The Powered People

Chapter 24

To say that Nolan chased away everyone left in the building that wasn't powered would be an understatement. He practically plowed through the whole building with a stream of water shooting behind him. Though most people evacuated, he somehow found every single one of them and chased them right out of the building. Everything was a blur the whole time. Like he had no idea what he was doing, but he didn't care.

Evian, on the other hand, was a little proud but honestly terrified. Her brother just disappeared in front of a rocket of tap water protruding from the sink. that slammed Taiga against the doorway. She maneuvered around the patient table to the sink and tried to freeze all the water before any more could shoot out. But by then, Nolan already had a wave consistently rushing behind him, attacking at will.

"Since when could he do that?" Taiga panted. Evian shrugged, her eyes wide as the Pacific.

"I only do that when I'm feeling as badass as it gets!" she called as she ran after him, leaving Taiga with the corpse. The halls were slippery and wet, puddles of tap water scattered all over the shiny floors. Evian followed the puddles up the stairs to the fourth floor, where she could hear people screaming and scattering like children. Some even sounded like their own!

Evian burst into the cell block, almost getting knocked over by about three people. Nolan was at the center of the room, a whole wave of water breaking him off from everyone else. Evian barged right in, sticking her hand in the wave and trying to push it away from him. For some reason, it didn't budge. Rolling her eyes, she walked right through the wall of water and yelled, "EVERYBODY'S GONE, OKAY?!"

This briefly got Nolan's attention, but it didn't last. Evian grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Just stop, bro," Evian sighed. "It's over, okay? We frickin' scared them all away!"

Nolan's shoulder tensed then relaxed. The wave crashed down, probably soaking everyone around them. But Evian wouldn't've even noticed. Nolan stared down at his feet, gripping his fingers. Evian put an arm around him. He was still trembling.

"Wanna cry a little more?" she offered, cutting straight to the point. Nolan nodded into her shoulder. The then-prisoners all gathered around the two, stepping right into the puddles that surrounded the siblings. They watched as Nolan clung to his sister while he let out a sob. His fingers hooked in her shirt and he buried his face in her shoulder. Evian tried not to hug him as hard as he was hugging her and struggled to keep a straight face.

The halls were completely silent other than Nolan's cries for a good few minutes. But soon, more people gathered around as well. Some mutters emerged, but none surpassed Nolan's sobs. They all seem to look at each other in confusion. Who were these kids? The whole last hour seemed like a blur to everyone. The alarms had gone off, people started rioting, and suddenly it all stopped. Lastly, they found themselves staring at some kids breaking down.

One kid cut right through the crowd. A ball of red hair bobbled through the crowd and ran right to Evian and Nolan. Evie tackled them into a hug, laughing her head off. Her whole head of hair burst into flames (which Evian put out before it got bad). But Evie faces still lit up as she exclaimed, "We did it!"

The non-locals of the lab decided that celebrating was by far the best choice. Evian and half the house spent the day running all around the building. They trashed some of the old testing rooms and marked their territory in old living quarters. Toby even created holes in the walls just so they could chuck stuff out the window. And Evian took great pleasure flooding all of room 12.

Evian's posse took nearly no liberties. They ran into a room, wrecked havoc, and left. Toby snapped a microscope in half with his bare hands. Taiga covered the whole burn room in frost. Evie tried (and succeeded) to step a toilet on fire. And they all felt like royalty as they did it. Taiga had the largest smile on her face. She took advantage of every second, breaking or freezing everything in sight. And Evian acted like the leader, shouting for the group to follow her from room to room.

The prisoners who had been locked up all their life found it quite relieving to just stroll these halls that they'd been enclosed in for years. Most ran right to the roof to take their first breath of fresh air. Of course, they'd be pretty disappointed to see that the forest had been reduced to just this wasteland. That didn't stop some from flat-out wandering through it, finally getting the chance to be outside.

Imani ran around the halls dragging her uncle by the hand. She stopped to introduce him to her friends one at a time, acting almost childlike. She skipped through the halls with her uncle following behind, halting whenever she ran into someone from the house. Taiga was caught mid-ice bomb in the room that she'd been thrown in with Evie.

"Uh...hi!" Taiga blurted out, drawing her hands back.

"This is Taiga!" Imani squealed. "A long time companion of mine."

"Nice to finally meet you." Taiga hesitantly stuck her hand out for Uncle Farley to shake. When he did, Evian slid in.

"Heads up!" she shouted, shooting a ball of water right over Taiga. She threw her hand up and froze the water, catching the ice cube in the palm of her hand. Evian marched over to high-five her cousin.

"And I think you met Evian," Imani continued.

"She was the one who..." Uncle Farley muttered.

"Got us out with the help of her brother," Taiga chimed in.

"I mean, Toby broke us out," Evian muttered.

"Wait, where is Nolan?" Taiga asked, tossing the giant ice cube against the wall and watching it shatter into a thousand pieces and scatter on the floor. "Lost track of him already?"

"Welp, he kind of went off on his own," Evian sighed and shrugged. "Said he wanted some quiet."

"Typical."

"I'm...gonna go check on him," Evian breathed, admittedly a little tired from wrecking this dump and being a total queen. Leaving her posse, she jogged through the torn-up halls to the one place that she hadn't decimated: this room on the second floor at the end of the hall. She opened up the door, and it squeaked like crazy. The room looked sort of like a classroom. There was a long table in front of a big screen, and counters lined the walls. Nolan sat at the table, all alone. He had his elbows on the table and his back hunched forward. He stared forward, sitting completely still.

Evian plopped down in the chair next to him, putting her fingers together. Nolan had this blank, soft look on his face. He seemed deep in thought; Evian felt a little bad interrupting him. But he couldn't just stay here and avoid everyone forever. Taking a deep breath, she said, "You okay, bro?"

Nolan glanced at her, replying, "I guess."

"Still a little uneasy?"

"Yeah."

"Aren't we all?"

"Says the person who ran off and wrecked the place." Evian chuckled, cracking a small smile.

"I mean, we at least we could start over," Evian pointed out. "Forget all about it! We chased out everyone and..."

Just then Evian realized: She chased out everyone Nolan grew up with.

"Oh," she blurted out. "Well...at least we're not sleeping in a cage anymore."

Finally, Nolan smiled back at her. But it didn't last.

"Okay, what's on your mind," Evian asked, cutting straight to the point.

"Nothing," he mumbled back.

"C'mon, tell me." He stayed silent. "Tell me! I'm not gonna stop askin'."

Evian started poking him in the shoulder repeatedly.

"Could you stop-" Nolan scoffed.

"Tell me!"

"Just-"

"Tell me!"

"Fine, it's just that..." Nolan blurted out. "...I don't want to just forget all about this. I don't want to act like it never happened and that no one was ever hurt or-"

Tears threatened to fall again, but he didn't let them. "At least...we could remember Mack."

"Of course!" Evian replied. "Hell, we shouldn't be forgetting anyone..."

Evian sprang up, her eyebrows raising. She marched out into the hallway, yelling, "SOMEONE NEEDS TO GET GREG!"