A/N: HOLY SMOLIES. The reviews were AMAZING. My parents officially think I'm insane after I saw an inbox full of reviews and started literally jumping for joy. Some really great questions in there too. This is in the Movie Verse by the way, since I'm a little young to have ever seen the show…hehe…as to some of the other things, there's a very good reason why I have all of the Tracy's stuck in that place, can't have any of them coming to the rescue now can I? Some of you even predicted what had happened at the end of last chapter, which admittedly made me a little paranoid…STAY OUT OF MY HEAD lol /looks around nervously/
Oh…and as to some of the questions about whether this is reversible or if Alan is still the same after all of this…well you just get to wait and see…/evil laughter/
And this story is kind of a work in progress; I have all of the main events written out in my mind, so when I type them it's basically just adding to the skeleton.
THANKS TO ALL THE REVIEWERS! YOU MADE MY DAY!
Enjoy the next chapter!
Nevair
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Unlike their father, Scott, John, Virgil, and Gordon couldn't close their eyes. In fact, it seemed that they were incapable of any muscle movement, such as breathing, or blinking. It was because of this that none of them missed the split second moment where Alan spun, arm outstretched, and grabbed the sharp knife by its handle, bringing his arm up and back and releasing the dagger in a smooth movement. The blade whisked back through the air, burying itself in the thigh of its owner, who let out a cry as the metal bit into the thick muscle of his leg.
"Holy…" Gordon breathed. That was some reaction time. His brothers simply gaped, open mouthed with shock and relief. Virgil turned to his father, who had his eyes shut tight and was making choked sobbing sounds.
"Dad…DAD, it's ok. Look. Alan's fine." Though he wasn't quite sure about the fine part, he just wasn't dead. Not waiting to see if his dad did as he asked, Virgil quickly turned back to the training ground and watched as a pissed off looking Alan was led back to his pole and bound to it again.
Jeff could hardly believe his son's words, he dared to open his eyes and what he saw shocked him. Alan was being chained to a pole, perfectly unharmed, and the man that had thrown the dagger was being led away, bleeding profusely from his right thigh.
"That boy has one hell of a level of control." Langstead was looking wide-eyed at the blond haired youth that was now sitting sullenly against the hard metal of his pole.
"What do you mean?" John asked, his voice as shaky as he felt after seeing his little brother nearly killed, and then to also see said little brother calmly injure another man and hardly bat an eye about it.
"I designed the Chimera serum, and I know what it does to those kids. For him to be able to not only refrain from defending himself when he was being beaten, but to stop himself from killing that guy? It's in his instincts now, and they would have been hard to ignore. The other children simply would have done it out of reflex, his control is…amazing." The scientist was shaking his head, continuing to stare at the youth below him with a look of shock and awe on his pale face.
The Tracy's looked at each other, worry plainly written across each of their faces. So they knew Alan had been changed, but would he really have killed that guy? Jeff knew it wasn't in his son's nature to kill; that much had been made extremely obvious when he had saved the Hood back in the bank of London. And Alan hadn't killed the guy with the knife, just injured him; an alternative much preferred by his family than his premature death. That had to mean that the changes to his body and mind hadn't affected him that much, that he was still their old Alan, right?
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Sighing, Alan leaned back against the hard metal behind him, absently trying to work free of his cuffs as he watched his remaining classmates tested. Damn. He could feel the changes within him, with the way his body moved and his mind worked. It had taken every last ounce of his control not to snap the man's neck after that first hit, but he knew it would be sealing his fate. It hadn't taken long to realize that the ones that didn't fight were led out of the compound. To where he didn't know, but at least they left.
The others, the ones he knew were like him with the sudden need to fight, were chained up again. And for some unexplainable reason, being chained like some animal pissed him off to no end, and made him more than a little nervous. He didn't understand what had happened to him either, though the logical conclusion his hyped-up mind came up with was that there was something in the drug that had altered him physically and mentally. He had to fight urges he had never had before, like the urge to fling that knife straight into that backstabber's neck, not to mention the fact that he had been able to grab it in mid-air. And he noticed that everything was clearer, sharper looking to his eyes. He could hear the faintest whisper on the wind clearly, and smelt things he hadn't known even existed. It was more than a little disturbing.
More pressing than any of that though was the fear that kept running through his mind. Fear for his family. The last he had seen of them, they had all had guns pointed at their heads. Logically (and he wondered slightly when he ever thought so logically, but it seemed his brain thought on auto-pilot now) he knew that the best answer was that they were dead, that these men had taken them and killed his family to avoid any witnesses. It was what he would have done, though the thought that he would even think something like that made him sick. And he had no evidence to prove that that wasn't exactly what had happened.
Trying to distract himself from that morbid thought, he watched as his friend, Bret, was led up to the fighting circle. He knew even before they started that Bret was different as well; he could smell it on him, see it in the perfectly balanced way he stood and walked, and he just simply knew, as certainly as he knew something had changed in him.
After a brief scuffle, which Bret most definitely won, his friend was led back amongst the other Chimeras. No one else was left to test, and Alan watched with a strange sense of calm as the man he recognized as the bus driver spoke a few quick words to another of the black-clad men who quickly left and entered a large building to Alan's right.
Mikal said nothing to his new soldiers as he looked them over. Not bad, he thought. There were around 12 of them still there, all watching him with the cold, appraising look he had come to recognize on his Chimeras. They were thinking like soldiers now, and subconsciously evaluating the potential threat, just as they were taught. Time to see what they can do against the trained ones. Let the games begin.
The new Chimeras turned as one when they heard the soft crunch of gravel beneath the feet of the man that had left. Behind him, making far less noise to the ears of the new recruits was a line of about twenty girls and boys. Immediately the Chimeras recognized their own kind, the differences in the way they acted and moved as compared to the 'normal' humans in this place.
"Sergeant, line them up." Mikal spoke to the man that had led the others out. Turning to the assembled soldiers, the sergeant blew a whistle, cold and sharp, and instantly the boys and girls were lined up in military position, facing the officers.
Alan observed the faces of his fellow…whatever the hell they were. They looked… tight, like springs coiled too tightly, ready to shatter at any moment from the tension. It broke his heart. The way he was feeling right now, he knew he wouldn't be able to control his emotions like they did, carefully schooling their faces to a blank state while their eyes shouted their defiance for the whole world to see.
More than any of the changes he noticed, he felt more. Every emotion he had seemed to hit him harder, with more passion than before. Alan knew that he wouldn't be able to keep his temper with those men, that if they did anything to push him the wrong way again he wouldn't be able to control himself. The only thing holding him back now was the thought that his family could be dead, that he might never see his brothers and dad again. It made him empty, soulless, and he couldn't care less what they did to him at the moment. He would deal with them later, but for know, he would evaluate the threats, determine the best way to escape, and try not to let his grief swallow him whole.
"Attention!" the sergeant bellowed. Alan and the others winced, their heightened hearing making that shout nearly unbearable.
Silently, the other officers approached the Chimeras that were chained, releasing them from their bonds and leading them to stand in the line with the others. Moving through the line, they were split into pairs and ushered to a spot on the grounds so that they would have some space between the other pairs. Alan found himself with a girl. Immediately his mind began to catalogue any information about her he could, her height, weight, possible strengths and weaknesses. As their eyes met, blue locking with grey, Alan stopped his mental analysis of the girl and just looked at her, seeing anger and hate in those silvery depths.
"Fighting positions!" Mikal snapped out the order, smiling when his soldiers followed it immediately. "You will test each other, find each others strengths and weaknesses. Do not stop until we order it. Begin!" Mikal and the other officers began to move among the fighting duos, seeing which of the Chimeras were better fighters, which ones fell behind, evaluating them as the fought.
Alan looked the girl over slowly, waiting for her to make the first move as she did the same to him. He had to admit, fighting sounded like a good idea right now; a way for him to let out some of the sadness and frustration he felt at the moment. And well, fighting just seemed like a good idea anyways.
A slow smile crept across both of their faces as the recognized that the other wasn't interested in a serious fight; both were just looking for some fun, like two cats playfully wrestling. Without further hesitation, they began.
Alan lost himself in the twists and blocks, the strikes and kicks. His body felt right when he fought, this was what it was meant to do. He felt his muscles contract and expand, his lungs automatically falling into a steady rhythm that would allow him to exert himself for as long as he wished without getting breathless. It was like a dance, she struck, and he blocked and retaliated. She blocked, and retaliated. Over and over, both getting lost in the movements, it was the best feeling he could ever remember having.
Unsurprisingly, their fight lasted longer than the other pairs' did. Once one member was down, Mikal and his men had ordered them to stop fighting. Eventually the only ones remaining were Alan and the girl. As the others looked on, slowly gathering around the two, Alan and his partner remained oblivious, completely absorbed in their motions.
Mikal observed them coolly, smiling when he recognized the two that fought so well with each other. Kira was his best fighter, a natural leader he had planned to make her one of his lieutenants. It seemed she had just met her match. The boy fought as well as she did, his form perfect despite his lack of official training in the Chimera army. Recognizing him from before as being the one that had refused to fight, Mikal knew he had found his second leader. The two would work well together, and he had no doubt that the others would follow them eventually.
Smirking evilly as a new idea came to him, Mikal motioned for two of his fellow officers to come to him. It was easy to tell from the way that the two teens fought that they weren't serious about it, if they had been one of them would have been dead already. Can't let them think this is all fun and games, they'll never learn that way.
"Enough." Mikal ordered. Both of them stopped, Alan brushing his blond bangs out of his eyes as he turned to look at Mikal. Kira calmly turned as well, long black tresses swinging with the motion.
"Time for the second part of your training. Lets see what you can do with these." Mikal gestured to the two men he had called forward, both reached into their boots and removed heavy silver daggers. Kira and Alan caught them as they were tossed to them, eyes cold and unblinking as they looked to their officers for an explanation.
"Third blood wins, hesitate too long and I will make it to the death. Begin." Mikal gave a genial little smile as they turned to each other once again, all traces of the excitement of earlier hidden now. Circling slowly, Alan gripped his dagger comfortably in his hand. The weight of it felt good. Heeding Mikal's words, Kira struck in a flash, prompting Alan to block it. Shifting slightly, Alan pushed off from his left leg and tackled Kira to the ground. Rolling quickly the two separated and came to their feet, silently acknowledging that some blood had to be spilt, and they should do it sooner rather than later.
Striking out again, Kira grasped Alan by his arm as she kicked him in his side and scored a shallow cut across his collarbone. A thin line of red appeared as it darkened the small tear in his navy shirt. Instinctively Alan twisted his arm, breaking her grip as he threw her off balance and over his hip, slashing a quick cut across her upper arm as he did.
One for one.
The fight reached new levels as Kira struck out and Alan dodged. Neither stopped moving, constantly blocking and striking, searching for an opening. Not long after both had reached their Second Blood, Alan with blood dripping from a long gash on his upper right arm, and Kira with a short nick across her cheekbone.
They eyed each other carefully, coming to an agreement with their eyes, both leapt forward at the same time, reaching Third Blood at the same time as they cut each other's forearms.
"Impressive." Mikal drawled, knowing they had tied so that he wouldn't punish the loser. Oh yes, they'll work well together. And tomorrow we shall see how the young man does as a leader.
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Gordon looked down at his only younger brother, watching with some admiration as he saw Alan fight. He was grace in motion, every move perfectly executed and flowing smoothly into the next. The girl was just as impressive to watch and together they looked amazing.
"She's good, isn't she?" Dr. Langstead asked his companions with a small smile, watching the two fight.
"Who is she?" Jeff asked; his sons were too absorbed in trying to make sure Alan was all right, even though there was really nothing they could do if he wasn't.
"My daughter…" Langstead whispered. He turned to the Tracy's, noticing the same blond hair on John as on the boy below and began to have an idea as to why they were so worried for the boy. "Her name is Kira." Deciding to go with his hunch he asked, "Is the boy your son?"
"Yes." Jeff choked out, watching as his son and the girl…Kira, were handed knives. "He's my youngest. We haven't been properly introduced it seems. I'm Jeff; these are my sons, Scott, John, Virgil, and Gordon. Alan is the one out there."
The four brothers glanced up as their names were called, feeling able to relax a little now that Alan and the girl had stopped fighting with the knives and neither of them seemed badly hurt.
The group fell into silence, watching as their respective family members were lined up and marched off to the building standing to the left of theirs. As they disappeared from view, the day seemed to catch up to the Tracy's as they could no longer see Alan and were forced to think of other things.
"Dad." The voice sounded lost and scared, and Jeff turned to see Gordon with tears running down his cheeks. "We have to get him out of here, we'll get him out, right?"
His voice broke his brother's hearts. Scott wanted so desperately to comfort his younger brothers, but couldn't physically reach them from within his cell. They were truly alone.
Despite Gordon having been the one to ask him, Jeff saw the same question in the eyes of each of his sons as they turned to him, Virgil with tear tracks on his face and Scott and John with eyes filled with tears they wouldn't let fall. He knew exactly how they felt, and he didn't have a clue how they were going to get Alan when they couldn't even get out themselves.
"We'll get him out, I promise." Jeff said finally, hoping that saying it would make it true.
"Yeah bro, we got people back home still, they'll be looking for us." John tried to reassure Gordon. Of course they won't know anything's wrong until two days from now, when we're supposed to be home. John kept that depressing thought to himself, but he knew everyone else was thinking it as well. That's what came from belonging to IR; you just couldn't help wishing for the best but realistically knowing the worst as well.
Night fell, the windows providing an awesome view of a star-spangled sky. The Tracy's and Dr. Langstead were served a cold dinner at gunpoint, each choking down the food by habit, knowing that the worst possible thing would be to have an opportunity to escape and be too weak from hunger to take it.
They were left alone again, no one speaking for fear of shattering the silence that seemed to surround them like a fog. Sitting back against the walls of their cells, they lost themselves to their thoughts.
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Alan was woken rudely by the sound of footsteps stomping on the ground of the room. Lifting his head from where it lay on someone's arm, he looked around him at the other now-awake Chimeras that were with him. After a military dinner, they had been shown to a room. It was large, square, and empty. Following the leads of the ones that had been here longer, they realized that they were to sleep like cats, piled up on each other or off on your own in a corner, taking comfort from the closeness of the others.
After momentary hesitation, Alan decided it felt right somehow to sleep like that. Again, he figured it must have been something else that had been changed from the drug. The way I think, act, see, hear, and now my sleeping habits? Is there anything about me it didn't change?
Standing slowly with the others that were now awake, Alan looked at the man that had interrupted their rest. He was just another faceless officer, average height and build, nothing extraordinary. He searched the faces of those in the room, stopping when his eyes rested on Alan.
Figures, It's always me isn't it? Alan's eyes narrowed as the man moved towards him. He had to hand it to the guy, he didn't seem particularly nervous to be standing on his own in the middle of a room with only one exit, surrounded by genetically enhanced killing machines that wouldn't hesitate to attack if he made the slightest wrong move. He was either really cocky, or way too scared of his boss to refuse following an order to come in here. Alan guessed the latter.
"You. Come with me. The Commander wishes to see you." He spoke steadily as he addressed Alan, but his eyes gave him away, flickering nervously from one teen to the other as they created a loose circle around him.
Noticing the attack formation of his fellow Chimeras, Alan looked to them and gave a nearly imperceptible shake of his head. Bret raised his eyebrow at his friend, questioning him silently. Though they had been together for barely a day, the Chimeras already had something of a structure to them. Alan and Kira were followed and respected as well as a few of the other better fighters, those they were closest to were the only ones that would really question them. Each and every one of them looked out for each other, acting like a pack in their protectiveness.
Stepping closer to the nervous man in a very predatory walk, Alan motioned for the others to back off a little. He would follow the man, if only to see more of the compound in case there was any chance for an escape.
An escape to what? Your family's dead. Pushing the annoying voice to the back of his mind, Alan nodded and followed the officer out of the building. As the door opened and let in some light from the outside lamps, Alan blinked when saw several of the Chimeras near the door. Their eyes shone, like a cat's does in the dark, before they moved away from the door, the glow fading from their eyes when the light no longer hit them.
Across the training ground and into the building on the far side, Alan followed the man. Taking stock of his surroundings he memorized them, noting any little thing that could aid in an escape attempt. Again the thought of what the point in escaping was if his family was dead came to his mind, only to be pushed roughly aside.
The night was cool, practically freezing if you were used to a tropical island, but the temperature didn't faze him much. Noticing the darkness in most of the compound's windows Alan checked his internal clock and thought that it was sometime around 2 in the morning.
He was led into the building and up a flight of stairs. A long corridor stretched before them, doors leading off into various rooms and other hallways on either side. With a sharp left, Alan was led into a small office room, the Commander, Mikal, was sitting comfortably at a large wooden desk. He rose as they entered.
"Ah, just the man I wanted to see. Thank you sergeant, leave us." Mikal commanded, barely sparing a glance at his officer, as he looked Alan up and down. Alan regarded the man coldly, doing an immediate threat assessment. The man was fit, and taller than Alan was, but his stance showed he stood off balance, leaning more to his right side. Cataloging that little detail for later, Alan listened as Mikal began to speak.
"You've shown promise, soldier. We could use someone like you as a leader; certainly your skills alone qualify you for that position. However I rarely base decisions on outward appearances. I want to see how you do leading a small group of soldiers, just on a simple task really. Think of it as a test run, if you do well the position as one of my lieutenants is yours." Mikal finished with a smile. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the front of his desk, watching the blond youth in front of him for a reaction.
"And I'm to just do this for you like a nice little boy, am I?" Alan asked with a cruel tone of voice. He sneered at the man before him, disgust plainly written on his handsome features. "What makes you think I'll just take your orders? You're no match for me."
Mikal smirked a little. So my guests will be useful after all. For all his talk I doubt he would put those men in harms way just to be stubborn. Time to go meet the adults.
"I thought you might say something like that. Follow me." Turning, Mikal strode purposely out of his office and down the long hallway. Reaching a set of doors with two men standing out front, he motioned for them to open it.
The four men entered the room, which was dimly lit by small yellow lights spaced along the wall. The wall across from the door was completely made of glass and overlooked the dark training yard below. Mikal continued into the room and over to a panel in the wall to the right. Hitting in some buttons, Alan blinked as the overhead lights turned on and the six figures in front of the window were illuminated. They turned and looked at him in shock.
Alan didn't know how to describe what he was feeling. The emptiness inside of him at the thought of them being dead was filled with joy and relief that threatened to turn into tears. He looked them over with an expert eye, noticing that other than looking tired and shocked at seeing him there, his family looked all right.
"Alan." It was almost comical the way they said it as one, coming out like surround sound. Jeff and his boys stood quickly, looking from Mikal standing there watching Alan's reaction to the two guards that stood just behind Alan, and to Alan, looking at them with relief evident on his face. Dr. Langstead watched quietly from his seat on the floor.
The relief quickly changed to anger at the sight of the energy walls that separated his brothers and father from each other and him. The anger quickly grew to hate as he realized the implications of Mikal showing him his family.
"Now, you were saying something about not wanting to follow orders? I'm afraid I'll have to take my anger out on one of these fine men here then. I can't very well injure my own soldiers; wouldn't help me in the slightest. What do you say, will you do the job?" Mikal grinned evilly at Alan, knowing he had him cornered.
Tearing his eyes from his brothers and dad, Alan fought back the urge to kill the man where he stood. The only thing stopping him was the sight of the two guards moving closer to his family, guns in hand and aimed at Scott and his dad.
His whole body was nearly on fire from the rage he felt pulsing through him. Alan stalked over to Mikal, his every step radiating 'DANGER' to those present in the room. Standing face to face with the evil man, he growled.
"I'll do it."
"Excellent, you'll leave with your team in just under an hour. Oh, and we'll be keeping an eye on you from here as well. I think our guests will enjoy the show, and if anything goes wrong I won't hesitate to put a bullet in their heads." Mikal's light tone of voice gave no illusions as to his seriousness.
Alan glanced at his family again, before looking back at his Commander. Mikal looked down into the coldest eyes he could ever hope to see and involuntarily took a step back. Alan smirked and walked towards the door to the hallway followed by the two guards. Quickly regaining his composure, Mikal exited after them, tossing a last comment over his shoulder to his 'guests' as he left.
"We'll be back soon, don't go anywhere."
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As Alan walked through hallways back to Mikal's office he remembered just a year ago when his whole family had been trapped on Thunderbird Five. Danger wasn't uncommon for them; they were IR after all, but to have all of his brothers and his father in danger all at once? He had promised himself a year ago that he wouldn't let that happen again, that he would do everything he could to protect his family.
His eyes landed on Mikal and flashed with anger as the man entered the office.
You just made the biggest mistake of your life.
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A/N: whew, that was a long chapter! Anyways, things should start getting pretty exciting next chapter, I've got some very interesting ideas for the big 'battle'. Anyways…REVIEW, IT REALLY DOES MAKE ME WRITE FASTER! Oh, and any little ideas you have that you may want me to add in, I'd be happy to hear!
/pokes/ you know the drill!
/points down at review button/ it's calling you! C'mon…clicky button!