"So why are you holding me here?" Jack asked, staring through the thick glass window in front of him. He saw four people on the other side, Elias Altman, Raymond and Paula Brody, and the strange man who he knew only as 'Zeno.' He knew that they all heard his question over the intercom, but none answered. Paula didn't even look at him.
Jack made a clicking noise with his mouth, followed by a long deep sigh. He hated it when people ignored him, especially whenever it was so obvious. He decided that he needed to force their attention to him.
A strong roar filled the room, and Jack ran at the window, hitting it with all of his weight. He bounced off like a rag doll, and ended up in the floor after losing his balance.
Ray muttered something under his breath, and then turned to Elias, whispering in his ear. Elias just stared through the window at Jack.
After only a couple seconds of recovery, Jack quickly stood and moved close to the window. His eyes met Altman's, and they exchanged a long stare. Suddenly, Jack's face erupted in unbridled anger, and he swung an arm at the window, slashing it with razor-sharp claws protruding from his fingertips. The attack was very forceful and would have been enough to slice a bowling ball into pieces, but the window was barely scratched.
Paula, who had jumped when Jack lashed out at the window, looked down, avoiding looking directly at her friend.
Jack glanced at Paula, and then back at Elias. He quickly struck again at the window, this time punching it instead of clawing. Seconds later, he struck again, and again shortly thereafter. He continued punching the windowpane until his hand was numb, and blood covered the Plexiglas where he had repeatedly struck it.
Paula had jumped in her seat every time Jack punched the window, and now she was hiding her face in her hands. Ray, who had previously been stone-faced, was grimacing at the sight of Jack's bloody hand.
Jack turned from the window, slowly walking away. He stopped after seven steps, and quickly spun about and charged full speed back toward his captors. Not far from the window, he jumped and kicked it, flipping off of it backward. He landed on his feet, and immediately ran forward, slamming into the glass, glancing off of it, and running toward the opposite wall. He continued this action for several seconds, literally bouncing off of each of the room's four walls, and even the ceiling. A savage look crossed his face, and the cries and roars of animals escaped his throat. He had become a caged animal, trying to escape, or kill himself, whichever came first.
Zeno had begun laughing to himself as he watched Jack's brutally primitive display. Altman was now the only one of Jack's captors who did not have some sort of emotional response to the show in the holding cell.
Suddenly, after hearing Jack's screams, feeling the vibrations of his body violently striking the walls, and sensing the extreme pain that he was causing himself, Paula sat up and screamed, "Stop!"
Jack immediately responded, and he halted his charge across the room, sliding a bit on his blood that had spilled on the floor. His body heaved as he breathed heavily.
"We'll answer your questions, Jack," Paula announced over the intercom. "Just stop. Stop doing this to yourself."
Jack collapsed in the floor, and as he examined the wounds that he had inflicted upon himself, he said, "Good. Now, why are you holding me here?"
Altman answered him reluctantly, "Because you know about the project, Jack."
Jack sighed. He already knew his imprisonment had something to do with his knowledge of Project Utopia. "Yeah, I know about it, but I don't know what it is."
"Still," replied Ray, "you know too much."
A door in the observation room opened, and April entered. She looked in horror at Jack's self-mangled body, but at the same time, she seemed quite smug. She crossed her arms and stood beside Zeno.
Jack looked at Altman. "And who told you I knew anything about Utopia?" He looked up at Paula, the only person he'd spoken to about the Project. He knew that she couldn't see him, as she was deliberately not looking at him, but he felt that she knew that he was staring at her.
Altman glanced over his shoulder. "A little bird told me."
Jack's gaze turned to Zeno, who was standing next to Elias. Anger welled up inside him as he stared at the Australian, the same man who had shot him with tranquilizers only seconds after meeting him. Jack had never trusted him, and now that he had betrayed him to Altman, that distrust had become irrepressible hatred. Jack immediately stood, and lunged again at the window, his focus on Zeno.
Altman lifted a hand, and using his telekinetic powers, halted Jack's attack. He tapped a button on the control panel in front of him, and the room began filling with a white gas. "That's quite enough of that, my boy," Elias stated in a tone of both anger and compassion.
Jack awoke to darkness, something to which he was growing accustomed. He'd been held captive for at least three days now, maybe even longer. After his display of primal anger, his captors had put him in restraints, mostly for his own protection. Every morning, however, as those watching over him changed shifts, he tried to escape, trying again to tap into his natural primal strength. But every time, the cell was filled with gas, rendering him unconscious. He'd wake up about twelve hours later, the room shrouded in darkness. He'd try to escape the next morning, with the same results. He knew this cycle was futile, but there was nothing better to do.
He closed his eyes, reopening them a few seconds later. He could see everything around him in perfect clarity, including his guard in the observation room. It was Sol.
"Maybe I should try to escape again, just to make Johnny boy mad," Jack muttered to himself, chuckling. He decided that this time, he wouldn't just try to tap into his primal brute strength, but actually become a form of pure power. He projected the image of a Kodiak bear in his mind. Surely this hulking beast would be able to break free of his restraints.
But before Jack's transformation into a bear could begin, he noticed the door in the control room open. In walked Zeno, who greeted Sol right before pistol-whipping him with a large handgun, knocking him unconscious.
Jack stared in disbelief as Zeno pressed a button in the observation room, opening the door leading into Jack's cell. For the first time since Jack had met him, the Australian looked perfectly serious. He reached toward Jack's metal restraints, releasing him.
A roar tore out of Jack's throat as he leapt toward Zeno. He knocked the older man to the ground and landed on top of him. He reached back, and six-inch claws formed at the tips of his fingers.
"I should've done this a long time ago," Jack growled. He prepared himself for the kill. His arm tensed, and quickly sped toward his prey's throat.
"Wait!" Zeno was somehow able to get an arm free from beneath Jack, and was able to block his attack, the long claws tearing into his forearm instead of his neck. Zeno had almost no reaction to the sharp object ripping into his flesh, except for dropping the gun from his hand.
"Don't fight back. It'll just make it more painful," Jack said angrily.
"Don't kill me. That'll just land us both in the grave." Zeno stared stoically at the young man who'd come so close to killing him. "I ain't the one who snitched on ya, mate."
Jack's claws returned to their natural form of human fingernails, slowly sliding back through the bone and muscle of Zeno's arm. "Then who did?"
Zeno started to answer, but Jack wasn't able to hear him. Instead, he felt the sting of metal ripping into his flesh, and the familiar sensation of tranquilizers slowly enveloping him.
When Jack awoke, he knew he wasn't alone in his cell. He could feel another person nearby. Hear his breathing. Smell his sweaty body. He knew he was sharing the chamber with Zeno even before he could see him.
"God Almighty, mate. Took ya long enough ta wake up. Course, if ya hadn't tried ta kill me last night, you'd be free insteada pumped fulla drugs."
Jack sighed. "Sorry."
Zeno smiled. "No worries. We're gonna get outta here."
Opening his eyes, Jack saw that Zeno was being held on a metal rack identical to his own restraints. He sighed again. "I wish I shared your optimism."
"Ain't optimism. It's the truth."
"Sure." Jack closed his eyes and began exercising his neck, trying to relieve the pain he felt. He reopened his eyes and asked, "So who ratted me out?"
Zeno looked toward the window separating the cell from the observation room. "Hell hath no furry like a woman's scorn, mate."
Jack looked in the same direction, seeing Sol and April in the observation room.
"'Specially a broken-hearted one."
