Laurel breathed out slowly, concentrating her powers. Isaac had been stupid to underestimate her.
When the stasis chemicals had sprayed over her, Laurel had struggled to stay awake. So she'd used some of her inner life energy as a sort of barrier, spreading it over so that she would never fully go unconscious. She'd been in a haze for the past few days, but it meant that she was also able to recharge her energy.
Several whitecoats had entered and left the room in the past hour or so. She knew that they were getting ready for their first 'experiment' with her, or whatever. She wasn't sure if she'd be able to disguise her bio-levels from them any longer.
These scientists were smart. They'd have to figure it out eventually.
So now she was just waiting for the right moment to attack.
There was no one else in the room, so…Laurel supposed that now was a good of a moment as any other. She placed one hand on the inside of the tube, where the locking mechanism was. With a flick of a finger, it sparked and shut down. Of course, that didn't really solve anything. Through eavesdropping on the whitecoats, she'd learned that the glass making up her stasis tube was engineered specifically to be resistant to her powers. The only way to break it was naturally; and that could cause a scene.
There was no other option. This was a critical stage, and for once, she wasn't going to blow it. She wouldn't let herself. Laurel balled her fist and slammed it against the tube's interior, leaving a jagged crack. If she stayed here any longer, she was sure that her mind would become as fractured as the glass. Ignoring her bruised knuckles, she wound up for another shot and gave it her all.
It broke.
She fell, hitting the ground with a painful thud. Ignore the pain, Laurel. It's all just a distraction. The words rang through her head. Oh, great, now she was hearing voices in her head. Complete with all the crazy, screwed-up dreams that she'd had when slipping in and out of consciousness in her stass tube, this really was becoming a nightmare.
The whole room went red, sirens blaring and everything to alert people that she'd escaped. Their prized guinea pig was on the run.
Laurel gave a shake of her head, wiped the blood of her hands and got to her feet quickly.
There was a main control room, she knew that from the whitecoats' conversations, and there she'd be able to hook up some wires and send out an S.O.S message to the Circle.
She backtracked to one of the table and grabbed one of the blueprint layouts for the laboratory. It wasn't so detailed as she would have liked, but it was all she had for directions. It would have to do for now. With blueprint in hand, she jumped into the air and set off, keeping to the wall. She knew that there would be a security system, but at this rate she didn't have the time to set up a proper plan- she'd just have to wing it. Laurel flew through the corridors, paying no attention to whom she passed, what alarms that she sent off…it didn't matter. If she got caught, it would be over.
Heck, it was already over.
She kept one eye on the road, and one eye on the blueprint, narrowly missing corners and turns. The whole place was a huge maze. The same stainless steel bars, the ice-cold white walls and floors…it was seriously starting to give her the creeps. Laurel could now clearly hear the pounding of feet behind her.
Or maybe that was just the pounding in her head. It was all too much.
She screeched to a halt once at her destination and burst into the room. Heart beating and hair a mess, she closed the door and melted it around the edges with a bolt of life energy. It would hold them off. Just for a little while.
Ok, ok. Time to focus. Laurel turned around, her eyes flashing. The power source lay within an opaque silver cube, resting on top of another core. The coding was blinking on and off, making the entire room light up like a Christmas tree. And the power source itself was bouncing around in the cube as if it were alive. Looking at the cube more closely, she could see that it was lined with lead.
It probably gave off radiation- as in to say, no touchy for her. She leaned down to the core to examine the coding. It was less complicated than she'd thought, but still…technology was not her thing. Laurel gritted her teeth and pulled off one of the compartments, getting right to work.
She reached for one of the wires, when a loud banging noise came from the other side of the door. They'd caught up to her.
"You have 60 seconds to come out with your arms up, or we come in blazing!" The voice roared. Laurel heard the sound of a gun being loaded. But she ignored it.
With shaking hands, she started to work again.
Cross the red wire here.
Intersect it with the green one.
Take all the blues out completely.
Laurel bit through the last wire with her teeth (to the folks at home, do NOT try this) and closed the compartment again. She tapped one of the buttons and took a deep breath.
She had only 30 seconds to talk before all hell broke loose.
'Guess she'd better talk quick.