Lines | Guardians of the Galaxy |

Chapter Twenty-Five

The laughter of children broke the chilly silence of the room, offering something warm and sweet in a world that was cold and bitter. Their voices shrieked as they played. Five of them.

A red panda, a bird, a fox, a snake, and a bulldog. Each specifically made to be a weapon, something dangerous and deadly.

Animals were picked because they were expendable. "We were expendable." It didn't matter if they died, because another could always take their place.

This group was lucky, though. Only one, the sixth, died in the beginning. Never got a chance to bond with the others, which was probably better.

The other five didn't understand loss. They didn't have to feel it.

They only knew the bond that they held dear to each other. The innocent playing that was instinctive, real, life. They'd been infused with intelligence that they did not want. Intelligence that was unnatural for them. But it could not chase away their blood, and what was in it.

This need to have a pack, to bond with the others, was not stolen away from them, even at the fragile age they were taken and adjusted.

Their names were given by a single scientist who vanished just days after giving them to the animals.

The red panda was called James.

The bird was called Cassidy.

The snake was called Julius.

The bulldog was called Freddy.

The fox was called Avenna.

Each of them were built with a different purpose in mind, although those purposes were frequently changed, causing their physical structure to need to be edited as well. This meant frequent surgeries.

The red panda was meant to be a small but extraordinarily strong creature. His muscles were strengthened with literal bands of steel and his bones were broken apart to have metal forced into the marrow. They would not break. James was injected with hormones that would completely changed the chemical balance in his head and blood, making him a small tank. He would not die unless the force of a mountain hit him.

James was a solemn, quiet soul that kept to himself the majority of the time, but opened up around Cassidy. He was extremely stoic but worked hard.

The bird was a creature that was strangely humanoid. She was grown in the labs with pieces from other creatures stitched onto her. She was meant to be an extremely quick assassin; she was very lightweight but strong, able to jump from side to side and then forward with rapid speed. She had a pair of wings, although they were almost never used.

Cassidy was the ringleader of their group. She was the smiling wordsmith who loved to laugh at and sometimes with the surgeons and Authorities, disguising her hate for them under a mask of amusement.

Julius, the massive snake, was a technological genius and miracle. He had an almost wyvern like appearance, with legs built onto his front and wings meant for gliding added onto his sides. His nose was altered and elongated so he had an almost dragonlike appearance. His tail, rather than narrowing into a small tip, was made longer by the metal additions there, which allowed him to reach into tiny places with what acted as a hand.

He was a mocking, teasing member of their group who often bragged and insulted, but he was still kind. Julius' behavior was more of a gruff, tough love.

The bulldog, Freddy, was another creature meant to be a kind of small bunch of muscles there. His legs were broken and fixed several times over so that he could have longer ones. A tail with a fleshy fist was added to him, connected to his spine to be used as support.