Shape

Chapter 11: Liquid Connection

Walking down the multiple hallways it took to get wherever we were going, I was able to see things around the facility I hadn't been able to in forever. I saw other experiments wandering around, admiring each of their distinct features. I also tried starting up conversation multiple times, but was met with silence at each attempt.
When we reached a small empty hallway, I stopped walking; which was noticed almost immediately as he turned around quickly after. "Something wrong kid?" Mr. 2 asked me uneasily.
"Yeah, why won't you answer any of my questions!?" My voice was shaky; even though I disliked him, I've never actually confronted him like this.
"I will when it's the right time." His words were distant now.
"THE RIGHT TIME FOR WHAT!?" I shouted at him while my eyes started to tear up with frustration.
"Calm down.. You'll start reforming if you keep this up." I didn't care about what my body did right now, he would just inject me if it caused too much trouble anyway.
"UGH!" I stomped my foot on the ground causing a small crater.
"See what happens when you don't listen? Your body is still trying to produce Fish's ability." He looked at the crater under my foot, then at my arms "You can see it in your veins."
I raised my arm up to my face and saw a bright green pulsing through my veins instead of the usual blue. "Oh." I lowered my arm and slowly made my way over to Mr. 2, "C'mon kid." He laid his hand on my shoulder and made sure I followed right beside him this time. "I know you might dislike me, but there's something you really need to hear." I avoided interacting the rest of the way, it didn't seem to bother him much though as long as I was still beside him. I still watched as the other experiments walked past, but this time I took a close look at their expressions; they would all smile and wave at me as we walked, but quickly looked away in what looked like fear once they noticed Mr. 2, I didn't understand why.
"Here we are!" We had finally reached the mystery place and to my surprise, Mr. 2's name was on the door.
Brandon:
Upper 2
"I know my name is amazing and all, but it might help if you go inside the room." His voice was dripping in sarcasm. "Sure...Amazing.." I rolled my eyes while opening the surprisingly heavy door.
"Take a seat, we have a lot to discuss." He pulled up a wooden chair from a nearby desk for me to sit down and grabbed himself a rolling chair which contrasted from his serious expression.
Once he was pleased with where he wanted his chair on wheels, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a needle containing the usual blue liquid it always did, causing me to flinch out of habit.
"Sorry, I know you're not a big fan of needles but I think it's time I come clean about what they actually hold." He placed the needle down onto a small table beside him and rolled up one of his sleeves to reveal, "Are those.. Scars?" They practically covered his entire arm and were all different depths and sizes, exposing the fact they were purposeful.
"Yes." He looked uncomfortable talking about it.
"The cause of these scars was to extract the liquid needed for the syringes, my blood." He rolled his sleeve back down and picked up the needle. "The same stuff flowing throughout your body at this very moment."
I glanced down at my arms, my veins were back to glowing the same blue they always did.
"This doesn't make any sense, wouldn't that much blood loss kill you!?" My voice had slowly started to get louder, to which Mr. 2 quickly muted just like before.
"I can't tell you why just yet; but what I can tell you is my ability, sound manipulation." I paused, this whole time I had been trying to figure out what his ability was and it was right in front of my face.
When he put me to sleep, when he 'removed' my voice, when he knocked me unconscious. It all made sense now. I fidgeted in my seat, unable to control the expression on my face.
"I know you must be upset with me right now, but whether you choose to believe me or not it was something I had to do." It had become a one-way conversation at this point, "It took me so long to find you, and even longer to activate your ability" He started talking about the rules my ability is supposed to have, but I wasn't listening; I was too distracted by the glow of the needle in his hand full of what I now know is our shared blood. That kind of discovery is kinda hard to dismiss so easily, even for me.
"If your blood is currently flowing through me, wouldn't I be able to-"
"No." He cut me off, "That's something I made sure you couldn't do" His answer was quick, it was suspicious.
"So what's it for then?" I sat up in the chair, forcing eye contact between us, "Because all it's done is make my veins glow blue." I couldn't tell him about the hair I found.
He let out a sigh and reached over to grab a mirror that was lying on the same table he had placed the syringe onto. "I wanted to trigger this." He shoved the mirror into my face which exposed something that almost made me fall out of my chair. My eyes had a strange bluish tint, much different from the pale white color they had this morning.
"How did.." The words slipped out of my mouth barely loud enough to hear. "But they were.." The mirror was visibly shaking in my hand. "It's a lot to take in, I know."
I lowered the mirror, my eyes starting to tear up again, "No you don't." My voice trembled; Mr. 2 looked at me with pity in his eyes, his fingers fidgeting with the syringe in his hands causing the liquid inside to sway back and forth. Suddenly, the lights in the room started to flicker, breaking our silence; it wasn't much, just enough for someone close by to notice.
"I have to go see what that was about, I'll give you clearance to wander around for a bit until I get back." He quickly stood up from his rolling chair, I could tell by his rushed movements that it was urgent. So I just nodded and followed out the room behind him where he waved me goodbye and disappeared down the hall.
Where to go..
"Shape, is that you!?" A familiar voice showed up behind me, "APPLE!?" I quickly turned around to look at him, he hadn't changed much compared to me, but he looked healthier now. "I almost didn't recognize you!" His voice was less raspy and a bit deeper. "The horns really suit you." He glanced up at the shiny white horns growing out the front of my head, I looked at his new appearance; his hair was fuller with a brighter yellow fade at the ends, his eyes were less sunken in, and his body appeared to have gained a stronger build with less bruise markings on it. "You're still wearing the cuffs?" I looked down at his hands, still trapped in metal casings. "Yeah, but only in very populated areas." He lifted his hands up for me to get a closer look, they were shiny and looser than the ones I saw before.
"How long are you up here for? I heard you got moved to the basement." We started to walk around the building, "Not long, just until Mr. 2 is done with whatever he's doing." I still wondered where he went in such a hurry. As we were walking, the lights started flickering again but this time, causing a blackout throughout the building. "Is something wrong with the lights?" I glanced around, unable to see anything wrong through the faint glow my body gave off. "Is One okay?" Apple's voice echoed through the hall.
The scientists quickly responded to the blackout by running around the building to make sure everyone was accounted for before putting as many experiments as they could under lockdown in their rooms, causing me and Apple to say goodbye once again.
"Since we don't have access to your key, you must stay in our sights until someone who does shows up" I nodded at the scientists as they chained my hands out of protocol and left towards a group of lost experiments while I stayed behind with a scientist who looked about my age.
"They let people this young work here?" Maybe conversation would help her nerves.
"I'm not an official scientist yet, I'm still in training..." Her voice was panicked.
"I'm not much to worry about, just stay out of the other experiment's way. They can get really aggressive." She was too young to have done any harm, you could see the inexperience on her face, "Okay!"
We stood in place for what felt like forever while the other scientists ran around collecting whoever was left unsupervised in the building. The area around us was cold and quiet besides the sound of my chains whenever I moved my hands, which caused the assistant to jump. "I have a sorta-personal question for you." Her uneasy voice broke through the silence, "Yeah?" I slowly turned my head to look at her, trying not to startle her. "Who were you before all of this..?" She quickly looked down, "I don't mean that in a rude or mean way at all..! I was just wondering since you seem so calm and used to this place." Calm?
I turned my head away from her, now looking towards the other side of the room, "I was an orphan."
She stared at me for a moment, her mouth seeming to open a bit in an attempt to say something but nothing came out. I had forgotten how sad it sounded to an outsider, but she had to get used to it if she were to work here. Soon the sound of familiar heavy footsteps quickly filled our awkward silence.
"There you are! All this darkness made it quite difficult to find you." Mr. 2 was finally back, "Took you long eno-" I paused mid sentence, "What.. Happened to you? His face was covered in black smoke, and his body was shaking slightly with small amounts of electricity sparking off of him.
"It's nothing to worry about, just get those cuffs off and I'll take you to your room." He looked towards the assistant beside me and motioned for her to leave, which she did after staring at him for a moment.
I shifted my arms causing the chains to fall off and clang onto the ground, I picked them up and handed them over to Mr. 2 who threw them away in a nearby trashcan, but didn't walk back over.
"Mr. 2? The stairs are that way." I pointed towards the stairwell down the hall, but he still didn't move, instead he looked at me, his face slowly changing from the usual fake smile to something real; His eyes softened, his arms slowly rested at his sides and for a moment it looked like he wanted to say something, but didn't; He just stared at me looking more like a person than he ever had. "Shape..." It was the only word he could manage to get out. "Yea?" I looked at him confused about what was going on, he was perfectly fine before he left and now he was covered in smoke and injuries.
"I'm sorry for what's about to happen." My eyes widened as he collapsed shortly after getting those words out. In that moment, the bright lights turned back on exposing the reality of his injuries that my body's soft glow couldn't. All I could do was stare, I stared in horror as a group of scientists and doctors rushed towards his unconscious body while Two's hands made a barricade around them.
"Let's get you back downstairs, 23."
Right.... The stairs.