CHAPTER 1
Neo zoomed past obstacles moving and gliding between them with ease. On his feet were a pair of blue glowing whirring boots that seemed to bend gravity to his will. Graviton boots. He popped out of the course for a brief second, and twisted his body to make a turn back into the course, he reached for the pole, his fingers slipped and he lost grip and skidded into a bunch of cardboard boxes.
He dusted himself off and started walking towards the opposite side of the building. An automated voice started speaking.
"Slowing down reduces crash probability by 53%" The voice went
"Aurora, I keep telling you that defeats the entire point of the customization I made to the boots." Neo replied.
"You're the only scientist I know who refuses to apply Newtonian Physics" Aurora remarked.
"I slipped when I tried to grab the poles. The graviton boots have a particular polarity, what if we made the boots – no what if I made my fingers stick to the pole. So a version of graviton boots but for my hands, like gloves." Neo loudly thought as he walked to sit in his workshop chair, staring at a huge monitor in front of him with holographic projections from it.
He pulled a hologram out, it was the hologram of the graviton boots he was he was currently wearing. He got up from the chair and expanded it. The parts split. He grabbed the sole of the boot and saw the circuitry and reversed the polarity, took out the sole and reshaped it into the underside of a glove, making finger pads and a huge compartmentalized palm pads. He then added parts to it and made it a proper glove and he pushed the hologram into a fabricator.
The fabricator started whirring and creating the gloves from scratch.
"Neo, dinner's ready." A woman shouted, his mother, Selena. Neo staring at the projector shouted back
"Be right there, mum."
Neo turned around and climbed the circular stairs and gt out of the basement which he turned to his workshop and testing area. He rushed to the kitchen and stood at the doorway.
Selena was standing behind the stove, stirring the pasta. The aroma filled the open kitchen. From the other end, a man walked in, a tall muscular man walked in and hugged Selena from behind. He kissed her cheek and started going lower.
"Ugh, not in front of me." Neo said.
"Aww. Bud, this is love, and you're a product of it, when a man and a woman-" The man said.
"Dad!" Neo dragged.
"Leave the boy alone Jason" Selena said.
"Fine, come help me set the table" Jason said as he shrugged.
Neo stepped into the kitchen and grabbed plates and cutlery. Jason grabbed table mats and other dinner items. Jason followed Neo around the table, correcting every single placement Neo did, even if it was perfect.
"You know, you may as well do it yourself." Neo said laughing.
"There's no fun in that, is there?" Jason replied.
They all laughed it out. Shortly, Selena brought the food and they sat down and ate the food. Halfway through the meal. Jason started.
"Neo, tomorrow, you're accompanying your mother to her office"
"No, I can't" Neo said with a slight change in his tone
Jason's eyes locked onto Neo and a dense mass of air filled the room.
"We have to do the scan tomorrow remember, Neo. We can't change the date." Selena said.
"Even if that wasn't the case young man, how dare you raise your voice like that?" Jason said.
"I still have rights don't I?" Neo said under his breath.
Jason heard it loud and clear and responded
"Not like this, at least under my roof."
Neo rushed through his food and washed his plate, stormed to his room and entered the basement through his "secret opening". Neo opened the fabricator and picked up the warm graviton gloves. He put them on and turned them in. it whirred and jerked him forward. He maintained his balance. It synced to his neural pathway and he used to them to pull himself to the ceiling and did press ups.
He got down, grabbed the graviton boots and put them on. He left the basement, back to his room. He moved a glass pan and opened into the outside world. A gust of fresh, non conditioned air brushed his hair. He jumped out of the building and just as he was bout to land, the boots whirred and he floated.
He moved gently, hovering above the soil and grass and left the compound. Once he left the compound, his velocity increased and objects began to blur. He rushed through to the outer slums, the abandoned region. Debris and broken structures littered the place.
He let go of every limitation he had and flowed seamlessly through the structures, passing under broken arcs and bridges, flipping and making large leaps, until he saw a pattern, similar to what was in his workshop, a pole dynamic.
"Perfect" He thought.
He accelerated towards it and he slightly passed it. The gloves glowed with blue energy
and pulled him back towards the pole, performing the rotation smoothly. He launched himself into the air and made a loud whoop.
His eye colour shifted across a spectrum. Green, blue, purple and colours along those lines flooded in. A serious amount of energy flowed in his veins and he had a rush.
---
Selena was washing the dishes. Jason stood beside her, collecting the utensils and wiping them with a napkin before putting them in the stack.
"That was way too harsh, Jason." Selena said.
"That was me being a father."Jason replied.
"No that was you being a boss, a CEO,… He's your son, not another one of your employees that barely say anything when you give them instructions, even further, he's a teenager." She continued.
"Sele-" Jason started.
"No buts" She cut in.
"Fine, I'll talk to him. But first…" Jason said as he repositioned himself toward her in a very suggestive manner, wrapping his arms around her waist. She put her hand on his chest stopping him.
"Talk to him first before you talk to me" She said.
"Is that how it is now?" Jason asked while laughing.
"Go" Selena commanded.
Jason turned around, heading for Neo's room. He turned around to Selena
"I love you." He said
"I know" She replied and giggled.
---
Neo jumped through the glass pane into his room. He heard Jason's footsteps, covered the pane and jumped into his bed, still in everything he wore out. He covered himself.
Jason knocked and opened the door.
"Bud, are you okay?" Jason asked.
Neo didn't answer
Jason stared at Neo in the bed and noticed every detail that told him Neo was still awake. He walked to Neo's bed and sat at the edge. Neo felt the be dip.
"Bud, I know you can hear me. I just wanna say, I shouldn't have been so hard on you. But that doesn't mean you should have done what you did. We were both at fault tonight. I just want you to know that no matter what, I'm your father and I love you." Jason said.
Jason got up and opened the door, as he walked out, a now tearing Neo said.
"I love you too, dad."
Jason didn't turn around. He concealed his smirk
"Get some rest, tomorrow's a big day." Jason said.
Jason closed the door behind him and walked to his room. He opened the door, Selena was already in bed. He took off his shirt and lay beside her. She got up and rested her head on his chest.
"How'd it go" She said in her sleepiest of voices.
"I think my son and I are good."Jason said
She kissed him and he wrapped his arm around her and they fell asleep.