101 DO WE STEAL A….CAR?
"Damen's been inside for way too long. Will he be alright?" Dorin asked, anxiety edging her voice.
"Yes… this is starting to worry me," Lander said, frowning at the monitors.
"Should we pull the plug? Maybe withdraw Damen's mind from the machine first?" Dorin pressed.
Lander hesitated.
Pulling Damen out now would mean failure. Ethen would never wake up. But leaving Damen connected much longer could cause irreparable neural damage. Staying too long inside a synthetic brain could hurt him.
He couldn't sacrifice Damen just to save Ethen.
Suddenly, a message flashed across his data pad — a direct order from Director Ambrone:
"This subject, Ethen Lace, is critical to our research. We must wake him up at all costs."
Lander stared at the message, his mind conflicted.
"What do we do?" Dorin asked. "Should we pull the plug or keep going?"
Before he could decide, Damen's body started convulsing violently inside the chamber. His vitals spiked, warning lights flashing red.
"We can't risk Damen's safety for this project!" Lander shouted. "Pull the plug — now! We'll find another way to wake Ethen!"
The scientists rushed to disconnect the neural links. One by one, the data lines were severed. The chamber hissed as it began to drain.
Suddenly, Damen's eyes shot open.
"Wee-woo! Wee-woo!"
The machine's alarm blared.
"Critical component failure!" a technician yelled.
The scientists scrambled to the control panels.
"What's happening?" Lander demanded.
"We don't know! The synthetic brain system is collapsing — this shouldn't be possible!"
Another alarm flared as coolant vapors filled the room. Then, in the next chamber, the liquid in Ethen's tank drained as well. His body twitched, then he gasped for air — he was alive.
Both Damen and Ethen were pulled from their tanks and rushed to the ICU for stabilization.
"What… happened? Did we do it?" Dorin asked, breathless.
Lander didn't answer immediately. He watched the flickering readouts on the ruined machine.
"This is strange," he murmured. Then, turning to the scientists: "What exactly went wrong?"
One of them looked up from the console, pale. "We believe… the Mind Core collapsed. For some reason, it just failed. That caused the synthetic brain's processing power to deteriorate rapidly."
"Goodness," Dorin said. "If we'd known that would wake Ethen up, we could've just removed the Mind Core from the start."
"That's not possible," the scientist replied grimly. "The Mind Core is too deeply fused into the synthetic brain. It's practically part of its consciousness. We couldn't sever the link even if we wanted to."
Lander glanced back toward the ICU window, where Damen and Ethen lay side by side — both breathing, both alive.
But deep inside, he knew something wasn't right.
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Damen rose from his bed, his body still weak but his mind restless. He walked to Ethen's bedside and gently placed a hand on his forehead.
Suddenly, Ethen's eyes fluttered open.
"Is that you… Big Brother?" he asked faintly.
Damen felt a rush of relief. Ethen was awake — he'd escaped the torment of the nightmare machine.
"Ethen," Damen said softly, "I've been wondering… why do you call me Big Brother? I didn't know you before all this."
Ethen smiled weakly. "All my life, I've been tormented. Bullied. Pushed down like I didn't matter. Then, on my first day at the new high school, something changed. I saw you. You were like me — someone who'd been beaten down but fought your way out of the darkness and became strong. I wanted to be like you."
Damen was silent for a moment, feeling something tightening in his chest.
Then he leaned closer and whispered, "Well… I changed because I awakened my power. And now your life is about to change too — because you've awakened yours."
Ethen blinked. "What power? I'm just a nobody."
"You've awakened the power to manipulate codes and programs," Damen said. "You can control machines — every machine in the world — with your mind." He paused, his tone darkening. "You have the same power as Quantum."
"Quantum?" Ethen repeated. "That name… sounds familiar."
"Keep that name to yourself," Damen warned quietly. "Quantum is the leader of the Alliance of Evolution. The world we live in — the chaos, the cities in ruins — it's all because of him. He caused the Armageddon with his quantum mind."
Ethen's eyes widened. "Are you sure I have that kind of power?"
Damen nodded. "Don't be too happy about it. You have one of the most dangerous powers in existence. People will want you — pieces of you — to harness it. They'll capture you, dissect you, enslave you. Just like GenSyn did."
"So GenSyn… knew about my power? That's why they locked me in the nightmare machine?" Ethen whispered, horrified.
Damen hesitated. "Not just GenSyn," he said grimly. "The whole world would crave what you can do. You can't trust anyone now."
Ethen looked up at him, his voice trembling. "I trust you, Big Brother."
Damen sighed. "Then listen carefully. You have to get out of here. Even the SIA can't be trusted."
"Where should I go?"
"Go to my dormitory apartment," Damen said after a moment's thought. "No one will think to look for you there. And make sure to erase every camera feed — every trace of you. Don't leave a single digital footprint of you behind."
Ethen nodded slowly. "Okay… I'll listen to you."
He struggled to stand, weak but determined.
Damen slipped an arm around him, steadying his weight. Together, they crept toward the exit of the ICU, careful not to draw attention.
Damen and Ethen slipped through the sterile corridors, the hum of machinery echoing around them. The faint blue light of the facility glinted off steel walls as they moved toward the loading area.
Android nurses and service drones were busy unloading medical supplies from transport pods. When they noticed the two humans passing through, several turned their heads, optical sensors flickering curiously.
"All these droids saw us," Damen muttered under his breath worriedly.
"Don't worry," Ethen said calmly. "They won't remember any of this."
He didn't even move his hands — his mind reached out like invisible threads, rewriting code, erasing surveillance logs, and altering the droids' memory cores in seconds. The droids blinked once, then returned to their tasks as if nothing had happened.
They made their way down to the basement car park. Rows of vehicles stretched into the dimly lit space, the faint hum of power cells filling the air.
"Now what?" Damen asked. "Do we steal a car?"
"There's no need," Ethen said with quiet confidence. "I'll get someone to pick us up."
A few seconds later, a white unmarked transport van rolled around the corner and stopped in front of them. The driver … was an android with a matte-gray face and blank eyes.
The van opened the door.
Damen stared in disbelief. "You called a ride?"
"I called him," Ethen said, nodding toward the android driver. "He works for us now."
They climbed in, and the van's motors hummed to life. Just as the doors were about to close—
"Hey! Where are you two going?"
The voice thundered across the car park. Damen turned.
It was Lander.
"Damn it," Damen hissed. "We've been caught."
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