by M A Scrawl
Katy looked up and smiled confidently, right before falling and landing on her face.
Quentin perked up quickly, his prosthetic arms slightly bumping against the bed, making a tapping sound. He stared at the unmoving figure on the ground, looking as pale as Katy. "Are you alright?"
"Yep. Just giving the floor a hug here." She groaned and rolled over, her face slightly red and her hair disheveled. Kadir examined her again. Long brown hair that went down to her waist, a red-gray suit, and the most striking feature, her impish grin.
"Where are we?" Kadir said, leaning further out of the bed. He had noticed that Quentin didn't seem to have any trouble moving around. "You're asking me?" Katy said, trying and failing to get up from the ground.
"Who else would I ask?"
"I dunno, this Quentin guy?" Quentin looked up, his face blank. There was something strange about his eyes. The area around his pupil was ivory white. Curious.
"Who are we?" Kadir asked, staring at his hands and flexing his fingers. "This doesn't feel right."
All three jumped as a crackling noise sounded from the top right corner, where a monitor came to life, showing static.
Quentin looked curiously at it, as did Kadir and Katy. A face abruptly came into view, replacing the static. A man showed, with slightly white hair, and bright blue eyes.
"Good morning," the man said.
"Good morning?" Katy replied. "Its morning?" The man nodded on the screen. "I am Mr. Withers, and you were possibly kidnapped by terrorists-"
Katy interrupted. "Kidnapped? Terrorists? I don’t remember that. Why don’t I remember that?"
Withers paused, considering it. "We'll find that out later," he said, his voice projecting from a speaker below the screen. "But for now, we will need to run some tests on you all. So for now, get comfortable. You’re going to be here for a while." The monitor clicked off, leaving the three children alone.
Kadir tried standing as well, his knees shaking. He eventually stood up without his knees buckling from underneath him. Quentin stood without any trouble, probably because of his prosthetic arms and legs.
They all wore strange clothes with large white numbers on them. Kadir was 01, Quentin 02, and Katy 03.
Kadir explored the room. It was just four beds, two stacked up on top of eachother on either side of the room. There were also two grey plastic wardrobes with drawers on the bottom.
There was also a private bathroom with two showers, sink, and toilet. Kadir was glad there was at least some sign of privacy in the room. Kadir assumed they would be held here for a while.
Every time he looked at something though, his brain searched through a massive database of information until it found a similar copy, a voice speaking the things name in his head. He identified the door, the bed, the toilet and basically everything in the room.
Katy sat on the floor, looking under the bunks for anything out of place or different. She sighed, leaning against the wall of the cell, her head repeatedly hitting the wall. "I...Hate..Being...Stuck..In..Here."
She stood straight up, and started fiddling with a pillow. She looked nervous, her eyes darting to the ceiling and walls. Kadir examined his arms, where a few scabs rested on his skin. Kadir shuddered, thinking about the needles sticking through him. He looked around, anxious. I need to get out of here.
-Chapter 16-
-Tests-
Withers was interested in the children. He was almost positive they were clones too. There wouldn’t really be any other reason for them not remembering their past. He was interested to find out how the clones could speak English as though they'd been taught it. They also seemed to have distinct personalities, but that would be studied further.
Withers was also interested as to how long they would and could be kept in the detainment cell. He felt horrible treating them like lab rats, but he didn't know what else to do. He didn't know if they were dangerous enough to be seperated from others yet, what would he do if they were?
Kadir had already seemed to express specific abilities, seeming to emit electricity from his body. How did he do that? Do his siblings have similar abilities?
Then, there was a problem if they did. If they did happen to have special abilities, should he include it in his monthly report? If so, what repercussions would this have on the U.S.?
He would just have to proceed with testing, then find out what to do next.
Kirby entered his office room, him giving the command to open the door. She held her work pad, as always, and handed a small sheaf of paperwork. He got out a pen and started signing.
"Sir?”
Withers looked up at Kirby. She looked worried.
"Yes Kirby?" he asked.”
"Are you planning to notify the U.S. about the clones?"
"You sound so sure they're clones Kirby." Kirby blushed. "But that's fine. I think you're right, anyways."
"But are you going to tell the CIA about them?"
"No."
Kirby looked up, shocked. She searched Withers eyes. "Sir?"
"Do you know what will happen if we notify the U.S. that we have clones, and not just clones, but possibly superpowered ones?"
Kirby furrowed her brow and considered his words. "They'll want to imitate it?"
Withers nodded. "They'll live a life of imprisonment and testing, maybe even getting trained to kill. That's not a life for children."
Kirby hesitated, then nodded. "What do you want me to do?"
"Introduce yourself," Withers said, "and run some tests. We'll know what to do with them after."
"Why didn't you tell them they were clones?" she said, curious as to why Withers had lied.
"What would you do if you discovered you had no parents, and were made in a test-tube?"
Kirby nodded, understanding. "Knowing might affect them in a bad way we don't want to have to deal with," he said, scratching his pen onto the paper. "Its best for them that they know nothing of their true origin.
-----
In the detainment cell, Katy had continued to get more and more erratic about being kept in. Quentin didn’t mind being locked up as much as Katy, but even Kadir was getting restless.
The screen again cracked on, but this time a woman's face appeared. She looked up at the children. "I am Ms. Kirby, and I will be organizing and running your tests."
"Tests?" Katy asked the monitor in the corner. "Are they optional? My agendas kinda full at the moment, what with the pointless sitting and doing nothing.”
Ms. Kirby looked a little confused, but recovered quickly. "They are not optional," she said, and the screen turned off.
Katy sat down, tapping her finger against her knee, and looking nervously around her. Quentin stood silently, staring at the ceiling. "Quentin?" Kadir asked. He still stared at the ceiling. "Quentin!" Kadir said, louder. Quentin shook out of his daze. "What?"
"What's wrong?" Kadir asked.
"Nothing."
"Why were you staring at the ceiling?"
"Hey guys!" Katy interrupted, pointing to the wall. "Look!" Kadirs’ eyes followed her gaze, straight at the wall. "What?"
Katy grinned. "Made ya' look." Kadir rolled his eyes.
Then, to his utter surprise the wall actually started to glow, and a screen popped up, showing a math question.
"Uh, Yeah! Totally just predicted that!" Katy stuttered. She crossed her arms, smiling. "You’re living with a gypsy! I bet I can even predict that the doors will open, Now!"
She dramatically waved her hands at the glass door. Nothing happened. Katy shrugged. "Just testing it out."
"Quentin and Kadir, move to the bathroom while Katy takes the test," said a voice over the speakers. Kadir rolled his eyes and moved inside the bathroom. A door slid into place, separating him and Quentin from Katy. "Take the test Katy," said the voice.
A few minutes later, they each took the same test, then another one, then another one. The first few were tests of knowledge, such as how many apples are on the screen, or “say the name of
this image,” kind of tests.
They were all very boring, tedious, and long. Quentin seemed to have no trouble at all answering the questions, especially some of the reflexe tests. Those ones were just testing your reflexes by showing a spider or something on the screen, and you had to tap it quickly as it moved.
They were all obviously useless. Why did Mr. Withers need to know how much they knew? Why did they need to know if they could count? It made no sense.
Kadir sat in the bathroom, elbows on his knees and chin in his hands as boredom ensued. He looked around the white interior of the bathroom. Katy stood leaning against the wall, hands tapping against her knees. She obviously hated being kept down.
Kadir closed his eyes, remembering the cold darkness of the cryo-pod he'd been in. His hands started sweating as he remembered the horrid fear that had encompassed him in it. Sharp things...He hated thinking about the needles that had been lodged in his arms.
Katy still looked around nervously.
"You okay Katy?"
She hesitated, but nodded, smiling faintly, then it disappeared. She looked afraid, somehow like a mouse caught in a trap.
"Are you sure?" She didn’t reply.
Kadir sighed. Too many questions, no answers. And it seemed as though Mr. Withers and Ms. Kirby weren’t willing to answer any questions at the moment.
Kadir sighed, sitting back down on the white floor. He held his hand out, studying it. "Hey Katy," he began, but then dropped off, not knowing what to say. "Yeah?" she replied.
"Where do you think we are?" He asked after a pause.
Katy shrugged. "I would think somewhere secret, like underground?" Kadir nodded slowly, thinking. "What was it like waking up for you?"
Katy looked up sharply, fear spread on her face. "It was...horrible."
Kadir nodded. "What happened?"
"I..." she dropped off, burying her face in her hands, obviously wanting to escape the conversation. Kadir also hated thinking about that moment waking up, feeling like you were trapped with nowhere to go....Those needles…
He shivered, even though it was warm in the room. The door clicked suddenly, and Quentin stepped through. He always had that blank face, like he was thinking, but you weren't smart enough to figure out what it was.
"I think they've called a break from the tests," he said, gesturing back to the other room. "But I don't think there's much else for us to do."
Kadir marched into the other room and looked straight at the monitor. He needed answers, NOW.
"Mr. Withers! Ms. Kirby!" he yelled at the monitor. Nothing happened. "You say we've been tested on by a terrorist!" Again, nothing happened. "I want you to tell me the truth! Why are we here, and why can't we remember what happened?!"
Nothing happened, the screen stays blank. Kadir sighed and plopped down in one of the bunks. Katy spoke up. "You're in my bed."
-----
Ms. Kirby stared at the screen. She did not turn on the monitor when Kadir had given the outburst, but she was intrigued. She stared at the screen hard, then something caught her eye. On Kadirs shoulder, a tiny spark of light that had happened during his yelling.
She sent the clipped footage to Mr. Withers, and stood straight up, checking her work-pad. They had still been searching for the terrorist cell with no luck. Apparently the shuttle he had escaped in had cloaking tech, which would make sense.
Still, it was utterly frustrating. The man that had been left behind, the hostage, Caleb Galloway, was in mental therapy down on Earth. Apparently five years working with a madman had affected his mind. He did ramble about clones however, and working with Tundra to make them.
Kirby sat down, suddenly tired of the day of testing and analyzing. Kadir had expressed super abilities yet again. That light on his shoulder had looked like electricity sparking over his body.
Then, the tests. The intelligence tests had been simple, showing a picture and asking them what it was, but they answered every single one correctly. They didn't know any math, except for Quentin for some reason, and they could not read. Their reflexes were excellent, as well as their english.
They had assumed Tundra had gotten hold of a O.D.T, or an Organic Data Transmitter. The thing could, over a long period of time, insert images and reasoning into a subjects mind, as well as new language. They did tend to create mental problems for older people, but seemed to work best on young people who didn't know much. Would that have an affect on the clones?
Quentin was also an interesting study. They had done a few body scans on each of them before waking them up. Katy and Kadir were almost completely human, except for some strange activity in their brains, but Quentin was different. He had a strange metal mass in his head, and the prosthetic arms connected to his nerves, rooting themselves to his shoulders. His spine was also modified robotically, apparently increasing how much he could lift. At least, that's what the theory was.
Kirby really didn't know what to think of the clones. Were they human, or should they be treated as test subjects?
-Chapter 17-
-Abilities-
The lights in the detainment cell had gone out five minutes after the "lights out in five minutes" command had been received.
In the morning, the children woke up, each groggily getting out of the bed. It was 8 o'clock. Kadir rolled out of bed, trying to think about what had happened yesterday. Then he remembered they were still stuck in the same cage, wearing the same clothes, likely to eat the same food. Three small packages of rations had been pushed through a small slit in the glass door, containing dry pieces of ham, rice, and what Kadir took to be peas.
The food didn't taste horrible, but it wasn't good either. It almost had no smell, and the peas and rices were mushy when even touched with a spoon. They each sat, crossed legged on the floor, eating silently with the plastic forks and spoons. Apparently, they didn't expect them to stab themselves with the forks or something like that.
After finishing the meal, they each just lied about, waiting for something to start. Katy was the only one moving, doing jumping jacks or running around in circles till she was dizzy. Kadir thought back to last night. He had woken up, thinking he had heard crying. Had he? The crying had stopped as soon as he moved around in his bed. It seemed as though Quentin was more affected by being in prison than Kadir thought.
Quentin watched as Katy attempted to do a push-up, then collapsed on the ground. She grinned wildly as she attempted it again, then again.
Quentin raised an eyebrow at her struggle. Katy noticed. "Well, I don't see you trying to muscle up!"
Quentin rolled his eyes and got down on the floor next to her. He started doing push-ups seemingly effortlessly, leaving the struggling Katy baffled. Then Katy looked at his arms and frowned. "Oh great. Super robot arms don't count!"
Quentin grinned for the first time as he continued to do push-ups in rapid succession. Katy looked helplessly at Kadir. "I don't suppose you wanna try?"
Kadir shook his head. "No, I'm good.”
Katy sighed and stood up. She stared longingly at the glass door, probably wanting to escape. She cocked her head thoughtfully. "What is their reasoning for keeping us in here?"
Quentin stopped doing pushups and shrugged. "To protect us?"
"From what though?" Katy asked, putting her hands against the glass. "The terrorists? How do we even know they're telling the truth? They're probably listening to our every word." She looked around conspiratorial. "I wanna get out of here as soon as I possibly can." They all stood silently.
The monitor cracked on, showing the face of Ms. Kirby. Katy groaned. "More tests?" Kirby nodded, and the monitor turned off. Katy pointed at Kadir. "You go first!" then she bolted to the bathroom. Kadir sighed, and Quentin shrugged again, moving to the other room. Kadir proceeded to take the boring test.
A picture of a tree came up. "Tree," he said. The screen beeped and moved on to the next one. "Spell your name."
"K-A-D-I-R."
The screen beeped again and went on to
the next one. "1 + 1 = ?"
Kadir didn't respond, as he didn’t know the answer, and it beeped loudly before moving on to the next one. It went on like this for five minutes, Kadir answering the questions with boredom in his voice. After a while, it ended, and Quentin and Katy took the same test. Kadir waited with Katy in the Bathroom, waiting as Quentin took the test. He absently started twisting the faucet on and off on the sink. He got a little frustrated at his position, being in a cage, treated like lab rats.
He pushed hard on the faucet but it didn't come off. He reached for it, then a single small spark flew from his hand and went into the handle.
He threw his hand back in surprise. He glancing back to see if Katy had seen. She was too busy doing jumping jacks to notice. He turned, staring at the handle. He reached out slowly, and a spark flew from his hand again.
He held out his hand, clenching his mind to flow all the energy in his body to one specific spot. It felt like he could actually feel the energy coursing through him, like water. Electricity arced between his fingers, the light illuminating his face. Katy looked at his hand and her eyes widened. Kadir smiled.
"Leapin’ Lizards and...bananas!" she exclaimed, jumping up from her seated position. "What the Bartholomew and...um... fish is that!"
Kadir frowned. "Did you just make that up?"
"Yep!" she said proudly, strutting over and examine his glowing hand. "What is that?"
"Electricity?" Kadir offered, stopping the flow of energy to his hand.
"Can I do that?" Katy asked, pointing to his hand. Kadir frowned again. "I don't know, honestly," he answered. "But there's only one way to find out."
He paused. Katy raised her arms. "How!?" she exclaimed. "I wanna have Math superpowers!"
