What's Beneath the Scales

Ch.3 It's never good to look stupid on your first impression

Chapter three: It's never good to look stupid on your first impression.

Day 8 of captivity (evening)

I woke up to bright lights and lots of stiffness all over my body. Once the blurriness left my vision I realized I was in the fetal position on the floor in front of that building thing I was about to go into. I tried sitting up and as I did that the tightness in every muscle in me was saying to just stop and get back down.

As I was getting up I heard a voice from a few yards behind me say "Now that you've regained consciousness we can begin." I turned around and saw the doctor get off a folding chair and put down a newspaper.

I watched him walk over to me but when he got about 5-6 feet away from me I scrambled up and put my hands up in front of me and took a step or two back and said. "Whoa, I really don't need a repeat of what happened a bit ago." The doctor stopped and looked at me for a second or two and said. "Fine, this time you walk in first."

So I turn around and open the door to find myself in a decently stocked gym. It had some of weight lifting machines, two treadmills, lots of free weights on racks, a bench press, a large mirror attached to a section of the wall, and a large punching bag near the wall opposite the mirror. To my surprise it even had what looked like a boxing ring but it wasn't raised off the ground like in the movies. And lastly there was a water fountain attached to the far wall behind the boxing ring with a digital clock above it that read 7:35pm. As I was looking around, the doctor said "Since the trainer won't arrive till tomorrow, why don't you just get familiar with some of the equipment for now. And while you're doing that I will get the other subject." And with that he turned and walked out the door and I faintly heard the metallic clunk of what I assume was the lock.

I took another look around the room and decided to take a look at the punching bag. I put my hand on it and it felt a bit rough. I take a half step back and take a weak swing at it and that earns me a friction burn on my knuckles. I nurse my hand a bit and realize that that is the reason boxers wear gloves to punch these things. So I walk over to the treadmill to kill some time. I had barely been jogging for five minutes when I heard the door open. I get off the machine and turn around to find a girl that looks around my age walking through the door. She had a weird shade of light brown hair that looked orange-ish and had black streaks through it. She also had the same kind of collar I had and she had on some white cargo shorts that went to her knees and had on a white t-shirt. She had lightly tanned skin and looked a bit shorter than me but not by much, but I wasn't sure by how much since she wasn't next to me. And lastly she had really light brown eyes that looked almost goldish yellow. But what surprised me was how she looked at everything. It was like she was indifferent to everything that was happening. I watch her walk into the center of the room and then she turns around and says to the doctor "Okay, I'm here. Now what do you want?"

The doctor walks in the door, turns and closes it, then says "First of all, you two need to know what abilities you have." He turns to me and says. "Your DNA will give you incredible muscle strength, flexible joints, and also by using the special pits on your upper lip you should be able to sense the heat from anything in front of you. And from my modifications I put in you will have incredibly tough and flexible scales. They should be hard enough to be able to deflect a bullet as long as its not a direct hit or at point blank range. And lastly you should be thanking me that I managed to make it so that your still warm blooded otherwise you would start trying to hibernate if it got too cold." Then he turns to the girl and says. "You will have more strength and speed than a normal female your age. Your hearing, smell, and sight should all improve. And your nails should develop into very sharp retractable claws. And so, to answer your earlier question, all I want from you two today is to become familiar with what your new bodies can do until the trainer arrives tomorrow. So just experiment with what you can do for an hour or two and then I will come back and call it a day... But just don't break anything." And with that he opened the door and walked out.