[b][u]Domotoris Awakening Prologue: Under a Thumb[/u][/b] Returning to the slums district, Alec stops at the orphanage on his way back to Whisks’ building. “Alec,” Spencer began as he watched Alec walk into the orphanages’ courtyard. “What brings you back here so soon?” Spencer had been waiting for the kids to return from a fieldtrip they took with some friends of his. “I was…” Alec began to say, rubbing the back of his head. “Wanting to stop by and…take a break from all that’s been happening lately.” “Sure,” Spencer said, pointing to the stairs with his walking stick. “Why don’t you go on up to your old room? No one has taken that spot since you and Eleanor got married.” “Alright, thanks,” Alec responded. “Jk-Bx, stay down here until I and Ithamar come back.” “Okay,” Jk-Bx said without argument. “We’ll be back soon,” Alec said to Spencer. “Take all the time you need my boy,” Spencer replied with a smile, which disappeared as he looked down at Jk-Bx. “What’s up?” “The sky,” Jk-Bx replied. “But to be more serious, Alec and Ithamar just got a bit more than they bargained for when I gave them the latest update to Ithamar’s memory. Ithamar took it pretty hard…” “Tell me what happened,” Spencer said; his faded hazel eyes calmly full of wonder. Alec had already begun to walk up to his old room before he could catch Jk-Bx and Spencer discussing current events. The door creaked open as he stepped into the room and memories had already began to come back. Four faded white walls covered in hand drawn art, pictures, and posters of popular Guardians and ancient movie posters barely clung to the walls by the tape that help them there. Light filled the dim room as Alec flipped the switch for the ceiling fan light revealing more of the room; the bed was on the right, all made up with a green wool blanket and white pillow. A wooden desk was on the left with a writing pad, can with pens and pencils, and a small light post. Also, a book shelf was directly across from the door and was filled from shelf to shelf with books of various genres. In addition to the desk and book shelf was an old wooden dresser filled with some of Alecs clothing from all stages of his life, from child hood to adult hood; the top of the dresser had some old action figures and photos scattered on it along with some other small trinkets. Lastly, a small closet door was in the wall behind the bed, and a small trap door was concealed under the bed if you removed the floorboards from above it. “So,” Ithamar began. “This is your old room.” Ithamar said, looking around the room with curiosity. “You alright?” Alec asked. “You clocked out for a while there.” “Yeah,” Ithamar began. “You read all those books?” “Yep,” Alec responded. “Some of those books I’ve read more than three times.” “Fascinating,” Ithamar remarked. “I may have to read a few, if you wouldn’t mind. Recommend any?” “Of course,” Alec said. “But let’s worry about that later, for now (walking over to the bed) let’s get this armor off.” Alec and Ithamar began to slowly shell their armor off (after having to fetch a small tool box with the right tools to which loosen the bolts and other pieces holding the armor onto the Exo frame) and set the pieces on the bed. Approaching the dresser, Alec removed a blue long sleeved dress shirt and black dress pants from one of the drawers. As he turned and approached the mirror on the back of the door, Alec saw the scaring on Ithamar’s Exo body. “Ithamar,” Alec began. “Your body, it-” “Don’t think,” Ithamar said. “Written in scars, my body tells the story of my ‘life;’ thinking would cause even someone as mentally strong as you to have a meltdown.” From head to toe, the Exo body was covered in scaring; they appeared darker than the metal alloy that which they were carved into. A jagged shaped scar was on the lower half of his back that looked like it was from the slash of a claw that belonged to a Hive. Another jagged scar went across his abdomen from the top left of his sternum to the bottom right over his stomach. He had many scratches and gouges from blades (a quite large one around his neck indicated someone tried to cut his throat or head off at one time), shrapnel and gunfire over the majority of his body (one of the most notable was three bullet hole scars that were in the shape of a triangle spread out about one inch apart on his chest). Burn scaring was also present on quite a few places of his body. Part of the left side of his face was all disfigured as well, as if it had been burned by acid; while on the right side of his face was faint scars (three thin small lines was all that remained of the wound). Regenerative armor had done what it could to repair the damages, for most of the actual “wounds” had been cleaned up by the Exo’s self-healing body armor, but it was obvious that it didn’t do a good job of covering them up. As far Alec could tell, the scars were in fact harder than the regular Exo body had been before the scaring, indicating that his “skin” healed back tougher every time he took a hit. “Okay,” Alec said, trying not to think about what events Ithamar had gone through; his finger traced over an odd shaped scar on the left side of his chest, as if something should be there like a badge of some sort. “I’ll have to tell them to you one-by-one sometime,” Ithamar said. “Also, I must apologize about the fact you won’t be able to put shoes on.” “I’ll get over it.” Alec said; distracted by something he saw on his arms. Looking at his forearms (palms up), he noticed there was something etched into the Exo skin he couldn’t read. “What’s on that on your right and left forearms?” Alec asked. “I volutuntas conquisivi, custodivi, ac servio; so juvo me Dei, I voluntas facio hic evitatis.” Ithamar said in Latin. “Um,” Alec began “In English please.” “On my right arm,” Ithamar began. “It translates to this: ‘I will hunt, protect, and serve; so help me God, I will do this forever.’” “Hmm,” Alec thought to himself. “What about the left?” “I’m not going to talk about that one at the moment,” Ithamar said suddenly, not giving Alec a chance to ask any further questions about his left arm. “Very well,” Alec said, not pushing any farther. “Let’s get dressed and get back down to the others, I do believe that I hear the kids returning.” They put the blue sleeved shirt on and buttoned it up from top to bottom; then they slipped the black pants over their legs. They looked at their work in the mirror before leaving… “We look ridiculous,” Ithamar remarked. “Almost too big for these clothes.” “So we look like were going to church and we just worked out,” Alec said fixing the collar of the shirt. “Were Daniel here, he’d say we look fruity. I used to have better clothes than these; we’ll have to do a better job picking them out next time.” As they arrived down stairs, they were met with the screeching and raucous sounds of children laughing and playing in the courtyard. “Alec,” Spencer greeted as he walked over to speak with him. “I see you found some of your old clothes…a little tight, I see. (Pokes Alec in the chest with his walking stick.) ” “Yeah,” Alec responded. “Fit for a much smaller man…” “Eh,” Spencer said waving away the thought, then looking down at the boots sticking out the pant legs. “Where are your shoes?” A small boy walked over and began to tug on Alecs pants at the knee as Spencer was speaking. “Um, mister?” The boy began. “Yeah,” Alec said turning and looking down at the young child. [b]Continued below[/b]