July 23, 2175
9:45 A.M.
The sun was hanging high in the sky, the air seemed to sing with the chirping of birds, which was the only sound in the hills of New Pittsburgh. And that calm place was the location where Jack and Diana had retreated to.
A giant column of smoke was still faintly visible at the location of the last confrontation. A large number of Ortho Sapien personnel were there, investigating for clues that might lead them to the one who had risen against the atmosphere of terror they had created.
Meanwhile, Jack was asleep—but not for long. The song of cutlery and utensils in the kitchen of the pocket tent slowly brought him back to his senses. Mum must be cooking, he thought as he turned around, but as his memories organized themselves, he realized that peaceful life wasn't the one he was living anymore.
He turned around to check the time.
"9:45 A.M.!!? Holy shit, I overslept. Good job, dumbass. The world is trying to get your ass from every side and you wanna sleep." He sighed as he changed out of his pajamas.
"Viora, this house you generated is very comfortable."
"Thank you, Master. I'm glad you find it to your likes. And good morning," Viora said, her voice elegant as ever.
"Good morning to you too. Since when is Diana up?"
"Lady Diana woke up at 8 A.M. She is making lunch for the two of you as well. She was about to come wake you up in some time."
"That's so considerate of her. Inform her that I am up and I will join her soon," he said, heading toward the joint bathroom.
"Yes, Master."
He freshened up, came back, and got ready to start another long day.
The soreness of his muscles wasn't much noticeable anymore. He stretched and went to the hall, the sweet aroma of food filling his nostrils.
"Morning, sunshine. Was thinking you wouldn't wake up today. You're so carefree even when we are just lone survivors," she teased from the kitchen counter.
"C'mon, what do you expect? I went to sleep around 3 A.M. I was exhausted. Stop picking on me, Miss Meanie," Jack said pleadingly.
"Alright, alright, I know how it is. I was right there with you. Jeez, you don't have to be so serious all the time, I was joking. Try to loosen up a bit—at least in front of me. We are best friends, aren't we?" she said, rolling her eyes.
"I knew you were joking, that's why I acted serious. Sometimes it's worth getting you worked up. Hahaha," he chuckled.
"You lil—" said Diana, a red tinge spreading across her face.
"Anyways, so dear chef, what's on the menu? I'm looking forward to eating your cooking," he said, grinning.
"I prepared some fried rice and mushroom stew. Are you ready to eat?"
"Mhm, I'm starving. Let's eat."
Throughout lunch, they talked about the past, which now sounded like a distant, unreal reality—out of their grasp with the current state they were in.
Memories that made them embarrassed, memories that made them sad, memories that made them laugh—they were all realities that seemed out of reach to them now. Yet they both wished these moments to continue. After all, they could only find solace in the old bittersweet memories.
However, slowly, the talk made them long more for the past. The conversation slowly turned heavy. After all, Jack was suffering from Ortho Sapiens' actions even before it all started—his father, himself on many instances. Even Diana got roped up with him once in it, and he couldn't help but blame himself over it.
Diana, who noticed the clear regrets etched on Jack's face, decided to call a change of topics.
"I didn't know that you were good at naming people. Viora—what a cute little name you've given our house assistant," she said, grinning.
"Oh, it was nothing. It's kind of boring and exhausting to call her 'house assistant' all the time. Moreover, I don't like to order anyone around much, so it felt rude to ask her to do something without even talking to her with a name. At least now it feels like I am making a request to a friend instead rather than ordering a servant or something," Jack replied, his face brightening up slowly.
"Ooooh, such a cute little thing to do. Viora, I think Master Jack is a big softie."
"Well, I can't bring myself to call him something like a softie after learning he is such a considerate person. I can't bring myself to even risk hurting Master Jack after he showed me, an object, such consideration—a noble deed indeed," Viora said slowly.
"Uh, whoa. Someone's got a fan," Diana said blankly to Jack.
"It isn't like that. You have to be respectful and considerate to others in order to have others respect you and follow you. Something you need to learn in order to make good friends," Jack said, a smirk playing on his lips as he gave Diana a playful flick on the head.
"Ow, guess you are right. After all, my best friend is such a mean person. Now, for hitting me, you do the dishes."
"Heyy, that's no fair. It was just a little flick," Jack protested.
"No ifs and no buts, you do the dishes. Period," Diana said, her head held high.
"Fineee~ guess I will have to do it," Jack sighed.
"Master, if I may interrupt, I will be more than willing to do the dishes for you. Would you like me to take care of it?"
As she was talking, the dishwasher flipped open and small robots who had scrubbers for hands came out.
"Thanks for the offer, but lemme take care of it. It's not a burden or anything."
"Okay, Master. If you need any further assistance, do refer to me," Viora said slowly, as if she was disappointed. The dishwasher flipped closed, the bots returning to their place inside.
"Okay, I will. By the way, take out all the interactive bots from the storage. This place could use some company," Jack instructed.
"At once, Master."
Diana raised an eyebrow. A portal door appeared on the wall in front, and small bots started to come out of it.
"Wow, they are so adorable," Diana exclaimed as the last and the tenth bot came out.
"Viora, send the cyber bots to my room. I will be using their help. Diana, you can decide what to do with the rest," Jack instructed, his eyes scanning the unique crowd in front.
Two bots came forward and stepped back into the portal door.
"The bots have been sent, Master Jack. Lady Diana, what would you like to do?"
"Well, do you like 'em?" Jack said to Diana.
"I LOVE 'em," she said, her eyes scanning every detail of the miniature friends as she watched them with fascination.
"Glad you do. Now now, Viora asked you something."
"Waaah~ just lemme get a bot that helps me sleep. I'm gonna go nap."
A bot stepped in front and walked to Diana. Diana picked it up eagerly and turned to Jack eagerly.
"Well, cya later. I'm gonna go get some beauty sleep, heh," she said with a grin and disappeared into her room.
Jack slumped into the couch and was lost in thought for a bit, then he finally spoke.
"Yo, Viora, you there?" he finally said after a bit.
"Yes, Master. What do you need assistance for?"
"Add another floor. I need a strategizing room and a modern general training room there — those ones that can be extended at will. And then a separate training room for every Ikanami. Then a library."
"Noted, sir. I will get to it at once. It will take a few minutes."
A few minutes later, the wall at the end of the room split up and revealed a staircase, marking the entry to the next floor.
"Master, the next floor has been created. Kindly visit it and tell me if it's to your liking or should I change something."
"Good job, Viora. I will go check at once. Meanwhile, you set up VPNs for the devices here so we can access the internet. Jump the network from areas that aren't easily accessible. Because this isn't a matter of getting access — if a new device logs in, they will definitely go check for the source, so I want them to suffer," Jack said, smirking as he got up from the couch.
"I will set it up at once. Do you want live satellite coverage of the area as well? I can access them all, since late King Rick Hauston once linked me into the mainframe network. I can now access them without much work."
"Yes, that will be good. Guess I owe Grandpa another one," he said as he disappeared upstairs.
The staircase wound around as he ascended, and when he reached the landing, he faced a corridor — two doors on the right and one on the left.
Jack opened the doors on the right first. The first was the library — towering shelves and lots of tables were arranged in the room. The bookshelves were mostly empty for now, except some novels, encyclopaedias, and maps which Jack thought were present in the archives of the storage.
The second was the strategizing room — a large round table was at the center which had a big cavity at the center, in which a holographic and a 2D projector were housed. Chairs were lined around the table, and on one of the walls was a screen for the 2D projector. On one of the other two walls was a giant world map, and on the remaining one was a board.
Humming with satisfaction, Jack entered the last room that was on the left — the training room. His eyes were in awe when he opened it.
A giant room greeted him, well-lit and as wide as two tennis courts. Two sliding doors were on both the right and left, a display over them saying the name of an Ikanami. The Ikanami training rooms, he thought, as he went and slid his hands on the metal doorframe. The doors opened at his approach. It was the Healing Ikanami training room — inside, on several platforms, were laid dummies made out of a material that reacted on subjection to Kana energy, similar to human and Kratian cells when they are worked on with Healing Ikanami.
Jack heaved a satisfied sigh and returned to the main hall on the ground floor. There, he slumped on the couch and called for Viora.
"Yo, Viora, is the VPN setup complete? Good job on the first floor, it's perfect," he said.
"Yes sir, it's ready, and thank you for your praise. Anything else you want me to do?" she asked, her tone a bit more excited than usual.
"Yeah. There are two portal rooms in my pouch. Arrange the weapon one into the training room as a separate room like the Ikanami ones. The other one has a lot of books, so arrange them all in the library, including the other books in my pouch," he said as he picked up the TV remote.
The TV turned on like normal, and Jack navigated to a news channel. As expected, there was no news about Kratian or Ortho Sapiens.
After half an hour, a news report caught his eye. It covered the continuous, unwanted broadcast of a crypted message over all channels at exactly 7 am and 7 pm.
It wasn't the hacking that caught Jack's eye — it was the message. A message that made him grin from ear to ear as he decoded the coded message.
It said:
"Oh Stupid Friend, Did You Forget I Exist? Or Did You Cease To Exist? In Anycase This Shut In Blake Could Use Some Company From A Exhaust.
What Do You Think Hauston?
Or I Guess I Could Leak Some Of Your Stuff If You Don't Wanna Come. If I Do, Then You Will Be Ready To Gimme Some Company."
"Yo, Viora, seems we will be needing a new bedroom on the first floor. Think you can add the room?" he said as the smile curved into a satisfied smirk.
Things seemed to go perfectly, he thought, as he poured himself a glass of water.