"Ah, push it - push it good. Ah, push it - p-push it real good. Hey! Ow! Push it good!"Cadence's eyes fluttered beneath her closed eyelids as she fumbled for her alarm. Ever since her trainers left their human music unattended, she'd been rather obsessed with them. Salt 'n' Peppa were her current favourites. She slapped her palm down to decapitate her clock but instead hit air. The momentum of her swing threw her over the metal slab of a bed she'd been on and onto the floor.
"Ow!" she yelped when her body slammed into the floor. Her gold and ruby eyes jerked wide at the impact, her pupils narrowing into points at the sudden flood of light.
"Sub... 95...egained consciousness," said a muffled, monotonous voice from the other side of the glass. Cadence swung into a sitting position, her eyes whizzing wildly around. Where the hell was she? Had she failed the mission? Had she been captured by the enemy? "It ap... displ...igns of anxiety...confusion."
"Way to state the obvious, radish man," she said, eyeing the ugly ivory lab coat. The man showed no sign of having heard her, save a slight twitching of his left eyebrow.
"It displays...lack...f respect for superiori..." he continued to say as he scribbled in his little notebook. "It is...arcastic...pr...entious...outspoke...mis....ed intel...gence."
"Nice to meet you too." Cadence rolled her eyes.
"It....acquainted with human etiquette."
"You, on the other hand..." the lioness grumbled.
Mr. Radish Lab coat lifted his gaze for the first time then, the first sure sign of acknowledgement but just as quickly as he flicked his gaze towards her, he dropped them back down to scribble a single word silently into his book.
"What's your name?" Cadence asked to be met with silence. "C'mon, what can I do? You're on the other side of the glass which, you know, is like 5 inches thick - a bit of an overkill, don't you think? - and I'm here." She gestured around the room to emphasise her being trapped and showed her palms, followed by a dazzling flash of her blindingly white teeth in a heart-warming smile. "If you want my cooperation, we should start with polite introductions."
"Hilshire." he said abruptly, lifting his spectacles with his middle finger - a subtle insult?
"First name?" Cadence asked.
"Unnece...ary," came the cold reply.
"Okay, Unnecessary Hilshire," she chirped, her grin widening. How stupid were they, not chaining her to the metal slab. She inched closer to the glass, slowly, but even that resulted in a glare from Unnecessary Hilshire. She caught a glimpse of his notebook.
"Subject #95 bears no physical resemblance to her feline mutation, indicating it might be a failed experiment and previous documentation was inaccurate. It does, however, have unusual, incandescent and luminescent gold irises that are larger than an ordinary human's, an indicator superior night vision. It has remarkable hearing, not dissimilar from the..." Move your hand, she thought furiously, trying to get a better look. She couldn't see the words between that and, "...captured it."
But huh, she snorted. They didn't think she was an animal? She'd set that myth to rest.
"...eyes...bears resemblance...Evere..." she glimpsed on the page.
EVERETT?!?!?Her jaw dropped. Did they just say she looked like
Everett? The
dog? Hohoho, no they
didn't. She was going to-
Thump. Thump.Her eyes widened briefly from surprise before she quickly set her face back to its previous cocky grin. She felt her heart flutter in her chest, hope blossoming in her stomach like melted chocolate with steak. Was it him? Was it her Donovan? They'd come up with the hybrid code along with the others all those years ago but she knew Donovan's knock. His beautiful, beautiful knock. Was she hearing things?
"Don't mind me," she told Unnecessary Hilshire before pulling her arm back. "I'm just testing the glass. Do not be alarmed," she said, lowering her voice in a mocking imitation of lab coat man's. She pounded her fist into the glass, to which Hilshire didn't even flinch. He must've had a world of self-control, was stupid or held a lot of faith for a piece of glass.
Th-thump. Thump. Thump. T-th-th-thump? Thum-thump? Thump. Thump thump. Thump. Thumthumthumthum THUMP.Finally, she stopped banging on the glass, held her hands in front of her and smiled demurely. Surely they would still remember how to read a hybrid knocking sentence, right? Right? Of course. She told them they'd need it one day. They'd better. She'd hit the code for "Sup, guise. How are you? Pretty good? Yeah, me too. Does anybody have any food? Golden trio! Btdubs, Donovan, I <3 u, baby."
"You may address me as 'your grace,' 'my lady' or 'dearest Queen,'" Cadence said with a bright smile.
Hilshire narrowed his eyes at his notebook before mumbling and scribbling, "...narcissist."