Morph [EDITING] || Wattys 2017 Winner

~SEVEN~

~amelie~

The silence is broken by my shaky exhale of relief. Elian lets go of his breath too. Victoria's expression is full of disbelief. They stare at me for a second.

"Well, it worked, I'm assuming," says Victoria. She looks me up and down, then turns to Elian, who's still frozen. He turns to her, eyes still locked on me, and nods slightly.
"Yes. That's what she looks like normally. But is that... meant to happen? The vortex?" he asks quietly.
Victoria shrugs. "Different people react in different ways." She nods at me, smiles, turns on her heel and exits swiftly. Both of us are left gaping after her.
Dr Elian sighs. "Amelie, are you sure you're alright? I don't know why that happened, but..."
I hold up my hand and smile. "I'm okay. At least I'm me now."

I look back at the mirror, making sure my assumption's right. It is. I've never been more overjoyed to see my own reflection in my life.

"We'll give you daily lessons once we've properly introduced you to the base. All our new recruits have to learn how to control their abilities before we can send them on missions. It'll make sure this never happens again," says Elian.
His words hit me like a punch. "What about Sophia?"
"You're not ready, Amelie. You can help her far more by learning and then striking when we're ready, than acting now and getting locked up right beside her. Trust me on this," he says firmly.
I narrow my eyes. "So when do we start? Can you introduce me now?"
He chuckles slightly. "Since you're so eager, yes." Dr Elian stands up and walks towards the edge of the room, next to the other door. "This is the entrance. Step right in!"

I go over to him quickly, wanting to get ready to save my sister as quickly as possible. He twists the handle and pushes, and the door sinks into the wall and slides out of sight. He gestures for me to step into the corridor beyond it. I do, and the door slides silently shut again behind me once Elian's through too. He leads me wordlessly to the right, stopping when we reach a huge hall. The ceiling is high and dotted with bright white lights. Long tables are spread out across the room, stretching from white wall to white wall. A huge clock hangs on the far wall, and the floor is tiled and orange. A steel door is on the opposite side of the room. Elian steps in front of me with a big smile.

"This is our dining hall. It's where we eat and also where we hold meetings. It's the only space big enough in the base to fit every one of us, so it's pretty major." From the corner of my eye I see Amber walking towards me, Lila, Ryan and another boy in tow. Elian keeps talking, ignoring their approach. "I don't know how it works anywhere else, but here we have a serve-yourself basis. When the hall is open, someone will show you how to get whatever food you want, but for now I need to talk to someone. They'll show you around," he says, turning to face the four. Amber grins at me, Lila nods slightly, and Ryan keeps his stony expression firmly fixed on his face. The other boy winks at me. I smile back.
"I'm Hunter," he says. His grey eyes are laughing as he holds up a hand in greeting.
"Amelie," I say, smiling again.
Ryan frowns as Elian continues talking, this time towards the others. "Show her the Night Wing and the training rooms. Oh, and the planning area. If you still have time after that..." His eyes flick towards the clock. "Bring her back by six, and show her whatever else you want before then. You've got around four hours. See you soon, Amelie." With a final goodbye, he turns around and walks back. I crane my neck to see him, but he soon vanishes. I turn back to the others just as Lila heaves a sigh.

"We should get going, I guess," she says grumpily. Hunter elbows her.
"Come on, Lila! Cheer up! Seriously, when have we been able to show someone everything for the first time? Usually it's the elementals, right?"
He nudges her again and gets a huge huff in return. "Jackson, I honestly don't care. You guys can do the smiling, okay?" With that, she retreats into irritated glaring.
Amber raises her eyebrows. "Wow, Lila. Lovely first impression." She turns back to me and says, "Jackson's his surname. Lila always uses it. No idea why, though."
Lila throws up her hands and looks disgusted. "How is it a first impression if she's already met me? And I can call him whatever I want."

An awkward silence falls over the group like a blanket. We stand there for a moment before Ryan nudges me and we start walking away from them. The bickering starts again before we've got a metre away, and the other three begin to follow. I smile at him.

"Where are we going first?"

~~~

An hour later, and we've covered all the areas Elian told us to. Ryan showed me the training and planning rooms, two vast hi-tech rooms filled with exercise machines and wall screens. The planning room doesn't have the fitness stuff, but it does have a map of the city and a huge list of known people, upcoming rescues and who to rescue, and the rebels themselves and their various abilities. It's huge and extensive - I found myself on there. Everything on me is classified. Amber took over for the dormitories - nicknamed the Night Wing. There's a room for every person, and about ten spare. Apparently there's a rebel with the power to make someone temporarily blind, just like nighttime, so whatever time you need to sleep you can. Amber told me it's useful for night raids.

Now we're back in the dining hall again, and the others are fully demonstrating their powers. Ryan hovers a few feet in the air, a slight smile on his face, while Lila and Amber elaborately mime their powers - Lila creating the image of a wound on her arm and making it disappear when Amber pretends to heal it. I laugh. Even the sulky twin has a grin plastered across her face.

"Go on, Hunter. Do yours!" I say.
He shrugs. "Can't. There's nothing for me to do it on."
I turn to Lila. "What does he need? Can you create it?"
"Nope," she says flippantly. "Has to be seen to be believed."
"So why don't you have it here?" I ask Hunter.
Ryan chips in, coming back to ground level as he speaks. "They don't bother keeping locks anymore. Whatever Hunter wants, he'll get - even behind a padlocked door."
I frown. A lock? "So you can unlock things. Is that... it?"

Hunter lets out a small chuckle before restraining his laughter, noticing Lila's glare.

Amber glances at him, her eyes dancing and laughing. "Just wait and see. On this occasion, what Lila said is actually true..."
Lila puts her hands on her hips. "You'll wish you never asked."
I giggle nervously. Hunter elbows me, leans closer and whispers, "It's not that bad. Yours is probably more exciting. Come to think of it..." he says, straightening up and talking normally again, "...why don't you show us?"
"Amber's already seen it," I say.
She raises her eyebrows. "Not properly. I mean, all I saw was you changing what your arm looked like. None of us know how far that goes, or what you can do with it, or if you can change everything - and if you can, can you change age or gender or even species? And-"
"Amber, she doesn't know half of that herself," says Ryan. "Give her some space. Elian's probably told her not to tell us yet." He comes over and puts his hands on my shoulders. I look into his eyes. He lowers his voice. "She'll show us when she wants to."

We stay like that until our names are called from the far side of the room by Elian and another rebel. They stride towards us purposefully as we break the embrace and the other three look slightly embarrassed. Elian doesn't bat an eyelid as they come to a stop right in front of us. He smiles at me and gestures to the dark-skinned, thin man beside him.

"Amelie, this is Markus. He has a very different power to anything we've seen before, much like you. He is able to view where anyone in the world is at any time."
Elian takes a deep breath and the other rebel steps forward. "I've tried it on your sister, and the opportunity for rescue might have appeared early." Markus doesn't seem to realise the full effect his words have on me. I'm hit by a wave of shock, paralysing my body. He continues. "I have discovered Sophia Carmichael is not, in fact, in the primary holding facility. Instead she is being held in a secondary camp."
I blink at him. Ryan and the others share equally blank looks, though Elian seems to understand. "What does that mean?"
"It means," says Markus, "that we know which facility she's in, and that it's not as heavily guarded. And we know who has the information to set her free."
Elian smiles widely at me and my newfound comrades, even as my mind is reeling with the huge hope. "We are planning a heist to save your sister, Amelie, and you are going to be the most important player in the game."

A/N:

sorry for the wait! I've been really busy, but now I have a lot more free time to keep writing in. as a sorry-present, the next chapter will be extra-long and exciting!