Prologue

             My alias is Xero, I have long forgotten what my given name was, and at this point, it no longer matters. What matters, is that our world, our very reality even, is rotten to the core. This is no more than speculation to most, but to me, and a few of my most trusted friends, it is the cold, hard truth.

             An organization known to the masses as “MART” (Mankind for the Advancement of Reality and Technology) is the source of the corruption. MART supplies everything anyone could ever need for the low cost of... free. Yes, I did say free. Although, that doesn't take into account the dependency society has developed for MART's products, and the obedience society shows when MART threatens to remove their “right” to it.

             You see, 3 months ago, these friends and I were abducted and forced to participate in cruel “experiments” for the amusement of those claiming to exist for the betterment of mankind, In other words, MART. Myself, and my pals Rallaa, Katasaki, and Poi (all alias's of course) were just hanging out, doing our own thing, like any other ordinary day, when all of a sudden we were being held at gunpoint by masked thugs and being told to get into a camoflaged gravity-wagon. Apparently we had caught the attention of one of MART's higher-ups as "prime testing material." You see, our NODE modules had apparently mutated due to exposure to some form of chemical leak near our hang-out, which was "convieniently" located right next to the matter creation plant. Apparently it was a mutagen still in it's experimentation phase, that had developed a leak in it's containment system that went unnoticed until MART's scanners caught us. It must've been when we went to pick up Poi at the high-speed transit station, where he was coming back from a "week-long" trip to the moon-colony.

              He was told that you could rent space gear and go moon-walking. It turns out it was strictly on a "bring your own" basis. He ended up telling the managment where they could put "their own" gear and was sent back 6 days early. "Those guys up there wouldn't know a good time if the spirit of fun came and puked on them," Poi said as he disembarked. "That doesn't sound terribly fun to me," chuckled Rallaa. "And you know what? This only proves you're both mentally deficient. You should really see someone about that," joked Katasaki. I didn't deem the conversation to be worth adding my 2 cents into, so I refrained from joining in. As we were walking out of the station, we had to walk through one of MART's scanners, which were placed at all the exits, which may been when our mutated nodes were detected.

              Shortly after leaving, our vehicle stopped working, which should have been our first clue that something was going on, as MART gravity-wagons should auto-repair any damage done to the internal workings. If they do stop running, they always restart within a minute or two of dying. Ours had just completely ceased to function. The other hint should have been the lack of any pedestrians in the area. Poi and I got out to see if we could figure out what was going on, and the next thing we knew, our faces were pressed into the dirt and we could feel the cool metal of a gun-muzzle on the backs of our heads. The last thing I heard was a small scuffle as several people overwhelmed Rallaa and Katasaki, and a voice that simply stated, “Rejoice, for you have been chosen.” A needle was then pushed into my arm and I felt my consciousness slip away.

Author's Note

Indent seems to be broken.