--Post Written by katastrophy

Carlee


It had been the same dark place, same cold steel cages, same prison she’s been in for the past few weeks. Carlee and her older brother, who was sitting just a few feet across from her, had been stuck there ever since she learned of her powers. ‘Who’d have known?’ she asked herself in her mind, her own consciousness sipping with regret and bitterness a twelve-year old girl should have never known so early in her life. She brushed her shoulders gracefully, careful to keep her hands on her skin than anything else, not willing to risk another insight to the past as she tried to warm herself up.

She looked away from the sight of the floor, with the dents and lines she’s memorized at heart by now with the long grueling hours they’d been stuck in here. Her glazed emerald orbs was easily captivated by the sight of light seeping in through the small window at the end of the hall, next to the door that would provide their only exit to freedom. But even she knew hope was a little too far-fetched for their kind by now.

She’d have seen so many before her die already in their locked prison cells, so many weeping from the excruciating pain, gasping for their last breath hoping to take another, and dying with a peaceful semblance in their eyes as they welcomed themselves to the other side. She cringed at the memory she was able to absorb from the floor, the sight of the tons of people who suffered was overwhelming even for her. She’s seen what could happen to them if they wouldn’ and she’s seen worst pain in past few years that this place had never seen and shouldn’t have shocked her. But it still did.

Carlee couldn’t help the heavy feeling that rested in her chest and hid her face in the cradle of her arms over her knees, allowing herself to huddle into a ball for now. She wanted to cry, of course, but that meant closing her eyes and allowing those images to keep haunting her even when she was most vulnerable. And she couldn’t.

If there was one thing Carlee had learned so far, it was to never give up. Even when all of the world seems against you. She was scared. Who wouldn’t be? But that wasn’t enough to scare her to backing down. She always did trust her brother to be there for her no matter what and it sort of comforted her that she would never be alone. Ever.

She looked up a little, smiling as she peeked at her brother, seemingly distracted with something else as she pondered thoughts far too mature for someone her age. She wondered if they would ever be able to get away, feel that freedom. She sat up, more upright this time, and smiled at her brother before shoving her hands gently into the pocket of her ragged old jacket, just to keep her hands and her mind at peace for a little more while. ‘Cause you had to enjoy the little things and be thankful for what you get.

“Oi drudges! Wake up!”

--Post Written by katastrophy

Scott

Dusty orange light glared through barred vents in the wall, creating linear patterns against the colorless walls. The air inside the room was stale and dry, receiving no relief from the new morning which hadn’t been given a chance to replenish the land’s stony and dead surface with dew. The cavern was breathing with quivering intakes, but still silent, relishing the fleeting silence before the youngsters’ ears were met with splitting sounds of cracked skin and bones. Some of the mutants were endlessly tortured in their lives, and in their dreams. But one. But few.

The boy began to stir from his dreams. The memories were so old, spotty, almost like jerky pictures in a sequence. But each individual image was lush and colorful; colors he believed had never seen but held inside of him. The only hues he knew in this world were gray, flesh and blood. In his sleepy daze, he felt the arms of his mother wrapping around him, engulfing him in a pool of security and affection. Goosebumps pricked his skin. He could smell the wisps of hair that tickled his nose, bitter sweet with sweat and recognition. The boy sighed, hearing words that sounded alien but at the same time so natural.

Scott opened his eyes, the orbs like amber, hopeful like those of an underfed coyote. He smiled at Carlee, like he always had when he first saw her each dawn. This morning his greeting was wordless. He stared at her small hands that sifted into her pockets, and those luminous ivy colored eyes. Her eyes were the map to the place he thought could exist where life thrived. He felt sympathy for his sister. She was too young to remember mum. Was she pretty? What was she like? Do you miss her?

The memories of her were faint, but he felt his sister deserved to have had a mother more then he. She needed that kind of figure in her life, even if it were a short while. He felt it was his duty to fill that hole in her heart, even if she didn’t know it was there. He’d give his life for her, as long as they were together.

Scott broke a yawn and sat up, dust falling from his eye lashes and hair. His back was against, the wall hands drawn behind his back with iron cuffs that restrained him from morphing into animals, his body needing to be free of movement in order to shift. He had tried the controllers once before, and they learned quickly. He had always placed himself closest to door when it opened, offering himself as the first one to be picked on. “G’mornin’ sis. How are you feeling? Lordy, I’m too young to be complaining about back pains,” he said squirming, cracking his spine, satisfying the stiff joints as they slipped into place. “You get any beauty sleep? I spent all night on my hairdo, how does it look?” he said grinning, nodding his bed-head.

Scott’s rather sunny demeanor soon shrunk when he heard one of the controllers’ voices. He glanced at Carlee, giving her a glance that said if they survived this a thousand times they could do it again. The door swung open, causing Scott to flinch. Zarrof’s gruff arm reached out and snatched Scott by the roots of his hair causing him to stand and then got booted out in the walkway outside the cages. Scott was watching Zarrof closely his eyes needling the controller he dared not touch Carlee.
“Get out! You know the drill! To the work out room! Get off your ass Carlee,” the man demanded spitting, bits of froth landing in his black beard. His turbulent gray eyes were cold. He turned around and unlocked Scott’s cuffs who thankfully rubbed his wrists, trekking down the weaving tunnels to a larger and lighted space. The work cavern was open and had weights, machines, hay bails and other objects for mutants to strengthen and improve their skills on. Zarroff stood at the entrance supervising the other two. “Tomorrow is the first day of the tournament and we are going to win, no excuses. There won’t be any in fact, because I’ll make sure to you both in a world of pain you still haven’t experienced. So get on it! I’ll be back in a while to train. I have business to attend to,” he snapped shutting yet another thick door, locking it behind him.

Scott looked to Carlee. He hadn’t listened to a word of Zarrof’s. He didn’t need any pep talk or threats. He knew already that it was up to them between life or death, he didn’t need to be reminded, it was all around him. He wasn’t fighting for any controller but himself and his sister. Besides it was a waste of energy to get riled over such senseless screaming. He had better things to worry about like the tournament that was being held, with brutal rules and hoards of people witnessing their every move. “I guess we better get started, should we spar first or exercise first? Ugh, I’m so scared for tomorrow…I want to do something to take my mind off it as soon as we can, don’t you think Carlee?”

Carlee contented herself with the silence they shared for now, knowing that Zarrof was just minutes away from walking into them and putting their lives on the line again. She hadn’t really gotten much sleep, the dreams didn’t really help either. It was the same nightmare ever since they got here, the turmoil, the pain, the torture and the fear, all wrapped into one seemingly endless montage infinitely replaying in her head. She often wondered when the time would come that she would just be numb to it all, passive of the pain she felt and saw.

A sigh escaped her lips before her emerald orbs caught on the shuffling figure of her brother still locked to the wall. He had attempted to break free a few times, with her help of course, but he got the worst damage since he was the one with brute force and she was more or so for tactics – only when her power was working properly. When she was nervous, it wasn’t as easy to accurately read what had happened, even more what could happen.

She giggled a little as he squirmed and greeted her good morning. She was just about to reply when the smile on her face was easily wiped off by the arrival of one of the controllers. She caught Scott’s supporting gaze and nodded her head, promising that she’ll try her best; but the sight of the controller as he shouted at her too her by surprise. She shook nervously under his gaze, those gray eyes snatching what little bravery she had left for that morning as she cowered in her seat.

“Get out! You know the drill! To the work out room! Get off your ass Carlee.” He demanded and Carlee quickly got up without another word, though she still had her hands defensively in her pocket. She knew how her trainings went, other than the physical parts. And though she’s seen a glimpse of what could happen, she was still frightfully terrified of how much worse it could eventually get. She tried her best not to show it, just like Scott always told her to, but the threatening tone in Zarroff’s voice didn’t help much with a twelve year old girl scared for her life.

Carlee quietly followed as they were lead to the training are she’d memorized by heart. Sometimes it was an inspiring place to be, seeing the happy memories some of the past mutants shared here; how they made friends; the determination in their eyes; but now all she could really sense was the fear. And it just added to the fear she held.

Her thoughts were easily distracted by the sound of her brother’s calming voice. She turned her face to look at him, and nodded with a forced smile. “Definitely,” she added agreeing, breathing in and out rapidly in hopes of calming her nerves. “How about some exercise first? Don’t you feel a little stiff?” she asked, smiling more comfortably now. Seeing her brother beside her reminded her how they’d take on the world together, and didn’t make her all that scared for now.

The space around them was quiet from the absence of the screaming mania. The air settled, the dust particles from the slammed door floated about, being sucked in by tense breathes of air. Scott’s candle wax colored eyes landed on his sister’s soft visage, letting a sigh leave his chest. In his opinion, this was the best part of the day. It was just him and his sister, like it always had been, and of course any other fellow mutants that were tossed in. They could be themselves, play and talk aside with the training. But today he could sense something was different, because it was the same…it seemed too typical of a day, especially right before a huge event in their lives. It seemed there was something hidden in the controller’s agenda.

“I almost forgot I felt stiff,” replied Scott rotating his wrists and making circles with his arms, his mind seemed to be separated from his body at the moment. “Yeah a warm up sounds good,” he said leaning forward to place his hands on the pull up bar. But he stopped and leaned his palms into the iron. The boy suddenly felt listless, filled with doubt about tomorrow. “Carlee…You think the fights tomorrow will be different from any we’ve done in the past? I mean, I feel kinda bad cuz’ like if we win then we ruin anybody’s chances to win the Chimera Tournament. The fights actually mean something now...” he said swinging on the bar, lifting his body upside down and balanced on his hands, something he had learned while in the circus.

The door behind the siblings started to open, and Scott deftly dropped himself from the bar and positioned himself beside Carlee. Although the heavy door only revealed a girl about Scott’s age. The girl had messy blonde hair and freckles dotted her cheeks, her eyes a simple blue color. But one of her eyes was blackened and puffy, unable to showcase both sapphire orbs today. “Morning Carlee and Scott,” she said her voice making an effort to sound sunny but there was reminiscent tone of terror in her voice from whatever had shaken her seemingly minutes ago. Her boney shoulders sagged through her greasy white shirt, and she gave Carlee a hug and then Scott. “Missed you two,” uttered Tiana. She smirked at the shape shifter boy, her hand wavering over her pocket and levitated an object between them. It was a matchbox doll made from cardboard and matches, a humorous looking thing. “Were you the one who left this outside my cell?” she asked with a hint of a chuckle.
“Yeah, I thought it kinda resembled you, see if even has the same hair style as you. See?” he said pointing the strands of hay tied to the top of it.
“Ha, gee thanks,” she said putting it back into her pocket. “It’s cute,” she added smiling.

OOC: Sorry, my laptop got fried. And I was in the hospital for a few days during.

Carlee giggled at her brother, forgetting momentarily that they were supposed to train as she watched him rotate his wrists and stretched his probably strained muscles from being stuck to the wall throughout the night. Following her brother’s lead, she too approached the corner with the weights, and was about to pick up the small dumbbell, around just 40 kilogram so she wouldn’t pull a muscle when she heard the doubt-filled question that came from her brother.

She looked up, holding the weight in both of her hands casually and dropping it as quickly as her skin touched the cold metal. “I don’t know. If my visions mess with us, it might. But what would be the point of all this work if that does happen?” she asked, shrugging off her jacket and leaving the ragged old dress beneath it that clung to her skin.

She wrapped the cloth around one of her hand as she picked up the dumbbell and lifted it up down. She did put it back down when the door opened. “We are going to win though, aren’t we?” she found herself asking him before she caught sight of Tiana walking in. She smiled at the older girl, feeling a little bit more warmed up with her presence.

Even though she knew that the sunny demeanor was just a front, she was still thankful for it. It was hard to be sunny in her situation, she knew that but the fact Tiana could still do it made her hug the girl tighter when Tiana hugged her. “Good morning,” she said, smiling more widely now, her spirits uplifted just a little by Tiana’s presence. She’d seen a lot and just the simplest smile from other people were able to lift her up.

Carlee couldn’t help but giggle again at the sight of the cardboard box that was suppose to resemble Tiana, recalling how hard Scott had to fix the hay he referred to as hair. “You should have seen him making that,” she told her, unwrapping the jacket off her hand and letting it dangle over her shoulder.

“So what’re you doing here by the way, Tiana?” she asked, curious.

Scott looked curiously at her older sister. Somehow her words held a tinge of what he thought might be the loss of her innocence. It just wasn’t in her words though. “How often do your visions happen? What sparks them exactly, again?” he inquired. He must have asked her this question a thousand times before, but some how he was hoping for a different answer, more in detail insight perhaps? “I guess it would be pointless…I dunno…It’s not like we’re the only ones that deserve to live in luxury. I feel like every time we win this time, we’re the ones preventing them from leaving this place…” he tried to explain. Sometimes he wondered if Carlee had either lost her sense of humanity or was just being realistic.

The shape shifter noticed she had already started lifting weights. He slipped himself onto the bench press, lifting the iron weights with muscles unusually cut for a boy. An eerie feeling washed over him when he questioned the motives for all this training. Sure, it was for survival, a common goal to be reached. But their training also meant defeating others, putting them in such pain until they couldn’t move to end the fight. “Of course, we make a great team,” he reassured her. “Come to think of it, I could get used to living in Capallice. I’ve never had my own bed, nice clothes, prepared meals, and a home…” the boy continued on rather enthusiastically. His moral worries were soon whisked away by fantastical dreams…

Tiana released the small girl from her arms, her light pink lips curled into a relieved and warm smile.
“Morning Carlee,” she responded. The older female ran her long, elegant fingers through the girl’s hair to comfort her. She weaved a quick braid into her hair and looked towards Skyler whom was standing across from them making circles with his arms.

“I wish I had seen it too. It looks like he spent a bit of time looking for those scraps,” she said pocketing the match box doll. “Boss said he wanted to continue perfecting my telekinesis,” she said sitting on a bale of hay her eyes resting on a wrench. Her fingertips barely twitched and the object floated up and around their heads, weaving in between beams and obstacles. “I can’t stay long, my controller said he was taking me to inspect the new arena. Something like that, he wasn’t specific. I like being with you guys,” she added, now having the wrench and shovel orbiting around her. “…Have you guys had a weird feeling about this new ‘Chimera Tournament’? All the controllers have been muttering about it all day in the smokes. It just seems weird to me…Wouldn’t the people of Capallice be a little wary of letting a perfectly capable mutant come into their community? It just seems odd. Or maybe I’m just being silly. They might have some sort of living space set up for us, from what they described it sounds really nice. Nevermind, no one else is worried about it I guess…” said Tiana multitasking with the floating objects that wavered a bit.
“Hm, never thought of it that way before,” said Scott whom was now on the treadmill.

--

A couple hours later, Tiana had been escorted out. Minutes after Zarroff entered with a man waiting at the door. Scott fell quiet, his amber colored eyes tracing the controller’s every flicker of an eye and footstep as he approached his sister and took her hand and gently lead her to the door. The shape shifter boy didn’t follow feeling something was out of place here. Zarrof pulled along Carlee through the door way, next to this nameless man he had never seen. Scott locked in knees in the middle of the training room. “Who’s he?” the boy demanded.
“Jared, he’s overlooking the tournament tomorrow night. Now come with us—“
“No,”
“Get over here damn it!” Zarrof hollered yanking Carlee’s arm with a jolting force, possibly pulling her elbow out its socket, and then kicked her to the ground. Like a puppeteer pulling strings this moved the boy from his spot. Scott bolted forward a growl erupting from his throat as he shifted to a menacing looking wolf to scatter the men from his sister. It only managed to startle them before they jumped on the canine. The tall assistant pinned the wolf avoiding the flailing legs while Zarrof stomped on Scott’s neck to keep away from the snapping jaws. Zarrof pulled out an almost gun looking thing, which was a livestock needle and syringe loaded with a faintly green liquid with a metallic looking shape inside. Zarrof swiftly plunged the thick needle into the back of the wolf’s neck causing it to howl and bark in pain. Froth was beginning to form at the animal’s mouth in terror, yellow eyes rolling about. The struggling began to subside and Scott slowly began to resume to his human form. Thick blood formed around the needle that was still emptying its contents that forced the shape shifter into a sleep.

The men got off the boy’s body which had fallen completely limp. The stranger lifted the boy over his shoulder like a hunted animal, and Zarrof turned to retrieve Carlee. He grabbed her by her hair including the pretty little braid Tiana had made her and led her into the confinements in the newly built arena for rest before the next morning…

((Sorry, for the longish post. Had a lot of time on my hands. So we can pick up off at the first battle of the tournament when they wake up. Don’t mention who they’ll be battling yet, I’d like too. ))

Carlee often wondered to herself as well whether she’d lost her humanity, if the void in the middle of her chest, the numbness from it all, was a bad thing. She wasn’t entirely sure, nor did she understand the repercussion of it all really. She was more scared for her life and her brother’s to bother about what she thought to be trivial things; what mattered was getting out of there alive, and maybe have a chance at the life she saw other people used to have, before all this nightmare came and decided to drag them into this hell hole they were stuck in now.

“I’m not sure, I touch some thing and the images just pops up in front of me,” she said with a sense of misery and a hint of disgust with the act. It was quite obvious that, despite the longevity of her power’s effects on her, she still needs more time to learn to accept it. “I saw a lot of blood, surrounding us, only us,” she recollected, trying to remember the rest of that image, wondering if it might have happened already to them in the past or if it was truly a hopeful glimpse at the future. “Do you think that’s a good thing, Scott?” she asked, quivering lightly as fear settled at the pit of her stomach at the sight of all those bloodshed.

“But at one point, weren’t they the ones who were also keeping us from leaving this place?” she asked back, thinking it through with a seriousness and concentration only a child would have. Winning against everyone else seemed to be the only form of escape that Carlee could see from now, having been trained so vociferously for it.

She grinned at her brother’s enthusiastic reply, relieved and filled with assurance that they were going to make it. She believed in her brother and trusted that they would win against their fight. She giggled like the child she were as Scott began to talk animatedly about Capallice, painting an image of magnificence and dream-like beauty for Carlee. She leaned her head back slightly to rest comfortably along Tiana’s stomach, eyes fading out as her attention was caught by a little ball of dust getting dragged along the floor by the wind. She smiled at the sight, going deaf of the conversation being tackled just above her as the little puff of dust got stuck amidst some weights by the farther corner of the room.

---

Time passed between them three very fast, with the two of them talking while Carlee sat very close playing with the little things Tiana kept floating around her. But the sudden interruption by Zarroff caught them off guard, more specially Carlee who was for a moment, stuck in her little world. She would have never noticed that the toy she was playing with fell to the ground with a thud since a hand suddenly clamped itself tightly around her arm and began dragging her towards the door and away from her brother.

“Scott!” she shouted, desperately as she tried to pull away and hold on to anything to prevent the man from taking her away. But she was only a child and the man was so much bigger than her, all she could do was struggle and try her best. She kept struggling and screaming, even when the man pulled on her hair, causing her to cry out as an unfamiliar numbness took over her. And as soon as she saw her brother’s limp form being lifted over another man’s shoulder, she stopped, agape by the sight and cried.

(Don't worry. It was worth the read. :) )