Truth
Terra opened her eyes to a world wrapped in darkness, her hands and feet where tied with chains to a cold metal chair that was anchored to the floor. She could hear movement around her, soft whispers, as if someone was talking through glass. Then she realized that the world was black because her vision was blocked, a blind fold had been tied over her eyes. She struggled to break free of her bonds, but they held fast. Terra heard a small snicker from the other side of the room, she looked around in an attempt to see who had giggled but to no avail, the fold was too thick and no light penetrated it. The laugh had come from the opposite wall in front of her, it sounded eerily familiar. An electronic door slip open and foot steps entered the room and the sent of smoldering tobacco flooded the room. There was a pause then the fold was pulled from her eyes.
An old man in a general's uniform stood in front of her, he had frost blue eyes and the wrinkles in his face greatly contrasted the ironed stiffness of his green suit. Half of a Cubin cigar hung to one side of his mouth, the smoke curled up and wreathed his face in a gray light. His hair was white and trimmed neatly, he even wore a tie, but regardless of how he presented himself he still glared down at her with the ferocity of any rabid dog. She saw her twin leaning against the wall beyond the man in the green uniform; she was cleaning her nails with a combat knife. She was the one that had laughed, that's why the snicker sounded so familiar, it was her own. Terra looked around the room. It had blank white walls, two guards stood behind them holding the strange tranquilizer guns, her friends Ann and Torrent sat at either side of her. They where tied to similar chairs and bound by there hands and feet, blind folds where also strapped over their eyes just like she had been. Ann had a strange device covering the gem in the center of her forehead and Torrent had extra chains and locks wrapped around him. He was still smiling as he looked blindly around the room, sniffing the air. Terra looked down at her self and saw that she had specialized restraints as well, a solid lead ball had been latched over her hands to keep her powers in check
The general slowly paced back and forth in front of the imprisoned teens, inspecting each one individually. He wore shinny black leather shoes that made a small scuffing noise on the tile as her walked. Terra saw that Torrent followed the general's movements even though his eyes where covered. When the man in the uniform spoke the cigar bobbed up and down with each word,
"All three, how very convenient, and to think they'd all be so close by, Type B, good work." He glanced behind him at Terra's twin. She looked up from her nails and smiled. "So what to do with ..." He saw Torrent was looking directly at him, smiling. His brow crinkled in thought for a few seconds then he turned to the girl he called 'Type B' and asked,
"Does that thing ever stop smiling?" Type B shrugged,
"It's when he stops smiling that you need to worry." Ann spoke in a kind of, you better watch yourself kind of tone. Raising one eye brow the general walked up to Ann and bent down so he was level with her face.
"Did I say you could speak?!" He slapped her hard across the face. Somehow Torrent distinguished what the general had done, he snarled in anger and trashed forcefully against his bonds. They creaked and bent but held fast. The general stood erect and smiled as he watched the boy struggle.
"Very interesting." He walked from Ann and over to Torrent, when he bent down to look at him, Torrent started viciously snapping at him with his pointy teeth. "You are quite the ketch my little friend. We've been looking for you for a long time, all of you actually." He looked at Terra when he said this.
"Who the hell are you people?" Terra glared back at the old man.
"I am your new owner child, and you will soon learn respect." He walked back to type B's side and turned to face them, "My name is General Hunter, and I've been assigned the responsibility of controlling you freaks. Just as there had always been people with gifts there has always been someone how need to contain them, today that someone is me. We've been looking for the three of you for quite the long while, Terra the wanted criminal, Torrent the one man army, and Ann Filler our key to controlling you all." Ann cringed slightly at the mention of her name, her lip was bleeding. Hunter reached into his pocket and pulled out a small orange disk,
"Up until now we've had to resort to more primitive forms of controlling people like you," Terra gasped as she realized what the disk was. A black S was engraved into its center; it was one of Slade's control disks. Hunter smiled at Terra's horror, "You recognize this don't you, child. We where planning to use it to control you so you could capture Ann and Torrent here for us. You managed to remove it however, even with the pain triggers implanted, but it matters little. You got them for us any how, the tracking devise inserted into your hip attachment allowed us to run you and your friends down, with the help of type B of course." The girl who looked like Terra walked up and stood beside the general. "She might not have the potential power of the original, but she really is quite useful, while you where sleeping I had her destroy several buildings near by, the media is eating it up. They'll be begging me to hunt you down and imprison then rest of your type."
"Take off your coat, type B." the girl instantly obeyed. At first Terra was horror-struck and then she saw the all too familiar orange disk implanted in the center of her chest. Type B wore a white mussel shirt but there was a hole cut to expose the control disk. The metallic coverings that where still latched on Terra where not present on Type B, instead she had the other the accessories Slade bestowed on her that she did not, the elbow attachments, the gloves, the boots, and the horns. Her hair was short and she wore military issue fatigues, but other then that she was Terra's exact twin. "But now that we have you, Torrent, and Ann, we can control who ever we need to, with out needing to attach any hardware." Hunter tapped the devise on Type B's chest with his middle finger. He was smiling almost as broadly as Torrent was only moments before.
"How did you get your hands on Slade's control disks?" Terra almost pounced forward when she spoke, and she would have if her feet weren't restrained.
"Slade's disks? Ha, stupid little girl. Where do you think Slade got his from?" Terra's eyes grew wide, "Where do you think our little pawn Slade got his all funding from, all his technology, his training?"
"Why would the government do such a thing?" Terra was stunned by the unexpected conspiracy.
"Who ever said we where the government?" General Hunters smile widened even more. "There are powers at work here that you can't possibly under stand, little girl. Our organization commands multiple counties and hundreds of smaller factions, but we are not a government of any kind. We are the ones who pull the strings, we control just about everything, everything except you and your kind, the gifted. We're about to change all that, with your help of course. Move them into the operating chamber; I must go great my public." He turned and left the room, followed closely by Type B. Immediately after they stepped through the door it snapped shut.
The two soldiers that Terra had seen before stepped up from behind them and removed Ann's and Torrent's blind folds. Terra laughed,
"Man did you just made a big mistake." Torrent immediately bent over and snapped one of his chains in half with his powerful teeth. He pulled one arm free of his bonds, with his free arm he reached over his head and grasped the guards gun by the barrel, he yanked it free of the mans grasp and pointed it toward the guard standing behind Ann. A burst of fire sent a hail of needles into the guards face. Then flipping the gun around and gripped it by the stock. He swung it like a bat against the final guards scull. Both men hit the ground in unison. Torrent dropped the gun and observed his restraints for several seconds, then grasped the central lock and crushed it in his hand. The chains fell of him as he stood. He saw that both the girls where looking at him in shock, his smiled widened again,
"With one hand tied behind my back." He didn't speak much, so they laughed at his lame joke. He untied Terra and Ann's restraints with little difficulty and removed the strange device from Ann's head.
"I'm sorry." Was the first thing out of Terra's mouth after they where free.
"Oh, it's not your fault! You didn't know... did you?" Ann was trying to be supportive but was failing miserably. Torrent was smiling so Terra guessed that he felt that she was not to blame as well, but then again Torrent was always smiling. "What we need to worry about right now is how to get out of here with out getting noticed. We got to do this cautiously and silentl..." Torrent slammed his fist against the stone wall opposite of the door and it crumpled in to dust and mortar. Both girls looked at him in shock again,
"The walls are sound proof, other wise they would have heard the gun shots and we would have been dead by now." Terra looked at Ann, who shrugged and said,
"I guess he's right, but still the sooner we get out of here the better." Ann walked up to the destroyed wall and looked out on the city. "Hey, who are all those people down there?" Terra followed her and looked down. A large group of people had gathered about fifteen stories down at the entrance of the building. They where massing around a single podium and there where cameras and microphones bunched near its center.
"Who's getting interviewed?" Terra squinted her eyes to try and make out who was the speaker at the center.
"It's Hunter." Torrent brows formed into a scowl but his smile shined even more brightly. Ann looked up at Torrent,
"Are you sur...?" Torrent leapt from the edge and started falling toward the group of people,
"Oh no!" Ann covered her mouth as she watched him fall,
"Um, why did Torrent just commit suicide?" Terra looked even more sunned then Ann,
"The impact probably won't even hurt him, but he's going to try and kill Hunter."
"Is that a bad thing?" Terra failed to see the problem. Ann pointed out in the distance. A Military blockade was surrounding the building,
"Oh Crap! Grab him!" Terra turned to Ann,
"A little late for that don't you think!"
"Not with your hands stupid, with your powers!" Ann looked down at the falling Torrent,
"I don't think I can! I don't have that kind of control!"
"You don't have a choice Ann." Ann nodded slowly, she closed her eyes and the gem in her forehead began to glow, small beads of sweat began to form near her temple as she concentrated. Torrent continued to plummet down toward the sea of people.