Untitled Monster Project Ch. 1 (Original Sci-Fi) (Patreon)

(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: Possibly new original fic, looking for feedback!

Summary: A young convict is given a chance to earn his freedom and takes it. But is it worth the price he’ll have to pay for it?

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A blaring, piercing alarm rings in his ears, waking him up even before the first words penetrate his foggy thoughts.

“-isoner #4499 will present himself for inspection. Prisoner #4499 will present himself for inspection! Prisoner #4499-!”

Kal manages to leverage himself out of his bunk and make it half a step towards the back wall of his cell before the door opens and two guards bum rush him. They don’t let him reach the wall on his own, instead grabbing ahold of him and getting him the rest of the way by force, all while shouting in his ear.

“THE PRISONER WILL COMPLY!”

Kal just grunts, having every intention of doing so even as they rough him up. Fighting back is what got him into this mess in the first place, after all. Ultimately though, with him not resisting, there’s only so much they can do once they have him firmly pressed against the wall, pinned in place and unable to attack even if he wanted to.

There’s a short pause as they reach this moment, with everyone slightly unsure of what will happen next. Kal can feel the guards tensing up, ready to deliver some more punishment to him even though he’s not actually struggling. But before they can… the sound of fancy shoes on stone resounds through the room.

The guards freeze while Kal just stays where he is, eyes forward. He knows better than to try and look back… that’s a great way to get his head shoved into the brick wall he’s facing at the moment and that doesn’t sound like a very good time.

Eventually…

“Turn him around.”

The guards do so, pinning his arms to the wall of his cell in the process. Kal gets his first look at the man who has come to visit him. He immediately recognizes the other man as a blueblood. Fancy clothing, shaved face… young too from the look of things.

He inspects Kal like one would inspect a bug, eyeing him up and down consideringly.

“Hm. What’s this one’s story then?”

“He killed an officer in the middle of his arrest for thievery, sir.”

Kal tries not to react. He tries to keep his face slack and his eyes dead. But… he can’t help it. His jaw clenches at that extremely pared down version of events. The blueblood definitely notices, his eyes flicking down… but he doesn’t bother asking Kal what happened from his point of view. He doesn’t care.

“Fascinating. And he’s certainly got muscle on him, hasn’t he? Seems to me that he would make a good option… hm, tell me Prisoner… do you want to earn your freedom?”

He’d heard of this before. Prisoners were offered chances to commute their sentences in exchange for participating in dangerous science experiments and drug trials. Most were never seen again, but others swore they knew someone who survived and got out completely.

To be fair, it wasn’t like the system sugarcoated the offer. Everyone knew the chance of death if you accepted was obscenely high. You were basically letting yourself be turned into a guinea pig, a lab rat.

… Kal’s first instinct is to say no. It’ll probably get him a beating and then he’ll just be thrown back into his cell. The truth is… he doesn’t have anything or anyone waiting for him on the outside. He doesn’t have a reason to seek freedom.

And yet… at the same time, does he need one beyond the desire to be free? To feel the sun on his face again without it being within the confines of the yard? To be able to move more than a few feet without hitting one of the walls of his cell?

… Fuck, he’d say yes just because otherwise he’d probably keep waxing on poetically in his own damn head.

“Sure, why not.”

His response still earns him a cuff upside the head by one of the guards. Too flippant, Kal supposed. For a moment he snarls, pulling against their hold, struggling just a bit before remembering he can’t fight back. He’s always had a bit of a temper.

The blueblood chuckling is probably the only thing that keeps him from getting a proper beatdown, prompting Kal and both prison guards to look over at the young man. Smirking, he waves a hand.

“Yes… you’ll do nicely, Prisoner. Guards, take him to the lab.”

With that, what is undoubtedly one of the richest people on the planet turns on his heel and strides out of the cell without a second glance back. Kal, meanwhile, is dragged out of the cell as well and taken in the opposite direction down the hall.

He doesn’t fight it. He knew what he was signing up for. Frankly, it surprises him that they even bother asking for consent.

A ten minute walk later and they arrive at the laboratory… only to find something strange afoot.

“This is highly irregular. I’m not sure why you were personally sent to handle this… it’s routine at most; I’ve done it a dozen times before.”

There are two people in lab coats when he and the guards arrive at the lab rather than just the one. One of them is the prison doctor, who Kal recognizes on sight. A balding, pudgy man with nothing but softness in his features.

The other is softer still though, more because of her gender than anything else. A beautiful blonde woman with spectacles that she pushes up the bridge of her nose and a curvaceous figure that her lab coat hugs in ways Kal can’t help but note. To be fair, he’s been in prison for three years… so yeah, he’s going to look.

Given the guards don’t beat him for his staring, he’s pretty sure they’re looking too. Meanwhile, the blonde has her arms crossed over an ample chest and is looking down the bridge of her nose at the prison doctor.

“I don’t rightly care what you think. I was sent because I was sent. If you really want to contact our superiors to clarify my presence here, feel free. But you and I both know they don’t like stupid questions… or stupid men who don’t know their place.”

The prison doctor flinches hard at that, while Kal swallows equally hard. Seriously, who the fuck was this woman? In the end, seeing them standing there watching, the prison doctor backs off both figuratively and literally, raising his hands in surrender as he retreats to his office.

“Very well. I leave this in your capable hands then. I have no desire to rock the boat.”

The blonde watches him go before turning to regard Kal and his guards fully. Specifically, she studies Kal in particular, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. It’s not the same assessing gaze that the blueblood gave him back in his cell though. This time it feels… different.

“So this is who the scion chose then? I suppose he’ll have to do. Bring him over and strap him to the table.”

As the guards manhandle him under the female doctor’s orders, Kal can’t help but grit his teeth a little bit.

“Is that really necessary? I gave my consent. I’m cooperating.”

The woman pauses and looks at him over the rim of her glasses for a long moment. The guards restrain him while she does so, not even pausing.

“Tell me… what is your name?”

Kal blinks and then glances at the two guards still standing nearby.

“… Prisoner #4499.”

The female doctor huffs and rolls her eyes before glancing to the guards.

“You both may leave.”

They share an incredulous look.

“… We’re not supposed to leave the prisoner alone with you, ma’am.”

“He’s not a prisoner anymore. He’s a test subject. He’s my test subject. And besides, he’s restrained. Or are you saying you didn’t restrain him properly? Shall I report you to your superior for negligence of duty?”

That causes both men to jolt and rapidly shake their heads. They even go so far as to double check the straps on Kal’s wrists and ankles, tightening them to the point of discomfort before fleeing the laboratory. Kal just grunts, well used to pain at this point.

As soon as they’re gone, the female doctor looks to him again.

“My name is Doctor Korai. Alice Korai. What is your name?”

It still feels like a trap… but fuck it, why not?

“Kal. Kal McKay. Why the fuck do you care?”

She just smiles in the face of his crude language, stepping over to a nearby tray and running her fingers over the syringes on it. Then, much to Kal’s confusion, she reaches into her lab coat and pulls out another syringe entirely. The ones on the surgical tray are filled with clear liquids… the one in her hands is filled with what looks like liquid metal.

“Because Kal… what I’m about to do… what you’re about to do… well, let’s just say someone should remember you. I’ll make sure it’s me for as long as I live.”

What the fuck was she talking about? Kal leans away as she approaches him.

“Hang on a second. What’s in that syringe? Why aren’t you using any of the ones on the tray?”

Why had she replaced the normal prison doctor if that man had done this ‘a dozen times’ like he said? Kal had a bad feeling about this. Something was wrong.

Doctor Korai just smiles sadly at him.

“Apologies… but like you said, you did consent.”

Kal blinks and she’s suddenly upon him, the needle sliding into his neck and the contents of the syringe delivered into his bloodstream before he can even think to jerk his head aside. The pain is immediate as the silvery liquid flows into his body, his muscles all tensing up at once as he gurgles in agony.

“If it makes you feel any better… what they had planned for you was even worse. This way you’ll at least have a chance.”

Those are the last words he hears before everything goes dark.

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To his surprise, he wakes up again. He almost wasn’t expecting to. As he does, Kal twitches and tries to turn, only to find himself confined to a dark box. He’s curled in on himself and… completely naked, his clothes stripped off him. He’s also being moved, traveling somewhere from the feel of things.

Just as he’s starting to panic, the claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in a coffin-like box settling in… everything stops. And then… light.

“Well would you look at that. Sleeping Beauty already woke up!”

“Damn, that’s rather quick isn’t it?”

“Also helpful. Alright, dump him out onto the ground.”

Kal grunts as the crate he was stuffed into is tipped over and he’s dropped out onto slightly damp earth. He scrambles to his feet immediately, feeling extremely exposed even as he whips around. What he finds waiting for him… are a bunch of men who laugh at his humiliating state.

“Heh, feeling a bit out of it, prisoner?”

“I imagine he’s quite disoriented, isn’t he?”

“Undoubtedly. Poor guy has no clue where he is or what’s about to happen to him.”

“Alright, alright. Settle down so I can explain!”

That last statement belongs to the very same young man who had come into Kal’s cell and offered him his freedom earlier that day. Or at least Kal assumes it was earlier that day given it was now dusk in the middle of the wooded area he found himself in.

The blueblood (they’re all bluebloods, Kal deduces) grins at him wickedly.

“Let me tell you how this is going to go, Prisoner. We’re all going to play a little game called ‘hide and seek’. You’re going to hide… and we’re going to seek you.”

The sound of a rifle being cocked causes Kal’s head to turn sharply in the direction of one of the other bluebloods. They’re all armed, his foggy brain finally supplies to him.

“But of course, it wouldn’t be very sporting to ‘seek’ you as you currently are. Naked and defenseless… human. That’s why we had you injected with a special concoction. It’ll mutate you soon enough… turn you into proper prey. Fast, light on your feet, sneaky. You’ll be able to give us a good long chase while we hunt you down. And hey, if you manage to stay ahead of us for the full five days we’re out here… you get to go free, just as promised!”

One of the other bluebloods chortles at that.

“Yeah. Free as a fucking mutant deer thing for the rest of your life. Have fun with that.”

Chuckles resound through the forested clearing and the original blueblood grins all the more wickedly.

“True enough. But it’s fine… my father has a lovely nature reserve you could live on if you make it through. But I should warn you… nobody ever has.”

More snickering and laughter. Kal, meanwhile, is starting to shiver as he flicks his eyes between all of the young men arrayed before him. Each and every one of them has almost certainly been born with a silver spoon in their mouth. None of them have truly struggled a day in their life.

… But he doesn’t doubt that if he lunges for the nearest one’s gun, the others will fill him full of holes before he can even get his hands on it.

Case in point, the original blueblood draws a pistol from his side and cocks it.

“Well? We’ll give you the night as a headstart… so get a move on!”

And then he points his gun at Kal’s feet and fires without a care in the world.

BANG!

Kal jumps back, cursing… and then turns and flees into the dark. What else can he do? He’s absolutely screwed no matter what, but he can at least run.

Except… as he runs, blood pumping in his veins, he feels something inside of him. Something growing. He’s been full on sprinting for ten minutes before he suddenly cries out and falls to the ground, curling in on himself in agony. It feels like his bones are being rearranged. It feels like his organs are shifting inside of him.

He can barely think through the pain. It’s like they said… he’s being mutated, transformed into something else… into their prey.

Eventually, after what feels like an eternity, it’s over. At first Kal thinks it’s been long enough for day to break because he can see rather well when he rises in his new form. But then he registers the difference and realizes it’s the middle of the night… he can just see in the dark now.

Slowly, he looks down at himself… and sees flowing silver instead of human skin. His body looks like it’s covered in that same liquid metal that Doctor Korai injected him with. He also belatedly realizes he’s seeing out of four eyes, two on either side of his face.

He tries to speak, to exclaim ‘what the fuck’… but all that comes out is a gurgling, gargled warble.

And then Kal looks at his hands and blinks. Because… the bluebloods had said he was going to become their prey. But the massive wicked-looking claws that had replaced his fingers certainly don’t look like they belong to a prey animal.

Nor do the rows and rows of sharp fangs his elongated tongue feels as he runs it around the inside of his mouth.

… What was it Doctor Korai had said back in the prison lab?

“Because Kal… what I’m about to do… what you’re about to do… well, let’s just say someone should remember you. I’ll make sure it’s me for as long as I live.”

… Just who was supposed to be hunting who here?

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A/N: So yeah, want to see how people react to this first chapter. The response I receive will decide if I continue this story and potentially make it my newest daily free write or not!

Let me know if you like it either via Comment or Like!

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Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fkoBa5I8S8CIjF1YzOyNjVT1Aw8MrF55LSrL5lA6jXQ/edit?tab=t.0