CHAPTER SIX: Saturn Barz and the City of Angels – Part 2



“‘Get started for real?’” says Kilo Staples, staring down at Shizuka, trapped by her ankles in solidified concrete. “Are you serious?” He cocks his head to the side with an incredulous expression, unable to believe what he just heard. Shizuka doesn’t reply. She stares at him through her shades, stone-faced.

“I don’t get it. Is this a game to you? You think this is funny?” He asks, as if he was interrogating her. “Are you a masochist? Or do you think I won’t kill you?” He lets the question hang, and Shizuka still says nothing. Light glimmers through the walls of ice that surround them, causing light to dance between in gold and red and green.

Kilo sighs, and squats down, so his face is level with hers. “You’ve seen some of what I can do. You said you don’t like dishonest people? Fair enough. I’mma spell this out for then. Even if you know the secret behind my ability, it won’t help. This power’s name is SATURN BARZ.”

He raises his palm to hover right in front of her face. “SATURN BARZ’ power lets me change the composition of matter with a special electric pulse. Everything is made up by microscopic particles, and SATURN BARZ’ power is to pull them particles together or push ‘em away with that little pulse.

“But the thing is, once I let the pulse go, I lose any control over it. So let’s say, I put that energy in your hand, for example. Even if I wanted to, once it gets going, I don’t have any control over it anymore. It’ll turn your hand into mush, or maybe freeze it like a statue. And I’d feel just terrible about it, but from that point, it could hardly be my fault, now would it?

Shizuka keeps her gaze level and smiles at him.

The tall man grimaces. “You’re a weird kid. I think you might be a little masochistic… you know what that means?

“I know what it means. You talk an awful lot, you know that?”

Sighing, he stands up straight, his Stand emerging and flexing its wrists . “So I guess we’re doing this, huh?”

“I guess we are,” Shizuka says back, smirking, “You’ve had a lot to say about me, Mr. Staples, but now it’s my turn to say: you should pay more attention.”

The tall man frowns, then winces as a spot of coloured light moves across his face. Looking around, he only now notices the walls of his ice seem to be rotating like a carousel, complete with flashing lights increasing in speed and intensity.

Kilo Staples scowls at the dancing lights, and spits “Is this some new trick?”

“It’s no trick!” Shizuka declares, confident despite her entrapment, “What you’re seeing is the real thing!” The lights continue to dance, glowing brighter and spinning faster, turning the enclosed space into a disco nightmare.

“You were kind enough to give me a hint to your powers, so I’ll return the favour!” Shizuka goes on, “Vision comes from photons: light particles, beamed millions of miles from the sun and crawling through the atmosphere, only to bounce off objects and back into our eyes. Finally, The brain interprets those photons as images. That is vision, that is perception. ACHTUNG BABY controls photons; it controls perception! What you’re seeing isn’t a trick, and it’s not an illusion! What you’re seeing is Reality!”

The lights spin and dance, filling the enclosed space with dazzling rainbow colours that sting and burn into Kilo Staples’ retinas. He stumbles, hitting against his walls of ice, screwing his eyes shut. But it’s useless, the light is too bright, it shines even through his eyelids.

“Stop it–” he growls, under his breath, to himself more than Shizuka. “Stopitstopitstopitstopit–” He grumbles like this, throwing his hands over his eyes to protect them, and muttering dangerously. Saturn Barz shudders into view as his anger builds, shaking with rage.

Finally, he bellows “KNOCK IT OFF!!” and SATURN BARZ stamps its foot on the ground, howling “URAAH!!”, crumbling the pavement beneath its foot. Then, an explosion of steam billows out, vaporising the ice and turning the concrete into a thick grey slurry.

A brief silence falls before Kilo stomps out of the cloud of mist, furiously shouting “Where the hell did you go!!” As the mist clears, it becomes clear that Shizuka has been freed, and has escaped. “She tricked me again!” Kilo mutters, “She got SATURN BARZ and me to free her by mistake! Damn it!”

Seething, Kilo Staples barely notices the presence of the young airport security guard. “Stop right there, you bastard!” he shouts, drawing an almost comically oversized handgun out of its holster and pointing it at Kilo.

His confrontation with Shizuka had drawn a lot of attention, and the young security guard had rushed ahead of any of his peers of superiors to be the first on the scene. “This is awesome!” he thinks, barely containing his excitement, “With this, I’ll get massive cred. I’ll be a hero, and maybe Amanda will finally go on that date with me!”

“I said don’t move, fucker!!” shouts the young man, which the assailant doesn’t even respond to. Kilo doesn’t even look in his direction, merely scans the area, searching for signs of Shizuka. “This is your last warning! Put your hands behind your head and don’t move!”

“Fuck off,” Kilo replies, still not even looking his way.

The security guard clenches his teeth and hefts his heavy revolver. He specifically asked for this weapon, despite advice to go with a lighter, more maneuverable weapon. He is not a large man, and he lifts the firearm with some difficulty.

This weight proves to be his undoing, as he fires a warning shot that was supposed to go over Kilo’s head. But instead, pulling the trigger shifts his grip and the barrel slips slightly downwards, Kilo freezes at the sound of the gun, and the young security guard’s eyes go wide as he realizes his mistake, and the bullet goes flying towards the tall man’s throat.

In the next instant, SATURN BARZ swipes at the incoming bullet, evaporating it into a copper mist. The now-gaseous merely blows past Kilo’s face, the wind carrying it from then on.

“Big mistake. You caught me in a bad fucking mood!!” Kilo shouts, and Saturn Barz swings it’s claws in a skyward arc. From it, a huge wave of searing steam billows forward and envelopes the young security guard, blowing him and his too-big weapon away, leaving him as a groaning heap on the ground a meter away.

All matter is composed of microscopic particles called molecules. The composition of these molecules and the electromagnetic charge between them determines what form matter takes:

Particles in tight, grid-like pattern form solids.

In looser, but still consistent formation, the particles form liquids.

And when molecules have no relation to each other, they drift randomly as gases.

SATURN BARZ controls the physical states of matter, shifting from solid to liquid to gas, and back again. This is true power over matter!