So in case is wasn't clear in the description this is a novelization of the modern day parts of AC4. I will not be writing about Edward's adventure; however it will be referenced continually. These were just ideas I had while playing through these parts of the game. Anyway let's get started. I own nothing.

October 29 2013

The light was beginning to fade as the Animus slowly began to shut down. It was my first time being in one; however I had heard quite a lot about it in the last few years. Edward Kenway, his journey had just begun and I had no idea what to expect but from what I just saw, it was going to be an exciting one. The light was off and there was nothing but blackness for a moment before I heard a voice, "All right…easy now." The light of the real world blinded me for a moment as my eyes started to focus. In my way was a woman I had never seen before.

She smiled as she pulled off my Animus headset. "There you go. Welcome back." She turned and walked away towards a giant computer screen. My eyes finally adjusted so I could see her fully. She had short red hair, the kind that was obviously dyed but it looked really good. She wore a lower cut tan shirt with a black leather jacket over it. Her skirt and leggings matched the jacket, giving her a professional but easy-going look. She looked down at a tablet, obviously going over some data from my virtual romp. "Well your numbers look good…" She turned back to me.

"Well I try you know? Not that I'd actually know what bad numbers look like…" She smiled at me again.

"Now, let's make sure we didn't break your brain alright?" At first I thought that was a joke, and it might have been but I was a little worried. Any kind of neural tech could lead to something like that happening so I didn't want to take any chances. I nodded and we got to work. "I need you to move your head and look at these lights. Just here. Look up." A light flashed on the ceiling and I stared at it for a moment. "Down." She continued and I did the same for a light on the floor. "So far so good, let's get you up." It took me a moment to do so. I guess it was still part of the Animus process.

I got up off the chair and wobbled for a moment before she started speaking again. "So, welcome to the Sample 17 project."

"Thank you I'm happy to be chosen." I tried to contain the excitement that was actually building up right now. She turned away again.

"Before you get started, you're going to need this…" She turned back and was holding one of those phone earpieces that I had only seen those on the wealthier side of life use. She put it on my ear. "There you go." She began walking toward the door and then I heard her voice in my ear. "Testing, testing…1, 2, 3…hello, bonjour? Est-il bon ? It works?" It took me a moment to realize she was speaking French, which is stupid of me because I was in France so I really shouldn't have been surprised. I understood her but barely. I only had gotten the chance to start learning a small amount of French before I got offered this job and moved here from America. I touched my own earpiece and responded.

"Yeah, I think we're good." She smiled again and the door opened up.

"All right. Let's take a walk."

"Sweet. When I got here they just kind of shuffled me into that room to get started. I was excited anyway so it wasn't a big deal." We walked out into what appeared to be the main hall of the Abstergo facility. Everything looked state-of-the-art with screens everywhere depicting the things Abstergo was doing all over the world and some of the different projects they were working on. All of them tied to memories and DNA. It was a fascinating field of study, one I had never even considered until one of their researchers came to my college campus one day and spoke on it. After that I changed my major and everything hoping for a chance like this. I still can't believe I got it. I think she could see the look I must have had on my face because she waited until we came across some stairs before speaking again.

"Your file says you've done some memory research before, but not to this extent, which is surprising."

"Why is that surprising? Is it because I'm black?" That was a stupid joke in truth and I immediately regretted it after saying it but I tried to play it off by laughing. She stopped and turned to me. She stared for a moment before laughing a bit herself and giving me a light shove on the shoulder.

"Of course not, it's just that you're very good. The data-streams are very stable." We continued our trek down the hall and found large groups of people staring at the larger screens on the sides. I wondered if they actually worked there or if the were just observers. I continued looking at, well everything and she continued. "Impressive right? This building is barely six months old but Abstergo Entertainment has been a studio for a few years. Since 2010." The matched up with the timing of that scientist earlier. Back then they had talked about how there had been Abstergo Industries for many decades but back in 2010 was when they had moved into entertainment. The goal being to show people exciting visions of the past. Stuff like I was going to be doing, just on a bigger scale.

Further down the hall one of the screens shifted and showed a woman standing against a white background. Her face was concealed by the hat she wore but she looked battle ready with two blades coming from her wrists. "Maybe you saw Liberation? That was our first title powered by Animus tech."

"No, can't say I have. Heard it wasn't the best though." She sighed.

"I heard similar things, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Soon we'll be unveiling commercial Animus servers for the whole world to enjoy. They'll offer passive experiences of course. Edited versions of real history. But only the exciting parts. And we think we found the perfect subject for our first full-length virtual feature: Caribbean pirates! So that's your gig."

"If it's anything like I experienced so far, then I look forward to it." In truth I always found it a bit strange that Abstergo wanted to find edited versions of history. I mean I know it's just for entertainment but if someone can edit history wouldn't that give that person power that really no one should have? Maybe I'm wondering for nothing. There are a million books on history, so it's not like they could really hide anything. Right?

We approached the information desk near the end of the hall. The woman began to walk towards it signaling we were headed that direction. "It'll just take a minute, okay?" There was another woman wearing a strange uniform made up of teal and orange colors standing at the desk. She turned away as we approached and began walking to the front entrance. She could have been a messenger or something, I wasn't completely sure.

"Well, thank you Nancy." She said something else in French which I didn't catch but I doubt it was anything relevant to me. She walked away from the desk and the woman I had been walking with started talking to Nancy. Again they spoke French but is sounded something like something was ready. To which the red head said thank you and maybe magnificent.

The red head who I realized I still didn't know the name of picked up a tablet from Nancy's desk and handed it to me. "This is for you. The primary tool of our trade. Your communicator." She paused for a moment as I observed it. "Power it up and give it a look. It's pretty slick." I had to look for the on button but once I found it the tablet came to life. A screen appeared with the famous Abstergo symbol before showing me all the options available. I really wanted to mess with it but I noticed the woman had kept moving. I ran to catch up.

"Sorry about that, just had to adjust to it and all." I said with a smirk. She nodded and motioned for us to continue.

"It's fine. Actually your tablet can point you in the direction of wherever you want to go in the building. It's pretty impressive. Which reminds me? You might have noticed that security is a little light around here."

"Actually I hadn't thought much of it but now that you mention it, it does seem light."

"Well that's because your communicator is the key to getting around." As she said that we finally reached the hallways end. We crossed a small bridge and entered an elevator to the upper floors. As soon as we walked in my tablet had a green light pop up on it. At the same time a light popped up in the elevator. I adjusted my glasses and looked back and forth between them. Red must have noticed because she spoke up. "See that flashing wireless signal? It means you're hooked up to the elevator. I'll let you do the honors. We're headed up to the Sample 17 studio. Second floor."

"Damn, this place gets cooler by the second…did I say that out loud?" Red laughed for a moment. She had a cute smile. I pressed the green light on the tablet and the elevator started moving. After only a few moments the elevator stopped. Obviously we had made it.

"You ready?"

"I was born ready."

"Let's go." I had reached my peak excitement now. This was going to be where I spent a lot of time and everything looked welcoming. The people were all smiling and everything looked sleek, almost to a creepy degree. We kept moving.

As we left the elevator Red noticed someone and jumped a bit. "Ah, there's the boss… Olivier Garneau, our CCO! I'll introduce you." She said hello to man in French, I assumed must have been that boss. He was tall and had shaggy black hair. He wore glasses like I did and seemed quite familiar with Red. He returned the hello and said what I am pretty sure was "Melanie" so I guess that must be her name. The two of them did that thing where you kiss each others cheeks in an exaggerated fashion. Must be a French thing. American's weren't much into that. Melanie looked at me. "Have you met our new hire? Just started today."

"I haven't. I'm Olivier, and your name?" For a moment I froze but snapped back quickly.

"It's Ryan Arken. Nice to meet you." We shook hands, and I had to make sure it was a firm one.

"Okay Mr. Arken, what project are you working on?" Melanie interjected.

"Sample 17. The Kenway line."

"Haytham? Conner?" I didn't know what those meant. Maybe names of other Kenway's? Hopefully I could check those out too.

"Edward. The pirate!" Melanie responded again. The boss heard her and did his best interpretation of a pirate before laughing. It made me laugh as well.

"Very exciting. Welcome aboard." Olivier turned to Melanie again. "Actually can we talk in your office for a minute?"

"Sure, just let me get Ryan here settled and I'll see you in…five minutes?" The boss responded in more French before one last "Nice to meet you," before I followed Melanie away.

In a moment we reach the research floor where all the desks were. Melanie continued giving me the rundown of things. "So, this is the Sample 17 floor. We're diving into the memories of one very generous donor, Desmond Miles." That name… I don't know what it was but it gave me pause. Maybe I heard it somewhere before but it sounded somewhat familiar. Or maybe it was nothing. I wasn't sure. "We're pulling all the best stuff from his DNA… and hopefully, one day we can forge some fantastic experiences from what we find in there."

"Oh I can attest that you will." I said with enthusiasm. We had stopped by a desk with what looked like someone under it, like when someone's fixing a car.

"This pair of legs is John, one of the wizards in IT. He's just fixing something for you."

"Not fixing. Calibrating." John responded. I couldn't see his face at all but he wore a lot of blue and that was all I could tell.

"Calibrating, right." Melanie corrected herself.

"Nice to meet you John, I'm Ryan. Look forward to working with you."

"Sure, new guy. Whatever you say." John returned. Melanie motioned me to the desk we were by.

"So here we are, your very own Animus workstation. This is all yours so sit back, relax and find us some new footage." The desk was circular with a ton of shelves and places to hold items. I pointed at the chair in front of the desk.

"Can I, you know…" I said with a grin on my face.

"Sure, go ahead! If you need any hints or tips, the Animus is loaded with tutorial programs, so you'll have no problems. I'll check in on you later. Happy Pirating!"

"Wait, one question before you go." She stopped and turned back to me. "Are you and the boss, like a 'thing'?" What was I thinking?! Such a stupid question. Maybe she didn't hear me and I got lucky. I never got lucky though.

"Why do you ask?" She said that with a smile so that was good news.

"Uh… you know? Just curiosity." She chuckled a bit before responding.

"Nope, I am a single woman… just for 'curiosity.'" She walked away. I sat down and stared at the Animus screen for a moment. Lost in my own reflection. My shaved black hair, green eyes and clean shaven face gave me a determined look.

"Is it okay for me to use this thing John?" I waited a moment for a response.

"Yeah, you're good. It most likely won't fry your brain." I couldn't tell if that was supposed to be a joke but I was too excited to care. I picked up the headpiece and slipped it on. I was ready for a pirate adventure and things were looking up.

So that's how the chapters will go mostly. Like the story but I have spun it a bit to be (hopefully) more interesting. I hope I see you guys next time. I know these chapters may be short but I am just working with what I got.