Her suspecting eyes latched onto me. Somehow, the words curled beneath my tongue wouldn’t come out, it was glued there indefinitely. Unsettling, it was a strange feeling of calmed rage, slowly severing itself from its chains of bondage. I stood up, my hands still resting on the table and looked at her to the side. Just when the weakest link in the chain began breaking, Anna slipped between the cutthroat glares, “Ma’am, we couldn’t track Ban for all these years–”

“So, what makes you think you can track me now?” I stifled my urge to yell, largely disappointed in how quick my own mother was ready to accuse me, even after my attempts at accepting her.

“Let’s, take this somewhere else,” Anna said to mom, then looked at me and held my wrist, “alright? Come on, let’s go.” She gently pulled me out the lunch room. Mom followed close behind as we went to the elevator. Deathly quiet, this atmosphere itself could take down the strongest of men.

We entered the server room, with rows of servers lining the walls. That incessant whirring of the hard drives and air-conditioner drowned out some voices on the far end of the immaculately clean room.

“How does it look, Ron?”

“Everything we’ve tried so far has failed. We don’t know where its coming from, but we know they have almost admin-level access right now,” the technician answered, his casual and lax clothing showing he was probably on a day off. There were two others deep in concentration, peering diligently at the lines of code across the screen.

Mom folded her arms and shook her head, “Jared, you’re used to doing this. Can you take a look at it too?”

“Aren’t you scared I’ll do something I shouldn’t?” I snapped back, my tone denoting a calculative intention with its immediate thrust into the conversation. But, Anna simply placed her hand on my shoulder and leaned her lips near my ear, “She’s confused and needs your help, Jared. She’s just afraid to show her soft side to her employees, so don’t worry, okay?”

Even with the thought of her uncouth personality riding the waves above my ability to understand how communication works with her, I still at least afforded Anna the time of day. After about a half hour of reading the spacey white text, I saw something interesting. A comment that disguised itself as an actual line of code, reading, ‘Thank you, Ugo.’

“That’s what it says,” I pointed to the line, “also,” I scrolled down to the balance of the code, “it has a condition here that basically cancels the entire code so long as the server is online. This code literally does nothing but say thank you.”

“What do you think it means?” Anna asked, probably seeking a hacker’s point of view. Their eyes all traced me for a while, until I shrugged, “But, no one’s gonna thank someone for nothing. The hacker most likely got what they wanted already, or is absolutely sure that they are going to.”

Mom felt about her chin with her wrinkly fingers, deep in assumption. Suddenly, her eyes fleshed open, “Could it be?” she muttered to herself. “We’ve had three attacks on our shipments in the past month.”

Shipments? “Shipments of what?” I asked.

“Parts and materials for the lab. They were what we ordered in bulk. Materials for TS production, but there was that incident…” she went quiet, thinking I would feel a way about it. She was right.

“Then we know the author of this message,” I said. Three android attacks, a hitman assault, and not to mention endangering lives at UGO, I grew tired of David Cennet’s lust for revenge. “When’s the next shipment?”

“Monday coming, we put a lot more security to escort the container this time, all TEOs. TEOs? She asked for their help? I wondered, perusing the reports of their savagery in the past. They were the Tactical Enforcement Operatives, a special unit to solve special emergencies. For her to get their help, money must’ve been passed beneath the table.

“I’m, going home. Anna,” I looked back after I trekked some distance away, “at least think about it, okay?”

After a while, mom found me outside, her breath a little heavy after hurrying to catch me, “Wait!” She breathed, “I’ll give you a ride!” she said, one hand outward to stop me, and the other on her knee to catch her breath.

We rode home in silence, until I stepped out of the vehicle, “Jared. I’m, sorry. I’m sorry for doubting you. You’ve only ever helped the company, yet, I thought you were responsible at first.” She gripped the wheel tighter, finding it difficult to hold eye-contact in the latter part of her apology.

“It’s alright,” I said, a highly ambiguous answer given my previous state of mind before meeting dad. She must’ve known, that piteous smile that she offered up proved that she knew I wasn’t fully bought.

Besides, I had something else on my mind. It was time to take action, and to do that, I’d need something fast. The levitation alone in Grav was great, getting me to sprinting speed easily, but by no means was it something challenging to a vehicle. At some point, I had to install the boosters, but not just the usual one with normal propulsion schematics. This one had to run off of UGO energy, like most of my important inventions. The installation was a breeze. Perfecting flight with it, however, was a totally different story. I was like a plane with engines and no wings. Sure, Grav’s boosters were more than enough to lift me, but there was no control. I needed a way to change course easily, and to maintain levitation using the boosters instead of the anti-gravitational plates. I thought about placing them on various places on my body, but none were more practical than simply placing one near the front of the boot and one near the heel. All I’d need to do was connect the boosters to my headgear and simply decrease or increase the power to make whatever turns I wanted to. It worked wonderfully, though I still made some crash landings in the expansive backyard.

Finally, the day had arrived. Maybe I wasn’t thinking straight. Perhaps all the training I did made me feel obligated to carry out this journalistic mission to the end. But I ended up shadowing the container and its band of police cars and armoured vans. The trucker came to a rather long and lonely road on the journey. At the sides of the roads were thick forests, the perfect place for an attack. But, my prediction was proved wrong, it was only until we reached close to a city that I found the movements of the TEOs were strange. Suddenly, they all just made hard lefts, slamming themselves into ditches, shops, drains and the like. Even when the TEOs were immobilised, the truck driver kept going.

Is he controlling the truck too? I thought it impossible, to control something that big, but still, it was modern, and had an electrical system like any other vehicle, one capable of remote control. Five minutes of driving later, the truck stopped and two TS swooped down upon it. I immediately grabbed my phone and began recording the spectacle. They opened the doors easily, like it wasn’t even locked, and grabbed the driver and his partner out, flying away with them. Some seconds later, four other TS nosedived and landed atop the forty feet container, cutting the top open in a matter of minutes. I flew above them and recorded on the roof of a nearby building.

They hooked themselves up, one TS to each corner of the large wooden box. I leaned my phone in a way that kept my cameras’ lens directed at the scene and decided to do something about it, even if just to stall for the TEOs to catch up. After they attached the chains to the box, I dropped a couple EMP grenades. One hit the container and bounced off, affecting none of the TS, but the other put two of them out of commission. I flew down, unsheathing my Z-21 from my back and slashing through a torso, then spun around behind it and fired the powerful energy bolt from the Z-21. It shot a clean hole through the head of another TS. The energy bolt, unfettered by the failure of a barricade the TS formed zoomed up into the nearby mountains and destroyed a couple trees.

There were just two more TS to deal with now. One of which was still under the effects of the EMP. I turned my attention to the functioning TS, its snow-white, deadpan silicone face looking right at me, with its gun drawn of course. I stepped out from behind the one I took out first, then activated a shielder, charging right to the shooting TS that emptied its clip like there was no tomorrow. As I got close, it jumped and activated its boosters, only be denied the chance of escape because of the box it tethered itself to earlier. I hit my boosters and met with it in the air, bashing the semi-circular energy shield into it then stabbing right through its energy core at the centre of the chest. With its dying breath, or rather, cell, it said something that chilled me to the core. “Charlie is watching,” it said, choppy, but still clear.

Charlie? I questioned. Why does Cennet know about dad? Immediately, I phoned dad, but it just rang and rang. All ten times I called, he never picked up. It was of great concern, but something else rattled my brain. Those truck drivers. Were they okay? Where were the androids taking them? I flew upwards to see over the houses and buildings, but those androids had already disappeared from this town. Scores of onlookers crept forward after the commotion subsided to marvel at the scene. Leaving the open container with the goods inside perturbed me, but I’d rather not have my face captured and rampant on the internet, so I flew right to UGO the minute I retrieved my phone.

I really need goggles, I thought, soaring through the sky. Grav’s speed was no joke. Having three boosters on each boot fuelled by UGO energy didn’t help either, but speed was very much needed at this point. How do I even tell mom? Should I just call the authorities? Wait, no, the TEOs should arrive to secure the container so it should be fine. Bet they already told mom too, but what they don’t know is… I trailed off when I finally reached UGO headquarters. I sped through, using levitation instead of boosters to glide my way through the hallways and into the elevator. Of course, I could’ve phoned mom, but I was afraid our conversation would be monitored.

The elevator finally dinged, and I glided to her office at the top. She just came from a call, and was storming out the office. “Jared!” she jumped when I appeared out of the corner, “You startled me. What is it you want? This is a really bad time.”

I could guess what happened now. “TEOs just called?” I asked nonchalantly. She furrowed her brows and gave me troubled eyes glazed in suspicion.

“Y-yeah,” she said, dragging the word out, “I’m not even going to ask how you know anymore,” and sighed. “Anyway, another shipment got attacked, but they said all the materials are there, untouched. The drivers are gone though. Jared, the locals said there was a flying boy fighting some robots,” she got unnervingly close and glowered at me, “I don’t suppose you know who that is? Hmm?”

I laughed nervously, rubbing the back of my head, “Not a clue,” I shrugged

“Incorrigible,” she muttered under her breath and grabbed my hand to drag me inside. “Tell me exactly what happened.”

I smiled and rummaged around my pocket, “I don’t need to say anything, really. I can just show you.”

Her jaw dropped and she passed quick eyes on me, then back to the video. It was just a few minutes long, but it seemed like she took an eternity re-watching every little detail. “Anyway, do you see the last TS I fought? He said something to me. ‘Charlie is watching.’ I don’t know what he means, but Cennet is a cunning person, right? I’m worried he’ll target dad.”

“You’re worried? About him? Really?” She put the phone down and held her forehead like migraines afflicted her, “You mean you’re worried about a man living light years away in the middle of nowhere? Don’t you think you should worry about this kid,” she pointed at the screen, “who is just thirteen, might I add, that decided to play hero and put himself in serious danger for some damn materials?!” Her fist dropped down onto the table in anger.

“No. That kid has two shielders that can give almost three hundred and sixty degrees of protection against anything. But that man in the middle of nowhere? He has nothing. In fact, the stuff you’re worried that could’ve happened to the kid, is probably already happening to him. You’re filthy rich, you can afford to get him some security, at least for a while.”

Mom stood up angrily and paced about the room, slowly retaking her calm nature. “You know, Jared. If I knew you would turn out this way, I’d have shown you all the love you ever wanted and made sure you never touched even a screwdriver. You’re at that point where what I say goes through one ear and out the other. But, I guess that’s to be expected,” she exhaled, a defeatist tone to her previous words, “but, don’t think for a second that you’re some hero. I’m still your mother, what I say goes. Do not involve yourself with this anymore. I will deal with Cennet myself. Just go back to bei–”

“Nah,” I said, shooting down whatever she was about to say, “I’ve decided there’s no going back for me. I’m not going to run anymore. I’m not going to hide anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I respect your wishes. But I will never sit still if he targets you, dad, or Anna.”

“And should the day come where he targets any of us, what would you do? Huh?! Will you kill him? You aren’t five anymore, Jared! There will be consequences. You will be a criminal!”

“That’s fine,” I retorted, rather composed, “if that’s what it means to protect you all, I’ll become a criminal a hundred times over. It might be stupid, because compared to Theresa, I still feel like you three are just acquaintances. But, I want to see what would happen overtime. I want to see the life that I wasn’t able to see before, one where I could trust myself to love again.”

She gave me a squeamish face. “Yeah, yeah, I know,” I told her, almost as if to calm her upcoming words before they could slip past her lips, “it’s pretty stupid. If I get myself killed anyway, then what I’m fighting for won’t mean a thing. So, let’s make a deal, okay? You get dad security and make sure he’s safe. Anna too. And of course, yourself. Then I’ll put all this behind me and just focus on the lab. And on my studies too, I guess.

“See? What I’m saying goes right over your head.” She hit me on the head, then shrugged, “Fine, I don’t have a problem with that. Just at least promise me to never leave the house without those shielders. And those special boots may come in handy. Keep those on too. And you should go back to school, make some friends. You know, friends your own age.”

That doting side of her, was something I craved for years, then eventually gave up on. How laughable. The minute I didn’t want it, she gave it to me.