Cyberian Mage
Beware of your Fate Connection
Today is 3022, Humanity has fallen into depravity. We grew without wisdom and are controlled by those who have deceived us. We are a self-destructive bunch of fools. How did we get here? Our greed, our blindness, our laziness, our naiveness brought us here. We chose not to act when the discourses were small, and by the time we saw the reasons for the small discourse, it was too late. The sad part is that we were warned, but we didn’t listen, because we were too absorbed on our own small issues that we didn’t notice the larger ones. Those who promised us freedom, safety, and providence, gained fortune, safety, and above all, power over us. What we got in return was enslavement, insecurity, poverty, ruin, and above all, Fear. Who can save us?
It all started with an influential voice during a time of conflict, which created a mob. The mob provided safety, power, wealth, and freedom for the voice to continue to grow. The voice grew so powerful that the rule of law was no match to enforce justice, so it fell.
Freedom turned to authoritarianism. The mob turned into the enforcement of the voice. All business, wealth, freedom, and power belonged to the voice and those who follow obediently. Those not part of the mob suffered and became enslaved to enrichen the Voice.
The technology back in the early 21st century was growing at an alarming rate, to the point that it grew faster than our wisdom. Those who create new technology are not wise to the extent of how it can be used, so no safeguards are put in place. That gap between technology and wisdom gave the opportunity for the voice to exist. AI and virtualization gave a freedom that wasn’t previously
experienced. The voice showed those loyal to its word how to exploit that gap and how to gain power by using it.
It started with sending information to the masses by sending audio, then text, then images and video, to a wide audience who subscribes to the content. This can evoke emotions to the one receiving the information. Soon after this, AI gave the ability for interactions with information seamless which made the world smaller and tighter for expressing ideas. Later came the ability to directly send and save emotions along with ideas. It was then called social media. Now the ability to send experiences to the masses is now a reality. Cloning also grew from fiction to reality. With the ability to save and transmit emotions and ideas to another being, consciousness can be moved to clones extending a person’s life. With no oversite, this is where the gap between science and wisdom began. This is when the voice was starting to be heard. It started by a hacker or group of hackers who created, The Wisper, which included a mood that interrupted regular transmission of experiences. Eventually it grew into an intoxicating and addicting feeling of power. This is now what is called the Voice. During the war, the voice was our salvation.
The Voice inspired the loyal people to be creative in creating weaponry and innovations which proved profitable for subordinates. Those who were to be the foot soldiers were sent anger to motivate physical actions of violence towards those not connected. This lead to the creation of the Rager, a human with uncontrollable animal like aggressions. Those against the voice were sent emotions of depression crippling the people’s ability to be motivated in acquirement of achievement. This is an extension of cyber bulling. Lies can be sent out to the masses and normally this would create dissent and with proof be dismissed, but if the emotions can be manipulated, you can override logic and no obvious proof will change the opinion. Truth was also sent, warning about the voice, but emotions override logic. Only those not connected were insulated from the lies and able to understand the truth. This was a threat to the voice, and this started the war in which freedom was lost.
The war was fought through conventional weapons and mental means. The direct interjection of emotions to the brain unleashed humans’ ability of telepathy. The direct connections also allowed people to connect to the network
and other devices without the means of physical connection or computer. The mind is the computer now. Your emotions and thoughts are the interface. Willpower is now a weapon of strength. Strong emotions can increase willpower. This synthetic manipulation of emotions is what led to the loss of freedom.
All of this was foretold in the writings from the Wise book of Meme. The author was an unknown person, who witness the beginnings of the voice and the loudness of the lie. To our knowledge, he was a technologist who saw the ramifications of our technological growth. We believe he was powerless to warn since he himself disconnected from technology after experiencing some failures in life. This made him immune to the emotional influences of those who wish to enrichen themselves by suppressing the masses. He maintained his logic by not letting emotion persuade him. He wrote the book as a warning for people to not be influenced by those who wish to gain power over freedom, but this book was lost in time or suppressed. We didn’t learn. We didn’t listen, and now we are paying the price.
The Order of things.
The world is ruled and subject to the Voice, an authoritative ruler of the faction called the Cyberilas, who live in the cities. When connected to the network or in the virtual reality environment called the realm, he appears as a dragon mentally talking to subjects and transmitting emotions to gain allegiance. The ones who command the foot soldiers are called overlords. These people possess full power of telepathy and have overwhelming power to influence machines and people. The order of the Cyberian Mages are the generals who manage the technical aspects and are the generals for the Mob. The foot soldiers or mob can be anyone who is influenced by the Voice.
The other faction is called the Organics. These people reside in the wasteland. These people reject technology and believe in the natural part of things. Those who are impoverished and can’t afford to live outside of the voice’s influences are part of this faction. These people are tribal in nature, but familiar with technology enough to hack it if needed. Those who have excelled in this skill are called hacks. There are some technological scientists that have joined the faction who develop defenses against the Voice. These people are called Tscies.
These people are the target of the mages and overlords. These are the ones who can be sent into a depression and even suicide if connected to the net for too long, so the hacks do the interfacing with the net and download information for the Tscies. It is known that some of these people built the technology that is used by the voice, and these people can destroy it, thus ending the voices reign. Tscies are of high value but are so few. Many have been killed but their existence can change the tide for freedom.
Chapter 1: The Rage
The dragon has called us to the exhibition hall, to bear witness to one of the weapons that is going to cleanse the backwash of undesirables out from the wastelands. I witness a person in his mid-twenties going into a chamber with a chair in it. The Dragons voice told the person to sit and be comfortable. The young person obliged. The chamber closed and the voice spoke to all of us. In a moment, I will empress a patch which will break the person, then reimplant an emotion which will weaponize this young man. A hum, then whisper sound was being heard. The man in the chamber started convulsing violently. Blood started to trickle from his eyes and mouth. He was being patched with an overabundance of emotion. He leaped up from the chair growling and screaming incoherent words. The door of the chamber opened to a hallway which led to another chamber where a small child was playing with toys. Upon hearing the screams, the small child looked down the hallway where the young man was at. The child saw the now, blood ridden, man growling. The child screamed and the man lunged toward the child biting and ripping at the poor soul’s body. Blood splattered everywhere as the young monster ripped the arms and neck from the young child’s body. I turned away, I can’t bear to see and hear this anymore. I didn’t become a Mage for this Barbarism. The voice concluded the exercise by saying that this will be your new weapon to dispatch threw out your regions. You will have control of these threw your interfaces, but you still will receive training on how to control multiple units for the cleansing. I’m sure I had a look of disgust, but I quickly tried to blank it out when an Overlord Spoke.
“Cyberian Mage Targus, are you well?” I replied with fake enthusiasm, “yes overlord Zentile, I and fine, I’m just surprised the Voice will give us such power and control”. John Zentile, the commanding overlord replies, “It is a great Honor to be trusted with such power, Mr. Ron Targus. Don’t let this power get to your head, you wouldn’t want me to hunt you down for abuse of this gift”. I replied in earnest, “I am loyal to the voice, there won’t be any issues like that I can assure you”. “Good”, the overlord firmly replies, “may you have a good day”.
As I leave the exhibition hall, I felt a sour feeling in my gut. Is what we have become a total totalitarian society? Why does he hate the Organicians, and why is such means necessary?
Chapter 2: The Spy’s mission
A meeting is held in the great meeting hall, to outline the new mission protocols and deployment endeavors, to the Mage groups. It’s standard Communication protocol to have a deployment meeting, conducted by the overlords, to establish a unified agenda that all of us Mages must follow. The overlord Zentile begins to speak.
“All of you here know what new weapon we have at our disposal, but to properly use such a gift we need to establish a target. Therefore, we need to incorporate spy or spies to infiltrate the Organicians infrastructure and strongholds. We need intel on what they are plotting, and where, so that we can flush them out. One of you will be the spy, communicate any intel to the commanding overlord, and direct the attack. We already know that some Tscies are involved and working through various Hacks to get information and create disruptions. So, one of you will pose as a Hack to infiltrate. Will there be any volunteers for this mission?” With eagerness I raise my hand. This is an opportunity to see what the other side of this culture is like. The overlord acknowledges. “Good man, Mage Targus, I’m glad that you will undertake this mission of such importance. I will brief you in private to your mission parameters.” The other mages in the room clap for my bravery, and relief that it’s not them. The meeting ends and the overlord takes me to a private room to discuss the mission. Overlord Zentile begins,” I’m glad that you volunteered for this since I trust you. I know you won’t fail us.” I replied with glee. “It is my joy and privilege to serve the voice, how shall I be of assistance?” Zentile replies, “We have known for some time that the organicians are planning to create a time replacement device, to try to change our world and existence. They can’t defeat us, so they will try to make strategic changes to alter what is now. They have been gathering tons of information and theories on how to do this, by having the hacks create disruptions to alter our gaze, while getting technical documentations to build it. You will have to be one of the hacks to get in. We know two of the main Hacks, (Alex Runningstar and Selina Morningclaw). These two you will have to
best to gain their favor.” I reply with vigor, “being a mage, I can keep up with the Hacks, and after I find out, what they are planning, where and how shall I get the information to you?” The overlord replies, “we will have a random contact that will approach you at a given place and time to get your intel.” I thank the overlord for the opportunity and leave. I find it incredible that time can be altered to suit a group of people. It’s almost a fantasy just hearing about it. Are these so called, naturalist people, that advanced to be able to accomplish this? I guess I’ll find out.
Chapter 3: Infiltration
Lying underground, in damp tunnels underneath the main city, Alex Runningstar, A young hippy looking person, patches an old laptop to a network juncture cable. He has a headset and is talking to Ken Scorshovich, the main Tscies of the organicians. In a frustrated voice, Alex yells. “This is not going to be easy, and this will take time.” Ken replies over the headset, “we need this, it’s crucial that you give us 10 minutes of disruptions so we can extract the data.” Alex replies jokingly, I can do it, but I must bounce the signal from various places so that the mages don’t get a bead on my position. Is Selina in place?” Selina interrupts jokingly,” bitch please, who do you think I am, an old lady? “Alex laughs,” I guess that’s a yes, ok, I’m about to start, get ready!” Alex hits the enter key on the laptop. All at once, all monitors in the city flash, and all psy patches stop with a message being heard and displayed, (Beware of your Fate). Random images from the 20th century get displayed on all video devices threw out the city. Those people who were undergoing patches stop and couldn’t get updates, thus the mages couldn’t control them. The mages mind sync with the network to try to identify who or what is creating this disturbance. While the Mages are investigating, Selina, in the city, patches her old laptop to a terminal, mind sync with the net, hacks into a data vault, extracts schematics for a power converter for Ken. Ken exclaims. “Alex, you are exerting too much power to your position, the Mages will be zeroing in on your position soon!” Alex responds with Glee,” you wanted 10 minutes, I will give you 10 minutes, that’s why I patched into a main hub.” Selina with panic in her voice replies, “The mages will be on you at any time, switch to psy net and try to disguise your network signature. Calmly Alex replies. “This is the last component, and this is the only way to get this done, I
knew this was a one-way trip, but you will have to finish it. “Ken yells, “That isn’t you, the Mages are forcing the feeling of dread to you, you must fight the emotion!” Alex starts to cry as he mind syncs to the network. The mages send a message, (Cease and desist, you have no escape, we have you, we own you). Salina yells at Alex, “Don’t you listen to them, they are manipulating your thoughts!” Suddenly another voice rings out. “I have escaped, I will continue to escape, Come and get me, Beware your fate.”
Another target appears on the network. The Mages directed the efforts away from Alex to the strange new entity. The Mage foot patrol who was advancing to the tunnel stopped and were redirected to the new source. Salina finishes the download, disconnects, and begins to head toward Alex’s position. In the tunnel, Alex, overloaded with grief, passes out while a hooded stranger approaches and sits with him. Selina arrives with gun in hand at Alex’s position and yells, “who are you, get away from him or I’ll shoot!” The cloaked figure stands up slowly, raises his hands and says two words, (YOUR FATE). Immediately a bright light flash on the network. All the mages stop, both on foot, and in the network and start weeping. The city’s network goes blank with all displays showing the words, (Connection Lost). The mages realize that their power of influence was directed back at them, turning them into weeping children. Alex wakes up and looks at the stranger and asks, “how?” The hooded stranger says one word, (magic).
Chapter 4: The Test
Selina and the hooded stranger bring Alex to the encampment, where the Organicians hold out in an overgrown, deserted area of the city. Ken runs out to meet them. With relief in his voice Ken exclaims, “Thank God you are ok. What happened? I was able to get the data, then the network went black. How did you escape”? Selina reply’s, “it was this stranger who intervened, I don’t know how or even why, but he helped us escape.” Ken askes the stranger, “who are you, and why did you help”. The stranger replies, “My name is Ron. I saw what you were doing, and I have been sympathetic to your cause for some time now, besides, you looked like you needed some help, so I thought that this was a good time to make myself known”. Ken replies with Skepticism, “well, we thank you for your
efforts but, don’t think that you can just get in our good graces by using magical powers of a Cyberian Mage to get by”. Selina questions Ken. “Cyberian mage? I know about the mages but not of what you speak”. Ken replies, “The Cyberian Mage, is the formal name for the Mages. When they first came out, they had special skills, like the now known overlords, and were given special powers by the voice. To be able to deflect powers back to the mages, means that you have the power of the overlords, so how can we trust you?” Ron replies, “I don’t need to prove anything to you, my actions should be proof enough, but you can always mind sync with me on the net, so you can see my avatar and judge for yourself, if I am the cyberian Mage to which you fear”. Ken replies with anger, “I won’t get anywhere near the net with a mind sync interface, but Selina can, as well as Alex, so if you try something, they will detect and Psybreak you”. Ron agrees.
Alex, Selina and Ron sit in a room with a table, then the lights dim. Outside the room Ken and the rest of the Tscies are looking at a monitor screen patched into the network. A virtual room opens in the cyberspace realm and Alex appears as a half lion half man in the room. Selina also appears as a half woman half phoenix. Ron appears as a man with a dark aura surrounding him. Ron speaks, “I see how colorful you are in the network realm, and how big and beautiful your avatars appear. I’m surprised that you haven’t been caught already. Because of how loud and bright you are, you draw too much attention to yourselves. I, as a man or cloud, can move threw-out the network undetected.” Kens voice is heard surrounding all of them, “Their boldness is to draw you out Ron. Those who work for the system, have a weakness to show power when confronted by someone who appears stronger than them. Their avatars normally display this as an ogre, dragon, or some other being displaying arrogance, strength, and deception, since you don’t display this, you probably aren’t of the system. Congratulations, you passed.” The lights come on and the room shows the three of them sitting in the room, but the avatars are still being seen in the eyes of the three. The AV spill will take time to dissipate. Ken takes Ron to a room where he can rest for the night.
Chapter 5: The Organicians Faction
Morning comes, as the sun displays the main city in all its glory, and the wasteland of the fallen past civilization, in ruin and depravity. Ron walks with Alex
in bewilderment and asks, “how can you survive out here, at least I go back and forth, but I never came this far out, to be in this depravity.” Alex replies, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, we forage, garden, build, create art and science. Ken is from the old world and has taught us much from the past and from today’s tech, since he was one of the ones who built the city that you go back and forth from. He rejected technology and removed himself from it, so now he is immune to the influence of the Mages. So now he and the rest of his people are targets of the mages. His people can destroy the city, but they are too few in numbers to make any difference, but if he winds up on the net with a mind interface, they will be able to track him.” Ron replies, “so that’s why you do the dirty work, and he is in the background giving orders. He is paranoid you know.”
Alex laughs and replies, “very true, but better safe than sorry, besides he is working on something that, “Selina rudely interrupts, “that’s enough about that. Ron, tell us where you are from.” Ron replies, “I come originally from the city, but I don’t like what the leaders have turned it into, only the rich survive there, and there is no way to ensure that you will remain rich, so I do survival exercises in real life and on the net. That turned into a lifestyle for me. And that’s how I got good on the net.” Selena questions Ron,” you don’t get good like a Cyberian mage by practicing, so what gives, what have you really been doing?” Ron explains further, “ok, I once knew a mage, and at one time, an old overlord, and they taught me some tricks”. Alex replies, “Some tricks, well let me show you some tricks of survival.”
Alex and Selina take Ron to an underground cavern where water is clean, and there is an abundance of vegetables, fruit and some wildlife running around. There was a small community of people who were farming and raising the animals as pets. As they walked further, there were areas where mechanics were working on recycling old parts, and making new vehicles, like motorcycles and cars. Further on, in some areas, old junk was being made into laptops and network functional gear. This is how the hacks can interact with the network, without being able to be easily traced. The gear is old and made before hardware identification modules were installed.
Some of the people had neural mind interfaces installed, showing that some of these people were once city dwellers. These people couldn’t afford living amongst the Cyberilas faction, so they fled to here, and now enjoy real freedom.
Alex with glee starts to talk. “If you like what you see, just wait until you see what’s in the cave”. Selena angrily replies to Alex. “Why are you talking about the cave, Ron hasn’t proved himself yet”. Alex replies,” we need him, he has proven he isn’t from the Cyberilas faction, he isn’t a Mage, and his abilities will be needed. I’m going to talk to Ken about having Ron Help us.” Ron replies, “hold on, I just want freedom, I’m not getting involved with your war. I’ll help here and there, but not planning on getting involved.” Just then Ken shows up to join the three in their discussion. “Well, that doesn’t sound like the response a spy would give, if you want to show Ron the cave, go ahead and Ron, we really could use your abilities for what we are working on”. The four enter the cave. With surprise, Ron witnesses the heart of their creation. The Time chamber, using all new technology, that of which the Cyberilas had not even begun to master. The device was shaped like a large hoop with crystals, and digital electronics threw out its frame. Ron in shock asks, “How is this possible. This technology doesn’t even exist yet, and you are able to do this in a cave amongst all this junk?” Ken laughingly replies,” We made the city and all of its tech and look what has become if it. Everyone has become a slave to it, and now that the genie is out of the bottle, we can’t contain the corruption, so we must go back and warn the past about what’s to come, and maybe, maybe this reality can change.” I personally would like for you to make the trip”. With surprise Ron replies,” why me, I don’t know history, I don’t know anything about what you are doing. “Ken replies, “we can teach you what you need to know, and it’s all part of a little-known book called the wise book of meme.” This was written in the past, but it is a blueprint of how things came to be.
Chapter 6: The unknown history
Later in the evening, the villagers sit around a campfire and talk about what little is known about their history. Ken explains, “Our present reality started in the 21st century, where there was widespread corruption amongst local politicians and governments. This eventually led to war and destruction. We don’t know how the war began, or who fired the first shot, but we do know that during the war, there was a technological boom. During this time, an unknown author wrote the book of Meme, documenting how corruption began, as a warning to the future,
about what’s to come. We believe the Voice knew about this writing, and hid it, so all won’t be able to stop him. It was a time of inflation, and greed, which drove the people to a state of financial depravity. Then a hero emerged to bring things back to normal, but he is now known as the voice. The book is about him and how he got power, but we only have small portions of this book. We must go back, find the author of this, and make the book available to all for posterity. This way the people will know not to fall for the lies of the Voice.”
Ken continues and asks the villagers. “If you can’t change what today is, would you go back to before it happened? With the combined knowledge of the world, the technology is being created. But how is this going to be used and how can this be abused. Is this for an escape to a better reality for selfish individuals or, can this be used to change the future for us all. At what risk. There is a possibility to change the current times by making people heed the warnings. The wise book of memes needs to be put in place so it can be used to prevent our current existence. Unfortunately, we just don’t know who the author is. We don’t know when it came out, how to get ahold of him, even if we do go back in time. All we know it was found during the war in an archive along with a reference to a project called WZ. We will soon have the machine running, and would you agree that we must try?” Ron nods his head with agreement and asks to be excused.
Chapter 7: Night on the town
Ron walks away and heads to the city. Along the long walk, his mind is uneasy. He thinks about what he has seen and what he must do. Should he betray the Mages, or betray his possible freedom, and possibly the freeing of his countryman. While contemplating his decision, a shadow appears in the distance. It’s the rogue contact. A slender woman, wearing a cloak, and a patch in one eye, with a glass optic in the middle of it. She calls out,” Ron, you have not made good friends, you must come with me”. He nods and complies. Both proceed to the meeting hall where a disgruntled John Zentile is waiting. He angrily tells the rogue mage to leave them. Ron looks at Jon as he speaks,” well, I hope that you have something for us. You turned most of the mages into sniveling baby’s, embarrassing us all in front of the voice. I gave you special abilities to use against our enemies, not against your own people!” Ron Angrily replies,” I had to prove
my intentions to these people, so I had to use the abilities against the other mages, so now I have earned their trust.” Jon replies with vigor in his voice, “and what have you found out”? Ron replies,” it is true, they have a time machine made from scrap parts, but I don’t think it will work. These peasants believe some book will change everything. Jon with worry in his voice asks, “what book?” Ron replies Some book of memes.” Jon looks away and talks to himself saying, “how can this be? How did they know?” Ron asks,” sir, what is this book?” Jon replies, “it’s our end, and you must destroy everything there. Where are they?” Ron replies, “somewhere in the wasteland, but I don’t know the exact location of the machine.” Jon angrily replies with vigor, “find it now, and relay the information to the other forces, we will handle this. Ron, now you must go before you are noticed”. Ron leaves the meeting chamber. On his way back, he feels a gun barrel in his spine, and hears an angry voice saying, you traitor. It’s Selina, who had followed Ron from the camp,” I knew you were a spy. I just needed to prove it, so what are you doing here, Ron?” Just then, a shot rang out missing them both. It was the rogue mage who made the shot and just missed Selina’s head. Selina fires back. Ron grabs Selina and ducks behind a building. Ron mind interfaces with the network’s surveillance system and sees all camera views at once. He grabs her gun and points it in a northern direction, away from the rogue mage. He fires, and the bullet ricochets in 3 places, and hits the gun out of the mages hand. The mage uses the other hand and picks up the gun. She mind interfaces with the net and Ron and the rogue mage fights it out for controls of the cameras. She fires a shot which also ricochets and nicks Ron’s shoulder. He shoots again and again, and by ricocheting shots, hits her in the leg. Selina seeing what’s happening, mind interfaces with the network. She summons areal delivery drones to their location and drops the loads of packages on the rogue mage. The mage gets up and begins to chase the two. Ron patches again to the net and pushes an update to the rogue mage, making her stop in her tracks at an intersection. Selina maneuvers the traffic signals to change, where a large transport conveyance hits the mage, killing her. Selina asks,” what was that? what did you do?” Ron answers, “ever heard of a blue screen of death?” Selina replies, “we should head back, are you hurt?” Ron replies, “it’s a nick on my shoulder, nothing too bad.” Both head back to the wasteland.
Chapter 8: The revelation
Back at the wasteland, the two are met by Ken and Alex. “What happened?” asks Ken. “We got into a shootout in the city. A Mage was trying to kill Ron, but we stopped her”. Answers Selina. Ron interjects, “The bullets were for Selina, not me, the mage was protecting me.” All look at Ron with doubt and ask why. Ron replies. “Selina suspected I was a spy and had a gun to my back, where the mage was trying to shoot her, to protect me, since I am a spy”. Ken and Alex raise guns and point them at Ron. Selina steps in the line of fire and in an angry voice exclaims, “Both of you, put them away, Ron killed the Mage to protect me, so now I’m confused, what’s happening”. Ron replies, “I took this assignment to get with you, to leave the city, because the Overlords are planning an attack by turning regular citizens into raging animals. I can’t stand for that. Also, I sense that this book of Memes is a great threat to the Cyberilas faction. Why and what is with this book that you are not telling me?” Ken and Alex lower their weapons. Ken begins to speak.” In the 21st century there was a time where people got into government by lying and cheating to get into power. People with popularity got into politics rather than people with wisdom. This created chaos and made democracy slow down and eventually stop. When democracy couldn’t move forward for the benefit of the nation, people stopped believing in a democratic government. This opened the void for autocrats and authoritarians to gain power and control. The author of the book lived through this time and was working on a failing project called WZ. He eventually left the project and wrote the book using some of the technology from the WZ project, but somehow this book failed or was stopped. Probably went back to work on the WZ project. We found remanence of this book in the remains of the fallen city of Saint Petersburg and found that the transference of emotions to others started back then. We don’t know how this person had the InSite to document such things and give warnings about it. If we had the full book, and it was widely circulated, this would make people more resistant to the lies and corruption of that time and prevent this reality. Therefore, it’s a threat to the Voice. He must know about this books existence and possibly know it’s author. We have more information about the WZ project than the book of meme, so we were going to send someone back to find the WZ project, and find out about the author, so he can focus on the book, its publication, and distribution to the masses”. Ron replies in angst,” that’s a fool hearty, longshot of a plan, but its logical. When do you need me to go?” Ken joyously exclaims,” soon”!
Chapter 9: The voyage back
Briefed on what to look for, and where this all started, the plan was for Ron to go back to 2008, just before the financial recession. The WZ project was first referenced in an old article about being created in a datacenter for a financial firm, which possibly created the recession in the first place. This could be why the project failed. later there was another reference in 2015 and then again in 2018. This sounds like the WZ project was taken back up. Its everyone’s theory that the book was made sometime in 2008 and was abandoned sometime in 2015. 2008 is the target date, and the place of focus is Tampa Florida. The Time machine is ready for use but due to the power needs, it can only be used for a short time, then moved to a different location, since it will be a target. The hacks will make a distraction in the city to draw attention away from the machine’s location.
The plan is set and ready. Alex and Selina used makeshift motorcycles to get into their staging areas in the city’s underground service tunnels. Both radio Ron and Ken, “we are in location and are ready. This time we are better equipped to handle the mage counter offensive”. Ken and Ron reply to each other, “I hope so”. Meanwhile, out in the wasteland, in an abandoned home, a little girl scavenges items to take back home, to be used for the group. She comes across some music CDs and a battery-operated boom box, in one of the rooms of the deserted house. As she looks further, she finds packages of batteries hidden in a counter, along with headphones, and a particular cd in pristine condition. The CD says Solarium. She puts the batteries in the boom box, puts on the headphones, and starts to listen to the soothing music CD. As she relaxes to the strange music, she feels the house tremble. She goes to the window, looks outside, and sees a swarm of people quickly advancing to her location. She packs up the radio, a bag of other items, and tries to get out of the house. As she starts to leave, one of the persons had already been in the house and tackles her. As she struggles, she sees blood coming from the eyes and mouth of this person. He’s a rager. She kicks and gets away but is cornered in a closet. The rager advances, screams and prepares to lunge. The little girl drops the boom box, and the music starts to play over the speakers. The rager lunges to attack, then stops. He listens to the music then starts to cry. The little girl runs away then, the rager calls out, “little girl, please
help me”. The girl stops, looks back, and asks, “who are you, what are you”? The creature replies, “My name is Ron”.
Back in the cave, the news about the outer areas getting attacked by hordes of angry beast like people is getting out. News about people attacking and mutilating people, in the wasteland, is being spread throw-out the Origianician faction. Ken yells out, “We need to go now!” Ron tells Ken, “The hordes in the wasteland are called ragers. These are the secret weapons that the mages and overlords have created. I informed them that the time machine was in the wasteland, but I didn’t give specifics, so they must be using a scorched earth method to flush you out”. Ken replies, “we can seal off the cave, but you must get ready to go. I’ll get the Hacks to execute the plan, but you must go now”. Ken gets on the radio and yells, “Execute now, we need to launch”! Alex and Selina both yell in unison, “EXECUTING NOW!” Once again, the network pauses, and every video screen and update show the saying, (BEWARE YOUR FATE), then display images of the 21st century. Once again, the mages try to isolate the disturbance and attacks the two, by sending emotions of fear and dread. Both hacks start to feel fear and radio back, “we can’t last too much longer with this. There is another signal that the voice is sending, we can slow it down, but can’t stop it, hurry.” The ragers start to slow down, but keep advancing, this time, now in all directions. The mages were losing control. Ken tells Ron, “It’s time, all you need to do is jump threw and you will be in 2008”. Ron takes a running start, jumps through the hoop, and falls on the sand on a sunny beach. Back in the city, the ragers are roaming around looking for anything to kill. In the tunnel, both Alex and Selina here ken say,” He is through, cut your connections, and get out of there.” Both cut their connections to the net and radio each other. Alex radios Selina,” are you ok, I’m a little mad, is it the mind interface, or is this real.” Selina responds,” it’s both, but I also feel a little bit mad, I think that’s what the mages were pushing out. We can use this to get out of here”. Both get on their motorcycles and speed out of the city. Upon exiting the tunnels, they are met by ragers who are advancing. Selina, who is on the northern part of the city, rams through a few to get by them. Alex, who is on the southern part of the city, evades some on his cycle, and rams a few to get through them. Both shooting their guns to get through them, both also using their anger to motivate them to get by. After some time, the ragers seem to stop, and head back to where the
mages have summoned them. Alex and Selina meet up on the outskirts of the city. Alex askes Selina, “what is happening, they had fight in them then stopped”. Selina replies, “they are probably getting recalled, do you want to stick around to find out why,” Alex, still feeling the effects of the mind interface, replies with anger, “hell no, lets get out of here”. Both ride out of the city to the wasteland.
Chapter 10: Almost a Success
As they ride through the wasteland, they both hear music emanating from an abandoned house. They both start to feel more at ease as they get closer. Both stop their motorcycles. Alex asks, “do you hear that, can you feel that?” Selina replies, “yes, I do, we need to check this out”. Both disembark their motorcycles and proceed into the house. As they enter, both start to feel more at ease. They come across the little girl and another person wrapped up in a cloak. Both draw their guns and point at the cloaked figure. Selina asks, “little girl, are you ok? get away from that creature.” The little girl replies,” I’m ok, but my friend here needs help, he says he needs to go to some cave.” Alex replies, “Cave? who is this?” Alex pulls the cloak away, and the poor, beatdown, bruised man, is revealed to the shock of them both. Alex, in shock, asks, “Ron? How is this possible?” Ron replies, “nice to see you too.” Both pick up Ron and asks the girl to come along with them. To which she gladly accepts. Selina asks the little girl, “what’s your name?” The girl replies while picking up her stuff. “My name is Patricia, before we go, I need to get my music CD.” Selina quickly replies, “Patricia, can I see that CD that you are talking about?” she agrees, and looking at the CD, she sees that there is the solarium title, and an emblem on it. The emblem of WZ is on the cover. Patricia replies, “that cd saved my life, by curing Ron.” Alex with glee exclaims, “we need to get this back to Ken right away. None of this makes any sense.” All get on the motorcycles and head back to the cave.
Back at the cave, Ken monitors the status of the machine and the net, when Selina and crew enter. Ken happily yells, “Good job! We did it! Ron is back in 2008, and you two in advertently found a weakness in the rager weapon. Somehow the mages lost control of the ragers while you two were hacking the system.” Ron lifts his head and reply’s,” Not in 2008 anymore Ken.” Ken looks at Ron who is all beat up and bruised, and in a sad voice asks, “Oh my God, what has
happened to you?” Ron replies, “had a bad day at the beach.” Selina with grief also replies, “Ken, we might have made a serious mistake, look at the emblem on this CD.” Ken looks at the CD and notices the WZ logo on the Solarium album. Selina in a sad voice explains, “This CD cured Ron from being a rager, this was found in an old, abandoned house in the wasteland. This little girl, Patricia, stumbled on this, and before Ron was going to attack, it cured him.” Ken with dread in his tone realizes the truth of the matter. “We sent Ron back to focus on the wrong object, he is going to stop the author from developing the WZ project, we need to send another back in time to correct this mistake. Also, Ron, how did you get back?” Ron tries to speak. but then passes out.
Chapter
11:
Bad
day
at the beach
Ron lays on the sand, face down, dizzy, and semi-incoherent, tries to get his bearings. Before the trip, he was briefed on some of the culture and resources of this time, that he would need. He shakes off the dizziness and assess his predicament. He is in March of 2008 on a beach somewhere in Saint Petersburg Florida. Low money, most from what Ken was able to scavenge from the ruins of buildings, No maps, no friends, or contacts, all alone in this time. He was told that there is some public transportation which uses coins that survived the war. There are data libraries that exist in this time where there is access to the currently called internet, where he can access the data from the Book of faces, and Mindspace, as well as the U2BU station for research of where he needs to go. There is a cult of people around, like the Organicians, who are referred to as the bums, who can give survival tips for this time. Ron brought a backpack full of supplies that he would need. The technology of Ron’s time was way more advanced, but from scrap, they were able to put together some supplies that could be used in this time, like precious metals, Wi-Fi converters for internet adaptive capabilities with Ron’s internal Psynet interface, as well as old trinkets to barter for money. His attire is futuristic, unfortunately, this would attract attention, so the first thing is a wardrobe change, to blend in. He walks along the shoreline and runs across someone on a street asking for money. He approaches and asks the person. “Excuse me, I noticed that you have a spare cloak in your possession, can I trade something for it?” the vagrant replies, “Cloak? what you mean my old raincoat? What you got?” Ron replies enthusiastically, “I have an old knife that I don’t need”. He pulls out a knife with a handle that glows, and a blade made of a metal with crystals imbedded in it. “The vagrant joyously replies, “you can have all that I’ve got for that, I can pawn that and get something to eat and possibly drive”. Ron joyously trades the knife for everything the vagrant had on him. Ron walks back to the shore and inspects what he has just acquired, which was clothing, a map, some cans of food, a can opener, and an old rusty knife with a name Buck on the handle. Ron Tells himself with enthusiasm, “What a great deal, I got most of what I need.” He goes to a rest room, cleans and changes to his newly acquired clothes to fit in, and uses the map to find the closest library.
Along the walk to the library, he is in wonderment of how the city looked and remembering how this city was in ruin. He remembers hearing about what the war was about and ponders how foolish we were to destroy such a good place. During his walk he sees a place with a big sign saying (PAWN SHOP) in the window. Remembering what the vagrant had said about acquirement, he enters the establishment. Ron looks at all the gear in glass cases and hanging on walls. He feels like he is in a history museum. The proprietor looks at Ron and asks, “is there something I can do for you, buddy?” Ron replies, “yes, I heard that your establishment would barter items for money, which I can use for more acquirement. Is this true, sir?” The proprietor laughingly replies, “yea, I can do that for you. I take it that you are not from here, are you?” Ron puts his backpack on the ground and replies, “yes, I’m from out of town, and I have some items from my town, that I would like to get rid of. How much will you give me for this?”
He pulls out a tattered card wallet out of his bag, with gold stitching threw out, and hands it to the proprietor and asks. “So how much can you give me for this?” the store owners smiles and hands Ron 50 dollars. Happily, the proprietor reply’s, “how about this.” Ron smiles, nods, takes the cash and proceeds to the library. The proprietor takes another look at the wallet and discovers a flexible square piece of plastic within it. He looks at in the light and images of a city, made in the city of Americanus starts to be displayed.
To get to the library Ron needs to take the Bus and travel close to the downtown area. As he enters the buss, he looks at the city and all its glory as well as areas of impoverishment in amazement. Finally, he gets off the bus and walks the rest of the way to the library. As he enters, he is greeted by the front desk person. “How can I help you today?” Ron answers, “I need access to your data libraries and vaults.” The librarian gave Ron a weird look but quietly replied, “we have internet computers and books that you can reference. Do you have a library card?” Ron says no, but he did have cash from the pawn shop to gain access. The librarian also gives Ron the Wi-Fi password. He gets a table in front of a computer and tries to find mindspace and the book of faces. With a look of angst, he asks the librarian that he is unable to access the archives of the book of faces and mindspace. She laughs and replies, “you should try to find myspace and Facebook, is there any other mispronouncing of a search engine that I can help you with.” Ron feeling a little embarrassed asks, “search for gnomes and U2BU
station?” The librarian replies, “google is the search engine and I’m assuming you mean YouTube. You must be new to computers.” Ron smiles and snickers. When the librarian leaves, he pulls out the psynet interface sync device and connects to the Wi-Fi with it. With his psynet interface he uses his mind and searches with great speed the entire internet for reference to the WZ project. Only a few references come out, but the reference is mostly music. Ron thinks to himself that this isn’t right. This will be harder than he thought. Who or what is Warlock-Z? Ron leaves the library in dread. While leaving, he sees the vagrant, driving a scooter down the road. He waves at Ron. Ron thinks to himself, well this turned out to be a bad day at the beach.
Chapter 12: The data center
Across town, a slim nerdy looking person, is going from music store to Music stores, peddling his music CDs to various places for money. He enters one store, and the clerk looks at the cover and askes. “This looks pretty good, sells ok, but who is this, and what does it sound like? There is a girl who buys one every time you come over.” The young man replies, “it’s my own stuff. I use old gear from my job to make it. It’s just a hobby.” The store clerk smiles and jokingly replies, “well keep it up, you could be a rock star before long, one little girl at a time.” The other patrons laugh quietly, trying not to be noticed. The young man thanks the clerk for buying the CDs, pouts, and leaves for work. Upon arrival to his job, he uses his access card to enter the data center for a financial institution. The security at the front desk talks to the young man, “Good morning, James, how are you doing today?” James replies, “I’m ok, just another day to decommission the old, end of life gear, from the data center.” He taps his badge, and a glass door opens. He uses the elevator to go to another security door, where he taps his badge again, to open a door to the data center. There are rows and rows of servers, network gear, and robotic tape libraries. Past the server gear, there is another door, down the hall, with a sign labeled decommissioned gear. He enters the room where his office is. He puts his bag down and goes to an old server rack, turns on a switch, and all the little light start to flicker. On the monitor, wave patterns start to appear with a label S.T.S., James says to himself
jokingly, “time to make the donuts, I wonder who keeps Buying my CDs.” He hits some keys on the machine and the computer requests to insert blank CDs into the drives. After inserting the blank CDs, James heads to the datacenter to remove gear that is powered down and prepped for removal.
Chapter 13: Real bad night at the beach
After work, James heads to the beach in Saint Petersburg, where performers do live acrobatic performances on the beach till dark. James sits on the beach and looks at the sunset over the water. As he looks around him, he notices various people also looking at the sunset. People who look like tourists, beach goers, and bums. Strangely he notices a bum with a raincoat on. He shakes his head and thinks to himself, sunsets attract all kinds, I guess.
Ron in despair, looks at the sunset over the water, wondering how he is going to be able to track down his target. Once he connected to the internet, he was able to stay connected with his psynet interface without the need for Wi-Fi. He continues to scan looking for anything that would get him an address or even a picture. After a while he was able to get a picture of James. He now has a picture. Now, he needs to track the person. He gets up and looks for a bus to Tampa while eating food from a can.
As the sun sets, James starts to leave the beach. As he heads to his car, he passes some thugs who approach him. They stop him and asks, “where are you going with my new car, punk?” James defiantly reply’s, “I don’t see your new car, I just see my old car, better try harassing someone else who has a newer car than me, pal.” Just then one of the thugs’ punches James in the face. He goes down and the thugs grab his keys, and a struggle begins. Ron notices the struggle in the background and at first ignores it. He’s on a mission and doesn’t need to get involved. As they struggle, Ron notices James’s face and immediately attacks the thugs. Being a mage, he has hand to hand training, but psynet telepathy is the main weapons of the mages. One of the thugs brandishes a knife and screams, “I don’t know who you are, but I’ll kill both of you.” Ron looks at the thug and with all his mind, he thinks about the thug dropping the knife. The thug looking
confused, drops the knife. Ron again thinks about the other thugs and tries to impress fear onto their thoughts. The others start to flee, then one of the thugs throws the knife hitting Ron in the shoulder, then runs. James grabs Ron and asks, “Dude, are you ok?” Ron answers, “it’s just another nick on the shoulder, again, are you ok James?” James steps back and asks, “how do you know my name?” Ron answers, “I’m a fan of your work, but it can use a different approach. James tells Ron to get in the car and let’s get you patched up. Both get into James’s car and drive to a nearby clinic. As they drive, Ron waves his hand and grunts, as he uses his psynet interface to change all the traffic lights green, to James’s surprise, all the lights turn green. James asks, “how are you doing this?” Ron reply’s, “I think your people call it, the force”. Then he passes out. Both head to the local hospital in haste.
Chapter 14: Why am I here.
The sun shines bright threw the window in the hospital, awaking Ron who is in a bed, with an I.V. in his arm. He looks around the room and sees James in a chair asleep. He gets up pulls the I.V. out of his arm and looks out the window. At that moment James wakes up. “How are you feeling,” asks James? Ron replies, “I’m tired and week, plus I have a bit of a headache. Are you ok James, how did I get here?” asks Ron. James jokingly replies, “the force. Remember?” Ron grabs his head where his implant is located at and ask himself, “why did this take so much out of me?” he again looks outside and asks, “where are we?” James replies, “never mind that, who are you? how did you do that thing with the lights, and how exactly do you know me? “Ron looks at James and before answering, he notices the television, in the room, where he sees the news showing politicians debating about the southern border crisis, and other political upheavals with the president. Ron then answers, “I come from a distant time and place. And looking at the news, I came here before evil started, and you will be the one to change this.” James looks at Ron with a sarcastic look and says, “OK, we just got a new president, and you think I’m some sort of political savior? You know, I think I don’t want to know any more, so I’ll leave you to rest, jedi master.” As James heads out the door, Ron uses his psy interface to talk to James telepathically. Then suddenly, both see a flash of a dragon, that appears in both of their minds, making both fall
to the floor. James gets up and looks at Ron and says, “you really are a jedi from the future. What was that?” Ron gets up and replies, “I’m sorry, I don’t know how that image came up, but it’s our enemy. It’s the avatar of the evil that I mentioned. He must be trying to track me in the past, but I don’t know how. We must go.” Ron gets dressed and both begin to head out of the hospital. As they leave the counter, a nurse stops them. The nurse asks, “you are good to leave, all tests for Mr. Ron are good, we are just awaiting the blood tests. Can I send them to you?” James replies, “yes, just send them to my address that I provided with my credit card information.” Both then get into James’s car and leave the hospital. On the way to James’s house, Ron begins to talk about the future and the importance of his mission, and the book of meme. Ron then asks, “tell me your story, our historians have made some errors in information, this can be beneficial to my mission. So, what’s your story and what is the WZ project?
James laughs and replies, “WZ project? I’m a music producer in my spare time. I use decommissioned datacenter hardware from an old, abandoned project to make music. It was such a waste to throw away gear that strong.” My music is called Warlock -Z or WZ for short. As far as the book of meme, I have never written such a thing. Are you sure you have the right guy?” Ron replies in earnest, “yes, you have to be, the legend states that the author was part of the WZ project, then left to write the book of meme.” Both arrive at James house. As they arrive, a little girl comes running at them both. They both stop and the girl politely asks, “Can I have one of your CDs, I really like your music.” James replies, “you sure can, I have a few left in the car.” Ron looks at the girl and shakes his head in disbelief and asks, “How can you entertain such nonsense when there are bigger stakes at work.” The girl snarls at Ron and James replies, “it’s what I do, and if someone likes it, then that’s great. At least someone appreciates.” The little girl replies, “of course I appreciate, in fact, I’ll take all that you have.” Ron exclaims, “we are wasting time with this nonsense, sell your little CDs and let’s get working.”
Chapter 15: The darkness of truth from the book of meme
At James’s house, Ron tells James about the future advances, and the darkness of the future. And most importantly about the Book of meme. James
asks Ron, “tell me about mind syncing or Psy interfacing, and how are you able to do these things.” Ron answers in detail, “when we reach adulthood, we are given an implant, which uses a signal to connect to the network, much like your Wi-Fi and connects our brain to the network. We have micro metals in our blood which generate power threw friction. This powers our implants and act as an antenna which allows us to focus energy to objects and people. As we use our implants, we naturally were able to unlock telekinesis in our brains. We can push emotions out in this same way to influence our targets. I had to use a converter to re sync my psy interface, to work with your primitive network frequencies. This, I believe, is why I am having difficulty connecting and impressing my will and thoughts to others.” James, fascinated by what he is hearing, asks about the book of meme. To which Ron explains. “The book, you will write, will explain things of how corruption comes to being, and uses memes to distribute the messages threw-out your social media. For instance, one of the passages states, (To be the good politician, for the people, you need to be voted in and be entrusted with power. To be voted in and be entrusted with power, you need massive amounts of money. To gain massive amounts of money, you must do shady things and fool the people. If a good politician, does shady things, and fools the people, to gain massive amounts of money, how can a so called, good politician, for the people, be voted in and be entrusted with power? So, the good politician isn’t good after all. Only bad politicians get in.) In the hospital, looking at the video monitor device I recalled this saying.” Ron continues, “In the future, those with power, used fear to influence masses to follow them by creating an enemy, that didn’t exist, to scare the people and eventually rule over them. The book states, (To win favor among the masses, you show that you have defeated the common enemy. If no enemy exist, create one. Find someone who has done something out of favor and exaggerate the offence. Attack the enemy, win at any cost, and hide the true price for the aggression to the masses. The price may reveal if there was an enemy in the first place.) James looks at the mage in astonishment and asks, “I write this? I don’t know where to begin, I don’t know where to start, I can’t even sell CDs the right way so where do I get such knowledge?” Ron replies, “look at the news, look at what’s around you, look on your internet and all that surround you, information is everywhere, and believe in yourself. You can do great things. I am here to help you.”
Both continue to talk and start to write the book. Ron’s implant helps him retain memory better than normal human beings recalls various saying from the book. From the book of Meme, (The truth is quiet, the lie is loud. The truth needs little to no volume because it is Resolute, Verifiable, and sometimes Obvious. The lie has none of these traits, so it must be loud to smother the truth and induce emotions, Thus, the feelings to validate truth diminish. Beware those who are loud and try to induce emotions. They may be deceiving you. Never let your emotions influence you to not validate truth. In time the lie will weaken its power to influence your emotions as truth emerges. The lie will become quiet because Truth is Resolute, Verifiable, and sometimes Obvious.) The more they talk, the more they write, and the more James, the author, begins to believe in himself.
Two months pass, as they write the book, and look at the current issues facing the society. Ron learns more about the current culture and reads internet books that have been lost to his time, like the writings of Sun Tzu, Miyamoto Masashi, and Niccolò Machiavelli. Ron also understands the Star Wars references as he finally sees the movies. James starts to look at world events and takes notes on what is happening in politics, and remembering what Ron said about the future, he sees the parallels from both time periods. James notices that this needs to be put on a server for any type of distribution. He tells Ron, “I have an idea, we need to put this on a server for distribution. There is speed and memory on a server more than pen and paper. Both agree and prepare for both to come to the data center to upload the book to the internet.
Chapter 16: The cave
Both arrive at the financial firm. James goes first to allow the security to allow Ron in. The security officer asks James, “working late I see, who is your friend?” James reply’s, “this is my cousin from out of town, can I get a visitors badge so I can show him around?” The security guard makes a visitors badge and hands it to Ron, then replies,” You two have a good day, and make sure you stay out of classified areas.” Both grin and proceed to the datacenter. As they approach, Ron starts to feel uneasy, his psynet interface starts generating energy. Ron’s full power feels like its returning. He asks James, “what is it that your company makes in here?” James replies, “the firm was working on some A.I. stuff that kept failing and they didn’t know why, so they reworked the project with
new code and hardware. That’s how I got the gear. Some of it I totally decommissioned, degaussed the drives, and sent it to a reclamation warehouse on an island, and some of it, I just erased the drives and re-utilized them. It’s all done in this Datacenter, but I call it my cave.” Ron looks at the somewhat new server gear that James uses to make the music and is reminded of the cave in his own time, where people used this same type of gear that was old. James asks, “are you ok, you seem a bit lost?” Ron replies, “it’s nothing. Just remembering where I came from and can’t get over this feeling of energy. Let’s do what we came here to do, and get out, I feel something isn’t right.” James starts to upload the book of meme into his system and sends the book to a publishing company for distribution. As the servers start to process the book and prepare for an upload, Ron feels a presence with him but can’t sense who or what it is. James enthusiastically exclaims, “Done, the files will take some time to circulate, but we can leave now. All I must do is bring more of these CDs with me.” Ron gladly nods his head with agreement. Both then leave the facility. James asks, “when do you have to go back?” three months is my timeframe to get the book done. This gives a month to prepare you for what’s to come” Ron replies.
Chapter 17: preparations
Ron and James wake up in the morning back at James apartment. Ron, feeling energized looks outside the window at the world and starts to feel sad that he must return to his own time. He goes outside and sees the girl outside playing in the street. He yells, “Hey girl, want more CDs?” The little girl replies with glee, “Sure, I have some more money for more.” Ron sells the CDs to the girl and asks, “What gives, why do you like this music. You know by buying these, you really aren’t helping James out. You are encouraging him to waste his time on such small things.” The little girl replies, “look, I’m a little girl, and these are little things that I like. You never know what these can be worth in the future.” Ron laughs and replies, “these will be worth nothing, believe me, I know.” The little girl takes the CDs and leaves with a smile. James wakes up and sees Ron with money in his hand. Ron looks at James and says, “I sold your Cds, now today we begin your training.” James asks, “what are you not telling me, why must I train?” Ron raises his hands, and the streetlights comes on with little effort. He explains,
“I don’t know why or how the book got suppressed, but I believe you might be in danger, so I will try to get your telepathy up so at least you can sense danger and be able to influence your surroundings to your benefit.” Ron Continues, “First I know that you haven’t been able to unlock your brain to this ability, so I will have to part my energy and passed it to you.” Ron takes James’s hand and summons his microelements in his blood, to pass to James. As James starts to feel the energy, once again, the image of a dragon flashes knocking both to the floor, this time with more force. Ron gets up and states, “time is running out, he is getting closer.” James replies,” then let’s do it.”
For a month, the two work on fighting skills, as well as mental telepathy skills. Ron explains the order of the Cyberian mages, and the abilities that they will have. James is now able to sense danger coming and can now slightly be able to influence people through thought, but with a lot of difficulty. Telekinesis is also an acquired skill but again is difficult for James to master. Even Ron at half power is struggling with this skill. Without a psynet interface James can’t remote control devices of surf the net, but what skills he has will half to do.
Chapter 18: Snatch back
Both go to the beach where Ron first appeared. Both sit and talk about what’s to come. Ron tells James, “I don’t know what’s next, but you must be prepared for some event to harm you. You must stay confident and not doubt yourself. Don’t focus on small things, focus on the larger goals, and use small goals as steppingstones to help you achieve larger things. In the future you are unknown, I will hope that you change that.” As night began to settle, a breeze was starting to be felt. Then a whirling noise, then a bright light shaped like a loop appeared. Ron gets up and tells James, “This is my ride, thanks for everything, beware your fate. James waves goodbye to the future traveler. Ron heads towards the portal then stops. James starts to feel danger, then Ron is thrown away from the portal of light. Both look and they see an Ogre and two griffins standing on the beach in front of them. James asks Ron, “who and what are they.”
Ron replies it’s the AV spill, you are seeing the avatars of the Mages. The Ogre yells, “Cyberian Mage Ron Targus, you disappoint me. Your friends foolishly reactivated the machine. This time, we were able to track the location within the
wasteland. Now you will yield to us, Traitor.” Ron yells at James, “get back, you can’t handle this, it’s my overlord.” Jon Zentile, and the other two mages walk towards the two and tries to mentally impress grief to James and Ron. Ron and James try to repel the energy, but both are two weak. James and Ron try to run to get away. Both get into the car and try to leave, but grief starts to hit them both. John Zentile tries to summon cars and machinery to aid them but as he tries his powers start to fade, releasing the grip on Ron and James. James asks Ron, “what happened?” Ron replies, “never mind that, get us out of here, head to a construction site.” Both leave to a construction site nearby. Ron replies, again. “They are losing powers because their psynet interfaces are not tuned to your WiFi and cell frequencies of this time. It takes more power to try to connect, thus they loose energy. My psynet was tuned when I first arrived threw a converter, theirs have not. James asks, “so why are we here at a construction site?” Ron replies, “to level the playing field. Their energy can be grounded out by metal sticking in the earth, further weakening them. They are probably armed. Once they find out that they can’t control anything, they will resort to guns.”
The overlords use a tracking device that can locate Ron’s Psynet interface since his is the only one in the world. They approach the constructions site. Jon yells, “Cyberian Mage Ron Targus, you have 2 choices, run and we will find you, or surrender to us, come back to where you belong where we might be merciful to you, and your friend.” Ron looks at James and with a look of fear he exclaims, “James, you must get away, they can track me, but not you. This might be how the Book of memes gets lost in the first place, they must kill you. I’ll hold them off, but you must get away. James runs away from Ron and hides behind a gravel hill. Ron gets up and walks towards the mages in defiance.
Chapter 19: The Duel
In the construction site, Ron Targus faces the 2 mages, and Jon Zentile, the main overlord. All see themselves and their opponents as their avatars, due to the AV spill, in real life, and not in cyberspace. James in hiding also witnesses the AV spill. Ron appears as a cloaked man with a dark glowing cloud surrounding him. Jon Zentile appears like a large ogre with spiked gloves and armor. The other two mages appear as snake men also wearing armor. Ron generates a black mist
hiding himself and obscuring the view of the others. The Ogre pulls out a gun and start firing in the direction Ron was at. The other 2 mages use there partially impaired telekinesis capabilities to pull rubble and cement blocks and thrust it in the same direction. As the two mages exert their energy, Ron comes up behind them and slice their arms with a glowing dagger, making them scream in pain. The rubble drops. Then, the Ogre aims at the screaming mages, and starts to shoot, hitting one of the mages in the leg. Ron disappears in the gloom. John uses his mental means, picks up a steel girder, and twirls it like a fan, to try to disperse the gloom. When the gloom disperses, he notices that he is standing in water, along with the two mages. Ron commands power lines to plunge into the water electrifying it. John jumps on the girder and moves it away from the water. The other two mages get shocked and thrown out, rendering them temporarily unconscious. Ron yells at John, “it’s just the both of us now.” Jon replies, “time for you to beware of your fate! Mage!” Both lock on to each other and trade blows and punches as well as use their abilities to try to affect their concentration threw mental means. James still fearful, hides in the background watching the two’s final assault. James’s dark mage, and john’s Ogre overlord, exchange blows after blows until the overlord lands a debilitating punch to the mage’s right side, plunging him to the ground. The mage raises his hands to try to impress fear on the ogre overlord, but it’s blocked by his willpower. Both opponents’ strength is low. The mage has only one advantage, and that’s his psynet interface still linked up to the present environment. He commands a crane with a generator attached to its boom to swing its cargo to the Ogre, but before he commands it the ogre pulls a gun and shoots the mage on his side and leg. The crane stops. The fight is over and John Zentile, the Ogre Overlord, is victorious. He stands over Ron’s bleeding body and smirkingly says, “beware of my rath.” He sees the other mages regain consciousness. He orders the two to show Ron what happens to traitors. They both beat him brutally, almost killing him. James watches in horror, then as he looks away, the ogre is standing behind him, with a gun pointed at him. John laughingly exclaims, “beware of your fate.” He steps forward to shoot, then stampers back. He laughs at James and walks away. The portal opens again, and the two mages take Ron threw. Jon approaches the portal, looks back at James, and says, “see you in the future.” He enters the portal then disappears.
James gets in the car and rushes back to the data center. He sits at his desk shaking as he remembers what has just happened. After some time, he starts to get mad. He thinks to himself, “This is the future that Ron spoke about. This Ogre must be the evil he was mentioning. I have never felt such fear. The brutality of where he is from and when, is appalling. I won’t let that happen. I won’t let these politicians make our world like this. All emotion and no plan. All lies and no solutions to anything. I can do something, but it means I must change myself and the world. I know what needs to be done.” He recalls the uploads from the server and net and adds some content to the end of the book. He thinks too himself, “maybe I can use this book to get political power, by using the lessons from the future, I can shape a new reality.” He whispers to himself. “Ok Ogre, I’ll see you in the future.” At that moment, his cell phone rings. He looks at who is calling. It’s the hospital. They sent a text. (Can you contact us, there is an abnormality with Ron’s blood.) James starts to smile.






Chapter 20: The return to reality
John Zentile and the two mages arrive at the cave with Ron in their present time. Ron looks up and sees that the people have been captured, and Ken is on his knees with the mages holding him down. John speaks to Ron, “shortly after you left, they opened the portal again, while our forces were still in the wasteland tracking. I guess they tried to send something, or someone threw, but we were able to intercede. We went through and were able to get you. So, now what we will do, we will send you back to when we put a bounty on you, after the death of the Rogue mage. You will be captured and turned into a rager for your disobedience. The portal opens again, to the great hall, where other mages are gathering, and Ron is pushed through. The portal then closes. John then orders the machine destroyed. Ken screams No and tries to escape but is shot by John. Alex, Salina and Ron quietly watch the events from a hidden ledge in the cave. The mages then leave the cave.
After the cave is empty, Alex asks Ron, “What happened, he sent you into the past?” Ron replies, “I was arrested as soon as I arrived there. I was mended from my gunshot wounds and was put into a chamber. I then, felt incredibly, painfully mad, then blackness. I then started to hear music. When I opened my eyes, I saw a girl trying to run from me.” Ron tries to get up then passes out again. Alex grabs a laptop and patches to Rons psynet interface wirelessly. He recalibrates it to the newer frequencies of his time. Ron wakes up. Ron asks,” what’s going on, why do I keep passing out?” Selina explains, “you are out of sync to this time, so your interface is drawing more power than normal.” Alex smiles and says, “we can use this to our advantage.” Ron then looks at them both and asks, “why did you rush to turn the machine back on after I left?” Selina explains, “after you left, we discovered that the WZ project, was about using music to influence emotions. We discovered this after we found you. Then you passed out. We sent you on the wrong mission. When we found out, we turned on the machine to send someone back, just then the mages showed up. The little girl Patricia who found you, ran through. We don’t know exactly when she arrived in the past. The mages captured everyone, but we hid you. They sent 3 back in time to get you at the extraction site and time. Selina hands Ron the solarium CD. Ron shakes his head in disbelief and says, “This cd was made in the data center by James, I sold this to a little girl on the street. Oh my God, I sold this CD to Patricia
back in 2008!” Alex and Selina look at Ron and yell, “WHAT?” Ron, “yells we must go back to the abandoned house, I feel that I might have changed history.” All three get on motorcycles and head back to the house.
Chapter 21: The journal of Patricia
The three arrive at the abandoned house, they start to search for any more CD’s, or any information to why the CD’s were there in the first place. As they search, Selina finds an old chest hidden under a floorboard. Selina yells, “I found something, its heavy, and I need help lifting it.” Alex and Ron help remove the chest from is hidden place, and the three open it. Inside, they find plenty of CD’s, a photo album, and a journal. Going through the photo album, they see with astonishment, a picture of Patricia. As they look further, they see her progress from childhood, to adulthood, to old lady, to eventually, her child and grandchildren’s pictures. This house was owned by Patricia’s family. Shivers run down Alex and Selina’s spine. Selina starts to weep. Ron opens and starts to read from her journal.
Today is 2013. I know this might sound funny, but I am originally from 3022. I arrived in 2008 on a secret mission to fix a problem with our time. I don’t know if I will ever go back to my time, since there was an invasion upon me leaving. I guess this is a one-way trip. I must get music for our salvation. I am writing this just in case people from my time, get this book sometime in the future. Hopefully, if this is the case, me and my future offspring will continue the mission. My mission was to get music from a specific artist, stockpile it, and not be noticed by another time traveler, due to it potentially causing a paradox. Upon my arrival the first thing I had to do is locate the WZ music CD’s and acquire some means to pay for them, so I was able to get a job at an appliance repair shop. In my time, we normally repair ancient gear, by making replacement parts to get gear to work. In this time, we can get replacement parts, which makes things so much easier. I got good at repairing appliances, vehicles, and all sorts of gear. Once I found the artist, every chance I got to buy CD’s, I did. The CD’s that were made before James disappeared were S.T.S, C.T.S., and solarium. S.T.S stands for Synthetic Temporal suggestion. C.T.S stands for Cranium Temporal Suggestion. Solarium was used as a mood pacifier and diffuser. While I was here, researching the music, my boss’s
family was able to provide shelter and food for me. I became a member of his family. Ron skips a few entries to where Patricia was an adult.
Today is 2053. Today the main 2 political parties have started a civil war with each other over lies, greed, money and power. It started with a divided government, and this spilled over to the streets, where the people are divided and blaming each other for things that aren’t even true. Cloning is starting to be a proven thing to expand a person’s life, but people are politicizing its use. My daughter and I are looking at buying a home somewhere out away from the city in case things get worse. There is an island off the coast that I would like to investigate. While there is civil unrest, there is an influencer who is gaining popularity. He seems to be a commonsense person with a plan to fix things. His nickname is the whisper. I was told on how the war started but somehow this is different from what I remember. I don’t know who started the aggressions first, but there is hardship because of it. I am seeing how my existence in 3022 started. This time is looking more and more like the world I left all those years ago. Ron again flips forward to where Patricia is an elderly woman.
Today is 2070. Today I look at my daughter and grandchildren with pride. They still think I’m a crazy old woman from the future. I don’t know how much longer I will remain alive on earth, but the byproduct of time traveling to the past was extended life. I do not look or feel my age, but I know someday I will die. I have had a good life, full of fun, love, and joy, but troubled because of war. I’m blessed that I was able to enjoy the good life of the past knowing how the future will wind up. Living in 3022, I don’t know if my life would have been this lovely. I am placing this and my Music CDs in a chest and have my daughter burry them in this house for the future. Hopefully they will survive. My daughter and grandchildren will keep this house for as long as they can. I told them to also keep batteries, a boombox, and some headphones available, just in case a little girl wants to enjoy it, when something bad happens. If, and when it does. Ron, Selina and Alex, hopefully you find this. Thank you for saving me, and don’t worry about me running threw the time machine. I have had a full life. I accomplished the mission. You have given me a future life in the past, that I wouldn’t have had in the future. I don’t know why the music works, but hopefully you will find out. Ron closes the journal. Selina starts to cry. Alex gets teary eyed. Ron speaks,” I now know why and how the music works.
Chapter 22: The power of music
Ron gathers the chest, and heads back to the cave along with Alex and Selina. Back at the cave, he goes through the CD’s and explains how the music works on the people. “The authors name is James. He made the CD’s with computer servers that use to be used for A.I. experiments. He was supposed to degauss the drives to destroy the data, but instead he used the hardware, unknowingly with A.I. code still on it. The code enhances anything that is being made with it. When I was in the datacenter, my psynet sensed the server gear and was immediately enhanced and energized. The Music CD’s sound waves must have been also enhanced by the A.I. code on the servers, to be more affective. Therefore, the mood music works on people and can deprogram them.” Alex replies, “so now, all we need to do, is find a way to broadcast the music to everyone to deprogram them, but how do we do that? All our equipment has been destroyed.” Ron smiles and replies, “not all of it, James told me of a storage unit for the totally decommissioned gear. We should be able to use that to do some harm.” Selina replies in disgust, “to what avail, why should we do this, Cyberilas is too powerful. We can’t win, even if we deprogram everyone, that won’t change anything.” Ron reassures Selina and replies, “yes, we can, because I brought back with me something way more powerful than the book of Meme and information about the music CD’s, I brought back knowledge and wisdom that has been lost for generations.” Alex asks, “so where do we go to now?” Ron replies, “the warehouse on Useppa island”.
Chapter 23: The forgotten island of pirates
The three gather some gear, head out to the coast, to charter a boat. They charter passage that will take them to a hidden warehouse on Useppa island, covertly. Once they arrive, the surroundings are just as depraved as the wasteland that they left from. The local people are from an outer branch of the Organicians Faction. The three are greeted kindly and given food and shelter. The leader, dressed in ceremonial attire, appears from within the crowd and greets the three strangers. The Tribal leader talks to the three strangers, “why have you come here?” Alex replies, “we have come to combat the Cyberalles Faction and we
need help and supplies.” Ron asks their leader, “we have come from the mainland, looking for an ancient warehouse or shelter, that use to belong to a financial institution. There may be some parts of gear that we can use against our common enemy.” The tribal leader replies. “There have been many stories about hidden treasure here, but this is the first I have heard about a warehouse. If you want to explore in the outer areas, we can show you. We have heard a legend about someone coming looking for relics from the past, to battle future rulers of this land. Good luck with your quest.” Alex asks Ron, “Have you been here before in the past?” Ron replies, “no, but I know how to find the warehouse, hopefully.”
The three are led to an open area of the island, that might be where a warehouse exist. There are old buildings, abandoned shopping plazas, business offices and industrial parks. Nothing that could be used as a warehouse. Selina with disappointment asks Ron, “how can we find this place, amongst all of this, when you yourself haven’t been to this place.” Ron asks Alex, “ok, I need you to retune my psynet interface to the same frequencies that you unprogrammed me, when I arrived back.” Alex agrees and pulls out his laptop. He resets Ron’s interface to the frequencies of 2008. Once again Ron gets dizzy and almost faints. The two look at Ron with worry and concern, but then, Ron regains his balance and starts to feel energized once again. He starts to run north and yells, “its close, I can feel it, this way.”
The three find an abandoned museum displaying pictures of pirates on its walls. As they enter, they see some lights are on, in the hallways. They find an equipment control room, and a panel dimly lit saying, solar energy grid control. Why would a museum have a control room and solar power. They venture onward, and eventually arrives in the cellar, of the museum, at a closed Vault door. Alex tries to open the door with his psynet interface, but nothing moves. Ron exclaims, “let me try.” As he tries, the Vault door opens. The three enter the dimly lit vault and pass an artifact from times past. They pass a glass box with what appears to be an old steam engine with electrical connections and a generator on its base. The Box has a sign in it, which says, late 1800 Floridablanca steam engine. As they proceed further, they see parts of old gear, and server racks that are powered down, but still intact. Some gear still has power, but in standby power conserve mode. Alex asks Ron, “if this was a warehouse to store old gear, why is this gear still hooked up?” Ron replies, “I don’t know. Someone
must have found this place and tried to re assemble it. I was picking up the power standby server. Let’s get what we need and get out of here.” The three get networking gear, CD drives, and some various computer parts and depart.
The three arrive at the coast with the gear and are met by the tribal leader. Ron asks the leader, “You mentioned a legend foretelling about our arrival?” The tribal leader replies, “yes, a woman from the mainland came to this place and gave us a warning about what’s to come, and told us that someday, someone will be here to correct the future, by recovering relics from the past.” Salina asks, “was this girl named Patricia?” The tribal leader says no, but that was her mother’s name. Patricia was an oracle from the future.” Before you leave let me tell you the story.
Chapter 24: Exodus from War
Misinformation between rival political parties led to nationwide distrust. Politicians used this to gain power, by using people’s emotions against them, not knowing the effects on their nations people. Division empowered the politician and party but weakened the nation. The politicians were telling lies aimed at their rivals but extended the lies to the people who associated themselves with the parties. People started to fear their neighbors. People started to arm themselves out of this false fear. This eventually led to the factions. It started with small protests. Law enforcement interceded to quale the disruption, but this led to eventually providing escalation to the discourse. It was heard on the news, it was everywhere. We were witnessing a civil war over lies. Eventually the explosions of war were heard and felt. No one claimed victory and no one knew who fired the first shot. My family and friends had to leave and go away before this gets any worse. They knew of an island off the coast where we can escape. So, we left for Useppa Island.
When we arrived, there were many who thought the same thing and greeted us openly. The people that were here, were here for quite some time, and had already established a community. They called the community the Organics. They were led by a woman whose mother was some oracle from the future. She warned her people that war was coming, and people needed to prepare by learning skills to repair things without the availability of spare parts. Learning skills about self-reliance. Learning about isolation. War did come to the
country as well as to parts of this island. Those who fought perished. They destroyed themselves and left ruins in their wake. By us isolating ourselves, we avoided destruction as was foretold. The oracles name was Patricia. Her daughter was the leader of the tribe on this island. Her name was Judith.
She foretold that there would be a time that someone was going to be searching for items from the past that will save the future. Judith eventually had to go back to the mainland with her mother to make arraignments and put things in place for the future. We never saw them again. Others also left to go to the mainland to try to look for survivors, fight to recover society, and see what was to become of our old homes. There were rumors that some were fighting someone, or something called Cain. We have heard of the Cyberalles faction. We have heard how the old warring party created a society of privilege and wealth. We have heard about the struggle between the factions now. Its history repeating itself. The old parties fought because of lies and power, but at least the current struggle is mostly about livelihood. Same struggle just different names, Organics faction verses Cyberallus faction, instead of, the Democratic party versus Republican party. So, we remain here in secret away from the struggle. Patricia told us that we need to stand against this faction only when opportunity is right to take advantage of the moment. In time, I was made the leader, and threw out the generations, I told the story which was told to us by Patricia and Judith. I will determine when the opportunity is right based on what Patricia has foretold. There is a legend left by others who lived on this island, that buried deep here, there is an evil that mustn’t escape, and those who come here, looking for artifacts, must be here for the good of the future for us all. The tribal leader continues, “since you are truly this group that was foretold in legend, and you need help, all you need to do is call us in code, and we will be there for you.” Ron thanks the leader and the three depart back home.
Chapter 25: Challenging Fate
Back at the cave, the three evaluate and try to come up with a strategy to Free the people’s minds from the Cyberilas faction. They all know the music can de-program the emotion side of the voices control, and a frequency shift in their psynet interface further weakens the mages. So, the music needs to be spread
threw out the network to free the people from the influence of the voice. With the gear from the warehouse this can be done, but to do a frequency shift on the mages, can be another obstacle. The voice also has access to some of the Mech hardware from the war, if real violence must in sew. This is another obstacle that must be prepared for. Threw out the wasteland there are bits and pieces of mech that can be acquired and built as a last resort, but who will pilot the mechanical warriors commonly called Mech. Ron Confidently tells Selina and Alex, “we can do this, but we must be strategic about it and maintain a tactical advantage. While I was in the past, I learned a lot about things. Things that were forgotten in time, and this can be our tactical advantage. We must make the call to the tribal leaders on the island and prepare for an assault”.
Alex replies, “well that’s a good idea, and how will we be able to do this”. Ron replies. “No man is invincible, and therefore no man can fully understand that which would make him invincible. Back in the past there were other books written, besides the book of meme. One was written By Miyamoto Musashi, who was a Japanese swordsman. This person had wisdom of war and fighting which I recorded. These ancient techniques we can use, since no one remembers these strategies, now we can plan upon this.”
The coded call is made. The Organicians from the island, are instructed to gather any relics and parts of the old machines of war and bring them to the cave in the wasteland. Alex, Selina and whoever was left after the raid, start to put together all the old Mechs. Some needed pilots and some were only parts that can be run remotely. Alex asks, “these are coming together really nicely, do you want these to be cleaned up to look like an army?” Ron replies, “no, they must look like refuse and trash when they are finished.” Selina asks Ron, “how are you going to change the frequency of the mages, since this has to be done up close?” Ron reply’s confidently, “we won’t do it, they will.” Alex again asks, “and what about the dragon? How will you beat him.” Ron replies, “I’m going to walk in the front door like a friend and take him on.” Both Alex and Selina look at Ron and say in unison, What? That’s suicide.” Ron smiles and replies, “I remember the quote from Musashi, to win any Battle, you must fight as if you are already dead”. Selina shakes her head in disagreement and replies, “that doesn’t give us much comfort, time travel might have made you a little crazy, but we trust you.”

Chapter 26: If the enemy thinks of the mountain, attack like the sea.
The voice has planned an announcement to rejoice the so-called end of Organicians. The voice, displaying threw out the network realm as a powerful dragon, speaks. “A fatal blow was delt to the Organician faction, and what remains won’t be able to survive. We don’t have to deal with those who oppose us any longer. Security is assured, peace is secured, and freedom is secured. All on the net rejoice until a shadowy figure appears at the exhibition hall where everything starts. John Zentile with rage recognizes this figure as Ron. John exclaims, “How dare you come here! I don’t know how you became normal again, but it doesn’t matter. I can, and will, put you down again, but this time to the death.”
They both look at each other, but before any strikes commence, the Voice yells, “stop, I know you from before!” Ron replies. “I knew you when the flash of the dragon first happened, but I didn’t realize who you were until recently. Even after the second time, I still didn’t notice until I found your old gear at the island. Then, I realized who you were, James. I am the cause of all of this.” The voice materializes from a dragon into a cloned half machine, half man, of himself. James replies, “I should have recognized you, but it wasn’t until you two were about to fight when I recognized who you were. After you left, I used the book to create freedom and remove any obstacle that would make the future that you talked about. There is no evil here. Violence is a thing of the past. So why are you fighting me.” Ron replies, “you are the evil. Your freedom enslaves everyone. I am sorry that I led you to this path.” Just then, the network flashed. The words beware your fate gets transmitted everywhere. John psynets into the network and rallies his Mage forces to get the last of the resistance. James laughs at John, and exclaims, “they are trying to save Ron, they are making a diversion, go ahead and take care of them, Overlord Zentile, their plan will fail. It’s only a diversion to sway my attention and gaze away from Ron.”
John summons the mages to identify the source of the distraction and send the ragers. As John and the other mages connect to the network to access their control, they suddenly feel week, but this doesn’t stop them. John leaves the Hall to engage the enemy. As he leaves, he sees junk surrounding the buildings and the entire city. John tells the other Mages; they are trying to isolate us. The other
mages notice that there are many targets threw out the city. John gives the orders to release the ragers. The ragers are released threw out the city attacking everything they can. The mages tell John that they can’t control them. John feeling infuriated, tries to close off perimeters to the city, but he notices that he can’t remote to any of the facilities of the city. None of the mages can. John feeling confused asks himself,” what has happened to us. What have we done? We let loose animals that we can’t control into the city.” John runs back into the hall screaming, “We have let loose the ragers in the city and have lost control”. James angrily yells back at John and Ron, “What have you done?” Ron, with a stoic look, reply. “I was the distraction, not the others. While you were looking at me, we knew you would summon the ragers, so during that interface between the mages and the network, we hacked into all your Psynets and disabled them. Your own weapon is now attacking your city as they did ours. The barrier of junk was always surrounding the city we just stacked more of it. It’s to keep you and them from leaving the city.”
James looks at Ron with a snarl and yells, “Do you realize that the everyday normal people will get killed, I’ll send a message to everyone to stay indoors until this issue can be resolved. John Zentile, you will get the old Mech and purge this problem now.” John immediately runs out to the armory. James connects to the network and hears music. His own music. Then immediately disconnects. Ron looks at James with anger and replies, “you knew, you always knew what the music was capable of doing.” James replies, “yes, of course I knew, it was no accident, I always was planning on making influential music, but it didn’t work. But what you gave me did, so I abandoned the music and used the book of memes to gain power during a time of unrest. I did not realize that with the psynet interface the music would be that effective. Ron Replies, “Not only is it influential, but It can also disable your programing and control of everyone including the ragers”.
John gathers the other mages and have them pilot the Mechanical soldiers still in storage, to Kill the ragers threw out the city. Since the mages frequencies were shifted, they had no remote capabilities. So, they had no choice but to physically pilot the ancient hardware. They march out of the armory storage facility and start shooting at anyone and everyone on the streets. John leads the brigade and heads to the junk piles surrounding the city. He turns around, faces
the city, and fires on all human beings on the street. While firing he starts to take fire on his back. He turns around and the junk pile starts to shoot at him and at the other mechanized mages. Out of the junkpile, mechanical arms and rockets launchers start to emerge. The Mech parts, looking like trash were being remotely controlled by the Island origanicians. A battle ensues. The mages start to lose since they had no real training on the mechs. They are accustomed to fighting threw mental means. As the last mech fell, the order to play music to free the ragers starts being heard threw out the city, emanating from the junk piles. John emerges from his mech and is captured by Alex, who was waiting by the junk, directing the Origianicians attack.
Back in the exhibition Hall, Ron and James witness the carnage happening in the streets. James looks at Ron in disgust. He yells, “look at this mess, I tried to prevent this, If the illusion of freedom is accepted shouldn’t it remain?” Ron replies, “truth is not what you want it to be, it is what it is, and we must either live in the light of truth or live in the shadow of a lie.” James replies, “is that from the book of meme that I didn’t write down”? Ron replies, “No, it’s from the other writings of your time. The writings like from Musashi. You should have read from the knowledge of your time to prevent all of this in the first place”. James laughingly replies, “First of all, I didn’t cause this, I remedied this. After you left, I was so shocked at the violence in your capture. I wanted to change things. I never thought much of myself because of my self-esteem issues, but thanks to you I am now the Master of all I perceive. When the world fell apart, I recovered it, and myself.” Ron replies, “and I must stop you before it gets any worse.” James looks at Ron and sadly says, “look at me, how much worse can it get? I am the product of that time. You on the other hand won’t have a future after I am done with you. It will be you, who will see the worst of it.”
Chapter 27: To win any battle you must fight like already dead.
In the exhibition hall, Both James and Ron size each other up preparing to do the final battle. Unknown to both, Selina secretly found a way into the building to witness the fight. Both appear as their avatars, so the cloaked man is challenging a dragon. The battle is being witnessed by all on the network realm. Music is still being heard on the background weakening both opponents. James
makes his first move, using his weakening abilities, he sends surges of energy to Ron emitting a large amount of pain. Ron Falls to one knee then rises. In defense, he directs the energy to a network hub behind James, causing it to explode. The explosion startles James, causing him to lose concentration. Ron takes this opportunity to attack. He creates a black cloud disguising his location. He then uses knives and tries to slash James, but James catches Ron and repels him to the floor. James smiles and yells, “anything new, I saw that coming from 2008.” Ron Gets up and sees Selina in the distance. Ron knows that he cannot defeat the dragon, he must defeat the man, in spirit and in physical means. Ron attacks and gets knocked down. He attacks again by trying to restrain the dragon via network cables surrounding the dragon. The dragon uses his breath and melts away the cables. James then attacks by sending multiple shots of energy from multiple angles and sources, plummeting Ron again to the floor. Ron in pain yells frequency.
Selina understanding Ron, pulls out her laptop and wirelessly connects to Ron’s Psynet interface then pauses. Ron gets up battered from the last attack. He speaks. Go ahead, finish it. If I die, I’ll be more powerful than you. I’ll be a jedi martyr. James laughs, “no you will be a fool who thought that you could be more powerful. I can rebuild all of this like I did in the early 2000s. People are weak and greedy and ambitious. I can offer them everything they want since I did before. I am more than a man now, I’m part machine, and with cloning, I can continue where you cannot. I provide peace, you provide chaos, but you can have a purpose. I’ll make you understand me better, just like you helped me, let me help you.” James grabs Ron’s head and physically tries to impress his will onto Ron. Ron screams,” Now!” Selina sends the commands to switch frequencies and both Ron and James see the Avatar of the Cyberian mage, get knocked off the network, and are thrown to the ground. Everyone loses connection to them both on the network. Now only Selina can see what’s happening to them both.
James gets up and yells, “What have you done now?” Ron gets up, and replies, “I have cut you off from the network. By having you connect to me, I have hacked you.” James laughs and replies, “That’s very good, Ron, I didn’t see that coming, you remind me of Mark, someone I knew back in the past, but did you see this?” James hits Ron in the right side, the same side as John did back in the past. Ron falls to his knees. James gloats over Ron and replies, “I remember how
you lost, back in time. I remember back then, I was scared and so frightened, watching you lose. Now, I’m not a child anymore. I understand why violence must happen. To maintain peace and power, some liberties must be lost, for the greater good. Who cares for some of the vagrants who don’t matter, they are easier to control because of their fear and ignorance. Those who are well off, are also easy to control because of their greed, pride, and arrogance, which makes them ignorant as well. I must thank you for disconnecting me from the network, it’s nice to be able to speak my mind freely to you, without everyone knowing the truth about their enslavement. It is due to their own ignorance. During a crisis, that’s the time to gain control over them. Fear makes the ignorant vulnerable to persuasion.”
Ron stammers away and laughingly replies, “You might be right, but as of now all your followers are free for the first time as are you, but we aren’t exactly off of the network.” Ron points at Selina who is using a camera patched to her laptop, streaming the entire conversation over the network. Everyone heard their leader proclaim how he deceived them. Ron replies, “ever heard of Sun Tzu?” Angrily, James swings his mechanical arm at Ron punching a hole in the floor. Ron gets up and heads toward the network hub that he previously overloaded, with James right behind in pursuit. Ron gets to the damaged hub and turns around and looks at James. He pleads with James, “Let me help you help yourself.” He raises his hands as too impress a feeling onto James. James replies, “that force BS won’t help you this time.” James attempts to punch Ron with his mechanical arm. Ron ducks out of the way. James punches the damaged hub which releases waves of energy that engulf James, incinerating him. James screams in agony and in his final breath yells, “CAIN WILL AVENGE ME!!”. Ron Stands over what remains of James, victorious, but has a look of sadness to witness the death of his once friend, as well as confusion. He quietly asks what remains of James,” who is Cain, what have you done?” He looks up at Selina and hears cheering in the background. Selina screams out. “You did it, you defeated the Voice and freed the people!” Ron responds with sadness and regret, “I freed the chaos, not the people, James was right, ignorance always is the enslaver, not him. There will be another dragon in time.” Selina and Ron leave the hall to witness all the cheering. Both the Organician faction and the Cyberilas faction in unison cheer for their freedom.
Selina asks Ron, “so, who is Sun Tzu?” Ron replies, “You will have to read the book.” Both stop and look at each other and realize, Ron’s Psynet interface recorded all the books from the 20th century. Knowledge defeats ignorance. Both run back inside to find another network hub. Selina changes Ron’s frequency back to its original state. Ron links up to the network and uploads all the books that he read while in the past for all to read. Ron states, “now, I have freed the people, but it might be too late.”
Chapter 28: Message from the liberator of nothing
Ron, Selina, and Alex meet up in the cave where the events started as all the others are celebrating. All look at each other with gloom. Alex states, “John Zentile escaped me. Why are you two so gloomy?” Ron replies, “our numbers are now so few, any natural disaster will wipe out the entire human race. Ultimately, we killed ourselves with our own ignorance. Wisdom was all around in the past, but no one read from wise authors. I have restored some of this lost wisdom, but it probably won’t change anything. People are still the same and won’t change. There are no more Tscies around, so we can’t rebuild what we have created. We will have to start all over from the beginning.” Selina replies, “To start, we should call this land what it used to be called, America, and rebuild from there, that is if an earthquake or storm doesn’t wipe us out first.” Alex looks at the land with enthusiasm. He smiles and states, “we should document these events and put them out on the network, so we don’t go through this again, and who knows, maybe there is a Tscies out there who could make a machine and send it to the past. We should call it, The Cyberian Mage”. Ron stops looks up and stares at you….
By now you probably figured out while you are currently reading this, that this writing was meant for you. It’s not fiction, it’s our reality and your future. Now, in your time, you are seeing news being sent to you, for more entertainment rather than information, for the purpose of ratings which enrichens them. Politicians saying outrageous things to enrage the ignorant, to gain popularity, money and eventually power. Those who have power are tugging on your emotions, to gain more, or maintain power, rather than use knowledge to help the people, which is how power is supposed to be gained. If you let these
things, come to pass, then your future will be certain, as will your fate. If you need proof, google the warlock-z music projects, you will find these things are in your past as well as the wise writings of Sun Tzu and Miyamoto Masashi. And some time in your future, the book of meme will surface for a brief time before it is silenced. Again, I implore you to believe:
This is a message from your future.
What you have been reading, is not fiction, it’s our reality. The events listed here originated in your time. Patricia now lives amongst you. She has placed resources labeled with the WZ logo in multiple areas threw out time, that will endure, and can be accessed to you with your own archival means.
I beg of you that you change our reality by using wisdom. When developing technology. When electing your leaders and raising your offspring. Bestow wisdom on to your children for they are our current leaders.
Beware of those who wish to use emotions to sway you. Beware of the loud liars who wish to deceive you. Beware of your fate.
A year has passed.
Back on Useppa Island, a shadowy male figure, adorned in a ripped cloak, appears in front of the museum. He enters the museum, goes into the data center and digs threw the old hardware. He finds, hidden in a covered false floor, a door. Behind the door, he recovers a small, yet heavy, box that has 2 small LED lights still lit on it. It’s covered with dust and dried blood. He wipes it down to see the label on the box. It reads:
This book is Dedicated to
Kenneth Nelson Shepherd aka Ken Scorshovich
During the writing of this book, my stepfather passed away. He left a beautiful family behind. That family included me and my mother. Kenneth was the only person, other than my biological father, that accepted me as a son, and the only family that accepted me and my mother as one of their own. His passing put a large dent in everyone’s heart, especially my mother. He will be sorely missed. While I was writing the book, I kept having thoughts of him, and his life as a boilermaker, welding pipes together for companies. I felt fitting to have him as a character who made things.
As a homage to how I felt about him, I wrote him into this book as the character, Ken Scorshovich. As this book circulates in time, I feel that his memory will have a long-lasting presence in our families’ hearts, and minds. And to all who reads this book, will know a little bit, of this loving person, and creative gentleman.
About the Author:
William M Patterson, behind the debut short story, The Last Buccaneer, and Cyberian mage, is an author, IT specialist, and music producer. His work across multiple disciplines broadly addresses narratives of experiences threw technical means. As an IT specialist, he has written technical documents Including MOPs, (Methods of procedures), for businesses to improve reliability and expandability. This was being done by using his fifteen years of datacenter experience, and two years training at ITT Technical Institute. This was the motivation to do fictional writing with a get to the point approach. As a Music producer, he was able to convert decommissioned server gear to make music production equipment and goes by the alias name Warlock-Z. His music has been distributed worldwide
Sponsored by:
https://music.apple.com/us/artist/warlock-z/280493405