Creatures of the Island

A long forgotten private island home to the estates and labs of an eccentric, wealthy scientist who was in search of missing links in evolution. In his search he pushed the moral and legal boundaries stooping to stealing low-profile people and and mixing their DnA with that of animals in hopes to force quick evolution.

In some cases he deemed the experiment a success and allowed the resulting Hybrid to roam his island. In the cases of failed experiments, he had them euthanized or would induce more extensive testing in hopes of an eventual success....

Precarious Fool:

The sounds of screams penetrated his cell walls, reverberating off the tall ceilings. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples, careful to keep at least three points of contact on the wall. These weren't unusual sounds but he still wasn't used to them. He almost missed the sound of the door below him opening, "Thomas, are you ready? Thomas?"

"Up here, doc. Is that the newest of the big man's acquisition? Oh and tell me you have some advil." Thomas slowly crawled his way down the wall to meet the scientist at ground level. He knew what the man was here for, the small tray was a dead give a way. But with all the screaming, he welcomed meds at this point. Reaching the ground his tail immediately tucked under the kilt wrapping around his waist.

"Thomas, here are your meds. And to answer your question, yes." The scientist handed him the meds, which he quickly downed without water. "As for yourself, any further changes?"

"Nope, not a one. And I was really looking forward to the whole longer tongue and love for over ripe fruit and insects too." The lizard hybrid was already tired of the questions, nothing ever changed with him after the initial experiments. Light scaling and the tail were the biggest changes, but not enough to be moved outside, the only thing he wanted. He had tuned out the scientist and climbed up to his small window, staring out at the lush greenery, there was a gorgeous tree that he really wished he could feel and climb.

Despite being free for over a year now, Melowyn found herself forever circling the main lab. It felt strange to be on the outside, the screams being others and not her own. At times she found herself so bored, lazing around in trees, watching through the windows of the lab when there was movement, which there wasn't much of most days. Not too many of them made it to the outside like she did, but she was considered such a success, such progress, and they had spent years trying to figure out why it went so well for her. Those years were the most miserable she could remember, her body tensing at the pain of it all. Her change to this form had happened so quickly that she was more than used to it, using everything to her advantage.

She purred as she licked at her semi-paw, rubbing her face. At first she thought it was so strange, cleaning herself, sure, she looked like a cat, but she felt so human sometimes, yet who could change biology? Her tail flicked behind her as she sprawled out on the branch, a yawn escaping her. Scanning all the small windows of the lab her eyes caught one in particular, someone, or something, was looking at, seemingly right at her, or the tree, but it didn't matter. Rarely did she see faces of anything, let alone something that looked human and wasn't trying to hurt her. While she was mostly safe outside, once in awhile, when the mood struck, they would bring her in and check on her, monitoring her progress.

On all fours she climbed along the branch she had been perched on, going until it felt wobbly and as if it would break. Her dark eyes were fixed on that small window and the figure inside, her tail flicking behind as she watched. It was strange, so many of them wanted to be where she was, yet she longed to be in there, where she could at least have some interaction. Few made it as far as she did, and some of those were far more progressed and more animal than human, which wasn't very good conversation.

"Thomas? Thomas... HAL!" Hearing his nickname called out he turned away from the window, staring down at the doctor he let out a heavy sigh. He knew there were more questions to be answered, and he made his way back down again, glancing once more out the window. He thought he caught a face staring back from out among the leaves.
"Yeah, what now?" He wanted to get back to his small window to view the real world some more. Maybe find the face in the leaves, see if it was a real one or another one of his imagination.

"We need to go over the rest of the questions. So no other changes, I see the lamellae pads are functional. The tail is fully prehensile as well? We can bring you in again for some more sessions, maybe one of these new ones will take you to the next step." The scientist tapped his pen on the clip board, pausing to let another scream die out. He waited for Hal's response.

Another heavy sigh let slip. "Even if I said no, you guys would do it anyways. Yes the sticky things work, yes the tail works too. Yes the eyelids are gone, no I can't lick them. My eyes are dry and they hurt. I need more eye drops and you guys aren't giving them to me in hopes it forces my tongue to suddenly reach them. Whatever, go for it. Will it let me outside, that's all I care about right now." He took the sunglasses off and stared down the scientist with his unblinking eyes, the pupils were just starting to slit, which was an unknown change to himself but the scientist was able to take note. He didn't answer the hybrid's questions or concerns, just left. "I WANT THOSE EYE DROPS!!!!
He climbed back up the walls to the window, if only he could get it opened he would skitter off to live free.

The face in the window disappeared and her heart sank. She heard screams coming from the building and wondered if it was the hybrid she had just been looking at, she hoped not. Gracefully she turned around, following along the branch then making her way back to the jungle floor. The leaves crunched under her weird feet, mostly human but the toes seems longer and sharp claws extended from them. It had been strange at first, and sometime she wanted to use all four legs, but her body was too much human, her hind legs too long, making it awkward. She was on her way to the feeding spot, knowing the scientist put out food at this time each day. Mewing softly she waited in the shadows, watching the man in the lab coat put the food out. Not too long after she began to change her stomach did as well, she couldn't tolerate much in the ways of regular food, and craved mostly for raw meats and vegetables.

Once he was gone, Melowyn padded over to the metal bin the food was put in, sitting beside with her legs crossed. She didn't eat with much grace, not anymore, she felt very feral sometimes, out here on her own. Her teeth had grown sharp, but her mouth shape didn't change, her face still very much shaped like a humans, other than the upturned nose. At first she kept biting or cutting herself on her newly sharp teeth, but over the year she has gotten better, able to go without incident. The teeth ripped at the flesh and she ate quickly, never knowing if one of the other hybrids would come to her space. There were so few of them out here, and some of the mean ones tried to kill the new ones who got placed out here. She shivered when she remembered her first encounter with one of them, she still had a scar on her stomach to remind her.

Not even half way through her food she found herself getting terribly sleepy. A yawn escaped her, baring her fangs, and she could hardly hold her body up. Curling up into a ball she found that she fell asleep quite quickly, which was unusual. When she woke up she felt different, she was groggy and the air smelled different... But she remembered that smell. The lab! Her eyes shot open and she flailed about, only to find she was retrained to one of the tables, a man in a lab coat milling about. A low, deep growl escaped her as she fought in her retrains, the feral side taking over.

He woke up to screaming again, however these were more animalistic than most of the screams he had been hearing recently. Did they bring in a hybrid from outside? With those howls they must have, it had been a while since they brought one in for some follow up testing. He splashed some water on his eyes from his small utilitarian sink before he put his sunglasses on. With no eye lids not only did they dry out often but he found that they were more sensitive to light too. As much as he hated the experiments some days he found himself dreaming of a longer tongue.

"Thomas, morning rounds. Here's your set." Hal jumped at the sudden intrusion of the scientist, he had missed the click of the lock turning or even the swing of the door. The primal screams were just deafening. The scientist handed him a small cup of meds, and quickly palmed him an item during the transaction. With cameras everywhere in the compound it was a chance the scientist took. Behind the dark glasses his eyes widened, it was a small plastic vial, not too many things were packaged that way. Banging back the pills he silently thanked the man who was already on his way out of the room. It was a quick climb to where the camera couldn't watch him as he opened the eye dropper and splashed a few drops of pure bliss into his eyes. The cooling sensation masked a tingling one. The fall to the floor was unnoticed as the fast acting tranquilizers took affect.

"Yes, he took them. Yes, I think he's very out. He fell nearly eight feet and didn't react. The Med team is just arriving to retrieve him. We will be down in the labs soon enough."

Her screams were not that of a human girl, but of a full blown wild cat, growls and howls as loud as she could. She found herself thrashing about as hard as she could, the restraints digging hard into her skin. It was of no use, she couldn't get free as hard as she fought, and by now a few scientists were milling around her, writing stuff down, watching her reaction. Words escaped her at this point, and she could only hiss and growl, her fangs bared, ears flat against her skull. Why had they brought her back in here? She was told she was free to run now that her transformation had gotten as far as it had. Suddenly all the memories of being in the lab flooded her mind and she found herself fighting harder. The restraints were so familiar, as was the groggy feeling, all the drugs they put in her body, all the tests they ran on her.

So caught up in fear and anger she didn't feel the stab of the needle as it went into her arm, but her reflexes did, and her hand flexed and she managed to catch the coat of the nearby lab assistant, her talons tearing into it, ripping off a piece. But before she could do much more she felt her whole world sort of spinning, and her head felt like it was floating. She could see what was going on around her, but it was in slow motion, and she couldn't seem to move anymore. An attempt to hiss came out as just a small groan, and when she saw a blood pressure cuff put on her arm, she tried to struggle but nothing happened. What were they going to do to her?

His body was brought into the labs, the howling was louder here and the scientists were amazed that he was still knocked out. It wasn't a strong dose, but perhaps he was further along than they had assumed. They wheeled his gurney down the halls closer and closer to the loud yowls. He stirred slightly, his body restrained down to the cart. Sounds started coming back to him in foggy blurs. Voices 'mah-wha-wha'-ed around him and there was clearly much activity in the room he was moved to. Coming more and more back in to consciousness he felt the restraints before he noticed that the screams had taken on a different tone. They were more human than before, possibly words being screamed but he couldn't make out exactly what. His throat was burning in pain, when it dawned on him that he was the source of the new screams.

"NO NO NO NO NO!! LET ME GO!! I WILL KILL YOU ALL, I HAVE LAZER EYES! LET ME GO! NONONONONOOOOO!!!" He had no idea what he was yelling, he just knew he needed to get free, he didn't like the needles or the transfusions or the pain that came after during possible transformations. He hated the labs more than he hated his cell. He wanted freedom, it had been years that he'd been kept inside this building. The small window in his cell was the only thing that kept him sane in the years, he felt a connection to the lush tree, he knew he had to meet it and touch it.

Somewhere in the distance, or maybe it wasn't even the distance, everything was so foggy, Meloywn heard screams, human shouts. It had to be another one, but maybe one from the lab. She tried to will her heard to move, to turn to the side, but it seemed so heavy and she just couldn't do it. "Help me..." Her voice cracked, and she felt like she was nearly choking on the words, but what could she do? Despite how heavy her eyelids felt, she tried to watch every movement of the scientists, they were inspecting every inch of her body, it seemed. While she had long forgone clothes when she moved outside, she felt naked now, and ashamed as their eyes roamed her body. One picked at her talons, inspecting the things. They were sharp and long, thick like claws, instead of normal human nails, and her fingers were longer and seemed to curl in, her feet were the same.

They touched the fur that seemed to cover her body, one flexed and pulled on her tail. It had been awhile since she had been here, and apparently they were amazed at how much she was transformed. They talked and wrote things down, but she couldn't concentrate enough to know what was going on. Her eyes seemed to roll back, despite the pokes and prods she still felt, and it wasn't until a face entered her line of sight, hovering over her, that she really tried to focus. A gloved hand prodded her fangs, and somehow she managed to muster all her strength, and without warning, but down hard. She heard the scream and felt her fang puncture skin, growling low. The taste of blood slid across her tongue, and he hand was ripped away, and the prodding stopped.

He felt the cold metal slip between his patchy scaling and could feel the subtle pressure of more serum being administrated. He tried thrashing but was strapped down well, unable to do much more than arch his body and flex his muscles. Even through his own blood curdling screams he could hear the whisper for help, he had heard it so much he knew he had to answer it. The pain intensified in his own body, his eyes widened and his pupil slits narrowed, his teeth clamped together only a low growl emitting through. The serum carried mutated DNA into his system in attempts to get his body to adapt and transform.

Gritting his teeth he managed to get a few words through. "I swear I will help any way I can." He didn't know who he was promising help to, but he knew the other creature needed help as much as he did. He just needed to break free, he just needed to slip loose. The scientists left his side suddenly, possibly to attend the new scream. Snaking his tail free he managed to undo one of the straps holding his arms down. One free quickly he managed to remove the others holding him down.

Able to look around he was in a room with one other hybrid, there were three scientists surrounding it attending to another scientist. There were plenty of hefty objects to use as bludgeons, grabbing for one he brought it down on the scientists. Dealing substantial damage to one and knocking aside another, he was suddenly faced with what to do next. He didn't have a plan, he had just acted, and he needed to act again fast. "Don't hurt me. I'm trying to help." He gave the experiment slab a hard shove and pushed her across the room, his hands sticking and pulling him with it.

She would have bit harder, and more, had she been able to, but it took so much energy to just do what she did. A low growl escaped her in warning as they were busy dealing with the small wound she had inflicted. Her mind was screaming at her body to move, but she couldn't, she felt much like she was floating above her body, instead of in it. Her eyelids were heavy and she found herself trying to stay awake, wondering what they would do to her now that she reacted the way she did. Though things changed in an instant, something knocked the scientists out of the way, and her cart was moving.

Another growl escaped her and she struggled to get free, wanting to be back in her tree once more. She could just barely lift her head and thought she saw someone, but she didn't see a white labcoat. Her mind tried to process the worlds that were spoken to her. "Help..." Was all she could moan through her delirious state, not sure how that helped anything. Where was she going? The world around her was moving too fast and she felt dizzy, which made her panic more, a sudden burst of energy had her thrashing in binds, claws digging into the cold metal.

"Yo girly, calm down! I'm freaking out enough for the two of us!" He continued to run down the hallway, he couldn't hear the scientists behind them but he wasn't going to turn around to check. An unmarked door caught his attention and he slammed his own body into it, pulling the medical gurney in with him. It was dark and narrow and had a strong smell of detergents. Faint syncopatic rumblings were audible a bit further into the room. First he needed to calm his new partner down, if she continued to growl and scream the were sure to find them right away.

"Shh. Shh. Shhh... There there, I'm like you. Hush, shhhhh." He wanted to pat her but got the feeling that would leave him like that unfortunate scientist back in the labs. "Please, I want to help you, but you need to quiet down. Don't hurt me, I'm going to release your restraints. Please don't hurt me." His eyes connected with hers, pleading for compliance. Not letting eye contact break he got to work on the first of her arm bands.

The voice that spoke to her was kind, but she was still afraid, quite literally a wild animal. She continued with the low growl for a moment, and struggled, but he kept asking her to calm down, and saying he was going to help her. She found herself relaxing a bit, and she closed her eyes, taking deep breaths, hoping he wasn't lying. Her whole body felt weak and she really couldn't fight anymore so she went still, the growl cut off as she relaxed. He was so nice and calm, and wasn't wearing a lab coat like the others, instead he looked... different. Was he another hybrid? How had he gotten free? And what would happen when they got caught. Her mind started to panic and her tail flicked wildly as it hung off the side of the table. She wanted to be back outside, hiding in her tree. "Help..." Was all she could manage once more, unused to conversation, words not being something she had used in nearly a year.

He could sense her calming, but there was still that tickle in the back of his mind that he should run and leave her. He pushed that aside, knowing that he needed to help her to help himself. His own tail flicked out from under his kilt and brushed against hers as it made its way to touch the closest wall for balance. Leaning over her prone body he popped open the first of the restraints and immediately began to work on the other.

"Help, yes. I'm trying to help. Just don't hurt me when you're free from this. I need you to help me too. We're both going to escape this place." The other belt came loose, her arms were free from the elbow down, the chest strap was all that was keeping her from tearing into him. The leg straps were inconsequential, it was the front claws he was worried about. Trying to keep his hands off her body was getting to be impossible, the chest strap was tight from her fighting. "Ok, I'm going to remove this last strap, it's on tight and I'm gonna have to touch you to get it off. Again, just please don't freak out or hurt me, or both." Slipping his fingers under the leather straps, her fur was soft and made it easier to get under to loosen it enough to undo the last buckle. Letting it fall free he waffled the idea of jumping back, before just easing back slowly.

Melowyn wanted to freak out, the scared animal in her urging her to fight and flee, but her body barely felt like it could move anymore, let alone fight him. She had felt his tail, and she knew it was another hybrid, but after her last encounter with them, she was terrified. He was helping her, but why? What if he was freeing her to attack her? She whimpered and tried to shrink away from his touch, but she couldn't move, couldn't go anywhere. Taking a deep breath she tried to relax, listening to his words, trying to convince herself that she was safe, and it was okay to trust him. After all, he could have just left her.

When the strap holding her chest to the bed came free she tried to sit up, but her body didn't want to react, her head spinning. She nearly passed out, so she just lay there, groaning and moving her arms, trying to get the feeling back into her body. They had drugged her when she freaked out, and it stopped her from doing much at all. Her head fell to the side, her long hair falling in her face, cat-like eyes staring at him, pleading for him. She didn't want to be left, but she couldn't seem to move enough, it was a struggle just to keep her eyes open. One hand lifted slowly, reaching out for him, begging him to save her.

"Oh shit! Nononono, please don't pass out now. We've got so far to go. Just lay there, I'll get the other straps off." He wanted to help her sit up, but he knew the other straps needed to come off. Fingers flying he was able to get the final straps off, she was laying free on the table. Tentatively he reached out to the same hand that moments before had reached out to him; the fur felt wonderful against his scales, small hairs getting caught in the velcro pads, but he didn't mind. This was his first interaction with someone who wasn't in a white coat.

"We need to get you some water. Can you take hold of me? I think I can support both of us. I don't think they used as much drugs on me as they did you. Here, we need to get moving too. I don't know if they were following us or how far behind they are." He tried to move her slowly so not to send her into another dizzy spell, they both needed each other to get out, that's all he knew.

She was trying hard to stay awake, but she felt herself slipping, despite her best effort. Before she was fully out she felt his touch, her whole body trembling. No one, other than the scientists, had touched her, and barely that in nearly a year, it was so foreign to her. Despite the loss of most sensation in her body, she could tell his skin wasn't normal, it almost felt like scales. Yeah, that seemed to be the right word. He had completely freed her and was moving her now, talking to her as he did so. She wanted to move, wanted to run, to get them far away from this building, but her body just didn't want to respond.

What she did manage, struggling to do so, was to loop her small, furry arms around his neck and shoulders, clinging to him, begging him to save her. Why had they brought her back? She was supposed to be free, a success. Her head rolled back, her long hair spilling over him. Her eyes, golden with large black slits, looked up at him, wondering what his plan was, wondering how he was going to save them both. But the movement was good, right? She moved her arms, getting a better grip, she hoped soon she would be less groggy and able to move, until then her small furry body all but melted against his.

What had he gotten into? He had no plans, he didn't even know where they were. One person escaping was something but two? And there were the scientists, he had attacked them. He knew that carried a sentence in the compound, and it frightened him. But this girl clinging to him, well he was fearful for her too. He didn't know her name, but he felt a connection to her. Maybe it was just his yearning for the outdoors that he was feeling.

Shifting the table so it wedged behind the door, he turned them both facing into the long dark room. Letting his eyes adjust to the deeper darkness Hal was able to make out squareish shapes in long rows. The cyclical rumblings, the detergent smells and the square shapes finally fit together in a mental puzzle. This was a wash room. Hopefully there was a door on the other side of the room, or at least a window. "Looks like we're in a laundry room, we'll be able to get you some clothes and maybe set you up in a disguise if we have to go back out in the halls. I promised help, we're going to get out of here."

Clothes? She hadn't heard that word in a long time. She vaguely remembered the last time she had worn them, it was far too long ago. Even her last few months in the lab was without them, because it bothered her, with her tail and all, and it felt weird on her skin, it had been so sensitive for awhile as the fur sprouted and grew. "Clothes..." She spoke softly, the word sounding so foreign as she said it. Was that he voice? She couldn't remember, it had been so long, nothing but animalistic sounds from her, lately. For a moment his words didn't make too much sense, but her mind slowly caught on, and she managed a nod.

She was feeling a little less groggy, but her whole body still felt numb and she wasn't sure she'd be able to move much at all. She was scared and wanted to be back outside in her home, to hide in the trees and never come down again. Her tail wrapped around her body and his, curling close, making her feel a bit better as she did so, a soft purr escaping her.

She really must have been living out there for a while if she didn't remember what clothes where. He was certain there would be skirts in here, just about any of the experiments with tails wore a skirt of some sort, he preferred the heavy plaid fabric of the kilts. Once they got changed there would be a chance for them to try to find a way out, the scientists would be looking for two hybrids from the medi-labs not two strange looking scientists. It could work but they needed to find things first.

Helping her, they moved closer to the large wash machines. Cycles still in progress he didn't want to get cold, wet clothing for them, it would only slow them down and possibly make them sick. Shuffling a bit further, they came to the tall dryers. Scrubs and coats were among them. He moved her closer to the machines so she could hold them for balance as he let go to rifle through the clothing.

"So, I'm sure you're not too fond of lab coats but if we can dress like them we might be able to get out a bit easier if we look like them." He found a long white skirt and a scrub top that looked like it would fit her. As well as a knee-length skirt for himself, it fit nicely over his kilt and he shrugged on the jacket. ["Oh hey, name's Thomas Halbrusk, or just Hal. I think I'm part Gecko or some sort of crazy lizard thing." He finally introduced himself to the woman he'd been trying to save.

When he had put her against the machine she had tried her best to steady herself, and it didn't seem to take long before she was able to actually stand up on her own. But now she felt panicked and wanted to run, but decided it best to stay here, he seemed to know what he was doing. He had pulled out clothes, dressed in some, and had others, which she figured were for her, so she grabbed them and mimicked his movement. She remembered vaguely putting on clothes. But even in her last year or so in the lab, she hadn't really worn them, hating how they felt. She twitched and curled her tail around her legs, now tucking it under the skirt. She felt weird, and warm, too warm with the layer of fur and the fabric.

Her sharp claws toyed with the hem of the shirt, and she squirmed uncontrollably. He was speaking words, but she didn't really understand them at first, it took her a moment with her just staring blankly at the man. Gecko? Lizard? There were actual lizards out in the tree, she seen them all the time. He was a very large lizard. She brushed back her long golden hair, her black nose twitched. She was still quite human in the face, but her nose had upturned a bit and was black, and there was a thin layer of fur across her whole face. Her eyes had changed, now very catlike and a bright gold colour. "Thomas." She had a hard time forming the word as she said it, having spent nearly two years without talking.

"Melowyn." That was what they called her anyways. From the day she arrive and this all started. She couldn't even remember what her real name was, at this point. But for some reason the scientist thought this was more 'cat-like'. She didn't feel the need to mention what she was, it was pretty obvious.