*??? POV*
*Location: Cintura (Vilgaxia in Ben 10 Universe)*
*Date: 5000th Rotation/1955 Earth Year*
When one is born, one is born crying; that's all there is to it, regardless of the species, including my own. The Chimera Sui Generis, aka the species of one Vilgax the Conqueror, a tyrant, a destroyer, clever enough to take the power of a god, and most of all arch-nemesis to one Ben Tennyson. Now, why was I saying all this? After all, what does a fictional character have to do with my current situation?
First off, my name was Jack, Jack Adams, formerly a human who lived in North America, aka the United States, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, New York, the state, not the city. Anyway, imagine this if you will, you're on the couch watching some TV, dog sleeps beside you as you laze the day away, not having anything better to do. Only to be met with a fiery explosion the next, imagine it your flesh burning as your only friend in the world barks, barks in fear and pain.
Imagine hearing all this, feeling the same pain, and being unable to do anything, anything at all to help, not even put them out of their misery, as your arms were blown off. Imagine the fact that you can still smell, still taste, and still see all of it, because your eyelids were burnt off, yet somehow by some unholy miracle your nose and tongue still work, smelling the smoke and metallic air, and tasting the heat and burnt flesh of your mouth.
That was my last memory of life...the last thing I remember about being human at all, and I hated every second of it. Normally, it was enough to drive a man insane, imagine it living in that pain until finally the sweet release of death claims you, and then you meet with heaven or hell, or something else entirely, but not me, no, instead I got teh darkness, a place so devoid of light you'd think it never existed.
I screamed in that place for a while. I just didn't know what else to do, nor did I have anything else to do but scream. I tried to explore, to feel anything, but after all, while it all just becomes one big blur of nothingness, where you just decide to be...silent, to let the darkness in.
That's when I started to...feel again, and see color for the first time in I don't know how long, honestly, it's all so painful. The light, the sensations, everything about it was a new kind of pain. So that bit about everyone being born crying, well, I was born crying too, no choice in the matter as I burst out of an egg or whatever the heck it was I was in. At first, I thought I was in some weird, murky tank reincarnated as a fish of all things, or something aquatic at least.
That was until I was yanked out of the tank and got a good view of the environment my egg, or whatever it would be called, seeing as I was picked up by a humanoid figure, well as close to humanoid as one could get. I say that seeing the green skin, tentalces covering his or her mouth, honestly speaking, couldn't tell for the life of me but maybe it was because I was thinking like a human still, when I very clearly no longer was and it...it would take some getting used to, and some way to deal with the memories.
Either way, I started hearing my handler or whatever you called them speaking in a language I couldn't understand, but I was able to get a good look at them this time. They were wearing a dark gray lab coat with a strange symbol on the front of it. The symbol itself was golden in color, but it was the shape that was the most interesting; it was a four-pointed star with an eye in the center of it, or at least a black eye-shape anyway. Either way, they were also wearing dark-tinted goggles that had a red line through the middle of them that I felt were analyzing my every breath/movement as my body kicked and screamed, no longer under my control.
{Lungs are strong, Subject #3001 has strong muscles already developed alongside increased awareness of its surroundings, despite the body being out of control based on eye movement.}
{So far, Subject #3001, to be named Vilgax, is showing remarkable improvement over all other genetic experiments, but further research is needed until they can be used as a basis for all future hatchings.}
{Perhaps it would be best to raise it as you would the other Chimera Sui Generis children until it can be determined if this subject's genome can be used for future subjects.}
She or he, because I still couldn't tell, then began walking out of what I guessed were the nesting/hatching grounds or whatever this building was called/used for. Honestly, though, if it was a hospital of some kind, it did a good job of not looking like one as we passed by a couple of more ponds filled with other eggs like my own, some hatching and getting taken by another nurse or caretaker, or whatever you would call them.
Either way, they took me down a large hallway, one layered with the most neutral shade of gray I have ever seen. After that, I didn't see much of the building, as the only other location I saw or perhaps remember was a gigantic room, one filled to the brim with small spherical objects, big enough to house me and now that I took a good look at it, a human child around 3 years old I think.
Either way, the last thing I remember of my early childhood was the woman, but then, after all that, it was one gigantic blank. At first, I thought it was some weird crib thing, maybe the fact that I was conscious also pointed to this species developing intelligence and thought early on in life, meaning that maybe these double as teaching pods or something like that. That was until I actually entered the pod and a strange neon green liquid began filling up the sphere.
That was the last thing I remember from my childhood, that and the flashing images, as whatever tech they used to make this pod began...educating me, teaching me all the basics, and while I still had my human memories, this body was brand new. That meant it could soak up all that information like a sponge, and let's just say this place's version of basic math, literature, science, and everything else would be at least highschool stuff back on Earth, maybe college if I was being honest, and yet...it felt simple, hard to learn yay but simple.
That still didn't feel right either, but it was the best comparison I could make, either way, even with all the advancements in technology. They even had a pretty good space program from what I learned after I was freed from the pod. Let it be known that Einstein's theory of relativity, mostly the time dilation bit, was in fact true, as I thought only a few seconds passed both inside and outside the pod.
When the liquid drained through and the pod opened up, I was able to walk, and while sure I was wobbly, same as the other children who stepped out of their pod. That was another thing, though I don't remember my body growing, I don't remember taking my first steps, nor my first words, and yet it felt natural, unsteady, yes, but natural. Once I was fully out of the sphere, still wet from the liquid alongside my other classmates, roommates, whatever you would call this kind of group, five more of those caretakers stepped out now dressed in a dark red suit with that same symbol on them.
I would later learn, though, that while they were caretakers, they were more specifically caretakers of the scientific division, aka one of the four ruling parties of this planet.
That basic history lesson the pod gave me explained that in total, four major divisions ruled this world as one unified government. As you can guess, the Scientific division was mostly used to help create machines, medicine, and ectera. Then you have the Military Division, things like Marines, the Army, or its own equivalent of a Space Force, then you have the Environmental Division, which helps keep the planet clean and healthy for both its inhabitants and civilians. Finally, you have the Public Division, which gives out the news, helps protect civilians from criminals, delivers mail, and runs pretty much the more mundane stuff.
Was it perfect? By no means, no, I'm pretty sure a couple of civil wars happened because of a power imbalance between the four, sometimes it was 1v3, other times 1v1v1v1, interesting stuff overall, but what really got my attention was the cybernetics, the advanced engineering they showed me and miracle of physical alteration that wasn't based in genetics.
Right now, though, that didn't matter as the caretakers began speaking.
{Greetings, Subjects of Batch #010, we are to be both your caretakers and teachers for the next couple of years as we determine which division best suits you in your future career, alongside regular medical check-ups to see if anything drastic has changed in the five years you have been in statis for.}
{Now if you can all please line up and follow us, we can begin the medical check-up, then finally the test to see where it would be best to develop your education further.}
We all nodded in understanding and began lining up, and four of the caretakers stood at the side. Counting the whole group minus the caretakers, of course, we numbered twenty-five in total, and if this were the same for every other group, that means 2500 children in total were born into whatever the heck this place was. Although I suppose the good news was that I now could tell which were the females and which ones were males, for example, the males, like myself, were a bit more muscular, at least on a basic level, with the females being taller and more tentacled if that was a word.
Either way, we went down a short hallway that didn't lead further into the facility but rather straight outside and into the wide open city. It was...it was breathtaking, true marvels of architectural engineering, and the plants' as well, whoever this city hired as a gardener did a spectacular job, the way they blended in with he buildings and weaved together like one big tapestry was amazing.
Honestly, this new life didn't seem so bad at all.
At least thats what I originally thought, at least before that day...