Dance or Die: a Fanfiction

Chapter 7 - Detained

Coming to inside a relatively modern-looking cell-like place, Derek soon felt aware enough that he sat up. He was on a flat bed that was slightly cushiony but not very comfortable. Sitting there observing the white walls and floor, he was suddenly overcome with an intense longing. He wanted to go back to his college, to his friends, but he knew he couldn't. The newly created language barrier would make conversation difficult, and he couldn't quite fully control the "bio-radiation," or whatever the other four said it was. His new friends were alright in his mind, but he hadn't gotten to really bond with them, with all this running away and being locked up.

He felt an odd sensation near the lower left side of his torso. His jacket having been removed by someone, he pulled up the side of his shirt to look. There were six pinpoints, made by what he presumed were needles, in a neat row. He put his shirt back down a second before a friendly looking young woman with short hair beckoned him out. As they walked along the hallway, brightly lit with sporadically placed doors lining the tiled part of the building, he noticed the woman was rather short in height as well. He soon became curious.

"What is this place?" he passively asked.

"You don't need to know that," she said mysteriously, keeping her eyes ahead. "But you're safe from serious harm. Isn't that good enough?"

"I'd still like to know where we are. By country, I mean," he said. She slowed as she looked up at him.

"You're still on Svalbard, Mister..." She looked down at the clipboard she carried. "Mr. Derek Mount. Says here you're from Sweden."

He nodded and hoped she wouldn't say anything about how he didn't sound like he was Swedish. She stopped at a door near the end of the hall, opened it, and went in first. Derek followed after. There was another, shorter hallway down this end, with tighter-spaced brown doors. Right at the end of the hall was a single door, a yellowish wood in contrast to the darker brown doors all around. She led him into the relatively large room, where five other people were, four sitting down, facing the standing one. The first thing to catch his eye was a shiny red and silver jacket, until a tiny white ray flew by his face and returned to the creator of it.

"Sir!" the standing man barked in a heavy accent at Tephe, who was holding back laughter. "Do not attempt to hurt anyone!"

"It's alright, I'm fine," Derek said, waving at the man as he walked to the empty chair he guess he was supposed to sit in. Before he sat, the short woman hurried up to him and handed him the black and blue striped jacket he wore so often. He smiled in thanks as he put his jacket on, and she made her way out as the man peered around at the five with a criticizing eye.

"All of you seem to be a bit old for pulling tricks," he said, Scandinavian accent strong in his voice. Najat raised an eyebrow. "I'd half expect it out of this man," gesturing at Derek who was taken aback, "but the rest of you should be mature enough."

"Why do you have to pick on him?" Siron said in the most serious voice Derek had heard him utter. The man went to a computer in the corner of the room and picked up a paper laying beside it.

"Mount, Derek, twenty-one years, university student," he said, walking away from the computer and glancing up at Derek. "It may be the typical misbehavior, but I've checked with the university, and he seems to be the nice, studious type."

Derek sighed at how prejudiced he was, yet he didn't seem to mind Tephe's little powers a moment earlier. Could he be more scared of a student than aliens? He would be even more frightened if he got to know he had the same alien ability. He chuckled to himself, deciding to save his trick for later.

"The other four," he droned, "have no records in any nearby country, nor in this world. I would say you blatantly destroyed your records of being living humans, but the doctors here took blood samples, and Mount's is the only one with human DNA, but it has been... edited, to say the least."

"Blame us," Tephe said outright, everyone else turning to stare at him.

"Tephe, shut up," Rulefe said. Tephe frowned at him, realizing his mistake, and stayed quiet.

"As I was saying, according to the doctors, three of you have dark pink-colored blood, with unknown chemicals and elements within, and one has silver-white blood," the man said, gesturing at Tephe for the last one, "Mount here is the only human."

"As if we didn't know that," Najat muttered under his breath.

The man went on about the physiological differences the doctors found, boring the five greatly. Already knowing how different they were, they sat and stared off, not really listening to the ramblings. They didn't pay attention until he started contemplating on what facilities they should be sent to, as they didn't want to part from each other.

"We should send all of you to an American facility, seeing as all of you seem American, but Mount has Swedish citizenship. I think we should have the four of you go overseas and have Mount stay here," he said. Derek didn't like that idea.

"I can give you a reason why not to do that," Derek said adamantly, "These guys can make this light from inside themselves, and so can I."

He shot a spark of blue towards the man, just brushing his nose, and returned. The man showed a mix of emotions, mostly irritation and a hint of wonder, then agreed to send all of them to an American extraterrestrial science facility. Tephe smirked at Derek's cleverness. They were let out and sent to their own tiny quarters for the night, as they were to leave the next day.