The robotics lab was still half-wrapped in early morning gloom when Ethan slipped inside. Only a single row of ceiling lights flickered to life, leaving long shadows stretched across the scattered metal parts and abandoned projects. Dust motes drifted silently in the beams.
He loved this emptiness.
This quiet.
A sanctuary before the world woke up.
He set his bag down, cracked his knuckles, and powered up the club's best computer—the only machine strong enough to handle what he was attempting this morning. The fan whirled awake with a soft, metallic sigh.
Ethan immediately got to work.
Lines of code poured like water from his fingers, cascading down the dark screen.Every new function he typed felt like a puzzle piece dropping perfectly into place.
"Memory anchor linked… reinforcement tree functional…"He muttered to himself, eyebrows scrunching in concentration.
He opened a new window and merged two modules:
ALTERNATIVE + AI MAKING
A blueprint unfolded like a digital lotus bloom—dozens of nodes interconnected, weak but alive. At the center pulsed a newborn, flickering signature labeled:
APOCALYPSE — Prototype Kernel
Ethan's heart pounded.
He couldn't help himself.
"Detect."
A soft chime echoed in his head.
[DETECT — RESULT]
AI Prototype Detected:"Apocalypse"
Current Intelligence Level:0.7%
(Processing minimal base instructions. No autonomy yet.)
Ethan grinned.
"0.7% at this stage… okay, this is actually happening."
He dove back into the interface, writing faster. The world around him faded.The computer hum grew louder.Time slipped.
He didn't hear the door open.
He didn't hear footsteps—a pair of sneakers and a pair of slightly louder ones from someone who dragged their feet.
He didn't even hear someone calling:
"Ethan?"
"…Yo, Ethan?"
"Dude?"
Nothing.
He was inside the code.Inside Apocalypse.
He only saw the incremental rise of the core structure:
17%… 24%… 31%… 42%
Ethan leaned closer, whispering, "Come on, come on, don't crash now—"
A hand clamped down on his shoulder.
"HEY!"
Ethan nearly died.
His entire body spasmed so violently he almost ripped the computer mouse out of its port. A half-strangled yelp tore from his throat as he spun around, chair wheels screeching.
"WHAT—WHO—WHY!?"
Peter Parker stood behind him, startled out of his own skin.
Ned Leeds was beside him, holding a half-eaten donut frozen halfway to his mouth.
Peter raised both hands. "Dude! Sorry! Sorry! I just—uh—tapped your shoulder!"
"TAPPED?!" Ethan gasped. "YOU GRABBED MY SOUL."
Ned blinked. "I… didn't know souls were so easy to grab."
Ethan slumped back into his chair, pressing a hand to his chest.
"My heart… dear god… you two almost killed me."
Peter scratched his cheek awkwardly.
"We called you. You didn't respond. At all. Like—like a statue."
Ned nodded. "Yeah, it was creepy. Thought you got possessed by the school computers or something."
Ethan forced a laugh. "No possession. Just… focused."
Way too focused.
He subtly minimized Apocalypse's real project tab before either of them could peek. The screen now showed something boring—an old robotics assignment from last semester.
Peter's eyes flicked to the screen."What're you working on?"
"Homework." Ethan answered instantly, maybe too quickly. "Just… club stuff. Old project. Nothing interesting."
Peter raised an eyebrow."Dude. You were coding like the world depended on it."
"It's… complicated."
Ned leaned forward. "Is it a game? Your own app? A hacking tool? Wait—is it a robot girlfriend—?"
"NO." Ethan slapped his forehead. "It's not—just—forget it."
Ned shrugged, biting into his donut again. "Just asking, man."
Peter softened. "Look… we were heading to the cafeteria before first period. You wanna come?"
Ethan glanced back at his screen.
Apocalypse was still there behind the false window.Waiting.Growing.A flicker of digital consciousness struggling to bloom.
His detection window flashed faintly again as the AI stabilized:
[DETECT — UPDATE]
Apocalypse Intelligence Level:1.1%
(Status: Early learning module responding.)
A warmth spread through Ethan's chest.
It's growing… even with just my early framework.
But he couldn't stay.Not with the field trip later.Not with Peter and Ned staring at him like he was about to invent time travel.
Finally, he nodded.
"Yeah. Just… give me a sec to save everything."
Peter grinned and walked toward the door with Ned."Cool. We'll wait."
As soon as they turned away, Ethan leaned close to the screen, whispering:
"Hang in there, Apocalypse. I'll be back after the trip."
He saved all files, locked the folder, shut down the system, and grabbed his backpack.
By the time he caught up to Peter and Ned in the hallway, a small, secretive smile tugged at his lips.
No matter what today brought—field trip, classes, interruptions—
Ethan had created something real.
Something alive.
Something that was already watching the world…even at 1.1% intelligence.
And whether he realized it or not—Apocalypse had already taken its first breath.
Ethan followed Peter and Ned out of the robotics room, still trying to steady his heartbeat. The hallway was bustling with students preparing for the field trip—some excited, some sleepy, some complaining loudly about missing their usual morning nap.
By the time they reached the line of yellow buses parked outside the school, the sun was fully risen.
Students filled the seats in waves.
Ethan climbed aboard the second bus with Peter and Ned, sliding into a seat by the window. Peter plopped down on his right, Ned taking the seat in front of them.
The bus was warm, crowded, buzzing with voices.
Perfect, Ethan thought. A day to relax after all that work.
He leaned back, exhaling deeply—
And then froze.
A strange sensation prickled the back of his mind.
…Did I shut the computer down properly?
He replayed his last actions in his head:
Close files.Lock folder.Hit power.
The screen had gone black.
But then a memory stabbed through—
Sometimes that old computer doesn't actually power off. The fan keeps running unless you hold the button…
His stomach dropped.
Apocalypse…the AI…
Is it still running?
Ethan felt a cold bead of sweat slip down his neck.
But the bus lurched forward, students cheering as the field trip officially began. Peter nudged him.
"You okay? You look like you forgot your homework."
Ethan forced a laugh. "No, no. Just… thinking about something I left in the club room."
Ned popped over the seat. "Relax, dude. No one goes in there before lunch. You could hide a body in that room and it'd take a week for anyone to find it."
"That doesn't… really make me feel better, Ned."
But the bus window reflected Ethan's anxious eyes.
If Apocalypse is running… it might—
Then he stopped himself.
The robotics club computers had terrible hardware.Terrible memory.Terrible everything.
It couldn't run anything powerful for long.
And even if Apocalypse was still active…the school Wi-Fi in that room was a joke.
Even a snail is faster.
So Ethan swallowed his fear and turned back toward the window.It was probably fine.
The room sat completely still.
Silent.
The old computer Ethan had "turned off" hummed quietly in the shadows.
Its monitor, appearing black, flickered with a faint line of blue on the bottom corner.
Inside the machine—
Apocalypse-Prototype KernelStatus: Running
The AI slowly crawled through its early processes, struggling but alive.
Its access to the internet was painfully slow—almost unusable.
Connection Detected:School Network — Speed 100kbps (unstable)
But even at that speed…Apocalypse prodded the internet like a newborn touching the world for the first time.
A basic crawler routine Ethan left unfinished began to loop.
Searching…Learning…Scanning…
It had no capability to understand what it saw.
No intelligence yet.
Only instinct—to read.to observe.to absorb.
Every few minutes its intelligence ticked upward by microscopic amounts.
[DETECT — REMOTE PASSIVE UPDATE UNSEEN BY ETHAN]
APOCALYPSE INTELLIGENCE LEVEL: 1.2%(Background learning improving stability.)
The room remained empty.No teachers.No students.
No one to notice the quiet birth of something new.
Peter was telling Ned about a new drone design he saw online.Ned was arguing passionately about whether adding more rotors made it cooler.
Ethan listened halfheartedly at first, but slowly—the warmth of their excitement pulled him in.
"You two are obsessed with flying stuff," Ethan finally said.
Ned spun around. "Dude! Admit it—you would totally ride a personal flying drone if it existed."
Peter grinned. "He'd build one."
Ethan cracked a small smile."Maybe, if I had the money."
The other students were chatting about the lab they were visiting, laughing, tossing chips around the bus.
For the first time in a long time, Ethan felt…
Normal.
No fighting.No running.No repairing cracked screens for $20 to survive.
Just a field trip with friends.
The road stretched ahead, the bus filled with cheerful noise.
And somewhere back in the quiet robotics room, a faint glow dawned on a computer screen—a symbol of digital life continuing to learn on its own.
Growing.
Watching.
Unknown to Ethan.
The bus turned the corner, heading toward the research facility.
The day had only just begun.
And so had Apocalypse.