Time passed slowly in the camp. The only means of contact with the outside world were the few open cracks than ran through the ceiling, allowing small streams of light in. The cracks were the only hint of what time of day it was.

Brain lay stretched out on his back in the middle of his cell. The hard cement was still cool from the night, which was just beginning to depart. Had he really only been here for two days? The empty cell was just so…empty.

Sure, he spent some time talking to Ice, but Ice was still having problems with dealing with everything. Every few minutes their conversations would drift back to Ice's school and his girlfriend. Then of course, Brian's conversations tended to drift back to Kelly, as did his thoughts- in fact they were doing that right now.

He sighed. The faint sound of Ice's snoring could be heard coming from the next cell over.

Brian shifted his position, in an attempt to get more comfortable. A dime-sized hole in the shabby ceiling allowed him a glimpse of the pale pink morning sky.

As Brian lay there, completely zoned out, he nearly failed to hear the high-pitched screeching sound that echoed throughout the camp. Almost. As the noise grew louder, pain in his ears increased. He tried clamping his hands and then arms over his ears to block it out but nothing changed the noise. But then, as suddenly as it had begun, the sound was silenced.

Cautiously, Brian slowly sat up and peered around. He couldn't tell where the noise had come from – it had seemed to come from everywhere. He wondered what could have made the sound too, for it was unlike anything he had ever heard before…

'That's probably a good thing,' He thought, remembering the pain the sound had caused. Still wondering what had just happened, his thoughts were interrupted by Ice.

"Siryn." He heard quietly. Or maybe it wasn't quietly, and he had lost his hearing…

"Huh?" Brian asked a moment later.

He could hear Ice sitting up. "It was Siryn." He said a bit louder.

"Siryn?" Brian questioned.

Ice sighed. "Yes. Siryn. She's a student at the school." He said slowly, as if Brian were stupid.

"Oh," was all Brian could say. "So that's what she does?"

Unknown to Brian, Ice nodded. Then, realizing the gesture was obviously unnoticed due to the wall between them, he voiced a yes.

The two sat in silence for a while longer before Ice spoke up again. "It was her screams that woke everyone up in the last attack; With Stryker. I told you about him, didn't I?"

"No, well, sort of. You mentioned he was part of the Mutant attack or something…" Brian replied, trailing off.

"Well…" Ice began, but stopped. "I'll tell you later." He abruptly said. Neither said anything for the rest of the morning –the morning that was cut short by the two soldiers that took Brian away a mere minutes later.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

"Hmmm," the Doctor said. Doctor Elanovich, that is. He was quite similar to the man who had examined him before the flight, Brian concluded.

He had been taken to one of the main personnel buildings for some sort of examination. The air-conditioning and all the moving around had been a nice change from the cell.

The short doctor squinted at him with a pair of beady brown eyes that were hidden behind a miniscule pair of reading glasses. He then took his clipboard and noted something down. HE then turned around, and with his back to Brian and his two guards, he began to mutter.

Brian sneaked a quick lance at his guards. The two young military men looked only a few years older than him and looked rather uncomfortable. But then, that was probably brought on by Elanovich's mutterings.

Finally one of the soldiers broke the doctor's thoughts and spoke up. "Are we almost done?" He inquired, his voice tinged with a fait British accent.

Doctor Elanovich slowly turned around and stared at the boy through his tiny reading glasses. "Done?" He mimicked. "Done?" He repeated more to himself this time. The soldier stared back expectantly.

"Oh, your serious?" The Doctor said a moment later, amused.

Impatient the soldier nodded.

The doctor laughed at this. "OH no, my boy. We are certainly, and most definitely not 'done'. But I can see you're a busy man, as is your partner; so why don't you just leave the Invie with me and I shall summon you both when I am finished, eh?"

The soldier hesitated, exchanging a look with his partner, Their indecision yet longing was obvious. Finally, they agreed.

"We'll just be goin' downstairs for a drink, sir. Be sure to cuff him," The first soldier said, thrusting Brian and several pairs of handcuffs at the doctor. They then promptly left, wanting to leave before the crazy doctor changed his mind.

Brian stood awkwardly in the center of the room. Elanovich stood several feet away, slowly looking him over inch by inch.

After remaining like this for what seemed an eternity, Brian spoke up. "Aren't you going to cuff me?" He slowly asked.

Elanovich seemed to snap back to reality. He made a waving gesture, as if to brush the idea away. "Heavens no." He simply said before turning around and sorting through his desk for something.

Brian remained standing behind him.

"Sit down boy," The doctor said, not bothering to turn around. Brian looked around the room for a place to sit. The doctors office was a bit, unusual .It was on the upper story of the check-in building, and was styled in an old west way. The building itself was probably twice as long as it was wide and made from sun bleached wooden planks. Elanovich's office was the entire upper floor, the first half was the formal office, with lab tools, stainless steel, the work. The in the second half, there was an invisible line to be crossed. The walls went from stark white to a vibrant shade of red. Wooden furniture lay scattered about, a desk here, a table there, with the chairs way off in the far corner. Back behind the messy desk there was a large, overstuffed purple velvet sofa that looked like a relic from the 70's. And behind that lay what looked like a bed, but all that was visible were tumbled sheets and a cascade of blankets.

"Sit down," Elanovich repeated, still shuffling through his desk.

Seeing no place close by to sit, as he stood in the 'formal' side of the room, Brian sat down on the edge of the treadmill.

"Ah ha!" Elanovich declared straightening back out from his former position of leaning over. He held a stack of papers in hand and a small metallic object in another.

He strode over to where Brian sat oddly on the treadmill, and peered down at him. Elanovich slightly cocked his head, looking puzzled as to what the sill Invie was doing. Deciding it wasn't worth it to try and understand the boy, Elanovich continued his former train of thought. "Anywho, I've found it now. And I see you've found the treadmill. Now, stand up, we have work to do."

Brian obeyed, and stood up expectantly o the treadmill. Elanovich told him to take of his shirt and he complied. The doctor fitted the metal device –which was about two inches in diameter- to a spot on the left side of his chest. Brian assumed it was to monitor his heart, but he wasn't entirely sure.

"Ok, I want you to run, and I will time you. Keeps going until either I tell you or you are unable to run anymore. Begin" He stated, and the treadmill started up.

Twenty-some minutes later, Brian was about ready to collapse. He was panting for breath and struggled to keep moving at a steady pace. He could hear the doctor's little heart monitor beeping irritably- it had just started to do that in the last few minutes and Brian prayed it was saying he should stop.

Seeming to hear his pleas, Elanovich suddenly yelled out for him to stop as he stopped the machine. As Brian stood there gasping for air, the doctor leaned over to read something off the miniature monitor. He made another 'Hmmm' sound as he read, then made note of t on his clipboard. Once he was finished though, instead of removing the monitor and sending him on his way, Elanovich led him through more tests. Brian was timed and tested for arm strength, and just strength in general. Then Elanovich gave him a short page of long mathematical problems and a similar one on English problems and other various subjects as he was timed and watched.

Hours later, Brian wanted nothing more than to return to the cell and lay on the cool cement floor and stare at the boring ceiling.

Through the large windows that were sporadically placed through Elanovich's office, Brian could see the sun setting behind the faraway hilltops.

"Well, your all set." Elanovich declared more to himself than Brian. He fumbled with his lab coat pockets and retrieved a small radio and began speaking with Brian's guards. He then turned back to Brian. "Your guards are coming to escort you back to the bunkers." He stated.

Brian was dying to know what the end result of all these tests were, but Elanovich didn't look like he was really in the talkative mood. So Brian was soon escorted back to the bunkers and placed back in his cell just as twillight fell.

"So how was I?" He heard Ice ask from his cell.

Brian was really too exhausted to speak, so he merely grunted.

"Ah," Ice said, his voice understanding. "Well, goodnight."