The collar is there to keep her in line, to keep her under their control.
They test her, making her turn her power on for them, making her turn it off. Whenever she doesn't manage to do what they want, the collar delivers a painful electric shock: a short, quick burst. When she uses her powers without their permission, it delivers a different kind of shock, a continuous current of agony that goes on until she turns her powers off again.
Here's the thing Roxanne learns about pain, though:
you can get used to it.
She works her way up to it gradually, training herself, controlling herself, until—
"—you're beautiful," the guard says, eyes blank, mouth slack.
The electricity is lancing through Roxanne's body and she wants to scream with how much it hurts, but she smiles, slow and seductive.
(she's dressed in a shapeless white smock like a hospital gown. they shaved her hair off a long time ago. she hasn't had a shower in weeks. she isn't sure how long it's been since she's seen herself in a mirror, but she's very sure that she's not anything like beautiful)
"Would you like to kiss me?" she asks.
He nods, stumbles forward like she's yanked a string attached to him.
"Ah-ah-ah," she says playfully (her nerves are howling, her fingers beginning to twitch and jerk with the current, but she holds on, spins the power out from inside her like spidersilk, wrapping it around the guard). "You have to do something for me, first."
"Anything," the guard says.
"Take the collar off of me," Roxanne commands.
He does.
She does give him that kiss.
(afterwards, she slips the gun out of his holster and shoots him with it.)
She can't go back home; she knows that; odds are her family won't even be there, but they'll be waiting; they'll be there, but she doesn't—she can't—
She goes home.
Her family is gone, just as she knew they would be, and they are there, waiting for her, just as she knew they would be—the woman with the efficient voice, and men in dark clothing, with guns that they point at Roxanne. The woman has a gun, too, although she's holding it at her side, instead of aiming it at Roxanne.
"Your family will be safe if you come quietly with us," the woman with the efficient voice says, lips curving up in something that looks like a smile.
Roxanne's laughter wells up inside her like screaming.
"All right," Roxanne says. "I'll—I'll come with you."
She takes a step forward, sees triumph flash in the woman's face—
And then she lets the power out.
The woman realizes what she's doing just a second too late; her eyes go wide with fear for just an instant before they go blank and glazed and hungry, like the eyes of all the men with guns.
"You're so beautiful," the woman with the efficient voice breathes.
Roxanne lets her lips curve up. She looks around at the men with guns, letting her gaze take in the whole crowd of them.
"Do you think I'm beautiful?" Roxanne says.
"—yes—"
"—beautiful—"
"—so beautiful—"
"Do you love me?" Roxanne asks, spreading her arms, letting the power flow out from inside her. "Do you want to make me happy?"
"—yes, oh, yes—"
"—please, yes—"
"—yes—"
Roxanne smiles at them and they smile back at her.
"Kill yourselves," she says.
(later, Roxanne throws up in the kitchen sink of what used to be her house. then she grabs what she can carry of her old clothes and she runs)
She runs and she runs and she runs.
(hitch a ride, let her power out, steal the car, steal their wallets.)
(again. again. again.)
She doesn't realize she's running home until she's there.
Metro City, the last place she remembers being happy, the place where she lived with her mother and father, before he left, before her mother remarried and they moved away, before this horrible thing inside of Roxanne manifested itself and tore her life apart.
Roxanne has no plan, when she gets there, but she does have a little money—enough for food and a change of clothes.
She meets Metro Man for the first time when he comes to arrest her while she's standing in line at a dollar store with a plastic shopping basket full of cheap clothing and non-perishable snacks.
He doesn't say he's there to arrest her, not at first, just smiles at her, all teeth and what he clearly thinks is charm.
"I'm going to have to ask you to come with me, miss," he says.
He's—he's very large, and he's standing too close for Roxanne's comfort, and all of the other shoppers are edging away from her, looking at her out of the corners of their eyes.
"No," she says, clutching her plastic basket to her chest and mentally measuring the distance to the doors. "I don't know you. I'm not going anywhere with you."
Metro Man's smile turns into a look of sternness; he takes a step closer, and Roxanne, her panic beginning to rise, lets the power start to gather, start to coil.
"Let's not make this any harder than it has to be," he says.
He reaches for her arm and Roxanne lashes out with her power in blind fear, hitting him with it hard and fast.
He stumbles back a step, eyes glazing over for a moment, and then he shakes his head, as if to clear it.
"The seductive bolts of evil bounce off the armor of justice!" he declares.
"What the fuck?" says Roxanne, because she has no idea what he's talking about, and also oh god did he just shake off her power oh god what's she going to—
He moves to grab her again and she screams as loudly as she can and throws the shopping basket at his head, then darts for the doors.
(he catches her in the parking lot; the bastard is crazy fast, and when she hits him with another burst of her pheromone powers, he just shakes it off again.)
She screams and fights the whole way to the prison, hitting him over and over with her powers, for all the good it does her.
(it does her no good. she just ends up with bruises and a dislocated shoulder from Metro Man holding onto her too tightly while she fights)
Turns out the fuckers from the lab (the ones that are still left alive, anyway) have classified her as a 'Superpowered Threat to Society: Level Two'. There's a whole list of crimes she's committed.
They conveniently leave out the part of the story where they locked her up and tortured her, first.
In the prison cell, Roxanne laughs until she cries, cries until she screams, screams until she goes hoarse—and then she forces herself to stop screaming and gather her thoughts.
(they'll be coming for her; she can't stay here; she can't)
Her powers are tapped out from trying to use them on Metro Man. That's only happened to her a couple times before, back at the lab, and it always left her feeling weak and shaky, but at least she knows they will come back.
(hopefully, hopefully her powers will come back before they come to get her.)
She charms a guard and breaks out of the prison six hours later.
...to be continued.