Dragon Fire

"Adi, why do you bother coming here in your current weakened condition? It's not like you could do much, anyway," Tya asked in his juvenile voice as Aditya smoked.

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. So said Sun Tzu in 'Art Of War," Aditya said as he looked at people greeting Anupama.

"So?" Tya asked, and Aditya could imagine Tya's adorable, round eyes blinking in mild confusion.

"I also don't know. I just spouted something so that I can sound learned," Aditya grinned. Indeed, he did not have high expectations from coming here. Nevertheless, it was better than waiting in his room until he got the required processor cores for building his supercomputer. Also, Aditya wanted to know and observe Vandana Sharma and the Raipath family members who would definitely come.

"I don't get you, Adi but the quote was cool," Tya agreed innocently.

"There is another cool sentence. would you like me to throw another one at you," Aditya chuckled as he asked. It had been many days since he spoke with Tya; he almost forgot how relaxing it was.

"Sure"

"Till the enemy's weakness is known, he should be kept on friendly terms," Aditya quoted Chanakya's principles.

"So, you aim to know Raipath family, including its strengths and weaknesses. Until their weakness is revealed, you intend to befriend them using Anupama's connections?" Tya excitedly asked when he heard Aditya.

"Mmm, intelligent. Awesome, Tya," Aditya praised as he shook his head. Even he was not clear what path he should take, as there was a colossal variable which would influence his plans. It was the capabilities and the potential of the Artificial Intelligence created by Tya, which would determine his course of action. Aditya was testing the waters by coming here, but he was prepared for the unexpected. Aditya's hand was itching to test the gadgets at his disposal.

After establishing a group of influential individuals from all over the world, who shared his enmity with the Organisation, Aditya had access to quite a few resources. Eventhough the members of the group were less, each of them had their forte. Some were very rich, some were part of the military and had access to military-grade equipment while some had an extensive information network.

Aditya was the only one who was able to guarantee a secure means of communications between different countries, for the people who schemed against the Organisation. So, his demands, as long as they were not over-the-top, would be met as soon as possible. Otherwise, how could Aditya get the complicated alloys required to build the quantum computer, so quickly? Aditya required helium refrigerators, non-ideal, silicon-based qubits and other processors.

Aditya possessed the technology to manufacture all these things by himself. But, that would require a lot of time as he would have to produce a lot of support systems, which has to be used for metallurgy. That would consume months on pointless things. It was a lot easier if he got the required parts from the most advanced corporations with the highest precision capabilities.

So, thanks to these contacts, Aditya was able to equip Thomas and others with the most hi-tech equipment. But they still had a long way to go before they could fight on the level of special forces. Aditya would very much like to find a shortcut around the norm as he did not plan on training his subordinates for years. But, that would require the 'Gene Regulation' ability, at least.

Aditya had a few theories on preparing human enhancement drugs using his body as a factory, but it remains to be seen if it is feasible. According to Tya, it would take about twenty-five days before he got this ability. Even then, Aditya will not be able to mass-produce these drugs, but his subordinates should be able to benefit. For Rudra to play with his enemies, strong aides were a must. He was a key avatar for Aditya to employ his schemes against the Raipath family and the Organisation.

For one, Rudra was someone that the Raipath family had been searching all over the city. He had revealed Raipath family's plot and knew a lot of sensitive information. Rudra was a thorn in Raipath's foot that needed to be eliminated. Aditya did not mind or fear to grab a member of that family under this guise, in today's party. He was not foolish to assume that the Raipath family members would be unprotected.

Bangalore was the place where Raipath family had eaten many losses, be it Taarini or Rudra. So, Aditya had to make a decision based on what he observed. If the Raipath members were too heavily protected, he would withdraw his people. Everything was on his fingertips. Luckily, Tya had created a lot of hacking protocols, which Aditya wanted to give to his subordinates. These tools have now come in handy for him. If nothing exciting happens, at least he would have attended Anupama's birthday, which was not a bad bargain.

"Adi, can I make a request?" Tya asked in a low, tentative voice.

"Sure."

"We haven't sung any rhymes in a while. Why don't we use this time to sing one? I want to enjoy that time when we used to sing together. It has been a long time since the last," Tya asked timidly.

Aditya almost choked on the cigarette smoke, when he heard this request. He was reminded of those torturous mornings he had to wake up to Tya's rhymes. Aditya thought that the things had become better since Hamsa had taken over his role of Tya's nanny.

Hamsa liked Tya so much. She almost treated him like her child, and Tya happily spent most of his time with her. This development led Aditya to feel that he would not have to sing those kindergarten songs again. But it appeared that it was just his wishful thinking.

"Now?" Aditya asked hoping against hope that Tya would say otherwise. But reality proved him wrong as Tya excitedly nodded, "Yup, please."

Aditya's shoulders drooped as he asked, "Which one?" He looked over to see that his friends had gone to greet Anupama. But as they were a few people who wanted to do the same, they had to wait. Aditya found a chair so that he could sit. It was good that he could sing in the quantum realm, and did not need to embarrass himself by singing aloud. Also, because of the time difference, he could finish this quickly before someone found it odd.

Aditya closed his eyes and appeared in the quantum realm. He found Tya appear before him, and hug him tightly. Aditya also hugged Tya when he saw Tya's adorable face. It had been a lot of days Adiya had a normal conversation with this fellow. Usually, it would be him asking something to be done, and Tya executing it. Aditya felt his heart relax when he held Tya, and a small smile appeared on his face.

The quantum realm remained unchanged with its brilliant colours and myriad shades of fog and spheres. This place continued to fascinate Aditya even after so many months of familiarising. The fact that he could come to this place was still a vast mystery, which was closely tied to Tya's origin.

Tya ecstatically jumped as he took no time to shout, "Old MacDonald Had A Farm, Old MacDonald Had A Farm."

"Okay, okay. Calm down. Here we go."

Old MACDONALD had a farm

E-I-E-I-O

And on his farm, he had a cow

E-I-E-I-O

With a moo-moo here

And a moo moo there

Here a moo, there a moo

Everywhere a moo moo

Old MacDonald had a farm

E-I-E-I-O ...

Aditya closed his eyes as he sang this rhyme along with Tya. He slowly got immersed in it as he envisioned a farm with cows, horses, pigs, lambs and ducks. Aditya got an idea if he should develop the farm that 'Rudra' lived to incorporate these features. Before Aditya could think further, he heard a female voice.

"Why do I feel like I walked in a nursery classroom?" a charming voice chimed in while a euphonious laughing could be heard in the background. The voice belonged to Maahi while the laugh belonged to Hamsa.

"Damn!"

Aditya did not expect that Maahi and Hamsa would be able to come into the Quantum realm just like him. He was not aware of this new development.

Aditya turned around to see two figures who were covered in fog walking towards them. Even though both of them were not visible, just like Aditya and Tya, he could make out Maahi and Hamsa from their physiques and facial features.

Aditya gave birth to an evil thought to see if both of them were naked just like he was when he had first appeared. Later, Aditya had learned to use his 'will' to cover his transparent body in transparent clothes. But the truth disappointed him as Hamsa's figure was dressed in regular clothes and a doctor's coat hung on her shoulder along with a stethoscope. Hamsa should be working or just reaching home.

Maahi, however, caused Aditya's eyes to straighten as she was dressed in a gown which was an off-shoulder piece, it also featured a panel of fabric that the actor slung across her neck like a scarf. The gown's voluminous skirt came with a slightly ruffled hemline, which added movement to the overall look.

Aditya could even see Maahi's rosy pink lips, lush lashes and a hint of blush on her cheeks. Instead of an updo, she left her hair down in soft curls. Aditya could even recognise the chunky gold hoops earrings. The clothes, colours, their movement everything was so lifelike.

If Aditya and Hamsa looked dull and boring, Maahi was as colourful as this quantum world. They were just a pair of ghosts while she looked like an immortal maiden in Heaven. In other words, Aditya and Hamsa was like 1080p video on Youtube, but Maahi was 4k, the detail was astonishing. If not for the transparent skin, Aditya would have thought that this was Maahi's original body.

"How did you do that?" Aditya asked as he was awestruck when he looked at Maahi.

"Everything depends on what you imagine. You two stopped at covering your bodies, but I went a little further. I have also discovered that the body in which you appear is also not an absolute manifestation. It can be manipulated as well, based on your imagination. The fogy body is formed based on the image that you have of yourself in your subconscious mind."

" Adi, a perfect example would be the absence of the injuries of your original body. You can be anyone or anything that you can imagine in this realm," Maahi stated as she started to grow bigger and transform.

Aditya and Hamsa gasped as they retreated to create more distance between them and Maahi. A giant dragon with massive thin-membraned wings and glittering ruby scales appeared before them after a few seconds. The dragon looked down at the other two people with large golden eyes with slit pupils. 'It' raised it's big horned head and shot a massive fireball into the 'sky'.

Aditya and Hamsa saw this transformation with wide-open mouths. Aditya knew that the quantum realm could be transformed based on his and Tya's imagination but did not expect that they, themselves, could also modify their appearances. Aditya had not tried this before as he neither felt the necessity nor had such an idea. Even now, he did not know if this property was useful, but it sure was the coolest thing that he had ever seen. No amount of CGI could imitate this experience for him.

The thing that shocked Aditya the most was that he could feel the scorching heat radiating from the fireball. Aditya felt that if he walked any near, he would be 'burnt'. A concept like heat did not exist in the quantum realm, and could only be vaguely defined in terms of Quantum Statistical Mechanics. This property belongs to Classical Mechanics and is governed by laws of thermodynamics (rate of collision of particles). Aditya's mind shook when he realised this, as it opened a new channel of thought.