It was just a few minutes past two AM. The sound of car engines humming on the other side of the window, in the streets below. It was an ordinary night, all things considered. Some were trying to get home after yet another grueling day of work, dreaming of their own dermal implants, or mayhaps some cognitive enhancers, others were on their way to work, their night shifts waiting their unwilling workers. Some random gang were no doubt having their weekly shootout with their rivals in some abbandoned back street. And the cops, well they either did what little they could to make the city even a tiny bit more hospitable, or did whatever their corporate masters paid them to do. Some shakedowns, a closed eye to some less than savory deal, or the right word in the right officers ear to let go of some stupid kid of this CEO or that. All in all, a night like any other. WEll, for most that is.
A heavy, painfull groan escaped the lips of the young man sleeping in a rather worn down bed, a thin blanket covering his half naked form. Dark, messy haircovered the mans eyes a fair bit, hiding behind the locks ordinary light brown eyes. No implants or anything. No, the man was nowhere near rich or influent enough to be able to get his hand on such tech. Some lesser dermal implants or maybee mucle enhancers for the extremities would have been within his reach, were they still not unreasonably expensive, but cognitive, or neural enhancement? No sir, that tech was still in the early days of its development, and the pieces that were deemed safe for comercial use, were still exclusively sold to the upper echealons of the society. No ordinary worker could even hope to get the chance to be placed on the waiting list, let alone afford it.
The man was just slightly below two meters in height, with average build, the slighty above average height excluding. His breathing was quite rough right now, yet another strained groan escaping his lips, yet the man seemed deep in sleep, even with the rather poor condition he appeared to be in. The most the sleeping man in question did, besides the ocasional groan of pain, was turn once or twice whenever he groaned with pain.
Thud.
Finally, with the relatively frequent groans, followed by a messy turn on the bed, the only logical course of events concluded itself, as the man fell off the bed, landing on the ground with a notable sound. That, as it turns out, was what finally pulled the man out of the deep sleep he was in, bringing him into the land of the living and presenting the rather unpleasant truth of the world he was living in.
"Fuuuck." The man groaned as he covered his eyes with a hand, the impossible migrane pounding his head. In the few moments of semi clarity, a thought surfaced, classifying his current predicament as one of the shittiest days, scratch that, nights ever. he had never experienced anything like it and, thruth to be told, he even had a fleeting though that this was it, his time on this shitty planet coming to end. That fleeting thought dissapeared as soon as it appeared, replaced with cynicism. There was no way death would feel as shitty as this. No this was just another reminder to check the damn water filters in the apartment building basement. Likely some bastard tried to nick it, failed and fuck it up in the process.
"Damn. Mom." He groaned, worried about his mother who was in notably worse physical condition than himself right now, where the problem related to the filter. With one final groan, he somehow got himself to his knees, hand over his pounding head, but before he could manage to get on his feet properly, a sudden bout of dizziness came over him. With another thunk, he faceplanted in the cheap rug that covered the immediate surrounding of his bed. As he slid into unconsciousness, he heard his own voice, though metalic and robotocized.
"Transference successfull. Memories shared. Mental capacity reached, stimulating the cerebral evolution. Standby. stimulation succesfull. Estimated time of recoverey- one week."
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"MOM!" Frank shouted as he shot up from the floor, clear worry permeating his exclamation, but he soon regretted his hasty actions, as a pang of pain struck his head once again. Nowhere near as debilitating as the one in the middle of the night, but still heavy enough to warrant a heavy dose of aspirin and maybee a bit of Mind Oak. But, in the end, being the lower middle class worker that he was, he gritted his teeth and settled with only aspirin. Mind Oak would have been better, but the year was still far from its end, and he could take a bit of punishement. If his mother however was in teh same condition he was in, she would need a dose of it.
Quickly rumaging through one of his drawers, he pullled out the bottle of pills, uncorked it and downed two capsules, the recomended dose for his size and weight. Then with the smallest of reprieves he stumbled out of his room, failing to notice the angle of the sunlight shining through his window. he stumbled through the small coridor, quickly reaching the other room. With a double knock on the door, as well as speaking he called for his mother.
"Mom, you okey there?" then after a few moments of silence, he asked again. "Mom?"
With no response even the second time, he grew even more worried, warning one last time and opening the door, hoping he is not too late. His head still pounding, though slightly less so now, he entered the other bedroom, relieved and confused at the same time at the sight before him. The room was empty, his mother nowhere in sight. Now, still in pain, he stumbled out of the room, turning away from his room, leaving both bedrooms behind he soon arived in the living room/kitchen. On the table he saw a prepeared meal, covered with a lid and a note placed right next to it, so he walked over, picked the note up and read its content.
"Your PHVI picked up irregular readings, administering the emergency pain killer and sending a note to your work regarding a few sick days you will have to take. Three days was the recomended off time based on the readings. Made some paste and sauce. heat it up once you are up. Be back in the evening as ussual. Mom."
Frank lifted his right hand and looked at the small clock on his wrist. PHVI, or in the full name Personal Health Virtual Interface, was a nifty little piece of tech, that monitored ones vital signs, and in case of extreme readings would administer one of the three compounds that would stabilize the patient. One of the very few developed technologies that had become mandatory for every citizen. It was also free, subsidized by the goverment, due to the incredibly high death prevention rate it had shown over the years it was employed as a paid service. Once the suggestion was made to the ruling body, they unanimously aproved it.
Frank could not do much but complain in his pounding head, whatever dose was administered, it had done jack shit. He did not feel any better , Okay, maybee just a little bit, but nowhere near good enough. Still, he was smart enough to move to the first aid kit, open it up, and replace the small, now empty, cartridge in his PHVI. He could be petty and whine about the little to no effect the shot had on him, but he would not compromise his own safety by neglecting to replace the cartridges.
'At least use the IND in your doses.' he complained in his head, and then froze on the spot.
"Irdo Neural Dampener? The fuck is that?" He was once again getting confused, He had never before heard of such a compound, and yet, clear as day, he had a formula and its applications at the beck and call in his mind. Unfortunately, the headache did not help him figure out anything more. The more he tried the more pain he felt, so doing the only reasonable thing he could at the given moment, he sat down at the kitchen table, pulled the prepeared bowl closer to him, fished a spoon out of a drawer he could reach from his position, yay for big wingspan, and in a mechanical manner cleaned out the bowl. Nothing beats mothers cooking .
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With a slight curve on his lips, one hand again on his head, he stumbled back to his room and fell back in the bed.
'Much better than the carpeted floor, thats for sure.' Frank had a fleeting though as he gave in, once again sliding into the land of dreams. had he been the one on the side, he would be suprised at how fast he fell asleep, considering the huge headache that had been messing him up.
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"Hey sweetie. How do you feel?" Were the words Frank heard as he slowly woke up once more, this time rather quickly noticing the last rays of day shining through a corner of his window.
"Hey mom. You okay?" he asked as he slowly came to, his concern for her well being the first thought that surfaced in his mind. Luckaly, the migrane was now just a distant memory, replaced by a light fogginess and exaustion. This must be how hangover feels, a thought rushed through his mind, as he waited for his mothers response.
"He he he." light chuckle escaped her hips as she caressed his hair. "Last I checked, you were the one out with the sick days. I do believe that is a question I should be asking you, young man."
"Sheesh mom, I am twenty already." he slowly replied "I dont think that counts as young anymore, what with the shi.... stuff we have to deal with."
"Na-ah Frank. Never forget, you will always be my little boy, no matter how old you are. That is my right as your mother, and I will never relinquish it. So you better get used to it. God knows you should have already, what with the twenty years I have been drilling it into your noggin."
"Hufff" Frank sighed "Yes Ma'am.
"But really, how are you sweetie? feeling better? And you did replace the cartrige, yes?"
"Much better now mom. And yes, of course I did. My mother did not raise a fool, I would like to think."
"That makes two of us." she smiled. "Rest, I will make something nice for dinner and call you when its ready."
"Okey." Frank responded and laid back on the bed. He went over the few things he found more than weird. The migrane came from nowhere. He was sure he had not caught one of the nasty viruses that were in season, and it was not a contamination in his home either, he would not be the only one to feel the symptoms then. And the fewer dream he had lat night made no sense either. What the hell was that half baked synth-Frank voice and why he could not recall much ow what he think he heard. And the, the IND, or whatever the hell he halucinated.
And then, it came up again. Like a folder with pictures, much clearer than before. IND, its formula, the supposed uses and other relevant data. Whats more, he thought he understood the intricacies of the chemistry behind it, even if some of the compounds were not familiar to him by name. he could vaguely recall their atomical composition as well, though there were still some fog around those particular memories. The moment of focus did tire him out, lulling him to sleep once again.
His mother woke him up a few hours later, the food done and almost cold. His mother didnt want to wake him too soon, or so she had said. Frank joined her in the kitchen, slightly more himself after the last nap, but still not quite there entirely. He reasoned, his body was getting used to whatever it was that happened last night. he did the responsible thing and did not dig in his mind for the formula he had stumbled upon, engaging his mother in a light conversation about her day as they dined. He was using the entirety of his brain power to find any clues regarding a possible contamination in his home. Just because there were no obvious symptoms for anyone eles, did not mean he was not the first one to experience the full onset of them.
Luckaly, he found no indication that his mother was feeling any worse for wear, or she was too damn good at hiding it, but after full twenty years living in the same apartment, he was more than sure she could not pull that off. So, once the dinner was over, and after he had taken a much needed shower at the urging of his mom, he was once again in his room, laid down on his bed, arms stretched wide to the sides as he stared at the ceiling, his mind drawing him onto sleep once again.
'Elevated desire to sleep. Most likely to speed up the adaptation process.' he thought as he slid into sleep once again.'I hope it end soon, My sick leave last for only two more days.'
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Frank walked into the office building. It was his first day back in work after his sick leave. The last tow days had been better and better, though he still did not feel entirely back to one hundred percent. Good thing he could coast through his workload on barely twenty percent of his full capacity, so no one would even notice his slight tiredness that still lingered. He clocked in, took his place at his workstation, turned on the work PC and logged in the system. After a quick check of his work mail, he quickly made a plan for the day, aranging the tasks at hand, and then slowly got to work.
As he operated the program for some light diagnostics of one of the products he had to check, his memory brought up a much more efficient and all around better version of the product he was evaluating. Just like with IND, a full on walk through flashed in his mind, as if he ahd always knew just how it was supposed to work and as if he had even had a working prototype in his hands. he has had a few similar experiences during the last two days, when seemingly out of nowhere, or when dealing with some tech or formula another unknown schematic just poped in his mind. One could write it down to a possible deterioration of the mind, but seeing how he had gotten even sharper, and more knowledgable about topics he barely knew a thing about, he was more than sure it was not the case. Whatever had happened to him, was, for what its worth, a dump of info from god knows where. A dump of knowledge and from Frank could tell so far, knowledge that was quite a bit ahead of whatever existed in their counrty. And seeing as he lived in one of the more developed ones, he was quite sure that the same could be said for the rest of the world as well.
Did that mean he suddenly believed that some little green men decided to play a practical joke on him and downloaded their tech in his brain? No, while he was aware of the tin foil hat, he was much more grounded in earth for his conspiracies. The corruption that was visable everywhere, should one be sharp enough and willing to look, said everything that needed to be said- Do not trust those in power, for they are there to screw the little guys over. All to fatten themselves even more. And corpos? They were just as bad, often even worse, since they did the bare minumum to pretend to hide behind laws. Get on a corporations shit list and one evening some rather unrully thieves might just visit your residence. And then, it just so happens to turn violent, resulting in your early demise. Sure there is no evidence linking the corporation to your early demise, but when said same thief is later caught and is represented by an afiliated layers firm, it doesnt take a genious to put two and two together.
That is also one of the reasons Frank has been just slightly above mediocre in all of his showings, even if his mind was capable of so much more. his old man taught him that lesson in the most obvious and blatant way- dont stick too much out, or you will be hammered in. His old man had dificulty with that concept, the man was briliant, of that Frank had no doubt, but as much as he was a briliant scientist, he was lacking in the ability to read people and self preservation instincts. End result- an early grave for the genious inventor, his half created project gone in the wind and a mother with six year old kid left on their own to somehow try and muddle through. And while Gloria, Frank's mom, always remembered the old man with a smile on her face, often saying to Frank just how much he looks like his dad, Frank was more than just a bit angry at his father. Not for himself though. No, he was pissed in place of his mom. She bled a lot to keep the two of them afloat and Frank always believed that the old man never took his role as a husband and a father seriously enough. It was precisely why Frank always kept a low profile. He was more responsible than his old man ever was. He had to take care of his mother after all she had done for him. Frank would do more, much more than that, but to be able to do that, he had to be alive. So, keep your head down, observe and learn. And once you have learned enough, once every possible pitfall has a solution prepeared, strike, and take it all.