Zyon
A tip to avoid being transported from one Dimension to another against your will.
Don't walk into an advanced Tech lab.
It's that simple.
I make the mistake of doing exactly the above. I have a delivery to make. The lady down in the lobby directed me here.
When I step into room 18c, I almost swallow my tongue. There's a man and a woman locked in a tight embrace. They look like lovers.
"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" I gush,
They haven't noticed me yet. No surprises there. They're really into it. Rubbing against each other passionately. Both groaning, and grunting.
The guy is groping the woman's waist and her hands are on his head.
I start to step back. How long will I have wait for them to be done? Someone has to sign for the package.
They make an odd pair. Both of them are dressed in combat gear instead of lab coats or IT overalls.
I stop backing out when the woman huffs loudly and shoves the man away from herself.
"I won't let you stop me you fucking abomination!" She yells.
I squint at the fists she has up. Does she have on boxing gloves? The animosity in her voice sounds genuine.
So this is either a real fight, or some serious dedication to role play. It's a sad that I can't immediately tell which it is.
"You can't stop the Technocolus," The man says, arrogantly blocking the kick the girl aims at his head.
The girl looks vaguely familiar, but her hair is shielding most of her face from me.
"We created you, never forget that. We can just as easily destroy you." She says,
He makes an attempt to sweep her other feet. But the girl is fast and her blonde hair is a blur as she darts away easily. They circle each other slowly, shoulders tense and eyes watching for possible openings.
Should I call the cops? I wonder.
Eyes glinting with defiance, the girl yells, "Prepare for a reboot tin can!"
The man's hand slips toward his gun holster, but the girl doesn't slow down. How is she planning on moving faster than a bullet? I think to myself.
They're about to engage each other again but a loud thump catches their attention and they both look in my direction,
I blink at them, a pained grimace on my face. The package I came to deliver is what slipped from my fingers.
Damn it Zyon, why did you have to go and draw the attention of the angry couple?
It is all I can do not to wave my hands at them in apology and say 'carry on don't mind me, just your harmless delivery boy coming through.'
But I don't do that because now that they're both facing me, I recognize the girl.
"Arlene?" I say in shock.
She's my ex-girlfriend, and she's staring right back at me just as surprised as I am.
"Zyon?"
I last saw her three months ago when she broke up with me and disappeared from town.
Her eyes dart back toward the man she's fighting and there's genuine panic in them.
"Where did your stupid portal bring us back to? This is all wrong, he shouldn't be here,"
The man raises his gun in my direction. There's recognition in his eyes as they glitter coldly with malice.
"This just makes my job easier. I'll kill him and you. The knowledge of the logic code will be lost forever."
My stomach clenches painfully at the sight of the barrel pointed at my chest.
"No!" Arlene's reaction is immediate,
She dives at him, tackling him to the ground, and tries to pin the hand holding the gun away from me.
"Zyon run!" Arlene screams as they roll over each other,
How did the situation switch to me being in danger? I literally just walked into the room.
I try to obey, but my feet are glued to the floor and my mind is racing. I can't just leave Arlene here.
Veins strain on her face, and blood leaks from her nose. She's close to being overpowered, and she's using all of her strength to keep him away from me.
I look around the room in panic. There's a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall close by. I unhook it, it's heavy and cold in my sweaty hands. Determined but trembling like a leaf, I rush toward them, ready to slam my weapon against the man's skull.
The battle cry on my lips trails off when a shrill sonic hum pierces the air. A blue laser beam escapes from the nozzle of his gun. It misses Arlene's ear by a few inches.
My first thought is what the fuck? Laser guns?
Everything else happens in slow motion. The laser beam flies to the ceiling, and zaps an optic wire connecting the servers to a super computer that is suspended in the air. It slices it in two.
The cord must be running thousands of electric voltage. It starts to dance in the air like a cobra being serenaded by a snake charmer.
The severed end burns with sparks of heavy current, and just my luck, the cord dives straight for me. The moment it touches my chest, my entire body stiffens and electricity sizzles through me. My body starts to fry like a chicken in an air fryer.
I feel no pain, just thousands of raw data computing its way through my brain. I can only describe it like flipping through the pages of a book really fast.
Images and flashes of some weird symbols that I don't recognize burn behind my eyelids.
A mellow voice whispers inside my head.
"Zyon! Don't accept the phasing, fight it!" Someone cries out.
I'm in a dreamlike state while my consciousness transmigrates into something more advanced, reaching between realities.
Someone cuts the power off. I stop vibrating and land painfully on the floor. Arlene rushes to my side, "Oh no this is all wrong, what have I done?"
What happened to the bald guy? I wonder.
My vision is strange, I'm hovering between two states of reality. There's a hologram in front of me.
I can see stats. My heart rate is recorded in electrical pulses. My energy level reads 12.5/100.
I'm picking up on everything around me. The smell of my own charred skin and the fact that the room is about to explode. There's a strange interference vibrating in the air. And building up into something on a cosmic level.
Facial recognition of my holographic vision zooms in on Arlene's face, taking note of all her key features. She's beautiful under her grim expression.
<80% complete>
She's looking down at my dying body, her brows wrinkled with concern and her marvelous green eyes more hardened than I remember.
"You're going to wake up in a new world Zyon."
<90% complete>
"The Technocolus are going to come for you. You have to survive and find the logic code," She says, "And when you see me next time, I want you to run."
She leans forward and presses her lips against mine feverishly, "I love you," She murmurs, "And I'm so sorry for everything,"
The explosion that follows is deafening, and then everything is swept up in a beam of light.
<100% complete>
* * * *
When I wake up, I'm confused and disoriented. It's as if I'm stuck inside of a vacuum cleaner with air whistling through my ears and roaring at a deafening pitch.
A girl is kneeling before me. Her head is a hairsbreadth away from my crotch. She is running her hands all over my sternum, tightening straps and adjusting my belt.
She's not Arlene. I think to myself.
Who's Arlene? Another part of me wonders. Faint images of a fight, an explosion and a soft kiss sift through my memories and then disappear like grains of sand blown by the wind.
"This is not a drill," The girl strapping me up says, "It's your second chance to do everything again or else everyone dies." Her voice is desperate.
"What?" I'm still trying to catch my bearings. Was I not just in a computer room a few seconds ago?
She stands to her feet and our eyes meet, they're red rimmed and swollen like she's been crying.
She's still talking fast. "Remember, AI used to be Automated Reasoning. They might have taken over everything but you can still break the Logic code,"
"What are you saying? Who are you?"
She shakes her head, "There's no time,"
And then she promptly pushes me out of the plane fifty thousand feet up in the sky.