《Patient Zeroes》


 Chapter 1: Its the Start, of Something Brewed.

    Author''s Note:


    Hey, like is stated in the description, this is my first real tackle at an extended novel, although I have written some short stories in the past. My biggest problem usually is pacing, so if you are looking for something to give me feedback on, that would be really helpful. Any other feedback is helpful as well, and I''ll try to read through the comments as they are posted, and edit as necessary. Happy reading.


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    Using the magnificent power of hindsight, I¡¯ve realized something. It might¡¯ve been better for my mental health if I had kept my eyes closed that day, ignored the feeling of paper on my face, and just succumbed to the wonderful death that is freezing to death on the sidewalk in the middle of winter. I know, I know, some of you may be saying, ¡®Why not just use this power to avoid the situation that had you freezing to death in the middle of winter in the first place?¡¯ And you would be right, that would be a valid use of my powers. It¡¯s just that I feel like it was this point in my now fairly long life, the feeling of the paper on my face as my eyes opened and beheld the advertised location on the paper, that forever changed my situation into what it is now.


    So while I doubt many of you will find yourselves in a situation such as mine, I¡¯m mostly writing this to get this off my chest. And hopefully, if you ever find yourselves on the sidewalk, a sketchy advertisement lying on your face as you lie on the ground doubting the likelihood of your survival, you think twice before getting up, dragging yourself to the aforementioned location, and getting involved in a world you are not ready for.


    ***


    A small but powerful voice broke me out of my self-imposed stupor. ¡°Mao Talbott? The professor will see you now.¡±


    I coughed lightly, standing up and nodding to the woman. She nodded curtly back to me, however as I walked closer to enter the office, she brought her hand up to her nose, and a look of blatant disgust crossed her face. I thought I had gotten used to the looks at this point, but somewhere deep¡­oh okay maybe not that deep inside, the looks still hurt. A lot. I proceeded to the office, trying not to seem too offended, even though on the inside I had begun to tear up a little bit. The office I entered was small and orderly, a large desk in the center, surrounded by bookshelves that looked to be bursting with binders and folders, which in turn seemed prone to explode with the papers they contained. In the middle of this packed room was a small stout man, two monocles attached to his face as he paced across the room. He looked over and saw me enter, waving me down to sit in one of the available chairs. I sat, feeling quite awkward as I watched him strut up and down his scientific runway, not sure what about his pacing posture had made him seem ready to accept me to the receptionist.


    Maybe she just wanted me out of the room, I reasoned to myself, sighing. I didn¡¯t like being self-deprecating, but it was quite hard when I knew my current state was completely my fault. I was a mess, my pants and hoodie barely held together by threads, and the portions that were intact were covered in dried flakes of blood, dirt, and yellowish stains I would be remiss to admit was various forms of piss. I shifted around in the chair, trying to make sure I was touching as little of it as possible as I waited for the man to stop pacing across the room.


    It was a few  exceedingly boring minutes later when the man finally seemed to figure out whatever he was contemplating, hurriedly scribbling it onto a bunch of post-it notes, attaching said post-it notes to a paper, then placing that paper into one of the overfilling folders. He then turned to me, using the pinky and thumb of his right hand to adjust both his monocles at once. I looked expectantly at him, but he, on the other hand seemed to be confused. He pulled out a clipboard, looking between it and me.


    ¡°You are Mao Talbott correct?¡±, he inquired.


    I nodded.


    ¡°You are much dirtier than your profile picture led me to believe.¡±


    I grimaced.


    ¡°And much hairier as well.¡±


    I self-destructed.


    As I began to wallow in self-loathing, the Professor continued along as if nothing had occured. ¡°But I assume that¡¯s why you came to this establishment in the first place.¡± He began flipping through the papers on the clipboard in a leisurely manner. ¡°Let me know if any of this information is inaccurate, although I doubt it would be. Name, Mao Talbott. Age, 35. Asian-American descent. Divorced by Maria Talbott, but fathered two children, Alice and Kevin Talbott. Former occupation, IT consultant. And now here¡¯s the interesting part.¡± He grinned as he continued. ¡°Won the lottery, on April, 20XX, and then proceeded to gamble away both his lottery winnings and also many of his other finances, putting him into quite a large amount of debt. This lead to his divorce, and also, loss of much of his financial assets. Even after all this, he continued gambling, seemingly desperate to make his money back-¡°


    ¡°Stop.¡± I interjected, a strained smile on my face. ¡°I can see you¡¯ve done your research. I didn¡¯t come here to hear about my life. I came here to hear about this opportunity.¡±


    The Professor looked at me, his eyes seeming to glitter behind his monocles. He put the clipboard down, and chuckled briefly before continuing. ¡°I suppose you are right. The opportunity itself is quite simple. You will be provided with both living conditions and other necessities until the end of the experiment. When the experiment is concluded, you will be provided a sum of $1,000,000. If you still wish to continue to help us, we will employ your services full-time in helping perfect our experimentation, which you will be paid a yearly salary of $200,000 for.¡± He paused here, seeming to be trying to gauge my reaction. I returned his stare, but simply nodded. Even if I was skeptical about this office being able to offer such a sum of money, I was already homeless, and also being chased across the state by various debt collectors. If this offered me at least a means of living, I would hopefully be able to come up with a method to escape this cycle of debt I had entered. And maybe convince Maria to let me see the children. I ruminated.


    The Professor, seeing my approval, walked behind his desk and pulled out a very large stack of papers, which I found out seemed to be both the waiver and the contract of ¡°employment¡±. Being the responsible adult I am, I pretended to read the impossibly long document while I skimmed through it, placing my signature in highlighted boxes where my signature was asked for. I handed it back to the Professor, who accepted it, then took my hand into his own for an impromptu handshake.


    ¡°I¡¯m glad you¡¯ve agreed to this Mr. Talbott. With you on board, we have exactly the desired number of test subjects, and can finally begin our testing procedure.¡± Releasing my hand, he pointed to the door. ¡°I¡¯ll see you soon. I¡¯m sure you will not regret your decision.¡± He said in a genial manner. I nodded, and turned to walk out the door.


    Imagine my surprise, when I heard a small poof, and felt myself collapse to the ground, a small needle-like pain in my shoulder.


    Son of a-, was all I could manage to process before I blanked out.


    ***


    I awoke to a dull pain in my shoulder, and excruciating pain everywhere else across my body. It was as if fire ants were crawling all over my body, and my nerve endings were trying to drill holes out from my insides.


    ¡°ARGH!¡± I yelled, struggling to itch, scratch, and tear apart my body in an attempt to get rid of the pain. In some corner of my mind, I came to the realization that I was restrained, but that didn¡¯t stop me from beating my body against the restraints in an attempt to free myself. The pain only seemed to get brighter, and more intense as I awoke and began to struggle in earnest.


    ¡°Oh, he¡¯s awake.¡± I fought fiercely against the pain in an attempt to locate the voice, but I could barely control my eyelids, much less make sense of where the voice had come from.


    ¡°His heart rate is reaching dangerous levels now that he is awake. Put him back under.¡± I could barely feel the pricks of dozens of tranquilizer needles, but I soon felt their effects as I fell back into a deep, fitful sleep.


    This process of waking, screaming, and eventually being sedated continued for a period of time I could not keep track of. I don¡¯t know if it was only hours, days, or years, but all I knew was that every waking moment of my life at that time was pain. And then, one time, I awoke, and there wasn¡¯t pain. Only a dull ache that had spread itself throughout my body. I carefully raised one of my eyelids, and found myself in a room with a small bed, a toilet, and a large door, but with apparently no handle on the inside. I carefully lifted myself off the bed, and approached the door. I tried pushing, pulling and slamming my fists against the door, but none of those worked.


    This is¡­ a cell. That realization both shocked me, but also grounded me back in reality. I had known coming into this what a sketchy deal this had been. Now I just had to wait and see whether it had been a good idea to entrust myself to this program.


    It didn¡¯t take me long to get my answer. The door to the cell opened, and when I walked out, I realized there were three identical doors and rooms in my vicinity. From the one in front of me, a tall woman with reddish-blond hair walked out. I attempted a small smile, but she just gave me a cursory glance before looking around the hallway to get an idea of why the doors had been opened. It was the contents of the other two rooms that had me thinking about flying into a rage.


    From the other two rooms appeared a short African American kid with a mediocre afro, who looked like he could be no older than 12, with a frown on his face and his hands held in his pockets. From the other room appeared a fairly tall girl with dark hair, but over her head seemed to be some kind of locked in headset, covering her eyes with dark, tinted goggles. I highly doubted that she was much older than the kid.


    They are using¡­ children! What kind of¡­ My thoughts paused as I saw the Professor with two monocles begin walking in our direction, a small smile on his face. That smile ticked me off, and I decided it was time to stop thinking about flying into a rage, and start doing. I ran at him, determined to give him a piece of my mind and a taste of my knuckles. I would like to think I almost made it too, until I was caught from behind by the largest and most solid arms I¡¯ve had the pleasure of being restrained by. Looking over my shoulder at it, I could see why, as it seems I had been caught by a very large robot, that seemed to be built to resemble a bodybuilder. I struggled against it, trying to get myself free, while screaming incoherent words at him mixed with what I believe were things like, ¡°They are children!¡± and, ¡°How could you!¡±. What was heating my blood even more was the fact that his eyes never lost that calculating quality, it was like he wasn¡¯t even acknowledging my anger. Things proceeded like this for a few minutes, before I ran out of expletives to use to process my anger. After the Professor was sure that I had ran out of things to throw at him, he simply stated, ¡°Did you believe this was some sort of legal operation? Using children or what not, doesn¡¯t matter. It is a means to an end.¡± He looked at the rest of the group, motioning for them to follow him. The three each took a brief look at me, draped in the robot¡¯s arms, before proceeding. The woman in particular gazed at me for a long time, her pale green eyes gazing into mine, as if she was looking at a particularly interesting math problem. All I could do was wonder what was wrong with all these people as I was dragged along behind them by the robot.


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    We were brought to a large dining room, where everyone proceeded to sit down. Well, except for me of course, since the robot carrying me found it simpler to just sit at the table itself, while I sat on the robot like some overgrown toddler. I knew I wasn¡¯t the only one who thought it too, as the black kid began snickering away at my predicament. When everyone seemed to be seated, the Professor cleared his throat, before speaking.


    ¡°Well. Now that you¡¯ve all signed the contracts, and have been subjected to the first stage of the experiment, we feel it would be prudent to give you a bit of a rundown on what will be occurring next.¡± He paused for dramatic effect, or that¡¯s what I assumed, because there would be no other reason to pause at such a point. Unless he was doing it just to spite me. Which is working. Maybe I¡¯m getting a bit unnecessarily mad. Anyways, he continued, ¡°Each of you has just begun the first phase of your journey to become supernatural beings, or at least, as close as we¡¯d like you to get to supernatural beings.¡± There was silence at the table as he let the information sink in. Yeah, I know for sure this time was for dramatic effect. An ecstatic grin, like the smile of a villain who got to explain the elaborate nature of his plan to the hero stuck to his face, and remained there for the rest of his explanation. ¡°We¡¯ve chosen 4 beings from various folklores that we feel represent what we want to create. Supernatural Warriors of the future.¡± He now began to point at each of us in turn his voice beginning to pick up in speed as he seemingly got more and more excited. He first pointed to the dark-haired teenager I had seen on our walk over. ¡°You. Ms. Zaida Chalmers. We¡¯ve equipped you with abilities similar to that of a Gorgon, minus all that hullabaloo about snake-hair and ¡®everyone¡¯ you catch in your eyesight being turned to stone. We¡¯ve modified it to be much more suitable for modern battle purposes, meaning anything that falls in your sight will be prey to your stone transforming ability, not just creatures that look you in the eye.¡± Zaida proceeded to reach her hands to her goggle-covered eyes, and I swore if she could¡¯ve gotten more quiet and withdrawn, she would¡¯ve. This didn¡¯t stop the professor from moving on to the next person at the table, which was the woman who had stared at me earlier. ¡°Ilana. Although all of our projects were hard, you were one of the most difficult, but also one of the most rewarding to create. You are, a Lich! A supernatural controller of the undead and master of, well, for lack of a better term, magic.¡± The black kid''s snickering turned into loud laughter this time, while both Ilana and I had looks of disbelief on our face.


    ¡°I¡­ I just don¡¯t believe you.¡± She finally said after the kid¡¯s laughter died down.


    At this, the Professor grinned. ¡°Your belief can be arranged.¡± He clapped twice, and another bodybuilder robot entered the room, except this time, carrying what looked like a mix between a medieval broadsword and a laser show, glowing lines etched into the blades, and tubes of light jutting out of the hilt. It stomped over to her location, and when she realized it wasn¡¯t coming for a friendly chat, she tried to scramble out of her chair, but failed and tripped over her chair onto to the floor. She tried to drag herself away from the thing, but she was just too slow, and the robot and her both eventually came to a stop, with the robot towering over her. I roared, renewing my struggle against my own robot, but to no avail. The robot simply picked her up, seeming to listen to her scream for a bit, and then impaled her through the chest, holding her up on the sword like skewered meat.


    ¡°WHY!¡± I screamed. I tried to rip myself out of the robot, but it was simply too powerful, and it gave me no leverage to attempt my escape. The Professor looked between me, and the now also shivering kids before returning his gaze to Ilana. I noticed his grin had not left his face, as he continued his talk. ¡°An interesting fact about Liches, is their method of immortality. They basically remove their soul, putting it in something called their phylactery, allowing them to achieve a form of immortality as long as it¡¯s not destroyed. You know, like Voldermort with his Horcruxes.¡± He chuckled at his joke. ¡°We¡¯ve done something similar, not with your soul of course, as that¡¯s a bunch of hullabaloo, but some parts of you that are equivalently vital.¡± It was at this point that I had calmed down enough to notice something. There was no blood on the sword. I slowly looked up at the corpse on the sword, and was shocked when it began to move, and I saw the look in Ilana¡¯s eyes made it certain she was shocked as well.


    ¡°This¡­ is¡­ I can¡¯t even¡­¡± She began to mutter from her position on the sword, shifting slightly about, the sound of flesh scraping against the blade wet in our ears. This is also when me, and the two kids decided it was probably the most convenient moment to abandon our lunches. After we had finished painting the carpet a sickly shade of green, the professor moved on, pointing at the child. ¡°You, Donte, while not the most complicated, were certainly one of the most inspired of our works. You, my friend, are not a single creature, but rather, a creative mix between two. You are a Weredragon.¡± I could see the kid¡¯s eyes go wide and the hairs on his afro seeming to stand on end at the sentiment. ¡°A man with the ability to transform into a dragon, and also a hybrid mix between dragon and man. But unlike the modern tales of werewolves, we are not relying on simple and stagnant triggers like the moon; that would be highly useless in sustained combat. We will discuss your triggers at a different date.¡± I don¡¯t know how the kid could manage to go from throwing up his lunch at the display of a woman getting impaled, to getting genuinely excited about his ability to become a monster, but he did it well. Maybe I should learn from him, become a bit more curious about the state of my being. As Donte, Ilana, and Zaida processed their new abilities, the professor finally turned to me.


    This should be good. These seem like quite outlandish creatures. I wonder what he chose for me. Maybe, the Loch Ness Monster? The Chupacabra? Or maybe, the Abominable Snowman? Or better yet-


    ¡°Vampire.¡± He stated.


    ¡°¡¯Scuse me?¡± was all I could manage to croak out.


    ¡°Mr. Talbott, you are a vampire. Superior strength and speed, and also the ability to create an effective chain of command among his minions. We couldn¡¯t be without a vampire.¡±


    I sighed inwardly at my lack of luck, getting the most overused supernatural creature of the century. I turned back to the Professor, my curiosity again being clouded by my rage. ¡°Why have you done this? Why are you involving children in your experiments? Do you really have no shame?¡± I asked, my voice and temper rising with each additional word that left my mouth.


    The Professor smiled, clapping his hands as more robots began to proceed into the room, depositing what looked to be a five-star quality dinner. I almost found myself getting hungry, until I heard the squelching of the robot letting Ilana off its blade so she could sit back down at the table. I decided to abstain from the food.


    The Professor on the other hand, began to dig in, sloppily answering my questions between bites. ¡°For your first question, I cannot tell you exactly why we¡¯ve done this, because you are merely experiments at this point, not loyal members of our team. Just know that you are being developed to help create a new tier of fighters.¡± He paused to chew a particularly large piece of meat before continuing. ¡°For your second question, as I said before, we are not exactly a legal operation. Also, the method we used to create each of you has similar routes. We needed to see whether there were any adverse effects on a variety of age groups. Also,¡± and at this point he pointed straight at me, the grin gone from his face. ¡°Do you think you are the only desperate one? The only one who has found themselves in a sticky situation? I¡¯ll return your question back to you, do you have no shame, asking me all these questions, when these kids willingly accepted such a shady deal in the first place?¡± He stopped pointing at me to resume eating, only pausing to remark, ¡°Sounds to me like you are just being unnecessarily judgmental.¡± The meal continued in silence, or the professor¡¯s meal anyways, as we all sat and contemplated what this new information meant for us.


    When the meal was finished, we all got up, and the robots proceeded to herd us back to our cells. I had ended up walking near Zaida, and noticed that she seemed to be shivering as she walked back. I wonder if she¡¯s cold? Or maybe she¡¯s worried about the situation? I wondered. I placed my hand on her shoulder, intent on giving her some comforting words, but when she looked back at me, my mouth ran dry of words, and I froze for a second as I stared into her eyes. The fear I could see felt tangible, and it hurt my heart. She quickly turned around and hurried off, but not before I noticed that her shivering got slightly more intense. My heart grew cold, and then became hard as my mouth set into a grimace, and I entered my cell.


    Seeing those kids, I hated to admit it, reminded me of my own children. The children I very well almost ran into the very desperate situation I was in right now. That look of fear, while I wasn¡¯t sure, was most likely because she had realized what a terrible situation we had entered. I climbed onto my bed, staring at the wall as I decided. To hell with the experiment. To hell with living as a military experiment and letting these children experience such a hell. I was breaking us out.

 Chapter 2: What time is it? Testing time!

    Author''s Note:


    Heyo, here''s the second chapter. Took a lot longer than I expected to get a chapter I was satisfied with. Anyways, the plan for the release schedule is me shooting for about 4 days between chapters, with a week being the maximum. Lemme know what you think, and thanks for reading.


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    Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, we weren¡¯t immediately shooting lazer beams and taking names. Instead the Professor -who insisted we called him Dr. C- decided it was much more important to begin to get us up to, as he stated, military grade standards of fitness. It seemed like a very good bonus to me, as it gave me an excuse to get back into shape, and also, time to inspect the facility. I knew I was basically operating under a time limit, until this Dr. C decided the experiment was successfully concluded. At that point in time, we very well could be considered liabilities. Liabilities with military grade training. And supernatural powers. The absolute BEST kind to keep alive.


    So that¡¯s how we operated for a few months. Waking up early to be escorted to the training facility. Training, interspersed with meal times and short - very short - breaks. Then came the mental aptitude tests, followed by what felt like more injections than there were stars in the sky. Then again, I was never in a good headspace when the injections came around, because they always seemed to be at least at the level of mind-numbingly painful, never quite the doctor¡¯s playful pinch.


    Anyways, in those few months, I realized two major things. One, the facility seemed endless, much bigger than the office building I had been abducted from. And two, whoever was backing this operation, was big. At first, I had assumed it was some sort of criminal organization that was running this, but the way they picked their targets, seemed too above the table. Also, I could tell by the level of technology in the facility that this had to be run by someone with both a lot of money and also no qualms about using technology, a trait that was rare to come by these days. Normal organizations barely used automated microwaves, much less fully automated doors, cleaning equipment, and highly sophisticated robots, capable of understanding human orders. Even with the rise of technologically-assisted crime, many criminal organizations would have difficulty buying or constructing one robot like the bodybuilder ones that floated freely around the facility, much less the dozens that seemed to occupy the facility. No, this facility was too high-tier for a criminal organization. And the last thing, was something that Dr. C had said.


    He said they were making the future of soldiers. If that¡¯s not a project a world government would be interested in, I don¡¯t know what is. I thought.


    Feeling firm in my thoughts, I decided to bring it to my fellow experiment subjects to discuss over lunch. We all ate our meals together, but up until now, we hadn¡¯t talked much. Most of the time we had been too exhausted by the combination of military training and the various injections into our systems to spend much time on small talk. But I knew I needed to start building a rapport soon. Getting close to them would help me understand whether they wanted to escape or not, and if they didn¡¯t, make them want it.


    ¡°So¡­ I think I figured something out.¡± I started.


    Donte and Ilana paused eating their meals to give me questioning glances. Zaida paused, but I couldn¡¯t tell whether she was still staring at her food or at me because of the curtain of hair guarding her face.


    ¡°This facility¡­ this experiment¡­ it¡¯s most likely run by one of the world governments.¡± I finished.


    The two who had been paying attention, Donte and Ilana, looked at me shocked. I think Zaida may have slightly tilted her head in my direction as well, but then again, it was difficult to be certain. I allowed myself a small satisfied grin to appear on my face. Now to-


    ¡°It took you this long to realize?¡± Ilana rebuked me. ¡°I had assumed you were able to use that brain for something. I may have to rethink that possibility.¡±


    My grin left the area, and my brain went into overdrive trying to think of a smart comeback to her statement. With all my brainpower, all my comeback wit and ingenuity, and about 5 seconds to fully process what had just occurred, I gave back this smart retort.


    ¡°Wha-Wh-What do you mean?¡± I may need to retake Comeback 101.


    ¡°I mean, you should¡¯ve realized something like that the moment you woke up, or at least a day or two in, not four months into the experiment.¡± Ilana replied.


    I couldn¡¯t believe this woman, after I¡¯d done all that thinking, the nerve! When I get my vampiric strength the first thing I¡¯m going to use it for is to strangl-


    ¡°But this is good right?¡± Donte interjected excitedly as I tried to control my temper. ¡°If it¡¯s run by the United Americas government, we know that they¡¯ll actually keep their word on setting us free after the experiment is over.¡±


    ¡°Wrong.¡± Ilana stated flatly, her eyes flashing between me and Donte with a clear judgmental look. ¡°Just because it¡¯s a world government, doesn¡¯t mean it is ours. There is another, Russo-Europe. If this is run by them, then there is no guarantee for our lives.¡± Donte shuddered a bit, while Ilana continued. ¡°Even if it is the U.A., the fact that they are conducting this experiment in such a shady matter means a couple possibilities. 1. They are not certain of the effects of this experiment on people, but they needed actual guinea pigs to test on. 2. They don¡¯t want Russo-Europe to know they are conducting these experiments, which means it is much more likely we may wind up dead at the end of this. 3. Our only options at the end of this will be death, or inscription into the military, or finally 4. All of the above. None of these likely options include us each walking out of here a million bucks richer with a nice story to tell our friends.¡± Ilana paused to look at me, a sweet smile on her face. ¡°But I¡¯m sure you already realized all of that though right Mr. Talbott?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡± I shot back, followed by a small nod. Of course I hadn¡¯t, but she didn¡¯t need to know that. Oh wait, was her question sarcastic? Shit.


    Donte began tapping the table, a small frown on his face as if he begun to seriously think about his situation for the first time since he got here. ¡°If it¡¯s like that, then what do we do.¡± He muttered.


    ¡°How¡¯s about keeping such interesting table-talk for another time.¡± We all flinched a bit at the voice, turning to see Dr. C, in all his monocled glory. His eyes hummed with that strange intensity as usual, but his grin was unusually wide today, like when he had first revealed to all of us the extent of what had been done to us. He proceeded to point towards the door, and we all got up, recognizing the gesture as a sign to get to the training hall.


    What we found there was quite shocking. Instead of the weights, machines and other items that had been there before to help us get up to military standards, it was a wide-open space, built to resemble a jungle ecosystem. The space also seemed much larger than the training room we had been in earlier. It was like comparing a small neighborhood drugstore to a football stadium. Dr. C skipped into place in front of us, gesturing to the space behind him.


    ¡°Welcome to the next phase, where we will have you master your abilities!¡± Dr. C shouted, his arms shaking wildly in the air. ¡°Today we will be getting you accustomed to your abilities, because, excluding Ilana, none of you have been allowed to experiment with your abilities as of yet.¡± Donte, Zaina and I took the opportunity to gaze at Ilana, who continued staring straight ahead, unperturbed. ¡°Since Ilana has the most experience, we will save her for last,¡± he continued, pointing towards Donte. ¡°Boy, come over her, and get on all fours.¡±


    Donte walked over, curious, but didn¡¯t get on all fours like Dr. C had asked. Dr. C stared at him silently, but Donte still stood straight, waiting, probably disliking the idea of getting on the ground like a dog. It was only after the two bodybuilder robots began to walk over to force him to the ground that he assumed the position with only a slight grimace on his face.


    Dr. C walked over to Donte in this position, putting his hand on his head, like one would do to pet a dog. Donte flinched, but knew better than to outright attack him from the display I had given on our first day here. Or rather, my first day with coherent thought. Dr. C leaned over Donte, into a position where one might whisper something, but just continued speaking at a casual volume. ¡°Good. Good. Now you are simply going to turn into a dragon. It¡¯s quite simple really, it¡¯s all about image. Imagine yourself. What your limbs would be like to be those of a dragon. What your body would be like, covered in rock-hard scales, what it would be like to have wings grown from your back, extended from your shoulder blades. Imagine it, and then will it to be.¡±


    We all looked at Donte expectantly. The act of stabbing Ilana through the chest certainly did a lot to allude our suspicions that we hadn¡¯t become something ¡®more¡¯ than human, but at heart, like most humans when faced with the exceptional, borderline supernatural, we were still skeptical. At our core, we believed something like this simply couldn¡¯t be done. I think that¡¯s why when I saw the air around Donte begin to shimmer, white scales appearing on his body sporadically, my knees buckled and I fell to the ground, while my eyes stayed locked on Donte¡¯s transformation, transfixed. Parts of his body would switch between enlarging and deflating, the white scales quickly begin to cover the whole of his body. It seemed like his clothing was considered part of the transformation, as the scales covered both his clothes and his skin, a small tail beginning to grow out of his butt, and the skeletal structure of wings beginning to protrude from his shoulder blades. The hairs of his afro were particularly interesting, as they uncurled slowly, laying down flat against the back of his head and neck, before becoming spiked scales jutting out into the air. His neck elongated, and the rest of his body grew slowly but surely, the scales that were awkwardly on his body, clicking into place as they became surrounded by their fellows. This whole time, Dr. C had not removed his hand from Donte¡¯s head, only shifting it slightly, so at the end of the transformation, his hand was resting on the giant dragon¡¯s snout. A genuine smile seemed to be on Dr. C¡¯s face instead of his classic grin as he beheld his creation.


    Dr. C removed his hand, and then Donte opened his eyes, inspecting us with his yellowish gaze. He carefully looked down at himself, then back at his wings and tail, before heaving a massive sigh, the air from it almost knocking down a couple of the trees nearby. I was tempted to ask what was wrong, but the words didn¡¯t seem ready to jump into the fray. Donte answered my question soon enough anyway.


    ¡°I guess transforming into a black dragon is a no go huh.¡± He sighed again, and I couldn¡¯t decide whether to be sorry for him, or disturbed that that was the thing that immediately caught his attention.


    Dr. C walked away from Donte, towards the remaining three patients. ¡°Feel free to experiment with your new body. Now that you¡¯ve achieved the transformation once, it will come much more naturally to you.¡± Donte didn¡¯t need to be told twice, flapping his wings and running towards the forest, attempting to fly into the sky. Well, not the sky of course, but the air above the trees within the facility. Even if it was the actual sky though, he wasn¡¯t very skilled at flying, so the background became filled with the sounds of him crashing into the ground as the rest of us conducted our tests.


    Next was Zaida, who he finally let take off the helmet that had locked away most of her eyesight for so long. He brought a dummy in front of her, and instructed her to turn the dummy into stone with her vision. She squinted for a while, probably because the helmet had darkened her vision for so long, but eventually she nodded, and proceeded to attempt the task. At first, it seemed like she was having difficulty manifesting her ability. We stood there for about an hour as she attempted it, the only sound accenting her training being Donte¡¯s frequent falls. I had already given up on her succeeding, but Dr. C walked up to her slowly, grasping her by the shoulder and whispering something into her ear. Her body was soon wracked with shivers so intense that I could notice from my position a couple meters away, and it seems like Dr. C was having to hold her up. He whispered something else, but as much as I strained my hearing to attempt to hear what he said, I couldn¡¯t catch any of it. Whatever he said seemed to calm her down though, as her shivers eventually slowed, then stopped. Dr. C let go of her, and pointed towards the dummy. She nodded, gave one glance to the dummy, and I watched as it seemed to almost instantaneously transform into stone, the environment nearby also being encroached upon by her stone-transforming ability. Whatever he had said had worked, the question was, why?


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    I didn¡¯t have much time to ponder the reasoning though, because after Zaida, was me. He simply told me to stand there, while he prepared my training. I stood there for a while, wondering what was up, until I heard the sound of struggling behind me. I saw a third and forth bodybuilder robot walking towards us, carrying a struggling man between them. He was yelling at them, making a ruckus, and I was having trouble keeping my cool. Dr. C walked towards me, using his hands to fix the position of the monocles on his face.


    ¡°The vampire has many useful abilities, some of which include superior strength and speed,¡± he started, his typical grin now plastered on his face. ¡°Those aren¡¯t the abilities I¡¯m most interested in having you train right now however, as they¡¯ve already begun to manifest throughout your military training.¡± He pointed towards the man, who had continued struggling. ¡°You are going to use your hypnotic vision on this man, and then give him a few orders.¡± The robots proceeded to grab his head, forcing him to stare at me, as they gripped his eyelids open.


    I looked at the man, not exactly sure if I wanted to proceed. The man also looked at me, but his eyes flicked to and fro, his body trembling in the arms of the robots. I couldn¡¯t find it in my heart to even attempt to use my ability on him. What kind of facility was this? Was this man innocent? A criminal? Had he signed up to a sketchy advertisement like me, only to end up on the worse end of the experiment, as just a tool? I looked away slowly, then began turning around to tell Dr. C I couldn¡¯t do it, before I felt an iron grip on my shoulder. Dr. C was there leaning towards me. He got to my ear and whispered. ¡°Don¡¯t think, just do. Think of this test like a job. You do what you are told, or you are fired. And trust me, death isn¡¯t the only thing awaiting you if it comes to that. And I will make sure your family knows you¡¯ve been fired from here as well.¡± He then leaned back and removed his hand, an expectant smile on his face. If this was something similar to what he told Zaida, I could imagine why she might¡¯ve been so scared. I tried to keep a straight face, but I don¡¯t know if I was successful, so I hastily turned back towards the man, his eyes still flicking about.


    I took a deep breath, steeling my heart. I couldn¡¯t ignore the fact that this man could be innocent, but I couldn¡¯t afford to fail now. I might¡¯ve been able to find it in my heart to do it if it was just me he was threatening, but the threat against my family was clear. This man was nothing compared to my family, nothing was. Taking the example of what he had told Donte, I willed him to obey me, then attempted to lock him within my eyesight. When the man¡¯s eyes next caught mine, they stuck there, and his struggling against the robots all of a sudden halted, as he grew slack.


    Dr. C¡¯s smile grew wide, and the robots dropped the man to the floor. Dr. C walked over to the man, prodding him a couple times, before turning back to me. ¡°Good job Mr. Talbott. Now, it¡¯s time for orders. Also, if it looks like he is resisting your control, make sure to do the same action, to regain control. Now, first start by telling him to stand up.¡±


    I looked down at the man. ¡°Stand up.¡± The man brought himself up quickly, standing and staring straight ahead at me.


    ¡°Good.¡± Dr. C¡¯s smile grew wider. ¡°I was afraid this man¡¯s mental strength would be a bit much for your first time, but it seems you are doing wonderfully. Next, tell him a couple orders of your own, like dancing or what not. I¡¯ll tell you when to stop, and I¡¯ll give you the final order.¡±


    I scratched my head, trying to come up with some orders. Shrugging my shoulders, I decided to just wing it.


    ¡°Jog in place.¡± He jogged in place.


    ¡°Salute.¡± He saluted.


    ¡°Pick your nose.¡± He picked so hard I was afraid he would get rid of all his boogers.


    ¡°Do the stanky leg.¡± His stanky leg was horrific.


    ¡°Now the macarena.¡± As he did the macarena, I hummed the tune, and became impressed once he actually began following along to the beat I was humming. I almost forgot the fear I had at controlling this man, until Dr. C told me to stop, so he could give me the final order.


    ¡°Now,¡± Dr. C said, his eyes piercing me. ¡°Tell him to kill himself.¡±


    I almost immediately gave the order, until I realized the weight of what he asked me to do. I believe the man also began to realize the weight of that order as the dull light in his eyes became bright and focused, spasms rocking his body as he began to fight vigorously against the control, all while maintaining the beat of the Macarena. My mouth was dry. I looked at Dr. C, trying to see if I could find some mercy from him, but his eyes and body language told me there would be none. The man¡¯s spasms were getting much more frantic, his eyes beginning to twitch slightly. I didn¡¯t have much time to waste, if I lost control of the man, it would be the same as failing. Failure wasn¡¯t an option. It would mean failing both me, and my family. I locked eyes with the man, and willed him back under my control. His spasms grew much less frequent, and his eyes regained their dull light.


    I inhaled.


    I exhaled.


    Then I gave the order.


    Nothing happened at first. I would think about this in detail later, but it must¡¯ve been because he was attempting to figure out the best way to carry out the order. Slowly but surely, he reached his hands to his head, gripping the top of his head with his left, and his chin with his right. I saw the muscles in his arms tense as he prepared himself to crack his own neck. I couldn¡¯t breathe, all I could do was stare into this man¡¯s eyes as he carried out this grim order. I think that¡¯s why I was able to notice the slight flicker behind his dull demeanor. To see the parting of his lips, and the beginning of an attempt to form words. His voice did not reach me. But the word he said did. Those four letters. It was a hard word to forget.


    ¡°¡­H..el..p.¡±


    Then the order was executed, and a corpse fell to the floor. I thought I would throw up, but I didn¡¯t. I felt like I should¡¯ve cried or something, but I couldn¡¯t. All that I felt in my chest was a burning well of anger at Dr. C and the people running this experiment. Well, them and myself. I gazed at Dr. C, and he gave me a nod of approval, which burned my soul more. I looked at the other three. Zaida was shivering slightly, looking away from the man. Ilana looked on towards the body, nothing in her expression let me know whether she felt anything. Donte had by now turned back into his human form, and the way he looked at the corpse, as if he couldn¡¯t process it, churned my insides. I walked over to where they were, and collapsed on the ground.


    I couldn¡¯t focus on the words that were said next, but I saw Ilana move over to where Dr. C and the corpse were. Ilana raised her hands towards the corpse, and appeared to concentrate. What seemed like dark purple mist began congealing around her body, as sweat began to trickle down her forehead. The mist quickly covered her form, forming a dark aura around her. Then all of a sudden, it began condensing, gathering into a clump until it was a small black marble floating in the palm of her hand. She grasped the marble, then placed it onto the chest of the corpse. It entered the corpse¡¯s body, and then Ilana walked back over to us, as if she already knew the result of what had occurred. Dr. C also nodded, and then gestured for us to begin heading out of the training hall. Donte and Zaida rushed out of the facility, no doubt happy to get as far as possible from the body, while Ilana followed with a brisk walk. I raised my body, trying to lift myself off the ground, and glancing at the body one more time. I knew by this point in the day I had seen a lot of improbable things occur, but the next thing I saw, was the body of a dead man twitch.


    I stood still, staring at the body, hoping that what I had seen was a lie. But no, it twitched again. In fact, the twitches changed to spasms, and then abruptly, the corpse stood up. There was no hint of light in his- it¡¯s eyes now, it¡¯s mouth hanging open as it stared at Ilana. Ilana paused her walk to glance at the corpse, before directing it towards the wall. It proceeded to shamble over, I assumed intending to collide with the wall. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time I was wrong today, as the wall proceeded to open, revealing dozens of the shambling corpses, some more rotten and decayed than others.


    My mind ran into overdrive as I thought of what this entailed. Dr. C said Ilana had more experience than the rest of us. She raised that corpse like it was nothing, like she wasn¡¯t even concerned. Then all these¡­ they¡¯re all¡­ I couldn¡¯t bear to think anymore. I didn¡¯t want to. I flew at Ilana, gripping her by the shoulder and turning her towards me. For the first time I think I saw genuine surprise in her eyes, but that didn¡¯t matter to me.


    ¡°How many!¡± I roared. She didn¡¯t seem to comprehend me. I shook her, my grip tightening on her shoulder as my anger at her continued to grow.


    ¡°How many have you killed and brought back to life!¡± I shouted, my spittle bouncing off her face.


    ¡°Ah.¡± Was her response. Her eyes lost the light of surprise and grew cold again as she looked at me.


    ¡°27.¡± Ilana started, wiping the spittle off her face.  ¡°I¡¯ve killed and brought back to life 27 people since this experiment began.¡± She tested my grip, attempting to push my hand away, but I just tightened it further. She looked back at me. ¡°Yes. I¡¯ve killed 27 people, and no doubt will kill more. You know why? Because I want to live.¡± My grip loosened. ¡°Just like you.¡± My anger turned inward, at myself. ¡°You killed that man because you didn¡¯t want to die. At least, not yet. And while I¡¯m the only one here directly dealing with the dead, you should know that testing your vampire powers won¡¯t be done with a dummy and kiddie gloves, so stop getting on your righteous high horse every time something immoral is done. It¡¯s our life now.¡± The sadness in her eyes struck me, but I wasn¡¯t able to look long because she took this opportunity to pull herself out of my grip, proceeding out of the room. She paused in the doorway though, looking at me. ¡°Although, I guess it¡¯s really 27 ? people now.¡± Ilana then walked out, leaving me alone with a cackling Dr. C, and a bodybuilder robot.


    I was soon returned to my room, shaken at my core, feeling more defeated than I ever had in my life. Ilana was completely right. I was hypocritical, doing what it took to survive, then blaming others for choosing a similar route. I punched the wall. It didn¡¯t so much as shake, but my knuckles came back with torn skin. I did it again. And again. I did this for about two hours, before collapsing, staring up at the ceiling.


    This facility wasn¡¯t just trying to change me physically. It was going after my mind, seeking to break my spirit. But I didn¡¯t care if I was broken. I had one goal in mind. I would escape, hopefully with the other patients. I¡¯d now killed two people because I wanted to survive. But I now knew there was one man that, before I escaped this facility, I would kill in the coldest blood my body could produce.

 Chapter 3: Work this Bout.

    Author''s Note/Updates:


    Heyo, here''s Chapter 3. I don''t know if you''ve noticed, but it''s been a lot longer than a week since the last chapter. I got a summer job, so the time I thought I would dedicate to writing this story was taken up by working, and I just in general had less time to think about the story. I also realized my pacing was super messed up. I was planning to have them be out of the facility in only 7 chapters. Could you imagine? Anyways, I took some time to (hopefully) fix the pacing and rethink a couple of the key moments, and also you know, do my job. I think this chapter came out a lot better than it would have originally, which is always nice. I''ll try to keep to the chapter a week schedule, but don''t be surprised if chapters come a bit late. Anyways, thanks for reading, and hope you enjoy.


    ***************************************************************************************************


    I stared at the short woman across from me, who was dressed in a slim blue tank-top and a pair of pajamas.


    She stared back at me, her eyes blank, her mouth unhinged.


    ¡°You are now a loyal dog. Come over here and sit at attention.¡± I ordered.


    The woman in the tank-top got down on all fours, shambling over towards me in what I can only guess was her best impression of a dog. When she arrived about two feet away from my location, she assumed the position and stared up at me, her tongue wagging back and forth. I stared back intensely, searching for something, willing her to do something. Anything. Scratch your ear with your foot. I thought and ordered within my mind.


    She continued to sit there, unperturbed, content with following the order that I had spoken aloud. I sighed. Looks like it wouldn¡¯t be that easy. I walked over to Ilana, who was propped up against one of the trees within the training area. The atmosphere around her seemed alive with colorful forms of energy, their various auras floating around her body as she wrote within a large journal. Her reddish-blond hair seemed to flutter about around her, despite the lack of wind. I suspected those energies had something to do with the ¡®magic¡¯ she performed, but Ilana didn¡¯t seem prone to share much about her abilities, at least not when we talked at the lunch table.


    ¡°Hey Ilana, I¡¯m done with her. You can do your thing.¡± I pointed behind me at the lady still sitting at attention, finding myself a place next to her at the tree.


    She nodded towards me once, continuing to scribble into her notebook. I tilted my head forward, getting a brief glimpse at what she was writing. I was surprised that I could immediately tell it was a language I was most familiar with. Gibberish. While there seemed to be pictures, most of the actual writing seemed to be in various lines and scratches, coming out as weird symbols that seemed to have no visible pattern or distinction. I guessed it was some sort of code only she could understand, but it seemed like a lot of effort just for a notebook. Being the curious fellow that I am, I decided I might as well just ask her about it.


    ¡°Why all the secrecy in your notebook?¡± I asked. ¡°If it¡¯s to document your powers, I don¡¯t see why you need to be so super secret spy about it. Dr. C himself said we are the first test subjects. No one else can use your abilities.¡±


    She turned towards me, a look of derision clear on her face. She continued scribbling a bit, before closing the notebook and focusing on me. She opened her mouth, and I steeled myself for another one of her usual rants, but instead, she just closed her mouth, a frown forming on her face. She stood up and dusted herself off before turning back towards me. ¡°I know you are dumb, but stop expecting me to explain how the world works to you.¡± She paused to take a quick glance at Dr. C, before continuing. ¡°We are prototypes made to fight an enemy, Mao. You should really stop. Sit still. And think about what that means.¡± She then turned around and walked back over towards the woman I had left sitting on the ground. To kill her. And raise her from the dead.


    I slumped further down the tree, my eyes locked on the forms of Ilana and the woman as she went about her grisly business. I never learned the woman¡¯s name. In fact, I had not learned any of the names of the people that had died once we began our ability training a few weeks ago, and it was specifically because I had not tried. I already had nightmares of dead people floating through my head, I didn¡¯t need nightmares where I could place the names of each and every one of them. Ilana brought her hand towards the woman¡¯s head, a ripple in the air and blood spurting from the woman¡¯s neck the only indication that anything had been done to her. The woman slowly slumped over, and I watched her eyes regain reason, her desperate rasping filling the air, before her eyes grew dim again and she expired. Ilana checked her pulse to make sure she was truly dead, then proceeded to work her magic. I closed my eyes. I had resolved myself to watch all of them die, but it was always¡­ difficult to watch the things stand back up again.


    By this point, I had come to see many shambling corpses stand up again, and my notion of the sanctity of death had long since shattered. It had been a couple weeks since that man had died on my¨Cno, on the orders of Dr. C-and been brought back to life. It seems like Dr. C just wanted to see if he could force me to kill, because he never told me to order another person¡¯s death again. In fact, he explicitly ordered me to instead make all the people I controlled with my hypnotic vision become submissive when I finished my training, so Ilana could easily kill and reanimate them for her own training. I didn¡¯t know if I should be humiliated that a woman was doing everything I couldn¡¯t help but be squeamish about, or grateful. The look I caught from Dr. C every day when Ilana and I did our little ¡®trade-off¡¯ helped me figure out which.


    Unfortunately, I no longer had the time to mope about and feel bad about myself. The training was progressing smoothly, which was both good and bad. The good of it was, I was growing more accustomed to my powers. I now realized that these powers would most likely be essential in escaping this high-tech facility. Being able to use my powers effectively gave me a much higher likelihood of making it out of this place alive. The bad of the situation was the fact that if the training proceeded too quickly, and I didn¡¯t have time to sufficiently plan an escape with the others, there would be no escape, and even less of a chance of killing Dr. C. I needed to do both if I wanted to escape from here with some mental peace, and the safety of my family ensured.


    I opened my eyes and got up from the tree, my mental break over. I walked out of the forest area, into another area that was just as surprising to find in an indoors facility. It seemed to be some sort of flat fighting field, encircled by a moat. The fighting field itself was quite large, comparable to the size of a fairly large gymnasium. On the fighting field was a lot of the equipment we had been using before for our basic military training, but there were also some new additions, specifically the robotic training dummies.


    I walked across the bridge onto the field, where I saw Donte was already sparring with one of the robots. It seemed like regular sparring for the most part, except when Donte began shifting parts of his body. I watched his fist as a shimmer formed around it, and then a gigantic dragon claw appeared in place of his fist, ripping through the air towards the dummy.  The dummy dodged the blow by shifting to the side, just scraping by his attack. Donte¡¯s fist slowly regained its human qualities and size, and he flexed his fingers, staring down the robot. He grinned, and began to let out a flurry of attacks.


    Although the attacks themselves were pretty basic, what made them dangerous was the random transformation of various parts of his body into gigantic dragon appendages. He feigned transformations at one moment, then released an onslaught of transformations at another, his seemingly useless punches and kicks converting into sizable obstacles. A regular human fighter would most likely have already been caught by surprise by some of his moves, and been taken out. These dummies however, were anything but regular. The robot seemed to dodge all his movements by just a hair¡¯s breath, as if it had perfectly calculated all his attempts. I waved towards him, and decided I would try and get a little conversation going before I began my own training.


    ¡°Hey Donte, what¡¯s up?¡± The classic opener.


    ¡°Nothing much. Training.¡± The classic response.


    ¡°So, how¡¯s the training going?¡± Conversation master here.


    ¡°Fine.¡± I should get an award.


    There was an awkward silence, as I reveled in my ¡®amazing¡¯ conversation ability. I tried to think of some clever thing to ask, but I still felt mentally drained from dealing with Ilana and the corpses. Feeling the silence had been awkward and long enough, I walked over to one of the dummies to begin my own training. I was about begin when I noticed the sound of Donte¡¯s fighting had stopped. I turned towards Donte, and noticed he was staring at me.


    ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± I asked.


    He looked at me for a bit longer, his eyes filled with questions, and the growing afro on his head comically jiggling in the breeze. He eventually just turned back towards his training dummy, and continued practicing with it. I took that as a hint that the conversation was over, and began my own training.


    The thing that I had to admit was cool about these training dummies, was the fact that they didn¡¯t just sit there and get hit. They responded in turn to how we tried to fight them, and blocked, dodged, or counterattacked as necessary to make it feel like we were trying to hit a real opponent. Of the training I¡¯d witnessed, none of us had managed to score a single solid hit on one of these things. While it was good for training, it also made the bodybuilder robots a lot scarier, because they would most likely have all the fighting capabilities of these robots, and no qualms about fighting back.


    I balled my fist and threw an uppercut at the robot. I doubted that it would manage to hit, but that wasn¡¯t my real goal. If it connected, that was well and good, but the uppercut was meant as a feint to block the robot¡¯s vision so I could attempt a sweep of its legs. The robot pulled its head and torso back, barely dodging my uppercut. I then put my weight on my left leg and swung out with my right, making sure as much as possible to hinder the robot¡¯s vision. I don¡¯t know if it heard the motion in the air or if it was just using the cameras mounted all around us, but it jumped over my sweep at the same time as it kicked me in the face, sending me crashing off balance.


    ¡°Oh, Mr. Roboto. You are going down today!¡± I yelled in the best angry voice I could muster as I pull myself off the ground. I probably could¡¯ve been angrier, but I¡¯d already made the same claim multiple times, so it was hard to convince anyone, much less myself. But, it wasn¡¯t like this was meant as just a hand-to-hand training. It was also meant to train our abilities. I inhaled, exhaled, and then utilized my next ability, my supernatural speed.


    Now, let me get rid of some misconceptions you might have about my supernatural speed, so you don¡¯t wonder why I haven¡¯t just sped myself on out of here. My supernatural speed seemed to do nothing about my perception of time, so even though I was moving quickly, I saw myself the same way everyone else saw it in the moment. As an incomprehensible blur. It became more like controlling my body remotely. I would input an action, concentrate, and then it was like the action had already occurred, and I had to determine what the next best course of action would be based on any minute changes that may have occurred while I was speeding. It was quite dizzying at first, and even now it was less that it had stopped being dizzying, and more that I had managed to get used to battling under its effects. If I used it too much however the nausea often became too much to handle, which meant I had to quickly understand my limits.


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    That¡¯s not to say the ability wasn¡¯t useful however. I paced backwards, getting about 20 feet of distance between me and the robot. The robot stopped and tilted it¡¯s head at me curiously. You¡¯ll understand soon enough Mr. Roboto, I thought to myself. I caught my breath, then crossed my arms in front of me, forming an X. I started running towards the robot, and then when I was about 10 feet away, activated my super-speed. Everything around me seemed to elongate towards the back of my vision, becoming lines of color, and then just blurs, merging together into a sea of color.


    Feeling your body moving so quickly is a sensation that¡¯s hard to articulate. The best thing I can attribute it to is if your whole body is both covered and filled with phones set to vibrate, and you are receiving constant text and calls from the world over. The feeling was unsettling, but I didn¡¯t absolutely hate it. Anyways, eventually the blurs began changing from colorful lines in my vision back into recognizable objects. This all occurred in what felt like less than a second, and I flicked my eyes back and forth, trying to grasp what happened, and why Mr. Roboto wasn¡¯t laying on the ground, defeated in front of me.


    I glanced behind me, and saw the form of Mr. Roboto, seeming to glow with satisfaction as he just sidestepped my most powerful move.


    ¡°AARAH! BOWWOW!¡± I yelled like a madman as I charged Mr. Roboto. I made a cross of my arms again, and began ¡®speeding¡¯ back and forth across the battlefield at him. When I exited my speed-state, I would figure out where he was, pivot towards him, and then charge him again. Mr. Roboto just continued to sidestep all my attacks as I kept getting dizzier, and my muscles began feeling a lot more like jelly.


    I began contemplating what I needed to do next to win this fight. I need an opportunity. He can perfectly predict my attacks, so there must be some tell I¡¯m sending him. I¡¯ll just have to fake him out. I could feel myself reaching my limit, as it was taking me longer to adjust back to normal after exiting my speed state. This attempt would most likely be my last. Even if he could predict my attacks, he was not as fast as I was. If I could get him to predict the wrong attacks, there was little to no chance he would be able to completely dodge my attack. At least, that¡¯s what I hoped.


    So when I next left my speed state and figured out where Mr. Roboto was, my course of action was slightly different. I charged towards him again, activating my vampiric speed, but instead of actually moving, I just jogged in place. Of course, I wasn¡¯t simply jogging in place. I was jogging in place really fast. Anyways, the point was that I didn¡¯t actually change position. I waited for my vision to return to normal, and as I thought, Mr. Roboto had been in the middle of moving out of my predicted path. I grinned, bellowing from the top of my lungs, ¡°I GOT YOU NOW ROBOTO!¡±


    I sped towards him, my vision blurring. I thought that maybe I had missed again, but then I could feel my arms make multiple collisions. I grinned as my vision returned to normal, ensured that I had finally shown Mr. Roboto who was boss. As I regained my bearings, I realized two things almost immediately.


    One, I had been successful at hitting something, and I had obviously caught that something off guard, because they were sprawled on the ground in front of me.


    Two, the something that I had knocked over seemed to be Donte.


    I turned around, and saw that the robot had once again sidestepped out of my way.


    I carefully raised his upper body off the ground, checking his body for wounds. Crashing into him at super-speed was nothing to joke about. Combined with my super strength, hitting anything like I did would most likely cause damage. My stomach turned. I tapped him on the head, and began checking his pulse. I was getting more and more worried until his eyes flittered open as he groaned. I sighed in relief. At least he wasn¡¯t dead.


    I asked him in as cheerful a voice as possible, ¡°You alright? Sorry about, you know, flying into you. Not exactly used to the powers.¡± I dusted him off a bit as I talked, hoping he wouldn¡¯t be too mad.


    His eyes flicked towards me, before groaning again. I kept checking his body. I wasn¡¯t finding anything, until I reached his back. Lifting his shirt I saw a bruise had began forming on his back that looked a lot like an X. I touched in gently, and he hissed slightly, obviously in pain from the contact.


    ¡°Guess X really does mark the spot.¡± I said aloud.


    Donte''s eyes rounded in shock, and we both stared at each other for a bit. Then he began sniggering, and I smiled. He was probably all right if he could still manage his usual snigger. Thinking about my joke again with his sniggering in the background, I started chuckling as well, and soon the fighting arena was filled with the sound of our hysteric laughter at my terrible joke, and probably the fact that we were still managing to laugh about it. This went on for a couple minutes, the sound of Ilana and Zaida still training filling the background.


    Eventually we found enough sanity to stop laughing, and I realized I was still holding Donte in my arms. I laid him back on the ground, and laid down myself as well, the adrenaline from almost killing him disappearing and being replaced with the fatigue of a day of training. I sighed, staring up at the ceiling and just enjoying the moment¡¯s rest after a good laugh.


    ¡°Why do you talk so much?¡±


    ¡°Eh?¡± I looked over towards the source of the voice, which turned out to be Donte.


    His voice came out again, his tone firm. ¡°Why do you talk so much Mr. Talbott? Everyday you seem to strike up conversations with the other patients. You do it to Ilana, you do it to me, and you even talk to Zaida, though she doesn¡¯t seem to respond. Why do you do it?¡±


    The fact that he had noticed all that, meant he was not only doing his own training, but he was also paying attention to what was going on around him, or at least, to what was going on around me. I couldn¡¯t see his eyes, which were still staring up at the ceiling. I pondered whether they were filled with childish curiosity, or the light of dangerous intellect. I scratched my head, seriously considering telling him the truth.


    ¡°I just want to get to know you all.¡± I started, a smile reforming on my face. ¡°We¡¯re all trapped in this place together, so we might as well get to know each other. Who knows? We might even manage to become friends if we try hard enough.¡± I took a quick glance at Donte, but he was still staring up at the ceiling. I continued. ¡°The worst thing for human beings, is solidarity. It can quickly change ordinary men into deranged psychotics, rip us of our hard earned knowledge, and remove our empathy for the actions of others. And it¡¯s not like it takes actually being alone to be in solidarity. Everyone can be an island by themselves if they truly wish to. I don¡¯t want to be in here by myself however, and I¡¯m sure none of you do either. So let¡¯s be in here, together.¡± I raised my fist after this, letting it hover in the air between me and Donte.


    He still faced the ceiling, his face unreadable. He opened his mouth and said something under his breath, but I wasn¡¯t able to catch it. I started getting a bit nervous. Maybe I had messed up? There was a long and awkward pause, before he turned towards me, bumping fists.


    ¡°Sure. Let¡¯s be in this together.¡± He finally said, a large grin on his face. I sighed inwardly, glad that he bought my speech. Of course, what I had said was true, and I was worried about the two kids being affected negatively by the whole thing, but it wasn¡¯t close to the whole truth, and didn¡¯t include my plans to escape. I mostly wanted to get to know them all so I could find out what drives them, which would be essential to motivating all of them to leave this facility together with me. But I was fine with misleading Donte like this, and it seems I had been wrong to consider his question more than curiosity.


    After all, he was only a child.


    After that, we started making some heartfelt small talk. Asking each other about favorite foods, hobbies, good vacation spots we¡¯d been to. We avoided topics like what kind of families we had, and specifics about what we were doing. Although I eventually needed to reach the stage where Donte was willing to share such things with me, touching those topics on the first day after he opened up to me was a big no-no. We eventually reached an interesting topic tailoring to our immediate situation, or rather, Donte began to talk about one of our fellow patients.


    Donte sighed as he let his feelings flow. ¡°I keep wondering what¡¯s under that curtain of hair Zaida always keeps in front of her face. I gotta know whether she¡¯s cute or ugly as a witch under there, you know?¡±


    ¡°I see.¡±


    ¡°Like, she has to be ugly right? Only reason she would keep her hair that long and guarding her face.¡±


    ¡°Maybe.¡±


    ¡°Wait, have you seen her face? I feel like every time I try to sneak a peek, she knows I¡¯m trying to.¡±


    I thought back on my interactions with Zaida before answering. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve seen her face. While you were practicing ¡®flying¡¯ in your dragon form on the first day, I got a pretty good look at it.¡±


    Donte sat up, staring at me in excitement. ¡°Well what did you think Mr. Talbott? Was she a unicorn? Or an ugly hag?¡±


    I grinned. ¡°Not telling.¡±


    His face froze in shock, transforming into annoyance, and then his expression became coy, a slight smile forming on his face.


    ¡°Come on. You know you want to tell.¡± He entreated, poking me in the ribs a couple times. ¡°Who¡¯s it going to hurt? Come on, didn¡¯t you say we were all in this together? What¡¯s telling a comrade how one of their fellow comrades looks eh? Come on.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not telling specifically because you want to know so much.¡± It was nice to be playful again, in the midst of the training.


    ¡°Argh.¡± He threw his arms up behind him in frustration, muttering to himself. ¡°Guess I¡¯ll just have to figure out myself. Just you wait, Zaida, you can¡¯t hide your looks from me forever. I¡¯m going to-¡°


    The rest of his muttering was cut off by the sound of the fighting arena shifting around us. The room began to shake, and as we looked around for the source, I noticed that a couple of the training objects were floating in the air. They quickly began shooting up into the sky, and when I looked up, I noticed what looked like a gigantic vacuum tube, suspended in the ceiling, sucking all the objects up. My eyes flicked over to Mr. Roboto, just as he also lifted off the ground, and into the vacuum. I patted myself down, wondering why me and Donte weren¡¯t flying up as well. Eventually though, the whole arena was cleared, and I saw Dr. C walking towards us, a big smile on his face.


    ¡°I was listening to your conversation, Mr. Talbott, and I have to say, I¡¯m glad you guys have decided to get through this. Together.¡± He put a lot of emphasis on that last word, as he walked over towards us. He pushed up his monocles, and everything about his posture said he was thoroughly amused. Which was bad.


    ¡°I am soooo glad that my patients are willing to work together, that I¡¯ve decided to introduce the next part of this training early. You are next going to fight against your fellow patients, so you truly understand the strength of your new abilities, and also, where your true strengths and weaknesses may lie.¡± His smirk grew immensely. ¡°Donte, Mao, I admit I must admire your enthusiasm, you are already on the battlefield, ready to go.¡± We each looked at each other, our grimaces almost matching.


    ¡°What you are doing still sitting on the ground?¡± Dr. C chuckled. ¡°Get up and get ready to fight.¡±


    My feeling of playfulness had long since disappeared.

 Chapter 4: Not so all in this, together.

    The fighting arena looked much more like one now, or rather, what a perfectly unused fighting arena might look like. The training equipment and training dummies had been removed to reveal an immaculate marble-tiled ring, gleaming under the overhanging lights. The bridge to exit the ring was still attached, but already the moat around the ring had filled to the brim with dark murky waters, large creatures moving throughout.


    Surrounding the stage were the plethora of bodybuilder robots, either flexing their machine-sculpted biceps or cheering like an actual audience might, clapping and whistling interspersed with yelling. The only difference was that it was all in electronic text-to-speech voices with perfectly timed choreography, making for quite disturbing background chatter.


    Donte and I were within the ring, trying our best to eliminate the built-up fatigue from our earlier training. We stretched in the center, while Dr. C stood off to the side making scribbles on his clipboard. This was the perfect opportunity to discuss our plans on how to deal with Dr. C¡¯s sudden proposal, but while we were talking, I found we had a pretty serious disagreement. Donte wanted to just go along with Dr. C¡¯s plan: He wanted to just fight to our fullest. Like, what the hell was this kid thinking?


    ¡°Donte, you can¡¯t be serious right? Why do you actually want to fight, you know, for real?¡± I hissed while continuing to stretch, hoping Dr. C didn¡¯t have some sort of superhuman hearing I would unfortunately discover.


    ¡°What do you mean? We got these super cool powers, it would be a waste not to see how we do against each other.¡± He responded quietly, wincing as he stretched out his back.


    ¡°Yeah, but these powers are dangerous. Someone could get hurt.¡± I paused, but refrained from turning towards Dr. C as I finished my thought. ¡°And have you even considered Dr. C¡¯s goals behind this fight? He started it early on purpose, he even told us as much. And it¡¯s all because he was worried we were getting too friendly. He could be trying to get me to wound you. Or worse, maybe I accidentally kill you. The stakes are too high right now for actual fighting, when we don¡¯t know how Dr. C might manipulate us. I think we should just pretend to fight, so we are at least able to walk away from this battle unscathed.¡±


    Donte paused his stretching to take a hard look at me. ¡°You are only worried about you accidentally killing me? What about me accidentally killing you?¡±


    I smiled, but refrained from letting out a chuckle. The kid¡¯s question was serious, but not one I was worried about. I would not let anything in this facility kill me, much less a short kid with an afro, before I was able to complete my goals and escape. I had already sent dozens of men into Ilana¡¯s hands to meet their end, it wasn¡¯t going to be for nothing. It was all to escape with these kids, but more importantly, to not die before I saw my family again. If it became a life-or-death scenario between me and Donte, then¡­


    ¡°That¡¯s not the point.¡± I said instead. ¡°The point is, Dr. C is doing this for a reason, but we don¡¯t have any reason to play along. We are still amateur fighters at best. He won¡¯t be able to ridicule us if our fight looks amateurish and we aren¡¯t able to land any serious blows.¡± I paused for a couple moments, trying to come up with the best way to phrase my next words without getting too close to my true motive. ¡°You and I both know that the sooner we get to Dr. C¡¯s endgame, the more likely it is we are going to die. Shouldn¡¯t we be prolonging that as much as possible? Come on, didn¡¯t we just say we were in this together?¡±


    Donte looked at me, his face unreadable. When he spoke, it was with a tone of resolution. ¡°You know Mao, I thought about all that already. In the end, I don¡¯t really care what he does. We are in HIS facility. If he wants us to smile, we¡¯ll smile. If he wants us to dance, we¡¯ll dance. And if he wants us to die, we¡¯ll die. Plain. And. Simple.¡± These last words were stated with clear bitterness. He soon continued with his resolute tone, but slowly stood up, the cheering quieting as the crowd realized something may be occurring. ¡°But that doesn¡¯t change what I came here to do. Nothing about what I wanted to accomplish by coming here has changed. It might mean taking a gamble on the truth of Dr. C¡¯s words, but we all took that gamble just by joining up with this experiment.¡±


    I ground my teeth. ¡°But Donte-¡°


    ¡°And Mao,¡± he cut me off as I tried to interject. ¡°What is catching my attention right now, is that you seem to be underestimating me heavily if you don¡¯t think I could theoretically kill you.¡±


    ¡°Donte-¡° I started, reaching towards him as I stood up as well.


    But he was having none of it. ¡°I know we just did all that heartfelt shit earlier Mao, and I¡¯m grateful. But I¡¯m going to be taking this seriously, so you should as well, if we really are in this. Together.¡± He stared up at me, awaiting my response.


    ¡°¡­Fine.¡± Was the answer I gave him, and he seemed to be satisfied with it, walking over to the other end of the arena to await the beginning of the fight.


    Of course, I wasn¡¯t really fine with it. Him not agreeing to my ¡®play fight¡¯ idea meant I most likely wouldn¡¯t get out of this unscathed, but there was no way I was fighting Donte seriously. I needed him to trust me, to believe in me, in order for him to be willing to escape with me. To me, the idea of beating a kid black and blue like he planned to do to me was no way to gain respect or his trust. I just had to alter my plans a bit to the changed landscape.


    I walked over to my corner of the field, and kept my face as calm as possible as I waited for the match to begin.


    Dr. C kept a curious gaze on me for a while, but then walked to the center of the arena. He raised his hands in a grand gesture, causing the robotic cheering and applause to resume as he began his announcement.


    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen!


    Boys and girls!


    Robots!


    Today, we have the beginning of an exciting time, the beginning of this facility¡¯s match system! We get to have a lot of firsts here at the first ever MMI facility, but I believe this is one of the firsts worth celebrating!¡± Cameras abruptly dropped down from extended hooks above us, red lights appearing like a swarm as they began filming. More robots began filing in, but these robots seemed to have monitors in place of their heads. On each of the monitors was a shadowy silhouette of a person¡¯s head, which moved about on their screens. The monitor-bots moved much like a human in an unfamiliar place might, sometimes bumping into each other and raising hands in apology.


    I stared at the things with apprehension. What are these things? Are they¡­ people? Then who? The backers of this project? Other scientists helping Dr. C?  It seemed like a lot of people for a viewing of what I had assumed was a secret government project. Already around 20 of the robots had filed in, and it looks like they were still filing in slowly. If they were indeed backers of the project come to see the fruits of their investments, maybe we had been wrong to assume this had only been a government project. Maybe it was something much more dangerous.


    Dr. C continued unabashedly, either unaware of our mounting uncomfortableness, or he just didn¡¯t care. ¡°For our opening match, we have¡­ ahem.  Drumroll please.¡± The bodybuilder robots obliged, beginning a drumroll where not a single one of them could be found offbeat. The body language of the monitor-bots showed various states of idleness and boredom as they waited for the match to begin. I was pretty sure one of them was even sleeping standing up, although it was hard to tell. Anyways, it wasn¡¯t like anyone had any doubts about who the match would be between.


    ¡°Our first fighters, are Donte Laporte and Mao Talbott! Two of our four greatest fighters!¡± He chuckled. ¡°Now let me get off this stage, so we can finally get the show on the road!¡± He shimmied off the stage, the bridge retracting into the arena behind him.


    I faced Donte. Donte seemed to be scrutinizing the monitor people carefully, but eventually looked towards me, a satisfied look on his face. We stood like that, as ready as we were able, both of us a good 200 meters away from the center.


    Dr. C pushed up his monocles, his shit-eating grin clear for the world ¨Cor at least these monitor-people- to see. ¡°And... BEGIN!¡±


    And we began.


    I raised my arms and spread my legs, calmly waiting as Donte ran towards me, closing the distance fairly quickly for a kid of his stature. When he arrived next to me I admit, I was a bit disappointed in myself. I had hoped by the time we started, or maybe before he got to me, I would have a plan, but I still had nothing besides just trying to beat the crap out of each other.


    Maybe I should just continue trying to reason with the kid. I considered. Kids are reasonable these days right?


    A gigantic dragon claw swiped by my torso, ripping open my shirt as I backpedaled away.


    ¡°Don-¡°


    Almost as soon as I landed a dragon-tail whipped out from behind Donte, slicing by my head. I could feel a warm sensation start to dribble down onto my cheek.


    ¡°I¡¯m not here to talk,¡± Donte replied coolly, his tail disappearing into the air, ¡°I¡¯m here to beat you.¡± He charged at me again, different parts of his body shimmering, probably as an attempt to hide his true attack as he began his onslaught.


    Donte¡¯s fierce attacks left me little room to breathe, the space some of his swipes took up forcing me to utilize my super-speed to dodge. With the little air I was able to save, I kept trying to talk some sense into Donte.


    ¡°Donte¡­ we don¡¯t¡­ have to¡­¡± Duck. ¡°Fight... so¡­ aggressively. We can¡­¡° Weave. ¡°Spar¡­ without such¡­¡± Roll. ¡°¡­Enthusiasm.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t¡­ care.¡± Donte said in between breaths, ¡°Fight me¡­ like you mean it! I can¡­ handle it. If you won¡¯t¡­¡± He pulled both hands behind his back and jumped into the air, a gigantic dragon tail sprouting from his tailbone to prop him up in the sky. I stared up at him, trying to prepare myself for whatever he was dishing out next. His face was still a mask, but I could see slight twitches of anger beginning to sprout from within.


    ¡°Then I¡¯ll just beat you black and blue until you have to,¡± He finished. He then proceeded to pull his tail out from under himself, dropping from the sky, directly over where I was standing.


    ¡°It¡¯s not going to be that simple.¡± I yelled at Donte, envisioning myself running an adequate distance backwards, then proceeding to activate my super-speed. My surroundings blurred, and I could feel my body vibrate as I traveled the distance. I soon reached a stop, but my vision was still blurry, and the dizziness after each successive use was quickly becoming more disorienting.


    I have to see where Donte¡¯s coming from next. I should be safe for awhile. Until then-


    An impact to my stomach took away the rest of my considerations as I went airborne, cracking my back against the marble.


    ¡°Not gonna be that simple.¡± Donte parroted, his tail whipping back and forth behind him. ¡°I know you can fight Mao, we train right next to each other. Stop being stupid and fight me!¡±


    I struggled to raise myself off the floor. I hadn¡¯t even been able to see that attack coming. I was reaching my limit much too quickly. I needed a plan now, or I wouldn¡¯t have enough energy to complete it. My eyes flicked across the room, searching for answers that probably weren¡¯t there as Donte ran back towards me. The scenery¡­was empty, there were no objects to help me. The floor¡­ besides maybe cracking his skull against the ground, it didn¡¯t give me many options. The moat¡­ maybe, I could ¡®Toro! Toro!¡¯ him into the water. You know. Without him realizing he can fly. I sighed. Was I overlooking something? I made another sweep, my gaze landing on Ilana.


    That¡¯s it. I have nothing; except my powers. Why didn¡¯t I think of this sooner! I smacked myself in the head, causing a small gasp of shock to erupt from the crowd.


    ¡°Donte!¡± I yelled across the field, wobbling to my feet as I extended my palm, prompting him to wait. I was pleasantly surprised when he did.


    He scratched his head in confusion. ¡°What do you want?¡±


    ¡°Nothing much,¡± I said slowly, using the time to let my vision properly return to normal. ¡°I just wanted to let you know I¡¯m going to be serious now, and also,¡± I lowered all my fingers until only my pointer finger remained. ¡°I am going to beat you in one move, without throwing a single punch.¡±


    Donte trembled, biting his lip. ¡°¡­I hope your idea of beating me isn¡¯t by expecting me to show mercy, because that¡¯s not what I¡¯m feeling right now.¡±


    I grinned, my balance slowly returning as the remaining wheels of my plan started to click into place. ¡°Nope. You can come at me full force. I will stop you, and then the match will be over.¡±


    Donte¡¯s expression cooled for a bit, as he contemplated my words. ¡°¡­Your hypnotic vision huh.¡± I flinched, but I tried not to show how surprised I was by him calling my play so quickly.


    ¡°All I have to do is not look you in the eye. If you think you can beat me with just that, you have another thing coming.¡± He closed his mouth, and with that, the talking was again over.


    I stood still, waiting for Donte to make the first move, which of course he did. He got down on all fours and almost instantly transformed, his body seeming to shimmer for only an instant before it grew to be replaced with a gigantic dragon, shining with brilliance. His transformation flickered for a brief instant, and I breathed a sigh of relief, remembering he also wasn¡¯t in top-form. Donte recovered quickly though, letting loose a roar that ripped through the arena, causing the ground to shake and many of the monitor-bots to collapse in panic. I tried to maintain a straight face.


    Mentally, I knew it was still Donte the kid on the inside, and this helped keep me from shitting my pants. But instinctually, I was face to face with a creature that appeared much more bloodthirsty than my neighbor¡¯s dog, Steve. The hairs on my body stood on end, my limbs trembled, my muscles grew taut as my body and mind struggled between running and fighting. It was like finding myself face-to-face with a bear in the forest, while I only held a gun with a single shot inside. A gun that I wasn¡¯t sure would even fire correctly.


    Donte blinked his yellowed lizard eyes a couple times, then gave what I could only assume was a smile, but on a dragon just looked like him showing off his full set of impending death. He pawed the ground with a claw once before bounding across the field, straight towards me. A cold sweat started to drip from my forehead.


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    We were about 100 feet apart now.


    He was speeding towards me, but I noticed he seemed to be taking very long blinks as he proceeded. He only opened his eyes momentarily so that he could make sure my position hadn¡¯t changed as he continued his charge.


    This was good for me. Even if he knew my plan and wanted to avoid it, there was no way to completely close off his eyesight and still fight me effectively. I gazed at his big dragon face, extending my arms out as far as possible like I was getting ready for a big hug.


    40 feet.


    He made one last leap into the sky, before descending down towards my form in a diagonal of doom, wings outstretched.


    I flinched slightly. I hadn¡¯t expected him to make that last leap. I adjusted my position, shifting my legs beneath me and raising my arms to meet his descent.


    15 feet.


    Here goes something. I tensed the muscles in my arms, activating my super-speed as I brought my hands together in front of my face for a speed-enhanced clap.


    ¡°OPEN SASHIMI!¡± I yelled as I performed my supersonic clap of destiny.


    My ears popped, both my vision and hearing going haywire.


    Come on vision... Work with me¡­


    10-5 feet?


    I re-extended my arms, the world still a blur in front of me. I doubted my vision would return soon enough, but that was part of the wager. The blurs in front of me seemed to be his face, and I could make out things that could possibly be eyes, but it was possible my plan hadn¡¯t worked. The clap was meant to surprise him as he got close enough, forcing him to open his eyes to make sure I wasn¡¯t sending out an attack. I kept hoping it was his head, as that would be essential to the next part of my plan.


    What was the next part of my plan you may ask?


    0 feet.


    I caught him.


    Donte¡¯s dragon snout entered my arms, and I was momentarily able to get a grasp and hold him as he pushed me backwards. I furiously tried to keep my legs planted as we rumbled through the floor and across the ring. My vision returned well enough that I could start to make out the beginnings of Donte¡¯s yellowed eyes, wide open in surprise.


    ¡°OBEY ME!¡± I screamed and willed within my mind, my voice an echo over the sound of us crashing through the arena. I, unfortunately, could not immediately find out the result of my hypnotism.


    You see, when I said I caught him that maaay have been a bit of a misnomer. It was more like a fumble. I had been hoping that maybe my supernatural strength had matured more than I thought it had, and maybe I would be able to bring him to a full-on stop when I caught him. The problem was I was wrong, and also that I hadn¡¯t expected the last jump he performed. I had to rapidly adjust my position, and still hope that my super strength did its job.


    So when the full force of his jump distributed itself to the rest of my body, I quickly found out that no, my super strength wouldn¡¯t do its job.


    My right leg crumpled first, bending backwards before snapping, splinters of bone decorating the marble tiles as we zoomed by. My left leg soon followed as my ankle twisted a full 360 degrees, not quite able to support me and a gigantic dragon on its own. With my legs out of commission I fell backwards, still trying to keep a hold on Donte¡¯s head, when maybe I should¡¯ve just let go. My right elbow made contact with the floor first, and I felt everything above my elbow shatter into pieces as I crashed into the ground, Donte¡¯s head atop me.


    Blood filled my mouth, my eyes, and my mind. I was pretty sure I heard voices, but that shouldn¡¯t have been possible, or at least not so clear, what with me in a crater. I could still feel my left hand gripping the scales of Donte¡¯s jaw, and I imagined he was most likely staring down at me.


    ¡°Focus.¡± I told myself. Or I think I told myself. I wasn¡¯t sure if the words actually left my head. I still couldn¡¯t see. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was a temporary problem.


    ¡°Lift me up,¡± I muttered.


    I waited.


    Nothing happened.


    ¡°Lift me up,¡± I ordered again, my voice cracking, but slightly louder.


    There was a stirring near me, but nothing else occurred.


    ¡°LIFT ME UP DAMNIT!¡± I screamed, ordered, and hoped within my mind.


    At first there was nothing, again. I started smacking my gums to get ready to bellow, but instead I felt what seemed to be Donte¡¯s teeth scratching my chest as he grasped my shirt, lifting me up into the air. It seems that Donte¡¯s body had just been blocking the light, I could see clearly now. Donte¡¯s eyes slightly flickered with consciousness, but otherwise he remained docile.


    I took a deep breath through my cracked body, as I listened to the sweet silence of the fighting ring.


    ¡°Lay me down.¡± I ordered. Donte obliged.


    ¡°Bow to me, then get the fuck out of the arena.¡± I don¡¯t think I meant to swear. At least I hope not, swearing around kids was a no-no. But it happened, and Donte followed my order anyways. He bowed in a way only a dragon bowing to a much smaller man lying in a crumple of his own bones could, before leaping out of the arena.


    I tried to move my head to see the shocked faces of the spectators, but it seemed my body had stopped listening to my commands. I tested moving my limbs, and I was able to get just a bit of movement out of my left arm, but nothing substantial. I did this for what seemed like hours, but thinking back on it, couldn¡¯t have been more than a couple seconds, possibly minutes. Or maybe it had been a couple hours, and everyone had just been staring at me, broken, with a smile on my face like a nut. Eventually I gave up on moving and just stared at the ceiling, the red lights of the recording cameras making for an interesting blood-colored constellation.


    I continued to stare, as the adrenaline left my body.


    As the pain set in.


    As the screaming erupted from my lips.


    ***


    When I woke up, I hated the fact that I almost instantly recognized my cell. I tried to lift myself up to a sitting position, but oddly, my right arm did not respond. I turned my head slightly to look at it, and I regretted seeing the mess it had become. I looked over to my left, and was glad to find my left arm still intact. I used it to lift the cover so I could view my legs.


    I leaned over the bed and threw up.


    When I finished, I laid back down and stared up at the ceiling, not sure what to do next. My plan had, for the most part, failed. I won the battle, no one had died, but I had also been hoping that neither of us would end up getting injured badly. That had turned out¡­ not so well.


    I wonder what happened after our match. Maybe they just stopped all the matches and let everybody but me go home. Or maybe they would walk in with cameras yelling, ¡°You¡¯ve been PRANK¡¯d!¡±, and I suddenly would feel my limbs again. I probably would¡¯ve taken the opportunity to laugh, if laughing didn¡¯t hurt so much.


    The door to my cell opened, and Dr. C strolled in, dragging a chair. He put it next to my bed and sat down, looking at me.


    Dr. C pulled out his clipboard, scribbling some things down as he looked at me, a grin cemented on his face. ¡°Good job with the match today Mr. Talbott. You always do seem to make things interesting.¡±


    ¡°What do you mean¡­ good job?¡± I croaked. If I remembered it correctly, the fight should¡¯ve been terrible for anyone watching. Just me running away like a coward before Donte seemingly bowed and exited the arena in a forfeit.


    Dr. C grinned. ¡°That¡¯s what I love about you Mr. Talbott. Unlike the others, you aren¡¯t completely obedient, yet. I can tell.¡± He took a sharpie out of his pocket, taking the opportunity to draw on my face. ¡°You like to bend the rules. See how little you have to bend to fit my mold. At least, that¡¯s what you seemed to be talking about with Donte before the match.¡±


    I really hoped that he didn¡¯t have goddamn supernatural hearing.


    ¡°What I love the most though, is that you haven¡¯t yet realized that your struggle is futile. That you still believe you can hold onto your moral high ground now that you are here. That maybe you can avoid some fisticuffs with a couple of kids half your age. You cannot.¡± He lifted the sharpie, capping it and placing it back in his pocket. ¡°There are consequences to your actions Mr. Talbott. I¡¯d love to continue to see you try your methods, but soon enough you will fail, and I will have lost a valuable test subject. I¡¯m sure we¡¯d both hate to see that happen.¡±


    I closed my eyes. ¡°Why¡­ me? Why are you so focused on¡­ breaking me?¡±


    Dr. C¡¯s laugh invaded my eardrums. ¡°Oh, no Mr. Talbott, don¡¯t think that just because I seem to speak to you so much, means I¡¯m focused specifically on you. You just seem to be the one who needs the most ¡®prompting¡¯. In terms of ¡®breaking¡¯, I plan to, as they say, spread the wealth. There¡¯s much to achieve past all of your various flaws, and much to improve on. Introducing the phase this early was more for the purpose of ¡®breaking¡¯ someone else.¡± I heard him get out of the chair, and the door opened. I opened my eyes. In walked a bodybuilder robot who held in his arms, a man. The man was shivering, holding a small portable tv. Dr. C switched it on.


    I wasn¡¯t sure what I was seeing. The screen just seemed to be rocky and gray. The camera slowly zoomed out, and I started to make out more details. Eyes. The scales making up the body. Claws. The wings of a dragon. A Tail. The fighting arena the statue was in the center of, the dragon seemingly caught in the middle of a roar.


    I knew the answer, but I couldn¡¯t help but mutter, ¡°What¡­ is this¡­¡±


    Dr. C¡¯s grin grew wider. ¡°Why, this is what you desperately tried to foresee. My plan. Donte got a little too hot-headed in his match against Zaida, and ended up like this. It might have to do with losing in such a humiliating way to a certain someone.¡±


    I couldn¡¯t breathe. ¡°How¡­ how could you¡­ you killed him.¡±


    Dr. C looked at me shocked, a palm over his chest. ¡°Oh no, Mr. Talbott, that would be quite cruel of me to kill such a fine lad. No, he is still¡­ recoverable. For now. It all depends on whether Ms. Chalmers can undo the effects.¡±


    ¡°Can she?¡± I pondered out loud.


    ¡°I wonder.¡± Dr. C beamed, shutting off the tv. ¡°We have a couple weeks to kill, since we started the next phase so early, so we can give Ms. Chalmers a chance to recover Donte. But eventually, I assume we¡¯ll just have to¡­ proceed without him.¡± He let those words hang in the air. I covered my eyes again.


    ¡°Speaking of proceeding without, that brings us back to you. You. Are. Fired.¡± My eyes flicked back open.


    The bodybuilder robot slammed my bed, along with me, against the wall. I suddenly felt very cold. I slid to the ground. I tried to drag myself to the door, but the bodybuilder robot just picked me up from my right arm, cracking whatever wasn¡¯t already broken. I screamed.


    The robot let go of my left arm, letting it flop down, then grasped my torso in one hand, and my head in the other. It started squeezing. I could feel my body pop. Feel the cracks of my skull vibrate through me.


    Feel my life ending.


    ¡°Just kidding!¡± My body dropped to the floor.


    Dr. C walked over, squatting in front of me. ¡°At least for now. Fortunately, you are a vampire! They have excellent regenerative abilities, most of the time. You¡¯ve been a bit slow getting to the regenerative parts of your abilities, so we are giving you the option of kick starting your abilities. It¡¯s up to you to take us up on the offer, but we will only give you the same amount of time we are giving Donte to recover. I doubt your arms and legs will heal in time with your current regenerative capabilities.¡±


    My face was still planted on the ground. I didn¡¯t feel like getting up anymore. ¡°What¡­ What do I need to do,¡± I asked.


    Dr. C snapped his finger, and the robot walked over to the T.V. man, proceeding to break his limbs with systematic precision. When the screaming started, the robot began punching the man, until his screams subsided into sobbing. Dr. C got up, brushing his pants, and proceeded to the door. When the door opened, he pointed to the man. ¡°Eat this man. And when I say eat, I mean like a cuisine. You should recover in time if you do. There¡¯s a lot to talk about, but I¡¯ll tell you more. If you make it.¡± He proceeded out of the door, followed by the robot, leaving two broken men lying on the floor.


    I used my only working arm to slowly raise myself to a sitting position, leaning against the wall. I sat there, listening to the other man¡¯s sobs, until they stopped. I waited a bit longer, enjoying the silence, giving me time to collect my thoughts.


    ¡°¡­Tell me about yourself.¡± I finally asked.


    The man lifted his head to get a look at me, snot and tears covering his face, the hope in his eyes clear. ¡°O-of course. I-I work at a real estate firm. I have a f-fa-amily, a large, v-very large family. Uhm. Uhm. My kid, he¡¯s almost out of highschool, says he might even want to go into r-re-real estate like me. I-I-I just want to g-get home.¡± He paused, trying to gauge my feelings. I waited for him to continue. ¡°I have a couple cats, they are getting big, maybe they will even have ki-kids of their own soon. Ha. ha. I-I, um. I still have to pa-pa-pay the mortage on my home. I don¡¯t th-th-think my family will do very well wi-without me there.¡± He paused again. I waited. ¡°Uhm. I guess, I should p-p-probably introduce m-myself, my name is Mas-¡°


    ¡°Stop. Tell me everything, everything you want to say, except for your name.¡± Of course, I had already made my decision on what to do.


    ¡°I hate names.¡±


    *******************************************************


    Author''s Notes:


    Heyo. Thought I would put my notes at the end of the chapter instead of the beginning. I''ve noticed my chapters keep getting slightly longer, and also more difficult to write as I try to consider whether I''m correctly portraying the character''s motivations, without just telling it like I want it to be. Anyways, it took a bit, but I got to a point where I was satisfied with the chapter, so here it is! Hooray! Thanks for reading, and hopefully the next chapter will be out quicker.