The scientist worked feverishly at the computer console, sweat dripping from his bespectacled nose. He had been working for three days straight, never stopping to sleep, eating nothing but stale pretzels, only pausing his work once in a while to relieve himself or swig some black coffee. He was so close this time, he knew it...

At the other end of the laboratory complex, a lab monkey chittered, the sound travelling through the complex until it reached the cramped room in which the scientist was working. Warped and distorted by the air vents and his own malnourished mind, it sounded to him like harsh, mocking laughter.

"Yes. Laugh," the scientist muttered. "Everyone laughs at my theories. They want to take away my grant, but I'll show them all! They'll all learn what I'm capable of. They shall all see the face of immortality!"

At this, his voice rose, echoing emptily through the shadowy lab. He peered up through the small, tight window. Dawn was breaking; he'd have to hurry.

The scientist remembered his early experiments, testing the procedure on lab rats. They're injected with servofluid, a clear liquid which magnetized the body to a particular wavelength. Then, he strapped them into an upright, egg-shaped module, made of complex circuitry, hooked up the main computer which was linked directly to city hall. When he removed them, after the process was complete, they had been lifeless and still...but the man had been pleased.

"They are obviously unworthy of this gift! I, and I alone, shall transcend the shortcomings of the flesh, towards the true path! Now, the next step: creating a full-sized model!"

So, now, three days later, the larger version was assembled and programmed. With a shaky hand, he jabbed the hollow needle into the main vein of his neck. As his eyes became glassy, he stumbled towards the chamber and strapped him in. He pushed the button, and as the machine sparked to life, his body went limp...