It was cold and wet. It always was cold and wet. But that was okay, Pearl had gotten used to it.
She stayed in her tank most times, 'To keep me out the way.' In fact, she liked the security of the tank. It was quiet and the only ever time she was let out it was for scientists poking needles into her or guards hurting her.
Yes, the tank was definitely her safe haven.
"Are you sure?" Pearl turned her head to see two figure walk down the hall.
"What kind of question is that?" The other laughed, "of course I'm sure! For a newbie you really are dense." Pearl recognised this guard as one of the most frequent visitors. Even their voice made her shiver.
She flinched when the figures stopped and pounded on the glass of the tank menacingly. "We keep this one as 'stress-relief' for us guards." The one Pearl recognised explained, "You can beat them as much as you want."
"But why would we be stressed?" The newbie asked, "Project Mirror is going well in the other complex and soon we can start the experiments on the new-"
"Sh!" The senior brought their hand up to the others mouth, effectively shutting her up. "That's confidential! We don't just talk about it anywhere! Besides you should be lucky that a newbie like you would work on such an important progression of science!" The senior then turned back into the tank and Pearl flinched again. "Now shut up and open the hatch!"
She began to panic, escape was unachievable and her safe place was compromised. Pearl gasped as she was flung to the floor and kicked.
"Remember Jasper," The senior told the newbie, "Strength is all that matters! and pathetic weaklings like this need to be put in their place!"
—
Pearl never fought back against them, she never lifted her head or defended herself. It was the third time today. When they left she was dumped back into the tank and resealed. This was her life.
Cuddling her knees as she floated within the liquid, Pearl waited for her wounds to heal before she was ready for another beating. That's how it was most days.
However, today was different. She lifted her head and watched the sparks fly off a monitor that she had thought to be broken ever since she was dumped into the tank. She frowned as an image lit onto the screen.
Pearl quickly pressed herself up to the glass and looked to the door that led into the hall. There was no-one coming and no-one around that could have fixed the object. 'Perhaps it wasn't broken to begin with.' She started to watch the screen and she seen a lady come on, she had large, curly hair that was an un-natural colour of pink. She was beautiful.
The lady then began to speak and Pearl listened as closely as she could through the murky water and thick glass.
"Hello." The woman began, "You don't know me and many of you won't care to know me. But I want to know you…" 'What on earth is she on about? know me?' Pearl frowned even more, "Many of you are trapped, beaten, broken or just forgotten… But please, you must fight back! I know you must be scared, but the things that the company has planned are terrifying..." The screen began to slowly recede into static, the woman must have noticed the signal weakening and quickly began speaking again. "Please try! Because if you don't you will die. I will be waiting outside!-"
The monitor abruptly turned off and Pearl was stuck again in the darkness of her tank.
'Fight back?' She looked round the room but seen no way she could make her escape, 'but why? I'm safe here…'
Like always, Pearl was left alone with her thoughts. What was once blank and empty ideas of getting a light beating began to slowly morph into radical ideas or breaking free and making a run for it.
Slowly, but surely, these Ideas began to plague her mind.
Pearl became angry and frustrated with each beating. She had grown sick of recovering in a tank only to be on the verge of death again and again and again.
She began memorising the way she was beaten and listened to the instructors advice when training the new recruits. Now that she paid attention to it, it was sickening how she was used as a practice dummy. But little did they know that one day these tactics will be their end.
Pearl formulated plans in her head when she was recovering. Like where she would go and what to do incase she was injured. She couldn't possibly go into the tank, they would just hit the switch and kill her in a moments notice. That is if they didn't take her to the dreadful termination machine first.
The door to her room opened with a creak, but she paid no attention to it. The voices sounded similar to the two guards from last night, but she never made any bets that it was them… They all had the same voices. Pearl grunted as she was fished out the liquid and slammed onto the floor, her head was sore and her ears where painfully ringing.
"Why don't you do the honours?" She recognised the senior look back to that same junior, Jasper, for a moment she hoped that she was different and would save her from what she knew was going to happen. But all they did was grin and throw her to the back wall with a wide punch.
Pearl winced at her busted lip and glared at Jasper, she paid attention to every detail, to how menacingly yellow her eyes were, to how evil her grin had become.
"What's with that look?" Jasper spat, briefly and uncertainly glancing at her senior, Pearl recognised her as yet another, but much older, Quartz with several scars along their arms.
"Teach her how weak she is." Pearl heard the older one reply before she had all the air knocked out of her, the newbie had begun to punch her repeatedly. Pearl swore that she ruptured something. But she never broke down her glare. 'I don't deserve this.'
"Not stopping huh?" The older Jasper walked up to them, Pearl could see the ominous glint of the sword in her hand, she watched the blade tip come close to her face and scratch the bridge of her nose, blood began to seep out the wound and Pearl had to spit out the metallic liquid that filled her mouth. "I guess it was time for her to be terminated."
Pearl froze at that, she thought of the horrors that numerous people went through. How they where ripped limb from limb and where still alive, she never knew what they were using the parts for. Some guards that walked by speculated that the scientists were sowing them together, creating fusions that had multiple abilities instead of just one. The scientists that walked by confirmed this suspicion. But one thing Pearl did know, the screams would haunt her for eternity.
She thought she was done for and her gaze dropped defeatedly, but just as they where drawing closer her hand found a long metal pole and wrapped around it.
She balanced on her knees and swung widely. The sharp tip left a large cut on the juniors face and she stepped back, whimpering. The senior wasn't so fortunate, as Pearl lunged at her and the pole pierced right through her chest.
Pearl grinned as she watched the light die out of her tormentors eyes, spluttering out blood as her lungs filled with it. With a strong pull, Pearl reclaimed the pole and watched them breath their last breath as they choked on their blood.
"You'll pay for this!" The Jasper told her and ran out of the room.
Pearl could laugh right now, a lowly Pearl like her made a guard run in fear! She picked up the sword the was still in the grasp of the dead senior and walked out the room. The walls were plastered with posters and those numbers... '1-1-2-7', the numbers of the complex and her life in a nutshell.
The first turn she made in the pure white hallways and she ran across two Rubies, probably making it back from their break. They stared at her for a moment, in apparent confusion, before they looked at each other.
"Why is the Pearl out?" Pearl could see them reach for their tasers but she never gave them any chances, a swing with the sword and a hit with her pole and the life once in front of her was extinguished.
'I can't make it out on my own. I need to get to the others before they are terminated!' She quickly snuck by large groups and cut down the different scientists that stood in her way. But she knew that it would be inevitable that someone would see the blood she left behind, the only security she gave herself was that she never stood on any of the blood.
She snuck by a group of Jaspers who where laughing at something, 'that's strange' despite their love of evil grins, Jaspers didn't really laugh all that much… Unless…
Pearl glanced at them and realised that they where talking to that junior with the large cut. She had now managed to bandage it, although it was very poorly done.
"I'm not lying! That Pearl!-" She tried desperately.
Pearl smiled at that, it's obvious that no-one will believe that a Pearl managed to do anything.
Quickly continuing down the hallway, Pearl found the large storage room with many tanks. They were all lined up neatly and glowed the bright green it usually did, she shuddered when she seen a glimpse of the room next door. It was a large metal machine with large circular saws and hooks, 'They treated us like pieces of meat!' Pearl gritted her jaw in disgust as she seen the machine going through its typical maintenance by the scientists.
She ran over to the control panel, well aware of the many curious, yet broken, eyes of the subjects in the tanks. With a quick stab of her sword, the Agate over-seeing the controls toppled over. Pressing some buttons quickly, she had triggered an alarm count-down as all the tanks where unlocked. Flicking through a guide, she inputed a code and bought herself some more time.
"What's going on?" She heard a voice to the side, she turned and found a short, pudgy girl looking at her. The crowd began to murmur in confusion.
"We are getting out of here!" Pearl finally addressed them, and more murmurings began. "We don't have to die here! There is a whole world outside, waiting to be discovered!"
"But what can we do?" Another voice asked, "We're here because we can't do anything!"
"That's not true!" Pearl quickly replied, "We can all do something! Each of us is unique because of our defects and that's what makes us stronger than any of them! If we give up, then we would really be weak!" Pearl took a deep sigh, "I am a Pearl! We have absolutely nothing to give to them! We're not special! and yet I managed to take down several guards on my way here! If I can do that then so can you!"
The speech was as good as she could make it, but...
There was a resounding silence with the crowd.
"Listen up people!" Pearl turned to see a tall woman beside her, she had different eyes and an interesting accent. "Pearl has risked her life to save us! We can't just not do anything!"
"Yeah!" The same pudgy girl added on, "I don't want to die here!"
With that, everyone began to state their agreements. No-one wanted to die without a fight.
"So now what?" The shorter girl turned to her again, everyone listened closely,
Pearl sighed and looked back to the timer, she had one minute. "Listen closely! There is someone waiting outside! If we work our way up then we can find an exit!"
"We can go through the side staircases," The tall woman added, "there's no doubt that the guards will be on to us and they will try to block off central areas."
"We can use their own weapons against them!" Another cried out,
"There's an armoury nearby!" Another ones voice said.
"Then what are we waiting for?! Let's show them we aren't for terminating!"
A resounding rally cry erupted and for once Pearl experienced how addicting the feeling 'hope' was.