Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There were a few things you could do after finding out that you were a mutant. Of course depending on what you could do. Most people went to get tested and got on suppressants if needed, to continue their everyday life without putting themselves or others in danger. Those with healing related powers often got into medicine, and those with intelligence enhancing abilities usually went into science.

Then were those rare cases of abilities that were useful in combat or interrogation. Those people either got locked up, killed, or forcefully drafted into the military. Poor bastards, really. At least that’s what you had always thought.

Until now.

You were in a high security cell at your local testing agency, power-suppressing cuffs on your wrists. After an incident at your college, every student was forced to get tested for powers. It didn’t have anything to do with you, but you had gotten tested to get cleared of suspicion, nonetheless.

So why were you locked up? You had no clue, actually. The results of your test hadn’t made it to you before you were suddenly dragged away and locked away.

You had always suspected that you had the gene for a mutation, as both of your parents had minor powers. Your mom could generate small currents of electricity and was on suppressants for it, and your dad could feel emotions when making physical contact.

But you had never displayed any signs of something supernatural, so why the security measures? You were in shock, obviously. Surely they didn’t suspect you and lock you up because of that?

Your train of thought was interrupted when you heard the door to your cell unlocking. A woman in a military uniform walked in, the door locking behind her. “You can call me Laswell. I’m with the special forces, and I’ll clear up some of the confusion you seem to be having.”

Finally, a chance for some answers. “Am I a suspect now?”
“No. the perpetrator has already been caught and apprehended.”
“Why am I in here then? I haven’t displayed any signs of a mutation, ever.”
“So you don’t know. You have a relatively rare mutation, young man.”

“What? How do you know what my apparent power is when it hasn’t even manifested yet?”
“Different types of mutations display a distinct genetic code. It’s a fact that has not yet been made public.”
“What am I then? Because I’m sure I can’t be so dangerous that I need to be locked up and restrained.”
“Ever heard of hybrid mutants?”
“You mean that urban legend of people that can partially morph into animals? It’s a myth for a reason.”

“Except it’s not a myth. Just a well-kept secret.”
“You’re messing with me. There’s no way that kind of mutation exists.”
“It does. I know quite a few people like that.”
“Alright, what am I, then?”
“We don’t know that yet. What we do know is that hybrid mutants are classified as some of the most dangerous. You, young man, fall into the category of mutants that get either drafted or disposed of.”

“No. That can’t be true. No, no, no, no-“
Laswell interrupted you. “It is true. You have approximately a day to decide where you’re going. Either you sigh for the military, or you’re getting sent to a high security facility. I’m sorry but you have no other options.”

You stayed silent. Not only did you have a mutation, you were dangerous enough to be drafted. You didn’t want to get locked up, but from what you had heard, the conditions for mutants in the military weren’t much better. At least the woman hadn’t tried to sugarcoat things.

Then the realisations of what this meant started sinking in. You were going to have to quit your education either way, and what about contact with your family, let alone friends? What were they thinking right now, almost a day after you had gone to get tested?

“Can I at least contact my family to let them know what’s going on?”
“Only under supervision, and after you have made your choice.”
“Will I be able to keep in contact with them, after that?”
“As far as I’m aware, not a single mutant that chose prison has the privilege to outside contact. The military can set up supervised visitation, but that’s as far as it goes.”

That right there was ice-cold manipulation to get people to go into the military. Some semblance of contact to family versus none. You knew it wasn’t her fault that things were this way, but you got mad, nonetheless.

“So what you’re saying is I have to go into active service if I want to keep talking to my loved ones? That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“That’s just how it goes.”
“You know what? I’ll sign your stupid contract, but don’t expect me to be happy about it.”
“Trust me, almost nobody ever is. I’ll get you the paperwork and depending on how fast it’s processed you’ll be out of this cell by tomorrow.”

And that’s how things went. Laswell left for a bit to get your contract, and you signed your life away. Two hours after that, you got picked up by her, still in cuffs. She was accompanied by another man in uniform. They drove you to the nearest airport and got on a helicopter with you.

Once you were in the air and had the headphones on, the man introduced himself.

“Name’s John Price. I’ll be your captain from here on out. Looking forward to having you on my squad.”
You went to introduce yourself, only to be interrupted again.
“I know who you are, lad. Laswell called me about you the moment she got the call about a newly discovered hybrid.”
“So you know I have zero experience, right?”
“I’m aware. Don’t worry about that, I’m not sending you out until we get you fit for combat.”
“Great. Do you also know that I haven’t even manifested yet?”
“We’ll get to that during training.”

The rest of the flight passed in relative silence, you were still too overwhelmed with the situation to talk about it. When you touched down at a military base, Price led you to a closed off section of the barracks.

“You’ll get your own room soon, for now you’re staying with my lieutenant. He’ll keep an eye on you.”

He led you to a common room of sorts, where four men were waiting. One had a short mohawk, one had dark skin and two were wearing masks, one of them had a skull on it. Price introduced you to them.

“Everyone, this is our new recruit. He just got drafted, so behave yourselves. Don’t want to leave a bad impression, now do we?”

One after the other, the four started to introduce themselves. The one with the mohawk had a Scottish accent and introduced himself as John “Soap” MacTavish. Then came Kyle “Gaz” Garrick and Gary “Roach” Sanderson. Whan it was turn for the skull mask to introduce himself, he just said “Ghost.”

“Now come on Simon, let’s not be like that.” Price turned to you again. “Simon Riley. My LT.”

So you were stuck with the weird one of the bunch. Just great.

“Simon, you’re keeping an eye on him for now.”
The man made a disgruntled noise at that. Like you had asked to be in this position. He looked you up and down, shaking his head.

“So we’re just taking in civilians now?” He had a deep voice, accompanied by what was likely a Manchester accent. And he was talking about you like you weren’t even there.
“Laswell used a favour. He’s a hybrid.”
“So he’s a charity case.”
“An asset once he’s trained.”

They continued talking like you weren’t present. Ghost seemed gravely pissed off at the fact he had to supervise you. You were slowly becoming afraid he’d just try to kill you in your sleep. Not like he couldn’t just do it while you were awake, you assumed.

“Enough now. You’re supervising him, just be glad that training him isn’t your task as well.” Price shut Ghost down for a final time.

“Soap?”
“Yes captain?”
“You’re training him for the foreseeable future. Include mutant training, I want to know what exactly we’re dealing with here.”
“Yes Sir.”

“You’re all dismissed. Ghost, get our newbie a bed and out of those cuffs.”

Chapter Text

Price left the five of you alone, not saying another word. Soap took a step toward you, holding out a hand. “Looking forward to working with you. Don’t worry too much about Simon, he’s just not a very social guy.”

You took his hand, glad that someone finally acknowledged your presence. His grip was strong but careful. After shaking hands, you asked a question about your training. “Price mentioned mutant training. What’s that?”
A concerned expression formed on his face. “You’ll find out tomorrow. Get some sleep for now, you’ll need every minute.”

That didn’t sound scary at all. Before you could say anything else, Ghost interrupted you two. “Enough with the pleasantries. Come with me, before I have to drag you.”

You were slowly wondering just how you were going to survive the first night. Not wanting to get on his nerves, you nodded and followed him out the door. He led you to the entrance of the closed off section, and stood in front of it, as if waiting for something to happen.

A minute later, a soldier arrived with what looked like a duffel bag and a foldable cot. Ghost opened the door and took them from the soldier, sending him away again. He turned to you and held out the bag and cot. You took them both with a questioning look.

“Your uniform. And at least for now, your bed. Don’t lose them.”
You nodded, and before you could thank him or say anything, he had already started walking in the direction of his room. You followed, trying to keep up with his fast pace.

“Price is making me keep an eye on you for now, that means you do exactly as I say, when I say it. If I think they’re needed, those cuffs go back on. Don’t bother me with questions, I’m not the one in charge of your training. Got it?”

“Yes, sir.” You nodded, even though he couldn’t see it. His murderous demeanour had dialled down a bit, so that was something at least.

Ghost unlocked the door to his room, motioning for you to enter. You stepped in and took a look around, it was very minimalistic. He closed the door behind him and pointed to a corner opposite to his bed. “You can set up your cod over there. Don’t touch any of my stuff and don’t bother me.” He then pointed to a door next to the entrance. “That’s the bathroom. If you want to go anywhere else, you’ll need my permission. That’s all for now, get some sleep.”

You nodded, and he left his room. Didn’t tell you where to or how long he’d be gone, but it didn’t really concern you. You had something to do for now.

You did as he said, setting up your few belongings in the corner before going through the bag that was given to you. It had two uniforms in it, some underwear, a few shirts, a pair of sweatpants, and a bag of travel size toiletries. At the bottom of the bag was thin blanket.

How they got all those things this quickly, in your size no less, was a mystery to you. No use trying to figure it out right now though. You took the sweatpants, a shirt, and the bag of toiletries and headed to the bathroom to change.

When you were done, he still wasn’t back. You put your things back in the duffel bag, took out the blanket and slid it under the cot. You got as comfortable as possible under the circumstances and tried to sleep. At least you were exhausted enough to.

You woke up to the ringing of a phone. It was Ghosts, and he turned off the alarm. He was already in his uniform. Before you could ask what time it was, he turned to you.

“It’s 6am. Get changed, I’m taking you to your training in half an hour.” With that, he left again. You did as he said, putting on your new uniform in accordance with the rulebook that was in your duffel bag. When you were done, you took the remaining time to mentally prepare yourself for what was to come.

The door opening again ripped you out of your thoughts, Ghost was here to pick you up. He didn’t say a word, just motioned for you to follow. He brought you to a gym inside the closed off section, stopping at the door. Soap was already waiting.

“Morning, lad! Sleep well?” He greeted you with an enthusiasm in his voice.
“About as well as expected…” You replied in a grumble, noticeably tired.
“Don’t worry, I won’t go too hard on you on the first day.” He was grinning at you. “Simon here will supervise, just in case anything goes wrong.”

Soap had totally lied when he said he was going to go easy on you. The only thing keeping you alive through all the exercises he made you do was the weekly visit to the gym your friends had forced you into. And he just kept going. You were about to collapse from the exhaustion, lack of sleep, and hunger when he told you to stop all of a sudden.

“It’s twelve. Time to go.”
“Please tell me we’re going to get something to eat soon.”
“You’ll want an empty stomach for this next part.”

A few minutes of silence later, you arrived at the entrance to a what looked like an empty warehouse.

“So what are we doing here? I was expecting something more… official looking.”
“You’ll be thankful this is where you’re training.” Ghost spoke up.

These people and their ominous warnings, what was up with that?

“We’re forcing your mutation out today. It’ll be unpleasant at best. The first time transforming is never easy on a hybrid.” Soap took over again.
“And how would you know that? I thought hybrids were rare?”

He looked at you with a hint of pity in his eyes, raising his left hand into your view. Almost instantly, he had claws instead of fingertips, a dark brown fur covering what was visible of his arm. “I know, trust me on that.”

“I’m guessing I’m in no position to refuse?”
“You do and you’re going straight into detainment.”
“What do I have to do?”
“We’re going to go in there, lock the doors and bring you into the lockdown section. The two of us will be watching from a control room. You’ll get an injection just before we lock you in, and within a minute, you’ll transform.”

“That’s it?”
“You’re going to be in there until you get the transformation part under control. Better hope the hard part for you is transforming back, or you’re getting injections until you can transform into your hybrid form on command.”

“How long does this usually take?”
“Anywhere from half a day to multiple weeks. No way to tell how long beforehand.”
“Let’s just get this over with.”

You stepped into the lockdown section, or rather just an oversized padded cell. You turned to face the two men, and Ghost held out a hand. “Non dominant hand. Hold still.” He pulled out something that looked similar to an epi pen and pressed it to your skin.

“Ready?” You just nodded. He pushed it into your arm harder and you could feel the sting of a needle. He let go and took a step back, making space for Soap to close the door. He looked at you one more time before locking you in. “Good luck, kid.”

And you were alone again. in a glorified rubber room. You looked at the site of the injection, only seeing a small spot of blood and nothing else. You had a thought that maybe they were just messing with you, and it wouldn’t be uncomfortable to transform, after all you felt fine.

Then the pain hit. A burning sensation all over your body. It felt like your insides were trying to escape. Like your bones were shifting under your skin. Like your skin was peeling itself off your body. Like all your muscles were tearing themselves apart.

You felt as if you had been thrown into a raging fire. As if wolves were tearing you apart. As if there was a high voltage current ripping through your body.

The only thing you could do was scream in pain, unable to move.

Chapter Text

After what felt like minutes, the pain still hadn’t let up, but was getting more bearable at least. Your jaw was clenched shut and your eyes were closed, it was too much to process. You could feel your face shift, your skin change into something else. You felt your fingertips that were dug into your arms change into claws and quickly let go.

You heard your clothes rip. You could feel your balance shift, and a limb you had never before been aware of hit the floor. You had grown a tail. A long one at that. You could feel a good bit of it touching the floor.

As the pain finally subsided, the changing that was connected to it also stopped. You slowly opened your eyes, only to find everything to look sharper and more vibrant, more colourful than usual. Acting on an instinct you didn’t know you possessed, you stuck your tongue out to taste the air.

And you could actually make some things out. What the fuck? There were three distinct… tastes? Smells? That you could actually assign to yourself, Soap, and Ghost. How you knew which was which, you had no clue. You just knew.

You took a look at yourself. Your skin was covered in scales, and your hands now had sharp talons. Your feet were the same, with the tips of the claws breaking through your shoes. You carefully put a hand up to your face to feel around but decided against it at the sight of those claws coming closer to your eyes.

You instead twisted your upper body around to take a look at your tail as best you could. It was probably as long as you were tall, fully covered in the same scales as the rest of your body and strong looking. You tried to move it and were surprised at how natural it felt to you.

You ran your tongue across your teeth, they were pointier and felt serrated. It felt like your tongue was thinner forked as well. There were two bumps along your lower jaw that you couldn’t identify.

By now, you were trying to figure out what you had turned into. You were a reptile, that much was obvious to you. Taking the claws, tail, and texture of your scales into consideration, some kind of lizard was the most likely answer.

There was a quiet sound of static, and a voice came through the speakers. “Good. Now shift back. We’ll figure out what exactly you are later.” Short sentences and annoyed, definitely Ghost.

“How do I do that?” Your voice was different. Raspier, with a bit of a lisp. Most likely because of the changes to your mouth and face.

“Try to imagine yourself shifting back. Like your claws shrinking back for example.” That was Soap, with a lot more enthusiasm in his voice. You decided he had to know how this worked.

You took a look at your hands, to get a good mental image. You closed your eyes and pictured your fingers taking their original form again, scales disappearing along with the claws. It felt like it was working, so you tried to spread the feeling through your body.

When you opened your eyes, everything looked normal again. the colours were back to what they were before, and you couldn’t feel your tail anymore. It had worked. You had successfully shifted back.

Your clothes were torn in various places, your transformed form must have been quite a bit bigger than you normally were. The most obvious tears were the ones in your shoes and where your tail had broken through your pants.

“Again. This time without the stimulant. You have five minutes before you get another dose.” That sounded like a threat, especially coming from Ghost. That pain, if it was really tied to those injections, was something you did NOT want to experience again.

So you tried. You imagined your scales coming back, your tail growing in. You pictured your fingers becoming claws again. It didn’t take long for the feeling of your tail hitting the floor to appear. You opened your eyes, and the weird colours were back.

“Well done lad! You’re a natural at this! Let’s do a few more runs of full transformations and then move on to partial ones, yeah?” Soap sounded really proud.
“You heard him. Get a move on.” Impatient fucker. But whatever, right?

A few hours later, you had a relatively good grasp on transforming. Partial transformation was still a son of a bitch to manage, but you were getting there after countless attempts. Of course you were nowhere near as fast at it as Soap had been, but you were getting it in close to 30 seconds now.

“Again.” you had lost count of how many times you had heard that command coming from Ghost today. No choice but to follow, though. Exhausted was an understatement for how you felt. All the training from the morning paired with the lack of food and hours of transforming back and forth was becoming too much to handle.

You tried to bring out only your claws again, focusing the feeling into your hands and away from the rest of your body. And it worked. Not for the first time, but faster than before. You took a short look at them and went to morph them back when everything turned black all of a sudden.

When you came to, you were on the floor of the cell with Soap and Ghost beside you. Ghost was checking your pulse and breathing. He immediately took his hands off when he noticed you waking up.

“You back with us?” Ghost sounded genuinely worried.
You nodded, still laying down. The world felt like it was spinning around you. “What just happened?”
“Exhaustion, probably. We’re taking you to medical. Training’s over for today. Come on, I’ll help you up.” Soap held out a hand. You reached up and took it. When he pulled you up, your knees buckled almost instantly. The world was still spinning. The both of them caught you and everything turned back to black.

You woke up in a bed in medical. There was a window in view, it was pitch-black outside. You must have been out for a while. Didn’t really help your level of exhaustion though. You could’ve fallen right back asleep, but you sat up in bed and took a look around the room. There was another bed next to yours, empty. In the darkest corner of the room, there was a chair with a slumped figure in it.

Ghost was sitting with his arms crossed and head down, breathing slowly. Most likely asleep. Wait a moment, why was he here? It was probably in the middle of the night, so why wasn’t he in his room, enjoying that he got to sleep in peace? Instead he was here, sleeping in a chair in medical as if he was watching over you. Surely not, right?

You almost jumped when he moved to look up at you. “Go back to sleep. No use staring at me, is there?” The corner he was in suddenly seemed brighter again. What in the actual fuck?

You moved to sit on the edge of the bed. “Why are you here?”
“Told you to go back to sleep, didn’t I?” was all he replied.
“And I asked why you were here.” Something in you didn’t want to let go that easily.
“In case you forgot, I’m still on babysitting duty. Go back to sleep, training’s continuing tomorrow.” He seemed pissed off again.

“Alright, alright, sorry I asked. Good night.” You laid down and turned to face away from him and let the exhaustion take over again. As fast as you had woken up, you were asleep again.

Chapter Text

The door to your room in medical opening woke you up. Soap was there, holding a new uniform. You sat up and looked around. Ghost was still in that chair, also awake and looking up at the open door. He closed the door behind him and put the uniform down on your bed.

“Specially issued to accommodate your mutant form. Tail and all. Sorry to rip you out of your beauty sleep but we’re starting training in an hour.” Soap was looking at you with an enthusiasm you had already learned to fear. He turned to face Ghost and continued. “LT, you got a meeting with Price in 10. I’m taking over on watching him for now. See you after lunch.”

At that, Ghost nodded, got up and left without another word. you took your cue to ask Soap to give you some privacy. “Could I have a few minutes to change in private?” “I’ll be right outside the door then. Don’t take too long or we’ll miss breakfast.” He grinned at you and left, locking the door behind him.

You got changed in a hurry, putting your new uniform on as quick as possible. The pants had an opening covered by a Velcro secured flap for your tail, and everything was a tad bigger to accommodate for your increased size when you transformed.

When you were done, you knocked on the door to let Soap know you were done. He unlocked the door and let you out, giving an approving nod. “Same drill as yesterday, normal exercise till lunch, mutant training afterwards. Try not to faint on us this time, yeah?”

“As long as you’ll let me eat something for lunch this time, I think I’ll be fine.” You replied in a snarky tone. You were back at the gym you were training at the day before and got in.

Soap had you warm up, not giving you any slack. When you were done, he showed you how to wrap your hands correctly. He got you on a mat with him, holding two punch cushions with a grin. “Gimme your best shot.”

Some time later, you were powered out from all the punches and kicks he had you throw. Ghost had shown up sometime into your training, throwing in a few comments on your posture. You were instructed to take a shower and cool off a bit before he took you to get lunch.

Whatever it was they were feeding the soldiers here, it tasted downright awful. Supposedly the stuff was rich in protein and all the nutrients you needed, but it really didn’t have to be this disgusting. When you looked around in the mess hall, you noticed that everybody seemed to be fine with the taste.

Then you noticed Soap had a different meal on his plate. Looked like red meat, almost raw red meat. But you were hungry, and food, no matter how bad it tasted, was food. Questions could wait right now.

When the three of you were done, you headed out towards the warehouse. You decided now was the time to ask anything just in case you passed out again. “Alright, two questions. How is everyone fine eating that… stuff, and why do you get something different?”

“Well that explains your face before. The food’s just fine, normally.”
“Normally?”
“Some hybrids have to switch up their diets after triggering their mutation. It’s why I get something different, more aligned with my newer tastes if you will.”
“And I’m guessing I’ll only get something different when we know what exactly I am, right?”

“Hit the nail right on the head. Brings me to my next point, we’ll take some samples today.”
“The sooner I get something less disgusting to eat, the better.”

Some samples was an understatement. Almost four hours later, a team of nurses had taken almost every possible kind of sample from you, both transformed and not. When everything was finally all packaged up, you were exhausted. Holding your transformed state for over two of those four hours had you almost falling asleep right where you were standing.

Soap had left a while ago, so it was just you and Ghost walking back to the barracks. When you were almost at the door, he got a call. Not even twenty seconds of him listening later, he hung up already.

After some more awkward silence, you arrived at his room. After letting you in, he finally spoke. “You’re getting some visitors tomorrow. The existence of this unit, and by extent all of our mutations, is highly classified. You can tell them roughly what you’ve been doing in your normal training, but nothing else. That includes your mutation. Price is going to give you the long version of this speech tomorrow.”

You nodded and headed over to your corner, immediately starting to strip down. You were tired enough to not mind Ghost being in the same room, all that mattered to you right now was sleep. You didn’t even bother putting on something else, even though you could feel his eyes on you, you just laid down in your boxers.

You woke up to Ghost’s alarm at six again. He wasn’t in the room, so you turned the alarm off and got your clothes.

A quick shower later, you were all dressed up in uniform and waited for Ghost to take you to training. At exactly 6:30, he opened the door and waved you over. You followed him without a word, only dropping a quick thanks when he let you into Prices office. He didn’t follow you in, so you greeted the captain and waited at the door.

Price motioned to the chair across the desk from him. “Take a seat. We’ve got some formalities to go over before your folks get here.”

One and a half hours later, you were done with the extensive briefing on what you could and could not disclose about your time here. Names, looks, and of course mutations were off the table. Actually, the mere existence of a task force made up of exclusively mutants was classified.

The official version of the situation was that you had been put on military grade suppressants and were under 24/7 observation. Though that second part was true. You were allowed to tell the truth about your choices being this or a high security prison.

The existence of hybrid mutants, including your own mutation, was still a well-kept secret, so your official mutation was classified as increased physical strength. You had informed the captain of your father’s mutation, and he told you to avoid letting him read you as much as possible.

Price brought you to the same room you had met the members of your taskforce just a few days ago and left you to wait. You tried to sit down and relax, but soon ended up pacing up and down the room. Now you had half an hour left to mentally prepare yourself for what was to come. In that time, you thought of all the possible questions they’d be asking you. You tried to come up with answers beforehand, just in case.

At 8:30 sharp, the door opened, and Gaz nodded to you. He held open the door and your parents, followed by your sister, entered. Before you could brace yourself, your mom was hugging you tightly. You had to literally pry her off of you to try to say hi to everyone. Before you got to say a word, your sister took your mothers place, and your dad soon switched places with her.

What felt like an eternity later, you finally got to speak. You took a step back and started. “Hi. I guess we have a lot to talk about. You can ask whatever, I’ll answer as much as I’m allowed to. Clearance issues and stuff.”

Your mom went first. “What happened? All we know is you vanished after getting tested because of the incident at your college, and a few days later we get a call from the military telling us you’re here.”

You let out a sigh before answering her. “I got tested, turns out I have some kind of strength mutation. The incident had nothing to do with me, but I fell into the category that gets either drafted or locked away. And I know, why the military, but this was the only option I was given that allowed me to retain contact to the ‘outside world’.” You made finger quotes at the last two words.

“Are you alright with this?” Your dad took over. “All the violence and harsh discipline?”

“I’d rather be here with some sense of liberty than in what’s basically Alcatraz. I was given a choice and went with the military, because I won’t be reduced to just my mutation. I know I wouldn’t be here without it but being a prisoner because of something I have zero control over just didn’t sit right with me.”

“Aren’t you scared?” He just didn’t let up, did he? You held out your hand, signalling him to grab it. “Of course I am. But at least I’m still a human with a, albeit dangerous, mutation, not a dangerous mutant.” He took your hand in both of his, not letting go until he seemed sure he knew what you were feeling.

The hour you had to talk with your family passed quickly. You had answered all of their important questions, and then told them what to tell your friends. A promise to send some of your stuff here later, you were already saying your goodbyes.

As soon as they were gone again, Soap was at the door. He tilted his head to have you follow him and took you to the by now familiar gym. “Let’s get warmed up, shall we?”