Disclaimer: I own only my plots, places, items and characters (etc) that I create, nothing else.
* Italics means thoughts.
Chapter 14; Story Time
"It's time we get an explanation." White stated, clearly meaning no argument was allowed. And no one presented one.
The interrogation room was wrecked from recent events so Knight had just rounded everybody up in the Command Center. Which was probably for the best with the number of people they had to cram in there. And now that everyone, even the chimp, were present they would begin.
"Story time with Oliver." The said teen commented dryly. "Please hold any questions and applause till the end."
"I'm gonna give you guys the same run-down I gave Amyna and Onier when we met, just leaving out some personal or other information that I've trusted them with over time. Nothing really relevant. So here we go." Oliver took a deep breath and a small dragon made of fire materialized beside him. It was a calming technique he used when he was overly stressed.
"So, I don't remember a whole lot of my past, actually. I get flashes and muddled glimpses occasionally but really my story starts bout four years ago, up in Alaska.
"I'm not giving all the details about what happened after that but I woke up in this program. The Enhancement Program, as I later learned it was called. An absolutely awful place. It turned out their goal was to enhance humans any way possible. Morals didn't really matter to them, as long as they got what they wanted. And when The Event happened and created EVOs, well, it was like Christmas had come early to them." Oliver said bitterly. "They'd rounded up as many E. they could without rousing suspicion. I think their ultimate goal was to make an army but they didn't exactly tell us."
"Roughly thirty or so people, all E. , were stuck in this guarded complex. Most of the people were kids about my age, between ten and thirteen years old. Everybody was given a letter, that was imprinted on their arm. That was their designation and identification. After a while, everybody got tired of the one letter names, as if we were all animals, so we gave each other names starting with their designation. I was 'Experiment O', so I got Oliver.
"There weren't any rules in there. Not really. The guards didn't really care what we did as long as no one ended up dead or crippled. There was some semblance of order, luckily, though from the experiments. Nobody really wanted to hurt the others...well, maybe a few. Anyway, we lived in the complex for most of time, only leaving for 'experiments' or 'conditioning' as the scientists and guards called them. I had two close friends there and they're really the only reason I'm still here. Those two protected me and I honestly owe them my life. And I'm not even sure what happened to them. I'm not real optimistic either because a lot of other experiments went comatose or worse.
"Eventually, my two friends and I formulated an escape." Oliver felt his throat dry up, remembering. "It was rather ingenious, actually, but something went wrong. One of my friends went comatose before we could escape but managed to tell us to go on without him. The two of us left decided to continue with the plan. My other friend, she..
"She..she was captured and stayed to buy me the time to escape." Oliver's dragon angrily spat fire, as if sensing his creator's mood. Oliver continued to twirl it through the air, leaving smoke trails from it's flights. "I tried to convince her otherwise but...
"I escaped alone. The compound was mostly destoyed during my escape and I don't even know who survived. It was horrible. I finally got to a small town and survived through scavenging. I hated that I had to steal but honestly, there was no alternative. I didn't think it could get much worse from that point.
"Then, HE came. Nightwrath. From what I've gathered, he's a sword for hire. Yes, the same guy who attacked last night. For whatever reason, he was hired to track me down and reign me back in, at least that's what I gathered. He wasn't very talkative. If he did speak, it was to try and bait me. I managed to evade him for quite a while but always just barely staying ahead. He never let up.
"After, I don't know how long, I met these two." Oliver jerked his thumb at Amyna, who waved, and Onier, who crossed his arms. "They were on the run too and we teamed up. Life improved after that. Nightwrath didn't even attack for a while, after he realized I had company. For a short while, I thought I was safe, home free.
"But Nightwrath did attack again. I was out scouting for a campsite in a forest, so Onier and Amyna weren't with me. And that's when he attacked again. I was forced to run. These two caught wind if the commotion and came to help. I won't say exactly what happened after that but it was safe to assume that Nightwrath was dead...No, Rex, I didn't shoot him. Jeez, jump to conclusions why don't you? And I told you to wait for the end to ask questions. But let's just say, I thought that assasin was done coming after me.
"After that, the I decided to stick with Amyna and Onier and we eventually set up that base in a forest and after a while, you crazies showed up." Oliver concluded, putting a humorous emphasize on 'crazies'. "Now, questions? And no, Rex, nobody was shot. Or stabbed. I didn't kill anybody, okay? Jeez."
"I've got one," Six presented. "You say the three of you lived by yourselves."
"Right."
"How did that work? Three people, in a forest with rather advanced tech, food and no apparent funding or source of income."
"Umm, well," Oliver began, awkwardly running his hands through his hair and his other free hand creating his little fire-dragon out of nervousness. "We, er, liberated it...?"
"So you're criminals."
"No! Well, yes," Oliver admitted. "But we had no other choice. We only took what we absolutely needed and even then, only from Providence...a little payback for those EVO collars."
"Right. And you just want us to let the fact that you're criminals to just slide?"
"The enemy of your enemy is your friend, right?" Oliver shrugged and gave a hopeful smile. Six raised an eyebrow but didn't press the issue further. "Any other questions?"
"Yes, switching to science gears," Holiday spoke up, looking through some notes she'd retrieved from her lab. "Do you know how your nanites work?"
"Um...I throw fireballs at stuff. Not exactly the science type, Doctor Holiday." Oliver commented dryly. "I think has to do with the nanites, though."
Holiday sighed, putting her notebook down and producing a needle that Oliver hadn't seen before. "I guess that'd be to much to hope for. Could I get a blood sample then and try to figure out how exactly your nanites work?"
"Sure, go ahead," The white haired teen held out his arm and Holiday pressed the needle into his arm with a brief 'ouch'...which was not missed by Amyna, who snickered.
And the snicker wasn't missed by Holiday. "How about your two? Could I get a blood sample from you two also?"
"Sure," Onier stated with a sideways smirk to Amyna. "Right, 'Myna? There's not a problem with getting your blood drawn...right?"
"N-no, no, not at all, no problem at all." She stuttered out, for once not even correcting her friend on the nickname.
"Really?" He pressed, still smirking. "You've got no problem with having a needle jabbed into your arm?"
"N-Nope..."
"None? Not even having your blood-"
"Shut up, Onier!" She snapped angrily.
"Okay, okay," Onier turned to the rather befuddled group, ignoring Amyna's frantic head shaking. "She's scared of hates them."
"I'm not scared!" She denied feebly.
Holiday just laughed as she finished taking Oliver's blood sample. "Don't worry, it doesn't hurt, actually."
"Fine," Amyna conceded with a groan after an encouraging nudge from Onier. "I'll get my blood taken. . ."
"Great," Holiday smiled. "So now that that's settled, do you guys want to share?"
A/N; Sorry for the delay everybody and as always, thanks for all your support. I wanted to get this update up sooner but I was just extremely busy with life, other writing and Project X (hopefully to premier chapter one soon!). And thanks to Legend's fighter for beta-ing for me. So thanks for sticking with me! Until next update, Baldore.