Laurel woke up in a start, breath heavy, skin ice-cold. That wasn't right. It was normal to have nightmares, to be jerked awake in the middle of the night. But her skin…she should still be doing her 'inner toaster' thing, as Mark put it.
"Wha…?" Now she'd begin to examine her surroundings, and in the first second she could easily confirm her suspicions. Something was definitely wrong.
How could she tell?
Well, it might have something to do with the fact that she was in a tube. Laurel pressed her hands frantically against the surface, fighting off the sudden awareness of how small the walls around her were, how everything was closing in…
Deep breaths. Laurel took a shuddering breath, shuffling her feet around on the clear glass. This was not the time to have a panic attack; it was the time to strategize. She breathed out once more, and then raised her head to look around. She was in a...lab of some sort? Well, that didn't make any sense. This looked nothing like the facilities at the Circle's HQ.
Laurel tried to think back, so that she could figure out just what was going on. She remembered…going to the beach. Right, she'd went with Helena...and Alex…and Mark. They'd stayed there all day, and then…she'd stayed behind to see the sun set! Right. That was right. As more memories filled her mind, the more excited she became. Finally, she was getting somewhere.
But that's where the trail stopped. She never got to see the sunset; she remembered that at the least. Something else had come up…oh. She winced just thinking about it. Someone had attacked her, dragged her into the water. And then, after she thought that they were down, they must have got up again and knocked her out. That would explain the dull pain pounding away at the back of her skull.
So then, they must have brought her here, to this…this…ward. Laurel craned her neck, looking around the room for some sort of clue as to where she was. She'd have to worry about escape later- there was no way she could pull anything off with her strength totally sapped. Her eyes narrowed in on one of the diagrams on a board- with the label 'Eclipsion files'. Her blood ran cold. Not that conspiracy group again. Hadn't they already meddled with her life enough?
Another thought skipped through her mind, this one more frightening than the thought of being in the Eclipsions' clutches.
Brook had told her before that it was suspected that her dad had been captured by the Eclipsions for testing. 'Something about his unique genes…
Was it possible that they wanted her, too?
Laurel gritted her teeth. She wouldn't it let it come to that; to end up as a guinea pig for these horrid people. She just wouldn't.
So, how to do that? Like she'd said before, escape was out of the option. But maybe she could contact the Circle and arrange a rescue mission for herself. Her hand went to her wrist, but- of course -the Eclipsions had been smart enough to take away her communicator.
She sighed deeply. What a mess she was in.
"Ah, so Sleeping Beauty has finally awoken from her slumber."
"Huh?" Laurel's head whipped around, trying to locate the source of the sound. Somehow, the voice was familiar. So was the demeanor that it brought with it- cold and hurtful, though there were underlying tones of despair in it, like the person was silently crying out for help with every vindictive word they spoke.
"Over here, princess." The voice came again, and Laurel swore that she could hear him (by now she had determined that the voice was male) smirking as well.
"So not funny." Laurel muttered, turning her head again and regarding the room, almost expecting him to pop out from a microscope or something.
"You certainly enjoyed that bio-stasis tube." Now the man- or actually, teen, as it appeared -came into view in front of Laurel, rapping on the glass of the tube that enclosed her as if she were a fish in an aquarium.
Now that she had a better look at him, she could see that he was actually…cute, with scruffy black hair and piercing blue eyes. In a skater, rebel kind of way. Not so much her type. And soooo not the time. She was supposed to be angry at this guy.
"Why you little-" She growled, clenching her fists.
"You were only supposed to be knocked out for a day or so, but for whatever reason you went into a deep sleep for at least a week. 'Must've been from all that excess life energy you used on your few latest missions." He breezed on.
This conversation was making Laurel uncomfortable. The guy knew everythingabout her, from her powers, to her affiliation with the Circle, and meanwhile she didn't even know his name. At least he was providing some viable information to her. Now she knew why her skin was so unnaturally cold, as well as why she was in a freaking tube.
"Huh. Well, thanks for the intel, Mr. Man of Mystery." Laurel responded, lifting an eyebrow. If there was one thing that she was good at, it was getting underneath people's skin. She'd learned before that it angered her enemies, making them spill more info by accident.
"No problem." The teenager brushed off her words as if they were nothing. "It's not like we're going to let you get out of here alive."
The realization of what he'd just said struck her hard, and Laurel took a second or two to recover. Urgh. That was exactly what he wanted; to make her think that there was no hope left for her, to break her spirit and then leave her crippled. But that wasn't going to work on her.
Not in the least.
"Really?" Laurel purposely stood up a little straighter, trying to seem bright and determined. "I'm flattered. No one else has cared so much to go to such extremes for me." She took the whole thing like a big compliment. "I wonder why. It's not like I'm so important."
Something changed in her other's face- and it looked like envy. Weird. Whatever the reason, he was definitely riled up now. And that was exactly what Laurel wanted. "Don't underestimate yourself. We need your life energy powers to complete our next phase of weapons- though, after that, you can consider your death imminent." He said coldly. "You should be happy. You're helping us to win a war. And these new hybrids will be much…" He seemed to have trouble getting the words out. "…Better. More efficient."
Laurel was starting to piece things together. Weapons. Hybrids. Life energy. Brook had started off as an experiment, a weapon to aid in the overthrowing of the Terralitian government. She said that they enhanced her genes through multiple tests, streamlining them to her DNA code. Other 'weapons' had been hybrids of different animals; appearing normal but retaining all the attributes of a tiger and a rabbit, for example. It was difficult to explain. Brook had also mentioned that the Eclipsions were only able to use hybrids and clones because, if they were to completely create a new life form (and it was possible, given all the alien technology Terralite had) they would need an immensely large life energy source.
That must be where she came in.
As disturbing as the information was, Laurel tried to stomach it and continued with her mini-interrogation. She'd realized something else now, while she'd been deciphering the teen's body language and emotions displayed in his voice. "So…you're the one who brought me here, didn't you?" Laurel pressed. She knew that it was true. Their appearance was the same, and so was their voice. "And you're one of those hybrids. The Eclipsions must've sent you out to do their dirty work." That's why he was so bitter. He was being forced to capture the one person who, essentially, had the power to create a whole army of replacements for him.
The teenager's expression was murderous. That was expected, of course.
But she persisted. "But hey, that's cool! Nothing like being a second-rate henchman to make you feel good about yourself. I mean, do you have a cool supervillain identity or something? That might make you seem a little less lame." Laurel advised.
The way that he was twitching suggested that he was holding back from snapping her neck. Apparently he wasn't so calm and collected after all.
"You can call me Isaac." He finally got out. "Or, more appropriately, the Blackwing Dragon."
What happened next, she hadn't been prepared for at all.
Isaac spread his arms wide and unfolded his wings. Yep, wings. A 13-foot span of pure jet black, the scales glittering malevolently. The sight of them struck fear into her heart, and she leaned back as far as she could in the stass tube.
"Scared?" Isaac chuckled, clearly pleased at getting the upper hand.
"N-no.." Laurel struggled to say.
Isaac leaned in close, until only the thin glass of the tube separated them. "Well, you should be. Night night, Laurel." His lip curled in a smirk, and he hit a button on the outside of the tube.
Stasis chemicals sprayed throughout the tube, and Laurel's eyes slowly fluttered shut against her will, all the way while she cried out for help, horror frozen onto her expression upon realizing that he knew even more about her than she'd thought.