Revolution #9

Dinnertime

Eight o'clock in the morning already and nobody there to relieve the security guard from duty. Stupid assignment, watch over that bird-like thing in the cage. She was totally out of it, as if she were in a coma, hadn't stirred for the past two days. Even the toad freak had given up getting a response from her, no matter what it did. Only her light breath denounced she was still alive. So much the better, all things considered. Ah, here they come. They sent two men this time, a tall, blond one in a crew cut and a shorter guy, his long hair in a ponytail. They were hiring anyone these days. "Why the two of you? The prisoner hasn't moved," asked the guard.

"She'll be transferred today, or so we've been told," answered the tall one. "It seems some VIP is coming to get her."

"Very well, then. Here are the keys to the door's padlock and the cuffs." The guard handed the keys to the tall one, who seemed in charge. "You're only to open the cage when the suits arrive."

"No sweat, man, we're on it," said the long-haired one, his eyes never leaving the cage.

Jim Ellison held his guide by the elbow to prevent him from blowing their cover. Blair's heartbeat had increased and he was breathing hard at what he saw inside the cage. The scientist guy, Adam Kane, had informed them of the looks of the captive woman they should find in the bowels of the new Breedlove Foundation, but what they had found was half bird! He had also warned them that the captive could've been roughed up by her captors and was being kept in an induced coma, but nothing had warned them of the savagery they'd encountered. The half-bird woman was naked, propped against the bottom of the cage, her wrists cuffed to the bars, lying in a pool of her own blood. Her skin was peeling in places, as burnt. Jim Ellison had seen his share of special victims when the Cascade SVU and Major Crimes worked in tandem. By the looks of it, that woman had been gang raped and the perps had used acid on her. According to the scientist, she should be coming out of the coma by now and, true to his words, she was starting to stir, to move her head, opening and closing her swollen lips. "Chief, look for something to cover her," said Cascade's Sentinel. "And water. She will need water."

As Sandburgh left the cage room, Ellison quickly opened the padlock and stepped into the cage. The woman's eyes were fluttering open and she tried to move her arms, held fast to the cage bars. Ellison released the cuffs and pulled the woman to his lap, as she instinctively covered herself with her wings. Only his heightened sentinel hearing could pick up as the woman begged for water in a whisper. Ellison cleaned her face a bit and prayed that Sandburgh would soon come back. "You are Angela, aren't you?" The woman nodded yes and again begged for water. "My partner is getting you some," he answered, as Blair returned with a bottle and a blanket. Holding the bottle to her parched, swollen lips, Ellison forced the woman to drink slowly and pause from time to time, lest she made herself sick. He wrapped her in the blanket and let her drink a little more. "Donna Gryphon sends her love," he said.

The woman looked at him, puzzled. "I don't know a Donna Gryphon," her voice was hoarse.

"Maybe you know her as GryphonLady," interjected Blair.

"GryphonLady? From the Internet?" asked the bird woman. "I know a GryphonLady from the Net, but how did she...?

"I'm Blair Sandburgh and this is Jim Ellison, we are detectives from Cascade, Washington. Donna's my girlfriend and a graduate from Cascade's Police Academy," answered Blair. "An Allison Turner contacted her over the Net and asked for her help when you went missing. She hooked up with your friend Emma and they found you here."

"You will meet her when we get you back where you belong, with your Mutant X friends. They are coming to get you," completed the one called Ellison, and motioned to pick her up as the cage room door opened to let a lean, white-haired man in a black pin-stripe suit and dark tinted glasses enter. He was followed by a blond young woman in a gray suit, a squat, broad-shouldered man, two obvious bodyguards in trench coats, and a strange creature resembling a toad in a white lab coat. The white-haired man stepped inside the cage and looked at the two men caring for the bird woman, who shuddered violently and buried her head in Jim Ellison's chest. He turned to the man slightly behind him. "Mr. Thorne, what have you done to my feral?" he asked.