Ch. 1

Haven't you noticed in every story something terrible happens to the main characters? Like someone close to them dies that is close to them, or they are captured. Speaking of which, that's part of how this story begins. But I'm not going to tell you everything in this. I'll let you sit back and enjoy the ride for this story. For now anyways.

It all started about a year ago, I and my friends were playing by the pond in the park by our houses in the spring. It was Spring Break thankfully, or school had our break differently from any other ones, so we were out here alone. And at the moment we were each doing our own different things.

Austin, aka DJ, was throwing a Frisbee at the moment, his red hair falling over his forehead, yet not covering his vivid green eyes. He not only was the oldest one out of all of us there, but he was the tallest one of us.

One of the people he was throwing it to was Alyssa, her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail to show off her story-blue eyes. She was just younger than me by a couple months, and also she was slightly shorter than most of us.

The other person the Frisbee was being thrown to was Beth, her brown hair back in a hair band that kept her hair back and also unveiled her brown eyes. She may have been younger than Alyssa, but she was also a few inches taller than her as well.

Jacob was currently kicking a soccer ball around, his black hair moving if he got into a kick too much, yet his hair never reached down over his brown eyes. He was around the same age as Beth, yet taller than me, making him the second tallest of all of us.

His brother, Jesse, was easily kicking the soccer ball back, yet with each kick his long, black hair, recovered his brown eyes, so he was constantly moving his hair back. He had the unluckiness of being both the youngest of us, and also the shortest one as well.

As for myself, I was skipping rocks into the pond, each toss making ripples in the surface, screwing up the image in the water of my shaggy brown hair and brown eyes. Every so often I turned, watching everyone do what they had been doing. Things out here just seemed so…what's the word I'm looking for here? Ah, I got it: Peaceful.

Usually that's one of the last words I usually use to describe something, but I think that fit the detail of what was going on at the moment well. Everyone was having a great time, smiling and laughing while our radio was playing some great songs for us.

I turned back to the pond, still trying to skip a few rocks on it to relax. It had been working to, until something caught my eye in a reflection. Something that was wearing black clothes. Fear struck my gut as I gulped. Before I could respond further, something turned off our radio. And I remember no one had been even close to the radio before.

"Good day kids," A voice said, as I froze, not because of the voice, but because I also heard the cocking of guns. "What are you all doing out here by yourselves?"

"Who are you?" I heard Austin asked.

"That doesn't concern you," The voice said. "All that concerns you all is that you are coming with us."

"Yeah right!" I heard Jesse say, which was a bad idea at the moment. "You can't convince us to come with you!"

The man chuckled, at least it sounded like one anyways. "You have no choice you know." I heard footsteps coming from the trees, probably meaning that here were more of them that were converging on our position. I guess if anytime were good to check what kind of people were coming at us, now would be the time.

I turned around, gasping at the people with guns. They were dressed in dark black uniforms, wearing helmets with black visions on them, that allowed them to see out, but not being able to see their faces. They held sleek black guns that looked like they could shoot through a tree if they wanted to. Their most distinctive feature though was that they each had a silver star on their gloves, probably a marking sign for them.

"Why do you want to take us?" Those words escaped my mouth before I could even think about them. Seriously, like these guys were going to tell me their plans?

"Oh, you'll see soon enough," the one that I guessed was in charge of this attack said. His companions started to circle around us, leaving us only being able to get to the lake. This was not looking good for us. "Raise your weapons," the leader said, as the others raised their guns at us.

I saw Alyssa move behind DJ with Beth, while Jacob stood up front with us, Jesse on my other side. "You won't take us!" DJ yelled, sounding more confident than I was feeling at the current moment.

"Take aim," the leader said, ignoring Austin's comment at the moment. I tensed, as well as everyone else. This was definitely not going well for us. "Fire!" All I saw with that was that the men fired their weapons, before I was hit in the arm, falling down, feeling both and numbing feelings at the same time.

I kept my eyes open, seeing my friends fall around me as well. We were all clutching different parts of our beings where we had gotten hit at, but either way, it hurt like hell. The soldiers came up to us.

"Game's over kid," the leader said, just before I lost consciousness.

….

When I woke up, I was strapped down to a lab table, not being able to move anything except my fingers. Although I was still dizzy, I could sense that I wasn't there alone. "What's going on?" I asked.

"Shut up!" Before I knew it a hand came out of nowhere, slapping me across the face. My face stung with pain as my vision became less blurry, so I could now make out my surroundings more clearly. I was surrounded by around six men in black scientist outfits, each wearing black goggles and black gloves. Next to them were a few vile full of a blue liquid. As I stared at this, something hit me: Where were my friends.

"Where are they?" I asked, getting no reply. "Where are my friends?" I demanded, but this time I only got a slap in return.

"Shut up!" The man growled at me once again. As I moved to ask again, I was slapped once more, my face was stinging madly. "That is none of your concern." He said, as he walked over, getting one of the vile, and putting it into a needle. Before I could question further, he stabbed it into my arm, causing me to flinch in surprise and pain, before he injected the things into it.

My vision became blurry again as I saw the others start to crowd around me, with the other needles, before I passed out once more.

….

As I woke up again, I found that I was locked inside of a small pod, but with a glass piece in front of me that allowed me to see my friends. "What's going on?" I yelled, but it seemed that they had sound proofed these things, so my yells went unheard.

I glanced at a wall, where one of the men in black coats was next to a machine. He quickly flipped a switch, before I heard a noise in my pod. One that sounded like gas was filling my pod.

Unfortunately, I just had to pass out again before the man came over, examining the pods.

….

This time when I woke up, I felt something brushing through my hair. I opened my eyes to see a girl with long black hair, and green eyes brushing my hair. She was dressed in a light purple outfit, with a number by her right shoulder. "You ok?" She asked.

I groaned slightly. "What's going on?" I asked, staring at her face.

"You're at the Oasis," the girl said, still brushing my hair with her fingers.

"What's the Oasis?" The question came out of my mouth quicker than I had anticipated.

"A place where experiments are taken," she said softly.

"Experiments?" I asked, before I stretched my arms, along with something else. I looked behind me, and I swear I almost screamed. Behind me were two red feathered wings with a few silver feathers and white feathers on the interior of it.

The girl looked at me, "Get used to them." I looked at her more closely, before she stretched her dark black wings behind her.

"You too?" I asked, glancing between my wings and hers.

She nodded. "And soon I'll teach you about your new powers."

"Powers?" I asked, confused beyond belief.

….

[Beth POV]

I woke up, startled by the new change of scenery. The place I was in now was a plain white room, one door without a handle. Before I could examine further, I felt a rush of voices into my head, which I gripped quickly, crying out in surprise.

"So, you're one of the new ones, huh?" A slightly deeper voice said to me. I looked up, seeing a boy in a lighter blue outfit. He has somewhat shaggy red hair, and green eyes. But that wasn't what surprised me so much. He also had two orange fox ears sticking out of his hair, and a longer orange tail with a white tip at the end.

I couldn't talk, the voices in my head making sure I couldn't talk. "Want to learn a trick to block those voices?" He asked, as I nodded. "Think of something, only one thing. And nothing else."

I nodded, trying to think of one and only one thing, which was harder than it sounded. I eventually had to settle on simply thinking of the boy in front of me. I finished looking around the room until I saw something on my back, making me yell out in surprise, the voices momentarily appearing into my head again. Behind me were two large brown wings, with black tips along some of the feathers.

"Chill out," the boy said, his tail swishing beside him. "You're screaming isn't going to change a thing here."

I breathed hard, so many questions going through my mind. "What's going on here?"

"You're at the Oasis," he said. I was about to ask him what it was, but he seemed to know what I was asking. "The Oasis is where experiments like us come to be researched on."

I nodded slightly. "My name's Beth, what's yours?"

"Ike," he said. "And don't worry about your friends, they're safe for now."

….

[Jacob's POV]

I groaned, rolling over to my back and facing what I thought was the ceiling. I heard Jesse groan slightly next to me, as I guessed he was still sleeping slightly. As my eyes were still closed, I felt someone start to stroke my hair softly. I opened them slightly, seeing a girl with tanned skin and black hair, with blue eyes as well. Her most prominent feature though was her back, which had two large bat-like wings.

"Who are you?" I asked, looking up at her.

"My name is Zoey," she smiled, two large fangs being shown. "And this is my friend Katie."

I looked to my right, seeing a girl around Jesse's age stroking his hair. She had shorter blonde hair, blue eyes, as well as two white bunny ears. One thing I noticed about the two of them was that they were in lighter red outfits.

I smirked, seeing Jesse's content face through his long hair, before I saw he had two brown wolf ears that stuck out from his hair, and I also saw he had a brown tail.

"What's happened to us?" I asked.

"You've been changed," Zoey said. "Each of your friends has as well, each with their own set of changes."

Before I could question further, Jesse started to awaken. "Jacob what's going on?" he asked.

"Welcome to the Oasis," Katie smiled sweetly.

Jesse only blinked. "Jacob, I don't think we're in Ohio anymore…"

….

[Alyssa's POV]

I woke up, feeling I was being held to someone. I opened my eyes slowly, seeing a light gray colored outfit that filled my eyesight.

"Alyssa," I heard a familiar voice say to me.

"Austin?" I asked, looking up at him. And sure enough, it was him. His red hair and green eyes a comfort to me right now, in such an unknown place. Yet something was different about him, and I could easily identify it. He had two white tiger ears at where his ears should've been, and I could've sworn I saw a striped white tail swish by me.

"Alyssa, something's happened to all of us," he said quietly.

"What do you mean?" I asked, slightly scared about what he was saying. He reached up, and touched my ear. But, it didn't feel like it at all. I reached up myself, feeling it. It was a feline ear, something that really wasn't right. And before I could say more, I felt my tail swish behind me. Did I just say tail?!

"What's going on?" I asked, scared and confused at the same time.

"I don't know but I do know this," Austin said. "We're somewhere known as the Oasis."