A Note from the Author: This story takes a little inspiration from the Twilight Zone pilot episode "Where is Everybody?" I pay a little respect to its creator at the end.
There's a little bit of fun porn logic at the beginning, but with good reason.
All players are consenting adults well over the age of 18.
I hope you have as much fun reading as I did writing!
Goliath
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Part 1: Single Blind
Brad Bennett heard the birds chirping through his open window and kept his eyes closed for a few more minutes. A lazy Saturday had to start somewhere. He could smell the impending spring in the air, made electric by the sterility of the fading winter. A lawnmower droned in the distance, but it was not unpleasant. Finally, he opened his eyes. Time to get the show on the road.
He swung his legs over the side of the bed and made sure to simultaneously touch both feet to the ground. It was important to be symmetrically grounded first thing in the morning. Standing up, he made a mental note of his raging morning wood and dismissed it on the way to the toilet. Brad regarded himself in the mirror, half-bent and being careful to keep the stream centered. He was happy with his appearance; his time in the gym had molded his six-foot frame with athletic contour. Not bad for 34. Mussed dirty blonde hair covered his sleepy brown eyes. His triangular bicep tattoo jiggled as he gave his penis precisely three shakes. Brad made a note of the dripping faucet and headed to the kitchen.
On the way, Brad stopped at the front door and paused. Something was supposed to happen today. He mumbled, "Crap. What was I supposed to...?" He opened the door and saw the package on the porch. "Right, right, right."
As he closed the door, he noticed a single orange flower had bloomed near the porch, and Brad smiled to himself. Spring was springing.
The origin of the package read "Goliath Industries, Ltd." and was utterly nondescript. Brad used a knife from the wooden block on the kitchen counter to slice the tape. Just as he began to lift the packing material, his phone rang.
Brad grimaced. "Damnit it's fucking Saturday morning you fucking assholes."
The call originated from his lab. Sighing, he answered, "Yeah. What's up?"
Brad listened to his lab assistant recount the status of the experiment and was glad his days of lab checkups over the weekend were behind him. He idly handled the box while he listened, nodding absently.
"Ok. Gotcha. This kind of thing happens, Jerry. It's pretty typical. We need to either make the mixing more aggressive, gently increase the temperature, or both. Just make a note of whatever you do, and don't get too carried away with the heat. That sample is thermally labile."
The voice on the phone continued and Brad was glad to have a trustworthy hand in the lab. Jerry was a smart kid, but knew when to ask for guidance from a senior researcher. This weekend's experiment was running single blind, so Jerry didn't know the identity of the materials or the overall purpose. He was right to request instruction. The motto in Brad's lab was, "The Test of All Knowledge is Experiment," and Jerry was on board. Brad usually just needed to point him in the right direction and then stay out of the way.
The package. Brad hung up and opened the box. He had read about the device online and his curiosity had gotten the best of him. With Laura gone, the Goliath seemed like a fun distraction until he was ready to hit the dating scene again. Brad didn't have the stomach for one night stands anymore and his heart was still mending.
He lifted the device from the package and turned it over in his hands. Slick, black plastic and some type of silicone covered what looked to be a visor with dangling tentacles. Each tentacle was covered with the same black silicone, but Brad could feel the heft in each of the appendages. He guessed there was some kind of flexible metal cable inside, and wondered if each tentacle could extend. A single card with a QR code dropped out of the visor. Brad looked at the clock on the stove and, noting that he had nothing but a sudoku and crossword puzzle on the books for a few hours, decided to proceed. The dripping bathroom faucet could wait a bit.
The QR code opened a website that contained a little pictogram which indicated that Brad should remove his clothes, wear the visor, and remain standing. To Brad, it looked as though the little androgenous cartoon person was standing in some kind of box. Fully clothed, he shrugged, donned the visor, and felt along the right side for a tiny bump in the silicone that activated the device. Inside the visor, Brad saw a boot screen and then nothing.
"What the fuck?"
A single phrase appeared in the visor, white text against the black background.
[Initiating Session 1]
He felt the tentacles vibrating as the device ran some diagnostic or startup routine. The visor emitted a pale orange light, but was otherwise idle.
"C'mon. What the fuck? Are you stuck in a boot loop or what?"
A full minute passed and Brad took off the visor and set it on the kitchen table. Did it need charged or some kind of authentication? The thing wasn't cheap and Brad mourned the days of clear instructions.
Brad looked around the kitchen. Something was off. The lighting in the room was strange and he wondered if there was smog in the city air this morning. "Weird for a Saturday," he absently said aloud. He couldn't imagine what else would cause the faint orange tint. He moved to the window and caught sight of a woman walking from the sidewalk to his front porch.
"Fuck. Saturday fucking morning!"
Though he had no intention of answering the door, he continued to watch as she approached the house. The brunette was short and very cute, and he estimated she was mid-way through her twenties. She wore a short but respectable skirt, sandals, and a blouse that revealed just a bit too much. Brad felt his neglected cock stir in his shorts.
He moved toward the door and checked his hair in the hallway mirror. Chuckling, he said, "Fuck it. Let's at least make it interesting."
The doorbell rang and he waited a prime number count of seven before opening the door with an innocent smile.
She beamed at him. "Hi! Umm, this is a little embarrassing, but my car just stopped working out front. I think it's either the battery or alternator. Could you please give me a jump so I can sort it out? I have cables." She pointed at a beat-up Honda Civic in the street and fully blushed. Brad found her automobile troubleshooting strategy respectable and her blush positively adorable.
"Sure thing," he said with this warmest smile, "Let me back my car out. It'll just take a minute."
She smiled back and looked him up and down. Brad suddenly felt a little like a prime piece of meat, and it didn't bother him in the slightest. It had been a while since Laura looked at him like this. The woman ran a finger through her bobbed hair and demurely balanced her left foot on her toes.