The Spark. (001/Peter Ballard/Henry Creel Fanfic)

- 01

 001 was sixteen when he met A1.

It was an accident...mostly. It wasn't his fault for falling into her room, but it was his fault for sneaking around. But what did they expect a teenager to do after a long day of blood tests, waiting, more waiting, and even more sitting around. It would drive anybody insane. Well, more than they already were, in his case. But that was very much besides the point. The point was, he had finally met another subject his age.

Most of them were infants, little powered children who could only manage a cry in their cribs. And of course, their lack of development meant Papa put even more pressure on 001 to do well. Which, in turn, made 001 want to rebel against everything he said. So, climbing through vents or sneaking into rooms was quite normal for the teenage boy.

It had been a long, boring day, and 001 was sneaking around. His sharp, cold eyes flicked around underneath his closed eyelids as he stretched out his consciousness to sense for guards or wanderers up ahead. When he found none, he darted around the corner into a dark, cold, and grey hallway, wiping the blood from his nose. The further out he explored, the more he found the temperature around him drop, causing goosebumps even through the white uniform he was assigned.

And then he saw it. At the end of the corridor, a large black door loomed. Flashes of light shown through the small slit between the door and the floor. 001 padded closer, his hand lightly brushing the wall next to him, as if he needed it to stay grounded. He had never been here before, which was odd. Very odd, considering he had wandered this wing of the institute numerous times.

When he reached the door, he paused and drew in a sharp breath. If there was someone inside there, which there definitely was, he noted, he would have to be ready. He'd rather not be caught wandering, although the thought of using his abilities to end another one of these pesky workers was quite enticing. Although his brain rationed that getting caught was not worth the fight, some sort of deeper level tug drew him towards the door. He focused his energy into the lock, easily spanning out his abilities to break it. Then, his shaky hand (Why was it shaking? He had no reason to be scared, he had taken on worse before, so why was he scared??) reached up towards the nob and with a little click turned the handle.

As the door slowly creaked open, he followed its path in.

And found himself face to face with a girl his age on the other side of the rather small room.

Both paused, simply staring at each other. He found his eyes scanning her, taking in her short black hair, her entirely black replica of his uniform, her pale skin, her amber eyes. And then his moment of hesitance passed.

He threw his hand out, casting his abilities out against her with all his might.

Unfortunately for him, she did too. Their energy seemed to snap and crack against each others' and both were flung back. The girl across from him recovered first and grabbed something off a desk in the corner, running at him. He recovered and flung out his hand again, sending her tumbling to the ground, along with the item she had grabbed. A knife, he realized with a jolt of something. Panic?? Fear? Neither emotion he was familiar with. He scrambled to his hands and knees and leapt down after it at the same moment she did. He yanked it back, she jumped forward again, and they both ended up in some awkward roll, where he managed to swing on top and pin her to the ground with the knife to her throat.

However, in the moment of stillness, he realized he had a cut dripping blood down his forehead that stung rather badly. He reached up with his free hand to lightly brush the cut. In his moment of distraction, the girl beneath him managed to wrestle his hand off of her throat and throw him back. She got up and stalked closer, almost like a cat, picking the blade up off of the floor and pointing it at him, who was only half up off the ground.

He leaned back down again, resting his back against the wall and lifting his hands up. He was done with the fighting, and instead chose to present a calm, careless facade to try and throw her off.

"Now, we both know you don't really mean to fight me, do you?" he asked, letting the hint of a smirk slip onto his face.

The girl's eyes flicked from his lips back to his eyes, and she scowled.

"Why are you here then? Papa said he wasn't sending anyone to get me until later."

Her voice had a hint of an accent he couldn't quite place, but her voice was dripping with hostility.

"Simply exploring. Have an issue with that?" he asked, getting to his feet and stepping closer, the smirk never leaving.

"After all, you don't want to hurt me now, do you?"

His slightly sarcastically sweet tone echoed around the room as he stepped even closer and carefully pressed the tip of the blade towards the floor with his pointer and middle fingers. Her eyes flicked down to his hand and then back to his eyes. Even though they were presumably the same age, he was still taller than her, forcing her to look up to meet his gaze.

This time a real smirk passed over his face as he turned and walked over to grab the chair from the desk, flipping it around and sitting down. He enjoyed how much she looked like she wanted to smack him as her gaze trailed him. He leaned back and let his elbows rest on the arms of the chair, spreading his legs simply to make her more pissed at how comfortable he was.

"I'm 001. And you?" he asked with a grin, leaning forward to stretch his hand out in greeting.

She glared at his hand for a moment before sitting on the bed across from him and sitting with crossed arms.

"A1. Wish it were a pleasure to meet you." she spat.