"Well, stop it," the man in the grey suit snapped. "We need to present the prototype tomorrow, and the network is lagging."
He dragged his Icarus assembly into the workspace. Usually, this process took hours of cloud computing, requiring credits the university didn't have. But now, with the 'Mega' suite running, the progress bar screamed.
Elias scrambled backward as the monitor flared with a blinding white light. The hum of his computer speaker deepened, vibrating the desk, then the floor, then his chest. The distinction between the digital grid and the physical lab began to blur. The wires on his desk rattled, lifting slightly off the surface as if gravity had localized to his screen.
Elias shielded his eyes as the lab filled with a blinding radiance. The smell of ozone filled the air.
They left, locking the door behind them. Elias was trapped inside, but more importantly, his computer was now untethered from the standard safety protocols. The installation completed.
A prompt appeared on his screen, in a font that wasn't standard Fusion UI. It was bold, glowing gold.