Revelation

Prologue

"It's ending, doctor."

"Very good." A tall man dressed in a clean white lab coat sat behind a gleaming white desk, his fingers tented as he consulted the papers before him. His dark hair was streaked with silver that matched his hard eyes; they narrowed as a cold smile spread slowly across his scarred face. "I think it is time for a reunion."

He stood up, picking up a sleek little tablet and tucking it under one arm, and followed the assistant out of the pale, empty room, down a silent hallway, and through a set of silver plated doors.

Chaos ensued on the other side. Thick sheets of bulletproof tech glass replaced the white panels of the previous hallway; several feet behind the glass was the actual wall, a solid stretch of titanium. More of the silver metal was slotted at equal intervals perpendicular between the wall and the tech glass, resulting in cell-like spaces. In these square confinements, a sick menagerie of creatures paced back and forth, creating an eerie cacophony of nightmarish noises. 

The man in the lab coat paused to examine one of the beasts, his assistant trailing behind. The animal had the shape of a cat but was about the size of a Saint Bernard, with coarse dark fur; its head elongated into a short, blunt snout with a glistening dark nose on the end, and instead of luminous, wide cat eyes, two beady black orbs stared back at the doctor. The creature crouched, unblinking, on the stainless steel floor; then suddenly, without warning, it lifted its lips into a snarl reminiscent of a grizzly, emitting a throaty half-roar, half-growl and exposing abnormally long, curvy teeth. Its spine twisted, and the creature jerked once before rearing up and slamming broad, dark brown paws on the glass, right against the doctor's emotionless face. He didn't flinch, just stared intently at the beast, examining the bear claws protruding from the wide brown paws in front of his face, the cat tail twitching across the floor, and the grizzly hump on the shoulders. Tabby fur blended with rough grizzled hairs, creating a shifting patchwork pelt. The man stepped back and placed his hand against the glass, which lit up with a soft blue glow, showing the specimen's code and all of its genetics and information. "C351. This fellow is new," the doctor commented lightly to the assistant, as if he were talking about a new student in class or a new neighbor, and not a snarling, otherworldly creature. "Yes, Tomas created it," the assistant replied. The doctor nodded thoughtfully as he skimmed through the documents glowing on the tech glass. "Interesting... domestic cat and grizzly. An unusual combination, but it looks to have worked well," the doctor concluded. "Tomas's intention was to combine the agility and cleverness of a feline with the strength of a bear," the assistant said, pointing to a section of words on the glass that were Tomas's notes on the creature. "We might have a use for you, my friend," the doctor said almost amiably to the cat-grizzly, who stared at him with bloodlust and rage in its black eyes. The man turned and motioned for his assistant to lead the way. They continued on down the hallway, surrounded by grotesquely-bred creatures. At the other end, the assistant held open another set of silver doors for the doctor to pass through.

In the massive white room, everything was silent. Several other men and women in lab coats surrounded the panoramic viewing station in the center of the room; they looked up at the man's arrival, and wordlessly bowed their heads in respect, shifting so that he could see what was so riveting.

The thirty-foot-wide circular screen projected a 3D image in the air; data boxes, statistics, and locator beacons branched off of it, creating a rainbow of colors above the people. The image showed a strange scene: three different environments had been meshed together. The golden grass of an airy savannah turned to dense undergrowth in a lush forest, with some trees frosted by the snow of the arctic tundra adjacent to the greenery. Along the edges, however, was crisp, clean whiteness that matched the sheen of the walls around the lab-coat-clad people. The whole thing was artificial, created in a room much like the current one, only bigger.