Smoke slowly rose into the dark mellow dawn sky. It was as if the tremendous clouds were purposely blocking the sun from showing it's hopeful face. If the sun wasn't present in the skies, all hope would be lost.

The smoke was deriving from a large cigar; the man smoking it was seated on a red cushioned chair on a spacious outdoor balcony. The balcony was on the top floor of a high end apartment. The man was dressed in a white and gold robe.

The man arose from his soft seat and moped towards the edge of the balcony to glance at the uncanny sky. He put his cold hands on the glass rails. The bleak clouds seemed to have matched his pessimistic mood. He looked down at all of the peasants below; it was hard to see them from his high view but he could still make them out. They were probably all heading to their daily jobs, a life of mediocrity was something he was glad he didn't have.

Suddenly, in a fit of rage, the man fiercely threw the cigar over the balcony, totally disregarding the fact that it could have hit a pedestrian.

"Everything okay Mr. Lux?" a maid asked with a soft voice after opening the glass door of the huge balcony.

"Yes, everything's fine, why wouldn't I be okay?" Arthur Lux said while staring at the maid with redshot eyes. "Go get my smartphone, It's time I finally call Watson."

"Yes sir!" The housekeeper said as she quickly dropped the brown broom she was carrying.

Trillionaire CEO, Arthur Lux was the heart of the AquaLux corporation. Watson Prince was the COO, essentially, the second in command. He had been chatting with Watson the previous night about the incoming potential threat, the stress from that terrifying discussion made him run away in fear.

Arthur hated being CEO of the AquaLux corporation, however his immense love for money only urged him to continue working.

The housekeeper suddenly ran back with his gold plated phone, he was taken aback when he saw he had ten missed calls from Watson and five missed calls from his CFO Lilith Rivera. He called Watson; Watson immediately picked up the phone.

"Arthur, where the hell you are! Didn't I tell you we had another meeting last night!?" fussed Watson through the phone.

"I forgot," lied Arthur.

"Forgot!? Are you serious? We don't have time for games when we're in a crisis," said Watson.

"What difference does it make if I'm at the meeting or not!? You said yourself that I'm a horrible CEO so why would it matter! I call you guys when I want to, not when you want to," explained Arthur as he walked back into his luxurious condo.

The air carried a hint of luxury; the opulent marble floors, reflected the soft glow of crystal chandeliers that hung from the lofty ceilings. An artful display of magnificent sculptures adorned the walls, each piece an emblem of refined taste and timeless beauty. An exquisite grand piano was rested near the back of the room.

After a brief silence Watson spoke again. "You're just a spoiled brat Arthur! Our citizens are at risk and you're acting like a hormonal teenager!"

"If you called me to yell just go!" yelled Arthur, his voice echoing off the luminous walls.

Watson took a deep breath before resuming his statement. "Look, I'm sorry if I came off like a jerk, I'm just really worried about this whole thing. I mean Skyra invading Maritopia... seriously. Millions of our employees are depending on you right now."

Arthur sighed as he looked at a picture on the wall of his late father, Adam Lux. He wondered how his father would handle the complicated situation that he was forced to deal with now. Adam was a perfect leader due to his charisma, tenacity, and wisdom - he'd know how to handle the impending chaos. Arthur wished immorality was possible so that he wouldn't have so much stress in his life.

Adam Lux was the true founder of AquaLux, founded in 2032. Originally a tech startup, AquaLux exploded in popularity with their unique holoscreen operating systems. It was like a standard television, but better quality, and more evident, as a seventy inch holoscreen could fit in one's pocket. A seventy inch television screen cannot accomplish that. The tech appealed to the masses and, therefore Adam Lux began to invest in other industries, finding critical success there too. Adam ruled AquaLux with an iron fist.

Eventually, AquaLux generated so much wealth that they started buying nations. This began the era of corporations buying nations. In time, other corporations gained power and also began buying nations. No corporation was ever able to catch up to AquaLux's superiority except the mysterious Skyra. For years, AquaLux and Skyra went back and forth buying nations and landmasses until there wasn't any more left. This invent was known as the non-combat war called The Corporate War. The war was essentially a stalemate and all was fine until AquaLux spy droins detected Skyra building numerous weaponry, including warbots, tanks, firearms, and otherworldly weapons of mass destruction.

When AquaLux learned of this, they too began to build equipment for war. They quickly realized that their productivity wasn't as fast as Skyra's, as Skyra had a larger population. If they forced people to work, their economy could potentially be at risk of losing power, so Adam Lux himself thought of the brilliant plan of building labor prisons to increase productivity without damaging the economy. AquaLux began to sentence people to prison more quickly, and even sabotaged their own communities to bring more people into labor prisons. They did this by implementing drugs into impoverished communities to keep them entangled with crime. They also promoted an image in the media to make it seem like living a life of crime was commendable. Over the course of decades, this increased the attendance of labor prisons by a landslide. These labor prisons were known as, Energia Tower, Spiritus Tower, Tempus Tower, and Conatus Tower. They were spread out over the landmasses AquaLux owned.

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Both corporations were making advanced weaponry in their own way for more than fifty years. AquaLux was unaware of other horrifying preparations Skyra was making, and vise versa. All of this is technically an extension of the Corporate War, however the average citizen was unaware of that. The everyday man or woman didn't even know that AquaLux and Skyra were making millions of weapons per year. Now it finally seemed this fifty year cold war was coming to an end when Skyra invaded Maritopia the other day. Maritopia was an AquaLux owned region.

Arthur wanted to just forget all about Maritopia. It was just a small peninsula, was going to war over it really worth it? The impending war could cost the lives of millions. They were able to keep the masses ignorant of the invasion, but how far would that last? Watson, Lilith, and other high ranking AquaLux employees wanted to immediately send troops to Maritopia. As long as they weren't invading comfy Novaria, the region he currently lived in, he was fine.

"Have you agreed to give us authorization to send troops to Maritopia?" asked Watson

"Watson," Arthur said softly as he continued to look at the picture of his father. "I've decided to send a warning to Skyra to not advance further than Maritopia. If they do, we'll show them everything we've got."

"Arthur! We talked about this! If we don't take back Maritopia now, Skyra will think they can take more land too. They are testing the waters right now, they want to see how we respond," said Watson.

"That's what we're going to do!" screamed Arthur. "In the meantime, we need to increase our supply just in case. We failed to meet our equipment quota the last few months due to many people getting out of the labor prisons. We need more prisoners! Double, no triple all of the prisoners' sentences. Not a single one of them will be getting out anytime soon. This will be a new law," he explained.

"Interesting," said Watson in a calmer demeanor. "I never imagined that you'd consider that. Then again, they are useless criminals so I could careless."

"We have a lot of troops already, however we should get more. Shall we implement the draft, even though we're not actually fighting yet? I wanted to implement it for a brutal battle at Maritopia," Watson continued.

"No, a draft will make the citizens too suspicious. Instead, we're going to create another new law that would make it mandatory for every citizen, twenty-five or younger, to serve at least two years in the military. This will make them suspicious too, but not as suspicious as a draft. We have to make them think that everything is going okay. We could even take people from the prison towers too, but for now it's best they stay increasing our productivity," Arthur said.

"Let me make one thing clear, I still think you're a passive idiot, but I like this. Yesterday, you weren't remotely mentally stable enough to give these responses. Sounds like you've got your dad in you after all," said Watson.

"Go to hell Watson," said Arthur as he hung up the call.

He'd probably have many more important meetings scheduled with his colleagues, but he chose to forsake all of that and climb into his gigantic bed, in an attempt to hide from his responsibilities. He wondered if he made the right choices, but at the same time he didn't care. He was too stressed about the matter to care, though in actuality his worried mind couldn't stop caring. The softness of the elegant white sheets failed to calm him down.

Arthur took a deep breath as he closed his stressed eyes. "Dear God, this world may be ending soon."

***

"I think this plan of ours is turning out great!" Gil said as he lied in his bed that morning. "You'll be out in no time!"

"I guess you're right," said Vince as he eyed the metal ceiling blanklessly. "In about six months, I'll be back in the real world. How can I be sure that I won't come back here again?"

They had several extra shifts scheduled, with the cafeteria, and other extra tasks as well. Gil knew that if Vince completed all of that, he'd be out for good.

"Hey c'mon, you won't end up back here! None of us will!" Gil said as he immediately sat on his small bed. "Not Jorge, not Chloe, not me, and definitely not you."

"Is your optimism unrealistic?" Vince said while facing Gil. "I can tell that you've grown up in a little stable neighborhood, I for one grew up in the slums. After I get out of here, back to the slums I'll go. It's so hard to get out, it's like a weird curse that just can't be broken. All that sadness from being there... that anger, might make me do risky activities for money again. Then it's back to Energia Tower I go."

Gil launched himself back on his bed upon hearing the words he didn't know how to reply to.

"I'm sorry you feel that way. Maybe it's unrealistic to be optimistic when you're going through hell, but I think sometimes life requires us to be that way if we're going to make it. Even if you end up back here, try to do everything in your power to not come back. Maybe there's a ninety-nine percent chance that you'll be back here, even so, try not to. The one percent is still possible."

Vince chuckled as he slowly rose to his feet to get ready for the daily shift. "Maybe you're right Gil... maybe you're right."

"Are you sure you don't have any emotions? Are you really a psychopath?" Vince asked with curious eyes as he walked towards the bathroom.

"What do you mean?" asked Gil.

"Well... you seem so, empathetic. Nobody without emotions can be as empathetic as you. Perhaps your psychiatrist made a mistake," Vince said by the bathroom door.

"Vince, I'm acting like how I want to feel, not that I actually feel anything... or who knows, maybe you're right," smirked Gil.

The two prisoners finished getting ready for their daily task and walked into the cafeteria to grab a few slices of toast. There they met up with Jorge in the midst of a sea of prisoners. It felt like an ordinary morning, however it was far from normal. None of the prisoners were ready for the bombshell they were about to hear, not even a man without emotions.

Warden Officer Daryl Bowman walked into the cafeteria with nearly twenty armed guards. Gil felt it was strange to so many armed guards in a prison. Did they plan on executing them? Or was it for a precaution of some sort.

"Everyone, AquaLux has just passed a new law as early as this morning. It is with immense pleasure to inform all of you that all of your sentences have now been tripled. The shifts have also been extended to be twelve hours long. This is effective immediately,"Daryl announced with a thunderous voice.

The cafeteria quickly became full of angry groans and weeping. The prisoners that were scheduled to leave that day now we're cursed to work longer.

Gil stared at Vince's defeated expression and Jorge's tear filled face. He then stared at his shaking hands, was it really ethical for AquaLux.

"We... we had a plan," Gil blanklessly said to himself while watching the other prisoners be corrected by the endless guards.

"We had a plan," he said to himself again as he saw a prisoner angrily yell at a security guard before getting brutally hit in the face by a black baton. After that impact, none of the frightened prisoners dared to cause havoc.

Gil gritted his teeth as he looked at Officer Daryl Bowman and the other officers laugh at the saddened prisoners. Perhaps Vince was correct about him having emotions because he never felt such rage in his entire life.