1 Chapter 1

"Subject 23 Zephyr, right?" a unfamiliar voice said in the midst of all the destruction, she wore a friendly smile as she held out her hand for me to hold onto.

"Who are you..?" I asked quietly, my whole body was shaking.

"Hold onto my hand and I'll guide you out of here." she answered, avoiding my question but she replied with a soft and gentle tone.

Tempted, I reached out my hand but before I could even grasp her hand, she squeezed mine and dragged me out of the room I was being held captive in.

She navigated her way through the endless hallways with unconscious bodies of security guards littered all over the ground.

"Beta reporting. I've got Zephyr, subject 23. Over." she said into her small microphone in a serious tone while still watching out for danger.

"I can't..run, please." I murmured, running out of breath, my whole body felt like it was on fire, my vision was getting more blurry by the second.

To my surprise, she stopped and turned back, staring at me with discontent blooming in her eyes. "You are a mutate, aren't you?" she asked, suspicious.

Taken aback, my hands started shaking again, sweat was dropping down my forehead. I was afraid, even if these people seem like they'll save me, they didn't seem any better than the scientists.

"Listen here, no matter how great is your potential like my leader says, I'm not risking my life for you." she said, making things clear. Her tone and expression had completely changed from earlier.

I gulped and ran after her even if my whole body was on fire, even if I didn't want to.

She eventually reached a large white metal door that has already been open and turned back to make sure I was still following her. I walked through the large metal door and the moment I did, a large bell chime went off.

"You didn't remove his tag?!" a male voice said, alarmed.

"I was sure I did! It was on his shirt!" she replied back, dashing to me and checking my shirt for the 'tag'.

"Move." another voice said,it sounded serious and stern. Enough to send chills down my spine as I stood there, rooted to the ground like a tree.

"Zephyr. We're going to save you from here, you need to tell us where your tag is." the voice said, slowly lowering himself to my eye level.

The only thing that registered into my mind was the word 'save' at that time. Shivering, I slowly moved my hand up and pointed to my mouth.

Without any second thought, the man forced open my mouth and started searching for the 'tag' without sparing me any thought while I choked.

"Found it." he said to his partners, soon, I felt something beneath my tongue breaking apart into metal pieces.

"The tracker is removed. We got subject 23 and 333 in the clear." the man said, standing up and walking towards his partners while dragging me along by the shoulder.

"Beta here, 2 out of the 3 subjects have been retrieved. Waiting for subject 178. Over." the female said, looking around.

"The labs has sent new guards. I can hear their footsteps." she said, placing her hand over her ear. "They are on the floor beneath us. We should eliminate them as below us is the path Ray is going to pass along with subject 178." she suggested.

There were 7 people total in the room, they all wore gas masks of different colors and elaborate uniforms that were all different except for a logo of a knife on the top left of the uniform.

I slowly stepped back, feeling threatened. Who were these people..? Are they really going to rescue me? How do they know my name? Why do th-

"Hey kid, you having a panic attack over there?" a deep voice said, standing up with a gun by his side.

"no.." I murmured, looking down at my feet.

"What'd you say?" he asked, sounding hostile.

"Stop it Brandon, he's afraid of you." another person said.

"Well why?" the tall buff guy supposedly named Brandon answered. "I just wanted to know what powers he has."

"You can do that later. Place Subject 23 and 333 together so we can watch over them." the same voice replied, pointing at a figure on the other side of the room.

"ah right uh.. Ethan, can you stay beside Zephyr so we'll be able to watch over you guys?" Brandon asked.

"Hey..don't joke with me." a voice said, walking out of the darkness to reveal a young boy with dark red hair and piercing gray eyes. He wore a large white shirt, indicating that he was one of the lab rats.

I slowly look up and made eye contact with Ethan, he stared at me with hatred in his eyes, it was clear he hated my guts. The reason? Even I'm not sure of that. I'm never sure of anything.

"You were the kid that stared at me like I was a nuisance when I was struggling for my life, avoiding to get dragged into cyrostatic Chambers.." Ethan said, his voice getting louder when he advanced towards me threateningly.

I didn't answer. What should I say to him? That I'm sorry? I don't know what to say to please these people. I rather go back.. even if I wasn't treated well, I rather not be treated and stared at as if I was defected.

"Why you shaking? scared? regretful?" Ethan said, walking towards me and grabbing my hair roughly.

"What are you doing?!" a female voice called out, alarmed, she jumped off from the table and pulled Ethan back by the collar.

"He-" before Ethan could finish his sentence a man blocked him.

"Enough. Just sit beside him in silence." he said, sounding irritated.

Once Ethan unwillingly settled down beside me, he made an annoyed tch sound and crossed his arms. "Bastard. You're a fake, aren't you?" he whispered to me, not letting the adults hear.

I kept quiet and kept my head down as I listened in on their conversation.

"Tina, Brandon and Kay stay here and watch over them. We're going down to eliminate the threat." a person ordered.

Instantly, everyone rushed out with speed and with weapons in their hands. Their eyes were serious as they shone with determination, it was refreshing to see honestly.

"Zephyr was it?" Tina asked, she was the person who had dragged me here. It seemed like she settled down beside her partners and made herself comfortable.

"My power is hearing. I can hear everything from a 20 meter radius, in any direction." she said, still looking at me intensely as if inspecting me.

"It's a thing to introduce ourselves as we are to work together. We're the same kind, a special case of mutates." Brandon stated when he saw confused faces of Ethan and mine.

"Well, I'll take the opportunity to introduce myself then. I'm Kay short for Kayden. I have a power that'll allow me to create chains out of my hands, isn't that cool?" Kay said, he really seemed like an optimistic person.

"I'm Brandon, I can turn any of my body parts into something of that a wolf has. Claws and all. You should see me at full moon." he said, introducing himself. "Nows your turn ain't it?" he stated, sounding happier this time.

Ethan sighed and leaned his head back on the wall, "A power that'll allow me to explode things with a touch of my finger. It does have limits though." he places his hand out to show the bruises and scars on them.

"You'd be a great asset to our offense team Ethan." Tina complimented, before turning her attention towards me. "And you?"

Everybody's eyes were on me, even including Ethan. I was nervous, I didn't really know which or what I should even say, sweat starting dripping down my forehead.

"Hello? Earth to Zephyr?" Tina called out to me, sounding annoyed. She jumped off the counter as her boots made loud clicking sounds that made me even more anxious.

Lucky or not, I was saved by the sound of a loud crack beneath the floor. The whole laboratory was shaking as the ceilings started to fall on us, dusts were coming out of the walls.

"I told him to control his power." Tina murmured to herself, she sighed and shook her head.

"The rest will be fine. It'll be better to leave first, before the building crashes and burn. I'd never expected them to start it without a warning." Brandon said, standing up with haste as he grabbed a large bag and sling it over his shoulder.

Ethan jumped up and followed after Kay who was leaving the room, I followed behind them, leaving a large distance between us.

Before we could even walk a far distance, we were surrounded by mutiple guards who wore gas masks and were pointing their guns to us, screaming and ordering us to stop in our tracks immediately.

"SUBJECT 23, ZEPHYR FOUND. LEVEL 6A NEED IMMEDIATE BACKUP." a man yelled loud enough for the whole level to hear.

"We don't have any offens-" Tina stopped her sentence before turning to Ethan.

Without hesitation, Ethan lashed out and bended to the floor and created a blast that was strong enough to make the ceiling fall on the guards. Dusts exploded everywhere, the sound was atrocious.

The four started running down the hallway and came to a halt. "Ethan, blast through the wall and we're going to fall down from here. We won't die from this height, we'll heal fast anyway. This is the fastest route before we get caught." Kay instructed, folding up his sleeves and placing his hands on his microphone.

"Team Beta leaving Laboratory." he said before looking at his members and nodded at each other.

Ethan was breathing heavily, the blast he created just now was not so strong but he was worn out from the running and the drugs that the scientists had injected into him before was still in effect.

"Give..me a moment." he gasped out.

The trio was shocked at how out of breath Ethan had seem, he was a mutate therefore he should've better physical qualities than normal humans.

"Sorry..the drugs.." he murmured, giving a small explanation as to why he was worn out. He placed his hand on the metal wall and it started vibrating. "Cover just in case the debris fly towards you."

The metal wall shocked violently and eventually exploded into large pieces of metal that flew in every direction, almost hitting Brandon. They all nodded and took a deep breath.

"We're jumping on the count of 3." Kay instructed, extremely calm as he had done this before.

"1 2 3." Tina counted, everyone took a leap of faith and closed their eyes and braced themselves for impact.

"Subject 333 has escaped successfully with the terrorists. Subject 23, Zephyr has been retained and captured." A man announced through mic that sounded around the whole Laboratory, updating his team of the news.