I slowly opened my eyes, feeling a dull ache in my head. Like a building had fallen on me. As I looked around, I realized I wasn't somewhere I recognized – a wooden lodge, it looked like. I felt relief wash over me as I looked around to see Wyatt in different clothes, looking out the window, and of all people, Beckett – he was standing over a bed which I couldn't fully see.
I glanced again to see V standing guard by a window that'd been washed white from the warm glow of the dawn. He was in a t-shirt this time, not his thick black coat. Just as I began to recall what happened, it felt like a dream. A dream that got more and more real. I wished it wasn't. There was nothing I wanted more than to go back and undo everything I brought Wyatt into. Beyond my unbearable weight of regret, I had questions upon questions.
Where the hell are we? What's Beckett doing here? What the hell happened yesterday?
I felt my heart race faster and faster, pounding like a booming drum in an empty room. It felt like I was the only one in the world.
"Relax." I heard V say before he walked over to the other side of the bed. "You're in good company; you're safe."
After he'd spoken, Wyatt rushed over to me and started to speak like he'd been in a hurry to get the words out.
I understood none of the jumbled words until V reminded him to slow down.
"Are you alright?" Asked Wyatt. Last night was bat shit!"
At this point I didn't even know.
V pushed his RayBans up his nose bridge. "Multiple contusions and lacerations. There were some hair-line fractures but they're almost healed up. The contusions and lacerations'll take another day, it seems like."
"What about Wyatt and him?" I said, meekly gesturing with my head toward Beckett who pretended not to hear me.
"Wyatt healed up faster than I thought he would, and Beckett's shell protected him."
I nodded weakly and spoke again in a low voice, "I take it he was the guy with the obsidian skin?"
Beckett quickly stormed over to the bed. Stomping like I'd never seen him before. His eyes were red with anger and his nostrils flared like crazy. And just before he reached the foot of the bed, V put one hand to his chest, stopping before he could get any closer.
"You were supposed to be there!" Beckett barked. "You almost got hurt!"
"Are we just gonna skip over the fact that you're a frickin' superhero?" Remarked Wyatt.
Beckett backed off in a huff or two, putting his hands on his head. "This whole thing's a mess—"
"--You can start by explaining what the hell is up being one of them—" I interjected. "How long?"
Beckett sighed and took a seat on an arm chair that was to my right. He sunk into it and stared at the ceiling as he retold the story, twiddling his thumbs from all the nerves.
"It happened about ten months ago. When the doctors started reporting the likelyhood of the average adolescent having it, I didn't think it could be me." He scoffed at how ridiculous it all sounded, "they said that one in every million could have it. I refused to believe it could be me until my 'trigger sequence'. I was going to visit my mom in the hospital for her birthday until it started to collapse. It was some Evolved maniac who'd decided to start a rampage. And as the building began to collapse, I felt my skin get frozen solid; like stone, and before I knew it, I was holding the damn building up, doing my best to get everybody out—"
Wyatt interrupted him, he seemed pissed. An unfamiliar shade on him, "—how come you never told us, huh?!"
Beckett stuttered; something that's unlike him. "I-I thought you'd see me differently." He stood up in protest, "I thought if everybody saw them as freaks, you'd see me as one, too.."
As silence filled the air, V's face creased in a wicked smile.
"Freaks, Evolved, whatever you wanna call this, we're in it together." I said, finally feeling comfortable in my own throat. "And who's that girl you had in your arms – the name tag read Omega?"
As soon as Beckett heard her name brought up, he took a deep breath and looked down at his feet, lost in thought. Wyatt and I exchanged a confused look while V remained quiet, observing the situation. Beckett then looks back up at the group and begins to explain, "Her name is Paige and she was an experiment conducted by VegaCorp. You were right, Bridget. Something was up with those kids going missing. Paige is one of them and I had to get her out. We'd even started dating two years and it hurt like hell when she went missing. That's why I risked tooth and nail to get her out of there. I didn't know if I'd be making out of there alive, but I knew I couldn't go another day knowing I could what I could do and not using it for good."
He pauses for a moment before continuing, "I found out about her after politely asking some squatters by the labs. She was being kept prisoner by VegaCorp, and they were using her as a weapon. They were even planning on letting her loose on some city in the Midwest."
Wyatt and I looked at each other, clearly uncomfortable with the situation. V spoke up, "I'm surprised at how accurate your Intel is. Apparently, they wanted to drop her in the middle of some mall in Salt Lake City to show how destructive Evolved individuals can be – They want to use her to show the world they need Vega's protection. It's pathetic and sick, and you're one stupid seventeen and a half year old for even thinking about getting her out. But as it stands you three – Paige included – just dove head-first into a colossal shit-storm."
My mind was racing as I tried to process all of this new information. VegaCorp, experiments, superpowers...it was like something out of a comic book. But it was all too real.
"What are we going to do now?" I asked, looking around at the others. "We can't just go back to our normal lives after this."
Beckett nodded in agreement. "We need to do something about VegaCorp. They can't keep doing these experiments on innocent people."
V interjected snarkily, "you're not getting any closer to this whole thing." He said, "you just got your powers and you're already thinking of saving the day.. You aren't ready; none of you are."
"You don't expect us to go back to Liberty and pretend like nothing ever happened, do you?" I snapped at him, "our lives just got flipped upside down!"
"And I didn't expect you to actually break in—"
Wyatt's head cocked, "then how did you get to us just in time?"
"Superhuman hearing; part of the whole kit and kaboodle.."
Wyatt shook his head in confusion, "kit and what-oodle – what are these powers, man?! What happened to us?"
"Now you're asking the right questions…" He said, "you went through a trigger sequence, it's what happens when an Evolved is put through a life or death situation. Your evolution manifests for whatever dire need you have at that moment. Strength for liftin' shit, speed for running away and whatever you got, Bridget."
Beckett nodded along, "how do you explain my Evolution?"
"Look, kid." Sighed V, "I'm only an expert on my own evolution."
"Which is..?" I trailed off, waiting for him to finish.
V then wordlessly teleported from one place to another, blinking and reappearing in different corners of the room we were in, leaving nothing but a puff of purplish smoke after each teleportation.
Everyone in the room's eyes went wide with bewilderment. None of us had ever seen anything like it.
He then flicked back next to the bed, pushing his glasses up.
"Why the glasses?" I asked as Wyatt's jaw dropped from all the 'awesome shit'.
V scoffed, "that's not important right now."
Beckett nudged Wyatt, "what's your Evolution?"
Wyatt smiled wide just before he started darting from one carner to another, turning into a red blur as he did. I could hear his cackled even if it was distorted from all the zipping around. My eyes went wild trying to track his rapid movement.
"That'll be enough," shouted V.
"How fast was that?" Beckett asked in surprise. He seemed impressed.
V sighed, as he walked over to close door on Paige in the other room. "He clocked in at 145 earlier."
"Miles?" Asked Beckett.
V eyeless gaze shifted to me, "you got anything to share?"
Well, my power was hard to describe. Back at the labs, I could focus really hard and if I really saw something in my imagination I could make it out of hard light. It was like a hologram that I could interact with. When I really needed something to cover me from the bullets, I got shield. Dunno how or why or whatever the hell, but it all just happened so fast. I hadn't even any time to process. I was running purely off of instinct, or maybe it was adrenaline. Whatever it was, it got us out of there.
I even tried to raise my hand but I could barely extend my arm.
V slightly raised his hand, gesturing for me stop. "Hard-light projection; Vulcan seems to have the Evolution."
"Who the hell's Vulcan?" Asked Wyatt.
"He's an Evolved from Calcutta—" He said, "doesn't matter now, though. What matters is Bridget recovers and you three go back to doing whatever the hell you were doing before crossing paths with… this." He said after briefly scanning around.
"The hell're you gonna do?"
He vanished into a puff of smoke.