Chapter 3: Red Haze

PLEASE Read and Review! This is my first X-Men fic and I would like to know what people think. I hope that you will not turn away from it because it contains OC's. If you do it's your loss, but this is not your ordinary X-Men Evolution fic. I hope you enjoy it. The X-Men will be mentioned in the next chapter. I promise.

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When Ryan regained consciousness he felt as if he were about to vomit, and tried to sit up to do so, but then he realized that he could not move. His arms and legs were bound to the table he lay on. In fact, he had straps on his shins, thighs, waist, and chest. He could not move a single inch. He opened his eyes, but a blinding light forced them shut again.

What had happened? Where was he? The last thing he remembered was yelling at Paul Dorsey. Everything after that was a red haze.


Somewhere to the left a door opened.

Ryan listened to the shoes squeak across the floor. He tried to turn his head, but then realized that somehow it too had been strapped down.


"Well, well, well, look who's finally awake." The voice came to Ryan's left ear, coated in a thick Southern accent.


Ryan opened his mouth to speak, but the man interrupted him. "Let's get the obvious questions out of the way. My name is William Stryker, my colleague George Dobson and I own a uh- school for special young folks like yourself."


"Special folk?" Ryan asked.


Stryker smiled and adjusted his glasses. "You don't recall what happened, do you?"


Ryan tried to shake his head, but then remembered that he could not. "No."


The door opened again and more shoes squeaked across the floor.

This new person sounded larger than Stryker. He put more weight down when he walked, he also breathed heavier, like the very act of walking burdened him.

Ryan felt extremely tired. Tired of the blinding light in his eyes, tired of not being able to move. But mostly, he simply felt exhausted, like every bit of energy had been sucked from his limbs.


"Ah, Dobson," Stryker said. "Ryan, this is George Dobson."


"Um, I don't mean to be rude, but can you take the light out of my eyes?" Ryan asked.


Stryker and Dobson laughed.

Ryan knew that kind of laugh. He had heard it many times before in horror films when a villain thinks he'd got the upper hand. Only in horror films you know that they are just that, films. You can turn them off with a click of a button. But the laughing above his face he could not turn off. It was there and it was very real. Ryan's heart jittered and he clenched his fists, fear trying to take over. He pushed against the straps with all the strength left in him.


Rip!

The straps on his wrists broke.

The laughing stopped.

Ryan struggled against the other straps, and against fatigue.

Snap!

More straps popped off.

Stryker and Dobson were yelling now.

Ryan pushed off the bed and fell on his face. With the light no longer in his eyes he could see the door. He ran until indescribable pain shot through his back and filled the rest of his body. Electric blue light filled his vision as he fell to the ground. He could smell smoke and his back burned. Before he could get up again another shock of pain coursed through his body. Ryan curled into a ball and held his knees. His body shook violently. He felt cold and hot all at the same time. The burning moved from his back to his shoulders, and then to his chest.

Would it ever stop?

What had he done to deserve this? What had happened back there with Paul? Why had he blacked out?


Four strong hands pulled a straight jacket onto him and then wrapped a thick chain around his entire body. They dragged him out of the room into another dark room, and then threw him on the floor.

With a loud crash the door slammed shut.