I never had no one that I could count on
I've been let down so many times
I was tired of hurtin'So tired of searchin'
Till you walked into my life
It was a feelin' I'd never known
And for the first time, I didn't feel alone
(Tim Mcgraw, My Best Friend)
Disclaimer: You know what I own and don't. I'm not even gonna bother.
Jumba wasted no time in training 189. Before dawn, he came to wake her up and haul her out of the cage room. The other caged experiments were still asleep but 188 was at the front of his cage, watching them go past.
'Stupid four eyed tub of lard, making an experiment go to training on her second day of life,' he thought. It didn't occur to him that he'd started training on his first day. In fact, he hadn't even completely recovered from the dart he'd been shot with four minutes after his birth! 188 added another reason to torture Jumba if he ever got the opportunity.
As she passed by, the aquatic experiment smiled at him and it took him a minute to realize the pounding of his heart wasn't Jumba shocking him again.
He spent the rest of the day pacing, waiting for her to come back. The only interruption was Experiment 147 coming in to annoy him. His thoughts had been on 189 for the last two days, he hadn't been able to appreciate her absence.
"So, you've got a thing for that new experiment?"
"No, go away."
147 smiled wickedly. "Good. I think she's ugly-uglier than you!" 188's muscles visibly tensed but he didn't say anything, so 147 carried her little experiment further. "She's got those weird gills and she smells like fish. I hope she's one of the ones that get sent-"
188 attacked, forgetting the glass wall separated them. He raked his long claws along it, making a horrible screeching sound.
"If you say anything bad about her, I'll pull your arms off and wear them for scarves!"
147 didn't seem to care that she was being threatened. She just grinned as if it proved her point and left.
************************************
189 came back that afternoon.
"So how did it go?" was the first thing out of 188's mouth.
189 had did decently on land, but in water she proved to be a killer. She'd wiped out every underwater tracker-robot. Jumba had taken her up a whole level to shooting-robots. She'd dodged the shots and taken them all out. Out of things to destroy, she'd started going after the virtual fish put in to throw her off.
"I'm starving. Do they feed us at all?" she inquired.
188 nodded and pointed to a slot in the wall. "In about three...two...one..."
There was a series of clinks. A bowl of food dropped into each cage through the slot. Jumba had installed the automatic feeder to cut his workload-after making sure the experiments couldn't get in or out of the cages through the slots. The food was a series of different colored pellets and a slab of green meat from a trog-a disgusting, filthy animal native to Turo who's meat was equally disgusting and filthy. All the experiments had their own theory about what it looked like. It was only fed to prisoners, orphans, and illegal genetic experiments.
"Shyea, Jumba doesn't look like he has to eat trog meat," 188 muttered. 189 laughed and the black experiment's heart started beating crazily again. But then 189's voice became sad.
"You know, he told me not to talk to you."
"Then why does he put you in the cage next to mine?"
189 sighed. "That's the point. He says I can leave the cage tomorrow morning and live in the lab with the other experiments."
188 tried to hide his misery. He knew that once experiments were loose, they lost interest in the ones that were caged. The most he'd see of 189 would probably be while being taken for training or testing.
********************************
188 woke a few mornings later to a tapping on his cage. He grumbled angrily. It was already promising to be a bad day, like always. What made it unbearable was knowing he wouldn't see 189 in the next cage when he opened his eyes.
"147, I'm not in the mood so why don't you just go and eat-"
"188, it's me!"
He jumped up and sure enough, saw the smiling blue face of 189. He'd never expected her to come back!
"I missed you!"
"I missed you too." She sat down beside his cage. "I was talking to the other experiments. They told me you're evil."
188s good mood instantly fell. "So did you just come to tell me you're never coming again?"
"You're too pessimistic. For all I know, you are evil. But I've talked to you over the past few days and I like you a lot," she said. "That's why I'm going to keep coming back to see you."
She kept her promise. For a few months, she'd come to talk to 188 through the glass. Every time he wanted to get out more and more.
But not for the reasons he used to.
to be continued...
Short, as usual. But I'm kind of rushing to get through this. All right. Here's my dilemma. I have two different chapters made. One is a lemon. The other isn't. Unless enough people want the lemon chapter, I'm going to use the other one. What do you think?