Shadow's Dance (V3)

Chapter 1: Guns

The blinding fluorescent lights were just outside the solid metal door. She sat in the bare white room curled against the wall. Blood covered bandages hung around her body with a stained white shirt and grey sweatpants. Her tired grey eyes stayed focused on a single red button on the ground. She was bound by a glowing red material that coiled around her wrists and attached itself to a special collar. It shocked her each time she resisted the men in suits. The scruffy short hair that was on top of her head along with intimidating black horns made her look like a real demon. It wasn't her that was a demon though.

This was just another test they gave.

Her name was Jane Moore, in here she was just called 382. Throughout the day the various doctors came through with regular tests. How her psychological factors had changed through different environments, how her fitness kept increasing with each fight, and finally how her power worked and evolved. That last one is why she's here now.

Phantom is what the others called the scientists and the men in white suits and black ties. They were always cruel in how they treated the experiment, that's her. All the others, one by one, fell short in their demands. Too many failures and you die, it wasn't an option to fail.

382 had a very unusual record of killing, each of her "handlers" had died in a bloody mass murder just before she was found out at the front unconscious. With each attempt security got stronger and so did restrictions on her as well. With each passing day her blood lust grew stronger. With each test she learned more about Phantom and they learned more about her. Every slice, every bruise, every scar on her body was from them. Her desire to kill had been imbedded into her mind since her first day almost 8 years ago. Phantom was an invisible parasite to the rest of the world, never sloppy.

Her cold expression was stiff. "Go fuck yourself Doc." She mumbled looking deeply at the hidden observing room to her right. "I'd rather break all my bones than to press that." Jane looked exhausted with dark circles and tangled hair.

They told her that if she pressed the button her collar would be deactivated for good, like the'd actually do that. She wasn't that dumb. Even if she wanted to press it, her legs were broken and the chains on her wrists made sure of that. All the scientists wanted was to see her other side, the one that was unintentional, artificial, and wild. It was a gift from a once valuable resource that taught her how to be more than just a killer.

The overwhelming static coming from the speakers made her block some of noise by covering her ears. "Just try to press it." Said a dry voice.

Her fingers wrapped around her collar. Tugging at it playfully 382 gave smile. " Then get rid of this." Her hand dropped and so did her smile.

A strong feeling of pain went through 382 in her neck. She let lot a gap and her body went stiff in a tight ball. 382's breathing was unsteady and she gritted her teeth to keep the tears back. The stabs at her neck were torture and each second felt worse than the one after. Accumulating anger swirled inside of her as the pain decimated. She could feel the prickling of something else crawling up her neck that fed the fire inside.

382 lunged at the fake wall instead of the button. Her feral growl came out of pure hatred.

She didn't bother to cover her ears this time from the speaker."All right I think that's enough."

The door slid open and made her head snap towards it. Two large men had a black stick in hand. Her focus grew as she saw them come closer, her foot kept a constant tempo just before she went to attack them. Leaping in the air, 382 grabbed one and started ripping off chunks of flesh. She kept clawing until she was thrown off. One nursed his fresh wounds as the other charged at her swinging the weapon wildly. Grabbing his wrist and slamming the bottom of his elbow he found himself on the ground chocking with the glowing chains wrapped around his neck tightened. Something pricked her arm and 382 felt her what little clarity she had dropping quickly. The man coined in the chain quickly released himself from her loosened grip and slammed her head against the floor.

These two must be new, too bad another stepped in to "readjust" her dose to cause a temporary blackout.

She woke up restrained to a hard metal bet, something cold prevented a groan to let out of her mouth. This was her room, where she spent 18 hours in a blinding light and unable to move. Her mind felt foggy as she became more and more awake. She could hear the crisp shifting of guns just outside the door, a pair of guards that mare sure she didn't go anywhere. They were armed with specially made tranquilizer guns that would normally be a deadly dosage simply caused a few minutes of unconscious. Which would be unfortunate if more than one got shot by a stray shot that's why only two were positioned. Looking down the same red glow covered her body in a tight blanket. Hours passed before she noticed something was off about today.

The two guards hurried down the hall away from her door. No one guarded it but there were more shoes that hit the tile floor that belonged to others. Nervousness tangled itself in her stomach just as a loud alarm blared through all the rooms and red lights flashed outside. She struggled fruitlessly to get out, something was wrong, if they were afraid who where the attackers? She wanted to cover her head as the sirens continued to sound off. She thrashed against the tight bands of material hoping to do something, anything.

Then the power went out and the glowing mixture from the from the collar was the only thing that illuminated her space. Suddenly the door swung off its hinges. Someone she couldn't see walked slowly towards her. 382 pulled again in a last attempt, the person grabbed her head and placed the back of it firmly to the table.

They leaned into view, a mask covered the person's face but a voice came from it. "It's ok, you're safe. We're here to help."

Help? Help in what way? Help didn't exist in here, whatever they planned was bad she knew that. Yet, the person unhooked the muzzle from her face and soon the collar didn't have a glow to it.

In a blur of blue light the black headed, horned, 16 year old took off down the hall. Traps suddenly came from the walls spitting bullets at her that never reached its mark. She tore the machines like paper and didn't stop. It was an opportunity and there wasn't anyone to stop her.

The call of "kid" and "stop" meant nothing. These people probably took out majority of the security meaning it was the perfect chance that wouldn't happen again. All she needed to know was that she didn't have that collar. She wasn't a prisoner any more, she wasn't a tool anymore for missions, she wasn't just a number. There wasn't any guards to ground her or any scientists to sedate her. Jane wasn't on that table, she didn't have that muzzle, and she didn't look back. Nothing was more important than to finally get out without anything to hold her back.

She didn't want to hold back anymore, not since Jane found out about her powers when she was 8 had she ever wanted any of this. After all the killing and the pain she had done her objective, keeping Phantom from figuring out how she works. It was tiresome to live with barely enough food and water but she had a chance to leave for good. No matter what she wouldn't go back.

Her bare feet padded against the crisp tile as she turned Jane kept up her pace like she was taught.

Every part of her wanted to be out of here, she could barely imagine how the sun looked as it was pulled up from the horizon. All the colors and life outride seemed like a fantasy to her that was about to come true.

Jane slammed into the door that revealed a twisting staircase upward. Almost leaping between steps her smile grew. She was so close to see all those colors.

Then a hologram appeared just as she reached for the handle. It flickered as the form of a woman stared at her dressed in a amber blouse covered by a black jacket that matched her pants. Jane's smile faded.

"382, if you step outside of this building I will hunt you down again. Don't you remember the last time you did this?" Her tone was stern and serious. "Take care of the two threats, that's an order." Her figure disappeared just as one of the "threats" entered the stairwell.

Jane turned reluctantly, she knew what would happen if she left and she knew what would happen if she didn't.