0.4 A Meeting of Minds - Part 5
“I thought there were hardly any ‘mysteries’ left when it came to the Evolved.”
Dr Diablo was about to reply when one of his minions served tea in the most elegant cups the Fixer had ever seen. The doctor busied himself with his nearby laptop. Just as the minion left, the doctor first gestured towards the tea and then towards the large screen on one of the walls that came to life.
“So, tell me. What do you know?”
The screen was filled with a publicity shot of Victory Girl. “Strongest Evolved, Head of the E-Division, no known history from before she appeared two years ago, which I always assumed was some deal she came up with the Government to ‘protect her identity’. Let’s see, her power is telekinesis that she uses offensively and defensively,” rattled off the Fixer.
“So, nothing more than what the press or the government tells you.”
“Well, her arrival did put my former employers out of business, and since then, I’ve not had access to resources I used to have to find out any more than that.”
The Doctor bolted to his feet, with a twinkle in his eyes. The Fixer had seen this look before. It’s when a genius seeks to educate you on his findings. It was true the Fixer blamed some of his ill-fortune on Victory Girl and had even at a point plotted revenge, but without resources, he knew it was futile. He had heard that Dr Diablo was a well known professor and researcher before the ethics committee frowned on his methods. He knew he was sitting in for a lecture.
“So, from the top. All Evolveds fall roughly into two categories…”
“Yes, the physical types, with physical abilities like strength, speed, durability, regeneration, or enhanced senses.”
“Excellent, and then we have the mental types that fall into…
“Again, roughly two types, those with a form of telepathy or interacting with other minds and telekinesis, the ability to affect their surroundings with their mind. Telekinesis itself has roughly five types: the three states of matter affinity types, solid, liquid and gasses, the energy affinity type, and finally the pure telekinesis type…”
“Who can affect anything with their minds, like our topic for the day, Victory Girl. Let’s see, what else, hmmm. Yes, at any point in time, an Evolved has only one set of abilities.”
“Yes, so you cannot have a physical ability alongside a mental type ability, though physical types have shown to have some degree of overlap within the five types, but usually one of them dominates.”
“Excellent! So, let’s commence from there. Now,” he turned around to the screen, “What do you see?”
“That’s footage of Victory Girl’s first appearance. Where she defeated five Evolveds single handedly.”
“Good, now observe her hand.”
“Yes, she got some burns when she stopped the Mental-Type who can control flames, so energy-affinity.”
“Did you know, there were no cases in nearby hospitals for burns that severe that day or the next. Burns that severe would need medical attention. Now, let’s go ahead a couple of days…”
“The official announcement of E-Division…”
“Now, look at her hand.”
“Hmmm… I always assumed someone did a good make-up job on that. And why she wears gloves all the time.”
“Never assume anything! I have it on reliable sources that her hands were perfectly fine when she met the President. Tell me, who else but a regenerator-type could recover so fast? Now, on to more interesting things. Have a look at these series of footage.” On screen was footage of Victory Girl fighting three Evolveds who were terrorising civilians to gain the upperhand.
“That’s her using her powers.”
“Indeed! They even labeled her the strongest and for a change, the media was not wrong. Do you know, compared to all the other types, Telekinesis is the weakest and takes the longest to develop?”
“Yes, but there are anomalies, there have numerous cases of people who exceed the average by a fair margin.”
“By a factor of two or maybe three at the most. The strongest case of documented telekinesis, after Victory Girl, falls in the lifting of about 75 kgs to a maximum height of 20 feet, with significant concentration and effort. She on the other hand tosses weights in the 100-200 kg range upto about 100-200 feet in the air with barely any effort. There have been instances where she’s stabilized entire buildings during fire rescue operations without breaking a sweat. Even the strongest Strength-Type cannot do that. She even uses that Telekinesis to ‘fly’ around the city! Now, as we all know, Evoleds continue to grow stronger with time…”
“Yes, if they keep using their powers, they get stronger. If they don’t use their powers, it’ll keep diminishing, but will rarely vanish entirely.”
“Exactly. Discounting she started off this strong, I projected estimates using numbers from every documented Telekinesis-type. She’ll need to have been around and using her powers for anywhere between a hundred to one thousand years.”
“That’s… impossible.”
“Ha! Individually, it’s easy to brush all of this aside as anomalies, but when you put it all together, it paints a very interesting picture. Allow me to indulge myself a bit here: Combat training, advanced tactics when engaging multiple opponents - Military training. Off the charts power levels, multiple abilities - not ‘natural’.”
Dr Diablo was about to reply when one of his minions served tea in the most elegant cups the Fixer had ever seen. The doctor busied himself with his nearby laptop. Just as the minion left, the doctor first gestured towards the tea and then towards the large screen on one of the walls that came to life.
“So, tell me. What do you know?”
The screen was filled with a publicity shot of Victory Girl. “Strongest Evolved, Head of the E-Division, no known history from before she appeared two years ago, which I always assumed was some deal she came up with the Government to ‘protect her identity’. Let’s see, her power is telekinesis that she uses offensively and defensively,” rattled off the Fixer.
“So, nothing more than what the press or the government tells you.”
“Well, her arrival did put my former employers out of business, and since then, I’ve not had access to resources I used to have to find out any more than that.”
The Doctor bolted to his feet, with a twinkle in his eyes. The Fixer had seen this look before. It’s when a genius seeks to educate you on his findings. It was true the Fixer blamed some of his ill-fortune on Victory Girl and had even at a point plotted revenge, but without resources, he knew it was futile. He had heard that Dr Diablo was a well known professor and researcher before the ethics committee frowned on his methods. He knew he was sitting in for a lecture.
“So, from the top. All Evolveds fall roughly into two categories…”
“Yes, the physical types, with physical abilities like strength, speed, durability, regeneration, or enhanced senses.”
“Excellent, and then we have the mental types that fall into…
“Again, roughly two types, those with a form of telepathy or interacting with other minds and telekinesis, the ability to affect their surroundings with their mind. Telekinesis itself has roughly five types: the three states of matter affinity types, solid, liquid and gasses, the energy affinity type, and finally the pure telekinesis type…”
“Who can affect anything with their minds, like our topic for the day, Victory Girl. Let’s see, what else, hmmm. Yes, at any point in time, an Evolved has only one set of abilities.”
“Yes, so you cannot have a physical ability alongside a mental type ability, though physical types have shown to have some degree of overlap within the five types, but usually one of them dominates.”
“Excellent! So, let’s commence from there. Now,” he turned around to the screen, “What do you see?”
“That’s footage of Victory Girl’s first appearance. Where she defeated five Evolveds single handedly.”
“Good, now observe her hand.”
“Yes, she got some burns when she stopped the Mental-Type who can control flames, so energy-affinity.”
“Did you know, there were no cases in nearby hospitals for burns that severe that day or the next. Burns that severe would need medical attention. Now, let’s go ahead a couple of days…”
“The official announcement of E-Division…”
“Now, look at her hand.”
“Hmmm… I always assumed someone did a good make-up job on that. And why she wears gloves all the time.”
“Never assume anything! I have it on reliable sources that her hands were perfectly fine when she met the President. Tell me, who else but a regenerator-type could recover so fast? Now, on to more interesting things. Have a look at these series of footage.” On screen was footage of Victory Girl fighting three Evolveds who were terrorising civilians to gain the upperhand.
“That’s her using her powers.”
“Indeed! They even labeled her the strongest and for a change, the media was not wrong. Do you know, compared to all the other types, Telekinesis is the weakest and takes the longest to develop?”
“Yes, but there are anomalies, there have numerous cases of people who exceed the average by a fair margin.”
“By a factor of two or maybe three at the most. The strongest case of documented telekinesis, after Victory Girl, falls in the lifting of about 75 kgs to a maximum height of 20 feet, with significant concentration and effort. She on the other hand tosses weights in the 100-200 kg range upto about 100-200 feet in the air with barely any effort. There have been instances where she’s stabilized entire buildings during fire rescue operations without breaking a sweat. Even the strongest Strength-Type cannot do that. She even uses that Telekinesis to ‘fly’ around the city! Now, as we all know, Evoleds continue to grow stronger with time…”
“Yes, if they keep using their powers, they get stronger. If they don’t use their powers, it’ll keep diminishing, but will rarely vanish entirely.”
“Exactly. Discounting she started off this strong, I projected estimates using numbers from every documented Telekinesis-type. She’ll need to have been around and using her powers for anywhere between a hundred to one thousand years.”
“That’s… impossible.”
“Ha! Individually, it’s easy to brush all of this aside as anomalies, but when you put it all together, it paints a very interesting picture. Allow me to indulge myself a bit here: Combat training, advanced tactics when engaging multiple opponents - Military training. Off the charts power levels, multiple abilities - not ‘natural’.”
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