Chrysalis

Chapter 2: An Unwanted Awakening

Lined up like inmates at attention the three teenagers find themselves together with only a glass pane separating them. They all start yelling questions at the man who is in front of them.

"Where am I!" Aoi yells.

"What happened how did I get here!" Kami states.

"This wasn't our deal!" Akira points out. The man walks of and leaves them to their own thoughts and no answers. They just stare at each other before Aoi mentions the lightning bolt across his eyes. He then mentions something black also driving down Kami's left eye and ends at his shoulder. They look at Aoi trying to see if there is anything noticeable too. She examines her body first checking her breast and then her thighs and then she sees her hands. From the tip of each finger all the way to her knuckles is her marking.

"What are these markings, questions Akira.

"I don't know either." Kami says puzzled.

"Well, whatever it is mine is the least noticeable." Aoi chuckles to herself.

"Anyway, what got you guys here?" Akira askes them. They shrug showing they don't know, and Kami says.

"The last thing I remember is..." His face darkens and he goes silent. They stare at him before looking at each other signaling to each other by darting their eyes at him and jerking their head. Finally, Aoi gives in and spoke.

"You...are you ok?" He snaps out of it and studders.

"Y-yeah I'm fine." He takes a deep breath in and leans back against the wall behind him and lets out a big sigh. Then he says

"...I don't want to talk about it." They respect it and Akira asks Aoi the same question she thinks to herself and the memories flash back. Wide eyed she looks at him and shakes her head no.

Aoi and Kami look at Akira showing with their eyes they are asking the same thing. All he lets out is that he was tricked. They all calm down and stare forward in silence. As they are still metal walls border the three of them and a dispenser from the top drop's gas from above. As the can drops to the floor spewing gas they jump up and are up against the wall.

"What the hell is happening?" Kami says puzzled.

"I think they are trying to gas us." Aoi yells at them. She repeats.

"Try to hold your breath or use your shirt as a filter." They filter their breath, but the rooms are full of smoke not to long after they start to drift like before. First Aoi falls, then Kami and finally Akira. Again, they tiredly wake up in a room with plenty more people of different ages in an empty colosseum. A modernized cage meant for contamination a single monitor lies at the stage of the Colosseum. Static before a range of buffers come forward before the screen comes on and a woman with a stern look downing a lab coat and glasses. Her hair tucked into a neat lengthy ponytail. From her shoulders and up showing with a blurred background. Her voice starts to transfer her voice sounding as if it's demanding respect and submission. She calmly informs the people in the Colosseum,

"Today you have been brought here through my request to gather all the recently acquired specimens. Let's see." She grabs a clip board to her right and reads off,

"Specimens 72395 through 84395. Have been called here regardless of the circumstances either through extraction or through a contract. Each of you are Zeplins. Most of you should know that word but not know how they come about. If you think about what happened before you ended up here. That is for you to find out. However, to the point of your collective summoning today we are training you in combat. Since every one of you are Zeplins, we have taken precautions, meaning that we don't exactly know what power you possess until further experimenting.