Chapter. 1

"Get away from me you drone!" A teen boy shouted as was being chased by for four men in tan trench coats. The teen had dark brown hair and brown eyes. He wore a dean jacket over a yellow shirt and jeans with holes in the knees with black boots.

The teen ran through destroyed buildings in the ruins of LA. He dove into a building and climbed up to the second floor. As the men was catching up He leap to another building, he saw a rod jetting out of the main pillar of the building.

Just then the men arrived and held out assault rifles. The teen dove and grabbed a hold of a rod then hung with a wall of cement between the teen and the men's bullets. The teen heard the men stop to reload the resume firing. They stopped again and the teen could hear them leaving.

As the men ran down the stairs the teen stood ion the rod and leaped to the rods ahead of him and used them as stepping stones. Once the teen was a few blocks away from the men the teen stopped at an eight story building.

The teen climbed into the building to its highest floor to find his hideout, a medium sized room with boxes of stolen supplies. The teen opened one of the boxes and a red rope with thorns wrapped around his body and pulled him away.

The teen was dragged across the room to the other side. He saw a heeled boot coming towards him and rolled out of its way and back to his feet.

Standing before the teen was a woman in a red trench coat with the lower right side of the coat was missing to show the woman's leg. She had green hair with a small black hat on and amber eyes behind a set of glasses. Strapped to her back were two black cases A red rope with thorns was wrapped around her right arm.

"Connar Vanith! You think you can steal from our panopticon and get away with it?"

"About time they sent someone real after me. What was that, the fourteenth time I got away from your bots?"

The woman waved her hand over the two cases and sword formed in her hand. As she swung her new weapon the teen now known as Connar grabbed the woman by her wrist and and hit her in the throat with his elbow.

As she fell back Connar took the sword away and brought it down on her. The woman waved her over her cases again, this time conjuring a sniper rifle. She raised the gun to block the sword and kicked Connar in the chest to push him back.

Connar hurled the sword at the woman, she held out her gun and stopped the sword. She lowered her gun and held out her right arm. The rope on her arm unraveled and latched on to Connar. The woman pulled on the rope and hurled Connar into the roof then back to the ground.

Connar laid on the ground coughing as the woman stood over him. "Your free ride is over worm."

"Go to hell." The woman kicked Connar in the head to knock him out.

...

Connar awake to find the world had a purple tint. "Oof! She got you good!" Standing over Connar was a girl in a grey sleeveless hoody her eyes were light green, her bottom right eyelid was larger then normal. She had blond hair in rings out of the sides of her hood over a black ball cap, black sleeves that didn't connect to the hoody. long socks, the left was grey and the right was black with black boots. "Yep looks like it."

"Where am I?"

"Welcome to the immaterial plane!" The girl held her hand out and spun around to see everything around her. "The magical, mystical realm between life and death!"

"Wait am I died?" Connar pushed himself up to his feet.

"No. You're in between them. You'll wake up soon."

"Well that's nice."

The girl smiled. "Hmph. In a bit of a bad mood, are we?"

"I just got my ass kicked by the lap dog. If I'm not dead it's worse."

"I suppose that's understandable..." The girl took a few steps way and turned back to Connar. "I'm Aries. Aries M. And you are?"

"I'm Connar Vanith." Aries held a finger to her chin as she examined Connar. "Are you checking me out or something?"

"Hmm... Yeah, I like it! Nice name! And you don't look... Too bad either!"

"Thanks?"

"You're lucky you can see me, you know..."

"What's that mean?"

"It means there's something very, very important you have to do. And I think you might really be able to do it, you know!"

Connar tilted his head and folded his arms. "And what is this 'thing' you want he to do?"

"You can bring this fighting to an end, and bring about the great transformation. And put an end to people's suffering and pain!" Aries smiled to Connar again. "Assuming you want to do all that, of course."

Connar let out a smirk. "How am I suppose to do that? You want me to fix a problem that's been around for as long as anyone can remember."

Aries looked around as the world began to shift. "Looks like it's wakey-wakey time. Oh! Before you go! I can't believe I almost forgot!"

"What?"

"You're gonna meet her soon. And when you do, you have to help her."

"Who is it?"

"Helping her will be the first step on your journey towards the great transformation."

"Wait! I need more then that! Who is this girl?"

"See you soon, okay? Bye for now!" The world faded into white.

Connar awake and sat up. He looked around to find himself in a small room with grey cells and a large green screen that completely covered one of the walls. "Well this is just great." Connar stood up and went to the door.

Red lights flashed in the room, and a message appeared on the large screen that read 'ten year penalty' then vanished.

A tone played in the room and a bear "Good morning, sinner! Wakey-wakey, rise and shine!" On the screen a bear a appeared with a white face, wearing a blue hat, wristband, a black tie and held a microphone. "Today is the first day of your new life as a productive member of your society!"

"The hell are you?!" Connar backed away to the other side of the cell.

"I'm Percy Propa! You've been very naughty, you know. In the middle of a vital operation, you've been stealing from our panopticon. But lucky for you, all you have to do is take part in the reeducation initiative and start again from code one! Oh, and have a sentence of one million years! Okay with you!"

"No!" Another message appeared on the screen stating one million years were added.

"That's the spirit!"

"I didn't accept!"

The bear didn't listen. "You've just taken your first step on the road to becoming a productive, meaningful member of the most ideal society in the whole wide world! Now, let's crack on with the reeducation, shall we? Oh! Hold on a second! You'll need an accessory."

"No I don't need that."

"Our panopticon is nothing if not unfailingly generous! Introducing your brand new Fudaemonic Facilitation Unit! You'd better make sure you obey it's every command. Or else!"

"If only you were real." Connar adjusted ends of his sleeves.

"Never forget! Your accessory is panopticon property. You've been issued it on the understanding that you will honor, obey and be nice to it at all times! Now, for the future joy and prosperity of your panopticon, it's time to get out there and give it your all! For the greater good!"

The bear disappeared and the cell door opened. A man stepped inside, he wore the same trench coat as the ones that chased him earlier. he had bright blue eyes and black hair.

"What do you want?"

"Scan complete. Confirming Utopedia data match... Confirmed. Cell occupant is an officially registered sinner belonging to this panopticon. Initiating self-introduction protocol."

"I don't want to hear what you have to say robot."

"Greeting,. I am your accessory. I shall be your constant companion. It is a pleasure to meet you." Connar glared at the accessory. "Preparing to launch reeducation initiative. Commence operation?"

Connar threw a punch at the machine. The accessory caught Connar's fist and swung him into the wall, pressing its arm against Connar's chest.

"You are a sinner. You are guilty of the most serious infringement of the people's charter: being an unproductive drain on resources. For this crime, you have been sentenced to one million years of penal servitude. You will not be free until you have served or worked off this sentence in its entirety. Utopedia is a central database where all information pertaining to this panopticon is stored. My role as your accessory is to relay information on your behavior to the database, allowing your personal data to be kept up to date."

Connar struggled against the accessory. He threw another punch but the accessory grabbed his arm. "Let go of me!"

"I will continue to do so until you cease to exist. You are not permitted to take your own life. You are not permitted to refuse to serve your panopticon. You are not permitted to sleep lying down. You are not permitted to speak of or think about the future. You are not permitted to do anything that you have not been explicitly granted the right to do."

"Screw you!" Connar pushed against the accessory but was shoved back.

"I am required to subject you to continuous surveillance in order to ensure that you do not violate these, or any other, rules. Welcome to the panopticon."