There floating buck-naked in the vacuum of space: a young man with no limits.
After a while of imagining the smiling faces of Elaine and Misty through the atoms, Steven wiped away his tears, baring his teeth; looking resolved.
'My sister or not, you're a monster. The worst. And it's my job as a hero to... You've killed too many people, so I have to-'
Steven almost cried again. He was in turmoil, but he also recalled his mother's words of encouragement, and him having absolutely no limits.
Nonetheless, Misty and Elaine were family. He loved them. So the thought of fighting, much less bringing one of them to justice, hurt regardless.
'It hurts. Like a motherfucker. Even so, whatever happens, I'll stop you and make you pay. And if you don't already, I'll beat remorse into you; force you to regret all of it.'
All semblance of sorrow and pain was washed away; and as Steven's gaze became intense, he felt as if a weight was lifted off his shoulders.
'I'll do it without fail. And I'll let you know just how meaningless "that" word really is.'
Steven brushed aside thoughts of his sisters and began calmly appraising the atoms.
'Now, one thing at a time. Pace myself. First thing's first: figure out how to warp atoms in order to teleport back to Earth.'
Shutting his eyes, Steven sat cross-legged in the vacuum, meditating; attempting to recall the words of the first-ever documented wielder of atomic warping.
'Elias Von Jerta... what did you say again, man?'
Lightly, he shook his head, unfurling his eyes.
'No. Just remembering all he said won't be enough to get me back.'
He got out of the cross-legged position, standing on nothingness with clenched fists.
'I'll figure this shit out and get back in a flash.'
He reached out--without fear--and touched one of the atoms with his forefinger. The atom split right down the middle - seamlessly.
'Huh... Wait, I can see things inside. Effects? Fire and white lightning. Let me see something.'
Using his index finger, Steven swiped horizontally between the atoms, feeling something build in his chest. He grinned.
'Let's fucking go, this is it! I'm close to something! I can feel it!'
He grasped the bisected atoms in the palm of his hand, envisioning Earth, his house, and his room. Afterward, that familiar feeling of activating one of his abilities flowed through him.
Steven focused on that feeling, and was immediately bombarded with flashing images of what reaction would come forth.
'J-Just after I've already done it?!'
He frantically activated Elaine's fox ability--gaining fox eyes--in the blink of an eye.
An explosion with the force and composition of a true nuclear bomb: wracked every facet of Steven's naked body.
'Shit!!!'
The blast catapulted him far back, forcing him to do multiple rudimentary backflips before grounding to a halt.
'Fu-Fucking... motherfucker.'
Tensing every agonized muscle, Steven let out a silent groan, angling himself upright.
He looked about his form, seeing that there were faint burn marks on his skin, but he was otherwise fine.
'Well, that was horrifying. Good thing I thought fast and used Elaine's ability to make myself more durable. Damn good call. Phasing wouldn't have helped at all.'
Glaring at the atoms before him, he reached out and touched one. It split right down the middle.
'What the fuck am I even doing? I don't have to touch them. Terrifier didn't reach out and physically interact with atoms to use an ability.'
He put his arm down to his side, intense gaze on the bisected atoms.
'I can see the reaction that would happen before it happened if I just figured out how. That feeling...'
With will alone, Steven cocooned the atoms, acquiring the fluttery feeling of activating an ability. Then he just stopped, holding it; not making an effort to inflate or diminish it.
'Alright.'
Slowly elevating that feeling and letting it lessen, he stared deep into the atom, seeing it gradually decay.
'Clock's ticking but-'
Then he was bombarded--slower this time--with images - not of preceding reactions, but of matter and antimatter; the foundation of the atoms' nucleus.
'Ionizing radiation...'
Feeling his heartbeat accelerate, he didn't panic. Steven trusted the process, but mostly himself.
'I can't fail and die now. I won't.'
He envisioned white particles about his constitution, then atoms helping him; then his house and room. He dug deep, beholding a vision of himself vanishing.
'This is it. Should be.'
In relaxing, Steven authorized that vision to be his motion.
The bisected atoms decayed completely, and he was standing in Egypt, at the Pyramids of Giza in negative seconds.
"Wh-What the fuck?"
Looking all about the darkened, atom-filled sandy area, Steven knew that things had not gone as planned.
"I know these pyramids... Egypt?"
The man had teleported beyond linear time, technically arriving before he'd left his house in the first place; effectively time-traveling.
Not the strangest thing that could've transpired. Not even the worst. Far from it.
As Steven wasn't truly familiar with chemistry and atoms, when he had tried teleporting, he could've done so into a black hole or a star.
However, due to his extravagant will to return--though mostly because he was lucky--his destination had been somewhere on Earth.
"The Pyramids of Giza: Last time I was here 'cause of that shitty school trip. A long way from New York, but I should've gotten faster after fucking Misty and Elaine."
He smiled.
"Now to figure out just how fast."
Gradually, Steven drifted upward - some two hundred meters to take in the nightly sight of the Pyramids of Giza. His vision was still filled with atoms, which only made him frown.
"Can I turn this shit off?"
Steven narrowed his eyes, focusing on doing so. He was met with success, and so he grinned.
"Awesome. And look how quickly I got up here. I'm clearly a lot faster. Part of it's definitely 'cause I'm keeping Elaine's Fox Drive active."
Smirking, he balled his hands into fists and shot them ahead to fly onward; breaking the sound barrier and leaving the country in moments; passing through Libya, Algeria, and Morocco to go above the North Atlantic Ocean. It had been done in two seconds.
'Huh?!?!'
Steven halted over the ocean, half-excited, half-fearful. He was too enthusiastic to notice that his burn marks were now gone.
"H-Holy shit, man, I'm faster than sound now! That's a... damn huge leap from being able to barely outrun a champion racehorse. Wonder how much faster than sound I am. Wonder if it's only because of Fox Drive."
He deactivated it, and his fox eyes disappeared.
"Guess I'll find out."
Coolly, he stretched forward his clenched hands and zoomed off, not breaking the sound barrier this time, but having the ocean beneath pass by in blurs.
His speed was approximately four hundred and six miles per hour.
He stopped again, beaming.
"Alright. Not faster than sound without Fox Drive, but definitely a lot faster than before."
Recalling his home and sisters, he frowned.
