//------------------------------// // On earth // Story: The Industrialist V2 // by Woodrow Wilson //------------------------------// Chapter 2 The Human of the Ages ____________________________________________chapter 2____________________________ Pov On Earth I grunted in annoyance as the shrill ringing of my alarm clock hurt my ears and grated upon my nerves, my fist descending to hit a button on my alarm clock. My hand slammed into the clock with pain lancing through my hand and causing me to shed tears due to the pain and cradling my injured hand. The shrill ringing was still hurting my ears and I almost smashed the button on the device again. I was so focused on my desire to stop the shrill ringing that I had temporarily forgotten about the pain my hand was currently in. “Gah!” I cried, reacting to the hot, lancing pain as I held my long-fingered hand to my face and grasped the wrist of it very gingerly, blowing lightly on the reddened skin in an attempt to soothe the sudden heat incurred by trying to bludgeon my alarm clock into oblivion using my now tender hand, and fell out of my bed face first into the hardwood floor of my bedroom. “Oh my God!” I put my hand to my face and checked if to determine whether or not I had broken my nose. “What a beautiful start to my morning … oow …” I tried to stand up and hit my head on the bottom of my desk, and fell face first into the floor, again. “Gah!” I cried out, feeling the hot lances of pain piercing my head like lightning. I got up onto my hands and backed up to lean against the side of my bed. I muttered to myself, “I'm going to get brain damage at this rate …” I slapped my hand around on the nightstand next to my bed, grabbing for my glasses. I grabbed something and put it really close to my face and saw an object which had the shape of my glasses as my hand felt the cool metal frame and my vision when looking through my lenses drastically improved once I put them on, and could clearly see my room again. I felt wrong and clutched my hand over my stomach, my brow furrowed and covered in a light sheen of sweat as my stomach roiled and grumbled, feeling rather acid-y due to my sudden stomach ailment, so I immediately went to the bathroom. Only to slam into the door to the bathroom. “God-dang it!” I yelled and held my hands to my face and fell to the floor. I pulled my hands away from my face, gingerly feeling my nose. From what I could tell, my nose didn’t feel broken, to my immense joy as I was becoming a far too frequent face around my local health clinic. However, my glasses fell off. “Blasted door! My glasses!” I shouted, my vision now reduced to seeing fuzzy shapes and lines. I couldn’t live by myself without my glasses. I patted the ground, and crawled in the direction of the blurry rectangular shape of my bed and then started patting around as I headed in the direction of the darkened vertical rectangle which led into my bathroom. Much to my immense relief, I found them some two or three feet from my bathroom door. I picked up my glasses and scrambled up from the floor, but then felt as if I was gonna hurl, I walked to the door and turned the knob and walked in. And I fell. I fell forward and tried to catch myself, but then when my arm hit something, I heard a crack and then I was in so much pain; hot, throbbing lances of pain raced through my mind as my vision exploded in an array of lights and colors., and I tried to fling my legs straight to catch my fall., However, when I fell, my leg got stuck between the leg of my dresser and a support beam for the dresser. I probably should have live-in assistance, but I have a fierce independent streak. I would rather do something for myself than rely upon someone else. I realize that it would make people think well of my intelligence if I were to do the smart thing and have somebody help me get around, but I honestly don’t care if people think poorly of me. The way I had fallen resulted in a sharp crack, which sounded much louder than I thought it should have and I the pain I already in had additional pain added to all the pain signals that was being registered in my brain. I was in so much pain, I simply blacked out. *Some time after he broke several bones and nearly died* I coughed a couple of times, groaning softly as my head throbbed and ached. I did notice that I wasn’t in the hot, lancing pain that I had been earlier. It didn’t make sense, since I didn’t have anybody to check in on me to make sure I was okay. Not that I would have asked them to, given my fierce independent streak. So not being in the same amount of pain as I had been earlier really caught my attention. I slowly opened my eyes in order to assess my situation and perhaps determine where I was and what kind of environment I was in. It was blurry and bright, and mostly quiet, with a small hint of clanging somewhere … . It sounded distant and tinny, like someone was clanging a pair of pans together at the other end of a very long tunnel. “Activate the final procedure, he”s awakening!” says a male voice frantically. I felt cold metal tapping my body, until it suddenly stopped. I tried to move, but I couldn't feel a thing … . I started to see more and my vision began to clear. What I saw was frightening on many levels. The sounds of hydraulic hissing, the hum of computers and the whirring sound of various gears moving greeted me as I stared in disbelief at what I was seeing. Coming from the ceiling was small metallic arms that folded into slots on the ceiling, gears rotating as the ‘elbows’ or joints of the metallic arms folded over each other as they were retracted into recesses above the ceiling. The room of which I was in was hardly describable as I had no glasses on. So I assumed those shapes were what I think they are. The constant beeping of the heart rate monitor and the monitor displaying the jagged line every time my heart beat was unmistakable however. I could see the boxy shape of what I assumed to be a medical trolley with a what I think were various surgical tools glinting in the bright lights of the room with a chrome-like glint. There was a sink in a counter with cabinets beneath. There were also cabinets above, with glass to see whatever was inside. I try and successfully situp. I look around and then realize … . I can't see. Or more like I can’t see very well … . I continue feeling around the table, as I blindly searched for my glasses. Then my hand gets cut by something small, and I fling my hand back to me and grasp the wrist of my right hand, and I started to yell, “Gaa-!” However, due to the lancing pain that pierced my head, due to the sudden transition from a mostly silent room to me crying out in pain, my ears ached and rang as I grasped my injured hand in an attempt to staunch the bleeding.. I cringe at the sight of how much blood was streaming from my hand and the hot, lancing pain that I was experiencing from the cut.. I sit up, still confused and in pain. I turned so my legs hang of the bed-like thing I am on, and try to stand up, but when my feet touched the ground, I expected to feel a lot of pain, but I didn’t. I was wobbly, but I didn’t hurt anywhere, my hand notwithstanding. Hmm … . I froze. Why is there humming? Click What was that? Shhhng I felt something on my face, but while it was being put on, I started to see a lot better. “My glasses!” I yelled loudly, and putting my hands in the air, for I was excited about me getting them back, but I was still confused where I was at, and how I got here. “Sir, hello, and welcome to the mobile hospital of the Train of the Multiverse,” said the same male sounding voice from earlier. “Who are you?” I said, looking where whoever was talking to me could be. “I am the one who saved you, Austen,” said the mysterious being. “From what?” “You were suffering from a case of neurological vertigo.” He responded. At least I think it’s a he. A blue figure appeared, but he looked odd. Where the knees would have been, there’s a dual-joint in the leg, and his face was hidden behind some kind of helmet with a little bump on the forehead of the helmet. Funny thing was, was that the helmet looked bulky and reminiscent of the helmets used for the clone troopers from Star Wars. The rest of his body was in the same kind of styled suit, like a clone trooper from Star Wars, aside from the legs and the weird looking hands, which looked of sections like their bionic or something. “I’m not stupid! I got an A in three of my college classes: Math, Scien_” I was interrupted. “Quiet, Idiot! That’s nothing. Then how do you build a dark matter generator with multifunctional core levels?” the creature asked me. “What?” I said stupidly. “Exactly.” He crossed his arms, and tapped his ‘fingers’ on his arm. “Also, I’m not a Clone Trooper,” He then said. How did he know? I walked forward a few steps, and noticed a clanging sound from my left. “Oh, I’m sorry, but I had to give you a new … leg, elbow, right ear, artificial cerebellum, and a new hand.” he stated calmly. I was at a loss for words, that this creature would just perform bodily alterations like that upon me without my knowledge or consent. But, just like most guys, I figured I might as well check out the new features, so I looked on my body. “Walk through the door and you'll come to the main room of the train,” He said as he buzzed away. “But what door?” I said before I heard a whooshing sound and saw a lit room. “Oh, that door.” I walked into a room.