"And this is Bright-Eyes. He and his sister are yours."
Test 02 – alternatively Bright-Eyes – was a young boy at about 7. He had pale, warm skin and messy, mocha colored hair. His sister, Test 01, had a similar pale complexion and straight raven black hair. Inside the incubation chamber, bubbles floated around him occasionally. A straight, pole-like cord extended from an oxygen mask that covered his mouth to the bottom of the tube, where air bubbles exuded and floated to the top. Beads of blood also burbled up from his body. Specifically his fingernails – which were long, black wolf-like claws, his head, where his ears had been replaced with those of a white wolf, and the space above his rear end, the place where his long white tail connected to the rest of his body. The back of his neck and upper back had long, snow-colored hairs growing from them. The boy's eyes were clenched shut, his face and body tense. After all… the process was painful. The scientists assumed. Today was the first time they would ever speak to Bright-Eyes, assuming he could speak.
Acquiring the two from their parents had been easy enough, it had just taken a letter bit of… "persuading." Of course, they had been reluctant. They had refused, actually. The scientists had wanted to give up and pick two other children, perhaps orphans, but the boss had insisted that these two were perfect for whatever reason. Maybe their nearly perfect genetic similarities? It was true that the two had pure, undiseased genes…. They were also twins, which made the experimentation process easier for a variety of reasons.
The ginger-haired man pressed his gloved hands against the glass, looking at the boy with wonder. His face was so close that his breath fogged up the glass. After a long while, he asked in a quiet, awed tone, "What is he?"
"A Chimæra, just like the rest. Only this one is half wolf, half human."
"Ah," the man said, still staring at the boy. He tapped on the glass. "Hello, Bright-Eyes!"
There was a loud gasp from both people as the boy snapped open his eyes, full of rage. The whites of his eyes were a bright, fern-ish green. He snarled soundlessly at the people, revealing sharp, white canine teeth as more bubbles and blood floated up around him. He didn't attempt to attack the glass or escape. He just glared at the two, baring his teeth and flexing his claws. His tail thrashed like a string being dragged quickly across the ground in a zigzag motion. He twisted his head around and looked at his sister, and his eyes filled with something like… shock. Bright-Eyes tried to move his body towards her, but the cord wouldn't allow much movement in anywhere but his head and neck. He yanked his head upwards as if trying to snap it, but the cord wouldn't budge. He tore at it with his claws, but the rod-like cord was immune. Bright-Eyes glared at the scientist – no, the monster – that had trapped him in there.
Soren tore his eyes away from Bright-Eyes and looked at the incubator next to him to see what he was so panicked about. He grabbed the scientist and pointed towards it, unable to find words. Inside the cylindrical prison, Bright-Eyes's sister writhed in pain. Her eyes were slammed firmly shut. Tears leaked out the sides. Her skin seemed to be turning a deep, amethyst-black, starting at her hands and feet. Her arms and legs had grown longer than normal. Her jaw had extended to some amount. Even though her eyes were closed, a bright, beaming purple shown through them. On the border of where her human skin collided with the monster's skin, deep crimson blood dripped out. She cringed in pain, then opened her eyes and looked at her brother. Bright-Eyes was still thrashing against the cord, trying to get closer to her. The girl looked around helplessly, her purply-green eyes landing on the scientist. She pleaded with him silently. The man was at the control panel of the girl's incubation chamber almost instantly, clipboard on the ground beside him. He typed commands in frantically after pressing his hand to the recognition screen, trying to stop the changing of the girl. But it was too late. The genes had already been tampered with. Her little body seemed to be collapsing in on itself. When he looked up again, he saw an Enderman instead of the young green-eyed, black-haired girl that she had been just a few moments ago. He made the mistake of looking into its eyes, searching to see if she was still in there.
The Enderman roared with rage, pounding its fists against the glass.
"W-why isn't it teleporting?" Soren asked, sounding panicked.
"We made an incubator that prevented it, just in case this happened!" the scientists yelled, his voice high. He backed away from the monster, afraid. "But we never really expected it to!"
The wolf boy had snapped the cord and ripped off his oxygen mask now. He moved his body towards his sister, nearly touching the walls of the incubator. The Chimæra tried and failed to scream in rage, bubbles spilling out of his mouth. He clawed at the glass now, the hairs on his neck sticking straight up, ears down. Beside him, the other Chimæra were in a still, sound trance. An ocelot, an iron golem, a rabbit, and a sheep. Blood bubbled calmly from them, too. Their faces looked tensed – pained.
The Enderman cracked the glass with one final punch. The gooey, watery, glass-filled liquid poured out of the chamber as the Enderman stepped out, roaring with rage. It teleported on top of the scientist, fists honing in on him. Soren snapped out his initial shock and unsheathed his sword. He wasn't supposed to have it – no weapons were allowed in the lab – but Ivor had all kinds of potions, even ones that protected metal from metal-detecting rays. He swung his sword at the Enderman, who was still focused on the scientist and knocked it to the floor. It flashed red, shrieked at the ginger-haired man, and teleported away.
Bright-Eyes was sobbing now, his face turning a reddish-purple. His tears floated up to the top of the chamber. He put his hands on the glass and watched.
"144! We have a 144 in the incubation lab! This is professor Evanson!" screamed the man – professor Evanson – into the walkie-talkie around his waist.
Soren walked forwards, sword pointed at the Enderman. Before he could attack it, it disappeared with a tiny "fwoosh" noise. The bearded man looked around, but it was nowhere to be seen. He was about to run into the halls and search for it, but 5 scientists came barging into the lab. They pressed their hands to the body recognition screens on the control panels of their selective half-bloods. Bright-Eyes, who had passed out, and the others came tumbling out of the chambers. All but the wolf hybrid woke up almost instantly, looking at each other and around the room with confused and shocked expressions. The wolf Chimæra's tail twitched as he laid unconscious. The gooey liquid poured out his mouth. He opened his eyes and coughed, wheezing and gasping for breath. He lifted his head and sniffed the air, eyes drifting around the room.
His eyes landed on the rabbit hybrid. A girl with a slim, elfish body, short orange hair, warm dark brown eyes, and freckles that dotted the bridge of her nose. Big, long ears extended from her head in place of human ones. She also had a fluffy rabbit tail and a twitchy nose. Her eyes widened with fear as she looked at Bright-Eyes. The green-eyed half wolf stood, eyes again searching the room. His head swiveled towards the sheep girl's direction, having scented her, too. She had dark skin, fluffy black hair on both her body and head and a poofy black tail. She let out a panicked "bah" and scooted backward away from him, as did the ocelot hybrid, a boy with blond hair cobalt-blue eyes. Spots covered his body and face. He had a long tail and claws. The only one who didn't look afraid of him was the iron golem – a boy with a monobrow, black hair, dark gray eyes. Metal seemed to be under his human skin, which parted in places. Flowered vines hung from his shoulders. He just looked at Bright-Eyes, his expression unreadable.
The wolf hybrid's breath rattled. His chest heaved. His tail swung back and forth. Everyone in the lab was silent, watching. Waiting.
The boy lowered himself onto all fours and, with an animalistic snarl, ran forward. He slid right between the professor who was standing in front of rabbit girl's legs and pounced on her. He held her shoulders down with his hands. His claws dug into them, red hot blood spilling out. The rabbit girl squeaked in fear and pain and kicked him in the stomach with powerful legs. He was sent flying into the scientist standing over them, who was frozen in fear – a woman with dark brown hair done up in a ponytail, glasses, and braces. The two went crashing onto the floor. People seemed to have snapped out of their shock and ran to grab Bright-Eyes, who growled and snarled and lashed out in rage. He tried to attack the rabbit-girl again, but arms were wrapped around his shoulders and he was dragged away from her. As he was dragged away, he looked at the rabbit hybrid. He saw mortal fear in the girl's eyes.
And, to be honest, he felt the same way.