Cole has always, as much as he remembered, suffered from headaches. Ever since he was a little kid. And as he grew, so did they.
The doctors didn’t really know what to do, and his parent weren’t really the kind of people to fight or demand of their doctors, so it came to pain-killers and soothing pills.
At high-school, he was a good student. He always loved computers and was probably even being considered a computer-geek. He loved computer science, playing games (RPG games were his favorite) and learning all that has to be learn about them.
One other big hobby he had was martial arts. There was a Karate Dojo in his town, which he was a member of since he was 5 years old. Never stopped training. The teacher in that Dojo was Sensei Eyaru - a 60 years old migrant from Japan, that was really fond of Cole, to the level that Cole treated him as his second father - and Eyaru treated him as a son.
One side-aspect of his karate training, that turned out to be quite surprising - was meditation. He found out, that if he meditated while having an headache will help. The meditating actually lessened the ache, helped him relax and sooth away the pain, even if for a bit. So it became one of his favorite exercises. Sharing this with Sensei Eyaru - he facilitated for him a new routine that he could do while meditating - which was great for both relaxing and as a pain killer. They decided to call it The inner storm dance.
When high-school was over and he had the choice between going to college or joining the army - he decided he want to do some good in the world, and joined the Navy Seals unit.
After 6 years of excellent service with multiple medals earned, he resigned from service, and went to learn Computer Science in one of the biggest colleges.
All this time - the headaches were there in the background. Looking back - the least times they were noticeable were during missions in the unit, specially when they took place in a 3rd-world countries.
At the start of his last semester, his headaches started to get worse. But - stubborn as he was - he won’t let small obstacle deter him from his goals. So he raised the dose of his pain-killers, and graduated his studies with excellence. He made sure to have an appointment to the best doctor he could find around, one week after the graduation ceremony. No need to ruin the celebration.
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“Age?” the doctor asked.
“26” said Cole.
“And you say you’ve always suffered headaches?” asked the doctor.
“Since i remember, but in the last few months, the pain only got bigger, stronger and every time is longer.” answered Cole.
“I see. Do you have some records of what was done so far regarding this?” asked the doctor.
“Last time i did any test regarding my headaches was more than 8 years ago.. I’m not sure that it is has any value now? ” said Cole.
The doctor chuckled a bit. “Fair point. I’d tell you what - i don’t like playing games and doing boring tests. So i want to send you directly to the best test i can send you to. There is a new kind of machine, that does all the pros from both M.R.I and C.T. It’s a bit expensive but-”
“I have a good health insurance, it might be included. And to be honest - you being straightforward is the main reason i chose to come to you. I want to do that test and see what is wrong for good.” said Cole.
“OK then. I’ll write the needed documents. You need to call this number and schedule a test.” said the doctor.
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Inside the taxi, Cole was nervous. At start, they scheduled the test for him to two month from now. Suddenly this afternoon he got a phone call, saying that they have a free slot late tonight, and some how they called him.
“Lucky me…” he thought.
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On the bed, a nurse explained to him the procedure talked to him:
“You have nothing to worry about, this test is really painless. Like M.R.I - it is a bit noisy, so we give you this headset to put on: almost full noise reduction plus we can play any music you like into them. They are quiet cutting-edge tech, to be able to not only reduce noise but also have wireless connectivity inside this machine. Oh, and we can also talk with you via them, though we won’t be able to hear you once the test starts. If anything is wrong, you have an emergency button here that you can press and we will be with you right away.”
Stolen novel; please report.
Cole was impressed with everything, and he told the nurse: “Just some soothing music, so i’ll be able to meditate during the test, if that’s OK.”
“Sure, no problem”. The nurse replied to him.
Once he lied down on the bed, the super-cool headset on his ears, he closed his eyes, as the bed slide into the sphere of the testing machine, the nurse got out of the room and into the control room.
“Is everything OK, Cole?” he heard the voice through the headset.
“Yeah, all’s good.” Cole returned.
“OK then, we start in 3…2…1”.
As the music started playing in his ears, he started to relax, and entered the state he always did when meditating...
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In the control room, the nurse and a technician started the test, looking on the screen at the video feed showing Cole lying on the test bed.
As there was nothing to be done during the test itself, they started talking between themselves.
Suddenly, all the screens and monitors started to flicker, all speakers started to beep, and every electrical item acted weird in general.
The nurse tried to contact Cole but the communication system also didn’t work. Heck - she couldn’t even leave the room to check him out - as the door was also electronic and didn’t respond to her at all.
“What should we do?!” the nurse asked the technician, who was also panicked, and said: “I dunno! I -”.
suddenly, after 30 terrifying seconds - everything was back to normal. The nurse ran to the test room while the technician pressed the emergency brake button to stop the test.
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While the nurse and technician were freaking out in the control room, Cole was oblivious that something was happening, even thought the music has stopped, so deep was he inside his meditation. But then - still inside his meditation - he felt some weird aura passing over him, like when sun light is suddenly on you - but much more intense and also a bit tickling. Then - even though his eyes were closed - he started to see images inside his eyes, his head. Like a very very long images film started moving over his eyes really really fast.
“What the hell?” Cole asked himself. So fluxed he was, that he dropped out of the meditation. He tried to press the emergency button but nothing happened. His head started to ache a bit from the images and he felt like he had suddenly learned a complete computer complexity course material in a second, double by billion. There was even a bit of pain inside his head, but unlike anything he felt before in his life.
When he was sure he was about to pass out - it all stopped. Or rather, subsided. He still felt some weird unease in his head, his mind.
Before he managed to do anything, the bed slidded out of the machine, and the nurse looking at him worryingly:
“Are you alright?” she asked, looking into his eyes, trying to see if she can find any trace for damage or trauma.
“I think so… what happened? everything was so weird. The light and the flickering…” Cole said. He decided to not tell her about the images and weird learning feeling he had, else she’d think he lost it.
“There was some electricity… something.. i dunno what to call it… but it is over and all is back to normal. ” the nurse responded. “We will stop with the test now, until we know that the equipment is not damaged.”
She offered him a glass of water which he drank, while the nurse told him: “If you’re sure you OK, i’d suggest you go home and rest. If you feel anything bad, any symptoms that are not normal for you - go and see a doctor. In any case, we will contact you once we know for sure the machine is OK, to schedule a new date for the test.”
“I’m sure i’m fine.” he replied.
Taking his stuff, Cole only wanted to get out of there. Because he was not fine. Not at all. Why? Because inside his head, inside his mind’s eyes, a message appeared, as if a PC holographic window was floating there:
>
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> Congratulations! You have been Unbounded!