Experimental (Prelude)
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nothing but the plot.
SUMMARY: During the First War, Voldemort captured children and performed magical experiments on them, testing their limits. Loads of the children died during the experimentations, which were disbanded after that Halloween Night in 1982. The handful of kids who survived lived on the streets, with strange side affects of being tested on. This is the story of Katerin Soto and Winter Spriggs.
Chapter One: Katerin Soto
It was the night of Katerin Soto's seventh birthday, and her parents were tucking her in after a very long day. Katerin was dressed in her blue silk PJ's and giggled when her father kissed her forehead.
"Goodnight, Kat." Her mother said, pulling the blanket up to her chin. A gigantic 'bang' was heard from the first floor, and feet thundered up the steps. Kat's parents told her the hide under the covers, and not to make a sound.
"Don't move a muscle!" her father said. She didn't, she stayed still when the men in black hoods and white masks came in. She stayed still when they pulled out their sticks. She stayed still when the green light shot out, and her parents fell to the floor with a thump. But she did not stay still when her parents did not get back up again. She threw off the covers and ran over to her parents, begging them to wake up. She screamed as she was grabbed by a man, just as her brother and sister were.
"You were supposed to stay hidden, Kat!" 16-year-old Jeremy shouted angrily.
"Jer, give her a break! Mom and Dad are dead, and you're screaming at her! She's seven!" 17-year-old Mary Jane shot back before the man holding her took a fistful of her ash-blond hair and tugged it. Kat whimpered when her hooded man poked her with his stick. Next thing she knew, she was out cold.
She awoke hour later to find herself in some sort of laboratory straight out her Jeremy's Halloween movies. It was equipped with all sorts of bubbling multi-colored concoctions, and metal things with blue sparks coming off them. She looked around for Mary Jane, or Jeremy, but they were nowhere to be seen.
"Jeremy!" she shouted through the tears that were streaming down her scared face. "Mary!"
A man who was standing near her pulled out a stick almost identical to the ones that belonged to the masked men, and said a strange word, and suddenly Kat was screaming. Pain worse then getting a paper cut, or slicing up your knee from falling off your bike swallowed her. It hurt so badly. When the pain stopped, the man carried her over to a cold table, and prodded and poked her with his stick. He would say other strange words, and wave the stick around like a madman, and weird things would go through Kat's mind, or she'd feel funny. He called out, and someone brought her to a bed. The next day, the process repeated itself.
This went on for what felt like æons. Then one day, Katerin woke up to find all the masked men, who she now referred to as Death Eaters, running around like chickens with their heads cut off. What used to be crowded sleeping quarters, was now partially empty. Kat knew what had happened to those whose beds were empty. The tests had killed them, deteriorated their bodies until they could not function any longer. There were only five left in her quadrant. She had learned that they separated them by ability. Kat's group was called them Elementals. They dealt with things such as Water, Fire, Ice, Heat, Earth, and many things such as that. Kat herself was classified as a Sonic. She could control and bend sound waves to her will. There were other groups too: Ferals, Psionic, and such. Of course, they could have all died out, or been killed because they didn't function correctly. Here they had been treated like machines, to be used to fight the war. This war was between people in a world that was not her own. Those sticks were wands, and those words were incantations. Incantations for the spells that had made Kat and others like her, mutants. A door being slammed brought her forth from her thoughts, and she looked to see that the Death Eaters had fled. Her mind went into frantic mode. They've never left before, what in the world is going on?
"Hey you!" she heard a voice shout, and looked to see a boy who was staring at her intently. "If I were you, I'd leave. They aren't coming back, you know." He told her, as if he had read her thoughts. Of course, he probably could. After he had turned and left, she got up and walked around until she found a door that had been propped wide open. She looked outside of it; the sun was shining, the skies were blue. It had been at least two years since she had seen the outdoors. Tentatively, she took a step out, and how wonderful the fresh air smelled! It felt as if she were high on the pure air, air other that what occupied her concrete prison. The prison that I no loner have to live in, her mind told her. She looked around and all she saw really, was a bunch of dirt and cornfields and things. But she decided that if she walked long enough and far enough, she'd run into a city.
And boy was she right. After days and days of walking she ran into none other than London England. That was funny though. Kat had lived in Canton, Ohio, which was obviously nowhere near England. But of course, those people were like, wizards and could probably appear anywhere they wanted with a thought and a pop! After some more walking around, she found an unlocked house on the outside of the city, and raided the closet. Then, making her way into the city she found an empty apartment building that was boarded up. She collapsed on the bed, and slept up a storm.
Kat woke up two days later, and for a second she wondered where she was. Then she remembered, she remembered that she was free. She could go wherever she wanted, whenever she wanted, and do whatever she pleased. But first, she needed to get s job. She assumed she was about eleven or twelve by now, but she still felt like a seven year old. Her mind traveled back to the thought of a job. How could she get a job if she'd only been to school up until second grade? What kind of experience was that? She knew how to add and subtract, multiply and divide... that would probably be enough for a simple job as a waitress or such. She'd have to make up a counter identity, though.
Later that day, Kat walked into a small Coffee shop that was hiring. She walked up to the cash register.
"Um, hi." The girl there said. "May I help you?"
"Uh, Yeah. You're hiring, correct?"
The girl nodded.
"I'm interested in the job. I was wondering if I could have an application or something?"
The girl nodded once again, and went off to get an application. She took a seat at a nearby table to fill out her application. She really hoped she would get the job. She said her name was KateLyn Sterling, and that she was sixteen.
A few weeks later she got a call stating that she had gotten the job. Kat smiled triumphantly, this was the beginning of her new life as KateLyn Sterling. But one thing she did not know was that she did not have a very good handle on her sonic powers. So, if she got too excited, or scared, or depressed, she'd end up causing a microwave to go crazy and start beeping, or make a high pitched sound and crack a window.
People, especially Anna (The woman at the cash register), started to get just a tiny bit suspicious of Kat, or as they called her: Kate. At the beginning, this was how they say KateLyn Sterling: as short sixteen year old with boy-cut spiky black hair, dark eyes, and a mysterious personality. She would go through frequent mood swings, one minute she would be ecstatic, the next minute sulky and grumpy. But all over all...she was a good person.
Now, they all weren't so sure. Strange and unexpected things were happening when Kate was around. Was it only just a little bad luck, or something else?
Kat couldn't take it anymore, and bought a plane ticket to New York City, USA. As the plane slowly descended down to the Kennedy Airport, Kat silently cursed those Death Eaters and whoever their stupid master was. He had ruined her life – twice. That wasn't even counting all the kids he killed, either.
New York City was an okay city, kind of like a smaller version on London, maybe. She settled in an apartment in East Harlem, and got another job working as a waitress. It was 1985, and America was an amazing country. Everything around Kat was evolving, changing, improving. But sadly, once again Kat had to leave. Every new place she arrived at, she would eventually have to leave.
Now, it's 1996. It's August in Anaheim California. Kat was now Twenty-four-years old and was now working a temp job as a cook, in some restaurant. It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't exactly pleasurable either. Not that it mattered. It wasn't like she wouldn't have to leave to Sacramento in a few months anyway. That Wednesday, she took a bus over to her apartment that she shared, and found an owl sitting on her front stoop, with a piece of old-looking paper attached to it's right claw.
"You poor thing," she cooed, and picked it up. Carrying it inside and placing it on the kitchen table, she took the paper off. It was marked like a letter for a certain Katerin Soto, 1324 Curb alley, Anaheim, the kitchen. Kat's brow furrowed, and unfolded the alien paper, to see what it had to day.
Dear Ms. Soto,
I sadly must inform you that, Lord Voldemort is rising once again to power. Lord Voldemort, and his Death Eaters, are the ones responsible for your capture and testing on as a young child of seven, eight, and nine years. You are one of a small, fistful of survivors and you all have unusual abilities. These abilities could possibly be used to fight him, this second time around. I request your presence at Kings Cross Station in London, England on the Twenty-Third of August, if you wish to consider my offer. Platform 9 and ¾, just so you know. If you have trouble finding it, listen for the word Muggle. Please, think it over. My world needs your help.
Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Kat sat at the table, stunned at what the letter contained. He was going to start another war, and possibly take more children and do whatever they did to Kat, to them? Should she consider it? Of course you should! Her mind scolded. Show up at the train station, at least. She decided she would, at any cost. If she could help prevent a war that could destroy her life once more, she would.