RY 1011, 3rd month, 11th day, Southern Rift Zone 14, North Carol, Facility 077N.
"Welp, this really sucks. Five of them just stepped out of the Rifts, and they are huge."
"Shut up, dude. This is just on our radar. The radar farther up north is blinking like crazy."
"We can't deploy them, not until the Doc gives the final orders."
"Mhmm, just say you're scared. You've been like that since that kid stomped on your head."
The other two staff laughed at what the man said, pointing at their colleague, who just scoffed and turned to the glass cubicle before them.
"As long as he doesn't get out of there, then we're good," he muttered, eyes fixed on the figure staring right back at him, head tilted slightly to the left.
Two years ago, around the time the facility had been established and prepped for operation, a few of the workers, including the man being laughed at, were sent out to find children.
Abandoned, injured, or a moment from dying. They were to be brought in to kickstart the beginning of their assigned project...
Project Nephlim.
The full name was, Neo-Evolutionary Prototype: Hybrid Integration of Lifeform & Internal Mutation.
It was created by the project designers to push the limits of human evolution and capabilities through artificial means.
Their goal was to forcibly merge compatible humans, mainly children between the ages of six and sixteen, with the beasts from the Rifts, artificially, in controlled lab environments.
The few who had gone through the biological process ended up either dying or turning into one of them, as a result of the mana imbalance, that would either be too much or less.
Rather than external augmentation, the transformation was entirely biological and internal, altering the subject's blood, organs, and mind at the core level.
And the very first subject, who happened to be near the laboratory when the program launched, was Dorian.
However, no matter what the chief scientist, the laboratory head, or even the facility's own assigned hybrid tried, nothing worked on him.
They thought it was caused by his mana imbalance but after multiple tests, they discovered his was alot, yet nothing came out of everything they did.
So, they had him locked in a specially designed cubicle, made to contain anything. Not even a blade could cut through its doors.
Over the next two years, Subject Zero—Dorian, was kept there. Beaten, fed, injected, and thrown back into his transparent chamber under heavy surveillance.
Despite the security, he had escaped before, though barely. He made it to the exit doors before being shot with a stun gun and locked down permanently.
Now, Dorian sat quietly on the chair at the center of his prison. Head bowed low, dressed in the same black jumpsuit all the other kids brought in after him were given.
His name, or rather, serial number, was stitched inside the collar of his suit. Underneath, he wore basic clothing: shorts or oversized trousers and fitted long-sleeved shirts.
Around his neck was a white collar. It monitored his movements, tracked his location, and would automatically activate if his vitals or reactions spiked.
He'd kept his slender frame, thanks to the staff being generous enough to feed him. But his hair had been left uncut and unkempt.
A knee-length black mass of hair now trailed behind him, resembling a bush.
At the far end of the room was a bed and a shelf where he kept his books and a few objects they'd given him to play with.
Additionally, his hands were always cuffed and attached to the chains connected to his legs.
"Hey."
He called out in a low voice. Despite the vacuum within the room, there were microphones and speakers everywhere.
They all turned as soon as he spoke.
"What is it, kid?" said the staff who had earlier joked about his colleague.
Dorian slowly lifted his head, revealing his sunken face, cracked lips, and dull eyes.
"I'm hungry."
"And what are we supposed to do about that?"
"Get me food. Isn't that what you were hired to do?"
The man laughed, turning to glance at his colleagues, who laughed awkwardly but with clear concern in their eyes.
He turned back to Dorian. "Have you forgotten how to ask politely? You know the doctors won't take you being rude lightly."
Dorian stared at them through the curtain of his hair. He glanced at the female staff standing by the alarm button, her fingers hovering nervously above it.
Then to the man he'd attacked a few days ago.
Then finally, back to the one speaking.
"...Please get me some food."
"See? That wasn't hard. Now, Rose—"
"Yes, sir!" the female staff called out with a trembling voice. She stepped away from her post and leaned closer to him.
"Get him a bottle of warm water and the hot bagel in the microwave. You can add a few sides, but no..." he looked back at Dorian, finishing the sentence. "No forks. Or toothpicks."
Dorian stifled a laugh, "Didn't think you guys would develop PTSD that easily."
"What was that?!" the man barked.
"Nothing!"
The female staff hurried out of the chamber, closing the massive metal door behind her.
She returned a few minutes later holding a tray. Now fully dressed in armor, complete with a helmet covering her head.
The other staff stepped back as she approached the lever to open the door to Dorian's cubicle. She pushed it open and locked it behind her.
Taking a deep breath, she held it as she approached the table where Dorian sat. She gently placed the tray on it and turned to leave, but flinched when he looked at her.
"I still don't get why you people are scared. I'm just a kid, aren't I?"
She froze, then slowly nodded, "Yes."
"I wouldn't dare hurt a fly, you see," he gestured toward the man he had attacked, "He was trying to put something in me. Something bad."
"Oh," she mumbled, but never let her gaze leave him.
She wasn't supposed to talk to any of the subjects, but Miss Yvonne, the assigned hybrid, had instructed all the female staff not to act hostile toward the children.
She had emphasized on Subject Zero's case especially.
"You should eat," Rose managed to say when Dorian stared at the other staff members for too long. He didn't spare her a glance, just kept his eyes on the others even as he lifted the bagel to his lips.
"Thank you for the meal," he muttered and took a big bite, the kind that left a full imprint of teeth on the bread.
He then dropped his eyes to the tray and slowly picked up the glass cup. Raising it to his eye, he noticed there were particles floating inside.
He cast a brief look at her, then downed the contents anyway.
The next few seconds were filled with the sound of his loud chewing. He asked for more water, which she obediently brought, along with a few other things.
Ice cream, fruits and Chips.
Afterward, he was told to rest, something he had initially protested but eventually gave in to. He reluctantly rested his head on the desk.
Suddenly, murmurs drifted in from outside the cubicle. He peeked from behind his hand and saw the staff suiting up in their biosuits and armor.
Rose was nowhere to be found, but her colleagues were there, three he recognized easily. But two more had joined them, hefty men in plain black shirts and trousers, no armor.
"It's already day eleven..."
One of the hefty men said, unaware that the microphones in the chamber were active. He turned to face the cubicle, staring directly at Dorian without realizing Dorian was watching.
The man smirked and nudged his friend. "He looks pretty small for seventeen, don't you think?"
His friend frowned, narrowing his eyes. "That's a he?"
The man shrugged. "I don't know. They said he was."
"That's a damn girl. No male human has hair that long. Except maybe the kids in the East."
"Look, I don't care what gender it is. Let's pick them up, take him downstairs, and get out of this place before another one tries to escape."
Dorian, silently observing, had his bottom lip tucked in his mouth, while his mind raced to think of something—anything.
"Protocol One!"
A voice suddenly rang from the speakers across the entire lab, a voice Dorian could identify even with his eyes closed.
His eyes slowly widened as a chilling realization crawled down his spine.
"Chief Breanna speaking. Is Team Zero ready?"
The hefty men raised their palms, facing the camera by the door.
"Good," she paused.
"Electrical Management, lock down the north wing, facility gate, and seal all doors on my end."
"Security team, move to the field on the first floor."
"Miss Yvonne, please head out of the building and to the rift fields, there a five beasts heading towards us.."
"Team Zero, take the boy to the first floor, and make sure he doesn't leave there alive."
A long silence followed. Then her voice returned, low and laced with the hate she had been building over time
"And a small warning to you, Zero. If you do much as attempt what you did last time, I will not hesitate to kill you myself.
"That goes for the team as well. If you fail....find a way out of the building. Or I'll make you all lab rats."
"Now proceed."