The Power's

I don't need you to protect me.

"Are you hungry?" Kelly looks over to Alexis, "I can take you to the dining hall, you can meet some new people." Alexis wipes her tears, "It might help take your mind off things."

"Yeah let's go." Alexis gets up from the bed and heads out the door with Kelly.

"I'll just let you know now that some of the people down here don't speak English, but most do." They both head up in the elevator, "I want you to meet Lance. I know you think he's bad but he might be able to help you feel better."

Alexis laughs nervously, "yeah right," they head out towards the dining hall and can hear the sound of people chattering, "I miss my old friend, he was like family."

"Maybe one day you'll be able to meet up with him again." They turn into the huge dining hall where there are many tables full of people. Most of the people turn to see the new power.

"Why are they all staring?"

"Because you're the new power, I told you people would want to meet you. Come on, the line starts here, grab a tray."

"Hey Kel" a voice behind the buffet counter says.

"Hey Kelsey, this is Alexis, the new power."

"Hello, Alexis, I would shake your hand but then I wouldn't be following the health guidelines, I'm Kelsey"

"Hi Kelsey, what's your superpower?" Alexis asks as she puts a piece of chicken on her tray.

"I actually don't have a power," Kelsey says as she puts some rice on Kelly's tray. "I don't know if you've met my husband James yet but he's how I live down here."

"Yeah we saw James earlier, is he not eating tonight?" Kelly asks as she moves down the line.

"He should be, he's probably just running late as usual. Do you like rice, I made it?"

"Yes," Alexis holds her tray out.

"Come on Alexis, you've got to try some of these chocolate covered strawberries."

"Okay, I love strawberries," she puts some on her tray and heads to look for a seat.

"See those younger guys over there," Kelly eyes over at a table, "that's Lance and Nick, go sit with them, I'll meet up with you after you're done." Kelly goes and sits with her friends.

Alexis heads over to the table, "hi, I'm Alexis." A hand reaches out for her. It's Lance, a young man with short brown hair and noticeable brown eyes. Alexis shakes his hand back and a feeling strikes her, one that she's never quite felt before. "I'm Lance, wanna sit with us" he replies. "Sure" Alexis takes a seat next to Lance.

"I'm Nick" says the other guy sitting across from her.

"Hi, Nick, what's your power?" Alexis asks as she starts to munch down on her food.
"I have super strength, anything you need picked up or thrown I can help you with."

"I don't need your help, I can move objects on my own." Alexis brags.

"Oh yeah duh, I forgot you have telekinesis." Nick replies as he chomps down on his food in an unmannerly way.

"And what's yours Lance?" Alexis asks as she makes her way over to the chocolate covered strawberries on her tray.

"I have enhanced intelligence, I'm basically a human calculator to sum it up." There's a moment of awkwardness at the table. "So princessa, I hear you're from America, what state? I'm from California," Lance asks.

Alexis rolls her eyes at the nickname princessa, "Lucky, at least you get a popular state. I'm from Wyoming, and I literally lived in the middle of nowhere, there were only cows and one good person in that crappy town. Anyways, how old are you guys? Like how long have you been here?" Alexis questions as she is thinking in her head if she could convince them to help her escape the base.

"I'm 17 and I've been here for about a year and a half." Lance replies, "Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering," Alexis looked around questionably. "To be honest with you guys, I want to get out of here, get back to my old life, even though they killed my parents."

"Woah Woah Woah," Lance interrupts "You can't leave here. You don't even know how to control your powers yet, and I'm guessing since you just got here today Cheng hasn't talked with you much."

"No he hasn't and I don't really have a problem with that because he kidnapped me then murdered my parents in their own house. And he also tried to accuse me of being adopted, and there's no way that's even true." Alexis rambles, and in the midst of her conversation Nick left because he didn't want to get caught talking bad about Cheng.
"Trust me I'm sure he has a reasonable answer for it. He had good reason to kill your parents too, he just hasn't explained everything to you. And not to raise your self esteem or anything but we need you here, if you can harness your powers you could be the solution to all of our problems." Lance implies.

"What problems do you have? Is it with the rival base?" Alexis asks.

"Yes and no, I don't think I'm the one who's supposed to explain it to you. That's Cheng's job and I don't want to get on his bad side."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Alexis finishes up her tray.

"Because, I don't want to scare you but Cheng has done some messed up things and I wouldn't want that to happen to me or you. I'm just trying to keep you safe, so please don't do anything stupid or irrational because he will be sure that you don't make those mistakes again."

"I do not need you to protect me, you don't even have powers, I can take care of myself. Who knows maybe I'll be more powerful then Cheng." Alexis gets up and goes over to Kelly who is talking with James and Kelsey.

"Hey kiddo, what did you think of Lance?" Kelly asks as she pats a spot next to her on the bench, inviting Alexis to have a seat.

"He was okay, I'm pretty tired, can I go to my room?"
"Sure kiddo, do you want me to walk you there, I'm done eating?"

"I don't care, you can come if you want too." Kelly gets up and walks with Alexis. "Thank you... you know for helping me with everything."

"Of course kiddo, whatever you need, you can always come to me." They approach Alexis' room and she unlocks it with her thumb. "Do you need anything else?" Kelly asks.

"No, I think I can handle it from here." Alexis replies reluctantly, because in her head she is questioning if maybe once she wakes in the morning this will all just be a bad dream.

"Okay sweetie, I'll come get you in the morning at 8 but until then you should get some sleep, you'll have a lot to learn tomorrow."

"Okay, goodnight." Alexis closes the door and walks over to her massive king size bed which is a huge change from her tiny single back home. She rests her head and starts to tremble, shaking, as her mind flashes her a million thoughts. Tears begin to fall, for a time that feels like forever, until she gets so tired she finally falls asleep...