The Lab

The grey, dirty walls of her cell seemed to close in on Wynter as she sat in her coldness. Ice crusted along her skin and the walls of the cell so you couldn't see an inch by the time it reached the top of the ceiling. It was like being in her own little world; a cruel, cold little void in the middle of the fiery death's doorway or rather more, in death's house. Just....death itself. No, death was too merciful. Pain, suffering, people being torn to shreds and losing their humanity. It was like being in a war zone, except they couldn't fight back or run; a target on the shooting range. Wynter didn't like to consider herself human. Rather more ice, a pure element that generates life, yet can take it just as quickly if you're dragged to the bottom. Ice can seal people off and sparkle beautifully in the sunlight, yet it would slowly melt into a mass of water that led anywhere. That was Wynter's only reason not to be like her element. She was contained for the joy of others and slowly melted into a different liquid, no longer her pure element. Right now, the ice that she cocooned herself in was the only comfort, no matter how many goosebumps she had. The cold slid down Wynter's back like a gentle hand and comforted her, reminding her of how her mother once stroked her before her brothers were born. Sometimes she wondered if her parents knew she would really be winter when they named her Wynter.
Each breath left the air colder and dancing fog hung in the air before disappearing. If only Wynter could stay like this forever, curled in a cocoon of ice like a caterpillar. She hoped she never turned into a butterfly.

Aramay

At first she thought it was dirt or other debris that made her skin look odd but after brushing and rubbing away several layers of the past horrific events eventually sank in that it was actually the pigmentation of her own skin. With the grime wiped away it still looked like her skin was still slightly molted with what looked like remnants of dirt or dust. The other already existing mutations progressed further than she wanted to acknowledge. No doubt those changes could either help her improve in unexpected ways or hinder her like her developed sensitivity to light. It was too soon to tell and something was stopping her from going further into what "improvements" her body continued to inflict upon itself.

An unnerving sensation of what she immensely hoped was just a phantom sensation took over all other thoughts simply for the fact that it was something far newer than anything else she had experienced thus far. It reacted to her surprise; twitching and moving accordingly to the shock. Being such a new addition to her body it proved to be incredibly sore and promptly called for several successive flinches as each realization of what she could, yet probably shouldn't do. The only thing she could do to stop it was grab the offending appendage through the fabric. After getting through the initial pain she forced herself to settle down. Thinking about what just happened left her, she was in denial as to what that 'appendage' exactly was.

Through a self inflicted tear in her pants she tore the irritating appendage free. A rather audible scream can be heard from her cell that somehow rang different from the others. Anyone nearby would be able to hear. An oddly patterned tail irrately jerked itself out from its owner's own grasp from the rough treatment as it extended from the base of her spine at over a foot in length. It was the least debilitating addition and yet just the act of having it and being able to feel through said appendage was by far the most humiliating and aggravating one of them all.

Guards

There was a commotion down the hallway and the three of them headed that way fast. Other mutants in their cells went quiet, loud noises and sounds making them flinch and hide, since most of the time that meant something bad was going to happen. When they turned the corner they saw their comrade on the floor, a broken pipe over his head. One rushed over to make sure the damage wasn’t too bad; the other two looked up at the ceiling, to see what had happened to the pipe in the first place. They spotted something and immediately started shooting, bullets pinging off pipes and the ceiling, hopefully one of them hit the mutant that was clinging to the pipes up there.

scientist (With Aria)

He chuckled at the screaming girl, watching her struggle and threaten, even begging. ”You aren’t a freak child. You now belong to the Lab, and you aren’t going anywhere.” He wrote a few more things down on the clipboard he had then set it to the side. Picking up another needle he had nearby, going back over to the girl. ”Now, as long as you are a good girl, you aren’t going to get too hurt here okay?” He went over and stuck the needle in her arm, sending the paralytic through her body. When he was sure she wouldn’t be able to move, though she could talk as much as she wanted, scream yell, whatever, she couldn’t move her muscles anymore and he untied the straps and lifted her and headed out and down the hall towards a cell.

Scientist (With Caylx)

He laughed at the girl, thrashing in the chair as the bugs feel off her and squirmed around on the floor. It was actually quite amusing to him, watching her try and flee from the things she feared the most, though why did fear them he could not discern. Either way he let her squirm for awhile longer, seeing if she would calm down in the slightest. ”What we want from you, little one, is for you not to be scared. Fear is a weakness.” He went over to her, jamming a needle full of a paralytic into her neck. He kicked bugs aside, placing things straight before he went over to her, putting the chair upright and untying the girl from it. The guards then lifted her and escorted the limp girl back to her empty cell.

Caylx squirmed and and screamed at the bugs around her hating everything around her. "I fear nothing!" She spat at him as he came over to her with the needle. "And if I am so weak then why must you tie me up? You are the weak one." Caylx smiled her shivering gradually stopping before the needle was jammed into her neck. The only she remembered after that was being dragged back to the cell limp and quiet in the guards arms. She was glad that it was finally over but upset she was unable to do anything about it, but the blissful unconsiciousness was nice while it was lasting.

Hello. Is anyone there?

Camelion

"Yes, She is the one in charge, and you would do best not to forget that title. Call her by that full name, or 'milady', but never just call her Carmine. Neither you nor I have earned that yet...." He watched the expressions flicker across her face: fear, two different fears, surprise at herself, the smallest hidden glee at being able to stretch her legs. Almost without thinking he grinned down at her, a face totly devoid of hatred or his usual sadistic pleasure. "I dont just kill you know...Sometimes I grow attached to those I play with..... In those cases, I find a way to ally myself with them.... Lady Carmine sent one of her men to retrieve one of them, I wonder if he's alive..." This last was a mere out loud thought, a fleeting image of one of the scientists or guards being slowly devoured by thousands of Kumo's offspring, or by Kumo himself, brought the sadistic joy back into him as he led the girl up to the offices.

Aramay

The lack of activity was very, tolerable, at first. Since it meant that there were no experiments, tests, restraints or bright lights being shoved in her face. It gave her time to sleep, to heal and not waste her energy over the now trivial concerns such as hygiene or taxes. Her body now had time to adjust to its unusual new dimensions and additions. The sensations were still strange and foreign but they no longer overwhelmed or hurt the senses. It took time of course before that happened and a fair amount of it was in a catatonic state while completely curled up in the corner. The five stages of grieving became the only thoughts that passed through her mind and that was also beckoning towards the side of rare.

One thing that she did happen to take notice of was the fact that her body didn't constantly complain and ache like it used to and the fever that persisted in her system didn't give her as many grievances though it still lingered like a bad taste. Once the physical anguish and mental pain numbed themselves sufficiently did she start to move around again. Previous memories of her being outside of the complex started to grow as foreign to her as her own body. They did however keep her from going into a sort of hibernation completely. They also encouraged her to bring back old habits. Listening to anyone that walked by, observing the cell that she was being kept in, familiarizing herself with her surroundings in hopes that she would actually be able to better prepare herself to look for when anything was out of the ordinary.

Aramay yielded to the idea of looking at herself save for the unintentional glimpses. With no other stimuli to really busy herself with there was only so much she could do to ignore what was right under her nose. She couldn't simply look down, she had to close her eyes and turn her head towards that direction similar to how someone would prepare to look at something that they knew they couldn't simply observe on a whim such as a burn victim. The grime couldn't hide the mutations she had suffered and endured. In fact it made it even worse because she wasn't even sure how much of it was dirt or if it somehow was actual skin. The claws on her hands and feet looked infectiously wicked. A simple flick and she likely would cause someone to run the risk of getting a staph infection or make the healthiest doc or scientist there go septic. Better yet, with a few scrapes against any part of the cell would yield a small but noticeable amount of material to come free without much wear to show on those claws as a result of it. They were getting long anyways and she needed a reason to wear them down. But before she decided that reason she wanted to better understand what she could do now. Without prompting from scientists or obstacle courses.

For several hours she re-taught herself how to walk. There was no way that she could stand up straight with that spine of hers but she could coil herself up and jump rather high and likely rather far as well. She started to etch divots into the walls to climb up, down, sideways. Leap from one set of divots in one wall to another set across the room. The first few times she missed with a small sense of embarrassment that somehow lurked into the back of her mind. In no time she was becoming rather, inventive with how to occupy herself. There was no guide that came with her mutations so learning them with the aid of only the small space she was kept in proved to be an interesting challenge. Even humorous if she was being observed while left to her own devices. The only things that were still big concerns for her were having to deal with the lights and her, tail. Both were still sensitive to the point of burdening or hindering her progress. She could swear that the appendage was still growing, taking its sweet time and providing people with a nice weak point to be exploited. At least for her eyes she could learn to use the muscles around them to consciously pull that protective membrane over her light-sensitive eyes before looking out the small window into the hallway. She still couldn't discern anything more than moving shapes and the differences between bright and dark areas. Any other details were still fuzzy at best if not completely blind to her altogether.

In the end her mind focused on one thing, she couldn't stay there forever. She wasn't going to wait to be rescued because there was no reason for her to believe that she would be. Before long, underneath all of the other noises that could be heard, there was a scratching at one of the doors. Repetitive but not pleading, more rhythmic, deep, long, ceaseless, scrapings of something set literally working on getting itself free.

Scientist

He chuckled a little at the little girl. Tears were going down her cheeks and she was screaming for help. He didn’t think this one would last long her if she kept that up. Then again many still cried and begged for help and mercy. ”Why you, you ask? Because you just happened to be in the right spot at the right time. You’re different now, better than you were before.” He continued to carry her down the hallway. Being as young as she was it may be a good idea to treat her somewhat nicely. Lady Carmine could use her in some way if the girl was trained to be loyal to the Lab. He stopped at a room, these ones rarely used except by the mutants who did exactly as they were told. He opened the door and set the small girl on the cot-like bed. ”As long as you’re good; you can stay in this kind of room. If not, there are ones with less than nothing in them.” With that he shut and the locked the door.

Dusk


The minutes slipped into hours as Dusk huddled in the corner of her cell. Matt's visit had provided no help in the current time, and faith that she would possibly get out was fading fast. She had refused to move, instead finding herself in a motionless wait, simply thinking. She could already feel the strange block in her mind grow stronger and in desperation had attempted to break it open to see what was beyond. This had failed rather badly, only succeeding to give her a headache and also discourage her further. In an attempt at sanity Dusk had tried to review her past.
She remembered being dragged to the lab and being changed. She briefly recalled meeting someone in another cell before a huge electric shock after trying to get back to the figure. For some reason whenever she tried to recall the figures name, personality or face the memory faded leaving her to ponder the gap in her mind.
After that was mainly a large black gap in her memory, however she knew that it involved pain and finally freedom. Her forehead creased in concentration, trying desperately to remember what might possibly fit in the gap. Her worry grew as nothing was forthcoming. What possibly could be causing such a huge memory lapse? Desperately she turned to the more recent adventures- escaping with a few others Kyra, Matt and Ash...something was wrong with this memory as well. She vaguely remembered that there were more, yet she could not remember their faces. Next was something that had separated her from the rest of them, and another gap filled with pain before she was back in her current cell. Way too much was missing. She put her head in her hands, rocking back and forth trying desperately to get hold of the memories that constantly evaded her. She heard a soft movement in the cell next to her, and some of the blackness receded.
Her face lit up in a wane smile. So she knew whoever was in the next cell, but where from she was unsure. She also had a dreadful feeling of melancholy and a huge amount of sadness over something in the black gap, but the cause was still locked away in that strange blockage in her mind. There was also a strong need to escape. Finding this the only thing she could hold onto without frustration, she found her satisfaction sitting in the corner musing over her memory blocks gradually waning and a strange restlessness took over. The building of her worry and need to get out grew until she could no longer sit still.

She found herself jumping to her feet, no longer surprised at her unnatural feminine grace and speed. Her shoulder throbbed a little where the bullet had grazed it, and Dusk was subconsciously surprised that it failed to bother her as much as it may have done in her past. In her restlessness her claws unsheathed and retracted continuously. With her need to get out and the stopping of her musings came a dreadful hunger and thirst. Her tongue felt like sandpaper and her stomach contracted painfully. This allowed her to know that her memory gaps were longer than she had feared. In a sudden burst of frustration, fear and worry she found herself raking her claws down the metal bars of her cell. The horrific screech of metal and claw echoed down the corridor. The sound no doubt would bring some attention, and the realisation of what she had done made Dusk cower back in her corner. Her ear's rang with the horrific sound and no doubt the guards had heard it and would be attracted. Her memory had not removed the fear that came from the guards. The scraping echoed down the corridor and the sound of feet came closer.

Caylx (to the scientist)
Caylx awoke with another terribly painful headache from the serum they inject to her everytime she goes in.
"Gurrrr." She groaned rubbing her head and adjusting herself in the damp corner. The roughness of the paper dress and the damp empty cell contained her and she needed an out.
"...Blood...." She let out another groan looking at her skin which was growing paler and paler by the minute from the lack of blood. Why werent they giving her blood? She couldnt conform with what they wanted her to do if she didnt get the nutrients.
"Blood...Blood, blood I need blood!" She yelled into the monitor above her. Still no answer came.
"Dammit!" She screamed pulling on her hair. She never knew what to do in a cell such as this. Such confinement. The only thing she ever did was file her nails into points until the scientists cut them down for precautionary measures. Bleeding stubs. This time she braided back her hair and tried to wipe the sweat, oil, and dirt from her face on her gown. The only sounds she heard were the moaning and groaning of the other mutants. How badly she wanted to get out from her cage and drink all their blood just to shut them up. Anything to do so. Suddenly, memories of the night before flooded back into her head. Bugs. Bugs of all kinds. She shoke her head to try and clear them from her mind but it was no use. Another nightmare from the night would do. Caylx pulled on her hair as the screams of the mutants outside were increasing in volume and with her advanced hearing it only gave her head aches. But she did like how it toke her mind off of the bugs. One of the perks in being tortured all the time, are the worse things that arnt as worse as the really bad things. Caylx made a habbit of reminding herself of that. But what she needed right now was blood. Not distractions. Blood.

Aramay

Her persistent scraping and digging at the corner of the door would stop with any hint of a sound from guards, or any other unusual sounds. Ones that were more unusual than she normally heard. With a long pause her clawing would slowly resume and pick up the pace. The thinner the door became the more intense she became, being that much closer to leaving the dank cell. The repeated digging made her hands and forearms ache so she occasionally had to shake them out to get them to respond properly again. She was starting to see light coming from the corner edge of the door which both excited and annoyed her. There was still a lot to dig out to make enough of the door thin enough to push through. The task would have been entirely too daunting if it wasn't for the complete lack of activity around her. So, she couldn't help but push through the soreness and kept going.

Eventually she hollowed out all but a thin layer of the door. She made sure that it would make for a wide enough opening before she dared to try and bend it out of the way. Like a rat trying to get free she squeezes through the opening. Aramay frantically squirmed out of the cell; scratching at the floor as she did so. Again she found herself hard of sight and would most likely not be able to go through the halls without getting shot down again. And as much as she'd like to have another swing at the guards she was still healing from the last set of bullet wounds. She was sure that a few slugs still needed to be dug out. That however would have to be focused on later. She pushed the bent corner of the door back into place. That way it would help prevent passing guards from noticing so quickly that one of their 'prisoners' had escaped.

The first thing she looked and felt for was the closest vent that she could fit into. The hardest part was trying to make sure that it didn't look like someone tampered with it. Not only would it buy her time to think but it would also keep her out of sight. The fact that much of it looked rather dark helped as well. She wanted to help get Dusk out from the cell right next to her. Maybe she should have stayed back and tested to see if she could dig through the wall into Dusk's cell. No, it would take too long. If she was lucky the vent was connected to her cell, but she didn't feel very confident about that. For all she knew the doors didn't require a key to lock. Again it wasn't worth being spotted just to feel around blindly at the door and hope that it could be unlocked easily from the outside. "Dusk." Aramay whispers through the vent. "Dusk. Can you hear me?" At the same time she was listening in for anyone who my come down the hall. She was far enough back in the vent to avoid being seen but she was still at risk of being heard.

Dusk


"Dusk...Dusk. Can you hear me?"
Dusk stiffened in shock at the sound of her name. The voice belonged to the woman next door, the one that she remembered from some part of her past. The feeling of shock quickly was replaced with hope and desperation.
She pressed herself up against the vent, desperate that she should be heard. Dusk reached one of her hands partially through the grate, groping for a way to get out.
"I can hear you. Please. How did you get out? Don't leave me in here. Please" Dusk couldn't keep the emotion and the pleading from her voice. The fear of being left alone was getting stronger, almost to the point of hysteria. As her emotions began to get out of control, Dusk's empathetic protection melted somewhat, and she could vaguely feel the woman's pain.
"Are you hurt? I can help, if you let me out. Promise you'll get me out." Her jumble of pleas fell from her mouth in a way that she was unable to control. She couldn't help the desperate need to escape and get out.
"Your name?" Even in the midst of the situation, Dusk needed the woman's name. She'd forgotten too much, and she needed information.
"They took her away. I've failed you, all of you. I'm sorry, I can no longer protect you guys. I'm sorry."
Dusk jerked backwards somewhat, for the second time in the last five minutes someone was there. Kyra. The name jumped into her mind, and the realisation that she did know people by name here gave her a sudden sensation of joy, before the weight of the words caught up with her. The sound of pain and loneliness was intense, and Dusk's mind immediately shied away from it. Nonetheless, Dusk forced herself to respond.
Kyra? She wasn't entirely sure whether Kyra could hear her. Whose gone? Who is 'she'? We have to get out. No one could protect us now anyway...Kyra?

Aramay

She didn't hear a response from Dusk. Only a vibration of the air vent that she had hidden herself in whenever she tried to call out to the girl in the cell close by. Eventually her fear of being heard by a guard made her go quiet again. Hanging around in an air duct didn't help her feel that she was all that better off than being stuck in the cell still. The air was fresher but the walls and floor did nothing to help keep her warm which by now wasn't a new situation for her. The slight fever did help make the cold feel more of a relief rather than an annoyance. The constant shivering, was another story. There was no way that she could stay still for long as the lack of her moving made her occasionally flinch or jump, much like a nervous tick.

It wasn't long before she couldn't take waiting anymore. She needed to be somewhere other than there. Running her hand over a part of the vent wall to the right of her. The dirt, blood and other unmentionable grim that clung to her now served as a way for her to mark her way to where she had already been. At every section where the vents broke off into different areas she would mark around the area around it that would lead back to where Dusk's cell was. 'Sorry Dusk, I hope you'll still be there when I come back.' Aramay wasn't really sure as to what she was looking for but any vent that lead to a dead end or area that had a lot of guard traffic in the hall or room near it she would mark with either an 'X' or an 'O' with a line through it. The darker it was in the vents the easier it was for her to see. Those she would mark with 'o o'. It not only gave her something to do but it helped her begin to map out the lab with a less likely chance of getting lost like the times before. It also gave her a sense of comfort. To move around with a much lower chance of being detected.