Collaboration with Glorifiedscapegoat.
Shion slunk down the white halls in a half crouch, Rin just behind him at his hip. The design aesthetic of Horizon Laboratories' upper floors was the polar opposite of what he had become accustomed to in the basement. The light seemed too bright, the narrow halls too wide and too filled with unknowns. Shion had come to expect darkness and horror down in the dank, dark cages beneath the ground, but he didn't know what to anticipate from the long, quiet hallways. Every turn of a corner could bring them face to face with an enemy, and Shion's chest ached from holding his breath.
They had seen no one since Rikiga led them up the stairs and out of the lonely storage room. The floor stayed disturbingly quiet and bereft of agents. The soft tup of Rikiga's worn out shoes on the pale tile was the only noise, and it created a sort of strange dissonance in Shion's mind; they were five persons, and yet they made but one sound. The cold press of the tile on the soles of Shion's bare feet made his brain burn.
After minutes of traveling undiscovered, he began to wonder if they might turn a corner and see the exit standing wide open before them. No fights, no obstacles, just a one-way path to freedom. While a big part of Shion wanted to unleash the full fury of his telekinesis on the agents and scientists who had kept him and his kind corralled and drugged like animals, he couldn't help but find the idea of slipping away clean seductive.
Naturally, though, he wouldn't leave without at least finding Nezumi. But if he could get his friends out before any violence befell them, he would take the chance.
The more time that passed between their breakout and the impending coup, the more worried Shion grew about placing his friends in danger. Aki's power only worked close range, and Hitomi was completely defenseless in her current state. Rin would be helpful firepower, but they were a child. Shion was only a few years older than them, but he felt aged beyond his years from everything he had gone through, and more importantly, he felt responsible for the group.
"Hey, Shion," Rin whispered. "I feel my power coming back."
Shion glanced back at them, a commingling of hope and dread swirling in his gut. Rin unfurled their hand and a small flame sparked to life in their palm. They rolled it over their knuckles and up their arm, before sliding it down to their hand again and extinguishing the flame in their fist.
Rin's dark eyes burned with pleasure as they grinned at Shion. "It's still got a little way to go, but I can definitely do damage. I've got your back."
Shion smiled and nodded. He realized then that he had never actually seen Rin's power in action. I wonder how good their control is…. Well, he supposed he'd find out soon enough.
They hadn't arranged the order of procession, but it shuffled out that Shion and Rin took the lead, Hitomi nestled in the center of the formation, and Aki and Rikiga brought up the rear. Ideally, Rin would have been at the back, since they had the only other offensive power, and technically an attack could come from before or behind, but Rin was loath to be relegated to the butt of the group.
"I want a shot at the bastards, same as you," they had said, and the anger and determination in their face was so kindred to what boiled inside Shion's mind that he let Rin stay up front with him.
Shion slowed as he came up on another corner. He crouched down and peered around the edge, sending his powers out into the area beyond to see if he could suss out if there were any people by resonance alone.
He hadn't had much practice with Nezumi in mapping areas by tuning into the space and objects through his powers. Shion had learned control for the most part, but he still was most successful when the objects or persons he was acting on were in his direct line of sight. Abstract or indirect uses for his telekinesis, like echolocation or imposing his will on internal mechanisms, were still areas he needed to work on.
He could see a door just around the corner, which appeared to lead into a waiting area. A desk sat on the other side of the glass, its occupant facing a few rows of gray seats and couches, but should they turn their head, they had a clear view through the door into the hallway where Shion and his fellow escapees laid in wait. The woman manning the desk was pecking away at her computer without any alertness. If they didn't make any sudden movements, she probably wouldn't realize they were there until they were up to the door.
What to do?
"What is it?" whispered Hitomi. Her pale hands were curled into fists at her sides.
"There's a waiting room or something up there. I can see one person; not sure if there's anyone else around. She looks like just a secretary, so I'm trying to decide how to attack… If we should attack."
Shion wanted to make the Lab suffer for their cruelty and arrogance, but his vengeful musings didn't go so deep as to wish harm on employees who were so low on the totem pole they were unaware of the atrocities that their employer sanctioned. But then, were there any innocents at Horizon Laboratories? Was there a single person here that wasn't party in some way or another to the violence, lies, and inhumanity to which their captives were subjected? The woman at the desk looked like a simple lackey who probably served as a glorified greeter to visitors and partners, but perhaps she was also responsible for circulating the VC testing reports. Perhaps she looked the other way when black-clad agents dragged unconscious persons into the building and across the immaculate floors of the lobby and hallways.
If Nezumi were here, he would prise her mind open and reveal whether she was an innocent or an enemy. But Nezumi had been stolen from him, and Shion and his friends didn't have the luxury of underestimating anyone, no matter how menial they looked; Rikiga was a custodian, and yet he had been privy not only to the VCs' existence, but to the survival of VCs who were supposed to have been terminated. Every member of the Lab, therefore, was to be treated as though they were an S-class level threat.
"Alright," said Shion. "Rin, I think you're our best chance here. If that woman doesn't know about the experiments they do here, she'll see you're just a kid and wonder why you're wandering the halls. If she does know about what they do here, we'll be able to see it on her face when she spots you. In that case, I'll shatter the door and get her under control before she can sound any alarms. Sound good?"
"So you want me to wander up to the door looking like a lost puppy?" Rin shrugged. "Yeah, alright. Can do." They slipped by Shion and strode down the hall before Shion could give any more direction.
The secretary jumped when Rin tapped on the glass, and her subsequent look of bafflement told Shion she didn't recognize the jumpsuit. The woman rose from her chair and stared down at Rin.
"How did you get in there?" She glanced down the hall and Shion quickly ducked his head behind the corner. "That area is restricted to personnel."
"I don't know what happened," Rin sniveled. "Please, my phone's dead. Can I call my parents on yours? They must be worried sick."
The woman didn't reply, and Shion wondered if she was eyeing Rin with suspicion or had gone to get a phone. Rin had run off before they could decide on a plan for what to do once they'd engaged the woman.
"What's happening?" asked Hitomi. "Is Rin OK?"
Shion bit his lip, glancing between Hitomi, Aki, and Rikiga. He wanted to peek around the corner again to check on things—and to get his eyes on the glass to shatter it if Rin needed assistance.
A sharp gasp bounced down the hall, followed by the woman's harried voice demanding, "Wha— How did you get—?" and then a squawk of surprise and pain.
Shion swung around the corner. The door down the hall had been opened, and the woman stood half bent over her desk as Rin pinned her arms behind her. Rin took a step away from her and crossed their arms when they spotted Shion.
Shion glanced at the door and paused. The card reader glowed faintly like an ember, and it seemed the door handle had been completely melted away. Rin must have burned through the lock when the woman turned her back.
"What did you do?" the woman wheezed. She wriggled on the desk and finally righted herself, but her arms stayed pinned behind her. Shion couldn't tell what Rin had used to restrain her. The woman's frantic gaze landed on the rest of the group as they walked in through the open door and the blood drained from her face. "Who are you? W-what do you want?"
"Nice work," Shion said, unable to keep the surprise and amusement from coloring his tone. Rin glared at him. "...What?"
"I'm more capable than you think," Rin growled.
Shion blinked. "I never said you weren't capable."
"You said I was 'just a kid.' But I'm not. I'm way more than that." They grabbed the secretary and twisted her around. Shion saw now that the woman's restraints were a warped piece of metal, which looked suspiciously like the missing handle from the door. The skin of the woman's wrists was red and shiny from contact burns with the reworked metal, though the damage looked minor.
"I broke through the door and got the lady under control just fine," Rin continued. "No glass smashing needed. I can fight and strategize just as well as you, you know."
"I know that. I'm sorry if it sounded like I was babying you."
Rin pursed their lips and huffed.
"You did good, Rin," Hitomi said. "Though I wish you didn't burn her. That looks painful…."
"It's barely a burn!" Rin protested. "A little baby burn. It'll heal in two weeks, probably. And she's the enemy, Tomi!"
Hitomi bowed her head at the secretary. "I'm sorry, miss, but we had no choice."
The woman shrank away from the company. "What do you want? I'm just the desk attendant; I don't have any money, if that's what you're here for."
"We'll have to put her somewhere," Rikiga said. "We can't risk her raising the alarm."
The woman squinted at him. "You're the custodian! What are you doing with these…"—her eyes went from pint-sized Rin to Hitomi's reflective mask and she hedged—"...people? Did you let them in here? I can have you fired for this, you know!"
"I'll give you fire," Rin said, and the woman drew back again.
"Rin," Aki sighed. "Enough. There looks to be a supply closet over there. Let's stick her inside."
The woman yelled as Rikiga and Shion dragged her toward the closet.
"She's being too loud!" hissed Rikiga, struggling against the woman's writhing form. "You—old man, don't just stand there. Cover her mouth."
Aki's weathered face turned grim. "Unless you want her dead, I can't touch her."
The woman's cries hiccuped and turned to sobs, and Rikiga and Shion finally got her tucked into the closet. Rin raised their hands to melt the doorknob, but Shion held up a hand.
"I can lock it."
He focused on the knob, trying to meld his mind with the molecules and frequency of the metal and the mechanisms within. It had been too long since he'd tried to manipulate something so small and invisible. Nezumi's mischievous smirk and laughing remarks rose up in Shion's mind, and his heart ached for the quiet perfection of their days spent sequestered in the warehouse, practicing their powers and looking sideways at the feelings growing between them.
The lock clicked softly. Shion wiped the back of his hand over his forehead. He wasn't sweating, but he felt hot all over with longing and grief.
Rin checked the door knob and shrugged when it didn't turn. "Cool. I hope the next guy is an agent so I can actually use my power."
While the rest of the group was busy with the secretary, Aki and Hitomi had moved behind the woman's desk to rifle through her drawers and click through the pages up on her computer.
"There's nothing here immediately helpful," Aki sighed. "No floor plans, or mention of VCs. Though her emails include correspondence with officers on floors six and seven…. Some from the company president. He needs more tissues ordered for his office."
Shion took a look around the room. Another glass-paneled doorway stood opposite, and through the pane he spotted an elevator and an adjacent door which he assumed would lead to a staircase. This floor was just the pretty, polished face Horizon Laboratories showed to visitors. The truth of its character lay deeper inside the building. Shion imagined dozens of people locked away in cages: drugged, beaten, afraid. He imagined Nezumi waiting for him somewhere on the level above.
If those agents had laid even a finger on him, there would be hell to pay.
"The entrance is over here."
The group turned as one toward Rikiga. The man had made his way through the couches and seats in the lobby and now stood before a double door. Through the panes, Shion could see the misty light of a foggy day and a thin dusting of snow resting on the ground.
His heart beat faster. Outside. Freedom. All his desires lay just beyond an unguarded door. Shion longed to breathe the crisp winter air and taste the snowflakes on his tongue.
Shion knew better, however. He could leave Horizon Labs, but he would never escape it as long as the building stood and its founders had agents to do their dirty work.
But that was his personal resolution.
"Run," Shion told his friends. "Escape now while you can."
"We can all escape. The door's right here," Rikiga said, a watery smile fixed on his face. He pushed one of the doors open and Shion swore he could feel the cold creep into the room, a bewitching caress against his burning skin.
"What are you waiting for?" Rikiga asked when no one moved or spoke.
Aki carded his fingers through his long beard. "You won't leave, will you, Shion? You meant it when you said you were going to free the other prisoners."
Shion pressed his lips into a line, but nodded. "Nezumi's here somewhere, and I won't leave without him. I have to destroy this place—or I have to try, at least. We'll never be able to live in peace as long as the Lab stands. But you can leave now. You don't have to risk your freedom."
"Shion," Hitomi said softly. "We won't leave you here to fight alone."
"But it's not safe. You could get hurt, and I… I'm not sure I can protect you."
Shion swallowed. He was better now, Nezumi had taught him well, but still…. All the times he'd lost control crashed down on him like a tidal wave. He couldn't guarantee that his choices from this moment on wouldn't have dire ramifications for the people he loved. Shion had known how to properly direct his powers when they'd met the Yoshidas, and he had still caused calamity. He had killed someone, he had scarred the Yoshidas—even if they couldn't remember it—and he had hurt Nezumi physically and psychically. His power was a bomb that wrecked everyone within its radius, no matter if they were friend or foe.
Rin punched Shion below the elbow, their sharp knuckles jarring the bones and nerves up and down his entire arm. Shion gasped and clapped a hand over the spot.
"What did I fucking say about treating me like a kid?" Rin demanded. "And how many times do we have to remind you that we have powers too? You don't need to protect us, we can protect ourselves. And we're not leaving you to take down the Lab by yourself. I've said a million times that I want to burn stuff, and this is literally the only time in my life that I am morally justified in doing so, so you don't get to play the lone tragic hero, alright?" Rin glanced back at Hitomi and Aki. "Right?"
Hitomi folded her hands in front of her and shrugged a shoulder. "More or less. I mean, I can't fight at the moment, but I can help free the prisoners while you keep the guards distracted. I want to help."
Aki snorted. "If Hitomi and Rin are in, I can't exactly say no, can I? As an elder I have to set the right example for you kids. Make sure you don't get yourselves into too much trouble."
Shion's throat tightened. "Are you sure?"
"We're sure," said Aki, and fixed Shion with one of his rare eye-crinkling smiles.
Rikiga cleared his throat. "Uh… Well, I'm going to go, if that's OK? I don't have powers and even if I did..." The man shrugged. "Sorry."
"Oh," Shion half laughed. He swiped at his wet eyes and smiled at Rikiga. "That's fine. I understand. Thank you for helping us, Mr. Rikiga. You saved our lives; I hope you realize that."
Rikiga's face pinched in grief as he stared at the motley crew with their rumpled jumpsuits and fragile resolution. "Good luck, kid," he murmured to Shion, then turned and fled into the gray afternoon.
Shion and the group had made it up the stairs and through the first few sets of hallways unmolested when they came upon the first reinforced door. A large S stood out against the metal framework in orange paint.
The moment Shion's eyes fell upon the door, cold flooded his chest and his limbs prickled and burned all over. His instincts told him that this was a place of suffering. Some emotional drift through his psychic connection with the world, perhaps, but he was certain that they would find enemies behind this door, and likely fellow inmates. Shion's power spiked in his synapses, and it took everything in him not to tear the door off its hinges then and there.
Shion turned to his friends, his eyes asking silent permission to storm the area beyond. The fire in their gazes matched his own, and he let his power charge into the door like a battering ram. The metal crumpled inward like a sheet of aluminum foil and fell back into the space beyond, skidding across the white-tiled floor.
Horizon Labs' aesthetic was brutally consistent. The section walls, floors, and lights were the blankest white, and all the rooms were outfitted with glass partitions. The rooms immediately before Shion were a quadrant of offices, three of which were occupied by men in black combat gear: boots, vests, weapons, ear pieces. These were not the black-suited agents that Shion had grown used to fighting, but when he locked gazes with the closest man, he recognized the same callousness behind his black eyes.
The man shot up from his chair and shouted, and Shion sent a sonic wave into the wall of the office.
The glass shattered into thousands of sparkling slivers and blew back into the heart of the office. The first guard flew off his feet and hit the wall, the shards slicing and embedding themselves into his unprotected skin like deadly needles. The man didn't rise from his slump on the floor, so Shion turned his attention to the others.
The second guard had left his office and already had a long baton in his hand. The end sparked dangerously when he lifted it toward Shion. "Where the hell did you come from?" he grunted.
The man's eyes didn't flit toward the ruined office next door. Either he didn't care whether his colleague was hurt, or his training had taught him better than to be distracted in front of a threat.
Shion Reached out, tore the buzz baton from the guard's hand, and sent it pinwheeling across the room to clatter somewhere unseen. The guard looked surprised for a split second before spitting out a foul curse and reaching for the gun on his hip.
Shion tensed to launch a second offensive, but a wall of fire roared to life around the guard first. The man shouted and danced back as a tongue of flame licked out at his hand. He abandoned his gun and searched for the source of the interference instead.
Rin's smile was a wildfire, bright and spreading fast. They raised their hands and the flames grew higher. The heat beat against Shion's face, making the skin feel too tight. He had to squint against the dryness in his eyes. The fire swirled once, like a viper coiling around a mouse caught within its folds, then reared up and collapsed in on the guard. The screams were immediate.
"Rin!" shouted Hitomi.
The flames sputtered and blinked out as swiftly as a blown-out candle. The guard lay scorched and groaning on the blackened tile.
A breathless silence followed.
Hitomi tiptoed toward the guard, peered into his face, and turned sharply away. "Oh, Rin," she warbled.
Rin's eyes darted from one person to another. "What? What did you think I meant by I want to burn stuff?" they said petulantly. "I meant what I said. I want these people to burn for what they've done to us."
Shion stared at the dark form on the ground, too afraid to approach and see the extent of the damage. Hawk's wet coughs and wheezing breaths rattled in his memory, freezing him to the spot.
Oh, Rin, Shion's heart keened. He knew how they felt, and so he knew the soul-crushing regret that would settle over his friend when at last they realized what they had done.
"He's not dead, OK?" Rin's voice went up an octave. "He's… He's still making noise. I didn't kill him. You don't have to look at me like that."
Aki approached the prone guard. After a moment of studying him, he kneeled by the man's side and laid a hand against his cheek. The guard stiffened and then went slack, as though jolted by a defibrillator. Rin stared down at the body with a mixture of confusion and distaste.
"That was you," Rin muttered. "I didn't kill anyone."
Aki sighed as he struggled back to his feet. "From now on, let us try to only scare or render unconscious," he said. His tone was level as ever, but Shion could detect the well of deep sorrow buried beneath the surface.
Rin bit their lip and balled their hands into fists. Their thin form trembled, and Shion thought they might burst into tears. His heart ached for Rin; he knew what it was to lose the fight against anger and fear and have to stare the terrible consequences in the face, to see the shame mirrored in the eyes of those you loved and trusted most.
Shion took a step forward, intending to comfort Rin, but they sucked in a breath and smoothed out the trembling. "I'm sorry, I'll stick to singeing and fire rings from here on, unless absolutely necessary," they growled in the angry rapidfire way some adolescents expressed guilt. Rin jabbed a finger toward the last office. "There's still one more. Who wants him? Shion?"
The last guard had not left the sanctity of his office. Though he had drawn his gun, he remained behind his desk, and had presumably been studying how the superhumans had dispatched his fellows. Shion was shocked he hadn't fired while they were distracted, but he counted himself lucky the man had bided his time.
Hitomi cleared her throat. "I'll… I'll check if there are any VCs locked up." She hurried away into the depths of Section S. Aki and Rin exchanged a look which seemed to constitute a silent argument and, at last, Rin huffed and jogged after her.
Shion approached the office and the guard's steady gaze followed his progress like a haunted house portrait.
"Did you escape from one of the upper sections?" asked the guard once Shion had broken open his locked door with barely a thought. "You must have," he continued, seemingly unruffled. "Section M or F, perhaps? You must be at least M-class threats to do that sort of damage." His gaze shifted toward the burned corpse on the floor.
"We're S-class."
The guard's mouth twisted into a grimace. "You should be dead."
The man wasn't outfitted like the others. From far away it had seemed he was wearing the same combat gear, but in reality, the only similarity was that his clothes were dark. Black shirt under a black jacket and a pair of black slacks. The man was wearing a bulletproof vest under the jacket, and, of course, he had the gun held casually in his grip.
But now that there were only a few feet between them, Shion realized the man's jacket was worn leather.
And familiar.
Shion's voice dropped low. "You shouldn't be wearing that."
The guard flexed his fingers around his gun's grip and said nothing. Vaguely, Shion felt Aki's gaze on the back of his neck, but all his attention was on the black leather jacket. His mind crowded with the cool feel of the leather beneath his fingertips, the soft slither of the zipper, the coy glint of silver eyes and the cutting edge of a sardonic smile.
That jacket was to Nezumi as the charm bracelet was to Shion: intimate, inseparable, and absolutely off limits to Lab scum.
"That jacket doesn't belong to you," Shion hissed. "Why do you have it?"
"I took it," the man said plainly. "We burn the clothes the VCs come in, but the officers are allowed to take anything they like first."
The edges of Shion's vision blurred. His nails dug half-circle welts into the meat of his palms as the rage pounded at the base of his skull. Did this man know exactly to whom his stolen jacket belonged? Had he been one of the faceless soldiers who menaced Shion and Nezumi on the Yoshidas' lawn? Had he helped drag their unconscious bodies from the doorway of Nezumi's family cabin?
"Where is Nezumi?"
"I don't know," the guard said. "And I don't give a shit."
The man raised his gun and fired.
He was fast and wickedly accurate, and on any other day, at any other time, he would have succeeded in shooting Shion dead where he stood. But Shion's fury had turned him into a creature of pure instinct.
The bullet had barely made it out of the barrel before Shion deflected it into the ceiling, and in the next breath, Shion snaked his focus around the man's ankle and yanked him upside down into the air. The officer tried to fire his gun again, but Shion darted his thoughts at the man's wrist and gave them a sharp twist. The officer cursed as his fingers spasmed and the weapon fell from his grasp.
"You're filth," Shion seethed, taking a step forward. "A bully, an abuser, and a murderer. And you don't even care, do you? You enjoy the hurt you inflict on other people. You like stealing their clothes and their lives and their children from them. You think it's funny."
Shion stared into the officer's rapidly reddening face, and was pleased to see a flash of fear reflected in his eyes. "You chose the wrong person to brag to today. That jacket is not yours. You don't deserve it, and you never will."
He jerked the man's arms down over his head and stripped the leather jacket from his body. Shion hugged the article to his chest, but he could find little comfort in anything but its weight. The jacket still smelled like worn leather, but Shion had learned to associate Nezumi's scent with it as well—a combination of petrichor and the rich savor of earth. After weeks on a stranger's shoulders it smelled foreign and repulsive, and Shion hated the Lab more and more for it with every breath, but he pulled the jacket on regardless. The cool weight of it made his heart ache less, and he knew how much the jacket meant to Nezumi. He would make sure it was returned.
Everything would be made right once they were reunited.
"There's no one in the cells here."
Shion glanced back and saw that Hitomi and Rin had returned. Hitomi had picked up the officer's buzz baton, and Shion thought it was a smart idea; now she wouldn't be completely defenseless.
Relief flooded Shion's chest when he looked between Hitomi and Rin and didn't see any evidence of anger or awkwardness. Rin must have made amends to her while they searched the section together. Aki was still standing by the burned officer's body, his attention far away. Shion wondered what memories had their claws in him. A man whose power was death itself probably had demons even Shion couldn't imagine.
"They must keep the prisoners on the higher levels or something," Rin added. "Kinda sucks that this was all for nothing."
"It wasn't for nothing," Shion murmured. He zipped the jacket closed and ran his fingers down the smooth face of it.
A shrieking alarm blared through the overhead speakers. The sound was shrill, panicked. There was no mistaking it for anything but a call to arms. Shion dropped the officer in his grip and shoved him back into the wall, knocking him out instantly.
The element of surprise was gone. The Lab knew it was under attack. And Shion was ready for more carnage.