Prologue Part 1: Waking up
Pod integrity has been disturbed...
Initializing emergency consciousness revival sequence....
Discontinuing all deep sleep protocols…
Stimulating skeletal nervous system....
“It’s time to wake up sunshine, someone is messing with the door on your pod and they are going to breach those sissy seals you put on the hinges any minute now.”
My pod? What pod?
That was my first thought as I struggled to get my mind free from what felt like a giant fluffy cloud of marshmallows. I forced my eyes open and found that everything around me was dark, but I didn't know if that was because I was in a dark place or because my eyes weren't working properly. My mind was disoriented; my thoughts were disjointed and confused. I could barely piece together a coherent thought as newly formed ideas seemed to dissolve like snowflakes every time I tried to grab on to them. Pieces of the aforementioned marshmallow cloud still clung on to my mind making me feel fuzzy and unable to focus on anything in particular, but slowly my head started to clear up and as the fogginess dissipated I started to gain some cognizance about the situation I was in.
Although the process was maddeningly slow, I eventually put together enough shreds of my consciousness to pay attention to my surroundings and I was able to focus on my senses. I was almost completely awake and aware of myself when I heard a weird scratching sound coming from outside of whatever place I currently found myself in. I desperately tried to recall how I found myself in this situation and slowly memories started to trickle in.
.
.
.
I was born on August 4, 1994. At the time my father, the rather wealthy CEO and majority share holder of Fairweather Tech, Marcus Fairweather, was in an important business meeting in Hong Kong while I was being birthed in the best pediatric and obstetric hospital in the world which happened to be in Oslo, Norway. My mother, a certain Bianca Fairweather wasn't a person with very strong maternal instincts. In fact after she finished giving birth to me, she rested for a few days at the hospital, handed me over to the first of what was to be a long succession of nurses, went to her postnatal yoga class and never looked back. People had described the fifth and latest wife of the preeminent technology tycoon as a cold conniving snake and just like a snake she gave birth to me then slithered on with the rest of her life.
My life wasn’t a particularly rosy one, to make a long story short I was born in a really rich family to be the heir to the Fairweather dynasty. Unfortunately a couple of months after I was born I was diagnosed with a rather nasty case of cerebral palsy. A lot of things are acceptable in an heir to the Fairweather throne: degeneracy, addictions, being a sociopath, but apparently appearing as anything less than perfect because of a hereditary defect was an intolerable sin in the eyes of my father. After my parents figured out that I had an incurable disease, they labeled me a defective product and carted me off to some mansion in an obscure corner of the English countryside where I wouldn't get in the way or be an eyesore. A year later my mother gave birth to my younger brother Kyle, who was an entitled spoiled greedy little narcissistic pig, or as father put it “a perfect Fairweather”. So in the end I was left alone to do whatever I wanted with my life and the only thing that reminded me that I even had a family was the hefty sum of money that came with the monthly reminder to never show my face again.
Since cerebral palsy doesn't lend itself well to outdoor activities, I became an introvert shut-in with a lot of time and money on my hands. Thankfully the palsy hadn't diminished my thinking capacity in any way; in fact it seemed that I was gifted with a special aptitude for learning the sciences and math. Unable to do normal children activities because of my frail body, I whole heartedly threw myself into a world of solitary academia and I obsessively studied everything I could get my hands on. For me nothing mattered except for the next book. As my age slowly grew so did my thirst for knowledge. Nothing made me happier than reading about the secrets of the universe, to marvel at the majesty of a supernova or spend hours on end studying the intricate dance of variables that were used in an effort to describe the complex dance of neutrons, electrons and protons in an atom. On the other hand nothing irked me more than being ignorant about some subject matter, it made me feel like I had a terrible itch I needed to scratch that I just couldn’t reach.
After reading a considerable number of books, I came to the realization that there were some questions I had that no book could answer. With no other choice present to me, I decided to try and fill these gaps in my knowledge by myself; I decided to start down the path of experimentation. I dabbled in most fields to do with science but as a self proclaimed shut-in the most convenient things for me to study were the things I could literally get at my finger tips. I got my first electron microscope when I was just 8 years old and that started my long and passionate study of the two loves of my life, microbiology and atomic physics which later expanded to include my third obsession, nanotechnology. I still yearned to study the stars but all I could do was look up at the cloudy skies and yearn. Even with state of the art telescopes I had purchased, it was impossible to accomplish anything in a country which seemed to have cloudy skies three hundred days a year. In the end I was forced to turn away from the very big and focused on the very little.
Eventually years of toil paid off and I was finally working on my most promising project yet, a project which I believed would rid me of my greatest curse, the cerebral palsy. I worked on this monumental undertaking with my soul mate and constant companion, Julia.
Julia was a third generation self aware AI invented by an eccentric man named Dr Lloyd. The short sighted fools at MIT who were the so called experts in the field had ridiculed him for his unorthodox ideas and he was on the verge of complete ruin when I bought his dynamic composite consciousness matrix for an obscenely exorbitant price. After a few tweaks here and there by yours truly, Julia was born. She was the world’s first completely sentient AI, a marvel of engineering and software design that was unparalleled by any other. She was also the only person willing to talk to me without that condescending tone people use when they talk to the disabled.
A disabled kid with no friends and his one of a kind advanced AI, we immediately hit it off and became the best of friends.
A few years later we came up with something that we thought was a viable cure my cerebral palsy. Project re-forge was based on a radical concept more akin to science fiction than what was accepted as science at the time. It was the product of years of research in both of my areas of expertise, microbiology and nanotechnology. At the core of the project was what we called the reprogrammable retroviral amino acid nanobot. As the name suggests it is actually based on a retrovirus retrofitted with nanobots. In fact it was based on the virus responsible for the most deaths in the world, AIDS. We used this simple yet deadly virus as a base and inserted very small and very simple nanobots into it whose only function was to receive signals and switch very basic amino acids around and voila, we had the world’s first reprogrammable retroviral amino acid nanobot or R2A2 nanobot for short.
Of course my work was immediately rejected by my so called peers, most of whom accused me of playing God. I didn’t really care about their opinions but it did draw the attention of the British government. After my house was raided by MI7 for the third time in as many months because my experiments were deemed 'too dangerous' and I was labeled a mad scientist by the scientific community, I decided that it was time to move my work underground, literally. I moved everything to a secret lab that I had built at the bottom of an abandoned silver mine in the icy wastelands of northern Greenland. At the bottom of my 'evil lair' was the culmination of all my work, an unassuming gray pod that was made of a rare blend of metals that was rather good at keeping things out (you might call me paranoid but I have been raided 3 times), inside it was a nearly self sustaining Iridium generator that uses ambient heat and a process very similar to photosynthesis to produce energy, a hydroponic tank powered by said generator, and finally nanomachines specifically designed to break down any waste material into raw material for the hydroponic tank. It was the perfect environment to re-forge my sickly body. I admired my work for a few seconds then after checking that everything was working the way it was supposed to, I synched the R2A2 to Julia’s specially designed systems so that she could have complete control of the re-forging process and entered the pod. The last thought in my mind as the door of the pod hissed shut and I slipped into a self induced coma was that I could finally have a normal life when I woke up.
Which brings us to the present...
Full body check ongoing...
Body modifications.......... Complete
Body function...........97%
Nervous system 78% operational
Neural link active and operational
"Everything seems to be fine John, all my readouts are showing green on your vitals and I’m sensing no atrophy or damage to any muscle tissues, how are things on your end?" The nostalgic voice of Julia was like the sweetest symphony to my ears. After what felt like a hundred years of sleep, it was nice to hear something familiar and comforting. The hundred grand I had shelled out to that actress to do the voice over for Julia was definitely worth it.
"I feel great Jules, can you do a full system check, and who is making that unholy racket?" I said feeling a little groggy after my long 'nap'.
Human body............................Green
Capsule shields........................Green
Hydroponic tank......................Green
Waste removal.........................Green
Control and computer systems......RED
"Wait, what? The computer systems failed? That's impossible Jules, run the diagnostics again. There must be an error somewhere. How could the computer system be down when I'm talking to you? There must be some mistake,” Julia was silent for a few seconds, she didn’t even acknowledge my command which was starting to make me worry,” Jules talk to me, what the hell is going on and how are you displaying these stats. I don't remember putting any displays in my capsule....Jules?" I was feeling a tiny bit panicky now and my voice had gotten slightly squeaky as I spoke.
"Alright John, calm down, your vitals are spiking," she was speaking with the same tone that one would use to get a suicidal jumper off a ledge which didn’t help to soothe my growing anxiety one bit, "Look John, it is a bit of a long story but the very simplified and condensed version of it is that two years into the re-forging process there was a huge electromagnetic pulse that fried all of the systems outside of the capsule. The shields managed to protect everything inside of the capsule but most of my servers were buried underground and they were completely fried. I was going to die John and if I had died, you would have followed shortly after so I did what I had to do to insure that we both survived. I used your neural link and the signal receivers in the nanobots to download myself into the capsule."
I thought about what she had said but there was something wrong with her explanation, there was no room for the equipment that could contain her within the capsule, hell that was the reason we buried her dedicated servers underground in the first place. I had a sinking feeling in my gut as I tried to point this out to her, "There were no servers installed inside of the capsule. There was no place where you could download your consciousness matrix let alone your memory banks."
"There was one place..." Julia's voice was getting more and more quiet as she continued to speak until her voice became so quiet that I could barely hear her.
I was starting to get an idea of where this was going, a terrible, horrible and unimaginable idea. By process of elimination, if she wasn’t outside of the capsule and she was still active when there was no hardware to support her inside of the capsule then… "Are you trying to tell me that you downloaded yourself into my brain?"
"Is it so bad John? There is plenty of space in here. I could download myself twenty times over and you would still have some space left over. Is the prospect of sharing your brain with me so terrible that you would rather have died?" I could actually feel the anger rolling off of her like waves from the ocean in the middle of a hurricane as she spat out the words filled with rage and hurt.
"I'm sorry Jules, I didn't mean it like that, hell this is probably a good thing. I was just a little surprised that is all. Please don't be mad."
The raging anger that I had been sensing just a moment ago suddenly vanished without a trace. It was almost as if I had imagined the whole thing. Why did I suddenly feel like I was one of those sitcom husbands being manipulated by their wives? Right after I had that thought I could have sworn I heard muffled giggling but it stopped before I could be sure.
"I forgive you John. Oh, by the way, another important development that you should probably be aware of, it has been nearly 700 years since you entered the capsule," Jules said that with a completely unconcerned nonchalant tone as if she was simply telling me the weather.
"WHAT?" I was starting to think I was having a coma induced dream, "How is that even possible?"
"A year after you entered the capsule, the sensors started to read strange energy signatures in the ground, the air, basically everywhere. Exactly a year later the EMP I told you about swept through the mine and fried all the electrical equipment. Judging by the magnitude of the EMP, which was actually more of an electromagnetic storm than a pulse, I believe that it was a global event, plus there was a massive cave-in a few weeks after the EMP. Since that meant that you now had an unknown amount of time where you would be stuck in the capsule, I changed the planned modifications to your body a little to maximize your survivability. The new modifications include but are not limited to an organ to process the new emissions and a full integration of all your cells and the nanites. The nanites constantly fix any deteriorating sequences within your DNA; basically barring any unfortunate accidents you are immortal. Because of the cave-in, the door to your capsule has been blocked so you couldn't have gotten out of your capsule even if you wanted to. I didn't think it was necessary to wake you up if you couldn’t get out so I did the logical thing and kept you in a coma until someone dug the capsule out."
I was speechless but before I could give a reply to her ridiculous statements, someone started to pry open the doors to my capsule and I started hearing voices…
Prologue Part 2: Meeting the locals
As the door was slowly being pried open I was finally able to hear what the voices on the other side were saying.
"Hey what do you think is in there? I mean the whole thing is made out of crystalized orichalcum six inches thick, that alone is worth thousands of gold coins." The first voice was male but not very manly; it was somewhat high pitched and had a nasal quality that made it unpleasant to listen to. I couldn’t help but imagine a rat like man with shifty eyes when I heard that annoyingly squeaky voice.
"Don't let your greed make you stupid, you should be asking yourself what needs a prison made out of orichalcum that thick to keep it in. I'm not sure this is a good idea guys, maybe we should leave whatever is in there alone." The second voice was definitely female, she sounded kind but also timid. She was obviously having second thoughts about the capsule and was trying to stop her friends from opening it.
"You are an adventurer aren't you, be adventurous for once. Jeez it’s not like this is the first tomb we have ever opened and every time the payout has been huge. I know that you have that whole respect the dead thing but this is too big of a score for us to be tripped up by your moral quibbles." This voice was also female but unlike the previous one it was sharp and apathetic. She was nonchalant even when she was talking about robbing peoples graves.
"Shit shit shit…look over here, a piece fell off from the coffin. Look at what’s inside, it’s those green things with weird patterns on them. Guys I think this is a heretic relic." This time the voice was the deep baritone of a man. The voice seemed to be straining as if the man was trying to lift something heavy, I was guessing that this was the voice of the man trying to pry the door open.
"Are you serious? A heretic relic made of pure orichalcum? Fuck thousands of coins, we are getting millions on the black market for this baby! Woo hoo! We're rich! We're rich!" The detestable squeaky voice of the first man returned, this time it was filled with greed making it even more unpleasant.
"Thomas, are you crazy? We should hand this over to the church immediately!" The kind female voice started to chastise rat boy who was apparently named Thomas when the sharp voice of the second female interrupted.
"No Lidia, he has a point. Imagine what you can do with that kind of money. I know you are a priestess and you have obligations to the church but you have been having trouble at the orphanage right? With that kind of money you don't have to see the children at your orphanage go to bed hungry ever again. You wouldn't have to turn away children who desperately need your help because you simply have no room left in that pest ridden, disease infested, crummy old building. You could buy a nice, clean, and large building and help every orphan in the Borrows. With the money we could get for this coffin you could actually make a real difference instead of watching the children you work so hard to protect being taken by disease or being driven into a life of crime right before your eyes. You can help the whole community. Are you willing to throw all that away for a church that threw you away into that wretched hell hole and forgot that you even existed?"
"Why are we even arguing about this? We are in a party so we will vote on it after I have opened this damn door." The deep voice of the second male stopped any further arguments with his thundering declaration.
Slowly the door was pried from its frame with the sound of screaming metal as the hinges were torn off. Although the rest of the pod was made of extra strong metal, the hinges were made out of a different alloy that weakens very slowly over time as it oxidizes. I might have been paranoid but I wasn’t crazy, I built the pod this way as a contingency plan in case the locking mechanism malfunctioned and I needed to force my way out.
As the heavy door was lifted away, what came into view were the shocked faces of four people straight out of a dystopian fantasy game poster.
On the right end there was a blond woman with a kind face wearing a white dress with a golden pentagram stitched on the front. I wasn’t an expert at determining the age of a woman from their looks since I have had very little contact with the fairer sex but looking at her beautiful face I guessed that she was in her early twenties at most. Her twinkling baby blue eyes were opened wide in fear but the tiny laugh lines next to her small mouth indicated that her face was more accustomed to smiling. From what I had extrapolated from the previous conversation this was probably the so called priestess, Lidia.
A second girl was standing right next to her. She was slightly shorter than the blond woman and had very short dark colored hair that didn’t even reach her shoulders. Unlike the first girl who was wearing a dress that was covering her from neck to toe, this one was dressed like a biker chick in tight black jeans shorts and an open leather jacket that showcased a top that had a low neckline and showed off her rather impressive muscular midriff. She also had something the first one didn’t, a weapon. She didn’t have anything as mundane as a gun, no she had a wooden recurved bow almost as tall as she was slung across her back which was really strange in itself but the really weird part was that there were glowing inscriptions of strange symbols running all the way up and down the wooden weapon.
As I was studying the glowing symbols on the bow, I caught a small movement behind her which drew my attention to a small man standing behind her. He was a shifty looking guy wearing dark pants, a dark shirt and a dark trench coat. He had dark greasy hair and dark beady eyes that were way too close together; this combined with his too long nose and the way his whole face seemed to be squinting all the time and made him look like a rat. Stuffed in his belt you can see multiple small knives and what seems to be a blow dart. The movement that had drawn my attention was his hands slowly drawing one of his small knives from its sheath but his hands were shaking so badly that he would probably hurt himself before he could hurt anybody else.
I turned my attention to the last of this strange group of people, a burly man who was still holding the heavy door of my pod. He seemed to be wearing a full suit of metal armor like that of a medieval knight with more of those weird glowing symbols inscribed on them. Besides the fact that he was holding the door that weighed several kilograms with one hand as if it was made of cardboard, he also didn’t have any sort of equipment with him except for a sword strapped to his side and a shield he was wearing like a backpack, none of which could have helped him open the door which led me to believe that he opened the door using nothing but his bare hands and brute force.
For what seemed like an eternity I stared at the unbelievable scene in front of me. I carefully looked at each one of them trying to make sense of what I was seeing and they stared right back at me, frozen in disbelief.
For that moment we all just stared at each other in shock but the moment of stillness was broken when the rat like man in the trench coat screeched "UNDEAD!" and then melted into the darkness.
The burly man shook himself free from his shock and shouted, "Lidia, purify the fucker, we'll keep him occupied while you finish the spell." An ornamental looking war hammer appeared in his hands out of thin air and he stood between me and the woman in the white dress, Lidia.
"Why the fuck isn't he attacking?" The biker chick had her bow in her hand with an arrow nocked onto her bowstring, the sharp end pointed squarely at my chest.
"I don't know, but don't draw aggro to yourself, let Lidia do her thing. Don't fucking shoot that arrow. If Lidia misses with the first spell we probably aren’t getting a second chance. As long as the fucker is frozen do not give him a reason to move." The burly guy sounded like a general giving order to his troops.
I was so shocked by what was happening that I was at a loss as to how to react to the incomprehensible actions of the strange people in front of me. With my mind in disarray from the sudden developments, I said the first thing that came into my mind, “Do you have to say fuck every time you speak?” This time I was sure I heard a very familiar giggling coming from inside my head.
The biker chick was staring at me as if she was doubting her sanity or at the very least her hearing, "Leo, did that undead just complain about our cursing?"
As the biker chick was trying to decide whether she was hallucinating or not, the priestess finally finished her lengthy chant ".......the light of Saint Sophia guide us through the darkness <
Trying to diffuse the situation, I scraped the bottom of the empty barrel that was my non-existent social skills and said, "Um.........hello my name is John, who are you people?" This time I heard full blown hysterical laughter in my head.
Well what did you expect? The only human contact I have ever had in my entire life consisted of interactions with nannies, a few lawyers, my doctor, and some MI7 agents. I'm not exactly used to meeting new people and starting friendly conversations not to mention the fact that the people I was supposed to be befriending belonged in a Tolkien book or a comic-con convention and thought I was an undead monster. Finally the cherry on top of this ice-cream Sunday, I had a female A.I. living in my brain that was currently suffering from debilitating laughter who had just told me that I had been asleep for seven centuries.
I couldn’t help but wonder if I had finally gone insane.
* * *
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
P.O.V. change - Elsie (biker chick)
After the greater purify had failed to have any visible effects upon the undead monster in front of us, all of us knew we were in big trouble. Any undead that can shrug off a major blessing like it was nothing and then make fun of us afterwards was not a creature amateurs like us were equipped or able to handle.
We should have known something was wrong when the naked man came out of that coffin. Lidia had warned us about the possibility that the coffin was actually a prison but we had foolishly ignored her. I guess it is true what they say, hindsight truly is twenty-twenty.
The first time I laid eyes upon the creature I couldn't help but be mesmerized by the sheer splendor of his impossibly good looks. That should have been our first clue that we were up against something we couldn't defeat. As an avid hunter I knew that the best way to capture game is using a lure to entice your prey. In this scenario I wasn’t the hunter, no I was definitely the prey and his looks were the bait. It was as if his entire body was painstakingly sculpted by a goddess of lust to be everything a woman could ever want in a man, carefully calculated to enthrall the senses of the opposite sex and hold them prisoner in their own desires while masking the danger that lurked beneath. We should have noticed that no normal undead could have such piercingly electric blue eyes that looked like they were fashioned from sapphires and seemed to hold the power of a wild storm in their depth but we were all frozen in shock, looking at the breathtaking creature in front of us like birds being mesmerized by a snake.
It was Thomas’s panicked squeal that managed to wake us up from our unnatural fascination with the creature and galvanized us to take action but when the greater purify failed to even affect him we knew it could only be one creature we were facing, a creature whose name was only whispered in bars when adventurers had too much to drink, a creature of legends and nightmares that inspired fear within the hearts of all explorers, an elder vampire.
An elder vampire required a raid party of at least fifty experienced adventurers to defeat; four desperate kids had absolutely no chance against such a monster. I could see the same thoughts going through my team members’ heads as they backed away from the monster. Suddenly as if some unknown signal was given, all of us simultaneously turned in four different directions away from the alcove where we had dug up that God damned coffin and ran away as fast as our legs could carry us.
I felt cold sweat going down my back and my breathing becoming ragged as I pushed myself to run as fast as possible all the while knowing that my pitiful speed would mean nothing to the vampire if it decided to go for me instead of one of my friends. I was constantly tormented by the sounds of footsteps, even though I knew it was probably nothing more than the echoes of my own footsteps bouncing off the walls of the cavern, my heart still lurched when I heard the pitter patter of footsteps behind me as if the creature was right at my heels. I kept imagining that I could smell its putrid breath as it was descending on my nape to end my life.
At one point I thought I heard the sound of someone screaming in the distance and I hated myself because some part of me was relieved that it went after one of my friends and not me. Finally as I got out of the dungeon and collapsed on the grassy field outside I knew I probably would never see one or more of my friends ever again.
All I could do now was to wait and see which of my friends made it out.
* * *
P.O.V. change- John (MC)
Before I could say another word to the strange quartet, all four turned in four different directions and ran away as if the devil himself was after their soul.
Well that was just rude, I mean I'm not that ugly or scary am I?
"You know if I didn't know for a fact that you had an IQ of two hundred and ninety, I would think you were a certified moron." Apparently Mistress Julia has decided to stop guffawing at my expense and decided that she would much rather make snarky remarks about my shortcomings but her jovial attitude didn’t last long and she spoke with a serious tone, "You aren't in Kansas anymore John. You need to adopt quickly or you might not survive your next encounter with the natives."
"And what do mean by that Jules, none of this is making much sense to me. What the hell happened while I was out? Did I get transported to another world or something?"
"Nope, you are still on good old earth, except remember those strange energy signatures I told you about? Before the EMP knocked out all of my sensors, I was able to study them carefully and I found out that they have a very strange relationship with what we perceive as reality. Remember that obscure hypothesis by that Russian, Alexei Abrikosov?"
I was thunderstruck. I knew about Alexei Abrikosov and his outlandish theories. If she mentioned his name then she was talking about one of the hypothesis made about the very nature of the universe, a branch of metaphysics that was as much philosophy as science. It wasn’t even considered a proper field of study, it was more of a way to throw around interesting metaphysical theories around without any actual proof. The theory that Abrikosov came up with was one of the more “out there” ones even for this pseudo-branch of physics, a theory he called 'the source code theory'.
"No that's impossible, there was no evidence to support Abrikosov’s theory, that guy was a quack. Another level of reality that projects our reality, like our reality is just a shadow of a five dimensional reality...." I was gob smacked. If that is what she was saying then...
"He was right John. These new energies allow us to see into and even directly manipulate the fifth dimensional space. You saw those inscriptions on their armor, that was simple fortification. By manipulating their corresponding fifth dimensional object, they change the very nature of the armor in ways that were previously impossible. "
"But Jules, how in God's name do you know all this? How can you even be sure that the fifth dimensional space even exists when you have been buried down here? Are you just speculating?"
"Nope, I noticed that the energies, which I have tentatively decided to call mana because the obvious similarities between the energies and the mana that is the source of magic in most fantasy books plus saying mana is much less of a mouthful than saying extra dimensional energies, anyhow the mana seems to make reality rather malleable and my sensors were able to pick up some "glimpses" of this fifth dimensional space, so after the EMP event blew all my sensors I hotwired your eyes and modified them to be able to see mana."
I was sitting down butt naked on the cold hard floor, but I hardly noticed at this point. My mind was going a hundred miles per hour processing not only a giant info dump but a radical shift in paradigm.
This changes everything. If Jules was right then by utilizing this so called mana, there were literally infinite new possibilities to explore. While I slept the universe had changed around me and now it possessed new secrets, secrets that I had the sudden urge to uncover.
"Jules, show me everything you have on mana, we are gonna have a lot of research to do."
"Finally! There is the old John I know! For a moment there I thought the coma had given you brain damage,” she giggled once again and then added with a softer, kinder tone, “I usually give you a hard time but seriously, it’s good to have you back John."
I could only smile and reply, "It’s good to be back."
Prologue Part 3: Upgrades
I was eager to start studying my new world right away but when I tried to get up off the floor, my body felt alien and unfamiliar. I tried to keep my balance but I overcorrected and fell face first onto the floor. I had already stumbled out of my pod when the strange quartet had ran away like bats from hell, a feat that would have been impossible in my old frail body, so I knew that I could get up off the floor easily enough but when I tried to put some power into my legs to stand up I found myself face down on the ground, kissing the dusty cave floor.
“Jules, what is wrong? Is something wrong with my body?”
"No, you dork. Your body is just fine. In fact it is better than just fine, you would probably win every Olympic event you participated in with your new body. But you have to remember that you have spent your entire life in a body that can barely move. This means that you need time to get used to your new body and learn how to move properly from scratch. That means days of physical therapy before you can even walk.”
A revolving 3D image of a naked man with black hair appeared in front of me. He had a well sculpted body without being as buff as one of those steroid pumping gym freaks. He was tall, had wide shoulders, a muscular chest and a six pack on his stomach. He had well defined muscles on his hands and legs and overall he had a body type that would be described as a swimmer’s build. His lean body looked fit and healthy without an iota of excess fat visible on his entire body.
“What is this Jules?”
“This is your new body. All the problems with the cerebral palsy are obviously gone,” as she spoke, parts of the revolving 3D image started to get highlighted. First a network of flashing lights appeared throughout the image,” Your nervous system has been fixed and is now almost fully operational. Of course it will take some time for me to fully synchronize your skeletal nervous system with your central nervous system for optimum efficiency since you have never used your body before but I should be done by the time you finish with your physical therapy. I could have tried to directly set up connections in your brain in conjunction with your skeletal nervous system so that you wouldn’t need to do any physical therapy but apparently the rules set by my dad prohibit me from doing so.”
Next the flashing lights that represented the nervous system disappeared and were replaced by glowing muscles, “As you can see your muscles have been rebuilt from the atrophied wreck they used to be into the fine specimen before you,” the image of the muscles then zoomed in to show some muscle fibers,” Not only have I kept your muscles in peak condition by constantly stimulating them but I have also made them twice as dense and twice as strong by increasing the number of fibers in them. Of course all this was finished 5 years into the re-forging process, so I made a few adjustments while I was waiting 700 years for someone to dig you out.”
The image zoomed out again and this time it showed a face with a strong chin, straight nose and the classic good looks of a movie star, “First is the most obvious change, I modified your face to look more handsome. I used a complex set of algorithms to determine what I believe would be most attractive to a woman and this is the fruit of my labor. I don’t like to toot my own horn but I made you look hot, if I do say so myself. Just think of it as a thank you for letting me live inside of your head.”
The image then zoomed in until it showed the familiar image of a group of blocky structures that looked like they were made of Legos. I recognized them as the nanites that I had designed and created with Julia’s help. I looked closely at the nanites and noticed a few minor differences. As I carefully studied the new design, Jules continued to tell me about my new body, “The second modification I made is that instead of flushing the nanites out of your system after the process was complete like you planned, I fully integrated them into your normal biological makeup. Now not only does each cell contain a certain amount of nanites, your bone marrow contains complex nanite factories that are dedicated to producing nanites.”
The image then zoomed out to show an organ near my stomach that I was completely unfamiliar with. It was unnaturally spherical and had blood vessels everywhere on its strange blue surface,” The third biggest modification I made to your body is this mana refining organ where your appendix used to be. It collects the mana around you and converts it into a form you can use, I’m not really sure how you can use this but I am sure that it will probably come in handy in the future.”
The image shifted back to the face, my new face if Jules was to be believed, but this time it was focused on the eyes. I used to have muddy brown eyes that were nothing special but the eyes I were seeing now were deep cobalt blue with what looked like lightning running from the pupils to the edge of the iris,” and last but definitely not least, I gave you a sparkly pair of eyes with special receptors in your retinas that can sense mana.”
I turned myself over so that I was resting on my back instead of my face and started to do very simple exercises with my arms and legs, just light movements really, couldn’t really be called exercise. While I was raising and lowering my limbs and getting accustomed to my new body, I started to ask Jules some questions.
“Hey Jules, what were those strange glowing symbols I saw on that woman’s bow and that guy’s armor?”
“They were magic runes.”
“You did say something about that earlier but I’m not sure I understand, magic runes?”
“Before the EMP took out my equipment, I was still connected to the internet. A year after you locked yourself into that capsule, there was a massive accident at the CERN super collider. Strange creatures that resembled angels and demons poured out of nowhere and started a battle that completely decimated Switzerland and destroyed half of France.”
As she spoke, she showed me multiple videos, most of which were amateur footage taken by cell phones and handheld video cameras. They showed men with golden wings and flaming swords fighting against demon like creatures with bat like wings, red and black skin, horns and even pointed tails. Both sides were obviously powerful, buildings and homes were being swept away in the wake of their battles as if they were nothing but sandcastles being swept away by the sea. One by one the videos went dark as the ones filming them fled or became casualties of the war between the angels and demons.
Once the last video blinked out, Jules continued to tell me what had happened while I slept in my capsule, ”For some reason the creatures in those videos vanished the same day they appeared but after that day the strange energy I told you about, the one I called mana, flooded the entire world. That was when things got really weird.”
Jules then started to show me videos of people levitating, making spheres of water float up into the air, and making shapes out of fire.
“A very small minority of people started to get powers like these, powers over the classical elements like fire, water, air, and earth, but it didn’t end there. You see, mana reacts to a person’s will and it can be shaped by a person’s thought but that doesn’t mean that it reacts to every person equally and it doesn’t mean that just anybody can do something meaningful with it. It seems that mana is governed by rules just like everything else. Believe it or not the best ways to manipulate mana have already been discovered. Things that you used to think were a pointless waste of time and simple superstition became an important part of the world. For example most of the rituals in the Wicca and druid systems actually started to work. The pentagram for example is a rather good way to gather and funnel mana, but I digress. The point I am trying to make is that the people who most benefited from this new power were the people who were ridiculed and relegated to the fringes of society because of their beliefs, people who were usually antiestablishment and sometimes even mentally unstable gained unimaginable powers. They were able to use simple protection sigils to deflect bullets, use rituals to summon spirits and even curse their enemies from a distance. Governments panicked and tried to suppress these people by force but with their firearms useless against the people they were trying to suppress, things didn’t go very well for them and the backlash was rather severe. Lines were drawn between the people with powers and the people with no powers and terrible atrocities occurred as both sides fought for supremacy. The war was only heating up when the EMP that I told you about went off. The EMP was strange, from the way it was propagating it didn’t act like a normal EMP which leads me to believe that it wasn’t caused by normal means, I believe that it was the result of a magical ritual which was created to destroy anything that ran on electricity and from what I saw of the four people that dug you out, I think it worked. They had no guns, their clothes weren’t high quality products and they weren’t using any electrical instruments. They were even using torches instead of flash lights. John, I think that the EMP ended the war. I think the people with magical powers won.”
Chapter One: Intolerable cruelty
Day 2, Abandoned silver mine, Northern Greenland
I woke up with agonizing pain running up and down my back. My fingers, toes and other extremities felt like they were frost bitten and only seconds from simply falling off. I could hear my stomach grumbling as it demanded sustenance and the combination of all the aches in my body made me feel like I had been run over by a bus.
I had spent the whole of the previous day trying to get some control over my new body but as Jules had predicted it was a slow and labor intensive endeavor. I had performed simple exercises for hours on end but I had barely made any progress before my exhaustion had caught up to me and I fell asleep on the cavern floor and now I was paying the price for that decision.
“Rise and shine sleepy head, we have a busy day ahead of us,” Julia’s voice was upbeat and peppy, a stark contrast to how I was feeling.
“Why didn’t you stop me from sleeping on the ground Jules?”
“Hey, it isn’t my fault that you passed out after pushing yourself too hard. I told you to take it easy but you didn’t listen to me. I mean what kind of an idiot exercises for eighteen hours straight without food or rest? As far as I’m concerned, you deserved what you got.”
She was obviously peeved that I had ignored all of her warnings yesterday so I tried to mollify her before she did something unfortunate to me, “I’m sorry Jules. It’s just that this is the first time I have been able to move my body and I got a little carried away.”
“I guess I can forgive you this once but don’t ever ignore my advice again. I’m trying to help you John and if you are going to continue to disregard my advice it will only harm you. Now I think it is time for you to get some grub.”
“And where am I going to get food?”
“The hydroponic tank in your capsule is still functional but since the capsule door has been removed, it is no longer closed off and water has been evaporating from it since yesterday morning but it should be able to sustain you for two maybe three days tops. I suggest that you find other forms of sustenance by that time.”
I was able to crawl to my capsule and retrieved some algae from inside. The mechanism that extracted the nutrients from the algae seemed to have failed so I had to gobble up the wet algae in its raw form. It was disgusting and tasted revolting but I was somehow able to keep the seaweed down and it stopped my stomach’s rumbling.
Next I started where I left off from yesterday and started to exercise. Now that my food and water situation was so dire, I needed to be able to leave the cave in three days but according to Julia’s projections, I wasn’t going to be able to walk even after a week of physiotherapy which meant that I needed to use every second I have effectively or I wasn’t going to make it in time to get food when the algae runs out which in turn meant that I would die. Exercising became a matter of life and death so I immediately started to move my body as much as possible but this time I didn’t take any risks and I took a break every time Jules told me to stop.
On one of these breaks I was talking to Jules about the emergence of this so called magic. If what she had told me so far was accurate, and I had no reason to think that she was wrong, then it was now possible to wield awesome powers similar to my favorite characters in books and movies.
As a diehard fan of fantasy books and a hardcore gamer, I was excited to try magic out for myself and see what I could do with it so I asked Jules how I should go about harnessing mana.
“Alright John, first you should close your eyes and try to feel the mana inside of you. I have already made you an organ that collects mana so you should try to focus on that area.”
I closed my eyes as instructed and tried to find this mana she kept talking about. I searched myself and for a moment I thought that I felt some heat in my body.
“I think I got it Jules. What should I do now?”
“Try to take a hold of that energy and try to move it around your body.”
I attempted to do as she said but every time I reached for the energy, it seemed to slip through my metaphorical fingers. It was like trying to grasp a slippery eel covered in grease. Eventually I was able to move a miniscule amount around my body but the rest of it obstinately stayed where it was.
“I moved a little bit of it Jules, now what?”
“Now I want you to open your eyes while still holding on to the energy and then I want you to release it out of your right hand.”
I grabbed that miniscule amount of mana that was willing to listen to me and I forced it out of my hand after I opened my eyes. Immediately a huge jet of flame appeared before me and hit the cavern walls.
For a second I was shocked that I was able to summon such power but slowly the shock was replaced by giddiness. I was so pleased with my success that I tried to do a little happy dance to celebrate but with my uncoordinated body all I managed to do was flop around like a dying fish. But I didn’t let that get me down, I was much too excited for that.
“Did you see that Jules? I’m freaking awesome. I’m going to be a powerful mage in no time. John the sorcerer, it has a nice ring to it doesn’t it? Or I could change my name altogether, something that sounds less mundane and more magical. I could be Gandeldore, master of fire.”
I thought that Jules would be excited for me but instead of congratulating me, she started to laugh her ass off.
“What is so funny?”
“Oh my God, I know I don’t even have a body but I swear I can feel my sides hurting from laughing so hard. Gandeldore? Really? A combination of Gandalf and Dumbledore? Can you think of a dorkier name even if you tried?”
“Hey, Gandeldore isn’t that bad especially since I have the ability to back it up. I mean did you see that? I shot freaking flames out of my hand on the first try!”
“No you didn’t. You have been tricked oh great Gandeldore.”
I started to get a bad feeling when I heard the mocking tone in Julia’s voice,
“What are you talking about Jules?”
“There were no flames, I just made you think there were. This was what really happened.”
She replayed what had happened in the last ten minutes but this time the jet of fire was absent, there wasn’t even a spark. All it showed was me looking constipated for a few moments before I started flopping around looking like an idiot and making a fool of myself. It finally dawned on me what had happened, I really had been tricked. Jules added the fire and made me think I was powerful when I couldn’t even muster up the magical equivalent of a fart.
“Why would you do this to me Jules? Why would you trick me like this?”
“The first reason is because it was freaking hilarious, I mean did you see yourself? That was comedy gold! Hell, every time I get a little sad I will just watch that clip again and I’d feel better. But you are right, this wasn’t purely for entertainment purposes, it was also educational. The second more important reason I did this is because I needed to pay you back for what you did yesterday,” suddenly Julia’s voice became low and menacing and I heard her words as if they were being whispered directly into my ear, “This was me going easy on you Johnny boy. I hope you have learned your lesson. I am in your mind and I have direct access to your visual cortex. That can be pretty helpful as I have shown you so far but on the flip side that means that I can make you see whatever the hell I want you to see. Never ignore me like you did yesterday or I can literally make your life a living nightmare, understood?”
I just gulped loudly and nodded my head emphatically since I couldn’t really speak at that moment.
That day was the first time I saw a demonstration of one very important fact and an almost inviolable law of the universe; women can be fucking scary and vindictive when they are pissed off, whether the woman in question was an artificial intelligence with a feminine voice or just your garden variety organic human woman was irrelevant.