Clare didn't know what forces conspired to bring her here tonight. The pulsating blue lights and the loud music combined with her tequila shots to make her suddenly nauseous.
Squeezing her way between two scantily clad girls gyrating against each other, she managed to find her roommate cozying up with some college boys at the back of the club. She unsteadily wobbled forward and was greeted by giggles from her fellow classmates.
"Hey, Tia?" she called out.
Tia turned around and gave her a warm smile as she stood up.
"Do you mind if you hand me the key…I need to get back to the room to uh-" she was suddenly aware of some of the boys snickering. She blushed but kept her head up high, no doubt news of her drunkenness would reach the ears of every junior before the sun had risen.
"Change into something more comfortable," she said, gesturing at her flimsy tank top.
Mercifully, Tia got up and handed her the key. "You know what, maybe I should call it a night too," her Latina friend said.
With a swish of her dark brown hair, Tia grabbed her purse and led Clare out.
"Are you okay?" she asked, voice rose to battle the music's deep bass.
For the first time in the evening, Clare felt more like herself as she rolled her eyes. "Thanks for literally throwing me into the lion's den, that idiot could barely keep his hands where they should belong."
She recalled how her roommate had subtly left her with a senior named Jared Sanders. Clare had spent the whole night trying to push his hands from wondering below her waist and the shots she consumed to make herself feel better didn't help.
"I had to at least throw his claws off of me and he still couldn't take a hint," she grumbled. Tia had the audacity to laugh as she threw her an easy smile.
"I'm sorry Clare, but I thought you both would hit it off, you know, since you like Linkin Park and he likes Linkin Park too," Tia replied cheekily as she opened the door leading to the back alley.
The cool breeze felt wonderful on Clare's heated skin as she relished the smell of fresh September air.
Feeling more like herself, she retorted, "oh yes, we are totally bonded for life."
Her roommate just rolled her eyes as she pulled her cardigan tighter around her.
"I wonder if I'm gonna wake up drunk tomorrow," Clare wondered hazily. "That would be my first time."
Tia chuckled as they rounded the street. "If you had played nice with Jared tonight, something else would've been your first time," she said with a naughty glint in her dark eyes.
Clare faked a choke as she dramatically gasped for breath. "I can't believe that you- Tia Corezzo could ever tell a dirty joke," she said mockingly.
Tia tried to jab her in the ribs, but her petite height didn't allow it. She pouted instead.
"Look, honey, I may be short but one day I'll be tall enough to snub you in the nose," her friend threatened.
Clare smiled. At 5'1, Tia was a force to be reckoned with but her structure didn't allow you to think of anything else besides the word 'tiny'. With small hands, wiry brown hair and a pert nose, she was the complete epitome of all things small and cute…but could be deadly if she wanted.
"Clarity Davis, are you making fun of me?" she said, hands on her hips. A sly smile suddenly graced her face. "You do know I have the room key here with me," she said, deceivingly innocent.
"And someone may find herself…locked out tonight," Tia said, devilish smirk on her face.
"Why you little-" Clare was just beginning to snatch the key from Tia's fingers when she heard it.
A whistling sound- getting louder and louder, almost like a…
"Tia!" Clare screeched. "Move!"
The red head grabbed her friend by hand and pushed her behind a wall. A jarring impact to the ground made Clare fall head first, the ground rushing to meet her.
She made to stand but was knocked down again. Bright light, blue as the depth of the ocean engulfed her- leaving a trail of flamed needles up her skin. She cried out in anguish and the foreign sensation seemed to be feeding of her fear for the pain intensified.
Clare could hear her friend screaming out for her and another indistinguishable voice yelling out.
Her whole world suddenly went black.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The incessant sound was the first thing that greeted Clare's ears when she finally regained consciousness.
Tentatively, she tried cracking her eyelids open. Sudden light sharp as a knife flooded Clarity's eyes as she struggled to squint against the harsh glare.
She looked around the room wildly, arms reaching out to find that they were bounded instead. She looked down and saw straps criss-crossing her body, each sturdier than the last and pining her down to a cold metal table. The cold seeped into Clare's skin, making her shiver with fear.
But that wasn't the only thing that scared her.
She was shocked to find that her usual olive skin- it was blue hued. Veins bulged and throbbed under her foreign epidermis and a scream of pure terror escaped her lips.
What's happening to me? She thought as she helplessly thrashed.
"Hello? Anybody? Where am I?!" she squeaked, her thin voice lost in the whirring of the machines.
Gulping breath after breath of air to calm herself down, she took a look around at her surroundings.
The room was stark and impersonal with bleach white walls and a titanium door leading to god knows where. Beside her, the steady thumping of a heart rate indicated her pulse and in front, a monitor with various alternating information on its holographic screen was being replaced one by one with minute analysis.
Clarity squinted and found that all the information on the screen was about her. From personal details to her health records, everything Clare knew about herself was splayed on the screen.
"What the…" she breathed as she read one analysis about her current state.
High possibility of mutation… absorbed large amount of radiation… foreign particles in bloodstream… electric charges in body heightened…
None of it made sense to her but she continued reading, growing more incredulous by the second.
"Those are all your vitals, in case you were wondering," a voice said from the doorway.
Clare's head snapped up and found a silhouette of a man stalking towards her. When his face came into the light, she nearly gasped in shock.
The first thing she noticed was three angry red scars, leading from his temple down to his eye patch. His face was grim but there was nothing malicious in his expression. Clare found it strange that he was garbed in all black, as if his wardrobe had never seen the light of colors before.
"Clarity Jane Davis, my name is Nick Fury and I'm the director of S.H.I.E.L.D and will be your personal caretaker," he said bluntly. "Your safety is my responsibility and a cure for the manifestation of the radiation in your bloodstream is almost underway."
For once, Clare couldn't find anything sarcastic to say about his silly name, his blunt demeanor…she was lucky she managed to make a sound at all.
"Manifestation?" she squeaked out, suddenly finding her voice. "I don't understand what you mean."
The director gave her a leveled look as he proceeded to explain how an alien artifact had came crashing to space, the high level of gamma radiation it emitted had caused her genes to mutate, leaving her an unstable species. He then explained that the teams intelligence led by a man named Bruce Banner is trying their best to create a remedy to counter the manifestation her DNA was undergoing.
Through it all Clare listened attentively, her eyes growing wider and wider until she was sure they'd pop out of her skull. When he finished, she made a noise that sounded like a gasp and a groan together.
"So you mean to say that…that I'm a…" she refused to believe it.
"A mutant, yes," Nick Fury said, a hint of sympathy flashed in his dark eyes before it was replaced by hard determination.
Clare was silent, pondering. "Are you sure I'm not in one of those hidden camera sitcoms right now?" she asked doubtfully and for the briefest of moments, he cracked the smallest of smiles.
"If you are then this episode would've been the most expensive of them all," he replied curtly.
A sudden strange feeling came over Clare just then. Her whole body felt like it was being immersed in warm water that steadily grew warmer and warmer until it scalded her.
She struggled against the bonds when the scalding feeling intensified and she literally felt as if she was being burned alive.
"Wh-What's going on?" she asked as her teeth started chattering. The blood in her veins was boiling into an unknown crescendo.
The director was already in motion, typing into the monitor hastily, his features contorted into a grim expression. He clicked a single button a sudden charge went through her body, making her shudder. Clare slumped back onto the table, gasping and heaving.
Nick Fury wiped his brow as he gave her a hard stare.
"W-W-What's that?" she asked through her chattering teeth.
He sighed through his nose. "That…That was one of the side effects of manifestation," he explained.
It took all of Clare's strength to give him a questioning stare.
"Shocks…your body's reacting to the sudden surge by releasing electric charges to stabilize your DNA," he continued. "This would tire you out if it got out of hand."
Dizzily she replied, "Yeah, I think I got that memo," and she promptly faded back into the black.
~~O~~O~~