The Twins of Techno

01

           In the year 2029, a pair of twins were born. Their names were Wilson and Alison. They were born into the Nook household, a very wealthy family that works with the mastermind behind the latest technology. The year is now 2045 and the siblings have recently turned 16. Technology has been in its prime for the past century, making the world much more advanced than in the past. The twins have been homeschooled most of their lives, following an online schooling program that provides interactive classes with other students of various ages. Occasionally, the online classes will get together to do something as a group. A camping trip, field trip, picnic, community services, etc, etc.

          Throughout the years, they have gradually formed a small group of friends. They talk about normal teenage things such as their childhoods, school, parents, crushes, music, the latest edition of the robotic pets that just came out. Things like that. It's late summer, early fall now. Still a little warm and just entering light hoodie weather. The parents and teachers who'd formed the online classes that Wilson and Alison attended decided to go on a field trip to an electrical power plant. Not just any electrical power plant, but one of the biggest ones in the city. So the two donned their hoodies and headed out to the meeting place where the city transport activity bus would take them to the Electricara Powerplant. About an hour after their arrival, the tour guide was explaining how the powerplant has been around since early 2000. The kids listened as the tour guide told the group about the rumors of old artifacts and a special stone that has powered the Electricara Powerplant for centuries. But the thing that is odd about this rumor is that the power plant was closed down in 2015 and has been used as an artifact museum ever since. Recent mysterious rumors have been allegedly saying that something has been lighting the place and it looks as though it's still being used as a factory.

          As the tour guide continues to tell about the many rumors surrounding the place, they head outside to where all the webs of interlocked electrical towers are. Alison is listening to the tour guide speak, her brother shifting on his feet in boredom when a glimpse of color draws her gaze away. Tugging on Wilson's arm to get his attention, they sneak away when the tour guide's back is turned, Naru, their little dragon robot pet, following on their heels. The twins quickly dart between the towers towards the glinting object. Looking over their shoulders, they reach the brightly colored object, finding a big rock. It doesn't look like the other rocks though. Wilson squats down to get a better look when suddenly a bright light that looks like it's coming from the peculiar stone causes them to quickly shield their eyes. Naru darts behind Alison's legs with a small yelp. As the light vanishes they look down at the stone to find it back to normal with no glow in sight. Still staring down at the stone, the twins blink through their confusion. A voice shouts startling the two making them jump. "What are you doing over there?" In shock, Wilson quickly grabs the stone as Alison spins around to look at who shouted at them. Wilson stands up as Alison blurts out, "The towers are all so big and the way they're connected makes it a bit confusing to navigate. I guess we got a little lost." The man looks at the two and leads them back to the group. As they walk through the maze of electrical towers, Wilson keeps a hand on the stone in his pocket and stares at the back of the man's uniform. From the looks of his uniform, he's a janitor. Walking into a new place they haven't seen yet, the tour guide spots them. "There you two are! You just missed the interesting story behind a fossil found when this powerplant was being constructed!" She said as the three approached. "Keep an eye on these two, they strayed from the group. As for you two, make sure to keep an eye on your pet, we don't usually allow them here." The janitor calls over his shoulder as he walks away. Sharing a glance, the twins rejoin the group and finish the tour.

                                                                               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

          At the end of the tour, the adults gave them the option to either go to the gift shop or take a bus home as it was getting late. From what they could tell, the gift shop was a bunch of small things like paintings, replicas of artifacts found in the museums, some rocks, and other little trinkets. Not seeing anything interesting and wanting to go home where they can talk about what happened in private, the two decided to just head home. Arriving home, they agreed that they should take some time to themselves to process the events of the day. Saying goodnight, the two walk to their separate rooms at the opposite ends of the hall. Laying on her bed, Alison decides to take a shower to help her process and get ready for bed. Once out of the shower, she pulls out her blow dryer and brush to blow dry her hair. As she goes to plug it in, a small spark zaps between her hand and the outlet. It didn't hurt so she dismissed it and clicked the button to turn the blow dryer on. Only it's not working. Confused, she sets it down on the counter and hurries to her brother's room. As she approaches, Alison notices the lights acting weird from the crack under his door. With a supple rap on the door, she walks in to find electricity flowing around the room and gathering around her twin. It appeared to be touching him but he didn't look like he was in any pain. Instead, it seemed like he was absorbing the flowing electricity. Wilson looks at Alison and they share a look of mixed fear and awe.

          Naru walks in and tilts his head as the light disappears. Alison scoops him up and goes to sit next to Wilson on his bed asking, "Are you okay? What was that?" There was a few seconds of silence before he shakily responded. "I'm alright but I'm just as clueless as you about what that was." The two go quiet as they think with the soft clicking of Naru being the only sound. "Something weird happened to me earlier too. Do you think it has anything to do with the stone we found earlier? Maybe that weird light did something?" she said, sounding unsure. Without saying anything, he pulls the white iridescent stone out of his pocket and walks to the microscope on his desk. Placing his eye to the eyepiece. Adjusting the objective lens, he notices what looks like little sparks moving in the stone and coming out of it. Alison comes up and looks in the eyepiece as well. Wilson uses a screwdriver to chip off a small piece before putting it into his scientific scanner to evaluate it. Turning to his sister he says, " This might take a while. We should get some sleep then we can look at the results and try to figure things out tomorrow." She nods and walks out towards her room as Wilson climbs into bed. After Wilson falls asleep, Naru hops off the bed and quietly steps toward the faintly glowing rock still sitting on the desk. Naru pauses to listen before jumping up onto the chair and breaking off another small piece of the stone. He scans it as he begins gathering his memories to send to his creator before sending the results of the scan to his creator as well. In a far, remote part on the outskirts of the city, Naru's creator, The Robotic, received this data and went to work on hacking into the twin's daily schedules and cameras. He also made it so that any time the twins left their house he would get a notification. Having done this, he leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head.