It was still dark when Ean woke up from his sleep. As usual, he can't remember anything with the gap on his mind, or even feel the cold that he saw from the dark skies of the human capital. He looked at the steel bars that keeps him and the other non-human locked up waiting for the next mission.
He remembered his last mission on the Capital of the Dragons, Anaia, where his partner for the mission got chopped into half by a weird monster that felt that he was the same as them. He was a powerful one. But the pity of his dead partner never crossed his mind, as if he has no emotion. As to why he doesn't know. He doesn't recall anything after he escaped from the human city where he left his parents. As if there was a big whole on his memories.
He was staring at the cell blankly when he heard a call from one of the kids on the dungeon where the stones are old with a mix of grey and black colors. The cell they were in is big enough for them to walk quite a few steps and breath the smokey smell from outside of the castle.
Ean looked for the voice who was calling him, he walked towards the steel bars that prevents them from walking outside of the prison they were in. "Hey, werewolf boy." The call was clear this time. It was a boy's voice just beside his room.
"What?" His deep voice questioned the other one who still retained it's childlike sound, despite being a boy who he thinks that same age as him as the way he addressed him.
"I was wondering, where was the dragon boy who is just in front of my room?" The other one inquired.
"Dead."
"That was a deadpanned answer from an energetic guy like you." The other boy commented Ean's way of answering him. But at the same time, Ean noticed that there was a hint of sadness and curiousity from his tone. "He was a good guy." Ean knows, but he did not answer the follow up comment about the dragon boy who is already dead. He can understand a little as to why that was the expression he made, but never really felt anything to support his understanding.
Soon after, they heard locks being twisted and a huge banging of the wooden door on the stone wall of the cell echoed through the corridro they were in. Ean returned to the dirty white sheets he has as a bed and seated himself and waited patiently for the guards to pass.
It was as if eversince he found himself waking up on the same room, he already know that moving around will agitate the humans. He doesn't understand the anger in their hearts, but he knows and feels that there must be something aside from the difference of appearance. Though he has the same look as the humans, they can't transform into a wolf or shift into a were-creature that he can do.
He heard again the locks being opened, but this time, it has an iron feel to the doors that was opening. He didn't looked outside but he can feel that someone new was looking at him. He looked at his bars, and there was a man standing outside. He has a different feel than the usual guards that was keeping them in check. He was wearing something like a noble would wear, with dignity, with assurance in his power, both politically and in terms of streagnth. Ean also noted that, he was not just an ordinary human, as to what, he doesn't know.
Soon, the other guards are carrying other kids from the cells in the corridor, they were being held rashly. Ean also saw that the grip of the guards, leathery hands pains the kids. Somehow, his blood began boiling. He kept his silence because that was his mind that he should keep still because making an action about it will surely put him in a hard time.
"He will be the base." The man who was different than the rest said and began opening the locks from the iron bars that was keeping Ean and the man from reaching each other. He stood up and as soon as the guards entered the room, they took him with an iron hands.
"What will be today's mission?" Ean inquired. But the man simply smiled and walked away to the direction where the exit was. Ean saw the eyes of the kids that was took away to be dead and hopeless. Others have fear and sadness, with a touch or regret.
As soon as they were out, he looked at the boy who was in the other cell, who was talking to him earlier. But to his surprise, there was no one there.
"Where was the boy in this cell?" He pointed out. The guards spitted on the stone floor and angrily answered him.
"There was no one there to begin with. What are you? Did you see a ghost?" And the guard who was holding him punched him in the cheeks. That made Ean drop to the cold black stones that was keeping that castle intact. Ean somehow regretted asking a question when he is not allowed to. But the punch did not fazed him at all. There was not pain, and his cheeks doesn't feel swollen.
"Don't be hard on the boy, he was merely asking a question." The man in front said with a devilishly smile on his face. Ean saw a glint of fear from the human guard who punched him when he began helping him to stand up.
"Sorry, Professor Urbina, it will not happen again." The guard reported to the man called Urbina.
"Now, let's go to my lab." And with that, the group walked out of the floor.
After about half an hour of walkig around and climbing stairs and going down on a weird small room that felt that gravity was rising, they arrived to a certain floor of the castle where the walls are white and there are different items on the table and in the walls. There were different kinds of flasks, bottles of transparent color and some has liquid of red and blue and green of different amount. The smell of the big white room was something that Ean doesn't like. It smells of medicince and some wierd chemicals that he doesn't know or with a little familiarity with.
They took Ean and the other kids on a big machine that looked like a capsule with metals and white colors. At the back of the capsule-like machine, there were different snake like black linings that went to the machine and to the floor of the room. Ean was curious as to what they are. He thinks that it was the first time he saw something like this. But at the back of his mind, maybe it was a Dwarves' invention to keep life easy, but Ean was not sure about it. He only knows that dwarves are the master of smithing and machinery, so something like this was beyond his intelligence.
"Get in and relax." The Urbina guy ordered him and he followed him. As soon as he relaxed himself, the cold metals coated his skin and the small hairs on his body stood up when they felt the cold. It was just the exact size for him. Ean also saw that the others kids went inside of the other capsule like machines and the glass at the top of the machine covered them like a lid of a can.
Soon, smoke filled the other capsule and then the other kids began spacing out and fell asleep. One by one, the gas that entered the capsule began dissipating from it.
"I need you to relax ok?" Professor Urbina told him and pressed the wierd machine beside him, and like the other machine of the same kind where he was laying down, a glass door locked itself and smoke came from his head. He began feeling drowsy and soon after it was all dark.
"Stryker! You have to get out there!" It was a familliar voice. But he doesn't know where the voice belongs. Soon, he found himself on a plain where fires filled the area and the sky were red with black velvety clouds cover the skies. The plain he was in was filled with dead bodies of different kinds and the sensation around him was chaotic.
"Stryker!" He heard the shout again and he saw a red haired boy being carried away by some people he seemed to know but deep inside, he can't remember. He saw at the eye of the boy that there was a swarm of large tanks that was readying to fire a beam of blue lasers. He can't move, his body was saying something different than what he was thinking.
Ean began rushing towards the tanks and as soon as the beams were fired, he felt pain. "STRYKER!" it was the last thing he heard.
Again, there was a sharp pain going inside his body. Ean woke up seeing himself in a tank full of green water. He panicked when the air around him was gone and the pain kept sending panic to his brain, but he can't move. All he can do is to try steel himself from the pain he kept feeling at intervals.
He looked at his arms and feet, it was bounded by a strong leather like material and he can't shift. And another pain shot him at his spine. He tried screaming but the water kept his voice closed and groans unheard.
"Professor, he is losing it!" A man in a coat shouted to the Urbina who was just looking at the board of blue color hovering just in front of him. There was a lot of data and some green graphs and data are turning red.
"No, continue the transfusion, if this is successful, we'll have an ultimate weapon again," Urbina ordered the other people in a white coat. "Since experiment SonikX13798 escaped, we need another super soldier to help us win this war. And this time, we'll try to push this reincarnation to his limit."
Urbina saw that Ean's body was rejecting some of the genes and powers of different were-creature that they collected around the empire. "We need to push this transfusion of power to this monster. I don't care if he dies or goes around to rampage again, we need to kill all non-humans from the land so that our race can survive."