//------------------------------// // 8) Who Can I Trust? // Story: The Experiments // by SapphireRose87 //------------------------------// Derek and Milton were inside the barn and Derek was showing Milton how to get Bobo to trust him so he could clean his hoof no problem at all. “Bobo seems to trust you Milton,” said Derek. “You don't appear to have any trouble cleaning his hoof! Normally only me and dad can do that.” “I wished Henry would trust us,” said Milton, “he won’t even show us what happened to his hand!”  They didn't realize that Moria had been standing right behind them when she had overheard them talking about Henry. “My guess,” said Moria, “is that because he’s been through considerable hell at Lab 14.” “So do you know what happened?” Milton said. Moria hung her head, “Yes, I do," she says. Then she stomps and looks forward, "trying to get him to tell us was like pulling teeth!” “Is that why he wears a glove on his hand?” Milton said. “Yes,” said Moria, “he also has a deep cut on the same arm that wears the glove on his hand. Earnest wrapped it up the best he could but it still bleeds every once and awhile.” “Now that you think about it,” said Milton, “I did see bandages on his arm why would they do something like that?” Milton and Derek could tell that Moria did not want to say the answer to that question. Moria was torn between telling them the story of what happened to Henry or not. But in the end she decided that she did want to talk to someone about the troubling information she had just found out. “Earnest and I looked at the cut and it was an inch deep!” Moria said. “Lab 14 probably did that to get him to cooperate with them! My guess is when he didn’t work with them, they went and took his voice box out next.” “Why would they do that?” Derek said. “Probably to give Henry an incentive to work with them,” Moria said, “I’ve seen a lot worse that Henry’s been through before. The abuse happened shortly after he was created. Cora has a nasty habit to flatline her ‘experiments’ and drop them by a tree in the forest of the In Between, to see if they come back. It’s because if they did come back their powers double in strength. When they would flatline Henry his powers come back at triple strength! “But they didn’t flatline Henry when he broke out of Lab 14 this time. I know because he would’ve had the smell of death on him. They probably didn’t flatline him because they’re still in the middle of this experiment and the guidelines for it say they can’t flatline an experiment until this one is shut down." Moria's ears went flat against her head and she pulled back her lips showing her teeth and snarled. "When they captured Henry my guess is they would’ve kept him there for a little bit, tortured him and then released him back into the experiment whenever they felt like it. Knowing Henry, even though they took his voice box out, he would never work with them! Right now he probably doesn’t trust anyone because of the hell he went through! I don’t blame him either! If I went through that, I wouldn’t trust anyone either!” Upon hearing Moria’s explanation of what happened to Henry so far, Derek balled his hands into fists. “There’s got to be something we can do to keep him away from that place!” Derek said. “That place is plain cruel!” Milton shook his head, “I don’t think that’s possible. Lab 14 has several different locations and they use them to keep their ‘experiments’ in them. If anyone of them tries to leave an alarm will sound and the tracker animals will be on them in no time at all.” “My question is,” said Moria, “why haven’t they found us yet?” Derek took a deep breath and calmed down. “It’s because there’s a barrier that surrounds the Inn. If a tracker animal comes near it they’ll be dead and cooked from the inside out and turned to ash so it covers the scent. You should be fine here for now. But you’ll still have to be on the run sooner or later. I just wish there was some way to keep Henry away from Lab 14!” “I don’t know if anyone can keep him away from Lab 14!” Milton said. “Sooner or later we’ll end up back there. Then the Experiment will be shut down and they’ll do it all over again! I wonder how many they’ll let live the next time? I’d rather be dead then continue than continue on with this circus! I’m pretty sure the other kids feel the same way!” At this point Moria had enough of talking about this issue and wanted to do something else to take her mind off it. “I’m done talking about this!” Moria said. “I’m going to go chase those chickens by the barn!” “Just don’t kill all of them okay?” Derek said.  “I’m not making any promises but okay!” Moria said. After that conversation Moria did exactly what she wanted to do. * * * Cora's footsteps pounded through the hallway echoing as she stomped against the metal back and forth through the main building of Lab 14. As she looked at the computer screens that she had set up all through the hall to watch the tracking devices and their traveling patterns that she had laid out for this experiment, ever so often she would fire her gun in the air. Cora loved to fire her gun as a way to help get out her anger. An added bonus to that was the gun fire scared her workers silly. As Cora was seeing red she often thought about her past and how she was thankful that she got away from wandering the streets of where she came from. Snice no one had looked out for her most of her life she only looked out for herself and only herself. That's why she had no problem doing harm to anyone or anything because in the process of looking out for herself she always seemed to run into people that just wanted to do her harm. So Cora decided that no one in her life wouldn't be free from harm. She felt like she was a tornado leaving as much as damage behind her that she possibly could.  Even though she looked forward to torturing the new experiments that had arrived she couldn’t wait to turn them into strong experiments to be able to release them into the next experiment. The name’s of these new experiments were, Experiment Anna, Experiment Iris, Experiment Lucey, Experiment Levi, Experiment Ethan and Experiment Julian. Every single test that Cora designed involved a lot of pain for them. So far only Experiment Anna and Experiment Iris didn’t scream bloody murder through every test so far. If a Experiment did scream on anyone of the tests then they were not fit to be an Experiment for Lab 14. Cora remembered after she created the Experiments from Group A. That was the group that Experiment Henry was in. None of those experiments made a peep when all the tests were done. Of all the experiments, she favored Experiment Henry the most. His powers came back triple every time she flatlined him. She especially loved the fact that he didn’t even cry out in pain, even when she performed the final test. It consisted of driving a metal rod through his chest and yanking it out from his side. Not one little peep came from him at all. It was because of Experiment Henry that she was one step closer to finding the cure for death. Cora hated the fact that Experiment Henry had broken out of her lab thanks to Agent Discord! But he would be gone only for a moment because the tracker cats would find him and bring him back very soon… * * * Late at night I laid in bed at the inn, barely sleeping even though everyone should be safe here. I would nod off every once in a while but my brain decided to shut down and I fell asleep. I had the weirdest dream. I found myself in some sort of tunnel. I didn’t know why, but I knew I had to get out of it and fast! I started running, hoping that I would get to the end of the tunnel. I saw a light up ahead and I thought it signalled the end but instead of going through it, I heard a voice calling out to me. It didn’t say the name Henry, it said the name from my memory.  “Hi there Crimson!” The light said. “Last time I checked,” I said, “my name is Henry.” “Sorry about that,” the light said, “I forgot you still don’t remember who you really are. You’ll find out soon enough. But it’s not my place to help you with that.” “So, who are you?” I said. “I am a being that is called The Higher,” The Higher said, “think of me as a middle man in between different realms. I need to deliver a message to you! I’ve been waiting a long time to deliver this message. I don’t have time to answer any questions so I have to hurry in telling you this message or you’ll be dead for good!” “When you say dead,” I said, “you mean I-“ “Flatlined yes,” said The Higher, “but only temporarily. Like I said I have to hurry! The message is that you will be kept away from Lab 14!” “But if I flatlined that means I’m back at Lab 14!” I said. “Nope,” said The Higher, “I’m the one that did it! But only to deliver this message! Now pay attention okay? As I was saying, you’ll be kept away from Lab 14. That’s because it’s been decided that you’ll be the one destroying Lab 14 from the inside out. Oh and It’s decided to send someone to help you along the way. He will be your protector, in order to complete your job you will have to kill Cora, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. You’ll find out why later. And your protector is someone that works at the Inn that you are currently staying at and his name is Derek. I understand you don’t trust people right now. But you can trust your protector! Let your wall down around him and show him what Lab 14 has done to you and why it needs to be destroyed. That’s all I can tell you for now! Now it’s time for you to return to living. Goodbye and it was wonderful to finally be able to meet you! I wish you luck, that’s all I can do!” After The Higher said goodbye, I felt like I was being sucked out of the dream as if being sucked out by a vacuum cleaner. * * * When I opened my eyes again, Earnest, Derek and Moria were looking at me with concerned looks on their faces. Moria sniffed at me and gagged.  “Yup,” said Moria, “he flatlined!” “What?” Earnest said. “But how?” “I don’t know,” said Moria, “my guess is because of all the stress that Lab 14 put him through! I didn’t realize how much worse it was! Sorry Henry! I should’ve sniffed you out more! I really messed up this time!” I titled my head in confusion and looked at them for an explanation. Derek picked up on that and nodded at Earnest. “We were worried,” said Derek, “because you stopped breathing when I came to check on you this morning. You were turning blue and I couldn’t get a pulse! I thought you were dead and Moria said to wait for a couple of seconds. Thankfully you came back! Don’t scare us like that Henry!” “It’s okay Derek,” said Earnest, “I’m sure he can’t help it, after what he’s been through. Unfortunately there’s nothing any of us can do about it.” “No it’s not okay!” Derek said. “Lab 14 has no right to do what they do to people!” “What can you do about it?” Earnest said. “I don’t think there’s anything you can do.” “I know one things for sure,” said Derek, “I’m going to try my best to keep Henry away from Lab 14 as long as I live!” Even though my protector is Derek, no ones been able to keep me out of Lab 14. I am very curious to see if Derek can. * * * Moria went up to Sarah, Martin and Aria and gave them three barks to signal that she had something very important to talk to them about. She had just received an important message from Princess Celestia. “What is it?” Sarah said. “It’s come to my attention,” said Moria, “that you three still don’t have your old trackers out, if we don’t get them out it’ll do a lot of damage.” “And you chose now to tell us because?” Aria said. “I didn’t know until Princess Celestia told me,” said Moria, “you three come with me to Martin's bedroom and don’t worry I’ve already spoken to Earnest and Derek. No one’s going to bother us at least until I give notice that it’s finished.” Sarah groaned, “Do we have to?” “Yup,” said Moria, “although it looks like Aria’s is starting to come out.” Aria didn’t feel the tracker coming out until Moria had said something about it. Aria shrieked as the tracker came out and she passed out for five minutes. “Good,” said Moria, “one down and two to go. You two follow me!” * * * A couple of days after Sarah, Martin and Aria had gotten their tracking devices out, Sarah was sitting outside the barn and up against a wall playing with a small beam of light coming from her hand. Jane was curious about it and came over and sat down beside her. “Uh… Sarah?” Jane said. “What’s up?” Sarah said. “What’s that light coming from your left hand?” Jane said. “Oh yeah!” Sarah said. “It happened a couple of days ago. After we took care of La’al and finished our other jobs. I kept thinking about why we can change into different ponies. I also kept wondering what Lab 14’s goal was in doing that to us. As soon as I thought the word ‘unicorn’ I got this light that came from my left hand. I kept closing my fist and then when I opened it a light would disappear. I thought the word ‘unicorn’ again and the same thing happened again. Look what’s on the back of my hand!” Sarah showed Jane the back of her hand and Jane gasped at it. On the back of Sarah’s hand was the same picture that was on her butt when she was a pony. “I think,” said Sarah, “all you have to do is think the word of whatever pony you are, and then you can do the same magic that you can do when you’re transformed as a pony!” Sarah closed her fist and thought the word ‘unicorn’ and when she opened her fist an orange light came out of it. “Interesting!” Jane said. “What can you do with it?” “I’m not sure,” said Sarah, “but I did look up what sort of spells we can do and it said can we do quite a bit of them! My favorite one that I’ve done so far is this! Check it out!” Sarah pointed her index finger in the air and she disappeared in the blink of an eye. “Sarah,” said Jane, “where did you go?” “I’m over here!” Sarah said. She then came around from La’al’s stall and took Jane by surprise. “Cool!” Jane said. “What type of spell was that?” “Teleportation,” said Sarah, “this might come in handy for Henry!” “Yeah!” Jane said. “He can’t change into a unicorn by saying it, so with this, he’ll have a way to do it! We should go show him right away!” * * * I sat in the back behind the desk in the Lobby area when I heard Sarah's voice from around the corner. “Hey, Earnest!” Sarah said. “Can Henry take a break for a bit?” “Sure,” Earnest said. “He should take a break right now. He’s been working non-stop lately I think he might be a workaholic. I’ll make him take a break!” I heard Sarah say this, and I came around the corner and gave Sarah a confused look. “I need to show you something that’ll come in handy,” said Sarah, "you can’t talk right now, so this is very important for you to learn! Come with me, I’ll show you!” Sarah grabbed my hand and led me outside. When we got outside Sarah couldn’t contain her excitement. “Check this out!” Sarah said. She opened her hand and out came an orange light. I felt nothing but confusion at this point. “I know sounds and looks strange,” said Sarah, “but all you have to do is think of the word ‘unicorn’ and this will happen. Jane, you should try it too! I Bet if you try it the same thing will happen to you! You probably just have to think of the words ‘earth pony’ and the same thing will happen. Go ahead Henry think the word ‘unicorn’ and see what happens!” I did as Sarah told me to do and a beam of yellow light came from my left hand. Jane did the same thing and a beam of violet light came from her left hand. When I saw a beam of light from my hand, I felt shocked by it. “Let me see what’s on the back of your hand!” Sarah said. I looked at the back of my hand, surprised to see my butt picture on it. Jane did the same thing and her picture appeared too. “From what the manual says,” said Sarah, “you can do a teleportation spell which means you can go anywhere you want in the blink of an eye, that is if you can think about it or see where you want to go." I raised an eyebrow at her as she tried to figure out where I could go. “I know!” Sarah said. “Try to go to that chicken coop over there! You see it?” I nodded, still very confused about what she wanted me to do. “All you have to do,” said Sarah, “is point your index finger into the air like this and think of where you want to go!” I visualized the chicken coop and pointed my finger in the air. I found myself right in front of the chicken coop. I jumped back when I heard the squawk of the chickens and saw Moria stopped chasing them to see what was going on. “What’s going on?” Moria said. I smiled at her and put one finger up in the air and went right back to where I started. Moria came running up to the barn and barked frantically. Derek came around the corner to see what Moria was barking about. “What’s going on?” Derek said. “I heard Moria barking frantically so I came to see if the barrier was still holding up.” “Henry just disappeared right in front of me!” Moria said. “I wouldn’t worry about it," Sarah said. “We were just practicing our unicorn magic!” “But,” said Moria, “don’t you have to be transformed into a unicorn for that?” “Apparently not,” said Sarah. “I wonder…” Jane said. “I am an earth pony so my magic must have something to do with earth! Well, here goes!” Jane pointed one finger to the ground and dirt starting swirling around her. She caught some of the dirt in the light that was coming from her hand. She then pointed the palm of her hand into the air and drew out some of the water from it. After she did that a leaf appeared in her hand and as soon as that happened a chain of leaves wrapped around Jane's wrist. She used the chain like a whip. “Cool!” Sarah said. “What can you do with it?” Jane spotted a rock at a nearby pond. She grabbed the big rock with her leaf chain and chucked the rock toward the pond, skipping it along the surface several times before it sank. The splash scared a couple of geese that had been swimming in the pond. Their squawks went from being afraid to being angry that their afternoon swim had been interrupted.  When we saw that we all burst into laughter. Of course, because I didn’t have my voice box I couldn’t make a sound. Derek looked at me and frowned.  “What?” Sarah said. “Oh...Sorry Henry.” I rolled my eyes and shook my head. I could tell by the look on Jane's face that she wanted to ask about the glove on my hand and the stitches on my arm. “Are you going to show us what happened at Lab 14?” Jane said. I balled my hands into fists and looked down at the ground. I really wished that people would stop asking me that question. It looked like Moria knew what I was thinking. She growled and pulled back her lips to show her teeth. “What’s wrong Moria?” Sarah said. Moria replied, “It was hard getting him to show us what happened too! Even though we were concerned and wanted to help. Once Earnest showed him what our intentions were then he showed us. But he doesn’t trust anyone right now and I don’t blame him! He seems to trust Derek and I don’t know why. Maybe he’ll tell us one day maybe he won’t! But you have to let that be his decision! “Just because you’re ‘experiments’ like he is doesn’t mean he has to tell you everything! So if I were you I’d stop asking that question! Yes I know you’re concerned about him but if you force the information out of him, then you’re no better than Lab 14! That’s exactly how they get their information! If you want him to trust you then let him make that choice! Do you understand me?” Sarah and Jane didn’t say anything because of how angry Moria was and she looked like she could bite their legs off. So Sarah and Jane just nodded their heads slowly in terror. I didn’t do anything except point my finger into the air and I disappeared.