Chapter 3 - 18 years later
"Hunter, what the hell is wrong with you? Why don't you always listen to instructions? Don't you want to be in this team?!" Lucianna, the female captain of a ten-person team that Hunter Stone was part of, screamed at Hunter with great anger in her eyes.
Lucianna was a nineteen-year old girl who was really beautiful and incomparably ambitious. She wanted to be the first person on Earth that would be a Cosmic Mechanical Emperor, one that all mechanics in the world will fearfully submit to and reverently see and worship as their Lord; a Goddess in control of vast armies of planet-shaking mechanical monsters.
She was over five feet tall, where she was only an inch away from becoming a six-feet tall female. She had a strongly attractive oval face, bright emerald eyes that was filled with determination and held strongly unwavering hopes for the future in the thickest blackest night. She had pearly white teeth that dazzled whenever she opened her mouth to speak, admirably long, natural royal-blue hair that almost reached her waist, and an extremely fair, unblemished radiant skin that glowed beautifully, such that her skin could be likened for milk.
Lucianna was a really intelligent girl that always came top in the class and was filled with a bit of pride and arrogance because of it. Also, she was a quick adoptive learner and an highly creative, multi-diverse thinker that wouldn't really listen to others, which therefore made her seem unending and unyielding to others.
"Chill, Lucianna. Your blood is really hot. It could combust into flame anytime soon." Hunter playfully said and shook his head, while the others in their team laughed within themselves, afraid to expose their teeth to Lucianna who as the Instructors' favorite, could call down any of the Institute instructors upon them.
Lucianna exhaled heavily and walked away in ire, while Hunter immediately said with widened eyes, "Come on, Lucia. What have I said to warrant such an expressive exhalation? Wait, where are you walking off to? Don't tell me you want to abandon our project."
"Ugh!" Hunter groaned in a displeased manner since Lucianna only ignored him.
Hunter, also known as Geltorak who arrived in 106th-century Earth as a two-year old baby, had grown into a dashing young man with shining dark-black hair. He had chin shaped like that of a chisel, possessed pointed nose and sharp mirror-clear eyes that had intense crimson irises in them, indicating to others that he was possibly an alien-human hybrid.
Furthermore, he was over six feet tall, possessed an incredible muscular build for his age, had an attractive charisma and a calm, confident and powerful disposition. It was like even if the entire sky was collapsing to the ground, he wouldn't panic. Lastly, he had a calming magnetic voice for a male, such that his voice would attract everyone and make them feel cool.
Overall, he was exceptionally handsome and remarkably attractive to the point that 99.5% of girls would blush and develop all sorts of blissful fantasies in their heads whenever they came across him.
He had enrolled into the Andorra Institute of Technology in the Purplevelle region, a professional training institute where he would be trained to become a Mechanic, which was what he told Alexander, his earthly father that he wanted to become. And by Mechanic, it was simply a professional term that encompassed many things, such as Cybermancy, Technomancy, Hacking, Energy-Based Machine Summoning, Technocrafting, Machine Building, Collapsible-Space Myriad Machinery Evocation, Mechanautic Engineering, Technokinesis, Machine-Enhanced Battling, Mechanical Knighting, War Mechanic and so on.
As a world that had its technology revolutionized by the super-intelligent and super-inventive Jaegurr race, their outlook on technology was made much broader to cover many things that they didn't think possible, which then gave rise to many schools, both visible and invisible which taught different sub-professions under Mechanics.
But other than Mechanics, there were other professions like Sorcery that was taught in certain schools by pure human witches and wizards which allowed people, mostly people in their line of profession to access an unseen dimension of limitless arcane energy and bring about countless magical effects and phenomenal metaphysical manifestations, whether dark or good.
Another was Soul Manipulation by some races that could generate horrifying, soul-based energies and soul-suppressing or soul-limiting auras, which was only taught to their races and their bi-racial hybrids, since the genetic trait to tap into such a power was exclusively possessed by them. Also, due to their mastery over souls, whether whole souls, fragmented souls, or fully dispersed souls, another branch was created which was called Necromancy, which however didn't need magic but their divinely manipulative power over souls.
Hunter, who chose Mechanics as a profession, chose one of the numerous sub-professions under it called Technocrafting.
Just as it name implied, it was a sub-profession that would one allow one to become a Technocrafter, where one would become a versatile inventive maker of items called Technological Artifacts that could range from nano-sized artifacts to planet-sized artifacts, and could be partly composed of numerous things from other fields of study such as organics, inorganics, chemicals, neuronics, optics, biologics, electrics, electronics, robotics, pneumatics, hydraulics, and so on.
"What's going on here?" A tall, metal-skinned man who was called Galzael and was their group instructor, suddenly appeared before them with a noticeable frustrated look in his face.
The people he put together in a team were giving him headaches, especially Hunter who behaved like he knew more things than everyone else in the institute.
But this was true, actually. Hunter had a Technology-Based Primal Creation Intelligence of 70,000 that could rival those of the higher-hierarchy Jaegurrs, a Technology Advancement/Revolutionary Quotient of 70,000, a Mech-Based Versatility Aptitude of 80,000, a Technology Blending/Permutation/Combination Quotient of 200,000, and a Technology Affinity of 168,100, which was far above the average of 78,000 for the Jaegurrs.
However, the institute didn't know this. Neither did Hunter himself. But Alexander and some of his research scientists knew, which absolutely shocked them when they conducted large series of intelligence/aptitude tests for him at the age of 13.
So, his astoundingly high, technology-centered, otherworldly inventive intelligence, always caused him to disagree with everyone else, including instructors when it came to building, coupling, arraying and assembling units and components of certain devices and machines.
"Nothing much, Instructor Galzael. We are only trying to understand each other and work past our differences to become a team that would be envied by even an elite team of instructors." Hunter calmly said with a radiant smile in his face, while the others in his team looked at him with surprised expressions in their faces.
"It better happen that way. Or I will scatter you guys and put all of you into different teams. And believe me, I will make sure you guys are demoted by at least, two classes. Depending on how lenient I would be at that hour." Instructor Galzael strictly said and turned around to leave. While Hunter simply rolled his eyes at him and lightly sighed.
A few moments later, Lucianna returned with a smile in her face, seeming like she was the one that reported Hunter to Instructor Galzael.
"See who's back." Hunter said and smiled. While Lucianna only ignored him and went to stand in front of the others.
"Guys, we are terribly lagging behind. The projects that were given to other teams have been nearly completed by them. While we are still here, trying to figure out this and that, all because of someone who thinks he is many times more inventive and creative than the rest of us in the team." Lucianna said with both spite and ire in her heart, which then surfaced in her face the next moment. While Hunter who knew that the statement was directed at him, simply chuckled within himself and restrained himself from speaking out.
'Okay. Do your thing. I won't say anything anymore.' Hunter said internally and listened to the instructions that Lucianna gave to their ten-person team, which was instructed by Instructor Galzael to build a technological artifact based on a certain blueprint that he gave them called Scepter of Zorris, which was simply an uncommon-grade scepter that could have any shape and color for aesthetic appeal, but would possess the ability to expel streams of flame.
The scepter must have the ability to unleash streams of flame in a single direction, in two directions, in multiple directions, or in all directions which would make it akin to a large explosive burst of flame that grew outward in every direction and covered dozens of meters very quickly. If the scaled-down Scepter of Zorris built by them, using the blueprint given to them couldn't exhibit any of these characteristics, then they had failed their project.
"So guys. Let's start." Lucianna said with a serious look in her face.
She then turned to look at an idle Hunter and asked, "Care to join?"
"Of course, I will. I am part of the team. So, it's mandatory for me to join and help the team achieve its goals." Hunter said smilingly.
"Good! And I hope I won't hear any more bullshit from you." Lucianna fiercely said and turned her head away, while Hunter groaned and slightly shook his head.
30 minutes later...
Working on the project altogether, with Hunter keeping mute all through the task, the Scepter of Zorris was finally completed.
Wielding the scepter in her hand with a satisfied look in her face, Lucianna said, "See, this is what happens when no one tries to show that they are inventively better than the others. Look at the beautiful scepter, a combination of our ideas and innovativeness. Can't wait to show this to Instructor Galzael and see what beautiful remarks he would say about it."
"Hmm." Hunter muttered and shook his head.
While they were making the scepter, he looked at what they were doing and noticed that they did it all wrong. But he didn't say anything to correct them, as he didn't want to attract Lucianna's ire towards himself again.
The igniter unit, miniature-sized cylindrical fuel tank, flame-circulation control unit, fire-discharging mechanism, on-board electronic circuitry, plastic-based circuitry protection layer, flame-projecting orifices/perforations, rapid-cooling units, plastic-based thermal insulators, ceramic-based heat insulating plates, flame-conduction pipes and many other important constituent parts were all wrongly fixed, making it a waste of resources, time and effort.
Actually, they were following the blueprint which was wrongly designed to make their team commit numerous errors. Their instructor didn't want copy and paste from them, he wanted them to actually use their heads in building the technological artifact. And since Lucianna was an unbeatable, outstanding class-topper, he wanted to see what she would do about it. He wanted to see if she will come up with her own blueprint design and create a scepter for them that will still function like the downscaled Scepter of Zorris.
Although Hunter's sets of skills were thousands of times better than Lucianna's and could easily pass every tests if he wanted to, he intentionally restricted himself from passing too high, keeping himself only at the average level as he didn't want to attract too much attention to himself. Or if he became too well-known for being able to build techs that were far too advanced, like dozens of centuries advanced than the techs in their current century, he could become targeted. But not by instructors, but by vicious members and leaders of hidden terrorist organizations who would coerce him at gunpoint to build sophisticated mass-extermination machines and terrific futuristic devices for them.
'Well, I did try to correct her. I have done my best.' Hunter said and simply waited for the opportunity to reverse all these. Or they would fail and be marked down, and then receive poor grades in the process which would definitely affect his Technocrafting professional rating and make his dad seriously unimpressed with him, which was absolutely something he didn't want occurring.
Chapter 4 - Attack by terrorists.Once the deadline given for the projects was reached, numerous instructors came in and ordered the leaders of more than twenty group present in the hall to come forward and showcase the abilities of the technological artifacts that they built with the help of their group members. A boy named Kyrion, stepped forward with a sword that once activated, began to burn in a bright blue flame and produce waves of searing heat that spread out in all directions, which immediately caused the people behind him to take many steps back. Only the instructors remained where they were, since they could easily withstand such level of heat. "Good." Instructor Valzid said with a nod of his head."Next person." He leisurely said.Another group leader immediately stepped forward with a metal-frame backpack that caused two pairs of massive foldable wings formed from a shiny, lightweight metal alloy to eject from certain hatches in the backpack, which was then accompanied
Chapter 5 - Subduing the terrorists"Lucia, do you still remember where you kept the Scepter of Zorris that you created?" Hunter suddenly asked, after he instinctually perceived that enemies of greater strength and power were slowly advancing towards their location."I dropped it in the hall out of fear, when most of the hall blew apart due to the terrifying energy blast that was unleashed at it." Lucianna said after recalling how the scepter fell from her hand to the ground because of the sudden destructive blast of energy that collapsed the hall, which then induced a petrifying shock that overwhelmed her heart and whole being."Hmm. Alright. I will need it." Hunter said and directly went to carry a large engineering toolbox, and also a few important machinery parts."C-Can we actually walk around out with all these that's going on? Why don't we stay hidden here till reinforcements of instructors will arrive?" Lucianna asked with absolute fear in her tone."Hmm. If we do that, then i
Chapter 6 - Source of Disaster? "The weapon you currently wield, what are you going to do about it?" Lucianna asked with a curious expression in her face."Well..." Hunter muttered as he looked at the powerful, coldly gleaming, electrically buzzing monster-sized rifle in his hand, "...I will keep it. This weapon is a bit powerful to be dumped somewhere like a piece of garbage. Although I have the option of dismantling it to hundreds of parts that can be scattered everywhere to avoid discovery, but I don't want to do so. I have fallen in love with the weapon such that I even named it 'Ten-Fanged Lightning Dragon'. Haha!""Hmm. That's a rather fitting name for the rifle. It's truly like a dragon." Lucianna said with the impressed nod of her head.She then said further when she suddenly thought of something, "But Hunter, how do you explain the machinery parts that got missing?""Well, they aren't supposed to know unless you tell them." Hunter said and slightly giggled. While Lucianna si
Chapter 7 - Joining the Scarlet Canary Team (1)"I am finally able to leave this stupid giant trap disguised as a planet! I wonder who created it and for whom exactly. I have been trapped in it for many years now that my husband would think I have lost my life. Ugh!" "But he didn't even come to look for me, that bastard! He neglected and totally forgot about me. Hmm. Anyway, when I get back, I will make him suffer. I will make him pay for not even making a slight attempt to look for me. But that aside, I seriously hope they are all doing really great. I miss my husband and my cute baby so much." "He must have grown so tall and attractively handsome now. I wonder if he would still be able to recollect my face. Anyway, kids from my world have powerful memories. They can easily recall things that happened when they were one-month old babies if they want to. But I seriously hope my love and my bundle of joy are both doing well. We will reunite soon honeys, once I cease my fatiguing spac
Chapter 8 - Joining the Scarlet Canary Team (2) "Hunter, I have considered what you mentioned and would like to ask you a question. If you answer it correctly, then I will go right ahead to fulfill your wish. But if you answer it wrongly, well, I will still fulfill your wish, but that will be at a later time in the future." Alexander said with a serious look in his face. While Hunter upon hearing that, prepared to answer the question with his power of intelligence beginning to operate at full power. Alexander saw the gravely serious look in Hunter's face and smiled, "Son, relax. It's not a question that has anything to do with intelligence or intellectual skills. Just patiently think about the answer to the question and tell me when you are ready, okay?" "Okay dad." Hunter smilingly said with the nod of his head. "Good." Alexander uttered. Then he proceeded to ask, "Hunter, why did I send you to study at an institute, despite you knowing much more than your instructors? "You kn
Chapter 9 - Joining the Scarlet Canary Team (3) Approximately 30 minutes later, driving swiftly while following Hunter's directions, they reached the vicinity of the Paul Mackinson Institute of Research and Technology."Alright," remarked Pearl Dane as she exited the car, her face displaying a determined readiness.Hunter joined her, walking towards the towering fence enclosing the Paul Mackinson Institute of Research and Technology.Pearl Dane, after scanning around to make sure that no one was looking at them, extended her right hand to hold Hunter's right hand. "Is the hand holding really necessary?" Hunter asked with a surprised expression in his face. "Well, yes." Pearl Dane replied without looking at Hunter who gazed at her with an indescribable expression in his face. "I thought you can control light around objects from a distance and turn them invisible." Hunter stated, still surprised why Pearl Dane had to hold his hand. "Alright. See it as a date. Two attractive couple
Chapter 10 - Hunt and Kill Mission.Once the Black Helm finished scanning the Magnetic Repulsion Chest Armor, which only took a few seconds, it immediately presented Hunter with the features and functions of the Magnetic Repulsion Chest Armor.[X-Ray Mode: On] [Appearance/Feature Scan Status: Activated][Scan complete!] [Organizing Data...][Data Organization complete!] [Compiling information...][Compilation complete!] [Named Weapon: Magnetic Repulsion Chest Armor][Introduction:]The Magnetic Repulsion Chest Armor is a technological marvel designed for both defensive capabilities and a futuristic aesthetic. [Details:] (1.) Sleek Magnetic Panels: The chest armor features sleek magnetic panels arranged in a symmetrical pattern across the torso. These panels are crafted from lightweight yet resilient materials, and their smooth surfaces contribute to the armor's aerodynamic design.(2.) Electromagnetic Emitters: Integrated into the armor are electromagnetic emitters strategically
Chapter 11 - Harbor Haven CityHunter nodded his head. But he raised his hand to ask a question."Adrian, where can I find him?" He asked.While Adrian grinned and said, "I thought you weren't going to ask.""He was last seen at Whispering Pines Retreat, located in Harbor Haven city with his proud and aloof, punchable original face. But that was a day ago, making it impossible for him to have left by now." "However, he is a crafty and really careful person that probably won't stay in one place for more than three days. He is always on the move, as he has lots of enemies that are constantly aiming for his life." Adrian said further."Okay. But I need more information. Does he work alone? Those times that the vanquished agents from our organization attacked him, was he all by himself? Does he have other powers and abilities aside from shape-shifting?" Hunter asked with an inquisitive look in his face."Well, our Intel on him doesn't cover that. All that we know is that he is as slipper