The University- a giant Laboratory Quartered in the middle of the sweltering Gibson Desert in the "Land down under," A.K.A.- Australia. Despite the name their true motive is to create multiple experiments until they come up with a "Superior Species" to govern the world. Those of us experiment that aren't "worthy", are usually sold off to the highest bidding country, usually for military purposes.
Every day of the week, they take us to do different things to explore our abilities and test our strengths. Mondays were for training in the Cage, where we were put against each other to see who's stronger.
Tuesdays we were taken outside to the desert to withstand the heat. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays were all for our individual training sessions.
On Saturdays, we were fighting in the Cage again and Sundays found ourselves staying in "The Doghouse" of the University. Occasionally they would change the schedule to evaluate us in small groups.
Although this particular day was a Sunday, I was standing outside in the heat of the Gibson Desert, Australia. Alongside me stood my closest friend, Ivy, whose chocolate skin was already sweating from the 96 degree springtime weather.
Chained to my left were two people that I had never seen before. A tan skinned boy with dark gray hair towered about a head over me, large bat wings protruding from his back. He was nervous, constantly shifting from foot to foot.
Next to him was a figure cloaked completely in a cream colored cloak, engulfing its body from hood to toe. As we were all faced in a line toward the fence, separating the University from the rest of the world, I knew that behind us stood at least three more scientists, ready to take us down should any one of us act up. Right in front of us was the head of mine and Ivy's section- Dr. Harris.
Just beyond the fence, about 5 yards away, stood 4 people- 3 men and a lady- staring at us. Clearing his throat, Harris smiled, warm and welcoming as if it were his lucky day. "First off, I would like to say thank you, my dear guests for coming out to see us today.
"Today is our evaluation for these four experiments, from our Section Alpha, 119 and 127, and from Section Beta, Experiments 201 and 323. We'll be beginning with 323 from Section Beta." Always the focused one, Ivy stepped forward when her number was called.
"Number 323 is, as you can see, a 9 year old Afro-Arabian girl, with many mental abilities. Her IQ excels over 180, is Omni-linguistic and is an illusionist." I gave out a small huff. "What does that even mean?" I mumbled.
Ivy glanced back at me. "It means I'm incredibly smart, can understand just about any language, and I can make people see things that aren't actually there." She whispered, all the while smirking. After her turn, Ivy stepped back into line, waiting for the "show" to go on. The watchers whispered among each other, glancing at each and every one of us.
"Experiment 201, Step forward." As I reluctantly stepped up, Dr. Harris took out a small key from his lab coat and replaced the chains on my wrists with thick silver bracelets. As he did so, he leaned in close enough for me to smell his nose stinging fish breath. "Make one mistake today, Bird girl, and I'll hang you on the fence by your wing tips!" He hissed, smirking.
I gave no warning as I unfolded my large tan wings, kicking off the ground and into the sky within three seconds, a new record for me. I skyrocketed up to meet the thin clouds that littered the pale blue sky. Looking down, I used my raptor vision to see all those feet back to the "guests" visiting us.
While the cherry haired woman and the man with the sandy colored hair kept their cool, I could see the clearly astounded/ impressed looks on the other two companions. Smiling, I flew in a wide circle, dipping through the few clouds that were in my way.
This place up here, this is a world entirely mine. No other human could dare to feel it as I can. The wind tangling my short brown hair, chasing the sun and moon, with the strength of an eagle and the grace of a swan. Sure a very large swan but the point still stands.
Just when I felt like I'd be up here forever, a small stinging brought my attention to me wrist. I began to get dizzy, losing altitude as my wing movements began to get sloppy and slower. Before I knew it, I had stumbled on to the ground, where I was dragged unceremoniously back to the others and once again chained to Ivy.
Harris hissed at me, "You were taking too long!" facing me with a scowl before turning back to the visitors, no doubt smiling as before. I swear, that guy has something against me specifically.
"Experiment 201 is our first successful avian human. She is a 9 year old Italian American girl and is injected with the DNA of a Peregrine falcon. She can fly at an average of 105 mph. She is our fastest avian experiment."
One of the visitors, a brown haired man adjusted his glasses, addressing Dr. Harris. "Are all of these 'experiments' in good health condition?" Though he didn't show it, he made it sound like he forced the words out. Harris narrowed his eyes. "Yes, each and every one of them is in perfect condition. Now on to our next Section."
The cloaked person stepped up upon hearing its number. "Experiment 119 is a Caucasian girl, age 12, and her abilities-"I blocked out Harris's deep voice in favor of gaining more information about the boy next to me. Tapping him on the shoulder, I smiled when he looked at me, reddish brown eyes looking down at me warily.
"I'm Firefly." I whispered, careful not to draw any attention to us. "What's your name?" "Firefly is not a normal name." He responded quietly. I huffed. "Well, my real name is Marley, but I think 'Firefly' sounds more exciting, don't you think?" He gave a small smile opening his mouth to say something before Harris called his number, snapping us out of conversation.
"127 is an experiment from our 'night creatures' line. It was a group of experiments to see what would happen if a nocturnal animal and a non-nocturnal creature could reside in the same DNA scheme." Harris claimed.
"And did it work?" That was the first time the red haired woman spoke up. She looked un-amused with her slender arms crossed over her curvy body. Harris frowned. "No, 127 is just as day bound as before.
"127 is an 11 year old English boy whose abilities include flight with his albino bat wings at an average of 65 mph and has a type of 'Radar Sense', enabling him to be aware of anything within a 10 meter radius of himself."
The boy stepped back into his rightful place next to me, staring out at the scientists. "Shuffle." "Huh?" He glanced down at me. "If your name is Firefly, then mine is 'Shuffle." He answered shyly. My smile grew wider. "Alright, Shuffle it is."
"… Glad to do business with you all. I expect someone to be here tomorrow for pick up and handling?" Dr. Harris wrapped up his discussion.
'What? Pick-up?' I scooted back toward Ivy so she could fill me in. "Ivy, what did I miss?" She sigh, explaining the situation to me.
"They are apparently from some weapons company in Romania. They just bought all of us and by High Noon tomorrow, we'll be on a cargo plane to no-man's land." Ivy poured out the information that I missed.
"All of us?" I asked hopefully. I would hate to leave my friends behind to go on an adventure. I would probably get to fly to all sorts of places, but I can't leave my family behind stuck in cages.
Ivy sighed. "No, just you, me, Bat Boy over there-," "Shuffle." "…fine, Shuffle, and the hooded girl over there." We both looked over to the person in question.
Besides the long, dark hair spilling out of the hood, there was almost no way to find out that there was even a living thing hidden behind the cloth.
We were herded back through the University doors, into the long expanse of hallway once again. After telling the others about the strange people and the new arrangements, it was up for discussion. Meaning everyone was shouting at each other.
"Absurd! You can't leave us. We're family!" Moonah screeched out the loudest, golden tail lashing out against the bars behind her. She was part howler monkey, after all.
Snowflower was trying to make the best of the situation. "Well, you'll come back and find a way to free us too, right?" She looked up at Ivy, a cage across from her, with pleading pale blue eyes, her voice as soft as normal. Ivy shrugged. "It depends on what they plan on doing with us. We might not even live long enough to devise a plan." Snow looked horrified at the idea. "Th-they w-wouldn't kill you, would they?" She looked to the others. I just shrugged.
Leo asked in a rumbling voice, "What are we going to do without you two? Who's gonna tell us stories every night to help us sleep?"
I decided to speak up. "C'mon guys, you've still got King and Topaz to account for. Speaking of, where are they?" Moonah answered my question. "They should still be in training. Hmph, they have the longest sessions out of all of us!" She shook her head, golden strands waving wildly about her face.
At that moment, the sliding doors of the warehouse we were in creaked open and the two in question stepped in. Topaz was covered in dust, dimming the shine of her cinnamon skin tone. Her choppy shoulder length black hair was caked in even more dirt, masking her small panther ears. King was another story.
Our fearless leader was as clean and flawless as he had been this morning. His hair, shoulder length locks of light brown, was fine and fair, fitting perfectly with his tall, spotted serval- cat ears and thin tail trailing behind obediently.
Without a sound, the two were put in their respective cages- Topaz above Ivy, across from mine, and King two cages over from me- and their handlers left without so much as a glance at the others.
King looked around the circle of cages, addressing anyone who would answer.
"Is everyone alright?" Chauncey nodded. "Everyone is okay."
"Any news about anything?"
"Me and Firefly are being shipped off to Romania tomorrow." Ivy stayed as calm as her sister in times like these.
"WHAT?!" King screeched, waking up anyone who attempted to take a nap, me included. The serval- hybrid jumped up and started pacing around his cage, blue eyes a lit with rage. "What right do they have to separate us? To sell you to ROMANIA?!" He was fuming.
"They have no right to lock us up in cages and use at lab rats, but they do anyway." I put in my input. King stopped pacing and stared at me. Oh, gosh. I shouldn't have said that. I hate it when he looks at me with those icy blue eyes, and I bet that everyone else does too. We're just afraid to admit it. I felt as if he could see right into the core of my being with one icy glance.
I looked away quickly. "Firefly, we mustn't fall into their temptations that they hold to our faces. We must resist or we'll end up in deep trouble." He said to me.
"What does that have to do with anything?" I snapped at him. God, I hated it so much when he changes subject so quickly. "Your scent implies that you've been near a bat." What? Sometimes I think he speaks just to hear himself talk…
Oh. 'Bat.' Shuffle. I should have thought about that. We aren't supposed to mingle with other sectors of experiments. It apparently "stains them with our scrambled DNA." King doesn't want us lingering with other sectors during training sessions, though I never knew why, and I didn't have the guts to ask. On the other hand, there are only three sectors...
I shifted, suddenly uncomfortable with my position. Everyone was staring at me by now. "T-there was another flyer, like me. I- um," Ivy saved me before I could make a fool of myself.
"Oh!" She faked surprise, "Wasn't that the bat boy that got tangled in your chains as he walked by?" Her sharp green eyes locked with mine in feigned bewilderment. "He was quite the clumsy one, wasn't he? Tripping over you, causing you both to fall."
"Yeah, that was him. Poor guy had no sense of balance." I wrapped up the lie perfectly. "Ahm, I'm gonna get some sleep. We've apparently got a long day tomorrow. *yawn* Okay, well good night!" I flipped on to my back and curled into a ball, ready for exhaustion to overtake me.
