Chapter Text
It’s so cold.
That was your first thought of the day when you woke up, freezing in your current cell. Your serpentine tail curling a smidge tighter, your body shivering from the most recent experiment done to you.
This week, UrbanShade was testing how your body reacts to the cold. You just wanted to tell the scientists behind this whole thing that you were shivering your ass off in here and that it was indeed cold to you. Obviously you didn’t want to make things worse for yourself by saying that, who knows what kind of punishment they’ll enact on you if you decided to be rude.
It was at least -22 Fahrenheit. You had no clue how UrbanShade could get a room this cold, maybe just for you. It was worse than the other test they ran on you, being the same as this but only with scalding temperatures instead of Antarctica levels of frost
You despise those people who put you in here, how you got in here, and what you’ve been subjected to. This test is one of the tamest things they’ve done to you.
You cradled your arms and wrapped your tail around yourself to keep your body heat in one place. Damn those scientists! The only warmth you had was the old oversized shirt they had in some storage bin that's been rotting for years (with generously cut holes for your extra arms) and a random coat that hasn’t seen the sun in what seems like forever, much like you.
At the very least, they gave you clothes. You didn’t need more of your dignity and humanity stripped from you after being transformed into.. This.
You could feel your knifelike claws (once normal, human fingers) curl into your arms, your sharp and scary teeth chattering together in a clear act of freezing in this cell. Your newfound tail was shivering just like the rest of your body, some of the scales reflecting off the room's obnoxiously bright light.
Though you didn’t want to wallow in self pity, it was the only thing you could do to distract yourself from the cold. You thought you were hideous, no, scratch that. You were hideous.
You no longer looked like your old self, obviously. Your life just had to fall apart when everything was going good. From graduating college and getting your degree to being framed for crimes you never committed and getting experimented on dozens of times to look like some.. Ugly serpent mermaid creature!
You had two extra arms and an extra pair of eyes to match. You were fortunate enough that you at least got to keep your hair, you would only be more disgusted with yourself if you were just some typical hairless snake. Not that there's anything wrong with being bald , you added during your thoughts.
You did however miss your legs, your bipedal features being replaced with a long, scaly tail. Sometimes you can still feel your legs kicking when they first start being tested on you.
You also had an esca, the lure female anglerfish have to see in the dark. You sometimes like to play with it whenever you were bored by hitting it lightly or tugging it on and off (accidentally blinding yourself occasionally). It was surprisingly sensitive. Catching you off guard sometimes whenever you would grab it, making you hiss whenever it was tugged or gripped too harshly.
Two fins poked out from the side of your head, sometimes indicating your mood if it was too the extreme (for instance, your fins would go upturned if you were happy, which was very rare)
You hated this place, you hated everyone who worked in this damn building. They deserved to burn in the fiery pits for what they let happen to you, being torn apart and mutated beyond recognition to your former self. Six or so different DNA’s flowing in your system and physically changing you dramatically.
Two shark DNA’s for your strength, smell, and more or less intelligence, a female angler fish for the esca on your head, some crustacean that gave you your two extra arms, and a sea snake for your general body now. The last DNA in your system, you never had a clue. It was probably some deep sea fish that was terrifying.
Your gills poked out the side of your neck like a sore thumb, being the original reason why you were even brought here to be experimented on. They made it easy for swimming obviously, but whenever you went to rub your neck they always caught you off guard. You always think about how easy it was for you to stick a finger or two in there on accident.
Everything about you was awful. Why, just why did you have to be the unfortunate soul to have to go through this. You just wanted to go home and be yourself again.
Your thoughts were cut off by the sound of your cell’s doors opening. The loud mechanical click echoing throughout the space had startled you from your spot. Your glowing eyes squinted at whoever decided to come in and torment you.
A voice had poured out from the intercom, the scratchy and unpleasant audio hitting your ears, hyper-sensitivity to sound was one of the many side effects that was turning into a monster.
“Z-18,” You hated that title, why couldn’t they just call you by your name? “You have completed your test. You will now be returning to your containment cell.”
You only sighed out in disdain as a team of security guards inched closer to you. You disliked the guards immensely, they were always harsh with you no matter how feeble you tried to present yourself. You were more shy and scared nowadays. Feeling that everything was a possible test or any slight movement could trigger a negative effect.
That’s why you always retreat to the hidden, more secluded area of your cell (after waking from your anesthesia dose, of course, You are never awake when they transfer you). It was a little cave, that could spaciously fit you and leave an underwater segment whenever you wanted to swim (which was almost never, that would mean your clothes would get wet and it would take forever for them to dry)
Thankfully, you wouldn’t have another test soon. At least, that’s what they told you.
Slithering to your cave, you curled in on yourself. You had nothing to entertain yourself besides thinking or playing in the water. Maybe you could start counting, you got nothing better to do, but at the same time that was boring as well.
You were then reminded of your east wall, the weakest wall. You had gotten upset one day, and decided to not bottle up your emotions like you usually did. Digging into the metallic walls with ease and snarling like you were some rabid animal, it didn’t take long before you were detained.
You had messed up the wiring, causing the lights in your room to occasionally flicker or power off entirely. You could see just fine, but your captors couldn’t. They never wanted you to have the advantage, so you knew they were plotting something to have it done.
They still hadn’t repaired the wall, despite that thought. You were heavily aware that if you were to mess with the damage you had caused, you would be punished. You didn’t want to think about that or whatever worse they could do to you.
Being terrified was a good deterrent from you doing something to that wall. The camera in the top right corner of the room taunting you every time you went out, solidifying the fact they would have proof if you did. Damn you Urbanshade.
Could you just stop thinking? The only cure was to sleep off the rest of the day.. Night? You didn’t know nor care anymore. You know you just woke from the anesthesia, but it still held some effects. You always hated it when they used drugs on you.
Shrugging off your coat, you bundled it up into a makeshift pillow and rested your head on it. Tightening your tail around you before closing your eyes and rhythmically breathing to help settle into the realm that was sleeping.
____________________________________________________
When you woke up the next morning, you could smell the mundane food UrbanShade left in the room.
It was either fish of any sort or some protein-packed mush. You ‘enjoyed’ the mush much more. Poking your head out of your cave, you saw the tray covered in fish and grimaced. You didn’t mind fish in your human life, but when it was raw and slimy it wasn’t exactly the best..
Grabbing the tray and gulping down the fish as quickly as possible so that you couldn’t taste the unpleasant feeling that was the fish. You shivered at the smooth-ish texture hitting your tongue, it just made you want to vomit.
You slithered back to your humble abode and debated whether you wanted to take a dip in your gimmicky swimming pool, when suddenly the door to your room went off (much like yesterday).
You didn’t bother sticking your head out, it was probably some random employee coming to take your tray and leave. You wish that you could’ve had someone to talk to, anyone would be fine just as long as it wasn’t the bastard on the intercom telling you meaningless information for the most part.
Surprisingly, you continued to hear footsteps wander in your room. What was this guy doing?
Sebastian wasn’t expecting to be the new repairman for Z-18’s cell. Being a random employee of UrbanShade, he hadn’t thought he was anything special but apparently he was if he had to go to one of the most secretive operations in this entire facility.
Every piece of information about you was obscure. All he was told was that you were unpredictable and dangerous. That he shouldn’t engage. However, he had to go in there and repair the wiring while you were awake.
If he said he wasn’t just a tad bit nervous, he would be lying. Sebastian could quite literally die if he didn’t trek carefully. He only readjusted his repairman hat and fixed his hair.
Walking down the hallway, time seemed to slow as every step led to your cell. The dull but bright lights made the man’s eyes squint every few seconds, but he could care less.
When he finally made it to your room’s door, the first thing he noticed was the two guards posted up outside. Holding huge rifles and reinforced gear that further solidified that Z-18 was a threat.
The Chilean-American could only feel his anxiety rise at these signs and remembering what the higher-ups warned him of. You just have to get through this, and then you can go, Sebastian thought.
The guards noticed the toolbox Sebastian held with the hat on his head and proceeded to pull out a keycard, swiping it and opening the door with a clunky noise.
Stepping into the room, the first thing he noticed was your cave and the tray on the floor. Kicking the tray away from where he needed to work, he cautiously watched the entrance of your home as he stepped over to the east wall.
Seeing the claw marks only caused him to sweat at the pure strength that was your hands. They were so big that he could probably stick his whole arm in with ease and fix all the wires with little obstruction.
Dropping his toolbox gently beside him, he stood in place and got to work at identifying what exactly was wrong. Obviously the wiring was screwed and would take a while to fully repair, a least a couple of hours. Sebastian didn’t know if he could handle that, but he was getting a bonus for this.
I got this , Sebastian thought.
When you noticed that the footsteps haven’t left, you decided to take a look. Poking your head out just enough to see who it was, you weren’t expecting to see a repairman. You thought they would have you sedated before even thinking of fixing your cell, apparently not.
The first thing you noticed about this employee was his scar. It was on his nose bridge and looked cool. The next thing you noticed was his pretty black hair, it flowed down just to his shoulders and his bangs fit his face perfectly. He also had pretty blue-green eyes, they were captivating.
Since when were you salivating over some random guy who came in to fix your outburst? To be fair, you hadn’t really seen anybody that wasn’t guards or sadistic scientists (you could argue that both groups were sadistic).
You were contemplating whether or not to say something to him. He was most likely aware that you were ‘dangerous’ and ‘unpredictable’ and how he shouldn’t talk to you, Urbanshade always gave that spiel whenever someone came into your room.
That dumb camera would probably get both of you in trouble if he was caught chatting with a creature like you. Dammit. As you furrowed your eyes in frustration, you got the idea to get one of the rocks in your pool.
You always had some stacked up near the entrance of it when you got bored. Grabbing one of the heftier ones, you one handed it and threw it at the camera. The hit disabling the camera and causing it to short-circuit, alarming Sebastian who turned instantly at the sound. The camera was hanging by its red and blue wires and small sparks erupting from it.
You had moved yourself back into your cave until none of you could be seen. Giving the poor guy a second or two to grasp his bearings. You also chose to lay down on your ‘stomach’, letting your tail move so that you would look like a question mark when in this position.
“Hey, you..!” You called out. Sebastian could feel his heart spike again, breathing in before looking at the direction your voice came from. What he hadn’t expected was to see your glowing eyes, all four, looking at him first. It was a bit scary.
“What’s your name?” Your glowing eyes upturned, a smile on your face that you yourself hadn’t realized was there. Sebastian noticed the fact you did have four eyes, and it was definitely odd to say the least.
It took him a second or two to process your question. Shaking himself to ‘reset’ himself.
“It’s.. Sebastian.” What a sophisticated name, it fit him. After that a few seconds of silence commenced. Was he not going to ask for your name?
“What’s yours?” The Chilean-American asked with a hint of nervousness, moving some of the wires in the wall he was inspecting after. Sparks hitting his fingers and causing him to curse out. Your eyes widened as he was actually engaging in conversation instead of giving you the silent treatment you were so used to.
“It’s..” You announced your actual name instead of what UrbanShade called you. “But you probably know me as Z-18.”
“That’s a nice name, they should’ve let you keep it.” You let a small chuckle out at the compliment, thanking him.
“Are you okay? Sounds like you hurt yourself.” You point out, pointing a clawed finger in his direction. Sebastian had only stared at your massive finger, it was at least the size of two of his own, before answering that he was fine and that it was nothing to worry about.
“I don’t mean to scare you, I only broke that camera so that we can openly talk. I have a feeling you’d be reprimanded if you were caught speaking to me.” Reiterating your earlier thoughts to the repairman, hoping to dissolve some of the tension between you and him.
The lights above had flickered when you said that, causing both of you to jump lightly.
“It’s fine, I understand.” His voice was so silky, you wondered what a handsome guy like him was doing in a place like this. He really should’ve been a model. Wait, what were you thinking??
Sebastian was just some random employee who was terrified of you, he would be no way interested in you anyways since you were.. This amalgamation of various DNA’s from sea animals.
“So.. what'ya go to college for?” You casually ask, trying to pick up conversation. Your claws folding together as your thumbs rested onto one another, your second pair of hands resting against the floor.
“How did you know I went to school?”
“Well, no one is that good with wires without experience. So, I just assumed.” You let out a small chuckle. Since when did you have a sudden personality change?
“Plus, UrbanShade likes their staff well educated.”
Sebastian had made a humming noise at your statement, Glancing away from you to the red and blue wires in the wall, determining what to do.
“I majored in Engineering. Got my Bachelor’s degree, but I planned on being something better than a handyman.”
Grabbing his wire cutter and then placing his soldering iron on the floor in front of him. Just as he was about to cut his first bunch of damaged wires, the fluorescent lights from above completely cut out.
A groan was heard throughout the room, coming from the repairman.
Although you could see perfectly fine, you knew he couldn’t. Fortunately your new friend rummaged around in his tool box for a flashlight. Sebastian grabbed the base of the light source, pushing the button for it to turn on.
A yellow-ish illumination erupted throughout the room, quickly filling up the dark space within its beam. The repairman released a relief sigh, turning to the east wall.. Only for the torch to go completely out.
“Dammit..!”
Shaking the torch desperately, it wouldn’t respond. Great , he thought. Now he would have to go all the way back to storage just for some batteries. Turning away from what he assumed was the wall, he started to head for your cell’s exit.
You would admit, it was kind of funny seeing Sebastian stepping carefully and feeling his way through the dark. However an idea popped up into your head.
“Wait-! Just-”
Sebastian stopped all his movements and turned his gaze in the direction of your voice. Your eyes were still visible in the dark, being his sense of where everything in the room was. But when he noticed that your head was moving, it scared him just a little bit.
“You don’t have to leave, here-”
You had slithered out of your cave, brushing off your clothes to look ‘presentable’. You wanted to provide a good introduction afterall. Sebastian had widened his eyes at just how tall you were, evident by where your eyes were.
“Let me show you.”
You grabbed your esca and pulled down like a lamp, dazzling up the room with your ‘organic’ lightsource. Sebastian had cowered back at the sudden brightness, eyes squinting in defense. Opening his eyes fully, he was finally able to see what you looked like.
It was nothing he was expecting.
You were much bigger than he imagined. Long scaly tail and lighter colored underbelly than the rest of your skin. You had hair, which he didn’t think you’d have. The sharp claws you possessed made him worry, but obviously he knew you had sharp claws from the damage on the walls. What he thought was odd was the strange dots on your face, they looked like individual freckles. Three on each cheek.
The coat and shirt you had on was also kind of cute. Those two items granted you some charm, though the repairman wouldn’t admit that.
You were oddly beautiful, in your own way.
You couldn’t help but notice his stare, taking in your features. You felt gross, like he was looking at an alien. Why was he staring so hard?
“I’m disgusting, aren’t I?” A small whisper slipped out of your mouth, slinking yourself down to make yourself seem smaller. You’ve scared the staff in this building before, what’s another?
“No, you’re- You’re just not what I expected.” Sebastian explained as he straightened his back, walking back over to the wall and tossing his junky flashlight into the tool box. He knelt down to grab the wire cutter and shoving the heat shrinks in his pockets.
“You’re definitely something different, but still.. pretty” His awkward tone clearly suggested that he didn’t know what he was saying, but was saying it to make you feel better. He didn’t think you were scary, maybe too monstrously big for someone with your frail personality, but other than that you were fine.
Your first pair of hands were fidgeting with each other while the other two wrapped around the other. You stayed in place, did he really mean that? You hadn’t realized you were until Sebastian gestured for you to come over, slithering over quickly after.
Bending yourself down to be around a foot or two taller than your newfound friend. Your esca dangling between the two of you, kind of like a mistletoe. Stop! Get your mind out of that romance gutter, he’s just a handyman afterall.
Sebastian had gripped his wire cutter and began his job, using his expertise to get to work. You had to be hunched over to provide good lighting for the man. The mono-yellow lamp that was genetically nailed to the frontal region of your head was doing well as an ulterior lightsource.
Although when you try to straighten your back in order to not feel like you’ve aged a thousand years, Sebastian would make a small huff before reminding you to come back down. The size difference between the two of you was almost comical. Sebastian would have to have two doppelgangers and get them to stack on his shoulders, just to get to your impressive height.
“How tall are you anyways?” Sebastian said to break the silence, connecting a wire or two as he did.
“They told me I was around ten feet tall, from the top of my head to the tip of my tail.” The way you said that fact was kind of cute, like how a dog was excited to show their owner a new toy. Maybe it was because you haven’t talked to a normal person in possibly years. Still, Sebastian thought it was cute.
“Damn, you’re long.” The phrase had come too quickly out of the man’s mouth, surprising himself and you. You couldn’t help the cacophony of giggles and cackles that escaped your mouth, and Sebastian had fumbled trying to explain that it wasn’t what you were thinking.
Your giggle was also kind of silly, reminding him of a cartoon character. Your tail flapping happily at the funny phrase. During that whole giggle fit, your lure was flickering the whole time. It seems it reacts to certain emotions.
“It’s okay, I know what you mean” You say, wiping a faux tear from your eye. You had a smile on your face.
Sebastian only shook his head with a small smirk, going back to work on the wires. You only watched him work, with the occasional questions on how wiring works and how he was doing it so easily.
As he would explain the questions you asked, his eyes occasionally flicked to you before looking back on his work. Random sparks would come out and nick his fingers with their small embers, causing him to exclaim like he did earlier as he now put the heat shrinks on the exposed wires.
You yawned and went to grab stretch your back, when as you were bringing yourself Sebastian’s hand flew up to grab your lure, preventing you from back out again. Forcing your light to stay in place and in his firm grip, he used the heat gun to shrink the heat shrinks (who would’ve guessed).
You, on the other hand, were positively flustered. You hadn’t expected the handyman to grab your esca. Or at least not like that. You could feel your nerves quaking as he continued to hold it in his hands. It was dumb how it was easily affecting you.
Sebastian had let go of your lure after fully repairing a part of the wires where you clawed in the walls. Shortly after that, the obnoxious lights from above flickered for just a second before ceasing proving that they were nearly fixed. You gave a lazy cheer before going to stretch your back (mostly trying to hide your face since he could most definitely see your reaction from the ‘grabbing-your-lure’ thing)
The pops of your back echoed in the room.
“Don’t think we’re done yet, we still have those ones to do.” The handyman pointed at the rest of the metal streaks in the wall. You inwardly sigh before lowering your head down again and letting Sebastian continue for work for what seemed like hours.
During that time, the two of you got to bond over simple things like movies or hobbies (granted you’ve been stuck in this facility for at least ten years, so it was mostly Sebastian dumping info on you from the outside world).
You found yourself laughing at some of the dumb jokes he had slid in every now and then, and you found yourself wondering why. It made you question even further when he would laugh at your small jokes too, sometimes a little too hard. Maybe he just wanted to make you feel better so you wouldn’t cringe at your own behavior, who knows.
Either way you still continued.
By the time it was required for Sebastian to leave (even if he didn’t fix all that needed to be fixed, for safety reasons) it was definitely overdue. You now knew more about Sebastian than you ever thought you could, or at least not in a creepy way, and he could say the same thing about you. Looking down at his watch, his face gave a sudden look of panic.
He had to wrap this up or who knows what would happen. Urbanshade most definitely wouldn’t like it if he got too close to their little ‘monster’. As you chatted about your past life to Sebastian, (like the pets you’ve had before or what you used to do before being stuck here for ten goddamn years) you noticed his face was a bit concerned.
“Do you need to go? You’ve been here for a long time by now.” You queried. You didn’t want to see him go so soon but you strongly understood what could happen to him, but considering he’s an employee maybe it won’t be as bad as you think it is.
“Yeah, unfortunately.”
Silence passed over you two, your lure still hanging over the two of you. He could see the downturned expression on your face. His eyes traveled to your neck by accident and took notice of your gills, how hadn’t he noticed that before? Most likely from the lighting. They fanned out whenever you sighed.
“Hey, if it makes you feel any better.” Sebastian paused, brushing a couple strands behind his ear “I’ll probably be back in here tomorrow, to fix the rest of the wall and the camera you so rudely destroyed.”
Grabbing his toolbox and readjusting his hat, he stood upright straight. He arched his spine to pop his back, he would probably need a chiropractor for this job considering he’s bent down all the time.
You gave a small chuckle at his joke, your face brightening. You nodded and helped him reach the door before slithering back to your cave. Waving goodbye but not before speaking.
“Thanks for talking to me, it was nice.” You sighed before continuing “I hope you weren’t too scared of me.”
Sebastian only shook his head with a smirk on his face before waving goodbye. He then left the room after slamming his fist on the door multiple times and shouting out, making you giggle in the process.
Maybe you’ll see him again, at least you hope you will.