Blue.

His entire world was shaded blue.

He opened his eyes. He was… floating. Floating in a gooey substance. He could move up, slowly. He could move down. He could move forward—

Bump! He blinked, confused. Was that… an invisible wall? There was something on the other side, someplace dark, but he couldn’t see exactly what it was…

He floated without destination, following the invisible curved wall. It surrounded him entirely. How funny. Below him, a round grey floor. Above him, a round grey ceiling with tubes trailing out.

It was all so… weird.

image [https://i.imgur.com/toDx5Z0.jpeg]

His vision slowly became clearer. There were others in this place with him. Somehow… he could hear them.

Hello?

Who are you?

Where are we?

Isn’t this fun?

Some were clearer than others. Carefully, not really knowing what he was doing, he reached out with his own mind, connecting with the entities around him.

H–hello…

Immediately, more voices—strong voices—entered his mind.

Hi!

You’re finally awake enough to talk!

The blue speaks! He speaks!

He bobbed higher, coming face to face with one of the talking entities. A small round thing, wrapped in a bubble that floated in the gooey stuff. Even through his blue-tinted bubble, he could somehow tell this new entity was a different colour. Its bubble was green, different from his blue.

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They were all green.

Where… am I? he asked.

Before he could say anything more, a rumble shook the liquid he was suspended in. High-pitched screams erupted around him as the others scattered. The round opening of the tube clicked, and something pulled at him.

He panicked, trying to swim away, but the force was too strong. He was sucked into a long tube, shooting through it so fast he couldn’t tell up from down.

With a plop, he landed somewhere new. The dizziness vanished rather quickly. He swam forward, but immediately bumped into another invisible wall. This time, the walls were so much closer. He barely had room to move.

What’s going on? He looked around, fear creeping up inside of him.

He nearly screamed as a large, distorted face appeared right in front of him, two large spheres staring straight at him. He backed away, pressing against the invisible wall behind him. This place was so small…

“A fine specimen,” the face said, grinning. A few other disembodied voices echoed over the face’s words. “Birth date: March 6th. Subject S-577. And now…” The face moved away, fading into the dark space behind. “Initiate growth factor.”

Something popped out from the ceiling above him—a thin needle that split into five smaller needles—and poked into his blue bubble. He squirmed, trying to escape, trying to do anything to stop what was happening. The needles trembled, then injected something into his bubble.

The fear vanished almost instantly. He felt a cold wave of pure energy rush through him, and his mind, which had been jumbled and confused moments ago, cleared nearly instantly. Everything around him seemed ten times clearer as he absorbed whatever had been given to him. He blinked. He was in a tube. Yes, that’s what they were called. And he was—

“Transfer subject S-577 to the Growth Tank immediately,” the face said. No, not a face… a person.

As fast as he had been shoved into the tiny tube, he was sucked back out. This time, however, the tube dumped him into another tank filled with more creatures the seemed to be just like him. Only this time, one look at them told him they were more alike than the ones he had encountered before. All of them floated within blue bubbles.

“Hi!” One of them approached. She looked slightly larger than himself. “Welcome to your new home!”

“I…” He shocked himself. It was the first thing he had said. “Home?”

“Yes!” The creature bobbed happily. “I’m S-44. And this is S-128!” A smaller creature—much smaller than the both of them—peeked out from behind S-44, jittering nervously. “Don’t be scared,” S-44 said to the scared S-128. “He’s just like us. What’s your name?”

“My name…” He remembered the words that the face spoke in that tiny, cramped tube. He looked up at S-128. “My name S-577.”