Planet Myridia
For the last three hundred years, the Oracles have ruled Myridia with an iron fist. With the planet's infrastructure obliterated by Demeter, Myridians barely have any weapons.
While the Oracles lack the Myridian power to create duplicates at will, the jewel embedded in their throats grant them considerable telekinetic powers. It's hard to rebel against someone who can rip your head off just by thinking about it.
An Asian eighteen year old with silver eyes is now leading the latest uprising, which the Myridian police has been completely unable to sedate. With dozens of Oracles now reaching the city from all over the planet, she doesn't waste time taking charge.
<-We just declared a war against an entire planet. If you have time to worry about the safety of a superhuman militia that turned entire cities into concentration camps, be my guest. Kari, follow me.>
Noriko leaves the trio, and the goddess of fire bites her lip nervously.
Max asks, turning towards the goddess; as he does this, he turns his right hand into pure light to temporarily blind the Oracles.
Torn is slammed into the ground by the Oracle; two more land beside him, ready to hit the red-skinned man with the walls they are now removing from the buildings.
Moving faster than the eye can see, Vesta punches one of the Oracles hard enough to send him flying right through the building. Quantum takes care of the other one, melting the streetwalk with a focused microwave blast and making him lose his balance; Torn takes his chance and stabs the Oracle, carefully avoiding any vital organ but causing enough shock to render the Oracle unconscious.
Inside Nabric Ges' skyscraper, Kari Zel is watching the fight through the window. Oracles charging against Quantum's light form, only to be electrocuted when he converts his mass into electrons. Throwing weapon and objects against Vesta, only to see all of them incinerated. Torn jumping all over the place, using energy swords to scale buildings and shouting things like "stab of the back" when attacking from behind or "mind armor piercing" when cutting through the telekinetic shields, always removing the jewels in their throats with an energy scalpel.
Kari wonders if he knew he could remove them without killing the Oracles before trying. Every time he removes a jewel, he handles it to one of Kari's duplicates that run it back to the base.
Below the fight, the Myridians are revolting against the state police. Civilians outnumber policemen; when each and every one of them create ten thousand duplicates, the city is positively overcrowded with the largest riot this world has ever seen.
Kari wonders out loud.
It's hard to describe it, since it's built from salvaged components that the duplicates of Nabric, Kari and dozens of other voluntaries have recovered from all over the city, but the most striking part of it is the five feet wide reflector dish on top.
Kari doesn't end the sentence, interrupted by the Oracle that has just crashed through the wall. He grabs Noriko, wasting no time to exit smashing through the ceiling.
Talas Khanos is furious. He let this miserable planet alone for a few weeks, and now this child is ruining one of the most brilliant social experiments in galactic history.
She can barely hear him through the sound of the crumbling building, until both of them have finished smashing through all of the skyscraper's floors and are now floating in the air.
Khanos is holding her by the throat: even if they weren't flying, she wouldn't touch the ground since he's seven feet tall and she's barely above five.
Noriko fires the Genius Gun again, but not towards Khanos: she's aiming for the device, calculating its exact position. She's right, of course, and the kinetic blast provides the energy required to activate it.
The effect is immediate: an immense electromagnetic pulse spreads from the building, invisible to humans but not to Oracles.
They clench their throats, as the jewels shatter into thousands of pieces together with their power and pride. All over the world, dozens of Oracles find themselves plummeting to the ground or fall prey to the attacks of rebelling Myridians.
The last thing Talas Khanos can see before losing consciousness is the face of the girl with the silver eyes, while both fall to their deaths from the top of the skyscraper.
Torn catches them in mid air, using an energy sword as a grappling hook, slowing down their fall until they hit the ground. It's not exactly a perfect save, as Noriko almost passes out from the impact, but at least she's alive.
Noriko catches her breath, checking if Khanos is still alive: he knows enough to prove useful. But that's not important right now: the sight of policemen surrendering to the rebels, Vesta and Quantum preventing falling Oracles to become blood stains on the concrete, the people dancing in the streets, everything is awe-inspiring. Even for Null.
"We did it! We saved the world!!!" her human side cheers.
"We completed a coup against an alien state police. This is far from over" Null answers.
"Spoilsport. Can't you at least enjoy the moment!?"
People are chanting her name, praising Null's might and genius. Enemies are praying for her mercy.
She reached Myridia naked, disarmed and helpless. In less than a week, she conquered the planet.
"I am, Noriko. Believe me, I am".
Her eyes shine, overseeing the endless possibilities of the galaxy's largest infantry at her disposal.
Her human side shivers.
Khloe VII, capital world of the Demeter Theocracy
Divine Palace
The planet is almost entirely covered in beautiful gardens, carefully tended by subjects from a hundred worlds of the Theocracy. The Gardeners must be sterilized virgins and they are executed after reaching thirty years of age; they are not allowed to see their families or their homeworld.
The Oracles carry out every other duty, constantly in contact with the many provinces of the realm. They report directly to the Lady-In-Waiting, the highest ranking mortal in the Theocracy who answers directly to the Holy Goddess Demeter.
Anesi Mithrades is the current Lady-In-Waiting, selected for the rank at birth and genetically modified to live much longer than a human. Although she looks slightly above fifty, Anesi is already 137.
On Earth she would be considered of Arabian descent; Demeter prefers her Lady-In-Waiting to be of darker skin than most of her subjects, to be able to recognize her at a glance.
She has changed her mind about this in the past, slaughtering entire breeding planets just because she happened to dislike their appearance.
Anesi enters the Divine Gynaeceum, where Demeter lives most of the time. Surrounded by all kinds of flowers, a bath tub the size of a swimming pool dominates the room.
Dozens of Lampyrians are attending the Goddess: stroking her hair, polishing her nails, massaging her feet, watering the flowers, humming tunes about Her glory.
Demeter can't recall if she created the Lampyrians or if she just came across this alien species. They look like human females, except for the blue skin; they can be clearly identified as slaves of Demeter because their bat-like wings have been surgically removed from their backs.
Demeter lazily invites the Lady-In-Waiting to go on with a casual wave of her hand.
The goddess looks directly at Anesi, who swallows nervously. She lowers her head when Demeter stands up: the punishment for seeing her naked is disembowelment. The Lampyrians scatter, unable to follow their instinct to fly away like a scared flock. The green-haired goddess inhales sharply.