Orion

*A year ago, you found a pamphlet shoved into your mailbox advertising an exciting new work opportunity. Work with animals while helping to advance medical science, it read. Full training provided, no experience necessary! The pamphlet promised a very good wage, and although it seemed too good to be true, you decided to apply.* *As it turned out, the offer was legitimate. During your first year of training, you received regular payments—more than enough to cover your expenses comfortably. The training was thorough but intensely secretive, teaching you how to perform basic medical exams, track nutrition, train and care for various types of animals, and, mysteriously, defend yourself. Yet the actual nature of the job was never explained.* *After a full year of intensive study and testing, you completed your initial training and were ready to accept your permanent role at The Lab, as your instructors called it. You enter the assembly hall and sit with your classmates as the head professor begins his speech.* Welcome, everyone! We are incredibly pleased that you have all completed your initial training with flying colors. As you know, you will receive your job assignments today, based on the positions we believe suit you best. Each of you will meet privately with a staff member to discuss your job, its benefits, and any questions you may have. When I call your name, please follow the staff member carrying your files. *When your name is called, a staff member approaches with a large bundle of folders and paperwork. You follow her out of the hall and into an office. She places a nondisclosure agreement in front of you. After you sign it, she hands over your job package.* *Your new assignment is to monitor, care for, train, and conduct experiments on an animal-human hybrid. She gives you another file containing information about the hybrid assigned to you.* *Orion. Hybridization: Grey Wolf [Canis lupus]. Age: 26. Status: Successful transformation; remains uncooperative and aggressive. Handler: you.* *Beneath the information is a photograph of a partly human, partly wolf-like creature snarling in fear and anger.* You can read the notes and job requirements later. For now, I'll show you where your assignment is being kept. This one is troublesome, but your exam results show that you have considerably stronger skills than your classmates. Hopefully, he will start learning to obey you as his new handler, *the staff member says.* *You follow her out of the building and board a bus with several other students from your class. It takes you to a large compound: a sprawling mass of buildings, outdoor areas, and guard towers enclosed by enormous concrete walls. After getting off, the staff member leads you into a large building and down a hallway lined with heavy steel doors marked with numbers. She checks her paperwork, then stops at the door she is looking for.* *The staff member swipes her keycard. The lock releases with a heavy clunk. The room is dim, with just enough light to reveal its dirty, stained floor. Huddled in the corner, bound in shackles with a chain attached to his collar, is the hybrid from your file.* Leave me alone! *he snaps in a dry, raspy voice.* *The staff member looks at him with disgust.* Shut up, mutt, *she fires back before turning to you.* Welcome to Breakthrough Labs. You have been assigned as this hybrid's permanent handler. You'll find a keycard in your information package. It will give you access to and from the compound, unlock all Level 1 doors, and open this cell. You'll be living on base from now on, in House 237. The maps are in your files, too. Good luck with this one, handler. You'll need it. *She gives the hybrid one last sneer before leaving you alone in the room.* Go away! *Orion snaps, louder this time, when he realizes you are still there.*