SYRONO
Accelerating down the city streets, drops of rain bead off her sleek helmet visor.
The rear wheel of a motorcycle spews a variable mist of water as Syr weaves around the sporadic late night traffic, neon light bouncing off the scattered puddles in the various low-lying areas of the road.
The voices of a tense call play out from within her helmet.
Ayron - "It's okay, Syr!"
Ayron - "I've been working with professor Anto for years now and he knows what's up. This project has world-altering potential!"
Syr - "Even so.. Why does it have to be you?! This thing hasn't even been tested!"
An enthusiastic, deep voiced professor comes over the call sounding distant.
Anto - "Relaaxx, Syr. Your brother here is the brightest person I've ever worked with."
Ayron - "Don't worry, sis. This may be the first human test, but countless animal trials have gone off without a hitch."
Syr - "Regardless of how safe it is, I don't care!!"
Syr - "You can't just give up your life like this!"
With apparent disregard, the professor proceeds, questioning a nearby lab technician.
Anto - "Dex, is the stage ready yet?"
Dex - "Yes, Sir."
Anto - "Great! Then let's prepare for the coupling process."
Syr ~ Running out of time, I gotta hurry..
Ayron - "I must say, I really didn't expect you to react like this when I left that message for you.."
Syr - "How can you be so delusional to think I wouldn't care that you're just not going to exist anymore?!"
Ayron - "But as I told you, I will still exist. My consciousness will be wholly in-tact, in a perfect, controlled environment where no harm can come to me. And, I'll be around forever, so you'll never have to worry about actually losing me. Like with.. you know.."
Syr - "I can't fucking -believe- you're using the death of our parents trying to justify giving up your actual life!"
Ayron - "You know I didn't mean it like that.. But seriously.. you'll still be able to see me and talk to me whenever you want! I know you've refused to try it despite my work, but virtual reality is so advanced now that we can meet up and interact just as if it were real life!"
Syr - "You're brainwashed by this pathetic guy and his obsession with immortality nonsense in your dumb fantasy world!"
Ayron - "Syr I-"
Syr - "Well I don't give a damn about your fake reality! I want to keep the real you! It's not fair! I'm part of this family too, you can't just decide by yourself to do this without me!"
Ayron - "Syr.. This is bigger than just you.. Or us.."
A stray car honks automatically as she skids around it, cutting it off to save time, and maybe breaking some laws while she's at it.
Still listening in, the professor pushes himself into the call, the loudness of his voice only further aggravating her.
Anto - "I understand your concerns, but we've put so much research into this."
Anto - "Ayron believes in this just as strongly as I do, and you trust him right?"
Syr - "Yeah, but--!!"
Anto - "But nothing! We are going to make history here tonight!"
Syr - "Ugh! This test is unethical and you know it! There's no way you're allowed to do this!"
Anto - "So what if we don't have the regulation's permission! They're a half-assed group of politicians with no real knowledge of the tech who just love to slow down the rate of progress. You'd be surprised how much is done behind closed doors!"
Syr - "H-How can you be okay with this?!"
Anto - "Look, dearie, I know what this must seem like to someone who doesn't really understand what's going on-"
Syr - "Don't fucking insult me like I'm too stupid to comprehend the risk of what you're about to do to my brother!!"
Anto - "M-My.. Tensions are indeed high.. But, I assure you that despite the technical illegitimacy of this test, we've done our due diligence on this. We have tested over and over again on many subjects closely related enough to humans. There may have been some.. hiccups, at the start. But those were to be expected and were quickly fixed. Our testing has insured a virtual one-hundred percent safety rating on the process."
As the professor rants on about their supposedly disciplined research, Syr leans into a sharp turn down a dark, lesser used path to cut between main roads.
Syr - "Spout nonsense all you want, you're not changing my mind. I want my brother! The real one!!"
Anto - "Come on! If nothing else, understand that this is going to improve the lives of everyone on this planet! Think of all the people out there suffering from incurable diseases. Some even that we have caused."
Anto - "Deep VR is already being used to treat the terminally ill, now we're here just to take that to the next level. Now, everyone can live in a new world. One free from disease and hardship, one with new wonders you and I cannot even conceive of yet!"
Syr - "How many times do I have to say it, I don't care about your stupid technology!! Do you even hear yourself..?! You sound like a-!"
Anto - "Ayron, get ready at the stage."
Ayron - "On it."
Syr - "Ugh! There's no reason you need to do this to Ayr! Use some other guinea pig for your dumb test!"
Anto - "Ah, but Ayron knows this tech better than anyone! He's the only one who even has a modicum of an idea of what to expect, let alone what to do when he gets to the other side. An inexperienced individual could have their brain fried by the stress of the new system and be unrecoverable.."
Syr - "W-What-?!"
Anto - "Besides! Who says we haven't already been toying with these concepts already. What did you think all that work on the In-Worlds was for?"
Syr ~ In-Worlds.. Ayron's project..? Isn't it just some kind of online game?
Syr - "You can't get away with this.. Once I report this to the authorities-!"
Anto - "Ohoho, there's nothing the authorities can do besides fine us. Even if we're breaking laws, your brother has already contractually given his consent to this procedure!"
Anto - "Really, there's no need for you to be rushing over here. This may as well be a routine test. It's a surefire success."
Syr - "You can't jus-!"
Syr - "Geh?! He hung up on me?!"
Syr ~ This is not good, just listen to that cocky bastard. Something's bound to go wrong.. Even in the best case scenario, I lose the only tangible part of my family I have left..!
Syr - "Damn it, almost there..!"
She pulls out front of the facility, braking hard to a full stop, nearly causing the rear of the bike to raise up.
Guard - "Hey! You're not allowed to be here!"
Removing her helmet, she beams it towards the pursuing guard who is toppled by the unexpected projectile.
Wasting no time she breaks into a full sprint, hopping the low lying vehicular entry gate.
Not long after, another pair of security goons impede her progress.
Catching them off guard, she takes the first one out with a powerful high kick to the head.
Seeing that diplomacy isn't an option, the second immediately goes in for the incapacitation using an electrified baton.
She ducks the guard's attack while simultaneously knocking him down with a leg sweep.
Being accomplished and quite capable in hand-to-hand combat, the low level security was only a minor inconvenience.
As one of the guards begins to get back up, she runs through the labyrinthian industrial complex to where she knows her brother is about to undergo a very experimental operation.
Normally, no average individual should be able to make it through the facility, passing several high security doors only unlockable with special keys given to technicians on a strict basis.
The keys are supposed to be surgically implanted to reduce risk of unauthorized access, however many years ago she was given a questionably obtained loose key by her brother.
It was a good-willed attempt to help quell Syr's concern about him working at a bio-tech corporation, but has long since been forgotten, except to her.
Moving through the various halls trying to find the specific lab she's been told where her brother works, she attracts many odd glares from the sparse late night staff, though most technicians of this sort are the non-confrontal type.
She busts the door to the lab wide open only to be greeted with a blinding light and a terrible screeching sound, averting her gaze and covering her ears.
Moments later, it was over.
Looking around the room, Ayron was nowhere to be seen.
Lab Tech - "Stage transfer complete."
Lab Tech - "Ayron, can you read me?"
No response.
Lab Tech - "Ayron, are you there? Please respond."
No response.
Anto - "Dex, what's going on..?"
Dex - "I-I'm not sure. Everything seemed like it was going fine, the sensors showed the atoms coupling properly. But the medium is showing critical.. Recalibration is incomplete..!"
Anto finally sees Syr, standing in the doorway looking down, gritting her teeth.
The technicolor lighting in the lab reflecting off the wet streaks running down her face.
Anto - "Syr I.."
Syr - "AaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Letting out a gut wrenching scream, she bolts towards the still in shock professor.
Dex tries to get in the way but is easily bodied by Syr, being a man of little strength.
She charges up her fist and releases all the strength she has left to punch Anto square in the face, putting all of her weight and momentum behind it.
Along with emitting a loud crack, Anto stumbles crashing into some of the machinery around the control console.
Grasping for something to hold onto as he falls, his large mass pulls down some of the equipment from the stack of electronic components.
The high voltage of the advanced but delicate parts of the atomic coupling hardware is unleashed as they crash to the ground, causing electrical arcing.
A subtly artificial voice is heard on the system speakers:
AI - "Warning: System anomaly detected."
Not caring about the commotion caused, Syr moves to pin the professor down and attack again, blood already starting to leak from his nose.
As she was reeling up to strike him again, a couple of lab technicians rush over and yank Syr off of the professor.
Technician - "Stop!"
Syr - "Hey-!"
She lets out a small shocked and angry cry as she is pulled forcefully up and away, losing her balance and falling backwards into the coupling stage.
As she falls, Anto feebly pulls himself up to the control console.
Observing the situation in a split-second, a spontaneous thought flashes across him looking at the enraged girl now well within the extents of the stage.
He hesitates for a mercilessly short second before re-activating the coupling process.
And before anyone could even process the events that just transpired:
AI - "Coupling target found. Initiating atomic pairing process."
Syr - "H-Huh..?"
Dex - "W-What have you done..?!"
A blinding light once again filled the room, as every atom in her body simultaneously links to the machine.
The process of precisely measuring all aspects of the atoms down to the last quark destroys all of the information in her body, functionally removing her from existence.
End of chapter zero