Arthur woke up to the constant beeping sound from his mobile. The sudden influx of light from the four display screens before him disturbed his eyes. He realized he had fallen asleep on his work desk yet again as he could see the unfinished code on the screen until there was a space. Beyond that it was just gibberish words probably resulting from his face resting on the keyscreen on the desk.
The beeping sound on his mobile stopped as soon as he sleepily picked it up but there were tons of other unchecked notification piled up on his screen so Arthur has to browse through, with his squinted eyes as he was still adjusting to the light, to find out the latest one. When he finally found it, he felt his body tense up, his mind no longer in a calm state as if his survival instincts were kicking in. Without any delay, he quickly transferred his mobile data to his workstation as he wanted to investigate this matter further with immediate priority.
He heard a knock on the door, he knew it was his sister so he didn’t bother to answer. A few minutes passed; the door barged open like he had expected.
“Arthur… I was out shopping today and I brought you this cake” his sister said, approaching him.
“Tia, am a bit busy right now” Arthur said, nothing bothering to look at her.
“What… is this the reaction you have for a beautiful woman bringing you cake? You need to get better at this bro”
“I am way past the stage where I would be curious about every random thing you do. And given your history, there has been a lot” Arthur stated.
“That is not true…. At least this time. Don’t tell me you forgot its our birthday” Tia exclaimed in disbelief.
“Ohh, Happy Birthday” Arthur said meekly.
“I don’t need your pity wish… What are you even working on?” Tia asked. She was waiting for him to notice her new outfit but his eyes were glued to the screen the entire time.
“I am investigating a distress signal I received this morning; I am trying to track down its coordinates but it’s very unusual” Arthur answered.
“What’s so unusual? We receive them all the time” Tia asked. They were used to it, considering it was their business after all. They have setup a hotline so that if anyone is in danger from the Thorthereals, Arthur and her would save them.
“Because, the signal I received was on our private hotstring” Arthur stated, he finally looked at his sister.
Tia felt a chill, “You don’t mean…” she couldn’t complete it.
“Yeah… It is a private stringline I had set up for our family. There are only five who can access it” Arthur answered in a manner to confirm her thoughts.
“It… It could have also been hacked” Tia said. “I mean… it’s been five years… we haven’t heard from Kiara or Cyrus or Knox… Even after searching for so long, we couldn’t find a single clue… now you are telling me they contacted you? Just like that?”
Arthur sighed. He could understand Tia’s reaction. She was just looking for reasons to not build up hope, she had to learn this the hard way. Ever since that incident five years ago, we have been searching for them religiously chasing every clue we could find, reliable or not. Each time it starts with a glimmer of hope but always seems to be a dead end. Tia had stopped asking for clues ever since. Even though this was her reaction, she was hoping for a miracle like this to knock on our doors, its easier to put our hopes on a miracle than bank on any realistic approach that always turns out to be nothing.
“Its not impossible for it to be hacked but the chances of this being legit is too high to not check it out. If it really turns out to be one of them and they need our help, don’t you think that’s enough reason for us to act?” Arthur reasoned. He couldn’t deny he shared his sister’s feelings but he had to stay strong to not give up on the search. “At the very least, wouldn’t be a bad way to spend our birthday? He said smiling.
Tia was smiling back, “Killing Thorths? Best theme for a party. So, what’s the plan?”
“I have narrowed down the coordinates. We don’t seem to have a direct Gate connecting to the location registered with the Syndicate so we will have to use the nearest Gate and take the exit. I’ll go get the Syndicate’s approval and stock up on the supplies. You get what we need and meet me at the West Wing exit. We might be gone for a long time to pack everything we need” Arthur explained.
“What about our business? Are we going to close it temporarily?” Tia asked.
“We are but I am keeping the helplines open. There might be people in danger reaching out for help so I don’t want to close it, instead redirect all the calls to the Syndicate Task Force. I know a person in the Task Force, they can monitor the helpline while we are away” Arthur said.
For the next few hours, Tia got busy, putting up a list of items they would need, both essentials and some luxury. She prefers to keep a balance of both, someone who believes both are bare minimum requirements for living our lives. While her instincts were focused on the task at hand, her mind wandered off to the distress signal. After a long time, she felt excited about some breakthrough on their sibling’s whereabouts. She tried her best to push these thoughts away, contain her excitement but she couldn’t help but want to believe this time. Is it ok to build hope? Is this the miracle she has been silently praying for?
All these questions brought back memories of their time together. Tia always believed the time she spent with her family was when she was the happiest.
Their parents, August and Ziara, rulers of August’s Gate, known to anyone in the Syndicate, showered their children with nothing but love, her elder sister (buy three years) Kiara, along with carrying the weight of their family’s legacy on her shoulders from a young age, took on the responsibility of building a future for her siblings; her twin brother Arthur always there proving a helping hand to anyone in need without expecting anything in return and finally her younger brothers (by three years) Cyrus and Knox, also twins, too young and innocent to worry about anything and just living their lives. She felt robbed when their home Gate was breached five years ago, her impregnable fortress of happiness came down crashing. But she had always hoped, as long as her family was together, they can rebuild their fortress any number of times.
The ringing mobile in her pocket shook her back to reality as she packed the last few items in her ‘Inventory’. Strangely, even though she was lost in thought the whole time, her hands were carried out the packing to perfection, making her wonder if she was way too tuned to be a family woman. She laughed to herself picking up the call, “Tia!! Where are you? We were supposed to meet up at the exit gate.” Her brother’s voice from the other side.
“Ohh Sorry, am just about to leave. Will be there in ten minutes” she hurriedly checked around one last time if she had missed out anything and dashed out through the front door. She sprinted across the near empty streets rushing to the meeting point.
True to her word, Tia reached the spot within ten minutes, noticed her brother leaning against a black infantry mobility vehicle. “Is this ours?” she asked.
“Just bought it. HGS Standard edition IMV – Couger. I figured we would need it considering where we are headed. It comes with a stealth system so Thorths cannot see us. Do you like it?” Arthur asked tapping the frame of the vehicle.
Tia most certainly did, this was one of the more expensive ranges of IMVs available in the HGS market. She has rarely seen them that too only on videos in HGS social feed. She had always wanted to travel in one but now this vehicle was practically her home for several months.
“Arthur… When are we leaving?” Tia was surprised when a kid popped his head out of the vehicle’s window. “Is this your sister?” the little boy asked. Tia looked at Arthur waiting for some explanation.
“This is Spinner. We are going to be exiting from Tenor’s Gate to reach our location so I picked up a drop mission. With this, we will be on official duty on behalf of the Syndicate, it would be a perfect cover for our movements. We will be escorting Spinner to his parent’s house in Tenor’s Gate” Arthur explained.
Tia always found it impressive how about meticulous her brother was even though she has seen this side of him many times. “Hey kid! Am Tiara” she introduced herself to the little boy. The boy looked human from the outside but she knows it cannot be certain as even beings from other tribes have adapted to look human. The only way to tell them apart is by their wings as each tribe, Angels, Demons, Fairy, Dragons & Vampires all have different types of wings.
Arthur added Tia to the access list of the vehicle so that she can interact with the IMV’s inventory. Each vehicle comes with its own system storage apart from the items you can store in the vehicle physically. The System storage does not alter the weight of the vehicle but there is a limit on how much you can add. “Alright, lets get moving” he announced as they were all set to leave.
The closer they got to the ‘Gate’, they could see how massive the portal was. They provided their ID to the West Gate exit scanner, that verifies if the ID number is present in the Syndicate’s approved list, only then they would be allowed to travel through the ‘Gate’.
“Nice to see you, Arthur. Would you like to initiate a Jump to another Gate?” A HGS security guard asked via a speaker imbedded in the scanner.
“No Mr. Hapdor, we just want to exit. We are using the freeway” Arthur could recognize the voice as he has used the gate frequently.
“Alright, there has been reports of increased Thorthereal activity outside. Stay safe” the voice responded.
Arthur always appreciated how kind and dedicated Mr. Hapdor was to his job ever after hundreds of years. Even though people physically stop aging after a certain, the age number still goes up every year. Compared to him, Arthur just turned twenty-one. He always wondered what its like to live for hundred years.
“Thank you, Mr. Hapdor. Have a good night” Arthur said.
Driving through the portal, bright blue light engulfed their vehicle, clouding their vision in blue before exiting in a middle of a wasteland. Arthur kept driving straight looking to connect with the HGS Freeway. It wasn’t their first time, so Arthur could roughly estimate not more than one hour of driving at their current speed.
Tiara could truly appreciate the luxury of this vehicle as she has been through this route several times in mostly lesser vehicles and she could remember every time it would be a very bumpy ride given the uneven terrain. She could feel the cushioning taking much of the load so they were pretty much sailing through like they were on a boat. She noticed the little kid had his eyes glued to the windows, clearly enjoying the view.
“What are those blocks of Red in the sky? Looks like a giant chess board” Spinner asked, looking above.
“That’s the Matadome that covers our entire world. It was created by the legendary Human, Moofire using Matom Technology which was also designed by himself. Moofire discovered that every matter living or non-living contained a particle called Matom with its center being hollow. He found out by infusing Matoms with Binary Codes, he was able to freely alter anything using an interface which is now called a Matadome. Anything within the dome can be modified based on the parameters set to the Matadome. Once someone enters the dome, the person will by default set to the default settings. This also applies for if a new child is born.” Tia explained as much as she could.
Tia always tends to get carried away in her explanations so she wasn’t sure how much of her information was understandable for kids of spinner’s age.
“Tia, we are taking the Freeway soon, keep a look out for Thorths” Arthur said, from the driver’s seat on the left side.
Tia quickly moved behind her brother’s seat, to the shaft that has a binocular attached at the end on the roof of the vehicle. Tia was on lookout on all sides as Arthur sped through the freeway. This Heaven’s Gate Freeway is one of the wonders of the world that connects every place in the world. This makes the Freeway susceptible to attacks not just by Thorths but also bandits. Due to that fact, people always prefer to jump from Gates to Gates directly to avoid the risk of traveling in the Freeway. Hence surveillance plays a key role in surviving on the road.
They were covering a lot of distance with great speed thanks to Arthur’s incredible driving skills. His deft handling of the large vehicles by making those tight turns on curves without reducing speed was incredible to watch.
“How long till we get there?” Tia asked.
“I see at least ten hours on road minimum, upon which we will reach the Portal hub which is connected to several others portals all over the world. It has been setup by the Syndicate to cut short on the traveling time on the Freeway. HGS is right at the center of the world, we have to cross the hub and head further deep into the western wing” Arthur said, not taking his eyes off the road.
“Hold on… I see Thorths, at our three-o clock. We need to hurry, looks like a family is caught in the middle” Tia addressed all serious. She was watching as a group of Hyena Thorths surrounding a family stuck inside their vehicle. This was looking bad since most of the civilian vehicles have very less sustenance for damage.
Arthur immediately cut to his right. He pulled up a display screen so that he could see what Tia was seeing. He had to step on the pedal as the civilian car was reaching its limits. If the vehicle is damaged completely, all passengers will be forcefully pushed out and the vehicle disappears, which exactly happened. He pulled over close by the Hyena getting their attention.
“Tia, get ready to engage. Spinner, you will be staying inside the car, you will not be able to leave but do not worry, it is safe in here” Arthur told him. He opened up the sunroof of the vehicle and saw Tia immediately spread her wings and flew above.
Spinner watched in awe as Arthur and Tia quickly landed in front of a family of four covering for them from the Hyena Thorth’s attacks. They equipped a rifle out of thin air and started firing at the enemies with pinpoint accuracy as immediately some Hyenas took shots in their head. They did not die but the damage was enough for all the other Hyenas to be on alert. But Arthur and Tia did not stop as they continued their assault taking down the enemies with ease. Soon there were about three of them left, which were also cleaned up in no time. When they ‘died’ spinner saw their bodies disintegrated into small boxes of light and disappeared.
It all happened so fast but the image of their wings was still itched into Spinner’s memory. They Golden feathered wings of Arthur and the Golden bat type wings of Tiara truly looked magnificent. He saw Arthur opened the door to the vehicle and picked up a supply box from the vehicles inventory and some other items. Just like the weapons, small boxes of light appeared and placed the items on the ground when the light disappeared.
“Can I come with you?” Spinner asked with hopeful eyes.
Arthur thought for a second before agreeing, “Alright, but promise to stay close always”
Spinner simply nodded before following Arthur to the family of four. Tia was using her skill to heal all four of them together. Small bubbles enwrapped their bodies, and soon all their wounds were recovered along with their fatigue.
“Every person has a Dome of for themselves, they can do anything within their Dome. This is called the Matazone” Arthur answered Spinner, as if reading his mind.
Spinner seemed to appreciate the clarification and was even excited to learn more, “Is that how you using those weapons?”
“Yeah, every person has a Loadout slots. They can carry a Primary Weapon, A secondary Weapon and a Melee Weapon. The primary and Secondary are mostly HGS standard issue guns while Meele is a weapon of our choice. Each person has an Energy type they can control, that’s how they use their skills, which are also of three types; Primary Skill, Secondary Skill and the Ultimate Skill. Each of them cost more or less energy depending on the skill. It varies from person to person.” Arthur explained.
“How did you do damage to those Hyenas?” Spinner asked.
“When you are ten years old, you will unlock your Scandial…” Arthur showed his, attached to his chest, “This dial is your medium that transmit data to and from the dome. Once its unlocked, it activates your Matazone, starts with a smaller circle at level one and the dome gets bigger has you level up. When the zone is big enough, the enemy will be inside your dome and are susceptible to our damage. Likewise, if you are in your enemies’ zone, you will take damage as well” he added.
“Thank you for helping us, I am Sonol” the man among the four spoke up.
“Mr. Sonol, the freeways aren’t exactly the family getaway kind you are hoping for” Tia had just finished healing everyone.
“Do you think we have a choice?” Sonol looked dejected. “The civil war between the demons and the vampires are growing rampant. It is no place for a civilian family like us. Heaven’s Gate is our only hope. Running away from war only to risk it by taking the Freeways, that’s the life we are leading here”
Tia was not aware the situation up north between the demons and the vampires have escalated to that extent. The incident five years really shook up the world’s balance, and now there is no safe place safe outside of their respective gates. In the south, there has been some friction between the Humans and the Faries. The only place without conflict is the East where the Angels have a tight grip of the area after the Dragons have secluded themselves in hiding in the mountains. The west was the land of Hybrids established by August, Tia’s father, was the hero who put a stop to the first Thorth invasion. But when we lost our Dome five years ago, the west has become a lawless area filled with Thorth activity.
“We will take you to the Gateway Hub, it will be much safer than taking the freeway” Tia assured them.
Arthur couldn’t help but smile, Tia always tells him how kind he is but Arthur knows Tia cannot ignore when anyone is in trouble. Sonol had a wife and two young daughters, probably the same age as Spinner, with him. Tia had spent time with them all the way during their ride to the hub. Within few hours, they were able to reach the Gate Hub.
“I have explained the situation the Heaven’s Gate patrol, they will help you from here” Tia explained. The family thanked Tia and Arthur for the hospitality before leaving.
Arthur and Tia continued further on their journey to Tenor’s Gate. “What are you grinning about?” Tia asked spinner.
“I have decided, when I grow up, I want to be just like you both” Spinner declared smiling.
Tia was surprised, “Do you even know what we do?”
“Yeah, you help people right”
what he witnessed today probably inspired Spinner and Tia couldn’t help but feel proud, “Well it is dangerous work so you will have to convince your parents. We will soon reach you home, are you excited?” she asked.
She noticed the smile on Spinner’s face slowly fade grow small, “I have never seen my parents. I was told they left me in Heaven’s Gate because my home was a dangerous place for children to live. Now that I can finally meet them, I am more a bit nervous” spinner said.
Tia could feel his pain, there are many such children in Heaven’s Gate each of them with stories of their own. In fact, Arthur and herself were the same as Spinner when they came to Heaven’s Gate all alone to escape the Great War of the West. “You don’t have to be nervous; you should show them how grown up you are. It will make them happy” Tia said.