-Vamp's POV-
Cages are annoying little things. They were always too small for me. My name is Vamp, I'm 16…ish, and I live in a cage. I live in a cage because I'm a "freak". And a disobedient one at that. There's actually a story behind how I ended up in this cage instead of on the outside looking in, but this isn't that story. This story isn't about me and my past; it's about my flock and our future. I'm sure that big-headed Eraser told you her bit, but it's my turn.
Back to cages. There are a couple of them in the lab inside the larger compound of labs they created us in. We call the compound "the lab". That's it. I'm not sure where it is, I think we were told once that it was somewhere on the middle of the map. I've never really been outside the lab, only in the fenced-in training area.
From my cage on the floor I can see counters that hold things like test tubes and scalpels and other tools they use to make our lives miserable; the usual scenery in this place. We don't have to worry about those for much longer because we're on the "retirement" list. Basically that means they're going to put us down like dogs at the pound. Or let the Erasers rip us to pieces. One of the two.
Look, no matter what you let them tell you, don't let the scientists influence you, okay? They're extremely good at that. If they weren't, odds are that they wouldn't have a workplace still. I've been in the lab for as long as I can remember. Not always in the same room, but always in the lab. I was moved into this sector not too long ago, after they decided it was time to put me down. The wait on Death Row always lasts forever.
There's a girl I don't know in the cage next to mine. She has blond hair and I noticed, every so often, a pair of wings will stick out on her back from under her shirt. That makes her an avian-hybrid. A normal one from the looks of it, but you never know for sure. I'd heard her speak occasionally to the Erasers that pass through here, though never very fondly.
There's an empty cage next to the blond girl's and then another girl sitting in the last. She hadn't moved much, just sat there perched on the backs of her feet with her black hair hanging in her face. I think I've only heard her say one or two words and I'm not sure what she is. One of the Eraser's who had passed through, the blond had called her Kazumi, looked at the clipboard on her cage and said she was "interesting". Both she and the blond seemed to be about my age.
Like I said, I'm 16-ish. I have black hair that falls into my eyes and I never bother to move; I don't see a point. I can still see with hair in my eyes. I have wings, the same color as my hair, along with other traits you'll learn about later. And I'm tall. This dog-sized cage and I, we don't get along.
I looked up as they brought another girl, who again looked about the same age as the rest of us, into the unit lab. If we were supposed to be segregated by gender then I am in the wrong sector. She had long black hair and was a little on the short side. Or really on the short side. Then again, I'm really tall. They put her in the cage in between the two other girls and locked her up like the rest of us.
A moment after the men who brought her in left, that Kazumi girl and another girl I didn't recognize walked in. I figured they were both Erasers, but they had been getting more creative with what they used to guard the lab so really they could be anything.
Kazumi walked up to the cage that held the new girl with a smile on her face. "Well, well, surprised to see you here, Tomoyo." She said, chuckling. The girl in the cage, Tomoyo growled and bared wolf-fangs. Another Eraser. Interesting. "I thought you were dead. It's been a while." Kazumi said.
"Right back at you. Same ***** as always. Why did I think otherwise?" Tomoyo said. I almost smirked. Someone had a potty mouth. Kazumi smiled and thumped the top of Tomoyo's cage.
"So this is that sister of yours. You've been dying to get your hands on her for years, right Kazu?" The other girl asked, walking up behind Kazumi. She smiled at her partner's sister in the cage and laughed lightly.
Kazumi grinned evilly. "That's right." She said. Tomoyo glared at them both. Sister wolves. That was an interesting development. Now that I looked at them they did look similar; about the same age, with the same black hair. Maybe twins. But the one out of the cage was taller and had red eyes where the caged twin was shorter with yellow eyes.
"Calm down, Tomoyo." The blond girl in the cage next to mine said. I knocked my knuckles on the bars of my cage, trying to get a 'dun, dun, dun' sound. The situation seemed dramatic enough despite the blond trying to be a mediator.
"Quiet you!" The third Eraser barked at us, glaring and taking a few steps down the row of cages. She seemed to change moods quickly, going from gloating to snarling in a flash.
Tomoyo growled. "I'm not your *****, Kin." She said, snarling. "You can't keep me in here forever." More profanity. Funny girl. The last Eraser's name was Kin. She didn't know Tomoyo but apparently she knew her. That may be good to know. And then again it may not be, considering we were about to be euthanized. And I had my doubts it was going to be humanly.
Kazumi fit her hands in between the bars of Tomoyo's cage and grabbed her sister's throat. "I suggest you stay quiet. You're on a very short leash." She said. If they were twins then they were twins with bad water between them. Sisters with bad water between them for sure.
"Easy, girl." Kin said putting a hand on Kazumi's shoulder. "Don't do anything we could get in trouble for. There'll be time for that later." She smiled as she said the last part. Erasers like their job too much.
"Hnn..." Kazumi growled, taking her hands off of Tomoyo's neck. Tomoyo caught her breath and looked at the two Erasers outside of the cage darkly. Tensions ran high. It all made for a very dramatic situation. Why was I locked in a cage in a room full of girls?
Kin knelt down to look at Tomoyo face-to-face. She smiled at her again and put her hand on a bar. "Don't worry; we'll take good care of you, Hun." She said in a cheerful voice. Like I said, they enjoy their job to much. Tomoyo growled and bit at Kin's hand. I smirked. Kin flicked Tomoyo's nose and stood up as Tomoyo rubbed where she'd been flicked. "I'm getting bored just sitting around doing nothing. When are we going to get to kill?" She asked, looking over at Kazumi. The glorified *****. Ok, Shorty wasn't the only one with a potty mouth.
A third girl with oddly colored pink hair walked into the lab. She stood behind the two Erasers on the outside and put a finger up to her lips as she looked inside each of the cages. Her eyes held an almost eerie lack of emotions. I heard a strange buzzing sound and then she pulled a cell phone out of her pocket. She looked at it for a moment before pushing a few buttons.
Kin jumped a little bit and looked behind her to see the girl standing there. "You're not supposed to be in here!" She growled, turning around. That's weird. I had no clue what the newest girl to show up was as far as DNA went, but if she's "not supposed to be here" it made me think that she probably wasn't another Eraser.
The pink-haired girl looked up and blinked twice before putting her phone back in her pocket. "I have every right to be in here like you two. Except I will not be locked in one of those things." She said and pointed at the cages with the finger she'd had up to her lips.
She walked up to my cage and studied me before titling her head a bit. She walked to the next cage and the next, ignoring the two Erasers. She looked in at Tomoyo and again she titled her head. She turned around to the two Erasers and put her finger back up to her lips. "Tell me what are you two doing here?" She asked them. Her voice held no wavering emotion but it did contain an odd hint of roboticness.
"Who are you? A young Whitecoat? A new mutant made to work for them?" Kin asked, her mood now switching to annoyed. So they didn't know what she was either. That was almost weirder. They don't normally let just anything run loose around here. You never know what might happen if they did that.
The girl tilted her head. "No, I am myself." She muttered. She walked over to the last cage and ran her hand along the top then turned around to look at Kin again. "I came to watch the subjects get retired." She said. Her hand gripped the lock on the cage but she didn't move it or anything. Just held it.
"Yourself?" Kin repeated, it was hard to tell if her voice was angry or something else entirely. "There's no such thing in this place." She said, her voice was cold now, like the metal bars of the cages.
The girl's hand slipped off the lock and she pursed her lips. "Yes, I am myself." She studied the two girls before continuing. "All of you Erasers have a personality flaw." She said. She walked up close to Kin and smiled. "I have only known you two for a few minutes. I know you are Erasers. You two act alike, a personality flaw." She said. Her hand slipped into her pocket and she pulled the phone out again and checked it before putting it back. Kin looked back at her like she wanted to say something but wasn't creative enough to think of anything.
I rattled the bars on my cage and she glared and stalked over, away from the girl. She sat on top of my cage and swung her legs into the bars making them, and my ears, ring. I was about to reach out for her leg, to give her a little something in return, when a Whitecoat walked in the room. "What are you all doing in here? Never mind that. Out, all of you. We have tests to run." He said sharply and the three girls turned their heads to look at him.
Kazumi sighed. "Fine." She said and started walking out of the lab. Kin got off my cage and followed after Kazumi closely. Huh. That was the most excitement I'd had in weeks of being locked in here. The change was kind of nice.
The girls in the cages next to mine stated whispering to each other, about how they had and hadn't changed. Tomoyo asked the blond if she'd ever made it out and she shook her head before asking about how Tomoyo had gotten back here. Turns out they'd caught her. The blond told her friend she was glad to see her again. A perk of being quiet all the time is people don't notice when you eavesdrop. And there was really nothing better to do when you're locked in a cage.
The odd girl hadn't left with the two Erasers. "Hello sir." She said and did a little bow. She walked towards him and pulled out her phone quickly, looking at it before putting it back in her pocket. "I am not sure if you know, but my 'father', Ethan Maxwell, said I could watch these...umm…mutants get retired." She said and motioned to the cages. It was weird the way she said father, like it was a label instead of what you would call a parent that you loved. Then again, she did want to watch us die, so she was already pretty weird.
The white coat looked at the cages and then back at the pink-haired girl. "They're not scheduled to be retired for a few more hours; we have some last minute tests to run. You should go see your father, if that's who you're with." He said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a couple of the girls exchange looks and I shifted a bit in my cage. The energy in the room had suddenly changed and it felt like something was about to go down.
The girl nodded and started to walk towards the door but stopped when she was standing next to the Whitecoat. "I guess I shall go talk to him then. But there is one last thing I have to tell you." She said. She looked straight ahead and lifted her hand quickly to punch him in the face. She whistled and then, believe it or not, his shadow's hands came out from the ground and grabbed onto him. It slowly began to go back into the floor. "You're fired."
She ran to the cages and undid the lock on Tomoyo's cage first before running to the next one. She turned around to look up at one of the security cameras. "So long, Ethan Maxwell, have fun in Hell." She shouted at the camera. She took her phone out of her pocket again and threw it on the floor. Her foot came down on it, smashing it to little pieces.
Tomoyo blinked and got out of her cage, then helped the girl unlock all the cages. "Thank you..." She said to her. Tomoyo seemed slightly confused. But hell, I was too.
I jumped out of my cage, picked it up, and threw it at the test tubes and research on the counter in front of me, suddenly pumped with adrenaline. I turned around to see all of the mutants were out of their cages. "Follow me."
