"We're finally down to the last set, since you already know yourselves, your names will appear on the board all at once."
Jolly pointed at the Savants while he called their names and the board recorded their placements.
"Copernicus... Gallilei... Kepler... Brahe... Laplace... Nightingale... Vigier."
The first four battles were pointless. It was going to be settled without combat but from there on, Coulomb couldn't predict what would happen.
At first, he hated the game since it meant that he had to risk revealing his abilities but he was able to reduce the risk to the barest minimum by making the spectators forget about his battles and he ended up gaining a lot of information about the other Savants.
However, there are a few people who are looking at me like I'm a threat.
My hypnotic lightshow had absolutely no effect on them... Maybe it scared them and raised their assessment of me.
Volta finally noticed that he had caught her staring and looked away.
He knew that most people felt uncomfortable when they were being watched, especially when it was by someone like him.
But he couldn't keep up, there was also Franklin, Bell, Zimmerman, Mozart, Faraday and Hubble.
They were watching his actions closely, but only Franklin and Volta were focused on only him.
The fourth battle was about to start. He cleared his mind and focused on analysis.
He quickly checked the board and returned to the game.
"I surrender."
Vigier's face didn't change even as he surrendered. She looked like a doll.
And a little bit like Ein.
Maybe a little too much actually.
She even has Ein's Trap Status.
Is "she" even a she...
"Ein, do you have a younger brother... Sister...", Newton asked.
"Not that we would know or anything, would we?"
"Coulomb had a hazy memory of his sister...", Ein sought Coulomb's approval and when he nodded, he added, "I don't think he's related to... No, even if he is..."
Ein bit his lip and focused on his thoughts but his brother shook him and he stopped after a few seconds.
"... You're right. It's pointless to think about it when we don't know anything."
"Are you going to be okay?," Joule switched the topic deftly and everyone turned to Laplace, "They seem tough even without displaying their abilities and you can't fight."
"This set up is really dangerous for her."
Newton continued, it was more of a question of how she intended to win than a statement but Laplace didn't seem bothered by it.
"This is good for me, I can get my three victories without a problem."
Joule didn't believe Laplace's quick rebuttal but she dropped it there.
The remaining battles progressed smoothly and soon, team Orion and Laplace had their three victories.
The final battle was coming and everyone could feel that the match wouldn't go as it had so far.
For most Savants, they had no proof but the creepy doll face but for the few with keen eyes, they had seen his slight movement before Laplace surrendered.
Galilei must have noticed it too, she didn't wait for him to surrender and quickly gave up.
She must have said something to Brahe because she did the same.
Vigier had his three victories but he wasn't showing any signs of surrendering.
His body flickered and he disappeared.
He appeared in front of her and she was scorched.
She healed quickly and tried to run away.
All spectating Savants knew it was futile and turned away. He caught up to her immediately and placed his hand on her shoulder.
Bandages materialized around her wrists and wrapped around his torso just before he touched her.
The bandages were ripped to shreds and he resumed.
Once again he stopped. His body was floating in the air.
"What the..."
Vigier's body was twisted grotesquely. His right leg was detached from his knee. His joints, bloody and swollen. His hair was burnt to the roots and his skin was scarred and punctured wherever it wasn't singed black.
Finally, he was flung across the stadium like a rag doll.
Jolly appeared before the shocked Savants and raised his left hand to Nightingale.
Vigier's corpse rose like a zombie in a poorly budgeted movie. He dashed at Nightingale and went under Jolly's hand.
She let out a scream of pure terror without thinking but no one could blame her.
It was clear that she used her trump card and her opponent died and she was being attacked by his corpse.
She dropped to the floor and crawled backwards while she watched his dead eyes grow bigger with his approach.
She reflexively raised her hand to shield her face.
"He's not..."
Her voice was drowned in a roar. She heard the Savants cheering for her and she opened an eye carefully.
Her fear dissipated and was replaced with confusion but even that left quickly and all she had was derison.
She felt her cheeks burning as she remembered her screams and shouts.
She then remembered that she was sitting on the sand and stood and rubbed the particles off her with her free hand.
Then she turned to her opponent. In her right hand was a lantern and between them were hordes of soldiers very much like her opponent.
Where her reasoning had failed her, her reflexes activated her ability.
Her zombies swarmed her opponent and covered him on all sides. He fought fiercely pushing each back but they just stood up and resumed the onslaught or crawled and grabbed him.
Worse, more zombies kept crawling out of the sand every second.
Nightingale didn't like her newfound ability, it was a gruesome depiction of the lady of the lamp but she was happy that she could do more than heal, remotely control medical tools and return bodies to their original state before healing.
Now that she had the time, she wondered how he got those injuries before the battle. She could only return fragments of the damage if it occurred not too long ago.
She looked at her opponent closely.
She still couldn't see any signs of life. No pulse, breathing or brain activity and she was sure he wasn't hiding it.
Jolly would have to grant her the victory since he did the same against Darwin. She turned to the clock.
"Just fifteen seconds left."
A deafening roar drowned out all sounds and she felt numb.
She wished the other Savants would just shut up.
Then she noticed that her angle and range of view were changing.
Like she was moving in a parabola.
At that moment she finally understood, her headless, dismembered body which came into view a few seconds later didn't make surprise her.
Vigier was behind it. His body was back to normal but he was still dead to her. His lifeless eyes followed her head but he still stopped the bandages that had reattached her limbs from from touching her head.
She released more bandages from her head and body in snaking paths. Vigier stopped their motion but he was not fast enough to stop everything.
"Time's Up. Both Savants lose."
The spectators did not like Jolly's decision and didn't hesitate to show their displeasure.
Still, Vigier and Nightingale were taken off the field and both names turned red.
Coulomb pieced everything together a minute after.
For now, it was safer to assume Vigier could do anything... Teleportation, transformation, telekinesis, restoration... However, he had one critical weakness, which also happened to be one of his strengths... Speed.
"Jolly, you owe them an explanation... Urgh, you know what... You can all read, right?"
Jolly shook his head and all the Savants received a new message supposedly written by the creator.
Congratulations blah blah blah...
Weaknesses?
The letter was nothing important, apparently the creator expected us to be secretive but also thought we'd realize that working together would make things easier for all.
Coulomb squeezed his hands, but sadly there was no paper in it. He closed the message box and saw that the other Savants were leaving.
Stein was standing beside a cylinder, he entered without a word while wondering what weaknesses the creator was talking about.
By the time he snapped out of his thoughts, they were on the next Level. They were forced to pick a level-up bonus before progressing.
He chose Slip and closed his panel.
Then he was assaulted by unseen forces. His body moved even when he didn't want to.
Every single part of his body that could move did.
He felt cold and hot, light as a feather and weighed down by a tonne. He felt invisible ants running over his body, their feet piercing his skin with each step and carrying the force of a jackhammer.
His vision was like a psychedelic dream. The colors brightened, faded and changed hues dramatically.
A swarm of bees buzzed near his head and he tasted something salty-sweet and bitter and rotten-sour.
It was too much stimuli to handle at once. He couldn't get used to it because it kept changing.
When it was finally over, he woke up in his house on the third floor.
Judging by the sky, he could tell he was out for hours.
He saw Schrodinger cradling Newton in her arms.
"What happened?", he sat up and saw Ein frozen in front of a wall.
"You're awake..."
He turned and saw Joule in a puddle of water, the temperature around her fluctuated erratically.
Laplace was on a chair muttering incoherently.
Stein's body phased through objects as he walked in circles, aimlessly.
Gamma was unconscious on the floor while his brothers watched him with blank stares.
"Their abilities, they've lost control."
"Why are you so gloomy?", she tilted her head, "They'll break out of it like you sooner or later... By the way, how did you?"
Gloomy?
But I was completely deadpan and expressionless.
"I didn't do anything... I just came to. Did you do anything?"
"No, I wasn't affected by whatever affected all..."
"I know. I meant, did you do anything to me?"
She narrowed her eyes and locked gazes with him for half a minute.
"All Savants passed out after the test and I dragged you guys into a cylinder because I didn't think the marshlands were safe. I heard strange noises."
"And..."
"And I've waited here for two hours."
"Oh... Sorry. I think I can guide them out but I'm not sure..."
I wonder if anyone is going to die up there.
I doubt that they would die that easily...
Huh...
What's with her weird smile?
He placed Laplace's head on his lap and placed both hands on her ears.
Then delivered a couple hundred volts straight to her brain.
Schrodinger looked shocked.
"I always suspected that there was a sadist beneath beneath that calm exterior."
Where did that come from?
His shock therapy did the trick. She was much better now but she was still muttering to herself.
He brought his face closer to hers in an attempt to hear what she was saying.
"... Everything... Too close... Too much... I can see, help me, make it stop..."
"Laplace... Listen to me... Can you hear me?"
She raised her hands and pulled his head lower, then placed his lips on hers.
"Loud and clear."
Then he tossed her aside and moved to Joule without wasting a second.
"You're not very honest are you?"
"Well of course I'm not."
Laplace was also giving him the strange smile Schrodinger had.
He blasted Joule and called out to her.
She was still unable to control her temperature and after several attempts she managed to bring it to something fairly acceptable.
Fairly.
She was sweating even though it was a bit chilly indoors.
"This is annoying, I'll die of dehydration at this rate."
She took of her clothes and sighed.
"Much better."
"Right", Coulomb moved on to Ein without a second glance at Joule, he held his head and brought his body to the ground then placed it on his lap gently.
He slowly increased the voltage of the blast until Ein was conscious.
Ein touched his cheek but he looked dead when he did.
Coulomb moved to Stein next and zapped him. He then brought the twins together.
He placed their hands and face together and they were back to normal in a few seconds.
They squuezed their hands and their breathing slowed.
"Are you okay now?"
"Yeah. Thanks, that was torture beyond anything I've ever imagined."
"I guess."
Coulomb said and moved to take Newton from Schrodinger.
He was held back by two hands wrapped around his belly.
His back felt hot and wet.
He turned back to Ein and held him.
"I'm guessing yours was the worst... Let me guess, those two hours were stretched beyond human comprehension."
Ein didn't answer. He just sobbed in his hands.
After a few minutes he let go and thanked him again then he went to his brother.
"Newton's next,"he noticed the three girls watching him with a strange look in their eyes, he ignored it even though his curiosity was killing him.
He blasted Newton and nothing happened. He tried again with a higher voltage.
Still nothing.
He increased his output to the max, Schrodinger tried to stop him but he zapped her before she could.
Newton was still unconscious.
He let go of her and then he noticed that the reason she felt so light wasn't because because she was a child.
She was weightless.
Her body floated in the air, suspended by invisible strings.
He felt a bit like a magician making a person 'fly'.
The girls seemed to find something funny. They burst into laughter.
He wondered if his failure was that amusing.
"Schrodinger... How did you get in?"
"Finally!... You've become slower, Coulomb," Rodney Zimmerman's frame materialized out of thin air.
Coulomb tossed Newton to Rodney then moved on to Gamma.
Rodney sighed and placed his forehead on Newton's.
She woke up immediately.
She was still floating and struggled to land without success.
"Yo."
"H... Hello."
"Don't worry, I'll keep my promise."
"Promise?... What... Oh, that... Okay."
A brilliant blue flash illuminated the room and they switched their attention to the triplets.
Even though Coulomb had zapped only Gamma, all three were moving normally.
"Talk about wearing your heart on your sleeves."
"What?", Coulomb asked.
"Oh, God. Turn it off, it's unsightly."
Rodney face-palmed.
"It's kinda cute, though."
Joule nodded enthusiastically to Laplace's words.
"Yeah, I always knew he was a tsundere," Schrodinger said.
"What are they talking about?"
The twins looked away, pretending they were too engrossed in the furniture to notice him.
"You're releasing a weird aura, fool, I just woke up but I guess it's showing your true emotions," Alpha said.
"Now then, there's something important I have to tell you... Thomas Greene, Raphaël Cross, Gabriel Cross, Isabel Winter and Kathryn Reed. We're the creators of the Playground."
The Savants he called didn't seem surprised. Coulomb's grey aura showed that he truly wasn't surprised.
"We have a lot to talk about."
"Indeed," Ein accepted, "Coulomb, if you don't mind."
Coulomb led the way to the kitchen while wondering where the kid was.
******************************************
"Like I said," Bubbles pointed at the disassembled system unit, "This is nothing like what it should be like, right?"
"So they've got quantum computers on a PC scale," Sam said thinking about how himself from two weeks ago would kill him for what he was saying, "What does it change?"
"Imagine how much more they've achieved that they've forgotten... I'm thinking their 'nuclear reactor' is actually a dark energy generator and that AI tech... probably wasn't 'taught how to learn', with the vast computing power available, it gradually gained intelligence...and, and the clones, they could have mapped the entire human genome for all we know and... "
"Okay, I think I understand now," Sam raised his left hand in submission. Bubbles was on a roll and didn't want to stop.
Sam sat on the cool plastic floor and watched a school of fish moving near the top of the dome.
Sitting in the park and sipping a soda, it was easy to forget that he was half a kilometre below the sea-level.
Their lazy dance helped him forget his frustration. His eyes moved to the almost clear sea behind him.
The fishes must have moved to avoid something and now they were returning.
What a carefree life.
They just avoid all danger and live for themselves.
Selfish.
He stopped himself a second too late from making a bad pun.
Then he wondered about what they avoided. There was no way anything could get near Atlantis without triggering alarms.
He lay back and closed his eyes after one last sip. He choked a little but he felt calm because he knew he was getting closer to the truth.
The memory manipulation tech must be better than they thought but they didn't know because they were made to forget anything that might be a clue.
The irony was a brilliant twist that'd fit nicely in a movie. Once again, the creator showcased his flair for dramatics.
Dark energy reactor?
But it doesn't interact with matter unless...
How did...
What am I doing?
We've gone beyond this a while back.
"Sam, Andy's charged again and he says he's found something."
While he didn't appreciate being woken from his sleep, he knew the damned robot wasn't their ally and therefore everything he said was true.
There was no point in crafting elaborate tales when a simple 'I don't know' would create more confusion.
He was sure that the creator wanted to be found but he wasn't as whimsical as he usually was when it was related to who and when.
He opened his eyes and stared at the glassy doll eyes in front of his face.
He crawled backwards, struggled to his feet after several failed attempts and ran away.
"Heart of a lion," Bubbles said, crushing his cigarette in his fist
He took a combat stance.
But the robot fell and was caught in the hands of another Sam recognized all too well.
He quickened his pace and hit something hard.
Another robot.
He turned to move to another direction when he heard Marie's voice.
Oh, the third android looks familiar because it's Andy.
"I am so sorry," It apologised slowly and sincerely, "I forgot those robots were still on. Well... I've handled it. Goodluck finding my boss and uh...", It looked at the back of his wrist but it was empty.
"What time is it?..." It's head was tilted as it asked that question but then it quickly reconsidered, "Don't answer that, actually I doubt you were ever going to."
"Sheesh, don't look at me like that Sam, I was ordered to traumatize you."
It moved its left hand to it's chest and clenched it.
As dramatic as it's creator.
Sam was still looking at him like he was ready to run at the slightest threatening motion.
The robot tilted his head with an exasperated look and shrugged his shoulders.
"Whatever, gotta go," he stopped at a door as if he remembered at that moment that he could teleport, "And stop smoking Bubbles, it's bad for your lungs. Hello, Marie."
His last words were said in a high-pitched voice and accompanied by a wave.
She was stunned for a second, then confused, then she ignored everything and pulled Sam to his feet.
The robot might as well have been a fly buzzing around.
It's actions were irrelevant to her.
"And Bubbles, is there something you want to say to me, the pending legal approval but definitely guardian of Rodney Zimmerman and five thousand other kids..."
"But the Prodi-Zs are..."
"Failed candidates were still kept in mind," Bubbles and Marie chorused.
She turned back to her target and surprisingly, he appeared to be cooperating.
"This drive in the main switchboard...," he lit a new cigarette, "But prepare for a ton of shit."
_________________________________________