Chapter 08: Tribulation(03)

Vector looked at both of them, his eyes were solid silver. After a moment he sighed.

"Oh good the time eaters didn't get to you I was worried."

Justice and Matt slowly turned their heads towards Vector who was currently sitting covered in blood and some sort of black dust. The top and legs of his uniform were completely gone, as were his shoes. Justice narrowed his eyes.

"Did you just say time eaters?"

Vector smiled.

"Yeah, I was worried they got you while they were swarming us and I just couldn't tell. On the plus side the experiment worked great!"

Matt fainted.

Justice rubbed his forehead then looked at Vector as his eyebrow twitched.

"You said experiment. Wait… did you know what was going to happen?"

Vector looked into Justice's eyes.

"I knew we were absorbing energy from the crystals. I had no clue we would be or even could be trapped like we were or that we'd almost get blown up."

Justice's face went blank.

"So we got teleported… I remember being surrounded by a bunch of energy I kept absorbing. Then my core detonated like you said. So I pulled it back together like we talked about. Everything went like you said it would except the horrifying pain you didn't mention…"

Vector's face went blank.

"..."

Justice's eyes narrowed for a moment.

"Then it all exploded outward, and we floated in… nothing. There was just us and darkness and nothing as far as I could sense. It was like the cosmic energy just disappeared completely. We were there just for a moment then we were here."

He looked around the room, his mouth agape.

"Wait… I thought you said we weren't going to be on Earth? This seems pretty Earth-like… Oh, He's gonna flip when he sees his room…"

Vector looked around and nodded. Then he looked into Justice's eyes.

"I pulled us back through the hole in spacetime. When we came through I lost concentration for a little so i couldn't keep your perception speed up. You guys didn't have time to see where we went. I have no idea where we were, but zero stars would not recommend."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Oh, sure. It was a seemingly endless void that appeared to be made purely of spacetime that had crazy looking monsters that were going to eat us."

"..."

"Oh, right information priorities… We are definitely much stronger than we were."

Justice looked down at his body and hands. His eyes started glowing with golden light. Justice quickly stood up in shock.

This destroyed the floor of Matt's apartment and launched Justice into low orbit. Vector caught up to Justice stopping in front of him. ('Why didn't you use the door?')

Justice looked at Vector. ('Why am I not dying? Also did I just jump here?!')

Vector shrugged.

('I just said you're much stronger…')

('What's that even mean?!')

('Oh, I thought you noticed… When those crystals were exploding our perceptions were all amped up so we were able to integrate with most of the energy, instead of it… Well you know, wiping out the solar system. ')

Justice glared at Vector.

('Integrate how?')

Vector rubbed his chin as he thought about how to word everything.

('Now understand, I don't know for sure it's just a guess… I think we've rebuilt our bodies into more powerful ones that are more compatible with cosmic energy. Like the bath bombs but, using cosmic energy instead of superacids. On the plus side you don't need to eat or breathe anymore and you may or may not age now. It also increased your ability to sense energy as well as apparently speeding up your perception. Oh, and it helped you condense your nascent soul…')

Justice facepalmed.

('So we almost died… Wait, my what soul?')

Vector looked at him with a confused expression.

('I thought that was obvious when I told you the crystals were trapped and we almost got eaten by monsters? Oh, and a nascent soul. It's just your soul condensed and refined to the point it can leave your body.')

Justice's brows furrowed.

('Did you just say, to the point it can leave my body?!')

Vector smiled at Justice.

('Well yeah. How else are you gonna make it strong enough to control your body when you remake it later?')

Justice just stared at Vector for a moment.

('Please tell me you didn't get all this from those novels you and Matt read…')

Vector looked down at the planet.

('...Only like 40% of it, but just the basic ideas I swear.')

Justice rubbed his forehead.

('What the f**k? You know what… I should have known. However, I can't really be too mad about it. Your ideas always seem to pan out in the end. I'm obviously much stronger. Also we're not dead. I'm not even going to attempt that whole soul leaving thing though.')

('Oh, I'm pretty sure it's only for if your body is about to be destroyed. If you do it too long I'm pretty sure you'll definitely die.')

Justice shook his head then looked at Vector.

('Didn't you say something about the solar system almost being destroyed?')

Vector smiled.

('Yeah, but it didn't happen. We absorbed part of the blast and the rest went with us. Otherwise we would have come back floating in space with no solar system left.')

('How are so calm about all of this?')

Vector shrugged.

('Well it's I'm sure it felt like days for you guys, but for me that felt like years.')

Justice's face turned into a grimace.

('Wait… So that whole time it felt like our bodies were being ripped apart…')

('Well that felt like a few weeks… It was pretty painful to be honest. At least you two weren't conscious for the almost getting eaten by monsters for what seemed like years. That was way worse. I thought we were gonna die a bunch of times.')

('So we were in a coma for a few…')

('No. No. You were unconscious for like 3 or 4 picoseconds max. My perception was just amped up. Unfortunately all those monsters wherever we were were just as amped up.')

('Oh, you had me scared. So we've only been gone for like a second or so…')

('...')

Justice's eyes narrowed.

('We've only been gone a second or so. Right?')

('More like 5 picoseconds.')

('Oh… that's not that bad.')

Vector looked towards the planet.

('Crap… we should get back to Matt he's not going to be used to that much strength.')

('Vector…')

('Yes Justice?')

('How strong is Matt now?')

('A little stronger than Rampage I think. Why?')

Justice looked at him.

('Then how strong are we?!')

Vector scratched his head.

('Hmmm… good question. You're probably about a hundred times stronger than you were. Oh… You do realize you're currently not perceiving stuff at the same speed you were. Right?')

Justice tilted his head to the side.

('What do you mean?')

Vector grinned.

('How long do you think we've been up here?')

Justice rubbed his chin in thought.

('Maybe 10 minutes…')

He held up a single finger.

('One…')

Justice's eyes went wide again.

('Really it's only been a minute?')

('One second…')

Justice's eyes opened wide.

('Oh…')

Vector maintained his grin.

('Yeah might wanna slow it down so you don't destroy anything or like accidentally wipe out a city. Just saying.')

Justice looked at Vector with panic in his eyes.

('Dude… you know the thing I asked you to never do?')

Vector looked at Justice with a serious look on his face.

('You specifically said never… Besides, just quit focusing energy through your body. Then you'll be just as weak and slow as you were before.')

Justice's face went blank.

('...Did you just say I was weak and slow before?')

Vector rolled his eyes.

('Well comparatively…')

Justice focused on the energy coursing through his body trying to decrease the flow. As he did the Earth seemed to start spinning faster.

('Wow was the planet really spinning this fast the whole time?')

Vector glanced down at the Earth.

('Ummm… Yes? I mean I guess. I can't see through your senses. Was it moving this fast for you before we took that little trip to wherever that was?')

Justice's eye went wide and he spread his arms.

('How am I supposed to know that? Being up this high would have killed me before…')