The Adventures of Ace, Zeal and Candy

Search

it was around 4AM in the morning, Ace tossed and turned in his bed remembering his time in the facility, caged cold and alone...... The sound of the neyatene's feet pitter patting every so often as they observed him from his cage..... The cold needles they used to extract his blood and harvest his DNA.... The several failed soldiers that he would see being taken to a containment cell awaiting terminations, their screams and pleas for agony ignored by the neyatene but always echoing through his head. He faintly remembered seeing an orange colored soldier who tried her best to remain emotionless but had failed and was immediately dragged away, her screams burrowing into his soul knowing all he could do is watch but at the last moment he had heard the alarms sounding, she and another small group of failed soldiers had escaped and were on the run "maybe I can meet some of them soon..... I remember their faces faintly but no names were given to them.... unless they had named themselves once they had escaped and hidden in the sykion settlements nearby....." his thoughts echoed the thoughts of seeing the other experiments that had escaped filling him with hope that they had all evaded capture, but he knew the neyatene would contact the sykion government demanding a knight guard squad be sent to nearby towns and settlements to search for them all
He was still dreaming asleep... sitting in his cage again watching the scenes repeat over and over haunting him reminding him that the neyatene were cruel and ruthless and would not stop until the escaped experiments were either captured or terminated but, he remembered seeing a few neyatene register emotion some that had been experimenting for ages. He did't know how many experiments had been killed, how many innocent new lives cut short.... over time some of the neyatene had grown upset with themselves not able to bear what they had done, the ones that were too far gone were all but sentient machines with a reptilian appearance while some had chosen to remain on a more natural path having much fewer cybernetics in there bodies. It was another day in the facility as usual, his handler was a female neyatene that had little cybernetics in her, she was a new arrival and was chosen to be his handler because she was kind unlike other neyatene but she was watched heavily since she was not entirely cybernetic, she kneeled down close to him and spoke briefly "when the time comes just run...." it was a brief whisper but he understood, he had to wait for a proper time.
later on that day there was a mass containment breach, every cell and cage opened, every neyatene was baffled at what had happened but ace knew this must have been her plan, he didn't know that female neyatenes name but he was grateful. He sprinted out of the cage towards a nearby exit with a few other experiments all of them running using every bit of strength and speed in them. He was hit in the back of his head with a rod and fell over "ow!" the bird screamed as he saw several neyatene converging to capture him and the others but at the last moment several more experiments had rushed over to them attacking the neyatene with brute force, there were four or five of them, one resembling a sabertooth tiger that was immensely tall and muscular. the sabertooth had glanced over at the weaker smaller experiments who had all frozen in fear "GO NOW BE FREE DO NOT WORRY ABOUT US WE WILL HOLD THEM OFF AS LONG AS WE ARE ABLE" the experiments including ace nodded and continued running, the sound of brutal combat heard echoing through the halls of the facility as several neyatene were most likely torn apart by the stronger expirements wanting freedom for their siblings, several screeches from neyatene were heard as they were beaten savagely. He ran towards the exit seeing the light of day outside running but getting tired. He ran outside engulfed in sunlight with the others the cold of the outside a bitter shock to only him
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Ace shot up from the bed in a cold sweat panting "I-it was just a dream...." he slowly rose from the bed and looked around, the room was still the same a nice warm and welcoming atmosphere that immediately calmed the bird "phew...." he took his time and stretched a bit yawning "i wonder if Zeal and Candy are awake" the bird cracked the door open and was hit with the aroma of something being cooked in the kitchen. his stomach rumbled extremely loud and his mouth watered a bit from the smell of seafood. "i forgot how long its been since I've had a proper meal of actual food....!" he slowly stepped out of the room and saw the small pink bunny sitting in a chair at a table, she was sipping on what looked like coffee, she looked over at him and smiled "I see our new friend is awake" the wolf was the one cooking their morning meal "He's awake already? From what he looked like last night I thought he would've been out till noon" he grabbed some spices off a nearby rack and added them to the seafood cooking in the pan "come take a seat, I can cook myself but Zeal just makes the best food" "I learned from the best when i was a kid" he continued cooking as Ace sat down in a seat next to Candy "so were did you come from?" the bunny asked "I-Im not comfortable answering that just yet...."
"its okay, we won't pry" there were three plates set out on the table along with some silverware "it's done!" Zeal exclaimed and put enough on everybody's plates. Ace looked down at the food on his plate, it was a potpourri of seafood and vegetables varying from carrots broccoli along with some trout shrimp and crab meat, He immediately grabbed the utensils and started digging in mouthful after mouthful. Candy was taking her time eating since she was drinking coffee, Zeal was eating his at a fair pace
once breakfast was done the three had sat down in the living room, ace had been curled up in a burrito on the couch "is it always this cold?" he asked "most of the planet is always cold" Zeal responded "when i get some time i can have a friend of mine make you a nice warm outfit since most of us have our clothes made nice and cozy" Candy said "but your only wearing that rather revealing outfit" she grabbed a small coat she owned "i spend most of my time indoors at my job at my brothel nearby so i don't really need to wear that much" "i see..." Zeal was putting on his clothing in another room, he stepped out in rather complex clothing that looked that of a an engineer "ive got my job as an engineer for the dustboard races but, i do work on other things so im mainly outside. Candys on her day off today so she'll be watching you but i have to go soon" there was a loud knock on the door "open up! Royal guard is here for inspection" the voice was that of a knight the two gasped "inspection, that never really happens in Qevena...." "open up Gadget!" "candy get our friend into the cellar quickly" she immediately took ace downstairs into a hidden area "get in this barrel you'll be safe" he nodded and got in as she slid the lid back on.
Zeal opened the door as candy returned from closing the hidden cellar "Wait your from Reverence" "that we are" the knight shoved Zeal out of the way "oof!" he had hit the floor and candy immediately helped him up "what the hell!?" "are orders are to search every house for the suspect" the knights advanced and were about to become rather reckless and wreck their house when Zeal stood and growled "I suggest you be careful with our belongings unless you want to deal with me" He cracked his knuckles as the guards took note and only observed instead of throwing things "sweetie im scared...." the bunny cowered behind him "itll be alright..." he held her in his arms
___________________________

The knights had come and gone just like that moving onto the next house, a familiar brown fox otter had run into the house "Revery?" they both asked she panted "I-I tried to get here as soon as i could but the guards beat me to it...." she was catching her breath "what was that about" candy asked "I-I heard from a few in the kingdom that they were sending knights from Reverence here to search for suspects of some kind so i wanted to warn you to be prepared but i guess i was too late" Zeal went down to the cellar and brought out Ace "a-are they gone?" he asked, Revery poked her head outside "yeah there leaving the town now, but who are you?" "Im ace" said the bird sighing in relief "Revery Scout, pleased to meet you" she took note of his strange appearance "so you mustve been the one they were looking for" Zeal  spoke "he's a good guy Rev i found him last night in the mountains alone and cold and he was scared so me and candy took him in" Revery looked at him and sensed he was telling the truth "alright, now i'd like to know why they were looking for him first" Ace sighed "its all a long story..." they all gathered around him
one explanation later and they were all wide eyed "that sounds horrible..." Revery spoke "terrible indeed...." candy retorted "it sounds just so wrong.... youve been through alot ace" Ace had a few tears running from his eyes "hey dont cry...." the bunny hugged him "t-thanks...."
Zeal and Revery exchanged looks "alright ace, we promise that we will do everything we can to keep you safe from them alright?" Ace wiped a few tears away and looked at them "R-really?" "yup!" said Revery, "you bet, we'd always protect a friend in need" ace smiled as candy stopped hugging him "thank you so much...." they all smiled "well Rev, you should get back to Reverence before they start looking for you" she sighed "another long trek back to my home" with that Revery exited along the same path the knights had gone, "We promise to never speak about you to any of the guards" Ace felt comforted by this and was confident that they would keep their promise, "i gotta go catch up with the guys so i can make it to carbon alright?" Candy nodded "have a good day at work dear" she walked over to him and gave him a warm hug and a kiss, the wolf picked her up in his arms and hugged her close "I will sweetie, keep an eye on ace alrighty?" she nodded "i will" she spoke "I love you" "love you to sweetie" and with that Zeal had bent over behind the doorway picking up his own dustboard turned it on and sped off, Candy closed the door as ace sat down "im so glad to have friends like you guys.... without people like you this world would be so cruel" "were glad to have met you ace" candy spoke and sat with him
Ace smiled and laid back on the couch knowing the rest of the day would be better from now on knowing he had friends he could rely on