What_If...

Name : Carmen Chew Hooi Ling What if' It was a quiet Wednesday afternoon on the Royal Malaysian Collegeversity campus. Suddenly, doors of lecture theatres, auditoriums and laboratories burst open, and students rush to their next class. A boy in a black shirt and jeans walks past another boy. This other boy had a distinct feature. His arm was made of wood. Both boys had been studying in the same elite collegeversity for almost a year now, but they have never noticed each other. Just as their paths crossed, time stops around them. Both boys looked up from their books and found themselves staring at a cyborg. Shocked, they tried to run. But the cyborg grabbed both their hands, one wooden and one flesh. With no explanation, they were teleported to the another place. Without a single word, the girl whisked them all to a building and entered it through a wall of glass. They boys were speechless with amazement. The girl parks her cruiser in a corner, turned to the two boys and introduced herself as Kari. She leads them out of the cruiser and into a space that she called home. It looked more like a lair to the two young men. She addressed the boy in black as Seth and the other boy as Johnny. Seth and Johnny were a little stunned that Kari knew their names. Kari invited them to sit down on her couch as she had something to tell them. They sat down and she started her story. She explained that they were in the year 2100. The Earth is gradually dying due to global warming and other hazardous effects of mankind’s unenvironmentally friendly activities. Also, there was a group of evil scientists who wanted to dominate the world. Her father was one of them. The group of scientists invented robots to assist them in daily business, but had equipped them with too much Artificial Intelligence. The robots learnt that Albert Einstein’s brain is kept preserved and they found its location. They extracted knowledge from the brain and decided to take over the world. Kari turned to Seth and told him that he would be the one to save the world. Seth was dumbfounded. Kari kept going. She revealed that Seth had a microchip in his brain. Her own mother, a scientist too, was the one who invented the microchip when she discovered her husband’s evil intentions. She knew the only place to hide it was in the past. So, she went back in time discreetly and found young Seth. Seth was the perfect choice because he was an orphan. He was an infant which meant that he would not know about the implantation. The microchip that she invented transmits a signal which can fry the robots’ motherboard. However, only Seth’s mind can activate the microchip. After that, Kari introduced the cyborg as Xoilor. She told them that Xoilor was one of her father’s early creations and she grew up with him around. Xoilor, unlike the rest of his creations, was not evil. In fact, he was good and pure hearted. Even though he is part robot, Xoilor refused to be influenced by them. As the sun sets, Kari prepares the boys for their life’s mission, to save planet Earth. When night fell, Kari leads Seth and Johnny to the basement of the building. Apparently, the building was built on top of what use to be Johnny’s home. The entire building was deserted, it was dark and musky. As they made their way to the basement door, then tension grew. Xoilor’s laser eye shone in the dark. It was their only source of light that could be used then as the entire building had no electric supply. Pass the basement door, they made their way towards a vault. On the door of the vault, was a hole. A key hole. Johnny looked at Kari for assurance. Kari nodded and Johnny inserted his wooden arm into the key hole. Silence. The four looked at one another. Then, Johnny decided to try turning his arm. He felt the vault unlocking. A bright light shone through the sides of the door, and they realised that they were actually surrounded by robots and they just activated them. Kari screamed at Seth to activate the microchip as the robots closed in on them. Seth did not know how or what to do. The robots were looming up on Johnny. In desperation, Seth squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated. He kept thinking about the chip activating inside his brain and he kept picturing it. Suddenly, sparks flew from various parts of the robots. They began to slow down and stumble. Eventually, they broke down and fell over each other. Seth, Johnny and Kari heaved a sigh of relief. Johnny hesitated for a moment before turning his arm again. At that moment, Kari let out a sharp shriek. She fell to her knees beside Xoilor’s body and began mourning. Xoilor is a cyborg, which means he is part human, part robot, and when Seth activated the microchip, Xoilor’s robot parts crashed and could no longer support his human parts. Johnny pulled the vault open. A blinding light shot out. In that miracle flash of light, the suspended animation was deactivated and the plants spread across the land and carpeted the Earth. Proud to be the saviours of planet Earth and the human race, Johnny and Seth wondered how they would get back to their time, since Xoilor is no longer around and all machines had been destroyed.