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>Trauma Therapy Notes for Long Range Soldier Subject 1276.

>Major Jeremy Newman

>Day 1 of Treatment

I have been assigned to Subject 1276 on order from Dr. Klein due to his recent traumatic incident in Environment 7 in which the long range soldier prototype single handedly killed two armed federal convicts. He had gored one of the men with his claws and shot the other in the head. The ordeal was quite horrific and Subject 1276 refused to eat for two days after the event. It is now the third day after the incident. Today, I introduced myself to the child and did my best to get acquainted with him. It went slow but fairly well, considering that the child refused to speak to me. I cannot seem to stop marveling at the form of the boy. It was quite apparent that the genetic therapy was quite a success and it is a wonder how well the child has adapted to his new body in such a small amount of time. Anyway, I hope that tomorrow will be more productive.

>Day 2 of Treatment

Today, the child actually opened up to me. He continued yesterday's topic and it appears that he had given himself a name, Talon. He said that he is 13 years old. He also told me that he had been having bad dreams since he killed the men. I can only imagine how traumatizing the event was for him at his age. Curious, I mentioned my interest in his wings and his eyes lit up. He became excited to tell me that he had flown and expressed interest in mastering the skill. As part of his rehabilitation, I am requesting Director Archer to permit him 24/7 access to Environment 3 so he can improve his skills.

>Day 3 of Treatment

Aside from a few bumps and scrapes from learning how to fly, today was quite uneventful. He still will not completely open up about the killings and does everything to avoid talking about it aside from the dreams. I recommended that he listen to recordings of thunderstorms in an effort to help him relax. I will redouble my efforts to get him to open up tomorrow.

>Day 4

I am amazed by the patient's healing abilities. Most of the minor injuries he sustained the previous day have completely healed. Also of note is the return of his desire to eat. He seems to be recovering quite well. Audio recordings from within his room indicate that he acted upon my listening recommendation. Treatment will still continue but I will schedule my next report three days from now.

>Day 7

Talon seems to have opened up more to me about many things, including the "event" to some extent. He is becoming more comfortable with it, which was the main goal of the treatment. He has even shown interest in continuing his training. His next line of training is long rang combat; his project's prime directive. The progress of the rehabilitation has undergone a sharp increase and my next report will be in a week, the final day of treatment.

***

>Day 14

It is with great pleasure that I can finally announce that Subject 1276 has sufficiently recovered from his trauma. However, I am ordering that he still have 24/7 access to Environment 3 for the foreseeable future.

***

Three months later

***

Subject 1276 grinned to himself as he soared through the air. He love to fly, plus he was quickly getting very good at it as well! He was allowed to use the Cliff room whenever he wanted as long as he wasn't doing school work or training. Thankfully, the latter was a little lenient since he killed those two men. But there were still tests that he had to do; not to mention the needles he was still poked and prodded with from time to time. The needles made him uncomfortable, but he could easily tolerate it. On this day he had made a bet with John, one of the leaders for the training squads, that he could take on his whole team of four plus another without getting hit once. The bet was risky. If he lost, he had to go without cloths for a week. Not that there was anything "down there" all the time, but it was still embarrassing! However, if he won, he was promised some extra food for a week plus a trip to the explosives range.

Talon extended his claws as he approached the face of a cliff. He could smell the men and women he was up against, despite being near the edge of the Environment Room. They smelled of confidence and determination. With a grunt, he grabbed onto the wall of rock before him as he slammed roughly into it from the inertia of his flight. He dug his claws in and was pleased when he felt them catch into the stone. The claws on his toes soon followed and it wasn't long before he was scaling the formation, making his way to the top. The sniper rifle he had been training with clung to his back in a scabbard specially designed with his wings in mind; holding the weapon vertically along his spine. The jumpsuit he wore was tight-fitting, but thankfully did not limit movement as he needed a large range of motion for climbing, or better yet...

The dragon stopped his climbing when he was about half way up. Why was he climbing? With that thought, he pushed away from the cliff face and spread his wing, flapping them to gain altitude. The air whipped by his head as he quickly ascended to the top of the cliff. He landed at the top and pulled his rifle from its scabbard, setting up on the edge of the small plateau facing in the direction of his adversaries. Laying prone, he brought his eye up to the eyepiece. He turned the dial encompassing the rear lens, zooming in on his targets. He could see all 8 opponents and could easily take them out from here, but he was only given 3 rubber rounds for his rifle. For the rest, he'd have to make do with his sidearm or other means. His crosshairs hovered over John's chest, but not for long. The boy had better plans in mind for him. The neural lace in his skull gave the dragon massive amounts of information when he looked at each of the targets before him. He hovered his crosshairs over one of the lower ranking team members and the boy's neural lace went right to work, in giving him the information:

_ _

[>Pvt. DeLorez, Sara J.

>Combat Technician

>Service: Army, Rangers-2 years

Project _______-1 year]

_ _

The boy pulled the trigger and sent a rubberized round flying toward the private. It didn't take long for the round to impact its target; the soldier recoiling from the hit and falling to the ground. Luckily, she had a helmet in place to protect against the brunt of the impact. Two more members of the team were soon on the ground along with her. Three direct hits; the dragon's training had done him well. Having spent what little ammunition he had for his rifle, he stood up and left the weapon where it was, leaping down from the high-rising chunk of rock.

The ground was quickly coming up to meet him, but the human-like reptilian knew what he was doing...sort of. At the last second, the boy opened and flared his wings, youthful membranes readily taking on the brunt of the force demanded of them slowing their owner's fatal decent. There wasn't enough time for it to be perfect, but at least they did their job for the most part, allowing the young dragon to hit the ground with a mildly manageable force of impact. He tucked in on himself as he instinctually transferred the momentum of his fall into forward roll. He wasn't a professional, and it was plainly obvious when his roll almost immediately turned into an uncontrolled tumble. After a few rough rolls, 1276 stopped sprawled out on his belly with a grunt. With a groan, he checked himself for injuries before standing up and sprinting in the direction the thing in his head told him his targets were located, sidearm drawn and at the ready.

Still not fully accustomed to his enhanced senses, the dragon didn't pay any mind to the strength of the soldiers' scents until he heard their voices that were still somewhat panicked from the three long-rang shots he had delivered. As his brain finally processed the realization of the soldiers' proximity, the boy dug his clawed feet into the dirt and skidded to an abrupt stop, nearly falling forward, headfirst, into a tree. Luckily, he was able to catch himself.

Staying behind the tree that would have been responsible for a massive headache, the dragon calmed himself and tried to tune his ears to listen for the nearby soldiers. Sure enough, 1276 heard the quiet and nervous chatting of a couple men; his ear fins twitched in an attempt to better gather the voices. The boy hugged his back to the tree and exhaled slowly. Time to win that bet. Almost faster than the eye could see, the prototype soldier broke cover from around the tree.

With the boy in a full sprint, it wasn't long before the two soldiers came into view, they had wondered away from the main group slightly, but that was all that was needed to seal their fate. Taking a running aim, the dragon squeezed the trigger of his sidearm four times which resulted in each the soldiers getting two rubberized rounds to the chest. They each fell to the ground with a groan. The sounds of gunfire had the unfortunate side-effect of attracting the rest of the soldiers.

Hearing the fast-approaching yells and hollers caused Subject 1276 to become slightly panicked. Quickly looking around, the dragon spied a large growth of bushes. Without wasting another second, he leaped, stretching out to streamline his body and make himself a smaller target if any of his opponents saw him. Landing behind the growth of underbrush, he tucked himself into a roll which ended him on his feet. The fresh batch of strong scents began to set the drake's new instincts into motion. Without waiting to see if he had been seen, the reptilian youth stayed low began to make a wide circle, moving to get in position behind his prey. He stepped over a fist-sized stone on the way and picked it up. Perfect...

***

John was the first of his team to reach site from where the sounds of gunfire had come from; which was to be expected, considering that he was the leader of this whole endeavor. Despite the strength in numbers, the soldier was beginning to doubt his chances of winning this bet. Already 5 of his comrades had been "downed" without any sight of Subject 1276. Approaching the next two victims of the young lizard, the team leader opened his mouth.

"How are you two feeling?" he asked.

"Those rubber rounds aren't meant to kill, but they sure feel like they are." Came the reply from the younger of the two. Technically (at least for the intent of the game), he was dead and not allowed to speak. But since he wasn't responding to a query of tactical importance, it had been agreed upon that small talk was allowed. After all, the rubber rounds were only meant to be less than lethal and there was no explicit guarantee about how far from lethal they were. Not that the dragon didn't have a set of deadly, razor sharp talons at all times, or anything.

"Get up and go back the observation room for now, boys." John said as he shouldered his weapon, "You deserve it." He heard the rustling of a nearby bush and gave the silent command to his last two team mates to check it out. John smiled, he was about to win this little bet he had going and his inner bully reveled in the young dragon's impending embarrassment. But, somewhere deep down inside, the soldier knew it couldn't be this easy. The kid was wicked smart; smart enough to set... John's thoughts did a complete 180 and his blood ran cold as he quickly realized in how much of a compromised area they were in.

Before John could sound the warning of the trap, 1276 was already in motion, leaping as silently as his fast pace would allow. With his sidearm already in hand, Talon let lose the last two rounds from the magazine; one on either side of the John. Each of the rounds found the mark they were given: the center of the backs of the two soldiers. Talon's implants assured only pain and nothing more would occur from those hits, but it was sufficient for getting the two out of the game. That left John as the last remaining opponent. He was already turning around, rifle at the ready to light up the red scaly. Time seemed to slow down for the dragon as his mind sought for a way to avoid the gaze and subsequent barrage of rubber from the soldier. The thought of being shot at made his legs spring out at full length and Talon had no choice but to go with the decision his body had made for him. With a few short flaps of his wings, 1276 shot himself out of John's immediate area of vision when he turned around.

Sailing over the trainer's head, 1276 almost laughed from above as he watched John stand in the classic rifleman's pose only to find his target not where he had anticipated. It was then than Talon's gaze fell upon the sturdy Kevlar ring on the back of John's combat vest; the so-called "idiot handle." He could end it all right now. The bet was his! Using his wings, he did a half barrel roll in the air and forced himself feet first toward the ground, pulling on the aforementioned handle of the soldier's vest during his decent. His efforts were very much awarded by a shout of surprise from John as he was jerked backward and flat onto his back. Talon flipped and squatted, pinning the man under him with his legs. Continuing his fluid motion, he pointed his pistol at the man's head and let out a pleased hiss as he spoke. "Mercccccyyyy." His eyes were so focused and serious, yet happy at the same time.

"Not really." John replied with a smirk, his own sidearm pointing at the dragon boy, "Your slide is open. You can't kill something if you're out of ammo." His smile faded, though, when he felt something lightly scratching at the scruff of the facial hair near the top of his neck. He dreadfully realized that those were the boy's claws he was feeling.

"Really? I distinctly remember that I could do so with these." the dragon purred. "You're dead."

The soldier sighed, "Damn, OK, OK, you win. Good job, buddy." The dragon's face lit up in excitement as he hopped off of the soldier, letting out a happy squeak as he did so. They agreed upon tomorrow after lunch as that was when John would be free for the day. With their bet at its completion, the dragon started to make his way back to his quarters.

***

>Major Jeremy Newman

>Post-therapy note:

It seems that while Subject 1276 has mostly recovered from his traumatic incident, it may not truly be the case. Upon closer examination, he appears to redirect and channel his emotional affliction towards other things around him. This may be anything from increased brutality and hostility, to a deeper attachment to things he values, or even greater focus. While it remains unclear whether or not it hampers his effectiveness, I do not expect Talon to be a threat to anyone on base.

***

Talon squeezed the trigger of his rifle again, sending the last round down range into the head of a target dummy. With a small hiss, he opened the bolt to the breach and ejected the round. He left the bolt open as he swapped out the empty magazine for the fresh one by his side. Not to toot his own horn, but he was good; he had maxed out the distance of the largest target range on base and he hadn't missed a shot on any of the moving targets. Not to mention his time between shots was remarkably short. An untrained ear could mistake his bolt-action rifle for a slow semi-automatic rifle.

Using a remote, Talon reset the course for 10 targets, one for each round in his final magazine. He lowered the target duration by a whole second. He needed a challenge! Normally, the instructors told him to take baby steps and not push himself too hard, but that was starting to drag on him. Taking it easy was just to slow! He had to be the best! He hit the button to begin the sequence and soon the first dummy popped up from behind a sandbag barrier. Talon locked onto it through his scope and smoothly pulled the trigger, sending out the first round. At this distance, he had to account for travel time of the bullet, which left him little actual time locate each target. More targets sprang up, and the dragon fired at each one, racking the bolt while searching out the next target through the scope. After a couple tense minutes, the target range remote let out a chirp to signal the end of the sequence. The display showed all 10 targets as KIA, but 1276 had counted each of his shots. He pushed another button on the remote which set each of the targets back to where they were at the exact time of being hit. He opened his rifle's bolt and, sure enough, a live round ejected from the chamber. Collecting the round, Talon slung the rifle across his back and marched off to check each of the targets. Much to his surprise, each dummy had holes in them, and one happened to be directly behind another. He had scored a two-for-one. Raising an eye ridge, he shrugged in acceptance; it would do.

As the dragon made his way back to his room, he overheard a couple soldiers talking in one of the halls. Without even thinking, he turned his ears to their conversation.

"And did you see what that kid did to that guy!?" The voice was a little rushed and somehow excited.

"Yeah." Said another, more relaxed and deeper voice, "Blood everywhere and dead in a couple seconds."

Talon couldn't help but think about the day he gored a man with his claws. He swallowed hard and quickened his pace toward his door. Just a hundred more feet, fifty, twenty. He threw himself against the door and quickly shut it behind him. He curled up on his cot, his tail wrapping around one of his arms as he hugged it. There was a knock on his door, and the dragon boy growled in response. "Go away."

The knock came again and Talon roared, "I said GO AWAY!!!" He faintly heard the footsteps away from his door, leaving him in silence to sulk alone.

***

Subject 1276 lay prone atop a building rooftop in the pouring rain. Accompanied by loud cracks of thunder, bright flashes of lightening darted across the sky in beautiful spider-web patterns and illuminated the dragon's silhouette, his body's coloration darkened to almost black due to the chromatophores within his scales. The only thing that his natural camouflage couldn't conceal was the shine of his hide. Normally on a night like this, the teenage dragon would be admiring the beauty of the weather above him. Instead, his entire focus was concentrated on the ocular lens of his rifle's scope, through which he was scanning an area just over a quarter mile away. It could have been further, but the urban terrain made such a long distance operation impossible.

He was searching for a man; the one target he was tasked to eliminate. And, as his scope's field of vision passed over a winder, he stopped his scanning. There on the other side of the window, was a figure. It was a human male approximately 6 feet tall, wearing a black suite and bow tie. His hair was brown and done in a way that attempted to hide a cowlick on the right side of his scalp. He was staring outside of the window, unaware of the threat to his life. True, the man did very well to hide what he did, but as the saying goes, "Big Brother is always watching." Another flash of lightening broke the darkness for a couple fractions of a second, reflecting off of the man's glasses and giving him a devilish appearance. Upon making visual contact, the dragon's neural implants began to supply his head with information about who the man was.

His name was Samuel Nathanael "Black Jack" Cross, a black market weapons dealer with contacts in almost every major terrorist group. When he wasn't overseeing weapon smuggling operations, he worked as a freelance lawyer. One could probably make a joke about how lawyers could never be trusted, but, Talon was not here to do such a thing.

"Asset, do you have visual?" a voice rang from inside his head. It was Archer's voice, and it came from the dragon's neural lace.

"Yes, I have visual." He replied. It was a little unnerving to have actual voices inside one's head, but at least he wasn't crazy. The voices were real, so that was a plus.

There was moment's pause before he got a reply, "Good. Asset, you are green. Fire when ready."

Subject 1276 removed the safety of his silenced bolt-action rifle, carefully moving his finger over the trigger only to stop. It was then that he suddenly realized that this not a training mission; this was the real deal and he was actually about to take a man's life. Granted, they guy was a horrible person, but he just wasn't prepared to feel the kick of his rifle. Taking a breath to calm himself, the dragon resumed the process of beginning a smooth trigger pull only to stop once more as he saw a little girl enter his view and tug on the suit jacket of his target. The girl couldn't have been much younger than the dragon was and the man responded with a happy smile to the girl. It hit 1276 like a brick: the dragon was about to kill the girl's father.

"Asset," Director Archer's voice rang. "You have visual and you are GREEN. Take the shot!"

Talon hesitated, "I...I can't."

"This man is a ghost, we may not get another chance!" Talon could feel the developing anger in the Director's voice. "Take. The. SHOT!"

"But, the ki-"

"I don't care about the damn girl!" Archer interrupted, "We need this man terminated. And if you won't do that, I will break your wings by hand!"

The threat to one of his most precious body features seemed to have done it. "Fuck you." The dragon whispered. He lined up his crosshairs and closed his eyes in a grimace. "I'm sorry." He said as his heart began to pound, his clawed finger slowly squeezing the trigger. He reopened his eyes and there was a brief moment when it seemed as if everything went silent; not even the constant sound of the pounding rain reached his awareness as he completed his smooth pull of the rifle's trigger. The first thing he felt, even before he heard the silenced noise of his rifle, was the recoil of his rifle. Within a second, he watched as the bullet punched through the window and hit the man in his temple.

Blood spattered onto the nice rug laying on the floor and onto the wall behind the target. He stood for just a moment longer, his joyful expression going blank, before collapsing into a heap. Blood started to soak into the rug, coloring it red as the girl let out a scream. Talon activated his neural lace, reporting his kill by thought. "Target eliminated," his thought carried a tinge of poison, he made sure of that. "Confirm?"

The reply was swift, "Kill confirmed, assignment complete. Proceed to the rendezvous point for extraction."

Talon hesitated, looking at the corpse. For a moment, he saw not the man he had shot, but the man he had gored. The little girl crying at his side became the dragon. Talon's pulse quickened as his blood ran cold. After a few moments, he shook his head to clear it of the vision and stood up to make his way to the extraction point.

***

Walking into the receiving room, Subject 1276 shoved his rifle into the hands of a nearby tech with a growl. His teeth were bared slightly, a sign that he was livid; his lack of shown restraint scared the tech holding his rifle. Archer walked into the room and waited by the door leading into the rest of the research center. Talon kept walking toward the director, wearing a fierce frown. The Director opened his mouth to speak but was cut short by the teenage dragon's fist driving into his gut. "Fuck you!" He screamed.

A couple technicians were immediately at the Director's side, but were waved off by the officer. "I'm fine," he said after a few moments of regaining his breath. The blow wasn't hard, Archer knew that. Subject 1276 merely was showing his contempt. With everything he had on his plate this week, the Director didn't even have the energy to punish the dragon.

Talon walked into his room and flopped onto his bed. The light punch he had given to Archer's gut did nothing to dissipate his distaste of what he was made to do. He looked over at his desk, on which several books rested. Most of them were new this week, but he didn't want the read them at all; not now. Instead, he curled up on himself as his thoughts went back to the two soldiers he overheard.Did you see what that kid did to that guy!? Blood everywhere and dead in a couple seconds. Talon curled tighter and started to cry. He didn't want this; he never wanted this...