1831 (3 years ago)
*FIRST DAY OF THE Z-CANDIDATE TRAINING*
In a spaceship in the middle of nowhere.
Coco walked behind Miss Havishma as she led him further into the spaceship. She stopped in front of a door and entered a passcode. Miss Havishma stepped aside and ushered him into the room.
"Get familiar with your comrades before we arrive at our destination," Miss Havishma depicted before marching out of the place, leaving him alone with four others.
The room was just plain. It had two long benches connected on each side of the wall. There were three males and a female.
The female hugged herself on a chair at the end of the room. She had dark skin and wore an oversized white t-shirt with a sweater underneath and Jean trousers over her small body. Her hair was like the color of a tree and she tied it by the side of her head, just above her ear. The way she pouts her puffed lips made her look more beautiful.
A young light-skinned man sat on the bench that was connected to the wall. He raised his blue eyes to peel into Coco. He had a muscular build and his chocolate hair was tied back in a bun. He wore a black thick hoodie and blue trousers. The hoodie had the Q.R.C logo on it.
Sitting next to him was another male with dark skin and a braided hairstyle. He had an eye patch over his right eye. He had the same clothing as the chocolate-haired guy. The last one of the three boys sat on the second bench. He had low-shaved emerald green hair, fair skin, and green eyes. He wore a white cardigan and hand gloves and green trousers. He looked at Coco and smiled warmly.
The teenage Coco furrowed before sitting in the space next to the green-eyed boy. The five sat in silence, each staring into space.
The green-eyed boy looked at Coco and how gloomy he was looking.
"H-hi..." the green-eyed tried to speak, but his voice came out with a hesitant tone to it. He cleared his throat and inhaled softly before speaking again. "Hi," he greeted again.
They didn't reply to him. They all looked like they had their problems to deal with and weren't about to start a conversation with some random person they just met.
"How about we start with an introduction?" He spoke again, but still no reply from the others. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "I'm not trying to be rude, but it looks like we are going to be together for a long time, so at least we should know each other's name, don't you think?" They were now staring at him but still no words.
"Okay, I'll go first. My name is Tzal, I'm 18. I used to live in Zoda with my mom and little sister until Department H arrived at my front door and told my mom 'your son has been chosen'" the green-eyed mumbled while making an almost perfect mimic of Miss Havishma's voice.
He stopped and looked at the others with his brows raised, waiting for them to say something. He had already given up hope until the female opened up and spoke.
"I'm Teela, from Zoda and 18 too," she started. Her voice was smooth and soothing to the ear. "I was supposed to join the Academy and become an officer, but D.H. took me because I have the blood thingy."
Tzal smiled and nodded. "Okay, that's two."
The guy with the eye patch sat upright and cleared his throat. "Hi, Coval. Also 18... I also got mysteriously chosen."
"Well, the name's Mars, I'm 20. I don't really understand the things that happened before I got here, but I am here. And I hate insects," the blue-eyed man stated.
"I'll definitely remember that," Tzal said.
They all turned and meet Coco's eyes. He crocked his brows and looked away from the four. He had just received a soul-breaking speech from the head of trainees in D.H. for finishing last in the training and still haven't swum out of the ocean of anger.
"Well, ehm... At least we got a few names. It's better than nothing," Tzal added while side-eyeing Coco.
The door slid open again. But this time, it was Electro 28 who appeared with his hand in his pocket. "We are here, come on," he said before he turned back the way he came.
The five stood up and followed Electro 28. He led them to the main part of the spaceship where Miss Havishma was seated with a tablet in her hand. A large table was in the middle of the room with five similar bags and small guns. They proceeded to stand in front of Miss Havishma with only the table separating them.
"Alright agent. I hope you are all familiar with each other because that's a key part of this training," Miss Havishma forewarned.
Tzal, Coval, Teela, and Mars turned to look at Coco at the same time. Miss Havishma noticed this and chuckled softly before looking back to her tablet.
"Right now, we are hovering over 'Star 4', it is a planet that is infested with monsters. And by monsters, I mean genetically engineered hybrid animals. I'm talking Ape with six legs that shoots lasers from its eye," she explained.
Their jaw all dropped to the ground in shock.
"Some crazy scientist thought it was the best defense strategy to alter the DNA of some animal, but ended up making monstrous-looking creature. The scientist disappeared some years later, but left behind ways to control these creatures." Miss Havishma got up from her chair and walked up to them. "We tried taking these animals out of Star 4 to use them as part of our military power, but they die if they leave Star 4's atmosphere, so we ended up using them to train our agents," she said with a slight chuckle, recalling the past.
She dropped the tablet on the table and it projected the map of Star 4. She pointed at a building in the middle of the map. "This is the lab the scientist did the research before they disappeared," she stopped for a moment before speaking again. "The rest of the team and I will be stationed there, watching your every movement and that of the GEHAs."
"GEHAs?" Tzal repeated.
"Genetically engineered hybrid animals," she elaborated. "This is just the beginning of the Z candidate training, in Star 4 you'll face challenges, one of which is surviving in an extremely cold atmosphere, even colder than Winter Weir."
Miss Havishma closed the tab and handed it over to Mars. She then picked up the bags and passed them to the five. "Here are some equipment to help you survive through it. You might take more than a day. Just remember that you have to get to the lab. If you don't survive, you can't handle the Z-syrup. So survive!"
The spaceship descended a little to the ground level. The door opened, giving way for the cold breeze to rush into the ship. Tzal looked at Teela who was already shaking, and not only from the cold. Coco gazed down, the planet was utterly covered with snow and not a single building was in sight, just like it was on the map Miss Havishma showed them.
...
ns 15.158.61.16da2
