The Next Generation (FIRST DRAFT)

Chapter 19

“Relax, man,” Dawson said, walking to his cell door to unlock it. “That’s just the dinner bell.”

    “What sort of ‘bell’ is that?!” Talon exclaimed as Dawson put him into handcuffs.

    “One that stuns you while we handcuff all of you guys.”

    “Why aren’t you affected by it?”

    Dawson pointed to the purple earplugs insert into his ear channel. “We got mufflers. Now c’mon! We gotta go show Nayda that we finally got two of our prisoners awake!” 

    Dawson led Talon out of his cell and into the corridor. There, he met Brayden with the new girl. She was wearing some sort of guard on her mouth.

    “Brayden, I swear you are a jerk sometimes,” Dawson said, gesturing to the lock on the girl’s mouth. “Is that really necessary?”

    “You know she refused to calm down,” Brayden replied. “If I didn’t do this, she would have frozen me to death.”

    Talon looked at the new girl in sympathy. She looked back up at him with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” he whispered to her as they set off. 

    “Oh! I almost forgot,” Dawson said to Talon. “Just like how she wears that, I have to make you wear this so it’ll be harder for you to fly off. Brayden, hold him for a second.”

    Brayden took a hold of Talon’s cuffs while Dawson walked back to a storage closet at the end of the hall.

    “Please don’t try anything you’ll regret,” Brayden said to Talon.

    “Relax, I don’t wanna get in deeper crap than I’m already in,” Talon responded. 

    After a few seconds, Dawson reemerged, dragging what looked like a lead vest. Even with how toned his body was from basic training, Dawson still was struggling to even lift it off the floor. 

    “Here you go,” Dawson said in a strained voice. “Two hundred pound lead vest.”

    “When and where did you even get that?!” Talon asked.

    “While you were taking your mumbly nap, Brayden went and got one from the weapons storage facility. They have so much random crap in there, it’s insane.”

    “Where did these people even get these things?!” Talon asked as he kneeled down so that Dawson could lift it over his head. After Dawson had gotten the vest all fitted on him, the two guards helped him to his feet. Then they slowly headed to the cafeteria with Talon struggling to even walk with the added weight. 

    After a few minutes of walk through enough hallways to make your head spin, the little troupe finally reached the cafeteria. Talon felt like he was about to die. His legs were on fire. As soon as Dawson and Brayden had found a table to sit at, Talon collapsed into a chair and put his head down on the table, refusing to get back up. 

    “Talon, are you going to eat anything?” Brayden asked.

    “I literally cannot move,” Talon said deadpan. “What do you think.”

    “Talon, I’ll get you something to eat,” Dawson volunteered. “Real quickly, do you have any food allergies?”

    “No.”

    “Okay, does a PB&J sound good then?”

    “Sounds wonderful.” 

    Dawson walked away while Brayden was left to hold onto the two prisoner’s handcuffs while he was away. A couple minutes later, he returned with the sandwich, an apple, and a water bottle. He set it down in front of Talen and then took the cuffs from Brayden.

    “Go ahead and get some food for yourself and Icy now,” Dawson said. The new girl glared at Dawson as she stood up with Brayden. The two of them then walked over to join the lunch line to pick out some food. 

    After Talon had gotten a moment to rest, he lifted his head off the table and looked around the room, watching for the metallic sheen of Ben or the flaming corona of the fire girl. He didn’t see either of them.

    “If you’re looking for a metal man, you won’t find him here,” Dawson said.

    “What do you mean?” Talon asked.

    “The cafeteria is a low risk only commodity. No midrisks allowed.”

    “Oh.”

    Talon was disappointed to say the least. “Do you know if someone with fire powers would be considered low risk?”

    “Probably. All the cells are made with metal rated for higher heat than most fires can get too. It would most likely be their additional powers that would make them a midrisk.”

    “Then have you seen a little girl with ginger hair that has powers like that around here recently?”

    “Come to think of it, yeah I have,” Dawson answered. “Nadya had her last prisoner wake up yesterday and she sounds like your gal. Hurry and eat and I’ll take you over to check.”

    Talon looked down at the food in confusion. “Dawson, how am I supposed to do that?” Talon asked referring to the handcuffs holding his hand behind his back.

    “Crap, you’re right,” Dawson realized. “Sorry about that,” he apologized as he undid the cuffs so that he could redo them in front of his body. 

    “Thanks,” Talon said after he was done, then picked up the sandwich to take a bite. “You guys do realize this vest thing is useless, right?”

    “It’s keeping you on the ground, is it not?”

    “Not really to be honest.”

    “What do you mean?”

    “Part of my flight allows me to lift much heavier weights in flight than I usually can,” Talon explained. “I bet I could even lift you and Brayden with this thing on if I wanted to.”

“Well, why didn’t you?”

“Again, I don’t want to get into any worse trouble than I already am in.”

“Understandably so.”

“I should try that sometime, it would be interesting…,” Talon trailed off, trying to imagine how he would go about doing it. 

“H-hey, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here,” Dawson said nervously. “I don’t want to get dropped on my head.”

“Don’t worry, Dawson. I’m just trying to freak you out,” Talon laughed. “Is it working?”

Dawson laughed. “A little too well, I’m afraid.”

Right at that moment, Brayden returned with the Icy girl and their food. 

“Are you good to keep an eye on Icy by yourself if I go take Talon here to meet Nadya?” Dawson asked as Brayden sat down to help the new girl, careful because of her powers.

“Yeah, go ahead,” Brayden said apathetically. “I’ll just try not to get frostbite I guess.”

Dawson gave Brayden an apologetic look before helping Talon stand up from the table and heading over to see Nadya.

“My food…,” Talon trailed off as they left it behind. 

“You’ll come back to it, we won’t be long,” Dawson reassured. 

Walking to the other side of the cafeteria, Dawson walked up to a short, petite girl watching over a table of a total of five supers. 

“Nadya?” Dawson asked to get the girl’s attention.

She looked up to face him. “Yes?”

“Look who I have,” Dawson said smugly. Talon was stiff, having not moved since the girl looked up. His expression was furious. He lifted his finger to point at Nadya accusingly.

“You!”