Second chapter! I have yet to start planning the third one, but I bet it'll be done by the end of the week. Please review if you haven't already, and many thanks to those who did. I appreciate it!
A note that I forgot to add last time: A whole plate of cookies to Echo Mendiguren for helping me beta-read this story! :)
Chapter 2
Devon's feet stopped in front of a combat simulator, which was surrounded by glass-material walls, and for a while couldn't figure out what the group of scientists were admiring. Their eyes all sparkled with respect and delight, all except the emerald-eyed scientist. The latter had his back turned away from the simulator, as if looking into the combat room would be unbearable for him. Then Devon finally caught a glimpse of a blurred figure moving inside the simulator room. Gradually, he realized that the figure was moving so fast, his eyes were unable to comprehend the mysterious person's features. What Devon could make out though, was a young boy, slightly shorter than himself, who had a head of short, gleaming silver hair. The boys' silver hair though, seemed to represent the complete opposite of Devon's own shining blond hair.
But the image of this boy still seemed to pull at Devon's heartstrings that made Devon want to run over there and hug him.
Slowly, almost painfully, Devon pieced together the puzzle pieces in his mind. 'Father led me down here to see my little brother.' remembered Devon, 'Then I entered a laboratory where scientists told my father about the completed surgery of "Dark Sun". Now they led us here... It couldn't be. No, could the boy in front of my eyes possibly be Daren?'
As if to answer his son's questions, Devon's father commanded the emerald-eyed scientist, "Let Dark Sun come out. Let him meet his new master."
'Master? Why did my father say master?' thought the puzzled Devon. But hewatched with great anticipation as the scientist obeyed his father's orders, albeit a bit grudgingly, and told the boy inside the simulator, "Dark Sun, stop fighting and come out."
All of the Dark Sun this, Dark sun that was starting to get on Devon's nerves. If the boy inside really was Daren, then how dare these scientist refer to him in that way! His father as well, why would he call Daren, Dark Sun? Devon stopped thinking mid-way through, as he saw the young boy walk out of the simulator and their eyes met. The youth looked at Devon with eyes that showed no recognition, and held his back straighter than the most well-trained soldier. Indeed, the boy wasn't moving an inch. Devon recognized the adolescent at first glance however, and without a doubt realized that this was his long lost brother, Daren. Devon recognized Daren's cute, babyish face that didn't seem to change at all over the past 7 years. In his imagination, Devon could already imagine a wide smile spreading across his little brother's face and hearing Daren call out to him: 'Brother!'. Physically though, Devon was on the verge of breaking down, knees buckling, as he shouted out to the supposed "Daren":
"Daren, d-do you still remember me? I'm your older brother, Devon."
Hoping for a smiling response, Devon's heart was thrust into confusion and disappointment when "Daren" didn't seem to reply. The let down weighed heavily on Devon's heart as he tried again and again to get an answer from the little brother standing a few feet away from him. This was all for naught, because "Daren" seemed to show no acknowledgement for Devon.
"Wait, he won't answer you if you call him Daren," came the distressed voice of the emerald-eyed scientist, who had seen enough of this heartbreaking sight, "You have to refer to him as Dark Sun, because that's the name we implanted into his microchip."
"Dark Sun?" snarled Devon, "I would be a monster to call my little brother by such a title. 'Dark Sun' has a name, and his name is DAREN."
As if he finally he heard his name, Dark Sun stepped toward Devon a few steps. Devon lost all of his anger at the scientist when he saw this, but was surprised at his little brother using a voice that he'd never heard before. It was a voice that contained no emotion, ice cold and was as merciless as an assassin.
"Top priority master confirmed. DNA and pupil check complete. Does master wish to change name to 'Daren'?"
Shocked at what his little brother said to him, Devon could only look into Daren's face searching for some sort of way to make his little brother remember him. It seemed too cruel, that he finally found his brother after six years, and yet have him turned into a monster by these scientists. But his father had started this whole thing. His father, yes, it was all his father's fault. Devon reached into his pocket for his handheld gun, turned his body around and was ready to shoot his father down, only to stare blankly at the gun already pointed at his head before he could even react. The person who pointed the weapon at Devon was no other than his own father. With an almost maniacal grin, Devon's father said, "I won't let my "Sun" be the one to do the dirty work."
From the instant Devon's father whipped out the gun, Dark Sun's microchip commanded his body to protect the top priority master. This meant the annihilation of the man who held the gun at his master's head. There wasn't any hint of hesitation as Dark Sun lengthened his metallic silver hair to form lead iron threads that could cut through steel if need be. He sent these whip-like threads of hair flying towards the enemy that punctured through his heart. Blood spurted everywhere as Dark Sun struck down his master's father, as well as his own.
Devon turned his head to look at his brother, in both shock and agony, as he was greeted by Dark Sun's emotionless face. His father, crumpled down and landed in the ground with a thud, dying instantly. The scientists began to run away, scattering all over the hallway outside of the simulator room. Only the emerald-eyed scientist stood his ground, and seeing the deadly questioning look on Devon's face, tried to explain what happened:
"Dark Sun was only trying to complete his du-"
"Enough," growled Devon, as he whipped out his own handheld gun from his pocket and aimed for all the other scientists around the room. One by one, with alarming accuracy, the lab-coated scientists were shot down, no matter how far they tried to run. 'It was all these scientists' fault,' concluded Devon, 'It was their experimenting that made Daren like this. Father deserved to die, but Daren shouldn't have been the one to kill him. Now Daren's become a murderer, and it was all these scientists' FAULT'
As he made his way through the scientists, he finally pointed his gun at the emerald-eyed doctor, and he would have shot down him too had the latter not said,
"Wait, if you kill me, there wouldn't be anyone to tell you about your brother! Your brother's not a normal kid anymore. His body can't be pierced by the sharpest knives, and his bones have been alloyed with metal. Not to mention the microchip inside his brain that makes him put you as his top priority master-"
"My brother's not normal anymore?" snapped Devon, "And who's fault is that? Wasn't it you and the other madmen who made him this way?"
"Yes, it was me who implanted the microchip into his head," replied the doctor, "I was assigned to be Dark Sun's personal surgeon. But if I didn't do it, your father would've got someone else to do the dirty work. At least as his personal doctor, I was able to modify his microchip a bit. I managed to convince the theorists that maybe you would like a body guard with feelings."
Devon thought about this for a second, "Who are you? And how am I supposed to make my little brother normal again?"
"My name is Theodore Avery," responded the scientist, "And it would be impossible to turn Dark Sun back, he endured countless surgeries that even grown men would have a slim chance of sur-"
"Don't you dare call my little brother Dark Sun."
"Yes, yes of course. As I said before, it would be impossible to redo all of the surgeries that 'Daren' had endured. But as his master, you could turn on his emotion switch in his microchip that would allow him to have emotions. Right now Dark S-, I mean Daren, is nothing short of the perfect body guard who would always obey you. But with his emotion switch turned on, it would make him as human as he'll ever be. Just tell Daren to turn on his emotion switch."
Given this slim hope that his little brother would remember him, Devon decided to do as the scientist said. "Daren, turn on your emotion switch."
"Yes, master," came the robotic voice of Daren. His microchip, upon hearing master's orders, opened the switch. All of a sudden, a new consciousness slipped into his mind, and his microchip couldn't take in all this excess data. Choosing the safest way of preserving the info, his microchip decided to shut his body down. As Daren fell to the ground, losing awareness, the last thing he saw was the worried face of a beautiful blond-haired man.
