Chapter 41 - Flight

Null Tower, New York City

Max Black a.k.a. Quantum opens the door to his room, leaving the suitcase on the floor. Kari Zel is behind him, wearing her pink Myridian clothes and carrying a couple of bags full of comic books.

Max says.

<…>

Max answers honestly, shrugging.

<"Hey guys, I'm back on Earth, I'm fine, bye"?> she suggests.

Kari asks, smiling innocently.

Quantum groans, recognizing the girl does have a point, and disappears in a flash of light.

Triton, Neptune's largest moon

The only thing Vesta can remember is the cold. As the goddess of the household fire, she's not used to it…in fact, she barely recognizes the feeling.

Despite the absence of a decent atmosphere, flames immediately surround her body to heat her. A human would've crumbled to a dust cloud of ice crystals in minutes; she just shivers.

She doesn't know how much time has passed; she never carries a watch. But it's been enough for the Twin Dragon to take off.

She tries to stand up, but her legs won't support her. She falls down again, gathering all of her strength just to remain conscious.

"Is this what Demeter felt before dying?" she wonders before fainting.

First class, international flight

Kari Zel is bored out of her skull. She knows she's just a duplicate, sent to accompany Noriko in her journey to Japan, but that makes the experience even more irritating.

She's not used to fourteen hours of sitting down in a closed space without any other duplicate. Noriko is passing the time working on who knows what invention on her N-Phone, oblivious to anything else. Her father Bob however notices Kari's exhaustion; his seat is on the other side of the corridor, so he leans over to talk to Kari.

he asks.

Bob gives her a big smile, and it's hard not to be at least a little charmed by his simplicity.

Bob glances over to his daughter, certain to receive a lecture, but she's too busy on her work.

He leans over towards Kari a little more, asking in a much softer tone:

Bob asks. Kari seems harmless enough, but he really doesn't like people asking too many questions about his daughter.

Noriko intervenes, standing up.

Kari and Bob react as if they've just been caught doing something wrong by their parents.

she cuts them off.

Her father and her friend watch her as she walks away; she's clearly upset. Bob notices that she's left her N-Phone behind and reaches for it.

Kari chides him.

he answers, looking at the N-Phone screen.

It takes him a while to understand what it is. Kari watches it too, but she's not very good at reading English.

Bob answers.

The Twin Dragon, Demeter's former mothership

Kari Zel is used to watch herself die. She's witnessed the death of countless duplicates.

When Talas Khanos used his telekinetic powers to break free, she expected to experience it firsthand. But instead she wakes up tied to one of the chairs on the bridge.

She turns around, seeing the former Oracle sitting on the golden throne at the center of the room.

-Good morning, sweetie.

Kari's first instinct is to create a duplicate to untie her. But when she does, the metal collar on her neck releases an extremely painful electrical shock. She falls down but doesn't hit the floor: Khanos is lifting her with his mind.

she manages to say through her teeth.

he answers, gesturing towards one of the control stations. The flatscreen quickly responds to his mental commands, despite being several feet away.

Something bumps against the Twin Dragon; it's enough to shake it despite the inertial dampeners.

<"The birds"?> Kari asks.

Khanos asks, with the excitement of a kid.

Kari shakes her head nervously.

First class, international flight

Noriko is in the bathroom, looking at her own reflection. She's visibly tired: tiny red veins are starting to become visible around her silver eyes.

"You should get some sleep. You look like thirty-five or something" the reflection thinks.

"Can't I get some privacy here?" Noriko thinks back.

"Hey, is that the way to treat your other personality? Geez, you're really a stuck-up"

"I will not have an argument with a figment of my imagination"

"Say, when you're done talking with mom, what do you say we meet the old gang?"

"First, Leiko is not my mother. Second, what old gang?"

"You know. Jane, Liz, Asha and Stacy. You think Jeff is still mad at me for dumping him?"

"Is that everything that matters with you? Friends and boys?"

"So what? We're rich now. We're popular. Isn't this what we always wanted?"

"I wanted to be more than the janitor's daughter"

"Well you're the smartest person in the world now. What are you going to do with it?"

Suddenly hearing a voice that isn't coming from inside her head, Noriko jumps back and bumps into Quantum.

she says punching him in the arm.

she says, her eyes shining with her death stare.

she acknowledges.

Quantum answers before beaming out as a stream of light.

"As if I don't have enough things on my mind already" she thinks, pulling down her pants to sit on the toilet.

Quantum asks, stopping mid-sentence when he notices the girl's embarrassing situation. Her eyes are blindingly shining with rage.

she repeats with an almost demonic voice.

Quantum could swear he disappeared faster than light this time.