Gene Pool

Chapter Three - Time

Cain reached her thirteenth birthday the day before Caliber turned six. The lab was humming with the excitement of being another year older, though for the younger subjects that was over half a year away. Caliber, Iseult and Melanin were all thrilled about their upcoming birthdays and their sisters were more than supportive. Isadora and Gregoria, however, were less so, and  mainly kept to themselves. With Gregoria either training or lying in bed thinking and Isadora staying in the same room as her and reading the same book repeatedly.

However, when the big day arrived of Cain becoming a teenager, Dr Lowe had a surprise for her.

"Here, Cain," He smiled, handing her a box the size of her hand tied in a ribbon. Delicately, she opened it up to reveal sunglasses. She frowned for a second before she understood.

"Outside?" She asked tentatively.

The Doctor's smile simply grew as he nodded, "I will be there, of course, and the rest of your sisters will be staying here. But I thought you'd like to try ice-cream the same way every other little girl gets to - by the beach."

For that afternoon, the nine girls spread themselves out around the training room. Mazikeen sat at the top of the rope ladder whilst Iseult and Melanin perched themselves on a wooden beam. Olympia, Laniakea, and Versailles were led out on the mats, Caliber throwing her fists at a punching bag, and Gregoria and Isadora were upon the metal bars.

"Cain is so much older than us." Laniakea sighed as she stretched out her arms.

"I know how you feel," Olympia responded, "Being the youngest."

Gregoria shot her a look, clearly not pleased about being forgotten and Olympia blushed as she realised her error, apologising profusely.

Mazikeen drew everyone's attention as she groaned in frustration, "Someone wake Melanin? She must have fallen asleep." She growled.

"How can you tell?" Versailles raised her eyebrow. It was her new favourite expression.

"Because I keep losing my train of thought. It's being replaced by machinery and mechanisms. She's clearly having that dream about being a mechanic and fixing cars." Iseult, running her hands through the head of hair in lap, blinked and suddenly Mazikeen was in front of her, pushing Melanin off the beam. The girl landed with a thud, letting out a startled noise.

"W-why did you push me?" She asked Iseult, clearly offended.

The one-month-older sister fumbled with her words as she pointed at where Mazikeen had been moments before.

Melanin released a sigh, "Your thoughts give you away, Maz."

"Stop reading my mind!"

"Make it challenging, then."

"How about we don't fight today. It is Cain's birthday, even if we aren't able to spend it all with her." Versailles held up her hand and the tension in the air melted away.

"Did you hear what the doctor said was happening on our birthdays?" Caliber chirped, stopping her workout and obviously oblivious to the prior conversation.

Isadora asked, "You mean about our powers?"

"I prefer the term abilities." Olympia mumbled and Laniakea nodded.

"Me too," Melanin mumbled, "It unnerves me when Dr Lowe calls them 'gifts'. Almost as if he didn't create them for us."

"He didn't. They were from Cain." Caliber stated it as if it were common knowledge, but Iseult threw her a puzzled look.

"Cain?"

"Yes. She's the one that created us really. The good doctor of course gave her a rough idea of what to do, but she altered his work to make us better. The gifts are from her."