12 Years Ago - Hours After The Silent Scream

  Boli advanced, pushing past the endless sea of people rushing away from Indus, urgency in their movements, but nothing as frantic as when the bots still remained. All of Boli's months of work amounted to absolutely nothing. Almost literally. There wasn’t so much as a pinky left behind from any of his droids in the utter destruction of Lightcrown’s wake. If Boli wasn’t so impressed, he definitely would have been upset.

  Standing before the giant hole in the ground where the epicenter of the blast looked to be, Boli scanned the area for signs of danger. Everything stood out as a sign of danger. Distant screams of people behind him, rubble as far as he could see, destroyed buildings and cars dotted the streets, all of which were crushed to near oblivion. Something smelled like what he could only describe as electricity, making his nose twitch and hairs stand on end, with a warm and cold wind alternating every other minute. It seemed nothing else was out of order. Boli could deal with it.

  Kneeling down, Boli picked up and tossed a rock ahead of him to see if it would disintegrate when rolling down the crater. Instead, something a mix of terrifying and fascinating sounded off. The rock was quiet when it hit the ground and rolled further down. Curious, Boli clapped his hands in front of his stomach. Gasping with delight, Boli could barely hear his own hands. It was like someone turned the volume down on this part of the world. An open chamber of sound isolation. Excited, Boli stepped forward and slid down the crater to search for Lightcrown’s remains.

  Nose flaring, energy made all the orifices of his face pulse in a confused throb . There was probably something dangerous lingering, but if he waited too long, Boli knew someone else would grab the body. Like Lightcrown’s sidekick. No doubt he had his own NIS. How else would he maintain his sanity? With someone at his side, he’d be unshakable. Like Boli. Until he died, obviously.

  The closer to the center of the destruction, the less enthused Boli became. There wasn’t a hint of a body to be found. Rocks upon rocks and metal shavings piled the area like a child leaving play toys across the scene, but no body. Not even a partial one, like a severed limb. An eerie chill slid down Boli’s spine as he actually took in the scene around him.

  Several city blocks completely wiped out with little evidence of their existence. The sky changing to a faded green and gold hue, with electric smells wafting around. The earth dented like a meteor struck it and disappeared after impact. Even standing on solid ground, a sense of vertigo made Boli feel like his next step would open into the maw of the earth to swallow him whole.

  Against Lightcrown, Boli was fighting a force of nature. Toying with him, even. It was lucky that he died today, otherwise there was no telling what would have happened if they ever got face to face. Boli was a madman to ever think it was a good idea to do anything other than show utmost respect.

  With that thought came a speck of color in the sea of destruction before him. Not much more than a splotch of red against the gray and dark hues of the dirt and asphalt. Approaching it quickly, Boli looked at the bit of red with interest, leaning his face all the way down. It didn’t have any otherworldly sensation to it, but Boli’s intuition was certain that this was Lightcrown’s blood. There was no evidence of blood or remains of any other humans in the blast radius. In fact, barely any of his bots left any evidence besides scraps. The fallen Lightcrown’s fallen fluids.

  Hovering his hands over it in awe, Boli heard a cry out in the distance, the sound dampening effect of the crater feeling like it was coming from miles away. Turning, he saw two people screaming and pointing at him. Without a doubt, they thought he was Lightcrown. It made sense when he noticed he stood in the hypocenter of the blast. He needed to get out of there before a scene started.

  Pulling what materials he had in his coat, he carefully scooped the stained rubble into containers that he sealed airtight and stashed away. With his hands, he grabbed all the sediment in the immediate area too, in hopes it could contain even more clues. Boli wasn’t sure in the moment why he was collecting anything less than a body, but something in the back of his mind was whispering it was a good idea. Something to do with immortality.

  If the blood cells were still alive and thriving, Lightcrown’s blood might not die at all. If he could study and harness that, could he sell it? No more need to beg for donations to the Cause?

  Checking over his shoulder, Boli saw that two gawkers had become ten, but none dared to step into the edges of the blast crater. Even if they did approach him, nothing could faze Boli in the wake of Lightcrown’s greatness. Even in death, so much energy lingered. Waving farewell with a wicked smile, Boli ran the other way, checking to make sure no one followed.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  If anything, they stepped away. Cowards. Would Boli ever be challenged the same way? Certainly. If there was one person who could manifest otherworldly powers, there would be another. But what if they happened to show their powers somewhere far from Hammerton?

  Boli knew immediately that he would up and move. The Cause and a challenge both called to him equally loudly. Anything to force his brain to fire on all cylinders. And with the blood in his pockets, he couldn’t wait to pick into his next challenge as soon as he returned to the lab.

  The travel back was uneventful. Well, people were screaming and wailing every block, blood spattered across all of Indus, and the entire district was either in chaos or flames, but nothing eventful to Boli specifically. The samples were practically burning a hole in his pockets with the amount of mental load he gave them every step of the way.

  Weaving through a complicated maze of alleyways in Hammerton Central, Boli approached his hideout. Reaching out his hand to push against the secret wall with a hand-scanner, he stopped short when he heard the scuff of shoes behind him. Flipping around in a panic, Boli frowned at a vagrant approaching him. Beard jagged as though cut with a razorblade and eyes sunken, he looked the furthest thing from a threat. He scratched his head under the green beanie etched with an axe, glancing around in confusion. Even still, Boli couldn’t just enter his secret entrance with a witness. Should he open up and ask NIS to kill him immediately? That could clear that problem quickly.

  “Excuse me,” the vagrant spoke softly. “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

  “Lightcrown’s dead,” Boli said, surprised by how bitter he sounded to lose his rival.

  “Oh. Who’s Lightcrown?”

  Boli’s frown descended further. “The one with the white fire for a face?”

  “Oh. So that’s his name. Do you know who I am?”

  Blinking, Boli looked him up and down, suddenly feeling like he was in a sting operation. Who was this man toying with him?

  “One wrong move and you’re dead,” Boli warned, hand threateningly close to the open-switch to his lab.

  “Oh. Sorry. I just can’t remember anything. You know that other guy, I was hoping you’d know me too.”

  Further baffled, Boli couldn’t get a read on the man. Was he being sincere? So young for someone experiencing dementia. In his thirties, at the latest.

  “I have no clue who you are.”

  “Sorry to bother.” Without a hint of animosity, the man turned and left, hobbling down the street with no urgency.

  Perhaps the single individual in Hammerton completely oblivious to the events that just transpired in Indus. Boli watched after him, a mix of skeptical and impressed by his sheer ignorance. As a scientist, he could never live like that. Shaking his head, he placed his palm to the secret reader and a wall slid open, where he slipped inside.

  Within the first corridor, lights bloomed open when he was halfway inside, a chime inviting him in.

  “Find anything good?” NIS’s voice called from the ceiling.

  “His body’s been destroyed. But I got some blood samples. I’m going to replicate it and run further testing on it. Also, I need to remove it from asphalt without compromising any of the blood cells. Do you think you could handle that?”

  “Obviously,” NIS said with a tone that could be described as eyes rolling in sockets. “I thought you would give me something challenging. How are you planning on reproducing blood?”

  “This is trivial for me. Just handle your job.” Entering the main lab chamber, Boli tossed a piece of rubble overhead. A spindly metallic arm nabbed it and looked it over.

  “Anything else?”

  “Can you check his blood type, too?”

  “You want to try and inject his blood?”

  “Not in me, but in case I wanted to put it in someone else. Could be fun to experiment giving someone a taste of ultimate power. Assuming the blood cells are still alive.”

  NIS was uncharacteristically quiet for a moment. Even when doing work, he liked to chat about benign things. Usually Boli liked to work in silence, but only after telling NIS to shut up.

  “What’s going on NIS?”

  “He’s… Every blood type?” NIS sounded amazed.

  “You mean Type-O?”

  “His blood juggles between having A antigens, then B antigens, then no antigens. In a random sequence.”

  Raising an eyebrow, Boli glanced upwards. “You’re probably misreading it.”

  “I’m literally watching antigens appear from nowhere and disappear at random. This isn’t how blood works.”

  “So the blood’s good?”

  “I don’t know. This is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

  “Excellent. Now shut up, NIS.”

  “You were the one asking me questions!” NIS protested.

  Boli smiled to himself. Not only a challenge, but an interesting challenge. Lightcrown was the best rival around, even beyond the grave.