October 31, 2040
The first time it happened was on a foggy, rainy day. The light of the target building’s neon lettering refracted off the rain, causing that unnatural, diffused multicolor lighting that only big cities ever get.
“Corpo capital” – Uriel muttered to himself, breath misting in the cold, hands rubbing together to ward off the weather.
Down at the street level, he could see no decorations, no knocking on doors, no menaces of toilet paper over roofs. No smart child would try to trick or treat in a corporate district after all. Although with how things with corpo-AI entities legally becoming people, he supposed they would change that soon, another empty gesture to change public opinion. Nothing had changed in the 10 years that had gone by since he last was here. It is in the minds of men that folly, that bias, that tantalizing idea that the world will always only change with them, for it is a harsh reality that it changes uncaring of the observer.
Uriel took in a heavy breath, steadying his nerves. The plate armor he was carrying, imbued with holy power as it was, sapped his heat in the weather. It felt unnatural on him, but it remained the only manner in which he could survive what was to come. Sitting down, he drew his blade, set it on his lap, and started the process of blessing it.
“Father, give me strength to do what must be done on this foul night. The courage to endure and the nerve to see it through. Guide my hand along the darkness that comes, and have mercy on my soul for the sins of the night”
Golden light started rolling off the core of the blade, carrying with it a comforting warmth, the sensation of curling around a fireplace, tea in hand, watching the rain patter against the windows.
As rain fell on his face, Uri rose.
He took one last deep breath and started jogging. The clangs of his armor reverberated on the empty street. Jog turning into a sprint, he crashed through the glass doors, and as the alarms started blaring, he remembered the last time he was in this cursed city.
–
September 9, 2030
“I told you only to pack the essentials, son, we can't carry all of this”
As his father looked at his pack, overflowing with his young life’s work, Uri’s mind was still in a fog due to the day's events. He could not believe what had happened. It had been so sudden. He had ju-
CLANG!
His eyes shifted to the noise, seeing his father carelessly throwing the implants from his pack.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING DAD!”-- Uri rushed to his father's side, grabbing his arm mid-yank.
“Can you eat silicone, kid? Can you drink oil or use these” – he grabbed a pair of robotic ears and waved them around his head “to make camp? ” He dropped them on the ground, the clatter of the invention hitting the ground hurting Uri in a deep place. “I told you, we need to pack essentials. This is not a nice trip like we used to do with Martha and Mom.”
The sound of her name made his soul rumble for a second. Heat and cold spread through his body, deep yearning and melancholy and disorder and numbness and all the bad and horrible things in the world took root in his mind in that very second. A hand on his shoulder, a shake.
“BOY! We do NOT have time for this!” He was handed his now empty pack.
“Focus on food, supplies, and anything we might need for the travel ahead. Cross-check with my pack to make sure we are good for the road. You remember the path we are to take?”
A red and blue light flashed through the window, making both men press against the wall in fear. The shrill sound of sirens wailed outside the tiny house. Uriel could feel the sweat on his father’s hand, pressed against his mouth. Moments passed, and the police car just went by.
“Just essentials, son. Hurry up”
Forlorn eyes landed on the pieces of tech. His father sighed, looking at him. Hand went up to his brow, a gesture of surrender. He wordlessly started pulling the rug, revealing –
A patch of floor exactly like the rest of the tiling.
“Come here, kid. Remember this well”
As Uri approached him, his father started tapping the floor in a particular pattern. He heard the grinding of stone against stone a little behind him, and a hatch was revealed.
“Family safe”, he said, dismissively. “Just dump your inventions here; we can spare a minute or two.”Uri looked his father in the eyes. He looked back
“Time, boy” – His stare unflinching – “You know perfectly well how much time we have. Move
And so uri moved. They left the city that night, like thieves from where they once were like kings.
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The sound of rainclouds roaring covered their escape.
–
As the sound of glass breaking against the marble floors broke his reverie, Uriel looked into the room.
“Energy room first, then we go for the emergency generators in the server room” he reminded himself in a whisper.
He had gone over this plan so many times. One minute response time, 30 seconds they will take to the top floor. This had to be a blitz. And so he rushed into the compound, golden light against the reddened backdrop of the alarm lights.
The first gunshot still took him by surprise. He used his will on the armor, hardening it further.
“Shit”
A second of inattention and a bullet had gotten lodged in his arm. His bastard sword swung once, and the iron of the guns parted like butter under a hot knife, leaving white-hot metal in its wake. Bullets pinged off his armor as the second turret shot at him, will acting as a physical shield, the sound cluttering up the night as he walked down the turret. With one slash, he severed its connection to the power grid.
Blood gushed off his wound, pumping gouts to the beat of his heart. He breathed out, focused his will, and the same golden light that covered his blade came upon his flesh. As he walked towards the electric panel, flesh stitched itself together, the bullet popping off him. Weariness started flooding his mind.
“Lost fucking time and fucking energy on this fucking thing, Fuck!”
He stabbed his blade through the panel. For a moment, everything went dark. Backup power kicked in. He had lost track of time with that shot. In that moment, he realized he had forgotten a key detail. As his hand flashed towards the ancient stopwatch hanging on his breast, he realized that it was broken.
A second passed in stillness. Then two. Then Uri exploded towards the outside of the building, hoping he still had time for what had to be done. He distanced himself with a running start and then jumped towards the glass facade of the building. As he crashed into the windows, he channeled his will into his hands and grabbed the bulletproof glass.
“C’moon” He muttered
His grip held for a second. Then two
“Yes!”
And so he began the climb.
–
September 12, 2040
“So, you break down the door, with your damn heavy plated shoulder, first room will have a bunch of turrets, but you should handle those with ease. Go past them, take out the power panel, and then that's when we get problems. The stairs have blast door shutters that will activate on a delay after around 30 seconds, designed to trap any intruders between them.”
“Can’t I just break them down?” Uri asked, hand on his bastard sword.
“Can you cut walls of steel half a meter thick with that thing?” – Robert asked, looking at him skeptically.
“I don't think even with my blade imbued I can do that. “
“What about sprinting, can you run 20 stories worth of stairs in those 30 seconds, with those fancy muscle imbuements of yours?”
Michael thought for a moment. He felt his body, his muscles sore from training, the weariness on his mind, and the fog that came with it. He had realized that these new powers of his would not keep growing indefinitely, and they were reaching a plateau in his training. He knew why.
He grimaced.
“My will is not strong enough, Bob. ”
“Kid” – Bob’s blue eyes dug into his.-- “I’ve seen you wake up at the break of dawn for months now, training, studying, and gathering information for this cause that you now carry. I see the calluses on your hands. We both know you DO have the will”
“Will is not just routine, old man” Uriel clenched his fist.
“My father used to say that pain is easy after mom passed away”
He remembered the days that his father had spent, absorbed in his job before coming to that realization. Months he hadn’t seen him outside of meals, pain absorbing him.
“He told me that will was about changing paths, fighting about momentum. I can train easily Bob, it's a simple outlet. It's work.”
“So then what is will to you, if not Discipline, oh wise little kid”
“The ability to change, you old fuck” – He chuckled. – “You use will to create the routine that is the discipline, to break habits, to stand new kinds of discomfort. That's for the regs. For us, it's changing the world. That stems from certainty, in a way. From delusion and knowing you are right and capable. The elder used to say it was because of my messing with machines when I was younger, that by doing that my soul was forever banned from properly embracing the Luddite way. He said that the foundations of my ideal were flawed.”
Bob scoffed
“If you are weak, thank god I never saw the rest. So, you can't run the stairs. That leaves us out of options for easy access then”
“What about the elevator?” Uri asked
“Booby-trapped, it would drop you from the 19th floor, then drop a slab of concrete after you to double tap your sorry body. Fire escape Is also trapped, not like they care about OSHA regulations when they plan to make the building fully automaton-manned.”
“Can’t we use your credentials to access the server room or something?”
“Kid, they shut me out every day at 5:00 on the dot. They haven't even let us do overtime since around the time your da left. You know how it goes. They need us less every day. They keep us for the optics is all.”
“Fuck”
“Fuck indeed.”
“How am I meant to do this alone, Bob?” – Voice caught in his throat – “HOW”
Bob silently stared at him for a couple seconds.
“You are a good kid, you know that. I remember how you and Martha used to play in the office while your parents designed new uses for the AI robo things. How you could make designs that could make more dangerous jobs in reliable manners so that folks wouldn't be risked. He was a passionate man, your da. I miss him. ”
Bob took in a long breath.
“Look Uri, no one should be shouldered with the things you have been saddled with, but no one else either can or cares to do it. It's all you, sonny.“
–
Hand after hand, he climbed. Ten, fifteen floors went by. He looked at the twentieth floor and smashed in the window. As he rolled through, Uri saw his goal. The servers, they were here, onyx towers shining with bright LED lights in the night. He made it in time, he just had to–
A loud bang broke the silence of the night. Pain. Blood splattered in front of him.
Uri fell over, into the forming puddle of his own blood. Warmth left his body through the hole in his neck.
On that night, October 31, 2040, Uriel died. And with him, all hope for the world.