I drove around town for a few hours before I was able to find a Hotel and call my Mom. I explained that I was feeling kinda tired and didn't feel like coming home that night, but that I would be back in the morning. The Hotel was a Best Western. I'd only stayed in one once, but I loved it, so it seemed like a good choice. McDonalds seemed as good a place to eat that night as any as well. It wasn't like Victoria had a wide selection of restaurants to begin with and besides McDonalds or Burger King, which was closed, all of the other two food places in town had food that cost more than the Turbocharger on my car. McDonalds was busy that night and the drive thru was full, I didn't feel like waiting in the line to get my food, but looking back now, if I had, then maybe the events that happened that night wouldn't have.

I drove the Civic into the parking lot in low gear, which made the engine rev high and didn't accelerate the car that much, even though the turbo was blowing I was only able to get about 10 miles an hour out of the car. It certainly raised Eyebrows around the parking lot, but what caught my attention was what looked like a Bugatti Veyron. Deciding to be a bit of a show off, I backed right in next to it and when I got out, my hunch was confirmed.

It was a bright blue Veyron that had a custom wing, a gutted interior, a Manual transmission swap, the shifter was telling me Six speed from a Ford GT, it had Sparaco race bucket seats, six point harnesses, A steering wheel that looked like it had been done specially for that car and a custom, four tip exhaust.

"Someone put some money into that bitch", I smiled at myself as I took a picture of it, "beautiful car."

I put my phone away and walked into the store. It was just as busy inside at 10 at night as it was in the drive thru. Most of the people were already seated, and the only other person in line was a woman who looked to be in her 60's. There was a man with her who I guessed was her son helping her out. When my turn came to order, I got two Spicy Patties, 20 piece Chicken McNuggets, large fries and soda, which I would just fill with water. Yes, I know what your thinking, "just cause they said you can't join the Navy that means I'm gonna throw out a years worth of work myself?" First of all, mind your own business. I haven't eaten at this restaurant in nearly a year, second of all, I'm stressed and I'll eat what ever the fuck I want.

I filled the soda cup with water and found an empty seat near the window that over looked the parking lot. It wasn't long before my order was ready. I went up to the counter to get it and then walked back to my seat. I was done with both patties and starting on the Nuggets as two men in US Army General uniforms walked up to the table. One of them looked to be about 70 or so. He had grey hair and blue eyes and had more than a few medals hanging off his jacket. I grew up in a military family, and I was pretty sure one of those medals on that man's jacket was a Congressional Medal Of Honor.

The other General was, shit he had to be 30 years old and had about as many medals as his older counterpart. He had brown hair and green eyes and no doubt, given the bulge underneath his coat, was packing a Sub machine gun. Probably a P90.

"Mind if we sit here son?", The old General asked, "can't find anywhere else."

"Not at all", I said, "what branch are you sir?"

"I'm Army and He's a Marine", The old general said, "and...correct me if I'm wrong, but do you own the Blue Civic that pulled in a few minutes ago?"

"Yeah", I said.

"I've seen that car on You Tube", the old General said, "my favorite of your videos was when your front tire popped off in the middle of the corner."

"Not my finest moment", I laughed, "I forgot to put the bolts back on tightly, once that tire came off all I was worried about was stopping and not totaling my car."

"You got a really fast Front Runner kid", the Old General said, "you've also got nerve parking it next to my Veyron."

"You own that Veyron?", I asked.

He nodded.

"Sick car sir", I said, "the first Veyron I've ever seen, what's it packing?"

"It's a stock block, twin supercharged and twin turbocharged", the General said, "makes 1600 Horsepower at the rear wheels, and at the strip your dragging Venom GT's and winning."

"Sure", I said, "you can beat a GT when you got 400 horses over it, but how'd it fare against Hell?"

"What?", The General asked.

"there's a 10 thousand horsepower Dodge Charger in Dallas that runs on a Local drag strip", I said, "last I checked, he dragged a Top Fueler and whacked it six ways to Sunday. 0-60 in under a half a second and a top speed of 350 miles an hour."

The General whistled, "Shiit, I need to up my game."

"Oh can we cut the small talk and do our jobs already?", The younger general asked, "if you don't tell him I will."

A weird feeling set in very quickly. I went from liking both these guys, to not trusting them very much in less than a second.

"I'm gonna regret this", I said, "but tell me what?"

"Your blood test results are different", The younger general said.

"My what is a what now?", I asked, "I haven't had any blood work done since I was like....I don't know eight? Who the fuck are you people?"

The Younger guy, seeming as though he ignored me, continued, "your DNA is missing a gene strand. We have synthesized a strand that will fill this slot and force you into a physical transformation that will render you a super solider."

I shook my head, these guys were obviously batshit crazy, and since one of them had a firearm, it was probably the best to play along until I could slip out and get the hell out of dodge.

"What kind of super soldier?", I asked.

"Classified", the general said, "all you need to know is you need to come with us."

I snicked, "yeah, that ain't gonna happen."

"I'm not asking you to come", The young guy snapped, "I'm ORDERING you."

"Your not ordering me to do anything buddy", I said, "you should go return your costume to Target. You know it's illegal to impersonate a military officer?"

"That will be all", The older guy said looking at his counterpart, "go wait in the car before you fuck this up any further! That's an order Major."

The younger guy muttered something under his breath as he left the store.

"Your friend is nuts", I said.

The man sighed, "will you come talk with me out back?"

"Nope", I said, "unless you can prove to me in 20 seconds that your not a loon."

The man reached into his jacket and pulled out a small folder. Not so much that others could see it though. There was a big red, "Top Secret" stamped on it.

"Everything you need to know is in here", The general said, "Josh, I know you just got kicked out of the Navy after working at it for almost a year, the contents of this file explains why."

I put my water down. At first, I wasn't sure what to think, but if he knew I was kicked out of the Navy, then he had to be Government of some kind.

"Okay", I sighed packaging up my food, "you've bought yourself five minutes."

I grabbed my stuff and followed the General out to his Veyron where he spread the folder and it's contents out on the hood.

"Josh", he said, "My name is General Alex Morningstar, I work for a top secret military program called Project venom. The program was founded in 2000 with the intent of creating and training dragons as the Us Army's ultimate weapon."

"Dragons huh?", I said looking through the files, "sounds shit load like stuff my friends and I have written on a website."

"Funny you should mention that", General Morningstar said, "I've read all three. Some of the people who work with me thought you guys had spies in the area or something, but that soon proved not to be the case. Anyway, we considered approaching your friends Mallory and Tristan, but their DNA sadly was not compatible with our serum."

"And mine is", I sighed, "wonderful. So tell me General, what will I become if I join this project?"

"A Southern Dragon", Morningstar said, "an Anthro as you and your friends termed them."

"And this is without fail?", I asked.

"Yes", Morningstar said, "we did attempt serums for the Eastern, Western and Northern body styles, however, the human skeleton doesn't led itself well to such a mutation and they were deemed to risky."

"So tell me", I said, "what happens if I refuse this draft?"

"This isn't a draft son", Morningstar said, "Uncle Sam is asking, not forcing."

I sighed, "I have a lot of things I wanna do in my life. Going fast is one of them. Being a badass super solider is a dream I gave up long ago. Thanks but no thanks."

I started back for my car.

"So that's it huh?", Morningstar asked, "you work for a year to join the Armed Forces, get told no once and when a better opportunity comes along you just toss it away huh?"

I turned around, "if I join your little project that makes me useful as a solider, nothing more. It's not like a lift truck that you can climb over a mountain in and then drive it on the street. It's a tank that gets driven off road. Period."

"Son", Morningstar said, "your a nice kid so I'm gonna be straight with you. I'm not gonna put on a face to get you to come with me, but you should know that there would be plenty of opportunity to go fast in Project Venom. I know you wanted to be a gunsmith, there's more than enough chances to do that as well. There's a lot for you in this if you'll consider it."

He handed me a piece of folded up paper with a picture of a few Chevy's I had never seen before and a number.

'That's my cell", he said walking back to his Veyron. As he was about to get inside he turned around and put his hands together, "Josh, you really do wanna consider this. I've seen what you can do, I know the kind of mind you have, your special.

He paused, "normal's boring."

He slid into his Veyron and drove off. I sighed, stood there for a few minutes and folded up the piece of paper before going back to the hotel. Once I was there, I grabbed the spare clothes I kept in the trunk of my car and headed up to my room. The room was about the size of a large living room. In the corner closest to my left hand was a couch and a small coffee table. In the middle of the room were two twin sized beds, just perfect. On the other side of the bed was a office chair and desk that held a big PC computer. Separating the two beds was a lamp stand with a blue lamp and there were also two Japanese type paper screens that separated the beds from the other two areas of the room. The entire room was covered in a thick blue carpet that looked like it had been freshly vacuumed. The entire setup was extremely welcoming after the day I'd been having.

I kicked off my boots and put the clothes I'd been wearing all day underneath the coffee table with them before taking a shower and laying in bed, turning out the light. I tried to find sleep, but I couldn't help but think about what General Morningstar had told me. The idea that it was all one big practical joke seemed pretty likely, but if that was the case then how the hell did he know my name, how did he know who Mallory and Tristan were, how'd he know that I'd been kicked from the Navy? Somehow, that thought didn't seem likely. I turned the light back on and sat up, grabbing the sheet of paper off my table. I unfolded it, picked up the phone and dialed out.

There was a single ring before he picked up.

"Hello?", he asked.

"It's Josh", I said.

"Yes?", Morningstar asked, "have you thought about what I said?"

"Where's the project base located at?"

"I'll send you a map on your email, what is it?", Morningstar asked.

I told him my email address.

"Okay", he said, "I got it, have you come to a decision?"

"Yeah", I said, "I'm in."