When John saw the old man that was next to George, he immediately stood up and said, “Greetings Boss.” Ellen and Krieg also hurriedly welcomed the old man. The old man just smiled with his wrinkly face and gestured them to sit down. The old man had a buff body but still, he could not escape the constraints of time. His head was grey and his his skin was covered in wrinkles as well. He wore simple long pants and a T-shirt.
He sat down as well and then asked John, “George said you picked up a boy of ten years old?” Hearing the question John nodded and said, “Yes, more accurately, George told Krieg and Sandra to bring him back. He just woke up and had a meal. Currently, Sandra is bringing him back to her private quarters for him to sleep.” The old man nodded and said, “I know he left. We arrived when you were still eating but chose to come now.” As the old man said that, the three of them were confused.
Suddenly, he turned his head towards Ellen and asked, “You were the one that washed him and dressed his wounds?” Ellen nodded in response to the old man’s question. The old man’s eyes flickered as he asked, “Did he have a snowflake like birthmark on his lower back?” Ellen was taken a back by the question and tried to remember it. She thought about it for a second and then said, “Yes, on his lower back, at the left hand’s side, there was a snowflake like birthmark. How did you know Boss?” The old man’s eyes seemed to have been lit up as he took a look around.
Seeing no one in the surroundings, he said seriously, “What I say next will not leave this room. Only the people present will know about this and no one else.” As he said so, even George was taken a back. When he reported to the Boss about Jack, he had suddenly wanted to come here. However, when he saw Jack in the mess hall, he had told George to wait until he left. After everyone promised not to leak the conversation out, the old man started with a gentle gaze, “You see...”
Jack and Sandra had no idea of the old man or George visiting and had reached back at the Sandra’s private quarters. Jack looked at the room sleepily and asked, “Where will I sleep?” Sandra pointed towards the bed and said, “You will sleep on the bed with me.” Jack was a bit too young to understand the matters between boys and girls so he just sleepily nodded and climbed to the far side of the bed. When he cosily hid under the blankets, he quickly fell asleep.
Seeing him fall asleep so quickly, Sandra just let out a little laugh. She then watched out of the window and was greeted by a setting sun. Since they were currently in their base, the ship was obviously docked in the shipyard. After giving one last glance at Jack, Sandra decided to water her plants. This was one of the few things that she liked doing. After having watered and cared for all of her plants, she wasn’t feeling sleepy yet, so she left the room to find Krieg and Ellen to have a chat. When the door closed, Jack opened his eyes.
He waited for a few moments and when he did not hear any movement or breathing what so ever, he turned around and peeked at the room cautiously. Seeing that he was alone, he slowly sat up on the bed. Silently, he left the bed and put his ear towards the door. After not hearing any movement behind the door, he sneakily left the room.
All of the sleepiness seemed like it had never existed. His eyes were cold as he quietly made his way through the hallways. When Krieg and John had shown him around before, he had remembered the layout of the ship and where the exit was. He made his way towards the door that led to the outside without raising any alarms or running into anyone.
However, when he reached the door, he saw that it was locked. He did not have the password to leave, so he had to resort to muscling his way through. After making sure that no one was around, he put his two hands on the door and closed his eyes. Suddenly, a box appeared on the door. The box was as big as Jack and with a slight push, it was pushed out. As soon as the cube exited the door, the alarm started working. Hearing this, Jack hurriedly exited the door and made his way out for the door leading outside.
In the mess hall, everyone except the old man had an expression of shock but just as George wanted to ask something, the alarm started screaming. Hearing this, John quickly took the communicator and asked, “Bridge, what happened?” From the other side of the communicator a voice that seemed to not know whether to laugh or cry came, “Umm, the little boy broke through the door and ran away.” Hearing this, everyone’s face fell. The old man stood up and asked flustered, “How is that possible? Wasn’t Sandra supposed to look after him?!”
Just as he yelled that out, a meek answer came from the door, “He fell asleep immediately after arriving back at the room. I waited a bit to make sure that he wasn’t faking it and then came here.” Hearing this, the old man grabbed his hair with his two hands and yelled, “Like Father like son. Damnit, every single one of them is a headache!” As he said that, he immediately ran out the door. Seeing this, John was stupefied for a second and hurriedly said to the communicator, “Open the cargo bay doors, we will use the Speeders to go look for him.”
After saying so, he immediately dashed towards the exit and quickly yelled to the old man, “Boss, lets use Speeders! They are in the cargo room!” The old man had just turned around the corner when he heard Johns yell. He immediately turned around and followed John to the cargo room. Sandra looked at them in a daze but woke up when Ellen took her hand and said, “Let’s go quickly. I can still sense the aura of [Regeneration] inside him but if he leaves the range of it, I will be unable to sense him.”
Sandra hurriedly nodded to Ellen and followed after her to the cargo room. Only a minute or two after that, five Speeders flew out from the cargo bay and followed the directions given by Ellen. As the five Speeders flew through the air, Jack was dashing through the back alleys. As much as he had seen of the town, it was enormous, so he thought that if he avoided the main streets and travelled through side alleys, he would be able to avoid the detection of John and the rest. Just in case, he quickly blinked his left eye three times and a red glow appeared in it.
After making many twists and turns, he slouched in the shadows of a few garbage cans. He was panting heavily because his body was still quite weak. As he caught his breath, pain flashed on his face as he looked at his stomach with a grimacing face. Some of the wounds, that had recently closed up, had reopened. Stopping the bleeding by pressing on it with his hand, he murmured to himself, “Although some of the wounds have opened again, it won’t impact my mobility in the short run. In the long run, however, it is bad.”
After the blood had clotted again, he slowly stood up again and looked towards the distant ship. A complicated emotion flashed in his eyes as he said, “Although I am grateful for everything you did for me, I still can’t stay there.” Just as he said that to himself, a mocking question came from above him, “And for what reason would you have to sneak out like that? At least wait until you wounds heal dumbass.” Jack quickly looked up and saw five Speeders hovering in the sky. The Speeder’s looked like motorbikes but instead of wheels, they let out wind.
This allowed them to hover and the engine that was under the drivers seat allowed it to fly forward. Actually, the inertia from the engine was something that allowed it to change it’s altitude. When the engine wasn’t pushing it forward, the two engines, that let out wind from below, stabilized the Speeder so that it would not immediately plummet to the ground.
Seeing the people seated on the Speeder’s, Jack’s face turned cold as he asked, “How did you find me?” Ellen poked he head out from behind Krieg and gave a peace sign as she said, “I can locate you using the aura from my ability [Regeneration], so there is no place you can run from us.” Just as Ellen finished her explanation, the old man called Boss, immediately pointed his index finger towards Jack and yelled, “You stinking brat! Be a good boy and don’t cause any more trouble for us.” This was the first time Jack saw the old man.
He sized the old man up with a gaze and then said coldly, “Who do you think you are to order me around like that?” Hearing the cold response, the old man choked back for a second. He had never seen a ten year old possess such cold eyes. It left him inwardly quite shaken but that soon passed as rage built up inside him, “You snot nosed brat, you dare to put on airs in front of me?” Jack just snorted to the old man’s words but his eyes were darting around the surroundings.
His face turned grimmer as he thought to himself, “Shit, there is no place to run to. With the Speeder’s they will be able to catch up to me in the blink of an eye.” Suddenly, his eyes came to a stop on a manhole cover that led to the sewers. A smile formed on his face as he looked at the old man and said, “I truly am not interested in that, so bye bye old timer.”
Hearing this sentence, George, Krieg and Sandra felt that it was quite familiar. When they remembered that he said it the exact same way when they were cornered by Frost, their faces changed. Sandra yelled, “Don’t do anything stup-”
*BOOM*
Before she could finish her sentence, the manhole cover that was under Jack’s feet blew up into small pieces and he himself fell through the hole. When the explosion echoed out, sharp bits of the metal cover flew at the five Speeder’s. Luckily for them, they weren’t injured and the Speeder’s were also fine. However, seeing the escape method Jack thought of, George sighed, “Why does it seem like he is used to being cornered like this and making grand escapes like that?” Krieg and Sandra could only blankly nod to George’s statement.
However, the old man just jumped off his Speeder and went towards the manhole. However, his face was painted red with rage as he cursed loudly, “That little snot nosed brat is just like that unfilial son of mine. I knew I should have had all the manhole covers be replaced with either stone or wooden ones when the little bastard used that same trick against me.” After saying so immediately jumped down the manhole in pursuit of Jack.
George looked at the manhole with a helpless face, “Come on, let’s go after him.” Krieg, Sandra, Ellen and John nodded to George’s order and just as they were about to disembark their Speeder’s, they heard a droning sound. They looked up and saw an old lady on a one person hover platform. The old lady was wearing a brown long skirt and a white knit sweater. Her hair was grey and tied to bun behind her head, her blue eyes however showed a trace of helplessness.
She looked at the manhole and sighed, “You don’t need to follow him. I will do it myself or that block head will truly kill him when he catches him.” George immediately lowered his head as he said, “Madame, you noticed our disturbance?” The old woman just looked at George and smiled, “Don’t forget, there are very few things that escape my eyes in this city.” George slightly bowed to the old lady and said, “We will leave it up to you then Madame.”
The old lady nodded her head and the hover platform started floating towards the man hole. The platform wasn’t big, it only fit one person and if they had no sense of balance, it was easy to fall down. Just as she was about to enter the manhole, she turned around towards Sandra and said, “You can also tell her what he told you.”
George hurriedly widened his eyes and said, “But Boss-” The Madame just raised her hand and said, “She has as much right to know about it than the rest. Also, I order you to tell her.” After saying so, she didn’t even look at the face of George or listen to any more rebuttals. She directly entered the manhole in pursuit of the robust old man. Sandra just looked at everyone present and asked, “What is going on?”
John and George looked at each other and then both of them sighed. George just said, “It is a long story. For now, let’s return to the ship.” Sandra looked at the manhole suspiciously and asked, “Are they going to be alright with just the two of them?” John let out a hollow laugh and said, “Well, if those two can’t catch him, there is probably no one who can.” Krieg and George nodded to John’s statement. With that, they flew back towards the ship.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
In the sewers, Jack was in a bind. He hadn’t expected them to catch up this fast, so he was forced to run in blind. He had no sense of direction what so ever in these sewers and the wounds that had just clotted had opened up again. The more he ran, the faster his blood started pumping and the faster he started bleeding dry. After about a 15 minute run, his body felt ice cold and it lost strength fast. Jack grit his teeth and cursed, “Damn, hypovolemic shock. I’ve lost too much blood.”
As he mumbled that, he tripped over his feet and fell down. He laid there for a minute, panting. His body felt incredibly cold and he could feel his consciousness fading fast. As his eyes lost focus, he started remembering all the times he narrowly escaped death. With the last bit of strength he managed to prop himself up in a sitting position against the wall.
He no longer had any more strength to move. His eyes lost focus even more as he said in a self mocking tone, “I survived the betrayal of dozens, the pursuit of one of the strongest Military Empires in the Galaxy but I failed to run from an old man that thinks too highly of himself.” He then just let out a little laugh as he raised his head and looked at the dim lamps over the sewer canals.
He gazed at one of the flickering lamps and thought to himself, “Well, of all the scenarios of death I thought of, there wasn’t one that involved me bleeding to death in a sewer.” He then chuckled at himself and mumbled, “Well, Little Kitty, seems like I won’t be able to keep our promise. I will be waiting for you on the other side.”
After saying that, he lost the last bit of strength he had and he fell unconscious. Just at that moment, two people turned around the corner and one of them tripped over Jack from his hurry. As he fell down, he put one hand in front of him and he stopped before face planting to the ground. He hurriedly turned to the side and yelled, “Pick a better place to sleep you bum. I’m in-”
Halfway through is cursing, he got a better look at the person he tripped over. The old man’s face fell as he quickly went and felt Jack’s pulse. When he felt the very weak pulse, he started losing his calm and in his flustered state, he had no idea what to do. The old woman on the hover platform jumped down with a serious expression and ordered, “Stop his bleeding, he has already lost too much blood!” After saying so, the old man nodded and hurriedly took off Jack’s shirt and ripped it to shreds.
He made multiple makeshift compresses that he put on the wounds and bound them tightly to stop the bleeding. As the old man was working on Jack, the old woman took out a communicator and requested people to come here. They did not dare to move Jack in fear of opening other wounds as well. It did not take long for people to start filling the sewers and soon a middle aged man with green hair came over. With one glance, his eyes furrowed as he hurriedly asked, “What the hell happened?” The old man just barked at him, “Fix him!”
Hearing this, the middle aged man was startled. He looked at the old woman and the old woman also nodded her head grimly and said, “You heard the Boss.” Many of them had never seen the Boss as serious and angry as this. Usually, he would never bark orders at someone so this made everyone wonder, just who Jack was. The middle aged man nodded seriously and a green glow appeared in his eyes and on his hands as he took a set of acupuncture needles from his bag. He then told the old man seriously, “Step back and don’t disturb me.”
The old man immediately stepped back and let the middle aged man do his thing. The middle aged man glanced at Jack’s body and was shocked by the scars and wounds. He was an expert in the field of medicine and medical practice, so with a glance, he could see that these scars dated back to 5 years. One or two scars would not be something new, everyone had them but the sheer number of scars Jack had astonished him. He thought to himself, “Just who is this boy?”
The middle aged man’s hands flashed as several acupuncture needles entered Jack’s body, stopping the bleeding. He quickly took a bag of blood from his bag and inserted the needle into Jack’s slim arm to start a blood transfusion. After all of this had been done, he quickly wrapped him in a warm blanket to warm his body up and not let the body temperature fall any lower. He felt Jack’s pulse and after a few minutes, a bit of colour started returning on Jack’s face.
Seeing this, the old man and the old woman let out a deep breath of relief as the old man hurriedly asked, “Is he safe now?” The middle aged man with green hair looked at the old man seriously and said, “He lost too much blood, besides that, there are obvious signs of malnutrition. If it were any normal person, I would say they are safe now but regarding him, he isn’t in the clear yet.” Hearing this, the old man panicked again and just as he was about to ask something, the old woman smacked him at the back of his head and said coldly, “Look at you, the Boss of the Phantom Ghost Pirate Group, acting like a teen schoolgirl that just got asked out by her idol. Go farther away and calm down already, you panicking is not going to help anyone.”
The old man sobered up thanks to the Madame’s scolding and just nodded his head as he went farther away and fished out a cigarette that he immediately lit up. Seeing that the old man had calmed down, the old woman asked in a helpless tone, “What needs to be done now?” The middle aged man looked the old woman in the eyes and said, “First of all, we need to bring him out of here and into a clean environment before his wounds fester again. Then he needs to be under a twenty four hour surveillance just in case something unexpected happens.”
He then glanced at Jack before asking the old woman, “Just who is he? The wounds he has are made from military grade rifles and the scars he has date back to five years. It’s like he had lived on a survival island.” The middle aged man actually had another question as well but he only asked it mentally, “What is his relation to the Boss to make him as flustered and panicky as that?”
The old woman thought for a moment and then said, “If I tell you that his name is Jack Lumi, will you understand?” The young man fell into thought and then suddenly his face was filled with shock as he asked, “Lumi? His name is Jack Lumi?!” The old woman seriously nodded her head and the man with green hair looked at Jack in shock. His mind seemed to be filled with scenes brought back by realization. He then slowly lowered his head and murmured, “I wonder what Big Bro is doing? For this little guy to end up like this?”
The Madame heard these words but she kept her silence. She also looked at Jack with an inquiring gaze as she thought, “Just what happened? There is no way Freddy and Samantha would allow something like this happen to their son. Did something happen to them?” As her thoughts trailed off, a few people with medical clothes arrived. The middle aged man sternly gave them detailed orders and he accompanied Jack to the hospital with the medical staff.
Seeing the middle aged man leave with Jack, the old man said suddenly, “Put Adatantium cuffs on him and restrain him to a bed.” All the medical staff were startled and they looked at the old man in confusion.
The green haired Doctor wanted to ask something but before he could, the old man clarified, “He ended up like that because he didn’t wait for his wounds to heal before he ran away. If you don’t restrain him, there is no saying he won’t run away again and that time, we may not be able to find him in time.” Hearing the serious tone of the old man, everyone present gulped. The green haired man nodded seriously and said grimly, “I give you my word, he will not be able to take one step out from the bed until his wounds heal.”
The old man nodded his head and then looked towards the Madame with a helpless gaze. They both knew there was next to nothing they could do at the moment. So, they left Jack in the green haired man’s care and left themselves.
When Jack fell unconscious from blood loss, he started reliving his memories. Just as he had closed his eyes, he opened them again and he was standing inside a huge grey hall. All around him were children at the same age as him and they were all wearing knee length white pants and a white T-shirt. In front of the platoons of children was a stage on which stood twelve men in military uniform. They all had cold faces and behind them stood a row of armed soldiers, ready to fire at a moments notice.
A man with greying hair stepped forward and said coldly, “You will all now be transported to the Facility. There you will each be given a knife and basic necessities. Every week, one crate filled with food will be delivered but who gets how much, it will be up to you to figure out.” The man swept his gaze over everyone present and then continued, “Remember, you have ten years and after that, only three people will be allowed to survive. Who those three people are, that will also be left up to you to decide.” After saying so, all the children were put on helicopters and delivered to a deserted island.
The island wasn’t big but it was big enough to accommodate one hundred kids with a lot of room to spare. Since they were small, they did not understand the true meaning behind the man’s words back then but soon reality showed it’s true face to them. On the island was no wild life, in the surrounding waters there were no fish either. All the plant’s that bore fruit were poisonous so they were inedible. Their only food source was the crate of food delivered to them once a month.
However, the food crate did not hold enough food to feed one hundred growing kids, even if they rationed it very strictly, so soon hierarchies formed and those that were of no use or were weaker fell by the blades of others. Jack had formed a party with one other person. She was the same age as him and had chestnut brown hair and brown pupils. Her hair was always tied to pony tails and Jack himself had helped her tie them like that.
In the Facility, they were known as the Double Calamity because they were the ultimate tag team. The girl’s name was Hedi and her ability was [Black Panther Transformation]. All abilities that could change the body fundamentally like this were all categorized as S rank and since her transformation had a very high synchronisation rate that allowed her to even take the form of a Black Panther, she was categorized as a SS Rank ESP-er.
She took care of the melee while Jack would think of their plans and offer long range support. Since they were the two strongest on the island, they had no problem getting the food either by the nice way or the bloody way. Also, since Jack had read various books when he was still very little, all the technology was deeply imprinted in his mind. One of these pieces of technology was one of his mother’s inventions, One Man Teleporter.
However, when he saw the blueprint for it, it was still unfinished so he had to finish it through trial and error. After working on it for three and half years, he managed to create two prototypes that worked. However, it had one major flaw. If you wanted to travel to a specific location, you needed to have another Teleporter there or you needed to have the Gravitational Coordinates for the location. Since they had neither, they could only leave it up to luck.
They had no telling where they ended up, so they made a promise. If they survived, they would meet at the main square of Aldurin Republic. Jack had no idea where it was but Hedi had read about it in a book before they were put on the island and she had always wanted to go there. The time limit was 5 years.
They made a promise to meet on the square in five years time. Under the clock tower when the clock struck midnight, Jack would have to wear cat ears and a black suit and Hedi would have to wear a red ballroom gown. Jack had no say in the clothing chosen, it was all done by Hedi and she wouldn’t budge an inch in that department.
Just as Jack started to teleport away, Hedi seemed to say something but Jack could not hear it. Just as he wanted to read her lips, he suddenly opened his eyes. He was greeted by the beeping of a machine that monitored his heart beat. The first thing he saw was the white ceiling and as he tried to sit up, he discovered that he couldn’t move. He slowly raised his head and saw that his hands were bound by Adatantium cuffs while his legs were strapped to the bed with leather bindings. His upper body was also strapped to his bed.
Seeing this, Jack’s eyes turned cold as he glanced around. Because of the Adatantium cuffs, he could not use his [Eye of Destruction]. The amount of movement he could do was actually minimal. He then swept his gaze over the rest of the room and saw that he was currently in the only bed in the room. Besides the bed, there were various medical machines that observed either pulse or blood flow. The only window that allowed him to look outside was currently pitch black, indicating that it was currently the middle of the night.
In the corner of the room, right next to the door, was a chair upon which was a sleeping old man. Jack recognized the old man to be the one that was with George and the rest on their Speeders. As if sensing that Jack woke up, the old man slowly opened his eyes and looked at Jack. Jack looked at the old man coldly and asked, “What do you want from me?”
Hearing Jack’s voice the old man completely woke up from his drowsiness and jumped up. His face instantly flushed red as he started cursing, “You little son of a bitch, do you realize how much danger you were in? For what reason god damn reason would you try to run away with those wounds?”
The old man then went up to Jack’s face and yelled, “Do you know how worried I was when I found you? You had nearly bled to death and if I had found you only a few minutes later, you would have been dead!” Jack was taken a back by the barrage but he still maintained his cold facade and asked in a cold voice, “Better die on my own terms than live according to others. I don’t know what you want from me but I’d rather die than become your little puppet.”
Hearing the cold words and seeing the cold eyes Jack possessed, the old man was startled. The old man then seemed like he was about to completely explode but at that moment, he suddenly calmed down and said, “I don’t want you to do anything for me, I am just glad that you are alive.”
Seeing the gentleness in the old man’s eyes, Jack asked, “Why do you care whether I live or die? There are millions of other orphans out there.”
The old man had a pained expression as he just patted Jack on the head and said, “But none of those millions of orphans is my grandson.”