Salvador Phenix

Salvador looked up at his surroundings, though he was already intimately familiar with them. A sterile white room akin to a prison cell. A bed with blankets but no mattress, a toilet and a sink in the back corner, and a small slot where the food would be pushed through. He had started with a lot more but it had been removed as “disciplinary action.” As if those jerks actually expected him to sit still if they took his mattress, or his books, or his breakfast. He’d keep trying to run, even if only to annoy them. They wouldn’t kill him after all, god knows he wishes they would sometimes. He tapped his bed's metal frame with his fingers, a light beat playing out. The tests were hard. They would normally ask him to destroy the air in front of him to pull something towards himself. They mixed it up sometimes though, “destroy the air in this sealed box so we can see where it goes”, or “try replacing the air you took”. All sorts of different stuff. It all had to do with his ability. Destroying air. He didn’t particularly feel like it was really powerful, Sure he could actually pull things to him, but that didn’t do much really. 

The door to Salvador’s cell opened, causing him to cock his head in confusion, tests shouldn’t start for another few hours. One of the men in lab coats ran in, he looked frantic and was sweating. He grabbed Salvador roughly, causing the 12 year old to let out a small gasp as he was roughly dragged along by the tall man. He planted his feet trying to slow them down. The man roughly tugged him forward once again throwing him off balance.

“Not now brat! This is life or death!” The lab-coated man stopped and looked down at him for a second, but that was when he turned back and saw someone at the end of the hall. He was dressed in a crisp suit, all black except for the red tie, he wore a mask that seemed to be made of some kind of marble and had the expression of a sad man, it also seemed like the man had been stained with something, as spots on his suit were darker then other, and his white mask had a few red splatters on it. A coppery scent and taste entered the hall with his approach. The lab coated man dropped his hold on Salvador’s arm before taking off running in the opposite direction, slipping on his own feet a little and trying to catch himself. 

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The man walked up to him and kneeled down. Salvador was shaking, terror ran through him as he looked at the man, who took a gun from his side. Salvador couldn’t react, couldn’t move. This was how he died, he thought numbly, a random man in a mask? The barrel of the gun lined up with his eye, then kept moving, moving above his head before two shots fired out, and the shout of the doctor and the sound of a body hitting the floor was heard. Salvador turned to look but the man placed a hand on his shoulder, forcing him to look back at the bloodied mask.

The man took off the mask to reveal a kind looking face, freckled nose with dimples. He looked down at Salvador. “Hiya kid, sorry for the noise. Now then, if the files I’ve seen are right, you don’t really like this place do you?” Salvador didn’t know what to do. He nodded his head in affirmation, unsure if that was the answer the man wanted. “I see, they were rather bad men. Then how about I offer you a way out? Me and my friends are going to leave this place, with a fair amount of new state of the art technology, and, if you want, a new friend.” Salvador didn’t know where he found the courage but he swallowed and met the man's eye. 

“A-and if I don’t?”

“Then we leave you. The police get here and report the situation, but, well, there's a lot more people like these scientists I can’t guarantee anything either way, but with no relatives to take you, you may end up in the foster system then straight back to another lab.” 

“I don’t want that! T-Take me with you! A-anything is better than staying here longer.” The man's smile widened as he spoke. He let out a small chuckle. 

“Right then, whatever your name was, it’s not important anymore. You are Delinquent, and a new member of the Theater of Pain. Welcome.”

Salva-Delinquent, nodded his head. He never liked his name anyway, and they always called him a delinquent, the name fit him like a glove.