Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard

The next day was pretty much the same routine, from the rude alarm call through to the test scenarios, only differences being that the beep tests allowed less time, but only by a couple of seconds. Which as I still had spare time on each run yesterday, it wasn't a problem and on the assault course on the second scenario, I only had to beat my previous time for yesterday, which was easy now I knew the course, so again not a problem. Then came the third scenario...

"...Good luck, proceed when ready." Dr Skiffs voice stated again.

I just sat on the start line, slowly looking around, analysing and taking in everything I could. My next move I had planned was a roof access ladder on the side of building in the alleyway. I walked over to it, minding the bins that had the the paint claymore behind them and climbed up to the roof level, peeking over the roof line, nothing really worth noting. I was about to step over the wall but something made me look down, sure enough, there was another bloody paint claymore at the bass of the wall, as soon as I would have jumped over it would have got me from behind.

I reached over knocked it and ducked, it didn't beep and it didn't go off so I quickly grabbed it. As soon as I did though it started beeping and I threw it off into the road below and I smiled slightly at pop followed by the amusing sight of an orange spray of paint raising up past the roof level and then dropping again out of sight. I cautiously proceeded onto the roof being sure to keep an eye out for any more traps, using what ever cover I could as I worked my way down the roof tops, the walls, air conditioning units, roof top access doors, what ever, doing my utmost to avoid and take note of any trip wires connected to taser units or paint bombs, paint Claymores and mines I found on the way.

Just as I was in the middle of crossing to another roof top when the wall of the scenario room behind me was hit by a paintball round. I rolled upon landing and ducked behind another air conditioning unit. Peering around the left edge, I wasn't able to take much in before another paintball round hit the corner of the AC unit, just millimetres from my face and spraying paint past me. Instinctively ducking back, I wasn't sure where the round came from, but that was too precise and too quick to be anything automated, someone was in here with me and was watching me. 

'Were they in here last time when I was tasered and tranquilized?' I stepped out to the right side of my cover then immediately rolled backwards out of the left side, a round passing where I had stood a second before, I darted towards the edge of the roof top behind the wall that surrounded the boarder of the roof... god I loved my new speed and agility... Skimming down the wall I took a quick peek over peered over the wall, ducked back down as a round shot over my head.

Me: "Gotcha..." spotting a glimmer of a scope and barrel in a piece of air ducting on the rooftops opposite. '...But how to get past you...' I made another quick peek down my roof top route, there was cover, but equally some rather open areas and there was a long way to go.

I looked back along route I had come, smiled as an idea came to mind and I bounded back. Clearly my "assailant" hadn't expected this move as he was too slow at tracking me, rounds flew behind me but landed a fair distance away. Arriving at my previous roof top I found exactly what I was after, a trip wire paint bomb. I carefully unhooked the wire and picked up the box, time to see how good my throw was. I readied myself so that I would be on 2 legs for a minimal time in case they asked questions, lined myself up, quickly standing, running briefly on my back legs, using the moment of intentionally falling back to all 4 to put more power into my throw.

The device sailed towards my target and I yanked the the trip wire from it. And it exploded in a cloud of orange paint above the center of the street, never making it to the target... I knew it wouldn't have done anyway, but it served it's purpose. In the short time it took the paint cloud to disperse I used my new found speed and agility, leapt off the roof, into the street, narrowly avoiding a couple of rounds from the auto turret in the target building down the way and as quietly as possible, used my claws to dig into and climb up the wall on the opposite side of the street. Again, hiding behind any cover I could, this side being a billboard, I peeked out, I could see the end of his riffle sticking out of the vent, scanning the roof tops of he opposite side, 'Ha ha lost me!' I smiled and headed as quietly as possible to where he was, still minding my step.

I made it to the same roof top, snuck right up beside the air duct he was hiding in, I could still see the barrel sticking out and moving around, still apparently scanning for me. I started to pass behind the duct, but then the worrying thought of the guy leaving the position and shooting me in the back crossed my mind and I turned back to the duct. Quickly reaching in the opening and grabbing the first remotely squishy thing I felt, I heard a little surprisingly feminine squeal as I dug my claws in and yanked hard. Pulling the soldier from the air duct, both the soldier and their riffle crashing to the roof top. I was surprised in some ways to see it was a woman who lay on the floor grunting through gritted teeth holding her shoulder from where I had just punctured her with my claws. She looked at me in fear and then to where her riffle lay a few feet away...

Me: "No don't, I won't hurt you any more if you leave me al... ARGH!-" holding my head steady as the word 'STOP' flashed in my eyes, just long enough for my vision to return to normal and pulling her riffle up at me"

Me: "NO NO NO NO, STOP STOP!" I shouted at her sitting back with both hands waving at her.

Soldier: "DO IT! COME ON! I HAVE 50,000 VOLT TASER ROUND IN THE CHAMBER TO KNOCK YOU ON YOUR ASS IF YOU DO!" The soldier said, doing her best to steady the riffle, almost point blank at me with her weakened arm.

Me: "What? What's not to get about if you leave me alone I'll leave you alone huh?"

Soldier: "I don't know what you're growling and grumbling about but either bring it or piss off!"

I tilted my head in confusion, 'What? Growling and grumbling? I was speaking plain English to you... Or was  I?...'

"D-two four stand down!" The male voice said on the loud speaker again. I rolled my eyes, I wasn't going to go through that bull shit again. I pointed at her, then made an impression of holding a riffle, then placing it down on the floor, then pointed to myself and made a sign of 2 fingers walking across my other hand and pointed behind me to where I wanted to go. She lowered her riffle slightly and squinted in confusion at me and I slowly stood back up, gave a reassuring nod and slowly stepped backward towards the edge of the roof, the more I stepped back, the lower the barrel went and the more the woman looked confused. I turned to stand on the edge of the roof, looking over my shoulder to make sure she still understood my intentions, sure enough her sniper rifle was down by her side now, but she was still intently watching me, even if slightly confused, even as I jumped over to the next building and carried on my way down the rest of the roof tops.

I had noticed now that the number of traps, offensive and defensive weapons had declined greatly since passing the soldier, but I didn't let my guard down. When I finally made it to the end of the rood tops, I looked around there was nothing left as far as I can see and I was out of range of the automated sniper turret, so I gingerly slipped down the side of the building crossed the 'Y' junction to the side of the target building in the middle of the street. I used my claws again to dig my way up the side of the building, carefully stepping on to the roof top, still checking for traps as I went. There it was, the wooden flag pole, probably about 15 foot high the bell sat at the very top. I did a wide lap of the pole, just to check, hit the pole and nothing happened, so I ran up it, again using my claws to climb and made it to the top. The bell inches from my face, it looked like nothing was attached to it, no more traps,

'could it be? Have I completed this scenario?' I grabbed the rope and rang the bell half a dozen times, nothing followed for a few seconds, I was starting to worry, had I failed by attacking the soldier? I could see her from my vantage point, still of the same roof where I left her, but just holding a patch on her shoulder, watching me it seems from the edge of the roof. A clonk came from the wall behind me, distracting me, a door opened in the outer scenario wall on this rooftop.

Skiff: "Well done Delta member, you have passed this scenario, please proceed through the door for processing." Dr. Skiff's voice sounded. I slid down the pole, jumping the last bit back onto the roof and proceeded through the door into the dark and the door slammed shut behind me, I felt around... another one of those fucking pods!

__________*_Dr Josh Paul_*__________

Paul: "Come on come on!" Josh said impatiently, leaning forward in his chair, staring into his computer screen, which was just displaying 'Connecting' with a loading circle flowing clockwise around the word. Finally an image appeared on the screen, a woman answered the video call, kids could be heard screaming in the background,

Skiff: " *Sigh* Mr Paul, can you give me a second... Hey, hey, hey, behave and play nice or I will tell Father Christmas to not come... and I mean it!..." Dr Skiff shouted off camera, her face appeared back in view. "...Josh, why are you disturbing my holiday when I specifically asked you not to unless it was important?"

Paul: "Because it is important." She stared back at him for a few moments,

Skiff: "Hold on let me go somewhere secluded..." She walked with her phone down through her house, heard a door close before she reappeared in the frame again. "...Go on."

Paul: "It's D24... she's acting... weird... you saw my email yesterday?"

Skiff: "Excelled in Scenarios 1 and 2 but displayed complete disregard for rules in scenario 3... and yes, I logged in and watched back the footage, so now what's up then? Why the need to call? Surely she can't have done worse?"

Paul: "She completed Scenario 3, she made it through the course up to the marine then attacked her."

Skiff: "Oh God... D24 didn't kill her did she?" Dr Skiff asked back looking slightly worried.

Paul: "No that's the thing, although she sustained a small injury while being exposed from her her hiding spot, she was left completely unharmed, D24 just left her. The marine also reported that D24 showed signs of attempting to communicate through hand movements."

Skiff: "Hmmm, complete disregard for rules one day, then is brave enough to go hunt the sniper, which no one has done before, but then wont kill...? not that we want one of our own killed of course, but this could potentially be a problem you know, also seeming to understand that she's unable to communicate in English is worrying."

Paul: "Hence the call, but that's not all, she completed Scenario 3 otherwise, no hits, no resets, rang the bell in record time, 21 minutes, 37 seconds, that's more than 11 minutes better than the previous record." Dr Skiff stared intently back at her screen,

Skiff: "And only 7 minutes off our volunteer donor's best time... and he was quick... and knew the course..." she said computing all that she had taken in. "... I would like to talk to her."

Paul: "I thought you'd say that, I intercepted her at the end of the scenario, she's on her way here now."

Skiff: "Good good..."

__________*_Alex_*__________

The same procedure happened again, the pod moved along for around 5 minutes, but I wasn't kept waiting hours on end as I had been before. *Click* I winced slightly still at the sensation,

'I can speak English to the scientists... but only after I hear that click... they're stopping me from talking some how, I know it.' The pod lowered, hatches opened below me and I leapt out, once again landing in the glass cell. There was that Dr Paul and in opposite the cell on the desk was a monitor turned to face toward me with Dr Skiff's face on it.

Skiff: "Hello D-two four, how are we today?"

Me: "You know what, I was having a really good day until you pulled me in here, hadn't been shot, tasered or covered in paint once."

Skiff: "So I hear, well done, your times are quite impressive too for someone who initially didn't want to be here".

Me: "And I still don't, so what choice have I got."

Skiff: "But this is already a real turn around since yesterday, the only downside was of you attacking one of our own, but otherwise I'm very proud of you." she said with that same cheesy smile she had on the first day.

Me: "She shot me first yesterday, if it was the same one that is... and as I say, not a lot of choice". There was a few moments silence before Dr Skiff spoke again.

Skiff: "Is there something troubling you D-two four?" I pondered the 'correct' answer to her question, do I ask about the lack of being able to talk English to anyone else? I decided against it.

Me: "Tell me, do you make regular check-ups like this with everyone or just me?" Dr Skiff paused again,

Skiff: "We will check up on any one who we believe requires our attention, whether that be for good or bad reasons. But I must ask D-two four, if there is anything on your mind, anything at all, then you know you can talk to us about it, yes?"

Me: "Okay, I will bare that in mind."

She looked a bit disappointed at my answer, hoping I was going to be more vocal maybe? Her shoulders slumped slightly realising I wasn't going to answer any more. Then the corner of her mouth creased up into a smile again.

Skiff: "Let's talk about something else, how's your room mate?, D-zero three? He's nice right? Are you getting along well together?" It was my turn to pause, the question, and way she asked it, was odd, where's she going with this?...

Me: "Yeah, he's alright, a good friend already I suppose."

Skiff: "Only a 'Friend' I thought you 2 seemed to be getting close really quickly, I was under the impression-" I cut her off at the thought.

Me: "What?! No no no no, we're just friends... we're just... looking out for each other." I defended.

Skiff: "Uh huuhhh..." She said disbelievingly "...well, don't worry, we don't frown upon that sort of thing, in actual fact we commend you for it, if you wish to get close to another individual and copulate we have no issue..."

The way she just used the word 'copulate' so naturally and casually really rubbed me up the wrong way...

Me: "I just said, we're just friends, I'm not interested in him in that way at all." My temper rising in each word as my old straight male mind took over, reiterating my previous answer. She looked down her nose over her glasses at me before pushing them back up her face,

Skiff: "Very well, as I say you will not be punished in anyway if you did is all I'm saying..." I chose to stare her down, ignoring her last comment. "...Anyway, in recognition of you achievement today, we will reset the strike you received against yourself yesterday..."

'Yay... go me...' I thought to myself sarcastically...

"...Keep up the good effort D-two four, we'll be monitoring your progress with great interest, make us proud..."

'Does that stupid smile of yours ever go away?' I thought as the image gave me a nod. "...If you enter the tunnel behind you you may wait in the dining hall, but you did finish surprisingly quickly so may have a bit of a wait before anyone else joins you." As I turned to leave Dr. Paul tapped on his keyboard *Click*, again causing me to wince. I turned back to look at Dr Skiff to test my theory,

Me: "Do you know you have the most irritating smile on this planet?" I asked her.

Skiff: "We will speak again soon, don't you worry." She somewhat replied still smiling.

Me: "Yeah that's what I thought..." I turned and started walking into the pipe, and yeah, I was starting to tell the difference between the dimly lit pipes and the dark hexagon pods.

__________

After what seemed a rather long hour, sat in the dining hall, only a few others had trickled through in the later half, including Sam, he laid eyes on me as he entered the room, smiled and made his way over, taking his place next to me.

Sam: "Why are you still muddy?, you didn't get in trouble again did you?"

Our buzzers sounded as we got comfy and our trays of food slid down to us and we started tucking in.

Me: "Hi to you to too... and no, actually I was a good little boy... girl... fuck... I don't know anymore..."

Sam chuckled with a mouthful at my confusion. "...Funny eh? Let's see you waking up the opposite gender and see what a mind fuck it is." I defended myself, smiling to try and not upset him.

Sam: "Yeah rather not, I'm rather attached to my penis..." he gave me a sly wink over to which my only reply was rolling my eyes "...anyway, you were saying? The mud?"

Me: "Oh yeah, so I was taken to see them again, apparently they wanted to talk about my good behaviour compared to yesterday, among other things"

Sam: "Yeah? what other things?"

I stopped chewing thinking about what Dr Skiff said, thoughts of me and Sam doing... things... I shook my head in disgust at the thought.

Me: "Not here, too public, tell you later... I did find out something interesting though."

Sam: "Oh yeah, what's that?" he said looking over at me.

"Watch this..." I turned in my place looking up at the guards on the catwalks above and picking one to focus on, "...Hey! Oi!, Pendejo! Your mother is a whore, but she's so crap she had to pay me for the service!" - No reaction, what so ever.

Sam: "What the fuck?" He said to me confused and I returned back to eating my meal.

Me: "They can't understand us, we don't speak English to them." Sam looked even more confused,

Sam: "What?, but we're talking English now?"

Me: "I don't think we-" But I was cut off by a deep voice from behind.

"You got a big mouth for someone so tiny." I stayed facing front, hoping that ignoring them they would carry on by, but Sam ruined any chance of that.

Sam: "Leave her alone." He turned and said plainly.

Me: "Don't." I said to him through gritted teeth, but it was too late, damage was done.

"I wasn't talking to you was I?" and out of the corner of my eye I saw hand roughly force Sam's head hard into his tray of food and toss him from the cushion to the floor so I quickly stood to face our attacker and instantly regretted my decision. I had seen this dragon around in the group, he was BIG... where as I must have been about 7 foot high if I was standing upright... this beast... if he was standing upright he'd easily be 8 or 9 feet tall and had a build to match, even now with us both on all fours, he still towered over my tiny frame in comparison.

"Big mouth and a big attitude it seems." he said,

Me: "Back off and leave us alone, we have no quarrel with you." I said trying to stand my ground, he merely laughed at my retort.

"Ha ha, 'quarrel'?! If you start mouthing off then you're going to start drawing attention to yourself aren't you?"

Sam: "So what? You're on their side? You're defending them?" Sam said, nodding in the direction of the guards, pulling himself slowly from the floor and wiping his face, but the brute forced him back down with one clawed hand pinning his head to the floor, Sam scurrying and tugging at the brute's hand to get free.

Brute: "Shut up, can't you see I'm trying to have a nice chat with your girlfriend?"

Me: "I'm not his girlfriend, but you can get off him." I defended Sam, but the brute seemed to only hear the first half of that sentence.

Brute: "Oh... so you're available... well why don't you share a room with me,..." He stroked down the side of my cheek and down my neck with his free hand, putting more of his weight on Sam's head who was now breathing heavily through his nose now, being unable to open and breath through his mouth, I smacked his hand away in disgust before he finished his stroke, "...then I can show you how a real dragon takes car of his mate." he said, finishing his line spitting at Sam. I took opportunity at his distraction and swiped at his face with a clawed hand, putting 4 long and deep cuts in his cheek and down his jaw line, he yelped slightly and stepped back and off of Sam who quickly got up. The brute put his hand up to his face, pulling it away to see blood,

Brute: "YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT!" he said lunging toward me, I had no time and nowhere to move, he grabbed me by the neck, squeezing it tightly to the point of choking and flipped me up onto the table, I gasped and choked for breath, his grip only releasing as Sam tackled him to the floor. I stood up seeing the brawling pair but not for long as something punctured my shoulder and I immediately fell to the table again in a spasm as yet again I was tasered. Apparently at some point I was either tranquillised or just fell unconscious because the last thing I saw was Sam and the Brute also spasming out on the floor.

__________

I awoke being dragged along the floor, my vision blurry, but quickly returning and I kicked out as I regained control of my body and got free.

"Whoa shit! She's awake!" one of the guards dragging me said as they backed away, raising their weapons. I stood unsteadily on all fours and snarled at the pair, noticing behind them another pair of guards dragging Sam's unconscious hulk into a room ahead. Then, sharp pain and a shock to the back, I roared in pain as I fell to the floor, twitching and shaking all over again, feeling numb. A guard stepped past holding one of the taser rods they had used on me before.

"Stop fucking about and get her in there!" he said, the 2 guards man handled me, dragging my twitching body down the hall and into the same room as Sam's body and threw me in, door slamming shut behind me. I looked up to Sam motionless on the floor a dozen feet away, back towards me, in the centre of the main room in our cell.

Me: "S... Sa *Spasm*... Sa *Spasm*." I gave up trying to speak and instead I shakily dragged my useless husk towards him. "S... Sa... Sam." I managed to wheeze out just as I got to him, he was breathing, I could hear and see his chest rising and falling, I looked him over and saw something sticking out of his tail, I reach over and pulled it out, a dart. I threw it away, well, tried to, my arm still hadn't returned to full strength so it just fell to the floor a few feet away from us. I pulled my relatively unresponsive body up to behind his and pulled him in to spoon him from behind, placing my arm under his head for some comfort.

Me: "Oh S-Sam, I... *Spasm* I am so sorry."

(-Linkin Park)