2 months later…

“And so, as they mocked me, I pressed the detonator, and the whole place blew up! Hah, the looks on their faces…” I exclaimed, waving around a near empty beer, the alcohol splashing around the insides of the glass.

“Wow… and you did all this when you were just thirteen,” Rose replied, barely able to keep herself from staring deep into my eyes.

“Yeah… to be fair, I did have some help…”

I looked down at the last bit of alcohol, thinking about the past, before immediately gulping it and slamming the beer down.

“I need a-fucking-nother one!”

A man behind a long, wooden bar table was cleaning the inside of a glass with a moist hand towel, groaning as he looked at the dozens of other large glasses of beer across the counter and around the table Rose and I sat at, in front of the bartender’s table.

“Um… don’t you think you’ve had a little too much,” Rose asked, worried.

“Oh, please! I’ll be—” I said, before being interrupted with a hiccup.

“Ask Dylan! Alcohol can’t hurt me, no matter how much I drink!”

“Uh-huh… right.”

Sighing, I gazed down at the hard, distinctively fancy yet stained wood.

“Can I tell you a secret? I… don’t normally tell people this, but… you seem to be trustworthy.”

“Oh… okay!”

“I… knew Robert Griggs’ son. Rowan…”

“Oh?”

“For a while, ever since… well, we’ve been hiding out and running away from his father for a long time… until that same day. We were… separated. And I never saw him since.”

I heard the clang of another beer bottle hitting the table, so I looked at it, then at my hands. Then I looked up at Rose’s kind, innocent smile…

She was so full of hope… unlike me.

My birthmark started to flicker like a light switch.

“Uhh… does it always do that,” Rose pointed.

I turned my neck away from her sight, saying distantly “It’s not important…”

“Don’t pull that with me. I can tell you’re hiding something.”

I sighed.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

…

“Doo doo doo. Would Steve Berkan and Dylan Davis please see me in my office? Thank you!” Cooper’s voice rung out from the intercom like an annoying fly you just can’t swat.

I stood up from my chair, but Rose immediately grabbed my wrist and yelled “Wait!”

“What?”

“I… uh… don’t have enough money to pay. For the drinks.”

“Relax. I paid for them before we even ordered a drink.”

“I… how?”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Oh… right. Forgot you’re a super genius,” Rose said, letting go of my arm and leaning back in her chair.

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Looking into her green, passionate eyes… all I could think of was Rowan.

Damn. Guess I really miss having a friend…

Meanwhile

Spotting my father’s base from the sky, I flew around to the front, before landing onto the ground in front of the entrance.

There were two soldiers standing guard, side-by-side. The one on the left had a fairly basic, fresh green uniform, with no extra decorations. The other soldier, to the right, had a scar across his lip, a damaged and faded jacket covering a uniform so old it was black instead of green, and underneath the jacket, he had dozens of gold, purple, and silver medals.

“Hey, R man! How you been?” The man on the left greeted, setting aside his rifle to fist bump me.

The man grunted, and the soldier instantly put his fist back, put his free hand back on the end of his rifle, perked his soldiers up, and tried his hardest to stare straight ahead.

“H-hey… guys. A-Anything interesting happen t-today?”

The younger soldier opened his mouth to speak, but the older soldier spoke instead, saying with an aged, serious tone “Nothing to report, sir.”

“R-Right…”

The soldiers stepped equal distances away from each other, giving me access to the front doors. As I started walking through them, the first soldier whispered something in my ear.

“Sorry. I don’t know why your father’s so serious about us not talking to you. You don’t seem bad…”

“T-thanks…,” I whispered back, walking inside.

I was then in a large lobby, with at least a hundred robots flying around the room, picking up boxes, pieces of machinery, and weapons, and transporting them down the hallways at the other end of the lobby.

Hmm… that’s strange. Is something happening?

I dunno. I’ve been unable to talk with your father for years, Raen replied.

Why is that, may I ask? Pemo said.

I don’t fucking know. Ever since yesterday when you know who’s mother died, I haven’t been able to go into Knightmare’s head.

“You know who”? What are you not telling me, I asked.

It’s… hard to explain. You don’t know them yet, so… not sure how we can describe him, Pemo explained.

Even if we did try to explain him, we couldn’t say much. All we know so far is that Pemo can’t communicate with him, meaning there’s a pattern there. Also that he’s super fucking important.

I started heading to my father’s office. I figured he’d want a report on my… mission.

Why don’t you ask Steve about it, Pemo? I suggested.

He’s… busy.

Then ask him later.

I was planning on that. I just… feel like I should know the answer already. But I… forgot…?

Huh. Weird.

Yeah… weird… Raen trailed off.

Once I made it to the elevator, I stepped inside, rode it all the way up, and stepped out, before going to the front of my father’s office.

The doors immediately opened, so I stepped inside, to which I immediately saw my father, standing behind his desk, staring out the large window peering into the factory.

“D-Da… father?”

“The power of the Big Bang, contained in something as weak as a simple human reactor… impressive, huh?” He said, barely acknowledging me.

I stepped up to his side, and looked out the window, seeing a large factory with construction lines on the floor and hanging in the air in between walls, all surrounding a single reactor in the middle of the room.

Through the reactor’s glass, I could see clusters of yellow, green, and red gases fighting to escape the reactor, with green lightning bolts shooting in between each color gas and pulling them together.

My father glanced at me for a second, then quickly turned to me, saying apologetically “Please excuse me. I get caught up in the results of my own work sometimes…”

“Uh-huh…”

Okay… something’s wrong. He’s never like this.

“F-father?”

“I need you to do something for me.”

I tried to speak, but my father spoke first.

“And I no, it isn’t your report on Steve.”

“O-oh… d-do you… n-not want it a-at all?”

…

“I can do without it this time.”

I thought for a moment, and said “W-what do you n-need?”

“As of right now, Cooper is assigning Steve and his unit a mission, one to assault this factory and find any information on where I am. Or, where Robert is.”

“I’ll have your brother stay here, pretend to fight them, and then he’ll reveal where you will be. The Roman Coliseum.”

“S-So… does that m-mean… I’ll have to head t-there now?”

“Not yet. I need to do something first… to keep Steve at the U.S. base once they attack the factory. But, once you return from the mission with his team, that’s when I need you to go to the Coliseum.”

…

“You got that, son,” Robert said, choosing only to stare out the window.

“Y-yes, f-father…”

Robert patted my head, and said “Good. Now go. And remember… I lo…”

He stopped completely. I had walked back some, putting me further behind him. I tried repositioning myself so I could see my father’s face, but he turned it away.

“Don’t disappoint me.”

Hesitantly, I turned around, and walked out of his office. I went back to the elevator, and once inside, I pushed the button for the ground floor.

The elevator started, closing it’s doors and slowly sliding down the shaft. But, suddenly, after about a minute… it stopped, right when the number above and in front of me was at 3, indicating it stopped at the third floor instead…

The simulation rooms floor.

After a moment, the doors opened, and outside of the elevator, I saw a man. One I already knew, but not really.

I only saw their pink eyes and the daffodil birthmark on their neck before they said “C’mon, let’s go train.”

“A-alright… C-Cornelius.”

Time for things to get interesting…