I found myself, once again, drifting within the port. This time, I was at the middle of the net. I wasn't sure how, but I seemed to access the mainframe without using any medium, and it didn't hurt this time. Before me, were files scattered all over the place. Confidential files that were all heavily secured individually, I tried prying one of them open, but the locks seemed to be holding quite well. Then a green hovering orb floated right before me, reaching straight for me. I backed off a little, cautious of this alien object. I observed it closely, it seemed to mirror my head's movement. I had absolutely no idea what this thing was.

  "It wouldn't hurt if I found out, would it?" I thought. I reached for it and touched. Immediately, a chilling sensation ran through me, jolting me inwards. I tried to take my hands off it, but couldnt. In mere seconds, I was sucked into some sort of port.

  My vision was a bit hazy, the only thing I could make out was the bright ultra-light, beaming on my face.

  I glanced around, trying to make sense of where I was. I tried moving my body, but couldn't. There were restraining straps clipped all over my body. A whirring sound activated, the platform which I was strapped to seemed to bend and adjust into a chair like position. There was huge glassed wall in front of me, beeping computers and life support equipment on each side, beeping endlessly. I looked harder by the far-right corner, there was a man, he seemed to be sitting at the extreme corner of the room.

  I couldn't make out his face, the room was poorly lit. But I did make out the hem of his trousers. He was dressed in corporate outfit, black suit pants and a blazer, I could only assume how he looked like.

  "It's about time, No.3" said the man at the corner. "Or should I say Jason Scotch, alias, JXon339."

  I was still yet to recover complete awareness of the situation or how I got here in the first place, but the moment my name was mentioned, I got more fixated on what his next words would be.

  "Oh, don't act all so surprised." The man added, nonchalantly waving away his hand. "We know all about you. I'm a big fan of your work, you see." The man added enthusiastically. “Who would have thought that the great JXon339 was just a young 22-year-old boy, strapped to a recliner in a lab. The world would be quite disappointed, you know.”

  “Oh yeah?” I responded.

  “Seriously, how did you do it?” The man asked sharply. “Am curious.”

  “Could you be more specific?”

  “How did you break into a 700-yottabyte computer mainframe and even get the chance to disable the bomb implants in your chest, with this?” the man asked revealing a damaged Jackbox on a small table. “This piece of ancient junk isn’t normally capable of even hacking… anything for that matter.” He added mockingly.

  "Who are you again?" I managed to ask.

  "Oh, where are my manners?" The man in suit responded, approaching the glass wall that separated us.

  "I believe you've heard of us before. We are the Cybernetic Enforcement Agency"

  "What?" I mumbled still dazed. "I've never heard of you guys before."

  "Oh?" The man said raising an eye brow. "Months of frequent hacking of our systems and you've never heard of our real name? We are commonly known to your kind as CLAW."

  I had nothing in mind to say. All I thought of was what exactly did CLAW want with me? Was their plan to do away with me? If so, why was I still alive?

  "I bet you're wondering why you are still in our custody and not dead." He said, walking back to his dark corner again.

  "You plan on jailing me?" I guessed wildly, while I squinted my eyes, trying to avoid the light that shone directly at my face.

  "Ha!" the man yelped, amusedly slapping his lap. "Why would we want to lock you up? What good would that do us? It'd be better if we just shot you at the spot where you lay, it'd be way more satisfying that way."

  "What is it then? You want your Chroma-roc, well I don't have it.” I spoke.

  "Oh, you mean this Chroma-roc" he said, waving a very small familiar container. "Yeah, we pried it from your almost dead body, I believe it was your objective, wasn't it?"

  "Then what the fuck do you want?” I asked.

  "Well, you have something else of ours." said the man in suit, adjusting his blazer. "Something far more valuable than Chroma-rocs"

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "What's that?" I inquired curiously.

  "To be honest, I'm not quite sure myself."

  "What?" I asked again, this time more pissed off.

  "You see, you stole something from us just recently."

  "Then just tell me what it is god damn it." I yelled with the little strength I could muster.

  "Please do calm down Mr. Jason."

  "Just tell me what you want, and I'll give it to you." I said, trying to exercise restrain. "And can someone get this stupid light off my face."

  The man waved a hand, then someone walks in. A lady wearing a quite familiar face, it was No.1, maybe No.4, I couldn't tell which, but it sure was one of them.

  "No.4?" I said with my jaw dropped. "What are you doing here?" I asked. she said nothing but adjust the light, taking it off my face. "What are you doing here?" I demanded again, but got no answer. She walks out as quickly as she could, avoiding eye contact. "What is she doing here?"

  I asked the man.

  "Oh, you mean No.4?" The man asked cheerfully, as if expecting me to ask. "Or was it No.1? I honestly find their identity confusing. She works here, you see."

  "Works here?" I asked even more amused. "I…i don't understand" I stuttered.

  "Well, simply put," the man said clearing his throat. "Don Montero, you see, owes HY-MAX a huge, very huge sum of money. Seeing that he couldn't get to pay all of it at once, we decided to give him a chance to settle his debt. We simply wanted him to assemble a team of people like you…” he suddenly breaks off. “Scratch that. Miscreants like yourself, to rob HY-MAX."

  “Hold on,” I said, trying to process everything. “I don’t get it. Why would you do that?" I asked curiously.

  "Well, to test our recent prototypes."

  "Prototypes?"

  “I don’t think I owe any further explanation to you, Mr. Jason.” The man sighed.

  “Well, I think I deserve one.” I responded sternly. He made a long sigh and spoke.

  "The lady who just came it, you see, is an AI infused android, capable of mimicking human behavior. We wanted to see how it'll behave in terms of leading a whole team, and how it'll react if it was in a real team. All was supposed to go as planned, until you ruined it with your little exploits. Results didn't come as it was supposed to, but we're still working on it."

  “Wow,” I said with a weak laugh. “That’s some serious BS right there.”

  “You don’t believe me?” he asked.

  “If you’re gonna lie, at least put in the effort.”

  “Oh, so you think I’ll intentionally expose a partnering company as HY-MAX at the mouth of jeopardy, just so I could lure you out? Send a band of unpredictable thugs inside a highly secured vault filled with priceless data and still later on lie to you about this little thing?” Said the man in a more serious tone.

  The place went silent. It took me a while to process the entire thing. It started to make more sense now. The anonymous tip I thought Don Montero lured me in with, it was an S graded account, only a select few had access to an S graded account. When I thought about it deeply, even Montero wouldn’t have access to such data. And even if he did, he would have used it for himself. How could I be so careless? I was so caught up on how terrible the situation was that I forgot to think it through.

  "So how do I come into all this?" I asked, my throat slightly dried.

  "You," the man said crossing his legs. "Went outside of the plan. You touched something in our highly secured mainframe. You were able to, somehow, drain data directly from our database without even knowing it. 35% of everything stored there,” he snaps his finger. “Gone in an instant."

  "But I didn't do anything, I didn't take anything from there. all I did was access the safe's access codes" I replied, more confused than before.

  The man pointed at the damaged equipment on the table.

  "Well, your Jackbox thingy said you did."

  "Then take, the damn thing. If what you want is in there, take it."

  The man smirked and sat back on his sit.

  "You of all people know that Jackboxes don't store data. they only interpret them. What we are looking for is right inside..." The man said nothing but tap his temple twice.

  "My head?" I asked puzzled.

  "Bingo!"

  "But that's not possible, it's never happened before..." I said stuttering in confusion.

  "Oh, but in your case, it did." the man said. "Look, I don't have time for all these long stories, but you'll have to collaborate with us sooner or later.” He added buttoning his blazer. “Do you know that millions have been spent on research, trying to accomplish what you did? Somehow, you were able to accomplish generations of research in a single instant, you were able to accomplish a complete and perfect Biocomputing. You'll have to tell us how you did it, whether you like it or not."

  The man heads towards the door. "I'll be back. So, think it through."

  "Then what do I get from all this?"

  "I don't think you get it, Jason." The man turned towards me. "You'll get to keep your life." he said more sternly. "She'll keep you company while am away," He gestures in No1/No.4; I didn’t know which one it was at this point. "You kids play nice." He said with a smug smile then walks out.

  No.1 stared at the floor, not wanting to come in contact of me.

  "So, if I'm guessing, you're No.4."

  She nods, still staring down, playing with her fingers.

  "You've gotta be fucking kidding me." I said laughing. "Well, they did a great Job making you." I added. She finally looks up with a much more blank expression.

  "I know you feel like am not the same person as before but..."

  "That's because you're not." I yelled. "You're just a program."

  She says nothing but stare at the floor again. It honestly was an uncomfortable situation, considering the fact that I was used for a test experiment. It still felt awkward speaking to a robot like it was an actual person. Hell, I even felt guilty for yelling at her, to some point.

  "What is he talking about?" I asked in a gentler tone.

  "He knows you're dangerous." she said. "And you kinda know a lot about CLAW already, so it's gonna be hard for him to let you go."

  "I told you people, I don't know shit." I responded sternly.

  "Well, he doesn't believe you, but I do." she replied.

  "Yeah, like that counts for something." I said with immediate regret. "So, what are my options?" I asked.

  "You have none." She said, this time staring straight at me. "It will be logical if you accepted."

  I sat quiet. I've never been caught in a situation as this. I always had my way around things, but this time, the only path I saw was a straight single lane highway leading to so many possible events to come. And I am one who hates to leave my life to chances.