Proving the Hypothesis

With his entire Sunday morning spent doing paperwork, Dan complained in his head while striding through the noisy street. Fortunately, he thought, he still had half a day free of work. He turned a corner and left the shouting stall keepers and lousy proles behind. The cold and moist apartment building stood quietly as Dan walked into the concrete structure full of cracks.

Just as he stepped on the stairs, he heard the clanking of metals mixed with some panting coming from behind the walls.

"So that's how you spent your morning." Dan smiled and stepped down the stairs. He walked towards the backdoor of the building and entered the abandoned depot behind the apartments.

The brightly lit patio was littered with metallic pieces that used to belong to a car, with benches and tables put together with scraps placed here and there. Edwin laid back on a metal bench, strenuously lifting a huge metal axel. His half-naked body reviewed a muscular build, with the sweat-covered skin reflecting the bright sunlight. The teen's muscles trembled as he growled between his teeth, pushing the rusty metal bar higher into the air.

Dan stood looking from a distance. Though that wasn't the first time he saw Edwin exercising, the boy's rough outline and growling always reminded him of Edwin's unspoken past before Dan found him: those muscles of his were built to withstand fists and cuts of the bloodiest thugs.

"Bad dreams again?" said Dan.

Edwin bit his teeth tighter as if pouring all his hatred and sadness into his chest to keep the weight lifted. With a loud growl, he dropped the huge axel, kicking up a cloud of dust. Panting, he gave a light nod as an answer.

"Welp, just to relax you a bit more, why don't we waste away our afternoon at the café?" asked Dan.

Edwin had no reasons to reject the offer – it was one of the few activities he enjoyed beside draining his emotions via straining his body.

◆ ◆ ◆

The hot black coffee reflected Dan's weathered face as he took a sip from it. In Edwin's memory, Dan never ordered anything else from the café – no beer, no tea, just black coffee. The boy never understood why the old-man enjoyed such a bitter drink.

Across the table, Edwin sank in the chair, casually flipping through the yellow pages of a novel. His body always felt light and comfy after a post-exercise shower.

"I know I've asked this a million times, but…" said Dan, "you are not going to stay like this forever, right? I mean, you got plans for the future?"

Edwin rolled his eyes and sighed before closing his book.

"Still thinking" was Edwin's final reply, then raised his eyebrows at Dan, "do you?"

"Me? Well, I am getting a bit old for throwing kicks and fists at criminals and all…" Dan supported his right cheek with his fist.

"But you know how it is...my chance of having a future died with my son years ago…" Dan casually sipped his bitter drink. "One thing I can do is heading South. You know, the stupidly cold region where glaciers and snowy mountains are at. But the town's quiet, relaxing and all…"

Dan paused, stared blankly at his reflection in the mug, before stirring it with a small spoon. "Just don't know when I would get to go."

"You will," Edwin suddenly spoke, "I won't stay with you 'till the end of time."

"Since all trust would come to an end," he thought, then looked at the novel on the table, in which his white plastic book mark was inserted, its corner with dark red stains.

"Sure, kid, only if you improve that indifferent attitude of yours. I might be the only one in this world that can stand you."

Leaning forward, Dan crossed his hands.

"Tell me, kid: what does this world mean to you, other than depression and betrayal?"

Edwin looked away in silence, unwilling to give an answer.

"Honestly, do you really not trust anyone other than me?"

"No," replied Edwin, still looking away, "you know how I lived through my life – by never trusting anyone."

"Huh, says the guy who sleeps in my apartment," sneered Dan.

"You are no honest man either," argued Edwin, "did you or did you not eat my share of potato chips when I wasn't home?"

Dan avoided eye contact, but Edwin's sharp sight forced him to confess. He threw his hands in defeat.

Edwin turned his head to look at the sunset. The corner of his mouth rose up in a faint smile. The joy, however, didn't last long as he realized that he still had no answer to Dan's question.

◆ ◆ ◆

The next day was picked for testing Edwin's hypothesis regarding the device they retrieved earlier.

The test site was selected as far from any population as possible. The taxi's door opened as soon as the rubber wheels came to a screeching stop. Before the dust settled, Edwin and Tracy stepped out into the arid, barren hills outside the city of La Capital. The dry grass covering the dirt hills danced in the arid wind, while abandoned concrete buildings littered on the landscape.

Edwin dragged the mini luggage bag towards the foot of a dirt hill. Just a few meters away was a concrete wall, apparently a broken-off section of a old apartment building. He then took out the metal cube from the case and placed it on the ground – the sheer contrast between the dirt ground and the shiny, metallic object surrounded the cube with a mysterious aura.

"So, what is it that you want to prove?" asked Tracy.

Edwin ignored her. He checked the region around the device for anything suspicious. He then retreated behind the concrete wall. Tracy followed him. Finally, Edwin spoke.

"I've had a peek inside it," he explained, "this cube is perhaps the most efficient and powerful bomb mankind has ever built."

"Huh," exclaimed Tracy, confused and baffled, "how are you so sure?"

"I'm not," replied Edwin, "it will be tested at this instant."

Tracy answered with a brief "oh" and stepped back. She was surprised by how calmly Edwin put it.

"Cover your ears and hide behind the wall," ordered Edwin, "I shall detonate it."

A dim blue light emerged from the outline of Edwin's limb – the sign that his ability was activated. His hand began breaking off into floating and disconnected parts as it moved into hyperspace.

"I've reached the device," said Edwin, "I will cut the coil in a moment."

"Right."

"In three…"

Tracy covered her ears.

"…two…it's gonna be bright." Edwin kept counting as Tracy also closed her eyes.

"One."

Edwin quickly retracted his hand from hyperspace as his limb once again became complete and ceased glowing. Half a second later, the eardrums of the two experimenters were greeted with a powerful impact. Their chest thumped heavily, sending the shockwaves through their lungs. A small-scale dust storm soon reached them and covered everything in a cloud of yellow mist.

Struggling to breath, Edwin, sitting against the wall, slowly opened his eyes and turned his head around. He was certain that deadly injuries would've occurred if it wasn't for the ten-centimeter-thick concrete wall.

"Tracy?" he yelled while his ears rang. Overcoming the dust cloud, he saw Tracy struggling to her feet. Clear crystals of ice scattered around her – those were the remnants of a shield she made with water vapor.

"Congrats on being proven right!" she replied, coughing heavily, "and screw you for my loss of hearing and potential respiratory illness!"

Edwin peeked his head around the wall – the dust wasn't completely settled, but he could already see a large crater emerging from the receding cloud and smoke. He walked closer and saw a five-meters wide basin, mostly darkened by burnt grass and scorched dirt. The outer rim of the site of destruction had shrapnel stuck deeply into the ground, with only spikes peeking up. Edwin turned around to look at the wall they were hiding behind, and a line of metal fragments extruded out of it like terribly-aimed darts. He walked towards the largest of them and pulled it out. The piece was deformed out of shape, suggesting that it has half-molten before quickly condensing back into solid.

"So, how did you know it was a bomb?" said Tracy, emerging from behind the wall.

"The device is hollow inside," answered Edwin, still looking at the metal piece, "the thick coils produced a powerful magnetic field. What's being contained in the field seemed to be something charged…likely a plasma of antimatter."

"Slow down, genius," said Tracy, "please elaborate."

Edwin sighed, remembering that not everyone worked in a library like he did.

"What's contained inside are particles of matter that are opposite to our everyday ones. If they were to come in contact with ordinary matter, a ridiculous amount of energy would be released as the two types of matter annihilate."

"How could you tell that was antimatter?"

"The symbol on the cube," said Edwin, "a hydrogen atom with the charge of its particles reversed – opposite to ordinary matter, as I have explained."

Tracy stared blankly into the distance and nodded slowly. She was awed not just by the danger of the device, but also by how knowledgeable this introverted teen was.

"Fortunately, from what I can tell there's just a tiny amount of antimatter – such a tiny amount that I could barely see it," said Edwin, "if I can just deactivate the magnetic field generator, ordinary matter would come in contact."

"So, what now?" asked Tracy, "what would this tell us about the underground scheme?"

Edwin took a seat against the concrete wall and thought for a moment.

"From what I could tell this device is merely an experimental prototype," said he, "merely a proof-of-concept. The real ones to come would be even worse."

"'The real ones to come'?" asked Tracy.

"This one had attachments on the sides. It's clear that when operational, they will be stacked together into one giant bomb…"

"…and the fact that where we found it was right below the city center…" continued Tracy.

Edwin remained silent; the worst possible scenario flashed across his mind: a mushroom cloud towering into stratosphere as concrete pillars evaporate instantly in the heat of a blast thousands of times more deadly than that of a nuclear attack. The deathly radiation of matter-antimatter annihilation swept across the province, burning one-tenth of the country's territory into atomic ashes…

"Whatever the hell they are trying to pull off…" Edwin murmured to himself.

"Well, it seems that we are getting closer to a conclusion," said Tracy, who tried to make the scene less intense by patting Edwin on the back, "we make a great team, buddy."

A loud bang came from just and inch away from Edwin's head. He jolted backwards, falling on his back. Tracy ran towards him and checked the point of impact. Whatever it was, it just punched a clean hole around two centimeters in diameter, right through the ten-centimeter-thick concrete wall.

"What was that?!" yelled Tracy.

"Gunfire?" suggested Edwin.

"It can't be that silent!"

Something went by Tracy's head in a whoosh. Edwin, still on the ground, felt a wind blew past his hair while the grass behind his head got blown aside to make way for the invisible bullet.

"Tracy, go find the source of the attack," shouted Edwin, trying to get up.

"Copy that, pal." Tracy darted off toward the abandoned building behind them, which was the only place that could hide anyone. It seemed that the blast must have attracted some unneeded attention.

Edwin pushed himself off the ground and dashed towards the other side of the wall. Just as he got up, a crater on the concrete ground caught his attention. After a quick examination, he dashed towards where Tracy was headed.

"What kind of madness is this?" murmured Edwin.

Behind the concrete wall, where the strike that nearly blew Edwin's head landed, rests a fresh crater half a meter wide and ten centimeters deep. By tracing the edge of the crater to its middle by following the radiating cracks, one can easily locate the source of destruction: a tiny metal nut engraved in the ground.