Luke downed his final Griga. He needed it, having stayed up all night doing... reasearch. Luke had only one talent in his teenage years- hacking. He hacked the United States Government. Just out of curiosity, the curiosity that had kept him up until midnight.

The Twilight Crystal had never been an object of much interest to him, but when the United States Government wanted one of the Ancient Crystals, which where not even believed to exist by most people, he just had to know. But he had found more than he bargained for. He bypassed the Classification filter and dug around the DGA's files, and found no mention of the Twilight Crystal, or his dad. His dad was only mentioned once in the entire Government Employment list, under the letters HX. There was absolutely no mention of the Twilight Crystal anywhere.

HX. He had googled HX after giving the website a top to bottom search without any other use of the letters. There was no result. He went back after trying the other search programs- MSN search, Rapidscan proccessor, Ask, Inquiries, Dogpile... and tried to break through any other filters on the US Government network. Nothing.

Luke tossed the empty cup into the trash can. What did the government want with it? Why was his father involved? And what was this foreboding feeling he had about the whole thing? All night, he had to wonder why it had been so easy to break through the government firewalls, filters, key-in pages, and other things like that. It was disturbingly easy. It was like they were letting him in...

"Hey, Luke!"

Luke spun around to find Lia running over to him, waving furiously. Now, here is something that you ought to know about Luke- He is smart, but his mind is like lighning- one flash and it's gone. Great example, Luke had stopped in the middle of the road while jaywalking. He gave a single wave and a grin, right before an out-of-control car rounded the corner. Luke twisted around, looking directly at the car. Realizing that by that time, a collision was inevitable, he braced himself for a bone-shattering impact.

It never came. Luke opened his eyes. The car was driving through him. The places the car was going through was experiencing an icy cold gust, sending a chill up his back. The driver seemed more surprise than Luke, losing whatever control they had and smashing into the cement side wall, barely pinning Lia and sending the driver flying out the door.

"No!" Luke yelled, jumping over the barely injured woman that had been driving and running over to Lia. There was a sharp piece of metal that had barely missed her, pushing the hard fabric from the shirt she was wearing into the wall. "Son of a bitch!" Luke roared, attempting to free the shard.

The woman jumped to her feet. "Gas! Gas! It's gonna blow!"

Luke froze, trying to comprehend what she had just said. Taking a quick look at the car, he realized that the fire that had started only moments ago was about to reach the 'gaseen' tank of the old car. He knew little about the old cars that ran off of the gaseen, except for where the tank was.

"C'mon, you stupid piece of crap, move!"

The gaseen tank was almost on fire. Luke grabbed Lia, trying to pull her free instead. "Luke! Just go! I'll be fine!"

"No! This isn't what you think it is!"

"The gaseen explosion can't be that bad!"

Luke ignored her, continuing to try and pull her free. He grabbed her using a hug-like tactic and began to tug even harder, backing it up with his legs. As he felt the metal start cutting through the fabric, there was a sizzling noise- the sound of the tank's casing melting. The only thing Luke could think to do was to try and shield her from the inevitable explosion. There was a woosh of fire, a loud boom, a gust of wind, and then silence.