Hide and Seek

[My Friend, I must admit that I didn't have much of a childhood.  I grew up with my father and my grandfather when I was very young.  And before I was legally an adult, they had both died.  There had never been much play time in my home, and anything I did seemed to get in the way of whatever endeavors my grandfather or father were up to.   And I can tell you one thing for sure.  My father heavily resented my grandfather.  I spent a lot of my time alone or tutoring with an A.I. robot.  I became very proficient at many sciences all by myself.  But there had never been anybody to congratulate me on my efforts.  I was my own mentor and I was my own friend.  So, I found myself at odds playing a game that I didn't quite understand.]

Athena, the goddess I had met in the future, was very much alive in the here and now.  The difference being that she was still a child.  A very strong child that had managed to easily destroy two armored robots.

"Yes, I definitely don't want to get on her bad side."  Though I wasn't sure that was possible or not.  She had taken to referring to me as her father.  And I'm not quite sure where she got the idea from.  Having never been with a flesh-made woman, I didn't think making a child was at all possible.

"Did I perhaps get my last A.I. companion pregnant?"  Not a like scenario if I understood anything about human biology.

Hide and Seek - some sort of game by the looks of it.  Athena had run off somewhere.  And I had no idea where she had gone.  Was I supposed to actively look for her?  I wasn't quite certain.  I would play the part of looking, while still searching Hooke's lab.

The drawing of the wings was the only thing of note so far.  And I would definitely study them later.

"I might not be allowed to have a jetpack, but Larry said nothing about flying around with metal wings."  The idea excited me.

The first floor wasn't much to take in.  The floor and walls were white.  And there were giant glass tubes with bubbling water as columns.  I peaked inside each column, but didn't see anything inside any of them.  In the center of the complex, there was a wide open space.  Here I found pieces of metal and some odd tools.  This was likely the place where Hooke intended to build the wings.

Near the right corner of the complex, there were some metal stairs that went to a narrow walkway.  The walkway went around all the walls.  Above the walkway, I could see there was another floor.  It looked like there was a ladder to the top floor.

"That must be where I'll find the rest of what I'm looking for."

Suddenly, I saw a figure of a little girl running behind two glass columns.

"I see you!"  I had finally won this game, by the looks of it.

"That doesn't count.  You need to catch me."

Why did I need to catch her?  Wasn't the game called hide and seek?  I wondered if I was in the shape to actually run after a child.  Not just a child.  This was the Goddess of our future.  The one that had obliterated Newton.  Could I even manage to chase her down?

Then I had a curious idea.  No, I can't play by her rules.  If she can act like a child, I can too.

"No, it's my turn.  You need to catch me!"  Those were the words that came out of my mouth.  Before I knew it, I was running to the stairs and carefully running across the narrow runway that went around the complex.  I just hoped that I wouldn't misstep and fall down.

I could hear the pitter-patter of little feet going up the metal stairs.  She had taken the bait.  But she was awfully fast for a little child.  But that was to be expected.

I climbed up the ladder to the top floor.  When I got up, I lifted the ladder up.

"Try to get up that, little Twerp."

"Not fair.  You're breaking the rules!"  Athena cried in protest as I stared down at her cute little face.

"You must concede if you want to come up here.  Admit that I won."

Athena stared at me with a grumpy look.  "Fine, you win this time, but I won't let you cheat so easily next time."

I let the ladder down.  "How do you expect an old man like me to beat you?  Cheating is all I got."

Athena climbed up the ladder and hugged my leg.  "I got you now."

"Whose cheating now."  I was going to say that, but decided to let her think she won anyways.

On the top floor was a giant glass tube, like the ones below.  But this one had no water inside.  There was a computer console around it.

"What is this?"

"This is where I was made," Athena smiled as she ran to the glass tube.

"I was artificially made here to become a God.  One day I'll get that Newton guy, and everyone will love me.  Doesn't that sound great?"

"Everyone's got their own aspirations, I guess."  The girl certainly knew her role in everything here.  What had Hooke told her exactly?  That was the question of the day.  And I wasn't sure how to ask her about it.

I walked around the console and spotted something curious on a table.  I picked it up and gasped.  It was a vile of blue plasma.

Blue Plasma - A very rare type of plasma that was illegal to produce.  The reason being simple: everyone who had tried had blown themselves to a million bits.  But here I was holding a canister of the very substance that couldn't exist.

"That will give me the power I need, " Athena said.

Looking at the canister, I didn't doubt her for a second.  It would give her a lot of power.  It would give her those blue eyes.  But it would also slowly drive her mad.

Now I knew everything.  Hooke had genetically engineered a child that could withstand an injection of blue plasma.  Her body would be able to withstand it, but her mind would deteriorate over time.  Had I come a couple years later....  I doubt I could have talked to her at all.

"I know how to solve everything."  Or at least that's what I thought.