The elevator doors are about to close when Kari shouts:
One of her duplicates appears right in front of the door, blocking it with her hand to prevent it from closing. The original Kari is pushing Vesta to make her walk faster: they're both wearing high heels, but the goddess is far less comfortable wearing them.
Kari says to Torn: he's wearing his usual dark duster.
the goddess guesses.
Noriko's lab is a mess, even more than usual. There are pieces of hardware scattered everywhere, especially around the main device she's building.
It's a big sphere surrounded by six pistons apparently crossing it at random points. The whole thing is about six feet tall and far too heavy for her to build unassisted, which is why there are three Nullbots helping her carry around the parts and lay the industrial cables that will power it.
Vesta and Kari don't say a word when they enter the lab, and are naturally joined by Torn in silence. Noriko acknowledges their arrival from behind the device:
She's not wearing her trademark leather jacket, probably because she dismantled the air conditioning to scavenge parts for the device. Her hair is messed up, her hands and arms are covered by grease spots, and her silver eyes are constantly shining.
The others look at each other, until Kari asks:
The silver light flickers, and Noriko loses her balance. A Kari duplicate catches her before she falls.
<√Ω2(πɣ2-πΩ2)-∑πɸ2> Noriko answers, trying to stand on her own but failing to keep her balance.
the duplicate says, but can't finish the sentence before disappearing.
The device starts to hum softly. The room goes dark.
Vesta holds fire in her hand in order to see. The device is still humming, but it's the only thing working: the Nullbots are completely immobile, and all the holographic projectors are off.
Noriko, Kari and Torn are unconscious. The first thing Vesta does is to check their vitals: they're breathing and she can get a pulse. The two girls are running a fever.
"The device must've have knocked them out somehow" she thinks, moving towards it to inspect it or possibly to disconnect it. Not only the flame goes off when she's less than a couple of feet away, it takes her considerable effort to make every single step.
"What is this thing!?" she wonders, pushing as hard as she can: even with all her strength, something is preventing her from touching the device. And given that she can literally move mountains, it's far from a good sign.
It was supposed to be an evening among friends, to forget about what they've been through lately.
Instead Max Black had to put on his Quantum mask and rush to the Tower, where he finds the bodies of Noriko, Kari and Torn on the medical beds.
<εψ2(ϑɣ/π)√Ω> Noriko says to herself.
Quantum rubs his hands, concentrating. The door to Noriko's laboratory is open, showing the complete darkness on the other side.
He then shoots lasers from both hands at the darkness, but without success: the darkness simply eats the energy he's throwing at it. Other types of energy don't have different results: electricity, radiation, nothing seems to be able to get through.
<"Odd". That's how you call a room of dark stuff that eats everything you throw at it.>
Quantum doesn't get to finish his sentence before the lights in the corridor go off.
<...it doesn't expand. We're fu##ed, aren't we?>
Back at the infirmary, Vesta is trying to lower Noriko's temperature with a cold wet cloth.
<∑ɣ(1+ϑ)+(1+ɸ/Ω)-√π/Ω>
<"OM"?> Vesta repeats.
<ϑ=ξɸ2 → Ω=√ϑπ !!! ∑Ω2=∞ !!!> Noriko exclaims.
Noriko grabs her clothes and looks at her: her eyes are shining like torches.
<∑Ω2=∞!!! ∑Ω2=∞!!! ∑Ω2=∞ !!!> Noriko keeps repeating, louder and louder.
I.R.I.S stops talking; the entire room has gone dark, and Noriko is shaking uncontrollably.
Vesta doesn't waste any more time: keeping Noriko in her arms, she kicks the window open and flies away from the building.
She turns her head just once: the lights of the entire Null Tower are going dark, from the top to the bottom, in rapid succession.
This may be the busiest city in the world, but it's not every day that a woman smashes through a window carrying the body of a visibly sick teenage girl.
Despite the sudden entrance, the medical personnel is trained to respond quickly to a medical crisis and in a few seconds Noriko's already on a stretcher being examined by a doctor.
Vesta keeps her distance to let the doctors do their job; she's seen plenty of sick people in her immortal life, but she has close to no experience healing them.
After what feels like an eternity, the doctor approaches her.
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