New World Disorder

Chapter Sixteen

Saturday, May 15, 2010

What are you doing, old man? Pope asked himself. The volcano was looming straight ahead, its pillar of ash and smoke rising miles into the air. The Indonesian city, with a name he could not recall, was right in the path of the rushing pyroclastic flow. There were mere minutes before all hell swallowed the tens of thousands of residents. Have you thought this through? Or is this a fancy form of suicide? Penance for your mistake at the Rally? Are you really going to do this?

"AhhhHHHHH!!!" he screamed as he plunged in to the toxic plume. It was burning hot. The winds were whipping at hurricane speeds. Ash, and molten rock splashed against his nimbus. But he was not burned. He tuned his vison to a much lower wavelength, allowing him to peer through the debris into the gaping mouth of the volcano. The orange and red magma in the vent roiled and surged. This is insane! He thought as he dived deep into the magma. Moving hundreds of feet into the vent he was able to absorb the heat, but the pressure of the molten rock pressing against him began to cause significant discomfort.

Let's do this! He thought and started concentrating. He began siphoning the energy of the volcano into his body. It flooded his body, overwhelming him. He felt it forcing open the conduit with whatever source his powers came from. This allowed him to absorb even more. It was a feedback cycle that forced him to draw in further energy.

Around him the magma began to cool, hardening in to basalt. He moved up towards the crater, cooling the volcano as he rose. Less than a dozen yards from the surface the rate of energy absorption overtook his rise and he found himself embedded in stone. Oh shit! This ain't good.

He struggled with all his strength but was unable to budge the rapidly cooling rock around him. Looking up, he could see the surface of the crater tantalizing, just out of reach. He was still siphoning the heat from the volcano. He did not want to stop. He had plans for that energy. Tapping just a small fraction he unleashed a powerful beam of nuclear force from his eyes. Spearing upwards the beam reversed the strong force in the nuclei of the atoms of the matter in a path a meter wide. It carried the stripped particles up into the ash filled cloud. He flew out of the hole.

Looking at the slopes below he could see pyroclastic flows moving towards the city. Above was the massive ash cloud. Both were dangers. He could feel the captured energy of the volcano pulsing inside of him. He reached out with it, much farther than he could have on his own and reversed the pull of gravity on the ash, lava, and rock, until it all started floating upwards. He rode the gravity wave with the ejecta. It rose at just over two Gs. Enough to reach escape velocity, eventually.

Double check. Make sure you did not pick up anything, or more importantly anyone. unexpected. He remined himself. Look for passengers. He flew around, scanning for anyone or anything but ash, gas, rock, and lava. He was lucky. He found no one. Is that because they were not there or because the lava had already burned them to ash? Nothing I can do if that were the case so don't dwell on it.

He rode the massive cloud high into the mesosphere, high enough that it would all burn up when it finally fell back to Earth. To ensure it would not keep rising to become a danger to satellites or space stations, he used the last of his absorbed power to reverse the pull of his gravity field, drawing the debris back towards the planet below.

Man ... I need a nap, he thought. Facing the Earth, he continued to drift out further into space at several hundred miles per hour. He watched as the new meteor field started raining down, burning brightly as they hit the atmosphere. I haven't been this tired for ... since I got to this world I think.