Synergy Chapter One (World Creation Challenge)

Chapter 1

   I am not a superhero.
   At least…I’m not like the superheroes I read about in comic books as a kid. I’m not a moral warrior like Batman, or a god on earth like Thor. I’m not super strong or bad ass by nature with cool powers…what I do have however, is a messed up life, so I guess I’m half way there.
   I started writing all this down thinking I needed, like any good comic hero, an origin story…but that’s when I realised; I’m not a hero, I’m a lab rat. This isn’t a comic, it’s brutal, pain-in-the-ass reality.  Though to be honest, I think I prefer it that way. I can’t explain why, but I guess it’s best put like this: even Tony Stark started out as a dork with a stupid idea and a bad hand in life.
   So, this is my origin. It’s not impressive, but it’s not boring either. It is what it is, and I like to think I made my mistakes, but I did my best. Isn’t that all I can do?
   God, I sound like my mom.
   Anyway, I should get off my high horse before I start sounding like a voiceover in a 2000’s action movie. You can make of it what you will, but at least I know this is out there, and if someone, somewhere cares, they might read it. Heck, they might even join the cause if we haven’t all died yet.
   But I’m getting ahead of myself, (how’s that for a voiceover trope?) and really, I ought to get my crap together and put everything into context.
   My dear captive audience, you are in for the long haul now. Good luck with that, and save me some popcorn.
   ***
   I’d forgotten what day it was when I woke up to the blaring sound of my alarm. I’d like to say I could have pulled the duvet over my head and gone back to sleep, but the reality is much less flattering.
   For a start, I had a keyboard imprint in my face.
   Bleary eyed, I groaned and sat up in my chair, rubbing my poor cheek and frowning at the half finished screen full of code (which trailed off into a general deibcqpwuineftgn53itghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh where I had finally fallen asleep) and contemplated how believably I could feign being sick on the phone to my boss.
    Not very, I decided miserably, and they’d have found out anyway. Lies don’t work like they used to, not when your medical information is directly uploaded to your user profile on the Collective. I mean what idiot came up with that idea? …probably me, actually…
   Tuesday. It was Tuesday, I realised…not yet my deadline. I wouldn’t be lynched for sleeping just yet, but I probably ought to show my face in the office. I’m pretty sure management were taking bets on whether or not I’d died, and I didn’t want to give Lisa the satisfaction of a justified dig at me.
   I got up, my back aching from slumping over my work all night, and shuffled over to the cramped little kitchen area. Most of my flat was taken over by work and er, entertainment systems, so it didn’t leave much room for the necessities. Or much time for shopping actually, I didn’t think I’d got any in a week.
   I frowned and grabbed a few leftovers that might possibly have enough ambition to become an omelette. If I was lucky, the eggs might be off.
   I was still breaking eggs and blinking the sleep out of my eyes when another sound emanated from the speakers in the living room. The headache inducing sight of coding on the huge glass screen had been replaced by my sister Brianne’s goofiest holiday snap.
   What was she doing up this early? Had there been an earthquake or something?
   I rolled my eyes and answered her call. The still, smiling face disappeared and was replaced by the shaking footage of Bri’s living room ceiling as she adjusted her camera.
   “Argh, what the hell is it- oh, okay, it’s working.” I heard her muffled voice mumble, and then her face came into focus and she smiled. “Hey sis. You look like crap this morning!” She greeted me cheerfully.
   I was going to protest, but I caught sight of myself in my own camera and grimaced. Ginger frizz and freckles everywhere.
   It was bloody amazing, she’d probably only been up for ten minutes and her hair was perfectly straightened, the beginnings of her makeup already on despite that she’d yet to change out of her purple fluffy dressing gown. I had to hand it to her, she had her priorities down.
   “Is that a letter ‘T’ on your nose?” She added with a smirk.
   I frowned at her and replied, “Cut it out, Bri. You didn’t call me at this time of the morning just to banter. Heck, I’m amazed you know what seven AM looks like.”
   She shrugged and gave her best innocent smile, “I only wanted to surprise you before work. I made a spontaneous decision in the early hours of this morning.”
   “While you were sobering up?” I guessed.
   “That’s irrelevant.” She replied quickly, but her eyes drifted a little to a space off camera, meaning I had probably been right. “I’m going to be passing through Lynlasia soon, and I thought I might pay you a visit.”
   “As in you’re going clubbing in maintown and you want to crash on my couch.” I  translated.
   “No!” She scoffed, “I’m going clubbing in maintown and you’re coming with me!”
   I almost spat my coffee. “Don’t you dare!” I protested, “I have deadlines. You know, this thing called a real job!”
   “Pffff!” She uttered, rolling her eyes, “All you do is work and play videogames, Cas. You need to come out of your quaint little hermit shack and interact with other human beings.”
   I narrowed my eyes in mock offence, “I’m a programmer. Hermit is in the job description.”
   “I thought you’d say that.” She sighed, “So you leave me no choice. Either you’re ready at six thirty tonight and try to have some fun, or I set you up with my friend Heath from the theatre so you’re obligated to turn up. He’s actually really cute in a dorky kind of way, you two would really-”
   I refrained from smacking a palm to my forehead and cut her off, not wanting a repeat of what we had come to know as the Shane incident.
   “Okay, okay, I surrender, I’ll come!” I groaned, “Just no more blind dates. And you have to give me until seven, I’m not Wonder Woman.”
   “What?”
   “Never mind.”
   I let Bri reel off in excited ranting for a few minutes while I made my omelette. My little sister was my opposite; I was into numbers, she was into art, I was a hermit, she a social butterfly. If it weren’t for the red hair and bright green eyes, you’d swear we weren’t related. I loved her to bits but I would never understand her.
   I decided to cut our conversation short when she brought up her friend again. She was just telling me how shy and nice and blonde he apparently was and I thought I might lose it and gag. Besides, If I caught the eight o’clock train, maybe, just maybe I would be on time. And Lisa would have to sit through the entire morning with nothing to nag me about, it would be so worth it.
   If I’d had the slightest hint of clairvoyance, I might have relished in the normality of that morning…but I didn’t. So I poured my second coffee and shuffled out of the flat doing my best not to look like the walking dead.  At least the travelling would be a nice if brief break from the numbers spinning around my head.
   I groaned as the realisation set in.
   That wouldn’t be the only thing spinning around my head with Bri in town…
   ***
   I worked for Looking Glass Tech as a code monkey-ah, I mean programmer. If you don’t know who they are, you’ve got to have been living under a rock for the last few decades. Ha! You probably still think we use phones and credit cards! In fact, I helped to create the latest Glass on the market, not to mention I brought  the Collective cloud unit out of almost being scrapped. Yep, if it weren’t for me, we wouldn’t have the flawless system we have today, all your contacts, networking and entertainment needs in one nice easy accessible bubble.
   And all that considered, the guy who does the advert for the company gets paid twice what I do…go figure.
   Still I took a bit of pride in my work, so day in, day out at the office wasn’t too bad. They kept us in coffee, and I got to see my work pay off every year or two.
   The day came and went quickly and oddly painless. It may have just been that I had the evening to look forward to, but at least I didn’t spend the afternoon clock watching as usual. I mostly threw myself into the work I’d left off last night, having realised how many tired mistakes had needed correcting. I couldn’t even remember half of the conversations I’d had during the day.
   As much as I had missed my sister, and couldn’t wait to catch up, I found myself with an odd sense of uneasiness as I walked out of the office block and towards the sleek blue classic convertible parked up outside.
   Don’t look at me like that. As if mine and Brianne’s wages combined could afford a car like that! Nope, fortunately for me, my best friend Robyn had come to bale me out and save me a tram ride. To be honest, she couldn’t afford a car like that, but her dad was a mechanic so she got a few of the perks. I’d phoned her in my lunch break and she hadn’t taken much persuading.
    She raised one perfectly shaped eyebrow over her dark sunglasses as I got into the passenger seat. That expression that said tell me everything.
   Robyn was incredibly persuasive, but she was a journalist, and it was her job to get people to spill the beans on whatever she needed to know. She’d always been a bit pushy ever since we were kids, but she was well intentioned.
   “Brianne.” I answered, not even bothering to evade her.
   She laughed, shaking her head and pushing her glasses back up on her nose, “If I’d have known, I’d have run for painkillers first.”
   She was still chuckling quietly to herself as she started the car and began to drive back to my flat. The simple idea of me getting dragged out by my boisterous little sister amused her. “It’s a good thing it’s a slow news week, Cas, I’ve just bullshitted a report on local fundraisers, so I can afford to be just about the least hung over of the three of us tomorrow.”
   “You’re kidding.” I rolled my eyes.
   “Hey, I might have my front page story right here!” She continued, her red lips curling into a wicked grin, “Cassia McCraith, certified hermit, surfaces from under her rock for insane night on the town! The facts have yet to be confirmed, but it is thought that many shots were taken, and even more unwitting men have been-”
   “Robyn, if you weren’t driving, I’d punch you.” I cut her off, but I couldn’t help a bit of a smile. She had an utterly stupid sense of humour, but it was comforting to know someone who took so few things seriously.
   “Well, save it for after a couple of cocktails, will you? It’s been a long week.” She sighed as we pulled up outside the flats. I guess she hadn’t been joking about the slow week, she looked as if she was going to need tonight ten times more than I would. Robyn only worked freelance, so slow weeks wreaked havoc on her pay check. She was too proud to say anything though…I’d make sure I brought her a drink or two later.
   We had a good hour to get ready before Brianne turned up, and with Robyn’s company I quickly forgot my uneasiness. She insisted on sitting me down and doing my makeup, because, in her exact words, she didn’t trust me to do it myself.
   I didn’t mind too much, she knew what she was doing, even if she could be a tiny bit bold. In fact she was probably the classiest person I knew, regardless how much money she had month to month. Even in her spotless blue work outfit she looked ready to go out, and she knew it. She fluffed her short black hair and borrowed one of my lesser worn dresses though, the dipped neckline and fitted skirt looking far more at home on her slender figure than it ever did on me. In fairness though, Robyn could wear a bin liner and still look good.
   I played it a little safer, Nice jeans, a black blouse and my favourite leather jacket. I did like to dress up a bit, but I wasn’t as daring as Robyn and our intentions were very different. I wasn’t out to impress anyone.
   Brianne turned up exactly on time, something she only ever did where night’s out were involved.
   “Wow, Cassy, you clean up well!” She teased, tossing her suitcase on the sofa, “Who would’ve thought?”
   “You’re welcome.” Robyn called from the bathroom.
   I shook my head and humoured their teasing. “It’s good to see you again, Bri.” I replied and hugged her.
   “Feels like forever ago.” She agreed, “But, we can catch up properly later. I have had a long journey, and you two have obviously had a long day. Shall we?”
   “I’m not getting out of this, am I?” I guessed, but smiled and shook my head. I didn’t mind too much, as long as the two of them could stagger home without too much help.
   “Save your breath.” Robyn replied as she walked back in to join us, tossing me my jacket.
   We took a tram ride to maintown, Brianne talking animatedly all the way there about home, our parents and Alric, this new show she was working on with what she called ‘a leading man to die for’. She was in fits of giggles as she recounted the embarrassing antics of fitting his 19th century suit for the production and I vowed to never let her live it down. Let’s just say she made the best of her tape measure excuse.
   Robyn just stared distractedly out of the window, like something more than money was on her mind. When we got off, following Brianne as she marched off in the direction of her favourite club, I hung back and decided to make sure she was ok.
   “You’re playing me at my own game.” Robyn said with a slight smile, “Should have known.”
   “Well if you’re going to be all broody like that, what did you expect?” I replied.
   “Point taken.” She sighed, “Sorry if I’m a bit of a face ache. It really has been a bloody long week.”
   “Anything you want to talk about?” I prompted, deciding it was best not to pry. She wasn’t exactly the sit in a circle, hold hands and share type of girl.
   She shook her head, “Just do me a favour Cas?”
   I raised an eyebrow, a bit curious, but more suspicious. I hadn’t seen her like this in a long time.
   “This sounds stupid, but I don’t trust some of the bosses over at Looking Glass. I’ve read some serious crap about them, and I just want you to be careful , ok?” She had said it a million times before, but this time, it seemed to have been brought on by something specific. Maybe I should be worried…
   Still on the way to the rowdiest clubs in maintown wasn’t the best environment to have this conversation, so I just shook my head. “You know I’ll be fine.” I replied, like I always did.
   She nodded, and tried to smile again, but we were cut off.
   “We’re heeere!” Brianne announced in a cheery sing song tone that made me wonder if she’d started her drinking hours ago.
   She put on her best sweet smile and walked straight up to the front of the queue, whispering something to the doorman and then beckoning us to follow her straight in the door. Several of the poor punters who had been here for ages outside glared or pulled faces at us.
   She had been here way too many times.
   The moment we walked in I got the feeling you could tell the place wasn’t my scene. The music blared, (pretty terrible music as well), and the lights were dim, giving the whole room a blue hue, except when a great glare of white spotlights flashed in time to the beat. Everyone in the room was obviously in their 20’s or younger, and lounged around on sofas or dancing as casually as possible in the lights. rianne and Robyn went straight for the bar, and I pulled up a seat as far away from the speakers as I could get.
   “Well, we got her here, that’s a start.” Brianne commented as she set down a glass in front of me. They hadn’t taken long, I guessed my sister had probably employed a few of her contacts for quick service. I didn’t want to know how she knew half of them.
   I frowned and knocked back half of my drink to prove that I wasn’t going to be a total party pooper, “C’mon Bri, you know it takes at least four of these before I get near the dancefloor right?”
   “And six for you to do the drunken giraffe, I know.” She winked, “I’m counting. I figure I can keep you company for a bit…until someone interesting turns up.”
   “I’m flattered.” I replied with a smile and a shake of my head.
   You know, in hindsight, this isn’t the first or last time where I wish my sister had been careful what she wished for. She had a bloody knack for jinxing things.
   It had been a very ordinary night, for one of Brianne’s visits, and we had been chatting away (as far as we could hear each other over the music anyway), minding our own business, until we heard this ear splitting screech.
   Brianne went to glare at the DJ, but something caught her eye. She had that thoughtful, eyes narrowed expression she wore when she was trying to work something out, or read you.
   I followed her gaze, curiosity getting the better of me, and immediately, I understood what had made the DJ jump.
   A group had walked into the club, clustered together in a pack.
   They looked incredible. All of them had mad hair colours and styles, so bold they reminded me of a Japanese sci-fi game, and they all wore these leather jackets that looked like a kind of uniform, but each one was different. One girl’s floated behind her like a cloak, another guy had a short one, open over a t-shirt. Each of them wore a serious expression, as if they knew everyone was looking at them, and didn’t give a damn.
   What gave them away was the headgear. They wore headsets, which projected a sort of mask onto their faces. If I didn’t know my tech, I might have just assumed they got lost on their way to a goth bar…but I’d seen that kind of thing before. They were designed to scramble security cameras, so you can guess why everyone who could put two and two together was on edge.
   One of them, a guy with short, inky blue hair half buzzed off, seemed to be their leader. He wasn’t tall, or massively broad like some of the others, but he carried himself in such a way that demanded a certain level of respect. If he weren’t bloody terrifying, and probably with a criminal record the size of War and Peace, he might have been kind of attractive.
   I can’t believe I just thought that.
   I turned my head away from Brianne, but if I had blushed, it was either too dark to tell or she was way too distracted.
   He strode directly over to the bar and spoke to the barman. Even with the music dropped down to a little more of a sombre note, it was impossible to hear them. The barman seemed offended though, and was obviously telling the blue haired guy to leave…or something like that.
   One of the girls muscled in, she had blue hair too, straight and long with little highlights in black. They could have been related now I saw them side by side. She didn’t change her expression, but she seemed dangerous, like someone you wouldn’t cross. The first guy kept trying to butt in again, obviously pissed off, but she held him back as she spoke, one slender hand on his shoulder.
   What I assumed was the manager came out to the bar and got involved, and after more talking and scowling, the guy and the girl turned on their heels and walked back out of the club. The others in the group looked at each other and muttered, but followed them.
   I realised I was staring a little too late.
   The guy noticed too, and I caught him looking at me and smirking behind his mask. Obviously being stared at amused him. He winked as he walked past us, but the girl rolled her eyes and elbowed him.
   “What the…?” Brianne uttered after they were gone.
   “I don’t want to know.” I decided, and suddenly my drink looked much more appealing.
   “I’ve never seen them before.” She muttered, but then grinned when she caught me looking a bit shifty and sipping my drink (I still wasn’t entirely sure what was in this thing), “So that’s what it takes to get you in the partying mood! A handsome stranger!”
   I nearly spat my drink again.
   “I saw you staring!” She jibed, “He was hot to be fair, in a striking kind of way.”
   “Brianne!” I retorted, “They were criminals, did you see those masks!?”
   She shrugged, “Good looking criminals then.”
   “God.” I grumbled and drained my glass.
   “Did you see that?” Robyn gushed as she sat down next to me, she had that smile of anticipation that made me think this might be all over the press tomorrow evening.
   “She came, she saw, she drooled.” Brianne giggled.
   “I swear to god sis, I am going to throttle you.” I warned.
   Robyn frowned, “Wouldn’t go near them if I were you, Cas.” She warned. She was being bloody serious as well…great.
   “I wasn’t going to do anything.” I insisted.
   “I’m not saying you were.” She replied defensively, “You’re smarter than that. But they were Outcasts. I questioned the manager after they left.”
   “That makes sense.” I sighed, “I worried they might try to rob someone.”
   Robyn shook her head, “They wanted to get served at first, but the barman didn’t want any trouble so he told them to piss off. Then that girl got straight to the point and started asking about someone called Alice.”
   “That’s weird.” I observed, “I figured anyone not hooked up to the Collective didn’t venture into maintown much. I mean it’s not as if you can do much here without a Glass.”
   I instinctively pulled mine out to check the time. 9:00, it was early too. Too early for shady business. I realised, as I saw my face reflected in the small rectangle of glass, that I looked kind of pale. Not like normal ginger pale, sick pale. Maybe I should just take my mind off things and let my hair down a bit. No point getting all shaken by a bunch of strangers who hadn’t even caused any trouble.
   “I don’t care how hot they  were.” Brianne announced, “I think they’re insane. I mean Alice? And why would anyone be so against having a Glass anyway, it’s just how stuff works these days.”
   “Maybe they don’t like being watched.” Robyn replied thoughtfully, then she shut her mouth sharpish as if she hadn’t meant to say anything out loud.
   Brianne’s face softened a little, as if she sort of understood…but then she shook her head and stood up, tossing her soft strawberry waves over her shoulder and putting her hands on her hips. “Who cares about those guys anyway?” She scoffed, “I’m here to have fun, not brood over some Orwellian conspiracy theories.”
   I shrugged, “It sounds like Robyn’s cup of tea  though.”
   Robyn shook her head and gave me an apologetic look, “Sorry Cas, but as far as I’m concerned I’m off duty. I’ll dig tomorrow if I have to.”
   I sighed in defeat. “Fine! Fine! You two go and make yourselves look like idiots and I’ll get the next round.”
   “You’re a pal, Cas.” Robyn said with a wink.
   “Don’t get following any more mysterious strangers without us.” Brianne added with a slight giggle. She was relishing winding me up, I wouldn’t hear the end of this for weeks.
   I rolled my eyes, “Bri? Don’t make me hit you.”
   She stuck out her tongue at me and waved as she strode over to the dancefloor.
   ***
   It was 3AM when we got back to the flat. Brianne was done for, a pile of giggles and incoherent nonsense held up on four inch heels. Robyn was better, but she looked extremely tired and lost her mind if you made her laugh (her sense of humour got downright filthy when she was tipsy, so I’m going to choose not to repeat anything she said thereafter). At least she could stand up though.
   Honestly I wasn’t expecting her to have come home with us, but given the creeps stalking around tonight, I was glad she did.
   I was exhausted myself, but I’d decided about three drinks in that one of us should try to think straight at least, and hadn’t let Bri or Robyn talk me into any more cocktails of terror. In hindsight, I kind of wish I had. Maybe it would have softened the initial blow.
   I stopped dead when we exited the elevator, for a moment I think I forgot how to walk. Robyn took a moment to kick off her boots before she turned around and realised what had happened.
   “Holy shit.” She blurted, among a bunch of other stuff.
   I willed my feet to work again and stepped closer to the door. It was wide open, the glass smashed all over the floor and the control panel on the lock flashing red, meaning it had been compromised.
   I fumbled for my Glass with my free hand. I hadn’t heard the alarm through my earpiece…
   Nothing. Somehow, someone had bypassed my security system…my extremely sophisticated, custom security system. Who could do that?
   Brianne was quiet, I wasn’t sure if she was stunned or almost asleep. Robyn edged closer to the door.
   “I’m gonna kill someone.” She growled.
   “With what, your shoes?” I replied with an unconvinced frown, “Look just get inside, I’ll deal with it.”
   Robyn continued to grumble various descriptions of what she would do to the intruder, and Brianne agreed though I’m not sure she knew what she was agreeing to. The three of us edged inside to survey the damage…or I surveyed the damage, those two collapsed on the sofa.
    Maybe I had been drinking a little more than I should, because I suddenly realised I felt extremely sick. There was this awful lump in my throat and my head throbbed.
   Whoever had done this had obviously wanted to get my attention. The room was trashed, broken photo frames on the floor, furniture upturned. What really made me choke was the great big crack through my main Glass where only this morning I had been asleep. That and the fact that my carefully ordered collection of comic book figurines had been tossed on the floor.
   I bent and picked one up, it’s arm now cracked.
   Maybe I’d help Robyn kill this bastard.
   I pushed most of the bad words I wanted to say to the back of my mind. A couple escaped though, sending Brianne into a fresh fit of giggles; fortunately Robyn wasn’t so far gone as to think laughing would be appropriate. She offered to help me clean up the worst of the mess, but since she was still a bit wobbly, I dug the air mattress out of the cupboard and sent them both off to get some rest.
   I realised, as I was picking up the mess strewn across my floor that nothing to my knowledge had been stolen. All of my expensive tech was still here (albeit some in serious need of repair), and every valuable bit of antique books and memorabilia has suffered nothing more than a few rips and breaks. I was still bloody livid, since even with them insured half of my collection was irreplaceable. I wasn’t sure I’d have the heart to tell my dad that someone had gotten to the books we’d spent all those years collecting. Hopefully, I could find somewhere to at least repair the worst of the damages.
   I gave a resigned sigh as I went to reset the alarm system. With all the broken windows, it wouldn’t do much good, but I was tired and overwhelmed and I just wanted to go to sleep. I took every security measure I could, changed the alarm code and pushed a bookcase in front of the door, deciding that the rest was tomorrow’s problem.
   But then I noticed something.
   There was a note on the floor. Old fashioned style ink on paper, the kind of note left by someone who didn’t want to be traced.
   My heart started to beat faster for some reason, and the shock set in all over again. The realisation that someone had been inside my flat, with access to everything I own, all the classified material I had worked on for Looking Glass (though the first thing I’d done was checked, and as far as I could see the main glass hadn’t been touched, let alone accessed).
   I hadn’t even known. It had been that easy.
   The note itself was on the back of what looked like an official document. I noticed the Looking Glass Tech logo in the header, but most of the writing had been blacked out, like it was extremely classified. I could only make out a few incoherent words and phrases: Next stage, test subjects, research funding…….Alice.
   On further inspection, I saw a signature at the bottom. It looked like mine…but I had never signed anything that looked like this in my life.
   On the back was a single word, it looked as if it had been scrawled in red pen by someone with very bad handwriting, but there was something just bloody sinister about it. Something that seemed to make my blood run cold and I had to sit down to process it. My hand was shaking violently.
   All it said was: Run.