Reference Game: Divergent again, I kind of forgot to last time, my bad.
Warning: Torture
This will be the first time a one shot will be 100% in... wait for it... Rai's Point of View!
Also my lovelies, please let me know if I ever slip up by using a incorrect pronoun for the non binary character.
Also, please don't think I'm villainising non binary people, it is just for the chapter.
When I opened my eyes, I was in a cell. I look around only to see Henry on the opposite side of the cell.
"Kid Danger?" I call. I push myself up from my horizontal position into a standing one. I go to move over to him, but I'm stopped about halfway through. "What?" I slam my hands against an invisible forcefield and my heart sinks. "No." I breathe.
I look at Henry, is he breathing? God I wish I was over there so I could take his pulse. "Kid, I need you to wake up. Kid Danger!"
Henry flinches awake. "What?" He groaned.
"Oh thank god!" I sigh in relief.
"Captain Man, where are we?"
"I don't know." I admit, but it's nowhere good, I can tell you that."
"Yeah, I figured." He mutters.
"Are you hurt Kid?" I ask.
"No, I don't think so anyway." He groaned. "I'm just a little lightheaded."
"That's probably from being unconscious."
"How do you- never mind."
I resist the urge to chuckle, but just as I was about to give, I hear footsteps come closer. If I wasn't indestructible, my heart would have stopped.
Henry must have heard it too because I could see him visibly tense.
Finally a figure emerges from a door on the other side of the room. His face was covered in a mask so you couldn't tell who it was.
"Hello Kid Danger." He says as they stop in front of Henry's portion of the cell.
"Who are you?" He asked.
"Someone who is interested in you."
"Uh, you're not my type. Do I like dudes? Sure, but not villains." Henry says sarcastically.
The criminal laughs before his mask twists into a smile.
"First off, I use they/them pronouns. Second, I'm interested in you, not you personality, you DNA."
"My apologies, but I'm sorry? What do you mean my DNA" Henry asks.
"Your body has been changed since you received those super fast reflexes, and I want to know how." They explained.
"I was born with them." He lies.
"No you weren't, I know for a fact you never had those abilities at the beginning of your superhero career."
"Come on man, you know we can't tell you that." He sighs.
"So you know what that means." They inform Henry, still not looking my way.
I tense up. "No." I whisper. I knew what they meant, even if Henry didn't.
The masked villain looked at me.
"Oh yes Captain Man."
"Captain, what do they mean?" Henry asked nervously.
"Nothing, they're not going to do anything to you."
"Oh but I am." They smirk, they're mask twisting up into a grin. "If you won't tell me how to replicate it, I will have to figure it out by myself."
"So, you don't need me for that." Henry says hopefully.
"Yes he does." I growl.
"I'm going to test you, experiment on you, and if you don't comply, I will torture you to your limit, and once you are at your limit, I'll push you further." He threatened.
I could see Henry tense.
"Don't lay a finger on him you monster!"
"And what Captain Man? Test on you?"
"Yes!"
"That was a rhetorical question, your body is immune to anything you put in it. You could do the hardest drug in the world and nothing would happen. You can't even get drunk, what would experimenting on you do? Nothing. Now testing on your sidekick here, that would kill two birds with one stone. One, it would get me the information I need, two it would torture you."
"Fine do it." I say, hopefully reverse psychology would work, but I couldn't ignore the look of betrayal and pain on my friends face.
"What?" He whispers.
"Do it, what do I care." I lie.
I couldn't look at Henry, I could see his hurt eyes burned into my mind.
"I will."
My heart sank.
"No, please don't." I beg.
"I thought you didn't care Captain Man."
"I do. Please don't hurt him."
"Then tell me what I need."
"You know we can't do that!" Henry yells.
"Then you leave me no choice." The masked villain sighs as he pulls out some sort of gun and shoots at Henry.
"No!" I yell as Henry slumps against the wall.
"Oh relax, it's a 5 minute stun gun."
"Don't touch him! Please don't do it!"
"I don't have to answer to you Captain Man. You are not my Captain." They pick him up and lay him out on the table. He pulls a tight leather strap over his head, arms, legs and waist. "Now, let's get started, shall we?"
"No, please."
"Alrighty." They sigh as they pull a needle from the cart standing next to them. They bring a needle to Henry's arm and inject a clear liquid into his bloodstream.
He immediately jolts awake. "Where am I?" The head strap prevents him from moving around."
"They have you, I'm sorry."
I see Henry visibly tense before deflating.
"Captain." Henry simply says.
"Kid, Kid I'm sorry. I'm here, ok? I'll be here with you, the whole time. Just- whatever happens, I'm here." I say, trying to be soothing.
Henry tries to look at him before his eyebrows bunch together and he nods, looking more determined then I'd ever seen him. Then I lose sight of him as the masked criminal moves in front of him.
"How touching." The mask villain says sweetly.
I hear Henry growl something but I couldn't make it out.
The cell is suddenly flooded with light as the masked villain turns on the surgical light over the table.
"What is he doing?" Henry asks nervously.
"I think he's drawing blood."
"Right you are Captain Man." They said as they stuck a needle into Henry's arm.
I see Henry wince slightly but he seems ok.
My heart was pounding in my ears, I squeezed my hands into fists, my nails would have broke the skin if I wasn't indestructible.
The criminal, I'm sorry, I have to come up with a name for him. The Mask works. The Mask repeats the action twice more before taking a small lock of hair and cutting it with a pair of scissors. He rubs the strands of hair in between his fingers before storing it in a ziplock bag.
The Mask begins to unzip Henry's vest.
"Hey! What are you doing!" I yell.
"Well Captain, to access what I need for my examinations, I need full access to his body."
"You can't do that!" I shouted.
"I'm fairly certain I can."
"Just- just don't take off my pants. Please. You want me to respect your gender and not judge you for what is in you pants, respect my privacy by leaving my pants on." Henry reasons, still not looking anywhere but the ceiling.
The Mask studies Henry for a moment before nodding. "Ok, I'm not a monster, I'm just someone in need of answers in anyway possible. Am I evil? Perhaps, but I respect privacy."
"Thank you." Henry whispers hoarsely.
They continue to undress Henry's upper half until he's completely shirtless.
The Mask examines ever mole and freckle or his chest, arms and face. Luckily, they had enough respect for my friends privacy to not remove his mask.
After a while, I could see Henry begin to shiver.
"Hey, Kid, it's ok, it will be over soon." I lie.
"No it won't." The Mask corrects.
The Mask then pulls out what looks like a scalpel. "No worries Mr. Danger, I'm just taking a skin sample." He makes two small incisions about an inch apart before pulling it up and storing it into another bag. The wound looks pretty grizzly but it doesn't look deep. "Alright, lets get that bandaged."
They cover the wound with a cloth bandage, before smiling at Henry in a position where Henry could see them. Henry remains tense. I can't blame him, The Mask didn't strap him to a table to simply collect blood, skin and hair samples, and both Henry and I know it, but to my surprise, The Mask grins before leaving the room. At least this moment of time offers Henry a small moment of reprieve.
When a minute passes without their return, I allow myself to relax for a moment, Henry doesn't do the same.
"Kid?"
It takes him a moment to respond. "Yeah Cap?"
"How are you holding up?"
"Fine." He grunts, he struggles for a moment, attempting to turn his head to look at me, but the strap lets up no movement so he stops. "How are you?"
"I'm fine."
"Captain Man," I could tell how badly Henry wants to say my real name but he doesn't in fear of The Mask listening in. "What do you think they're going to do to me?"
I want to lie so badly, but I know that won't help anyone. "I think they're going to try whatever's necessary to figure out how to replicate your abilities."
"But they can't." Henry replies.
"I know, we both know that." I say. We stay in silence for a while before I break it. "Are you cold?"
"I'm fine." He says curtly.
I want to tell him again that he was going to be ok, but I know that won't help right now. Not when Henry is strapped to a table and I'm trapped in a cell.
Footsteps outside the room grow closer, making them both grow stiff.
"Captain," Henry says shakily, "Captain, they're back."
"I'm here, I'm here the whole way." Just as I finished my sentence, The Mask comes back wheeling in a cart with a few tools and a machine on it, which makes my blood run cold.
"So Mr. Danger, are you ready to cooperate?"
"I can't help you." Henry says stiffly.
"Then no."
Henry growls in frustration.
The Mask begins to fasten metal clamps around Henry's upper arms and thighs, the edges digging into his skin.
"Now, before we get into my next experiment, I'm going to give you one more lasting memory."
He lifts up his scalpel.
Oh my god. They're going to cut him.
He begins to cut into Henry's chest causing him to writhe on the table.
"STOP!"
Henry cries out in pain as The Mask continues to cut into his skin.
Finally, after my pleads for him to stop and Henry's horrifying sounds of pain, The Mask steps back to observe they're work. I could see from all the way in my cell what they had done. The word "MUTANT" was carved into his chest. My heart pounds in horror as I watch Henry pant in pain.
"Now, on to my next experiment."
"What are you doing?" Henry demands shakily. He flinches away from The Mask as they touch him. They didn't answer the question.
Attached to the metal clamps were wires hooked up to the machine. The machine was innocuous but I didn't let it fool me. Piper also looked harmless, she definitely wasn't. All the machine had decorating it was a few buttons, a old school screen and a dial. Though I'd never seen the device before, I had a pretty good feeling on what it did.
"Please, don't do this." I begged. "We can't give you the answers you want, this will only hurt him."
The Mask ignored me, but Henry struggled to lift his head but of course, he couldn't.
"What? Captain, what are they doing? What's happening?"
Before I could reply, The Mask moved to Henry's head and forced his jaw open. They jam something into Henry's mouth and in between his teeth.
Henry makes a noise that manages to sound indignant, frightened and angry all at the same time. His chest is heaving and his fists are so tight that they've turned white.
I could feel my knuckles pressed into my palm. "Please!" I try again, desperate. "Please don't do this!" Though my plea is ignored. The Mask takes a step back towards the machine before reaching for the dial. "No." I whisper.
The Mask turns the dial. There's a high whine for a second and then Henry tenses as a bolt of electricity jolts through him.
It only lasts a second before The Mask turned back the dial and Henry's body relaxes, but its enough for my heart to climb try to climb out of my throat.
"That was very interesting. Do you know you seize faster than the average person because of your heightened speed?" The Mask asked, though Henry wasn't listening.
"Stop this!" I shout. "Stop! He has shown nothing but amity towards you! He would never do this to anyone!"
The Mask ignores me.
I can't watch this, I can't! But something stops me from tearing his eyes away from the horror in front of him. Maybe it's because he knows that he needs to make sure that Henry survives.
Henry collapses back on the table after another horrible bout of electrocution and horrifying screams, Henry collapses back onto the table. His chest is heaving and his breaths come out in short pants. He's only allowed a few seconds to recover before The Mask turns the dial again.
Henry's body jumps, back arching, limbs jerking. I could see the whites of his eyes as his eyes roll back into his head.
A strangled sob escapes Henry and something inside me just snaps.
I whip around and look for anything in my cell I could use. All that was there was a chair and a bucket. I grab the chair and fling it at the glowing while forcefield. The forcefield fizzles but other than that, nothing happens.
"Stop it, you bastard! You're killing him!"
"None of this would be happening if you had just been candor with me."
The torture goes on for what seems like forever. There are tears on Henry cheeks.
Henry's voice gives out after a while. Finally, finally The Mask switches the machine off. They remove the clamps from Henry's arms and thighs, then proceeding to pull out the mouth piece.
"Alright, since electrocuting you, you're enhanced speed has quadrupled."
Henry lay still on the table, completely limp, eyes closed.
"You're a monster."
"If you say so Captain. Oh dear, it looks like our friend is asleep. We can't have that."
"Please, just let him rest." I beg.
"Nope." They says as he sticks a needle into Henry's arm.
After about a moment, Henry opens his eyes.
"There you are Mr. Danger."
Henry opens his mouth to speak.
"Don't talk Kid, you've screamed a lot, your throat is probably rubbed raw." I warn.
He nods.
"Well Mr. Danger, I'm going to run a few more tests."
Henry shakes his head with wide eyes.
"Oh yes."
"Kid, I'm here. I promise!"
They inject Henry with a bright green liquid. "Now this will hopefully nullify your abilities for a few minutes, I want to know what stops you, what your Kryptonite is so to say."
After a moment Henry's breath hitches in his throat. He starts to writhe in pain, so much that it was like he was being burned from the inside out. His gravelly screams echoing throughout the room. Though, much to The Mask's disappointment, he still moves faster than normal in his thrashes.
"Not that one? Alright, next." They say.
"Let him rest, please." I beg.
"Nope, alright." The Mask takes a purple filled syringe and stabs Henry with it.
At first nothing happens, and then we both see it, Henry goes from tense to limp. His eyes widen in panic.
"Captain," He whispers hoarsely, "I can't move."
Fear sets into my bones, though The Mask looks delighted. "Wiggle your toes for me!" They demand.
"Are they?" He whispers worriedly.
They weren't.
"No!" The Mask says excitedly.
"This- this is temporary right?" I ask worriedly, if Henry is paraplegic, it will be all my fault.
"Oh yes of course. Five minutes maximum. Now can you feel this?" They ask before stabbing his scalpel into Henry's side."
He remains silent for a second. "Have you done it?"
"Amazing! Now we wait."
* * *
After about five minutes of tense breath between Henry and myself, he sighs with relief before sucking in a painful breath. "Ow." He whispers.
"You're ok Kid Danger, I promise you, you're ok."
The Mask smiles, their mask twisting up to make the freaky look of a mannequin smiling once more. "How sweet." He injects Henry with a orange liquid. "This will reveal your DNA make up perfectly after I take some more blood."
Henry groans, though his voice sounds like a engine.
"Ok, and now the blood." He drains another needle full of blood and puts it in a testing tube connected to a computer. After a moment something appears on the screen. The Mask growls in frustration. "There's nothing!"
I briefly see Henry smile.
"How did you do it!" The Mask yells. "Your DNA is normal!"
"I don't know how!" I yell. "Don't you get it! You've tortured a innocent person for nothing!"
"No... no! There has to be a way!" They yell.
"There's not!" I lie, I know there's a way, I don't know how to do give someone hyper motility but I know there's a way.
Suddenly a blast sounded and broke open the door.
In rushes 3 individuals. They were all decked out in blue and red, they even had blue masks.
The one leading the crusade, shot The Mask with a stun gun. They fall on to the floor. She turns around looks at me, her wild blonde hair coming out of her french braids. Piper. I see the tallest one of them run over to secure The Mask.
"Rai." She says, relief taking hold of her.
The other two whip around. Charlotte and Jasper.
"Don't worry about me! Get Henry!"
"What? Oh my god! Henry!" Charlotte yelled as she turned to see Henry still strapped down to the table.
Piper rushed over and began unstrapping her older brother from the table.
Very quickly, my vision of Henry was blocked. I realize slowly that Charlotte was blocking my view.
"Rai are you ok?" She asked.
"Get me out of here." I order, teeth clenched.
"Right away."
After about two minutes of hacking into the forcefield, I'm out. I rush over to where Piper was still trying to get Henry free of the metal clamps. The burns around the metal were horrific, Piper was even looking a little green.
"That bad huh?" He says, his voice as rough as sandpaper, I can tell his throat hurts because he winced as soon as he finished his short sentence.
"That bad." I confirm grimly.
Jasper was holding Henry's hand trying to reassure him that he was going to be ok.
"You're going to be fine Hen." Jasper reassures.
"Thanks Jasp."
"What are best friends for."
"Who is he?" Charlotte asks.
"Who are they." Henry corrects hoarsely. "They use they/them pronouns. No matter how bad, we don't misgender people."
I smile at my friend, even while in who knows how much pain, he's still the most considerate person ever.
"Here let me." I say, pushing Piper's hands out of the way. I pull open the metal cuffs freeing Henry from the awful device.
The jarring of his side wound and the movement of his burned arms and legs, he doesn't even get the chance to make a sound of pain before he goes limp on the table, passed out.
"That's for the best." I reassure them. "He's had a hard few hours. How long?"
"3 hours." Charlotte informs.
"Let's get him back. He needs medical attention, and thank you for coming for us, it was very dauntless of you."
"Rai, he's going to be ok." Charlotte reassures.
"I know, he's Henry."
I hope you guys liked the chapter! It's definitely a more intense chapter but I hoped you liked it.