Alina

The first Alina knew out of the ordinary was a bizarre fizzing noise. It seemed to be repeating itself, just outside her cell. She crept to the side, looking around curiously outside of the Plexiglass wall. Nothing...seemed wrong...it seemed constant, the same way it had for the past...what was it, a month? A year? Two? She honestly couldn't tell anymore. But the noise was still there. She looked around several times, still not understanding what was producing it.

After a minute or so of nothing, she mentally chastised herself at the realization of her mistake. Vlákas. You never look up when you should. She did so, and lo and behold, there it was. The ubiquitous security camera that had haunted her for as long as she'd been in the laboratory lolled on its stalk. The buzzing sound appeared to be its motor desperately trying to lift it up from its groundward-facing direction, occasionally spitting out electrical sparks and a puff of blue smoke. Her eyes widened. I can use this! She moved in rapid time to the door, wincing at her sore knees as she stumbled. Kneeling down in front of the portal to the hallway, she shook inquisitively. The incredibly sensitive motion-activated series of deadbolts attached to the other side refused to react.

Grinning wildly, she winced slightly again, this time as she bit down on the inside of her lip, letting a small amount of blood pool up in her mouth. Just a single deadbolt now, huh? Placing her mouth to the end of the door, she spat out the liquid in the form of a hail of needlelike projectiles. She repeated. Spit blood, let it pool, spit blood, let it pool, spit blood, let it pool. Occasionally she paused for a few minutes to let the blood return to her, or to bite her lip again to renew the flow of blood. Nearly an hour later, she spat one final hail of blood needles into the gap and gasped in some combination of astonishment and relief as the door slid open on silent hinges. She could hardly believe that this was happening; she half-believed that she would wake up from some chemical-induced hallucination designed to test how she would react to hope. Because that's actually the kind of thing these people had done to her in the past. She wasn't even sure what absurd chemicals they used to do that, but hell, somehow they always found a way.

Creeping along the hallway and past rows of empty cells, she remained incredibly nervous and tense. Any second. Any second now, someone's going to catch on and come for me. Yet somehow, nobody did for quite a while. Every camera she passed was inactive in the same way for a long time until, well, one wasn't. She'd let herself grow slightly more relaxed, and it was coming back to bite her. It immediately zoomed in on her and a red light blinked. After a few moments of no recognition, it tracked onto her motions with bright red laser. Another few moments, and a small hatch slid open in the front. She hissed and dove back behind the last wall as a series of small hypodermic darts dinged into the stark white wall where she'd been standing.

Well, shit.

She turned, and immediately noticed that there was actually somebody in the cell behind her. She grit her teeth; on one hand, it would probably be easier getting out of here on her own. But on the other hand...she was still a human being, right? Despite the best intentions of the scientists, she'd done her best to hold on to her morals, and they still held strong. After only a moment of hesitation, she dashed to the cell's door. Stealth was out of the window; time to move. She slammed her shoulder into it with a tremendous smash. The lack of deadbolts was still evident here, luckily for her body.

She reached out a hand towards the much younger girl in the cell, a bit of blood drizzling from the corner of her mouth as an alarm began to blare. "Come on, with me! Let's get the hell out of here!"

@Inkarnate

---

Somewhere deeper in the facility, a man slumped down at his desk as the security monitors in front of him hissed and flickered. He sat bolt upright as one came back online and immediately showcased an escapee. Subject #224. As the alarms began to blare, he picked up a radio, grinning viciously at the lack of static now.

"Security! Hallway G, floor 4! Escape attempt! Get down there!"

---

General idea of the jail cells -

Jared could not even begin to guess how long he had been locked in the strange facility he was in. There were no ways to tell the passing of time, and he was almost always locked in the deprivation chamber when he was not in the white room. However, judging by the hair that had grown on his face, Jared deduced that he had to have been kidnapped at least a week ago... But that didn't really matter. He had just tried to kill himself... Only to discover he had a super power... If that didn't sound like an origin story, Jared wasn't really sure what would be a better one. But seriously, Invisibility? Jared was ecstatic that he had received such a powerful gift, and briefly considered the possibility that this was what he was captured for. After all, a prisoner receiving a power that allows them to simply walk out unnoticed? Clearly would have caused a panic. Jared spent what felt like a few minutes testing out his abilities, his limits, and simply grabbing and letting go of the blindfold (His sole possession in this barren facility) to watch it disappear from view. When CJ sees this...

Jared snapped his head to the doorway that was mere feet in front of him. He had used every ounce of strength he had to bash against the door when he had first arrived at the facility, and the door remained completely unfazed by the assault... But even Jared knew that this was taking too long. Usually, when he was deposited in the room, he was given a few hours to sleep, walk around the confined area, and once he has spent long enough moving around, a tray of disgusting slop was deposited through the food slot, and he immediately passed out upon completing the meal. One time, while he was particularly bored, he counted the seconds of activity he was allowed until the food was deposited. 900. 15 minutes. But he had just attempted suicide, would have succeeded had his powers not revealed themselves, and he just spent the past few minutes fazing in and out of view. Beginning the count, Jared easily managed to reach 1200 seconds with no food being delivered... Well, now was as good a time as any.

Putting on his old orange jumpsuit, one of the few sources of insulation and comfort in the cold facility that he had been using as a makeshift blanket, Jared cautiously approached the intimidating doorway, a metal monolith in the small, unfurnished room. Suddenly, an incredibly safe precaution appeared in Jared's mind. Gulping down a large breath of sterilized air, Jared disappeared from view, and opened the door.

Alarms blazed and echoed across the small hallway, and Jared was barely able to lean against the side of the wall before several men in lab coats passed by. Thankfully, none of them grazed the Gray Man, and continued their nervous half-walk, half-jog down the hallway. Jared, picking a random direction, decided to head to where these men came from, in hopes of finding the exit. Every corner, he took note of all the security cameras, and did his best to rebreath air in their blind spots as he made his way through the labyrinth of halls. In his rush, Jared barely even realized that the rows of rooms he passed were other cells - Others like him. Some had physical deformities, some were incredibly scarred, and others simply had the miserable look that every single one of them shared. Jared attempted to open several cells, but to no avail - each had a keypad that seemed to record a combination of numbers, and Jared simply didn't have the time to guess each individual code. Silently apologizing, Jared continued his escape.

While the entire escape felt hours long, Jared linked this to the fact that he was forced to walk in order to conserve oxygen, and that he was constantly holding his breath... Like he had to do in the chamber... Was the facility behind his power? He was never injected with any chemicals or medicines, but he had only been eating that disgusting slop for who knows how long... He knew they were drugging him with sleeping pills, but there wasn't any medication that gave people freaking superpowers... Right? This entire discovery was cut short, however, as Jared unknowingly entered into Hallway G, only to see two young girls exit out of a cell. They were obviously prisoners here, like him... but having horrible social skills, stacked onto not having seen a woman in over 2 years, Jared briefly considered merely leaving them... Who was he kidding, he had freaking superpowers! He had to be a hero!

C'mon Jared, just like CJ always told ya - Stop being such a wuss, and take some risks!

...Well, there are plenty of cool unseen heroes. Staying against the wall and remaining out of both the girls and the cameras sight when he breathed in (which was slowly becoming more difficult, as more and more slowly came back online). Following behind his new and unaware companions, Jared was preparing himself for the inevitable.

Some of the men in lab coats who passed him earlier had pistols attached to their belts. Should they run into one of them, or even an actual guard... Things might get messy. Jared simply hoped that these girls were like him and had some power... Otherwise, he might have to come to their rescue with an unseen sucker punch... If a sucker punch from someone like Jared would even hurt a professional guard, that is...

@Lemons@Inkarnate
---

The sound of rustling papers and the simmering of a cup of coffee can be heard. In the distance, the movie Top Gun can be heard playing. An overweight man wearing a Hawaiian shirt and a name tag with Ronny emblazoned on it sits down in front of a large pane of glass.

"Jesus, Val Kilmor is a great actor. What's next to watch? Termin-"

Ronny was cut off as he turned, seeing on the camera of Jared's room that no one was present. Immediately switching to the camera in the deprivation chamber, it was revealed that Jared was not there either. All of a sudden, a loud alarm sounded throughout the complex. The radio at Ronny's side buzzed to life.

"Security! Hallway G, floor 4! Escape attempt! Get down there!"

Ronny slowly reached for his radio and, mimicking a shocked and nervous tone, spoke into the device.

"Oh my god chief, escapee on hallway F, floor 4!"

Shutting off the radio and tossing it on the couch to his side, and sliding in a DVD into the small television in front of him.

"Did all I could, out of my hands now. Castaway seems like a good pick. It'll teach me what to do if upper management finds out I didn't lock the cell door and let one of the freak shows out."

Sighing heavily, Ronny reached into a large tub of popcorn as he watched Tom Hanks and his plane fall into the ocean.

Fuyuki Amari

"Fuyuki!"

He heard something

"Fuyuki..."

He saw something

"Honey..."

He felt something

"Yes...mom?."

"Jeez, you should have answered me immediately. It's not usual for you to space out like this."

There was no mistake

The dim light of the morning sun, the magnificent reds of the royal poinciana flowers, the sweet and melodious sound of music, and the tears of seniors who were saying their final goodbyes to their friends, whom they had spent so much time and had so many memories together

There was no mistake

It was the closing ceremony of his 2nd year at high school. And those next to him were the friends and families that Fuyuki had always endeared

"Hey, hey Fuyuki! Do you wanna check out this new book about robots after this?! It is published only just a few days ago!"

"Ok, ok! You don't have to stick your face that close Connor. But you know that my specialty is universal gravitation not robotics, right?"

"Yeah I know, but it's my expertise. And I also want you to join us, the robotic club! You are such an exceptional mathematician and physicist! Everybody is waiting for you to join!"

Fuyuki scratched his head in embarrassment. That was the first time he had been welcomed that heartwarmingly, even though that was from his closest friends.

"But I..." He didn't know how to respond.

"Honey..." But came the soft nurturing sound from his beloved mother.

"I think you should join them." And the decisive, yet gentle voice of his father

"Why should I, dad?"

"It's a great opportunity for you to discover more about the vast knowledge of this universe. I know it's not your major, but the more you know the better. Not everything in this world is about gravity, you know."

"Your father is right, and I think you should consider making some new friends...and get a girlfriend..." She leaned close to his left ear and whispered, in a teasingly seductive voice.

"It seems Sophie there is interested in you..."

"Mom!" Fuyuki snapped suddenly, blushing heavily.

His dad, and the rest of his friends giggled amusingly at the two cute mother and son.

"...Alright, I'll consider your offer later when I get home Connor." He returned him with an earnest answer.

"Hey look. The principal is about to say something."

From the right wing of the stage, a middle-aged man, with neatly-combed grey hair, wearing an extravagant dark blue suit, emerged to take the podium. For the next five minutes, he delivered a boring speech about summer and stuff, and the honor and pride of being students in a high school of the gifted. He was always that way, and the students never bothered to listen. It was only the last sentence that caught Fuyuki's attention.

"Now I invite, student Fuyuki Amari to take the podium, and voice your thoughts about the school."

Wait, what?

"Hey hey!" His friend grabbed Fuyuki in the collar. "You're one lucky guy you know?"

"Wait! How is this-"

"You are the honor student of the school. Of course you are taking that podium. Come on!" He slapped his butt, causing Fuyuki to stumble slightly forward.

"But I was not prepared!"

"Just fight on, Fuyuki! We'll be cheering for you down here!"

Everybody nodded, as they smiled sweetly at him.

"Everyone..." He said, tears started to well up within his eyelids

"Remember Fuyuki..." His mother said, softly. "Whatever you do...we will always be proud of you. And we will always be by your side."

We will always be by your side

Suddenly, the happy and sweet image in front of him blurred. He could not see them clearly anymore.

Be by your side.

Each and everyone of them began to fade

By your side

His friends

By your side

His father

By your side

His mother

Always

Everyone

Always...

XXX
"Sir! He's regaining consciousness!"

It was all a dream.

That happiness and warmth

It was all a dream...

Of what it could have been.

"It seems that hallucinations can decrease the well's gravity force."

Replacing the sunny school ground of the closing ceremony, was a spacious room, covered entirely in white. At the center of the room, a cage, about two meters tall, was placed, in front of a cube that was two times smaller than the cage filled with numbers and recordings. In one corner of the cube, a tiny label could be seen.

Facility #41

A true hell on Earth.

"Just...how...much longer?" Fuyuki mustered all the strength he had left to utter the words that were as hard as rocks.

"Just one more Fuyuki." One scientist wearing a lab coat who was watching the whole experiment behind the glasses of his office replied.

Fuyuki could only nod in acknowledgement. He knew there was no reason to plead them to stop. They wouldn't listen.

"Now, let's see how he fare with hypoxia."
The scientists then flipped a switch, as the air began to be sucked away from the room.

"Arrrggghhh...."

Soon, Fuyuki found himself grabbing his throat in agony, as his life source was being gradually taken away. His breathings were soon ragged, his stomach began to cringe, his head screamed with extreme pain. Soon, the color of his skins began to change. And yet, his eyes was forced to open wide. A few minutes later, when the air inside the experiment chamber was sucked out nearly completely, his vision began to blur.

"Mom...Dad...everyone..."

His heart slowed

"Stay with me..."

His brain couldn't process anymore.

Then all he saw was darkness...
...
...
"Experiment completed sir."

"You did great today Amari. Rest for now. Tomorrow will be a busy day for you, hehehe."

XXX
Eight hours later, Fuyuki's consciousness finally returned to his fragile and battered body, but not without a price. He was wet, soaked in his own sweat...and tears. He had a nightmare. The gas that he had to inhale earlier during the experiment still had its hallucinatory effects. Just another day for the 'volunteers' in Facility #41.

Volunteers...

Such a flowery word.

"Just when will this end?" Fuyuki asked himself, his two sweaty hands covered his miserable face.

This unending sequence of nightmare.

It all began when he was abducted just one year ago right at his own house. A young boy with good eyesight, known for his exceptional performance in physics, and majored at universal gravitation. That was a perfect recipe for some crazy lunatics to snatch him for their little project they were doing: a living gravity well projector. To catch up with humanity's rapid development in space exploration, the VTK corporation, a multi-purpose company, had decided to join the space race with the Western Powers. After their development of a spacecraft that were capable of moving with a speed faster than even the speed of light, they were able to jump between stars and the galactic system. But the vessel had a major disadvantage, and that occurred when it moved out of light speed. It could not stop at exactly where it wanted to, and the distance away from the intended location was very erratic. That is where individuals like Fuyuki came into use. An artificial gravity well can actively decelerate ships that are moving at light speed. And to save budgets, and to make profits for themselves, instead of developing a conventional gravity well generator, they decided to make a normal human become one. And that led to Fuyuki's current situation.

"Just what did I do to deserve this?"

Nothing. He never wanted this. It was them. They were the one who started everything. For their own selfish dream of swimming in mad stacks of money that they were willing to sacrifice a man's, a young boy's, life.

He'd had enough of this! He was only here for a year and yet to him it felt like an eternity!

There was no way he could take this any longer!

He had to break out!

But he had waited for that opportunity for months, and yet it did not came. Until today.

Today, something was off. It usually wasn't like this. Normally, after being experimented, Fuyuki would be injected with a substance that temporarily prevented him from seeing. In other words, blinded him, so that he could not use his power against them. His gravity well generation ability could only be used when he could see, as the location of the gravity area was decided by his eyes. So if Fuyuki could not use his eyes, he would not be able to use it anywhere aside from his own body part. The substance lasted for around eight hours, so they should have sent some guards to inject it by now. But for some unknown reasons, they didn't.

Less than an hour later, Fuyuki began to regain his vision. It was groggy at first, like a person having just awoken from his sleep, but soon, he could see everything, as clear as days. For the first time ever, despite being imprisoned in this hellhole for over a year, he had a clear view of the sceneries of his room. A dark room, decorated with almost nothing aside from the light green color of the walls and ceilings, and the white porcelain tiles. There were no windows, one bed, one door, and since Fuyuki could not see, the only source of light was from the small squared window of that door. It appeared that this was a special prison cell for people with special powers. The room was dark, but Fuyuki could still see the small light in the tunnel that he was walking in.

At last! The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for freedom had come to him, paying off the months that he had been patiently waiting for! Now that his ability to use his gravity well generation had come online, he would not let them seal it off once more. Luckily, his hand was not tied up, so he had his freedom of movements.

"Hmm, the door is locked, as I expected..."

There was no way they would leave the door unlocked. So Fuyuki had to find another way to open it. But how?

The door had no keyholes so it did not seem to be locked and unlocked using traditional keys. They probably used a more advanced method. So it was pointless trying to force the door open by creating a tiny gravity well inside the keyhole to break the lock. And even so, there was no guarantee that he would be able to force it open without exhausting himself. He had his limits after all.

Suddenly, a light was switched within his mind. If he couldn't open the door, then he would make someone open it for him!

"HEY!!!" He shouted from the bottom of his lungs.

If he continued to yell it like this, somebody would pay attention, and open the door

"You did not inject me with those poisons today! That's your last mistake! And now I am going to bring down this entire facility!"

Then he would snap. This was his only chance. There were no rooms for errors.

He repeated the two lines again and again. Not surprisingly, a few minutes later, two guards came to his cell. Fuyuki stepped to the side, preparing his ability. Seconds passed, the door slide open. The moment of fate had arrived.

Darts began to fly into the room, so as to subdue Fuyuki. Unbeknownst to the two idiots, he had already stepped to the side to avoid it. It was at that moment that Fuyuki slammed the poor guards against the wall by creating a well with a force of 6.5G to pull them in. Fuyuki did not relent, as he created a well on the opposite wall, slamming the guards violently onto the two walls. Then again on the opposite wall, then again, earning them a pair of tickets to unconsciousness.

Surprisingly, for the moment, there were no guards rushing to the rescue, buying him a bit of free time. Fuyuki approached the two guards, and instead of picking up the tranquil gun, he chose the submachine gun that one of the guards carried. He had once learned how to use an assault rifle back in school, so hopefully this SMG wouldn't be much of a difference.

After a few minutes of running, the alarm started to go off.

"Warning, escape attempt!"

It's about time they realized that.

Two more guards appeared around the corner, but before they could come to a position to open fire, they were violently flung away with a force equivalent of a train running at full speed. Running silently pass them, Fuyuki continued his escape.

XXX
@Lemons @Inkarnate
As he turned around the corner of the G sector, he saw two young girls, their hands locked with each other, as they tried to make their escape. It appeared that they were also prisoners trying to get out this hellhole, just like him. Perhaps bonding with them wouldn't be too bad.

But all of a sudden, a scientist wearing a lab coat suddenly appeared just behind him, his pistol ready to fire.

Fuyuki was caught completely off-guard.

He had little time to generate a well.

Andre

300 - 0

Andre won 300 times straight in rock paper scissors. A mathematical improbability.

Of course he picked rock almost every time. Rock always won. Although it helped that he was in control of both players.

Sitting cross legged on the floor of his cell, he was mirrored by a shadowy copy of himself. The faceless thing starring back at him. It still had it's arm out in the classic "paper" position. Andre sighed and leaned back, propping himself on one arm. He tilted his head to the side, inspecting the purplish clone. "You're a good sport you know that?" He re-fixed his position, and placed a fist over an open palm. The puppet did the same. The two bounced their fists three times then simultaneously pushed them towards each-other. Andre went rock, and the puppet went paper.

"Woah!" Andre jumped to his feet. Acting excited or surprised. Oh my god it's got a mind of it's own!
It beat my legendary 300 streak! I am beside myself!" He starred at the thing, with his hands on his cheeks, still feigning shock. "Get it? Cause you're like another me. Who I literally make you stand beside me?... Never mind." He waved his hand and the puppet dissipated without alarm. The young man sighed and walked over to the bed, letting himself fall into it. He wondered what was on the docket for the rest of the day. So far it had been really slow, not that he would ever complain.

Getting 50 less needled stuck in his ass was a fine way to spend a day, as far as Andre was concerned. It was curious though. Things were quiet. Toooooo quiet. He sat up, relishing in the use of the cliche. Looking at the door for a moment, then around the room, he saw nothing different. But then the hissing started. At first it honestly scared Andre, he picked is feet back up the floor and curled up on the bed. After some time it drew him closer, curious about the source. Even if this was another trap laid by those punks in lab-coats.

After long enough, he heard another noise. This one a tad more conspicuous. The sound of many footsteps, rushing towards a nearby area. The young man panicked, his senses coming into sharper focus. This was real wasn't it? If not, then a test. If it meant he could make their day even a bit harder, he would do his best to fucking crush it. With a slight pang of pressure in his head, he brought back into existence his shadow puppet. This time outside the cell. Something that usually didn't work. They were really going far with this one.

Working the lock from the opposite side, Andre hesitated for a half second, then pushed the door open.

The footsteps were getting closer, he didn't have time to enjoy the moment. He closes the door behind him and let his doppelganger disappear. Nowhere to hide or to run, except bellow. It was always sort of eerie to live with a glass floor and any measure of a drop under you at all times. He crawled under the railing, and dropped a level lower. It wasn't that long a fall actually, enough that he could land silently, and not get too hurt. It's not like he got any regular exercise, so his thighs burned a bit, but honestly? It was a pretty great feeling at this point. As the guards ran by overhead, he began to sweat. They were coming down the stairs weren't they? Fuck this everything.

He bolted, making it around the bend of the hall before anyone could see him. At least he assumed. They would probably have yelled or straight up shot him otherwise...Holy shit he might get shot. Hah! Radical.

Running towards nowhere in particular, he found himself heading to hallway G.

What a tremendous bore this was.

It wasn't the first time that Joshua had been left alone for extended periods of time. Usually there was an intensive schedule of testing, experimentation and the occasional rest break. They (the scientists who kept him here) were always putting him through tests to check the extent of his abilities, or performing some kind of surgery on him. But sometimes they'd just leave him here, in this tiny little cell of reinforced glass and porcelain. And in some ways, it was worse. Just sitting here with nothing to do, with nothing to distract him, he had no choice by to contemplate the future. Would he be stuck here forever? Would he die in this facility, trapped like an animal? If he impressed the scientists would they let him go? Turn him into some kind of weapon? Or was he just a guinea pig to test scientific ideas on, to be killed off when they perfected their techniques? How many other people were stuck in here with them? Was he even a person anymore? It was questions like these that haunted him during the long pauses.

It was impossible to tell how long he'd been stuck here, his rest breaks seemed to come with more regularity than would be expected from a normal day-night schedule and were much shorter. He wasn't sure if this was to purposefully disorient him or if it was for efficiency. In an underground facility, which he assumed this was, there wasn't much need to adhere to a light-based schedule. Joshua recalled several papers he'd read on the possibility of improving human efficiency by altering the sleep schedule. Psychology class seemed a lifetime away, even though it was probably less than a year.

Not for the first time, Joshua considered escape. The door looked sturdy, but he knew he could exert quite a lot of force when he wanted to. But it was a futile thought, he'd tried it all before. The floor was gridded with copper wires, and he'd be zapped half to death if he even looked like he was trying to escape. Not long after he first got here he'd tried that, and had ended up tazered into unconsciousness. It wasn't a pleasant experience, and despite considering it often, he'd never repeated the attempt. Now if he had some conductive materials, or something like rubber.....

This not uncommon train of thought was interrupted by an alarm going off. Jerking up, Joshua stared through the transparent walls of his cell. He had a clear view of the hallway, and the empty cell opposite him, but nothing seemed to be happening that warranted an alarm. In the distance he heard a crash and some people seemed to be shouting in what sounded like german. A guard armed with what looked like an assault rifle ran past, but didn't even glance into Joshua's cell. Oppressive silence had been replaced with flashing red lights and blaring alarms and Joshua just stared, darting his head around like a deer in the headlights. Clearly something big was happening, so was this an opportunity? But if he tried to escape he would just get zapped again, right?

Before poor Joshua could make sense of the situation, a loud beep sounded. It took him a moment to figure out where it came from. The keypad to his door! That wasn't the sound it made when someone opened the door, though, and a little red light was flashing. Now that he was looking more closely, the buttons seemed to be pressing themselves. Blinking, Joshua considered this, even as the beeping sound repeated itself and the little light once more flashed red. At this point Joshua could have sworn that he heard someone curse under their breath, shortly followed by hurried footsteps moving away from him.

..... What WAS that?

After taking a moment to consider that he may have just seen a frustrated ghost, Joshua decided that this might be his one and only chance to actually get out of here. If other people had been able to escape from their cells, then maybe so could he. Clearly something was wrong, and maybe whoever managed the electric grid was distracted. Bracing himself Joshua approached the cell. Tentatively he reached back, preparing to punch the door. His mind was helpfully providing him with a variety of images and sensations from the last time he tried this. Taking a deep breath he took a step forward and punched the door.

..... nothing happened. Holy shit, nothing had happened. He was free!

Grinning like a madman now he placed his open palm against the door. He still had a bunch of energy stored up from previous experiments, and he was able to charge up slowly on his own by absorbing things like gravitational pull and friction. He unleashed a couple of bursts of force against the door, increasing the intensity as cracks appeared in the material. With a loud crack the door itself shattered into pieces, and Joshua made his way out into the hallway. Feeling inordinately pleased with himself he marched out into the hallway, knowing that his superpowers would see him safely to the surface.

One of the facility's guard burst around the corner, firing his little handgun as soon as he saw Joshua. The needle hit him in the shoulder but stopped the moment the tip touched his skin. It dropped to the floor and Joshua smiled at the guard, balling a fist. In response the guard retrieved a large black bat from his belt. At a press of a button the top seemed to fizzle. Having been previously shown just what those things did, Joshua needed no further prompting to drop the act and run.

Dashing down the polished steel corridors Joshua remembered his physics lessons, as well as his training. When he got hit by something hard his absorption activated automatically. A reflex, like pulling your finger back from a flame. Now he had to flex that invisible muscle consciously, and he could feel his body begin to absorb the air friction. Smiling he pushed that energy back out behind him, launching himself forward as he went dashing down the hallway like a championship sprinter. He was beginning to get the hang of this.

That was when he tripped. Not used to running at these speeds he spun head over heals and landed face-first, shattering his glasses on the polished marble floor. Unwilling to stop he quickly began absorbing the friction from the ground and slid forward, as if it were ice and not marble. While not exactly comfortable this worked quite well and Joshua sped past the other cells, his vain attempts at getting up without slowing down succeeding only in spinning him in circles. Like a manic human spinning top he sped into the hallway occupied by the rest of the escapees and crashed with considerable force into wall.

Unharmed but dizzy, Joshua made a failed attempt to stand up which only got him further entangled with his own limbs. Looking up, he found himself staring at a group of other people. Looked like two girls, and one guy. No wait, that was another girl over there, standing over the unconscious body of a guard. Faced suddenly with the first real human contact he'd had in months (the clinical interviews didn't count) Joshua spent a solid four seconds just staring, before saying the first thing that made sense to him. "Uhh..... hi?" Realizing he was still on the floor, he quickly stood up, still breathing heavily from his daring escape.

"Good morning, Subject #217."

The man walked up to the glass box with a clipboard in hand, flanked by two security officers. He was fit and slightly past middle-aged. He had the whole silver fox thing going for him. Handsome old man. Parted, silver hair with a light sprinkling of silver stubble covering the lower part of his face. His voice was also nice. Friendly. Honestly, Dr. Wiltmann had been nothing but nice this whole time. He seemed to genuinely care. He respected boundaries, tried to get to know the subjects.

All the more reason why he could go fuck himself.

"Subject #217? Redmond--"

"Is it?"

On the other side of the glass, the younger, taller man finally spoke, voice scratchy from going unused. His stubble was unkempt, a deep red. His hair was the same color, and hung limply, just barely making it to his eyes, matted to his forehead with sweat. He had an athletic build, still in his physical prime at twenty three. Well, as much as one could tell in his gray jumpsuit. It wasn't exactly flattering. "Is what, 217?" Wiltmann looked curious. 217's, Redmond's, face slowly tilted upward, his golden brown eyes peering darkly into Wiltmann's silvery blue. He let the seconds stretch before speaking again. "Is it a good morning? Is it morning? I can't really tell. Y'know. Because of the cell." Wiltmann sighed. "Still feeling... standoffish, then? Red, you've really got to--" "My friends called me Red. My dad. My sister. Never my mom, though. She always hated that nickname. Hearing it out of your mouth, I can see why." Wiltmann shook his head and began writing in his clipboard. Red dropped his gaze to it. "Okay 217, it's time to..." Wiltmann looked up to see Red staring intently at the clipboard. "Oh, dammit--" before he could speak another word, it was in Red's hand on the other side of the glass.

"Let's see here..." Red began. "Uncooperative. Immature. Unmotivated. Jeez, doc, tell me how you really feel." The security guards raised their pistols at him. "I'm going to open the cell and retrieve my clipboard. If you move, they will open fire." Red lowered his face, covering his eyes again and smirking, before eventually turning around. "Sure thing. Go for it." He heard the glass door open. Red looked down at his hands. In one of them he held the pin to a flash grenade. He put his hands up and plugged his ears just before the loud ringing noise. When he turned around, the guards and scientist were on the ground, screaming and holding their eyes. He had to act fast. They had both dropped their guns when the flash went off. He grabbed it and brought the handle of the pistol down on their temples, one after another. They stopped moving. He'd never done this before. He hoped he hadn't accidentally killed them. Although, in the moment, he wasn't that bothered.

He rolled, pushed, and dragged them all into the cell and closed the door. He turned around in time to see a few more guards run into the room. Shit! He put his hands up as they all leveled assault rifles at him and began barking orders. He slowly got to his knees, never taking his eyes of the group. He dove behind a desk and clutched his head with one hand a headache springing up. His vision began to swim, but he was getting better. The practice paid off. The three flash grenade pins in his hand were proof of that. He pressed his hands to either ear and waited for a few moments, before rising. Another group of guards with the same trick as last time. They should be embarrassed. Didn't matter. He grabbed one of the rifles. He had no idea what the fuck it was, but he had played enough violent video games to know how to hold the damn thing. He took off into the hallway and just ran. It didn't matter where, or for how long. His legs just kept going, bare feet slapping on the cold floor as he went.

Something smelled off.

Alan raised his head, his mandibles scanning the air. He had learned that the receptors that gave him his enhanced sense of smell where placed near the back of his large insect jaws, and he had found the best way to detect the source was to move his head back and forth. Following his olfactory senses, his eyes came to rest on the security camera right above the locked entrance. He stood for a second in disbelief, watching the camera pathetically fighting against gravity as it spewed smoke and sparks. He suddenly recognized the scent as that of burning wires.

Was this really happening? Alan wondered if it was some sort of test for a few moments, but quickly let the idea go. Since his transfer, they had been careful with any test that could aggravate his psyche. They must have been worried he would go on a rampage or something if they made him too mad. Besides, if it was a test, than they probably wanted him to try and escape.

With that last thought, Alan sprang into action. Throwing off the shoes they required him to wear, Alan took a running leap onto the glass wall. Even with all of VTK Industries money, they hadn't been willing to cough up the dough to build a cell with glass smooth enough that Alan couldn't stick to it. Scurrying up the wall, Alan clung to the ceiling as he screamed out as loud as he could. After the fifth time he had woken up screaming from a nightmare, he had learned it was VTK protocol to check in on him if he made a loud sound of distress. The probably just wanted to make sure he didn't hurt himself; that would be damage to their property. Sure enough, the guard situated a little down the hallway came lumbering up, clearly not wanting to deal with the insect freak. Alan, meanwhile, had started to visibly shiver while clinging to the ceiling. He had had enough emotional breakdowns to figure out how to fake one.

"Get down, Subject #354. You're not scheduled for any testing today, so calm down and enjoy your time off. Besides, I want to get back to my lunch break" The guard droned on, treating Alan as he would a crying toddler. The post down here was mostly babysitting. VTK had found it easier to group the especially emotionally broken subjects together.

"No! I'm not coming down there! You can't make me!" Alan whined. He just needed the guard to come a little closer.

"Come on, Alan. I really don't want to deal with your bullsh-" the guard cut off as he saw the malfunctioning camera. He began reaching for his radio when Alan pounced on him.

"Aaah! Get off me, you little shit!" The guard yelled as the full exoskeleton weight of Alan slammed into him, knocking him down. That was the only thing he was able to say before Alan covered his mouth with one of his hands. Wrestling with the guard on the ground, Alan won out easily due to his advantage of two extra arms, using two of his hands to hold the guards arms and using the remaining arm to wrap around the guards neck. Alan began to squeeze the guards neck between his forearm and bicep. He had seen guards use a similar strangulation technique to knock out trouble causing subjects when sedative wasn't available back at the previous facility. He let go of the guard when he felt his body go limp. He wanted to avoid killing a guard, that would make them angry if he got caught. And he couldn't help but be sure he was gonna get caught.

Before he left out the open door, Alan thought better and went back to the guard, checking his whole body. He grabbed a key card and a radio, plus the last stick of gum in a pack. Walking out the large door, he held the key card up to a sensor, closing the door behind him. He was starting to run down the hallway when he heard alarms go off and the radio speak up.

"Security! Hallway G, floor 4! Escape attempt! Get down there!"

Floor 4? Hallway G? From what Alan had discerned from guards over his time here, he was on Floor 6, Hallway B. He guessed that meant the big brass hadn't realized he was trying to escape yet. He kept running down the hallway, with newly enhance vigor. If all the guards were busy dealing with other escapees, maybe he'd be able to get out without a hitch. Hopefully he wouldn't run into any significant action.

Alan also knew the truth was he would probably just die. He kept running anyway, ignoring the thought.

At some point, the value of human compassion was near-entirely lost on the individuals finding their unfortunate stay in this nightmare of a facility. But for Ada Harper it stung more deeply than just lies and cruel experiments. How could people from her own race possess this level of apathy and indifference? And how were they able to conduct so much pain on those they viewed merely as tools? It baffled Ada’s mind and severely made her heart hurt.

She didn’t know why or how she was brought here and if she did, she either forgot or was conditioned to. Something about promised scholarships by VTK Industries after graduation and the rest was blurry. Blurry enough for the horrors of this place to permanently bleed through. But why was she reminiscing now? Perhaps it was because they had given her a day off, so to speak. Though being wrapped up in chains and locked in her cell was hardly what she’d call a vacation.

“I hope mom and dad are ok,” she mumbled to herself, staring at the floor with nothing better to do. The food was horrible and her daily meal had been about as average as she knew it to be. The scientists all gave her the same look, regarding her as a piece of experimentation and further growth in their research. Honestly, she was starting to feel more than a little crestfallen at the sheer disdain they gave her, day in and day out-

“W-Whoah!” she cried out, the loud blare of the facility’s alarms rousing her from her thoughts. Eyes blinking away the exhaustion of being kept here, she tried to stand up and see what was going on. “Hey, wait a minute….there’s no power running in these,” she said, the chains failing to shock her even as she moved. Blinking, she slowly pried them off her body and walked to the steel door of her cell, the heavy clanking of the chains echoing behind her.

The alarms, the lack of power in her chains…either someone was making a breakout or this was some new kind of test to gauge her stamina. “Only one way to find out,” she said, taking a slow breath before slamming her fist into the door. “Right. Just one deadbolt,” she said as the remains of her prison hit the floor hard. She didn’t need to be told twice to make a mad dash for it.

Immediately, thoughts of the other “patients” flickered in her mind and her eyes scanned to and fro to locate those like her residing in their cells. If her door had only one deadlock, then surely the same could be said for the others, right? “Eeep!” said Ada, halting dead in her tracks as she turned around the next corner, only to see a scientist being strangled by…was that wire?

Her immediate instinct was to duck and cover right back where she had come from, but common sense reminded her that the scientists were the bad guys here. So she walked back out, still visibly shaken and noticed a blonde girl with a boy. Her name was Aimee Combs; she definitely looked like a patient. As for the boy, he hadn’t yet said his name. “E-Excuse me but, are you the ones who set off the alarm?” Ada asked, ready to put her fists up just in case these two were trouble.

After months and months being held against his will inside this wretched place, he was finally given a chance to break free. But now, it was slipping away from his hand the moment he did not expect it to be.

He was being aimed at, close ranged, and right at his blind spot. There was no time to react.

...

Thankfully, fate had decided to spare him.

The scientist that was trying to shoot him was immediately strangled by a young, about 140 centimeters high, with a...wire? Was it?

It did not take long for him to limp away from this world, as his frail body fell to the cold floor. The girl behind him soon stepped over the skeletal figure, kicking the gun away from him, dissipating the wire, and began to introduce herself. After her introduction as Aimee Combs, and the offer to skedaddle together, before Fuyuki could respond, a pink haired girl appeared from around a corner and asked him and Aimee questions. They both appeared to be prisoners here, it seemed.

"The alarm?" Fuyuki addressed the pink-haired girl first. "It appears so. We are breaking the rules here after all. I'm trying to escape this facility."

He the turned to address both of them at once.

"I think I should introduce myself. My name is Fuyuki Amari. I'm a tester, or prisoner, in Facility #41. Judging by your attires, I assume that you are like me. I think bonding would be a good option. I know very little about this facility's interior."

Jared followed the two girls with all the grace and expertise of a stalker - Hiding in small areas to breathe, staying in the camera's blind spots, and doing his best to keep up with the two running girls. Luckily, it seemed that the group was joined up by another escapee - A young man with black hair and red eyes, running silently down the hallway towards them. The girls seemed shocked that there was another prisoner, but Jared watched from a slight distance away, near a corner, and slowly made his way to the corner of the hallway, hoping to get a breath in while the rest of the group chatted it up and ran ahead. This slow movement almost immediately became a run, however, when one of the scientists came forwards, pistol brandished. Jared cut the scientist up with his eyes - He could go for the jaw, and if he hit fast enough and at the right angle, he could knock him out instantly... but that would be too difficult when he couldn't see his arm. Aiming for the temple would have the same effect, but also shared the same problems... In the end, Jared settled for a punch between the left and right clavicle, right below the Adam's apple. It would seriously injure the scientist, but he had no other choice at the moment, and this was the best method.

Mere feet away from the attacker, however, Jared saw a wire of pure light wrap itself around the neck of the scientist, and he slowly began to choke. Falling to the ground, it was revealed that this save was committed by a girl even shorter than Jared and the girl in glasses. She kicked the gun away from the scientist, and it skidded to a halt at Jared's feet.

"Haha! I'm not going to lie, buddy, I didn't think that would work! I've only ever seen it in games. My name is Aimee Combs, and I suggest that you and I should probably skedaddle. I don't suppose you have any idea of the structure of this place do you?"

Appearing around the corner, a pink-haired girl wearing a sailor uniform, appeared, and it seemed she was shocked from the sudden display of violence and skill from Ms.Combs...

“E-Excuse me but, are you the ones who set off the alarm?”

Stepping forwards and introducing himself, the Red eyed man addressed the group as a whole.

"I think I should introduce myself. My name is Fuyuki Amari. I'm a tester, or prisoner, in Facility #41. Judging by your attires, I assume that you are like me. I think bonding would be a good option. I know very little about this facility's interior."

While the introductions and the information was being spread, Jared began to investigate the pistol. He could almost hear his father whispering into his ears. Sig P320 Compact. Standard 9mm magazine, 15-21 rounds. Large enough to hold a decent amount of ammo, small enough to conceal. Bulky and heavy means concealment is difficult, however, and the grip is to big for small-handed users. Strong recoil, but can be disassembled easily enough that even a novice could figure it out. A solid pistol. Jared instinctively reached out for it and, upon picking it up, the gun disappeared. Swearing under his breath and praying the other's didn't see, Jared only just realized that he had been running out of breath. Sneaking around the corner, Jared took a breath while considering the implications of what Mr.Amari said. If this place was called "Facility #41", then that mean there had to be at least 40 other facilities, and if they were even half the size of this one... How the hell had no one found out yet? That superpowers exist. Had... Had no one escaped yet? Had the scientists, or whatever organization they were a part of, create these massive facilities... And no one has escaped in that long? What the hell? As Jared considered this, however, he heard a scream.

"Escapee over there! Quick, shoot him!"

Turning quickly, Jared saw that there were two scientists, each reaching for the pistols at their side. Jared easily rose the P320, Shooting the scientist to the right of him in the left leg, he immediately crumpled to the ground, and he appeared to be distracted from the shot enough to drop his gun. Quickly turning his gaze, Jared managed to shoot the other scientist in the side, causing him to drop his firearm and fall to the ground, just as a bullet from his pistol barely missed Jared's head. Jared was breathing heavily and fast, almost hyperventilating. He hadn't shot a person since the incident... But the thing that scared him was how little he seemed to care. These people were responsible for holding him captive for who knows how long, yet he knew they were still people. The part of his brain that was still aware of the danger he was in and not feeling shame over having just shot two people was telling him to go invisible before he was seen by the others. They had to have heard the shouting, and the gunshots were just as loud as you would expect them to be. Holding his breath, Jared looked down to see that he was still visible. Turning around revealed several members of the group were staring at the man in a prisoners jumpsuit and holding a pistol, having just shot two men.

"H-hey there... I'm a prisoner, like you guys... Y-you can call me Dr. Moore, Jared... Or even #1834, i-if you'd like, hehehe..."

Lightly touching the number stitched into his jumpsuit several times, Jared realized no one was laughing at his sad attempt at humor, turned on his heel, and made his way over to the two scientists. After a few seconds of searching, Jared was relieved to see that the men were just unconscious - considering the tech they had in this place, they would probably get medical treatment once they were found. Jared quickly picked up two more P320's and two radios, and slid the pistols and one of the radios to the group. Jared then stood up, and spent several seconds standing awkwardly, before addressing the group.

"O-oh, these guys are just unconscious, they'll be f-fine. We should hurry, b-before more of them come by..."

Waiting for the group to move, Jared began to trail behind and, as soon as he was out of sight, planned to become invisible once again. It was one of his only advantages he had to help the group escape, and he had already left behind a lot of people in those cells. Jared was going to at least get these guys out of here.

"Have you ever heard of the poem; 'rage against the dying of the light'?"

Aimee jumped out of her skin when she heard the colourful girl behind her,
“E-Excuse me but, are you the ones who set off the alarm?”

Aimee opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't exactly remember, it might've been her, but it was in the wrong location. By the time Aimee had contemplated if it was indeed her fault the alarm was blaring The boy beside her spoke up;

"I think I should introduce myself. My name is Fuyuki Amari. I'm a tester, or prisoner, in Facility #41. Judging by your attires, I assume that you are like me. I think bonding would be a good option. I know very little about this facility's interior."

Aimee went to speak; "Well it's a pleasure to meet you, Mr Amari, I so indeed believe that would be the best plan of action" At least that was what she was going to say. Unfortunately, she was interrupted by the shouts of a scientist quickly followed by the sounds of two loud gunshots. Aimee ducked immediately thinking they were coming her way, but looking around she saw the gun had disappeared from its original position and had appeared in the hands of a young boy who had mysteriously appeared. The first thought that came to Aimee's mind was; 'Oh my gosh he can teleport!' Quickly followed by 'Oh my God the teleporting guy just shot two people!' It took a few seconds for her brain to kick back into high gear. She closed her mouth which had most likely been gaping for most of the encounter.

Aimee waited for the Kid to stop speaking, hoping he would explain himself for shooting them, the fact that they were unconscious made no difference, it was likely they would bleed out if they didn't get help. Aimee sighed in a frustrated manner and turned to the kid "We are not like them, don't ever. Stoop to their level" She picked up the radio and ran over to the two shot scientists. "fuck me that's a lot of blood!" she exclaimed. Aimee ripped a length off the lab coat, frantically apologising to him. She hoped she had managed to wrap it tight enough around the wound.

Aimee paused and paced for a few strides thinking for what she could do, she stopped and glanced at the nametag of the scientist and promptly moved back to the guns on the floor and picked one up. She detested the thought of even holding one, but for her plan to work they needed a real scenario. Aimee activated a transmission on the radio;

"We need a medical team to hallway G, Leonard, was shot, the escapees are making their way to hallway T. I repeat hallway T."

Aimee fired the pistol into the air and cut the transmission. "that should keep them busy and keep him alive," she said gesturing to the crumpled scientists. "We need to go somewhere; I don't know quite know where, but it needs to be anywhere from here. From what I can tell we're currently on floor 3 so, Ideally, we need to move down. I assume that their intensity of the security will increase as you get closer to the exit." Aimee hoped it would be as simple as going from A to B, but of course, it was never that easy.

Information overload.

From the noise and sudden realization of escape to the girl shouting at her to come with her to the exasperated remarks of another person that Penelope Lauvergne didn’t recognize, there was a lot for the dark-haired sixteen year old to process. As Penelope took the girl’s hand without uttering much of a vocal response, in her mind she was trying to contemplate and analyze the situation at hand—but it was difficult when other people whom she presumed were other “patients” seemed to come out of the woodwork. As one of the other patients, a girl, shot a gun into the air and began speaking plans of escaping in the most simple and inane way Penelope had to prevent herself from condescending groaning out loud.

“None of you actually had a plan, did you?”

She pressed her glasses closer to her face as she began to note certain characteristics and appearances of the group. As she did so she remained quiet while she pondered over what the next suggestion for escape could have been. Perhaps something as obtuse as “if we try our best, we all can work together to get out of here”, even. If such a statement was uttered she wasn’t sure if she was going to laugh or cry first.

It appeared that Fuyuki wasn't the only one trying to find a way out of there. And the fact that the practicality of his skills in physics making him a main target for deep experimentation did not matter. Everybody here was equal

He watched in slight satisfaction as Aimee patched up the wounded scientist. It was true that these scientists were despicable and hateful but killing would be an unnecessary action. Fuyuki greatly despised these humanity-ignorant assholes, but to be honest he couldn't bring himself to shot him dead if he was that guy.

"that should keep them busy and keep him alive," She said "We need to go somewhere; I don't know quite know where, but it needs to be anywhere from here. From what I can tell we're currently on floor 3 so, Ideally, we need to move down. I assume that their intensity of the security will increase as you get closer to the exit."

True that, but it appeared that she also did not know about the facility's interior either. And yet the way she made the transmission was so nonchalant. How did she know hallway T exists, and where? If it existed then if we just ran off like a blind man, there was a chance that we will run into it. And that would be a definite recapture for these scientists.

“None of you actually had a plan, did you?”

Groaned one of the two girls, the petite one wearing glasses, in the hallway. And as a matter of fact, she was pretty much right. We were all, for some miraculous reasons, given a chance to escape, and we just took it without much consideration. It couldn't be helped as after all those treatments they would just want to break out the moment they were able to. Fuyuki was no different.

"We're practically blind by now. I think the best way to find a way out is just ask."

It sounded insane, but from his experience, Fuyuki knew that in this situation, things should be kept as simple as possible.

Just as he said that, some passers-by appeared around the corner. Specifically two guards, each with an MP5 SMG equipped.

"Hold still!" Fuyuki grabbed the shoulders of Aimee and the young pink-haired girl with his two hands tightly. That instant, a gravity well was created a few meters ahead of those guards, with a force of 4.7G. The sudden generation of such a powerful force caught the unfortunate guards completely by surprise, as they were sent tumbling to the floor, their weapons flew out of their hands.

A second later, he dissipated the well and approached them, his hands letting go of the girls' shoulders. The guards weren't knocked out cold yet, as they tried to reach out for the guns, but one of them was immediately given a ticket to unconsciousness, as Fuyuki slammed them onto the wall with horizontal gravity. The other was tough enough to stay conscious. But he was not as tough as he thought.

"We don't have much time so we would be honoured if you could just tell us where the exit is."

Fuyuki said as he looked down on the still-conscious guard. Despite being submissively neutralized, the guy still tried to resist.

"Why should I tell you?" He replied as he glared at the red-eyed man. In this position, Fuyuki knew there would be no way to talk it out with such a man peacefully. Well then...

That moment, the poor guard could no longer feel his nose, that it had stopped working overall. The air flow through his body was blocked like a balloon being tied up. The reason was simple: A small enough gravity well...generated on his neck. The force of the well crashed down onto his throat, prevented the air from getting to his lungs.

"D-Don't kill...me..."

The threatening glare of the guard soon disappeared, broken by the relentless gravity choke by Fuyuki. And so was his uncooperative behavior. Behind that tough exterior that he put up was a coward, a weak-willed man easily torn apart by pain.

Despite being a morally concerned person, Fuyuki did not relent when it came to this. They aren't innocent people. Totally not.

Giving him a chance to speak, Fuyuki released him. And he spilled out everything

"G-Go down..." He said while coughing. "Go down the hallway...and turn left. T-There will be a door, leading to the main hall. You will find an elevator down to the bottom floor..."
@Devol,@silentsniper211

Alina was pretty surprised; a lot of escapees had made it to the same place for one reason or another. She absorbed their names, noting them down. For the first time, the girl that Alina had busted out of her cell spoke: “None of you actually had a plan, did you?”

Alina shrugged. "Guilty as charged. When I saw the camera and relocker dead, I decided to take my chances. Guess everyone else did too." She grinned. "Good on all of you for taking the opportunity. Who knows when another one might have come around?" She lifted her hand in a halfhearted wave. "I'm Alina. Wish it were better circumstances, but hey, what're you going to do, right?

As she spoke, her mind raced. As calm as she was acting, the girl was right; they did need a plan. Something. Anything. They couldn't just stand here waiting. They had to act somehow, or else nothing would get done and everything would just get worse. But try as she may, she couldn't think of anything more concrete than "move down."

"The fact of the matter is, none of us really know this place, do we? The layout and stuff, I mean. We can make all the elaborate plans we want, but really, Aimee's right. All that we can do is move down and hope for the best."

As another camera suddenly came back to life to her right, she gritted her teeth and spat the last of the blood pooled in her mouth at it like a dart, puncturing the lens and rendering it useless. "Like I said. We've gotta move or we're so totally screwed that the word 'screwed' doesn't even describe it. Anything is better than waiting to get put back in the cells." With that said, she frisked one of the unconscious doctors, yanking a scalpel from a little wallet of medical tools. I really hope I don't have to use this, she sighed mentally. Then two guards burst around the corner. She swore mentally: Damnitall. I don't have any blood to work with but the stuff in the camera! Baring her teeth, she pressed the scalpel to her skin, preparing to cut.

Then the guards just...went. To one side. Then down. Hard. Whoever the kid was that was doing this, that was some kind of power. Alina just watched it roll by. He seemed to have it well under control. She grinned as the guard spoke. "Alright, sounds good!" she said, brushing her hands together before she set off at a run down the hallway, hoping to make it to the elevator before many more cameras came online.

"Come if you're coming! We don't have time to waste!"

Alex sighed and ran his fingers through his hair as the rest of the escapees talked about danger and escaping. They'd just ignored him. Oh well. He didn't quite make a very impressive entrance, after all, so it wasn't all too surprising that they'd ignore him. But, he told himself, that was because they hadn't seen his power yet! Surely if they saw how useful his newfound abilities were they'd notice him. And it was those abilities that would help them escape, of course. Now he just had to find a way to do those things - demonstrate his powers, and find a way out of the facility.

The other kids introduced themselves, and Alex tried to remember their names and faces. It was all moving a bit quickly for him, but he knew he'd have to keep up if he wanted to get out of here. They all had powers themselves as well. One of them could turn invisible, which was pretty cool. And another one formed some sort of light-lasso to strangle a guard. And then there was the asian kid, who appeared to be able to perform some sort of telekinesis. All of them were pretty cool powers, although Alex stoically remained convinced that his power was by far the coolest. All of them seemed competent, though, which made him feel better about this whole thing. I mean, obviously he could do this alone, but these guys seemed like they knew what they were doing, and they might need his help. So it only made sense if he stuck with them, at least for a while, and they escaped together.

That was when the telekinesis kid began interrogating the guard. The process made Alex wince... it reminded him too much of his childhood tormentors. For a moment he considered stepping in, stopping this. But for all his bravado, he still felt uneasy interrupting such a scary kid, especially while he was doing something so violent. But this was necessary... right? I mean, these were bad people, and they'd done some pretty nasty stuff to Alex. So maybe that made things like this a little bit okay. But no matter how he shook it, the entire incident left a bad taste in his mouth.

Shaking his head to clear out the thoughts, Alex moved off after the assertive girl, Alina. Regardless of what he thought, they had to get out of here now. Surely more guards were coming, and these would be better equipped, better prepared. And more of them, too. Heart pounding, Alex jogged after Alina.

Andre

Wasn't sure how long he had been jogging for. It couldn't have been that long honestly but he wasn't exactly in the best of shape. A plastic cube wasn't the most solid cardio setting. Still, he felt fantastic. Sweating, a bit short of breath, burning in his legs. He was moving! It might have been a bit stupid but he forgot how much space people used. Keeping his arms wide at times and feeling the air pass over him was a small treasure in and of itself.

He paused for a bit after taking another turn to lean against the wall and catch some breath, trying to laugh aloud as he did. He could still hear the stomping of some guards, and he wasn't sure if they were chasing him, or there were just a lot of them running about. He rubbed his eyes and cracked his neck, deciding not to wait long enough to ask.

Taking off again he took whatever turn he wanted, sometimes debating the decision and enjoying having options again, or just doing what his instincts told him, enjoying not having to think. As he neared a turn he realized he hadn't noticed the sound of nearing footsteps. Trying to stop all at once, panic rose from his soles to his crown. He slipped on his bare feet on the cold floor and tumbled down past the bend of the hallway. He scrambled in fear as he heard steps getting even closer. Sitting upright he brought his shadow out of mind-space and into the third dimension. It standing in a boxers stance before him. He noticed though that looking ahead, he didn't see rows of army boots. Leaning to the side hesitantly he saw a blessing. A group of strangers, all confused and scared. Looking just like he did.

For a moment the boy was confused. And when it clicked his face changed from aghast, to elated. A toothy grin spreading widely on his pale face. For the first time in a long time, he was speechless. He didn't even notice but a few tears had found there way rolling down his cheek. His shadowy puppet melted into a purple mist and left the image of just a laughing young man with a red cheek from hitting the floor at max speed.

What was at first tense apprehension soon turned into a sigh of relief. Sure, Aimee seemed a bit too violent for her tastes but aside from that, both her and Fuyuki looked like they meant no harm. Above all else, they were also prisoners in this place and Ada felt she could trust fellow victims over the so-called authority here. Best to stick with these two for now.

“My name’s Ada Harper. I’m a prisoner too. They were doing experiments on me about-eep!” Gunshots and yelling startled Ada out of her explanation and she bit her lip to hide the embarrassment of squealing like a pig twice in a row. But who could blame her? They were still under danger of being captured again and with another man having shot down two professors, Ada wanted nothing more than to just believe this was all a bad dream.

“Hi there Jared. We should-oh,” Ada said, seeing the older man rush up to the downed scientists before fading back to where he had come from. She was very much conflicted with all this; while the scientists were getting what they deserved and Jared had said they were only unconscious, that didn’t change the fact they had been shot. Thankfully, Aimee seemed to vocalize her concerns and she looked at the other girl’s actions with a new light.

“Thanks,” she said with hesitation as Aimee called up the scientists’ radio. “I know we’re not supposed to care about them and they did lock us up, but…well, I feel bad about hurting them…a-anyway, don’t mind me! We need to get out of here, like you said,” Ada finished, following both her and Fuyuki. Maybe she had misjudged the wire-using girl?

Not long after, they met up with another group of young people, all of them prisoners. She kept quiet since everyone else looked like they knew what they were doing but then Fuyuki grabbed hold of shoulders. She was about to ask why when the two guards she failed to notice coming towards them were incapacitated. She watched with widened eyes; seems everyone here had a power of sorts.

“Try not to be too hard on them,” she called out as Fuyuki began his interrogation. With that information confirmed and secured, one of the girls announced her departure and began to sprint down the hall towards freedom. Ada was about to follow suit before noticing a new member join their crowd. This one was a boy who seemed to have a puppet following him around, before breaking out in slow tears and falling to the ground. “Hey, are you alright!” she said, rushing to his side immediately.

Jared tensed up heavily as the short girl rushed up to him, glaring him in the eye as she picked up the radio.

"We are not like them, don't ever stoop to their level."

Jared was still and not listening to her by this point. He was used to people yelling at him, so he learned to tune them out and shut off his emotions awhile ago. He watched as Aimee picked up one of the pistols and radios, before saying something into it and firing the P320 off. A distraction was smart, but was the facility so big that it had a "Hallway T?" And would the scientists even be fooled by the girl's high-pitched voice? Jared, however, kept these concerns to himself. He could feel the rest of the group glaring daggers at him for firing at the scientists, and he wanted to be sure that he didn't make any more enemies. After all, he was going to be this groups guardian angel, right? He needed to make sure they got out safely, otherwise he would completely waste this power he had to go through so much torture to get.

Jared delegated to simply standing next to the wall while the group made a plan, not mentioning his growing anxiety as they wasted more and more time. The girl who spoke with an accent walked up and began to examine the now patched up scientist, taking a scalpel and some of the medical supplies that they carried on hand. Jared saw a look pass over her face (Anxiety? Fear?) but thanks to years of little social contact, couldn't really identify the emotions she was feeling. He made sure to look as small as he could, trying to draw as little attention to himself as possible. The decision making he had in the heat of the moment seemed to aggravate his companions, but he couldn't tell why. Had they not gone through torture at the hands of these people like he had? Jared always thought that people were vengeful, seeking to cause harm against those that harm them, or even random innocents. At least, that was what people did to him before he went to prison.

This line of thinking was quickly broken as two guards passed around the corner. Jared quickly raised up the pistol as he noticed they were carrying firearms, but he didn't have the time to identify what type they were before the two quickly dropped to the floor. The Asian boy, Fuyuki, began to approach them, before slamming the guards against the adjacent wall, immediately knocking one out. What followed was a rather brutal interrogation, which briefly illuminated Jared's face with anger. Fuyuki was one of the people that looked at him strangely when he shot the scientists, yet he had no problem chocking the scientist with the use of his power? Why was no one stopping or berating him like they had to Jared? Realization quickly dawned on him, however, and he calmed down immediately - this was for information. Jared was fine about the fact that they were injuring the staff here, they tortured him after all. Even if everyone else wasn't comfortable with it, it meant a way out, and Jared was perfectly okay with that. The quicker they had an escape route and started moving, the better.

After being choked for several seconds, the guard uttered out "Go down the hallway...and turn left. T-There will be a door, leading to the main hall. You will find an elevator down to the bottom floor..." After this information was given, Fuyuki seemed to release his control over him, and the guard began to gasp for air. With all eyes off him, Jared quickly went invisible, rushed up to the guard and knocked him out with a light kick to the head, aimed at the temple. To everyone else, he probably just appeared to faint from oxygen deprivation, and Jared quickly scooped up the sub-machine gun, examining it as he did so. Heckler and Koch MP5, the most popular and used SMG in the world. Little recoil, high reliability, and can shoot upwards of 800 rounds a minute. The guard only seemed to have 2 magazines on him, not including the one already in the firearm. Shooting this thing at somebody for even 5 seconds would be almost a surefire kill unless they had body armor, and even then the chance of survival was low. Jared vowed to only use this thing if they were surrounded, storing it and the magazines in one of the pockets of his prison uniform, before pulling out the P320.

Jared then rushed down the hall, making sure that the others followed behind, only stopping to catch his breath behind corners before reactivating his power. Their seemed to be a surprising lack of guards (Maybe Aimee's distraction worked better than thought?), and Jared made it to the elevator before the rest of the group. Even the main hall seemed to be barren... They probably evacuated the scientists. leaving the guards the only people left. Finding the elevator shaft, Jared quickly called the elevator, being sure to have it ready to head down as soon as the rest of the group caught up.

Alina booked it down the hallway as fast as she could possibly run, keeping her eye open for any cameras that decided to spontaneously reactivate and make her life more difficult. As she skidded around the corner, occasionally checking behind her to make sure there were still people there, she caught sight of the elevator button spontaneously pressing itself. Her brow furrowed for a moment, but she shrugged, discarding any suspicions she might have had as the elevator arrived. She rushed in as soon as she could, waiting a few minutes on pins and needles for people to follow her. She was itching to leave, and occasionally pressed the Open Doors button so the rest of the group would know which elevator to go into.

It wasn't until several people had joined her inside and she'd let the doors slide closed before she thought to look around. Her eyes went wide as, in the corner, she saw a small security camera. It wasn't the same kind that was in the hallways--no dart gun or tracking, not moving--but it could sure as hell see them. She immediately slammed on the Open Doors button again, but to no avail; the doors stayed shut. Hysteria began to edge its way into her voice. "Oh god I'm so stupid, of course they would have a way to stop the elevators. I should've looked for stairs!"

It only got worse from there.

There was a hissing sound and, from the vent on the elevator's ceiling, a barely noticeable haze began to creep. It collected at the top, slowly starting to work its way down as the elevator-turned-gas chamber began to fill more and more.

Shit.

She began fruitlessly banging on the door to the elevator, not even caring whether armed guards opened it. All that filled her mind was a primal fear of being trapped with no way out. She didn't know what the gas did. She didn't care to find out. All that mattered was escape. And after escape, forcefully inserting large, painful objects into the orifices of whatever goddamn psychopath trapped them in this hellish nightmare prison of an elevator.

As the gas crept further downwards, she took out the scalpel and slashed open her shoulder, gasping at the sudden pain. Blood poured out from the gash, and ignoring the pain, she moved the blood in between the elevator doors, shoving them desperately outward and trying to pry them apart. They stubbornly refused to budge. No matter how much blood she rammed into the doors, she couldn't overcome the power of the hidden hydraulics keeping them shut.

"Oh god oh god oh god," she panted in rage and pain, "please open, please open, please open..."

Again, nothing. Her eyes clenched shut in a combination of pain and hopelessness as she let the blood spill to the floor around her, clenching her hand over the still-bleeding wound. The tang of bloody iron in the air around her nearly drowned out the scent of the gas as it continued to descend.