That morning I was woken up by a loud noise, like something being smashed against metal. I jumped and sat up, noting that I hadn't been restrained with the bonds while I was sleeping. Was that a guard who had done that? What the hell. Just get me a normal alarm instead of that. It's too early to have adrenaline racing through me.

I rubbed my eyes, feeling unprepared and tired as I remembered that I was supposed to be doing a reflex test. I sat there a moment, feeling a sort of dread and helplessness flooding through me. I didn't want to wake up, I wanted to go back to sleep and wake up back in the dorm with Ganke. I wanted to be told this was all a nightmare but it wasn't. I knew that. And now I was at the mercy of Hydra and I wanted to live. But what would they make me do? When would they decide I'm too much of a nuisance and kill me?

I sighed and looked around, noticing something new in the room. A chair and a desk, and there were some clothes on it. I looked down at my costume, which I was still wearing. I didn't exactly want to stay in it, it had dried sweat on it and it felt kind of gross but without my costume, I would lose another piece of home. Also, it would make it harder to keep my secret identity if... or when, I escaped. Wait my mask was gone already anyway so it probably didn't even matter if I had my costume anyway.

Still, the door had closed behind the heel lady and I had a feeling there were cameras in here. I did not feel comfortable at all just changing willy-nilly. I wanted to keep some privacy at least...

I looked down at my lap. They would probably force me in some other manner to take it off. Couldn't have the prisoner allowed any rights or else they might start rebelling, right? At least they had been decent enough to just... put it there in a more subtle nudge to do it. I gave in with a defeated sigh and got up.

The t-shirt and pants were booth loose but not baggy, an ugly brown-cream colour and there was a Hydra symbol on my shoulder. It made me angry and sad that I had to walk around wearing it. I sat back down on the bed and just sat there, trying not to think.

There was a click and the door swung open. Heel lady stepped in and was followed by four other people. They were wearing militaristic like clothing and they had some type of helmet that was covering their face. Each of them were holding what looked like a baton but there were some buttons on the handle which made me pretty sure they did more than just... hit. Heel lady was unchanged besides the colour of her clothes. She still had that damn clipboard and that bored look to her face.

The door shut behind the group before I could even think to try and escape. I knew it probably would have been useless anyway but the thought was there and it made me feel confident enough to openly glower at the group.

Again, Heel lady studied her notes for a minute before looking back up at me and beginning to speak.

"Good morning Mr Morales, today you will be participating in two experiments which will be repeated two or three times in the coming weeks to test the outcome of the experiment. The tests today are reflex and camouflage. This will not only give an insight into the extent of your ability to us but also to yourself. If you try to escape between here and the testing room you will be tasered and given a harsh punishment. Is this all understood?"

Theory confirmed, they were more than just batons.

"Uh, yeah. Are there cameras in here?" I asked, adding on the question before she could continue. It would help me with escaping... and would also help me feel more comfortable.

She paused for a moment, studying me. "Yes, but they are infra-red unless we believe you are doing something suspicious." Huh, so maybe I could try and do something that looks perfectly fine but actually gives me an advantage to escape. Duly noted. "Let's get these tests over and done with, shall we?"

I was roughly shoved into a metal room by one of the guards, and I stumbled and nearly fell over from the treatment. I turned around to tell them that that was just unnecessary, I wasn't planning on fighting back yet, but by the time I had turned around the door had already been slammed in my face. I hit the door once, wanting to do more or even try and escape, but I knew it might not even be possible. I huffed in annoyance.

Maybe it was good I hadn't had the chance to blurt anything, if I kept quiet I could maybe stop myself from giving away too much. I had to keep any and all cards close to my chest.

I turned around and walked into the room. It was fairly big, about the size of two basketball courts put side by side. The ceiling was the height you would expect for a basketball court to be too. They weren't messing around, huh. There were cracks in the wall similar to the door in my room. It began to dawn on me would this 'reflex test' would entail.

"Welcome to the testing room, subject one." A voice said. The voice sounded female, and their tone was superficial and fake. I wonder who's voice this was. How much were they paid to sound this fake? I would never know, and in the meantime, I would find it grating and annoying. When I looked around for the source of the sound, finding four small speakers in the corners of the room.

Wait, subject one? Crap they were definitely thinking about expanding this project. I... I couldn't let that happen. God, I felt so hopeless.

The voice in the ceiling continued, bringing me out of my thoughts."In this room, all your powers will be thoroughly tested and stretched to their limits. This room will also serve as a training room where you will be taught to fight until such a time when there are other subjects."

Wait, taught to fight? First of all, I knew how to fight. Second off, why the heck would they be training me to fight? I was just a prisoner, there was no way they would make me into a soldier-...

No way, I was never going to become a soldier for them. I would rather die.

"Your first test will be on your reflexes. Get ready in three," Oh wait it was going to be like this, "two," this was probably going to hurt, "one."

I barely dodged a bullet aimed at my face. It sailed past my cheek and hit the wall, causing a loud bang that echoed around the room. I looked at the small dent in the wall with wide eyes, if I got hit by one of these it was going to hurt. I didn't think it would be fatal, but I could be seriously hurt if I was hit by one of those in the wrong place. It could maybe even break a bone! Luckily it wasn't a real bullet, 'cause it looked like a rubber one to me, so I wouldn't actually die if I was too slow.

Guess they weren't kidding about the 'non-fatal-experiments-unless-I-tried-to-escape,' except for the part where that made a dent in the metal.

Wait, if that had been able to create a dent, maybe I could too?

My spider-sense spiked and I easily dodged one aimed at my side. A second later another one tried to get me from the front. Then half a second later one was aimed at my legs. The bullets got quicker and quicker, aiming at me from random places around the room. It got to the point where I was having to jump on the ceiling and flip around just to avoid getting hit. My spider-sense was helpful in spotting where they would be coming from, but it was quickly growing overwhelmed.

It was only inevitable that a stray bullet hit me, and it got me in the shoulder. I cried out, only just managing to avoid another bullet before hunching over, arm loosely hovering over where I got hit. I was expecting another barrage of bullets to hit me while I was down but instead, my spider-sense went quiet. It had all stopped.

"You lasted for six minutes and twenty-three seconds, good job. Your next reflex test will be conducted in seven days," the voice in the ceiling told me. I frowned, I didn't think they would actually tell me how well I would do but I guess it was a good thing.

I heard a door open and I looked back from where I was still kneeling to see a guy walking in. He was wearing a lab coat, had a beard and glasses, and was holding what looked like a tablet or iPad. Underneath his clothes, he was wearing clothing that struck a match between casual and professional. He had a soft smile on his face and I immediately felt distrust well up inside of me.

"Hello Miles," this guy was definitely British, "well done with your test." I already hated him. I was on the floor clearly in a bit of pain and this guy was giving me "trustworthy and sympathetic" looks. If he actually was any of that he would be helping me get out of here, instead of helping Hydra. What a prick.

He clapped his hands together, "now with your next test, we'll be looking at your camouflage ability. It's quite fascinating I must say. Now while you do it we're going to hook you up to a few machines and take your blood before, during and after it. Now, do you know how long you can camouflage for, or is there no time frame you have to limit yourself to?"

"Uh," I didn't want to give him anything to work with, didn't want to give Hydra anything to work with but... my camouflage did have a limit which sucked. I could pass out and if he didn't know why he might do something invasive. "Yeah, if I camouflage for too long it hurts. I normally have a few minutes to do it before I need to take a break."

"Brilliant. Now come along the set up is just over here." Low and behold a section of the wall lifted up and there was a chair with fancy machines surrounding it. There were a few things I recognised like a heart monitor but besides that, I had no idea. I wish I knew so I could understand better how much feedback he would actually get on it, and by extension, me.

I got up, thankfully finding that the pain had gone down to a smaller ache. Distracting but I could move past it and camouflage. He beckoned me over to sit in the chair and, after a bit of hesitation, I sat in it. I didn't have much of a choice anyway. But... how would they force me to use my ability if I resisted? I guess that's why they brought this guy in, 'cause he was supposed to be cheery enough to make me trust him enough not to think or worry about that.

Wasn't working, cause I was pretty sure this guy is a dick.

He hurried around, attaching weird devices to my hands and fingers and collected some blood from my elbow. I watched him with a wary but passive eye, trying not to rebel or stop him. I didn't want to find out how Hydra would punish me for that.

After he was done setting everything up he turned to me and said, "alright so if you can camouflage for as long as possible that would be great. I'm going to be wearing some weird looking goggles so I can see you and take your blood during the test but don't worry about it. If you feel like you're about to pass out, you did say that after some time you're in pain so that's a possibility, stop using your ability and then I'll get some more blood. Is that all good with you?"

"Um yeah, sure," I said, trying to keep my irritation from bleeding into my voice.

"Alright so if you can start in three, two, one... and here we go." I forced myself to camouflage.

He kept quiet, not even commenting on it which surprised me. I was allowed to sit there idly and tap my fingers.

This seemed so surreal to me. I thought Hydra would kill me and dissect me but they seemed more interested in finding out about my powers in humane ways. Like, they were actually using the scientific method as far as I could tell. I guess they really did want me to be a soldier to them, willingly. It was so bizarre. Not that I was actually going to do anything for them.

Well, I guess I was by going along with this but I didn't want to die so this was all I could do. But my line stopped at working for them.

"Okay I'm now going to take some of your blood, has the pain started yet?" the doctor asked, grabbing out another needle and slowly inserting it in the same spot.

"No, it's all normal for me right now," I said, watching the syringe as it filled up with blood. It almost looked like it was floating, but it didn't look like it was actually floating to me because I could see a faint outline of myself. To anyone else, it would look like the needle head was disappearing. The thought almost made me laugh, imagining something randomly moving around in midair. Shame I couldn't play a prank on someone, 'cause Ganke would know it was me if I even tried and I couldn't give away my secret identity.

He took the syringe out and put the blood in a small container and threw the needle head away. As he was checking some machines he said, "Let me know when it starts to hurt. If you can, rank it from one to ten, one being a prick and ten being you're being burned alive." I nodded.

A few minutes later I finally began to hurt. It was a numbing sensation that spread all over my body before it slowly began to ache. "Yeah, it's painful now. Probably a two or three at this stage."

He nodded and settled down, noting something down on his tablet before he began to draw something as he waited. Fair enough, it had been about three or four minutes at this stage and his job was more or less to monitor and reassure me. It was boring, no doubt.

"It's gone up to about a five," I said, the ache really beginning to hurt now. It sucked, let me tell you. I hated it.

"You can tap out at any point," he said, looking at where I was. I shrugged. When it got to a seven I would. I guess I could drop out at any point and mess with the results and my average but whatever.

One minute later as I began to feel dizzy from the pain I said, "I'm done," and let myself become visible again. He got up and hurried around, quickly taking some of my blood. After he was done and had taken off all the equipment attached to me, he smiled at me. It looked like he was going for sincere but he looked just as fake as Heel lady. I resisted the urge to glare at him.

"You did great at that! I'll tell you anything interesting we find out once we've got the results back. Have a good sleep and I'll see you tomorrow for more tests."

Damnit.

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