Multiversal Swarm

protecting Sophia part 7

I ran through the corridor as fast as I could. I slid into the wall as I tried to make a turn. I heard my radio crackle to life. Please god let me be in time!

"Queen! Do you copy?" I shouted into the radio. It didn't make a sound other than static.

"Queen goddamn it! Just hold out a little longer!" I screamed as I ran through the door on my right, knocking over a statue and a bookshelf.

I hurled the desk and ran straight into the secret room behind the bookcase. I jumped down the flight of stairs and landed in a roll at the bottom. I continued down the corridor and I burst through the door at the end...

What I saw was... Oh my God it was...

I quickly looked to see if anyone was still... Whole. I saw queen laying in a pile of broken rubble and gore. She looked... Oh god somebody took a meat grinder to her face! I... I... Oh god why...

Queen let out a weak whimper and twitch. I almost shit my pants as I ran up to her.

"Oh my God Queen! What the hell did they do to you?! I'm gonna get you fixed right up hold on!" I shouted as tears flowed from my eyes.

I used my powers to heal her back to the way she was. She let out a scream once she was healed enough where she could.

"I'm sorry it's really painful but you'll feel better!"

Once she was healed she enveloped me in a hug sobbing. I hugged her back doing the same. I couldn't believe this. I couldn't lose her...

"Reaps.... They... They were all here when they... All of our team! ALL OF OUR FRIENDS!" She sob screamed into my shoulder.

I...

"What are you doin?" A voice said from the reapers right.

He looked over and saw Sophia standing there. He sat forward on the couch. He Lit a smoke and leaned back again.

"Dreaming about days long ago kid." He said taking a blue puff.

Sophia cocked her head. She imagined it was years before she was alive. But he didn't look much older than her father.

"What were you thinking about just now though?" She said curious.

He looked over at her and pulled another drag.

"The particular event isn't suitable for children given all the food, fighting, and fuckin that goes on." He said smirking to himself.

Sophia let out a giggle.

"What?" He said exhaling a blue cloud again.

"You said the f word. Kara told me to not swear. Kara's the lady who took me in when I was born." She said walking to the couch and sitting next to him.

"Well I'm sure Kara did just fine." He said continuing to puff his cigarette.

"Ssssoooo how do you have your powers? Angela told me how she got-"

"Queens name is Angela?!" He said with wide eyes.

An awkward silence fell over the room...

"Yyyyeeessss...." She said kind of scared.

In all the years he's known queen he's never managed to get her to tell him her real name. It isn't public record... Or private record... He checked.

"My powers are hard to explain. You wouldn't..."

"Oh come oooonnnn! I swear I can understand it! My tutor told me I was the top of her students in math!" She said with excited glee.

"All right. Then what do you know about infinity?" He said puffing green smoke.

Sophia wondered why his smoke changes color.

"Infinity... That's the really big number!" She said smiling.

"Yes and no. It is THE big number, But it actually isn't just a number." He said gesturing with his hands.

"Really? Yhen what is it?" She said cocking her head

"It's a concept." He said before taking a large pull off his cigarette.

"A concept? You mean like an idea."

"Exactly! Infinity, by just existing... Is a paradox. Do you know what that means kid?"

"No."

"Not surprised. It's a complicated word with a clearly defined definition, that goes directly against the idea of a paradox in the first place.
Ya see, a paradox is
"a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true."
That's a most known definition. The one that applies here is more along the lines of
"a statement or proposition that, despite sound reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.""

Sophia was actually following all of that.

"So how is infinity a paradox?" The reaper laughed as she said that.

"Because infinity can't exist unless every single number is in line. Infinity starts somewhere. It's a number right? Infinity exists. And yet nobody can't sit down and write it out. Numbers go on forever so infinity has no true beginning. Sure you start at one but what the first number in infinity? There is no answer and here's where the paradox lies. Because just like the definition. The contradictory statements go all around." He waved his finger in a circle motion.

"And around we all go, round and round... For infinity." He said looking back at Sophia, as he took another drag from his cigarette.

She thought about it for a moment but she shook it off.

"So how do you get your powers?" She asked slightly confused.

"Oh I don't know. Thats just what inf tells me when I ask him that same question." He said finishing his cigarette.

"Inf?"

"Yeah he's a infinite pain parasite or something. He heals my wound did I get injured and all sorts of abilities that Somebody forgot to bring up until recently."

"So where is he?" She asked looking around.

"He's inside my body. If I remember it right he came to me when i-"

The entire building started to shake! It was so violent the building felt like it was going to shake apart!

"Reaps you better get us out of here now! This place is coming down!" The queen said as she ran up to us.

The roof started to cave in and I grabbed them both, and teleported us out as the whole skyscraper... Fell to the ground.