Chapter 2: A New World

Somewhere on planet Earth.....

The white hair teenage boy begins to regain consciousness after hours of fainted after he crushed down to Earth in his crate last night. He tries to get up while he still feels dizzy and nauseous. After a moment of focusing, he starts to see thing clearer, and found himself on an operating table in some kind of underground dark workshop due to he sees various robot parts lying and hanging all around the room along with just a dim light that brightening the entire room.

"You awake now!! Are you feeling alright? Is your system operating normally now?" a voice of the young adult man who is sitting on his desk in front of his computer near the operating table of that workshop asking from behind the white hair person's back.

"Oh!! I'm feeling alright at the moment. And my system is operating on optimal level now and the damages are fixed as well, which thank you for fixing them. And also, you know I am an android now" the white hair replies to the young adult man as he knows he is not human, despite with human skin.

"Yes!! I know you are an android, but you're not just any android, but the new advance Ares class Neo-Droid that resemblance to a human being, along with a state-of-the-art artificial brain that is a quantum computer that can runs any simulation and calculation at an incredible speed, which even believe to be at light speed, not to mention you bare a strange energy core inside you with an immense energy output beyond my comprehension, which I still not understand yet. So yes, I know what you are. And as for fixing the damages on your body, I did not do anything, as your physiology is comprising with advance nanobots as your anti-body, so they did all the work to fix you automatically." the young adult man explains to the white hair boy.

"I see!! But I still need to thank you and your family for sheltering me as of now. I really appreciate that" the white hair boy thanking the man gratefully.

As already thanked to the man, the white boy finds the man strange, as he keeps staring at him without blinking his eyes at, like he used to see this face before. By seeing his odd behavior, the white hair boy decides to

"Is something's wrong with my face? Or it being damaged upon crashed down to Earth last night?" the white hair boy fearfully asking the man, as he's touching his face if whether it bares any scares at all.

As he sees the white hair boy is shocking about damaging his face, the young man shakes his head slowly to signal him that, there's nothing happen to his face as all, however, the way he stares, it shows that. After that, the young man gets up from the chair to check something in a wooden crate that stores robot parts, while the white hair boy still looking at him.

"It's that, your face is just the same as "

"Stop right there, Hugo. Do not talk about it" the middle age woman stops the young adult man as his name is Hugo.

"But mom!! He needs to know it. Since I need know it as well" Hugo argus with the middle age woman who is his mom.

"We will ask him later since he just regain his consciousness, Hugo. Let him process the situation first, do not rush him. Hello!! Young man. My name is Miranda Shen, and that is Hugo Shen, my eldest son. You are currently at The Shen Estate, which located in the 12th district of Sho-gah Town of Emerald City State. So, what's your name? and where you're coming from anyway? How are you ending up crashing down like that? We almost thought you are an alien" Hugo's mom completely not agree to Hugo's idea of asking the white hair boy then decides to introduce herself and her son to him.

"Hello!! It's so good to know you. My designation is Ares No.9 of Project Ares. I am from Prometheus's Luna Base of Clavius Crater, the Moon. Nice to know and meet you. And as of how I end up here due to My transport was under attacked while we were travelling back to Earth for field demonstration at the Blue Zone. And as of the ambush, it was orchestrated by me and my creator jus to let me escape from Prometheus" Ares No.9 immediately replies to Hugo's mom in a very well manner and a beautiful smile, but they're shock and completely in disbelieve as they heard that he from the Moon, also he is the one who plan the attack to stop the transport's fleet, just to run away.

"So, you came from the Moon and you along with your creator are the ones who planned the attack on your own transport, just for you to escape, while you are in space? But why? Aren't you built by them?" Hugo digs into the reason of Ares No.9 end up on Earth mysteriously as he stills in shock anyway.

"Everyone knows very well that, Project Ares was created for the war effort against the Great Republic Union at the Red Mountain Zone, which orchestrated by Prometheus Corporation just to get the funding from the U. A. H to develop Project Ares. As of now 8 Ares class Neo-Droids already deployed to the battlefield by the U. A. H's military, however, many of them are mysteriously malfunction, so they lost the war to the favor of the Great Republic. That's why I was ordered by the High Council to join the war in order to turn the tide of the war, but due to I am new and most functions still unusable, so I am requested to attend the field test at the Blue Zone before commissioning me to the battlefield. The thing is, I have no intention or create to attend any battlefields, so my creator planned the escaped for me, but my original course was the Kriss Black Zone, not here, the Emerald City State, due to its part of the U. A. H" Ares No.9 explains to Hugo and his mom about his true intention.

"Oh!! But the Kriss Black Zone is a ground zero zone and completely unhabitable due to radiated by the nuclear fallout. So, why you want to go there anyway? Isn't it a bit lonely if you there?" Mrs. Shen puzzles about Ares No.9's purpose of going there.

"I think because it's radiated by nuclear fallout, so no one would go there looking for me. And since I am an Ares class Neo-Droid, so I am completely immune to the radiation without any problems at all. Also, as I remember, my creator wants me go there to reverse the effect of the radiation and restore the natural order of the world back to normal again, like before the great war and humanity rise to power. Accept I have no recollection of how to do so" Ares No.9 told everything he knows about the purpose of going to Kriss Black Zone as his creator told him.

"As we know, the Kriss Black Zone is a very dangerous place even for the android due to the radiation level that is completely off the chart, after being bombarded by multiple nuclear weapons during the great war. Which mean even you're an advance super droid, the possibility of affecting by the radiation is high, and now you have no idea how to fix the atmosphere at that place at all" Hugo continues to explains to Ares No.9 as he doesn't understand his intention of going that when he doesn't memory at all.

"It would be great if I can access my full memory, but due to most of my data log are locked, which mean I'm useless to complete my purpose at the moment. However, right now, I believe, Prometheus will be looking for me, and I think they will track down my crate's homing beacon, so to avoid any complication and put your family in danger, I have to leave now" Ares No.9 tells them as he gets up from the operating table in order to escape before Prometheus can find him here.

"That won't be necessary, kid. The homing beacon of your so call crate is completely shut down now. I believe it happened when the crate systems rebooted when it crashed to Earth, so I think it will take more time for them to locate you, even with their current capability. Which mean you are safe, for now" Hugo explains to Ares No.9 about the situation.

"So, my crate was rebooting when it crashed to Earth, no wonder why most of my memory logs and functions are locked unable to access. Which mean I have to start from zero again. However, do you know how its rebooting? Because only the authorize individuals can access the crate's systems. And the crate's system is not just rebooting itself even upon impact like crashing to Earth at all" Ares No.9's puzzling about the situation as he explains to Hugo.

"Like you said, only authorize individuals can access your crate's system, that's why, I, the unauthorize individual, cannot access its systems to find information about it, so. No, I don't know" Hugo replies to Ares No.9 with attitude, like he doesn't like him.

As he heard that, Ares No.9 decides not to continue this conversation, due to he can sense the dislike feeling that Hugo has for him, so he silent himself awkwardly. Seeing this, Mrs. Shen decides to disperse the tension between them by asking Ares No.9 to go up stair with her to meet the other two kids of her.

As they left the basement where Hugo's workshop is located, Ares No.9 finds this estate is a big old villa that renovate with high tech equipment even most of them are handmade by Hugo himself. The villa is in the middle of a field that growth various crops that can be used for their own, and for sell as well.

Ares No.9 is inspecting the house silently alone while Mrs. Chen is doing her works at the kitchen and the other 2 kids are nowhere to be found. As he scanning the family photos that being displayed around at the living room, his systems start to go haywire as he found a family photo with a family of 6, whom he sees Mrs. Chen and Hugo, along with the 2 kids as mentioned by Mrs. Chen earlier, accept a man, whom he thinks is the husband and the father, then a sense of familiar happen to him as he sees the man's face, but dismiss anyway because he doesn't the man. However, Ares No.9 is shock when he found the picture of the last person in that family photo, whom is around in his 20s, but that's the thing, because that person has the same face as himself, which completely shocked to his core.

"That's my late older brother, Jaymin. He passed away last year, and yesterday was his one-year death anniversary, the day you came to us" a teenage girl walks to Ares No.9 as she tells everything about Jaymin to him.

Hearing about Jaymin, Ares No.9 is in complete disarray, because he awakes just 5 months after Jaymin's death. He's stunt, unable to move at all, which wondering the girl when she sees Ares No.9 total paralyzed like that. The girl tries everything to wake him up, while he just keeps looking at Jaymin's picture. But then out of nowhere, Hugo takes the photo forcefully from Ares No.9's hands, which surprise Ares No.9 so hard, that still not assess the situation yet, so he just keeps looking at Hugo wondering about his hatred toward him.

"Go back to my workshop now!! And don't ever come up here again without anyone's permission. Go!!" Hugo shout at Ares No.9 angrily, which shocked by everyone who hears that, because Hugo never acts like that before.

After seeing Hugo so mad at him like that, Ares No.9 decides to listen to him and retreat back to the workshop at the basement of the villa. Ares No.9 walks back to the basement while facing down without looking at anyone whom present at the time. Mrs. Shen just only looking at Ares No.9 helplessly and feel pity to him. However, she gives her mother's stare to Hugo very angrily, which fears Hugo so bad. To avoid looking to that stare, Hugo decides to retreat back to his bedroom upstairs without saying anything. As he walking upstairs, Mrs. Shen doesn't give up her powerful stare at him at all, until he out of her sight.

Empire City.....

Headquarter of Prometheus Corporation.....

"Any updates to the assigned works, everyone? It's been two days after the incident, so I hope I can get any good news even for once" Mr. Stryker asks his employees in the command center of Prometheus Corporation very calmly as everyone there just stares at each other awkwardly and fearfully.

"Yes, Mr. Stryker, sir!! At the moment, the homing beacon of the crate still no responding or coming back online yet, so our team did everything to revise the entire systems just to re-activate, sir. So, which mean we might take more times, sir" the employee known as Mr. Ikido replies to his boss, Mr. Stryker while lower his face due to fear to face his boss's wrath at the moment.

"More time, more time, more time!! It's been two days already, so I thought you would find it, but no, no one can locate it without the homing beacon. If the homing beacon is useless, then triangulate to find the crash site the old way, then scrambled the drones to widen the search. It's not that complicated. What are you waiting for? Now got to work, people" the chairman is angrily shouting at his employees due to their failure, but he still giving them advice to solve the problem.

The dude is a jerk, but at least he's a very creative person, who seem to solve the problem very quickly even under a lot of pressure.

"What about the people who responsible for the attack, have anyone found anything relate to them yet?" Mr. Stryker stills wondering about the perpetrator who attack the convoy.

"Yes, sir!! After we can regain control to our satellite, we triangulate the source of the attacked missiles, sir. Its one of the U. A. H's old orbitals defend satellite, sir. But, as we got into its systems and checked it, we found it's been hacked, sir. Now, we're in the process of locating its IP address, since that user ID is also being hacked as well, so it might take a little more time to find the code's true origin, sir" another employee response to his boss every quickly, since he's sure about the problem.

"Good!! At least you can give me some reasonable answer. Keep working on it. But remember, time is not of the essence for us at all, as of now. Keep working on it now" Mr. Stryker does not mad at all, which relieve for that employee.

"Mr. Stryker!! Chancellor Cho, is on the line now, sir" Ms. Rand whisper to her boss's ear silently.

"Patch the call to my office's line, now" Mr. Stryker gives order to his secretary as he walks back to his private office, which locates on the top of Prometheus Tower in order to make the conversation with that Chancellor in secret.

Headquarter of Prometheus Corporation.....

Mr. Stryker's Office.....

Mr. Stryker walks very quickly in a hurry toward his office, as followed by his secretary from behind. As he enters his office, Mr. Stryker asks Ms. Rand to close the door for him in order to make the call with the Chancellor. Mr. Stryker touches the beeping light on his desk as it's an answering button, then.....

Veeps.....

A hologram's light shining upward and reveal a man in his late 50s, wearing a white suit standing right in front of Mr. Stryker, while looking at him with disappointment.

"Chancellor Cho!! What do I owe the pleasure, that you decide to make the call to me personally like this, sir?"

"I will cut to the chase, Stryker. The most important asset that will help us to win the war against the Great Republic Union, had lost and it has a lot of impact to the corporation of the entire council. We need to win the battle, also the war, in order to gain dominance for absolute peace. And Ares No.9 is the only thing that can us to archive that, so I need you to find and retrieve it back before the other members put the pressure on me and you. Like you know very well, Stryker, if I'm go down, I'll take you with me as well" Chancellor Cho threatens Mr. Stryker, as the political battle among the members of the High Council is heating up, and the only thing that can ease this conflict, is winning the war against the Great Republic Union, and to do that, is to bring Ares No.9 back.

"I am well aware of that, Chancellor Cho. We are working on it at the very moment, and we're getting close now, but you need to know as well that, one of your orbitals defend satellite was responsible for this incident, so don't just put blame on me and my company alone, Chancellor. Your left your equipment defenseless against hacking, and allow this quarrel to happen, however, due to my genericity, I'm going to fix that problem of yours just to gain trust between the two organization once more, so rest assure, Prometheus Corporation will bring the asset back for U. A.H for this war" Mr. Stryker tries to influence the Chancellor despite his reluctance to trust.

"Find!! I hope to hear good news from you soon, Stryker. But do not take to much time, because time is not on our side for now" Chancellor Cho tries to calm his anger down as he aware that the U. A. H is at fault at this incident as well.

After their secret conversation has ended, their hologram communications turn off, while Mr. Stryker still looking to the gloomy view of the Empire City through his office's huge glass window, as the sky is about to rain already.