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.