Time Skip: 2 Years
I was sitting in the back of a truck. A military truck, to be precise. Since the D.U.P has done so well controlling the 'Bioterrorist Threat', they ran themselves out of a job. Now, the military is taking custody of all contained Conduits. I, along with three others, are part of the first experimental transport, to see if the military is able to keep us down.
I sat next to some scrawny nerd with huge glasses, but he looked older than me. Across from me sat this big bald dude, with some pretty sick tattoos. Next to the big guy sat a woman, who seemed to be around twenty. She had neon pink hair, and huge black earrings.
"They let you keep your piercings?" I asked the pink-head.
She seemed startled that I started talking. She looked at me, and started to burn a hole into my soul with her piercing gaze. Apparently, she didn't trust me. Then again, god-knows how many years in Curdun Cay will do that to a person- excuse me, 'Bioterrorist'. Sometimes people are worse than the supposed monsters.
Once the punk chick seemed sure I wasn't gonna mess with her somehow, she responded, "Yeah. S'about the only thing they lemme keep." She sounded mournful. I could only imagine what Augustine did to her, and I sure as hell wasn't going to ask about that. A Conduit's time in Curdun Cay is only told to the people they trust most. One of the unspoken rules among us.
We fell into a depressed silence. I could tell the others were also reliving just a little bit of their torture at the hands of that red-headed bitch. I was, too.
I decided to try to lighten the mood. After all, my humor is what kept me from insanity during my two years in hell.
"Well, at least the military was nice enough to give some pretty decent transport, right?" They looked at me like I was crazy.
"They gave us a nice view," there were no windows, "Some space to stretch," we were cuffed down to our pinkie toes, "And some pretty comfy seats." I made a show of settling into the bench, leaning back against the walls. The seats were cold slabs of metal.
I saw the rest of my truck-mates exchange glances, and I knew the unsaid message that passed between them, "This mothafucka insane." before they started chuckling.
"Kid, you're crazy. But it's a good kind of crazy." Said the bald guy. I let out a pleased little smirk. The pink-head saw, and rolled her eyes.
"'Ey, don't get a big head just cuz you made us laugh a little, runt." She said it in a playful tone. Then she got serious, "But thanks for lightening the mood." I let my little smirk evolve into a genuine smile, and we fell into another silence. This time, though, it was a pleasant silence, not at all awkward. Except maybe for Glasses, cuz he hasn't said anything.
I nudged him with my elbow. "Yo, you good? You haven't said a word yet." I questioned.
He seemed a bit surprised, but it quickly melted off his face, and was replaced by a bashful look.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just, ah, didn't have anything to say. My name's Eugene, by the way." I somehow forgot about introductions. It was the polite thing to do after all, and my mom drilled into my head that I should always be nice.
After a quick round of introductions I learned that the pinkette went by Fetch, and the bald guy's name is Hank. I was sorely tempted to make dog jokes at Fetch, but I had a feeling she wouldn't appreciate my humor this time around.
Apparently, the passenger-seat guard, who I was seated behind, had enough of our pleasantries. I opened my mouth to make fun of Fetch, even though I just said I wouldn't, because I'm an impulsive little shit, when I saw a gloved hand out of the corner of my eye.
I ducked, and felt my hair shift as the hand passed millimeters over me. I waited a few seconds, to be sure the hand was gone, then I slowly raised my head. I glanced at my fellow conduits, and they seemed rather pissed. I, too, was peeved. ADHD for the win.
"HA! That's why you missed, little biiiiitch." The guard was not too smart, it seemed. He forgot he had a gun, and tried to swing at me again. He also forgot how he failed last time. I was more than ready for it this time. When the hand got close enough, I opened my mouth as wide as I could, then bit down as hard as Conduit-ly possible. Which was pretty hard, in case you were wondering.
Once I had the bastard's hand firmly in my grip, I began yanking on it with all my strength, which was also a lot. The guard, being the idiot he was, wasn't wearing a seatbelt, so he started flopping around like a fish out of water. I tried to yank him into the back of truck, to beat him to death with my skull.
The driver looked extremely panicked. He kept glancing between me, his friend, and the road. Meanwhile, the flailing guy got desperate. He grabbed onto the driver, causing the driver's hand, and in turn the steering wheel, to jerk left. And the driver freaked out so much, he floored the accelerator instead of the brakes. Too late did the dumbass realize his mistake, but before he could remedy it, we hit a tree. Hard.
The hand in my mouth was ripped from my grasp, so quick, some skin was left behind. It was absolutely disgusting! Could've been worse, though. I could have been one of the dumbass smashed, head first, against the windshield. It must have been made of some tough stuff, because it didn't break under the force of two fully grown men. Broken helmet, blood, and brain matter splattered everywhere. Us prisoners also went flying forward, but we didn't die. Thank you, powers. Didn't mean the impact hurt any less. I was dazed for quite a while. In those, maybe ten, minutes, I heard voices far away. My vision was extremely unfocused, so when I was suddenly staring at Hank's bald head, it scared me pretty badly.
I lashed out with my foot, and caught the older man in the gut. He let out a pained grunt, and slowly backed away.
"Sorry. You scared me." I said sheepishly.
He raised his head, and fixed me with a look, causing my face to grow redder by the second. I eventually had to look away, because I was sure that I would die of embarrassment if this kept up.
I also somehow managed to skip over the fact that all my cuffs were off. I stared at my wrists for a few seconds, before looking back at Hank for an answer.
Hank caught my unasked question, and said, "I had a little paperclip in my mouth the entire ride."
This was not the answer I expected. "Oh. Well, good job, Houdini."
Hank gave me another look that made me feel stupid. Man, he is good at that! I followed him out the truck, to where Fetch and Eugene were.
We crashed in the middle of nowhere, if the surrounding forest was anything to go by. Eugene was sitting on a large rock, while Fetch bounced about. She was probably all pent-up from the six hour drive. So was I.
I joined Fetch in her little hop party. "So, wanna race?", I casually asked her. She raised her eyebrow at me, then laughed. She laughed at me! Like you would laugh at a puppy that got it's head stuck in a box.
"Kid, you sure you wanna go up against the speed a' light?" she asked me. I was slightly shocked. No way could she actually go at the speed of light. Could she?
"Can you actually run that fast? What's your power?" I was genuinely curious. If she had power over light, then I don't see how Augustine imprisoned the pinkette, let alone caught her.
Fetch chuckled again. "Joking, kid. Wow, you are so gullible." This lit the fuse of my inner child, as I began the age old argument of young people;
"Am not!"
"Are too."
"Am not!"
"Are too."
"Am not!"
"Oh yeah? Then what's that over there?" Fetch challenged, as she pointed somewhere off into the forest. Like a fool, I looked, only to see nothing of interest.
"There's nothing over there." I looked back at Fetch. She was doubled over, laughing so hard that she made barely audible noises. The purpose of her actions finally dawned on me, making me feel like a dumbass. This seemed to be becoming a thing. So, I did the only thing I could think of, with my ADHD-addled brain.
I pouted.
