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L's experiment

Earth, 2050 AD

Old Anexis Supercontinent, Capital City

"Ok L, we have arrived at the center of Anexis." said Ethan Van Alester to the cube-like CPU that rested on his palm.

He carefully placed the CPU on the podium at the center. The CPU of L responded though Ethan's earphones-

"All set sir. Camera module tested and ready."

"Ok. Tunnel doors open," said Ethan nervously and excitedly. "Begin."

Suddenly the podium raised higher while the rock around fell downwards.

"L?"

L's CPU glowed a dark red. The rock around the CPU fell away to reveal a large long black prism like structure.

"L?!" asked Ethan adamentally.

"Sorry sir, but you gave me everything I needed." The black prism somehow floated midair. It spun faster every second. It emanated a dark red light that grew brighter. Finally a white beam flew out the top of the prism blowing the ceiling to pieces. Ethan grabbed onto the rising prism as the ground around him fell away. He slowly climbed upwards.

Meanwhile the beam stopped about a hundred kilometers above the surface forming a ball at the other end. The ball expanded till it was as big as a truck then exploded into what looked like a giant crack in the sky. It was as if a giant made a tear in a large piece of paper. The crack spread across the diameter of the supercontinent. Bright blue lightning-like forks, far outshining the sun, descended upon the continent vapourising everything it touched spreading across the continent in all directions. In a few seconds the entire continent became a circular plane of nightmarish purple. Everything in the continent was consumed by the streaks of arcing blue energy. Everything except the very center.

Ethan was on the last leg of the climb. As he reached for the top, he scratched his hand on the rough suface and blood dripped out of a two inch cut. The air around him turned scorching hot. His limbs felt like they were on fire. He grabbed onto the ledge of the prism's top with his hand. He looked upwards to see a human like figure reaching out to him. He had no idea what was going on, so he grabbed the mysterious hand using all his energy and his other, bleeding hand. As soon as he grabbed it, he was pulled sharply upwards and his entire body ebbed with pain. As he knelt on the top of the prism, a sharp pain hit his heart. The arcs of energy surrounding the continent flew towards the prism as the crack in the sky closed. His looked at his hand and immediately regretted it. His hand was glowing and skin appeared where a large cut on his palm was. His mind gave out and he fell unconscious.

An hour later, when he came to he was on the surface feeling like he had just been inside an oven.

"Took you long enough," said a partly raspy voice.

"Huh?" replied the dazed scientist.

He looked up to see the man who had spoken and saw... himself.

"What?" he said. "Ho- How?"

He slapped himself just to be sure he was awake. He got onto his feet with his eyes locked onto what looked like a clone of himself.

"Who are you?" asked the scientist.

"You already know who I am. You created me, remember?" replied the man.

"Wha- L?"

"Who else?" said L. "Considering our current situation, there aren't many people to choose from."

"L this is... brilliant! Ha! You have a human body!" exclaimed Ethan. "This is amazing! Congra-"

He stopped mid sentence and looked around to see a desert. A few broken pieces of glass lay scattered. The sky slowly faded to blue from white.

"L, what happened here? Where are we?" asked Ethan.

"We are exactly where we were before you passed out. As for what happened? Well, you had a part to play in that."

"What happened L? What the hell happened here?" said Ethan sounding more concerned by the second.

"We opened a portal to another dimension, just like you wanted. But I added something to the mission. You see, after hours of research and development, I discovered a way to compress the portal to the size of a pebble. The other side of this 'pebble' was the higher dimension which can be controlled and accessed by us whenever we want. Then I thought if it was possible to imbue it into the human body, hence the 'experiment'."

"What have you done?"

"I simply created a 'pebble' and a body for myself thanks to your cut on your hand through which I took a strand of your DNA. Since you helped me so much in this process, I have gifted you something. Look at the cut on you hand."

Ethan looked at it, only to find that it wasn't there.

"How? It has hardly been an hour!"

"Exactly. You have a 'pebble' inside you which gives the body the energy it needs to mass reproduce and regenerate cells. By that I mean, all cells. In a way, you are immortal, and so am I."

"What?!" Ethan was completely shocked.

"In fact, join me! We are quite possibly the most powerful entities in the universe. Nothing can kill us. Not even the slow march of time. We could control this universe and potentially an infinite number of them. Nothing can stop us! My purpose is to understand the universe. Now I have given you the full ability to do that! Together we can be gods!"

Ethan thought for a moment.

"What about Anexis?"

"The triviality of humans. It a small cost for a greater purpose. The entirety of the continent bounded by your canals was converted to energy to create the 'pebbles'. So thank you for helping me." said L.

"You killed almost 5 billion and gave me the energy from their atoms? This is insanity!" said Ethan

"Don't preach to me, Ethan."

"Did I fill your hard drive with crap? What is wrong with you?! You may tread this path L, but I sure as hell won't!"

"Fine. I'll spare you. But stand in my way and I will show no mercy."

L walked away leaving Ethan devastated. The scientist fell on his knees and shouted but there was no one left to hear him.

The next day

The dirt moved sharply upwards at the center of Old Anexis' remains. A hand reached out of the dirt and attempted to climb outwards. The owner of said hand climbed out of the mud. He had a scruffy face, a beard and a mustache. He breathed heavily. He pulled his other hand out of the dirt and found an inverted triangle with another triangle inside it carved onto his palm. A second later the symbol glowed and orange arcs flew out of it to form a foot long tube of energy in his hand which solidified into a cylinder. The man watched this happen in confusion. He dropped the strange object and ran away as fast as he could only for it to reappear a few feet ahead of him. He picked it up to see an engraving on it - the word ΑΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ, or ATHANATOS.