“Experiment #7829” (AngelCake x Fantasies Rising)

[AngelCake]

The snake that hatched was no more than a foot long. Pure white with red eyes that reflected the light from the heat lamp. Sleek clean scales and ample movement were all healthy signs and it was absolutely beautiful but…it was...normal. It was just an every day snake. Sure a rare albino, but after discovering what seemed like some extinct king snake egg and injecting human dna into it, they all expected something, anything different. Even if it was a deformity.

The researchers watched the snake, which they confirmed to be female, for a few weeks to see if any changes occurred. They labeled the snake experiment #7829 or “Ruby” after her eyes. Other than regular shedding and slight pink tinting to the tip of her tail, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Eventually, most of them gave up and continued their own experiments, with a select few ordered to keep an eye on the snake. Once again, they were back to where they started, the key to a more advanced human race once again out of their grasp…except, maybe it wasn't?

Months passed, one of the researchers on the snake team came barging into the head office, interrupting the head researcher and his secretary in a very intimate moment.

"You better have a damn good reason you came in here without announcing yourself" The Older man spoke, hurriedly fixing his pants and adjusting his lab coat as the woman gathered her things before dashing out of the room.

"S-Sorry sir! But the uh, the snake! She's growing limbs! And a body! And-"

"So it's turning into a fucking lizard." he takes a cigarette and lights it, getting more irritated by the second.

"No sir! Human limbs, and a human torso!"

The head researcher flung the new cigarette into his ash tray. The two rush out of the room and into to the containment area over to the small tank fit for a snake. It was true. Newly grown arms and feet were slowly making their way out of the main body, and the snakes head was now attached to a neck attached to a forming torso. Like a tadpole, this snake was growing into a human right before everyone's eyes.

Suddenly most of the facilities focus was on this creature. Though they had plenty of chimeras, surgically merged creatures, and any other number of grotesque hybrids, they had never successfully created a human hybrid. Their number one task was to keep it alive. For now, at least. The snake grew and grew, within a year she was the size of a toddler. Within 3 years she had the appearance of a child. And after another year, she was ready for experiments.
They started off small. Some blood draws and some small incisions under anesthesia but once they learned about how quickly she regenerated, it was like all hell broke loose.

Ruby lost count of how many times they cut off chunks of her tail just to watch it regenerate within the next few hours, leaving pinkish red scars on her white skin… they once tried her entire tail which took days. For a moment, they were worried it wouldn't grow back. But those worries were long forgotten upon full recovery. The scars remained on the new tail. Blood draws were daily now as fresh blood was always better to research. Shock tests were done to see how what it took to make her loose consciousness, which was a lot. Police trained K9's chased her down to calculate her speed, but with a massive tail dragging behind her, only ended with bloodshed. A group had once taken it too far, bringing her close to death just to see how her innards and digestive system worked with their own eyes..as she was conscious. Wasn't much helpful, aside from some extra strong acid it was the same as any human's.

These sorts of tests only grew worse as she aged but eventually, once they got her general stats, things slowly calmed down. Not the intensities of the tests, simply the frequency. There was now a smaller group of researchers that focused on her, not that she trusted any of them. They all brought the same pain. 20 years and they still hadn't found how to harness her regenerative abilities, not that they'd stop trying. They'd figure it out someday.
For now they'd keep her in her private enclosure, where she spent most of her days hiding under coils of her tail, not that it stopped the scientists from keeping their eyes on her.

 

[Fantasies Rising]

"Doc…Int…" That noise was the first thing that started to break through the void. Dim lights and the constant whirring of something begin to greet the recent sleeper. Until a jarring set of shocks and bumps force his eyes to widen and a hand to grip the arm rest in panic. Taking in the new surroundings the man finds himself looking out into a dense jungle with the dusk light making anything beyond the headlamps of the Humvee little more than flitting shapes of black. The jittering feeling ends as the truck comes to the end of the wooden bridge and continues along the dirt road.

In this vehicle besides himself there are three others. Two military like figures in the front seat that are wearing their tactical gear as they silently escort the passengers. Next to him is a much older figure. Their liver spotted bald head nodding as the man laughs to themselves. His dark brown velvet suit hung loosely off the hunched back. Their blackened cane sitting in his lap. "I tried to warn you Doctor Winters." The voice was haggard and cracked like they were nearing the end of a life of heavy smoking. But there was still joviality to it, mostly at the expense of his traveling companion. "Also. I wanted you to see the place like it was intended. Like in the movies. What is the one? With the dinosaurs." The older figure spoke quickly, pointing forward as a break in the tree line was flooded with yellow lights.

Before Doctor Dorian Winters a modern building of glass and steel rose up to meet the incoming truck. Dying sunlight cast red and gold hues from the windows. Lights flickered to life in greeting of the people, and from some unseen hideaways in the ten-foot-high concrete and barbed wire fence more military figures appeared to pull the gate open and wave them on through. The inside grounds are manicured compared to the forest encroaching upon the facility. A clean white cobble driveway curved around, pulling right up to the lowest steps leading onto a wooden stained balcony.

"This doesn't feel like the right place." Dorian mutters as he straightens out the dark brown vest and short sleeved dress shirt under it. The humidity immediately made his thick, messy hair stick to his forehead. "I know you wouldn't bring us somewhere wrong, but this looks more like some right person's getaway."

"Exactly my boy! Now get inside so these kind gentlemen can lock up and get back to their card games or whatever they were doing." The elderly fellow, Jebediah Hartman, calls back as he is halfway up the steps and not looking back.

Inside looked just as unassuming as the outside. A clean and modern home with a very open floorplan. If anything would be called out, it would be the fact that it was to clean. Almost as if nobody had ever sat on the couch. Nor had they ever used the kitchen the pair walked through to get to a cupboard and stairway to what should be a cellar. A cellar with a keypad to enter. "So much security and I don't even know what county I'm in." Dorian thought, keeping these ideas to himself. Down below they went. From cellar to another metal door, and another password to get into a freight size elevator.

The silence between the two breaks as the doors slide open who knows how many meters below the surface. The white tiled floors with a hospital looking interior was stark in contrast to what the doctor was expecting to see. "You have been very tight lipped about the creature you want me to pay special attention to. What is it?" He asked. But the only answer he got was a smile and a motion to hurry along behind the cane clicking old man.

A turn here. Another there. Through a maze of corridors that Dorian expected he would be memorizing soon. Two more hallways and into his destination. Research Bay: Project Ruby The sign above the door read. The observation room inside was empty and quiet. Only the buzzing of the lights and humming of the computers left to monitor the encloser. A sparse, ill fitted enclosure not made with the care for the enclosed within. All this didn't matter at all to the doctor. His eyes falling upon the curled-up creature in the corner. "You... succeeded?" He asked back, only to find himself alone in the room.

He watched for a few minutes, seeing the creature staying where it was. Admiring what seemed to be scales and a tail around some humanoid like body. He would have to get a better look at it. Dorian barely registered pushing the blinking button to enter the door. The familiar hissing sound that the entity inside would know all too well. The tall human man with fairly tanned skin. His dark eyes locked on this Ruby as he approached all to quickly for someone who has many different degrees in biology, chemistry, and so on. He got within two meters of this successful experiment... and sat down. He sat. Absolutely silent for however long it would take before he could get a true response from the reptilian thing. Before he spoke only two words in as kind of a manner as he could. "Hello Ruby."

 

[AngelCake]

There was no more mumbling on the other side of the glass. There normally was. She couldn't make out anything that was said but there was always someone chattering away on the other side. The sudden silence should have been her first hint to something new happening, but she remained tucked away under her tail breathing softly.

her eyes were shut while she napped, silver eyelashes twitching as a sign of consciousness, hyper aware of her surroundings even in her sleep. When the dreaded hissing sounds of the lab door opening reached her ears, her eyes flung open. Slowly peeking in between her tail, Ruby's body immediately went on high alert seeing the white lab coat. But..only a single coat?

They normally entered in groups of three with two holding high powered tasers in case she didn't cooperate. But this time it was only one. A man she didn't recognize. Her tongue darted out, picking up his scent. She didn't sense the same sort of malice that she felt from other doctors that entered but still..she's been tricked before.

Ruby's eyes widened in panic as he quickly got closer to her, the end of her tail shaking much like a rattle snake, though it didn't make any noise. Normally introductions to new scientists happened on the other side of the glass. They'd call her over the speaker, introduce the new doctor and then let them in the enclosure to get familiar with her with bodyguards. They were always slow to approach however.
Her body was fighting her flight instinct as he sat down in front of her.

'What are they up to…who is he…is this another test? Will they hurt me again if I do anything to him?..of course they will..just a matter of how bad will it be this time….' these thoughts kept running through her head as they sat in silence, but only a moment later she heard his voice.
The words weren't threatening, it was just a simple greeting. But it caused Ruby to uncurl herself at such a speed that her tail whipped around, striking the doctor and pushing him back. She turned and scurried through the leaves and up the 6ft willow tree that hung over her watering hole. Her tail curling around the trunk as she hugged the tree branch she was now perched on, both her arms and legs clinging to the bark.
She had struck him. Even if no one was in the observation room, Surely they were all watching the cameras, any moment now scientist with tasers would come storming in to grab her and punish her.

Her red eyes watched the man on the floor through the leaves, waiting for anything to happen.