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Anna jumped at the sound of someone knocking against her door. She had been lost in familiarizing herself with her new room and after an hour of silence from her group she hadn't expected anyone to come bother her. Especially after the fool she made of herself during introductions.
She stepped away from the desk and smoothed her hands over the wrinkles formed in her jumpsuit just in case it was Elsa.
"Um…come in." The door pushed open a crack and Olaf poked his head through. He squeezed himself through instead of pushing the door further open and closed it behind him softly.
"Hello Anna. I wanted to come—shoot hang on." He pushed his long sleeves back up to his elbows, his brows knitted together in irritation. They slid right back down the second he moved his arms encompassing his small hands within the long white fabric. Anna couldn't help but feel something for the cute boy who didn't fit into his clothes.
"Let me help." She gestured for him to come close and knelt in front of him to fold up his sleeves. As she did the left side she saw a litter of tiny silver scars stretch across the inside of his forearm barely noticeable against the paleness of his flesh tone. Unconsciously she ran her thumb across one thinking back to the times she had been hurt by things and the marks they left on her. Those scars were jagged and ugly made by sticks and falls from great heights. These were clean and precise like the one near her shoulder made by a surgical knife.
"They sometimes hurt you here," She lifted her head to catch the serious look in his slate grey eyes, "So they can test your response to pain. Sometimes I think they just like to hurt us though. It makes Elsa mad."
"It does?" She sat back on her haunches and slowly removed her hands from his thin arms. He nodded and took a seat on the floor in front of her.
"She says they have no right the treat me like this cause I'm just a little boy. She tries to talk to them but they don't listen to her. Sometimes they get real mad at her and take her to The Pit."
Anna furrowed her brows and scooted a little closer to the boy, "What's The Pit?"
"It's this place at the bottom of The Tank. Like a jail I guess. Elsa doesn't really talk about it. It's where they take you when you are really bad. Then a few days later they bring you back like nothing happened. Elsa makes sure no matter goes there. Like when Kirstoff does a prank on someone or Hans has one of his moments."
"What do you mean?"
"Well like one of us does something bad and when the guards find out Elsa says she is the one who did it so that we don't get in trouble. That's what she does. She takes care of us because she's like the mom of the group. I guess she feels like it's her job. She's taken care of me ever since they brought me here. I know she seems kind of mean but I promise she is really nice and warm and just all around perfect." He smiled brightly at Anna like just the thought of Elsa made him smile. His obvious loyalty to her alone warmed Anna up to the beautiful blond even more. That didn't make her any less intimidating though.
"She sounds really nice." Anna supplied when she couldn't think of anything else to say.
He nodded earnestly, "Oh she is. That's sorta what I wanted to talk to you about actually."
"Oh okay. Shoot." Anna settled onto the floor more comfortably and criss crossed her legs, folding her hands in her lap.
"Well…Elsa doesn't really warm up to people easy. Okay wait let me try explaining another way," He stopped to think about something, his fingers playing with the sleeve cuff Anna had folded, "Since I came here Elsa has been here. Um what I mean is she has been here almost all her life so she doesn't really have many happy memories. What happened to her makes her really sad and really afraid of people sometimes. She just doesn't like when people get in her space. And I don't like when Elsa is upset so um…" He trailed off as the thought became too complicated for him to make any sense of. The longer they sat there the more troubled he began to look. Anna pursed her lips.
"Are you trying to warn me not to hurt her?"
He let out a relived sigh and nodded, "Yes. I love Elsa a whole lot. I don't have any real memories of my parents since they sent me here when I was just real, real little. Elsa…she kinda stepped into that for me. I have memories of her taking care of me and teaching me to read and stuff. I just don't want you to be mean to her because she's shy and doesn't like to be touched or anything."
Anna smiled at the boy and took his hand into her own to give it a light squeeze, "Don't worry. I won't be mean to her. I'll be super nice to her okay?"
Olaf bounced a little in his merriment, "Awesome! That's perfect. Okay. I'm glad I don't have to worry. Thank you." He stood without removing his hand from Anna's and gave it a tug, tilting his head towards the door. She frowned in confusion but following his order she stood up and moved toward the door with him. He struggled to the pull the heavy door open with one hand and had to remove his hand from Anna's to pull against the handle with all his might. It slid open slowly revealing the rest of EB sitting in the random circle of furniture opposite Anna's door. Kirstoff had his feet kicked up on the coffee table in front of him and was reclined back as far as the neon colored lawn chair would allow. He had the top of his jumpsuit unzipped and wrapped around his hips displaying his bared chest like he was sun tanning beneath the bright lights up above. Hans was sprawled out on a lavender colored loveseat with his legs hung over the arm rest and throwing a yellow soccer ball up and down. Elsa was curled up in a plush cream colored chair reading a book with a flashy female knight with a dragon curled around her shoulders on the cover of it. Anna was impressed by how quickly was flipping through the pages. She had to be either skipping words in sentences or reading extremely fast to be through an entirely new page in the span of a few minutes. Olaf left her side then to climb into a plastic chair painted to look like a dinosaur. She watched him eye Elsa carefully before mirroring her posture and pretending to read a book he didn't have in his eyes, occasionally flicking his eyes up to make he was still copying exactly what Elsa was doing. Kirstoff tilted his head to the side to catch sight of Anna and sat up with that boyish grin of his.
"Did the kid give you The Talk?" Olaf flushed and sunk into his seat, forgetting entirely about mirroring his mentor in his embarrassment. Elsa smirked a little but didn't remove her focused eyes from the pages of her novel or include herself in the conversation. Anna rubbed his wrist awkwardly and glanced between Kirstoff and Olaf.
"Don't worry. We got it too as soon as we got here. Hans got a way longer speech than me because he leered."
Hans scoffed and threw his ball at Kirstoff, getting him square in the face, "I didn't leer for the last time." Kirstoff jumped up from his chair and jumped onto Hans, immediately locking his thick arms around Hans's neck. Hans yelled something unintelligible and tried wiggling out of Kirstoff's headlock, bringing his knees up to slam them into Kirstoff's exposed side.
Elsa hummed and finally lifted her eyes to give each boy a serious look, "Don't start any of that. It draws unwanted attention." She waited for them to begrudgingly comply before going back to her novel, sharp crystalline eyes growing softer for the pages splayed open before her. The happy look drew Anna in and nearly willed her to touch it with the tips of her fingers. She hadn't before seen someone so easily beautiful as Elsa before. The steadily increasing thumps of her heart began to worry her the longer she stared at the stray bits of Elsa's bangs resting against the high rise of her cheeks. This sort of thing hadn't happened to Anna before. Sure she had been attracted to someone but that was on screen and it was a hot primal feeling that made her leave the room for the sanctity of her bedroom. This felt something like that but on an entirely different level. It was just as hot but less in a passionate way and more in a desire to be with and around Elsa. To know everything of her including how soft her touch was and what little things made her tick. It was drawing and so very terrifying. She put a hand over her chest and drew in a steadying breath that shook like the soul inside of her.
As if sensing she was being creeped on Elsa lifted her eyes from her novel to catch Anna's gaze. There wasn't much to read in Elsa's eyes except mild amusement for catching Anna's staring. She lifted a perfectly manicured brow and quirked her pink lips up in a smirk. Anna blushed from her neck to her ears and dropped her entire head; staring down at the snow camouflage print converse she had put on the morning The Tank Operatives had come to claim her.
"Hey stop being weird over there and come sit with us until Lady Likeaman comes to get us for dinner. We'll swap war stories." Kirstoff spoke over the high rise back of the love seat he now shared with an annoyed Hans. She wasn't entirely sure what he meant by war stories but she nodded anyway and stepped over the coffee table to sit in a wood chair with beige cushions on it. She had barely sat down on it when something sharp bit into the back of her thigh and sent her jumping away with a started yelp. Elsa peered up over her book looking perturbed by the loud noise to check Anna over for damages or leaking bodily fluids. When Anna appeared to be under no apparent duress she looked over to the offending chair for a long few seconds then smiled softly.
"Olaf I think you may have left something in that chair."
The boy wiggled out of his seat to go lift the bottom cushion up allowing for the trapped wooden dinosaur to fall onto the floor beside his feet. He squealed with utter delight and with a cry of "Rodger!" he scooped up the lost toy and hugged it tightly to his chest. Elsa's eyes sparkled in a way Anna hadn't seen yet while the boy hopped around happily in front of her swinging the toy high and low in loops. Anna watched him warily in the off chance that the spikes running along its spine jam into her leg again. Cautiously she nudged the cushion with the tip of her shoe before reclaiming the seat, this time without casualties.
Hans watched him with a warm but small smile as did Kirstoff, both they and Elsa seeming to magnate towards his youthful happiness. Finally he came still beside Anna's knee and turned his shining grey eyes up towards her.
"Sorry Rodger got you. I thought I had lost him! He's the only thing I have left from before I came in here. My daddy made it for me. See?" He turned the toy upside down to show the name Rodger crudely carved into its wooden stomach alongside a set of initials.
"It's alright. I'm glad I could help you find it. I guess."
"Yup!" He chirped and climbed back into his dino chair chatting quietly with Rodger like one would after being reunited with a long lost friend.
"He's the only one out of us that came here with something from our old life aside from our shoes. Well," He glanced over at Elsa who shifted slightly in her seat and focused so intently on her novel it was obvious she was trying not to hear their conversation, "To an extent."
Anna furrowed her brows and opened her mouth to ask what he meant but Kirstoff strategically cut her off, "So war stories. You go first."
"I'm not sure what you mean by that…"
Olaf answered without taking his attention off Rodger, "He wants to know how you got caught."
"Oh," She twisted her hands together in her lap and stared down at them, playing back the disgusted look on her fathers face as they hauled her away, "My dad saw Two and turned me in. He is a major Oasis supporter so…you know. He ignored me all my life after my mom committed suicide. I guess maybe he blamed me or he was just too emotional to care for a child or something. He never really seemed to love me so it probably wasn't a very big deal for him to send me off. I dunno." A little part of her felt like crying again even after all the crying she had done during the ride to the plane. Even if her father never acknowledged her it still felt like a betrayal. Something brushed against her twisting fingers to draw her attention away from her own internal agony. Sniffing pathetically she looked up to find Elsa leaned towards her and her big blue eyes lit with sympathetic sadness.
"I'm sorry Anna."
Anna shrugged indifferently despite feeling touched that Elsa would break her reserved silence to comfort the new girl. Hans cleared his throat to disperse the tense air and gave Anna an awkward half smile.
"I got caught robbing a bank."
She blinked in total surprise, "Wait…what? You? Robbing a bank? Seriously?"
His half smile turned into a full one, blue eyes sparkling with mirth, "Yeah. I have the power to make inanimate objects come to life. And well I figured I could make it useful. My Mom and Dad apparently thought it would be a good idea to have a massive family since I'm their thirteenth son. Well feeding and clothing thirteen boys on a minimum wage job doesn't really cut it. Every night I'd sneak out of bed and watch my parents sit at the kitchen table calculating things and stress their lives away. I decided to do something about it even though I knew I'd get caught. I saved up all my money from birthdays and Christmases and chores I did for the neighbors for an entire year. When I finally had enough I went to the toy store and bought an army of toy shoulders and knights. I brought each one of them to life and ordered them to rob three different banks around town. They hid the money for me just before I got caught. Which blowed. But at least they didn't find the cash and at least I can spend my life in this hell-hole knowing I did something good for my family even if it was technically bad."
"That…wow. I guess you're not a douche," Anna's eyes widened and she fought the urge to slap herself, "I mean that's not to say you are one! Or that I thought you were one. I just…Two said you might be one and you kind of looked like one because of the sideburns and….I'll shut up now."
"That isn't to far off. He has his douche days. Don't ya pal?" Kirstoff elbowed Hans in the ribs furthering the teens glower. Elsa gave them both a stern look over the top of her novel less they begin fighting again. Both of them settled like chastised children just as the carrot colored door to EG come open. Mildred stood waiting with her arms crossed in front of her chest and tapping her boot against the spotless charcoal colored floor.
"Finally. Grub time. Come on new girl let's haul out!" Kirstoff vaulted the love seat and trotted off towards the door. Hans and Olaf followed at a more leisurely pace, lining up behind him. Anna waited for Elsa to book mark her page and stand so she could follow the leader. She strolled to the front of the line and waved a short hello to Mildred who grunted in reply.
"I know you are all familiar with the rules but I'm saying this for 181's sake. No uses of powers are permitted in the cafeteria. No food fights, no fist fights, and no verbal fights. You sit at your designated table, you do not mingle, and you do not wander. You have an hour to eat then you will be escorted back to your group room. Understood?"
Kirstoff gave Mildred a mock salute of two straight fingers to his brow, "Understood! Hey Millie I've got a joke for you. A Tank officer and a Gifted walk into a bar—"
Mildred narrowed her eyes dangerously at Kirstoff, "Finish that joke 113 and you'll spend a week in The Pit."
"Ah come on Millie, have a sense of humor!"
Mildred turned on her heels and began walking down the hall, completely ignoring Kirstoff. At the front of the line Anna could hear Elsa quietly chastising Kirstoff for pushing the officer's buttons each time she came to collect them for activities. Hans began chatting with Olaf about something involving turning Rodger to life for a short time just to see what kind of personality Rodger had. Anna wasn't entirely listening. She was watching the faces of the other Gifted they walked past also on their way to dinner and the varying looks on their faces. Some looked morose while others looked near gleeful and none looked too pleased to see another face. Then again not many strayed to look at her probably out of fear for breaking the strict rule of no group mixing. Anna wondered why they would make such a rule. What could possibly happen if she were to befriend someone from a different group? It wasn't like powers lined up and tripled in strength just in the presence of another Gifted. The rule just seemed absurd to her.
They walked down a tapered hall through a wide set of metal double doors into a room larger than a gymnasium. Hundreds of bench tables littered the room, some occupied and others empty, colored various colors with bold blacks letters painted on the tops. From this distance Anna could see a table painted carrot orange like the door to the EG Quarters with the letters EG painted atop its face. Along a wall to their left was a long glass paneled table with heated inserts in it that quarter pans full of various food rested in. Behind it stood Tank officers dressed in grey scrubs and pristine white aprons ladling out food onto trays as Gifted passed by them. Mildred left them then to go join her fellow guards at an octagon shaped table on a raised platform at the forefront of the room. The boys hurried to get in line for food, bumping each other out of the way rudely with their elbows and hips. Elsa kindly stayed behind to help guide Anna through the process.
"Don't look so frightened. I know it's a little overwhelming at first but you get use to it quicker than you'd imagine." She spoke close to her ear to be heard above the loud chatter filling the cafeteria. Her long fingers clasped around Anna's elbow and led her towards the line, stopping behind an unfamiliar girl with long bushy red hair.
Anna swallowed roughly and scooted an inch closer to Elsa's side to draw from her calming presence, hoping it'd be enough to keep Two from popping out, "I'm just not use to…so much. Thank you for, you know, this."
Elsa smiled kindly at her and gave Anna's arm a light squeeze of reassurance, "I'm the oldest so it's my responsibility to look out for our group. I don't want you getting yourself into trouble and sent to The Pit."
"Oh." A small part of Anna wilted knowing Elsa was only helping her out of her personal sense of duty rather than because she simply wanted to help Anna.
Elsa lifted a brow at her in question, "What?"
"Nothing. Do I take one of these?" She pointed at a stack of plastic plates and trays. Elsa nodded and retrieved a pair for the both of them, handing a pale purple tray and a silver plate to Anna. Anna wondered why everything was so colorful here except the uniforms and the rooms. This whole place was a bundle of strange. As they moved down the line Anna got a juice and some meatloaf coupled with disturbingly bright yellow macaroni and cheese. It was bright enough that she thought it may glow if the lights were turned off. Topped off with a brownie that looked more like a muffin she turned away from the line to follow Elsa to their table and ran directly into the solid body of another Gifted. Her tray and his went flying and the both of them toppled onto the ground. Instantly the people around them formed a circle and watched on with interest, hoping for some type of drama to feed their boredom. Anna's cheeks flamed with embarrassment beneath the boy's pudding that had splattered across her face when it exploded on the floor. Looking up she saw that he wore every bit of her atomic macaroni and cheese on his bleach stained black jumpsuit. Some of it was in his flax colored hair sticking up every which way and dropping onto his pale tanned forehead. His glare burned brighter than the red of his tray and Anna felt he actually may be trying to torch her with just his look alone. Hands wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her to her feet and subsequently backwards away from the raging teen. She didn't have to turn to know it was Elsa. Strangely though Elsa's touch wasn't warm and in fact felt cold even through the layers of her tank top and jumpsuit.
"Apologize Anna." Elsa whispered urgently beside her ear. From the corner of her eye Anna could see Hans and Kirstoff emerge from the crowd to flank them on both sides.
"I'm sorry. Really sorry. I didn't mean to run into you. I…sorry." She felt the telltale burn looming in her veins and threatening to free Two into the middle of this situation. The only thing holding it at bay was the odd comfort of Elsa's cold touch. In fact it was feeling colder by the second. Briefly she flicked her eyes down to Elsa's hands clasped over her biceps like iron and saw ice slowly crawling from beneath her palms and weaving into the fabric of her jumpsuit. She swallowed her gasp and looked back to the boy she had run into, teal eyes wide with the combination of her surprise and her worry.
His glare only got hotter as he stood up and Anna swore she could feel parts of her burning specifically around her throat like she was being choked by invisible fire. His tawny eyes glanced over Anna's shoulder at Elsa and the cold at Anna's arms intensified greatly, seeping below the jumpsuit and coating her flesh.
"Keep your people in line Elsa." He spit the words at Elsa with venom coating each syllable. It was blatantly obvious that for whatever reason he loathed Elsa. Elsa though only seemed uncomfortable in his presence.
"She didn't mean to run into you Aldridge."
His hand near his hip balled tightly into a fist and began to faintly glow orange like a heated piece of steel, "I don't rightly give a fuck. She ruined my lunch and stained my jumpsuit. She deserves to get it for that." His sharp eyes turned back to Anna and this time she knew for certain he was burning her throat. Sharp pain encircled her jugular and pulled tight like a flaming rope, constricting her breathing and bringing tears to her eyes. She struggled to even make a noise of pain. Near her hip she felt a finger slide through a belt loop on her jumpsuit and hold tight. Almost as soon as she felt the touch the burning resided and Aldridge began to look uncomfortable, his large tan hand coming to up to touch his throat with a choked breath. Confused she looked down to find Olaf standing beside her, his index finger looped through her belt loop, and his face blank save for his usually grey eyes now a perfect shade of tawny to match Aldridge's.
"Olaf stop!" Elsa hissed quietly and pulled his hand away from Anna's hip. Instantly his eyes returned to their normal color and Aldridge's distressed face grew lax. Before he could fully recover Elsa used her grip on both Anna and Olaf to steer them away from the crowd towards the EG table. Hans and Kirstoff dutifully followed in silence, eyes checking for any sign of an officer's coat following them. Elsa deposited Olaf on the bench beside where she sat Anna down and climbed onto the bench herself. Her eyes roamed the cafeteria to watch Aldridge retreat back to his table and make sure none of the other Gifted reported them to the guard table. Kirstoff and Hans took seats opposite them in bated silence, waiting for their leader to speak. Elsa sagged in her seat when it appeared they wouldn't be getting in any trouble and rubbed her temples with her thumbs.
Anna wiped the pudding off her cheek with the sleeve of her jumpsuit, eyes downcast. She'd not been here more than three hours and she had already fucked everything up in a very Anna like fashion. Of course she managed to run into the grumpiest person ever and nearly get everybody in trouble. She was such an idiot sometimes. She just felt like crying. This must have been why her father ignored her for her entire life. Two's need to be let free burned hotter than her throat did, scorching through her veins and bleeding into her muscles. She was about to give into the need for Two's reassuring presence when she felt Elsa's hand touch her arm and lifted her eyes to meet the woman's concerned gaze.
"Are you alright?"
Anna began to shake her head but stopped as soon as her raw throat began rubbing against the collar of her jumpsuit, "No. I feel awful. I'm sorry I caused you all trouble."
Elsa sighed sadly and a troubled look crossed her face, "Don't be. I'm a 100% certain he staged that so he'd have a reason to confront you."
"Why? I haven't even met him before."
"Because he was getting to me through you. He looks for any reason to attack EG and get us in trouble. I forgot to warn you about him."
Kirstoff hummed around his mouthful of cornbread and waved his spoon at her, "Think of him as our rival gang. EG and BX don't get along. We get each other in a shit ton of trouble and we always go hard when we compete against each other."
Anna frowned, "But why? What does he have against EG?"
Elsa cut in before Kirstoff could explain further, "Don't worry about it."
Anna pressed regardless, her inquisitive nature compelling her to get answers, "But—"
Elsa shut her down quickly with a firm look and a shake of her head. Anna slumped and immediately regretted it when it made her collar brush against her neck. Elsa's ever sharp focus caught Anna's distress and without asking she pulled down the smaller zipper keeping the stiff collar up. It fell away to show an agitated ring of raw burnt skin around her throat, blistered and irritated along the edges.
"Oh shit. Was he trying to kill her!? For fucks sake!"
Elsa gave the blond boy a warning look, "Watch your mouth around Olaf Kirstoff."
"Fine but look at that!" He pointed at it with his spoon and shook his head.
"We'll get him back for that tomorrow." Hans muttered, stabbing at his jell-o with a huff. Kirstoff gave a stiff nod and folded his arms over his bulky chest.
"Damn right we will."
Olaf tugged on her belt loop and looked up at her with big worried eyes, "Are you okay?"
She didn't nod because Elsa was still touching her throat and close enough that her chin would bump the top of her head but she did give him a thumbs up that seemed to placate him. She felt Elsa's cool fingertips flit across her throat leaving a trail of icy coolness in its wake. The coolness sprouted overtop the wound and around her neck, covering every inch of burned skin and numbing the pain. Once she was done Elsa quickly zipped the collar back up and moved out of Anna's personal space.
"I'm sorry he did that to you." Elsa spoke to the tabletop instead of Anna's face she had just been so close to.
"It's okay," She touched the collar that went clear to the underside of her chin and could feel the coldness emanating from beneath the fabric, "So ice huh?"
The corner of Elsa's mouth pulled up into a smile, "Not just ice. Snow too."
"Super cool. Like really, really cool," She turned her attention to Olaf trying to feed bites of his sandwich to Rodger, "Did you take that guy's power?"
He shook his head without lifting his eyes, "I can copy people's powers when they use them. That's how I got caught. When I was real little this guy was causing a big scene in the middle of town. Throwing things around with his mind. Well he threw this car and it would have hit me and I guess I stole his power and threw it back at him. The cops took me and handed me over to Tank people. I don't really remember much of it. I was only four."
"Oh. I'm sorry." She didn't really know what else to say. She wasn't sure if he needed comforting or not and even if he did she wasn't know ledged in that field at all. He simply shrugged and shoved a wad of white bread and peanut butter into the wooden maw of his dinosaur.
"So um, what are you gonna do to him? That guy I mean."
Hans smiled around his spoonful of jell-o, "We have a battle with BX tomorrow."
"A…battle?" Anna looked to Elsa for answers as was already becoming her habit even after just a few short hours.
Elsa hummed despondently and handed Anna half of her sandwich before speaking, "It's not really a battle. Part of our test is gauging the strength of our powers and what they do to others. Of course we would never be allowed to use them on Tank workers so they pick two groups and pit them against each other. They are supposed to be fun games like capture the flag or jailbird but they have gotten intense lately. Ever since they started handing out prizes to the winners it became very serious and almost every time we play at least one person gets seriously hurt. But of course as long as no one from The Tank gets hurt they don't really care."
"So….we have to fight that guy and his group tomorrow?" The thought alone was terrifying. Anna wasn't one for fighting. Granted she had spent hours in her room teaching herself how to kick box with a combination of books, DVD'S and YouTube videos but that was only for the sake of keeping her body in healthy shape. She had never intended to use the skills honed.
Kirstoff tilted his head back and forth in thought, "I wouldn't call it a fight so much as simulated warfare. They give us guns."
"…For serious?"
"Not real guns. They shoot paint." Olaf added helpfully.
"Oh. That's….less scary."
"But a lot of the Gifted will put their powers behind the paintballs. Aldridge usually puts these little seeds of fire inside his that cause them to explode like Molotov Cocktails when they hit your vest."
"Okay its back to being terrifying now."
Kirstoff waved her off, "No it's totally fun I promise. And we'll have your back. Both of them!"
Anna glanced over at BX's table just in time to catch Aldridge give her a look that promised pain.
"I'm totally gonna get burnt to death."
Well that's it for this one. Hope you liked it. Let me know what you think.