Chapter 1. Born in this institution.
Within a bioluminescent pond, A pink koi fish and a blue koi fish swam in a circle together.
Peering into the pond from the side was a seventeen year old Stark, He loved watching the koi swim around in the garden as It was one of the few times his skin could feel the pleasure of authentic grass.
The sunlight blossomed through the almost illusory glass dome above him causing his skin to be kissed by its warmth. Natural sunlight was another rare delicacy to him. Fortunately he had only one year left in this institution before he would be free to roam the world outside.
“You’re always here…” an annoyingly familiar voice called out to him from not too far away, Stark’s silver eyes rolled almost instinctively upon hearing it.
Looking to his left he saw Victoria descending down several steps into the garden, her golden hair shimmered and swayed in the sunlight like a pair of ethereal wings.
Stark flipped an imaginary coin, wandering if she’d be a darling or thorn in his side today, hopefully not the later.
Behind her he saw Hockney who stood in the entrance leading back into the Hoshiyomi facility.
“How long will it be until the third test starts?” Stark asked, hoping that he still had at least an hour left.
“Twenty minutes.” Victoria answered with an extra wide smile, knowing the answer would irritate him.
“Tell the director that I don’t feel too well.” Stark sighed as he waved his index finger around in the pond to feel the chill of the water.
Victoria squatted down smiling beside him before nudging his shoulder. “Hey what’s the matter? You’ve been skipping simulations for the past three days already. With you gone I’ve lost my favourite person to torment.”
“Did they finally add a new simulation?” Stark asked immediately ignoring Victoria’s second sentence. “If not then I’m not going today either. I’m tired of always doing the same thing over and over and over again. Do you even know what simulation it’s going to be this time?”
“If I’m not wrong it’s going to be New Johannesburg again.” Hockney answered suddenly creeping up on the two. “That’s my favourite.” He just needed to add.
Stark stood up before taking a deep breath.
Victoria then got the bright idea to mimic him and exaggerate every single movement and sound he made. She then stared at him with her blue eyes peering through her curtain like blonde hair.
Knowing that the girl was trying to stir a reaction out of him, Stark ignored her and looked around at the vast and colourful garden. Palm trees and flowers ran alongside the banks of an artificial river in the distance. The sun shined brightly through the glass dome creating the impression that the garden was a tropical island if a person squinted at the right angle. It was the closest thing to the outside Stark had, the grass here was the only grass he knew and the fish here were the only none human entities he had ever witnessed in person. He still remembered the day he was first allowed to access the garden. He was only six years old and he fancied the garden to be a world of its own. Now it was only one of the more pleasant places in the Hoshiyomi facility, a bastion of nature amidst an ocean of glossy metal and sterilised air.
He was about to walk towards the river when he felt a finger run up and down his ribs. He immediately jolted as he was quite ticklish, it was a weakness that a certain blonde girl loved to take advantage of. Unfortunately, it seemed like Victoria, in all of her non existent wisdom had indeed decided to be a thorn in his side today.
“Victoria…” Stark scowled as he turned to face her.
Victoria simply whistled while staring up at the dome as if nothing happened. Her hands were rather pretentiously extending away from her hips with her palms facing down, as if she were a dress up doll.
Stark turned around and continued on only to be mysteriously tickled a second time. Victoria had been like this ever since they were mere children. She was like a fly that kept on coming back no matter how many times he swatted her away. With her there was always a fifty percent chance of her being sweet and helpful, or utterly insufferable.
“I’d like you a lot more if you acted like a normal person and not a barnyard pest.” Stark frowned.
Once again Victoria acted completely innocent. Her actions were naturally exposed by Hockney whose rolling of his eyes and irritated expression gave everything away.
Stark squinted at Victoria before walking backwards as to not give the little brat any openings. He quickly made a fool of himself when his heal clashed with a rock causing him to fall onto his back with a thud. Like a cat spotting its prey, Victoria pounced upon Stark mounting the poor thing before tickling him everywhere. Stark laughed uncontrollably as he began to plead and beg for mercy. “Please… you win… knock it off.”
Victoria folded her arms in satisfaction as her expression became smug. “Who’s the boss?”
Stark then suddenly twisted around flipping her over causing her to lay sprawled out on her back in the grass.
Stark grinned evilly before taking his revenge. The two would often play fight and he knew all of her weaknesses. He jammed his index finger into her rib cage causing her to jolt in shock. That one would always drive her up the wall, it served her right for being so damn annoying.
“I’m sorry…” she pleaded.
“Unlike you I’ll be merciful.” Stark said as if he wasn’t on his ass a few seconds ago.
Stark stood up and glanced over towards Hockney before continuing to ask. “Is it really going to be New Johannesburg again?”
“What do you think? That’s what it’s been for the past three days.” Hockney shrugged before turning to leave. “I’ll head to the simulation room early and leave you two love birds alone.”
“Love birds?” Stark rolled his eyes. “Don’t make me laugh.”
Victoria then tackled him to the ground again as another one of their legendary play fights began.
The two rolled around in the grass endlessly roughhousing until they heard a stern voice call out to them.
Looking back they see the looming Director glaring at them from up the steps leading into the facility. His icy blue eyes squinted as his mouth twitched before he said. “You’re both one minute late.”
“We’re sick.” Victoria spoke up as she clung on to Stark before pouting.
Stark was caught off guard. He had been so pre occupied with messing with Victoria that he completely lost track of the passing time. He could’ve sworn that it was only five minutes ago that Victoria said they have twenty minutes left. It was to be expected though, it was a regular occurrence for him to get caught up in Victoria’s shenanigans and have her eat up all of his free time. He didn’t always mind since there wasn’t really anything better to do in between testing and classes anyway. Still, there were times when things would go a little too far. Sometimes, her gown would slip up a little too high as Stark dragged her through the grass. At other times his hands would grasp at parts of her body that they shouldn’t while he tried to wrestle her off of him. She never seemed to care and only used such accidents as more fuel to tease him. The other day there was a particularly bad incident involving a certain… unruly part of his body standing at attention when she unexpectedly plopped herself down in his lap. She didn’t seem to mind at all, for a second it had even seemed that she was quite pleased with the reaction she received from his body. She was an utterly bizarre girl, and Stark was sure she’d be the death of him.
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The director retrieved a lighter and a cigarette before snapping the lighter on.
Both Stark and Victoria were mortified at the sight of this. Immortal soldiers had senses that were much more advanced than ordinary people, it was so extreme that they could sense every chemical lurking in the air. Because of this they were particularly sensitive to cigarette smoke, it would immediately make them nauseous.
“Please don’t do that…” Victoria begged before getting up and saying. “Fine I’ll go to the retarded simulation that never changes, but only if Stark agrees to come too.”
The director then smiled before looking at Stark, waiting for the tall boy to give his answer.
Stark quickly changed his expression to indifference before saying. “We already discussed this in private didn’t we? We agreed that I’d only attend again once a new simulation had arrived.”
The director switched the lighter back off before responding. “If I recall correctly I only agreed to give you three days off, but don’t worry, we’ve finally received a new simulation from the government.”
Both Stark and Victoria were stunned and speechless, it had been over a year since they were given a new simulation.
Victoria was the first to speak up. “So we’re really not going to do New Johannesburg for the one thousandth time?”
“No.” The director smiled before motioning for them both to come with him.
They both quickly ascended the stone steps before entering into the facility. Inside the glossy metallic walls were adorned with paintings of all manner of colourful cartoon characters and even multi coloured footsteps across the pink glass floor tiles. The facility’s interior had appeared this way for as long as stark could remember. Apparently this was done so that the children could all feel at home. It was a pointless endeavour as the sweet sterile air and overly glossy texture to everything in sight always gave away the true nature of this place. Regardless, Stark’s eyes burned with excitement as he could finally see more bits and pieces of the world beyond this place in the simulation.
They passed through a large cafeteria with a glass wall that overlooked the garden. Around two dozen other children were procrastinating all over the place. Some played with action figures, others roughhoused and several sat around a console playing video games.
Several younger boys spotted Stark and quickly ran up to him.
“Stark!” One of the boys asked with puppy dog eyes. “Can you spar with us later?”
“Sorry darling.” Victoria said suddenly, speaking in Stark’s place. “I’m going to be sparring with him myself later.”
“Ew.” The boy recoiled in disgust. “You’re going to infect him with crotch cooties.”
Victoria instantly scowled. “Get lost right this instant!!!”
Stark erupted into laughter at the girl’s expense before continuing on with the director who himself chuckled quietly.
The boys all hissed at Victoria before scurrying away.
Upon hearing the commotion a few of the older girls shot Stark nervous glances while blushing. Like always they quickly averted their gazes when Victoria’s eyes drifted towards their direction. It was always fascinating how the underclassmen girl’s would react to her, this idiotic blonde somehow had them terrified every time. Stark would often joke with Hockney that she was secretly a bully, he was sure that Victoria would cry if she ever found out about that. That being said, it was her beauty that probably intimidated them. It was much like how the IT girls would terrify the protagonists in those cringy ancient romcoms the facility would always show them. Stark never understood why they did it. Apparently, it was done to educate them on how normal teenagers behaved. At least that’s what the director would always say.
These children as well as Victoria and Stark himself were all born and raised here. This place was their home and their school as well as their parent in a strange way.
They entered into a large hallway at the end of the Cafeteria where they saw Hockney and Beverly seated in the first of several rows of seats waiting to enter a massive pair of closed metal doors. Beyond this hallway was the simulation room, where they trained in various combat scenarios that involved killing these enemies infected with the Cosmic Death.
Upon hearing the incoming footsteps of the three Beverly turned in her seat before quickly shaking Hockney to alert him. She then stood up and said. “You’re finally here! Delilah and Lupus have already entered the simulation ahead of us. We need to hurry inside to join them.”
Hockney stood up beside her and stretched before yawning.
“I missed you Beverly…” Victoria chuckled as she embraced her brown haired impish friend before picking her up and spinning her around.
“I’m going to pass out!” Beverly responded laughing. “Stark did you take good care of her.”
“Don’t start with that.” Stark rolled his eyes. She loved to encourage Victoria’s behaviour.
Stark then fixed his gaze on the director before asking. “What’s the name of the new simulation?”
The director seemed to pause for a moment as if looking for the right words to say. He then suddenly looked at Hockney before saying. “I already told you guys before right? Why don’t you tell them what the name of the simulation is.”
Hockney’s eyes widened in surprise before he quickly spoke up. “Its name isn’t really that creative. They just call it the New York apartment.”
“Ahh!” The director suddenly chuckled. “That’s the name! If I’m not mistaken it should be up one tier in terms of difficulty when compared to New Johannesburg.”
To Stark, the director could be described by a few words, level headed, easy going and occasionally useful, rarely annoying. Everything considered he was one of the more pleasant adults in the facility and was quite understanding. While many other staff members wouldn’t tolerate him skipping their repetitive classes, the director was always understanding and would let people skip as long as they said they were sick.
As for Hockney, he was perhaps the least annoying of his peers. From a young age Stark would often hang out with him on rare occasions when Victoria found something better to do than bug him. He loved music and would always play songs from the outside world in his room. He just like Stark couldn’t wait for the final year to end so they could finally be set free. In truth, Stark envied Hockney. This was because he was unlike Stark in one key way. Unlike Stark, Hockney had his passion for music and instruments. It was something that gave the boy a sense of meaning beyond his existence as an immortal soldier. Stark envied that about him as Stark himself had little things left that interested him beyond simply the idea of being free of his chosen fate. He had once had a great love for martial arts as a child and aspired to open his own dojo as an adult. As he grew older and gained knowledge of history, he eventually came to realise that his dream would never come true. Instead his fate would be for something else. That fate was to fight the Cosmic Death until he either died or lived to see it claim the universe’s final star. It was a fate they all had to reconcile with.
“Sounds pretty bland.” Stark smiled. “But hey, it’s something new right?”
Stark walked ahead of all of them before placing his hand on one of the giant twin doors.
“Your hair is a mess!” Beverly frowned as she quickly ran her hand through Victoria’s hair to shake free several blades of grass. Her hand quickly got caught in a tangle causing Victoria to yelp out in pain.
“Stand still!” Beverly sneered.
As Stark observed the two he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself before saying. “You need to teach your daughter to not role around with random boys in the grass.”
Beverly then swatted Victoria on the behind. “Don’t do that again! Do I make myself clear?”
“What!” Victoria was astonished. “He loves it when I pester him!” She then shot Stark a mischievous grin before continuing to say. “The other day I sat in his lap and then I felt-“
“Victoria!” Stark quickly cut her off before storming towards her with a bright red face.
“Help!” She quickly hid behind Beverly.
“You two are holding us up now.” Hockney complained before turning to look at the director. “Open up the door already.”
At the next moment the director swiped his hand over a glass screen on one of the massive metal doors before they both slowly and soundlessly opened.
Stark turned to look back at Victoria before smiling evily. “You’re sticking with me today. I don’t want you running your big mouth to everyone.”
“Oh?” Beverly smiled in a teasing manner. “What was it that you were going to say Victoria?”
“Bye Beverly!” Stark quickly ran behind her before covering Victoria’s mouth. “Go on Beverly! Get to the simulation already.”
Beverly shrugged before continuing on through the wide open doors.
When she was gone Stark finally removed his hand from Victoria’s blushing face before taking her hand and continuing on towards the door.
The two spoke no words to each other as they entered through the wide doors and into the dark simulation room.
The doors behind them silently shut cutting them off from the facility’s light.