Summa Logicae

2 - Ascendance

Right after the sudden rush of light from the experiment,  New York City was plunged into a blackout.

Inside the basement, Jake stumbled backward, shielding his eyes from the overwhelming radiance coming from where Mika was supposed to be. As the light faded, he turned his gaze towards the chamber. The refrigerator door creaked open, and Mika emerged, transformed.

Her once-blond hair was now stark white, cascading like a waterfall of light. But it was her eyes that caught Jake's attention. The pupils had transformed, becoming miniature galaxies, swirling with stars and nebulae.

"Mika... you are still alive! But...what happened to you?" Jake asked, awe and fear mixing in his voice.

"I see everything, Jake," Mika replied, her voice echoing with a strange resonance. "I see... too much."

"What do you mean?"

"If I had to describe, it looks like I was granted fourth-dimensional vision. I'm visibly perceiving our timeline...", Mika said with an slight air of excitement.

She saw events unfolding in timelines that branched out like the veins of a leaf. She watched the birth of stars and the collapse of civilizations. She could see the formation of tectonic plates beneath the earth, feel the shifting of energy across the planet, and understand the intricate dance of molecules and atoms. She could predict earthquakes, avert disasters, and even foresee technological breakthroughs before they happened.

However...

"Aghhh!", Mika suddenlly falls on her knees as she screams in agony.

"Mika?? What's wrong?"

"The information...is...overwhelming...!, Mika exclaimed as if she was in pain.

Mika's head throbbed with the sheer volume of knowledge.

"I have to limit it," Mika groaned, placing her hand on her temple. "I need to focus... only on the present..."

With immense effort, she began to filter out the extraneous information, leaving her with a manageable stream of knowledge focused solely on the present and the planet.

"Pheew, that should do it.", Mika said as the pain went away. "I felt like my head was going to explode."

They were both relieved.

"No wonder." said Jake. "The experiment might have been a success, but it looks like you are still human after all, which is a good thing. And speaking about it...what else are you feeling?"

"It's amazing, Jake!", Mika said with a smile. "I feel like I can do anything."

"How about we test that out by giving me 1 million dollars to my credit card?", Jake said with a smug.

"Of course you'd say something like that. Check your phone."

"Wait..."

Jake hurriedly took his phone from his pocket and checked his cash. The app showed the current quantity in dollars of his credit card. It was exactly one million dollars.

"Holy shit! Holy fucking shit! I'm rich!"

Jake was on the verge of doing somersaults, but he managed to contain himself.

"How exactly did you do it?", Jake asked with intriguiment

"The internet is made of data, code, electrity. If you can manipulate electrons, you can shape up how the data appears to us. In another words, I effectively hacked the system in a way that's not trackable."

"But how did you know how to exactly manipulate the data?"

"Didn't I tell you earlier? My comprehension over the world skyrocketed. I can see and understand things that no one else can. For example, in about 10 seconds, the blackout will end and the lights of New York are gonna come back."

After saying this, both Mika and Jake awkwardly remained in silence for 10 seconds.

And just like that, the lights indeed return.

"Oh shit!, exclaimed Jake. "So you can like predict the future."

"Not exactly. Well, at first yes. Immediately after the experiment I could see the entire timeline, but that was painful as hell, so I limited my conscioussness to the present. What I can do now to compensate is perceive the cascade of events that might lead to a certain result."

"Something like Laplace's Demon?"

"Exactly! It's good to know you are still sharp."

Jake pondered with a sigh. It seemed Mika was still herself, which was good. Jake was afraid that she might have become another person. But he still couldn't be 100% sure.

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Far from the basement lab, an organization known as the Paranormal Anomaly Division, a covert collaboration between NASA and the FBI, detects a sudden spike in space-time disturbances. Alarms blared in their underground headquarters.

"Sir, we're picking up a significant anomaly," a technician reported, eyes glued to the data on their screen.

"Location?" demanded the division chief.

"New York City, a residential area. It appears to be centered around a single point," the technician replied, zooming in on the map. "Right here."

The map highlighted Mika's house. The division chief's eyes narrowed. "Mobilize a team. We need to investigate immediately."