Turn Out The Lights

We Don't Need No Water

The first time I woke up was in the car. I immediately lit up and was out just as quick as I'd come to. The next time I woke up was back in the operation theatre of Sir's agency. I woke up half cuffed on an exam table in my testing garb with a blanket draped over me. I sat up cautiously and made sure nothing was attached to me before roaming around the room to assess the situation. The door on the far side of the room was closed off so that I couldn't open it, and the observation windows were tinted darker than normal. I'd been there before. Sir used the room to test my more flammable abilities normally, but he'd said it had different uses before me. I had decided I didn't really care what it was before, but as I roamed the room it pulled at me a bit. There was food set out for me, as well as a metal water bottle and some canned coffee. I pulled the lid off of the food and it became clear it had been there a while. Not more than a day, but it still worried me about how long I'd been out.

There was some shuffling and talking in the observation room above me, but it was far too dark for me to tell what they were doing. I could, however, make out a good handful of figures milling about and finding their seats. Suddenly Sir's voice burst throughout the room, making my hands shoot to my ears, "Good evening, June. Glad to see you're up and about! How are you feeling?"

"A little deaf now, but that's fine. I'm sure one of these quirks'll work on fixing that soon."

His deafening voice boomed out again, "June, could you speak up, please? We're having trouble hearing you."

 "Please turn it down," I shouted at them, hoping they would hear me, "Holy shit my ears are bleeding..."

His voice was softer when it came out next. "There's no need to scream, June. You could've just spoken up."

I waved my hand at the observation window, "Yeah, sure. Whatever. Why don't we just get on with the show already, huh? What game are we playing today? Let's see how long it takes me to pass out again?"

"Please have patience, we'll get there soon. First, though, we need to understand the events and your feelings leading up to your little... outburst to see if we can figure out why it happened in the first place. So, what's. the last thing you remember?"

I scratched at my wing while I thought, "Well, I think it was being outside. No wait, I remember being in the car. It got hot, just like outside before we left, and then that's it. Then I was here with the cold soup."

Static crackled around the room and the mic cut out. I watched what I assumed to be Sir's figure turn to confer with another figure I believed to be Tai's. A couple of moments later the mic came back, "Very good, June. Now, could you tell us what was happening before we picked you up? What happened during the test that might've caused this. Anything unusual that might've raised your heart rate drastically or normally made your powers flare-up? Anything that made you overly emotional or that was particularly strenuous?"

Yeah, cool. No problem. I'll just tell my investors that I may or may not be falling for my best friend who's also my partner for a mission where I have to be alone with him for anywhere from two weeks to a month. Fine. "Uhhmmaah? Dancin." Great. So smooth.

"Uh, could you be a bit more specific, please?"

"Uhh, I mean Aizawa and I were dancing, Sir."

"And this was particularly emotional for you?"

Yes. "No. I mean that it was one of the most stimulating things I'd done all week besides my regular exercises. Especially when he dropped me on the floor."

"Okay, had anything happened before that?"

"Uh, well that morning he braided my scalp. Fuck I mean scalped my hair. Shit no. Wait. Fuck," I stopped and took a deep breath before sitting on the bed. "He was braiding my hair. He wasn't scalping me, I promise." I smiled wide at the window, hoping my investors couldn't tell I was dying inside.