Summa Logicae

13 - Atomic

Mika hovered silently above the PAD base, suspended 200 meters in the air. The vast expanse of desert stretched below her, but her focus was entirely on the hidden facility beneath. She could see through its cloaking technology with ease—its defenses were nothing to her.

Suddenly, Voss' voice crackled through the base's speakers.

"Anomaly. You've gone far enough. Surrender now, or this will be your grave."

Mika couldn't help but laugh, her voice carrying on the wind as she looked down upon the concealed base. "If I really wanted to end this, PAD would've been gone the moment Jake got hurt." Her voice was playful, yet there was an undeniable edge of menace.

Voss, watching her from the control room, gritted his teeth and gave a silent nod.

"Begin the attack."

From the center of the base, an omnidirectional wave was unleashed, expanding rapidly. Within moments, the entire area, spanning a kilometer in every direction, was enveloped in a deep, unnatural chill. The temperature plummeted to Absolute Zero in an instant. Everything—sand, rocks, and even the air itself—froze solid, crystallizing in place. The winds stopped, the desert dust halted mid-air, and Mika, too, was caught in the sudden freeze. Her body, suspended in the sky, was encased in a solid block of ice.

Frozen solid, she plummeted to the ground, crashing into the desert floor. Her ice-encased form struck the earth, but instead of shattering upon impact, the frozen statue remained intact, its surface glistening under the sun's rays.

Inside the base, Voss observed through the monitors, eyes cold and calculating. "Fire the beam. Ensure she's destroyed."

The order was given. An energy cannon charged up and unleashed a massive blast, aimed directly at the frozen Mika. The beam hit her with a thunderous explosion, sending shockwaves across the desert as it obliterated everything in its radius.

Voss watched intently as smoke and debris filled the screen. It took several seconds for the dust to clear, but when it did, the control room erupted into disbelief. Mika stood there, not torn to pieces, not even damaged. Ice shards fell from her body in chunks, her skin completely unfazed.

Mika stretched lazily and grinned. "Well, that was a chilly experience. I didn't expect to see technology that could manipulate Absolute Zero. Impressive."

Voss' face went pale as his voice boomed through the speakers once again. "What... what the hell did you do?! How did you survive?"

Mika tilted her head, still smiling. "Oh, I merely redirected the cold away before it could do any real damage. The same happened to the explosion just now, or at least a part of it."

Mika had manipulated space at a fundamental level, moving the energy of the freezing temperatures and of the explosion to another spatial location—essentially diverting them before it could meaningfully affect her.

Her gaze darkened as she addressed the base again. "Now, you'll have a taste of your own medicine."

In an instant, Mika's hands moved gracefully, and a shimmering barrier formed around the entire base. A perfect sphere encased the installation, isolating it from the outside world. Within the sphere, Mika manipulated space once more, creating pockets of vacuum that began to siphon off all the heat and energy from inside. Everything within the barrier began to freeze—fast.

Inside the base, panic spread. Voss, however, remained composed as he addressed his trembling personnel. "The base is designed to withstand even Absolute Zero temperatures. Don't lose your nerve."

But mere seconds later, cracks began to appear in the walls. Chunks of the base's outer surface started to crystallize and shatter as the temperatures plummeted even further—below Absolute Zero.

"Sir!" one of the technicians shouted, frantically looking at the monitor. "She's achieved temperatures...below zero Kelvin!"

Voss felt a chill run down his spine. "That's impossible!"

But it was. The impossible had become reality. Mika had managed to pull off something even the most advanced scientific minds couldn't comprehend. The structure of the base could no longer hold. The immense cold caused materials to fracture and break apart, molecules themselves ceasing to move as the extreme temperatures destabilized everything.

Within minutes, the PAD base crumbled under the relentless freezing process. Massive pieces of technology froze solid, their inner workings ground to a halt. Steel beams snapped like twigs, walls crumbled, and the entire base began to collapse in on itself.

Mika, watching from above, made sure not to target the people directly. She had no intention of killing them—yet. Still, half the troops found themselves either crippled or unfortunately killed by falling debris as the once-mighty structure came apart around them.

Finally, Mika stopped the freezing. The barrier dissipated, leaving the shattered remnants of the PAD base strewn across the desert, buried in snow and frost.

Voss emerged from the wreckage, his boots crunching through what had once been sand but was now frozen solid. He walked toward Mika with a cold determination in his eyes. His remaining men formed a circle around them, standing about ten meters away.

"It appears I underestimated you," Voss said, pulling a knife from his belt. His eyes were locked on Mika, but there was no fear, only grim resolve. "But don't think for a second that our mission ends here."

Without warning, Voss plunged the knife into his own heart.

Mika's eyes widened as she sensed something strange. A signal—more like a pulse—was sent out from Voss' dying body, reaching out to the hearts of every remaining soldier in the vicinity. Before she could fully process what was happening, she heard a faint click from each soldier's chest.

And then, for a single nanosecond, their bodies glowed brightly.

Mika's senses screamed at her, but it was too late.

The hearts of every soldier, including Voss himself, exploded with the force of a nuclear bomb. A hundred simultaneous detonations rocked the desert, unleashing a blast equivalent to a hundred Tsar Bombas.

And with that, the world shook.