By the time they had woken up it was night outside. They had slept through what was left of the day, and were curious as to what was going on outside. Drake was the first to wake up, but the noise of him sitting up and walking around also woke up Alina. She rolled over and groggily looked at Drake, who was staring out the window.

“What are you doing?” She asked as she raised her head

“It’s dark outside and I wanted to see what was different” Drake answered as he looked at her reflection in the window.

“Is there?” She asked still half asleep.

“Nope.” He replied nonchalantly.

“Ah.” She said as she rolled over and went back to sleep.

But it didn’t last long and she was woken up to a loud crash. She jumped awake and looked around in a small panic from the noise. What she found was Drake lying flat on his stomach. And no sooner did the armored personnel rush into the room again.

“What happened?” One of them asked.

Alina simply shrugged not knowing herself but Drake sat up and started laughing.

“I wana know too you dumbasses!” Alina thought.

“I was bored, so I tried doing a handstand push up, and slowly used more n’ more strength. I got impatient and used my full strength; but that sent my flying into the ceiling and crashing back to the floor.” Drake answered.

One of the personnel face palmed and shook his head.

“Please be more careful and try to refrain from doing anything until the morning. We will find things for you to do then until your training starts.” He said and walked out of the room.

At that point Alina just started cracking up.

“You actually slammed into the ceiling?” She asked through laughing tears.

“Yah it was kinda fun” Drake replied.

Alina just started laughing harder.

“I…. Can…. Pic….ture…. you…. Slam…ing… into… it” She struggled to say through her laughing.

Her laugh was contagious and Drake started to crack up as well. After their laughing fit was over they wanted to test who was stronger. But they couldn’t cause a ruckus so they stuck to endurance tests. Who could do the most push ups, sit ups, squats, or whatever. First they started with pushups, but after doing two-hundred without breaking a sweat, they moved to one handed handstand pushups. They had excellent balance due in part to their tails, but even then they noticed their tails just did minimalistic adjustments. Both started on their left hands, and could switch when one arm got tired, but as soon as one collapsed it was over. After three-hundred they both had to switch to their rights but this is when Alina took over. After another three-hundred Drake fell and could do no more but Alina managed to put in an additional ten pushups. So she won there, if only by a small amount in comparison to the almost one-thousand they had just done. Next was sit ups, and after one thousand five hundred of them Drake was done, and Alina was close, she only managed five more before she couldn’t do any more.

It was then that Alina noticed something. As Drake was cooling himself off by fanning himself with his shirt she was able to see his abs. They were extremely defined to the point that his skin sunk in in between the muscles, and instead of there being six, he had eight abdominal muscles. He had the normal six, but then he had one massive on top, just below his diaphragm, and one below, right above his hip. Curious, she walked over and suddenly took his shirt off. They both had the same plain white long sleeved shirt on with a matching set of plain white sweatpants. After getting his shirt taken off, Drake did absolutely nothing but just stand there.

“Why did she do that?” He wondered.

“I just wanted to see something real quick.” She said almost as if reading his mind.

“And did yo-” He started but stopped when Alina started touching him.

She started grabbing his arms and chest and abs to feel his muscles. She was pretty interested in them, and how developed they are despite that neither of them remembers doing any kind of exercise. Now she was curious about her own body. So she lifted her collar to see her own, but it was too dark under her shirt so she just took it off.

When she took off her shirt Drake was saddened. While his body looked physically fit, her body looked weak and frail. Yes muscle definition was visible, but not because they had been worked, but rather because she had nothing else. She looked like she had been starving for months before she woke up here. Alina though, was completely horrified. She was expecting to look like Drake, healthy and strong. Hell, she was just able to beat him in a physical competition and yet she looks like this. But wait, how does she know that is unhealthy? How does she know that Drake looks healthy? What if the opposite is true, where she is the healthy one and Drake is not? She knew that couldn’t be true, but she could still hope right?

Drake however, had no idea on what to do or say. He saw Alinas horrified looks, and knew she was unhappy with the way she looks. But he didn’t exactly want to offer to help fatten her up or anything. Besides he still had no idea what, if any other food would be provided. So it wasn’t like he could come up with a plan to help her build some healthy muscle anyway. But then something caught Drakes eyes. Alina was now shirtless and her chest was exposed. She caught on to Drakes change quickly and looked down to see her boobs completely exposed.

“Hahahahahahaha, get a good enough look at them?” She asked.

Drake honestly didn’t care, and just shrugged nonchalantly.

“Guess we playing show and tell. So common, drop ‘em.” Alina said with some excitement.

Again, Drake didn’t really care; so he dropped his pants.

“Aaahhh not quite developed yet.” Alina said with a smug grin.

“I can say the same about you, small tits.” Drake countered.

The grin fell right off of Alinas face.

“Oh yah?! Well….” Alina started, then stopped when she saw Drakes face.

Drake now had a demonic grin on his face, as if he was enjoying watching her become flustered. Truth be told, he was; and the more flustered she became, the more he was enjoying it.

“Oh, so now you’re getting embarrassed.” Drake said with his demonic grin.

Alina looked to where Drake was pointing, and she looked down to her chest where she was now covering her breasts with her arms. She had done it instinctively and didn’t even realize she had moved her arms. Quickly she put her shirt back on but now her face was beat red from embarrassment.

After Drake settled down, they didn’t even bother with anything else. They figured they were pretty close in strength, and Alina was just slightly stronger. Alina didn’t want to bring up Drakes sadistic side. It made her slightly uncomfortable, only because it was aimed at her. And once again Drake didn’t care. In fact Drake was wondering if their strength had any connection to their tails. He remembered the first person who looked over his info was shocked he already had two tails, implying that he would grow more in the future. That’s when Alina noticed something.

“Hey your tails are different. Now the tips are that dark red color instead of black like they use to be.” She stated, still kind of nervous to talk to Drake.

Drake turned around to look and sure enough, there was a new marking on both tails. Now the tip had changed from black to dark burgundy giving him sixteen marking and eight on each tail. This was confirming his suspicions that the tails were some kind of indicator of their strength, but at what point would he grow a third and in what way is Alina that much more powerful than he is to have a third tail? He figured that while he may be able to keep up on a stamina test, she may have a higher physical strength than he does, giving her that third tail. But by the time they had finished their endurance test and their game of show and tell it was already morning.

A new person walked into the room this time. She had no armor on, just a set of white scrubs. Being just a little taller than Drake, she was short compared to the rest of the people they have been meeting and is fairly skinny. Long blond hair covered her head and stretched down to the middle of her back and was accented with deep blue eyes. She had a very friendly smile, and gave off a friendly vibe all around. And best of all… she came in with two trays of food.

“You guys must be hungry after all that exercising you just did.” She said.

Both Alina and Drake looked at each other in confusion.

“How did she know? How could she possibly know?” They both wondered.

“Don’t worry about how I know, you’re not in any trouble or anything, I promise.” She replied with confidence.

Again Alina and Drake were in shock.

“Can she read our minds? What’s going on?” They wondered again.

“Don’t think too hard and come and eat. You will need the energy for today” She replied in a happy tone.

“You two trouble makers are rare, most of you guys need a week to be able to start moving and yet you two not only started with several tails, but are able to walk around and do things after only a few days. So we will be starting your training earlier.” She continued.

“Rare? That implies there are others like us?” Alina asked.

“I’ve already said too much. Don’t worry too much about it and just eat. Everything will become clear soon.” She said as she started to walk out the door.

“By the way, you can call me Gabby” Gabby said and closed the door behind her.

Both Alina and Drake looked at each other, and then walked over to the food trays. When they opened them up they smelt the goodness that was hot pancakes with butter and syrup as well as a helping of bacon and sausage with eggs and hash browns. As they both stared at their trays they started to drool. They wiped their drool at the same time, looked at each other, and dug in. As they ate, smiles grew on their faces. As far as they could remember, they had never enjoyed anything like this; this was heaven. Everything was seasoned just right, just the right amount of salt, pepper, butter, everything. After they finished, they both let out a loud burp and started laughing. Though now, Drake was pretty sure they would be receiving food. So now maybe he can start helping Alina put on some weight by sharing his food as well. But they soon grew bored and started to look for something to do. Out of sheer boredom, they started playing twenty questions.

“What’s your favorite color?” Drake asked.

“The silver in your eyes, but haven’t really seen much else. What about you?” Alina asked.

“The grey-blue in your eyes, or the bright red ring on my tail.” He answered.

“But how do we know what colors are once we see them, but can’t picture a color until then?” He asked seriously after a moment of thought.

Alina had to think about it, but she didn’t know either.

“Well Gabby said we’ll know later today. She said everything will become clear, so I guess we have to wait till then.” She answered.

Drake accepted that, though he couldn’t wait any longer to figure out how he knows all this. But that’s when it clicked for him. He remembered that first person who looked at his info the first time saying something about programming. Now that he could understand what he was saying, he wondered if that’s what he meant, and what happened when he was tied down to that chair. Maybe he wasn’t supposed to wake up during either the check up or the programming. Maybe he was supposed to stay asleep until after the ‘programming’.

“Hey did you wake up tied down to a chair before you woke up in this room?” He asked Alina.

“Hey it’s my turn to ask a question!” She said annoyed.

But then she thought about it.

“No I didn’t; I remember waking up in a tube, and then being carried away after it drained, but nothing after that until I woke up in this room with you.” She answered.

“Huh that’s what I thought.” He said.

“What?” Alina asked.

“Well I woke up a few times after waking up from the tube. The first time I woke up to someone looking at some paperwork at the edge of my bed and saying something about programming. At the time I didn’t understand him, but now I do. Then the next time I woke up, I was tied down to a chair, and I saw several others like me who were also tied down but they were all asleep. Then I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head and suddenly I knew how to talk as well as other things, but then I passed out and woke up here in this room.” He explained.

“So I think that sharp pain and the sudden flood of knowledge was the ‘programming’. And that would explain how we know all this stuff and know nothing at the same time. We have no experience with our knowledge, but we are aware we have it.” He finished.

Alina was just in shock, but it would make sense if that was the case.

“Everyone so far has been shocked that we are functional already, not to mention just how functional. Only Gabby has said something about ones like us being rare, but didn’t explain it. She also mentioned that training would start early for us, probably because training would normally be the first thing others would see or do since they take longer to wake up. But we woke up after only a few days instead of a week like Gabby said.” Alina elaborated.

Drake thought about it, and to him that made the most sense.

“Guess we'll find out later.” He said.

But that later felt like forever away. The two tried to find ways to pass the time, but they ran out of things to do pretty quickly. After a few hours of making up games to play and just sitting around, the armored people came into the room again.

“Time for training, four four one and one four four, let’s go.” One of them said.

Even though they were excited to finally leave and learn what they are, Alina became nervous. When the armored people came into the room suddenly she jumped behind Drake and grabbed his arm. Even with the fact that they had been in the room before, she was scared this time since they are taking her out of the room. As they walked out of the room she stayed close, gripping tightly onto Drakes arm.

“Don’t worry, everything will be fine.” Drake reassured her.

She nodded slightly but buried her head into his back as they walked outside for the first time. Drake had to cover his eyes for a bit as the sun was very bright and his eyes weren’t use to it. But once he was able to see he was amazed. All around them he saw huge snow-capped mountains, almost like they were in a giant crater. When he looked around he saw more buildings that looked exactly like the one he had just walked out of, tall, plain, boring concrete buildings, with several floors of windows. And way off in the distance he was able to see a small forest area, and a large flat field. Though the details were small so he couldn’t make out from that far, he was able to see that parts of the field had some kind of object. And a little farther out the field became hilly, and had some large trees. When he was done taking everything in, he reached back to separate Alina and once she got a look at the outside she was mesmerized. All the colors she knew existed, but had never seen, all the smells and the feeling of the fresh air. She took it all in until one of the armored personnel pushed her to get them moving. She fell down, and although it wasn’t hard, it was enough to make Drake angry. Alina was the first person he had ever met and he cared about her. Nobody but him could push or torment her.

Drake turned around and grabbed the hand of the one who pushed Alina and swung the guard overhead and slammed him to the floor. He twisted the arm and wrist and put some pressure till he heard a pop and the guard yelled out in pain. The other two tried to tackle Drake but he just held out his arms and caught them both mid-tackle. To make things fun he slammed their heads together and let them fall to the floor.

Drake wasn’t done yet. He was just starting to enjoy himself. The screams of pain coming from the guard whose arm he broke elated him. He wanted to cause more pain. It was then that Alina saw Drakes grin, and she shivered from the sight.

“Drake stop!” she yelled at him.

Which he did, and then turned around to look at her.

“Why did you do that Drake?” Alina asked, curious why he snapped.

But in truth, she was happy that he was willing to defend her like that. He thought about it, and came to the conclusion that he enjoyed fighting and watching others suffer. The suffering could be mental, or physical, he enjoyed it all the same. A full grown up had rested his hand on Drake mostly to prevent him from moving anymore and to deal with him if he tried. But he instantly pulled his hand away once he felt Drakes dark energy. Drake was still relishing in his actions when he looked at the adult who had put a hand on him.

“Should I say I’m sorry?” Drake asked sarcastically.

“I thought they were trying to hurt my friend and I just reacted. But oh man was it fun. And it felt sssssoooooo good.” He finished with his sadistic grin.

That’s when Drake noticed the adult had seven tails that had just solid black fur on them.

“So you’re like us?” He asked gleefully.

The adult just nodded not too sure what to do with this one.

“I see you haven’t even had your first training yet since you two don’t seem to understand what’s going on.” He said.

They both just shook their heads, when the adult stared off at something. Drake turned around to see what he was looking at when he saw a camera looking at them. They were being watched.

“Well, I’ll call for a medical team for these guys you just knocked out, but how about I escort you to the training area since these armor guys don’t hold up too well against you.” He offered.

They both nodded and the adult made some signs at the camera. Then he signaled for the two to start walking and they did.

“Wait you two.” The adult said.

They stopped and looked at him.

“You two have never trained before?” He asked.

“Nope” they answered at the same time.

“Why?” Alina asked.

“’Cuz both of you have more than one tail. I’ve never seen a freshie with more than a tail before.” He answered surprised.

“Well we’ve never seen anyone else with tails before, so the feeling is mutual” Drake answered.

“Now how do we get to the training?” Alina asked.

“Right” He said and started to lead the way.

Alina was still being shy and was still holding Drakes arm as they walked.

“By the way, you two can call me Will. What are your numbers?” Will asked.

“I’m Drake” he answered.

“And I’m Alina” She replied.

“Wait, they gave you names instead of numbers already?” Will asked

“No we gave each other names when we met. But those guys called us one four four and four four one.” Drake answered.

“Though we didn’t know why until now” Alina finished.

“Hum…” Was all that Will had to say.

Now Will was very tall, seemingly twice the height of Drake, and very muscular. He had a very dark black skin tone and spoke with an accent. He had brown eyes and very short black hair. He didn’t have a very threatening appearance, but the two knew better than to mess with him.

The rest of the way, Will was quiet. Alina had become comfortable enough to walk away from Drake and did, but stayed close enough that they kept bumping into each other as they would walk. Along the way, Alina started to poke Drake with her tails, at first Drake didn’t quite get it, but as soon as he tried he realized how hard it was to finely control his tails. Little by little Alina was showing why she had the third tail and he didn’t. She was the first to walk, and now the first to work on tail control. Drake had to win in some way. Maybe, if anything, he would be the better fighter since he was the one who stood up for Alina. Or maybe she just lacks the self-confidence to say or do anything. But that didn’t matter; he would make sure he was better at something.

Suddenly Drake walked into something. As he crashed into the wall and then on to the floor, Alina just started cracking up.

“Everything ok?” She asked after she calmed down a little bit.

“Yah… Just wasn’t paying attention” Drake answered as she helped him up.

Even Will was chuckling a little bit; but then he waved his hand to signal to keep moving. Finally they reached their destination, the large field with a stage at the end of it. With Alina and Drake not wearing any shoes, they enjoyed the feel of the fresh cut, wet grass on their feet. It was a new sensation compared to the dirt, cement, and pavement they had been walking on up till now. They both stopped for a second, and wiggled their toes as the grass made its way in between and tickled them.

“Um hum!” Someone cleared his throat to get their attention.

They both looked over to see a man standing in front of the stage. He was about as tall as Drake, but not as slender. He was, in fact, very round and greasy looking. His brown hair was slicked back, giving an even greasier look, and he wore an all-black suit. He lifted his hand and waved his fingers to signal for them to come over. As they did, they enjoyed every step on the soft, wet grass. When they got close enough the man pointed them to sit. When they did, he started to speak.

“Hello, I am Doctor King. I own, run, and operate this facility.” Dr. King introduced.