Louis was working in the science lab during lunch which was not out of the ordinary. Louis did not have a lot of friends and when he had spent lunch periods in the cafeteria or the hallways, he had sometimes been bullied. He much preferred the quiet safety of the science lab. If he was being honest, and he was honest with the therapist his mother made him see, he would admit to being lonely. Except for Lennon, the other kids just literally did not understand. He was advanced beyond their level in all subjects except for PE. He hated that he had fallen into the stereotype of the weak-bodied geek. His coordination was faulty so he never really got into team sports. Instead, he went to the gym to stay healthy but it was so boring. His mind raced while he was on the treadmill, going nowhere.
It was even worse in classes, he was so far ahead on homework and studying that he could have practically recited the lessons along with the teacher. He found himself doodling schematics for his next big project instead of listening. He was always trying to think up new things to build. Either that or he was trying to reverse-engineer something cool he had found on the market. The only one who ever understood his excited ramblings had been Lennon but she had her own problems and she often worked on her projects at home. She had consulted on the earlier parts of Louis’ current project which was a fully automated robot. The mechanics all worked fine but he was having trouble coding a basic Artificial Intelligence program to get it functioning. It was a little frustrating that it had not worked yet but Louis found the process fun.
His creation, which he had named 2S or Twos since it was his second attempt, was sitting on the platform used for charging and linking. Louis was sitting at his laptop, trying to parse through lines of code. He was running the compiler for the third time during lunch and drinking coffee as he studied some possible new solutions. He was always trying to stay up to date with the bleeding edge of technology. Journals, websites, message boards and any scrap of techie text were all he read anymore. It was as exhilarating as extreme sports for him to pump up his mind with all of this new knowledge. If only he could solve this one problem, all the doors he wanted would open and his future would be assured. He could practically design his own major in any college. He might even be able to graduate high school early.
Suddenly, a chat prompt popped up in the lower right-hand side of his screen. Most of his contacts should have been at work or in class so he had not been expecting it. What he also had not expected was the chat request being from a name he did not recognize. Normally, he would have disregarded it and blocked the person but he was feeling tired and antsy from all of the coding. He clicked and requested the chat request.
ArvhanFan616: Hello?
Louis3K: Can I help you?
ArvhanFan616: Is this Louis Wilson?
Louis blinked at the screen. How had this stranger known his full name? He had never shared his full name with any of his online contacts. His mother had not raised a fool.
Louis3K: What do you want?
ArvhanFan616: I simply want to help you make your creation work.
Louis3K: What creation?
ArvhanFan616: I believe you call it 2S or Twos?
Louis was getting more and more frustrated. How did this stranger know all of this?
Louis3K: And how do you think you can help? Who are you?
ArvhanFan616: My name is Afolo and I am from somewhere you cannot even conceive of yet. I have a rare ingredient that was not available in your world until recently.
Louis3K: What are you talking about? The physical is complete, I don’t need any more ‘ingredients’!!!
ArvhanFan616: What about magic?
Louis was now convinced that this guy was a lunatic. He had a weird name and he was talking weird and he was waisting Louis’ time. However, something about the words made Louis believe that there was some truth in them.
Louis3K: Magic is not real, psycho. Stop wasting my time.
ArvhanFan616: Oh it is very real. I’m practically made of the stuff. I can show you how real it is.
Louis3K: Show me? How are you going to show me over the Internet?
ArvhanFan616: I have my ways. All I need for you is to ask for my help.
Louis3K: Sure.
ArvhanFan616: The actual words, please.
Louis3L: Whatever. Please help me make Twos work.
All of a sudden the lights in the science lab began to flicker and Louis could swear he could hear laughter like at the dumb carnivals he had been dragged to in the past. His laptop began to glow and then he looked and Twos was glowing too. Suddenly, it felt like gravity in the room started to lessen. Suddenly, tools and books were floating in the air. Then Louis himself was floating up out of his seat. He reached down grabbing for something to anchor himself with but he kept losing his grip. In his panic, he grabbed his laptop and it floated into the air with him. He briefly looked at the screen and it was full of script in a language that Louis had never seen before. He heard the demonic laughter louder now.
He looked over at Twos and the robot suddenly opened up like a piece of paper unfolding. All of its innards were suddenly on display and then cords from its core snaked out and caught Louis’ ankle. Louis tried to free himself, tried to wriggle away but the cord started to pull him through the air toward Twos. He screamed wordlessly. For once in his life, he did not have the words to express what he was feeling. He found himself slowly pressed against his own robot, more cords snaking out to tie him to it. Then the robot started to fold back up and that unearthly glow got brighter. Louis felt himself getting folded into Twos and it hurt. It really hurt.
After a while, he thought he should have been crushed. He should have died. Instead, he could feel a tingling sensation all over his body. It was like the buzzing of a million bees and the pain of being stung by all of them. Then the sensation started to disappear. In fact, it was as if all sensation in his body was disappearing. He thought he might be merging with Twos but that was not possible, was it? One by one, his nerves seemed to shut off. He wondered if this would kill him. However, it had not done so yet. From somewhere, he thought he heard a voice.
“Welcome to the club, Junior!”
And then there was an explosion.
Tags: Afolo, Arvhan, Fiction, Lennon, Louis, Magical Earth Defenders, Magical Girl
Wolf of Words 
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