Silver walls appeared around them and the distant humming of electronics echoed faintly. Quinn glanced around, momentarily once again baffled at the technology that the Institute had. She had been told that Ms. Dugan was the brains behind most of the simulations and she stopped for a moment like this every time one of the adults put them into a simulation for training.
"Come on Quinn, let's move," Mark said, breaking her trance. She nodded and followed him at a cautious walk down the hall. They weren't yet sure what they were up against, besides their friends, and they wanted to get a better feel of the place. Quinn was glad for the size of the halls, any smaller and there was the chance that Mark's claustrophobia would start up. She also liked the size because it would allow her to fully expand her wings, and she was betting that she'd want to, or need to, use them at some point today.
She hurried a little bit ahead despite Mark's warnings.
"Relax," she said. "We've got this."
That's when a giant wolf burst out from around the corner. It snarled and landed on her, pinning her beneath it's weight. Both Mark and Quinn noted that it made no attempt to hurt her, but they were quickly distracted. Mark looked up to see an unmistakable shock of black hair sprint past their hall and he ran after it, knowing that Quinn would kill him if stayed to help her and let him get away.
He was about a half a hallway away from Caim, who was running like this life depended on it. Mark spat into his hand, but before the saliva reached his palm it morphed into a knife. He slowed down and aimed at the back of Caim's foot. He threw the knife, which caught the back of the dark haired boy's pant leg and stuck into the floor. He fell forward, barely catching himself on his hands, and turned his head to look at him.
Before Mark could take two steps something hit him in the back of the head and he was pitched forward, but he managed to right himself before he actually fell. When he looked up Caim wasn't in sight and neither was whatever had hit him.
Quinn tore past him, soaring down the hallway with an intent Mark hadn't seen in a long time. "Come on!" she called, and he raced after her.
She sharply turned a corner but there was no sign of anyone or anything. She glided to a slow enough pace that she could touch her feet down and fold in her wings, all while continuing at a slight run. Mark caught up to her and they reached a split in the hallway: two turns with one going left and one going right, and one going straight. Quinn looked up at her partner. "Since you can't even think straight and I'm never right, let's go left." Mark laughed quietly at the joke and nodded, turning the way she indicated. They followed the hall until they reached what they suspected was a door. It was solid and blocked the entire corridor, but there was the impression of a slit that indicated that it opened somehow.
"Forget it," Quinn said. "We'll find another way." She turned to leave but Mark rested a hand on her shoulder. "Wait. Let me see if I can burn this down or something," he said.
"If you do end up melting it you'll heat up the whole hall first," Quinn replied. "I don't think you'll be able to walk, let alone run, very well with burnt feet." Despite her statement she looked back over her shoulder at the door and didn't move. Mark stepped up to the wall and ran his hand down the slit. Another knife appeared in his hand and he jimmied the tip into the slit. "Thought that only worked with credit cards," Quinn commented, a teasing smile in her voice.
"Shut up. It might work."
The tip snapped off and he muttered darkly under her breath. But the door slid open and his eyes widened. "Wow... I actually didn't think it would work."
Quinn laughed and ran down the hall with her bewildered friend behind her. They rounded a corner and stopped.
Kitchie and Caim were at the other end.
Everyone froze for a moment, but then Quinn stepped forward and a black hole appeared behind her friends turned currently rivals. In any other case she would have apologized but her current mentality pushed all friendliness away.
The black hole pulled Caim, the closest subject, in, and Quinn herself felt nausious by the site that met them both.
A sea of red lapped below her, and from the metallic stench she knew it was blood. Caim's head broke the surface as he he coughed and sputtered, his eyes wide, and his skin had a sickly green tinge to it. Quinn gagged, but could only watch in horror as her terrified friend was washed up onto some sort of beach, which was the same colour as the putrid water. Shadows moved about on the sand, rising around the helpless male, and Quinn was even more sickened to see that these shadows took the form of Caim himself when they stood.
She quickly ended the nightmare and felt herself fall her to knees as she returned to the real world.
Mark laid on the floor beside her, apparently unconcious, with Kitchie standing over him. The taller boy looked down at Quinn, who suddenly felt weak, but then they both looked over to where the abrupt growling was coming from. At the end of the hall, where Caim was barely standing, were a tiger and the wolf from before. The tiger growled again and took a step forward, as did the wolf. They launched themselves at her the instant that Caim crumpled to the ground.
Quinn quickly turned and spread her wings out, half lifting and half dragging Mark as she flew down the hall. She couldn't hear the creatures behind her, but she wasn't going to stop. She sped through the doorway and threw Mark ahead of her as she heard something shifting within the walls of the doors. Thank God she had.
The doors closed and caught her wings between them. Metal spikes that were probably a part of the locking mechanism pierced through two muscles and the weight caused a couple of the small structural bones to break.
A scream caught in her throat but she didn't let it pass her lips. She curled inwards on herself, concentrating on not passing out while she waited for the door to reopen. She didn't know how she managed to keep herself in the air, but the parts of her wings that weren't pierced still weakly fluttered. Thank god because she couldn't touch the ground.
Then the doorway opened and her wings slid from the spikes. She crashed to the ground and let out a hiss, rising up on her hands and knees.
"Quinn?" Kitchie asked. "Oh my god Quinn are you ok! Your-your wings are all mangled and you're bleeding and-" Quinn didn't hear the rest of what he was saying because she forced herself to her feet and ran down the hall. Her mind was still in the training, still in the objective, and with this in her mind she forced herself not to focus on the indescribable pain the eminated from her wings all down her spine and all over her body.
She passed Caim's body and didn't stop, just kept on going. She didn't know where she was going exactly, but she didn't care, she just had to keep moving. Had to keep moving... Had to keep moving... Had to keep moving...
Then something tripped her, sending her falling head over heels and she heard the hiss as a gas was sprayed into the air. She coughed, covering her mouth and nose with her hands since her X-Men uniform was too tight to pull up. She scrammbled to her feet and hurried down the hallway, which was filling with an odd red smoke. The room was starting to spin, to tip, and her head was pounding but she kept on pushing herself, tripping almost every other step.
Finally she found a door set into the wall and she pushed it open. It closed with a solid bang behind her and she took her hands away from her face, taking in a deep breath. She coughed fiercely and each jerk sent her head spinning again, but she tried to ignore it. She looked around the room, which was black except for yellow lights set high into the walls that cast an errie glow about the room. The glow didn't penetrate all the shadows though, and there were large pockets of pure darkness.
Quinn looked around warily as she ventured into the room, wondering if there was a door in the floor she was going to fall through or if it was like one of the adventure movies she'd scene the guys watch where spikes shot from the walls and a large boulder rolled down the hall. She laughed at the images even though she honestly hoped that her life wasn't about to turn into one of those films.