The 7th Child

Chpater 5: The Art

          She looked up at him, and the slightest detail caught her eye. She saw something poking out from the edge of his glasses, "What-" She muttered to herself, "Your- your eye.." She said, squinting to figure out what she was looking at. The Doctor chuckled to himself, removing his glasses revealing his shiny golden irises, surrounded by the folded wrinkles in his face. His cat like eyes contrasting the dark blackness of the room scared her, as she slightly leaned away from him in her chair. "We are all special here Ms. Artorian. Part of something great." He said with a grin. "Uhuh." Jennifer replied, nodding her head.

          Back at the children's room, Levia and Legai had just ended their conversation, and Ikemi snuck up on Legai, startling him as he didn't notice her approaching him, "Hi! I'm Ikemi, nice to meet you!" She said with a warm grin and bouncy disposition, reaching out for a handshake. Legai shook her hand and greeted himself, and Ikemi took him under her arm, wrapping her right arm around his shoulders and leading him towards her research station, "Look, don't let Levia scare you, ok? We're all friends here, she just hasn't accepted it yet." She assures him. 'Levia...is that her name?' Legai thought to himself, looking at her sitting on her bed reading a book. Legai looked around, noticing all the different colors of hair and eyes that these kids have. What he was surprised to know, he somehow knew, was that all of it was natural. All these colors of all these people were a part of them. This amazed Legai. Ikemi continued, "But she'll warm up to you, eventually. In the meantime, I think you can help me with something." She says, pointing to a seat in which she wishes for him to sit. Legai sits down, and Ikemi begins to type away at her computer, the rapid fire feed of data rolling up the screen reflecting into her glasses, "The Doctor says you have bioelectricity right?" She asks him. Legai looks at her with a confused expression, "...Lightning powers?" Ikemi rephrases, dumbing it down for him. "Oh, yea." Legai says, "How did you know?" "The Doctor briefed me on your situation. I'm practically his right hand girl." Ikemi says shrugging. "So, he gets the work," Legai began, "And you're who recieves it?" "Whom recieves it, and yes, basically. Ikemi hands him two small metal rods with wires connecting to the monitor on the desk, "If you wouldn't mind, I need you to hold these and charge your lightning into them." Ikemi says, placing them in his hands. He obliges, "Ok, but I won't be able to hold it for long." He says, forewarning her. "Take your time." She says in a kind tone. Legai begins charging his hands with lightning that is then absorbed by the rods and examined in the computer. The sounds of the crackle and sizzle of his lightning buzzed through the air, then stopped, then buzzed, then stopped as it was going in and out, and he continued trying to hold it for as long as he could in periods.

          While she finishes calibrating the software to put it on a passive continuous stream, Legai breaks the silence, "Did you build.....all of this yourself?" He asked through grunts of effort as he marveled at the advanced looking set up on the desk in front of him. Ikemi responded, "Mhm, built this monitor, the computer itself, and those rods you're holding." She says. Legai scoffs in amazement, "Wow, that's really cool. But um...I have a question. Is his name really The Doctor?" He asks. Ikemi replies, "Mhm. Weird right?" Putting her hands on her knees and making eye contact as she was finally done coding. Legai is confused, "But....why?" He asks. Ikemi responds, fixing her hair as her eyes wander around the room, "I don't know, that's just how it is. He's 'The Doctor', this is 'The Facility', the guards are 'The Guards' and we're 'The Children'." Legai doesn't understand, "But.....you guys have names, we all do." He says, puzzled. "I know," Ikemi says, "Individually we do, but as a group we're just, 'The Children'." She says, shrugging. "That's just how it is.".

The machine chimes as a certain amount of data was collected from Legai, and Ikemi pops up and looks at her monitor, sorting through scannings and sending them to The Doctor. "So.... whats your power?" Legai grunts. "Pyrokinesis." Ikemi responds, looking back at him, "My body produces two special chemicals that other humans don't. And when I mix these two chemicals together.." SHe says, raising her hand as it ignites into a yellowish orange flame with red streaks within it. Legai looks in amazement as the glow shines in his eyes. "Hm...interesting.." Ikemi says, squinting at him. "What?" Legai asks. "Most people can't look directly at this. It's too bright for them. But you don't seem to be affected." She said, studying his eyes closely. Legai shrugged, "It's just light, pretty. Like looking at the sun." "You can look at the sun?" Ikemi asked puzzled, defusing the fire on her hand. Legai shrugged and nodded yes. "You do realize nobody else but us can do that, right?" Ikemi asked, writing notes down on her clipboard. Legai's head tiltled, "Really?". "Yes, You me and Jackson are the only ones that can. With everyone else it burns their retnas and can even make them go blind." Legai's eyes widened as he imagined someones eyes bursting into flames. Ikemi conitnued, "And Jackson can only do it cause he has Biotherapeutic Manipulation.". Legai stared at her blankly and nodded, "Uhuh...". Ikemi let out a chuckle, "It means he can heal himself. His retnas still burn but they also fix themselves." She shrugs, typing new information into her computer. "Cooool..." Legai says astonished, "I bet I can do that." He said hopefully. 

Ikemi flashes a pitiful smile, "Well... don't try to hurt yourself over it. We'll have to see but the likely answer is probably not. We can't have every power, can we Jackson?" She said in a mocking voice, leaning back in her chair to look at Jackson across the room. Jackson doesn't appreciate being called out, "Aye! I will learn how to fly!! The Doctor said it's possible, so it's possible!" He said, defending himself. Apollo let out a hearty laugh, pausing from the book he was reading to join the mockery, "Yeah, keep telling yourself that bird boy!" He said through a wide smile. Lenani began laughing out loud at his joke, and Jackson turned to him, "Apollo you play with vines, don't talk to me!" Jackson rebuttaled. Apollo conitnues to pick at him, "And the best part of that is, I can actually do it. Instead of just dreaming about it like some people.". Jackson begins to get riled up, "OH YEAH!? WELL AT LEAST-" "Hey, boys!! Boys!! That's enough!" Ikemi says with a smile, laughing at the chaos she caused. "Apollo, give him a break he has to deal with enough already!" She spoke and laughed at the same time. Apollo goes back to reading his book, and Jackson sits back down, and goes back to solving his puzzle on the floor. Ikemi's laugh and bright smile lightened the otherwise kind of tense atmosphere for Legai. "Like I said," She giggled, "We're like a family here.".

"So, what are his powers?" Legai asks, looking at Jackson who firmly planted his head in his right hand, resting it on his criss crossed legs. "Jackson? Aerokinesis. Basically he manipulates air." Ikemi said while looking at her computer. "But he said The Doctor said he can fly?" Legai questioned. "Well, he has certain physical abnnormalities. Like his gray eyes. But it's his skeleton thats interesting to The Doctor. See, his skeleton is completely hollow, like a bird." Ikemi says, turning back to Legai. Legai's eyes raised in shock. Ikemi smiled, "I know, right? And because of that, The Doctor theorizes that he has the capability of flight. We haven't figured it out yet, but we will eventually, I think." She says, looking off into space. "So, how did you figure out his bones were hollow?" Legai asks. The question snaps Ikemi out of her trance, "Specialized testing. I won't lie, it isn't pretty. But don't worry, I'll be with you from now on. You'll see. Speaking of..." She says, typing on a tablet strapped to her arm, "We need to get you fitted. You already got your injections, right?" Legai scratches the spot where he got his shots, and nodded. "Let me guess, they told you they were 'vaccines' or something?" She asked, leaning down towards him. He nodded again, and she scoffed, 'Everytime.' she thinks to herself. "They lied, you'll get used to that too. What you really got injected with is a tracking device and power dampeners. They're there to keep us kids in check." She gestured to the rest of the children in the room. Legai is confused, "But we just used our powers?" He questioned again. "Try using them again." Ikemi said, looking down at his hand.

Legai tried to start up his powers, but it wouldn't work. It felt like a sneeze that wouldn't come out, no matter how hard he pushed. "They've activated it again." Ikemi explained, putting her hand on his insinuating that he should stop, "They left yours and mine off so I could test your powers and gain information, then I have to send them the information and they turn them back on. While it's on we can't use our powers at all." Ikemi said, looking down at her own hand. "What kind of place is this?" Legai responds, looking around. "A place of science. But like I said, science isn't always pretty." Ikemi shrugs. "How do you cope?" Legai asked, subconsciously looking for a way to cope with the ugly truth he's facing. "Embrace the art." Ikemi replies. Legai is puzzled. Ikemi explains, "Art is science that doesn't have an equation. It isn't beautiful because it was made beautiful, it just is. Our powers are the art, this place is the science. So, whenever you feel overwhelmed by this place, embrace the art. Thats what I do." Ikemi smiles. Her words seemed so simple, yet they were laconic. He couldn't get rid of all of his stress by trying to overwhelm himself with solutions. He just needed to find the solution he already had. His powers. His beauty. His art.