Zoom, Academy for Superheroes: Part 1

Open Your Eyes

        "The anger swells in my guts, and I won't feel these slices and cuts. I want so much to open your eyes, 'cause I need you to look into mine. Tell me that you'll open your eyes. Get up, get out, get away from these liars, 'cause they don't get your soul, or your fire. Take my hand, knot your fingers through mine, and we'll walk from this dark room for the last time."
-Snow Patrol

*****

        Summer was officially over, work was in full swing, and it was currently all about schedules, tactic discussions, confidential meetings that Jack was never invited to, stress, training, same old same old at Area 52. The team had been closer than ever over summer, but now there were things to be done, there was no more time for team building activities or joking around.
        But in this stressful time, the children weren't the problem, it was Jack. He was never there when he was needed, he refused to put in necessary effort, he was doing everything he could to annoy Laraby, and he began conversations with Miss Holloway just so that he could argue with her. It was all to familiar, and reminded everyone of his first couple weeks at Area 52, while they were training for Concussion's big comeback.
        The kids may have been fed up with their mentor, but they could manage on their own well enough. Now that Miss Holloway didn't have to hide her powers anymore, she was an even bigger help to them. And it wasn't that Mr Shepherd was avoiding them altogether, he just simply wasn't putting any effort into training them and fallen back into his apathetic ways.

        Jack was walking down the halls when he thought he'd heard shouting coming from a conference room down the hallway. Never one to mind his own business, he began approached the door to listen in, but stopped when he realized that he wasn't alone. He was far from the door, but could make out a petite figure pressed up against it. He recognized her immediately, of course.
        "Eavesdropping isn't polite you know." Marsha jumped as Jack teased her, she felt her face turning red as he approached her.
        "I was not eavesdropping! I'm just-" She paused, searching desperately for a decent excuse. "Waiting for the meeting to be over." She finally came up with, not that Jack believed a word of it. He just raised an unconvinced eye brow and glanced back at the door.
        "Yeah, so what are they talking about?"
        "Apparently there's some kind of flaw in the security syst- Hey, I wasn't eavesdropping!" Jack chuckled as Marsha insisted, but his tone soon surged serious very quickly.
        "Wait, what the hell is this about a security flaw they haven't bothered to tell us about?"
        "I don't know," Marsha replied quietly, keeping her tome light and curious, and turning back to the door.
        "Oh please, you work here! Surely you have more information than any of us. You know, Marsha, one of these days you're going to have to chose between the facility and the team, and let me tell you right now, it won't be pretty!"
        Marsha was taken aback by his childish accusation. "Jack really, how should I know anything?"
        "Oh, I don't know, maybe because you're the leading psychologist here, and you work alongside the people with the most power at Area 52. You don't expect me to believe that you're just kept in the dark with everything like we are."
        "Well, then you'll be surprised to know that, as I've told you a million times before, I know just as much as you do."
        Jack scoffed as the argument began. It was big and ugly, as it usually is. The two of them walked angrily down the halls, still arguing. It was like watching a tennis game, shots fired back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
        While Jack's voice seemed to be growing louder, Marsha managed to keep hers sharp but not too loud. This was nothing new to them, the two of them were constantly in the middle of some kind of argument, but with every passing day, their arguments seemed to be getting more profound.
        It was strange how one minute they could be joking together like the best of friends, and fighting like some kind of mortal enemies the next. Every word that Jack said was meant to be felt. They were meant to hurt her, even if he didn't truly mean them. Area 52 had caused unimaginable pain in his life, he wanted every last person that had anything to do with the facility to pay for what they'd done in some way or another. Marsha was no exception.
        Somehow, the arguing pair managed to reach Marsha's room, where their final harsh words were fired at each other. Jack stood with his arms crossed and an angry, frustrated look on his face, while Marsha turned around to face him.
        From far away, the two of them might have looked like an arguing married couple. Had that been the case, they would have been the definition of "opposites attract". Jack with his sarcastic ways, pessimistic outlook and tattoos, and Marsha with her constant optimism, colourful attitude and professionalism.
        Their argument has come to an official end which a slam of the door when Marsha disappeared into her room. Jack rolled his eyes, still angry, and purposefully made his way back to his own room.

        A few hours later, neither could sleep, and Jack lay awake thinking about their argument. He wasn't near finished saying what he needed to, and, as he played their conversation over and over again in his mind, he came up with more negative points and more of reasons to be angry with her and everyone else.
        This was one of his most negative traits, when things weren't going right, he always needed to place the blame on someone in order to be at all satisfied, and he couldn't blame himself. Unfortunately, he tended to blame the people closest to him that only meant well.

        Marsha had only been asleep for about a half hour when she was woken by a nightmare. But because it had taken her so long to fall asleep in the first place, it was already about half past four in the morning. Her alarm clock would go off in less than two hours, so she might as well get up and prepare to start her day. Little did she know, Jack, who was just as sleepless as she was that night, was currently doing the exact same thing.

*****

        It was 5 am when the first gunshot was fired. This just so happened to also be the time that Jack and Marsha both ran into each other in the lounge, an incident that inevitably resulted in more arguing.
        Alarms were sounded immediately, armed guards were sent out, the kids were taken to safety, lock down procedures were put into place, officials searched the halls frantically for Jack and Marsha, who were the only two team members not safely accounted for.
        The pair were running around the empty halls, desperately looking for guidance. The last thing they'd heard before they split up and lost each other, was distant shouting coming from far behind them. Jack entered a few conference rooms in search of anyone, but soon felt paralyzing panic wash over him when he realized that Marsha no longer accompanied him.
        Meanwhile, Marsha also realized that she was suddenly alone, and frantically ran into a study room in search of Jack. That's when she she felt a gloved hand cover her mouth and drag her backwards towards the corner of the room.
        She was elbowing, trying to scream, and attempting to use her powers, but nothing worked. Whoever had grabbed her was obviously wearing heavy, protective layer, it felt bulletproof. Marsha was forcefully spun around to face her attacker, before he backed her into the corner, with a gun pointed directly at her, and demanded answers.
        She was in shock, her mind was racing but her mouth wasn't working. The gunman soon got frusterated as she stood, frozen, staring at him. He was shouting words that didn't quite register in her mind, and threatening to shoot. She knew this much, he wanted answers. He must have been one of the extremists who believed in a conspiracy theory around Area 52. Those people would do anything to gain information about what went on behind the facility walls, even if it cost people their lives.
        But, even if she could speak, what would she say. He wanted answers, and information, but she didn't have either of those, he had truly picked the wrong person to interrogate, and it looked like it would cost both of them. His fingers enclosed around the trigger, milliseconds away from letting the bullet fly. Marsha clenched her eyes shut and let out a scream that served as her Hail Mary, before the door flew open behind them.
        Before anyone could act or even register what was happening, Jack had the gunman knocked unconscious and grabbed Marsha by her wrists, searching her face for any damage.
        "What the hell are you doing? You could have gotten yourself killed, what were you thinking?" And with those harsh words that hid his true concern, followed, yet another, impulsive argument.
        When it was over, the two of them stood in silence for a few seconds. But when Marsha looked up at Jack, only to find his eyes already on her, they suddenly embraced each other tightly without a second thought.
        Not half a minute later, the guards barged into the room and handcuffed the unconscious gunman, taking him out of the room.

        Thanks to the advanced evacuation and lock down systems at Area 52, no one had suffered anything more than being emotionally shaken. You could say that it shook Jack just enough to shake him back into place, as things returned to normal, he did as well.