So...We meet again...

[Matsi]

Iona walked into the testing room. The testing beds and tables lined the room. Her now white clothing was a big contrast to her dark hair and crimson eyes. She walked to the furthest table and sat on it, used to the routeen. She began to wonder who was in her testing session this week.

Silence seemed to shake her eardrums.

She sighed heavily. She didnt like the wait between arriving and the testing. She, as always, was a little afraid for the testing, but it was nothing that she couldnt control. She didnt really care what they did to her now.

Still silence.

She sighed again and began to count the moments...

[Cedar]

There was a sharp pressure between his shoulder blades, and Sam was pushed into the testing room, followed by a certain head scientist.

Alexander Mercury Campbell.

But he seemed vaguely puzzled upon spotting Iona, "What're you doing here?" he questioned, pushing Sam sideways and walking up to the girl, tilting her chin upwards to examine her curiously.

"I thought I had this room booked for Sam?" Mercury blinked curiously, but he shrugged it off. "Oh well. Whoever I have assigned to you will be punished later." he turned around to face Sam, pointing at a nearby table.

The boy jumped up on the table, looking vaguely as if he were sulking. His eyes flickered sideways, towards Iona, and a smug smile spread across Sam's face. "What're we doing this time?" he questioned, pointedly ignoring the girl. He still needed to decide how he was going to approach her, after the way she'd reacted to him last night.

Mercury snorted, "I'm not telling you that." he gave the boy an admonishing glance, before patting his shoulder. "But you won't feel it, you know." he lifted up the syringe, "I promise."

Sam eyed the syringe cautiously, but he didn't jump up and run screaming away, something Mercury seemed to appreciate. "You're a good boy, you know?"

Sam shrugged expressively. He didn't like being called a 'good boy' but he'd live with it. Whatever it took to get out of here so he could go back to working on Iona. She was an enigma, he wanted to figure out how to rope her in.

[Matsi]

A female scientist that Iona didnt really recognize walked in.
''Mercury,'' She said with a nod. At the sound of her voice, Iona went stiff.
''I hope youve been treating my little girl nicely,'' She said in a teasing tone as she looked at Iona. Iona's breathing began to pick up as she felt mixed emotions start to rise in her chest. Anger was the major one. Snarls began to echo and rumble in her, but before she could move, she was chained. She tried to lunge at Molly, but couldnt go more than a few inches from the bed.

''Trator, Killer, Liar,'' Iona snapped as she tried to get to Molly. Her fangs were bared and anger was clear on her face as her ears were pinned and her tail lashed side to side.

''I see she has her father's anger,'' Molly said as she looked to Mercury.

[Cedar]

Mercury nodded, "I treat all of them well. She just never appreciates it." He laughed, "You're new here, aren't you?" Well, it didn't matter. This was one of those rooms with a few tables. Three, actually. Not that many, but considering most only had one, it was an oddity. Mercury used this room to make his experiments feel like the lab was bigger than it was.

He turned to Sam, pushing the boy flat on his back. The boy didn't fight back, even as Mercury fixed the restraints. This was a security thing, even though Mercury doubted that the boy would fight. Sam had been here for many years, he'd never tried to escape or hurt a guard in all of his time, though it was still possible that the boy was merely biding his time. Mercury deftly moved the syringe towards a vein in the boy's arm, emptying the syringe in a few seconds, whereupon, he stepped away.

Sam yawned, "Don't fight, Iona. It'll get over faster if you don't---" and then the anesthetic kicked in. He was out like a light, sleeping in an instant. You could've shot him, and he wouldn't have woken up, the anesthesia they used on the DNAs was quite powerful, it was very rare that one woke up before a good hour had been spent sleeping with the anesthetic in affect.

Mercury bustled over to a drawer marked with 'box jellyfish' and pawed through it, looking for just the right things to use that day. He wasn't sure how much experimentation he planned on doing that day, if he'd even experiment at all. He didn't always experiment, but as he had another scientist in there, he would probably end up doing so.

A syringe filled with crimson blood was the first thing he pulled out. That would do.

[Matsi]

Iona snarled, ignoring sam. She wanted nothing more than to tear her mother apart.
''Calm child, i am only seeing how you have grown,'' Molly said coldly as she only grabbed enough anesthetic to calm Iona to the point that the wolf dna could hardly move.

It took molly a few tries to get the needle into Iona, but when she did, the drug took over quickly, thanks to Iona's rushing blood.

Iona was soon relaxed, laying on the table, but still growling and cursing. Her ears were slightly pinned.

Molly was soon looking over Iona as if she was a new species of animal. She ran her hands over Iona's limbs, feeling the bone structure and looked at her eyes and teeth with various instruments.

''OUCH!'' Molly yelped as she jumped back from Iona for a moment. Iona laughed groggily.
SMACK!
Iona was soon silent, pain surging from the red slap mark on her face.
''NEVER...BITE...YOUR MOTHER!'' Molly scolded with blazing anger as she put a bandaide on the now bleeding bite mark on her hand.

[Cedar]

Mercury was trying to ignore them. It wasn't really working out for him, but he was trying. You had to give him credit for that, even as he emptied what was left of the drawer of instruments onto the table beside Sam's limp body.

The syringe of blood rested beside Sam's hand, and the other instruments; various needles and vials and other simple lab equipment were dumped near his head.

"Are you going to stand for that?" Mercury couldn't keep his mouth shut any longer, "I recomend sedation. They're a lot easier to work with if they're sedated." he gestured vaguely with his free hand towards Sam as he carefully dropped a small amount of blood onto a lab slide, heading towards the microscope briskly.

"I mean, Sam never fights back. But sedated, he's one of the best lab patients I've ever had. I did well picking him." There was a smug smile on Mercury's face as he remembered finding Sam. The poor thing had been happy to leave his home behind and head for the lab, even if he hadn't been exactly sure what was going to happen to him.

[Matsi]

Molly smiled sllightly.
'' I need her awake enough to speak,'' She said simply. Iona was still closed eyed, boiling with anger from the smack that still stung her face.
''She is a wolf dna. Dominance is all oyu need,'' She said with a small laugh as she walked back over to iona who didnt even growl now. Her crimson eyes still burned with anger, but her fear of another face stinging smack stopped her from moving. She was slightly groggy from the seditive, but she could understand everything.
''Iona, How old are you now?'' Molly asked. Yes she knew, but she had to make sure that Iona was awkae enough to know her own age.
Iona didnt speak. She didnt want to speak to her mother.

[Cedar]

Mercury nodded, "Sound enough reasoning. I hope she's sedated enough that she doesn't fight, though." as he said that, he slipped the slide into place beneath the microscope, peering at it cautiously.

He scribbled some notes on the notepad conveniently placed right by the microscope, "I don't need him awake for most of the testing, myself. I like to think that I don't put them through unnecessary pain, even if they aren't human, you know?" finished examining the lab slide, he pushed it into the trash, gathering up the notepad and heading back to Sam's bedside.

"Too many white blood cells could mean he's fighting an infection, or it could just be natural..." he muttered to himself, jotting down a few more notes as he did so. "An infection could be bad. Next time I see him, I'll look him over for some obvious diseases. And if nothing comes up, oh well. DNAs are fairly expendable. Even if he is one of my favorites." a few more notes as he spoke, and he was pretty much done.

Now all he had to do was wait for Sam to wake up.

As if on cue, the boy stirred and moaned to himself. Still, Sam wouldn't be waking up for a good while. 20 more minutes or so. Maybe even longer, considering the amount of sedative that had been injected.

[Matsi]

Molly laughed. ''No pain will be caused. No..physical...pain.'' She said softly.
''Now. Answer Iona.'' She snarled.
Iona thought for a moment.
''s-seventeen,'' She said softly, trying to hold in her snarl. Her eyes were closed now. She didnt want to see the face of the one who had brought her into the world, the one who had betrayed her, the face of pain.
''Good'' Molly said with a nod as she looked at Iona's tail.
Molly soon found out that Iona was touchy about her tail, for she snarled and snapped her jaws, making a loud cracking noise.

[Cedar]

"Physical pain, of course." Mercury amended, "Emotional pain is merely entertaining to watch. I tend to do it more where people can watch their emberassment. It's more entertaining that way." he chuckled, patting Sam's head in a condescending manner.

Sam twitched again, his arms straining slightly against the bindings. He was beginning to wake up, but it would still take a significant amount of time before he was fully awake. Sedatives worked like that, and Sam's sedatives were more heavy than most.

Mercury laughed humorlessly, pushing a lock of silvery hair from the boy's eyes. "I do enjoy this one. He provides entertainment in the way he attempts to imitate me. But he has some misguided loyalty to this lab. He has yet to try and escape, and for that, I am grateful. I couldn't replace him, you know? A lot of my work has been based off the affects of his animal DNA inside his system." he was jabbering to himself, mostly, to fill the silence, but the youngish scientist that worked beside him was never forgotten.

[Matsi]

Molly laughed. ''I know, Mercury. You hired me,'' She said with a friendly smile.

''Iona, do you remember your full name?'' She asked as she turned from Mercury with a smile.

Iona had to think.
''Iona blackspirit,'' She said softly. That was the only name she could remember. She glared at her mother with hatered. She wished Sam would wake up and help her in some way.

[Cedar]

Mercury nodded. "You know, I don't remember doing any work on Iona. You did it on your own, correct?" he quirked an eyebrow, still waiting impatiently for Sam to wake up. "Either that, or you worked for one of the other labs?" Condescension dripped from his voice at the thought of other labs.

Mercury had been the creator of the DNA movement, and no other lab in the world could boast of non-natural shapeshifters as he could. He'd created non-natural shapeshifters.

Hah.

He was the best of them all, and that was a fact.

[Matsi]

''Yes, you gave me permission to adminester the dna at home when she was ill,'' She said in a cold voice. ''And then i brought her here.'' She said with a nod. ''I couldnt stand having a daughter, always begging, always wanting,'' She snorted.

Iona closed her eyes at the memories of sitting on the couch with both of her parents and the family cat. So that had all been a lie... She sighed and reopened her eyes.
''SAM!'' she barked, hoping to wake him up and atleast have some moral support.

[Cedar]

Through a distant haze, Sam could hear his name being shouted out. Leave me alone. he tried to say, but his mouth wouldn't co-operate, "Ungh." was all that came out. His muscles felt so heavy, and sleep was all he wanted. Why couldn't they let him sleep. He moaned again, shuddering, and struggling back downwards into the deep sleep he'd just left.

Mercury laughed, "It's why I'll never have children. They're annoying bastards." he ran his fingers through Sam's hair again, not a simble of affection, but of ownership as he turned his attention towards Iona with a dry laugh.

"You'll have to try harder than that. The sedatives I use are very powerful. He won't wake up for around 15 minutes." Mercury checked his watch, and grinned wickedly at Iona.

"You see, Samuel is mine. I control every bit of his life, much as he thinks he controls it. He is alive by my graces. As are you, so don't push it, my dear." So was everyone in the lab, but Mercury didn't need to go that far.

[Matsi]

Iona let out a spine chilling laughing growl. ''Then i will piss you off as bad as i can. I will make you shit yourself with fear you fucker,'' She snapped, earning another smack from Molly. Iona let out a small whimper but soon covered the pain as she always had.

''I fear you less than i fear dirt,'' She spat at both of the scientists. It was a partial lie, but she wasnt going to show them that.