“Mr Que, You missed the deadline.”
Henry is jolted awake, a towering figure leans against his cubicle.
“Wait? No no no, I didn't miss it. It’s finished! Here I have it right here!” Henry says in a panic. Frantically scanning his desk for a document. His desk; covered in scattered papers. Before picking one up to show his boss. His boss; a large imposing figure, more of a brute than an office worker. His eyes looked dead, absolutely cold and lifeless. He looks at the paper Henry hands him.
“It isn't finished.” He says in a monotonous tone.
“What? No! I swear I finished it!” Henry takes the paper and reads it frantically, before a look of terror covers his face, as he realizes he truly didn't finish his work.
“Haha… No this can't be it, maybe I just haven't printed it out yet… This can't be, I swear I finished it.” Henry says in a quiet voice. An overwhelming sense of dread filling his mind
“Further delays will have severe repercussions, do not mess up again. You have until tomorrow. Get to work.” His Boss then walks off, leaving Henry to his work. Henry gets back to work, focusing hard on his work. Hours pass and he rapidly works. He types up prototypes and then rushes to the warehouse to test his theories. His project, a machine that could create anything from almost nothing. His Boss had given him only 3 weeks to work on it. Since it wasn't an easy task he was having difficulty getting a working design. He had been sleeping in his cubicle the past couple days, which did not weigh on him well mentally, as he had a daughter he wanted to be home to take care of.
He starts the process of creating his final version. This variation he was certain would work. At 10pm he finally reached a point where he was sure it was finished, however this prototype needed more energy and materials, and was going to take an extra long time to finish creation. He was so exhausted he could barely think. So he went home, there was traffic on his way home, which shocked him since it was nearly midnight. He arrived home at 11pm. He opens the door and walks in, quietly trying not to wake his daughter. He did miss her though, as he hadn't seen her or spoke with her in 3 days due to his extreme workload. He closes the door and feels a hand on his sleeve. He jolts back from the surprise and yelps, but then immediately calms down as he realizes it's just his daughter. His daughter with her long white hair, bright blue eyes, and a calm stoic look on her face. A small subtle frown on her face. She was wearing one of his lab coats, over her black nightgown.
“Nano, why are you still up? You should be in bed.” Henry spoke calmly to Nano, smiling happily just at seeing her. His obvious happiness betrays his words of supposed parental annoyance.
“I was waiting for you…” Nano whispered, barely audible.
“I waited for you…Yesterday and the day before…Why were you gone for so long?” Nano asked Henry in a hushed whisper, he had to focus on her voice to be able to hear it, as she never spoke very loud.
“I was given a really hard assignment by my boss, and if I don't finish it then I'd be in big trouble. Are you doing alright? Did you eat dinner?
“I didn't know what to eat… I only ate at school…” Nano admitted
“Oh, Nano! That won't do. I'll make you some food, whatever you want.”
“Can I have… Pancakes?”
“Of course! I'll cook us up some pancakes, and we'll enjoy it together.”
Henry pats her head. Nano seems happy, a small smile on her face. He cooks up some pancakes for her, and as he does she wanders out of the room for a moment, only to return a moment later.
“Dad, look… I made something…” Nano said proudly.
“Oh? What did you make?” He responds playfully.
“Look…” She reveals what looks like a screwdriver with two 9-volt batteries strapped to it, with two pieces of metal hammered into a piece of wood which is hammered onto the screwdriver. And what looked like a button on the side, one of a light switch. Henry didn't really know what it was but he was happy she wanted to show him.
“And what is that?” He asked her curiously
“Taser…” Nano grinned mischievously as she pressed the button, which made the makeshift Taser start sparking, the sparks looking quite potent.
“Oh! I see. Hey, Nano. You haven't hurt anyone with this have you?”
“I only hurt bad guys… I haven't seen any yet…” She admitted to seeming a little disappointed by this fact.
“Good, only use it on bad guys okay? And be careful! Don't want to shock yourself, okay? I'm very proud of you, Nano.” Henry was happy to praise Nano at any moment. He had a little workshop from before this job, in his garage. It had tons of spare parts, scrap metal, unfinished projects. It wasn't the safest environment for a kid. However, his daughter was very smart, she wanted to be like her dad, so she created stuff from time to time, usually when he stayed late at work she'd have something to show him as soon as he got back. He'd taught her a lot of stuff before he got this new job. Or more accurately, his company was bought out, and his new boss arrived along with the new CEO. Now his hours were way worse, he had to stop taking Nano to school in order to work. Nano never complained and never argued, she was smart and careful. So Henry trusted her with anything, she could easily defend herself and was never caught off guard. She had trouble talking with people at school, since she was leagues above their intelligence and her classmates were afraid to talk to her. The upside was that she wasn't bullied and nobody in the class would dare bully someone in front of her. She never caused trouble for anyone, but she wasn't afraid to intervene if she saw something bad happening at her school.
They ate the pancakes, Nano enjoyed all of them and was very happy to be home with her father.
“Nano, thanks for staying up for me. Sorry I haven't been home recently, I'll cook extra food so you're not hungry when I'm at the office…”
“No! Don't cook extra food! Just come home on time please…If starving is what I have to do to see you, then I'll never eat again…” Nano's face broke away from the usual calm expression, she was sobbing. Her voice was much louder than usual, a clear sign something was wrong, as her quiet voice nearly never increased in volume.
“You should quit that job…The bosses are bad guys…You're too busy…You left me for three days… I thought you weren't coming back…” Nano sobbed as she spoke.
It could shatter anyone's heart to see her cry, but it did even more for Henry, he felt horrible, he could hardly keep himself together, he held back tears.
“I'm sorry Nano, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stay at the office so long, I didn't mean to leave you alone for so long. I can't quit the job, the entire city’s been bought out by this corporation. But you're right, I won't stay late anymore, I'll work even harder just for you Nano.” Henry apologized profusely, and assured her he'd do better, genuinely planning to do so, as he also felt the toll of not being able to see her.
“Thanks…” Nano wiped away her tears and hugged Henry.
“Now let's get to bed, it's been a long day. I'll make you breakfast tomorrow, I'll take you to school, and I'll be home in time for dinner.” Nano just nods, and closes her eyes. She then falls asleep. He takes her to bed, tucks her in then promptly falls asleep at the foot of her bed. He sleeps for a short while, before being woken up by Nano.
“Hey… You said you'd make breakfast…” Nano shook him awake.
“Oh. Of course, sorry kiddo, I'll get right on it. What would you like for breakfast?”
“Pancakes…With chocolate chips…” She requested, while putting on her usual outfit, a black dress, and her father's lab coat, which is too big for her, but she doesn't have one of her own.
He cooks her some food, they eat together, much to the joy of Nano.
“Dad, when you get home… Can you show me how to make stuff…? I wanna be like you…” Nano asked quietly with hopeful eyes.
“Yeah, yeah, of course Nano!” Henry beamed with both pride and joy, he hugged her tight.
“Hehe… Thanks Dad… I love you…” Nano whispered with a smile on her face.
“I love you too Nano! Never forget it.” Henry felt so much joy he couldn't help but tear up a little bit, which Nano noticed.
“Dad… Don't cry, nothing is sad…” She wiped his tears away. Henry smiled and held her hand, before snapping back to reality.
“Yeah, nothing is sad. Let's both have a great day, right?”
“Yeah…” Nano smiles.
Then they head out, Henry drops her off at school. However, since he didn't leave early he ends up getting caught in traffic on his way to work. However he doesn't stress over it, still in an amazing mood thanks to Nano. When he arrives his mood is almost instantly soured. As he sees his boss waiting at his desk. As he walks up he sees his boss searching his desk, then nonchalantly stopping and turning to Henry.
“Mr. Que, you're late.”
“Sorry, I had to take my daughter to school and traffic was-” He gets interrupted by his boss.
“Are you finished with the project? The CEO wants to see the completed device now. He'll see you in 15 minutes.” His boss says before walking off without any time for a response. Henry runs over to the warehouse to quickly get his device ready. When he arrives he searches for his device but can't find it, so he starts to panic, and puts another one in production immediately, only for it to say production is finished. He spams the button in terror, only for it to be finished immediately, until eventually he realizes that there's a tiny clump of what looks like flies, he jolts back in disgust, only to take a closer look and notice it's a bunch of very tiny machines.
“This is it? I thought it was bigger? It was bigger in my diagrams…” He mutters to himself before suddenly shuffling and movement is heard.
In only a few minutes everyone else in the shop leaves at once, they look panicked and anxious.
Henry's boss arrives alongside someone else, someone wearing a suit and gloves. Henry turns around, noticing all the movements behind him, and it takes him a moment before he realizes who this is. The CEO. The single most powerful individual in the city, no, the world. Their name is unknown to everyone, only known as The CEO.
Owning the entire city he lived in. Henry grabs his clump of tiny machines and prepares to show it off.
“Henry! How are you doing? I heard you've got something to show me!”
The CEO’s voice bellows out.
“Yes sir, the device is ready, exactly as you wanted.”
“Well! Let's see it! Show me what it can do!” The CEO said with an incredible amount of false enthusiasm and excitement.
“Yes sir, here we are then.” Henry says awkwardly, before he types on the computer to make something, he wasn't sure what to create, he thought of his daughter and decided on a whim to tell the machines to make a labcoat. Within seconds of issuing the command, the little machines immediately went to work, weaving a white coat out of nothing, the web of machines made it seem as if it had appeared from nothing at all. The CEO looked on in interest, and even Henry's boss seemed impressed. Once the bots finished, only moments later there lie an entire lab coat, where before there was nothing. The CEO walked over and picked it up, which for some reason made Henry feel protective and he tried to reach for the lab coat. The mini machines then shot up towards the CEO’s hands, piercing through like their fingertips like butter, causing them to drop the lab coat in a jolt of pain, Henry's boss then immediately shoved Henry down.
“Ow! Wow! Making your boss’s boss part of the demonstration? Not a smart move, Henry. But wow! That is impressive! What are these things called?”
“They're called-” Henry's boss is about to say, before The CEO silences him with his finger.
”Oh, I'm calling them…” Henry thinks for a moment for a fitting name, and his mind wanders for a second, “Nanomachines.” He says, naming them after his daughter and a fitting name for their tiny size.
“Nanomachines huh? Awesome. Send all the blueprints to John here.” The CEO starts to walk off.
“My name isn't-” Henry's boss starts to say as the CEO waves his bleeding hand towards Henry's boss. Henry breathes a sigh of relief, but is caught off guard as The CEO speaks up again.
“Oh, Henry, I need you to make them a bit more affordable, and I'm gonna need you to work overtime, no extra pay. Since you were late on the deadline. Have a nice day, and keep up the great work.” The CEO says with a snide tone and a malicious smile. His boss smiling smugly and scuttering off in an infuriating way.
“What? No! I can't, I have a daughter! I just promised…” Henry begins to argue, but both The CEO and his boss both walk off without even hesitating, and ignore his complaints.
Henry's mind starts to race with thousands of thoughts, worried for his daughter, unsure if she'd forgive him for breaking his promise. He takes a deep breath and decides this will be the last time, he'll work so hard that this won't ever happen again. He thinks to himself “Nano can handle herself, I'll cook her favorite food, I'll give her this lab coat, I'll teach her how to create whatever she wants. I'm sure she'll forgive me. She'll be okay.” He takes another deep breath and gets back to his desk, and starts working hard on what The CEO requested.
Henry's normal shift ends, but as he was directed by the CEO, he has to work overtime to finish this task today. “Damn this job! I wish I could at least tell Nano I'd be home late… I get focusing on work, but locking our phones in a safe?! I just want to know if Nano's okay! No no, it's fine. She's a smart girl, I'm sure she's waiting patiently by the front door. I'll finish this stupid task and get home to her.” He calms himself and tries his best to focus on his work. Another hour passes and he's nearing his tasks completion. He checks the time, and notices it's 8pm, this would usually be the time he'd be home and making Nano some food. He started stressing, but he calmed himself, thinking again about how she would be fine. And immediately got back to work. Another hour passes and he finishes, he had figured out tons of ways to make nanomachines much cheaper and easier to produce. “There, my overtime debt is cleared. I need to get home immediately! Nano's going to be so upset with me… But that doesn't matter! I just need to get home to her.” He thought to himself, before getting to his phone, immediately texting Nano “I'm on my way home Nano! I’ll make up for all of this when I get home, I promise!” Then getting in his car and driving home. He does get stuck in a little bit of traffic, but surprisingly little compared to what he usually experiences. He finally pulls up into his house’s driveway. The lights are off, which is normal since Nano doesn't usually turn them on. He walks over and unlocks the door. He opens the door.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Nano, I'm home. Are you awake?” Henry asks, a bit of excitement, hoping she was still awake. He hears no response. He goes to flip the lights on, but they don't turn on. He flips it up and down a couple times to check if it'd turn on, but nothing happens. The house remains dark, and very quiet. He doesn't even bother taking his shoes off before starts frantically looking around. He checks the couch.
“Nano? Are you sleeping over here?” He asks nervously.
The couch is untouched. Nano, nowhere to be seen. He rushes over to her room and pulls the door open, flipping the light switch, to no avail as the light remains off. He looks all over her room and doesn't see her.
“Nano! Are you alright? Where are you?” He shouts in a panic. He pulls out his phone to use as a flashlight, seeing that Nano hasn’t responded to his message.
“Nano!! I’m home! I’m sorry I had to work late! Are you hiding somewhere?” He rushes into his room, same result as any light switch before, the lights stay off. On his desk is Nano’s phone. “The power’s out? She must be in the garage! Maybe she thinks I’ll be upset that she caused the power to die?” He thinks in a panic, before rushing over to the workshop.
“Nano! I’m not upset, please come out!” His voice wavers as he notices Nano slumped on the ground, with something on the bench in front of her. He rushes over to her and puts an arm under her back.
“Nano!!” He shouts in a panic. He sees Nano’s eyes are both wide open. Her mouth slightly opened. He puts his head to her chest and listens carefully. Hearing nothing, no heartbeats. He immediately starts pushing on her chest, trying to do CPR.
“Nano! It’s going to be okay! It’s going to be okay!” He keeps doing CPR even as he calls an ambulance. Tears stream from his eyes, falling onto Nano’s lifeless face. He continues doing chest compressions repeatedly, his eyes nearly blinded completely by the endless stream of tears.
“Nano! Please wake up! Please wake up!” He cries out to her, the only sounds in the room being his tears and the movements of his hands desperately pushing on Nano’s chest. Then trying to give her a rescue breath, and repeating endlessly. His tears cover her face and fall to the ground beside her, forming a small puddle. He hears sirens in the distance, and moments later paramedics barge into his home. They ask him to move aside, but he’s far too emotional, so they pull him aside and he falls over. He stares at Nano’s body as the medic tries to use a defibrillator. He shocks Nano’s body, causing it to move, only for a moment, they check for a pulse. No pulse is found. They repeat as they pick Nano up and put her on a stretcher. Taking her into the back of the ambulance, Henry follows in his car, completely silent aside from tears. They arrive at the hospital and they take Nano inside. Henry is left behind as they rush Nano into the emergency room. He waits for an eternity, his tears drying up only a shocked expression and a sick feeling in his stomach. After an unknown amount of time, a doctor comes out with a stoic look on his face. Henry is led into a quiet side room. The doctor looks him in the eyes.
“I’m sorry, but I have bad news. Your daughter. She’s dead.”
“No! No, I'm sure she’s fine! Let me see her!”
The doctor nods solemnly, and leads him into her room.
Nano lies there, her eyes closed. Her mouth closed, forming her usual calm expression.
Henry looks at her with tears in his eyes. He reaches a hand down to her cheek, caressing it softly. Tears spill out, but he holds back from sobbing. He leans down and wraps his arms around her. He hugs her softly, looking down at her lifeless face.
“I love you Nano.” He whispers to her. Holding her close and cradling her. Then suddenly he feels a surge of determination and resolve. He lifts her up from the bed. He holds her carefully, close to his chest, an arm on her back and another under her legs. He peeks outside the window and he walks out the door. The doctor notices him, and is about to say something, but sees Henry’s serious expression, and stops. Henry walks out and takes Nano’s body and places it in his passenger seat, buckling her seatbelt. He drives home, he pets Nano’s head a little as he drives home. A small smile on his face as he does. As he arrives home he takes Nano’s body, carries it inside and places it inside his bathtub. He then goes and resets his home’s breaker box, comes back inside and fills the tub with ice after a trip to the store. By the time all of this is over it's nearly 2am in the morning. He then returns to the workshop, the device on the workbench as he had seen earlier. He notices a blueprint nearby on the bench. The device being one of his prior failed projects. One he stashed in his desk and forgot about. An electricity based shield. Something that could stop bullets and people from passing through. “Oh. Nano must have tried to make this.” Henry thought to himself. “Why did she try to make this without me?” He pondered. He puts on some rubber gloves and turns the device on. The device turns on, a projection of electricity now in front of him. He grabs a rock and throws it at it. The rock is stopped by the device and falls to the ground. Henry smiles sadly. “She actually made it…” He turns it off and returns to the bathroom, where Nano’s corpse remains in the bathtub, surrounded by ice.
“You did good Nano. I’m proud of you.” He hugs her slightly.
“I’ll show you how to make lots more things, okay? I promise.” He whispers to her. Before falling asleep right next to her.
He’s woken up hours later by his phone buzzing in his pocket. He goes to his freezer and picks up more ice and fills the tub up again. Not caring in the slightest as water overflows out. The buzzing starts again. He pulls out his phone and answers the call.
“Mr Que. I got your email. Sufficient work on the task we requested.”
“I-” Henry is about to speak, but he can't.
“We heard about the recent tragedy you’ve experienced. You’re authorized 2 weeks to get yourself sorted out. Goodbye.” His boss then hangs up the call. He heads into his room and grabs his laptop and a bunch of papers to write on.
Then he returns to the bathroom, and sits down next to Nano’s unmoving body. He starts working. An hour later he goes into the garage and starts working on something. He finishes only a few hours later. A small tank, which he fills. He takes Nano’s body out of the bathtub and puts it into this tank. He brings his laptop into the garage and works more. He does this all day, bleeding into the day after and after. He works nonstop. He sleeps against Nano’s tank, only to wake and start working again. Only leaving to grab something to eat, purely for survival. He rarely leaves the workshop. He works day after day for another week. After a week of work and his recently adjusted material list for his nanomachines, he creates a large amount of nanomachines. He uses them for tests until he’s figured out a way to attach simple AI to the devices. Allowing the devices to work on their own, repairing any damage made in the room to Nano’s tank or even just the walls or floor. He then starts working again on a different project. This time, a way to extract memories. He works for the remainder of the week. As Monday comes, he’s awoken from his sleep, still right next to Nano’s tank. His phone buzzes and he answers it.
“Mr Que! You are hours late! Get to the office immediately!” His boss screeches at him through the phone, then before Henry can say anything the call is hung up. Henry is hesitant, but decides to go to work. Hugging Nano’s tank before he goes. He drives to work, with little traffic. He arrives and heads over to his desk. To no surprise to him, his boss was sitting in his chair.
“Ah, Mr Que. Finally decided to show up, huh?” His boss says in a smug tone.
“Apologies, I had lost track of time.” Henry said in a monotonous tone.
“Don’t make that mistake again, and you’re working overtime today.” His boss said in a spiteful tone. However this set Henry off.
“No, absolutely not. I will never work overtime ever again.” Henry said in an infuriated tone, putting his foot down, literally, as he stomped on the floor. Louder and harder than even Henry expected.
“Excuse me?!” His boss raised his voice. “Do you think you are in any position to-” To both the shock of Henry and his boss, The CEO walks out and puts a finger in front of Henry’s boss’s mouth, shutting him up.
“No, that’s fine. Henry, you won’t have to work overtime. Never again. Show some goddamn consideration, John.”
“Of course, my apologies Mr. Que!” Henry’s boss immediately responds, regardless of the fact that his name was not John.
“Henry, I’m so sorry for your loss. We appreciate you coming in today. If you require more time, we will oblige.” The CEO says in a kind voice, so kind it stunned Henry, who had expected a much crueler reaction from The CEO.
“Uh, thank you.”
“However, if you are capable and willing to work today, we do have a new project we would like your help with. It is entirely your choice.”
“Well… I’m already here. I’ll work my shift, as usual.”
“Perfect, thank you Henry. John will send you the details. Thank you for your hard work Henry.” The CEO says, then walks away. Henry’s boss then walks away as well. Henry shortly receives the details on the project in an email. This project, automating the nanomachines. Using AI. “Oh what a coincidence!” Henry thinks to himself and starts typing quickly exactly what he’d already figured out. After finishing hours later, rewriting all the work he had already done at home and sending it over to his boss, he starts thinking. “Wait. Did they know I already figured this out…?” He starts feeling a sense of dread, but he brushes it off. “No no, it's just a coincidence. They wouldn’t…” He then receives notice from his boss as he walks over. A stranger message than usual.
“From now on, when you finish your task, you can go home. This is coming from The CEO.” His boss relays, seeming annoyed.
“Is this a joke?” Henry asks
“No. If you have any questions, The CEO says they are willing to listen.”
“Oh. Okay.” Henry says in bafflement
His boss then walks away. Shortly after, Henry goes home. As he arrives he immediately goes to the garage.
“I’m home Nano.” He says, greeting Nano in the tank, although she is lifeless and does not respond.
“We’ll eat some pancakes together soon, okay?” He hugs her tank. Then he gets back to work. The rest of the week, he’s told he doesn’t have to come in. Which is bizarre to Henry, however, he uses this time wisely. He finishes his work, creating a device that allows him to transfer memories from a brain, into data. Using himself as a test. He transfers his own memories onto data, which he stores on his computer. After seeing the success of his test, he stops for a moment. “I want to see her again. I want to see her moving, I want to hear her voice.” He goes to Nano’s tank, and takes her out of the tank. He attaches the device to her head carefully. And activates it. After a few minutes of waiting, he sees it. Her memories, playable on his laptop. He then quickly puts her back into the tank. With tears in his eyes, he goes to watch the playback of Nano’s memories, the day she died.
Nano walks home from school. Her home is dark and quiet when she gets home. “Dad will be home soon…” She thinks to herself. She goes to her room, and she does her trivial homework. Only a few minutes, her mind constantly turning towards ideas she has for cool tools or weapons to fight bad guys with. Once she's finished she goes to her father's room to scour his desk, looking for any cool blueprints that he might've left for her, although unintentionally. To her surprise and glee, she finds one. Some sort of electrical barrier. “This looks hard…” She thinks to herself. She puts the blueprint back in the drawer. She goes off into the garage/workshop and cuddles with stuff for an hour. She gets bored after making lame stuff, not sure what to do next. She checks the time. “Dad… Isn't home… And it's dinner time…” She thinks to herself, “He's probably just stuck in traffic or something.. I'm sure he'll be home soon…” She goes and lies on the couch.
Another hour passes. She looks at her phone, but sees no message or missed calls from her father. “He said he couldn't call me at work… Cause they don't allow phone usage… I'm sure he'd call me if he was on his way home…” She thinks to herself. “He's probably still at work… So… He must be working on that hard project he was talking about… Oh! That blueprint he left in his room! That must be the project he was talking about cause it looked really hard… Maybe if I make it for him, then I can call his boss or something to make them let him go home… He'll be super proud of me!” She smiles at the thought of her father's praise. She rushes back to his room and takes the blueprint, and runs into the workshop. She scans over the blueprint and searches the piles of unfinished projects to take parts. She works on the project, taking an hour. After an hour she hooks up the device to the house's power. She then goes to start the power, the device sparks for a moment, then stops. “Not enough power…?” Nano thinks to herself. Then the device sparks again. “Oh! It's working!” She looks on in excitement. The device sparks more and more, and suddenly an extremely bright spark shoots out, a massive bolt of electricity shoots out at her and she’s launched backwards, her heart stops beating. Nano can’t move. She tries to breathe, but isn’t able to. “Dad… Please… Help…” Are her final thoughts. The playback stops, as her memory of that day ends.
Henry is crying as he stares at the now black screen. He rushes over to Nano’s tank and hugs it.
“You did good, Nano! I’ll bring you back, I promise!” He lingers for only a moment, then rushes back to work. Not watching anymore of Nano’s memories. He works for hours, then days. Refusing to watch any more memories of Nano’s. Weeks go by, everyday he’s told he doesn’t have to come in. Then months, still the same. However, Henry doesn’t think about the reasoning behind it, and uses this time to continue working. After months of work, he finally finishes. He’s figured out how to put advanced AI into the nanomachines. With the nanomachines in the form of his daughter, an identical copy of his daughter’s form. Wearing her usual black dress, lab coat, and some black shoes. He connects a cable to this nanomachine copy of his daughter to his laptop. He starts transferring his daughter's memories over. It's late at night as this transfer occurs. He hears people outside his home, he ignores them, focused completely on both Nano’s face and his laptop. Watching the transfer. He holds her hand. Then suddenly, he hears a loud noise. As the door from his house to his garage is kicked open. Two men stand there with guns in their hands. Henry doesn’t even hesitate, moving purely on instinct. He grabs the shield Nano had made, turns it on and throws it at the pair, blocking the doorway completely. They try to fire at him through it, but the bullets simply fall to the floor. Then the man in the back shoves the other one into the shield, a massive bolt of electricity shoots out and hits the man directly in the chest, causing him to fall over dead. Henry gets a better look at the man, and can tell who it is. His boss.
“Give me the laptop!” His boss shouts at him.
“No! No!” Henry screams at him. He notices on his laptop’s screen, the memory transfer at 90%. His boss then rushes at him, and rips the laptop off the workbench. The cable connecting the nanomachine copy of Nano, pulling out. In a fit of pure rage, Henry runs at his boss. His boss flees. Henry picks up the gun of the dead man, and starts firing at his boss. Who has gotten into a car, and has now driven off. Henry goes to his car to chase him, but as he runs over, suddenly he’s hit really hard in the back of his head and collapses. He passes out.
Nano blinks awake. She’s sitting in a chair with some device on her head. She looks around, realizing she’s in her father’s garage workshop. She sees some big tank in front of her, she sees something inside before trying to get up, falling over. She hits her face on the desk, smashing her eye. She reaches up instinctively, but is surprised when it doesn’t hurt like she thought she would. It instead just feels a bit strange. However when she opens up her eyes, her vision is all weird, only in her left eye. As if she was looking through broken glass. “Oh… My eye is broken…” She thinks to herself. She gets up, and immediately notices the corpse of the man collapsed in the doorway, she then grabs something from the workbench, what looks like a crudely made taser. She turns it on and it sparks menacingly. She goes and zaps the body. Which jolts from the electricity. She notices the man’s eyes still open. “Oh… Oh no… He’s dead…? He’s dead!!” Nano panics, worrying that she just murdered the man, she runs into her dad’s room.
“Dad! I think I did something bad!” She says in a panic.
“Dad?” She says again as she receives no response from the empty room.
Without warning, the room starts shaking. Nano reacts with surprise. Looking at the shelves, noticing that the shelves were not shaking, and the objects completely still. However the shaking continued and the room was filled with a bright light. All of her sensations felt as if they were being dulled. No, nullified. She can’t see or hear anything. It was like she was in a void. And just like it started, it stopped. She was somewhere else now. Outside in the street. “How did I…?” She questions in her mind. She looks around, realizing this street wasn’t one she recognized. It looked completely different from one she had ever seen before. She kept looking around, and started to walk, but quickly lost her balance. Disoriented from her broken eye. “This eye sucks now… I wish I had something to fix it, or maybe an eyepatch…” She thought to herself. And to her surprise, her finger started to produce something. She watched in amazement as a small white eyepatch formed, with a white strap the perfect length. As if she was holding it the whole time. “Did I…? Did I make this…?” She ponders, before putting the eyepatch on. She gets up again, and with the eyepatch on, her vision is once again normal. She walks down the street, and is completely terrified to see a weird looking, small green monster. The monster looks at her and speaks.
“Where is I be? You bring me here? You die then!” The monster then rushes at her with a small dagger in hand. Nano panics, and pulls out her taser. She turns it on and shoves it against the monster without hesitation. The monster screams out in pain, dropping its weapon and frantically shifts and squirms in agony. Nano then pulls the taser away, causing the monster to fall to the ground, still squirming in pain. Nano looks down at the monster in amusement and curiosity. Then she forms her hand into that of a gun and pretends to fire at the monster. And to her shock, something comes out of her finger and shoots at rapid speed into the monster. Piercing its flesh and causing it to bleed. The monster screams in pain. Nano realizes that she doesn’t feel bad about shooting this monster. She feels a bit of satisfaction. She forms a finger gun again, and fires multiple more rounds into the monster's chest. The monster has stopped moving. Blood spills out of all the wounds Nano’s ‘bullets’ have created. “Should I feel bad for this…? It was evil… It tried to attack me with that weapon… I don’t feel bad… I wanna kill more bad guys…” She thinks to herself and decides. She wanders the streets more, coming across more monsters like this one. Which she kills, just as she did this one.