Neophyte

With man's technological evolution, more are pushed to question the relationship between mankind and technology, and ponder where exactly humanity stands within modern society's moral ambiguity. Forced into the world of biohacking and genetic modification, Rob discovers that the concept of the Übermensch is still very much alive, and very, very deadly.

Cover art by Ninja Jo

Chapter 1

Outland

"The bounds of experimentation twist and turn

through mountains of miscalculation and often lose themselves in...

terror and darkness."

Rob opened his eye. He must have dozed off by accident.

He blinked to focus his vision, and realized he did not recognize the world that he awakened to. He could see only darkness, apart from a weak light source in one direction. He could feel the rough, cold floor on his back.

He stood, finding himself in a strange house that seemed familiar.

This is...

His thoughts were cut off as he stepped outside, his heart sinking at the sight before him.

A great expanse of television noise and floating islands, debris, and other assorted items surrounded him.

Items sent into a strange place where all of the world's mistakes are kept.

Items misplaced, forgotten, and abandoned.

Items that still vanished every day like shadows at noon, under the blinding light of "progress."

Rob was one of them, and ever since he had escaped from that awful place, one of his greatest fears was some day waking up in there again.

In the Void.

Tonight, that fear was realized.

A sudden flash of light blinded him, followed by a loud noise that spooked him, making him yelp and fall backwards. He tried to stand, but found himself bound to a chair. As he looked down at himself, his surroundings shifted. The spacious void was gone, replaced by four walls that had appeared around him. Darkness enveloped the new room, the only source of illumination coming from a tiny light bulb suspended on the ceiling.

Where am I?

He struggled against his restraints, but got no closer to freedom.

In front of him was an empty table and chair, and a metal door in one of the dark corners of the room.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

No answer.

Am I still in the Void? he thought.

Is this a dream?

He pushed and pulled at his bonds, but they did not budge. After multiple fruitless attempts, he simply gave up, realizing his efforts weren't even loosening his restraints.

Where the heck am I?

He struggled to remember the events leading up to the current situation, but despite his best efforts, he could glean nothing from his mind. The only memories he could recall consisted of his usual everyday life as a nobody in Elmore. Fighting and surviving alone.

The door at the end of the room slid up with a loud hiss. A black silhouette, holding a folder, entered and took a seat at the table.

"Who are you?" Rob said aloud.

The stranger ignored the question.

"Name?" it said in a cold, emotionless voice.

"Where am I?"

"Your name?" repeated the shadow.

"Rob."

The entity opened the folder and pushed it across the table towards Rob. Inside the folder, there was a photo of him.

"Tell me," the black silhoutte said, "who is this?"

"That's… me."

The figure held up a mirror for its captive.

Rob's eye opened wide in surprise.

The reflection he saw was different.

Before he was distorted.

Before he escaped from the Void.

Before he was nobody.

He asked, "What happened to me?"

"Yes, what did happen? What terrible thing did that to you?"

Rob clenched his fists. The entity's words dripped with sarcasm. It made no effort to hide it.

"You already know. What do you want from me? Who are you?"

If the shadow had a face, Rob could swear it would have worn a twisted smile.

"Smart boy. However, the question is not what we want, but what you want."

Rob narrowed his eye. "What are you talking about?"

"Have you ever heard of CRISPR?"

Rob maintained his glare.

The shadow continued. "CRISPR stands for 'clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.' It is a gene modification tool that allows for the editing of genes with remarkable precision, efficiency and flexibility."

"What does this have to do with me?"

"Would you like to have your old body back?"

Rob furrowed his brow in confusion. "What do you mean?"

The figure stood. It towered over Rob, intimidating him further.

"Dreams are strange things, wouldn't you say?" it asked.

"What?"

Rob shifted his gaze downwards towards the photo. He took in the sight of his old body again, as if it would be snatched away at any moment.

"This is a dream?" he asked.

The shadow said, "If you desire to have your normal body back, we can grant you this and so much more."

Rob took a moment to think. Of course he'd want his old body back, but the creature was implying genetic experimentation. Rob was no scientist, but he knew of the stories of maniacal scientists in books and movies, and whatever creation they produced almost always turned against them and harmed everything else.

He asked, "How can you even do that? Who are you?"

"We are Outland."

"Outland?"

The shadow nodded towards the door.

"Specifically, we are k_OS."

Rob squinted at the door, realizing there is text written on it.

Outland Industries

k_OS

Redesign. Modify. Amplify.

"k_OS." Rob repeated. The shadow pronounced it "chaos."

"Yes. A small team within Outland, and the future of mankind, if you will. We possess the most advanced technology in all fields of science."

The shadow stretched out its arms, gesturing to the surroundings.

"Even now, our technology allows this interaction between us to happen."

Rob's confusion grew. "This dream is your doing?"

"And we are capable of so much more. So make your choice. You are either with us, or against us. Your time is running out."

"What do you mean?" Rob asked.

The creature seemed to emit a strange, dark energy. The light from the bulb above appeared to grow weaker, giving way to the growing shadows. The walls and floor faded from view altogether.

"The dreams we make will drag you into great fear. Time is not on your side, so I suggest you make your choice quick."

It placed its hands on the table, which slowly started turning black, spreading like a dark growth from the point of contact. When it was completely taken over, the creature lifted its hands, and the table melted into the floor.

Into the shadows.

Rob gasped, recoiling in fear. He tried to stand and run, but the chair remained firmly anchored to the floor.

"You look afraid," the creature said. "Don't be afraid. This is a dream. The last dream you may ever have."

It approached Rob and grabbed his neck, lifting him up, along with the chair.

It spoke with a distorted voice. "For nightmares are coming."

With each word, the creature's voice grew more demonic.

Rob's vision started to fade out, and his limbs felt like lead. His skin was turning black, like a growing shadow at sundown.

Suddenly, the darkness around them broke into cracks, shining with purple and green light. It looked like a mirror that had been punched.

The shadow seemed to scoff. It dropped Rob, who started gasping for air.

"The Dreamcatcher approaches," said the creature. "You are lucky. You will not get to experience the dark half of your dream. Make your decision, Rob, then come to the park."

The environment broke and fell away like shattered glass, revealing bright, swirling light, reminiscent of deep space and the colorful stars, nebulas and galaxies within. The bonds restraining Rob were gone. He simply floated in space, taking in the astonishing sight. He felt extremely tiny and insignificant as he gazed at the beautiful incandescence of the stars and massive planets, pitifully indifferent to his existence.

A disembodied voice boomed in Rob's ears.

"Give yourself to me. I am life."

A small planet appeared, floating down in front of Rob. It was a miniature version of Earth, small enough to fit in Rob's palm. He cupped it in his hands as it started glowing. The light eventually started to blind him, and as everything turned white he lost all sensation.

He opened his eye. He was on the floor, the bookshelves of a library surrounding him. Rubbing his eye, he thought it strange how calm he was.

This, however, didn't prevent the torrent of questions and fear from flooding his head.

After a few minutes of attempting to organize his thoughts, one question seemed to rise up above the rest, ferociously demanding an answer.

Was any of that real?

He stood up from the cold, dirty floor of the school library, where he had chosen to live out his days as one of the homeless of Elmore. It was a decent place to stay; the librarian was easy to avoid, the students-who no longer recognized him-were nice, the computers were usually available, and it provided him with memories of moments long past.

Moments that never happened for anyone else.

The Void took them from him, along with many other things.

He shook his head, returning his attention to the question lingering in his mind. Thoughts about his losses would drag him back into envy-induced misanthropy, and that would do him no good.

The doors of Elmore Junior High swung open, and Rob stepped outside. The cool night air chilled his skin, and the full moon granted him light where the street lamps did not.

In spite of the dubious claims of the shadow in his dream, he moved with conviction towards the park, determined to satisfy the voices in his head afflicting him with unanswered questions. His craving to be "somebody" again was more than enough motivation to investigate, heedless of the danger.

Excision of the heart

Precision of the mind

So this is how we start

To leave our weaknesses behind

The park was empty and silent, other than the rustling of the leaves in the gentle breeze that blew throughout the trees, and the soft footfalls in the grass produced by Rob's disfigured feet.

I'm overthinking this.

It couldn't have been real. It was just a dream.

Wasn't it?

That thing…

What if everything it said was true?

Rob continued to struggle with this internal violence, trying to regain clarity of mind in the midst of a vortex of thoughts, but a few minutes of aimless wandering put many of these questions to rest.

This is stupid.

There's nothing here.

He turned to leave.

"Stand in place."

Rob froze.

"Identify yourself."

Rob turned around, towards the source of the voice. He saw nothing.

The air shimmered, and a strange robot slowly materialized in front of him, making him yelp and jump back.

The android, which looked like a floating torso with white armor and a glowing visor, did not react.

"Identify yourself," it repeated. "You have ten seconds to comply."

The digits at the end of its arms flashed with electricity, illuminating the droid in ominous light.

Rob gulped, but mustered his courage. "Rob."

"Identification confirmed," the robot replied.

A sudden flash of light from behind the android hit Rob like a stun grenade, temporarily blinding him. After five seconds of a complete loss of eyesight and hearing, he started to regain his senses, and found himself in a familiar dark room.

No way.

His gaze landed on a metal door, the text written on it glinting in the light. Exactly as he saw it in his dream.

"This way, neophyte," said a robotic voice.

Rob realized that the android was still with him. It glided towards the door, which slid up, making its characteristic loud hiss.

"Where am I?" Rob asked.

The robot hovered into the hallway.

"The doctor is waiting, neophyte." It continued on its way, the glow of its visor quickly fading. Rob hurriedly followed, fearful of being left behind in the dark. His footsteps echoed loudly off the metallic walls, indicating the large size of the facility.

The robot stopped at a set of double doors.

"The doctor is waiting for you inside," it said.

A voice from behind the doors stopped Rob before he could reply.

"Our bodies are capable of adjusting in ways we've hardly dreamt of."

Rob froze. He heard this voice before. The slightly raspy voice of an adult male.

"I'm so close now. So very close. If we could only find the key…"

Another voice spoke. It sounded like a young man. "Key to what?"

"Complete transplantations," came the indignant reply. "We'll be able to transplant limbs and organs, and be able to replace diseased and damaged parts of the body as easily as we replace eye corneas now. The new parts will join together as though they were formed there."

"It can't be done."

"It can be done!" the older man replied. "With my new special compound I've created, I can do it. I know I can do it."

"Sure, sure, that's what you say."

"That's what I know."

"Remember: lies can't keep you alive, doctor," said another voice, deep and commanding. "But I can. See to it that you deliver what you promised."

A few seconds of silence passed before the doctor replied. "Your concern is a great comfort to me. Good night, captain."

The doors to the room burst open, nailing Rob in the face. As he lay on the floor, hands on his aching face, he heard two sets of footsteps that soon faded away. Whoever walked out failed to take notice of either Rob or the hovering robot.

As Rob got to his feet, he overheard the man in the room muttering to himself.

"I've had enough of you and your insidious talk. If I wanted to, I could turn your existence into a lifetime of agony. Then we'll see who's laughing at whom, you miserable fools."

"Doctor. The test subject is here," the robot said.

The doctor replied, "Excellent. Bring him in. We must hurry."

Rob didn't like being called a "test subject." He reluctantly stepped through the double doors, and saw a vast laboratory full of chemicals and strange equipment. Unlike the rest of the facility, the lab was relatively well lit, its white walls bearing the same text that Rob had seen before, but with an extra line at the bottom:

Outland Industries

k_OS

Redesign. Modify. Amplify.

Neurachem Room

"Hello, Rob."

Rob searched around for the source of the voice, but noticed only a lab coat on the single office chair in the room. Then the chair swiveled, and he realized that the coat had limbs. A living lab coat, with black dots for eyes and a dark line for a mouth.

The coat bore a smile.

"Or should I say, Doctor Wrecker?" he added.

A look of incredulity formed on Rob's face.

He stared at the doctor and asked, "You… you were that shadow thing?"

The doctor stood from his chair.

"Yes. I apologize for that unpleasant experience, but we cannot seem to perfect that technology yet."

"Who are you? What is this place? Can you really fix me?"

"Now, now. You'll get all your answers in due time."

The doctor placed a hand on Rob's shoulder, and lowered his voice.

"The question now is… do you really want your old body back?"

Rob nodded.

"Villain isn't really working out, and I don't want to be a nobody again."

"Very good. Let us begin."