Disclaimer: I do not own the DC heroes Hawk and Dove, whom I loosely based my main characters on.
AN: I wrote this staying up late on Christmas Eve and then again on Christmas. When the festivities end, write, right? Anyway, happy holidays everyone. 3
Soon after the broadcast, the boys left the pub. Even in his slightly inebriated state, it only took a moment for PJ to get the car running again. Then he climbed into the backseat with Chris, allowing Dan to take the front beside Phil. Their drive back to school was long and dark and mostly silent, until Phil spoke up, rousing Dan from his half-asleep state.
"Dan?"
He turned his head towards the other boy, but still rested against the window. "Yeah?"
"What do you think?" Phil asked him, "About what the Prime Minister said?"
Dan sighed heavily. "I don't really know. Either he's lying about not having a bunch of us locked up in The School, or the administration is lying to us," he said.
Phil was silent for a few moments. "Plus what happened with the firewall today," he said.
"Exactly. Even without the alcohol… this whole situation would make my head hurt," grumbled Dan.
Even in the darkness, Dan could vaguely see his friend pursing his lips. "I don't like thinking about it. Whichever part of the story is true, our lives are going to change. And we thought we had it bad before," he muttered.
At this point, Dan didn't really know what to think. Phil was right. Either the lot of them were going to be cut open for experimentation, or everything they knew was a lie. "We'll find out, Phil. We'll no doubt talk to the others-"
"Dan."
He closed his mouth. Phil had never interrupted him before, let alone has his voice ever wavered like it did just uttering his name. "Yeah?"
"Can you promise me something?" Phil asked quietly.
Dan swallowed. "Okay."
"Whatever happens, you and I will stick together. I can't… we wouldn't do well on our own," he whispered. Dan smiled to himself. He was right they did well together. "We're a team, Dan. Promise?" Phil continued.
"I promise," Dan replied.
He wasn't sure if he actually slept at all like Chris and PJ did, but the ride back to the facility seemed much shorter than the ride out. The car ended up right back in the spot they found it, and the foursome was silent as they walked back inside. No one really knew what to do next, except sleep off the alcohol and see if that helps with discovering a solution.
The next morning, even before the daily alarm went off, PJ was sitting on Dan and Phil's couch. Phil sat beside him, and their voices woke up Dan earlier than he was prepared for.
"I think we should bring this up to Jenna," Phil said as Dan stood in his doorway, rubbing one of his eyes, "She might know what's really going on."
PJ shook his head. "She doesn't. The firewall, remember? She was going to investigate it more," he said.
"We can at least ask her if she found anything, then mention what Page said. If she found out you were right, we'd need to bring it down and keep anyone from finding out more about us. Who knows what the consequences are… and if you're wrong, we somehow have to stop the mole," Phil said pensively, tapping his fingers against his knee.
Dan groaned, leaning against the doorjamb. "This is really hard to think about this early in the morning," he grumbled.
PJ looked sour. "I guess we could start with Jenna and Alfie. They're in charge, and I feel like we're getting a little too big for ourselves here."
Phil nodded and PJ got up. "See you guys at breakfast," he said and left out the door. Shortly after the alarm went off. Even though it was at the same time every day, it still made both boys jump.
Dan sat on the couch; his head back against the wall as Phil asked, "Are you hung over?"
"No. Should I be?" Dan replied.
"Well, it was your first time consuming alcohol last night. So I just assumed," Phil said, smiling a little. He stood and pat Dan's knee once. "I'm going to shower."
Dan got dressed and waited for Phil to finish, staring dejectedly at the mirror on his bedroom wall. Soon Phil walked by, his hair still damp. "What's wrong?"
"I look like a Hobbit," he replied quietly.
Phil tilted his head. "Personally, I like it," he said, "But I have a straightener if you want to use it."
Dan nearly fell over. "You've had a straightener for all this time and you never told me?"
"I didn't know it would be so important!" Phil defended, holding up his hands in surrender. Dan rushed past his friend to the other room, diving for the straightener on the dresser before Phil could even offer to help.
Some time later Dan and Phil sat down at their usual breakfast table, which was more full than it usually was, probably because they were late. Dan sat his usual place next to Zoe and Phil sat on his other side. She looked up and smiled, and then her expression brightened even more. "Dan, your hair!" she said.
He reached up to touch his head. "Phil's been hiding his hair straightener from me. I didn't get to bring one from home, I used to do it like this every day in school," he explained.
"I like it," Zoe nodded, "It makes you look older. But the curls are cute."
"So are yours, but I don't get to see them anymore," Dan teased, touching a lock of Zoe's hair. She gave him a look and tossed her hair out of reach, effectively smacking him right in the face.
Zoe glanced over at the other end of the table, where Emma and Luke sat to PJ's right side. "How's the search for the mole? I'm assuming you know more than I do, considering you hang around our tech guru," she whispered, leaning close to Dan.
Dan pursed his lips. He wanted to tell Zoe everything, because he trusted her completely and she was just genuinely curious, but it would be dangerous with everyone around. He didn't know who was listening. Besides, PJ said he was going to tell everyone at the next meeting. It was already unfair that Dan, Phil, and Chris knew everything before even the resistance leaders did.
So instead, he just reached over and squeezed Zoe's hand. "You'll find out, I promise," he assured her.
She frowned, but nodded anyway. She was then silent for a few moments, looking like she was about to reply, when she happened to glance away. In that moment, she drew in a quick grasp and started to squeeze Dan's wrist in a surprisingly tight grip. "Whoa, whoa, what is it?" he said, prying his wrist away.
"Joe," she replied simply before she bolted to her feet, away from the table.
Dan, confused, hit Phil on the arm to get his attention but he had already noticed. Together they watched Zoe run across the room to the door, where a group of boys had just entered. Dan didn't recognize any of them, but it looked as though she did. Upon reaching the group, Zoe flung herself at a tall one in the front. He seemed equally as excited to see her, as he hugged her back tightly, lifting her feet clean off the ground.
"Who do you suppose that is?" muttered Phil.
"I don't know, but I think we're going to find out," Dan replied as Zoe dragged the boy over to their table. His friends followed, and Dan recognized their expressions; confused and a little afraid. They were new.
Zoe was nearly breathless when she arrived. "Everyone, this is my brother Joe," she said, gesturing him. Joe waved. "I'm sorry, I… didn't expect him to be here."
"I couldn't let you be here all on your own anymore," Joe said.
Zoe then gave him a look. "You need to tell me what you're doing here," she told him and sat back down next to Dan. Everyone shoved over and Joe pulled up a chair. The guys who had followed him had all but disbanded, except one blonde. Everyone shoved over again to make room for him as well.
"Talk," Zoe said firmly.
Joe nodded and cleared his throat. "Alright, alright. I'm just like you are, Zoe, mutant or whatever you'd like to be called. I always knew I was, but I didn't know you were too. So when you turned yourself in, I knew I should have too, but I didn't know how to contact you or anything. But then last night the Prime Minister made that speech, and I thought you'd be in trouble. So I just did it, and here I am," he said, shrugging at the end.
Zoe looked confused. "What did the-?"
Phil cleared his throat. "What can you do?" he asked, his voice slightly louder to distract from the previous question.
"Oh, er," Joe cleared his throat again, "I'm really fast. Even at top speed I don't get tired or worn out, even though my clothing tends to."
"That's why you did track and field," Zoe said and Joe shrugged again, nodding.
Then he smacked his unnamed friend in the arm. "Ask him what he can do, it's so much cooler!"
"Go on, then," Chris prompted, waving his hand in the general direction.
The boy shook his head, thinking. "I don't think there's a name for it, but I can change the molecular state of things. Like… turn a solid into a liquid and back again," he said.
"So you can change the speed of the atoms?" PJ asked him, his eyes widening.
He shrugged. "I suppose. I've never really looked into it."
PJ looked over at Dan, surprising the latter a bit, looking excited. Dan just grinned and nodded slowly. He knew what PJ was thinking; whoever this kid was, they needed him on their team. And Joe too, probably.
"Cool," PJ said with a smile, leaning back in his seat.
Phil leaned around Dan to look. "What's your name?" he asked.
"Caspar Lee," the boy replied.
Phil glanced at Dan. He said, "Glad to have you."
It turned out they put Joe and Caspar in Dan's reading class. Instead of writing his usual report on whatever book the supervisor assigned him (whose name turned out to also be Dan; weird) he got to watch Caspar do his thing. A younger boy of sixteen, all he had to do was get his hand close to an object and focus. Soon a book would be a vaguely colored puddle of goo on the table, and then with another wave it was back into a book.
Supervisor Dan only caught them once, and even then Caspar had an inventive excuse to get them out of trouble. It was a fun power, until Dan picked up the book and opened it. The pages were all upside down. Caspar said he didn't know how to bring things back exactly right.
"You'll learn. When I got here I could hardly show any emotion without burning something," Dan whispered.
Joe leaned closer. "What's your power?" he asked.
"Pyrokinesis," he replied.
"What?" Caspar said a little too loud.
"Sshh!" Joe hissed, shoving Caspar's things almost out of his reach, "Fire, you blockhead."
Caspar scowled at him briefly before turning back to Dan. "And it's connected to your emotions?" he asked.
"More like my heart rate. And a pain in the ass, it is," said Dan with a nod. Other Dan hushed them loudly, looking over the top of his book with disapproving eyes. The boys looked at each other and immaturely started to snicker before deciding to go back to their writing.
In afternoon training block, Dan and Phil were set to jog around the track as usual. They chatted nonchalantly, but considering they spent so much time together their small talk grew thin. After a few moments of silence, Phil spoke up. "Remember what I said about us being a team?"
"Yes," said Dan.
"Well, we need names. Nicknames, like the others. They should coordinate," Phil continued.
Dan shook his head. "No one has any ideas, and I sure don't. I refuse to let us be called Flame Prince and Jack Frost," he said.
"Why do you get to be first?" Phil asked, but Dan knew he was just kidding around by the small grin on his face.
"Because, we're Dan and Phil. It's already been established, we can't change it now," he said, "But you're right. We do need clever names. And nothing like Concussion, Marcus hates that and honestly it's stupid."
"Hey, it stuck!"
Dan rolled his eyes. "Come on, we should brainstorm. Like, what would your name be if you were a pro wrestler with ice powers?" he said.
Phil tilted his head. "Ricky Blitz!" he chirped.
"What? That's a crap name!" Dan argued.
He looked insulted. "Blitz! Like… blizzard?" he explained, but did not seem at all sure of himself, "And Ricky because it's a cooler name than mine."
"You can't pull off Ricky, Phil."
Phil glowered. "What's yours, then?"
"Dan... Daninator!" he replied, waving his arms before them as if gesturing to a marquee. As if his name… were in lights.
Phil started to laugh, and Dan simply shoved him. When he looked back over, the two of them shared a quiet look before the former cleared his throat. "Daninator and Ricky Blitz, huh? Mutants extraordinaire?" he teased.
"We should keep brainstorming," said Dan, looking away to hide his blushing cheeks.
Later at the resistance meeting, activities went as usual. The only exception was, of course, the foursome. Together they informed Jenna and Alfie about their experience at the pub in London.
"So on top of our mole problem, we have this to deal with?" Alfie asked them, as if accusing them of some sort of crime.
"Oi, s'not our fault the government is afraid of people who are different than they are," Chris retorted.
Jenna put her hands on her hips, frowning deeply. "Do we even know if this has any connection to us specifically?"
"It has too! And to everyone else in this place," Dan replied, "Either we're going to be experimented on or the administration is feeding us a story."
"Something around here is going to change," Phil added seriously.
Jenna and Alfie exchanged a look. They were all silent for a few moments before Jenna spoke up again. "Did you find out anything with the mole, Tech?"
"Nothing new," answered PJ.
"Same here. I did what I said I would and got into Hurley's office, but her computer was impossible. Just like the fire wall," Jenna added before PJ could jump in, "It was like it knew I was there even before I tried to guess the password. An 'access denied' screen popped up when I put my hands on the keyboard."
PJ snapped his fingers. "Brilliant. Either it's fingerprint and password protected, or it was remotely controlled from an outside source that could see you trying to break in," he said.
Alfie pushed the heels of his hands into his eyes. "So what can we do?" he asked, sounding distresses.
"I could ask Cuss to go through everyone's heads, like I said I would," Jenna offered.
"You really need to stop calling him that," Chris muttered.
Alfie quickly shook his head. "That would only solve the mole problem, if there is one. We should wait it out and see if anything changes," he said.
Jenna rubbed her temple. "The four of you have really gotten yourselves in deep here," she said.
"This stuff didn't start happening until he got here!" Chris exclaimed, pointing towards Dan.
"Hey, all I've done is help!" Dan argued, taking a step in the other boy's direction. Phil grabbed his bicep with one hand, and the other hand fell cool on Dan's shoulder. But he knew it was true. Everything around here was just School and Cause until Dan arrived and started fucking things up.
"Jenna?" Alfie prompted.
"Fine," she said, waving a hand, "In that case, we have work to do. You two-" She pointed between Dan and Phil, "-get to work. You have exercises to go over. Tech, you need to get the bus off the ground. And Chris… you just do what you do."
As Jenna walked away, Chris looked affronted. "I have a nickname too, you know," he muttered bitterly.
"What is it?" Phil asked him.
"Are you kidding?" he said, eyes wide, "The Ventriloquist! Like-"
"The people who talk through puppets?" Dan laughed. Chris simply glowered and Phil led his partner away, where they left the poolroom and went into the main gym.
He stood across from Dan and raised one of his hands. "Getting kind of mad around here, isn't it?" he said.
As if it was a reflex, Dan reached up and pressed the pads of his fingers to Phil's. Steam began to rise from their touch. Their hardest, yet simplest, exercise was to be so in synch that their hearts beat in tandem and their temperatures evened out. Easier said than done, especially now what with everything happening all at once. It made Dan's thoughts spiral. "We do seem to be right in the center," he said.
"Don't listen to Chris. He gets on everyone's case, and it's not like you've done anything," Phil said, his eyes focused on their hands and the steady steam cloud.
Dan was doing the same. "I know. But I can't help but feel that I was the catalyst to all this Sherlock Holmes investigating. Eavesdropping on Charlie and Jenna, basically inviting myself into this secret club, and starting to actually use my powers with you."
"They couldn't keep you away from me, Dan," Phil replied immediately. Dan looked up sharply, breaking focus, and the places where their skin was touching started to puff more steam. They faintly hissed as well. Dan's heart rate was increasing, and by the look of his flushed face, so was Phil's. "I-I just mean," he started to recover, and cleared his throat, "Our powers. They're made for each other, we-we were bound to come together sooner or later. They're too similar to not be used together."
Unable to help it, Dan searched his friend's eyes for a double meaning. They were intense, wide and icy blue. He didn't know if that was effect or coincidence. Yes, their powers naturally brought them together, but Dan liked to think he and Phil spent most of their time together because they really wanted to. He had never met someone like Phil before. Through all the strangeness and corruption, it was still the most fun he had ever had.
He shook his head to clear it and looked away from Phil's eyes. "We should focus," he muttered.
Phil shook his head too. "You're right, heart rate," he mumbled in reply.
"In and out, Ricky Blitz," Dan added teasingly, a smirk growing on his face.
His friend laughed lightly. "I'm going to use that one for something," he said. Between them, the hissing sound faded along with their steam cloud, almost at once.
After hours of their exercises, which Dan could do in his sleep, everyone left the old gym to head to bed. Jenna never showed again throughout the whole meeting. Dan walked beside Phil, their shoulders nearly touching with PJ and Chris on either side. Zoe kissed his cheek before she went her way with Alfie, and soon it was just the four of them walking up the stairs.
At the top they all froze. There, two men in suits were waiting. The foursome stepped back, confrontational. "Mr. Howell," one said. Dan's heart leapt into his throat, and he felt Phil's fingers latch onto his own. "Please come with us. Dr. Hurley would like a word with you."
Trying to remain impassive, Dan cast one glance around at his friends and followed. They walked a few steps in front of him, but he didn't want to run. Instead, his mind kicked into gear. This was going to be a similar meeting to the one Phil had, Dan knew, except now Hurley could know so much more after what Jenna did. There was also a slim chance that he was going to become the first experiment. There were just so many variables.
After climbing more flights of stairs than he cared to count, the men led him down a pristine and long hallway. The very end office had a door that said Dr. Susan Hurley, Ph.D. in gold letters across it. After two knocks, Dr. Hurley pulled the door open. "Yes, Mr. Howell. Come in," she said, stepping aside to allow him room. Dan passed her and looked around. The room was surprisingly normal looking for a woman he was supposed to hate.
"Sit," she said, gesturing to the chair before her desk. Dan did. She sat as well, and then folded her hands on the desk in front of her. "No need to be nervous. I just have a couple questions for you." Dan was nervous. Dr. Hurley's voice was sweet, but she was a very intimidating woman. Everything about her was perfect and not even a hair was out of place. It was unnerving.
"Firstly, how are you adjusting? Is your roommate giving you trouble?" Hurley began.
A little late for that question, but luckily Phil was a dream. "I'm fine. And no, he's great," Dan replied.
"Good, good. I expect you've been attending your history lessons?" she said.
Dan nodded once, curtly. "Yes."
"So, tell me what you know about the basement gym," she continued, leaning over the desk a bit. Dan felt the hair on the back of his neck rise.
However, his expression remained trained. Praise the drama gods. "It's blocked off and unusable. Condemned," he replied.
"Then how do you know where it is?" Hurley asked next, her voice developing an edge.
Dan didn't waver in his expression, but temperature in the room spiked. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"And why are car parts being stolen from the scrap yard?"
"I don't know anything about that," Dan said firmly, shaking his head. He took a deep breath and clenched his fists on his lap. Heat boiled beneath his skin.
Hurley plowed on, seemingly unaffected by Dan's answers. "Is there anything going on here that I should know about?" she demanded of him.
Heart rate, Dan, heart rate. Fuck the heart rate, he thought harshly. "No, Dr. Hurley, is there something going on here that I should know about?" he asked her sharply. She didn't answer, but her expression remained the same. "Is there something going on here that we all should know about? Mutant hunt? Experimentation?" he continued, talking through his teeth.
"Please answer the questions, Daniel," she continued indifferently.
Was she not hearing any of this? The people in this facility were humans, even if they were different. A person had to be heartless to allow experimentation on a fellow being. "Don't call me that," he snapped, "This ends right now. Why are you keeping us sheltered here? Why are you dowsing our abilities? Why?"
Still, Dr. Hurley's expression hardly changed. The fact that she wasn't even reacting made him even angrier. "What is going on in this hell of a place?" Dan demanded, nearly shouting now, and standing. When did he stand up? "That's why we don't get real TV, or mobile phones, or even radio, isn't it? You don't want us to know anything accept the crap you feed us here!" he exclaimed, slamming his palms onto the desk between them.
Flames licked out from beneath Dan's hands and slowly started to crawl up his arms, encasing them. They almost seemed to fuel him, as if the fire itself was feeding Dan's anger; anger at Dr. Hurley, at his situation, and everything in his fucked up life. And Dr. Hurley still did not say a word.
"Why won't you answer me?" Dan shouted, reaching out for her, any part of her to try and scare the answer out of her. Suddenly something banged open and Dan jumped away.
It was a door, in the corner of the room behind the desk. He hadn't even noticed there was a door there before then. The flames immediately extinguished, leaving in their wake puffs of black smoke and the charred ends of Dan's t-shirt sleeves. A woman had come rushing out of the door, young and blonde and looking absolutely terrified.
"Wait!" she shouted, holding her arm out towards Dan. He looked in between her and Dr. Hurley, the latter still in the same position as before, as if she had a kill switch on her neck and someone had flipped it.
Dan looked and felt incredibly confused. He stepped back a bit, pushing the chair with him. "Who are you?" he asked slowly, "And what is going on?"
The woman gulped and played with the ends of her pink cardigan. "My name is Louise. And I suppose I have a lot of explaining to do," she said bashfully.