Chapter Fifteen

The abandon warehouse loomed over her, making her do flips. She was so nervous. She couldn't believe she was here. If only there was another way.

Elsie stirred in her arms, but didn't wake. Rogue sighed in defeat and entered the warehouse. Ten Erasers lined the walls while the Eraser who had tortured her stood in the centre. He stared up at roof, then turned his gaze towards Rogue when he heard her enter. He frowned when he noticed she only had Elsie with her.

"Where are the others?" he demanded.

"I couldn't find them," she lied.

"I told you to bring the others!" he yelled.

His shouting woke Elsie who groaned and opened her eyes. "Rogue? What-?"

"The deal was that you bring all of them. One is not enough." He glanced down at Elsie, who dazed sleepily back.

"Others?" she asked, "The others were-" Elsie was cut off when Rogue dropped her on the ground and hit her over the head, rendering her unconscious.

The man looked at Rogue and his eyes narrowed. "We'll take her. You on the other hand have 2 days to find the rest of your 'flock'." He pronounced 'flock' with utter disgust with a curl of his top lip.

"Two days? For all of them? I need more-"

"You get two days. Any longer and I start taking them apart, finger by finger, toe by toe," he leaned closer, "eye by eye."

He yanked Elsie up by her arm and threw her over his shoulder. He turned and walked away.

"Wait," Rogue said, panicked.

"Two days," he replied in a sing-song tone.

"I was seven years old. The whitecoats, I mean scientists, had been trying to create a new breed of Eraser that would live longer, maybe live even 15 years to the current seven. It worked." Mars sat in a rented hotel room while she explained to Sam and Dean why the Erasers where so intent on getting revenge. They had been hell bent on knowing all there was to know about the enemy.

"How long are they expected to live?" Dean asked.

"I don't know, the project is still in motion. It's been 22 years since the project started and all the original experiments are still alive... well the ones that escaped."

Sam and Dean raised quizzical eyebrows in unison.

Mars sighed. "I was part of the project. Not voluntarily, I was an experiment. The whitecoats created 200 Eraser experiments, there were originally more, but they didn't live past infancy. I was one of the first of avian hybrids. I was created solely for one purpose. The whitecoats wanted to see how the new Erasers interacted with others not like them, whether they would befriend them, reject them... kill them. You see, early in the project the Erasers showed odd behaviour. They interacted differently with each other compared to the other Erasers. They acted like a family, a Pack, rather than every man for himself. When they were alone, they did unusual and disturbing things. They were also smarter. The whitecoats put me in their living quarters and treated me like they did the new Erasers..."

The whitecoat placed the avian hybrid baby in the playpen with the other babies, but unlike her they held canine DNA. The babies and toddlers gathered around the drawing pad turned and looked at the new intruder. The new baby girl, with a thick patch of blonde hair on her head, stared back wide-eyed and then gave a giggle with glee. One of the older toddlers waddled over and sniffed her cautiously.

"She smells funny," he said with an adorable little frown.

Another toddler came over and studied her carefully. He saw two stumpy little things on her back. He reached out and touched them. "She's got wings."

The baby girl giggled again and grabbed his hand. She brought it to her mouth and started sucking on it. The boy pulled his hand away, "Eww." He wiped his hand on his shirt and walked away. "Come on," he said to the other boy, "She's not like us."

As the other boy turned and left the baby girl started to cry. At first the boys ignored her. They returned to where they were sitting and resumed drawing. The crying stopped and the boys presumed one of the whitecoats had taken her away. They realised they were wrong when she crawled in beside them plopped herself in the middle of the circle. She picked up one of the crayons and started to chew on it.

"She'll make herself sick if she chews on that," one of the girls in the circle said.

The how was smelt her snatched the crayon out of her mouth. She began to cry again.

"Will someone shut that baby up!" a whitecoats, who leaned over a nearby bench working intently on a chemical experiment, yelled.

Another whitecoat picked up a needle and walked towards the playpen. When he tried to bend over to inject the needle into the crying baby girl's arm, she was snatched away by the two boys, who were feeling guilty, and held protectively between them. The boy who had discovered her wings growled at the whitecoat who thought it best he leave before they attacked him. The baby girl continued to cry, even when the boys returned the crayon to her.

"What's wrong with her?"

"Wait, I think I know," one of the boys placed her on his shoulder and patted her back. She eventually let out a loud belch and giggled, he then placed her back on the ground. She stared up at him with a smile on her face.

"We'll have to keep her now."

"Yeah. What are we going to call her?"

"Synne. We'll call her Synne."