September 29, 1995
Fred and the other mutates step out into this wide exposed area, surrounded by steel girders. On a flat surface is a black helicopter, with the word "XANATOS" stenciled along the tail. The door is open and they step in. The goon Talon sits in the pilot's seat and starts flipping switches.
"I did not know you can fly a helicopter," says Fred Sykes.
"Wait for me!" someone yells. Dr. Scarlett Mallory runs aboard the helicopter, wearing a blouse and a skirt. She sits down next to the female leonine mutate. Maggie Reed, she recalls from reading the files on the test subjects.
The engines roar to life.
"Here we go," says Talon, and soon the helicopter is airborne.
Scarlett had read about the mutate calling himself Talon. She wondered why he was chosen, given his background. It seemed far too risky as compared to these others, especially as he did not even volunteer to be a test subject.
Of the people in this helicopter, only she and the mutate whose name is Fred Sykes know that Dr. Anton Sevarius is still alive.
The helicopter passes over the streets and buildings of Manhattan, then crossing the Harlem river to fly over the Bronx, and then out to the suburbs of southern Westchester County. After maybe ten or minutes, the helicopter is flying asbove rural Westchester County.
"We should be less than a minute," says Talon.
The others look as the ground gets closer and closer. They can see fields and trees and streams, a far different landscape from the concrete canyons in Manhattan.
Soon, the helicopter's struts make contact with the concrete landing pad. Talon flips some switches and shuts off the engines of the helicopter.
A man in a suit, flanked by two guards, approach.
"Welcome to our facility here," he says. "Tom Bates, Ops.
"Call me Talon."
"We do have rooms for you; all of our guests are free to use all of the recreational and food facilities."
Scarlett steps off the helicopter. "Dr. Scarlett Mallory," she says.
"I was told to expect you."
"I will need to brief the medical staff. I have the files here."
Bates notices the geneticist holding a briefcase. "All right."
Ooooooooo
Fred Sykes lies down on his bed. The bedroom is simple, with white plaster walls and a closet, a small desk, and a telephone. It is as the guest quarters in the castle, but all the amenities are here in this complex, including the common kitchen, the cafeteria, the lounge, the library.
The whole facility spans about forty acres, in the woods. Half an hour by helicopter to New York City, or up to two hours by car. On the surface is a helipad, the big house, and some detached support buildings.
What he had not seen, but had heard about, is a vast underground laboratory complex. He briefly wonders why the mutations were done at the headquarters instead of here.
Could it have had something to do with those gargoyle things? Luring them to the headquarters, capturing them?
He hears some knocks on the door.
"It's me," says Scarlett Mallory.
Fang opens the door, seeing the crimson-haired woman.
"You guys doing all right?"
"Yeah. I think I might actually like this place."
"I'm basically been given a job as your babysitter."
"So you're stayin' here with us."
"I'll be here a few days a week to check on you guys. I still have work to do in the City."
"You know, I did have a strange dream last night."
"What?"
"I saw Sevarius, and he looked like the Devil."
"The Devil?"
"Yeah, with red skin and horns and a tail. You were there too."
"Maybe I have a succubus," says the geneticist.
"No, not that, whatever that is. You were more…like a gargoyle."
"I see. Well, Sykes, I gotta go."
"See ya later, Doc."
Fred lays down. At least there is some respite.
He cannot stay here forever. He wants to do more, to assemble a crew, to take his rightful place in the world.
To just stay here and just eat and have medical exams is what Freaky Freddy would do.
He does not want to stay Freaky Freddy.
He did remember one thing.
He, and the other mutates, had been told that they could come and go as they please.
Oooooooooo
October 10, 1995
U.S. Navy Captain Nathan Silverblum walks inside the room with David Xanatos, escorted by security. The room has all sorts of exercise equipment, suich as weight machines, treadmills, and even a rack fuill of dumbbells. He figures many of the researchers and support staff exercised here.
He sees someone running on a treadmill. That someone is a winged bipedal figure, covered in black fur, with a head shaped like that of a panther.
The panther figure stops. "And you are?" he asks.
The Navy captain is silent for a few seconds, and introduces himself. "I'm from the Pentagon. This is one of the projects I have been assigned to oversee."
"Navy, eh?" comments the panther man. He looks at the man who has accompanied Xanatos- late forties to early fifties, close-cropped brown hair, a prominent scar on the forehead. His dark blue coat has four one-inch stripes on each sleeve and colored ribbons pinned on the left side of the chest. Above the ribbons is this pin that looks like an eagle holding a trident.
"I have read your file; Mr. Xanatos was kind enough to provide it."
"And you think you know me, merely because you read some report?"
"Oh no. I can not imagine how you first felt when you started to change. I have seen many horrors in combat. I could not even imagine this."
"So yer Popeye the Sailor Man," Silverblum hears. He turns his head and sees another of these mutates, this time with brown fur and a slightly different head than the panther mutate.
"So what is long, hard, and full of seamen? A submarine."
"I must be going," says the Navy captain.
"Then let me guide you to the underground lab," Xanatos says to Silverblum.
The two men leave the gymnasium and walk along the hallways of the big house. Soon rthey walk to a hallway manned by a blue-uniformed guard. Xanatos shows an ID.
"Mr. Xanatos," says the guard, a man in his mid-twenties. "Good to see you, sir."
Walking past the guard, the two men enter an elevator; its interior is very industria-looking, in shapr contrast to the house. Captain Silverblum hears the elevator move.
After a few seconds, the stainless steel doors open. Silverblum notices the sharp contrast. The underground lab has concrete corridors. A map is mounted on the wall to the left.
Several people in white lab coats walk up to greet the two visitors. One of them, a bespectacled bald man with sideburns, speaks to them.
"Welcome to my humble lab, gentlemen," he says.
"Pleasure to see you, Dr. Phobos," says Xanatos. "This is Captain Silverblum from the Pentagon.
The Navy captain shakes the scientist's hand. "Hi," says Silverblum.
"The Pentagon is interested in our bio weapons," says Xanatos.
"Follow me," replies Phobos. He leads the two men through some concrete corrdiors. Silverblum has glimpses of lab equipment through some windows. They go down another elevator. A blue-uniformed guard acknowledges Phobos.
They soon walk into this long corridor. There are some white-coated scientists as well as workers in blue overalls. They all acknowlkedgesd their bosses and their bosses' guests.
What Captain Silverblum notices are some pens with wrought iron gates. Each pen appeared to be maybe four square meters.
He sees a creature in each pen, creatures he could have never imagined, not even in his twenty plus years of military service.
Some of these creatures are quadrupedal, with no skin, all the muscles and bones being exposed. They walk around then pen making clicking sounds. There are other creatures- bipedal ones, with green skin and dome-shaped heads. Thei fingers and toes on their hands and feet had some wicked-looking claws at the end.
"I am impressed," says Xanatos. "Anton was right to recommend that I bring you aboard."
"Why thank you," replies Dr. Phobos.
"I hope these creatures could do more than look ugly," says Silverblum.
"That is why I scheduled a test," says the geneticist.
And so Phobos leads them to another area. They over look a large room with obstacles. Phobos walks to a telephone mounted on the wall and picks up the handset.
"We are ready," he says.
Silverblum looks through the window as a goat is led into the room. He can he the braying of the goat from a speaker.
Another door opens, and one of the bipedal clawed creatures enter.
The green monster jumps towards the goat, emitting a scream. With its powerful claws, it shreds the white goat, spraying blood and tissue everywhere.
Captain Silverblum looks in wonder. The SEAL had not seen such a sight in his twenty plus years of service in the United States Navy, not even as a young lieutenant hunting down Charlie in the jungles of Vietnam.
"The Pentagon will definitely want to have some samples," says the captain.
"I am sure that can be arranged," replies Xanatos. He looks at Phobos. "Keep up the good work."
"I will," answers Dr. Phobos.
"That was very interesting," says Captain Silverblum, riding up the elevator with David Xanatos.
"I got engaged recently," says the billionaire industrialist. "I am hoping for a wedding next month."
"I know what that is like- along with paying alimony."
"Captain Silverblum, if you choose to retire from the Navy, I am sure Xanatos Enterprises will have a place for you."
The elevator doors open, revealing the hallway of the big house, with a different guard manning the entrance to the underground lab.