

Draconus (m) and Lillian (f)
"Project Number 11, considered to be an extremely dangerous mutant, has escaped from captivity," the speaker over my head blared, almost deafening my hypersensitive ears. "If encountered, it should not be confronted; help should be called immediately instead. Project Number 11..."
The unearthly female voice began to repeat herself again, and I spat on the stone floor in outrage. Everyone in the facility knew exactly what I was and exactly how dangerous I could be. My toxic saliva was beginning to eat away at the tile flooring; everyone would know I had been there, as if that would help them in finding me after I hoped to be long gone. Creeping silently out of my shadowed hiding place, I stretched my long, leathery wings and took flight, innerly disgusted with myself for sneaking around like a coward. Really I was braver than everyone who had experimented on me, as I took the pain they dealt me with a learned resistance while they immobilized me just to prevent pain they might experience. Humans certainly were interesting animals, I would give them that; they always seemed more tied up in making the future a certain way than actually living in the present. However, I wasn't convinced that their fascinating behavior was such a good thing; things that were dangerous were often just as or more exciting than those benign.
My freedom was not more than ten yards from me; I could see the beautiful sunlight refracted into a million tiny sunbeams by the glass doors. The only thing stopping me from stepping out into the daylight for the first time was the 15 fully-armed guards wearing bulletproof vests and carrying M-16s.
"There has to be another way out. And if there isn't... Well, I'd rather die in rebellion than live another day in here as a slave to their wills." That was the sad truth; I would rather be dead but with my mental freedom than stuck alive in this hellhole any longer.
Quietly I slipped away from the main entrance, making no sound as I stayed in the shelter of darkness. I was beginning to think that being cautious and caring about my hide was much different than being a coward, and I would have liked to think that I wasn't a chicken.
"At last!" I murmured, almost inaudibly, to myself upon spotting the telltale shimmering that meant only one thing: a window. "I can break through the glass and then be gone!"
Padding soundlessly but quickly towards my eminent liberation, I froze like a statue due to surprise and fear when I heard heavy footsteps, probably caused by booted feet, and very human noises; no member of my species would be caught grunting with effort, as it was rather undignified. In an instant, I flew up to the ceiling, turned myself upside down and hooked my claws into the white-painted wood, praying that no one would happen to look up.
A sharp gasp escaped my lips at the rather odd sight directly above me: a large green dog-thing was hanging from the ceiling by its claws and making violent 'shush' gesticulations at me; it was most certainly a unique sight.
"What's the matter girl?" one of my transporters asked me, dropping his end of my cage to wipe the perspiration off of his brow.
"She's just uneasy like we all are," the other man replied, also sweating profusely. "That Project Number 11 is one nasty creature."
The snort from above my head was distinctly audible and caused both guards to whip their gazes upwards.
"Crap!" the creature hanging from the ceiling exclaimed.
"So you're the infamous Project Number 11, hm?" I asked him as I stretched my wings for the first time in about three months.
"Yep, although it's because of them I'm infamous," he replied, very obviously resigned and angry with and at the fact. "But call me Draconus; it's much better-sounding than Project Number 11."
"Well, Draconus, my name is Lillian. Pleased to meet you." I gave him a smile and flapped my wings experimentally; they were extremely sore but I was pretty sure I could fly.
"So how long have you had yours?" I looked over my shoulder to see him gazing intently at my wings.
"I was born like this; I'm a dog-mutant hybrid," I told him, staring him down. I didn't like the way he was looking at me; it was more than creepy.
"You, Lillian, are a beautiful example of an experiment," Draconus murmured, his eyes never leaving my body. "You are streamlined, perfect... and physically stunning." His gaze finally met mine and a sad smile spread slowly across his lips. "You are everything I am not; you are a success, I am a failure; you are radiant, I am hideous... the only thing we have in common is that we were made the way we are by humans. But you don't seem to mind humans too much, do you?"
"No, I'm pretty indifferent since they've always treated me pretty well. But you're definitely not indifferent." Fear began to prickle inside my chest; I knew he was dangerous and up until now he had seemed sane, but what if he was having a mental breakdown and intended to kill me? There wasn't anything I could do since I wasn't meant to be a weapon like he was.
"Well, considering the makeover they gave me-" his eyes looked down at his green-scaled body "I can't say I'm too fond of them. And no, I'm not going to kill you Lillian." He gave me a knowing grin and his eyes twinkled; for all of his suspected insanity, I liked the way he said my name.
"Is that another one of your powers? Mind-reading?" I was very wary of him, despite his evident friendliness.
He nodded and smirked. "They kind of gave me everything; the ultimate superweapon, you know? The only thing they didn't count on was that I would think for myself and eventually become smarter than they were. It's basically the creation surpassing the creator."
"That never happened to me, but I was never meant to be a weapon either." And thank God for that too.
"Yeah... Well, do you want to leave the facility with me? I mean, they're... taken care of-" he gestured in the direction of the two dead guards "-so we're free to go, if you want to."
"You know, I've spent my whole life here and I never really minded it, but now... I think I want to see what's out there." I nodded in the direction of the window. "I suppose you could say you opened my eyes," I told him, half-teasing, half-serious, a smile quirking my lips and a twinkle lighting up my magenta eyes.
"I suppose you could say you opened my eyes to true beauty." A grin was on his face too, but there was nothing teasing about his expression. Before I could say or do anything, he leaned in and gently kissed me; when he pulled back his yellow eyes were as bright as a flame. "Now, Lillian, about that freedom..."


Annette (f) and Ronald (m)
I sniffed the mixture cautiously and was grateful that I hadn't sniffed it more as light spots appeared before my eyes.
"Lord, that's strong," I muttered as I wiped the involuntary tears from my face. "At least I'm not the only one drinking it."
I looked over at the other guinea pig I had recruited, Annette. She really was quite lovely, with piercing golden eyes and a politely shy attitude; I knew I could do much worse for an experiment partner.
"Now, you know that this is an experimental love potion, right?" I held up the beaker of blood-red liquid and she nodded.
"If it works as planned, you will be attracted to me and me to you, but if it doesn't... well, we might as well call ourselves screwed." Her mouth twitched a little at my comment and she nodded again, seemingly unperturbed.
Grabbing another beaker from the shelf beside me, I poured exactly 200 milliliters of the substance into the other beaker and handed her that.
"Well, cheers." I smiled at her, raised my glass to the hope that we wouldn't die or be permanantly mutated and downed it.
"How do you feel?" Ronald asked me urgently, thumping me on the back like I was choking.
"I'm not bloody choking!" I exclaimed finally after his pounding me become too much to put up with. "And to answer your question, I feel fine, although my back is a little sore now."
"Well, um, good. And sorry about that, I can get a little overzealous sometimes." He gave me an apologetic grin and I smiled back and shrugged.
"It's ok; I guess it's a good thing you punch like a girl." My smile changed into a smirk and I thought to myself, "I'm behaving like I did in high school. Well, perhaps that's not a bad thing; it certainly is more fun."
"I bet you punch less hard than I do," he replied, a teasing challenge lacing his voice.
"Well I'm allowed to punch like a gifl because I am one. You however, are a guy, and therefore are supposed to punch like a guy," I informed him smartly, ignoring all of his attempted interruptions.
After a few seconds of silence, during which he rubbed his chin in thought, he finally responded, "What's supposed to happen doesn't matter; the only thing that matters is what really happens."
Now it was my turn to think. "True that," I told him eventually. "But remember that this argument isn't over; I don't give up very easily and I'm almost positive I have better comebacks than you."
"You honestly wanna go there, huh? I was called the Comeback King in high school..."
Annette and I teased each other so mercilessly that it almost felt like I was in high school again, and the pranks she pulled on me just intensified that feeling. Despite the fact that I was having more fun than I'd had in almost ten years, my potion seemed to be a failure since its only effect was to make us less mature. It definitely was useful if a pick-me-up was needed, but it certainly wasn't a love potion. Oh well; experiments technically were never failed since you always learned something from them that could be used to revise future experiments. I just hoped that neither one of us would be stuck with side effects.
"Well, goodbye Ronald." Finally finished packing, I gave him a smile, picked up my bag and headed for the door.
"You'll be sure to call me if anything odd happens, right?" His voice stopped me in the doorway and I turned around, exasperated.
"Of course. Trust me, you better do something if I grow an extra leg or something." Smirking,I attempted to leave for a second time, only to pause at the sound of his voice again; I really should have left before he spoke the first time.
"Ok, ok. Just... take care of yourself, alright?" He sounded genuinely worried for some reason, so I tried to reassure him.
"I will, don't worry." After shooting him one last grin, I ran out the door before he could open his mouth again.
I paced back and forth, a sense of great unease and despair filling me at Annette leaving.
"She just left and it feels like my heart is being torn out of my chest!" I muttered angrily aloud. Why was I feeling this way? Were my potion's effects perhaps more delayed than I had counted on?
"That's it!" I exclaimed, happiness quelling some of my less pleasant feelings. "My potion has worked! I must go find Annette and see what she is experiencing." Quickly I slipped a coat on and bolted through the doorway; I had to catch her quickly to get the most accurate description of her symptoms.
"Annette! Annette!" I heard an all-too-familiar voice calling my name and I turned around to see Ronald sprinting towards me.
"Ronald." I didn't even make an attempt to hide the exasperation and annoyance in my voice. "What is it now?"
"I think the potion has finally kicked in," he gasped, completely out of breath. "Have you... experienced any symptoms?"
My eyebrows nearly shot off my face at this. "No, why?"
"Because I have." The way that he was looking at me made it very obvious that something was acting on him. "Right after you left, I... missed you a lot, and I was coming to see if you had similar feelings."
"Nope." If the potion hadn't worked, then why was he feeling like he said he was?
"Well if it's not the potion, then..." He looked at me again, and I knew instantly what had happened. "I do believe I've fallen in love with you Annette," he murmured, taking my hand in his gently and gazing down upon me with an incredible tenderness. "Will you have me?"
"True love happens once in a great while, so am I to intervene? Besides, I could do a lot worse." I gave him a smile, then hugged him so hard that I think I cracked a couple ribs; I certainly could do a lot worse.