"Jude!" Called a girls voice from behind him. Jude stood at the edge of an intersection watching nothing. Well, anyone watching him from a third person's perspective, he seemed to be looking at people, cars maybe even the buildings on the other side of the road. But he was lost in thought, staring at nothing, hands in his pockets, in fact the first call for his name met deaf ears.
"Jude!" This time he snapped out of it and turned back to see the individual calling him.
Amongst the floods of people walking around like ants minding their own business, amidst the masses was Jordan. A young lady about Jude's age, she was older than him by only a year but always reminded him that he was younger, regardless of the fact that no one could actually tell especially due to Jude's physical outlook. Jordan was, Miss Nakamura's only child and daughter, just like her mother she was pretty but unlike her mother she did not think so because of her. She had long black hair and on her was a black leather jacket, she looked like the stereotypical biker girl in American movies.
"Wasgud kid," Jude greeted her smiling a little.
"I'm older than you," said Jordan back.
"Who's gonna believe you?" Asked Jude teasingly, smiling a little mischievously as he stared down at her. Make no mistake, she was no small lady, standing at five feet and seven inches, she was tall, at least taller than most women, regardless, that didn't matter against someone of Jude's size.
She would never admit it but she found it attractive whenever he teased her like that. It was their thing, and her reactions to it motivated him and made it funnier, more appealing to him.
She took his hand and pulled him to the side, under the shade of a building next to the road where they could speak without constantly being bombarded by the rest of the population within that area.
"I ran from my bodyguards just so we can be alone, " said Jordan.
"But you have your phone," said Jude to her.
"I have multiple phones, left the one they know of in the car. Anyway, my mom told me about your friend, I'm sorry for your loss," she consoled him with a face and voice full of remorse but not overly done.
"Yeah," he said looking to the side. Pete meant alot to him. He, other than Jordan was Jude's closest friend.
"We don't have to talk about it, if you don't want to," said Jordan trying to read the room while at it.
"No...no, it's just... everything happened so fast. One second we're walking together, the next he's on the ground kneeling, then he goes berserk and hits me. Then your mom showed up and...I can't even make sense of it. Someone did something to him, I just don't know how to prove it," said Jude seeming relatively sure of his words.
"Okay, tell me why you think so," said Jordan to him.
Meanwhile, Yui Nakamura(alias Metal Knight) was headed towards her conference hall for a meeting with a couple of shareholders. It was a grand day for her, and well...as expected from her character, she was almost running late. Some could say she did it for the drama, some could say she did it to assert dominance, who knows, well, no one except for her.
As she strode across the open office in her building headed for the conference hall, she was dressed fabulously as usual. Capturing and demanding for the eyes and attention of those around her, men and women, straight and gay. It was difficult to keep ones eye's off of her, if only her personality was as gorgeous. She had a white shirt on top and a black blazer over it, a navy blue tie as the cherry on top that lay on her breasts finalizing her upper body look. Her lower had a relatively short skirt that rose about four inches above her knees exposing a fraction of her thights, clearly succulent and the skin spotless.
By her side was Arrya, her underpaid, overworked intern. She was a rather short and laid back young Indian girl. Her hair was long, black and silky. She had glasses on always as she could hardly see without them, regardless, she was pretty. She had darkish-brown skin, with a few freckles here and there, a cute rather round nose, chubby cheeks and large adorable eyes. The two walked together, headed for the conference hall, Arrya following her like her shadow.
"Wait? How do I look?" Stopped Yui abruptly to once again to juice a compliment from her young intern for the fifth time that morning. It would have been annoying for the average individual but Arrya adored Yui, and she took advantage of that, of her her naivety.
"You look amazing boss," answered Arrya. Her tone had slightly changed at that point and become rather low and slightly stern, she had gotten bored of being milked for compliments but for someone as innocent as her, it was subconscious. She could not tell she was tired of her obnoxious slave owner.
"Of course I do," she said flicking her hair into the air with her right hand, "You on the other hand, seem...darker."
Her face had distaste in it, almost like she found Arrya sort of disgusting for having darker skin.
"Darker?" Asked Arrya softly with slight worry in her eyes as she turned to her hands to scrutinize her skin for herself. She had had been a victim of both racism and colorism her whole life and clearly, Yui was no exception.
"What happened to your skin Arrya? I told you to use sunscreen. Now look at you, at this rate you'll have to bleach it," said Yui to her before adding, "Anyway, let's get to the meeting, your skin is running us late."
She turned back and they walked into a hallway leading to a couple of rooms by the sides at intervals, by the third door they stopped and stormed in. She strode in like a model, proud, chin up and bold. Arrya followed behind, nervous and almost collapsing from social anxiety.
"Nakamura, your la..." Said a white man I'm a suit amongst the five others that sat in that room.
"Five minutes early Bishop, and I'm not even sure why YOU'RE here, but the president must have his reasons I guess," she says to him condescendingly.
The guests in that room were five; Brian Fury - American Army General and second in command only to the president in issues involving the military, Bishop Mitkins - American Vice President, Nil Harris - American President, William and Michael Wright - Billionaire tycoons. All converged here to grant an ear to Nakamura.
"Almost forgot, where are my manners? Good morning gentlemen," said Yui smiling at them, it looked slightly like a grin.
"Good morning, Mrs Naka..."
"Miss! I do not have a husband, Miss Nakamura, or Doctor Nakamura," she corrected Nil interrupting him in tracks.
"Right...so I understand you want funding for some robot project? Says here in your...pitch deck, you want us to fund you to create an army. What's up with that?" Asked the president.
Yui proceeded to snag Arrya's tablet from her and while still smiling she slid her thumb across it from the bottom up switching on a smart screen behind her and showing events that had already happened. It was a recording from her perspective the day she had fought Pete and saved Jude.
"You know why Mr President, give me a moment," she said as the screen showed her flying over New York city, over its people. For a brief moment she forwarded the recording upto the point in which she spotted Pete who was rampaging and civilians all around him running for their lives. The video plays through the whole process of her fighting Pete and finally ending him, to her granting Jude a helping hand.
"You're all aware of this incident, that is what took place. If I hadn't arrived on time, that boy, those poor people would've been killed by that thing," said Yui .
"And how did you know when and where to be?" Asked the Vice president squinting his eyes. The question slapped the smirk she had on her face up to that point.
"Are you insinuating what I think you're insinuating Vice President?" Asked Yui clearly agitated by his question.
"Answering a question with a question, still, if it was a random occurrence how did you know where it would happened and when it would. The odds of you just...happening to be there are ahh...quite slim don't you think?" Asked the Vice president again.
"Moments before I was gliding over the city, testing my new prototype's flight capabilities when out of no where that thing showed up. If you paid attention to the video, you saw that the boy was harmed before I even got there. I was late, and someone got hurt, people would've died if I'd gotten there a moment later.This wouldn't even be the first time I as Metal Knight saved the people of this country, I'm the hero," said Yui aggressively.
"Alright let's just all calm down, we're here to hear her out Bishop, not point fingers at baseless assumptions. Ms Nakamura? Proceed," said the president.
She took a deep breathe, it was however subtle and the rest of them didn't even notice it, well aside from Arrya who knew her all too well.
"Just as it is on the pitch decks, I am requesting you here and the state to grant me permission and also partially fund research and construction of my machines. Robots and suits of armor with the latest, constantly and rapidly updating AI technology. I am offering you soldiers that lack human setbacks and weaknesses; no fatigue, emotion or feable durability. Essentially the perfect warrior. Furthermore if you funded this project then with more numbers we'd be able to detect these incidents of 'monster' outbreaks and deal with them as soon as possible, without any officers , civilians soldiers being injured," she said to them.
"If I may ask, why not help us find a way around these attacks and incidences instead of getting an army. These transformations have been rather, frequent lately and yet we have no clue as to what causes then or even if there's a preventative solution. I bet the citizens of America and the whole world would rather have that solution than computers patrolling their streets," said the President.
"Exactly, and how do we know you haven't pitched this idea to other countries even as we speak. Power like this falling into the wrong hands would be catastrophic," said the commander.
"Great questions. For one Mr President, I am willing to donate funds amongst other resources towards finding the root cause of these instances, so of course I have thought of it and I am working towards a solution with my research team. As for your question commander, I am a citizen of America. This is the only home I've ever known and I'd give my life for it any day, rest assured that you lot, in this room are the only individuals that have heard of this information. My loyalty lies with America, otherwise with this kind of power you'd already have been dethroned by a some third world country in Africa, yet here we are. Isn't that proof of my loyalty gents?" Said Nakamura.
"Ohh come, you're Asian, no one's falling for that crap," said the Vice President.
She smiled and aggressively answered almost immediately, " And what else do you hate? Women?"
"Bishop!" Called the President sternly, he was embarrassed at his assistant's behavior. It was not a good look at all, then again, everyone inside that room other than Yui and Arrya, was a white man.
"You have a way with words Ms Nakamura, alright. I've heard your plead, I will think about it and convey it to the Senate. We will give you an answer soon," said the president as she got off his seat to shake Yui's hand.
"My brother and I will be investing in it," said William Wright, "The research at least."
She smiled in joy before shaking both their hands, she had scored a fraction of the deal, she knew she had most of them and it was only a matter of time. With a bit more persuasion and undetected coercion, she would have them in the bag. The Vice president however was not having it, he smelt a rat and was not believing in her at all.
"Anyway, if you'd excuse me, I have a other meeting to attend to," she said as both her and Arrya left the hall.
Moments later they were on top of the building embarking onto a helicopter that took off and hovered away. A short while later they arrived at some plant. "NakaTech" her company that she built from the ground up with her own hard work and wits, at least that's what she says. The two alighted and walked into the plant escorted by armed security guards.
Amidst all these activities, a distance from the Earth's upper atmosphere and in the dark empty vacuum of space was a meteor. Speeding and headed for Earth, it's surface was course and ragged, it had a layer gas forming a sort of blanket and it released energy surges in the form of electromagnetic waves like a constant ping at specific intervals.