"That's not how you punch! Throw your whole body into it!" My instructor/teacher, Smits, yelled at me, throwing his hands up in the air in frustration. He was a bloke from South Africa who had a stick up his ass. He had the superiority complex as large as Donald Trumps, couldn't take a joke to save his life and demanded that everything I did had to be perfect or else I had to do sit-ups.
Thing is, stuff like that was so easy for me that it had no effect on me, no matter how many he made me do. Ten or two-hundred, I didn't care. It never got whatever 'point' he was trying to get through to me so he kept on getting angrier and angrier everytime I was being taught by him. Well, I did, but I never respected him enough to put my 'everything' into something he wanted me to do. I did as much as I wanted to and no more, which got him even angrier. It was an endless loop that was not going to break. There wasn't anything he could do as a teacher to get me to obey an agent of Hydra, and even less he could do to make me one.
He taught me all my survival and fighting lessons, which severely sucked cause that was stuff I was actually interested in. It would be useful to me if I tried to escape, no it could well be life-saving. Thing was, if I put more effort into those lessons compared to learning how to "throw a punch right" then they would get suspicious and maybe discover the blueprints.
It also didn't help that I couldn't respect anything he told me because of how obviously he looked down on me and his greed for power. He didn't want to be teaching me, and I didn't want to do anything he told me. Bad combination that meant we... fought a lot.
His lessons would turn from him yelling at me to throw a punch right, to him getting more physical and trying to hit me over the head or something (which I dodge easily) to him trying to show me how to do a punch right by him trying to punch me. Except his anger would make him do it worse than I do it so I would point out how he was doing it wrong and it would eventually end with me doing a more and more excessive amount of sit-ups.
It was sorta funny, really.
The saving grace was that I had two different teachers for my more mundane subjects, Jack and Evan. If I had him for everything I would have probably gotten myself beaten or punished several times by now. The tutor wasn't around too much now, cause it seemed like he had just been a sub for me until they had been able to get some proper teachers. Except for Smit, cause he might claim he's a qualified teacher but he's as bright as a rock.
I mean, it seemed like he thought he could turn me into a mindless soldier for them with enough sit-ups. That was never going to happen. I was a superhero, no human could restrain me or break my mind into obeying. I dared them to try.
I looked at him through the corner of my eye, still positioned to punch. I openly scowled at him, "I have my fist curled the right way! If I do it the way you're asking I'll break the punching bag."
"Do it, or else," he growled, eyes narrowing at me. My fist curled into a tighter ball. 'Or else' my ass.
I narrowed my eyes, I would show him. I imagined that the punching bag was him. In a sudden show of anger, I stepped forward, arched my swing and hit the dead centre of it. The blow sent it lurching off the chain and sailed all the way across the room where it hit the wall. Sand or whatever punching bags were filled with went all over the floor. I folded my arms, turning to face him. I was too angry to get any satisfaction out of my show of strength.
"Do you think this is a game?" He hissed at me, jabbing a finger into my chest, hard. I didn't move. "Because I can authorise for you to be-"
The door to the training room opened, interrupting Smit. I looked over and found Heel lady walking in. Her eyes were as cold as ice, betraying her disgust in what was happening. It brought a small smile to my face. "Smits, you are stepping out of line." She said, her voice steely but otherwise unchanged from her usual attitude.
That seemed to get a message through his thick skull, 'cause he straightened up with a twitch of his nose. It betrayed his bitterness to being ordered around. He was seriously power hunger, it was so clear he wanted to bite back at her. Heel lady was not intimidated in the slightest.
"Miles, you'll be escorted to your showers. Then you can go study in your room. Go." Her voice left no room for argument, but I still hesitated a moment, eyes flicking between the two of them. I gave in though. The look on Smits' face when I obeyed her made it well worth it.
The door opened as soon as I was near it. The guards stationed there waiting to escort me stepped forward as soon as they saw me.
I lingered a moment, though. I wish I could be a fly on the wall when this went down. With my slightly enhanced I was able to hear her begin to speak before the doors shut.
"You know that we're supposed to make his experience comforta-" the door shut, cutting the rest of the sentence off. Aw man, she sounded pissed. I would have loved hearing heel lady tearing him a new one. I knew that was kind of petty but he honestly needed someone to take his ego down a few notches. If only I could listen in on the whole conversation...
I had travelled to the showers plenty of times before so I more or less lead the way, the guards walked a few feet or so back to either side of me. It was all too easy to imagine making a break for it right now. I could take them down in only a few seconds with my venom blast and be gone before anyone could raise the alarm. I had memorised the map by now, so if I tried I might get a fair distance before I could be stopped.
But, as I had to keep on reminding myself, if I did try to escape... I had nothing to help me. I could freeze to death for all I knew about the terrain out there. I could be stopped by them and be tortured. I didn't want anything like that to happen, so I had to be content with waiting for a more foolproof plan.
I walked into the bathroom and the door shut behind me, leaving me completely alone. It was the only time I was ever truly alone, as there were no cameras in here. I let my shoulders droop a bit and sighed.
The bathroom was not normal in any sense. It was like one you would expect to find in a prison. It was large, open and bare. Showerheads were spread evenly along the furthest wall with waist-high walls to give a very limited amount of privacy. The rest of the room was dedicated to toilets and sinks, with toilets along the left and right walls with low walls once again. It really was an all-in-one place, for maybe around fifty or so people.
It was painfully clear that they were expecting more subjects for this project of theirs. To think that they expected just this many enhanced individuals at the same time...
The only positive thing was that I had been the first one to get here which meant the limited amount of privacy I would have had if there were other people in here was now complete. It meant I could be alone from prying and judgemental eyes, if only for a few minutes.
That wasn't to say that I liked this sterile place. I still hated and dreaded the fact that I was here at all, but I could still be grateful for the small things, like this. It was better than being tortured which was what I had been expecting.
I got unchanged and robotically turned on the shower to begin to clean myself. As I stepped under the warm water, I closed my eyes and tried to let myself relax. I did my best to un-tense my back before I finally opened my eyes and tipped my head back to wash my hair. I was about to close my eyes again when a gleam caught my eye.
Warily, I focused back on the shiny thing. It didn't seem like the gleam of a hidden camera, which thankfully I knew weren't in here, but it was definitely from some sort of metal. It didn't seem like it was from a lightbulb or something either.
I walked forward, not bothering to turn off the shower as I studied the ceiling for the source of it. When I was about to give up and finish up in here, I finally saw it. Right in the corner of the room were some loose tiles that were clearly only hanging on by some sort of ledge in the ceiling, but something had loosened them so that there were big enough gaps to tip me off to its existence. I frowned, that didn't seem right.
Clearly, someone would have come in to fix that by now. But... what reason would most Hydra agents have to come in here? They had their own separate showers two floors above me. The only people who might come in were cleaners and maintenance people and I was sure they had enough crap to deal with to bother with something as small as that.
After a small moment of hesitation, I crawled up the wall and onto the ceiling. I crouched down, trying to decide how to figure out exactly what this was. If I wanted to be certain I would have to move the tiles, but I couldn't hastily move these because one could fall and break before I could set it down on the floor. If something broke the guards would immediately come in to see what's going on and then I might never figure out what this is. It could be the key to my escape...
I hovered over the tiles for a moment, biting my lip. I also had to get this over and done with as soon as possible, they might get suspicious if the shower ran for too long. They had shouted at me to hurry up before. It was a very real threat that my privacy would be invaded at a drop of a hat.
I took a deep breath, letting determination settle inside of me before I grabbed the tiles with one hand and stuck to them. Slowly I nudged the tiles with my other hand to loosen them up before I pulled them out of the hole. I breathed a sigh of relief, thankfully they hadn't slipped from my grip. I crawled back down the wall and set them against the wall without much noise before I crawled back up to properly investigate the small hole.
This was... this was a vent! The entrance to it was only about the width and length of a normal laptop, but I knew I could squeeze through that. I looked at the inside through the gaps in the metal and found it to be about tall and wide enough for me to crawl along on hands and knees. It looked like the perfect way for me to escape. I wouldn't have much trouble crawling through here.
I glanced below for a moment, wondering if I had spent too long on this, before grabbing onto the entrance and tugging it lightly. It rattled a bit but otherwise showed no signs of giving any time soon. I looked at the corners and found them secured into place by some screws. If I gripped it and turned it with my finger it should come loose, right? It would be less noisy then bending the metal or breaking it off. I went to do just that when there was a loud knocking on the door, making me flinch and almost lose my grip on the ceiling in surprise.
"Hurry up in there!" One of the guards shouted and I scowled. I wish I could do more but obviously, life had other plans. I would have to continue this another time. I replaced the tiles and went to my shower. I quickly rinsed off before turning the shower off and grabbing my towel.
I had known that there was a vent in here but I had thought that it was inaccessible. I guess that's why that vent had been hidden by the tiles, to try and hide it from me or any other subjects that might be in the program. If they hadn't been looser I still wouldn't know it was there and I would still be figuring out how to escape without raising too many alarms too quickly. Now the question remained, when was the right time to attempt to escape?
I couldn't do it now because the guards were already expecting me to come out at any moment. I would only have a minute or so to get as far as I could before they barged in and all hell would break loose. I needed at least a few minutes to get over to the storage rooms to grab my costume and web-shooters.
Well, I guess I could ask at any time to go to the bathroom, no one would find that suspicious. If I said I was going to the toilet I might have five minutes or so before they barged in. If I waited until I needed a shower I might have ten minutes, if I was lucky, if not a bit longer. If I did it at night I might have a bit longer to get far away from the shower before anyone raised the alarm, because they might assume I would be a bit more sluggish since I would be tired from all the days work.
Actually, what was I thinking? It didn't matter all that much when I escaped. The only real difference in how well my escape would go is the movement patterns of guards... which I had no idea about. I tugged my clothes on as quickly as I could before I opened the door, making my way confidently towards my room with barely a glance at my escorts. One of the guards was watching me closely, as if he knew I had found the vent, but I kept my chin up and walked as if nothing had happened. He couldn't prove anything, anyway.
Not unless they had been spying on me... but if they had I would already be in huge trouble.
He knew nothing. I was in the clear.
I walked into my room, the door shutting behind me. I went and sat on my bed, curling a foot under me as I leaned back on the pillows.
As soon as I was in the bathroom again, I would escape. No matter what time, no matter the circumstances. I refused to stay in this special kind of hell any longer.
I pondered for a moment before getting up and walking up to my desk and picking up the book about spies. It couldn't hurt to read up on it and grab a few tips before I tried escaping, it might help me remain unnoticed for a few valuable minutes. I needed any kind of advantage I could get.