*All characters copyrighted to Poseidon Simons

Chapter 6

A Nightmare

Come True

 

                "Johnny?..James...you guys out here?.."  Poseidon called.  He shivered and scrunched a little tighter.  It was cold out today...or at least, there was a chill wind blowing.  Poseidon hoped that the wind wasn't betraying his presence to some strange animal.  He didn't want to become some creature's mid-afternoon snack!..on the other hand, James might smell him and find HIM.  Maybe James had gotten free?..maybe he'd found Johnny.  Maybe they were just hiding somewhere...like Poseidon had done the first time...

                A particularly strong gust of wind blew at his back.  He scrunched a little more, "James?  Johnny?"  He called out again.  There was no answer.

                Walking along in this strange place made his mind create horrible ideas of gnashing teeth and claws jumping out at him.  He strayed away from every shadow, his nerves tight.  This place seemed...cold.  It was a strange form of cold...he couldn't feel it on his skin, but inside himself...a long unseen fear driven forcefully back to the surface.  There was just something about this forest that creeped him out.  He felt like he was walking down one of those spooked, ghost-infested paths you only read about in horror stories.  A few more hesitant calls, then Poseidon gave up.  It was too cold, too frightening, to be here right now.  He'd come back on a warmer day...

                Well, at least that's what he told himself.  His legs seemed to have other ideas.  They trudged forward automatically, never ceasing in their direction unless Don wanted to stay away from some exceptionally large shadow.  Only then did they stray from their original course, soon to come right back, "Fine..."  He told himself sourly, "I'll fly away."  But, try as he might, he couldn't bring himself to lift his wings.  It was like a heavy weight kept him grounded, kept him going in this one direction.  What did his body have in mind that he didn't?.."Oh no...GOD no..."  He felt his forehead.  It throbbed again, but...but it WASN'T his chip...it was something else, buried deeper, farther back in his mind.

                The memory came suddenly, without ANY prompting, "Is he ready?"

                "Yessir.  He'll obey every command we give him...whether he WANTS to or not."

                "Good.  With this and the other chip, we'll have the ultimate fighter on our hands.  Able to lift things without touching them, changing their size, even the OTHER modifications we put into that chip will enhance him unlike anything we've ever done before...and his inhibitor chip will give US total control.  Good work."

                "Thank you sir."

                Don had forgotten that part...he'd only been half awake.  There was a second chip in his head!  A SECOND ONE!!!!  They were controlling him!!!!

                "No, let me go!  LET ME GO!!!!!!!!"  He shouted, agonized.  For the slightest moment, he had control back.  He stumbled; fell.  By the time he realized he could get up and run away, his forehead began to irritate him, forced him back to his feet, and made him walk on.

                There it was...that damn building.  It was exactly the same...even his nightmares of the place hadn't distorted his memory of it...

                He was going back, and there was NOTHING he could do.

 

                "Griffin, get the door."

                "Father?..what do you mean?"

                His father didn't even look away from Johnny's form, "I SAID go get the door.  Open it up!  HE'S coming."

                "Uhhh...'He' father?"

                "Do I have to say everything?!!  Poseidon!  That--that...YOU KNOW!!!!  He's coming here and I want you to let him in!"

                "L--let him in?!  But Father!  What about the--"

                "Nevermind that!  This is VITAL!  Let him in."

                Griffin ran away to do as he'd been asked...or, told, anyway.  Why were they letting Poseidon in?!  What about that story?.."I don't think he's dangerous, Father."  Griffin had said.

                His father had scowled at that, "You don't know ANYthing, do you?"

                "I'd like to know..."

                "Listen.  Do you know how you were created?"

                "You would never say..."

                "It has to DO with Poseidon.  It was his blood sample that made you.  We had to take it from him by force.  He tried to resist EVERYTHING we did.  At first, we had tried to make him comfortable...you know, so he wouldn't feel threatened.  When we did that, he raged against us; tried to get away.  We had to get it by force, holding him down, constantly filling him with tranquilizers.  It was hellish, the way he fought.  Our agreement had been to give him his chip if he gave US a blood sample.  He agreed to it at first...but once he got the chip, he fought at every opportunity to get away.  The chip only made things harder for us.  We manage ONE blood sample before he found a way to escape us."

                "But...but when I met him, he seemed so WEAK.  How could he have done anything?  He was barely awake when I found him!"

                "Trickery.  He's a master at it."

                Griffin shook his head.  This was confusing him.  If Poseidon had fought so hard to get away, why was he coming back?  Why didn't Father seem worried about this?  It was almost like Poseidon was expected..."I wish I knew what was going on..."  He reached the door and pulled it open just as Poseidon was walking at it.  He looked scared..."Poseidon?.."

                "Griffin?!  Griffin, you've got to help me!  They're controlling me!!!  I can't get away!  I can't... ... ... ...help me..."  Poseidon's eyes had gone wide.  He'd seen something...Griffin glanced in the same direction and saw one of his father's failed experiments.  They hadn't gotten around to disposing of the body yet.  What was the big deal?  It hadn't been able to live more than a week!  Why was Poseidon getting so worked up about thi--"HELP MEE!!!!!"  Griffin looked back at Poseidon, who was walking into a room much like Griffin's, except it had no training equipment.  It had a bed, and a smaller, seperate room with a toilet, and that was it.  The doors were all electronically operated.  It opened when Poseidon approached and closed when he was inside.  Griffin came up to the door, but it didn't open for him.  He thought he could hear Poseidon crying inside..."Augh!  My chip!"  He growled and rubbed his forehead, annoyed at his chip...then left.

 

                Poseidon wasn't crying...he was whimpering.  He could remember this place too damn well.  They'd prodded around inside him while he'd been awake!  The bright light he was always staring up at, that he half-expected to float up to every waking moment of  his tortured life here.  His innability to move...out of fear, and something they'd done to him.  He could remember the cold metallic table...the searing pain and heat after they closed his skin each day...the horrible blackness that had come for only a short while...at the time they'd put in his micro chips.  It was so horrible...and he was back.  He was back!  There was no compassionate human to free him this time!  He was stuck here...and so were Johnny and James...most likely.  What could he do?  The second chip inside him stopped him from helping in any way!  All he had control of was his mouth...

                He couldn't even control his powers!  All that practice...all that time he'd spent, trying to get used to the tiny chip inside his head...he'd HELPED these people.  He was good at using his chip now!  Don knew how to do so much...but they knew everything too.  They designed the chip!  They controlled him...""I want out...I want to go home...I don't want to be here!"  He told himself, but he stayed huddled in a ball.  Tired?  What use was the bed?!  He was too SCARED to get tired; too scared to MOVE!  His only consolation was that he HAD a bed and a toilet this time.  Last time he'd had neither of those...but now what would they do?

 

                Beremin sat studying the small creature.  He wanted to get two smaples of blood from this tiny thing, but wasn't sure how to start.  They'd need to be fairly big, and it didn't seem like this anthro had that much to spare.

                "Father?"

                It was Griffin.  Beremin went back to his writing, "What is it now, Griffin?"

                "What are you doing?"

                Stupid Griffin...always curious.  Why couldn't he get it into his head to leave Beremin alone?!  Beremin sighed and answered, "Trying to figure out how much blood I can take from this anthro without killing it."

 

                Griffin sat down a little farther back.  It?  He'd referred to Johnny as an it?  But Johnny had been kind.  Johnny was--he was as much like Griffin as his father was human!  There was no difference except in size.  Why would his father call Johnny an it?.."Can I help?"

                "I doubt it...unless..."

                "My size changing power?"

                "That might work...you've only practiced on inanimate objects before this...I don't want you killing it."

                He'd called Johnny an it again..."I think I won't kill him...may I try?"

                "I suppose...but it's going to be hard finding another specimen..."  His father removed Johnny from the capsule, laid him on the floor, then stepped back, "Remember.  I only need it to be the size of a human."

                "Sure..."  Griffen raised his hands and just...thought he wanted Johnny bigger.  In a bright blue flash, he was.

                Griffin's Father bent down and stuck Johnny with a syringe, pulling the blood out quickly, gathering several small containers of blood before backing off so that Griffin could do the rest of his job.  Griffin took the hint and knelt down, placing his hand over the arm his father had stuck.  A little of Griffin's energy left him as it was transferred into Johnny, healing the wound.  Johnny glowed for a moment after...Griffin stood up and shrank Johnny again, then placed him--gently--back into the gel-filled capsule.

 

                Kim watched the window at every chance she got.  Maiky was the only distraction she would give herself...which, whenever she tore her attention from the window and to her son, reminded her of certain things she needed as well.

                But that was one of the OTHER concerns right now.  Where was Johnny?  James?  DON?!  Where were they?!!!  It was getting darker by the minute.  Soon the moon would rise...

                Where were they?

 

                "Ugh..."  James woke to a very nausiating smell.  The room seemed to be full of it, whatever it was...underneath the smell though was one he liked, "FOOD!"  He saw it at the door and raced to it.  It wasn't much, and it didn't look better than gruel, but it was FOOD.  He was hungry!

                So hungry that he didn't notice at first that this was where that other smell was coming from.  He sniffed it carefully, smelled poison...or something like that.  Damn.  He was hungry!  Why couldn't they give him some GOOD food?!

                There was a voice over the speakers, "Eat it, dragon.  It's all the food you're getting until it's gone."

                He wrinkled his nose at the idea, "Are you crazy?!  That's poisoned!  I'm not touching the stuff!"

                "Then you'll starve."

 

                Starve?  What the hell?  Why would his father say that?  Griffin had been about to knock on the door and ask this dragon some questions...the conversation he'd just heard had changed his mind.  Why would Father try to poison this dragon?  Why?  There were so many questions...he had no answers.  Father wouldn't GIVE any answers, and he was the only one Griffin knew who had them.  Now what?  Who could Griffin ask?

                The question stayed with him a long time.  It even the few moments before he was inside his capsule, the question remained.  He made it all the way into the gel and closed his eyes to sleep.  For a moment, he thought he could tell through his eyelids that the lights had been shut off..then slumber took him.

                ...

                ..."What?..I'm awake?.."  He opened his eyes in the capsule.  He wasn't sleeping?  But--but this was his capsule!  IT NEVER let him wake up until morning!  Confused, Griffin pulled himself out of teh container and looked around.  There was no one here.  The place would have seemed dark, but with his new vision it was almost as bright as day.  The only difference he could tell was, when he looked out the window, he saw a moon instead of a sun.  A black sky instead of a blue one.  Wierd.

                Pieces of the gel still clung to him.  He walked around, looking for something to dry him off with.  He'd never woken this way before.  It had always been to the sensation of heat.  He found a towel and dried himself off...realizing after he did so that he was walking around with nothing on.  He found his clothes easily enough, but the mere fact that he had to FIND them made this all feel too strange.  He should just get back into his capsule and wait for morning...he could ask his father what had happened...he could ask his father now.  Surely his father was somewhere here!  This was home!.."Father?  Father, where are you?"  He called as he wandered the halls.  Griffon lost himself many times, having never seen over half of the place he was now walking through.

                No one was here.  Not a soul.

                "Father?  Wher are you?  Is anyone here?"  No answer.  Either this was an elaborate joke being played on him or there was really no one here..."Hey wait!  Maybe I can go talk to them right now!"  Yeah!  He could speak to that other dragon.  He could talk to Poseidon and ask why he'd acted so strangely.  He could talk with Johnny and discover why Johnny was so...nice.  Griffin, now with something to do, searched for a familiar part of the building.  Once he found one he went to the large dragon's cell first, "Hey!  Hey, you in there!"

                "Huh?..wha?.."  The voice on the other side sounded tired...maybe he'd just woken up.

                "Hey!  Can we talk?"

                "Who's THIS?!"  The voice suddenly shouted, fully awake.

                Griffin took a step back, but came back, "I'm called Griffin.  What's your name?"

                "James.  What'd you do with Johnny?!!!"

                James knew Johnny?  ANOTHER ONE?!!!!  DAMN IT!  Griffin calmed himself and decided to keep talking.  He wanted to learn more.  That was all, "I took him to my father.  Why?"

                "Why?!  Why're you holding him and me here?!  What'd we do?!"

                Griffin longed to open the door, but the electricity seemed to be off.  It didn't open, or even acknowledge his prescence there, "I don't know...my father just wanted you here.  When I saw the way the drones were bringing you I was worried.  They were handling you WAY too roughly."

                "No!"  James called sarcastically, "Y'think?!"

                "Look...I just want some questions answered, okay?..I hadn't known others like myself existed before I saw you three."

                "THREE?!!  Don's HERE?!  What are you doing to him?!  And what the HELL do you mean that you didn't know there were others like yourself?!  What are you?"

                Griffin sighed.  This was why he'd wanted to be able to see James face to face.  He knew he shouldn't do this...but...

                Griffin studied the door intently, then, when he was sure he'd found the weak spot, gave it one tremendous kick.  The door was still for a moment, then slowly fell inward...it stopped though, and James started shouting, "What the hell did you drop the door on my head for?!  When I find you I'm gonna--"  James had dropped the door and was staring at him, "...No way...Don?  What happened to you?"

                "I'm Griffin...remember?  Look I wanna talk.  That's all.  Can we?"

                James smiled, "The hell with talking!  Do that for Don and Johnny too!  We gotta get out of here!"

                NOW Griffin was confused, "Get out?  Why?  This is my home..."