2:00 AM
Zane, in a white vest and boxers, tosses and turns on his bed, fighting for space against his mess of clothes and laptop, neatly scattered, 9 that they completely take up half the bed space. The ever-consistent mosquito bites don't help matters.
He unceremoniously rolls out of bed and walks to a yellow switch on the wall.
"For the record, you drew first blood."
He says to himself as he presses the switch, it emits a bright yellow light, causing all the mosquitoes in the room to explode, leaving large amounts of blood splattered on the walls, the floor and even some clothes on the bed, including one of his white uniform shirts.
"Ugh..." He groans, picking up the shirt with the fresh red stain on the collar, "Even in death, you torture me." He says to himself, then takes it to the bathroom and searches 9i for something.
He leaves the bathroom and goes down the stairs to the living room, the lights are still on and Zane shakes his head as he sees a much older person in a blue shirt and tie over cream colourd khaki trousers resting he head on a table with a lot of sheets of paper that have sketches and reports attached to them, all with a stamp reading "Rejected".
Zane taps him from behind, and his body jerks awake.
"Huh? Wha?" He mumbles, looking around until he sees Zane.
"Hey, bro..Sorry, I got home late last night, um.."
He takes the paper he was lying on top of, squeezes it into a ball and tosses it without looking into the bin on the other side of the room.
"I was gonna prepare sooner, but I decided to rest my eyes..."
"For a few minutes?"
He sighs in response.
"Yeah..."
"It's cool, Tim. I was actually just looking for the bleach."
"Oh...yeah, I forgot to return it, I left it under my bed. "
"Thanks..."
He turns around to go back upstairs but stops to look back, seeing Tim with his hands on his lap, staring into dead space.
"Hey, for what it's worth, all your projects are flawless, from the prototype security systems that take too long to activate. You deserve to be well known, especially for your work on the hover trains."
"Thanks, bro, bro. It's my fault for not patenting it. Sometimes that's just how the world works, not everything goes how we want."
"Are you packed and ready for your trip tomorrow? I can help."
"Eh...no, not after last time."
He turns around with a smile on his face.
"It was one mistake."
"I know and you meant well, just...get back to bed, your future is still ahead of you."
"Good night, bro."
As the sun rises, Zane comes downstairs, meeting the living room with two couches and a table. In the centre, tidy, but there's a blue jacket with a wallet on top.
He looks at the time:
8:15 AM
" The train leaves at 8:30." He picks up the jacket and wallet, and as he's about to step out, he has an idea, he runs upstairs to a room with the drawers pulled out and empty. He goes to a box labelled "do not touch".
He opens it and a grey snowboard with blue disks on the far ends, both on top and under it, that glow when he presses a button.
He pulls on a pair of joggers and a T shirt then runs out of the house with the jacket and board and tosses the board ahead of him; it hovers over the ground, and he jumps on it.
"Let's see, Tim said four taps for speed, four for altitude... No, that's not right."
He places both feet on the discs, his left foot forward, they light up, and he taps his heel on the posterior disc twice, and the discs light up. As they do, the board speeds forward. Zanestruggles to balance as it rushes through the streets with holographic neon signs off food vendor logos with cylindrical silver coloured projectors in front of their respective shops advertising food, airtime, loans, and ports betting.
People take pictures of him and are in awe of the device.
He looks at his phone
8:17 AM
"Can't this thing go any faster?"
He taps his heel against the board up to four times, and as soon as he does, the board beeps twice, and it launches him high up in the air.
He screams as it slowly decelerates as he cuts through the clouds until it stops altogether.
He gasps as he feels his heart racing. He looks down and realises how small everyone looks from that height, even the tall buildings aren't that daunting.
"I can even see Julia's house from here. Wait...that means..."
He looks around until he spots the green holographic train sign.
He stands up and hits his head against something. He looks around, and all he can see is the bright blue sky and birds soaring.
"Focus, Zane."
He snaps back to reality and taps his back hour times, and the board starts to descend rapidly. He snaps his fingers and falls into the green dome, allowing him the time to balance on the board.
"Okay...here...goes...no...th...ing."
He snaps his fingers on his other hand, and he slowly starts to speed up
He snaps his fingers again and taps his foot twice. At the same time, allowing him to move through the dome at a moderate speed until he reaches the end of the edge of the green hemisphere, as soon as he does, the board moves at much higher speeds, the wind blowing past his cheeks, squinting to keep his eyes open.
Hemaneuvress through security guards who try to stop him by jumping over them as the board moves, past hisingers to land properly on it. He gets to the waiting area, but he doesn't see Tim, so he zips to the train that just started moving. As it does, it emits a faint blue light.
He sees Tim seated next to a woman who is closer to the window. She's shocked, and Zane simply waves and points to Tim. The woman, still visibly shocked, taps Tim as he's writing something down. His eyes widen, and he makes a shocked expression. He reaches over and pulls the window down.
"What the hell, Zane?! That thing is still in the testing stage." He screams over the noise of the train.
"You forgot these." He shows Tim the Jacket and wallet.
"I didn't need the wallet! That's where I left the pocket money, and the jacket didn't fit in my suitcase.
"Well, why didn't you leave a note?"
"I did..."
The train goes through a tunnel, and Zane hovers outside the edge and meets up with the window after it exits.
At this point, people are taking pictures of Zane and leaning on their windows to get a good look at him.
"The truth is...Tim, I'm gonna miss you. It's the first time since I met you that you'll be gine this kong."
"It's only gonna be a few weeks, thank you for coming. I really appreciate you. Go home and take care of yourself.
He makes a fist and leans towards the window. Zane makes a fist as well and connects them.
The train zooms off as Zane hovers around until he starts going home, still with his fist clenched.
The board starts sparking and it speeds towards a wall, he attempts to snap his fingers but he panics and jumps off the board as it speeds into the wall. One of the discs breaks off, and it starts making a whirring noise.
He switches it off and picks it up.
"I really messed up."
Just then, someone in a prison uniform runs at high speed, almost tackling Zane.
Just as they make contact, Zane immediately sees a vision.
He sees himself, smaller, younger, wearing a blue shirt and shorts with a steel collar with a blue ring on the front, sitting in the back of a car, a a young girl, blonde of a similar a,ge, in a yellow shirt and blue trous, ers, also wearinshirt, g a shirt, sitting, next to him, shaking.
"Don't worry, I'm gonna get you guys outa of here..."
A much older but unrecognisable male voice was coming from the driver.
The car slows down, and someone approaches the car.
"Get down!"
He says as he pulls a blanket over them.
He comes to, and he sees that it was a woman, blonde like his vision.
He snaps his fingers, and oh, she suddenly appears seated in a coffee shop with a jacket over her. Zane sits across from her.
"I have a few questions for you."
He says to her.
Elsewhere,
A group of people in parkas and winter goggles with a snowflake logo on the shoulder of their outfits move the frozen bodies with trolleys into a white room.
They exit and the white walls of the room turn red, the ice slowly starts melting, and their fingers flicker and eyes move rapidly.
It reveals four bald male bodies and a female one, all caucasian. With a blue glowing, ring-shaped indentation at the back of their necks.
A purple portal appears and Pryce and the man in the sweatervest emerge.
"Well, hello there, subhuman filth!" Pryce announces
The white lines along the black glove he's wearing turn yellow, and he snaps his fingers, causing one of the male bodies to combust instantaneously.
Pryce winces, feeling a sharp pain in his left arm as the AI in the glove says.
" WARNING, NEED TO RECHARGE. EXCESSIVE DNA SAMPLE INFUSIONS DETECTED!"
"Damn machine, I'll tell you when I'm at my limit."
The creature writhes and screams as the others just stand there, dull, drooling and staring into space.
"Eduardo, go sort out the controls."
"Yes, sir." He runs towards the door, and when he does, he sees the men parkas armed with rifles aimed at him.
He puts his hands up, and his veins glow a derp blue, and the lights go out. There's the sound of shots being fired, and when the lights come back, all the other men in the room are riddled with bullets.
One of them, however, speaks into a microphone attached to a small box :
"Co...ode red, kill..the...m"
He dies from his wounds, but the blue rings on the creatures turn red, and they aim their focus on Pryce.
"Ed, you had the one task."
The blue-eyed humanoid creatures start to growl, their fingers become so long they touch the floor, their jaws split in the middle, allowing another set of sharp teeth to replace them.
Eduardo takes one of the men's guns and fires the female one in the head, It still stands, its head turns 180 degrees and starts rushing towards him, exhaling ice as it does.
The others speed towards Pryce, who grins as they approach. He throws forward a small silver cube, and as it touches one of the creatures, it emits a strong force that forces it to the ground.
The force is strong, it flattens most of the creature's body.
Pryce runs in the opposite direction as one chases him, just as the other creature chases Eduardo down.
"RECHARGE COMPLETE!"
The AI says.
Pryce pushes a button and an orange colour fills the gloves' white lines, and he snaps his fingers, an orange electrical discharge flies out of the glove through the head of the creature, tailing him, decapitating it and into the head of the one Eduardo is running from.
"Pseudohumans; they only fall to elemental attacks. .."He pushes a button on the box with a microphone, and they all become inanimate."...they're soldiers that are designed to regenerate and keep fighting no matter what." He looks at the logo of one of the deceased men.
"It looks like Blizzard's Kingdom is behind this. " Eduardo says
"I won't let them harm my project."
Suddenly, a pool of ink appears, and emerging from it is a red-haired woman with a ponytail and glasses. She looks around the bodies and back at Pryce.
"The Incarnation would like a word with you, Professor Pryce."
"Who the hell do you think you are?"
Eduardo asks.
He looks to Pryce,, whose eyes are visibly afraid of something.
She says as she pulls out a grey stone and draws a line down, not to keep them waiting."
She says as the line drawn expands and a wooden door with twelve words on it written from top to bottom appears. The door opens leading to a stairway, and the woman disappears into another pool of ink.
"Um...sir, we're not really going to..."
"...Best not to keep them waiting." He says in a monotonous way as he walks through with Eduardo behind him.