"It fucking hurts to chew," Emily grumbled.

She was seated across from Alison in the cafeteria, two seats to the left. Hanna sat next to Emily on her left, with Aria on Hanna's left. Alison was sitting across from Aria, with Spencer on her left. Everyone was eating dinner, young people from of all ages. The youngest Alison guessed they were thirteen, and the oldest maybe nineteen.

Hanna pouted sympathetically as Emily tried to chew her steak. Alison didn't speak up to apologize, she didn't do anything wrong. It was Emily's fault that she couldn't block Ali's knee. It still didn't stop Emily from sitting down with a disgruntled look on her face, and a reddish bruise starting to show up on the right side of her head.

Alison ignored Emily, and only glanced expressionlessly in her direction every once in awhile. She cut her food in silence, and occasionally glanced around at the others in the cafeteria. Noel had already caught her eyes a few times, but that was because he was always laughing and looking at her when she looked around.

"Fuck, I can't even chew properly," Emily said, throwing her fork down on her plate.

Hanna rubbed Emily's back sympathetically, "Do you want me to chew your food for you and spit it in your mouth like a bird?"

Aria began laughing, and choked on the blue sports drink that she was drinking. Alison was bewildered, glancing at Aria and Spencer who were both laughing. Was Hanna being serious? Emily didn't seem to be impressed with Hanna's comment, and stared blankly at her for a few seconds.

"Um, no," Emily said, standing up. "I'm gonna go see if they have any soup of something."

Emily left, leaving the remaining four to continue to eat in silence. Chatter echoed around them, as various tables discussed the day. Hanna, Spencer, and Aria exchanged looks and continued to eat their food. Ali didn't know what else to do, instead she watched their faces and noticed that their eyes stayed casted down at their food.

A few minutes later, Emily returned with a bowl of soup in her hands. She sat hastily down next to Hanna, and picked up her spoon. Her jaw was clenched, which surprised Ali since she figured doing so would cause pain to the bruised side of her face.

Alison got up from the table, finishing before the other girls. She didn't want to stick around in the awkward silence, especially with Emily being a sore loser about what happened. She walked towards the trash cans, where Noel was placing his empty bowl in the appropriate container.

"Hey Ali," Noel said, as Alison approached. "How's your first day been?"

There was a nicer, friendlier tone to Noel's voice, different from what she had witnessed in the training room. He didn't look up at her, and continued to place his utensils in the dirty dishes bin.

"It was good," Alison said, simply. She began placing her dirty dishes in the bins as well.

"You really kicked Emily's ass out there," he chuckled. "Talk about getting off on the wrong foot with her."

"Why is she judging me based on some stupid sparring session that we had to do? It's not my fault, the goal was to take the other down," Alison snapped.

"Don't have to get snappy with me, I'm just saying. She was already on the ground before you brought your knee to the side of her face," Noel said. "You already won without bruising her."

Alison paused, she didn't really think about that. Was she going to apologize for it? No, never. Despite the fact that maybe Alison overkilled it a little bit, she didn't do anything wrong.

"If you want, after dinner everyone usually goes into the Rec Room. A few of my friends and I are going to play some cards, I'm sure your new friends will join too. If you want to stick by me you can, especially if Emily's giving you a hard time," Noel suggested.

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," Alison said.

"What's your ability anyway? Like why are you locked up in here?" Noel asked.

"I'm not sure, all I know is I melted the brains of my parents. I haven't really gotten the chance to see what I can do," Alison shrugged.

"Damn, that must suck. Losing your parents," Noel sighed.

"Not really, I never really liked them. They weren't good parents," Alison said, swallowing dryly. She regretted throwing away her water.

"I guess so. Well, I guess I'll see you in the Rec Room then?" Noel asked, turning towards the table of guys that he was sitting at.

"Yeah, I'll see you," Alison said, smiling at him.


"You're cheating!" Caleb yelled, reaching for Noel's cards.

"Am not!" Noel protested, pulling his cards out of Caleb's reach.

Card playing with them had become highly competitive. They were all facing each other in a circle, holding their cards. Alison was next to Noel, with Spencer on her right. Toby complained when Spencer tried to join, and said Spencer would win every time because she could easily figure out the hand everyone was holding. Instead of playing cards, Spencer sat back and observed. Hanna and Aria joined as well, but Emily was nowhere to be seen. Hanna had said she went to bed earlier in their shared dorm room, saying that she didn't feel like hanging out with all of them.

Alison already met one new face, Caleb. He was brown haired, and brown eyed with a cheesy grin. Alison made the connection from earlier, of Hanna having a crush on him. He was cute enough, and had a deep scratchy voice. She met Toby properly as well, instead of just knowing his face and name. Toby had already threatened to catch the card deck on fire, and almost did once. The tip of his finger emitted a bright blue stream of fire, that he slowly moved towards the deck of cards. Caleb had to grab his hand and pull it away, burning his hand in the process from the heat emitting from Toby's skin. Apparently his whole body would heat up whenever he used his ability.

Alison was enjoying the time with the group of people however, they were nice enough. She observed them for the most part, seeing who would be easier to become friends with. They all seemed easy enough, Emily was the only problematic one that she was going to face so far. Though Emily was extremely pretty, if she wasn't going to like Alison, then so be it. It was a wrong move for Emily though, she didn't know of Alison's previous reputation. The people who disliked her well, their lives were a living hell.

"I'm out, if you're cheating than I'm not playing," Caleb said, tossing his cards angrily at Noel. Alison leaned to the right to avoid being hit by the flying cards.

"Come on! It's only Go-Fish!" Noel said, as Caleb got up and walked towards the exit of the Rec Room. He flipped Noel off in response. "Asshole."

Aria yawned across from Alison, it was close to ten PM. From all the rigorous training they were put through every day, no wonder everyone was exhausted already before ten.

"Alright, I'm going to bed," Aria said, standing up. "Hitting the showers and then out like a light."

"You left your toothbrush in my room," Spencer said. "I can go grab it for you if you want."

Noel began cleaning up the cards that people were throwing into a pile on the table. Alison placed hers down as well, and stood up to follow Spencer.

"Did you want to take a shower Alison?" Spencer asked, pointing towards the door of the Rec Room. "You can follow Aria and I there."

Alison nodded, and trailed behind a few feet as Spencer and Aria walked to Alison and Spencer's shared room.


Emily was in the showers when they arrived, and had the curtain only partly closed to her shower stall. Spencer and Aria said hi to Emily as they passed her on the way to the empty shower stalls. Emily only mumbled a hi back.

As they walked by Emily's stall, Alison couldn't help but peek in. There was a huge gap after all.

All Alison saw was blue. Emily had her back to Ali, with her hands pressed against the shower stall in front of her that supported her weight. The hot water was flowing down her body, all covered in glimmering, vibrant, blue scales. She wasn't wearing her jumpsuit, which previously covered her body. Ali could now see just how scaley her body was, and how beautiful the scales were. Ali could see the gills on the side of her neck, heaving as they drank in the water from the shower. A fin jutted out of her back, not like the fin of a shark however. It was more like one of a fish, she was basically a human fish. A mermaid. Well, without the tail.

Alison continued on, and stepped into the shower stall next to Emily's. She tried to rid her thoughts of the image she just saw, and stepped into the warm stream of water to continue to metaphorically wash away the image. She couldn't stop thinking of it however, how blue the scales were on her body and how they turned her entire body blue. She tried to pay attention to Spencer and Aria's conversation, who were having one through the shower stalls. They laughed loudly over the sound of hot water running through the pipes, though Alison remained silent as she listened to what they were talking about.

Alison heard the water stop running next to her, and looked down and to the left. Alison saw blue scaled and webbed feet. Spencer and Aria continued to talk, and Alison watched as Emily exited the shower stall.

"So Alison, how did you like your first day?" Spencer asked through the shower stalls, causing Alison to tear her attention away from Emily and back onto their conversation.


After a pretty boring breakfast, Alison found herself participating in one on one training with a man named Ezra in the small training room. Ezra was in his late twenties. His wavy hair was styled high, and short whiskers that made him look almost rugged. Since it was her first time training, Ezra was mostly focused on trying to find what her element was. They were in a training room similar to the one Alison was in yesterday, but a lot smaller. It was lit up brightly by florescent lights that hung from the ceiling.

It didn't take long for them to get some sort of result from Alison. Alison questioned herself at first, and quickly grew frustrated with the lack of results. Ezra was not at all worried that nothing happened. In fact, he told her he wasn't expecting much at all. It was very rare for one of his trainees to come in already knowing a general understanding of what they would be able to do.

It wasn't until two and a half hours in when things began to click. Ezra was standing on the other side of the training room, and turned his head to the side to crack his neck. He had formulated a training idea in his head, on how to bring out the same power Alison did on her parents. Alison was hesitant on the ordeal, what if she ending up frying his head and killing him as well?

"I highly doubt you'll fry me Alison," Ezra chuckled, but strapped a funny looking helmet to his head nonetheless. A strap came down and buckled under his chin, keeping the matte black helmet resting comfortably on the top of his head. "From your files, you were in a pretty heated argument with your parents...feeling a lot of angry emotions, that's probably why it happened. I don't think you feel that way about me as of now."

He barely let Alison process what was going on, and was already charging at her. Within seconds he made it across the training room, and swung a heavy punch at her. It was as if time had slowed down, and Alison ducked underneath his punch. It was an odd feeling, since what had just happened with Ezra didn't happen when she was fighting Emily yesterday. Maybe it was because it was just the two of them.

"Come on, don't want to fight back because you're a girl? Weak," Ezra laughed, causing Alison to frown.

"Not at all!" Alison huffed, offended by Ezra's comment.

"Fine, let's see what you got then," Ezra said, an elbow coming for Ali's head as he took a step toward her.

Alison blocked the elbow, and instinctively brought a knee towards Ezra's groin. Ezra grabbed her knee, and kicked her other leg out from under her. Alison crumbled to the ground, and landed flat on her back.

"Lorenzo told me that you were actually good, guess he was wrong," Ezra laughed, as Alison scrambled back to her feet.

"You need to shut the fuck up," Alison said, anger flaring up in her chest. Her eyes squinted, and her knuckles tightened.

"Well what are you going to do about it?" Ezra asked, motioning with his hands in a jeering fashion.

Her anger taking over, Alison let out an angry yell and swung at Ezra. He backed up easily, and dodged a following punch that Alison aimed right after. He caught her hand and lifted her, slamming her to the ground again.

"Ameateur," Ezra said, jumping up and down on his toes, watching Alison sit up from where she was on the ground. "I'm just warming up."

Alison's eyes flashed to Ezra's exercise bag. He had brought it in with him when he and Ali first met, and placed it in the corner of the gray colored room. The second her eyes tore away from the bag and her jaw tightened hardly with anger, the exercise bag had taken flight and was heading towards Ezra's head at a fast speed.

It collided abruptly with his head, and his arms flew up to cover himself just as the bag collided with his helmet covered head. The force from the bag caused Ezra to stumble and fall, as the bag flew to the ground and remained motionless.

Ezra laughed on the ground, and picked himself up a few seconds later.

"Good job!" he said, continuing to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Alison asked.

"I was trying to get a reaction from you!" Ezra said, flashing a happy white smile. "Your powers stem from your anger, which isn't necessarily a good thing, but we'll be able to correct it so that you can use them on your own free will!"

"So you said all those things just to get a reaction from me?" Alison asked, her voice still flaring with anger.

"In a way, yes," Ezra nodded. "Please don't assume that I meant all of those things that I said, I only did it in order to help get a reaction from you. And it worked!"

"So what does this mean? I can do things with my mind? That's it?" Alison asked. She looked at the bag again, in attempts to make it take flight again. Nothing happened, it moved a fraction of an inch at most.

"Well, I don't want to make any conclusions as of right now, but that's what it looks like. We'll continue to do exercises to help stimulate it and find a way to control it, since you only are able to use it when you're angry," Ezra said, bending down to pick up the exercise bag that Alison was still secretly trying to get to move.

"That doesn't make sense though. Back home I used to get angry all the time and nothing would happen," Alison said, following closely behind Ezra as he took off his helmet and began walking to the door of the training room.

"Some people's abilities remain dormant, others have experienced their powers their whole life. The more people here that you'll talk to, you'll see what I mean. But it seems for you, a very emotional event which led to an altercation with your parents is what awoke yours," Ezra said, holding the door open for her. "Unfortunately for your parents, the discovery of your abilities meant the death of them."

"What happened to my parents, they got what they deserve. They-," Alison hissed.

"You don't have to say anything Ali, I already know," Ezra said, holding up a calloused hand to stop her. "I read your file, you don't have to explain it to me."

Alison stopped, did the entire facility know of what happened? From what it sounded like, the faculty did. She doubted the "residents" of the facility knew anything, it had to be confidential. She was slowly learning more and more about the others, especially Spencer. The pair had stayed up for a little while following their shower. Spencer decided to read a book entirely in Latin, and Alison tried to find out more about her.

Spencer's story seemed typical, it was nothing too out of the ordinary. They found out about Spencer when Spencer was able to translate and speak the hieroglyphics in a book at five years old. She had been looking through photos of Egypt in the elementary school library, and walked away able to speak ancient Egyptian. It baffled the teachers, and baffled Spencer's parents. Spencer was discovered before the formation of NASW, so she was kept under strict government watch at her home and was homeschooled until she was fifteen. NASW was formed shortly after her fifteenth birthday, and one morning Spencer found herself being taken from her home and brought to this facility. It was all she knew for two years.

"Emily was the first member of this organization," Spencer said, not even looking up from her reading. "She was part of the reason this was formed."

"Oh? When did they discover her?" Alison asked.

"When she was born, but they didn't know what to do at that point, so she had been under strict government watch since her birth," Spencer said, chewing on her lip and flipping the page. "Unfortunately for her, she wasn't allowed to stay with her parents like I was."

"She doesn't know who her parents are?" Alison asked, frowning.

"Not really other than their names and one photo of them. She doesn't remember anything about them because she was so young when she was taken from them," Spencer said.

"Did her parents have a say?" Alison asked, feeding into the information she was receiving.

Spencer looked up, "I sense if I continue talking, Emily will get mad. It's really her private information, if you want to know, you can ask her. If I keep talking, Emily will get mad."

"What do you mean you sense it?" Alison asked.

"Being a super genius means I can pick up on social cues, as well as personality traits and other sorts of things. I understand what things will piss people off and make them happy," Spencer said. "Like I know how you hate it when someone threatens your status."

Alison's jaw hardened as Spencer's head dropped back down to the book in front of her.

She wasn't wrong.

Ezra led her into a lit up hallway, which she recognized from the previous day. It was the same one that Dr. Kingston had led her down. Ezra walked passed a few doors, before peeking his head into one on the left. Alison looked in as well, and saw Dr. Rollins sitting at a white desk. Everything in the room was white, down to Dr. Rollins white smile. He seemed to enjoy the color.

"Ezra, how can I help you?" he smiled, his brown eyes flashing to Alison. "Nice to see you again Alison."

"She showed the first signs of her ability in training, was just wondering if we could start up with the stimulus injections today," Ezra said, stepping into the room.

"Certainly," Dr. Rollins said, standing up from his desk. He grabbed two white latex gloves from a jar sitting on his desk, and pulled them over his scarred hands. Alison noticed that his hands couldn't close completely, and remembered the awkward way that both he and Dr. Kingston had held their pens the day before.

"So, usually in the beginning of the training process we inject you daily with a stimulus that helps to stimulate your ability. It will help you bring out that ability, and help with controlling it so that you're able to use it at your own free will," Ezra explained. "Dr. Rollins created it himself. I hope you don't mind shots."

"I don't," Alison said, watching as Dr. Rollins began to fill a syringe with a turquoise blue liquid. It was the same color and consistency as the liquid that was in her IV the previous day. He held up the syringe and unsheathed the needle, flicking it slightly to make sure the liquid would come out.

"Right, so Ali you'll be stopping by here everyday right before lunch to receive your injection. Once you're able to control your powers, we'll start lowering the amount you get until you stop getting it entirely," Dr. Rollins said. "Could you just take your arm out of that sleeve for me?"

The second the needle pierced her skin and the liquid entered her bloodstream, Alison felt a tingling sensation throughout her body that went down to her toes. She suddenly felt hyper aware, and focused on crease marks that were on Dr. Rollins forehead, as well as the fact his dark brown eyes shook slightly as he was focused on the needle in her arm.

"All set," Dr. Rollins said, backing away from her. He deposited the syringe in a special plastic box on the wall, and began removing his gloves. Alison slid her arm back into the jumpsuit, and looked to Ezra who had pushed himself off of the wall he was leaning on.

"It takes a little while for your body to get used to it," Ezra chuckled, watching Alison try to steady herself. "You can head off to lunch now, do you remember where it is from here?"

"I think I'm good," Alison said. "I just feel kind of funny."

Alison looked over at the doorway to Dr. Rollins's office just as someone walked in. It was Emily, looking slightly flustered. Her dark hair was slightly disheveled as it flowed down her back. Her eyes quickly scanned the room, barely glancing at Ezra or Alison.

"Hey Dr. Rollins, it's time for my shot," Emily said, slightly frantic as she began slipping out of her jumpsuit right in front of them.

"Right, of course," Dr. Rollins said, clearing his throat as he looked at Ezra. He turned to pull out another syringe, and a vial of liquid. This one was clear, different from Alison's.

"I think that's our cue to leave," Ezra laughed mildly, placing a hand on Alison's shoulder to help guide her out.

Once they exited the room, Alison turned to Ezra.

"Wasn't Emily one of the first ones here? Why does she still need shots?" Alison asked.

Ezra shrugged, "She may be taking shots for a number of reasons. She does have a very unique ability, maybe it has something to do with it. I don't have that kind of authority to access what she's being injected with, nor would I want to find out. I'm sure it's just to help her with her ability."


"Looks like you got your first shot today, huh?" Noel asked. They were both standing in the lunch line, waiting to get food. There were about fifteen others in front of them, waiting for the various sandwiches and fruit that were being offered today.

"How can you tell?" Alison smirked, looking up at Noel.

"Your hands are shaking like crazy," Noel laughed, pointing down at her hands.

Alison lifted her hands, they were indeed shaking pretty violently. Was she supposed to be having this bad of a reaction? Besides the hand shaking, her vision had become a lot sharper. She had pretty good vision before, but she noticed that at the moment she could see clearly for a lot farther than what she used to be able to see.

"Did this happen to you?" Alison asked.

Noel shook his head, "No, not as bad. My thing's strength, the only thing that happened to me was the fact my muscles felt like they were on fire."

"Guess it's different for everyone," Alison mumbled.

Noel passed Alison an empty tray, and took a ham sandwich with tomato from a steel server in front of him.

"So, how do you like your new friends?" Noel asked, as Alison placed a turkey sandwich on her tray.

"They're good, I only really know Spencer. I'm trying to learn more things from Hanna and Aria. As for Emily, I honestly could not give a single fuck about her," Alison said, rolling her eyes at the thought of the fish girl. How come she had to be so attractive? It would be a lot easier just to ignore her.

"She's really not that bad, I don't get why she seems to dislike you already," Noel shrugged, taking three large fruit cups with whipped cream from a steel server.

"Whatever, like you said it's probably because I kicked her ass yesterday during my first hour at the facility whereas she was the first person to come here. Her pride seems to easily get hurt," Alison said, taking a fruit cup and juicebox.

"Emily was the first member of NASW?" Noel asked, frowning.

"That's what Spencer said," Alison shrugged.

"Huh, I had no idea," Noel said, as they exited the lunch line. "Did you want me to come over to your lunch table and bring a few of my friends? Maybe make it less awkward for you?"

"It's really not that awkward, but you can if you want," Alison said, smiling slightly.

"Well with Emily being that looming presence, I noticed the awkward silences from here," Noel said, cringing slightly. "Nothing like those dirty looks that you both exchanged during breakfast to keep me entertained."

Alison laughed, "That's for sure."


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