Chapter 27.5: Fading to Grey

(Approximately 10 years ago)

I was jolted awake by the sound of blaring alarms.

“C’mon Cadel! We’re gonna be late!” my friend, Brianna, shook me vigorously.

“Shit, give me a sec,” I sat up groggily.

“There’s no time! You know what will happen if we’re slow! Quick, we have to get to the mess hall!”

Right. We would get “detention” if we weren’t on time.

I stumbled down the cold, metallic steps of the bunk bed. The fluorescent lights flickered above us, casting a sickly, pale glow on the concrete walls of the facility. The stench of antiseptic blended with the tension in the air. As we hurriedly made our way to the mess hall, we tried not to look at the guards stationed at almost every corner, their cold eyes following us.

The mess hall was already filling up by the time we got there. I grabbed a tray, barely looking at the slop they dumped on it, and found a seat near the back with Brianna. She was my bedmate, and also my only friend.

My last glimpse of the outside world was a bus coming to pick us up at Umbra headquarters, located in the centre of the city. Plastered on the wall of the foyer there was a big mural of an island, with various buildings that looked suspiciously like school blocks on it. “Nebula Island,” it said. “Celebrating 5 years!”

The next thing I knew, we were whisked away to a facility near the outskirts of the city, where we were now.

Brianna leaned in close, her voice barely above a whisper. “I can never get used to this food. It tastes so bad.” I nodded in agreement.

As we ate, I noticed the researchers gathering in the observation deck above the mess hall. They were talking among themselves, clipboards in hand, eyes scanning the room. My pulse quickened. Whatever they had planned for today, it wasn’t going to be good.

The alarms sounded again, signalling the end of breakfast. We all stood up, the sound of trays clattering as we placed them in the bin. The guards started herding us toward the testing rooms, the tension in the air thickening with every step.

Brianna squeezed my hand briefly before we were separated into different groups. “See you later!” she whispered.

Today, I was led to a familiar, sterile white room with harsh lightning. The walls were lined with machines, each one humming ominously. The researchers were already there, waiting for me. One of them, a tall man with glasses, stepped forward, a cold smile on his face. He had addressed himself as Dr Miller the other day.

“Good morning Cadel, it’s good to see my favourite kid again,” he grinned, flipping through the papers on his clipboard. “Our agenda for today is to push your limits a bit further. We need to understand just how much energy you can absorb before it starts to break you.”

My heart pounded in my chest as they strapped me to the chair in the centre of the room. The cold metal cuffs dug into my wrists and ankles. Dr Miller wrapped a large metal wire around my abdomen. It was connected to a large machine, probably a generator of some sort.

“Please convert this electrical energy into kinetic energy. You know how it goes, just spin this wheel over here,” he said, pointing at a large wheel anchored to the floor. “Don’t try anything funny!”

The researchers left the room and locked the door. Dr Miller’s face reappeared on a monitor on the wall. “Without further ado, let us commence the experiment.”

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I felt the generator start feeding electricity into me. I quickly converted it and began rotating the wheel. As the minutes ticked by, the generator was starting to output a massive current. I was sure it would be enough to severely injure an ordinary human at this point. Still, it kept increasing. I was beginning to feel the strain. Faster and faster the wheel span.

Soon, I was near my limit. “Stop…” I gasped.

“That was the same point as yesterday. Let’s see if you can push on a bit further,” Dr Miller’s voice droned from the nearby speaker.

I gritted my teeth. Were they trying to kill me? I didn’t plan on dying.

In desperation, I reversed the electrical current, causing the generator to short-circuit. It exploded in a shower of sparks.

“Ah… now look what you’ve done,” Dr Miller’s disappointed voice said.

“I could’ve died there,” I managed.

“No, you wouldn’t have died.” His voice remained cold and undetached. “We have stringent safety measures in place for situations just like this. The facility is equipped with automatic fail-safes to prevent lethal harm. We monitor your vitals and energy absorption levels in real-time. If your condition were to reach a critical point, the system would have automatically shut down the generator."

He strode into the room. “As punishment for breaking the generator however, I think you may have got yourself a little detention time…”

My heart stopped. Everyone here was familiar with “detention time”. It involved a variety of physical tests, some of which were designed to induce pain. It was a twisted way to gauge how well we could endure discomfort, and for them to observe if there was any correlation between our thresholds and our Abilities.

After we continued with our usual tests, I was brought to an unfamiliar room. It was small, with a sole surgical table in the middle.

“Greetings… Cadel Ren, yes?” A female doctor appeared, slipping on her surgical gloves. “Hi! I’m Dr Hilda. Our first test is veeery simple. We will just be checking your reaction to heat stimuli.”

After she finished strapping me down to the bed, she took out an ominous-looking metal stick. “You may have seen this before, eh? No? You’ve never heard of the Esper Nullifier? It’s okay, let me show you!”

What limited movement I had was completely stripped away from me. What was happening? I couldn’t move at all. Suddenly, I felt a metal bar being pressed onto my thigh. It wasn’t scalding, but it was still uncomfortably hot. I clenched my muscles, trying to absorb the heat from it, but for some reason, my Ability wasn’t working.

“Interesting, everything normal so far.”

I was unable to move my mouth, so I could only emit a faint gurgle.

“I’m glad you’re excited! Don’t worry, we’re just getting started!”

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It was a long day. I hobbled back to the holding area, intending to crash into bed, my body aching all over. I had been provided a late dinner, so it was near bedtime. The lights were already off. As I trudged forward, I noticed that Brianna had yet to return. That was weird.

A chill ran down my spine. Did she get in trouble too? I climbed into my bed, but I couldn't sleep. Brianna was my only source of support in this place. If something happened to her… no, I had to stop these thoughts.

I wanted to go home. I missed my parents. I wanted to get out of here.

I couldn’t stop myself.

This was too much for an elementary schooler to bear. I held my pillow to my face, stifling my tears.

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The next morning, as the alarm rang once again, I peeked down below. Brianna was still absent. Something must have happened. As I exited the room, intending to head for the mess hall, I noticed two researchers barge their way through the crowd and make their way for Brianna’s —our — bed. They started packing her belongings into a bag.

I rushed over to them, my voice cracking with worry. “What are you doing? Put it back!”

I reached out to one of them, latching onto his arm. He shrugged me off. “Back off, kid. You’re gonna be late for breakfast.”

“Those are Brianna’s stuff! Why are you taking them away?!” I yelled.

“She’s gone, kid. She’s defective.”

I let go of his arm, standing in a daze.

“Gone?” I whispered.

“Relax, she isn’t dead or anything. She just happened to be the test subject for the Basilisk today.”

“Basilisk? Who—what’s that?”

“It’s classified. Anyway, she’s been sent home. Any more questions and you’ll be sent to detention. Now hurry along.”

I struggled to hold my tears in as I scurried along to the mess hall. A tornado of emotions whirled within me. The grief of losing Brianna. The confusion over who or what this “Basilisk” was. The anger over the whole project.

I wanted to destroy this facility. But I wasn't strong enough. Not yet, at least. From a young age, as we grew, some of our genes began to mutate, granting us these superpowers. Over time, these abilities continued to evolve, meaning our powers still had the potential to grow stronger, albeit at different rates. Some hit their peaks faster than others.

I entered the mess hall, sitting alone in one corner. Glancing around at the others, I wondered just how many of us would be “defective” in the eyes of these monsters. How many of us were just one experiment away from being discarded like trash?

“I’m doing this for family,” I forcefully whispered to myself.

The walls of this facility felt like they were closing in on me, crushing the air from my lungs.