Helium - A Dreamnotfound Fanfic

Subject Log #1: Patients

Metal and steel floors pounded underneath Dream's boots. He looked around the facility as white blinding lights shined overhead. "So, when was this lab finished?"

"A week ago." The employee blandly responded.

Dream nodded slightly, taking in the new rooms and white walls. "Is this a long term job or-"

"Stop talking. You're hurting my ears."

Dream looked at the man quietly and made a zipping motion with his hand across his lips. He bumped into the man who had stopped walking and said a quiet sorry.

"Research room 505. Here's your lab." The employee motioned towards the door and Dream opened it and stepped inside. He looked at all the blinking lights and buttons and computer machines. He noticed two other people sitting down at separate desks.

"Are those my co-workers or-" Dream looked out into the hallway and the employee was gone. He turned around and walked up to an empty seat. "I guess this is my desk."

Dream sat down and looked at the other people. One had light brown hair, the other one having dark brown. They were both looking at their computers intensely and typing.

Dream nervously looked back at his monitor. "Okay, what do I do?"

"You're new here, right?"

Dream jumped and turned around to see the light brown-headed guy standing at his desk. He nodded.

"Call me Bad. Nice to meet you." He held out his hand to shake.

Dream shook his hand and smiled. "Yeah, I just got transferred from the Anatomy and Physiology Analytics Center. Apparently they finished building this place a week ago and needed new scientists."

Bad nodded. "I've been planning to work here ever since they started construction. Do you need any help?"

Dream nodded. "I have no clue what to do. They just chose me because I'm at the top of the program and placed me here."

Bad nodded. "Come with me. I'll show you where the job first starts."

Bad walked out the door and headed down the hallway and the stairs, Dream following closely behind. They walked into a bright room with many hazmat suits and an airlock room. Bad took a hazmat suit and handed it to Dream. "Put one on. You're gonna need it to get into the patient's containment rooms."

Dream confusedly nodded and slipped one on. He followed Bad into the decontamination airlock and steam blew out from the top of the room. The doors closed behind them and the doors in front of them opened. Bad and Dream entered a room filled with deep blue light and multiple tinted glass rooms. Bad flipped a switch and the blue lights turned off and white lights came on.

"What is this place?" Dream asked.

Bad ignored Dream and pushed multiple buttons on a control center. The glass rooms became clear. Dream looked inside and saw multiple...creatures?

"This is the main subject room for this facility," Bad said.

Dream looked at each patient. "What are these?"

"We call them Altereforms, or Altres for short. These are patients who have been affected by chemicals and man-made 'powers.' We take them in and put them in containment cells until we can heal them. If they can't be healed, we use them for projects and medicine." Bad looked at each of the Altres.

Dream walked past each of the glass containment cells. "What are each of their...abilities?"

Bad walked up to a cell labeled, "Cell 1-A."

"This Altre is Subject A-1911614116. We found him in a forest fire. After a bit of analyzing, we found that he has some sort of fire-controlling abilities."

Dream looked at the raven-haired boy. His eyes lit up with glowing yellow and flames burst from his hands. Dream stepped back. "He...looks angry."

"He's actually a very docile Altre. He only attacks when he gets hurt." Bad corrected.

Dream nodded. "Why don't you give him a name?"

Bad looked at Dream confusedly. "A name? We're not allowed to name them. Or else we get attached to them."

Dream thought for a moment. "Did you say his name was Subject A-1911614116?"

Bad nodded.

"We can call him Sapnap."

Bad tilted his head. "Sap- nap?"

"Yeah, Sapnap. Those numbers spell out Sapnap, if you align them with the alphabet."

Bad shrugged "I guess it wouldn't hurt calling him that."

Dream smiled and looked back at Sapnap. He smiled at him and Sapnap's eyes came back to normal.

Bad walked to the next containment cell. "This is Subject A-1-255 and A-2-21525. We found them in a wild forest together, but they wouldn't separate when we tried to put them in separate cells. So we kept them together."

Dream watched as Subject A-1 gave a flower to Subject A-2.

"Subject A-1 seems to be able to grow flowers and vines with his mind, and after an MRI and neurologist examination we discovered that Subject A-2 has telepathy and abilities to control mirrored surfaces."

Dream analyzed the two boys with curiosity. "They look like teens though." He watched as the blond boy protected the smaller brown-haired boy and frowned at Dream.

Bad sighed. "I know. Something affected them it seems. We're still finding a cure for them."

Dream nodded and walked to the last cell. "Why is this one empty?"

Bad looked inside. "It's not empty. He's not at full opacity right now."

Dream made a confused face and looked at Bad. Bad noticed and chuckled. "This is our latest patient, Subject A-3-238357. We found him two days ago, near an optometry. After a bit of researching, he is the first subject that we managed to get a name for. His name is George Davidson, and he worked as an optometrist before he was affected. He seems to have the power to fade in and out of being invisible, and he can see through solid surfaces."

Dream continued to look at the empty room. He saw a flash of a human for a second. Slowly, a porcelain-skinned, dark brown-haired boy faded into sight. He looked at Dream and Bad and quickly turned back invisible. Dream stared in awe at the room. "So, what do I do now?"

Bad walked back to the control center and pushed a button to make the glass rooms tinted again. "We usually analyze our subjects and write daily logs on them. Let's head back to the lab."