A loud, furious roar echoed through the night. As the roar hit the young mutant's ears, she shivered; whatever they were doing to this one was worse than what they were doing to her.

Her name's Alex and she's a tiger mutant, with a tail and everything. She's 15 with short, thick, brown hair and brown eyes. Her tiger half allows her to have all the advantages of a tiger, advanced senses, claws, and fangs.

As another roar echoed, she heard the saws starting up. Alex shuddered; she had been under those things before, it didn't feel very good. It had taken three darts to calm her down after it. She was sitting in a corner of her large cell, huddled up on a little ball.

After a few seconds, the saw quit going and she could hear Bishop barking orders. After a few hours of sitting there, she heard the door open and three men walking into the room. Alex looked up for a second and saw three of Bishop's men carrying in something large.

They grunted and tossed the thing into one corner of the room. Two of the men left as the other one looked at Alex and sneered. He smiled and followed the other two out of the room.

Alex heard a groan and a click as the room went back into total darkness. Alex sighed, the door was now locked and there was no chance of her escaping now. A groan came from the side of the room where the men tossed the thing.

She growled and uncurled herself, might as well go check out her new cellmate. She blinked, her eyes turned into a pair of cat like green eyes and she saw out of a tiger's eyes now. She stood up and looked over at the side of the room.

Alex gasped; in the middle of the room was a large, mutant, alligator laying facedown on the ground. She ran over to it and turned it over, she saw it was badly hurt and that it was the one Bishop was experimenting on. She twitched her white tiger ears and laid them down on its chest.

Its heart was racing and its breathing was shallow, but it was still alive nonetheless. She growled as she thought about all Bishop was putting this one through, just because they were different, didn't mean they would hurt anyone.

The alligator gasped as Alex pulled her ear off his chest; she wiped the side of her face, the gator's blood was all over the left side of her head. She sniffed the air, but the alligator's blood blocked her from smelling anything new.

"I hope it's gonna be okay." Alex muttered softly as she sighed, she had been here for over a year now and she wasn't any closer to escaping.

The gator groaned; he wasn't getting any better. Alex sighed as she walked over to her corner of the cell and found the one thing she was allowed to have, a blanket. She carefully opened it and pulled out some bandages she kept hidden from Bishop and his men.

As she unwrapped the bandages, she walked over to the gator and sat down next to its head. Alex laid the bandages aside and pulled the gator's head on her crossed legs. As she reached for the bandages, she heard the alligator moan a little.

Alex picked up the bandages and started to wrap up his chest and stomach. After about ten minutes, she laid down what little bandages she had left and sighed, hopefully, the gator was going to make it.

"There, finished." She said as she scooted the gator's head off her legs, "He's gonna be okay…hopefully."

Alex stood up and walked back over to where her blanket was. It was small, it barely covered her, but at least it would provide some comfort to the mutant. She walked back over to the mutant one last time and covered him the best she could with the blanket.

"There, that should help you." Alex whispered.

The gator groaned and Alex smiled; she had company now, for how long though, she wasn't sure. Alex yawned and went back over to her corner, she yawned again as she curled back up into a ball and fell asleep quickly.

After a few hours, the alligator groaned and slowly opened his eyes. As he looked around, even though it was dark, he could still tell some one was in the room. The alligator's eyes made it easier for him to see as he blinked again and again.

The alligator looked around, as he did, his eyes searched a corner of the room. There, he saw a young girl with brown hair, a tail, and white ears sitting in the corner asleep. He growled softly as he stood up, his whole body ached, but he had to see if the girl was okay.

The gator limped over to the corner and saw the girl's brown hair had dried blood on it. He gently moved her head up so he could see her face and saw she had dried blood on the left side of her face. He laid her head back down and walked around the room, hoping to make his body stop hurting.

The alligator felt his side and noticed he was bandaged along his chest and stomach. He growled as he remembered what the maniac did to him, the torture and the pain, he groaned. He heard a soft moan from the corner; he turned and saw the young girl waking up.

Alex groaned and opened her eyes; she looked up and saw the alligator from last night staring at her. She gasped and quickly stood up; the alligator growled at her as she pulled out her claws.

"Who are you?" Alex asked.

"My name's Leatherhead, I am a mutant from New York." The alligator said in a sweet voice. Alex smiled and pulled her claws back in.

"The name's Alex, I'm pleased to meet you." Alex said as she walked over to him, "Those brutes could've killed you last night. I'm glad I kept those bandages."

"You did this?" Leatherhead asked, pointing to the bandages.

"The injuries? No. The bandages, yes." Alex said as she looked at his bandages.

"I meant the bandages." Leatherhead said as he looked at Alex, she had ripped and dirty jeans with a blood stained blue tee shirt on, "How long have you been here?"

"Me? About a year, maybe more, I've lost track." Alex said as she shrugged, "I've learned to deal with it, you don't fight, you won't get hurt as bad. I've lost three cellmates since I've been here because of Bishop's experiments. Why he hasn't done that to me…has baffled me so far."

Leatherhead looked at Alex as she sighed and a single tear fell down her face.

"A year." Leatherhead finally said after a minute of uncomfortable silence, "That's a long time."

"Yes."

Leatherhead was about to say something when two of the men from when Leatherhead was brought in opened the door. Leatherhead growled and stepped in front of Alex, she panted as the men pulled out their guns. The first one pointed his gun at Leatherhead while the other one walked over to Alex.

She could tell he was smiling as he pointed his gun at her back and told her to move. Alex grunted as the gun dug into her back. Leatherhead watch helplessly as they led Alex out of the room. Before she left, she turned around and flashed him a thumbs up.

"I'll be fine." Alex said as the door shut.

Leatherhead roared and attacked the door as he heard Alex scream. After ten minutes or so, he calmed down and stopped pounding the door. He growled loudly and hit the door one last time before he sat down against the door.

His eyes went reptilian as he heard Alex scream again and a tiger roar. Leatherhead ran around the cell, hitting everything he saw, the walls and the door before some knockout gas started coming in through the ventilation shaft. He coughed and fell face forward on the ground, unconscious.