Mom, I'm Bulletproof

Chapter 12.5: The Impossible

Future Girl aimed at the same hole in the ceiling the creature originally crashed through. As she flew through it, though, the creature swung its body around and smashed more glass, while also still pulling Amy along with it. She felt a thick layer of glass shatter against her back as the creature pulled her upward, refusing to let go of her arm.

In the open air, Amy noticed the pinkish-orange hue of London at sunset, and then refocused her attention on the dinosaur. She swung a fist and struck the side of its head. This did the trick, as it widened its jaws to roar in pain.

Amy pulled away from the beast's mouth and then flew underneath it.

"The implants!" Future Girl shouted, still wrestling with the dinosaur's neck, and it wasn't fast enough, though, as Amy flew right at the creature's belly with both fists out in front of her.

The dinosaur roared with pain as Amy struck it, swatting its metallic fins in the air. Amy felt a strange energy crackling around her and she was thrown away the creature.

Amy saw that Future Girl had been thrown from the creature as well. It roared again, moving its four metal-encased flippers as if it were swimming in water, trying to fly away from the two girls instead of the further attacking them.

"I said, go for the implants," Future Girl said. "It can't fly without them."

Amy nodded. She at the dinosaur's right side while Future Girl flew at its left side.

Amy brought a fist down onto the rear flipper, smashing it open to reveal metal circuitry, and breaking it away from the creature's original flipper. She then repeated this with it front right flipper, as Future Girl did the same with its left flippers.

With the cybernetic implants destroyed, the plesiosaur howled in pain.

"The water?" Amy said.

"The water," Future Girl said. "You take the head, I'll take the tail."

She grabbed the plesiosaur by the neck again, while Future Girl grabbed its torso and flew downward. Amy followed her lead.

Amy and Future Girl spun the creature around in midair. "Now!" Future Girl said. She and Amy let go, the two of them flinging the dinosaur's body over the city. Amy flew around, following it as it fell, and watched as it plummeted in the Thames River. It splashed around for a moment and then dove under the murky water, out of sight.

Future Girl flew up to Amy. "Does this mean there's a dinosaur just living in the Thames from now on?"

"London is famous for a lot of things. I guess now it has one more."

"We better get back."

They returned to the museum, with Amy feeling guilty about having caused more damage to the building. The used tried to console herself that no one was injured.

Dreamsmith was nowhere to be found. Museum personnel and London police were already at the scene, so Amy and Future Girl retreated to Dreamsmith's building. He texted Amy's phone a short time later, saying that he was home. Amy remembered which window was his, and she and Future Girl flew through it, though it was a tight squeeze. He waited for them inside, still in his cape and top hat.

"This apartment is smaller than my dorm room," Future Girl said.

"They're called flats here, "Dreamsmith said. "But, yeah, pretty small."

Amy hugged Dreamsmith. "I'm glad you got out safe."

"I didn't run," he said. "I daresay I did some actual superheroing. When everyone else was fleeing for their lives, Violet and Rosa insisted I follow them deeper into the museum's lower floors, to a door in some sub-basement marked restricted access. Security was busy elsewhere, and alarms were already going off, so I went ahead inside.

Dreamsmith sat on his bed and continued. "Behind the scenes, the museum is what you'd expect, a bunch of unimpressive offices and ratty storage spaces. My two ghost kids insisted we go farther. They unlocked doors for me, down through even more sub-basements, down and down, farther and farther."

"We get it," Future Girl said.

"No, I'm telling you, I was several stories down. It had to below the tube, below the sewer system, maybe even deeper than the Thames. It's like there's a whole other world of tunnels down there that I only caught a glimpse of."

"And?"

"The kids led me to what I can only describe as a manufacturing plant, but there had been a fire. The whole place was burned black and grey with ash. There was an exhaust port, more like a tunnel or shunt heading straight upward, as far as I could see."

Dreamsmith's eyes darted back and forth between the girls. "Don't you get it? This is the fire that damaged the museum the night I met you, Amy. The fire blew with such force that it shot up through the exhaust and damaged the museum."

"How is that even possible?"

"With this." Dreamsmith held up the box. Even though badly burned, the latches on one side still worked. Inside, there was space carved out of the middle for sphere roughly the size of a basketball.

"You told me about this," Amy said. "Miniature suns."

"With the concentrated heat and gravity of an actual star," Dreamsmith nodded.

"No way," Future Girl said. "Impossible."

"A while ago, I would have agreed with you." Dreamsmith said. "But now look at me. Look at us. Impossible is who we are."

Future Girl started to say something but stopped. She appeared instead to ponder Dreamsmith's words.

There was then some discussion about whether to return to the museum and further investigate the underground chamber. Amy said they should give the museum staff some time to recover from the dinosaur attack, and that she might have another source of information. Future Girl merely said that she had class in the morning.

It was then up to the roof to say goodbyes. Amy plucked Dreamsmith's hat off him and put it on her own head. It was slightly too big, pressing down on her ears.

"How do I look?"

Dreamsmith smiled. "Very stately."

"You did good today."

"You saved the city from a dinosaur. You saved me again."

Amy tried to think of just the right response.

"Can we go?" Future Girl said.

Amy laughed and gave the hat back to Dreamsmith. "Call me if you need anything."

"You, too."

Amy and Future Girl soared off, using their enhancers to blast across the ocean. Amy's mind raced faster. She replayed the afternoon's events over and over in her head. The three of them managed to work as a team.

But, Amy wondered, what next? 

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Next: Universes beyond.