CHAPTER 1

March 12, 2019

5:00 PM

1

It’s almost an hour before the workday is over, and when the upstairs is unbearably quiet, a young lady knocks on the office door.

“Come in.” A voice called behind the door. Following the buzz sound, the door unlocked, and she let herself enter the office.

The office was cold, barren, and a minimalistic approach. The walls were dim, and not even a window for direct sunlight. From the door inward, it directs straight to the occupant’s desk. Next to the desk at the right, a vacant lounge with sofas almost good as new. Behind the desk, a man stares at the ticking of his watch as he leans back to his chair. The man’s eyebrows rose. “Ah, Natalie. What brings you here?”

She walked beside his desk, “You got a letter from the Board and CEO.” Natalie hands him the enclosed letter.

“Should I open it now?”

“On your accordance.”

The man nodded and placed the letter on his desk. “Anything else you got for me?” He glances at her arms, holding a pile of envelopes.

“I have one more letter with a note on the front saying, “To Damion.”. ”

Natalie hands Damion the letter, and he opens the envelope and reads the paper:

We are hosting an annual dinner at the cafeteria tonight. We want to invite you to join us for the meetup, and your few first years of efforts have determined us to make this invitation.

- Beloved Staff

“For such a short message, they could have just sent me by email or direct message.”

“On that point, you never gave them your phone number, and your office’s communications are down, remember?”

He glanced at her briefly. She is right. He thought. Damion himself has never got true friends to meet up with the outside of work and always be at home after work. Anyone would call it unbearable or insane, but he refutes it as he alone is more peaceful. Said can be the same for Natalie, his roommate and former classmate, who is the only person he trusts. However, she would go over her comfort zone to socialize with others and at certain times, forcibly invite Damion into the conversation.

Damion, seeing Natalie sweating, opened the mini fridge under his desk and gave Natalie a fresh bottle of water, and he stood up from his chair while holding the phone out of his pocket, staring at the board’s letter. He grabbed it and thrust it into one of the drawers. “Anything else you want to report to me that aren’t letters?” He asked.

Natalie shakes her head, “Your contracts at the beginning of the year got approved, so the budget plans are complete until the next fiscal year.” She gulped a whole bottle of water and tossed it into the trash.

“Alright then. Finally, that boring process cycle is over.” Damion grabs his windbreaker. “I gotta go for some fresh air and walk around. See you at dinner.”

“See you then.” Natalie let herself out of the door.

Damion zipped up his windbreaker and jolted back to the drawer pulling out the Board's letter. He shredded it and threw it in the trash as he headed to the door. The cool breeze blows from outside the office into his face, and Damion lets himself out, leaving the door closing behind him. He leans on the railing viewing the lobby from five stories down. The Job is tedious when there are no meetings or contract deals.

Feeling more bored, he leans away from the railing and walks around the hallway to waste time. He pulls out his phone and checks notifications or any updates. As he was scrambling on his phone, something gripped his right wrist. As he put his phone back in his pocket, Damion jolted backward from the force and turned to his wrist, and he saw it wrapped by thin black straps coming from one of the spaces next to the door. Unsure how it got onto his wrist, he yanked the band off for it to return to its exact spot. The wristband simultaneously tightened further, and he couldn't remove it. It then tears off a portion turning to strip length, and attaches further up on his arm, piercing through his skin right under his biceps.

He screamed as he grasped the pain while the blood leaked from his arm. Blood puddles scramble across the floor.

“Who is up there?” a voice from below.

Damion continues to scream as the pain intensifies. As the skin starts to change texture, he starts blinking fast without stopping following up with static appearing in his point of view.

"Friendly confirmation." A robotic voice Damion heard. "Who the hell is that?" He asked while being blinded by the static.

Eventually, the flashy word “Online” appears in front of the static. Each of the letters scrambles throughout the view, forming the heads-up display and interface. The horizontal percentage bar appears where the word was prior and starts to fill up. As the bar fills up, the frame and interface configure till it reaches stability. The statics slowly dissipate, regaining his vision. He still feels the pain in his right arm, but it becomes more bearable. What is going on? He was bewildered, processing every experience of pain he just endured.

His vision becomes vivid, and he turns to his right arm, now overtaken by some material taking the form of black carbon fiber serving as his new layer of skin. Some leaked blood came into contact with carbon fiber, setting it as the secondary color. The carbon fiber has not finished due to his hand is still in the process of being wrapped.

The loading bar reached one hundred percent, and Damion saw the carbon fiber finished wrapping his entire hand.

“Startup. Complete.” The same robotic voice Damion heard a minute ago. “Welcome Damion Aetos.”

“What kind of technology is this?” Damion asked.

“The Name is Helix. I am a specialized Artificial intelligence.”

“Specialized Artificial Intelligence?! I’ve never heard of Helix before. What is your origin?” Damion wondered.

“Straight to the point, not from Earth. I’m one of the few creations that was assembled at…BEEP…BEEP” The heads-up display immediately turned red.

“What’s happening?!”

“Warning!: Something is in front of us!” Helix warned as it displayed a map, visualizing a dot moving up fast toward Damion. “We are in big trouble!” A bright light flashes in front of Damion as the walls crumble. Oh shit. Loud bangs followed and threw Damion through the glass rails plummeting five stories down.

“Grhh!” Damion landed on his back flat. “Damn. That was a high fall…”He looked at his right arm, “Seems this is what saved me, I assume.” He got himself up within the debris. As irritated as he could be, he kept his emotions on a leash and wondered what blew him away.

"Above You!!!" Helix yelled.

Damion reacted to the incoming attack by blocking with his right arm. The blade from the attacker and his arm clashed sparks from the friction. "You have no idea how long we took to get that…'' the attacker spoke, sounding vengeful.

"Helix chose me, so you have no right to desire it!" Damion responded with force to his arms and knocked the attacker from the air propelling him aside.

"Another threat ten meters behind you!" Helix notified. Simultaneously, the heads-up display's theme turned red. Damion dodged away from being stabbed in the head and did a full rotation before kicking the back of the second attacker, sending it flying down on its head. The second attacker was motionless after the blow to its head.

Oh shit. "Yes, shit," Helix responded.

"For Christ's sake, now you can read minds too?!"

"Yes. Grab that blade."

Damion notices his visibility is much more distant and widespread, and he witnesses the first attacker staring at his partner. It then looks back directly at Damion.

So I killed the person. Well fuck, that's unfortunate, but it attacked me first. Damion, seeing the sword next to the dead body, lunged for it. With one leap, he slid his body down through the floors, thrusting the sword to his left-hand mere inches from the first attacker reaching it. He opened the grip of his right hand and brought the friction to the floor, bringing sparks and flew up to his feet.

"Heh…So you fuckers came to kill me." Damion smirks and confronts the first attacker once more. He finger-tapped at the tip of the blade. It's a very nice sharp blade and a firm hilt. He wielded the sword with his left hand and tapped the concrete floor.

"Cool. So you are not human after all." Damion murmured, observing chunks of the concrete floor being torn away, leaving a shallow crater. The attacker initiated a standoff and flew toward Damion. Both clashed their blades sharing innate stares. As creepy as the latter eyes intimidate, Damion holds off astoundingly and punches the attacker in the abdominal region. The impact blew both out of range, clashing at the walls' opposite ends.

"UUghh," Damion grunted, letting go of the wall. "That's gonna leave a mark." He rubbed the debris off his back.

"I detect minor bruises on your lower rear." Helix popped up a skeletal diagram on the heads-up display.

"Convenient, can you keep the diagram in a corner? As long as it doesn't impact my view."

"Affirmative." Helix adjusted the image to the bottom right of the heads-up display, and it applied the percentage above the space.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"Thanks," Damion replied.

The attacker got off his feet and pointed his blade at Damion like he wanted some.

“What the hell is going on!” a voice from the distance. Few came out to the lobby, revealing silhouettes in the remaining dusty debris... Damion gasped and yelled, “GET BACK INSIDE!!” Before they could react, the attacker launched a projectile towards them. Damion leaped in front of the blast and took the blow to the stomach, propelling him through the lobby to other spaces in the building. He crashed through the empty tables and various office cubicles.

"God damn suckers!…" Damion cut off the projectile with his sharp blade, causing it to explode. "Ah, CHRIST!!" He dropped to the floor, shattering the edge of a cubicle, and taking down the table.

"Fifty meters away!"

"Yeah, I noticed that too!"

Come on, get up, get up. Damion sees the attacker flying through the hallway of holes. His sword is at the bottom of the piling away from his reach, and he is about to get stabbed mid-chest if he doesn't react. At moments of bliss, the attacker leaped above Damion and pierced his sword down. His eyes grow thin as the closer he reaches him.

Clank

Damion held a grip of the blade with his right arm, preventing the blade from piercing his chest.

"Thought you got close, but you missed one thing." Damion pointed up. He gave a left jab to the face making it slump down away from him, and he yanked a piece of debris toward the ceiling sprinkler. The one sprinkler seemingly triggers the whole system causing water to thrust out from all the openings in the area.

Yells from behind Damion sound excruciating. Wasting no time, he rolled to his left off the hill of debris as quickly as he could despite a tenderness on his chest. He reached the floor and thrust for his sword. A part of the blade is in flames, and he tried to wipe it off with his right hand, only making it spread to the rest of the steel blade.

"Don't mind that damn fire and give it to the attacker!" Helix said.

"Alright…Alright!" Damion replied. While holding the hilt with his two hands, he views the attacker, who is frantic from the water sprinklers splashing across its body. Seems he has a water weakness. Damion thought and ran up to the attacker, giving him a swoosh, and slicing its armor chest plate. He pierced the blade through its chest. "That's for earlier, asshole," Damion grunted.

Splurt.

Blood splattered all over his face. A bit went into his eyes causing his eyes to shut tight.

Using the blade, he attempted to lift the body by wielding his hilt upward, risking breaking it. He removes the mask covering the mouth, revealing a bloodied nose and mouth. Masculine facial features and teeth are like humans, but the marks leading up to the eye sockets reveal their alien culture. The mask did its job concealing it all, and the bright light flashing from its eyes hid the eye openings.

"Who the hell sent you?!" Damion yelled as he held the attacker up, hitting through the ceiling. The attacker attempted to respond with a smirk.

"Helix, can you communicate through telepathy?" Damion said through his mind.

Internal sounds went briefly static. Damion clenches his teeth as the static bashes through his inner eardrums. “Ugh…hoomph!” He slumped to the floor with the sword, holding the attacker in his grip. The excruciating static abruptly stopped, and the heads-up display reverted to light blue. A bunch of pop-ups appeared on the side of the heads-up display, and the center pop-up overlapped it, covering all stating, “Approve Unity?” Given two options: red or green, Damion picked the green option leading to another popup, and he also clicked green. He turned towards the attacker with his vision not disturbed by other pop-ups, feeling a pulse of the attacker.

No beat. The attacker is dead. Damion let go of his grip and slowly stood up from the slump. He wiped off the blood from his face. Helix uploaded a command program and inputted various lines of code. Damion is unable to read a line due to its fast input time. “Helix, what are you doing?”

“No Communication available under the installation process.”

“Shit,” Damion whispered. He took a breather through his lungs before yanking his blade out of the attacker’s chest. He searched his pockets and found nothing worth of evidence or identity. “Upload Complete” Damion’s neck jolted upward, and a burning sensation from the edge of his fingers sped through his hand and arms, reaching behind his neck.

“Hello, Damion. Sorry for the interruption.” Helix replied in a now more natural masculine voice.

“What was all of this ruckus? And your voice has changed.”

“You accepted the unity option, remember? Now you have a fully functional learning artificial intelligence by your side twenty-four seven.”

“So that whole time was just the basic Helix? Can this now do telepathy communications?” Damion questions as he takes one step back to observe all the destruction from just a short battle.

“Yes to both questions.”

“Good, that will help us when certain situations can’t be spoken out loud. Also, since you are now fully functional, can you explain where you are from? I only need a one-word response.”

“Yes-ish.”

“What do you mean yes-ish?”

“I can’t explain my history other than moments before I got to you.”

Damion scavenges for a backpack, and he takes off the coat from the attacker and wears it. “Not bad for a coat of a dead man, and our conversation will continue later.” He placed his sword on his back, hidden between the linings of the coat and the backpack. “We now have to focus on the current situation, especially what to do with the two bodies. What do you want me to do with this guy?”

“Get us closer. Let me scan him.”

Damion faces the dead body and kneels with enough view for Helix to start deciphering and scanning him. “Done!” Helix said, followed by a click sound.

“That’s it?” Damion was utterly dumbfounded that the process took seconds.

"Uh yea. That's it...You are looking forward to a trip because this is the least surprising thing."

Damion sighs but admits he is right. Either way, the battle is over, and he wants to leave. He lifts back up again and leaves till Helix tells him to dispose of the body. The fire earlier makes me wonder if I can reignite it. He withdrew his sword, now with no flames.

Then something clicks. Damion looked at his right arm and opened his hand, revealing the carbon fiber skin on his palms. "Wait, is this carbon fiber?"

"No, an entirely different material and not an Earth origin."

Hearing that, Damion held the blade tightly with his right hand, and in a thrust motion, he rubbed his skin with the blade as he swirled it out of his hand. The friction ignited the flames on the blade. If this was carbon fiber, then the possibility would be much lower.

Keeping enough distance, Damion grips the hilt with his two hands and gives a force thrust downwards, unleashing such blazes of fire that engulfed the entire room. Fire blazes incinerated the dead body and all belongings in the office space. "You gotta get out of there," Helix said.

Damion equipped his sword and turned around, running out of the burning office space. Ceilings collapse behind him as he runs, locating a way back to the lobby. "Punch it!" Helix yelled, signaling the wall.

"Are you insane?" Damion questions as he loses his mind.

"Fuck no. You got inflicted by a projectile, so this should be no biggie."

"Christ…" With no choice, the map’s display pinpoints a direction, and Damion runs its path, heading to a different part upstairs that does not collapse. The adrenaline boosted as he was about to ram through the wall.

2

“Ugh, fucker.” Natalie murmured after regaining consciousness, bewildered by what occurred other than the elevator going into free fall multiple stories down. Once her vision clears, she grips the handrails behind her, lifting herself from the floor. Crack. “Great…” she murmured as she felt her bones crack in her lower back. With a deep breath, she jolts upward, relocating her back. She looked over the elevator floor in ruins and grabbed her folder. The elevator is rigged open, and the doors lie in the distance in front of Natalie in the main lobby.

No wonder why I blacked out. Natalie thought but wasted no time walking out of the wrecked elevator. The lobby is dim with all the debris. Across the distance, she can see a body lying on the floor. Oh gosh, don’t tell me that is. “HELP….” She heard a crying yell within the debris and headed towards the yell. “Tess?!” She ran up and saw her trapped under rubble, putting pressure on both legs.

“Natalie!” Tess weeps as she sees Natalie. She held her arms as Natalie looked at the wreckage. “Nat, You’re bleeding.” Tess’s eyes widen as seeing blood dripping across Natalie’s face. “Ah, don’t worry about it. Just fell off the elevator, that’s all.” Natalie casually said and wiped off the blood from her forehead.

“What happened?....” Tess asked

“I don’t know either.”

“Wait, don’t leave.” Tess grips her hand

Natalie lets go of Tess’s hand. She stood up and then stumbled around the rubble, examining the scene. “‘I’m not. I need to see what is on top of you.” Few boulders within the rubble, and Natalie starts lifting the smaller debris from the pile. She tossed all the liftable debris away while assessing the situation as she returned to Tess. “Unfortunately, I can’t lift this damn boulder. You got a whole heavy motherfucker on your legs.” She pointed.

“Are we alone?” Tess asked, showing signs of panic.

“I can’t say for sure. The debris is heavy, making the visibility low. No worries, I’m.” A loud eruption came from behind.

“ABOVE YOU, LOOK OUT!” Tess screamed to Natalie, bracing herself from planks of wood and debris plummeting to the floor. Natalie with one of her arms behind her head, went down and crawled back towards Tess as things fell around her. She glanced upward at what was happening and saw somebody with a coat and a large backpack flying off the second floor. It went over her and Tess and rolled across the lobby floor, standing back up within the debris.

“Natalie…What was.”

“Quiet,” Natalie whispered and covered Tess’s mouth. She saw the silhouette of a tall man, such a long coat, and the shining blue eyes startled her. As it turned around, Natalie jolted her head down to the floor, shutting her eyes. Hearing the slow footsteps grow, she knew it was approaching her. I’m about to die. It's nice knowing all of yall. Damion, if you find me, don’t hold your feelings in for too long and move on. Nice knowing you and all others.

“No way! Is that you Natalie?!” A familiar voice.

What? Natalie gasped. She slowly lifts her head and opens her eyes. “Damion?!”

“In the flesh.” He stood there amused, shaking his head. “Come on. Get up from the dirty floors.” He offered his right hand and grasped his hand. “What is that feeling from your hand?” She glimpsed at his hand. His eyes turned to Tess, “We worry about that later.” He let go of her grasp and analyzed the rubble. He gave a feel of the heavy boulder and saw an opening. He placed his right arm under the boulder.

Is he crazy? No way any person can lift that thing. “What are you doing?” Natalie asks and walks up to Damion. “I’m gonna lift this boulder off of Tess’s legs.” He said plainly.

“You're not just showing off right?”

“What show off?” Rumble.

The boulder landed away from the area. “As you were saying?” Damion said and crossed his arms irritated. Natalie shook her head, “Nothing, I stand corrected.” She looked away a bit. He is never like that. What’s up with him? That reminds me, why does he look like that, and he can’t be that blue-eyed silhouette from earlier? She thought while not trying to overthink.

“Natalie?!” Damion called as he went on his knees and lifted Tess to sit.

“Sorry.”

She heads to Tess' side, and Damion tells her to watch Tess, and he stands up, departing the area. Tess shared the same thoughts as Natalie when she asked her, “Is that Damion?”

“So I’m not alone. I hope it's our Damion.”

3

“You want the second body for identification too?” Damion's telepathy asked.

“Yes, sir. Once I finish, you dispose of it just like the last one, and we get out of here.” Helix responded

Damion walked to the second attacker’s body and looted for possible evidence. “Found something.” He pulled out a form of wallet. “A wallet? Hmm.” Helix scanned the wallet while Damion opened its contents. He couldn't comprehend the writing. However, Damion unfolded one piece of paper, revealing a map of Greece and one prevailing circle. He looked at what it circled and seemed to be directing toward Mount Olympus.

“What does this have to do with Greece?”

“I wonder about that myself, but these two confirmed alien attackers have some history in Greece. I wish I could say more, but that would take more debriefing of what I scanned. Hopefully, that would get more information.”

“At least we both have the setting down. Anything else you think we might need?”

“No, let's get out of here. This place is irrelevant to us.”

“What about the others?”

“We have a job to do! Let’s go.”

Damion withdrew his sword, disintegrated the body, and dissipated all the remaining debris in the lobby. He sprinted out as the air debris dissipated and rammed through the main entrance. Damion ran to his car and drove off from the parking lot. He sped through the highway and miraculously didn’t get pulled over and arrived back at his villa.

He thrusts out of his car, runs into his house, and sprints to the bathroom. He viewed the mirror and noticed some facial altercations. "Helix, what did you do?!" He observed his mouth and teeth. The reflective coloring reflects its luminosity from the bathroom lights. He tried to smile, and the sound of cracks when his upper jaw and bottom jaw teeth came into contact. "No seriously, what did you do?"

"No worries, I only gave you upgrades."

Damion eyes rolled. "At least you could have told me in advance. Even if minutes prior."

"I'll keep that in mind and send you some notifications if we ever need to," Helix said, followed by a bell sound.

He did change some things. So far, it is beneficial. He took a warm shower removing all the remaining debris. He threw the clothing in the laundry machine. He grabbed a new set of pants and a T-shirt.

"The deciphering is complete. I can debrief with the information I got."

"Well, I'll be damned for a coffee." He said as he walked out of the bathroom, carrying the backpack.