1 Destiny

"Team number 207 CerberuS , please proceed with the presentation and prepare the practical test."

"Right away sir!"

Jake starts preparing the device which is a huge, 20 meters tall, mass of metal and wires while Sy explains to the jury the theory behind this beauty . To be honest, over half of the words she says are alien to me, but I can see the surprise on the jury's face and that allows me to understand that it truly is as magnificent as I imagined it to be.

Ten minutes or so later, Sy finishes the explanation and we proceed with the final preparations for the practical test. A huge metallic circle with a radius of ten meters or so is placed near the device connected through a couple of huge cables to an energy source that we had to prepare beforehand.

With a buzzing noise, the practical test starts.

Nothing happens.

The jury looks slightly disappointed I might say. At this point, Jake lifts a 100 kg halter and places it inside the metallic circle.

Nothing happens.

"Miss Syden, although the theory behind it is unbelievable and is more than enough to grant you another Nobel prize it looks like the device is not finis... "

The man stops in the middle of his words while looking at quite a spectacle being displayed before his eyes. The halter that was a second ago on the ground starts floating slowly upwards, one cm at a time, under the frozen gazes of the crowd.

And it keeps going higher and higher...

The first antigravity device in the world that neutralises Earth's pulling force in a selected area. This is our project. Watching the stunned expressions of the crowd filled with disbelief makes me feel truly happy. We did it! Again!

Jake is calm and Sy is analysing the data generated by the sensors, but I can see how proud of themselves they truly are from the dim light that started emanating from their eyes.

Finally, someone in the crowd starts clapping. Like this a chain reaction starts, filling the world under an avalanche of heated applause sound.

"Congratulations. There is nothing more we can say at this point." The man looks in our direction and signals towards a girl behind him which prepares a big trophy carried together with another girl. "It is my pleasure to declare that the winners of the National Science Fair edition 29 are Jake Meyer, Syden Evergreen and Seth Welsh from team CerberuS."

Jake grabs the huge trophy and lifts it above his heads under the cheers of the crowd.

"Oh, one more thing I would like to ask." A few minutes later, after the cheers came to a stop, the man looks at us and asks with a slightly puzzled manner. "What about the weight that went in the air? How are you going to get it down."

At that point, we look at each other and one thing becomes obvious: "We forgot about that!"

Before we manage to share our thoughts a huge bang interrupts the silence. Fifty meters or so away from our current position, a car looks like it was hit by a meteor.

"Syyy ..."

I look at Sy with a slightly puzzled and shocked expression

"High altitude wind moved it slightly and the gravity outside the device made it accelerate and crash back into the ground with maximum velocity."

"That sound reasonable. Although I am happy that no one was hurt."

"Indeed."

"That-t-t is my car!"

The man in the jury looks towards the parking spot that was hit and identifies his own car.

"Talking about bad luck, huh ."

Jake looks at me while muttering those words.

"It was worth it tho !"

At least that is something all of us can agree with.

........

A few hours later, I find a moment when Jake is not around and meet Sy while making sure no one is around. Since this morning's incident, I had a certain feeling and now it's the moment to confirm it. She is still looking at the data generated by the device earlier.

"Sy, I would like to ask you something and I would like to answer me sincerely. What happened this morning was your doing, right?"

"Of course."

A short and decisive answer filled with a shocking lack of guilt. Like I expected... There is one more question that I would like to know the answer to.

"Why?"

She just keeps reading while answering my question with a cold face.

"He might not remember this, but when I was younger I had a certain project that he mocked and laughed at during a certain School Fair. I never forget and I like to take revenge for past grievances."

Yeah ... I guessed part of it already but hearing it from her makes things even more frightening.

"You are a scary woman, you know that?"

"Thank you! Mum said it is part of my charm!"

........

So ... How did all of this begin?

Well, that is quite an interesting story, but to be able to tell all of it I need to go back to the day I was born.

It was a sunny day. But it was raining. Quite an interesting event, right? The sun was up in the sky and no clouds could be seen but, in the same time a gentle, warm rain covered the city.

Date : 23/Dec/2033

Location : Providence Alaska Medical Center, USA

The doors open and a nurse dressed in white appear. She moves slowly towards a certain man waiting in the hallway.

Tall, not to well built but not fat either, with a well-trimmed beard, wearing a simple but elegant black suit, sitting in a dignifying position, with his back straight and legs closed together. He just sits there, with a faint smile on his face, just waiting and nothing more. Still, if you were to look closely at his eyes you could easily distinguish an amalgamation of feeling such as happiness, uneasiness and even fear. A strange combination I might add.

The nurse gets close and addresses the man in a solemn tone.

"Sir, I am forced to inform you that your wife failed to survive the surgery. She died less than ten minutes ago. Fortunately, we were able to save the quadruplets. "

At this point, the nurse pauses for a little bit waiting for a reaction from the man.

A few seconds later, he rises and utters only four words in a grave tone.

"Can I see them?"

"Come this way please!"

The nurse turns slowly and leads the way. While moving, all the feeling that were in the man's eyes a few seconds ago disappeared being replaced only by melancholy. He gazes straightforward but his gaze seems to reach through the walls of the hospital towards the endless eternity and beyond it.

The nurse stops near a series of small beds isolated in some kind of glass. She points towards four of those and looks at the man without saying anything.

He approaches with steady steps, looks down and his gaze falls upon four small beings that sleep peacefully. His right-hand presses gently upon the glass of one of the middle beds. A few good minutes passes in complete silence. In the end, the man starts speaking slowly in a gentle tone.

"She died but you lived. I loved her more than anything in this world and I never thought I could ever love anything else like that. I was wrong. My sons, I had a rough life filled with sad moments but now I realise that it was all worth it. In the future, I promise you that no one under the heaven shall be able to chain you in this world. You shall have the liberty to do anything you want and no matter what your choice is going to be I am going to support you.

In this world, there are no two people that are equals. But now there are four that are truly equal. Each and single one of you shall have the same chance in life and I shall love you all the same.

This is my vow towards you, right here, before god and the soul of your mother that looks upon you from heavens."

........

This is how Deth, Neth , Seth and Zeth Welsh have been born in this world.

........

Date : 01/Jan/2039

Location : Riverdale Country School

"So, what do you want to be in the future Deth?"

A tall woman dressed in a white dress with glasses and a slim figure looks towards a kid from the first row and asks one of the most basic questions in history.

"I am going to create a new computer company where everyone is going to be happy to work at and will achieve a place in history."

The teacher nods slowly and moves a little to the left towards another kid that looks identical to the previous one.

"How about you Neth?"

"I am going to be an artist that shall encapsulate the soul of the living in his paintings."

Again, the teachers nods slowly, with a content look on her face and moves again.

"And you Zeth?"

"My dream is to step on my father's path and become the future ruler of this country."

She looks at him a few more seconds and moves again to the left. The previous three kids all looked absolutely identical, but the last one, although his clothes and face are the same, his dishevelled hair makes him stand out a little.

"What about you Seth? What are your future plans?"

"I don't know yet."

The teacher shakes her head and moves forward.

........

By the age of 21, all my brothers already achieved their dreams.

........

Deth, with the help of our father, created at the age of 16 Seed Inc that became one of the greatest computer companies in the world in less than 5 years. Attractive salaries and flexible schedule made it a dream environment for any man or woman out there.

Date: 17/Feb/2054

Seed Inc launches the first VRMMORPG in the world, Seeds of Apocalypse, officially becoming the most successful company on the planet.

........

Date: 21/Feb/2055

Neth's painting, Lost Soul of the Swan is sold at an auction at the frightening price of 192 million dollars marking the begging of a new age in art called "Soul Art".

Date: 13/Nov/2056

Zeth became the youngest president of the USA at the age of 23. Although there was still a lot of opposition, everyone started agreeing with him when, after only two months, he managed to sign a Peace Treaty with the Russian Empire.

Date: 1/Ian/2057

24 years old Seth is wasting his time playing his brother's VRMMORPG.

That is the day when destiny's hand falls upon me and changed my future forever.

It was just another day of my boring life. Nothing important or peculiar happened. For the last 24 years, I've been wasting my life with banal things.

Using my brother's money and influence I ordered a beautiful house in the middle of the desert where no one could disturb me.

I was immersed in the 99% virtual reality game when the proximity alarm started ringing. This means that someone is coming towards my house.

It was father together with two other people: a tall and well-built teenager, with a normal face and sharp eyebrows dressed in a formal black suit and, more importantly, a young blonde girl with amazing proportions. Although I've seen many beauties, she is still in top ten. What I am disappointed about is that she is dressed in the same kind of suit like the man. A girl should wear beautiful clothes that emphasise her figure, not some random suite.

Everything happened fast. Father is not someone who likes to mess around with words and negotiate with us. When he wants something he tells everything he needs to say and then allows us to decide what we are going to do.

"Son, I always respected your choices and I am going to do the same thing in the future as well. Still, there are certain things that I must ask you to do. Of course, as always it's your choice if you want to listen to me or not but I hope you are going to chose the right path.

To be able to enjoy properly your life you must be healthy and aware of how your world works. You, Seth, never went to high school. Furthermore, the fact that you spend all your time here, alone, just playing games and eating is not good for your health.

This is why they are here for. Son, please make acquaintance with Jake Meyer and Syden Evergreen.

Jake is 24 years old, just like you. He is the youngest martial artist in history that created his own fighting style acknowledged by the whole world. From today onwards he is going to live here with you and help you acquire a proper, healthy body.

Miss Evergreen over here is one of the best physicists in the world. Furthermore, she is a qualified engineer and has advanced knowledge of human physiology. She is going to help you discover some of this world's secrets."

.........

After that father just left and I remained there with Jake and Sy. For an unknown reason, I decided to do as father said and sacrifice a little of my time to study with Sy and work out with Jake.

Time slowly passed. Eight months to be exact. I became slightly fitter and slimmer than before and I started to understand basic things from what Sy was trying to make me learn.

I might say, it was quite enjoyable to have something else to do although the emptiness inside of me, the lack of interest in everything, remained there.

All changed on that beautiful day.

Date : 26/Sep/2057

Location : Somewhere in the middle of the Sahara desert

It was another boring day. It all started as usual with a morning training with Jake, some lessons with Sy followed by six or so hours of Seeds of Apocalypse.

Still, that evening, for an unknown reason, although I think I was just extremely bored, I decided to invade Sy's intimacy and enter her room while she was away.

God have mercy on me. I always thought I had a messy room, but what I've seen in there was beyond this world.

Books stacked to the ceiling, mixed with clothes and all kinds of devices that looked like they came from the Stargate franchise.

I walked a bit and a certain thing caught my eye. It was a big mess of wires and metal that laid near her bed. It was obviously something she worked hard on.

I got closer and, obviously, there was a big red button on it. What can a normal human do when they see a big red button?

So, I pressed the button, a flashy ray of light hit me and then... Nothing happened. The device became inactive again.

'Right... So it was just a toy!'

At that point, those were my real thoughts. You should have seen the surprise on my face a few seconds later when I was looking in a mirror that was hanging in a closet just to see everything behind me, but not my body as well.

The first thought that popped in my mind is that I was dead. I grabbed the first thing in my path, a big advanced physics book, and hit my head as hard as I could with it.

'Slap'

'Auch'

So, I was not dead, but invisible. At that point, I understood what happened. That thing was a device that can make someone invisible. That is unbelievable and truly and utterly... Interesting.

That is the first time in my life when I felt a strange feeling swelling from the inside of me, trying to burst out. That is the first time I felt truly... Alive.

Of course next, I realised again that I was invisible and decided to have some fun.

It all ended with a dislocated arm and a strawberry pie on my face while Jake was holding me down.

Later I talked with Sy, which by the way was kinda annoyed about what I did, and discovered that the device was her biggest work in which she poured all her money. She hoped to be enough to gain her a big sponsorship so that she is able to mess around with all kind of cool ideas.

.........

Three days later I had a meeting in Paris with my brother Deth and talked him into giving me a billion dollars. Yap, a billion dollars. It might seem to be a huge amount, but it actually is not something unbelievable for our family.

Next day I proposed Sy to give her almost unlimited funding and in exchange allow me to be part of her work.

We build a beautiful subterranean bunker under my house in the dessert with a huge hangar and a few hundred employees where she could experiment with anything she wanted.

Soon, we didn't even have to use my family's money as we started to gain a lot of funding from all kind of parties.

.........

And this brings us to present. The antigravity device was our third working prototype after the light rays bending device and the anti-cellular ageing pill. The last one was not actually created by Sy but by Jake with Sy's help of course, which we discovered later that is actually, away from a great martial artist, an amazing expert in human anatomy and biology. Combining his knowledge with Sy's, almost anything is possible.

By the way, the anti-cellular ageing pill was a huge hit because it was safe and helped anyone who consumed it to gain thirty up to forty years worth of life. Unfortunately, a second pill was useless but this didn't mean that it was not the most sold product on the market.

Soon, we didn't even have to use my family's money anymore as we started to gain a lot of income from our own products.

.........

Date : 13/April/2058

Location : Somewhere in the middle of the Sahara desert

The research institute is empty for a while now as I gave everyone a week vacation after our last big success from this morning. Only people left are me, Jake and Sy.

Right now we are down in the bunker, in a certain room, floating around the place. The best thing about inventing something new is the fact that we can have as much fun with it as we want.

Outside is a downpour like I've never seen in my whole life. Huge bolts of lightning fill the sky and, if I didn't know better, I could swear that this is the end of the world.

Anyway, we floated around for a few more hours, followed by some swimming in the heated pool, combined with some champagne... It was not long before we started running around, invisible, with paint guns in our hand, shooting at each other.

In the last years, we became really good friends.

Friends...

That is something that I never had before. I hate myself for not knowing how good it feels to have fun with your friends for over twenty-four freaking years.

But no more. From now on I can enjoy life to its full potential.

.........

"Holly shit, my head hurts like hell..."

I mutter those words as I manage to raise my body from the ground. A little further away from me, on a sofa, Sy is still sleeping. It looks like Jake woke up earlier as he is already doing his morning practice. I am certain that he drank even more than me but he doesn't even look one tiny bit affected by it.

I slowly start moving my legs again. We are in one of the relaxation rooms in the bunker. It's a simple square hall that combines a kitchen with a living room.

I slowly crawl towards the elevator and press the button for the first floor.

After last night I really need some fresh air.

Before the door manages to close, Jake follows me leaving Sy to sleep in peace.

"Hahh... I really need a shower."

I always loved to have a good, warm shower in the morning. And now, after last night, not to mention that I am half painted in shades of green and blue, I can feel all the dried sweat on me starting to emanate a terrifying smell.

Jake looks at me and slowly nods his head. He was always the silent type. Actually, only now did I realise that he is completely clean. It looks like he already had a shower.

The bunker is 50 meters underground so it takes the elevator about twenty seconds or so to reach the top level.

'Ding'

The familiar sound reaches my ears as the doors start opening. I rush towards the shower while Jake starts walking to the entrance door.

.........

"Pfeww.... That was a good shower!"

I finally feel slightly better again. The hangover faded a little and the fact that I feel clean allows me to move around with a smile on my face.

"Seth, did you by any chance put mushrooms in my drink again?"

Jake asks me in a slightly elevated tone while walking in my direction. Well, I did that a few times in the past but I don't remember doing it recently so the answer to his question would be...

"No... Why ?"

Seth looks in my eyes like trying to confirm if I say the truth or not. He looks slightly... Panicked?

I wonder what could have happened...

"Come with me."

Saying those words, he starts walking towards the outside exit. His steps are kinda rushed and he looks really tense.

Finally, we reach the door and...

"The fuck?!?"

"Exactly!"

Uhh... I did not see that coming.

If you live in the desert and go outside you expect sand dunes and maybe a kangaroo or a hyena, but DEFINITELY not a freaking jungle.

"Those are trees..."

"Yap."

"A lot of green trees..."

"Yap."

"And grass..."

"Yap."

"So... It's a jungle right?"

"Jungle confirmed!"

That was the most retarded conversation I ever had we, Jake. But, in this situation, that was expected.

At that point, a single thought existed in our minds.

""We need to wake up Sy!!!""