Something happened that night; the light was fading after a long day at school, I was catching a train back home from school as we live in a far district of the city it’s necessary to spend long hours getting anywhere of importance. Thinking about the mountain of homework and chores to do and how best to spend the time I was supposed to be doing them; my thoughts were interrupted by my friend Cale. “Jayce are you gunna watch the robot fights this afternoon? I heard that sweet dragon will be fighting again”. The ‘dragon’ was the current champion of the robot fights which were organised by ShinTec Technologies. By using its talons which produced jets of white hot plasma it could cut through the hard alloy of even the sturdiest fuselage its mouth also emitted a laser that would melt a hole in concrete.
Responding to Cale I told him about the “mountain of ‘homework’” I had to do with a sarcastic grin implying that I would probably see the fight anyway. Emma who was sitting opposite us on the train just looked at us with a reproachful look as only an honours student could. She was several months older than us and is every bit the serious person you would expect but at the same time pulls off a wonderful take no prisoners attitude when it comes to certain issues. “Shouldn’t you guys be studying for exams?! Especially you Cale you got terrible marks in the last midterms. Jayce too even though I have no idea how you get good marks shouldn’t you be studying?” I never had a problem following the standardised content of the high school curriculum and had even done some extra study on the side to secure more time for procrastination.
Pulling into the next station the train ground to a steady stop at 3:30 on the dot with a synchronous precision of a computer controlled system; trains always arrived on time within the second even as had come to be expected of the public transport system. People start standing to get off “talk to you tomorrow Jayce” said Cale as he and Emma also begin disembarking among the jostle of passengers moving toward the doors. “Don’t forget to study!” Emma announced before leaving the train dragging poor Cale after her, I watched them go in a humorous mood as I thought that Cale looked like a dog that REALLY DID NOT WANT TO GO WALKIES. After the passengers disembark and new passengers enter the train a pre-recorded electronic voice warns everyone to clear the doors before the doors seal with a mechanical hiss and the outside is once again a speeding blur.
The city skyline breaks the sky into a line like a buzzsaw out the window as the train shoots past the eyrie like towers. The sun is now at the top of the window making its way steadily towards the horizon multiple levels of highways criss-cross and leave shadows that flash over the window as I focus on my destination; the train curves towards the industrial side of town. Aircraft dot the skies overhead like swimming black starfish in a light sea of blue each seeking its own eyrie. People are chatting in the train mostly about the bot fights happening in the industrial area but a few are discussing issues like the terrorist attacks on the battle scarred moon or the fact that fuel has become cheaper than milk, conversation settles down with the sound of frictionless brakes emitting a hum.
The train begins to decelerate as it arrives at the station forcing me to vacate my seat and start moving towards the door. Wiping my hand across the biometric sensor I exit the train and start walking down the steps away from the station. People are everywhere but not many students come to this part of town as it is so far removed from the educational district. Most families would not have reason to live out here however as I live mostly alone except for the carer that comes 5 times a week I don’t mind. My parents are constantly busy with work for ShinTec in the medical division one as a biochemist and the other as a lab assistant for said biochemist. Needless to say my dad is the lab assistant my mother fell in love with and thanks to the company’s new allowances for co-worker relationships everything turned out perfectly fine; something about declining birth-rates quoted by the government (which I think is personally a load of crap as it happened when the CEO fell in love with his secretary and it became public).
Coming to the intersection I make my way along the sparsely crowded street toward the busy industrial park with cars whizzing overhead and an ever increasing number of work uniforms as I move further. Passing a sign for a robotic cleaning company I enter into the building next door again swiping my hand in front of the biometric scanner as I enter the ShinTec sponsored house. Upon entering I am greeted by the projected face of the houses AI made of millions of pixels it states in a soothing voice that a message has been left for me. Telling the AI “play message” I grab a soda out of the fridge and settle on the couch “hi son” Elaine (my mum) says “We have been invited to watch the dragon fight at the arena tonight so order up something for dinner, I’ve transferred the money to your account.” Sighing slightly I head upstairs to my room dumping my bag on the floor I boot up the computer in my room. The computer is one of the few commercial quantum computers available which I got courtesy of the technology department at ShinTec after I did a little work as pocket money for them. I order dinner then spend the rest of the night catching up with people online before turning in for the night.
[Some indeterminable time later]
I awoke during the night to the sound of computers and other devices with speakers or screens emitting a noise both visually and audibly. The sounds coming out of my computer which was most assuredly off at the time were completely freaky something that sounded like a cross between all languages and some crazy blue and white trashcan shaped robot having intimate time with a live toaster. All the machines and appliances in the house were the same however one of the few analog devices left in the house was an old wall clock which was from several great grandfathers ago and it seemed perfectly fine. Whatever was causing all the devices to go haywire was probably electromagnetic in nature which means that technically shielded military devices would be fine; nice bit of trivia to know when you don’t own any military grade tech. As I stepped into the lounge room I decided to look outside the window to see if it was just me experiencing this.
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Outside the street lighting was strobing in no particular pattern and the cleaning robots on the street seemed to be unable to decide which direction to move in (picture hundreds of disc shaped cleaning robots running into each other and then deciding to randomly clean flower beds and other bots). People were coming out of their homes looking confused and some were visibly worried as they held pieces of misbehaving tech. The lights and objects for as far as you could see were all suffering from the same effects of whatever was causing the disturbance, cars in the sky were falling and doors were opening and shutting. Wondering what to do when all of technology seems to be against me I heard screaming from outside and rushed through the lounge room and out the dangerous opening and slamming shut front door to see the horror evolving in front of my eyes.
The Dragon was a purpose built killing machine made by ShinTec industries to win the robot death match for years to come. From study and actually being involved in its development I knew how deadly it was I helped design some of its system architecture and components back at the start of my high school days which is one of the reasons I was able to ace high school exams. The machine could cleave through a steel block 6 inches thick without losing momentum so when faced with something like flesh there is no chance of survival. Why would a genius company make a robot this deadly and not put in safety mechanisms? Answer: they did there were both software and hardware fail safes wired for exactly this situation but upon looking at it none of them seem to have worked. The robot was clearly out of control and coming towards me cleaving a trail through the people leaving a wake of red. Surprisingly one of the cleaning robots saw this as an opportunity to clean and started mopping up the blood trail.
A girl ran towards my end of the street vaulting over the cleaning robots trying to outrun the mechanical death machine but tripped over a piece of scrap twisting her ankle and sprawling across the ground. The Dragon was moving ever closer with its core glowing bright in short bursts with jerking movements, the only way to stop it now was to remove the power source; the core from its body. The power source is encased in a solid covering to prevent accidental destruction of the highly volatile core, as the safety protocols had engaged to some extent the core was no longer protected by a metal plate and say halfway out of the dragon. A cleaning robot had run over the girl’s leg that was injured and as she tried to crawl away screaming in pain the robot would not budge; I could see her death was now an almost forgone conclusion if the dragon kept its advance.
Seeing that something needed to be done I steeled my resolve and assessed the situation. The Dragon had the potential to kill a lot more people if left unchecked and with the absence of any military the only option would be to remove the core however that is too dangerous for me. I decide to shift the 200kg cleaning robot off the girl’s leg and drag her away from the Dragon’s advance. No sooner had I started enacting my plan then the dragon moved closer and swung its arm in my direction throwing me and her to the ground a few feet away. The robot moved to trample the girl and I switched priorities from moving her to removing the core, as I approached the robot from the side it swung an arm towards me at insane speed as it twisted its entire torso I dodged reflexively at the last possible moment and jumped on its back closing my hands around the core.
The core was never meant to be left half hanging out of the slot it was installed in and as a result the protective casing had become cracked. Because the casing was cracked the core released masses of energy into the air and made touching the core similar to touching an electrical outlet. Upon contact with the core every second was killing me as energy in the form of radiation and lightning bolts coursed through me and as the core separated from the chassis it used me as a lightning rod to reach the ground. Hair burning, skin blackened and consciousness fading I used the last of my strength to place the core on the ground bearing the unimaginable pain of 80% of my body being burned I was thankful for the respite unconsciousness gave me from the most painful experience of my life. The girl was crying over me as everything faded to black.
I awoke to find myself in a hospital ward with someone in a green robe standing at my bedside. I did not understand what they were saying however as I looked into their eyes I felt the meaning of their words conveyed into my mind. The person conveyed that they were the messenger of another world’s god one of many gods that ruled their world and that he had come to extend an invitation to me to come to their world. As a person from this world I would die here and be reborn in the other world leaving my family behind; he also told me that my body in this world will not live and that it is only alive now because the god wills it. I ask him only one question in my weakened state “can I say goodbye?”
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Please give me some constructive feedback on my first fanfic/thing ive written ever.