Vivian's Story

Vivid closed her eyes and let color wash all over her. Pinks, blues, yellows. There wasn't much to do in between tests except writhe in pain or sleep. She sat up and put her legs out in front of her. She drew colorful and intricate designs on her legs, letting the color flow. She had practiced this. Using her color changing abilities to draw on her skin. She turned a hot pink and lay back down. She turned her eyes a lavender color with a gold rim and silver flecks. She changed her hair a sky blue with yellow streaks. It was sort of amusing, but boring. She had done this before in tests, seeing the extent to her skin abilities. At first they were going to put wings on her. A popular experiment. But then they did something wrong in the test and her skin turned green. She soon learned how to change her skins color and texture. Now they want to duplicate her power, but apparently with no luck. Fortunately, they haven't killed her. Yet. Color was easy. Trying to turn invisible was hard. It required concentration and energy. And once she was done, she would always feel sick. One time, she was sick for weeks. They even had to put her in the infirmary they never use, because they would just rather the subject die. Maybe they wanted her alive. Maybe she was special. Who knows? She could also change the texture and density. She could make her skin so hard bullets couldn't even go through it. Unfortunately, the really sharp and minuscule needles can still go in. Also, if they did go in, the effects of whatever they injected were double if not triple, normal. She would be out for hours. She could also make her skin so light, that she could just shed 10 pounds, making her run faster and jump higher. But wow does changing texture or density, or making herself invisible make her sick. She would always vomit after doing so, so she didn't do it often. Well, unless she was forced to. Which was often. She heard the footsteps of a scientists coming her way. Maybe he would pass right by. Or test on her. She sighed

"Shh... shh, it's okay..."

The teenager twisted in Nick's arms at his words - whether it was due to pain or trying to be free, he couldn't tell. Probably both. It seemed logical after what had just happened. A suggestion had been put forward to test the healing abilities she seemed to have been cultivating recently, and Nick had happily taken that on board by firing two bullets straight into her stomach. Fairly tame, in his opinion. Now it was just a matter of waiting. The whole action seemed gentle, almost caring - the male comforting the female, carefully dropping to the floor in her cell and putting her down. But every action was tainted. The comforting words tinged with a smirk, the slight height at which Nick dropped the girl from so she bounced off the hard floor, the way he abruptly left and slammed the door of her cell shut. She was rather harmless, the poor fragile thing, so a thick heavy door wasn't needed. Merely bars; a standard cage. Not like in the cases of some of the people they had here on the island.

Nick still had the gun he'd used only a few minutes ago, and he quietly pulled it out of his pocket and held it ready. He still had a few bullets left. Might as well put them to use. For a moment Nick paused, spinning around and looking at the cells in the corridor he was in the middle of as if deciding who to pick on, before doubling back and heading for Vivid's. Why not test her unique skin a little more?

A smirk spread onto his face once again as he tugged the door of her cell open, before all of a sudden firing a bullet straight at her right arm in the same movement along with a blunt order of "Force it out."

When Vivid saw the gun, she tensed. Not this again. She shuffled to the back of her cage, hoping he would walk past. Of course not. She heard a gun fire and immediately she turned her skin rough. To late though. She screamed out in pain as the bullet impeded into her skin. She gritted her teeth and her skin took over, forming around the bullet, and pushing it out, rough almost scaly skin replacing the area where the bullet entered. She adroitly changed her skin back to normal, and immediately nausea flooded into her. She put her hands to her stomach and her head was pounding. She curled up, hugging her stomach, squeezing her eyes tight. She quietly spoke to the scientist. What was his name? Mike? Nate? Nick. It was Nick. "what do you want?" She said, pain prickling into her forehead. She turned a Bright shade of red, to match her angry mood, her hair and eyes also taking on the color. But she couldn't do much. All talk and no action. She wasn't much a fighter, an easy target. She picked up the bullet that had been shot into her skin and whipped it at Nick.

Nick watched Vivid with what could only be described as amusement as she went through the motions of forcing the bullet out. Really, he should probably have brought something to record this with, a notebook, video camera, anything, but it had been a spur of the moment decision. He could always describe it later. Or just repeat the action. With a smirk Nick cupped his hand in front of him, barely reacted as the bullet dropped into his hand. A quick examination displayed almost no damage to the bullet, save for some blood from the original entry. "Hm." He flicked his gaze back up to Vivid. "We might have to try that again with something a little larger later on, I'm sure you'll be thrilled." Always the formal tone, like he was having a casual conversation about the weather. "And how do you feel after that? Sick, I presume, judging by your actions and track record... lovely red shade you have there, by the way."

He probably would have said more, had he not been distracted by something behind him. And he had a fairly good idea as to what it was, or rather, who. "Oh, Andras..." He sighed, giving Vivid a quick wave before slamming the door shut behind him and leaving. Humming to himself Nick crossed the corridor, not breaking in the tune as he paused for a moment before deciding to at least put the face shield on before entering the cell. Sure, the power resistance his oh so lovely father had granted him helped, but he preferred to keep that care close to his chest. Sighing heavily he tugged open the door to Andras' cell, quickly crossing the small room. "You really should stop doing this, Andras." Nick fiddled with the restraints, undoing a latch and pulling out a drip cord. Inside, the means to sedate this particular subject. "They've got you slated for death and all of this showing off doesn't help your case." He punctuated his last words by stabbing the drip into Andras' arm, probably a little harder than necessary.

Vivid scrambled up to do some damage to Nick. Scratch his face, punch him with a really hard fist, something. But not before the door slammed shut. She instantly regretted jumping up, and she felt like throwing up even more. Instead she sat down, her palms to her head, watching Nick deal with Andras. If he could take care of someone that powerful that easily, there was no way anyone was ever getting out. She sighed in frustration and sat back down, the nausea slowly fading away. The area where the bullet entered was a little sore, but other than that, she had no major injuries. she turned back to normal, and drew images on her skin. Exhaustion washed over her, and she slept in her cold metal cage.

Walking through the corridors of the facility Yohance occasionally glanced though the windows on the doors at the Test Subjects he passed though only at some right now they weren’t what he was interested in. He was always curios to know why gun shots were fired though he wasn’t worried at all he was only curios to what the reason was this time. By now Yohance had memorized most of the names of the test subjects and the abilities that the test subject had, though it wasn’t a hard thing to do when most of them were sent to him anyway, why? Because of the ability he had. The power to play mind tricks on people, to make them relive their worst nightmare to making them believe they were in a totally different area and that somebody important was there with them, he was able to make them believe something was there when really it was only his ability playing tricks on their mind but they didn’t know that. He wasn’t tested on by the facility for the simple reason they actually wanted to use his power against other test subjects. Why? Because been able to actually make them believe they were in a different place and in the comfort of someone or something important to them enabled them to talk about things they wouldn’t normally talk to a staff member about. Though in their mind they would still think they were talking to someone close to them, or someone they trusted. Granted that this didn’t always work considering some of them didn’t have something that he could use as a means to get them to spill their secrets without realizing they were really talking to him, but in most cases he was able too.

Continuing through the corridors until he had reached where he had been meaning to go it he took one look at Nick and then at the Cell in which Vived resided in. The whole thing had passed by the time he had got their but he still knew what had went on, tilting his head slightly he turned towards Nick, His Smirk covered by the black material covering the bottom half of his face.

“ You sure do like causing them pain, but remember we still need them for testing, so it would be quite a shame if one of them got damaged..”

Vivid's eyes shot wide open as the footsteps echoed down the hall. Nick, coming to hurt her again. She looked up. It was only Tony and Yohance. Much better than Nick. She stood up and noticed Tony looking at her, studying her really. She preferred Tony because he actually preformed cruel experiments purely for scientific purpose, not as a cruel heartless joke for enjoyment. She changed her hair to a deep shade of green and her skin to a bright pink. Her eyes turned to a lavender color and she crawled closer to the bars. What was he going to inject with her? What were they going to take her away to be tested on now? she sighed and narrowed her eyes. "What is it now?" She asked. "Come to shoot me again? Maybe this time I won't force it out, and you will lose your precious subject, without even discovering a way to duplicate my power." She raised her eyebrows and her eyes turned a deep Crimson color, which soon spread to her hair and skin.

Jak unphased quickly from the shadow of his bed as the sound of gunshots broke the tranquility. He heard it, he believed, just a few cells down and was about to peer out through the iron barred window, but thought otherwise. He recalled now that floodlights had been placed on his door to prevent any further escape attempts. In his last endeavor, he managed to phase into the dark floor and slide beneath the crack of the door, only to appear on the other side in front of one of the scientists. Jak assumed it was Nick as he seemed to get joy from his pain, and he knew the floodlights now eliminate any shadows, so unless someone walks by, Jak is stuck here.

Suddenly Jak heard Andras acting up, resulting in Nick knocking him out, only to be scolded harshly by Tony. Instead of listening to the two argue like he normally would however, Jak decided more sleep was required. Silently he phased back into the shadows of the small bed, feeling comfortable within the darkness as he soon fell asleep. He only hoped that he wouldn’t be woken to get tested on.

Tony
He turned his head toward Vivid, hearing the girl call out to him. Shooting Nick one last scathing look, he walked down to her cell, even as he heard Brooklyn scolding her for speaking out. "Nice to see you're doing well, Vivid," he said emotionlessly. Tony always tried not to show any emotion one way or another when he spoke to the subjects. He didn't want them to think he was their friend, but he didn't want them to hate him either... those poor unfortunate souls, he thought, slightly nauseated at the thought of how... different they were.

He glanced down his clipboard and flipped through the pages. Who hadn't been tested yet? He looked up and saw Hawkins being led away by Yohance. Let's see...

Making a decision, Tony pulled out his keys and shoved them into the cell of Brooklyn Jones. "Jones. Out." He glanced over his shoulder and snapped, "You too, Charles." The boy had been yelling at his camera again. He wondered whether Charles knew that the cameras were only turned on when there was some kind of commotion.

Then, he made a quick, and probably unwise, decision. Unlocking Vivid's cell as well, he told the three subjects, "Time for testing, kittens."

They were only supposed to hurt subjects once a day. But hey-- Nick hadn't filled out any paperwork. Nobody would know if Vivid got a little extra attention. She fascinated him so.

Vivid sighed and pulled herself up, shaking the color out and reverting back to her normal colors (blonde hair with blue streak, purple eyes with gold rim, and light pink skin). She hopped out of her dinky cell. Whaaat now? Testing testing testing. Always painful. She stretched and brushed out her tattered doctor's robe, that was basically a sheet with strings. Or a bag. Yawning, she trailed after Tony. What were they going to test now? On a sort of side test they have been trying to get her to turn other people different colors. So far she had only turned a mans shoulder a bright green. She had been making some progress, one time transforming someone's entire face purple. Progress they call it. Personally, I thought it just classified me as more of a freak.

Brooklyn

Before Brooklyn knew it, Tony had made his way toward her cell and shoved the keys into the keyhole, unlocking it with a bit of a jingle. She hated being told what to do, as if she was some sort of child or animal, she wasn't either of those nor was anyone else there. A soft growl could be heard escape from her lips as she let herself slowly touch down onto the floor, softly.

Brooklyn Hesitantly followed behind him, watching as he let out both Vivid and Charles as well. There wasn't very much a doubt in her mind that Tony would be sick minded enough to want to give out pain to more than one subject.

"I'm not a cat," she said under her breath, keeping her distance enough away from Tony to feel safe within herself. It wasn't very often that feeling safe came along, even if trying to feel that way.

Tabitha

Tabitha walked down the long corridor of the facility, clipboard in hand as she wrote down onto her. The woman's shoes made quite a loud 'click' and 'clack' on the hard floor beneath her feet. It seemed as another typical day within the place, subjects screaming due to the pain most testers placed on them, others cooped up in their cells after said events, all the same. As she continued her way down the hall she noticed a couple of her colleagues standing around, one of them was taking three of the test subjects for most likely a dose of pain. The other she wasn't very sure about at the moment, no likely no good though.

When she had gotten close enough to them she stopped, looking towards the two than at the subjects with the one. "Good evening Tony, Nick," she greeted them both kindly, "to you as well Brooklyn, Vivid, and Charles."

She'd always liked greeting the subjects as friendly as she could, it kept her in a sense of mind that she was only doing this for scientific purposes, though it never really felt like it. "Going off to do some work?" she questioned curiously, knowing the answer already of course.

Vivid didn't mind Tabitha. She wasn't rude to the subjects, but Vivid knew that in the body of her's was a cold merciless heart, like all other so called 'scientists'. She was even friendlier than Tony, or, at least that is the view she got from her. Vivid gave a much less vicious snort in derision. "Work. Sure. Must be what they call it these days," she said, sarcastically. Torture is more like it. She cocked her eyebrow, which turned a beautiful shade of blue, to match the streak in her hair. If she wanted to, she could escape, right now, right here. Not like they could shoot her down dead, and doubled with invisibility, they would be shooting blind. But where would she go? She was on an island after all. And who would help her through the awful sickness that would wash over her? It would never work. Not without help. Not without a boat. No, she wouldn't be able to escape this dreadful island. Never. A thought pricked into her mind. A horrible thought. But oh, so very tempting. What if she cooperated? Let them test her without difficulty? Preform the tests to the best of her ability? Gain their trust? Help them? She would be treated better. Much better. And she wouldn't have to worry about escaping, when she wouldn't need to. If she was on their side...... No. She pushed the thought from her mind, but it still lingered on the edges. Tickling her thoughts. What if?

Charles

Tired of training Charles decided to take a break. Eyes closed Charles sat in his bed when he heard the sound of the door.

“Time to eat already?” he softly said to himself. But this time it was different, the door opened completely. Charles raised his head, “Is the torture over?” Charles said low enough so that no one could hear.

He stood up and walked towards the door. His eyes were still getting used to the light but he could see there were a bunch of different people by the door. This is Weird he thought. “What now, are we going to have a team building exercise today?”

He stepped outside and looked around recognizing one by one the faces of fellow prisoners. He recognized the testers too but he didn’t feel like paying much attention to them today. He was concentrated on the possibility of escaping.

“Hello” he said to no one in particular.

"However did you guess, Tabitha?" Nick finally replaced the face mask he'd used to go into Andras' cell, putting it back with the rest of the protective gear he'd decided to neglect. "Same old. Subjects to see, tests to carry out, the usual routine." He leant against the door, only briefly glancing towards the door of Bailey's cell. She'd shut up soon enough. Nick raised an eyebrow, smirking. "However, what's a pretty thing like you doing down here in a place like this?" The flirting was only a joke (well, partly) - if he had been serious, he certainly would have used a better pick up line. No, this was merely to poke fun at Tabitha. He knew how she felt about most of the other testers, if not all of them. "Certainly not doing tests. You might break a nail." Now he'd just moved into a realm of jibes.

Another minute passed, another outburst from Bailey. He really would have to do something about that, but not yet. Let her shout for a little bit first, wear her throat out. However, everyone else seemed to be starting to move. No point standing here. Who was left for him to play with? Well, someone had already marked herself out as a target. Nick pushed himself off the wall he'd been leaning on and began making his way to Bailey's cell, passing the small group that was forming with his fellow testers. Here he paused for a moment, grabbing the blue streak in Vivid's hair and tugging on it so her head was pulled back, all so she could see him while he responded to her comment. "Indeed. All in a day's work, Vivid. Well. Maybe a lifetime for you."

A quick push to move the girl away and Nick was off again, eventually reaching Bailey's cell. He could hear sobbing inside - interesting. But he didn't open the door just yet, instead leaning against it so Bailey could hear him. "Don't stop yelling Bailey. I'm really interested to find out what you're going to do to me. Because you're fantastic at getting into my dreams, aren't you?" Of course, thanks to his little artificial gift, she could barely scratch them. It wouldn't hurt to remind her though.

Vivid gave a sort of yelp as Nick tugged her hair. In return, she dyed the tips of his fingers bright blue, which was actually hard to do since he was toucher her hair, not her touching his hand. She stumbled as he thrust her back to the others, and her hair turned a deep scarlet shade. Seemed like red was her new 'usual'. She gave Nick a vicious glare, but then stopped, sort of softening a bit, the thought of cooperating itching at the back of her mind. She changed her hair back to blonde and blue, giving Nick a fake smile. "Ah yes, testing. My favorite thing to do." She said, through gritted teeth, trying to obscure the sarcasm with enthusiasm. The thought...the awful thought of joining those monsters was horrible, but oh soooo tempting, so rewarding. She would get treated better. Much better.

Brooklyn

Brooklyn took a glance over to Charles when she had heard him speak, nothing more than just a simple hello, towards everyone she presumed. “Hello,” she said in return to him before turning her head away, wondering what sort of tests were going to happen today.

When she’d looked away from the man she saw one of the scientists pull on some of Vivid’s hair, such cruel treatment. Brooklyn only hoped that the testing would get done and over with, but when she was out of her cell that was always a way she could be able to break free from the facility.

Without the walls in her cells confining her, she could easily phase through and out the walls of the facility and be free. Yet, there wasn’t any doubt in her mind they’d end up finding her, they were on an island after all.

[Tabitha

Tabitha let out a small, sarcastic laugh towards the man. His odd ways of trying to poke fun of her never really bothered her in the least, she only had to deal with him here and here only. “Working of course, I don’t just come down here to treat the subjects like dirt and get some sort of… nasty pleasure out of it like you do,” she looked at him with a dull smile.

“Me? Break a nail? No I don’t much care about that, they’re only nails nothing more, I’m not all about looks you know,” she flashed him her hand, her nails had been trimmed down nice and short, how she liked them.

“I like testing for more of a scientific purpose, I am a scientist after all,” Tabitha paused from speaking when she’d heard Bailey yelling down the hall, screaming about something. Soon nick went walked down towards Bailey’s cell, not before pulling on Vivid’s hair, causing her to give a slight glare. That man didn’t have any limits what-so-ever.

With a shrug of her shoulders she turned around to Tony, giving him one more look before walking off down the corridor, towards one of the cells. It was Jak Ross’s cell, the one who was able to morph into shadows. “Alright, Jak, it’s time for some testing.. you’ll come peacefully yes?,” she questioned before opening the door to the cell, quickly turning the flood lights off that kept him from escaping under the shadow of under the door.

((Urghhh, really sorry about this late reply, guys.))

Tony
Irritated, he slapped Nick's hand away from Vivid. "Really, Nick? You can't keep your hands off my test subjects for five seconds?" he snapped. "Oh, don't look at me like that! This is my block of testing time; therefore, they are my subjects-- at least from three to five. But that's neither here nor there. You!" Without any warning, his head snapped to the right and glared at Charles. "Please quit doing that. You're giving us these shifty eyes. You can't escape, give it up." Nick had really gotten him riled up. He gave a quick nod acknowledging Tabitha, but that was about it. He didn't approve of her 'fraternization' with the subjects.

Heck, he didn't really approve of any of the other testers. He had somewhat of a superiority complex.

"Follow me," he ordered the subjects, narrowing his eyes at Nick as they passed.

At first, Tony had been a little nervous leading subjects around the facility, he himself unarmed. But by now, he had grown comfortable with it. They never tried anything, and even if they did, they would never escape. He was also fully aware of the fact that if they decided to jump him and use him as a hostage, the facility would allow them to kill him before they let the subjects escape. But that was a risk he was willing to take for science. His hands started buzzing just thinking about what he was going to do. He was just itching to get his hands on them today.

"Today," he announced, opening a door into a plain white room, equipped with only three treadmills, "I will be testing your adrenaline, endurance, and fatigue rates. Get on the treadmills." He narrowed his eyes at Charles. "You don't want to give me trouble."

Vivid obediently stepped onto the treadmill, waiting for Tony to set any speeds or inclines. She gave him a meek smile, glad to be away from Nick. She did have a plan. A sick twisted plan, but something better than how she was now. To seem more 'willing' she asked; "So how long are we running for? What speed?" She shifted her feet and felt her scalp where nick had pulled her scalp.

Tony
Perhaps if he hadn't had that spat with Nick, Tony would have been paying more attention to the subjects and noticed Vivid's strange meekness, but his mind was otherwise preoccupied. Muttering to himself about 'no standards in this place', he rummaged around the cabinets and produced small rubber electrodes, the shape of suction cups. Thin black wires trailed from them and disappeared into a shifty-looking machine that he placed on the counter.

"We'll start with low speed for the time being. But you'll probably be running for upwards of four hours." Tony passed by in front of each of the subjects, sterilizing the tips of the electrodes with alcohol-soaked cotton balls. "This will hurt." He pressed the electrodes onto Vivid's skin-- one on each temple, several on the fleshy undersides of the arm, a few on the hands.

He did the same to Brooklyn and Charles. Small needles poked out when he pressed a button on the device, burrowing into the subjects' flesh. It actually didn't hurt much, just a tiny prick, not as bad as even a shot.

He paused before activating the electrodes stuck onto Vivian. For whatever reason, he had a soft spot for the subject (a fact he would be deeply ashamed of if it got out to the other scientists). Her colorful skin bedazzled him. But his face was still hard and impassive as he pressed the button, watching the colors swirl on her skin.

Brooklyn

“Oh, great, just I wanted to do today, run on a tread mill,” he said sarcastically, a look of irritation seen on her face as she looked towards the treadmills in the room. It had taken her a moment to get on one of the machines, but soon enough she found her way on to one, no matter how much she didn’t want to.

Brooklyn heard Vivid’s voice talking towards the man, asking what speed and how long they’d be running for. “What a little suck up,” she commented, only taking a moment to glance over towards the girl, her eyes staring at her just long enough till Tony came to press the electrodes onto their skin. When the needles of the devices had poked out she barley even made a wince. They were annoying, but practically painless none-the-less.

Tabitha

Tabitha let out just a small chuckled to herself as she heard Jak talk, “oh Mr. Ross, just because you’re power isn’t the kind that could harm a person, you’ve more than enough potential to harm someone in a physical way with your bare hands. Doesn’t take much to do that.” She glanced back towards the boy as she continued to walk down the corridor, finally finding a room she could use.

Taking a left turn she entered, stopping to turn around and make sure Jak was right behind her. Satisfied with knowing he was she gestured for him to take a seat from the one she had already sat herself in. “Make yourself comfortable, Jak, I’m not here to harm you in the sick foul ways you’ve seen my coworkers do. I’m merely here for the science darling,” her words were soft and harmless. She went out of her way to make her subjects feel comfortable, no point in being harsh it only makes them less cooperative.