It felt like hours before the van finally stopped. Scott couldn't find the heart to shift back to his human form when Mitzi was holding him for comfort. She was careful to not touch his injured paw though. The back doors opened and the two huddled in the corner of the van. When the scientists realized they weren't going to move, they crawled in and dragged them out. First by pulling Scott out of Mitzi's arms and then by grabbing her arm to force her out. They walked close to a huge gray building surrounded by barb wire fence, and concrete. Welp, there goes any thought of digging out of here. Scott thought. As they were escorted, or should I say dragged, into the building Scott's eyes never left Mitzi. Inside there were many doors and hallways light peeked out from underneath some doors. The scientists opened one door and threw them inside. Scott yelped as his injured paw hit the ground once more and Mitzi whimpered then shifted to try and stand up. Three paws are better than one leg.
"You okay?" Scott asked, wincing as he stood up.
"Yeah, where are we?" Mitzi responded.
"No idea. But there has to be a way out." They looked around the room. There wasn't much to see, four gray walls, a few ratty blankets, and...three pairs of eyes?
"Mitzi I think there's other people here." Scott whispered to her. The person behind the grey eyes walked out of the corner. He had collar length messy black hair and tan skin. He wore dark colored clothes and had scales running up his neck that stopped at his cheeks. The t-shirt he wore exposed his arms so they could see bruises running up them to his face.
"Add two Paw tribe members to that Tsu." He spoke. He folded his arms in front of his chest, and his tongue messed around with his lip piercing. He looked very familiar.
"Wait I know you…" Scott wondered.
"You should, I tried to kill you remember?" And with that he shifted into a Horned Lizard. Scott's eyes widened,
"Jasper don't kill them! We're stuck here all together remember." A soft voice said from the shadows. The girl emerged. She wore a small silver halo crown on top of her shoulder length blond hair. In her hair were black speckled white feathers and a small spray of freckles dotted her face. Scott noticed a dark blue bruise on her face while she messed with her frayed blue shorts, and the yellow shirt she wore was the most colorful thing in the room so far.
"Jasper…" She muttered. He sighed and shifted back.
"Alright Lilyflower." The last pair of eyes stepped out of the shadows. The girl Jasper called Tsu had light caramel colored skin and blue eyes. Her black hair was cropped to her chin and she was barefoot. She wore a flower printed crop top and purple short shorts, a sea blue anklet circled her ankle. Her skin had a shimmering gleam to it and small fins were attached to her arms which bore cuts all over. All their clothes were a bit tattered like they had fought on their way to the cold gray building. Okay, there's one person from each tribe here… Scott shifted to his human form and picked Mitzi up after she asked him to. And he leaned against the wall to keep weight off his foot.
"I'm Scott and this is Mitzi. We're from th-"
"Paw Tribe we can tell." Tsu interrupted, pointing to Mitzi's gold paw-shaped earring.
"Tell me, are you the Paw Tribe healer or jeweler?" Tsu asked.
"I'm the jeweler." Mitzi replied. Tsu nodded and turned to return to her corner.
"Well that makes six of us trapped." She slid down the wall into a sitting position and put her head between her legs.
"Six?" Scott asked.
"Yeah. You, Mitzi, me, Jasper, Tsu, and…" Lilyflower stopped talking as the heavy metal door swung open and two scientists walked in dragging someone behind them. They were struggling against the scientists but they eventually were able to shove him in the room and leave.
"You already shot me with a weird dart that made me fall asleep! Leave me the heck alone!" He shouted at the door. When he turned around Scott wanted to turn invisible. If Jasper wasn't going to kill him this guy definitely would. The newcomer saw Scott and smiled,
"So two new losers came to join us. How do you like being trapped with the rest of us?" He hissed. His forked tongue flicked out of his mouth as he stood, scowling, waiting for Scott to answer.
"U-ummm…" Scott's ears flicked back and Mitzi's tail flicked. Tsu immediately got annoyed,
"Gosh, you and Jasper! Why do you hate Scott so much? I mean I know that the Scale Tribe and Paw Tribe aren't getting along at the moment but just, *sigh* Chill!" Tsu shouted from her corner.
"I'm sorry that this frickin place is driving me crazy! They take each of us everyday and bring us to a room to test us, or ask us millions of questions. It's annoying." He seethed and fiddled with his coiled snake necklace.
"Well I'm sorry you're annoyed. But we were all kind of enjoying the quiet you left us in. So if you'd just shut up that'd be great." Tsu snapped. The cross look never left his face as he shifted into his snake form and slithered toward Scott. Suddenly a small Peregrine Falcon swooped down and grabbed him behind the head with their talons.
"Loki! Quit!" Lilyflower screeched at him and flung him across the room toward Jasper. She landed right in front of Scott and Mitzi.
"No one is going to fight!" Lilyflower glared at Loki, who just shifted and rolled his eyes. He muttered something under his breath and sat with his back against the wall. You could feel the tension in the cold room. Scaleans on one side, Lilyflower and Tsu on another, and Scott holding Mitzi at the last side. Everyone sat away from the door, dreading the moment it would open again.