Cale squinted as bright lights accosted his vision from all sides. He tried to shield his eyes, but no matter which way he shook his head he couldn’t stop the light from piercing his vision. Soon the intensity died down, and Cale was finally able to see again as details of his surroundings started to re-emerge, his vision recovering from the visual flashbang.

  The first thing he noticed was the blue orb as it hurriedly moved from window to window looking at charts and scrolling screens while mumbling to itself. He thought about talking to it, but it looked very busy as it zoomed around, and he figured it would let him know when it had something to tell him.

  He walked over to the middle window and looked at the outline of a person with his name in the top right corner. He could see different warnings popping up on the screen as parts of the body became highlighted with descriptions of what was happening. He didn’t understand all of it, but there were enough flashing lights and symbols that he could understand enough to be concerned.

  One of his legs was showing a warning about a broken bone, another showed that he had dislocated his shoulder, and another showed that he was losing blood, though not enough to kill him, yet. The image in front of him shuddered as the wind outside beat against the blacked-out window behind it.

  The wind made him feel uneasy, and Cale looked over at the orb to hear it still mumbling to itself, completely ignoring the shaking around it.

  “Hey, orb thing!” Cale yelled out, deciding that he needed answers sooner than later. “What is going on?”

  The orb closed one of the screens it was looking at and paused its mumbling before slowly turning its face to look at Cale.

  “Hi there!” it said in an unnervingly chipper voice. “I have run diagnostics and am currently trying to contact your installation team, but it seems something happened with your integration pod. All communication attempts so far have failed. I am on attempt 87. Would you like me to continue?”

  “Sure… Keep doing that… What’s an installation pod?” Cale asked. “I was out in the woods before I got here.”

  One of the orb’s eyebrows raised as it asked him “You were in the woods? Reference not recognized.”

  “You know, the forest. I was out with my dad when I activated a script that got me here.”

  The orb’s eyebrows darted inward as it heard these words and just floated there, doing nothing. After a minute, its eyebrows started quickly flashing between raised exclamation and then lowered into a furrow and then raised again. They were moving back and forth so fast that Cale wondered if they would start spinning around like propellors.

  “It seems you are correct.” It finally said once its eyebrows calmed down. “No installation pod was registered before installation. Reporting unauthorized installation to licensing teams.”

  Cale wanted to say something, but before any words could leave his mouth, the orb’s face disappeared, and it quickly floated away toward the hole it came from. Cale ran after it and tried to grab it, but his hands went right through it like it didn’t exist.

  “AHHH!!!!” He screamed at the orb. His hands pulling at his ears with frustration.

  The orb turned around, and Cale could have sworn it laughed at him. “Command not recognized. Say, ‘I need assistance,’ if you need help.” Before turning around and disappearing through the opening in the wall.

  Cale sat in the corner of his new fancy prison after having vented his rage on the place for locking him in there. He had thrown the chairs, spilled drinks, scratched at the walls, anything he could think of to just be a menace. The orb had stopped responding to him about halfway through his rampage. A small miracle really. He stood up and walked over to the diagnostic screen. One blessing was that the orb hadn’t bothered to turn off the screens, and he was at least able to see some statistics about himself, even though he couldn’t influence anything.

  When he got to the screen showing his body, he was pleasantly surprised to find that he was in much better shape. His beat-up body had a lot less scary red symbols and a lot more healthy-looking green ones. As he observed the different screens, he noticed that the wind had died down outside and the floor was no longer rattling. He wished that he could move some of the diagnostics screens so he could see outside. He bet the view was amazing.

  Cale had been in his little prison for hours. His rage had turned into boredom, and he found himself bowling using the bottles from the bar and the shaker the diagnostics orb had left out. He was having a difficult time getting a strike but was winding up to throw the shaker again. He focused on the target and right as he was about to let loose the shaker on the poor bottles, the diagnostic orb came flying out of its little hidey hole, causing his throw to go wide, missing the bottles completely and flying off into the corner.

  “Hello, Registered User!” It said happily, the sound basically screaming at Cale after experiencing hours of only solitary noise.

  “AH!!! Awe, crap! I missed!” Cale yelled in surprise

  “Don’t worry! We will get you on your way soon!” It piped at him cheerily before going over the diagnostics screen and fiddling with some invisible controls.

  Cale rolled his eyes and walked up to it and very bluntly asked it, “What is a registered user and why am I only one now?”

  The orb turned its eyebrows to Cale but continued to work while it answered him. “Your unauthorized status was sent out over the local network once one had been located on attempt one thousand and four. It took hours for the request to be accepted, reviewed, sent up the chain, re-reviewed due to legislation, and then finally it needed to be signed off by the licensing department head. Your unapproved lack of an installation pod came back fully reviewed and approved.”

  “Approved? Approved by who?” Cale asked questionably.

  “Would you like to see the documents showing your authorization?

  “Yes, show me the documents.”

  A little light popped up on the side of the orb and out came a little square screen that looked like a sheet of paper right in front of Cale. The screen zoomed through thousands of pages before slowing down and finally stopping on the last page. Though he could read, he didn’t recognize a good chunk of the words on the page, but at the bottom he could read the signature very clearly, after all it was only numbers. “005”

  Cale stared at the signature like it had taken his lunch money. “Who is 005?”

  “No idea! I just work here to assist you with diagnostics, registered user!” said the orb with an overly cheery voice, making Cale sigh.

  “Speaking of registered user… How are my diagnostics coming along?” He asked the orb.

  “Diagnostics are complete. Would you like a report?”

  “Complete?! Why didn’t you tell me?! Yes! I would like a report.”

  “Finalized Reports can be accessed after leaving this area. Would you like to continue?”

  “Yes, continue,” Cale responded frustratingly. All he wanted to do was get out of here.

  Cale watched the orb zoom over to the bar and start making another drink. This time it added some extra fruit and some sort of thick molasses type of liquid before splashing it onto the diagnostics screen. His eyes went wide as the room around them seemed to melt in all directions around him, and his legs went out from underneath him as something hit his legs, causing him to be knocked backward. He found himself falling into the culprit, which happened to be a fancy and luscious blue chair that was behind him. He couldn’t help but look down to see why he wasn’t falling and was surprised to see that his chair was balanced precariously on the very tip of a tall mountain.

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  Not wanting to move in case the chair fell, he watched with bated breath as the view of the mountain below him was covered up as something started to grow out from the chair below him. First, the empty space beneath him started to fill out with a dark red carpet with gold inlay, and then a light blue weave followed behind it. Once the carpet finished forming a circle, glass walls started to emerge from under the carpet and curved inward until it all met at the top, making a teardrop shape with a small opening at the tip.

  The chair he was sitting in moved outward and a circular counter started to rise out of the floor in the center of the new room he was in. As the counter rose, other chairs, tables, leather and cloth couches, and even some lamps started to rise out of the floor as well. He watched as the once lone mountain peak was transformed into a 360-degree lounge observatory.

  Cale lowered his feet and tested the floor below him. It felt solid, and he doubted they were trying to kill him, so he gave it a chance and stood up. He was happy to find that he didn’t immediately fall through the floor and plummet to his death. With that out of the way, he walked around the rising furnishings and made his way to the bar. For some reason each room he was in had one and for some even odder reason the orbs needed to make drinks in order to make things happen.

  Why did they do all that instead of pressing a button? As Cale pondered the mysteries of this place, the couches and other items that were rising from the floor finally came to a stop and joyous music started to come from all around. Pulsing lights started to grow from the floor, causing the music to change from chaotic noise into more of a rhythm. The musical rhythm started to slow, like a long heartbeat but it quickly started to speed up again, causing the lights – which were reacting to the beat of the music – to expand up the walls in long flowing lines as the music became faster and more intense.

  When the music and the lights reached their crescendo at the very top of the room, the cloud-like view outside the windows went black, the music immediately stopped, and from the opening left in the top of the room came another orb. It slowly descended down from the ceiling in a small beam of light, eventually stopping inside the circular counter causing the music to stop.

  Cale noticed this orb was a bit different than the previous ones he had seen. It was wearing a fancy top hat and even had a mustache instead of just the eyebrows and mouth. This orb appeared much more vibrant than the previous ones he had interacted with since its mustache glowed and circled between different colors. As he observed, the orb start to get to work by pulling a rag from out of nowhere and started wiping down the bar. He couldn’t help but smile to himself when he heard the orb humming to the beat of the tune that had just been playing.

  Once it was done ignoring Cale and giving the counter a wipe down, it reached behind the counter, grabbed some kind of fruit that looked like a lemon, sliced it in midair with a small blade that appeared out of nowhere, just like the rag, and observed the pieces as they landed on the counter with a light thud. Its eyebrows popped up in a very energetic fashion, and its mustache twitched rapidly as it materialized two sticks to its sides that reminded Cale of those sticks that music directors used.

  The orb, with its sticks up high, waved them in the air like it was trying to swat a horde of imaginary flies. From far out in the distance, bright lights started to ascend into the sky in all directions, making their location easy to see in the vast dark space of the glass room views. Cale’s eyes twinkled as each light erupted brightly, lighting up the night sky as different types of fireworks went off all around him. He spun in a circle and watched the amazing view of fireworks exploding in all directions and no matter where he looked, the energetic explosions shone like stars in the otherwise dark void.

  When they ended, the orb in the center waved its wands once and then dematerialized them with a sparkling effect and made a little bowing motion, causing its top hat to fall off its head. The orb quickly picked it up, made itself look regal again, and boomed out to the room.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen!” The orb yelled out to the empty room. “The time has begun! Light the engine to your freedom, your creativity, your power! May your will be imprinted on this world like the great heroes of the past! Your new interface awaits!”

  Immediately the darkness outside started to dissipate as light crept in from all sides. Cale walked over to the glass wall and watched as a bright orb that looked a lot like the sun, came over a previously unseen horizon. When it got halfway up into the sky, Cale found himself squinting at the intensity of the brightness. Somehow sensing his desires, the windows started to self-tint and make the view of the sunrise much more bearable.

  As it continued to rise, Cale noticed that the sun stopped rising and was instead getting closer to them, which meant it couldn’t be a sun… and as it got closer it started to look a bit familiar, really familiar! A few seconds later he felt a little stupid as he stared at what was obviously his soul. Yes, it looked a little different with all the new lines and boxes and organization going on around it, but he could recognize the tendril on the side, and he could still see his script locations. His soul was all there, it just looked… busier.

  His soul finally stopped moving toward them when it looked to be the same size as a skyscraper, and it dwarfed his view. If he looked hard enough, he could just make out the edges of his soul.

  While he observed his over-sized soul, it suddenly started to get smaller and his eyes went wide with shock when he saw two GIANT fingers holding onto it like it was a tiny bouncy ball. He audibly gasped when out from behind his soul appeared a giant, steel armor clad woman with a stern face who had brought his soul close to her face and was looking at it in deep thought.

  Panicking, Cale looked to the orb who – to his dismay – looked less than helpful as it now wielded two hammers instead of sticks and was wearing an iron helmet with a blue feather in it instead of the top hat from before. He couldn’t help but notice that it looked like it was vibrating with excitement as it chanted.

  “Helioni, Helioni, Helioni!”

  “What the hell…” he whispered to himself as he ignored the lunatic orb and realized it wasn’t going to be any help as it cheered on this giant armored lady. The orb’s excitement did make him feel more relaxed about the whole thing, so he found a chair and decided to see what this was all about.

  He observed the giant lady observing his soul, and he giggled at the oddity of such an event. In a massive burst of stress relief, his laughter couldn’t be contained, and he giggled so hard he found himself on the floor holding his stomach. His soul reacted to his laughter and brightened with a quick pulse each time he giggled too hard and snorted. This caused him to somehow get the giant’s attention, and Cale watched with wide eyes as the giant’s focus moved from his soul to Cale himself. She squinted at him as if to measure him up, Cale, who was still finding this thing hilarious, squinted right back at her, making a little sassy face in return.

  “I see,” the giant lady said with a small sigh. Somehow reaching Cale’s ears at just the right volume. “Let’s... Get this started.”

  Diana

  GUILT! You are a terrible mother. You let this happen to him. It was all she could think to herself as she dabbed a cloth on her son’s forehead while he lay on the hospital bed. He was alive but… his mind… he was unresponsive and it was eating her alive. When Phil came flying – literally flying into the base like a meteor, she was oblivious until the alarm sounded an alert and not long after she had been ushered to the hospital where she saw not only her husband, but also her little special boy on hospital beds with healers slowly removing splinters and rocks while they healed her badly damaged boys.

  Her husband was only unconscious for a few hours but as soon as he woke up, he was immediately chewing her out and she had no idea why. It took them a while longer to get him to calm down. Before he would explain anything, he demanded the healers and nurses be sent out of the room. His anger was for her and her alone.

  The moment the other people were out of earshot, Phil started to question Diana. “What scripts were you giving Xavier?! You might have just killed him!” The anger and fear in his words pierced her to her heart, causing her to falter, and she fell to her knees. GUILT!

  Tears started to swell in her eyes as she asked the question on her mind since the moment she saw her bloody and half dead boys laying on those beds. “What happened?” She had an idea, after all she wasn’t unaware of what day it was.

  “He activated some new script you gave him. Some fire of some heeloony thing.”

  She bobbed her head in recognition and between her tears she told him what she could recall of that storage crystal and the notes she had on it. The few records they had found made it sound like it was a tool script, she explained. It reminded her a lot of her scanning script, and she thought it would make for a good tool to have in his arsenal. It wasn’t even a fighting script like his wind one. She had no idea how it could have done something like this.

  After a lengthy conversation, and a thorough chewing out by Phil, which involved more crying. The medical team forced their way awkwardly back into the room as they needed to finish with Phil’s wounds and check on Xavier. That had been almost a whole day earlier, and she was now very concerned that her little boy wasn’t waking up.

  “Hey, Diana,” She heard Leo’s mother say behind her. She turned around to see Leo and his mother standing in Xavier’s hospital room. Leo was in his pajamas and looked very nervous.

  “He had something he wanted to ask you. Go ahead, Leo,” she said encouragingly.

  “Can- Can- Can I sleep with Xavier tonight?” He said nervously. She could see him clicking his heels together, and it brought a little light into her currently dark day.

  She got down to his level to make him less nervous and looked him in the eyes.

  “Leo, you want to sleep with Xavier? The whole night?”

  Leo nodded his head. “Uh huh. I know you have to sleep too and I don’t want him to be alone. He is my BEST friend, and I want to be there for him when he wakes up!” Leo yelled the final part as tears started to stream down his face.

  “Ohhhh… It’s ok, Leo!” She said while his mother hugged him from behind. “Yes, I’ll let the nurses know you are staying here tonight. I’m sure Xavier will appreciate you being next to him.” She said, rubbing his head. With a smile, a quick hug, and a dash Leo was soon lying next to Xavier, keeping his friend company.

  As Diana left Xavier’s hospital room for the day, she looked back at her boy one more time; she couldn’t help it. Her hope wouldn’t allow it, her hope that tomorrow would be the day he would wake up.