{A bird hatched in an undeveloped state, requiring care and feeding by the parents}
(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ
When we stepped out of the meeting room, I was troubled and trying not to show it. Doctor Werneck had shaken me, and my mind was racing.
"Have you eaten breakfast?" Doctor Fox asked, behind me.
"No, not yet." Mimi said.
"Have you had your meds yet?"
Mimi glanced at him. "No." She made a sour face.
"Well, we can probably get it wired to our dispensary up here." He said. That didn't seem to improve Mimi's disposition much.
"It makes me feel tired, and makes Elle dizzy..." She muttered
I took Elle's other hand and bumped shoulders with Mimi- it brightened her mood a little.
"Come on, let's go." I said.
I'd taken my time considering the right way to go about helping them. But in the end remembered what Mom always said when one of her students complained about a deadline; the simplest way to tackle a large project was to break it up into smaller ones. Small things got done. Big things intimidated you. She gave her students milestones, bite-sized assignments that added up to a larger, more impressive goal; and the best way to assure that each of those smaller steps got done was to assign a deadline for each milestone.
It was familiar, and both grounded me and filled me with confidence. This was something I knew I could do. "We could stop by the exercise room later," I said, "I've been working on using my power on myself whenever I exercise. It gives me a lot, I still don't understand all of it, but it helps, and I understand more every time."
Mimi tried to smile, "At least you're allowed to use your power."
I could feel her mood, dipping a bit.
"I've been thinking about that," I said carefully, "I still need to talk to some of my doctors, but I know there are options. Medium security is really, uh, insular- right?"
My choice of words was intended to broach the topic in a way with less baggage- something I could say that wouldn't prompt an immediately emotional response. Capture her attention and curiosity, derail her moods.
"Insular... Uh." Mimi thought a bit, and when she caught my meaning she frowned darkly, but her irritation and sadness didn't immediately spark into a flair of anger, a victory. "... Yeah."
"Well, now that you're in a lower security wing, you can push for some options that weren't open for you previously." My pitch was practiced, I'd gone over the biggest sticking points, the parts of Alchemilla I knew Mimi hated, that she chaffed under, and considered the angles that I could approach them. How she could approach them, knowing what I did of her and her power.
"Options?" Mimi asked.
"Options." I said, "There's all kinds of stuff you can do. Training and classes. You've got a strong power, you can do a lot with it! To start with, I've been coming up with a list." I said.
We headed back toward the cafeteria but my focus was on Mimi and Elle, getting a feel for their mood. Particularly Mimi. She felt more settled today, but not entirely. She was... Nervous, eager, a little afraid. A bit more.. Confident? Sure of herself? Her power shivered, no violent shifts, but a steady pressure. It was... less pressing, or urgent? Hmm...
We entered the caffeteria, which was still mostly deserted. Like yesterday, breakfast was not for half an hour. We sat at one of the tables.
"All right, here is what I have so far." I said, "Our objective is get you out of Alchemilla. That's an ultimate goal, something big and long term, so let's try something smaller as a step up to that. I've been told that the are Protectorate ride-alongs, that sounds like a good middling objective."
Mimi was resigned. I could feel Elle's attention on me, but her eyes were unfocused, staring ahead at nothing.
"I don't think they'd let me do a ride-along with a Protectorate hero." Mimi said slowly, "They might let you, but not me."
"Because of the control thing?" I said.
"Not just the control thing. I can teleport. They don't want to risk me running. If I escape, it would be difficult to recapture me."
"Oh." I shrugged, "That's fine."
"It's fine?" Mimi asked, incredulous. I could feel her power surging up and down, mood rising and falling in confusion. Dangerously skirting the fine line of control.
"This a long-term goal, Just a stepping stone. It is all right if you can't do it now. That is not the point." I said, "Right now, you're looking to find something even smaller that you can do now, that moves you closer to your next goal."
Mimi nodded slowly, "Okay."
"Doctor Yamada said you've got power review later this week." I said, "It might be a good place to start."
Mimi groaned.
"I guess you've done a few of those?"
"Yeah," She mumbled.
"Well?" I prompted after a moment.
"They... They never go well." Mimi mumbled.
"You've had a few, huh?" I asked thoughtfully.
"Few." Elle said, and gave a jerky nod. To my mild surprise, Elle also smiled faintly. She wasn't... all there. Not entirely. But her eyes moved to track me, to Mimi. It was a bit more responsive, a good sign.
I gathered my thoughts. Across the room, Fusor and Lethe walked through the door and sat down, talking quietly. The rest of the ward was beginning to arrive. Idly, I wondered how long it would take for Heather and Nick to arrive.
"Well, it'd be something we can do. Something small. I'll be right there with you!"
Mimi gave me a shaky smile.
"There are all kinds of workshops and classes, those are good chances to do something low-stakes. Socialize a bit. I don't think you've really had a chance to do something like that much here, not in medium security. There's art classes, group therapy, other stuff... I'm dong correspondence courses, would you like that?"
Mimi made a face, mumbling something under her breath, but Elle definitely reacted- turning to me and widening her eyes. She soared. Her emotions soared and her hands twitched on the table. I reached out and took her hand, trying to feel it out. She was happy, overjoyed, eager. I... did not expect that kind of reaction from her.
"Sounds like Elle likes that idea!" I laughed.
Heather and Nick arrived shortly after.
"Hey."
"Morning Taylor. Mimi, Elle." Nick said. Heather was bleary-eyed and unresponsive, she wasn't really a morning person.
I looked across the cafeteria, watching as it filled for breakfast, and with a startled epiphany, I realized I could name almost everyone at the tables. Lizard Prince's gang had commandeered a table by the back wall. Quilt, Inkling, Frog, Prowler, and the new additions of Oilbloom and Mantellum- I could feel the threshold of his power, like numbness, from across the room. We were situated in the front, near the kitchen line. Fusor and Lethe were the next table over, sitting together. Blake, alone. Copperquick at a table with a girl I didn't recognize. A woman and a man in orange, newly added to the wing, I didn't know their names but the rest were familiar.
The other patients of my ward... my neighbors? I wondered if that was the right way to think about them. I hardly knew most of the patients in my ward, even if my power meant I was more familiar with them than I was with most people I'd known my whole life before gaining powers.
"You're quiet today." Heather said.
"Just thinking..." I said, "How often do the patients get together for activities and stuff."
"... You mean group therapy?" Heather said slowly.
"No, like... other stuff. I'm trying to come up with ideas. I don't know what Mimi or Elle would like to try." I knew there were educational programs, I was getting my GED, and there were some college courses offered. I knew Sveta was pen pals with a Ward, and Doctor Selmy's ride-alongs with Protectorate heroes- even if that wasn't in the cards for now.
"There's a book club." Nick said.
"A book club?" I blinked, "Huh. I'd be interested in that..."
Heather gave me a Look, "How long have you been here, girl? You didn't know there was a book club? Oh, don't get excited, they're boring and never finish anything they read."
Nick offered some suggestions. The art classes I'd already considered. There were also cooking classes, though access to knives and ovens was heavily restricted. That sounded like it had some promise. Some vocational stuff, life skills. Budgeting, self-care, stress management, nutritional choices.
Heather played basketball, but lamented the lack of any kind of competition, and spoke about it at great length. "Sometimes patients shoot some hoops, but it's not a huge deal. There isn't anything formal. I'd like it if there was a yearly tournament or something, but that's not allowed..."
Apparently, patients were not allowed to form teams, because there had been violence in the past over losing, or winning. "...Some of the guys get together, watch the NBA or the World Cup." Heather said, much, much too nonchalantly. She was concealing something, I probed with my power. Something she considered 'fun'? But not something she wanted to talk about... gambling? Or...
Or maybe, just maybe, Lizard Prince had not been the only troublemaker in Alchemilla.
I remembered a girl that stole a beer from her parents' liquor cabinet and brought it to school. Emma had taken a sip and reported that it tasted awful, even as we giggled at her daring.
She'd been suspended, but something told me Heather would consider a minor punishment worth the excitement of doing something not allowed.
(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ
Eating breakfast, Heather started waking up properly, and looking for more trouble.
"So we're here now." Heather paused, considering Mimi and Elle, "You guys both get meds, right?"
"I.. Yes." Mimi said.
Heather's emotions spiked, glee and energy, "Hehe, cool." I narrowed my eyes at her.
"Well, we get meds after breakfast." Nick said, I noticed he was also giving Heather an odd look.
Breakfast was toast with eggs and bacon, or oatmeal with fruit. I went for the eggs and bacon, protein would help me build some muscle mass, and I was using the calories. I was worried Elle would need help eating, but she was able to feed herself, slowly, moving her spoon with very deliberate movements. Mimi watched her carefully.
Then we had to stop by the dispensary. Heather groaned and rolled her eyes when Nick reminded her to take her meds. I sensed rebellion, and boredom, but not enough to drive her to something rash. She could still get there, though.
The dispensary counter was manned by a nurse with blonde hair going grey. Compared to medium-sec's dispensary, our own was much smaller and simpler, just a counter with a glass divider over top, and a slot to pass little plastic portion cups under. A few other patients sat against the wall on the chairs. Inkling was there in the waiting area, Quilt with her. Copperquick too. Our group sat down at the end of the row.
Listening to Yamada, medications were kind of an odd point at Alchemilla. She and I had talked about it once. Some parahumans didn't respond to medication, others responded oddly, with diminished or exaggerated effects, or with unexpected side effects; parahumans had some chemical differences in their brains. Apparently, sometimes the effects of medications actually changed over time. Medical treatments were still effective, as a rule, just that they were less effective and less reliable than they might be on a baseline human. There was always an extra element of uncertainty when involving parahumans. She said there were too many variables still not isolated and understood.
I wondered if it was more than that.
My medications were minimal, my power wasn't invasive the way Sveta or Mimi's was. If I still needed to sleep, it might have been different. If I still had nightmares I might get tranquilizers to deal with them, the memory of the hospital, and the alley. As it was, I only got a infrequent and very small dose of tranquilizers in the evening to level me out after the day. And only when one of my doctors and I agreed I needed them. Even that was only until the end of the month. I counted it as a good sign.
Mimi's mood darkened steadily while we waited.
"You don't like your meds?" I asked.
"No." Mimi replied, and closed her mouth in a thin line.
"Do you have to take many?"
"Nothing ever works right. It makes me sick, or makes my power flair up. Or something else." Mimi said, "And it's worse for Elle, because sometimes she can't talk, so she can't tell them if it hurts her or makes her sick, if they don't notice."
"Yeah." Heather nodded, "Meds suck."
"Suck." Elle repeated emphatically, Heather patted her head without looking.
"I hate all of them," Heather said, "It's stupid, making us take that shit."
"Heather, you aren't going to get out of here without cooperating with the doctors." Nick said.
"Says you." Heather shot back.
Inkling was called up, then Copperquick. Patients had to take their meds at the counter, to avoid problems with not taking meds, or giving their meds to someone else. Heather had been very lucky and determined to have dodged it as long as she had. Only the chaos of the past weeks had allowed it.
I hadn't asked what had happened to it, maybe I ought to?
Mimi was called to the counter. Coming back to us, she looked like she'd bitten into a lemon, and the bitter expression prompted a questioning look from me.
"Tastes bad," she mumbled.
Elle was able to walk up to the counter by herself, and took her own medicine from a little plastic cup. Then Heather went up, and then Nick.
There was an hour before scheduled activities each morning, to account for meds and to give patients a chance to acclimate to them. We headed back to the cafeteria. The Lizard Prince gang had set up a board game on one of the tables, and I felt a touch of amusement at the almost surreal sight of Frog and Prowler playing Battleship. Inkling was sitting beside them, her head pillowed on her arms, Quilt was reading a book. Oilbloom was also there, hunched over on the bench and looking miserable, but I hadn't seen her at the dispensary. Mantellum was absent entirely.
Heather had never needed to wait very long for her medications to even out, so I wasn't particularly worried about anything happening, but we needed to kill some time. Maybe they had the right idea? I contemplated my options. Heather was sitting by Elle, braiding her hair, but Mimi had turned around on the bench, elbows on her knees, hunched over.
"Mimi, you feeling okay?" I asked, walking more quickly.
"No." Mimi replied.
I sat down beside her, rubbing her back, and trying to feel out what was wrong. The medicine was making her nauseous, dizzy. Her emotions were actually pretty leveled, but weighted down, towards depression. A quick look at Elle- her eyes were glazed and vacant, a bit of dampness in one corner of her mouth- she was drooling.
Heather started singing.
"You are my drug-child, my only drug-child, you make me happy… when… I- you know, I'm not sure? You do cool things, I guess. That castle thing..." She turned Elle's head so she could meet here eyes, "You know, you're fucking weird? Do you have you any idea how blasted you are right now?"
Mimi buckled, going to her knees. Heather just laughed.
"Are your arms legs, girl?" Heather teased.
Her goading pricked Mimi, and for a moment I was worried that something tragic was about to happen. Mimi's temper flared, flared high, but she was still leveled by her medication. She didn't draw on her power. I felt a moment of gratitude, followed by my own anger with Heather. Did she have any idea how dangerous that was? Or... Was she also suffering some side effects of her own?
I glanced at Nick, who was staring at Heather himself.
"Nick, is this usual?"
"Um, yeah, kind of." I got the sense of smiling from Nick, even though I was more used to him looking vaguely down. He still was, why was I getting the impression of... Oh, right. Antidepressants. That made sense...
Mimi was dizzy, her stomach roiled, she was just generally miserable, and I felt an echo of her discomfort though our connection. There were hints of the medication- its nature and the changes it worked on her body, it was something that effected the mind and muscles, prompting chemical changes in the nervous system.
I think the desired effect was to stabilize her condition, but her power was attempting to produce the same oscillation in her moods. So while her medication lasted she was fine, but when it wore off, she might be even more dangerous. There were also other symptoms I hadn't immediately been aware of. Tremors. Something to do with her metabolism and digestion. No wonder she felt awful. I was starting to get dizzy- her symptoms, translated through my power, and I pulled back. It was getting stronger.
"Ugh. Yeah, that feels pretty awful."
"Hmm... Usually does." Nick said, still smiling and a little absent.
"You're a-a dick. B-bunch of assholes." Mimi slurred through it. Her eyes glowed, but dimly, fitfully. Her power was sluggish as well, and the anger was clumsy and unfocused. It sputtered and died.
"You can't be both a dick and an asshole, that's just confusing." Heather replied.
"Oh, shut up." Mimi groaned.
I looked over at Elle. I could still feel Mimi's queasy stomach and vertigo, Elle's numb listlessness. Heather's manic energy, jittering and stumbling over itself. I was surprised, now that I was focusing on it, how was she so with it? Was it just because it had happened to her so often? How often had it happened to her, was this how it always was for her? For them?
I forced the shutters down on my power, and my eyes closed, I covered my face and took a deep breath until my extra awareness of the world faded into the distant white noise. I turned around on the bench and laid my hands flat on the cool tabletop. I had gotten too used to receiving whatever my power fed me unfiltered. I forced it back now, my world shrinking to the dark behind my eyelids. With my grip restored, my eyes opened and I looked at them- Mimi hunched over fighting with her stomach. Elle staring into the distance, a million miles away. Heather, unable to sit still, fidgeting and twitching. Nick, smiling absently and emptily.
I was going to have my work cut out for me.
(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ
"The aim is to help Mimi increase her her resistance or control by providing stressors in a controlled environment." Doctor Yamada explained, "It gives patients an outlet and helps them gain greater control of their powers."
Doctor Yamada was in the process of suiting up. She had a fire retardant jumpsuit on, it was aluminized, with a hood and face mask combination. There was a gas mask and oxygen tank on the table.
This locker room was not like the top floor locker room I had used before meeting Mom and Emma... There were shelves with rows of heavy pieces of reinforced clothes. Heavy coats, and full-body suits that looked like it would have been at home exploring the bottom of the ocean. One of those heavy diving suits with the full-head metal helmets bolted directly to a heavy chest harness. But some of these were worse, full body carapaces with steel reinforcement over their whole frames.
I inspected one, fascinated. They were incredibly complex, enough that I concluded they had to be derived from Tinker work- and I pushed my power into it, teasing out the complex structures reinforced with air bladders and redundant armor and bracing metal bars. There was an inner suit and an outer suit. Interesting. I tried to wrap my head around it all.
"It's called bunker gear."
I turned to look at Doctor Yamada, "Sorry?"
"Bunker gear, like a firefighter's." She explained, "You'll need to wear some yourself, or watch from the observation booth."
"I will?" I glanced back at the heavy armored suit. Full-body contact with any of this equipment would be fascinating.
"Elle would need to remain in the booth, however."
"Yeah..." I sighed. If anything happened, Elle probably wouldn't be able to do much. I ran a hand over the heavy protective clothing one last time, my power returning an impression of the intricate framework and joints inside the suit. So interesting.
Mimi was going to use her power today. Doctor Yamada explained it was mainly intended to get Mimi involved in her own therapy, invested in her progress.
"You've done very well for yourself Taylor," She explained, slipping on the fireproof hood over the mask and oxygen tubes, "But this isn't Mimi's first evaluation. It isn't the first time Mimi has gone through exercises like this."
"She can do it." I insisted. She could, I'd felt it, how she struggled against the pull of her power, alone. She was brave, and she wanted to do good.
"I believe you, Taylor." Doctor Yamada replied, carefully, cautiously, "But... Expecting too much this early and you set yourself up for disappointment."
There was more to it than that. It was not quite a white lie. She wasn't trying to deceive me, but I think she was less optimistic than she presented herself.
"All right..." I sighed, "How do you get these on?"
It was a good thing I was so tall, the protective fire retardant fabric was scaled to an adult, it would have been awkward to try and walk in if it dragged on the ground. The oxygen tank went on under the suit's coat, and the oxygen mask went on under the hood and face shield. I blinked in surprise, there was a radio headset built in to the hood. Cool.
"All right, Elle, let's go."
Elle had sat silently in the corner, on a folding chair while Doctor Yamada and I got suited up. I held her hand as we followed Doctor Yamada to the viewing area. Which was a fascinating place that almost made me reconsider sitting this therepy session out, I wanted to see more of it.
I sat Elle behind one of the windows, which was kind of exciting because we could watch as a doctor flipped switches, and lines trailed across a screen in time to three heartbeats. The heart monitor was only one of the screens, all kinds of information appeared in graphs and colorful lines. I wanted to ask questions, but an unspoken tension reigned. I didn't want to disturb him.
A screen from one of the cameras displayed am overhead view as Doctor Yamada walked in.
"Are you going to be okey, Elle?" I asked.
She was tense, her shoulders drawn in, and emotions in turmoil. Fear, anger, nervousness, the ever present frustration. Elle looked away from the window, down at her knees, where her hands fisted in the fabric.
"Are you?" She asked. Slowly, but clearly.
"Yeah, I'm going to be okey." I said, "Doctor Yamada's down there. Mimi's got everything going for her."
"Mimi's... Mimi's tried to use her powers before. Never ends well." Elle said slowly, then looked me in the eye. She was more present than usual, and her eyebrows were knit together. She was... glaring at me.
"Not a good idea."
I sighed. Elle was less volatile, but in some ways she was harder to work with than Mimi.
"Come on. Have a little faith in your friends." I said, giving her my best winning smile.
I couldn't help the twinge of remembered pain in my arm.
"She always hurts everyone." Elle mumbled.
(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ
The test room was large, braced and supported and reinforced, with the foam sprayers across the ceiling, and wide drains in the floor. There were cameras spaced in intervals among the sprayers, feeding to the doctors in the observation booth with us. The booth itself was slightly elevated one story above the testing floor, with narrow windows that made it look like they were squinting down on the proceedings. Mimi looked entirely cowed and inadequate under the weight of that attention.
In the observation booth I saw Doctor Kine lean forward and key on the intercom.
"All right. Subject 02785, Burnscar. Phase one begin. Good luck Jessica."
"Thank you Hank." Her voice replied over the speakers and in my headset, "Mimi, how are you doing?"
"Mimi, how are you?"
"...Okey."
"You up to this?"
"Sure. Yeah. Yes." Her voice was a bit stronger now. I could feel her power, vibrating, fluctuating behind the suppressing effect of the medication. The leveler was doing its job, but I was sure now that her power was pushing harder to compensate.
"Auspice? How about you?" Doctor Yamada asked. I blinked and snapped back to the present, flatfooted.
"I'm all right. Uh... Hey. Stop that."
Mimi blinked, and I think Doctor Yamda was surprised by the interruption too. I stepped up to Mimi, and grabbed her one-armed around the shoulders, "You can do this Mimi."
"Um. Okey?" She replied. It was a start.
I think Doctor Yamada was mostly amused, she didn't seem to mind. "You remember the rules, Mimi? You can end the exercise at any point, just say you're uncomfortable. I can stop the exercise too, if I ask for us to stop you need to say 'okey' so I know you heard me, all right? It's so Doctor Kine knows everything is fine."
"Okey." Mimi whispered. I guessed if Doctor Kine didn't hear her he'd... probably flood the room with containment foam, I guessed, glancing at the sprayers on the ceiling.
"Auspice, if you say we need to stop, we'll stop. Understand?"
I could hear the smile in her voice, and also hear that her smile was a little brittle. I... I could feel how nervous she was, how afraid. She wasn't calm at all, but there was nothing of that in her voice. Nothing. It was amazing.
"Yes."
Doctor Yamada said, she hesitated, just a moment. There was some equipment set up in the room itself, something that looked like a pair of Bunsen burners on wheeled carts. A tub of water. A fan and wires. Several blocks in different colors on a long table... Doctor Yamada stepped up to the cart, and turned a knob under one of the burners. A tiny, faint blue flame, almost invisible.
"Let's start small. Can you smother the flame?" Doctor Yamada sighed, "Talk me through it, tell me how it makes you feel, all right?" Doctor Yamada said.
"Okey."
Mimi nodded, and a moment later the flame winked out.
"... Very good." Doctor Yamada said, "How did that feel?"
Mimi shrugged, "It was only a tiny flame, I didn't feel much."
"All right, we'll try a little more."
Next was two flames. then keeping one lit and the other unlit. Further away, closer at hand. Establishing a baseline. Doctor Yamada had walked me through what we would be doing, what I would need to expect. Power use therapy was more in the vein of a gentle, therapeutic exploration. Familiarizing. How does it feel to you when you do this? Does doing this make it easier to manage your powers?
The flames rose towards the ceiling, four feet high.
"... All right, I'm turning off the gas, try to sustain them on your power alone."
She turned the knob and the flames remained, four feet high. Mimi's eyes had begun to glow slightly.
Everything we were doing was basic, not a cure, but a way to look for a cure. Or, not even a cure, a coping mechanism, or to understand her power better. I began to sense frustration from Mimi, and I understood why. This was all a baseline, she had done it before and it hadn't helped her.
"I'm starting to feel it." Mimi said.
"You want to keep going?" Doctor Yamada asked.
Mimi hesitated, I could feel a flicker of attention my ways.
"I can keep going."
"All right," there was an almost imperceptible pause as Doctor Yamada breathed deep, "We are going to move on to alternative medium manipulation."
Doctor Yamada walked to the long table with the blocks, the first was grey. She picked it up and set in in a heavy, insulated ceramic bowl. A crucible. "All right, we'll begin with aluminum. Try to melt it."
Mimi touched the block of aluminum, and flames flickered over its surface, she drew her hand back, and the flames spread over it. In my perception there was that same feeling of drawing in energy from elsewhere, the extra source of power beyond mundane combustion. It was also how she could bear the heat- her power was shunting the excess off to... to somewhere else... The flames rose in intensity, bright enough to leave afterimages when I looked at them, even though my face-shield was darkened.
I glanced at Mimi- her eyes were bright orange, glowing like candles. Her face illuminated by the light of her fire. Her emotions were starting to fade into the background, muted. It was difficult to tell, with the levelers getting in the way.
The flames grew brighter, though the fire itself was small. The heat they gave off increased. It was strange, I could feel the heat through my suit, even though the heavy fabric itself blocked it, I could sense the heat Mimi was producing.
I remembered that aluminum melted at twelve hundred degrees. I didn't really appreciate that before I saw the crucible glowing orange, with the molten metal slowly pooling in the bottom.
"Very good." Doctor Yamada said quietly. She was very afraid, nervous, anxious now. The emotions all bled into each other. But still, nothing showed in her voice. I was a little in awe at her composure.
"Are you still in control?"
"Yes." Mimi replied, and now her voice was flat, robotic.
Doctor Yamada glanced at me, I felt it. Mimi was definitely being effected by her power, but... She was still in control. I hesitated, her mood was still level, the fluctuations still muted and harmless. The tremor in her power was rapid and strong, but still firmly in her grasp.
"We're good." I said.
Doctor Yamada took a deep breath, bracing for... For what? "All right. Mimi, try manipulating the aluminum now."
"Okey." Mimi said. I could feel her concentrating.
The metal remained pooled in the crucible, glowing sullenly orange. I could feel her power working- but whatever mechanic allowed her to manipulate flame seemed to fall short of the molten metal. It was... pecular, to experience it the way I did. Like her power was searching for valid prerequisites to take action upon. Root command not found.
Was that why even being in the vicinity of flames could activate the numbing aspect of her power? Was it a kind of hyper-awareness of flame that functioned by blocking everything else out?
Mimi was frowning now. The numbness her power produced, and the suffocating weight of the levelers didn't quite cover the spike of annoyance I felt from her.
"Come on." She whispered.
I wouldn't have heard her if my power haden't filled in the blanks. It was the only warning I had before the interference from her power spiked, like a tidal wave or an earthquake- the background fluctuation it had maintained through the levelers erupted, nosediving. Into despair.
"Burnscar..." Doctor Yamada cautioned.
And then whiplashed, spiraling, spiking in rage.
"Come on!" Mimi shouted.
There was a flash of light, familiar enough that I flinched. The memory of that pain was like a real brand on my skin, even as a wave of heat washed over me. But it was just the memory, and the sense of heat my power offered, that burned me. A valve opened in my gas mask, and I began breathing the canned oxygen. I was safe inside the heavy fire-retardant clothing. Outside, the room was burning.
Mimi's flames had spread out to every surface in a flash. I had a moment seeing it in its full incandescent glory before the light was snuffed out in a rush. Doctor Yamada was shouting something, arms raised palm-out as she backed away from Mimi, but I didn't hear her.
"No, not now. Come on." My eyes were dazzled, but my power supplied the impression. Mimi's head whipping back and forth, "No no no." Breath suddenly fast, panicking.
The crucible was still a bright orange, glowing bright like a flame. Mimi turned to it, started to reach for it.
"No, Mimi, don't-"
She reached in and grabbed the metal.
-A flash in my mind's eye, of the burns down her cheeks. Cigarette burns. Flames didn't burn her, but other things-
I think she was too used to being fireproof. Her power was still shunting heat away from her. But not all of it. Mimi didn't scream, she just went still suddenly, before she curled around her hands, and fell back from the crucible.
Then the foam was pouring down on us, and I was buried.
(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ
"All right, Taylor, we'll be fine. Mimi too. We just need to wait for security to melt the foam down."
"Right... Right..." I said, breathing deeply, "How long does it usually take for them to dig us out?"
"Depends. But it can take a while."
I sighed, and experimented with pulling against the foam.
I'd read about containment foam before- one of the benefits of no longer needing to sleep. A tinkertech invention- elastic, porous enough to minimize chances of suffocation, incredibly sticky, yet nonreactive. It was fire, water, and impact proof, radiation resistant; and almost perfectly inert. A miracle of chemistry and materials sciences.
It was the first time I was seeing it in person, but I'd read about it, seen videos about it online...
When I tried to pull with my arms, to get a finger hold, the foam pulled back. I tried to get me feet under me and found my legs pulled back inexorably. It was like I was wrapped in rubber. I gave up after a few minutes. As I sat there, buried in the stuff, I could feel it pressing down. It was... Quiet.
I could feel Doctor Yamada nearby. She was... I think she was talking to someone else over the headset. A different channel?
Out further, there was a knot of pain and misery that left my hands stinging with an echo of her pain.
There were no burns on my hands.
Further away, Elle, an anxious, worried knot. Further still, a lot of moving bodies. I think they were outside the testing room. Security, I guessed. There was moment and sound, all muffled by the foam but not hidden from my extra senses. They were rinsing out and flushing the room with the chemical that broke the foam down.
I pulled back, reined in my extra senses, until my head was a quieter place and my hands no longer ached with Mimi's pain.
I didn't know what to feel. I... it felt like a defeat. I knew Doctor Yamada had told me to not get my hopes up. I knew that some kind of hiccups were to be expected. I'd still hoped, believed that it'd be better.
There were other ways to go about building Mimi up. To set Elle and Heather and Nick up for success, and get all my friends out of Alchemilla. To become the hero I wanted to be.
This felt like I'd failed. Not just failed at being a hero- not only failed to give Mimi hope and helping her learn to control her powers, but failed as a friend. There had been warning signs, things that ought to have made me cautious, but I'd ignored them. I did something wrong; the feeling sticks with me. I did something wrong, or at the very least I didn't do something that would have been right
It was a half hour before security reached me, hosing the foam off with chemical sprays.
The room looked like a war zone, still splattered from floor to ceiling with foam, most of which was still in the process of dissolving. A team of three troopers carried sprayers with hoses that snaked back out through the open door, spraying streams of chemical solvent into the massed foam, the dissolved mass was ankle deep and only slowly dropping. I knew what the floor drains were for now. The trooper's black uniforms were splattered white and grey from head to toe, like someone had thrown paint over them.
There Also carried additional hoses, sprayers, and tanks on their backs. I guessed that was in case they needed to spray someone with more foam.
Doctor Yamada was already out, her hood and mask off already, looking sweaty and disheveled. She gave me a thin-lipped smile, putting a good front on how discouraged she was. I could feel it- not like Mimi's terrible spirals. Her's was a harder, stiffer emotion. It was stronger, more real, more part of her character and less something outside herself.
Security, decked out in full armor and masks, continued to hose away the foam until they found Mimi. I could pick out a few I might have talked to before. "Miss." There was a tap at my shoulder. "What are we going to find when we reach Burnscar?"
Mimi was a rapidly fluctuating knot of pain, anger, a little fear, self loathing, and despondent sorrow. I touched it, and withdrew feeling hollow.
"She's angry with herself," I said, my voice was flat.
"She violent?
I touched her again, feeling her emotions. But while her emotions were tumultuous, they were not wild like they had been. They were spent now.
"No." I said, "She's not."
The trooper glanced at Doctor Yamada, and I could tell what he was thinking- I hadn't seen her becoming violent before either...
"Burnscar is generally cooperative after an outburst, lieutenant." Doctor Yamada said.
"... Lieutenant, continue dissolving containment procedure." Doctor Kine's voice echoed over the intercom.
"Right."
One of them had a neat tablet, it used some kind of sonar to show what was inside the foam. I found myself trying to care, but I couldn't. The hoses started up again, dispensing a colorless fluid that turned to vapor on contact with the air. When the vapor touched the foam it began to run. My power fed me a rich mix of chemical reactions, the interplay of catalysts and reactants. But it didn't capture my interest the way I wished it would.
A few seconds later, Mimi's hair appeared through the running foam- then her whole head appeared, coughing and spitting the melted foam.
"Mam, you may want to stand cl-"
"Mimi." Doctor Yamada stepped over. I followed.
Mimi sat slumped on the floor, cradling her hands. As we approached she lifted them to her face- her fingers were red, blistered, and blackened. She couldn't use them. Instead she wiped at her eyes with her wrists, her shoulders quaking. She drew her legs in, curling in on herself, knees to her forehead. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was as tense as a steel cord drawn taunt.
Doctor Yamada stopped, and grabbed my arm. Flame sprang into being around Mimi. The Troopers dropped the chemical hoses, and drew the sprayers from their hip holsters. I blanked a moment, I hadn't felt any danger from Mimi, so why...
"Stop, wait!"
The troopers hesitated. And Mimi's fires didn't grow.
The memory of my arm burning was fresh in my mind, but I stepped forward slowly, then knelt down. The flames weren't very hot, they just kind of haloed Mimi's head and shoulders, flickering without burning her. She was immune to them. But not the hot metal still encased somewhere in the foam.
"Mimi?"
She didn't answer.
"Is…is that making you feel better?" I asked Mimi gently. Mimi curled back in on herself and tried to shake me off, but I held on.
Mimi peeked out from behind her knees, her eyes glowing bright neon orange.
"I'm sorry." She whispered, "I-I'm sorry."
Security had lowered their weapons marginally, the vague impressions of their emotions turning- from wary readiness to something a little less intense, and vague pity.
"Everything all right?" I asked.
Mimi blinked, I could feel her confusion, muted behind the veil of her power, "You're not afraid? I've always been... Just... one huge failure after another." her voice was flat.
"Mimi, I..." I swallowed, "You aren't the only one invested in this. We're in it together."
Mimi looked away, "I got foamed again." Mimi said, "Why... You still aren't afraid of me?" Her bewilderment was overwhelming, punching through the numb, the pain, and her despair.
I didn't know what to think, what to feel. Besides that same helplessness I'd been feeling ever since she'd flared up. I didn't know what I would do, or what I could do for Mimi.
Mimi gave me a bewildered look, I pressed on.
"Remember what Blake said?" I reminded her, "You have friends looking out for you, and that counts for something. You have me and Elle, and now you have Nick and Heather too."
Mimi looked away, nervous, unsure, "I-I don't really know them very well..." She said slowly.
This was also familiar territory, "I know," I said, "Don't worry about it, you'll get to know them.
"We're friends Mimi. I... I know you can beat this."
Mimi stared at me, until the orange faded from her eyes again, and the flames guttered out, "Why are you being so nice to me? I'm letting you down."
I glanced up at the observation booth. Elle's face was framed in the window, her hands pressed against the glass, expressionless, but when I touched her with my power she was filled with relief.
I hugged Mimi around the shoulders, and didn't answer.