The atmosphere in the facility was dense and quiet, disrupted only by the soft hum of machinery, the sound of their footsteps on the tiles beneath them, and the faint flickering of a single fluorescent light in the hallway ahead. Everything was white - the walls, the ceiling, the flooring, the lighting. Even the staff that passed every so often wore all-white scrubs or lab coats. It seemed to be a sort of trend with this company, though for the life of him, Doctor Ken Lebowski couldn't figure out why. Back at his old office, the staff had seven different colors of scrubs that they would interchange based on what day it was. Green for Monday, blue for Tuesday, pink for Wednesday, and so forth.

But then, his old office was one of the pediatric variety. They didn't house superpowered teens and young adults. Perhaps the coda for that was more professional.

It had been a big change, transitioning from working with normal human children to working with the mutated ones, and it was not necessarily a good one. Ever since Lebowski had been selected to work with the mutated individuals, he had questioned the ethics of it. Keeping people against their own will for reasons outside of their control. Performing experiments - sometimes dangerous ones - on them as though they were lab rats. Locking them in an underground facility, with no contact to the outside world.

However, it wasn't as though he had much of a choice in the matter. He knew about them, and he could do nothing but listen to the directors of the company itself. They called themselves the Association of the Mutated, Evolved, New, and Different. Or AMEND, for an acronym. Which also sucked, in Lebowski's opinion, though he wasn't about to voice it aloud. There were plenty of scary higher-ups above him, and there was no doubt in his mind they could have him eliminated, if they so desired.

"Where are you taking me, Doctor?" he finally asked, after following his coworker (and one of those aforementioned higher-ups,) Doctor P. Spear. He was an older man, easily in his late fifties, but still had perfectly rigid posture and, somehow, relatively un-grayed hair. Ken might have gone as far as to say that Spear was a handsome man, but the dullness of his blue eyes put him off. They almost looked as though they belonged on a waterlogged corpse. Certainly the eyes of someone who had died spiritually before they had died physically.

Sometimes Ken wondered if his own eyes would look like that someday, if he kept at this line of work.

Probably.

Spear turned his head slightly, the shadows on his face standing out starkly underneath the fluorescent lighting. "I've already told you, Lebowski. It's this new project I've been working on." A soft smile formed over his thinning lips and he returned his gaze forward. "I think that you might find it interesting, at the very least."

Well... interesting was such a neutral word.

The conversation ended there, because Lebowski felt too awkward to bring up any other topic of discussion, and the two of them continued to walk on down the crisp hallways. The younger man couldn't help but notice that they passed fewer and fewer coworkers as they moved along, though neither he or Spear decided to comment on it. They just walked, and walked, and walked - further than Lebowski had ever gone before in this facility. His main office was located on just the second floor down, and he was almost positive they'd gone down a good five or six floors more since Spear had requested his company earlier in the day.

It might have just been a rumor passed around by some of the lower-ranked workers in AMEND, but Lebowski had heard that, the further down one were to go in the facility, the more dangerous the superhumans housed there were. The information wasn't a bonafide fact, but it made sense. At least, it did in the former-pediatric doctor's mind.

What wasn't false, however, was the fact that it was getting much more quiet and stifling, the farther they went.

Lebowski silently cursed his weak, easily-scared heart. It was fluttering anxiously behind his ribcage.

Finally, Spear led him to a single, steel-gray door at the end of the hall. It was dark and imposing in comparison to the snow-whiteness of the decorum around them, but somehow... it was a welcome change. For a few moments there, Lebowski had been convinced that all that existed in the world was white hallways and ugly fluorescent lighting.

"What you are about to see and hear, Doctor Lebowski, you are to keep confidential. You are aware of this, yes?" Spear's voice was chilled and firm, and he did not turn to make eye contact with his subordinate. And, when Ken did not immediately respond, the older man cleared his throat and continued in a much more harsh tone. "Lebowski. Do you understand me?"

And then, Ken responded without really thinking it over. The tone was too intimidating. "Yes, sir."

Spear smiled and placed his hand on what looked like a barcode scanner one might find in a grocery market. A half second later, the door opened outward, casting out an odd pale purple lighting from the revealed room ahead. Spear stepped inside, and Lebowski followed, glancing around in something akin to surprise. It wasn't like the uniform hallways behind him. No, what he discovered was a small elevator, with what looked to be buttons that would take them down at least thirty more floors.

Idly, Lebowski wondered how far down they could go before they reached magma.

Apparently, quite far. Spear pressed a button labeled with 16, and down the elevator went. It was quick, and soon the pair of them were stepping out into what could be considered the interior of a normal, two-story house. The lighting was natural, the flooring was made of what appeared to be mahogany, and there were two sets of wraparound stairs that led up to a sort of balcony and some hallways. There was even a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and a few potted plants and paintings scattered around for decoration.

It was all quite pleasant, until Lebowski remembered that they were at least sixteen stories underground and this was a facility that housed superhumans that were occasionally even dangerous. And, if they warned the staff about what types of mutants they would encounter on the first floors, then how much worse would they be on the sixteenth floors?

"I'd like you to keep in mind that everyone you encounter in the rooms to come will be willing and able to kill you." Apparently Spear was some kind of mind reader. Which honestly wouldn't have been surprising, but Lebowski didn't think it was true.

The statement was unsettling, in the very least.

More walking followed, but Spear took him down a well-decorated, warm hallway this time. It was simultaneously more terrifying and more comforting, in a way. It was better than the hour or so they'd spent walking down nothing but white-walled halls, at the very least. Sans the fact that, apparently, there were dangerous killers lurking about. Ken stuck a bit closer to the older Doctor, just in case.

The hall led down to a small, wooden door that did not even have a lock on it. Spear opened it up, and warm yellow light spilled out.

"Lebowski, I would like to introduce you to Nimbus."

The room was small-ish, blocked off with a plexiglass wall. There was a bed in one corner, and a bathroom in another, only blocked slightly by a low wall. In the center of the room, on a plush, fur-like rug, sat a small girl. She was facing away from them, her sunshine-blonde hair a sort of wavy mess - it stuck out in every direction imaginable. Like the staff members upstairs, she wore a set of white scrubs.

She was fiddling around with a deck of cards set out on the floor in front of her.

Doctor Spear gave Lebowski an unsettling smile, his dull blue eyes half-mast. "This is Nimbus," he murmured, and at the sound of her name, the girl turned so that she could peek at them over her shoulder. She rose to her feet and padded over to the plexiglass wall, stopping just short and staring up at the two men with wide eyes. The color was incredibly odd - a shade of what could be described as rose gold, with about a million shades of yellows and champagnes and sunshine.

There were no pupils.

He wasn't sure why, but he felt the urge to reach out to the girl.

"Normally, though, we call her Nim. She seems to like that one better," Spear went on, gesturing with one hand. "Isn't that right, Nim?" The girl offered him a bright smile, but said nothing. Ken realized that her hands, and everything up to her neck, was wrapped in bandages.

He cleared his throat awkwardly, cocking his head to the side. "Is she - uh - is she hurt?" he asked, waving toward the bandages.

"No, no," Spear was quick to say, a slight smile on his own lips. "That's just so that she can't make skin-to-skin contact with anyone she comes across. That's how her power works."

"Huh."

The older man arched one gray-flecked eyebrow, but continued on. "It seems that little Nim here has the ability to see into the memories of whoever she touches, and cause them to relive them. I know that she looks quite innocent and gentle, but this creature has driven people mad with that gift." His eyes grew hard, and he sent a short, emotionless glance at Nimbus. The girl still smiled, and Lebowski wondered if the glass was soundproof. "Needless to say, many of those people did not recover. The list of suicides this one has caused is quite lengthy."

"You wouldn't guess it just by looking at her," Ken responded quietly, running one hand through his red hair.

Spear nodded his head solemnly. "That is one of the main reasons we have chosen her to be here. Unfortunately, this one usually draws very strong emotions from others with her presence, and many of the other mutated or superhuman children here dislike her. Some have tried to kill her." He reached out to the glass and pressed a button that Lebowski hadn't even realized existed. The glass itself rose up, effectively merging the two sides of the room and releasing Nim from what had appeared to be a sort of cell. Spear leaned forward and smiled at the girl. "Are you ready to go out and play with the others now?" he asked.

"Wait a second!" Lebowski protested, feeling his eyes widen of their own accord. "Didn't you just say that some of those others have been trying to kill her? Is that safe for her?"

A humorless laugh escaped Spear's throat, and he nodded. "Fortunately for this girl, it seems as though there are an equal amount of others who love her. As stated previously, she draws strong emotions from those she is around. Very few are on the fence about the child," he informed the other man, as Nim folded her hands behind her back and performed something of a skip over to the door.

She stopped before she exited and turned around, tossing her long blonde hair over her shoulder in the process. "Thank you, Doctor," she said toward Spear, with a bright grin on her lips. The girl really was adorable, Ken couldn't help but think. It was almost as though someone had designed her with as ideal features as possible - big eyes, small nose, plush lips. If only her hair wasn't a tangled wreck and her eyes weren't so creepy.

Spear nodded in response and the two watched as she skipped along on her merry way, hair a chaotic whirlwind behind her.

"Um," Lebowski started when she'd vanished from their view, turning his head to look back at his superior. "You keep on calling her a child. How old is this girl?"

Spear adjusted his glasses over the bridge of his nose before replying. "We're not quite sure. In fact, we do not know much about Nimbus. Recent physical examinations, however, would suggest that she is somewhere in her mid- to late-teens. Which is about the right age for the children that we have in this specific branch of the facility." He gave that unsettling smile again. "Which is why I wanted you, Doctor Lebowski. You were a pediatrician before you joined AMEND, and you are currently the only nurse in our company who has ever worked with children before."

Lebowski raised his eyebrows slightly. "I fail to see how that pertains to anything relevant, sir."

"It appears that I will have to spell it out for you." Dull blue eyes fixated on Lebowski's brown. He did not look happy. "You are to be the resident pediatrician for the dangerous children that we house here, while we train them." He smirked, his expression turning into something dangerous and deadly. "And if you refuse, I will have you killed. I trust that you will accept my gracious offer."

Ken swallowed hard, wishing that he were a braver man, and nodded his head slightly.

Spear's expression returned to its normal, neutrally-soft self. Seemingly much more pleased, he nodded as well. "Good. We look forward to having you here, Doctor Lebowski."

And, with that, Spear left Lebowski in the room by himself, wondering where he'd went wrong and trying to figure out if this situation could have been avoidable at all.

An - I know this one seems super weird, but it'll be so cool, I promise! Please still submit characters ;.;

Rules -
No perfect characters
One character per person
Put detail into your form
Try to review often
Pm your forms to me - title them Nimbus: (character name)
Be creative
Have fun!

The form will be on my profile! If you have any questions, please ask.

Love,

Canima