Grasping The Situation
"Tenant Franco, the general came and is calling you."
"Already?! I thought I made it clear that I have no interest in joining."
"Seems like it's about your last call."
When I met with the general, I received the news about my promotion and about the additional rewards that would occur formally in a week.
I was indeed happy about it, I even asked for some time with my family and he so kindly gave it to me.
I wanted to invite my family to the ceremony, but it wasn't possible. However, I could at least tell them about my promotion, and that I would be able to help with the medicaments for sis, and help them pay their debts.
When I arrived home, in a small apartment in the suburb area, there was no one there. At the time, I thought they were out shopping or something like that. Then, I received a call from an old friend that lived next door. I haven't talked with him in a while.
"What's up champ?! Are you white-bearded already?! It's been a long time!"
That cold bastard, I loved him as a brother, but man I was so happy… When I heard the news, the thing I tried to hide and control for years dropped from my eyes.
I finished the call and left home without covering the green military shirt I was wearing. I lived in a dangerous area. I would be at risk if someone discovered that I was from the army. I knew that, but I don't know what took me... I just left as fast as I could direct to the metro.
Fortunately, no one noticed a guy in an army t-shirt running 2 in the morning, and I was able to arrive in the hospital with no problem.
I received the news, my 17-year-old sis, who was recovering from cancer, didn't survive the crash and died inside the ambulance. My mother and father were still unconscious and would need to be monitored, they would have low to none chance of surviving otherwise.
Is it because I'm the guy from the military? Why are they saying such things with such ease. I just came from a mission, my first mission, we had some complications but we didn't lose a single one of us. Even during my entire camp training days and my first mission, I never felt like this; This awful feeling at my throat, the hole in my chest, and my hands trembling.
I somehow managed to control my breath and the pain in my chest decreased. I then met with my friend, who gave me a hug. After finishing everything at the hospital, I headed back home, by orders of the medical in charge. I had more a few days before having to go back to the army.
Then, I saw myself in a difficult situation: I could stay safe and barely struggle to pay what I needed, or I could accept the general indication and become a mercenary for the government and have more than enough money to pay what I needed…
You know... In my current situation what my choice was, right...
In the few days I had, I paid all things I needed for the rest of the month, and connected it all with my bank account for the following months, since I didn't know when I would come back.
I also spent some time with my friend, and watched over my parents at the hospital. Then the day came…
And as such, my journey as a member of the 3rd battalion of a Special Forces Group begins.
I survived, five years in total, before receiving another invitation from the general who appointed me previously.
He wanted to indicate a more safe and stable job, now that he ripped out the benefits of appointing me to the 3rd battalion...
I heard he became a big one in the company, however, I never expected him to come all the way down and talk with a leftover.
Let alone talk personally, and offer the position of head of security in a new secret facility from the government.
At this point, I had payed all my parents debts, purchased a house for them and even sponsored a journey of their dreams around the world, what I most wanted now was to be able to purchase a good house, away from the big cities, and lastly find a girl that liked to travel to live with me…
But all those dreams were shattered, with my sudden death, in that secret government facility.
And now, here I am, in a new futuristic world sitting beside a beautiful young lady, called Lynda Moray (My new mother by the way), seeing my new father, a giant looking guy execute some kind of dance moves with a serious and focused face…
I can be overdoing, and this all be some kind of martial arts of THE so called Iron Wall, Haral Moray, but I'm a former black belt in multiple martial arts and this, somewhat, look much more like a dance then martial arts.
I once heard that martial arts and dance are not that far apart, and I understand the point, in being fluid and not being predictable by your opponent, but my father's movements have nothing of the basics footwork, it's as if he is just dancing like a drunk while being sober…
I leaned towards my mother who was looking at father with gleaming eyes; by her reaction I expected something to happen, but seeing all that I saw up until now, I didn't have high expectations…
Until I saw the last punch my father executed…
He had a good stance; foot firmly on the ground, good waist movement; and more surprisingly, something came out of his hand like a shock wave and struck the concrete-punch-dummy 3 meters away from him, breaking it.
What the… I just saw?
I couldn't understand why he did all those movements to end with that, but I truly hope I don't need to execute a 5 minutes long dance before being able to punch a dummy...
In the days that followed, one significant event stands out…
I was finally able to walk alone!
I arrived at the windows in the living room trying my best to keep the balance (My head still too heavy).
Finally, I could see myself calmly in the reflection of the massive window, overlooking a section of the massive city known as Blackhaven; There are no cars on the streets, only people dressed in various outfits ranging from futuristic black to punk-style outfits from my previous planet.
However, as I looked up, I noticed several vehicles passing on what appeared to be a road above the city; despite the fact that my house was one of the tallest buildings I could see, the elevator going up towards the massive structure was much taller.
When the light from the gigantic digital sales board in the building in front blacked out, I could see myself again, black hair, and dark green eyes that I took after my father, even though my father had blonde hair with green eyes and my mother a beautiful silver hair with dark brown eyes, my hair ended up black…
But it's not a problem, even though I have normal hair (If black is normal in this world...) I've taken my new parents' facial features, and I can proudly say, compared to my face before, I don't think I'll have to wait years while in search of a lady.
My peace was suddenly broken when my father picked me up and began swinging me in circles.
I had planned to keep this achievement a secret, until I turned 8 months old, but I was discovered, now I'm nearly 7 months old…
From this day on my new lovely parents just kept asking me to say more complex things (for them at least), but for me I have learned those a long time ago (just a few months), and the most surprising thing I can say is the fact that this house has not a single book, I don't know why I'm missing them, but sensors and hologram all around is quite odd for a kid who grow up learning from those old items.
My only option at the moment is getting the Prisma (a device as small as a wristwatch) that my mother doesn't use (apparently because it's old), when mother goes to sleep.
Which was not an easy thing to do; This entire house has digital doors. I tried walking around but got denied so many times...
But there's no way I would let such a thing stop me; I somewhat borrowed... the ID card of my father (He didn't notice tho), and now…
I have a Prisma hidden in my room, where I can search for things!
I situated myself more comfortably in my bed, while holding Prisma T10349 (The name of the device), I made sure to hold it in a blind spot away from the door of my room, then started browsing, it was pretty intuitive for someone who watch another person (my mother) using a more advanced one.
This world is much more futuristic, they even have constructions in another planet, while back on Earth they barely were able to go out of the planet, here they have cities outside of the planet.
Ohh... It still has news about the consequences of the war…
What the… 2 billion people died... No way…
More than half of those were from outsiders (people living outside the planet), from 110 they destroyed 91 space stations…
Thousands of millions living in it? Why did they build such a huge structure outside the planet, to then destroy it? With people living there? Most of the people in those space stations were scientists or engineers plus their families… damn...
This world is so f***** up. I know in my old planet, Earth, there were some wars, multiple times, but killing 2 billion in 3 years? It's nuts! totally out of the curve!
The radiation from the war covered the entire surface of the planet, and it became nearly impossible to survive, killing the rest of the 2 billion living on this planet…
The radiation became a big problem and all the rest of the powers, countries, families, companies, all began to chase a way to handle this radiation, named Mist, because of the miasma created by it.
Thus, the Constitution Drug appeared, and now even the Mana Experts have to drink it weekly.
The next text article I found, explained more about this drug.
"Constitution Drug — Effects and Side Effects"
"Becoming resistant against the Mist was something barely manageable by the top class ME's, taking that into consideration, the Constitution Drug came to increase the quality and quantity of your mana. While, at the same time, increase the resistance against Virus and Microorganisms. Now those with less talent to handle mana can easily walk outside for an entire day without problems."
"Up until this moment, the only negative side effect was for those who administered more than the recommended dose of the Constitution Drug."
As my focus changed again, I searched about mana...
"Mana, The Mystical Energy."
"It's widely spread that mana is not for everyone, even though it's used by everyone. This seemingly nonsensical affirmation is based on the close-to-infinity capacity that it has, however, we can barely use it to keep us protected against radiation, crazy right?! Hahaha."
I found a video that somehow was not blocked for me to watch...
"Even so, some experts believe it would be possible if we had a way to measure mana more accurately, rather than relying solely on our own senses. It's been centuries and we still don't know a way to do so."
"However, some of us are born with an incredible sense for it. So we must now talk about them. The Mana Experts (ME's), also called Awakened. Those who somehow can feel this mystical energy, and some of them can even use it, thus developing supernatural powers."
"It's still unclear the limitations and usage since only 1 in a million is able to sense it, and from 100 only 5 will be able to develop a supernatural power, there were multiple studies going on, but after the Assault of Nabog, the few info we had vanished from the streamline."
Oh no…
Someone is coming!
I heard noises outside the room (someone walking), and hid the Prisma below my pillow, and pretended to sleep...