The lines of data scrolled across the computer monitor, the only source of light in the otherwise dark room. A foot in front of the monitor a teenager sat, staring at the data curiously as he hit keys on the keyboard.
"Not now!" He shouted angrily, pushing some of his blue hair from his face. "Don't you start being stupid in the middle of my homework!" He smacked the side of the monitor lightly, knowing that it wasn't going to do anything but make him feel better. Looking again at the blue letters, numbers and symbols scrolling down his screen he frowned. It had taken him most of the night, and some of the morning, to finish his homework. He had been happy with the end result, an essay on Shakespeare for his history class, and was just about to print it off when a window popped up.
The black window had only taken up a small portion of his screen at first, seemingly nothing to worry about. But when he tried to close the window it increased in size, until it finally had taken over the screen. Soon after that the data started to scroll down the window at a slow speed, he had tried everything to get rid of it but nothing had worked. He had hit the restart button on his pc four times already but even that did nothing.
As a last resort he pushed his chair out of the way, kneeling down on the floor and reaching out for the power cable. Just before he pulled it out the computer started to beep. The sudden noise cause him to jump up, his head connecting with the underneath of his computer desk and a loud thud could be heard as he started to curse.
The beeping continued for a few moments as he stood up, pulling the chair towards him and sinking into it as he looked at the screen curiously. The window had shrunk in size and now only a small, egg shaped, object could be seen. It was made up of the same blue data, still scrolling down across it, but only the outline of the shape could be seen. A file transfer window opened up and he blinked as he tried to clear his vision, thinking that maybe he was seeing things. To his surprise, and horror, the 'egg' had downloaded onto his pda and his computer had just restarted.
He pulled the connecting wire, leading from his pc to his pda, out and threw it across the room as he looked at the pda. The screen now only showed the egg, which was slowly spinning around, and nothing he did made a difference. Finally shouting some more curses at the computer and pda before putting it on the desk and turning the pc off by the switch. The monitor flickered a few times before being turned off, leaving the room pitch black.
--
On the other side of the ocean, a slightly smaller teenager walked across the street. His hair had recently been died a deep red, crimson some would call it. He had only just got out of school and was quickly walking the few blocks back to his house. He had left his computer on all day, downloading a movie, and was hoping it was finished by now. He pulled his set of keys out of his pocket and walked up the few steps to the front door, unlocking it and stepping in. He already knew that it would be empty, his parents both at work. At least for an hour more.
Shutting the door quietly he walked up the stairs, dumping his bag on the floor on the way up, and opened the door to the computer room. The monitor was still on and as he sat on his chair nothing seemed to be different, the movie had finished downloading and the small memory stick he had plugged in had a copy also.
He opened up a window, checking the files on the memory stick and clicked on the movie. As he clicked on it the file changed, the name became an unending series of characters; symbols, numbers and letters, and the extension changed.
Instead of the video file he was expecting, a small black box appeared. The outline of a red egg appeared, made of different characters. The egg slowly rotated around, never stopping.
He shouted a few curses at the memory stick as he closed the window, trying to delete the program. As he hit delete everything except that file disappeared and he shouted louder. There was a muffled thumping as his neighbor smacked the wall and an even muffled 'be quiet ya stupid ass' could be heard.
--
Somewhere in the south of France, a pink haired girl danced across the street. Her bright yellow headphones standing out, almost as much as the loud music that was escaping from them. The few people that walked past her, mostly elderly, frowned at the sound and walked faster away, tutt'ing and shaking there heads.
She hit the stop button on her CD player and pushed the door to her house open, they didn't bother locking it as everyone in this small village knew one another well enough to trust each other, and stepped inside.
"Bonjour Mammon!" She called out loudly as she walked over to the table. She was expecting a package and frowned as she found it wasn't there. She started to curse the postal service, slipping back into French as was her tendency when she was angered.
"Sophia darling a package came pour vou, I put eet on your bed."
She heard her mother's cheery voice drift out from the kitchen, the cursing immediately stopped and she ran up the stairs quickly. Throwing open the door of her room she jumped on the bed and looked at the box.
She had ordered the mp3 player almost a month ago, even with the slow postal service there little village had she hoped it would of gotten to her faster. She pulled the box apart and plugged the mp3 player into her pc, hoping that she could download some of her music onto it quickly.
She clicked the mouse furiously as she chose songs to copy, then plugged the headphones into the mp3 player and pressed the play button. The small LCD screen showed the name of a song, then the timer started. She drummed away at her desk and waited for the music.
After waiting a few minutes with nothing happening she opened up a window; showing the files that had already been transferred to the mp3 player. Clicking on one she waited for the music to start, what she saw instead sent her into another round of curses. Shouting out the French words she closed the window, which was showing an egg; made up of yellow symbols, letters and numbers.
She shouted some more as she placed the mp3 player on her bedside table. Promising that she would return it to the company by post, probably waiting more than a month for a replacement, in the morning.
--
Standing in front of what looked to be a computer terminal, a small, elderly, man nodded slightly. He pulled the hood of his black cloak over his head and folded his arms over his chest before walking away.
"It is done." He said the words quietly, hoping he had done the right thing.
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zero:
Ok criticism is not only welcome, its encouraged. I realize that you haven't actually learnt a lot about the characters but more is going to unfold in the next couple of chapters....