Sitting on a chair was Jack, examining the contract he was given in the comfort of his own house. His house though was a run-down flat with broken furniture. Even the chair he was sitting on was damaged. He was situated in what can be considered the slums of the city. The only way out of this hellhole was by signing the contract in his hands, but he was wary of it. He did not know yet if he could trust Niles.
A door squeaked in the background. "What are you doing daddy?"
Jack turned to the squeaking door, where there was his daughter in her pyjamas.
"Don't worry about me sweetheart. You have school tomorrow, go to sleep." It was deep into night now. He got up and lifted his daughter up. "Let's go. Dad will read you a bedtime story." He said as he smiled.
Twenty minutes later, he was finished with her bed time story.
"Sleep well sweetheart." He said gently, kissing her forehead.
"Goodnight!" She said ecstatically, grinning from ear to ear.
Jack left her room and went back to the contract. Without hesitation, he signed it. He was just reminded of how truly precious his daughter was to him. He was willing to do anything for her. Niles gave him the option to back out when he deemed fit, but he knew he wouldn't find anything immoral if it was for the sake of his daughter. He took a photo of the signed contract and left it on a cloud storage in case Niles decided to betray him. Now that he was done with that, he went to sleep too.
***
In the evening of the next day, Jack was standing outside the mansion again with his daughter in hand this time. The gates opened automatically again.
"Daddy, are we really going to live here?" His daughter asked quizzically.
"That's right, come on, get your luggage and let's go."
She jumped on the spot out of happiness, then after a couple of jumps she got her luggage and started fast walking towards the mansion. Jack followed her with his own luggage in hand.
At the front doors was Niles waiting, this time stood up. Jack already notified Niles that he signed the contract and will be coming. His daughter slowed down and went behind her father for protection. Just like him, she was wary of strangers.
Niles smiled at both of them; "Hello Jack. Hello to you too miss. What's your name?"
Jack's daughter stepped out from her father's shadow and replied to the question. "I'm Lily! And I'm 6 years old."
"Oh wow! Six years old! Alright let's get you and your father inside shall we?"
Jack felt reassured. He had no idea that Niles was good with children, he could tell that he didn't have any ill intentions. They walked up to the second floor and went down the end of a corridor where there were two doors on opposite sides.
"So here is yours and Miss Lily's rooms. If you need anything, feel free to send me a message." Niles said to Jack whilst handing him a copy of the keys for the mansion.
Without wasting time, Lily ran inside one of the rooms. As Niles was walking past Jack to go back downstairs, he said in a monotone voice; "Meet me downstairs when you have time." And he walked off.
***
It took Jack only ten minutes to put Lily to bed. She was tired from school, and now he was going downstairs to see what Niles wanted. He went to the living room, the kitchen, and every other room on the ground floor but he wasn't able to find Niles anywhere. After a few more minutes, he found him in the backyard along with a blonde man.
He recognised the blondie, he was one of Jack's victim from his last gig at the nightclub. But he didn't seem as… elegant as he did back then. He was bleeding from his nose, mouth and everywhere else. His clothes were dirty and tattered. Was Jack going to end up the same?
"That was quick. Ok. Jack meet Arthur, Arthur meet Jack." Niles was introducing them to each other.
"Hi I'm Arthur. You alright?" The blonde said, extending his hand to Jack.
Jack shaked his hand. "Yes thank you. I'm Jack." And thinking back to the night in the club where he robbed the man in front of him of his phone and wallet, he apologised; "I'm sorry for any inconvenience."
Arthur returned a puzzled look, and before he could ask what he meant, Niles interrupted him. "Let's go in for a quick chat."
After a couple of seconds, they found themselves in the spacious living room which contained multiple sofas, a fireplace, and a large flat television mounted to the wall. Niles turned on the news and sat on a sofa, where he already had some snacks prepared. Jack and Arthur followed his example and sat in different sofas.
"Alright, so as you should've guessed, both of you are now teammates pretty much. And I need your help already. I plan on going to Greece soon, and I'm planning on taking both of you with me."
Jack and Arthur looked at each other before Arthur turned to Niles; "Greece? Why?"
"I just need to go to Mount Olympus real quick."
"Why do you need to go to a mountain?" Jack asked.
Niles stared at him before answering; "Do you not know of the myths? Long story short, in mythology, Mt Olympus was where the Greek pantheon… the Ancient Greek gods resided. The pantheon doesn't actually exist, but the mythical place does. There are multiple places in the world that have been… hidden, per say, until I woke up."
Jack scanned Niles, as if the man was crazy. Ancient gods? He wants to go to a mythical place? Does he think that him waking up caused these places to just appear?
Niles saw Jack's look of concern, and a wave of realisation hit him; "Oh my bad, I forgot to tell you what's happening exactly."
Niles recounted his story about when he woke up and what aura is, he went through it quite quickly, mainly because Jack remained silent. Not in awe, but in disbelief. If Arthur wasn't there to back up his claims and if Jack didn't personally experience Niles' strength in that alley, he would've took his daughter and ran away from them. Instead of doing that, he just sighed and went on with it.
"Slight problem, I don't have a passport and neither do I have the money for it. I'm guessing you do?"
"No I don't have the necessary money with me right now." Before Jack or Arthur could ask him how he didn't have money if he was living in such a luxurious building, he raised the volume on the tv for them to hear the news.
"… It's been found that some enchanced humans are capable of counterfeiting any currency easily, and to do so, the Union of Nations has decided to implement a new, global currency called Tera, giving homage to our planet that is unifying against the current threat."
Then he went on about the value of the Tera and how it compared to current currency in different parts of the world. Niles didn't seem interested in this, it was as if he knew this was already going to happen. Arthur reckoned they probably had the same problem back in his time. But what the news reporter said next made Niles tune in.
"… This currency will be impossible to replicate because during the manefacture of them, certain trusted individuals will pour some of their Aura in them, Aura is the name that has been given to this power. Each user has a different, identifiable signature in their Aura, and the Tera will make use of this feature for stricter authentication. It's been found that every enchanced person emits an electromagnetic wave, more specifically a radio, micro and infrared wave. When an enhanced person over-exerts themselves, their signature gains energy and so they emit an electromagnetic wave in the form of visible light. By next Monday at 4am Greenwich Mean Time, banks worldwide will change their currency to Tera, and any money that is currently digital will also turn into Tera. Old currency can be used for minor cash purchases of up to 200 US dollars until the first of May this year..."
Arthur and Jack were digesting this information, whereas Niles was leaning forwards, thinking.
'Aura. Signatures. Even the method of making this new currency. These guys are using the exact same terms and methods as ancient civilisations. No matter how preserved the knowledge of Aura was in the elite houses, they must've changed slightly due to translation errors and such. But they are using the exact same vocabulary. I need to look deeper into this.'