Chapter 10: Huyton Industries

My father drove us to Huyton Industries, we parked a few blocks away in an abandoned parking lot.

Huyton Industries was a hospital building remodeled into a laboratory where they were supposed experiment with body cream and sexual enhancement medicine...

Mom, dad, Lily, Jeff and I stood around the corner. We waited in our human forms as we stood in the open, trying to look casual. Jeff stubbornly came along, I couldn't stop him if I tried, but nothing stopped me from complaining about it.

Aracia, my cat, walked towards us, unhurriedly. She looked up at me and I picked her up. She informed us that two guards stood on the front of the building, human. A skinny man with a large scythe guarded the side door, a Darkstalker. The back was opened as the man had sneaked off on break.

"Good, girl" I pet her and she purred till I stopped and she walked towards the car as she stared down another car across the street.

"Let's go" my father said turning into a wolf and ran towards the back. My mother did the same and we followed with Jeff trailing behind.

We jumped the fence; I gave Jeff a piggy back.

We snuck in through the back; I relaxed when no immediate threat was spotted. Huyton Industries looked like an ordinary hospital, abandoned even... The few people that were there didn't paid us attention, nobody seemed to cared that two werewolf's, two cat-woman and a human teenager walked the halls, I guess that if you were if you were inside, you belonged there...

A man walked by us, nodded to us and walked out through the door we entered. We walked down a hall and stared as the same man with another copy of himself walked towards us, arguing where they had placed something

"Hey", he said looking at us "wait up" we all froze and stood still

"Jonathan..." started my father in a low voice "tackle the one on the right when they get close, I'll do the same for the one on the left..."

"Have you seen if I walked through here lately? I mean not me... But another me... No not him" he pointed at his copy standing by him

"Someone that looked like us" said the second man

"Yeah exactly" said the first

"Y-yeah..." replied My mother pointing with a large cat finger "he walked outside through the back"

"Thank you" said the first man and walked away, resuming their argument...

We walked and pointed two more copies of the man in the same direction. We finally stood in front of a very ordinary looking door, but this one had a key pad. Jeff tried a few passwords, including "password", but it didn't open.

"Hold up" said a familiar voice, it was the same man we passed four times, he was only one this time "I'll go down with you"

He entered the password when Jeff gave him a bit about being new and that we all couldn't agree on the password, so that we didn't try as it might set off an alarm.

The man didn't seem too bright; he made small talk with us, Lily in particular, as we entered the door and stood inside an elevator. It went down as the six of us stood in it, it didn't play any music only the sounds of rope and metal moving...

"I heard that they got a new test subject..." started the man "she's supposed to be a bird or something

He was talking about Samantha...

"... And a human" He continued "don't know about that one though" he stood there and smiled as if he had just told himself a joke, he probably did too.

The elevator slowed and stops after a minute and a half, we must have been really far down, the doors opened and reviled a large room, a few people slept on couches and on the floor.

We parted ways from the man who walked down the massive room with the sleeping people... Two doors caught our eyes. They were in Spanish, they both said "No se permite la entrada" Jeff told us what it meant and we decided to split up

I thought of the cliché

My parents took the right door while Jeff, Lily and I walked through the left door.

More hallways and rooms branched off in the air conditioned hall. We finally reached the end. The features that made the hallway what it was ended abruptly and was replaced by bare stone lit by torches.

We made a turn and ended up in an opening. Torches came on to illuminate the room. Someone knew we were here; I couldn't help but feel unwelcome.

We walked cautiously through the cavern, torches lit up as we passed. The sound of feint conversations could be heard, by us but not Jeff.

My skin crawled as I noticed two pairs of cat eyes looking at us from afar the ones on the right were light blue as the ones on the left were white. Torches lit our path, still turning on as we walked by. I felt my foot step on something, I looked down to see as I stood on a plank and the room lit up completely. I looked around. Nothing to see other than stone and torches. Lily tapped my shoulder and signaled in front of us. A pair of white tiger Darkstalkers, male and female, sat on a pedestal on each side of a door. They sat there, more like animals than humans. The pedestal wasn't that tall but it was spacious enough for the half tigers to sit on comfortably.

The male looked to be a little older than me. Muscular and handsome in a way. He had a small muzzle coming out of his face with a white beard striped with patches of black to give him a white tiger look with matching curly hair, his body hair was slightly thicker than it should have been, it too was colored white with some black. He wore some, furry, black shorts and nothing else, his hands and feet were paws, slightly smaller than Lily's but enough to seem menacing. He stared at us blankly. His tiger ears stood lazily on his head, his tail made no movements, both were white with black stripes.

The female looked around my age, slim with similar features, as the male; a smaller muzzle came out of her face, barely noticeable, but enough to alter her face. She didn't have facial hair but somehow still created the black on white illusion. Her black and white stripped hair was wavy and long, reaching down her back and down her shoulders, going a few inches passed the pedestal. Her body had a similar texture as the male half tiger but seemed to have less black stripes. She wore a, slightly furry, black bikini bottom, same style as the male's shorts, and a similar black bikini top that showed off her cleavage perfectly. She noticed me as I looked her over and tilted her head. She flicked her right ear and waved her tail playfully; both were white with black but looked slightly different than the man's. Her paws were also smaller but still seemed dangerous.

We stood still. We looked at the half white tigers looking at us. We made no movement. The female started stretching, never looking anything more than a tiger and the man followed. They both jumped off their pedestals and walked towards us, never bothering to stand up on two feet.

I stood my ground as Lily and Jeff moved closer to me as the pair circled us, looking us over.

"What now, Dog?" asked Jeff with his hands as fists and in front of him

"Thinking" I replied honestly... I expected to fight a few Darkstalkers like the ones that came to the high school. I never thought we'd be up against white tigers with human forms.

"Hey... Girl... You have very pretty, white, eyes..." started Lily reaching out to pet the female who made a half growl half purring sound and slashed at my sisters hand, she barely had enough time to move it back without harm

"Good, kitty" tried Jeff and the male growled loudly at him, Jeff whimpered slightly

They circled us a few more times. Lily moved slightly and the male jumped on her, knocking her down. He held his paws on hers so she wouldn't fight back. He stood on top of her, examining her facial features.

"Cat!" I let out as I turned to help her but the female jumped on my back, knocking me down. I forced myself up and she opened her mouth and placed around the back of my neck, making it clear that she would bite down if I moved. I complied and lay back down. Her teeth indenting my neck, she didn't bite down, but I didn't doubt that she would hesitate to do so...

I felt Jeff move closer. I heard both the white tigers growl softly.

"Stay there, Jeff" I said as the female positioned her mouth more comfortably around my neck.

We were screwed... We all knew it. We were all teenagers but they were predators. They knew Lily would be overpowered with some effort and that I would move to help her, that's when I was vulnerable. They knew Jeff was a human, with no real powers.

I didn't know what was going to happen... I just hoped that someone had fed their pet tigers recently.