Dan's POV

"Human experimentation?" Phil whispered.

"Do you think that's what's happening to everyone else?" Nate asked, looking up at me.

"I," I paused, "I'm not sure."

"But," Nate continued, "what if that's what's happening to Reagan, Percy, and everyone else? What if they're getting weird experiments done to them?"

"Nate, calm down a bit," Jason instructed as he walked up to us.

"Jason's right, you need to calm down," Phil added. "The first thing we need to do is find out what exactly the experiments do. Any ideas?"

Silence fell among the four of us as we all tried to think of what the experiments could be doing to our friends. The people in the hoods probably knew exactly what was going on, which only pissed me off more. Maybe the people in the hoods were the ones inflicting the experiments.

Maybe the experiments had something to do with the fact that none of our phones would turn on. They could be causing problems that the 'scientists' didn't even know about.

Or maybe they did know about stuff like that. Maybe that was why they were doing it in the first place. They needed to distract us from the real problem by dragging small inconveniences into the matter.

After several frustrating minutes, my eyes widened. "The monster," I whispered.

Phil's head whipped around towards me. "Dan, you're a genius! Of course it was the monster thing! We even saw it transform into a human-sized figure!"

"Are you telling me that the monster we fought could have been one of our friends?!" Nate screamed.

Jason gasped quietly, drawing all of our attention. "What?" Phil asked.

"When the whistle went off and the monster started to follow it back, it looked at me and Nate."

"What? The monster looked at the two of you before it went in the direction of the whistle?" I questioned.

"Yeah, it almost looked sorrowful. Like it knew exactly what was happening, but had no way to tell us," Nate added.

"Why are we just now hearing about this?" Phil mumbled under his breath.

"Okay, so who do you think it was? I mean, it did punch me through a wall," I commented.

"I don't know anyone who hates you who's friends with us, but that might have been a command," Jason started explaining, "like how it followed the sound of the whistle. It might be receiving threats, thus encouraging it to do as it's told. For example, it gets tortured as a human for not smashing you through a wall in monster form."

"That's," Nate paused, "a really good theory, actually."

"Okay, but who do you think it was? If it looked at the two of you, it probably knows us," Phil claimed.

"Not sure," Nate answered. "Did either of you see any detail that might have given something away?"

Green eyes.

"I don't know," Phil started, "all I really saw was that it seemed to be pretty skinny. What about you, Dan?"

"I saw its eyes," I murmured.

Nate and Jason glanced at each other before Nate slapped my arm lightly. "And what color were its eyes?"

"I'm not sure if what I saw was real or not, but I could've sworn it had bright green eyes," I replied.

"Aren't green eyes super rare?" Phil asked.

"Yeah, that's why I said I wasn't sure–"

"I know a certain someone with green eyes," Jason mumbled.

I looked at Nate and Jason to find that Nate seemed like he was about to burst into tears while Jason stared at the floor.

"Who?" Phil hesitantly pressed on.

"You guys met Percy, right?" Jason asked.

My eyes widened. "Percy has green eyes? You guys think it was Percy?"

Nate sniffled, "He's the only person I know with green eyes and he was staring at us in monster form. I'm pretty sure it was him."

Phil shook me lightly from behind. I turned around to face him, but before I could, I was caught in a hug. "That's so cool! I wish one of my friends could turn into a monster!"

"Why is that cool? He's being forced to do it to hurt us," Jason stated.

"Yeah, for now, but what about after we save him! He'll be free to morph into a monster whenever he wants!" Phil grabbed Nate and Jason and pulled us into a huddle. After a second, he whispered, "He's probably able to do that at any time, meaning he could escape at any time. He's likely waiting for the perfect moment to throw his plan into action. Your friend is going to be alright, okay?"

Nate and Jason smiled faintly before Nate replied, "Yeah, alright."

I smiled before I remembered the list of names on one of the desks. I pulled myself out of the small huddle we had formed and walked to the table it was on. "What are you doing, Dan?" Phil asked.

I picked up the list and walked back to the three of them. "This list has a load of names on it. Some of them are scribbled out, but others are highlighted."

"So what?" Jason asked.

I handed Phil the list, which he studied over, and answered Jason, "I think this is the list of people who had the experiments done to them."

"Why are some of them scribbled out?" Nate whispered hesitantly.

"Well," I paused, trying to find the right words, "I think the names scribbled out are people who the experiments didn't work on, while the highlighted names are people who the experiments did work on."

"Dan," Phil mumbled, "a lot of these names are scratched out."

"Does that mean that the names scribbled out are people who died because of the experiment?" Jason murmured.

"I don't know for sure, but that's my guess."

Nate snatched the list from Phil and peered over it. "What're you doing?" Phil asked.

"I'm making sure I don't recognize anyone with a scratched out name! I guarantee these are all other orphans who were living here," Nate stated.

Phil and I glanced at each other before Phil commented, "Make sure none of our friends are on there too, please."

Nate dropped the list and stared at his hands. "You're not saying that Jack, Felix, or anyone else could have been taken and killed by this, are you?"

"It isn't exactly impossible, though I doubt it," Phil stated.

"Why do you doubt it?" Jason asked.

"Well, the voice seemed a lot more upset with us than with you guys," Phil started. "It probably did something completely different with our friends."

Nate sighed and kicked the list under a desk. "Your friends are probably getting worse done to them."

"You know what?" I asked.

"What–"

"Everyone stop being so damn depressed! I know exactly what we're going to do next," I cut Jason off.

"You have a plan?" Phil chuckled halfheartedly.

"Yes, I have a plan! Don't act so surprised."

"What's your plan?" Nate asked.

"The first person we're going to save is Percy. We know exactly what's happening to him, so all we really need to find out is where he is."

"What do we do after we save Percy?" Phil asked while Nate and Jason cheered.

"We find everyone else and help them, too," I decided.

"Wait, how are we going to find where Percy is?" Jason questioned.

I glanced around the room, searching for something to tip me off. My eyes fell on the lab coat with the 'Katherine' name tag. "Well, the first thing we need to do is disguise ourselves. We all need to put on a lab coat so that we blend in with the people conducting the experiments. Since there are lab coats here, I imagine that this room is somehow connected to the laboratory where the experiments are being held. All we have to do then is find the entrance."

"That actually sounds like a really good plan," Nate exclaimed with a bit of surprise in his voice.

"Have I offered a plan that didn't work out well or something? You all sound genuinely surprised," I commented.

"Well," Phil started in a sarcastic tone, "it probably has something to do with your personality being–"

"You know what? I shouldn't have asked. Let's just get everything back to the way it's supposed to be, okay?" I declared.

"It's about time we fix this mess!" Nate cheered.

A/N

I need to stop procrastinating on scholarships fml

They're due next week and I haven't even looked at what the essay cover page thing is supposed to be about...

Anyways, BUH-BYE BROTATOES!