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In the world of bio terrorism, there is more than the undead. Most people recognize the zombies or parasites that twisted scientists create. But, there’s more. Humanoid man eating plants, monsters with exposed muscle and brain, incredibly strong monsters and so on. But that's not where it ends. ‘Let's experiment with cross species modification’ they said. Oh, yeah, anime catgirls.
Nope.
Think more along the lines of people whose skin has formed slimy warts because some scientist wanted to see what toad genes would do to a human. People who can't speak, walk, or see because of how these genes have affected them. Some people were a little luckier though.
Like you.
You were kidnapped long ago, not long enough that you couldn't remember your old life though, you could remember that. But taken, unknowing. They grafted wings onto you. Connecting the nerves was terrible. They didn’t put you under because they needed to make sure that you could feel everything.
Experiments. Every damn day. Cold, bloody, bruised. They couldn't stop there, they tried drugs that made your hearing, eyes, and strength heighten. But that also meant that they could try more. The wings were heavy. The wings had to pick up your weight, grow with you, and so on. They were so much longer than your arm wingspan. A beautiful black, like crow wings.
But one day, the scientists stopped coming. The power flickered. Cries of confusion and pain slowly began to arise all around, the facility suddenly was more wrong than before.
“What the fuck-” you muttered. Hours without any word, stuck in the glass cell that they called your home.
The emergency lights went off. Gunshots. You walked to the glass wall. If whoever was there happened to be shooting subjects, you hoped they would get you next. But when the person rounded the corner, they didn’t.
He was gorgeous. Too pretty to be here shooting the monsters that the scientist had created. He slammed the door to the room, locking it and catching his breath. He was leaning on the wall now, reloading his gun and eating some green powder. Ew. You put your hand to the glass, almost in a trance as you looked at him.
He had dark brown hair, the most vibrant blue eyes you’d ever seen. On his right cheek there was a faded scar, a clean line that was barely visible. He was built like a god from what you could tell from what the gear he was wearing showed. But he didn’t see you. With your heightened senses you could tell that his heart rate was high and his breathing was fast. Maybe it was the fact that you hadn’t seen anyone in a while, or maybe that you could actually think instead of only feeling pain, but you were really attracted to this stranger.
He saw you. Well, you were the only thing in this room. A glass cell in the center of a circular room, vitals on the monitors, the fluorescent lights illuminating you in full. You were suddenly very glad that you had pants still. Although you didn’t really have a shirt. That was embarrassing.
“Oh, what the fuck.” The guy said, lowering his gun and walking to your cell. His eyes examined it with practiced ease, identifying exits and, well, you. “Hi.” he said breathlessly as he took in the black wings grafted on your back. “Oh, i guess you can’t hear me, and you probably aren’t sentient-”
You waved, the glass was too thick for him to hear you, while you could hear him. “Hello.” you mouthed.
“Holy shit, you. Oh wow.” his eyes widened and he held up a hand, turning away and pressing on an earpiece that was in his ear. “Condor one to Roost, I have a-” he looked at you again. “Uh, something in a cell here, humanoid appearance, wings on his back.” as he spoke to the person on the other end, he went around clicking keyboards and reading paperwork. “Born human, yes. They are still sane from what I can see. Not mutated…”
The talk between the man and the other person was brief, and after a little more talking, he signed off and turned back to you. “Are you going to hurt me?” you shook your head. “Can you handle a weapon?” a nod. “Okay, I am going to let you out then.”
He went to a keyboard, bypassing this and that, and after a minute, the door portion of the cell receded into the ground silently. You watched the door, then looked at the man.
“I’m Leon.” he said when you walked out, wow the floor was cold. You introduced yourself and he nodded, relaying the information to the person in his earpiece.
“We’re going to get out of here, and from there, we’ll see.” Leon said, holding out a hand for you to take.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
“Suuuure buddy.” You sighed, crossing your arms over your chest, making a beeline for a sweater that was left on a chair. “I’m assuming you also need to collect some research before this place is, what, ‘sterilized?’” Examining the sweater, you really didn’t want to be shirtless… but this was a nice sweater…
“Uh, yeah? How…” bringing the sweater to your mouth, you tore the sweater with your teeth so that you could pull your wings through. “Uh…” He watched you rip a chunk from the back of the sweater, pulling it over your head and wiggling your wings through, stretching them as far as they could go.
“Mmmh, you're not the first one.” Probably the best looking though. “Do what you want with the computers, these ones have some of the best service.” you folded your wings back, feeling his neverending gaze.
“Oh. okay.” Leon looked a little awkward, standing for a minute before going to the computers and typing away. He talked to the lady over his com a little, clearly his job wasn’t in the hacking part. While he was typing junk, you scoured the many drawers, grabbing the highest ranking keycards, and the guys and other weapons that were required in the lab rooms. You found two handguns, (now in the waistband of your scratchy hospital pants) and a nice ass knife that you chose to flip in your hand. The keycard, Doctor Harold Ditzman, had a stage five clearance card, the highest one in the facility. And, thanks to the curse of sharp hearing that they gave you, you now knew all the codes and passwords. “Oh, oh shit. Hunnigan, I think I put the code in wrong, oh fuck, it’s wiping the system-” You turned to see Leon panicking and practically jumping into the computer in fear.
You walked over, pushing him out of the way, and he struggled as you held him away from the computer with your hand. “Hey- what- are you, fucking shit man you’re strong!” He reached for his gun, and before he could shoot, you leaned to the mic on the table, holding the talk button.
“Harold Ditzman. Access code, 501189. Override System wipe, confirmation code, 7374.” Leon watched wide eyes as you mimicked the voice of the late Ditzman, perfectly reciting the override code that you’d heard thousands of times before. The system screen blinked, changing to a WELCOME: Doctor Ditzman, the wipe canceling and instead pulling up the doctors computer page.
“What the fuck?” Leon said, watching the classified files popping up on the screen.
“Crows can mimic voices and sounds.” You shrugged, taking your hand off of the mic button and picking the knife back up.
“Neat trick I guess.” Leon said, clicking through the files and putting them on a floppy disk. Who even uses those anymore?!?
“What’s it like in the rest of the building? Is everyone infected, or…” you trailed off, leaning on the desk that the computer Leon was using is on.
“You’re the only sentient person I’ve seen so far.” He said, taking the disk out and storing it in the zipper pocket of his vest. “So, here’s the thing.” He turned to you, scratching his neck. “There’s a chance that you being alive is great, and a chance that it’s not.”
“How so.” You asked, crossing your arms over your chest. “Oh.” Yeah. More testing, monitoring, never living free like you did before ending up here. So much for the land of the free. “Yeah, no need to answer my question, Just, we’ll figure it out when it comes around.” You pushed it out of your mind for now. Your time in this place was long and fuzzy. If that fuzziness could stay, carry onto whatever happened next, maybe it wouldn’t be that bad.
For the time being, you pushed the thought out of your head. Damn, these pants were really chafing your crotch. You frowned, adjusted the scratchy pants and walked to the door Leon had originally come for.
“Did you come here to get someone, or just that info.” You listened to the noises of the hallway, the sounds much louder now that you weren’t behind that glass.
“He’s dead. The person I was supposed to get. Some government researcher. I found him undead in the bathroom. Not that fun of a sight.” You laughed, imagining some dude using the bathroom before getting mauled by a zombie. Really, nowhere was safe from that. But your room had a lot of security measures, and Leon probably just shot them all.
“Well then, Mr. Government agent. Got what you need? I’m kinda cooped up here.” Leon flitted through some files that were neatly piled on the desks, taking pictures of some. “Oh! Are those mine?” You walked over, picking up a folder.
Operation: Dead Crow. It read. A picture of you from before all this was on the inside of the first page. That made you pause. It’d been so long since you’d seen your face. You touched the picture, then your face, feeling the scratchy stubble that the doctors shaved every day, your hair, not as silky or short as it once was.
You looked so little. Like a person you didn’t recognize. It was a picture you had taken with some friends, having posted it. The people were scribbled out with a black marker, but you were in the center, bright eyed and clueless. You flipped through the pages.
Tests, surgery, tests, tests, injections. They had been modifying you. Slowly taking things out and replacing them, watching as the undead organs they gave you adapted and became a stronger, living version. You were practically a living zombie. With wings. They had found the zombie crows from a mansion, grew some wings from the DNA, and grafted them onto you, watching how the cells reacted with your DNA.
What. The. Hell. Why? Why you? Maybe they had found some sort of genetic immunities in you, but from what? You couldn’t remember. Where were you when they took you?
You were so deep in thought that you didn’t realize that your wings were quivering and unfurling in rage. Leon did, and he managed to pull the file from you and stuffed it in between his vest and his chest. “Hey, let's just get you out of here. You're probably going to end up with the BSAA, which is out of my realm. But I have a buddy there, he owes me a favor. I’ll tell him to take care of you, yeah?” Leon looked at your eyes, what color were they, did you remember? Did they change those too?
“Yeah, okay, sure. I just need some fresh air.” you sighed, folding your wings back up. You heard something in the hallway and you went back to the door. There were still slow undead noises, but there was the clink of heels and alive breaths. “There’s a lady out there. She with you?” Leon’s eyes snapped to you and he put his hand on his gun, shaking his head. “Oooookay? What do you want to-” The door clicked open as a lady walked in, her red tank top complimenting her red lips. She also wore black shorts with black tights and those heels that you were hearing.
“Hey boys, mind if I get a slice of that?” She pointed at the pile of files.
“Fuck no, Ada.” Leon scoffed, flicking a lighter over the files. You could hear Ada’s heart, calm. Unlike Leon’s nervous and jumpy heart.
“You two… Lovers?” You waved your pointer finger between the two, feeling that they’d done this dance thousands of times before. Ada looked at Leon, and Leon looked at you. “Oh… lovers on the job? And, two different employers. You guys are weird.” You leaned back, watching the interaction between the two.
They bickered like a married couple for a couple of minutes, Ada ended up hitting Leon with some ‘you use that language in bed, Kennedy?’ And Leon ended up getting flustered, ada grabbed something from the computers and sauntered off, grinning.
“Wha- what’d she take?” He looked around panicked, looking at you.
“A flash drive. She probably put it there when she got in. You’re pussy-whipped for sure.” Leon’s jaw dropped and he stood there like a sad puppy. “No use in dwelling, can’t do much about that now.” You waved it off, and Leon just stood there shocked as ever. “Yeah, get over it. This probably happens to you every time. Get your shit together.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Damn, taking advice from a test subject.” Leon muttered, running a hand through his hair and heading back to the door. “Well, let’s just go then.” He sighed, going to the door and listening.
“Okay.” Leon started checking his gear again as he talked. “This is an underground laboratory, left from Umbrella. Damn, aren’t they all. Power’s still going, so we can make a run for the elevator platform and get to the surface. There’ll be a chopper up there, and it’ll take us back to somewhere safe that they can check and, well, test us both.” He looked up at you, sympathy lining his blue irises.
“Don’t give me your sympathy. I’ll be fine.” You made sure that your wings were tucked against your body, and that everything was in order. You both creeped out of the room, and you saw the damage for the first time.
The bright and pale walls that you remembered were now dark and red. The emergency lights were on out here, the test rooms must have been on a separate generator. There were a couple dead or almost dead bodies around, but the hoard that Leon had been chased by must have moved on.
“Left, straight, left and then right. That’s the path to the elevator. It’s a long ride up, you were on the last floor.” Leon said, tiptoeing through the blood and bodies.
“Real charmer ain’t ya. Bet you get all the girls.” You tried to breathe out of your mouth to make the smell of death less prominent, ew, now you could taste it.
“Uh, no.” Leon said blankly. He peeked at the corner, deciding that it was safe and walking around.
“Mhm. sucks to be you. Well, I guess the only action that I’ve gotten was the sperm tests.” You cracked a small smile, following behind Leon, your stolen gun at the ready.
“Oh.” Was all you heard in response,
It was pretty easy to get to the elevator, any zombies were taken out by a knife to the throat or a broken neck. You both got to the elevator, waiting for the doors before you checked the area and got in. It was a long ride up, but at least there was music. The screams of the undead and the other experiments.
You could hear a tiny voice in Leon’s earpiece, some lady nagging him for his ETA and situation. He ignored it, pretending like she wasn’t there.
“You should probably respond to that. They might just decide to bomb the place early.” You glanced at him, putting your gun back into your waistband.
“To what?”
“Hunnigan. The lady in your earpiece.” You nodded your head to him. “I can hear her buddy. And your stupid tapping.” The tapping of his fingers on his pants stopped and he looked at you.
“I forgot that you were, well, experimented on for a second there. Remind me not to whisper around you.” He put a finger to his earpiece, replying to the frantic lady and assuring her that the ‘Crow-Boy’ did in fact, not kill him and eat his guts. That gave you a small smile, a moment of comedy in this rather depressing life.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Sometimes you also forget that you were a bioweapon now. Stepping outside of the facility and being surrounded by multiple BSAA teams, that reminded you. You heard choppers, cars, and shouting voices, Leon’s one of them.
He had a hand out in front of you, not that it did much. All the noises were a lot, and your wings were unfurling and quivering.
“What the hell is going on?!” Leon was shouting, “This is a person! They’re not a threat-” Someone hit him with a tranquilizer, and he fell against you. You didn’t register the dart hitting you until leon weakly plucked it from your neck.
You could feel the drug running through your veins, but it was weaker that the tranquilizers that they used in the lab. Your eyes snapped to the sniper when they hit you again, and you pulled the unconscious leon closer to your body. Holding him with one hand, you got your gun out, aiming at the rifle and shooting the barrel from however far away you were.
Immediately the ground teams were on you, someone hitting you with another tranquilizer that didn’t work. You thrashed against them, shouting and overpowering a lot of them.
Someone took leon from you, and you ended up pinned to the ground by some big guy with really short hair. He smelled like cigarettes and you scrunched your nose.
“Feisty bird, ain’t ya? Sorry, but we have to take you both in for tests now. I was hoping I’d just have to take you, but Leon gets attached easily.” He cuffed you, you could break them if you wanted, but you held back. “Three tranquilizers and you’re still up too, you’re going to be in that lab for a while.” He yanked you up by the base of your wings and you yelped in pain.
“Fuck you.” you spat, glaring at him.
“That’s not nice birdie, don’t make me muzzle you.” He grinned, waving a hand and the teams moved out, and he dragged you to a van where he pushed you into the barred back. “Have fun, it’s a long ride back.” He climbed into the back with you, clipping the cuffs to the bench you were sitting on, and sat across from you.
The van started up, and you felt the familiar boom of a bomb as the lab you’d been at for so long was destroyed.
“So birdie, got a name?” He leaned his elbows on his knees, scanning your hunched over figure. You grumbled your name and he made some snippy remark about how stupid it was. “Dumb name for a dumb bird.” When you didn’t say anything he sighed and sat up.
“Listen. Leon’s attached to you, and if he could I’m sure that he’d be by your side right now. But for my safety, he’s in another truck. I’m sure my sister won’t let this go though, she’s such good friends with Leon…” He scratched his head, his eyes no longer rock hard.
“My name’s Chris. We’re taking you and Leon back to our bioweapon research facility for testing. I don’t know what you went through in that lab, but we just need to see if you have viruses, if so, then we need to identify what you have, and if you can get others sick. From there, we might have to eliminate you, or put you into a bioweapon program.” Chris explained bluntly, leaving you to sit in silence as he went to the front of the van.
It was a long car ride, and eventually you started feeling car sick, but the car finally stopped before you could get car sick. Chris opened the back doors to reveal that you were in some garage, and a couple task teams were stationed there in case you acted up.
“Honestly, I’m surprised that those tranquilisers didn’t work. I even pumped some sleep gas into the back of the van, and you’re still awake.” So that’s where the car sickness came from. “Come on then, test time.” He pulled you out, walking you through lots and lots of doors. He nudged you into a room that sprayed you down with some junk to sterilize you. “You’re going to have to take those off.” You heard Chris’s voice through the loudspeaker and you turned to see him smiling at you from the other side of a glass panel.
“Fuckin’ weirdos.” You cursed, squirming out of the sweater and the scratchy pants. You could feel Chris’s eyes on you and you hated it. Standing there as you got hosed down again, and as much as you wanted to cover your junk, you didn’t because it could mean another run through this fucking room. You shook your wings down to try and dry them, and the sliding door in front of you opened.
Some people in hazmat suits gave you a pair of hospital level boxers. You pulled them, not happily, but you put them on. At least now you weren’t naked. You ended up being led through bright halls to a room where they sat you on an operating table.
At this point your head hurt and this was reminding you too much of the lab, which this was also technically also a lab, so that made sense in a way.
“Hi!” A lady with short hair came in, a clipboard in hand. She had brown hair, a green tank top, and red glasses. “My name’s Rebecca, I’m going to be in charge of your testing, and everything else.”
“Oh goodie.” You sighed as she hooked an IV up to your arm and took blood from the other.
“Chris is trying to get me to pump tranquilizer into you the whole time you're here, but Leon managed to get a couple punches in before the staff had to step in.” Leon… you didn’t even know the guy, why was he being so protective of you?
“What’s with him, do you know?” You flexed your fist, getting used to the IV in your arm.
“Leon may be an agent, but at his heart he’s still a kid who wanted to be a cop when he grew up.” You nodded, pretending to get what she was saying. Clearly she’d known him longer, so whatever.
You looked around the sterile room, taking in the blank surfaces and walls. Spotting how the passing nurses and doctors had guns, you realized why they hadn’t tried to put you under yet. Hell, you could smell the gunpowder on Rebecca too, she probably had a gun somewhere too.
“Well, I’m going to take this back for testing, and I’m also going to look through that file of yours that Leon found. We can’t feed you yet, but that IV has got the stuff to bring you back a little bit.” She packed up the syringe that had your blood and left the room, and you heard the click of a lock behind her.
You listened to the noises of the lab, and after a couple minutes, a bruised Chris came in, he even had a cut lip, Leon really messed him up.
“Hey birdie, I brought you a present.” He held a hand to the door, moving aside to show Leon behind him. “This asshole was going to beat me into next week if I didn’t let him see you.” He glared at Leon and then left, leaving Leon in the room with you.
“Well, this has just been the most fast paced, crazy day that I’ve ever had.” You said, looking at Leon. He had one cut on his eyebrow, but other than that, he was untouched.
“Yeah.” He sat on one of the extra chairs in the room, not looking at you. “You were in there for two years.”
“Excuse me?”
“You were inside that lab for two years. You went missing in December two years ago. The snow covered up the tracks, and the pharmacy shut down any investigations into your whereabouts. We only got a whiff of the lab when some worker slipped up at a big gala.” He fiddled with his thumbs, still not looking at you.
“Honestly, I thought that I’d be in there a lot longer. But I guess I really have no say, I was going crazy in there, still am.” Your wings pulled tight to your body and you shivered.
Leon looked like he wanted to touch you, hug you, anything that he could. But he didn’t.
“Why are you so protective of me? I don’t even know you.” You said, gaging his emotions. “For all you know, I could be some monster. I could have killed you!”
“You remind me of someone. That’s all.” He looked at you, eyes unreadable.
“Well, I’m not them. And I cannot replace them. I hope you know that.” A knock at the door.
“Hey uh, I got the blood work back- amazing how fast technology is. Oh hey Leon.” She held a clipboard out to you, and you looked at the papers clipped to it.
“No, this isn’t right, I’m not O negative, and what are all of these?” You turned the clipboard back to her, and she pushed it back, moving to a computer and pulling up her screen on the wall using some projector.
“This is what your blood would have looked like before you were tested on.” A picture of some blood under a microscope and in a vial. “And this is it now.” She clicked the screen and your eyes widened.
The blood was full of half dead cells and half living, and the blood cells were constantly dying and regenerating, and it was chaos. A picture of your blood in the vial showed what you could only think was like Venom from Spider Man. It was all pressed against the side of the vial and trying to go somewhere.
“Your blood wants to get back to you, in some weird way, it has a mind of it’s own. The only way we can describe it is like this. Your blood was slowly replaced overtime, and your body did its best to adapt. We have no other idea why this is happening.” Rebecca said, taking her glasses off, wiping them clean and putting them back on.
“So… I’m even more of a monster, and my blood is Venom from Spiderman.” You said, reading the paperwork on your blood.
“We also found antibodies for every single virus in our database, and it looks like those antibodies are even working ahead to make more defenses against new viruses that don’t exist. We found cells from a Plaga, they are fully matured and of the dominant species, and it looks like something called the Mold was fused with it, in a way that we cannot explain. In short, you’re not just full of cures for viruses, but so many more unexplainable things.” She explained, clicking off her computer.
Leon sat there, in silence as Rebecca kept talking. To be honest, you were zoning out a little.
“We tested Leon for any viruses and didn’t find anything that wasn’t there before. We’ll run some more tests, and you might end up getting sent to some bioweapon program, but we’re not sure yet.” You nodded to her words, and she smiled a little. “I’ll try to get you some food,but it may just be jello, no feast or anything.”
“Thanks. Could I maybe bother for some clothes too?” You cracked a smile, gesturing to the single pair of boxers that you were wearing.
“Yeah, no problem.” She left the room, and Leon left shortly after, and so you remained in the empty room.
Leon’s POV
He knew that Chris did that on purpose. You were supposed to get new hospital pants and a shirt, but Chris only gave you the boxers. Chris did it to torture Leon, and Leon knew it. He was going to bully Chris when they went for drinks that night.
Chris knew who you reminded Leon of, and was going to use that against Leon for as long as he could. If you ended up in a BSAA program, Chris would probably give you something like a spandex suit and send you on your way.
When Leon had walked into your room, he’d expected you to be in a blanket, and instead you were there, sitting on that bed in a pair of boxers. Sure they were loose, not form fitting, but apparently they weren’t loose enough. Leon didn’t look at you, partly because he was ashamed of his heart beating so fast, and partly because he felt bad for you. You’d never have a normal life again thanks to that lab.
They couldn’t remove those wings in the end, after running you through X-ray after X-ray, they figured out that the wings were too far healed to your nervous system, and with the fully matured plaga, removing either could result in death of paralysis. But you were stable for now, and that’s all Leon cared about.
He wished that he’d met you in a world without bio-weapons. In a world without mercenaries that played him like a fiddle. If he’d met you at some coffee shop, he would have asked you on a date. At a club, would have gone home with you and had the time of his life. But you were in this world. A world where he was a puppet, and you would be too.
In the end, Leon didn’t know you. You were a stranger, and he had to go.
Leon went home that night, feeling more alone than ever. Even going to the bar with Chris didn’t help. Not in the slightest.
“I’m just saying Leon, if you wanted that bird-boy oiled up and naked on that bed, I could have done it for you. The closest thing I could get without a request was just those boxers.” Chris chugged a beer, Claire sitting next to him with a disgusted look on her face. And Leon, his jaw was dropped. He almost dropped his glass as well.
“Chris- my god. The things that you say-” Claire scolded him over the noise of the bar.
“Chris, what the hell?! I don’t even know the guy! He just got out of a fucking lab.” Leon growled, fist clenching around nothing.
“Oooooh, my bad Leon.” He waved his hands in the air. “Going to give me another bruise? Whaaaatever.” Chris started stirring now, and Claire stood up.
“Okay, time to go home. Sorry Leon. I warned you. Chris has been on it since Jill turned him down. In her defense, Chris was drunk and she was on a mission when he asked.” Claire snapped, lifting Chris up and fishing his walled out to pay for the drinks.
She pulled Chris out of the bar, and he was probably going to get scolded on the drive home. Leon sat in the bar for another hour, before calling an uber and getting home. He was drunk, but he wasn’t stupid.
His apartment was in a government building, and not too far from the BSAA base due to how much he ended up involved with bio-weapons. So, he went upstairs, past the various security people, and to his apartment. He fumbled with the lock, opening the door and walking in, being sure to lock it behind him and toed off his boots. He ended up in his bed, managing to get his clothes off except for his boxers, falling asleep with a groan. Hopefully there were no missions soon.
Leon’s dreams were usually scary to say the least. The pills didn’t help, so he stopped taking them, and dealt with the jolting nightmares. Every now and then he had a dream about a different life, maybe him and Ada with a family, but it always ended with Ada gone and his new family dead. Or, some fantasy about finally being able to have Ada. What would she sound like, taste like, look like… spread under him, that cold mask gone.
But tonight, Leon dreamt about you.
You were both on a mission. You and your big wings leading the way. You both completed the mission, whatever it was, and ended up at a hotel that was for agents in between missions. Drinks were had and somehow, you ended up shirtless on top of leon. He was breathless, and your wings were spread out like an angel on top of him.
And he loved it. The way you touched him, the way your hair fell… It was amazing. He spent the night having wet dreams about you, and rolling his hips against his bed in his drunken sleep.
He woke up with wet boxers, a sore crotch, and embarrassment. What was he, some highschool kid with a crush? No! He was a grown man, and a government agent. Having fantasies about Ada was one thing, but you? A man? And one that he barely knew, wait, did he know you from somewhere? Or did you just remind him of someone?
Didn’t matter. It was 3 am, and he was supposed to be on PTO. He groaned and pulled the covers back over his sweaty skin and wished for sexless dreams for once
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
You didn’t sleep that night. The lab wasn’t exactly quiet, and from time to time you heard people crying or yelling, The only things close to your room; however, was the pacing of guards that were stationed throughout the building. You wondered how your family was… so you sat up, and went to the computer in the room, it needed ID and password, good thing you could remember the way Rebecca’s hands moved and what they sounded like. You closed the small blinds to your room and got into the computer, clicking through things before you found a police database. A quick search of your family revealed nothing, not even birth certificates. Not a trace. That made no sense, so you pulled up scanned versions of your files and started reading. Patient:0175 -To improve reaction to the viruses, Patient has been put into a coma-like state. New technology allows us to pump its brain with our own stories.- (another page) -Patient was removed from nearby college campus. No family, only records lead to an adopted mother who died ten years prior. No signs of anybody looking for it.- (another) -Patient has mutated and bonded with every virus and bioweapon that it comes in contact with. Even the Plaga and other parasitic weapons. If cultivated, this can be used to create soldiers that are immune to any bioweapon threats.- -Patient’s blood cannot be transferred. Any living thing that is injected with the blood ends up paralyzed and ends up dying from blood loss. No wounds visible, the patient's blood must end up consuming the host's blood before neutralizing. No blood was found inside any of the host bodies upon examination- You exited the tabs and files. You’d seen enough. Your memories of family were mostly lies, and you couldn’t tell what was true anymore. Also, what the fuck was going on with your blood? More than they’d let on apparently. But you gave in, laying back on the bed, on your stomach of course. Wings and all. In the morning, (when the hospital lights turned on) you turned your head to see some hospital food and water sitting on the wheely cart next to your bed. You sat up and picked at it, but you only ate a little. This repeated, day after day. Every now and then they would run tests, but not much else. At least you had a bed. After a couple of weeks, Rebecca came in with a little headset. “Alrighty. I know we’ve kinda had you in quarantine, but I’m going to run some mental tests. Just to see how they wired you.” She waved the headset and you nodded, “So, uh, I’ll just sit here then?” You sat up, and she nodded, starting to wire some stuff up. “Knowing that they were pumping fake scenarios into your head, we don't know what else they put in there, combat data, passcodes, anything.” She put the thing on your head, just like a little headband with LOTS of wires. “It’ll be super fast. Just scanning brain waves, and then we can play them back. But we have to keep that on you while we play them. Like a TV and a DVD player.” She clicked away, and you felt a buzz, like static electricity. “There we go. Grab some popcorn sweetie.” You both spent the next couple days analyzing your mind, as weird as that is. You saw what you thought was your childhood. It was weird. But in between the memories, there were other clips. A fight. Using a gun, training. It was like a lifetime of combat and training was engraved in there. And you didn’t even know. She squinted and went frame by frame, looking at the training individually. “That’s… That’s Leon. In STRATCOM training. In a sparring match, with you?” The memory was from a first person view, so that would make sense, but it still didn’t. “I need to see who else was in that training.” Amazing what technology can do. She just scanned through the security footage from those couple years ago, and there it was. Leon sparring with a man, using moves that you were so familiar with. “Bruce McGivern. After being picked up by the rescue choppers, he and Fong Ling went missing. Let me..” Rebecca did some more typing for a couple of minutes, and you were allowed to take the headband off, she said that it was all uploaded by now. “Holy shot.” What? Holy shot? “You have Bruce and Fong’s DNA, along with- a mix of other agent's DNA in your system. “What- what does that mean?” But you had a feeling you knew an answer to the question. “You, I don’t know for sure, but you’re not a clone, you just- have been altered more than we thought. Here.” She pulled up some pictures of the agents, and you were positive, without looking in a mirror, that you looked like them all in some way or another. “You have DNA from almost every missing agent we have in the database, my god.” She whispered. That was it. You could deal with being kidnapped, the wings, maybe some funky blood, but losing bits of yourself and having them replaced- that was a whole new level of messed up. “Listen, you're still you. You were still taken two years ago, but you are different than before, maybe a little DNA from each person who stood out or something.” She shut off the computer, both of you seeing enough. “Since you have this training in your head, mostly Bruce’s, you probably won’t have to go through a boatload of more training, I’ll talk to Chris and he’ll probably just put you through some tests. This brings up more questions than answers though, because that means that any agent DNA in you, could either belong to someone dead, or alive.” “Okay, can’t I have ONE day where maybe I get good news?” You sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose. “I wish. We also determined that we cannot remove your wings, because of how they’ve grown into your nerves.” She gave you a weak smile. “Awesome sauce.” You replied, looking out the window of your room at the other people walking around. “I’ll send someone down with some vaccinations later, and I’ll see if Chris can come and take you to the training grounds soon. Sorry that this is all happening to you.” She left the room, and some time later a nurse came with a LOT of needles. It was a ton of vaccines she said, some for viruses, and some were just normal. After the nurse left, you ended up throwing up in your bathroom, and you didn’t even look at what was in it before flushing it. Your only guess, one of the vaccines must have messed with something in your body. You didn’t know which one won. “Hey bird- ew. Did you just throw up?” Chris came into your room, scrunching his nose in disgust. You flipped him off and stood up, looking in the mirror for the first time. Your hair was messy and overgrown, you really needed to shave that stubble, and your eyes seemed different than what you remembered. “Are you here to take me to that training or whatever?” You said as you found a new toothbrush and scrubbed the foul taste out of your mouth. You spit, rinsing your face off afterwards, your stubble scratching your fingers. “Yup. got you some clothes too. Merry not-Christmas.” Chris dropped a workout shirt and some sweatpants on your bed. “I’ll be outside when you're done.” He started to walk out, but you stopped him. “Let me borrow your knife real quick.” You held out your hand. “What, why?” He said, putting a hand over the pocket that it must have been hidden in. “Because I have big ass wings and you just gave me a shirt with no holes in it.” “Oh good point.” He gave you the knife and and you cut the back of the shirt open and gave the knife back to him. “Thanks.” He nodded and walked out. You closed the blinds and changed your clothes, the shirt a little tight around the chest but otherwise fitting. Changing your clothes with a clearer mind made you realize just how many scars you had. And how you were built pretty well for not working out ever. You stepped out of the room and Chris immediately led you out of the building that you were in. You saw that there weren’t many other people like you, it looked like it was mostly a quarantine building, but you did spot someone with animal ears far down a hall. “We’re just going to go to the private training grounds, and I’ll just have some people spar you a little bit.” He said as you both walked. “Uh, what about my wings?” You said, snatching a mint from a dish on a desk. “What about them? Your enemy won’t go easy just because you look like a bird.” You heard him snicker and you scoffed, putting the mint in your mouth and just walking. He put cuffs on you when you both got to his vehicle, he said something like ‘sorry it’s protocol.’ The drive was quiet, and you probably were stinking up his car. It was hard to sit in the car, wings, y’know? So you were leaning forward a little bit. After an hour or maybe two, Chris pulled up to a base camp, pretty much. He scanned into the front gate, and pulled inside, waving to a couple agents. “Welcome to the Bioterrorism training camp. This is where most soldiers are trained for bioterrorism nowadays. It’s for both the BSAA and any special operation soldiers or agents. If you’re lucky, the golden boy might be here.” He parked, getting out and tossing a badge to you. “Don’t lose that or you’ll get detained.” “Awesome sauce.” You stuffed the visitor badge into your pocket as you got out of the vehicle. The second that your big ass wings were out, you could feel eyes bearing into you. “You're going to be popular around here, sweetie.” Chris chuckled and locked the car, waiting for you to go to his side before you both started walking through the base. You got a lot of stares, and a couple catcalls. ‘nice ass bird boy' or things along the lines. “So, is every BSAA agent a dick?” You crossed your arms over your chest and ignored the couple of whistles. “Depends on who you ask.” He said with an annoying smile. As you walked into the more populated area of the base, you started to hear more things, even if they weren’t intended for you. Superhuman hearing has its downsides. “Don’t worry. We’re almost to the training grounds. And I am 90% sure that Leon’s doing sparring today. Lucky you.” When you got up to the sparring area, you saw a couple of courts and a track. The track had a handful of runners, and you could see Leon observing a sparring match on one of the courts. You could see everything in sharp detail, guess they gave you bird eyes too. Maybe that’s why they looked weird in the mirror. “There he is!” Chris jogged down the grass hill to Leon and clapped him on the back. You saw Leon wheeze, probably had the wind knocked out of him. You headed down as well right as the sparring match between the two guys ended. “Leon, I brought your birdie. Such a pretty little thing, right?” Chris cooed, ruffling Leon’s hair. “Quit calling me bird-boy and birdie.” You grumbled and Chris put his hands up in defense. “Ohhhh sorry, darling. Someone seems to be in the fighting mood. Leon, wanna pit him against one of them? Probably someone crappy so that he doesn’t die.” He joked, no one really laughed though. “Fine. Is that why he’s here? To gauge his skills?” Leon ran a hand through his hair and fixed the part, and Chris nodded happily. “Yuuup. Come on, get him in there, I wanna see a fight.” Leon sighed and gave you a sorry look before waving some guy up from a bench. The dude was taller than you, and beefier. He eyes up the wings on your back before looking at Leon. “Treat it as any other fight.” Chris chimed in.” and the guy nodded. You handed your badge to Leon, not wanting to drop it and slip on it or something. You both walked onto the court, the rubber pavement muffling your steps.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Every step you took to that ring felt like deja Vu. Feet falling into an unfamiliar rhythm that somehow felt right.
They noticed it, Chris and Leon especially. They noticed how your posture changed to one that wasn't yours, and how you were analyzing the opponent they had put against you.
But you didn't notice most of it. It was like when you drove somewhere and forgot the drive because it was just so familiar. You were just going through the motions. Shaking the guy's hand, and retreating to your side of the ring.
Your wings were folded against your back like a second skin, and you put your hands up in a defensive stance, but your muscles were still relaxed, confident. You were never a fighter before it all happened, but it felt like you'd done this millions of times.
You watched the dude you were up against, he put his hands up as well, and started to go towards you. You didn't move, but when he lunged you did move.
A quick sidestep, too quick to be natural. You kicked his feet out and he caught himself just in time, his foot stomping against the ground in an uncomfortable way as he stumbled and straightened himself out.
You didn't take your eyes off him, but the next time he shot towards you, he got you off guard. He punched your gut, it didn't hurt, but you hissed. Then, he grabbed your wing and twisted it. You yelped, your brain going in overdrive.
You grabbed his wrist, twisting it into an unnatural position, and he let go with a grunt. Then you kicked him in the side, and when he was stumbling back, you were on him.
Your fist made contact with his face, his nose instantly gushing blood.
“Bah- N- My fucking nose!” He spat blood off of his lips but you followed up with a hard jab to the back of his head, knocking the guy out cold. But you did stick your leg out, catching the man with your leg before lowering him to the ground. That’s when Leon saw it.
You were exactly like Bruce. The leg catch was what did it. It was so like Bruce, and the posture, the punch, now it all made sense. The reason you were so familiar. He thought that you had reminded him of Ada maybe, but it was Bruce. The guy that he had totally not jacked off behind the barracks. Only once. But he had studied the guy. Watched how he fought, stood, everything. And you did it all. But not like you were him, but like you did things that he did every now and then. But the fight, exactly the same as Bruce.
You looked up, locking eyes with Leon and he saw that look after so many fights. But he still never got what it meant.
“Hey! Good job birdie!” Chris clapped you on the shoulder, and you almost jumped out of your bones. “You managed to not die, I’m impressed.” A medical team carried the unconscious guy off and you felt kinda bad. But so did your wing to be honest. “Hey Leon, got anything to say?”
Leon blinked, and he saw you and Chris looking at him, along with a handful of other recruits.
“Oh, um, good job. Who taught you?” He asked, and you shrugged, Rebeccaa could tell them when the data could go out.