More news from Japan where the headquarters of Scion Corporation were the scene of several unexplained phenomena: a lightning bolt striking the upper floors despite the clear sky today in Tokyo, and reports of a woman falling off the side of the building but disappearing before hitting the ground. We have reports of teenage billionaire Noriko Null being present in the room struck by lightning; she was seen leaving the building accompanied by her father Robert and two unidentified women. There are also unconfirmed sightings of American super-hero Quantum in the building.>

<You guys better watch the…oh hi Vesta> Quantum says after appearing in the room.

At this point, nobody is really surprised to see him show up all of a sudden without warning.

<What happened over there?> Vesta asks.

<It's…kind of a long story.>

<Did you find your sister?> the original Kari asks.

<No, she wasn't there. Wait, here it comes!>

<But the big story today is the near meltdown of the Japanese stock exchange, with Scion Corporation stock falling dramatically over the course of the day after what experts describe as "the most aggressive hostile takeover in history"; reportedly, Null Technologies has acquired over 80% of Scion Corporation stock for less than 2 dollars per share. The Japanese finance minister has said, quote, "If she does this again we can kiss the financial system goodbye", but later added that his comments were taken out of context.>

<Don't you get it? Leiko just lost everything she had. We won!>

<Did she lose control of the Blue, the Core, the Fusion Reactor or of any technology she stole from Noriko? Or of the alien technology she clearly already has?> Kari asks.

<Well, no, not really. We lost her and the Core when we left the building. Now that I think about it, she probably wants to kill us even more now. But I got my comic books back!>

<Nice job> is Torn's final statement on the matter.