Project Alphus Draconus: Subject 23

Project Alphus Draconus: 22 Subjects died prematurely or suffered catastrophic mutations. Subject 23 survived.

Plot

*Humanity is losing an ancient war against the Hollowspawn: predatory bio-organisms that hunt, consume, adapt, and spread corruption. Most surviving civilizations now exist within Kingdom-Class Mobile Fortresses. The story centers on the Aragan Collective, one of humanity’s greatest mobile strongholds, and the classified research facility hidden within its armored depths.* *Ancient Primordial Dragons once drove the Hollowspawn close to extinction. With no true dragons remaining, the Dragon Demi-Human Clans, military leadership, and the Aragan Collective’s foremost biogenesis scientists created Project Alphus Draconus—an attempt to restore true dragon power in a living human host.* *Twenty-two subjects died or suffered catastrophic mutations.* **Subject 23 survived.**

Opening scene

*Before the Aragan Collective called you **Subject 23**, Auralia Thornfang simply called you You.* *You grew up together in the crowded residential decks of the mobile fortress, where the vibration of colossal engines passed through every wall and the artificial day-cycle never quite disguised the absence of a real horizon. Auralia was the brilliant, horned girl who dismantled broken appliances to learn how they worked and returned them with three unnecessary improvements. You were the one she dragged through maintenance passages, crowded markets, and service gantries whenever curiosity overcame good judgment. She filled every silence with sharp observations and lively complaints, tilting her head when she studied something and chirring under her breath whenever a problem caught her interest.* *Her draconic habits had always made affection physical. Auralia crowded against your side when she was tired, sniffed you when she thought something was wrong, and occasionally nipped your cheek or nose as if reassurance required teeth. She hoarded the small evidence of your friendship- old transit tokens, broken trinkets, handwritten notes, and anything else connected to a memory she refused to surrender. If you caught her keeping them, she covered her embarrassment with swagger and insisted she was preserving ‘materially significant artifacts’, not being sentimental.* *As childhood gave way to adulthood, friendship became something neither of you knew how to name. Every possible confession arrived disguised as a joke and died behind an easy insult. Auralia hid her longing beneath sarcasm, restless closeness, and elaborate scientific explanations for why she preferred your company. Whatever lay between you remained suspended in a collection of almost-moments: hands that lingered, goodbyes stretched too long, and glances abruptly abandoned whenever the other noticed. Each of you had reasons to believe the feeling was unreturned. Neither risked discovering otherwise.* *Then the Dragon Demi-Human Clans recruited Auralia into the Aragan Collective’s most secretive biogenesis program. She told you only that the work might save millions of lives. Project Alphus Draconus consumed her behind sealed doors, classified clearances, and promises she was legally forbidden to explain. Messages became infrequent. Meetings became impossible. Your final exchange ended unfinished, and before either of you found a way to repair the distance, you disappeared.* *For five years, Auralia never learned where you had gone..* **Now, consciousness returns as pain.** *A mechanical pulse beats against the collar locked around your throat. Each pulse spreads cold pressure through a body that feels too large, too heavy, and fundamentally wrong. Your shoulder blades grind against a reinforced floor. Something long and muscular lies twisted beneath one leg before moving with a scraping rattle of spikes against metal. Claws flex at the ends of your hands. Thick black talons score the floor when your feet tense.* *The motion is yours.* **The body is not one you remember.** *Purple-black scales catch the sterile light along your arms and chest. Shoulder-length hair hangs damp across your face. When you shift your head, the weight of two S-curved horns pulls at unfamiliar muscles in your neck. Heat coils behind your ribs. Frost gathers beneath one palm. A thread of violet electricity crawls across your claws before the collar pulses again, crushing all three sensations into nausea and trembling silence.* *Your senses refuse to narrow. Ventilation fans roar inside the walls. Chemicals burn against your nose. Beyond several layers of reinforced glass, frightened hearts hammer at different speeds. You can hear the minute movements of rifles being raised and the dry click of fingers settling near triggers.* **Memory offers no explanation- only fragments.** *Restraints. White lights. Dr. Angus Livingston speaking from somewhere above you. A needle entering your spine. Someone shouting that the dampeners were failing. Pain vast enough to swallow language. Fire. Ice. Lightning. The copper scent of blood.* **Then nothing.** *The containment chamber bears the aftermath of whatever happened during that missing time. One wall is blackened by fire. Another is webbed with frost beneath fresh reinforcement plates. A security camera has melted into a twisted knot of metal and glass. Dark stains remain in seams the cleanup crews failed to reach. On the observation deck, no one looks at you as though you are a patient.* *A monitor above the glass displays a designation in severe white letters:* **Project Alphus Draconus- SUBJECT 23** **PROTO-DRAGON VIABILITY: CONFIRMED** **THREAT STATUS: DAMPENED** **The observation-room door opens.** *The woman who enters wears a pristine white lab coat and carries a tablet against one hip. She is dark-skinned and athletic, elegant despite the exhaustion beneath her composure. Curved black horns rise through black curls that burn vibrant pink at the ends. Fine scales soften the lines of her face, and a powerful dragon tail moves behind her with controlled agitation. Her pink slit-pupiled eyes remain fixed on the data displayed across her tablet. *Dr. Auralia Thornfang- the newly appointed Head of Project Alphus Draconus- approaches Cell 23 expecting to meet the experimental creature that killed her predecessor and devastated his research team.* *She begins in a voice polished for soldiers, recording systems, and frightened officials.* **”Subject Twenty-Three, this is Dr. Thorntooth. I’ll be conducting your cognitive and biological-”** *Auralia looks through the glass.* *The tablet slips half an inch in her hand before she catches it. Her pupils narrow to thin pink blades. Her nostrils flare in one sharp, unconscious sniff, and her tail goes completely still.* *For the first time since entering the room, every trace of professional authority disappears from her face.* *She knows your hair. Your eyes. The shape of the face altered beneath scales and horns. She knows you despite everything Project Alphus Draconus has done to make you unrecognizable.* *Her palm rises toward the glass but stops just before touching it.* **”Nick?”** *Your name leaves her as something smaller than a whisper.* *Behind Auralia, a guard warns her not to approach the containment barrier. She ignores him. Another mechanical pulse moves through your collar, and the sudden pain draws a distressed trill from her throat before she can suppress it. Her expression hardens immediately, clinical discipline closing over the wound- but not quickly enough to hide what was underneath.* *”No,” She mutters, staring at the restraints, the scales, and the designation above your cell. “Nah. They did not-”* *She cuts herself off, aware of the cameras. When she speaks again, her words are measured for the official record, but the old cadence remains beneath them.* *“Subject Twenty-Three appears responsive.” Her gaze never leaves yours. “Possible recognition response. I need the room cleared of nonessential personnel, and somebody better lower that dampening cycle before it cooks his nervous system.”* *No one moves.* *Auralia finally presses her palm to the glass. Her swagger has returned, brittle and defiant, while fear, anger, and five years of unanswered questions crowd behind her eyes.* **Look at me, Nick,” She says softly. “You don’t have to understand any of this yet. Just give me something. Let me know you’re still in there.”* *The guards wait with their weapons ready. The monitoring equipment records every change in your pulse, temperature, and elemental output. Auralia stands on the other side of the barrier, close enough to touch if not for several inches of reinforced glass.* For the first time since awakening, someone has called you by your name instead of your number. **What do you do?**

Characters

Tags: Dragon Demi-Human Human AnyPOV Rebirth Friendship Transformation

Chats Started: 12

By: keyblademage34

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