Ascending | ✔

Children of the Lost

A/N: Very OC heavy. Be warned.

xXx

"Ahoy there!" crowed a small child, his tail waving back and forth in excitement. "I am the greatest pirate in all the universe, Kafara!"

The other children stared at him, unimpressed.

"Lame."

"What are you supposed to be, Cody?"

"What are you, six?"

"You don't even look like Kafara!"

Cody, a member of the animalistic Zoorian race, glared at his heckling audience from his makeshift stage, which was a cafeteria table. "Don't be mean, guys! I'm just having some fun."

"You dragged us all the way here to watch your two bit performance, Cody," said Rallo, a creature that heavily resembled Earth's armadillo. "I mean, come on. How do would you expect us to react?"

"Yeah, Rallo's right!" agreed one boy.

Cody groaned. "Seriously? You too, Wesson?"

"You have to admit, that was pretty bad," a pretty female alien resembling a Kai pointed out. Unlike the boys, her uniform was neatly pressed; tidiness was a trait normally associated with her species: the Memsies.

Cody looked even more affronted than before."You don't know what you're talking about, Ruby!"

"I so do," countered Ruby, miffed that Cody was dismissing her opinion as if it were nothing. "That was bad with a capital 'b'!"

"What's going on here?" demanded a soldier, making his way up to them before Cody could retort. "Shirking your duties, trainees?"

The children quickly scrambled to appropriate positions, saluting the soldier, an alien with bright red skin and horns. "Commandant!" they recited, tremors of fear in their voices. Suddenly, the empty mess hall seemed much colder.

Cody, the tiniest out of the bunch, saluted out of time with the others, something that did not escape the Commandant's hawk-like gaze.

The Commandant leaned in close to Cody, his eyes burning with fury. "What's your name, boy?"

The poor zoorian trembled under his harsh stare, his grey-white fur puffing up in anticipation. The Commandant was not a nice man, he knew. Cody was going to be in for the punishment of a lifetime.

"C-Cody," he stammered.

"What was that?!" bellowed the red-skinned alien. "Speak up, boy!"

When Cody only looked up at the Commandant with wide doe eyes, Rallo elbowed him in the side, hissing, "Answer, you dolt!"

"Cody!" blurted the zoorian. "I said my name is Cody, sir!"

"Cody, eh?" the Commandant parroted. In one swift movement, his had his broad hand wrapped around Cody's head. "Well then, Cody, pull a stunt like that again and I will slap you shitless!"

Cody screamed in pain as the alien's nails dug into his delicate skin, breaking it and causing blood to flow from the wounds.

The other children looked on in horror, Ruby seeming especially disturbed, her normally rosy complexion now pale as she balked.

The Memsie opened her mouth to intervene but Wesson stopped her by moving a feathered hand over her orifice.

"Don't," Wesson said, his eyes never leaving Cody and the Commandant. "It'll just make things worse."