The trip back to the depot had been filled with horrifying silence as I reviewed the video evidence of the attack on me. This was all in an attempt to try to take in what had happened.

When I entered the depot, I went straight to the reception room that would transport me to my home. Feeling safer, I instructed the everpresent A.I. to take me home.

Still feeling the phantom pain of the hit, I sat on one of the comfortable chairs. Deep in thought, I mused out loud, “That is the first time anybody's actually tried to harm me!”

Sounding very much like a listening psychotherapist, the voice of the city’s A.I. said, “You are right. However, you were never in any danger of being killed.”

I looked up into the air with a questioning expression and replied, “How in all … can you say that? The evidence shows that the slap had enough power to knock my head off and send it rolling across the ground?”

“That is correct, but from a detailed analysis, I concluded that the ‘speed-super’ that ‘saved’ you was moving before the woman started her strike to hit you.”

In front of me, the air lit up as the A.I. produced several screens. Then with slow-motion photography and some spatial-time interpolation between the time frames, I was able to see the evidence the A.I. was talking about.

I asked, “Does the super have psychic powers to predict the future?”

“No evidence in the past of any.”

“How about telepathic powers, as he could have read her intentions?”

“The same. We have no evidence of him showing them in the past.”

By now, the door to my home had opened. However, I was so intrigued by our conversation that I stayed in my seat.

Trying to figure out how he had predicted the events, I asked, “Could a telepathic have warned him that she was about to strike me?”

“That is a possibility – very low, though. In the crowd around the stage, there were no other telepathic supers with the speed factor to give a warning in time.”

I sighed as I tried to think of where the A.I. was leading me. This was something that I was in half a mind about with the way the A.I. dealt with me. In some ways, I felt it was somewhat condescending as it always tried to get me to think for myself before giving me its considerably advanced conjecture. The other half of me was glad that I got to think for myself and didn’t always rely on the cognitive abilities of the vast computer.

The room went silent as I thought through the problem. If he could tell when she was going to hit with predictive abilities. Then maybe there was somebody that pushed her to act.

I said aloud, “Was there a super with mind manipulation skills?”

The A.I.’s voice seemed to express a note of pleasure as it replied, “Yes, you are correct.”

I said with some confidence in my voice that I was on the right track, “Do you want me to try and explain the rest, or shall we go through your evidence.”

In answer to my question, the screen began to flicker through the analysis the computer had been working on in the background. At first, the streaming video was boring as I was shown images of the super Rapid, as the computer wanted me to understand her baseline behavior patterns. Then we examined how, up to the hours before the event, there was evidence that she was subtly pushed in one direction. It was as if somebody was windering her up, ready for release like a ticking time bomb about to have a temper tantrum.

With all the evidence, I was surprised to see the number of supers that must have been in the conspiracy against her. A word here or an action there was needed to send her in the right direction as the mental manipulation subtly worked on her.

At one point, the computer showed me an analysis of how the academy's leader reacted.

The A.I. showed with a flourish of video evidence, “You can see that he is doing nothing overt. However, he’s not stopping the subtle manipulation of this woman.”

“Do you think that he doesn’t notice?”

“I have no evidence either way. I must say that this is uncharacteristically lax of him as being the head of one of the academies, he has vast amounts of experience in this kind of political drama. My estimation is that he would know what is going on, at least.

“This type of behavior within the top echelons of the supers is not something that is uncommon. What is concerning is that this time, the major difference is that they brought somebody like you into their … deadly games.”

Placing my hand on my cheek, which was thankfully fully healed, I said, “If it is deadly for them, then I have no chance ….”

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The A.I. reassured me in a subdued tone, “As we began with, there was no intention to kill you, even by Rapid. She was coerced into her action as she was under the delusion of you being a low-level super.”

“Why even involve me?”

The mind of the A.I. paused for a few seconds and then spoke plainly, “My best way to explain it is by ….” Then it faltered as if it was rethinking.”

“To put it bluntly, if there is something of such value that … cannot be touched or even risk damaging.”

“I know,” I replied as I understood what the computer was telling me.

“If a person put this item at risk – like Rapid did. Then no matter what support she had in any of the superhero factions, that support will be suppressed.”

I took up the tale, “This would allow her enemies to destroy her with complete immunity.

“That’s a devious and sophisticated way to set somebody up to bring her down.”

I thought for a second and then mused, “However, in reality, this conspiracy has put me at risk through their game.”

“Yes, they did. Though in the world of smoke and mirrors, that is the political battleground of the superheroes' image count for everything. Nobody will dig into the reality of the situation if you are on the winning side. In turn, as the evidence is entirely circumstantial, Rapid’s side will not be able to prove her … somewhat innocents.”

I agreed with the statement ‘of somewhat innocent’ as she had still hit me. The thought of being hit by a super still made me feel exposed and vulnerable.

I said aloud to the room, “Lucky Jack now gets to live in a world where everyone around him doesn’t have some type of super strength.”’

The A.I. commented on my musings, “He still has not reached his destination. The shuttle train will still be traveling towards the orbital platform to transition to a starship.”

I had never made the journey myself. However, I had fantasized about leaving by calculating how long it would take to get to a typical settlement in the federation. The travel time alone to get out of the star’s volume of influence was a day on the high-speed shuttle train that started above the speed of sound and increased to kilometers per second. Then the flight to another solar system would be a few days at least.

Like some bad habit, I looked at my hand to see my job schedule. Then I remembered that nothing was on the board as the A.I. and the supers were playing games about what to repair and when.

I stood up and announced to the world, “With all this new spare time, any suggestions about what I should do?”

The voice of the A.I. was quick to suggest, “You could have some real downtime. How about catching up on some sleep.”

The A.I. paused as if it was considering whether it should request something. I knew that this was not what was happening, as the computer’s thought process was in billions of factions of a second. It just did this to sound more human.

After the pause, “I’ve already ….”

I knew the tone of voice and the phasing indicating what this was about, so I shut down the suggestion, “Keep that thought to yourself … it never works out well for me ever anyway. They always get distracted by ….”

“I getting better at vetting better prospects,” declared the voice with a tone of resentment.

My answer to that was a simple grunt. As I stepped out of the transportation room, I stopped as my train of thought sped off in a particular direction.

I suddenly declared to the world, “Jack is not here.”

“We’ve been talking about that,” spoke the voice from the air.

“You realize what that means don’t you?”

I knew that the strange turn in conversation was confusing the enormous computer. In the background, the computer would be running simulations of my thought process to try and estimate what I was conjecting.

“I have several conjectures, but none are high probability. Do you want me to give them in order of my probability estimation?”

“It was not a question as it was more a statement.”

My mind was now racing as if I was an excited teenager let out for the first taste of independence. Jack, my older brother, by a few minutes, as we were twins, was always annoyingly overprotective of me. My focus on work and his more conservative nature had prevented any exploration of the city’s more entertaining city’s islands. Now with him gone so that he couldn’t try and stop me, I was a … well, free of any restraint.

I declared, “I’m going to take your advice for once and go out for some fun.”

“Realy, “ the simulated surprised voice said. “That's great … do you want me to arrange a ….”

“No, I will be wandering by myself for once.”

The computer sounded unsure but said, “If that is what you want.”

“It is. Oh, it is.”

With the sound of my voice fading, I stepped into our home sweet home. I guess that it is only my home now, I thought.

The lobby was a stunning display of elegance and luxury, reminiscent of a grand Italian Renaissance townhouse. The high, vaulted ceiling added to the sense of spaciousness, while the patterned marbled floor was a work of art in itself. The room was bathed in natural light, which streamed in through large windows with views of the surrounding gardens. The furniture was exquisitely crafted, with every piece perfectly placed to create a harmonious and welcoming atmosphere. Nanites seemed to be woven into the very fabric of the room. They were everywhere, tiny machines that could control everything from the lighting to the temperature to the air quality. The nanites were like invisible servants, anticipating my every need and making sure that my stay was as comfortable and effortless as possible.

I traveled a few feet and stopped as I saw the ancient gold coin on the floor. This glistening gold on the floor brought me back to what had happened several hours ago.

It had been weeks, no months of conversation, and then arguments about who should leave and who should stay. All between me, my brother, and the city's A.I. Eventually, the two humans in the equation had simply decided the matter by simple probability. The coin on the floor was the result of this random choice determined by a coin flip.

I muttered to the air as I looked at the coin that had declared my fate, “I’m I the winner or loser in this situation?”

The A.l. told me, “I hope with time that you both will be winners … life will go on for you here … while it may have its difficulties.”

With determination, I said, “I’m keen to make the most of it then.”

Before I left the coin, I instructed the A.I., “Could you make it a permanent feature on the floor to remind me of … sometimes choices are not our own.”

In a second, the coin melted into the solid marble floor as if the floor was quicksand. Then the glistening gold was indented into the floor as if it was just another feature of the swirling marble patterns.

“Thanks.”

I moved off to go and change into something more appropriate for going out for my first real night on the town.