I blink awake from the nightmare I was having about the outside world and look up at the ceiling. I'm in the same room I was before.

Plain and white with a small bathroom, and two exit doors, it's the same room I've been in since I was little. One of the doors leads to a jungle gym where I practice flying, fighting, and shooting arrows, and the other one leads to the rest of a building. I go through the gym one regularly, but I usually only go through building one when I get hurt. Why would I need to leave? The people who take care of me do a good job of worrying about me, and they provide me with lots of entertainment.

I sit up and stretch, my wings extending from my back. The room has a clock on one side, a large bookshelf on the other side, and then my bed on the side by the bathroom. Underneath the clock, there's a dresser with different clothes and shoes. There's a mirror next to it and some hair brushes on top.

My wings flutter as I stand up, trying to make me hover off the ground, but I force them to close as I walk to the bathroom to get ready. After I'm dressed, I make my bed into a little sitting area and pick out a random book.

Majority of the shelf is fiction and fantasy, they give me those frequently. They give me the non-fiction less often and only after they've looked through them and marked things or crossed things out. I'm not sure why.

Before I can sit down and read my book, the outside-exit door opens and a woman in a long white coat walks in. Her name tag reads Vanessa and some of the others that take care of me call her Vanny, but I call her Auntie. Her long blond hair is in a messy bun with two pieces framing her kind face.

"Morning, Auntie!" I wave and put the book back.

"Morning, Butterfly." She walks over and hugs me. I fold my wings and hug her back.

Everybody usually calls me Silver or Butterfly, because of my wings, but my name is Aphrodite.

"Gym today?" I ask. She shakes her head.

"Today's a film day, Butterfly." Film days are when they bring me into a room to watch videos about outside. Usually the videos are peaceful and about animals, but sometimes they're scary and give me nightmares. "I'll bring you breakfast, then you can put your blindfold on and I'll take you to the theatre."

"Okay." I say. She leaves and I sit down on my bed, waiting patiently. A moment later, she wheels in pancakes. I eat quickly and then put on my blindfold, then Auntie grabs my hand and leads me away.

As we head through the building, I hear yelling.

"Experiment Number 2 is trying to escape, bring things to restrain them." Somebody yells. Auntie grips my hand tighter and walks a little faster. The floor changes from cold tile to soft carpet, and I take off my blindfold. We're in the theatre.

"Fly over to your seat, Butterfly." I spread my wings and hover slightly, my legs still moving as if I'm walking. "Fly, Butterfly. Not hover. You need more practice." I sigh and bend my knees, going higher. My wings make buzzing noises as I fly to my seat. I flop down and fold my wings in, sighing.

"Vanny." Another scientist pops his head into the theatre. I call him Uncle because he and Auntie like each other, but his name is Micheal. He brushes his fluffy brown hair out of his eyes. "One of them escaped, we need you."

"Alright. Butterfly, stay here and I'll get you cookies."

"Cookies?"

"Only if you stay." Auntie runs out after Uncle.

I stand up from the seat and look at the door. I know Auntie promised cookies if I stay, but...

I walk to the door. Just a peek, that's all. I slowly turn the handle and the door bursts open.

"Ack!" I yelp, falling back. "Oof!"

"I told you somebody was in here!" A voice says impatiently. "Now grab her and let's go!"

"Wha-" Somebody picks me up and I yelp.

"Hurry, before they catch us! Hey, pointy ears, stand up and walk!" They throw me and I start to fly before I hit the ground. I risk a glance behind us, a bunch of the mean scientists that I don't like are following. They look mad.

"What did you do?!" I yell at nobody in particular, turning back to the person who was carrying me. There are actually four people: a girl with slightly curled raven hair and olive skin; an outrAgeously tall girl (like this girl is mEGA TALL WHAT) with black and blue hair, wolf ears, and a tail; a girl (or is that a boy?) with a mischievous expression, dark skin, and black hair that fades to grey; and a skinny boy with light skin and short dark brown straight hair.

"We're running away!" The black and grey haired one says.

"We can't!" I gasp. "I have so much stuff left in my room-"

"We can buy more stuff!" The boy yells. "They're gaining on us!" I sigh and grab two of their arms.

"Grab on!" They all listen and I nearly fall with all the weight, but I push forward and put on a burst of speed that gets us out the door and into a tree. I yelp and tuck in my wings as we crash.

"Oof." I mutter, sitting up in the tree and moving my wings. They hurt a lot so I go to inspect them and find a few small cuts from the branches and a big one by the bottom. "Who ARE you people?" I ask, turning to everybody else.

"Lulu, she/her." The raven-haired girl says.
    "Amari, she/her." Wolf ear girl says.

"Bolt, they/them." Black and grey haired person says.
    "Zero he/him." Bean pole guy says.
    "Oh." I say.

"What's your name?" Amari asks, her little tail wagging slightly.

"Aphrodite." I reply. "Or Aph. Or Silver, or Butterfly. That's what they called me. She/her, by the way."

"Interesting." Lulu says, raising her eyebrows.

"Why? You guys didn't have nicknames?"

"No. Nothing other than Lulu." Lulu manages to frown and look smug at the same time. "They didn't like me much. I tried to escape a lot."

"Oh, not me." I say, shaking my head.

"She was the favorite." Zero mutters. They all glower at me.

"I just didn't escape much, they watch you guys because you probably try to escape a ton."

"Hm. Anyway. What are all your powers?" Bolt asks. "I can control the weather. Also lightning and electricity."

"I can-" Zero stars to speak but is interrupted by yelling nearby. Lulu's eyes widen.

"They're looking for us! We need to hide!"

"I have an idea! We should sneak back inside, they won't expect that, plus we can get our stuff while they're all gone." Amari suggests, glancing at me.

"And we can get our file reports on our powers, good idea." Lulu says. Amari smiles and her tail starts wagging again, but she tenses up as the voices get closer.

"I'll look out when we go in if you guys look out for me." I say. Everybody else nods and we run back to the lab.

    "Hurry!" Lulu hisses. I don't know who died and made HER leader, but I don't say anything. She's a natural, anyway, and she seems to know what she's doing.

    "My room first, it's the first one here." Lulu runs into a room that has a door identical to mine, and we all follow her in. I stay in the doorway, listening, while noting that my room had a whole bookshelf and Lulu's doesn't.

Wow, maybe I was the favorite. I think with a pang of guilt.

Lulu grabs a small bag and shoves some clothes inside, along with a few small knives.

"Come on." She says. Amari takes the lead and brings us to her room, which has a bird cage in it.

"Did you have a pet bird?" Zero asks.

"No, I sat there in bird form when I wanted to be alone." Amari replies. She grabs a few objects and we leave.

Zero's room is next. It's unnaturally cold in there, but Zero seems unaffected. He grabs a bag and makes us turn around as he grabs a few things.

"Moving on." Zero says flatly, pushing past us.

    Bolt's room is next, which makes me last. It has a bunch of tall boxes and random vents. All the rooms are identical to mine, but mine is the only one with the bookshelf wall. Everybody else has one or two books only.

    Bolt grabs a few random objects and shoves them into a cute little bag of theirs, brown and a bit plain in my opinion. I'm not sure where everybody's getting bags, but I have one in my room. When I turned 7 Auntie gave me a teddy bear for my birthday and I turned it into a backpack.

    "That leaves me." I say. I lead them to my room and head inside, rushing to get my bag and trying to figure out if I should bring all my books or not. Watching the others gawk at my whole shelf-wall, I decide on the latter, settling on a hairbrush, some light bandages for my wings, a small unicorn plush, a small backpack that can disguise my wings (I made the backpack too, the back is cut open to hide my folded wings),and a pair of fuzzy boots.

    "Wow." Amari gasps, sounding awestruck. I shuffle awkwardly.

    "You guys are free to take any books you want, even though I'm sure we can find some of our own." I offer, smiling nervously. Lulu shakes her head.

    "We need to find our lab reports." Lulu says. I sigh but nod and we all follow Lulu to a room with lots of windows.

    "We should steal money, too." Bolt suggests. "And get the personal stuff they may have taken from us."

    "I know where they keep the stuff." I say, shocking myself. I've never, ever peeked outside my door. I shouldn't know where they keep the papers about us and the objects they found us with. But... I do. I know exactly where they keep them, because the scientists that watch me don't care about what I hear, because they think I'm too weak and helpless and can't think for myself, because they think I'm stupid-

I inhale and shake my head. "I've heard them go there. Follow me." I round a few corners and stop at a door, then nudge it open. "Locked."

    Zero pushes me aside and breaks the door handle, we all file into the room.

    "Look for anything that looks like it could be ours." Lulu demands. "Any papers with our names or powers on it, any money they were stupid enough to leave in here, anything that looks interesting or even vaugely important."

    I begin to shuffle through file cabinets. One of the folders says 'Project Outcasts' on it. I pick it up and flip through it, catching the words 'Lulu,' 'Shapeshifter,' and 'Ice.' I flip to the last page, which is about me, and is written in nice printed handwriting.

Experiment Number 5

Scientist Name(s): __Vannessa Walter__

Experiment Name:__Aphrodite__

Physical Appearance: Medium skin tone, brown hair, eyes are a pale sky blue. Country of origin is unknown. Large silver wings that are semi-transparent, fold up to the size of a small backpack. Ears are pointed. Smaller than a regular teenager, but that may just be due to her growing slow rather than her species._________________

Background:Found her as a baby just outside the lab, she was hidden in a bush and deathly quiet. Wings were not fully developed and did not develop completely until she turned 5. Wings seem to grow with her and get bigger as she does. Tends to walk or hover instead of flying. Genes and DNA are very similar to a butterfly's genes and DNA, how that relates to her abilities is still unknown.________________________________________

Training and Ability:Has been training to fly higher and higher, can land silently. Slightly trained in hand-to-hand combat and fighting with knives. Trained in using a bow and arrow, very good aim and eyesight. Very good hearing, can hear sounds up to a mile away sometimes. Can be bribed with cookies if she doesn't want to do something, but usually follows along with tests and experiments when the right scientist is giving or conducting them.

Education:Average intelligence. She likes to read books, very curious. Is being trained in morse code and sign language, knows some Spanish. Has studied butterflies and other winged creatures, such as birds and bats.______

Escapes:Seems to like the lab quite a bit. Gets along with certain scientists and refers to them as her family members. Has only tried to escape once, when she was about 4 years old, and failed. Has such good behavior that her doors are kept unlocked and unguarded, however she never goes through the exit door on her own, only when brought out.______________________________________________________________

Weaknesses:Her wings are very fragile and tear at the slightest touch of a blade. She can still fly with injured wings, but slower, lower, and will land louder. If sounds are too loud then she will go deaf for a few hours. If she goes too high, she may pass out, but we have not tested this due to the fact that she isn't allowed to go outside of the lab despite her good behavior.__________________________________________________

    Reading the scientist's name, I feel a pang of anger. They all lied to me, used me for their dumb experiments. I barely get through the second line before shoving it back into the folder, then I put the folder in my backpack.

    "I think I found the one about us," I inform the others. "I'm carrying it with me."

    "I've got some stuff too." Zero says.

    "Everybody good then?" Lulu asks. A chorus of yeses sounds around the room. "We should bring some weapons then. Unless some of them were kept in your rooms?"

    "No, they put them in a separate room." Amari says.

    "I'm taking all this money with me." Bolt declares, holding up a bag of cash. "We can evenly split it when we leave."

    "Follow." Amari says. She leads us to a room with various weapons on the walls, including bows and arrows. I immediately go for a sleek black bow and sling it, along with the arrows that go with it, around my back, beaming.

    Amari chooses a couple throwing knives and a dagger with a black and red handle.  Everyone else grabs something similar. Even I grab a small pair of dual wielding daggers. Zero grabs a bigger knife, Lulu gets a few fighting ones, Bolt gets a variety of knives and then discovers a big sword with clouds and thunderbolts on it.

    "Guys, look." They gasp, touching the blade. "It had my name on it! It must be mine!" They pick it up and grab a sword-holster-holder thing along with it, putting it around their torso and shoulder and sheathing it on their back. I go to grab a few earmuffs and what I hope is night-vision glasses.

Lulu motions for us to leave when voices sound outside the door. She looks at us with a concerned expression and Amari turns into a sugar glider, settling on Lulu's shoulder. Zero points at the ceiling and mouths the word 'vent.'

I fly up to pop the vent lid(vent lid?) off and it comes off with a loud clang. We all look at each other, panicked, and look at the door, where the voices are getting louder.

"Did you hear that?"

"Who didn't? It was so loud, I'm sure they heard it outside."

"Come on, we have to go back and check."

"Hurry." I say, going down to pick Bolt and Zero up. They both manage to not squirm that much when I touch them and they make it into the vent safely. I pick up Lulu and Amari next, which is easier because Amari is still in sugar glider form. We all squish in there, inching forwards as I fold my wings in and shut the vent lid (I'm pretty sure it's called a vent lid).

"Can you see them?" Zero whispers. I nod, then remember they can't see me.

"Yup." I peek outside to see three scientists, each in matching white coats and surgical masks. One of them, one with long red hair, gasps.

"We've been robbed!"

Upon hearing this, Bolt giggles. "Damn right." I kick them as softly as possible.

"Hush, we'll get caught." I hiss. They quiet down with some rude mumbling and I stick my tongue out at them.

"I swear I heard something." One of the scientists says.

"Somebody was in here, they stole some weapons."

"I mean technically, they stole it from us first." Amari whispers. She's back in human form and picking some stray sugar-glider fur out of her hair.

"We didn't own these weapons." Lulu reminds her.

"Shush, I'm trying to listen." Zero hisses. I've noticed that he doesn't talk much.

"This is stupid. We should-"

"Look! There's a screw on the ground!"

"You have a screw loose. I just want to go home-"

"THE VENT! THERE'S A SCREW MISSING FROM THE VENT!"

"Oh, shoot." Zero sighs. "Here, everybody try to get behind me."

After a lot of pain and awkward movement (and swearing from Bolt), Zero is in my previous spot. He looks down through the vent and sticks his hand through.

"Hey! The ve-" A sudden burst of cold air blows through the vent and Zero gestures for us to go. Amari turns into a little squirrel and darts ahead.

"Two taps exit, one tap dead end." Lulu calls. After some silence, two taps sound through the vent.

"Out we go, then." Bolt says. They're in the lead and somehow run over to Amari, a loud clang echoes through and we hear screaming.

"They're fine." Lulu says dismissively, following them down. I go after her and glance at Zero.

"I think they're dead. Would you like me to help you down?"

"I've got it." He says. We climb down after the others. Zero falls first with an 'oof.' I gracefully fall down, wincing in pain because my wing is still torn.

"Very majestic landing." I tease. Zero has landed on top of Lulu, who fell on top of Bolt. The only one who looks unharmed here is Amari, who is smiling smugly at me from where she's perched on a windowsill nearby.

"Squirrels can change their body positions as they're falling, like cats. They always land on their feet." She explains.

"Interesting. So it's instinct for you? Is it like that when you're in all animal forms?"

"The instinct is there, yes, but I can still think like myself."

"Well, can you instinctively help us up?" Bolt asks. Amari shrugs, standing up.

"It was funny watching you fall. For that much humor, I suppose-" I snort a laugh as Lulu grabs Amari's leg and pulls her down.

"Fine, geez. Do you mind, Aph?"

"Alright." I walk over to them and help Amari up first, then Zero and Lulu, then Bolt.

"Thanks." Lulu says. "Alright, first things first. We need to find a place to hide as we organize everything." I close my eyes and try to stretch out my hearing. A gentle trickle of water hitting rock, just a few minutes out.

"I heard a place. It sounds like a cave, all echoey and stuff, and it has a little river in it and it's just a few minutes away." I look at Amari. "Can you turn into a horse?"