8

The white room scatters like hell; smashing monitor, smoking controller, broken chair, and the table is out of place. He can't control his anger anymore. Thinking about how he can let the lady loose from his grip. He was close to getting her alive. But, she manages to escape. And, blocks him from her.

Well taught! he frowns in anger. He's shocked by her ability to ditch him from her mind. It's like a big huge wall built between them now. He can't reach her, not even her scent! She must have some kind of mind practice. He would love to applaud whoever teaches her, but at the same time feels like he wanna kill that person too.

"Captain.." one of his subordinates comes in. He glares at him, fixing his uniform.

"Report!"

"We did manage to cover almost every area in Cosmos City. Still, we couldn't find her. But, we manage to know the location of the hidden city. But, I believe we have some issues," says the lad. He stares at him with sharp and angry eyes. The man continues.

"The area is somehow protected by a refugee group. They have high-technology weapons just like us. It's quite hard to penetrate the scene and which is also situated in the most sacred place in Cosmos City. It's called The Dark Forest," he looks at the screen and studies the area. It's just a thick forest.

"Sacred?"

"According to the locals, the area is the place where some kind of creature lives in a huge group. They always monitor borders, and they have their leader. For centuries, this group builds an alliance with Cosmos City, some kind of preserving the nature and origin of the area. Heard they are gruesome and barbaric. They attacked people quite often. Some said once you enter the forest, there is no way out anymore," the man gives him more explanation.

"They were just stupid human beings. Of course, they will end up dead. But we are more powerful than any human. I think we can manage them. But right now, it's not our priority. Even if we find the lost city, still we need that girl 'cause she's the key," he says.

"I don't think it's hard.."

"What do you mean?"

The man gives him his pad. He looked at the blinking dot.

"She currently hides in this place. But unfortunately, we can't do anything, because it is protected by some kind of cocoon and even survives our attack because of it. We still try our best to break it and attack the area," the captain smiles at ease.

Since the first attack, it seems like Cosmos City suddenly activate some kind of shield in some places. There is something in each area that the government wants to secure. But little that they knew, it shows the clue and with the enemy's advanced technology, they can break the shield. Sooner or later, they will find what they have looking for.

"Hm... I let you play loose, my princess. Enjoy your sweet time as much as you can. When the time comes, I'll drag you here with my bare hand.." he smirks.

***

"Slow down, boy... I don't get it!"

"She...she's the XX clue!"

"How did you know about that?!" Justin tries to grab her hand, but he suddenly feels shy.

"Can you show your tattoo?" he asks her to roll the sleeve. She rolls it and showed it to Yoon. He looks at the tattoo.

"XX143?"

"She said that she doesn't have a name. But she always scanned this code whenever she went out of her cell.." says Justin.

"You can go out from your cell? So, you aren't exactly a prisoner?" asks Joon.

"I am not a criminal. I was born in that room. I didn't even know it is a prison until I was fifteen. My mom said that we are too dangerous to other people, so living in that place is the best for everyone," she says calmly. She watches the monitor, suddenly getting tense.

"Why?" asks Justin. She immediately walks toward Joon's direction and touches the monitor. Her eyes turn glassy. She caresses the monitor with her finger.

"This lady here... is she your mom?" she nods slowly. She then shows her dog tag necklace to Joon.

"May I?" asks Joon. She hands out the dog tag necklace to him.

"She has it too..." says Justin with a smile on his face. Looks like they have found three dog tags so far. Joon grabs it and puts the dog tag in the scanner. They wait for the analysis.

In a meantime, they need to ask the lady about a few things.

"Your mom gave birth to you in a prison, so she's a criminal?"

"According to the Black Knight personnel, she's the one who chooses to live in exile there,"

"You knew Black Knight?" Yoon gasps.

"Senior, she even knew Pegasus and Black Wolf!"

"So, you knew the military body so well!"

"As I told you, I'm dangerous. Because I know each thing about them. How to attack them, how you guys worked. I've been taught by a well-talented Black Knight. This man over here," she points her finger to the group picture.

"He is my late father.." says Yoon. Now, she knew why Yoon can use the Blood Crescent Moon technic so well.

"That explained the Blood Crescent Moon technique!" she says.

"You knew about that too? But how??" Yoon is getting shocked from time to time.

"I was twelve when your father and mother had an accident...and died.." Joon watches her with sorrowful eyes. Yoon suddenly became gloomy. He stares at the picture with a sad feeling.

"Lucas was my combat master since I was five. He's among the Black Knights who left after the so-called incident. Your mother, Lisa.. she's my private teacher. She taught me a lot of things aside from the combat thing. At first, the Black Knight wants me to work with them in secret, more like turning me into a human weapon. But, your father is against the idea. That's when he persuades them to bring Lisa as my private teacher since I am a girl. She treats me like her own child because she didn't have one at that time. Five years later, she got her first one. The second one, two years later. The year when they died..." she describes them as full of love.

Joon is teary and sobs. Jein, who just came after washing dishes in the kitchen pats his shoulder slowly, calming him from his sadness.

"They died two days after Joon was born.." says Yoon.

"Oh, so you are his brother? You two didn't look alike! I mean, I can see Lucas in Yoon, but you got quite a height and bulky..." the gloomy mode suddenly turns into cheer when both Joon and Yoon glare at her at the same time.

"I heard that a lot. Thank you!"

"Can't believe you're my brother,"

"Yeah, you look so tiny like a cat, while I'm more like a lion.."

"Stop showing off!"

"Oh yeah, a lion who always breaks things!" says Jein with his windshield laugh. Justin can't help but giggle.

"But I never break your heart~~" Jein smacks Joon's head lightly and pouts.

"So, did you know your mom is..."

"Yes, I am a half-alien, half-human. She told me this many times. My father is one of the members of Guardian. He was my mom's Guardian. Each person who holds the dog tag necklace will have a Guardian of their own. But, I only knew about my mom. I didn't know the rest of the team," says her.

Beep sound from the laptop. Looks like the analysis just came.

"It's different in each dog tag. Her dog tag doesn't contain a map. It's more like a.. code?" Joon prints out the analysis. He then grabs the paper from the printer.

"What the heck is that?" asks Jein.

"I don't know... looks like a foreign sign language..." she reads the paper, all three of them.

"It's a code, to the secret door,"

"What secret door?" asks Justin.

"Secret door of a room, which is located in the lost city called.."

"The Maze City!" Joon exclaims. All of them, except the lady, gasped and were shocked. She just goes through one specific paper in her hand.

"How did you know?" asks Yoon.

"The writing, it's in Vomi language.." she gives a short response, still unable to leave the paper away.

"Vomi?"

"My mom is from a planet called Vomirtual. Vomi people have a special ability in many kinds of things, such as learning ability, mortal fighting, firearm, and mind-controlling," she puts down the paper at the center of the table.

"This is the coding key to a room, which according to this instruction, keeps the most massive and powerful capsule that can activate the most deadly weapon in the universe. It is said to be harmful if it is used wrongfully," only by the word harmful, all of the heart shrink a bit.

"That means, that weapon is here? Being kept in the Cosmos City?"

"Wah, government secret policy is not a joke!" Jein claps his hand. Fascinate by the most deadly secret of the government.

"This is just like having a nuclear weapon, that probably at any time will be leaked and cause a lot of casualties. I don't even get it, how does it end up here?" says Joon.

".... it said that it was transported here.... by my mom..." she informs them with a gloomy face.

Now, she understands why her mother said that she cause harm to other people.

"Wow, so your mom is indeed a criminal. She sold illegal weapons!" says Jein.

"I don't... I don't know what to say anymore.." she gets up from the room and left. This time, she's the one who left them without words.