Chapter 32

"Okay..." It probably wasn't a good time to visit Jackson right now so Jean took the man's advice and headed back to her apartment. But just as she was about to go back, the door opened and Jackson's head popped out.

"Hey, it's Jean! And who are you?" Jackson's attention snapped over to the man in front of him. It was amazing how the first person he saw was Jean instead of him when he was right in front of him and she was all the way to the side.

The two guys stared at each other for a moment before Jackson's eyes suddenly widened. He said something to the suspicious-looking man that Jean couldn't hear over the loud noises behind him and waited for his response. The man said something back which Jean couldn't hear either for the same reason.

"Oh, come in," Jackson moved to the side after hearing what the man said and let him in. While walking in, the man looked over at Jean and though his eyes were blocked by the shades, she could tell that he was giving her a strange that probably was something like, "How do you and Jackson know each other?" to which the answer to that question was somewhere along the lines of, "I don't know either."

"And uh..." Jackson turned to Jean and scratched his head awkwardly. "Um... It's not the best time for you to come in right now," he admitted to her.

Jean could see that without him having to tell her. Another one of what seemed like his terrorist buddies was paying him a surprise visit. From the attitude that the man was giving and how he walked in seemingly in a hurry, it looked like it was something urgent.

"Yeah, I was just about to leave anyway," Jean told him. She didn't want to bother them when they were busy... doing whatever it was that they were doing. As much as she wanted to find out, she could always just ask about it another day. Unless, of course, Jackson gets another visitor. Then she would never find out what was going on.

Jean turned and walked away but Jackson called after her, telling her to wait. "Wait, not yet. I think you can still come in. I don't think he's staying long," Jackson said, referring to the man who just went in.

"Are you sure? I could always back later. I mean, I still have a bunch of things to do." Jean didn't eat yet and had homework to do as well. Her plan was to visit after she did both of that but the noise drew her attention she ended up coming here first.

Speaking of which, "What's going on? What's that noise coming from?" she asked. Now that the door was open, the noise was even louder, but she still couldn't see what was causing it. There was nothing in the living room. It was coming from somewhere further inside.

"Oh, that? Uh... it's hard to explain. Let's just say that Hans is fixing the thing that he broke."

"What thing?"

"That thing you saw the last time you were here."

The last time she was here? What did she the last time she was here? She remembered that she was some spilled drink on the couch. There was also a broken machine of some sort lying in the corner of the room. Was he talking about that? "That broken machine on the floor?"

"Yep, it's that one alright. The person that just came," Jackson pointed at the person who just went in, "He's here to help fix it since neither of now knows how to."

"But didn't you just say that the sound was coming from him fixing it?"

"Yes I did, but I wouldn't really say that he's fixing it. If anything, Hans is just making it worse."

"What?"

"Yeah. Right now, he's 'trying' to fix it. In other words, he's just making it harder to repair by breaking it even more. And that reminds me..." Jackson turned around and looked at the man who was waiting patiently for him to finishing to Jean. "He's down the hall in his room. But I'm pretty sure that you can tell that already tell where it is from where the noise."

Jackson didn't really need to tell him since all he needed to do was follow the sound to find Hans. It was impossible to not find him with how loud he was. The man nodded his head and left down the hall.

"Alright, you can come in now," Jackson motioned for her to enter.

"Uh... Can I come-"

*Boom*

Jean didn't have the chance to finish what she was saying as a loud explosion came from into the apartment, making both of them jump.

"You know what actually? Please come later." Jackson didn't wait for Jean to say something in response and quickly closed the door while keeping his back turned. "Hey, Hans! What was that!?"

*Slam!* The door slammed close in front of her face. Jackson probably didn't mean to do that was distracted by whatever the heck just happened.

Jean really hoped that the explosion didn't create a fire or anything. On the bright side, the loud mechanical noises seem to have stopped now. Whatever Hans had been doing to fix the machine was definitely wrong else that wouldn't have happened.

From behind her, she heard a door open and she turned to see her dad peeking out skeptically. His hair was wet and he had a towel over his shoulder like he just came out from the showers. "Jean? What was that?" he asked with a concerned face. The explosion had gotten his attention and he was worried that some bad was happening. She couldn't blame him. It wasn't that long ago since they last heard an explosion and they almost lost their lives to that fire.

"They're fixing something?" she said, sounding very unsure. She didn't know if she could consider what Hans was doing as fixing. It sounded more like he was destroying something.

"Huh... Well, you better come in before something anything else happens," he suggested. It wasn't safe standing in front of the door where God knows what was going on in there.

"Yeah, I'm coming." Jean entered her apartment where it was safe. Well, safer. She wasn't sure if a couple of layers of walls could handle whatever it was that they were doing, but hopefully it was. Her dad closed the door behind her, locking every single lock it had as if it had any use.

What was surprising was that the explosion had only drawn her dad's attention. The rest of their neighbors were nowhere to be seen. She knew that most of them were at work, but there should still be quite a few at home. Or maybe it was because they were smart and knew that it was dangerous to open the door and risk getting caught up in their craziness.

Well, she guessed that she will come over sometime later when they were done repairing that thing.

It didn't take Jean long to finish everything she said she would before going to visit Jackson. By this time, it was already pretty late and she had a few hours before she needed to head back and go to sleep.

'I hope they're still up.' Oh, what was she evening saying? They spent entire nights up making a weird noise. Of course they were still up.

Jean knocked on the door and waited patiently for it to open. And when it did, instead of Jackson, the person who she expected to open the door, it was someone completely different. It wasn't Hans either. The man standing in front of her had brown hair and eyes to match. He was skinny and his clothes barely fitted him. They were very loose and looked like they might slip off at any moment.

"Who are you?"

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