-Sky's POV-
I could hear Mitch talking, and a peculiar voice I somehow recognized. He said his name aloud, and the name of his friend, and it clicked. "Thomas?" The speaking stopped abruptly. Footsteps approached me. "Yes?"
"I remember you. I was the little kid who tried to sneak past you in the city. You caught me and I cried." "Yes, I remember now. You sobbed when I told you that day wold haunt you." "What is the Syndicate Project?" "A special operation that isolates pre-isolated beings and tests certain anxieties, syndromes, and activity." "Why?"
"Because it's always an unknown factor. It's a question many scientists wish to have an answer for." "But why us? We aren't pre-isolated. We have lives outside the pocket as well." "But that life is one of royalty, and not village life." "Villages can't stand me. Have you seen my mother's village?!" "Yes, they burn images of you and consider your name a sign of the Nether God, which it technically is." "Of course."
"So in which case, you are isolated. There is no way around it." "But you can stop this, can't you." "I have that power, yes. Will I use it anytime soon? No. I'd rather support thousands of scientists than 12 individuals. Much more profit that way." "That's selfish and derivative." "What isn't?"
"I need to go check in on Joanne. Her gears clog up fast. I'm not sure if she's still running her program." That woman is an android?" "Why, yes she is. Very lifelike, correct?" "Yeah. That's creepy." "Joanne is a prototype. I've been working on Friday for over a month now. She'll take much longer than Joanne did. Joanne was only to see if the program worked. It clearly does." He paused for a brief moment. "On a short fuse..."
And swiftly walked off in the direction she went in. Only moments later, Joanne was being carried by Tom, and her eyes were closed. He'd turned off the program. A door opened behind me, and I turned to find an armored soldier coming into the tank. He looked beat up, with a bleeding claw mark on his face, several dents in his armor, and he seemed to be limping. Jerome had clearly done most of the prominent damage.
"You hungry?" "A little. Are you okay?" "Not really..." "Okay... Feel better." "Thanks." "Not a problem at all." "You still want food?" "Why not." "What'd you want?" "Just an apple." "Well, here you go."
He tossed me an apple painfully, and limped out. I heard the door lock behind him. I slowly ate the apple, letting my systems adjust to the new environment. I had a lot of scientists pass my tank, and none gave me a glance. I didn't care, if they wanted to ignore me, I was glad to ignore them as well. But Joanne returned after an intermission.
Tom reappeared behind her. "I reset the system, so she remembers you, but she'll be mindless about it for a few short minutes." "Oh." "What would you like, Sky? Anything?" She asked. "No, I'm okay. Thank you anyway, Joanne." "Mr. Syndicate, would you like anything?" "A tea please. Two sugars and some honey, okay?" "Yes sir."
She skipped off happily. "She's more of a child than an android. Joanne is tough to secure."
She returned with a small cup of tea in her hands, sitting on a small china plate. He took it from her grasp, and stood quietly with the cup in his palm. "Sky, what would you like to know?" "What?" "I'll answer any question you have, personal or not. What would you like to know about me?" "What is your full name?" "Thomas Syndicate Cassell." "How old are you?" "22. Be creative. Do you know how many times I've been asked those same questions?"
"Okay then. What kind of science do you like most?" "Here we go. I enjoy the human disorders. Social and separation anxieties, ADHD or ADD, bipolarity, anything that affects the mental health of a human intrigues me. But I've expanded my horizon, and looking at those like you- not quite human. And the hybrids, and the fantasies."
"So why do you not do it yourself?" "Because, I have more important matters to attend to, and there are plenty more like me who enjoy quite the same thing." And he swept his hand around the building. "As do every person here. They signed up for just this. I have another project, the Cassell Project, miles and miles away that does something similar with everyday animals and pets." "So you're making wolves and ocelots have separation anxiety?" "Isn't it great?"
"No! That's cruel!" "Isn't it? But where's the fun if you don't learn from it?" He took a breath. "To know how it develops, you have to create it, then track it on how it grows within the mind. Exploit what you have to gain more than you have." "You're sick."
"I don't believe so... Joanne, do a system scan of my health." "You are clear sir." "You take my words too literally." "No, I only do it to mock. You're being a smartass."  I slammed my fist on the glass, startling him.
"That wasn't very wise of you. You're getting on my nerves." I growled, "You have no right to do this!" "I do, actually. I have a permit to do whatever I wish, including isolating anyone and anything for testing." "That's terrible! You deserve none of this!" "Do I?"
"Thomas! You can't do this! The children are too young for any of this!" "No one is too young or old for anything. Jordan was much too young to die if that's your argument." "It isn't." "Pity. Jordan deserved much more than to be murdered in cold blood for who he was." "He was a dark sorcerer, wasn't he?" "How long did that take you to figure out?" "Seconds. I was in the castle when it happened." "You weren't."
"I was. My friend Brice was torn apart. He was forced to watch it by his mother, the one who killed Jordan." "No..." "I know her personally too. You must have Brice here. If you don't, tell him this story. I guarantee he'll cry." "Why?" "He's a different Solace."
"Joanne." "Yes sir?" "Do we have Brice Solace in our tanks?" "Yes sir we do. We also have Seto Sorcerer, Brandon Cody, Mathew Nooch, Kara Pwincessly, Mitchell Hughes, Jerome Aceti, Tyler and Anthony Ellis, and an unnamed bacca cub. Then we have Sky here."
"Do you have Sky's full name?" "No. It was never given, sir." "Find it." "Sir, I can only come up with the Devil's child, who is named Skybrine." "That's the name. Rotate it into the program." "Yes sir, right away, sir."
I pounded my fist on the glass when he went silent to drink his tea, and managed to scare him half to death. He spilled his tea, and looked very cross with me.  "You will regret that, Skybrine." "Doubtful, though I do regret." He walked away to clean the spilt tea. I sat against the glass, wondering how the others were doing.

-Pete's POV-
Jerome was kinda mean to the man. He gave us food, and Jerome just beat him up. Ty and Anthony just watched from their cage, and Mat, Kara, and I were too afraid to go over. Soon after he left, I watched as Ty pulled his wing in front of himself. He just held it there.
But that changed. He took his wing,  grabbed the green inside of it, and tore it out. There was no sound to it, but it looked painful and weird. He tore out every damaged bit of his wing, and ended up with nothing there. He folded his wings in behind him and was done with it. I shivered.
"Ty?" "Yeah?" "Did that hurt?" "Not really... For a moment, but once that was done, no." "Why did you do that?" "So it'd heal."
"Oh..." "You seem creeped out. Was it because I just ripped my wing apart?" "Yeah." "Sorry, Pete. Didn't mean to scare you." "It's fine."
A man appeared on the inside of the glass that showed us the building's interior. "Is there a Brandon Cody in here?" I frightfully raised my hand.  "And is there also a Mathew Nooch?" Mat raised his hand. "Come with me, boys." "Why should we?" Mat asked.
"Because you are obliged to. And if you don't, your little rabbit friend is getting hurt." I glanced at Kara, and she was trembling. "Fine. Just don't hurt Kara." "Come along."
A door opened in the wall,  and we walked through to the building interior. We walked after the man slowly, keeping pace, but still lagging behind enough to make him mad. "Keep up!" "No!" "Then your little friend is getting hurt."
"No." "Then keep up." "We are, actually." Mat called. "Well, this 3 foot gap between us says otherwise." "But we haven't made hat gap any bigger." "Well, 3 feet behind is not keeping up." "So you need to slow down."
"Or you need to walk faster, smartass." "Hey! No curse words, please." "Too bad. I'm an adult. I can do what I want." So we kept walking, still lagging enough to keep him angry. He stopped at a big metal door, and waved Mat and I inside. We went in, and the door shut.
We stood, confused, in the entrance of a smaller hallway. "Come boys." A girl's voice called. Mat followed me, but stopped very suddenly, tugging my hand. I zoned in on the one dreaded sound. I ran to the woman, dragging a shocked Mat behind me.
"We have a problem." "What is it?" "Mat's suit. Something's wrong. We need Kenny!" "Who's Kenny?" "A blacksmith in the city. We need him now!" "What's wrong with the suit? Is it something we can fix?" "No. Kenny designed the suit. Only Kenny can fix it. We need him NOW." She rushed away, leaving me to try and calm Mat down.
Mat's breathing quickened immediately, and he started to hyperventilate. His glove found his chestpiece, and he leaned over, trying desperately to breathe slower, only to cough and continue hyperventilating. "Mat, relax, please!" "I- I can't- Pete..." "Mat please, hold on!" His breath caught, and he collapsed.
"Mat please! No!" Two men came in and carried me and Mat out to a van. They set Mat down inside, and sat me next to him. The door shut, and the van drove north- Kenny's city. The van stopped and the door came open.
Kenny dragged an unconscious Mat to the table inside, and disassembled the suit quickly, getting the machines attached as fast as he possibly could. While he fiddled with the suit, Mat stopped breathing. "Nonononononono. Mat? Mat, breathe. Please." "He's not breathing, Kenny. Kenny! Kenny, he's not breathing!" "I know that! His systems went into shock. He'll be fine."
"What happened with his suit? Did something stop working again?" "No. Everything is working fine. Nothing broke. I don't understand. He shouldn't have gone into shock. Not a thing is wrong with the suit." "Then is something wrong with Mat?" "That's the only option. Nothing happened to the suit, so it must be a health issue." "Now what? Do you have the stuff to check?"
"I don't. I'm not a doctor, Petey. He needs the hospital." "But they don't know how to care for him! They'll just kill him!" "Petey, we have no choice. It's all we have." "No! Please!"
"Petey, you can't change anything. Neither of us can do anything." "Then why did his suit go off? The suit only goes off if it's something wrong with the suit." "I don't know, Pete." "Then did the suit pick up on his health somehow? Making the suit think that it was broken?" "It must've, Pete, but I can't save him."
"But you told me you could! Kenny, he needs you." "But there's nothing I can do! The machinery is fine! This is Mat's heart we're talking about. Mat is not a machine. I can't fix Mat. I can fix the machinery that surrounds his body, but there's nothing wrong with it." He put his hands on my shoulders. "Petey, we need to take him to the hospital." "But-"
"Petey. Don't make it harder. His heart is failing. He's going to die. He needs a hospital's medical attention." "Fine." And he took us to the hospital, the people from the project following in their van. "Please be okay, Mat."