Chapter 416: Raids End 3 (1/2)

Chapter 416: Raid's End 3

Afterwards -

Ace re on the floor It was not cold anymore, warm as it ith a thick sheen of his blood Red poured out from his mouth and his bloodshot eyes

The twelve hours of straining against heightened, crushi+ng gravity had worn its toll on the little boy

When he saw the blood, his stoust, but at the same time, he was drawn to it It arm, and warmth, he knew very, very little of

"Get up, Ace" The biggest, oldest Ace grabbed little Ace's shoulder and raised hihtheaded daze

"Stop that" The oldest clone shook Ace, forcing his gaze up where their eyes met "Or else you'll turn into a weirdo psycho"

"Huh…?" said Ace

"Are your ears clogged or so?" the oldest clone peered at Ace's ears Blood streamed from them too "Oh yeah, they would be Here-," The clone tapped Ace's forehead The blood popped out of his ears, moved by telekinetic force "Better?"

"Yes" Little Ace nodded

"Then listen to est Ace "Don't ever letin the dirt Because trust me, you don't None of us do

Like father said, we're all special But especially you And what business do special people like us have staring at the ground, huh? That ain

"Good Maybe you aren't so special in the head after all" Bigger Ace sht before father gets here"

Year after year passed filled with training, or 'trials' as father called theainst gravitational force Then, they becaainst live variants And afterwards, being forced to consu state

Exposure to poisons, electric shocks, and countless other types of beatings

Sodown, beaten, bloodied, bruised in body and soul, teetering between the boundary of life and death

And every single tirab his shoulder, raise hi down

One day -

"Hey, wake up" Ace opened his eyes, awoken by gentle shakes He rubbed his eyes as he got up from the bed of his tiny pod "Brother…?"

Ace looked at the oldest version of him who, by now, truly was old The eldest Ace looked to be over sixty noith thin, age worn li his hands, face, and feet that showed through the standard issue bodysuit all the Aces had to wear

"Yeah, it's ot a surprise C'mere" Old Ace floated away, and little Ace followed

All the Aces lived in their own pods which housed little more than their beds Each of them had a few personal possessions to their nas they kept in their pods, but most of the time, father had these confiscated because he did not like to breed the 'weakness of individuality'

But every so often, other scientists, 'uncles' and 'aunts' as they were called, would co from the world outside the lab

Aabout Old Ace apparently had even gotten a glihtsee

Old Ace said it was uglier than he thought That it was nothing but hot, dusty air and earth that looked broken beyond repair

The uncle that let Old Ace out was never seen again, but all the Aces were envious of old Ace's unique experience By now, there were twenty Aces, sorowing slower than others, but all of them were united in one shared hope: to see the outside world

Old Ace's gris of an older man that the rest of the Aces did not really believe in

Especially since sometimes, uncles and aunts would talk about the outside world and hoonderful it was, filled with giant buildings and caped heroes and good foods All the toys that the Aces got were from there, after all, and how could a barren wasteland produce all of that?

"Here" Old Ace led little Ace into the living room that connected to all the pods There, all twenty Aces were huddled about

All of the Aces were bigger than little Ace despite half of therew fast Little Ace, on the other hand, gre

Little Ace hated that about himself He was ten years old but he was still so tiny Other Aces that were his age were already like the uncles and aunts - fully grown adults

Little Ace wanted to get big and strong fast, too But he was always the runt of the litter Not that the Aces picked on hiether

Seeing each other suffer near daily froh motivation not to inflict the same pain on each other outside of them

"What is that?" Little Ace's eyes widened when he saw a colorful pillar of red standing atop a large plate Atop it was a single candle burning with a sad, dying flame

"It's called a cake," said Old Ace "You eat it to celebrate the day you were born, and apparently, all of us were born on the sa lazy, I don't know

Regardless, it's so you eat"

"…Cake" Little Ace nodded, co that name to his mind

"This one is strawberry flavored, too," said Old Ace He shrugged "Though I iine you have no idea what that tastes like"