Shape

Chapter 4: The Ranks

Today's testing was different than I imagined it to be. They had me sit down with some other experiments and started giving us a lecture on safety and proper power use.
"Shape. What have you done to get yourself in here this time?"
The lecture guy never liked me. And for good reason, this was my third time in here this week. Today's Tuesday.
"I might have... Blew up a section of my hall.."
The man looked at me with a disappointed look before turning around and writing something on the board behind him.
"Okay everyone, since all of you are either new or in the isolation hall, I thought it would be good to go over the ranking system and how we sort everyone. Just to give you an overall view of how this place works."
The rankings? I've never heard much about those before. Isolation is a cruel place to be if you want information I guess.
"Okay, starting off, let's go over what the symbols on your shirts are. These symbols are distributed to every experiment that enters this place. For example, if you were a sea creature when you were brought in or had any water characteristics you would be given the symbol of a water droplet. This would apply to all elemental related powers and creatures. Other symbols you might be given would be an animal paw, arrows, or many others that might represent you and your abilities. The animal paw is a symbol given to those who have the appearance and/or qualities of an animal you would see in the wild, like a bear for example. This symbol is very rare to have if you are in this building due to most animal experiments being highly aggressive and hostile. Making them a danger to regular trained staff and others around them. So most animal experiments are placed in a separate building a little far from here where we have staff specially trained to deal with them."
As the guy went into more detail about the symbols and their meanings, I couldn't help but wonder about the rankings. I've heard from Apple some information in the past about what the rankings are but he never went into detail about who's in them.
"Any questions about the subject before we move on?"
The room was completely silent, it was almost scary.
"Yes! What is your question?"
I looked around trying to see who it was, it was a guy with a weird head in the shape of a cup.
"So, would the symbols we're given change if we gained an ability or our original power changes in any way?"
The man paused for a minute trying to think of an acceptable response to his question.
"It would not. Our facility is as high tech as our resources allow it to be. We already have planned out every consequence, change, and tests that would happen to you as soon as you walk through the door. Your symbol is a symbol of your future."
Suddenly the quiet room bursted into an explosion of talking and gasps.
"Now, if there's no more questions I will proceed onto today's next important lesson. The ranks. There are four rankings in total you could be sorted into. Starting off at the very top are the top four people that run this building and the one containing the animal experiments. At the very top of everything is the most dangerous man in here, the boss. Nobody except the other members of his rank know what his name is, but his ability is poison. He can sprout mushrooms anywhere he pleases causing poisonous gas or liquid to spread rapidly throughout any place he chooses."
I instantly raised my hand in the air. That guy. I've heard of him somewhere before. I just couldn't put my finger on it.
"Yes, Shape. You have a question?"
I opened my mouth to no noise, my arm was trembling but I couldn't put it down. My eyes widened to the fact that I was unable to move or speak, it was terrifying.
"I don't think it's question time just yet."
My body filled with rage to see the guy who brought me to this place standing so confidently at the door with a sly grin on his face.
"Mister Brandon! Hello sir! I was starting to cover the ranks of this fine place with the new and isolation people. Is that okay sir?"
At that point my arm flung downward onto the table in front of me. I looked up at him with disgust. I figured my question was something that wasn't supposed to be talked about. I wonder why.
"Oh that's perfectly fine! Just like it's fine for me to take over this class, right?"
The teacher's eyes widened and quickly picked up his stuff and left.
"Okay class! Where were we... Oh yes! My rank."
My hatred grew bigger when he said that, a guy like him was able to be that high of a rank!? It's ridiculous to think about.
"I can see most of you are pretty shocked, so let me explain how these things work. I am ranked second at the top right under my poison friend who doesn't appreciate being named. The rest of us don't mind the attention though."
As I sat there, I examined how the man looked now, he had a head of long black hair put up into a messy ponytail to reveal a weird floating symbol covering one of his ears. His face was a strange sight to see, he wore glasses, but looking closer you could see a scar over one of his eyes revealing a grayish color underneath his skin. It's strange but so is everyone else in this place. At least he had a flower to cover his missing eye.
"And that's how chickens learned to tap dance. Moving on, the rank under me and my comrades are called the 'Lower Five'. These guys are the strongest experiments ranked under us in the building as of now, they're specialized in maintaining the building to its best shape. Starting off are members 4 and 5, these maniacs tend to switch their rank numbers between each other at will since their abilities are so closely related. Number 5 is able to produce strings from her body and treat anything they latch onto like a puppet, the catch is she can only produce a certain amount at a time as they take a lot of energy to produce. Moving on to number 4, he's able to make clones of himself and others however much he desires. But just like his sister, his ability takes up a lot of energy to maintain, causing some messed up looking clones around here. These two work in perfect harmony with each other and are both on the healing team if someone is badly injured. Moving up to number 3, he's the wild card of the team as he has three different forms he switches through at will. Causing our poor staff to have to track him down in the pipes or anywhere containing water. He actually contains two different abilities inside of him."
My eyes widened at that, there's an experiment out there who can relate to me!? He can shift through different forms just like I can, it was exciting to learn all about the top people as they all have strong abilities that separate them from us lower experiments.
"Now number 3 is very easy to spot around here as he actively likes to interact with everyone. So don't be scared if he comes off as intense. The thing you can worry about though are his powers, as he's what we call, 'The living cannon'. His main power is that of a siren, he can switch between legs and a tail at will and the most recent discovery, a regular fish if he wants. His other ability however, is the power to cause a destruction wave just by screaming. These waves are strong enough to take out cities if he's given the chance. We use him to keep rouge experiments in line and as a defense system against any potential threat from the outside world. Going up the ladder is rank number 2, her ability is the most noticeable one, as she's the one in control of all the floating hands you might see around here. She is used as our security system. We keep track of everything going on through the eyes of her hands in an isolated room to keep her safe from potential threats, and we keep her behind a glass barrier to keep the staff safe from her burning rage against us. Though her main body is blind due to her eyes being multiplied so much, her eyesight is incredible through the hands and she takes in every detail of everything. So don't be sneaking around or doing anything you're not supposed to. Finally at the top spot of the list is One. This 6'5" giant is kept underneath the facility with 24/7 surveillance due to him being a safety hazard to literally everyone due to his strength and temper. Though it doesn't help his ability makes him an even stronger threat, energy. He is constantly creating and releasing electricity no matter how exhausted he might be which is why the big boss decided to chain him down under the facility and use him as a human power plant to keep this place running. We let him walk around at least three times a month for some fresh air though, it helps keep the energy he provides strong and stable for us to use. Now, does anyone have any questions?"
The whole room was so eerily quiet that you could hear a pin drop. I wasn't surprised though, it was a lot to take in on one go.
"Yes! You weird looking guy in the back"
I turned around to see a shark hybrid guy with a nervous look on his face, it was probably an important question to him.
"Uhm, so I saw this girl in hallway D with a skull symbol on her shirt, she was covered in black markings and looked really sick. I was wondering if she'd be okay."
The man was suddenly silent with a grim expression on his face, it was strange compared to his joyful filled loudness just a moment ago.
"A skull...? I'm really sorry to tell you this, but I'm afraid she won't make it."
My face dropped, you never heard much about the people who died in this place, as it was a shame for the scientists to admit they had failed sometimes.
"I was trying to avoid this talk but I guess it's better than you finding out yourselves. The skull symbol is a symbol that you'll mainly see in the D hall as it's where we put most of the experiments that are doomed to fail. It means that the person wearing that symbol is bound to die with no chance of survival. I'm sorry but there's no hope of that girl living much longer."
Those words changed the entire atmosphere of the room from curious filled people to a room filled with grief and sadness. It was hard to be in.
"Any less sad questions?"
The room was still as silent as before, just filled with more grief for the poor people cursed with the death sentence for being a failure in the eyes of the scientists. It was unbearable.
"Since there's no more questions, you're all free to go back to your rooms or inform others about the info you've learned. Might cause some people to have a bit more empathy."
I left the room feeling like a new person. The only thing to do now is hope I don't end up being the next person on the failure list. I also made sure to give Two a smile on my way out. She deserves one.