Welcome to Gaia! ::

[[bump]]

Hound stood from the bed and straightened his legs...fully. His height seemed to increase and then there was a locking sound as his special joints locked into place. Hound then asked, "What are crutches?" Hound normally stood 8ft1, but with his legs straightened, that was increased by a good three or four inches.

((Woo, no response for the slaughter house. I love it.))

Yani was watching the goings-on in the Disciplinary Room from the one-way viewing window. He didn't particularly enjoy the gruesomeness of it, an aspect Jared enjoyed, but he understood with a grimness that it was necessary. If TAIS had kept tighter rein on her Chimeran counterpart, the Chimera wouldn't have escaped.

But Yani was partly to be blamed for this as well. He shouldn't have been so loose in hiring Smoke. He had underestimated the man, had decided that the practical man Jared had known years ago had discarded his morals for pure logic. Though he was still practical, as Yani had had time to discover first-hand, his morals were still intact. Someone had helped him keep them, but Yani detected no one close to Smoke in his life. Mr. Galaway had never mentioned anyway close to him, nor had he hinted that there was someone back home he needed to be there for.

In any case, the man had gotten in their way, and had miraculously chosen the best time to have escaped. And the best time was when TAIS lost control.

TAIS loss of control was highly improbable. Yani had calculated the chances himself. The creation of Hiccadu had increased the likeliness, but only slightly. How Smoke had managed to capture that split second window of opportunity so perfectly was a mystery to Yani. Either the man was a genius, or just unusually lucky.

In either case, they had to find him and kill him, preferably before the Chimerae were discovered by a more powerful source than their own. Like the US government, as abashed as he was to admit it.

But he doubted they would do much to stir up a controversy. They had enough on their hands to worry about.

He left the room, signaling to the soldier to continue on until TAIS had deemed it necessary, and headed for the infirmary. It seemed his son was spending more time there than in his own bedroom or chasing the Chimerae, as he was supposed to.

Lying on a cot in the white-washed room was the scientist's son, looking remarkably better than he had only hours previously. The blood transfusions had helped immensely, and color had returned to his cheeks long ago. The dead red blood cells had been cleaned from his face, though traces of it were still in the corners of his eyes.

Unlike previous times, Jared was awake this time. He was propped up in his bed, silently fuming. He hated, absolutely detested, staying still for any period of time. He was turning over a coin in his hand, watching the wall opposite him. The television was off, and Devon was in the bed beside him, but he seemed more content to be mad at the world.

He could have told his father not to hire Galaway. But he was never told of his involvement until yesterday afternoon. By then, the job was assured and his input would have meant nothing.

And look where it had gotten him.

"You're sense of judgment is fading fast, Father." Jared didn't look at his father when he spoke, but clenched the coin in a tight, white-knuckled fist.

Yani cleared his throat, then stood in Jared's vision, mute. His son had no right to show such disrespect, and there was nothing Yani wanted to discuss with his son at that moment. In truth, if he could have gone his entire life without talking to him as a father talks to a son, he would have.

He had partially succeeded.

"How is your recovery coming along?" he asked, tilting his head to look directly at Devon, curtailing any possible conversation with Jared.

Devon slowly regained consciousness and his vision became more clear. He looked to see his boss looking down at him. He coughed and then said "oh, hello sir. I'm getting better. My wounds are healing. It seems Hiccadu didn't get in as deep as I originally thought. It will be a while to recover, but I'm making progress".

"Hiccadu got in as deep as you thought," Yani returned with a brief nod. "Luckily, TAIS was able to heal your body more rapidly than most thought she was capable. You have a choice to recuperate in the infirmary until you're able-bodied again, or we can provide you with a wheelchair to continue your experiments. Though not," he added seriously "as extensively as on the feline-avian Chimera." The entire thing was a fiasco. The research they had obtained from Panther wasn't even worth the escape of double-digit Chimerae.

In the hotel, Smoke regarded Red curiously before answering. It was disheartening, having to answer a Chimera with the reason that they had to hide who they were. "We'll need to disguise you somehow, so they don't throw you back into those cages. Throw us into cages." In reality, Smoke knew they wouldn't cage him, wouldn't imprison him in any way. He would disappear from under the radar, vanish from the face of the Earth. And he had no one close enough to realize he was even gone. He would be dead in heartbeats if the scientists found him again, either at the mercy of Jared's sadism or Yani's genius. It wouldn't be a cage for him.

John pulled on the duffel bag that Smoke had left in their room, rummaging through the other articles of clothing. He found all sorts of things besides normal clothes, from masks and funny hats to long socks and over-sized shoes, to skirts and chaps. None of which particularly interested him, but he was looking for one thing in particular...

Which he didn't find. They needed a shovel, but they didn't have one. He bit his tongue, realizing that he shouldn't need to worry about burying his little sister, realizing that he was still just a teenager.

Realizing that, if he didn't, no one would.

Apsalar knew she wasn't alone in the room - she could smell others. Two distinctive scents, partly masked by older ones, but fresh enough to be picked out. One she wasn't familiar with, but the other - the other she knew well.

She turned away from the window. Following the scent, she crouched down by the soft thing she had instinctively avoided - such comforts were not for the likes of them; when they got them, pain inevitably followed - and looked beneath it. "Tobart?" she asked, looking confused.

The girl gave a slight shake of her head. It was not due to amusement or irritation with Tobart's hiding place, but rather annoyance with herself for not having thought of it. She had resigned herself to remaining on the floor, curled up by the wooden box that stood by the soft thing as a rather pathetic mode of hiding. But it seemed the soft thing could also be a cave. She just hadn't realized it.

"Tobart, safe," she told him, still peeking under the bed like a child playing hide-and-seek. "Come. See." She wanted him to see the beautiful, bright thing that was outside the clear barrier. Though the word for outside would not occur to her even now that she had been in it, she knew that it was beautiful - knew too, somehow, that it was right.

Where were the others? She didn't know, couldn't understand it. There had never been a time when she hadn't been able to see them, either by peeking through the holes on the floor or looking through the bars. Though she was sure that they were around - faintly, she could smell other scents that were familiar to her - it didn't occur to her that she could simply open the door and go find them.

After all, it had never before been an option.

Red listened to his answer. "Why would they put you in a cage...? You weren't in one before..." She asked softly. It didn't make any sense to her. Her mind was cluttered with everything that has happened lately. It was a lot to sort through and make sense of, and it would take some time for her.