Chapter One: What's in a name?

I don't remember how long I was in the darkness for. All I remember was being in it. Everywhere I looked, I was surrounded by nothing but pitch black darkness. It was all that I had known. Well it was all I had known until the darkness around me suddenly turned into light.

The light soon became brighter and brighter until it had engulfed me completely. When the light had died down, the first thing I noticed was that everything was black and white and in a huge blur.

After a few minutes, everything became much clearer and in color. I was in a lead-colored room that I believe is a lab. I then noticed a man looming over me. The man had dark hair and blue eyes with dark patches under them. He was also wearing a green shirt under what appeared to be a white labcoat with blue pants and a black belt. He was smiling softly at me.

"Who are you?" I asked the man as he chuckled lightly.

"The real question you should be asking is "who am I?" "

I blinked and for a split second I saw the same darkness as before but it was only temporary this time. The man sighed but he was still smiling as he said, "Nevermind. Anyway, my name is Kur. I am your father. In an essence, I am your father. your name is Hydrogen."

"Hydrogen. Father." I kept repeating those two words over and over mentally. Hydrogen, father. I had a name and a father now! I didn't know why but suddenly I felt the need to bounce up and down on the walls of the lab.

My father smiled. "You feel happy Hydrogen?" He asked me. I blinked again.

"H-Happy?" I questioned as my father nodded. "Yes, happy. Tell me Hydrogen, do you feel like you have a sudden burst of energy that you feel like you have to get out and the only way you can is by bouncing around the lab?" I nodded. I did feel like that.

"That my dear is called happiness. You are happy."

Happiness? I was happy? I smiled softly. Happy. I liked being happy. It was a wonderful feeling. I wanted to be happy all the time. I was enjoying the company of just my father and I when I heard a bang followed by two new voices.

"I can't believe you let that maverick go!" one of the voices said loudly.

"Me? Me!? Maybe if you controlled your fu-"

I didn't get the chance to hear what the other voice was saying because the next thing I knew, was that my ability to hear was muffled and two huge hands were covering my ears. I looked up. It was my father. My father no longer had that gentle smile on his face he had earlier. Instead; it was crinkled up and he was just staring at the lab door as if it just insulted him.

"Father?" I asked him. "Is everything okay?"

My father looked down at me and sighed. "Stay here sweetheart, I will be right back." He then left.

When my father left, I slowly got up and out of the glass container that I was in and walked around the lab. The lab was a decent size and had a lot of neat new stuff that I had to ask my father what it was and try it out later. I eventually came across an image of a woman sitting on a metallic desk. She was absolutely gorgeous. She had long black hair and brown eyes. She appeared to be smiling in the image. Tilting my head to the side, I picked up the image and looked at it.

Another loud slam was heard outside the lab followed by my father yelling, "Cut it out!" Curious, I put the picture back down where I found it, and exited the lab in a haste. I caught up with my father a little while later and I saw that he was in the middle of two girls; both were taller than me and were glaring at each other.

My father noticed me standing there and immediately pushed the two girl away from one another. He than spoke with an authoritative tone. "Tranquility, Lily. I would like for you two to meet your little sister Hydrogen Roxanne Kur."

My father introduced the tallest one out of the two girls as Lily. Lily had short black hair and blue eyes like my father. Unlike him though, she didn't smile. She looked down at me as if I did something wrong. Did I do something wrong? I did not know.

"Get rid of her," Lily demanded to my father. "We don't need another parasite infecting our home."

"Lily!" I assumed the other girl that was Tranquility yelled. "Be nice! She didn't do anything to you. Look at her, you made her upset!"

Tranquility pointed in my direction. I was looking down at the floor as some of my bangs covered my eyes. Get rid of me. Lily wanted my father to get rid of me. I didn't like this new feeling that I had now. It wasn't like the happiness that I had felt earlier. It was a sinking feeling and it made me want to go curl up somewhere in a ball and be away from my family alone.

I soon felt a huge hand on my shoulder blade. I looked up; it was my father. He sighed.

"Don't worry about them especially Lily. She just needs time to adjust to you. They both do."

My father and I looked over at Tranquility and Lily. Both of the girls started to yell at one another then begin to hit each other. I slowly hid behind my father as the two girls fought. I didn't want to be involved right now. Another slam was heard as Tranquility was being thrown into the wall by Lily.

" I just cleaned that!" I heard my father yell at Lily.

"That's nice!" Lily yelled back obviously not caring at what she was doing to Tranquility.

After a while, the fighting died down. Lily was looking down at Tranquility with a malicious grin. Tranquility meanwhile was on the floor all beaten and battered up. Her once beautiful jaded green eyes were now black and blue and her black half-shaved hair was tangled. Even when bruised and beaten, Tranquility got up and gave a look to Lily that was similar to the one that Lily herself had given me earlier. Her gaze then shifted to me and it immediately soften as she limped over to me.

"H-Hello t-there." she said weakly as she reached out to touch me.

I hid farther into my father's lab coat and quickly pulled my hand away before she could touch it. Tranquility seeing that, sighed but continued to scoot towards me. I by that point was already on the other side of my father. Still, I poked my head out every so often just to see if Tranquility was still there. She was.

"It's okay," Tranquility reassured. "I won't hurt you. I promise. Look" She stuck her hand out. "See? I don't have anything."

Feeling slightly comfortable now around Tranquility compared to Lily, I slowly came out from behind my father as Tranquility's smile grew. "That's a good girl. No need to be afraid of me right?" I nodded.

"It's finally nice to meet you. I'm Tranquility but you can call me Tran. Your name was Hydrogen right?" Again a nod.

Lily scoffed in the background. "Hydrogen. Tch was a stupid name. At least give her a name where no one will make fun of her."

Tran nodded and then carefully got up to look at my father. "I normally don't agree with Lily, but this time she does have a point. She needs a better name than Hydrogen.

I looked over between my father, Tran, and Lily each three discussed over what my new name should be. I didn't get why both Tran and Lily wanted to change my name. Was something wrong with my current name? I looked up at my father. He was pinching the bridge of his nose.

"What do you two suggest we name her?" My father asked.

Both Tran and Lily looked down at me in silence. Finally after a while, Lily broke the silence and said. "Her name is going to be Victoria and we will call her Tori for short. Any objections? No? Okay then. Congrats kid, your name is now Victoria."

Tran rolled her eyes at Lily then looked back down at me again. "Trust us on this one sweetie, you'll be glad later on in life that we changed your name to Victoria Roxanne Kur instead of Hydrogen Roxanne Kur."

At the mentioning of the name Roxanne, I noticed that Tran got a far away look in her eyes followed by a heavy sigh. It only lasted a minute though because soon enough, Tran as back to her normal self to when I encountered her the first time.

"Anyway!" Tran started to say as both my father and Lily stood next to her and making all three of them loom over me. "Welcome to the family!"

I could feel myself wanting to go hide again but I didn't. Instead; I gave a small smile. "T-Thank you." I finally managed to get out at last. Oh boy.