“Finally!” Finley exclaimed. He just stood there staring awe struck tracing the intricately carved lines surrounding the sphere in his hands with his eyes. He had been working, saving every dime, and eating nothing but rice and beans to be able to afford what he was holding in his hands at this very moment. A GST, Grey Skies Technologies, ‘Power Core’. They had been developing it for as long as he could remember, but it was always said to be just ten years away. Ten years would go by, set backs would happen, and then another supposed new break through would lead to an announcement of “just another ten years and we got it this time.” Rinse and repeat. Finally one bright and glorious day they made an announcement that shook the world. The Power Core was ready for mass production.
“Is that what I think it is?” Charlie said blankly staring at Finley as he just stood there… silent. “We’re closing the shop early today Charlie. I gotta get this thing plugged in to my home grid. I am DONE with those rolling black outs.” Finley replied, not actually answering his question. “Lock up when you’re done. I’m going to take the rest of the phones with me. They should be fine, just need their charging ports cleaned and I can knock that out at home. I’ll see you tomorrow man.” The last words said with a releived sigh. “No problem at all! You get that thing home!” Charlie said realizing what Finley was so excited about. “Let me know how it goes though. I heard theres a lot of weird requirements and restrictions that literally no one has been able to get around. Send me a text in the morning if you need me to come pick your ass up because you couldn’t charge your bike!” He said pushing Finley out the door. Finley grabbed his battery powered bike and headed home thinking about his new prize.
The Power Core somehow created energy, usable energy, from nothing. Although they’ve remained silent on how the devices actually work, the company’s claims during development were often the subject of ridicule to the point that many people took to simply calling them Ten Years Away Technologies. In the end though, it finally worked. Now bear in mind its not a limitless energy technology. That is still something for the realm of science fiction. For reasons they wouldn’t, or couldn’t, explain a Power Core could only supply about enough to power a small home; around 20 kWh, kilowatt-hours, per day. There were also a fair amount of idiosyncrasies involved with the device.
First of all you couldn’t have a Power Core within approximately 185 meters, nearly 2000 feet, of another. Once activated they seemed to repel each other similar to like poled magnets, but refusing to even enter the space of one another, and if you try to turn one on within the range of another it simply refuses to activate. If that wasn’t strange enough, if one Power Core is within 370 meters of another Power Core, both devices have their maximum power output halved. Furthermore, you cannot connect Power Cores to any common lines. If more than one Power Core is tied into the same grid, the entire thing goes down and all Power Cores deactivate. These issues led many to believe the power source must be tied to electromagnetism. GST did nothing to tamp down these rumors.
Riding up to his home Finley could see the power was already out. “Come on, another blackout? This one wasn’t even announced! I better not have lost groceries this time…” Finley thought to himself as he pulled into the garage. “At least I won’t have to rely on these damn public grids anymore. Hell I can probably even sell my solar capacity to them if I don’t need it anymore with this thing plugged in.” Findley continued musing as he made his way to his workbench grabbing all the adapters and tools he needed filling his pockets and hoodie with gear as he went.
Sitting down he was still amazed at just how complex the Power Core looked from the outside, he could only imagine what it must look like on the inside. The entire thing was a work of art and the only thing he could really think of when looking at it was how the exterior was nothing but lines of what looked like a combination of runes and circuitry, with the exception of a small area that had one single power outlet. As he disconnected the power from the public grid and prepared the transfer switch he couldn’t help but feel a static energy in the air.
He hadn’t even plugged the device in yet and it seemed to already be thrumming with power almost as if it could sense his motive. “Is this thing dangerous?” Finley wondered as he felt the raised hair on his arm. “Lets get this done.” He said under his breathe, plugging in the Power Core as he yelled a more powerful “Let there be light!” The transfer switch instantly began running power into his home grid, filling his array of batteries, restoring power to his precious refrigerator, and lighting a single light bulb he forgot to turn off in his bedroom.
“Well that was a bit anti-climatic…” a voice came from behind Finley. “Yea, I know I thought…” Finley began responding before spinning around on his chair and jumping up to see no one. “Who’s there? Who said that?” Finley shouted. The garage was decently lit by the evening light coming in the garage door windows so it wasn’t too dark, he should have been able to see anyone in the room. “Let’s just say I’m a friend of a friend” the voice said again, once again seemingly behind Finley. Finley spun around once more to see nothing but his workbench, the Power Core, and the wiring for the transfer switch. “You know Charlie? And where are you?!” Finley continued shouting as he looked for speakers or anything devices that may be transmitting the voice.
“No I don’t know Charlie. Who’s Charlie? Why would I know Charlie?” the voice inquired, once again behind Finley. “You said you were a friend of a friend and Charlie’s my only friend! Who the hell are you then? And why are you always behind me?!” Finley continued shouting at the apparently empty garage. “Wow, your only friend? That’s quite sad. I guess it could be worse, you could have no friends.” The unknown voice said, seemingly ignorant to the annoyance, fear, and anger building in Finley.
“I guess you could say that I’m a new friend then. So you don’t get too confused with having a new friend how about you just call me Charlie II.” The voice now identifying as Charlie II said. Finley started calming down realizing he didn’t seem in any immediate danger, and whoever was talking to him seemed to be doing so through a hidden speaker somewhere likely just trying to mess with him. “Whoever you are, I am NOT calling you Charlie II, and you didn’t answer me. Where are you, and what do you want?” Finley said exasperated.
The voice formerly known as Charlie II sounded a bit more irritated in his answer “Listen, I’m trying to be as cordial as I can be, if you don’t like the name Charlie, maybe you should take that up with Charlie I. In the mean time I guess just call me Chuck. I’m not here by choice, I don’t even really know where I am. All I know is where I was before. Walking through my village heading to the temple to give my monthly devotionals and then boom, I’m here listening to you shout about making light and I’m pretty sure I’m not even supposed to be here.” Chuck said, ever present behind Finley.
“Again, you didn’t really answer my question. Where are you? You keep sounding like you’re coming from behind me, but there’s nothing there. And what do you want?” Finley said finally calming. “I am inside the Power Core. No, that’s not quite right. I’m part of the Power Core? Honestly I can’t quite say. As far as what I want, that’s pretty simple. I just want you to press button when you see it.” Chuck answered.
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A small button appeared on the surface of the Power Core, standing stark contrast to the smooth curved lines across the sphere, it was a plain square blocky button that seemingly appeared out of no where. Finley took a step back as he noticed the button, that was very obviously not there just a moment ago. “I know that wasn’t there. How did you do that? I can’t even tell that the button wasn’t there before, the design of the curves look like they just shifted to the side…” Finley trailed off. “I told you, I am a part of the Power Core. I can make changes.” Chuck said.
Finley sat back down staring at the sphere and speaking in a much calmer tone “I’m assuming that you’re either an AI with a poor attempt at programmed in humor or a hacker with equally bad humor. Either way, why should I do anything you say and push that button? From what I’ve heard no one can change Power Core settings, so how exactly can you?” As Finley asked that last question he began slowly moving his hand over to the transfer switch to begin disconnecting the Power Core from his grid. “Okay, I’ve explained this multiple times already. I am part of the Power Core. I know the whole friend business at the beginning seemed to confuse you but I’m hoping you’re not normally this dull witted. Also, I can see your hand heading to disconnect the…” Chuck was cut off by Finley disconnecting the Power Core from his home grid with a quick “HA!” “You know I was the one providing that power to your refrigerator right? That bacon isn’t going to survive without me. And what was that HA for? Your grid wasn’t providing me power, I was providing it power!” Chuck said mockingly.
Finley stared at the Power Core in his hands and looked up to see the status of his grid, with virtually no power as the batteries didn’t have any real time to charge. “Damn it.” Finley said under his breathe. “Wait how did you know about my bacon? How did you know about my refrigerator?!” Finley said once again becoming concerned. “I was plugged into your home grid, I could sense anything I supplied power to, what it was doing, and what it contained; hence, I know your bacon has about 15 minutes before it drops below a safe temperature. Sadly its too late for your milk. It was stored on a high shelf sadly and has already experienced higher temperatures.” Chuck expressed in a somber tone following up with an even more somber “Listen, I need you to be a friend and push that button.”
Finley slowly began plugging the Power Core back in, watching for any changes, and thinking “At the very least maybe I can save my bacon…” Once power was restored he asked “If you want me to press the button you have to at least tell me what it does.” Finley felt proud of himself for asking because all he heard in his head was Charlie I saying “Stop pushing random buttons! You don’t even know what you’re doing!” albeit that was when they were playing Street Fighter and Finley was straight up kicking Charlie I’s ass. He suddenly realized how crazy he was going “Did I just think of Charlie as Charlie I?”
“All I know for sure is that it will increase the power output. I’m hoping that will open up a path for me to get back home and get back to my… devotionals.” Chuck said that last part with a bit of mirth. Finley realizing that he may benefit from this as well if Chuck is indeed able to increase the power output said “Okay, so I push the button, you increase the power, and I never hear from your again. Sounds like a Win-win.” Finley went to push the button and still heard Charlie’s voice in his head “You don’t know what you’re doing!”. “Ugh, lets get this over” Finley thought as he pushed the button.
Instantly, instead of the voice of Chuck he heard a somewhat familiar monotone computerized female voice speaking “Hello, this is Sherry from Dealer Services. We’ve been trying to reach you about your vehicles extended warranty.” “W-T-F” Finley exclaimed as the voice was drowned out by Chuck’s laughter. “Okay Okay. Sorry. Really though push the button again, it’s for real this time, I just had to do that.” Chuck said still chuckling as he spoke. Finley slammed his finger into the button for much more force this time while saying “Screw you man”. Chuck let out a mental sigh as Finley’s finger made contact with the button once more and simply said “I am not a man, but thank you friend.” as Finley’s reality seemed to spin into a kaleidoscope of visual, auditory, and physical sensations.
Finley tried opening his eyes, but even open he seen nothing. All he heard was constant ringing in his ears and muffled noises of what sounded like someone yelling. “Is this what a concussion feels like?” “Did the damn thing explode?” He thought as he slowly started trying to feel around him. He started to pat his legs, his face, his arms, and legs again. As he reassured himself that he was in fact not in a thousand pieces, he began to see colors and shapes. He turned his head slowly as he also noticed the ringing was dying down and he was beginning to hear what the muffled sounds were.
“CAN YOU HEAR ME. I AM STILL IN THIS DAMN BALL. I THINK I BLEW A FUSE IN YOUR GRID THINGY.” Chuck shouted repeatedly, switching up different things that he likely broke each time he yelled. Finley finally hearing the shouting quietly said “Shut up, I can hear you. What the hell happened. That didn’t seem like just an increase in power, and you are still here.” In reply Chuck started chuckling again “Well, it was an increase in power. Much more than I expected, but apparently still not enough for my needs. And as for where we are…although we are here, we are most definitely not there anymore. What do you see? Can you see anything?”
Finley tried to absorb what Chuck was telling him and his vision slowly began to take shape as he spoke “What do you mean although we are here we are most definitely not there anymore? Where is here? Where was there? I can feel I’m still in my seat, at my bench and I can see…what is this?!”
Achievement Badge Earned!
Congratulations! Through actions, deeds, or unusual circumstance you have earned an achievement badge!
You are the sole member of your race in this world. As such you have earned a badge!
Badge Name: I Am The One and Only
Rarity: Uncommon
Note: There are currently less than 25,000 others in this world with this badge, therefore it is an uncommon badge. How one receives a badge varies greatly as the circumstances that led to you being the only member of your race would be vastly different from another; therefore, the perks obtained may vary as well. Your perks for this badge are as follows:
Perk 1: Understanding Ear. Due to being the sole member of your race in this world as well as not originating from this universe you have been given this perk. You will be able to be understood for your true meaning regardless of how you speak to anyone you choose to speak to and you will always understand the true meaning of any beings choosing to speak to you.
Perk 2: Race Type - Beast. Due to your race never having been present in the universe before it is of an unknown type. Race types determine statistics gained when leveling as well as creating instinctual relationships with other beings. Upon inspection of your being as you entered the universe it was decided you most closely resemble a child of the Silvers beast race.
Perk 3: Skill Tree - Unknown. Your potential in this universe is unknown due to the special circumstances which have landed you here. Although you are currently constrained by the Beast race type, you and your true nature are complete unknowns; therefore, all skills and abilities are open to you to create your own path. Beware! A path once traveled is not easily changed.
Warning: This is a conditional badge. While you currently meet the requirements for this badge you may lose it, as well perks associated with it if you are no longer satisfy the conditions of this badge.
Chuck spoke very softly and in a calm tone as he said “That my friend is a prompt. The first of many. Welcome to the world of Loetz, my home.”