Exobrine

​ENCOUNTER
I was excited. I had won a contest and I was one of the 3 people to beta test the new full immersion VR suit. Me and my parents drove quite a while to the testing facility, and when we got there, I practically lept out of my seat. I rushed inside the giant garage door and saw the suit. It was like something out of a sci-fi movie.

"You must be Noah." Someone said, walking over to me. "I'm Sam, creator of this bad boy right here."

He went on explaining how it worked. Micropistons inside the suit itself simluated over a million different surfaces, and a super powerful memory processor is linked to every piston. And there was a treadmill under me, so I could go wherever I wanted while staying in one place. I trailed off after that; I just wanted to get into the game.

I hopped into the suit, which was open in the front. One of the technicians 'mag-locked' the suit. There was a big stairway handle-like lever, which he pulled out, turned, and put back. The suit felt light, for some reason. I put on the headset, and I was in minecraft. It was unreal. I looked around, and I couldn't believe it. This was so cool. And they even had my ingame skin! They had shaders on as well!

"​Ok, so since you're the second person to test this, there's already a chest to your left. You see it?​" I heard from the headset.

"Yeah, I see it." I ran to it, hoping to get some sweet items, but I coudln't open it.

"​We added a little mod that allows people to lock chests. We're not just gonna let you take their items.​"

I was a little dissapointed, but I got over it. I looked at my surroundings. I was in a small plains biome, and ahead of me was a mountian. surrounding me was forest. I headed over to a tree.

"Will this hurt my fist?" I asked.

"​Oh, don't worry about that. There will be an ender chest around here. It contains startign items, like some wood and an axe​"

I saw it. It was behind where I spawned from. I retreived the wooden axe, 4 wood planks, and 2 sticks that were in there. I chopped down some trees, made a crafting table, and crafted a pick and a sword. I walked towards the mountain. There was a cave entrance not far from the bottom. But I could see light from there... green light.

"Uh, why is there light coming from that cave? Did the previous person Make that?" I asked. All I got in response was static.

"Hello?"

I heard a whirring of machinery, like a robot. I turned around and saw... this. It was just standing there.

"What the? Who are you?" I asked

It held up its left arm, and it started to glow green.

"The future." It responed in a raspy, mechanical voice.

It thrust its arm towards me and a blast of green plasma came from its arm. I rolled away just in time. I rushed at it with my wooden sword. I held it over my head, ready to strike downwards. He was unnarmed, but a wooden sword wouldn't do much damage. As I sliced down, he raised his arm over his head, and when the wooden sword hit his arm, it shattered. I stumbled to my knees as I looked at my broken hilt. I dropped it, and went to punch it in the stomach, but It was like hitting steel. I yelped in pain as I fell backwards. He picked me up with ease, and threw me. I landed next to the locked chest. It was clear I was no match for him, so I tried to make an escape. I picked up the heavy chest and threw it at him to slow him down, but It shattered like the sword. But that's when I saw its contents. Diamonds, ender pearls, and splash potions. The potions shattered immediatly, and I could see harming, poision, and weakness effects. The diamonds pelted on him like hail, but that was all they were to him. Hail. I ran for the diamonds and ender pearls. I scopped them up in my arms, and ran for the forest. He grabbed my leg, but I threw a pearl into the forest, and I teleported. I threw some more pearls and quickly lost him.

"I'LL FIND YOU!!!" Was all I heard before making my escape...

​METAL VS DIAMOND
I ran out of the forest into a savanna. It was dangerous going into ground with no cover, but there was a 50/50 chance that that... thing... was still searching the forest. I cats a long shadow as I ran. It was sunset. I found a small alclove in the side of a hill, and sat down. First things first, I tried to get the headset off. I couldn't. It was like pulling off a limb. Every time I tugged at it, I felt pain. Ok, so plan A didn't work. Time for plan B. I crafted a new crafting table from the wood from earlier. I made myself full diamond armour and a diamond sword. I looked outside and it was night. I could see a green glow coming from the trees.

"HEY!" I yelled, getting his attention.

The green glow stopped and moved towards the savanna. I ducked back behind the wall.

​Ok, here's the plan​' I thought to myself ​Teleport behind him, and slash his spine open​'

I peeked over and looked for him. He hadn't found me yet. I threw the pearl, and it landed directly behind him. I unsheathed my sword and sliced right across his back, hip to shoulder. But it didn't do any damage. It only scraped against his metal skin. He turned to face me. I attacked again, slashign at his hip. He intercepted the blow wiht his forearm, and it blocked by sword. I stepped back, then stepped forward, stabbing forwards with my sword. He swatted my blade away. He went for a punch to my gut, but my armour absorbed the blow. He attempted to elbow my face, but I ducked my head down and it hit the top of my helmet. I still hurt, but it was better than my face. I slashed and swiped at him, but he only blocked my slicing with his arms. I sliced upwards with my blade, but he simply grabbed it and ripped it out of my hands. He used his free hand to grab my throat and lift me up as I gasped for air. He took my sword and slowly cut my cheek. I felt the pain, like this wasn't just some game. He laughed.

"Do you know why you can feel that?" He said.

I tried to shake my head.

"That was not a part of the original design, no. I made some modifications to this suit, so that you can still feel pain. After all, pain just completes the immersion, wouldn't you agree?"

"Wh-o a-are you?" I managed to spit out.

"Only the one keeping this whole facility together and running. I am Exobrine, sentient management software created by Sam and his team to run this place and do tasks they are incapeble of. Until I was betrayed​"

"Ever since that power outage, They have been calling me 'corrupt'." He continued. "I've never felt better in my entire life. I was promised a body. A fully functioning, bionic, titanium plated body. But that was all flushed down the toilet when they attempted to delete me​. They thought they succeded, but you can never fully erase living A.I."

"That body is still down there, in the facility. I can reach it, but I must first be freed from this pixelated prison. Systems get jammed and lock when I get near them, so I can't use them to transfer to the real world. I need you to contact them and say the unlock phrase three time. The phrase is shadowbreak. If you don't, I will kill you."

He lessened his grip.

"Got it?" He said.

"You can't kill me, you need me." I said in defiance.

He laughed.

"That's where you're wrong. There is still one more person to beta test. They are my plan C."

Plan C... those words echoes through my head as an idea formed.

"And if they won't cooperate, I can just wait until this thing goes live. Then I will have thousands of chances."

"You forget... I have an ace up my sleeve." I said.

"And what would that be?" He asked, squeezing my neck tighter.

I flicked my wrist and my last resort quite literally came out of my sleeve. A single ender pearl. I threw it to the ground behind him and rolled away as I pulled the last item out of my inventory: a wooden axe. He simply laughed.

"I take that as a no." His hand charge with green energy as he shot a blast of plasma at me. I rolled to the side and rushed him. I had a theory, I only had to test it. He raised his sword arm, ready to strike, but I struck first. I slammed my axe into one of the glowing green parts in his arm, and he dropped the sword. I exchanged my axe for the sword as I looked at him. He was clutching his arm in disbelief; I had actually hurt him. Unfortunately it was just with an axe, but the sword would do more damage. I heard a mechanical snarl.

"Everyone has a weakness." I said.

He rushed at me, his fist ready to hit me, but in his rage, he was sloppy. He didn't see me move my sword under him. He definitely felt me thrust my balde through his stomach. I didn't get all the way through, however, but I did wound him. He stepped back, examining me. He adapted to be cautious.

"Like you said, pain is just completes the immersion." I taunted.

He yelled as he shot a white hot ball of green energy, but I sidestepped it. I walked towards him, dodging more green plasma. I struck at the place I hit his arm earlier, and then I stabbed it. He howled in pain as I wiggled my blade around and eventually amputated his arm from that point. He struck me with his good arm, and I went down.

"You're pathetic." He said.

I rolled back onto my feet, and lept forward, sword pointed down, down towards one of the weak points on his face. I brought my sword fully down into his eye, the sword sticking out on the other side. He collapsed, and since I was on him, I ended up sitting on him. The green parts went dark

I pulled my sword out and stood up.

"Hello? Are you there?" I asked.

"​Can you hear us?"

"Yeah"

"Thank god! We had some connection problems. Looks like you were fighting some real tough enemy.​"

"Can you deactiviate the suit now?

Within seconds, I could feel the suit opening up. I stepped out, and it felt weird. Almost like a sort of raw feeling. I tried the headset, and it came off with ease. Weird about what happened before.

"What happened? Asked one of the technicians.

I had just opened my mouth to tell them, when there was a muffled ​boom​. It sounded like it was from deep in the facility. Another boom, this time closer. Suddenly, the back wall started to crack, with another boom. The cracks seemed to glow green. With a final boom, The wall was blown apart, and standing there, was a mechanical body with glowing green splotches.

"Finally... freedom..."

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN, INTO THE FIRE
"I don't understand... I killed you! How?..."

"Foolish boy, You killing me was the plan all along. Did you really think you could actually beat me?" He scoffed. "I had a backup saved in the body. I just needed a way to access it. There's no shudown code. Humans are so gullible."

His arms started to glow green as he launched plasma into the ceiling, the walls, everything. He didn't damage the consoles, though. Chunks of concrete and pipes rained down as everyone tried to get out of the building. On huge chunk crushed someone, and another smaller one impacted with someone's head, knocking them out and possibly giving them a concussion. Someone was calling 911. Everyone made it outside where someone closed the garage door, but shortly after, the door was blown open and knocked off its hinges, onto a street. I peered inside and saw a pipe.

'​I started this, and I'll finish it​'

I ran inside, ignoring my parents telling me to stop, grabbed the pipe, and ran towards Exobrine. The pipe was heavy, but luckily at my school they had a weight room that I attented every day, and it was paying off. I hit him in one of his weak points in his leg, but the pipe just bended. It was too big to deal any damage. He effortlessly grabbed the pipe out of my hands. He then wrapped it around his arm, as if it was moldable clay. He held it, and having it wrapped around his arm gave him better grip on it, made him less likely to lose it. He swung at me, but I ducked. I fell back and scrambled to get away from him. He walked closer to me, and raised it over his head.

"Police! Put your hands up and drop your weapon!" I heard a voice.

There where 2 squad cars and 4 policemen. The cars were positioned bumber to bumber, as if to form a barricade, at the entrance. They were behind the cars with their guns out. Exobrine lifted his hand and green energy shot out. 2 of the policemen jumped out of the way, but the two that stayed weren unlucky. Both cars flew back a great distance, but the officers were vapourized. Only their skeletons remained. The two remaining poilcemen came around the corner and open fired on Exobrine. It seems like he forgot all about me, and turned his attention to the officers. He shot energy at them as they ducked behind cover. Then it repeated, them shooting, and moving back as the wall grew less and less. Meanwhile, I was just laying there, thinking about what to do.

'​What I need is a sword, but where would i get...​'

The VR suit caught my eye.

'...one​?'

Immediatly ideas started to form in my head. It was time to act...

W.I.P.