by The Eurostar
Edulcore Cicciotto:
I am flying up, in ghost form, floor after floor, to the upper level of the Malvan-X building, where Dr. Quantos is performing his operation on Danny. All is normal, then I begin to feel something. At first, it is like a breeze. But being a ghost, I shouldn't, I couldn't feel a motion of air. It's a vibration, very subtle, yet it produces a noticeable resonance in my body.
What is it? It comes from above. High above, well above the upper level of the building. It comes from the sky.
I fluctuate outside the wall of the building. It was impossible to go from the outside to the inside, but the opposite is quite easy to do. I watch the sky. Nothing.
Then I see it. A point. A glowing point high above me. Like a star by day. And it's enlarging at an alarming rate. It's something falling right over the building. A missile? An asteroid? A spaceship? It doesn't matter. Its impact will destroy the building, the city and the surrounding area. It will create another round desert. How can I think that in a moment like this?
There is no time to think. I must act. There is no time also to call over my friends. It's like they are all gone, and I have to do it all by myself. I am scared to death. And the dream I had in the airplane comes back to me. "You are near the last station." Could that mean I am about to die? What was the rest of the dream saying? I have forgotten it.
Superspeed. Superspeed is something strange. When you have superspeed, it's not that you have the feeling of being very fast. It's the rest of the world that is damned slow. So I have an eternity to think of what to do.
I could fly up to the falling object. But to fly, I must be in ghost form, so I wouldn't be able to smash it. I could try to turn it ghost, but it's a stressful thing to turn another man ghost, and I couldn't make ghost a thing the size of an house. It could be explosive, too.
The problem is how my powers work. I'm not sure, but I bet that I can send the mass to some other place, another dimension, to decrease mine. And when I become superdense, I bring in mass from there. What I can try is become superhard to sustain the impact with the falling object, and then shift its mass into that dimension, turning it ghost. That should save Malvan-X, the city and all of Mandelovia.
So, I take position over the top of the building. Around me are the many tall towers of the business district of Mandelovia. I began to increase my mass, to augment my density, to become superhard. An indestructible man. But I didn't think of one detail. My increased weight was not a thing for which the ceiling was calculated. And it begins to crack under my feet.
Noise. Sirens. There should be some sort of sensor. I bet its a signal for evacuation. I hope the operation was completed by Quantos. I have no time to check. The object is near. It's not a glowing point anymore. It's a great asteroid. Obsidian black. And carved into the form of a human skull. Funny. I am the only one who will notice this, thanks to my superspeed.
I raise my hands. The impact is unbearable, incredible, impossible. The surface of the asteroid must be thousands of degrees Celsius. The ceiling cracks open under my weight, while I begin to make the gigantic mass of rock turn ghost.
It's like being emptied of each gram of water. Like being left to die in the Sahara desert. Like being frozen, and dried, and smashed into tiny, microscopic pieces.
I feel the building collapsing under me, but it's strange, since I can't feel myself anymore.
Then I understand. I can't feel myself because I haven't a body anymore. I am dissolving, evaporating.
As the asteroid dematerializes, so does my body. Me.
There is nothing more to hold my thoughts. No more brain to produce them.
I feel falling.
In the dark.
In the void.
Falling.
Fall
ing
F
A
L
L
I
N
G