Hawk and Dove

"Hello, Satan."

Dan's head felt heavy. His eyelids were even heavier, but he managed to get them open just a bit. He could see through his heavy lids that there was a person in front of him, and their touch was light over his body. "Phil?"

When their eyes lifted, they were blue and icy and definitely Phil. Dan's heart started to hammer. "Well, hi there," said Phil, his hands ghosting down from Dan's temples to his neck, "I thought you would never wake up."

Goosebumps exploded all over Dan's flesh. He never got goosebumps; his body temperature never fluctuated. Phil's hands felt warm to the touch, just like it was anyone else touching him, instead of cool like usual. And for some reason, Dan couldn't reach up and touch him too. He wanted to, especially when Phil's fingers wandered down his arms. "What... what happened?" Dan whispered. He still couldn't get his eyes all the way open.

Before Phil replied there was a pinching sensation in the crook of his elbow. Dan gasped, and his eyes shot open, and everything came into focus. He was in a lab. He couldn't reach up and touch Phil because he was strapped down. And the person touching him wasn't Phil at all; in fact it was a woman. The pinching sensation was her sticking a needle into his vein. She didn't even look anything like Phil, save for the glasses. Her hair was brown and her eyes were brown. Another quick body check of him found that she wasn't just touching him for the sake of touching. He had things taped to him: one on each temple and either side of his throat.

"I'm sorry," the woman whispered as she walked around to his other side, "This will hurt too." Then she stuck another needle in his other arm and Dan grimaced, sucking air in through his teeth. She looked up at him with an apologetic look and suddenly a loud sound boomed in the room, as if someone was tapping a microphone. The woman cringed.

"Don't be so easy on him, Dr. Bisognin," said a disembodied voice. Wait, Dan recognized that voice. "We probably won't end up keeping this one. He's already got his powers."

Dr. Bisognin nodded once and walked around behind Dan's head. He couldn't bend enough to see what was going on, but it wasn't hard to assess the situation. He got trapped and gassed, and this was the result. Now he was the lab rat, and that wasn't even the worse thing. The worse thing was that he had no idea what happened to Phil and the others. Well, he supposed it was a good thing that besides the scientist, he was alone in this room. It was very similar to the one they rescued those people from.

The machinery behind Dan's head started to whir. Something else started to drip, and Dan assumed one of the catheters in his arms was an IV. The question of what the thing dripping is that worried him the most.

"Tilt him up, doctor. Hawk and I need to have a chat," said the voice again. Dan's heart lurched uncomfortably and a machine started to beep louder. A heart monitor. Soon Dan's table began to tilt up so he could see himself in a mirror across from him. Dr. Bisognin rounded him and disappeared into an open door in the corner of the room. The mirror blinked, like a phone screen, and it wasn't a mirror at all. It was a window.

Dan narrowed his eyes. There were two men in the room behind the window: one in a black suit, and Prime Minister Page. That's why Dan recognized the voice. It basically was the bane of his existence. Dr. Bisognin stood to the far right, looking worriedly between Dan and Page.

"Hello, Hawk," he said with a tiny grin.

Dan trained his expression and deadpanned back, "Hello, Satan."

Page chuckled. "Glad to see you're not out of it anymore," he said, "These procedures aren't very useful if you're not conscious."

"What the actual fuck is happening here?" Dan said, having to get all his emotions out in his facial expression, as he couldn't use his hands for emphasis.