O.N.A
Chapter One: Final Preparations
"Finally it's finished." An old man dressed in a white suit remarked as he cast his eye over a helmet hooked hooked up to a large monitor.
As he slowly grasped the helmet in his hands his door was barged out by a younger men dressed in an all black suit. As the you mans eyes fell on the helmet, the grew wider and thoughts of money falling from the sky raced through his mind.
Seeing this, the old man grabbed his cane and hit across the younger mans head.
"What the?"
"Do not get any thoughts, it is untested and only a prototype!" The old man warned as he sat down and grabbed a screwdriver.
As the younger man rubbed his head and peaked his head over to try and get a glimpse of the blue prints as he had big plans for this device, plans that required only one man.
"Don't get any thoughts." The old man warned as he caught the mans gaze.
"I have no idea what your talking about." The younger man said as innocently as he could.
"This is for the benefit of humanity not it's destruction."
The younger man just smiled as he already agreed to sell this to the military and they were already on their way. Once the deal was done, he would have no need for the older mans services and he would have no need for his life.
The older man had already for seen the greed in his younger companions eyes and was working on a fail safe for when he finally decided to play his hand. With the plans complete he knew that time was getting very short but with the younger man still stalking he didn't know whether he would be able to finish in time. The it suddenly struck him, if he was inside the machine itself then he would have as long as he needed, the problem being, he had no idea if it would really work. Given a choice between certain death of a fifty, fifty chance of life, he knew what he had to do.
"Instead of standing there like an idiot, turn the machine on." The older man ordered as he slowly stood.
"What now?" The younger man asked shocked.
"Unless turn the machine on has changed in the past few seconds then yes now."
Unsure as to what he was up to, the younger man slowly walked over as the older man placed the helmet onto his head. As he slowly pressed the red button, the machine roared into life and then to his surprise it started to shake and and spark as a bright light engulfed the old man.
As the younger man watched on in awe, the older man slowly disappeared as steam started to burst out of the machine until it suddenly went all quiet. As the younger man slowly came to realize what happened, he dropped to knees in anger.
"You monster." He shouted as he slammed his fist down on the floor.
With the machine beyond repair his vast fortune had been ripped from his hands and as a representative from the us government walked in ready to see the future of warfare training, the younger man didn't move, his gaze focused on the destruction in front of him.
"Sir, is this some kind of joke?"
"It's not fair..."
The younger man slowly stood still murmuring that it wasn't fair. His dream, his destiny, years of planning, all gone.
"No! I won't let end like this!" The younger man shouted as he turned to see the representative standing in the doorway.
"Are you OK sir?"
"OK? I've had my future ripped from me and you ask if I'm OK?"
The younger man grabbed the representative by his suit and pressed his face close to his own.
"I won't be OK till I destroy everything dear to him!" The younger man warned before throwing the representative to the ground and storming out still swearing vengeance.
Brushing himself down, the representative smiled as he clicked the red button. Surprisingly the screen lit up, showing a small figure in a white room. Opening his briefcase, the representative took out a microphone and plugged it in.
"Long no see."
"For the final time I fear."
"I know but it's good to see you alive and well."
"And you doubted it."
"What will you do now?"
"Create, make a living world ready for users to connect."
"I doubt people will appreciate becoming another you."
"No, this was a one off, the ones I have given you will create user avatars."
"I fail to see the reason."
"You always were a doubter, what I have started is a world where the user and avatar both share the experience."
"So if the avatar feels a flower..."
"Exactly, a world so perfect, you will forget it is only a forum."
"What about you? Will you be alright in there?"
"Don't worry about me, I am but a program now but I will never forget what you will do for me."
"I understand...
Goodbye Father."
As the two men placed their hands together, for a brief moment the screen disappeared and he was touching his father for the final time. As the screen slowly returned and the white room slowly faded, the representative took out the microphone and placed it back in his briefcase. Taking one last look at the screen, the representative nodded and turned off the light before closing the door on the room for the final time.