Adam's point of view:
"Just what do you think you're doing?" I demand of Kyle in our jail cell a couple of days later, nudging him with my foot to get his attention.
Kyle groans from his spot on the floor where he leans against the wall, forcing his eyes open to glare at me. "I was going to sleep, thank you very much."
"Oh no, you've slept enough to last a lifetime. I didn't ask to be shoved into a cell with you, but I had to listen to you snore in the bunker more than enough times. If we're gonna be roommates, I'm not putting up with it here," I tell him, not ready to hear that dreadful sound again.
"I'm not asking your permission, Adam. I'm bored, so I'm going to sleep to pass the time. Goodnight," he responds bitterly, turning so he doesn't have to look at me.
"You know it's the middle of the day, right?" I laugh, wishing he had some concept of time to know that he's been sleeping the equivalent amount of hours as a sloth.
"Will you both please shut up?!" Susan yells at us from the cell she and Cassia share a few feet away, harboring an attitude much too big for her five-foot-nothing self.
"It's not me, it's him," Kyle says in defense, jabbing a finger at me while looking at his angry little girlfriend.
"Susan, why don't you think of sunshine and puppies for a little while? After all, this is your fault," I mock her, making my most valiant attempts to get on everyone's last nerve.
After all, they've been wearing mine out for the past few days.
"How the hell is this my fault, smart guy? I'm not the one who-" Susan tries to fight back, but I cut her protest off before she can finish.
"Well you know, seeing as how your power of joy is the factor that determines if we can stay in a good mood-" I begin to reply, but suddenly Cassia's voice interludes my retort.
"Adam, act like a grown up please. We're in power-proof cells, so Susan can't use her power. Fighting with the rest of us isn't going to solve anything."
I blink at this, having to shake my head a few times to process the sheer audacity and hypocrisy at her statement.
"Excuse me? You're all as much a grown up as I am, and I've had to put up with you all acting like children since we got here! If anyone should be acting like an adult, it's all of you. I've been trying to think up an escape plan since we arrived, but all you guys care about is sleeping and passing time," I accuse them, turning my back so I don't have to see them looking at me like scolded kids.
"Adam, we're doing our best under these circumstances, but an escape plan? Has it not occurred to you yet that this is it? Will's going to kill us," Cassia tries to remind me, but I won't hear any of that.
I'm taking my city back from that poor excuse of a human being with or without my friends' help.
"I'm not giving up," I insist, but Cassia just grumbles and rubs soothing circles over her bandaged shoulder.
Power-proof cells didn't allow her to heal her shoulder or Susan's calf, so they've had to deal with the bullet wounds healing on their own, which frustrates the both of them to no end.
I sink down to the floor beside Kyle, wondering when this group of people that I've known for years decided to actually give up.
Kyle sighs, glancing at me with a look of practiced patience. "Adam, I can't evaluate people like Peter can, but even I know what you're thinking. It's not like we're choosing to give up, it's just that I think you haven't realized that we're in a prison right now at Will's disposal," he explains.
"So what? Will's a specialized fool. I can outsmart him no problem. Besides, Cassia's got a new power that can help us, too," I argue, wishing they could all see things from my perspective.
"There's no doubt in any of our minds that you can outsmart Will, but how are you going to do it from in here?" Susan pipes up.
"And you don't know if my new power can help us or not. Cade says it's only temporary, plus the fact that we're in power-proof cells keeps us from knowing what the power even is," Cassia adds, running her fingers through her tangled blonde hair in an attempt smooth out the knots.
"Speaking of which, where do you think Cade is? We haven't seen him since they brought us here," Susan asks.
"Tortured probably," I say before I can stop myself, quickly shutting my mouth in shame after the words leave me.
The palpable tension in the air gets thicker after this, and I turn my head so I don't have to watch Cassia implore me with dagger eyes.
"Thanks for that, Adam," she just mutters instead, and I hear her turning on her heals to sulk in the corner of her own cell.
Man, I miss Julia and Peter more every second. If they were here, they'd remind us that we're all a big family whether we like it or not. They'd remind us not to fight when we need each other the most.
The sound of footsteps padding down the hall toward us catches my attention, and I leap to my feet and walk to the front of the cell to see who it is.
Seconds later one of the old guards appears, opening my cell and explaining that Will wants to have a word with me.
"Oh good, I've been wanting to have a few choice words with him, too," I reply sarcastically, stepping out of the cell as the guard locks it back.
Susan, Cassia, and Kyle all look at me with concerned gazes, but I flash them a reassuring smile as I follow the the guard down the hall.
He doesn't dare put me in handcuffs to take me to Will, for this guard still holds enough respect for me to not do so. I should know; I'm the one who hired him when I was still in charge of this city.
"My deepest apologies for yours and your friends' conditions at the moment, sir. Will's the one who deserves to be behind the bars," the guard explains, and although I admire his bold words, I also feel pity for him. It's not like he can do anything under Will's rule.
"I appreciate that, but don't feel sorry for us. We'll be escaping soon anyway," I say back to him when we reach a door that he stops to open.
"I certainly hope so, sir," the guard mutters hopefully before ushering me inside.
The door shuts behind me, and I see Will sitting at a table with his feet propped up, a bottle of some sort of drink I don't recognize along with two shot glasses beside it.
"Ah, Adam," Will gestures to me, his voice sounding way too calm. "Come sit down, let's have a chat."
I roll my eyes, dragging my feet along the carpet as I grudgingly obey.
"Now I just have a few questions for you, but I'm sure you also have questions for me. Questions like: 'Will, how were you so clever to find us?' 'What's your next plan?' 'Can you find it in your heart not to kill us?'" Will tries to mock me, but his impersonation is much too high a voice to be accurate.
Frankly I find it offensive.
"Actually no, I don't need to ask you any questions since I already know the answers. You found us because you probably got suspicious and then extremely lucky. Your second question is a mockery of your third, since your next plan is in fact to kill us. So no, I doubt you'll find it in your heart to spare my friends and I, but you don't scare me. None of our enemies kill us right away because they're fools, much like you. You like to savor your victories like your sister does, so you lock us up in hopes to make us writhe and admit how inferior we are," I scold him, wanting him to feel like the one being interrogated instead of me. Will's face contorts in anger and annoyance.
"However, I don't writhe and I'm not inferior to you. By locking us away, you've given me time to think and plan. Leaving me with my thoughts is dangerous, as you know. I am a master of knowledge, and my greatest weapon is my mind. I'll get my friends and myself out of here, and you're going to wish you killed us when you had the chance," I spit at him.
"Those cells are power-proof; I'm afraid your thoughts mean nothing," Will smirks at me, filling up one of the shot glasses and then swigging it down in one motion, causing me to roll my eyes.
"My power is simply an enhancement of who I am. I was smart before I had my power and I'm still smart without it," I scoff at him, leaning back in my chair and crossing my arms to make a point. Will downs another shot, the smell of alcohol making my stomach churn.
"Glad to hear that, but I'm afraid it's hard to believe your plans of escape when you're still trapped. And you will die, there's no question in that," Will tells me.
"Then why wait? Go ahead and kill me now; let's see you back up that threat," I challenge him, enjoying the fact that I can make him think twice.
Oh he wants to do it, alright. That crazy murderous look in his eye is practically screaming how much he wants to kill me, but there's also that sense of dumb pride that he just can't get rid of. He wants to relish in the fact that he has me and my friends, whom the citizens look up to, here in jail.
"There's nothing stopping you. What, do you want a trophy with the title 'I Captured the Bunker Squad' engraved on it? Everyone knows we're here, so why not go ahead and get it over with?" I push Will further, trying to keep myself from laughing when one of the shot glasses begins to slightly crack from his destructive power.
"I'm not going to kill you now because it'll look like I'm a mindless murderer who wishes death to humanity. I need to wait a few more days so it doesn't look like I'm rushing in to anything, but this much is certain: when the time comes for you and your friends to die, you'll be the first to go," Will spits at me, eyes glowering in pure anger.
"Ah, but the only thing that is certain is uncertainty, Will. Well, and the fact that I'm smarter than you, but that's a given," I smile cockily, having more fun than I've had in a long time.
But suddenly, Will regains his composure and blurts out something that I hadn't been expecting.
"If you're so smart, then why couldn't you save your girlfriend all those years ago?"
My heart drops and a knot in my throat forms, my posture sinking in the slightest as I look up at Will. "What do you mean?" I ask him.
"Henley told me everything about the first war that she fought with you guys, even the part where she killed your little girlfriend. Natalie was her name, I believe. What I would like to know is if you're so confident in yourself, why couldn't you save her from my sister?" He questions, his eyes twinkling darkly.
Anger blossoms inside me like a weed, and I have to get out through gritted teeth, "There was nothing any of us could do."
"Exactly. You were helpless then, and you're helpless now. So don't be so sure of what you can do here, because you've failed before," Will finishes, having turned the tables on me.
Oh, but I'm not done.
"Mind if I have a drink?" I ask, gesturing to his bottle of alcohol and the shot glasses. Grudgingly, Will actually pours me some in the glass that was slightly cracked, and I swig it back much in the same fashion that he had done earlier.
But instead of swallowing it, I quickly lean across the table and spit it in his face, watching his facial expression change from a smirk to utter repulsion as he realizes too late what I'm doing.
"Don't bring up Natalie again," I order, watching him in satisfaction as he angrily wipes the drink out of his face. "Even in her last moments she had more honor than you ever will."
The bottle of alcohol and shot glasses explode from Will's rage, liquid and glass flying everywhere to litter the walls and floors.
"Tell me what you learned about the box," Will demands, all traces of this being a civil interrogation gone wrong.
"No," I retort.
He reels back his hand and slaps me deliberately, hoping to draw out something from me. It hurts yes, but not enough to make me talk.
"How long has Cade been helping you?" Will demands next, voice shaky with ferocity.
"Not telling," I respond.
He hits me again, but the only thing he gets out of me is the smallest cry of pain.
"Was Cade the one who hid you all in the bunker or did you find it?" He questions, the tone of his voice only getting louder.
"I don't know, you tell me," I reply snidely, watching with faint amusement as cracks form along the walls from his uncontrollable power.
He grabs me by my shirt and pulls me across the table so I can be eye level with him, trying to intimidate me.
Key word: trying.
"Did you or any of your friends inject yourselves with the powers?" Will asks next, but I won't give him answers.
"You're acting like a hothead," I just tell him instead, causing yet another slap to my face.
"ANSWER ME!" He screams, and parts of the ceiling actually begin to crumble with the restraint that I'm sure he's exercising in order to keep himself from blowing up the room.
Will grabs a piece of the broken bottle and sticks the shard against my throat, but I just laugh at the outburst.
"What are you gonna do, kill me? I thought we already went over this," I remind Will, his frustration making me nothing more than ecstatic.
"Get him out of my sight!" He yells to no one in particular as he releases the collar of my shirt, the same guard from earlier coming back to collect me.
I calmly rise from the table, nodding at Will in mock gentlemanly fashion as I turn away from him.
"I'll get you to talk sooner or later," Will growls at me as I leave the room.
"Yeah good luck with that. Have a nice afternoon," I call out, content with getting the last word.
Oh how I love messing with the stupid.
I'm deposited back to my cell, and even though Cassia's making some great fuss about the bruises that have barely begun to form on my face, I drown her out in satisfaction.
Will can't break me.