Chapter 4: Rude Awakening

Alexis meets the organization which took his friends, face-to-face.

Alexis woke to bright lights shining down on his face. He felt cold metal beneath him and an uncomfortable pressure on his arms, legs, and wings. His eyes squinted and blinked, and he could hear voices all around him.

“He’ll wake soon,” said a woman’s voice.

“You’re sure you’ve done all you need to make him safe?” asked a familiar, male voice. “I don’t want to have to kill this creature because you overlooked something. He’s more valuable alive.”

“Y-yes, Sir,” said the woman as she looked over papers attached to a clipboard. “Wings clipped; spurs filed down.”

As Alexis’s vision adjusted to the bright lights, he saw a young man in a lab coat standing beside him. He removed an IV from Alexis’s arm which he’d not noticed before and placed a bandage where it had been.

“We haven’t determined the exact cause of his transformations, but we have given him the same dosages of central agonists as the other transforming nonhumans. We believe that"along with keeping him in controlled conditions"will curb any possible transformations. His biology is akin to that of a bird,” continued the woman as she stepped closer to Alexis and pulled out a couple of x-rays. “I believe the siren we brought in yesterday could be key to figuring out at least part of his genetic makeup. He is at least partially harpy, and sirens and harpies are closely related.”

Alexis watched the woman in tense silence, and his mind raced to find an explanation for what had happened. He knew he’d been captured by those humans in black uniforms but not why they restrained him on a medical examining table. Every time the familiar voice spoke, the feathers on the back of his neck rose and he got a hot feeling in his chest which tingled down his entire body. Usually, when that happened, he transformed, but for some reason, the feeling subsided; leaving him to curl his fingers into fists instead.

“What about the other part?” asked the familiar voice as he, too, stepped forward to loom over Alexis.

The light hit the man’s face and showed him to be the commander in the square-rimmed glasses from before. Alexis felt a shiver go down his spine as his fists uncurled, and anything he’d wanted to ask or demand of them caught in his throat. Whatever they talked about, he would listen in and try to find out just why they kept him there. They seemed unaware or uncaring that he no longer slept and continued their conversation as though he weren’t there.

“The other half… we aren’t sure of,” said the woman with a shake of her head. “We’ve been able to identify a small fraction of human in his DNA, but we haven’t narrowed down the subspecies of dragon, yet. We don’t have many viable samples of dragon DNA to go off of, and the ice-spitting variety that he is… well, we just haven’t seen anything like it.”

“So what you’re saying is that he’s even more of a threat because we don’t know what he is,” said the man, grimacing.

“I can’t say for certain, General, but we can narrow down at least some aspects of his genetic makeup once we’ve compared his anatomy to that of the specimen we already have. With further testing, we may be able to find the origin of which dragon species he is, and that can give us an idea of where to find more, if there are any,” the woman said, her voice rising in excitement. “It’s really quite amazing; we don’t get many hybrids, so he will be integral in our studies of nonhumans.”

“Aside from your studies, Doctor, we will need to do our own tests to see just how much he knows. We can’t risk any more attacks, especially not from something as dangerous as him,” said the General. “You can do all you want with him, after my department has thoroughly investigated.”

“Y-yes, of course,” the woman said with notably less excitement. “Just know that we do need him in tact to do further testing, Sir. He won’t be as much of a threat as a pure-blooded dragon, I’m sure, so no need to worry. The dosage of ability suppressants we gave him should be strong enough to keep his nonhuman capabilities in check, at least until we need them again for testing.”

“As long as you and your people have done your jobs right, you have no reason for concern,” said the man, clicking his tongue as he eyed Alexis. “My men and I won’t break your toy. Give me the documents on him and step aside.”

The two shuffled papers as the woman handed them off, and then her light footsteps followed her out of the examination room. Alexis felt all his body shaken to the core with those words from the man, but for some reason, he felt none of the familiar urge to transform. He felt hot and nauseated and even a little weak, but the heart-pounding reaction to stress he’d grown used to had disappeared. Normally, he preferred it that way, but in this case, it made him feel uneasy.

“Alexis Pecora, is that right?” said the man as he flipped through the manila folder filled with papers which the woman had given him. He sneered at Alexis as the nonhuman’s eyes widened and breathing increased. “You sure were hard to catch, with that surprise transformation you gave us. Some of my men lost a few digits from the nasty frostbite your ice caused.

“When we were told about all the nonhuman monsters in the area from a very talkative vampire, she conveniently left out that little detail. We’d been told you were just another harpy in the area. We’d no reason to suspect anything else after we took one of the sirens living there,” he said, pacing the floor as he eyed the documents.

“The second harpy and the kitsune we caught with him went along with that story, so of course who would suspect?” the General continued, his voice darkening. “After your disappearance act, though, they were quick to correct themselves. That siren was certainly useful in finding out where you’d go next, especially with his brother in the other room.

“It’s a good thing we’d already cleared out that monster-filled bar, or it would have been much harder to deal with you.”

Alexis narrowed his eyes, grit his teeth, and pulled against his restraints but to no avail. The man in the square-rimmed glasses furrowed his brows and called to the young man who’d taken the IVs from Alexis’s arm.

“Is it ready?” he asked, glancing to Alexis coldly.

“Yes, Sir… as is the introductory room… for when you’re finished,” said the young man, not looking the commander in the eyes and twiddling his thumbs.

“Good. Have the squadron on standby, just in case the good Doctor didn’t get her measurements right.”

The young man nodded curtly and left the room just as the man in the square-rimmed glasses turned to face Alexis again.

“You may be wondering how I know who you are, and maybe it’s rude of me to not introduce myself. I am General Marx, and this is Facility G-5, where we process all ‘nonhumans’"as some call them"in the States. I am at the head of this facility, and I keep it"and the capturing missions associated with it"running smoothly. You’ll be staying here until we’ve established just how dangerous you are to the general public, and if you prove to be a problem, well…you will never leave.”

“I haven’t hurt anyone. Why am I here?” Alexis said, his voice icy as he glared at the man before him.

“You haven’t hurt anyone, have you? I’d say you damaged my men pretty badly, and they were just doing their jobs. You broke the law and never came out for registration, just like your friends in cell block B. Who knows what you could have done to innocent, human lives were you to stay free to roam and pick off anyone at will. I’d say that beast side of yours could easily decimate a city or more, wouldn’t you?”

Alexis traded an ugly look with General Marx and clenched his fists again. The General had it half right, but Alexis refused to believe his fight or flight mechanism could do that.

The sound of a half dozen footsteps arrived at the door, and at that, the General backed away from his captive and waved three uniformed persons in. Their handguns clung tightly to their belt, and Alexis noted that each of them"two men and a woman"had a hyper-sedative capsule with its needles hidden behind a lid. 

“Take him from the table and lead him to the other room. I’ll be waiting there,” said the General without another look at Alexis. “If he makes one move out of line, don’t be afraid of using force. The Doctor can work with a broken bird.” 

He walked out of the room, and Alexis resisted the urge to strain on his bonds as the three humans"now four as the lab coated young man joined them"encircled him. The young man carefully untethered Alexis’s arms, legs, and finally wings, and he stepped back to allow the armed guards to take care of the rest.

“Get up and come with us,” demanded the woman, motioning fiercely with her hand.

Remembering the General’s off-hand warning, Alexis eyed all three of them and slowly sat up on the table. He only noticed then that his clothing had been replaced by plain, gray scrubs"with slits in the back of his shirt for his wings…how considerate. 

Alexis turned to face the four humans, but as he did so, he stopped and turned his head towards his wings, which he’d stretched out as they’d become stiff. His heart dropped and eyes widened in terror as the words the “doctor” and General Marx had said rang in his ears: “Wings clipped; spurs filed down.” His wings… his primaries"his only way of flying"they had been destroyed…cut off! Chickens, parrots, turkeys, and other flying birds had similar procedures applied to their wings to prevent them from flying away. The horror upon realizing that he had truly become trapped like some sort of caged pet caused Alexis to sit as though he’d been paralyzed by the hyper-sedative again. This time, however, he would not fall into a dreamless sleep"reality had him clasped in its grimy fingers.

“Up,” repeated the woman forcefully as she grabbed hold of Alexis’s arm and forcefully yanked both his body and mind back into the present moment.

Alexis jerked his arm back in panic and shook his head violently, saying in whispering whimpers, “no, no, no, no, no” as his wings folded closer to his body and his arms moved to shield his head. The guards had no patience for this and two came from either side of the panicking nonhuman and tore his arms from his head and drug his body from the examining table. In a defensive instinct, Alexis rose his wings and beat them against his assailants in both an attempt to free himself from their grasp and fly away. Unfortunately for him, neither of those things happened.

The woman pulled a taser from her belt, bent under the heavily-beating wings"which the two men held up an arm, each, to defend against"and hit Alexis in the belly with it. He instantly doubled over in pain, and his arms, wings, and legs went limp. The men on either side of him then guided him down to the floor as the woman asked for “bindings” from the young man in the lab coat. 

The young man left the room for a few minutes, but when he came back, Alexis barely registered as he and the woman gathered up the seventeen-foot wingspan and belted them against Alexis’s body in an “X” shape along his back, bringing them to his front, then finally securing them to his back, where he couldn’t reach to undo them.  Alexis had bound his wings before, but this method caused him both pain and discomfort, as the humans had made them too tight"likely on purpose. He had a sinking feeling that his treatment at their hands would only get worse.