Rowan glanced out the bars as a slight human was dragged toward the arena obviously going to be used as a weak opponent for one of them. She just hoped it wouldn't have to be her, she was tired of all the mindless killing - but she'd put up the act just to keep the people running the place from being suspicious. Looking at the other's cells she almost wondered if she should bother ever trying to speak to them...they'd probably all just die anyway, it was even a possibility that they could die by her hand. It would probably be for the best she never got to know any of them, she didn't want a repeat of the last time she made a friend. She'd known it was a harsh place, that there was always going to be the chance of death, but it still was bad to see poor little Tommy walk into that arena and not come out.

Kayl sighed, rising from his bed and walking around the small cell. It had become his daily- almost hourly- routine, and he wasn't going to quit any time soon. Hearing someone in the cell beside his, he walked over to the bars, pressing his face against the cold metal.

"Hello? My name's Kayl. What's yours?" he shifted, moving to a new spot, seeing as how his last one had already warmed up.

He glanced down at his attire, which had been changed when he arrived two months before. The white pants were filthy and caked with blood, the shirt stained red, his bare feet caked with dust that had stuck to blood that was long since dried. Absently, he brushed his hands over his pants in a vain attempt to clean them.

Aspen sat cross-legged on his bed. He was humming. Blissfully unaware of the serious situation he was in, he firmly believed it was the kids from school picking on him again. They were waiting for him to break down and cry, maybe. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction of cracking him this time. He looked down at his new white clothing, which was only slightly dirty from him being tossed in the cell. He had to admit, it was strange for them to change him. What kind of sick prank involved doing THAT?! He decided to do a quick mental check of himself. Nothing seemed wrong. His head was a little fuzzy still, but nothing was sore or throbbing. So they hadn't beat him up this time. Lucky.
Aspen sighed, suddenly bored with waiting for them to release him. How long were they going to keep this up, really? And was anyone back at the foster home even looking for him? Probably not. He heard someone talking off in another cell and blinked. That wasn't a kid from school. He groaned. So now they're picking on other schools too. Great. He was briefly grateful that at least no one was outside his door calling him a girl now. He really hated that; not that he ever did anything to stop them, though.

Ambrosi stared up at the ceiling of his cell. It, like everything else, was dirty and rarely cleaned. Once, after a particularly good day, he asked why everything was so dirty. Wouldn’t it be healthier to have the fighter’s living spaces at least moderately clean? He had gotten boxed on his ears for his troubles, but they answered him anyways: Who wants a fighter who needs comfort? Who wants a fighter who can’t handle a little grime and the bacteria that comes with it? Though it made sense to Ambrosi, he wished they would change their clothes more often. His white pants and long sleeved shirt were caked with dirt and stiff with dried blood – both his and others. You could even still catch a whiff of vomit from the times they worked him to hard.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been here. He was positive it had been over six or seven months, but not quite a year yet. Either way, they had only changed his clothes once; after they were so torn they didn’t even stay on his body properly anyways.

He reached up to rub his right shoulder. It was mostly healed, but still horribly stiff. The day before yesterday it had gotten slashed, deep into the bone. It was the first time in weeks that he had been seriously injured. He had lost a lot of blood, but they still insisted that he sew himself up. That was one of the things they liked about him – it was hard to kill him, hard to push him into unconsciousness from pain or wounds. Sure, he couldn’t do as much damage as many of the other fighters here, but he was hard to hit and even harder to bring down. He was fast and durable. Maybe even faster than their prize, Enyo, if they got down to it. Sure, she would win in the end – she had more training – but he would give her a run for her money. But their handlers had never put them in a match – she was the best fighter and he was the only successful invertebrate. They were both to valuable to kill.

Someone nearby was humming. Ambrosi rolled his eyes. Some, like Enyo, became dead heads. Others went crazy. Ambrosi filed the hummer into the later group. Someone else was talking. At first he assumed it was a handler, but no, a handler would never introduce themselves. The boy rolled over to look – it wasn’t often that someone spoke to others around here. Talking wasn’t exactly encouraged amongst the experiments.

"You realize there isn't much point in introducing yourself...right?" Rowan approached the metal bars, her slightly cat-like hazel eyes moving down the line of cells. "I already know your name, Kayl...When they drag you out they call you by name." She shrugged lightly before lowering her head so that her blond wavy hair fell into her eyes, bits of dried blood in the ends.

She realized she hadn't spoken to anyone besides the people running the place since Tommy had been killed in a match. It could be nice to have someone to speak to...but she didn't want to risk making close friends when they had a large chance of dying. She even might die. Someday someone would come along strong enough to defeat her, then she wouldn't be their favorite...she'd be nothing. Or dead. "Sorry..." Rowan felt a tiny smile come onto her lips as she ran her hand down the cool metal bar. "I'm not much for company. I don't talk much, in case you hadn't noticed." She said.

Kayl sighed as the girl spoke, sounding extremely oppressed. He hit his forehead on the cool metal bars in frustration.

"Exactly. I mean, if we're all going to die, why not talk while we can? I mean, none of us will last forever. For all we know, we have expiration dates stamped on the bottom of our feet or something!" he let his frustration out all at once. "Or we could get out." he spoke quietly this time, his voice low to avoid too many people overhearing.

"You there! Kayl!" Kayl hadn't heard the guard walking down the hallway. "Keep away from the door!" he hit the bars near Kayl's face with a stick, the thump resounding clearly through the level.

Startled, Kayl backed up quickly, going to the back wall, which he then faced, and placed his hands behind his back. As the guard walked in, Kayl narrowed his eyes in determination, turning and attacking the guard as he got close. He fell back, however, as the guard's club hit him in the back, knocking the breath out of him.

"Damn!" Kayl gasped, scooting back toward the wall as the guard hit him again before reaching down and slipping the icy handcuffs around his thin wrists.

The guard pulled him out of his cell roughly, practically dragging him down the hall. Within minutes, he was delivered to the arena and set on an opponent that was hardly weaker then him. However, the light, bouncy boy came out victorious nearly half an hour later, having bounced around until his opponent was tired before he finished them off. He had amazing endurance, but the high leaps often left him out of breath, so when he came out of the arena he was still wheezing when he made it back to his cell.

"One day down, an eternity to go." he coughed, voice uneven and dry, face coated in a new layer of sticky blood.

Rowan could have sighed, but she refrained from doing so with a shake of her head, not responding and backing away from the bars until she was sitting in a corner as Kayl was taken away to the arena, looking up at the cement ceiling.

She heard Kayl say something after his return and tilted her head lightly to the side, "You know...you may be right. It would be nice to see the outside world again, however, we would just be hunted down like animals." Rowan frowned at the thought, going over the possible ways to free them in her head, occasionally glancing at the bars, praying no one else besides them could hear what she said.

Aspen heard the whispering and crept up to the bars, straining to listen. He never paid attention when the names were called at the arena, so he didn't know who they were. But he heard one of them say something about getting out, and now he was interested. "You're gonna go against Josh and his gang?" He whispered incredulously. No one ever did that! The one kid who had showed up at school the next day and had to check into the hospital that night! "Can I come?" He asked. He was tired of being in this small cell. Didn't Josh know when to end his own prank? Well, Josh still didn't know that Aspen was a guy. Or he refused to acknowledge it. "Please?" He added softly.

Ambrosi listened to the two talk before the guard showed up. Though his eyes never left the ceiling, he listened. Ah, Kayl, that was his name. It was familiar, now that he thought about it. Ambrosi actually liked Kayl – they hadn’t broken him. Unfortunately, the boy wasn’t smart enough to seem broken. Or maybe that was his way to be defiant….

When he came back from the arena, Ambrosi felt a knot in his stomach release. He hated it when the fighters didn’t return. When Enyo spoke again, Ambrosi sat up as thoughts swirled around his head. He barely heard another voice, a new voice, speak.

“But we are animals,” his own voice emerged from his throat without him willing it to, “and humans too. We have the best of both worlds.” He raised his gaze to look towards their cells. “We can blend in with humans, but still outrun and outgun our hunters. Getting out is the hard part.”

He stood, feeling adrenaline pump through his veins at the thought of escape. His hands fisted and un-fisted repeatedly. He knew it was a dream, an idle fantasy, but damn would it feel good to feel the sun and the wind again.

Rowan glanced in Ambrosi's direction. Freedom...had never sounded so wonderful to her, "You are absolutely right." She said to him, remembering the way it had felt to run through the park in the spring, the wind blowing through her soft blond hair, the sun warm against her skin. She would do anything to go back home, she realized...anything. To her surprise she even missed her foolish step-father...she would love to see her little brother again, her mom...

Grasping the cold metal bar a bit harder, she closed her eyes, "I'll help you all in any way I can to escape...so long as you'll do the same for me." Rowan finally said after being silent a while.

Glancing toward Aspen she looked down at the cell floor, "Aspen...this is no gang. It's the government." She told him.

Aspen stared at Rowan's cell, silent for a long time. The government? Not Josh. If he believed that, then everything changed. The reason he was in this cell, the fuzziness in his head, even the reason for other kids not in his school.
He thought about this.
And burst out laughing like a madman.
"Oh, that's a good one!" He said, trying to sober up and stop laughing. "Really, it is! The government captured us kids? For what! Okay, I'll admit I threw rocks at a bird once; did they really make that a crime?" He laughed again. "Oh jeez... You've got a real future as a comedian! Wait... I'll bet Josh put you up to this, didn't he?" He nodded to himself, as if that explained everything.

"A foolish high school boy couldn't do this. He couldn't make us what we are now. But if you want to live in denial, go for it." Rowan told the boy, coldly before running across the small cell, away from the bars and placing herself on the small bed, closing her hazel eyes. How could anyone in this hell believe that it was just a stupid prank? After what they were forced to do...Shaking her head she wished she could tell him it was just a stupid prank and be right.

Ambrosi watched the floor, the cogs in his head turning. Escape was impossible. He'd only tried once and he had sorely regretted it for weeks afterwards. But maybe... with Enyo, maybe they could do it. Sure, the new kid might drag them down, but Ambrosi wasn't going to just leave him if he had the choice. Plus, there was that saying: You don't have to outrun the dragon, you just have to outrun your teammates. Same deal, right?

"They won't kill us, I'm sure of that. There are to many failures for them to just cull some escapees. We might wish we were dead... but as long as all we do is run they won't kill us." Finally he nodded. "I promise to help you to the best of my ability. Question is now: how are we going to get out? It's not like they carry a master key."

Aspen just listened quietly after Enyo's cold words. He decided that was probably best, as saying any more might really label him as delusional. 'He couldn't make us what we are now', Enyo had said. What are we now? Caged animals? To his surprise, he didn't chuckle at the thought. It seemed... Almost possible. Aspen shuddered and decided to listen more carefully to what the others were saying. If they were right, and this was the work of some government madness, then he, along with them, was caught up in the middle of it all too. He leaned forward when Ambrosi spoke. "If they changed us, can't we use it against them somehow?" He offered.

Rowan nodded and then tilted her head lightly, "They don't carry a master key...but I think they have one." She said, thinking back to the times that they had taken her to discuss war plans because she was their most trustworthy creation. There had been a key that sat atop the man's desk who had started all of this. The second she had walked through the door and her eyes settled on the silver key he had thrown it down into the drawer. Rowan knew Ambrosi would be of great help, he was their first sucessful invertabrate. The only problem was that they were valuable - all of them were. Too valuable to let run loose. Well, except maybe Aspen who believed it was still just a cruel prank.

"Yes, we can. We have skills that no real human can have...for instance, I'm faster than they ever can be. So if we think about this enough...we can get out with few complications." Rowan paused. "I hope." She said, almost as an after thought.

"So what are we waiting for?" Kayl wheezed.

Making his way to his bed, Kayl sat down, waiting a moment before he fell back, laying on the mattress and staring at the ceiling while he waited for the others to talk more. After a moment of thought, he slowly got up from his bed and walked back to the bars, standing as close to Rowan's cell as possible and pressing his face against the bars.

"If they plan on taking you out next, I advise you fight back. I don't know what you've got in you, but I heard you're fast. I think you may be the best bet." his voice was barely above a whisper- barely loud enough for her to hear.

Done talking, he went back to his bed and fell back once more, pulling himself into a secure little ball.

Rowan nodded after a moment, "I believe I am up next..." Closing her eyes she thought for a few heartbeats before she spoke again, her voice quiet enough she hoped no guard would overhear her and she would loose all the trust she ever had if this went badly, "Do we all agree this is a good idea? If I get loose, get the key and let us out? There's a large glass window up a flight of stairs I can lead us to, we can jump out of that, there's grass beneath it to...mostly break our fall, after that we just would have to run like hell and find somewhere safe." She felt a little more like her old self again.

Aspen crept over to the bars quietly and listened. He nodded, half to himself, as Rowan spoke. "I'll do everything I can to help you guys," he whispered. "To be honest, I still don't really believe this. But... I guess denying it isn't going to get anyone anywhere." He went over Rowan's details of their escape route in his head to make sure he remembered them. They had let them in on the escape; he wasn't going to make them regret it.

"No." Ambrosi said, a half crazy grin spreading across his face. "It's a horrible idea. Lets do it. You get the key. Let me out first. I'll clear the way and break the damn window, with their face if I can. You may be fast, but I'm damn hard to kill. Then you worry about getting the others out." He laughed, quietly. "Lets see if all our training has done us any good, eh Enyo?

Rowan half-smiled, "Alright then." She said before glancing in the direction of Ambrosi's cell, half-wanting to tell him that her name was not Enyo. It was just their psychotic little nickname for her, sure that was one of her middle name's, and she half-liked it, but it was not her name. Her name was Rowan.

Rowan glanced in the direction of the hall, hearing someone with jingling keys making their way down the corridor. She backed away from the bars, looking like her usual stoic self to them. She was going to have to time this well, or else she was going to be screwed...

The cell door opened and She immediately darted forward, grabbing the guard by the front of the shirt and promptly tossing them to the ground. She heard a crack and then sprinted off down the hall to get the key, listening carefully. So far there was no sound of alarm.

She quickly found her way to the office, which she found empty for once as she closed the door and looked up, finding a security camera. She swore lightly under her breath before she crossed the room and found the table with all sorts of bizarre little buttons around, drawers labeled 'security tapes', and then she finally found one of the things she was looking for. The off switch for all the security cameras. She could have smirked as she flicked the switch but forced herself to keep her expression blank.

She then turned her attention to the other drawers, finding paperwork, paperwork...more paperwork, files on all the experiments...plans. But no key. She was starting to get a little worried, thinking that the key may be gone or moved...it wouldn't be long until someone found out she was gone and would alert everyone.


Just as she was about to give up hope, she found the silver key under a large stack of papers. Turning swiftly on her heel, she ran to the door and swung it open just in time to run into an armed guard who looked both shocked and scared out of his mind. Rowan wasn't entirely sure what to do, she didn't want to turn this into a damn massacare, but it might have to. She knocked the guy unconcious and then took off for the cells again.


When she returned to them, the first thing she heard was someone speaking in a panicked tone that an experiment got free and that they needed to be stopped. "Fuck..." Rowan hissed, moving quickly to Ambrosi's cell and putting the key in the lock. "Don't make me regret this." She whispered to him, turning the key. She heard a click and then ran to Kayl's door, unlocking it and then Aspen's.

"That was too easy." Kayl noted as Rowan unlocked his cell. "Anyway, lead the way!" he flashed a grin at her as he darted out of his cell.

Seeing guards come running down the hallway, Kayl reluctantly ducked back into his cell for cover, realizing that they probably had guns. Poking his head out of his cell, he waited until they were closer before he lunged forward, his weight not even knocking one of them over, but setting him off balance enough that Kayl could get in a few punches before he was thrown off like someone swatting away a fly. Hitting the wall hard, Kayl felt the breath whoosh out of him and all he could do was silently panic and watch as he struggled to inhale once more. Of course, a few seconds later air returned to his lungs, which were painfully sore. He was slightly dizzy from the ordeal and it took him a moment to re-register what was going on.

Ambrosi took a cautious step from his cell. He didn’t think they would bother laying such a complicated trap for him, but who knew? When Enyo turned away, he darted out and down the hallway. He could hear the sound of guards coming from down both hallways. He didn’t pause to turn and help, instead running full out the other way. Kayl could hold his own and Enyo would take care of the new kid. He needed to get to the damn window. He skidded around a corner, slipping in his haste.

Six armed guards looked almost as surprised to see him as he did them. His first instinct was to duck, which served him well as the first swung at where his face had been. He lashed out, trusting the sixth sense that came with being part cockroach, and his own hand connected with the guard’s windpipe. The scuffle was short – they didn’t want to kill him and he was desperate.

Another fight on the stairs was more difficult – there were less people, but these weren’t afraid to use stun guns. When both lay crumpled, one bleeding rather heavily, he staggered up the stairs. His left arm was numb but he forced the door open. There it was – the beautiful window. He could see the sun, though it was pale. He paused, staring at it before his brought his fist back to slam it into the glass. It webbed and he frowned – plated? Once more, then another and it shattered, sending shards splintering outside the window.

Ambrosi leaned out and took a deep breath. Air. A glance down told him they were only on the third floor – they could jump down fine. He looked behind him – the hallway was empty. He turned back to the window. Should he wait? He promised... but freedom was right there.

"Aspen, Kayl, come on!" Rowan gestured them forward, though she was worried about them both as she picked up one of her slower runs, she dodged to the side, knocking any guard that she came across out of the way, however she stopped at one and took his gun before she continued on her way to the window. If Ambrosi left them for dead he would have hell to pay if Rowan ever found him...

As she neared the stairs she slowed to a jog, looking over her shoulder for the two boys. Three armed guards came toward her, only to be shot. She reached the top and spotted Ambrosi, who looked to be debating something.

Aspen nodded and tore out of his cell after Rowan, running just as fast as he could to keep up. He watched in awe with how easily Rowan took out the guards, then snapped back to the present. Now was not the time for daydreaming or adoration. There would be time for that later; now was for running. As he took the stairs, he realized that if he crouched over and took them on all fours, it was easier and faster. He did so, reaching the top in a cat-like crouch, watching Rowan and Ambrosi curiously. Now what was going on?

Clambering to his feet, Kayl rushed after Aspen and Rowan, breathing hard almost immediately. Finally making it up the stairs after them, he panted, hands on his knees. It hadn't been that far, but it had been difficult after just getting his breath back. Seeing the window, Kayl made a gesture as if to offer for anyone else to go first. After a minute, he stepped toward the edge of the window, inhaling the sweet outside air before he leaped, legs tensing as he placed one foot against the edge of the building, hardly feeling the glass cutting into his bare foot. Pushing off, he shut his eyes and felt his body glide out an extra food farther than the average human would. Somehow the experiments had changed his body- making his bones lighter and thus him, but he was much more fragile. Falling, Kayl pulled his body into a ball, hoping that he would only damage one part of his body and not all of it. Losing his breath once more as he collided with the ground, Kayl gasped for breath, unfurling from his ball and squirming. Waves of pain were spreading from his back, which he had landed on.