3The sound of running footsteps rang out as two young children barely in their early teens fearfully ran through an alley in the late summer afternoon in the East City. Their clothes were rough and slightly torn. Not to mention the cloth was heavily frayed from excessive use. Oil stains and grime clung to their shirts.
The faster of the two was a young man with disheveled long black hair that was equally grimy as his clothes. However, in his blue eyes was a light that could not be easily extinguished. His blue Titans baseball shirt was almost black from the countless stains that sullied it.
The young girl behind him who was thinner and on the edge of emaciation was huffing and panting from the excessive sprinting, but she did not make any objections to their pace, as what was chasing them was infinitely more dangerous than everexhertion.
Her blonde hair swayed across her face causing her to trip on a small pile of bricks and fall face first into the concrete ground beneath her, eliciting a yelp of pain followed by desperate scrambling to get up.
However.
Her ankle had twisted and she fell back to the ground.
Hearing the young girl's yelp, the young boy skidded to a stop, quickly turning around and running over to the girl.
"Sis, cmon get up! We have to run!" The young boy's desperation overruled any compassion he would normally have for his sister's plight.
The sound of heavy boot steps from the mouth of the alleyway alerted the siblings that their pursuer was catching up quickly.
At that moment the shadows seemed to reach down from the large brick walls on each side of them. It was as if the sun had abandoned them for favor of their assailant.
As the young boy desperately tried to get his sister off the alleyway floor, their pursuer took the time to approach them swiftly.
"Gotcha you filthy brats!" The man approaching them exclaimed joyously as he was mere meters away from the two.
The young boy let go of his sister's hand and quickly ran in front of her. Raising his fists like he saw Hercule Satan on the big screens do in a pathetic attempt to defend his injured sister, he raised his quivering voice.
"Stay away from us mister" he threatened, but his voice was no more than a wavering squeak in front of the reality in front of him.
The man just chuckled as if this was all quite amusing. However his chuckle was cut off by the whimpering voice of the young girl behind the boy.
"Brother I'm scared" she cried, and the boy grit his teeth. Up until this point the man hadn't done much except reach into his coat pocket and pull out a small gun.
It wasn't a firearm. No, at least if they got killed, their pain would be over.
No, this was a tranquilizer gun loaded with several tranquilizer rounds.
This was a kidnapping in the most literal sense.
The boy, to his credit had been quite brave up to this point faltered, subconsciously taking a step back.
"Playtime is over kids" the man said, pointing his gun at the boy.
Thwip
The sound of a dart striking the soft flesh of the boy's neck and the shriek of his sister as he hit the pavement hard could be heard, but nobody came to save them.
Seconds later the young girl's sounds quieted and the alleyway was silent again.
The man collected the children's bodies and stuffed them in a large burlap sack he had over his shoulder.
Smoothing out his mustache, Dr Gero walked out of the alleyway, tossing the sack onto the passengers seat of his big gray van.
He had secured what he hoped would be his next set of future androids.
The young boy opened his eyes to the feeling of dozens of needles sticking into his body on all areas. It hurt. It hurt so much.
He couldn't help but scream as whatever was being pumped into him felt like it was burning him from the inside out in a neverending torrent of purest agony.
He shut his eyes, but that did little to ease his torment.
After he could scream no more, he let out hoarse whimpers as he was consumed by pain.
He tried to move, but metal clasps secured his arms, legs, stomach, chest, neck, ankles and head.
He could do nothing to save himself.
Then, something vicerally revolting and soul crushing rang out from the room next to the one he was in.
It was his sister's screaming of agony and terror. It crushed and enraged him, but he was powerless to save her from whatever horrible fate had befallen her.
Her shrieks and whimpers continued for hours. Noises that should never come from a human, let alone a young girl repeatedly and violently interlaced with shrieks and wails that haunted him and broke him on a fundamental level in a irreparable way.
The light in his eyes faded that day.
As vile and evil as what was happening to his sister sounded, he truly lost hope when he heard his sister pleading, begging for help. She screamed for their father. Their mother. Him. Anyone to save her.
Yet in this cold metal prison of a laboratory, no one came but more pain.
He tried screaming for her, to tell her that things would be okay. That someone would save them. Yet it seems that she could not hear him.
The next day had come and passed, and all that could be heard was soft whimpers and crying, occasionally broken by hoarse screaming.
The pain was no less.
Their kidnapper made no appearance yet, and that terrified them even more than their situation. As if this was only the beginning.
Exhaustion was setting in on both of them, yet the pain was keeping them awake along with whatever drug they had been constantly pumped full of.
Then, the kidnapper made his face known.
Wearing a hospital surgeon outfit with a mask and gloves, the man silently entered the room.
He was an old man with white hair and a long bushy moustache that poked out from his mask.
Walking over to the boy locked on the surgical table, he looked at the boy in a clinical fashion and spoke. His elderly voice slightly muffled by the mask.
"Hey kid. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for being weak. You're mine now. Not that you'll remember much when I'm done with you and that scrawny twig of a sister of your's" The man said as almost an afterthought.
It wasn't an attempt to comfort the boy, more a reminder that the boy's future was in his hands.
The boy let out a weak exhausted whimper in reply.
" Precisely" the man said with an agreeable smile, as if the boy had said something profound.
"Now I'm going to remove your skin" The man said happily. His eyes glinting with anticipation.