The Cell

After Zola did his ritual beating of Jason with his brass knuckles Jason was promptly muzzled, cuffed, and dragged to his new cell. He was actually dragged because when Jason was released from the table he found he couldn't stand, his body weak and damaged from the shock collar tests and the knuckles. Zola really hadn't held back this time, he rained blows down on Jason's abdomen and face his face needing to be stitched in a couple of places because Zola got overzealous.

Jason couldn't feel pain but he knew when not to push his body, he hadn't even recovered from the bullet to his left shoulder. Jason didn't even bother trying to memorize the route he was being taken as he was dragged, escape was impossible at this point and this place was like a maze. Besides, Jason just wanted to sleep more than anything, actually, he wanted a shower more than anything, then sleep. In fact, he dozed off a couple of times, but the guards shook him awake, much to his chagrin,

After about five minutes of navigating since they had to drag a semi-conscious fox, they reached Jason's cell. The door was a reinforced steel cell door with slots at the bottom and middle, probably so they could restrain him. The guards went ahead and unshackled his legs, one guard saying as they did "you should recognize this place pelt. This used to be the barrack where you killed a few of my friends, we repurposed it to be your new cell. Since you're too much a wild fucking savage to be with the other subjects, hope you have fun pelt."

Jason rolled his eyes. "I'd say my condolences but I don't give a flying fuck."

Unfortunately, the other guard saw his eye roll and promptly hit the shock collar sending Jason to the floor. The two guards had a laugh at Jason's expense before deciding to just fully un-restrain him, open the cell door, pick him up, and unceremoniously toss him inside before slamming the door shut. Jason's body hit the floor and rolled having him end up on his stomach. Jason let out a groan and decided he'd just stay where he was for a bit….then promptly passed out.

*A few hours later*

Jason came back to the realm of conscience with a groan. His head was ringing, or was that his ears? His vision was blurry, and he knew he'd have to take his movements very very slowly. It took him a good minute just to get his brain booted back up enough to decide he should try and at least sit up. That was a process that took another minute, Jason was starting to think Zola may have given him a concussion.

Once he was finally sitting up he rubbed his eyes halfheartedly before looking around. His vision was still a little blurry but he could make out his surroundings finally. His "cell" was very spacious, the walls were padded, he could easily do some laps if he wanted to, and the ceilings weren't very high. Running along the ceiling were some large and small pipes, Jason had no idea what was inside them but the bigger ones he could use to do some pull-ups, so bonus. Set against the center of the right wall was a simple desk and chair with a large computer on it, which was curious, but he'd investigate it later. On the left side of the room was his own personal gym, nothing fancy, but enough to keep him in shape.

Set against the back left wall was a single fox-sized cot, one blanket, one pillow, and that was it. On the back right side was a door Jason assumed led to the bathroom, he'd probably confirm it later when he felt like moving again. Looking up towards the ceiling he noted there were cameras covering every angle of the room. "Constant monitoring, hooray."

There was one thing he was noticing about this room though, it was annoyingly bright. Very annoyingly so. There were lights running the entire length of his cell, and not just any lights, LED lights, his arch-nemesis. Jason hated LED lights more than he hated the sun, and he HATED the sun, there was a reason he wore specialized sunglasses after all. Worse still he didn't see any light switches anywhere, which meant his captors probably controlled them, which meant they were probably never going to be turned off. "Fuck I think I'd rather be shocked."

If Jason was a betting mammal he'd bet that this wasn't even the brightest these lights could go, they probably flashed to. He was out cold for two weeks after all, who knew what experiments they cooked up while they set up his cell. Either way, it was a guessing game until they sprung it, for now, he decided to try standing. He took his time, his body was stiff, weak, and he knew it was pretty banged up. It was very slow with him being so cautious, but after a minute he was up on his feet. Odds are he was being too cautious, but with the inability to feel pain it could be hard to gauge how slow to take it with the damage sustained. Adding the fact that he hadn't truly eaten or drank anything since the night of his escape attempt.

Now on his feet, he took a few cautious steps, wary of his legs giving out. Once he was sure he wouldn't just collapse he began to walk normally and headed to what he hoped was a bathroom. As it turned out, it was, and it wasn't half bad. Toilet and sink was his size, a mirror (he checked to see if it was double-sided, it wasn't), a fur dryer, and the shower was spacious. Laid out on the counter was a basic toiletries kit including the most amazing thing, a toothbrush. Walking up to the mirror he decided to see how he was looking, and he instantly regretted it.

He looked like a wild, feral, monster. The dried blood on his maw and paws, the flesh in his teeth the dried blood on his clothes, the fresh blood on his face, his lifeless eyes. It all compounded to a fresh reminder of how he saw himself, "monster." He wanted to punch the mirror, he wanted to look away, but instead, he fixed his eyes on his worst fear and stared in the vain attempt that he'd accept what he saw. It didn't work, all he saw was a monster. So he turned the faucet on, turned the shower on, and began to work fervently to wash the monster away.

*Daggermane and group observing Jason in his cell*

Daggermane watched as Jason was unceremoniously tossed in his cell. Tilting his head he looked to Southhowl and said "what was that about?"

Southhowl shrugged as he folded his arms. "Not sure. I'll ask em when I see em…uh he's still not moving."

Daggermane focused back in on the screen and sure enough, Jason hadn't moved from the spot he landed at. "Southhowl, go question your mammals. Now. Better yet bring them here. Telvanni, what are his readings? Is he faking?"

Southhowl let out a huff and then left the room as Telvanni pulled out a tablet. With just a couple taps she said, "No he's not faking, readings say he's unconscious. Prior readings show he was just shocked before being tossed in, it appears your collar works Zola."

Zola scratched an ear as he said "zes zes of course it does, I tested it on him thoroughly before seeing him on his way. He probably passed out because of how much he's been shocked. But readings show no damage, so it is fine."

Daggermane let out a sigh and said "Zola, Jason hasn't even fully recovered from being shot and shocked before! He literally just woke up from a two-week coma! You couldn't have waited to do this!?"

Zola gave him a look, "what? You told me to implement measures to control him, I did."

Daggermane pinched his nose. "Yes, but I didn't tell you to shock him back into a possible coma either!"

Zola scoffed. "Please General! My experiment was controlled as always, I shocked him to the measure his body could handle. The moment I saw he couldn't take another shock I stopped, I pushed him to his edge, not over it. It was Southhowl's mammals that did that."

Daggermane had to take a deep breath to avoid throttling the mad hyena. "Dr. Zola, don't break my star subject."

Zola snorted. "I won't. Well, not physically at least."

Telvanni shook her head at the pair. "Boys, you're starting to give me a headache. Zola you know what the General means and General you know what Zola means. Now please, go somewhere. I'll keep monitoring Jason and let you know when he wakes up."

Both mammals gave her looks but knew better than to argue. So they promptly left the room and roughly five minutes later Southhowl re-entered. "Adrianna, where are the others?"

"I sent them away, they were annoying me. What did you learn?"

Southhowl chuckled. "Well, they shocked him because he rolled his eyes when one of them was talking about friends Jason killed in the former barrack. They then unrestrained him outside because he was incapacitated and tossed him in. They're on janitor duty for a week for the back half, simply because the old lion wouldn't care to hear what they did and it technically violated the rules we set in place. Personally, I told them good job."

Telvanni giggled at that and said "of course you did. Well, I'm simply sitting here waiting for Jason to wake up, so you can go do something else, find Daggermane, or something. This could be a few hours Derek."

Southhowl responded by roughly wrapping a paw around her throat squeezing. Giving her a hungry grin he said "I can think of a better way to pass the time."

*two hours later*

Telvanni was in the midst of putting her shirt on wincing a little as she did. She had some new bruises all over her rib cage from Southhowl's blows, and she absolutely loved it. The rougher it was, the more she enjoyed it, and in turn, the more he did. She wanted him to hurt her more and take his time, but they were on a time crunch, so she had to settle. Besides he was fully satisfied so that was good enough, for now.

As she finished putting on her shirt and Southhowl finished dumping a can of musk mask into the air she noticed Jason finally stirring. She quickly smoothed down her fur and grabbed her notepad as she gestured to Southhowl. "Derek he's waking up go get the others."

Southhowl came back five minutes later with Daggermane and Zola and they quickly began to stare at the screen. Southhowl commenting "wow he's barely moved."

Daggermane lit up a cigar as he said "why is that? He hasn't even gotten up off the ground yet."

Telvanni shrugged. "I have a theory, but I need more data."

Zola hummed, "as do I, I wager it's the same as yours."

They then saw Jason finally sit up and they got a good look at his face, his beaten, bloody, stitched-up face. Daggermane rounded on Zola and said "what in the high hell did you do to him!? I swear if you're using those brass knuckles again!"

Zola gave him a look that said he didn't care as he answered, "zes, I may have gotten a tad overzealous."

Telvanni was rare to scold the mad hyena, but in this instance, her tempered tone would get the point across. "Zola, you may well have given him a concussion. You are pushing things too far. You said you wouldn't break the fox, but here you are, breaking him. He needs to be able to function for our experiments and yours, and right now, he can't. He is recovering from a gunshot and excessive shock, now he needs to recover from a concussion as well. It is much too early to be putting him out of commission like this, we told you things that would put subjects out of commission had to wait. We have things that we have to get out of the way first, and any experiment that does that needs express permission. We told you this. Your prejudice for foxes needs to stay in check or you're going to go too far and kill him. As far as your tendency to use your brass knuckles at the end of experiments, you can't do it so badly that subjects need stitches or break bones. Besides you have plenty of toys to play with right now as it is. Do you understand Zola?"

Zola hated to admit she was right, Jason was getting under his skin by being a fox that doesn't cry out. He needed to be better than that if he truly wanted to break the fox and heard him cry out. "Zes, I understand. I will control myself better."

Telvanni nodded, "good. Because he has a concussion and that can alter his mental responses the cell experiments will have to wait a few days. Lull him into a false sense of confidence and cut the lights off at lights out time. Once the concussion is gone we can start. Is everything agreed and settled?"

Zola and Daggermane looked at each other and nodded, the matter being put to rest for now. They focused back on the screen just in time to see Jason very cautiously stand and began walking. Daggermane took a drag from his cigar then stated "he's moving so cautiously."

Telvanni was busy scribbling notes so it was Zola that stated his theory. "I do believe it's because he can't accurately gauge how slow he should be taking it. Since he can't feel pain and he's experiencing a new type of damage to his body he doesn't know how he should be feeling. Hence he's being so cautious. Is that your theory as well Doctor?"

Telvanni just hummed in response and kept taking her notes.

*Jason, several days later*

Jason was getting very very suspicious. He'd been in his cell for three days and nothing had happened yet, well besides being told the computer had access to the "class" portion of this "program." That meant he could work on upgrading his degrees and getting new ones, so he'd been doing so over the few days. Meals were delivered to him through the restraint slot, which he was fine with since he didn't have to deal with the other teens here. He was dealing with the bright lights, and surprisingly enough they went out at 10 PM.

Of course, he didn't think that'd last much longer. He was lulled before, he wasn't going to be again. Jason guessed that once he recovered from the concussion the plans they had for him would come to light. Unfortunately, he was fully recovered as of today, so the clock was ticking. Wait…something was ticking. *tick tick tick tick* like an old school clock, but louder, and much more annoyingly. Jason looked up from his work and looked around in confusion, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. Unfortunately, it sounded like it was coming from everywhere, which meant they planted speakers throughout the cell. "Greatttt."

Luckily the noise while annoying was one he could mostly ignore, so he turned back to his work. "It's going to take more than that to rattle me."

Over the next hour, that ticking got progressively louder. With every tick, his ears would twitch and it was messing with his ability to focus on his work. The only saving grace was that it wasn't a high-pitched noise, the ticking while at the edge of his comfort level decibel-wise was manageable simply because of that. Unfortunately for him, that ticking suddenly turned into beeping, *beep beep beep* like a timer was going off. It still wasn't a high-pitched noise, but it was much worse than the ticking. There was absolutely no way he could continue working with this noise going.

Standing Jason decided to see if working out would take his focus off the beeping. He'd start with some laps, then move to abs, he'd lay off the arms for now since he was still recovering from being shot. He figured that as he worked out the beeping would increase in volume, but figured he could manage it if he just focused on his exercise. He also had a plan, as he did laps he'd try and figure out where the speakers were. For..you know, reasons.

Once again, the noise lasted for an hour gradually increasing in volume. As the volume increased so did the intensity of Jason's workout, and in the end, it actually worked out for him. He was feeling pretty good, his ears while lowered in discomfort weren't plastered to his head and he could keep, working out if he wanted to. Which he planned to, he decided he could at least work on his right arm. Personally, he was proud of himself, his regiment to control his autism really was working.

That pride then promptly went away in the span of five seconds when the beeping turned to a high-pitched siren. Jason's ears immediately plastered to his head in the only manner he could assume was pain to him. This was only at the first level of loudness and Jason was immediately ready to crack. Standing he took the weight he had in his right paw and chucked it into an area where he figured out one of the speakers was. He didn't care if he was shocked, he had to stop the noise at any cost. Even at low decibels high pitched noises hurt him, causing severe discomfort so he avoided them like the plague.

The weight he threw nailed the section of the wall that hid the speaker damaging it, the second weight he threw right after finished it off. He expected to be shocked for that but instead, the volume simply increased drastically sending Jason to his knees as he desperately tried to cover his ears. Of course, that didn't work so he began to crawl for another weight, he was in too much pain to stand. once he got to one he picked it up and once again began to crawl, he couldn't throw the weight at this distance. He stumbled forward trying his hardest not to cave into the sound, he knew if he didn't destroy the speakers the sound wasn't going to stop anytime soon.

As soon as he was in range he chucked the weight at the area hiding the speaker striking it, and same as the last only damaged it. Letting out a growl of frustration Jason forced himself to his feet and stumbled forward and began to violently claw at the wall until he reached the speaker. Once he uncovered it he punched into the speaker and yanked out the wires making the offending device work. That only left 8 speakers, and all ten speakers changed from high pitched siren to a higher-pitched ringing, and at a higher volume, higher than all the other sounds before.

It sent Jason straight down to the ground writhing in pain. It was the purest of agony, it was true pain, and Jason wanted it to stop. He began whimpering as he writhed in pain and tried to cover his ears in an even more vain attempt than before. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, but he wouldn't give them that satisfaction. Jason would rather claw his ears out than deal with this noise a second longer, and it'd only been a minute. So that's what Jason started to do, he began to desperately claw at his ears cutting them, blood starting to run down onto his shoulders.

Suddenly, the sound stopped, and Jason stopped clawing at his ears and shakily sat up. Looking at each remaining speaker terrified the sound would return. What he didn't know was that Daggermane was the only reason the noise had stopped. The experiment had been being monitored by the group and the second Jason started harming himself Daggermane pulled the plug. He wasn't going to risk his star candidate clawing their ears off for a little more data for the mad hyena. Zola had been irritated but stated he had enough data, he would have been more upset, but he was in a mild state of euphoria at seeing the fox writhe in pain.

Telvanni was the reason Jason hadn't been shocked yet. Southhowl had been about to when Jason threw the first weight, but Telvanni stopped him. "Derek he's been shocked too much already. He's passed already passed out once. His body is too weak right now. You're just gonna have to let him destroy them, and besides the speakers didn't need to remain after we were finished. Also, who cares what he does to his cell? He's the one that has to live in it."

Daggermane had been in agreement. "If Jason destroys the speakers so be it, we already have a compliance device on him. So there's no need to keep them running, Zola wants to discover Jason's audio threshold and nothing more. The speakers have no use after that."

If Jason ever knew, he'd actually thank them before ripping their spines out and beating their corpses with them. But Jason didn't know, all he knew was the noise stopped. His breathing was heavy and ragged, his ears were ringing badly, his body was shaking. As Jason sat there his, fear turned to anger, and his anger turned to rage. It had been 8 years since he has last lost control and had an autistic breakdown, but he had one now. He lost his control and his autism won, weights were thrown, pillows and sheets ripped, his bed was flipped, and the speakers were attacked until they were in pieces.

It took about fifteen minutes for his "tantrum" to subside and in the end, he was on his hands and knees sucking air with ragged breaths panting heavily. I've stayed in that position for a few minutes before he finally went to his knees and looked at the damage, it didn't look too good. There was speaker debris everywhere, weights and equipment strewn about the place, most of the padded walls had claw marks in them, he was now going to be sleeping without a pillow, and his mattress was going to need to be flipped. Overall, the place was a mess so Jason let out a disappointed and annoyed huff over himself and stood to clean the mess.

It took an hour and a half to clean up everything, he had no cleaning equipment and he had done a number on the speakers. He picked up every single piece of the speakers and deposited them by the door, as well as anything else he broke or ripped up. He fixed all of the workout equipment and weights, resituated his cot, flipped the mattress since he put claw marks on one side, and used a ripped sheet to wipe up the blood he'd left everywhere from his ears.

Once he was satisfied he decided to go wash up and look at how bad his ears were. He'd shower than bandage them with pieces of ripped sheets, he assumed they'd be properly bandaged later. Heading into the bathroom he quickly went to the mirror and turned around so he could see his ears. Looking he saw there were three clean claw marks on the back of each ear, they didn't go all the way through and wouldn't need stitches. But, one thing for sure is that when they healed they would scar, and he'd probably have them for the rest of his life. Turning back around he let out a sigh as he grasped the edges of the sink and shook his head in shame. He stayed staring at his reflection for a few minutes before releasing the sink and heading to the shower.

It was the next day that the "light show" started in Jason's cell. It started with the lights staying on the night before and every day for three additional days. It affected Jason's sleep making him quite irritable, but he didn't have an episode. Then the lights increased in brightness, then they started blinking, then they started strobing, then they started flashing, then they started doing all three. It was then that Jason lost control again. He had put up a good fight this time, but the alternating patterns are what broke him finally.

In the end just over half his cell was caked in darkness as he broke the lights by throwing weights at them. Glass rained down to the floor and his feet were cut up pretty well, but he didn't care, the lights had to go out. The guards came to the door and restrained him at that point taking him to Zola to get bandaged up. Zola looked so happy and actually didn't experiment on him, didn't even speak, he just hummed a tune, bandaged him up, and sent him on his way.

He was returned to his cell he looked around, and he could think only one thing. "Now it's my cell. The cell of a monster." Half the cell was darkened, and one light around the middle of the room flickered mildly. Claw marks ran all up, down, and across every padded wall. There were bloody paw prints across the floor and some streaks were on the wall as well.

Jason tried to sleep that night, but the light right above his cot was still intact. Turning to the side didn't help either, and his cot had been bolted to the floor when his feet got patched up. So he was limited on options, not to mention he didn't like being watched while he slept. But then he had an idea, grabbing the bed cover he stood and went over to the pipes. He could jump up there and make a hammock of sorts, it would be dark, they wouldn't be able to see him sleep, and he wouldn't have to see the state of his cell. So that's what he did, he jumped up, fastened the hammock making sure it wouldn't come undone, crawled in, and found it super comfortable. He was soon fast asleep in the cell of a monster.