XERO GRAVITY Book 1 part 2 of 4

“It’s simple, Shirako.” Stark said as the brothers ran out of Venza’s cafe. “We just have to get our own place and everything will be okay.” Shirako looked at him with a grin on his face.

“Agreed,” he signed. “Catch up if you can.” Shirako ran into the bars above them, jumping off one slanted one to another. Stark smiled, jumping was always one of his brother’s favorite hobbies. Stark climbed carefully up the metal frame, his eyes darting to the different bars and openings. After fifteen minutes of climbing up the bars, he grabbed hold of a rope with bits of wood on them for support. Panting for the last stretch up, he saw Shirako’s head poke out from a small wooden tree house. He waved and stuck his purple tongue out at Stark as he laughed. 

Too tired for a comeback, Stark climbed to the top, lying down on the wooden floor when he reached the top. 

“Took you long enough.” Shirako signed as he sat on a pile of pillows. Stark took in the view of their oddly placed treehouse. Nothing too extraordinary, just a few extra building materials making a rough square and a roof above them.

“Why don’t we take the other way?” Stark says panting for breath. “You know, the door through the building?” Shirako folds his arms and shakes his head, a confident smile on his face. Stark shrugged as he sat on his pile of pillows on the other side. Stark looked beyond the small roof to the stars. Soon they would have a good place, their own place. 

drip, drip, drip. The roof leaked. Stark felt his heart drop, looking over at Shirako; his brother’s smile disappeared as raindrops fell from the sky. 

“Shirako, the rain can’t reach you.” Stark said tenderly. Shirako quivered, his legs shaking and his tail tucked between his legs. “You’ll be fine.” Stark said, his heart pounding. Shirako covered his ears and curled into a ball, shaking in fear as the rain drummed against the iron pipes outside. Stark walked on a wooden platform into the rain, darting into the building on the side. Quickly, he grabbed a plastic tarp and earplugs. “We’ll be fine.” He says to his unconsolable brother. 

Slowly, the brothers inched their way to the abandoned storage room. Shirako gripping to his fur as they moved inside. When they were inside, Stark set up his brother on another pile of pillows. Stark sat in a corner on the concrete floor. He hated seeing his brother this way, but it would change when they had their own place. He would never be helpless again.

***

“Rise and shine, you two!” Stark heard as he woke up, slowly opening his eyes to see an eager Ace in front of him. He jumped in fright, seeing he wasn’t on concrete, a nice big seat with a table with fruit on it. “Easy, easy! you’ll want to save that strength for later.” Ace said, placing the plate in front of him. Stark bit his lip, looking outside the holographic window, trees passing by as the train rode on. Next to him, Shirako slept, a smile on his face as his back rose softly from a pleasant sleep. “Before you ask,” Ace said, biting into an apple. “You’re on a train heading to the rural district.” 

“How did you find us?” Stark asked, changing the subject. Ace pointed at Stark’s belly pocket, taking another bite out of his apple. Stark stuffed his hand in, pulling out the phone that he had with him. Stark’s ears flattened against his head. “Oh.”

“You both were sleeping in an abandoned skyscraper by the time that I found you. What were you both doing there?” Ace asked, no tone of guile in his voice. Stark narrowed his eyes. Ace had found their hideout. What did he do with it? Stark smiled.

“What did you do with the wood that you found right next to us?” Stark asked. Wondering if he should have any respect for him.

“What wood?” Ace asked, winking at him. Stark gritted his teeth. Not only did he know about their hideout, he was keeping it a secret. Ace stretched, getting on all fours and stretching his body from his head to his tail. 

“The only thing that matters is that you are both safe. Especially after the downpour that happened yesterday.” Ace looked solemnly to Shirako. “Is he okay?” Ace asked. Again, Stark looked for any guile in his words, not finding any. 

“Where are we going?” He asked, seeing his brother’s eyes slide open. He didn’t want to give him more information than he needed, working around his questions like a rabbit around a bear. Ace smiled, taking something out of his pocket. Revealing a ticket from his back pocket. Stark looked at it curiously before Shirako snatched it from him, reading it repeatedly. 

“Let me see.” Stark said trying unsuccessfully to grab it out of his brother’s hands. Shirako held it behind him as if it were gold that needed to be protected.

“It is a ticket to the festival of Union.” He signed. Stark tilted his head to one side, his ears drooping. Shirako slapped his forehead. Then faster than Stark could read, he started signing, his face going from happy to angry to happy again. 

“What?” Stark asked.

“Dang, your brother knows the history of Alurizia really well.” Ace said, Stark confused by Shirako’s happy fit and Ace’s comment. 

“What?” He asked again. Shirako looked at him excitedly as he stood up.

“It all started hun--” He started, interrupted by the grinding of gears and a sudden jump in movement, making Ace tumble to the ground.

Train has stopped, all passengers, please wait until I pull your compartment up for you to exit. The conductor said as Stark felt the seat beneath him move upwards. Stark looked outside, seeing the train stopped. Right before he had to hear more about that story. Ace pulled himself up into his seat, rubbing his head. The cargo train, able to hold several passengers with their own compartments throughout the train. Almost like everyone is a cargo crate to be opened. Stark thought, he had read about them somewhere. Trying to find out if he could live in a compartment while he hid.

Stark saw Shirako fidget with excitement, couldn’t blame him. If this was as big festival as fortold, he couldn’t see any reason not to be excited. After some time their compartment opened allowing them outside. Stark watched as thousands of Alurizans filled the waiting area, this area alone was filled with decorations, different colors and children playing, while others waited in line for carrots and potatoes. 

“Is it as good enough for you?” Ace asked Stark as he picked him up and put him on his shoulders. 

“Get me down! Get me down! Get me down!” Stark yelled as Ace plopped him on the ground. Ace smiled as Stark dusted himself off. 

“it’s...” Stark thought about it for a second, looking at Ace. A goofy look free of any guile. Is he really to one who said that we were defects? “Good.” Stark said while looking at the ground.

“That’s the spirit!” Ace said, slapping him on the back, knocking the air out of him.

Shirako pulled on both of their fur, pointing at the different stands. 

“Food?” Shirako signed. Ace smiled.

“Sure thing.”

***

Before he knew it, Ace and his boys had their arms loaded with fried potatoes and carrots, a "healthy" portion of sweets and a small fluffy toy, at Shirako’s request. The boys who had refused to eat breakfast dug in, eating potatoes by the mouthful. Cramming as many as they could in their mouths while chewing. Ace looked up at the sky, seeing the intergalactic space exploration fleet preparing to leave, different escort craft flying above, making the prestige symbol in the air. Ace pointed it out toStark and Shirako who gasped at the sight. All while they were in line. If they were having this much fun in a line, then he was sure this would be their day. The gang grabbed their tickets and before long; they entered the park, different rollercoaster and game vendors in sight. Stark and Shirako grinned at the prospect of them.  

Bzzz, bzzz Ace felt in his jeans. He pulled out his phone, discovering a call from the Xero research facility. He bit his lip, even thinking about talking to the boys’ researcher twisted his stomach. 

“Hey Ace,” Stark said, trying to act cool pointing to a sign. “you must be this tall to ride.” It read. Stark looked at him with pleading eyes. “Could you possibly take us on this?” Stark said, looking at his claws, trying to conceal his excitement. Ace looked down at his phone and back at Stark 

“Not right now. We got to save the best for last!” Ace said as he eyed the call. Stark looked to the ground in disappointment, scratching the cement with his feet. 

“Oh” Stark replied. 

“Don’t worry too much about it!” Ace said. “Why don’t you both enjoy the games, there’s got to be some good ones around here. We can then meet at this one once we are back.” He said. A smile coming to Shirako’s mouth as he pulled Stark towards the games. Ace looked at the phone call and sighed. What did he want now.  

***

“Hello?” Ace answered, putting the phone up to his ear. Unlike the professional voice he was expecting, he heard someone sloshing through a sea of papers.  

“Ace, is that you?” The voice asked. A smile creeping up on his face. 

“Taro! it's been too long!” Ace said, wagging his tail behind him. He didn’t expect to hear from a good friend right away. 

“Ace! How are you enjoying the festival? I didn’t know you had kids.”

“I have two Xeros that I am looking after. I thought they might enjoy it.” Ace answered. 

“But how did you get tickets?! Generally only school children get them.” asked Taro.

“Let’s just say that I got my paws on some.” Ace replied.

“That’s so lucky of you! I wouldn’t be surprised if they stopped making the tickets because so many people get in.” Taro said.

Ace shrugged, “Makes sense.” 

“Alright, I almost got sidetracked. Are your Xeros around you right now?” Taro asked. 

“No, what’s going on?” Ace said, hearing sloshing of papers as Taro looked for something. 

“Nothing bad has been happening, but well...” Taro cleared his throat. “There is something that you need to know about them.” Taro ended. After he found the paper he was looking for, he sat on a creaky chair. Gosh, Ace thought, Taro really needs to put in some requests for some sort of service. It’s almost like he is allergic to new stuff. Well, he was like that in science and engineering school.

“You know the researcher, right?” Taro started.  

“The one that doesn’t share his name. The one in charge of my Xeros?”  

“Oh, you’ve met with him before?” 

“Yeah,” Ace said, “Not the most pleasant individual that I have seen.” 

“Well...” Taro trailed off before taking a deep breath. “He put those boys through the ringer.” 

“Is it something to do with him calling them defects?” Ace asked. Awkward silence followed. So that is a yes. 

“Here is what happened. Shirako was born first. You know he had plenty of complications that have affected him. In a way, he suffered through through his birth.” But that is when he was placed in the care of the researcher.” Taro explained

“That’s when things turned south, I imagine?” Ace replied . Taro took a deep breath. 

“I know I shouldn’t be exposing it like this, but that researcher doesn’t see the artificially born as people, he sees them as continuing experiments. Sometimes he doesn’t know when to stop.” 

“What did he do to him.” Ace interrupted, clenching his fist. 

“He has the philosophy that facing your fears is the best way to overcome them. But he takes that to an extreme, he had Shirako in artificial rain two hours of each day. To rid him of that fear.” Taro said. 

“What about Stark, he seems to be much more defensive than Shirako is?” Ace asked with concern in his voice.  

“He suffered though the brunt of it.” Taro said, “He was born without a clear mentor to start, and being around the Xero lab, I often saw Shirako talking to him, caring for him and that's when the researcher took Stark in. Stark was much more feisty than a regular Xero and the researcher thought it was a good idea to break him of this habit. He did many things to anger Stark and then punish him if he acted poorly. But the worst part is that Stark watched helplessly as his adoptive brother would suffer through the rain each day. Stark acted in an extremely hostile way towards the researcher, trying to save his brother from this problem and he punished him each time for it.” 

Ace looked at the cement floor, the news making his blood boil and his fur stand straight. 

“So when the researcher realized the boys weren’t cooperating, he pushed them off to someone else like a broken phone to be fixed.” Ace said with frustration.  

“And you’re the fixer.” Taro said. “I just found out about these things that he did yesterday as I was looking through old recordings. I have filed a full report of abuse to the administration of science. "But that won’t erase the damage that was caused.” Ace stared at the ground. No wonder the boys didn’t trust him. Having someone do all those things to them, instead of helping them, that researcher made them distrust anyone that wanted to help them. 

“I don’t know what--” 

“What do these boys need?” Ace said, cutting Taro off. “What can I do to help?”

“You can’t undo that damage just by whacking it with a magic wand, but I know one thing. Trust them, love them, help them. That is all I can think of, perhaps call in a psychologist to assist them with untangling their trauma.” Ace heard as another person walked through the papers towards Taro. “Well, it was good talking to you again Ace, see you later.” click.

Just like that, Taro hung up. Leaving Ace on a bench, staring at the festival.  

“Thank you, Mom!” He heard a little bear say. 'If only he had mentored them first.' Ace thought to himself. 

Ace walked back to the games booth. As he looked around, Stark and Shirako were nowhere in sight.  

Now where did those blasted boys go? Ace mumbled.

***

“Oh, this one looks fun.” Stark said, walking over to a balloon popping stand. Shirako grabbed hold of one dart and took aim. 

“Are you sure you want to do that?” A voice said behind them. Stark turned around, an orange and white Xero with a collar behind them. 

“Why wouldn’t we?” Stark asked the Xero. 

“One toy per child, don’t you want a big one?” 

“What are you talking about?” Stark asked.

“You’ll see.” The Xero answered. Showing them a flyer of the big prize. The Xero motioned for them to follow. Stark and Shirako followed him.