((300,000,000 Years ago))
There it was, the first inkling that I was alive. With all my other senses still dead, I could just barely hear things. First, it was subtle, like a light breeze in dead silence. Something else reached my ears, a more solid sound. It was speech. Someone was speaking. There were two of them. Exhaling, I felt my sense of touch return to me as bubbles rose and brushed my fur and whiskers. I was under water. Opening my eyes, everything was blurred... and strange. My vision was suddenly introduced by colour. As I focused more, I noticed something was on my face; it allowed me to breathe under this green water.
"...ow is Project X doing today?" my hearing cleared up, allowing me to make out words coming from the two figures speaking to each other.
"Surprisingly well for something that was road-kill not three days ago. Unlike the others, his body's accepted the mutagen beyond expected parameters. We should be able to view his initial skill level by tomorrow." another said. I noticed through the blurry green water, that as the latter spoke, the figure with the lighter colour, which I assumed was white through the green liquid, moved and swayed as he gestured to what I assumed was me. The darker figure must have been the one enquiring about my health.
"What can we expect of him in the initial test? Will he attack the others?" the darker figure asked.
"I don't think so. With the mutagen assimilated into his body, thanks in no small part to his critical wounds, he should be able to sense the mutagen in the others, and hopefully, he won't attack them." the lighter one replied. I found myself floating closer to the figures, my nose bumping something solid; likely that clear wall stuff humans put in the holes of their dens. The closer I got, the clearer my vision of the two became. The lighter coloured one wore a long white coat, while the other had baggier clothes that consisted of splotches of different shades of the same colour, presumably green.
"Then let's test that theory when the time comes. We'll put some other animals in the arena with them and see what happens." The white one seemed uncertain about the idea presented to him, but said nothing. "Keep up the good work, Doctor."
"Yes, General." the Doctor replied, returning to his station just a few steps in front of me. He sat down in one of those metal contraptions that rotated and adjusted to the user's figure. I closed my eyes again and pushed gently with my nose against the wall. I then heard the Doctor speak to me directly.
"I know you'll succeed, I just know it... Sleep well, boy. Tomorrow's going to be a big day for you." he said. I didn't open my eyes after that. Now that silence once again filled my ears, I took some time to think about what I'd just heard. The green human, the General, was obviously the one in charge, the Alpha of the pack, or whatever humans called this. The Doctor was obviously the Omega. The status suited him. Despite Omegas being the weakest of the pack, they were thinkers, and this human was obviously a thinker.
It wasn't the green liquid that both surprised and confused me, or the fact that I was in the presence of humans. Not even the mention of others that they so ominously neglected to give details over. What did surprise and confuse, and on some level, frighten me was the fact that I could understand what had been said. Human speech was difficult to understand, and suddenly hearing what they said and understanding the words just boggled my mind. Of course, there were some words that I didn't understand. What was a 'mutagen'? And was a 'parameter' anything like a 'perimeter'? So many questions filled my mind and before I knew it, I'd burned out my mind and had fallen asleep.
I awoke to the sound of water going down a hole. I wasn't half wrong as the green liquid inside my... tube began to disappear. I felt my back paws touch the floor first. Then came my front paws as the water level went down to barely nothing. I reached up and pulled the thing on my face off. I got a sick feeling as a long thing had been attached to it and was down my throat the entire time. I coughed and gagged at the sensation. My fur was slightly green after having been in that stuff for goodness knows how long. With everything out of my system, I looked beyond the clear wall to see the scientist as well as a dozen different Generals. Some of them younger, others older, judging by the wrinkles on their heads. They had those infamous thunder sticks in their hands, known for taking down wolves and other animals alike.
"I hope you know what you're doing Doc, regular wolves are bad enough, but this is just plain insane." one of the Generals said.
"Relax, Lieutenant. Dangerous though wolves may be, they have a tremendous sense of loyalty. And considering we saved this one's life, I don't think he'll be attacking us any time soon." the Doctor said. Gathering what I'd heard from before, I pieced together the incident missing from my memory. I'd been the unfortunate victim of a human transport device. Clearly, either the human operating the device was one of these people, or the incident just so happened to be near this place.
I heard a sound, and noticed that the clear wall had disappeared, leaving me free to leave the confines of the tube. As I took a step, the humans' thunder sticks made clicking sounds and the humans themselves seemed to focus them on me even further. "Easy, boy. Nobody's going to hurt you. Just relax." the Doctor said. Understanding him, I took him for his word and stepped further out of the tube. I could sense the fear emanating from the armed humans, but the Doctor seemed as calm as ever.
"Doctor Reed!" the 'Lieutenant' said, agitation evident in his voice.
"Don't fire, Lieutenant! Do so without provocation from Project X and I'll see the General demotes you to Cadet." the Doctor threatened. Those words gave me clarification on the matter. These humans were labelling themselves by their ranks, reserving their names for other occasions. Clearly, 'Doctor' was not the rank of Omega, but 'Cadet' was. Unless 'Doctor' didn't even belong in the same chain of command as these...warriors. Human rank was a headache in itself. "Come to me, boy. Come on." the Doctor commanded, crouching down to my level. I wondered why I should obey him. I was not apart of his pack, I wasn't even a part of his species. Then again, he'd been right when he said I owed him my life.
I did as he'd commanded, walking casually towards the Doctor. "Well done! Good boy!" he praised me. Something in the way he said it sounded condescending, but for the life of me, I couldn't place why.
I performed other acts for the Doctor in order to ease the minds of the humans with their weapons, to convince them that I was not hostile. To my surprise, it worked. Shortly afterwards, I was directed through long narrow passages with so many different sights and smells. The humans we passed that had not witnessed my... tame performance still registered fear with me. What I assumed were the females of the species were particularly nervous around me.
What made me feel slightly nervous was the fact that the one human who held confidence in me, the Doctor had departed from the group escorting me to Kahna only knew where. I was left with the warriors who not ten minutes ago had been ready to obliterate me out of general fear. I tried to follow the Doctor, but I was herded towards my initial direction. A wall seemingly barred our path, but some toying round with an object next to the wall from one of the warriors and the obstacle revealed itself to have been some sort of doorway.
I was fascinated as it broke in two, one half retreating into the metal and stone above, the other descending into the ground beneath. Beyond was what looked like some sort of dome. strange objects I'd never seen before lay across the floor seemingly without order. I suppose it would have been too much to hope that they were leading me to the exit. I thought, stepping through. The doorway closed behind me. The bad news, I was trapped in this round space. The good news was that those warriors with their thunder sticks weren't in here with me.
Some of the objects were small, others were massive. The area took me a full minute to pace around before coming back to the door. I looked upwards and saw the Doctor standing with the General and a few other humans I didn't recognise. It was then that I first saw, right above the invisible wall, a spider large enough to wrap its legs around my chest. The sheer size of the arachnid terrified me. I yelped in fear, backing away towards the doorway I'd come in from and began scraping at it in the hopes it would open.
As a rule, I wasn't particularly afraid of spiders, but when one big enough to give me a bear hug enters into the equation... I'd make like an Omega and bolt.
"Shut up! Geez, you're a noisy one, aren't you?!" I heard a voice. Momentarily forgetting the spider, I looked around for the source of the voice.
"Who said that?!" I demanded, realising I wasn't alone with this spider.
"The one who made you scream like a little girl, over here." I couldn't believe it... the spider talked. Other animals were one thing, Humans were another, but insects and arachnids had a whole other level of communication that neither man nor animal could hope to comprehend, yet this one spoke as if she were another wolf. "What's the matter, big boy, scared of spiders?" she asked.
A moment of silence answered her first. "I am now, thanks to you!" I replied, sticking to the doorway as the spider approached.
"Well, don't worry. I don't bite, unless you annoy me." she was teasing me. A spider was teasing me. I'm insane! I thought. I've finally cracked! My mother warned me if I pursued this course in life, I'd go mad. Bitch was right!
"H-How are we talking to each other?" I asked after taking a moment to sort my thoughts.
"The mutagen. We've all been injected with it. It's become a part of us and it's allowed us to speak like this. Right now, I'm not speaking like an Arachnid, and neither are you speaking like a wolf. It's a whole other language unique to us. Pretty cool, huh?" the spider said. She was certainly not what I expected a spider to be like had I ever had the chance to meet and speak to one. Then again, I never expected it.
"Where are we?" I asked, looking around.
"The Arena. It's part of a human research facility, founded and funded by the government, the big guys up the top of the ladder." she replied. All I understood was 'human research' and 'Arena'.
"I meant where in the world are we?" I corrected.
"Oh, Idaho." she replied.
"Gesundheit?" I offered.
"No, you dolt! Idaho is what the humans call this part of the world. We're in a forest within Idaho. I think it's that 'Caribou-Targhee National Forest'." she corrected.
"That nature reserve designed primarily for Caribou?" I asked.
"Okay, how do you know that when you don't even know about Idaho?" the spider asked.
"One of my meals mentioned how he wished he was back there while I pursued him." I replied, shifting uncomfortably.
"You're a weird one... still, you're one of us now, so we'll have to make do." she said. Those words froze me.
"Wait... us?" I asked. the Spider did what I could only hope was a nod and walked away, disappearing behind one of the large objects in the arena.
"Chrysalis is a tad condescending, but she means well, especially when it comes to her new family, which includes you."
"Tell me about it." I said... ...... "Waaah!!!" I threw myself to the side as I realised someone else had spoken to me. Upon seeing the newcomer, I was thankful to see it wasn't another giant spider. This one was a black wolf, completely different to me in every way. This one displayed confidence along with a certain amount of passivity which I found myself rather envious about, given my two miniature heart-attacks within five minutes.
"You really are a jumpy one, aren't you?" this back wolf said, slinking towards and around me. She sniffed at the air, identifying me through scent. "Despite your outward appearance and current actions, I can tell you have potential." she said, coming to a halt in front of me. She then sat down and stared at me. "You know, there's a reason you didn't fear me the second you heard my voice." she said after a moment.
"And what would that be?" I asked, not sure about her.
"You subconsciously knew I was there already. You could sense my presence. What made you freak out was the transaction from subconscious to conscious. You need to work on that." she said. I'm starting to realise how that Caribou I ate felt before he died. I thought, sighing. "Something wrong, snowball?" she asked, bringing me back to reality.
"Don't ever call me that again. I have a name." I replied.
"We all have names, new guy. We know ours, but you're still a mystery." she said. I felt a rush of cold as I felt the spider land on my back. I went stiff and my pupils undoubtedly contracted.
"Chrys, I think you just petrified the poor guy." the black wolf said.
"Geez, this guy have a heart condition before or something? He's worse than Luna, and she's just a kid." Chrysalis replied.
"Well, to be fair. Luna was kind of born in this facility, whereas this guy undoubtedly had a life before." Through my frozen form, I saw the black wolf look up towards the invisible wall where the humans were. She gave them a stare, one that suggested she didn't trust them. That made me wonder if I shouldn't either.
"Hey, think I can get him to move by crawling around him?" Chrysalis asked.
"I think he'd try and squash you if you moved an inch right now, Chrysalis. Best you get off him and let him breathe. Fur shouldn't turn blue." I felt Chrysalis' legs slide off my back and heard her touch the floor. I then sucked in air and began to move around, shaking off the creepy feeling I got from that experience.
"And you say he has potential?" Chrysalis asked the black wolf, sounding doubtful.
"Enough! You said there were others, not one other. How many more of us are there?" I asked. I watched as the black wolf turned to Chrysalis.
"There's your potential, Chrys. Not even I thought about that when I started out." she said. The black wolf then turned back to me. "There are eight of us in total, including yourself. The others are Abbadon, a black Panther. Discord, a goat. Celestia and Luna are siblings, though Luna was recently born about a month ago. They're horses, Thoroughbreds to be exact. The final member of our little family is Sombra. He too is a horse, a Clydesdale. He is in no way related to the other two. He's a pretty silent one, but then again, we're all unique in our own way." she said.
"Why so many horses?" I asked.
"Initially, there were ten of each species, but we were the only ones to make it past the initial stages." she replied.
"YOU MEAN I COULD HAVE DIED AGAIN?!" I shouted, looking up at the humans in disbelief.
"What exactly do you mean by again?" the black wolf asked.
"I was road-kill before they brought me back using the mutagen. Aparently, my body accepted it better and faster than the others, which I guess means you guys." I explained. both of them seemed... perplexed.
"The mutagen resurrected you?" she asked. I shrugged and waited for them to speak. "You may have more potential than I initially thought."
"Thanks, I think?" I said, unsure how to take that comment. The black wolf shook her head and approached me in a more friendly manner.
"Well, let's discuss that some other time. My name's Shaiya, newbie." she said.
"I'm Shiro." I said. Shaiya laughed.
"The Japanese word for 'white'. I like it. It suits your outer character well, but it completely leaves your inner self blank as a blackboard." she said.
"I'm sorry?" I asked, hoping she would clarify.
"I can see it in your eyes, Shiro. That potential I spoke of holds a bit of darkness within. You've got a hint of black which makes you just the slightest bit grey. I'm gonna call you Shiroyami." she said, grinning at me. To be perfectly honest, I couldn't help but grin along with her.
"Alright, Shiroyami it is. I love contradictions." I said. We all shared a laugh, Chrysalis included.