Arc 16 - 001

Jake looked surprised. First of all, he had barely used the browser. He was only using the computer for games. It was a family computer, but it was in his room.

The problem was not that his name was written there. The problem was that there was no internet connection and how did they know Jake was the one who would turn on the computer.

He swallowed his saliva.

“What the hell?” Jake muttered.

He tried to close the browser, but it was not working.

- That won’t work. -

A new text appeared on the webpage.

- I am here to talk to you. -

As Jake finished reading the text, the door opened. He looked back and it was his father.

“Are you hungry?” His father was in his late 40s. He was not very tall but was not very short either. He had blonde hair and blue eyes.

“N-no,” Jake replied. It was September, so the weather was kind of hot. Therefore, Jake’s sweating did not raise any suspicions.

His father chuckled and said, “Play a different game once in a while.”

Jake was surprised to hear that. He was not playing a game at the moment. He slowly turned towards the screen and found out that the screen was now showing the start-up page of the game he always plays.

“W-what?” Jake muttered.

Jake turned around to look at his father again. He laughed forcefully and said, “It’s a good game.”

As his father heard that, he closed the door of the room again and went downstairs.

As Jake turn back and saw something unusual again. He was back on that webpage again.

For a split second, his breathing stopped. He started to shiver.

- Jake, don’t tell anyone about this. -

A new text appeared on the webpage.

- If you do, something bad might happen to someone. -

He thought it was a prank at first, but this went too far. How was it able to tell who was using the computer?

Then Jake looked around the PC and he saw a camera on it. It should not have one, but it did.

Jake did not know how to ask a question, so he just muttered.

“Who are you?”

- I am a friend, Jake. -

New text appeared on the webpage.

Jake got off the chair as soon as he could and tried to shut down the computer, but it would not shut down. He held down the power button for a while and nothing changed.

- Come on, Jake. Don’t do this. It will not work. -

Jake just stood there. He started to breathe heavily and sweat.

- Meet me at the park at 2 PM. -

The text appeared and a few seconds later, a map appeared. In the map, there was a particular place that was marked in red.

It was 1: 42 PM now. The park was only 10 minutes away.

“Yeah, like I would...” Jake muttered but he went into deep thought. He wanted this to be a prank but he knew it somewhere that it could not be a prank.

He was meeting with his old friends in the park later this day, so he was going to the park anyway. So, he decided to leave early and remove any suspicions he might have.

He got up and left the room.

As soon as he did that, the computer just shut down.

Jake looked back and the screen was just black. After that, he left the room and went to the marked place.

Once he got to the park, it was pretty empty. There were not many people around.

He sat on the bench next to the mark. Once he sat down, he looked around but there was no one around.

He kept looking around but no one was around. He also kept looking at his watch every few seconds.

As soon as it was 2 PM, someone appeared next to him on the bench out of thin air.

“AAAHHHHHHHH...” Jake shouted out, but it was not very loud.

“Hello, Jake.” Said the man that appeared next to him. It was an old man whom he saw earlier this day.

Jake was sweating badly. His heart was racing and he tried to speak, but words won’t come out.

“I went to your school today.” The old man said. “I was talking to your principal regarding your transfer. I wanted her to send you to my school, but she said it was not her role. She said I should talk to your parents.”

That was a lie he came up with just mere moments ago.

The old man looked at Jake and found out that Jake was just sitting there. He was speechless and he was scared.

“We have been monitoring you for some time now. You are a smart kid and I have a proposal for you.”

“Wh-what do you want?”

“I work for MI6. We are working on a program that requires your help.”

Jake chuckled and asked the obvious question. “What does MI6 want with someone like me?”

“This program will give you superpowers.”

Jake wanted to laugh out loud at the old man’s proposal, but he knew better than that. He knew that he was probably joking.

The old man saw the unsurprising expression of Jake’s face. He knew that it was unbelievable. So, he said, “Did you see how I got here? I teleported here.”

Jake saw how he came here but he did not want to believe it.

“You still do not believe me?” The old man took out a smartphone from his pocket. He doing something on his phone but Jake did not show any interest.

However, he showed a video clip to Jake.

In the video clip, there is a young kid who is floating and his eyes are blue. Not blue like blue eyes but it is lit up with blue energy.

As the clip was over, he swiped right and another video appeared.

In this new video, the same kid was using telekinesis to move something.

Both videos showed the same kid. That kid was no one other than Nazar.

Jake was slowly getting interested in it.

“So, what do you say?”

There was silence for a little while.

“I… I don’t know.”

“I want an answer now.”

“I-I can’t leave...”

The old man frowned and said, “You have a little sister, don’t you? I can go after her if you want.” He paused and then continued. “It is true, she is not as smart as you, but I can make an exception.”

Jake might be young, but he was extremely smart for someone his age.

Jake hesitated to answer. “O-okay.”

As he said that, the old man stood up and said, “Let’s go.”

“I need to tell...”

“Don’t worry, they already know you won’t coming for a while.”

Jake was surprised and scared now, but deep down he was a little excited too.

As he replied with that, Jake vanished into thin air.

Back at Jake’s home, his Dad went upstairs to give him some snacks. But he was not there.

“Huh? Where is Jake?”

From the other room, he heard Emily’s voice.

“He said, he went to the park.”

“Okay...”

He was about to leave, but he saw a piece of paper laying on top of the computer. He wanted to ignore it, but then he decided to do something about it.

“If you are not using it, then at least recycle it.” Jake’s father muttered.

He went to the desk and picked up the paper. He was about to throw it away, but then he saw it was a letter.

“Dear mom and dad,

I will no longer be living in this house. So, don’t try and find me.

Love you, Jake.”

He looked at the paper and said, “What the hell is this? What kind of prank is this?”

Back in the park, Jake was no longer there. The old man was talking to someone on the phone.

“Can you give me a few minutes, sir?”

“Yes. You will be teleported back in two minutes.” The person on the other end of the phone paused for a little while. “And good work.”

As soon as he heard that, he cut off the call.

He just sat there and closed his eyes.

He muttered something and a magic circle appeared.

As the magic circle appeared, he was taken somewhere else in his mind. It was a place that did not exist in a physical world.

“What is it, John?” An old man appeared before him.

“It is done, sir. Nazar is safe for now.”

The old man turned into a beautiful blonde woman. Her hair reached her waist and she was wearing a white dress. She also had big blue eyes and sparkling.

“Good work, John.”

“Thank you, Aarin.”

The old man opened his eyes again and he was back in the park.

He sat there for five more seconds, and then he was teleported out.

END OF FLASHBACK.

Both brother and sister sat in the same place. The place was very quiet at that moment.

Emily had her hands on the table and her head was resting on it. She was looking outside through the glass window.

The world was somewhat back to normal. Something good has happened? Or maybe something even worse has happened?

The roads were packed with cars. People were out shopping like nothing has happened. Trains were operating too. However, aeroplanes were still out.

Yesterday. The whole world was in disarray. The government was no longer. Laws were no longer relevant. People were fighting against one another for no reason.

However, today is different. Every country since this morning had developed a temporary government. Every citizen followed the same old rules and laws. Police forces and military forces were still out, but the rate of crime and terrorism was 0%.

What happened last night?

Emily finally broke the silence between them.

“You know...” she paused for a little while. “We thought it was a prank. We waited for a few hours. You did not come back. We called anyone we knew and no had any ideas about your whereabouts. It was not until 9 PM when we involved the police. They searched for a very long time, but it looked like you vanished...” Emily chuckled. “Vanished. You did really vanish into thin air, didn’t you?”

All this time, she did not even look at her brother, who was sitting opposite her.

She continued, “Do you what we went through? It took us years to get over your disappearance. Mom and dad went to the police quite often to see if they have found anything, but they always returned with tears in their eyes. We tried advertising it in local newspapers and magazines, but for some reason, they would always reject it.”

Emily paused again. “Then three years ago you contact me. You come up with a half-assed story and I believe it. Do you know how amazing it would have been if mom and dad knew about you? I looked them in the eyes and pretended that you were no longer around anymore. Do you know how hard I tried to stop myself from spreading this pathetic secret? Why did you stop me.”

001 sat there in silence. He tried to speak. He moved his lips but nothing came out.

“You cannot even tell me what happened to you?” Emily spoke again. “You told me that you were studying in US. You came here a few times and we met face-to-face and I was so happy, but why did you not give the same happiness to mom and dad? Why did you let them get tortured for years?”

001 did not answer any of the questions. He had many chances to meet with his family but he did not do so.

Emily finally lifted her head up. “So, where are my answers?”

001 finally spoke after being silent for a long time.

“When I went to the facility with the old man, I thought I was keeping you guys safe. Every child has a fantasy. They want to have powers. They want to be heroes. I had the same dreams and I thought I was finally able to achieve it.” 001 paused for a little while. “I thought I was a hero by keeping you guys safe, but deep down I knew it all too well, I just wanted power.”

001 chuckled and continued. “I thought I was going to get powers. I let them experiment on me over and over again. But at the end of the day, each experiment was a failure. For years, I let them do anything they wanted to me. I let them use every method they could to give me powers, but it did not work. I let them torture me, because who does not want powers. For years, they failed and I gave up on the dream of getting my powers.”

“Early 2017, I found out that I was not the only person there. There were hundreds of other people. We were all in a similar age group. I found out that they have been through the same thing. But everyone was nothing but failure.” 001 paused for a little while. “It was the same year when they finally let us out of our prison and allowed us to contact the ones we knew. However, we were not allowed to meet them face-to-face for a long time. I met with you a few times and talked many times, and told you to keep it a secret because I would never be able to see them again and did not want to give them false hope.”

001 sighed and continued. “I know I was being unfair to you, but I had to know how my family was doing. I placed a huge burden on you and you accepted it without a thought, and I am thankful to you.”

There was silence again for a few seconds.

“If it was not for Nazar, I would not have been here.”

The last part was unexpected.

Emily was also surprised to hear that.

“What…?” Emily wanted to ask a question, but 001 answered the question before she asked it.

“If he did not destroy the organisation, I would still be in that prison.” He saw that Emily was surprised. His explanation was a little vague and he knew it. “When he killed those thousands of people, he did not only save himself, but he also saved us. Recently, I learned that his entire family was in that organisation too.”

“How…?”

“I only saw the report recently.” 001 spoke again. “His family was being kept there and turned into weapons against their wills. They were being kept there, so one day when Nazar returns, they would be able to kill him. When he saved his family, he also saved us from the prison. I still remember how he saved us.”

FLASHBACK:

June 2018.

Nazar killed everyone in the facility where he was kept. He only left one person alive. It was an old man, who was in charge of the facility.

Nazar kept him alive because when he was moving around, he saw many different weapons around but he knew that they were hiding more.

Nazar asked him about where the weapons are held. The old man did as Nazar told him because he was being mind controlled.

They went down the stairs and in each floor they held many different kinds of weapons. The old man hesitated to go to the lowest level of the facility, but he had no choice but to go.

Once they reached the place, Nazar found out that his entire family has been used to create weapons that can destroy him.

He took them somewhere else and came back for the facility.

He armed each facility but before doing it, he checked to see if anyone else was being used as weapons.

In the Indian Ocean, there was a massive facility. It was the last facility on the list and he just armed it. As soon as he did that, one of the bombs accidentally blew up.

In the lowest level of the facility, there were hundreds of young people who were being used as weapons.

Nazar wanted to ignore but he heard chatter in the lower level.

In the lowest level, 001, 002, and more were standing in a big room. It was a room that they used when they were not being experimented on. They used this time to get close to one another.

They all were in shock when they heard an explosion.

“What was that?”

“I-it sounded like an explosion?”

“What is going on?”

As they were talking, Nazar heard their chatter. He thought it was just the workers but he wanted to check it out anyway. He checked every facility because he wanted to make sure that there are no more humans who are being used as weapons. While checking the facility, he would kill every employee of the organisation.

So, it was surprising to hear the chatter. At first, he thought someone might have been left alive, but he wanted to check it out.

After the first explosion, it created a chain reaction that allowed the other bombs to explode too.

Nazar used his X-Ray vision to see where the chatter was coming from. He looked around and after a few seconds, he finally managed to find the right place.

He saw hundreds of young people in white clothes with numbers being written on their right chest.

He clicked his tongue and flew down there. He moved as fast as he could but the explosions slowed him down.

If ten more bombs exploded, hundreds of these weapons would have died.

He moved faster and faster.

Down in the basement, the weapons lost their footing. Some of them fell on the floor due to the shockwave from explosions.

The ceiling started to break apart little by little.

They were hopeless. This was their end.

The bomb in the upper floor exploded. The ceiling broke. The debris fell down. It was going to crush them.

But…

… a miracle happened.

The door was torn apart by someone. As soon as it tore apart someone walked in. They could not see him due to fog.

As soon as the dust settled, a man in black clothes entered. He was not walking. He was floating in the air. They knew exactly who it was. They have not seen him before but they knew the legend was true. They knew that someone had superpowers and the videos that were shown to them was not fake.

While floating, he just moved his hand up a little.

The falling debris stopped.

Every person felt something around them. It was a telekinetic bubble.

He warped in the bubble and flew out. Every single person flew after him.

He was using his telekinesis to move them and take them to safety.

He left them in an island close-by and flew away.

All this time, he did not say anything.

END OF FLASHBACK.

“After that, we were found by some people in a boat, after a few days.” 001 said. ”We each moved to where we used to live or go to the closest country. We lived our life for a few months away from the people who captured us. I think they did not look for us because they thought we were dead. We watched the world move on but it took us some time to get used to the world.”

“Once we finally managed to get our life back on track, we were all teleported back into the facility. This time it was different. The facility and the organisation were much different, but their goals were similar. They told us that they have finally found a way to give us powers.” 001 chuckled. “Of course, we declined, but they showed us a sample. Not a video but a real sample. Our new boss came out of the shadows and he had powers. Super strength, speed, flight, psychic powers, and a few others.”

“We all accepted. A few didn’t but when the experiments were successful, they came back. We all got different kinds of powers. Some got psychic, some super speed, some got more complex powers like matter manipulation.” 001 paused for a little while. “However, there was one new person in our ranks. 010 never returned so she was replaced by a 9-year-old girl. This girl is Nazar’s cousin and our biggest weapon against him. But she is always hidden in a room. We don’t even know what her powers are.”

Emily was surprised to hear that. She had no idea he had a family. If this happened a few years ago, he would have told her immediately, but ever since he got his powers, he has been more distant and much more secretive.

“I saw the video this morning. As soon as she appeared, he stopped in his track. Apparently, even with his intelligence, it was hard for him to turn them from weapons to normal humans again. He let them out in the world, but she returned.”

001 told her almost everything he has been through.

Emily said nothing. She thought about what he went through. It was much worse for him that it was for her. 001 told her before that he ran away, but now she knows that he has been through hell. She was angry with him, but she is not anymore.

“So, why does your organisation… and you guys want to kill Nazar so badly?”

As she said that, she looked back at the spot where Nazar vanished. Apparently, he is not dead, which is good news for some, but for the others its bad news.

001 thought for a little while. “We are soldiers. We have been trained almost all our lives to do one thing. To kill him. Even before getting our powers, they used to train us and tell us all his weaknesses. When he saved us, we wanted to forget everything about him and leave him alone, but we are soldiers again and that is impossible to do.“

After that, there was another awkward silence.

001 looked around uncomfortably, while Emily was resting her head on her hands and looking through the glass window again.

“This...this place...” 001 kept looking around. Like he returned to his old home. “It seems...very similar?”

Without looking at him, Emily said, “This is mom’s cafe.”

001 was shocked to hear that. Cold sweat poured down on his face.

He swallowed his saliva and said, “I need...”

He wanted to say something, but Emily interrupted him.

“Don’t worry. She is going to come here late.” She paused for a little while. “She usually opens the place before 7 AM but the last few days it was closed. However, she wanted to open it again today as everything is somehow back to normal, so she will come here around 10:30 AM. I told her, I will wait for her here.”

001’s expressions revealed that he was relieved to hear that. He let out a sigh of relief.

He looked at his watch, and it was past 10:30 AM. His shoulders were relaxed but now it was tense. He stood up, ready to leave. He just had to hit the button on his right chest and he will be on the other side of the planet.

However, at that moment, the door opened.

There was a woman who just entered the shop. He had long black hair that reached her waist. She had black eyes. She was not very tall but not very short either. She seemed to be in her 40s.

“Jake?”

It was Mikasa Jones. Emily Jones and Jake Jones mother.