Heyo! To the characters who aren't completely finished growing, I need ya help! If you would, could you let me know how tall your character will end up being as an adult? For future references :)
In the next chapter the rest of the characters and backgrounds will be revealed ;) and Mike gets into a routine of sorts.
It'll also hopefully not take as long as this chapter so sorry about that XD
Like I said last chapter, I tweaked and/or slightly changed some of you guys abilities, but only so I could match it up with the story line because these abilities are important for the future of this story :) :)
I also hope you guys like the backstories! If they're terrible or completely wrong just PM me and I'll fix it!
"Axel, show Mike to your room and help him settle down, and in an hour we'll have a meeting, you know, so Mike can get to know everyone, and then dinner." Shawn told him. Axel nodded and grinned at Mike, motioning for him to follow. Shawn handed him his bag and he looked down at his feet as he followed Axel down the hall.
"It's not much but I'm pretty sure it's better than the cell you were in." He babbled, opening the door and walking in.
"Did he really just fucking say that?" Mike heard Kali say, and smirked. It didn't really bother him, at least Axel would, hopefully, be a good distraction for a while.
He followed him in the room, instantly noticing that there were double beds on either side of the room, one made up, the other utterly destroyed, the blanket on the floor, a pillow at the foot of the bed, and a pile of clothes on top. "Yeah, ignore that. I have to do laundry." He waved at the bed and turned to him. "Ender, Polly, and CeCe went out and stole a shit ton of stuff a couple months ago, furniture mainly, and some dishes and all that shit. The only reason we have dressers and desks are because of them." Mike nodded and set his bag on the bed. "So, I think I'm gonna leave you to it, let you get settled in. If you want to unpack your bag, the last three drawers are empty. We'll all be right down the hall." Mike nodded again and Axel left, closing the door but leaving it cracked. He sat on the bed and leaned against the wall, sighing and closing his eyes.
Hey El? You there?
It was a couple seconds before she answered.
Yeah, I'm here. Are you okay? Are you there yet?
Yeah, we're here. I'm supposed to get settled in my room, I'm sharing with Axel.
I miss you already.
I miss you too, El. I wish you could've come with me but it's safer this way. And better for you.
How is me being away from you better? For all you know I could have followed you guys.
Mike couldn't help but chuckled at that.
Shawn and Axel would've sensed you and told me if you did, El. I slept a little on the ride here but then we all had a conversation about you.
About me? Why?
There's a good reason Kali didn't want you coming with us, and I agree with her.
Why?
Well, for one, the labs off your radar now. They think you're actually dead, and they'd be after me.
But I'd be in hiding with you and I'd be even safer!
That might be true, but we both want you to have a normal life, Ellie. As normal as possible, at least. I mean, you've got school and friends and family now, real family, and we don't want to take it away from you.
I'd rather be with you, you know that.
I wish it could be that way. I really do, but it can't be. I don't care as long as your safe and happy.
I'm not happy without you!
This conversation continued for another ten minutes or so, and then went on to talking to his mom, sisters and the Party through El.
"Hey, dude, you alright in here?" Axel asked, sticking his head in the door. Mike opened his eyes.
"Um, yeah, just been talking to my girlfriend. Has it been an hour already?" He asked. Axel nodded. "Um, okay, let me tell her and I'll be there in a minute."
"We'll be in a room a little further down the hall this way," He pointed down the hall. "In the classroom. Just follow the voices and the door will be open." Mike nodded and Axel left again.
I have to go, we're having a meeting or something I think. I'll talk to you after, okay?
Okay...Promise?
Promise. I love you.
I love you too.
He got up and went down the hall, following the voices like Axel had said. He bit his lip as he shuffled into the room, thankful that all the attention didn't come back on him as soon as he walked through the door. There were a bunch of desks in rows, what looked like a teachers desk at the front, with stacks of papers on it, a giant bookshelf with a crapton of textbooks, and a blackboard at the front. The walls were completely bare, other than a stick figure drawing that had apparently been the work of Andi, as she'd signed her name under it.
"This doesn't look like a classroom." He muttered, but apparently, they all heard him and turned to look at him.
"What do classrooms look like?" John asked. Mike looked at him, noticing the black hair and black eyes, kind of nervous with how big the guy was. He didn't know most of their names, and definitely didn't know their abilities, but he had to guess his was super strength.
"Um, well, most teachers made posters and stuff. You know, about what we were learning? They'd put them up on the wall and stuff, try to make it exciting."
"Could we do something like that?" CeCe asked. He shrugged.
"I mean yeah, I could help make some posters. You just need poster boards." They stared at him, confused. "You don't know what poster boards are?" They shook their heads. "Um, it's basically, uh, just big pieces of paper or cardboard, sometimes plastic."
"Oh, so like cardboard from a box?" Nora asked.
"Well not exactly but that would work." He shrugged.
"I think Mike's gonna be teaching us more than we teach him." Brittany joked, and Kali snorted, nodding in agreement.
"He's really smart for his age, so he'll probably be able to help you guys out with your schooling while he does his."
"I have school?" He asked, cocking his head. She nodded.
"Yep, we have a bunch of workbooks and stuff for every grade." Mike made an impressed face and nodded.
"So, I think we should maybe introduce everyone to Mike, right?" Mack asked. They all shrugged or nodded. "You can sit anywhere if you want." She told him. He nodded and sat in the empty seat next to Axel, who grinned at him.
"John, you first." Kali said. "We'll go in order of number." John nodded.
"Well, I'm John Smith, I was experiment number one. I'm twenty two, and I have super strength. I was supposed to be the perfect soldier, without any kind of attachment. As in, no emotions, nothing like that, like I was supposed to kill without remorse, but it didn't turn out that way. They ended up throwing me out because I wasn't what they wanted, and they went on the hunt for another like me. Pretty sure they didn't find one though."
"When was this?" Mike asked.
"About a year ago." He said, shrugging. "Some of the labs aren't exactly...as productive as they should be."
"More like most of them, fucking idiots." CeCe muttered.
"How many labs are there?" Mike asked.
"As far as we know, eight, including
Hawkins lab." Shawn replied. Mike nodded.
"So...when they get rid of an experiment, they literally just try and replace them?" He asked. "Number and all?" A couple of them nodded.
"Yeah, that's why our age gaps are so random. You'd think the first one would be the oldest, and the most recent the youngest, but that's not the case. Ender figured that out because of her teleportation."
"Yeah, before I escaped I found some of the official documents and stole them. They're somewhere in my room." She shrugged.
"I ended up finding out about the bunker through Axel a couple months ago, around September." John said, Axel nodded in agreement, grinning. "He knew Kali and introduced me, and they took me in."
"Nora, your turn." Mike turned to her as she started speaking. She light blue eyes and copper hair.
"I was experiment number two, and I'm eighteen. I'm a shapeshifter, but it's just with my features. Like, I can change color of my hair and eyes, facial features, stuff like that. I can change others too, like I could make your hair longer or lighter if I wanted to."
"Yeah, for us who escaped, if we go outside she'll change some of our features." Axel said, grinning. "It's really cool. Not as cool as fire, but ya know." Mike cracked a smile at that.
"I'm not sure what my entire backstory is, but I do know is that I wasn't in the lab my entire life. The first number two experiment could shapeshift into animals, but they ended up forcing the guy to do it too much and drained him, and he died. I was four, I think, when they got me. I don't remember life before the lab though. I escaped by turning myself into one of the scientists who were supposed to be off that day. I pretended that I left something and then just walked out."
"These lab workers are stupid." Mike said, rolling his eyes.
"That's why the can't keep experiments for more than twenty years." Nora shrugged. "I escaped when I was seventeen. I found, well, Catherine found me, and we lived in the woods for a while, and then Shawn found us in August." He nodded.
"I'm next, I guess. I'm number three, and my name is Polly, short for Polybius. I'm 18." She said. She had straight brown hair and blue eyes. Mike raised an eyebrow.
"But you're so fucking tall. You look older." She chuckled and shrugged.
"I guess I just had good genetics. I was born in the lab. My mom worked there, but got in an accident so I was born prematurely. They took care of me and I thought they meant good for years, but I escaped when I was sixteen. I lived on the streets for a while, until I met Shawn and Kali."
"I'm Brittany, number four, and I'm the oldest, twenty five. As you can see, earth manipulation is my ability." She said. "I can make shields, make the earth move, like an earthquake, but Andi's better at that." She winked at Andi, who snorted. "I can create underground rooms as well, for hiding and such." Mike nodded. "I met John and Mack on a grocery run a couple months ago and they took me in. I was living in the streets too."
"You already know about us two." Mack said, gesturing to her and Shawn.
"But what about your story?" He asked. Mack sighed, making a face like it was gonna kill her to explain.
"Basically, I was in a lab in Britain, and one of the guards took pity on me when I was six and we both escaped and moved here." She said. "After that, that lab shut down and hasn't been involved with the Projects since as far as we know. I met Kali at a park."
"Where is he now?"
"He lives in an apartment in the city." She told him.
"Why don't you go to school?" She shrugged.
"He thought homeschooling was best. He homeschools all of us, actually." He nodded and looked at Shawn.
"I found the bunker by total accident. It was abandoned, apparently, as no one has ever come back here, other than us. I was just walking around in the woods and stepped on the door. A couple days later, I found Kali in an alley. She scared the shit outta me too, had snakes wrapping around my arms." He gave her a pointed look and she snorted. "We ended up partnering up and started transforming the bunker. Then we started finding everyone else." He said, and then nodded towards CeCe, who had brown hair and blue eyes.
"I was number seven, and I'm fourteen. I can teleport and fly. I escaped from the lab when I was six, and I don't really remember much from before or after, really. I stayed with some people up until I was about thirteen and ran away for uh, reasons, and found out about the bunker through Andi."
"You know who I am," Axel said, bowing playfully. "The lab was about to kill me because my powers aren't exactly useful, but I escaped with my insane ability to sneak around-"
"What's your definition of sneak?" Andi asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Shh." He shushed her, grinning cheekily. "I was telling him my story Princess, shush it."
"Hey, Kali?" Andi asked. Kali looked at her. "Can I electrocute him?"
