Santa Pyre: The Burning Solaris

9. A Lesson in History

October 31st, 2043. Williky Residence.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed.

"Double whoa," said Daina.

"I told you they'd be surprised," commented William with a small chuckle.

"Ah, you must be the ones I heard so much about." He extended a hand towards me. I did not move a cell, still shocked. "Come on, I will not bite. Do I have horns on my head or something, Bill Punjabé?"

I gasped. "No-no!" I finally took his hand and shook it. "It is such an honor to meet you in person, Sir."

"It is good to meet you too." He went towards Daina. "And how are you, Miss Scotland?"

"I... I am fine..." Daina replied sheepishly. I almost feared that she reverted back to her old self. She shook his offered hand.

"Wow. You have firm hands for a woman, Miss Daina."

"Uh... Thank you?"

If I was in her place, I wouldn't even be sure how to answer that, either, I thought. I coughed to break the awkwardness and to gain attention. "So, um, shall we get to business, Sir?"

"What is with this urgent attitude you have, young Bill?" Arthur roared with laughter. He had a very hearty laugh. He truly was younger than William and Julie.

"Sorry Sir. I didn't mean to offend..." I started.

"Don't be quick to second guess yourself, my boy. I finally managed to get here, so we might as well have our long awaited talk."

"I for one have many questions," I remarked.

"Let's all take a seat," said William.

Daina and I sat on the couch while Sir Arthur had William's executive chair. William went to fetch some coffee for Arthur. When William came back and Arthur had taken a few sips, it was time.

"Now, my good people," Arthur began as he placed his cup down on a small table, "I know it must come to a real shock to you that I, Arthur Midian the Founder of Santa Pyre, am in fact the "Researcher" you've so vaguely heard about. I am Julie Midian Williky's younger brother by six years and therefore William's brother-in-law." Daina and I nodded, already knowing this. "I tried to come home to Santa Pyre after I heard about the incident that happened on Lava Side Island. It was my absolute duty to get the details." Daina and I exchanged glances. "Before you say anything, please listen to me for a while."

"Okay," I replied.

"We'll save up our questions," Daina added.

"Good." He nodded once. "William contacted me and told of you two. I was shocked beyond measure. As you should already know, I am in a similar standing to you two. That is to say, I am imbued with Atomic Plasma Energy Heritage just like you."

"How did you get your mutation?" I asked. "Daina and I tanked an explosion of plasma energy saturated radiation, so to speak."

"We'll get to that in a moment. Allow me to show you something." Arthur reached into his pocket and pulled out a shiny red object before showing it to us. "Do you know what this is?"

I was about to answer, but Daina was faster, "That's a piece of the solid-at-room-temperature isotope of pyrium!"

"That's correct."

"But how are you holding it so casually?" I asked. "I learned that it gives potent electric shocks and needs to be heavily insulated! Even I can't hold it like this."

"That is very correct. But here I am, able to hold it as if it were just a regular stone. Want to know why?" Daina and I nodded. He put the rock in his shirt pocket and showed us his hand. Daina and I made out a dark coloration. "That is rubber. I control the elements of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, iron and copper. I can make objects out of these elements, generate regular electricity, and magnetize certain objects."

"Cool! You have a combination of Daina's and my abilities!" I exclaimed. "Although, neither of us has an idea of how to magnetize stuff."

"If you coat a finger in iron and a spiral of copper, and send a current through the copper, you can make a small electromagnet, Bill. You can then swipe your finger a number of times to magnetize iron and iron products."

"Awesome!"

"What about me?" asked Daina.

"William told me about your abilities a while back; I'm afraid you cannot do it like that since you cannot manipulate electricity like Bill can, Miss Scotland," was the reply. "However, you can learn to produce iron, nickel and cobalt that are already magnetized. Electric fields and magnetic fields are like brother and sister, like you and Bill."

"Interesting analogy," I brought up. Daina just smiled and nodded.

"Um, could you please tell me what your current techniques are?"

"Sure! I'll go first," I spoke up. "My most important technique is called the Light Boost. I use it to optimize my control of plasma energy, in two levels currently. This increases my strength and movement speed, while also heightening my senses. At level one, I can safely use an electrically charged punch known as the Thunder Fist. I can also give a simple electric shock with my Shocking Touch. From level two, I can fire a beam of plasma state hydrogen called the Lightning Bolt. I can also produce a makeshift flashlight which I call Plasma Torch. That's all for now."

"Fascinating! And what about you, Miss Daina?"

"Um, just Daina is fine, okay? We are basically like a family, right?" Arthur nodded and Daina graced him with a divine smile, causing him to blush. "Alright, first off, I'll tell you that I have at my disposal every metal whose most common naturally occurring isotope isn't radioactive."

"That means you're like a veritable embodiment of the periodic table!" Arthur exclaimed. "Very fascinating indeed; Daina, you are a remarkable case in having so many elements available."

"Thank you for saying so," replied Daina. "I guess I'll continue now. With my Form Coat ability, I can literally armor myself up with any of my metals except for mercury. Well, I could use mercury, but it would only drip off of me into puddle on the floor, so it's a waste of energy." Arthur nodded in understanding. "I used to throw up mercury involuntarily, but with my training that's over now. I can throw it up on command as the Mercury Splash. But, I can also spit out a droplet of mercury at the speed of a bullet. That's my Mercury Bullet. Anyway, while coating myself, I can use Form Change, not to be confused with Form Coat, to quickly make items from my metal coating by secreting even more metal. It gets even better; I can spit out a bondless mass of any of my metals and shape it into anything I want. This is simply the Item Creation technique. So far, I've made shield. Oh, I can break the bonds and reabsorb the metal back into my body, thus avoiding waste. I'm still learning to absorb metals from the environment, though. I call this Cold Smelting."

"Amazing. You two have wonderful abilities. I'm glad you've grown so much since you first arrived."

"We really have," I said.

"Yes. Now then, I guess I'd better tell you about me now. Please prepare for a lesson in history about Santa Pyre itself. Don't worry, it's all related."

"I don't like the subject of history much, but this time I'll make an exception. Fire away, Sir Arthur."

"We're ready when you are," said Daina.

"Good." Arthur picked up his coffee and took a long draw. He placed the cup down again and cleared his throat. "Ahem. The first I'll say is that I am probably the second human to gain APEH mutation. I cannot be too sure, though. Regardless, I have kept this a closely guarded secret; only William, Julie, the more trusted staff at SP Plasma Corp, and a certain other individual knows about this."

"A certain other individual?" I inquired.

"It is not my place to just give you any particulars, but I'm sure you will meet him some day," replied Arthur.

"I guess I understand. We all reserve the right to protect our identities, after all."

"It is great that you understand." Arthur continued, "Let's get back to topic. On December 31st, 2020, while sailing through the Phillipine Sea, at about 1248 kilometers south east of Kyushu, Japan, and about 700 kilometers west of the Mariana Trench, my ship stumbled upon Lava Side Island. Listen closely; the mainland of Santa Pyre did not really "exist yet." I'll explain what I mean by that later." Daina and I exchanged glances. Arthur continued, "It was a land not found on any map, so I knew it was a new discovery and dropped anchor right away. My crew and I took boats to the shore. That was when I met... her."

"Her?" The alien woman in my dream flashed through my mind. "Say, this woman you met, did she have the bluest eyes you ever saw?"

"Huh!? Why, yes. How could you have guessed something like that?" I could tell that he was really surprised.

"One more question; did she possess an otherworldly skin color?"

"What do you mean? What are you getting at? Her skin was the same color as Daina here."

"Oh, okay. Sorry, I just thought she might be the same person I saw in a nightmare."

"A nightmare!?"

"Don't worry about it. Please continue."

"Alright... Well, there was indeed an otherworldly quality about her. At first, she was very aggressive towards us, and strong too. She could easily beat down the toughest of us. She could not understand English, so getting across our intentions to her was next to impossible. Eventually, I decided to send my men back to the ship and stay alone to try and work something out. I used such tactics as trying not to look like a threat and sometimes just sitting around on the sand doing absolutely nothing but breathing.

"Eventually, I got her to accept me, and I began to teach her English. She made me send my crew away and become her "captive." I spent two months teaching her. When she fully trusted me, she took me to the Boiling Swamp. It was my first ever look at Pyrium LRT." Daina and I gasped. "I was very curious about it, and though she told me not too, I went in for a closer look. When I breathed in the pyrium gas, I fell ill to the point of death."

"Oh, my! That's terrible," said Daina worriedly.

"The woman was kind enough to take care of me while I was unconscious. I was essentially her only friend, I guess. I woke up two days later, healthier than I had ever felt before. It was then that she revealed some secrets about her, including her powers and her name, Sapharubi."

"Sapha...rubi? As in, both a sapphire and a ruby? That's an odd name."

"Perhaps. She taught me how to control plasma energy, and I discovered my abilities. She changed somewhat after that event. On March 1st, I think, an underwater volcano rose up out of the ocean and she and I began to produce the mainland of Santa Pyre from its magma."

"So, you are literally the father of this land!?" I interjected.

"If you put it like that, then I guess so. It took three months, and after we were done, she told me she was going away somewhere, and I could not follow her. She charged me to never let anyone else learn of the secrets of Plasma Power, or the very world may come to a greater calamity than even that of the two world wars. The following day after our talk, she just vanished like a deleted picture, as if she had just been a figment of my imagination all along. I have not heard from her since. Anyway, to make a long story short, I took a boat, travelled south and got picked up by a trawler. Later, I traveled near and far to get the help I needed to found Santa Pyre. On February 20th, 2022, Santa Pyre opened its doors for immigrants. It took a lot of work, and help from Oceana, Indonesia, and even Japan, but Santa became a proud island nation."

"Wow..." I was just stunned by this tale.

"I am a sailor, but I also knew science. I began experiments on myself. After six years of secret research with medical instruments and what-have-you after Santa Pyre became an official country, I came to devise and amass the information I did on plasma energy and the APEH mutation. Allow me to confide in you two what I learned."

"You have our word to the grave," said Daina.

"Perhaps one day, we could share this information with the world, but not anytime soon. Man with such great power could harm himself and his fellows. So, to begin Atomic Plasma Energy Heritage is the name I have given to refer to the mutation. Plasma energy, or Plasma Power as Sapharubi called it, is actually more than just a kind of electricity. It is the driving force for the five main types of energy used in the production of our abilities. The types of energy are as follows: chemical, electrical, thermal, potential and kinetic."

"Interesting," I remarked.

"OK, so how does that work?" asked Daina.

"Patience, Love. There are many details. First off, the manipulation of energy is automatic, done entirely by thought and willpower, and sometimes like an involuntary or reflex action, like when you were first vomiting mercury randomly, Daina." We nodded. "To produce various types of abilities, the types of energies are combined in different ways. This depends entirely on the assortment of elements that were configured to each individual at the time of the mutation. Allow me to describe the combinations. The combination of Chemical and Kinetic energy allows for the manipulation of element atoms to create or destroy different molecules and substances, example: water and the metals."

"That's me, I guess," said Daina.

"Yes, Love. Moving on, the combination of Chemical and Thermal energy allows for pyrotechnical abilities, that is, the production and manipulation of fire; as well as the control of the flow of heat to control the movement of air, which can be thought of as the production and manipulation of wind and other air based phenomenon.

"The combination of Chemical, Kinetic and Electrical energy allows for the manipulation of negative and positive charge in the user's body and/or in the air around him/her to produce electric discharges. The addition of Thermal energy to that list allows for heating up of elements to build up and discharge them in the plasma state."

"That's definitely what I do," I commented.

"Right you are, lad. But a warning; electrical and plasma abilities can use loads of plasma energy at once, so you ought to be careful. I'm sure you suffered some burns during your training."

I grimaced. "You're right, Sir Arthur. But, I can lessen the waste of energy with my Light Boost technique, too."

"Fine, but be careful all the same." I nodded. "Good. Finally, the combination of Kinetic and Potential energy allows for the manipulation of the many different types of forces, such as gravity."

"All of this is just mind-blowing," I remarked. "So then, based on all this of information, I can see that most types of powers are based on the control of matter," I drew up a point of note.

"Yes, basically. Although, except in the case of magnetism and electromotive force, the manipulation of the various other types of forces is the only ability which does not depend on elements, so anyone with APEH can learn this. Picture it like this, if we train long enough, we may learn how to produce anti-gravity and use that to fly around!"

"That would be so cool!" There were stars in my eyes.

"Now let me explain about the collection of passive abilities afforded to APEH benefactors. These are: faster and advanced healing due to the overriding of the normal cell regeneration limit, that is, cells can only split a set number of times, at the cost of chemical energy; increase in physical strength, stamina and resistance to damage, all controlled by Kinetic and Potential energy; heightened senses, controlled by electrical energy; and other superhuman qualities. That's all I have to say for now."

"Thanks for taking your time to say all of this to us, Sir," I said. "It means a lot."

"Hey, now... as Daina said, we are basically a family. It was my pleasure." Arthur picked up his cup for the final time and drank the last of his coffee, which was probably a bit lukewarm. "Well now, I think it is time I went on my way. The salty tang of the sea beckons to me. I have a boat in Saint Pyre to catch at ten."

"You're leaving already?" I asked.

"Afraid so, my brother-from-another-mother!" replied Arthur with that hearty laugh of his. "Adults are always working. And, I do try to keep an eye out for Sapharubi. I long to see her again."

"I sincerely hope you find her," said Daina as we all stood up together.

"How about a group-hug to commemorate our meeting and end off?" she suggested.

"Splendid idea, Love." The three of us shared an embrace.

Saturday, November 1st, 2043.

Today was the time to go home. Daina and I were sure now that we could go the rest of our days with little problems concerning our abilities. How wrong we were, we had no idea at the time.

After Daina and I were finished packing up our belongings, we sat to breakfast with William.

"Say, Daina." She looked at me from her food. "If you wanted to be a super hero, what would you choose to be your super name?" I asked.

"Huh? Well..." She looked thoughtful, not really expecting this kind of question.

"How about Metalina?" suggested William. She shook her head. That name reminded us too much of Miss Diego. "I guess not..."

"I've got it! How about 'Metaina Mercury'? It sounds better and the first part is closer to your own name!"

"That's wonderful, Billy! I love it!" She dropped what she was doing and embraced me tightly from her chair. "I have one for you too! Try not to laugh."

"Okay, well let's hear it."

"Zipzap!" It took me all the willpower in the world and more as I denied even one chuckle at such a funny and not very cool name. I just stared evenly at her, my body shaking and sweating from the urge. "Whoa, I am just joking, Billy. You need something cooler, right?"

I shook my head, having calmed down. I remembered that the alien in my nightmare called me that name. I decided to take it as a prophecy of some sort. "No, Sister Daina. Now that I think about it, I really like the name. It suits me." Daina gasped before smiling. "Alright, Mom should be here any moment. Let's finish up."

"Right!"

Half an hour later, it was time to go.

"Thank you for all that you have done for us, Dr. Williky," I told him.

"Don't mention it, Bill! It was nothing really!" He was scratching behind his silver hair.

"We will be sure to put everything we learned to good use, and keep our powers hidden," said Daina. "Well, this is bye for now. Ready, Bill?"

"I was born ready!" I replied. "Bye, William! See you later! Tell Julie we said bye!" Daina and I turned to the front door.

Suddenly, at that moment, there was a knock and the door opened. A person least expected came inside. "William-san! Is it ready yet!? I can't go another day without it... What the!?"

"Mr. Sakamoto!"/"Tanaka-san!?" said Daina and I at once.

"Daina-chan!? Bill-san!? What are you doing... Huh?" Tanaka held his head and seemed out of it for a moment.

I reached out a hand. "Hey, are you okay?"

"This feeling...!!" He began to scrutinize us. His eyes fell on our bands and a sudden look of shock followed by joy crossed his face. "No way! You're... You...!!" There was an unnatural rush of warm wind as he flashed before us and pulled us into a wide embrace. I was left shocked. "You're just like me! I have more family now! This feels great!" That statement further wracked me. Setting us down, he backed up. "I've been worried sick ever since I heard about the incident!"

"Ah! Tanaka-san, I am so sorry!" apologized William suddenly. "I forgot that you were a part of their school. I didn't think to inform you that they were alright."

"I forgive you, William. I know you meant no harm." Tanaka turned back to Daina and I. "Yes, I have APEH just like you, but let's talk more about it some other time. Bill, your mother is waiting outside. She is really nice."

"Alright... But I'll hold you to that! Let's go, Sister Daina."

"Uh, yes, Brother Billy." We waved them as we stepped out the door.