Government Experiments.

Let the fun begin.

Hannah grumbled as she was shaken, her eyes shut tightly in the bright white light burning into her eyelids as she slept. Grumbling, she pushed her upper body up using her elbows. She blinked in the light before sucking in air in shock. She jumped up, her back pressing against the wall, her legs sliding on the smooth sheets of the bed she had been sleeping in. Her eyes stared up at the two security personnel that were staring down at her, the batons in their hands a clear threat. Hannah held her hands up, knowing there was no point in trying to fight.

Glancing around, she gathered her bearings, her mind still fuzzy from sleep. The sedatives they gave her every night to keep her abilities under control while she slept were quite hard to shake off once she actually woke up. Hannah kept her hands up as she slid forward, stumbling slightly as she got to her feet, keeping her head facing down slightly. She was well aware of the results of what happened if she didn’t just cooperate with them, the bruises were still dark on her skin as proof.

She stood, watching them carefully. One of the guards nodded towards the door, the baton prodding her slightly in the back. Turning her head, she shot him a glare, her eyes taking in the overly padded suits they usually wore when coming to her. Hannah suspected it was just a precaution they took because of the whole “might burn up at any minute” crap they had been talking about. She turned back, keeping her hands above her head as she walked towards the door, passing through it. Hannah kept her head low as they followed behind her, the loud footsteps of their boots echoing through the hallway.

She felt the baton prodding her in the back once more, indicating for her to turn. Hannah’s eyes took in the hallway they were walking down, the door in front of them. Since she had grown accustomed to her abilities and the results of said abilities, she hadn’t been let out of the room she was held in. Of course, before, she hadn’t gone a whole lot of places but it was even less now. Hannah jumped as the door opened in front of her, the doors sliding apart, revealing a large room, doors off to each side leading presumably to other rooms.

She walked into the room, turning to glance at the doors once more as they slid closed behind her, the guards remaining outside. Huffing slightly, she looked around the room, her eyes scanning the room. Hannah frowned, confused as she studied the furniture. It was a hell of a lot nicer than what she’d been used to in her own little room. Noticing one of the side doors sliding open, she made her way over to it. Peering inside, Hannah took in the clean bathroom, the towels and fresh clothes folded on a table next to a sink.

Hannah stepped back from the door, frowning in confusion at the room. “What the fuck is this?” she muttered to herself. Looking around in suspicion once more, she narrowed her eyes. Jumping once more as she heard footsteps from behind the door. Almost immediately she stepped into the bathroom, sliding just around the corner, small flames igniting around her hand as she heard the doors opening once more.

Hannah slowed her breathing down as she heard the voice ringing out through the large room she’d entered through. She assumed it was likely the same room they came through as well. Closing her eyes for a moment, she waited a moment, waiting for the right time. Attacking the first other human being she’d likely meet for a while probably wasn’t going to be all that of a smart idea, but it was the only one she had. Opening her eyes once more, she leaned the side of her forehead against the cool door, waiting.

Hannah thought back to her life before all this, before the dredged day where she’d been grabbed and thrown into a car, waking up in a medical lab, tubes and needles poking into her arms. Her entire body had felt like it was on fire. Like her atoms were on fire from within, burning her body up cell by cell. It was agony, drifting in and out of consciousness only to be met by that when she was awake. It hadn’t lasted as long as she thought it had, only a few hours at most, before eventually they had given her something to ease the pain.

Hannah pushed the memories to the back of her mind, her fingers clenching into a fist, her nails leaving crescent shaped indents into her palm. The flames manipulated around her hand, flickering and dancing over her skin. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she relaxed her hand once more, letting her fingers spread. Curling her hand, she felt the flames hardening to her touch, morphing into a slight blade shape, smaller than the length of her forearm. Ignoring the doubts popping up in her mind, she shifted her weight slightly, taking control of her breathing.

Stepping around the corner, she flicked her wrist, letting the blade flow out of her hand, giving the appearance that she’d thrown it, but just manipulating the individual flames to move towards the figure in the room. Letting the blade slide past him, stabbing into the wall behind him, inches from him, she watched the flames stay for a moment before fading away, embers drifting to the ground from where the blade had previously been. Hannah brought her eyes back to the man in the room, letting a similar blade form in her hand as the previous one had.

Hannah kept a neutral look on her face, but felt her eyes burning in a glare. “Who the fuck are you?” she snapped in a defensive tone, taking note of the collar around his neck, a similar one around her own. It was to neutralize her abilities, but as he’d already seen, there was only so much it could do. The flames that she could produce wouldn’t burn anyone and she could only produce small flames every couple of hours, but of course, he didn’t need to know that.

Dallas took a few paces forward into the larger room. Despite the upgrade in size, it was still far to bland for his liking. Just as with all rooms he had been in and out of in the facility, there were no windows. It had been so long since he had seen a glimpse of outside, probably not since the day he was basically kidnapped and brought here, he recalled. He did his best to relax his senses in the still aired room, knowing very well he would not be able to fully relax. When it came to his abilities, his relaxation came at a cost. As he became first acquainted with his newfound abilities, he learned that things such as sleep and even just sitting eased against one of his former rooms walls, became incredibly difficult. The illusions projected from his mind came to him in uncontrolled forms of his thoughts or memories he had, basically whatever he was thinking about at the time, displayed in full color and sound right in front of him. With time, and much patience, he was able to not only disallow such things to be projected, but also to manipulate them, most of the time.
-
Pulling him out of his thoughts was the overly snug feeling of the collar, constricting around his neck seemingly tighter and tighter. Despite the potential risk, he put his hands to his neck and began to scratch. He full hardheartedly believed that he would be instantly shocked, but nothing. He put his hands back down to his sides and let out a small breath of relief. He wasn't able to relish in the feeling for long before he noticed something bright flying past him. Immediately, he threw himself backwards onto the support of one elbow and knee, while he did his best to shield his body with his other limbs.
"What the hell!" He groaned both in slight pain and fear. He turned to look towards where the object that flew past him had landed, only to see a few small embers fall to the ground. His head then whipped towards the sound of a venom laced voice spitting, "Who the fuck are you?". He narrowed his eyes in confusion and anger, confused about what the hell had just happened, and angry that the girl in front of him basically attacked an unarmed man.
-
"Well clearly, I'm the person you just tried to kill." He shot back at her pushing himself up to a sitting position as he kept his eyes on the girl who he had just come to notice was also sporting the same clunky shock collar, and holding a flame flickering in her hand. He took a hard swallow, thinking this girl could and perhaps would, crisp his body to nothing more than a pile of charred flesh. He locked eyes with her, studying her hardened expression, before he so boldly spoke again to her.
"Who are you?" Dallas did his best to let let the shakiness in his voice over throw his bold and lowered tone. He only know realized that asking her the same question she had just asked him was sort of stupid, but what else could he say to a person that looked like she would kill him with little to none regret.

(Super short and gross, I apologise)

Hannah rolled her eyes as he threw her question back at her. She stared back at him with an almost-bored look. “Well, no shit, idiot” she snapped at him. Raising her hand, she watched him carefully, twirling the blade around her fingers as she kept her eyes on him. Hannah’s eyes drifted back to his shock collar, a slight frown on her face. It didn’t make sense for him to be here, but the fact that he was, and he was wearing the same collar was strange. The collar suppressed the abilities she’d been given, if he had one too, that would imply he had abilities as well.

Hannah hesitated for a moment. If she did kill him, she may lose her chance to find out, if her suspicions were true, if he really was like her. But if he was, did that mean there was more than the two of them? Was it only them? Why would they only give two people abilities? What were his abilities? A million questions ran through her mind, but none of them would ever be answered if she just up and killed him right here. It was pointless, even if she wanted to.

She quickly made her way over him, her fingers gripping the blade tightly. Holding the blade towards him, she let the flames extend into a longer blade, just in case he had the smart idea to try something. Hannah held the blade in front of her, letting the tip of it rest against his chest. It wasn’t enough to cut him, but the threat was clear. “Tell me what the fuck you’re doing here or I will kill you” she told him, pressing the blade down the smallest bit, just enough to draw a couple drops of blood.

The fact that she almost immediately snapped back at him didn't surprise him. He knew he asked a stupid question, but being the intellectual one wasn't quite what he was known for. He continued to watch her carefully, and though he did his best to harden his expression, Dallas was extremely intimidated by this girl. He half expected for her to be shocked by the collar for using her abilities like he typically would have been, but nothing. If she was allowed to use hers, maybe that meant he was allowed to use his own. He mentally weighed the risks and benefits of doing such a thing. On one hand, if he was able to use them, he could perhaps project something to frighten her, or make it seem like she was in a different place entirely and throw her off her game. But on the other hand, if he did but lost control of what he was projecting, well he didn't feel comfortable letting any of his thoughts or memories to be shared in front of her. As he kept his gaze on her, but was debating with himself mentally, she began to stalk towards him.

-

His first instinct would usually be to stand his ground, but the fact she was able to wield fire, made him think otherwise. He slowly raised his hands up to the side of his face. He figured it wouldn't stop her, but the closer she got without changing her hardened expression, it began to scare him just a little bit. Once she was standing over him, she rested the tip of the blade on his chest. It earned a quiet groan from him as he felt it pierce a bit of skin. He could feel his mind racing and new that wasn't great when it came to controlling his own abilities. While he tried to keep himself composed, she asked threateningly what he was doing here.

"I don't know, but believe me, if I had the choice I wouldn't be here with you of all people right now." He spoke with a controlled tone, eyes closed and his jaw clenched. He succeeded in suppressing his projections, at least for now, but he knew he wouldn't be able to control it forever before something slipped. Hesitantly, he opened his eyes, still not relaxing his stance, but locking eyes with her.

"All I know, or at least assume, is that we're both some weird ass government experiments with abilities."

He hoped that response would be enough for her to release the blade from his chest so he would be able to stand. He answered her question completely honestly, but if she didn't believe him, he didn't know of any other means to persuade her. He was just as confused as she was, clearly she fronted her confusion with violence, but they were in a similar place mentally.

Hannah watched him with a careful eye, not letting her eyes flick away once. She knew the hard way that if she didn’t keep in control of this situation, things would quickly turn in the opposite direction for her and that wasn’t going to be something she wanted to deal with right now. She had enough on her mind than having to deal with this guy getting on her nerves, her patience was severely running thin with this. Hannah needed to deal with this guy, and quickly. She was so not in the mood to be out making friends or whatever it was he was here for.

Hannah didn’t really have the best of role models growing up, her parental figures all being pieces of shit, no adult figures that would have a good influence on her were anywhere to be found. Nobody around her was all that surprised when she also turned out to be a piece of shit most of the time. It was how she was raised and in her beliefs, if something benefited her, who cares if somebody else was getting hurt because of it? That wasn’t her problem. So for whatever reason this random guy shows up in the same collar as her, he needed to leave.

But hearing his words made her freeze up, her eyes narrowing down at him as her muscles tensed. Hannah’s glare almost melted away, like a popsicle placed into a fire. Of course, she had her suspicions about him being like her, but outright confirming like that, that was something she had never expected. “What the fuck did you just say?” Hannah asked quietly, not even giving him time to answer her question before speaking once more. “Does that mean; you’re like me?” she asked him, gesturing with her eyes down to the blade.

Looking back at him, her eyes widened with shock. Cursing under her breath, she quickly let the sword fade into embers, stepping back from him. “My bad” Hannah told him, letting her eyes drift to the ground slightly. Obviously she didn’t feel great about threatening to kill him and cutting him when he’s likely been through the same hell she had, but the last thing she was about to do was actually sincerely apologise for it.

The intensity in her eyes lessened after he had finished speaking. He wasn't sure yet if that was a good thing yet, but he was hopeful. Once she whispered her first answer, he was prepared to answer, and then, she kept going. He watched her eyes signal to the blade she held against his chest as she asked if he was like her. 'You mean a psycopath like you?' he thought sarcastically to himself.

He decided to wait to answer as he saw her eyes fill with shock. He didn't expect to suprise her with his answer, which surprised him. He didn't really pay her much attention once the blade against him disappeared. He closed his eyes and breathed out a sigh of relief. Once he opened his eyes, he stood up to be able to hold his ground a little better.

-

He heard her mutter something as her gaze shifted to the ground. 'Huh, a remorseful psycho', he thought as he rubbed the sore spot on his chest.

"Now, when you mean 'like me'", he started looking to her, "I hope you don't think I can burn people to a crisp such as yourself." He paused to take a quick glance around the room, making sure nothing in his immediate surroundings had changed.

"I can, how do I describe it..." he trailed off trying to think of how to word it for it to make sense, "I can sort of project things, if you will. My thoughts, memories, places, and even people, all from my head. Not to mention, and I find this really weird, the creeps with lab coats would give me a set of coordinates, and I could project that location." He sort of trailed off at the thought of how actually cool his ability was. He had thought of them more as a curse than a blessing most of the time, but saying it out loud sort of made it sound cool, at least to him.

-

He decided he would demonstrate his ability, as she had so generously done for him. All he had to do was think and focus carefully on what he was to project.

"Let me show you, and please don't freak out and try to kill me." He asked pleadingly with a nervous smile as he closed his eyes. He thought about somewhere familiar and comfortable to him, the beach. He thought about how clear and serene the beach was especially at twilight. There were barely any people, the sun hung over the horizon casting a colorful reflection over the water, and the waves would gently lap at the shore.

When he opened his eyes, they were there. The once room they had both stood in was now the beach he vividly pictured in his head. He wasn't sure how the girl would react, so he braced himself for her to attack him by taking a few steps back. When he was actually projecting something was the only time he could actually relax. It was hard for him to explain, but relaxing into the projection made it more vivid, more real. He still had to be careful about not changing his current thoughts and mind set into something he didn't want shared, but he was currently comfortable and confident with his ability.