Disclaimer: I didn't do a disclaimer in he first chapter because everything in it actually did belong to me, as does everything in this chapter. I figured I'd put it in anyway though. I don't know Avengers or Marvel.
Chapter 2
The Making Of A Hero
Jamie though it was going to be like every other exam she had been put through over the time she had been there. It started out that way. Jamie was dragged out of her cell by two guards. They strapped her to her usual examination table and Amir entered in shortly after. He went through the motions, checking her blood pressure and heart beat. Amir left the girl.
The green eyed girl stared at the door, waiting for the guards to retrieve her to transport her back to her cell. However, ten minutes passed and nobody came. Jamie started to get extremely worried. The people that ran whatever it was they were in were very meticulous when it came to schedules and routine. Something very wrong had to be happening, or good.
Just when she really started to freak out, Amir walked back in with several guards. He stood in front of the girl, with a weary look on his face. "I am so sorry, my dear," he told her. "I tried to talk them out of this, but they only threatened my daughter in turn."
Jamie didn't like the sound of that. She pulled at her bindings, but she was tied down too tightly. Her fidgeting made the guards more nervous though.
"We are going to bring you into the next room and put you in a pod. Once inside, we will expose you to gamma radiation."
Gamma radiation? Jamie's face fell even more. She knew very well that too much exposure to any sort of radiation could kill her or give her cancer, or simply make her sick in a situation she where she most certainly couldn't afford to be sick. She needed all the strength she could get in order to survive that hell.
Jamie struggled more, but it was no use. The guards were in much better health than Jamie. The girl screamed and tried to get out of their hold, but it was no use. Before she knew it, Jamie was forced into the pod. She was strapped down and the top closed over her.
The brunette was panicking. She beat against the cover of the container, desperately trying to escape. Her breathing quickened to the point where she was hyperventilating. "Let me out! Get me out of here! Please! I can't breathe! Get me out!"
Jamie only stopped yelling when the loud machine powered up, freaking her out even more. She tried even harder to break out. She had accepted that she was most likely going to die in their captivity, but she didn't want to die like that.
And then the pain came. If the guards had thought she had been screaming loudly before, it was nothing compared to what she was doing then. Jamie could only try and describe the pain she experienced. It was hard to find the words to depict an accurate representation. It felt as if she was being burned to death, her skin ripped away from her body little by little.
It was another week before Jamie even had the strength to wake up, let alone become aware of her surroundings. She wasn't so much in pain anymore than uncomfortable. She felt overly energized and it was weird for her, seeing as she had been so tired the whole time she had been captive there.
The second thing that she became aware of was how cold she was. She finally managed to open her eyes, finding that everything around her was blurry, and that her eyes stung whenever she opened them. Shortly after that, Jamie could finally determine the reason she was so cold. She was in water, an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth to allow her to breathe.
That alone freaked her out. When she could move, she kicked out in front of her, hitting the glass container. Her kick forced her backward, her back hitting the other side of the glass. She pushed trying desperately to break it.
She glanced around looking for a way out when she saw that the top was open, with a man leaning over the top to look down at her. When he noticed that she was awake and her eyes on him, she panicked and slammed the metal top shut, trapping her in. What he didn't realize was that in doing so, the top cut off the oxygen that was being fed to her through the mask and tube.
Jamie didn't realize this until all that she had left was water. She thrashed at the glass. She needed to get out of there otherwise shew as going to drown. Being shot in battle, blown up even, was a far better way for her to die, she found. No matter how painful it was, she didn't care. She just didn't want to die at the hands of the mad men that held her and her comrades prisoner.
She wasn't going to die like that. Not if she had anything to do about it.
And with that though, all of that energy that Jamie had felt when she woke up surged through her, almost pulsing through her body. She placed her hands on either side of her on the glass, her feet in front of her, her back against the glass behind and pushed. A blue flaming light blanketed the girl, and as she pushed, radiated out from her, shattering the glass before dissipating.
Jamie fell to the floor onto the slippery floor covered in glass, coughing and gasping for the air her lungs desperately needed. Several feet in front of her was Amir, eyes wide. He was frozen, unaware of what to do, or even how to react.
Before she could do anything else, a needle was jabbed into her neck by someone she hadn't seen or heard behind her. She was out several seconds later.
The next time Jamie woke up, she was in much more pain than the first. As she had thought before, she felt extremely off, as if something inside her body was odd; different. Whatever was surging through her body was causing her great discomfort, so much so that it had been what woke her up from her slumber.
However, unlike the last time she awoke, Jamie was now strapped down to her usual exam chair. The lights were dimmed, and at first, Jamie thought that they were only running on emergency lights from the generator, but then she realized otherwise. And the color of the lighting was different as well. Instead of the slightly yellow tint from the bulbs above, the room glowed in a soothing light blue.
Despite the pain, Jamie pulled at her restraints, desperate to get out of there. She couldn't take getting poked anymore. She had dealt with it for far too long. She should have come up with a plan with the others a year ago, right after they had been captured, and their numbers were still high. Now there were only four of them. But four was better than nothing, right? They could still get out of there!
"You need to relax."
Jamie's head snapped to her right at the sound of Amir's voice. She didn't know how to take Amir. The man looked exhausted, slumped over in his usual seat. Was this the man that had taught her how to understand the people around her, or was this the man that put her into that radiation chamber? Could she trust him? Had he ever actually been on her side?
"I am glad to see that you are doing well," Amir told her. "But I must insist, for everybody's well being, that you take a deep breathe and relax."
"Relax?" Jamie gaped. "Relax? You want me to relax? What the hell did you people do to me? I-I feel different. Something's wrong! What did you do to me?"
Amir wheeled closer to the girl, making sure to still stay a good distance away from her to make her feel better. He knew he needed to gain her trust back. He leaned forward, resting his elbows against his knees. The light blue light in the room tinted his skin oddly.
"You took to the radiation far better than Dr. Hull could ever have imagined, though the resulting effects were a shock to everybody," Amir said. "He is quite pleased, though I do not know if this is a good thing or a bad thing."
"What. Did. It. Do. To. Me?" she demanded.
"The chemicals and drugs accepted into your system in combined with the gamma radiation has somehow created an energy source contained within your body. It wasn't quite the effect Dr. Hull was looking for. He hypothesized that the experiment would result in enhanced strength, speed, senses. In turn, he was presented with an unlimited power source. A clean energy contained within a soldier."
"W-What does that mean?" Jamie wasn't following whatsoever. "An energy source in my body? Clean energy?"
"You said it yourself; you can feel something is different inside of you," Amir said. "That is the energy." Amir sat back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, one of his legs crossing over the other. "Have you not wondered why the room is blue?"
She had, but she had figured it was the lighting. Looking up again, Jamie focused her eyes on the lights once more, before they widened. The lights weren't on at all.
"Right now, your body is determining if it wants to accept what is occurring, or if it should be rejected. If your body rejects the change, I will not lie, you will die. But, to me, it seems that your body is accepting the change. That is why, as we speak, you body admits this faint light. This light is part of the energy surging through you."
Jamie averted her eyes from the lights, turning her head to the side to look into the two-way mirror on the wall next to her. Blue eyes looked back at her instead of her normal bright green eyes. They widened, staring at the stranger in the reflection.
"M-My eyes?" Jamie gaped. "My eyes are blue. Why are my eyes blue? They're supposed to be green! Where are my green eyes?"
"We discovered that they had changed color when you woke up the first time, in the stabilizing tank," Amir informed her. "They say the eyes are the window to the soul. It appears, in your case, your eyes are the window to your energy."
"I want my eyes back," the young soldier muttered. "T-This isn't right."
"I don't know of a way to get your eyes back for you, child. I am sorry," he said.
"What about the glow? Am I going to be a walking glow stick for the rest of my life?" Jamie muttered.
Amir leaned forward again, "Though, there might be a way," Amir mumbled.
"What?" Jamie asked desperately.
"Your ability is not stable," he said. "You are going to need to learn how to control it. Dr. Hull has already arranged for you to train with several of the strongest guards here. When you learn to control it, perhaps you will not be, how did you put it, 'a walking glow stick,' but that is just a theory."
It was a theory, but it was more than what she had before. She would just have to go with it. It was her only hope if she wanted to return to whatever sense of normalcy she had left.
"This Dr. Hull, he's the guy in charge, isn't he?" Jamie asked.
"Yes, he is, though I wish that you keep that quiet," Amir said. "I was not supposed to mention anything about him, whatsoever."
"He wants to weaponize it," Jamie muttered. "You said he expected the experiment to go differently. To basically created a Super-Soldier."
"That is what I believe, now that all of this has happened," he said. "I remember when I first got here, I had no clue what I was to be looking for, or why it was Dr. Hull was having me inject you soldiers with these chemicals. Now knowing, I wish I did not have any knowledge about it. Perhaps I would have a cleaner conscience."
"So he's making due with what he's given," Jamie muttered in thought. "No matter what, he wants a powerful army. He may not have super strength or speed, but he has energy. Right, like I'd willingly put myself through that. To allow him to get what he wants."
"Perhaps you are not looking at it the correct way," Amir stated.
"What do you mean?" Jamie asked. "What other way is there to think? I mean, I'm a soldier. I'm not supposed to aid the enemy."
"No, you see, if you are able to control this ability, and you are able to fight with it, imagine all of the possibilities. You could get each and every one of us out of here. Nobody else would have to go through an experiment like what you have gone through again."
"So you want me to give him exactly what he wants so we can get what we want?" Jamie said. "I don't think so. There has to be another way out of here without giving him that. There is no way I'm helping him."
"I'm afraid it may not be that easy," Amir told her.
Jamie was kept in that room for two weeks, or so she believed. They had to make sure she was under constant watch, just in case they needed to sedate her quickly. According to Amir, the scientists were working on creating something to neutralize her the energy flow.
It was driving Jamie mad not being able to move whatsoever. Originally, she had thought the small cells they were kept in were unbearable. Now? She just wanted to stand up and stretch her legs. At least in the cells they could stand up and pace several steps.
Amir, once getting confirmation that she wouldn't try anything, unstrapped her arms at least, allowing for her to move her arms and rub her sore wrists. Most of her discomfort was coming from not being able to move now, not the unusual amount of energy pulsing through her body. She was slowly getting used to the foreign feeling.
The glow, however hadn't gone away. With nothing to do as she was strapped to the chair most of the time, Jamie tried to focus on the feeling of the energy moving inside her. She tried to slow it down, hoping that it would help diminish the blue. Nothing seemed to be working though. Perhaps it was because of how annoyed and uncomfortable she was with being tied down the whole time though. It always seemed that when she was extremely agitated the glow would intensify. So maybe the light was also connected to how she was feeling?
Everything was just so new to her. It was like she had to completely learn how to be a different person. Thinking about how different she was now brought her down quite a bit. Amir had to, almost daily, talk the girl out of putting herself down.
And those thoughts seemed to become more frequent as training started. For the first couple of the sessions Jamie refused to partake: which, of course, ended up with her in a complete beatdown. The only helpful thing that came out of those sessions was the knowledge that she healed faster than a regular person due to the new energy coursing through her veins.
The test was to try and get the girl to learn how to turn off the glow around her body. Jamie was forced into a pitch black room, obstacles placed in various places throughout the place to hide behind, or jump on or over, and whatnot. Two other individuals were thrown into the mix. The name of the game was for Jamie to get the glow to disappear in order to prevent the attackers from getting her.
Jamie, of course, couldn't see any of what was going on due to the fact that it was pitch black. It was like when carrying a lantern right next to your face. All you can see is that light, and the darkness around you just seemed so much darker. For the attackers, however, it made it extremely easy to attack her.
Jamie had black eyes, knife wounds that required stitches, broken ribs, but that was almost as severe as the injuries got. The was covered in bruises and was extremely sore and tired, but it was nothing that wouldn't heal rather quickly with her new found healing factor. That didn't mean Amir was any less upset with her for not trying at all when he treated her wounds.
Jamie just didn't want to give into Dr. Hull whatsoever. If that meant she had to get beaten on a regular basis, so be it.
Jamie lie in her chair, staring down at her hand and she desperately focused on it. her clenched fist. She was getting rather aggravated with herself, as she tried to make the light on her hand go away. Why wouldn't her body listen to her? She just wanted the glow to go away. She just wanted to be normal again. Jamie wanted to be herself.
But how the hell was she supposed to be herself when she glowed like a freaking glowstick? How could she be who she was when she was disgusted even looking at herself in the mirror now? Her didn't even belong to her anymore. When she stared at herself with those vibrant blues, all she could think was how much she missed her green eyes. How she hated the fact that everything about her was different.
Jamie growled in frustration, hitting her head against the back of the seat. Her head didn't stay there for very long though, because a moment later the door opened and Amir walked in, glancing behind him hesitantly as she quickly shut the door. He looked uneasy as he made his way over to the brunette.
"What's wrong?" Jamie asked.
"I do not have much time to speak to you alone," he informed her. "Dr. Hull has created a neutralizing agent for your abilities. They feel much safer injection you with it and putting you back in the cells while you are not in training."
"A neutralizing agent?" Jamie asked. "Wait, so they can turn it off?" Jamie was almost overjoyed to hear that. Would that mean she could be normal again? She could get her green eyes back, and stop glowing like a freak?
"Yes, but it is only temporary," Amir said. "The effects wear off. It is also a way to make sure you stay in check. If you do not do what they want, they will not hesitate to use it against you."
"But it'll still make it go away?" Jamie asked hopefully.
"I do not believe you see how much of a gift this ability could be if only you choose to see it as such," Amir said. "You could help save your men, stop this group of people from doing this again, change the world even! How can you be so close minded about this?"
"Closed minded? You're not the one that glows in the dark!" Jamie yelled angrily. "A gift! Even if I ever got out of here, I could never go out in public again without being the center of attention. I would be a walking neon sign!"
"That is only because you choose to not believe in yourself. You are not embracing what has happened. You have not accepted it so you can not possibly learn to control it when all you do it selfishly pity yourself. Perhaps you should stop thinking about yourself and think about your men out there!"
Before anything more could be said, the door opened and in walked two guards. One of which was holding a small handgun. Once the door was closed, Amir moved back, gulping as the guard with the gun raised his hand, pointing the weapon at her.
Holy shit, he's going to shoot me, Jamie thought. He said a neutralizing agent, not a bullet! For fucks sake, neutralizing means kill?
Jamie struggled against her bindings, the energy inside her flaring up even more as she tried desperately, to no avail, to get out of the chairs hold. As the young woman struggled, the blue light surrounding her grew brighter, stronger. The energy recognized her distress, powering up stronger, ready to be used to attack whenever she so desired. This, of course, was not recognized by Jamie.
The change made the guards uneasy. So instead of waiting for the other guards instruction, the guard with the gun fired, landing the shot to the girl's shoulder.
The pain that engulfed Jamie was almost worse than the actual experiment with the radiation. At first it felt like a regular gunshot wound, which wasn't pleasant to begin with. A second after the impact, Jamie felt the neutralizing agent enter her body. Jamie screamed, the liquid fire spreading through her bloodstream. After the fire spread everywhere in her body, she felt much colder, as if someone had injected ice water through an IV.
The brunette stopped thrashing, completely out of breathe, in pain and in exhaustion. Jamie's head turned to the side, her eyes landing on the two-way mirror as the two went to untie her. The blue glow no longer coated her body and her green eyes stared back at her with no emotion whatsoever.
She didn't just feel cold though. She thought she would have been happy to be closer to normal. She thought she's be overjoyed, actually. But instead of feeling those emotions, she just felt empty, as if something was extremely wrong. Originally she thought the new energy was the worst she could feel, that she was completely out of place and that nothing fit; it was all different. But now, with the energy neutralized, all Jamie could feel was wrong.
Perhaps Amir was right. Maybe the energy wasn't what was wrong. Maybe it was Jamie herself for being unable to accept the change.
Jamie was pulled out of the chair like a rag doll. Her feet dragged against the floor, her head and limbs completely lip as they took her back to the holding cells. The two guards stopped for a brief moment, and Jamie heard the doorway to the cells slam against the wall before they continued forward.
The green eyes girl could practically feel the stares of her fellow soldiers as they dragged her limp body down the hallway. She knew she had to appear dead from her appearance and her form. Once they passed their cell and were out of sight, she could hear them turn to one another, whispering quietly.
"If it killed Jamie, what hope do we have," Pat mumbled to the two other men in his cell. "I mean, she was the one most receptive to whatever the hell they're giving us."
"Normally I disagree with you," Aaron muttered. "But you have a point. What are we going to do, James? We can't just sit here and let the same thing happen to us."
Jamie was thrown into her cell, the door slamming shut behind her. She remained motionless on the ground, afraid that if she dared to even shift her lie on her back, that the fiery pain would shoot thru her body once more. Though, perhaps she would have preferred the physical pain instead of the hollow feeling inside of her now.
"We've gotta get out of here," James said.
"I'm not dead," Jamie sighed, speaking loud enough for the group to hear down the cell block.
"Jamie?" Aaron yelled. She heard footsteps, and she assumed he ran towards the cell door, trying to get closer to her to hear her better. "You're alive?"
"Is that what this is?" she muttered coldly. "Living."
"Oh you bitch," he sighed, with an amused huff. She could hear that he was just glad she was alive. "I could have sworn-"
"Where have you been?" Pat interrupted. "It been, like, a month since they last took you!"
"She was back there, obviously," Aaron pointed out. "What did they do to you?"
Jamie sighed, finally shifting to her back with a grunt. She tried to keep off her shoulders, where the small bleeding hole from the neutralizer hit her. With the arm that wasn't in pain, she lifted it up, draping it across her eyes. She was so tired. "I don't want to talk about it," she informed them.
"Jamie," James muttered, his voice filled with an emotion she couldn't recognize without seeing his face. "They didn't," he sighed before continuing, "rape you, did they?"
The brunette shook her head, almost as if they could see her. "No," she stated. "No, they didn't."
"Good, because if they had, I swear to God I would ha-"
"Give it a rest, Aaron," Jamie interrupted. Of course her best friend would say something like that. He had threatened to kill her last boyfriend that cheated on her. Of course he would react the same way to the thought of her being raped. "They didn't. I'm...I'm okay."
She wasn't okay, but what else was she supposed to say? "I'm a glowing freak of nature?" They wouldn't believe that. She wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't gone through it herself.
She barely even believed it now.
The first chapter of this story got a lot more followers and favorites than I originally thought it would get. So thank you guys so much for that! If you guys liked it, please review. The more reviews and comments I get, the better the story could get, so please leave your feedback! Thanks guys and I hope you all enjoyed the chapter.
Thanks for to the following for their reviews:
seasidewriter1: Thank you so much for checking this out. It really means a lot to me. I'm also glad you liked it, and wondered how they were going to get out. I was hoping somebody would think forward and question that. You shall see soon enough, I promise. Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed this chapter as well, or more so than the first (a writer can always hope) and I can't wait for another update with We Are The Warriors.
mun3litKnight: I'm glad your interested in the story! Thank you so much for reviewing. It means a lot to me. It won't be too much longer for you to wait to really see where it's going to go, and what Jamie's roll is going to be. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter.
