date unknown, 2003
time of day unknown

The room was as if it had been taken directly from Hollywood's classic insane asylum set. Walls, floor, and ceiling alike were all cushioned like a firm mattress, no windows and the door sealed with the same material found on the expensive plastic ware that Maria loved so much. All Carlos needed to complete the scene was a straight jacket.

But he wasn't in a straight jacket. Still in his sneakers, jeans, and tee shirt that he had worn to school, Carlos was actually quite free in the room. Not that being free afforded him much. Maybe ten feet by ten feet, the mattress room was tiny, and Carlos had to share it with the seven-feet-long gurney he had woken up on some time previous.

Aside from feeling the sticky stiffness of having been drenched in sweat and then left to dry, Carlos had been surprised to find that he felt almost fine when he came to in the strange room. Disoriented, arm aching at the injection site and with a large bruise to accompany it, he mostly felt thirsty in the time he had been awake. It was encouraging despite everything.

What was not encouraging was the door. After fiddling with the thing for what felt like a solid hour, Carlos was currently standing with his head resting against it in frustration. There wasn't a way to budge the thing. He didn't like to give up, but he had tried literally everything possible with what he had. There was nothing more he could do, nothing more to occupy his attention. Nothing more to keep the awful memories of the lab from seeping into his brain.

Pure terror had been everywhere, despair rolling off the ones he loved most in waves as they had been forced into that god-awful room. The horror of listening to Wanda, then Tim, then Phoebe, then Ralphie being injected before him had easily been the worst moments of Carlos' life. The demonic shrieks of pain that shouldn't have belonged to his friends had been bad enough torture. Being subjected to the same had only been the cherry on top. The pain that had latched onto Carlos' soul still ached somewhere within him, still resonated alongside the screams of his friends that he was sure he'd never stop hearing.

Except…

Carlos opened his eyes then, staring at the door two inches away. There was a new sound that had emerged from the silence. Maybe it was a hallucination born from the lack of stimulation. But it was a distraction, and it was welcome.

Carlos focused on the sound, surprised at how much louder it became the moment he did so. Although not certain how, he knew it was the rolling of cheap plastic wheels on gritty tile, coming from...Carlos frowned. There was no way he should, but...he knew that the cart was to his left, about fifty feet down a hallway that he instinctively felt ended just outside his doorway. No sound extended to his right.

There were also voices. Just as soft as the wheels but there, and remarkably clear.

"Jogeumdo! Geu bang-e silje guleum-i iss-eossda! Haneul-eseo naneun jinjja daegi guleum!" The voice was familiar, one of the men who had been the gun muscle. In contrast to the curt two-word commands uttered before, now his voice was punctuated with an emotion caught somewhere between awe and fear.

Carlos heard a door shut, and the wheels shifted a few feet closer, moving across the hall. There was the distinct clink of a key ring before another door opened. Now there was...suctioning? And not quite concealed beneath the noisy air, a faint crying came. It was terrified and…

Carlos' eyes grew wide as he lost all focus on the noises beyond his door. That had been Dorothy Ann, he was sure of it. Approximately fifty feet away from him and being confronted by the thugs that had done this to them with an ominous cart, Dorothy Ann was crying. He didn't know his blood could boil and ice at the same time. Taking a sharp breath, Carlos closed his eyes and listened. Wheels on grit sounded for a brief moment, and Carlos caught onto it quickly, expanding the sounds as best he could.

Dimly, he was aware that what he was doing wasn't normal. But his desperation to hear Dorothy Ann again overrode the concern, and within a few seconds, he heard her voice.

"I don't want any," she was whimpering. "I want to see my friends, I want out, please-"

"Jenjang," one of the men groaned. "Take," he ordered.

A soft thud somewhere in the distance between Dorothy Ann's voice and the man's told Carlos that something had been thrown. The door slammed shut and the suctioning sound along with Dorothy Ann's fear was closed off from Carlos.

"Geunyeoneun geunyeoga jeonhyeo meog-ileul meogji anhneun geos-e daehae gamsahaeyahbnida." A second man said, annoyed. Carlos could practically hear the eye-roll.

The cart rolled closer and another door opened. Both men shouted out in disgust. Wanda moaned weakly, the sound delicate. Something was tossed at her just before the door closed, followed by the grumbling of the two men in the foreign language as they drew the cart back across the hall to another door.

"D-don't come...come any c-closer," Arnold's voice was unsteady, as if he had been sprinting past his limits.

"Neowa museun sang-gwan-iya?"

"I-I mean it!"

But even Carlos could tell that something was up with Arnold, something probably making him pretty useless against two likely-armed guards with no qualms about hurting minors. Carlos swallowed dryly, forcing himself to keep listening as the men shut the door on Arnold and moved closer down the hall.

Phoebe was not at all what Carlos anticipated.

"Let me out!" she demanded, half-screaming the moment Carlos heard the door swing open.

"Jenjang!" The startled exclamation made Carlos grin. Whatever Phoebe was doing, however out of character, was awesome.

"You can't keep me locked up in here forever! I'm-"

"O, dagchyeo!" the man shouted back. "Take and hush."

"You think this-"

But the door shut on Phoebe and her unexpected rage.

Another door opened shortly after, and though Carlos strained his ears to hear signs of Tim, Ralphie, or Keesha, the next room seemed to either be empty or the occupant wasn't awake yet. Both possibilities were troubling.

"Joh-a, Madam-eun-i majimag du aideul-i gajang wiheomhaji anh-ayahandago malhaessda," one of the men said, voice louder than ever as he, his partner, and the cart with the cheap plastic wheels came to a stop just outside Carlos' door. "Neoneun geu mun-eul gajigo naegai mun-eul jab-eulgeoya." Footsteps drew closer.

Carlos opened his eyes. Dorothy Ann's fear was all that he could think about as the door he'd battled against for over an hour finally shifted and gave way, coming off his forehead. Lashing out immediately, Carlos was able to turn all the defensive moves he had perfected over the years into offensive with incredible ease. He surprised the man and was able to land two solid punches to his wide stomach before being forced to deal with a reaction. The man's arms raised.

But Carlos was smaller, faster, and far more agile. Only taking the clipped end of a chop, he was able to crawl up the man's back, latching his legs around the man's upper arms and chest in the span of a few seconds. Careful to slot the man's windpipe in the crook of his elbow rather than barring it against his forearm, Carlos began to squeeze as tight as he could.

Hopefully he could put the guy to sleep before his partner made it over to them.

The man wriggled frantically beneath him, arms trying with all their might to break free from Carlos' legs. He slammed back-first into a nearby wall, knocking the air out of Carlos, but it only made him squeeze tighter. A moment later, the man stumbled to his knees, hands frantically scrabbling at awkward angles to release the pressure that was depriving him of oxygen. Soon he was collapsing, twisting, and Carlos saw a doorway open across the hall, the man's partner unconscious on the floor.

Tim crouched beside him.

"You've almost got him asleep," he said to Carlos, withdrawing a key ring from the fallen man's belt and standing.

"What'd you do to get that guy out so fast?" Carlos asked.

"Palm strike."

"Ah. I didn't trust myself not to accidentally kill him."

Tim's face shadowed. "He's not dead, but if you saw what the others were going through, I don't think you'd give a damn, either."

Carlos blinked. "What? You've seen the others? How-"

"That injection did something weird. Can you...do something...new?"

Still wrapped around the guard, who struggled minutely in his grip, Carlos studied Tim. It had been weird how much he had been able to hear through a padded and sealed door that ended up being close to a foot thick. It hadn't been normal that he could pinpoint exactly what and where different noises were.

"I was able to...hear really well. I could hear them with that cart all the way down the hall and tracked their movements from there. I heard everyone in a different room. I could...tell where everything was, just by the sounds."

Tim nodded. "I can see. Like...through the others' eyes. I accidentally saw through Phoebe's, then found out I could do it with the rest of the gang. No one else, though. I tried my mom and dad, even that lady who did all this. Nothing. Oh, that guy's passed out."

Carlos unlatched immediately. "Thanks." He scrambled to his feet and hurried over to Tim.

"You, me, Phoebe, and Keesha are doing alright," Tim said as he turned toward the nearest closed door down the hall. "But the others looked worse off."

"What do you mean?" Carlos' stomach twisted as he remembered Dorothy Ann's tears, Wanda's weakness, Arnold's breathlessness.

Tim lifted the key chain up to the door as they approached it. There were only two keys. His eyes met Carlos', and all the confusion, anxiety, and downright misery that Carlos felt was reflected there. "You'll see." And he opened the door.

At first, Carlos wasn't really sure what he was seeing. The room was identical to his own, but in the back left corner, opposite an empty gurney, was a gray...bubble. With Keesha in it.

"Tim? Carlos?" Her voice sounded more distant than their actual proximity, slightly muffled. She had been curled up on the floor but quickly stood at the sight of Carlos and Tim. "How'd you get out?"

"The guards split up to open our rooms," Tim said as they approached the bubble. "We knocked them out...what...uh…"

"What the heck is this thing, Keesha?" Carlos asked. He was just inches from the gray barrier. It was quite clear despite the distinct color, and when he poked the surface with his finger it afforded him a small indention. Then it rather forcefully pushed back, becoming smooth once more.

Before Keesha could speak, the bubble abruptly vanished. Without a sound, an impression, or any other sign it had once been there, the clear gray matter disappeared entirely. Keesha's eyes grew wide with obvious relief. Without hesitating, she threw herself into Carlos and Tim, wrapping her arms around them both in a fierce hug. Carlos patted her back before repeating his question.

"What was that thing?"

Keesha shook her head as she pulled back. "I don't know. It only appeared when the guards came in. It just...showed up. They tried to pop it, but nothing happened. I don't...I don't even know why it went away just now. After the guards left, I tried to pop it myself and nothing happened." She shivered. "I thought I was trapped."

Carlos bit his lip, not sure what to make of it. Tim was already turning away, waving his hand for them to follow. "Let's get the others."

"I think Phoebe is across the hall," Carlos said, following.

Keesha frowned. "How do you know that?"

"Well, while you can make fancy bubbles by accident, I am now the ultimate Dumbo."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

"I-"

"Tim!" Phoebe's cry cut Carlos off. The door was open and the keys were still in the lock, abandoned when Tim rushed into the room to take Phoebe into his arms. "What's happening? How'd you guys get out?"

Carlos grabbed the key chain, fingering it anxiously.

"Now's not really the time," Tim said, but his voice had lost a lot of its edge. "I can see what you and the other's see if I want, Carlos has superhearing, and Keesha can make bubbles, but the guards are knocked out and we've got the keys, but I'm not sure how long we have until someone realizes what's going on."

Phoebe blinked, eyes blank. "What?"

"I think that injection did something to us," Tim said, taking her by the hand and leading her over to where Carlos and Keesha had retreated to the hall. "Maybe a sense enhancement or something, I'm not sure."

"What sense would making bubbles work with?" Keesha asked. The group moved to the door just down from Phoebe's.

"That and I...there's nothing weird I can do," Phoebe said.

"Maybe the injection didn't work on everyone?" Carlos suggested as he unlocked the door that he was sure would open up to Arnold. "Maybe you lucked out."

"Maybe...oh my goodness...what's this?"

Phoebe's wonder wasn't unfounded. The door opened to yet another padded room, but this one was damp, warm, and somehow in motion, like a heater was running on full blast. Lying on the gurney against the back wall was Arnold, just as Carlos had predicted. But he was drenched in sweat as though swimming in his own perspiration and breathing raggedly.

Phoebe was the first to move, gently pushing past Carlos and hurrying over to Arnold's side.

Arnold's body shook minutely, something Carlos only noticed as he drew closer with Keesha and Tim at his side. Hands already feeling Arnold's head and chest, Phoebe gasped, "He's burning up! His heart rate is too fast, his blood pressure is too high!"

"How...how are you...you all here?" Arnold panted, wide eyes taking them all in like a caged animal.

Phoebe's hands cupped his face. "What happened to you?"

"I...I don't know...I just…" Arnold took an unsteady deep breath. "When I woke up I...I was so cold. And...and the more I wanted to...to warm up...the more I...I actually warmed up. Then it just kept...getting hotter and...and hotter...and now I think I'm going to have a stroke and-"

"You have to calm down," Phoebe said soothingly. "Just relax, we're here with you now." Her hands moved some of the soaked hair back off Arnold's forehead, then she placed one palm directly over his heart. Her fingers mused in the wet fabric of his shirt for a moment before falling still along with the rest of her body. Then Phoebe began to hum, so quietly Carlos was half-convinced that only he could hear her.

"What are you doing?" he asked after a moment.

Keesha crouched beside her. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Shh," Tim hushed suddenly. His eyes were narrowed, brows furrowed as he stared at Phoebe's hand on Arnold's chest. "Look at her hands."

They did. Carlos couldn't see what the big deal was at first, aside from never having seen someone so sweaty that the entire room was damp. But then, after staring for several seconds, he saw it. Phoebe's hands, fair and smooth as always, were actually emitting the softest hue of blue from the tips of her fingers. The light seemed to be connecting to Arnold, seeping through his shirt and into the skin beneath. Already, his breathing seemed to be coming under control. His shaking faded. Even the room felt as though the imaginary heater was finally shut off.

Then Arnold gasped.

Loud as though a corpse had come to life, Arnold's body jolted without warning as he took in as much air as he could muster, startling everyone back several feet. Phoebe groaned and slumped forward slightly, but just as soon as Tim hurried forward to her, she was hastily scooting backwards away from the gurney. Arnold sat up, eyes looking tired but clear.

"I, uh...thank you?" he said uncertainly.

Carlos shared a wide-eyed look with Keesha, then stepped over Tim and Phoebe to help Arnold to his feet. He leaned heavily on Carlos.

"I…" Phoebe's eyes were impossibly wide, but her voice was far from fearful. "I just...I just healed you, Arnold. I...I could feel what was wrong. I felt it and I fixed it just by touching you."

Arnold swallowed dryly. "Well, I for one certainly appreciate it."

Tim laughed nervously as he carefully guided Phoebe back to a standing position, arm tight around her waist. "Like I said, we're all doing weird things."

"So what am I supposed to be able to do?" Arnold asked as they returned to the hall. "Give people strokes?"

Still holding tight to Arnold to steady him, Carlos tried to shrug. Who knew? His own new ability, Tim's, and Phoebe's at least made sense. What was Keesha supposed to gain by making bubbles she couldn't control, or Arnold from overheating himself? "Maybe you just need to think cool thoughts until we can figure that out," he said.

They came to the door across the hall. Wanda's room, if Carlos' hearing was as accurate as it had so far proved to be. Anxiety made his stomach churn. He wasn't sure he was ready to see what had caused Wanda to sound so pitiful. Keesha, unburdened by a weakened friend, reached her hand out to Carlos for the keys. He gave them up gladly.

When the door swung open, Carlos was almost literally knocked over with what had the guards exclaiming in disgust earlier.

Acidic vomit, pungent and overwhelming, smacked them all in the face. Phoebe and Arnold both openly gagged, and Carlos wasn't so sure he wouldn't throw up himself in the next few moments. But Keesha, ever determined, pulled her shirt up over her mouth and nose and stepped directly into the war zone.

Vomit covered every available space of the room. The floors, the walls, the fucking ceiling, all plastered as though someone had repeatedly reloaded a Super Soaker with vomit and doused the entire room with disturbing accuracy. Horrified at the entire scene, it took Carlos a moment to even notice Wanda. Lying on the floor next to her upended gurney, which had a bent leg, Wanda was lying unconscious beneath what would have been sheet-white skin had it not been for the tinge of gray.

"Wanda?"

Arnold pushed off of Carlos and stumbled into the room. Keesha helped steady him as they both moved in further, dropping to their knees beside Wanda's lifeless form. Both began feeling Wanda's face and wrists, likely seeking a pulse. Carlos held his breath, chest constricting.

"Phoebe!" Keesha called. "Phoebe, can you help her?"

Sensing the hesitation in Tim's stiffened spine, Carlos kept his mouth shut as Phoebe pushed away from him and stepped into the room. Instead, Carlos checked the hallway. No signs of visitors, either by sight or his unrefined super hearing.

"I'm...I'm hallucinating," Wanda's voice was brittle.

"No, you're not," Arnold whispered. "We're really here." He pulled her head into his lap as he bravely dropped into a seated position on the soiled floor. "Phoebe, you can help her, right?"

"I hope so…" Phoebe's hands touched Wanda's face, and she gasped. "Oh my...it's like...it's like she's been on the world's worst roller coaster. She's disoriented, not to mention malnourished and dehydrated from all the vomiting…"

Wanda laughed, more a wheeze than anything. "You hallucinations...have...no idea."

"Can you help her?" Keesha asked.

"I...I don't know," Phoebe fretted. "I mean, she needs nutrients replaced."

"Phoebe, you also just stopped Arnold from having a stroke," Carlos called. He almost gagged, having breathed too much of the room's smell in as he spoke. Tim shot him a frown.

But Phoebe was nodding, moving closer to put her hands on Wanda's forehead and stomach as Arnold held her in his lap. As Phoebe grew still, Carlos heard the same faint hum from when she had healed Arnold, and Tim's fascinated look was certainly from seeing more blue light coming from her fingertips. The moments trickled by as Phoebe, Wanda, and Arnold seemed to freeze in time, Keesha nervously biting her cheek at their side and Carlos and Tim shifting their weight from foot to foot in the hallway.

Then, just as Arnold had, Wanda gasped, jerking to life. Instead of lying still and gathering herself as Arnold had, though, Wanda immediately shoved Phoebe back with both hands and tried to roll away from Arnold. She only managed to smack her head on the toppled over gurney.

"Ow!" she muttered, then turned and seemed to realize who was around her. Carlos waved helpfully. "What the fuck is going on?"

Keesha let out a breathy laugh. "That's what we'd all like to know."

"Are you feeling better?" Arnold asked, reaching to help Wanda up as Phoebe let Keesha pull her to her feet.

Letting Arnold wrap his arm around her, Wanda nodded. "Yeah. Not great, but better."

"Awesome," Carlos said. "Now let's close this door and get Dorothy Ann and Ralphie."

No one protested. Even Phoebe, who usually would have been politely indignant at the rushing of injured persons, hurried out of the room and sighed with relief once the door latched shut.

"How're we getting out?" Wanda asked tiredly. "What's happened with all you guys?"

Arnold shook his head. "I don't think anyone's really sure...but something weird is up with us all."

"Tell me about it. That's why I'm bathed in yesterday's menu."

"What do you mean?"

Wanda frowned then, looking as close to scared as Carlos had ever seen her. "I...I was able to shift the gravity in that room."

No one really knew what to say to that.

Practically joined as a chain to help one another, the group shifted back across the hall to where Carlos knew Dorothy Ann was kept. It felt as though Keesha took forever to slip the key into the lock and swing the door open.

The room was drastically different than all the others had been.

Still padded but enormous, Carlos wasn't entirely sure that Dorothy Ann was even in the room at first glance. But at the far end of what was surely the distance of a football field, Carlos spotted a tiny speck of a person, crouched as though desperate not to be seen.

"Don't come any closer!" the speck shouted. It was likely quieted by the vast distance, but Carlos could hear the voice as though it was by his side. It was Dorothy Ann. "Go away!"

"Dorothy Ann, it's us!" Carlos called. He wasn't shouting as loud as he needed to project across such a spanse, but with a strange intuition, he threw the words as though physical objects. He knew they'd reach Dorothy Ann just as easily as he had been able to hear her.

"...Carlos?" She was whispering, shocked, but Carlos heard her. He smiled.

"Come on, we're getting out of here!"

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, without warning, the walls began to shrink, zipping in on themselves as quickly as a retractable tape measure. The backmost wall where Dorothy Ann stood zoomed toward them, and everyone but Carlos frantically scurried back into the hallway as it fast approached. When the room abruptly halted at the ten-feet by ten-feet dimensions, Dorothy Ann was there, crashing into him as though the force of the room's halt had thrown her. Carlos caught her and they both stumbled through the open doorway.

Dorothy Ann was pale but alive and breathing in Carlos' arms. He pulled back slightly to look her in the face.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah, just...just tired."

Carlos couldn't quite tear his eyes away from her. "Phoebe? Could-"

"She's done enough, man," Tim said. At least he had the decency to sound apologetic. "I think when she heals someone, it takes that energy out of her. She's dead on her feet."

"Tim, I can help if D.A. needs it."

"I'm really okay," Dorothy Ann said as she looked around at the group. "I don't know how Phoebe could help, but I'm fine, just...tired and freaked out a bit. Where's Ralphie?"

Keesha threw a thumb over her shoulder at the final door in the hallway. "My guess is right there." She lifted the key ring and jangled it once. "Shall we?"

Everyone nodded, and although Carlos considered arguing for Phoebe to help Dorothy Ann feel a little more like herself, the thought dispersed when he felt a warm hand on his forearm. Dorothy Ann was giving him that little knowing smile she had, eyes sporting thin bags.

"I'm really okay," she said. "Besides, what's Phoebe supposed to do?"

"She can heal people."

Dorothy Ann looked bewildered. "What? That's crazy! She can't-"

But whatever Phoebe couldn't do according to Dorothy Ann was lost as Keesha unlocked the final door. As the door opened, Ralphie fell back-first into the hallway, apparently having been pressed hard against it. He was dripping wet and looked terrified as he hastily backed away from the room as quickly as he could without looking around him.

"Whoa, Ralphie, what's up?" Wanda asked.

Carlos wasn't too sure what he was really seeing inside what had been Ralphie's prison. The place looked dark and wet and…

"Are those clouds?" Dorothy Ann asked.

"Oh thank god it's you guys!" Ralphie finally noticed them. His face split into an huge smile despite being soaked to the bone and a little blue in the lips, and in an instant, he was on his feet and pulling as many of them as he could into bear hugs. "Thank god it's you guys! You wouldn't believe what's going on in there!"

"Try us," Arnold scoffed.

"No, really, dude. That freaking room had a full-blown rainstorm going on in there! I've been getting rained on for, like, an hour!" Ralphie laughed, relieved. "What kind of messed up torture is that, huh?"

"Are you sure it was the room doing it and not you?" Keesha asked.

Ralphie's grin faded slightly. "What are you talking about? I'm not actually Weather Man, Keesh. Those assholes just have weird ideas of messing with kids is all."

"Well…" Keesha glanced around the group. They were all bedraggled, confused, and in varying states of exhaustion. "Actually…"

And for a few minutes, everyone briefly shared what they could do. Carlos could hear really well, apparently even throw his voice; Tim could see through the eyes of the rest of the group, as well as see in general with better clarity; Keesha was able to construct bubbles that could potentially be safe havens of sorts, although she wasn't sure how to conjure or deconstruct them; Phoebe could heal at the cost of her own well-being; Arnold seemed to be able to heat up his body, but the applications were questionable; Wanda could alter the direction of the gravitational pull of a room; Dorothy Ann was able to stretch and shrink her room; and Ralphie seemed to be able to summon rain clouds, although he was still in a fair amount of denial that the rain cloud's formation was at his request.

If those were supposed to be superpowers, Carlos thought, they were certainly strange ones that most of them couldn't really control. For a long moment after their discussion, they all simply stared at one another.

"Well, what now?" Wanda finally asked.

Carlos looked at Dorothy Ann. "What time is it?"

The only one of them who still wore a wrist watch, Dorothy Ann checked it. "It's 10:02pm. We...we lost almost an entire day."

"That's right," came a calm, flawless English voice. "But that is nothing compared to what those that came before you had lost."

Everyone whipped around to where the hallway proceeded past Ralphie's open door. Standing at the head of a dozen armed persons in riot-gear was the woman from before, medals shining brightly in the mediocre light of the tiled hallway.