Homecoming | sequel of "Home" [✔️]

Chapter 4

Bobby hadn't known what to expect when he was chosen for this mission. With Agent Fit still occupied in another mission, he was picked alongside with General Bakar for this dangerous journey into the world beyond, only selected for him to support the General in case if anything goes awry.

Before they left, the General had told him many times, drilled the words into him—Ali is a good kid, just misguided—like he was hammering facts into his brain. In spite of their differences, Bobby had a positive opinion of Ali when he helped the Outskirts legally, but that good outlooked instantly backfired when Agent Fit reported his escape to their superiors.

In all his life serving MATA, this sort of a coward was one of a kind.

Yet, he was now a prisoner under the former MATA agent, the same coward that had betrayed their organization once for criminals he'd sought out willingly. As history repeats itself, Bobby began to wonder whether if his downfall will come to be once more, just as the times before him.

Bobby glanced at the windows beside him, following the General's gaze. There were multiple aliens inside, who were—possessed either purple skin or an extra limb—sitting in front of dozens of surveillance screens, each displaying a different biome and setting, all locked in desperate survival of the fittest.

"This is the entrance exam," Ali said, monotone. He gestured to the window and the scenery inside, with dull explosions and screams booming from the speakers; the battle elsewhere yet their brutality was displayed loud and clear for them to hear.

Bobby narrowed his eyes. If they could make it back, they could use this information to their advantage, knowing at least the base line of their standards. But as he and the General glanced at the computer screens, they saw various aliens—who all seem to be in their teen years—fighting against each other in separate rooms, all wielding lethal weapons and fighting against their surroundings as well as their opponent.

In one room, two aliens went neck-to-neck with a sword and spear, their room simulated to an icy biome. The snow around their feet was stained with blood, the crimson liquid seeping into crevices of the area. Yet the two did not relent, hacking at each other despite their shivering forms. In another, three humanoids struggled to dispatch a sphere from a volcano, nearly falling into lava as they helped each other to survive.

"How do you power all of this?" Bakar asked, astonished as well as horrified. "Won't all this simulation be physically impossible to handle?"

Ali turned to him, shrugging. "Who said it was a simulation?" He watched as one of the trainees from the volcano landscape tripped, their hair catching on fire from nearby lava spring. "These are real time. If they cannot survive unsupervised quests, they won't be certified as cadets. It's that simple."

Bakar sucked in a sharp breath, as if expecting the worse-case scenario for their fates. "And for those who aren't certified?"

He shouldn't have asked, because there was a glint in Ali's eyes they couldn't pinpoint. It was unnamed, but at the same time unnerving. Bakar had seen that gaze only once, belonging to vicious villains whose names alone would make MATA shiver.

"They're evicted into space," he answered casually, as if they were discussing it over cappuccino, with casual jokes and smiles. "Whether if they survive, it's up to the hands of lord. It depends on luck, really. Skill doesn't help you much when you're suffocating/freezing in a zero-gravity environment."

There was a dreadful silence that settled in, of which neither of them was willing to break it. They had come to space to repair the broken contract, but instead they have found a massacre. To make matters worse, it had been one of their own had turned his back on them in exchange for the bloodshed.

Bobby gritted his teeth, with no words to retort, having witnessed such inhumane tests that trained elite cadets that MATA would never be capable of. Yet this was not just for show, not for showing off blatantly for your enemies. It was to intimidate, to strike fear into the viewer's minds.

Ali did good on this fact, perhaps even a little overboard.

Bakar clenched his fists, sweat trickling down his forehead, the image of a baby-faced, beaming child now burning away in unforgiving fire.

What happened to you, Ali?