Prologue pt3

178 looked into the eyes of Alen briefly before he stepped into the room. He didn't speak and suppressed annoyance from showing on his face and skin.

"So what did the Director say? Just so you know, I didn't snitch about anything." Alen crossed his arms while swinging his legs, watching 178 closely.

178 stopped in front of his bed, not looking at Alen but keeping the boy in his peripheral vision. "She said I'm being adopted and will leave next week."

Alen narrowed his eyes and leaned towards 178 slightly, "Uhuh. Sure. Then why do you look like someone ate the last cookie before you could get to the cafeteria?"

Finally, 178 turned to stare at Alen with a conflicted expression. "… What would you do if someone told you the Director was a bad person?"

The blond boy's face scrunched up. "Hah?"

178 looked Alen in the eyes, "What would you do if someone pointed out evidence that made the Director seem like she wasn't as nice or was only pretending to be nice? What would you do then?"

"Psh, what evidence?" Alen laughed a little.

178 looked down towards his hands, which were still strange and foreign to him. "Well, her clothes for starters. They are plain but the quality is a lot better than everyone elses."

"Well, we do stain our clothes a lot. It'd be kinda dumb to give us really nice stuff."

"The door to her office and bedroom are much nicer than ours. They even have special locks." 178 continued, sitting on the bed.

"She has important stuff in there, she needs those." Alen shrugged, unfolding his arms and resting his hands on the edge of his bed.

"She has a -Brace. Those are really expensive, you know. She could have a much cheaper -Tab or -Port, but she got the -Brace." He pressed with an even tone, making eye contact with the other boy again.

"Maybe she needs something smaller and harder to lose?" Alen fidgeted and looked away towards the floor, his voice becoming tense.

"And the picture in her office—"

"Stop it!"

Purple eyes blinked and 178 fell silent.

"How do you know how much any of that stuff costs, huh? It's not like we have free access to the Galanet! How do you know for sure about anything you just said!?" Alen glared down at his feet, hands gripping sheets with white knuckles. "She just isn't like that! The Director takes care of us and– and I'm not just going to sit here and let you badmouth her!"

178 watched Alen stand up and walk over to the door.

The boy put his hand on the door knob and paused, "I don't know what kind of nasty dream you had, but it isn't real. The Director has only ever been nice to us. So just–" Alen looked back with a teary glare while swinging the door open, "Keep it to yourself!"

178 didn't so much as flinch when the door slammed shut behind the blond. Still, a vague sense of weight settled in his chest. He pushed the strange feeling aside. There was nothing he could do about what the other boy thought or felt. 178 still struggled to ignore the stuffy feeling and let out a low, frustrated groan. Things like this shouldn't bother him, not at his age. Then he recalled the fact his body was currently that of a child's and sighed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

His eyes slowly opened, pupils blown wide in the darkness of the room. The space was lit by only the distant stars and the glow of the planet's two moons entering from the windows. With careful movements, 178 slid out from under the covers of his bed then with hushed movements pulled his red hair into a tight bun atop his head and changed into a set of dark clothes. Once dressed, he wrapped his hair in a similarly dark cloth, hiding its bright color. Finally, he shifted his skin into a camouflage. He listened to the slow breathing of his sleeping roommates as he snuck across the room and exited through the door.

178 crept silently through the corridors of the orphanage, his senses heightened as much as his untrained body allowed. The small muscles in his skin strained from maintaining the camouflage. When he reached the Director's office, 178 wasted no time disabling the lock on the door and slipping inside. Once there, he scurried over to the hidden camera, carefully removing it and opening its interface. The technology felt archaic, and it took longer than he'd have liked to input the code that would corrupt not only the files in the camera, but the entire folder that the files were broadcasted to. It was a code he'd had to enter so many times in the past that he'd memorized it. Satisfied, he put the camera back in its place and turned to the desk.

Without hesitation he walked over and opened the interface for the computer. Inwardly he scoffed upon seeing that Emalea had failed to properly secure her device in even the most basic manner. Silently, he pulled up his own information.

「Last Name:

First Name: Nix

Age: 10 Terra Years

Ancestry: Terrene, Enopian, Teihiri

Height: 138

Blood Type: A

Element: Water

Divinity:

Director Evaluation: . . .」

178 stared at the hologram, mentally taking note of all of the most important information. He quickly created an email then sent the document to himself. Next on his list: a bank account.

Banks weren't such an uncommon thing, both private and government owned. The only issue being no private bank would accept having an account with him, a random orphan, and a government owned bank would monitor his activity too closely. This only left 178 with the more… seedy options. Unfortunately, most of these banks only lasted for a short period of time before closing, would disappear with your credits, or ended up undergoing a government raid due to illegal activities. 178 knew of only one bank that wouldn't succumb to any of these pitfalls. Tacita, who's owner he'd heard was a strange, eccentric alpha who placed her value in the trust of her clients first and would not divulge any of their information no matter what.

He spent a long while searching on the Galanet and darker backdoor websites before he finally found them. Opening the banking site caused him to falter briefly before he recalled that while Tacita had existed for a long while, it was only after several years had passed before it became the most popular bank for criminals and the rich alike. Squinting at the neon colored, tasteless website, he had an idea as to why. Nonetheless he proceeded with creating his account, knowing this was his best choice.

When it came to entering his name, 178 paused. Logically, he knew he should choose a name totally unaffiliated with himself. It would ensure that when he escaped, no one would be able to easily track him down. Reluctance remained in spite of himself. This name was something he'd lost before, taken from him and replaced with a meaningless number. His face flared with color and his hand clenched. Finally, he laughed quietly in mockery of himself. What was the point in worrying, with a name as common as Nix? The next problem was his surname.

He leaned back, staring blankly at the ceiling, thinking of something that would suit him. [No Name. Not Applicable. N/A.] Suddenly, he chuckled, entering the surname and the rest of his information, only fibbing on his age. Silently, he pulled up his dear Orphanage Director's banking information and wasn't sure if he should laugh or cry when he noticed she had it in auto-fill. Was it because she never thought that anyone would bother with the accounts of someone like her? [No, that might be it, actually… How lazy.] 178, no, Nix used a small portion of her private funds to complete the initial deposit of 1,500 credits, plus an additional 9,000. Considering the disgustingly large amount of money she'd been laundering, he didn't doubt she wouldn't notice before Nix had escaped.

Upon submitting the completed files, a message appeared in the hologram with silent magenta digital confetti, a bright yellow text box, and neon green comic font. Nix was unable to keep from sneering at the combination.

「Thank you Mr. Nla for choosing Tacita as your primary bank. Your account will be ready for use in approximately 72 Terra hours.」

Nix felt his eyes strain and water as he read, then closed the notification, feeling somewhat pleased. He wiped the device of all traces of his meddling and ensured that Emalea's bank records only showed her usual purchases and didn't expose his theft. Nix turned off the computer, crept out of the office, and returned to the shared bedroom. He changed back into his previous clothes, stored them away, then crawled back into bed.

With his eyes closed, Nix came to a decision. He needed to stay put until the bank account was completed, although it was somewhat disadvantageous. Nix trusted his abilities to blend into a crowd, but acting as a child– he sighed softly. He'd stay for five days, escape off planet, then… he could worry about that when the time came.