Overtime

fourteen ✧ || beaten

His eyes forced themselves open at the slamming of a door. The sight before him, at first, was disorienting. He wasn't quite sure where they all were, or why they were there, but with the sudden slamming against concrete, all the pieces were put together for him.

"Rise and shine." The Professor claimed, slamming down a cardboard box full of equipment before turning back to the doors to retrieve another.

Just as the doors were swinging open, Colten could spot several trips worth of crates waiting outside. Just as he suspected. Despite The Professor claiming that he would be carting the equipment back that night, to keep them all on their toes he instead decided to come by the next morning after they had anxiously been phasing between sleep and reality.

Classic Professor.

"Thank you all for not causing a ruckus last night." He claimed, wandering back in with another box before turning back to the door. "If all goes according to plan," he paused to exit and grab another before returning. "You can return home as of 9:30 tonight."

Beside him, Colten could feel Aubrey shift, sleepily flickering back to reality. Well, as much as she could. It was quite clear that out of everyone there, she was the only one that wasn't 'all there.' The drugs she was taking in, especially on an empty, sleep-deprived body, hit her far harder than he had ever seen before.

"What time is it?" Raymond asked, rubbing the sleep out of both of his eyes before sliding his hands through his frazzled hair.

"7am." The Professor chimed back, oddly cheery despite his tone the day previous. "Students should start arriving for school within the next hour." He paused his carting of boxes to smile at the group, sending a shiver of anxiety down Raymond's spine. "Which is why, as soon as I get all of these boxes in, we'll begin training."

Just as he turned his back to the group, all their shoulders fell. Much to their expected horror, life had gone back to normal. They were no longer on their mission, they were no longer to be treated as average high school students, they had defaulted back to experiments — to lab rats, his tokens.

Slamming another box against the ground, watching his pupils jump at the noise, The Professor's gaze fixated bitterly on their resting bodies. "Everyone up. Into your line." With that, he dismissed himself to bring in the last of his supplies.

When he returned a mere moment later, a box under one arm and a plastic, temporary table in the other, they had done exactly as he had commanded. They were sluggish, their posture far weaker than his usual standards, but The Professor dismissed it as a default they could whip back into shape.

"Alright, if you look that way there's a storage locker." The male pointed to the other end of the room. There sat a double set of metal doors, a single window in the centre of each which peered into a dimly lit, dusty room. "If you'd please, remove the equipment that's inside. I've been told we have permission to use it all."

Aubrey and Dustin glanced down to their chained hands, lowering them in disapproval. In response, the twins, Colten, and Raymond and dismissed themselves to handle it. Colten and Raymond carried the heaviest seeing as Noah and Jay still had sore ankles.

Noticing how some were stunted from helping, The Professor stepped forward and unlatched Aubrey's weights, watching blankly as they slammed to the ground. The sound captured the interest of all his moving pupils.

"Once that equipment is out," The Professor began, moving along to release Dustin. "I want you to start training. There are some punching bags and weights. So," he clapped his hands before starting for the gas mask against Aubrey's chin. "Get to it."

The instant Aubrey's jaw was free from the mask, and just as The Professor had turned away, the brunette knelt to the ground and took in desperate, greedy breaths of the fresh air. The drug and the constant need to inhale it had almost driven her insane. Before The Professor could turn back from attending to the twins and Colten, she pushed herself to her feet.