Earth, Secret Location, 17th December 2021

Dr Skiff sat at her desk, tapping her pen on the right arm of her glasses in an agitated manner. The security lock on the door clicked and another scientist entered, pulling his ear phones out as he closed the door behind him.
Josh: "Hey Riley" he said to her as he finally stopped his iPod blaring out of the ear phones.
She huffed in annoyance not looking at him, only up at the clock on the wall, '09:34'
Riley: "35 minutes... you're 35 minutes late Josh!" she snapped at him.
Josh: "Whoa... easy... where's your Christmas spirit?!" he said with a chuckle.
Riley: "Josh, my 'Christmas spirit' will come to me when I finish this afternoon and I start my 3 weeks holiday... So... you being late, again, is slowing me down and keeping me from going home early, we need to get this final batch done before I go". She explained to him with as much patience as she could muster.
Josh: "Ahh... Sorry" he said, holding his hands up but with only a slight look of remorse on his face, taking his seat near Riley. She took a silent deep breath closing her eyes as she did to relax her self.
Riley: "Right, so what have we got left of the Delta batch?" She asked him, she already knew the answer, but she was getting his head in the game before they started.
Josh: "Erm..." He hesitated, trying to quickly get his desktop up and running "...right, D-zero three, D-zero four, 'zero nine, 'two one to 'two eight and... 'three three". He answered, squinting into his screen.
Riley: "Josh... where are your glasses?" She asked him, noticing his squint.
Josh: "Erm... in my bag"
Riley: "Seriously... I'm not going to mother you" She warned him, looking over her own glasses at him. He sighed loudly, leaned over and raided his glasses case from his bag.
Riley: "Thank you..." She replied sharply turning away from her desk. "...so, start sending them through, in any order, I don't mind. Who's first?"
Josh: "Err, D-zero nine? Original name, Anita Coleman, no notes"

Riley: "Very well, Send her through." standing from her chair and taking a few short steps to a large hexagonal cylinder on it's side, attached to the opposite wall from their desk. Made of thick bullet proof glass and metal frame on the edges to reinforce the cell. The top edge of the hexagon had 2 bomb bay type doors that opened inwards allowing a smaller completely black metal hexagonal cage to be lowered inside, it too had bomb type doors which also opened, allowing a scaly creature to fall to the inside of the glass cell. It lay there motionless in a heap as the black cage retreated and the doors atop the cell closed. Riley pulled a remote pad from her lab coat pocket and pressed a button. 4 jets of gas vented from upper and lower corners of the hexagon shaped front and stopped after a couple of seconds, the gas released mixed with the air in the cell and the creature started to stir. Riley admired the creature as she opened her eyes, blinking and tried sitting up but clumsily did so, losing it's balance as her eyes rolled, clearly dizzy. The dragons were beautiful creatures... dangerous, but beautiful. Slightly larger than a human in size, they looked very similar, but on a smaller scale, to Draco from Dragon Heart that Riley had watched when she was just a little girl, you know, the first one, the decent one, unlike all the crap sequels.

Dark green scales covered the body from snout to tail tip and varied is size depending on location on the body, namely the dorsal scales being larger, thicker and more jagged. The face had a basic triangular shape to it with 2 very obviously reptilian slitted eyes, which in the case of this example were a bright green. As beautiful and majestic as these dragons looked, they looked equally just as dangerous, their wide wing span and aerodynamic body shape meant that they could fly at speeds to rival that of the fastest birds on Earth, some test subjects showing results of over 70mph on horizontal flight. Their feet, hind legs were a digitigrade which ended in 3 toes and sharp claws, the front feet or 'hands', actually had a rather human like set up, 5 digits including an opposable thumb, also all had sharp claws. Their jaws had a powerful bite, easily able to cause damage with a row of carnivorous teeth lining top and bottom. Their tail... possibly one of the scariest pieces, it, much like the rest of the creature, was powerful, one swipe of this would completely shatter a human's rib cage. At the end of the tail lay a diamond shaped hard shell, which, upon the owners will, could instantly spring out 4 sharp blades, 2 from each side from a thin gap on the edge of the diamond shell... how something biologically made could be so sharp was a mystery... sharp enough that with enough power behind the swing could chop a 2 foot thick tree clean in one swipe and be stronger than the toughest Katana made by traditional Japanese craftsman... To summarise a dragon then, a naturally beautiful masterpiece... but a deadly predator in every way.

Which is exactly what they were doing here... A new top secret type of warfare in the making. An expendable, although, very hard to perish, type of soldier. Although the operation is not entirely sanctioned, it will be soon, powers up high will make sure it is. Wars will be won with these Dragons, the idea of terrorism will be a fading memory with these on the front lines. It just wasn't the easiest or the most moral way of creating and training them. But with salaries such as what Dr Skiff was on, you forget what the word 'moral' means.
Riley: "Good morning D-zero nine, how do we feel today?" Dr Skiff asked the dragon with a very soft friendly voice and smile. Dragons were rather simple to tell apart between male and female, males had 3 rows of horns, starting from a couple of inches tall on top of the head from the 'brow' that escalated in height as they reached the back pair at about 7 inches tall at the back of the head. This creature was clearly female, she paused and looked around, her muscle control and senses now fully back to normal it seemed.

D09: "I'm ok, I guess..." The feminine voice said back to her "... where am I? Who are you?"
Riley: "Do you not remember me? My name is Dr Skiff, I helped you recover from the blast... Do you remember the explosion?"
D09: "I... I'm not sure"
Riley: "What about before the explosion? Anything about your life beforehand?..."
The dragoness paused before give a small depressed shake of the head. "...Not to worry my dear, you and several others all suffered similar injuries from the same explosion and you all seem to be suffering with some form of amnesia. We're here to take care of you and if necessary, retrain you all. Some of you may have your memories return, some of you may not. But we will not abandon you, do you understand?..." The dragoness nodded. "...Good, now remember D-zero nine, you are here because you volunteered to help save our planet from tyranny. We can help you back onto the road to recovery but you have to do everything we say, understand?..." Again the dragoness nodded. "...Very good, ok, so other than the amnesia you seem to be fit and healthy, now..." She pressed another button on her remote and a door at the other end of the cylinder against the wall opened, the dragoness jumping at the sudden sound and looking behind her "...if you'd like to follow the passageway to join your friends, we will talk another time". She stated with a smile. The dragon gave a small nod before she entered the doorway as requested and it closed behind her.

Dr Skiff's professional voice returned.
Riley: "Activate English inhibitor for D-zero nine..." she said back to Josh, who tapped some buttons on his computer. "...No notes to add. Who's next?..." She added shortly.
Josh: "Erm, D-zero three, Notes: 'McGriffin syndrome'... What was that one again?" Josh asked, looking confused, Riley rolled her eyes.
Riley: "*Sigh* I explained this one to you just yesterday... The trans problem? The DNA transplantation doesn't necessarily distinguish between male and female? And will cause 1 in 5 subjects to change male to female and vice versa?"
Josh: "Oh yeah that one... That must suck huh, going to sleep as a dude the waking up with a vag eh?"
Riley sighed at his complete disregard for the woman in the room that he actually was talking to.
Riley: "Although having a 'vag', as you put it, is not as bad as you think... Yes, for a guy, it probably would, but with a memory block in place you wouldn't remember what you were before so how would you know any better?"

Josh: "Well no, I spose..." He replied slowly deep in thought.
Riley: "So, shall we move on? What D-zero three's real name?" She asked, trying to get his mind back on track.
Josh: "Samantha Bryne."
Riley: "Ok send him in." again a black containment pod lowered into the main cell, opened and dropped another motionless body to the bottom of the cell, the black pod retreated. Riley gassed the cell again and the dragon inside twitched before snapping his eyes open and jumping up backwards, losing his balance and falling against the side of the cell.
Riley: "Easy, Easy D-zero three, you're alright, you're safe..." The male dragon clutched his horned head with one hand and gave it a little shake, trying to clear it, supporting himself on the glass with the other. "...How are you feeling?"
D03: "Groggy..." the dragon replied releasing his head and looking to the Dr. "...What happened? Where am I?"
Riley: "The feeling will pass shortly. But you're safe at our facility. Yourself and several other dragons were caught in an explosion, we've been doing our best to heal you all, but the concussive shock seems to caused amnesia for you all, we're hoping that given time your memories will return. However, if they don't, then this facility will help retrain you." Dr Skiff explained again in her forced friendly voice, reading her memorised script. "Do remember anything about the blast? or anything about your life before it?"
The dragon looked down for a few moments deep in thought,
D03: "I think... I.. I don't know... Is that bad?"
Riley: "No, not at all, you volunteered for this project, so the least we can do for you is try to help you any way we can."
D03: "How did we end up in an explosion?"
Riley: "Yourself and several others were on a mission, it is meant to be top secret so for now, given your condition, best not flood you with too much information, we will do everything we can for you, but you need to do everything we ask you to, do you understand?..." The dragon nodded at her reply. "...You need to rest D-zero three, if you feel ok otherwise, then if you'd like to proceed through door behind you..." Riley pressed the button on her remote and the door at the back of cell opened "...go and join you friends, relax and we'll talk again soon ok." Riley smiled and nodded. The dragon accepted her direction and proceeded through the door and it closed behind him.

Josh: "I didn't think he was gonna stop asking questions" Josh spoke up.
Riley: "English inhibitor?!" Riley snapped.
Josh: "Oh yeah! sorry." he apologised quickly tapping buttons.
Riley: "But yes, I agree, very inquisitive, make a note on his file as such please."
Josh: "Mmm-hmm... done... hard to believe that use to be a human woman though eh?"
Riley: "Let's move on... Who's next?"
Josh: "D-two four, Alexander Crawford, notes:... holy shit... just a bit wrong with this one then... 'McGriffin Syndrome, A previously un-diagnosed and unnamed Acute Central Nervous System issue which when unregulated will cause most organs to shut down after a relatively short period of time - managed by a Jarvie Industries implant, and...' oh brilliant listen to this... '...subject regularly regained consciousness during induction process, this is due to regional and general anaesthetics only affecting subject for short periods, even larger and potentially dangerous doses do not last, possibly due to regulator implant? Prone to violent outbursts'... Fuck me! They should have just written this one off!"
Riley: "At £650,000 each that these cost to make, they're very unwilling to just 'write them off' if they still prove they can be useful." Dr Skiff informed her colleague, although he was right... she remembered D-two four... she added those notes herself... ALL of the other 'Indoctrinations' as the scientists in this facility like to call them, were smooth, sedate and simple, the ones that made it through the process anyway... sure there were drop outs, they did everything they could to make sure they didn't happen and save as many subjects as they could, but maybe in D24's case they should have let him... or now rather, her, go...
Riley: "Bring her in." Dr Skiff said as calmly as she could, as much as she wouldn't admit out aloud, even she was nervous about this one.

The black containment pod lowered in to the cell as each had done before hand, the bomb bay style doors opened but nothing appeared. Confused, Riley crouched down to peer into the underside of the pod, only as she stared into the dark space within, she was met with almost luminous blue eyes which shot toward her, the dragon inside lunging out to the end of the cell making Dr Skiff fall back in shock with a small shriek. The dragoness bounced off the glass in the cell, shook it's head and massaged her snout, Dr Skiff quickly got back to her feet and straightened out her lab coat.
Riley: "Now now, D-two four, no need to be like that"
D24: "There is, when you're keeping me here against my will!" The dragoness hissed.
Riley: "Oh come now, we're here to take care and look after you after the explosion, do you remember the explosion?"
D24: "I remember a car crash." she said in a snidey way, but this took the Dr off guard... She paused, this was unexpected, off script... She pulled remote from her pocket and pressed a different button to any she had before and turned to Josh,
Riley: "She's still retaining memories..." She explained slowly, "Can you try and reinitialize the memory block?"
Josh: "Can't she hear us?" He asked worried, turning back to his screen and typing in commands.
Riley: "No she can't hear us, I've muted the cell, just hurry". As soon as Josh hit enter they both turned and looked back at the dragoness who was now wincing and grunting in pain, holding her head and screwing her eyes shut. A few seconds of this passed before the pain it was causing her clearly alleviated and her face straightened and looked at the doctor.

Riley: "D-two four, How are you feeling?..." Dr Skiff asked the now settled dragoness. She didn't reply, merely stared Riley down, which was now actually unnerving her a bit, "...D-two four?" The dragoness looked to the side at Josh then back to Dr Skiff
D24: "I'm fine, thank you." said almost menacingly calmly, enough to worry Dr Skiff a little bit,
Riley: "Ok... So... do you remember the explosion? or anything before that?"
The dragoness was looking all around her cell before squinting slightly at Dr Skiff as she finished asking her question, as if trying to analyse her before finally answering "I... no... I don't think so."
Riley: "Ok, well, all you and your team that were caught in the blast seem to have amnesia, your memories may return, they may not, if they don't we can retrain you. If they do return then you should let us know so we can work on them. But you do know that we are all here to help you, yes?" Dr Skiff asked cautiously.
D24: "That's... good to know" the dragoness replied.
Riley: "I think you need to rest now D-two four, if you could head through the door behind you please, you may join the rest of your friends." The door behind D24 and she spun around to look at it, showing a device mounted between her wings on her back on her spine, gloss black in colour, elongated diamond in shape, sat just proud of the skin and had replaced some of the larger thick dorsal scales to be implanted. She paused, looking back to Riley and Josh then before proceeding through the doorway and it closed behind her.

Josh span round in his chair and tapped in some commands, Riley stood looking at the door at the back of the cell that D24 just walked, stroking the her cheek deep in thought.
Riley: "English inhibitor?" She said without adverting her stare.
Josh: "Already done..." He replied spinning back around "... Jeeez... That one is... I don't know... Something didn't seem right, she doesn't act like all the others". Dr skiff looked down at the floor but in the direction of Josh,
Riley: "I agree... Make a note on her file 'Memory block reboot was required, acted... Odd under questioning, violent tendencies still remain, close monitoring required'." Josh typed away, adding in exactly what she asked. 'why do I get a feeling that one is going to cause us a bit of trouble' Riley thought to herself.

She had no idea just how much trouble D24, or rather, Alex, will cause indeed...