Vykis
Legacy Name: Vykis

All alone, locked in her cage, Vykis stares out into the vast emptiness of the large storage unit the scientists are calling their laboratory. Somewhere in the darkness, electricity sparks, and ignites a blue flame. Her young eyes wrinkled with worry... they're going to do it again... another experiment.

She watches as they pour neon liquids, in and out of strangely shaped bottles, sucking them into syringes, and pushing them through diaphragms into neatly labeled vials...

She listens on as the other subjects panic, scratching at the walls, and running around in their little cages, trying to escape. There's no hope, and she knows it... Their efforts are all in vain. There is no escape.

She's picked fourth this time... One less than before... another subject must have met their twisted fate at the hands of these wicked scientists.

They lift her out of the little metal enclosure, unlike the others she has accepted her fate. Clawing at their protective gloves won't help. It will only drain her of what little energy is left... so she sits still as they clamp her down.
They strap her to the small, cold, steel table used for these types of experiments...

They pour a strange, bitter liquid in her mouth. She tries to spit it out, choking on the taste alone... but they've got their hands on her, and they're holding her mouth shut. She swallows it, gagging.

This wasn't like the last time. Now she's beginning to feel drowsy, and the dim colors of the laboratory are blurring in front of her, darkening, mixing together in a melodious harmony of deep purples and neon blues... It's getting harder to breath, and her heartbeat is slowing. Her eyelids, full of lead, are closing for the last time...

Behind closed eyes, her mind runs with a fluidity that it had never before. She's light, floating... no longer tied down by her physical form. She can still hear the scientists behind her. Finally, she is free from their torment ...or so she thought.

"Commencing phase two,"...Phase two? Phase two of what?
A pinprick. A small sharp pain, and then nothing.

She's suddenly pulled back into their world with a flash of brilliant white light, and searing pain shooting through her brain. Her still heart aching for wishing it was beating, and suddenly... unexpectedly... it does. "Success!" She hears cheers, and congratulations, "We've done it!"

But have they?

Her brittle little heart is beating now, harder and faster than it ever has before...
Her lungs fill to the capacity, and she can breath, better than ever.
Breathing, feeling, thinking... everything is so much better than before...

She's stronger, faster, she can feel it in her bones... she knows she can escape now.
The silly little latch on the bars is no longer a conundrum to her newly advanced mentality.
Still strapped to the table, her mind soars, yearning to be free, she starts to thrash around in the leather ties holding her down.

In all her thrashing she never felt the sting.
One. Tiny. Pinprick.


...and she was gone.

SECTION TWO TEXT HERE