Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard

Skiff: "Your mission, as previously mentioned, is to locate David Parker, his last known location will be pinpointed when you land. You will be dropped in a nearby football field and will need to make your way through the suburbs of the town. Stealth is a priority of this mission, so although you have use of your wings, you haven't yet been retaught how to fly. So I would avoid using them, plus in the sky, you will be easily seen. There should be little to no defences leading up to the target's house but be on your guard. You must not be caught by anyone, do not deviate from your current mission zone. Once target is apprehended we will send further instructions." Dr Skiff's voice instructed us in our ear pieces that were handed to each of us at the same time that our wing restraints were removed, just before we boarded the chopper. The Chinook we were piled into just barely 10 minutes ago thundered along, our porthole windows blacked out so we had no idea where we were.

Sam: "Is this our opportunity?" He asked with a very serious face and a wink, shouting to be heard of the roar of the chopper. I knew he was referring to escaping and as tempting as the notion was, I had doubts.

Me: "I don't know yet, as I said, this doesn't feel right... We need to tread carefully."

Jinx: "You think this is a trap?"

Me: "I really don't know, but think about it, we haven't even completed training, and what?, This guy is just sat around waiting for us to come knocking?"

D42: "Maybe he doesn't know we're coming?"

Me: "You stole some sensitive and highly valuable data, would you just be sat around somewhere unsecure, not expecting anyone? Come on! And even if that were true, if we're being trained up in special warfare, why are we playing fetch? This sort of thing could be done by their own guys or some sort or special forces infiltration team anyway."

Sam: "Everything about this does seem off, I have to agree."

Bruticus: "Oh come off it! That's exactly what we are! We surpassed their expectations clearly! Now they just want us to deal with a simple task to see how we perform! This is an opportunity, if we do well then we'll probably be allowed to skip some of this boring training!"

Sam and I exchanged a rather disbelieving look. We endured the rest of the chopper ride for another 3/4 of an hour maybe, before it descended, the rear hatch opened allowing us all to step out onto the grass of the field below. The Chinook took off once we were clear, it's blades thudding louder with the increased effort which echoed off into the distance as it fell out of sight leaving the six of us standing in the middle of a field. An downward pointing arrow appeared in the back of my eyes, much like the messages do in the prison.

Me: "Bah! What the fuck?" I said blinking, but it wasn't going away. I turned my head, but it stayed in the same position in retrospect to the town, pointing past some buildings in the distance. A pin point marker. I turned to look at the others, who apparently had the same thing, they were all either blinking furiously or rubbing their eyes.

Me: "I guess that's our target then... Is this... An American football field?" I asked looking around, the yard markers on the ground and the goals certainly denoting as such, the pitch was also surrounded by multiple stands, all with the American flag gently fluttering in the light breeze.

Sam: "Looks like it eh?"

Me: "So we're in America? Huh... Never been before." Bruticus shoved past me in the direction of the marker.

Bruticus: "We don't have time for sight seeing, the sun will be up soon and we have a job to do."

Me " '50, wait please..." He stopped and turned back look at us, looking rather pissed off, "... I need you to take what I said seriously, at least bare in mind ok?" He growled and continued his slow walk. I turned to the remaining 4.

Me: "Guys, I want to try and work out what's going on before we get to where we're going. Skiff said we're a couple of clicks away so we have some time if we walk it. '42, '09, Jinx, try and slow him down, distract him, and let me know if you find anything out of place."

D42: "What do you mean? 'Out of place'?"

Me: "I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if this was another test scenario, there's probably no 'David Parker' at the end. Come on." I replied as I turned to leave in the direction of the marker, following Bruticus, making our way through an opening in the fence line for the field, through a small tree line the separated the football field from the road, bounded over the quiet street but I stopped mid way, almost having Sam and '42 run into the back of me.

D42: "What's wrong?" I watched as the yellow ball of the sun, just started creeping into existence on the horizon down the road, slowly clearing out the orange sky,

Me: " I haven't seen a sun rise in ages... maybe we should, Sam?" Gesturing to him down the empty street, Sam looked back at me,

Sam: "But what if this IS a test?"

Me: "But what if it isn't? Huh? We could run down that road to freedom, find someone to change us back, get our lives back!"

D42: "You want to run away?"

Sam: "I... Don't want my old life back... Alex." He said glumly. I turned to him, realising that his old life meant being alone and in fear.

Me: "You could come live us?, We have a spare room."

Sam: "And what would your girl say?, hmm? To you bringing another girl home to live with you both permanently?"

Me: "She's pretty down to Earth, If we explain the situation, I'm sure she'll understand."

Sam: "Yeah right, you've been gone for weeks, or more, and suddenly you appear on the doorstep with another girl, yeah that will go down a treat."

D42: "I am so confused right now, for the record." I thought about what Sam said, yeah, probably wouldn't look good,

Me: "We'll work something out... I don't want you to be alone again and I also promised you I'd get us out of here."

Sam: "Alex... let's just... see what the situation is here first, yeah?, that sunrise? Might not even be real, It might just be a bunch of tv screens like the scenario room walls yeah?" I looked back to the sun revealing itself ever more, the warmth of it starting to hit me. I sighed and nodded and we made for the nearby alleyway behind people's gardens that the others had headed to. '42, '09 and Jinx ran ahead and started talking to Bruticus. Picking one at random, I peeked over the fence of a nearby large garden, looking over to the house and called to Sam. He walked back to me.

Sam: "What is it?"

Me: "Let's go take a nose."

Sam: "What for?"

Me: "To see if it's fake." I replied clambering over the fence, not giving Sam any choice but to follow. I silently arrived at the back door and pulled the handle,

Me: "Locked." I said disappointed

Sam: "Alex." I turned to see him at the edge of the porch pointing up, I walked out and looked up myself, there was an open window on the next floor. I silently leapt up into the porch roof, making my way up to the open window, Sam in tow. I peered in, it was an empty bedroom, so I climbed through. I quietly made my way through the upstairs rooms, Sam checking others as well.

Me: "This floor is empty, maybe no one's in." I whispered,

Sam: "There's a car in the drive though." He returned just as quietly, peering through a window that overlooked the front of the house.

Me: "Maybe downstairs?" He nodded and made our way for the stairs, creeping down as quiet as possible and halfway down I heard a motor whirring. I held hand up to my ear to signify to Sam to listen,

Me: "Maybe, I was wrong." He shrugged his shoulders and I continued down further, peering around the corner before I reached the bottom of the stairs, looking around an empty lounge, which lead into an empty kitchen and...

Me: "Oh for fuck sake I knew it!" I said at full volume.

Sam: "What?"

I pointed Sam to the kitchen and his shoulders dropped at the realisation of the truth of my discovery. There was a dummy, on a track in the kitchen, It looked like something out of Home Alone! It scrolled past the kitchen window, turned to the counter, paused then ran back to the end of the track, paused again, then repeated the pattern. Pissed off because I knew I was right, I made for the locked back door of the lounge that lead to the garden that I tried earlier, pushed on the handle hard ripping on the lock side of the frame from its mounts and the frame landed on the floor with a clang, any subtlety gone now that I knew it was pointless.

Me: "Come on Sam, let's catch up to the others up and tell them."

That we did, bounding down alley ways and roads to finally find all 4 of them slowly sneaking past the back of a 7 eleven store, thankfully the others had slowed Bruticus as I had instructed.

Me: "Drop it guys, the town's fake." I said, walking past them normally.

Jinx: "What? Fake?"

Bruticus: "What makes you think that?"

Me: "Don't believe me?, check the store, or any house. Either no one is in there or they're dummies or mannequins. Have you not noticed either?, It's sun rise and have we haven't seen a single car on the road or jogger or dog walker or even a paper boy? This town is fake, it's just another test!" I turned and walked toward the target marker, the 'distance to' reading now showing less than half a click to go according to the floating arrow in the back of my eyes. The others had given up their stealthy approach as well and were now more or less cantering to try and keep up with my fast pissed off pace. I kept the speed up until we reached the yard of the target building, encountering no resistance at all on the last stretch. We sat by the front fence scanning the house in question.

Jinx: "What's the plan then? What are you thinking?" She directed at me.

D09: "Yeah, if this is all set up, why are we waiting?"

Me: "We don't know what's in there."

Sam: "You think it's a trap?..." I gave a small nod in reply, "...I'll scope it out then, let you know what's in there."

Me: "Not alone you don't." He looked to me for a few moments,

Sam: "Not going win if I argue am I?"

Me: "Nope." Sam sighed then shrugged his shoulders,

Sam: "Alright then... Shall we?" He gestured towards the house. I turned to the others,

Me: "Surround the building, keep a look out but back us up if we call out." They all nodded, split up and spread out around the house. Myself and Sam walked up the path,

Me: "I'll take the back, you go through the front." I bounded ahead, running around the side of the house to find the back door. The door I found on the back porch was unlocked and I let myself in. The door lead into a large kitchen, immaculate and empty. I quietly walked through, unsure of what we'd find.

I hadn't made it far in at all when I heard Sam call,

Sam: "Alex?!" Sounding very unsure, I bounded through the kitchen, down the hall to see Sam stood, looking into a door way on the right side down the far end.

Me: "You ok?..." I looked into the room he was staring into "...What the fuck?..." Sat near the fire place on the far side of the room was a man, cuffed and chained in a kneeling position on the floor of the lounge, gagged and with a beaten and bloody face. The downward pointing arrow in my eyes pointing straight at him, disappeared, replaced with 1 word... 'KILL'. I shook my head clear, Sam doing the same,

Sam: "What is going on here?"

Me: "I don't know." I entered the room, making my way towards the man, who whimpered the closer I got, carefully minding my step.

Sam: "Alex... You're not going to... Are you?"

Me: "Of course not, I want to find out what's going on." The man's face turned from one of fear to one of confusion as he looked at me.

Bruticus: "Do it D24, or I will." I turned back toward the door to see Bruticus shoving Sam to one side and entering the room, heading in our direction, '42, '09 and Jinx following and lining the back wall either side of the door, Sam following through as well.

Me: "I asked you to wait outside. What is this?" suspecting a betrayal, but all their faces except for Bruticus's showed as much confusion as I felt.

Bruticus: "We have our order, kill him."

Me: "He's unarmed and detained, someone has clearly gotten to him before us, he's not a threat." Bruticus flicked his tail blades out still stepping towards the man, I stepped between the 2, halting Bruticus's progress.

Bruticus: "It doesn't matter, step aside, we have our orders, kill him or I will, and if you try to stop me..." He finished with a growl.

Me: "How do you know what he's done? He might be innocent, he might even have been trying to put a stop to all this!" The man nodded furiously with muffled agreement. My eyes widened and I turned and stared at the man,

Me: "You understand what I'm saying?..." He nodded again "...Oh shiiiitt..." I turned back to the team, "...GET OUT OF HERE, RUN!" But a metal door slammed shut in the place of the normal wooden one, the window also had a metal door slam shut over the outside of it, trapping us in the room.

Dr Skiff: "Oh you're very clever Alex, aren't you?" Her voice sounded through the room, the others, including Bruticus now, all looking around and as equally confused. The wall to my left raised up, revealing a large pane of glass, reinforced with metal supports. On the other side stood Dr Skiff, cross armed, with the tablet held against her chest, with that same horrible smug smile I had seen before, along with Dr Paul and the same other scientists I had seen before.

Me: "So how long have we been speaking English for?"

Skiff: "For the last 24 hours or so, I've heard all I need to now though. I must say Alex, I am equally impressed and disappointed. I mean, I had suspected you retained your memories, but you kept the charade going on long enough, I was even starting to doubt myself, but then I heard your own words confess just less than an hour ago..." She pulled her tablet in front of her and pressed a couple of buttons, a recording started playing, a recording of my own voice, "We could run down that road to freedom, find someone to change us back, get our lives back!" The recording stopped.

I removed the ear piece and threw it off to the side. Dr Skiff smiled menacingly,

Skiff: "You know it's a shame about all this, with your leadership skills, talent and natural abilities, you would have made a valuable asset. It's also a shame that in the process you dragged most of your team down with you."

Me: "Let my team go, don't do anything to them, this is my doing, if you want to do anything then aim it at me."

Skiff: "Oh it's beyond that I'm afraid Alex, your team mates have suffered too much mental damage to make them salvageable at this point, the only one worth keeping is D-five zero."

Me: "They have done nothing wrong, this whole set up, this guy, this 'David Parker', that's not even his name is it?, and they're not real injuries are they? This was all to catch me out! So leave them out of this!"

Skiff: "Quite the contrary, this IS David Parker, an ex-employee of ours, his injuries are quite real, I'm sure he'd tell you if he could, and ok, so he wasn't about to sell our sensitive information, but he was about to be a whistle blower, and hand the information over to an unknown 3rd party by the name of 'Wrex', I think it was, but we managed to apprehend him before he left the premises. I am sorry D-five zero, I will talk to you later, but I can't separate you from the others, you will be gassed out as well." He nodded to her, satisfied with her reasoning.

Me: "No wait!" She tapped some buttons and the white sweet smelling smoke started filling the room.

Skiff: "Too late Alex, the damage is done." I watched as the others collapsed one by one. My eyes met with Sam's,

Me: "I'm sorry..." there came that dizzy feeling again, the room span, I stumbled and everything fell to black.

_________

I awoke, it was dark and there was rumble from outside, the kind of rumble like wheels rolling along a concrete floor... I felt around... Another one of those hexagonal pods.

Me: "Let me out!" I screamed as I used my slowly returning strength kick at the end of the pod. But no matter how I tried, or how long for, nothing would give. All I could do was listen and try to work out what was happening around me, I heard and felt my pod being wheeled up a ramp before being strapped down, I heard similar sounds around me so could only presume the others were being strapped next to me in pods as well. From the next set of sounds I had worked out we had been loaded on to a helicopter, probably a Chinook again, the whirring of the engines starting up was eventually replaced with the loud thundering sound of the powerful rotors. Some time passed, arriving back at our facility I guess. I was wheeled off the chopper and inside, then taken by the machinery somewhere and as per usual, held there motionless for hours. I was so bored and tired, yet pissed off enough though that I couldn't nap like I had done in the past.

Finally the pod started moving, wondering where I was being taken this time. My question was soon answered though when the pod stopped the doors beneath my feet and I leapt down on to a familiar odd asterisk shaped table in a poorly lit by reddish maroon tinged lit room...

Me: "Oh no... no no no no no no..." I felt myself starting to panic, my breathing quickened. I scurried around the room, clawing and pulling any panels on the walls possible to try and find someway out of this room. The sweet smelling white smokey gas filled the room from the corners again. "...NO! NOT AGAIN! NOOO!..." I took a deep breath and tried holding it, but the more scrambling around I did, the more I couldn't hold it any more. I gasped as I had to take a breath, "...fuck..." I conceded and laid on the floor, waiting for the inevitable, sure enough, once again, I felt dizzy my head flopped forward and my vision fell to black.

__________

I awoke to the sound of scratching and my lower body being nudged. I opened my eyes wide in shock realising that once again, I was on my back, top of my head on the table and unable to move, though I tried again to pull at the restraints. I looked out in front of me do see Skiff and the other scientists standing there, including one I hadn't seen before, she caught my eye because she stood out from the rest, wearing a hoodie under her lab coat, hood up over what I could see was blatantly a jet black emo bob style hair cut, she was kinda pretty but looked distraught, Skiff interrupted my observation though,

Skiff: "So, Alex, remember I mentioned that breeding program? That will now be your fate, I can't risk trying to use you again, but you will still be of some use to us. We'll start with a good friend of yours shall we?"

I was now desperate to escape because someone was starting to climb on top of me.

Me: "Sam! please don't do this! Not again, you said you regretted it!"

Bruticus: "I told you one day I'd mount you..." The deep familiar voice resonated above me, as if my eyes could open any wider in fear, I found new resolve to thrash at my restraints, try as I might though they weren't giving in.

Me: "No get off! Anyone but fucking you! GET OFF ME!" I screamed at him, but that was all I managed to get out before I gasped in shock... rather unlike Sam who had been gentle in retrospect, In one quick and powerful movement, he had found his goal, painfully burying his cock deep in my pussy. I felt torn up as I could feel I was dry, there was no gentle teasing or easing gradually in. I didn't even have time to think about it as he was already pulling out and ferociously thrust back in, I screwed my eyes shut and whimpered. Then something happened that I wasn't expecting at all, I had messages appear in my eyes as any had done before, but I wasn't expecting any of them to say what I read... "Alex, I'm Sorry" - "This is your..." - "...ONE CHANCE" - "...3..." ... I kept my eyes screwed shut, trying to ignore this savage animal's brutal thrusting, wondering if I was imagining these messages, "...2..." - "...1..." - "NOW!"

I wasn't imagining it... I felt the restraints over my tail release, my eyes snapped open... my tail was free... I sprung my blades out and pulled them towards my belly, and therefore into my attacker that was on it. He howled in agony, I felt him grip and tear in to my shoulders, I pushed harder in with my tail, my ears being greeted by the sound of cracking bones. I yanked my tail to the side of me, ripping Bruticus's quickly shrinking cock from my genitalia, flinging him over to the side of the room, alarms sounded all around now, I quickly whipped my tail around, slicing at my other restraints, and ripping others off with a free hand, setting myself free. I stepped off the table, looking at Bruticus feebly trying to claw himself toward the glass, his lower half of his body seemingly unresponsive, looking back at me in fear.

Skiff: "D-two four stand down! D TWO FOUR! ALEX! ALEX!!" She kept shouting at me, but I ignored her, stepped ever closer to Bruticus, he was going to pay for violating me! I growled at him, the room started filling with gas again so I held my breath again. My mind went to a blur as I leapt on him, digging my claws deep, ripping flesh from bone, stabbing him with my tail and ripping bites out of him as he weakly tired to fight me off. Flesh and blood flew and sprayed over the wall, ceiling, floor... me... everywhere, It wasn't long before he stopped resisting and his body went limp and I stood up from him, taking in a brief look of the mess I had made... his body was almost unrecognisable, most of the flesh that I was able to get to was viciously removed, exposing a lot of bones and organs falling out onto the floor. I took a deep breath finally and lunged at the glass smashing my face against it, causing all the scientist to jump back in fear and I let out an ear piercing screeching roar, sounding like I was possessed as I had done before, smearing blood over the glass from my mouth and hands as I felt dizzy and started sliding down the glass and blacked out.

__________

I awoke, on a somewhat cold stainless steel table, my head felt so groggy, I pulled it from the table with a groan and gave it a rub.

"Oh good, you're awake, for someone who apparently recovers quite quickly from anaesthetics, you sure took your time to come around... unless, maybe being pumped full of them constantly for nearly 24 hours, might have an effect on recovery time I suppose..." A rather girly voice said near me, my vision slowly returned to me and I saw an emo looking girl look back at me half a dozen feet away. "...you alright?..." She asked me directly. I concentrated, she looked familiar, she had black skinnies on, a light blue pull over hoodie on with the hood down, and a jet black emo bob and matching emo make up, that thick eye liner with that little flick that pointed towards her temples, away from her hazel coloured eyes...

Emo: "...I want to help you, but to do that, you need to help and actually talk to me ok?" Then it clicked...the scientists! She was there with them!

Me: "I'm gonna fucking kill you!" I scrambled and slipped to get off the table.

A small "Eeep!" escaped her mouth as she turned to run across the room as I launched myself from the table at her, I stumbled at my lack of muscle control and crashed to the floor but still made my best effort to get to her as she ran across the room. She grabbed an odd pistol from a worktop at the side of the room.

Emo: "Please stop and I'll explain everything!..." she begged aiming the pistol at me, but I clawed my way over to her, like a persistent Terminator, she was going to pay for what she put me through! "...please stop." she begged again as I got with in half a dozen feet from her. There was a pop and I got hit in the shoulder with a dart, I reached out and scratched at her Converse shoe as she backed up as close as she could to the counter

"I told you she should have been restrained." I heard a female computerised voice say, before I blacked out.

__________

Again I woke on the stainless steel table, only this time I couldn't move. I groaned again as the grogginess cleared, catching movement out the corner of my eye. I could partially turn my head, just enough to see the emo girl again, she leant back in a leather desk chair a couple of dozen feet away, peering at me around the monitor, her hood now up, blowing a bubble of gum which popped and she chewed it back in and sighed.

Emo: "Done trying to kill me yet?"

Me: "Not yet." I snarled.

Emo: "Huh... Well, Crystal, my AI friend, tells me that you're a waste of time..." She said, getting up from her chair and taking a few steps closer and leaning up against a work bench in front of me, but still at a safe distance, "...but from what I've seen you have potential, and more importantly a good moral compass and a heart. Something that not many of your kind have."

Me: "Oh you stole both of those when you turned me into this thing!" she shook her head,

Emo: "I didn't make you what you are, if anything, you should be thanking me, because if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be alive right now..." I pulled a confused look at her. "...that device on your back... is my design, I implanted it in you, without it, your body would have shut down and died a long time ago."

Me: "You're with that company, SkyTech! You still had a hand in what's happened to me! You should have just let me die, that would have been preferable."

Emo: "The company that did this to, as you quite rightly stated, is Sky High Technologies, or, yes, SkyTech for short... My name, Is Sarah Jarvie, CEO of Jarvie Industries... and I need your help and you need mine."

Me: "Help with what exactly?"

Sarah: "Taking SkyTech down." I paused and considered her words,

Me: "How do I know I can trust you?"

Sarah: "How about, 'I'm sorry Alex, this is your one chance, 3, 2, 1, Now'?"

Me: "That was you? You sent those messages? and released my tail?" She nodded in reply,

Sarah: "Want me to untie you now?"

Crystal: "Ma'am, I strongly advise against-"

Sarah: "Shut it Crystal..." She said, looking up to the ceiling, "...Well, what do you say?" she said looking back at me.

Me: "Alright alright... I'll hear you out, but I don't have to accept, got it?"

Sarah: "Got it." She stood up and walked over to me,

Crystal: "Ma'am, might I least advise you have the dart gun close to hand ready?"

'Sarah' ignored the AI, I could see the pistol on the desk by the chair she was sat at moments ago. Either she was stupid, or very trusting. She started undoing the straps that were holding me down, starting at the head end and working her way down my body. I sat up on the table, stretching my aching body out as Sarah walked past to stand in front of me again and crossed her arms.

Sarah: "Right so-" But I cut her off,

Me: "First things first, Where's Sam? Where's Jinx and D42? Even D09 maybe?"

Sarah: "I was afraid you was gonna ask that..." She walked towards her desk, I was worried she was heading for the pistol and prepared myself to move. But instead she picked up what looked like a frame with just a pane of glass in it and walked back over to me. She tapped the glass and it lit up with blue icons, taped some of them before handing it to me.

Sarah: "I'll let you find out yourself, look them up using their numbers." she said quietly as she stepped back away.

I looked down at the screen, typing in "D03" in the search box, it brought up Sam's profile, everything about him including pictures, and even 'her' previous self, details of her life even pictures of how she looked before she was changed, then my eyes scrolled to a box I didn't want to see... 'Current Status - TERMINATED'. My breathing quickened,

Me: "What is this? Some sort of sick joke?" Sarah's head dropped,

Sarah: "I wish it was... for your sake at least... I've hacked into SkyTech's systems, the more basic lower level stuff. They have no idea I'm in there but I have access to all the up to date files. But this is what SkyTech are like Alex, they have no regard for any life that's comes in through their doors... I'm sorry." I quickly looked up all the others, D12 for Jinx, D42, even D09... all displayed 'Current Status - TERMINATED'. I looked up D50, out of curiosity, his displayed 'Current Status - KIA', I then looked up my own, D24... 'Current Status - TERMINATED'

Me: "Ahhh! see, they have mine wrong! The others could be alive too!" Sarah shook her head,

Sarah: "Alex... I managed to save you because Dr Skiff asked me as to why your memory block didn't work. I told her that the only way I could find out is by taking you with me and dissecting you to work out what went wrong, so you see, as far as they are aware, they think you're dead."

Me: "But... why didn't you do the same for them?" I asked, trying not to get upset.

Sarah: "I did Alex, I tried, I really did try. But Skiff was having none of it, saying that you were the ring leader and that your memory block didn't work from the off, I'm sorry."

I put the odd futuristic looking tablet down on the table next to me... but something clicked...

Me: "Wait a second, why were they asking YOU to look into the memory block?" I asked trying to keep my temper in check because I already knew the answer.

Sarah: "Maybe I should explain this from the top... My parents were geniuses, they started up Jarvie Industries between them both some 35 years ago. Robotics, computers, medical sciences, Artificial intelligence advancements, military technology advancements, house hold technology, the internet... all sorts of industries, you name it and they either made it or probably had a hand in the making of it... They died, 5 years ago... I was only 18, thresh out of MIT at the time... They were on their way back from a technical conference in China, their plane was taken out by a surface to air missile... using a guidance system they developed..."

Me: "I'm sorry to hear that." I said, somewhat calmer than I had been a few moments ago.

Sarah: "It's fine..." She sniffed while wiping her nose, "...I'm over it... the idiots shot themselves in the foot... quite literally really... ANYWAY... Their passing meant that Jarvie Industries was left to me. So what did I do? I cancelled any and all military or military related contracts, it almost ruined me, my share holders were not happy but I don't give a fuck about them, it's my company and I didn't want it to ruin any more lives... well, I cancelled all contracts that is, except for one..."

Me: "SkyTech?..." she nodded, "...Why not?"

Sarah: "Quite simply, it's a multi billion dollar contract, it would have ruined me past the point of no return, if I had any chance of cutting them off then I need to be in business and making money. Plus it was described on my books as 'Neurological optimisation', I had no idea how unethical it actually was at the time, because I was trying to deal with my parents passing while taking over as CEO and binning a load of contracts, I was kind of distracted, not a much of an excuse I know, but I was struggling to cope on my own. I didn't look into it until about a year later, met with loads of red tape, on a product MY own company was manufacturing, I couldn't access my parents own specs on the devices! So I knew something was off, done as much digging as I could, found where they were being manufactured, analysed several of the implants, found out their purpose, dug through some old hard copy paperwork, the only way I found any info believe it or not. I found a few shell companies in between, but ultimately, yeah, it lead me to SkyTech. I hacked them, monitored them and I've been waiting for an opportunity ever since... and here you are, a plan 4 years in the making."

Me: "So... I had one of these implants? And that's not the same as this thing then?" I gestured toward the diamond on my back.

Sarah: "No..." She walked back over to her desk again, picked up a baggie and walked back over, "...what you have in your back is one of a kind, and merely a prototype, this..." She threw me the baggie and I caught it and looked inside, it was a chip, about an inch long and half an inch wide, and looked tinged red... "...is the control chip or implant, it's inserted at the back of the skull, top of the neck and is hard wired, spliced, very carefully, to the brain. That one, was yours. I took the liberty of removing it, as another gesture of goodwill. It gives them the ability to track you, see what you see, hear what you hear, send you messages, give you a form of a basic heads up display, but it can monitor all of your vitals, even change your hormone levels, which, looking at the logs on that, they drastically altered yours." I looked up sharply to her.

Me: "You mean, they made me female on purpose?"

Sarah: "Oh no... No these are implanted after the changes. No I meant that they were constantly adjusting your hormones to make you want to have sex."

Me: "That... Explains a lot. But why am I a girl then? Do you know? And how do they pull... THIS off?" I said gesturing down at myself. Sarah smiled, looking a bit dubious before answering,

Sarah: "You're going to think I'm insane... Do you believe in Aliens?"

Me: "Well, yeah, I like to think so."

Sarah: "Ok, so what about dragons?" I raised an eyebrow at her,

Me: "Are you serious?" Thinking that yes, she must have indeed gone insane, forgetting that she was talking to one, ie. Me...

Sarah: "Bare with me here, I mean before all this, did you think they use to exist?"

Me: "Ok, again, yeah, would like to have thought so but the answer to that question seems apparent, but that doesn't answer my question of how I've become one."

Sarah: "Right well, Dragons? They ARE aliens. Been around much longer than humanity, technically more advanced than us too, they've been coming here for millennia, watching us grow as a species. Not in a bad way, just curious, giving us a gentle nudge in the right direction when needed I think. They are a very powerful species, and not just in size like you, but on a cellular level too, their wounds heal anywhere between 6 and 10 times faster than that of a Human. They also have 24 pairs of chromosomes, now if you add that 24th pair to that of a Human's 23, it will cause one of 2 things. Either the body will try to reject it but probably die in the process, or accept it, but you need to implant a vast number of dragon cells to trigger a reaction to accept it. Then, like a virus, it attacks every cell in the body, adapts it and changes it to suit it's own structure, it's a fascinating process!..." She said excited towards the end

Me: "But painful..." again I raised an eyebrow at her.

Sarah: "...Sorry... That was insensitive, I got carried away, I forgot that in your records it said you kept regaining consciousness during the procedures... but you understand what I mean?"

Me: "Yeah, so I got sneezed on by a dragon..."

Sarah: "No no, more like skin grafts and blood transfusions... Once enough has been swapped the human DNA gets overwhelmed and rewritten... And you were joking about the sneezing thing weren't you?" I gave a little enthusiastic nod and smile before talking again.

Me: "STILL doesn't explain why I'm female though!"

Sarah: "Well, during the process, the donor DNA may ignore the hosts current gender completely. The first reported case was in one of the first test batches, a gentleman by the name of Alistair Mc Griffin, went through the procedure and came out as a female, it actually affects roughly 1 in 5 and can affect males or females, so you and Sam, will not have been the only suffers in Delta batch, but with the memory blocks, no one else would have been any the wiser."

Me: "Oh... Ok, makes sense I suppose. So my next couple of questions... Can you change me back? And if not, can you at least change me to being male again?" She pulled a frown,

Sarah: "I'm afraid it's the Human DNA that's very malleable in comparison, the Dragon DNA being very dominant, it's impossible to rewrite your old DNA back in otherwise, including to make you a male, once the invading DNA has begun settling there's no adjusting it. Any of SkyTech's experiments to do so have resulted in death." I felt my heart drop at that news,

Me: "Can I go home? I want to see my fiancée, I want to at least tell her I'm alive."

Sarah: "You can, but, that might be difficult, given your present state. But if you want, I will talk to her, prepare her mentally for when the time is right."

Me: "Please." I slowly nodded.

Sarah: "Ok, I will." She returned the slow nod.

Me: "So... what do you need my help for then?"

(-Moog)