Fox Life

Everything was always easier said than done. The moment Chris saw that Iris was against cooperating, he called back his guards. They were outside, so it would take them a few minutes to arrive, but then Iris' time would be over. With seven or so people in the not-so-large lab room, there wouldn't be that much place for her to maneuver.     

'I have to do something before the guards come.' If she didn't, things would go really bad for her.     

Chris didn't rush in to catch her, but the two scientists did. They ignored their lofty standings and went after her like any hoodlum. It wasn't hard to dodge their inexperienced grabs, but what did it gain her?     

Iris looked around, hoping to see some kind of tool she could use to fight back. It wasn't in her nature to hurt others, but the people coming after her had lost their humanity years ago. If they could put children through torture just to further their goals, they didn't deserve any sort of consideration.     

As she thought that, her eyes landed on the syringes the two men had been pointing at while she was in the cage. Next to them, there were a couple darts she'd seen in on TV. There was no way to know if they were really just sedatives, but if not, it would be the scientists who would get a taste of their own medicine.     

'I just hope they will work…'     

She led the two men to the other side of the room, then avoided their reaching hands and gave a burst of speed. Like a flash, she crossed the room and changed mid dash toward the cabinet.     

Her hands crashed heavily against the glass doors, but she ignored the pain and scrabbled to open the cabinet. The darts were right there, in her reach.     

The scientists were on her at that moment. The older crashed into her, not having expected her to change so suddenly. They tumbled to the ground together.     

Iris recovered first and grabbed the darts that had fallen from her grasp. There was a leering face over her when she turned back at the man, and she smashed one dart into his shoulder without a second thought.     

The old scientist yelped in surprise. Fury surfaced on his face, but was soon replaced by shock. His muscles relaxed, and he rolled to the side. He was still breathing, so it meant the darts really held sedative for the animals in the lab.     

The other scientist stared at Iris in disbelief, his eyes shifting between her and his colleague. It looked as if he couldn't understand how she could use violence back at them. His mouth kept opening and closing, but no words came out.     

There was no way Iris would miss such an opportunity. She pushed the old man to the side and dived forward, sticking another dart into the scientist's leg through the pants.     

The guy stared at her for a little more, then fell backwards with that same stupefied expression on his face. Up until the end, he was too shocked by her fighting back to move. Escape was fine, but how could she try to hit them back?     

Iris shook her head at him and crawled to her feet. While hiding behind a counter table, she looked to where the leader stood. He was still there, but his expression could have frosted a desert.     

"What did you do to my people?" he demanded, but didn't move to get closer to her.     

"Same thing they wanted to do to me," Iris answered, fingering the darts in her hand. She had three more.     

They would be more than enough to deal with that Chris guy, but what about the guards? There was a high chance more than two of them would show up.     

"We made a deal," Chris said, crossing his arms.     

Iris rolled her eyes at him. "And you destroyed my family. I still think you're getting off too light here."     

Chris burst out laughing then. He cackled for so long, Iris wondered if there was something wrong with him. He even brushed tears from his eyes from all the laughing.     

"Now that's good joke," he said in the end, once he could control himself. But he was still chuckling from time to time. "You speak as if you're actually human. What family? You're nothing but a beast created from our experiments. You're even less than an animal."     

His expression turned more serious then. "Is this your plan? That you get what you want to know from me and then escape to run away with your little savior? Delusional. We'll never let you go. And he's not someone that can just disappear. Do you think he'll choose you after we threaten everything that's precious to him?     

"You're dreaming." The man took a step forward then, walking around the table behind which he'd been standing. "This lab is the only place for a creature like you, so stop struggling and accept your fate. Everyone around you can only suffer."     

It wasn't like Iris didn't know that. At first, she had thought it was just a coincidence, but then she realized it was something that just happened. Whatever she did, people around her were hurt or had to suffer for no fault of their own.     

"You think that Kyro guy can actually protect you? Don't dream. We've already sent people to buyout some of the participant places from the players. Once they come in and create trouble, your man's precious Dioscuri's last hope will drop to rock bottom. Once Greensten buys it up, he will have nothing left but debts for life."     

A fire blazed into life within Iris. She didn't care if he threatened her, but Kyro who had been nothing but understanding and helpful through all the mess that is her life? That was unforgivable. More than that. With those words, he forfeited his life.     

The man started to monologue more, but Iris could not hear a word of it. Red clouded her vision, and she glanced down at the darts in her hand. 'Too merciful for you.'     

For the first time, she actually wanted to hurt someone. Physically. That man didn't deserve to be standing and enjoying himself after all that he'd done and still planned to do. For him, it wasn't enough to destroy the life of a family's three generations—he still had to go for all the other people who got in contact with them.     

"No," Iris hissed out. "I won't let you."     

The man looked up then, surprised. It didn't seem like her words fit in with whatever he'd been saying. But Iris didn't care. She grabbed a large glass vial from the counter and threw it at the man.     

Chris tried to dodge, but tripped over his own feet and fell backward. The vial grazed his temple, dealing almost no damage, but while falling, he hit the sharp edge of a table with the back of his head.     

His eyes rolled back instantly, and he didn't raise from the floor.     

When a couple seconds passed without any movement, Iris carefully got closer, expecting an ambush or something. But the man lay still, barely breathing; he wasn't faking his condition.     

Iris could see a little blood in his hair, but she couldn't find any pity in herself. 'Karma's a bitch, isn't she?'