Brian Vasquez
Daniel Wright
Physics
03/24/09
Force Feud
The dim lights on the ceiling spewed a somber yellow aura into the woody lounge. Deep brown hardwood padded the floors, walls and ceilings. The dim yellow lights were positioned strategically around the lounge. One hung above the center of the long, elliptical bar. The bar rose from the hardwood floor about four and a half to five feet high. Tall brass stools stood along the perimeter of the ellipse. Two brass rods curved up and out of each seat to produce a back for each stool. Each stool carried two blood red cushions, one for the back and one for the seat. The bar was some twenty feet long and it lay pressed against one of the longer walls of the lounge. Along the wall behind the bar stood an all glass shelf the height of the lounge itself. Square modules with circular cavities accumulated to compose the glass shelf wall. Bottled rums, brandies, vodkas and other liquors riddled the pockets of the wall. An Asian bartender in a black polo scurried back and forth taking, making and delivering orders to the various customers around his bar.
Another soft bulb shone above the central dance floor. Practically empty of actual dancers, only one older couple scuffled to the slow song resonating in the lounge. The lounger floor was somewhat of an ambiguous area with no real boundaries. Most of what wasn't bar was lounger floor. Scattered around the lounge were two, plush, blood red love seats. Slightly smaller lounge chairs with the same cushioning were higher in number and seemed to concentrate around the two love seats. The lounge floor was the middle ground that separated the bar on one wall from the booths along the other. The booths were meant for groups of people that wished for a bit of exclusivity along with some of their own personal elbow room. Three wooden walls spanning the ceiling and floor spewed from the main wall to barricade three spaces for booths. Each booth was seven to eight feet wide and some five feet deep with a four foot wide rectangular table within. The stained wood tabletop rose up four feet upon a single brass cylinder cemented into the floor. Rectangular boxes lay pressed against the insides of each booth to form the booth seats around the table. Long, red cushions padded some portion of booth wall and seat. In each of these three booths hung a stained glass bowl from a brass chain. The stained glass was painted reds, browns, yellows and oranges spilling into the booths and lounge a somber, golden light.
Tonight, the lounge was semi active. The bar was full as each stool held up its own ass. A suited man at one end of the bar seemed to be having quite the exceptional day. He wore a navy blue suit with black shoes and a white dress shirt. The first two buttons of his shirt were loose along with an untied tie dangling at his neck. He was sprawled out on the bar front. His chest lay heavy upon it as his arms sluggishly swayed about. His chin rested on the bar near a crowd of some eleven empty shot glasses. A few quarters of his ass clung to the seat of the stool. His chin seemed to be stamped and glued to the bar top as he slowly moved his head about. He mumbled sweet little insults about his boss, while simultaneously demanding drinks of the bartender, who refused.
"Ey! Bawtennda! Gibb me anotha shhhot!" The bartender was cleaning the inside of a tall glass with a blue hand towel before he shimmied over to the drunk.
"That's gonna have to be it Larry. Linda would be pissed if I let you go home drunk again."
"Ey!" Larry raised his finger drunkenly. His arm swayed slightly. "Shhhe ain't da bossa me! Nno one is!" The bartender could only sigh as his hand rotated the glass around the hand towel. A hand signaled for attendance and the bartender quickly scooted over to attend the woman.
The lounge floor was much less active. Only an older couple occupied a small piece of dance floor from time to time and a few people sat in a handful of lounge chairs. One of the love seats was ironically being used as the inventor intended. The young couple wasn't having hot and sweaty, naked sex, although anyone watching would say that they were, with the exception of clothes. The booths were much more popular. Here, friends piled around the table with drinks and small dishes. The bronze light turned the palest of faces a vibrant tan and glittered upon the teeth of laughing guests. Due to the bar, there were no children in the place. Only adults inhabited the lounge.
"Alright Larry. I think it's about time you head on home." The bartender slid closer to Larry. "I just gotta text from Linda." The bartender was drying the inside of another glass with his blue hand towel. Larry's forehead lay pressed upon the bar.
"Just gimme another shot Ed." Larry's voice indicated some sense of sobriety. Enough apparently for the bartender to send him home. The bartender put his cup and blue hand towel down upon the bar and reached into one of his pants' pockets. Taking out his phone, he placed it next to Larry's head. Flipped open, the phone screen bore Linda's text message. Larry slowly turned at the sound of the phone upon the bar top. He glanced at the phone only to swipe it off the bar onto the lounge floor behind him. With his right hand, Larry lunged at Ed's neck. A black flash seemed to zip across the lounge from a door near the occupied love seat. Before Larry's fingers could latch onto Ed's shirt and curl around his collar, a hand grabbed his arm and stopped him in his tracks.
"It's time to go home Larry." The voice emanated from a small man in all black. The man's hand held back Larry's assault with a grab of the forearm. In the bronze light, his skin was a deep tan with minimal body hair. Short black hair was neatly trimmed upon his head. Only a few millimeters long, the hair was enough to provide the man with head scruff. Pitch black eyes, a small nose and full lips sat within the man's round head. A tight, black tee displayed the man's thinness. Although small at only five feet and four inches, the man carried a decent amount of muscle tone and commanded a strong presence. Slacks clung to his waist and stretched down to his ankles. Leather dress shoes shined to a glossy sheen enveloped his feet. His laces were tied tight and neatly into bows.
"Thanks Issac. You're a great bouncer." Ed's expression was one of shock, that with a sigh, transitioned into relief.
"Just doing my job," Issace said. Alright Larry let's get going." Issac began to tug on Larry's arm.
"No!" Larry yanked his arm to his side to release himself of Issac's grip. As his right arm flew back, Larry's torso rotated around carrying with it a clenched left fist. Before Larry's fist could leave the vicinity of his body, Issac struck Larry's stool with a palm to the back and a sole to the leg. This sent the stool, along with Larry, sliding across the lounge. Eventually catching traction, friction took over and caused him to tip. A yellow blur, like a bolt of lightning sprung from a booth and skipped over to the falling Larry. Before Larry's butt could touch the ground, a man in a yellow suit caught him by the pits.
This individual was quite the attraction. Combed back blonde hair, glowing yellow eyes, a thin nose and an electrifying smile shaped the man's face. He bore a white dress shirt along with a pure red tie that was neatly tied and drooped to hi belly button. The tie was a less traditional one as its end was cut a flat square as opposed to the typical triangle. On his feet, he donned red dress shoes that matched his tie. Atop all this, the man carried a canary yellow suit jacket along with straight yellow slacks. His figure was long and slim. Even hunched over, holding up the still intoxicated Larry, the man rose to over five and a half feet, making him approximately six feet tall when standing straight up.
The man in the yellow suit whispered something into Larry's ear. Larry's head nodded up and down as if providing an answer to the man's whispered words. "Was that really necessary friend?" The man in the yellow suit spoke kindly at Issac through his smile.
"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction," Issac replied. He folded his arms across his chest.
"Correct Einstein…"
"Newton."
"Whatever." The man in the yellow suit scoffed. "Did this man's drunken act deserve such a powerful response?"
"Would you have done any different?"
"Maybe." The man in yellow pulled Larry up to his feet slowly. "I think you could've been a little bit nicer about that whole deal. If, you hadn't used that power of yours."
Issac's eyes popped open. "He saw that?" Issac thought to himself. The man in the yellow suit put his hands in his pockets and walked over to Issac, all the while looking at the floor. He abruptly stopped next to Issac, their shoulders side by side. Whispering so that only Issac could hear, he said, "Yes I did."
Issac couldn't help but take a sharp inhale. He cranked his head around to stare at the man in the yellow suit. Plastered upon the man's face was a wide grin. His eyes seemed glued to the floor. "If your curious, come outside." The man leisurely walked away and out the door which hissed from the pneumatic as it closed. Issac stood in a still shock. The man in the yellow suit radiated a confidence and power that peaked his interest. But that was the most minor of things. The man could read his mind and see his power. Curious wasn't the right word to describe Issac. Thouroughly intrigued was more like it.
In a rush to find out more about the man in the yellow suit, Issac hurriedly grabbed Larry. "I'll be right back Ed." He pushed open the door with a shoulder charge and flung Larry out onto the sidewalk. In the black of night, under a street lamp, stood the man in the yellow suit. He took a drag of a cigarette before throwing it down and snuffing it out with his toe. "That ability of yours, Issac. What is it?"
Issac scratched his head and let an awkward laugh leave his lips, "Well, sir. If I had to put it simply in one word, I'd have to say gravity."
"Ah, interesting. But I thought gravity was always an attractive force. You seemed to push back that guy and the stool."
"Well it's a bit more complicated than that. Gravity is always an attractive force. My ability specifically is the manipulation of the fabric of space and time. The manipulation you so keenly saw was a little trick I learned bouncing for the lounge. Gravity does well to attract matter but when you have a two hundred pound drunken muscle man running at you. You don't really want to attract him. So, I thought. Hey! Let me just put a strong force of gravity behind him so that the drunk muscle head doesn't pummel my face in. The technique was a spur of the moment thing that I've used ever since. Its basically opening a black hole in the space time fabric for a quick second. Well much, much shorter than that but you get my drift."
"Seems like you have you powers down to a science."
"Yeah, I always liked physics."
The man in the yellow suit tugged on his jacket a bit as if preparing for something. "Well, I'd love sit here and chat about the little details of how you use your ability. But I don't think this the best place for that. So how bout we find a more fitting and private venue." The man in yellow began to smile. Sparks started to appear around his entire body. The sparks elongated into small arcs like those seen when one shocks oneself on a doorknob. The arcs of electricity grew in intensity and number and they all seemed to arch around chaotically. Clustering together, the small arcs amassed into thick bolts of lightning that arched around the man. "I presume that you can use your power to achieve some sort of transportation, preferably flight."
Issac looked on in awe, "Uh, yeah sure. I can try that."
The man in yellow chuckled. The erratic lightning bolts surrounding him quickly arranged into a pattern. They formed an electrical cloak, where the bolts traveled from his front to his rear. Almost immediately, the man shot up into the sky like a strike of lightning. A massive curve had him travel horizontally. His image resembled a spear. Only that this spear was of lightning and had a human.
Issac let out a sigh. "How the hell, am I gonna fly without using… wait. That should work and be fun." Issac shook his arms and jumped around a bit while exhaling strongly. He crouched down allowing one of his hands to touch the cement. The sidewalk seemed to bulge up before a loud ohhmm sound shot into the air. Issac had jumped into the sky leaving a trail of distorted space. It was like looking past the top of a heater. The hot air distorted the view behind it by refracting the light. The difference here was that the thing distorting the perception of objects behind it wasn't hot air. It seemed almost like an emptiness had passed through, sucking up matter and leaving a void for the surrounding material to fill. It was like a vaccum had flown through.
Issac wasn't exactly flying through the air, but was doing something pretty close to it. Slowed down a thousand times, one could see his limbs waving about in circles as any human would when traveling through the air for extended periods of time. His method of flight seemed to be like a slingshot mixed with a trampoline. He carried arched leaps through the sky as if bouncing from trampoline to trampoline. He accelerated at each low point and shot up into an arc like a slingshot. The air resistance slowed him down and the earth's gravity tugged at him creating decelerating arched leaps. But some use of his power allowed him to bounce and slingshot again. With each slingshot effect, Issac's torso bulged forward while his limbs flailed behind. It was like a string was attached to the center of his torso and some imaginary hand was pulling on it.
Issac zoomed past the spear of lightning, his limbs flailing all the while. The man in yellow couldn't help but chuckle as he picked up the pace. Having never done this before, Issac had a hard time controlling his speed let alone limbs. The bolt shot past Issac leaving in its wake air that crackled with electricity. The lightning spear curved down into a park. Issac thought to himself, "Now how the hell am I supposed to get down." Issac allowed the earth to take over. He fell towards the park. Nearing the height of the tree tops, he used the same power again to tug on him slightly in the opposite direction, jerking him up and slowing his fall. A few more tugs on his imaginary string flipped him onto his back. With a thud and a groan, Issac landed in the park. His butt took the impact. The man in the yellow suit descended with the utmost elegance. It was clear he had done this many times before. The cloak of lightning dissipated into the air, which crackled lightly. His feet touched the ground one at a time and his descent was near silent despite the thunder that followed. The man couldn't help but laugh a little as Issac groaned. Issac slowly rose to his feet, rubbing his butt all the while. "So how'd you manage to fly? I thought gravity was always attractive."
"Well… Hold on let me catch my breath." Issac let his hands rest at his knees as he tried to slow his breath. "I used a similar technique to the one in the bar, but with a bit more force. I told you that my actual power is the ability to manipulate the space time fabric. Being able to use gravity is only one of the effects I've discovered. Basically what I did was push down on the fabric a bit. But then again I'm saying all this presuming you know the history and details."
"Oh please. Enlighten me."
Issac sighed. "Well this guy, Sir Issac Newton, was quite the curious cat and tried all his life to understand everything. In all his experimentation, he tried to understand the orbits of planets and why they were the way they were. In doing so, he came up with a few laws, three to be exact, of motion. Then comes the old tale of the apple on the head and boom. The law of universal gravitation just pops into the guy's head. His law is as follows, 'A point mass attracts another point mass by a force which is proportional to the product of the two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.' Having discovered and understood to some extent gravity, Newton had it pretty good but it would take a few more years, a few more centuries actually, till anyone made another try at understanding gravity. All of the world was happy with the great Newton's law of gravity except for one little German guy. Albert Einsetin set out understand the universe. In so doing, he came up with theories in understanding a bunch of stuff like light and electromagnetism. But in his general theory of relativity, Einstein threw away Newton's idea of gravity as a force acting between two objects and instead thought of it as curves in a space time fabric where the mass of an object warps the space around it into a curve. Anything around that object then is influenced by the warp in space time and is inclined to fall towards it. It's like putting a bowling ball on a bed with sheets. The weight of the bowling ball makes a dip in the bed. If you put a marble on the bed, in close enough proximity of the bowling ball. It will roll towards the bowling ball. This is what Einstein understood to be gravity and how I manage to have control over it. You following me jack?"
"Why of course. Simple enough concepts." The man in the yellow suit was picking his ear and looking up into the night sky. "Continue."
"Well, now knowing all that. You can understand to some extent how I flew. And how a piece of my shirt went missing." Issac looked at the hole in dismay while trying to pull it together. "Ok well, the bar technique is the pulling of an object by something behind it. Something with enough of a warp of the space time fabric can cause a man to fly backwards. That something though would have to be pretty massive, planetary maybe. Bu the same pull can be achieved by black hole. Actually a much greater pull is achieved by a black hole but it requires no actual mass, just an infinitely deep trench in the space time fabric. But opening one of those in a Brooklyn bar would suck up the earth and end mankind so that's a no no. Instead, I press down a bit on the space time fabric enough to form a mini black hole and only let it last for a fraction of a the smallest time frame I can think of. This pulls into it whatever's in front of it and around it. But because it did so for only so long, nothing gets out of hand. To fly I just put on in front of my chest and off I went. Now I could only let it last for so long, so I was bouncing all over the place like a jack rabbit and it seems that I gave it a little too much warp. Hence my missing piece of shirt. I liked this shirt too."
The man in the yellow suit was smoking another cigarette before he said, "You done rambling yet Newton?"
"My name's Issac Grave not Isaac Newton."
"Kinda ironic how your first names are the same."
"No, I spell mine differently. But anyway, what about you lightning boy?"
The man in yellow chuckled as he put out his cigarette. He snuffed it out in the dirt below. "Lightning Boy. That's a new one. Well first off my name is Malec, Malec Wattson in case you need a last name. I wasn't planning on meeting another gifted but the more the merrier. I guess I should give you a quick summary of my powers. I control electromagnetism. I do it by manipulating the location and paths of electrons. Quick history on my force. Electromagnetism was discovered by a Doctor William Gilbert. He wanted to understand the compass as a tool that is influenced by the big magnet, the earth. In turn he did a substantial amount in understanding electricity and magnetism. Then a Benjamin Franklin, the not so happy looking man on the hundred dollar bill, deduced lightning to be a form of electricity and classified that there be a positive and negative charge. He came about the principle of conservation of charge which is similar to the conservation of matter. Another crap load of names later and you have electromagnetism as we understand it today. I won't dive into too much detail on people like Ohm, Edison and Volta so as not to bore you but you get the drift. The basic conclusion from all these peoples lifelong research, as far as I know, is that electrons in atoms are negatively charged and are attracted by their positively charged, proton counterparts. This is because like charges repel each other while opposite charges attract. Now with this concept known you can grasp my electromagnetic flight."
"Uh huh."
"I call it Lightning Shroud. First I dispel some electrons from my body into the air around me. This creates the sparks and leaves my body positively charged. With my body positively charged and the air negatively charged they attract magnetically. But because the electrons are in chaos, I go nowhere. Commanding the electrons in front of me into a large negative charge then causes me to follow it. If I also command the electron in the air behind me to move into the larger charge in front, I can quadruple my speed. This is because not only did the negative charge get bigger but the positively charged air behind me is pushing me away because I'm also positive. Got the concept, Marco?"
"Issac!"
"Whatever…"
"And yes I did. But uh. What do u want with me and why did we have to go to this park?"
"Well I needed to see how well you could control it and if you were worthy."
"Wait, worthy of what exactly?"
"Beneath the feet of mankind lies a secret fraternity of the gifted. Individuals who God, if you believe in him, has blessed and cursed with special power. Although, the federation doesn't look so lightly at new members, we also can't have powers roaming out on the streets. So would you like to join?"
"Well, uh, I mean, I like my life as a bouncer. What happens if I refuse?"
"I kill you."
Issac let out a quick sigh, "Hm. Well how bout no one loses their life and we forget I thought about saying no." His voice was quick and a little higher than usual. He was obviously nervous.
Bibliography
Wikipedia: Gravitational Constant; .org/wiki/Gravitational_constant
Wikipedia: Small William Gilbert Bio; .org/wiki/William_Gilbert
Wikipedia: Sir Isaac Newton Bio; .org/wiki/Isaac_Newton
Wikipedia: Albert Einstein Bio; .org/wiki/Albert_Einstein
Wikipedia: General Relativity; .org/wiki/General_theory_of_relativity
Wikipedia: Electron; .org/wiki/Electron
Wikipedia: Light; .org/wiki/Light
Wikipedia: Electromagnetism; .org/wiki/Electromagnetism
Wikipedia: Electricity; .org/wiki/Electricity
: Brian Greene on String Theory; ./talks/brian_greene_on_string_