A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 79

A Perfectly Logical Guide to a Superhuman Apocalypse: 79

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Ichypa

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“Seran, what the fuck. You know this sort of bullshit never ends well.”

I had to take a deep, steadying breath as I looked at what Seran made to potentially help in regards to the sensor issue that we were facing.

For a second, since Seran matured and became a mayor, I thought that she changed.

In fact, though, it looked like she just buried her fetishes in plain sight.

“We’ve got an AI right next to us, though? And Parvati’s doing well, right?” Seran tried to make a reasonable argument. However, the flush on her face and how she was looking anywhere my way informed me that she knew exactly what I was talking about. “Artificial life forms aren’t wrong. They can help humanity and even be our partners!”

I turned her way, stalked over to her, and… pinched her cheeks and pulled.

“Making people to do specific jobs is wrong!” There in a bubbling vat of green goop was a young woman suspended in fluid. She was your typical otome game villainess archetype that Seran had the hots for. Silver hair, supermodel proportions, and casually beautiful. If she opened her eyes, I was sure that I’d see scarlet irises. Exactly the woman that Seran hoots and hollers about wanting to be stepped on by, basically. “And, do you expect me to believe that woman consented to being made and given obscene powers into our world!? Think, Seran, think! This is a one-way ticket to getting murdered by your own creations!”

“But… but she’s so hot!” Seran’s eyes were wet with tears and she looked at her creation with more than lust and desire. It was the look of someone reaching the max limit of their potential. Some would be tempted call it self-actualization. I call it slipping dangerously into a land of complete delusion. Some things should stay fictional. “Look at her! She’s perfect!”

“Not worth losing your life over! Think, dammit! Think with your brain and not with your libido!” Seran wouldn’t make this person weak. I’m probably looking at someone who’s hilariously overpowered. Seran would never make someone of her favorite archetype weak. She’s the type of hack writer that can’t stand her favorites losing! “This is reality! Do you really expect this woman to dominate you and do what you ask!? Did you even put limiters on this woman!?”

Seran just sniffled in reply, and I let her go to hold my head in my hands.

So, this is how the world ends.

With everyone making their perfect waifus or making themselves into giant robot gods.

“Parvati, Mars isn’t good enough. I need out of this solar system.”

“I wasn’t aware that you had such range.”

“I don’t, but with time, training, and probably a lot of equipment, I can do it.” I answered the AI offhand. I wasn’t sure, but I’ve gotten past outer solar system already. A couple of decades and with some high-spec tech to help me out? I can probably get to Alpha Centauri. Wait a minute. “How about you prepare a vessel and have it start chugging towards Alpha Centauri? That way when it gets halfway there, and I can still reach it, we can cut the time in half by making a waystation.”

“I’ll look into it.” The AI’s response was dry, and it sighed after finishing looking over the machines. Seran and I mutually knocked it off. “This imprinting system you’ve developed is extraordinary.”

“Oh, thanks. It’s an improvement on my uplift machines for dogs and the like, which just puts information right into their heads and implants. For making people, though, we’ve naturally put safeties in. Basic information and understanding and the understanding that they can make their own choices.” Seran did her best to ignore my glare. Parvati might be okay with it, but I still wasn’t wholly on board. I trusted Seran, but I still thought this whole thing was stupid. The world needed less superhumans, not more, especially when the children of the previous generation were showcasing combinations of their parents’ powers. At this rate, in a few generations, Earth’s going to be a rock with a few biomes protected by high-tech shields. If we’re lucky, there’ll still be an atmosphere. “Her specialty lies in her ability to interface with a far larger machine in this laboratory for the sake of gravity manipulation.”

“So, you’ve made someone who can literally manipulate gravity. That’s great.”

“Only when interfacing with a machine whose power is under our direct control! Otherwise, she’s completely normal, if very, very good at math.” I grudgingly conceded the point… just a little. If the superhuman in question needed the support of a whole city state to use their power, then it wasn’t much different from a normal person needing support from the city to launch a military force attached to it. Hm. Now that I think about it, that sounded too good to be true. What kind of brain do you need in order to ‘sense’ gravity all over the planet? “Oh, don’t give me that look, Egress. You’re normal, despite having the sensor ability to teleport all over the solar system! Her gravity senses are mostly instinctive.”

“Fine, but I’m having Parvati verify.” I grunted and looked over at the AI, who just nodded at my statement. Thankfully, the AI knew that this sort of info needed to be validated. No just for my sake, by also for its sake. Someone who can control gravity would be terrifying to handle. “What did you plan to do with a machine that manipulates gravity, anyway?”

“Lower the cost of launching missions up to space by an immense amount. I wanted to get infrastructure up and running up there, since a lot of the sciences I have in mind would be easier with access to cosmic radiation… but I guess now we need it to contest the orbits.” Seran sighed, and we entered an elevator. It brought us done rapidly for a while, until we exited and entered an immense, excavated room. Some sort of advanced tech must’ve carved it out, since the surfaces of the massive sphere room were perfectly smooth. By my estimates, you could fit a stadium in the underground hollow, but most of its space was taken up by an utterly massive machine with hundreds of wires and cabling attached to it from tunnels in the ceiling. “Here it is, the magnum opus of my entire city. The first gravity manipulation core.”

Parvati spoke up, while I looked at the big sphere of metal and wires, and barely understood it.

“I see it. There’s an artificial singularity in there. I see. You’re manipulating gravity by exerting the singularity’s effects elsewhere through emitters.” I may be a lay person, but I was more than aware of the fact that ‘singularity’ was the center of a ‘black hole.’ Let me rescind my earlier statement. The earth’s fucked within this generation. There’s no need for other generations to come and play. For fuck’s sake, Seran, why would you make a black hole on Earth!? Even if can be turned off, this is ludicrously dangerous! “I am detecting several ongoing fusion reactions within the orb. I take that even if one fails that the singularity turns off?”

“Of course.”

“Alright, I’ve seen enough. I want out of this place.” This is enough super science for me for at least a couple of months. The fact that Seran and Parvati were both looking at me with pity didn’t matter. Guys, I’ve got a bachelor’s degree in business from a state university. I know enough about science to know that I don’t know anything about it and to leave it to specialists to figure out. All this is sending alarm bells off my head and wanting me to get off the planet. “Can you let me out, while you escort Parvati around, Seran?”

“Sure, Egress. C’mon, Parvati, I’ll tell you more about it while we walk.”

“Thank you.”

Oh, great, they’re going to keep driving me up the wall talking about crazy, world-changing technology the entire time.

This is why I hate not having access to my powers.

I could’ve just left!

…

Leaving Parvati and Seran, I went over to where Maelstrom was situated in the city, and took a seat.

After getting a few hours to myself back at base, of course.

Took a nap, had a meal, played some games, and destressed.

Now, I was semi-ready to report on the situation and interact with other people gain.

“So, I heard that you ran away?”

And, my social meter has dropped to half.

“Sorry, but I’m not cut out for handling technology that can destroy the world when used wrong.”

“One could say that the spread of technology led to social media, which in turn led to the swift destruction of the planet once superhumans arrived.”

“I think that once the governments lost control over violence, it was just a matter of when thing got fucked. Not how.” I replied simply. We had the penthouse suite on a remodeled hotel. Top floor and with a good view of the city. Vancouver was pretty, despite being metropolitan. Plenty of trees inside, as well as good views of two waterfronts. The penthouse was modern luxury. Tall roofs, granite, and simple furniture that was eye-wateringly expensive regardless. They got to Maelstrom. She was eating some local salmon. I heard that the population of fish in the oceans was massive now, since most of the fisheries across the world closed.  “What’ve been up to?”

“Besides fretting over the fact that there are multiple polities in space with interests on the planet? Speaking with the local council and finding what they need, so that we can trade. Normal trade with cargo ships, too.” I gave her a nod at that. Good move on her part to get away from relying on me. She’s been at it for a while. Most of the stuff getting shipped around to the communities in California are one-time things that they need for building up their own economic and tech base. She got everyone electricity, shelter, food, and water, and after that got people to work. “Recycled steel has gotten their attention, along with sugar, fruits, and grain.”

“Hey, that sounds great. Fantastic. Normal and sane.” I grumbled and Maelstrom laughed. Shaking my head, I just had to ask. “How do you feel about this whole thing anyway? The Neo-Nazis being used by the people in space to start exploiting Earth?”

“I imagine the reason why they haven’t stepped onto America is because they know I will move if they do.” Huh, that’s a good point. There was no reason for the intermediaries of the people up in space to land on Canada. I mean, there’s plenty of resources in Canada, but if you’re strip-mining and getting the local population to be your forced help, it’d be better to do it on the East Coast. Weather’s a lot less horrible, there’s more people alive there, too. Canada had like forty million people. US had three hundred million. Yeah, with all that technology and their goal, there had to be a good reason for them to not exploit the US. Maelstrom looked like she was the culprit. “I suspect that they have a surveillance system looking across the continent. I doubt that they see everything, but they are keeping track of dangers to their plans.”

“Yeah, that make sense. You’re ridiculously high profile. Anyone planning on doing anything has to take you into account.”

 Some people would say having a single satellite dedicated to monitoring someone is overkill. Then, you remember that Maelstrom shut down superpowered crime in the US over the course of a few weeks without killing a single person. She’s not just a threat to a plan. She’s a natural disaster given form and someone that needs to be planned around. You don’t confront her, unless you have someone as strong as her. If you do, then you need to set things up to give that person a means to taking her out… and then you open yourself up to that person deciding you’re no longer the boss.

Yeah, I think most ‘evil’ organizations will just work around Maelstrom, rather than prop someone up to kill her.

Maelstrom’s good nature and moral codes makes her predictable and people know she won’t become a tyrant.
Whoever kills her with the help of those who want her dead?

Yeah, they’re going to become a tyrant without a doubt.

But there was a way around that.

Someone like me.

“They’re probably looking for a way to kill you. Someone specialized with key weaknesses that they can put down with numbers and technology.”

“Like you?” Maelstrom smiled, and I didn’t hesitate to nod.

“We’ve already encountered one teleporter. We got rid of him quickly, but that just means there are other people like me. There might be a lot, but they’re just smart and keeping hidden like I used to.” My power is strong on paper, but it’s nothing that can’t be surmounted. Enough energy, enough manpower, and stealth? If I can’t reach you and find you, I can’t kill you, then you just need to wait and work while the noose closes as more and more places on the planet start saturating the air with passive electricity and disrupt me. Hell, if someone catches me once in a trap, I’d be done for. A couple dozen car batteries, then they can bring in a big generator and a laser, and all I’ll be able to do is hold on. They only need to succeed once. “You need to be more careful. At least, be ready with a sidearm or something that can get you out of a tricky situation.”

Maelstrom hummed, before nodding.

“How about a means to call you for help, and a machine that creates a dead field of energy for a few kilometers?”

I had to blink at the simple statement.

“Huh, that works. You just turn it on, get rid of the surrounding energy, and I pull you away. Yeah, that’s… basically the best thing. Why didn’t I think of that?” Maelstrom hummed and took a bite of her food, while I tried to find some explanation as to how I didn’t think of that. Why shouldn’t I work to get my hands on something that gets rid of energy fields in my immediate area!? “Seriously, why didn’t I think of that!?”

“Most likely, you’re unused to working with others and accessing them for help.” Maelstrom looked really pleased with herself. In fact, she laughed a bit while I struggled with the idea. It’s so simple… but she was right. I just always never considered asking for help, but now I had Parvati and Seran for assets like those. “I’m glad to be of help, Egress.”

I think I need to look over all my plans and make sure that I’ve taken my new allies into consideration.