Chapter 2:

"What the hell?" I raise my body off whatever it is I'm lying on.

"…!" my body is still tired from the construction work I did today. I reason with my body to not do this to me today.

Looking around, I see to be in a building of sorts. It doesn't take a genius to tell that it's night time. There are no lights. The entire open floor is luminated by the ambient light that's coming from the outside. The floor is littered with shattered glass. A sofa that's turned, some chairs, a broken TV.

"Is this…? Planeptower?"

Looking beyond the windowless pane, I see buildings. All lit in red and orange, smoke coming out from them rising to the dark night. The fire is spread to everywhere, as far as the eye can see. No wait, to all over the country even.

*BOOM!* *GRRRR!*

The weird thumping noises earlier weren't some random noise, they were gunfire and explosions. One of the buildings got blown up and is now collapsing under its own weight. Through the smoke, in between the fire licking the air, I see men shooting at each other, tanks roaming the highways, RPGs being fired, grenades being thrown.

It's war.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Did I somehow slip into another dimension? No. That can't be right. If I was, my head would've hurt, I would've seen static like a broken TV in my vision. Number appearing from that scene. But those things didn't happen. If that's the case, then I'm in the same dimension.

"Nepgear…!" I suddenly remember Nepgear.

I spring to my feet and run towards the kitchen. Nobody here. The pot she was using for making curry is there anymore. I look at the knife block and there aren't any knives. Damn.

Without wasting anymore time, I head towards the second floor where my bag is. But as I step into the living room. I hear a loud rumble in the air. Instincts fire off warning signals.

I look out at the window. There, just a few hundred kilometers off, something in the air is piercing through the sky. It's large, somewhat flat and slick, that seems to have 2 thrusters from behind that's making it accelerate to me. It's a jet an F-22.

"Ah shit! NEPTUNE! NEPGEAR! HISTY!"

I kick the floor beneath me, dashing towards the ramp towards the second floor, shouting their names. As step onto the ramp, instincts fire warning signals at me again. The thing just fired its payload. I only have 5 seconds before that thing hits the tower.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

Cursing in my head, I head towards Neptune and mine's room, the door to the right as you enter land on the second floor. I quickly kick the door open.

"What the…?"

Boxes, all I see are boxes. Boxes everywhere. Wasn't this supposed to be me and my wife's room. Why are there boxes?

2 seconds.

"SHIT! NEPGEAR! NEPTUNE! TAKE COVER!" I don't know if they're here or not but I shout anyways as I head on over to Nepgear's room.

Just like before, I quickly kick down Nepgear's room.

"The fu-!?"

*BOOM!*

The earth rumbled beneath me. No, the tower rumbled beneath me. The tower's been hit, and it's now slowly falling like a broken toy. Shit I can't think of anything to get out of this one!

Slowly I feel like I'm being lifted off the ground as the floor goes to a free fall. The entire room tilts. The objects inside Nepgear's room starts to look its floating in the air. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!

I only have a few seconds before I hit the ground hard. What to do Jared, think!? THINK!

I quickly look around my surroundings, falling from where I am I'm going to be crushed by the debris. I need to either,

A: get to the other side, get me some good positioning and think of a way to cushon my fall.

B: just cushion my fall from where I am.

Or C…

"I'll go with plan C then!"

Kei watched, as a tower, the symbol of a rival yet friendly nation, falls to the ground. The speakers on the monitor shouts : "Hit! Hit! The tower is down! The tower is down!". Hearing those words of confirmation, she feels a weight on her shoulders suddenly been lifted. Her breathing is now light. The sweat on her forehead stopped sweating.

"*Sigh*… Those Planeptunians were harder to deal with than we thought"

Planeptune has the technology advantage. And with that, their national defenses are tough to deal with. And both its militia and its citizens are also tough to deal with. It was a full day of fighting, with many on her end losing their lives.

But now that Planeptower is gone, their automated national defenses are now rendered offline. Meaning, it's now easy to take over the nation as its only remaining resistance are those and the militia.

"General. Let's not advance into the city any longer, set up checkpoints. We're moving up with the plan" she suddenly said to the mic that's in the middle of Kei's room.

"Are you planning on letting those… things take care of the citizens?"

"Precisely. And if any Planeptunians remain, shoot them on site"

"Ma'am"

Kei sits back in her chair. Her eyelids become heavy. Sleep slowly tempts her. Reasoning with herself that she needs to sleep. She succumbs to the temptation of sleep.

"I see that you've now started to work with me"

But a voice denies her.

She doesn't seem to look. It was the voice of a woman she once regarded as a friend. A sinful friend that she thought was worth well supporting despite the pain. It was a voice of a friend whose determination once saved her most important friend. Now she's…

"Have you never taught to knock?"

"I did knock. But you didn't hear"

"What did you come here for?" Kei straighten's herself as she takes a serious pose towards her visitor. Kei's blue eyes and hair stares deeply into her visitor's black hair and eyes.

"Is this a sign that you'll be cooperating with me now?"

"Yes. Mina and I have decided"

"Hmmmmm… That's good to hear" she smiles at her.

"I promise it will be worth your time. Have you perhaps been collecting?"

"Only a matter of time. The militia will slowly build a base as we take on the offensive. Lastation and Lowee are now collecting as we speak"

"Good good. I'm excited to collect them now. If only my brother could be here to see how much progress I made… How's the search for my brother?"

"Unfortunately, nothing is coming up. Not even in Planeptune's records"

"Hrmmmm then maybe you should look for him in the old fashion way. Relying on one method isn't going to make my brother pop up is there?"

"But it's going to take a long time to find him. Plus, finding a person using only a single photo isn't helping us here"

"Hm… I see. Buuuuuuuut… Kei"

"…!"

"Do you think I give a damn?"

The visitor only 'looks' at Kei for a few milliseconds. No. it was just moment. The briefest of moments. Something crawled through Kei's eye and bit her brain directly. She stands still her she catches herself swallowing, her hand is shaking. Her forehead has now bead a new kind of sweat.

"…I … see"

"Good, good. Glad we're in agreement" she leaves the room through the door.

"Bye~!"

Playful as if a child, she says her goodbyes and walks away.

Kei is very tired. It took her all her might to not draw her sword and swing it at the girl that made her lose everything. But she stopped herself. Instinctively she knows if she were to fight her, she'd definitely going to die first before she even swings her weapon.

"Haa… I'm tired" she leans her back into the chair once more.

"… I hope I don't get to see her again" sooner or later she will.

"…Her brother eh…"