Aquarius

When it was announced that Yuri Montgomery would be turning eighteen and that there would be a festival bigger than any party held before, a wave of excitement filled the citizens of the floating city of Aquarius. There was much talk and preparations for the big party were already underway. It was said there would be concerts held on every island of the city, and scores of the world's most popular singers and performers were invited to attend.

Not even a day after the announcement, and ships carrying the materials needed for the party began docking in the harbors of Enron Island. The Montgomery Family hired all the best cooks from a select few restaurants on Phobos Island — the main island — to begin work planning grand feasts, and it was even rumored the President of the United States and her family were coming, as well as royalty from England, Saudi Arabia, and other countries, all of them were more than happy to attend, for it meant booking a trip to Aquarius.

You might be wondering why? Why is this boy so special that the city he lives in would be in such an uproar for his birthday? Well, Yuri was the son of a very rich man, in fact, the richest man on Earth. Jacob Montgomery, the world's first and only trillionaire. And his mother, a Puerto Rican beauty named Paula, owned various business empires, including her father's telecom company which was number one in all of South America and even Spain.

Yuri was also a very strange boy and had been the wonder of Aquarius since the day Mrs. Montgomery first came out of the golden gates of the Montgomery Estate and showed him off for the press. The timeline leading to his birth was a bit of a mystery to the people of Aquarius. For some odd reason, Paula Montgomery just vanished. She never left the estate for months and she would only attend business meetings via telephone.

And anyone who asked for her was quickly shooed away by the estate's private security force. Then, one cold October day as Aquarius stopped off the coast of Virginia, she emerged with a beautiful baby boy in her arms.

The press ate up the news of her child's birth quite naturally but the world was still in awe as to why she and Jacob would keep the pregnancy such a secret. She's had two other children before Yuri and two more were born after him. But she never hid from the public when she was pregnant with them. For months on end, Jacob and Paula were bombarded with questions as to why she never left the estate when she was pregnant with Yuri. Eventually, people just stopped asking.

As time wore on, Yuri began to grow into a young man with looks that some have called 'divine'. His skin was the color of cream; his hair was jet-black and styled handsomely. The thing that made him the great wonder of Aquarius, other than the fact he was the richest boy in the world, was his mysterious glowing green eye. His left eye was a normal shade of hazel brown, like his mother's. However, the right one was bright green...and glowing like a light. The eye's illumination was so bright, it could be seen piercing the dark.

Jacob and Paula took Yuri to the best optometrists in the world, but his eye left them at a loss for words, leaving the mystery unsolved, though that didn't stop people from trying to figure it out. Some folks have even tried getting rid of it.

One rainy night a crazy preacher barged into his room and tried to perform an exorcism on him because the people who looked at Yuri when he went to church saw his eye and thought of it as more of an evil than a gift. Especially with the rumors surrounding him. Many in Aquarius were quite spooked by Yuri; for a number of strange things happened during the days of his early youth.

"It's not right!" many a person would say when they gossiped about Yuri. "Bioluminescence in a human being? Biologically, that's just impossible. He's a strange one that boy is. I tell my son to keep a good distance from him! Especially after what he did to those boys that bullied him. They're still locked up in a psychiatric ward in the states blabbering about a pink-haired ghost that Yuri summoned.

Bakura they called him. Yuri says that was the name of his imaginary friend. I say he's got an evil spirit hanging around him. And I say he sicked the fiend on those boys, leaving them in a vegetative state for the rest of their lives. One boy was so frightened, his hair turned white. Yuri's always been a strange one. That glowing eye, the bad things happening to those who picked on him, and let's not forget the secrecy around his birth. Something ominous goes on in that estate."

Over time, that sort of talk began to die down and the citizens grew used to his Yuri and his glowing eye. And since Yuri mostly liked to spend his days alone with his friends, and was a bother to no one, the citizens of Aquarius eventually left him alone.

Oh, I'm terribly sorry. You might be wondering what Aquarius is exactly. Oh, dear reader, where do I begin?

Ah, Aquarius. The 'Floating Megacity' as many call it. Such a marvel of beauty, architecture, and technology. If such a thing were ever to exist, I guarantee that you would never want to leave the city ever again.

How does such a thing move around you might wonder. Well, thanks to hundreds of very powerful turbines and thrusters, Aquarius can move all over the ocean effortlessly, sailing up and about anywhere around the globe, though the citizens preferred to stay in warmer waters all year round. On some occasions, the megacity would sail north during the holidays and the children would anxiously look out their windows praying for snow so that the roads can freeze over and school could be closed.

And deep down in the heart of the city is a massive compound that houses the city's very own artificial sun. Yes, that's right. An artificial sun. And it powers the city with limitless energy all day and all night long. Because of technology such as this, it's no wonder Aquarius is dubbed the greatest city on earth.

The city consists of five large islands called Neros, Mobius, Alejandra, Gondolin, and Eden. Each of them connects via tall and winding highways to the central island, Phobos Island, which is shaped like a five-pointed star to resemble Númenor from J.R.R Tolkien's The Silmarillion — Jacob Montgomery's favorite book. He was so inspired by the beauty in Tolkien's works that he wanted to build the wonders he pictured in his head when reading those stories, so he spared no expense in building man-made jungles, rolling hills, and parks teeming with tall trees, waterfalls, and even mountains. At its center is Phobos Tower, the largest skyscraper in the western hemisphere (2600 ft), and the headquarters for Mr. Montgomery's company, Phobos Corporation.

Being the crown jewel of Aquarius, Phobos Island is beautifully adorned with natural environments, plaza-sized aquariums, and a giant fountain shooting fifty stories high dubbed The Gates of Peace, which stands as a symbol of the city's independence from other nations.

Phobos even has its own small chains known as, Paradiso Prima, Eden Island, and Sapphire Island, home to the city's most elite residents and guests.

Then there was Neros Island: A recreational island where the students of Phobos Academy and St. Augustus Senior High School mostly go to relax after a long day of lessons. The world-famous Ivory Clocktower rules from its spot at the top of Athennia Hill, overlooking the island like a castle fit for a king.

Naros island has its own small chain of three islands branching off of it consisting of Enron, an industrial zone where ships come to unload and load cargo. Azalea, which houses a vast collection of animals for its safari; and Martin island, where the worker's villages are.

Gondolin Island is where the elite Phobos Academy resides. The school grooms its students to become future entrepreneurs, leaders, and Duelists. The RAPTOR security forces have their base of operations at the harbor to the south of the island.

Then Alejandra Island and finally Mobius Island, both of which house a majority of the citizens of Aquarius.

The city has it's own currency as well, with the citizens using gold coins to do trade with one another.

Yuri and his family lived in the northmost point of Paradiso Prima in a beautiful palace with rivers, fountains, and waterfalls streaming down both sides of the staircase leading up to the mansion. And it was very secluded, for it was surrounded on all sides by dense man-made jungles and was protected by a great white wall with tall towers domed with gold. None but the Montgomery family's most esteemed guests were allowed there, and the lucky few who got to befriend young Yuri.

With Yuri's eighteenth birthday party coming fast, the history and character of the boy and his small group of friends became the chief topic of conversation, especially with the top 1% who lived on the island, and those who were very close with Jacob Montgomery.

Yuri Montgomery, Nick Rogers, Pamela McKnight, Tyson Washington, and Carter Kim. Everyone just loved to talk about them.

When it came to Yuri and his friends, no one had an audience more immersed than Mr. Keller Reece, who was one of the Phobos Corporation's board members. When he spoke of them, he spoke with great sovereignty, as he should; for he had the pleasure of meeting them when Yuri showed his friends around the Phobos Corp tower one afternoon. And, he was the one who entered the Montgomery Palace more than anyone, a fact he often boasted about.

He was having dinner in a restaurant called Eden Prime, a lovely five-storied establishment by the ocean. As he had his steak, he admired the view of the moon making the dark waters sparkle in the night.

"He's a very good boy, that Yuri," Mr. Reece declared with great truth, for Yuri had grown to call him Uncle Reece at times. He had been to every one of Yuri's birthday parties. And as he got older, he began to consult him in the nature of business and corporate power since the boy would one day inherit Phobos Corp from his father.

"I seriously doubt he can be all that good!" declared Mrs. Corbin, an old woman who ran a shop in the Diamond District that sold naughty lingerie. "When he was a lad, he and that boy, what's his name…ah, Tyson. Tyson Washington. Yes, he and Tyson went down to the slums of Los Angeles Rojas and racketeered the people down there for all the money they had so they could buy cards, candy, and video games. And if memory serves me right, there were reports that they had their own private force of goons from RAPTOR beating those who couldn't pay their rent before tossing them into the ocean. No offense, Mr. Reese, but that does not exactly make the boy an angel."

"Since when did you start caring for the Stowaways?" asked the CEO of a company that manufactured high-quality suits and shoes for men. "When last I checked, you were a member of the organization that is protesting the removal of the slums. And yes, Yuri was a bit of a brute when he was just a lad but that was ages and ages ago. He's turned a new leaf, hasn't he Mr. Reece?"

Mr. Reece took a long sip of his scotch. "Aye, that he did. Yuri, I will admit, was a difficult child when he was in his early years. But once he reached his teens, he transformed into a boy with a heart of gold. Of course, after what happened to him before, I cannot blame him for wanting to get revenge on the Stowaways. After all, it was a group of them who kidnapped him."

"Kidnapped?" exclaimed Mrs. Corbin. "When did this happen?"

"When he was only three years old. He was playing Duel Monsters with his little friend Ren in the playground when a group of the bastards drove up in a black van and took him to the worker's village on the edge of Enron Island. They wanted a ransom of four hundred million in exchange for the boy, four-zero-zero million. And…on the last day of the kidnapping, the leader of the gang he…he almost sodomized poor Yuri."

"NO!" cried several voices.

"Yes. But, thankfully, I think the leader was about to do his dark deed when the fire broke out. Don't go asking me what started it. Nobody knows. Not even the police. Bah, faulty wiring, says I. Or some idiot decided to toss a cigarette into the bushes. Whatever the case, the fire that developed burned the fool and every last member of his gang down into the pits of hell. And little Yuri was found outside the gates of his house, safe, strong, and brave, bless him. So you see, Mrs. Corbin, even though I don't condone Yuri's actions against the Stowaways, I completely understand why he did what he did. And I cannot hold those past sins against him, no, that I cannot. He was just a lad, as was young Tyson. Both boys have grown to be very honorable gentlemen. Good grades, hard-working, you get the idea. Like little Yuri, Tyson is about to inherit the family business. His father's restaurant, he's going to own the place once he graduates from that fancy culinary school in the United States. He's a fine cook, that boy, and he often helps out with his grandmother in church. Why Tyson even takes time off during the weekends to send food and supplies to the people down in the slums. That's more than I can say about you, Mrs. Corbin. And Yuri. Ah, Yuri doesn't hold any contempt against them anymore. After all, one of his best friends in fact a Stowaway."

"Stowaway?" said the owner of a dealership in the central island that sold luxury cars. "You mean that boy Nick Rogers? I've heard of him. His foster mother Consuelo runs a chicken restaurant down there from what I understand. I've been meaning to ask. What's a Stowaway like him doing up here with the rest of us? Yuri should know better than to mix with people like them."

Mr. Reece looked at the man with a stern gaze. He never did like the dealer. "And you should know better than to speak about affairs you know nothing about, Mr. Booker. Yuri wouldn't be celebrating his eighteenth year if it hadn't been for that 'Stowaway' you speak so poorly of. Yuri was almost done-in. That's right. He was almost killed by boys from the middle school he went to. Boys with a so-called 'good upbringing' as you call it. Hmph. Some of the people down there in the underbelly of the city are better folk than most of the bastards around here."

"What did they want to kill Yuri for?" asked Mrs. Corbin. She burped after taking the last gulps of her wine.

"They were displeased that he was hanging around his lady friend, Patty," Mr. Reece answered, "and they attempted to throw him over the bridge leading to the central island on the way home. Young Nick was right there at just the right moment looking around for scraps of food to bring to his mother. He saw the commotion and ran to Yuri's aid. Beat the boys one by one, he did. Lemme tell you, Nick may look skinny, but he's got the fists of a boxer, that he does. Knocked the boys out one by one with a single punch. I reckon he had to be a tough fighter considering he lives down there. Anyway, the boys went home together, and when Mr. Montgomery learned that Nick was a hero, he offered him a lifetime pass to the surface. As a secondary reward for saving his son, Mr. Montgomery offered to pay for the boy's education. He's attending that fancy prep school with Yuri, St. Augustus. On top of that, he lets him enter the Montgomery Estate any time he wants. Tell me, Mr. Booker, when was the last time YOU entered the estate?"

The man didn't answer and remained quiet.

Mr. Reece lit his pipe as he let out a satisfied chuckle. "I thought so. Yuri doesn't befriend just anyone. His friends are talented: each in their own special way. Take for example that boy, Carter Kim, another one of his best friends. They've only known each other for about a year but they are already like brothers."

"And what does his family do?" asked Mr. Booker. "I've only recently seen Carter Kim on Yuri's profile. I wish to know more about him."

"Carter's father is the head of a major telecom corporation and his mother is a scientist working for Elon Musk at SpaceX. Carter is said to be following in her footsteps. I rather like the boy. In fact, I find him a wonderful addition to Yuri's little group. He's quiet, well-mannered, and fancies making wine with his grandfather."

"Well, Tyson, Carter, and Nick may be good boys," said a visitor from Florida, "but that girl Pamela — or Patty as they call her. Now that's a bad influence if I ever saw one. You can't deny that Mr. Reece. I heard a lot of bad things about the girl. She got arrested multiple times over the years for stealing and Lord knows what else. I know one of the professors who go to St. Augustus. She tells me Patty is a nuisance. She plays hooky from school and multiple times she's caught the girl smoking in the parking lot with her other friends. Yuri is thankfully not one of them, but who's to say she doesn't use her feminine wiles to get the dear boy to do something stupid? And her social media. I caught my little boy snooping around her profile on that app the youngsters use these days, I forget it was called. She was dressing up in costumes depicting cartoon characters but she was barely dressed. Oof, what a dreadful sight!"

"Such a shame," said a woman sitting in the corner. She was a schoolteacher who once taught Yuri and Patty when they were very young. "I saw her profile as well. I still get chills at the pit of my stomach just thinking about what I saw. I…I still can't believe it. She was once the sweetest little girl on Aquarius, make no mistake of that. She would bring me flowers every day before school and she was always so polite. Never would I guess even in a drunken stupor that a little angel like her would grow to become such a harlot."

"Girls will be girls," chuckled Mrs. Corbin. She signaled a waiter for more wine. "She's blooming into a young woman. Let her have her fun."

"Fun comes in good time, Mrs. Corbin," the Floridian visitor replied quite repulsed. "She's not even eighteen yet."

"She's seventeen and a half," said Mr. Reece. "She's turning eighteen in October with Yuri. I've seen those so-called photos you speak of. Her content is perfectly tame, I assure you. She's a smart young lady. And a hell of a good painter, too. She wishes to design cards for Duel Monsters in Phobos Corp, and perhaps even be head of the art department. Don't let that raunchy behavior of hers fool you, my friends. She is an excellent mathematician and a wonderful musician. Patty is a talented young lady! And the Montgomery family loves her very much. Yuri has chosen well when it comes to friends. I don't think we need to worry much about him. Aside from that glowing eye of his, he's as normal a teenager as any. There's nothing supernatural or fantastical about him. Well...at least I hope not."