#3

Saturation

by Edward Ainsworth

Previously in the Atom: Ryan Choi and a number of other refugees from an alternate world are stranded. Fortunately, Ray Palmer, the atom, has given them sanctuary as well as the possibilities of a normal life. Working together as Atom's, Ray gave Ryan the tour...and his little hadron collider exploded as a result of this.

Ryan sat quietly next to the hospital bed, his head in his hands and his body slightly more gaunt than normal. Gauze and bandages were affixed to points around his body where he had been cut or burnt by the exploding equipment in Palmer's miniature lab, sitting on the side of his head just underneath his temple.

Something had caused the tiny particle accelerator in Ray Palmers “Atom Cave” to explode, and Ryan thought he knew who it was. Or rather, he dreamt he knew who it was. He was aware they weren't quite the same concept. He leaned backwards in the hospital chair, releasing his head and leaning down to reach for the items that sat at his side. A pad of paper had pages and pages of almost illegible scribblings, one of the problems with being a scientist. He'd been trying to document everything, by externalising it and giving it rational thought processes.

The pages were covered in notes written at all angles, lines drawn connecting events as Ryan tried to give it a practical time-line. In most instances, a practical time-line didn't apply. Too many details were left out, or left in the lap of the Gods.

“Yeah, because of course being in an out of body experience with something calling itself the God Particle makes logical sense,” he whispered to himself, pausing in his writing. Ray was beginning to move.

“NURSE!” he yelled, leaping from his chair. Two tall women came running in, both appearing to be the exact copy of the other.

“Are you?”

“Twins. Yes. Now...” the first woman began, pushing her tight red hair back into the bun that sat neatly on her head. Her sister turned to Ryan and pointed towards the door.

“Leave,” her hair was almost as unruly as her sisters was controlled. Ryan's eyes grew wide and he left the room, brushing a hand over his bruised head.

“God. Ivy Town is just made from concentrated insanity, isn't it?” Ryan exclaimed with frustration.

“It is, isn't it?” a man said down the corridor of the hospital. Ryan turned slowly to face him. He recognised the man from before, but it took a few moments for Ryan to place his face. The man was someone he knew, just not from a physical experience.

“It's something to do with the White Dwarf matter, if truth be told. Though Professor Palmer will never tell you that,” the man began, fixing his grey hair into a pony-tail behind his head. As his arms moved up underneath his white, form fitting suit, he flashed the tie-dye shirt that made the memories rush back to Ryan's minds eye.

“YOU!” Ryan yelled, as he charged down the corridor. The hippie smiled and held up his arms.

“Ain't my fault you nestled in with the Cancer god himself, Choi. Everyone knows the Atom has never done anything good for Sci..URK!”

Ryan's powerful arms shot forward, crossed at the wrists. His forearm and elbow pressed into the man's throat, as his other arm slammed him against the flimsy hospital walls.

“YOU DID THIS TO US! TO RAY!”

The Hippie smirked, his arms gripping Ryan's biceps. The older man pulled him away from his attacking position, as Nurses began to surround the two men.

“Prove it, Science Boy. Prove it,” his beard parted in a smile, as he gestured towards the door at the end of the corridor. “Let's take a walk.”

“How about I doubt...” Ryan began, as the remaining members of the Hippie's “group” began to form up outside.

“How in Gods name did you get into Palmers lab?” Ryan asked, as he reluctantly followed the Hippies strident steps.

“My name is Professor Dagworth,” he began, as Ryan stifled a laugh. “Something funny?”

“Dagworth? God. You're just a horrible product of your time, aren't you?” he turned to Ryan and pointed a finger in his face, the Amish man outside breaking through the double swing doors and placing the tie-dye lab-coat over his leaders shoulders.

“Please, allow me...” Ryan said, with a smile, pushing the doors open and meeting them small gathering of eclectic men and women outside. “You broke into the tiny lab, for reasons and with methods unknown but your back-stories are going to be ground-breakingly original aren't they?”

The Atom shook his head and stared up into the sky.

“Let me guess, you're some sort of last bastion against Ray's “crazy experiments” that make this place unsafe for humanity and nature. You, Professor Dagweed or whatever the hell your name is..”

“Dagworth,” the Hippie corrected.

“Whatever you say. You're seeing yourself as some sort of 70's Avenger, trying to hang onto the flagging edges of chemical experimentation because you expanded your understanding of science and reality when you took a complete truck load of LSD when you were young, in a field and probably where you had your first sexual experience,” Ryan brushed off his returning comment with an open palm, before directing his attention to the woman beside him.

“Animal Rights activist, probably in it not for the animals but because you need something to “avenge” as you have some unfinished business with something else. I don't have the time, or the patience for your lies. That picture of the cat with the wires in it's head they or you, flash around. Ask yourself...why would they put wires into a cats head without shaving the head? How would they know where to put the wires if they made tiny cuts and didn't SHAVE the head.”

Ryan laughed bitterly, the last twenty four hours worth of stress congealing itself into cold, hard anger at the men and women before him.

“You decided that the best thing for this flagging community of desperate IDIOTS who don't come here to study at the BEST UNIVERSITY on this planet is to destroy a great and interesting man's life’s work because of fear and distrust of science...”

“Why shouldn't we distrust science?” Dagworth interjected, pushing Ryan in the back. The Biker women stood beside him, her hand resting on the concealed weapon that sat against her hip.

“Are you honestly asking me that question? Are you asking me why you shouldn't trust the thing that gives you everything you use? That stupid example of egotism that sits around your shoulders, apparently giving you the “visual” of psychedelics, that was made with science.”

“All it's giving us is cancer and pain and it's destroying the lives of people around the world,” came a tiny voice from the back of the ten-strong ground. A young girl, with pig-tails and a dress covered in flowers.

“Firstly, people had cancer before. Sadly, the majority of people in the ages before now died before they got cancer. It's a disease that hasn't been “made” by science to kill. It's because we've been allowed to live LONGER by science.”

“So, really it is sciences fault, isn't it?” Dagworth grinned. Ryan's face dropped in anger.

“You're not a Professor of Science are you?” Ryan inquired. The Professor seemingly reaching into his shirt, drawing that long sword from Ryan's dream.

“Philosophy,” the Professor said with a wink.

Ryan sighed and rubbed his face. “Creative brain-washing then?”

The Professor stopped as anger drew ever closer to the edges of his face. It was clear he wasn't often in the position of being challenged. Not his beliefs or his views on the world. He had surrounded himself with men and women who said yes to his every desire.

“Professor Palmer is dying in there because of what you did! Things have been loosed on this world because you blew up his particle accelerator!” Ryan yelled, the biker women stepping ever closer. She dropped the visor of her helmet down, her fingers twitched over her side arm, or at least what Ryan considered to be a side-arm.

“Don't think I don't see you there,” the young scientist shouted, twisting at the waist and thrusting a costume clad finger towards her head, “Don't think that helmet gives you anonymity. You'll be a responsible for your actions as this man is for the destruction of the lHC.”

“How can you prove it's me?” the Professor asked after a few moments. “I was not at the scene of the crime.”

“Yet somehow you knew that we were in the hospital,” Ryan began. The large Amish man stepped in front of the professor and pointed at the diminutive hero, to cut his words down.

“Everyone knows. The explosion was fairly visible from your den of evil.”

“Den of evil? I would imagine that if science was evil then most of you wouldn't be here because of inoculations and the rest of modern medicines little “lies.” Ryan spat with vitriol and passion. The group was closing in around him, becoming more and more agitated with his words.

“Science isn't the be all and end of everything. Look around you,” the Professor began, gesturing to the men and women that encircled the Atom.

“We represent every walk of life, and yes, we've all had experiences with science and what it means to impact our lives but we've all moved away from it. John here, his Amish beliefs mean he works within God's framework for life. He believes in what the good book tells him.”

“I don't believe for a second that anyone who calls himself a Professor of Philsophy and wields the sort of views and weapons you do is inclined to believe in a “Good Book.” Ryan hissed. The Professor took a step backwards as though he'd been physically harmed.

“You wound me, Dear Professor. We are intellectual equals. Sarah here has read all about the effects of radiation on the Cancerous lump that sits in her breast. She knows that the options are to remove it, or to destroy it along with her insides due to radioactive waste being pumped into her body. She knows better than anyone what it does to a person and how it kills them quicker than a tumour.”

Ryan closed his eyes and balled his fists. They were Zealots, nothing more than that. People who had been slighted by science, or by nature and their first call of coming to terms with it is anger. Sadly, anger is the only stage they'll ever reach when surrounded by each other.

“So, you're telling me that 80% of people who suffer from cancer and who receive chemotherapy are just lucky to be alive because it kills your innards. That's not just an incorrect piece of information, it's just damn stupid.”

The Biker women stepped forwards, her firearm flying upwards and shots bursting from it's metallic chambers towards Ryan. With deft movement on his waist, he shrunk to the size of a cat. His atom costume filled over his body, and revealed itself.

“I don't know about you, but I am damn tired of this crap,” Ryan yelled. The Professor threw his arms out, gesturing for the men and women around him to move away.

“The people of Ivy don't want you and your kind any more, Atom. Your battle in the city destroyed more than just the property and livelihoods of the inhabitants of this city. The radiation is likely to give cancer to the people all around, making the land unsuitable for living in.”

The Professor ran forwards, his sword slashing down. Ryan threw himself forwards, pulling his “Boom stick”, a dumbbell like creation that allowed him to travel around at great speeds and at varying sizes, from the collapsible storage space within his belt.

He twisted on the balls of his feet, facing the Professor as the men and women around him formed a circle. Ryan bore his teeth underneath his mask.

“People like you make me sick,” Ryan spat, as he parried the blow from the sword against his boom stick, twisting to the left to avoid the Professors fist. “You use anything you can to start an action against someone. Its not because you're outraged.”

Ryan twisted on the balls of his feet again, thrusting his palm into the Professors sternum, knocking the wind out of him.

“You're violent. You want everything to devolve down into conflict because you're needs are the most basic of all humans, even though you're pretending to be the most evolved. You're not altruistic, you're not fighting for a cause.” Ryan leapt backwards, landing with his feet spread apart, as the Professor fumbled with his sword into a sloppy swipe.

“You're fighting 'cause you can,” Ryan said frustration trickling from his voice. The circle began to close in on him, people pushing and jostling to get closer to the Atom, pushing him and thrusting into him.

“He's right you know!” a voice from the back of the crowd stopped the oncoming surge of people Ran was certain he wasn't allowed to punch.

“What do you know?”

“I know that I'm only doing this because I am angry,” the source of the voice had vibrant red hair, hanging from her shoulders in thick, beautifully kept curls. Beside her stood a gothic looking man, lithe and covered in flowery tattoos.

“We don't want to be angry with everything any more,” she continued. Her voice was tired, and the bags under her eyes seemed to highlight the effect the Professor was having on people.

Considering it was two of roughly twenty, Ryan was glad he'd managed to sway some people. Even if it was awful convenient that they were being released from what appeared to be a sort of tonic daze. Most of the peoples eyes were flaccid, lacking any sort of control or light underneath them.

“I think it's time for you to leave,” Ryan said, pointing his boom stick towards the Professor.

“Not without them. They're part of me...part of this. Our cause is great! Science will be removed from Ivy and everything will be...” the Professor was shot off his feet. He hit the ground heavily and skidded in the dirt, the boom stick smoking from it's rear end, lodged in his chest.

“Everything will break down. Science is more important now than ever because it isn't just about iPods and internet connections. It's about breaking down the fundamental aspects of life, death and discovery and making it real, palpable. It's about making the future brighter than it ever was a few minutes ago. We can solve every problem with science.”

Ryan opened his hand, as the boom stick came hurtling back to him. He pulled down his cowl and pointed towards the distance.

“This man here, is going to prison. His sword, the same sword that is currently laying at his side, was found at the site of the explosion. You will all be interviewed by the police because you are accomplices. You are culpable for whatever happens as a result of that explosion. More so than Palmer or me. You're the villains of this story.”

The crowd dispersed pretty quickly, as Ryan moved over to the Professor, the Red haired women behind him.

“My names Amanda...” she said, as Ryan's face continued to turn an increasingly bright shade of crimson.

“Ryan....The Atom. Whatever you want.”

“I'm sorry about Professor Palmer.”

“Me too,” Ryan replied, closing his eyes, a feeling of remorse spreading over him as a result of having to hurt someone so greatly. “Why did you do it?”

Amanda paused, holding herself and sniffing as though she was going to cry.

“I don't really know. I just...wanted to be a part of something.”

“Well, you are now.” Ryan looked up at her, narrowing his eyes, “Now you're part of a group who hurt Ivy Town much more than anything we did. You took away it's hero.”

Once the police and ambulance had left to remove Professor Dagworth, Ryan hovered in the doorway of the hospital room for a few moments. Collecting his thoughts and trying to sift through exactly what those idiots had been trying to get at. It was clear that there was a very real divide between the people in Ivy.

“I got them, Ray,” Ryan said, hanging his head in shame. The Professor, was laying in silence, tubes and wires connected to his body. The explosion had not only damaged Professor Palmer’s lab, but also seriously damaged his body.

“The ones who did this too you. More than that...I think...” he put his hand to his forehead and inhaled sharply. “I think I've started something. I don't know if it was me directly, or something else, but...everything I dreamed. Everything I saw while I was unconscious...maybe it's going to come true. Maybe all those heroes who came over with us and fought with us against Breach...maybe they're all here for a reason.”

He grit his teeth and turned his head to the side in violent frustration.

“I don't believe it. I don't want to believe it, Ray. How can I be a man of science if the future is already laid out before me? Isn't that pre-destiny. Would I be best to not do a thing?” he flung himself down into the chair he inhabited before and released his head.

“It scares me. A lot. I don't have any experience in this area Ray. I don't have any knowledge and there’s no knowledge to fall back on here this is all us this is all...well, it's all new territory.”

Ryan sat quietly thinking to himself. Those people had purposely been out to hurt Ray. While the Professor Palmer he knew was a retiring, humble and capable scientist, was there something more to what Ray had done to this town. Had he really muddied the waters so that science was viewed as Witchcraft more than the progression of ideas and concepts that it should have been?

He picked up his notes and sighed, instead pulling his cowl off his head and looking at it in his heads, gently rubbing his thumb over the material. He scribbled around the edges of his mask, drawing a crude atom in the centre of the page. Had Ray really set off the events that were in his vision, or dream?

“What did you do, Ray? What did you do?” he shook his head and leaned backwards, staring at ceiling. Ryan had always considered the legacy of the Atom to be a great honour. One he was certain he was not only not prepared for, but almost definitely not worthy. Now he wondered, in light of the reaction of the crowd, and his own almost as fanatical beliefs about science...had he inherited the mantle of a hero.

Or a villain?