Cell Block Tango

Something was buzzing. Insistent, low, and just grating enough to rouse Levi from unconsciousness. His body was awake before his mind, the electric pulses in his nerves lightening fast as they traveled down his spine to his fingers and his feet, snapping at attention and into action. When his eyes opened, last to respond, he was already across the room from where he had lain, tensed and expectant.

He was alone in a small room, white walls and floor, the distinct smell of cleaning products and electricity in the air. Levi knew jail cells; sometimes he wasn't as careful as he should be. This one was different, though, somehow more sinister despite its pristine condition. Giving into the fact that he was in some type of holding cell, Levi turned his attention to himself, wondering what the odd aching sensation in his middle was about. He lifted up his shirt (white, clean: not his own) and spotted purple and yellow splotches bloomed across his chest and stomach, radiating out from a center point deeper in color. Levi tentatively pressed a finger to it and winced as a shot of pain followed. He must have been hit hard, maybe even shot, for a bruise like that to still be on his skin, for him to still be able to feel the pain. But why, this time? Letting his shirt fall back over him, Levi caught sight of a glint of light reflected from his arm. On his wrist was a little metal chain, bar-code and all. Though it looked inoffensive, he knew better and swore at his bad luck. He twirled his wrist around, knowing full well he would find no way to tear it off, but checking anyway just for something to do. After all the trouble he had gone through, all the years he had gotten away with using either forged or stolen bracelets, this was what he ended up with. A shiny new band, no doubt full of information about the real him and classifying him like some type of insect in a shadow box. How many times he had spoken out, tossed certain 'liberated' bands back at officers fast on his tail...all for nothing, now. At least until he blew this joint and dislocated his wrist enough to wriggle the little fucker off.

But how was it there, and how had it come to pass that he was here? Levi scrunched his eyes shut, trying to think back to the last thing be remembered:

It was dark; midnight? Sally was by his side, saying something...something about waiting, being careful. She would say that. Levi just shook his head and turned to her, giving a wide devilish grin in the process. They were behind some parked cars, hunched down and quiet, in a large parking lot. A building was close, lights dim and shadows still inside behind the glass doors. It all looked perfectly in place, even the air was blowing their way, urging Levi into motion.

There were guards, probably. There always were at places like this. Places where old, preserved works of art sat in storage, waiting patiently for the right buyer to appear. Highly trained guards who knew how to deal with a mutant like Levi, though? Unlikely. Sally was talking again, a buzz in his ears as instead of being a good boy and heeding his little sisters words Levi sprang to his feet and was running towards the small building. Things got fuzzy, then...fists impacting the guards, head hitting the pavement. A loud bang near his ear, his body still reacting and taking down the men in uniforms, many more of them than him. A sharp pain, the warm flood of blood, the sensation of being lifted by someone incredibly strong. Why wasn't he healing fast enough? Where had all the other men come from, these ones in suits, looking stern. Levi called out for Sally...

That meant Sally had been with him when he was taken out, that wherever he was now, she should be too. “Sal?” He called out, hesitant at first. Then, louder - “Sal, are you out there? SALLY!” He was yelling now, a crack in his voice as he called for his sister. Noticing the guards exiting at the far end of the corridor he pointed his remarks at them. “I swear if any if you laid a goddamn FINGER on her I will tear your fucking throats out with my bare hands!” For emphasis he slammed his fists into the wall, not even so much as cringing when purple bruises began to blossom and immediately disappear. “This is bullshit, you know that?” He called after them, not giving up even as they left his field of vision. “I am not an animal you can cage up whenever daddy goes away from the weekend and you don't give a shit enough to feed.”

Levi soon learned every inch of the polished floor in his cell as he paced its width, then its length, then repeated; over and over. He would sit for a moment, body pushing the worn mattress further and further down each time he flopped on, only to jump up again and resume his patrol. There was nothing to respond to in the stark light and empty cell, nothing to let him discharge his energy fully. More than once he stuck his hand or an aimed kick into the pulsing electric field that was his warden, only to suffer a shock that sent his body into a small spasm, slumping into unconsciousness momentarily before his healing factor kicked in to rewire his jolted system. While it was not a pleasant experience Levi repeated it until he was certain no amount of force or maneuvering would get him out.

Sleep was never a constant thing for Levi, and even in his cell, devoid of stimuli and distractions, he was continuously waking in the night, flinching at imagined images or pacing until his nerves settled again. When morning came, or what he took for morning in the windowless building, he had slept little and was more than ready to get answers from whoever was available. During the night he had watched the girl across the hallway from him, all pale and thin, and tried to make a connection as to why they would both be in the same place. Though he thought to wake her up and question her, he waited until she rose on her own before calling out to her cell. “Hey, you. What's the deal here, where are we? Are you one of us, or one of them?” He jerked his head towards whatever the corridor ended in, indicating the guards that sometimes walked in to make sure their charges were still behaving like good little cattle.

Being unconscious was no solace to Sally. She could not escape the torment of walking a mile in someone else's dreams. But this time, it was far worse. She did not just walk among one persons inner most thoughts and desires, but several. It was as if she could not keep the connection for longer than a few minutes before shattering the connection with them. It was as if her body was being transported, but to where?

It wasn't long afterwards, that she summoned her willpower to wake. Forcing herself, even under protest to open her eyes. She wished she hadn't. The light, the light overhead was so bright that she had to close her eyes. She tried to look away, to cover her eyes with her hands, but they were restrained. She was tied down on a hard slab of metal, cold to the touch. She pulled, yank, flared, but nothing she did helped her predicament.

"Settle Down," someone behind her said, mildly bored, as if he had seen hundreds of people restrained against there will. It wasn't until he, and two other figures approach, when she really started loosing it. If there was one thing she hated more than being tied down, was shadows. They were just out of eye sight, and with the high beams over head, all she saw were demon shadows. She yanked at her restraints as hard as she could. The restraints cut into her skin, but she did not care as he pulled harder and harder. Her heart rate was going a mile a minute, and it seemed impossible to get any air into her lungs. But she wouldn't stop fighting, even when the figments ordered her to stop. She wouldn't be taken back to the Astral Planes. She would rather die than go back.

It was only when one of the other shadows hit her hard across the face with his fist did she settle down. Her eyesight blurred, now once again in a daze. Every part of her body seem to be made of lead, and the lights over head did not want to stop moving. The only thing she recognized, that cut through the haze was the man's voice. "Now that we got that settle, we may begin. You show no signs of strength, speed, agility, high resilience to injury." As he spoke, he was taking notes. The only reason Sally knew that was she heard pencil scratches against a clipboard. "We know your a mutant, and that you have been in a coma for five years. We want to know what and why? Two simple questions, easy enough."

"I-am not a mutant," she mumbled still groggy from the blow to the head. All he said was "Please," with as much disdain as he could muster. "It is all in your genetics, we want to know what this x-gene of yours manifest. We can do this the hard way, or-"

"I don't have powers. I AM NOT A MUTANT." She pleaded with him, but it went on deaf ears. In response, he responded to the other shadow lurking outside Sally's field of view and said, "Patient 326 is not cooperating..." He did not have to finish his sentence, as the shadow demon's hands typed away furiously on the keyboard. And with on last stroke of the key, Sally was introduce with unimaginable pain possible. All she did was scream.

“Mutant holding facility? Well shit.” Of course Levi had heard of these places before; who hadn't? He had been careful though, even when he ended up in jail, to avoid the wrath of Mutant Control. He knew what it meant if they caught him and was in no rush to be poked and prodded, then presumably left to die. In the circles Levi often frequented, the mutant activists and underground solaces, he had heard of very few who had returned from such a capture. What went on within these prime white walls and tightly secured doors was better left to the imagination, for the stories he had heard were worse than anything he could think of himself. Escaping from a regular government facility was easy, something Levi had done many times, but this was different. Regular jails did not have highly trained guards or serums and weapons that were targeted to attack a mutants power. It seemed this time that he had slipped up big, fell into the wrong hands in a bad way. Levi supposed it was bound to happen at some point. Nine years of running and deceiving was no small feat, but still he felt rage inside him grow, at his own carelessness as much as for the unequal treatment that brought about this facility in the first place.

That did explain why the girl here did not match the usual type; she probably wasn't a criminal but just another unlucky deer to be hunted by the hounds that had become the ruling government. Anyone could be here, anyone with that little extra gene that was a gift, really, but was treated as a disease. Sure, Levi probably belonged in a cell for some of the things he had done, but he was a victim of the system, he did what he had to to survive the real problems of this world. These other people locked up in the building, for there was no doubt there were other corridors just like this one, might have never done a single indecent act in their life, yet here they were waiting like cattle for the slaughter. It made Levi angry enough to turn and pace his cell again, unable to keep himself still.

When the pale girl in the other cell spoke again Levi knew at once who she was talking about. In a flash he jerked around and kicked the damp mattress, his foot sinking into its sagging cushion with a muffled thud. He had lost Sally before, believed her as good as dead, but this time was different. He had just gotten her back and he was not about to sit around while she was being tortured or who knew what.

“You spineless pigs! Get in here and face me before I break your cell into rumble!”  Levi yelled off into the corridor, pounding his fist into the wall to demonstrate his threat. They started to bleed, the blood dripping onto the polished floor and forming a splatter pattern that smudged and stained as he walked through it. Though Levi was strong, it was nothing superhuman. His reflexes were what made him the weapon he was, but there was nothing to respond to here, only walls to hit: walls that did nothing but remain solidly in one piece. “Leave my sister alone you bastards! You can stuff me full of your poison and stab me to death with fucking needles if that's what you want, just bring her back here and take me to your hell pit instead!”

Someone had heard and was walking down the hallway, feet silent in clean white shoes. Levi got as close to the barrier as he dared, staring straight at the new comers, fingers twitching behind his back. A man in a lab coat looking overly smug was flanked by two muscles, both sporting eye gear and black and blue uniforms.

“Hm, an interesting offer, to be sure...but one we cannot accept. We will get to you in time, though, don't you worry. For now, though, I am afraid you are being rather misbehaved and we just can't have that.” The man in the lab coat turned and began walking back the way he had came, indicating to Levi as he passed by the two guards. One of them approached the electric field and fiddled with the panel beside it and a space in the wall near Levi opened, the same on that had opened occasionally for water, and a small robotic arm emerged, syringe in hand. Levi reacted immediately, his hand closing around it, but without having looked before he acted the sharp needle slid easily into his palm and whatever amber colored liquid was inside acted fast, dropping him to the floor in unconsciousness.

Levi was still deep in forced sleep when the new girl was walked calmly into the cell block, which was good for his health; another encounter with the guards may not have ended well. He didn't hear her quiet pleas or denials, but awoke some time before her trembling voice called out again. The simple hello seemed lost in the silence of the hall. Levi looked over to the girl in the opposite cell, raising his eyebrow in question. Could she see the new comer? “Welcome to the party,” he called from his position on the floor.

The constant thrum of Levi's fingers hitting the floor in unison was background to his senses as the girl across from him spoke. He nearly laughed when he heard the younger say she was fine; she was far from fine and she knew it. Still, the small bit of courage he heard in her voice was enough for him to start thinking of her as a possible ally. He couldn't keep back his retort, though, when her naivete showed. “Never been in a cell before? No, you don't get a break to powder your nose, princess.”  

She did, however, raise a good question: where exactly were they? Levi could have been drugged and unconscious for hours, days even. Mutant Control could have moved him and Sally anywhere in that time and they would have had no way of knowing. The last he remembered was being in New York, but he had the feeling he was far from there. Levi thought for a moment about all the possible locations this building could be, all the holding facilities he knew existed. Each densely populated area had their own site to toss their newly discovered or newly captured mutants, those ones who for one reason or another were found guilty of something, whether it be imagined or real. New York, Chicago, Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles...somewhere near by but out of sight, hidden and protected, were buildings surrounded by electric fences, barbed wires, automated security measures, and officers ready and willing to fire their weapons. Of course these were the big ones, the ones that only the most interesting mutants were hauled off to. They had specialists there, scientists who wore white coats and dead eyes, equipped with scalpels and nerve gas to subdue and explore. Levi had no doubt he was in one of the Big Five (a popular name among the mutant population) now; the smaller facilities, often one in each state, would not be as well kept as this one. No, they would be full of dripping ceilings, poorly ventilated cells rife with mold, and guards even more brutal then these.

The question was, which one were they at now? New York would be his first guess, since that was where he and Sally were to begin with, but something seemed wrong about that. Like most of his suspicions he could not say why, but felt it was true nonetheless. “We could be a few places. We're at one of the main torture pits, so New York maybe...though more likely California or Georgia. It'll be easiest to get lost again once we  break out if its California so let's hope for that. Georgia’s a bitch for running from the feds, but I know a guy there...” Levi let his sentence fade out as he thought about his comrades who were still free. If only he had been caught with those guys, well, he wouldn't still be rotting away in this cell, that's for sure. In big cities there was bound to be a resistance force hidden away in the slums or abandoned factories, even refurnished sewers in some cases. Anywhere a rat could hide there were men and woman who believed in justice and equal rights for everyone, regular people and mutants alike. It was in these places that Levi had met some of the smartest and toughest people he knew. They fought back in any way they could, with claws and fire, wits and logic. A smile played on his lips just thinking back to the times he spent with them, a new city every few months, a new mission to help with. It may not have seemed like their actions were changing anything, but revolution takes time, and it needs the help of many. If Levi was ever going to get back to their aide he had to get out of this bullpen first.

Unable to sit anymore, Levi jumped up to his feet and began pacing again, mind racing. There were three of them in here now; each of which had some sort of power, or else they wouldn't be caged up. He knew his healing factor would come in handy for an escape, it always did, but it couldn't be utilized until there wasn't a buzzing electric field between him and the guards. The girls, then. They had to be able to be of some use. At least until he found Sally and unhooked her from whatever I.V's or chains they had her tethered to. After that he was certain an escape would be easy, but first things first, unfortunately.

“Hey,” Levi whispered moments later, just loud enough for his voice to reach the pale girl and the new comer. He had moved up to the barrier now, foot tapping impatiently on the floor, still covered in dried blood. “I've gotten out of tighter spots than this before,” he lied, “and I need to find my sister. So let's stop with the waiting around like fucking sheep and figure out how to get out of this goddamned cesspool.”

Sally was drowning in her screams, but her flesh was on fire. Nothing she did helped her cause from escaping this torment, this hell. The only thing that happen when she resisted, the intensity increased. Her mind was only on the pain. It encompassed all. She wanted it to stop. It needed to end one way or another. She pleaded and pleaded. She begged them to stop over and over again, but it didn't stop. The madness continued. Her madness never seemed to end. Even when she thought she risen out of the dark depths of the abyss, the darkness, the shadows always dragged her back down further than before. The only way out of this nightmare was to give them what they want, to let them squeeze the life force out of her.

She relinquished everything to them: her heart, her soul, her mind. Everything of value was theirs, she just wanted peace. As she floated in the midst of the void, blacker than black claws curled around her body, squeezing and squeezing. It hurt so much. It made it hard to breath. Even though she wanted to, she could not scream. There was no air to breath. No way for her lungs to expand under all that pressure. But soon her madness would end, her nightmare would be over.

"Stop-" The voice of a distant echo, cutting through the void of nothingness. "The meter is over nine thousand! Anymore will kill her." The voice became louder, more clearer than before. The claws around her body stopped squeezing as if he too was interested in what the voices had to say. Another man, the lead scientist, spoke up. "Your point is?" he asked in a casual manner.

"The agency warn us if we killed one more mutant without obtaining their power and power level that they would have us all executed." As he spoke, the shadows around her waist lessen. The electricity coursing through her veins dimmed. "They want them alive, the useful ones, anyways. She maybe useful to the organization. We have to find out what her abilities are, before proceeding." And with that the machine turn off entirely. Sally did not really know if the machine was off, just that the claws around her waist was no more, dissolved into the nothingness.

Her madness had ended. Before she succumbed to unconsciousness though, the most terrible noise Sally ever heard radiated pure terror in her mind. A demonic crackle tore through the void, out of the nether region. It was unholy, inhuman. Maybe her madness was just beginning.

_____

When Sally awoke once more she was looking up at a white ceiling. At first she thought it was Heaven with the Pearly gates and the whimsical stories of unicorns that she never believed existed.  She was right of course. There was no such thing as Heaven. No place where her soul could rest for all eternity. She was inside a holding cell. The only homely comfort was this stained ridden bed. But anything in the world would feel better than being tied down on a lab table.

Even though her body protested, Sally moved her limbs. Slowly at first, but once they started releasing the built up tension and she smoothed out the kinks, her body welcome the much needed movement. It was only after she sat up did she notice something was wrong. As she pulled her hair back from her face, her hand grazed what felt like metal over her temple. She touched it again feeling it smooth edges, cool to the touch, even though it was hot and stuffy in the room. Her other hand went to the left side of the face and the same piece of metal was over her left temple as well. She pulled at it and pulled at it, but it did not seem  to want to come off. Instead of working on both, she frantically clawed at one of them with both hands and tried to force it off.

Only than did the door slide open. A man with a lab coat with a smug smile plaster on his face came in. It made Sally want to knock a few of those pearly whites out of his mouth, but she stayed put, watching him as he came into the cell alone. The door was left wide open. Her thoughts quickly turn to escape, but doubt and distrust set in. The man might be arrogant enough to think he could handle one simple girl by himself, but not so bullheaded to leave the prison cell wide open.

"I would stop that if I were you," he said casual, almost friendly. "Taking it off without turning it off will kill you in an instant." His smile reminded her of those cocky son of a bitches who went out of their way during school to torment Levi and Sally. Those students who got away with anything, and did do pretty much everything right in front of the teachers so Levi and Sally couldn't retaliate. She would be more than happy to rip those lips off and beat him with it. All she did was glare up at him, as he continue to pester her. "Those headsets, are psycho-inhibitors preventing you from using any psychokinetics."

"I-" The lead scientist cut Sally off before she could even start. "The only specimens who could withstand over nine thousand charge from the machine I created myself is if they were strong in the ways of psychokinesis."

"Now," he said leaning over one knee to get face to face with Sally. Even being so close to the scientist know, she could not see the pits in his eyes. The white room reflected light so well, giving a white sheen around his lens. "I will asked you again, what is your mutant power?"

"This-" she said, her fist making contact with the man's family jewels. He collapse on the floor, groaning and moaning. But before Sally made it to the open door, she dropped to the floor in pain.

In preparation of whatever plan they managed to come up with, Levi began to stretch out his muscles, which had been barely used the last few days. He lifted his arms over his head, tattoos showing clearly in the bright light, then bent forward, palms pressing firmly to the ground. He took a few practice hits at the wall, stopping just short of making contact, his moves agile and brisk. If he was going to fight his way through this place he needed a warm up, something to loosen the tightness in his body that had settled in from disuse. When he wasn't being jailed, Levi spent a couple hours each day at practice, honing his skills so when he had a job to do, or mutant control to run from, he could easily leap from one building to the next, or break the bones of a pursuer who got too close. It kept his mind focused, too. Often his brain seemed to dash from one thing to the next, taking him along for the ride, but when he was in the middle of a fight or a stunt that he needed balance and perfection for, his mind was set on only that task. Now, though, he kept one ear on the conversation between the girls, something about a key card. He knew that the cameras, where ever they were, would be watching them. His stepping away from the barrier and not focusing on the girls would be seen as normal, whereas if he spent the whole time talking with them, well, it might raise some unneeded suspicion.

This time when the small voice from the unseen cell spoke Levi couldn't stop the laugh from escaping his lips. It was more of a grim chuckle than anything resembling humor and he flopped backwards onto the stained mattress before speaking. “This is the only option, princess. You can take it or leave it, but these guys don't make mistakes. If you're in that cell, you're a mutant. If you come with us maybe you'll even live long enough to get used to it.” She had better get used to it, and fast, was what Levi really thought. The plea in her voice when she said the word mutant, like she would give anything for it not to be true, made him want to be sick. It was bad enough for the regulars to hate mutants, but for a mutant herself to have those type of thoughts was enough to curdle Levi's stomach. How she had gone this far in life (how old was she anyway?) without realizing it was a mystery to him; once he started being able to take the beating of a lifetime and get up and walk away like nothing happened there was no doubt in his mind what he was. This girl then must be either incredibly dense or have a power that was basically useless. Either way, she was what she was, and if she was here, within Levi's powers to help escape, he would make damned sure she was one less mutant the government had control of.

Almost as an afterthought the girl also mentioned she knew the way out of the building. It solidified the idea in Levi's mind that she was completely oblivious to the ways of prison break outs, and that she had much to learn about what was important to say and what was not. It was just his luck to get stuck with a girl like her in such a dangerous place. Levi sighed as he moved towards the bars again, this time paying close attention to the way they flickered and buzzed. “Yeah? Good. That'll make this a lot easier once we get past these fucking barriers.” That was the problem, wasn't it? He could take whatever the guards threw at him and then some, but these fields were as good as a locked coffin to him. They needed some way to disarm them, or whatever it was called when they shut off. He already knew from painful experience that physical harm was not going to do, but that left him at a loss. Levi turned his eyes onto the girl across the hallway, taking in her frail frame and judging that she would not be useful with fighting the guards, but maybe she could do something to help them out of the cells. “So Princess over there is useful, what have you got? Can you get us out of these?”

After the episode, she found herself crumpled to the floor, just mire feets away to the door. Her hands still pressed against her temples to prevent her head from exploding from the sheer amount of pain the lead scientist caused. Speaking of the scientist, he was composed as usual. The love tap to his nuts seemed to not faze him at all in the long run, as he stood in the corner watching what had transpired, probably even taking notes. Sally should have hit him harder. “You can put your hands down now. You look like an imbecile keeping them up like that.”

Even though she did not like to take order especially to her captors, she begrudgingly obliged. She did not speak, she did not get up from the floor, and she just glared up at the smug man, who seemed to know he had all the power here. She would not give him the satisfaction of her yielding in any way, shape or form. “Did you like that?” he asked. His lips curling up just at the corners of his mouth. “It is another added application to the psycho-inhibitors, which uses your own psychic energy against you.” He had said what her mind was already formulating. “Your powers have even turn against you. There is no escaping. You can either corporate and live another day, or die by any number of ways. It’s your choice.”

Sally’s cold, sarcastic nature reared its ugly head, as she responded, “I was dead once. Kind of missed it. Kind of enjoyed it. Maybe I see you there.” She did the next unthinkable thing possible. She hocked a loogie, showing him in green, slimy spit. If he wasn’t pissed off already, he was now. Not wanting to let all the electronics do his dirty work, back of his hand made contact with her face, sending her sprawled out on the cold paneling once again.

A greater spark of hope ignited in Levi while he listened to his prison mate speak in hushed tones of her ability to unlock the cell doors and give them the chance to escape. He counted himself as lucky to have this girl here with them, for her gift was one he had never heard of before and was perfect for their situation. Levi of course understood little of what she said, but that did not matter. What mattered was that she could do it, and that gave him the opportunity to do the rest. “Nice little talent you got there,” he said and smiled wide at the prospect of her disabling the barriers.

The small voice from down the hall called out then, introducing herself. Levi wondered if Ember was the girl's real name or one she had given herself. She could have some type of powers that had to do with fire, thus the name, or her parents could have been hippies. It took him a moment to remember that she claimed to know nothing of her mutant heritage, negating the idea that she had a code name already. Most of the mutants Levi knew he knew only by their code names; names that they had conceived to use as a disguise, something to conceal their real identity from the world. Rush, Red Raven, Live Wire, Granite...these were people he considered allies, friends. Yet he had no inkling of what their real names were, and truthfully, it wasn't important. Their code names told him what he needed to know right away and working with them told him the rest. It was also better this way, to remain somewhat anonymous, even in the underground circles he frequented. Never was it possible to be too careful, for who knew where the government or other enemies had eyes and ears, and in a world where a simple slip of a name could be the cause of your imprisonment or death, well, it was better to keep your identity to yourself.

In this situation Levi would not give him real name; he did not know these girls nor if he could trust them. He would have to, at least for a time, while they escaped. After that he could contemplate how they had acted and if they had proved themselves to be potential allies. For now though, and for the foreseeable future, he could remain his code name, his real self tucked away until the danger and uncertainty had passed. “Impluse,” he called out of his cell to answer Embers unspoken wish for their names. It felt right on his tongue, the way it rolled off and out of his mouth; a second part of himself that was more true than anything else. It had been the name he had lived under for years, reacted to and heard on the lips of lovers and enemies alike. When he had left his parents house and taken to the streets and the dark paths of cities and slums he had quickly learned that he needed to be someone other than Levi Jones. Levi Jones would not be able to live day to day, to fight others for money and food; he needed to be someone harder, someone quicker. So the instinctive way he accomplished his goals, the way his body moved faster than his mind and even the way he jumped from one thought to the next all became his shield and his comfort. He became Impulse, the man whose actions could rarely be predicted and Levi, the man beneath all of that, waited quietly for those few people he could share himself with.

After a moment he heard the other girl's voice again, this time hesitant, like she didn't want to speak. She brought up Sally in a way Levi didn't like, making him realize what she said was the truth. Finding his sister was going to make escaping that much harder.
“I don't know,” he said, resuming his agitated pacing. “If she could contact me she would have already.” Levi knew if Sally could have reached him she would have done it by now. It had been, what, two or three days since they had been caught? Although they had only recently been reunited they had not been out of each others sight for longer than a few hours since then, and he knew, especially in a situation like this, if there was a way to get in touch they would take it the first chance that they got. The silence from her this whole time boded ominous but there was little he could do about it. The only way he knew to contact her was by sprinting his way through the corridors and cells until he found her. “Let me get my hands one of those lab rats or guards. If they know where she is they'll tell me...unless they don't value unbroken bones.” Levi growled, his anger growing. Somewhere in his mind he knew it wasn't the best solution, or the most practical, but it was the fastest and the one he felt most inclined to go through with.

Levi stopped his aimless movements and stood as still as he could by the barrier, a serious yet devious look washing over his face. Their plans for escape were starting to come together and activity always made him excited, the rush of adrenaline coursing through his bloodstream making him eager. He looked at the girl across the way and what he imaged Ember looked like and realized he would be the one protecting them in their flight. “Hey, girls, a word of advice before we get down to business. Stay behind me out there, alright? No need for anyone else to get hurt on our way out other than me.”

The world would not stop spinning as she laid sprawled out on the cold steel floor. Blood flowed freely from her split lip, down her chin, dripping in small puddles on the white wash floor. She did nothing to clean off the blood from her face as she perched herself up with arms, holding her self steady for fear of falling away from the earth.

When finally the world had stop spinning out of control, and she blinked away at least some of the floating colors from her eyes, she turn to her captor. If a stare could kill, that would be the look Sally was giving. She wanted nothing more than to see the man's flesh piece by piece be torn from his body while he begged for his God to save him. But no God would come, because there are no such things as Gods, just daemons and her own form of monsters. "A rabid dog bares its fangs as it has no hope of escaping its fate." The scientist was bemused with Sally's look of disdain. "Maybe I should put you down like the filth you are."

Sally did not realize what happen until after the fact. She found herself on the floor clutching her head. She was curled up in a ball, trying to hold back the throbbing pain in her head. She was afraid to move, even to open up her eyes for fear that another unprovoked attack was on its way. But as her horse breath became more even, and the pain became more infrequent, she dared open her eyes to find herself alone in her cell. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief, but it was to much at once. The weight of everything that happen not only the last couple days but the last few weeks came flooding out. She could not bare it anymore. Tears clung at her eyes, streaming down her checks.

Even her cold hearted, detached nature could not bare under the scrutiny of all this. All she wanted was to be normal, was that to much to asked for? She did not want to be hunted, treated something less than human, afraid of the shadows that haunt her dreams. Instead of taking all this pent up emotion and putting it to good use, she crawled to the filthy mattress and buried her face into it, continuing to cry.

Ember had grown quiet as she listened to the others speak and introduce themselves with these strange aliases that she didn't understand. Had she realized they were going to give false names Ember may not have given her own name, and now that it was out there she felt somewhat vulnerable. And she would be lying if she said the violent way Impulse spoke about interrogating a man didn't frighten her. Ember just had a fleeting hope that no one would get hurt during their escape, that the scary man down the hall wouldn't have to fight anyone.

Ember was quick to answer and make herself useful to the woman named Glitch, so neither of these mutants would have a reason to leave her here, "There's one outside the cell block, down the corridor." Though there had been two guards waiting there, eyes glued to the security camera monitors. She wasn't sure about Glitch, but Ember certainly couldn't fight, and if Impulse was the only one who could defend himself, then the odds were gonna be completely against them. The fact that the amount of guards she noticed on the way in surpasses the amount of fingers on both her hands was of no comfort to her. Her fear wouldn't even have time to settle in her mind, as Glitch advised the both of them to move to the back of their cells.

She tried to remain calm as she stepped away from the golden beam though she was getting pretty close to hyperventilating now that everything was about to be set in motion. Ember didn't really believe they could escape; they were more likely to get shot, or worse. And even if they did escape, what then? She would be a wanted mutant. Would her parent want her to take this course? Then again, if they knew what had happened, they would be here, trying to sort it out- their daughter couldn't be a mutant!

She tried to imagine what her fellow escapees looked like again, but only seemed to imagine scary brutes she wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley back home, which weren't the sort of people she wanted to piss off here. Ember gulped, "I'll try not to get in the way."

Levi was quick to do as he was told and stepped as far back into the cell as space allowed. His back was up against the wall as his muscles tensed, readying himself for the flight ahead. His mind was working a mile a minute trying to recall the look of the guards, trying to remember if they were armed in any specific ways. He couldn't know for certain, and when Ember mentioned a guardroom nearby he weighed the pros and cons of avoiding it rather than facing them head on. He needed to find Sally, though, and the quickest way, despite what Glitch said, was through the use of the guards or the cameras they watched.

His eyes were glued on the shimmering barrier at the opposite side of his cell, waiting for whatever was about to happen to it. Glitch had not explained how she was going to get rid of them, and honestly Levi didn't care to know. The important part was that she could do it, and the moment she did he would be ready. It did not take long, and Levi noticed nothing special happen outside of the barrier suddenly giving one last flicker and disappearing. In a fraction of a second he was already out of the cell, not taking the time to wonder if it was truly gone or to test out if it could still hurt him.

He reached the cell block door in no time at all, letting his body lead him and his mind take a back seat. Levi's instincts were his primary reliance and in a situation as dangerous as this he put all of his trust into them, knowing from so many years of use that they would take care of him. It was not just him this time, though, and as an after thought he looked behind him to where he was certain the girls were still making their way. He noticed Ember first, as her cell was closer to the door and she was just exiting it. His eyes widened briefly in surprise as he took in how she looked. She was so young. Just a girl, probably not even out of high school yet, and scared. He remembered when Sally would look at him the same way this girl was - worried and hesitant. It was when they had been just kids, too. “Don't worry, Princess. I've got this.” He reassured her before glancing to Glitch and giving her a nod of thanks for letting them out.

Though it took a great deal of patience to wait now that he was free from his cell, Levi did not make his move until the girls were both waiting slightly behind him. His hand was on the handle of the door, ready to yank it open with no notice, but making sure the others were ready before they really started their escape. He also remembered what Ember had said about a key card for the main door of the facility, and hoped that this was not one that was also locked. He took once last look at Glitch and Ember, wishing he didn't have to play knight and protect them. “Remember, stay back from the guards, and if they get close to you, yell so I can hear you or else you're probably fucked.” His voice wasn't exactly harsh, but it wasn't kind either. It was more of a primal rasp, one that conveyed his intent on not letting anything stop him from this point on.

Without waiting for a response Levi pulled the door open from the side and quickly ran into the corridor beyond. It was eerily quiet and much too bright, just as the cells had been. A visual sweep of it did not show any guards standing by or men in lab coats rushing by, and Levi was thankful for that little miracle at the very least. He started to sprint down the corridor, his bare feet making no noise as his well trained body moved with grace and stealth. When he reached the room that Ember had indicated as the guard room he gave no warning to those he saw within (two guards, their backs turned to watch the many screens mounted on the wall) and without a sound reached his arm around the first guard's neck and flexed, cutting off his air until he could no longer remain conscious.

The second guard was not so slow, and as his comrade slipped unconscious to the floor he was jumping to his feet and pulling out a gun from the holster on his hip. Levi didn't need to look and instead his body seemed to instinctively respond and spun from the the first guard to the second, aiming a powerful kick to the mans hand that threw the gun across the small room and out of reach. The fervor in Levi's eyes was growing as he locked contact with the man, who was suddenly much more vulnerable than he liked. A quick jab to the stomach sent the man backward, toppling the chair behind him to the ground with a crash. Levi was about give him a final hit to leave him like his coworker when something caught his eye on the screens above him; it was nothing but a shift in the corner of his vision but it made him snap his head around to look and left him open to the guards next attack. Levi felt the impact of a thick fisted punch to his jaw: the force behind it was more than he was expecting from any guard here. A loud pop echoed in the room and pain burst through his jaw as it slid sickly to the right, dislocating itself from its proper location.

“Mother fucker!” Levi nearly shouted as he grabbed the man by the shoulders and slammed him, head first, onto the ground. The guard's eyes fluttered and closed in unconsciousness as Levi let go of him and then rubbed his own jar and spit a mouthful of blood onto the pristine tiled floor. With a grunt of effort he popped his jaw back into place, the pain of its relocation causing him to let out a stream of expletives and slam his fist onto the desk before it receded to nothing more than a tingle.

Levi took one quick look at the wall of screens before rounding on the girls, who had entered after he had taken out the guards. “Where's my sister?” If someone was going to find her in this mess of camera feeds it wasn't going to be him. He gave them a rough description of her, and her name - Sally – before going to stand by the doorway, keeping an eye out for any new guards that might show up.

Sally’s tears ran dry. Her tear filled moans were replaced by rigid, wheezy breathing. In the last week, she had cried more times than all her years that she could recall put together. First, finding Levi under unideal circumstances, than the incident on the bridge and now this, she felt hopeless. Everything she did was coming undone and every time she tried to rectify it, make amends for her mistakes, things turn from bad to worst. As she laid hunched over on the raggedy, filth ridden mattress, trying to control her breathing, she thought, ‘No more. This would be the last tear I shed. I am not weak. I am not helpless.’ She repeated the last two lines over and over again. Each time her breathing became steadier, her vision became clearer. She became stronger. Her fears, her doubts, all those feelings pent up inside her were release with every exhale of breath, like air from a balloon, until there was nothing left.

She did not stay bed ridden for long. She would not lay there, defeated and she definitely would not be caged like an animal. On her feet, Sally wiped away the tears. Her eyes blotchy and red from all the crying but she did not care. This day forward, no one would see those weaknesses again. She used the panel door as a mirror. It was poor rendition of her reflection but she could see clearly enough to blot her lips, which still had dried blood on it, and fix the strands of hair that were out of place. Down her shirt had blood stains, but seeing as there was no washers in the vicinity she could do nothing to fix it.

Now she was ready, ready to piss someone off. She walked back to the center of the room with a smug look on her face as if she held all the cards. In fact she did have an ace in the hole. She was being watched. She knew that, especially her, with being a psychokinetic and all. “Funny how people think you aren’t listening because…oh…I don’t know being tortured and all, they talk freely in front of you,” she said standing in the center of the room, her eyes drawn to the corners of the room. She could not see the cameras but she knew they were there, and she knew they were watching. “You are just pawns in someone else’s game. Do you know what they do with pawns? They sacrifice them in order to get better pieces.” The metal bar around her neck was cold to the touch, even though it had been around her neck for hours. “You guys shouldn’t have told me what would happen to you guys if another mutant would die, you should have mentioned what this neck brace would do to me if I took it off, and you definitely shouldn’t underestimate the lengths my brother and I would go to win.”

Before her fingers wrapped around the bar around her neck, the head splitting jolt of pain sent her to the floor. It was the same excruciating pain she felt before, but Sally did not cry out. She crotched, hunched over, holding her head but she never once screamed out until it stop. Once it stop, and she caught her breath, she stood up laughing. It was an unsteady laughter, harsh and scratchy, but it was still a laughter. “Is that the best you can do?” She went for the neck brace again and again they flipped the switch.

This wasn’t a very smart plan. Sally knew that, but it was a very Jones thing to do. After all, it wasn’t just Levi who had a knack for getting into trouble. Knowing what she knew and what she did not know, this was her only course of action. She could not override the security system or overload the computers; she couldn’t even astral project because of this silver noose hanging around her neck. There was only this option left for her to take.

Her vision blurred. She was about to pass out from the pain. She told herself this was her only chance. She must stay awake for her sake and her brothers. It was hard to focus, to keep track of her senses. Her body felt on fire. Jolt electricity shot threw her head. It was impossible for her to breath. She was drowning. She collapsed on the floor, when the door to her cell opened.

The pain stopped, but Sally did not move or get up. She was still conscious but barely. Two…no three different footfalls shuffled into the room. Sally counted them as they spread out. It help clear out some of the cobwebs in her brain. “Take her to the level five holding cell. Put her in a level 3 stasis.” Once again the craze evil scientist came, this time with two of his lap dogs. Burly hands grabbed her arms and pulled her up. She hung there like dead weight, making them squeeze harder just to hold her up high enough to drag her to a new cell, but she wouldn’t make it to a new cell. She was certain of it.