Authors note:

Scaarth is dancing to Joji - Nitrous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHq_AS62ioY

 

If you want to continue with appropriate music, Joji - Ew, is a perfect follow up if you time the finale of the song to the end of the chapter - Enjoy!

 

Chapter 2 - A Touching Gesture

 

2 years later

 

Rex was sitting upon a creaky wooden chair much too large for him, propped up by several thick academic books under his bum and barely able to reach through the mountains of literature that was stacked up on the desk ahead of him. The orphanage had given him the old radio room as a personal study, a dusty and completely abandoned room at the top of the building, containing various old electrical equipment and random bits and bobs that the orphanage didn’t need anymore. Filled with floor to ceiling height shelving units, heavy CRT monitors and random dusty tools, this would usually be the last place a six year old would be stationed but Rex was already trusted enough to look himself in here and it gave him somewhere private where he could study in peace.

 

A pleasant tune began to pick up in volume from down the corridor followed by the tapping of light feet on tiles.

 

Rex began to bop in time with the music as his larger brother danced his way into the room, clad in just a small grey towel around his waist and still dripping wet, but carrying a speaker set in his hands as he boogied his way across the room.

 

“And the loooove make me wanna sing, sing.”

 

“And the high make me wanna sing, sing.”

 

“And the pain make me wanna blink, bliiiiink.”

 

“But I'm in a Rover, I won't feel a thing.”

 

They took turns singing and humming the song together, grinning with glee. Rex happily buried in his books and Scaarth drying himself off and dressing himself in some clothes stashed in the room, dancing perfectly in time the entire way.

 

“M-music…?” Mana gently popped her head in the door, unsure if she was allowed in the brother’s space. “H-how?”

 

Without missing a beat, Scaarth pointed at his smaller brother at the desk, integrating it into his groove, beckoning Mana to come in at the same time. She entered with a bubbling excitement, dressed in her stylish pink pyjamas, she’d already had her shower and was supposed to be settling down for bed now that she was dry and dressed.

 

“I fixed it! There's so much stuff in here Mana, I think I can get these old computers working too! They might have games on them!”

 

“Games?! L-like weasel basher or catchcha chickens?” Mana inquired, her eyes lighting up with ideas.

 

“Waaaaay cooler than those! Maybe Chess! I think we could all play together too!” Rex heaved the book off his lap and onto the desk with a loud thud, turning to address Mana properly.

 

“Chess?! So cool!” Mana was examining the dusty outline of the room but kept getting distracted by Scaarth, who had actually removed all of the clothes he just put on and was continuing to dance unimpeded and free. Before they could continue the discussion though, a voice called out down the corridor.

 

“Mana! Where are you? You’re supposed to be reading in bed!”

 

Heavier footsteps could be heard from the corridor, attracted by the music playing from the radio room and soon enough, a kind looking female figure entered the room gently, a soft smile creasing her cheeks as she saw the trio.

 

“You checking in on your friends, Mana?”

 

The little alien nodded shyly.

 

“Bless you, you’ve got a big day tomorrow though! You too boys, I heard you might have a visitor coming, so you should head to bed now…”

 

Mana activated the puppy dog eyes. Being a Czarite, she had massive cute eyes anyway but she dialled it up to eleven, these things were the child equivalent of thermite charges, able to melt the heart of any adult in mere seconds.

 

“Oh goodness Mana, don’t look at me like that… ugh- fine! You can stay up for half an hour more OK? Then you all go to bed alright? You need your sleep so you can grow into healthy, strong folks!”

 

“Thank you Janna!” - “Thanks Janna!” Rex and Mana chimed together. Jumping around happily as the smaller male was eager to show his friend around the room, displaying the various projects and things he’d found to her. The supervisor smiled back warmly before frowning briefly at the naked dancing child in the back of the room who had continued unimpeded by neither force nor embarrassment.

 

“Again?! Scaarth.” Her frown wobbled into a laugh as the kid did a perfect split and rose straight back to his feet in time with the music. She couldn’t find the words to tell him off with at the moment and just shook her head instead. “You’d better not work up a sweat before bed, Scaarth. I swear we need to glue pants to this kid… half an hour alright? Then bed.”

 

She left the room and gently closed the door behind her, chuckling to herself leaving the three in peace. After a little more dancing and checking out the various things around the room, Scaarth paused his groove to ask his brother a question that had been bothering him.

 

“Rex, what's a Rover? In the song, he says he’s in a Rover and he can’t feel anything.” Of course, Scaarth had the same song on repeat for the whole half an hour, it was the only one he liked out of all the ones Rex had managed to recover from the old harddrives about the room.

 

“I don’t know… I think its an old song from Orion Industries? Maybe it's a car or something?” Rex thought out loud, trying to piece together what types of transport were common for the time period when the song was made.

 

“Ohhh, maybe a mech walker? Like what Sunny has to move the rocks outside the dome! Those are so cool” Scaarth let his thoughts roam free, a lot like his dance moves.

 

“I think it's a bath. Like a bubbly bath that the teachers say they’d like to go into.” Mana had a different trail of thought compared to the boys.

 

“Bubble bath mech?!” Scaarth’s eyes widened at the thought.

 

“I don’t think anyone could hurt me if I had a bubble bath mech!” Rex laughed loudly, picturing a bath with huge mechanical legs stomping through the playground.

 

The three continued to chat nonsense together, laughing like crazy and dancing wildly until it was finally time to wind down and go to bed, although the supervisor Janna lamented breaking up such a good time. The three of them were adored by the staff for their nonsense and good nature, although it was hard to stop Scaarth stripping off and running through the facility at the moment…

 

—---------------------------

 

The next day, within the site directors office sat an armoured figure, sitting politely upon the chair provided and sipping the tea given to him. The kids were currently on break from their day school and were all playing together in the yard, visible quite clearly from the man's chair.

 

“Appreciate you allowing my presence, Director Chance.” He was a human male, with dark ebony skin and greying hair over his head and face, skin thick with scars with kind- if tired eyes. His voice was low and gravelly and he had an air of deep confidence about him, like a man who’d seen his fair share of hell and hadn’t let it break him.

 

“Just Simon is fine. I have to admit Captain, we don’t typically have visitors for the kids. Certainly not one of your rank and calibre.” The director was quite happy to entertain the soldier’s visit. “Am I right in saying you were part of the team that found the brothers, Sten?”

 

“That is correct. Found them aboard a partially stripped glitch frigate. Very odd circumstances but that's unimportant now. What we need to focus on is their future.”

 

The director nodded firmly and was watching Sten closely, noticing that he was taking note of something in the playground, but when he turned to look briefly, everything was fine, the kids were just playing catch together.

 

“Something catch your eye?” The Director questioned, reaching for another dip of his drink casually.

 

“Tell me about the brothers, Simon.”

 

The director seemed reluctant, which Sten immediately noticed.

 

“Is there something wrong with them…? Can I help?” Sten asked, rising into a more alert state.

 

“N-no. No. Theres nothing ‘wrong’ with them.” The director felt his gut shift, seeing Sten’s reaction. “I’m keeping them on the low as much as possible. The smaller of the two, Rex, is a gifted child.”

 

“How gifted?” Sten relaxed back into the chair again.

 

“Very. He’s reading our most advanced stuff we’ve got here, he’s been fixing old tech in the radio room for a few weeks now and we’ve given the place to him as a personal study.” The director rubbed his brow and sighed heavily. “I… have elected not to send him on at the moment. I’m concerned that he’ll end up being bought by one of the corps and split away from his brother. He’ll spend the rest of his days sitting in a lab, making someone else shit loads of money and that doesn’t sit right with me. He deserves a chance to just be a kid first.”

 

Sten nodded understandingly.

 

“We also don’t really have the funds to get better tutors or resources at this very moment, we’re hoping to sell some of the equipment he’s repairing to raise funds-”

 

“I’ll pay for his curriculum enrichment.” Sten stated firmly, tapping on his gauntlet computer to begin arranging the fund transfer.

 

“Are you sure, Sten?” The Director seemed taken off guard, recoiling slightly in his chair, the leather creaking slightly. “How much are you willing to put in? The kids got a hunger for knowledge.”

 

“Positive. I have the funds, you buy what he needs and send me the bill, anything over 1000 credits notify me first please but as many purchases as required. What about his brother, Scaarth?”

 

“Scaarth… he’s bright and very active. Easily one of the smartest kids we’ve got, but not like his brother I'm afraid.”

 

“He’s the darker one, right?” Sten asked, looking out the window again. “You sure he’s not gifted?”

 

“I mean, he’s a great dancer and very athletic, but not gifted like his brother, no. Why?”

 

“Because he’s passed that ball over 150 times out there and not dropped it once.” Sten pointed out the window. “Have you ever heard of a six year old who can do that?”

 

“I don’t suppose so but-”

 

“Could you do that now? He’s not even concentrating, he’s laughing and playing with his friends, some of those kids can’t throw for shit either and he’s still catching it! That's more than just impressive, Simon.”

 

“Come to think of it, none of the supervisors can catch him whenever he is streaking across the campus. He also keeps stealing cookies from the kitchen and we can never catch him.”

 

“I’m sorry? Rewind a second, when he’s streaking across the campus?”

 

“You could say he’s not the biggest fan of clothes at the moment.”

 

“So you have a hyper intelligent kid and his naked dancing ninja brother…?”

 

They both broke into a hearty laugh together.

 

“Yes, I suppose that's correct!” The director chuckled, taking another swig of his drink. “Great kids though, aside from the theft of the biscuits. They’re kind, considerate and polite. Staff love hanging out with them.”

 

The words brought a warm smile to Sten’s face.

 

“For the record, Simon. I fully agree with your decision not to move them on. That's integrity that's rare these days.”

 

“Thank you. I assume you’re going to keep this quiet as well?”

 

“Of course. I understand why you were reluctant to say. I know of a lot of people who would have sold him and not given a damn about his brother either.” Sten thought for a few seconds and tapped on his gauntlet again. “I’m going to begin regular funding of the whole site too, get Scaarth access to more sporting equipment if you can, I suspect the reason he’s streaking is because he has energy to burn. Lets see if we can put his athletic gifts to work, shall we?”

 

In the playground, things continued to be fun and lighthearted under the cover of the bio-dome, many of the children were playing catch or tag together and things were good. Mana was chasing after Scaarth trying to tag him, loving the thrill of the chase, they were climbing through the monkey bars to the side of the playground.

 

The atmosphere in the playground began to change though, as Mana chased after her friend, she felt a surge of energy through her arms and hands, her skin tingling in a weird but not unpleasant way, her heart was pounding in her chest from the intense chase, Scaarth had climbed right up to the very top corner of the bars and was watching Mana carefully pull herself and reach out to touch him.

 

The bars they were holding onto began to feel cold, she was too excited and too involved in the game to think properly but her hands were reacting with the metal, sending small electrical pulses through them. She was watching her friend flip and climb through the bars, admiring his absurd speed and flexibility. There was a reason why he was the catch champion of the playground.

 

The children around them began to feel strange, like they were in danger. Anxiety shot through the playground with the exception of Mana and Scaarth who were still playing happily. The others all turned to watch as the bars that Mana had just climbed over began to bubble and melt, turning into a goopy metal mess a few seconds after she’d moved on, the other kids began shouting for her to stop but the two were so elated in their games they didn’t notice, too fixated on the other. Energy crackled around them as Mana got close, she was inches from finally tagging him and pushed herself to touch him, the adrenaline of nearly catching the boy was pumping through her form wildly.

 

Scaarth laughed loudly and leapt off the side of the bars, dropping a few feet onto the floor neatly but Mana jumped between the bars and touched his tail as he dropped…

 

“Got you!”

 

A blinding blue flash and thunderous clap rang out, silencing the playground.

 

Sten and Simon both bolted up-right in the office, Sten reaching for his side-arm strapped to his armoured thigh as they tried to figure out what had just happened.

 

Mana stood there shaking, she didn’t understand, tears forming in her eyes as Scaarth laid on the floor, smoke rising off his collapsed form as he remained motionless on the blackened floor of the playground…

 

“Scaarth…?!”