Aware. Unaware. Awake. Blackout. TaeJean miraculously survived the explosion, yet his mind was in shock. His nerve endings were dead, which ironically left him feeling as if he was freezing. Perhaps it was willpower and spite, keeping hm alive. He knew he could not let Cory have the last laugh.
TaeJean’s lucidity continued to go in and out. Whenever he felt himself blanking out he would mentally shake himself. “Am I going to die? I can’t die! I have to kill Cory! I have to survive! I’m only 15!!...” He would latch on to any thought to focus his will to live. Over and over this cycle continued, for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, TaeJean ended up in an emergency room bed and stabilized. But his senses did not return. The last images he remembered seeing were the silhouettes of trauma doctors standing over him. He only saw outlines, as his eyes were burned. Then he felt himself finally starting to relax from the morphine the doctors administered. And so, the boy fell into a deep sleep. Had he been aware, in the early hours of the morning, he would have noticed an envelope floating towards him and lodging itself under his pillow.
Before the envelope even came, T.J. began to dream. First came the usual dream. His feelings of loss and the devastating battle with his unknown opponent. Then within this dream, reality shifted, and aspects of a second dream erupted forth, overwriting the current dream. He was the only being in this second dream. Waves of light from all colors imaginable flooded over him. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the ambiance.
Finally, his third dream came. Opening his eyes, the boy found himself within a vast field, full of grasses and flowers. A clear night sky hung above him with twinkling stars. He wore only basketball shorts and a sleeveless undershirt, his usual sleep clothing. The weather was moist, foggy and cool, giving the impression to TaeJean that this was the dew of morning twilight. The grass soft, and glowed as if under a black light. The air was crisp and perfect. TaeJean knew it was a dream, but he felt as if his burned respiratory system was functioning better than it ever had. “Is this paradise?” the boy asked himself, not really sure if he spoke aloud or within his own being.
As he looked to the heavens, shooting stars streaked across the night sky. He began to walk forward. As he moved , he saw a giant hand emerge from a cloud formation. The hand had mahogany skin, and wrapped around it in a double helix, were beads of yellow and green. TaeJean wanted to be right under that hand, and picked up his pace to meet it. He felt the lush grass crunch under his bare feet. He knew that the hand had something good in store for him! “This will bless me!” his thoughts echoed. He began to sprint to wards the location where the hand was reaching down.
As he got closer, TJ truly grasped the size of the hand. Just the top joint of the pinky finger was 60 meters across! All of a sudden, a spark of bright cobalt blue flashed within the hand, and it held an orb of energy in the same shade. As T.J. approached, he began to float. Eventually, he reached forward, his hands making contact with the orb of power. He felt it begin to rush into and over him, and his entire body was soon engulfed!
Within the sphere, T.J. felt impossible sensations! Sensations he could not describe! He somehow felt infinitely heavy, yet at the same time weightless! The temperature felt infinitely hot, endlessly cold, and perfectly comfortable all at the same time! His sense of time was broken, causing things to feel fast and slow! Oh what amazing visuals did the boy see! Fractalized tetrahedrons, hyper cubes, tesseracts, and spirals, all going in and out of each other. Other shapes one could not even begin to name or fathom. Mouths and eye shapes, interacting and passing through each other, singing and changing colors as light and sound became indistinguishable from one another! Colors that existed outside of humanities visual limits! By this time in his life, TaeJean had tried several substances that a teen had no business trying, including psychedelics. However these visuals and sensations were far beyond even those! So as things continued, TaeJean began to feel happy, for he knew great things were in store for him.
Then he woke up. He was surprised to know he was feeling much better. Instinctively, he stood up. No pain. He could see! He could hear the beep of the machines. He could smell the hospital room. He wondered if the entire day had been a dream. But looking at his surroundings, he knew that not to be the case. He looked down. His normally milk chocolate skin that had caramel undertones was much lighter now, the top layers burned off. In fact, there were a lot of changes. He could tell that he was completely bald, and his eyebrows and peach fuzz goatee were gone as well! Turning around, he noticed what looked like and envelope resting where his head had been. He grabbed it and opened it.
“Greetings. You’re probably wondering how you are walking and feeling better. I’m someone who has been watching you ever since your school fight went viral a few days ago. I injected you with something to give you powers. Sorry I couldn’t ask permission, but given the state you were in I doubted you’d mind. I would like to see you after you are up and running again. This looks like a normal piece of paper, but you see that stamp at the bottom? Run your finger over it. It will let me know it’s time to come and collect you. When it turns green that means I am outside. Just leave when that happens. I know it might sound crazy, but you can actually just leave out the front door! Yes that’s right! Just don’t bump into anyone! P.S.— I am still watching you, so don’t try to run. It would be very bad if you fell into the wrong hands!”
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“Well that’s reassuring and not creepy at all,” T.J. muttered to himself. He moved his finger across the stamp, and it turned red. After a few minutes it turned green. So he began to leave. He realized that he only wore the hospital gown, but remembering the message, he decided to walk out anyway. In the hall way it seemed nobody could see him. As instructed, he avoided bumping into anyone and sure enough made it out unbothered. When he came outside, it was like he was seeing a totally new world! The colors were different, more defined. And all his other senses were intensified as well. The small animals and their noises, the smells of the city. What a rush to the senses! He suddenly felt something brush against his skin. A white ethereal being, the size of a tennis ball, with a face resembling a West African mask wrapped around his wrist. T.J. was not frightened by this being. In fact, it seemed almost like an old friend. “b….”. It grabbed on to T.J.’s arm, though this did not bother the boy.
“I see you’re awake.” T.J. looked down the stairs. Ameer stood outside of a limo, wearing sun glasses. He opened the door. “Shall we?” T.J. approached slowly. “You’re the one who left the letter?”
T.J. and the man entered the back of the limo. It began to drive. “Indeed I am.” Ameer handed T.J. a bag with clothes in it. “Get changed. We have much to talk about.” Ameer heads towards the other end of the limo and a screen comes down, separating the two.
“I will be speaking to you as you get dressed. I can’t see you by the way. Care for music?” T.J. responds “Sure why not?”
Ameer said “I’ll let you pick.” On the screen separating the two, a HUD appeared on TaeJean's side. He saw several options, including TV, several video games, and Music. TaeJean reached out and clicked the music option. Suddenly a list of genres appeared. T.J. also noticed a search box. He typed in the name of a certain rap classic from the 90’s about a “Paradise” and the song came up. Before pressing play he pressed the “song options.” menu and decided to set the option to shuffle similar music. The music sounded different to T.J. He noticed parts of the music he had never paid attention too in the past. He opened the bag of clothes. Inside were green cargo pants, underwear, a durag, black tennis shoes, a white t-shirt, and a a jogging jacket with the iconic huge Y that represented Play Ray Inc. at the center. The actual logo of Play Ray was stylized like so: plaYray.
Five minutes passed. “I assume you’re dressed now?” Ameer asked. T.J. responded, “Yeah.” Ameer: “Okay then. Well I’m raising the screen because talking is always better with eye contact.” The dividing screen raised up. Now T.J. and Ameer were directly looking at one another.
Ameer began to speak “TaeJean Thompson, how are you?” T.J.: "Happy to be healed, but not really trusting of you." Ameer, looking puzzled: "Why is that?" T.J.: "It obviously ain't for free."
Ameer chuckled and though internally, “Haha. I see. Kid is straightforward.” T.J. continued to speak. “Before you talk to me,” TaeJean pointed at the man, “I have questions for you.” Ameer responded, “That’s definitely reasonable. Well, go ahead and ask.”
“Question one. Who are you? You look kinda familiar. Two, how do you know who I am? Three, what do you want from me?”
Ameer responded “I’ll explain the third point in a bit. As far as who I am and why I look familiar, you don’t keep up with gaming and technology do you? I’m Ameer Abdalla. I’m the CEO and owner of Play Ray Enterprises.” T.J. now recognized the man. Though he was not a hardcore gamer, like most adolescents TaeJean enjoyed video games. But due to his living situation, they were often hard to come by, so he didn’t totally keep up with the industry. Just a few choice games and whatever new systems came out every few years.
“Ahhh I see! That’s where I know you from! Now question 2?” Ameer let out a chuckle. “Hahaha. I like you! You remind me of an old friend of mine!” Ameer calmed down. “As far as why I know you, 36 hours ago your school fight went viral. From there it was just a bit of technological tracking.” The man reached out his hand. Suddenly a small device appeared. It appeared to TaeJean as two elongated square pyramids, jutting from a cube. Where the tips should be, each one merged into the cube shaped center. This formed an hour glass like shape. At either end was a ring on the square face of the pyramids, with four spokes jutting out. Each of the four cube faces that did not touch the pyramid like components had a screen. “These drones do a lot. Like bending light around them, solidifying it, and saving recordings.” The drone disappeared.
“Now, to answer your third question. The reason I have had these drones following you is because, I need soldiers for a coming war and I like your style. So TaeJean Thompson, let me reveal the world too you!”