Hallo, people! Welcome to my new story! Yes, I know "Tineri, you already haven't updated all your other stories! Why're you coming out with another one?" Because I want to, that's why! XD Anyway, so yeah. Those will be updated in a bit. I wrote them all down somewhere and then immediately displaced their location.

Any-whoodles, I hope you enjoy it. I certainly enjoyed writing it. What's funny is I got the idea for this chapter from some James Bond movie, which is what the beginning of this is (with major differences, obviously). Anyways, have fun! :D


"Alright, Vash. Now we're going to play a little game." The man, who's only known name was "The Doctor", said in his stereotypical official voice. Vash smirked humorlessly from under his overgrown blonde bangs. This "little game" was something they played every day, with nearly identical results each session. The Doctor just repeated himself for theatrics and, Vash suspected, a recording/videoing device hidden somewhere around the stark little prison they called his home. He'd tried searching the room when they left him alone at night. But there was little he could do with the lockpick-proof cuffs hanging off his wrists like barbells. Every day he searched for a way out, a flaw in their system, but there never was one. The bastards knew what they were doing. They knew he was dangerous. That's why they drugged him, beat him, and limited his movement. They were scared of his quote-unquote "powers".

And they should be. Because the drugs in his system were gone.

"Okay, Vash. I'm going to say a word and you answer with the first word that pops into your head that you think corresponds with my word. Understood?" The Doctor's large round glasses glinted in the harsh florescent light. Vash sat with his head down. He didn't answer. He never did at the beginning of the game.

"Alright, here we go. Daylight." (Italicized words are the doctor's)

"Sunlight." Vash's answers were quick and murmured.

"Nighttime"

"Moonlight."

"Tree"

"Life"

The Doctor smirked and began using words that might trigger Vash's unstable side. For science, of course.

"Happiness"

"Lies"

"Disease"

"Death"

"Corruption"

"Government"

"Gun" Vash twitched at the word. His answer was strained.

"Security"

"Blood"

"Freedom"

"Freedom"

"Death"

"Weapon"

"Salvation"

Vash twitched, more violently this time, before doubling over with a groan of pain. This lasted for several seconds before he straightened back into his original position like nothing had happened. He lifted his head slightly. His eyes flashed. The Doctor's own eyes widened in surprise when he realized just how close Vash was to the edge. He stood up and shuffled his papers in a departing manner. As he turned to leave, he couldn't seem to help but mock the teen in front of him. Big mistake.

"Doctor" His departing word, the Doctor smiled like he had told a joke.

Vash's cheek twitched and he smiled wide. He looked up at the Doctor. His normally vibrant green eyes were gone. In their place was only a deep, unnatural blackness, devoid of white. When he spoke, his voice was not entirely his own. It was deeper and tinged with the whispers of nightmares hidden behind the eyes of a madman.

"EsCaPe"

Before the Doctor could react, Vash jumped up and kicked his chair toward the man, sending him toppling backward. Vash braced his wrists and pulled them apart as hard as he could. The lockpick-proof steel cuffs were no match for him as he pulled the metal until the chains broke with a short, high-pitched screech. He laughed, an insane giggle that was more breath than voice. Walking over to where The Doctor was picking himself up from the floor, he swiftly kicked the older man in the face. This sent him reeling back onto the floor. They greying man moaned in pain as blood flowed freely from his nose. His job description didn't seem to include any type of physical confrontation, which left him at the mercy of a very pissed off teen with unused abilities. Vash picked him up by what was left of his receding hair line and looked deep into the man's blue eyes.

"Check. Mate." He said, staring harder into the Doctor's blue orbs.

The man was practically crying from fear, his eyes glistening. With a growl, Vash grabbed the Doctor by the throat and slammed him hard against the wall. There was a loud crack and his body crumpled as Vash let him slide down the paneled metal. He smiled again. The man wasn't dead, but he certainly wasn't okay. Grabbing the key ring that the Doctor carried, Vash pushed flush against the wall next to the door blocking his escape.

He knocked softly, in the manner he had observed the Doctor using for so many months. The guards were usually supposed to open the door, let the Doctor out, and shut it, all while holding Vash at gunpoint. They must not have heard all the commotion, because he could hear the rustle and screech of locks and bolts being removed from the other side.

He'd have to take them all out.

The door slid open slowly, hesitantly. One guard entered the room with his gun drawn. Vash waited for him to completely enter the room before karate chopping him in the back of the neck. This was the only useful weak point in the guards' body armor from what he'd observed. The guard fell forward, knocked off balance. Vash used the guard's lapse in concentration to quickly swipe the gun from the man's hand. He immediately shot the guard in the back of the knee. It wouldn't stop him, but he shouldn't be able to move very fast.

Vash exited the room in a rush of adrenaline. This was the first time in awhile that he had let his powers take full control and it was taking its toll on him. He was shaking horribly, so he wouldn't be able to aim very well. Oh, well. It wasn't like he was aiming to kill. Of course, if he did kill someone, it wasn't like he was going to care.

"Oh, shit. He's out!"

The four guards standing outside of his room immediately opened fire. He grunted as a single bullet buried itself deep into his shoulder. Gritting his teeth, he growled and let the full extent of his power take over his body. Black liquid that slightly resembled oil or tar was now leaking from his black eyes. The bullets being fired at him seemed to slow down as his reaction time became several times faster than that of a normal human. He dodged and weaved through the bullets like a character straight from the Matrix. In reality, he had become nothing more than a blur. He managed to slip behind one of the guards. Vash used the man's body as a shield as he shot the three remaining guards in random areas. The guard he was holding slammed his head into Vash's, making the teen loosen his grip. The guard then tried to turn and shoot Vash.

Vash raised his gun and fired, sending the anonymous guard onto the ground like a child's discarded doll. Vash watched the blood pool out, forming a kind of morbid mirror. In it was the reflection of a child who had seen far too much in his 16 years of life. He looked away. Vash used the wall as a brace as he stood. As he walked, he noticed an alarm going off somewhere. One of the guards must have hit a panic button. He could hear more of them coming down the long, twisted corridor.

"Fuck!"

It wasn't like there was anywhere to hide! Frantically, he surveyed his surroundings. He noticed an irregularity in the cold metal of the walls, a kind of ledge jutting out from one of the panels. It would hurt like hell, but maybe he could brace himself against the wall? The hallway wasn't very large, maybe three and a half feet. He might have a chance...as long as none of them looked up. Their helmets usually blocked a good portion of their upper peripheral vision.

He jumped up, grabbed the ledge with his fingertips, and pulled himself up. Vash pushed off the wall with his foot and managed to catch the opposite wall by his heel. He was now parallel to the floor, maybe seven to eight feet off the ground. His power and muscular strength kept him from shaking as he stayed like this. He could feel the cold metal digging into his skin. The wound in his shoulder burned and he could feel his already dirty shirt staining crimson. Hopefully, it didn't get to his jacket. The voices and clomping of military issued boots got even louder. He was starting to make out voices.

"-Can't let this freak find It, or else he'll be unstoppable. Treat him as you would the enemy. He may look like a teenager, but he is anything but. Shoot with intent to kill!" A voice distorted by the metal walls said, loudly. A chorus of "yes, sir" followed his words. Obviously a higher-up. They rounded the corner with military precision (Vash had expected nothing less. After all, several of them were military from what he'd heard.) His heart pounded so hard that he was surprised none of them seemed to notice.

They marched under him without so much as a glance up.

He mentally sighed with relief before dropping silently to the ground. He smiled humorlessly at how that had worked so easily. After making sure no one had actually seen or heard him fall he kept running without looking back. The alarm filled his head and seemed to reverberate to his very soul (if he even had one). As he walked he could feel the madness that accompanied his powers begin to taint the edges of his vision. Though he was loathe to do so, he "turned off" the majority of his power. His senses stayed heightened as they often did when he was in danger. He moved farther into this maze of metallic mirrors.

Eventually he made it to a junction in the endless mess of steel hallways that only had two major choices. Taking a chance, he turned left and continued to explore the place that had been his prison for these last several years. The facility seemed as cold and void of anything human as its human counterparts...I guess that's what they call irony, huh? Vash thought as he crept. No, wait, that might not be right...

After a few minutes of walking, he thought he was able to distinguish another sound through the deafening siren and the humming of a faraway generator. It sounded like voices...and a lot of them. He thought as he drew closer that he could sense panic laced in the edges of their voices as well. Almost hysteria. Very hesitantly, he peeked around the corner from where the noise originated.

From what he could see, there were ten scientists running around a metal capsule shaped thing with a glass door. The door was fogged with what seemed like ice, so it was impossible to see its contents. In fact, the entire room was much colder than the rest of the facility. Vash could see his breath in little misty clouds.

They were discussing (or shouting) random bits of data that he neither understood nor cared about. What interested him was the metal capsule that so commanded their attention. This must have been what that higher-up was telling his subordinates about. This It.

"I-I really just don't understand these readings! It hasn't so much as breathed in the last few months since It was created and now It's vitals are off the charts...literally!" One scientist said, and from Vash's viewpoint he could tell she spoke the truth. The graph on the paper she held goes from a straight horizontal line to an angry mess of jagged inky teeth that end abruptly at the edge of the page. "I don't understand what that kid's blood did, but it isn't good!"

Kid?

Were they talking about him?

A sudden fuzzy memory rose from the depths of his mind. A memory of hazy figures in white lab coats strapping him to a table and taking his blood like a common lab rat. His teeth clenched in anger.

Without warning, another alarm started to go off. The experiment's capsule started to shake violently. Several steel bolts holding the metal capsule together shot off like a rocket. There was a shout of pain as the bolt hit an anonymous scientist in the abdomen. White mist poured from the now empty holes.

"What the hell is going on?!" The young female shouted.

"Something's happening to the interior of the capsule! The pressure's becoming too much for it to hold! If it continues like this, it'll explode!" Came the answer from the older man. Vash watched with interest as both adults ran around the room to different pieces of machinery (one of which exploded and nearly took the man with it). The other scientists had long since abandoned whatever this experiment was.

"I'm sorry, Annette. We have to leave! If we stay any longer we might die from the explosion of the experiment!" The man said. Annette looked devastated, but she nodded sadly.

"It hurts that we were so close...and yet, so far." She mumbled as they jogged out another door. With the room now empty, Vash made his way toward the experiment. His presence seemed to make the thing go even more haywire. The capsule was now shaking, the glass cracking. More of the bolts popped out of their sockets and ricocheted around the room. The room was filled with that mysterious mist that seemed much colder than regular air should be. He quickly ducked behind one of the big machines, and not a moment too soon. The pressure inside the capsule became too great for it to handle, as the scientist said, and it exploded.

Well, that's not really the proper word for it. The outer casing popped out like something had punched it, leaving the inner contents unharmed. Everything within a ten foot radius around the outside would've had a face and body full of metal fragments. Vash stood up after a few minutes and approached cautiously, unable to see through all the smoke and cold mist in the air. He thought he could see someone in the wreckage.

He stepped on a frozen piece of glass, which shattered. Frozen? Eventually, he made it to the shell that used to be the experiment. Coughing through the mist, he looked for any indication that whatever had been in there had survived the explosion.

Something moved.

"Is someone in there?" Vash asked in a low voice. A low moaning caught his attention. "Hello?"

"H-help." A small, almost non-existent voice whispered from the mist. It was starting to evaporate or go away or whatever mist does and he could see who was talking.

A young girl of about twelve was leaning against the remains of her prison. She was naked and shivering against the metal, but she didn't seem able to move. Her eyes were closed and her hair was frosted white from whatever had happened to her.

"What the hell?! Hold on, I'll get you." He said, feeling oddly protective of her. It might've been the fact that she was as much a prisoner as he had been. He shrugged off his jacket, wincing as the burn of his wound became more pronounced. Vash reached out and wrapped her in his jacket before pulling her carefully out. Out of instinct he immediately held her closer to him to try and warm her up (she was as cold as a corpse). After a few minutes, her eyelids fluttered, then opened to reveal pale green eyes... identical to his. Her mouth opened and a strangled whisper choked its way out.

"B-big brother?"


Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed. If anything seemed confusing, I apologize. I'm kinda bad at twisting things around in ways only I understand.

Well, anyways, comment what you think or PM me if you have any questions.

Love ya!

(Also, I'd like to point out that this is my longest chapter of anything ever! HA!)