Red Bomber
Chapter 2
By Lord Ironfoot
Chapter 2: First Step
The light's cascading effects continued its dance downstream as the sun reached its zenith for the day. At its arrival, birds began to sing the glory of the world, the song of life, so simple and yet so elegant. The trees swayed in response, their leaves humming to their own tune. All the while the sun enjoyed the spectacle, shining its light on all things.
One leaf disconnected itself and swayed by its own unique dance. As the river roared in response, the wind gently guided the leaf to a small incline. Through rusty gates, through dead trees, through old unusable machines, though a rusty sewer pipe, the wind finally pushed the leaf through the final gate, slamming the gate wide open. Satisfied, the wind died down and decided to dance elsewhere in the wilderness as the leaf finally descended onto a glass-top table, covered with crystal glasses and drinks.
"So, it's finally awake." Said a voice, one hand reaching for the glass. "You do know what this means for the world, right Thomas?" The other hand swiftly slapped the leaf off the table.
"It means a new beginning for mankind." Said the other. "Albert, imagine what we can do with this kind of technology. We would be able to find the cures for cancer, Alzheimer's syndrome, and if we couldn't find them, he would be able to."
Albert mumbled in response, looking at the shimmering effects of the river. Dr. Thomas Light never saw the wealth, power and glory that such technology could bring to him. He never saw what kind of power this could become. All Light cared about was how he could use this technology to overcome what the human race cannot.
He just didn't get it.
A radio intercom buzzed over in Light's direction. The old man put his ear to the device and a split second later was out of his seat, running toward the lab. Albert quickly followed, knowing that the final day had come, when all of their hard work and effort will have paid off.
Nothing but the blinding white light consumed his vision. Defenseless, the robot took in his first experience with vision. The emotion chip clicked in and the robot suddenly felt overwhelming feeling he couldn't define. He searched his memory banks. "What is this?" he asked aloud, expecting an answer to solve the problem. However, none came and the robot grew silent.
He heard the sound of a door opening and two figures approaching quickly. The robot's senses blazed like fire. They must not know of his critical error. Regaining concentration, the robot tried to move his hands, however the Void had already manifested into itself. It was everything and nothing. It had broken free.
Without any warning, the robot's limbs started to shake violently and soon his entire body was out of control. The table shook violently from the insanity, and soon red lights were seen everywhere. "Warning! File corruption in power node 2! System shutdown imminent!" blared the intercom. "Wiley, the laser!" Light said as he pointed to a shelf outside the room, which housed a medium-sized sci-fi laser gun. As Wiley ran past him, Light couldn't take his eyes off of the malfunctioning robot as it was now off of the table and shaking on the floor. A few days earlier, Wiley had told him that all errors with Power Node 2 had been fixed and that he was ready to be activated. If it was fixed, then why was the node still being corrupted? It didn't make one bit of sense.
Wiley reentered the room, laser in tow pointing at the robot in distress. The mustached man crept closer as the robot was trying to get on its feet. Suddenly seeing the device, the robot extended its hand and tried to explain everything. "I-" was all he could say before he was surrounded with lightning, defusing his entire body. Before he knew what happened, he had succumbed back to the only reality, the only darkness he had ever known.