Title: Burning White
Rating: T (fairly high)
Genre: Adventure, drama, friendship, angst, a tad of horror (not, like, horror, just slightly creepy)
Characters: Kaz, Oliver, Skylar, mostly (but several more are mentioned)
Pairing(s): None, though some are lightly mentioned
Summary (The full one, it wouldn't fit in the summary box): 'She ran a shaky hand through her hair, fingering that white streak that had mysteriously reappeared. "What's happening to me?" - "Kaz, what's wrong with your eyes?" Kaz frowned. "Nothing," he replied. "Why?" Oliver looked terrified. "Because… just look!" - "Oliver, something's happening to me, to Skylar, to all of us—even you!" Oliver raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? Nothing's wrong with me." Kaz swallowed. "When's the last time you looked at your hands?"'
Warnings: Character death, deep character study/analysis, darkness of epic proportions
Notes: This is basically an AU between The Mother of All Villains and The Rise of Five. It's pretty self-explanatory. Anyway, enjoy, everyone!
0-0
"Skylar! No!"
"Oliver, watch out!"
"Skylar's down! I repeat, Skylar is down!"
"She should be okay, but—duck!"
"There's a soldier, Kaz, turn around!"
It had all happened too fast. They didn't have time to fight back. Their powers, which were weak at best, simply didn't work. The whole situation was just a blur—a snap and a bang and flashes of light and a yell—and then they were sitting in dingy prison cells with glowing bars, beneath the ground in the middle of who-knows-where.
That old and rusted confinement building that wasn't supposed to exist, built by the government for housing 'freaks', was now home to hundreds of brand-new prisoners.
1-1
Inside a dark cell in the corner of a building deep below the ground, a brown-eyed boy lowered his head into his hands and began to think and mourn—for his lost friends, for his lost family.
What are they going to think happened to me? Will they even look?
For his lost life.
2-1
Not five feet away, another boy stared at his trembling, raw-and-red-from-fighting hands as he gave up all hope.
There's no way out of this mess, the government just took us. No one is coming to help us.
Hope that his mother would reform, hope that everyone was safe, hope that they could get out of their horrible predicament alive.
3-1
Across the hall, a dark-haired girl buried her face into her hands and began to cry.
This can't be happening to me, not again, please not again…
But it was happening to her again—she was a prisoner. Her freedom was gone. And maybe this was worse, because now she had no chance at escape.
1-2
"Up, Subject K-9."
The brown eyes of the boy snapped open. "That's not my name."
"For all I care, it is," the guard retorted. "Now get up, K-9!"
"Don't call me that," he snarled. "My name is Kaz."
You can't take this one last thing that is mine from me.
"No, it's not," the guard said simply. "Your new name is K-9. Get used to it—we're all going to be using it. Now, let's go. It's time for your testing."
2-2
"O-12, pick up the pace," a guard said as she prodded the boy with a gun.
'O-12' tried a more diplomatic approach than the other boy. "I really would prefer it if you didn't call me that. After all, my name legally is Oliver."
"I have my instructions," she replied. "You're O-12. You're also supposed to be walking to the testing room a little faster."
"Oh, I already took my state tests, I really don't think that's necessary—ow!" He yelped as she poked him with the gun again, rubbing his now-bruised and purple shoulder. "That thing will go off and hit me, and I'll die," O-12—Oliver—insisted.
As bad as this is, I don't want to die, please don't kill me…
The guard snorted. "And that'll be a blessing for me; if I don't have to hear your voice again."
3-2
"Stay back, human," she warned the man attempting to pull her from her cell. "You don't know who you're dealing with."
"I'm dealing with prisoner S-6," the man said. "And if the files are correct—and they are, by the way—you're powerless. You might not be human, but you can't do anything to hurt me. Now, let's go. Your age group is going to the testing room."
"Testing?"
Memories… memories of being probed and prodded, being stabbed with needles… all resulting in her becoming one of the most powerful beings in the universe.
"I'm not going to testing."
The guard laughed unkindly. "Yeah, you are. Let's go."
The girl shook her head, her long, dark hair dirty and tangled. She tightened her grip on one of the glowing bars caging her in. "I'm not going."
She had a genetic anomaly. She was created powerless. Of course, being without powers was literally against the Caldera law, so they had been forced to actually splice apart her DNA and 'fix' it. Insert powers into her system. A painful process, but nonetheless effective.
"Yes, you are." The guard grabbed her wrist and wrenched her out the door.
1-3
Kaz heard screaming as he was marched down the hall. Turning ever so slightly, he saw a familiar dark-haired girl kicking and flailing as a guard dragged her down the hall.
"Let me go!" she screamed. "Let me go!"
Skylar…
"Please, let me help her," he pleaded to his guard. "Let me help my friend!"
"You're not going anywhere," the guard replied. "It's S-6's fault she can't calm down. You, K-9, are supposed to be in the testing room." They walked on.
But as they rounded the corner, he took a risk. He turned and yelled, "Skylar!"
Her screaming immediately stopped. "Kaz! Kaz, is Oliver with you?"
"It's me, but I don't know where Oliver is—" he was suddenly cut off by his guard ramming a fist into his side, and he doubled over.
"You were not given permission to talk to the other prisoners," the guard hissed.
Kaz straightened and held his gaze steady. His brown eyes never showed even a flicker of fear. "I don't need your permission." His eyes flared fiery-red for just a moment, and then he continued walking down the hall, letting the guard drag him off.
2-3
As Oliver was marched down the hall, he saw many familiar faces (and costumes, too): Tecton, Solar Flare, Incognito—yes, he actually saw Incognito!
The guard noticed his stares. "They do look ridiculous in those costumes, I notice."
He shook his head. "That's not what I was looking at… how are you containing them?" He gave her a look. "Or are you not at liberty to tell prisoners what their cells are made of?"
She laughed harshly. "Well, you can't do anything about it, so I can tell you. You won't remember eventually, anyway." Those words troubled Oliver, but he didn't say anything. "The glowing bars on your cells cancel out your powers. That's why Mr. Invisible Man over there is, obviously, quite visible." She laughed again. "Man, he was a tough one to capture."
"You… you were one of the attackers?" Oliver stuttered, wringing his battle-worn hands. "Who did you kidnap?"
She nodded. "I was there. And, well, I was in the back. But I managed to snare two kids—some dark-haired boy and a girl with a pink streak in her hair. K-9 and S-6 are their names." She looked at Oliver. "They were around your age, I think."
"Kaz and Skylar," he murmured. He glared up at the guard. "How could you?"
"Hey. It's my job. I work for the United States government. Now, we've arrived at the testing room." They stopped in front of a large steel door. She swiped a card into a slot next to the door and opened it. "Oh, we're the first one's here—I'll get a bonus for that. In you go."
3-3
"It's me, but I don't know where Oliver is—"
Skylar listened in horror as the boy's voice cut off with a loud muffled thump. She turned to her guard. "What are you doing? Why? Where are you taking me and Kaz? Where's Oliver?"
The guard rolled his eyes. "I'm taking you to the testing room, because I'm getting paid. K-9 is going there, too, and I'm sure O-12 is already there."
Relief flooded through her when she realized they were both okay. Then, that relief was erased because Of course they're not okay! We're in a testing facility!
As they walked, Skylar tried to ignore everything happening around her and attempted to settle her nerves by running her hands through her dark, tangled hair, trying to tame it.
Eventually, they turned one last corner, where an enormous steel door was open. Two guards were standing outside, evidently waiting for their prisoners.
"See you… if you survive," her guard snickered before pushing her inside.
1-4
"Oliver! You're here!"
Kaz breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his best friend inside the testing room, sitting in one of the large black chairs that were scattered around the room.
"I'm so glad you're okay," Oliver said. "But… where's Skylar?"
"I saw her a few minutes ago," Kaz replied, taking a seat next to Oliver. On cue, Skylar was shoved in, though she stumbled before regaining her balance.
"Kaz! Oliver!" she cried when she saw them. "Do you know what's happening? I don't understand…"
"We don't know either," Oliver told her. "I think the only thing we can do is wait for someone to tell us."
"Get your hands off me!" someone shouted from the hall. "I swear, if you don't get your filthy, lying, scheming face out of this facility, I'll—"
A girl was thrown inside, and she cut off her threat as she hit the ground. She groaned and stood up, brushing herself off.
"Spark?" Kaz realized.
The blond superhero looked over. "Oh, hi." Without saying anything else, she plopped down in a chair all the way on the other side of the room, ignoring the three of them.
"Well, I guess incarceration doesn't agree with Spark," Skylar mumbled.
Kaz looked at her, brown eyes serious. "I don't think it agrees with any of us."
2-4
"What a small age group," a man mused as he stepped inside the room. His nametage read Graham. "Only four teenage superheroes—quite a concept, considering many of our favorite DC and Marvel heroes are younger than twenty."
"We're not DC or Marvel," Oliver hissed. "Also, you might want to check your facts."
The man turned, his eyes sliding right over Oliver only to lock onto Skylar. "Skylar Storm. How remarkable… An alien from another planet." He pulled out a syringe, seemingly from nowhere, and strode over to her. "I wonder how she will react to this serum. After all, it was designed for humans…" Abruptly, he stuck the needle into her neck, and Skylar's eyes widened before she slumped in her chair.
"No!" Oliver screamed, just as Kaz lurched forward in his chair as if he was going to throw himself at the man. Even Spark let out a cry of opposition. However, metal restraints immediately locked over their arms and legs, trapping them in their seats.
Oliver struggled against the cuffs, trying to reach to Skylar. His bonds were too tight, unfortunately, and he only succeeded in raising ugly red welts on his pale wrists. He hardly even noticed when the needle jabbed deep into his arm.
3-4
She should have seen it coming. 'Testing room'? Of course that meant 'Turn-you-into-a-lab-rat room'.
But she didn't, and as the needle tore into her flesh and the world blurred, as the yells of her friends were drowned out by the blood roaring in her ears, she only thought one thing:
I should have seen it coming.
And then she succumbed to the darkness.
1-5
He had fought and struggled, but the needle was inevitably inserted into his neck and he plunged into the dark abyss of sleep.
He floated in nothing-ness for quite some time, and then a scene solidified. He recognized it: his twelfth birthday, when of all his eleven siblings, only three sisters and a brother had remembered.
"I'm sorry, Kaz, really," Kyle said.
"Me too," Kevin added.
"Same," Kasey agreed.
He sighed. "I can't believe you guys. Even Mom and Dad remembered! Thanks, of course, Kendra, Kara, K, and Kenny. But the rest of you… I just can't believe it."
The scene faded, replaced by another one from later that day.
"Happy birthday, Kaz!" Oliver cheered as the brown-eyed boy walked into Oliver's house.
Kaz smiled, seeing Jordan and Gus there, as well—though Jordan was actively avoiding Gus because of his 'dead fish smell'. "At least you remembered, guys. Thanks."
Jordan chucked a small package across the room. "Don't take this as a sign of personal weakness," she warned.
"Aw, Jordan, you got me a birthday present!" Kaz teased, catching it.
She made a face at him. "I made sure you wouldn't like it."
He tore off the newspaper wrappings, revealing a book. "Hey, this is the book my mom wants for her birthday! Now I don't have to go shopping for her! Thanks, Jordan!"
Jordan threw up her hands in defeat, flopping on the ground. "How do you always turn my horrible presents into something great?"
"Superpowers," he joked.
"Kaz, no offense, but you would never become a superhero," Gus told him. "I mean, look at how much Blurry Girl had to go through to get a guest appearance in Blue Tornado: Cyclone's Fury!"
Kaz raised an eyebrow. "She had to get partially covered in invisible ink and exposed to UV rays. Not that hard to do."
"Oh, yeah, Kaz did that years ago," Oliver joked. Kaz hit him playfully on the shoulder, laughing.
That scene dissolved as well, and then images were flashing by so fast, he couldn't fully register any of them.
And suddenly, all those memories simply winked out of existence.
2-5
He was flying over a city, like he had that first night he had gotten powers.
The air helped him clear his head, and he inhaled deeply. It's great to just get away from it all, he thought. Especially from my mother.
He remembered how terrifying she looked in her white wedding dress, power flickering in her hands, the crazed look that dominated her eyes.
Shaking away the memory, he shivered in the cool air and rubbed his hands together. Then he stopped. Because he just noticed—his hands were perfectly smooth and not so pale, not so covered in scars, as they had been in the… in the…
Facility.
He didn't know why that word popped into his head, but then an image of a needle being inserted into his arm flashed into his mind, and then he remembered doing the same to others—treating them, patching them up, saving them…
And then those images were snatched away from him and he fell from the sky.
She didn't see anything. Didn't feel anything. There was absolutely nothing. She was just floating around in inky blackness. Then, she heard a name.
"Skylar…"
She spun around—well, as best as she could in that place of nothingness—but there wasn't anyone or anything to see.
"Skylar, I'm right here…"
Suddenly, she saw… herself. No, not like the identical girls from Caldera, but her. Same dark hair, same fierce expression, same superhero suit… everything.
"Who are you?" she asked the mirror image.
"I'm you," the girl replied simply.
"I know that," Skylar said, "but why are you here?"
"To talk," her doppelgänger told her. "To warn you."
"Warn me?" she repeated. "About what, um… I'm sorry, I don't know what to call you."
Her doppelgänger smiled. "I'm an echo of you… so you can call me Echo. And I'm here to advise you. I don't know if you'll ever see me again, but if you do, then I will give you advise."
"Like… like my Skylar Sense," she said.
Echo nodded. "You could say I'm the embodiment of it. But what I need you to know is that you and your friends are in danger."
"Uh, I kinda already knew that."
"No," Echo said. "It's different. This facility… when people come in, the usually don't come back out—and it's better like that. Because those who manage to escape are never the same."
"I think prison tends to change people," Skylar snarked.
Echo sighed. "Not like this."
"Could you not talk in riddles?" Skylar snapped turning and inspecting the blackness. "How do I get out of here? You're boring me."
"Oh, no," Echo murmured. "It's already begun…"
"Talk normally!"
"Your entire personality!" Echo exclaimed. "That's what this process is about. They want to take it away from you. So you have to hold on!" She suddenly looked straight up, into the inky darkness. "You're waking up. I must go." The world began to crack, shards like glass coming down. "Until the next time, Skylar Storm."
1-6
When he woke, he was no longer in that chair, nor was he back in his cell. He was in a large, dimply lit room, sitting on the floor and propped up against the wall. Judging by the grimy feeling of his clothes and his hair, he'd been there for a fair amount of time.
What happened? he wondered. There was the chair, and the serum and then… I can't remember. He started to panic slightly, oxygen becoming harder to get into his lungs. Why can't I remember?
"Hey."
He glanced over, calming his breathing. "Oh, hi Oliver." Looking the other way, he saw Skylar still sleeping soundly. "Where's Spark?" he asked, noticing the absence of the blond girl.
Oliver shrugged sadly, pointing at the door—obviously locked. "Some guards pulled her out a few minutes ago."
"If they hurt her, if they hurt anyone, I swear…" Kaz let the unfinished threat hang in the air as anger surged through him—but the spark of fire that normally ignited in his brown eyes didn't come.
And despite the fact that he had never fully understood the ability, its absence bothered him.
2-6
His hands shook even worse than before. It was odd, because they didn't look as injured—as if they had healed—but were somehow… paler. Like he'd been kept out of the sun for too long—then again, he had been. But it wasn't just that. They looked… sicker.
It frightened him.
But it didn't frighten him nearly as much as when Skylar let out a sob and began to twitch in her sleep.
"What's happening?" he yelped, his trembling, pale hands extended as though he could attack whatever Skylar was reacting to in her own mind.
"The serum," Kaz replied. "It must be reacting to her different physiology. But it shouldn't be permanent…"
On cue, Skylar's eyes flew open and she gasped, sitting straight up.
"Skylar, are you okay?" Oliver asked, regretting asking the second the question left his lips. Of course she wasn't alright!
Nevertheless, she nodded, taking a shuddering breath. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." Before she could say anything else, the door swung open and a guard walked in.
"K-9, you are to brought upstairs," he announced in a bland tone. "O-12, you will follow, and then S-6." He strode forward and grabbed Kaz's elbow, but an unnatural rage seemed to fill the dark-eyed boy and he wrenched it away.
"I'm perfectly capable of walking down the halls without assistance," he hissed, and Oliver blinked in surprise—Kaz was never that aggressive.
But he didn't know what to do. So as Kaz and the guard walked out, Oliver simply stared down at his pale hands and tried to stop them from trembling.
3-6
After Oliver was dragged out too, Skylar closed her eyes and tried to focus.
Echo? Are you there?
When no answer came, Skylar scolded herself for literally trying to talk to a voice in her head. Wasn't that the first sign of insanity?
She shut down that thought. She wasn't going insane, no. She was a superhero, after all—it was simply a quirk. She knew plenty of heroes who had alter egos or split personalities or advising voices in their heads.
Echo? she tried again. Still no answer, and she raked an impatient hand through her dark hair. Hello? Echo!
In frustration, she threw the first thing she got her hands on at the opposite wall—which so happened to be her boot.
1-7
The guard lead Kaz upstairs—above ground, can you believe it?—and to a clean and neat white room with fluorescent lights, a bookshelf, a desk, a wardrobe, and a bed—an actual bed. There was a door opened to reveal an adjacent bathroom.
"What's this?" he asked his escort, suspicious.
The guard shrugged. "You have been cleared to enter the community living area. I have been instructed to tell you to clean up, change into the clothes provided, wear your ID card, and remain in your room until dinner." That said, he pushed Kaz inside and closed the door. The lock clicked conspicuously.
Slightly miffed, Kaz made his way over to the wardrobe and opened it. His lip curled when he saw what was in there—nothing wrong with the clothes, exactly, just the color. All the clothes were a blinding white, almost burning his eyes. And… now that he was paying attention, he suddenly registered that everything in the room was the same shade—that bright white.
Kendra would hate this, he thought with a smile, remembering his oldest sister who hated any colors on clothing except for black. He closed his eyes for a moment and breathed deeply, and for a second, he felt an odd sensation of… weightlessness. Like he was floating. His brown eyes snapped open and he glanced down—no, he wasn't flying, he was standing solidly on the ground. So what was that?
Shaking it off, he tried to return to his original thought. What was I just thinking about? Something with a 'K'. Kal… no, Kar… Ken…?
Frustrated, he broke off from the mess of thoughts traveling through his head and slammed his fist into the bed frame. Blood immediately began to trickle from his knuckled, but he didn't feel a thing.
He turned and looked in the mirror that hung in his bathroom, meeting his own eyes. His irises looked dull and worn-out, as if the feeling was leeching out. Sighing, he rubbed his dark eyes with his un-bloodied hand and sent another nasty look at the drawer of clothes.
Nevertheless, he selected an outfit from the stuff provided and headed into the bathroom, ready to make himself feel human again.
2-7
Oliver sat down next to the blindingly white bed, on the floor, clasping his hands together and trying to stop them from shaking. Unfortunately, it only seemed to worsen.
"I don't understand," he murmured. "I just don't…" Trailing off, he flopped down onto his bed, rubbing his suddenly freezing hands together.
He closed his eyes and tried to picture his mother's face—even though she was a villain, she had always been a source of comfort for him in times of trouble.
Nothing came to him.
He panicked, shooting upright. There was a nagging feeling in the back of his head, like he could see her face in his mind's eye, but he just… couldn't… reach…
The world blurred for a moment, and then he straightened. What was I just thinking about?
He shook his head and stood, whispering to himself, "Let's investigate the bookshelf!"
3-7
Skylar felt cleaner than she had in weeks, but that was barely a comfort. As she brushed out her dark hair, she inspected the clothes that had been in the closet for her.
All of it was burning white, so very different from the deep black and vibrant pink she was used to wearing. Not to mention all the various colors she wore during her normo days.
Oddly, however, it wasn't uncomfortable. She felt free—well, as free as she could be while trapped in a facility.
Picking at a thread hanging off her loose sleeves, she sat down on the bed, twisting her legs into pretzel position. Tracing the little square spiral patterns on her shirt, she began to relax, the constant hold of panic losing its vise on her mind.
Feeling quite at peace, she continued to pull the brush through her hair, even though the need for that had long since passed. She noticed something odd in the bristles, however, and plucked out a single hair. Her eyes widened, and she rushed into the bathroom. She stifled a scream when she looked in the mirror.
Because there, plain as day, were several strands of white in the sea of dark brown.
She ran a shaky hand through her hair, fingering the white streak that had mysteriously reappeared. "What's happening to me?" she murmured, voice trembling.
-Skylar? Can you hear me?
She was, for some reason, prepared for the voice. "Yes, I can hear you."
-Surprised to 'see' me?
"No," she said softly. "Hello, Echo."
1-8
Kaz slid into the seat next to Oliver as he walked into the giant cafeteria. It was near empty, but a few superheroes were milling around, dressed in the same white clothing as them.
"Where are all the others?" Kaz asked Oliver, glancing around the room.
"All the other heroes?" Oliver replied. "Still going through the testing, according to a guard I overheard. Only the youngest ones are here, since they go in age groups."
"I'm worried, Oliver," Kaz admitted, reaching up to touch the ID tag around his neck inscribed with the sequence K-9. "Maybe even… scared. What's going to happen to us? Has something already happened to us? I feel like it has, but I can't recall anything being done to us, other than that serum." He locked eyes with Oliver, expecting to see a comforting look—which he did, but it immediately changed to horror.
"Kaz, what's wrong with your eyes?"
Kaz frowned. "Nothing," he replied. "Why?"
Oliver looked terrified. "Because… just look!" He took his own ID tag into his hands, flipping it over to reveal a reflective side. Turning it toward Kaz, he spoke to his best friend. "Do you see this?"
Kaz, shaking, pulled the makeshift mirror towards him and tilted it, bringing Oliver's head with him. "My eyes… what's happening?"
The eyes looking back at him… didn't look like his. Weren't his. Couldn't be his. They had paled to a light blue, almost invisible. He met Oliver's gaze again, and the other boy flinched away from his icy glare. Raising his hand, he stopped right when his fingers were hovering right above his right eye. "What's happening to me?"
2-8
Oliver lay on his bed, feeling miserable. Not as in unhappy, not quite as in sick, either. Everything was so sterile in the facility, there was no possible way he could have caught anything. But he just felt so cold…
The door suddenly swung open, and Kaz rushed in.
"What're you doing here?" Oliver asked, voice quiet. "You're not supposed to be in here."
Kaz smiled crookedly, though it looked more like a painful grimace. "The guards said that we're allowed to walk around the facility as long as we don't go into any restricted areas and are back in our rooms by curfew. But Oliver, I need to tell you something."
"Go ahead," he mumbled.
Kaz sighed, grabbing Oliver's wrists and pulling him into an upright position. "Oliver, something's happening to me, to Skylar, to all of us—even you!"
Oliver raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? Nothing's wrong with me."
Kaz swallowed. "When's the last time you looked at your hands?"
Immediately apprehensive, Oliver glanced down at his clasped hands. When he saw what Kaz was referring to, his eyes widened, but he didn't react in any other way.
"Oliver," Kaz said seriously. "You hands are literally chalk-white. Your arms are well on their way, too. And have you seen Skylar? Her hair… it's turning the same color. Not to mention that my eyes are getting paler and paler by the day, and look!" He turned slightly, revealing white at the roots of his hair.
Oliver twisted, turning to sit cross-legged on his bed. "That is weird. What do you think is happening?"
Kaz's face twisted, but Oliver couldn't quite make out the emotion. "How are you so calm?" he demanded. "How are you not furious?" Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath. "Sorry. Sorry, Oliver," he apologized. "What I was trying to say is… I think the serum did this. I… I can't remember stuff, things I should. Have you been feeling that?"
Oliver ground his teeth, obviously thinking hard. "I think… yes, I have. I can't remember…" He blinked, suddenly looking close to tears. "Kaz, what's my mother's name?"
Kaz closed his eyes. "I know this, I do…" But his voice was uncertain and his fingers curled into fists. "I don't know, Oliver," he said, defeated. "I can't remember."
3-8
"Look at what's happening to me, Oliver," she said quietly, gesturing at her hair. "Look at what's happening to you!"
He stared down at his hands. "I don't know why I didn't even really register it earlier. It's really creepy." He inspected his arms, where the abnormal paleness was creeping up. "Are you being affected in any other way, too?"
"Yeah, actually," she said, brushing her white-streaked hair back, revealing her ears. Those, too, had turned a chilling bone-white.
He looked at her. "Kaz came by earlier. We realized that we're forgetting things. Are you… is that happening to you, too? Or… is something else?"
She opened her mouth to tell him about Echo, about what she told her… then closed it. She would sound absolutely crazy.
-Tell him about me. I dare you.
She met Oliver's gaze—so hopeless, so weak, so different than the brave blue stare she had seen from him when they first met. And she lied. "No. Nothing is happening to me."
1-9
"I know what you did," he called softly, curled up on his bed as a guard came by—to announce breakfast, probably. "I know what you did to me, to all of us."
"No, you don't," the guard laughed.
"Do you even know?" Kaz realized. "You're just a guard. Why would you know anything?"
The guard smirked. "I'm no guard, kid." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a badge. "Remember me, from testing? I'm Special Agent Graham, I work for the U. S. government, and I'm in charge of putting freaks like you away. It's bad enough that those bionic kids managed to get away, but if superheroes did, too? No, that would be unacceptable. So I created a strike team. Got all of you. And that serum? Well, it reacts differently to different species, but for the most part, it literally leeches out your freaky abilities. There are a few odd side effects—the coloring of the subject becomes altered, sometimes personalities." He looked contemplative as he stared at Kaz through the bars on the door. "Memories tend to be blurred, sometimes erased, too. That's only been observed in humans, though." He turned. "Have fun spending your life in here."
2-9
He shivered, hugging his knees to his chest as he tried to conserve his body heat. Whatever poison was coursing through him that was making him forget, making him powerless, was making him cold. Not to mention pale. Too pale.
As he tugged his jacket over his thin frame, he considered everything he knew—which wasn't much. Just that the government had him, his powers were gone, the color, the life was leeching out of him, and—
I'm going to die here.
Because that was the truth.
3-9
-They're dying, you know. You are dying.
"I know, Echo!" Skylar snapped as she stared at the plain white wall across from her bed. "I know, okay?" She felt tears prickle in her eyes. "Of all the times I've been rendered useless, this is the worst. I'm powerless, I'm becoming a black-and-white photograph without the black, and everyone I care about is dying!"
-You can't save them. You can't even save yourself. I'm here to help, but at this point all I can do is tell you the truth. I am here to warn you of danger, but you're already living in the worst danger imaginable.
"I know," she murmured. "Trust me, I know."
1-X
It called to him, the darkness.
Tugged at him.
Pulled at him.
After the burning white of his room, of him, it was almost… relieving. It soothed the burns from the blinding overload of color.
It made him want to give up. Throw everything away. Forget about everything he had left that made him… him.
The terrifying thing? He didn't want to struggle against it. He wanted to embrace it. He wanted the darkness to take him. He wanted the power so he could not feel the sorrow and loss and pain and guilt that was eating him alive.
Because if he had been better, they wouldn't have landed in their awful situation. How was Kaz supposed to remedy that horrible wrong?
Running a hand through his now-white hair, he gave himself the short answer: he couldn't.
He closed his now-pale eyes, feeling the inky blackness cocooning him. He reached out to it, let it wrap around him, smother him, detach him from everything. He felt the tug, the last tether to the life he'd lived for the past months. He heard the voices of his friends, both superhero and normo (normo? What does that mean, again?), the family he could barely remember having.
Then, he let go.
2-X
Oliver let himself wallow in self-pity for a while.
Because Kaz was gone, and how was he supposed to deal with that? His best friend, partner-in-crime, the person he knew better than anyone else in the world was… just gone.
It didn't make sense. How could one person be alive one moment, and gone the next? It just… didn't seem logical at all, at least not to his addled brain. And certainly, how was it okay for the one person he always relied on to leave him behind?
How was that fair?
It wasn't. So he allowed himself to lie there in his burning white room, letting his chalk-white skin blend in with the rest of, well… everything.
But enough is enough, he concluded. No more self-pity. So he closed his eyes, the deep darkness a breath of alleviation. He could only conclude that this was what Kaz had felt before… well, just before.
He felt a flash of guilt—what about Skylar?
But he shook the thought away. She was tough. She'd survive. If she didn't… well, Oliver wasn't going to think about that. Because Skylar would make it through. She had to. Oliver never stood a chance—he hadn't from the beginning. But Skylar… she was strong. She could do it. Oliver knew that she could.
With that, Oliver cut his ties to the mother he couldn't remember, the friends he didn't know if he'd ever had. And he, too, drifted off.
3-X
Skylar didn't stand, didn't sit, didn't cartwheel, didn't anything. She simply existed in the realm of sleep that currently ensnared her mind.
"Echo, please tell me," she begged her doppelgänger. "Is there hope for us yet?"
"Us?" Echo repeated. "Do you mean you and your friends?"
"Yes," Skylar said simply.
Echo sighed. "Look at yourself," she whispered. "Poor child. You don't know, do you?"
"What don't I know?" Skylar asked.
"Your friends," Echo replied. "They…"
"They're dead, aren't they?" she said numbly. Echo didn't respond, but Skylar spoke again anyway. "Your silence speaks volumes."
"I am sorry I couldn't warn you of the danger sooner," Echo apologized. "They were so sick, so far gone… Honestly, because you had no suspicion, I could not investigate further."
"I know," Skylar sighed. "I never imagined that… well, you know." She straightened, a steely look in her paling eyes. "But there must be a way to save at least some of these people!"
Echo shook her head sadly. "There is not a way. I'm sorry, Skylar."
"No," she said desperately. "There must be!"
"Do you see me?" Echo cried, tugging at her milk-white hair. "Do you see what I've become—what you've let yourself become?" She closed her eyes. "There is no way you can save even some of them!"
"I can't give up on them like that," Skylar said stubbornly. "It's not in my nature. After my genetic anomaly, I was given a choice—I could be sent to a nearby planet to live in peace. Or, they could genetically modify me so I would become a hero, even if it meant me fighting for my life constantly. Do you know why I chose the second option?" Of course, Echo already knew, but didn't say anything. "It was because saving people was what I was made to do. It's been my instinct, even when I didn't have my powers. So I can't give up now!"
Echo breathed in deeply. "You didn't let me finish. There is no hope for the others—you can't save them. But you can save yourself. You can go back to doing what you used to do—saving people. Do it for them. Do it in Kaz and Oliver's honor. All you have to do is hold on for a little while." She stepped back. "This will be the last time we speak, Skylar. It's been a pleasure to meet my host, but you will do better without me in the future. You are strong, Skylar, you can survive. Just hold on for a little while longer. And whenever you feel like you can't, remember Kaz and Oliver. They needed protecting. And no one gave it to them then. That couldn't be helped. But you can give it to the future, Skylar. You can protect the future."
The darkness fell to pieces, and Skylar woke in the light.
X-X
Three months later, a meteorite slammed into a presumed-abandoned government facility. Upon further inspection, however, it was revealed that hundreds of people—not necessarily humans, but people nonetheless—had been held captive in said facility. Every single one of them was declared dead immediately.
But the rubble shifted, and out came a girl, looking almost like a ghost—hair, eyes, and skin all bone-white; her clothing, though tattered, obviously a similar color. She smiled at those working to clear the rubble and retrieve the bodies before vanishing in a blur.
Every once in a while, rumors would start of a pale-eyed, white-haired girl being spotted helping rescue workers save those in danger. The rescue workers never said anything. But still, the rumors flew.
The bionic humans soon aged and died, as did all humans. But Ghost Storm, as they had begun to call her, remained.
She never seemed to age, and as time went on, she became a legend, a story, a myth… a ghost.
But she didn't care.
Because she, Skylar Storm, had a new life. That meteorite gave her back her powers, and a few new ones, too. There wasn't another superhero in the world, so the Earth was her planet now. She could fly once again—it wouldn't have been a problem to go home, back to Caldera.
But Kaz and Oliver's spirits remained on Earth, so she would as well. Caldera wasn't her home, not anymore. Earth was. And she would protect it for as long as she needed to.
"You were right, Echo," she said, standing on the roof of the tallest building in Centium City, the one that belonged to the bionic humans' descendants—she could vaguely remember it being called Davenport Tower—as she looked over the skyline. Reaching up to trace the code S-6 engraved onto that metal ID plate from the facility, she smiled. "I survived, but I won't forget everything that happened there. It made me who I am today. Years have passed for me, but I haven't gotten older, and I won't forget. I'm protecting the future, and I promise, I'm doing a good job. I'm honoring my friends." She looked over the city she had claimed as her own. "I'm doing exactly what I should be." In a flash, she was gone.
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