Deity

Deity

Prologue
A scientist took a syringe out of his lab coat pocket, placed it into the opening and inserted the last liquid metal into the core. The lower part of the pedestal was attached to the floor and sharpened up to a point, symmetrical in distance to the upper pedestal, attached to the roof, about a foot apart from touching. It was made of dark steel, almost black in colour, and awaited the last additions to begin its operation. A blue light began to glow from the middle of the two pedestals; coming from nowhere, it looked divine.
“It’s starting.” The scientist said. The glow began to intensify in colour until it was concentrated in pure blue; its beauty was almost pure.
Everyone in the small room approached the light; most of them dropped priceless equipment to the floor in shock at its magnificence. Glass smashed, but no one noticed, all eyes where glued to the light, jaws dropped in awe. All conscious thought ceased.
It came to life. A new entity was born in the light, coming into reality it looked at its surroundings, and was displeased. Then emotion began to take hold of the creature at the centre of the light, and the colour shifted, from calm blue to dangerous red. Still scientists watched, unaware of the colour change, or of the time that went by. The creature just observed the rage building inside it as the hours passed, then days. A scientist flopped to the floor, deprived of water.
That was all the creature needed, and it vented its rage. Red flashed in the room, and then the room wasn’t there. No matter, no energy, only a floating red light in the infinite abyss confined by four walls a roof and a floor. The being glowed back into its original blue, and began building.

Chapter one
Outside the door to the abyss, life continued on as usual, except no one had heard of several scientists in some days.
“Have you seen Jacob around?” said James, eating a burger in the cafeteria.
“Haven’t seen him.” Said Chelsea, also eating her lunch.
“Huh” James continued to eat, and forgot the subject matter as quickly as it entered his mind. It wasn’t uncommon not to see someone for several days in the huge Hephaestus building. It was originally a huge research place in orbit of the earth for experimental weaponry during the wars, but nuclear fall-out made it the last refuge of the humankind. Time had almost no meaning in the place, as it was originally designed with ‘time bubbles’ overlapping certain aspects in the building. The residential wing always complains about them, but Murphy doesn’t listen.
“How’s bioengineering going then?” James said, between bites.
“We’re still getting death threats.” She bit into her apple. “And, someone tried to throw a bomb at us yesterday, got shot.”
James perked his eyebrow up in interest. “I guess it was a bad choice to put bioengineering next to the residencies, all things considered.” He smiled.
“How else do you marines get a chance to shoot your guns?” she grinned wickedly at the controversy.
He was about to respond as his radio activated, he took it out from his pocket and listened. “Report to energy testing wing, room 7.” he sighed as his conversation was cut short, but he got to his feet and walked to the wall labeled ‘Teleportation’ he pushed his hand through the wall palm first and grimaced at the iciness through the wall, then waited until reality changed around him. And it did, he was no longer in the cafeteria, but standing where he had been before he’d left. He checked his watch, 3 seconds had passed in the hours he had been eating and talking. He’d learnt not to ask questions regarding temporal dynamics.
He had about two hours before the radio signaled him to the energy labs, so he began to stroll around, wasting the time that had been granted to him. He began walk through the narrow hallways that linked the different wings, they were bare, with just numbered doors every ten meters or so as the only decoration.
Until, finally; “Report to energy testing wing, room 7” James hated time disturbances, mostly because of all the waiting. He left the white halls in a jog, ignoring several other doors until he came to number seven. Five other marines were waiting outside the door, P90’s in hand. Other weapons had been invented; cruel, vicious, terrifying ones, but they had been banned due to Human Rights. A good thing too, James had heard horror stories regarding them.
James grasped the armour that was thrust at his chest and slipped it on; it resembled old style Kevlar, but had been refined beyond belief. He then took the P90 out of the same hands.
An officer took the authority at the head of the group; his uniform had sergeant stripes on them. “Ok, people, life signs in this room have been fluctuating wildly. First five, then none, then…” he lowered his eyebrows, then pulled out a report from his trouser pocket. ”One million three hundred and seventy five thousand six hundred and seventy nine.” He pushed the paper back. “Strange stuff happens beyond these doors, but this has got to be among the strangest, our mission is to investigate only.” The marines nodded their acknowledgment then continued staring at him. The sergeant removed a device from his other pocket and pressed it against the door, it stuck there like a magnet. The machine was a black box with a small screen; it was used to evaluate any dangers inside a room. Strange things indeed happened inside the labs; from simple nuclear meltdowns, to the one time the gravity inside the room turned upside down. James smiled at the memory of entering the room, and then falling to the ceiling.
After reading text the box presented on its screen the sergeant said “this isn’t right…” he detached the device and thumped it against his thigh, then pressed it back against the door. The same result. “Take two lads…” the officer said distractedly, still staring at the device as he walked off, leaving annoyed, very confused soldiers looking after him.

“What you’re saying is impossible; it completely ignores the laws of physics.” Said Murphy, shaking his head at the embarrassed sergeant. Murphy was the prime boss, number one, the manager of the entire building and the human race in general. “No, it kills, mutilates and urinates on the corpse of physics.” Murphy was known for his colourful analogies.
“It’s right here in black and white.” The sergeant handed him the square device.
Murphy looked at the device and assumed the facial expression of someone who’d just seen a bowl of cereal crush itself into a singularity. “That’s not possible! The scanner is obviously faulty.”
“You know that’s impossible, Sir” the scanner was never wrong.
Murphy gave him a filthy look as he put the device down. “There’s quite a difference between a faulty scanner and infinite space inside an eight cubic meter room.” He sat down behind his desk, put his hands on his head and leaned back. “It’s like another universe is contained inside that room, it doesn’t make a lick of sense.”
“I don’t know what to say, Sir.”
“I do; you’re going into that room and you’re finding out just what the hell is going on.” He removed his hands from his eyes and looked directly at the sergeant.
“Me, Sir?” unfamiliar fear gripped the officer.
“Or one of your cronies, whatever.” He was also known for his arrogance. “I want a full report by the end of the day.” He looked at his golden watch “five hundred and forty seven…” Realising his own mistake, Murphy looked at his other watch. “Twelve hours.” Outside time and Hephaestus time was somewhat different. The sergeant walked a few steps backwards, and then put his hand through the door on the other side of Murphy's office, and reality dissolved away.
He reappeared near his men, and blinked to rid himself of the residual affects of the jump before addressing his men. “I need a volunteer to enter the room.” he stated, plainly. The men, remembering his first reaction to the device, did nothing. No one dared move an inch as the sergeant just stood there. Several minutes passed, and this volunteer game continued, the men still stood as statues, the sergeant watching them like a hawk. James sneezed. “Nice of you to volunteer, Stacy.” He smiled broadly at his victim and the rest of the marines sighed silently, finally released.
“You’ll need a space-suit, there’s one in the armoury.”
“A space-suit! What the hell is in that room?” James said, regretting raising his voice.
“Another universe.” He replied, whimsically

The space-suit was uncomfortable, still in the old design of white marshmallow man. He frowned as he made his way back to the door, raising curious looks from the odd bystander in the halls.
The sergeant put the device back to the door, not registering change; he took it off and stepped back, allowing James to stand in front of the door. He pressed a button and an energy shield surrounded the hall until it came to another door, cutting off all outside sources.
The other soldiers where standing just outside of the perimeter, giving him looks of pity as he slowly walked toward the steel frame door, unbolting the main lock and then just pulling it free an inch. He closed his eyes tightly, expecting the air around to rush out, and he would be pulled along with it, but it didn’t. Instead, there was light coming from the crack in the door, so he pulled it open more, revealing the fine splendour through the looking glass. It had a green floor, could be carpet, but James thought it looked like grass. There was a sun illuminating everything, it was like a primitive earth; before nuclear war took it. He couldn’t see any animals. In spite of the sun and grass, there was no sky, just darkness where there should be blue, another impossible thing.
He glanced at his sergeant, hoping he would be set free, but instead he just nodded towards the opening. He gulped loudly, although no one could hear of his cowardice, he felt shame towards his fear.
He cleared the event horizon and stumbled as the door was a step up from the grass. He looked back and saw only a rectangular opening that led to his universe, no sign of walls. James had never seen anything like it.
The suit seemed unnecessary, he checked the atmosphere for oxygen and toxins using a device attached to the shoulder, reading none, he took the helmet off. He took a deep breath, held it, and realised he wasn’t dead. So he took the rest of the suit off.
James removed the radio from his belt and started to talk into it. “Atmosphere’s normal, and I’m seeing grass.”
The radio crackled into life. “Grass!?”
“My thoughts exactly. It’s safe for reinforcements, sergeant.”
“They’ll be with you in a second, wait there and do not explore.”
James put the radio down and turned toward the door, watching the marines fall down the hole, and trying not to laugh as one ell on his face. The soldiers, after they had stopped admiring the view, lined up in single file and awaited the sergeant.

The entity floated about aimlessly, without any new knowledge it couldn’t create. And creation was its nature. Boredom had become strong, he’d already used the knowledge of the scientists, and now he needed something new. And then it sensed them, six new minds, they would give him inspiration. The blue light faded and reappeared in front of the group of marines. It ignored their startled cries, and wondered why there were lumps of copper coming from them. Then the knowledge came that they were trying to destroy him, shooting weapons of destruction in his general direction, but failing as they just went through him. One mind disappeared from its influence, it escaped through the portal, and then they all made a dash for it, sensing his weakness.
It pushed the door away, sending it up above their heads where they couldn’t escape. One man already had his hands on the bottom of the door, and was pulling himself up. It pushed the door up miles above the land and left it there, feeling a sense of satisfaction as he started to fall.
He plummeted to the ground, but before he found the floor and destroyed his body, and with it, his mind, it moved the floor. He would continue to fall for eternity as it continued to move it. The rest of the men watched the floor move under the man, and just stared; frozen in terror. With the exception of the extremely loud falling man, there was no movement, so much for inspiration.
It hoped that it was a form of protest against their separation, and completed their group, making the falling man stand beside them. The man dropped to his knees and substituted screaming for panting. The group still did nothing.
This time he wouldn’t destroy them, too much boredom came last time it did that. So it decided to show them his power. It went through his disorganised archive of knowledge to pick something out to manifest, anything, just to make them move. It picked something at complete random and an oak tree start to grow in their midst. They moved backwards as the rapidly growing tree demanded space, it pushed a marine out the way that was too slow to run. They all scattered and ran in different directions.

James ran from the tree, trying to figure out just what the hell happened back there. But there was nowhere to run, it was just grass. Grass, everywhere grass, no landmarks except the one that sprang out from underfoot. It was a desert of no sand; looking along the horizon he saw nothing. But he continued to run; terrified the light would appear above his head and do something impossible. Possibility was taking a big hit today.
He continued to run until his body gave out, he collapsed on his face into the dammed grass and swore between pants. “Fucking grass!” he shouted into the grass to no one in particular.
Sensing inspiration was near; the entity stopped chasing after a relieved marine and appeared over James head, waiting patiently for ideas of creation, just out of his sight.
“What I wouldn’t give for a little fuckin’ pavement…” He mumbled softly into the pavement. He scraped his mouth on the rough terrain as he tried to take another breath, and then he opened his eyes. He screamed.
“That’s not fucking FUNNY!” he yelled as he jumped to his feet. Thoughts were racing through his mind as he tried to keep it, trying to hold himself together as he looked around. No grass, grey concrete stretched as far as the eye can see, he preferred the grass.
Realisation sank into James mind as he looked up, and saw a beautiful blue light hovering just above his head. He decided to test his new theory and ask it for something, but he had a problem. The light seemed to exaggerate things, if he wasn’t careful the consequences could be dire. A glass of water? No, it’d probably materialise above him and smash on his head. A cheese sandwich… no, the land will probably turn into bread.
The concrete cracked under his feet as the entity approached boredom, and an oak tree sprang up from the gap. James remembered why he’d began to run in the first place and continued the old activity, trying to lose the light, but to no avail as the being just followed overhead easily.
The being followed patiently. ‘This is good,’ it thought. Last time the man had run, he’d offered an idea. It was only logical that this would happen again.
James fell again, this time not on soft grass, but on hard, solid, pavement. His hands extended to protect his head, and he fell on his arm. He laid there and tried to catch his breath, the light hovered above. Before he could fully get back to shape, the concrete started to crack again, and James groaned. A tree started to press into his chest, and he just rolled out of the way. Too exhausted for terror, he settled for fearful anxiety.
“Go away.” He said in the direction of the light. It didn’t. “Shoo!” he waved his good hand at it, still no movement.
James wondered how long the light had been hovering, when suddenly it dissipated into the shadows. Then the panicked form of Toby, a marine, suddenly appeared right next to him. Apparently, before he was moved he was in the middle of a running sprint, he lost his footing in confusion and cracked into the concrete.
“Did you--did you see that thing!? What the hell…” the marine started to blather at the direction of James fallen body, before the light reappeared above his head. This time it didn’t just wait, it descended on top of the marine, and tried to get a fix in his head. James willed himself to move, to try and push the man out of the way, but he found he couldn’t even make his own limbs budge. He was transfixed on the light, beautiful, radiant, and so puzzling, he just found himself staring it at beside the danger that had befallen his friend. The light sped up and struck the mans head, ceasing all movement and again collapsing his body onto the pavement.
When he raised his head there was something different about him, something didn’t feel right about the way he got to his feet and dusted his uniform off. He turned his face to look at James, and his fears where confirmed. A cold dread came over him. The mans eyes, once brown, new shone with the sparkling, benevolent, and yet evil light. James couldn’t see his eyebrows through the glare it gave off.
“Hello.” Words came from Toby’s mouth, but they obviously weren’t his; his northern accent had gone, and he spoke with just plain English with visible dialect. James just stared, again at the light, this time doubled through the holes of his eyes. “Hello.” It repeated. Seconds passed. “I’m going to harm you if you don’t respond.” Still nothing.
The body of Toby walked up to James, took his foot back, and viciously kicked him in the leg.
“Arrrrgh!” James took his leg into his hands and tried to move away, but failed as Toby’s other foot was securely crushing his arm making movement impossible.
“What do you want?” he said to the figure, trying to shift him from his arm with his free hand, he only succeeded in increasing the pressure.
“I want your help to create.”
Confused, James changed the subject. “What did you do with the scientists? Or the other marines? Or Toby?”
“I killed them. Will you help me?” the figure took his foot off, allowing James to get to his feet.
“Why would I help you, you just killed several people and kicked me hard in the leg!” He rubbed his wounded leg better and tried not to look into his eyes.
“I could give you immortality and cater to your every whim.” The creature had taken a standing position with his hands at Toby’s sides.
“That’s a good point. But no, I’m not going to help some murderous entity whom I’ve just met.” James lowered his eyebrows ‘whom?’ he’d never say ‘whom’ in a sentence, something was up. “You’re doing something to me! Stop it!” he shouted.
“I’m only making you easier to talk to, so you’d stop all that screaming. And I won’t stop it. Immortality, for eternity? Think a little before you dismiss my offer.”
“I will not, I don’t even know you. You’ll just kill me after you’re through with me.”
“No I wouldn’t”
“Yes you would.”
“No I wouldn’t” James rolled his eyes as he realised how potentially long this conversation would last.
“Shut up. I’m not going to help you, end of discussion.”
“Then I’m just going to stare at you until you change your mind.” The figure stood deathly still and stared directly into James’s face with his powerful eyes.

Chapter two
Murphy was signing forms, such endless forms… they just didn’t stop coming. He’d eventually have to hire someone to do the menial task, but he’d have to befriend the man for him to do his job, and that wasn’t his strong suit. Instead, he dilated the time in his office to make sure there was enough time in the day. He grumbled as he reached for another form, but deciding against it in favour of procrastination, he picked up the years old report he had received on the impossibility. ‘Tremendous powers, great beauty, blah blah blah… old hat. He threw the report down and sighed. More marines would have to be hired to replace any potential casualties, and they don’t come cheap, not in this place, not for him. He took a small bottle of pills from his suit pocket and swallowed two dry.
“Sir, a marine has come out of room 7 of the energy testing wing.” A voice from his intercom said. “Where they…”
“I know what happened, thank you.” Murphy jumped out of his seat, grateful for a decent reason to stop signing the damned forms. Then he pushed the button on the intercom, feeling foolish. “Which one?”
“A Mr. James Stacy, Sir.”

James waited impatiently behind the force field as stunned on lookers watched him pace. Years had gone by, and now he resurfaced. “Why does Murphy need to see me? I’m fine!” he clutched his head as he felt unfamiliar annoyance. “Let me out!” he snapped at the crowd. “I’m fine…”
“You’ve only been in there for fifteen minutes” Came a mocking generic voice from the crowd.
“It feels like longer, ok? Let me out. I need to tell you something” James’s patience had ceased to exist.
The crowd moved out the way for Murphy, who was dressed in his usual suit and tie, he moved directly up to the perimeter and the crowd moved aside.
“Where have you been, soldier?”
“Through there.” James pointed at the wide open door. Through it was no longer a wasteland, but a beautiful landscape filled with animals and water, the sky was now the same beautiful blue as the entity.
“What’s in there?”
James thought for a moment before answering the question, before coming up with the best answer. “Anything”

It took all of James’s power not to lash out against the blatant stupidity, medical checks indeed. The nurse checked James’s eye with a light pen, moving his head around as she did. “There’s nothing wrong with me.”
“You’ve just spent three years in an eight meter by eight meter room, and you tell me you’re alright? Open your mouth, please.”
James opened his mouth.
“There’s nothing obviously wrong with you, and the CAT scans came back normal.”
“The only thing wrong with me is that my time’s being wasted. I have a great message.”
The nurse ignored him and continued staring at his folder. “Your files are wrong” James looked up at the nurse. “It says here that your eyes are green.”
“They are.”
“No, they’re blue.” James dressed his face in confusion. The nurse gave him a mirror, and he did indeed have piercing light blue eyes, James passed it off as a side affect of living with ‘Toby’ so long.
“Would you look at that? I guess they should be changed, then. The files that is, not my eyes.” The two exchanged pleasant smiles. But James's was false.
Toby, as he liked to be called, was indeed a God. The God, a God created by man to serve man. James had great plans.

“You’re being ridiculous.” Chelsea said. They were in the cafeteria again, taking a break that lasted hours, but actually didn’t. “And what’s up with your eyes?”
“They’re been opened. Look, it really isn’t all that hard to comprehend, it’s our chance of paradise.” James spoke softly, like talking to a child.
“We made it, we can’t worship it.” Chelsea had grown tired of his patronising remarks
“We made a God; he deserves our respect. He’s better than the entire human race, and…”
“Stop it.” Chelsea instinctively reached for the crucifix hanging down her neck, got up, and made for the teleporter. James shook his head in disappointment at her.
“I need a fucking beer.” He mumbled softly to himself.
James got up and forgot all thoughts of his beer; instead, he headed for the teleporter. He decided to make another attempt of spreading the light.
Outside, he tried to think, anything that will turn heads and save souls he had to do. He headed for the church.

The church was grand, grand enough for a God, which was probably the point. It had archways with coloured glass in them, and rows of chairs that lead up to the point of the preacher. He scanned the surroundings with his eyes, hoping to memorise the layout, hoping it would make Toby happy to have a magnificent church in his domain. He would tell him to make it later, and of course, he’d oblige. He spotted a man who looked like he was of the faith, and approached him. He had to use tact; else it will end up like the previous attempt with Chelsea. He walked to the front of the church, feeling nervous, but at the same time enthusiastic about the encounter.
“Father? Could I ask you a few questions about … faith?” he tried to stifle a smile, nervousness forgotten.
“Of course.” He turned around in his priestly garments, white collar and his crucifix stood out the most.
“Your God created this universe, right?”
“Right” the priest lowered his eyebrows at James.
“Well, my God created another universe, and people ridicule him. Don’t you think that He deserves the same respect as yours?” James tried to keep the feeling of aggression from his voice.
“I’m sorry? Who’s your God?” so much for tolerance.
“He calls himself Toby, but he doesn’t have a real name.”
“You mean the creature created by Energy Testing? He’s not a god, son, he’s just powerful.”
“And what makes your God, a god?”
“He is all knowing, all powerful and is never wrong. He created everything that ever was.”
“What a coincidence! Toby has the same power!” he lost his cool at the blatant prejudice, and the unwelcome aggression seeped through.
“He can’t be a god, the bible says that is only one god, and that god is god.”
James deciphered the cryptic message, and responded “times change.”
“I will not respond to your blasphemy, leave Gods house.”
James sneered in his direction and walked off.
Oh, they’d surrender themselves to Toby, of that he was sure. His eyes turned crimson red, their beauty not affected. He clenched his fist tight, piecing the skin and letting blood roll down his fingernails. And then he left the church.

Murphy took three more migraine tablets. First, a marine shows up, normally good for profits, but then he starts acting nutty, making the entire personnel nervous. Not only does he have to fire him and hire a new expensive marine, but he even has to pay his pension. The bastard.
But that isn’t the worst of it, there’d been a serious case of theft from the Advanced Armoury, where the banned arsenal of weapons was kept. This was a major infringement and a crime equal to murder. Murphy tried to suppress the fear that these weapons gave off, but he failed. He caught himself with a shaking hand before he swallowed another two tablets.
“Sir, Mr Stacy is here.” A voice from the intercom said.
“And he is…?” how was he supposed to keep track of so many names, anyway?
“The marine, Sir.”
Murphy was about to lecture his secretary on the unimportance of names when James, wearing casual clothes and a visible bulge in his left pocket, walked through the door. He ignored obvious, and loud, disapproval from the woman behind him.
“Just the man I need to see. Sit down, Mr Stacy.”
James entered the time dilation and sat down silently, keeping up his attempt of intimidation. Murphy didn’t notice, instead, he shooed the woman away. Who after 30 seconds, received the message and left.
Murphy drew in a deep breath and brought the age-old speech to the front of his mind. “In your time here, you’ve been a valuable asset to our company, but I’m afraid your services are no longer needed. I have to let you go. I’m sorry.” Murphy silently applauded his performance. Now all the marine had to do was piss off out of his office, and all would be well.
“Bullshit. ‘My services aren’t needed’” James got up off his chair and leaned into the mans face, this time his intimidation attempt hit the spot. “It’s discrimination! You can’t fire me because I worship a different god! Screw you! Screw this whole fucking building!” Murphy slid down his chair and James leaned further forward to bridge the gap. Then he suddenly retracted his face and stood straight. “But I’ve a present for you anyhows.” James reached into the pocket and brought out a grey sphere. He clumped it on the desk.
The sphere glowed suddenly and started to rotate, Murphy's face was devoid of colour. Large spikes extended from the centre, lifting the sphere into the air, and then stopped about a foot in length, making Murphy jump. The sharp tips dissolved until the spikes were half their size, then they joined with each other, making a shell that encircled the prime core. It started to rotate again.
The wood from his desk started to peel itself off, and Murphy's tie seemed to be intrigued, as it also rose, lifting itself up from his shirt, restrained by his neck, it instead floated in mid air in the general direction of the point of interest.
“You’ll kill us both.” Murphy's voice was half pleading, half fact.
“Not me. I’m protected.” James gave him a broad smile as he showed him the ‘Exclusion Belt’ that had come with the sphere, it was designed to manipulate gravity until the users G count was one. “How long do these things take to work, anyway?” He looked at his watch. Then he saw what he needed to see. “There we are.” James could no longer see the centre of the ball, to do that, light would’ve had to escape the gravitational pull. He ducked as a ornament behind him threw itself into the black hole, and then laughed as Murphy pulled himself off his chair.
“You’re a maniac! You can’t use one of those in this building! You’ll kill everyone!” he was struggling as if there was a heavy wind, not quite reaching a place to hold on to.
“Perhaps I am a maniac, but you lot are worse, preferring to struggle and suffer then hand yourselves over to your inevitable saviour. By the looks of things, you’re going to have to evacuate, I wonder where?” James effortlessly strolled up to Murphy, and put his mouth by his ear. “Give the order. Make them all take the dive, it won’t hurt, just ORDER THEM!” He shouted the last two words into Murphy's ears, nearly causing him to take the plummet, but James caught him securely between his two arms. “What’d ja say, huh?”
“Go to hell.” Murphy's arm snapped at the pressure behind him, and he grunted, not fully noticing the pain through the adrenaline.
“When I die, maybe. But in the meantime you’re going to be a singularity, bye Boss!” he let go of Murphy, and he dove into the growing blackness, feeding it and renewing its enthusiasm for destruction. James didn’t see him crush as the light never reached his glowing red eyes. A pity, he thought, at least he could look forward to the secretaries expression as the time barrier eventually let her see the events that had ensued.

“Level Five Situation! Level Five Situation! All marines load up at the nearest armoury and report to the executive area!” loud speakers where broadcasting the same message over and over, droning out all thought. Even some scientists had taken up a sidearm, although the soldiers didn’t allow them into emergency point.
Chelsea stopped a soldier mid jog, he turned around. “What’s going on?” she asked him.
“The crazy guy just set off a black hole!” great shame manifested itself on Chelsea’s face as she blushed. “Apparently Murphy was still in his office when he did!” the marine had disgust on his face. “We’re to take him out.”
“With those?” she pointed at the primitive riffle under the mans arm.
“Human rights.” A great deal of scorn and hate were stringed to the two simple words.
She gulped, her mind buzzing, James didn’t have access to the advanced weapons armoury; only the head scientists and Murphy himself had access to those labs. She was a head scientist. And the only person to unlock the armoury in the past decade was her, and not for legitimate purposes. She blocked the black market deals from her mind as she ran her way to the armoury.

Half of the executive block had been devoured, the blackness floated in mid air now, it had enough strength to destroy the entire Hephaestus complex, but James kept it docile. The building was a roar of air and the sphere had a vacuum in the centre, inside the shell, and with it, absolute zero temperature. Other than renegade nuts and bolts, the building just twisted and turned toward the hole, creating equilibrium.
The soldiers, each wearing their belts, ran up to where James had retreated, standing on the very edge of a great fall to the wasteland below. “Defuse the bomb!” the lead marine shouted.
His eyes were the same beautiful, calm blue again.
“No. But I will give you a warning; this thing is going on an uninhibited destructive rampage in…” he put his wrist up and taped a number into a pad about the same size as a watch. “Seventeen minutes. Evacuate into Energy Testing, it’s your only chance of survival.”
“Defuse the device or we will be forced to shoot!” James ignored him, counting down the seconds.
The marine hesitated for just a second, than shouted; “Fire!” the riffles flashed and bullets headed towards James, but they burnt up in a blue flame before they got to him. James raised his arms and a bright blue wall of flame shut the marines off from him, they couldn’t try it again.
“What the hell?” he put his hand to the flame to see if it really there, it was, and now his hand now hurt. The guy behind him smiled despite the dire situation.
“What’ll we do?” said the smirking marine.
“We’ll have to stay here until we’re sure we can’t do anything, and then, evacuate.” Said the leader, holding his wounded hand.

Chelsea put her key card through the lock and the heavy door reluctantly slid open. A better weapon was needed if that creature was all James had said it was, it was physically indestructible, but it wasn’t transcendent. There was only one weapon that could combat such a creature.
The weapon was a large riffle which took on the shape of the old guns, but it was much bulkier, and had a large circular hole on the top for ammo. It had red warnings around it, and on the side of the gun itself; ‘Temporal Perspective.’ And was the most inhumane, cruel, and terrifying thing since cold fusion bombs. Chelsea out the key card into a separate lock that closed off the gun, it slid open silently. The gun had a malevolent presence which made the room feel slightly colder.
Chelsea took the gun out of its restraints, and carried it out of the armoury, looking for a tap. Outside there were people running in all directions like a headless chickens, their metaphorical heads being a chain of command, which had been silenced by destruction. But the people who noticed the weapon she was carrying gave her the space she needed, any noise they were making silenced, as to not draw attention to themselves.
She found a restroom and went in. finding the tap, she fit the machine easily under it and turned it on. Water rushed out and started to fill the machine. A light near the ammo slot turned red, she turned the tap off and waited for the green counterpart to the red.
The Temporal Perspective gun destroyed souls. No, it let souls destroy themselves. By distorting the psychological arrow of time, the mind would think an eternity of years had passed before a fly could flap its wings. The unfortunate victim wouldn’t be able to move for a seemingly infinite amount of time, and is thus imprisoned with himself inside his biological body. Forever.
The water coursed through the machine, back and forth until it didn’t resemble water anymore, it was grey and shiny, and contact with it would destroy you. Chelsea gulped and pressed the button on the top of the machine; white metal slid out from the top and pressed itself into the hole until it was airtight. She made her way to the executive block.

James awoke from his unnatural slumber but found his eyes were already open. He was glowing with a magnificent blue flame, he tried to scream but found he couldn’t move his lips. He couldn’t move anything.
“You Bastard!” he shouted in his mind.
“What?” said the entity, also in his mind.
“You’ve possessed me! Why?”
“I can’t go outside my universe in my form, but I’d already killed Toby, so I took yours. Soul, that is.”
“Why?”
“I grew bored.”
“Bastard!” he repeated the word, and then began to struggle against his captor, it had results, and the blue fire holding off the marines began to weaken, fading in and out of existence. The marines saw their chance and fired their bullets at James’s body, most of them burned up, but one lump of metal survived the heat and impacted into his arm. It jolted back, releasing red blood, which had the odd side affect of changing his eye colour to the same general style, and with it, the wall. The marines stepped back as the wall changed colour, burning even more viciously. It started to move towards them.
“Now look what you made me do.” The entity said in James’s mind.
The wall rolled towards them at a steady pace, speeding up gradually. It hit the lead marine’s shoe, making the material boil with the heat and join with the flesh. He started to run from the advancing wall, the others joined him in his terror, and so did the wall. One of the slower marines was consumed by its fury as it matched their speed, leaving only a burnt and blackened corpse on the other side.
“NO!” James inwardly shouted, provoking only laughter from the other inhabitant.
Another marine fell on his front, and the wall rolled over his legs, ignoring the obstacle and continuing the race towards the others, he was consumed easily.
The laughter continued until what resembled a ball of water broke through the flames, it hurtled directly towards him. James recognised it for what it was and began to scream, but the creature couldn’t comprehend. James was pleading with it to use it power to save them both, but it saw only water, harmless water. The water hit them, and they fell to the floor like they had just lost their balance, the wall extinguished itself.

In the countless eternities that passed, James and Toby had many interesting discussions, but ultimately, they were bored. In their vision they saw, after they had both gone insane, the familiar yet forgotten form of Chelsea, lifting up their arm and defusing the bomb. But they didn’t notice, it all happened so slowly it was always so.

End.