“Come on, Lucas. Hurry up, or we’ll be late for school.”

“I’ll be there in a second, Bea,” I said. Lucas Harrell’s my name, and the person yelling at me is Bea Hightower. She comes over every morning, just to get me up.

I signed off quickly and put my shirt on. I always wear the shorts I take to school when I sleep, because Bea has a nasty habit of coming in and pulling the covers off of me if I’m not awake.

I ran downstairs, to find Bea waiting impatiently. “About time you got here,” she said teasingly, “I was about to take off and leave you.”

“Oh, you would not,” I said. She stuck her tongue out at me and we took off for school. Once there, we met our other two friends, Cheryl Glass and T.J. Hubman, at home room.

“About time you got here, bro,” T.J. said. He was one of my best friends. We’ve been friends for some time. In fact, we practically grew up together.

“Sorry,” I said, “I was finishing the season premier to Power Rangers: Generations, and you know how I can get caught up when I’m writing.”

“No problem,” Cheryl said, “I was running late, too, but it was worth it. I’ve almost got our online RPG gadgets ready.”

“And I’ve almost got the weapons ready,” T.J. said, “This is going to be too cool.”

“I’ve got the cybersuits ready,” Bea said.

“While I’ve got a good story ready,” I said, “Just like we agreed, I just put the first adventure, and then, we’ll make it up as we go.”

“Right,” Bea said.

“Anyone catch this mornings episode?” I asked.

“Sorry,” Bea said, “I don’t have the time in the mornings to watch the episodes then. I have to wait until later on in the day. After all, I have to drag your sorry butt out of bed every morning.”

I started turning red, especially when T.J. winked knowingly at me. I accidentally ran into someone when we were walking down the hall.

“Hey, watch where your going, you jerk,” the person said.

“I’m sorry, Jackie,” I said. I noticed that his books had been thrown over the floor by the impact. “Here, I’ll help you.” I started to help him pick up the books, but he just kind of growled at me.

“Don’t bother,” he said, “I can get it myself.” When he bent down, we cracked heads. My head was hard, but his wasn’t.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. Every day, I tried to make friends with Jackie, and ended up almost hating him even more. I never gave up on trying, though. I picked up a book, and was starting to hand it to him, when I noticed the title. “RPG’s in the modern day world. Whoa, you like this stuff?”

“Yes,” he said testily, “Got a problem with that?”

“No,” I said, “In fact, I love RPG. So do my friends. Online RPG especially.”

I could almost see him softening for a moment, but he immediately went back to his hateful self. “I hate finding out that we have so much in common,” he said. With that, he swept up the rest of his books into his bag and took off.

“Geez,” I said, “All I’ve ever tried to do was try to be his friend. He’s always given me the cold shoulder. What’s up with him?”

“He’s just a creep,” T.J. said.

“It’s more than that,” Bea said, “I’ve heard stuff about his home life, or lack thereof.” Seeing that she had our attention, she was going to continue, but Jackie came back through the hall, with a menacing look on his face. “I’ll tell you later.” We all nodded and went to class.

Later that day, Jackie went into his room. There, an impressive computer setup was waiting for commands. “I sent a virus into his computer,” Jackie thought, “Nothing major, just a wee bit nasty. I wouldn’t want to do too much harm to an innocent computer.” All of a sudden, it started storming outside. Then, the power went out. Jackie screams. His parents don’t even notice, or care.

“Whoa,” I said, “We need to get to a lighted area.” I started reaching around for the door.

Bea yelps. “Watch where you put those hands,” she said.

“Sorry,” I replied, “I’m trying to find the door.”

“A little too high for the doorknob, don’t you think?” I turned red, and was glad that it was dark, so that no one knew that I was embarrassed.

“Sorry again.” I found the door, and we all went outside the room. My mom came walking by a few minutes later.

“What a night for a blackout,” she said, “What else can go wrong?”

I shook my head. I knew that when mom was like that, there was no talking to her. My brother was off somewhere, doing who knows what. My stepdad was gone too, though we knew exactly where he was. He was a major league workaholic.

We went back in my room, where I took out some flashlights. I handed one to each friend.

“You know how I like to think of every possibility,” I said. I went over to my book case and took out some papers. “This is the story for our RPG so far.” I offered the papers to my friends. They looked at them.

“Whoa,” Cheryl said, “This is too awesome. You’ve done a good job, Lucas.”

“Thanks,” I said, “I’ve been working really hard on it.” I watched the others read through my story, and waited for the power to come on.

The power at Jackie’s house came on. “I wonder what that was about?” Jackie said. All a sudden, a menacing figure appeared on his computer screen.

“I am GigaTron,” it said, “Master of the cyber realm.”

“Yeah right,” Jackie said, “GigaTron is a program on my computer.”

“A virus mysteriously placed in your computer,” it said, “Plus that strike of lightning that knocked out your power gave me AI.”

“This is great,” Jackie said, “I modeled your basic being from KiloKhan, from the Superhuman Samurai Cybersquad, and your attitude, and voice, from Galvatron, from Transformers infamy. If you’re like KiloKhan, you can bring viruses to life, right?”

“That’s right, human,” it said, “I owe you a debt of gratitude for creating me. Command me as you wish.”

“This is the start of a truly nasty relationship,” Jackie said. The two started laughing maniacally.

The power came back on. “Whoa,” I said, “It’s about time.” When the power didn’t come back on for a while, my friends left. I got on my computer and logged on. Once I did, some strange armor appeared on the screen.

“Whoa,” I said, “That’s armor Bea would be jealous of.” All of a sudden, energy came out of the computer and sucked me into the computer. “What the...”

Once there, I found myself in the strange armor. “I am Samurai-1. I am an AI created by a virus put into your computer and the lightning bolt that struck your house, knocking out your power. Lucas Harrell, you are the chosen one. You will be the protector of the cyber realm, known as Servo. Do you accept?”

“A chance to be Servo,” I said, “I’ve always dreamed of this. You bet I accept, Samurai-1. Do you mind if I call you S-1?”

“If that’s easier on you than my full name, then go ahead,” it said, “When I call you, all you have to do to come here is hit the main key on your wrist computer and say Uplink: Servo. To go back to reality, simply say download. But before you go, there’s a matter of the virus in your computer. Would you get rid of it?”

“I’m on it,” I said. I flew off towards a tube looking thing. Once through, I found the culprit and grew. “Si-yahh.” I went into fighting stance and started grappling with the monster. I quickly tore it apart.

“Do not heal the damage,” Samurai said, “That’s partially what’s keeping me going.”

“Right,” I said, “Now, back to real life. Download.” I went spiraling back through the tube and ended up back in my chair, outside of my computer. “Whoa, that was intense. I always wanted to do that. I love the show. My friends will never believe this.”

“You must not tell them of what happened.” Samurai was talking through my computer. “The war between us and whatever sent that virus must be kept a secret. There are three other cyber powers, and I will be trying to find the three other chosen ones, but do not reveal what you are here to anyone, understand?”

“Understood,” I said. I noticed the wrist computer Samurai was talking about. “How powerful is this thing?”

“Not very,” Samurai said, “It just stands as your link to here. It also stores the information of your Servo powers, so be careful. Link the modem cable up, and you’ll be able to come to the cyber realm from anywhere.”

“Right,” I said, “This is awesome.” All of a sudden, I yawned, big time. “That must have taken a lot out of me. I’m going to bed. Good night, S.”

“Good evening, master Lucas.” I hit the sleep button, took a shower, and went to bed. It was late, and, despite all of what had happened, I fell right to sleep.

My Favorite Links

Part II
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