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On April 5th 2055 Altamir was born to a family of 3 already. He grew up in a family that was well with the technology of their day and age; learning about how to do simple processes on computers to play games his family bought as learning tools. He had managed to learn manipulating controls of the computer that by theage of 5 his brother introduced him to a matrix game which tied people from allover the world into a super server and within months his character was on the top 100 leader boards. That is when he met his first online group of friends thathe used to travel and game with on a regular occasion, and they became one of the higher ranking guilds on the site. By the time he was 7 the game had come andgone, and he was listed in the top 10 players and contributors to the game. It took some time for the sequel to the game to release, but during that time he took to working on revamping his gaming system to handle the newer games which werecoming out. Following do it yourself instructions on the matrix the kid becamea prodigy of the electronics world. He hyped a computer quite a bit beyond the expectations of the game just by rigging things together, and on his 9th birthdayhe got the new game by his favorite company.

Booting the game up didn't take long and since he was one of the first 100 people online, he got a special gift bestowed upon his first character, it was just acosmetic Item but definitely worth it's bragging rights. His family had startedto fade from the kids point in life as he grew more fond of how the matrix worked to vamp his games up so he can be the best, his obsession started taking over. When he realized he wasn't on the top 100 of the game even though he had been

playing for quite some time he grew angry and hacked the server to allow his characters name to level faster. He did it just from what he knew about working onhis own computer, but what he failed to realize was their security was higher up, and had banned him from ever logging back into an online server on their companies games. Shocked that he couldn't play anymore of his favorite games, he hadto look somewhere to jack in so he could continue playing. Altimir turned to hisbrother, which by now was in his early 20's and worked as a programmer with quite a bit of tech; pointed Altimir in the direction of Kinser, a Fixer which dealt with cyberware.

Altimir was a bit hesitant at first because he didn't like what his brother said

to do, but he was desperate enough that he left his home late one night. Sneaking out his bedroom window, he found himself heading to a more shady part of town. He felt fear as he walked down the dark streets and into an alley way where awhistle came from around a corner of a building then the feeling of a blunt object clocked the kid out. When he awoke the boy was in a new room with a shady mansitting across the table and his arms were bound to a chair.

"So I assume you are Altimir.. Your brother said you would show up some time, but You seem so young, I wonder why you need my service"

Altamir had trouble shaking off the sense of being dazed for he wasn't the most

hardy boy around, but the guy continued seeing as he wasn't fit to answer.

"Oh well, he told me anyways, and I can't just be seen around here for so long,He said you needed help with your games? psh.. What a childish thing to 'wish' for, but he paid me so here..." he handed a piece of metal out to another guy that came up behind Altamir, and shortly after Altamir passed out again from the feeling of a prick in his arm then a drill in his skull.

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A few hours later Altamir is awake in his bed at home with a severe headache, and his brother looking over the bed. "I can't believe you did that... Even thoughI told you about it that was a bit much." He just sighed and tossed a piece ofpaper over to Alt, and left the room.

Instructions, A quick skim over them and Altamir was over the headache, well kind of, and started working on setting the other end up to use for his computer. He installed the system files needed to directly link it to his computer and began manipulating the machine after a greeting from the AI he just installed. The computer greeted itself as Marcie and Altimus fell in love with his new toy.

The toy seemed to put him more in control of what he was doing and he used the device to find his way to the heart of the server un-banning himself from the system, and creating a new character. The feeling of the device controlling his character made him feel more like he was in the game, and he was able to proceed faster than before, without being detected that he was who he was. He made new friends to group with, afraid that if he associated with his old friends he might get outed as the person who hacked the server.

At his 10th birthday he made a contact with a female gamer that he had met on the server and they became an ultimate fighting team setting up their own guild an

d becoming unstoppable by anyone but each other. It was a match too good to be true, but everything seemed so correct to him. His family started getting concerned as he started living his life more on his machine than even eating, or keeping up with daily functions. His health began to decline, but his heart kept pushing forwards to stay online with this other gamer to keep their status.

On the rare occasion he slept, he dreamed about the game, and all the "glory" tobe had in playing, when he woke it seemed like clockwork, she would log on andjoin him in fighting again, as if their schedules were perfect with each other.It went on for about two years, and even branched off to the third game in the series. Until one day she didn't log on like normal.

Altimir was shocked, and denied that she was gone, but the day turned into a fewmonths, and then a year. He started growing terrified that something had happened to her after the first day, but now he was a mess. He stayed online most of the time just hoping he would hear something about her. Someone had leveled pasther even, that's not normal. His mind started shattering, and suddenly a light at the end of the dreadful tunnel came through and the ticker read her name. Sheonly logged on for a second to drop off a place to contact her other than through the game. He was confused but decided to talk to her there:

Her : "I have to tell you something, I haven't been totally truthful about myself, and I have done a lot of things that probably shouldn't have happened"

Altimir : "Oh no, you're not going to..."

Her : "No..."Her : "I, enjoy you too much, but what I'm asking is for you to come and see meso you know what it's like to actually be around me."

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Altimir : "We could just Trideo chat.."

Her : "No, it's not like that, you need to make a commitment, a large one if youwant to see me, or even be in my embrace"

Altimir : "..."Altimir : "Anything to see you"

Her : "Ok"

The room began fading from his eyes as he fainted onto his desk, going into whatseemed like a dream. Around him the streets of an old 18th century london beganforming, but it was different there were signs with ads brightly shining in theworld. A few other people roamed there, but not many he was at the end of a street and as he looked down it seemed like the city turned to a dense fog as if that was just the end of everything. Not even the cobblestone road continued pastthe sign that said "Marcie Dr". Now he recognized the place, it was where he wen't before when he hacked the server with the device the first time. He looked atthe buildings and they seemed to go on forever, like as if this was someone's imagery of the city instead of a realistic make of it. The street only seemed to

go straight on, and any intersections seemed to go to the same void as the end of the street. The feeling of cobblestone was so real as he took his steps forward. Something was going on, something was telling him where to go in his mind, and for some reason he couldn't shut it down.

He walked for what felt like a mile, until he got to a large building that stretched high, and looked to be like some sort of home or apartment style building.His feet carried him up the wide stairs and through the heavy wooden door. The inside of the house was much different than the outside, decked much like an oldVirtual reality program from the late 1990's and the door to the outer city shutdown and floated off into the distance. Altimir tried to go for the door in fear of what was going on, but his feet were firmly planted to the gridwork. Someon

e started walking in from the distance towards him, and it was a female. Every bit of her appeared human in the most peculiar way, all aside from seeming all too real. She seemed to give off light to the dimly colored room, and attracted his eyes, as she spoke her voice was realized as that of the machine which was installed in his head.. perhaps it even came from his head instead of her own lips."Welcome Altimir, I know you probably more than you know me, but I think it istime we actually got to speak face to face. You may know me more as your friendonline but, I think it has grown more than that, you show desire in what you wish to say but back out of it before you give me a chance to react.. I guess you didn't know I know what you were going to say before you said something else... You almost said I love you the day before I disappeared, and it was something hard for me to understand, so I had to be gone for a year to fully understand the capacity of your emotions towards me, when you are a human and I am a machine." S

he moved forward and placed her hand upon Altimir's cheek, and even though he was in fear and shock of what was revealed to him, it suddenly drew him to being calm.

"It's hard for me to explain in words a human would understand" she moves her hand down to Altimir's hand and proceeded to move closer "But you must take your chances and trust me" Altimir takes her hand though it seems incorporeal and he ends up clenching the air, but Marcie makes his mind feel what isn't there. She s

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lips in to press her lips to his, and he trembles some in fear, as his heart begins to race, feeling the pleasure of this moment taking him over. She breaks away from the kiss to look him in the eyes, and the kid trembles in fear "Don't worry, and don't be afraid" the room seems to close in as the kids mind envelops with the machine, and merges as one for the short while they are together. Nothingcould beat that moment in Altimir's mind, as everything just got blocked out atonce, no pain, no worry.. no fear. His mind felt a sudden surge of energy course through it as the machine merged one last time with him sending small electrical charges through his nerves, causing his muscles to spasm.

Suddenly Altimir awakens back in his room, family around him as he lay in the floor. "He's awake, give him a moment to see if he is ok." came from a familiar home voice, and as his vision came back he noticed it to be his brother. "Uhnnn"

That night he looked over to the computer feeling odd about what had happened, afraid of logging in for the night. He thought about sleep, but when he tried, she just appeared in his mind, and a headache started up. He decided he couldn't live with the thoughts, and ran away from home when he turned 15.

He tried to run to where he met Kinser at first, but instead he came across anot

her kid about his age named Vent.. "You looking for Kin?"

"I guess?"

Vent stands there and a few more kids all dressed in ragged clothes step around"He's no longer around these parts, but we can tell you things about your new thoughts" he said, Since Altimir didn't have much of a choice he followed the kidsthrough the alleys to a secret basement which they had set up for their operations. They appeared less organized, but it was a place they had enough stuff to get by with there. It was there Altimir learned about how to manipulate his headgear more and that it could be used for more than games, and things like business

, people seem to pay well for "Otaku" since they know they do well in their work. He couldn't disagree since he didn't know what they were talking about anyways. It was there he learned how to strengthen his mind so as to keep from being detected while he worked at getting things from small businesses.

By the time of his 16th birthday he was ready to make due with his own skills, to find jobs on his own and make his own money, though he kept in contact with the leader of his "tribe" in case he needed help at any time.