The sound of silence is sometimes a reassuring thing. It helps one to rest and dream within your own mind.
"Wake up you sows! We've got training to do!" Shouted an man who looked to be nothing but fire!?
Waking up is not always easy but what if by slim chance you're confusion takes a hold of your reality?
"What're you doing still in that bed recruit!?" Shouted the fire man, his mood seemed to influence his temperature, colour and how his flames nicked the air.
"W-what?"
"I said move your behind before I do!" So many thoughts but with no reason or answers.
What was happening, where was he?
Or better yet-
"You're new right? I saw you appear yesterday night, you're rather late ya know? We're in our 3rd month of training. It's pretty brutal, the Sargent has a mean mouth but he's a good guy" Suddenly spoke a voice to his right, as he was suddenly grabbed and pulled in line by this stranger.
"Who am I?"
"Oh right, this is Orientation, whoever you were prior doesn't exist now. Everyone here is the same" gesturing towards the countless in line with them. "Although we all arrived much earlier than you. Essentially the system erases us from our realities, Orientation usually explains it but... they kinda suck at it" the man joked, as they both started to walk following the people in front in rows of 5 lines side by side.
"I chose the name Luke, I don't know why but I like it. What about you? Oh wait, what am I saying? This is probably all too much for ya huh? Imma just call you 'A' for now cause you're number tag starts with it." Pointing to his shirt that said A26, he remained silent while looking around.
The place was huge, the corridors they were walking through were stunning. As was the guards who watched them from the side, each with full body armour, weapons and wings!?
"What is this place?" A asked while the line stopped and he looked a bit closer at one of the guards. Which the guard ignored continuing to stand his guard at his designated post.
"It's the institution" Luke stated, "A place all Messengers come to train"
'Messengers?' A crackling of static and sudden throbbing to the brain had A grabbed his head in pain.
"Yeah, I wouldn't do that, it's best not to try and think where you were before this or even who you were. It might sound cruel now but in context to who we are now and what we do, it's safer for those whom we probably left behind" Luke's words meant comfort but the morbid undertone wove its way into A's mind like a bad omen.
'Who we left behind?' Another spike of pain to the brain nearly made him pass out after just waking up!
"Wow, for a young fella didn't know you'd continue self torment like this." Luke was astounded, sure he knew young ones were trouble but A at most looked around 18 years old.
'Young?' Another hit to the skull, he really couldn't think before he woke up? The clothes as well, if what Luke said was true. Did someone undress him to put a uniform on him!?
"A26, where are you!?" Yelled out a new voice, a feminine but fierce one.
Luke not wanting him to be subjected to any problems during his first day pushed him out of line drawing attention to him.
Looking at his tag the female commander that had horns and bat like wings nodded at the Sargent.
"I'll be taking him for the time being" without any arguments A was grabbed and dragged along for a bit. He couldn't help but notice her long tail and the slight spines protruding from her uniform along her back.
He felt no fear strangely enough even though her legs were hind and hooved like a bull? This commander didn't have a human like face either, it was that of a spiked lizard?
"It's best you don't ask questions, it'll all be explained later on. You won't be training with those guys, at least not right now." She spoke before he could muster up the courage to. "This way" she continued as he followed close behind.
"I usually don't interfere with the conducting of Messenger training but you're an exception A26."
'A26' was that really going to be his name?
"In here" she gestured, her long claws gesturing to a room with nothing in it but a chair? But the chain was metal and had shackles on the arm rests. Another open across the head board, sporting a sizeable hole in the back hooked up to other things!?
Looking at her in confusion she didn't elaborate as A slightly inched inside before she closed the door behind.
"Please continue to the chair and sit down" What kind of bullshit was this? Did they really expect him to sit in a death trap? "I won't ask a second time A26" sounded her voice through the walls, she was watching in an outside space with monitors.
She didn't seem like the type you left waiting as A hesitatingly sat in the chair. It was no guess that the opened shackles would immediately grasp around his wrists and throat.
"Do not be alarmed, this is a proceeding that all new Messengers undertake. I will not sugar coat the experience, you will die... countless times in fact."
Die!?
Countless!?
It was the stuff of horror movies, why did he have to die!? And countless times!?
"I would explain it to you but I have things to do." She lazily said. Hitting some buttons before A was injected by a syringe to the spin through the hole at the back.
Screaming out in pain till no voice could be registered anymore. Tears like sandpaper to the coursing of burning through his veins.
A thrashed and struggled against his restraints, the woman however remained unamused.
"Solution 78 non receptive to subject A26 genes, moving onto Solution 79" writing down the times and date, signing her signature off she sighed.
A26 was proving to be a hassle, his genes were not being receptive to countless solutions. It had been hours since they had started, from solution 1 to now 80!
"Fucken hell, what am I supposed to do!?" She hissed as her sharp nails scaled along her head. "This kid is either a dud or something spectacular" she laughed sarcastically.
'Fuck it, I'll cycle through them all and come back' She thought annoyed as her fingers issued the rotation through the accumulated taps of buttons.
Stepping out of the room she made her way to a meeting office and waited till people started to file out. Many different species and creatures filed out some organic and not.
Walking in only after everyone had left she closed the door behind her.
"Sir"
"Oh? What a surprise Dr Molten?"
"Please Sir, I thought we had passed the stage of last names" She looked slightly disappointed. As the individual she was speaking too stepped out of the shadows in the room.
His appearance was overwhelming to most whom weren't his rank. A creature made of bones of a hollowed skeleton structure that of a man. Yet with intertwined edges of muscle only, no flesh but rather magical essence enforcement.
"I apologise Veronica, what do I owe the pleasure?" His voice was cold but somehow flirtatious?
"I've come to report an issue with a new recruit" she replied paying no attention to his boned tail sliding across her own.
"Oh? You having an issue is rare considering you're rank" he said, removing all flirtatious aspect to his words. If anything he seemed mildly interested but also slightly pissed considered no real context.
Veronica was someone he'd kill for and his rank made that an easy feat to hide a dead Messenger.
"It's not a matter of Rank Na'al Sir, it's more a possible system error?"