Anastasia Underwood's Story

Little specks of red formed on Toby's cheeks at Luke's offer "I- I'm under an endurance test, I can't eat or they'll notice and we might get in trouble for that" He offered a shy smile. It wasn't a complete lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either; he is under an endurance test.. but banning him from food was punishment, and Luke WILL get in trouble if he got busted (which probably will happen if the former happened -'I just met him, I don't want him getting into trouble because of me'),besides they couldn't afford a starved speedster if they were going to escape.
Speaking of escape, he decided to finally bring up the topic since he ended up at dead ends with every single plan. Luke looked preoccupied with his thoughts, he paused a little considering a proper approach.
"Uh..." He hoped that would catch Luke's attention "I've been thinking of a way to get out but... there's always something wrong," he licked his lips "We're not strong enough to take the guards down on our own, everything I come up with would lead to.." Sacrificing one of us he suppressed a shiver, normally he'd put others before him but he promised that he'd make it out and there's no way he'd use a fellow test subject -especially someone like Luke- to save his own hind "Anyways, I was thinking that maybe we can come up with something together-"

"So you guys are just planning to leave without me?" A girl's voice shot up, Toby jumped slightly, 'My game's seriously off today'. All of the sudden his mood dampened and he was overcome by a mixture of numbness, disappointment and a twinge of sadness. "I-I'm sorry if I haven't been kind enough.. B..but please don't leave me behind.." he traced the shaky voice to the cage across the hallway, the one facing his, through the dim lighting of the hallway he saw a figure of a girl, she seemed to have blond hair and wings ('She's one of us?...Well Duh why else would she be in freaking cage?!')...white wings like a dove. 'Oh god, is she -crying?' "Um, no- Uh... we didn't..er-" he looked at Luke for help, slightly panicking and mildly confused at the situation.

~Annabella~

"Don't you recognize her Annabella? Surely you had seen her before?"

Annabella sighed after Damon's display of enthusiasm. It wasn't an exhausted sigh but...a nice one, she found it funny and maybe even a bit cute how someone could turn from being such a stoic, emotionless person to an enthused little kid. It even brought a small smile to Annabella's face. "I'm not too sure I have, but it's nice to finally be formally introduced," Annabella said. She wasn't sure what to think of Damon, at first glance he seemed to be very emotionless, but she was beginning to tell that that wasn't all that was to him, and to be honest, she didn't really hate his other side that much, it was kind of uplifting to see that he wasn't always so serious...

*Luke Logan*

Luke chuckled slightly at what seemed to be Toby blushing. It didn't matter if he got in trouble, he didn't like seeing someone as nice as Toby going hungry, he just wouldn't allow it. "Working together...yeah, that sounds like the best idea, if we put our heads together, we'll be able to think of something," Luke said upliftingly. Then, Luke heard a girl speaking, she seemed to be sad, crying even! It seemed like she thought that they were going to purposely leave her behind. Toby looked for Luke to help and Luke tried to think of something, beginning to panic "Uh...uh...we were gonna save you too!" Luke lied, getting flustered, "R-right Toby?" Luke asked. He was so embarrassed at all that was going on that he didn't realize he was blushing a bit as well...he wasn't exactly used to talking to girls. When he realized he was blushing in front of Toby he covered his face with a pillow, it was even more embarrassing for him to be caught like that when he was supposed to be the bit more confident one of the group.

"I can help you escape. She projected into both the guys heads. I know a lot about the science facility. You can't see me, but I can hear you. My name is Star. Hello Luke, hello Toby," Luke heard in his head. "Oh gosh not another voice of a girl, I probably look like enough of a fool," Luke thought, ignoring the voice thinking it was just a figment of his imagination. Luke hoped Toby would finish things up calmly, but he also half hoped that whatever this voice was in his head wasn't fake, they needed all the help they could get...and he wasn't exactly keen on the idea of him hearing girls in his head.

"Uh...uh...we were gonna save you too! R-right Toby?" The said boy's eyes widened disbelievingly at Luke. He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck 'Maybe she can help us(?)' "L-look, we're not going to promise you anything," I didn't even know you existed before you spoke up "I-I mean we still haven't figured out a proper plan, but yeah maybe we can get you out too, but no promises ok?" he bit the inside of his cheek, 'I don't want anymore people getting into this'
The first problem was the fact that even though they were few in numbers they could be easily spotted since there are barely any hiding spots in their path and they wanted to get out as covertly as possible 'Wish they'd decorate this place a bit more, add a huge crate here, a pillar there' But there wasn't anything that'd cover them in the hallways, he'd walked back and forth a zillion times already.
The other problem was that he didn't want to depend on people he didn't know, even if they were like him in a way or another, and he didn't want them to depend on him, he can't handle the pressure of expectations or disappointment at the moment (and he didn't want to deal with it at any other moment), Luke was fine of course, but this new girl, he wasn't sure about her, how come she never spoke up until now? 'what if she was a traitor or something? maybe she'll sell us out or worse- use us to get her own butt out of here' he shrugged the thought off, she didn't sound like that, she sounded...sad 'Maybe she's acting'
'Grrr stop thinking like that! she's one of us!' he whacked himself in his head, he hates that pessimistic voice inside his head and he hates how convincing it always sounds. He shook his head and sighed again, he saw Luke blush and cover his face with a pillow, he raised an eyebrow at the older boy's flustered behaviour. He snickered when the dots connected in his brain -well he almost snickered.
A little girl's voice was projected in his head I can help you escape. 'What the-?' There's a voice in his head!! 'Well that makes them three now' He thought bitterly 'I spend waay too much time in this place, I'm going nuts' I know a lot about the science facility. 'Wait, why would the voice in my head suggest that it knows about this place? I already know that I know about the facility -which isn't much , unless it isn't a voice in my head it's a-' You can't see me, but I can hear you. "A-a telepath?" he blurted out loud. My name is Star. Hello Luke, hello Toby He shuddered, how did she know his name? 'Oh yeah mindreader'. He bit his lips, she just had to pop up in his head when he just decided that he wouldn't let anybody else enter their little escape troupe. He sighed 'Guess I'll have to bend the rules for this one, We could use a mind reader'. But first he had to make sure she's real and not some freaky test they decided to put him through ['Come to think of it, the fluid Medusa injected me with was oddly harmless -unless you count the first few seconds of it, Maybe this is what it really did'] and that she's really on their side. 'Hello Star' He thought back to her.

Toby felt disappointed when the girl didn't telepathically reply, he finally decided to shrug her off as a figment of his imagination, he should've known really, the girly voice mentioned Luke but he didn't look the least bit surprised at the telepathic message 'She's not real then(?)'. Toby sighed dejectedly, his shoulders sagged a little as he shook his head.

"I can make them trust us, the scientists, at least..trust me..I've never tried using my power to change their emotions toward other people, I don't...I don't like being around people..I can tell that you don't trust me..I can feel it, but I promise..I am not here to harm any of you"
The other real girl spoke up again, he felt slightly confused at her words and a little guilty about not trusting her 'she can make the scientists trust her...by manipulating their emotions? and she can... read/feel peoples emotions? '
"We can't leave anyone here though, that would be wrong," she finished. He felt a shaky laugh slip his lips, it sounded maniacal -even to him.
"Wrong? the others didn't think so when they made their escape, they didn't even look twice before flying the hell out of here, and if you haven't noticed we are locked in these cages here and not the ones with extra tight security and keypads and additional locks all the way down the hall for a reason.... we don't pose a threat, we can't defend ourselves even with our powers, you're what?...an empath? I can breath underwater, he -he pointed at Luke- can run really fast and that's it! That's all we can do, if one of the guards spotted us out of our cages we're dead meat, they'll separate us and preform even more hellish experiments on us, you'll barely have any time to rest, you won't be able to walk straight for maybe- say two weeks? -and that's if you're lucky, trust me I've been there," He took a deep breath "If we're gonna escape, we're gonna have to do this as covertly as possible and we can't exactly sneak around in big numbers - heck, we don't even know if there are others and we definitely don't know where they're held, if you want to free the others and march to your doom, go ahead, but I-I.. can't"
'Last time I tried one person died and we didn't even reach the end of the hallway' he swallowed the lump that formed in his throat and started counting backwards from 20. He immediately felt guilty and ashamed from lashing out at the poor girl, he wanted to take everything he said and shove it back down his throat. he sighed and rubbed his temple, his stomach rumbled annoyingly again announcing it's discomfort, he glared at it as if to shut it up then rested his chin on his folded up knees, 'I shouldn't have said all that, I should've kept quiet' he didn't even realise that he held a grudge against the escapees until now, he knew he shouldn't though, it's not their fault that all of them are still locked in this place and they weren't responsible for them in any way.

Toby's jaw dropped when he saw the little girl -Star, he recalled- sit down in front of his and Luke's cage.
He had expected her to be young, small even, but not this young! he felt his stomach churn uncomfortably, she's what four? FIVE at most?

He eyed her from head to toe, she's tiny, pale and has the same hair and eye color as him (although his eyes were a shade or two deeper). she seemed harmless and awfully small, but he decided not to fully trust her yet, because looks are deceiving after all and he's a little -okay scratch that, really- uncomfortable with the idea of somebody accessing his mind without his permission and reading his mind like it's some kind of book or something.
"Look, I am real," she waved her arms rather dramatically, Toby shut his gaping mouth and arched a questioning eyebrow at her.
He listened attentivaly to her as she informed them of everything. He still felt a bit unsure about her -and the other girl-, but he bit his lip and didn't say anything (and tried not to think of anything) and decided to go along with it.
He memorized Luke's number -just in case-, and felt a little guilty when she mentioned that 'the idiots who escaped' are coming back to help.
Toby tapped his index finger on his chin thoughtfully, 'I bet Medusa has a key, she opened my cage on her own earlier, but how can i get it?' he hated admitting it, but she was definitely much more stronger than him, she'd overpower him easily in a blink of an eye -she'd done it many times already, 'guess I'll have to steal it discreetly or..' he looked at The Other Girl with a tiny smirk 'she said she can make the scientists trust her! So maybe she can make that evil witch trust her enough to hand her the key.' he'd have to ask first though, 'maybe her powers are not that strong yet' he thought negatively, but hey, it's better than having his ass handed to him again, so it's worth a shot.
He licked his lips "Aa.. thanks Star...um do you know how to get her -he pointed at the empath- out too?" he said, hoping she that did.