And here comes Number 2.

Chapter 2: Bold Beginnings Part 2

As he looked over the kingdom he had forged with his own hands, Jack felt true contentment.

It had taken time, effort, and hundreds of breathtaking fights he'd be sure to get immortalized in stain glass windows or tapestries. Something to highlight against the sleek, black metal buildings he'd had erected both for his honor and to weather anything nature thought it could throw at him. Not everyone was happy with his rule, but that was the case with literally any reigning political figure.

The difference was that his legions of death robots were miles and away better than anyone else's, as was only right. Jack had earned this by working harder and longer than any other two-bit chump with their iron fists, but now that he ruled the world...it left the question of what next?

Get a sexy harem? Try and fix all the little mistakes and problems of the world till history praised his rule as a new golden age? Maybe even...expand to the stars above? Hmmm...

That last one brought a massive grin to Jack's face. Yeah. A moon base sounded GREAT.

The excitement and plans were tangible in his mind, but not as tangible as the storm cloud booming in the distance, startling Jack from his fugue before it could even begin.

He turned towards the sight with a small frown, his Weather-Bots should have been keeping the weather at a balmy summer day with no rain until tomorrow to ensure a reason to stay in and relax.

Thoughts of repairing or replacing the obviously dysfunctional bot were quickly lost though, as, as if in response to him noticing it, the cloud raced forward, instantly filling the sky overhead with its presence, the dark clouds streaking back and forth with purple lights.

The worst thing about it that it brought though...were the whispers. They surrounded the boy genius from every side, just loud enough to hear but not enough to understand, as Jack whirled around looking for the source or some way to stop them.

"Hmm, a heart that dreams of conquest and yearns to be more...

"So Young, so Brittle, but can be so much more..."

"With the right Incentive, he could be Great."

"or he could shatter asunder..."

"W-who's th-there! Reveal y-y-yourself! Or I-I'll destroy you!" Jack tried to threaten the voice, but the effect was somewhat ruined by the voice-crack and stuttering during his delivery.

The voice evidently thought so as well, as the room soon filled with a cacophony of sharp cackling and tittering that echoed and drove into Jack's mind like a tuning fork in his brain, driving him to his knees in short order.

Then, there was blessed silence for a moment, with only a single voice speaking, the rest suddenly absent.

"You hold much potential, for a cub so young. I'm sure you and I will do great, Terrible, things together." The voice seemed to distort and purr at the same time, directly in front of his face.

Jack snapped his head up, and the last thing he saw was two hands cupping his cheeks, and a smiling face with madness swirling in its eyes.

"AAAAAAAAA-"

*REAL WORLD*

"AAAEEEIIIII!" Jack shrieked like a little girl as he bolted upright in his bed, sweat drenching his forehead and eyes bulging from their sockets. After a couple of seconds of this though, he finally stopped, clutching his sheets in a death-grip and darted his head around looking for whatever had scared him so badly.

When he only saw some of his Jack-Bots come in looking for the source of his fear as well, Jack finally released a shaky breath, falling back into his bed to stare at his postered ceiling with blood shot eyes. It had just been a dream.

Just, a dream.

"Well. I'm not sleeping again for the day or three." Jack decided after another couple minutes of just laying there, trying and failing to both find some level of comfort or erase the small sense of terror running down his spine.

If he was going to get up, he was at least going to be productive. He took a quick look over at the corner of the room, noticing the pile of in mail waiting to be sorted, but outside the one package on the top, none of it looked any interesting. It could wait for a bit, Jack decided, because if anything critical or life-threatening came, then either Koga or one of the mail-checkers would have stopped it.

Meh, he'd do it after he put some of his fresh materials to proper use. Mainly by seeing how effective his Construction-Bot was at smashing rocks.

*A Period of Time, Later~*

Evidently, Constro the Construction-Bot was VERY, good at smashing rocks. And most other lesser forms of metals into workable shapes included but not limited too, walls, foundations, and safety rails. Being productive and spontaneous was a wonderful choice, alongside a newly former 20 by 20 square in the floor that Jack could turn into anything from a new secret building bay to a robot mosh death pit if anyone ever bothered trying to break in to your Lab for some reason.

There was also a metaphorical cherry on top of it all, in the form of this weird-ass fashion accessory a Jack-Bot had produced for you when it was breaking up stones to sell as whole-sale gravel. For something found in a rock all of three minutes ago, it was a shockingly vibrant blue, and complete-looking for what felt like silk when he rubbed it between his fingers. The tassels at the end were also some weird kind of braided metal he'd never seen before, resembling thin wiring more than actual molded pieces.

Was this one of those UMA things that showed up every so often? Huh, he always thought those were scams...

"I wonder if I'll find the key to time travel if I scan this..." Jack muttered as he held up the material to the artificial light above, before shrugging and folding it up on his desk. Another thing to add to the to-do list.

He'd get some Jack-Bots to do it while he went for some actual breakfast. The last meal he had was...wow, near a day and a half ago. Almost a new record.

"Ahh, the trials of a genius." Jack mused as he stretched his shoulders around and walked up the steps from his basement Lab into the house proper, as the sounds of a material scanner went off behind him. The Lab was equipped with snacks galore, but he knew the importance of nutrition. Also he'd rather do it the fun way, and not by shoving down vitamin pills like a diabetic crackhead. Or whatever pill drug it was, Jack was a bit too hungry to care at the moment to make a 100% percent accurate metaphor. Allusion? Soliloquy? It's getting to be.

The little rapidly derailing train of thought Jack had though was quickly thrown straight from any semblance of track when he saw Kristen lounging on the marble island, one hand lazily lifting cereal by the fistful from the box while the other held an issue of 'Katz Gone Wild'. From the picture on the front, you couldn't tell if it was about cosplay, cat care, or porn. Maybe all three.

Jack made a little noise of disgust, more from the cereal thing than the literature, but it was more than enough to get Kristen's attention, green eyes with her specially slitted-pupil contact lenses peering over the magazine and locking with your own.

"Well well, look what the Cat dragged in. Finally ready to get a full hour of sunshine before burying yourself again?" Kristen all but purred her stupid pun, enjoying more the way Jack twitched a little than at how the words were terribly true.

Jack's older sister never changed, no matter how much he wished she would. She saw one lion display at the zoo, a few documentaries, and suddenly everything in life has to purr and come with whiskers. Including her. Especially her. It could even be intimidating for some people, but the effect was utterly ruined due to the years Jack had seen her religiously reading cat pun books and practicing rolling her tongue when she thought no-one else was watching.

"Hilarious as it was the hundredth time, Kristen. With lines that fresh, you should try stand-up." Jack shot back as he walked past, going to the fridge and coming out with some waffles, peanut butter, and home-made blackberry jam.

Within seconds the Max-T-For-Toaster he made when he was 6 was working away to create a perfectly golden brown waffle as he turned back to the still grinning Kristen.

"Me-owch, that was almost somewhat witty! Finally branching out from nee~rd jokes to be a real boy, Jack-Jack? Or just in an off mood?" Kristen grinned with a hand on her face, leaning forward with the cereal either finished or forgotten for now.

"A, you like that 'nerd' stuff just as much as I do, so you have no room to talk. B, I had a bad dream last night so I'm working through a backlist I have till I'm too tired to dream anything freaky-deaky again." Jack explained before he turned back around, loading in the jars of spreadables into the side for a perfectly even division of both in the syrup traps.

This was a mistake, as Kristen pounced, arms draping over his shoulders and only a quick grip of the counter top kept the two of them from sprawling to the floor.

"A dream, you said? Was with with a pretty woman, getting close, making your heart race and your cheeks flush~" Kristen all but sang as she rubbed her face against Jack's, for the spilt second she was able to before he bucked her off.

"Ah! You know I hate that! What, are you, 6! Also, it wasn't a wet dream! It was weird, and creepy, and soul-chilling! Speaking of that though, why are you even here! Weren't you saying something about the 'Next Great Heist' coming any day now?" Jack gritted out as he thrust an accusing finger at his sister, who backflipped to her feet, before waving away the finger, a look of cool contempt only a cat could convey. She at least had that going for her.

"Well when you put it like that, Jack-Ass, you make me sound lazy. I'm here because a crazy in both senses rich guy is coming through here on his private jet, and I'm establishing myself as a local 'party' girl so he invites me in thinking I'm free tail. Once I'm in its just a hot, skip, and claw away from a cool 30 to 40 mil in art and antiques. Since we're on the topic of long, involved, and overly-intricate plans, how's your plan for 'World Domination' coming? Got that legion of Death Bots you've been spouting about for ages up and running yet?" Kristen didn't so much grin as bare teeth, as you flinched again at the shockingly accurate summation.

This was why you hated arguing with family. They loved to call you out on your bullshit. Still, this was an old argument, and you didn't feel like bringing it up right now.

"It's...its not great for the moment. The bots are good, but their not conquer the world good. Yet. I feel like I'm finally making some progress again though." Jack admitted after a moment, speaking truthfully. Utility Jack-Bots were some of his proudest creation to date, but it finally started to seem like Quality was the key to successful Quantities.

That stopped whatever Kristen was going to say next, leaving her mouth open for a moment, before she snapped it shut, and gave a small, pleased grin instead.

"Well now, I was expecting some thin excuse to deflect with. Guess you're finally getting serious about this stuff. Nice, Little Bro, I might not be embarrassed calling you that soon!" Kristen giggled behind her hand with her head turned, instantly ruining the prideful feeling you were getting for that half a second.

"Way to ruin the moment, Sis. Alright, I've got mad science to be doing. Good luck with your grand larceny or whatever." Jack deadpanned as he finally got his freshly pressed waffle-sandwich and retreated to his Lab, ignoring Kristen's overly-exaggerated waving and call of 'Don't need luck when I got Skillz~!' with the long ease of practice.

Hopefully by the time you finished worfing down this delectable combination of batter and breakfast staples, there'd be some kind of answer for the wunder-clothe that'd been unearthed.

END OF CHAPTER

I'm honestly getting so much nostalgia as I write this. I also appreciate writing this so much fucking more, cause way-back when, I was writing this shit primarily on a school library's computer and my tablet at home. God, I was a terrible writer who thought I was great and unique. Granted, I was also the first one to make a Worm/One Piece story, but that went no-where and was hot garbage with how it was written, so. Eh.