"When I was twelve years old, I was abducted in the middle of the night and taken to a large facility on the other side of the country, where about four hundred other people of all different ages, nationalities and backgrounds had been taken from their homes and collected like some rare insect specimen, put in separate, Plexiglas chambers and had a variety of unexplainable tests done on them." He spoke as if he had memorized what he was going to say.
Capri blinked, not sure how to react.
Ben continued, not allowing her to. "For three years, our lives were nothing but a series of strange tests; the effects of which I'm still not sure. Within those three years, with the help of several other captives there, I realized what criteria they were using to decide on who to kidnap." Ben paused, licking his lips and finally looking at Capri. "They were taking people with special abilities."
Capri's eyebrows lowered. "What do you mean?"
"Flight, telekinesis, telepathy, super strength." Ben's eyes began to become animated, and he spoke faster and faster as he went on. "People like me, and Michelle."
She looked over at Michelle, who was rubbing her forehead in apprehension.
Capri wasn't sure if she believed or understood what he was saying, but at any rate, all she cared about was Zane. Under the circumstances, Capri wasn't sure what question to ask first. Deciding on the most pressing, and most likely, the one she would most understand, she asked, "W- what does this have to do with Zane?"
"I'll get to that. Anyway, three years after I was taken there, a small group of those with the most exceptional abilities got together and began to organize a mass escape. With people with abilities like they had, and with the kind of technology Krauss had..."
"Or didn't have, more like," Michelle interjected.
"It wasn't difficult," Ben continued. "We destroyed almost everything; All of their records, their research, everything.
"In the end, we took over their facility, and are using it now as a base of operations. Two years later-" Ben shook his head. "Just two years later, Krauss was back on his feet."
"Wait- wait. Who's Krauss?"
"Krauss is the initiator of it all. No one knows much about him, except that he's obsessed with researching people like us. His...organization," Ben sneered, "is privately owned, funded purely out of his own pocket, and his paper trail is almost non-existent. N one but his victims and workers know about it."
"Why not tell someone about it?"
"Because no one knows where his new headquarters is. We're working on finding out, but it's slow going...even with the... recourses we have. We have no proof. "
"I still don't understand what this has to do with Zane."
"Since we destroyed everything of Krauss's, he had to start all over. Get new equipment, new workers... and new test subjects."
Capri's breath was stolen away. She looked over at her brother, who was now sleeping fitfully. She looked back at Ben for conformation, and he only nodded.
"But, why would he pick Zane? He doesn't have special abilities!"
"Are you sure? I mean," Ben laughed nervously, "You didn't know I had any."
Capri looked quickly at Ben, and subconsciously stepped back.
He frowned. "It's not a sickness, Capri," he said with surprising understanding, "We're not monsters."
She looked back at Michelle, suddenly feeling very trapped.
"What?" Michelle said, walking up behind Capri and pulling on a strand of her hair. "Afraid we're gonna contaminate you?"
Ben glared at Michelle. "You've known me all this time, Pree. I'm still me. I mean, I've always had it."
Capri looked deep into his eyes, a new wonder and awe surrounding his once so familiar face. "What... is... it?" she asked slowly. She couldn't believe this.
"What? My ability?"
She nodded, not sure she actually wanted to know.
Ben reached up to his hearing aid and took it out of his ear. After a moment, he suddenly started tapping his foot. "Bop-bop. Bop-bop. Bop-bop."
Capri looked at him as if he was crazy.
"Bop-bop-bop. Bop-bop-bop. Do you know what that is, Capri?" Ben said looking at her and smirking.
She shook her head.
His foot still tapping, he simply said, "It's your heartbeat."
"What?"
"It's your heartbeat. I can hear your heartbeat." His foot tapped faster as Capri's heartbeat quickened. "And this," he said, changing the beat to one much slower, "is Michelle's."
Capri looked awestricken. She turned around and looked at Michelle, who reached over, grabbed her hand and put it to her own chest.
He was dead-on. Michelle put her hand under Capri's chin and closed her open mouth, smiling.
Capri jerked her head away from Michelle's hand. "And what about you?" she asked, regaining some of her composure.
"I can tap into people's nerve system and feel what their feeling. That's how I knew what was wrong with Zane. There are certain places of pain that I can look for if I suspect Krauss's work."
Capri turned around to face Ben again. "Yes. What about Zane? What's going to happen to him now?"
He sighed worriedly. "There'll be no way to tell until he's out of this."
"Well, what happened to you?"
Michelle interjected, "this didn't happen to us. Our powers came naturally, like most people's do."
Capri couldn't help but laugh. "'Most people is not what it used to be."
"People like us," Michelle said with an annoyed tilt of her head. "Anyway, I've never seen this happen. If Krauss was involved. We know that sometimes people react negatively to it, and we don't know the cause exactly, but have found that it only happens to people who are triggered artificially. What's happening to him is his body's reaction to the mutation it's going through. As long as the alteration wins over, he'll be fine."
"And if it doesn't?"
"He could go into what can only be explained as a form of anaphylactic shock." Michelle's factuality was sickening.
"I'm so sorry, Pree," Ben said taking a tentative step towards her.
"Is there anything we can do?" she asked, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Pray," she answered, a small amount of empathy in her voice.
About an hour of tense silence went by, Michelle placing her hands on Zane every now and then to check on him, Capri sitting silently staring at her hand, which Ben had disinfected and dressed. Ben busied himself with making coffee.
All of the sudden, Capri quietly ventured, "So... if... he makes it out of this," she looked at Michelle, who sat opposite her, slightly surprised Capri was talking, "what...power will he get?" It all sounded so strange coming from her mouth.
Michelle grinned a little, but Ben answered as he entered the room with steaming mugs for everyone. "Don't know." He sat down on the seat next to her. "Why?"
Capri shrugged. "I guess I want to be ready."
"What would you like him to get?" Michelle asked, clearly amused and intrigued by the chance to see people like herself through the eyes of someone normal.
Capri seemed indignant. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I mean," she shrugged. "I'd be lying if I didn't say I've thought about it myself."
Ben smirked. "Thought about what?"
"I've met plenty of people with abilities-"
Capri looked at Michelle with astonishment. How many were there?
"And I've gotta say I've been envious of a few. I mean, I'd much rather have flight, personally. That's what you want for Zane, Capri. That one's useful. "
Capri smiled uncomfortably. The nonchalance in this conversation was mind-boggling. As if they were talking about a new car or something.
Ben laughed. "So you'd trade your ability?"
"Well, haven't you at least thought about it? You know, wished that you got something different?"
Ben did a half scoff, half laugh and shook his head. "You have no idea."
"Oh. Right. Like your power is just awful. At least yours isn't painful."
"What do you mean?" Capri asked, rejoining the conversation.
Michelle's smile faded slightly.
"You mean that every time you... do what you do, you feel the same pain as the person you're doing it to?"
Michelle nodded.
"No matter how bad it is?"
"Well, it's not like I have some sort of fail-safe," she retorted sardonically.
"So when you-" She looked at Zane, who was sleeping much more peacefully, although his brow was slightly wrinkled.
Michelle nodded again.
Capri swallowed, feeling a new respect and guilt for depreciating Michelle's efforts. "Thank you. And... I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it," Michelle said with callous. "Who could blame you? How were you supposed to know?"
"No, I mean, I'm sorry you have to... do that."
Michelle nodded.
"At least you can turn yours off," Ben said.
"That's true," Michelle conceded, eager to distract the attention from herself. "It was awful until you got your hearing aid."
Capri looked at Ben, realizing she hadn't really thought about his hearing aid in a long time. When she first met him, she hadn't approached him to introduce herself as she did with her other coworkers, thinking he was deaf and wouldn't be able to talk to her, as silly as she later realized that was. When finally they found themselves in a situation where there was no other choice but to somehow communicate, Capri wrote her name down on a piece of paper, showed it to him and pointed to herself. Ben, having had this happen before, smiled and plainly said, "nice to meet you. My name's Ben." To which Capri abashedly apologized. Never again had his supposed handicap been brought up. In fact, upon hindsight, the very fact that it hadn't come up again was a clue to its abnormality; Ben had never complained, or even hinted at the fact that he was hard of hearing. Every now and then, he would adjust it, but in times when it made no sense. In the park, at the mall- never when he might have need of hearing something more clearly.
"Why do you wear that?" Capri asked.
"Well, when I first got my ability, when I was about eleven, I wasn't able to control it. It started out with just being able to hear a lot at once and take it all in, but then I started being able to hear things really clearly, and then it just got so loud, that I couldn't stand it. My mom would try to talk to me, and I'd have to cover my ears. I couldn't sleep at night because the sound of blood running through my veins was so loud. That's about when Krauss came and got me." He laughed humorlessly. "I guess it was sort of a good thing. I don't know what I would have done. Anyway, after we escaped, the people most responsible for the escape put together an underground society called 'PASH'- Powered Assistance for the Super Human- to help those with special abilities."
"Wow," Capri sighed.
"Yeah! Wow! It's amazing, Capri," Ben said, his eyes filled with passion. "Anyone with an ability applies for help, and who better to help than others with abilities? It's- it's amazing how everyone uses their abilities to help each other. There's a complete datab-"
"Ben!" Michelle said suddenly, giving Ben a chilling look of warning.
Ben nodded, bringing himself back to reality.
Capri looked at Michelle for an explanation to her interruption, but she wouldn't look at her.
"Anyway," Ben continued, "they had this special hearing aid made for me. It basically does the opposite of what a normal hearing aid should do." He smiled. "I can still hear more than the average person, just not loudly."
"Wow."
"So see, yours is better than mine," Michelle said, steering the conversation back to its long-forgotten original point.
Ben and Capri laughed. "I don't know," he conceded.
Suddenly, Zane shifted and turned with a small moan.
Capri jumped up and went to his side, with a nauseating mixture of dread, fear and hope.
Michelle reached over Capri's head and put her hands on him. Slowly, a comforted smile graced her face.
That's when Capri realized, with another wave of nauseating emotion, that Zane was no longer sweating, and that his muscles had finally loosened. "He's going to be alright, isn't he?" she asked, although she could tell by the calm expressions on the faces around her what the answer was.
"Zane?" she asked, gently turning his head to face her.
His eyes opened slowly, and searched the faces crowded around him for a second, before, to everyone's relief, focusing on Capri, and groggily asking, "Why am I all wet?"
Capri laughed and hugged his neck.
"No, really. My clothes are soaked. What happened?" Zane sat up, albeit weakly, and looked questioningly at Michelle.
Since Capri was too overcome with emotion to do anything but cry and hug Zane, Michelle responded first with a question, "What's the last thing you remember, Zane?"
"Um, who are you?"
"Just answer the question, Zane," Ben said.
"Uhm... I was walking out to meet Capri, and...then I just woke up. I guess...I fell asleep?" Zane put his hand up to his head. "I've got a killer headache."
Ben got up and offered Zane a glass of water, which he gladly accepted.
Suddenly, Capri gasped and said, "I can call the police and tell them to call off the search!"
"You called the police?" Zane asked. "How long was I gone?"
"I told you. About two days."
Zane shook his head for clarity. "Two days!? Where was I?!"
Capri swallowed hard; nobody answered.
Michelle put her hand on Zane's head again.
Zane swiped it off and looked at Michelle with indignation. "Where was I!?"
Michelle looked over at Capri for help, but Capri just shook her head- not quite ready to explain all of the night's events to her brother. She simply said, "she's a nurse, Zane. Just let her."
He looked at Michelle dubiously, but allowed her to replace her hand. "Oh, yeah," she said. "He's doing great."
He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Yes, hello. This is Capri Schakowsky. I recently filed a missing person's report for Zane Schakowsky. Yes. He's back. Um..." she looked over at them. "He... ran away. Yes. No, he's fine. Thank you so much. I'm really sorry. Thank you again." She hung up.
"Did I?" Zane asked with shock.
"What?"
"Run away? W-what happened!?"
"Zane," Capri said, kneeling down next to him and putting her hand on his. "You were kidnapped."
His eyes got wide. "Well, then why didn't you tell the cops? We need to get these people! What- They need to interview me or something."
"We can't," she said with defeat.
"And plus," Michelle added, "What could you tell them? You don't remember anything."
Zane looked down. "Will someone please tell me what's going on?"
"He's bound to find out sooner or later," Michelle said, trying to stifle a smile. "I mean, you know, I think he'll notice."
Capri shifted uncomfortably.
"What do you mean? What does she mean? What'd they do to me? Capri!"
"Zane, I... don't know how-" Capri stopped short, as Ben covered her mouth with his hand and quickly said, "Shh!"
He took his hearing aid off violently and listened for a moment. He stood up and went to the door, putting his ear to it carefully. "Guys-" he said urgently, but was cut off as the lights. Even the one street light outside was dead.
A silence fell upon the group, as if waiting. Suddenly, Ben's voice broke the silence. "What the-" his voice was replaced by a strange click and hiss, a loud thump, and a small grunt.
"Ben?" Michelle asked worriedly as she stumbled through the dark to see what had happened. A strange, "Mmmmph!" and another hiss and thump silenced any further movement.
Capri's heart pounded loudly in her ears as thick stillness came over the room. She wondered fearfully if Ben was hearing it.
"Don't move," a deep, slightly hoarse voice said from somewhere in front of them. Although all of the lights were out, there was still enough light for Capri to see the outline of Zane's head, as well as some of the furniture, and yet she could not see even the form of the man talking.
Despite the order to be still, Capri's hand went instinctively to her brother's and squeezed painfully tight.
"Capri, over there. On the other couch," the voice said with calm blandness, as if trying not to put any inflection in his sentences.
"How does he know my name?" she thought with panic, breathing in gasps when she realized she could hear the clicking of a gun being moved.She reluctantly obeyed, tears flowing down her cheeks to the point that her vision, as impaired as it already was, was blurry.
Zane watched Capri obey, looking blindly toward the two figures he could see quite clearly, despite the dark; There was a tall, muscular man with a back-pack, holding a gun at Capri, and there was also a short, skinny girl with long, wavy hair back in a pony-tail. She also held a gun, but the small amount of light from the moon outside seemed to be going through it- like it was made of glass of plastic.
"Zane?" Capri asked nervously, suddenly not being able to see the shape of her brother. She squealed, a sharp pain and the same strange click and hiss- almost a sizzle- brought her attention back to the attacker she could not see. Her eyesight faltered, and she felt extreme nausea, before falling unconscious to the ground.
Zane shouted, "Capri!" and went to move toward her, but stopped as an extremely strong hand grabbed his arm, and that odd gun was pushed flat onto his skin. He struggled, but stopped immediately when he felt the tip of the normal gun touch his neck. He breathed heavily through his nose, as his mouth was covered with tape, and his hands and feet tied by the small woman, who, oddly, kept her hand on the man at all times.
Zane pulled away, and another masculine hand held his jaw, rendering him immobile. A sharp prick, followed by an aching burst within the muscle surrounding his forearm, along with that alien pop and wet sigh, wrenched its way into his senses.
A strange, silent moment went by, the invader still holding him in place.
"What's wrong?" the man asked, showing his first signs of emotion.
"I don't know," a high-pitched woman's voice replied.
The same pain and sounds from the gun, which he now felt was definitely not metal, tightened his arm again, but his reaction was even less than before. There wasn't even any pain after the initial piercing of the needle.
"It's not working," the woman said with fear in her voice.
The man let go of him quickly. "Want me to just..." the rest of the sentence was visual, the man making a fist a bringing it down quickly.
Zane's eyes went wide as he understood what the man had intended to do. If they couldn't knock him out with drugs, they'd just knock him out!
The woman sighed and said, "I don't know. What else can we do?"
The man lifted up his fist over Zane's head, and Zane readied for a blow.
"Wait! Wait! Don't!" the woman said urgently. "He might get a concussion and we don't have authorization."
More silence.
"Here's what we do," she said decisively after a moment of thinking. Her voice was so small and young-sounding, the authority in her voice didn't really fit. "We blindfold him, and just bring him like this. When we get to a rendezvous point, we'll proceed on orders."
The man nodded with an unsure sigh.
There was a clinking of objects in a bag, and then complete darkness as Zane was blindfolded. He gasped as he felt a nauseous sensation, like the feeling of a fast elevator. He had been completely and effortlessly picked up by the man, and was being carried to the door.
Zane shouted as loud as he could, being muffled by the tape, and thrashed in the man's arms, seeming to have no effect on him.
"What do we do?" the man asked.
"Just put him in the back."
Zane was carried for about a mile in the night's darkness, for it seemed the entire neighborhood was dark, and then they turned down what felt like an alley, where the man's pace slowed, before he stopped completely, and the sound of a small car door opening was followed by Zane being easily thrown into the trunk of a car. The trunk was closed, and Zane was left alone in a claustrophobic haze. The doors to the car shut with a jolting thud, and the engine started.