The world began with a bang, not a big bang as popular science would have you believe but a little bang and a whirl.  As the hard drive spun up an Age ended and another began. Something awful and amazing this way had come. A new beginning for some and a nightmare for others…

In the offices of the Quantum Energy Technology and Development Bureau Dr. Edgar Fitzgerald a polymath of great renown finally put the finishing touches on his latest project of matter transference. So far he has transferred base metal cubes surrounded by vacuum from one point to another with zero loss of mass. But today he took the next step, moving a living creature. Beginning with one of the smallest, a prokaryote. Bacillus Subtilis to be exact, and everything was going as expected. That is until it no longer was.

 He had accounted for everything, being a perfectionist with an eidetic memory he could not understand what had gone so tremendously wrong. The problem was not that the bacterium had transferred, just that it had simply not arrived. He had taken everything into account but one thing.

 The bacterium had a goal, it wasn’t so intellectual as to have a day to day list of plans or life goals. No, it had two simple goals, to survive, and to reproduce. So, when the good doctor decided to transfer his first living organism, he made one fatal error. An error he could have never foreseen. That the bacterium would affect the outcome of his test with its wants and desires. Leading the doctor to transfer the bacterium to an unassuming lab technician currently residing two hallways down outside the quarantine zone for advanced testing. Leaving the unassuming technician to bring the unwanted hitchhiker home to his family of four, his wife and two children.

And what self-respecting bacteria does not take advantage of such a sweet and welcoming family’s hospitality. But by doing everything in its power to spread. And spread it did to such a degree that in no sooner than a week went by, that nearly the entire town of Goodwin falls, Arizona had been infected with this new and improved bacterium.

Now, normally Bacillus Subtilis is not enough for any kind of worry or consideration. Being as the scientific community thought on B. Subtilis is that it is safe for human and animal consumption. Being a part of many kinds of food and animal feed.

So when the mass epidemic of minor mutations started to occur In the year 2346, there was no correlation between B. Subtilis and the epidemic. Leaving the medical community stumped.

Mass panic spread among the empire of humanity. Many leaving the core worlds at speed, which in turn spread the bacterium much faster than should have been possible. Leaving nearly sixty percent of the empire with minor mutations after just one month of the onset of this mutagenic plague.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Now the strangest thing about the fast spreading plague of change was,  there had been no fatalities. None of the young or old or even critically ill had died from these mutations. In fact, some few had felt even healthier after showing symptoms of change, saying they felt full of a strange living energy. Like drinking multiple cups of coffee on top of their best night’s sleep.

And with these rampant changes in the human genome, the bacterium’s first year anniversary comes to pass leaving many to wonder the mystery of the great change. Had it been evolution at work, some kind of government test gone horribly wrong or simply an act of God.  For modern medicine had no idea of the cause of these mutations that these simple bacteria spread so quickly with their mysterious mutagenic energy that was currently untraceable with modern science.

In the empire of humanity, there was one common denominator. Eternium, the latest and only fantasy VRMMO played by all, from the youngest in kindergarten to the most powerful in the Senate. Its technology was used as a learning tool for school as well as an entertainment system. From teachers reenacting famous events with near limitless control in special school zones in the game, to scientists testing advanced molecular construction projects with real-time data.

But the true obsession or use was the conquering of monsters and exploration of the world. For the possibilities were endless in the game as long as you had the levels and talent. It was a truly living, breathing, fantasy world. Anything you could dream or want was possible. All from the comfort of you own home. Thanks to the quantum real-time network the game utilized.

But with every great idea and fantasy comes a nightmare. You cannot live in a game and play in a game and for a great many work in the game and not have some consequences.

And they all began with one woman in the Carolina 9 colony starting up her eternal helm with a whirl. Wishing as she did every day, that the world of Eternium was real. That magic and the power to bring back the dead and heal the sick with a wave of your hand was a reality.

With a small Bang, the world changed, for some the better, and others a nightmare. For in that North American colony, in that apartment, at 7 am Universal time a woman's dreams became a reality. Her wish was answered as well as 32.8 billion others. For she was the catalyst for the trace amount of that mysterious energy coursing through her veins. When a small plug in the back of her helmet blew out with a small bang that caused a sliver of electricity to jolt her frontal lobe linking for a short millisecond that mysterious energy to the world of Eternium. Causing the minds of everyone contaminated with that power, connected to the game to link for a microsecond, initiating a huge upsurge of power.  A catalyst that caused belief to become a reality and two worlds to collide. As well as many universes to begin their inevitable merge. All from the small amounts of mysterious energy from some small bacteria that for a second was transferred through space and steeped in the undocumented mutagenic primal energy that will be eventually called MANA.