Blargh! I had a lot of trouble this past day on ff. chapters being in wrong places, documents saying i have -30 days left before they get deleted and all sorts of general chaos! Well, i hope this chappie works. Please read and review! -♥ katklaws

Chapter Two: The Desolation

He'd been in and out of consciousness for days as the whitecoats tried several new components on his senses. When he came to, the first thing he recognized was pain.

Iggy sat up slowly, gritting his teeth against a yelp, head throbbing, and realized there were bandages over his eyes. He felt them carefully and instinctively took stock of where each pain was coming from. First of all, there was the all-too-familiar hunger pangs that told him he hadn't eaten in awhile. Stemming from his eyelids to the center of his brain, was a stinging, burning ache, more so in his right eye than his left.

Instantly, he knew something was wrong. His right eye ... It felt- odd. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but it seemed colder, unfamiliar, even metal wouldn't have been too wrong a word to describe it.

"Max? Gazzy?" Iggy called out automatically. "Nudge? Are any of you out there?" Meeting his words was silence, save for the shallow breathing of an experiment directly to his left. Nothing but the antisepticky smell of the School permeated the room. It was then that the previous few days came crashing down into his memory and his throat tightened in despair.

"I'm all alone," he whispered, placing his hands on the crate floor in front of his. Suddenly, furious rage boiled up from his gut and left his limbs burning. "Grrrrraaaaah!" he snarled, the sound erupting from his chest as he ripped off his bandages. The resulting event took the voice right out of him.

He could see.

In the darkness of the keeping room, with his right eye sealed shut, he looked about. The single fluorescent light looked bright as day. But, he could only hold his eye open for a few seconds before falling to the ground, writhing in agony. Guess it hasn't been long since surgery, he thought miserably, feeling sick and clammy after that bout of pain. He ran his fingertips over his face again and felt several strategically-placed, clean-cut scars around his eyes. Now why can't I ... open my right eye ...

Iggy felt it twice just to be sure and realized that there was no stitches holding it shut but merely, the muscles in his eyelids were recovering from surgery or adapting to a new eye. A new eye? Where did that idea come from? Iggy thought to himself.

Suddenly, Iggy's sharp ears picked up footsteps. They were quick and purposeful, almost in synch and Iggy's gut churned in sickly fear and hate.

"Here it is, my latest achievement!" the female doctor that had operated on him so long ago said with a revolting note of triumph.

"More like you're only achievement," the other person, a man, growled. Iggy felt a bit of satisfaction that someone despised this woman like he did. Not as much as he did, Iggy doubted anyone could, but with the same distaste.

Suddenly the footsteps approached Iggy's cage and he heard their deafening shoes clack to a stop right in front of him. He allowed a mask of indifference to steal over the emotions in his face.

The woman crouched, Iggy could hear the fabric of her clothes scrinch, and she said in a sickeningly sweet tone, "Come here, my little achievement. Show Mr. Leblanc your beautiful eyes.

Iggy couldn't stop himself. "Not in a million years, scum-sucker."

"Why, you insolent little wretch!" the woman snarled and ripped something from her belt. Iggy could hear her moving and wanted to know what exactly she was doing, but he didn't open his eyes. He wasn't going to give her that satisfaction.

Then a sharp object prodded his upper leg and before Iggy could react, an electrical shock ripped through his nerves. He yelped in agony and jumped, banging his head on the ceiling, then scrambled back as far as he could. She gave a twisted little laugh.

"I can still reach you, you know. Come forward now and show me your eyes."

Iggy felt the welt on his leg and realized slowly that no matter how many shocks he took, she could go on forever while he could not. It was an impossible battle and he nearly sobbed in defeat. With hesitation, Iggy crawled forward and tilted his head up to his tormentors. Then, he opened his eye.

There was a gasp of amazement as Iggy gazed on the revolting pair, his whole body screaming in pain. He kept his eye open for a few more moments then shut it, shuddering weakly, stomach churning in nausea from the pain that he could do nothing for.

"Stunning work, doctor! You've repaired a nonfunctioning eye. Simply brilliant work," the man gushed. This woman had been pretty useless before but now her abilities were being shown. "What about the other eye? Why didn't it open?"

The woman sounded very haughty and proud as Iggy backed away, wiping a cold sweat from his forehead. "Well, I knew I could repair one eye but I've been tinkering with some new inventions and I decided to replace the other with a mechanical eye. It's body must still be adapting to it but once it has, it'll have the perfect vision for fighting."

"Well, we'll see how it turns out."

"Now, sir, I was wondering if I could go beyond just eye sight. There are so many ways to enhance the other senses and create new senses. May I have the funding for such an undertaking?"

A growl grew in the man's voice. "You know my hands are tied with these experiments. The higher-ups can't have any mistakes again. And then of course you'll need new subjects and you know as well as I do that the government is closing in on the missing kids."

Iggy dared to creak his eye open and see the look on her face as she said brightly, "No, actually, this subject is the only one I need." With that, the pair walked away and to Iggy's horror, he could hear the approving tone in the other man's voice.

He slumped to the floor in numbing despair. What are they going to do to my senses? he wondered, shaking. Will I lose my sight again, or my hearing? Or my sense of touch? There was no flock around to share his pain. Iggy was all alone on this one.

:-;-:

Sitting sedately across from Iggy, a medium-sized creature watched through half-lidded eyes. These bird kids, it thought, irritated, knowing so much freedom, seeing so many things, and what good has it done to him? Nothing. All he's got now is a metal eye and a dog crate. Then the creature tipped its head to one side, human eyes blinking in an oddly sympathetic gesture. But still, I wouldn't know what its like to be free then lose it all. I've never really been free...

It soon got to its paws with a luxurious stretch and yawn, first extending its forelegs out in front of it then arching its back. Its body was flowing and seamless, save for the occasional odd crick or unexplainable pain spasm. It winced as its shoulder smarted for no apparent reason, Maybe my time is coming.

Well, sitting about moping will do no good for me or him, it thought with a tail-flick. Might as well get as many links as possible.

"Hey kid."

The sudden appearance of this voice, a male's, rasping from nonuse but otherwise lovely in tone, made Iggy jump. His early-year training kicked in. Give away nothing, get as much info as possible, show no weakness, the young boy went over the mental checklist and realized he'd done all of the above already. So, taking a Max-like chance, he replied.

"Who's there?"

There was a low rumbling chuckle, almost a purr. "Who wants to know?"

Something familiar in this way of speaking was affable and positively annoying at the same time. Iggy gave in to his irritation and growled, "Awfully cheerful for someone who's either a disgusting wolf-mutant or a screwed-up experiment."

"I'll go with screwed-up experiment for my identity, though probably not as screwed-up as you," the new voice said dryly at first, then became quite conversational, "Well, actually, I don't know who's worse off at the moment. Our situations are nearly the same: trapped in dog crates at some wacko lab with several glitches, so to say, for each of us. Let's just say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Iggy scowled and did what he'd do in any other situation- replied with a smart remark. "Ah, I'm so lucky to have one so learned as a kennel mate."

"But you are all alone, if I'm not mistaken?" The voice was not scornful and yet anything but sympathetic at the same time. "Well, now you're not. Admit we're on the same level here, mutant experiment to mutant experiment."

Instantly, that vague liking Iggy had identified earlier returned but his stubborn streak was terribly, well, stubborn. The way the stranger was blunt and said that they were equals, despite him being blind, was welcomingly bracing.

Iggy dared to open his eye the tiniest bit and get a glimpse of his new, um, friend, maybe. Instantly he blinked in recognition. "Max saw you at the Institute, the wildcat or something, that would live in Africa, with the human eyes... "

The serval hybrid tipped his head and then recognized the bird kid individually as the features matched to a picture in his memory. "Yes, yes, they called you, uh, Izzy, no, Iggy. Nice to properly meet you, Iggy."

Before the pain completely defeated Iggy's will power, he locked the image of the feline hybrid into his memory. A smallish cat, claws and fangs and tail included, with human eyes. Yes, human. Blue- just like his. They were still blue ... right?