Subject Zero: Mirrors (Book 2)

Chapter 5: Fear's Fantasy

Forty-eight years ago, in 1937, there was once a married couple, Doctor William Ohta and Amelia Ohta.

They weren't an ordinary couple at all. They were researchers and scientists, searching for ways to expand the boundaries of the mind.

Amelia volunteered to be the experiment for their projects. So, he performed said tests and experiments, which resulted in her acquiring many strange supernatural abilities, such as invisibility, psychokinesis, telepathy, levitation, heat manipulation, mind control, and healing.

The two of them were very happy with the outcomes of these tests and were actually quite proud of themselves. They had become the firsts to achieve the expansion of human potential! They had every reason to celebrate.

Of course, it took them a few years to conduct these experiments. And two years after they first began experimenting — in 1939 — they decided to settle down and have a child, a beautiful girl named Alexandria.

Amelia's abilities had worn off as time passed, but it was perfectly okay to them. They weren't angry about it or disappointed. After all, the fact that their experiment succeeded at all and lasted so long is nothing short of a miracle.

And over time, William and Amelia realized their daughter was learning certain abilities — some of the same ones Amelia was able to perform when they were experimenting... Heat manipulation, lie detection... even blood manipulation.

William was fascinated by Alexandria, and decided to start a program at Norwood's National Laboratory, where he'd adopt four other children and give all of them abilities. His daughter was part of this program. He thought this could be the start of a new world, where no one has to be just ordinary.

He originally was going to adopt seven children, but Amelia thought they should start with adding four to the family.
During the first five years at this program, the five children began acquiring different abilities.

One of them, Teddy, had teleportation and phasing/intangibility.

Another, Arlo... had time manipulation.

Ryuzaki had mind control, mind reading, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis.

The youngest, Chandler, had levitation, air manipulation, and astral projection.

But some of them gained more abilities as tests and experiments continued. Only a few of Alexandria's abilities she inherited from her mother, while others were given to her during experimentation.

The strange and mysterious couple were happy to have a supernatural family. But the children all hated it.

There was a time when the doctors experimented to see if all the kids could mirror each other's pain. To share pain is something they've always been curious about. But that's all they went into these experiments for— to satisfy their curiosities, without taking the feelings of the children into consideration.

The tests terribly wrong and only Alexandria could feel physical and emotional pain all at once, times four... because the other four kids were beginning to lose their pain and become numb. Alexandria could feel every bit of pain they couldn't. She couldn't bear it, so she had to take medicine every few hours to numb her own pain. But all of them still loved each other and would have fun together.