The Formula

Chapter 8

Felix awoke to a sharp pain across his face. He gasped and retreated, but his front paws remained fast. He stared over his dragon snout at an unfamiliar person, holding a thick metal rod. He was dressed in a lab coat similar to the scientists who had injected him with the Formula. This man, however, held an entirely different demeanor. His hair was cut clean and his beard carefully trimmed around his chiselled jaw. The glasses he wore were straight and conservative; the reflection from the fluorescent bulbs in the ceiling disguised his eyes.

He twirled the rod in between his grip, watching as Felix struggled against his restraints. Straps held all his paws to the ground, and a heavy chain attached to the collar around his neck, weighing down his head. A belt wrapped around his muzzle, keeping him from blasting away the man with his lightning. He could feel the energy coursing through his body as his anger spiked.

The man grinned, the muscles around his eyes pinching together. He paced in front of Felix, looking him top to bottom as he flexed his body, trying to break his restraints.

"What a marvelous specimen." He lowered his glasses, showing blue, calculating eyes. With the way he carried himself, and the expensive-looking shoes he wore, Felix would have guessed he was more of business man rather than a scientist. "You are more than we could have ever possibly hoped for."

Felix huffed, sending smoke trailing from his nostrils. He looked around and spotted a few others in the room with them. It was much different than the first laboratory. The ceiling was lower and the machines different. It was as if the place was much, much older. The machinery filling the empty space was very well similar, but there was much more of it—and more needles than Felix was comfortable with.

The table he had been placed down on was replaced instead by a large metal plate, with several round grooves. His restraints fed out of the ones that were opened, proving there was a chamber underneath.

As he searched for possibly escape routes, the man stepped closer. Out of instinct, Felix hissed. Though his jaws were shut tight, the sound was deep and curling, rising from his throat like boiling magma. The man flinched and laughed. He drew back the rod and smacked Felix with it.

Felix whimpered, his front legs buckling from the pain across his snout. As he was down, the man knelt beside his head, the rod making a terrible clang as he banged its end on the floor.

"I'm going to make this very clear," the man murmured. "You will cooperate, or we will hurt you."

Felix looked away, his pain fading back to anger.

The man took the rod and poked Felix's ruined eye with it. He growled again, but with less fervor. "It's a shame you only have one, you know. If you would have saw us coming, maybe you could have kept hiding for another day or two."

He laughed too loudly and stood. "But you were bound to end up back with us sooner or later." He tapped his temple. "We took precautions."

Felix frowned. The collar.

"Listen, you seem upset." He poked Felix in the snout with the metal rod. "I'll come back another time to chat, how does that sound?"

He struck the other side of Felix's muzzle and placed his shoe on his nose.

"And next time I'm here, show some manners, will you?"

As the tyrant strolled away, a skip in his step, Felix collapsed. He wasn't sure how long he had been unconscious, but all the same, he was exhausted. When the pain subsided, he fell asleep.

The scientists kept their distance as they worked—constantly typing, sketching and chatting in hushed voices, casting wary glances in his direction every so often. He sifted through their conversations, which were mostly over calculation discrepancies. One thing they mentioned frequently, however, was the name Sebastian. From what Felix could gather, he was the leader of the operation.