“Resistance is usually ascribed to bodies at rest, and impulse to those in motion, but motion and rest, as commonly conceived, are only relatively distinguished; nor are those bodies always truly at rest, which commonly are taken to be so.”

-Sir Isaac Newton of Woolsthorpe

To Seek and Brawl

Samantha screamed in frustration, “I’m so dead! I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m dead!”

She slammed her head into the library table and wept into her opened textbook. Team Three of Class J was studying for the midterms just before Thanksgiving break and tensions was high, though only due to one notable outlier.

“Sammy,” Alice tried to calm her, “It’s not a big deal.”

“Yeah, it’s just midterms.” Abraham joined in with less care.

“You don’t understand.” Samantha lifted in a plead for sympathy, “I’m Jewish. My parents are expecting perfect grades across the board. They’ll probably kill me if I get anything less than a fifty, or worse, ship me upstate to my grandparents!”

“You know Samantha.” I spoke up from where I stood in my chair, “My parents have also set fairly high expectation for me. I understand how daunting such pressure can be, but I’m sure you’ll find yourself in a favorable situation if you simply keep up the effort.”

“Yeah. Samuel is right Sammy.” Amanda said with an ensuring smile, “You just got to keep up the studying.”

“But I’ve been studying.” Samantha whined, “How much more studying could I do?”

“You could reallocate some the time you spend flirting with boys into studying more.” Said Jerry with a smirk.

“I would rather move upstate.” was Samantha’s response. She sighed with gloom and pouted as she placed her head in her hands, “Maybe I could talk them into just disowning me.”

The table seemed to have given up as a whole at encouraging her. We all just allowed her to wallow in her misery for the moment. Except for Brick who scratched his head before asking, “But how can they disown you? People can’t own other people.”

“Indeed.” I said, “We can’t allow ourselves to lose even one member of our team. Perhaps we could use a quality over quantity approach.”

“How so?” Amanda asked, “Use my power to predict the questions and study for that?”

“No, I met direct one on one tutoring with me.” I offered, “I am the most qualify to educate here. Come over to my home and I can even set up teaching aids.”

“Really?” Samantha shot up with a smile, “You would do that?”

“Of course. I said I would, didn’t I.” I restated.

“Wow Samuel,” Amanda purred, “Most boys actually take her on a date before trying to take her home.”

“I guess they didn’t have the same skill as me.” I posed with my full undersized body.

“Agreed.” Samantha smiled, “This with be the first time I’ve been in a boy’s house. And a cute one too.”

Amanda and Samantha giggled while the other smirked or sighed.

I interrupted them, “I would say to save the flirting for after exam week, but I believe we already reviewed that, and so I won’t bother dissuading you. We’ll start tomorrow at noon. Now, unless there’s anything else, I believe we’ve maximized our utility of this study session. Jerry, would you call dismissal?”

“Yeah. We’ve worked hard enough Team. Time to relax before the big day.” Jerry stood closing the books in front of him, “We’ll do our best, and that will be that.”

The rest of the team agreed and we all took our leave. I opted to fly back to my home as it was easily the furthest away. I circled around to the balcony that was attached to my room. A modification made as a birthday present after I mastered the art of flying when I was seven. The apartment building I lived in was owned by my family. Had been ever since my forefather, Thomas York, bought it from his no longer master soon after slavery was outright abolished over two centuries ago. So my father only needed city approval, which was easy with the aid of the DDH.

I disengaged the jet propulsion as low as I could to limit the shock to my short legs and walked into my room. A cross between a rocket engineering office, a super villain lair, and a typical teenage dwelling, my room was a scattering of honed chaos. Diagrams, equations, and blueprints in neat pen, scratched pencil, or crude chalk lined the walls in between various media posters. The floor was filled by a large wall-to-wall work desk on the opposite side to the balcony opening, a corner had a floor-to-ceiling server tower, and the last corner a crib sized bed I had custom made under a double reinforced tower of drawers for clothes. The center space of my room had a scattering of loose wiring, tools that were forgotten until needed, and clothes that were just forgotten. In short, a pig sty. If pigs understood advanced theoretical physics.

“I have a lot of cleaning to do.” I noted to myself. This was not an acceptable place to bring Samantha for our study session. This was inconducive to a learning environment. On top of being a bad first impression for a pretty girl.

I set my pack down and removed the rest of my equipment. As lite weight as I try to build my equipment, it was still a relief to shed the extra mass. Feeling paradoxically lighter and heavier due to losing the majority of my external mobility gear I walked into the hall and down to the living room to find my younger sisters, Liberty York and the younger Justice York, watching the television. I assumedly heard my mother, Carol York, in the kitchen cooking.

“Hi Samuel,” Liberty greeted, “How many times could the Earth fit into the Sun? Justice said under a million, but I said over a billion.”

“Well, the Earth itself could only fit into the Sun once, since it’s only one object.” I answered and as they rolled their eyes I continued, “However, the volume of the sun is only a bit under one and a half million times the Earth. So you’ve both missed that estimate.”

“I was closer.” Justice said with a smirk. Liberty looked back with a scowl and a tongue out causing Justice to make a face in return.

Sensing a sister fight I cut in, “Where’s dad and the other boys?”

“They’re down fixing stuff in the building.” Liberty answered. “Someone flushed something that broke the piping.”

“I see.” I said walking on into the kitchen to find my assumption of my mother cooking to be correct, “Maybe I should go help them. I am old enough to be helping.”

“Oh don’t worry about that. They’ll have it finished soon enough.” My mom said as she chopped different ingredients. “If you want you can help me.”

“That sounds like a good alternative.” I said and pulled a stepladder out. One disinfecting later I was slicing root vegetables with clean precision. As the television played in the background mom and I worked. When I had a sizable piled chopped up I asked a question, “Would it be okay if I skipped church tomorrow?”

“What? What for?” My mom asked back. We’ve been goers for my whole life, and while I invested little pass the good teachings, I never oppose my family’s faith. My mom was more curious than concerned. So I explained.

“I promised a classmate a study session, however, I was running the numbers and concluded I would need a greater amount of time than just after dinner. I have to both set up the resources for the session as well as clean my room.”

“Oh, well, if you’re going to clean that room of yours then that’s enough for me.” My mother smiled and continued on to ask, “What’s your classmate’s name.”

“Samantha VonBec,” I answered as I would any question. “She’ll be coming at noon.”

“A girl?” My mother snapped, “You invite a girl over? Is she pretty?”

“Yes, we’re teammates, and I believe she’s rather attractive.” I tried to answer neutrally to undo any assumption made.

Just then the front door opened and my father’s baritone voice called out, “We’re home!”

“Moses! Samuel has a girlfriend!” My mother called back. My response seemly failing to dissuade her. “He’s bringing her over tomorrow for lunch.”

“Really now?” My father came into the kitchen followed by all three of my older brothers, Moses York the Fifth who we called Junior, Jackson York, and William York. “Well why haven’t we heard about this girl before now?”

“Probably because she has to push him around in a stroller.” William laughed as he came into range to scoop me into a noogie. Only a year older, but over a head taller ribbings like these were fairly common from him.

“Actually, it’s because we’re just friends, and teammates, and of course classmates as well.” I explained through the harassment.

“What’s her name?” Dad asked, and Mom answered him. He rubbed his chin as he repeated every syllable, “Samantha VonBec. That sounds like a white name.”

“I believe she’s German.” I provided, “Also Jewish.”

“You’re dating a Jewish girl?” Jackson, four years older and two heads taller, shattered my hopes of setting the record straight, “Crazy.”

“Not at all.” Mom waved off the comment, “You kids can be with whoever you want. So long as I get grand babies.”

“I’m already getting you one mama.” Junior said, six years older and already moved out to another apartment with his own wife, “Remember?”

“Of course she remembers.” Dad said and smiled, “She’s just impatient.”

“Moses! Really?” Mom put her hands on her hips and scowled.

“How old were we when we had Junior?”

“Nineteen, but we were dating for over five years, and I’ve waited over twenty for grand kids. And! I put up with you everyday.”

Dad boomed out in laughter, “Yes you do. I guess you win this one.”

Dad held his arm out, never crossing the line over to the kitchen because dirty shoes weren’t allowed in the kitchen, and Mom had to step over to him so he could lean over and kiss her.

“Go wash up, and Samuel, you set the table.” Mom instructed and we followed. Except Junior who said his farewells and left to his own home down the hall.

“Hey William,” Jackson giggled in whisper so only we three heard, “With Samuel getting a girlfriend that leaves only you to be the gay uncle.”

“Nuh uh!” William protested, “You don’t have a girlfriend either, so you’re the gay uncle!”

“I had girlfriends before.” Jackson logically countered, “So it’s you.”

“Nuh uh!” William tried again.

“Uh huh!” Jackson countered again.

The two of them continued their passionate discussion of probability and statistics as we set the table and prepared for dinner.

After dinner everyone bathed and readied for bed. I spent the evening cleaning the bulk of my room. Setting laundry aside for the morning and securing any loose bits before laying down for bed.

Morning was active as any Sunday morning, and though I was excused from attending church that morning, I did my part of the weekly routine. Which was mostly keeping track of the schedule. The boys shaved and dressed and Mom did hers and the girls’ hair. As they readied to go Mom turned to me.

“Okay, we’re going to try to be back as soon as we can so I can make a big lunch for you and Samantha.” She sang her name and I resisted an eye roll.

“Thank you Mama. I sure she’ll appreciate it.” I said, “Just be sure it’s kosher. I don’t want to offend her.”

“Oh yes, I need to find out what kosher is.” Mom said and left. Hopefully she would take some time to learn that we could already make a kosher meal and give me just enough extra time to finish preparing.

Closing the front door, and leaving me alone. I started the rest of my preparations by starting my laundry and setting a timer. Then I went into my now uncanny room and up to my work desk to work on resource gathering and presentation.

Monday was the history exam with our homeroom teacher, Mr Galacto. The impossibly powerful super being who had spontaneously decided to teach freshmen history. Our lessons had been over a broad range of topics, but a fair amount was about the more recent spans of international violence within the twentieth century .

First, The International Conflict. A three decade long series of war and destruction that nearly destroyed the world. From it came the Peace Day Treaty. A massive and nearly incomprehensible text that set the rules of the world and how to deal with future conflicts, both major and minor. It was most notable for having officially acknowledge the existence of demihumans and other beings as legal entities on an international scale. Without it the world would be doomed. Even as imperfect as it would prove itself later.

Next was the Horde Invasion. Only a few years long, it made up for the shorter time scale of violence by being incredibly dense with destruction. The Invasion started with a shock and awe attack. Sending warships and landing Horde troops before anyone even detected the existence of extraterrestrial ships. The entire first wave of The Horde’s attack, from entering our solar system to being beaten off, took only an hour to be done, and we only managed to fight them off because not one section of the planet was unprepared. Armed to the teeth and paranoid that the peace would break any moment every nation turned their weapons to the invaders.

After that, mankind was fairly united, but that didn’t stop trouble from arising again. Now with the world more agreeable between nations a new set of problems arose. Problems between different classification of demihumans and other beings. Namely around mutants, such as myself, and our place in the world. For so long mutants were kicked off as an exotic class unwelcomed under any flag. Clearly not mundane, but also not anything else, mutants were the recipient of intolerable discrimination leading up to the establishment of The Brotherhood of Mutants and the start of The Mutant Revolt, or Revolution if you’re a political figure.

I knew the most about The Mutant Revolt. Both because being a mutant myself I researched the events, and because I’ve been told countless stories of those times. My parents had lived through it, with it only ending a mere four years before my birth, but the majority of stories came from Brotherhood members who would come around after my mutation was discovered. Despite the protest of both my parents and myself. I should be appreciative of The Brotherhood. They were the reason why I had the rights I had as a mutant.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I condensed the last part of the lesson to be even with the rest and reviewed my work. After I was satisfied I finished the laundry and away it into my various drawers. I went through the apartment on a final inspection and concluded everything was acceptable. I even had enough spare time to think about how much effort I was investing into this study session before the door open with the return of my family.

“Samuel, guess what.” Mom called out finding me in the living room, “Turns out kosher isn’t that difficult. I talked to one of our tenets who turns out is a rabbi. He said no dairy or meat from the hind quarter.”

“Jews are against titties and ass?” William paraphrased the rules, “So lame.”

This earned him a light smack from Dad sending him into giggles, “Boy, be respectful.”

I was unsure if the rules were that simple, but I didn’t think it would matter much. So long as we got the basics. In fact, lunch wasn’t apart of the original plan, but now it seemed to be a cornerstone of the day.

It was around a quarter to noon. The table was set with an extra spot for Samantha, and everything was ready when the entire building seem to shake under an explosive boom.

“The hell was that?” my father yelled as two figures streaked by the windows, “Oh hell no! Don’t tell me some new gang war broke out!”

“I’m calling the police!” my mother was dialing the phone and started to explain when the dispatcher picked up.

“Dad, take the other boys and check on the tenets. I’m going to go assess the situation.” I opened the window and before my father or mother could protest I launched myself out and up with the nano jet propeller of my backpack unit. I had no intention of engaging whoever or whatever was up there. Only record the culprits for the authorities, but when I made it over the roof line of the building I saw one of the two figures was familiar. I landed near the edge and called out, “Doctor Norris was it. Why are you causing chaos at my home?”

The older mutant genius turned his head to look at me. His eyes were hidden behind goggles, but the rest of his face showed the rage that must been swimming in them, “I am doing no such thing! This one is at fault!”

He screamed and pointed to the other figure across the way. I looked and saw slim and lanky figure with green skin and eyes also hidden behind goggles. An Irken equipped with an extra bulky PAK unit. This Irken was an engineer. Likely with an array of weapons and tools. At the accusation she leaded back and laughed, “Blame me if you want. Not like you’re capable of doing anything compared to me!”

“Quiet! You bipedal snail!” Doctor Norris screamed as he flailed his rifle about, “Return what you stole!”

“Stole? As if.” The Irken hissed. I ran an id scan as she continued, “You primitive primates aren’t worthy of a sense of property. Even with mutated outlier freaks like you!”

“Actually, Mechanic Amp,” I addressed her stepping forward, “Human beings are recognized as fully sentient by the United Galactic Federation. Even when counting only mundane humans and leaving out outliers such as myself and Doctor Norris.”

“Ba!” Amp scoffed, “Meeting such a lowly minimum doesn’t put you on par with the great Irken race!”

“Irrelevant. My point is that by the vary state that sponsors your family, you are obligated to honor the property rights of any human.”

“Quiet you!” Doctor Norris shouted at you, “This doesn’t consider you!”

That took me aback for a moment. Until I realize my error of oversight. Doctor Norris would have known the same information at me regarding the UGF’s stance on human sovereignty. He could have provoke the same threat I was implying. To call the authorities and have them handle it. Yet, here he was. Conclusion: This was personal. Which was irrelevant.

“Incorrect Doctor. This is my home, and you both are causing trouble. Now cease, or I will call the authorities.”

“Yes, Norris! Listen to the even more mutated freak.” Amp laughed.

This made Doctor Norris enraged and he lifted his rifle, “To Hell With You!”

He fired two shots of plasma which were stopped by Amp’s energy shield. She then raised two small pistol shaped objects and I instinctively raise my own shielding before the pistols produced their own shots of plasma. Both missed, but it didn’t matter. The peace of the moment was broken.

I pulled my own weapon and prepared to fire, as useless as it would be. It wasn’t a combat model, but rather a defensive design that wouldn’t break through Amp’s shielding. Luckily, her own arms weren’t much higher a grade as they pulled minimum drain when they hit my shield. Still, it was two against one since Doctor Norris didn’t seem to mind me actually participating in the fight. The exchange lasted only a few seconds before my systems picked up that police dispatch had been informed. Apparently so did Amp’s system because she stopped firing at us and scanned the horizon.

“You freakish apes have wasted enough of my time.” Amp said before turning and expanding her jets to take off. She wasn’t a hundred yards away before a solid beam of water shot straight through one of her wings and pass her. She lost control and fell into the city.

Before I could make a hypothesis the source of the attack came up and over the roof edge, “Samuel, what’s going on? I saw you getting shot at. Are you okay?”

Samantha landed stepping off a stream of water that she controlled like it was a solid surface.

“Fine now. Doctor Norris had just rudely brought his own feud on top of my home.”

“It wasn’t my intention to involve you, or anyone else.” Doctor Norris barked

“And yet, my domain has suffered duress. I believe I’m entitled to an explanation, Doctor Norris.”

My use of his official title seemed to have softened his demeanor because he scoffed at me with mere annoyance rather than anger, “That Irken snail stole something of mine, and I’m in pursuit to retrieve it.”

“What could be so important as to start a whole fight over it?” Samantha smacked the bottom of her trident down.

“Plenty of things.” Doctor Norris walked over to the edge of the roof while he looked at a data pad. It seemed to be scanning area.

“I believe my friend was asking for what was specifically stolen from you.” I clarified walking closer. The scan was a calculation on where the thief would have landed, “And I would like to repeat the inquiry. What was taken that was so important as to fly around the city engaged in combat?”

Doctor Norris tsked and closed his scan, “She took a data bank of mine.”

“I see.” I nodded with understanding. “Was it at least redundant?”

“Of course it was.” He said with gritted teeth, “It’s still a complete record of all my work. My research, my experiment, my notes on everything.”

“So what?” Samantha asked, “You aren’t losing anything.”

“Wrong!” Norris turned and pointed a finger, “I’m losing the edge I gained through years of hard work to an alien thief.”

Samantha just rolled her eyes at him, “Whatever. Just take your squabble else where.”

“Actually, I would like to assist.” I said drawing shock from both of them.

They snapped out the question, “Why?”

“To put simply Samantha, this is a big deal. While I believe knowledge should be freely shared, this sharing must be done freely. Taking other’s work, even if noble, must be opposed.” I then turned to Norris and addressed him, “Though that is far from the only reason. My scan said she was from the northern high school, and while I have no ill will or word against the Irken people, I’ll be damned before I let some entitled Yankee get one over on my school.”

“Count me in then!” Samantha shouted with glee. Norris didn’t object verbally. It was agreed on. We would hunt the thief down. I excused myself to gather my real gear as we started to form a plan.

The shot from Samantha’s water attack broke one of the jet wings on Amp’s custom PAK unit. Which meant she wouldn’t be able to fly until she fixed it leaving her two options. The first option was to fix it, but that require tools, time, and material. She could likely make a patch job if needed, and equally likely had what she needed for such a task. I know I did. The second was to continue on foot, or maybe bus or cab. The Irken weren’t a rare sight to the city goers, but they were still a significant minority. Like any demihuman she would try to limit her contact with mundanes. Additionally, she would try to limit her contact with any human, given her belief in Irken supremacy. Leaving her with a very slim and narrow path to take.

“Remember,” I spoke over the comm link, “She’s grounded, but not unarmed. Approach her with full caution.”

“Ha, I’m not scared,” Samantha responded, “She went down easily enough from a lucky shot. She won’t be much against a real attack.”

“Fool!” Norris shouted causing a line of feedback to cover his words, “It was the fact that it was a lucky shot that allowed it to even hit. If she had saw your attack coming you would have never been able to even inconvenience her.”

“Sounds like you have a high opinion of her.” Samantha cooed back after the feedback died down.

“It is not that I have a high opinion of her. Merely a low analysis of you.” Norris fired back causing Samantha to audibly pout. “You are a first year rookie, both of you, and we are the highest ranked seniors of our respective schools. In a direct fight you lose, nine times out of nine.”

“I wonder if they teach motivational speaking at school?” Samantha asked.

“By my calculations we should be able to surround her if maintain our current pace.” I said ignoring the rhetorical.

“Do you remember the plan?” Norris asked.

“Keep her cornered and let you have the real fun.” Samantha summarized.

“And don’t get in my line of fire!” Norris added.

“Roger Dodger.” Samantha confirmed before going silent.

I scanned the streets below and picked up on the terrestrial riptide that Samantha was traveling on. Weaving through the sparse Sunday traffic and ducking through shortcuts where possible. If the narrow tidal wave was causing a scene it wasn’t big enough to alert the authorities. At least not yet.

Samantha traveled on the ground while I flew above her over the city skyline. Doctor Norris was also flying, but was a distance away. Setting up to be the other flank in a pincer maneuver.

I opened a comm directly to Samantha, “Are you not enjoying yourself?”

“Of course I am. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”

“This is a private line by the way. Between only you and me.”

“That Issac boy is a grade-A jerk.” Samantha remarked, “Why does he have to be so mean all the time? I’m fine helping him, but his attitude would be a deal breaker for me.”

I smirked at the revelation that even Samantha’s near perpetual cheer had a limit. “You do have to excuse him to a point. On top of the current situation, Issac also has the compounded effect of his red toned genius.”

“Red toned genius?” Samantha repeated the words as a question, “What does that mean?”

“A phenomenon among those with intelligence beyond mortal capacity. Theory goes that in order to run the advance levels of thought needed to be super genius, our brains default to a single emotion to express. Which emotion that is is said to be the tone of their genius. Red is for anger, like Doctor Issac Norris. Regardless of the stimulation, the majority of his output will be lined with anger.”

The line was quiet after that for a moment until Samantha almost whispered, “That’s actually kind of sad. Can he feel any other emotion? Could I wane through the inferno of his heart and calm his soul? Could love free the beast of his rage?”

I sighed off the air at that. Her patience wasn’t infinite, but near infinite is still a big number. “Don’t worry. It’s not that straight forward. We super genius still feel all the emotions of normal people. It’s all just lined with the tone of our genius.”

“What’s your tone?” Samantha asked, “You’re always really calm and unbothered by everything. Even above sensibility.”

“Indeed. Doctor Norris really is my opposite. My genius tone is green, for serenity.” I answered right before I found the target on my sensors.

The Irken Amp was bolting through the streets on a pair of jet power roller blades. A predictable choice for one with lanky legs. I certainly would trade in my scooter if not for my limited stride.

We approached the west bridge over the Potomac that marked the state line between Maryland and Virginia. We were mere yards away from losing the home field advantage, but this was the best spot to enact our plan.

Amp must have thought she was in the clear because she quicken her pace when the bridge came in sight for her. Increasing output to her rocket power skates she glided onto the bridge where I gave the signal to Samantha.

Now on the bridge Samantha had the entire river to pull from, and with it she bolted out from under the bridge slamming a wall of water in front of Amp causing her to grind to a stop. Before she could analyze the situation I flew down at her firing pot shots, as per Issac’s instructions.

She caught on quickly hopping to the edge of the bridge to keep her back to a wall and started firing her pistols at the both of us. Samantha waved her trident and pulled water in front of her to shield her. I landed and increased output to my own shields as I returned fire causing her shields to flare up. We swapped laser fire and soon enough Amp fell into a groove of firing at Samantha to suppress her while she focused more on me. The exact mindset we were hoping for. Now openly in her blind spot, Samantha summoned power into the water wall before her and concentrated it into points to fire out.

A dozen water bullets hit Amp. The first few were direct hits before she manually increased her shielding to block the attack, which resulted in an overload in her systems. The last hit also sent her stumbling back. She found her footing and snapped her pistols to us with an enraged expression as the barrel ports started to glow for an over changed shot. She wasn’t having fun anymore.

“You mutated monkeys must think you’re top notch!” Amp sneered between her narrow Irken teeth, “Where is that two bit hack? Got scared and sent his minions so he could go lick his wounded pride?”

“What’s your problem?” Samantha shouted, “Why do you hate mutants so much? I’m not even a mutant, and I know that trash is so last century?”

“Idiot! All you humans are just mutated animals pretending to be people!” Amp shouted back causing Samantha’s face to twist in confusion.

“She’s not talking about the demihuman classification.” I provided in explanation, “Rather the fact that humans are the result of the evolutionary process.”

“Yes. You’re all just a bunch apes who got good at bashing rocks together. You’ll never be equal to the glory that is the Irken race!” Amp shouted like she was gloating.

“Oh, well I’m Jewish, so you’re still off.” Samantha scoffed and twisted to launch a wave of water forward, “I was made on the sixth day!”

The wall collapsed and shot around Samantha at Amp. Quickly acting Amp aimed at the wave and fired both her shots sending the wave to scatter and wash over and around her. A whining sound from her pistols said she had over loaded them as well. Her primary offense and defense were both down. She was still far from defenseless at the moment, but that was going to change soon. A perfect time for a quip.

“And that is checkmate. You lose.” I said right before the finishing move from Doctor Issac Norris went through. Far back at the city skyline, Issac was watching the entire fight through a scope waiting for this moment. He fired his custom shock rocket rifle sending a electric charge into Amp’s water soaked chest sending her and her system crashing down.

“Nice one liner.” Samantha said surfing over to me.

“It was a bit generic.” I noted.

“Generic is just another word for classic, and the classic never go out of style.”

“Perhaps, but Jerry would have made a much better quip.”

“Like what?”

I thought for a moment, “This might be shocking, but you lost.”

Samantha thought it over a minute before dawning her smile again, “Nah, I like yours better.”

“You think this is over?” Amp groaned as she regained her footing, “It’s not.”

“Correct,” I agreed, “there’s still the matter of the data bank. Hand it over.”

“You want this?” Amp coughed as she pulled a perfectly black cube from her PAK, “You’re gonna have to pry it from my cold-”

She was cut off by a wave of jet streamed water slicing through the cube cutting it in two. Another series of electric sparks jump over Amp and she dropped the remaining half, “You bedazzled gorilla! How dare you! How dare you! Do you know what you destroyed!?”

“Something that wasn’t yours to whine about.” Samantha noted, “Now get gone before we kick your butt just for fun!”

Samantha’s threat was punctuated with an extension of her trident. Seeming to accept defeat Amp turned and took off into the sky.

“Wait, she was able to fly this whole time?” Samantha asked with honest confusion.

“Yes, flight itself was never an issue. It was speed and mobility.” I explained just as Issac was landing.

“Why are you letting her go?” He asked as calmly as he could.

“We got the thing from her?” Samantha said posing with pride.

“Where is it? Give it to me?” Issac extended a hand to us and turn his sight to where Samantha pointed at the two halves. He stared for a moment as he set his jaw to a grit, “You. Broke it.”

“Well yeah.” Samantha said, “You said it was redundant. That means you have another copy somewhere. So nothing was lost.”

“Except for the actual data bank. Which I needed!” Issac snapped.

“But… you said it was redundant.” Samantha said with worry.

“The data was redundant. The device wasn’t!” Issac shouted. “I was supposed to deliver that to an important client!”

“Can data still be extracted from the pieces?” I asked trying to deescalate.

“No. It was an advanced quintinieinm matrix. It required a constant power supply to hold bits as individual ions allowing it to hold over multiple zettabytes of data.”

“What’s a zettabyte?” Samantha asked me in a whisper.

“A trillion gigabytes.”

“Oh. What’s a gigabyte?”

“A million megabytes.”

“Ah! Megabyte, million bytes.” Samantha nodded knowingly before leaning back in, “How much is a million bytes.”

“Roughly one textbook.”

“So that’s…,” Samantha did the math in her head and pursed her lips, “A lot.”

“Yes, very much a lot.” Norris said with a burning gaze, “And now I have to acquire another ingot of quintinite in order to make another data bank. And I have to do it before my client loses patience.”

“Who’s your client?” Samantha asked.

“The International Library of Enlightenment.”

“Pardon, but,” I stepped up now legitimately confused, “Isn’t The International Library of Enlightenment a… well, library? As in anyone can access the knowledge inside for themselves?”

“Yes. It’s a massive collection stored around the world that anyone can request access to. I was delivering my yearly donation of raw data when that Irken thief robbed me.”

“Then why was this an issue? I have a supply of quintinite. I have quintinieinm data drives, though not as dense, but we both have friends who could haul the extra mass needed to hold the multiple zettabytes easily.”

“I wouldn’t need that much storage. I wasn’t donating that much data. A few hundred petabytes.”

That was the breaking point for me. I straightened my back up and with hands of my hips I huffed, “Then why would you put up such a fuss. My personal pack could hold that.”

Before Norris could give an answer Samantha stepped forward with a smiling face, “Because it’s the principle of the thing. Like you said Samuel. Knowledge should be freely given and shared, and such a noble quest can’t be done with anything but the best. To have such a vile fiend try to horde the knowledge you give freely is a wrong that demands righting. Such a task requires a virtuous soul. Issac, I see your virtue, and I’m truly sorry I didn’t understand your quest. Could you find the compassion needed to forgive me?”

This stunned the super genius leaving him slacked jawed. He cleared his throat recovering, “It’s Doctor Issac, and thank you for trying. Though I might have to settle for my second best data bank.”

With that Doctor Issac turned and took off returning to the Virginia half of the city. Samantha watched him as he went. “What a noble soul.”

“An inflated ego is all I see.” I remarked, “But I guess it is earned.”

As we stood there a police officer walked up to us informing us that we were blocking traffic. Embarrassed, we apologized and made our way back to my home.

“Oh man, what a day.” Samantha said stretching her back at the bus stop as neither of us wanted to use more power than needed.

“The day isn’t over. We still have studying.” I reminded her.

“Oh yeah, I completely forgot. I hope there’s time.”

“I’m sure there is. In fact, I believe we’ll be back there just in time for lunch with my parents.”

“Oh good, I’m starving.”