by D. S. Murphy
My eyes went round. Brad had been in my phone? What else had he seen?
“I didn’t look at anything,” he said quickly, “I just found the pictures you took of the keys. I had them 3D printed and used the key machine outside of the grocery store to clone them. I don’t see what the problem is.”
“Because,” David said slowly, “before we were mostly operating outside the law, in a very gray area of legality. But now, there will be an investigation. There could be cops, detectives.”
“Relax, they’re not going to think it’s some high school kids,” Brad said.
“Not until we launch the app,” I said. “It draws attention to us, to our town. National attention. If someone from the same town publishes a revolutionary therabot hacking app, how long do you think it will take the FBI to figure it out?”
“I don’t think the FBI would investigate,” Brad said. “Maybe CIA.”
“It was stupid, and reckless,” I said.
“We needed it, didn’t we? To do more testing. To speed up the process. Like you wanted.”
“Don’t blame this on me,” I said.
“We’ve already done it once, what’s the difference?”
“I only took a couple bottles. Of course they noticed a whole box disappearing. They’re probably already looking for us.”
“Why on earth do you even need that many?” Amy asked.
“Some kids aren’t going to be okay with peebots,” Brad said.
“So what, you sell them? That’s too dangerous.”
“We need beta users. People pay for SelfX. But we distribute the therabots for free. Anonymously. Like Robin Hood.”
“They’ll still find us,” I said.
“So we finish the app and go public. Make sure we’re news. If we’re news, they can’t mess with us. The public will support us.”
“Doubtful,” Amy said. “We’re a bunch of teen deviants. Criminals.” She said distastefully.
Greg covered his hands with his face and shook his head.
“I told you, I can’t be involved in this,” Greg said, standing up suddenly. “I think you all need to leave.”
“Seriously?” Brad asked. “What happened to botting up?”
“I changed my mind. We can’t do this here, not at my house.”
“Fine with me,” Amy said, crossing her arms. “I want to go home.”
“I’ll come with you,” I said.
“Don’t,” she said. “I don’t want to say anything I can’t take back later, and I’m too angry to talk to you right now.”
“Aren’t you overreacting a bit?” Brad asked Greg. “I guess it’s true what they say about athletes. All muscle and no balls.”
Greg pushed Brad so hard he stumbled backwards and tripped over a pillow, knocking into David and me like a pair of bowling pins. Amy was halfway down the ladder already, but I was so close to the edge my foot slipped. I waved my arms wildly but couldn’t regain my balance. At the last second, David’s hand lashed out and grabbed my wrist. He pulled me back into the tree fort and I collapsed on top of him so hard we bumped noses. I rolled off him, gasping for breath and feeling like an idiot. How stupid would it be to die from clumsiness, when I had advanced technology keeping me healthy from the inside?
***
David gave me a ride home, but we barely talked.
“See you tomorrow?” I asked.
“We’ll see,” David said. I watched him drive off, then headed inside.
Megan raised her eyebrows when I came in and smiled.
“Don’t,” I warned, before she could tease me about being dropped off by another boy. I went straight to my room and threw myself down on my bed. I knew Amy would forgive me, eventually, but we didn’t have time to wait for her to simmer down.
And Greg looked seriously pissed off. He couldn’t just quit—not now that we were so close. He knew too much. Would he turn us in? Brad was exactly the asshole we’d always thought he was, only thinking of himself. Part of me hated him for breaking into my phone, but I couldn’t blame him too much. Stealing the files had been my idea, and I’d opened the door by taking the first two vials.
And having more therabots would have been super handy... but not sharing it with the others had broken the trust. I didn’t see how we could work together after this. But for some reason the thing that bothered me most was getting invited to Greg Masters’ house, and then being asked to leave. It was humiliating. At least Melissa would be happy.
I grabbed my sheets and twisted them into knots around my fists, then screamed into my pillow.
A few minutes later there was a timid knock on the door.
“Go away!” I yelled. There was a moment’s pause, then light steps away from the door. Great, I’d just yelled at Megan. Guilt gnawed into my bones.
I forced myself up and grabbed my headset and visor. Then I logged into WOL. I was hoping David was online, I needed someone I could talk to. Instead I saw a string of messages from Jens.
You don’t login for weeks, then I see you in Planet Plunder with some loser? What the hell?
He’s just a school friend, I lied. I was showing him the ropes.
It’s a waste of your talents. Ready for something more challenging?
I’m not sure I’m up for it today, I said. Not in the mood.
Jens usually filled his gaming with jokes and trash talk. Normally I appreciated the banter, but today I was too miserable.
Meet me here, Jens said, giving me the coordinates to a new planet. I need your help with something.
We were standing in a meadow full of red poppies, on top of a steep mountain. Jens’ avatar looked like a viking warrior, with a red beard, double battle axes and war paint on his chest. I had no idea what he looked like in real life.
His eyebrows lifted when he saw me.
“New gear?” He asked.
I shrugged. David had given me a few of the diamonds we’d earned from the dragons and I’d bought a long staff. One end held a large glowing crystal, with a skull inside, etched with runes. It was nearly as tall as I was, and attached to a silver chain around my waist, so I could toss it at enemies and use it as a counterweight. I’d also changed into a dark, lacy skirt. Jens led me around a rocky incline and we emerged on a plateau, which narrowed into a sliver of rock protruding over a deep canyon. On the other side of the chasm was a rock face of a cliff, going up so high it blocked out the light from the dual suns of the planet.
“What’s the problem?” I asked.
“There’s something up there,” Jens said pointing. “A rare booster. But there’s no way up. If you jump, and survive the lava and army of living skeletons at the bottom, it takes hours to climb back up here. But there must be a way across, because this ledge looks like it goes somewhere, right?”
I frowned and bit my lip. The cliff face was completely smooth, with nothing to cling onto.
“Have you tried flying?” I asked, remembering David’s wings. Not everyone could fly, but there were plenty of vehicles or enchanted animals in WOL.
“There’s a Titan on top,” Jens said. “I think it’s motion activated. As soon as it sees movement, it creates a storm of falling meteors. Death on impact.”
“If it’s there, there must be a way to get it.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Jens said.
“What about thermal energy?” I asked. “You said there was lava down below. If we toss all the trees into the chasm, they’ll burn and send heat vapor and smoke, it’ll cause lift. It’ll blow us up higher, without flapping, and also provide some cover.”
Jens looked at me with pure admiration.
“What?” I asked.
“You know why I keep you around?” he asked.
“Because I put up with your diva bullshit?”
“You’re a problem solver. Always have been. I mean, thermal energy? How do you even come up with this stuff?”
“We don’t know if it’ll work,” I said.
“It’ll work,” Jens said
.
“We just need something with a large surface area to catch the hot air.”
Ten minutes later, we’d chopped down a dozen trees and hauled them to the edge of the chasm. A warm glow oozed through the ravine far below. The suns were setting, casting deep shadows across the alien landscape.
We’d found a large banner hanging from the wall of a nearby castle, and wrapped the corners around our wrists. Then we kicked the trees over the edge. Sparks erupted and I felt the warmth as the canyon filled with roaring flames.
“Now!” Jens yelled.
I took a deep breath and threw myself off the cliff. For a few seconds, we tumbled out of control, but then the fabric ballooned above us, halting our decent suddenly. The warm air lifted us up, hundreds of feet, towards the top of the cliff. We were almost there when I smelled smoke. A spark had caught on the fabric and it was burning.
“We’re not going to make it,” I said. Our ascent slowed just as we were even to the top of the cliff. I could see the Titan, a monstrous beast as large as a building, with tusks and tentacles and eight eyes like a spider. I gasped when one of the eyes rolled and stared at me. Then we started losing altitude. Jens flung himself towards the cliff, burying his ax into the stone, but it broke off in a shower of sparks and he plummeted. My brain was furiously sifting through my inventory, looking for anything I could use. Then I saw it. I still had two diamonds left. I tied them against my palms with a scrap of fabric and launched myself towards the cliff. I slid at least twenty feet before the diamonds caught. They were sharper than the stone and cut deep grooves into the cliff. Very slowly, I started pulling myself up, hand over hand. I was sweating with exertion when I reached the top. I was too weak to fight a Titan, but maybe I didn’t have to. I rolled to the side as a tentacle slapped down next to me, hitting the ground so hard the edges of the cliff crumbled and fell away. None of my weapons would be able to inflict enough damage to destroy this monster. I’d need the help of an army.
The Titan let out a roar that shook the ground. The shrieking was so loud it caused physical damage and drained my life bar. But I wasn’t out of moves. I slammed the staff into the dirt, and the skull inside the gemstone burned brightly, then vanished. My shadow pulled away from my feet and gained solid mass; a perfect replica of me. I threw up an invisibility shied, while sending my doppelganger racing to the side.
It was the first time I’d been able to test out the new staff, which allowed me to cast a shadow twin. I had no idea whether or not it would work on a Titan, but it seemed to take the bait. It slammed into the ground again and again, increasingly frustrated that it couldn’t make contact with the surrogate me. The platform continued to split and crumble, forcing me closer to the beast’s massive tentacles and poisoned fangs. Then the pillar collapsed completely. I ran up the side of the Titan, jumping off its tusk and hurling myself at the powerup. I barely reached it before plummeting towards the burning lava.
But the mountain covered the burning lake, cooling into a pile of volcanic rock. My spell was spent, and my shadow reattached to my feet. I rooted myself to strike as the Titan gathered itself above me. It was half scorched from the lava, with pieces of melting flesh dripping from its limbs. I raised my staff, but spun when I heard a chorus of undead voices behind me. The skeleton army, freed from the abyss, came rushing out of the depths like a roaring river. I cringed, but they parted around me, attacking the Titan instead. In seconds, they’d sliced the Titan into a thousand pieces. A hundred skeletons tore open the Titan’s ribs, revealing its still-beating heart. The army’s leader, a long-dead king still wearing a golden crown and smeared with blood, cut the heart open. The organ was as big as a car, and inside was a glowing silver key, which the king harvested and presented to me.
I logged out with a huge smile, pulling off my VR gear.
I couldn’t believe I’d just done that.
Not in the mood my ass. Jens messaged a moment later.
I guess I had some steam to blow off.
How’d you even survive up there long enough for the Titan to destroy the pillar? How’d you know the skeleton army would help you?
A lady never tells, I wrote back.
Actually I had no idea that would happen.
Anyway, nice gaming. Seriously, you surprise me more every time we hang out.
I wish everyone felt that way, I typed.
What, your loser classmates don’t appreciate you? Their loss.
I’ve been working on this school project. It’s cutting-edge tech, but risky. Everyone else is backing out.
If the rewards are big enough, they’ll take the risk. But it has to be their choice. Don’t wait for them to catch up, just show them what’s possible.
Even though it was just a game, I felt a rush of accomplishment and pride. In the game, I could be anything, do anything. I just had to find a way to share that experience with the group, in the real world. A few strands of hair weren’t going to cut it.
I grabbed my phone and opened up the SelfX app. If this was going to catch on, I had to show the others what we were truly capable of.
14
When I came downstairs the next day, Dad almost spit out his coffee. Megan stopped chewing, letting her jaw hang loosely.
“You look like a supermodel,” she said.
“It’s just makeup,” I said quickly. “Lots of makeup. Too much?”
The full effects hadn't even kicked in yet. I looked like me, just better. Several subtle changes added up to make a big difference. Poutier lips, thinner waist, wider hips. I’d added two inches to my height, which made my legs look long, and my skin was so smooth and polished it practically glowed. My eyes were a little rounder and my eyelashes were dark and full. I was me, 2.0.
I was wearing a leather jacket and a lowcut blouse. A navy skirt and heeled boots completed the outfit. I posted a quick selfie while leaving the garage with the hashtags #wokeuplikethis #nofilter #nomakeup #selfX. Normally I would have tried to fit in and be invisible, but today I needed all eyes on me, and it worked. Heads turned when I strode into school. I even saw Melissa’s jaw drop.
I ducked into class as soon as I could, being out in the hall still made me feel vulnerable. I’d have to figure out a confidence gene.
When we’d divided into groups for Mr. Leister’s class, nobody said anything for a few minutes. They were all just staring at me, trying to figure out what I’d changed.
“Your nose,” David said. “The curve of the nostrils is smaller, and more defined.”
“It turns out cartilage changes shape easily,” I said.
“And your eyes, obviously,” Brad said. My eyes were normally olive-gray, but now they were vivid emerald, and rimmed with dark green.
“And your lashes?” Amy asked. “Did we even have a feature for that?”
“Even better,” I said. “I found a genetic abnormality in the FOXC2 gene that causes a mutation known as distichiasis. It leads to an extra row of eyelashes above the top and bottom lash lines. Liz Taylor was famous for it.”
I leaned forward so they could see the double rows of lashes that were already growing in.
“Wow,” Brad said. “That’s trippy.”
“You did all this yourself?” David asked.
“A lot of it was in the app already, I just made some minor changes. I just wanted to show you, what we’re capable of. I means, it’s incredible, right? We’re on the ground floor of the next step in human evolution. Nobody else has been able to do this. Think of the possibilities.”
“No kidding,” David said. “I mean, deliberately editing a gene to cause a rare genetic abnormality...” David trailed off. “I wouldn’t have thought of that.”
“So what are we talking about here?” Brad asked.
“I did a lot of research last night. There’s a mutation in the MSTN gene that limits myostatin—the protein that tells muscles to stop growing. Humans with disorder have muscular bodies with very little fat. You can also disable the PCSK9 gene; people witho
ut that don’t need to worry about high cholesterol and are 90% less likely to suffer from heart disease.”
“What about LRP5?” David asked. “It regulates the production of a protein used in bone density. A mutation was discovered when a man involved in a serious crash didn’t suffer any fractures or broken bones.”
“Wasn’t that a movie?” Amy asked.
“Based on a true story; it’s just a very rare genetic mutation.”
“There’s a mutation of ACTN3 people call the sports gene,” I added, looking at Greg. He’d been quiet so far and I knew he was still pissed, but he perked up so I continued. “It involves how fast muscles move. Many of the fastest runners in the world have it. There’s also a superathlete gene that comes from a group known as the Denisovans, who lived in mountains in Asia 40,000 years ago. The gene results in an increase in oxygen-carrying hemoglobin, which allows the body to distribute oxygen with super-efficiency.”
“You’re making this up,” Greg said.
“One more,” I said. “A genetic mutation called marfan syndrome. It makes people tall, with longer limbs and incredible flexibility.”
There was a thoughtful pause, and I knew they were on the line. I just had to reel them in.
“I just wanted to show you, it’s more than just cosmetics. It’s more than just looking more attractive. There are functional applications. Imagine being the fastest or strongest or smartest person in the room. In the world.”
“It’s risky,” David said. “You shouldn’t have tested all this on your own, not all at the same time.”
“I had to show you what was possible. And anyway, don’t forget the primary function of the therabots: curing disease, healing cancer. Don’t let someone else take this away from us.”
“And what happens when the cops show up and arrest us?” Greg said. “This could jeopardize our futures.”
“We play it cool for a few weeks,” Brad said. “Make sure we’re in the clear. But if this thing can do everything Brianna says it can, they’re not going to lock us up. We’d be heroes.”