Danni stretched her arms out, in an attempt to make her working conditions a little more comfortable; not that it was actually possible, since kneeling for up to eight hours at a time, and made to dig with little or no breaks was uncomfortable enough.

Sighing before she paused for a moment, a guard approached behind Danni, "Slacking again? Can't have this" he said in a cruel voice.

Danni turned around to see her least favorite guard on duty, and her face fell: "I wasn't slacking I was taking a quick break" she said in protest.

"Not what I saw; what I saw was slacking, and for that you can have an extra two hours on top of your work detail, effective immediately for the next two weeks."

"But..." Danni went to protest, saw that it would be futile to resist, so she simply nodded and resumed with the work...

One morning, Lex was not woken by Bray; in fact he was a little shocked when two guards slammed open the cell door and dragged the covers off the bed. "Hey, what's the big idea?" he moaned, running his hands through his ruffled hair.

"Get out of bed, Virt."

"Hey, who are you calling a Virt?" Lex said, standing up to face the guard that was shorter than him.

"You! What you gonna do about it?" the guard retorted.

"Give me a minute and I'll show you, you little pip-squeak" he yelled as he raised his fist.

Bray saw the other guard raise his weapon and he jumped up quickly to hold Lex back, "It's not worth it Lex." Lex just rolled his eyes when he saw the weapon; he figured that these Lycra-clad guys wouldn't be man enough to face him in a real fight.

The second guard lowered his weapon but not his guard, "You have one hour to be ready, we will collect you then, and there'd better be no trouble or you'll pay" he called as the two guards left the room, slamming the door behind them...

Ram placed the mask over his face, "Good, I don't want any germs from this lot of Virts" he said as they wheeled down the corridor, "Java, did you..."

"...Have the room cleaned? Yes Ram..."

"Did you..."

"...Make sure there were enough guards to restrain the prisoners? Of course Ram..."

Ram patted Java's hand. His wife was a very capable woman, one of the main reasons that he had married her. "Ved, are you sure Jay knows nothing of these arrangements?"

"Positive Ram, I've made sure that he's well occupied" Ved said with a laugh...

Jay smiled, at last he was getting one of the things he wanted for this new city, a hospital; and this was just the beginning of things as he made some more notes on his pad and leaned over the plans again, a big grin still plastered on his face...

Danni's arms ached and her mouth was parched. The last two hours had taken more toll on her than she'd thought they would. The bell rang to signal the last of the shift and she sighed, setting down her tools as she stood up and waited for the guards to undo the chains so she could return to her 'room'.

Standing up, Danni felt a bit dizzy. Using the wall to steady her, she tried to call out for help; but before she could utter a word, her eyes rolled back and she fell to the floor. The last thing she saw was black before she passed out.

Bray and Lex were hustled into a large room in Ebony's old hotel. Looking around it was possible to see that there were various other people there, all wearing similar jumpsuits that Bray and Lex had been provided with. Bray didn't recognize any of the people in the room; he figured that they were from out of town, or strays. "What the hell is going on?" Lex whispered to Bray.

"I don't know."

"Well why on earth are we all in here, herded like sheep?"

"Looks like we're about to find out" Bray said, pointing at the door as it swung open.

The door flew open and in rolled a electronic wheelchair. Lex and Bray looked at each other as the guy in the mask spoke to them: "My dear little Virts, you are truly honored, for each of you is to be given the privilege of being a test subject for us."

Bray looked at the leader:"Test subjects?" he said repeating the guy's last comment.

Ram sneered at him, "Yes Virt, I said test subject" as he wheeled back out of the room. The blond-haired guy and the braided-hair girl followed closely behind him.

Lex looked at Bray, a worried look on his face; and that worried Bray, because Lex never looked worried...