It was dark and gloomy outside, it had rained all night and now after several long hours, it was quiet. There were still dark clouds and frequent thunders but no raindrops dripped from above. The weather that day gave quite an eerie feeling. 'Trrrring....Trrring'. It was the morning alarm that woke up 'Zuko'.
Like always, Zuko had a morning bath, he brushed and had breakfast. He was all alone, on his own. He was told by the hospital that a few years back when his family was brought to the hospital, they were in a very serious condition due to the accident that they had. It was quite unfortunate that he lost all of his family members and on top of that, Zuko also had an injury on his head which caused him severe amnesia. With almost no memory of his past, Zuko, an eighteen years old boy, lived in his father's apartment. He had been alone for four years and all this time he did not rely on anyone. His father left him quite some amount and family business which fulfilled all his needs, in fact, it was too much for him. He was in a grand apartment, had a brand new Ferrari, had access to any and all things.
Lost in his thoughts, Zuko was sitting on the sofa, staring outside the window far in the clouds, the frequent thunders reflecting in his deep and dark pupils created a serene look on his face which was a sign of maturity and tranquility. It was almost time for his university, with a blank face Zuko left his apartment and headed towards his university in his grand Ferrari.
It was his exams, all the students were busy studying their respective subjects-it really is awkward when you find everyone around you busy in their studies simultaneously moving on pedestrian's pathway, eating, sitting and some even so mad that they are talking, laughing but still having a book before their face. With a stern look, Zuko passed everyone on the way not giving anyone any kind of response. The aloofness that surrounded him kept him at a distance from everyone except for one person, who would always bump into him.
Just when Zuko was entering the class, he found himself bumping into someone.
"Oh... I am sor... sorry" bumping into Zuko, Naina tried to stabilize her balance but then she found herself falling to the ground when a hand reached her and held her steady. she sighed"I am sorry Zuko, I... I am sorry... thanks," her cheeks turning red, and then she moved away from Zuko, running off into the corridor.
Naina was the new girl that had moved here to Zuko's university. She was the most famous student in the university due to her otherworldly looks. A strange coincidence was that both her and Zuko were all alone but she was different from Zuko. She had different mysterious air around her that would not allow anyone to approach her. Also, she was the most intelligent student in the class.
'Hmm...' sighed Zuko as he looked away from the question paper. Having a slight disappointment in his eyes, like he already knew of the present circumstance and kept on looking out of the window in his state of daze. when the invigilator saw him like that, he could only pity Zuko and could only sigh. In fact, he was quite known in the class and every one pitied him on his situation. Everyone thought that Zuko was heartbroken and was no more interested in himself anymore. But, the reality was totally different from that, Zuko felt different from the rest of people around him or at least from the people of his age. Although he did not remember anything after the discharge from the hospital, he believed that he was indeed different from the rest of the people. Especially his memory. It had been four years and Zuko had almost studied everything that he could lay his hands on. Other than that, his visualizing power was indeed incredible, he had performed who knows how many experiments and practicals. Right now he could be said to be the most intelligent and educated person on the planet but what the strange thing was that he remained so low key for only one reason and that was, he feared an unknown power waiting for him in the dark to show up. And that is why Zuko was always acting dumb, or to be more precise, Zuko was careful.
"Sir, as per you had ordered everything is ready, I have made all arrangements and have gone through everything twice. you may shift to your villa anytime you want."
'clank' Zuko severed the phone call from his assistant, with a stern look in his eyes and then sighed heavily.
The next few days Zuko worked on his villa, he worked on a security system, installed a self-aware system called Luu that executed many jobs at a time, like from security to laundry. Zuko arranged everything that he needed there. Now was the time to execute all that he had been planning for.
'Okey, all is finished. so, let's get into it.'
With everything done. Zuko started hacking every single website that he knew of. Within just moments, he completely hacked everything and was undetectable.
Zuko went through all the data that he collected. It took him only a month. Meanwhile, he would frequently stroll outside for refreshment or to refill the resources. Although he had servants, unlike the spoiled prodigals, he preferred doing things himself.
One thing that once again shocked Zuko was that no cybersecurity was able to detect him when he sneaked into their system. It was all quite easy for him and he thought to himself that all those precautionary measures were not that necessary. OF course, he was after all the most knowledgeable person on earth but unfortunately, Zuko still underestimated himself.
Since Zuko was using his own technology to hack the entire cyber system, he detected a new set of data networks. Prior to this sudden contact, he had no knowledge about such a network's existence. Zuko tried to infiltrate into this new kind of data network but to his bad luck, he was unable to even catch the proper signals from the ambiguous network. Only after trying several times did he then stop.
In the morning, when Zuko was washing up, he saw himself in the mirror, turned into a fatso. He was amazed by the change that he had gone through. It turned out that he stayed indoor for almost half a year and was so busy in his work that he forgot to even look into the mirror and now when he saw himself like that he was quite amazed. "I guess, I need to workout sometimes, I mean just look at me." thought to himself Zuko while making a face of powerlessness.
'Tring...tring' the alarm rang.
Like every normal day, Zuko washed up and when he came to make breakfast he found that someone had already made him one. In fact, the table had breakfast for two people. Alarmed, Zuko called his personal security that he prepared himself."Luu, who made the breakfast?"
"Oh. Don't bother her, it's me. Mr. Andree." A man appeared from the kitchen dressed in black.
"And who might you be?" asked Zuko while pointing his punch in the direction of the man.
"Don't be so rude and I am not here to create troubles. And do you really think that that toy of yours can do anything to me."Laughingly said that man in black.
"Who are you?" Asked Zuko, with some fear in his heart Zuko put away his ring that had enough power to blast an area of fifteen meters into smithereens. "What do you want?"
"Oh come on, let's sit first, we can discuss it while we eat, and don't worry I am not here to harm you but to offer you something that I know you will be sure interested in." said the man in black.
When they sat on the table the man proposed an offer that said that their organization will give Zuko certain benefits and what Zuko had to do was to work for them. When the man was done speaking, he felt Zuko was not interested so what he did next astonished Zuko completely. It turned out that the man burned a flame on his fingers out of nowhere and his arm strength totally scared him. Mr. Andree punched the wall of his villa from a distance of five meters, the could not take on that simple punch and a hole was made through it. He also told Zuko that what Zuko knew was just a small edge of the iceberg, he also promised that once Zuko agreed with them, he will have access to all that, that he knows nothing of but then Zuko can later on never back away from their organization.
With this, they ended their conversation. "Don't worry kid, you have the time to think over it, properly. once you have decided, you can contact me through this." passed a card when Mr. Andree got up and was about to leave.
It was night, Zuke sat on the bed watching the projection of a man who had a flame burning on one of his fingers. Zuko had watched the video many times but still, he was not clear how it happened. Even when he called on 'Luu' to check any chemicals or any other way to make that happen but to his misfortune 'Luu' was unable to determine how all that happened. With no clue, he closed the projection and laid on his bed. Closed his eyes and thought of the matter that happened that day, the offer to learn that he had no idea about and also the fear that he had in his heart.