Hi, my name is Felidae's Tale and this is my 1st ever fanfiction. I hope I did a good job with this chapter. Please let me know if I make a mistake regarding any character personalities, grammar, spelling, or whatever.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers or Maximum Ride.

Now on with the story!

Footsteps sounded down the hallway of cages. We all scrambled back in our cages, trying to hide in the shadows; desperately praying that it wasn't our turn. Our turn to get shocked, poked, prodded, burned, almost drowned, injected, ripped to shreds, or whatever else the whitecoats decided they wanted to test on us. What are whitecoats? They are the scientists that perform countless painful experiments on us. Who are we? We're the children that were taken from our parents as babies into this life of pain. This is the "School" as some of us call it. It's a research facility that experiments with human DNA. All of us children are different. Our DNA was combined with animal DNA when we first arrived here. Some of us are part bird, feline, lizard, fish, frog, or some other animal. Most of us don't survive past the age of 2. Those of us who were unlucky enough to survive have been enduring painful experiments ever since and developed strange abilities or appendages. Some of us have the ears, eyes, skin, tails, teeth, or other appendages of the animal we were mixed with.

I curled up into a ball, well, as much as I could in my tiny cage. I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing. Maybe they would think I was still passed out from my last experiment? The footsteps came to a halt outside my cage. I stayed perfectly still, praying they'd believe I was passed out.

"Get up. I know you're awake." The harsh voice of a whitecoat said. Rough hands opened my cage and pulled me out. I stumbled a bit, my weak legs giving out a bit. I whirled around and faced them. It was Maze and another whitecoat I didn't know. Maze was the one that loved to put us through the maze test. It was filled with barbed wire, electric shockers that shocked you if you stopped to rest, and Erasers. Those were the vicious lupine hybrids. They loved the blood of other experiments and served as guards and punishers.

The other whitecoat was new. At least, I'd never seen her before. She had long, curly, red hair and emotionless brown eyes that seemed to be hiding something. I wonder what.

I hissed at them, baring my long fangs, my long tail whipping back and forth. My claws unsheathed and I rushed at them only to be grabbed from behind around the neck. I stiffened and stopped my attempt at attack, knowing what was holding me. Knowing that there was no more hope of escaping…at least not today. The Eraser holding me handcuffed my hands behind my back and shoved me forward, sending me face first into the floor. I put my claws away and closed my eyes. Maze grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and roughly pulled me up.

"Enough of that. You wouldn't want to waste your energy before your test would you?" He told me. My eyes opened and widened in fear.

"You hold her. Grab her by the neck and the base of the tail, she won't try and get away if you do." The other whitecoat came forward and grabbed me as he said. One hand went around the back of my neck and the other went around my tail. I noticed her hands were surprisingly gentle as if she didn't want to hurt me.

"No need to be gentle. It's not like it has feelings." Maze told her. Her hands tensed to look as if she was holding me tightly but no more pressure was actually put. Maze turned away fooled by her trick and began to lead the way to where my next experiment was going to be held. I would've tried to escape if the Eraser hadn't been following us.

We went down white hallways and through white doors, until we finally stopped in front of a door with the sign "MAZE 1" on it and I cried on the inside. I stayed perfectly cool and collected on the outside though. Maze opened the door.

"Put her right in here Natalie. You know what to do." Maze directed the last part towards me. The Eraser undid the handcuffs and Natalie pushed me inside.

Inside I rubbed my wrists and waited for the bell that signaled me when to start. Natalie was strange. She was the only whitecoat that hadn't hurt me when given permission to. She seemed nice, if not mysterious.

The bell ringed and I darted forward.

****Time skip. Two hours of the maze later****

I collapsed in my cage, exhausted. Every part of me hurt. My feet had gotten burned so many times, my sensitive ears blasted with loud noise, and I didn't stop the whole time in the maze. Not even when the Eraser clawed my arm when I made a wrong turn into their section. I looked at the bandages covering my arm. Blood was beginning to stain the white fabric. Natalie had been the one to wrap it up. They had told her to take me straight to my cage, but instead she stopped and wrapped it up for me. She had been very gentle with me. It confused me.

Flashback:

"Take her back to her cage." Maze told Natalie.

She grabbed me gently by my neck and tail and led me away. The look on her face when she saw me come out of the room had been pure horror. It had quickly been replaced by indifference though. But I saw it.

We went back down the hallways and doors when she took a turn that we hadn't taken on the way and stopped in front of a door with the sign "Medical Supplies" on it. She let go of my tail and opened the door slightly and stuck her head in. When she seemed satisfied she opened the door fully and led me inside. After closing the door quietly and locking it, she sat me on a metal fold up chair.

"If I let you go do you promise to not attack me? I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to bandage up your arm." She asked quietly. I was so confused by her behavior that I nodded, promising not to hurt her. She let my neck go and I watched as she turned around to find the gauze. Quickly finding it, some water, and a towel, she began to gently clean my wound.

"Why are you doing this?" I whispered. No one had gone against orders and wrapped one of my wounds. No one had ever been gentle to me.

"Because I don't think children should have to go through this. No one should." She replied equally quiet. We both knew that there was a security camera watching us. Why would she work here if she didn't like the experiments?

"What's your name?" she asked me as she started wrapping up my arm with the gauze.

"I don't have one. What's yours?" I asked her back, even though I knew the answer.

"My name's Natasha but call me Natalie for now. How old are you?" my eyebrows furrowed in confusion, then thought. How old was I?

"I'm not sure. What year is it?" I asked, hissing when Natasha pulled the bandage tight.

"It's the year 2012. How long have you been here?" My eyes widened in shock.

"I've been here since 2001. I was born 1997. That means I'm…15." I'd been here most of my life. I'd missed out on most of my life while being in here. Tears welled up in my eyes and I shut my eyes, trying to stop them. Tears meant weakness, weakness meant painful test to "make me stronger". When I got the tears to go away, I opened my eyes and saw Natasha looking at me with sympathy in her eyes.

"You think you know what I'm feeling but you don't." I said glaring at her.

"I know I don't. I have a friend that does though. I think you'll be good friends when you meet him. Come on, I'm done wrapping it. How does it feel?" she said. I looked down at my arm. It was now encased in layers of gauze.

"It feels a lot better." I replied.

"Good. Now, I have to take you back to your cage before they notice how long you've been gone." I got up and we headed to the door. She placed her hand around my neck and led me back to my cage.

End Flashback

Everything about her confused me. Why was she so nice? Why does she act like she cares about me? Why does she work here if she doesn't like the experiments? And what did she mean, "When you meet him" when talking about her friend?