Birthday

Author's Note: Not my best work, but I might go back and edit it and post a new version. I wrote this because I like the character, and thought the idea was kinda cool. Hopefully, I'll come back to this in the future.

The door creaked open, and again she tested the chains that held her to the wall. Once again, the links proved too strong, and she fell back to her knees as a shrill whistling pierced the comfortable silence. The thin man danced to his off key tune, swinging a metal tray around like a dance partner before letting it go. The tray fell to the ground with a dull thud, still a foot or so out or reach. She tried for it, regardless.

"Good news, baby! I couldn't finish my McBurger, so I gave ya a little of it. Bet ya miss that kinda food, huh?"

Uriko refused to dignify the doctor's taunts with a response. Instead, she lunged again for the tray. The chains pulled tight, however, and caught her in mid-strike. The doctor laughed, in his usual annoying way. A year of the same game with the tray, a year of the same laugh... Uriko cursed herself for falling for it still. Maybe the hope of variety spurred her forward, perhaps the slight chance the chains might finally give way and let her wrap her hands around the scientists throat made her keep trying.

"My poor girl! Bet yer tired of this, huh? Well, bad news is, I'm not. This is the funniest damn thing I've ever seen! And, from a scientific point of view, this is reaffirming everything Pavlov ever said. The second it starts to get boring, I might stop. Or I might just kill ya, I haven't decided. But hang in there, my precious, I'll decide at some point."

With that, the scientist kicked the tray over to her, and pranced out of the room with a merciless butchering of "Hide Your Love Away". Uriko wasted no time, and started to claw at the food. The scientist gave her more than usual, this time, and she devoured it without hesitation. Some days, he gave her only a few grains of rice, or a scrap of bread. The thought of poison crossed her mind briefly, but she dismissed the idea, as that provided far too easy of an escape. After all, Uriko went to sleep each night praying for death, and it never came.

She remembered home, with its warm meals and soft bed. She missed her mother, and her friends from school. She even found herself missing homework, of all things. The scientist, whose name she'd never heard, often gave science lessons as he taunted her with food, or even the keys to her chains. In truth, she learned more from the nameless man than in any of her classes, but preferred not to think of the imprompteau lessons. The man could have done worse to her... much worse... but she hated being his puppet more than anything.

She saw him in the doctor's office, when the pains first started. After an hour of tests, she saw Dr. Goldberg speaking to him in the hallway. They seemed to have a terrible disagreement about something, and Dr. Goldberg stormed off. The other doctor looked at her... she remembered that look. The same look appeared when he taunted her. He looked different now; a shock of green hair covered his previously balding scalp, and instead of being heavy set, he appeared very thin. Still, she recognized the look, and knew it was the same man.

She finished the food... the burger tasted good, and Uriko knew she indeed missed them... then leaned back against the wall of her cell. Maybe he poisoned the food, she hoped. Maybe he poisoned the food because he's getting bored with me. She felt a strange tingling in her right hand, but nothing more. She took in a deep breath, and imagined herself in her mother's rose garden rather than the musty dungeon. She still managed to keep track of time, somehow, and the roses were blooming now.

Uriko imagined herself going from the rose garden into the living room, and sitting in front of the television. Slayers was on and, in spite of her mother's dislike for the anime, she thrilled to the adventures of Lina and her companions. She respected Lina, and even emulated her at times, even though it wasn't the mature thing for a girl of her age to do. Valgaav came on the imaginary screen, much to her delight. Uriko loved Valgaav; for someone so warped, he remained likeable. She needed to meet a guy like Valgaav... sans the insanity, of course.

She leaned against the wall and rested her head on her right shoulder; hardly a comfortable arrangement, but the way she'd fallen asleep for the past several month, since the doctor shortened the chains which allowed her to lie down. She wondered what the sick bastard was doing. Probably more of the cloning work he often lectured to her about. She quickly forced him from her mind, and thought back to the living room television. After a few minutes, she fell asleep, still hoping the strange sensation in her right arm was a precursor to death.

Uriko awoke to yet another horrifying rendition of a Beatle's song, this time "Yellow Submarine". The scientist even accompanied his screeches by pounding on her empty food tin. He pranced around the room until she rose to her feet, then stopped suddenly and crossed his skinny arms across his chest.

"Sleepy head! Science waits for no one, especially not little brats like you, my child. Now that yer awake, though, we've got some pretty serious experiments to get to."

He walked towards her, a needle in his hand. Uriko simply offered her shoulder to him, as she found resisting these experiments proved futile. As the doctor pushed the needle down, however, something different happened. Rather than the sharp pain of the needle piercing her skin, she felt nothing. The scientist blinked, then pushed down again. Again, nothing. He pushed with both hands, and finally there was a reaction: the needle snapped. The doctor growled, and backhanded Uriko across the side of her face.

"I don't know what you're doing, baby, but you better stop, or I'm gonna get angry. And you won't like it when daddy gets angry..."

"I'm not doing anything..." She stopped as she realized that, unlike before, the doctor's strike caused her no pain. She rose to her full height, and glared at him. For a moment, she saw fear in his eyes. Then, as if remembering his test subject was chained to the wall, he regained his confidence. He swung again, but this time Uriko's hand rose to meet his. The chain holding the arm to the wall snapped, and she caught his fist.

"I warned you..." The doctor slammed his leg into Uriko's stomach, causing her to double over. A club-like forearm smashed into her back, and she winced in pain. She closed her eyes, wishing she was anywhere but in front of her tormentor.

Then, she opened her eyes and found herself standing behind him.

By the time the scientist turned to face her, Uriko unleashed a kick at his face. The man made sure she knew how to fight, under the influence of shock collars and similar devces, but nothing held her back now. The kick sent the man flying, and the force of the blow broke his nose and knocked loose two teeth. He staggered to his feet, still disoriented from the sudden and violent nature of her attack.

"Ya better stop, or..."

Uriko charged at him again, knocking him against the prison wall. He fell to the ground in an undignified heap, and the prisoner used her newfound abilities to teleport immediately above him, and slam her heel into the middle of his back. As she retreated backwards, she noticed she no longer walked. Instead, she seemed to levitate, moving far faster than her legs could carry her.

The doctor rose to his feet, but swayed from side to side, forced to concentrate in order to stand. He looked at Uriko, his face bloodied by her attacks. Suddenly, a long tongue sprung from his mouth, and licked off some of the blood. He smirked at her, in spite of his current state.

"Yeah baby... this is what I wanted. Yer comin' out just like I hoped. But it's time for you to go back to your cage, and..."

Uriko heard enough. Her right arm, still numb and now trembling, rose towards him. To the shock of both of them, a bolt of blue energy escaped from her hand and slammed the doctor against the wall. As she stared at her right hand, now smoking from the power of the blow, she wondered what was happening to her. She then looked to the doctor, wondering for a moment if he was still alive or dead. She quickly decided not to check, and turned to leave the room.

No matter what she was now, she had to get home.

The rains poured in Tokyo that night, but Uriko braved them, just to reach her home. She had traveled for over an hour, from the lab's location to her familiar neighborhood. She received a few strange looks from the people she passed, but ignored them and wrapped the lab coat tightly around herself. She wanted to get home, and change out of the strange leather outfit given to her in the labs. She longef for her kimonos and shorts, or even a nice pair of sweats. She also hoped her resourceful mother could remove the chains that remained over her hands.

She crept towards the house, and wondered if her mother would still recognize her. She seemed to have grown considerably in her time in captivity, strange given her poor diet. Her stomach growled at the thought of food, and she promised herself a trip to the sushi bar, eventually. Her thoughts of food gave way to her thoughts of family, and how to explain her ordeal to her mother.

Then, only a few feet from home, she stopped dead in her tracks.

From the house's front window, she saw her mother set a plate of steaming food down on the dining room table. Several people she failed to recognize gathered around a stack of presents and an elaborate cake. There, at the end of the table, sat the guest of honor.

Uriko Nonamura.

Uriko... or whoever she was, now.., pulled back in shock, and for a moment wondered if this were another of the doctor's tricks. She heard the entire group sing a chorus of "Happy Birthday", and the scent of the rice and fish reached her, in spite of the rain. She fell to her knees, her mind swarmed with a thousand questions. She looked to the ground, and, for the first time, saw herself in a puddle's reflection.

She stood taller than the Uriko celebrating her birthday inside. In fact, she seemed a year or two older. The differences did not stop there, however. Instead of the long, dark brown hair of her counterpart, Uriko's hair was short, and a pale green, not unlike jade, in color. Her eyes, which she remembered as a chestnut brown, now appeared a bright yellow, a yellow that almost seemed to glow in the darkness.

Slowly, her eyes moved from her reflection to her left leg, where a small set of numbers and letters remained on her leg.

UN-01

D.O.C. 021900

URANUS

She could only run away from the house at that point, as it all made sense. The constant lectures on science. The scientist's pride in his cloning work. His insistance on calling himself "daddy" around her all the time. She couldn't go to the house now; she had no right trying to walk into someone else's life. Still, as the party continued behind her, she almost laughed at the irony.

"Happy birthday... Uranus," she said to herself as she fled.