Dale stands in the middle of the living room looking at his phone. The Trash Palooza is fast approaching and there are still many preparations that are needed before the big day. He goes over the list of products that the company will be marketing. Electric pillows, mugs, rugs and other single use electric devices. His son starts leaving for school, which he pays no mind to.

That is until he spots something in his son's hand, small and squarish almost like a microchip that his company had been developing. "Devin, what do you have in your hand?" his son turns to him with a sheepish expression on his face. "Oh, this thing? It's nothing! Don't worry about it!" he tries to leave, object in hand. But he snatches it before he can. Upon closer inspection he confirms his initial suspicions. This was indeed the very microchip. He frowns. "Why on earth are taking this-" he shouts holding up the microchip. "-to school!?" Devin looks down in guilt. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have copied your blueprints and downloaded the information onto the O-pairs so they could remake the chip…" he looks up at him with plead eyes. "…I just wanted to win the school science fair…" his ears perk up. "Did you say science fair?"

"Yeah, I told you about it last week…"

"Can't recall"

"Well, it's this afternoon and you're definitely going to come now that you know right?"

"We'll see" he hands him back the chip. Devin looks at it for a moment, before heading to the bin. "What are you doing?" he questions his son. "Throwing the chip away"

"And why on earth would you do that?"

"Because you didn't want me taking it to school"

"That was before I knew it was for a science fair!" He grabs his son's shoulders. "If you throw it away now, you're throwing away any chance you have at winning" his son looks down at the chip again. "Yeah, I guess your right…"

"Of course I'm right! Now run off and win that contest alright?"

"Right!" he lets go of the boy's shoulders. Devin rushing out the door as soon as he lets go. The mention of a science fair makes him think back on a science fair he won when he was just a boy. One of the few memories he has of his younger years. It was a national competition where the greatest young minds were all competing for the grand prize, ten thousand dollars (chump change) and more importantly, a large golden trophy with 'World's Brightest Mind' engraved on the front…

A young Dale stands proudly in front of his display for the national science fair, where he will be competing with kids across America to see who truly is the brightest of young minds. All the kids who have entered the contest have been designated a set of numbers and letters. His card is assigned 'D1' which is sat on a card holder beside his project for the fair.

His project is a robotic helper that he designed himself, PAIR. It had a compact design being only as large as his head and rectangular in shape, painted white with an outline of pure gold. It had a control panel which one would use to direct the robot to complete a set command, it rode around on wheels and ran on batteries that you could charge with a cord. He didn't know it at the time, but PAIR would later become the earliest prototype for the O-pairs.

He worked tirelessly on the little robot, and he was proud of what he created. His father however didn't seem to hold the same sentiment. He looked at all the kids with their parents, some of them taking pictures, others just stating how proud they were of them. And where was his father? At a meeting. He couldn't even be bothered to come. It doesn't matter, he doesn't need him anyway.

He was confident that he was going to win. Most of the projects were truly laughable. A toaster with a screen? A potato powered blender? He's got this in the bag. Suddenly a kid rushes into the building pulling a trolley with a large object on it, a sheet draped over the top of it. "Am I late!?" the kid shouts breathlessly. An officiate walks over to him, a smile on their face. "Anthony James Jr, I was wondering when you would arrive"

"Yeah, sorry I'm late, was making some last-minute adjustments on my project"

"Please don't worry about it, we all are looking forward to seeing what you created this year" They hand him a card. "This is your assigned placement for the contest, you can just go place your project in the designated area, though you probably know how this all works by now" The kid gives a sheepish smile. "Can't wait to see what you made this year A.J.!" they say as they leave. The boy then walks over to him, placing his project next to his own. Putting his card into his card holder and placing it down on the floor in front his project. Which he still hasn't seen. The boy looks younger, not much younger, probably only a few years at most. He's also bald. He thinks he's seen the kid before, but he can remember when. The boy turns to him. "First time huh?"

"What?"

"That nervous look on your face, all first timers have that face, the name's A.J. by the way"

"Dale"

"Dale? Like Dale Dimmadome? Son of Doug Dimmadome owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome? The one that went missing for six years?"

"It was seven, and yes that Dale"

He looks over his shoulder and points at PAIR. "Is that your project for the science fair?" he inquiries. "Yes!" he exclaims rather loudly. "I mean yes, it is, I call it PAIR" he says holding the robot up for the kid to see. "It's a robotic helper, it has a ton of functions that you can activate-" he puts down the robot and picks up the control panel "-with this controller" He gives the boy the controller, he looks at it for a while, turning it in his hands. "This seems pretty cool, man I can't believe were both doing robots for the science fair…" as soon as those words leave his lips everything seems to stop. So that massive thing under the sheet is a robot!? He takes in a breath. "You're…you're doing a robot too?" he says trying to sound calm, but he can hear his voice breaking. "Oh shoot, it was supposed to be a surprise" the kid signs, handing him back his controller. "A.J.! Honey over here!" They both turn to see a man and a woman waving over to them. "That's my parents, I should go" he starts walking over to his parents. "It was nice meeting you Dale! Oh, and good luck!" he shouts out as he leaves. He watches him with his parents for while before they all leave to explore a different part of the building.

He checks to make sure the boy is gone before peeking under the sheet. The robot was a hulking metallic figure of silver. It had a screen on its chest plate and a screwed-on panel on the back. Frankly it looked amazing. It made his little robot look like nothing more than a piece of scrap metal. He gets out from under the sheet.

He can't lose. He can't. This is his one chance. His chance to be known for something. He doesn't want to forever be known as the Dimmadome that went missing. After everything he went through. How much he had to struggle. He deserves this! He searches his display, spotting a screwdriver. How convenient. He takes the screwdriver, checking to make sure no one was looking before going under the sheet again. He gets to work unscrewing the back panel, popping it off from its frame. Inside he sees various wires connected into circuit boards in a complex pattern of networks, all working together to help the robot function. It would be shame if something were to happen to those wires. He starts to pull, ripping out the wires. He shuts the panel as soon as he hears footsteps approaching. Screwing the panel back on and moving out from under the sheet, shoving the screwdriver into his pocket.

The boy returns, a smile on his face. He doesn't seem to have noticed. Good. The judges arrive, check boards and pens in hand. They turn to him first. "Please state your name, age, where you live and project designation"

"My name is Dale Dimmadome, I am sixteen, I live in Dimmsdale and my project designation is D1" they quickly scribble the information down. "So, what is your project for this science fair?"

"It's a robotic helper, I call it PAIR, it can carry out various simple tasks with the use of this controller" he says holding out the controller. They all nod, writing on their boards. "Let's see this PAIR of yours in action, shall we?" he puts PAIR down on the ground, pressing a button to bring the robot to life. He moves it around, circling it around the judges. He then makes the bot serve a drink to one of the three judges. They were all very impressed by this, especially the one who was currently sipping a nice refreshing glass of water. "Very impressive" they write down some notes before turning to the other boy. "My name is Anthony James Jr, A.J. is my preferred name, I am thirteen years old, I also live in Dimmsdale and my designation is D2" the boy answers without the judges even having to ask. "It's good to see you again A.J., so what do you have for us this year?"

"Well funny you should ask because I also made a robot" he pulls off the sheet showing off his robotic creation in its full glory. "All you need to do is push this button…" he says showing a bright red button situated on the robot's bust. "…to turn it on and it will do anything that you command it too" He grabs at his arm, digging his nails into his skin. God, he hopes he's done enough damage, there's no way he would win otherwise. "Observe" the kid pushes the button and nothing happens. The clears his throat. "Observe!" the kid says pushing the button again, but still nothing. He smirks as he sees the kid start to panic. He pushes the button is a rapid succession as all three of the judges stare intensely at him. "I don't understand! It was working fine this morning!"

"I think we've seen enough A.J."

"Wait please I can fix this if you can give me a little more time!"

"Enough A.J. you know the rules" the kid sighs sadly. Stepping away from his robot. The judges write down their notes and walk away.

A couple hours later it was finally time to announce the winner. A man comes up onto the stage, the three judges following behind. The man, the host of this event then takes the microphone to make the announcement. "Let me start this by saying that all you here today have shown great promise in the world of science and I'm certain you will go on to change the world" he rolls his eyes at this. The guy is obviously just saying that so all the losers don't feel bad about themselves. He looks over to see the kid next to him crying his little bald head off, his parents comforting him. "However, there can be only one winner and so it is with my greatest honour to announce that the winner is Mr Dale Dimmadome, come up here Dale and claim your prize" he beams in delight, rushing up onto the stage to grab the trophy. He holds the trophy high above his head for everyone to see. "Congratulations Dale, I'm sure you'll go on to do great things" Yeah. He will…

He spends the rest of his day working as usual. When the afternoon rolls around, he hears the front door open. Must be his son. "Did you win?" he asks. His son freezes. "Um…I uh…I didn't" he rolls his eyes; how did his son end up being so idiotic? "It wasn't my fault! Someone stole my project!"

"Then that person must be smarter than you if they were able to steal it so easily" his son shuffles his feet, looking down at the floor. "Why weren't you at the science fair, you said you would come…"

"I said I might come" he corrects. "I got some important work I need to get back to, so why don't you just run off to your room or something?" his son nods and heads into the elevator. He looks back down at his work tablet and goes back to reviewing the finances.