Colors Of The Mechanical Rainbow
Chapter One: Wish On The Night's First Star

Sammy

Today was the day we'd all been dreading: the day we had our first operation. Okay, so to be fair I'd known it was coming for as I could remember, but that didn't make it any less scary. Kabuto took the ten of us when we were just babies, far too young to remember anything other than being at his lab, waiting for the day we'd be turned into his weapons, his personal army.

He'd told us that it was nothing to worry about, but I was still nervous about it. Who wouldn't be, knowing that they would be turned into a cyborg as soon as they were deemed old enough for the procedure to be safe from before the time they were old enough to understand?

At least I knew that I would have one partner with me at all times: Orange Two, or as I called her, Rock, the Neapolitan Mastiff, a breed of dog from the Outside (I named her when I was two, don't ask). She was called Orange Two because she was my partner and I was, or was going to be, the Orange Soldier. I wasn't sure why exactly Kabuto wanted us to work with the dogs he brought from the Outside, but for whatever reason, he did.

"Red One, Red Two, Orange One, Orange Two," Kabuto-sama called. "Come with me. Now."

"Hai Kabuto-sama." Jayden, Red One, and I chorused. Jayden's dog partner was Jamie, or Red Two, the black Labrador Retriever.

Why Jayden named him Jamie eludes me. But then again, the reasoning of why exactly I decided to name Rock 'Rock' eludes me too, so it all works out.

As for why we called the man who had raised us for the past two years Kabuto-sama (when he first kidnapped us, he gave the child raising duties to nurses who he then got rid of once we were old enough that we didn't need round the clock care anymore), we had been trained to call him that at all times, except when we were outside. Then we weren't to say his name at all, and instead refer to him only as 'Master' because no one was to know of his experiments on us.

We'd only gone outside a few times, and that was mostly for training. Still, I liked the outside a lot better than I did the inside. For one it didn't smell like chemicals and medicine and a lot of other nasty stuff all the time. Whenever I was outside, I felt like there was hope for escape.

Over the next year we had an operation almost every day. After a month, orange armor appeared in random places on my body. A month later it covered my whole body, and two months after that I could get it to cover where I wanted. Finally, a year after our first operation was the biggest one yet: when we were turned into cyborgs.

Instead of being put to sleep like we normally were, Kabuto-sama used two Jutsu: one that would keep us alive even if our vital organs were removed and one that would keep us from feeling any pain. And since Kabuto-sama wouldn't let me close my eyes, reprimanding me every time I did, I had to watch as every single one of my organs and even some of my blood vessels were taken out and replaced with mechanical organs. The only times I couldn't see were when my eyes were taken and replaced with mechanical eyes, and when my brain was taken out to be replaced with a similarly mechanical brain.

Once that was done, Kabuto-sama started training us day in and day out.

The one thing our 'master' stressed above all was loyalty.

We were to be loyal to him and him above all others we might give our loyalty to. We were not to give our loyalty to anyone else unless he told us to, and we were only to give it to them for as long as he told us to and not a single second shorter or longer.

In other words, he wanted us to do exactly as he said.

For what reason, exactly, he wanted us to be loyal to him and him alone, I didn't know.

Finally, a year after the operation that turned us into cyborgs, mine and Jayden's primary doctors woke us up in the middle of the night. "Hurry, get packed and don't make a sound."

I nodded, and in sign language, which Kabuto-sama taught us, conveyed my confusion, wanting to know what this was all about. The doctor signed back that she and her fellow doctors were getting us out of here, because now we were old enough that we could survive without someone taking care of us all the time. I was shocked. I didn't remember living anywhere but here, under Kabuto-sama's reign. Sure, I didn't like it, but I didn't know anything else.

It was quite frankly a case of the devil you know being better than the one you don't know.

I didn't know whether Kabuto-sama's tale of finding us abandoned in the forest was true, but what I did know was that he didn't care for us at all.

My earliest memories were of a nurse taking care of me, not Kabuto-sama.

If I remembered correctly, he just pawned the duty of taking care of us off to someone else.

He also didn't let Jayden and I have much contact with the other colors. Hell, I didn't even know the names they'd chosen for themselves and their pups, assuming they had, of course.

And thus began our journey to the place we would later call home: Konohagakure. Fitting, really, considering what our affinities were.

A few weeks ago Kabuto-sama had our affinities tested.

I had a dual primary fire and lightning affinity and a secondary wind and water. Jayden had a primary fire affinity and a secondary wind and earth.

That meant that between the two of us, we had every element covered.

Because both of us had primary fire affinities, that meant it made the most sense for us to go to Konoha, where fire affinities were the most common.

We hurried out of the lab, the only place I'd ever really known, and set off towards Konoha and the Land of Fire, our primary nurses briefing us on what we would need to do as we went.

I saw a star shining brightly overhead.

I closed my eyes briefly, clasped my hands, and recited the wishing rhyme I'd heard a few other kids in a nearby village say. "Star bright, star light, first star I see tonight. I wish I may and wish I might, I wish you'll grant my wish tonight. And I wish that," I thought for a moment. "Jayden and I, and Rock and Jamie too, could make new friends and be accepted for who we are."

Though I didn't see it, and didn't know it, the star glowed, and my wish was granted.

Soon, all four of us would make several good friends, and that would eventually lead us on the journey, and the adventure, of a lifetime.