DISCLAIMER: not mine, nope, nu uh, just borrowing.
A/N: Wow! I've never gotten so many reviews so soon! Thanks guys /does happy dance/
PKW: no, Fermat isn't there, it was Alan's athletics class that went, and I'm thinking he isn't too athletic and wouldn't be in there! He'll be in the later chapters though!
Getpink: thanks! Glad you like the idea!
Iniysa: hehe, I like purple too lol. And I didn't know you COULD change the colors, that'd be cool though…
Cheryl: here's the update! Hope you like it!
Sam1: you'll find out a lot more from Alan's point of view in the next chapter, this one's more on what Jeff and the boys see from their little prison.
Thowra-angel: I'm writing as fast as I can! Lol, thanks for the review!
The magik dragon: Thanks! Hope you like this chapter as well!
Rachie Loves Donald Duck: Glad you like the idea! It's been pestering me to write it for a while now, sure am glad I did with all these reviews!
Andrewjameswilliams: you could say that…and they will most DEFINITELY get what's coming to them…I just want to make Alan and the others suffer a little first lol…oh yeah, they definitely messed with the wrong people!
Agent Five: yes well, I had to have them all together some how, didn't I? Lol, hopefully this chapter won't disappoint!
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Jeff, Scott, Virgil, Gordon and John were led over to stand before the window in a line. The men behind them took a step back and a humming sound began to fill the room. Turning quickly, the five men noticed that they had been separated from each other and the rest of the room with a type of clear, shimmering, energy field; effectively imprisoning them with a perfect view of the outside training grounds.
"Enjoy your stay fellas." Mikal said with a smirk as he gave a little wave and vacated the room, leaving its trapped occupants to themselves.
Scott surveyed the room they were in. The windowed wall made up the front of their cages, where the energy field created the final three walls. John, Gordon, and Virgil were to his right, his father and…who is that?
Looking to his left, past his dad, Scott saw another man sitting dejectedly on the floor of his own cage. About to point out the man to his father, Scott was distracted by Gordon's choked cry.
"Dad…" As one, the four men turned to the second youngest Tracy and followed his gaze out the window and to the empty yard below. Or, what used to be an empty yard. Poles had appeared in a line on the far side from their prison, and chained to each pole was a child. They seemed to be just waking up, a couple hesitantly standing on wobbly legs as they took in their strange surroundings.
Virgil scanned the faces of the teens anxiously. Where is he? Where is he? He caught a glimpse of blond hair and immediately looked to it. There, near the end of the row of poles, was Alan. His baby brother was sitting slumped against his pole, unmoving.
"There!" John cried. He, too, had spotted their youngest and pointed him out to the others. Seeming to sense their gaze on him, Alan's head lifted slowly and he shook it, as if trying to clear it, looking around himself in a daze.
Jeff's gaze was torn away from his little boy as several of the men that they had seen earlier entered the training ground. They stood in military stance, forming an imposing line before the youths.
As they watched, one man approached the first chained boy in line and un-cuffed him. Gripping his upper arm, the man led him to stand in front of the black-clad men. Looking closely, Scott could see the rough outline of a circle, kind of like you would see on a wrestling mat, that the boy stood in the center of.
One of the military men stepped forward, standing just in front of the terrified teen, and moved into a fighting stance. Without warning, he struck.
"What the hell are they doing!" Jeff screamed. Watching the boy take the blow to the stomach, he realized that him and his four sons had moved until they were practically pressed up against the window.
"They're testing them." The voice was unfamiliar and unexpected. Jumping slightly, the Tracy men turned to the man that Scott had noticed earlier. He was gazing blankly out the window, watching as the boy was led out of the circle and out of sight. The next boy in line was unchained and led to the circle.
"What? Testing for what?" Gordon asked, confused. The others watched as, again, the boy took a couple of hits and was then led out of sight.
"To see if the serum took to them. If they were compatible with it." Again, the man spoke but didn't look at his fellow prisoners.
"What the hell are you talking about? What's going on here? What the hell is this place?" Scott was losing his patience, and fast. He didn't like being kept prisoner while his captors decided to beat up some kids in front of him.
"Maybe you should start from the beginning?" Jeff said, the voice of reason right now as his sons stared in fury at the men that were slowly making their way through the line of children.
Oddly though, some of the children fought back, and well. Unusually well. The man they were fighting was big, but they dodged and hit with seemingly little effort, causing him to stumble out of the circle. The fighters were the minority though it seemed, as already they had gone through five children and only two had managed to defeat their opponent. The ones that did fight were taken back to their poles and chained again.
"They called it Project Chimera." The man's voice cut through the room once again. Turning to the pale, drawn face of the man next to him, Jeff noticed he still continued to stare out the window as he spoke. "It was a government project that was meant to revolutionize the way we trained soldiers. My lab was asked to begin researching the advantages of animal characteristics; Strength, speed, balance, endurance, their heightened eyesight and hearing. We developed a serum that was to act as a sort of program. Encoded into it was all the information that a soldier needed and received in training. Things such as codes, computer programming abilities, strategizing, survival techniques, every fighting technique known to man, weapons usage, everything. We put the information into the serum and combined it with animal DNA. After researching we agreed that felines were the best of the animal species to use; they were natural hunters, excellent fighters, and overall simply seemed the logical choice."
The man paused, taking a shaky breath before continuing to his rapt audience. "The serum was supposed to enter the bloodstream and imprint all of its programs into the genetic code of the host. The hosts DNA would change, accepting the new information and overnight we had the perfect soldier. We could create an army within days. An army of stronger, faster, soldiers. Soldiers with higher endurance, heightened senses, faster reflexes, and the all the knowledge they ever needed to get the job done.
Basically it was a computer program for the perfect killer. But, like computer programs, you need a computer that has the right software on it to read the program. We discovered that the chances of the code taking to someone over the age of 18 were less than 3. So, we turned to younger children. The children were more likely to be compatible if they already displayed some of the characteristics we programmed into the Chimera serum. Active children, children that had natural leadership skills, children that knew some kind of fighting style or discipline, were more likely to be compatible. And the ones that are? They're perfect. It works exactly as we expected, better even. Chimera took innocent children and turned them into warriors." The last was said with a not so subtle tone of disgust. With a sigh, the man ran his hands through his short, steel colored hair.
"Are you telling me that my son is now part animal? And he's got all the knowledge of a soldier. Are you kidding me?" Jeff said incredulously. This can't be happening, not to Alan. Not my baby boy… Shaking, Jeff slid down one of the walls of his cage, his head coming to rest in his hands.
It was no question in their minds as to whether or not Alan's body had accepted the code. Somehow, they just knew. Sharing a worried look with his siblings, Scott tried to avoid thinking too much about his baby brother becoming the perfect assassin and part cat, which is basically what it sounded like had happened. Instead, he turned to the man that had so calmly ripped his family apart.
"Mr…?" Scott started, realizing he hadn't yet heard the scientist's name.
"Langstead, Dr. Drake Langstead." The man said, still gazing blankly outside to where the men were systematically testing each child they had taken. They were nearing the end now.
"Dr. Langstead, what happens to the kids that weren't changed by the serum?" Scott asked.
"The serum breaks up naturally in their bloodstreams, no side effects, no complications. They get to go home, back to their families and their lives as if nothing happened. None of them are a threat either, they tell them that if any of this gets out, the ones that stay here will pay the price." Langstead answered with an empty sounding laugh. "As if they could kill them, those children are more than capable of tearing them to pieces barehanded if they so wished."
"If you created this, Chimera thing, how come you're stuck here with us?" Gordon asked, looking over at the scientist curiously.
"They wanted to take my daughter, that's why." For the first time since they entered that god-forsaken building, the man looked away from the window. Cold, sad, grey eyes taking in for the first time his new roommates.
"Dad! They've reached Alan!" at the sound of Virgil's voice, Jeff's head snapped up and all eyes turned to the circle where Alan was shoved roughly to stand in the very middle.
Faces strained, hands clenched, barely breathing, the five Tracy men watched. Praying that Alan had somehow remained unaffected, that he would be able to go home and not be forced to live in this cage. In their hearts they knew it was hopeless; he had everything that Dr. Langstead said would make him more accepting of the Chimera code.
So, when the first blow connected solidly to Alan's side, it was an understatement to say that they were shocked. Hope flared once again, and they inched closer to the glass between them and their youngest family member.
John grimaced as Alan took another hit, this one right across the face. To his surprise, Alan neither moved nor made a noise. He was so sure it would have changed him…
"They should have stopped by now." The quiet comment came from Langstead. Glancing at the scientist quickly before looking back to his youngest son, Jeff realized that they were going on a lot longer than they had with the others. Two, three hits at most, and the kids had been led off, back to their normal lives. Alan took his fifth hit and still they didn't stop.
"Why won't he fight?" Langstead wondered aloud. "They know he's been changed, if he hadn't, he wouldn't have been able to withstand those blows without moving. So why doesn't he just fight?"
Scott stared, almost in tears as Alan was backhanded viciously. Just fight Alan. They'll stop if you fight. Please.
His brothers and father were no less affected by watching Alan get beaten so brutally. Each was silently urging him to fight back, to do something other than just stand there and take it.
"Oh god…" Virgil's pained cry attracted the attention of the others, each turned to what had caught his eye.
In the circle, the man had paused and was looking at the men still standing in a line behind Alan. One of them turned to the one next to him and nodded, a silent signal to try a new tactic.
In horror, the six men imprisoned in their clear cells watched as the man that had be nodded to reached into his combat boots and withdrew a sharp, wicked looking dagger. Hefting it a little, as if testing its weight, he gripped the handle and in a smooth motion hurled it at Alan's unsuspecting back.
As the cold sunlight glinted off the sharp silver of the blade, Jeff closed his eyes against the sight he was sure would kill him if he saw it.
"Holy…" The word Gordon breathed was barely audible, nearly drowned out by the pained cry that erupted from the training ground below.
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A/N: mwahahaha, sorry, school tomorrow and if I didn't end it there I would have had to wait till tomorrow to put it up. :D Don't hurt me :D REVIEW PLEASE, it makes me happy lol. And happy authors write faster…hint hint
/pokes you/ click the button!