Hey again my wonderful readers! Can't believe how long this took me to write! But i hope you all like it...
(WARNING! very very VERY long chapter! hehehehe)
Elektra gasped in terror as her eyelids snapped open. Cold sweat was dripping from her shaking body. Her pulse was high and her breathing quick and shallow. The fear holding her heart tight was so painful she could have screamed. The vision she had had… it was so real… like a memory, but she knew she had never seen that before…
She slowly in a trance-like state got up from her bed. Steadily she walked over to the mirror. She looked at her reflection.
She was pale. Pale and damp. She could see rivets of sweat running down her face like raindrops on a window.
Taking her eyes of her corpse-like reflection she went to the door and gradually opened it. The morning light from the hallway flooded the room through the large windows of the lab.
Elektra stepped into the sunlit corridor and started to walk, step-by-step, to the center of the lab.
"Hey Elektra! How ya feeling?" Johnny inquired smiling from behind her. (A/N: Johnny and his humor... :P)
This snapped her back into reality. She spun around to see Johnny smiling at her playfully, as he leaned casually against the wall.
"Hey handsome! I'm feeling like shit… but thanks for asking" Elektra smiled as she rubbed her forehead.
Johnny chuckled as he walked up to her.
He was walking past her towards the kitchen; he spun around and said "By the way… I've arranged a little date for you and that guy that brought you here for tomorrow evening… what's he called again?"
"You arranged a date?" Elektra asked incredulously and dreading that it was Gloom.
"Devon! That was his name! Devon Street!" Johnny cried, obviously proud of himself for remembering the name, as he continued to march towards the kitchen.
"You set me up with Street! Johnny!" she shouted running after him.
Elektra burst inside the kitchen to find everyone sitting around the kitchen counter with piles of delicious looking breakfast.
"Stop moaning and have something to eat" Ben laughed from the other side of the counter while giving Johnny a high-five as he passed him. (A/N: OMG! Am i seeing things? Ben and Johnny co-operating? lol)
"I can't believe you arranged a date for me with someone I barely know" Elektra complained as she sat in next to Rebecca, whom stretched her arm to grab a glass of juice. (A/N: Ok, since I deleted the original Intro and replaced it, some inforation is missing... Rebecca is Sue's and Reed's 7-year-old daughter... she has Reed's intelligence, powers and dark hair... Sue i pregnant again with 5 months)
"You need to get out! Have some fun! You're way too serious to be a teen!" Johnny grinned at her in a brotherly way as he grabbed a huge bowl of cereal for himself. (A/N: Thanx to Crazy4Cocopuffs!)
"He's right you know" Rebecca giggled.
Elektra stuck out her tongue playfully, forgetting for once her past… her job… her mission… the real her.
She picked up a Ruby grapefruit from the fruit basket and cut it in half. She poured herself half a glass of lemon juice and squeezed all the juice out of the two halves of the grapefruit into the glass. She stirred it quickly with a long spoon and nonchalantly went to the spices cupboard bringing back a small bright red bottle.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you" Ben said looking at the bottle with wide eyes.
But before anyone could stop her Elektra had poured at least one third of its contents in her glass. She picked up the glass and drank it all in one.
"She's bloody crazy!" Ben laughed amused.
"She's completely awesome!" Johnny cheered.
Elektraput the glass on the table and exhaled deeply, taking the remnants of the grapefruits and eating them with her fingers.
"Do you know what that was?" Ben and Johnny asked in unison.
"Tabasco?" she smiled.
"Well yeah… but not the normal Tabasco you buy in shops! It was specially made for wide-load here, cause he wanted something spicy!" Johnny laughed clapping Ben's back.
"It's not that spicy you know" Elektra said finishing her first half.
"You hear that Rock-boy! You couldn't even eat anything with a drop of that stuff!" Johnny roared with laughter.
"Will you three calm down please? I'm trying to work on some figures here" Reed exclaimed slightly annoyed.
Rebecca giggled so much looking at the kinds of funny faces Ben and Johnny were making at Reed behind his back, that she dropped her strawberry jam waffle on her new skirt.
Sue looked up from her latte and blueberry pancakes to see the big blob of jam on Rebecca's skirt. She smiled and went over to her to help her clean it up.
"Oh by the way, Elektra. We will be running some tests on you later if you don't mind. Just to determine your powers, their strengths and what you are capable of doing with them" Reed said casually as he turned away from his work and poured some more coffee into his mug.
"My powers? Why do you need to run tests on them? Isn't it good enough that you know that they work?" Elektra said throwing the grapefruit peels into the bin.
"Don't worry. You'll do fine… well, at least better than me. Let's just say it wasn't a pretty sight when Reed tested me" Ben chuckled as he began to eat his toast with a fried egg on top.
"As long as you do as Reed says and don't destroy any of his equipment like Johnny did, you'll be out of there in no time… Trust me, you're in good hands" Sue smiled at Elektra as she finished her breakfast.
Later Elektra lay on an examination table with what seemed to be a red-laser scanning her body. This reminded her slightly of the books she had read when she was younger. Books about spies, the Pentagon, the CIA… these books where some of the only things she had from her past… the past she had long forgotten.
"Ok… This is just a Computed Axial Tomography…" Reed began.
"He means a CAT scan" Sue butted in.
"As I was saying… This will scan all your body and give us 3-D vision of your anatomy. This is so that we can maybe understand where your powers came from and what they are." Reed proceeded.
Elektra could feel fear creep into her lungs as she slowly breathed in and out.
What if they find out that I was given the powers… they'd start asking questions… What am I going to do?
After the CAT scan, Reed gave a long and dull explanation of mind-melding. Elektra, even though she was quite smart for her own age, did not understand hardly any of it.
"To put it simply, we will meld our minds into one temporarily. This will enable me to see inside your mind. To see your thoughts, feelings, memories, past… and hopefully your powers and their origins." Sue smiled kindly.
They sat in chair opposite each other as Elektra was wired to a cardiogram. Sue put her hands in front of her and Elektra put her hands on top of them.
Abruptly, Elektra could see unconnected images running past her eyes like wild and untamed fire.
She could see the fight she had with Gloom… she could see herself running away from a group of cops down a dark alley… she could see the first time she saw Devon… she could see herself slitting her wrists… she could see herself praying in the middle of the night in church… she could see all those painful memories and feel all those confusing feelings all over again…
For less than a second, she could have sworn she had seen her mother… Her mother was standing with a man… Elektra could not take in this man features because he was just a dark shadow in the blinding white light… But had she really seen them?
Elektra heard an explosion. She pulled her hands back, breaking the connection.
In merely seconds she inspected her surroundings. Reed was lying on the floor next to the busted cardiogram looking amazed… Sue was looking at her with pitying, yet shocked eyes…
Elektra couldn't take it anymore. She stood up and yanked the wires of the cardiogram off of her and ran to her room.
She slammed the door closed. She ran to her back-pack and started rummaging through it in desperation.
It has to be here… It has to be!
Finally she lost control and threw the bag at the wall. As it hit the floor, a small brownish paper fell out of it. Elektra tried to regain control over herself as she walked over to the it and picked it up with shaking hands.
It was a tattered old photograph. It had been ripped in the middle… Elektra only had this half of it. It was a picture of her mother… the only picture she had of her.
Her mother was about 18 years old in that picture. She had beautiful glossy, wavy, brown hair and deep and kind brown eyes. But on the other side of the picture, right next her mother… she knew would be her father. The man she had never met… the man from that vision.
Thinking of this she could not prevent, even with all those years of training with Doom, tears of sadness falling from her eyes. It had been so long ago when she had showed her true feelings. With Doom she had had to become strong… invincible.
She had had to learn to bottle up her feelings and never let them out… to cover the true her under layers and layers of lies and forged alibis… she had had to become deceitful, emotionless and invulnerable in the world of deception, betrayal, doubt and doing anything for money… even killing.
She had been forged into this creature of no will or feelings of their own long back… after her mother had passed away. Elektra remembered nothing from before her mother's death… Doom had told her that she had lost her memory at the sight of her mother's distorted figure… But knowing the kind of person Doom was, Elektra began to doubt anything he said to her…
As these thoughts swim past her mind, Elektra knows she cannot take it anymore… she had to go out… She put the photo in her pocket, drying her tears with the back of her hand. She had to get out of the Baxter.
Burning with determination, she walked out of her room leaving a small glistening patch of ice were she had sat and was about to press the elevator's button when she heard a voice call after her.
"Elektra! Wait!" Sue called after Elektra running across the lab.
Elektra froze… I need to get out!
"Elektra… you have to stay. We need to finish the tests"
"Screw the tests! I don't give a damn about the bloody tests! Isn't it good enough to know that I know what I can and cannot do?" Elektra screamed spinning around to face Sue.
Sue looked mildly surprised at Elektra's sudden outburst, but recovered quickly.
"We have to know… we have to know what you are capable of doing if you lose control" Sue said calmingly, but it did not effect of Elektra.
Elektra closed her eyes… trying to close away her tears… trying to close herself from the world… from reality… like she had done so many times before.
But before she knew what she was doing, Elektra lifted her hand gradually in front of her. At the same time a very heavy and complex looking machine rose into the air in the middle of the lab. Elektra slowly closed the palm of her outstretched hand, forming a clenched fist. As she did this, the machine crumbled into a scrap ball of metal, as if scrunched by a giant fist. Slowly she lowered the machine back onto the grayish marble floor of the lab.
"Good enough for a demonstration?" Elektra whispered opening her eyes.
Sue looked slightly scared when she finally uttered softly, "Let's go finish those tests"
Reed Sue and Elektra stood huddled around one of the screens placed around the lab to view Elektra's results. Slowly the results began to load on screen; everyone held their breathes, not knowing what to expect. Reed tore his eyes off the screen and walked over to the kettle across the lab.
He flicked the switch on, whilst calling over to ask Sue and Elektra is they wanted some coffee. As they replied no, the computer beeped loudly. The results had fully loaded.
Reed ran back over to the monitor and studied the results thoroughly before turning back to the other two.
"We know her powers and some abilities that she was born with, but we still have to find out their strengths. We'll leave their origins for later" Reed sighed satisfied, yet slightly disappointed with the lack of information in the results.
ReedPOV
Inoticed some of the same powersI had seen on the Fantastic 4's results. Elektra had a similar ability to become invisible and make protective force fields as Susan. She also had super-human strength like Ben and a very alike power of controlling and creating fire as Johnny. These were familiar to me…I knew how to handle with them. But there were some thingsI had never seen, not even inmy wildest dreams.I wasn't sureI completely understood them.I took a swig ofmy coffee and sat down atmy desk which was overloaded with papers, new projects and piles of work.I could only wonder how to continue from there.
A few minutes later, Elektra found herself in a small metallic prison-like room. There was only one small window where Sue was looking at her. There were small holes in the walls emitting what she knew was non-lethal radiation. Next to her was a broken vase.
Reed's voice echoed through the small speakers located in the corners of the cabin.
"Ok Elektra, this won't take long. It's just that… well; I have a suspicion about some of your powers. Especially this one… It looks like time control, but that would be impossible… So, if you could, I'd like you to try and fix the vase please. I'll be able to see everything on the monitors, so when you feel ready…"
Elektra glared up at the video camera above the door of the cabin.
He doesn't think I can do it… no one does… none of them think I can keep my abilities under control. That's why I am here… in a cage…
I feel like an experiment… a lab rat!
But she did as told and concentrated on fixing the broken vase. Gradually the pieces flew back into place, leaving the vase whole and unscathed. Reed looked at the many different monitors incredulously. They all showed the same scene in heat, radiation, infra-red and many other detectors. Still dubious he stared at the monitors, looking at Elektra repairing the vase without touching it.
Finally, Reed pressed the release button on his keyboard and the cabin doors opened smoothly. Elektra stepped out looking as cool as ever, yet undeniably bored. Sue looked at the results over Reed's shoulder as he was about to tell Elektra her results.
But Elektra cut him off.
"Reed, no offense or anything, but I already know anything you could ever tell me about my powers… so save it and let's just finish the tests"
Reed was dumfounded, but agreed.
After hours and hours of non-stop testing, in which only Sue had left the lab only to get coffee, the tests were almost complete. Reed had tested all possible tests for each of Elektra's powers. He wasn't able to test three of these powers, because they were connected to her emotional state.
At last Reed took the final blood test.
Elektra had never been afraid of needles, and considering she had had to grow up with Doom continuously taking blood tests and checking her health in every possible way, being afraid of needles would have been Hell.
But as she realized Reed was going to check on all the substances in her blood, she understood what threat she was under.
As Reed took the blood sample to his office Elektra held her hand above the small wound. Slowly, in a rewind-like state, the tiny cut healed before her eyes. Just as she pulled down her sleeve, Reed came in with the results with a look of concern on his face.
He sat down opposite Elektra and sighed heavily.
"Elektra… are you on drugs?" he said looking straight in her eyes.
She quickly inhaled… he knew!
"I found residues of many drugs in your blood sample. One of them is an illegal substance, making me wonder how you got some..." he said sternly.
"Which is?" Elektra asked, trying to get herself out of this situation quickly.
"Obliviscor, the drug of oblivion… it makes you forget" he sighed looking back at his results, as if praying that he read them wrong.
"Reed… I" Elektra started.
"Why? Why do you take massive doses of Morfine, Caffeine and Obliviscor? Are you trying to kill yourself!" Reed exclaimed.
Elektra looked down, tears running from her eyes.
"I have no other choice… it's the only thing keeping me sane" she whispered.
"What is it? I understand caffeine! I mean I take it as well! But Morfine and Obliviscor will end up killing you!" Reed shouted throwing his results on his desk in anger.
"Reed… let's leave it till later… when we are all calmer and more rational" Sue sighed walking in with more coffee.
Reed looked at Sue as he ran his hands through his dark hair in frustration.
"Ok… but Elektra… you have to promise me to stop taking Morfine, we will deal with Obliviscor later" he smiled weakly to her… in a fatherly way.
"I promise" Elektra said whipping her tears, even though she perfectly knew she would not be able to do it… Doom would not allow it.
So what you think people? REVIEWZZZZZ
Ok... so thanx to all my reviewers:
ChicodelaPaz : Mr. Paz, as always i thank you for the cheesiest of reviews! it must be your deadly speciality... (like for me cliffhangers... hahah)... thanx for great reviews and hope to hear from you again!
sdfreak : Well here's the long-waited update... hope you like it (and i'm not gonna stop wititng any time soon, i like to write this too much to stop... LOL)
nenokas : My fav. reviewer of all time! Love reading your reviews, they're always so kind:P Elektra is a great character... i wish i wer more like her (it would help a lot to be able to beat stupid-ass boys on the street... hehehe)... And I do NOT write well... im mediocre dammit! hehehe Johnny rulez! he's soooo awesome (trying to play cupid... lol)... thanx for the comment on my drama class (we completely rocked:P)... REVIEWZZZZZ (or i'll stop writin!)
carebears15 : thanx for the amazing review! love reading them:)
darkflame1516 : Thanx for all the awesome reviewz! Love them all! I promise dat i'll keep on reading your fic! Love it!
Dedication to nenokas and darkflame1516!
and many thanx to my friend Daniel for so much input and help!
Peace,
Black-Oleander
xXx