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Gargoyles (the series and its characters) belong to Disney.


Copycats Design

Chap. 2

By the time fifty and I went back to our cell an uncomfortable silence hung over our heads. We sat down in the bathroom, both of us on the tiled floor facing each other. The silence was shattered only by the hum of the lights.

"Do you think she's real?" Fifty asked, too quiet for the speakers to pick up. I paused and then shrugged slightly. I wasn't sure what to think. This whole situation was new, and frightening. They could have just hired her and not bothered to see that she fit the stereotype for Masters, but a voice in my head pointed out this couldn't be true. The people here would never have made such a mistake. No there was something else here; I didn't know what but it was there. Fifty was still looking at me, edging me on to make a more verbal decision.

"I'm not entirely sure. Maybe."

"She reminds me of the old king lion from my story. You remember that right?" I wrinkled my nose. I did remember, but Master Vivian didn't seem like the kind and kingly old lion from fifty's story.

"Yes, but how does she remind you of him?"

"Well she's older than us and seems nice too. She even teaches, like how the king lion taught his son."

"Didn't the king die in your story too?"

"I wasn't saying they're exactly alike forty-two, but don't you think they are kind of similar?" Fifty protested. Maybe a little, but as far as I was concerned I really doubted that Master Vivian would live up to the expectations.


Ring. Ring. "All showers are now on."

After the intercom had shut off I got out of my bed and headed to the bathroom with fifty. After turning the handle we waited. Nothing came out. Looking closer water spurted out of the shower head and doused us. Fifty giggled as I tried to get the water from spurting in my face. After a little while we were finished. The water was once again turned off, and fifty headed back into the main part of our cell. I took one last try at drying myself off completely before joining her. My tawny coat was damp but not so soaked that couldn't put my blank, white clothes back on. In one quick motion my leathery wings flew open shaking the water droplets off. Fifty did the same as I ringed my curly brown hair one last time and watched as water poured out on to the checker-board styled tiles and then down the drain. Satisfied I went back out to fifty to wait for our escort.

As we headed down the hall I wondered what would be in store for us. Would Master Vivian still be here, or had nerves gotten the best of her and made her leave the facility? These were my thoughts as the door opened.

"Hello Fifty and Forty-two. Sit down and take out a piece of paper and a crayon." Her voice was soft, and the majority of fear she had from the last lesson was gone. She had a cheerful smile on her face that looked completely out of place in the room. "Well since neither of us knows anything about each other I thought it would be a good idea to learn more. Would both of you please write three facts about yourself on the paper? I'll write my own three up on the board." Why did she care about what we liked? Why should she? Glancing over at fifty I saw her staring at the paper. Quickly she wrote something down then folded her hands. Looking at my own blank sheet I tried to write a fact. True to her word Master Vivian had three facts up on the Board. "Okay, are you done Fifty? Here let me look at it." Master Vivian paused to scrutinize fifty's paper. After a moment or two she set it down. "Could you please read it aloud for me?"

"It says that I'm the youngest."

"I meant more personal facts; what you like or dislike. What about yours Forty-two?"

"I said that I'm the second youngest." I couldn't think of anything to write down. Master Vivian sighed and put her hand on her face muttering slightly.

"Well that did a lot of good. Okay we'll do this orally then. First Forty-two then Fifty, both of you will tell me one thing that you like. Okay, let's start." What should I say? If I said something really important they'd probably just take it away. As I was thinking the woman lifted herself onto the desk between the two of us.

"I like the color blue." Simple, somewhat personal, but no emotional attachment.

"Really? Well that's my favorite color too, why do you like it?" Why? Did there have to be a why?

"I think it's… calming."

"That's a wonderful reason. What's one thing you like Fifty?" Master Vivian's light blond head turned to look at her as she spoke.

"I like water. It's relaxing like the color blue."

"That's nice. Do you swim?"

"Ah... No I don't know how to swim."

"Is there a pool here that you can learn in?" The question was spoken to only her, and as fifty looked at me questioningly I shrugged. Fifty looked back at our teacher and shook her head.

"Oh, well that's a shame, um… Do either one of you have anything else you'd like to say?" A heavy silence weighed down on us as the conversation she had been trying to create died. Our lives were a routine and no one had personal things that would be considered coveted. No one was allowed to move about or have privacy, and even if you couldn't see the cameras that didn't mean they weren't there. We were never let outside nor had I ever seen any windows to the outside. You almost had to wonder if there was an outside. Some of the older kids had spoken of a forest surrounding the Jail but neither thirty-seven, fifty, nor I had ever seen it.

We pretended once, a long time ago (there had been more of us then) that at lunch we were really having a picnic. Fifty told me how nice the warm sun felt on her fur. Someone (I can't remember, they didn't last long) commented on the fresh air and asked me 'Doesn't a breeze feel wonderful in the summer?' I had been thinking about birds, the small little birds on the forest floor, hopping and flying in every direction…

"I'm fond of robins…" Robins, that's what they're called. Robins, those small brown birds, are just so ordinary and common. No one bothers a robin, except maybe a cat.

"I used to feed those when I was little growing up in Pennsylvania. They are pretty cute, huh? My favorite bird is the Macaw though; they're my favorite color and I had one as a pet growing up." Her voice stayed soft as she spoke to us, and she always had a small smile on her face once we began to keep the conversation going. We may not have had a lot to say about ourselves, but we didn't need to as she was more than happy to answer our overflowing reservoir of questions. I liked her more than Ms. Pruitt; she was warmer than our old Teacher.


When Vivian had signed the contract she assumed she would be working at a private school, why else would you be required to live on campus? She had not expected to be working in a genetic testing facility. She would have left had an unspoken threat not been hung over her head, and had she not met those two kids. Two girls trapped in a concrete cage without windows. This was cruel and wrong.

The two were sweet, if more than a little distant. The one had been scared when they met. Oh God, the child with lion-like characteristics and giant bat wings resting on her shoulders was scared of her. That first day she would have laughed had she not been terrified beyond belief. Truthfully Vivian liked surprises. Surprise parties, for instant, had been a staple in the celebration of her birthday and her friend's. Her first day at her new job was not an example of a fun surprise.

The man that had hired her (Dr. Stein?) had been right when he said they were kids. She estimated the two to be around nine and seven years old respectively. She loved kids, never had any herself, but always volunteered to work with them. She even went to college to become an elementary school teacher. That was her passion, to work with and help children…

Her phone went off on the nightstand next to the cheap bed she had been given. Her blue eyes left the ceiling, and she answered telling her boss, 'I'll be down in a second, sir'.

What the young woman guessed was the employee's lounge was spare of furniture and held nothing personal, same with the rest of the compound. If she ever left nothing in her house would be grey ever again, as she had a much greater appreciation for colors now. Resting against the wall near the water cooler was the man from earlier. He still wore the sunglasses and didn't acknowledge the approaching blond as he sipped at steaming coffee.

"You wanted to talk to me sir?" His back straightened and if he hadn't been wearing glasses that blacked out his eyes, Vivian would have put her money on the idea he was staring at her.

"Yes, follow me to the conference room. I want you to meet some of our coworkers." It was hard to decide if it would be wiser to accept or decline as the aging man led her to a back room. The first thing she noticed was the storage bins stacked against the wall. The next things were the three people already in the room sitting down at a small table. "I want to introduce you to Dr. Felix, Dr. Rosen, and Davis Miller. Everyone this is our newest player Ms. Vivian River." The man who had been gestured to as Dr. Felix looked up at her through the smoke of his cigarette. His hair was grey and balding, and his mug was wrinkled to the point where laugh lines, frown lines, and everything in between meshed together to vaguely form a face. She wondered if this had been the technician in the room with Dr. Stein before.

"How the hell did a pretty girl like you get dragged into this hell-hole?" The Indian woman across the table scowled at him.

"Is human decency just too difficult for you to understand?" She had been pointed out as Dr. Rosen. That left the last man, quietly sitting and starring at his hand while the other two bickered, as Davis.

"Human decency curled up in a hole somewhere in the 80's and died when this place was born. Or do you not notice the experiments going on here you stuck up bitch?"

"Of course I've noticed, why else would I be here you imbecilic old man?"

"Should we be talking so loud in here? No offense of course…" Interrupted Vivian, the two weren't yelling but if the conversation had been over heard… A snort drew her attention to Dr. Felix as he leaned back in his chair and turned away from .

"I turned off the camera in here months ago; no one cares about the crummy storage area anyway. They use it to store some outdated equipment. Besides if the big men upstairs haven't taken notice to this tiny blip in security yet they never will." He leaned back and took another puff from his cigarette. Stein remained standing and motioned for Vivian to take a seat at the small back table.

"How would you like to be part of something bigger than yourself? We plan to expose GMF to the public and we know that you, like us, believe this place has to be shut down." The teacher's eyes widened as she processed just what these suspicious people were telling her. A cold distrust washed over her a minute later.

"How am I supposed to believe this? I arrive about three days ago and you want me to be a part of your little coup? I barely know any of you; in fact I don't know any of you! You trust me not to just turn around and tell the big men upstairs about this to save my own skin." Everyone in the small, cramped room looked at her. Even Mr. Davis who had never spoken looked up from his hands. Dr. Rosen looked at her with cold, calculating eyes, a polar opposite from the man she had been arguing with.

"What exactly Ms. River, do you plan to accomplish by informing our superiors of this meeting?"

Snort

"Yeah, girly, no offenses but the assholes upstairs are pretty trigger happy. Informing them of this, and that you were a part of it won't gain you any brownie points." She swallowed her rising fear as the old man addressed that previously unspoken of threat. Dr. Stein looked back at her and began to continue.

"We know that you believe what they do to those children here are wrong. We want to try and set things right. One day we want these children to be able to look outside again." Again? "Could you honestly stand by and be complacent as this facility destroys people? We need someone who can earn Forty-two's and Fifty's trust. Are you in?"

This could kill you. This place is going to kill those kids. If you even get out you could be on the run for the rest of your life. You don't have a lot to live for anyways.

"I'm in."