The guard looked with loathing down at the new mutie freak that had been caught that afternoon. This one was being given special treatment, attacking innocent members of the public was a serious offence and no doubt it would reach the headlines. From the outside, he thought, this dangerous aberration looked almost like a normal teenage girl. Almost normal, except for her unnerving stillness. She hadn't moved for hours, the only sign of life being the slight rise of her chest as she breathed. Not that she had much chance to move, she had been given a shot of sedative, and her hands were tied none too gently behind her. The guard smirked before moving on to check the next cell, these freaks deserved everything they got.

Kate didn't look up as 2 people entered her cell, she had sensed them coming minutes ago down the near silent corridors, even with all the sht in her system. Her wrists were bound painfully tight, and the chemicals coursing round her body were making her feel heavy and her vision blurred.

A course voice ordered her to stand and, with some effort, she rose on shaky legs. The gang of kids had taken her money and mobile before she was brought here. Now she had absolutely nothing. She had lost her last few possessions and now any hope of freedom had died too. If they were going to kill her here, it would be a blessing at this point.

She was taken down a grey, cold, echoing corridor and into another cell. She could see other cells out of the corner of her eye, but had no wish to see what they held, her eyes fixed on the monotonous, blank floor.

Sitting curled up once again in another cell's corner, she felt a half- hearted gratefulness that they had not moved her for the purpose of more tests. She had been searched, poked, prodded and samples taken from her for she didn't know how long. She was now clad in a heavy, grey t-shirt and trousers, and although the place wasn't quite freezing, it was nowhere near being warm. The tests had been painful sometimes as well as humiliating; the vein on her arm where blood had been taken repeatedly was bruising angrily. Her hands being the obvious focus point for the investigations, they had been pulled and twisted too many times to count, her fingertips stinging from numerous chemicals.

When she had first arrived, they had gone downwards, this place was underground and all ordinary sense of time was lost. She knew she must have been there for over 6,maybe 7 hours, but nothing in this place had changed and it could have been midnight or the next morning for all she knew. She was utterly exhausted, and the drugs that restricted her movement and coordination finally persuaded her to accept sleep, even though her hands pulled up to her back made her body lie awkwardly and the floor on which she lay held no comfort.

A look of triumph swept across Gecko's face as she slammed down a handful of scruffy looking playing cards onto the hard floor. "Straight flush! I've won. Ha!" The boy opposite her reached for the abandoned cards and his dark eyes scanned them quickly. "You would have won, if it had been a straight flush, but it's not. And as I have 4 kings it seems I've won." "What do you mean? What's wrong with my flush?"

The boy showed her one of the dog-eared cards, assuring her that it was a 4, not a 5 and so she was in the wrong. This was immediately denied and the card was passed back and forth between them for inspection.

Their bickering continued meaninglessly for a few minutes, the state of the card making it impossible to prove what it once was, until the door of their cell opened.

Kate was pushed into another cell, this time with 3 other occupants and 4 metal bunks crammed in. The all seemed to be about her age, two boys and a girl. The girl and one of the boys were laying on the floor, propped up by their elbows, cards spewing across the floor between them. The other boy was sitting on one of the lower bunks, eyes half closed and surveying her warily.

The girl was tall and slim, with deep black hair, occasionally streaked with green. Her eyes matched the green in her hair and her features were very striking, if not pretty. The boy holding the cards put them down and turned his eyes to her. They were deep brown, almost black, and his complexion was dark, possibly Indian. He sat up slowly and casually leant on one arm. The dark eyes looked her up and down deliberately; he was the one in control here. The boy sitting on the bed seemed apart from the others, he had short, slightly spiky hair, and a thin face. He closed his eyes and became almost part of the bed he sat on he was so still.

The dark boy had stood up and taken a step towards her. Kate tried to stand tall and not look scared of him or the others. The boy put out a hand.

"Name's Spat, who are you?"

Kate took the hand and tried to get her voice to work properly, finally, she stumbled over the words

"I'm Kate."

The boy shook his head. "Not any more you're not."

He took her wrist and found the metal bracelet there. Kate hadn't really noticed it before, they must have put in on her during the tests.

"Feles Naturem" he read. He looked up to see 'Feles Naturem' looking totally confused; he went on "It's your mutant label, from now on, that's who you are. This..." He motioned towards the girl who was now standing against one of the beds

"Is Lacenta Venum, a.k.a. Gecko. And that..."

He pointed at the silent boy still on the bed

"Is Grey, or Flucto Volubilis if you'd prefer."

This seemed to be the introductions over. Spat went back to the cards and began to shuffle them, Gecko joined him but there was no invitation for Kate to do the same.

She stood awkwardly for a while not knowing what she was supposed to do next, until her bed was pointed out to her by Spat. She walked over to it, and sat down. She watched their game for a while, glad of company. These guys, if anyone, would know how she was feeling.

She watched Gecko and Spat in turn, wandering about their families, now left behind. How had they ended up here? What were their stories?

Her thoughts moved towards her own family, her brother in particular. She didn't know if she'd ever see him again. She closed her stinging eyes, hoping none of her cellmates would see her, hoping her brother would be ok without her.

Edmund sat in the middle of Kate's now empty room. They had been given the news of her capture the morning before, and Kate's things had been removed as quickly as possible. Edmund had grabbed a few of her favourite CD's and books, so he still had something of hers. The walls had been stripped of her posters and it was being turned into a study or a spare room. Whatever it was going to be, his mother had made it clear that Kate would never come back. He felt empty. She was gone forever, and he couldn't do anything to help her. He rose and walked out, shutting the door behind him. There was a click of the latch, and then silence reclaimed the bare room.