Kayla's mother came through her door just a few minutes later, she looked hysterical. Her mind was beaming with questions.

"Mom?"

"It was Jack's house." Natlia explained "It caught fire because of the thunder."

"Oh my"

"Thankfully, he was able to escape the fire with minimal injuries."

"What's the condition of the house?"

"The authorities say that the central structure took most of the damage."

"Where is Jack now?"

"I don't know. We saw him go inside his house once the fire was out. And that's it."

Kayla moved her eyes towards the floor, away from her mother. She was disturbed on hearing this news.

The night that followed was unsettling for everyone around. Jack was sitting on the grass in his backyard, staring at the moon in it's unfiltered white glory. His face was static and uninfluenced from the chaos, he had bits of black spots on his visible skin, spots caused by the smoke of the fire. Kayla was also awake at this hour, she had succumbed to her desires of being wakeful.

The night seemed lonelier than usual.

Ray was in the make-shift lab in his room, working on deciphering the mysteries of the Mechs. There was no doubt about it, the Mechs' detailed analysis showed they were used for the first time. Ray pricked his finger on a sharp edge, blood trickled down from his finger. But what was peculiar about it was that, it wasn't red. Instead it gave off a slight teal color from itself.

Ray noticed it and applied a bandage on it, he was gonna investigate it later.

In the early hours of morning, the scientist was still seated on his lawn, he had not moved even an inch. It was like he was gone into another dimension forgetting his body behind. At around 9AM, a black car came to his house and parked there. A woman wearing a black suit exited the car and walked around the house, towards the backyard. She made her way towards Jack and stood infront of him, blocking the sunlight from penetrating his black, bulgy eyes.

"Mr. Gatrica?" the blonde inquired.

But Mr. Gatrica wasn't home. He was gone in a land far, far away. She repeated her question a few more times before Jack finally came back to his senses.

"W-What?" Jack blinked his eyes vividly.

"The General wants to meet you, sir"

"No no no! You can't do this! It wasn't my fault!"

"You can discuss that with him directly." she replied "My job is only to get you there."

"Please you have to understand. It wasn't my fault!"

Jack got up but after taking one step backward, he fell again. Sitting in one position for such a long time had cut off the circulation of blood to his legs.

"I've told you before. My job is to bring you in."

She escorted him out to the car, Jack looked very tense in the whole situation.

"Where are you taking me?!" Jack asked as the car pulled out of the neighbourhood.

"We're going to Base Omicron. He's waiting for you there."

All the color drained from Jack's face as he heard these words.

The car swiftly ran on the empty roads of the city, the morning had not seen any traffic yet. Within minutes, they were out of the city. Jack was sweating a lot from the fear of what's to come. Base Omicron was not your regular military camp, it was the actual base of operations of every special force in the region. It was the biggest secret of the planet since Area 51. To be called there by the General himself was a matter of great importance. Millions of different scenarios were playing on a loop inside Jack's mind. What did the General want with him? Why did they go through all the trouble of bringing him there? Had the General found out about the missing chip? It all seemed certain to him. They passed by the shrine on their way to the base. Jack looked out and saw a kid parking his bike near a tree. The kid looked familiar to Jack, a lot too familiar. Their eyes locked for a moment but as the car was going forward, it broke the line of sight.

Jack was already feeling uneasy and now after seeing the kid he became more disturbed.

"Everything alright, Jack?" she asked

"Yeah. I'm fine." he answered

"You know, a man of your talents is...... how should I say this? Rare."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh nothing. You'll understand soon enough."

Jack was now even more anxious, he didn't like where this thing was headed.

Just after travelling a few more miles from the city, another black car joins them from the back.

"Ah, just in time."

Jack looked towards her and became even more disturbed. He was scared of something horrible taking place. It was a dense forest through which the road had been paved, there was no one around as far as the eye could see. The green leaves swinging mildly because of the slight breeze was a scene that Jack had remembered from his childhood. Why was it playing inside his mind right now? Jack had originally worked at Base Omicron in his youth, when he was a fresh mechanical engineer graduate.

"Would you like a drink?"

"Water will do fine."

She orders a water bottle and it materializes out of nowhere.

It had been such a long while since Jack had eaten or drunk anything, it was like he had completely forgotten about it. He hastily chugs it all down.

The lonely road was swerving left, right, up and down at every point.

Kayla had been somehow able to convince her body to rest, this happened at the ripe time of 4AM of course however she was awoken later in the morning by her mother.

The city was still deep in a communication blackout. She was amazed by the effects of a terrorist attack on everything. The neighbourhood that had always been so lively was overtaken by silence these days. No one was walking their dogs or fetching the news anymore. Just like a ghost town.

Kayla took her breakfast as her parents discussed whether they should go to the next city or not. Kayla expressed her thoughts on why they should stay here instead of moving but deep down she was doing it only because she and Ray had their own mysteries to solve and moving away from the city would be very troublesome for them.

Both the cars were moving along the road to the base. It was like they were escorting a VIP. Jack was so lost inside his own troubled mind that he ignored the chatter between the two cars. It was at that point that another black car joined them in their journey. The woman tried to radio the driver of the new car but she received no reply at all. A closer inspection of the car revealed that it was heavily armored.

There was a steep valley on one side of the road and a rocky mountain on the other. A glaze of a scope, a sound of a shot, a cracked windshield and a hole in the head was all it took for the driver to lose control. One smooth swoop of the armored car showed the other car the bottom of the cliff. It all went downhill from there, Jack saw the beautiful mountain range right ahead and the dense forest below him. Everything inside the car that wasn't strapped down flew around wildly in the time it took to reach the bottom. A few flips were also included in the mix as the car got totaled on hitting the ground. The woman crawled out from the upside down wreck and began to contact the base for help.

As she raised her eyes from her transmitter, she saw a man standing in front of her. Weakly she cried out for the slightest bit of mercy to be given to her. But it was useless. Her throat was slashed by a sharp piano wire against her will. She gagged and choked on her blood, finally dying from asphyxia.

"Get the scientist."

The man approached the wreck slowly.

Jack had seen what had happened to the woman just now and was frozen in horror. He was about to move when he saw his gaze meet with a set of cold red eyes. Jack was dragged outside and thrown beside the dead blonde. He looked at her eyes that were still open as they pierced through him.

Suddenly, a robot turned visible and opened fire on the two enemies. Jack tried to escape in the ensuing firefight but the gunmen shot him full of holes before dying themselves.

CONNECTION LOST: NEURAL PORT NOT RESPONDING

A few miles away, in an overrun remote communications outpost, three men pull off their cyno masks.

"What the hell was that?!"

Jack looked towards the sky and skimmed through all the memories he made in his life. He seemed peaceful, as he saw himself in all the weird things he did. Nothing mattered to him anymore. The chip, his house or his prototypes. Two soldiers walked up to him and looked down towards his body before nodding to each other and relaying some information to high command that Jack couldn't comprehend. He looked towards the sky to see a helicopter coming to a halt above him. Then it all went black.