With Yuri unwilling to move, I make an attempt to lift up her body but-
Heavy!
"Come on, Yuri, we need to leave."
Shaking her does nothing, I'm even tempted to slap this woman in the face to get her to snap out of this.
"Get up!"
She's given up. She's unwilling to accept her worldview being destroyed. Maybe, she'd rather die. Should I, should I let her?
Suddenly a memory flashes through my mind.
"If Super heroes exist, they'd be morally obligated to step in and do something about this."
Am I morally obligated to do something here? She did this to herself, it's her own fault. She refuses to save herself, she condemned herself to die. I have no obligation to save her! But-
No more debating.
I crack my neck, one side then the other, and then take a running jump toward the window, smashing it open! I land on the ground, three floors below, and feel the pain from the impact shoot throughout my body.
Mother fucker!
I get up from the ground and every joint in my body screams in agony.
Just ignore it and keep moving.
I limp at first, then after a few seconds am able to switch over to walking and then running. I position myself right where the satellite is headed for. The heat from the satellite's fiery trail is almost burning me up. If I could tan, I'd probably be golden brown right now.
I only have one shot at this!
As the satellite comes closer and closer, I ready my fist back. This must look insane from an outsiders perspective; a mere human trying to punch a giant satellite that must weigh thousands of pounds. Thankfully, I'm not insane… and neither is Yuri.
As the satellite comes within inches of my face, I throw a punch at it. At first, the satellite attempts to keep moving past me, its metal shielding bending and crumpling under the power of my fist. Then, it starts moving backwards. This is it, an unstoppable force facing an immovable object. The kinetic energy of the satellite's impact flows through my body in wave after wave. It really feels like there's no way I'll be able to stand all of this, but I know better. The energy dissipates from the satellite as it comes to a rest, my fist deep into its metal body. I throw the satellite onto the grassy lawn in front of me and then every last bit of energy I had leaves my body. Collapsing to the ground, I look up and see Yuri sticking her head out the window, her mouth is agape.
As I tie Terri to the chair, my eyes look over his body, not a scratch on him. He stopped an entire satellite and he looks perfectly fine.
How is this possible?
He's clearly what you've been looking for.
Yes, but how? Did I somehow manifest a super hero?
"Huh?"
Oh shit, he's waking up.
"What- what's going on?"
Terri's eyes open up and struggles to get free from the ropes confining him.
"Don't bother, I'm really good at tying knots."
"What, you've done this before?"
"No, definitely not."
"Why am I tied up, where am I?
"You're in my dorm room. I tied you up becau-"
"Somebody!!! Get me out of here!!!"
"Sorry, but everyone is still evacuated. Now, as I was saying, I tied you up so I can interrogate you."
"Interrogate me? For what?"
"For being a super hero."
"Wait, now I remember. You saw all that, right?"
"Yes, I did."
"Oh… Well that's…"
"Unfortunate. Now, why don't you tell me how a completely ordinary person managed to stop an entire satellite from crashing into the ground."
"It's- it's hard to explain."
"I'll try to understand. Now get to explaining."
I pull out a wooden chair and sit down, intensely facing down Terri.
"Ok. First off, what I can isn't what you think. I'm no super strong or anything like that. It's more that, as far as I've been able to ascertain, I am indistructable."
"Indistructable?"
"Yes. Your Swiss army knife, pull it out and try to cut me."
The knife slides out of my pocket, the cold metal against my hand, I flip out the blade and hesitantly slide the sharp end across a small section of Terri's arm.
"Nothing."
He's serious.
Do you know what this means?
I plunge the knife as hard as I can into his leg, but it just bounces off like trying to stab a rock.
"What is this?"
"See, indistrictable. I've drowned, been run over, fallen from the top of a ten story building, hell I've even drank poison; and only one of those was intentional."
"So, you can't die?"
"I age, so I assume I will eventually die, but so far nothing has seemed to do the trick."
"How- how did you end up like this?"
"I don't know. I've had this ability since as far back as I can remember. Presumably, I was born with it."
"Don't your parents know if you were born with it. Presumably they had to inject you with vaccines when you were born, right?"
"They never brought it up to me and I never brought it up to them. They could know, or me telling them could make them think I'm a freak."
"So, they don't know their own son is indistrictable?"
"No one knows. I've worked very hard to keep this secret. I don't wanna become some guinea pig to be experimented on."
"Understandable. So, wait, how does being indestructible help you stop a satellite from crashing to the earth; shouldn't it have just crushed you under it while you're still alive?"
"Nope, I can't be crushed; at least if I don't want to. Basically, if I want my body to stay rigid, it stays rigid. Me punching the satellite was just me making my body rigid in order to absorb the kinetic energy, then I just pushed it off."
"Okay, what you're describing is literally impossible; and I don't just mean the indistrictable thing. The ground itself should have sunken in under the weight you took on. At best, it would have pushed you into the ground. Can you explain that?"
"I can't. The best I can say is that's how it works."
That's how it works. Perhaps he is what I have been looking for.
"So wait a second. You don't want anyone to discover your secret power, yet you joined a club with the sole purpose of discovering people with secret powers."
"I didn't think you'd figure it out. When I joined, I believed you were crazy. I only joined to see if I had to worry about you uncovering my power."
"Enemy of my enemy and all that?"
"Exactly. You're the one whose mistake forced me to reveal myself."
"But I was right, right? You felt morally obligated to step in and save me."
"Yeah, you got it."
"That about covers everything I could ask. Now onto my side of things. You are exactly what I have been looking for. You are the hero I have been holding out for."
"I'm not a hero. I don't save people, outside of you apparently."
"Oh, but you are. You see, your impossible power is the key to the world I have always wanted; a world of excitement."
"I don't really understand what you mean."
"It is hard to explain, but imagine our world as a glass bubble. In this bubble, there exists rules on what can and can't happen. Your very existence breaks those rules. You put pressure on the bubble, slightly weakening its integrity. Now, just you existing isn't enough pressure to break the bubble, if it were we would already be in a world where impossible things happen all the time. However, I have a theory. If we were to push you further, make you do more impossible things then you are already doing, the pressure would increase and we could see cracks form across the bubble. You get enough cracks and you can eventually break the thing wide open. That is all just a theory though. I don't know if it'll work, but I'd like to try it with you."
"You want to break the bubble?"
"Yes."
"Wouldn't that mean breaking reality itself? Isn't that a bad thing?"
"No no, breaking reality is my goal. It's been my goal for years now."
"I don't understand your obsession with breaking reality."
"Reality is boring. I don't want to live in a boring world."
"Even if I wanted to help you with breaking the universe, which I don't. What's in it for me?"
"What do you want? Ask me for anything. If I get what I want, without the rules of reality, I'll be able to make whatever your heart desires come true."
"A cure."
"To what?"
"To this thing, indistrictability."
"You want to get rid of your power? If I had a super power, I'd never want to let it go. I spend every night dreaming I had the power of flight."
"Think of the reality of my power. I still feel all the pain from everything that can't hurt me. Do you know what it feels like to drown? To be stuck deep under water, your lungs full of water, burning like their on fire, and not only that, but it never ends. I spent hours blindlessly walking along the ocean floor before I made my way back to land."
"That sounds like-"
"Torture. I don't want that to happen again. I'd rather lose this power."
"Fine. I'll make that deal. In exchange for doing whatever I ask in order to break the universe, I will cure you of your indistrictability."
Terri lifts his head up and stares at me.
"You swear you will?"
"I swear. As soon as I get what I want, I'll start working on what you want."
"Then it's a deal. Now, I'd rather not spend another minute tied to this fucking chair!"
After freeing Terri from the chair, I turn on the room's light. Now fully illuminated, you can see the bed against the wall, the wooden desk in the corner and the door to the closet.
"This is your dorm room? It's about as basic as the club room."
"What can I say, I just don't like decorating. Plus, I spend most of my time in the club room."
Standing up, Terri pulls the curtains back from the window and looks out to see that the area is indeed still evacuated.
"You know, people are gonna wonder about that satellite. As far as they know, it should have impacted the university and caused incalculable damage to the surrounding area."
"Let them wonder. It's not like they are ever going to consider the idea that someone with super powers stopped it. Now, let's get back with everyone else, there is nothing we can do while they clear out the satellite."
It had taken them some time to figure out how they were going to move it in the first place. Ultimately, they cut it up into multiple pieces and slowly got rid of it. By the time the university opened back up, two weeks had passed. During that time, I observed Yuri closely.
"Most of the equipment I need to experiment on you are in the club room, so I can't really do anything right now."
"Even then, there must be something you could do."
I lied. I wanted her to believe that I wanted to start whatever it was she was gonna do as soon as possible.
"Fine. Drink this."
"What is it?"
"Botulinum toxin."
"You just happen to have a toxin lying around?"
"No, I procured it right after meeting you."
"What's so special about it? I mean, what makes it different from all the other things that failed to kill me?"
"This paralyzes your muscles. Theoretically, you should just collapse upon consumption and stop breathing. I want to know if it will have any effect on you at all."
"Fine. Give me it."
Such a cold explanation. The fact she had procured it immediately meant she had no qualms about experimenting on another human being. I knew that already, but to get confirmation… she really is a sadist.
"Ahhh, it feels… it feels so painful. It's like every nerve in my body is on fire."
"Presumably that is your body fighting the paralyzation. The fact you're even still standing proves it can't kill you. Now I have to wonder, why does it make you feel pain?"
"Because it hurts, obviously."
"Think logically for a moment. Pain is a response to injury. Yet, you are not being injured. This conflict may indicate some information about how your power works. For instance, the pain could be in your head."
"You're saying I'm imagining the pain?"
"You assume it will hurt, thus you feel pain. I could test that by giving you something non-toxic and see what your response is, but the fact you know I might do that makes it impossible to really test that theory."
Theory. Her experimenting on me is just her testing a theory…
Symptoms: Delusions of grandeur, narcissism, sadism, disregard for other people, disconnection from reality, dysphoria
"Yuri, I have to ask. Why is it that you hate reality so much? All you tell me is that it's boring, that you prefer the world of fiction and excitement. But what about this beautiful world is so boring to you."
"It would be hard for you to understand. The world and I, we drifted apart. Things in this world aren't the way they were promised to me. That's the best way I can explain.
Potential Diagnosis: Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, borderline personality disorder, major depression
"But, that doesn't explain it enough. What do you think was promised to you? What caused you to drift away from satisfaction?"
"I can't and won't explain it to you any further. Now, drop the subject."
Notes: Yuri Sadisuto has an extreme dissatisfaction with the world. I can't seem to isolate the exact reason for this, but it seems to be the core of all her issues. If I could just get her to talk…
Yuri Sadisuto needs to confront whatever issues are at hand, if I am to properly diagnose and treat her…
If I can do that, maybe I can… maybe I can stop her again.