Transformations: The Book of Adam Ch. 1
Comments, as always, welcome.
Playlist
--------------
"Walk on Water," Thirty Seconds to Mars
"I Knew I Loved You," Savage Garden
"Calling Dr. Love," KISS
"Half God Half Devil," In This Moment
"Collide," VNV Nation
"How Did You Love?" Shinedown
"Freak of Nature (feat. Tove Lo)," Broods
"Wish I knew You," The Revivalists
"Forever is a Long Time (The Wicked Symphony)," Avantasia
"Life Eternal," Ghost
"Skin," Sixx:A.M.
"Timeflows Part 1," The Eden House
"Imagine (Remastered 2010)," John Lennon
"Break In (feat. Amy Lee)," Halestorm
"Anyone Can Fly (Rise Up)", The Spiritual Machines
"Believe," Two Steps from Hell, Thomas Bergersen
***
Somewhere... else...
He calls himself Pike because it was once his name. There was another part, a first part, but he's forgotten it.
Pike is a traveler. He wanders from dimension to dimension, some higher, some lower. He walks the spaces between.
And, he walks alone.
Time has little meaning to him. There is no later, no before. Time is a circle, circles within circles. Circles within universes and universes within dimension upon dimension.
It could drive a man crazy, alone and immortal and just walking.
So, he visits his friends from time to time. Drops into our four dimensional world as a projection.
Being alone in those higher dimensions could lead to madness - 'big bangs' have been caused by maddening loneliness. Luckily, Pike has a purpose.
He is needed.
Because, down in that four dimensional world Pike used to call home? The father has created a machine, the son will perfect it, and Pike? He is the ghost in the machine that will make sure it all works.
So, when the time is right, Pike steps through a door for the first time, as he has always done and will always do. Because, what emerges from that machine will be a thing of beauty unsurpassed in all the other dimensions.
The door opens, and, the old hippy with the eternally youthful face, smiles. "Show me the magic," he says, and steps through...
***
High Court of the North American Conglomerate
11:15 AM, 8-October-2145
"...That's your excuse, Miss Owens?" the Attorney General asked. "The devil made you do it?"
The woman on the witness stand smiled and it was deadly. Beautiful, imperious - like all of them, all of these transformed. She smiled and the room brightened, and the corners of those amazing eyes turned up and all you wanted to do, all anyone wanted to do was get lost in Angela "Sugar Tits" Owens's eyes.
"It's not an excuse. You wanted to know why we did the things we did. Morpheus, not the devil, created us to do those things and to have no regrets or second thoughts as we did them."
"So Morpheus made you turn people into sex zombies, walking sex toys who performed on command?" He asked.
"To save the world. Yes," Angela said. Her smile never wavered.
He glanced at the judges - were they being affected? Were they being swayed by the goddess sitting on the stand? They had taken the drugs to block the White Witches' pheromones, they sat behind the screens the scientists said would block the White Witches' mental powers.
Was it enough?
"You expect us to believe you had no knowledge of what you were doing? That you were controlled..."
"No," Angela said. "He only made it easier for us to live with what we did. I... We... accept responsibility for the things we did to the unwilling."
"And when did you finally decide what you were doing was wrong?"
The smile faltered. Her eyes reflected sadness, the beginning of a tear. "After the kiss."
He rolled his eyes and smiled. He turned to the judges. "Oh, yes, the 'magic' kiss."
She laughed gently, a beautiful thing that made everyone in the room draw in a breath and pause. "Yes."
"You actually believe that a magic kiss changed everything for you?"
She shook her head. "Any technology so far beyond what you can understand appears to be magic. So yes, Mr. Attorney General, a
magic
kiss."
***
Downtown Ithaca, NY
Now
The First Night
The bus pulled into the station bathed in the yellow glow of the streetlights. The dust of Kansas had washed away the day before in a Tennessee downpour. Above the bus, bugs circled the street lights.
The old man driving peered out through the big windshield and rubbed the stubble of his beard. He had been the driver since Pennsylvania, taking over from a man he didn't recognize. "
Take good care of them,
" the man with 'Eric' written on his nametag had said. "
Precious cargo.
"
That was easier said than done here - Ithaca, NY was, well, it was odd.
He picked up his PA microphone. "Ithaca. Ithaca, New York." Only 'York' came out as 'Yawk', betraying his Boston accent. He stood up slowly as if his back might fail from the strain. "You folks traveling on to Syracuse are welcome to just remain on the bus. We won't be staying long." He looked warily over his shoulder at the bus terminal. "For those of youse that Ithaca is your final destination, you need to know that no one under the age of eighteen is allowed within the town limits."
"What?" Someone asked from the back of the bus.
"Local
awdinance
. If youse eighteen?" He sighed. "If youse eighteen you can
disembawk
. Otherwise, youse gotta exit the bus at Dryden."
The driver looked over his passengers: potheads, the lost, the drunk - most on their way to Syracuse. Then there were the college kids.
A tall lanky kid in jeans and a leather jacket stood up and balanced his green duffel bag on his shoulder.