April, 2012
The next morning, the kids woke up in the same suspense they had when they forced themselves to go to sleep. They couldn't bring themselves to start up a conversation. They each just sat in individual silence, not knowing whether or not to ask about what happened. They all went into a small cafeteria made specifically for them, and sat down to eat their breakfast. They were soon joined by Levia and Aajiah freshly out of the infirmary, "Hey guys! Are you ok?" Lenani asks the moment she sees them. "I'm fine." Levia responds dismissively. Aajiah didn't even feel like answering. She was sick, in pain, tired and hungry. The last thing she needs is someone being down her neck cause they want to be "nice". But maybe that's just how she thinks. The girls sit down next to everyone else to eat their food. Levia looks around, and notices someone is missing from their group, "Where's Ikemi?" She asks through a halfway mouthful of food. Everyone just continued eating their food in eerie silence, the sound of their forks hitting their glass plates filling their ears. Levia looks around, waiting for an answer, until she makes eye contact with Jackson. She raises her eyebrows and shrugs her shoulders in a way as if she were saying, 'What's going on?', and Jackson almost looked scared to answer. Finally he responded, "The Box. At least we assume so." He said in a rushed tone, not wanting to spend too long talking about it. Upon hearing this, a look of shock came across both Levia's and Aajiah's face. Legai lightly slammed down his fork, tired of being oblivious, "What is it? What's so bad about 'The Box'? Why are you so-" He said, before being interrupted when Levia twirled a butterknife in her fingers and put it up to Legai's throat, giving him the message to shut up. Levia looked in his eyes, "Remember what I said? This place isn't what he told you. It's way worse, and if you keep running your mouth like that, you'll get yourself hurt. Or killed." She whispered.
Legai is completely shocked, and a little scared, as Levia slowly lowers the knife from his neck as everyone watches silently. "What is it?" Legai whispered to her. Levia responds, rolling her eyes as she realizes he won't leave this alone, "Ugh, alright fine. The Box is more of an....umbrella term, kinda," She says, "Each of us have one. I don't give it long before you get one too." She says, looking around to make sure she isn't heard by anyone. Legai asks, "What do they do?". "You ever been grounded before?" Jackson replies, jumping into the conversation, "This is worse. They're rooms are specifically made to use against our powers to punish us, or just hurt us. They took Ikemi there after what happened with-" He said, before hesitating as he looked at Aajiah. Aajiah looks back at him, irritated, "What? If you have something to say just say it." She said, going back to pushing her food around the plate. Jackson backs off, seeing that she was a little more on edge than normal. Legai looks up at her with sympathy, "Are you ok?" He asked hesitantly. Aajiah lets out a light sigh of annoyance, before looking up at Legai, "I almost died again last night, how do you think I feel?" She says sarcastically. Legai looks down sadly, and Aajiah rephrases, "I'm fine, guys," She insists, "It's just like every other time." She says. Legai realizes what she just said, "Wait- this has happened before?" He asks in shock. Jackson responds, "We've all had near death experiences here. Some less than others, like ms. show-off here." He said, waving his fork in Levia's direction with a smirk on his face. Levia responds by waving two fingers in the air, causing a little bit of water to rise out of her cup and splash Jackson in the face. The whole table laughs and he wipes his face off, "Hey! It was only a joke!" He said, wiping the water off of his arm.
Later on, the kids were in their rooms and the tone had lightened up slightly. Some of them went back to things being normal, and Legai was still getting used to the place. And then, Ikemi walked into the room, being guided by a guard as he closed the door behind her. She didn't speak to anyone, which they all understood, she just walked through the room to her desk. Legai could see that even though her clothes were dry, her hair looked kinda wet. Like the way a girl's hair would look fresh out of the shower. Ikemi's hair was naturally curly, but it looked...extra curly, and dark. He also noticed that her tablet was gone. Ikemi sits down at her desk, and Legai gets this strange sense of fear and embarrasement, but it wasn't his own. He didn't know where it came from, or when it started, it was just kinda there, outside of his control. He was helpless to calm himself down, though he tried, and he looked over at Ikemi, and she looked like she was trembling. No, she was shivering, like she was cold. She held her hands, and just kinda sat back in her chair, seemingly trying to calm herself down. And then Legai realized, it wasn't his fear he felt, it was hers.
Earlier, somewhere else secluded in the facility, two guards had opened a vault door at the top of a dark, damp room, flooded halfway with water so cold some of it had turned to ice floating as little icebergs at the top. The water refracted the light that shined in through the open door, creating a web of dim light that waved across the walls of the room. In a corner sits Ikemi, shivering, cold, wet, her once curly hair drooping down soggy with water and being weighed down by frosted ice. She looks up at the bright light that nearly blinds her since she's been sitting in the pitch black dark room, her tears mixing with water streaming down from her scalp. She moves from her huddled position in the corner, trying her best to retain any body heat she can, and speaks through shuddering cold lips and a rapidly locking jaw, "Ca- Can I- C- come out n- n- now?" She asked, musterring as much strength as she could. The Doctor, who was standing over her, his shadow casting over the little light that's shining throughout the room, responds, "3 more hours." He said before walking off, causing all of the light to shine in at once before it all was blocked out by the heavy metal door as then men closed it back and sealed it. As it was being closed, Ikemi filled with desperation, but was too cold and weak to plead and beg so all that came out was a small whimper as the door was closed. She slumped back helplessly into her corner and huddled herself, sobbing.
Back in the present, The Doctor enters the room, "Children, it's time." He says. All of the children, including Ikemi, get up and line up outside in the hallway, and Legai looks at The Doctor, "What's happening now?" He asks. "A very important occasion," The Doctor replies, "It's your first day of training." He says with a smile on his face. Legai gets excited, and The Doctor takes them all into a secure and armored room that was built kind of like a gymnasium made specifically for the kids. The Doctor, as well as Jennifer, enter an office-like room with a glass window connecting to the gym. The Doctor pressed a button on a desk that was pressed against the glass, and his voice appeared over a P.A like system in the gym, "Children, lined up against the wall. I would like for Legai to be alone." He said. All of the children obey this command, and Jackson comes up behind Legai, patting him on the back, "Good luck." He says with an encouraging smile. Legai realized he was alone in the court, and started feeling his nerves get the best of him. Jennifer forces her way onto the comms, "Legai, you don't have to worry I'll be here the whole time." She says, trying to put him at ease, and also because of how The Doctor ignored Ikemi's feelings the night before, she doesn't trust him with her son's feelings. That girl was trembling, she knew it. Legai takes a few breaths as everyone on the side-lines looks on in anticipation, some sitting on the floor, the rest leaning on the wall.
The Doctor comes over the intercom, "Alright Legai, let's start very simple." He says, as he presses a button and a dummy target erects from the floor on a metal pole, "I want you to do the best you can to hit this target with your lightning." The Doctor says. Legai nods, and turns to the dummy, and focuses as hard as he can. The rest of the children's attention is grasped as his hands begin sizzling in green lightning. He raises his hand, and releases a chaotic stream of lightning that's so bright it out-shines the lights in the room, causing everything other than the lightning to become dark. The streams of lightning were unfocused, looking like messy frizzy hair flowing in the wind. The dummy was completely engulfed by the lightning, and vaporized almost instantly. Legai stopped it, falling to his knees from exhaustion, but getting moral support from his new friends who were for the most part yelling in encouragement from excitement, "YO THAT WAS THE COOLEST THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN!!!!" Jackson exclaimed. Jennifer came over the intercom, worry and concern in her voice, "LEGAI!?! ARE YOU OK??" She yells frantically. Legai gives his mother a thumbs up, as he is too tired to speak. The Doctor looks on in admiration as well, "Is this...usual for him?" He asks Jennifer, looking at the completely vaporized and otherwise burnt area where the dummy used to be. Jennifer's heart is racing, "No!" She responds, still struggling to calm down, "He's shot lightning before but never that big." She said, not being able to take her eyes off of Legai, who was recovering, and receiving support from his friends. The Doctor turns to the other workers in the room, "What were the readings on that blast?" He asks. Out of the 7 sensors, 3 of them were destroyed, one of the functioning ones however, received extraordinary data, "We got approximately 150,000 degrees Fahrenheit!" Said the worker. The Doctor looked back down at Legai, who was still being congratulated by the kids, and looked completely fine, "That's...15 times hotter than the surface of the sun." He says in pure amazement. Legai looks up at the window, finally catching his breath through gasps of the smoke coming off of his burnt clothes. Jennifer is biting her nails, "Is something wrong? What do you think we should do??" She asks in a slight panic. The Doctor, however, is more calm, "I think," He says, turning to Jennifer, "That we have a lot of work to do with each other.".
Ikemi was placed in charge of the examinations of the children with the help of 3 workers shortly after a worker was...removed. After Legai was done testing the limits of his abilities, she began working with the children in a lab that ressembled a room in a doctor's office. She ran simple tests, measuring blood content, bone integreity, and other vitals. She was examining Legai, and Jennifer would've waitied outside as they used to make her, but Ikemi requested she be allowed inside, and as she is the head of that lab now, Jennifer was allowed inside. "Thank you so much, Ikemi." Jennifer tells her in relief, sitting down next to Legai. "Don't worry about it. We stick together in here right?".