Experiment

Chapter 20: The Crowd

Welcome to the Claire Amphitheater, the largest in the whole world! Special speaker tonight.

Large banners read.

"Oh, I wonder who the special speaker is!" said Chess excitedly, back to her bubbly self.

"Probably no one special." muttered Drieda. "Who cares?"

Riley frowned. "I can't see too far into the future, but the special speaker . . . I know it's a man, but there's something wrong about him . . . I'm almost . . . scared of him." Riley shivered, and the faraway look in her eyes disappeared.

Neo took note of this, bit his lip and looked down, brows knit with some secret fear, but quickly looked up and went over the plan once more with the Unchained. "Does everyone know the plan?" Asked Neo.

"Yes," said all the hybrids quickly, not wanting to hear it again.

"Okay, well let's go over it one more time."

All of the hybrids groaned. This must have been the twentieth time he had gone over the plan, but Neo wanted to be fully prepared for what they were about to do.

"So, to everyone we meet, we are all from the 'Sunny Days' home for children and teenagers, and we have come to see the concert. Lee," he pointed at the lizard hybrid, now costumed with a mask over his face, and his tail wrapped up. "You will be the 'guardian' of all of the kids, since you look the oldest, and you will have to convince the person up there to let us in."

Lee rolled his eyes, and nodded. "I know."

"Then, when the concert is about to end, we can get up on stage and tell them about the Facility and what they did to us."

"But what if they don't believe us?"

"What if the police arrest us?"

"What if they take us back to the Facility?" Panicked voices said from within the crowd of hybrids.

Even Laura was nervous.

Neo looked at them solemnly. "We just have to take the chance." he paused for a few moments. "Now, does everyone have their masks on?"

Everyone said yes, but Dreida just rolled her eyes. "Duh! I can change as fast as you can blink." And she morphed into almost a completely different girl, with blonde hair and brown eyes, smiling smugly.

"Let's go." said Lee, already walking towards the amphitheater.

Laura, and all of the other small hybrids were tucked away in the other hybrids' jacket pockets, so that they wouldn't be seen.

They walked up to the ticket office, and thankfully, there was a woman there.

Lee did all the talking. "Hello, ma'm, these kids here are from the Sunny Days home for children and teenagers . . ."

He was closer to the woman than the rest of them were, but Laura could hear snippets every now and then.

"Please . . . . them . . . . no homes . . . . need . . . . never been . . . . concert . . . ."

The woman nodded, understanding, sometimes casting sympathetic glances toward the hybrids. Finally, she consented to let them go. Two guards waved over all of them with metal detectors and let them pass.

The amphitheater was humongous. With ceilings almost 300 feet high, and with about 500,000 seats, it really was the biggest in the world!

People were swarming inside, however, and they had to dash to get seats, but they found a nice long space in the ninth row.

The lights dimmed and the rock star came out, and more than ten thousand girls screamed. He did a few poses and then another man came out.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Claire Amphitheater! Now, before our featured artist, we have a very special speaker here tonight, and trust me, you won't be disappointed." he looked at the huge crowd mysteriously and stepped aside. "Please welcome to the stage, Mr. Black!"

All of the hybrid's mouths dropped open. Laura had filled in all of the hybrids about the evil Mr. Black who had formed the Facility and triple-dosed Benjamin. But Neo was not stunned like the others. In his eyes was a cold, hard anger that surpassed all others.

Trudy looked down at Laura. "Is . . . Is that the Mr. Black that . . . that . . ?"

"Yes." Laura felt the same as the others, but she was already formulating a plan in her mind.

He smiled a bleached smile and started to speak. "Dear friends, I came to you all today to show you some wondrous creatures I have discovered in a secret area that only I know about, and I am revealing them here for the first time ever, to show you their amazing abilities and obedience. The first time we captured them, they all escaped, but the new ones we have found are much more docile."

All of the hybrids exchanged horrified glances, and some even suppressed screams.

"Here is one of them." Mr. Black stepped aside and a woman came in with a cat hybrid on a long blue leash. The cat hybrid was forced to stand on all fours, even though her back legs were longer than her front.

Chess had tears streaming down her face, while she was mumbling something under her breath.

"Chess, what is it?" Whispered Neo.

"My sister . . . it's my sister . . . they found her . . ." Chess broke into sobs.

"Sh, sh. Please, be quiet. We don't want to draw attention to ourselves."

She quieted down, but was still crying, tears slipping down her face as she saw her sister subject to the same horrors she had been.

The woman set a glass of water in front of the cat hybrid. "Subject 29-1, draw the water up." Mr. Black commanded the cat hybrid. She seemingly drew the water up out of the glass and into the air, a floating water blob. But then, she began making pictures out of the water, pictures of the Facility, and of all of the hybrids trapped, but Mr. Black kicked her sharply but discreetly and she stopped.

Meanwhile, the crowd was amazed, not wanting to miss a second.

"As you can see, these creatures have amazing powers, and they cannot speak or feel, which makes them perfect servants for everyday life." But the cat hybrid's eyes plead another case.

Laura just couldn't stand it any more. She flew up out of Trudy's pocket, and started to fly toward the stage, but Trudy held her back.

"Laura, no!" she said. "There's nothing we can do about it!"

Laura turned around and looked at her. "But there is. I'm sorry, Trudy, but I have to!" Laura wriggled out of her grasp, flew onto the stage, and onto the microphone.

"This man is a liar!" Laura's voice echoed. "I am one of the escaped animal hybrids, and I am here to tell you the real truth." Mr. Black made a grab for her, but she was too quick, as only a butterfly can be, and hovered in front of the mic. "We are not some sort of creature, but we are real people with real feelings. The Facility made us this way, disfigured and almost half-animal. Teenagers and children, innocent children, are being sent to a Facility and made this way without a cause. And guess who is the head of this horrible Facility? Mr. Black." Laura pointed at him, and he continued trying to catch her.

"And he will not stop until he rules over the entire world with his hybrids and their powers." All the other hybrids came up to the stage, the guards too stunned to stop them. "Me, and all of my friends, have faced hardships and fear the whole time we have tried to come. We all traveled across the state from our prisons to come here, and tell you this today. Do not be fooled by these lies, and realize who the true enemy is. Please."

And you won't believe what happened next.

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Hello, everyone! This is so far the longest chapter in the book! :) Hope you enjoyed the cliffhanger and I will try to write the next chapter soon! *wiggles eyebrows* :)

_pure_imagination_