July 22, 2175
5:30 P.M.
Jack was still driving the car. Diana had come into the front seat. Both of them hadn't said a word since they started on the road after the confrontation. Diana was pretty amazed by Jack's cruelty while killing the Ortho Sapiens. She wasn't scared, for she had seen worse stuff in the stimulator back at the training center. It was just that she had seen Jack this angry for the first time. Jack, on the other hand, was thinking about their next course of action.
The sun was setting. Diana looked back through the rear window, making sure they weren't being followed, but she couldn't see through the glass, which had turned almost opaque because of the bullet marks.
"Jack, the car is in bad shape. Think we should head back and steal one of theirs?" she said to Jack.
"No. Removing the tracker from the car would be a real chore. Disabling the ones from the wristband was hard enough. I just forgot to fix the car. Here, watch this," Jack said as he pressed the button he used to morph the car.
There was a slight whirring sound, and the car repaired itself back, looking brand new as ever.
"Wow! That's cool."
Jack nodded, focusing back on the road.
"Jack, are you hurt anywhere? Want me to heal you?"
"No, I am fine. Thank you for the gesture, though."
"What were you talking to the officer about?" Diana asked Jack.
Jack recited his conversation with the officer without taking his eyes off the road. He finished a few minutes later, leaving Diana speechless.
"Imagine ruining your own child's whole life just because of your jealousy and prejudice. What an irresponsible father," she said after a few seconds.
Jack just nodded. The sun was hanging low in the sky; it was about to set.
Diana looked back again. There was no trace of a car following them—all she could see was a column of smoke that was left by Jack at the site of the fight.
"Are you sure you aren't hurt? Want me to heal you up?" she said, her eyes full of concern.
"I'm fine. My first two attacks filled them with fear. We were lucky we faked being human. I don't know what they would've sent to eliminate Kratians," Jack said.
"I see. Alright. Well, I saw you didn't take any Kratian wristbands this time."
"Well, there are two reasons. First, I would've taken the band of the commander, but I mixed it up when I ripped their arms off, and I thought waiting there to find it wasn't a good call. I would've found Kosuke's as well then. Second, I didn't want to deal with the tracker while driving," Jack said, sighing.
"Oh yeah, they have trackers on them... Wait, whaa? How did you deal with them the other day?"
Jack sighed. He asked Diana to look into the item pouch and enter "Trojan v7.3" in the sort bar. The item pouch had infinite space inside, so the items were sorted and saved with their names in the directory, which appeared on the item pouch after opening its mouth.
Diana entered the details and put her hands into the pouch, pulling out a USB cable.
"That cable is linked with a device. It installs a virus in the location system that continuously changes the location of the device. A help to us now and a nightmare for a person who is lost and waiting for rescue."
"Wow, that's an awesome thing. Where did you get it?"
"A gift from my father. He said it came in handy in his infiltration missions," Jack answered.
"I see."
"That reminds me, you have taken everything you needed from your home, right?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, I have."
"Good. Then we can head to my home. I will take some stuff from my grandfather's inventory. Then we leave the city—staying here is suicide at this point."
"Okay."
Jack accelerated the car. They stopped directly at his home and parked the car in the garage, whose door opened as soon as Jack's car got near. Jack parked inside, and they both entered the house through the garage door.
Jack expected the house to be as he had left it, but to his surprise, everything looked disheveled and messy. His house had been raided. He asked Diana to sit in the living room and went ahead to check every room. The drawers were pulled out, his father's study was messed up as if the raiders were looking for something.
Jack understood why this happened. After all, his late father was the biggest threat to them. His father had the body reinforcement and speedster Ikanami—again, an irregular case since his grandfather had psychic and healing Ikanami. His father was in the assassination and espionage department of the army.
He was tasked with infiltrating the Ortho Sapiens. He succeeded in infiltrating the terrorists along with a team of his and leaked critical info, foiling their plans many times. After a major incident was prevented with his information, word arrived that he had died on duty. No one knew how, but his entire team was wiped out. No bodies were recovered. This happened ten years ago on August 7, 2165, which was Jack's eighth birthday.
"Father, I am growing stronger. The promise I made to you—the promise to protect everyone the last time I saw you—has become my duty. The promise I made to avenge you on the day you died is my mission now. Please watch over me, Father, as I destroy the Ortho Sapiens," Jack said, looking at his father's picture in the study.
Jack came back into the living room. Diana was sitting on the couch, rather restless.
"Don't worry. They raided the house for potential insider info about them that was kept in my father's study. Too bad for them, they don't know where he kept it."
"I see. So where did he keep it?"
"In the room we are gonna stay in tonight. Follow me," Jack said, smiling.
Jack turned and went into the basement. Diana followed him there. The basement was just as thoroughly investigated as any other room in the house. Yet Jack didn't look worried at all. He walked over to the left corner of the room at the very end and placed his hand on the wall.
"Hauston Vault, open," he said loudly.
"Fingerprints and face match verified. Voice confirmation complete. Kana signature verified. Welcome, Master Jack," said a voice.
From the lower left corner of the room, four nail-like objects rose and arranged themselves, marking the corners of a door. The marked area shone with a bright white light, then became a portal-like structure.
Jack walked to the side of the door and bowed.
"Ladies first," he said, smiling.
Diana walked forward hesitantly. She put a hand through the door—it went right through. Where there should've been a wall, there was nothing. Her hand had passed right through the material, and she didn't feel a thing.
"Go on in," Jack insisted.
Diana walked inside. Her jaw dropped as she saw the amazing structure. There was a big room behind the door. Towering bookshelves lined the walls, and long tables were arranged beside them, computers mounted on them. At the center, there was a platform ladder. Twin beds were arranged in the left corner.
Diana looked back, Jack was poking his head through the portal door. His head was looking as if he was a hunted animal whose head was mounted on the wall. He caught her gaze and smiled.
"How is it? Welcome to the Hauston Study," he smiled.
"It's awesome. Now please get inside. You are giving me the creeps," she laughed.
"Alright." Jack's head disappeared, and he emerged through the door in a moment.
"This was made by my grandfather. He made it with a Kratian device from Creta. It works on the same principle as the item pouch but on a much larger scale and with perfection."
"Interesting. Now go wash up. Your hair reeks of blood, and I will go prepare dinner, period," she said, her piercing eyes gazing deep into his soul.
"Alright, alright, fine. If you can't find an ingredient, call for me."
Jack went into the bathroom and started the shower. Bloodied water washed down from his hair, bits of flesh flowing down as well that he hadn't noticed sticking in his dense black hair. He had killed someone today. Maybe they deserved it, but then what's the difference between him and those monsters?
Just then, the slogan of the Kratian Empire passed through his mind.
"Don't strike first, and when it's time to counterattack, don't hold back. Return everything to them with interest included."
The difference between them was clear from the start. He was a Kratian, and they were humans. He had no obligation to follow their rules. Then another thought manifested itself.
"You are not a Kratian either. You are carrying a part of both. Then where do you stand?"
The answer was simple. He would choose what he wanted to follow from both species. He would forge his own moral rules, combining the rules he wanted to follow from his lineage.
8:00 P.M.
Jack got out of the shower. The thoughts kept springing up—some he had no answer for. For some, he found the answer when he looked deep into his being.
Diana had already served dinner. They sat down and ate together. They finished up soon and got up. Jack went into the basement, and Diana picked up the utensils and dropped them in the washer. Then she headed into the basement.
The portal door was no longer there. She imitated how Jack opened the door.
"Verification failed. Please back away. Two chances left. If you try it for the third time, you will be thrown into the space-time vortex."
"Yikes, that's scaryyyy," Diana said in anguish.
"Indeed it is. I am sorry. I forgot to authorize you for freely accessing this area," said Jack, poking his head from the portal again. The portal still hadn't completely appeared in place. Instead, it just appeared as an outline, adjusting its size accordingly as Jack moved through.
"You know what is more scary?" said Diana, walking forward quickly and grabbing Jack's ear. "IS YOUR HEAD POKING THROUGH THE WALL LOOKING LIKE A DAMN MOUNTED ANIMAL!" she added as she pulled Jack out of there by his ear.
"Ow, ow, ow," Jack muttered, rubbing his ear.
"Serves you right, idiot. I already told you I don't like seeing you that way. It makes me uneasy," she said furiously.
"Fine, fine. It's alright. I just forgot," said Jack, walking towards the door again.
"Shit, it closed again," he said as he tried to enter the gate.
Jack opened the portal again. They entered. One of the computers was on, and many Ortho Sapien wristbands were lying beside it.
"Authorize Diana Richards. Give her full access."
"Verification of requester is complete. Miss Diana, please put your hand on the sensor behind you and pass some energy into it."
Diana followed the instruction, and soon she was registered.
"Good job, Diana. Now let me go disarm the failsafe."
"Disarm the what?" said Diana, tilting her head to the side, her expression blank.
"Gahhhh~ That's too cute," Jack thought. "Ahem... Come, I will show you," he spoke out loud.
Jack got back onto his computer. Diana, too, fetched a chair and sat beside him.
A complex program was open on Jack's screen. Diana didn't understand anything from it. Looking at her puzzled look, Jack decided to play with her a bit.
"You see here? This is the code part where the function which executes the failsafe is called. If we delete this part, the function won't get called. But there is an issue again. There is a success message in the function as well. So if the function doesn't get called, there won't be a success message, hence alerting the Sapiens that something is wrong. So I will print a fake message here," he blabbered, enjoying the dazed look on Diana's face.
"I see."
"Pfft~ AHAHAHAHHAHhAHAHHA! Just say you don't understand! AHHAAHHH!" Jack laughed with his hands on his stomach.
"Stop playing around," Diana said, pouting.
"Well, they had a function in the wristband that allowed them to remotely administer cyanide to the official wearing it, thus preventing any info leaks from an officer that was caught. I was just getting rid of that. Up until now, I was using a small Kana slab under the band to protect myself. Now it's okay. I will program this into the Trojan USB so that we don't have to get onto my computer every time," Jack said, connecting the USB to the computer.
"Wow, that's so cautious of them. You should've disarmed that before leaving, idiot. All this time, you were wearing it like that. What if something happened to you?" she said, looking down.
"I am sorry. I was just so worried about you that I didn't even think of my own safety," Jack said, working on the computer (trying his best to hide his blushing).
"Alright, it's done. All we gotta do now is connect Trojan to every band. It will take about ten minutes. Oh wait, I can just do this."
He dashed out of the room and returned a few seconds later with a multi-headed USB cable. He stuffed each of the heads into one band and attached the main one to his computer. Then he attached "Trojan" to the computer.
"I will copy-paste the virus into the main hub, and it will automatically distribute itself into the bands. Since I removed the function, if we remove the cyanide bags, it won't send an alert. We can use it in the future," he said smugly.
"Where is the bag, though?"
Jack picked up one of the bands and used his hands to bend open the bottom covering. There was a small bag filled with a white liquid among the many wires. There was a small needle attached to it, held by a lever. It fit perfectly inside a tiny opening in the bottom covering. Jack resealed the covering back.
"Alright, thanks," Diana said, amazed at Jack's skills.
"Now then, don't be amazed so easily. Let me show you something much more amazing."
Jack walked to the twin beds. He put his hand on the wall near the top bed.
"Open, Arsenal," Jack said.
Another portal door opened up in the same fashion as the former one. Jack poked his head inside for a second and then came out, stepped aside from the path, and bowed.
"After you, M'lady," he said, grinning.
Diana expected to see another room. Well, she wasn't wrong, but the room was too full of special items to be called that. It was, as the name suggested, an arsenal—a room full of fuel for war.
Jack walked inside before her, smiling at her amazement.
The room was lined with shelves all around it, gigantic shelves, and items in display glasses were set up throughout. There were guns of various kinds, from small handguns to big machine guns, from assault rifles to plasma rifles, and some that Diana didn't recognize, even though her parents were in the army. The shelf opposite was lined with armor, battle suits, gauntlets, swords, and all kinds of melee weapons.
At the end of the room, there was a shelf full of metals—different kinds, though just in tiny amounts. The display glasses housed a hammer, five cuboidal structures shaped like underground bunker doors. One display glass showcased a full-fledged battle suit equipped on a mannequin. It looked like one of the most highlighted and coolest things in the room. There were about fifteen drones of different designs housed in the glasses.
"Wow, that's... so, so damn awesome."
"I know, right? All of this is my grandfather's collection, and almost everything was made back in Creta, except the assault rifles and plasma rifles," Jack said, smiling at her.
"That's cool, but the metals aren't in much quantity."
"Oh, that." Jack walked to one of the shelves and tapped on the screen displaying the name of the metal.
The display glasses rearranged themselves, making a big space at the center. The floor slid under one of the shelves, revealing a big hole. A few seconds later, a big container rose from the hole, full of the metal Jack had tapped. Diana read the amount of metal in the container—12 tonnes! Jack tapped the button again, and the container returned while the display glasses resumed their positions.
"Woah. Nice. But tell me, Jack, why does it seem like your grandfather was an influential person? He is always linked to something major."
Rick Hauston, Jack's grandfather, was a great warrior. He was a Kratian who fought in the Great War. This was the only information the public knew—except perhaps a few Kratian families. What they didn't know was who he truly was.
Rick Hauston, a pure-blooded Kratian warrior, was the commander of the Zeroth Battalion of the United Army. The name wasn't because it was the first battalion of the united force—it was because there were no men under Rick in the battalion. Yes, he was a lone fighter.
Even though he fought alone, he managed to take down seven Xeno battleships by himself, without even borrowing the help of the air force.
He took on a whole Xeno invasion army by himself when they ambushed the safe zone he was in charge of. The number of attackers was multiple folds that of the refugees. Yet, they were defeated. By a single man. Within an hour. How? No one alive knew.
He had a special power called The Authority Over Kana Energy. Some speculated that it was a secret Ikanami. Some thought it was just a bluff and that Rick was simply too adept at using his Ikanami. Whatever the answer was, only he and his close ones knew.
Creta followed a monarchy system, and the Hauston family was the ruler of the Kratians—unrivaled in their prowess. Rick was the crowned prince of the royal family, as his father had died on Creta when their planet was destroyed. Thus, Rick was the king now. However, he allowed the Kratians to have a democratic system and disappeared among the general public.
Jack remembered his grandpa once telling him what he did on the day of the signing of the Co-Existence Pact.
"They asked me to hand over the stuff we got from Creta for supposed research purposes. I rejected them, saying that the Kratian scientists were there to help them with that. There was no need to hand over the last mementos of Creta. When they insisted, I got angry and threatened them, saying, 'You know very well what I can do. We came for peaceful co-existence, but if you are going to act all high and mighty, I will send my people into the solar system for an hour and trample all human lives on this planet myself and start a new era of Kratians.' They got scared and submitted," he told him, laughing.
Jack told all this to Diana. She was amazed by the history of Jack's family.
"Well, aren't you the prince now? Well, Mr. Prince, get a white horse soon, and let's go rescue a Kratian princess in distress," she said teasingly.
"Heh~" Jack said with a smile.
"Huh? What's this? Don't tell me you've found one already," Diana said, raising an eyebrow.
"Who knows?" Jack replied smugly.
They caught each other's gaze and started laughing out loud.
"I haven't found a princess. I have found a queen, as she is already reigning over my heart. You, my queen, are the sole one who will ever sit on the throne of my heart. And me? I will be your knight if I can't be the king—protecting you forever, staying by your side, finding happiness in your happiness." he thought while laughing, watching Diana's mesmerizing laughter.