Ethan Vanhaskan's Story

Ethan sat in the holding bay with his eyes closed just thinking. He had just finished his third battle against the facilities' supply of animals. He hadn't taken a scratch but it took alot out of him to make his clones that many times in a row without a break. He was breathing deeply and was trying to calm himself before the scientist came back in. He wouldn't give them the satisfaction of seeing that their test hurt him. As he often did when he couldn't think about anything else he started to think of his sister. I wonder what she's doing now he wondered imagining the smiling face of a four year old. He found it kind of sad that he was constantly putting himself in danger for someone he hadn't seen since over a decade ago but he knew he would keep doing it if it meant that she was safe. It would probably hurt him even more to see her in the building where they tortured so many innocent people.
His thoughts were interrupted by the droning of a voice in his ear. "Exit the cage, We are ready for you now." it demanded failing at sounding friendly. Ethan sighed but he knew better than to refuse. Mentally he cursed that voice that emanated from the chip they had placed in his ear just beyond his reach. As he exited the cage he came out to see a group of scientist waiting there. It surprised him although he wouldn't let them see that. He was reasonably sure that everyone here had seen him in battle and knew exactly what he was capable of even while still in human form. That they would put themselves out here so vulnerably let Ethan know something was up. "Are your ready for your next test?" asked a man with the same annoying voice that came from Ethan's chip.
"Oh I have a choice now do I?" He asked sarcastically leaning against the wall that housed his cage. It may have looked like he was making himself vulnerable but he could easily kick off the wall and attack the wall if necessary. They seemed to know this because at his movement a dozen of the men reached to their side telling him that the carried tranquilizers.
Giving a small smile at Ethan's sarcasm he continued. "It's not another battle in case you are wondering in fact we are sending you on a hunt. Your target is another damen, Ramiah by name, not that it matters." he continued on droning on about Ramiah's apearance in snake form and human, his attack strategies etc. but stopped when he noticed Ethan's disinterest. Ethan wasn't interested because all of this didn't really matter as it was just another game the scientist wanted to play. Also things like how he looked wouldn't help him catch his scent. "If you need added incentive Ramiah also has a target by the name of," he flipped through the pages of his clipboard mindlessly. "Tina Vanhaskan." He finished smugly obviously trying to hide his fear at how Ethan would react. This was right of him because as soon as Ethan heard his sister's name he charged the group forgetting his training in an instant. As soon as he charged Ethan felt the sting as tranquilizers hit him all over. He swung a few clumsy blows before falling to the ground asleep.

Ethan awoke and felt himself become instantly alert taking in his surroundings. He did a check to make sure he was safe before trying to remember why he was here. He wished he had paid more attention to the scientist when he was explaining the mission for it would have given him something to remember right now. He caught brief flashes of the briefing but it was enough to set him back on his task. "Hunt" "Ramiah" "Target" "Tina".
"You best hurry. Ramiah found her once and he will soon find her again." said the voice matter-of-factly sending him into another torrent of rage. He changed into a rat darting out of the way before his black jumpsuit could fall on him. H looked back at the suit and contemplated whether or not he should bring it with him. It would definately slow him down if he reamined in rat form and he wouldn't be able to follow a scent in human form. On the other hand if he needed to talk to anyone (though he doubted he would) he would need it to cover his body when he changed back. With a sigh he changed back and stashed it before shifting yet again and searching for a scent. He could detect the scent of mouse and decided it was his best lead. No doubt if Ramiah had found the scent he would follow it too making a trail for Ethan to follow. Ethan looked around making a mental image of where his clothes were before darting off in pursuit of the scent aware for danger all the while.
He rushed after the scent knowing that the sooner he handled Ramiah the sooner he could find his sister. The thought of her defenseless in this forest with a snake on the loose sent shivers down his spine. He shook himself knowing he couldn't let anything get in the way of his mission.

Ethan stopped when he reached the end of the scent. This was not according to plan he thought frowning as he looked around. It was obvious that someone had made camp here. He could tell because there was a pile of leaves that had probably served as a pillow as well as the smell of human. If Ramiah was as good a hunter as Ethan was (and he expected he was) then he wouldn't have been stupid enough to leave his camp here for anyone to see. It had to have been someone else who made this camp. He tried to keep himself from thinking it but he knew it was true. Tina had made this camp he thought trying to bottle in his emotions. If he allowed himself to feel the slightest amount of emotion for his sister, he would sacrifice the mission. Not to mention that him showing emotion was exactly what the scientist wanted and he wasn't going to give them that pleasure.
Turning attention back to the mission he decided he would find the mouse because it was his only lead. If anything he could use it to bait Ramiah into a trap. Taking a sniff he realized that the mouse was hiding in a pile of makeshift clothes. For the first time he contacted the rat on what he should do now. He had been trained to defy every single one of the rat's instincts so he wasn't completely sure on how to call upon one. It took him a moment but it was natural when it got through. It took him but a moment to get the information he needed. He was working off the basis that mice and rats were more or less the same being so he was working with more variables than he was used to. The doubt was distinguished just as fast as it had come. Doubt got him nowhere he thought as he begun his plan. He sent out enough copies to make sure that the mouse couldn't get away before making his approach to the pile of clothes.

((Wrong assumption Haas. Ramiah's lab tech mandated 48 hours as a human, remember?))

She screamed. The sort of ear piercing shriek only young girls are capable of, and he immediately released her, clapping his hands to his ears. It hurt. He wanted to kill her. She shifted and his hands were heft holding woven leaves. That most certainly was shifting, and he had most certainly told her not to do that, and now he most certainly would have to chase her and throttle her and teach her, in most certain terms, not to annoy him. He'd run after her, unhappy about needing human speed to do so. His snake didn't move fast unless to strike because it didn't need to waste energy that way. Hunting was easy when his quarry had a little venom in them. He didn't have to run, then. He could take his time -take hours- and find supper waiting for him, dying and unable to resist. His mouse was very lucky she had gotten away unscathed, that he hadn't broken her skin in his surprise.

Being throttled by a leopard didn't factor into his plans. He ignored the Damen's shouts. She was young, and didn't seem to mind eating Damen herself, if her fish breath was anything to go by. It was her claws that finally distracted him and he lost sight of his little mouse.

The big cat's claws had slashed across his arm and chest, the jagged tears readily becoming red and inflamed. He'd never been able to bargain for first aid supplies or medical care, as the scientists kept expecting him to heal himself. There had to be incentive to learn, or so their logic dictated. As far as he was aware, he couldn't heal himself. At all. It had taken months of experimentation for both the scientists and himself to draw the same conclusion, but they continued to ignore the outstanding evidence because of the venom incident. He was hesitant to wash off the blood, knowing the water the fish were in wasn't sanitary. But it was staining his vest, which irked. The clothes had been nice. More than nice. The things he had done to obtain them, well, none of it was something you'd speak of. A lot of pride had been set aside for this small bit of vanity. If he believed in souls, he probably had traded his. His fingers traced the rips in the fabric before he abruptly dropped his hand, worried about fraying the material. He needed to get the blood out before it stained. There was another outfit, almost as nicely tailored, but he wasn't going to retrieve it. The intruding "roommates" would probably wreck that one as well. They were a destructive lot. This was his garden, and they were trampling all over it. No respect for its oldest tenant.

His attention was drawn to the bush his mouse had been eating from. As a snake, he sometimes slept in that bush. Most live mice loved it, could find it as easily as if it was lit up in grand neon lights, and that had generally been reason enough to spend hours there. He needed to get his mouse back. After he cleaned up. But very soon, before someone ate her. He didn't want to find her in an owl pellet, for example. Finding her there would severely dampen any pleasure he'd felt at getting such a big prize for so little work. Plus, he'd have to figure out how to kill an owl. Avians were a challenge, even for an arboreal snake. He'd leave off contemplating his vengeance on the leopard for another day, when he didn't have to conserve his venom.

But first things first.

Ramiah unbuttoned and shucked off the vest and peeled the shirt underneath away from where it stuck to his blood. Damage was worse than he'd thought. They needed to be treated and dry cleaned. And then thrown away. The shirt sleeve needed to be replaced, and it would take some clever redesigning to disguise the damage around the breastpocket. It would be cheaper to replace them. Only he wasn't sure he could. The scientists were like dealing with a bad sexual partner. Once you'd said yes, they didn't think you had the right to say no. The professionalism of bargaining had provided a measure of protection, since his willing cooperation had a price attached. And after obtaining this outfit, he'd said no a lot, trying -unsuccessfully- to give himself time to recover from their most unsavory experiments. Doing it again had a high potential for cheapening his value. It wasn't worth risking becoming their whore. Or at least not their unpaid one.

So he sighed at the loss and made his nimble way back up into the hanging lianas, determined to spot treat the bloody items in a bromeliad pool, where he was sure bacteria wouldn't fester his inflamed injuries if he washed off the blood.

He was wholly unaware of the scientists' game and the rat seeking him out. It was a game they seemed to like to play with him. A few months back, it had been a mongoose, not a rat. He should have suspected it, but he thought he was already playing with the mouse, uncomprehending the game had grown more complex.

Tina couldn't help but hear the stirring of the bushes around her no matter how much she tried to ignore them. Don't do this to yourself Tina. You've finally found a friend who won't eat you. she thought to herself trying to fight her nerves. Vaguely she remembered her vow to the mouse that she wouldn't ignore him anymore. She had to admit since entering this forest the mouse had been right about almost everything. She gave over to the mouse than and fear over what she should surged through her. She sniffed around her but strangely enough that calmed the mouse down. What but there's a predator here she thought frantically. Just because fear had left the mouse didn't mean it had to leave her and it certainly hadn't. She found herself becoming extremely paranoid thinking that every predator she had met in this forest was coming after her now. That would explain why there seemed to be many predators around her she rationalized the fear becoming more of a reality.

Then the logical side of her brain told her that her theory was greatly flawed. First of all two of them were bird damen so they would be in the air and yet none of the sounds come from that above her. To add to that if a damen were coming they would make more noise than she heard. They would also have a smell she thought not seeming not be able to let that go. She decided that the only way she would know is if she were to leave her hiding place in the pile of clothes. Both mouse and her logical mind told her that it was a bad idea but she dismissed those thoughts and tentatively stuck her head from the pile of clothes. To her surprise it seemed to be a pack of black rats and she couldn't hold herself back from laughing at how scared she had been. How could she be fearful of her own kind? They were just as defenseless as she was right. She got her answer when the first rat tackled her. He was followed by every other rat in the pack until she was dog piled under the mass of rats.
She noticed that there was one rat who didn't jump on her but instead walked up to her inspecting her. Suddenly it changed before her eyes and before she could react she was caught inside of a human hand staring into the face of a naked boy damen. As he changed shifted she felt as every other rat disappeared around her. This must be one of the damens given special powers she realized as she tried to escape his grip. The mouse inside her was kicking just as frantically as she was even though it didn't control her limbs. Oh yeah now your scared she thought reverting back to the dreaded sarcasm. She looked into this damen's intense red eyes as he tried to comfort her. "Don't worry little mouse. Your going to help me save my sister."

Ethan walked through the forest ignoring as the mouse squirmed in his hands. He had used his hands to restrain things bigger than this mouse before so the small creature posed no problem. Not the time for idle speculation he thought returning his thoughts to what he would do with the mouse now. That answer was obvious but it was time he filled in more details. Main objective is kill Ramiah and the first step is to use this mouse as bait. He started to wave the hand holding the mouse around so he could spread the smell in the air. His pace was slow but his had was moving fast to make sure the smell was on as many things as possible. Snakes relied mostly on their sense of smell and if Ramiah was half as a good a hunter as Ethan was he would use that to his advantage.
After much waving of his hand he finally reached the clearing where he had entered this forest. He strained his senses to make sure the area was safe knowing he ad taken some time already. With a nod he calculated that it was no different from when he left it. Now he could set to work he thought although he didn't let his guard down. The easiest thing he could do would be to set up a trap and wait for Ramiah to spring it. The trap may have to be complex if he was to make it so it would spring no matter what form Ramiah was in. The mouse had stopped squirming in his hand and he could now concentrate easier. If he could weave a net then he could use the mouse as a trigger. When the mouse is moved forcefully it would pull the string tied to the mouse the net would fall down hopefully trapping Ramiah. It would take a while to get the net and string together but his clones could help with that. They could also hold the mouse as he worked.
That was when the lights went out. It was an interesting twist to the hunt but that was irrelevent. That didn't change anything about the task at hand so he turned back to his work. Overall he was satisfied with his plan so he prepared to shift when he felt a sharp pain in his hand. Normally something like that wouldn't phase him but it caught him by surprise and he couldn't help but open his hand. Big mistake. The mouse ran out almost shakily at first but got it's bearing and darted off in first chance it got. He checked his hand for damage. The bite mark was deep but it wasn't bleeding very much so he shifted and took chase. He had to be careful because injuries transferred when he shifted and theone on his hand would slow his running. None the less he kept on the chase grimacing through the pain.

Tina took off running as soon as she hit the ground. The mouse in it's frenzy of fear had control of her limbs and was making a huge effort to escape her captor. It was relishing this head start because it knew the predator could easily catch up with it. The mouse didn't mind the darkness instead switching to his other senses to navigate. It was just that in the darkness the rat had the advantage because it's white fur made it stick out like a lit flare. Plus he has a whole pack to support him it thought not knowing of the illusion. It just knew that a whole pack of rats were after him hiding under the cover of darkness. The mouse only kept running desperately through the forest.

Tina was lost in her thoughts as her legs carried her further into unfamiliar territory. She was still shocked at how she had escaped the damen. I bit him she thought disbelievingly. Tina was a pacifist and had never before hit another human being. When someone was her size it was best to implement brains over brawn and that was exactly what she had done. Even with the scientist constantly trying their painful test on her she had never once felt the urge to hit them. She and the mouse both agreed it was better to be afraid of them. She never planned on being completely submissive however and often made the scientist annoyed at how easily she could outsmart them. For example they had put her in a maze like one you would put a lab rat in. But I guess to them she was their lab rat. Anyway instead of running through the maze as easy as that would have been she had hidden in the one spot the camera wouldn't see her. They didn't approve of constantly being outsmarted by an experiment so the test became increasingly dangerous every time she tried something like that. As much as she would have liked to go into these memories she was ignoring the point at hand. She had hurt another human she repeated recalling the taste of the boy's flesh and blood in her mouth. Why did predators get such a kick of this she wondered attempting to spit out the salty after taste of blood. She made a point that she would apologize to the damen when he calmed down and stopped chasing her.

Finally she felt strong enough to regain control of her body and looked around while she continued to run. What the heck the mouse had carried her back to the berry bush! Did it not remember that she had been attacked here or did it hope that the rat would stop to eat berries while she went away? Actually reconsidering it the latter was a pretty good idea so she plucked a few of the low lying berries from the tree and waited. She couldn't help but be wary of the predator being about so she pushed herself into the bush to hide. She could feel berries bursting against her fur releasing their strong scent along with blue coloring. Well I guess that this will disguise my scent at least she thought on the bright side. The sticky berry juices trickled down her spine and she shivered at the unpleasantness. To add to that it was dark. She didn't like this situation one bit but nonetheless she sat in the bush waiting.