Part 1

Animality

          “What do you want with me?” a young voice screamed.  “Why have you taken me?”

          The pounding of her fists did nothing to slow the van as it drove to its unknown destination.  Fataliny finally gave up and slid to the floor.  Her dark eyes scanned her confinement for some sort of weapon when the large, scary kidnappers opened the doors.

          Nothing caught her eye as even remotely dangerous, and she sighed in frustration.  Why had they decided to take her of all people?  Her father wasn’t a rich man or one of great importance.  Ransom would be foolish.

          Her train of though was interrupted by the screech of the wheels as the van stopped.  Startled into action, Fataliny leapt to her feet and readied to make a run for it.  As the doors of the van were pulled open, her quick body shot past the kidnappers.

          A quickly barked command from a man in a white lab coat sent her abductors at her heels.  They quickly ran her down, grabbing her roughly about the waist.

          Drug back to the one who’d sent them on her; she fought and snarled like a wild cat.  The man smiled at her, and brandishing a needle, stepped forward,

          “Hold her tight, boys.  We can’t have her hurting herself, can we?”

          “Please, what do you want of me?” Fataliny whispered, frightened eyes on the needle.

          Without answering her, the man in the white lab coat slid the needle into her arm.  Within minutes Fataliny was lying limp in the kidnappers arms.

          “It will be interesting to see how this one goes,” a voice stated from the shadows.  “She has an amazing spirit…”

          “Yes,” said the first.  “But let us hope she does not give us trouble like the she-wolf did…I would hate to destroy another of our projects.”

          “Quite so,” stated the other doctor.  “Now, let’s begin…”

          Fataliny awoke from her drugged state by degrees…she slowly came to total awareness when her eyes opened and she glimpsed the star-studded sky.  With a gasp, she sat up and glanced around.  She was in a thickly carpeted meadow of tall grass, surrounded by what appeared to be a lush jungle of tropical vegetation. 

          A slight movement in the trees caused her to jump to her feet, ready to flee if anything appeared threatening.  A soft child-like voice filtered to her ears,

          “What do you suppose she will be?”

          “Who goes there?” Fataliny gulped.  “Where am I?”

          The sight that met her shocked her into silence.  A handsome boy stepped from the shadows, with an equally gorgeous horse body attached to his waist.  He mimicked the ancient Greek centaur, with the strong torso of a man tapering down into the sleek strength of a blooded horse.  He was dappled as the Indian bred appaloosa, and his cropped hair was white as the markings on his hide.  His first appearance brought a sense of awe and fear to Fataliny, but when he smiled gently at her, it all melted from her.

          “Y-you look like a…”

          “Centaur?” he chuckled.  “Yes, I guess you could say that.”

          Wide-eyed, she asked, “But…how?”

          Another figure leapt down from one of the surrounding trees and hissed, “We are experiments…Mutants…”

          The amber eyes of the girl glared heatedly at her…if the mutation of the male had been shocking, this snow leopard-crossbreed was frightening.  Her face was narrowed to form a cat’s muzzle where her full lips were pulled back in a menacing snarl, fangs showing.  Her tail lashed out back and forth behind her, showing her agitation.  Her white and gray hair fell to her shoulders, a chunk covering one of her dull yellow-green eyes.

          “Calm, down Orb.  She is one of us now,” soothed the horse-crossbreed.  “She is as much to blame for what happened to her as we are…”

          “What’s your name?” the child-voice from earlier asked.

          Confused, Fataliny glanced around, “I heard that voice earlier…Where is she?”

          “Come out, Cajun.  She means no harm…” the Centaur insisted, glancing up into the trees.  “Come, little one…Out of your hiding place…”

          A rustle of leaves took Fataliny’s attention away from the pair in front of her.  Barely seen amongst the greenery, reptilian skin grasped a trunk of one of the trees and slithered the creature down to the floor.  A sweet little girls face tinted green by the light dusting of scales over the bridge of her nose and cheeks stared into her widened eyes.  She was like the ancient Naga from myth; her little girl body lengthened out into a thick serpent’s tail that began at her waist, much like the Centaur.  Her ebony black hip length hair accented her bright blue eyes, making her appear innocent despite her monstrous lower body.

          The girl repeated her question from moments ago,

          “What’s your name?”

          “My name is Fataliny,” she answered, smiling warmly.  “How long have you been here, youngling?” 

          “A-as long as I can remember Corbin has been taking care of me here,” the reptilian girl replied.  “You are going to be staying with us now.”

          “I-I don’t know what they want with me,” Fataliny whispered to the girl before turning back to the other two.  “Why are they doing this?  Is there no way to get help?  This certainly must be illegal.”

          Orb laughed, “We think that the government is funding this!  The public does not know about it or something would have been done about us by now.  I don’t think the doctors would risk their money and reputations if there was any risk of them being found out…”

          “They guard us well,” insisted a deep voice from the gloom.  “No one that has tried to escape has lived to tell our tale.”

          Tall and darkly tanned, the beast that stepped from the jungle stunned Fataliny with his beauty.  Shaggy gray and black hair covered his eyes, preventing her from seeing their depths and when he smiled at her, the lengthened fangs of his canines stood out brightly in the dark cavern of his mouth.  In an unconscious gesture, he shoved the hair from his forehead, allowing Fataliny a glance at alarmingly bright yellow eyes.

          Noting how he smirked at her silent appraisal of his physical appearance, Fataliny quickly turned from him and addressed the centaur,

          “What is your name, friend?  Sadly, we have not been formally introduced…”

          Ignoring the other male’s snort of amusement, the centaur answered her with a proud smile, “My name is Gianni, what the scientists like to call a blooded man due to my horse projection…none the less, I am pleased to make your acquaintance.”

          Taking the outstretched hand, Fataliny shook it strongly before turning to the snow leopard crossbreed and repeating the introduction.  When she turned to the last, she smiled shyly and presented her hand to him,

          “And you are?”

          With a laughing rumble, he took her hand, “My name is Corbin, wolf crossbreed of the Lab…”

          “How long have you been here?”

          “Eight years,” came the easy reply.  “Orb has been here four, and Gianni five.”

          “That would mean you’ve been here since you were at least ten!”  she exclaimed, eyes wide.

           “Eleven actually,” Corbin insisted.  Placing an arm around the reptilian girl he again spoke, “Cajun here has been with me since she was four…She is now ten years old.”

          “Are their no others?  It seems odd that they have a four-year length of time without any new ones…”

          A dangerous light came to Corbin’s eyes.  His head went up proudly, and he glared coldly at Fataliny…

          “It matters not who was here before you.  You are of the new blood.  I have a feeling that they’ve done something new to the injections…we will see what their newest puppet will do.  Hopefully you will not turn out like the Dobies; mindless servants!”  stepping precariously close to her, Corbin snarled, “Do not dredge up the past.  Leave the dead in their graves!”

          With that odd remark, he stormed back into the darkness of the jungle, and with an embarrassed, worried glimpse at Fataliny, Cajun followed dutifully behind…the silence stretched out for a good uncomfortable ten minutes before Gianni shuffled his hooves and cleared his throat,

          “Um, I really don’t know how to apologize for Corbin’s odd temperament.  He’s been that way since pretty Shay was…Well, that doesn’t matter…It’s late…Orb will share her home until we have you set up with a place.”

          With a last reassuring smile, Gianni sent Fataliny off with the snow leopard-crossbreed, who soundless made her way into the jungle’s foliage.  Not at all as quiet or agile as the sleek cat-girl, Fataliny stumbled after into the unknown territory.  When they came upon a bulky, towering tree surrounded by walls of vines and smaller trees, Orb dug her clawed fingers into the tree and scrambled easily upward, leaving Fataliny confused at the forest floor.  A single fat vine was thrown done from the tree’s thick branches, and Orb’s voice filtered down from its source,

          “Grab onto this and pull yourself up, if you can’t make it all the way, I’ll try and pull you up.”

          Fataliny scrambled up the offered vine, using the tree to push off of.  When she got to the top, Orb’s sheathed hand helped her onto the platform, and safely inside the shelter, she skimmed over the setting in front of her. 

The lodging was surprisingly comfortable looking.  It was separated into two large rooms, one obviously sleeping quarters, the other a living room with natural material made table, chairs and sofa.  In the bedroom was a large nest type bed made up of all sorts of materials, including what looked like white discarded sheets and supple willow branches. 

A hammock type was tied across a corner of the room, right in front of an open spot in the live walls, leaving a space for Fataliny to look at the moon as she lay reflecting on all that had happened that day.  Her last thoughts of the night were on the striking wolf-boy with his vivid yellow eyes and unruly hair…

          Day by day, Fataliny changed.  Her big brown eyes brightened to an almost fluorescent green, pupil’s slit, barely there.  Her ears began to point and her canines became more definite.  Even her hands began to mutate; skin darkening, nails lengthening and curving…if it wasn’t for Gianni’s soothing and wisdom, Fataliny would have been a mess.

          She rarely came in contact with the handsome Corbin.  At times she felt his eyes on her when she was struggling with the building of her den or when playing in the meadow with Cajun.  At times she caught herself searching for a hint of gray-black hair or bright yellow eyes…but if he even was watching, he kept himself well hidden…just leaving Fataliny with the sense of being watched.

          Fataliny’s choice of home was among a curtain of vines and hanging flowers where a great, broad tree was hidden.  It took time for her to weave the vines and branches into walls to create more privacy.  Orb and Cajun came some days to help the easily frustrated girl, and charming Gianni helped as best he could from his grounded position.

          On one such occasion where Fataliny was climbing her tree, a lone growl from the bushes caused her to freeze in fright.  Atop her perch, she watched with wary eyes as one of the cronies from her kidnapping crept from cover.  He was followed by another one of his type.  In the afternoon light, Fataliny caught a look at the horrific mutation of the creatures.  Their ears were enlarged, and there faces lengthened out to mock a dog’s muzzle.  Their hairy forearms were well muscled and the cropped hair on their heads was as black as coal with brown tints here and there.

          “What do you want?” questioned Fataliny, eyes slit into two angry green lines.

          When the Dobies didn’t answer her, but half barked, half growled a warning, Fataliny began climbing back into the safety of what was her shelter.  Just as she was about to make it to safety, a dart flew out and hit her in the arm.  With a surprised shriek, she ripped the thing from her arm and tossed it away.  Another one hit her just as the first drugs started blurring her vision…

          The doctors spent over five hours working over their new plaything.  Blood samples, dozens of different charts filled out, measurements taken; it was a seemingly endless routine for those who were working on the Helix Proxy Animality project, the government funded biological experiment research on the mixing of human and animal using DNA therapy.

          Of course there were the usual learning as you go mistakes with the venture.  Many of the beasts created were total losses and had to be disposed of.  But when Corbin was altered using the nucleic acid of Canis Lupus, the gray wolf, there was a turning point in HPA research.  The only problem with the new injection, Type IV Animality Injection, was that he was not easily controlled, not at all like the obedient Dobies used as guards.

          The second cross using the new mixture, was not with a warmblooded creature.  Cajun was created using Indian Python DNA, Python Molurus.  She was one of the more difficult experiments due to the fact that she was so young, and the inconveniences of using a reptilian organism.  One of the major problems with little Cajun was her retractable fangs and ability to dislocate her jaws.

          Attempts at creating a centuar-type had been tried and failed many times since before the creation of Type IV.  Combining certain cloning methods and Type IV, HPA was able to mutate Gianni.  His appalousa coloring was a stunning plus to the research experiments since they were aiming for specific color characteristics when crossing the DNA on this case.

          Unicia Uncia, the snow leopard, was used a year after the horse crossbreed was created.  Orb was a twelve-year-old girl when she was “adopted” by HPA.  When Type IV was again slightly altered, the highly evolved instinct seen in Corbin was all but lost in her.  For some reason the girl did not have the chemicals in her brain to provide her with the senses of her DNA mix, or the ability to comprehend all the new changes in her body and mind.

          Realizing that they had no idea of the reproductive capabilities of their mutants, work on a female crossbreed of the gray wolf was started.  The pride of the carnivores was used in this experiment, and when Shay was captured and changed, they watched the instinctive reactions of Corbin closely.  The then seventeen-year-old fell head over heals for the strong willed female of his species and age, setting out to please her in every way possible.  Much was placed on this part of the research project.

          Sadly, Shay ended up too much to handle, and when there was an escape attempt made and almost accomplished, they found it best thing for the program that she be destroyed and made an example of her to discourage further ventures.  Treated much like an unfeeling, uncommunitive stray animal, they uthenized her after being unable to control her within other means.

          Because of the loss of the female, attempts at a breeding study have been stalled until further changes were to be made on the mutation injection.  Oddly enough, HPA did not think of the human that was in the mutants, and did not realize that possibably they could “interbreed” to a certain extent.

          Now there was the new hope for HPA research lieing on the examination table, heavily drugged.  She had been crossed using the newest injection, Type V, and jaguar DNA.  So far the slow process of mutating was going well, she was right on schedule as far as they were concerned.  Her forepaws and teeth were not yet entirely formed, and her heightened senses were not yet fully developed (or she would have been aware of the Dobies long before).  Also, any surprises as far as her appearance and attitude were still to come.  Many times before some had to be destroyed due to the plain fact that they refused to corporate with anyone, even the other mutants, and were a hazard and annoyance to HPA.

          “I think we’re done here, Stephen.  She’ll be ready to be released in the holding area within the next 20 minutes, right before she comes to total awareness,” claimed the gray-haired doctor, writing last minute notes on a chart.  “She’s come along well these past two weeks hasn’t she?”

“Yes, she has,” Stephen answered, straightening his white lab coat.  “I think she’ll be the one to put us on the map.  If all goes well with Type V anyway…”

With a snarl, Fataliny swatted at the hands that gripped her arms and awoke her from her drug-induced sleep.  When an answering growl came from the body that the arms were attached to, she shook her head in agitation, trying to clear her sight and head.  When the shapes in front of her became apparent, her wide cat’s eyes caught sight of who exactly it was that roused her.

As striking as when she last saw him, Corbin kneeled beside her, staring with his brilliant yellow eyes unblinking into hers.  With a slight chill running along her spine, Fataliny opened her mouth to say something, but he spoke before she could force anything out,

“I see you’ve lived through the first of your tests,” he said face expressionless.

With a start, Fataliny’s head went up proudly at the unemotional barb to her pride.  She quickly stood and brushed off her clothes before turning to him to speak,

“Yes…I guess I did…” she retorted sarcastically.  “And I see you haven’t learned any etiquette why you’ve been avoiding me…Now go, amble off into the darkest parts of the jungle to slink around and watch others…”

With a short bark of laughter, Corbin responded, “Tempermental little thing, aren’t you?”

With a vicious glare, Fataliny swung around and headed for the large bathing pool positioned deeper in the vegetation surrounding the outerlimits of their confinement.  Corbin easily kept up with her, and just before she reached the final clearing, he grabbed her arm.  An enraged snarl echoed through the trees, and with claws unsheathed, Fataliny turned on him.  She delivered a glancing blow to the side of his neck before backing up against a tree ears placed back against her head.

Surprised by her sudden lashing out, Corbin quickly shook it off.  His own temper rising, he ignored the warning glare in her eyes and the way her lips were pulled back over her teeth.  With a menacing stare, Corbin approached her and, placing two muscled arms on either side of her head spoke,

“A bit fiesty, aren’t we?” when their was no reply, he continued, “No one has placed a mark on me and lived to tell about it, girl.”

Fataliny reached up and tried to shove him away, feeling them too close.  When she realized it was a hopeless act, she raised her hand to strike him again.  When Corbin himself bared his teeth at her, she froze in uncertainy, giving him just enough time to grip both her arms in immobility.  Without a word, his lips captured hers in a primal kiss full of fury and frustration.

With a disturbed growl, he pulled his mouth from hers, and hauling her roughly up into his arms, he carried her the rest of the way to the pool.  There, he promptly desposited her on her backside in the warm water.  With an enraged shriek, she sputtered at the water in her mouth.

“That should cool off that nasty temper of yours,” he insisted, voice void of emotion.  “Now, I think you had better wash off the stench of the examination lab before you continue playing house…”

After Corbin left, Fataliny grudgling washed the medical smell from her body.  Confused behind imagine, she couldn’t get his lips on hers out of her mind.  Finally, she decided to seek out Gianni and question him on the wolf-crossbreed’s past before coming to the lab and since.  There had to be some reason for the mood swings clearly evident in his personality.