The Four Encaged

Beginning story — FERUS Project
No one knows exactly when the facility was built.
Hidden away from cities and erased from virtually all records, she had only one goal: to find, capture, and study creatures that shouldn't exist.
That's how Project FERUS was born.
For years, four specimens were brought to the complex.
The first one was Specimen 01.
It was too big for a regular cage. So they built a special enclosure around it. Chains, reinforced doors, and sensors filled the entire room. Staff were never allowed to stay near it for very long.
Then came number 2.
Smaller, but much more active. He observed every employee, every camera, and every door that opened. Reports said he learned too quickly.
Number 3 arrived shortly after. Its wings made any attempt at containment complicated, and therefore its cage had bars all the way to the ceiling.
Finally, they found number 04.
Its size caused the researchers to reconsider the entire project. It was powerful, but strangely calm. For the most part, it remained still, observing.
Then, one night, all the cameras in the facility turned off at the same time.
The doors remained locked.
But, for the first time, all four specimens began to react simultaneously.

01 stood up.

02 started growling at something that nobody could see.

03 opened its wings.

E 04 stared directly at the camera before the transmission faded.

The following morning, researchers found a single message written on a switched-off monitor:
"You didn't arrest us. You brought us together."

And it was at that moment that the real experiment began.